I was recently sent an email by Limited Run Games notifying me that they would be releasing a physical copy of a game called Late Shift. I had never heard of the game before but was curious to know more, after a small amount of research later I decided I had to play it. I didn't have the patience to wait so I downloaded it from the PlayStation store and so began my journey with Late Shift.
Oreos. I have grown to really like those little biscuits known as Oreos, some of their flavors I enjoy more than others. My favorites are probably the white chocolate covered ones and the peanut butter ones. From time to time I like to enjoy the chocolate creme ones, I can only have a few at a time because I find them a little much. Playing Late Shift I found myself asking what kind of Oreo was I enjoying, and was it too much?
Story The story has you take on the role of Matt, a student just trying to get by. Matt works the late shift at a parking garage, on what seems like an average night he investigates a noise and ends up having his whole world turned upside down. Matt is caught up in a crime that will end up having him fight for his life. How will he survive? Who will he help? Who will be hurt?
The game has you make a lot of decisions for Matt, some big, some small but almost all of them have consequences. The game features seven endings so there is a good bit of replayability, which is always a plus.
Overall Late Shift has a pretty solid story that held my interest from beginning to end and is definitely an experience I won't be forgetting soon.
Visuals
It's hard to flaw the visuals when they are movie quality, the sets look great and take you from the mundanity of a parking garage to sophistication of an auction house. In honesty, I can't really go into detail without spoiling the experience for you.
Overall it is visually entertaining and while it may not look like your average game it is still pretty good. Music
The soundtrack has a kind of electronic feel, that really is just backing music, but that's not to say it's bad. The music is composed by Cyril Boehler, and the additional music is by Harry Herchenworrth, their works include music for the films; Mulhapar, Wilder, and Suck Me Shakespeer 1 and 2.
The score runs at just under an hour and while the soundtrack as a whole isn't amazing there were some good tracks, my favorites being, 'Intentness', 'Tchoi Action', 'Hainsworth', 'After Crash' and 'Pushin Your Chances'.
Overall the soundtrack is okay but it's not particularly memorable.
Gameplay
I love movies, I like to be entertained and sometimes just to zone out, but sometimes I wish I could be part of what's going on and that's where Late Shift comes in. While watching the film/game you will have moments where you can choose answers to questions and decided which actions to take. Depending on the decisions you make you will get different endings and even potentially miss chapters altogether. The game has seven endings, ranging from really good to really bad, the first ending I got was really bad and I felt quite disappointed. The feeling of disappointment from my first ending drove me to play it again straight away.
Overall I didn't have any issue with gameplay, it worked well and made me want to keep playing to make other decisions and see other endings.
Final Thoughts
So after a few hours of play how did I feel? Not bad. The story is pretty good, the visuals were good, the music was okay and the gameplay was engaging. I liked playing and being part of Late Shift, and while I enjoyed the uniqueness of the game it's not something I can imagine going back to again and again. Overall this one gets a solid 3 out of 5
At E3 about a year ago, I saw a small trailer/demo of a game called Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido on Nintendo 3DS. It's a colourful fast-paced puzzle game, I am not normally into puzzle games but there was just something about it, I knew I had to play it.
Sushi! Sushi comes in many different varieties, including what I consider to be the classic one, some raw fish and pearl rice wrapped in seaweed. I tried it once before and in honesty I had no recollection if I liked it or not. Playing Sushi Striker I found myself desiring to try some, unfortunately, I didn't really like it, a lot of my issue was with the texture and after trying seven pieces of different sushi I knew it wasn't for me. Playing Sushi Striker I found myself asking did I feel the same way I did about actual sushi or was it a much more enjoyable experience?
Story
I'll be honest, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the story of Sushi Striker: The Way Of Sushido. The game has you take on the role of Musashi, an orphan who loves sushi, unfortunately, sushi is hard to come by as it is controlled by The Empire. Luckily Musashi meets Franklin a Sushi Striker who along with his sushi sprite can create almost endless amounts of sushi. Quickly Musashi realises he needs to take a stand against The Empire so everyone can be free to enjoy sushi and quickly joins The SLF, The Sushi Liberation Front.
Overall it's a feel-good story with some nice moral lessons and a lot of fun characters, I like the fact Indieszero didn't just phone it when it came to the story, which a lot of developers can do when it comes to a puzzle game.
