Category: Videogame Review

  • Review: Kingdom of Arcadia (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Kingdom of Arcadia (Nintendo Switch)

    Sam is just an everyday, terribly average ordinary kid who loves videogames and whose dad just happens to possess a vintage arcade machine. Sam impatiently jumps the gun and powers up the machine without dads approval and wouldn’t you know it, the arcade machine is special and Sam is no longer in Kansas.

    Welcome to the Kingdom of Arcadia, whose inhabitants know that they are made of pixels and that Sam isn’t from their world at all. And as such, he’s clearly the only one that can save them. Evil forces have corrupted the land and Sam has to travel to four castles to retrieve magical sceptres. It’s the only way to get home so what’s a terribly average kid in videogame land to do? Grab some armour and a sword of course because he’s clearly trained for this.

    Set across four worlds broken up into five levels each – six if you count the boss rooms – Kingdom of Arcadia is a 2D action platformer built as they made them in yesteryear. Though it markets itself as a metroidvania, Kingdom of Arcadia is a far more linear affair with some light exploration and light upgrading elements. Developer Spoonbox Studio has built Kingdom of Arcadia on a very basic core set of systems that, outside of the light upgrade system, doesn’t change.

    Sam has three skills: a double jump, a slashing sword attack and a secondary throwing weapon attack. There’s no learning new combos, picking up anti-gravity boots or homing missiles or a hookshot. The levels are designed around these three skills, keeping the game simple, stark and all the better for it. The platforming is absolutely on point and getting hit or missing a jump is usually on you rather than the game. Don’t let the simplicity fool you however, because Kingdom of Arcadia gets quite challenging from the second world onwards.

    Levels begin small but grow larger with each world, but not to the extent that one could label it a metroidvania. Usually you’re traversing to one end of the level to hit a switch, or switches, that open the path to the levels exit. Once again, there’s no backtracking between massive areas waiting to find a new sword to open up a new path twenty screens away. Instead the levels play out like mini-dungeons as you traverse dastardly environment hazards and enemies looking to swiss-cheese you.

    Kingdom of Arcadia also doesn’t do too much different in what you’re facing in these levels. There are spiked areas, rotating platforms, crumbling platforms, cannons etc. Enemies also follow a familiar archetype, wizards throwing spells, bouncing eyeballs and undead skeletons, most of which are merely reskins unfortunately. Where Kingdom of Arcadia does get it right though, is in the construction of its levels.

    The enemies in each level don’t pose a threat on their lonesome but most of the levels are designed around incorporating the combat around the platforming and precision timing. So you’ll have a snowball throwing yeti at the far end of a room but getting to him may require navigating a spike pit along with moving spiked platforms that block your projectile attacks. Making it to him without getting hit becomes an exercise in patience and precision. Rushing it will usually cost you a heart, which you have few enough of already. It’s these moments that are Kingdom of Arcadia’s strong points even if they’re based around patience and pattern recognition.

    Death may start you back at the beginning of a level but chests you’ve collected and switches you’ve thrown don’t reset unless you leave the level and come back in so it’s in your best interest to stick it through to the end.

    Some levels have mini-bosses in them as well and they’re usually a cakewalk, involving learning their pattern and figuring out when to strike. The main bosses fall into the same category of pattern recognition and patience as well. They’re more challenging than the mini-bosses but aren’t as memorable as they should have been.

    Each level has enough secret areas to find. Hidden behind cracked walls they usually contain loot chests which grant money, extra secondary ammo or another valuable heart, all of which are invaluable. Money is extremely important as you need to pay for the upgrades to Sam’s health and damage output. Nicely when upgrading Sam’s armour which grants you more health, it also changes his visual look. The sword grows larger and has a wider hit radius as well, while you’re secondary projectile weapon will change from a knife to an axe to a hammer as you upgrade. The upgrades don’t come cheap though and you will most likely have to farm levels later on so it’s a good thing each enemy drops money when killed.

    Visually Kingdom of Arcadia is pleasant enough to look at. The presentation is nice and clean and there’s just enough detail in the sprites to make them charming.

