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Hidden Agenda Review
Hidden Agenda Review – Spoiler Free Review
Hidden Agenda is a PS4 game which was made by Supermassive Games. It’s a story based game where you as the player will make decisions for characters in the story and it’s these decisions that will determine how the narrative plays out. Hidden Agenda as a story based game has a few different endings and outcomes depending on what decisions you make as the game progresses. You can get good endings, or bad endings depending on how you play.
When I first saw the trailer and started hearing about this game, I became quite interested in checking it out. I have always been a big fan of these branched story games and have enjoyed games in the past such as Life Is Strange, Beyond: Two Souls and Until Dawn in the past. So having a new story and a new bunch of characters to play with is always nice.
What’s different about Hidden Agenda compared to other games I’ve played before is that to play it you don’t actually use your PS4 controller. Instead you need to download the “Hidden Agenda” app from the the IOS and Android store, connect to the same WiFi as your PS4 and then control the game with your phone. The process is fairly straightforward, but it’s there as the game is meant to be a ‘party’ game. The idea I think the developers have, is that at a party, everyone has a phone, so they’ve all now got a control. The game can be played with multiple people at the same time and they can all make decisions, but for my playthrough, I played on my own.
As for the phone controls themselves, I found it to be quite fluid. I actually have a Sony phone myself (Sony Xperia XZ Premium), so maybe things are better on a Sony product than for other phones, but I didn’t run into any real problems. The Hidden Agenda campaign goes for about 2 hours and is designed to be completed in one sitting, which I did do. I did feel that my phone was quite warm towards the end and in the last decision in the game, there was a slight lag, but it might have been a one time thing, I’m not sure. But other than that, I liked the new way of doing things. Although, it would be great if I could just use my controller if I didn’t want to use my phone, it would be nice to have the option.
As for the story itself, the game has you playing as a detective by the name of Becky Marnie who is charged with the investigation of the case of a serial killer known as ‘The Trapper’. You will investigate the case with your character and make a variety of decisions on the job which will actually impact on the storyline as things go forward. In the game you will also control another character known as Felicity, who is a DA and is also investigating the case. Between the two characters, the decisions you make can actually impact on the story of the other character. In my case, I made some bad decisions by mistake and ended up with a very bad ending. So it does matter what you do.
Becky Marnie is voice by Katie Cassidy – Hidden Agenda Review
The story being about two hours long gives the feeling that you are playing through a movie. As the run time is about the same for a film as this game. I don’t really feel that there was much character development in the story, but I don’t see it as the goal of the narrative, instead it’s all mostly focused on finding out about who the killer is and using the clues you find to make decisions. The name of the game “Hidden Agenda” seems to make up much of the theme for the storyline, you’ll wonder as the story goes which of the characters you meet have a hidden agenda or not as everyone is suspicious.
The voice acting in the game is fairly good. Fans of the Arrow TV show will be pleased to know that Katie Cassidy voices Becky, which is the main character in the game. I thought that Katie was actually a fairly good voice actress and it was a pleasant surprise to hear her voice in Hidden Agenda. Christy Choi who voice Felicity also did some great work in this game.
The graphics are quite impressive. For a game that was only two hours long, I guess I don’t expect things to look this great, but they did and I have commend the people at Supermassive Games for putting in some good work in this area. Things felt real and characters like Felicity and Becky did stand out as impressive character models, with realistic features and animations.
Overall this is a decent game, with an interesting storyline which is filled with mystery. The story will keep you guessing as you uncover who the killer is and the characters of Felicity and Becky were interesting ones to get to know and investigate the case with. The phone controls are a fun new way to play the PS4, although if I’m just playing on my own, I see no reason I can’t use the regular control as well, but it’s not too bad using your phone to control your PS4 for a bit anyway, it all felt quite fluid for the most part. The graphics are superb, but the campaign is only about 2 hours long and I know it’s meant to be played through in one sitting, but it’s something to consider should you purchase the game. It’s a fun experience and is possibly a good one to play along with friends. There is some replay value if you do get the ‘bad’ ending as I did as you can go back and play it all again and fix your decisions, but apart from that it is a little short still, but still a good time.
Sea Of Solitude is a game which was developed by Jo-Mei Games and was published by Electronic Arts. It is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC via Origin. It is a single player third person adventure game. The game has the player control a character named Kay who explores an abandoned and flooded city.
This was a game which caught my eye only very recently when I first heard about its release. After watching the trailer, I thought the art style, strong colours and animations looked very interesting. Also as a person who went mad one day and subscribed to EA’s Origin Premiere late last year so that I could play some games I had missed out on over the years, I was pleased to see something new added to the store that wasn’t a typical Electronic Arts style major franchise game. Knowing I could get this one for free was enough to give it a go. But if you’re not part of that program to get it for free, I’d say that the $26.95 asking price for this digital title is certainly worth it.
