Beyond: Two Souls - Full Review (PlayStation 3 game)

If you’re looking for something that’s intense, cinematic and extremely immersive then 'Beyond: Two Souls' may be exactly what you are looking for. More like an interactive film than a game, 'Beyond: Two Souls' follows the life, jumping through random points in time, of a young woman called Jodie Holmes who has been connected to an invisible, mysterious entity since birth. This unknown entity is called Aiden and, in single player you control both characters whilst, in co-op one player plays Aiden and one plays Jodie. 

Developer: Quantic Dream 
Genre: Interactive drama, action adventure 
Release date: 8th October 2013 (EU: 11th October 2013, JP: 17th October 2013) 
Platforms: PlayStation 3 
ESRB: M - Mature

This beautifully unique game strongly emphasises player interaction and, in this sense, is considered to be an interactive drama game with some action elements. Whilst I usually hate quick time events in this game it works perfectly and, in a style similar to Heavy Rain, you’ll find yourself performing actions for everything you come across. Through the use of motion capture actress Ellen Page and actor Willem Dafoe star as Jodie Holmes and Nathan Dawkins respectively and, alongside their flawless voice acting, you’ll be hard pressed to find a game that’s more realistic than Beyond: Two Souls is. This is a beautifully crafted, extremely emotional and fantastically animated game that changes the face of gaming. 

Gameplay and story

The game revolves around a woman called Jodie who is somehow physically connected to an invisible entity dubbed Aiden. The story flicks about between different times in Jodie’s life ranging from when she was a child to the shocking events we see in the prologue with the premise being that Jodie’s forgotten how she’s come to where she is. Whilst the story is primarily focused on Jodie there will be times when you control Aiden and see things through his ghostly perspective. The ending of the game varies on your decisions and throughout the ‘chapters’ that you play through there will be some room for manoeuvre and make your own decisions but, generally, the overall storyline is a fixed series of events.

The game is primarily designed to be some kind of interactive film and it is, in this sense, extremely cinematic. There’s basically no HUD aside from a white dot showing what can be interacted with and no map to guide you places. The camera moves very organically and tends to focus on what Jodie is looking at whether that’s somewhere she’s been ordered to go or something that’s just caught her attention. It won’t take you long to adjust to the mannerisms and personality of this game and you’ll almost immediately be sucked into the episodic telling of Jodie’s life. The great thing about dipping and diving between different times in Jodie’s life is the great variation in gameplay that this provides. Protagonists are usually presented ‘as is’ with the occasional reference to earlier events that helped shape them but with Jodie you live so much of her life from the simple times of playing in her bedroom as a young child, through troubled teenage years, to the moment she learned she was to leave everything she knew and join the C.I.A. You follow her through her initial training and, when real life interrupts this and Jodie’s forced to apply these newly acquired skills in desperate, life changing situations, you truly appreciate the depth and breadth of her character. If Jodie was constantly on the run and beating people up it would quickly become a boring, 2D interpretation of life as this is not how people live. Instead, by living through the very normal, domestic aspects of her life you see everything put into perspective. It’s not just watching a troubling childhood it’s living through that and then, when Jodie unleashes her revenge, it’s more than just petty violence but bitterness, hurt and frustration all balled together into an intense and dangerous explosion of emotion. 

But it’s not just Jodie who tugs you headlong into the immersive nature of the game; Aiden, too, is a fascinating subject though I found his connection with Jodie to be initially a little disturbing. After all, you know nothing about him and for all you know he’s utterly malevolent. However, as you view the tentative interactions between a little girl and this mysterious spirit as he pushes her on the swing, defends her when she’s wronged and protects her from harm you understand just how much they need each other. What’s great about Aiden is even though you never see him and only occasionally see the world through his eyes he still has a very distinctive personality. From the beginning its made clear how quickly things can go wrong due to the sheer power Aiden has but, unusually so, when you yourself are in control of Aiden you feel the exact same way. Aiden’s power and tendency to take things too far is quickly reflected in your own gameplay and sometimes you find yourself doing things that, usually, you’d never do. It’s very much a case of you can break windows, scare people half to death, set a building on fire, tear the world apart so you end up doing so because, God dammit, why shouldn’t you? 

I think what surprised me about this game was how absolutely terrifying it could make itself as initially the game came across as creepy, a little eerie but otherwise nothing particularly noteworthy, I was wrong about that. The intensity of encounters is very quickly elevated later on and there are some moments of absolute, genuine terror that I was simply not expecting. In particular, the reliance on the player to survive encounters by performing quick time events means that it’s your responsibility to get Jodie to safety and, when required to jump, duck or smash through something there’s almost zero on-screen help and instead you must accurately read what she intends to do by following the movement of her body with your controller. When you’re faced with an extremely pressured situation this can quickly deteriorate into a frenzied attempt to survive but, as you can imagine, shoving your controller every which way is one sure fire way of getting yourself killed. It’s not all fast paced action though as I alluded to earlier but that doesn’t mean you’re not involved in things. Almost everything Jodie does is guided by you from cutting up her dinner during meals, tidying her apartment before a date, training with the CIA to hitchhiking on the side of a road. When Jodie’s working hard, you’re working hard and the ties that this creates between protagonist and player is not just an added layer of immersion but an invaluable approach to ensuring you’re emotionally invested in the storyline and characters. 

As games go I tend to prefer ones which are open world and, despite this game not being this way it still manages to convince you that you could go anywhere at a moment’s notice. There’s almost always a set path or a few paths that you have to follow but these take place in large, sprawling environments that should not be explored anyway such as a desert landscape or a laboratory. Doors would be, quite naturally, locked in a laboratory where conditions are strictly monitored so it’s unlikely that a little girl would be allowed to go off wandering around as she pleased when she’s being escorted somewhere. So she can only go through one door, so what? That’s where she’s going anyway. What’s interesting is that it’s simply not in Jodie’s personality to run off in any random direction anyway because she’s a very straight down the middle, straight to the point sort of character. When she’s got a job to do by God, she’ll go and do that job and follow it through until the end. In this sense, even though the game’s path is constantly linear that doesn’t ruin the story in any way as even through you’re following this track there’s a fair bit of wiggle room where you can mooch off a little, change the story here and there and choose how you ultimately reach the end goal. Whilst the game didn’t have as much ‘change the story’ elements as I would have liked there’s options and different paths you can take; you can escape from certain scenarios in different ways, take things to far with Aiden or maybe leash him in a bit more, things like that. Either way all of the choices you make will be within the boundaries of what Jodie may or may not do and there are no outlandish choices that would break her character. For a game like this it’s important to remember that you’re not your own character such as in the Dragon Age series or Skyrim and you’re more like… Corvo from Dishonoured, there’s some breathing room in how you do stuff, but you still have to do things his way.

