Reviewed on Xbox Series X

In the world of asymmetrical horror games most come and go with only Dead By Daylight having the major longevity in the genre. Something I could never predict though is a Killer Klowns From Outer Space game based off the niche low budget 80s horror film which has grown a cult following especially over the last few years.

Similar to every other game of its type, we are set with killers vs survivors, in a giant game of cat and mouse. For Killer Klowns we see 3 klowns face off against 7 humans in a 15 minute match. Survivors are faced with finding items to unlock exits to escape and the klowns have to either kill all humans or make it to the time limit / hook up enough cocoons to start the klownpocalypse.

The game does do some things to set itself apart though. For the killers, doing the cocoon option nets more XP and also grants small NPC clowns that come out to alert you when they find a survivor as they can latch onto them. Doing x amount of cocoons also triggers your klownpocalpse early on. For humans it is focused much more on aggression here with melee and guns laying around the map with a focus on attacking the klowns. Do enough damage to kill a klown and they have a 45 second respawn which could be the difference in escaping or not.

As a human though you don’t get a respawn timer but can also be brought back once via the Respawn Machine if another player is able to activate it. In the meantime though as you watch your fellow survivors camera you are able to play mini games which grant items you can either insta gift a player in game or hold on to in case you respawn. While the mini games are a nuance to play and after 1 or 2 times I just avoided, it is a nice little feature.

The game features an XP system which unlocks different classes and new klowns to play as with different weapons before becoming a tool to unlock various cosmetics. Starting off we only have 5 maps as well, which are all fine, but nothing overly impressive. They all feel rather basic and lack much identity of their own to hold the ground. Sometimes they almost feel too open at times as well.

Sadly though as with any game of this type it does come with some issues. For one major thing, I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea even, the game allows to join a match in progress. I joined countless games as a survivor to a game almost 5-7 minutes in progress where everyone already had weapons, klowns had their powers, and I just dropped into the middle of the street. A few times even it spawned me directly in front of a klown which lead to an instant death where I had to sit and wait for the match to finish to collect my XP (as leaving before the entire match is over awards you nothing).

The other major factor is though is the game is almost incredibly unwelcoming to newer players. Klowns get better weapons and such as they level up so you can face someone who is able to kill you rather quickly which I found happened often. As a survivor I’d die with ease once in the vision of a klown. As a klown as well it is easy to get stun locked almost by a survivor or more which leads to death (also a major problem as a survivor getting stun locked by 2 klowns).

As theres no tutorials either outside of menu and loading screen texts the game just throws you into things. Exits as a survivor work only once really once activated unlike other games of this type. So there are 4 exits a map that all require different combo of items to do. The game introduces these new mechanics but never makes sure players can know what to do with them.

I will say though having private offline games with bots that count towards XP is great. It can help players mess around as the klowns and learn some things. The human AI though is beyond dumb 90% of the time though with the other 10% making them violent killing machines hell bent on hunting you down. They also never to escape. Wish we were able to play against AI klowns though to learn the mechanics as a human more.

The game does have charm though. Killer animations are humorous the first few times, the game looks solid for a lower budget game, and it wasn’t really buggy that I experienced. It just feels like we are only getting the shell it currently and hopefully with DLC and some updates it can be fleshed out more. For a game based on a niche horror film though, through my frustrations, I still had some fun.

Score :

2.75 / 5

Code provided thanks to Stride PR

Xbox Series X

Tower Defense games are some of the most simple but complicated fun you can get. Picking your towers and creating a death maze for whatever crosses can lead into hours of fun. Sadly with Xboxs latest TD game, Call Of Toys! it comes off as more of a cheap imitation of what TD games should be.

The game visually looks like an iOS product with simple textures and graphics. You get random items which have like old WordArt thrown onto the map like a giant Santa which then just layers itself over the map itself. Same goes for trees, or light posts, or wells as the game just doesn’t bother to either layer items or put them in any places that make sense.

