REVIEW: Observer: System Redux on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

As part of their the Bloober Team's 13 Years of Development celebrations, I got my hands on Observer: System Redux, a first person, investigative horror game.

Let's start off with a look at the story.

"The year is 2084. The future has turned out much darker than anyone could imagine. First, there was the Nanophage. A digital plague that killed thousands upon thousands of those who chose to augment their minds and bodies.

Then came the War, leaving both the West and the East decimated and shattered. With no one left to seize power, corporations took over and forged their own crooked empires.

You are a tool of corporate oppression. Feared and despised, you hack into the darkest corners of your suspects' minds. You creep into their dreams, expose their fears, and extract whatever your investigation may require."

Your name is Daniel Lazarski, voiced by the late great legend that is Rutger Hauer. You are what is known as a "Neural Detective". You find yourself investigating crimes in a decrepit apartment building in Poland as well as looking for your lost son. Since this is a cyberpunk world, everything is technical, including how you investigate crimes. You can literally hack into someone's mind. This brings you to the scarier elements of the game, since physics go out the window if you are walking through someone's subconscious. But it does allow you to investigate a person's memories, look at things they interacted with, see what they saw.

Since we are looking for a killer, reliving someone's last moments can be a challenge, and often you will find yourself in maze like situations, whereby you can feel very stuck in someone's memory. The first example of this is where you hack into the mind of a dying man who has been brutally attacked, after exploring for a while, you will find yourself in something of a walking loop. Any door you go through you end up back at the start. The only clue as to what you are supposed to do are the TVs that have switched themselves on. Now this took me a while to figure out. I had just been walking around and around for a while, before I even noticed the TVs and when I did, I still didn't realise that the clue to escaping the loop was what was being shown on the TVs in the first place. The game does not hold your hand and you will find yourself in seemingly inescapable situations. But a mixture of trial and error, as well as a crafty look at a walkthrough guide and you will soon find yourself back on track.

Although hacking people's minds is a big part of the game, most of the time you will find yourself exploring the apartment building, you have two extra abilities that will help your investigations, "EM Vision" which allows you to analyse electronic equipment, and "Bio Vision" which allows you to identify biological materials, think blood and bodily fluids. This comes into use when investigating a crime scene, and trying to log everything, which in turn updates your systems which then gives guidance on what to do next.

As you play, your character's stress levels grow, and you will have to take a pill to help lower the stress, we are never really told why you need to do this, but since we are in the future, and people have chips implanted into their brains, it is hardly surprising it might have some mental health side effects.

There are no real combat situations, so no running away or hiding for most of the game, although towards the end there are some stealth elements needed to avoid a creature, sadly it feels like these segments of the game were thrown in, and kind of take away from what you have been doing for most of the game.

Also, a quick mention to a mini game you will play on the various computers you access in the game, it is a simple game, and you will unlock a few levels on each computer you find and access. It is called Fire and Sword, and you have to move around a 2D map trying to avoid spiders, collecting gold. It is a simple but addictive game.

The Good

The game looks and sounds incredible, the slow build of tension and fear is perfectly done, and if you play with headphones, it makes the experience even better. The story is good, the "dream" sequences when hacking someone's mind really are interesting and add a true horror element to the game.

The Bad

The stealth segments towards the end feel out of place and become annoying instead of challenging. There is also an issue where you can find yourself in an impossible situation, for example I dropped a power cable that I then figured out I needed to plug into a computer, the cable went through a grate in the ground and then became impossible to reach. Luckily the auto save system meant I could just restart the area again, but it was frustrating.

Also, EM Mode and Bio mode meant very different visual appearances on screen, and constantly switching between them as well as normal view, might cause eye strains to some people.

Overall

Although quite a linear game, I found myself getting very much into it, even after I had played for a while, I wanted to keep going. That is one of the most important things about a game, addictive to a point that is not destructive.