Graphics, animations and audio 
 
Nothing negative could be said about the graphics and animation of this game, they are utterly flawless and astoundingly realistic. 'Beyond: Two Souls' is more film-like than any other game I’ve ever played and this makes for a totally original experience. A complete lack of HUD adds to the immersion value and the only time you’ll encounter game like elements are when you’re prompted to make a decision in conversation or perform a quick time event. Everything looks stunningly realistic whether that’s water captured on skin or rust etched onto metal, there’s not one aspect of the game that’s not polished to perfection. The landscapes are vast and detailed as you explore a beautiful assortment of locations that range from the super modern such as shiny laboratories or 21st century offices to the totally rustic, somewhat dilapidated Native American farmlands and homeless squatting grounds. This is a game where you will genuinely struggle to find something that’s not flawlessly detailed and utterly realistic. 

The interesting application of CGI and motion capture for the faces and movements of characters is very effective. Each individual wrinkle, mole, hair, scar and pore is clearly visible adding to a huge range of emotions to be portrayed on a wide variety of individuals. No two people are the same, each NPC is their own person and rather than coming face to face with hundreds of similar looking people this game has opted for a few dozen of totally unique individuals. 

The animations are something to truly behold and you can instantly tell that this is something the developers should be extremely satisfied with. All of the animations are very organic and natural feeling, for example when carrying a bale of hay Jodie occasionally adjusted it but not in your usual sense; each adjustment was different, realistic, evolving. Tiny, subtle movements ripple throughout every interaction and you are constantly barraged with her conflicting emotions, her moments of feeling self-conscious, her pain or anger and by the time you’ve sunk into the game you realize that this is truly the most human of all game protagonists. It really is incredible to experience. This massive variety of animations whether that’s walking or idle ones and, having experienced a lot of impressive animations in my gaming time, I was taken aback by the sheer detail to the point where I literally made a new category to talk about this in this review. 

There’s not much that can be said about the audio of this game as, quite simply, it is flawless. The voice acting is perfect, emotional and extremely high quality. Everything, whether it’s gentle breathing or full on screaming is etched with emotion allowing you to truly understand the thoughts, feeling and experiences of the characters. The music isn’t particularly noticeable as its very subtle and only tends to come into its own when there’s a great deal of action on scream, at which point it rises in tempo and intensity to reflect the direction of events. All in all, there’s not a single fault with the aesthetical aspects of Beyond: Two Souls.

Overall

Quantic Dream have been in and out of my consoles for some time; I first played their game ‘Fahrenheit’ and for some unknown reason could never get into it, despite appreciating how original it was. I’d toyed with the idea of ‘Heavy Rain’ but again it passed me by and I still haven’t got very far into it. ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ changed my opinion of this genre of games entirely and I found it to be deeply emotional yet incredibly intense experience that merged full throttle action sequences with slower, more tentative gameplay. There are quite a few endings to this game depending on choices made in later sequences which is a fantastic way of rounding off a game that boasts how much the player affects the storyline. Nothing bad can be said about the way it looks, sounds and generally portrays itself as everything is a flawless representation of life however, there’s room for improvement. Critically I would say that there is not a huge number of alternatives when faced with encounters and that sometimes, ok, once, the game didn’t take into account how I’d responded to a scene. Despite this you will find yourself playing a slightly altered version of the game compared to your friends and, taking into account how fantastic the game otherwise is, I think that’s a pretty reasonable expectation.

The Good: 

• Looks flawless, very detailed, beautiful lighting
• Sounds fantastic, voice acting is superb
• Alternate endings for replayability
• Controlling Aiden is super fun
• Great variation in gameplay
• Something for everybody 
• Interesting storyline keeps you on your toes
• Immersive, passionate, emotional

The Bad: 

• More impact on storyline by doing things in different ways would be good
• The fact it's more like an interactive film than a game may put some off
• Bit of a slow starter

The Score: 9/10 

Final thoughts: "I hope there's a second one released for the PlayStation 4 but, how the hell would they intergrate all the possible endings? Maybe they'd do it in the same world but not following Jodie... Hmm..."

Viva Piñata - Full Review (Xbox 360 and PC game)

'Viva Piñata' presents a tantalizingly unusual premise that you’ll either love or hate; attract a variety of Piñata creatures into your lovingly crafted garden on Piñata Island then tame, personalize and manage them all. These Piñatas come in all shapes and sizes but are all based off of real creatures though with quirky names that reflect a type of candy and a strange array of colours that may be changed, if you can figure out how. There’s no denying it, this is a very casual game for the causal gamer but despite its childish appearance it’s a charming and addictive game with great creative opportunities for those who enjoying gardening, designing and pet keeping.

Developer: Rare (Xbox 360) Climax Group (PC)
Genre: Life simulation
Release date: November 9th 2006
Platforms: Xbox 360 and PC
ESRB: E - Everyone.

Story and gameplay

There’s not a great deal of storyline though there is some attempt to explain what’s going on; you start by walking through a beautiful haven filled with flourishing flowers, trees and crops with piñatas flying overhead, prancing through the grass or drinking from streams and pools. In the centre of all this fluff however is a tiny plot of hard, cracked earth with a woman sobbing in the middle of it all. After comforting her you’re charged with using this plot of land as your own and to turning it from something that resembles the aftermath of an explosion to something more in tune with the surrounding area. You’re given a watering can that’s practically falling to pieces with rust and a shovel that looks like it’ll snap as soon as it touches the earth, armed with these two devices you’re instructed to get to work. The game is vastly open-ended with very few objectives once the tutorial is finished with and though it may appear to be a simple gardening free for all there’s a hidden structure in the way that you progress. As you begin your gardening career you’ll gradually unlock new titles, better equipment, more garden space and different seeds that allow you to garden in more complex ways.

Whilst initially you’ll attract low level piñatas that simply require you to have a certain amount of grass, dirt or perhaps a particular flower or vegetable you’ll soon catch glimpses of wild, black and white creatures as they prowl the outside border of your garden. Attracting the attention of huge eagles, magnificent lions or clumsy elephants will take time, dedication and maybe even a few sacrifices as, after all, the animal kingdom is not known for its kindness towards smaller, weaker creatures. You start out in a very restricted manner; confined to a tiny plot of dilapidated land that’s in need of some serious maintenance but once you’re removed all the junk, beaten out the cracks and grown a bit of grass you’ll be faced with an empty canvass for you to play with. You’re never thrown too far into the deep end yet you’re given just enough freedom to discover a gardening style by yourself. Do you start with patches of flowers and draw in butterflies and bumblebees or do you opt for a vegetable patch to try and allure some rabbits or mice? Either way they’re all low levelled but the way in which you advance and nurture your garden will have an impact on the creatures you’ll lure inside your newly developing patch. Piñatas will only enter your garden once you’ve met their individual ‘visitor’ requirements and, once inside they’ll develop an additional set of requirements in order for them to actually become a resident. Once you’ve finally convinced them that they should inhabit your garden they’ll move in, change into their true colours and settle down to enjoy themselves. Here, they’ll live, sleep, mate and attract other piñatas to become residents too or, if you choose, entertain people at parties should they be that lucky piñata that gets chosen. It’s, admittedly, a very strange concept but still a very entertaining one once you’ve become enthralled in the everyday drama that comes with managing a horde of cute, but ultimately wild, animals.

