Crysis Remastered - While I wouldn’t say that Crysis is at the absolute
upper echelon of FPS titles it certainly has its adherents. In particular, at
the time it was released it was notable for its ambition and resource-draining
outdoor environments that were a major departure from the typical enclosed
corridors people were used to. The fact that the remastered version of it is
up and running on the Switch, and quite well mind you, is absolutely an
impressive technical achievement and even in handheld mode when we’ve come to
expect some stuttering and sputtering this port manages to be respectable even
if not particularly ideal. Probably my biggest struggle with the game is
visibility, an issue I even had playing when docked but at times making for
misery when played portably. One downside of foliage everywhere is that
there’s plenty of cover to hide your enemies, most of which are wearing
uniforms that themselves lend to helping people disappear in the distance, and
sometimes even when they’re practically on top of you. Contrast that with it
often feeling like every enemy has the eyes of a hawk and will spot you and
begin shooting even while you’re struggling to isolate their position and
there are passages that can be very frustrating indeed. Still, once you’ve
become accustomed to your power suit, and how it can amp up your armor or
stealth abilities, you’ll probably find it more often than not makes for an
experience that’s just plain different (for better or worse) than your average
shooter and that’s capable of satisfying a wider audience than mere FPS genre
fans.
Ageless - New and smart ideas on how to juice up all-to-familiar core
gameplay are a mainstay of the indie gaming movement. Ageless, while its
presentation is a bit on the simple and pixelated side, manages to stand out
primarily because of its smart time manipulation hook, and that helps to
elevate what otherwise would have felt like a generic puzzle platformer into
something more worthy of your attention and praise. Granted, though I
appreciate the obvious effort to create a great game experience, I would be
remiss not to note that it also has some shortcomings. Though the controls
work well enough there’s also something cumbersome about the combinations of
buttons you’ll find yourself needing to use, and I can’t say they ever quite
felt natural. Even a minor hesitation or fumbling over buttons too often
results in areas and puzzles where you’ll know what you want and need to do
but will find it’s hard to put it together. In others, especially as you’re
still learning how best to utilize some of your abilities, the problem can be
with leaps of faith the game is thinking you’ll make in terms of using what
you have at your disposal in new ways in order to proceed. The concept and
some of the puzzles are a great challenge, and the game has plenty going for
it, but there’s just a lack of polish and refinement that’s hard to miss and
may keep it from reaching the more mainstream success of some of its
contemporaries.
Heroes of Hammerwatch - This is a title that has me feeling a bit torn.
On the plus side anyone familiar with the likes of the classic Gauntlet series
will no doubt immediately grasp the play experience, which is a very arcade-y
action RPG core, with you hunting through dungeons and trying to grab all the
loot you can before meeting your demise at the hands of varied monsters and
lethal traps. On a positive note this edition also has a major leg up on its
predecessor since it offers a load of content, which should lead to many more
hours of enjoyment either solo, or hooking up with others online (for now there's no local option). Your class options do have some diversity to them, especially
depending on the upgrade paths you choose, and that should also provide more
incentive to attack the game more than once. All of that said, to me there’s
something a bit encumbered about the experience and pacing when you get back
to town and I wish it could have been a bit more streamlined to get me into
the action quicker and staying in it a bit longer. If you’re down for
steady-but-grindy level-building fun this is a great and fairly-priced option
in terms of content, but given the competitors in the space I’m not sure it
clearly stands out at the top of the pack either since it doesn’t really
embrace either classic arcade simplicity or satisfyingly-deep systems, instead
scouting out a more muddled and generic middle ground.
Cubers: Arena - While there are plenty of twin-stick shooters and
beat-em-ups on the system I can’t say that there are many that work as a sort
of hybrid of the two. With top-down 360 degree slashing action there’s a
certain simple-but-satisfying feel to the arena fights of Cubers. As you
progress your foes and the traps you’ll face will get trickier to deal with,
but the good news is that a steady stream of new equipment and upgrades will
also provide you with some options on how to play, whether favoring all-out
aggressive offense, block-and-counter strategy, or some other variant in
between. As you progress in the campaign more and more goodies like additional
multiplayer modes will unlock, affording you more opportunities for challenges
and fun with your friends as well. While it doesn’t quite get to the level of
being amazing, to its credit the action it does offer up is fun in a grindy
sort of way and regular upgrades help entice you to play another round or two
to find out what may be next and how it could shake up your strategy and play
to keep things a bit more fresh.
Cubicity - Puzzle games are a dime a dozen (or perhaps even more than
that) on the Switch, so it’s important to offer up something distinct to
bubble up when people go hunting for some fun. While Cubicity absolutely nails
the cute factor, making it sure to grab some eyes that way, in terms of
gameplay it may be a bit too familiar in many ways, essentially working as a
box-pushing game even if the presentation tries to give it a different feel.
In general it’s a fine experience, though I will say that the white indicator
arrow helping you track which “boximal” you’re looking to work on is really
damned hard to make out when it happens to be laying over a cloud and that
happens more than I wish it would. This isn’t a complete killer problem but
along with some other quibbles the game feels like it could use more polish as
a whole. Overall it’s fine, and may tickle your fancy, but it’s not breaking
any new ground by any means.
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