The Clayton Awards 2021

Game of the Year 2021 – Cyberpunk 2077

There’s still so much potential in Cyberpunk 2077, but even if the promised patches, updates and DLC don’t deliver on that potential, 2077 will still be one of the best games I’ve played in recent years. With fantastic visuals, a stunning world, great gameplay and a compelling story and characters, it’s a game that, despite its poor release and numerous little flaws, is still pretty damn special. (Full Review)

Most Disappointing Game of 2021 – Battlefield 2042

I didn’t buy Battlefield 2042 after that absolutely terrible beta. Even so, it’s easily my most disappointing game of 2021. It was the game I was most excited about playing and I even had the Gold edition pre-ordered. But after that beta, I cancelled my order, ignoring the ‘it’s only a beta’ noise and the ridiculously inflated review scores because I knew what was coming. Everyone could see it, but nobody wanted to believe it. (Beta Impressions)

Gallery: Tales of Arise (Part 1)

 

Now Playing: The Room: Dark Matter (VR)

The Room: Dark Matter is a VR puzzle game. You play as a Detective working on a missing persons case who gets mixed up in some supernatural shenanigans. There’s a story, of sorts, that unfolds as you progress, but it’s only told in letters – there’s no voice acting or characters with whom you interact.

Visually, Dark Matter is very impressive. It’s easily one of the best looking and immersive VR games I’ve played, but it’s also very restrictive – there’s no free movement within the environments, you can only teleport from one puzzle node to the next.

The opening level serves as a short tutorial that introduces you to the basic mechanics. The bulk of the content, however, is found in the next 3 levels which offer completely different environments and puzzles to solve – a museum basement full of ancient Egyptian artefacts, an old church with a crusader motif, and a . . . witch’s hut, which seems weirdly out of place but I can’t fault the variety.

The last level, which I thought would be a lengthy, elaborate environment that combined the various puzzle mechanics of the previous levels, is a major disappointment. It’s short and there’s no real puzzles to solve.

So all you really get with Dark Matter is 3 ‘full’ puzzle rooms to solve. It’s a game you can easily finish in under 4 hours – maybe 3, depending on how easily you solve each room. The quality of the puzzles is decent, but nothing special, and some of them are only tricky to solve because it’s not always clear what pieces of the environment you can interact with and what you can’t.

The controls can prove a little fiddly at times – there was one puzzle that I just couldn’t seem to solve. I was sure I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t seem to get an item to turn in the way that I wanted. I then realised that I was right with my solution, but I just wasn’t holding my controller at the precise angle I needed.

Overall, I’m a little disappointed by a Dark Matter. Given the impressive visuals and production quality, I expected a more lengthy and elaborate game than what I got. It’s still a VR game I’d recommend – but only on sale. It’s another game that’s a good ‘entry’ kind of VR experience for people new to the platform.

6/10

Halo Infinite: First Impressions

Because I’ve not played Halo 5 or Halo Wars 1 & 2 I made sure to watch a recap video before jumping in to Halo Infinite. I’m glad I did because without doing so, the opening of Infinite would have been even more confusing. It kind of just drops you into the action with little explanation of where you are or why. It does reveal these important things as you progress, but I’d say it’s better to go in prepared, despite seeing some reviews say you can go in entirely blind.

The first few levels of Infinite play out more like the structured, linear levels of past games. But once you clear these you’ll arrive in the semi-open world of Infinite. I say ‘semi-open’ because the map is essentially split between multiple ‘islands’ each of which you’ll unlock and gain access to as you progress through the game.

The islands aren’t massive, which I’m actually quite pleased about. They’re big enough for what they need to be and the game doesn’t flood the player with pointless filler objectives or collectibles. In fact, you can ignore the ‘open’ nature of the game if you prefer and just focus on moving from one main mission to the next. But to do so, I think, will miss what makes Infinite special and how it offers a unique experience compared to previous Halo games.

