🖲️ Glyph | Review | Nintendo Switch | 8/10 | "Glyph is an expansive title that has a lot under it’s sleek hood" 🖲️ @PlayGlyph #IndieGame #GameDev #MadeWithUnity

A game based on fluid movement and exploration, Glyph is an expansive title that has a lot under its sleek hood but also isn’t shy when it comes to the difficulty curve.

👧🔫 Gal*Gun Returns | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A Light Gun Would Light This Up" 👧🔫 @PQubeAsia #GalGun

Whilst I’m not familiar with the Gal*Gun series, my initial thought was that any rail-shooter that is to be controlled by anything other than a light gun would really suffer in the gameplay department and those worries were indeed well-founded. 

As well-presented as the game is, it feels to tame to be titillating and too repetitive to be engaging.

🐉⚔️ Nioh 2 : The Complete Edition | PC | Review | "Swinging Your Spiky Balls Around Has Never Been So Much Fun!" ⚔️🐉 #Nioh2

Nioh 2: The Complete Edition, was released on the 5th of Feb and I'm excited to be to tell it’s not only beautiful but it’s astonishingly good fun to play! For those unfamiliar with Nioh 2, you will get to Become a fully-fledged Samurai in a brutal action-packed adventure set in a reimagined magic-enthused Japan during the Sengoku period.

🛋️ Moving Out | Review | X Box Series X | 9/10 | "An extremely fun and silly party game that will clearly remain installed for a long time to come" 🛋️ @smgstudio #IndieGames #GameDev

Upon seeing the trailer for Moving Out, I initially assumed it was some sort of mobile port due to the top-down viewpoint and colourful aesthetic. 

I’m VERY glad that my intuition won out and I ended up playing the game, however, as it’s an extremely fun and silly party game that will clearly remain installed for a long time to come (especially as there is imminent DLC!).

👒 Evan’s Remains | PC | Review by Pixel Hunted | 2/10 | "Evan’s Remains is about hitting ‘A’ over and over and over (and over) again" 👒 @PixelHunted # Evansremains #GameDev #IndieGames

Evan’s Remains is about hitting ‘A’ over and over and over (and over) again. 

The game is 80% visual novel and 20% game: a barely interactive experience in which your participation is mostly jamming a button to cue up the next bit of bad writing.

⚔️🐲 Morbid: Seven Acolytes | Review | Nintendo Switch | "A Lovecraftian Hack n' Slasher ARPG That is Really Punishing" ⚔️🐲 @MorbidTheGame #IndieGames #GameDev

A Lovecraftian hack n' slasher ARPG that is really punishing at first? 

That, reader, is the sound of my boxes being ticked.

Morbid: Seven Acolytes packs a ton of lore and gore into a very nice-looking package. The pixel-art graphics are really lovely and detailed, letting you see the frankly disgusting range of enemies and characters that populate the world of Mornia.

⛏️ Aground | Review (revisited) | XBox Series X | "One of The Best Games I Have Ever Played 10/10" ⛏️ @WhiteThornGames #GameDev #IndieGames

I first reviewed Aground in its initial PC incarnation back in July 2020 (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2020/07/aground-pc-review-best-2-d-crafting.html) and I absolutely adored it. Rich (my hateful, drunken boss) tends to cover a lot of the PC games we receive for review and I lean more towards console releases.

I mention in my original review that it was totally by chance that I picked it out for coverage when my Switch was being Animal Crossing-ed to death by someone who shall remain nameless* and I’m so glad that I was introduced to it.

💥 Turrican Flashback | Nintendo Switch | Review | "Turrican was a must-have video game and every kid at our school had it" 💥 @ININ_Games #RetroGaming #Turrican

In the days of the Commodore Amiga, Turrican was a must-have video game and every kid at our school had it. 

Turrican was famous for running and gunning your way through levels using creative weapons, destructive bombs and sometimes even a grappling hook! It was a great series and now you finally get the chance to relive this great series on one release from Inin Games.

🕵️‍♂️ Disjunction | Review | Nintendo Switch | "Cyberpunk is a Genre That Always Makes My Bronzed Fists Vibrate" 🕵️‍♂️ @soldout #IndieGames #GameDev

Cyberpunk is a genre that always makes my bronzed fists vibrate. You know there’ll be achingly beautiful music, towering cityscapes lit at night and a moody tale to tuck into, populated by shadowy characters.

Whilst stealth has often been a part of this, I believe that Disjunction is the first Cyberpunk game that I’ve played with such a heavy focus on the stealth aspect.

Whilst Disjunction is a solid game with a great, pixelated aesthetic and music, I couldn’t help but wish the focus was more on narrative as opposed to stage-by-stage sneakiness as I enjoyed the setting, audio and presentation so much.

⚔️🏰🐀 Hero U : Rogue To Redemption | Review | Nintendo Switch | "Hero U Combines Old School Point n Click Adventure Style Gameplay with a Harry Potter Style Storyline" ⚔️🏰🐀 @SilesiaGames #GameDev #IndieGames #PointNClick

Silesia Games brings us Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and manages to somehow effortlessly combine old school point n click adventure style gameplay with an intriguing Harry Potter esque storyline which is set around a small but perfectly formed set of memorable characters and on the switch I feel that this game really comes into its own.

Hero-U is a spiritual sequel to a game series that was released in the ‘90s called Quest for Glory and after playing Hero-U Rogue To Redemption I’m intrigued by the Quest For Glory anthology of video games as I missed those titles the first time around.

🛸🚀 Habroxia 2 | Review | Nintendo Switch | "After a ‘mental reboot’, I realised the subtle genius of the design" 🛸🚀 @LillymoGames #GameDev #IndieGames

Upon initially playing Habroxia 2, the game didn’t quite click with me and it was very much my fault. 

