Redemption Reapers Nintendo Switch Review 6/10 “A Decent SRPG, That Doesn’t Want To Take Too Many Chances” ⚔️ #IndieGames #GameDev

Redemption Reapers opens with a very engaging cinematic, it’s very effective and does a good job setting up the narrative whilst sowing intrigue. It introduces us to our band of mercenaries, ‘The Ashen Hawk Brigade’ who have taken up the fight against The Mort - a destructive band of orc-like creatures who have swept through the land, decimating village after village.

It’s an interesting setup and I was definitely invested quickly, the problem came about three-quarters of the way through my time with Redemption Reapers, when I realised the opening had been the most impactful thing so far - and though I was enjoying my time in this world, it never managed to recapture that initial interest.

WWE2K23 Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “No Steps Back” 🤼‍♂️ @transvaalgf #WWE

When reviewing the previous entry in the series - WWE2K22 - I mentioned that recent WWE games have a habit of going one step forward but two steps back. Well, finally for the first time in years, that statement does not apply to this entry. After having good building blocks from last year’s version, they didn’t remove a mode or change things drastically for no reason, they simply worked on and improved what they had already built last year.

The gameplay is largely the same, which is a good thing, as there has been a long-running joke between my brother and me in that the first thing he would ask me about the new WWE game would be, “Have they changed the control scheme again?”, so it was nice this year to say “no, it’s the same as last year, they haven’t moved counter to RB… no, its X this year… no, wait! You wiggle the thumb stick!”.

One Piece Odyssey Xbox Review 8/10 “A Wonderfully Fun JRPG Romp” 🉐🏯 @transvaalgf

One Piece Odyssey begins with the Straw Hat Gang’s ship ‘The Thousand Sunny’ getting shipwrecked on the mysterious island of Waford.

With the ship needing repairs, they set out exploring the island, and soon run into Lim, who is very fearful of them as she has had several bad experiences with other pirates, using her ability, she alleviates the gang of their powers.

Small cubes containing the powers rise out of their chests and are soon scattered around the island. Now depowered, they set out to retrieve the cubes, some cubes are larger - and to be restored they must enter the dream world of Memoria and relive the past to regain the power held in the cube, this takes them to past locations, reliving adventures, but with some differences.

Evil West PS5 Review 7/10 “A Fun, Old-School Shooter” 👹 @PlayEvilWest @transvaalgf #IndieGame #GameDev

I’ve had my eye on Evil West for some time, it had made a lot of lists in regard to ‘the best upcoming games of 2022’, I had seen gameplay and thought ‘this looks fun’ - which is pretty much how I would sum up the game, it’s really fun. It does not take itself very seriously and wears its heart completely on its sleeve, ‘this is absolute nonsense… but let’s have some fun on the way!’.

The 6 Best Games That I’ve played in 2022 By Transvaal 🏆 #GOTY

#6 Primordia

Starting off with a game that I still think about often, I really found the world of Primordia an interesting one, a world of machinery with only the remnants of human life, the world is decaying and has very little life left in it. The story is a very simple one, with protagonist Horatio trying to get his stolen power core back, it’s a story that does spiral outwards, and has some very interesting twists and turns. The one criticism I’ve seen a levelled at Primordia is the character Crispin being irritating for some, but I personally found his back-and-forth with Horatio one of the best bits in the game.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “Once you are in hell, only the devil can help you out” 🔪 @TheDarkPictures @SuperMGames #IndieGames #GameDev

While playing House of Ashes, I remember saying to my brother “I really hope the next instalment is more of a slasher - just a killer chasing you around”, so when I saw the trailer and read that The Devil in Me was inspired by America’s first serial killer H.H. Holmes with a bit of the saw films thrown in, I was excited, it was exactly what I wanted.

And so, come launch day - I gathered three fellow gamers to enter the horrors of the famous murder house… let the games begin.

Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo Nintendo Switch Review 4/10 “VertigNo” 🕵️‍♂️ @pendulostudios #IndieGames #GameDev

I had a plan when this game was released, I had promised myself this year to watch more Hitchcock movies, and so before I played Vertigo, I would sit down and watch the film version first - and then dive straight into the game. I hoped that by watching the original source material I would enrich my gaming experience by having a fuller picture and understanding how this game embodies the film on which it is based.

I can say that watching the film Vertigo didn’t really help. The game doesn’t follow the plot at all, it takes a couple of aspects but changes them heavily which isn’t a bad thing, per se. The game tries to have a Hitchcockian vibe and incorporate the ‘master of suspense’ style into many aspects of the game. This is a huge undertaking, and the game never gets near hitting the heights of Hitchcock or Vertigo.

🎬🎥 The Gallery Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “An Insightful and Engaging Exhibition” 🎥🎬 @paulraschid #IndieGames #FMVGames #GameDev

Paul Raschid is a big name in the FMV/interactive movie genre, having written and directed the wonderful and engaging Five Dates. His name carries a pedigree, and after Five Dates I hoped that The Gallery would continue pushing FMV games forward, with interesting stories, great acting and choices that are both thoughtful and contemplative.

Going into the gallery, it’s fair to say that I had high expectations - they were definitely met.

😱 White Day: A Labyrinth Named School Xbox Series X 7.5/10 “Back to school, for a lesson in terror” 😱 @PQubeGames #IndieGames #GameDev

White Day was something of a legend for a long time, I would see many videos and articles talking about it, marking it as one of the scariest games to ever come out.

It was only available in Korea and was so scary that some people emailed the developer to ask them to make it less scary so that they could complete it.

Now, I have no idea how true all the legends are - but it’s always been a game I desperately wanted to experience. 

🏌️‍♂️⛳️ Cursed To Golf PS5 Review 7/10 “A Charming 2D Arcade Golf Game, That Might Make You snap a few clubs” 🏌️‍♂️⛳️ @ChuhaiLabs #IndieGames #GameDev

Seeing the term ‘roguelike golf adventure’ when I read a preview for this game had me very intrigued, it’s not a combination of words I thought I would ever see, it also combines two things that cause grown adults to curse, break the objects use to play it and utter the words “that’s it, it’s a stupid game, why the hell did I ever start playing this?

Where the hell are my blood pressure tablets… OK, just one more try”

📸🔪 Dreadout 2 Xbox Series X 4/10 “Less is more” 📸🔪 @dreadoutgame #IndieGames #GameDev

I have spent my last few reviews lamenting over the horror genre, all the games had similar flaws and each of them seemed to languish in generic plots without a hint of originality, so going into Dreadout 2 I was hoping for a big kick up the butt, with a horror game filled with new ideas and an amazing plot.

Nope. within the first twenty minutes, I could see where we were heading, except it now included technical problems. Now, this game is obviously made on a budget, so I do cut it some slack, but it does things that make you think, “if you’re on a budget… just don’t do it, horror is the perfect genre to scale back and subscribe to the motto less is more”.

🩸📸 MADiSON PS5 Review 6.5/10 “Many Scares To Be Had, But Far Too Formulaic” 🩸📸 @transvaalgf @MADiSON_Game #IndieGames #GameDev

MadiSon is a first-person psychological horror game, in which you play as Luca, who wakes up to find his hands covered in blood, and his father screaming at him through a door, questioning how he could ‘do this to the people he loved.

It’s a very exciting and tense opening!

You manage to escape the room and now explore your grandparent’s home, where you learn its dark secrets and understand how Luca has come to be in this position.

🔪 The Quarry Xbox Series X Review 8.5/10 "The Best Supermassive Title Yet" 🔪 @SuperMGames #TheQuarry

We at GF – specifically, myself and Transvaal – are big fans of Supermassive Games’ approach to the horror genre, especially in the ‘one session and done’ The Dark Pictures Anthology series, which appears to be growing stronger with each release. And so we approached The Quarry with the (little) hope that we’d be in for a good time watching people have bad times, and that hope was rewarded with – what we believe to be – the best Supermassive Games release yet.

