Games of the week – Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, Evil Inside, Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, and Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!
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Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
Platform: iOS, Android
Genre: Puzzle
Price: £3.99
Age rating: 12+
‘Blink and you’re dead’
Time to get your detective hat on, as you search a missing person’s lost phone for clues about their disappearance. That is the aim of Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins; gather evidence from messages, emails, photos and web browsing history, with the help of UNIT operative Petronella Osgood – a character Doctor Who fans will be aware of. This really is a gem for Whovians, focused around events dating back to 2007’s Blink episode, in which the infamous Weeping Angels made their debut. The dialogue is deep, supported by some of the original cast who’ve lent their voices to this ‘found phone’ game – and a special appearance by current Doctor, Jodie Whittaker. The puzzles are simple enough to follow, leading you closer to the truth about missing Lawrence Nightingale, alongside mysterious calls and more. The fact it is all done from your own smartphone adds a nice dimension of realism to the sci-fi fantasy.
Skip to the end: This interactive ‘found phone’ experience is great for Doctor Who fans, especially with no new TV episodes on for the moment.
Score: 8/10
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Platform: Switch
Genre: Simulation
Price: £44.99
Age rating: 3+
Cropping good
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town transports you to the calm life, as you escape the bustle of the city to revive your grandfather’s rundown old farm. Grow, harvest and rebuild remains the core focus, staying true to the roots of the long-running Story of Seasons franchise. Conceptually, not much has changed, but the big difference is the amount of land you have to work with. The lack of change is not a problem – why would you meddle too much with something that works? Aside from this, it is a serenely slow mix of gathering materials, raising livestock and getting to know people in the nearby Olive Town community. Some of the tasks are a bit tedious and dialogue can waffle on excessively, but that does not detract from Pioneers of Olive Town’s charm.
Skip to the end: A soothing easy-going experience some of us could do with right now, sticking with trusted farming simulation formats of the past, focusing on evolution rather than revolution.
Score: 7/10
Evil Inside
Platform: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC
Genre: Horror
Price: £9.99
Age rating: 16+
Round in circles
A mysterious house, a crying baby and creepy creeks are classic hallmarks of any horror tale, elements Evil Inside is not short of. After the death of his mother, and the arrest of his father for the crime, you play first-person as Mark, in his pursuit to make contact with her using a spiritual board. The game sees you walking – very slowly – in a loop around the house, with new clues appearing each time and pieces of the Ouija board to collect along the way. The pace is slow, music tense. There are cheap jump scare moments that obviously make your heart skip a beat, but beyond this the story and challenges are somewhat repetitive, predictable and does not leave you yearning to go further. Some of the graphics were not that great either, particularly the baby.
Skip to the end: The most exciting thing about Evil Inside was the jump scares, but these, along with the story and challenges, offer little compelling addition to the horror genre.
Score: 6/10
Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!
Platform: iOS, Android
Genre: Endless runner
Price: Free (with optional in-app payments)
Age rating: 9+
Crash bang
Crash is a nineties icon that has withstood the test of time in the endless runner format. As it hops onto mobile, it certainly stays true to its roots with the usual jumping and sliding to avoid obstacles and spinning to smash boxes, but the problem is, it’s a bit too easy for our liking. In fact, the only real obstacle was the in-app payments, meaning you occasionally have to wait for certain objects to become available. The aim is to work through a series of running challenges, eventually meeting a boss at the end, who is sent into a vortex of doom. At the end of each stage, you meet a bigger boss, who is not much harder to defeat. There are plenty of collectible items and upgrades along the way, but Crash Bandicoot: On The Run! does not live up to the pace we know from this familiar franchise.
Skip to the end: Crash Bandicoot is a bit too easy to get through this time round and On The Run! does not offer anything excitingly new to the scene.
Score: 6/10
