Recent reviews by Carrionjr

The Lego Movie 2 Videogame is a child friendly, action adventure game adaption of The Lego Movie 2. Most of the puzzle solving has been replaced with free roam exploration, master brick collection and 1000’s of items to unlock. If you are looking for a suitable couch co-op game to play with a younger player you wouldn’t go wrong with this, though I think a lot of the other Lego games will offer more enjoyment and challenge. Any kids (or adults) who enjoyed the movie should enjoy this as you blast, race and fight your way through locals of the movie.

Story
Rather than strictly follow the movie you follow Emmet (and crew) as they make their way through stages based on major areas of the movie in a free roam manner. Everything is awesome.

Gameplay
Wow what a difference 5 years makes to gameplay. Rather than have a stage you progress through each “hub world” is the entire stage, where you have main mission quests you need to finish, bosses to fight as well as tons of side quests and hidden blocks to unlock. You basically free roaming through each of these areas trying to collect at least 15 master builder blocks to progress through the portal to the next stage (each area has 50). Some maps have a boss to fight, which are fairly fun fights (you need to do certain actions or interact with the environment a set way, stun the boss and then beat the bricks out of it). Unlike previous games once you have completed any task (or collected) an object you can’t reply it without starting a new game. I found the races a lot easier to complete, and many of the side quests are either beat some waves of enemies, escort people to a location, take a picture of something or build something, which dumbed down the experience and challenge from prior entries. Great if you want to get achievements, but it punishes replayability.

The game has done away with the character powers, in line with everyone being the special (anyone can build anything) and there’s no longer a requirement to use set characters to collect hidden items. As you progress you collect unique equipment (which anyone can use), which lets you perform the unique actions (like scanning objects, cutting objects with a welding torch or using batman’s grapple to get to far away locations. The game focuses much more on the Lego aspect, requiring you to scan objects (or find their instructions) so you can build them, collect different coloured studs to build objects, or collect relics to unlock extra characters, items and bricks.

Customisation seems to have been a major factor, with the clothes of anyone you have unlocking being available for your custom characters, along with any objects you collect. Truly the collection of characters and items is impressive. Super relics are awarded for collecting the red bricks and unlock super powered versions of the items you have (guns that fire explosives, infinite jetpacks ect), or hats that give you abilities (like destroying anything you touch, or building objects not costing anything). You can build vehicles and spacecraft, but they but they move fairly slowly (still quicker than running, and who doesn’t like riding a raptor!) There is a whole stage which is dedicated to super building, where you can build the large Lego kits buildings like the batcave or the advanced collector kits (if you have the spare bricks).

The game does have low level violence, with “killed” players exploding into their Lego bits, but they are respawned instantly to continue on. There is plenty of shooting, explosions and fighting in the same vein of the movie, so some caution (for very young or impressionable players) might be advised.

The controls are intuitive if using a controller, and I found easy to pick up, though I would recommend staying away from a keyboard and mouse. Like other entries the game autosaves after collecting an item, finishing a task or unlocking a relic.

Graphics
The Lego environments are much more detailed and crisp this time around, often being quite large and with plenty of collectables scattered everywhere and destructible objects. As building is much more focused in this game, there is a lot of detail put into the items and object you construct, and nothing seemed to glitch, characters didn’t get stuck or caught in invisible objects, though I did find a few invisible walls when using the infinite jet pack (so in areas you wouldn’t normally be in). Kids will love the custom character creator, and it has been massively expanded and is all shown in game. The idle animations are great, with many being individualised. Streaming to a TV and playing in big picture worked fine, though the game seemed to have infrequent framerate drops when in 4K on a single monitor. All of the movies are rendered in game, foregoing the snips from the actual movie this time round. There is also a mandatory 30 second clip to watch every time the game is started, which is unskippable without editing files. Playing co-op the screen splits nicely but doesn’t join into one when you are close like in previous Lego games.

Music
I couldn’t say the background music was memorable, but most of the songs from the movie play at multiple points. I couldn’t say if the voice acting was done by anyone from the movies or talented stand ins, who played what voices doesn’t seem to be listed in the credits.

DLC
The game has Free DLC, which adds some of the other Lego worlds to the game, and a few quests, but are mainly for padding content (even if some of them are fun). There is paid DLC which expands on what some of the cast like lord business were doing during the events of the game, I didn’t purchase these so couldn’t recommended them.

Achievements
The achievements are super easy to get, any which would have posed as a challenge have been removed from the game.

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Halo 3: Reach is the 2014 Xbox One re-release (originally released in 2010), ported across to steam in 2019. It answers the question if one Spartan could accomplish so much during the Halo campaign imagine what a specialist team of them could do. I found the campaign quite enjoyable, it’s a lot more desperate than prior entries, combat is as fluid as ever and being at the chronological start of the series sets a distressed pace. It’s also Bungles last entry in the series, before they were replaced by 343 industries. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play.

Story
Reach is often mentioned in other Halo entries, but now you get to experience its final moments and understand how significant the events during its fall were in becoming the turning point of the war. You play as the newest member of Nobel team, Noble 6. While having the history of a lone wolf assassin, you are often paired up with the other specialist Spartan members of Nobel team or the local militia to investigate Covenant sites or attack their forces. The game does a great job of humanising each of the Spartan’s, they aren’t just super soldiers who obey orders but act like people and have their own goals and thoughts. Six quite often talks with the other team members or chats about their experiences, and this becomes a lot more evident as the tone of the game changes from hopeful to desperate as their options run out. There are also hidden datapads which tell a separate side story of a bunch of hidden AI that are debating how to help humanity survive, but this story isn’t as well integrated as the others and doesn’t seem to really lead anywhere.