Visuals
The game has great visuals and uses an anime art style which I really liked, especially when it came to the cut sequences. Each character looks cute or fun, with Kodiak Squad for example they are all muscled but it is done in a comical way. In the case of the Sushi Sprite's, there are so many great designs, my favorite being Penzo the blue penguin with a monocle, Jinari that looks part man, part lion and Kumaten, a black bear with a horn on his head and carries a big axe.
Overall a visually fun game that kept my interest throughout my time playing.
Music The music has a classic Nintendo upbeat sound, combined with rock, jazz, and some somber tones that are reserved for the final few areas. The soundtrack was created by Shunsuke Tsuchiya, Yuki Yonai, Rie Takahashi, and George Aburai. This group of composers, artists and voice actors have contributed to games, anime, and singer-songwriters, including:
Konosuba
Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san
Akibia Trip The Animation
JoJo's Bizare Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
A Good Librarian, Like A Good Shepard
Luminous Arc 1 and 2
Sands of Destruction
Kyoukia no Rinne
Nui Nui Hinobori San Kyoudai
Aiko Kayo
Tomiko Van
There were some great tracks in the game, my favorite being; 'Sushi No. 1', 'Title Screen', 'Franklin'
'Battle VS Soldier', 'Won A Match', 'Lost A Match', 'Battle Pinch', 'Battle VS Purrsilla' and 'Battle VS Palace Guard'.
Overall a pretty strong soundtrack that is fun to listen to when battling your many opponents.
Gameplay The gameplay in Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido starts out relatively straightforward, link as many plates of the same colour together over several seconds and throw them at your opponent. Outside of this, you can carry up to three sushi sprites each offering abilities that you can use after linking X amount of plates together multiple times. The game increases the difficulty level of your opponents as you progress and they too have sushi sprites, for the most part, things are kept fairly balanced, but there were certain points where the challenge just seemed crazy. A few examples of these challenges would be, the tank surround by a moving a wall that had a small gap in it that you had to wait to throw plates at, or having to link at least twenty plates together to attack an opponent. One of the most frustrating ones for me was the combo wall which meant you could only throw one colour of plates at the enemy, if you changed the colour the first attack would not do damage. I understand that to make a puzzle game fresh you have to mix it up, but sometimes the challenges were a bit much. Playing Sushi Striker I found that practice and the correct ensemble of sushi sprites would get you the win but other times it felt like luck.
The sushi sprites in the game were really good, and I liked the fact they could evolve into other more powerful forms depending on how much you used them. In the end, my line up during the final area was Jinrai, Tigazo, and Penzo which were some of the first sushi sprites I obtained.
Overall I found the gameplay to be intense, yet fun and while I did have some complaints they still didn't stop me from having fun.
Final Thoughts
After playing just over twenty-five hours how did I feel? Pretty good. The story, visuals, and music were a lot of fun, the gameplay was intense and while there were a few frustrating challenges all in all it was an enjoyable experience. Overall this one gets 4 out of 5
The other evening I found myself with a difficult decision, what do I play next? I decided to browse the PlayStation Store and came across Viktor Kalvachev' Blue Estate: The Game. It looked crazy, funny and the kind of game I wouldn't mind putting some hours into, so began my mini adventure.
Burrito. A Burrito is a combination of meat, salad, black beans, rice and hot sauce, all wrapped up in a tortilla. They can be tasty, but quite often they're not, in honesty though when you throw a load of cheap ingredients together that's going to happen. If you go in, eyes open, knowing all of this then you have no one else to blame if you find yourself sitting on cold porcelain with a wad of toilet paper in your hand. Playing Blue Estate I found myself asking was this one of those occasions where I was enjoying something tasty, or did it leave me wanting to make a rapid departure to the bathroom?
Story
The story has you take on the role of two characters, Tony and Clarence. Tony is the son of a mobster and is the family screw up, he's a psycho who only seems to care about one thing; a stripper named Cherry. Clarence is an ex-Navy SEAL who is a no-nonsense kind of guy who is a hitman hired by Tony's father to help clean up his son's mess, amongst other things. The game is narrated by Ron Devine JNR. a private eye who likes to spin the yarn and tells tall tales.
