At the start of the month, you may remember that we set up a little reviews contest to try and get more people sharing their opinions over on GMG. Well, the response we had was fantastic, and we've chosen a shortlist of 10 reviews for the community to vote on.
Voting will close at 23:59 BST on May 17th. With winners announced on Monday 18th May. Here's how the prizes will break down:
1st Place: £30 of Green Man Gaming credit
2nd Place: £20 of Green Man Gaming credit
3rd Place: £10 of Green Man Gaming credit
4th Place: £5 of Green Man Gaming credit
5th Place: £5 of Green Man Gaming credit
Thanks to everyone who submitted reviews this week. Do remember that although we've only included reviews written since May began, every review that gets published will earn its author at least 25p in credit!
We've made the voting blind to try and avoid personality campaigning and make this as much of a process predicated upon merit as possible, no author has been featured twice, and all of the reviews have been reprinted below so you can read through them before making your decisions.
Let's get into it...
1. The Perils of Man
First of all...the art style in this game is astounding. Imagine if you will Tim Burton (Nightmare Before Christmas) meets the Deponia video game series. Topped off with amazing voice work especially from the main character Ana Eberling. Now although this is an amazing game, be warned that it is a point and click adventure. That might turn some people away because it is VERY STORY DRIVEN which is to be expected from any point and click adventure game, but for those of you who are still here, there is an amazing story to be told. The gameplay is very similar to past point and click titles before it. It has everything you would expect; a tight locked in camera, a crafting system to solve puzzles, interactable objects in every environment, and some nice mini games to break the point and click mechanic. So if you are looking for a "unique" point and click adventure game, it is not to be found here. It plays like the rest of them, but if you are interested in an in depth story about science, mystery, and dare I say time travel, then this is indeed your kind of game.
2. Resident Evil HD Remaster
Remember those nightmares about being trapped in a mansion filled with zombies? Remember getting them after playing Resident Evil on Sony's playstation 1? Remember being afraid of the polygons? Well now, 2/3 of those things can be experienced again! It is a blast to play through this game again, and the new control scheme is a welcome addition. This is the survival horror game before survival horror was a genre. I still have not played a game with a more stressful inventory management system (in a good way). The gameplay has aged quite well - the only drawback I notice is the weapon aiming. You get the hang of it, but pulling off headshots without wasting ammo at first is a little difficult. I also wish you could switch graphics with the click of a button a la The Master Chief Collection. But all in all, a solid game is brought back to life with a few updated features! Definitely better than Revelations 2 (if you had to choose one Resident Evil).
3. Verdun
I hear whistle blowing, mortar shells falling everywhere. Screams, gunfire. Time to rush from the safety of my trench in one more attempt at pushing back the enemy. I die, respawn, and repeat. Sometime's I'm a commanding officer. Can call in mortar fire or order mustard gas deployed. Heavy machineguns mow through our ranks, while snipers try to spot the machinegunners. The game is very different from your typical multiplayer shooter experience. In Verdun you need to keep your head down, or you'll get killed with a stray bullet. Enemies are often just specks on the horizon, while you try to shoot them, and more often than not, get killed yourself. It can be very frustrating in your first few hours of play. There is no crosshair, bullets are affected by ballistics, and just one rifle round is enough to eliminate you. There are many types of weapons available. Revolvers, pistols, rifles, heavy machineguns that need to be put on the ground to shoot. Grenades, shovels, and even clubs. And bayonets of course. Verdun is powered by Unity engine, and looks very agreeable. Sound effects are also high quality, and the music playing in menus is one from the beginning of the XXth century. The game fails in one major aspect. No DLC, no microtransactions, no weapon skins. If it was AAA game, it would be laughed upon and forgotten. Thankfully it's an indie title, and much better than most AAA I saw in last few years. Verdun developers aren't greedy. They don't release first day DLC. Buy the game and just play. You get everything there is for your money. No fine print. One more reason to support the developer. I have purchased this game last year, while it still was in Early Access, was struggling with many bugs. But we saw it through, the game has changed a lot, and is now the one and only World War I online shooter worth anyone's attention.
4. Grand Theft Auto V
As you might have already heard, this brand new 2 year old game is just fantastic!