Though that could all be overlooked if the simple TD mechanics themselves were any good. Levels are broken up into quick sections where its multiple levels for an area and your towers continue through these. These leads to a simple mistake nearly crippling you as the games difficulty starts off hard and doesn’t get much easier. Towers themselves feel weak even at a higher level and their special abilities don’t feel much better. You never get that satisfying moment on being on a high level wave and experiencing what is going on, be it good or bad either, as the games level system breaks everything up into really quick segments.

It doesn’t help either that the game doesn’t explain much but tries to be overly complicated. New towers are added with your only references on what they are being a page on the main screen or reading the stats. All tower have multiple items to equip which require finicky controls (same with the main menu) and upgrading each item on its own. The game takes a simple premise and tries to add more than it can handle instead of just focusing on a simple base game. It doesn’t help either that even after recalibrating my system the game has issues with the screen not formatting right. Campaign mode for me cut off the top screen meaning I was never able to see enemy wave, health, gold, or purple mana type stat for upgrading my towers. Duel mode cut it off a little less but instead cut the sides of the screen off in half for the towers.

The Duel mode itself is a fine idea but because of how limited the game is even going against AI only lasts minutes as enemies quickly just rush past all towers you build.

For a game made by seemingly one person and being only $10 it feels bad to critique it so much. It clearly has some fine ideas that with fine tuning might work better. However with Tower Defense games being a plenty including ones like Bloons that are AAA TD games pretty much, its hard to justify what plays like a broken iOS port.

Score : 1 / 5

Review code provided by the publisher  

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Alien Hominid Invasion blasts on the scene marking a 2nd entry for the series with a different format this time.

The new format here is rather nice and works well. Instead of a run and gun type game we are treated to a roguelite multi-path map to go across until we reach the end. Each area plays like its own small arena map where you have limited room to run around and have to complete x amount of side objectives to be beamed out of the map. The longer you take in each map the stronger and deadlier enemies become. This means you have to be moving and killing / completing things as quickly as possible to not become overrun with enemies.

While the game isn’t overly difficult to begin with it very quickly ramps up the challenge. Later areas become swarmed with overly strong enemies requiring charged attacked while dodging beams and bullets. Limited health and lives means the perma death outcome is always a worry. At times I did find it ramped up the difficulty too quickly and to too much of a degree.

The game visually looks fantastic though. The cartoonish looks blend perfectly with everyone looking unique and like a moving animated film. Controls feel fluid and I never felt a death was caused by bad controls, it was just caused usually by too many things happening at once.

While the game does a lot and is fun in small bursts I quickly started to see the bad things with extended plays. Side objectives repeat too often and excessively. Random objectives in each map meant I had instances where I did the same things over and over in each level quickly showing what little the game had to offer in that department. Mix that in with difficulty that scaled too quickly and the game was better in smaller bursts of a level or two at a time.

That being said though the game is a lot of fun. Its chaotic and hectic while looking and playing so smooth. I just wish in the end there was a bit more below the surface.

Score : 3.5 / 5

Review provided courtesy of The Behemoth 

After being a surprise hit with the first Ghostrunner game, One More Level is back at it with an even more improved but just as difficult foray into the cyberpunk parkour world.

Picking up a year after the first game we continue as Jack, living his life as a hero, before having to plunge back into the world to take down a new crew. We get a home base in this game as well to move throughout and have conversations in, even if those conversations don’t feel as fresh as everything else the game has to offer. The home base offers a little break though between missions.

Visually the game though is gorgeous. The neon skyscrapers and landscapes feel great to run though and even if the open world desert isn’t the most original it still looks good. Movement is as smooth as every as is your actions. Every little step matters and I always felt like I was in control of either succeeding or causing my own demise.

Ghostrunner 2, similar to the first game, almost feels like a puzzle game due to the mechanics here. Still a one hit kill and one hit death for most things here even the slightest misstep will cause your demise. Weaving and moving around bullets in slo mo, attempting hits, explosions, and more can make you feel either like an ultimate hero or like you want to throw your controller through the tv.

The game, while never really unfair fully, is painstakingly difficult. While checkpoints are a plenty, I hit some areas which required me to retry this 30 or 40 times to complete a section. Dodging attacks and bullets from every angle only to get almost through and die can be a rage inducing thing. Thankfully the game saves after most things and during multiple stages of bosses meaning you don’t have to retrek through too much of the game.

