Can a top-down shooter ever truly be scary? People have certainly tried to light us up with frights over the years; Larva Mortus is a solid recent attempt from independent developers Rake in Grass. Demonic faces come screaming out of the screen, while your sword and shotgun make short work of zombies.
The last few years have seen Defense of the Ancients devour millions of man hours, both in its original incarnation as a WarCraft III mod, and in its refined DotA Allstars evolution. League of Legends, by the original team, is here to provide the definitive version. It’s a multiplayer-only RTS battle between two teams.
On the surface, Legend: Hand of God seems like a shamelessly derivative, punishingly unimaginative isometric action/RPG...
Oh, were you expecting a second, more positive part of that sentence? Sorry, no dice - this game is pure surface.
If you have played any of the other LEGO games you already know what to expect with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. Set in the LEGOfied wizarding world, the newest iteration never delivers on moving the series beyond what has already been done, but it does provide solid gameplay, plenty of fan service, and the charm the LEGO games have become known for...
Remember when you had to raise your hand and ask for permission whenever you wanted to speak? That's how Lego Universe makes you feel at times, and it’s a helpful reminder that feeling like a kid again isn't always such a great thing. From the very moment we had to wait for approval for our avatar’s name to those occasions when we were trying to talk smack while using a severely limited word set, we were nervously looking for a plastic yellow hall monitor ready to whack our ass into detention. (And these monitors exist, in a manner of speaking). Still, this joyful though tightly-controlled MMO offers much for children and geezers alike, even if the hardcore crowd should keep in mind that this game isn’t designed with them in mind. And you can abandon all thoughts of building a gigantic Lego penis. With Lego, after all, someone has to think of the children...
It was always going to be a tall order for an unknown indie developer to steal the solid dilithium crown from Sins of a Solar Empire and developer SaintXi has failed to do so. It’s easy to forget that this is an indie release, as there’s a lot of depth to it and clearly thought has been put into trying to create a believable backdrop to the planet-twirling strategy.
The original Line Rider was one of those perfect, free PC games that you could understand in seconds and play it for hours. You just drew a line - including bumps, jumps, and even loops - and watched as your little sledder launched himself down it, hopefully safely. Line Rider 2: Unbound takes that same premise and adds in better graphics, a story, and a price tag. Is it worth it?The answer to that question is: Probably.
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