Lovely Planet - Review (PC game)

Who said twitch shooters had to be set in grisly wartime settings or cerulean alien worlds? Lovely Planet may look incredibly sweet in its 'Katamari', chibi style dressings but underneath it all is a game that will beat you mercilessly into the ground with its rainbow encrusted, spiked, bouncing apple type, addictive thing that will quite literally drive you to madness. Let’s try this again. Lovely Planet is an FPS that’s set in a rather cute looking world where you must have a stunning set of reactions and the ability to memorize pathways to perfection in order to get through the extremely challenging levels. Sounds easy? It’s not, it’s far from it, it’s quite possibly the first twitch based FPS that’s genuinely addictive and also so punishing and cruel that it doesn’t mind coming across as a bit airy fairy and cutesy because it knows it could totally have you if it wanted to. You will lose at this game, many many times, you will become so familiar with the game over screen that you’ll be able to recite it from memory years after putting away this game for good. Quite simply, this game is a lying bastard that tries to convince you it’s totally approachable and easy to get into then floors you with the first punch. Now that you know how difficult it is, let’s examine it in a bit more detail. 

Developer: QUICKTEQUILA 
Publisher: tinyBuild
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Action
Release date: 31st July 2014
Platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac
ESRB: Unrated (involves shooting enemies but the bullets are cubes)

Lovely Planet is a first person shooter where you must complete a series of short levels that are no longer than one minute long and which typically last about 30 seconds. There are initially over 80 levels but there are more once you complete all of them; typically this serves as an additional stab to the side considering how long it takes to complete those ones in the first place. In order to complete each short level you must navigate platforms, avoid hazards and defeat all of the enemies presented to you and by missing just one you will have to restart that level. The courses are extremely challenging and this is partially due to the constraint of having to hit certain things before you hit the ground which results in a great deal of trying and failing to aim in mid-air. Thankfully you’re granted an infinite number of ‘bullets’ with your one and only weapon but there’s little use just spraying the screen with the purple cubes that you shoot. The key to mastering this game is to know the course by heart and to act with speed and precision which is not an easy task due to the sheer number of levels and the seemingly impossible situations the game puts you in. The slightest mistake will kill you whether that’s being hit by a single bullet, falling out of the world or touching anything that’s red there are so many ways to end up restarting the level. It’s basically one of those games where you master a small part of it, then get stuck on another bit, then creep a bit further along as you overcome that particular challenge, and then get stuck on another bit… and so on. 

To ramp up the pressure the game encourages a healthy dose of competitiveness among its players through leaderboards and record times which serve to constantly remind you at how much you suck compared to the rest of the world. Not that that’s a bad thing, in fact it’s a very appropriate feature because part of what makes this game so addictive is seeing yourself improve, whether that’s in comparison to others or not. Critically, the controls of the game can sometimes be a little ‘off’ where inputs aren’t always recognized but this is a fairly rare occurrence and is not frequent enough to impact on the overall game. Strangely there’s no actual aiming cross-hair either so firing shots is harder than in a usual FPS game but, after some practice, you’ll find yourself firing with accuracy you didn’t even know you could manage as everything becomes almost instinctual. Besides, at a mere £3.50 you can excuse a couple of blips on what is otherwise a fantastic game. 

Considering I don’t usually enjoy anything of an FPS nature this is genuinely a fun, albeit frustrating, little game that may attract all sorts of gamers to try it out either for a quick blast about or for some seriously dedicated gaming to get through all of the courses. Either way, it looks and sounds great, with adjustable sensitivity in the controls and plenty of features to keep you occupied for hours. Whilst the sound effects aren't exactly the best they're overwhelmed by a very upbeat music track that reminds you that everything's going to be ok, even when you die for the 100th time. If you fancy a challenge, check this game out now by purchasing it on Steam here.

