Category Archives: First Person Shooters

Action, First Person Shooters, Platforms, PlayStation VR, PS4, Puzzle, Reviews

Robinson: The Journey Review – A faceful of dino

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When thinking about the games I desperately want PlayStation VR to gel with, anything first-person leads the way. Doesn’t matter if it’s getting behind the wheel in DriveClub, gunning down murderous clowns and wendigos in Until Dawn: Rush of Blood or even aerial combat (I’m not traditionally a fan) in Criterion’s stunning X-Wing mission in Star Wars: Battlefront – I’ll be there, ready to push my face into it.

It can all be a bit manic though, stressful even – I’m just waiting for a good deal on Resident Evil VII, honest. I could do with something I can sit down with for a few hours and just enjoy being ‘there’. Robinson: The Journey may just be that game. Continue reading Robinson: The Journey Review – A faceful of dino →

First Person Shooters, Platforms, PlayStation Move, PlayStation VR, PS4, Reviews

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood Review – All aboard the fright train!

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As a new PlayStation VR owner, I was keen to pick up something to ease myself into using the virtual reality headset, ideally something to play in shortish sessions. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is that game and an essential purchase for PlayStation VR owners.

If you’re coming in fresh, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is an on-rails shooter experience spin-off of 2015’s excellent Until Dawn. While the original game played like an interactive movie, a Heavy Rain-esque slasher movie if you will, Rush of Blood, sits you in a ghost train cart and converts the original game’s locations into a grisly theme park. Continue reading Until Dawn: Rush of Blood Review – All aboard the fright train! →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, RPG

No Man’s Sky Review – Where infinity becomes familiar

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The possibilities are endless. Billions and billions of unique planets to discover. That’s how many of us have been imagining No Man’s Sky all these years throughout its development from a small team,  who’s previous games were content to have us rip down a 2D track chasing combos on a motorcycle. It’s quite a leap to say the least.

The reality may not be what we were expecting though, mainly because the game’s core gameplay was only shown off very late into the development cycle. For years, all we really knew was that there would be a lot of planets to discover. Take away the lengthy list of planets though and what we’re left with is rather less appealing – a resource mining and inventory management sim. Continue reading No Man’s Sky Review – Where infinity becomes familiar →

Action, First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Far Cry: Primal Review – The cat’s whiskers

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If there’s one series we never expected to explore a 10,000 BCE prehistoric setting, it was Far Cry. Here’s a series so accustomed to the FPS genre, it was hard to imagine it doing anything else other than giving us a AK47, some C4, a bloody big map and a long journey to take over it. If you were a gambling man, you’d say this new setting was more likely to come via Assassin’s Creed.

Thankfully, it turns out Far Cry is a worthy brand to give this caveman-sim a shot. Even with the removal of guns, that Far Cry DNA is truly present in Primal. There’s a huge world to explore, irritable locals and the wildlife is so much more than window dressing as it’s purposefully included in gameplay and the game’s crafting and upgrade systems. More to the point, we all know Far Cry has been at its finest when it started letting us play with a bow and arrow. Continue reading Far Cry: Primal Review – The cat’s whiskers →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Star Wars: Battlefront Review – Old Rope or a New Hope?

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Despite the success of the original Star Wars: Battlefront games back in the PS2/Xbox days, we never saw a third game last-gen. But now, with modern gaming technology and DICE’s expertise on full throttle, we have a game that looks almost as good as the movies that inspired them.

Sure, the animations aren’t as fancy as that original trailer set on Endor, (called it!) but the graphical clarity and slick 60 frames-per-second across all platforms makes this one of the best-looking multiplayer shooters ever made. Continue reading Star Wars: Battlefront Review – Old Rope or a New Hope? →

First Person Shooters, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Call of Duty: Black Ops III Review – A co-op coup

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Call of Duty: Black Ops III is so packed with content it tough to pick a place to start. While many COD players like to skip the campaign each year and dive straight into the multiplayer, Black Ops III’s story mode marks the long-awaited return of co-op, making it one of the best campaigns the series has seen in a while.

However, I ran through the campaign playing solo first. This third entry in the convoluted Black Ops storyline jumps even further into the future. The world has gone to shit, but I can’t remember why. Soldiers have body modifications that allow them to jump higher and wall-run in a similar, but certainly toned down, version of the hyper movement skills seen in last year’s ambitious Advanced Warfare. You can now shoot while mantling over low walls and even reload while sprinting for a much more fluid feeling Call of Duty and these features gel nicely with the competitive multiplayer too. Continue reading Call of Duty: Black Ops III Review – A co-op coup →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Bedlam: The Game Review – You’d be mad to come here

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Bedlam: The Game Review - You'd be mad to come here

You may already know something about Bedlam as it’s based on a book by Christopher Brookmyre. Packed with pop culture references it featured a chap waking up in an old Doom-style shooter he used to play in his youth. The book followed him as he made his way through multiple familiar game worlds and different gaming genres.

