Play Station Official Magazine - UK (2019-12)

092

REVIEW

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READYSET HEROES

Dungeon crawling brawler

T

here’s nothing particularly striking

about this dungeon crawler at first

glance – your aim is to battle your

way through a number of rooms, collecting

power-ups from enemies and breakable

barrels, defeating bosses along the way.

In short, it’s the usual fare – but it’s when

you play with friends that it really shows its

full potential. Crawl ‘n’ Brawl mode (which

can be played in local, split-screen co-op or

online) sees you and the opposing player or

team racing to reach the end of separate

dungeons as quickly as possible. Once there,

you’re promptly set against one another in a

fight to determine the champion.

You’re thrown down a different path

each time you play,^1 and the equipment and

skill rewards at the end of each completed

room are mixed up, ensuring every run

feels fresh. Not all rooms have enemies to

contend with; in some you’re required to hit

crystals in a specific order, while in others

you’re forced to dodge projectiles and traps

or navigate treacherous platforms. The

bosses are weird and colourful and often

have specific mechanics you need to learn in

order to beat them.^2

If you’d rather play at a slower pace,

ReadySet Heroes has that covered too. You

can take on a dungeon with a friend in Tower

Brawl, again either in local co-op or online,

or you can play solo.

While ReadySet Heroes is at its best with

friends, it’s also surprisingly sturdy as a

single-player game. You can choose to play

as various cartoony critters and

while this choice doesn’t affect

the playstyle, it would work

well as a gentle introduction to

the genre for younger family

members. Sarah James

FOOTNOTES 1 Unfortunately, planning ahead in order to outwit

your opponent is not an option here. You’re just going to have to

battle through. 2 We’re looking at you, Iron Snout!

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TRAVIS STRIKES

AGAIN: NO MORE

HEROES

All hair and no there

 H

aving been absent from PlayStation

since 2010, Travis Touchdown makes

his return to the platform. This top-

down spin-off from the No More Heroes

series aims to deliver the same stylish action

as the mainline titles, albeit in bite-sized

hack-and-slash chunks. It works, for the

most part, letting you dish out all manner of

light and heavy attacks as you pound your

way through legions of faceless goons. The

problem is, that’s all there is to it.

The basic setup proves interesting at

first: Travis and nemesis BadMan are sucked

into a retro-inspired games console called

the Death Drive MK-II and forced to fight

through various fictional games to gain their

freedom. The premise allows levels to morph

and twist, but that doesn’t make what you’re

doing within them any less repetitive. Often it

feels like all you do is mash r.

Luckily, the shift in perspective hasn’t

in any way lessened the creativity of boss

fights. These turn out to be Travis Strikes

Again’s saving grace, forcing you to shake

up battle tactics and take true advantage

of special attacks (accessed via Skill Chips,^1

which are dished out to you gradually). Less

creative, however, are the game’s brief

flutters with alternate genres like racing,

puzzle, and visual novel.

The PS4 game includes the Black Dandelion

and Bubblegum Fatale DLC, which add two

playable characters and more stages^2 to the

base game. Like the main game,

though, they’re all style and little

substance. Travis Strikes Again

spends so much time calling

back to other games, it forgets

to be fun itself. Aaron Potter

FOOTNOTES 1 These give Travis the ability to shoot electricity,

create a doppelgänger, and more. 2 BadMan’s daughter Bad Girl is

one DLC character, making her return from the first game.

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THE BRADWELL

CONSPIRACY

Psst! This game’s (almost) Bradical

C

ome on, not another sci-fi game set

in a Stonehenge museum hit by a

mysterious explosion! Get some new

ideas, guys! This one is a first-person puzzle

game where, with the help of one other

character communicating with you via the

magic glasses you both have, you have one

objective: escape.

There’s no getting around it; the first

thing to hit us about this game is the dodgy

framerate, which jitters whenever we try to

do anything more complicated than walk in

a straight line. This is quickly forgiven when

we start to explore the ruined museum

building, which feels like a real place. There

are functional-looking working spaces,

genuine Stonehenge trivia displayed in the

public area, emails with (intentional?) spelling

and typing errors, and even the remains

of a small birthday celebration to be found.

There’s a very welcome sense of humour

throughout, too, much of which is to be

found in easily missed details.^1

The puzzle element comes with the

introduction of what is, in effect, a sci-fi

vacuum cleaner, which you can use to suck

up certain objects to place elsewhere at

your leisure. It regularly comes in handy

for crossing gaps^2 and, as a result, none

of the puzzling is likely to give you much

trouble (apart from the final light reflection

one, which can become tedious). However,

the world is so interesting, and the script

so good – not to mention surprising in the

middle – that this isn’t a problem.

Although it’s a bit buggy (we

had to reload a few checkpoints

to progress), it’s no secret that

this will be five to six hours of

your time well spent. Luke Kemp

FOOTNOTES 1 Jonathan Ross has a small part; we were delighted

to discover that his character is named the ‘AI Diwector’. 2 Most of

which wouldn’t be a problem if you could jump.