Gameplay
Gameplay is largely similar to previous entries with a few new additions. As a stable of the series you have a recharging shield but fixed health that can only be healed by health kits. You are still limited to only 2 weapons, and the single use items from Halo 3 have been removed. The visor mode (from ODST) has also been removed, but you can toggle night vision. Swappable suit abilities offer a freah take on things in Reach, where during missions you can say switch sprinting for a jetpack, a clone or limited invulnerability. Campaign progression has returned back to a structured affair with no free play (though you can choose the starting position\checkpoint), and with that you have collectables (some which can only be found on legendary difficulty) to hunt for in each mission with plenty of Easter eggs hidden as well.

In a first for the Halo series the gender of Six can be chosen, and vehicle combat has been greatly expanded to not only include UNSC ground vehicles, but plenty of airborne missions where you primarily fly around destroying targets and other craft, and even one sequence where you are dogfighting enemies in space. These sequences during the missions Upper cut and New Alexandria were my favourites. There’s also a significant lone wolf mode as the last mission where you are on your own and have to survive as long as you can against the endless hordes of the Covenant army.

Being the precursor of the series the game only has Covenant forces (no flood or installation enemies), but more than ODST, and many of the types found in Halo 3. There is a new type introduced, the skirmishers who zip around the battlefield (but aren’t fliers like the drones). There are multiple ranks of each enemy, and each have different loadouts to keep you on your toes. I found that the elites now dodge in unexpected directions and are abit more fleet footed, but all enemies still seem to suffer from only attacking enemies in a fixed area (it’s still quite possible to snipe enemies that are far enough away in some of the larger firefights and they will just stand around). They do use their abilities fairly often to stay in the fight, and are quite adept at flanking.

The AI of team members (either other Spartans or UNSC marines) seem better, with them actually helping in firefights, taking cover, using abilities and not getting killed instantly, but their driving AI is useless, I had multiple instances of the AI instant killing the squad and causing a restart by driving off cliffs, or straight into incoming fire.

Weapons have been changed around again, with most of the turret style weapons being removed entirely (no more flamethrower), and the same existing combos of weapons working quite well together. The DMR replaces the battle rifle and is great at long distances, the shotgun is more accurate at longer ranges, but seems to do less damage up close and the pistol is great from head shots if you can line up the shot. There are a fair few new weapons, including a grenade launcher with alt firing mode, Covenant versions of most weapons, and a beam weapons that is a mix of a few previous entries.

Graphics
While Reach misses the large open expanses of previous entries that made it feel like the stages were a lot more open than what they were it looks very nice. The cities plazas show the invasion damage and the brutes killing people, though damage isn’t as extensive like it was in ODST where there are crashed cars and crumbling buildings. Some of the backgrounds look amazing like the city being glassed and the skyscrapers on fire and billowing smoke, or even the smoky battlefield as you fight non-stop enemies in the aftermath. It was refreshing seeing all the battle damage on each of the Spartans armour, they obviously aren’t getting repaired to fresh status between missions.

Music
The Voice acting was excellent, Reach does an outstanding job of humanising the team of Spartans and those around them. I’d say the music starts off quite different from other Halo games, with it becoming more sombre and less drum/electronic as the situation worsens around mid-game, which is the opposite of how it feels in the other entries. The music is masterfully composed, though like ODST I didn’t hear any takes of the main theme.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer is a given in Halo games, and Reach doesn’t disappoint. It’s still plenty active, and the PvP has plenty of new modes to play with rather than the standard CTF and slayer. There are now defence missions, or more involved invasion missions where the attackers have a series of tasks to complete and vehicles spawn as the game progresses. If you want more of a PvE experience, then there is still the 4 player co-op for the campaign or firefight where you have to take on a few different waves of enemies. There is also the forge, a level editor where you can make and share maps.

Achievements
No. Just no. you would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires multiple runs including runs on legendary and plenty of multiplayer achievements, as well as co-op to get some of the fiddly single player ones

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The Lego Movie: Videogame is a child friendly, action adventure game adaption of The Lego Movie. It offers a good amount of kid friendly puzzle solving, some free roam exploration, and plenty of collectables and characters to unlock. If you are looking for a suitable couch co-op game to play with a younger player you wouldn’t go wrong with this, and I recommend picking it up. Any kids (or adults) who enjoyed the movie should enjoy this as you blast, stomp and fight your way through locals of the movie.

Story
The game follows the major points of the movie. Everything is awesome.

Gameplay
You control different characters from each of the major events of the movie (in free roam you can play as anyone you have collected or as custom characters), and each stage generally follows what happens in the movies. Like other Lego games, each of the characters have unique abilities and are required at certain parts of the stage to progress through puzzles or certain boss battles. Characters are generally broken up between master builders (those that can build anything new), and everyone else (who have to follow instructions) but can build real world Lego sets. Each of the movies 4 main arcs are broken up into different free roam hub worlds, where stages can be replayed, or other hidden objects and collectables can be found.

Nearly everything in the environment in both missions or free roam can be broken for studs, which are used to purchase everything in the game. Dying causes you to spill some studs, but these can be picked up if your quick enough. Each of the stages has golden manuals to collect (which unlocks a special build vehicle in the bonus room to build if you get them all), as well as a pair of pants (to unlock powers for your custom characters). In free roam, during missions you can play as anyone, and use their powers to get all the previously missed collectables and objects. Each hub world has side quests to unlocks the red bricks (which unlock cheats), or hidden golden bricks. The hub area is a little clunky to get around, as you have to walk to each of the stages entrances to play them, and it doesn’t show you at a glance if there is anything else to collect like some of the later entries in the series.