The game follows a similar premise, but puts you in the shoes of a different character for some reason.  This gives the writers an excuse to come up with additional dialogue, which often falls a little flat if I’m honest and may even cause a few eyes to roll. What we’re really after though is an experience of playing through some classic genres akin to the experience in the book. Continue reading Bedlam: The Game Review – You’d be mad to come here →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Review) – “Ein Hotdog!”

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Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Review | "Ein Hotdog!"

The announcement of this standalone expansion prequel to last year’s excellent Wolfenstein: The New Order was an excellent surprise and the news that it was only going to cost about £15 was even better. Fast forward a few short weeks and you can pick up a copy for about a tenner. You’re looking at the best bargain of 2015, folks.

While the majority of the last game was set in the alternative version of the 1960s where the Nazis won WWII, The Old Blood takes place towards the end of the war in the mid 40s. You’re attempting to infiltrate Castle Wolfenstein, an enormous fortress built into the side of a mountain. The word ‘imposing’ doesn’t really do it justice as you approach it via cable car. Continue reading Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Review) – “Ein Hotdog!” →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Tower of Guns (Review) – Run n’ Gun Fun

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Tower of Guns Review | Run n' Gun Fun

The roguelike genre has been spreading through the videogame genres over recent years in everything from RPGs to platformers, but now we have one for the FPS genre too. And it’s an absolute delight for anyone that remembers shooters before aiming down the sights was a thing.

The graphics-style may appear dated, but for the most part the controls are incredibly smooth and the twitch-handling is a fond throwback to older shooters; the responsive controls are fantastically fluid as you strafe enemies or nip between the hail of slow but thick storms of enemy fire. It has to be said though, there’s some awful slowdown in the larger rooms when they try to pack in too many enemies at once. It’s not a regular thing though. Continue reading Tower of Guns (Review) – Run n’ Gun Fun →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Battlefield: Hardline (Review) – Campaign brings home the bacon

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Battlefield: Hardline Review - Campaign brings home the bacon

Visceral games had a daunting task on their hands when they were given the reigns for the latest Battlefield game. But rather than attempt another military shooter, they’ve come up with a fresh angle for the series’ single player campaign and the online multiplayer by infusing a cops and robbers vibe.

We’ll start with the campaign, as it’s always nice to get a feel for the guns before hopping online. That said, DICE’s last two campaigns in Battlefield 3 and 4 have been terrible, you’d barely know that the same team were behind the excellent Battlefield: Bad Company games. Visceral know their way around a campaign though, having developed the excellent Dead Space series. Continue reading Battlefield: Hardline (Review) – Campaign brings home the bacon →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS4, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Far Cry 4 (Review)

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We’ve been dying for another gargantuan open-world FPS since Far Cry 3 and nothing’s come close to providing an equal timesink if we’re honest. There was promise in Destiny, but their version of our local solar system ended up being a collection of corridors and desolate wastelands with inane missions and a leveling system that demanded too much for little in return. So, chances are Ubisoft are running unopposed here, it’s not like they’re going to mess up one of their leading franchises. Well, not two of them in one year…

You are Ajay Ghale, a prodigal son returning to the Himalayan region of Kyrat to carry on his father’s work of leading a rebel group called the Golden Path against the tyrannical forces of Pagan Min. Min himself is the pink-suited fellow we’ve come to know in reveals over the last few months and is a larger than life character that suitably camps things up one moment, only to shiv a soldier in the neck over nothing the next. He’s a brilliant villain, but I’m enormously sad to report that he rarely makes an appearance for most of the game.

Continue reading Far Cry 4 (Review) →

First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS4, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Review)

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Call-of-Duty-Advanced-Warfare-PS4Before Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare landed on our doormats, this has been a year to remember for the first person shooter. The likes of Titanfall and Destiny have made vital efforts to push the envelope in terms of what we can expect from a shooter.

Titanfall has been a fun-packed title with awesome mechs, jetpack parkour and some decent DLC, despite server issues that made the early months a little rough. And Destiny, well the jury’s still out a little there as Bungie’s MMOFPS has been a little light on content for many gamers, but there’s a solid foundation. It’s been a year where developers have attempted to shake things up, and for that they should be applauded. And let’s face it, the sequels could be incredible if they take the feedback on board.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Enemy Front (Review)

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An Inglorious Bughunt

I wanted to love Enemy Front, I really did. As a big WWII FPS fan, I’ve been starved for years and have only recently got a taste of the genre coming back with the ‘what if the Nazi’s won’ Wolfensteinon PS4 and the ‘let’s shoot Italians in Africa for a change’ of the recent Sniper Elite III. Enemy Frontcould have been another game to show that WWII is still one of the best settings for FPS titles; instead, it’s probably buried it.

