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Trenches Review (PS5) – The Horrors Of War (& Porting)

By Sean Davies
0

There’s a few locations that should be a real slam duck in terms of location for a horror game. Creepy mansions, mysterious underground laboratories and abandoned schools are the most obvious and as such, are among the most frequent in the genre. The war torn trenches of the world wars however feel relatively untapped.

Trenches, a short First-Person World War l survival horror game from a single team member at Steelkrill Studios, is one game that attempts to utilise its titular location as part of its scares. Originally released on PC back in 2021, the game has crawled under the barbed wire to release on consoles. Unfortunately, the porting process has seen some noticeable issues appear in the PS5 version.

“Only the dead have seen the end of war”

Trenches is an amalgamation of a supernatural story combined with real world WW1 photographs. In the game you play as a James R Johnson, a soldier that finds themselves in a trench somewhere in 1917. The game isn’t more specific than that. At the very start of the game, your character is looking at a picture of a family before being allowed to freely roam around the titular trench network.

You don’t have to travel far before you start to realise that something is very wrong here. After moving through the initial segment, you’re drawn to a doll that’s lying on the ground by the ear piecing sound of a baby crying. Red writing on a wall (a trite trope at this point) indicates that there are 9 of these dolls in the trenches. In order to escape the muddy, rain slick lanes, you’ll need to collect all 9 of these dolls then find a ladder. To find these dolls in the foggy corridor, you have to follow the sound of a baby crying. Yes, that’s about as annoying as it sounds.

Trenches Skeleton

While you explore the trenches, the supernatural aspect of the game becomes far more prominent. There’s jump scares a-plenty as ghostly women, tall abominations, disembodied hands and more attempt to shred your nerves. Things will move on their own or you’ll briefly see shady figures peering around corners. It’s an almost non-stop barrage of jump scares which sets the game’s tone. This tone is complemented the sounds of war and people suffering out in the distance.

What waits in the fog of war…

While none of the jump scares in Trenches will cause you any physical harm, there is another danger that’s lethal. Stalking the wood lined lanes of entrenchments is an abomination of a creature. This creature responds to your presence, moving in on your location when you cause any of the wood flooring to creak beneath your feet. It clomps towards you with the footsteps getting louder as they close in. If they clap their eyeless face on you, your only hope is to run to one of the hiding spots dotted through the trenches.

This is where Trenches starts to fall apart. The AI for this creature is not anywhere near as intelligent or aggressive enough. I didn’t even know this monster existed in my first play through the game until near the end. It just felt like an invisible set of foot step sounds that occasionally got louder. It’s certainly possible to walk through the entire game without ever coming face to face with it. If you do get caught by this creature, you’re back to the start of the game. All progress is lost.

What you’re left with is an admittedly atmospheric jaunt around some muddy trenches that relies heavily on jump scares that quickly lose their potency. You may or may not run into something more threatening, and if you don’t, the most terrorising aspect of this game is the repeated noise of babies crying. Those moments when you bump into the monster can be thrilling, especially if they’re unexpected. Because of the AI’s limitations however, those are few and far between.

Porting problems

To compound this, it’s very obvious that a lot of concessions have been made in order to get Trenches running on the PS4 & PS5. The original PC version, even in its Early Access state in 2021, looks somewhat realistic. There was decent lighting, a decent enough draw distance and while the textures were repetitive, they looked highly detailed. None of those aspects are true of the PS5 version.

Trenches PS5

The textures look dull throughout, lacking the detail from the PC version. The lighting is off, with much of the trenches unresponsive to a giant spotlight that gives off enough lens flare to make JJ Abrams proud. The fog in the PC version looked thick but realistic, where as it looks like thick, airborne porridge in the PS5 version. A lot of the finer details in the distance have gone too, or are hidden completely by the fog.

There’s a few bugs in the PS5 version of Trenches too. In my second play through of the game (after finally getting caught by the monster near the end on my first), a loud sound played repeatedly. It sounded like one of the sound effects that accompanies some of the jumps cares but for whatever reason, it simply played over and over. I ended up switching off the game as I couldn’t hear the baby crying sound effects. Then there’s the occasional wall that flickers in and out of existence as you walk by them.

Missing In Action

Finally, in the PC version of Trenches, there’s a log of sorts where you can refer back to the documents you’ve collected. This can be letters from the front line or helpful hints in the game. That feature is missing entirely from the console version. At one point in the game, you collect a map with which you can help navigate the maze like corridors. In the console version, there appeared to be no way to bring that up. You get one glance at the map and that’s your lot.

Despite its flaws however, there’s some well put together scare hiding in Trenches that utilise real World War 1 context. At times, photographs of life in the war flash before your eyes, for example. I won’t spoil it here, but when you finish the game, there’s context given to the whole experience. While I couldn’t find any evidence of it being a real story on the internet, it’s a plausible story about the horrors of war, both in and beyond the trenches. For that alone, this game might be worth an hour of your time.

It has suffered in the porting process from PC to PS4/PS5 but Trenches is still worth an hour of your time if you’re into jump-scare heavy horrors. By combining supernatural scares with the real horrors of trench warfare, it can certainly be unsettling at times. It’s a shame the bugs and quality issues can be equally as unsettling.

Trenches is available now on PS5 (review version), PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Developer: Steelkrill Studio
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete other reviews, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here. This game was bought by the reviewer.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.

Chasing Static Review (PS5) – Radio Ghoul Ghoul 

By Joshua Thompson
0

Chasing Static may sound like a crude auto-fill suggestion for the D’n’B duo Chase & Status, but it’s in fact a precise description of going to one of their concerts… As well as the newly released game by Headware Games, published by Ratalaika. I’ve said this before in my Voyage review, but Ratalaika have recently become quite the competent curator for low-budget indie games that could fly under your radar, but definitely shouldn’t.

Silent Hearth

Set in North Wales during the dead of night, you play as a character called Chris who has just attended his father’s funeral. Torrential rain and whipping winds drive you to take shelter in a lone roadside café in the middle of nowhere. Not long after your much-needed coffee break you are seemingly teleported into a reality that’s lost in time. The cakes that once sat in the display are rotten, the walls are grungy and chipped away. Exploring the foreboding rural land, you’ll shortly come across a Frequency Displacement Monitoring Device (I’ll refer it to as FDMD from now on), it’s described in the game as an FM radio. Poking the attached microphone around your surroundings picks up frequencies which enable you to discover the secrets of the town and hopefully escape in one piece.

