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Green Hell is an FPS survival horror game based in the uncharted jungles of the Amazon where you must survive physically and mentally.

Creepy Jar is an awesome name for a game developer and those same minds brought us their newest release, Green Hell. Green Hell was previously released on Steam years ago but we were not able to play it until it was ported over to the Xbox One and we recently received a copy for the purpose of this review.

The game itself feels quite unique, or at least I have yet to play anything that came before that had this same feel to it. Some of the mechanics are tried and true across many games but this particular recipe feels new and that is rare. Before playing the game and before even seeing images of the gameplay I saw there was a tabletop version of the game about to go on kickstarter so it gave me a different expectation of the gameplay. I thought that the game would be an isometric game where you had to navigate the Amazon to some unknown end (I literally went into this game without doing any research on the story) and was shocked when I loaded the game up for the first time and was greeted to a first person shooter styled experience.

For the game mechanics you will likely recognize crafting mechanics similar to those in 7 Days to Die or the fact that any items that can be picked up as they are will receive a glowing outline like in so many other games. Graphically the rendering is not the best I’ve seen on the Xbox but I would say that it is on par with the earlier releases of the Xbox One. The story focuses on Jake and his Mia as they arrive in the Amazon. Their first step after making camp is for Mia to earn the trust of a local indigenous tribe. One day you wake up to her screams over your radio and you go charging into the jungle (as Jake) to find her. With several comments regarding Jake’s mental health throughout the tutorial led me to wonder if her voice was real. Very quickly you begin to question everything, like during the tutorial there was a path near your camp and after the tutorial the path is replaced by a stream. Very few games I have played have messed with your senses like Green Hell has and that was just in the first couple hours of the game. I can’t wait to see how else the game screws with my head.

Order of Battle: World War 2 is a turn based take on the battles of World War 2 by Slitherine Games.

Have you ever wanted to command troops during World War 2 over land, sea and air? With Order of Battle: World War 2 you can. Slitherine Games shared their newest Xbox One release to try and share our thoughts.

The visuals for the game are like something out of the early nineties. I don’t mean to say that this is garbage because I have played and enjoyed much worse. It’s on par with the original Command and Conquer games as far as the visuals are concerned but play style is quite different. Each turn you move your various troops up to a certain number of hexes (each varying from unit to unit) and most can also attack.

The gameplay is slow and tedious but still the game was enjoyable. I found myself on many occasions saying “just one more level” and after several hours I’d wonder where the time went. The game is tedious and everything about the interface screams that you need a mouse and computer to play this but it is enjoyable. Though it would likely be even more enjoyable with a mouse or an upgrade to the controls and interface.

BeeFense BeeMastered was once a mobile game that has been remastered for the current generation of consoles by Byterockers’ Games.

BeeFense BeeMastered is a tower defense game from Byterockers’ Games and the latest in a series of cute, adorable, family friendly titles of games (most of which are on mobile). In BeeFense you assist a bee hive defend themselves from evil wasps and their bug allies. Where most tower defense games you earn currency by waiting, this is more of a hybrid mixed with RTS mechanics (Real Time Strategy). Specifically you must farm pollen for purchases, nectar to feed your bees and honeydew to pay for researching upgrades. You can also farm water which gives your weapons a boost to their effectiveness. Most levels give you three goals that award honeycombs (instead of stars).

Each stage becomes a dance between defending the path, feeding your bees and paying for everything. As stages progress you unlock new towers and upgrades for them. Personally I never enjoyed tower defense games but already found myself pushing replay on stages I missed goals until I completed them. Some levels feel impossible to unlock each of the goals but as you unlock permanent upgrades playing them again becomes easier than before but many are still quite challenging. 

With the level of control needed through many of the levels I feel that a mobile version simply allow you to effectively order your troops. Now keep in mind this is just an observation based on the mechanics on the Xbox One and mobile version could function entirely differently. I simply don’t know. If everything is controlled in the same manner then I don’t see mobile working very well. On the Xbox though it is a unique experience that will likely aggravate younger players but provide a challenge that will push adult gamers to their limits and do it in a world that you don’t need to worry about children being around while you play.

HeroCraft has released an Xbox One version of their mobile hit Space Wolf, a turn and card based strategy game.

When I discovered Warhammer 40k Space Wolf I immediately reached out to the team at HeroCraft to see if we could receive a review copy to try it out. Little did I know at the time this was the same game I had played several years ago on my iPhone. When it first released I found it to be a good deal of fun but soon found a new title to draw my attention on my phone. Fast forward to last month when I received the download code for the game.

I had the game installed for several weeks before playing it and within the first couple turns I realized how similar this was to a game I played before. After a few minutes on google taught me that my suspicions were correct, this game was an updated version of a mobile game I’ve played previously. That isn’t a bad thing mind you, merely an observation.

Gameplay is based on an initiative system that can be manipulated by various cards to speed you up or slow you down. Each character has a set of cards that are randomized and then dealt to be used. Each card can offer movement, some sort of buff, an attack or even healing options. Under the image on each card will list the damage the weapon CAN do but you are limited on ammo or it is a single use card. Compared to most Xbox One titles the graphics are a bit dated but appear to be a significant improvement off of the original. My only complaint with this game is that movement and targeting is along a predefined X and Y axis regardless of the rotation of the camera. Compared to the original format I felt this was a huge improvement as on mobile devices the screen is just too small to really enjoy the effects.

Biomutant as an RPG set in the distant future where corporations have made the planet unlivable for human and the mutations inherit it all!

