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Reviews
Ship Graveyard Simulator 2
It’s almost a running gag that there seems to be a simulator game for nearly any task or job out there. Having played my shared of quirky simulators, Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 is certainly one of the more niche ones. And yes, 2 in the title indicates that this is a sequel, of which I had never played the first. Ever wanted to be in the scrapyard business or curious about it? Ever dreamt of dismantling massive ships and selling the scraps for cash? Look no further than Ship Graveyard Simulator 2. Taking place in some overseas waterfront area, it’s time to dust off those tools and get ready for some long hours of tedious work.While the only mode is the campaign, don’t expect any story or narrative of any kind. In fact, the game simply starts out in front of a computer and you’re off to figure out the rest yourself. No story, just simply dismantling ships one after another once you have your starter tools. As well as the base game, the Warships DLC is also included, adding three extra massive ships: Chevy, Fuso, and Wicher.
With tools in hand, you’re free to dismantle the ships however you like, chaotically by taking out support structures and letting physics do the rest, or systematically and with precision, taking out carefully planned pillars and floors to reach specific areas of the vessel. Bigger and better than the first game, this sequel makes a handful of quality of life improvements, as well as more massive ships and some new mechanics.
Having not played the first game I wasn’t sure what to expect, though you don’t need to have played the original game to enjoy this sequel. Regardless if you have a hundreds hours in the first game, or none like myself, Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 can be enjoyed by anyone and at your own pace. While you’re going to be using a variety of hand tools the majority of the time, sometimes you need something bigger, much bigger. This is where your crane will come in, able to haul out the more massive components like shipping containers, engines, massive pallets, and even sections of the ship itself.
The first ship you’ll dismantle is quite small, acting as a tutorial of sorts. As you earn more money you can purchase larger ships which will be more difficult and time consuming to break down, but will have a bigger payout since there’s more materials to harvest from these derelict ships. You’re after iron, steel, aluminum, plastic, wood, copper, gold and nearly any other material you’d expect in ship components. The first ship you’re given is only a small section of a ship, each becoming larger and larger, eventually half sections of a ship and even eventually a full sized vessel.
Using your computer at your home base is how you’ll purchase ‘new’ boats which turn out to be practically free, but you’re only able to have one active at a time, so you’re going to want to salvage everything you can before moving onto the next. Your computer will show each ship’s difficulty and list of resources available, as well as some side contracts to be filled for extra cash. This was the part I didn’t figure out until a half dozen ships completed, that the list of materials certain people are looking for, you can fulfil those for a good amount of extra cash. Cash is what you’re after, as this is how you’ll not only purchase new ships, but unlocking upgrades for your tools to make each dismantle more efficient and quicker.
There isn’t much you can do with your bare hands, so you’re going to need your tools to help you dismantle these ships. Ships are a collection of thousands of other parts, and your job is to break down the larger parts into more manageable sections, toss them into your truck to haul away to the scrapyard so you can salvage every component. When I say toss parts to your truck, I really mean it. You have the strength of Superman, as you can gather a bunch of materials into a box, then toss that box into the back of your truck. All you need a clear view of your truck and enough space and you can literally toss the box of scrap to your truck, regardless of distance. This looks comical when you’re throwing heavy boxes the length of a football field perfectly to the back of your truck, but as long as you see a green arrow when holding the button to toss your crate, it should land in your truck no problem. Thankfully you don’t need to run back to the truck each time to unload your box, and you have an unlimited amount of crates in your back pocket.
To break down all the materials you’ll use a variety of tools, each of which are meant for a specific uses. For example, your sledgehammer is used to smash rivets in the corners of walls and floors, and once all corners have been smashed, you can ‘Bonk’ the section to dislodge it and make it available to gather. Yes, you need to bonk each part to disconnect it from any connectors, but if you smash a bunch of parts that are all connected together, then bonk one, they’ll all disconnect simultaneously.
Braces indicated by black and yellow hazard stripes will need to be cut with your saw, welds melted with the blowtorch, demolition charges for heavy doors, and of course your crate to hold all these materials once freed from one another. Your hammer is going to get the most use by far given how many floors and walls there are, though it’s time consuming when each small circle rivet takes two or more smashes to complete. When you start to work on the bigger ships, you’re going to need to upgrade your tools, as having to hammer each spot multiple times will simply take too long.
Ships are quite large, and if you dismantle a staircase, there would normally be no way to get to another level. You also have a rope that you can use like a grappling hook, and while there’s a short range at first, it can be upgraded to reach further. It’s a bit finicky to work, as you need a really clear line of sight to where you want to zip to, but you’re able to zip to nearly any portion of the ship you can see and get close enough to.
Your hammer and saw will get the most use by far, though I can count the amount of times I actually used the demolition charges. You think you’d be able to set charges anywhere you want to blow open holes into walls and floors, but it’s really just meant for certain heavy doors, so I just opted to smash down walls beside them instead.
Your truck seems to have no weight limit, as it appears the back fills up, but you can keep tossing crates into it and simply sell at the end of the salvage. Bringing your truck to the salvage lot, you’re able to either manually sort all your scrap in a minigame of sorts, or have it automatically sort for you for a 10% cut. It’s well worth the small cut to save the time, as the scrap will come down a conveyor and you need to make sure the proper colored scrap goes into the corresponding buckets.
Once you sell your scrap, you can choose to sell however much you like, but you need a balance of keeping materials on hand for tool upgrades, as well as enough money to purchase ships, upgrade blueprints, and the upgrades themselves. I found the best way was to sell all of the scrap for one ship’s deconstruction, then use the next for upgrades. It will take a hefty amount of money to get all the blueprints, but it’s well worth the investment as it will save you a huge amount of time in the long run.
A few ships in, I realized that there’s almost a puzzle-like element to each, as getting out the high value components with the crane requires a bit of planning and strategic thinking. The larger the ship the more complex it can be to extract these massive parts with the crane, as there is usually multiple floors that would need to be cleared to open up a skyline for the crane to come and haul them out. Navigating these hazards will also take some planning, as you’ll become injured if you’re not safe.
There are dangers though, even on these decommissioned ships. Somehow there’s still electricity flowing, gas lines, and even radioactive materials. When you see electrified rivets, you know that you’re going to take damage if you hammer those before finding the source of the electricity and shutting it off. Find the power switch and you can disconnect it, then dismantle the box and cables for more scrap. There are also gas pipes where you’ll need to find the valve to switch off before sawing into them, as you don’t want an explosion.
Like nearly every other UltimateGames title, it’s clear that Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 was quickly ported from its PC origin to console. The menus are clunky to navigate, it’s hard to see which option you’re actually choosing, and even choosing the correct tool in the radial menu sometimes takes a few tries. Movement is also clunky at best, though you get used to it and learn to jump over and on top of objects and walls.
Visually, the ships look quite decent, but there’s not much else to really look at other than a bunch of walls and floors on the vessels. There’s a day and night cycle, I assume to make use of the flashlight that you can toggle, but I never ended up using it and there seemed no reason to. The physics can be amusing to see a floor or two collapse all at once, but it’s quite jarring when you see dozens of scrap pieces clipping through one another and glitching visually. Tools sound realistic, especially the hammer and saw, though after a dozen hours you’re going to want to put your own music on to get the piercing sounds out of your head.
I have to be honest, I was quite skeptical at first and assumed that this would be an awkward and such a niche title that I wouldn’t enjoy all that much, then I realized hours have passed my first time playing. Those that obsess over cleaning will appreciate the methodical way to dismantle such a big craft, as I looked at it quite strategically, rather than randomly smashing down walls and floors.
Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 is oddly addictive and satisfying, even for how specific and niche the setting is. While there’s no narrative at all, there’s something quite relaxing by causing destruction to these vessels. Many will see Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 as tedious and repetitious, but I kept telling myself “just one more ship”.
**Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
It’s that time of year, where the leaves start to fall, kid’s get bags of candy trick or treating, holiday decorations start to go up, and the yearly Call of Duty iteration releases for gamers to delve into for countless hours. With a Call of Duty releasing every year since its inception, 2024 is no different, and fans are greeted with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, bringing some new ideas, classic modes and more. Fans will no doubt know what to expect, but there’s plenty to delve into depending on if you prefer Campaign, Zombies, or the ever-popular Multiplayer.Duty Calls
I’m not sure what it’s actually labelled as, but you’ll still be launching Black Ops 6 from the Call of Duty launcher/hub app. It’s still as terrible as previously was where you’ll open the app, prompting for a restart, choose your game/mode, require another update and restart, then hope that you don’t get another update and restart before changing modes. Terrible launcher aside, Black Ops 6 does have some new and refreshing ideas. There seems to be many more choices and options in the settings, from audio, graphics, controls, and more. I actually spent a good amount of time catering each of the settings to my liking. If there’s two major changes to this year’s Call of Duty though, I’d have to narrow it down to the new Omnimovement system, and the triumphant return of round based Zombies.
Omnimovement now lets you slide, dive and sprint in any direction, even backwards and sideways. I thought this would result in many more ‘dolphin divers’ than previously, but it hasn’t been any more noticeable than what I’m used to. It does feel great to dive sideways from a corner and land that headshot though, as does diving backwards to tossing a grenade into a pack of enemies. Sprinting backwards feels so natural now, so I’m hoping it’s a mechanic that stays in follow-up sequels.