Although a huge part of the game consists of attracting and taming Piñatas the game is so much more than that and, if you feel like exercising your creative side, there’s huge opportunity to get inventive with your garden’s design. There’s a surprising amount of content packed into this charming game whether that’s levelling up to unlock new features or dressing up your Piñatas to increase their worth before sending them off to children’s parties. If you enjoy gardening then you’ll be delighted at the whole host of trees, crops and flowers you can nurture and at the vast difference a few drops of fertilizer can make. The variety in trees, flowers and crops is actually quite impressive and there are some lovely elements like the magnificent oak tree that, when fully grown, has a trunk that appears to be carved with the forms of many different species of Piñatas. Whilst the huge range of, not only flora and fauna but buildings to, may seem impossible to fit all into one garden due to a build limit of sorts you can have multiple gardens with the same profile. In this case, chocolate coins and your gardening level all pass over so you will still have access to everything that has been unlocked yet now with a completely empty plot of land. It makes sense to have multiple gardens as many piñatas are specialized creatures who will only live in certain environments that would be extremely difficult to integrate into an already beautified and designed garden. Large piñatas such as hippos require gardens that are mostly consisting of water, for example, so attempting to make 80% of your garden consist of lakes and rivers whilst speckled with bulrushes and water lilies will, quite naturally, naturally destroy any attempt you had at a designing a perfectly crafted flower bed and orchard.

You are not the only non-piñata resident on the island however and throughout the game you’ll be guided and helped by the local residents who offer services in shops and, if you pay for it, services in your garden such as weeding, gathering and as either watchmen or night watchmen. Whilst the first couple are pretty self-explanatory the presence of watchmen in the game is unusual as gardening and virtual pet simulation combinations tend to be of the peaceful variety, not this one. Amidst the everyday scraps and brawls that occur between piñatas that don’t get along you also have to contend with outsider aggressors such as sour piñatas, ruffians and the evil Dastardos who’s the ringleader of all of these. Sour piñatas can be made resident and turned into good variants of their sour selves but ruffians and Dastardos are evil for life. Whilst ruffians simply make a nuisance of themselves by dropping poisonous sweets for your unsuspecting piñatas to eat and throwing up land over rivers and pools you may make, Dastardos is actively violent. When your piñatas get sick, by losing a fight or eating something poisonous, Dastardos will show up and break them open with a stick, effectively killing them. Well, not exactly kill them as this is a nice place so rather than die permanently broken piñatas merely respawn as the black and white variety outside of your garden.

Whilst the standard way of keeping these antagonists away from your garden is by taming sour piñatas and using their special abilities to keep Dastardos distracted you can also buy special upgrades. The game’s in-game currency are, quite appropriately, chocolate coins which can be made by selling piñatas, building a mine and selling what you find within it or making and selling produce for profit. Chocolate coins can be put towards a huge variety of things such as garden items, fertilizer, piñata houses, special buildings, hirelings, fashion accessories for your piñatas, seeds, produce or special services like the doctor or the hunter who can capture piñatas for your garden. In order to keep track on everything that’s going on it’s useful to utilize the in-game journal which is there to not only provide backstory about the island and its residents but also to track your accomplishments and statistics such as whether you’ve achieved maximum growth for individual plants or how many piñatas you have in your garden. The journal brings to light several unofficial objectives as it lists each plant and each piñata with several checkboxes beside them all which are checked as you accomplish things such as finding each of the 3 variants for each piñata or romancing a species a certain number of times. A piñata variant occurs when you instruct your pinata to eat something and, after enough experimentation, you’ll find three different items that will change their colour into something else. Whilst this is of course simply aesthetic it’s a pleasant option to be able to discover more hidden elements within the game.

Part of what makes this game so enjoyable is not just the attention to detail and the open-ended, casual gameplay but also the charming personality of your piñatas themselves. It’s quite easy to form opinions on certain piñatas and pick out favourites as the way in which they interact with each other and the environment differs depending on the species. Syrupents, a snake type piñata, for example often start fights and can be quite stubborn to get rid of yet, if you perform special actions with them, can become entirely different creatures that are extremely useful. Many piñatas also enjoy wearing special accessories and, whilst some have the potential to enhance the piñata in some way or form, mostly it’s just to boost their happiness meter or to allow them to ‘romance’ one another. Swananas, for instance, enjoy wearing diamond collars and strutting about, honking snobbishly whilst Cinnamonkey’s are disturbingly human as they sidle about on two legs and who require a fez hat to allow them to breed. As an interesting addition you can also buy domesticated piñatas from one of the several shops as well as put down fencing to enclose them should they be something like chickens or sheep. Amongst all of this is the actual ability to send your piñatas to parties as, now and then, a crate will be given to you with the request for a certain type of piñata or just one of high worth. By packing your piñata off to a party you receive some ‘joy candy’ that makes piñatas happy in return but, what with everything else going on, this apparent ‘objective’ in the game is lost.

Graphics and audio

The artistic style of ‘Viva Piñata’ is both unique and extremely distinctive with its bold, colourful and patterned style. Whilst it may not be to everybody’s taste due to them appearing somewhat childlike it cannot be denied that, visually, ‘Viva Piñata’ is technically impressive and extremely advanced for the time it was brought out. There’s a very fine level of detail in the game that can only really be appreciate when you zoom right in as only then can you witness the growth of plants or admire the little augmentations strewn across buildings and clothing. Every blade of grass can be identified, the clouds roll by as the time ticks by in a well enforced day and night cycle and even your custom designed labels can be seen clearly on the bodies of your piñatas. Not one stone has been left unpolished and everything from the texture of the grass to the beautiful, vibrant scenery has been crafted to maintain that distinctive ‘Viva Piñata’ atmosphere. 

he music of the game is generally very soothing and not at all irritating though, for very long periods of play, it may start to grate a little. All of the Piñatas have their own individual sounds that tend to a little exaggerated such as a ‘peeping’ noise from worms or a strange, haughty honking noise from those uppity swans I mentioned earlier. The personality of the piñatas are all very well addressed in the sounds that they make but truly it’s the overall ambient noises from the gentle swishing of the wind, the hammering of the rain or the combined snuffling of your piñatas. Now and then there are some very abrasive noises such as when a sour piñata enters your garden or drops a poisoned candy but these simply serve as loud, audible warnings that something has happened and so in this sense are not particularly annoying.

