Tag game review

Through the Darkest of Times is a strategy game based on one of the world’s darkest periods in history- the rise of Nazi Germany.

Through the Darkest of Times by Handy Games is a historical strategy game that puts you behind the resistance movement in hopes of preventing Hitler’s rise to power. When I started this game I knew that your goal would fail but figured I’d stick it to every Nazi I could along the way. Little did I know how close the game would hit to home. Not only did it give me a reality check but it literally made me nauseous. It wasn’t the graphics or video quality that did it either.

Within a couple game days I noticed a sickening trend, how much the rise of the Nazi party mirrored our own country’s politics the last couple of years. The things Nazi sympathizers would say would mirror almost word for word things I have heard and read said by Trump supporters. Whether this was intentional or not I have no idea. This wouldn’t be the only time I’ve compared the rhetoric to Nazi Germany and certainly won’t be the last. I just hope that the current election woes will pass soon and we can return to making our country a better place, without the need of war and outside interference.

The game itself plays similar to games like the original Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and it’s many sequels but instead of quizzing players it allows you to turn the populace towards revolting against the regime. Visually the graphics would fit well with the late 80’s computer games and it feels like that was the goal, aiming for some semblance of nostalgia. The gameplay however is mind numbing but interspersed with tidbits of story to keep you curious. If you want to watch a resistance movement like a fly on the wall, observing the plans and the results only as the members return to headquarters then you will enjoy this game. The story is fascinating and disturbing in equal parts and worth the play for that alone but don’t expect much in terms of excitement.

Beyond Blue is the title meant for every aspiring marine biologist or anyone that wanted to be one as a child (myself included).

Beyond Blue from E-Line Media is an adventure where you play as Marine Biologist Mirai as she explores the ocean collecting data. Her primary focus is on studying a group of whales, or a pod, specifically Humpback whales. Each in game day gives a list of tasks to perform like scanning the pod of whales and fixing buoys. With the couple hours I already put into the game the worst of the tasks was holding the X button down for about five seconds. The game has a story but it is far from exciting, however it does have a bit of backstory you can pick up regarding Mirai and her family.

Visually the character models look like they belong to some of the classic Xbox days and not the Xbox One. The best thing though is how natural the underwater creatures move. The reactions of the AI have a bit to be desired as you can swim through a school of fish and the just keep swimming instead of darting away from you like real schools of fish would. The game is easy to pick up to play and can be played with your whole family in the room. It was an enjoyable game that was a bit too slow to keep my attention for more than thirty minutes at a time.

Many games allow you to play as an insect and many more allow you to play in a first person perspective but only Metamorphosis allows you to play both!

Based on the writings of Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis begins with players waking up in a hotel room, vague memories of the night before. After leaving your friend behind you enter a strange hallway and start to notice things about yourself changing the further you get. Soon after you realize you have not only turned into a bug of some sort but see a letter offering you employment at a secretive location called The Tower. Deciding to accept the offer the page sucks you into a dizzying world where you use the written words as stones to bridge your path.

Along the way you encounter various dangers and puzzles to solve to bring you closer to The Tower. As a bug you find that traversing steep slopes is far easier and with the help of something sticky can easily walk along vertical walls. One of your first tasks is to return to your friend and wake him up to try to get him to see you as yourself and not just the bug you have been turned into.

Visually the game leaves a bit to be desired as an Xbox One title I would expect the visuals to be a bit cleaner. Gameplay is quite fluid as you traverse the many varying terrain in ways you never expected but can be quite glitchy. Multiple times over the course of an hour of play the game crashed and required rebooting the system before I could return to the game to only do it again. Glitches and visuals aside though, the team at All In Games made an enjoyable title that is well worth playing for the mechanics alone, not to mention an interesting story that will leave you wondering what’s at the tower? After nearly four hours of play (including two reboots) I feel like I am nowhere near the tower but wanting to get there and learn it’s secrets.

