Papers Please Review (PC)

In a growing trend of games that set you as a worker in a highly unglamorous and monotonous job role, Papers Please places you as the winner of the labour lottery who has been assigned to tend the new border check office in made up country East Grestin. Your job is to monitor the paper work and make sure only the right people cross the border. While doing this you’ll have to juggle your family life and make sure you meet your daily quota.

The mixture of family and work sets up an uneasy moral compass which may see you denying access to the neediest people who lack the correct paper work. Every time someone slips through the net you are warned and fined and do this too much and you won’t be able to pay for food, rent and medicine for your family. Neglect them for too long and they will die. Fall into dept and the game ends with you being dragged off by officials.

The game has a grim and grey graphical style which perfectly fits the tone of a suspicious and paranoid eastern bloc country. Each morning you walk to work and enter your basic kiosk. A line of silhouetted figures stretches out of the kiosk as far as the eye can see in a never ending parade of people waiting to get across the border. Clicking on the loud speaker summons each person with a depressing sound and they trudge in to see you.

Each day there are new rules and regulations to adhere to. It starts fairly simply with citizens just needing a passport and soon ends up with all manner of paper work ranging from work visas to tickets and diplomatic passes. Each document needs to be checked for details such as dates, gender and validity and cross referenced. This all takes time and you still have that quota to meet each day. 

During your checking people will offer you bribes or other incentives to let them through and it’s here that much of the story of game develops. Many things remain untold and you are left to think what happened to the wife you didn’t let pass or the urgent medicine that didn’t have the right documentation. 

It won’t be long before body scanners are introduced to check for weapons and contraband and the occasional terrorist attack will also occur. This normally results in the day ending early and even less pay for you to take home to your family.

It’s fair to say that it does take some time for the magic of Papers Please to shine through. The idea of doing a repetitive and monotonous job for hours on end in your spare time may not appeal but it’s the dark and twisted humour that creeps its way into the game that will keep you hooked. It’s also amazing to see how quickly you begin to turn cold to the needs of others in order to save your own skin.

You may start out feeling guilty for turning people away but we found ourselves soon putting up an emotionless wall and quickly denying access to everyone without the correct paperwork. As if to illustrate the point your actions directly have there is a newspaper published at the start of each day which may contain the consequences of your decisions as stories.

Overall, Papers Please is an original and unique take on a kind of point and click adventure. It illustrates how seemingly small decisions can have wide reaching consequences and also acts as a social study on the player and what they are willing to do to make sure things stay in their own interest. It won’t be for everyone but it certainly should be tried by as many people as possible as there is some subtle and really quite clever writing and programming at work here. Once you get the paper stamping bug it’s hard to quit and you’ll always think you can press on further with your next go.

Overall 8/10

Space Hulk Review (PC)

Space Hulk started life as a table top board game where heavily armoured Terminator marines from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, pitted themselves against the multi-clawed Genestealers aboard massive drifting freighters known as ‘Hulks’. The tight corridors meant it turned into a battle of the strong and slow versus the quick and deadly. 

Space Hulk has been adapted in video game form before in two titles that tried to merge action with semi-turn based gameplay. Now we have a new version of the game which takes a different approach and tries to replicate the board game in a much more precise and faithful way.

At this point I feel it's fair to share with you all that we are pretty well acquainted with the board game and we like it a lot. It’s important to bring this up as it’s likely to have a fairly large bearing on if you are going to like this. It’s clear the developers had a specific target audience in mind and there are few concessions to people expecting something similar to the last couple of PC games.

Space Hulk is turn based and relies on dice rolls to carry out actions. At the start of each turn you can move your terminators and set them to guard or go into over watch to scan for enemy movement. At the end of the turn the Genestealers then do the same. Firing weapons and close combat is carried out on the role of dice which means that there is a certain random element to it. This can be frustrating when you are one dice roll away from the success or failure but sound strategy and careful planning does tend to weigh the odds in your favour.

You are going to have to plan you moves carefully as the terminators only have four action points and even turning to face a certain direction requires the use of them. The game is also pretty tough and on the normal setting it took a number of attempts to even get through the second tutorial level. A single mistake of movement can spell disaster in a mission stretching into an hour of more in length so it is advised to save often.

As such, the game plays out more like a slow and thoughtful game of chess than an all guns blazing space shooter, but it certainly draws you in. The presentation is basic and the first thing you’ll likely do is head to the menu to turn off the shoulder cameras and death animations. Your next step will be to set movement to the fastest setting or you’ll be playing this until the rapture. 

However, once you’ve got that simple top down/isometric view, the sound of the engines and the cries of victory or defeat coming from your marines it all starts to click and draw you in. It feels claustrophobic and dangerous and the fact a wrong move is so costly certainly adds buckets of tension and atmosphere. A cry of "Bolter Jammed" has never caused such terror.

The levels are mainly based on the original games maps and as such it brings a wonderful authenticity for anyone not wanting to pay the huge sum of money required to find a decent condition version of the table top game. There are a few weapons and tricks taken from the Deathwing and Genestealer expansions but we would have liked to see a bit more of this added to give some variety as the game progressed.

Multiplayer is also here and there is a hot seat option to allow players to take turns on the same device. It’s a little unwieldy for the Genestealer player but it does work once you get the hang of it. Weirdly, you have to play through the main campaign to unlock levels in multiplayer which is something the game could really have done without. It’s not as gratifying as it should be, which is a shame as this is one of the key features that should make the game a must have title.