Government cover-ups, strange anomalies and glowing green fungus litter your environments in an open approach on how you uncover the mystery. Besides an opening and closing sequence, the story is up for yourself to discover putting all the pieces together to paint the full picture. Character dialogue has an uncanny charm similarly to how Silent Hill 2 did back in its day and whilst it’s not perfect, Chris does go on a poignant journey. Chasing Static goes to strange places narratively but ending on a human note definitely sold the shrouded plot. There are also multiple endings adding to its replayability and subtle differences in your actions can alter your end resulting in a “good” or “bad” ending. The bulk of the game does have notes for you to find; but none of it felt helpful in the world building which is a shame as there may be more to read between the lines that I missed, but I wanted to know more of the world. The game left me wanting to know and see more of its unique world.

Static Shock

Chasing Static’s lo-fi PSX era approach in its design is at the forefront. However, it plays like a modern first-person exploration game making it a smooth experience. As I previously mentioned, a proponent is the FDMD which helps you hunt for echoes to discover fragments of the story. Though what drives the plot forwards is visiting three specific areas to return power to machines that are also searching similar frequencies you are. Each area has their own puzzles -you’ll need to have a keen eye to look out for the key items. One early example is a broken fuse box that needs a new fuse but to fix it you’ll need a screwdriver and two spare fuses. Visual cues throw just enough of a life line for you to solve it, but the game’s dark aesthetic makes finding some key items difficult.

On top of that, if you miss what you’re looking for, whether that’s due to dialogue text or a tutorial pop up it could feel like fumbling in the dark until it clicks. Later in the game the puzzles do get a little bit creative despite having no real sign posting that I saw, but the open-ended exploration does mean you could be going back and forth as the key items for one thing may not be useful in your current area. It’s not a huge issue but it felt like if it was a more guided experience I would have faced less confusion. One feature I didn’t expect to ever write about in a review is the ability to save. Here you use a polaroid camera, taking your own photo creates a save file, to load it back up you sift through photos/save files of pictures you took. It’s unique and adds to the strange nature of the game.

Face for the Radio

The low-poly aesthetic feels quite fashionable these days, but Chasing Static’s art style has more substance than just following a trend. I’ve made the comparison before of it being Silent Hill 2 and in some ways it definitely is apt, without being a knock off. The Lynchian intro reminded me of a PSX version of Twin Peaks, nothing is at it seems on the surface. The stark shades of greys of the surroundings makes the neon green splattered across the floor and the harsh red of lights in certain areas stand out, making it claustrophobic and unsettling. 

I won’t spoil what you do discover but the scares aren’t ever really there. However, there is a consistent feeling of dread and it’s all thanks to the minimal use of sound and the strong design. Music is sparse and when I did hear it, again it sounded like SH2, but the silence is deafening when you’re exploring. Voice lines and other audio is muffled when using the FDMD which is a nice touch that adds to the immersion. The culmination of the audio and visuals result in a fine sci-fi horror setting. The nostalgic touch of the PSX era does make it feel like you’ve stumbled upon a forbidden VHS you’d find in the Sinister movie but nothing reached any frightening heights.

Caught Static

Chasing Static doesn’t overstay it’s welcome in the story it tries to tell. With around a 2.5-hour completion time, it’s a digestible sci-fi psychological horror that results in a personable story which was welcomed. It may not have delivered on the scares, but the atmosphere and mystery was intoxicating enough to progress through to the end. In some instances, I did run into a bug or two that stopped me from experiencing fractions of the story, as well as seeing below the surface in the form of black squares. Neither times completely detracted from my enjoyment but it did take me out of immersion a little bit.

A little rough around the edges, even for the lo-fi approach – Chasing Static is a decent time if you’re looking for a short sci-fi horror story. The PSX art style lends itself into being an aesthetically memorable experience that might please fans of that era of horror games. Despite the game’s title I wasn’t necessarily guided by the static, resulting in a missing trick. However, the decent albeit a little vague story made me want to stay in the game till the end.

Chasing Static is out now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam)

Developers: Headware Games
Publishers: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional code from the publisher. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.

Save Room Review (PS5) – RE:laxed Packing

By Sean Davies
0

Resident Evil 4 really is a cultural landmark. Aside from being a really, really great game, it gave us “Hey, STRANGAH” meme’s, boulder punching and such hilarious lines of dialogue as “I Knew You’d Be Fine If You Landed On Your Butt”. One of the most iconic aspects of Resident Evil 4 was its inventory management, which was almost a game in itself. ‘Save Room’, a game by Fractal Projects, takes that a step further by making the whole system its own standalone experience.

Making It Fit

In Resident Evil 4, utilising the entity of your inventory often meant the difference between life and death for Chris Redfield. Stacking ammo and reloading weapons to reduce space taken up. Combining herbs to reduce them down. Flipping things around to make them fit. Making sure you have what you need to survive was essential. Sometimes that meant getting creative.

Save Room is a little different. While it uses all of the same systems, the aim is slightly different. Rather than kitting yourself out to survive a zombie/parasitically infected town, you’re simply trying to make everything fit in your inventory. It’s essentially a virtual recreation of trying to pack a suitcase for a holiday.

Each item takes up a set amount of space. Ammo, grenades, herbs and first air sprays take up two blocks. Gun powder jars take up a square of 4 spaces. Weapons take up grids that follow their outline. The objective of each of the 40 levels in Save Room is to arrange everything in the inventory currently along with the items in the panel on the right hand side. Once everything is packed away, you can move onto the next level.

Save Room game review

One Part Green Herb, One Part Red Herb

At first, that’s as simple as rotating each item and putting them into the space available until they’re all in. The space available to slot in all of your weapons, ammo and bits is always tight, and changes shape for each level. This means you have to approach each level like a jigsaw.

Soon you’ll have to start utilising some of the more Resident Evil 4 specific mechanics. These mechanics aren’t explained – Save Room presumes you’re familiar with them. You’ll find yourself with 3 boxes of the same ammunition. Separately, they’ll take up 6 squares of space. Stack them though and they’re reduce down to 1 or 2, sometimes halving there required space. You can also load this ammo into weapons, getting rid of them entirely.

The further you progress into Save Room, the more complex of a puzzle each level becomes. For example, about a third of the way through the game, you’ll have to start dealing with healing as well as inventory management. In essence, the former assists the latter. For example, you start a level and you have an orange ECG heart monitor line at the top of the screen. You can use one of the healing items – fish, herbs, aid sprays, eggs – to turn the heart line green, consuming the item and freeing up space. There are times you’ll have to intentionally harm yourself, by eating a bad egg or poison fish, in order to heal yourself with something else, just to make enough space to clear the level. With the increased complexity comes an ever increasing level of gratification with each puzzle cleared.

Save ROom review

Safe At Last

If you’re not familiar with all of the nuances to the Resident Evil 4, you might find Save Room to be mildly frustrating at times. Towards the end of the game you’ll have to combine jars of gunpowder in order to make ammo, this enabling you to reload a weapon. If you’re not familiar with which jars combine together to make particular ammo however, this’ll need some trial and error.

