REVIEW: Fire and Steel on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Set in World War 2, Fire and Steel is a proper old school arcade shooter, but instead of flying a plane, you control a young Dragon called Aiden, no idea who gave him that name, but it is not very Dragon like is it. A bit like calling a Doberman by the name Keith.

Anyway, Aiden has been asleep for a thousand years, he wakes up to find the world at war, not choosing sides between the Axis and Allied forces, Aiden decides instead to just breathe fire and kill anyone who gets in his way.

What results is a pretty cool game whereby you will find yourself breathing fire or shooting fire balls at everything, from people stood firing guns at you, to attack planes and helicopters, battleships, tanks, heavy artillery and everything else humanity has in a desperate attempt to stop you. Whether it is the Luftwaffe, RAF or the U.S Air Force, everything is open season for Aiden.

The game itself plays in missions or levels, complete a level to progress to the next one. Aiden has the ability to detect the enemy using an Assassins Creed like extra vision, easily activated by holding down a button on the gamepad. This shows the enemy in red. And when Aiden gets hurt, and his health is going down, he can easily replenish it by swooping down and eating anything living, that might be humans, sheep, sharks or even birds in the sky. They appear green in Aidens extra vision mode.

But always watch out for your health, and if you collide with a plane, that's it, game over.

Between levels, you get some cool cinematic cut scenes, as well as TV broadcasts from the 1940s. All very cool and a really nice addition to the game.

The game really is a lot of fun; however you need to get past a bit of clunky-ness at the start. For example, in the tutorial mode, the game never tells you that to finish you need to kill all of the humans, so after killing as much as I could see, while flying through a cave, I decided to head through what I believed was an exit in the roof, I found myself bouncing around and not progressing as my health went down. Eventually I figured out there was a few more humans to kill, I did so, and the level ended.

The controls at first do feel a bit clunky, but you quickly get used to them, and outside of a few graphical glitches here and there, once you get past that initial feeling when you start playing, you quickly realise how addictive and good this game is.

It really is a fun arcade game. Complete a level and move on, or replay the level to finish it quicker, get a higher score and so on. The levels are good enough that you will want to replay them.

The Good

Really surprised at how much I like this game, so much fun, the graphics are decent, sound effects are good, and the general presentation of the game is of a high quality.

The Bad

Control is a bit clunky at first, and there are a few graphical glitches here and there, but neither of these things are enough to detract from what is a great game.

Overall

Absolutely love it, all I can ask for is for the developers to fix a couple of the bugs I mentioned and release more levels.

I score Fire and Steel on PC (Steam) a solid 9/10

Brilliant.

Out Now on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1791790/Fire_and_Steel/

REVIEW: The Centennial Case : A Shijima Story - PS5

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

The Centennial Case : A Shijima Story is a FMV (full motion video) visual novel type of a game.

"The Shijima family have suffered a chain of inexplicable deaths over the past century.

When Haruka Kagami, a mystery novelist, visits the Shiijmas, she finds herself taking on four different murder cases - occurring at different points in time.

The red camellia and the Fruit of Youth, which invite only death.

And the truth behind it all, waiting to be uncovered..."

More like a TV show or Movie, where you will make certain decisions within the game, and that will then take you on a different path.

As you play you will gather clues to the mystery you are trying to solve. You have to use your powers of deduction to solve the mystery and uncover the truth.

You will enter a "cognitive space" of sorts, which allows you to put together your threads of logic, which depending which way you go will give a different hypothesis as the outcome. You make these decisions moving hexagonal pieces on a board.

Playing any interactive movie, I cant really give much away as it would spoil the story, but it is worth noting that the acting is all very good, the story is well written, and although the subtitles might put some people off, any FMV game does need you to pay attention, to make the best informed decisions so the subtitles aren't that much of an issue.

The Good

High quality acting, and nice sets create a visually interesting game.

The Bad

The controls are a bit clunky, these kinds of games never seem to work that well on console. More of a PC game.

Overall

If you like Japanese Visual Novels, then this is the game for you.

If you are a fan of just you usual FMV visual novels, then give this game a look.

I score The Centennial Case : A Shijima Story a fair 7/10 for its genre.

Out now on PS5

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0082-PPSA05654_00-SHIJIMASTORY0001

REVIEW: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising on PC

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is an action RPG set in the same world as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. This game acts as a prequel / companion game.

The main goal of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is to rebuild the town of New Neveah that was decimated by an earthquake. During that disaster several ruins we uncovered, each full of treasure.

You play as CJ a scavenger; you will speak to various characters and collect materials they need to rebuild. Once you have the requested materials, new buildings appear, and soon the town will transform from a destroyed mess to a new beautiful town.

Each time you help someone, you get a stamp for your stamp book, as you get more stamps, you upgrade, which in turn brings more people to the town and more quests to complete. You can also exchange stamps at a trading post for things you will need, for example an explorer's license, which allows you to investigate the ruins or building materials.

There are of course enemies, and early on the combat is pretty simple, with one button attacks. As you progress through the game you can unlock new abilities, and upgrades for your weapons and armour. 