I score Observer: System Redux on PC a strong 8/10

Out now on PC

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386900/Observer_System_Redux/

REVIEW: Destructivator SE on Nintendo Switch

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Destructivator SE is a 1990s style arcade run and gun shooter. Playing this brings me back to playing similar games like Contra on the original NES.

Let's look at the story. 

"The year is 2145. Earth still burns. Zallagor and his army have been vanquished, but at great cost: the once great cities of Earth lie in ruin, its population hungry for revenge.

Zallagor's home planet of Zerkl has been located. Zallagor has gone, but somebody will rise to replace him. Maybe they already have. The Destructivator is ready – it is time to strike!

Take on the role of a tiny super-solider decked out in lime green spandex! Blast and melee your way through hordes of alien soldiers, robots, spaceships, traps, bosses – and more! Fight on foot or commandeer an enemy ship to take out Zerkl's defenses and ensure that the alien menace won't threaten Earth ever again."

Sounds fun right!?

Straight away for those of you old enough, you will think of Contra, and this game certainly pays homage to such great games from the past. But with clear graphics that despite being simple 2D, do really look great, everything is colourful without becoming overwhelming or blinding.

There are 6 missions with over 50 levels to complete.

The game starts off pretty simple, you have one gun, and you have to kill all your enemies, once you have killed everyone, you have "cleared" the level, and you move onto the next. As you move around the levels there are checkpoints that once passed, you will return to if you die, but you can return to a previous checkpoint, activate that, and then you will respawn there if you die. Of-course there are the obligatory boss and mini boss fights, and a decent learning curve. 

One nice touch is that you can steal mini flying ships, and use them to move about too, all the while watching out from fire from all angles.

There are 3 difficulty levels, but it is worth noting that the game doesn't just throw enemies at you for the sake of it, even on the Brutal skill level, if you take your time, and think about what you will do, then you can still pass the level.

I played this on the Nintendo Switch Lite, and at times the smaller screen wasn't the best to play the game on, however it did not become a hinderance, I do think perhaps playing on a bigger screen would be a benefit. Especially as the camera view point does feel quite far away, with a lot on screen.

This is a decent old school run and gun shooter, which would satisfy the older gamer like myself, as well as younger gamers, well if they don't mind retro graphics that is.

The Good

A challenging game, that never becomes too frustrating, brings back great memories from the 1990s arcade, while also being a decent 2021 game in its own right.

The Bad

Some enemy bullets are tiny and hard to see, even more so on the small screen.

Overall

I enjoy classic run and gun shooters, and I am happy to add this one to my collection.

I score Destructivator SE a healthy 8/10

Out now on Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/destructivator-se-switch/

REVIEW: Lone McLonegan: A Western Adventure on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

I was given a copy of Lone McLonegan on Nintendo Switch by the excellent PR team at Flynn's Arcade, and I do like me a 'point and click' adventure game, so I happily decided to check this one out. Now I have played plenty of these types of games over the decades, mainly on PC, and the odd one on Xbox, but I thought that I would see how such a game would work on Nintendo Switch, and a Switch Lite specifically.

Let's start out with the storyline.

"Lone McLonegan used to be "The Most Wanted Outlaw In The Wild West" but now he's a little rusty and out of shape. Bragg Badass, his arch nemesis, is now number one on the most wanted list and the new idol of the West.

When Lone learns of Badass' latest exploit, he finishes his mojito, jumps off his couch and decides to reclaim his spot back by robbing the Bank of Oldewell, which holds the most secure safe in the county. That will no doubt put the highest price on his head again and he will once again outdo Badass at last!

Halfway through the journey the stagecoach in which Lone is traveling is attacked by Badass' hitmen and Lone must walk to Oldewell to make history again."

The game plays like all Point and Click games, but with the Leisure Suit Larry games making a huge come back, and setting the bar very very high in this genre, does Lone McLonegan add anything to the genre?