I’ll be honest, it has been a number of years since I last played RE4 and I couldn’t remember which jars went with which. I imagine that if you’ve never played Resident Evil 4 a). you’d find parts of this game irritating and b). I’d have to question why you’re playing a game that’s obviously targeting such a specific niche.

What Resident Evil 4 players won’t forget however will be the vibe of the safe rooms. This is something that Save Room utilises wholesale. The looks of the screen is highly reminiscent of the RE4 inventory screen. The music that plays throughout has the same lengthy piano notes and tone as those you’ll find in the famous Capcom survival horror. Even the tones when you move through the menus feel familiar. While there’s no zombies or villagers, no masters of locking picking or tofu people, Save Room feels like a quintessential Resident Evil experience to its credit.

The T-Virus Strikes

It’s unfortunate then that the PS5 port of Save Room seems have been hiding a bit mark from its fellow survivors and is suffering from it. There’s one nasty bug in the game which appeared a number of times. The cursor square that you navigate the inventory with will occasionally get snagged in the grid. Press in any direction and it simply returns to where it was instantly. This means the level can’t be completed, forcing you to restart. Thankfully, the levels are all just a few minutes long so not a lot of progress will be lost, and restarts happen instantly.

Even without the unfortunate bug above, the control method in the PS5 version of Save Room is much more cumbersome than using a mouse, like you could in the PC version of this game. Some efforts has been made to make it less clunky – pressing square will instantly transport you between the 2 panels on screen, for example – but there’s no denying that the control method here is less intuitive than the original version of the game.

By turning Resident Evil 4’s inventory system into a puzzle experience all of its own, Save Room combines the familiar with the inventive. Its journey from PC to PS5 has left it with a few issues, but for its 2 hour runtime, this game will provide decent headscratchers in the vibe of a Resident Evil safe room.

Save Room is available now on PS5 (review paltform), PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.

Developer: Fractal Projects
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete other reviews, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here. This game was bought by the reviewer.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.

Arenas of Tanks Review (PS5) – Tank and File

By Sean Davies
0

While it’s better than its predecessor, Arenas of Tanks still has a number of frustrating issues. The Finger Guns Review.

I can’t claim to remember all, or even many, of the games I reviewed back in 2019. They all kind of blend into a blur from back then. I can very clearly recall reviewing Attack of the Toy Tanks from Petite Games and Ratalaika however. I can plainly remember being in a log cabin without any internet and being incredibly disappointed in it, squandering an opportunity to replicate the magic of the tank battles in the classic Micro Machines games.

3 years on and Petite Games have once again teamed with Ratalaika to release a follow-up – Arenas of Tanks. There’s no denying that Petite Games are a much better developer than they were when they released Attack of the Toy Tanks. With every game they launch – Bouncy Bullets 2 & Super Destronaut DX-2, for example – they show they’re improving on their predecessor. There’s no denying that Arenas of Tanks is a much better twin stick shooter that it’s forbearer. That statement comes with some caveats though.

Pants or Panzer?

The concept of Arenas of Tanks is the same as Attack of the Toy Tanks. A spin on the classic Micro Machines tank battles, it’s a twin stick shooter centred around the titular tanks. You do battle with armoured vehicles that spawn into an enclosed area. Tanks are colour coded according to their difficulty and type with enemies having a variety of offensive capabilities. Foes will spawn in waves and once you’ve defeated them all, others will enter the fray. Shots from your turret will bounce from walls once, so there’s a little tactical play required to out manoeuvre stronger tanks rather than out gun them. It’s a simple concept that’s without story, context or motivating factor beyond the tank battles.

Arenas of Tanks Review PS5

Arenas of Tanks has just two game play modes that can be played across 5 locations. The core to the game is the arcade mode. In this mode, you’re battling against endless waves of enemies for as long as you can without dying in order to set high scores. Each tank you destroy with your turret increases your score and adds to a multiplier which increases faster if you kill enemies quickly. You can collect scrap from vanquished tanks which can be spent at any time to improve your tank or spawn in ally NPC tanks. The arcade mode isn’t doing anything new for the genre here, feeling a touch uninspired.

Thankfully, the Challenge mode is a bit more inventive. Again played over the same 5 maps, this mode puts 5 subtle twists on the combat that you’ll have to complete in turn. These objectives are like collecting a set number of scrap from defeated tanks, collecting a series of collectables without a weapon or surviving a wave of enemies with only a single life point. Do so before certain time objectives and you’ll be rewarded with a bronze, silver or gold medal. These certainly spice up the game play but don’t last long. It took me less than half an hour to finish them all with a gold medal grade.

Trophy Kill

As it’s being published by Ratalaika, you can guarantee one thing about Arenas of Tanks: It has an easy Platinum trophy. Despite there being maybe an hour or two of content here, the Plat took me just 14 minutes to unlock. Because the game is still fun beyond unlocking the Plat however, I’d stop well short of lumping this game in with the other trophy bait releasing on the PlayStation store recently.

Arenas of Tanks Review PS5 2

It is still disappointing that there’s a general lack of content in Arenas of Tanks. Some of the arenas that you’re battling in feel recycled from other Petite Games titles like Land War and Toy Tanks, using the same textures and effects. While the game does track your highest score, there’s no leader board to speak of. There’s no online score boards either which might have fostered some more competitive play – a sorely missed opportunity. I’d have taken a multiplayer mode here too, local or online. There’s just a general lack of additional content that’s disappointing.

Broken Tracks

What content is here is subject to a few glitches too. The most egregious is that the turret aiming will occasionally get stuck in a direction. No matter how much you rotate the right thumb stick, the tank’s turrets just stays in the same direction. This happened a handful of times during my 2 hours with this game. Quitting to the menu and then restarting the run at the game always fixed this issue. If you’re part ay thought a really great run at the Arcade mode, this’ll no doubt be frustrating.

I’ve got to mention a pretty hilarious bug in Arenas of Tanks too. In the Arcade mode, the on screen button prompts are labelled up incorrectly. The icons on the screen say to press square to buy upgrades. In fact, if you want to but upgrades, you have to press triangle. Leaving the store is also mislabelled, with triangle and square mixed up. It took a few attempts at the arcade mode to realise this and it was an accidental button press that revealed the game’s error.