Overall

Despite initial reservations ‘Viva Piñata’ is an undeniably good game with a great deal of personality and charm that’s simply hard to resist. With a very solid 30 hours or so playtime the game puts you in a position where you start caring passionately about taming all available piñatas and about making the perfect, piñata paradise. It’s an extremely casual game with some basic multiplayer support where up to four people control the same on-screen cursor and, whilst this is likely to not interest older games, is beneficial for parents and their children. Its very friendly demeanour makes it a great game for beginners with plenty of help at the beginning of the game whereas for those looking for more of a challenge I tell you this; just try and get a hold of a Dragon piñata, then tell me it’s not challenging.

The Good:

• Looks fantastic, very detailed, very vibrant
• Relaxing, casual gameplay 
• Deceptively challenging at later stages 
• Addictive and ‘collection’ orientated mentality of meeting all objectives 
• Fun for all ages 
• Unique and distinctive gameplay 
• Lovely audio and music 
• Multiple gardens a nice addition for allowing themed gardens 
• Piñatas are very charming, huge variety

The Bad:

• Co-op play limited to sharing the same cursor
• A lot less to do as you level up 
• Some autonomy happens as you employ staff making you feel a little redundant 
• Lacks any real storyline and objectives which could have given the game more structure

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "This is quite possibly the best 'gardening' game I have ever played, despite there being an updated version of this game (trouble in paradise) I still find this one to be the most accessible."

Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Full Review (PC/Mac/Linux and PS4 game)

It doesn’t take much to appreciate that this is an exceptionally unusual game, though in all the right ways. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' puts you in control of an octopus who is pretending to be a regular, ordinary human citizen. Already I’m sure you can see just how much potential this game has. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' exists as a revamp of the freeware student game, ‘Octodad’ that you can download here, with many locations being identical only now in a much higher quality.

Developer: Young Horses Inc
Genre: Adventure
Release date: January 30th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux and the Playstation 4.
ESRB: E - Everyone

Story and gameplay

Octodad is a father to two children, somehow, and husband to a wife who’s beginning to suspect that something’s amiss with her burbling, sagging husband. Now, the problem about being an octopus on land is fairly apparent, apart from the whole breathing thing; you have eight legs, none of which have bones in them. Stuffing your tentacles into a pair of trousers and trying to parade around upright is just half the battle, the real problem comes with actually trying to manoeuvre around the place. Cursed with suckers that stick to everything they come in contact with and the need to coordinate yourself whilst not appearing unusual to people is incredibly awkward. Due to this, the game plays similar to other ragdoll physics games like ‘Qwop’ or the excellent ‘Surgeon Simulator’ series only in a more adventure game setting. 

 

It’s difficult not to laugh as you try and guide Octodad through one area and into another, desperately trying to remain undercover as a sentient sea creature whilst also trying to complete your domestic duties. Suddenly, simple tasks like turning off an alarm clock, shopping in the mall or taking your kids to an aquarium become something akin to gentle torture as you attempt to flail each individual limb in a vaguely appropriate manner. Each leg is controlled individually and you can switch control from your legs to your arms at the press of a button; you cannot control both at the same time. When you go to grab something you can move your tentacle arm in almost every single direction which makes aiming quite difficult although, helpfully, objects you are targeting acquire a subtle green glow so you know what you’re about to pick up. With this bizarre premise in mind you should now prepare yourself for what turns out to be a very entertaining but frustrating game as you frolic through ten levels and six different environments.

As if things weren’t hard enough already, a meter at the bottom of the screen indicates how much attention you’re drawing to yourself. Octodad gets nervous whenever he’s aware that he’s bumping into things, dropping things, flailing tentacles in people’s faces and climbing up and over children without meaning to. As his anxiety level rises Octodad produces ink that splurts everywhere and rapidly increases the detection meter, when the meter is full then it means he has been discovered and you must restart the level. It’s fair to say the game is by no means difficult, but there are areas that will trip you up because you can be instantly detected if you are seen just once. Due to this a large portion of the game is dedicated to stealth especially when it comes to pesky ‘Marine Biologists’ who know an octopus when they see one, which is fair enough I guess. Luckily these moments tend to come later on in the game when you’ve got a very good grasp of the controls and are able to do more ‘complex’ moves like actually walking in a straight line without tripping over yourself. 

The game has a small amount of re-playability after completing what turns out to be a fairly short main storyline, it won’t take you much longer than 4 or 5 hours, as it introduces collectible items, freeplay mode and local co-op play. In each individual level there are 3 collectible ties to find, usually pinned in hard to reach locations or hidden somewhere in the environment, by collecting all 3 of any given level you unlock a tie that Octodad can wear. Freeplay mode allows you to revisit any of the locations in the game and pick up any ties you missed or just mess about if you bombed through the storyline too quickly. The co-op play is particularly interesting and introduces something akin to a three-legged race as each player controls an individual limb with support for up to four players. This in itself is pretty funny but to make things even more haphazard you can enable ‘roulette mode’ where, each time an objective is completed, the limb or set of limbs you are in control of changes to something else entirely. There’s no indication of what you’ll be controlling and it is completely random so whilst a moment ago you were controlling the left leg, now you’re controlling the right arm. It seem as though the co-op in this game is designed to be as frustrating as possible and if you aren’t shouting orders, eye-rolling and cursing then collapsing into laughter then you’re not doing it right. Perfect co-ordination between you and your friends would be pretty boring and despite the arguments it’s a brilliant co-op game, requiring real teamwork and communication that’s oddly quite a rarity in multiplayer games.

Graphics and environments

Whilst there are not many levels in the base game, with many of them being variations of the same ‘theme’ the ones which are original from one another are fantastic. Each level is very well designed and with plenty of little Easter Eggs and references to indie games like ‘Minecraft’ and ‘Super MeatBoy’ which are a nice touch for gamers to appreciate. Whilst some may describe the graphics as simplistic and nothing particularly noteworthy I instead found them to be perfect for the tone and overall feel of the game. Cartoony, fun, vibrant and beautifully shaded the game is not so much about next-gen graphics and is more about bringing an aged student indie game into the modern era. Quite often there are some mechanical issues like getting stuck on the environment and very minimal clipping but it happened rarely and mostly occurred because of the complexity of Octodad’s limbs and your ability to move them in any which direction. With the additional levels, available for free for all platforms, my disappointment at how soon the game ended was quickly wiped away and instead replaced with an eager anticipation to play some more. 

