Recent reviews by Anubins

An actual surprise gem - and absolutely perfect if you're a fan of single player, story driven cinematic experience games like Uncharted.

A few years back, I went into it a little sour, admittedly - all I'd heard about the game until this point was smatterings of positivity, but primarily people were just hating on it for being a Square Enix product that didn't include the words "Final", "Fantasy", "Kingdom" or "Hearts" in it. The original reveal at, I think E3? Yeah, that pretty much got hated on immediately for not being news on those series. But when you take that context aside, and just let the game do what it wants to do? It sings.

There were a few early bits that irked me, like how Quill doesn't even look towards Rocket during the first on-ship cutscene with the two of them. I chalked it up to a visual bug, and just let it slide, but it does leave a slightly bitter first impression at times. However, the dialogue was fun enough, inoffensive, and felt relatively real for a newer, fresher set of Guardians who don't entirely trust each other or know how they tick. But that's kind of the secret sauce here - that dialogue starts feeling more natural and the Guardians start feeling more like a cohesive unit as the game goes along, with them working out their personal issues and differences.

In short, so far - slightly janky first experience, but compelling enough to continue.

The story does get to some extremely good character deconstruction when you start getting to the meat and bones of the story, with every single Guardian having their own agendas and skeletons they're sorting out in real time as you go. They accost Quill for not enough forward planning, they take shots when they can, and just generally act like real people unsure of each other. Quill himself is also needing to learn how to step up and be a leader beyond simple toxic positivity, and your choices available to you reflect that for where he's at at those points in the story, bouncing between trying to keep everyone focused, and offering one too many platitudes.

Needless to say, it's incredibly satisfying just going on this journey with them. Eidos understands what makes these guys work, and takes inspiration from the comics and films in equal measure to make something that has the visual and audio texture of the films, but the depth and scale of the comics. It's genuinely a great ride through and through. Don't get put off by the negative first look people had - the game is absolutely worth a play through if you can get your hands on it.

Ace Attorney meets Dungeons & Dragons, if your game was ran by a more roleplay heavy DM than combat one. All the spells are there with the same names, but in this case, it's what can you infer about someone's spell library to commit a crime than direct usage of it, that sort of thing.

Honestly, this game hits the same highs as Ace Attorney 1 and Great Ace Attorney for me. There's a *ton* of things it brings to the table that I thought made an interesting spin on the formula, and while they're fairly basic in this game, I can totally see how they'd expand and extrapolate on them.

Some of my favourite aspects are to do with presentation, like the ways that it uses simple typography - when there's a dramatic decision, single words pop into the screen with a typewriter sound effect for each, then slam down as the whole sentence afterwards. It's genuinely kind of cool and effective, and the character introduction cut ins have this really satisfying motion to them, same with their take on the witness testimony sign.

Vibes-wise, Tyrion as a whole feels more like Great Ace Attorney, where there's less direct silly comedy and more down to earth comedy that's contextual. It does a MUCH better job than AA of putting interesting situations to the players, though, even on the mundane side of things. Solving magical murders is inherently quite intriguing due to the nature of how creatively the spells are used, but even just the characters' personalities and how they elicit certain responses from each other helps make them interesting.

What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ finale, too, though. Absolutely hits the highs of GAA, with me talking out all possible options to figure out the right responses. I expected the game to be pretty good, but for being an incredibly small indie title, it does absolutely blow my expectations away. Absolutely grab this if you've enjoyed AA, because it's 110% worth your time.

When I bought this game after umm-ing and ahh-ing about it for a while, I expected more or less Theme Hospital IN SPACE, but what I didn't expect was for it to genuinely have a narrative that I was kind of hooked on and with characters I grew to adore. Seriously, I can't overstate how important the story was to this game, a management game of all things. It works. A lot.