Maybe it’s just the placebo effect, but guns feel much more satisfying this year. Regardless of which I’m using, they felt distinct from one another and sounded great. While I’m primarily a LMG user, the overall weaponry just feels more solid and polished, and in campaign you have a weapon wheel to choose all your equipment and gadgets easily, pausing time to do so.
Action Packed Narrative
While it’s not mandatory to have played the previous Black Ops campaigns to enjoy the story, you’re certainly going to be lost without any previous knowledge of who’s who and what’s happened to this point. There’s no recap of sorts to catch new players up to speed of returning characters either, so you won't have any context to why some people are incredibly important or what they've done previously.
A Call of Duty campaign wouldn’t be the same without memorable setpieces, exciting combat and an interesting narrative, all of which Black Ops 6 checks the required boxes. Set in the early 90’s, Black Ops 6 has a story that will have you globetrotting around the world from Iraq to within the United States after being forced to go rogue and being hunted from within. Some popular characters make a return, like Woods and Adler, and there’s quite a bit of variety in the missions, from motorcycle chases, open world, supernatural elements, and plenty of stealth given this is a spy action thriller.
Missions tend to vary quite drastically. Most have a stealth element to them where it’s certainly an option if you’re careful, though I opted to go loud once I got caught. There’s a few sections where stealth is mandatory, meaning basically an instant fail if you’re caught, and these were the weakest and most frustrating parts of the campaign, even if only a few.
These aside, there were quite a few really exciting missions, namely the open world mission where you have to take out a number of targets in any order you wan as well as being able to complete optional side objectives. This mission specifically you’re given a vehicle to drive from spot to spot if you wish, or can try and infiltrate with stealth and snipe every guard from afar. You’re able to even fast travel back to the base in the middle of the map if needed. There's another open world mission where you need to sabotage a base undercover, allowing you to do some a variety of different ways.
Two others really stood out for me, one that had a supernatural element to it about halfway through. I don’t want to spoil exactly what, but it certainly took me by surprise and was a challenge. My favorite though was the Casino mission, where you play sections of the mission from everyone on the team, each very unique from one another given who they’re undercover as. The final mission should get praise as well, as it may have been the most exciting part.
Your hidden HQ, The Rook, is where you’ll be able to have chats with the team and plan your next move between missions. Here you’re also able to spend any money you find in each mission on a range of upgrades. You’re able to improve your weaponry, gear, abilities, and perks for a cost, though finding enough money for all of them will take some time searching each level.
The blockbuster action looks great, the varied environments have a massive amount of detail (especially the Casino level), as does the main cast of characters. Faces look quite realistic and very detailed, especially on closeups. Woods and Adler have never looked so good. Nameless NPC’s don’t have nearly the polish, but you’re generally sneaking around or shooting anyone you see to notice. It was a great campaign throughout until the credits rolled and worth the playthrough.
Braaaaiiiinsssss...
Fan favorite Zombies mode is a staple of the yearly Call of Duty entries, though the mode changed recently with the addition of Warzone. Fans can rejoice, as classic round-based zombies makes a return on two new maps; Liberty Falls and Terminus. Also returning are Gobblegums, a usable consumable item that gives you temporary effects, buffs, or abilities. These single use items can make a huge difference in a run and some are quite unique and vary in rarity.
I’ll admit, I’ve never really been a Zombies fan. To new players, the mode does a terrible job at teaching you what you’re supposed to do, what machines do what, nor teach any basic strategies. Newcomers to the mode are going to feel quite overwhelmed, which is why I’ve never really got into it that deeply. Thankfully this time around I played alongside some friends that are longtime Zombies fans, so I learned from them what I needed to know to really understand the mode better.
The two Zombies maps are drastically different from one another and designed quite well. Liberty Falls is a small town where there’s a number of buildings and rooftops to explore, as well as a bowling alley and a church that places you in some other dimension. Terminus appears to be some kind of prison or secret HQ, as there’s underground tunnels and something deep within. Grab a boat and even explore small islands, but watch out for what lurks in the water.
The first few waves start out easy enough, but you’re going to need to collect as much cash and scrap as you can so you’re able to upgrade your weapons. Pack-a-Punch returns, upgrading your weapon efficiency. You’re able to upgrade your weapon three times, each increasing its power, ammo capacity and even giving special effects, denoted by the special animated camouflage skin color. Collected salvage can be spent at an Arsenal Machine to upgrade the rarity of your weapons, greatly increasing its damage. You can also spend salvage on adding elemental bonuses to your gun as well if you have spare.
Augments is a new way you can customize your Zombies loadouts, adding a number of perks once unlocked. As you play Zombie matches you’ll earn XP towards the Augment you’ve chosen. You’ll research more perks as you progress, eventually able to choose one major and one minor augment for each. These can vary greatly depending on your choices from field upgrades and ammo mods. This too isn’t explained very well, but once you know what you want to work towards, simply load it into your build and start earning XP in matches.
A few rounds in and zombies you were taking out with a good headshot or two will suddenly start to take a lot more firepower to kill. Then the elite zombies start the spawn. These mini-bosses are massive bullet sponges and can easily take you out quickly if you’re not careful. They aren’t too terrible when there’s only one or two, but a few dozen rounds in and you’re going to have more than you can handle, which is incredibly difficult. Worse yet, if you die in a round you’ll get revived if your team completes said round, but you lose all your upgraded weapons and you’re virtually useless with a basic gun on respawn.
On-Brand Multiplayer Returns
I’d guess that a vast majority of Call of Duty players generally gravitate towards the multiplayer portion and rarely deviate from there aside from some Zombies matches with friends. If you’ve played Call of Duty multiplayer before, you’ll know what to expect: shooting other players online endlessly, grinding away for weapon skins and Prestige ranks. I’ve actually really been enjoying Black Ops 6’s multiplayer more than I expected, not just because of how natural Omnimovement feels, but the weaponry and TTK (Time-To-Kill) feels just right.
That doesn’t mean Black Ops 6 doesn’t have any flaws though. 16 new maps were available at launch (17 if you include the 2024 version of Nuketown a week after), as well as all of the modes you’d expect, including Hardcore. I found the maps to be quite varied, though the majority of them are quite small save for a few. I of course have a few favorites; Babylon, a train yard with 3 major lanes and plenty of hiding spots. Scud, a map with a number of different lanes and a downed radar dish that many players tend to congregate to. Skyline is another of my favorites from the beta, taking place in and outside a massive penthouse on a cliffside, and Red Card, taking place in a stadium and one of the larger and long range maps. The same goes the opposite too, as there’s a couple I absolutely despise and would rather quit than play on them, namely Lowtown being the worst of the bunch for my playstyle.
The maps have variety to them visually, all with their own quirks and popular lanes, but the classic problem of spawn killing is still present and not fixed. Nor is getting rid of cheaters on PC, so expect some dying as you spawn and other shenanigans, especially due to crossplay with PC and console. Having launched on GamePass as well, there’s a massive amount of people to play with and against. With plenty of weapon attachments and skins to unlock, as well as a number of Prestige ranks, you can stay playing the multiplayer portion of Black Ops 6 for quite some time.
Visually, Black Ops 6 is what you come to expect from a AAA Call of Duty title. The setpieces are grandiose and large in scale, campaign looks absolutely fantastic, and Multiplayer/Zombies never suffered from any slowdown on an Xbox Series X. The soundtrack to the campaign hits a different level when actual music comes into play and you’re holding off oncoming waves of enemies, and the amazing performances from the main cast is practically flawless.
Some may grow tired of the year Call of Duty entries, and I’ll admit, they’re usually hit-or-miss for myself as well, but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all Black Ops 6 has to offer. Campaign is one of the best in years, Zombies being round based is the correct move, and multiplayer feels solid overall.
Campaign: 9.5
Zombies: 8.5
Multiplayer: 9
**Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
New World: Aeternum
A Relaunch Worth Retelling:Released in late 2021 for PC, New World had a lot of excitement behind its launch. Like most online games though, it had quite a rough launch, and while it’s been vastly improved over the years and even had an expansion since, the time has come for console players to get in on the online action. Branded as a relaunch of sorts, New World: Aeternum includes the base game, Rise of the Angry Earth expansion, and all the updates and improvements to this point (for console players. PC owners don't automatically get granted the Expansion). The most exciting though is that it’s finally coming to console (including cross-play between all platforms), and having played the Open Beta and now the full release, I’ve been unable to put it down since there’s always progress to be made.
New World: Aeternum places you in a massive world with near endless things to do, able to play your way and focus on what you want. You could do quests, leveling up your character and getting new gear, or maybe you want to take a break and simply gather for materials and craft for a while, all while solo or with others. If PvP is your thing there’s plenty to partake in, or if you want to delve into dungeons and raids with friends, that’s an option too. Given than MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) are constantly being updated, fixed, and changed, this review is based on the game at the time of writing, approximately two weeks after Aeternum's official launch. Also, we were given access to a temporary max level/geared character to try out all aspects of Aeternum, which really helped me understand the complexity of higher tier crafting and endgame.
Overwhelming Amount of Quests:
New World: Aeternum begins with you on a ship, partaking in the new brief tutorial that shows you the basics of combat. The ship is destined for a ‘New World’, told to be full of fortunes, treasures and power. There’s a massive shipwreck and you find yourself washed up on the shores of Aeternum, a massive island that’s full of lush settings and wild animals, but also something that has seemed to corrupt many that were here before. You also start to hear a voice, as if someone is guiding you towards something. It’s an interesting story enough to keep my interest, even if I would get endlessly sidetracked with many other activities. The main story does get interesting later on, though I found it hard to follow at times simply due to doing dozens of hours of other things in between.
