Recent reviews by Viking

So much choice in one package.

Love some FMV games and this one doesn't disappoint. Simpler story as it's all based around a family quiz night but the humour is spot on.

If you're a fan of Lovecraft's work, you need to experience this.

I'm rubbish at it, but I love it.

I've only played a small part so far but this is bringing back so many happy memories from Amiga days of shmups, only with a much richer coat of graphical flare. Even the soundtrack keeps the blood pumping. It's tough but fair. Highly recommended for any shmup fan.

Really quite enjoyable old-skool style platformer BUT with a few of annoyances. Positive review only if you don't mind the below points.

1. You must use a joypad. Not that annoying but some people might not like this.
2. The camera can be pants at times. Especially later on.
3. If you plan on 100%ing it, prepare to be REALLY annoyed:
- Annoying arcade games you need to beat twice.
- On-the-rails (literally) collect em up sections on a rolling cart.
- Some timed sections that will irritate.
- End of game boss is a bit of a pain, having to repeat all phases (of which there are 4) if you die at any point.

Apart from that, I enjoyed it. Plus I still need to 100% it...

Bored all the way through. Such a slow, monotonous experience. There are multiple endings but seeing only one will do me.

This is more an ambivalent rating. But if I had to choose, I'd say not recommended.
Played once, all achievements gained in that play. Uninstalled.

Without wanting to spoil anything (and I won't spoil the ending, even though it did nothing for me) the game starts off with your father turning up hurt and you need to go to a far off land for the cure.
All the way through the game I just kept on thinking "It's dangerous enough getting to the place but have you actually thought about getting back? No. Neither of you have. And it's probably going to take longer to get home as on the way all sorts of lucky breaks happen that speed you on your journey. I wonder if something utterly illogical will happen to help you on the way back...?"
That logic spoiled it completely for me, storywise. On top of that I have no idea what language (it's probably made up) they all spoke but you do get the jist of what's going on. With this barrier, I just couldn't connect with the characters, so didn't care what happened to them.

PROS:
-The scenery is very nice.
- Controlling 2 characters at once is cool.
- Simple but interesting puzzles.
- Doesn't take too long to complete.

CONS:
- The character models are not as nice.
- Controlling 2 characters at once has been done before (see Kuri Kuri Mix on PS2).
- No replay value apart from sweeping up any missed achievements.

Episode 1 was pretty dull. Get past that and partway through Episode 2 things start to improve with the start of "the feels".
My biggest issue with the game is there's so much talking, rewinding, replaying conversations with slightly different outcomes. It's a neat idea but does start to drag somewhat later on.
By Episode 3 things were getting better as you start to know more about the characters. Nobody is straight up good or bad, just differing shades of grey.
Episode 4 was the major changer. Just so good.
Then Episode 5 happened. The story seemed to be over. Then it wasn't. Then it was. Then, the ending...
I'm not going to spoil anything but the mega-feels kick in at this point. It made me think back over the whole story again from the start and that's a good thing.
It didn't quite pull on the heart strings as much as To The Moon (in my opinion) but it was a close second.

Recommended, as long as you don't mind clicking through lots of conversations for what is basically a very nicely written story.

Atmospheric to hell. But not hell and back again. Just into more hell. Deep, deep hell. The story pulls you along at a steady pace. If you're not running away from monsters, you're having an existential crisis. Highly recommended even though none of the 'choices' you make in the game actually affect the outcome. By the time the curtain falls you will be thinking about what has just happened though.