REVIEW: Arcade Paradise on Xbox

Review by Jon Donnis

When I was first asked to review Arcade Paradise, just looking at the press material I assumed this would be something similar to the recent Capcom Arcade Stadium releases, but although sharing elements with that game, this does things a little different.

You play as Ashley, and your job is to run the tedious day to day business of a launderette after your father Gerald, has gone to the Riviera.

Now what has any of this got to do with Arcade games I hear you ask, well in the back of the launderette is a room full of Arcade games. General gameplay starts with you entering the launderette, you will clean up rubbish from the floor, pull chewing gum from seats and when your rubbish bag is full you will take it outside and put in the large trash. Back inside you will pick up dirty clothes, put in washing machines, and then in the dryer. Do this all in quick time and you will get a score based on that.

Doing these tedious tasks earn you money, which in turn you can use on the computer in the office to unlock new arcade games.

The arcade games themselves are the kind of games you would literally have found in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The ultimate aim of the game is to upgrade and buy better machines and create your "Arcade Paradise".

The management part of the game, the picking up rubbish, unclogging the toilet, washing clothes etc, is fine, but what you are most interested in are the actual arcade games, unfortunately these are not actual classic games, but instead "clones" or variations on classic games, There are about 30 games to unlock. And they all look the part, they play the part and could easily have been made in the past. Obviously to licence real games and their trademarks would be expensive for an independent developer to do, so they had to make their own versions. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also isn't the perfect experience you might expect.

At times the game feels like too much of a chore, when in reality you just want to play some retro style games, and I wonder if the game would have been better if it just offered up a straightforward experience like the Capcom Arcade Stadium, but then if they did that, people would moan that the games are just the same as freeware games or browser games you can play online.

The Good

It is an interesting and original idea, and some of the Arcade Games I did enjoy playing.

The Bad

Sometimes the game feels too much like actually doing chores in a launderette.

Overall

I appreciate any attempt at an original idea, and there are some fun retro style arcade games to play.

I score Arcade Paradise a fair 6/10

Out now on Xbox

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/arcade-paradise/9n2fqcgwh32d

REVIEW: Before We Leave - Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

I originally reviewed Before We Leave for its original PC release, so I was looking forward to seeing how well this game would port to a Nintendo Switch, well wait no longer it is here, and I am checking it out on a Switch Lite.

"Before We Leave is a non-violent city building game set in a cozy corner of the universe."

As with all city builders, your job is to create a society, and help it grow, and expand. Your people are known as "Peeps", and they have spent generations underground, since their civilisation is lost, you will slowly help them grow, expand the settlements, discover new as well as lost ancient technologies and eventually even leave the planet and colonise new and wonderful places.

Everything is very laid back, the mechanics of the game are very simple, the planet your play on is based on hexagonal tiles, each tile represents an area you can build on. You start off with everything very basic, and as you go along, you will find that you can research new ways to do things, everything from the way you build roads, to the buildings and so on.

One of the things that makes Before We Leave stand out, is the look of the game, as I said you play on the whole planet which has kind of been shrunk down, you will start on small islands, create shipping routes to other islands, and eventually leave the planet and go to the next.

You will start off playing with a pretty cool and detailed tutorial that will help teach you everything you could possibly need to know. It does this in steps, and at no point will you feel overwhelmed.

Since I originally played the PC version I already had a good understanding of the game, and where as originally I was slightly frustrated with the tutorial, and the placement of some buildings that had to be put in specific places, I had a good idea of what to do, so those frustrations are gone, but it is worth mentioning as not everyone will have played the game before.

City Builders are practically always developed to be played with, with a mouse, obviously with a Switch Lite there is no mouse, so it is the available joystick and buttons only, since the worlds are based on hexagonal areas that you can build on, this actually made control slightly easier than it would have been otherwise, so this was a big positive. However one slight negative was the camera angle control using the bumper/trigger buttons, zooming in and out is easy enough, but that accurate control you get on a PC is just not possible on a Switch Lite. Not a massive problem, but for perfectionists trying to get the exact camera angle you want is a bit of a pain.

As city building games go, this is pretty cool, it looks great, it sounds great, it has some original touches, it is easy to pick up and play, and things do get more complicated and detailed as you grow, that it keeps the challenge going.

The Good

Looks great, easy to play and learn. Works well on the small screen, perhaps better than I expected.

The Bad

The camera angle is a pain, as I mentioned.