The game does have low level violence, with “killed” players exploding into their Lego bits, but they are respawned instantly to continue on. There is plenty of shooting, explosions and fighting in the same vein of the movie, so some caution (for very young or impressionable players) might be advised.

The controls are intuitive if using a controller, and I found easy to pick up. I did find the save feature lacking, with you being required to either finish a stage or finding a collectable to save your current stud count. While late game this isn’t an issue, it can be annoying early on when you are trying to save up to unlock things.

Graphics
Its Lego Movie! The graphics aren’t going to wow you, but I found the environments well designed, and it’s always fun watching the characters build new things in Lego for the puzzles. nothing seemed to glitch, characters didn’t get stuck or caught in invisible objects. Kids will love the custom character creator, and the bonus room where they can stomp or fly around in the unlocked kits especially if they have any of the Lego kits at home. The environments were very destructible, and well put together (and actuallt look like they are made from Lego). Playing in big picture the game did seem to get stuck on wanting to run at a lower resolution, but this fixed itself after a while. There are plenty of clips from the movie that play in between stages and keep the plot cohesive and on track.

Music
The voice acting is all straight from the movie, with only Gandalf having any new lines. I couldn’t say the music was too memorable, as the sound effects and characters speech is always over the top of it. The best part of the Lego Movie is included, the Everything is awesome song, where you have to dance to it a few times.

Multiplayer
This game was made for couch co-op. A second local player (no online play available) can easily join your game and take control of any of the spare characters. In story missions this is locked to who is available to play as, but in free play you can play as who you want. The screens split vertically, and merge together when both players are near each other. Both players have to be in the same stage, but are independent as long as they neither enter a mission or change what hub world they are in.

DLC
There is a character pack for the game, however It doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. For a substantial price you can own 4 extra characters and 4 extra pants that give extra abilities. I couldn’t see much value in this.

Achievements
The achievements are super easy to get, and while some might sound difficult to get, once you have a few red bricks unlocked become super easy.

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Soundfall is a rhythm looter-shooter where you are rewarded for slaying enemies while on beat. It combines a fair few different game mechanics to varying levels of success and is fun to play, and while the sound track is good the stage design is heavily reused and gameplay can become very repetitive. I’d recommend it (especially if you can get it on sale), though more for casual play.

Story
The world of Symphonia, a place where music is born before it enters the universe is under siege from the forces of discord. 5 guardians of harmony are summoned to help restore the beat. The story is very family friendly, and does a good job of showing character growth across all the guardians by the games end. It’s a fairly wholesome message and usually presented in a humorous manner. Loving puns, I have to applaud the writers. There is a lot of music puns, more than should legally be allowed, and I thought a lot of them were quite clever and caused a few chuckles.

Gameplay
Gameplay is nuanced, but also fairly repetitive which is where I think a lot of the criticisms will be levelled. There’s a lot of different systems at play, many of which aren’t really explored in the lower difficulties and should at least had a showing, and at higher difficulties require careful equipment planning to have a chance of making it through a stage within the time limit.

At a basic level, all your actions (from shooting, melee, and evading) are meant to be timed to the beat of the song. For someone like me who couldn’t work out the beat if it slapped them in the face, there are plenty of visual cues, along with a bar at the bottom and an audio option as well if required. If you are on beat, your attacks are stronger, have visual effects, apply weapon effects to enemies (like setting them on fire, arcing electricity to other enemies ect), generate ultimate power notes and increase your chain limit and resets the counter which increases your score. Getting hit resets the chain, and missing the beat enough times will cause the chain counter to reset and stops you from attacking while the weapon resets. Timing your attacks is important, as you are vulnerable even when using ultimate attacks, only dashing on beat gives invulnerability. One criticism would be most of the songs don’t change their beat, its steady throughout the entire song (which is its own blessing and curse), though there are a few songs where it varies in places. The game doesn’t support being streamed very well, playing it via a steam link was enough to throw out the beat timer making it impossible to stay on time.

When you finish a stage your score becomes your XP, and the loot reward is based on if you stayed on beat 100%, dropped the beat at all, finished in time, or died with the reward system being tiered- if you die you will get the lowest marking, not dying and finishing in time gets you a silver rating ect. The loot rewards are also locked behind character levels and what difficulty you ae playing on, the system won’t really reward you correctly on the lower settings (you can get a perfect score and still get basic loot), though this improved slightly for the few stages at a higher difficulty I didn’t completely suck at.

The guns come in a good variety, and can have different stats like shortened range but spreading bullets or being able to be repeated by holding the button down. The real differences come from the weapons effects, which have a rock, scissors, paper relationship against each other. This isn’t explored in the easiest difficulty (other than being bonus effects vs every enemy), but becomes progressively more important the harder the difficulty. With 5 different “elements” to manage having the right weapon and effects applied makes all the difference at higher. This includes the armour you equipped as well, as you could give yourself a 35% increase in damage received. The melee attacks and ultimates are unique to each hero, and but still run off the above principle in addition to their own unique effects. Additional treasures can be found during each stage if you explore or are randomly dropped from enemies, as well as being awarded at the end of each map. The game doesn’t mention that all treasures share a inventory pool of 150 and being awarded them after this is full rejects them, though does advise to sell them for gold which you can use to purchase weapons & equipment. All loot is randomised (think how diablo 3 was initially on launch), though the stage will generally influence the effects (metal songs will generally favour fire based loot and enemies).