Firstly the controls, for some reason, you have 5 different choices for the cursor, and these are switched by pressing a button on the controller, you have a pointy finger, which is pretty self-explanatory, a fist which picks things up, an eye which examines/looks at things, a mouth (I think???) that allows you to talk to people, and a cowboy boot that allows you to kick things. For a start this is too many options. In these types of games, you should have 3 options at most, examine, use, and move. Adding the extra options just makes play slightly more frustrating, as you scroll through the options to find the one you need.

Pretty early on in the game you will get hold of a map, now here is another big problem with the game, once you open the map, you have to choose a destination on the map, you cannot (as far as I can figure out) just exit out of the map. So, if you are in an area, where you speak to someone, and ultimately, they will add a location to your map, to do this you need to select the map and give it to them, the problem is that out of the 5 choices you may often find yourself accidentally opening the map, instead of selecting it, and unless you are in the opening area of the location on the map, you may find yourself back at the entrance of the area and not the place you just was, meaning you then have to go all the way back to find the person you was speaking to, to get them to add to the map. It is a small problem, but one I continually found myself doing. 

Also in nearly every modern P&C game I have ever played, there is always a button that allows you to highlight every interactive thing on the screen, this game does not have that, and especially using the small screen on a Switch lite, moving the little cursor around isn't the most accurate, so easy to miss things, and scanning the whole screen for things is a pain. And because you can't highlight everything you can interact with, you will sometimes completely miss locations, for example a side street, off screen. There is no indication of some locations at all, so unless you scan the whole screen with the cursor it is easy to miss things.

With those issues aside, there are plenty of things you need to do within the game, plenty of characters to interact with, conversation choices to have, which in turn will help you proceed in the game. As with most games like this, sometimes trial and error is needed to figure out what you are supposed to do next, and you will find yourself going back and forth a lot trying to figure things out. Luckily the NPC have poor memories, so if you go down the wrong route in a conversation you can just start again and choose a different reply, until you get the desired result.

The game makers are Spanish I believe, and as such some of the translated humour missed the mark slightly, but that is forgivable as this is their first game release. One thing to note is the graphics are all hand drawn and you can tell that a lot of care and time has been taken in making the game. Sadly, there are no voice acting, so all the dialog is via text on screen, but you can skip through dialog by pressing a button, which is great if you accidentally go down a conversation route you have already read.

There are also stars hidden in the game, in various locations, click on them to collect them, and try to collect them all.

There is no hint system in the game, so sadly when you become stuck, and you will, there is no way other than going to every location again and again, trying to combine inventory items over and over, and generally making yourself go mad with frustration. In the modern era you will find that you will either just give up, or find a walkthrough online, and the moment you do find that walkthrough you will find yourself repeatedly coming back to it the moment you get stuck.

The lack of a hint system is a major omission from the game makers.

The Good

Great graphics, some fun puzzles and mini games lift this game above some others in the genre.

The Bad

The controls, the lack of a hint system and no way to highlight interactive objects lets the game down hugely.

Overall

This game doesn't really work on a handheld system, and probably not on a console at all. It will work much better on a PC with a decent sized screen. You can find the game on Steam.

If you are a fan of point and click games, and want to add another to your collection, then Lone McLonegan is a perfectly decent one to add.

I score Lone McLonegan : A Western Adventure a generous 7/10

Out now on Nintendo Switch

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Lone-McLonegan-A-Western-Adventure-2032270.html

REVIEW: 10 Second Ninja X on Nintendo Switch

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

10 Second Ninja X is a single screen platform game, that has you controlling a Ninja, and you have 10 seconds to complete the level. So yes, the title is pretty damn accurate!

Yes, the game really is that simple, but it is also very tricky, everything is about speed, when the level starts you can look around, you will see the enemies that you need to kill, and work out a route, and as soon as you start moving, the timer starts to tick down, if you have not killed all enemies within 10 seconds, you lose. The faster you complete a level, the more stars you get, the aim being 3 stars, but you can pass the level with 1 star if under 10 seconds.

There are 100 levels to beat, leader boards for each level, things to unlock and collect to add a bit more of a challenge too.

