Make Like A Train And Chew, Chew, Chew

Broken Age - PlayStation 4 - 2014 

Broken Age is a point and click game that became free on PlayStation Plus. The game follows two parallel stories of Shay (voiced by Elijah Wood) and Vella (voiced by Masasa Moyo). You play through both stories each have clues in them to help the other story. There are certain points that you get too but can't progress until you play the other story. 

Broken Age has some of the best visuals I have seen, the art style is unique looking more like drawings than a game. The movement of the characters is fantastic. Speaking of characters, Double Fine (the game develop) have managed to even make characters out of cutlery! No spoilers but there is a super cute picture you should wait and see at the end of the game! 

You can choose which one you want to play as first (I began Vella first) as you can only get to certain points before switching anyway it doesn't affect your game. I tried to speak to every character two or three times to ensure I got the full story. If you don't you won't know what is happening, as there are only certain things you have to do to progress in the game you don't HAVE to speak to everyone, but I would suggest you do. 

This game took up 13 hours of my life! Now I am the first to say that I am not a master at games and honestly it does take me longer than some gamers to go through games. However, the reason why this one took up so much of my life was because of the puzzles! 

The writers have come up with some epicly frustrating puzzles that want to make you throw your controller in frustration. Some are ridiculous to have to figure out with things that no normal person would think of! This adds fun to the game if you like a challenge. And annoyance if you don't like that much of a challenge. I played this along as a two player one playing Vella (me) and the other playing as Shay; honestly without him I would have given up on some of the puzzles especially towards the end! 

Double Fine is an extraordinary game developer, previously they have done Brutal Legend, Grim Fandango and The Cave. All of which have been interesting, unique and something just a little bit special. Broken Age is no exception. 

Broken Age is beautiful, epic and frustrating. I think it would be enjoyable to play through a second time when you know the puzzles a bit and you won't be stuck on one for hours! It is simple in the game play which makes it... peaceful to play... until you get to the puzzles. 

If you enjoy a challenge then Broken Age is for you! 

8/10

I thought the story could have had more depth to it, the puzzles were good and gave you some insights but honestly a story and game like that you could do a lot more with. The characters were developed well which is a bonus. I wouldn't recommend this game if you get frustrated easily and don't enjoy puzzles. If you do then this is a game for you!  

Gomu Gomu No ... Awesome

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 - Playstation 4

Now let me start off with the fact that I LOVE One Piece. Oda has created a world enriched with loveable characters, amazing powers for everyone and the kind of place everyone wants to be a pirate. I haven't played the second one but I did play some of the first, I didn't really like the first one due to some gameplay annoyances such as the camera. This was the main reason for not playing the second one despite it having an original story (something I will rectify). However, I have now played the third one and let me tell you from the first to this one HUGE, MASSIVE, GIGANTIC differences and they are well amazing!

I played the game as two player but this does not take away from the story or the gameplay.

The game is based upon the Anime/Manga and has stuck fairly closely to the original story bar a few changes which have been made for the benefit of the game. It goes all the way through from the beginning of Luffy's journey to Dressrosa (roughly at the stage where the Anime and Manga are at now) A lot more stages have been included in this one such as Thriller Bark which were not in the first one which puts points on for me. (Although Thriller Bark was my least favourite level)

The maps are incredible, they are huge and allow for thousands of enemies to be on the screen at one time. Which amazingly does not cause any frame rate drop. The game awards you for the amount of enemies you kill as well as the combos in either the Kizuna Rush or the people you and your partner take out together. Kizuna Rush is another added feature which just makes this game, it is so easy to use, you can pick up to five partners and do a special combo attack, each enemy you take down using this also provides you with Beli's allowing you to upgrade your characters quickly.

The coin system which has been in all three games has been refined and it now much easier to use but you still have to use some strategy when assigning the coins to each character.

This game as with the others has massive replayability with the dream log, in which you can unlock all the other characters such as Ace, Moria and Shanks to name a few. You also get rare coins by playing as certain characters on certain levels which you earn the special coin for to give them their second special for instance. This gives you motivation to replay the story levels as well as the extra levels they added through the dream log.

The whole game I played as two player and it was incredible, at no point were there lapses, there was no issue with both of us playing, there was enough enemies that we could achieve an S grade on the levels. With the wide range of characters to choose from I could easily continue playing this game for weeks without getting bored. Each character has been equipped with different moves and specials that make you want to play each and every one of them.

I love One Piece as an anime so the story also appeals to me and I will never tire of going through Luffy and his crew's journey.

10/10

The only thing I could fault the game for was some slight camera annoyances however, it is not worth deducting a whole point for. For the price of the game it is well worth it.

I have continued to play this game and I have now discovered once completing the Dream Log there is a further Nightmare Log (WTF!!!) it's a bit insane, all level 75-100 so we are going through collecting the break coins so we can level up the characters before attempting that one! 

Knick Knack

Knack - PlayStation 4

So I know Knack came out at the beginning of the generation however, I have been unwilling to play due to the bad reviews it got. I had the opportunity to borrow the game for free so I thought what the hell it can't hurt right?

I played the game in co-op I was the second player. The story is well a bit mismatched if I'm honest something about goblins and ancient relics? It didn't thrill me enough to keep me interested we did finish the game based on...  Well we don't like leaving things unfinished.

Knack as a character was excellent, the voice actor was good despite little Knack not talking. He could be amusing in places and he had spirit. The second player (me) was his imaginary friend. I was not acknowledged I disappeared for cut scenes, the camera just followed knack and I didn't talk or well do anything except die and kill a few people. The human characters were okay bar the fact that they had no emotion a friend dies or they find a lost love and their reaction is mediocre to say the least. The only human who shows any emotion is Lucas the kid.

The concept is actually really fun and interesting. Knack is made up of relics and he can get bigger and smaller and gain different pieces for example ice pieces. Where this is all cool, looks amazing it could've been better. When you are a different Knack such as ice knack you don't get any special powers the only thing your pieces are useful for are opening doors! After 13 chapters of collecting relics to lose them to a door it gets pretty tedious.

Speaking of tedious combat. The combat consist of square. That's it. Especially for the second player. Knack has some special moves but they aren't that special just take out a lot of guys. The worst part is that the two players can hit each other, so we were going for the same guys as you do because you want to get there first and show off and we just ended up hitting each other which stuns you allowing your enemy a hit (which in hard mode is a one hit kill most of the time) so you can imagine that got frustrating and petty very quickly. The final boss battle being the second player sucks, you can't do anything. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

There are a few loose ends in the story a few characters who seemed to have just disappeared. This could lead onto a second game which I kinda hope it does. I'm glad I've played the game it was...  Enjoyable (using that term loosely) I liked the character and concept just the execution could have been a bit more smooth. If you like these games such as Crash Bandicoot or Jak you'll like this game. If they're not really your thing I don't suggest playing it. Oh also if you are competitive don't be the second player you will end up wanting to kill each other. If they do make a second game a few tweaks need to be made and the game could be amazing.

5/10

It was average and mediocre but I would play Knack 2 if it was ever made.