Ever wondered what the world would look like if you woke up from a coma? With Neversong you can!

Neversong is a side scrolling platformer from Serenity Forge that requires ingenuity to solve it’s many puzzles and defeat the many adults. I mean monsters. The world has become much darker upon Peet’s waking up from his coma. His best friend (and possible love interest?) has been kidnapped and it is up to Peet to find her. She has been taken to Blackfork Asylum and her fate looks grim.

The puzzles require some thought and many can’t be completed until returning later with new abilities. Graphically the game is rather simple but quite endearing in its simplicity. You are greeted with a dark story-line where this same darkness permeates everything and yet still manages to feel like a game to be enjoyed by the family. Neversong looks and plays similar to games like Limbo and it’s sequel Inside.

When I first started the game I felt a weird kinship with Peet having been in a coma myself at the beginning of the year. The coma was handled tastefully and was an interesting starting point for a story. For someone that barely recovered from a coma he is quite athletic.

Overall I found the game enjoyable and look forward to being able to spend more time helping Peet save his lady love.

Have you ever wanted to punch a luchador with an elf or brawl as a character from Battle Chasers? In Bounty Battle you can!

Bounty Battle from Merge Games is a meta fighter that doesn’t require a classic fight-stick. Huge vortexes have opened and pulled dozens of heroes from not just different video game titles but different genres as well. As these vortexes pull our different combatants to the field of battle the throws you right into the game with your menu. For this game I started on the tutorial, more so because I assumed there would be an achievement. The tutorial takes you through the basics of the game, focusing mainly on grapples, hard and light hits.

By performing different chained attacks and hitting the opponents you build up a combo which gives you an increasing amount of bounty points. Get defeated and lose your points. It’s rather straight forward. The goal is for you to defeat all of the characters in the multiverse and bring glory to your home world. What’s unique about this brawler is that as you get wounded your character starts to glitch. We’re talking like Penelope in Wreck it Ralph but without the benefits.

Overall I found the game to be easy to pick up and learn but found it severely lacking in terms of story. This is brawling for the sake of brawling.

In Save Your Nuts players control various animals in search of hording all of the nuts. Will your animal come out as king?

Have you ever wondered which animal can horde the most nuts? Traditionally you would think the squirrels would be masters of their nuts but Save Your Nuts, from Triple Scale Games, puts players in command of various creatures to steal all of the nuts. Each animal has it’s own boosts like stronger hits, more durability or more speed.

Each game my son would insist on changing animal types to keep the game fresh along with new maps to enjoy the full experience. There are dogs, wolves, turtles, raccoons, squirrels and armadillos. Wolves are the quicker option that is more durable and because I’ve always had an affinity for wolves so they were my go to. Each map offered new obstacles and new ways to screw over the competition. The power ups can be quite entertaining as well- its hilarious to watch a 12 year old fall over laughing when dropping toxic poop piles all over the ground.

Overall I found the game to be great fun when playing as a family but against the AI it is more frustrating than enjoyable.

Epic Games brings us Superliminal, a first person game where you can impose your perspective on the world around you.

Have you ever woken up in a facility that is testing you physically and mentally? In Superliminal this is exactly what is happening. Unlike the real world where an item doesn’t change size only your perspective of it does, this game is about making the size of objects work for the puzzle of the room. Right off the bat the puzzle solutions are not completely apparent but with a little patience solutions become quite clear.

I have never played a game like this where by picking up an object and moving away from it you make it physically larger just by releasing it. Conceptually it’s a bit difficult to wrap your head around but after you learn the controls it is apparent how ingenious it really is. Look at the image above for example. The doorway on the right is full sized and respectively those items are huge, but they didn’t start that way. Each item was sitting on a small tray and a box and by manipulating your views of them changed their sizes.

If you are looking for a puzzle game that is not only brilliant but thought provoking as well this game is a must. Many rooms will have you scratching your head and when you finally figure them out you will be disappointed it took so long to figure out. Do you have the patience to make it to the end?

