What we’ve been playing

fifteenth of April, 2021

Hiya! Welcome again to our common characteristic the place we write somewhat bit about a few of the video games we have discovered ourselves taking part in over the previous few days. This time: boats, a birthday, and a hedgehog.

In case you fancy catching up on a few of the older editions of What We have Been Enjoying,
here’s our archive.

Swordship, PC

Thunderful had a bunch of video games on the WASD recreation present in London final week, however the one that basically caught my eye was Swordship.

It is a downward-scrolling arcade recreation during which you management a futuristic speedboat and attempt to steal precious shipments from a megacorporation enemy, whereas making an attempt to not get blown up within the course of. I checked the Swordship website after the present and found there is a world warming backstory, which explains the flooded world.

The attention-catching bit, in addition to the intense, stylised look, is that you don’t have any weapons your self. In different phrases, it is a dodge-’em-up. It’s important to get out of the best way of charged beam weapons, or space of assault bomb blasts, or a number of mortar assaults, whereas additionally zipping over to lengthy, skinny yellow platforms the place the shipments will probably be – after which when you could have them, drop them off at small platforms that seem. I inform you, doing all of this whereas the display is full of purple flashing hazard zones is tough.

You may be blown up a couple of occasions, however Swordship is a recreation about making an attempt once more so that you restart nearly immediately. Quickly, you may start to know how the sport is performed. You may perceive that though you do not have weapons, you need to use your enemies as should you do, turning them towards one another. It is only a query of timing and ready till the precise second to veer off and go away your pursuers within the bomb blast. And if you do, you are rewarded by a cinematic slow-motion sequence as they blow up behind you, and it will provide you with the ‘James Bond in a ship chase’ feels. It is superior.

It is coming to PC, Xbox S/X, PS4/5 and Change this yr.

Bertie

Fez, Change

Fez is a recreation the place the reminiscence tax may be very excessive. Drop it for per week and there are such a lot of components to maintain observe of, I all the time really feel that I’d as properly begin over.

This is the reason I have not replayed this recreation, which I like, as a lot as I ought to have. However this week, on Fez’s tenth birthday, I awoke feeling in a different way about issues. What the hell. I loaded up an outdated Change save and acquired Fezzing.

I loaded in someplace across the 8 % mark. No concept what I used to be doing or the place I had been heading. As an alternative I simply picked a door on the vaguely industrial island I used to be on, and hoped for the most effective.

For the subsequent 5 minutes, I loved a superb little bit of puzzling as I moved between rising and falling platforms, shifting the attitude to create longer steady tracks. It was easy: so intelligent and so partaking, a lot of a delight simply to muddle by means of. WHen it was executed, I nonetheless did not know the place I used to be or what I had been doing, however I felt like I knew Fez once more. Comfortable birthday, Gomez.

Chris Donlan

Sonic Mania, Change

After a lot persistence I used to be lastly capable of see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with my daughter throughout her spring break, and it was sort of well worth the wait – she laughed a lot on the wedding ceremony scene she fairly actually crapped herself, which is just about the identical response I had through the mid-credits tease, and in any case that pleasure it solely appeared proper to return to fairly simply the best Sonic recreation so far.

Going again to 2017’s Sonic Mania – can it actually be practically 5 years outdated? – I’m now satisfied there’s a fairly good case for it being not solely a collection spotlight however one of many higher 2D platformers but. Sega’s trademark 90s type is met with a deft execution and fan’s enthusiasm that by some means manages to raise it above the originals. In reality, Sonic the Hedgehog was by no means actually fairly this good.

Martin Robinson