Overall

A Fun city builder, that fans of the genre will love.

I scored the original PC version a solid 8/10, I give the Switch release a 7.5/10, a few small issues with the camera angle, as well as trying to read very small writing on the screen takes the score down slightly, but other than that a very good City Builder game.

Review by Jon Donnis

Out Now on Nintendo Switch 

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Before-We-Leave-2249176.html

REVIEW: Sweet Transit (Early Access) on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Sweet Transit is an intricate city builder where the railway is the king and the solution to all your city problems.

We have had hundreds if not thousands of city builder games over the years, and quite a few of them have been based around railways, and this is exactly where Sweet Transit sits. Although the railway system is the centre point of the game, it is much more than just about laying tracks, you also have to build a city, you have to create production lines, turn small villages into thriving modern cities.

You start off with a simple warehouse, and as you grow your village you will also grow your railway network.

As I mentioned earlier this is an intricate city builder, if layman's terms that means this is a detailed simulation. Perhaps a little too detailed and intricate for some hoping for more of an arcade experience.

Instead of just jumping straight into the game, you really need to start off with the tutorials, so you can get an understanding of how to get going. If you jump straight into the game, you will quickly get stuck and have no idea what you are doing. The onscreen display is not the best and I hope improves massively as the game further develops.

The tutorials themselves are ok, but also need improvement, especially when it comes to placing signal signs so the trains know where to go, that is beyond confusing and the tutorial does nothing to really help you understand it. In fact, I only got through that part of the tutorial by chance, and just trying to click everywhere until something worked.

And this I feel is the biggest problem with the game. Instead of creating a simple game which they could then slowly add to, and make more detailed and complicated, they seemingly have started with a ridiculously complicated system, and are now trying to work backwards in helping people understand how it works.

If you are only interested in attracting hardcore city builder enthusiasts, then that is fine, but if you want the casual gamer, then this is the worst possible way to go.

The idea of the game is great, start with basic trains, move through the steam era to the coal era and beyond, create production lines, keep the people happy and busy. But perhaps what they have done so far with this game is just make it way too overwhelming for the casual gamer.

I would suggest a simplified mode to work alongside the full-on simulation mode. Something that a player can pretty much start to play without having to spend ages trying to understand the mechanics of the game. This is where Sim City hit perfection. You could start off with no real idea of what you were doing, but as you built your city you learnt from your mistakes, restarted and got better each time.

The Good

I like the idea of the game; the graphics are decent and I rather liked the music too.

The Bad

The controls are poor, the tutorial is not great, and the on-screen options are confusing and just get in the way.

Overall

You can excuse a lot in an early access game, the developers are still figuring things out, and I appreciate the fact they are honest in wanting to create an intricate city builder sim here, but one of the biggest problems I have noticed with developers is that they never take a step back and look at the game from a fresh viewpoint. You can spend years and years making the perfect super detailed sim, but then at the end of all that time and effort, if hardly anyone purchases it, was it worth it? Keep things simple, grab the attention of the casual gamer first, and then go as intricate and detailed as your heart's desire. Help people fall in love with the game, and then give them everything they ask for.

No score for Sweet Transit since it is only easy access, and I am interested to see where the game goes in the future. If the developers will keep on the track they are currently on and just iron out the issues, or if they will try to appeal to a casual gamer, and ultimately sell a whole lot more copies of the game. It is not impossible to do both either, it is not one or the other. Arcade mode and Simulation mode. Side by side. I know personally I would enjoy this game much more playing it in an arcade mode where I could just have fun building fancy cities and railway networks.

Time will tell.

Out now on Easy Access

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1612770

PREVIEW: Scathe on PC (Steam)

By Jon Donnis

I was lucky enough to be given some hands on time with Scathe, a bullet hell FPS from publisher Kwalee and developer Damage State.

Synopsis

"Scathe is an intense, classic FPS with big guns and even bigger demons. You are Scathe, Enforcer of the Legions of Hell, forged from the earth by the Divine Creator himself. And you, like your fallen kin before you, must prove your worth by navigating a deviously crafted maze, entangled with demonic evil at every twist and turn. So, grab your Hell Hammer and get ready to unleash your almighty fury!

Use Scathe's brute strength and extreme speed to purge your way through Hell's most grotesque abominations, as you search for the Hellstones and defeat the all-powerful Guardians that protect them."

