Microsoft have revealed the four titles that make up this February’s Xbox Games With Gold.
Unfortunately, they’re not quite up to the standard of last month’s offerings. Sure, when you subscribe to Xbox Live Gold you’re paying for the ability to play Xbox multiplayer games online and the free “Games With Gold” games are a bonus.
Last month, after all, we got Dead Rising, Little Nightmares, Breakdown and King of Fighters XIII. The good news is they’re not awful, it’s just that the Xbox 360 games are a bit of a letdown, certainly compared to January’s Breakdown and King of Fighters XIII.
Here’s what’s on offer this month:
- Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse (Xbox One): Available February 1 to 28
- Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield (Xbox One): Available February 16 to March 15
- Hydrophobia (Xbox 360): Available February 1 to 15
- Band of Bugs (Xbox 360): Available February 16 to 28
Broken Sword 5: The Serpents Curse is well worth your time, a point-and-click adventure that’s managed to move with the times, though we’re not sure if we can put up with Nico and George’s on-off-on relationship for a sixth game. You can check out our review here.
We haven’t had our hands on 3D side-scroller Ariel_Knight’s Never Yield but the game’s reception seems to be generally positive. The same can’t be said of Band of Bugs and Hydrophobia, however. We’ve dabbled in both these titles and been unimpressed. Hydrophobia’s premise, being stuck in a in water-logged ocean vessel, is sound but the execution is pretty poor – Resident Evil Revelations is a far better boat-based outing.
On top of that, Hydrophobia was given an overhaul for its PC and PS3 release, which included adding new levels. Those new levels are absent from the Xbox version, so you’re getting the poorer cousin of the PC and PS3 iteration. If you’re a huge Poseidon Adventure fan, by all means dive in, but don’t expect too much.
Maybe next month we’ll get a more rounded line-up, but for now this isn’t Games for Gold’s best.