    Where Kingdom of Arcadia doesn’t fare as well though is in the writing and sound design. The writing clearly feels like translation issues were at play or it was thrown together at the last minute. It’s not terrible, but it certainly does have shades of old games within it. Less effective are the sound effects which sound as though they were pulled from a free repository. The musical tracks are effective but lack the punch that usually makes 2D platformer soundtracks resonant. They do the job but fade into the background while playing.

    Kingdom of Arcadia may not challenge platform and metroidvania experts and while it lacks replayability, what it does provide for the time it will take you to finish it, is a charming and challenging fun action platformer that feels as though it were ripped straight from the golden past of 2D gaming simplicity.

    Pros:

    • Increase in environmental challenge
    • Upgrading has a visual effect
    • Death is usually your fault

    Cons:

    • No real replayability
    • Reskinned enemies
    • You will have to grind levels to upgrade
    • Sound effects could have been better

    Score: 6/10

  • Review: Demon’s Souls (PS5)

    Review: Demon’s Souls (PS5)

    Bluepoint Games have proven two things thus far. One, they know how to use the PlayStation hardware, and two, they know how to remaster/remake a game for a new generation of hardware while retaining its soul and rekindling those special memories you may have of that title.

    Following hot on the heels of their stunning Shadow of The Colossus remake, Bluepoint have tackled the much-requested update of From Software’s original ‘Souls title, Demon’s Souls.

    At this point in time, even if you don’t play these games, you’ll know what a Souls or Souls-like game is. Which also means you’ll know whether or not this is up your alley. If it isn’t, well we won’t hold that against you, but if it is, then:

    Welcome to the land of Boletaria. Darkness has befallen the kingdom and you’re its last hope. Good luck. You’re going to need it. Cue sadistic laughter.

    In many ways, that simply sums up Demon’s Souls quite well. You’re going to need that luck, along with a boatload of skill, to make it through any of the Souls titles as you spelunk into its deep action-RPG world. Despite being the first game in the Souls series and almost twelve years old, Demon’s Souls is still as challenging as ever. At a time when games had been moving towards a more player-friendly focus, From Software decided to bring back ye good old age of gaming when they had been designed to munch your quarters with a difficulty – and oftentimes cheapness – that required true control mastery and memory recall.

    Demon’s Souls gleefully crushed our souls (no pun intended). And we loved it. So much so that we have three sequels and an entirely new genre filled to the brim with titles inspired by From Software’s masterful handling of the world and lore, to the sadistic, but not truly unfair gameplay. Now while many old school and retro gamers could pick out much harder games that could be called the original Souls-like – cough Ghosts ‘n Goblins cough – Demon’s Souls brought the art of getting wrecked to the modern gaming world.

    There’s a method to fighting each of the game’s enemies, which means learning their attack patterns and speeds and mastering the timing for that all-important parry. Downed enemies award you with souls, the game’s currency, and experience points, along with the occasional healing item. While dying doesn’t end the game, it transports you to the beginning of a level with all your collected souls dropped in the area where you died. This brought a thoughtful risk/reward scenario to the game in which you had to decide whether or not to risk another run to collect your dropped souls to add to your new tally or forego them by returning to the Nexus, the game’s hub.

    Initially, levelling up your various attributes, repairing and buying items doesn’t cost too much, but the costs quickly begin to skyrocket after the first couple of character levels; this creates the need for multiple runs through an area without returning to the Nexus and just using the various Archstones scattered across the level. Archstones act as waypoints for fast travel once unlocked and are the only way to get back into the Nexus, outside of an item that also sacrifices souls you’ve obtained for a quick dimensional escape.

    Throw in some truly epic and challenging boss fights and Demon’s Souls became an unexpected worldwide hit and is still my favourite game in the Souls series.

    For this remake/remaster, Bluepoint built the new game on the bones of the old, creating a slavish, lavish remake that leverages the PS5 hardware to great use with some jaw-dropping visuals and superb technical performance.

    And truly the visuals need to be commended. Boletaria looks absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous from the ivy crowding splintered columns to the magnificent vistas evoking the games crushing scale, to the particle effects flowing across the screen to the character animations. Bluepoint have recreated the original game’s cutscenes shot-for-shot too.