The game is broken up into different maps, each which focuses on a type of music (could be string, bass, drums, chiptune, ect), which in effect influences which type of enemy are found, as well as the effects of the loot. Each biome generally has set of environmental hazards as well to dodge, though most of the stages seem very repetitive, and usually consist of 3-4 solid areas of waves of enemies, a few side areas where they might be more traps or a treasure, and a final area where there are waves of enemies. Each map has a final stage, but this is usually only more waves of enemies. There are a few exceptions to this where you fight an actual boss, and I wish there was more of these spread throughout the game to break up the constant waves of enemies.

Graphics
While the stages gameplay might be repetitive, they are well drawn and animated. Everything (trees, houses, pots, coffins) bops along to the music, and the things that don’t are the only objects that can’t be destroyed. There are plenty of affects you can applies to enemies, and attacks look flashy when on beat. Enemies attacks are telegraphed, so you can didge if you see them. The menu and UI layout is good and simple to follow, though character screens are squished in co-op. There are enough short animated scenes throughout the game, and these are really well done.

Music
The music is what this game is all about. The in game soundtrack is great and has a mix of everything, and the tracks suit the stages they are picked for. You can free play the music anytime you want (there are additional tracks in there that aren’t from the game), and this is where you can also import your own songs. The few I attempted all went to the same game biome

DLC
No DLC, and I’m disappointed I can’t play the music in the steam music player. Seems like a missed opportunity.

Multiplayer
The game is more fun co-op, though you are all stuck on the same screen and need to work together. It does become a competition on who gets the best score, and would be the recommended way to lvl up characters quickly via local co-op as the XP rewards are joined for everyone.

Achievements
100% Achievements- OMG no. Platinum’s on every stage on the hardest difficulty, as well as killing 100,000 enemies. That’s some serious grinding.

Note: I backed Soundfall on the Fig campaign.

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Halo 3: ODST is the 2014 Xbox One re-release (originally released in 2009), ported across to steam in 2020. It does something vastly different to the other Halo entries, it has you playing as different members of the UNSC ODST marine squad instead of Master Chief, and has a significant free roam area in-between missions for you to explore that tells a separate side story from civilian’s point of view. I found the campaign quite enjoyable, the combat mechanics have changed drastically from previous entries and it doesn’t rely on players knowing the back story or having played previous entries. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play.

Story
Taking place during the events of Halo 2 you play as rookie, the newest member of the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers). Your team is sent on a classified mission where your drop pod collides with another, sending yourself and your squad mates to different locations across New Mombasa. Waking up hours after the mission commencement time and separated from your squad, you explore the deserted streets aided by the cities super computer. As you find evidence of your squads actions, you are transported back in time to what your squad members where doing, which progresses the main story, where everything comes together in the end. I found the story really good, while you play as members of an elite unit you are regular humans and are treated as such by the UNSC marines. There are a ton of audio logs hidden through the city, which follows a separate side story of how the government officials and civilians reacted during the invasion, and was actually worth listening to, even if it doesn’t add much. That stories conclusion linked nicely to the finial mission you are tasked with.

Gameplay
Gameplay mechanics are markedly different from previous halo entries, with the ODST marines being slower, not being able to jump as high or survive large falls. The energy shield is gone, being replaced with a recharging stamina bar though health can be depleted while the stamina bar is empty. The visor mode (VISR) is used to highlight enemies, friendlies and objects of interest (and was how I navigated most of New Mombasa). The game does autosave frequently in free play and during missions. In a first, the missions don’t have collectables in them (there are still hidden achievements), with collectables being limited to New Mombasa streets.

As mentioned above the campaign is split following different members of the OSDT team, and after the first mission is completed any flashback mission can be done if rookie has explored the city and found the required evidence. I’d still recommend doing the missions in the suggested order, otherwise it throws the some of the stories plot out of order. The campaign can be played with 4 others in co-op mode, however I wasn’t able to experience this. There are large parts where you are controlling tanks or other vehicles, and during missions you are regularly meeting up with other marine squads (yes they still suck and die regularly). Replayability is still there with their being score modes, time modes and multiple difficulty levels and modifies to select.

Exploring New Mombasa is during the invasion is quite the experience. This stage takes place at night, and the ambiance is quite a contrast from the missions. Enemy units patrol the streets they now own, and occasionally I’d be caught in a pincer attack as unexpected enemies would arrive behind or from a different flank. Virgil tries to let you know if there is a collectable nearby by making the environment act crazy. If you look hard enough there are hidden caches of weapons of vehicles you can access, which can help you as you slink between patrols making your way through the city.

ODST has less enemies than previous entries, and only 1 new one (which aren’t really enemies), and the complete lack of flood enemies. The AI has been tweaked a little, but it’s mostly the same from previous entries though there are a lot more stand your ground and fight areas where they can take advantage of flanking you. Weapons from the previous entries are the same, but the pistol is actually good again, and if you have been wanting to play a game where a flamethrower is actually good then this is the game for you!

Graphics
I thought the game looked great (considering how old it is). New Mombasa looks like an evacuated city, with cars sprawled everywhere, building on fire, and in darkness in some parts though it still looks very clean for a warzone. Each of the other flashback stages are fairly unique, many having you help marine squads or working with squad members to achieve a goal, though the environments aren’t a varied as in previous entries and do feel quite liner, through you do get to explore a game reserve, drive tanks through the city streets, nuke a building and have a fire fight on the top of a tower.

Music
The voice acting was superb, with the scripts being good, and plenty of the lines being delivered with a healthy dose of gallows humour. Nathan Fillion always does a good job, and his character seems to be modelled from his Firefly persona. The others get plenty of good lines in as well. The music was quite different from previous entries, with the rookies music being more subdued and jazz based, while other tracks riff into drum\ electric guitar based tunes. They seem to be a real mix of low key tracks, and tracks that are full of manic energy, though my favourite from all 3 previous entries is missing (any take of the main Halo theme).