Halo Infinite is like someone looked at the iconic ‘Halo’ level from the original game and decided it would be neat to make an entire game that reflected that experience. You can traverse the map, rescuing squads of marines, securing operating bases (which act as fast travel points) and destroying enemy installations.

Exploring each island is fun and there’s lots of cool little things to find. And the side content really does reward the player by unlocking new skill points to upgrade your equipment and new weapons and vehicles you can access at each operating base. And I love how, thanks to the grapple shot, you really can go pretty much anywhere you can see. This lets you approach missions in any way that you want.

You might prefer to find a high point and snipe the enemy from above. Or you might prefer to go in fast, using the grapple to stay mobile, swinging and sliding through an enemy facility like you’re playing Titanfall. Or, if you’re heavily outnumbered, you might want to round up some friendly marines from a couple of bases, load them into a warthog and attack in numbers.

Halo has always been a series that has leaned heavily on the ‘sandbox’ nature of combat – no scripted sequences, just pure, physics led chaos directed by the actions of the player and the – as you’d also expect from Halo – clever enemy AI. The gameplay is superb, but I already knew that having sunk a lot of time into the MP beta. The movement, shooting, weapons, vehicles and equipment all combine to create one of the most enjoyable, satisfying and tactical shooters you can play.

Technically, the game could certainly be better – without the not-too noticeable adaptive resolution option, I wouldn’t be able to maintain 60FPS, even on medium settings. And although the game does look good thanks to its colourful and clean art style, it’s not exactly a visual powerhouse that should prove as taxing on my system as it currently does.

I’ve not progressed far enough in the story to comment on that, only to say that the ‘weapon’ is cute as f**k. Oh, and the ‘boss’ fights I’ve had so far have also been pretty fun and much better than similar attempts in previous Halo games. I’ll wrap this post up here because I’m still just getting started with Halo Infinite and it’s a game I want to take my time with. My first impressions are very positive, but don’t expect a final review until early next year.

Blade & Sorcery: The Dungeons Update (VR)

My last post on Blade & Sorcery was last July with the release of Update 8, AKA The Sorcery Update. At the end of that post I speculated about how B&S could expand in the future – ‘There’s a lot it can do, and that’s before we even consider the possible inclusion of some kind of campaign. I’m not expecting much, but I can totally see some kind of randomised ‘dungeon’ mode in which you progress, level up and earn loot to buy new weapons or abilities.’ And as you can probably guess by the title of the latest major update, that’s exactly the direction B&S is moving in.

But it’s important to note that this update is really just a first step. B&S, let’s not forget, is being developed by a very small team. Updates may take time, but they’re certainly worth the wait when they arrive. B&S has improved considerably in pretty much every aspect since I first picked it up and reviewed it back in January 2020.

The visuals have had some impressive overhauls – environmental and character. The inclusion of new armour types. The expanded range of spells and their various applications within combat. There’s been a lot of good stuff added, expanded and improved. But through it all, B&S has still always been just a ‘sandbox’ experience. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – B&S certainly has a decent range of maps to play on and a generous number of sandbox modes to choose from.

But as fun as the sandbox is to mess about in, it doesn’t really keep you playing. There’s no structure to the game. No sense of progression. And B&S doesn’t necessarily need these things – I’d still recommend it without. But when the combat is this enjoyable, it’s a shame there’s not more.

The Dungeons Update is the first step to changing that. Right now, it’s still basically just a sandbox. From the new player home you can pick a new map which loads you into the ‘Dungeon’ – a semi-procedurally generated environment, randomly stitched together from 50 pre-set ‘rooms’.

That sounds like it could result in a ‘dungeon’ that’s something of a mess in terms of environmental design, but it actually works remarkably well and combines the various pieces in a way that almost feels handcrafted. And there’s a great deal of detail put into every piece and a consistent style to their design.

