- Spoiler: show
- Jan - Ratchet and Clank: Q-Force
Feb - Life is Strange Episode 1
Mar - Deus Ex Go
Okays, so I'm picking up the pace a little for April.
Apr - Murdered: Soul Suspect (Xbox One)
On paper this game seems right up my street - 3rd person survival horror lite with things to solve. In actuality, it doesn't quite gel. There is definitely some thought gone into this game and the premise of being a ghost investigating your murder based in Salem really allows the history to play into it. The abilities of the character aren't too beyond the realms of the world created, and do tie into the ending quite nicely, but the ending is essentially a long QTE and if you get anything wrong you have to work through the whole thing again. If you know of any horror tropes, the ending can also be guessed very early on, though I will admit one twist took my by surprise. I'd managed to collect a good majority of the collectables but I was really getting a sense that the number of collectibles was there to pad the game out (I clocked 9 hours on this game and really was not hurrying through), and just couldn't raise the enthusiasm to spend another couple of hours rooting out everything for the 100% - it was also possible to solve the crime scenes without getting all the evidence, which is counted for the completion. Whilst it was nice that some thought had gone into the 'why don't ghosts sink into the floor' question, the area gating was just a little too obvious, and the graphics were standard for the Unreal Engine. Wasn't a bad game, certainly wasn't great.
Apr - Defense Grid 2 (Xbox One)
This is complete in that I've made it through the story but there are a lot of achievements left. I don't mind this - most tower defense games are ones that I'll dip into for a few days then leave alone for a while, and this is a very good example of a TD game. Graphics are good, though I preferred the art style from DG1 more but there are many more options on gameplay than previously and there are now multi-player options. There is also a little more variety in the map types now as the team are able to try out different options such as levels that change mid way through (by player command or otherwise) and the lore of that universe is actually explored a little more (no Glados DLC yet though ...)Like Murdered, this was a Games with Gold pickup but this is one that I would have happily bought in any case
Apr - Opus: The search for Earth (Android)
Having completed Deus Ex Go, I was looking for another puzzler type game for on the go sessions and stumbled across this. You are a robot on a orbital telescope scanning the stars to find the lost planet of Earth and the gameplay is essentially looking for the next planet with which to advance the story. Graphics are simple but effective and there is a nice interaction between the story progress and how it affects the orbital station and your viewpoint. Can't say anything for the sound on this as I played through it with it turned down mostly (being in train stations and the like) but the bit I heard sounded appropriately atmospheric. It is more of a story but if you are looking for something mobile that isn't just match-3 or tap tap, then this may be worth a look, particularly for anyone on the Amazon Underground as it's available for free there