Multiplayer
ODST offers 4 player co-op now and seems like it would be a great way to play on the harder difficulties (or just to have fun with some friends). ODST seemed to have a lot more happening for it for multiplier and still seems active, though if you have good group of friends ready you could get a session going easily enough. There is a new multiplayer\skirmish mode called firefight, where you have to survive 5 waves of increasingly difficult enemies. If your wanting a PvE match (and don’t want to play campaign missions), these would be where it’s at and I found the few I did fun.

Achievements
No. Just no. you would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires specific knowledge before starting (or some achievements require a brand new campaign to be started), multiple runs including runs on legendary and plenty of multiplayer achievements.

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When Dungeons was first released on steam in 2011 I tried the demo and instantly bounced off of it. The tutorial stage has a lot happening all at once, and I was heavily anticipating a new Dungeon Keeper clone, which it isn’t. After having finally sat down to play it properly I can say I enjoyed what it offered, if you don’t mind a few bugs, some repetitive gameplay, needing to launch the game via a 3rd party launcher and it not being Dungeon Keeper.

Story
You play as the dungeon lord, a evil presence that sits at the top of the food chain in underworld evilness. After being usurped by your unfaithful partner you have to start back at the bottom of the pecking order and have to conquer the lands of goodness above to reclaim your position and show your once underlings whose boss.

Gameplay
Gameplay is heavily reminiscent of Dungeon Keeper, but instead of you managing your Dungeon and creatures, you have to manage the contentment levels of invading Hero’s. It’s sounds similar, but makes the gameplay vastly different. Heroes will regularly visit your Dungeon, and it’s you job to meet their needs before killing them so you can gather more soul energy. Upset heroes make a bee line for your dungeon heart, and might talk others into joining them, while happy heroes will leave depriving you of soul energy (and taking your gold with them). It does become repetitive after a while, but the campaigns challenges and many tasks usually make up for this.

Your dungeon heart needs to be protected (its game over if it dies) and projects an area of influence and visibility around it. Your area of influence is limited, and is expanded by placing pentagrams on the floor which spawn monsters. The different monsters have different utilities or uses (one might be good against magic but weak against physical, or giving large dungeon visibility boosts but being weak overall). You are also limited by a population cap, with each type of creature costing a different amount. This limit can only be increased by capturing the monster areas that are scattered throughout the stages. Each stage is limited to 5 types in the campaign stages (not all 5 might be available in each stage), however the campaign changes to a new environment (with new creatures) at each major plot point.

Soul Energy and Gold are the games currencies. Gold can also be mined but is limited, and acts as a currency to deploy creatures and build some rooms, and also a treasure item for the Heroes. Soul Energy is used to either upgrade your dungeon (which unlocks further tiers of buildings), upgrade the dungeons prestige, which makes you stronger, or upgrade your creature levels. It’s an interesting concept and implemented quite well, making this more of a dungeon sim, though the building options are very limited, being limited to the 5 needs heroes might have (magic, weapons, treasure, traps and creature spawns) and a jail room for you to extract the energy from captured Heroes.

On top of the dungeon management side each of the games campaign stages have objectives you need to meet, and optional quests from your new “bosses”. Completing these grants points you can invest into your dungeon lord, which can Increase physical damage, the chance to hit, magic capacity or total health. There are also skills you can invest in, which are tied to different skill trees and allow you to build the lord how you see fit (a monster in fighting), caster or utility lord who buffs the dungeons creatures and room effects. The lord is your controllable asset in the dungeon, allowing you to interact with objects, explore outside your influence areas and is a beast in combat.

Some campaign maps have other dungeons lords to compete again, and this is where the game is most fun, as where is somewhat falls down. The AI outright cheats, somehow having the ability to send creature away from their pentagrams to attack you and not suffering heart damage when dying. If you can survive the rush, (and enemy dungeon lord trying to steal your pentagram), it means you can usually capture one of their before the monsters respawn. The AI isn’t the smartest, usually getting stuck on needing to capture a set point of your dungeon so as you advance it will keep trying to go for the same area to capture, which you can reinforce with other creatures to bog it down in combat. It can also be baited to attacking you in your influence areas, where your stats are heavily boosted, and its weakened. At this point I should mention its worth saving regularly and to different save files. On one of the later stages I encountered a late game glitch which would crash to desktop when saving or loading, which would also corrupt the save. The game does auto save, but it didn’t help in this instance. It was only on one map, but frustrating enough.

Graphics
The game is really showing its age, and it wasn’t the prettiest game when it was first released. The game engine can’t scale graphics so I ended up having to set the native resolution to 1080P to be able to play correctly. The menus are well laid out once you get past the tutorial dungeon, and it does a good job of introducing concepts and explaining the game mechanics. Any items can be placed freely in the rooms or tunnels, and there is plenty of gimmicks to place around the dungeon to grab the attention of heroes. If you want to explore as the dungeon lord you can, and it’s a poor man’s zoomed in over the shoulder version compared to the first person possession that dungeon keeper had. The creature animation is ok, though they are missing death animations. The Dungeons looks ok, and the stages are well designed.

Music
The soundtrack and creature effects aren’t a strong point in the game. Your in game helper is a weedy goblin, so all of the missions and in game announcements are narrated in a squealy high pitch voice. The few bosses that deliver missions don’t sound so bad, but calypso dialogue isn’t well written. The creatures don’t make much noise, and there’s only the occasional line from heroes as they do something. There’s plenty of sound effects from magic being cast, swords clanging but it all merges into a discordant mess. The music was unmemorable.

DLC
The games has 2 DLC options, one being a map pack and one a new campaign option following calypso. Both are entirely optional, and the base game doesn’t actually advise where this new campaign is activated from.