Published by Experiment 101, Biomutant is an RPG that follow a mutant ronin that has returned to the land of his upbringing in search of revenge. Of course if you choose a lighter path your revenge takes the form of helping to restore the Tree of Life. You start the game with some amazing cinematics that gave me a lot of hope for this title.

As your character escapes the monster who killed your family, you go into a character creation screen. The level of customization is much higher than I expect but this is your first taste of the real visuals to expect through the game, and it’s not as stellar as the opening cinematic that’s for certain. You then pick up with your created character just before the fight you watched and must escape a bunker. Following the tutorial you will make it topside pretty quickly where the fight begins and you must play out the scene you watched.

Controls are easy to master and visuals are about on par with most titles you’d see on the previous generations of systems. Not the visuals may be a product of the fact that I’m playing this on the original Xbox One and it might be more dynamic on the new Xbox but I don’t have one myself to test that theory. The story is typical of an “all ages” role playing game that relies too heavily on slow dialogue trees and wandering through the world than with cut scenes.

Overall I found this game to be wanting and before picking up a copy yourself I would wait until you found it in the bargain bin or on a massive price reduction.

Leisure Suit Larry returns with the follow up game Wet Dreams Dry Twice from Assemble Entertainment!

Leisure Suit Larry started as an indie title that was always about getting Larry laid. The humor was crude and the breasts were large, as were other appendages.  Wet Dreams Dry Twice is the direct sequel to their first game in the franchise to hit the next gen consoles- Wet Dreams Don’t Dry and picks up where the story left off.

Larry is slated to marry the daughter of the village Chief to fulfill a prophecy and the love of his live is presumed dead. Following a discovery on your phone Larry decides to leave Cancum in search of his lost love, building a boat out of some rather useless junk and heading to sea.

The game plays like your standard point and click adventures but with a very adult theme. This game is in no way family friendly but that doesn’t stop it from building a game world that is simple to navigate and full of laughs. Thankfully this game doesn’t support any sort of virtual reality because interacting with many of the world objects would require a shower after or three, definitely three.

Aerial_Knight and Headup Games brings us the endless running action game Never Yield and it is crazy addicting!

Most endless runner games throw random obstacles at you that you use one of a couple methods to avoid and will literally go on, forever. With Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield the formula is changed, it actually has an end. Simply put it just looks and feels like an endless runner. The bulk of the story is told through quick glimpses of action but no dialogue, no trailing prologue like in a Star Wars film, everything is centered around the action. 

The stylized characters look like something you would expect to see in Back to the Future’s version of the future but full of weapon-wielding drones and vehicles looking to run you over. Without quick reflexes expect to die, often, but with each death you see a continue screen where you’re given the choice between “Never Yield” or giving up, along with a death counter for the particular run. With enough skill you can complete the story in a single sitting within a couple hours tops, my reactive skills were not on point and it took me about five total hours to complete the story. I found the game to be fun, despite the frequent deaths and well worth playing through more than once.

Cyanide & Happiness has brought the first installment in their new trilogy Freakpocalypse on Switch and Steam!

In Freakpocalypse you play as Coop, an orphan that must help save the school and more importantly survive in it. The problem is EVERYONE needs help and not a single one of them even likes you! The game starts with a battle between a heroic version of yourself against the sinister Dr Dropout and his army of Droogs. Of course to no-one’s surprise this turns out to be only Coop’s daydream amid doodles in his notebook.

Videos are skippable in the story but I advise not to as some of your tasks make little to no sense without them. Life like the story of this game can be an adventure but seem completely random and pointless at times. Visually it is the quality you’ve come to expect from the art and videos from C&H. The controls however leave much to be desired, it looks and feels like a traditional point and click adventure but on the Switch feels overly complicated. If you are a fan of C&H’s style of crude humor and storytelling you will enjoy this game, as long as you can tolerate the convoluted controls.

Check out the trailer from Cyanide & Happiness:

Orbit Studio brings us Retro Machina, a game about finding beauty in a world where you are expected to conform.

Retro Machina begins with a your robot working on the assembly line as a butterfly flies in through the window. Distracted, your robot stops working and sets off alarms. With your newfound sense of adventure you seek an escape from the factory and soon begin your search for a machine to repair you entirely. This JRPG, or Junior Role Playing Game, takes you through a world where only robots and plant life remain.

The visuals are colorful and highly detailed but even when things are dire they give you a feeling of cheerful hope. Controls are simple to pick up but keep in mind that you can only hold onto one health item at a time so use them when you see another. Life and death is not a huge concern with this game as every time you you lose all your health you respawn at the point you entered the section of the same map section. Overall the game is quite a lot of fun, especially using the ability to hijack control of other robots and using them to destroy the others. The world is huge and I can’t wait to keep exploring it and not just to find all of the hidden references like the Tardis or Back to the Future’s Delorian!

Merge Games takes the ‘build a city’ game type to a new perspective- that of the buildings themselves with Buildings Have Feelings Too!

In Buildings Have Feelings Too players take control of a building who walks and talks along with other buildings. The intro to the game you see as several buildings discuss how they are falling apart, some due to negligence and your building decides to move to a new town. Upon arrival you meet two buildings that want to improve their own wellbeing and suggest you build a new structure and as you bring it to life determine that it will be a factory which upsets your new friends.

The rest of the game you must play a balancing act between improving certain stats by managing which buildings are near each other and what products they offer. What makes this easier is you can move the buildings back and forth without much consequence like moving the residences to be near the factory that is a giant smoke stack. This makes the residence upset but as soon as you use the move to upgrade the factory you can then immediately move one or the other immediately after, restoring the happiness of each building.

Controls are simple to master and the graphics are solid in this cute family friendly game about micromanagement and construction. The game itself was bit on the dull side but it takes a new look at building a city.