Music and audio

First things first; the custom made theme song that is sung during this game is both tragic and hilarious. It’s so bad that it’s good and, in all fairness, it’s just there for a bit of fun. When I first realized that the deep male singer, Ian McKinney, was singing lyrics like ‘Octodaaaddd… Nobody suspects a thing, OCTODAAAAAD’ I almost died. I’m not totally surprised that the song is becoming something of a cult hit on the internet but, this aside, the general music and audio of the game is good. The voice acting, Octodad included, is brilliant and some of the things the children say are brilliant. There’s a great deal of wit in the dialogue and I found that the voice actors really rose to the occasion with plenty of personality and humour. Nothing is left out and nothing sounds particularly odd, as is often the case where you can manipulate objects. Unfortunately there can be a fair bit of repetitiveness in what the characters say, though only when you’re standing idle in one area for a long time. Often, particularly in the stealth levels, you’ll be forced to repeat an area over and over and it is here that the limited set of lines the characters will say becomes apparent, which is a great shame. 

Performance

When me and my partner played this I’ve got to say the only times we stopped laughing were when the game lagged out tremendously in a couple of specific areas. This led to a very frustrating hour of trying to play with an extremely low frame rate and the seemingly impossible goal of scaling a huge children’s playground. The lag returned for a couple of other levels as well, both of which required very accurate timing and movement, on the bright side this is an acknowledged problem and will likely be patched for all PC users. 

Overall

The great thing about this game is its potential to go really far as there is a huge amount of storyline that could be easily added along with levels and objectives. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' is a huge improvement on the original game and it’s a great way to spend an afternoon or two as it’s such a friendly and engaging game and very easy to get into. The humour is priceless, the objectives varied and the storyline endearing. Whilst I don’t usually play ragdoll physics games I found this one to be irresistible and apart from its teething issues its great fun and with a fair bit of re-playability due to the collectible ties found within each location and, of course, the freeplay mode where you can revisit all the levels. With the upcoming DLC the developers appear to also be aware of how much further this game can be taken and, whilst some may find that the gameplay loses its novelty, I personally cannot wait. 

The Good:

• Free DLC adds additional levels.
• Best theme song of the year.
• Great co-op play.
• Innovative, funny gameplay.
• Good storyline with great potential for more.
• Variety of objectives keeps things fresh.
• Nice, detailed environments.

The Bad:

• Some lag in certain areas.
• Occasional clipping. 
• Short length. 
• Too much stealth.

The Score: 8/10 

Last thoughts: "I cannot wait for the DLC! This game ended far too soon for my liking.It's a shame about all the lag as my system should have had no trouble with this game." 

Tony Hawk’s Underground - Full Review (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, PC game)

Tony Hawk’s Underground was a revolutionary addition to the extreme sports game genre as it not only introduced a storyline but also the ability to get off your board and walk among the people you’d been terrorizing. 

Developer: Neversoft (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox), Beenox (PC)
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Adventure, sports game
Release date: November 21 2003 (EU)
Platforms: PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and PC
ESRB: T - Teen

The fifth edition of the Tony Hawk series, T.H.U.G was released in 2003 by Activision for a range of platforms and brought with it a huge array of new features that set in motion an entirely new conception of sports games. From humble beginnings you’ll journey from rookie to pro skater by completing challenges and missions amongst a sprawl of urban cities and suburban neighbourhoods, this radical gamble on focus and gameplay structure really did pay off and these days you’ll see all modern skating games following a similar trend to Tony Hawk’s Underground.

Story and gameplay

The story is fairly simplistic though nicely tied together. You start out as an unknown rookie skater who lives in New Jersey with your friend Eric Sparrow. A pro skater, Chad Muska, is set to arrive in Muska makes an appearance he’s impressed by your task performing abilities and suggests that you try to earn a sponsorship from the local skateshop. I can only guess that he’s not that impressed since he makes no attempt to support you himself. This experience marks the beginning of your skating career as you journey from amateur to professional, travelling from city to city and visiting places like Hawaii, Moscow and Manhattan along the way. The story has a few interesting revelations as you’re pitted against old friends and some odd moments never seen before in a skating game. This is by far the most in depth storyline any extreme sports game has ever attempted and, whilst it’s nothing particularly special, it’s certainly a nice change of pace to your usual ‘pointlessly skate through these areas and rack up big combos’ experience. If you enjoy the casual skating element then have no fear as there’s a free skate mode allowing you to play pro skaters, and some special, secret characters once you unlock them. 

Tony Hawk’s Underground marks the first game where you’re able to get off your board and this is an ingenious idea as it means you can climb buildings, steal vehicles and reach new heights never before accessible. In terms of realism too it’s essential as, now and then, you do want to walk into a shop or down the street to talk to someone. The only problem with your new found feet is that the mechanism is poorly implanted and so often results in slow, staggering gameplay that can take away from the overall thrill of fast paced, combo bashing skating experience. On the other hand, the skating gameplay is much improved compared to previous Tony Hawk games and there are a significant number of new tricks that have been implemented and all of them require absolute precision. Complex tricks are tricky to pull off but when you manage it you feel a great sense of achievement as, quite often, it will take you several attempts to nail it. Frantically mashing at random buttons just won’t work in this game and the fiddly ‘caveman’ mode where you get off your board mid combo, only to jump back on before the timer runs out, is difficult to achieve in certain missions. 

The missions themselves are a nice mix between easy and agonizingly difficult and the variety is pretty surprising for a skating game. In some cases you’ll have to purposefully crash and burn up a vehicle whilst at other times you have to break into a location, impress various people or film a local skater as he himself performs some tricks. The story of the game also puts you in some new situations such as being able to pick which team you want to join after watching their videos before proving how cool you are by throwing an awesome party. The ending levels consist mostly of a huge competition against all of the opposition and if there’s one thing that will spur your competitive street it’s this moment as it really manages to rile you up and get you ready to fight for your place. The situations where you have to drive a vehicle tends to come off a little forced and the driving mechanics in general are poor with terrible steering and constant low speeds. That said, you cannot deny the developers determination to keep things varied and interesting and, though the driving is terrible, the ability to set fire to cars makes those problems seem distant. Either way the game has a great balance of challenging and easy missions making it challenging for pros but also accessible to the skating newbies. 

Customizability

The game has great lifespan and the career mode alone with last you many hours, not to mention the huge amounts of customization that has been included for the multiplayer game modes. Whilst the ‘create-a-park’ mode is nothing new in a Tony Hawk game, T.H.U.G brings it back with style and substance. There’s a significant amount of new items and the new ‘rail tool’ in particular is great as it means you can place a rail wherever you want to. Even more impressively is the ability to create your own cities with towering buildings and skate parks within them, compared to earlier ‘create-a-park’ modes this one is out of this world. Interestingly, you can create your own challenges including time limits and ‘spell the word by picking up the letters’ type challenges for you and your friends to try and complete and this adds in not only an extra layer of custom design but a fun one too. Tony Hawk’s Underground has also introduced the ability to create and then name your own tricks before allowing you to test them out in the actual game and, continuing on with the customizability theme, you can also design and create your own skateboard to perform your own tricks on. If that’s not enough you can also play yourself by importing your own face onto your character by using the face mapping tool, at this point I’m not sure they could cram any more customizability options into this game as the PS2 would most likely implode. All of these additional features are surprisingly ahead of their time as, though creating your own custom content is commonplace nowadays, this stuff was revolutionary for 2003. 


