360 Fov (‪Chu‬)

Great premise ruined by unbelievably bad acting... like, obnoxiously bad.

One of the worst experiences I've had with game's introduction. It fails to clearly explain what you should do, leading to repeating the same "tutorial" task over and over. The most frustrating part is that it doesn't even need these invasive tutorial battles... it's a side-scrolling beat-em-up, where you can find yourself intuitively carrying out the various moves as you play regardless. This should be a compliment to the developers, and it would be, if they didn't ruin it with a jarring series of introductions (Which don't proceed until you have completed them, with one of them involving 'pause after pressing X and press X when you see a flash' which simply won't register that you have done it, until seemingly randomly it's had enough. Other inconsistences, like menu items sometimes being in uppercase and sometimes not, gives the game a Student Project type of feel.

It's a nostalgic trip down memory lane, albeit the memories are a little foggy and more than anything, it highlights the glaring gap in the industry left by this genres absence. The glory days of new Tony Hawks games being released to critical acclaim with incredible sound tracks, and a pair of fantastic snowboarding games fighting for the #1 spot...well, those days are behind us. Shredders does less for the genre moving forwards, than it does remind us that we're getting old., very fast.

Shadow Arena is unfortunately a case of style over substance. It makes heavy use of FOMO (feat of missing out) to keep you coming back;this tactic works well on mobile games but feels out of place and forced here. A prime example is the nucleus of this review: I can only share my thoughts due to installing because of a competition which granted SOMETHING every day - with a chance to win an an NVidia 3800 RTX. The graphics and animation are very high quality, creating a great first impression. It also makes use of Holiday Events to draw players in here; recently halloween was the flavour the month... it played as follows: ① Complete the [Daily Quests] during the event period to get '[Event] Halloween Pumpkin'. ② Rewards will be sent out based on the number of '[Event] Halloween Pumpkin’ you have when the event ends.

If you're a quake die-hard; chances are you'll excuse short-comings. This IS fun. This DOES NOT provide longevity. You can do better. I specialise in providing the cheapest possible games because I believe we shouldn't pay RRP for games that are lacklustre - so I'm content with my £5.99 purchase, and I was able to buy adds for some friends which galvanised the fun. If you love quake, give it a go. I played Quake from launch.... like...3DFX dial-up launch, so I'm somewhat of a veteran. Admittedly since I was only 17 months old I wasn't great....but I did my thing.