The last issue I found with Arenas of Tanks was to do with the opponent AI. For the most part, the enemy tanks are aggressive and challenging, making for fun play. Unfortunately, on some of the maps it’s really easy to cheese the enemies by spawn camping. Some of the maps have the enemies spawn from a line of tunnels that are really easy to camp outside of. On the map at the bottom of the screen, you’ll get a few seconds notice of where enemies are coming from by their vision cones. Using this, you can make sure to get the jump on enemies and destroy them before they’ve even registered your existence. A bit of play testing would have revealed this exploit so it’s disappointing that it’s still in the game.

Despite its issues though, Arenas for Tanks succeeds in its moment to moment game play. The cat and mouse play of fighting off against larger, more dangerous tanks feels great. It’s a shame these moments are marred by the glitches.

While Arenas of Tanks is undoubtedly better than Petite Games’ previous tank battle game, this title still has a number of issues that sour the whole experience. Bugs, exploits and a lack of engaging content mean that the otherwise enjoyable combat is left languishing between the rough edges. Maybe third time will be the charm for Petite Games and this series.

Arenas of Tanks is available now on PS5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Developer: Petite Games
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional code from the publisher. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.

Voyage Review (PS5) – A Surprisingly Emotional Journey

By Joshua Thompson
0

Out Now on all console platforms, Voyage is a short yet beautiful adventure that hits you in the feels. The Finger Guns review:

I had watched the trailer for Voyage without any prior knowledge of the title. I was blown away with what I saw, the gorgeous hand-painted art style immediately grabbed my full attention. It wasn’t till the end when the Ratalaika Games logo popped up that I became even more intrigued. 

My first brush with Ratalaika was 36 Fragments of Midnight. This experience wasn’t so much a fulfilling one – but I did come away with a shiny Platinum trophy at the end of the sub-1-hour playtime. After that and a few more from that ilk, I thought I had the publisher pegged. Their releases were Platinum bait with little to no substance. But after playing 6 Souls recently I realised they’re making strides to publish titles that are better to play and overall a more fulfilling experience. But enough about the publisher, I want to talk about the developer – Venturous, based in Sweden founded by two brothers André and Johan Steen. Voyage is their debut title and this is an absolutely amazing first step. It’s not without my personal gripes but we’ll get into those.

Beam Me Up

I’ll keep my story rundown light as the discovery and interpretations for the individual is a huge personal highlight. I’m still left with questions after finishing the game as there’s no dialogue, but rather imagery and gameplay telling the story. It may take one or two more playthroughs to get the full picture or I may just wait for a YouTube video breaking it down.

You start Voyage with two survivors who have found themselves on a foreign planet. You’re faced immediately with golden crystals that hold a power of unknown proportions. These crystals guide your way further into the story and as you progress you visit a range of stunning environments.

The subtler notes of environmental story telling open up the possibility of interpretation. This may rub other players the wrong way – but as someone who’s reading into media at a subconscious level by this point – what I could inject into the story brought a satisfying experience. By the end of it I was left devastated, an absolute unexpected turn for a game that was peacefully unravelling the mysteries of where you are and how you got there.

A Sight for Sore Eyes

I previously mentioned how amazing the hand-painted art style is and I can’t commend this feature in the game more. Johan’s art design really evokes a loose Ghibli influence. Maybe a little bit more stripped back in detail but the colours and environments are so big and bold, every level I found myself rooted in place just immersed in the beauty of the design. Levels are varied and whilst some of the darker areas aren’t as breath taking, they still fit within the narrative design.

It’s not just the visuals that blew me away however. The soundtrack by Calum Bowen is an absolute stand out. These artsy 2D puzzle platformers like Gris or Abzû  have a sheer talent in nailing their soundtrack, and Voyage follows the trend. Bowen’s soundscape is really reminiscent of some of the most revered JRPG soundtracks, with a splash of electronic sounds that matches the game so perfectly. At this point I’m going to be following what games Bowen scores in the future because it’s phenomenal. 

Style Over Substance

Whilst I can’t gush any more over the aesthetics – this is a game after all – so how does it fit in the medium? In the press kit for Voyage it boasts that it can be played by yourself or cooperatively. A nice feature that even to some extent will deepen the narrative experience, but one that doesn’t change the gameplay at all. Whether you’re solo or coop there’s no puzzles that initiate any need of, well, cooperation. 

The puzzles are a case of dragging a rock, crystal or other item to the right place to progress. Nothing left me stumped or even consciously solving them as it just felt intuitive in the level design. A slight oxymoron but I think if you’ve played anything else similar you won’t be thinking, more so just doing in Voyage.

 I can’t say that the gameplay makes the game boring because everything surrounding it is firing on all cylinders. I think other games have done even less and get labelled a “Walking Simulator”. It’d be unfair to describe it as such, but it’s not too far away from it. It was only really in the final moments of the last chapter where the level opened up a bit more and your efforts of exploration actually meant solving the puzzle. Otherwise it’s usually right in front of you. As there’s no dialogue, no task is spelled out to you. In place there’s a simple hit of the triangle button which sounds off a noise and a visual pulse that indicates where the puzzle lies. A neat feature but only one I found useful when fumbling in the dark sections.

Where Our Journey Ends

With a playtime of just over a couple of hours, it’s an adventure that doesn’t over stay it’s welcome. If the game had been a bit longer with the slow movement pace and easy puzzles, I may have come away a little less hot on Voyage. For me it’s a tad style over substance. Games like this always have merit though, as they don’t insult your time or efforts by bringing something else to offer. Could this have been a more touching experience as a short film? Maybe. But games overall make you an active participant in the journey, and Voyage is one worth embarking on.

Voyage is a wonderful piece of art that will wow you visually and sonically at every turn. It’s the gameplay that sadly holds it back from greatness. An awesome debut, Venturous are a developer to watch.

Voyage is available now on Playstation 5 (review platform), Playstation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch

Developer: Venturous
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional code from the publisher. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Bouncy Bullets 2 Review (PS5) – Bouncing Back

By Sean Davies
0

The first person parkour/shooter series returns with Bouncy Bullets 2 and it’s a much better game, yet still falls short of its potential. The Finger Guns Review.

Petite Games are a prolific and varied developer. From first person shooters like Super Destronaut: Land Wars, arcade games in Super Destronaut DX-2, 2D platfomers such as 36 Fragments of Midnight as well as top down shooters like Attack of the Toy Tanks, the developer has produced a myriad of games over the past few years in just as many genres. Petite Games are also a developer that has shown a real upward trajectory in quality. They’ve created a number of series’ that they regularly revisit. With each new instalment, the games get better. They’ve turned the Midnight series into its own thing. The Super Destronaut series has been improving in quality. Now they’ve returned to Bouncy Bullets, a game they originally released in 2019.

The fact that Bouncy Bullets 2 exists at all is a surprise to me. I reviewed the original in 2019 and while it has a promising premise, I said that it “doesn’t make the most of these idea’s which, coupled with some technical issues, makes for a frustratingly shallow experience“. Thankfully, the sequel is much better than the original game.