The Main Story Quest (MSQ) is most likely what you’ll spend the good chunk of your first dozen or hours doing, that is, if you don’t get sidetracked with harvesting, crafting or fishing. This quest line takes you through level appropriate areas, becoming more challenging the closer you get to max level. When you’re wanting a break from the MSQ, there’s plenty of optional sidequests and other things to do along the way on your journey across the island. Some are fun lighthearted quests, where others are a bit more involved. There’s faction quests which will need to be done if you want to purchase specific items, so there’s no shortage of questing to do across the island as you level up. It can almost be overwhelming in the beginning with a map full of icons and numerous quests in all directions, so learn to filter what you don't need on the map. The leveling process is actually surprisingly quick, so getting to max level won’t be too difficult, but that’s only a different starting point really.
Built for Console:
When PC games get ported to consoles, there needs to be a conscious effort to make it work well on a controller. It’s much more than simply remapping keys to buttons, as it needs to flow and feel like it was made for a controller, not hamstrung down, as this makes for a poor console experience. A few console MMO’s have done this right, namely Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and Neverwinter. It’s clear that a conscious effort went into making New World: Aeternum feel natural with a controller, as there’s a number of options available such as Aim Assist, Smart Cast, Target Locking, and more.
I will say, luckily having a Razer Turret that I previously reviewed, I finally had a reason to dust it off and use it once again. The Razer Turret is a keyboard and mouse combo designed to work specifically for Xbox. It has a heavy base and an included pull-out mouse pad, so even though I’m sitting on my couch playing Aeternum, swapping to keyboard and mouse with the Razer Turret was simple enough. You don’t need this product specifically, and while I used controller the vast majority of the time playing, having a keyboard for typing and using the Marketplace and chatting to others was infinitely more user friendly. No needing to remap or swap controls, I could instantly grab the controller or move to the keyboard and mouse if I wanted on the fly. If you’re going to be putting hundreds of hours into Aeternum, it’s a worthwhile investment to at least grab a keyboard for your Xbox for these reasons. If that's not an option, you can easily pins areas with different icons to get your point across to others if needed if you're not wanting to use the software keyboard.
New to Aeternum:
Maybe you’re a long time PC player of New World, simply curious what new has been added for the Aeternum launch. While there’s been plenty of improvements, changes, and additions over the years since its tumultuous launch, the Aeternum relaunch also has a plethora of improvements and additions as well. One of the most notable is probably the new large scale PvP zone, The Cursed Mists. Here you’re tasked with gathering cursed doubloons and resources, but will you be able to escape with your loot before being attacked or betrayed? The two other main additions I’m quite looking forward to is a 10-Player Raid, The Hive of the Gorgons, which will have your raid completing puzzles and epic boss battles. There’s also end-game solo trial challenges, perfect when you’re not in the mood to do some grouping.
Those are just some of the highlighted additions with Aeternum, but there’s still plenty more, not all of which include: New Artifacts, Gear Score increased to 725, upleveled gear and rewards, cinematic storytelling, swimming, cross-platform play, a whole new starting experience, fresh start worlds, combat improvements, Seasonal Events and more. And yes, there’s finally mounts, so you won’t have to run everywhere any longer.
Archetypes – Simply A Starting Point:
So you’re ready to now make your character and begin your adventure on the isle of Aeternum. The first choice you’ll need to make is which Archetype to begin with. These aren’t really classes, as it doesn’t lock you permanently into one playstyle, as your abilities are governed by which weapons you’re currently using. Archetypes are simply a starting point, giving you two separate weapons and some bonuses to begin with. If you get to a point where you don’t like the weapons and abilities said archetype gave, you can swap to new weapons and play as that style instead.
While you can freely use any two weapons, there are combinations that work best together due to the attribute points and how they give bonuses to stats. Once chosen, you begin in a new tutorial and the story starts to unfold. With not having actual classes, you can easily change to different weapons and loadouts if needed, say to queue for an Expedition as a Healer or Tank instead of a DPS, providing you have the gear of course. I opted to main a healer for PVE purposes and have been loving it every step of the journey so far.
Soldier (Defense/Offense): A fighter by trade, balancing defense and offense with heavy armor and shield, sword and hatchet.
Destroyer (Offense/Defense): A mighty slayer, brutally executing foes with massive great axe and war hammer.
Ranger (Offense): A keen-eyed hunter, scout, and pathfinder, proficient with bow and spear.
Musketeer (Offense): A nimble explorer and adventurer, skilled with rifle and rapier alike.
Occultist (Offense): A practitioner of primal elemental arts, commanding the forces of frost and flame.
Mystic (Healing/Offense): A scholar-warrior who seeks to master the forces of life and death.
Swordbearer (Offense/Tank): A gutsy, heavily-armed berserker, wielding a colossal greatsword and broad-bored blunderbuss.
Ever Important Attribute Points:
Every time you level up, you’re given attribute points you can place into your Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Focus, or Constitution. In general, each attribute will improve a certain aspect and archetype, and there are milestones for each stat where you’ll get specific bonuses if you have enough points into it. In general, Strength will improve melee Archetypes, Dexterity for ranged, Intelligence for magic, Focus for healing, and Constitution for additional health. As a healer main, I was placing the majority of my attribute points into Focus, as it improves my healing greatly. You’re able to respec, so again, you’re not locked in and can’t make any critical mistakes if you decide to change up your weaponry.
Weapons for All Types:
Speaking of weapons, each Archetype will begin you with two that generally go well together, able to swap on the fly by simply pressing ‘Y’. Each weapon has two skill trees, so there’s plenty of mix and matching skills for your preferred playstyle. Most weapons usually have two or three skills in each tree, along with a bunch of bonuses or ways to alter the abilities. Where the strategy comes in is that you can only have three skills loaded on your hotbar for each weapon type, so it’s a matter of trying them all out and finding what works best for you and the situation. Again, you can respec when needed, so try them all out and see what works for you.
The more you use weapons the more they will earn XP and level up. This earns you Weapon Mastery points, which is how you unlock new abilities and bonuses in the two skill trees. Do you decide to fill out one of the trees completely, or mix and match between the two? There’s no right or wrong. Weapons max out at level 20, so you won’t be able to fill both sides of the skill trees, so it’s a matter of finding out what abilities you like and how it’ll match your playstyle and needs.
Gear Up:
Gear you wear will also play a factor in how much defense and mobility your character has. Heavy plate armor will give you plenty of defense, whereas light armor gives my healer more elemental defenses and mobility. High end gear will also start to come with bonuses, ranging from attack and defensive perks, or even a bonus that will help your gathering speed. This too allows for unique builds and what works best for you. Quests give a healthy amount of upgrades as you progress, and it’s always exciting to get new loot that’s a big improvement. You’ll get plenty of upgrades as you quest along the journey to level 65, eventually so much that you’ll be salvaging plenty or equipping them to your other saved Gear Sets, allowing you to swap weapons and armor on the fly.
Three Factions – Different but the Same:
Reach a certain level and you’ll be able to take on a line of quests to join one of the three main Factions. Joining a faction will allow you to take on Faction missions, earning special tokens which can then be used to purchase special gear and crafting items. You can change your faction after a certain amount of time, so you’re not permanently stuck if you want to swap. There’s no wrong choice, as they are all essentially the same, more just choosing a ‘team’ when to comes to the larger scale PvP. The three Factions are as follows:
The Marauders: A ruthless military force bent on establishing a free nation where anyone with the strength to do so can prosper and profit.
The Syndicate: A secretive organization of boundless guile and intellect in search of forbidden knowledge to usher in a new age of enlightenment.
The Covenant: A fanatical order that has charged itself with cleansing the land of heretics and defilers so that its true holy nature can flourish and justice can be restored. This was the faction I joined, so it’s clearly the superior one.
Dynamic Combat:
Every weapon has a light and heavy attack, executed with a Right Trigger press or hold. You can block with Left Trigger and Dodge with ‘B’. The three abilities from your skill trees you put points into are mapped to your Bumpers, so it all flows well and makes sense on a controller. Combat is simple at first, making sure you dodge or block enemy attacks, but once you start getting into the late game, bosses will be quite a challenge, as you need to make contact with your attacks. Easy for ranged classes that can lock on, but a little more challenging for melee archetypes. I much prefer the ranged combat, especially with my Life Staff, as I can stay at a distance, lock onto an enemy and cast away. You also don’t need to worry about ammunition if you’re using the musket for example, and aiming at specific parts of an enemy can also give bonuses, such as headshots for example. Combat is quite enjoyable, and once you have the abilities you prefer, it becomes even better once you figure out the best rotations for your skills and how both weapons can complement each other.
Everyone Can Make Everything:
Trade Skills and Crafting can be very hit or miss in MMO’s. In some games it’s a very arduous activity to delve into, or quite expensive. Trade Skills is quite encouraged in Aeternum and I’d highly suggest doing it even during your leveling progress. There are eighteen trade skills, from harvesting rocks, lumber and bushes, to cooking, smithing, armoring, alchemy, engineering and more.