While the game introduces some new attacks and powers, everything works best when its simplest. I found myself using just the shuriken more than powers unless the puzzle at hand demanded it. When the game takes us out of the tower setting as well it loses a bit of its steam. A new motorcycle brings some grand action movie type scenes but when we get shown too much of it in the environment you start to see some cracks in the system. Our later environments just aren’t as fun or vibrant as the first half of the game. Thankfully though the bosses in the later sections are memorable enough to make up for any downfalls.

Overall Ghostrunner 2 is a lot of fun. While the gameplay style and difficulty may not be for everyone, for those that enjoy it this is a top tier game. Even with a second half that doesn’t fully hold up to the first half the game throws enough great things at you to end it on a high note.

Score : 7/10

Played on Xbox Series X

Review code provided by Stride PR

We got our hands on a copy of the new Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 beta for Xbox last weekend before its Oct release. In a shocking turn of events the game feels fresh and new in some aspects so here’s our thoughts on some aspects of the beta test. Note, things can change before full release so things may not be the same when the full game releases in late Oct.

While the game play still feels fast paced mostly with the typical run and gun action you expect, it does feel heavier in some aspects. While running around is still easy the guns themselves feel heavier with much more noticeable recoil. Zooming in and firing with deadpan accuracy is thing of the past as you have to take bursts or risk firing upward and off target.

Large team based games including the new Invasion mode which plays like a large team deathmatch is fun. It pits two real teams against each other but also includes AI guys on each side. This gave a lot of hectic moments in chokepoints of the bigger maps and included vehicles to add a new degree in as well. The AI on each team though is dead brained though. They almost walk at times straight into the line of fire and seemingly have no brain to kill or do much other than become shooting targets.

From the few maps out there weren’t any that stood out as fantastic. There was one that is dreadful though, Valderas Museum was an awful map every game I played on it. Full of random choke points that give campers almost a sure fire way to hit you before you see. This was also the only map were I experienced active spawn killing in.

There is now a 3rd person mode as well which I personally find almost nauseating. You run in 3rd person but once aimed it switches to first person. This almost felt like a bad port of a mobile game and just become sickening to play. Don’t really see this being a fan favorite or very active mode once the launch dies down some.

Overall for what we played this was a surprisingly fun beta for MW2. I’ll be interested to see more once the full game releases.

Rail shooters are an arcade classic. Being put in front of an arcade cabinet and given a life sized, or even sometimes bigger, weapon and told to fire at the screen will always be fun. I’m not quite sure how people thought those same game would work well on home consoles, especially with a normal controller. Even further more I’m not sure who told someone this was a good idea in 2018.

The missions are broken up into only 4 parts each having a day and night cycle. They are really just long wave based sections that repeat over and over with little being added. You also have given this to just prolong the game I feel as missions tend to last around a half hour which after about 5 minutes you’ll realize how bored you’ve become.

It might be better if the game felt action packed like the arcade ones did. Here though some waves you can knock out so quickly that the game will just have you waiting until it’s ready to start the next wave. Other times the enemies will be coming at such a rate from all sides that you feel as if the game wants to make sure you die.

You do have an indicator that points in the general direction of enemies not in your view and also gives you the status of their attack. It is a nice feature in general except you will usually be so overrun with enemies that it is hard to focus on and often times enemies will become stuck or lodged behind items out of sight and become nearly impossible to kill.

Control wise aiming feels slow and sluggish and zooming in only makes it so much worse. Your character moves around in a 360 field of view but once moving behind him he for some reason moves at half speed. Visually the game is bland and looks like it should be from the PS2 era at best.

Overall for the $20 this is being sold, I find it hard to recommend to anyone. Even at a steep discount there really isn’t any fun to be had here and I’m still not quite sure who the market this game would be aimed at is. Just avoid this one and instead go back to an arcade and play House Of The Dead 2 or Time Crisis.

Score: 1.5/10

Review Code Provided By Mastiff Games