Bouncy Bullets 2 is a first person shooter with heavy platformer elements. The aim of all 45 of this game’s levels, split into 3 difficulty chapters, is to make it to the ending portal without dying. Between the starting point and the exit are a plethora of hazards. Lasers, spinning saw blades, spike pits – hell, even falling into the water surrounding each level is a danger to the player character. The task at hand is to jump and run around these obstacles to reach the end point.

Days of Fuchsia Passed

The most unique aspect of Bouncy Bullets 2, like its predecessor, is the marriage between the enemies and the offensive capabilities. While all of the enemies in this game look like the inflatable tube men you see outside used car dealerships, dancing in the breeze, there are some not so subtle differences. Namely, their colour. There are 5 different types of enemy in Bouncy Bullets 2. A red one, a yellow one, a black one, a grey one and a foe that switches between red and yellow every so often. In order to defeat these enemies, you’ve got to shoot them with their corresponding bullet. To shoot magenta bullets, you click R1. To shoot yellow bullets, you click L1. Shoot a red enemy with a yellow shot and it’ll simply bounce right off and vice versa.

Bouncing bullets off walls is the other hook for Bouncy Bullets 2. Every shot will bounce from any surface they hit. This can be used to fire around some corners to avoid incoming projectiles. In fact, it’s a necessary tactic during some levels. Those aforementioned black enemies? They can only be destroyed with a bullets that has been bounced off of a surface. Whether it be the floor or a wall, the bullet just needs to bounce before it lands.

More so than its predecessor, Bouncy Bullets 2 makes reasonable use of this mechanic. There are levels with grey enemies – which, if hit, end a level – positioned directly in front of other coloured enemies. While I’d still love to see this mechanic used much more creatively (like having levels where you’re forced to ricochet bullets around corners in order to progress), it’s pleasing to see it used a little more than in the previous title.

A hop, skip and… oh, it’s over?

Much like it’s predecessor though, Bouncy Bullets 2 doesn’t last very long. There’s less than an hour of content here, with each level lasting between 30 and 100 seconds. There’s not a vast amount of variety in those 45 levels either. All of the same platforming components return from the first game – bounce pads, coloured chequer box walls that fall apart when shot with the corresponding colour, spike traps. It’s all the same tricks used in slightly different ways. There are gaps to jump across and falling platforms to navigate. New for this release are lifts, falling platforms and a personal favourite, portals. These all add new dimensions to the game play but they’re not used in any way you’ll not have seen before countless times in many other games.

Similarly, there’s very little reason to ever replay Bouncy Bullets 2. There’s optional collectables in each level in the shape of a golden nut. These are often in tricky to reach locations which add an additional challenge, but because they have no discernible impact on the game, there’s really no motivating factor for the player to bother collecting them. There’s 2 game play modes in this game too – classic and speed run. Both feature the same levels, but the scoring is slightly different. In classic, your score is calculated on speed, number of shots made and number of enemies defeated. In the speed run mode, you’re purely scored on speed from start to finish. It feels like a missed opportunity that neither mode has offline or online leaderboards. Your best score is tracked and that’s the only goal you have to beat.

Bouncing in the right direction

What certainly has improved is the presentation. The first Bouncy Bullets looked like a Nickelodeon game show had collided with a Krispy Kreme store. It was garish and grating. Bouncy Bullets 2 is much more pleasing on the eye with a kind of castle-like aesthetic. While I’d stop shorting of calling it attractive, it’s definitely not as irritating as its predecessor.

The music of Bouncy Bullets 2 is almost exclusively brilliant. Some tracks do sound like they’d make good backing to YouTube make-up tutorials. That said, most of them are frankly great dance tracks that I’d happily listen to while walking or working. Beefy base, heavy drops and fast tempo beats do well to complement the speed and frantic energy that this game gives out.

That energy really shines through in a few of the levels in the last third of the level. There’s one level with moving platforms while a row of inflatable tube men enemies rain down projectiles on you that really stands out as a highlight. There’s another level where a lift carries the player up a shaft that is lined with enemies that come at you from different directions. If the whole game was as challenging and as tense as these moments, I’d be praising Bouncy Bullets 2 from the rooftops. In fact, despite being surprised that a second game in this series even exists, I’m quite excited about the potential for a Bouncy Bullets 3. While this game still doesn’t fulfil the potential that the hook obviously has, it’s a bounce in the right direction.

Oh, and it’s a game from Ratalaika so it has an easy to unlock Platinum Trophy too.

It’s short, has little to no replayability and still doesn’t fulfil the potential that the premise has. That said, Bouncy Bullets 2 is a move in the right direction for the series, offering bite sized, first person platform challenges. It’s nicer to look at, has a much better soundtrack and there are a handful of levels that show glimpses of what this series really could be. It’s just not frequent enough to elevate the game out of mediocre trophy fodder.

Bouncy Bullets 2 is available now on PS5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Developer: Petite Games
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Chasing Static Review (PC) – Spotty Reception

By Sean Davies
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A PS1 inspired thriller, Chasing Static has a familiar premise and can feel like playing sonic whack-a-mole at times but it’s still worth the 3 hour time investment. The Finger Guns Review.

The rising tide of PS1/PS2-era art and visual styles is here to stay. Replacing the status quo of 2D pixel art, developers have firmly moved their focus to the chunky 3D visuals of the late 90’s and the early 00’s. The latest game to arrive in this ever expanding niche is Chasing Static, a retro inspired thriller from Headware Games (Guard Duty) and publisher Ratalaika.

Set in the 80’s, Chasing Static has you play as a character called Chris. Having attended his estranged father’s funeral, Chris gets lost during a storm on the way home and takes shelter in a Welsh roadside diner. Here he witnesses a supernatural attack on a waitress before he wakes up in a peculiar version of the real world. Led by a mysterious voice on a radio, Chris must re-activate a series of machines set around the area to contain “the incident” and uncover the truth of what is going on in the Welsh town of Hearth.

The narrative of Chasing Static exists on two levels, one of which is great while the other, I felt, needed some tightening up. The first is the overarching story of Chris’ quest to figure out what’s going on in the area and how or why that relates to himself. The game telegraphs its best narrative beats early on and then puts this whole arc on the backburner until the end point a few hours later. By that point, it’s quite predictable, especially if you’ve watched Stranger Things, which shares a few similarities with the story. Despite its twists being relatively easy to foresee, the story is still worth seeing through to the end. There’s multiple endings to unlock but they’re all dependent on a single decision made very late on. 