Graphics and audio

Graphically, T.H.U.G is painfully average but considering this is the first Tony Hawk game to attempt things like, making people look halfway realistic, they didn’t do a bad job. The characters in the game do attempt to blink and move their mouths along with the speech but none of it is particularly in sync and it’s quite apparent that this was an undeveloped feature. The best part about the graphics are, by far, the buildings and city surroundings as there’s a fair bit of detail and it’s a reasonably open world game. Great effort has been taken to ensure that buildings don’t often repeat on themselves and lots of little details have been added to make the streets and cities feel as vibrant as possible. 

The music is definitely something worth noting as the soundtrack is absolutely huge with well over 70 different tracks that range from pop to rock music, I’m pretty sure there’s some reggae and country music in there too. The huge variety of music simply means that you’re not going to get tired of listening to the same monotonous tracks over and over again, though you may want to change up your playlist a little if you’re not into the ol’ country songs. The sound effects of the game are also much improved and now you can hear the difference in terrain as you skate over it whilst the general background ambiance now accurately reflects where you’re playing. The voice acting is above average and in the very least it’s expressive rather than dull though, again, the lip syncing is a major problem.

Overall

As I keep mentioning; this was a groundbreaking game for its time. If you like the Tony Hawk series and have never played this then for that reason alone it’s worth playing as I’m sure you’ll see the origins of modern skating games within this one. Although though the graphics are so-so, the lip syncing is diabolical and some missions are a little tiring it’s still a very imaginative game with a fairly interesting storyline, plenty of variation and some really brilliant skating gameplay. The levels are large and interesting with some really great level designs that tend to be based around urban cities or suburban neighbourhoods. There’s a huge level of customizability now introduced and you can really personalize your T.H.U.G experience, particularly if you want to play the game in co-op. All in all, this is the skating game that almost everyone remembers as being the start of new extreme sports age.

The Good:

• Lots of customizability
• Large soundtrack
• Huge, sandbox environments
• Fairly good storyline that breaks boundaries
• Varied gameplay elements
• Lots of new features proved groundbreaking

The Bad:

• Not much reason to replay the main storyline
• Voice acting and lip syncing generally poor
• Graphics can be bland
• Tedious in places

The Score: 7/10 

Last thoughts: "It's easy to see why this game started a sort of extreme sports revolution but, personally, Underground 2 is preferable as it irons out the kinks of tedious and repetitive gameplay"

Child of Light - Full Review (Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3, PC and Wii-U)

“Come, tuck yourself into bed. Let me tell a story. Of Lemuria, a kingdom past. And a girl born for glory.” 

Child of Light is a beautiful piece of poetic artwork that stands as a solid nod to traditional RPG gaming yet with its own clear sense of identity. It’s not a joyful tale as the artwork suggests but instead an incredibly moving and deeply saddening story of a lost young girl and a grieving father.Through the use of the fantastic UbiArt Framework, an engine that helped to create the stunning ‘Rayman Origins’ and ‘Rayman Legends’, Child of Light now stands proudly as Ubisoft’s latest artistic masterpiece. The game boasts an unusual, but curious, combination of turn based RPG and 2D side scrolling platformer gameplay that gives it an immediate edge over the competition. Somehow the blending of these two genres have led to the creation of something incredibly creative and incredibly original but which suffers from a lack of any real challenge and a very predictable, short storyline. Regardless, this is a tale that unfolds itself before you with such grace and beauty that you simply cannot abandon it before its time. This casual game carries itself with such style and confidence that it doesn’t take long for you to fall victim to its charms and, before you know it, you’ve been pattering around the beautiful landscapes of Lemuria for hours.

Gameplay and plot

The true nature of this game is revealed in its earliest moments when a young girl, the daughter of a powerful ruler, is stricken down by some unexplained illness. The close relationship this girl had with her father is not only apparent but utterly destroyed when, one morning, she doesn’t wake. The king is thrown into despair and, rather than care for the kingdom that needs him, instead chooses to shut himself away in his grief. But he is not the only one who is lost; somewhere else his daughter has awakened only to find herself in an unfamiliar place, far away from the comfort of her home. This beautiful but haunting land is called Lemuria and it has lately fallen victim to a mysterious character known only as the Queen of the Night. This evil queen has stolen away the sun, moon and stars of the land and it now falls to Aurora, aided by her ethereal companion, to not only recover these stolen celestial bodies but to also be reunited with her father. This is a coming of age story with a difference that will show the lengths this young princess needs to go to become the woman she needs to be to tackle adversary and save the ones she loves. 

Taking on the role of this lost young girl you’ll be transported into a beautiful hand drawn world that seems to exist entirely from a child’s perspective, from its poetic narrative to its picture book appearance this waking dream will leave you feeling utterly enchanted. Feeding into the undernourished concept of artistic gaming Ubisoft have bucked the trends of traditional gaming and instead veered down a route usually only travelled by indie developers such as Thatgamecompany, Playdead and Giant Sparrow. Not only this, the game has been designed with a cross-generational appeal in mind in order to fight back against the negative stereotype that video games damage children. What with the media trotting out the idea that games are harmful, violent and something to be avoided ‘Child of Light’ has instead produced a game that parents would be proud to, not only give to their children, but to play with them too. You can immediately see the appeal to parents and their children however as the storybook design, rhyming verses and lack of complicated menus means that even very young children will find this game engaging.  

A bit problem with these sorts of co-op RPG games is that they can often result in a restricted second player who can do no more than exist as a spectator and maybe even grab some coins or experience during battle, such as in ‘Super Mario Galaxy’. Rather than this though the developers have ensured that the supporting character of Igniculus, Aurora’s firefly companion, is able to help at every stage of the game from exploring the environment to aiding in battle. Whilst Aurora is the one doing most of the fighting Igniculus is also incredibly useful and thankfully doesn’t just sit around on the side-lines. Igniculus can slow down enemies during battles by hovering over them and slowing down their personal timer which delays their attack. Igniculus can also heal party members by absorbing magic and energy from the surrounding environment making Igniculus more of a supporting role than a defined party member. Outside of battle Igniculus can also access certain treasure chests, switches and also help Aurora progress through some very simple puzzles.

