John Walker

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 24, 2016

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Samorost 3 is so bursting with life, so lovingly crafted, that it’s impossible not to adore. I cannot think of a game whose soundtrack comes close to this, and few that are so pretty. Gnome’s yelps of delight, or enthusiastic dances, or the way he sometimes says, “Hop!” when he jumps, are idiotically adorable. It’s so alive, so intricate, and so graceful. I wonder if the difficulty will see it be a less celebrated game than the last two, but it really is a thing of beauty.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 22, 2016

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The overall result is a delightful, charming, and relaxing affair. It’s a Sunday afternoon television of a game, and goodness me, does that have a place. It’s funny, daft, and the look is incessantly fantastic. Backgrounds are beautifully drawn, characters are well animated, and the voice cast are all modestly strong. And it’s got Tom Baker in it. I had a thoroughly lovely time.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 21, 2016

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I still adore this game. It’s still the smartest, most elegant, most entertaining adventure game ever made. And now, if you want, it looks new and sounds amazing.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 9, 2016

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Just how many fist-bumps you're willing to sit through may determine your longevity with its achingly desperate attempts to be millennial and street (the loading tips are a confusion of Twitter and WhatsApp or whatever it is the kidz are into these days), but perfecting your drift by practise and tweaking is an extremely rewarding – if ridiculously arcadey – fun time.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 8, 2016

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A rushed ending is really the game’s only let-down. A larger conspiracy, or more surprising reveal, might have given it a heftier punch. And it certainly needed a few more puzzles in the later stages, a bit more to do. But these are minor niggles in a really splendid adventure game of the sort we see too rarely. Grown up, well written, carefully paced, and genuinely interesting to explore.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Mar 3, 2016

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Clearly the Deponia series is loved by enough people for them to keep making more of them, so I’m sure this will be as gleefully received as the rest. But it’s a nasty, stupid, and most damningly of all, badly constructed adventure game.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Feb 29, 2016

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I've had an enormous amount of fun playing this, obsessively clearing the map of icons, occasionally relenting and accepting I need to do one of the main quest threads to progress, riding around on the backs of mammoths, diving off cliffs into pools hundreds of feet below, wrestling crocodiles, being dazzled by sunsets, escaping labyrinthine caves, and using my "hunters vision" to track enormous beasts. It's undeniably great fun, and unquestionably a huge achievement. Just a very, very recognisable one, for all the best and worst reasons.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Feb 25, 2016

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It steps on The Stanley Parable's toes a little too often, and doesn't have the chops to withstand that comparison – it would have been a lot more sensible to have avoided the seemingly deliberate comparisons altogether. But it remains wonderful just to look at, the rest a bonus treat.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Feb 8, 2016

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Firewatch is a rare and beautiful creation, that expands the possibilities for how a narrative game can be presented, without bombast or gimmick. It's delicate, lovely, melancholy and wistful. And very, very funny. A masterful and entrancing experience.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Feb 2, 2016

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I've admittedly not gotten an enormous way into the game, because good gravy, no one would want to. But it's been a tortuous, buggy, and most of all, deeply uninteresting slog. If a sudden delight were to arrive around the next corner, it wouldn't have been worth the effort of getting there.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Feb 1, 2016

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There's loads to do in Lego Marvel Avengers, but only when you've found it. And of course the animation is well done, the ridiculous amount to collect relatively compelling, and if your kid 100%ed Marvel Super Heroes, then this will likely give them a new fix. But it's a despondent entry in a series that perhaps TT are finally beginning to grow tired of making.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Jan 25, 2016

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In fact, if you've looked at the screenshots, read this, and thought, "Goodness me, John's an idiot," then this is the game for you! I can't tell you where it goes in the later puzzles (there are 60 in total), as they unlock one at a time.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Jan 21, 2016

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Were it built with more skill, with a greater flow of movement and one hell of a graphical upgrade, and then given a dose of writing that wasn't horribly reminiscent of its sister show, this could have been quite the thing. And yet, I enjoyed myself at moments, before wearying of its weaknesses toward the end. Fascinating that it came this close.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Jan 20, 2016

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There are so many smart ideas in here, and the concept is neat, even if obviously derivative. But the execution doesn't hold it together, with disappointing responses to extremes, and a strangely anticlimactic progression. I feel like if this were given another six months, the game could be as interesting to play as it is in ambition. But as it is, it's not there.

Rock Paper Shotgun

John Walker·Jan 5, 2016

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[T]rust me, pick this one up.