Pokemon’s Detective Pikachu Returns and more top games of the week

What we thought of this week’s new game releases…

Game of the week

Title: Silent Hope
Platform: Switch
Genre: Adventure
Price: £34.99
Age rating: 12

Silent Hope is a dungeon crawler that opens up multiple playing styles and a plethora of routes for levelling up your princess, by making materials, upgrading your equipment (such as weapons and rings) and cooking food to enhance your stats. Your choice of the seven princesses (from Maid to Fighter, and Warrior to Caster) will all hinge on the challenges that lie ahead. And in true dungeon-crawler fashion, you will need to spend time with each Princess. Your goal of clearing the dungeon and escaping through the level exit sounds easy enough, but is made ever harder by confusing exit locations – and without the ability to heal (other than two potions from the start) or collect healing items. The variety in this game is what really galvanises; the characters, gameplay styles, level size, level design, enemies – and not forgetting the wonderfully subtle yet demanding soundtrack.

Skip to the end: Silent Hope is a game that causes some amazing noise in spite of its name.
Rating: 8/10
(Review by Adam West)

Other new releases

Title: Detective Pikachu Returns
Platform: Switch
Genre: Adventure
Price: £39.99
Age rating: 7

The coffee-addicted no-nonsense Detective Pikachu is back in another instalment of a classic franchise, following 2016’s 3DS game and the 2019 film starring Ryan Reynolds. This time around, the story is a sequel and detectives Tim Goodman and Pikachu are given a new mystery to solve. A precious jewel has been stolen, some Pokémon are acting weird and Tim’s dad is missing, so it’s up to you and Pikachu to save the day. The story is fun; Tim must use everything in his arsenal to solve the puzzles, drafting in a whole host of Pokémon to help him along the way. However, the dialogue is stiff, the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired and the gameplay is slow, clearly catering for a younger audience.

Skip to the end: Detective Pikachu Returns feels more like a tick-box exercise than a quest to solve a mystery.
Rating: 7/10
(Review by Elly Rewcastle)

Title: Gothic Classic
Platform: Switch
Genre: RPG
Price: £24.98
Age rating: 16

Gothic is a legendary 20-year-old PC RPG that really pushed the limits – for the time – of what an open world could do. Big upsides include NPCs with some intelligence, impressively free exploration, and a genuine sense of satisfaction as you begin to be able to survive in the world – all these things make the game worth your time. However, the port to Switch – while reasonably well managed and with a nice new UI – doesn’t add a great deal, so it’s hard to see who this is really for – unless it’s to drum up some enthusiasm for the remake.

Skip to the end: It’s a classic for a reason and a pioneer of open-world RPG, but at this price point, you may want to wait for the upcoming full remake.
Rating: 6/10
(Review by Louise Irwin)