+ Great story (although a bit short if you ask me) with loads of mission variety - shooting, driving, flying, diving, boating, parachuting, stealth... you name it, GTA V has it. Also there are a ton of cutscenes that have great dialogue, writing, voice acting, and are always entertaining and fun to watch.
+ Great main characters, never mind what crazy people say, Trevor is the man! He's pretty much the only GTA character that acts like a psycho both in cutscenes and in-game (you know, when you're making him murder innocent people with a rocket launcher, as you do). Michael is pretty great too, a lot of his missions are wacky in a sitcom/soap opera mashup kinda way. Franklin is a bit too average in my opinion, but he has his moments (and a puppy!).
+ Amazing graphics, never knew 360 and ps3 games looked so damn good. ;)
+ This game is so full of small, teeny tiny details. For example, when you're playing in third person and you pull out your phone, it shows it in the bottom right corner of your screen, and while you're navigating the phone menu, you can see the tiny phone screen in your characters hand actually displaying the same stuff you see on your bottom right, and when your character receives a call and answers it, the phone lights up his face as he puts it up to his ear. It's small details like these that make GTA V's version of Los Santos come alive.
+ Car sounds! Sit in GTA's version of a Lamborghini or Ferrari, switch to first person view and enjoy the engine sounds.
+ Danger zone, Fortunate Son, Danger zone, Carry On Wayward Son, Danger zone, Gimme All Your Lovin', DANGER ZONE!!1!
+/- Runs fine on average poor man's gaming hardware - 660ti, i7 920 @3Ghz, 8gb of ram can squeeze close to an average of 60 fps with almost everything turned up to high/very high, IF! you turn the grass down to normal. If not, lock your fps to 30, turn up the grass and enjoy your ps4 game). That is of course if you don't get struck by the stuttering bug which they may or may not fix, who knows... or you know, if your game doesn't start (these problems are plaguing a lot of people, so keep that in mind before throwing money at rockstar).
Online is a thing, I'm not a big fan of online games unless they are proper mmo's (this game is not an mmo), but I wouldn't recommend playing GTA online alone (as in with random people), cause it just might bore you to death.
It may not really be a perfect game by any standards, but it gave me everything I wanted out of it and more. It's just a fantastic open world game, and instantly one of my favorite games ever - 10/10.
5. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Mechanics are something every game has but not many games manage to use them as metaphor as elegantly as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons does. In a game with relatively simple puzzles, no real dialog, and a basic plot structure it's this integration of player input that brings everything together and elevates whole above the sum of its parts.
Backing up a little, the mechanic in question is the control scheme which has the player moving each brother independently with the two sticks on a controller (incidentally this means a controller is required to play this game, at least properly). This is definitely a new experience and an utterly confusing one, at least at first and therein lies some of the beauty and elegance of this game. When the game begins and the brothers begin their journey the controls are unfamiliar and slow to use but as the characters grow and gain confidence on their adventure so does your skill with the controls. The direct correlation between player input and in-game progression is not something explicitly noticeable while playing but it absolutely is effective at maintaining immersion and points that would feel like ""press button to pay respects"" in other games turn into touching moments that feel natural. I could go on about the mechanics and their ties to the game but this is a review so I'll refrain.
While they are terrific, mechanics alone can not carry a game to greatness. Fortunately Brothers delivers pretty much across the board. The art style hits a great sweet spot between realistic and stylized and makes terrific use of the engines power with many deep, bright scenes given center stage through out. The story, while structurally simple, is full of emotion and heart with plenty of highs and lows through out. It's also not going to pull any punches, much the same as our real lives are not full of happy endings and endless summers. The world is lush and interesting. In so many games the world and the events happening in it revolve around your character but in Brothers you really feel like you're journeying through foreign lands as you pass through places where major events have already happened, are in progress, or seem destined to happen soon. Some people may feel like they're missing out but personally I loved this. It made me think and wonder about the world much like anyone traveling through it would, imagining a great battle and speculating on the tensions that caused it. To me this is better than some exposition or pages of text with lore that's filled with places, names, and dates that have no real meaning or context.
In the end Brothers: A Take of Two Sons is masterfully both poignant and subtle, uplifting and heart-wrenching. It does require that you own or can borrow a controller but it's absolutely worth the effort. Put shortly, I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone.
