REVIEW: Sheltered 2 on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Sheltered 2 is set 20 years after an apocalyptic event happened on Earth, wiping out most of the human race, what remains are splintered factions, all vying for their own land and resources.

At first look the game will remind you of Fallout Shelter, and although there are similarities, Sheltered 2 is quite different and much more of a hardcore survival game.

Your job is to run your shelter, grow your faction, all the while managing your resources, crafting items, exploring outside of your shelter, and generally trying to keep everyone alive.

Now do not be mistaken, this is not an easy game, even on the easiest setting, the game is tough, it is probably a bit too tough, and the tutorial is about as much help as a Donor Kebab in a Vegan festival. With that said, each time you play, you do learn, and there is a lot to be said for just starting the game again, using what you have learnt, to help you make better decisions.

Most of the gameplay will take place in your shelter, you need to keep an eye on your group, make sure everyone is happy and healthy, you will need to craft things like a toilet, a shower, beds, as well as expand downwards to make room for more things.

When you are not in your shelter, you will need to keep an eye above land, set traps to catch rabbits, keep things powered, clean and working, plant seeds to grow food and so on. And when you are ready you will need to leave the area altogether and explore. You already control a small region, which is safe to explore on its own, gather more resources as well as grow the levels of experience of your group. But eventually you will want to explore outside of your region, and that is when you will come across other factions.

The faction's system, is the main pull of this game, you will need to trade with other groups, forge relationships, and sometimes fight them, everything is a balancing act, choose who to fight and who to trade with and who to run away from. You will even complete quests, which become a big part of the game if you want your shelter to grow.

The fights are all turn based, you can choose where to hit an opponent, what weapon or skill to use, and if you choose correctly, you will kill them, and then you can take everything they have.

As you play, your characters levels will grow, you will get new skills and so on.

Further into the game you will even find vehicles which you can fix up, to help you explore faster and easier.

The Good

This is a challenging survival game that fans of the genre should enjoy, the graphics are decent, and once you get the general idea of how to play, everything is pretty straight forward.

The Bad

The game is way too tough. When travelling around the map, interactions tend to have three options, Trade, Fight or Flee, and this can become a bit repetitive, and if you come across a rival faction, it is just fight or flee. A couple of lines of dialog and that's it.

The whole crafting system is overly complicated, meaning a lot of back and forth, whether it is trying to see what ingredients you need to craft, then trying to figure out what you need to recycle, and so on, you will be left stuck pretty quick, forcing you to explore outside the shelter, which is fine, but this seems to happen way too quickly, not giving a new player chance to feel settled. There are way too many things to worry about in the Shelter, leaving a new player feeling overwhelmed.

Bugs are being fixed pretty quick by Team 17, but this plays like an Alpha release and not the finished article.

Overall

There is a good game in here, but it takes time to find it, and restarting once you figure certain things out will help you, but the game still struggles to really grab you. There needs to be a simplified mode, and a tutorial that really explains things. 

With all my complaints, I just feel that there is a great game here, but it is stuck in some kind of hole, that the developers don't have the time to get it out of.

I will keep an eye out for updates, and maybe they can improve things moving forward.

As the game stands right now, I score it 6/10

Out now on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1289380/Sheltered_2/

REVIEW: Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Are you a fan of H.P. Lovecraft? If yes, then you should check out Dagon, it is a 3D narrative experience based on the short story book of the same name. Best played in VR, it is a new way of experiencing the written work of Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft.

Gameplay elements are limited, so think of this more of an experience than a game, you play as a former ship officer, a drug addict, and you experience his delusions and experiences.

This is a short experience, maybe 30 minutes on first playthrough, although made for VR headsets, it can be played on a normal screen. Each scene is fully narrated, and you can look around, zoom in etc, you will see points that you can click on to further the story, which gives the origin of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The game is free, so if you have a VR headset and want to try something different, then there is nothing to lose. Other than your sanity perhaps!

The Good

Beautifully animated, everything looks great, the narration is also top notch, and however you decide to experience this, one thing you must do is put on headphones.

The Bad

It's very short and only replay value is for any missed achievements.

Overall

Do you have a VR headset? If yes, get this, it is free. If not, get this it is free.

Simple as that, for a short experience you have nothing to lose but your mind.

I score Dagon a simple 8/10

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481400/Dagon_by_H_P_Lovecraft/

REVIEW: Banana Hell on PC (Steam)

Review by GamingCouchpotato.co.uk Staff

Banana Hell is a deliberately frustrating, and ridiculously difficult platforming game.

You control a banana, and you have to keep moving upwards to collect crystals. But of course, it is not that easy, as you climb you will face various creatures that are in your way, so you need to try to avoid them.

One mistake however and you will be knocked off course, and worst-case scenario you will fall all the way back to the bottom of the level.

The game is simple, but also needs 100% of your concentration, sometimes you need to jump at the exact right moment, other times you might need to duck. This is precision platforming at its absolute pinnacle.

There is various dialog that appears as text on the screen at the bottom, bad jokes etc, I am sure they are put there deliberately to distract you, like you really need anything to make this game any harder.

There aren't many levels, but the levels that are there are so tricky you won't care about wanting more of them. But if you really want to know there are 5 levels, 2 in the Forest of Frustration, 2 in the Purple Lions Temple, and 1 in the Void.

You can play a choice of 2 levels from the start and the rest you need to unlock.

The Good

Simple clear graphics, nice soundtrack, and the controls are simple, move, jump and duck.

The Bad

This is a pull your hair out type frustration of a game, but that is the point, it is supposed to be like this, so can I call it "Bad" for delivering what it claims to be?