Chasing Static

The other narrative element of Chasing Static is much more interesting; Around a quarter of the way through the game, you’re given a device which can track echoes of the past via radio static. This machine tells you when you’re looking in the right direction and how far away these echoes are. Get close and the screen will flicker with static and shadowy figures will play out a scene that occured before you got there. These short but informative episodes often have a creepy vibe, exploring the horrific events that came before and the effect that the anomaly you’re exploring has on people. Like time travelling breadcrumbs that lead the way through the game, these echoes act as a guide.

The radar dish-like tracking device is at the core of the Chasing Static experience, for better and for worse. At times, you’ll be in large areas, like a village or a wide open space, without much of an idea as to where to go. It’s not uncommon to spin around while walking to see if anything registers on your radar-gun-thingy, just to find a way forward. A lot of these echo scenes show how to make progress in the present with Chris, so if you’re stuck, it can sometimes feel like playing audio whack-a-mole, spinning around to try to find a signal.

Mechanically, Chasing Static is a lot like Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture mixed with aspects of an inventory heavy point and click adventure. Chris will come across obstacles and he’ll exclaim to himself “I need X” which you’ll then have to set off and find. Once you’ve found where you’re supposed to be via the echoes, Chasing Static has some quite impressive game design which drams your eyes to the things you’ll need or the things that’ll creep you out.

And Chasing Static certainly has the potential to creep you out. This isn’t a traditionally scary game – there’s no dangers to avoid, foes to fight or a single jumpscares. Instead, it builds up a thick atmosphere with dark, oppressive environments, a script full of off putting lines and some excellent use of sound.

Chasing Static

Those PS1 inspired visuals manage to carry a lot of tone, despite their relative lack of detail. This often works in the game’s favour; There are times that the blurry visuals of a character’s faces look more like skeletal masks rather than eyes, nose and a mouth. As you move through the woods, with the rain battering the landscape, the crunchy outlines of the trees and grass can play tricks on your eyes. Moreso when a bolt of lightning illuminates the area. 

It’s the audio that does most of the heavily lifting in the thrill department however. The ambient noise around each area is filled with quiet noises you’ll barely hear but make for an unsettling blend. Out of the static, you’ll hear children crying or dulled voices saying incomprehensible words. While the visuals might be retro inspired, the audio to Chasing Static is rooted in modern day techniques and standards.

Chasing Static Pelican Pub

This extends to the voice acting too. It felt almost peculiar to hear genuine British accents rather than the usual fake “what Americans think British people sound like” accents but they sound real here. The script is natural and the voice actors make conversations feel real (or as real as they can be between scientists in Hazmat suits investigating a murderous anomaly).

Clocking in at between 2 and 3 hours long, Chasing Static is a short but succinct experience. When it’s all said and done, the game feels like just the right length. The game ends before the mechanics become tiresome. If you’re looking for a game you can start and finish in an evening, Chasing Static certainly fits that bill.

It won’t be winning any Game of the Year awards but Chasing Static is a compact narrative thriller worth an evening of your time. Its story isn’t as engrossing as those of its peers and it can be a touch confusing at times, but a mix of crunchy, nostalgia fuelled visuals, high quality audio and a great script make for an interesting combination. 

Chasing Static is launching on October 14th, 2021 on PC via Steam.

Developer: Headware Games
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

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Super Destronaut DX-2 Review (PS5) – Space Imitators 2X

By Sean Davies
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Despite being a more varied and enjoyable outing for the series, Super Destronaut DX-2 is still lacking innovation in a crowded genre. The Finger Guns Review.

If there’s one thing you can say about Petite Games it’s that they know how to reuse and recycle their assets in innovative ways. This is the team that took the art from the frankly poor platformer 36 Fragments of Midnight and created a pleasant 2D physics golf game in the shape of Midnight Deluxe. In 2018, they released Super Destronauts DX, a shallow clone of Space Invaders. They then reinvented the series as a FPS using the same art in 2020’s Super Destronaut: Land Wars. That very same art returns for Super Destronaut DX-2, a shmup which is much better than the original but again lacks depth or invention.

At first glance Super Destronaut DX-2 looks like a knock off version of Space Invaders, much like the original game. Pixelated alien ships filter onto the screen in various formations. The aim is to destroy them with laser fire blasted up the screen from the player controlled ship. These aliens all have their own offensive capabilities and will attempt to destroy the player by firing at them. Destroy aliens quickly and steadily without taking damage and you’ll build up a combo meter, which multiplies your score. UFO’s will appear at the top of the screen and if you manage to destroy they, they’ll drop weapon pick ups. With 2X, that’s where the similarities with Taito’s classic shooter series ends.

Unlike the original Super Destronaut game, the player controlled ship isn’t restricted to the bottom fifth of the screen. Here, the ship here can move all over the screen, more akin to Twin Bee than Space Invaders. This change allows DX-2 to do some more interesting things with the game play. For a start, the alien ships don’t just enter from the top of the screen in Super Destronaut DX-2. They’ll occasionally enter the screen from the bottom with some arrows warning the player before they attack. This also means that the aliens can loop through the screen, descending through the lower screen border to attack again from the top.

The 3D aspect of the original, with aliens approaching the screen from the background, doesn’t return for Super Destronaut DX-2. This was the most innovative aspect of the first entry in this series but added little to the overall experience. One element of originality from DX does make a return for DX-2; Occasionally, one of the alien ships will fall from the formation after blasted, becoming invulnerable as they descend. This adds another obstacle to avoid and while it’s not revolutionising the genre, it does make the game a touch more challenging.

Super Destronaut DX-2 Review

The moment to moment game play of Super Destronaut DX-2 isn’t the only aspect of this game that has been overhaled since the last title. The play modes have been completely redesigned, despite the fact that some come with the same name. Challenge mode returns but rather than just being a plethora of different ways to say “shoot stuff”, the 30 levels here push the player to play differently in each test. Bigger enemies, more aggressive foes, smaller bullets, limited bullets and restricted time are just some of the different level mutations the game throws at the player. It’s much more interesting than the mode with the same name from the original SD DX.

Super Destronaut DX-2 has an additional 5 arcade modes. The classic 3 life mode is included, as is a time attack which asks the player to score as many points as possible before the clock hits zero. There’s also a hardcore mode which is much like the classic mode only with much more aggressive enemies that are harder to destroy. The remaining 2 modes are much more original. There’s a bullet mode which limits the ammo available to the player, rewarding more for every wave of aliens defeated. Then there’s a time rush mode where a clock ticks down but can be extended for each vanquished wave. While it’s more than the original game, even with these modes, there’s not a vast amount of content here. After an hour of play, you’ll have seen everything this game has to offer. Alien waves start to become repetitive. Any further longevity is dependent on how much you like high score chasing.