Gathering materials is quite simple, as all you need is the right tool equipped (axe for chopping trees, pickaxe for mining, sickle for harvesting bushes, skinning knife to harvest pelts and meat from kills, and a fishing pole for some relaxing fishing). You’ll get the tools to craft within the first moments of playing once you land on the island, so make use of them and harvest as much as you can. Some great gear can be crafted, so it’s not just meant for a small population of the players. I personally quite enjoyed just gathering materials or fishing for a few hours for a change of pace, as you still earn XP for doing so. There are multiple tiers of gathering nodes, so make sure to keep them leveled up, as you’ll want to collect them when you get to higher tier zones while questing.
Mount Up:
You’ll eventually be able to undertake a quest to unlock a mount. These are important as the isle is vast, and mounting up will have you run from place to place much quicker. Just like using weapons to level them up, you’ll also need to ride your mount and even participate in races to increase your riding skill, thus making you even faster and unlocking other bonuses. These races are fun distractions when you want to do something different for a while. You’ll really appreciate the mount once you’ve ran everywhere for the first two dozen levels or so. There are a number of teleport stones all over the island, but this takes a special Azoth currency, and you're going to want to run many places for your gathering along teh way.
Home Sweet Home:
When you reach a certain level and also have a high enough standing in the territory you want to live, you’ll be able to purchase a house. These homes can be set as your recall point, serve as extra much needed storage, and you can even decorate them with trophies that will give buffs. These aren’t free though, and you’ll need to pay an upkeep, like rent, so make sure you’re saving that hard earn gold. It’s an investment, but the benefits far outweigh the costs, plus, who doesn’t want somewhere to put your feet up and relax after several Expedition runs?
Buy Low, Sell High:
Called an Auction House in other games, the Marketplace is where you’ll buy and sell all your goods and items to other players if you don’t salvage the items. Almost like a stock market, you can set your buy and sell order prices, having items be deposited to your storage automatically once filled. There’s a small fee for setting these buy and sell orders, but if you’re watching the market, you can easily make some easy coin if you know what to look for. Learn what people desperately need and you can make quite a killing, or even sell stacks of low tier gathering materials to those that don’t want to waste the time to gather it all themselves.
Plenty to Do:
When you reach certain levels, you’ll be able to do a lot more other than simply leveling, crafting, and harvesting. There’s actually a healthy amount of different modes you can queue for depending on your preference. There’s lots of options for dungeon runs (Expeditions), PvP small and large scale, Raids, Trials and more.
Expeditions are your typical dungeons runs that you can queue for. These are made up of five players, generally having you fighting through a linear zone, clearing trash, mini-bosses, and a main boss before you’re given your just rewards. Aeternum has a dozen Expeditions at launch, so there will be plenty of dungeon delving to partake in to get that sweet loot. You’re also able to challenge yourself at harder versions (Mutated Expeditions) for even better rewards once max level and have a higher gear score. Some dungeons even have puzzle-like elements to it, though fully expect higher level characters to rush through it your first few times if not playing alongside friends and guildmates.
Raids are a ten-player version with more notorious bosses and even better loot. Then there’s also a variety of different Trials you can challenge yourself in. Season Trials places 6-20 max level players together for instanced boss battles, with new challenges refreshing each Season. Take on a colossal sandworm in an Elite Trial for 12-20 players, or if you want to play alone, Solo Trials are available when you just want to play by yourself.
For those that enjoy PvP, there are plenty of activities for you to fill your time with as well. You’re never forced to PvP, but this earns you PvP based rewards when you reach certain milestones. 3v3 Arenas, Influence Races where you battle against enemy factions, massive 100-player War mode where you can take control of territories, and Outpost Rush places teams of 20 players fighting for control of fortifications and resources that also combines PvE elements as well. A new addition is the Lawless Zone, an open world PvPvE area where it’s everyone for themselves as you try to escape with Cursed Doubloons and Resources which can be exchanged for other rewards if successful.
Season Pass:
Every few months will introduce a new Season Pass, with Aeternum launching with a brand-new Season (6) of course. These Seasons have a Free and a Premium 100 tier reward track, so you’re never forced to purchase the Pass, but doing so will earn you a whole extra set of (better) rewards on top of the free ones for completing challenges. You need to be level 25 before it even is available to unlock the tab in the menus, which I like, as it gets you to play the game for a good amount before deciding if you’re going to want to spend some extra money on it and what it all does.
Open Your Wallet?:
Generally, there’s almost always a cash shop in MMO’s nowadays, New World: Aeternum is no different. Where issues lie is what they offer. Having plenty of cosmetics and some shortcut consumables like XP pots and such are no big deal, but if there’s Pay-to-Win elements where you can purchase gold or top gear, that’s where it can be a slippery slope. Aeternum certainly offers a variety of items such as armor and weapon cosmetics, Transmog tokens, Gear Slots, Mounts and more. I never felt as though I was falling behind not spending any cash, though I did opt for a currency bundle and the Season Pass as I’ve thoroughly been enjoying my time on the island.
Impressive Looking and Sounding:
Playing on an Xbox Series X, I’m quite impressed with how well Aeternum performs. I’ve not ran into any performance issues aside from the odd glitch here and there and haven't had a single crash. The island is impressive, as each area is almost like its own biome. Dense forests with near endless trees to chop down, desert areas with lots of stone to mine, beaches, poison swamps and more. The areas vary quite drastically and make each leveling portion feel different. There’s some amazing scenery to be had if you find the right vistas, some of which I needed to take a handful of screenshots. For how good the environment, mounts, unique weapons and armor looks, the NPC character models themselves aren’t nearly as impressive, which gets showcased every quest when you’re going through the dialogue. Enemies vary area to area, but plenty get reused obviously, so expect to fight many of the same infected, ghosts, wolves, soldiers, etc.
Audio actually really impressed me early on. The voice acting across the board is quite decent, but the weapon and gathering sounds are what really made me take notice. Weapons feel like they have impact when you hit an enemy, even with my charged up shot from my Life Staff. Chopping a tree and hearing it crash to the ground sounds great, as does the ‘ting’ of your pickaxe smashing against some boulders. I could even tell when others were around me gathering from the sounds and a tree falling in the distance. The most impressive though was the soundtrack during some of the Expeditions, as it really felt like an epic soundtrack as we were making progress in the dungeon.
My Time in Aeternum So Far:
You could play New World: Aeternum fully solo and enjoy yourself the whole time, though it’s nice going to towns and seeing plenty of other players. Of course, if you want to start getting the best gear and see everything it has to offer, you’ll need to play alongside, or against, other players. MMORPG’s are quite a hefty time investment, and Aeternum is no different. But if you’re enjoying yourself, making your characters stronger, grinding away for a piece of gear, or spending hours fishing like myself, then it’s doing what it’s meant to do well. This was apparent quite early on, as I was having fun regardless if I was questing, exploring new areas, running Expeditions, harvesting, or simply fishing for a change of pace.
I’ve actually been enjoying Aeternum more when I was casually playing instead of rushing to get max level and grinding endgame. I’ve not done everything Aeternum has to offer yet, but with access to a temporary max character with raid gear and plenty of crafting materials, it really helped me understand the latter portions where endgame begins once you’re level 65. I know I’ll be grinding eventually to get the best Artifact gear, altering how you can play your character greatly. In the meantime though, I’ve spent well over a dozen hours simply just gathering, fishing and enjoying the scenery as I reach a new area. It’s easy to hyper focus on leveling to endgame or sticking to PvP, but I’ve been dabbling in all Aeternum has to offer at my own pace and really enjoying every minute of it. Once I convinced a few friends to pick up the game and join my server, it got even better as we did Expeditions together or took a break and fished alongside one another in some random lake.
There’s always something to do and work on, and while some elements could have used a bit more explaining and be a little more console friendly, overall it’s port to console was done impressively well. Of course, I ‘cheated’ a bit with having my Razer Turret to make typing quicker, but it wasn’t a requirement, as the default controls worked just fine and intuitively with a controller in hand. I'm going to be adventuring on Aeternum for quite some time at my own pace, and won't be surprised when I reach a few hundred hours of playtime. Console players may have had to wait a few years, but Amazon Games has clearly put in a hefty amount of effort to do it right, but better late than never.
** New World: Aeternum was provided by the publisher, as well as a max level/geared temporary character, and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Aaero2
Musical and rhythm based games are one of my favorite genres, and sadly there really hasn’t been many in the last few years save for a few. Naturally, I was excited to check out Aaero2 due to my love of rhythm games even though I had never played the original back in 2017 (Our reviewer quite enjoyed it though). While there’s some elements of Rock Band and Guitar Hero due to its musical nature, I found it to actually be more akin to the iconic Rez from the Dreamcast and PS2 era.While it may be a sequel not many expected, developers Mad Fellows took all the feedback, good and bad, to heart from the first title and addressed every single piece of feedback that they were able to, within reason of course. This meant Aaero2 was to be “built from the ground up”, and it seems those improvements have indeed made their way into this sequel.
Two difficulties are options from the beginning, ChillOut and Normal, whereas you’ll need to play through Normal to earn enough stars to unlock Advanced and Master difficulties. ChillOut mode is if you simply want to play and experience the music without having to worry about scores or dying, as all the songs are unlocked right away in this mode since there’s no progression. Normal is where you’ll want to start, as that’s how you’ll start to earn a score to place on the leaderboards as well as earn XP for progression and achievements.
The biggest addition to this sequel is the inclusion of two player multiplayer. Even more surprising, it’s not just local multiplayer either, as you can jump online for the included co-op and PVP modes as well. Normally smaller games like these would only have couch co-op, so the online inclusion was quite a shock. That said, every single time I’ve played I looked for a match online, only to have it not find any matches, so don’t expect many, if any, playing online if that’s what you’re looking forward to unfortunately.