The game’s ambitions are pure enough, but CI have struggled to cope with the CryEngine and basic gameplay design, producing one of this year’s biggest messes. The frame-rate crashes into single-digits whenever you go indoors, especially when moving up the stairs of any of the multiple apartment buildings. The checkpointing seems intent on making you relive the worst parts of the game whenever you bite the dust after the increasingly random number of perforations deemed acceptable is reached.

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Action, First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS4, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Sniper Elite III (Review)

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Better than a bullet in the nads

Sniper Elite III has opted for a change of scenery for its latest long-range melon buster and visits the sandy vistas of Africa during World War II. Unlike most WWII games, there’s a surprising lack of Nazis, instead you’re generally shooting Italians with ze Germans apparently not being fans of the searing heat.

Scenery change aside, it’s business as usual, shooting Axis soldiers from oh-so far away, with gruesome slow-mo detail accompanying most shots. The series’ stable gore looks more grisly than ever on the new consoles. Skulls explode, teeth smash from jaws, bones snap, insides are ripped through and of course testicle shots are back. On the default settings, I soon tired of these slow-motion killshots that follow the bullet from your gun right up to its messy destination. I’d advise dipping into the options to turn down the frequency of them as they lose their impact by the end of the first stage otherwise. They also make it difficult to keep track of nearby enemies between shots.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 Review

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Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 Review

Here it is then, the final piece of Irrational and Ken Levine’s adventures with the Bioshock series. With Levine’s decision to close down the studio, the only Bioshock content we’ll be seeing in the future is if 2K decides to put a new team together and go on ahead without the game’s inspirational creative lead. Today though, we’re here to see how Irrational bow out on one of the most respected legacies in gaming.

To fully appreciate everything that Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea – Episode 2 has to offer, you really need to have completed not only Episode 1 and Infinite, but also the original two Bioshock games. Gameplay innovations are thin on the ground here, but Burial at Sea carries on where it left off by serving as a tribute to the fans and a link between the worlds of Columbia and the underwater city of Rapture.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PS4, Reviews, Xbox One

Battlefield 4 (PS4 Review)

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With the Christmas release schedule being so packed, some games slips through the cracks. But here at Dealspwn it’s never too late to give you a verdict on a game. After all, in these modern times developers are able to add patches to their games to fix issues that may have been around at launch. The next-gen launch versions of Battlefield 4 on PS4 and Xbox One had a few teething issues, so maybe time (and a few patches) have proved to be a great healer. I’m about to find out as I dive into Battlefield 4 on the PS4.

Let’s get straight to it. Battlefield 4’s single player campaign is better than Battlefield 3’s, but still way behind the Bad Company games. For those of you kind enough not to have scrolled down to the multiplayer part of the review already, I’ll tell you why.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PSN (PlayStation Store), Reviews, XBLA, Xbox 360

Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea – Episode 1 (Review)

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Elizabeth brings us home to Rapture


Bioshock Infinite’s first DLC surprised many of us when Irrational announced it would take place in the original game’s underwater city of Rapture and not in the floating city of Columbia. Surprised? Yes. Disappointed? Not one bit.

With Bioshock Infinite indicating the many possibilities of alternate universes, the concept of taking (a version of) Booker and Elizabeth to one of the most inspired locations in gaming history is one that pulls you in from the start, more so after teasing us with the idea in Infinite.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Review – Finding redemption

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Ah, the old west. It’s good to be back. Techland’s last Juarez title (The Cartel) opted for a modern setting and suffered from a large dose of ‘bloody awful’ leaking from every festering orifice. So, um yeah, we weren’t fans.

However, I was a huge fan of the game before that, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, which featured a fantastically realised Wild West setting during and after the Civil War. After the mega success of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, you would have thought that Ubisoft would have insisted Techland cranked out a Wild West follow up to Bound in Blood. Well, several years later (now that the Wild West bandwagon has long gone) we have one in the form of Gunslinger, a low-priced download-only game. Continue reading Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Review – Finding redemption →

Action, First Person Shooters, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Wii U, Xbox 360

The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Review)

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I should begin this review with a public warning announcement. This Walking Dead game has nothing to do with the multiple award-winning downloadable series The Walking Dead by Telltale Games. Whereas that game was based on the comics, this is based on the AMC TV series and is a first-person action game.

Seeing as the critically acclaimed one that features multiple story choices and plays more likeHeavy Rain than Dead Island has just been released at retail too (review incoming), we wouldn’t want you to pick this one up by mistake.

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First Person Shooters, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (Review)

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Lost between long-range brilliance and shooting itself in the foot

A glitchy but somewhat enjoyable first game had us crossing our fingers for an improved sequel from City Interactive. The sniping genre has intensified of late with stiff competition coming from Sniper Elite V2 last year so they need to hit the ground running this time.

The CryEngine 3 (also used for Crysis 3) certainly gives the game a graphical boost. The game is off to a sunny start in the Philippines with wonderfully bright lighting in the jungle environments being a fine tonic to any gamer fatigued with all the grey corridors and city environments in others shooters.

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