Achievements
The game doesn’t support achievements.

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Katana Zero is a side scrolling hack and slash platformer where you need precision control to murder your way through each stage, as you try to uncover your past. It offers plenty of fun gameplay as you master your abilities, and a fairly free ability to make the story evolve as you want to along with a pumping soundtrack. I highly recommend playing it if you haven’t already, though an average run only last a few hours.

Story
You play as an amnesic katana wielding assassin who can slow down time and uses precognitive abilities to plan your path through stages. I found the story great, and it had plenty of twists I didn’t expect and kept me guessing as to what was real and what the character was imagining until it all came together in the end, though there are a few lose plot points I wish the game explored further. It feels heavily influenced by the Vietnam War, and has equivalents of a lot of controversial topics. Between each mission you have therapy sessions with your shrink to help with your PSTD from the war you fought in, and nightmares after each completed mission. Depending on how targets were eliminated, dialogue options you pick and if you follow orders the story re-frames itself, which can keep you (the player) in the dark about what is happening, or completely change your perception of what’s happening. Are you a war vet having a mental breakdown, a pawn of a clandestine shadowy government operation, or something else? I didn’t see the ending coming, which totally puts a different slant on the entire game.

Gameplay
Wow. I found this seriously fun to play. The gameplay is simple, but requires a good deal of precision as you dodge, slow down time, throw object and reflect bullets back at enemies as you work towards each target. Even being out slightly results in death, and results in a restart of the screen you are on, but thankfully each stage is small so you aren’t losing tons of time and effort with each death. Each of the stages is well designed, with a few different options for you to move around as you murder your way through to your target. Every enemy needs to be dealt with, you mission guidelines don’t allow you to leave anyone alive. After each mission you have the option of watching your run, which I thought was fairly cool.

Enemies are copies of each other so you know their attack profiles, and while they might be generic they are deadly. All of them are crack shots if you are standing still or not using your abilities, and throw in some of the traps found in each stage or environmental hazards makes for interesting combat. You have a few different one time objects you can find scattered across each stage which can be thrown at enemies or used to help you progress.

The game isn’t afraid to change things up, some missions have you progressing while remaining unseen (like sneaking into a prison or nightclub), and encourage you to not kill anyone, while a later stages has you babysitting a mining kart while racing to hit the track mechanisms to keep it moving. There’s a stage where you are chasing down a boss and killing mobs while riding a motorbike down the highway, and a stage where you control someone else who has similar abilities to you but is more in control of them.

Boss fights are interesting, with some of them skipping ahead if you fail enough, but most require the precision fighting techniques to pass, and become easier when you have the patterns figured out. The hidden boss fight was a great Akria reference!

The game has some replayabilitiy in the fact that you can load up missions and change your response to certain areas, which can change future outcomes. This can change what you experience in the nightmares and potentially opens up a secret boss, as well as achievements. There is also a hard mode and speed run mode for those who wish to test themselves.

Graphics
The game is pixel based, but looks great with that aesthetic. As you kill enemies, the blood sprays over the walls and furniture, leaving you painting the stages with enemy’s blood. It’s easy to tell where you are and if enemies can see you or if they are alerted, though I ran into a few instances where the enemies were shooting at me from off screen. Depending on the character’s state of mind screen distortion or other effects can occur which messes with you, and feeds into the story. I didn’t experience any issues or bugs while playing the game, it feels highly polished.

Music
The soundtrack is heavily synth based, with a large dose of drums. I found the soundtrack great to listen to, with their being plenty of variety and the mission music kind of energising you, while the music outside of stages feeling dark. Its available as a separate purchase if soundtracks are your thing.

Achievements
Most of the achievements are easy enough to get, however the speedrun and hard mode might cause issues for some.

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Halo 3 is the 2014 Xbox One re-release (originally released in 2007), ported across to steam in 2020. While it doesn’t get the full remake treatment that previous games got, it has significant visual improvements, and is great fun to play. The campaign was enjoyable and picks right off from where the previous game ended, combat is fluid and action packed, and there are plenty of new gameplay mechanics freshen up combat. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play.

Story
The story picks right up from the end of Halo 2, and only briefly recaps prior events so if you are coming into this without having played Halo 2 there will be some knowledge gaps. The story starts with Master Chief and a strange cast of allies, including the primary antagonists from both previous games trying to stop the Prophet of Truth from continuing his plans on Earth and the wider galaxy. Cortana, who was left behind in the Covenant’s capital city ship is still MIA but has managed to leave enough clues to her whereabouts via the flood for MC to try and find her. Optional terminals are scattered around the world which explain the last moments of the Forerunners (the race that is responsible for much of the backstory of Halo) and explains why they built the Halo arrays and neatly sets up future Halo games. It also acts as a sort of closure to the first 3 games, with many of the recurring cast of allies and enemies perishing in the events that lead to the end of the game.

Gameplay
Stage design follows the series formula, with each chapter(stage) being broken down into multiple acts (save points). There’s still a bit of back tracking through some stages, though its migrated to in the same chapter, rather than revisiting the same map across different chapters. Many stages are again a varied mix of vehicle combat and run and gun shooting (with a few stages having you battling large mini boss type enemies). There are frequent autosave points, hidden collectables or other Easter eggs to find, all which are very well hidden or require outside knowledge to collect. Skulls return to being able to be collected in any difficulty.

The games combat has been tweaked significantly from previous entries. You can still only carry 2 weapons and can still dual wield smaller weapons in mixed combinations, with the drawback being prevented using grenades until the second weapon is dropped. Larger weapons (like miniguns, flamer throwers and plasma turrets) can now be removed from brackets and fired, though when done so they have limited ammo and slow your movement (as well as stopping grenade usage). Additionally, single use special items can now also be carried, which include portable bubble shields, invisibility packs and shield regenerators.