The premise of Aaero2 is simple enough; navigate your ship through a handful of unique worlds, surviving by staying along the musical path and defeating any enemies in your way. If you’ve played the first Aaero, it’s virtually identical, though slightly improved in a few areas. Survive long to the end and be accurate as possible and you’ll earn a stars and score, hopefully high enough to impress on the leaderboards.
With three different bosses, I was expecting each handful of levels to be set in the same biome, but this wasn’t the case at all. Each of the 18 songs has its own unique backdrop and stage that you fly though (on rails). You’ll traverse tundra, volcanoes, forests, caves, underwater and more. The bosses are just as unique, though I do wish there was more than three to battle against. 18 songs might not seem like much, but there’s different difficulties and leaderboards to climb the ranks of.
Completing songs earns you XP which goes towards unlocking bonuses for your profile like icons, banners, borders, etc, as well as artwork. There’s a handful of daily and weekly challenges to complete which earn massive XP increases, so they are worth working towards if you want to collect all of the unlocks for your profile. Your overall performance of each song also will get you up to five stars, and reaching certain songs later on will require a set amount of stars, so you’re going to need at least three or four stars on most songs to unlock them all. If you want to unlock the higher difficulties, you’re going to need even more stars, which is a given since it’s a harder mode.
There’s essentially two halves to Aaero2’s gameplay: The music portion and the combat half. Starting with the music part, your ship traverses through a stage on rails, but you’re able to move within a large circular radius with the Left Stick. When there’s music, you’ll see lines called ribbons, that can be straight or curved. Think of these like the singing portions of Rock Band or SingStar, but appear as if they’re floating in the 3D world as you fly through.
Your aim is to maneuver your ship directly on these ribbons for the most points. These ribbons will match the song beat and lyrics, so it really feels like you’re ‘playing’ the song when you’re doing it correctly, moving along the edges of the circle. The difficulty of being accurate with the ribbons really depends on the song, as a faster paced EDM song plays different from a Rock song with more vocals. The easier difficulties have a little more ‘magnetism’ that helps your ship stay on the ribbons, but fail being accurate and you’ll lose your combo and probably earn less stars as a result.
There’s some clever melding with the worlds in some stages, like the ribbon guiding you around an obstacle that will kill you if you fly into it as you pass by. The highlight of Aaero2 is absolutely these musical sections where you’re so focused on lining up with the ribbon and hearing the foot tapping soundtrack from Monstercat. Each song really suits the stage background as you fly through it, and while some songs are better than others, objectively, there wasn’t a single track I disliked.
The second portion of Aaero2’s gameplay is the combat. This is where it plays somewhat like Rez, moving your aiming reticule with the Right Stick, trying to lock onto enemies and then releasing missiles to the beat. As you hold Right Trigger for missiles, your goal is to try and release them correctly with the beat. There’s a small bar that will show the proper beat timing, but if you’re tapping your foot along to the music you should be able to get it roughly close. You can also use your Left Trigger to shoot your Machine Gun, which is weaker overall and can overheat, but you don’t have to worry about any timing.
Enemies fight back though, so you’re going to need to watch for the projectiles coming towards you as well. You only have a few lives, so you can’t afford to die and lose your multiplier if you’re aiming for those coveted stars at the end of each song. Bosses will have weak glowing spots that makes it obvious where you’re meant to lock onto, but the tricky part is releasing at the ‘right’ time to the beat.
Combat portions on their own aren’t terribly difficult, but where it starts to become overwhelming is where you’re having to do both the musical ribbons and combat at the same time. This means watching with one eye and moving your ship along the ribbon with one stick, and aiming and avoiding projectiles with the other, while also trying to keep a beat. This was the most frustrating portions for me, as it can become chaotic real quickly and you’ll be focused on enemies only to realize you’ve missed the last few seconds of the music ribbon. While the combat has been improved from the previous game, it was the portion I disliked the most when combined with the music portions.
While the varied environments and stylized visuals are appealing, the real star is the soundtrack of course. A licensed soundtrack from Monstercat, there’s a decent variety of genres, though I found the EDM tracks the most exciting to play and tap my foot along to. While I’m not familiar with most of the artists, there wasn’t any songs I hated, so that’s a plus when it comes to a small tracklist. If you want to simply experience the musical portion and not worry about failing, that’s what the ChillOut mode is for, but it’s clear there’s a very high bar for being skill based if you want to be successful with all the star earning and unlocks. It’s a shame I couldn’t find a single player online to test the multiplayer out with, but the fact that it’s included is commendable from such a small team, showing their commitment to the community.
18 songs may not be a large tracklist, but the numerous difficulties and leaderboards encourage multiple playthroughs and trying to beat your previous scores. It’s going to take some serious practice to meld the musical and combat portions of gameplay together without having to think about it too hard, but once it does, it feels quite good to ride those ribbons while taking out some baddies with a barrage of missiles.
**Aaero2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Plucky Squire, The
I remember when I first saw the announcement trailer for The Plucky Squire back in 2022 and instantly put it on my wishlist. I started following its development closely, as it looked absolutely adorable with its hand drawn style. Developed by All Possible Futures and published by Devolver Digital, The Plucky Squire follows the tale of Jot alongside his friends, who not only happen to be hand drawn characters in a children’s novel, but is also able to leave the bounds of the 2D pages and jump into the real 3D world.The Plucky Squire plays just as my childhood imagination used to envision my favorite characters would do if they were able to leap out of their storybook pages. Being able to jump back and forth between the pages and out to the ‘real’ world makes for some interesting mechanics as a game, but also simply fun to see and play.
Even though the target audience is clearly younger gamers, that didn’t dampen my enjoyment as an adult. Sure it was a bit easy, but I was smiling throughout my playthrough at how adorable it all was. If you have quite young gamers wanting to play, there’s a Story or Adventure more, and you're also able to toggle not taking any damage, or defeating enemies in a single hit if you want. I took it for what it was and simply enjoyed a colorful tale with amusing characters trying to right some wrongs and stop the bad guy.
In the Land of Mojo, The Plucky Squire, known as Jot to his friends, is a young hero armed with a sword that happens to have a quill tip for the blade. The Plucky Squire is known throughout the land as a hero since he has a number of his own children’s books, as well as plenty of tie-in merchandise.
Alongside his friends, Jot will be fighting against the evil wizard, Humgrump, once he realizes that he’s actually the villain of this book. Knowing that Humgrump can never win against Jot, he finds a way to literally kick Jot out of the book without a way to return, thus changing the story to how he wants. With Jot gone from the pages, Humgrump can rewrite his story however he wants, but the problem with this is that Sam, the child’s room owner in real life who read The Plucky Squire, will fail to be inspired and make his own cartoons and drawings when he becomes older.
With Humgrump able to send minions out to the real world to as well to stop Jot, our hero will need to be quick thinking and rely on his friends to defeat Humgrump once more. The most entertaining of Jot’s help is a grand wizard named Moonbeard. Not only is he cool with his sunglasses, but he’s a DJ as well. He’s the one that helps Jot and friend the most in their journey to stop Humgrump, adding a few laughs along the way. It’s a cute story and the 2D to 3D shifts really make it feel like you’re at times coming out the book into Sam’s bedroom, then diving back into the book before turning the next page.
The Plucky Squire opens up once the pages do, having Jot navigate across the 2D pages, something akin to classic Legend of Zelda. As you reach the edges of the pages, the book flips to the next page, placing you in the next area or having a moment for narration and accompanying cutscene. Even though it’s 2D, it’s colored so vividly and wonderfully hand drawn that it really does make you smile and appearing like a children’s book. Keep in mind this book is inside Sam’s bedroom, so it’s got a layer of complexity as you’ll soon be jumping between the two worlds.
Traversing in the 2D pages is simple enough. You are able to attack and dodge, though when Jot is pushed out of the pages by Humgrump, then the gameplay changes to a 3D platformer for the most part. The mixing of 2D and 3D worlds is where The Plucky Squire shines best, having to do some light puzzle solving that has you thinking outside the book.
As bright and colorful as exploring the book is, I quite enjoyed running around Sam’s bedroom as Jot, making it feel like something right out of Toy Story, as the smallest ordinary objects may now be impassable. There are some friendly arrow signs to help guide you to the right direction, so you can’t really get all that lost in the much larger environment. There’s also times where you’ll hop back into a 2D world, but instead of Jot’s book, it’ll be across multiple drawings on some sticky notes, or even sidescrolling on a mug sitting on the desk. There are plenty of hidden objects to find in both worlds, unlocking concept art for you to see how the game progressed during development.
Green swirl portals are how you know you can enter or leave your current 2D or 3D world. Simply holding a button will have Jot magically jump between the worlds, but can only be done at these specific points. Given that the game is meant for a younger audience, there’s quite a bit of hand holding throughout. It’s not really possible to get lost in this linear adventure, and after completing a page or two you’ll get some dialogue and a story page before going to the next few pages to play. If you do need a hint of what to do there are mini versions of Moonbeard scattered throughout, not telling you explicitly what to do, but not quite vague enough where you’ll still be confused either. Think of him like a built in hint system for the puzzles.