The battle system of Child of Light is very familiar to those who play RPG and JRPG games. The combat is turn based with active time, meaning that a lot of tactics are involved in order to use your time efficiently. The battle system is very similar to what you’d find in a Final Fantasy game with your standard levelling up, increasing your stats and also an upgrade tree. The upgrade tree is fairly problematic with far too many choices that all offer more or less the same minor bonuses that you can achieve by simply levelling up. Your party has a maximum size of six members by the time you reach the end of the game but during combat you are limited to just two of these characters, though you can switch them in and out which is handy. Prior to battle enemies are encountered in a very standard JRPG manner; battles trigger whilst exploring the environment and coming across an enemy but with Igniculus’ help you can bypass these encounters entirely. If Igniculus runs ahead and shines his light on the enemy he can temporarily blind them, allowing Aurora to run through unscathed.

The battles themselves generally boil down to the individual resistances and vulnerabilities of each character so whereas one may be particularly resistant to fire characters another may  be weak to them, requiring you to bolster their fire defence or just switch them out entirely. What this results in is quite a bit of character juggling as you move through the areas but it’s still a manageable amount due to the limited number of party members. The means in which you can buff your party members falls down to crafting special gems called Oculi which are really the games only crafting resource. Oculi are used to buff attacks, defences and also provide other benefits like additional experience and an increased chance of dodging. There are ten base gems such as sapphire and rubies which all have their individual properties so, diamonds increase your speed, earn additional experience from battle and also increase your casting speed. You can then combine gems of roughly the same quality, be that rough, tumbled or faceted to then create other gems of higher quality. Three rough gems of the same kind, for example, will produce one tumbled gem.  Unfortunately there’s no in game recipe chart or any form of guide so it can be quite difficult to remember how to make a particular gem without the use of pen and paper or just having to memorize everything .  

Graphics and audio

The first thing you immediately notice about this game is the stunning visuals. Whether that’s the beautiful and intricately hand drawn environments or the simple but delicately tailored HUD and font that compliments the overall feel of the game.  The environments and landscapes are incredibly varied with some very lovely visual elements such as droplets of colour rising from the ground to the sky as though a wet watercoloured painting was turned completely upside down. The game holds classic fantasy imagery everywhere you go and the childlike picture book quality does wonders for the atmosphere of this strange place. You really only need to look at the screenshots to see what a visual masterpiece this game truly is but what the screens don’t show is how beautiful the game not only looks, but sounds. The music is striking but gentle and provides a wonderfully relaxed, almost whimsical sense to the entire game though it can often dip into the melancholic and subdued as the story addresses more saddening issues.  It is clearly apparent that much loving care and craft has been poured into making sure this game punches you with the right visuals as they uplifting your spirits, swell your heart then drop you back down again with its melancholic, orchestrated melodies the leave you feeling emotionally tied up with the story. 

Overall

What let this game down was the simplistic gameplay and overly predictable storyline. It may be unfair to dismiss this game as far too easy because, and the developers have admitted as much, it’s aimed at parents and their children. The rhyming structure of the game, whilst intriguing at first, quickly becomes more of a limitation on narrative than an enhancement and sometimes you can sense that the writers struggling to keep in pace with this difficult task. The game is also very short with only about 12 hours of gameplay within it and though it is an enjoyable 12 hours it could have done with a lot of additional content. Despite the spattering of side quests alongside the main storyline the game still feels a little barren. With a game that looks and sounds so perfect and which provides such a promising concept and storyline it's hard not to feel let down as you realize the game is already drawing to a close after just several hours of play time. Despite its problems the game is a nice addition to artistic games, especially considering it’s from such a well-known developer. I can only hope that, in the future, Ubisoft try again but with something a little more fleshed out and with more effort put into the actual structure of the game. For a game that costs just £12 though it's very difficult to see these complaints through and, honestly, I only wish there was more of it because what was there was so enjoyable and so endearing.

Score: 8/10

Rayman Origins - Full Review (PC, PS3, Vita, 3DS, Xbox 360 and Wii game)

I very rarely try out demos as I usually know what kind of game I will or won’t enjoy but this one threw me a little; I’d played the old Rayman games and I didn’t want the image spoiled which is very common with remakes of original classics. I played through that one level of the demo with my girlfriend and we were both so impressed we bought it there and then on Amazon with next day delivery so we could keep on playing. That weekend, we barely left the sofa never mind the house. 

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Genre: Platformer
Release date: 15th November 2011
Platforms: Windows, OS X, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita
ESRB: E - Everyone

The great thing about Rayman Origins is that brings back all the original fun of the old PS1 games but with incredibly charming, hand drawn graphics and enough new content to not make it feel like a remake. It’s such an engaging game that’s simple and fun to play yet with enough of a challenge to not make it feel like a child’s game. The simple controls are especially appealing though as it means you can have all generations of people get the hang of it and it’s just suitable for everybody; provided they can keep up of course.

Gameplay and storyline

If you’re familiar with Rayman then you’re most likely familiar with the Glade of Dreams. In Rayman Origins we return to the Glade of Dreams, a usually idyllic universe, only Rayman and his buddies accidentally ticked off their next door neighbour; the Land of the Livid Dead, by snoring too loudly. You’ll have to traverse through this magical world and beat back the incarnations of the Bubble Dreamer’s (creator of the Glade) nightmares which are some pretty nasty beasts in order to save the Glade of Dreams from being taken over by these creatures. Along the way you’ll save the Nymphs who have been captured by the nightmarish creatures, rescue the electoons and earn back some essential powers like hovering and shrinking.

The game itself is a side scrolling platforming game, just like the original, with over 60 levels for you to play through. As you progress through the game you’ll fight enemies, locate and rescue caged electoons, collect lums and earn new abilities.  The game is separated into themed areas such as musical, polar or jungle and each of these areas further have a breakdown of several separate levels. Each level has a certain number of challenge/objective type goals that will earn you additional electoons which are required for progressing through the game. Each level has one cage at the end of it that you need to break in order to end that level and this cage counts for one objective. Other challenges include finding the other hidden cages in the level which are usually concealed by things that appear to be a part of the landscape but which actually fade upon approaching. Each level also has a Time Trial challenge which requires you to race through the level at top speed and to reach a checkpoint within very harsh time constraints. If you slip more than a couple of times then you’ve almost certainly failed it and will have to try again. Completing the time trial can earn you a Speed Trophy if you’re fast enough.

For a slower, more relaxed approach to the level there’s also the lum challenge which will require you to go through the level very carefully since you require a whopping 350 lums to earn that level’s medallion. Some levels only require 200 or so because they’re shorter, more laid back levels. This usually means popping every single enemy bubble and finding every additional little lum that’s out there to be grabbed before they float away out of reach and there’s nothing more frustrating to find you’ve missed the medalion by only a couple of lums. By earning all these electoons you can unlock additional levels that require you to chase down a runaway treasure chest. By catching it you can get a special ‘Skull tooth’ and by collecting all these teeth you unlock an extremely challenging level that’s set in the Land of the Livid Dead itself. All in all, there’s a lot to keep you busy in the levels and you’ll likely sink many hours into the game trying to complete everything.

