Best of Melbourne: Best new games this week

GAME guru Cam Shea takes a closer look at Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, The Evil Within, Borderlines: The Pre-Sequel this week. He says Sunset Overdrive is one game you won’t want to miss.

Sunset Overdrive

GAME guru Cam Shea takes a closer look at Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, The Evil Within, Borderlines: The Pre-Sequel this week.

He says Sunset Overdrive is one game you won’t want to miss.

SUNSET OVERDRIVE[MA15+] - Top pick

(Xbox One / $89.95 / Out Friday)

Rating: 4/5

Sunset Overdrive offers an energetic open-world experience brimming with tongue-in-cheek humour. It’s set in the most colourful post-apocalyptic city ever, and players get around it with incredible agility, grinding on wires, leaping from bounce pad to bounce pad and dashing through the air. The movement mechanics flow smoothly into combat. The arsenal is playful, too: weapons like an explosive teddy bear launcher and a rapid-fire gun that fires vinyl records can all be augmented. Vibrant, endearing and offbeat.

Project Spark is a powerful tool for budding game designers.

PROJECT SPARK [PG]

(Xbox One / Free-to-play / Out now)

Rating: 3/5

A powerful toolset and platform for budding game designers, Project Spark is a compelling offering for those willing to put the time in to master its systems. It’s easy to hop in and create something, with a number of genre archetypes to choose from and user-friendly landscaping tools, but it’s very difficult to create something worthwhile, or fun. The potential is there, however, and players can get started for free.

Screen shot from The Evil Within.

THE EVIL WITHIN [R18+]

(PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One / $79.95)

Rating: 4/5

Fans of Resident Evil 4 will love director Shinji Mikami’s return to survival horror in The Evil Within. It builds on the masterful action of that game, but delivers it in a bleaker, altogether more challenging package. Lead character Sebastian lacks the ammunition, first aid and even lung capacity to turn the tables. This journey is unrelenting, its grimy environments and twisted horrors the stuff of nightmares.

It’s all guns blazing in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

BORDERLANDS: THE PRE-SEQUEL [MA15+]

(PC, PS3, Xbox 360 / $69.95-$79.95 / Out now)

Rating: 3/5

The Pre-Sequel gives Borderlands a low-gravity twist, taking its shooter gameplay to Pandora’s moon, and introducing four new playable characters. Each boasts some cool options. Wilhelm has two aerial drones, while Claptrap can be geared around randomised abilities. Uneven pacing and some archaic design hurt The Pre-Sequel, but it’s still chaotic and fun.

Originally published as Best of Melbourne: Best new games this week