The story is fairly loose, and for the most part, that's okay. Tony's dialogue is initially funny but as the game progresses it becomes old. Clarence comes across as dull and there is no depth to his character. The person that stands out most is Cherry, and that's because she seems a little bit more real than the other characters. There is a lot of nudity and crass jokes which for the most part is quite funny. Overall though the story is mediocre at best, and while I wasn't expecting Shakespeare it could have used a little more development.
Visuals
The visuals are...not great. The backdrops aren't that much fun to look at, and the game instead seems to focus on nudity, toilet humor, and Chihuahuas. Similar to the story, for the most part, it's okay, but you can only rely on it for so much.
Overall the game is visually underwhelming, and while there are some funny visuals moments they can't make up for its other shortcomings.
Music
The soundtrack is a combination of electric guitar mixed with themes from 70's and 80's cop shows, and it works, it's also probably one of the stronger parts of the game. The music is created by French composer and artist Eric Los, he has worked on a number of games, some of his work includes; Tokaido, Armada, Slash Monsters, and Crasher.
The score runs at around twenty minutes and while it features only a few tracks, I did have favorites including, 'Golfing with Grenades', 'Kim Jung Sik', and 'Bring Out The Dead'.
Overall a short but solid soundtrack.
Gameplay
Blue Estate is an on-rails shooter, which is part of what attracted me to the game, I used to love to play House of The Dead 2, Time Crisis 2, and Die Hard 2. The gameplay is simplistic but fun and works, about 75% of the time. When it came to the shooting element (most of what makes up the gameplay) I found myself having to recalibrate the DualShock 4 controller regularly, which really pulled me out of the game and caused more than a few frustrating moments. The game offers you the ability to use melee attacks using the touchpad, while it worked well for this, unfortunately, it did not work well when it came to being used to collect health and ammunition.
I stuck with the game throughout despite its shortcomings, but the last mission just seemed to be so long, and I was having to recalibrate the DualShock controller every few minutes. On more than one occasion I nearly packed in playing the game altogether.
Overall there were fun elements to the gameplay and when it worked, it worked well but in honesty that just wasn't often enough.
Final Thoughts
After almost ten hours of gameplay, how did I feel? Pretty disappointed. While it's not the worst game I have ever played, it is the worst I have played this year. This one gets 2 out of 5
I know what you're thinking, how the hell does he have another game review out so soon? Well, I have been sitting on this was for some time, I had finished episode one and two at the start of the year, but was holding off writing a review because I thought episode three, four and five would be out by now. Unfortunately, the remaining episodes have not yet been released, Hinterland Studios announced yesterday that episode three would be released in December 2018, meaning it could be mid to late 2019 before all five episodes are released. There are a number of reasons for the delay, while there was a lot of praise for the game there was also backlash over the story and the repetitive fetch quests, the studio wanted to address some of these concerns and continue to improve the overall game including adding in new game modes. So I thought before the next episodes were released it might be interesting to review what I had played so far.
Porridge. It can be tough to eat, almost a slog, but it can taste good and you are left with your stomach feeling full and warm. There are ways to spice it up, for example, a little sugar, fruit, jam or maybe some honey, I usually go for a small amount of sugar. There are occasions where I have eaten too much porridge and felt terrible afterward, which is not fun let me tell you. Playing The Long Dark I found myself was this a tough, satisfying bowl of porridge, or had I overindulged and felt like my stomach was filled with warm rocks?
Story
The game has you play as Will MacKenzie (not the guy from the Inbetweeners), who operates a small business flying a plane. One night as your playing a little solitaire a woman, by the name of Astrid Greenwood comes seeking your help. It's quickly apparent that the two were an item at one point and that she would not be there unless it was a real emergency. Astrid is looking for you to fly her to the small town of Milton up in the Canadian Wilderness, but won't give much detail as to why, of course, you being awesome agree to help her out. Unfortunately, this ends up being a bad idea as the plane crashes and the two of you are separated.
The first episode begins as a tutorial, that then progresses into you searching for Astrid. The journey will be long and one of the few people you come across is a blind lady called Grey Mother. She is pretty unhelpful for the most part and she has you act as her goofer, which was highly annoying. Once this is finished it's onto episode two. There is little story content to episode one which was a little disappointing.