The game isn’t too long, most hardened gamers will probably be able to finish this one in a single session, which I actually managed to do yesterday morning. I didn’t time myself, but I’d say to expect about 3 or so hours out of it, a bit more if you look around for collectables.
Sea Of Solitude Review
On the surface, Sea Of Solitude is about a young girl named Kay, who is searching through a city, which is for some reason flooded. You start the game all alone on a tiny boat, way out at sea on the water. You make your way to the city, where you find a monster clad in darkness is blocking your path. Through exploration and activating certain things, Kay brings light to an otherwise dark city.
Underneath the main plot though, is a game with strong messages and themes related to loneliness and relationships. Kay as a character is someone who has become lonely, isolated and quite depressed after issues with her family and her boyfriend. The game sends the player on a journey to free Kay and other characters from suffering from the effects of loneliness and related themes. What I didn’t expect this weekend, was to play a game which seemed to have the objective of tackling these mental health issues in this way and I never expected to play something this weekend from the gaming genre with such deep meaning to it.
In many ways, Sea Of Solitude reminded me of my experience with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice which was also a game that focused on mental health issues and is still a game I hold in very high regard. Both of these games were experiences that I could not put down once I started playing as I just had to find out what was going to happen with my character. Games tackling these mental health themes and the issues involved are quite rare in this medium, so when an experience like this does come along, it’s very unique and interesting. The difference between Sea Of Solitude and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is that Sea of Solitude is a little lighter in tone and not the intense gruelling experience that Senua’s was. This makes a player’s time with Sea Of Solitude one that is peaceful to experience.
Sea Of Solitude Review
The art style in Sea Of Solitude is something I enjoyed looking at. The animations are very rounded, colours stand out on the screen and the use of blacks in contrast with visibly bright blues, whites and orange was what I loved the most. The music and also the voice acting, was soft and did fit in well with the tone of the game’s themes and art style. All together, visuals and audios seemed to be just right.
The gameplay in Sea Of Solitude is something I’d say is probably a little simple. It’s essentially a platforming game where you will jump, swim, drive a boat and shoot flares onto enemies. There aren’t any button combinations to learn or any level up systems. The game is accessible to people of most ages and even to people new to gaming could easily pick this one up and get through it.
Overall coming out of playing Sea Of Solitude, I was filled with positivity and happiness. The story is quite heavy when playing through it, but very warm in the end. The art style and animations are nice to see and the sound and voice acting was just right. I do like to see that the games industry can use the medium to tackle such heavy topics and release games like this which show how well this medium can tell a story and provide its audience with something of great meaning. I’m happy to recommend Sea Of Solitude for your gaming collection.
Stuber is a film which comes directed by Michael Dowse and stars Dave Bautista, Kumail Nanjiani and Betty Gilpin. The film is an action comedy adventure about an Uber driver and a policeman who go on a wild ride together.
Going in to see Stuber I didn’t really know where to set my expectations. Knowing only that the film was a comedy, meant I went in for the lols and didn’t expect all that much from the story. But coming out of the film, I’m sorry to say, but it’s not really that great.
The film starts off okay and the opening scene features both Vic (Dave Bautista) and Sara (Karen Gillan) engaged in a dangerous shootout with some bad guys. Both are seriously injured and Vic loses his eyesight, which means he gets some urgent surgery. His eyes need time go recover, but as soon he’s able to walk he calls for an Uber and continues on with his police business, which is catching the bad guys who got away in the opening scene. This is where Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) comes in and the journey between this awkward duo begins.
I wish I could say that it was all good once the Uber ride began but it wasn’t. The film is only really mildly funny. Dave Bautista who I do really like in action films really isn’t great at comedy. Kumail Nanjiani basically was just screaming and yelling the whole time and talking about his Uber rating and reviews. I admit I did find some of the bad reviews he got from his previous customers in the film funny when they were shown, but that’s about it. Some of the jokes were also drawn out way too long. Dave Bautista’s character being blind was kind of funny in the first minute when you saw him trying to walk around without being able to see. But it’s only funny once and they did this joke over and over again almost all the way until the end!
In addition to this, for quite a bit of the film, I wondered if this was some sort of product placement or advertisement for Uber. There were so many mentions of Uber, Uber reviews and the difference between Uber products and services. What are we paying to watch here? Who cares about Uber!?
In the end I would suggest avoiding Stuber at the cinema this week and choosing literally any other film currently showing. After leaving this I instantly thought that Stuber needs to be on my list of worst movies of 2019 which I created just after seeing this and that says a lot because I was not compelled to make one after seeing X:Men Dark Phoenix.
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