🏨 Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel Xbox Series X Review 6/10 “A case of metathesiophobia” 🏨 @transvaalgf @PulsatrixStudio #GameDev #IndieGames

I’ve had a bit of a problem with budget horror titles in the past few months, every game I have played is just trying to be like its predecessors - mostly Resident Evil -  which is fine in small doses, but when every game is mired in the past, it just feels dull.

I’ve really wanted a game to shake up horror and be bold and try something completely new. 

Enter Fobia-St Dinfna Hotel, I had seen the trailer and had my reservations - and on playing through the game, yeah, it falls into the category of titles just described. It’s not a bad game - though for me and a few others it does have one major problem which I will go into later - it just feels like we’ve been here before and not just bought the T-shirt but also the mug, commemorative plates, and snow globe.

🧟 Evil Dead: The Game Xbox Review 7.5/10 “Grab your boomstick, open up your Necronomicon and get ready to be told ‘you suck’.” 🧟 @transvaalgf

I have a love/hate relationship with this style of game. I ‘love’ them… and the people I play with ‘hate’ me, well, unless I play the killer, then they love me - you see, I’m bad at these games, I know this because a very agitated 14-year-old told me that I sucked repeatedly for about twenty minutes. in all fairness, I had been hiding in a wardrobe for a very long time, whilst my teammates got massacred by a hulking seven-foot monster in a hockey mask, but the truth can hurt and anyway; he was too young to be playing the game in the first place.

👁️ The Dark Eye: Memoria Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 “A gorgeous but at times frustrating experience” 👁️ @daedalic #GameDev #IndieGames

The Dark Eye is a German fantasy tabletop role-playing game created in 1984, it is so popular in Germany that it actually outsells Dungeons and Dragons. Unsurprisingly, in being so popular, The Dark Eye series has spawned numerous video games including two point-and-click adventure titles from Daedalic Entertainment, these are - The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, and its direct sequel The Dark Eye: Memoria.

🐔🐴Chicken Police- Paint It Red Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “A clucking good noir” 🐔🐴 @ChickenPoliceG #IndieGame #GameDev

I’m sure my reaction to first hearing about Chicken Police mirrored a lot of others, “What the hell is Chicken Police?”. I then looked it up on Google and realised that it’s a noir with anthropomorphic chickens. It’s a very intriguing and almost confusing idea, one which could easily be hit or miss.

🗡️ Pathologic 2 | Xbox Series X | Review | 5.5/10 | "Tedious mechanics wore down my love for its creepy atmosphere and intriguing mysteries" 🗡️ @transvaalgf @IcePickLodge #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

After a few hours of Pathologic 2, I could tell this was going to be a real marmite game, there was a great atmosphere and an interesting mystery being developed but the mechanics were already becoming beyond tedious, so the question would be, “would the interesting philosophical plot with a great atmosphere be enough, or would the increasingly frustrating mechanics be too much of a pain and drag the entire experience down?”

⚔️ Salt and Sacrifice | Beta | Preview | PS5 Tested | "Salt and Sacrifice will feel very familiar to those who played the preceding title" ⚔️ @transvaalgf @jamezila @iequalshane @skastudios #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

Salt and Sacrifice will feel very familiar to those who played the preceding title - Salt and Sanctuary - as the 2D take on the Dark Souls formula is largely unchanged; it keeps the core mechanics but sprinkles in enough new flavour to keep the game feeling fresh.

🤼 WWE 2K22 | XSX | Review | 7/10 | “Bad Times Don’t Last, But Bad Guys Do” 🤼 #WWE2K22 @WWEgames

I've always said that WWE games’ motto could be, ‘one step forward, two steps back’, every year they would add something new… while removing other modes, matches or making other aspects worse.

Now, it's almost impossible to make a game worse than WWE 2K20, it was a completely broken and buggy mess, so, like many - after a two-year hiatus I was excited to see if they could rejuvenate the franchise and clean up the mess that had plagued the previous entry.

I'm going to go through the modes in the order of how I played them, as I think it gives a good insight into the game and what makes it good, as well as what needs some more attention in the next entry.