Tag Archives: Review

Fringe 2013: What Gives? review

If you ask any trained musician about the rests written on their score, they’ll tell you that the moments of silence are equality important to the notes meant to be heard.

This production What Gives? doesn’t feature any live musicians at all (the actors sing along with a quiet, prerecorded accompaniment) and while the basic foundations for an ok show are present, the cast’s performances – or more accurately, the lack there of during the quiet, and off-focus moments really drag the show down. Kind of like a musician who forgot to “play” their rests.

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Fringe 2013: Limbo review

There’s a healthy bit of confusion going on in Limbo, but If you’ve got an obsessive penchant for one-man monologues, it shouldn’t disappoint you too badly.

Andrew Bailey tells a story of his own coming of age while coping with various social anxiety issues often stemming from his religion, and at the same time he tries to deliver a humorous, yet serious explanation of the meaning of life. He purports to solve the philosophical question in the first minute of his monologue and then “unsolve” it for the next 59.

This premise is a fairly successful one, but depending on how you interpret his solution, you might feel that he either undersells the rest of the play, or too drastically diverges from his initial point.

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Polara: an atmospheric, quick fingered brain twister that’s got plenty of longevity

In a swamped mobile games market, it can be difficult for games labelled as “just ok” to stand out. Hope This Works Games’ Polara raises the bar for mobile titles that require quick thinking and intense focus high enough to merit its recent price increase And it does so under the pretext of a mostly compelling narrative.

When the mechanics of an endless-runner and Ikaruga’s (or more recently Outland’s) colour-switching get thrown together in the same sentence, there are many who would ravenously start hunting around for the source of the rumouring, But while the allure of a game that combines the two elements is extremely tempting, the number of ways that the game design could go wrong is enough to make me avoid premature excitement.

Polara 1

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Locked-In: an engaging sprint to the truth behind an afflicted executive woman’s life

When it comes to visual novels, there are a few critical pieces beyond stellar writing that need to be in place if you want a player to remain invested in your story. And Lucky Special Games’ Locked-In does a fantastic job of gathering assets to do just that.

It shouldn’t feel like a chore to watch the words crawl across the screen while a static image representing a character delivers their lines. The game has to engage the player and give them a reason to invest their time; there are many who might typically prefer to just read a book.

But I would find it difficult to believe that a player could run through a couple of Locked-In’s eight endings and still think they could get the same experience elsewhere. The combination of its eerie silhouettes with a dash of colour on an accessory to represent each, surprisingly, well-developed character really goes a long way to quickly make you care about their motivations.

Locked-In 1

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