PLAYSTATION 4 GAME REVIEW: NEVER ALONE

Never Alone is a small title from Upper One Games that is based on Native American culture and stories. It has an interesting premise wrapped around a puzzle-platformer where two characters (which can be played co-operatively) are trying to reach there goals, with each bringing unique skills to the problems.

The story is a relatively simple but conversely quite confusing. The main story is that a bad man comes into the main characters village looking for something. She then runs from him until she is forced to confront him. There are also blizzards which started happening. The story may have been based on Alaskan culture, but the storyline doesn't really provide much cohesion. It feels like a bunch of random tasks and puzzles thrown together, especially at the end of the game.

This may have been saved if the gameplay was good. Unfortunately, the platforming is mediocre. The movement and environmental effects is very loose and quite buggy. You can do the same jump twice and have it come with two different outcomes for unknown reasons. Not only that, but the Bola shooting mechanic is frustrating and unnecessary (considering the wealth of buttons that have no bindings assigned to them). 

So while the game is an interesting premise, the mediocre platforming and non-sensical story leaves allot to be desired. The game is short, which is its only blessing as it doesn't overstay its welcome too much. However, this would be a recommended pass.

1.5 out of 5 lonely waffles. 

GAME REVIEW: CASTLEVANIA- LORDS OF SHADOW- MIRRORS OF FATE

Castlevania Mirrors of Fate is a flawed game that had allot of potential. It is based on the classic Castlevania style system that has you exploring a castle and working towards facing Dracula. 

Mirrors of Fate is a 2D platformer with 3D elements and backgrounds. This doesn’t really work compared to the plain 2D environments. Sometimes it is confusing to see what is in the background compared to the foreground. Also the close-ups of the characters look pretty horrendous. 

The combat is pretty good for the most part. You control multiple characters but they all end up feeling the same with no cool abilities of their own. There are some different combos and enemies have varying attacks which keep things fresh, and the bosses are pretty good. However the camera feels far too close into the action for allot of combats to make you use the environment during combat. 

The story is perhaps the biggest misstep of the whole game. This doesn’t feel like a standalone game in the series. Enemies, characters and plot points really don’t work unless you have prior knowledge of the series. For example the toy maker shows up as a protagonist but you never face or interact with him. 

All in all this game is a miss in the Castlevania series. The graphics and story aren’t very good and the combat feels okay although you don’t have too many cool abilities or standout combat moments. 

2 out of 5 bloodsucking waffles. 

MOVIE REVIEW: THOR RAGNAROK

Major marvel movie releases have a baseline level of quality (ignoring their television shows) that seems hard to break. When your biggest criticism of a movie is that it is too fun in some minor places or the trailers may have revealed a bit too much, then you know that it has been a real winner. 

Thor Ragnarok follows the story of Thor after the end Avengers: Age of Ultron. He is out searching for the infinity stones and along the way has to fight Hela, the goddess of death. In all fairness, the infinity stone plot doesn’t really feature too much in the movie with the main focus being on saving Asgard. 

Thor feels allot like Guardians of the Galaxy or Iron Man. It is a movie that doesn’t take itself overly seriously with each character having a stack of wit and personality about them. Yet there is an underlying seriousness about it that when things are thought about, you realise they make sense. 

I thought the trailers may have given away too much and, in some parts they have. Some of the best surprises have been tarnished by the trailers, although things don’t resolve the way you think for allot of them. There is definitely a bit of misdirection in the trailers. 

The only other criticism is that occasionally the movie doesn’t take itself seriously enough. However this is a minor complain int and only really relevant in one or two scenes. Otherwise the story is great, the movie looks great, and the characters are awesome. This is definitely a movie to go see. 

5 our of 5 Sparking Waffles. 

BOARD GAME REVIEW: 7TH CONTINENT

The 7th Continent is a game that was on Kickstarter. It took around 2 years to complete after it funded successfully. The goal of the game was to recreate a choose-your-own-adventure style game on a big sprawling map. 

And was it worth it. The answer is a resounding yes. Although not a perfect game, it achieves exactly what it sets our to do. It is a cleverly done game where the designers have. Pearly thought through allot of it. 

At the heart of the game are two mechanisms. The first is the interconnected cards that form the map. Each card has different events and symbols as you explore around it. The second is the series of action cards that are also your life pile. There is also a crafting and inventory system on top of all this. 

And all this comes together awesomely. It is a game system of a choose your own adventure. Sometimes it is unclear where you have to go for your mission (called a curse) and you may waste a session not getting to the end. Sometimes if you miss an obvious clue you can get stuck exploring things unrelated to your curse. But for the most part it works great. 

