The third game in the Batman Arkham Series, though this one is made by Warner Bros. instead of Rocksteady who developed the last 2 games, the result of this is a game which comes across as media which is almost trying to imitate itself.

Right off the bat here, i’ll say that Arkham Origins feels like Arkham City, in pretty much every sense, the combat is virtually untouched, the city feels familiar, probably half of the game assets are straight up taken from the previous game, and all of the core gameplay mechanics are the same.
Arkham Origins almost begins to have a Zelda feel to it, completing essentially the same tasks game after game, yet at least Zelda put a new lick of paint and a new spin on it before sending you into the gauntlet of dungeons and bosses.

And therein lies the problem, many review websites are slaughtering Arkham Origins because it lacks any original content other than the story (and really, the story is nothing to be celebrated), this seems unfair however as the game is still solid, the predator segments are entertaining, the free-flow combat is fun and the graphics are brilliant.

Unfortunately, Origins somehow manages to go backwards in several aspects…
Once past a certain point in the game, you get the shock gloves, which essentially trivialize most fights by turning batman into a complete monster.
The hub world is equal parts barren and completely nonsensical, Arkham city was supposed to be an enclosed city for inmates, Arkham Asylum was.. an asylum, why then is there no life aside from thugs and corrupt cops in the hub world in this game?
And unlike Arkham City, you wont even really want to explore any of the world anyway, gone are the clever riddles, and replaced with boring collectibles scattered around randomly, few of which actually seem that challenging to collect as long as you have the correct equipment.
The game is also significantly more buggy/glitchy than previous titles, In my playthrough I had to reload checkpoints 3 times because I would run into game-breaking bugs, examples: unable to climb into vent, unable to interrogate enemy as he was floating, batman refusing to move…

I could go on and on, but it would all come back to the same main point…

Verdict:

Batman: Arkham Origins is a solid game, but it fails to live up to its predecessor and instead feels like a step backwards. It’s by no means bad, but gives scary vibes towards a Call of Duty or Assassins Creed style serialization with little innovation.

Approximate Game Length :  10-15 hours for main story and some extras
Actual Worth / Steam Price:  £25  / £39 = 0.625
Should you play it : No, If you’ve played the previous 2 games, this is more of the same, if you havent played the previous 2 games, you should probably go play those instead.

Rating: 4/5

The Wolf Among Us is another episodic story adventure game by Telltale, a studio which, having developed one of the best games of last year, seem to now understand what exactly makes a good adventure game.

TWAU is based on a comic book series called Fables, which can probably be quickly summarised as ‘Fairy tales in New York’ with a dark and gritty twist on the affair, the story here focuses on Bigby Wolf (aka. Big B Wolf) who is the sheriff of fabletown, a murder occurs and you end up playing detective to get to the bottom of it all.
This was my first look into the ‘fables’ universe, and I have to say I found it very interesting, going through and seeing all of the characters and how they are portrayed in this alternate world is really cool and definitely something that will probably attract people both to the game, and to the original source material.

It feels like a pretty big departure from the Walking Dead games, in that this feels like significantly more of a solo affair, similarly there seems to be less focus on interaction with other characters and more on interaction with the world and the story itself.
What do I mean by that? Well other than the obvious clicking on the environment to examine stuff and pick up clues, there are also segments in the game which are super obvious black or white style ‘this is going to massively impact the story’ – something which I would LOVE to talk more about, but will refrain from doing in order to not spoil any of the story.
There are a lot of action sequences in TWAU, from brawling quicktime events, to chasing people in segments which feel funnily similar to Shenmue.

The first episode runs around 2 hours, and has its fair share of twists and turns in itself, however judging by the ‘next episode’ segment at the end of the episode, we are definitely in for a ride.

Verdict:

The first episode in what will almost certainly be another fantastic series from Telltale, think LA noire meets Telltale, set in an amazing looking comicbook universe.

Approximate Game Length :  ~2 hours for this episode
Actual Worth / Steam Price:  £??  / £19 =
Should you play it : Yes

I wont be rating anything or assigning worth until all the episodes are out, but episode 1 alone was probably around a 4/5. The pricing seems possibly a little high, but if TWD is anything to go by, there will be a crapton of sales down the line, which will almost certainly bring it to a good purchase.

Electronic Super joy is platforming heaven.. or maybe hell.. depending on how you look at it.

ESJ knows what it wants to be, and what it wants to do, and sets out to accomplish it in its own unique way, the game puts a real emphasis on content over anything else.

ESJ is a ridiculously hard platformer game, it has just under 50 levels including a few boss/arena style fights, and is best described as Super Meat Boy on LSD. Why LSD? The art style for starters, is a mix of minimalistic pixel stuff and bright pulsing neon colours, and then there’s the soundtrack – which consists entirely of heavy dance/club music, heres a taste of what you’ll be listening to as you’re jumping over pits and dodging lasers – Fire Frost – and heres one more – If you are into that sort of the music, the game might well be worth trying just for the soundtrack alone.

The actual platforming itself is simple in nature, but thrown towards the extreme end in terms of difficulty, you’ll be able to get double jumps and ground slams and all that normal stuff, but the level design is where the game really shines, with the game throwing all sorts of ridiculous obstacles at you, ESJ is actually probably slightly TOO hard if anything, I enjoy a good challenge, and am no stranger to difficult platformer games but some of the levels in ESJ are unfair and require a ton of retries (thankfully, doing so is easy thanks to checkpoints and quick respawns).

Verdict:

Clearly geared towards masochist thrillseekers, Electronic Super Joy won’t be for everyone, but if you are looking for a challenge and enjoy yourself some obnoxious dance music, you can’t go wrong with this.

Approximate Game Length :  Short assuming you can complete the levels quickly (<4 Hours)
Actual Worth / Steam Price:  £5 / £5.49 = 0.91
Should you play it : Yes, hardcore gamers only though, casuals won’t make it past world 1.

Rating: 4/5

Fresh on steam, and at the budget price of £3, Unholy heights is an indie strategy/simulation/rpg which puts you in charge of an apartment complex for monsters.

The game quickly turns into a mix of simulation style management of apartments and their tenants, and strategy RPG style choosing which tenants you actually want to have, and then using them to fight off invading enemies.

Gameplay itself is verrry simple, but then at the £3 price point, you wouldn’t really be expecting too much anyway, the game also seems to lack much direction or goal other than expansion of your accommodation and having all of the strongest monsters living in it.
Graphics are also very simple, but manage to convey the situation clearly enough. Music is fairly minimal with some plain BGM’s playing, and then a kind of bizarre hatsune miku-esque battle music song.

I spent a few hours playing it whilst doing some other stuff, whilst its not a bad game, it doesn’t really do enough to grab your attention for very long. You’ll also very quickly get tired of the repetitive nature of it, as there isnt enough depth in the core gameplay.

Verdict:

Even for a budget title, Unholy Heights really doesn’t offer enough fun or depth in its gameplay to be playable for extended periods of time.

Approximate Game Length :  As long as your attention will last (20m – 4 Hours)
Actual Worth / Steam Price:  £1.50 / £3 = 0.5
Should you play it : No,  though there are still worse games out there.

Rating: 2/5