Episode two has you meet Jeremiah, who has just been attacked by a big ass bear. Even though he is badly wounded he offers you guidance and provides you with a gun, of course, this is mostly done so you can help him take revenge on the bear who mauled him. The story was still lacking but certainly more engaging than episode one.
Overall the story isn't bad but it isn't great either, and I hope that the story is improved upon with the episodes to follow.
Visuals
The game is set in the beautiful Canadian wilderness, nothing but snow, mountains, woods and glacial waterfalls. There are animals including wolves, bears, rabbits, and deer, the latter being my favorite as they looked so lifelike. The design of Will is unusual and goes for an almost minimalist cartoonish style, this is also shown used the cut sequences, which was I found to be quite a contrast.
Overall it looks beautiful, I have found in a number of survival style games they can look a little bleak and dull, but I never found this to be the case with The Long Dark. Music
There are times where the music for a game just doesn't work and feels out of place, The Long Dark is not one of those games. It perfectly sums up the constant struggle you face in the game and features somber tones created through heavy use of stringed instruments and piano. The creators of the soundtrack are America composer Cris Velasco and German composer Sascha Dikiciyan. Their work includes scores for games such as; Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Bloodborne, Mass Effect 3, God Of War 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Prototype, Borderlands, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
The score runs a little over ninety minutes and features some really great tracks, my favorites include, 'The Long Dark Main Theme', 'There's Something I Have To Say', 'Keep You Alive', 'Passing Of An Age', and 'Memories'.
Overall a great soundtrack, that to me not only suited the game perfectly but also one of the best things about The Long Dark.
Gameplay
The Long Dark is a first-person survival game, it's can be tough sometimes, really tough in fact. There is a quite a lot to keep an eye on and be aware, all of it is important and failing to pay attention will have you dead in no time.
One of the biggest obstacles you will encounter is keeping warm, fire is one of the ways to avoid turning into a popsicle, however depending on the conditions lighting a fire may not always work. Wearing layers of clothing is an option, which is great unless you get them wet if this happens your body temperature can drop quickly and you risk getting hypothermia. The next big challenge is eating enough, you burn through calories doing everything including sleeping. There will be some food scattered around, but hunting will be your best source for it. The best way to get the most out of food is by cooking it on a fire, eating it raw carries certain risks. Carrying raw meat can attract animals to you, in particular wolves which you don't want. I found the key is to have just enough to survive, too much or too little is equally bad.
Sometimes you will kill animals for food other times for survival. Each of them offers their own challenge, deer could be tough as shooting them in the heart was an almost instant kill but involved you getting close, being very quiet, compensating for wind and then hoping your shot would pay off. Wolves are a pain in the ass and they have no qualms about chasing you down. At one point I only had a flare gun for protection, I shot one in the head and killed it outright which made me laugh, not as much though as when it gets stuck in their body and they run away scared.
While there was lots of good stuff to the gameplay there were also bad points. The fetch quests were annoying particularly the ones for Grey Mother. Outside of some safe areas you can store your excess gear, which was really handy, however, in one case it physically disappeared! It came back later but unfortunately, all my stuff was gone. The constant difficulty made the game a slog at times and it almost felt like I was there with MacKenzie.
Overall there was some great and tough gameplay, with a few relatively minor issues. If you like survival games and want a real challenge The Long Dark is for you.
Final Thoughts
So after twenty plus hour playing how did I feel? Not bad. The story was lacking, and I would have preferred a bit more focus on the main two characters. The visuals and music were impressive and really added to the depth of the game. The gameplay was pretty good but occasionally felt a little too tough and fetch quests soured me a little bit. Overall it was an interesting experience and am curious to see what Hinterland do with the remaining episodes. The game almost got a higher score but just missed the mark a little, I give this one 3 out of 5
Zombies! When it comes to zombies I find the genre to be a little overused, whether it be in movies, TV series or Video Games. That being said every now and then I come across something that makes me stop and go 'yeah that's pretty good', this is exactly how I felt about Undead Lab's game State of Decay. Naturally, when I heard they were going to release a sequel I was excited and was looking forward to playing it. I finished playing it last night and wanted to share my thoughts with all of you.