Rayman Origins is one of the few games out there that is a local co-op game. It has a great local co-op system that allows you to play with up to four characters with no split screen so you can still see the beautifully drawn backgrounds in all their glory. The only downside of trying to play this game in co-op is the tendency to get frustrated with one another if someone’s not being fast enough. Co-op has the great addition of not dying immediately upon being bubbilized; if your co-op partner whacks your bloated bubble body then you’ll be returned to the game, ready to keep on playing. I can guarantee though that you will drive yourself partway to insanity trying to complete all of the challenges in the game, and the timed trials in particular are the cause of numerous arguments between me and my girlfriend. I think it’s safe to say that you should only play this game with someone you’d also play Monopoly with. Since the game supports multiplayer you’ll be glad to know there’s a lot of characters you can pick from, though they are just different versions of the three friends, and you can unlock more as you earn more electoons, so if you are unhappy with Rayman’s default look you can always try him out in his blue version and see if you like that better.

Finally, there are the bosses that are encountered at the end of each area. These bosses were originally the Kings of each Land in the Glade but have unfortunately fallen under the influence of the nightmarish forces that have taken over Rayman’s usually idyllic universe. In order to bring them back to their senses you must defeat them and, truthfully, these boss battles are the highlight of the entire game. each boss looks fantastic, often quite terrifying yet playfully charming at the same time. You’ll need to employ a recently taught skill to defeat them and it will involve a lot of quick thinking and, if playing in co-op, teamwork and coordination if you’re to bring down these maddened beasties. Trust me when I say that these are boss battles worth fighting and each one of them is original and fascinating to look upon. They are most certainly not some rehash of an old enemy that’s been made a little stronger or a little bigger that some games are guilty of trotting out. 

I remember the original PS1 Rayman game as being really frustrating because you needed to have such control over where you were moving and jumping to and that’s not a bad thing. Games that are challenging are infinitely more rewarding and enjoyable than their simplistic counterparts and what’s great about Rayman Origins is it brings back that feeling of infuriation then of great relief when you finally get past the bit you’re stuck at. I love that this version of Rayman is almost in fast forward as you’re able to sprint and jump in a very Mario-esque manner so you feel so cool and slick when completing the speed run levels.

Graphics and environment

Rayman origins features a type of stylized environment that is difficult to find in side scrolling platform games. The maps are flawlessly crafted with exquisite attention to detail that truly makes this game feel as though it’s been crafted with passion and love. You only need take a look at the screenshots to see how gorgeous the game looks with its stunning cell shaded animation and incredibly bold colours. Every single level is something to behold and you will not get bored of how fantastic everything looks as it’s all so incredibly varied and diverse. Though levels are themed they do not feel repetitive just because two levels are set in a jungle which is such a relief as platformers can sometimes feel monotonous simply due to the rehashing of backgrounds and environmental features.  All in all, everything feels innovative and fresh from the moment you begin to the moment you finish.

There are over 60 levels but, not only are they numerous, they’re also incredibly interactive. You’ll find yourself sprinting and jumping through lava filled caverns, up icy slopes and through lush jungles to name only a few places. You’re not just restricted to the ground however as you’ll often be soaring through the air on giant wasps or swimming in deep oceans. Levels like these are particularly memorable, especially the ominous, underwater ones. Here, you must swim in almost total darkness, lit only by a small light on your body, whilst the twisted, elongated arms from an unseen creature reach out from rocks or the abyss below to drag you from safety.

It’s impossible to describe all the little bits of detail that the game developers have included because everything has been thought of and everything is beautifully done. There are levels dedicated to being in a kind of giant, boiling hot kitchen that has faintly visible stacks of wobbling plates in the background, zipwires with tiny red hot chillis dangling all down them and bottles of squeezy hot sauce you can jump on to boil a pot; sending its lid shooting into the air on a billow of steam for you to reach new heights. In the cold, icy areas it’s like being inside a giant freezer with lemon slices on gossiping forks and slices of lime to bounce off of. Cans of frozen food drop precariously as you slam through layers of ice cubes and, if caught under one, you’ll be instantaneously bubbelized. Each area has such neat little features like this it’s impossible to deny that this game has been very carefully thought through and planned so that players can get the best experience possible out of it.

Music and audio

Just to top off this game, along with everything else, the audio and music is flawless. The music has many faces depending on which level you’re on and can change between dreamy violin music to fast, intensive jazz style music. Some audio tracks are quite simply someone whistling with some lazy ukulele playing in the background. There are some great musical features like furious kazoo playing and the ragged chimes of super high pitched lums singing every time you grab one of the lum king bubbles. It sounds as though this ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ style singing would drive you crazy but it’s so cutesy and happy-go-lucky you can’t help but love it, that and it’s really catchy. 

What I love about the soundtrack of this game is the sheer variety of instruments you don’t often hear from. Ukuleles, kazoos, dijiridoos, the piano, the violin, drums and the Jew’s harp all have a place in the musical tracks and it’s great to hear such a unique combination of instruments that all work so perfectly for the environment. The dijiridoos played in the warm sands of the musical levels fit so perfectly with the environment that it adds a lot to the gameplay experience, without it the level would certainly not have the same feel to it. My personal favourite is the ethereal, haunting melodies that are found within the deep sea exploration levels. That partial silence coupled with the near-by threat of a lurking creature does wonders for the atmosphere and it’s as addictive as the exhilarating surface levels. I don’t know how he managed it, but the composer has managed perfectly to make the music of Rayman Origins playful but not cheap or silly sounding, which is impressive given that he appears to have employed a plastic kazoo as a core part of the instrumentals.

Overall

This game just drips in simplicity yet sophistication and is an essential part of any gamer’s collection provided they can appreciate fantastic artwork, great music and a good chunk of playful humour to go with it. Fans of the original Rayman should not hold back from playing Rayman Origins as it only enhances what made the original Rayman so brilliant. It’s a rare thing to see a 90s game pulled into the modern gaming world and for it to fit in so nicely as something traditional yet upgraded. This is a humorous, light hearted game that can be enjoyed by the entire family from the comfort of your own sofa. Not only that, but it provides a damn good challenge and enough content for you to get many enjoyable hours out of it.

The Good:

• Brilliant co-op intergration
• Looks incredible
• Fantastic, varied, light hearted music
• Very fun boss battles, each one is different
• Good range of non-generic enemies
• Extremely challenging
• Lots of re-playability
• Huge variety of themed levels
• Very easy to get into
• Fast paced or slow paced, depending on which challenges
• Holds great respect for the original Rayman games

The Bad:

• Sometimes a little too challenging
• Often frustrating

The Score: 9/10


Final Thoughts: "This game does my bloody head in trying to be a completionist in it, but it's just so flawless in every aspect that I can forgive it."