6. Grand Theft Auto V
I had been patiently waiting for the PC release of this game since it was first announced. Every time there was a delay I felt my heart skip a beat but quickly recovered and kept on waiting. Now that it's finally here I am happy that I waited for the PC version. Despite the staggering size of the open world, the game looks amazing on the PC. I run a custom built gaming PC and was able to max everything out and it does not disappoint. Aside from a few launch issues (most of which I didn't experience) it has been rather smooth for me. However, I have seen that some lower end systems have been suffering. The gameplay is some of the best in the series. While I can't specifically comment on the story as I don't focus too much on that, what I have seen so far is decent and similar to what we've seen in previous games. My favorite thing to do is just drive around, shoot up stuff, and cause general mayhem. The characters are engaging and sometimes funny. The story can be over the top but in a good way. But what really drew me to this game wasn't the story, but the online mode. GTA Online is what really appealed to me. The chance to play the game with a ton of other people was something I couldn't pass up. And the addition of heists make it even better. I can't wait to see newer heists that are added as the game progresses. But for what we have right now, it's pretty great. I had played the game some on PS4 so I had a character that I was able to transfer over via the Rockstar Social Club. So thankfully I didn't have to start completely over from scratch. It would have been a pain getting back my cars and luxury penthouse apartment. While I wanted the opportunity to play with other people, they can either make or break the game. Sometimes you get in sessions with good people that want to team up and tackle some heists or just drive around and have a good time. More often than not though, you will be repeatedly killed by kids with nothing better to do. That would be the only downfall to online mode. However, you have the opportunity to enter a passive mode where you can't be attacked or attack other players yourself. However, for me that defeats the purpose of playing online so I have yet to use it. The big problem comes from when you're new. You only have a pistol to start with and no good cars or an apartment or house to hide in. So it's unfair when someone with a rocket launcher, machine gun, etc. comes along and kills you. My one gripe with the online is that it doesn't put you in skill based sessions with people who are around your own skill level. When I first started playing I was killed constantly by people with armored vehicles and the best guns. All I had was a pistol which does nothing if they're hiding in an armored car and even if they got out I had no armor so they would kill me faster with their automatic weapon. Despite the online issues it's a great game and even better fun. The graphics are great, the cars look amazing, the guns feel right, and there is plenty to do. Sometimes I log in to just drive around and see what kind of mischief I can get into. Other times I get on to do some heists to get a nice chunk of change. No matter what you like, there is probably something here you will enjoy. I give it a 92/100 because there is still a little room for improvement.
7. The Witcher 2
If you enjoy fantasy (especially the darker kind in the style of George R.R. Martin), the Witcher 2 is a must play.
The world of the Witcher games is absolutely brilliant and surprisingly realistic. The interactions between characters and factions are laced with politics, backstabbings, racism, classism and a whole slew of modern day problems. The player is often forced to make decisions, however unlike the comparable Bioware games where every decision is either a clear-cut good vs. evil one, decisions in the Witcher 2 often come down to choosing the lesser evil and all possible outcomes being quite crappy. You will often have to think very carefully and consequences are not immediate as sometimes it takes hourse of gameplay for the impact of each decision to become apparent.
Getting into the story for a first-timer will be difficult. I would highly recommend reading up on the first Witcher game and the Witcher books (originally a very popular Polish series by Andzrej Sapkowski) to fully understand what is going in the game. Characters and in-game documents will often make references to events and places that were in the books so having some background knowledge is key to fully enjoying the game.
This game is a must-buy for anyone that enjoys Game of Thrones and/or RPG's in general. Very few games do story telling this well and with such impact.
P.S. I would highly recommend reading the Witcher books as they are probably one of the best and deepest fantasy series every published. It is easily on par with The Song of Ice and Fire series.
8. Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3, the final installment in the ""original"" trilogy of the Mass Effect universe, brings Commander Shepard's battle to a stunning (if controversial) conclusion. Make no mistake, with the Mass Effect series BioWare has staked a claim as the champion of Western RPGs while crafting a sci-fi experience worthy of comparison to the exploits of the Starship Enterprise or the struggle against the Empire. This third installment continues where it's predecessors left off, starting with a startling attack and escape sequence that will set the tone of the Reapers final assault. The story of ME3 will take you on a whirlwind tour of both new and familiar settings and characters. All of your favorites are back for the ride, and the integration of team members from both ME and ME2 is very well done. In the end, this game is truly a Space Epic, and is both satisfying and poignant. It's completely unique to the video game industry to have characters that actually make you feel like you're saying a meaningful goodbye to them in the end. Technically, ME3 is terrific. Graphics are very nice, sound and voice acting top notch, and gameplay runs along without a hitch or clip. The run and gun gameplay is precise and challenging. Also, the new multiplayer mode that ties into the single player story is cool as well, and surprisingly worth several hours of play. This team based mode is a worthwhile addition. In the end, Mass Effect 3 faithfully ends one of the greatest epics produced in modern media. This is a fantastic and engrossing game, with many hours of gameplay. A character in Command Shepard (and the struggle against the Reapers) comes full circle. Long live the Hero of the Alliance.
9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls series, since its birth in the 90s, has long been hailed as one of the staples of RPG gaming. The Fifth major installment of the series, Skyrim, proves another worthy addition, despite some changes that may upset more hardcore RPG gamers.
Skyrim delivers more physical and immediate combat, while at the same time sacrificing some of the open-ended qualities that made Oblivion and Morrowind so enjoyable. There is no spell creation system, and other crafting systems such as enchantment have been nerfed considerably. This is probably an overall good design decision since those things were previously overpowered, but I can't help but think they could have left that customization in and just worked in rules to keep it from being misused.
Aside from that, Skyrim is very much what you'd expect from an Elder Scrolls Game. First person view, with third person optional, questing in a big open world. Kill monsters, get stuff, sell stuff, get money, get stuff, etc. It's a whole lot of fun.
Skyrim, the titular province which provides the game's setting, is generally a cold, snowy place with some small areas of forests and marshes. Bethesda have managed to spice up what could have been an otherwise fairly dreary aesthetic with some very cool and spacey design work, in particular the bright lights of Skyrim's frequent auroras.
NPCs and quests are plentiful, though at times I do feel like the small voice acting cast and often unemotional writing and delivery make many of these characters feel a bit cookie cutter, especially in comparison to the variety of strange and unique characters scattered about Morrowind and Oblivion.
The graphics are a bit dated by 2015's standards but that can be fixed quite easily using ENB plugins. I'm a big fan of The Hunt ENB, in particular. As seems to be frequently the case in Bethesda's open world games, the animations also leave a bit to be desired as well, though not so much can be done about that (though there are some mods which address this as well).
Skyrim is the only game I can say I've played for more than 400 hours, and there is a reason for this, despite its shortcomings.
10. Project CARS
Ever since I switched fully to PC a few years ago the one thing I missed was a good racing game. My first memory of this genre is playing GT3 Aspec more than any other game I played during my childhood. I grinded out all the licenses, all the cars, endurance races. One time my memory card broke and we(my friends and I) had to keep the system on until the weekend until our parents would take us to the store since we didn't live near one.
Anyways back to Project Cars. So far I have only been playing career mode and it has been great. The graphics are amazing and the overall gameplay is great, but there are a few issues I have:
AI - It isn't great. A post on the forums by the user said you must respect the AI...well I was in first place and get pushed off the track from behind onto the dirt where it feels like its impossible to get off. I wasn't going slow or brake checked, AI was on max difficulty, I'm really not sure what happened. Even in different situations AI sometimes acts if I'm not there,
Cars - Not the greatest list of cars but I believe they will add more in the future so really not that big of a deal. I honestly would prefer unlocking cars or buying them but I guess thats a preference since others like it the way it is.
Slipstream - is this even in the game? I don't feel like it is, and it is mentioned in the game as if it is, so I'm not really sure about it.
Conclusion: I love the genre and have missed it for the past few years now. While the game isn't terrible, in fact its great, but I actually prefer Forza or Gran Turismo. They say beggars cant be choosers which applies to PC gamers and the racing genre.
Vote
Critical Hit: May 2015 – Vote For The Best Review
Again, voting will close at 23:59 BST on May 17th, with winners announced on Monday 18th May.
Fuzzy_Pixels