After a ‘mental reboot’, I realised the subtle genius of the design and from that moment onwards, my trousers were very much down.

🤜💥🤛 The King Of Fighters XIV | Review | PS4 | "Right I’m off to build my own fight stick out of a cardboard box and a banana" 🤜💥🤛 @SNKPofficial #KingOfFightersXIV

Released back in 2017 King Of Fighter XIV was the newest entry in the acclaimed THE KING OF FIGHTERS series of fighting games. 

The project was led by the legendary veteran creator of FATAL FURY Yasuyuki Oda.

KOFXIV took the classic fighting game gameplay that the series was known for and implemented lush new 3D visuals which were a first for a mainline entry in the series! 

The game comes with a massive roster of 50 characters in the base game along with 4 DLC characters, including both returning fan favourites and new characters.

It was billed as a perfect entry point for veterans and newcomers alike...

💥👽💥 Alien Scumbags | Review | PC | "A Fantastic 2D Pixel Art Horror Game Inspired by Doom and Duke Nukem" 💥👽💥 @KKindiegame @TristaBytes #GameDev #IndieGames

As you explore the dark corridors of an abandoned spaceship you stumble across a shotgun!

It’s just what you were looking for to fend off these alien Scumbags once and all for all.

The tannoy announcements play out loud as you tread carefully.

You hear a noise and jump into an empty locker to hide from the impending doom!

Nothing nasty comes along so you carefully make your way out of the locker and tiptoe along the corridor preying to avoid any trouble and maybe discover a health drop from a vending machine.

Then it hits you! “BAM!”

A massive Alien Scumbag lurches towards you with the intent of ripping your head off, so you unload a shotgun into its midriff and bring it to its knees and then finish it off with your final shotgun shell!

Meanwhile, the darkness and the foreboding atmosphere envelopes you as tread carefully forwards towards another impending scrap with an Alien nasty.

👽🖥️ Alien Function | PC | Review | "Vance Baryn might not have an eye for visuals but the guy can certainly put together a juicy set of adventure game puzzles!" 👽🖥️ @PixelHunted @StandOffGameDev #GameDev #IndieGames

Let’s get it out of the way: Alien Function looks like crap. Stand Off Software’s latest is a car crash of pre-made assets, outright ugly character models and fonts that should be prohibited under the Geneva Convention. 

The game puts its worst foot forward on the title screen, showing a badly animated alien pursuing what seems to be an NPC from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

🎧 Gioteck TX50 Headset & VP1 Viper Cable Pack Review 🎧 @GioteckArmy #GamerHeadsetReview

Regular GF contributor Lee Manuel recently positively reviewed two other headsets from Gioteck, the HC2 Decal Edition and the XH100S - https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/01/headset-review-gioteck-hc2-decal.html – this, combined with the positive experiences that I have had with their controllers, mean that Gioteck is fast becoming the go-to brand at GF HQ for affordable accessories that don’t sacrifice quality. Good.

🎮 Borderlands 3 | Review | X Box Series X | "My First Next-Gen Experience" 🎮 @Borderlands #XBOXSERIESX

This Borderlands 3 review may seem like a weird one as it’s effectively written for a game that’s well over a year old but the Borderlands series has always been an oddity for me.

👹🐲 Earth Defence Force 5 | Review | PS4 | "These….these….MONSTERS!!" 👹🐲 @EDF_OFFICIAL #EDF5

I was a real latecomer to the Earth Defence Force series. With almost 10 titles under the EDF belt since the days of the PS2, 2015’s Earth Defence Force 4.1 (The Shadow of New Despair – natch) was my introduction. 

Back in those dark, dark times when local co-op games were rarer than a decent film directed by Albert Pyun, I picked this up for a bargain price in my favourite gaming store (Insane Games, Bridgwater) and settled down with some bourbon to give it a crack with GF cohort Co-Op Chris and we were HOOKED on the B-movie styling, dialogue and arcade action.

⚔️🌳 Ocean’s Heart | Review | PC | "Familiar Ground with Enough Heart to Recommend" ⚔️🌳 @OceansHeartgame #IndieGames #GameDev

A top-down adventure very much in the vein of Zelda’s 1992 Super Nintendo outing, Ocean’s Heart has its flaws but will definitely be one for fans of the genre and hopefully will see a port to Switch, which feels like a natural home for it.

🚀☄️🛸 Everspace 2 | Early Access | PC | First Impressions | "A Barrel Rolling Shooter Looter In Space" 🚀☄️🛸 @everspace_game @Rockfishgames #IndieGames #GameDev #Everspace2

EVERSPACE 2 pitches itself as a fast-paced single-player spaceship shooter with deep exploration elements, tons of loot, RPG elements, mining, and crafting. 

The devs, Rockfish Games, have tried to create an experience that is story led with plenty of secrets, puzzles, and enemies to face off against.

I’ve always loved the idea of a space exploration game where you tinker with your ship, do some exploring and follow a story but normally bounce off these games because they are too hard to just pick up and play and require hours of time investment just to learn the basics.

BUT I can safely say that Everspace 2 is for everyone!

⚔️ Immortals Fenyx Rising | Review | PS4 | "I Heart Elias Toufexis’ Voicebox" ⚔️ @FenyxRising #ImmortalsFenyxRising

As I‘ve personally come across multiple statements along the lines of ‘Immortals Fenyx Rising is Ubisoft does Zelda: Breath of the Wild’, I’m going to lay the groundwork for this review by opening with how I wasn’t particularly enamoured with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which I played a few years ago on the Wii U.