Bosses were the highlight, as each battle completely changes the gameplay into the form of a minigame that is like old classic games. For example, the first boss, a mean honey badger, had Jot tear off his sleeves and all of a sudden be buff so that they could box, like classic Punch-Out. Another boss was musical based, and one of the more interesting ones was a RPG battle inside of a Magic card. I don’t want to give them all away as they were quite unique and part of the enjoyment to see what type of battle the next boss would be. They changed up the formula at just the right times to avoid the gameplay becoming stale for how easy it is.
Combat is quite simplistic and shouldn’t pose much of a challenge. You’re able to turn on invincibility or one-hit kills if you have someone younger playing or someone that wants to simply get through the story, but you shouldn’t really need to outside of that. Jot can also toss his sword, having it not only attack enemies from afar, but also hit switches, and able to be recalled back to him like a boomerang. You’ll eventually be able to spend your currency on skill upgrades and even a new 360 spin slash. Affording all the upgrades by the end wasn’t difficult as long as you manage to whack all the bushes and trees for hidden money, just as Link taught us all those years ago.
Puzzles are where The Plucky Squire really feel unique, as you’ll need to not only move blocks in the 2D world, but sometimes also change the words on the page. For example, maybe there’s a spot you can’t access because a gate is CLOSED. Find elsewhere on the page where maybe the word OPEN is. Whack these special words and Jot can pick them up and carry them, placing them elsewhere on the page. Placing OPEN beside the gate sentence will have the gate magically open, and it’s simple to see how these puzzles operate. You’ll have another layer as the adventure goes on, dealing with multiple words or bringing them out of the book to flip pages and place elsewhere. These puzzles were fun but not frequent enough.
Puzzles will need a little more thought when Jot gets special stamps that can alter the pages in the book, but from the real world. Maybe there’s a spinning blade that you and your friends want to pass, but can’t because of the danger. Jot can jump out of the pages, use his ‘Stop’ stamp on the blades, and just like that, the blades are stopped inside the book. There’s another stamp you get later on that I don’t want to spoil, but it’s the same premise of altering the 2D world from the outside 3D one. These puzzles become creative, and once you’re able to tilt pages, you can make certain items like a railcar move along tracks depending on which page you tilt and lift. For some reason there seemed to be a small lag between ‘grabbing’ the book and being able to flip or tilt the pages, and I constantly had to think of which way I wanted to turn the pages.
The Plucky Squire’s visual aesthetic is really what made me smile. The 2D storybook looks just like books I used to read to my young daughter, and the ‘real’ 3D world really does look like a young kid’s room with toys and knick knacks scattered everywhere. Jot being able to traverse both worlds really gives it a whimsical feeling, as I know I’ve imagined characters from my novels growing up as a kid doing the same thing when I’m not looking, like Toy Story. Everything is so bright, colorful and vibrant that it’s really hard to not appreciate it and smile with how wholesome it is. The audio is done just as well, with a lighthearted soundtrack outshined by the excellent narration by Philip Bretherton that perfectly fits every page. My only complaint is that I wish there was more narration, like commentary on what Jot was doing possibly when playing.
While it’s intended for a younger audience, that didn’t stop me from enjoying every minute of the seven or so hours it took me to reach its final page as a full grown adult. While it may have not been a challenge in the slightest, it was a wonderful adventure full of humor, wonderful artwork, adorable characters and some really interesting gameplay. It’s clear The Plucky Squire was made with a lot of love and care, and I’m glad to have helped Jot along in his wondrous adventure.
**The Plucky Squire was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
FINAL FANTASY Pixel Remaster
Pixel Remaster:It’s well overdue, and honestly quite a surprise out of nowhere, but Square Enix has finally released Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster on Xbox. Released last year for Switch and PS4, the Xbox snub was a glaring omission for decades-long fans like myself. Better late than never, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is a collection of the first handful of classic games, Final Fantasy I – VI (1-6), but with some great improvements. Sold as a bundle with all six games, or individually if you only want certain entries, you do get a sizable discount for the collection purchase (a little over $22 CAD savings with the current sale.
Remasters are tricky, as you don’t want to change it too drastically to alter what made them so great for existing fans, yet also want to improve what you can to make it great for newer fans and audiences as well, as sometimes older games don’t always age too well. Now fans old and new can play some of the greatest JRPG’s of all time with a handful of new features that I’d argue made it a much better overall experience, yet also keeps the spirit of the original games intact.
Having grown up in the era that these first six Final Fantasy titles released, they have a soft spot in my heart. As they were some of the first JRPG’s I ever played, I become a lifelong fan. Having played most of them, there were still a few I hadn’t yet, and it’s also been decades, so I can’t even remember if I beat many of them being that young at the time. While there’s been a number of ports over the years for different devices and consoles, now was the time I wanted to re-experience them with all the additional features and improvements.
Many Upgrades:
All six included Final Fantasy titles have had very similar improvements, which I’ll list below here, and it’s a uniform upgrade across all the titles. If one of the individual games have a specific improvement I’ll list it under its own section, otherwise, all the added features below are included in each of the titles. These remasters were based on the original titles, so any changes that other remakes or ports received are not included unless listed.
HD-2D:
The 2D pixel graphics have been updated, but more importantly, the original artist and current collaborator, Kazuko Shibuya, was onboard to upgrade each sprite. Characters are all still instantly recognizable with their iconic designs, it all just looks sharper with HD visuals and widescreen support. No more stretched screens or outdated screen resolutions, everything looks beautiful as it once did.
While you probably wouldn’t even think about it initially, even the font has been updated. You’re able to swap between the default font, or a pixel-based font that aims to recreate the feel of the original games. Again, with the support of HD and widescreen, I found the updated font just fine as I played dozens of hours across the series.
Legendary Soundtracks:
Visuals aren’t the only to get improvements either, as the music in Final Fantasy is arguably even more iconic and legendary. If you want the original experience, you can choose to have the original soundtrack, but the audio has been improved as well with a new rearranged soundtrack. The best part, the new orchestral arrangements have been overseen by the original composer, Nobuo Uematsu. In each game’s main menu you can even listen to all of the music with the sound player without having to complete the games, so feel free to get that playlist going in the background, rearranged or classic versions.
Quality of Life Improvements:
Visual and audio improvements are great, but there’s plenty modernized to the gameplay as well. For starters, you can toggle the default walk or run. Sounds like a small feature, but given how long each of the games are, there wasn’t a time I wanted to slowly walk, so defaulting to run without having to hold a button was a welcome addition. Another small but welcome feature, being able to exit to the Title Screen from the pause menu, even during battles. Maybe you’re trying to steal a rare item from an enemy but don’t get it. Now you don’t have to completely quit out of the whole game, able to easily go back to the Main screen and reload your save to try again.
Like the music player, being able to check out the Beastiary and Illustration Gallery was a real treat for fans like myself who adore the legendary concept art of Yoshitaka Amano. No need to complete the game either, explore all the art whenever you wish. These might seem like small additions for most, but I found them great features to explore when I needed a small break. You can even see on the world map where each beast was fought.
The best addition though is the option to boost your earned Experience, Gil, Auto-Battle, or even toggle random encounters. Each game allows you speed up the whole process if you want, multiplying experience and Gil (money) gained from 0 to 4 times (though some have a slightly different mechanic, Final Fantasy 2 for example). Having played previously and simply doing so once again, I appreciated the extra XP and Gil to make things go quicker, 4x quicker to be exact. If you want the original experience, leave it as is or maybe you want to challenge yourself and turn off earning either.
Sometimes I ran out of healing potions or items and didn’t want to have to redo a whole dungeon, so I was glad I could at any time turn off random encounters and safely return to town. Boss battles and monsters hiding in chests are exempt, but sometimes I just want to explore areas without constant battling. Of course without fighting you won’t level up, but it certainly gives you much more options to play how you want.
Lastly, you can simply press one button and have the game auto-battle for you, repeating the last actions each character took. When I was mindlessly grinding, this was perfect, as I simply had all character’s attack with their weapons, then simply repeating it automatically until battles were won. Another great quality of life option for those that want it.
Final Fantasy I:
Final Fantasy, the one that started it all back in 1987. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi actually thought this was going to be his final game as a developer, hence the title. You control the Warriors of Light, a team of four heroes destined to restore power to the four crystals to save the world from a looming darkness. With Garland and Chaos as the main antagonists, I was excited to replay this classic after having finished Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin from 2022, as it was a pseudo prequel to the original game. As much as I loved reliving my childhood, many of the mechanics are quite dated.
Final Fantasy II:
Released in 1988, the first sequel may have the same visual style and amazing soundtrack, but the gameplay was changed slightly, especially in the way you level up. There’s a war happening between the Empire of Palamecia and the Wild Rose rebels, which is where four young orphans come in to try and save the world from ruin. This was the introduction to Chocobo’s, so of course it has a special place in many fans hearts.
One of Final Fantasy 2’s most unique mechanics is its proficiency system. The more you use weapons and spells, the better you become with them. You don’t gain levels the traditional way, as there are actually no numbered levels, you instead try to rank up your stats by using equipment, blocking attacks and more. While it was an innovative change at the time, I found this to be much more grinding in the end. One of the boosters you can enable specifically for this title is the multiplier of experience gained for your weapons and spells. I really wasn’t a fan of this new way of leveling up due to partly being increased by randomness but it did grow on me by the time the credits rolled.
Also unique to the sequel was learning key terms and words, then using them in conversations to try and find out new information to further the narrative. Also new to the Pixel Remaster is being able to see a previously hidden stat called “Magic Interference”. Essentially this made your magic less effective if you were wearing heavy gear since there was no real ‘classes’. This wasn’t shown or explained originally, so seeing the stat is a welcome change.