On the default difficulty settings, everything is pretty easy, and you will quickly progress through the game. Unfortunately, the hard mode isn't available from the start and is only unlocked after your first playthrough.

Sadly, gameplay gets tedious pretty quickly, there is a LOT of back and forth fetching of materials, which just isn't that much fun.

The Good

Everything looks great, the controls are simple, and you will pick up the game pretty quickly.

The Bad

Tedious, repetitive gameplay ruins what should be a really fun game. Way too easy on the default settings, and the game is relatively short too.

Overall

There is a good game in here, it is just hasn't been developed enough, and almost feels rushed in parts, there is a lack of effort in creating the depth that a game like this needs.

I score Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising a poor 4/10 could and should have been much better.

Out now on PC (Steam) for £12.99

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1658290/Eiyuden_Chronicle_Rising/

REVIEW: Aaero on Nintendo Switch

Review By Jon Donnis

Aaero is a futuristic music based, on rails, rhythm shooter.

You control a spacecraft, and you need to follow ribbons of light, if you trace the line of the ribbon, you get a higher score, all the while you need to evade obstacles, shoot enemies, and fight against giant bosses.

My first thought when playing Aaero, was that it reminded me of AVICII Invector, there are similar elements to the gameplay, you need to follow a certain course to get more points, but where Invector relied solely on your abilty to press certain buttons at the right time, Aaero takes a slightly different approach, in that you have to shoot enemies, as well, which brings in a whole new gameplay element to what is in essence a rhythm game. 

When you come across enemies, you use the right stick to select them, and then press the trigger button to shoot off rockets towards them, at the same time using the left stick you need to control the spacecraft, this quickly becomes a really tricky thing to do, and a challenge to even the most experienced of gamer.

With this being a rhythm game, the banging soundtrack is just fantastic, the EDM (Electronic dance music) in this game is quite the collection, and you will find yourself turning the sound up loud and enjoying it. Some of the artists include Noisia, Flux Pavilion, Katy B, Neosignal, Astronaut & Barely Alive, and although not household names, they will catch your attention after playing this.

There are 21 challenging levels to complete, each level crafted to the music playing, 4 different difficulty settings, Normal, Advanced, Master, and Chill-out. Choose chill-out if you just want to enjoy yourself and the music.

The Good

If you enjoyed AVICII Invector, then you should like Aaero, it offers a similar, but more challenging type of gameplay. The graphics are decent, the music is great, and the game although tough is easy to pick up.

The Bad

Playing this on a Nintendo Switch Lite, I have to say I have never enjoyed the positioning of the trigger buttons, and since they are needed in this game, while also concentrating on both sticks, it can be a bit difficult to coordinate, and I have pretty big hands too. This will probably play better with a standard controller.

Overall

A pleasantly surprising game, much better than I expected, and as such I score Aaero on Nintendo Switch a solid 8/10

Out now on Nintendo Switch at

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Aaero-Complete-Edition-1485960.html

With limited physical editions available at 

https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/collections/aaero-complete-edition

Aaero: Complete Edition contains all DLC content in one package and will be available as a boxed Limited Edition and Special Limited Edition, only at Strictly Limited Games.

REVIEW: Trek to Yomi (PS5)

Review by Jon Donnis

Trek to Yomi is advertised as an ultra-stylised cinematic action-adventure, and the first thing you will notice when playing is the monochrome graphics, basically black and white.

The game is set in Japan, in the Edo period, you play as a young Samurai Warrior called Hiroki who after making a vow to his dying Sensei, goes on an epic journey to confront the people responsible for destroying his village.

This side scrolling game is very much a one player journey, Hiroki must face wave after wave of enemies, and avenge his Sensei.

Although the visuals are stunning, the combat is rather bland, you have two modes of attack, light and heavy attacks, you can block, break guard, lunge etc, but in essence it is very simplistic. As you progress through the game you will unlock more weapons, Ninja Stars, Bow and Arrow etc.

There are some cool boss fights to be had, against mythical creatures, and there are secret areas to uncover which will give you various bonus to health, stamina as well as weapons. Complete the game to unlock an extra hard mode.

One gripe for me was that to change direction you have to press X, this takes some getting used to, and at first you will find yourself striking in the wrong direction as someone is attacking you from behind.

The game is quite linear and should be easily completable in 5 or 6 hours.

The Good

Visually this game is exceptionally good, unlike anything you have seen before. Such a beautiful game.

The Bad

A short game with little reason to replay, if you don't rush through, you will find every collectable quite easily, and although a memorable experience, it lacks that interest to replay it.

Overall

Stunning game that tries to hide the bland gameplay with visuals. Way too short and no real reason to replay.

If you want a 6 hour experience that will stick in your mind, then this is the game for you.

If you want a side scrolling sword game that you will keep coming back to, then look elsewhere.

I score Trek to Yomi on PS5 a fair 7/10

Out now on PS5 for £15.99 - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10002134

You can download the excellent Soundtrack to Trek to Yomi at https://amzn.to/3w91ihh