The Good: 

• Fast and crazy funtimes
• Good for those who enjoy a challenge
• Nice escalating level of difficulty
• Unique art style for this genre
• Decent soundtrack that's surprisingly not annoying
• Simple mechanics

The Bad:

• Lacks some variety in terms of gameplay
• Occasional lag with the controls
• Incredibly frustrating game that may put off many people
• Unable to compare yourself directly to friends is disappointing
• Sound effects aren't very good particularly enemies 'dying' noise

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "I suck so much at this genre of games that I'll likely never get to see the ending or the later levels. I tried, I failed, I moved on with my life. That doesn't stop it from being an amazing game, I'm just awful at rote memorization of levels." 

Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey - Quick Review (Free iOS, Android, Windows/Mac/Linux game)

It’s been a long time since I genuinely enjoyed playing a word game as they tend to make me think of something from the GCSE bitesize website I used to have to suffer through at school. At long last however, a game that requires me to string letters together to form words has broken me out of this mental block and it took barely any time at all for me to be fully engaged in this cute, well-crafted and charming game.

Developer: Bacon Bandit Games
Genre: Word game
Release date: Feburary 5th 2014
Platforms: iOS and Android
Age rating: Rated 9+ for the following: Mild horror themes, mild cartoon/fantasy violence.

'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' is a fresh and vibrant game with plenty of adventure game features such as quests, turn based combat and a stack load of upgrades, potions and items to help you advance your way through its numerous stages. To play a word game that’s not just about the spelling but about the overall gaming experience is such a relief as it’s very easy for a game to get wrapped up in its educational value and forget that games are supposed to be fun and engaging. As you progress through the game you must spell out words, the letters you pick and the length of the word all have a direct impact on the amount of damage you’ll do to monsters so the better the word, the higher the damage. It’s very easy to get caught up at the start of the game in bashing out some simple words but the difficulty level is quickly ramped up and you must adjust to this by exercising those brain muscles and coming up with better, more complex words. In this sense the game maintains its stance as a game about learning since it encourages you to polish your English and expand your vocabulary but, thankfully, this has no negative impact on how enjoyable the game is. 

My only current irk with the game is that many words are unrecognized and, whilst these are being patched over, this could prove irritating to players. The reason for this mostly seems to be that this is a game from North America and many of the words not included are British but, to be fair, there are still over 190,000 words in the game and the developers are working to update the dictionary. Something to look forward in this game is not just these guaranteed dictionary updates but the likelihood of additional levels and features so even when you’ve completed the game there’s still reason to keep checking back. Currently though the amount of content available is very impressive and, though there is some 'pay to win' features you don't have to buy any of them and everything can be obtained legitimately. Besides, it's a free game so you can forgive them for attempting to get even a little bit of their investment back. As you move through the levels you'll notice a large array of enemies and backgrounds which greatly enhances the overall experience as one too many mobile games tend to have repeating, scrolling background and listless, cloned creatures so it's refreshing to see someone put some hard work into the atmosphere and content of their game.

The room for expansion in this game is fairly large as even though the game currently remains simple but not simplistic it would be still be nice to see a few extra mechanics to make combat a little more varied. Overall, this is a reasonably challenging game that’s extremely fun and very professional looking. You wouldn’t believe this was an indie free game as it is incredibly polished with crystal clear graphics and fun, upbeat music. There’s no timer on battles so there’s very little pressure to defeat the monsters quickly making this a casual game that is as fast paced as you want it to be so and its easy to use controls, simple game logic and its overall charming nature makes 'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' very accessible for not just grownups but kids too. I highly recommend this game for anyone to play.

The Good: 

• Looks fantastic, vibrant and professional
• Makes spelling fun! No, really.
• Good assortment of enemies, all of whom are well animated
• Detailed levels in different locations
• Use of quests, storyline and items gives the game a nice RPG feel
• Quite challenging, use of items essential to not die
• Achievements for added playability
• Very accessible, easy to get into
• Lots of stages and I liked the inclusion of a world map
  

The Bad: 

• Could use different attacks to make combat more fun
• Needs a bit of bug fixing here and there

The Score: 9/10

Final thoughts: "This has changed my opinion of word games, this is a really fun game. ...I can't believe they're not charging people for this."