Final Fantasy III:
1990 saw the release of Final Fantasy III which was a big revolution for the series, that is, if you lived in Japan at the time or imported it. Not making its way to this side of the ocean until 2006, North American fans had quite a long wait to experience the title that introduced the iconic Job system and Summons. When it did arrive we got 3D remakes, so this Pixel Remaster marks the first time the original 2D version is playable for us.
Introducing iconic classes like the Dragoon, Summoner and more, a small addition was labelling the classes in the job selection screen with its title. Previously you just had to know which class was what by its appearance, which is no problem for long term fans like myself, but new players would probably get confused. Darkness consumes the land, and it rests solely in the hands of four orphans who has been gifted powers by the crystals to save the world.
Final Fantasy IV:
1991 saw Final Fantasy IV release, introducing with it another series staple, the Active Time Battle (ATB) system we would see for many Final Fantasy games afterwards. This new combat system blended in turn based and real time mechanics for the first time, making for faster paced battles. This is where the series really started to stand out as a great narrative. The dark knight Cecil, captain of the Red Wings, has been stripped of his rank and position, deciding to fight back against his king. Starting out as a simple delivery mission, Cecil and others will have anything but a modest quest. The story that unfolds touches on many different emotions and where the series really started to tell amazing and dramatic stories.
Long time fans will notice some subtle differences in the Pixel Remaster, such as some minor changes to Edge’s dialogue before a certain battle, and Kain’s Jump ability will stand out compared to other Dragoons using a special animation instead.
Final Fantasy V:
Final Fantasy V released the year after in 1992 and brought with it a vastly expanded job system, giving players more freedom to customizing their character by being able to combine skills. It also refined the ATB system, now showing which character would be next in turn.
While it may not be the most talked about in the series, it was certain an important title, as it too had a great story that revolved around four heroes; Bartz, Faris, Lenna, and Galuf. As Bartz and his Chocobo investigates a fallen meteor, he’ll learn of the four crystals and how they are in danger. These crystals control the world’s elements and he’ll need to do everything he can to stop them from being exploited and losing their power. The story has some darker and more mature themes which we see carried on into the sequels.
One of the Pixel Remaster bonus toggles is the regular XP adjustments like the games above, but also being able to adjust the ABP (Ability Battle Points) gain from 0 to 4 as well, making grinding much less arduous if you’re simply wanting to relive Final Fantasy V for its narrative once more.
Final Fantasy VI:
1994, the last game of the SNES era before leaving Nintendo and going to Playstation. While there’s no right answer as to what the best Final Fantasy is (it’s clearly VII), VI is usually on the top of many fans’ lists, and for good reason. The first Final Fantasy to be directed by someone other than its creator, it quickly become iconic and one of the most beloved in the series, and even on many greatest games of all time lists even to this day. I know I’ve played it before, but I admit I’ve never completed it, so finally getting through it with Pixel Remaster was high on my priority list.
With a massive cast of 14 playable characters, Final Fantasy VI tells the tale of The War of the Magi, causing all the magic to disappear from the world. A millennium later and the world relies on machinery, much like a steampunk backdrop. A young woman is found who somehow has mysterious magical powers, causing a cascade of epic events. Each of the characters has their own stories and destinies, yet intricately woven together. While Sephiroth may be one of the most well-known antagonists of the series, Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka is on par and just as memorable.
One of Final Fantasy VI’s innovations was its Magicite system, allowing you to customize your spells and summons. One of the unique boosts you can toggle aside from the earned XP is also changing the multiplier for AP (Ability Points) up to 4X, again, which will make the grinding much less arduous. One of the more unique changes with Pixel Remaster has to be the iconic opera scene, as it now has newly recorded vocal performances. I now understand why VI is still so widely beloved to this day.
A Collection of Classic Greatness:
There’s no denying that the pixel artwork of Kazuko Shibuya and the iconic melodies of Nobuo Uematsu have not only stood the test of time, but are just as great all these decades later. With updated graphics, rearranged music, and a handful of options to make the game more accessible, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is a wonderful trip down nostalgia lane for decades-long fans like myself, but also the best way to jump into the series if you’ve not played the classics that started the long running and much beloved franchise. Pixel perfect nostalgia.
**Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Keylocker
When I found out developer Moonana was releasing a new game I was immediately interested, as their last title that I reviewed, Virgo Versus the Zodiac was quite a unique game that I enjoyed. Their follow-up now here, Keylocker, has a very different narrative and aesthetic, but I can certainly see some of the previous mechanics that have been slightly altered and improved. Count me in.A cyberpunk adventure with turn-based rhythmic combat highlights its Super Mario RPG influences, and you’ll play through an intriguing story where music is outlawed, and has been for 141 years. You are B0B0, born as a Doppelganger, a human/cyborg hybrid, into a lower class that is meant to simply serve for the overall prosperity of Saturn, but she is strong willed and doesn’t agree with this life of oppression.
The powers that be dictate every single thing and every move people can do, yet B0B0 simply wants freedom for her and others. She wants to be able to sing and play music, as it’s her passion, yet it is another act that is strictly outlawed. Why is music banned though? What trouble could it cause? B0B0 breaks out of prison and sets out on a journey that will answer that and uncover other truths of her dystopian world. It’s quite an interesting narrative that had me intrigued, and I found it humorous how many of the instructions are opposite of what you should do, such warnings like not to attack guards or counter their attacks due to it being illegal.
Your first order of business as B0B0 is choosing from one of four classes: Samurai, Hacker, Sequencer, and Juggernaut. Two are offensive focused whereas the others are defensive. Each has its own movesets, skill tree, and even story. I opted to play as the defensive Samurai for my first playthrough as I battled for freedom. Saturn is an unforgiving planet though, so you’ll need to seriously practice your timing for the rhythmic battles if you want B0B0 to survive and find out the secret of Keylocker. Later on you'll even unlock a second class for even more unique gameplay.
Exploring the different areas on Saturn are not only varied in their biomes and designs, but filled with plenty of interactable objects that give the world some extra flair when reading the descriptions. Maybe you’ll even find some hidden items and secrets, so there’s always a reason to check every object and click it as you run past.
Along your journey you’ll also come across a number of different characters, some friendly, and some not so much. Some NPC’s you’ll be able to give gifts to, possibly even befriending them and changing certain elements of the story. One of the most frustrating things about Keylocker though was the lack of a map or any directional guides of where to go. You’ll have descriptions in your quest log of where to go, like “the south end” of an area, but where’s that area and how do you get there? This caused me getting lost quite often and plenty of backtracking and aimless wandering. On the bright side I did more combat and leveled because of it, but with no marker to even guide you, it’s an unnecessary frustration that was a constant.
As you explore each area you’ll find a variety of items, like ever important healing milkshakes, but you’re only able to carry a handful at a time. If you find another milkshake for example, it’ll offer to sell it for you right away if you want to pick it up, or you could use one from your inventory to top off your health and then refill your held inventory with it. Like almost every other action, gathering items is against the law, so every pickup will have the Danger Meter on the side of the screen to creep upwards. Once it reached a new level you’ll have more church-police after you, so think of this somewhat like GTA’s wanted star levels that resets when you defeat them in combat.
Combat is what really makes Keylocker unique and stand out from other RPG’s. While there’s no random encounters, you can choose to take on battles the majority of the time, though there are many spots where it’s impossible to avoid conflict. I’d suggest battling as much as you can early on anyways for gaining keys to level with, but more importantly, practice with its rhythm based combat. One of my complaints about their last game, Virgo Versus the Zodiac, was that any mechanics weren’t explained well, and this issue carried over to Keylocker as well. Combat is going to feel impossible for the first while, but with enough trial and error, it’ll eventually make sense.
Combat is one of Keylocker’s most frustrating yet addictive mechanics, clearly inspired by Mario RPG with its timed inputs to help deal more damage or negate incoming attacks. Taking place on a hextile grid, you’ll primarily play as B0B0, but there will be times you’ll have help alongside others or not even have her in your party. The grid plays into certain attacks only able to attack in a straight line, an arc, or diagonally, as does range from enemies. Battles are turned based and you’re able to see the turn order in the top right of the screen to plan your best strategies.
Blocking and parrying play a huge part of combat, and I highly suggest getting into every battle you can to get practice, as you won’t be successful without mastering your timing. I’ll be honest, the timing window to do perfect blocks and parries is so incredibly precise that I was getting frustrated early on, even on the Easy difficulty (apply labeled Soft Punk). I highly suggest playing on Easy simply due to getting perfect blocks negates all damage, whereas higher difficulties will still give you chip damage.
Press ‘A’ just as you flash white and you’ll deal extra damage if attacking, or press it just as the enemy flashes white and you’ll block or parry depending on how accurate your timing is. Interestingly, you’re not the only one that can counterattack, as enemies can do the same. This means there could be back to back counters from you and your opponent, something you need to stay ready for if you want to make that perfect timing. Even on the easiest difficulty I thought the window to hit the button would be much more forgiving, but it was still quite difficult to nail the timing. After a good handful of battles I started to get the timing down, but it took a lot of healing milkshakes before then to do so. You’ll need to almost get a feel for when the enemy will flash white briefly, as trying to wait for the screen to show you then hitting the button will surely be too slow. It's about getting a feeling and anticipating the move.