Hot dogs. They are simple tasty snacks that are enjoyed by both rich and poor alike. They don't look particularly appetising but they taste great, there are so many options you can use to dress them up and add a little more flavor including sauces, relishes, onions, chili, cheese, you can use pretty much anything. While it's hard to get it wrong with a hot dog it is possible, have you ever watched The Naked Gun movies with Leslie Nielsen? If not then go out and watch them, especially the first two. The reason I bring it up is there a scene where one of the characters is eating a hot dog, he bites down on something hard, he cracks his tooth and finds he has a someone's ring in his mouth. That would be bad enough, but he then finds a human finger in his hot dog, it was horrible but it was also funny. Playing State of Decay 2 I found myself asking was this a tasty hot dog, or was there now a dead person's finger in my mouth?
Story
The storyline is a little light, you get to start as either two siblings, or two sweethearts, one of whom gets bitten by a plague zombie. Apparently getting bitten by a zombie is bad, but a plague zombie is worse, not exactly sure why and it's never really explained. Time to find a someone who can help produce a cure and then choose a region to set up home, in my case, I went to Meager Valley. Once a cure is created you need to focus on setting up a community and electing a leader. Depending on who you choose you will start the Sheriff, Warlord, Trader or Builder questline. The next step is to take out nasty looking things called plague hearts to help cut down the zombie population. Outside of this you just need to keep people alive, play a few main missions, and you're done.
The characters are pretty interchangeable with the exception of maybe Samantha, who is a bit nuts but at least has somewhat of a personality. The characters will repeat dialogue to the point where I had to consider muting the TV. Overall the story was lacking and there was no real attempt to develop the characters or the world as a whole, the ending itself was like a firework that doesn't go off - disappointing.
Visuals
The first State of Decay was not amazing visually but it was solid enough, I had heard State of Decay 2 was a real step up, I heard wrong. The game does look a little better than the first but to me not by much. The backdrops are little dull and lifeless, there were some parts in Meager Valley that had nice mountains and there was a cool looking base of operations surround by trees, but little else to get excited about.
The enemies look fairly good, especially the new Feral zombies which move more like animals. I found there were issues with loading some landscapes and zombies so sometimes it seemed like they materialised out of thin air which I found to be a little jarring. Often characters would disappear and reappear beside me almost randomly, this happened a lot when I was driving.
Overall visually it wasn't great and the name Meager Valley certainly summed up how I felt about it.
Music The sound moves from an apocalyptic wasteland to a more thoughtful and bleak guitar sound, with the only exception being some fights which have a more intense feel to them. The composer of this score is Danish composer Jesper Kyd who worked on the first game along with working on other games including, Assassins Creed The Ezio Collection, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, Darksiders 2 and Forza Motorsport 4.
The soundtrack runs at ninety minutes and has a few good tracks including, 'State of Decay 2 Main Theme', 'Fighting Chance', 'Adverse Effect', and 'Dangerous Microbes'.
Listening to the soundtrack again I found the experience to be very different, primarily because while playing the game the music didn't really linger in the background but instead came from out of nowhere abruptly which I didn't really like.
Overall the soundtrack wasn't bad but the way it was used in the game could have used a little more work.
Gameplay
State of Decay is a third-person zombie survival game, it starts out by offering you a very basic tutorial that covers movement, combat and searching, which you will spend a lot of time doing. If you are searching through items slowly all will be well, if you go too fast then you're going to have a bad time.
The combat, for the most part, works well and the finishers really add a little bit more gruesomeness to your kills. Weapons degrade quickly so always have a backup and don't get attached to anything because it's often easier to pick up something new then try to maintain it. Throwing in the game does not work the best and is particularly infuriating when throwing fire-based weapons at a plague heart that then end up setting you on fire.
One of the biggest elements of the game is building a community, to do this you need to gather lots of resources and other survivors. There a load of facilities you can build, everything from rainwater collection, and gardens, to gun ranges, and workshops. Each facility offers additional perks of a sort, which all seem good until you realise many of them heavily consume your resources, so unless you have lots to spare it isn't really worth it. The massive issue is that you need to pick your survivors carefully to ensure they have the right skills, they're also skills books that some characters can use. What you don't get warned about is you can only use one skill book per survivor, and sometimes not even that which can make upgrading your base tough. Outposts will help you in obtaining more resources, food, water and oil being the three most important.