Broken Age, Act 1 - Full Review (PC/Linux/Mac, Android and iOS Game)

'Broken Age' seemed like the perfect game for me to play but, upon completing Act 1 in its entirety, I was left with a confused, almost guilty, feeling of disappointment and frustration. What made it worse was that reputable, professional websites had glazed the game with sickly sweet praise and admiration, hailing it as a fantastic example of point and click adventure games. I rather strongly disagree, as you’re about to find out, and though I admit the storyline is fantastic there are far too many basic elements missed out for this game to be considered as ‘one of the greats’. That said, this game is certainly a steal at its low price and overall the game is very good value. 
 

Developer: Double Fine Productions 
Genre: Point and click adventure 
Release date: 26th January 2014
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS
ESRB: Not rated (some mild threat, no blood/gore)

The backstory behind the development of this game is far from ordinary. To begin with, 'Broken Age' is one of the most crowdfunded video game projects as it acquired a whopping $3.45 million from more than 87,000 backers. The project began in 2012 and the game marked Tim Schafer’s return to the point and click genre after his fantastic game, Grim Fandango which is being re-released for PS4 and Xbox One and which was originally released in 1998. Despite its extreme backing though it appeared that this may have actually lessened the quality of the game. The end result is, whilst visually polished, wrongly suited to the originally intentioned audience and, quite simply, an inadequate addition to Schafer’s portfolio. As a standalone indie game this would be fantastic but unfortunately it failed to live up to the hype.

Gameplay and storyline

'Broken Age' Act 1 is made up of two different stories, that of a girl named Vella and of a boy named Shay and each story has vastly different settings. Regardless of which character you start with you’ll likely find that the game comes across as very cutesy and perhaps even a little too sickly sweet but this is simply a façade. Without going too far into the storylines the characters have in common a desire to break traditions in their lives that have, up until now, gone unquestioned. The gruesome realities of what is actually occurring strips away that initial sweet demeanour and instead the cheerful nature of the characters and environments take on a whole new form, one that is much darker and much, much more unnerving. 
 

It’s here where 'Broken Age' truly excels as the storyline is quite fascinating and will draw you in with its twisting story and cheerfully disturbing atmosphere. The ever present, in your face, indication that something is wrong but nobody else seeming to notice it is a constant source of fascination and you will desperately want to find out what’s going in in the two strange realms that you’ll inhabit. The characters too are likeable though, admittedly, quite unemotional and rather bland despite the famous voice actors. Whilst the storyline is interesting enough and with brilliant twists there are some key issues with the game that are very difficult to ignore. To begin with, it feels as though it’s being aimed at a much younger audience and not at those who would have previously enjoyed classic graphic adventures such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, both of which Tim wrote for previously. The complex puzzles, standard ‘pick up everything you can find’ mentality, vast environments and wry sense of humour that typically lift a standard point and click to a successful one have all been stripped away leaving something quite superficial in its wake.

Overall there’s a genuine lack of content and substance as characters have very few dialogue options and the environments are very limiting so there’s simply not much to discover in what could have been sprawling worlds of characters, places and puzzles. The few characters that are present are quirky and interesting but you can never just chat to them and waste away a couple of hours getting to know their unique personalities so, in this sense, the game feels a little sparse. There’s this strange, unfinished feel about the game that’s reflected in not only the lack of character development but the small, limited environments. These rather simplistic environments quickly become a problem when you’re faced with one of the many puzzles in the game. Often, a point and click adventure game would have you picking up random bits of, seemingly pointless, tack with plenty of red herrings thrown in there just to screw you up. Large locations or, in the very least, a broad variety of areas where the solution to your puzzle may lurk is key to making a puzzle difficult as often you’ll be searching doggedly for more items, racking your brains to figure out what kind of obscure combination you need to come up with. Broken Age lacks this, entirely so. At one point I had to find a particular, very important, item that had been lost but I found it sitting out in plain sight on just the next screen. Another puzzle simply consisted of getting to end of a conversation. It’s almost as though the developers didn’t trust their players to continue playing if they found the puzzles too challenging and this lack of faith in players is evident in the huge amount of hand-holding that takes place

  
When important plot elements have been stripped away of challenge it’s not just frustrating, it’s disappointing. I find it hard to imagine this game ever becoming ‘one of the greats’ and instead it sits as something which is nice, different, but nothing special. The lack of puzzles and choices meant that the length of play was disastrously short and far too easy for seasoned graphic adventure gamers and, whilst some hail this as a return to the 'nostalgic' era of point and clicks, it feels painfully modern with a strong focus on visuals and not enough on actual, substantial, gameplay.

