Five Nights at Freddy’s on Xbox One is a very creepy game, but one that achieves big results with limited resources. Using nothing more than some creepy singing and things that go bump in the night to deliver jump scares if the creatures reach you, Freddy will have a profound effect on you. It’s scary, it’s atmospheric, and it will make you jump. If you are looking for a genuinely frightening game, then look no further.
The weakest of the LucasArts remasters, Grim Fandango Remastered on Xbox One has aged the most in terms of its visuals and obscure puzzling. There’s a fantastic story being told here, with Glottis, Manny, Chepito and the rest being absolute belters. But they’re stuck in a limbo of bloated sandboxes, plodding character speeds and puzzles that should have come with a pre-packaged walkthrough.
Whilst the visuals are nice, some of the writing is okay and the music is palatable, there is little else to like here with The Language of Love on Xbox One. When it isn’t relying on a romance story by numbers, it plays into very creepy tropes and strange dynamics in ways that made me feel rather uncomfortable.
In the simplest terms, Dead Dungeon is an incredibly affordable game that will provide a few hours of fun. It’s by no means perfect, but it does a good job of providing a variety of challenging levels to get through. If you’re looking for a challenging platformer that can be beaten in a weekend, then Dead Dungeon on Xbox One might be the game for you.
Sparkle 4 Tales on Xbox One is a great example of how a video game can never simply just be a piece of art, as it needs to have gameplay substance which goes beyond just superficial fodder to make players pick up a controller. There is certainly an attempt to evoke some sort of existential wonder, but it all comes across rather pretentious, especially when the game design as a whole just feels rather superficial.
Despite some good ideas, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? shows that as a full price title, there’s not enough here to justify to cost. Fans of the show will get some enjoyment here, but even they will feel short-changed by the price tag.
There’s a lot to like about Outpost Delta on Xbox One; despite the rough edges, I've had a blast playing through. The exploration keeps you guessing, with various keys needed to progress and upgrades that are required to advance. As a Metroidvania, it is firmly on the Metroid end of the scale, but as a target to aspire to Metroid isn't a bad one. It is a little glitchy, there’s no getting away from it, but it’s challenging and, above all, fun to play.
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues is a beat ‘em up brawler that’s simultaneously looking to pack a punch and satisfy the fans of the immensely popular show. With the fantastic Streets of Rage 4 only recently bringing the genre back to the forefront of gaming, can the Cobra Kai game capitalise on it and deliver a fun-filled, side-scrolling brawler too? Well, while Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues has a lot going for it, there’s not much point having the components if they’re not put together well. And, unfortunately, the impressive depth of the gameplay is seriously undermined by poor execution.
GONNER2 on Xbox One is absolutely rock hard and requires the reflexes of a ninja hopped up on Red Bull to get anywhere, and so this is not a game that you would play for a nice, relaxing blast before work. However, if you enjoy a challenge, it is certainly worth playing. Even with fingers made of butter, progress can be made by concentrating fiercely, and it is then when GONNER2 starts to become rewarding.
Ghostrunner’s flaws are tragic ones. With it starting so strong, the bugs, poor optimization and horrendous design choices stung more and more. If all you’re looking for is a cyberpunk distraction until CD Projekt Red’s hotly anticipated title, this may be just what you’re looking for. However, if you want a game that’s consistent and well-made throughout, you could play the first eight levels of Ghostrunner on Xbox One and pretend it ends there.
DIRT 5 on Xbox One isn’t the best DIRT title there has ever been but it definitely deserves a place in the line-up. Just involve yourself in the racing, forget about the faff, and you’ll be sure to have a jolly good time.
It's a vibrant and exciting open world full of a wealth of missions, side missions, and recruiting to do, complemented by some decent visuals and brilliant audio work.
Little Hope on the Xbox One is a substantially different horror game than Man of Medan, and that is one of the beauties of The Dark Pictures Anthology. However, that does mean that gone are the tight corridors of Man of Medan, replaced by a lot of walking on empty roads and dirt paths in Little Hope. It was a tale that I personally found a lot less scary, though this could be down to familiarity of the anthology starting to creep in. It is still more than capable of producing a decent amount of scares though as the nights start to draw in.
HyperBrawl Tournament on Xbox One has some of the features required to make up a great game, but not enough to stand out. Its gameplay is fun and rewarding but it is also quite stiff, with some lazy AI. It’s nice that there are progression levels and customization but it doesn’t add much to the overall experience. There is also not a large enough variety of game modes and what there is gets boring very fast.
You could have put ‘Silent Hill’ at the front of the title and we would have called Visage a return to form. Ultimately, this is an exercise in stretching PT to a full house, which is almost entirely successful, with masterful scares and near constant tension.