Gameplay is simple here, you find yourself in a maze, you need to collect Hellstones, and try to fight your way through hordes of enemies and escape. The game itself has a very hectic feel, everything is coming at you at once, luckily "Scathe" has super powerful weapons with names like Hot Hatch (which sadly is not the new Ford Fiesta) and Bow Blade, (sounds much more like an actual weapon than a mid-range hatchback car). Mini bosses and boss fights are fun, tough but fun.

You can collect relics and harness black magic from fallen mages, you can charge up your own energy and create spells which you can use to heal yourself or attack others.

So how does the game play? Everything feels intuitive, killing enemies and so on is satisfying. There is a slight issue with finding yourself running round in circles at times as it can be quite disorientating, but look for dead bodies and you will realise you already been there.

This is a tough game, deliberately so, if you die, it is back to the start for you. There is no "easy" mode, so newbies to the genre will struggle, and perhaps give up when they realise how hard the game is. The lack of a quick save option is glaring. 

Everything looks great, a lot of work has gone into the graphics, gameplay is smooth etc. The music is god awful. And with that playing, and the poor sound effects, it is hard to hear what is going on, I found myself just turning it all off, and playing without sound. This is the major flaw with the game.

The Good

Huge speed running potential here. This is a solid FPS that looks and plays great.

The Bad

Awful music, terrible sound effects. Very hard for players new to the genre, or not experienced.

Overall

The game is being released the end of August, but I feel like it has a long way to go to be the finished article. I expect the eventual console releases will be the best versions to buy as they tend to be the finished article, but if you want to jump in early, you can do on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154830/Scathe/

REVIEW: Loopmancer on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Loopmancer is the latest 2D/3D platformer out there. An action game with incredible graphics and set in a Cyberpunk world, (how sadly unoriginal, but let's give it a chance)

Synopsis

Year 2046 / Dragon City

Neuro-comp interfaces, bionic prosthetics and nano-biotechnology have all become commonplace. Society is highly developed, but the gap between the haves and the have nots has only grown larger.

Xiang Zixu, a brilliant private eye, is killed while investigating the disappearance of a famous female journalist. Immediately after his death, he wakes up with a start in his apartment bedroom. Before he can process what happened, his phone rings and his colleague at the agency tells him of a new case: the disappearance of a famous female journalist.

This game features 7 finely-crafted large stages, including: Dragon Town, which comes alive with holiday spirit in the evening; the bleak and gloomy Shuigou Village; the luxurious Tang Dynasty Hotel; the maritime Bionic Beings' Training Base; and the Biotech Company...

The word "Loop" in the title is the big giveaway here of what kind of game you are going to play. Every time you die, you reincarnate, you can then improve your skills, unlock countless numbers of weapons, upgrade your prosthetic limbs, and so on. The various enemies have unique behaviour patterns which you will learn in order to beat them.

As this is a roguelite game, despite you playing loops, the areas will change after each "loop", so no two playthroughs are ever the same. And as you make different decisions, you will find different outcomes. And luckily when you do Loop you get to keep all your upgrades. And this is the key to improving and getting further in the game. A death is sometimes welcome!

There is an interesting story to the game also, some years earlier Xiang Zixu was the target of a failed hit, which ended up with his daughter being killed and his wife paralysed, and now he is looping he can track down the culprits and take them out.

Gameplay is what you would expect, chaotic fights and exploration, fighting is both close contact as well as ranged, you unlock weapons after stealing money from enemies you kill, or things you break. Each time you restart you get a selection of weapons and abilities to choose from. You can also check your evidence board for leads and information you previously gathered. And as previously mentioned, death is not always a bad thing, in fact when you die, you know you will restart stronger than before. And with upgraded abilities you can take different routes, which in turn allow you to find more stuff. There are side missions to take on, or ignore, you have to make the choice. Save a loved one, or chase down a lead. 

Graphics in general are very good, but there are some framerate issues, and some enemies tend to blend into the background. The voice work is cheesy as hell, and there is a lot of swearing, but that can be disabled.

The Good

The gameplay saves the day, this is a fun game to play and that is the most important thing. The slight graphical issues, ridiculous dialog and grinding are all part of this games charm.

The Bad

Cyberpunk? Really? Just unoriginal, I wish developers would come up with new ideas, don't get me wrong, everything looks great, but we need innovative thinking in gaming.

Overall

Loopmancer is an interesting game, a nice narrative and fun gameplay pushes the score up a few points for me.

I score Loopmancer on PC (Steam) a fair 7/10

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1650810/Loopmancer/