Full Throttle Remastered
4/5
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Double Fine Productions
Price: ₹1248 on PS4 and PS Vita, ₹479 on Steam PC
The 90s were dominated by story-driven point-and-click adventure games. There was Day of the Tentacle, the Monkey Island series, and the very risqué Leisure Suit Larry among others.
Now, the genre is being kept alive by Telltale Games, with their recent Guardians of the Galaxy game. There is a revival of sorts happening with games getting remastered, and the latest is Full Throttle.
What’s it about?
Think of Full Throttle as a cross between Mad Max and Easy Rider, in a future full of open highways. You play as Ben Throttle, the leader of a biker gang, the Polecats, who still take the open road with wheels, in a world that’s full of hovercars. Things start going south when Ben is accused of murdering a big-time CEO. It sets you down a path of fast machines and heavy metal, as Ben races to clear his name.
Like Grim Fandango, Full Throttle is lovingly re-crafted by the creator himself, the legendary Tim Schafer. He’s replaced the pixelated computer animation with crisp visuals, bringing to life the classic without losing the charm.
How does it play?
The game is a story-driven visual novel of sorts, with cutscenes and interactive dialogue sequences, broken up by interludes where you examine the environment for items and solve puzzles. And it’s a complete blast-from-the-past nostalgia for those who grew up in the 90s.
Almost the entire game has been redrawn with 4K visuals. What’s more is that you can toggle the legacy graphics as well as the developer’s commentary. Even the sound has been redone for maximum impact. There’s a lot of love put into this game and it shows in every frame.
Should you get it?
As one of gaming’s finest, the remastered version of Full Throttle does the original justice. It’s perfect if you want to replay the game and remember the past. Newcomers may be put off with the dated gameplay, but with a good walk-through to help you, you can sit back and experience a true classic.
The original Outlast was one hell of a scary game made by a small studio, which quickly rose to horror gold in the world of video games. So much so it was awarded the honour of ‘Most Likely To Make You Faint’ at E3 2013. Now, Outlast has a sequel that promises to be a lot more scarier.
Outlast II
4/5
Developer: Red Barrels Studio
Publisher: Red Barrels Studio
Price: ₹729 on PC, Steam; ₹2750 on PlayStation Store; ₹2000 on Xbox One; and ₹1999 for the console version of Outlast Trinity, which contains all Outlast games.
What’s it about?
Following the same template as the Saw series of films, Outlast II brings more of its brand of horror, with slight elements of a ‘found footage’ film. Blake and Lynn Langermann, a husband and wife investigative journalist team, set out into the Sonoran Desert, to do a story on an unusual murder of a pregnant girl. As usual, something goes wrong, leading to a crash landing, where Blake wakes up to find his wife missing. Thankfully, there’s a town nearby, except, this is a horror game, and we all know how that’s going to turn out.
Thus starts the nightmare — armed with only your camera with night vision, you go deeper and deeper into a world where religions are so twisted. Here, cultists carry out unimaginable horrors in order to manifest supernatural and demonic powers. Outlast II will stretch every last nerve of yours with horror magnified by the fact that you are unarmed and defenceless. Be prepared for a lot of gore and satanic rituals.
How does it play?
As a survival horror game, Outlast II tries to perfect the genre by bringing a sense of unapologetic realism into the mix. Blake is a slow, bumbling cameraman with glasses. It goes without saying, Outlast II is filled with jump scares, monsters, and things that do much more than just go bump in the dark. Lighting up that dark is scarier with your camera’s night vision, which paints everything a scary green. Your camera can also zoom, track surrounding sounds and lets you record snippets so you can play it back to search for clues. All of this requires batteries, needing you to conserve precious power. The scariest part, though, of Outlast II, is the inconsistency of objects that are in your path. The game lulls you into a false sense of security in the knowledge you can jump over most obstacles.
Yet in the heat of running away, you are stopped dead, literally, by a low rock you cannot seem to vault, or a lengthy crawl animation.
Should you get it?
If you like your horror relentless, then Outlast II is a fantastic step up from the original. Just make sure you keep a clean pair of pants by your side at all times.
Julian Almeida is a tech and gaming enthusiast who hopes to one day finish his science fiction novel