Naturally, every community needs a leader, depending on who you choose you will get one of four questlines that provide little information and seem to work under the assumption you will play the game multiple times.
There are various enclaves you can befriend as you play the game, and selling items to them will increase you influence which is handy for unlocking outposts or calling in radio support. It felt a little wasted as a whole because I had so much unneeded influence left over once I had completed the game. If your willing to look around a bit influence is almost pointless.
The game is littered with bugs, driving cars would sometimes be fine and then all of a sudden they would spin out of control for no discernable reason. Doors opening and closing by themselves on cars and houses were a frequent occurrence. Characters disappearing was commonplace, sometimes they would reappear straight away, other times they were gone for five minutes. There was two stand out characters for me, Adam 'stands on cars a lot and lets you get pulled apart by zombies' and Wes 'I played so much Dark Souls I can't stop rolling around'. I will say big shoutout to Jerry one of the Whisky Peddlers, before completing his mission I used him to help with mine, by the end, he was near death, doctors say he will make a full recovery.
Overall there were some good points with the gameplay, but I felt for the most part Undead Lab's made things more awkward then they needed and in doing so less fun. Not the worst experience ever but seemed to lack something the original managed to capture.
Final Thoughts So after twenty-five hours of playing how did I feel? I wanted to like State of Decay 2, I really did but there was so much wrong with it. The story was poor, the visuals were fairly underwhelming, the music wasn't bad but it's execution felt poor, there were some enjoyable moments while playing but they were fleeting. I know I will play the original State of Decay in the future, I know I will not be playing State of Decay 2 again. Overall I struggled to score the game, I wanted to be as honest as possible, so in the end, I settled on giving this one 2 out of 5
It's already the 22nd of July, and I genuinely have no idea where the month has gone. I have been working through three games this month, Mass Effect 3, Sushi Striker and House Flipper, all on different platforms. I have been enjoying playing House Flipper, and thought to myself it's finally time to review it.
I really like coffee, I don't have it everyday or anything, but at least once week I'll have a cup, or three. I really like the taste, it puts a smile on my face and makes me feel relaxed. But, for me it's not just about the taste, it's also the smell, that rich coffee aroma that seems to just linger in the air. However like everything when it comes to food and drink, there are good and bad quality versions. A good cup of coffee can really start your day with a bang, where as a bad cup, well it can it can effect you negatively, especially your stomach if you're like me. Playing House Flipper I found myself asking, was I drinking a good cup of coffee, or would I be getting a pain in my stomach later?
Story
The game has less of a story, and more of a premise, you start out in a run down home office, after some initial cleaning you get on your laptop and go through jobs you receive via email. I liked the fact that the emails you read don't come across as canned responses, and some of them had a lot of heart, especially those where a loved one passed away, or a young couple were thinking of starting a family. All jobs are painting and decorating jobs of various shapes and sizes, some will take you as little as five minutes to complete, others can take you in excess of thirty. The idea is that you build up enough money to purchase a house, do it up, and then flip it.
Overall a simple but entertaining premise nonetheless.
Visuals
The visuals are fairly impressive, and with each new update Empyrean releases they are tweaked a little more. The game focuses on a realistic look, that reminded me of how I felt the first time I played The SIMS when it was released back in 2000. There are two things that stood out and made me chuckle, the first was 'Huckers House' which was a copy of Walter White's home from Breaking Bad, complete with spray paint on the wall saying 'Hamburgberg' (presumably they couldn't have it say 'Heisenberg'), and a hole in the floor used to stash lots of cash, which you can keep. The second thing was the free Apocalypse DLC which allows you to have a fallout shelter, complete with rations, generators and weapons.
Overall a visually impressive game that manages to keeps things both simple and enjoyable.
Music
In earnest there is not too much I can say in relation to the music, it's very subtle and lingers in the background. Similar to The SIMS the music is calming, and chipper, if the suburbs had their own theme music it would probably sound like that featured in House Flipper.
The composer is Draco Nared, a Polish composer, arrange and performer, who's previous works have included the new survival horror game Agony, Circle of Light, and Old Phantaruk - Main Theme.
I am unsure of the length of the soundtrack because all I could really hear was the main theme, in honesty though a game like this doesn't require much of a soundtrack.