MEDI and HEAL are your two primary touchpoints, joined by a rotating cast of allies and rivals who take centre-stage for a sec, then hop back away once they're sorted. MEDI is a janitorial bot who's upbeat and HEAL is the sardonic, jaded advisor who screws with him every chance he gets... initially anyway. These two learn to become more like actual friends as the story goes on, and in one later stage, HEAL threatens someone's life if harm came to MEDI - which is a standout moment considering he couldn't stand him in the first stages. I'm trying to avoid too much spoilers, but... it's good, and the humour hit for me a *lot*.

In terms of how it actually plays, it's definitely familiar if you've played Theme Hospital or Two Point Hospital. You do have to decorate the rooms and hallways with a few specific traits in mind for the patients (humans like basic decorations, tenki like upgraded rooms, etc), which I felt helped me actually think about the aesthetics of my hospital quite a bit. Normally, I'd be plopping down rooms and not caring *too* much about the hallway visuals, but it never hurts to have a bench flanked by plants along the walls somewhere, window above it.

That said, it definitely doesn't get particularly difficult - which is absolutely not a complaint from me, let me assure you. There's moments where you do need to hold off and let the money come in for a spell, but deadlier illnesses can more or less be solved by a hallway upgrade around your seating that reduces health decline in an area, for example. If not that, then having 2-3 copies of any particular treatment room never hurts, with the GP's office being as usual even more than that. Given I much preferred Two Point Campus over Two Point Hospital *precisely because* it was an easier experience, I'd say this does sing to me - I make sure the mechanical functions are there, then focus on making the darn thing look real nice.

Honestly, I don't regret this purchase one bit, very much recommend it. It's definitely a niche genre, being a management game that's more about design than difficulty, but absolutely do not let it go under your radar. It's a great game that feels way more polished than I was expecting for such a small team!

I do hope we'll get some post-launch DLC support to keep that interest moving. The devs have a good history of supporting War for the Overworld, so here's hoping!

It's how I *remember* RoR1 playing, including the absolutely insane difficulty compared to 2, with an art update and new characters that honestly revitalise how to approach it. The new graphics can be a bit weird if you're used to the old set, such as some platforms looking like they should end a lot earlier than they do, but they have also fixed how awkward it was setting up multiplayer games, which is a hell of a plus.

It really is just how you remember RoR1, for all that encompasses to mean, but with new content - like how Age of Empires 2 keeps getting new DLC. If they do keep adding to this and RoR2, I think there's a duo of incredibly solid games that you can keep going back to, here.

Turn-based strategy was a weird direction to take after honing the beat-em-up formula in Judgement (PS4), but Like A Dragon pulls it off aplomb. Especially so when the game requires little to no knowledge of prior games.

The classes are incredibly inventive (Chef as your Ninja with all the movements that come with that, anyone?) based on real-world jobs outside of character unique classes, which you - of course - spec into from a job centre. The game manages to make these outright daft concepts work in the serious framework of the central narrative by enabling the more strange aspects to come in full-force in the substories - though this is no secret to anyone who's played a previous Yakuza.

Managing the tone shift between a serious crime drama and a lighthearted, goofy adventure is something Yakuza has gotten incredibly adept at. Delving into oft-forgotten and heavily downtrodden rungs of society, political corruption from the head of state, and the ramifications of well-intentioned activists tearing down the walls of illegal immigration leading to vast amounts of suffering are all explored quite lengthily in this game. Yet, this is also a game where you can fight a gigantic roomba that has a secret ultra-hyper mode. So, you know.

After finishing the story in roughly 70 hours, including some time spent in minigames and class grinding at the battle arena, I can safely say I do think Yakuza handles a turn-based strategy story-heavy RPG with mastery. The narrative was wildly engaging, even if it felt to go off track during some early portions. These early moments in the game do however open up new aspects of the title, such as the job centre, substories, summons, or otherwise simply encouraging you to play some minigames.

The only real downside to the game's mechanical systems is that the classes peak around their level 30s, which is where the story climaxes with your actual character levels (separate from their class) around level 60. With no real reason for the rest of the levels to exist beyond a final bonus dungeon after the story's climax, this is a bit of a shame given how inventive the classes truly are. A few more moves to level up and obtain as character skills would do wonders for the game, especially if there were more class options to choose from. What the game has already does, admittedly, serve a wonderful base of simple class archetypes, but with a bit of imagination it's hard not to see the system being developed further and further, with more choices and levels to attain.