What we have is an authentic Space Hulk table top experience with some rough presentation brought to life digitally. Many may be disappointed, but fans of the board game will find this really draws you in. Yes, there could be more options and it could look better but it’s solid and enjoyable and a highly competent strategy title. The rule set is also solid and if you want to recreate some table top fun or take on one tough turn based strategy then this is the game for you. Those looking for fast paced action should look to something else to get their kicks.

Overall 7/10

Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths Review (Wii U)

Gamers of a certain age will likely remember the adventures of Esteban and friends as they searched for the legendary city made of gold. Now the cartoon is being brought back for a new generation and Secret Paths aims to be the perfect companion piece. The plan is to release new levels as the series progresses which merge sections of the animation into the game. It’s an ambitious project, but for now we can only look at what we have here. 

The game is beautifully presented with clear and colourful cartoon style graphics which paint a rich world to look at and explore. The sound also sets the scene well and everything is tied together with cut scenes of a quality that look like they have been lifted directly from the show.

During your adventure you’ll play as the three children and need to switch between them to overcome puzzles and collect items. Each of the children has their own abilities which need to be used to get around. Esteban can summon the son, while Zia can squeeze through small gaps and Tao can interpret runes and send his pet parrot to steal keys from guards.

The game world is viewed from an isometric/top down perspective which allows players to see a decent amount of the level at once. This is useful as you’ll need to see where you need to go and also avoid the pirates and bandits in each level.

There is no death in the game but wandering into the line of sight of an enemy for too long will see the child captured and you’ll have to restart from the a short distance away from the section. Enemies aren’t massively challenging and follow a predetermined route made all the more predictable but footsteps appearing in the ground as they walk but it does keep you on your toes.

Puzzles generally involve moving the characters and objects onto pressure pads to open gates and doors. Sometimes you’ll have to work out some simple number puzzles or find rocks to drop into place, but there is nothing here that will stop you for long. Levels also contain scrolls and unlockable artwork for the obsessive collectors among you.

The game doesn’t pose much of a challenge but much of its charm comes from the semi-casual nature of the title. It’s certainly aimed at younger gamers as something to keep them occupied between TV episodes and it clearly has had a lot of care and attention put into it to create something that’s fun in small amounts.

Overall, this is a fun, if light weight adventure to undertake. Fans of the show and younger gamers will find enjoyment here but the repetition and lack of challenge does hurt its long term appeal. It’s a nice way to spend small chunks of free time but most gamers will probably look to seek out adventures to deeper and darker places.

Overall 6/10

PixelJunk Shooter: The Depths of Disaster Review (PC)

A few years ago PixelJunk Shooter first appeared on the PS3. Still one of the best games on the Playstation network it has finally been made available to PC gamers. Now you can find out what all the fuss is about as you pilot your little ship through a host of physics and element based levels.

The plot, such as it is, has you sent in to rescue your crew mates after mysterious goings on while mining on the planet of Apoxus Prime. To do this you have to fly your craft around tight underground caverns while using water, lava and magnetic black liquids to your advantage. It’s reminiscent of Thrust with its inertia and gravity based gameplay but your craft will stay still if left alone. Your also won’t die from hitting walls (which is a good thing or it would have been nigh on impossible).

The game is a 2D styled shooter where you manoeuvre your ship around a section of an enclosed map. Normally you will have to get water to turn lava to rock or lava to melt ice or some other combination of dropping one liquid onto another. You’re doing this because you need to get to and rescue all the lost crew members in each area. If too many of them die you have to start the level again. It’s wonderfully inventive and a whole lot of fun and there are hidden areas and diamonds to collect along the way as well.

The level design is nigh on perfect throughout the game and the difficulty curve is just about right. The huge boss monsters found at the end of each world may cause some frustration but they provide tense and heroic showdowns of David and Goliath proportions and once you work them out shouldn’t take too long to get past.

Shooter is split into three main areas each consisting of five levels. There are the initial outer rocky areas, the ice caves and then the mine. Each individual level is split into sections which require everyone to be rescued before a bulk head opens to the next.  Each has its own tricks and traps and will keep you on your toes throughout. 

You will also need to think quickly as the game has a wonderful way of getting you to forget what you’ve just learnt. For instance, for the first area you are trying to keep away from lava (overheating causes you to crash), but then in the ice caves you’ll come across and inversion suite which makes lava cool you down and water heat you up.

It’s a game that keeps throwing new ideas and things at you to keep you interested. The water suit and lava suit are just the start and you’ll soon be switching around and dealing with freezing lakes and clouds of gas as well as the usual lava and water. The key thing is that everything stays fun and creative throughout. Once you’ve completed the game you’ll probably want to dive back in to further explore the levels and find all the missing diamonds and any crew you missed along the way.

PixelJunk Shooter is a game we’re still playing on the PS3 to this day. The fact a whole new audience can now pick it up is great and this really is one of the best games of its type. Q-Games have crafted something special here and the years have done nothing to diminish its appeal. It’s perhaps a shame that the PixelJunk Shooter 2 wasn’t included as well (as it is pretty much part 1 and 2 of the same game), but we’ll be first in line to get it when it arrives.

This was always going to be a certified hit with us as long as nothing had gone wrong in the conversion and from our experience this offers all the fun of the original. PC gamers really need to play this as it’s simply a masterfully executed, great little game packed with more invention and ideas than most massive AAA releases can even come close to.

Overall 9/10