Overall

I hate this game; it is so bloody hard. It fills me with rage! I have shouted at the screen multiple times, but I keep coming back to try to beat it.

One of the most frustratingly annoying difficult games ever! I hate everyone involved for making it!

I hate it and love it at the same time.

I score Banana Hell a hateful 8/10

Out now on Steam, but warning, you will hate this game! So go get it now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1260130/Banana_Hell/

REVIEW: Gravity Chase on Xbox One

Review by Jon Donnis

Gravity Chase is a futuristic racer from Repixel8, set in 2088, whereby transport and fighter craft have been converted into racing vehicles, to take part on "Hyperloop Circuits".

A sequel to the game Velocity G, (which I have never played) this is your typical anti-gravity racer but it does differ slightly from other games in the genre. The circuits in this game are enclosed tubes or tunnels, some races take part on the inside, and some on the outside. Due to this unusual style of circuit, the game does create an interesting challenge or making you need to choose the optimum line, if you want to complete a level faster. Throw in your usual pickups of boosters, power ups, shields and weapons, and you have an interesting little racer, that although not unique, does have some original ideas thrown in.

There is your single player mode, as well as split screen multiplayer. 16 tracks set across various themed areas, 10 craft for you to use and upgrade, and 3 separate modes of play.

First one is arcade mode, which your classic race against opponents, get to the finish line first to win, then there is combat mode, where you have to race, but can also fire weapons at your enemy. And finally, another classic mode in Eliminator, every 30 seconds the person in last place is thrown out, try to last as long as possible, or even outlast all of your opponents until you are the last one standing.

Each level can be played on beginner, medium or hard, more points for the harder settings, and as you collect points, this will unlock more tracks. Beating a track alone won't necessarily unlock the next track, this is done purely by points accumulated, so you might need to grind a few tracks to get points if you are struggling to win the harder mode. As well as get enough in game currency to upgrade your ships.

There are leader boards for each track, so you can compare your progress.

The menu is about as simple as you can get, you start the game, choose a track, difficult level and mode, and you are off. I hate complicated menus and this really was an easy to get straight into type of game. When I think of other similar racers, one of my biggest complaints is often the menu, on Pacer for example it was and still is a mess, but by keeping things simple Gravity Chase gives the game a true pick up and play quality.

The soundtrack is pretty decent, generic high pumping electronic music is perfectly acceptable, and I quite enjoyed turning it up.

In game sounds are simple, not distracting, not really noticeable.

In the combat mode I did not really understand the shield and weapons, I'd collect ammo, but nothing happens when I press fire, I am hoping this is just a pre-release bug which will be fixed by release date. The shield as well, you collect shield power ups, and your shield goes down, but it all seems a bit pointless, if your shield runs out, you explode and re-join the race. That really is my only complaint about the game, I tend to prefer the general arcade style modes, so not a huge downer for me, but if you enjoy the combat modes of these types of racers, then this game fails on that.

The Good

A fun, simple, futuristic antigrav racer. I have asked many times for such a game, and now I have one. Is it perfect? No, but is it good fun, with a pull, to keep playing it more? yes.

The Bad

As mentioned, the combat mode is lacking. And the graphics in 2022 could be better.

Overall

An enjoyable racer, with a couple of issues that are hopefully easily fixed.

I will keep playing this game after writing this review, and that to me is always the highest compliment I can give a game, playing it when you don't have to.

I score Gravity Chase a strong 8/10

Review by Jon Donnis

Out on Xbox One and Steam on 21st January 2022

Pre-order on Xbox

REVIEW: Forgotten Hill Disillusion on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

Forgotten Hill Disillusion is a point and click puzzle game in the Forgotten Hill franchise.

You do not need to have played any of the other games to get into this, and since I haven't played any of the other games, that's good.

The game mainly consists of single screen areas, you navigate around using arrows on the side of the screen, and certain areas will have puzzles and riddles you need to solve, to progress in the game.

When you first start playing, you might feel a little confused, and the puzzles can be quite hard, but just as you are about to give up, you may find as I did, that you are starting to get it, you are starting to understand how the game works, and the nature of how to complete the puzzles. This will probably happen when you first get stuck and realise there is an inbuilt hint system. The hint system usually comprises of about 3 stages, hint one gives you an idea of where to look, hint two tells you what you need to do, and hint three basically solves it for you. 

As I mentioned, the moment you start to properly understand the game, even if because of the hint system, that is the moment the game catches you in its hooks. And if you like a good puzzle game, then this is one you should add to your collection.

There are 60 puzzles and riddles to solve, some will be about moving objects to match a pattern you have seen elsewhere in the house, or you might need to help someone with something, read a recipe book, find or craft the parts, everything is there right in front of you when it comes to solving the puzzles, you just need to keep your eyes open and think logically, and you can do it.

If you get the hang of it, the game should last you between 2-3 hours to complete, the graphics are simple but well drawn, and help with the whole horror/grotesque atmosphere the game is portraying.

The Good

Well-crafted puzzles, nothing is too abstract or out of the box, meaning that everything is solvable if you are willing to spend the time.

The Bad

It may take you a bit of time to get into the game if you have not played any of the previous ones and already know how everything works, but stick with it and you will be fine.

Overall

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the game as a whole, much better than I expected, and it is easy for me to recommend.

I score Forgotten Hill Disillusion on Nintendo Switch a solid 8/10. A very good puzzle game.

Forgotten Hill Disillusion will be priced for 4.99$ / € for all platforms including mobile formats.

Out Now on Nintendo Switch and all major consoles

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Forgotten-Hill-Disillusion-2089740.html