All this said, I do not regret my purchase one bit. I adored every second of this game, and I'm still listening to the soundtrack weeks after completing it. If you're looking for a Yakuza to start with, this one might just be the one you're looking for.

Team racing is something I want to see influence any other racer out there - kart or not. TSR proves it can work wonders with some very simple tweaks, and with character barks to communicate what's happening on the race, it's never a dull moment.

Team Sonic Riders next? I'd hope so.

Improves on every aspect of the original - even including the original levels with the new mechanics if you bought it. While at launch the number of levels is a mite small compared to the one from a few years back, it's worth noting that one was released episodically, and there are still two expansion passes to fulfil with Hitman 2 so far. That's at least two more levels yet to come.

Still, the levels that are here are absolutely worth the scale and scope. Miami and Santa Fortuna feature that same idea of various few microcosms that Sapienza did extremely well, while taking the aesthetic into places that haven't been too often explored. Whittleton Creek is a suburb like one fan favourite in the original games, and helps to offer a different kind of thinking to get around, and the final level is straight out of the first Kingsman film. It's bloody great.

Hitman 2 is extremely rewarding to slowly uncover all the different ways that make the levels tick, and to then finally plan out your assassination once you have enough information. It's brilliantly executed.

£4 for two extra dimensions to the levels with Mighty and Ray, with some edits to the stages to make them harder? Pretty good deal, I'd say.

Mighty's hammer drop fits right in with Mania's stages, both Encore Mode's edits as well as the normal Mania Mode. Hammer drop breaks the ice cubes in Press Garden, drop hidden item boxes, can be used to chase the airdrop bombs in Flying Battery once they've broken through, or bounce off of sloped angles for a bit of momentum. Spikes can also be used as maneuver tools (similar to bouncing off enemies) if you're careful, since he can bounce right off damaging items when in ball form. Mighty's biggest strength is that his gimmick works throughout many scenarios within the game.

Ray is a little different. His gimmick is a speedier glide with more height, but not enough height to do what Tails can. It's fun and useful, but it doesn't feel to quite work around the levels in such a way that Mighty's does. When mastered, it can allow you essentially a free double jump, or crossing areas that would normally take a long while to get through with ease, but it doesn't feel quite as rewarding.

Both, however, are excellent additions to an already great game. By providing new angles to approach the stages at, they showcase some of the best parts of Sonic's tried-and-true platforming.

Quite honestly the single best example of a hack and slash ever created. Witch Time is the most rewarding mechanic in any of these games ever.

Aven Colony is a pretty neat game, but one that seems to require a bit of nuancing to describe it.

First off, the closest comparison it has is Tropico, where rather than being a total sandbox, you have objective driven maps and goals. However, unlike Tropico, it does guide you to create a functioning city rather than one a - albeit hilarious - tinpot dictator would make some money from. This means you're going to be trying your best to really make things work, rather than having the leeway that Tropico offers to force things to work for you. I walked in expecting something more like Cities Skylines, but in reality, it's almost its own thing, straddling the line between many different types of city builder.

Aesthetically, it's beautiful - the alien landscapes and sci-fi building hubs look stunning and the overall UI is very cohesive with the style offered. It's difficult to see the people walking along the paths due to the scale and scope, but you can zoom in and click on one to get their opinion of how you're doing all the same. I personally kept forgetting about this, since you're usually zoomed out to look for what to build next, admittedly.

The team are making new content drops periodically which involve new buildings and maps, which I really do appreciate. The first of these offered an in-colony transportation network, which was absolutely something that needed adding and was one of my personal qualms with the game. Without transport, it became unwieldy trying to support your population, but now that they can travel throughout the colony to access your different supplies, there's a ton more options.

This game is a little small, but with a few more content drops and possibly a new expansion or two, I think this can become a great game. Might be worth waiting for a sale, but honestly, I've thoroughly enjoyed what it's offered so far.