There are plenty of new weapons that have been added in additional to the above with directed energy beams for one shotting tanks, additional brute handgun variants (I liked the spikers and maulers), and a new massive hammer for when you need to pound any enemies around you into paste with one hit. The battle rifle also makes a return to help with those mid to long range fights where a well placed shot will make all the difference. There are plenty of new vehicles to drive (some are locked to multiplayer), though the brute choppa’s were my new favourite for the campaign, a brick like motorcycle that can scythe enemies down and contains a fairly damaging gun that fires in a direct line.

Firefights are fairly interesting as in many of the earlier stages there are a mix of allies fighting with you, from fellow UNSC marines, to Covenant elites and even some parts where the flood are helping you, though there aren’t many instances where there are 3 way battles happening unlike previous entries.

You still have total control over how you want to play the missions, from difficulty to what additional modifies you want active (skulls). Replay value is high if you want a challenge, as there are plenty of modes to play in (score attack and par time), and lots of achievements to unlock.

Graphics
I thought the graphics looked great, and I was surprised to find out that they hadn’t been remastered, but still looked this good. The game now supports 60 FPS and 4K graphics with some enhanced graphics options, and runs smooth which is a vast improvement over the original 720p release. A field of view slider is now included, so how far out objects can be drawn can be toggled if required (in case you’re running a 10+ year old video card). I didn’t encounter any graphics issues.

The stage design is great, though it does feel fairly liner even with some of the wider areas. There are plenty of environments to traverse through, from jungles on earth, military bases and warehouses, spaceships, a new halo ring and even inside a flood infested map that resembles a digestive tract. There were also plenty of maps where you are again traversing by any of the multitude of vehicles to control.

There are a few new enemies this time around, with the brutes having a few variants with the melee commander being an absolute bullet sponge. Drones have been revamped (and are annoying to kill as they jink constantly in the air). The flood haven’t been left out, with plenty of new forms for all the existing and new enemy types, and an annoying spider which changes into a living turret or large golem bullet soaking sponge.

Music
I haven’t been disappointed by a Halo soundtrack yet, and Halo 3 doesn’t disappoint. The soundtrack really seems to fits what’s happening as you play, and there are plenty of tracks that have great guitar and drum beats. The base variants of the tracks I liked the most from the previous games return. The music this time around hasn’t been remastered, so it’s more or less what was in the original game.

Multiplayer
Halo 3 offers 4 player co-op now and seems like it would be a great way to play on the harder difficulties (or just to have fun with some friends). Halo3 seemed to have a lot more happening for it for multiplier and still seems active, though if you have good group of friends ready you could get a session going easily enough.

Achievements
No. Just no. you would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires 5+ runs on legendary and the multiplayer achievements might be hard to get without boosting with a few friends due to lack of available games.

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/

Lego: Jurassic World is a child friendly, action adventure Lego adaption of the first 4 films of the Jurassic Park series. It offers a good amount of kid friendly puzzle solving, free world exploration, and plenty of collectables and characters to unlock. If you are looking for a suitable couch co-op game to play with a younger player you wouldn’t go wrong with this, and I recommend picking it up. Any kids who are dinosaur fans should love playing with the custom dinosaur maker, and stomping, flying or swimming around the islands.

Story
The game follows major events from the first 4 films, but most of the darker moments (like people getting eaten or hurt) have been replaced with humour or are skipped over.

Gameplay
You play as characters from each of the major events of each movie, and each stage generally follows what happens in the movies. You control multiple characters at a time (and sometimes dinosaurs), all which have unique abilities and are required at certain parts of the stage to progress through puzzles or certain boss battles. The game breaks these major events up with free roam between missions, where you can hunt for hidden bricks and rewards, purchase additional characters or vehicles or generally explore and retry missions.

Nearly everything in the environment in both missions or free roam can be broken for bricks, which are used to purchase everything in the game. Dying causes you to spill some bricks, but these can be picked up if your quick enough. Each of the stages has 10 minikits to collect (which unlocks a dinosaur skeleton to play as), as well as a amber block (to unlock a dinosaur). In free roam, each area has plenty of activities to do, such as helping sick dinosaurs, taking pictures, racing, finding the red bricks (which unlock cheats), or collecting golden bricks. The hub area is much improved over previous Lego games, allowing you to select which island to explore, and then selecting each mission or free roam area as you see fit. Each area’s map shows any outstanding puzzles or collectables to get.

The game does have low level violence, with “killed” players exploding into their lego bits, but they are respawned instantly to continue on and should be suitable for younger players. There is very little fighting, other than a few smaller dinosaurs that attack, or a few instances of raptors jumping out from bushes. In places where people would have died in the movies, they can be seen playing poker inside the dinosaur’s stomach, the raptors wear their hats while they run away screaming, are seen being burped up at the end of the stage or get flicked away into the distance.

The controls are intuitive if using a controller, and I found easy to pick up. I did find the save feature lacking, with you being required to either finish a stage (or reaching a save point inside the mission), or finding a collectable to save your current brick count. While late game this isn’t an issue, it can be annoying early on when you are trying to save up to unlock things.

Graphics
Its Jurassic Park, in Lego! The graphics aren’t going to wow you, but I found the environments well designed, and it’s always fun watching the characters build new things in Lego for the puzzles. nothing seemed to glitch, characters didn’t get stuck or caught in invisible objects. Kids will love the custom dinosaur and character creator, especially if they have any of the lego kits at home which allow them to do this. The environments were very destructible, and well put together.