Gameplay
Okay, House Flipper might not have much in the way of story, and lacks a little in the music department, but it's makes up for that with gameplay. While I'm not great at painting, decorating and general D.I.Y. I do like to watch it on TV, and give it a go from time to time, so for me House Flipper was perfect.
There are a slew of jobs waiting for you to complete, from tasks as basic as throwing out rubbish and mopping the floor, to knocking down walls and installing showers. The game slowly introduces you to each new ability so you can become familiar with them all. The game provides you with a tablet that you can use to buy new items, check on potential buyers, track your stats, take and view pictures, and most important of all the perks menu. The more you work the better you get, painting can take a while in the beginning, and you might not use paint that efficiently, as you progress that all changes when you unlock perks. In some houses you will need to buy and assemble radiators, showers, baths and more, each of which are fun, and are generally straightforward enough.
Empyrean recently released a free Apocalypse DLC, the main objective is to outfit a fallout shelter, it was fun, but for me just felt like a distraction from the rest of the game.
There were two things that drove me a little crazy, the first was cleaning windows, it always felt awkward and clunky unlike most other elements of the game. The second thing was trying to place items on shelves which just never seemed to work correctly.
By far the most enjoyable thing to me was doing up a bathrooms, plastering, tiling, picking the colour scheme, installing new sinks, toilets, choosing the lighting. I really loved it.
Overall the gameplay is highly entertaining with few notable complaints, I look forward to playing the game for many more hours, and look forward to seeing what Empyran adds in the future.
Final Thoughts
So after twenty plus hours (despite what Steam registered) how did I feel? Really good, the game is very different to anything else I have played this year. 95% of the time I would be the first person to complain about a company releasing an unfinished game, but in the case of House Flipper it's a little different. The game works, but there is so much more than can be added to it and Empyrean are continuing to do this through free updates. Scoring this game was incredibly difficult, mostly due to the fact that if I was to hold it to the same standard as I normally do it might get 3 out of 5 due to lack of story and music, however the bulk of the game is the gameplay itself, so with this is mind I give House Flipper 4 out of 5
Back in February 2012, I was getting excited about the release of Mass Effect 3. While the original Mass Effect was underwhelming with a slight glimmer of promise Mass Effect 2 was amazing, the characters, story, and gameplay were all pretty solid. When I played Mass Effect 3 I could see great improvements in the visuals and overall gameplay, that being said there was something a little lacking, in particular, some of the story especially the ending(s). In fact, I felt strongly enough about that it is only recently that I decided to replay it, this time with all the downloadable content.
Many years ago I found that I really did not like prawns, I wanted to, but they always left me feeling underwhelmed, as time went by things changed and I tried them again and found I felt differently about them. The dish I like most is hot chili garlic prawns, with a helping of egg fried rice, or noodles. I am not sure if my palette became more refined, or I was simply more open to the experience. Playing Mass Effect 3 again I found myself asking, was this my hot chili garlic prawns that I love now, or the underwhelming taste I remember from years ago?
Story
Once again you take on the role of Commander Shepard, and again try to save the galaxy, this time though the stakes are higher than before. The Reapers have stopped being subtle, and are now out in force to destroy all life in the Galaxy, like a hardcore version of Thanos in Avengers Infinity War.
Shepard was with the Alliance in the first installment in the series, Cerberus in the second one, and now he is back with the Alliance. In the early part of the game you get the impression, there is slight distrust towards him, and that he is perhaps mistaken about the impending Reaper invasion. Fast forward a little and it's clear that Shepard is as honest, and trustworthy as always, and he was right about the Reapers, again. Time to feel smug, wait there is a war on, no time to be smug, save it for later.
The aim is to try and get as many races working together, gather a massive fleet and try to take a stand against the Reapers. There are interesting stories along the way, in particular, I really enjoyed the Geth storyline which helped give a very fresh perspective on them. The downloadable content (DLC) certainly added a lot to the overall story and for the most part was pretty enjoyable. The Citadel DLC focuses on an assassin trying to kill Shepard, but the main focus is about the crew of the Normandy hanging out, it was a lot of cheesy fun. The Leviathan DLC added so much to not only Mass Effect 3 but also the series as a whole, I genuinely can't say more than that without spoiling anything. The From The Ashes DLC saw an introduction of a new playable character, a Promethean, you get an insight into what happened last time the Reapers showed up 50,000 years ago. The Omega DLC was by far the dullest, Aria is not the most interesting character to start with, and it just didn't add anything to the game.
