Downtime

Games Review - June 2024

by BTM

Mon, 03 June 2024

Games Review - June 2024

SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY!
Verdict: Snowbody asked for this dull mess.

WHAT IS IT?
Play as the new kid in South Park and join Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny in three-dimensional glory, to celebrate the most magical day in any young child’s life – a snow day! Grab up to three friends in this four-player co-op game and battle your way through the snow-piled town of South Park on a quest to save the world and enjoy a day without school. 

GAMEPLAY
A direct follow-up to the storyline of two excellent turn-based RPGs, this cooperative 3D hack-and-slash admirably tries a lot of new things but gets none of them right, leaving us with a monotonous, slipshod mess. The controls are awkward and clumsy, the weapons and abilities are limp and uninteresting, and even with only five levels that can be completed in as many hours, it still feels like it drags on for far too long. Worse than that though: all the humour and shocking moments for which South Park and its recent games are known is utterly missing in action. 

GRAPHICS
The drag that levels become isn’t helped by the underwhelming level design on display. Rather than lean into key locations from the animated series, Snow Day instead turns to generic, snow-covered levels that funnel you from one end to the other save for a few standout moments. It’s bafflingly lazy game design. 

STELLAR BLADE
The future of humanity hangs in the balance in Stellar Blade, an all-new story-driven action adventure. Ravaged by strange, powerful creatures, Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of the decimated human race has fled to a Colony in outer space. After travelling from the Colony, 7th Airborne Squad member EVE arrives on the desolate remains of our planet with a clear-cut mission: to save humankind by reclaiming Earth from the Naytiba – the malevolent force that has devastated it. But as EVE tackles the Naytiba one-by-one, piecing together the mysteries of the past in the ruins of human civilisation, she realises that her mission is far from straightforward. In fact, almost nothing is as it seems… 

SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE II
The sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without. Sink deep into the next chapter of Senua’s story, a crafted experience told through cinematic immersion, beautifully realised visuals and encapsulating sound. 

HOMEWORLD 3
Homeworld 3 is the third game in the popular 3D real-time strategy series set in space, coming 21 years after the previous instalment. After a successful victory over the Vaygr, Karan S’Jet was able to open the ancient hyperspace gate network across the galaxy, unveiling the ‘Age of S’jet’, an era of galactic trading and development, but this golden age seems to have reached the end: while she was opening gates at the edge of the galaxy, Karan disappeared and a mysterious scourge known as ‘The Anomaly’ has started to spread across the galaxy, darkening entire star systems and threatening the existence of all sentient beings. 

#DOWNTIME #GAMES REVIEW #BAHRAIN GAMES #BTM JUNE 2024