Music
The voice acting was good, with Jurassic world actors having new lines added. The VA for the first 3 games was taken from the movies with very little new recorded dialog, so it sticks closer to what happened in the films. The music also followed the beats of the movies, and had some great scores, but the stand out tracks are saved for the cinematics like going through the park gates.

Multiplayer
This game was made of couch co-op. A second local player (no online play available) can easily join your game and take control of any of the spare characters. In story missions this is locked to who is available to play as, but in free play you can play as who you want. The screens split vertically, and merge together when both players are near each other. Both players have to be in the same map (game), but are independent as long as they neither enter a mission or changes what game they are in.

DLC
The 3 DLC packs are just skins, and unless you really want the few characters or car in a different colour I couldn’t recommend them.

Achievements
The achievements are super easy to get, and while some might sound difficult to get, once you have a few red bricks unlocked become super easy.

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Halo 2 Anniversary is the 2014 Xbox One remake (originally released in 2004) that was ported across to steam in 2019. It directly continues the story from where the previous entry left off, and like its predecessor has improved graphics, movies and music, along with plenty of extras. If you’re a fan of FPS’s, and haven’t played it you should. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play.

Story
Starting effectively right after the end of the first game, Halo 2 does a great job of expanding the setting of the Halo universe and giving context to why the Covenant is trying to wipe out all humans, and how the Covenant function as a society. Splitting its perspective to both sides, you follow Master Chief & Cortana in trying to stop the Covenant from attacking Earth and sabotaging their future plans, while also following the Covenant Elite commander who is branded a heretic for its failure in stopping Master Chief in the previous game and demoted to the outcast role of Arbiter, a pariah to all and expected to continue fighting missions for the council until it dies. The added terminals add a lot of additional foreshadowing and really expand on each of the separate races that make up the Covenant, so it’s worthwhile find them to watch (or watching from the extra area).

Gameplay
Following Halo: CE’s stage design, most stages are quite varied and large, thought it involves a lot less backtracking through the same environments this time around. Each chapter is still broken into multiple acts, and many stages are again a varied mix of vehicle combat and run and gun shooting. Again there are frequent autosave points, hidden collectables (which expand the story for foreshadow events) or other Easter eggs to find, though everything seems to be much more well-hidden this time around, and Skulls only appear on Legendary difficulty. The game seems to have done away with the endless flood spawning points of Halo CE, so now it’s usually a few waves of enemies before you reach a checkpoint, but there are a few ambush points where there are a lot of enemies with little to no rest in between waves that make life difficult.

The Covenant forces have been expanded and its interesting when you start to see the 3 way battles between the Covenant and flood forces late game. Shielded enemies don’t feel like bullet sponges anymore, but Brutes take that space now and hunters seem to be a lot more susceptible to being shot in the back. Drones are also annoying, as there’s usually tons of them and they fly around everywhere. This time around there’s mini bosses stage that require a sequence of events to beat them.

You are still limited to 2 separate weapons, but the new dual wielding mechanic allows you to mix quite a few of the weapons together for interesting combos and delivering a ton of damage. The Covenant weapons other than the carbine still don’t add extra ammo when you run over others so it’s a manual task of picking up guns with more ammo. There are a lot more larger weapons in Halo2, giving you the choice of a few powerful but limited weapons, of sticking to the standard load outs of weapons you can find.

Vehicle combat is still very much a thing (which is great), and the roster of what you can drive has increased, although majority of what you will find is Covenant based. The scorpion tank absolutely destroys anything it hits, while there are plenty of fliers to shoot down.

You have total control over how you want to play the missions, from difficulty, the what additional modifies you want active (skulls) to music and graphic remixes. Replay value is high if you want a challenge, as there are plenty of modes to play in (score attack and par time), and lots of achievements to unlock.

Graphics
Like Halo CE I thought the graphics looked great (remembering that the remake is 8 years old). You have options to switch between the original graphics and remastered graphics at any time, and there are a ton of visual options to tweak. Larger screens are supported and it doesn’t stretch the output to fit, and while it’s not using 4K textures the remastered graphics add a lot to the environment and landscape. The in game movies have changed from in game assets to fully rendered clips and look stunning when compared to the originals. If you want that nostalgia hit, you can actually watch them in their original glory, but need to be in that mode before they start playing.

Each stage is massive, and well designed. There are varying environments, from corridor shootouts to vast firefights over abandoned temples, futuristic alien cities and spaceships. The building textures on the earth mission through the bombed out city started looking the same. I loved the fact that in the outdoor missions you can see the rest of the Halo ring in the sky (though I found it to be the inverse of the Halo CE, in this instance I could only see it when the remastered graphics were off).

Music
The music is great, just like the original. The soundtrack really seems to fits what’s happening as you play, and there are plenty of tracks that have great guitar and drum beats, like reclaimer or the halo theme. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to both versions of the soundtrack (remix and classic). Weapon sound effects in the remastered version have more depth to them, though do you have the option to switch back if you wish. The character’s speech just sounds better, especially in the movies. I chuckled at some of the skull effects like the high prophet’s guitar riffs.

Multiplayer
Halo 2 offers 2 player co-op and seems like it would be a great way to play on the harder difficulties. I thought legendary was difficult in Halo:CE, but this felt worse, I could have used some backup to stop me getting owned all the time! If you’re into the other multiplayer game modes, then you are in luck but the few times I checked Halo2 didn’t have as many games available as the newer entries in the series, though if you have good group of friends ready you could get a session going easily enough.

Achievements
No. Just no. You would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires 5+ runs on legendary and the multiplayer achievements might be hard to get without boosting with a few friends due to lack of available games.

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/