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- Jan - Ratchet and Clank: Q-Force (PS3)
Feb - Life is Strange Episode 1 (Xbox One)
Mar - Deus Ex Go (Android)
Apr - Murdered: Soul Suspect (Xbox One)
Apr - Defense Grid 2 (Xbox One)
Apr - Opus: The search for Earth (Android)
Jun - Littlebigplanet 2 (PS3)
Jul - A World Of Keflings (Xbox 360)
Another game finished with young daughters in tow - the story missions at least. The game very much is designed on 'how can we combine Xbox avatars with Minecraft for the younger audience'; ultimately playing out as a colony building game - mine the resource, convert the resource into a building part, put the part down according to the blueprint of the building you want to make.
Whilst I was fairly indifferent to the game, both my daughters loved it. They got to play as their avatars and got to do things with fairly immediate results. The rough story is that you are found and have to assist the Keflings in building towns in ice, green hill and desert areas. The Keflings can be used as miners or transporters to automate the process somewhat (which is definitely needed!), or are needed to manage contruction buildings but any character Kefling can't be given roles other than helping to carry building parts
The controls are clunky and there are a few interface issues - the camera can't be moved from it's viewpoint so it's possible for buildings to block items you need, and the switching between blueprints is not designed for people with small hands (hard to reach the bumper and trigger keys ...). It's also not explained at any point that some buildings can only be build around existing structures - the only clue is that the squares in the blueprint for the existing building are blacked out - which certainly added some minutes to the overall playtime. To be fair, we've only completed the story within the game - we now have freedom to build however we wish. Leaving the girls alone for an hour or so after the story complete essentially had them strip mining one of the areas - the only building was the piles of resources!
Sensibly further additions are as separate dlc areas as adding to the existing worlds would make it even more cluttered but I can't bring myself to spend the money on these just yet, though there is a neat little easter egg if you own the game IloMilo. I do need to replay the last hour or so of the story mission on my own profile to get the story end achievement as we got it on the girls profiles (we only have two controllers currently but there is 4 player co-op available).
It won't make much of an imprint on the annuls of video game history but it does mostly achieve what it set out to do and it certainly was well received by my children