The neon tinged, retro game aesthetic of Super Destronaut DX-2 is one aspect of the original I’m glad to see return here. Wire frame scenes flow along as the game plays in a Tron-esque foreground. The visual effects have certainly stepped up for this game too. The sparks that fly off each laser blast that hits a target are visually impressive. In fact, when you’re really hammering the aliens, it’s almost too distracting. The only times I’ve lost a life while playing this game is where enemy fire has been camouflaged behind a curtain of sparks generated by my own shots.

I have to complement the soundtrack for this title too. Toe tapping synth wave tracks are present and correct, supplementing the 80’s inspired visuals nicely.

Super Destronaut DX-2 Review 2

As is almost tradition for a game published by Ratalaika, this title comes complete with an easy to obtain Platinum trophy. Unlike some PS4/PS5 games that have released recently that are just a few Unity assets strung together and a Platinum trophy attached (I’m looking at you Funny Truck), it feels like Super Destronaut DX-2 is more game, less purchasable trophy level padding. I’m not ashamed to say that I unlocked all the trophies for this game. That was something that happened by accident however. I was simply having a pretty good time with the game and managed to rack up enough points to unlock all the trophies I needed.

Super Destronaut DX-2 is most definitely a step forward for this series. Outside of the art style, any attempt to emulate Space Invaders has been dropped. This title feels much more like its own game rather than a clone of something much more charismatic, successful and pleasurable to play. There’s still room for improvement if there’s to be a Super Destronaut 3X however. There needs to be better balance with the visual effects, include more than a few hours of content and it’s going to need to expand its game play scope to match the innovative modern day peers in this genre. At best, Super Destronaut DX-2 is just above average in a crowded genre that’s moving ever forward. If the developers want to elevate this series out of the valley of mediocrity, they’ll need to innovate.

Or maybe that’s not what Petite Games/Ratalaika are aiming for. If they’re attempting to churn out easily consumable budget titles that are similar to any number of other games out there but can entertain for a few hours and attract trophy hunters, they’ve succeeded here.

A much better shoot-’em-up than the first game in this series, Super Destronaut DX-2 looks like Space Invaders and plays like Twin Bee. It only has a few hours of content but there’s enough variety here so that those hours feel like they’re well spent. Score chasers might find some longevity but there are much better titles in this genre to spend your time with.

Super Destronaut DX-2 is available now on PS5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

Developer: Petite Games
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Within The Blade Review (PS5) – Shur-I-Can’t

By Toby Andersen
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Let’s start with some fun trivia: Within the Blade was previously titled Pixel Shinobi: Nine Demons of Mamoru – bet you didn’t know that. Actually, you probably did. That name is still all over its Steam page. I assume it was changed due to it being cumbersome and too close to that other series called something like, I don’t know, SHINOBI, which has been around since the late eighties, and was also pretty heavily pixelated. A title and logo change hasn’t helped much because that new logo (see above) really does not do what the designers probably wanted. It’s almost impossible to read the word Blade, and the game ends up looking like it’s now called ‘Within The’. Within the what?

Logo and naming gripes aside, if there’s one thing that has me coming back to viddy games time and time again, it’s Ninja. Real Ninja mind, not Fruit Ninja, or Corporate Ninja. Within The Blade is a 2D side-scrolling ninja slash-em-up with ambitions of stealth. It feels a little like a fast and ultra-violent Shinobi, or maybe even closer to the recent Katana Zero with a little dash of stealth in the mix. It’s a modern retro experience, full of coin collecting and platforming stages, and maybe the best comparison I can make is to Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger. However these comparisons are always to its detriment. Within the Blade constantly reminds me of many other better games. It bravely throws its shurikens of ambition but ends up barely hitting anything.

The game starts like the Messenger – your hidden Shinobi village, where the clan of the Black Lotus reside, is under attack, and a few of your brothers-in-arms have been captured by some kind of demon army. Judging by the game’s previous title and the bosses that appear every few stages, I’d hazard a guess it’s the Nine Demons of Mamoru, but there’s little in the way of exposition, just your Sensei sending you on your way really. Turns out a diabolical warlord daimyo has been meddling with demonic forces, and now the whole of Japan is in danger.

Beyond a few missions that have a little basic dialogue, and some prisoners to save, there’s not much more I could call a plot, but there’s a premise. Seek out the nine demons, slay ’em, and save your village. Does it need more? I’m not sure. But at the same time, I was bored by the third demon, and there was no real character development. The lead character Hideaki is paper-thin, existing in a state of limbo with no past, no back story, and no personality, just dogged adherence to his Sensei’s orders.

The gameplay follows a left-to-right side-scrolling platformer format, split into individual levels and sections, and then a quick return to Sensei after each section to buy some skills. Within The Blade is all about stages, done fast and injury-free, and with particular care taken to complete objectives, which are a constant pressure, I mean presence, in the top right of the screen. It is not a metroidvania; its almost completely linear and stage-based. At the end of each stage, you’ll get a score and some experience points to spend on a web-like skill tree, full of move enhancements. You also aren’t able to go back and redo stages, the game autosaves and moves on automatically.

It’s a 2D slasher, encouraging you to get up close and personal with the generally human guards and henchmen of the demons. You’ll jump and bounce around, trying to get the drop on them, but most of the time it’s tricky to approach effectively without being seen.

Thankfully there is a passable combat system that allows for quick slashing combos and if you manage to dive in unseen, a satisfying one-shot kill. If you aren’t so lucky, enemies equipped with a blade can block yours, and then come at you very efficiently. Some have bows, pikes or swords, and each needs a slightly different strategy to overcome if you want to keep your health intact. You are also able to block so these duels can be tense, fast and deadly.

Within the Blade rarely teaches you how to play beyond the first couple of screens. I was taught double jump for example, but not to crouch in the grass, or that I could drop down on enemies for stealth kills. You are barely taught how to use any of the massive variety of bombs and secondary weapons available, or that you can hang off your grapple rope like you’re Spider-Man. I’m still trying to see if there’s a contextual kill like that but so far, I’ve been unable to pull one off. Because it doesn’t teach you the ropes (sorry), Within the Blade is in danger of alienating its own players. Not every player wants to blindly experiment and fail multiple times. Some just want to get from A to B silently and efficiently. I think an expanded tutorial, or one integrated into a more interesting story would have been a massive improvement.

Stealth is also an issue. It’s difficult to pull off a stealthy approach most of the time; firstly because you are on a timer and encouraged to move fast ala Katana Zero; secondly because the controls for a stealth kill are counter-intuitive, requiring you to continue to hold the block button to creep-walk and let the game contextually kill for you (I was forever releasing it to kill which didn’t work); and third because of the terrain. It’s a platformer, so often you need to jump to get to an enemy. You can’t creep and jump, and you don’t land silently. Every time this is the case, it wrecks your stealth, and commits you to a fast melee kill instead. It feels like the game was designed as a fast melee slasher and that stealth was implemented as an afterthought – level design, enemy placement and the array of available moves, all these things point to stealth being secondary.