Overall I felt the story to be more solid than my original playthrough, this was for two key reasons, the downloadable contents and the extended ending. While the experience was better second time around I feel it would have been a more memorable game had they released the game with some of the downloadable content the first time around rather than trying to pry more money out of loyal fans.
Visuals
The series has come a long way since the original Mass Effect, the visuals are still looking good especially for a last generation console game. The HUD now looks and feels a lot crisper which helps for smoother gameplay. One of the most visually stunning parts of the game apart from the various planets are the Reapers themselves, giant robotic squid type beings, which I know doesn't sound impressive, but trust me they're impressive. The planet Benning had a very Judge Dredd feeling to them, orange skies, trash and beaten up buildings and containers everywhere. The planet Kallini was cool, snow-capped mountains, a monastery that was futuristic, but also looked old.
Overall the game is visually impressive and really helps in bringing the whole galaxy to life.
Music
The music has a very different feel from Mass Effect 2, which I suppose makes sense as the Mass Effect 3 is about all-out war. The sound runs between being Tron-esque and a Hollywood war movie, and in honesty, it works pretty well. Initially, I was disappointed that Jack Wall did come back to do the music, but the other composers returned along with a new one which worked just as well if not better. Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz, Cris Velasco and Sasha Dikiciyan return, along with newcomer Clint Mansell create the sound for Mass Effect 3. This group has collectively helped create some amazing and fun soundtracks including; Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Ghost in the Shell, Black Swan, The Fountain, Sausage Party, Agent Carter, Bloodborne, Prototype, Borderlands, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Borderlands 2.
The soundtrack features over an hour of music, with some great tracks, including, 'Fate of The Galaxy', 'Mars', 'A Future For The Krogan', 'The Cerberus Plot', and 'Arlakh Company'
Overall a pretty solid soundtrack, that really helps create the feeling of war and all-out annihilation.
Gameplay
The gameplay is a lot stronger than it was in Mass Effect 2, no more getting stuck on walls or Shepard not crouching and then getting destroyed by the enemy, you can now roll too, which can be handy. The biotic abilities feel a little more refined, and the weapons as a whole seem more precise and powerful. There is now the option to add mods to weapons, which isn't a bad thing but I never felt like it made a huge difference. The most powerful weapon was the MII Suppressor, a full clip could drop many an enemy, in some ways it felt as good as when I used to dual wield enforcers in Unreal Tournament. The character classes fall into, Soldier, Infiltrator, Vanguard, Sentinel, Adept, Engineer, each offer their own benefits, but like with Mass Effect 2 you can add/swap some abilities if you needed.
The mini-game of mining planets from Mass Effect 2 is gone, now you can scan planets quickly for War Assets, although if you are not careful the Reapers will find you, and then it's game over. Hacking is also gone and replaced with by-pass which see Shepard hold his hand up for a few moments to unlock certain doors.
One thing that really bugged me, as it had in previous games was the mission completion list. In some cases you would be asked to carry out a mission, you might then go and get distracted with other ones but there is nothing to let you know you had completed that part of it. Then it would be mean you had to go to the area you may have got the required item from and see if it was still there or not.
The addition of Jarik, the new playable Promethean character, was good but not great as his abilities were not really any better than the other characters and in some ways felt weaker. The DLC added a lot to the gameplay (apart from Omega) which was great but once again made me feel it should have been available in the original release of Mass Effect 3.
Overall some great gameplay that has a lot of improvements of Mass Effect 2, in particular, the cover system and weapons.
Final Thoughts
After thirty plus hours, how did I feel? Pretty good actually, it was certainly a better experience than the first time around. The gameplay, visuals, and music were all pretty strong, the real game changer was the addition of the story. I have mentioned it already, but it does make me angry that the game was not released with downloadable content and extended ending, it would have made the overall experience a lot more solid, and perhaps it would not have received so many negative reactions from fans. If I take my experience as a whole this time, with all the bells and whistles attached I would have to give it 4 out of 5