The controls are super simple, you run back and forth, you can jump, and of course the now obligatory double jump, you can slash your enemies with a Katana sword, or you can hit them from afar with Shurikens, (Ninja Throwing Stars) you only get 3 of them per level, so you need to use them wisely to hit enemies you can't reach by jumping, or ones protected with an electrical shield. As you progress through the game, some enemies you come across will be immune to the Throwing Stars too, just when you thought you had it mastered, the game throws a spanner in the works.

Some levels will have switches you need to activate, to move platforms, others will have surfaces you can bounce your ninja stars off, and even surfaces you can hold on to.

The more stars you collect, the more levels you unlock. There are also costumes you can unlock for your ninja. And in the pre-level area, if you find the hidden CD pieces, you can unlock an extra minigame, so that is worth looking for.

The Good

With the short time limit, and the leader boards, there is a strong "re-playability" to the levels. Trying to get 3 stars, trying to get as high on that leader board as possible, and just trying to do the perfect run, really is enjoyable, and a rewarding experience.

The graphics are decent, as are the sound effects.

The Bad

Although 100 levels sound a lot, once you get the hang of the game you will get through them relatively fast.

Overall

A great little addition to your puzzle game collection, that is perfect for quick bursts of gameplay, and to pass the time.

I score 10 Second Ninja X on Nintendo Switch a very strong 8/10. I very much enjoy the game.

Out Now on Nintendo Switch - 

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/10-Second-Ninja-X-2010458.html

REVIEW: Ghosts and Apples on Nintendo Switch

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Ghosts and Apples is an "action-puzzle" game that will test your reaction times as well as memory.

Over 150 levels of hand drawn action. Are you hooked yet?

You find yourself in a house of magic, there are ghosts looking through windows, an octopus acting as a coat hanger, ravens, evil potions, a vampire, and so on. It is all very fantastical looking and as mentioned all hand drawn.

You play as a Puppet called Jack; your soul is trapped within him. You will soon find yourself looking up at paintings, which when you click will suck you into them, and that is how you access a level.

The main point of the game is to catch ghosts and turn them into apples, yes makes no sense to me either, but neither did the octopus as a coat hanger.

I am playing this on a Nintendo Switch Lite, and I found that playing using the touch screen was easier than using the controller, this is important as it really does affect the way you play.

As you catch a ghost you have to decide where to put it, on either side of the screen is a capture device, with an input on the top or the bottom, in essence you have 4 points to put the ghosts. If you play with a controller then pressing up and down on the controller will send the ghost to the top or bottom of the containment device on the left of the screen, and pressing X and B will send them to the top and bottom of the right-side containment. This means you need to have your hands doing 4 separate actions. However, if you play with the touch screen, you only need to do one or two actions at a time as you just press where you want the ghost to go. This makes a difference as each ghost is a different colour, and you need to have 3 ghosts contained in a row together to change them into apples. And as more and more ghosts are caught you need to think very quick with regards to which of the 4 points you want to put them. Just putting them in the containment alone is not enough, so you can find a lot going on very quickly, and touch screen is just easier in my opinion.

As you collect apples, this allows you to unlock further levels, a golden apple is given if you "perfect" a level, capturing and transforming all ghosts. These are the most important apples needed to progress to the later stages.

Completing certain things will award you trophies which you can view in a room, and the challenge to get them all is one that should keep you coming back.

I was unable to play multiplayer so can't comment on that aspect of the game

The Good

The graphics are really good, and the soundtrack is perfectly acceptable, the frantic gameplay will really test anyone, and I am sure over time would help anyone who wants to improve their hand eye coordination.

The Bad

Sometimes progress is stopped because you need more golden apples, and since they are relatively hard to get, I imagine this might put off some younger gamers when they get stuck.

Overall

A tough little puzzle game that has plenty of challenge, even for the most experienced of gamer.

I score Ghosts and Apples a solid 8/10, one of the best puzzlers on Switch right now

Out Now at

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ghosts-and-apples-switch/