    The character creator has also been enhanced, bringing the original game’s barebones character creator and somewhat ugly models more in line with what you would find in other games in 2020. So you can choose your gender while tweaking all the smaller details such as hair, scars, etc.

    Combat is still the same, though since this is the first game, it doesn’t quite have some of the refinements brought to the play systems in the sequels. You’ve got light and heavy attacks, magic attacks, ranged attacks, in addition to being able to block and parry while managing a stamina bar. Blocking, attacking and dodging all use up stamina, so careful play is required in order to make certain the bar doesn’t run dry during a fight, or you will be on the receiving end of hurt you can’t afford.

    One of the other amazing achievements that Demon’s Souls has in the combat department is that when I died, which was quite often, it usually felt like my own fault. Is there cheapness? Sure, but more often than not, death came through my own actions rather than through unfair game design. Design that subsequent Souls and Souls-like games have clearly forgotten about. . .

    Pro-tip: pay attention to the items you pick up in the field. A very useful fire-resistant shield that I didn’t know I had, simply because I didn’t read the descriptions while gleefully collecting loot, made all the difference in the Flamelurker boss fight once I found out I’d had it sitting in my inventory for ages.

    On the technical side, the game has performance and cinematic modes. Cinematic Mode runs in native 4k at 30fps while Performance Mode runs at 1440p and 60fps and I noticed no frame dips at all during my time with the game. Finally, there are the super-fast load times of perhaps 2-4 seconds when loading into the world from the main menu which is really game-changing.

    There are also some really cool quality-of-life extras that Bluepoint have added that are just neat touches, such as the animated postcards for each area at the Archstone selection screen. For those looking for a little something extra content-wise, there’s also a brand-new-to-this-version-of-the-game secret door for completionists to unlock.

    It may be twelve years old now, but Bluepoints work has breathed life back into a game that I didn’t see myself revisiting for quite some time. In many ways, this is a brand new look at Boletaria, at times feeling like a brand new game hiding new secrets whilst been familiar. As a showcase for the power of the PS5, this remake of a much loved classic stuns with its gorgeous visuals while enrapturing you with its deep, obsessive combat, more than proving its worth in your gaming library. Just try not to break your controller while you’re at it, okay.

    Pros:

    • Hard-as-nails combat
    • Amazing world design
    • Gorgeous visuals
    • Stupendously fast load times

    Cons:

    • There are cheap moments
    • AI bugs from the original game still exist

    Score: 9/10

    Demon Soul’s was reviewed by Gameblur using a PS5 retail copy.

  • Review: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

    Review: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

    If you thought that Miles Morales was just a glorified expansion for Insomniacs phenomenal Marvels’ Spider-Man, then you would be right. But you would also be wrong because unlike the DLC for Spider-Man that eventually made up The City That Never Sleeps expansion, Miles Morales is so much more.

    Set after the events of both the main Spider-Man title and the City That Never Sleeps DLC, Miles Morales throws you into the shoes of, well, Miles as he has now officially taken on the mantle of Spider-Man. Some months have clearly passed with Miles joining his mentor, Peter, on various wall crawling shenanigans but it’s still early in Miles career and he’s greener than evergreen lawn. Thanks to some convenient plotting, Miles is left to look after the Big Apple on his own and so begins a trial by fire that encompasses all the things that have made Spider-Man stories so great and endearing coupled with more of the same amazing gameplay from the main title.

    After a bombastic opening that, in many ways, mirrors Spider-Man’s takedown of Wilson Fisk in the main game and which serves as a primer, Miles slows down to pop you into “a day in the life of” for Miles himself. As with Spider-Man, the story takes centre stage in this tale with some fantastic characterisations and a narrative that, while having twists that are easily seen, is just as emotionally wrenching as Peters was.

    Family, friendship, revenge, vengeance, all these themes are explored and demonstrate that the curse of being Spider-Man isn’t only borne by one person and is, in many ways, a chosen mantle. By the end of the tale we have betrayal and heartbreak, validation and redemption. If the road to being Spider-Man is traveled through tragedy, then by the end Miles has certainly earned his running shoes.

