Tag: Puzzle

Looking for that next puzzle game to stretch those brain muscles? Thumb Culture has news and reviews of the newest puzzling genre games.

Helheim Hassle Review – To Helheim And Back
PlayStation Reviews

Helheim Hassle Review – To Helheim And Back

Helheim Hassle is a puzzle/platform game originally released in late 2020. It was developed and published by Perfectly Paranormal, the team behind Manual Samuel. You play as Bjørn, a Viking who shies away from violence and confrontation. After a freak accident and a botched resurrection, Bjørn joins Pesto, a being from human hell, on a quest to collect Satan's new sword from Hel. In return for his assistance, Bjørn gets Pesto to agree to try and help him stay in Helheim. To Helheim and back again. Pleasure or hassle? We're only in January, sure, but Helheim Hassle is my favourite game of the year so far. What have you played so far in 2021? Are you planning to add this to your list? Let us know in the comments. Gameplay The main mechanic in Helheim Hassle centres around Bjørn and h...
Carrion – Will There Be Peace When You Are Done?
Xbox Reviews

Carrion – Will There Be Peace When You Are Done?

Carrion is deemed as an important food source for scavengers and stems from the Latin caro; which directly translates to meat. Meat is quite an accurate description seeing as the protagonist is a gristly, fleshy tentacle monster. In Carrion, you start as this mysterious creature who is escaping from a lab and lost in a Metroidvaniaesque labyrinth as you try and seek out your freedom. Carrion is the sophomore game from Phobia Game Studio and is described as a reverse-horror game. Whilst their debut game, Butcher, flew under the radar back in 2016 Carrion has been thrust into the spotlight with a multi-platform release and even launching as part of Xbox Game Pass. Gameplay Carrion starts off in an eerie and dark lab but as soon as you break free from containment you immediately gain...
The Turing Test Review – Descartes for Dummies
Switch Reviews

The Turing Test Review – Descartes for Dummies

My last review for Thumb Culture concerned an AI achieving sentience and hectoring humans who sought to take it down a peg or two. Bulkhead Interactive's The Turing Test once again asks us to question what it means to be alive, and once again borrows heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Portal games in its depiction of an AI which is suffering from growing pains. The game was named after The Turing Test, which was developed by mistreated mathematician Alan Turing as a theoretical means of testing if an AI is sentient through a task in which it is to imitate human responses to questions.   In the distant future, a small team of scientists have travelled to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, on a mining expedition. You play as the conveniently-named Ava Turing. Ava has been w...
Untitled Goose Game Review – I’ve Been Goosed!
Switch Reviews

Untitled Goose Game Review – I’ve Been Goosed!

adveAs one of Yorkshire's foremost amateur geese enthusiasts, when I was offered the chance to review Untitled Goose Game, I considered it an excellent opportunity to educate bird-brained Thumb Culture readers about the majestic beauty of the family Anserinae. Upon accepting the honour, however, I was somewhat chagrined to discover that I had not been chosen to review the game due to my expert knowledge of geese, but rather because the particular goose-protagonist in question had a vindictive and irritating nature, and it was suggested that I had an unparalleled grasp of such personality traits. Whilst deeply upset at what I considered a somewhat spurious claim, in the end, I agreed to evaluate the game, all the same, so long as I could litter the review with atrocious puns [I don't...
Murderous Pursuits Preview – Making Assassination More Fun
PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Murderous Pursuits Preview – Making Assassination More Fun

If you prefer to eliminate your foes with stealth, and tactics rather than running in, all guns/swords blazing, then you might be interested in jumping on ship during the Jurassic Period, with Murderous Pursuits. Blazing Griffin’s assassination focused multi-player title, Murderous Pursuits ran an Open Beta from the 20th of April 2018, until 5am Monday 2018. Now, this one for me had been hiding away. I had seen nothing of the title anywhere before the open beta announcement until a friend of mine told me about it. So it was a lovely surprise to see it a few hours before it went live. Now, Murderous Pursuits is the toned-down equivalent where if Assassin’s Creed and Dishonored had a baby, and merged that DNA with a hint of The Ship, this is what you’d see birthed. The reason I mention...
Moss Review – Taking on the Fairytale Like a Moss
PlayStation Reviews