Players take the role of their favorite Hogwarts heroes in the Hogwarts Battle Cooperative Deck Building Game from USAopoly!

In Hogwarts Battle players work together fighting against increasing odds but with the help of your expanding decks of spells you will be able to fight and eventually defeat them. The fine folks at USAopoly supplies us with our review copy of this game (along with others) and we let our son choose which we played first. So one thing became apparent early on in the game- the more players you have the easier the fight will be. Makes sense because anytime you have a set number of enemies and increase the number of people fighting them you usually will have an easier time of it.

We went around the table adding cards to our individual pools of magic spells in order to quickly get an upper hand against Draco Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle and eventually Professor Quirrell.

I’m notorious for misreading rules the first few times I go over them so to save time I asked my wife to give them a quick read and we were able to jump right into the game within only a couple minutes. The rule book is full color and well written and you’d have to be a fool to misunderstand them. Somehow I did and she straightened it out quickly.

The first stage of the game took about forty five minutes total, including multiple readings of the rules and even a check of them again later on. In our house the toughest critics are the kids and after completing the first stage Merrick immediately asked if we could do the second stage tomorrow. This game is a definite keeper and I think this image says all you need to know about whether or not you should get this for the Harry Potter fan in your life.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to deliver packages in a world of ragdoll physics? In Totally Reliable Delivery Service from Epic Games and TinyBuild you can!

Totally Reliable Delivery Service was a title I was given to review courtesy of Epic Games and TinyBuild, but their generosity has in no way influenced my thoughts on this game. We were able to test it out on both the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. My son preferred the controls on the Switch and I thought they felt more natural on the Xbox.

The concept of the game is that you play a delivery person who must deliver an assortment of packages. The base idea is rather dull and I’m sure there are more than enough people that would not want to play a video game based on their day job. Epic Game and TinyBuild took a very different approach. Instead of the tedious driving door to door and dropping off of packages you drive, fly and carry packages across dozens of scenarios including up a steep hill to a ski lodge while avoiding falling trees or using a forklift to deliver an explosive through a second story residential building. There are ramps to jump your vehicles over, hidden castles and plenty of challenges to keep you having to replay missions to grind them all out.

My son found the game to be dull and gave up playing after his first time playing it. I spent probably about five total hours on the title, messing around more than trying to score well on challenges and agreed. It is a bit dull in terms of story and excitement but the game is cute, family friendly and easy to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time. Longer doses of this game leaves me prone to yawning after I explored all of the areas I felt there was no need to keep at it and removed the game from my system. One day I may revisit it but chances are slim on this title.

Ever since I was a kid I loved the Where’s Waldo books and Hidden Through Time is here to try to scratch that particular itch.

Who hasn’t “read” a Where’s Waldo book? They were huge in the 80’s and 90’s and even my own kids have seen them. If they haven’t then they have seen books like them. Hidden Through Time is essentially a moving, interactive version of one of those books. Crazy Monkey Studios are the brains behind this game and their passion for the genre shows. Players load maps in “single play mode” or essentially an offline mode where they begin to hunt for hidden images in the map. Some are quite obvious, while others can be maddeningly difficult to find. When this gets old or if you are simply looking for something new you can always load an online map.

The online maps are maps created by other players, these range from overly simplistic to insanely difficult. I even found one dedicated to the Indiana Jones movies and it did an amazing job at it! The creator of this map took time to recreate a dozen or so scenes from the film series including the iconic bag of sand switching with the idol from Raiders and the leap of faith from Last Crusade. There are easily hundreds of maps to choose from and for you achievement hunters if you type “Easy” into your search terms you can find over 40 (at least at the time of writing) maps that are a couple obvious clicks and then you are finished.

We found the game to be fun in small doses but more than ten maps and it feels quite repetitive, to the point of boring. Personally I would recommend waiting until this game was for sale for $10 or less to get a better value out of it.