Gareth Chadwick
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TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
Discounty is a cosy Supermarket simulator in the vein of Stardew Valley. You’ll be ordering products, stocking shelves, and then selling them to the various townsfolk of Blomkest in an effort to expand your business. Unfortunately along with that comes dealing with inattentive local government, shady local businesses, and backstabbing journalists as it seems something in this town is rotten. And all you wanted to do was run a supermarket.
There’s been many times where I’ve uttered the words “this is the weirdest game I’ve ever seen.” It happened when I first played Shadow of the Colossus as I rode a horse across empty plains, unbothered by enemies as I approached a giant, moving, climbing puzzle. It happened when Superliminal twisted my mind into confusing shapes as I tried to understand its perspective-based puzzles. It even happened when I saw a trailer for Genital Jousting. Now it’s happened for possible the final time. Why? Because Blippo+ is the weirdest game I’ve ever seen.
Dying Light: The Beast is like one of those “boots on the ground” first person shooter sequels, where the studio recognises that the last game maybe wasn’t quite what people wanted and tries to go back to what everyone loves the last time round. Where the original Dying Light put much of the focus on the zombies, how they were evolving, and keeping them terrifying, Dying Light 2 shifted focus to warring human factions like every other piece of zombie media you can find these days. Dying Light: The Beast seems to be a significant course correction, ensuring that the zombies are front and centre, not just on your screen, but in the narrative as well.
Hirogami is an origami platformer. What that means is that much of the world around you is made of paper, folded into elaborate shapes, and so are you. In fact, you can fold yourself into a variety of animal themed shapes to help you navigate your way through Hirogami’s levels, puzzles, and fights. But is it worth taking a gamble on, or should you just…fold?
Peglin is a roguelike pachinko game. If you’re not familiar, pachinko games are where you shoot a ball from the top of the screen to hit and bounce between as many pegs as possible for points. It’s a simple concept, and one that gave rise to the hugely popular Peggle games, but where that series has faded into our memories, Peglin is looking to revisit and spice things up with more items, ball types, bonuses and monster battles.
Echoes of the End is an action adventure game very much in the vein of the modern God of War series. You’ll find rocks to squeeze through, boats to explore watery areas, and other familiar bits of design between the two, but where Echoes differs the most is that it’s a fully linear game – imagine that? There’s distinct levels to complete and then move onto the next one rather than a huge open world to traipse through! The end result is a good game that could have been great… if it was more polished.
On the horizon, the number 34 glows on a black monolith. Beside it is the Paintress, an immense humanoid creature with long white hair that covers her face. She waves her hand at the number and it fades away, only for her to replace it with ’33’. Just as she does so, everyone in the world who is of that age turns into smoke and dies, blowing away in the wind. Gustave, is preparing for Expedition 33, the 77th expedition to venture into the fractured world and attempt to defeat the Paintress.
There’s a few quirks and hang ups, but I’m enjoying Atomfall. The world, setting, and story have me very interested in seeing how it pans out, though there’s a little voice in the back of my mind that says I’ve seen these story themes many times before, so maybe the ending won’t be as novel or unique as it wants to be. I still don’t know just yet, but it’s been an enjoyable time so far. Keep an eye out for our finished review, once I’ve finished exploring the deepest, darkest parts of Cumbia.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues to fulfil the uncompromising vision of the first game. It weaves together a world of lords, knights, peasants and bandits in medieval Europe, with poor Henry of Skalitz caught somewhere in the middle just trying to cope. It's grand in scale whilst being full of fine details and it sometimes gets in its own way a little bit, but if this is your kind of game it'll be one that you don't want to end because there's nothing else quite like it.
Cuisineer is a game with a strong core idea, but doesn't invest enough in its systems to keep it interesting. The excellent combat and good restaurant running soon become repetitive as a result. If the basics are enough to keep you coming back then Cuisineer might work for you, but for me this dish has turned stale.