Graphics and audio

The artwork of the game may not be to everybody’s taste but it truly is quite beautiful with a strong hand painted, fantasy appeal. The style and design of the worlds and its inhabitants does nothing for its childish feel however and overall it’s all a little bit too cute and quaint. Despite this, the worlds are gorgeous with a stunning array of colours and details that make each and every area feel bursting with life. The contrast between the two storylines is very apparent, not only in its gameplay content but in the design of the environments. The differences between the smokey oranges and dreamy pinks of Vella’s world to the moody blues and vibrant preschool colours of Shay’s world simply add layers onto the, already distinctive, atmosphere. A curious feature present within the game is its ability to be played in a ‘retro’ graphical mode which makes the game appear in an slightly pixelated, pre-renovated 'Monkey Island' 1 and 2 type design. Whilst usually I would have been extremely interested in this it’s clear that the game was not designed to be played in this format so it comes across as a very low quality conversion. If anything, it looks as though you’re just squinting at the HD version. 

The audio is, overall, very good and I liked almost all of the voice acting except for several occasions where I found the protagonists to have a lack of emotion. Despite pushing the budget out and employing the talents of very talented actors including Elijah Wood as Shay I felt as though Shay’s emotion was completely out of context with what was occurring in the scene. When his dialogue was supposed to indicate frustration the voice came across as depressed, when he was supposed to be confused he sounded passive. Though this is partily intentional as Shay is fairly a depressed character this uninterested tone persists even in moments of great peril where what he is saying suggests he's feeling emotion. The voice of Vella too had some inconsistencies between script and the voice acting and overall I felt there to be a lack of emotion when faced with action packed, highly distressing scenes and this tended to ruin the scene’s atmosphere. Aside from this, the game sounded as good as it looked and there was plenty of general chit-chatter in the background and little comments from the protagonist which gave you a better insight into their character.

Overall

It would be easy to simply look at the game, its history and its origin and stamp it with the mark of ‘fantastic’, ‘ushering in a new era’ and things of the such but upon closer examination, Broken Age does none of these things. It’s boringly simplistic, painfully unemotional and with very, very little build up to anything that happens. I found the storyline enjoyable, gripping even. My attention was constantly drawn to what was going on on the screen and Shay's story in particular was a mixture of fascinating and hilarious. My desire to find out more about the strange world I’d been dropped into was what primarily kept me going however as the gameplay was rather simplistic and, generally, the more I progressed the more let down I felt. 

The game had a lack of depth, a lack of real challenge and, also, a lack of something else, something I can’t put my finger on, it’s as if it very much lacked the heart, soul and dedication you’d have expected from a game with so many backers, so much time poured into it and so many people working with it. I don’t know what happened to render this game so disappointing and it’s a great shame to say that about what could have been one of the greatest modern age point and clicks. I hope wherever Tim Schafer is now that he looks on this game and thinks to himself, ‘I could have done better’ because if he doesn’t then I’m not sure what happened to his creativity in that sixteen year hiatus. Whilst my disappointment is evident I’d like to finish by saying that I will play the upcoming Act 2 to 'Broken Age' but, truly, it’s only to find out what happens in the end. I can only hope it presents something more appealing to lovers of classic point and click adventure games.

The Good: 

• Different, original storyline
• Attention grabbing with its odd premise
• Beautiful, hand painted graphics
• Lovely animations
• Nice variation of environments
• Likeable, personality filled characters
• Great cliff hanger

The Bad:

• Far too easy, a lot of hand-holding
• Not enough puzzles
• Voice acting can be off in places
• Limited, small environments
• Not much to explore or discover
• Very little to no item combination
• Feels superficial and focused on its graphics

The Score: 6/10

Final thoughts: "I'm looking forward to playing the next part of this but only because of its storyline. The game is far too easy with limited environments and, generally, it just doesn't feel like a traditional point and click."

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."