This is a game that tells a story where the mechanisms serve to help tell the story. On top of all this, the mechanisms are pretty simple and the game is pretty easy to learn. It raises the bar for story games and is a great Kickstarter success story (even without miniatures). 

5 our of 5th Continent Waffles. 

PS4 GAME REVIEW: DOOM (2016)

Doom is a reboot/relaunch of the popular first-person shooter series by Bethesda. It is a game where you are a death-machine, running and gunning your way through hordes of demons, collecting weapons and power-ups in your quest to, well, kill allot of things.

Doom eschews many of the more modern trappings of first-person shooters. Gone are things such as regenerating health and taking cover for reloading, replaced by health pick-ups and highly mobile enemies. It is not a mistake that the player character is faster than most demons, with the speed being intended to be used both for defense and offense.

The Doom story is also there, but it is definitely not at the front. Much like other games (such as Dark Souls) the story is just in the background. There are item descriptions and environmental clues about the backstory, but you can just as easily ignore it and blast your way through hordes of Demons.

All this comes together in a very good package. The single-player experience is a nice rush of circle strafing and shotgun-blasting people. There is also a glory kill system where you can finish off staggered demons for more ammo. The iconic chainsaw is also used to help replenish your stocks and the BFG is great for boss fights or in a tight spot.

The only criticisms are that the level design occasionally calls for some precision platforming. Although not too unforgiving, trying to judge your jumping or position in first-person is never easy. Similarly, although the levels are well designed for the most part, a couple of the levels can get quite confusing. And finally, some of the glory kills are a bit slow (considering they are mini-cutscenes) and stop the pace of a high-paced gunfight.

At the end of the day, these are quite small critiques as the platforming is mostly quite forgiving, the levels are mostly well designed and clear, and the glory kills are an overall positive mechanism. This is definitely a game worth checking out.

5 out of 5 gore-stained waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: SAUSAGE PARTY

Sausage Party is an animated film that takes a simple premise: have a Pixar-like animated movie but with "adult" themes. The story is that a bunch of food items in a supermarket are sentient and believe humans take them to heaven when they pick them up (not knowing they just get eaten).

The movie is just a vehicle for Seth Rogen and company to make crude, sex-themed jokes throughout in an effort to make it "mature". Sometimes this works. However, in this case, it definitely doesn't work. The overall story is too weak and seems to rely on the crutch of deliberately thinly-veiled religious and racial characters to try to make any of its narrative interesting.

It is an interesting contrast comparing this to Pixar. Pixar often uses child-like things to tell a mature story. Here, the use of more crude jokes is used to try to make an animated movie that is "mature" and touches on current events. This approach worked allot less successfully than many other Pixar (or for that matter, other good animated movies) approach.

This movie is a hard pass for me. They should have spent more time working on a compelling story than trying to take shots at society and religion to make this more appealing. 

0.5 out of 5 stars (simply because the animation looks okay).

BOARD GAME REVIEW: 7th CONTINENT (2017) INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

7th Continent is a new board game that was released on Kickstarter and has surged up the board game rankings. It is a game that aims to take the old Fighting Fantasy Games or Choose Your Own Adventures of old and translate them to a board game set on a sprawling map. This is just must my initial impressions and I will update this later.

The aim of the game is to break a curse on your character after they returned from an expedition to an unknown land (the titular 7th Continent). You complete this by exploring the land and hoping to work out the mystery before your life-force (deck of action cards) runs out. 

The game is played over a set of numbered cards split between maps and events. Each revealed card related to a number and uncovers the map and events that you can interact with. These are resolved through a push-your-luck mechanic with your action deck, with more cards drawn increasing your chances but also using up your time more.

The game is amazingly fun. It builds on your knowledge between games as you know where and when to explore and what are red herrings for your current curse. There are multiple curses and the map is quite large. The only concern is with replayability as the map doesn't change, but each of the curses starts you in different locations. 

Everything in this game comes together well. The sense of exploration and choices as you uncover the map and work out the mini-puzzle that each curse gives. The life deck introduces a push-your-luck mechanic. And that isn't even going into how the exploration and the item crafting is implemented and how it interacts with the map.

Overall, this is a hearty recommendation. If you like story-driven games or exploration-type games, this is nearly a must-get. A new Kickstarter is coming for another module for the game and will offer the base game if you don't feel like paying secondary market prices.

5 out of 5 Continental Waffles