As I said though, it’s still basically just a sandbox. You pick your weapons, enter the map and progress through slaughtering enemies. There is now a ‘stealth’ system of sorts that can let you sneak up and kill them, and some enemies will follow basic patrol paths, but there’s not much more to it.

But there will be, and that’s the exciting thing. There’s now scope to expand the game with some kind of structured progression. Once again, I’m not expecting a massively in-depth, narrative driven campaign, but some kind of level system in which you unlock new weapons and spells as you progress through increasingly complex and difficult randomised dungeons, maybe with a ‘boss’ enemy to fight at the end of each?

That said, what might be the most exciting part of this update is actually . . . a chicken. Why? Because it’s the first non-humanoid model added into B&S and opens the door to a lot more both officially and through mods. In other words, enemy types that aren’t just human in nature. This is a fantasy game, after all, so why not trolls, goblins or even dragons? It’s probably best not to get too carried away, but that little chicken represents a lot of potential going forward.

If you own a VR set then B&S is what I consider a must-have title. It can be demanding if you crank up the enemy count, and you will need some space to play in, but if your system can hack it and you have the room, then be sure to pick it up and give it a spin. It’s already worth the cost, and it’s only going to get better.

Now Playing: Forza Horizon 5

My initial impressions of Forza Horizon 5 were very positive and, after putting another 40 or so hours into the game, that opinion hasn’t really changed. I’ve seen some criticism of FH5 from long term fans of the series in the sense that it’s largely the same game as the last one, only with a new map – and I’m not going to dismiss that criticism. Given what I’ve seen of FH4, they’re probably right.

But as I said in my FI post, I’m new to this series. I didn’t play FH4. Forza Horizon 5 is my first Forza game so all of this is new and fresh to me. And I think that’s an important context to frame before I get stuck into this review.

Forza Horizon 5 has been great and is easily one of the best games I’ve played this year. It’s visually impressive and all the more impressive considering how smoothly it runs on my old hardware. It’s a game absolutely packed with content and none of it feels like filler. There’s a massive variety of things to keep you busy – different race types, ‘story’ missions, open world challenges relating to speed, drifting and stunt jumps, multiplayer party games, co-op and pvp racing, seasonal events, community created content and even a kind of silly but fun battle royale mode.

And that’s without even mentioning the custom car tuning and cosmetic customisation which, after getting the hang of, I must have spent hours just fiddling with parts and various settings to get my cars looking and handling exactly how I want. Even after more than 40 hours of play, there’s still so much for me to do and explore.

It’s honestly hard to find much to fault in FH5. I still think there should be a little more guidance for new players – as I said in my FI post, the game doesn’t always explain certain features or modes very well. The multiplayer can take a long time to set up a game leaving you wondering if it’s actually working – but be patient, because it does eventually start.

There’s a great range of options that allow you to set up as many or as few driving aids as you want, in addition to several bot difficulty levels and the harder you make things, the greater your rewards. FH5 lets you play and progress how you want, doing the things you enjoy at whatever difficulty you feel comfortable with. It’s a game that’s extremely accessible to everyone.

Fun is really at the heart of FH5. It’s always rewarding you, even when you crash and roll your car down a volcano. It just wants you to relax and have fun. But don’t get the wrong idea – there’s real challenge here if you want it, too.

I don’t really have much more to say about Forza Horizon 5. I’ve had and continue to have a real blast with the game and I don’t see myself moving on from it anytime soon. There’s still so much for me to do and even once I do finish all the core content, those seasonal challenges will likely have me coming back for more.

Overall, if you’re like me and you’ve never played a Forza game before then I think you’ll probably enjoy this just as much as I did. If you’re a long term fan of the series I can understand why you might find FH5 a little derivative, but even then, it’s hard to deny just how impressive this game is from a visual, audio and technical point of view.

As someone who doesn’t play many racing / driving games these days, Forza Horizon 5 is perfect for me. It’s a welcome change of pace and a refreshingly positive experience.

9/10