    From a gameplay perspective, Miles is definitely more of the same. While Harlem is a primary focus for Miles story, you still have all of New York to run around. There are the usual items to collect, in the form of time capsules that flesh out Miles and his friend Phin’s past, and challenge points that unlock new skill buffs for Miles. Insomniac opted to flesh out some of Peter’s backstory as well by tying this to completing the challenges. Villain hideouts return for the two new bads, The Underground and the corporate nightmare, Roxxon, each with their own mini-objectives to complete to earn Tokens. As with the main campaign, Insomniac slowly doles new additions out over the course of the campaign to break up the pacing between the story and upgrading.

    Mechanically Miles plays and handles the same as Peter. Web-slinging, dodging, combat combos are all the same, meaning that you don’t have to learn a whole new movement system.

    What sets Miles apart though are the different combat animations, his new Venom and camouflage power set and his pure speed. Miles ricochets between enemies like a rogue pinball making the combat a lot faster than Peter. Miles’s new Venom power sets, which include a Venom Punch, Venom Dash for quick Flash level speed strikes and Venom Blasts not only add some needed variety to combat, but can also help Miles in traversal. The new camouflage system works wonders for stealth runs but has a quickly depleting ability bar, keeping it from been an OP move for stealth aficionados.

    Production design across the board is stellar. Miles is animated wonderfully, especially his awkward web-swinging that looks like a disaster waiting to happen, to the unlockable Into The Spider-Verse movie suit which is animated at a lower frame rate to match the movies animation speed. Visually Miles is absolutely gorgeous. New York looks wonderful during the snowy winter and the games visuals look amazing thanks to the PS5’s power and loads just as quickly too.

    The game sports three visual modes, one of which was added in a patch after release. You’re looking at Fidelity mode, Performance Mode and Performance RT.

    Fidelity presents the best visual experience for Miles Morales with a rock steady 30fps, new lighting systems and, of course, ray-tracing. The level of detail overall is just mindboggling, from the crowded streets to the individual fibres on the main characters outfits and the particle systems flashing around. Most noticeable is the ray traced lighting that adds a wonderful sense of vibrancy to the game, which is saying a lot when you consider that the original game on PS4 is still a total stunner. Ray-traced reflections are fantastic as well. New York is full of reflective surfaces, from passing cars to glass windows, to the metal and glass lenses on Miles’s suits and even on the ice packed surfaces. And all of it running super smoothly too.

    Performance Mode is more in line with what you would have on the PS4. So while the game still looks stunning, ray-tracing has been disabled meaning you’re losing out on reflections and the new stunning lighting models. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the game doesn’t still look good though. What you do gain is 60fps gameplay.

    Finally there’s Performance RT which strikes a balance between the two modes. Limited ray-tracing is enabled in this mode to keep it running at 60fps. There’s also a notable differences in crowd amounts and there are fewer pedestrians and cars in total.

    Overall, I opted for the fidelity mode for my entire eight hour play through and didn’t regret it one bit.

    Miles isn’t entirely perfect though. There are some bugs that I noticed. Most notable was that occasionally, especially in the game’s final fight, the game didn’t recognise my inputs. Second, there are plenty of moments when you head to street level and the crowds just stand still and stare at Miles like extras from Invasion of The Body Snatchers. It looks super weird. And lastly, the wall crawling just feels off. It’s fine when you’re running straight up a building but try to crawl in any other direction and the controls kind of spaz out since the camera doesn’t lock behind Miles but chooses to focus on him head on. These are small issues in what is otherwise a polished package.

    With Marvel’s Spider-Man, Insomniac proved that they understood Spider-Man and what it was that made him such an endearing and popular character. They proved, too, that they understood what gamers want from a Spider-Man game. With Miles Morales, Insomniac prove this yet again by creating an expansion that hits all the right notes that you will want to play again while providing a wonderful homage to a heart-warming scene from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. I’m excited for further games in this series, especially for a full length one starring Miles himself.

    Pros:

    • Gorgeous visuals
    • Super-fast load times
    • Fantastic story
    • Great combat
    • Into The Spider-Verse suit

    Cons:

    • Creepy pedestrian bug
    • Wall crawling is awkward
    • I wanted more. . .

    Score: 9/10

    Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was reviewed by Gameblur using a PS5 retail copy.