Which is a massive shame because the moment I saw stealth was available, like many players, that was the route I wanted to take. Instead I was forced most of the time to expose my position too early and play the game as a fast Hotline Miami-style enemy movement memoriser.

Shops and NPCs aren’t implemented very well either. You can talk to people in the village but it never says who talks and who doesn’t – it’s a case of tapping D-Pad Up on everyone and hoping for the best. Shops are the same, with no real indication that there is a shop to use unless you press up as you walk along. You can craft in your own hut, but you are never taught how to do it despite there being around 200 recipes to concoct. And finally for things the game doesn’t tell you, your weapons break ala Breath of the Wild. First time that happened with my prized katana, I was forced to fight bare-knuckles for level after level afterward, including bosses, making them a lot harder to complete due to the lesser attack power.

Bosses in general are a good part of Within The Blade. There’s a fair bit of variety between the different boss types and each needed a different strategy, same as the enemy types. Kudos where its due, someone on the development team did a fine job with enemies.

Within the Blade employs a stark, large-pixel style, maybe a little better than 8-bit, but not as good as 16-bit was capable of on a good day. There’s some good animation and movement, things are fast and flashy, and if you want it, there’s copious blood on display after every beheading and frantic swordfight. It’s the level of blood-letting that would have had my mother ejecting the game and banning it, had it come out in the SNES era.

Within the Blade struggles to make any kind of impression in a genre that has seen some massive highs in gaming history. It apes its competition while bringing almost nothing new to the table. The Messenger does platforming and story better, Katana Zero is more visceral and fun, Mark of the Ninja is far superior in stealth mechanics. Within the Blade can be fun in short bursts, but without engaging stealth gameplay it falls at a hurdle it sets itself. Its dance of fast kills is far closer to Katana Zero than the game it would have you believe it is, but it’s just not as good.

A 2D slash-em-up that’s as instantly forgettable as a ninja flashing past in the night, Within the Blade succeeds at fast-paced kills and decent bosses, but fails to design for stealth or differentiate itself in a genre full of superior experiences.

Within The Blade is available July 16th 2021 on PS4 and PS5 (review platform), Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Developer: Ametist Studio
Publisher: Ratalaika Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

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Turrican Flashback Review (PS4) – TurriCAN

By Paul Collett
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When one of the chaps on Slack wrote “someone wake Paul up, there is a Turrican Flashback code in!” without hesitation, I did wake up and jumped at the chance to play a retro favourite of mine all over again. But how does the game (or games in this case) hold up 30 years on?

Why was I so excited about playing this game again? It’s all thanks to the soundtrack. It’s the one thing that stands out for me. I even included it in some of the mix tapes I made back yonder (Yeah, I said tapes. Come at me).

So Turrican Rewind is a collection of four Turrican games all bundled into one handy package. This includes Turrican, Turrican II: Final Fight, Mega Turrican and Super Turrican. That’s a hell of a lot of laser bullets you’ll be firing!

When Turrican first arrived, it blew people’s minds with its graphics and soundtrack, things that the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum were not really known for. Because of that, Turrican made its way into the hearts of gamers, on pretty much every format you could possibly think of including Phillips CDi.

For all its graphical flair and audio delight, Turrican is a fairly standard side-scrolling platform-shooter which is often compared to Metroid and Contra mixed with a little bit of Mega Man for good measure. But what it does do brilliantly is its weapons. There are loads, arguably some of the best weapons of the era. It’s almost like a 16-bit version of Ratchet & Clank when it comes to weapon variety.

The gameplay is very much of its time with pixel perfect jumps required. You know, the ones where your character is balancing on their heel! Those two extra pixels are the difference between making it to the next platform or falling to your doom.

Speaking of falling to your doom, you will be doing lots of that in Turrican Flashback and not all of them down to your skills. The exploratory nature of the game means that you can’t always see what’s just below, or in front of you meaning you have no choice but to take a leap of faith and hope you land on a platform and not die. Something gamers of my age are used to as it was the norm back then. These days however I don’t think gamers will accept such bad game design.

The good news is the developers have realised this and incorporated a few nifty extras to cater for those that fine leaps of faith a bit too annoying. First up is the save states. Here you can save the game as and when you please. An absolute godsend! Also, to help you on your way is a very handy rewind function. Allowing you to rewind the game to a point where you can put right what went wrong. A bit like Sam Beckett.

These are great additions because the surprisingly non-linear gameplay makes you want to explore more than you perhaps thought you would. Exploration is rewarded with unexpected secrets and areas. However, prepare to get lost or accidentally wander into a giant boss fight 

To help Turrican on their way, aside from the weapons, they have a morph ball function and a grappling hook. Here you can see why the game is compared to Metroid. Don’t be fooled though, this doesn’t have Metroid’s puzzles. This is just all-out war.

You can easily see a mix of influences within Turrican, not all end up being good though. For example, you can’t shoot up while moving. Given the verticality of the levels it feels very restrictive. It desperately needs the same run and gun rotation method seen on the likes of Contra. 

Strangely the best games in the collection are Turrican One and more so Turrican 2. These are the games that have more depth where Mega and Super Turrican are more your standard scrolling shooter.  It’s a shame that there are none of the more obscure versions like the one found on Phillips CDi or perhaps some of the various director’s cuts that have appeared over the years. 

In fact, there is nothing included that alludes to the series’ rich past. No behind the scenes information, artwork or historic extras. Especially considering the game is coming to you from the original developers, Factor 5. Nothing about the soundtrack which sits in so many gamers hearts. Although there is a raft of filters you can add if you want that true retro look. Oh, and you’ll find the original cheat codes still work. All told though this is a missed opportunity here, I think.

All told, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Turrican. It has held up pretty well considering it’s 30 years old. It’s still pretty simplistic so don’t expect anything too advanced. Plus, the four games are all pretty similar and I’m almost certain I’ve seen some of the enemies in all the games. 

Turrican is retro difficult, and I doubt this game will gain many new fans, but it’s nice to see Factor 5 back again after nearly going bust over 10 years ago.

Turrican Flashback is a rose-tinted ride to the heady days of the Amiga. However you can’t help but think this is a wasted opportunity considering the lack of extra features.

Turrican Flashback is available now on Xbox, PlayStation 4 (reviewed on PS4 Pro) & Nintendo Switch.

Developer: Factor 5 Ratalaika Games
Publisher: ININ Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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