GAMES CENTRAL
Little Orpheus ★★★★☆
Platform: iOS, Mac
Genre: Adventure
Price: From £4.99 with Apple Arcade subscription
There isn’t a great deal to Little Orpheus but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun game.
The charming, well-devised story provides plenty of intrigue, as you guide Soviet cosmonaut Ivan through jungles on his quest around the centre of the Earth.
It’s very much a case of simple is best here, with little else to do aside from sliding, swiping and tapping the screen on the control side of things, as you climb obstacles, swing from vines and carefully dodge hungry dinosaurs out to get a piece of you.
It’s inoffensive, it’s low-intensity while still managing to engage through the gripping storytelling, with impressive artwork and beautiful music to wrap it up. The only real gripe would be playing on a smartphone – it can be a bit fiddly and your hands take up crucial viewing space, so playing with a controller would be better, or take it up on a Mac machine instead.
SKIP TO THE END: Well-crafted story, narration, artwork and music are the perfect blend to this interactive story adventure, though a bigger device to play on is recommended for ease and maximum joy.
Disintegration ★★★☆☆
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: Strategy / Shooter Price: £39.99
Having a co-creator of Halo behind any game makes for big boots to fill.
Disintegration makes a bold but flawed attempt to stand up to it as a sci-fi strategy shooter. You play the leader of a resistance group trying to save humankind as we know it from Integration, a process where our brains are transferred to robotic armatures.
Despite high production values and splendid cinema-esque graphics, this solid premise doesn’t quite cut the mustard. Moreover, the mix of first person shooter and real-time strategy elements is a muddled one which can be hard to manage simultaneously. Though we must admit, we did enjoy destroying robots from the Gravcycle, your weaponised hoverbike, with the squad.
SKIP TO THE END: Cool concept and production offers some entertaining moments but the FPS RTS nature didn’t quite hit the spot.
Warborn ★★★☆☆
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC Genre: RPG / Strategy
Price: £19.99
Warborn lands on Nintendo Switch for the first time, offering its take on the turn-based strategy genre.
You’re in command of a variety of mechs, each with their own strengths, who come face-to-face with another group of enemies you must destroy to continue.
Story is kept to a satisfactory minimum, putting all the focus on game play.
There’s a choice between three modes: Campaign, Multiplayer and Map Editor.
The campaign, where all the action takes place, is suitable for newcomers to turn-based strategy thanks to the succinct instructions, while not managing to bore those who have played them before. There is some variety to each level but overall it can become repetitive with the same type of battles at hand.
SKIP TO THE END: A safe turnbased strategy entry that becomes too repetitive as time goes on.
The First Riddle ★★★☆☆
Platform: Android, iOS, PC Genre: Puzzle / Adventure Price: Free (with in-app purchases) The Academy: The First Riddle provides a puzzle platform with an interesting story surrounding it, as you are sent to a boarding school and deal with a history professor who has mysteriously gone missing. The puzzles vary from fixing the pieces of a pencil at the beginning (which admittedly doesn’t sound very exciting, but it was more of tutorial), to tricky maths questions, which are broken down into levels. The puzzles can be hit and miss but there’s plenty to appeal to the whizz-kids among us. The biggest let down is the controls navigation is frustratingly unstable, or, as Ofsted might put it: requires improvement. SKIP TO THE END: A well-varied puzzle title with a good enough story to make each challenge seamless, but controls need improvement.
GAME CHART
1. The Last Of Us Part II
2. Ring Fit Adventure
3. Fifa 20
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Minecraft
8. 51 Worldwide Games
9. Pokemon Sword
10. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
● Ukie Games Charts (c), compiled by GfK