Moss Review – Taking on the Fairytale Like a Moss

Out of all the launch games and experiences on PSVR Allumete stood out to me the most. If you didn’t know (and if that applies to you then I implore you to check it out!) Allumete is a short but innovative VR experience made by Penrose studios and is loosely based upon ‘The Little Match Girl’ by Hans Christian Anderson. In Allumete you witness the story of a young, homeless girl from, what can only be described as the viewpoint of an invisible and inquisitive giant. You don’t affect the story, nor do you play a part in it. You simply experience it by watching the story unfold on a beautifully detailed floating city. Allumette quickly became the PSVR showcase for my non VR owning friends. It was the go-to experience I first gave them when they put on the headset for the very first time. ...
Max The Curse of Brotherhood PS4 Review – You May Need Controller Insurance
PlayStation Reviews

Max The Curse of Brotherhood PS4 Review – You May Need Controller Insurance

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a cinematic adventure filled with action-packed platforming and creative puzzle-solving. Armed with only a Magic Marker, Max must confront evil at every turn in a hostile and fantastical world in order to save his kid brother, Felix. Dive in and let me tell you a bit about it… Game Play The game opens as Max arrives home to find his younger brother, Felix, playing with his beloved toys. Enraged, Max searches the internet for advice on how to rid himself of his troublesome brother and happens upon a spell, via the Internet of all places, to spirit Felix away, which he recites. ( A fair and just punishment in my opinion, I mean who wants your snotty gross little brother touching your things? Eww) A portal opens in the bedroom and the younger boy is snatched...
The Lost Bear PSVR Review – Short But Sweet
PlayStation Reviews

The Lost Bear PSVR Review – Short But Sweet

The Lost Bear is co-developed by Fabrik games and OddBug Studio and published by Fabrik Games and is available for PSVR. When you first sit down and put on the PSVR headset and dive into The Lost Bear you know you are in for a treat. Sitting down on the comfy chair in front of a large stage area is mesmerising. Lets see how it fairs under scrutiny. Gameplay I will admit that it took me a little while to find the correlation of the games title - The Lost Bear - and what was happening on screen. However it suddenly dawned on me about 15 minutes into the game. You control Walnut, and your aim is to rescue your small teddy BEAR (!) from the Toysnatcher and get back to your Brother. You jump, run and slide to climb ledges and to reach other platforms, chasing down the little critter...
Save The Ninja Clan Review – Ninja Gore Fest
PC Reviews

Save The Ninja Clan Review – Ninja Gore Fest

Save The Ninja Clan is the latest release from Developer Willz and Publisher Sometimes You, it is a challenging 2D side scrolling platformer released on PS4, Xbox One and PC. I'm sure most of us can agree that the general reason we all game is that we like to experience the thrills and excitement of things that in truth could never happen to us in the real world, we like to feel we are super-human to a degree, hunting down villains, killing hordes of monsters/zombies, or even playing as the number 1 striker for our favourite football team. Well Rebellion takes those ideas and thoughts then proceeds to crush them without mercy. This game is truly designed to make you realize that you are not super-human in any way and it wants to beat you into submission, doesn't that sound fun? Well tha...
Puzzle Showdown 4K Review – Pass Me My Pipe & Slippers?
PC Reviews

Puzzle Showdown 4K Review – Pass Me My Pipe & Slippers?

Puzzle Showdown 4K developed by Kingdom Games (the devs behind the "Five" series on Steam) and published by 70 Times 7 LLC is a jigsaw based puzzle game that is available both on the Playstation store and Steam.  I must admit that when I was asked to review a jigsaw game I really thought it was going to be some horror/survival type featuring the well known doll from the Saw series.  How wrong was I!!  Instead of blood and all manners of fiendish traps I was faced with a family friendly jigsaw puzzle based game in which I am to try and piece together aesthetically pleasing 4K wallpapers on my screen. Gameplay Ok, so my first reaction as I sit infront of the PS4 Pro is "really?"  I remember playing similar games in the past on a Nintendo DS and that was only when I was really bored.  C...