Not all moves use this white flash timing either, some moves or counters need to have certain directions on the D-Pad pressed in short succession, or stopping a moving bar within a small area to get that perfect block. This is fine, and I enjoyed having different inputs, the problem is you don’t know which to always prepare for. Getting ready to watch for the enemy to flash white but then having to quickly use the D-Pad can be jarring. You’ll eventually learn what moves certain enemies use, but some sort of indication would have helped the early frustration in the first few hours.
This is where much of my frustration came from, as once I finally got the timing down for certain moves or enemies, I then faced new enemies or had to learn the timing of new moves to be accurate. Sure, you don’t NEED to do this, but battles will take much longer and you’ll take way more damage. I did enjoy completely negating an attack if I timed my defensive button press perfectly on the easier difficulty, or landing a critical hit on multiple enemies based on the attack I used and unit placement.
For the three paragraphs above of me being frustrated with the combat, there’s something interesting that happens a couple hours in once you figure it all out and it just ‘clicks’. Combat goes from being a constant frustration to being quite addictive once you know how to essentially negate their attacks and best tactics to use your varied moves. Get a feel for the timing and combat becomes quite enjoyable, but it will take quite some time to get to that point.
Learning the combat timing is only part of your battle, as now you’ll need to learn what all the movies do, the different bars meanings, and of course the best tactics to use. There are LP (Life Points) and EP (Electricity Points) bars. Think of your EP as your armor bar, this generally needs to be depleted before you’ll take damage to your LP (health). You can also use your EP to charge for a more powerful attack, thus draining your own shield to deal more damage if you time it correctly. You can also spend EP to bolder your defenses, setting up for a counterattack if you know you can time it correctly, but hope that you're facing the right direction and within attack range.
Keylocker has a serious problem explaining all this to you in a simple way, so it took me a few hours to really grasp the mechanics, but like blocking and countering, once I understood what I was doing and how my attacks differed, combat became even more enjoyable.
Healing items are cheap and generally plentiful enough in the beginning that I wasn’t struggling too badly aside from the first hour when I was learning the timing and what to do. You can’t carry that many though until later on, so no need to hoard them. Plus, you can use them in combat without using your ‘turn’, so no need to factor that option in. You’re also able to save and load from practically anywhere, so I simply got into the habit of saving before a fight just in case my timing was off.
XP and leveling aren’t done the traditional way in Keylocker. Instead of earning a magical number of XP for winning battles, you’ll loot keys instead. Keys are essentially a currency you can use in the skill tree to unlock new skills and bonuses. Early unlocks are cheap, where as the best ones at the bottom of the tree are naturally more expensive. Many have multiple ranks too, so it doesn’t hurt to do some early grinding for those precious keys once you have your head around combat and feel comfortable. The tree has two different paths, so there’s plenty of ways to customize your B0B0 to suit your playstyle and chosen class, then doubles when you have a secondary class.
You’ll eventually start coming across new gear and equipment as well. These can be slotted into different spots of your loadout, changing your attacks or giving them new attributes. I was still figuring this out a few hours in as it’s also not explained very well, but once I tried out moving some skills around and different attacks, I was able to get my Samurai skills just the way I liked and did well with. A move in a specific slot can alter quite drastically when slotted into a different spot.
Keylocker has some wonderful pixel art, full of bright colors and suited to the cyberpunk aesthetic. Environments are varied and there’s plenty of smaller details including the most mundane objects. While enemies are repeated, there’s still enough variety and distinction between them. Animations are smooth and its visually appealing all around.
The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic throughout. A mixture of slow gloomy beats but also having some great head bopping synthwave tailored for the cyberpunk backdrop B0B0 finds herself in. Each biome has a different mood and accompanying music that sets the tone perfectly. Composed by Elektrobear, their return for this soundtrack and doesn’t disappoint. I just wish that the dialogue was voiced to add that much more immersion. At the end of Chapters you'll generally get to fight a boss then perform a concert. Boss fights are unique and can be quite challenging, but i absolutely loved the minigame concerts that feel like playing Guitar Hero. Here colored notes come down the four lanes mapped to Triggers and Bumpers and really showcase some of the OST's best tracks.
Keylocker does a horrendous job at teaching you what you need to know or make it simple to understand. Having no map or waypoint markers is going to cause a lot of wasted time wandering around and backtracking. It’s going to feel quite difficult, borderline impossible for the first while, but once you get passed the frustration and learn its mechanics and timing, it almost instantly switches to quite an enjoyable title I had a hard time putting down.
The innovative combat is quite rewarding once you’re able to master it, but you’re going to have to persevere and struggle through that first few hours to really grasp how to do it properly. It’s clear Keylocker was made with a lot of passion and care across the board, and it’s probably one of the more unique and original games I’ve played in a while, I just worry many will not persevere through the early challenges that the game does practically nothing to teach you.
**Keylocker was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Cat Quest III
Despite Cat Quest II releasing on console back in 2019, it somehow flew under my radar and I paid it no attention. Here we are five years later, and the latest adventure from developer The Gentlebros is finally ready to embark with Cat Quest III. Having never played the series be-fur, I was intrigued and excited to be whiskered away into a gorgeous cat-venture. I also make no apologies for all the cat puns this review will have, as it in no way compares to the amount actually used in-game.You are a cat pirate on a journey to find the “North Star”, a treasure that grants the bearer wishes. As expected with such a highly sought after treasure, you won’t be the only one searching for this long lost artifact, so you need to be ready to battle against some fur-midable pirates that will try to stop you and take it for themselves.
A 2.5D adventure set in the Purr-ibean, you’ll not only be exploring islands and delving into dungeons, but sailing the seas and purr-taking in ship battles against the Pi-rats, led by the notorious Pirate King. While the main quest will only take a handful of hours to complete, there’s a number of side quests, world bosses, and other things to do as well. Just like this review, Cat Quest III is filled to the brim with so many cat puns, and the writing is done quite well from a cast of interesting characters.
Cat Quest III is probably one of the most adorable action RPG’s I’ve played in a while. It’s bright and colorful, has cute characters and animations, and just feels like a joy to be in its pirate themed world. With many islands to sail to and explore, there’s adventure in any direction you decide to furr-eely explore. Sail around and battle Pi-rats in ship battles, explore dungeons, search for treasure, and simply play however you wish.
There are different biomes and varied enemies you’ll face against in your journey to find the North Star, though you’re not forced to play a certain way or in any purr-ticular order. Combat has been improved since the previous game and you’re also able to play alongside a local co-op partner as well if you choose to adventure together, though I do wish it had online capabilities.
With a map that’s said to be about 1.5 times larger than in Cat Quest 2, there’s plenty of seas for you to sail in the Purr-ibean. Not simply used as a mode of transportation, you’ll also make good use of your cannons to sink enemy Pi-rat ships so you can earn XP and booty. Utilize docks on the islands to leave your ship to explore the beaches and dungeons before setting sail once again for another island. There’s even upgrades you can find for your ship depending on how you want to play, like better hulls or new secondary attacks with your cannons.
Controlling your ship is simple enough, and there’s a short cooldown on your cannons and abilities. Generally circling around your enemies and firing after they do will make you win most battles, even against the harder Pi-rats. Watch out for mines scattered around though, as they’ll cause serious damage to your ship, and you don’t want to sink since you know, cats and water don’t get along.
There’s plenty of loot and XP to be had for those that explore. On each island there is treasure to be found and enemies to fight. You might even find some colorful characters that will offer rewards if you can help them out with some side missions. Maybe you’ll want to check out the Wanted posters and turn in for big rewards if you can defeat these mini-bosses.
When on foot, you’ll be fighting primarily with your sword as your main weapon, though you can also equip a secondary gun or magical wand and swap between them. Your ranged weapons are for fighting from a distance, whereas your blade is meant for being up close and heavier damage. You also can learn spells to cast, inflicting a number of different effects based on which spell you use. Swapping between them and knowing what's best to use when is how you'll be successful.
Once you find a good combo that suits your playstyle there’s not much reason to swap to anything else. This is also due to being able to upgrade your equipment. You’ll gain the ability to level up all your weapons, gear, and spells early on, so if there’s a weapon you really enjoy, the more money and resources you put into it, you can level it up to be incredibly powerful. I was struggling a little bit at the first dungeon boss, but after spending my hard-earned treasure on upgrading my weapons and armor, it become much more manageable after that. Weapons and armor you equip will also show on your character, and there’s some pretty amusing outfits to collect.
Cat Quest III is simply a delight to admire with its bright beautiful colors and great artwork across the board. Even in the dark dungeons, you can appreciate its brooding aesthetic. Even though some might be disappointed with its short campaign, there’s plenty of side quests to complete, including NG+ with a drastically raised level cap, and an Infinity Tower to challenge yourself with. It’s hard not to smile when playing this paw-some indie game, as it’s just got a fantastic and warm vibe that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
**Cat Quest III was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Tour de France 2024
I know what games I enjoy, so I often try to stick with those. Every now and then tough I like to try something new, because you don’t know what you do or don’t like unless you try it, something I tend to find myself repeating to my daughter when it comes to new foods, so I took my own advice. Knowing practically nothing when it comes to the sport of cycling, I decided to try something new with Tour de France 2024. I enjoy my racers, so I was curious how it would compare.Doing my research, I actually learned quite a bit about the sport and what it entails. For example, ‘Peloton’ – The main field or group of cyclists in a race. Now I know where the popular exercise bike gets its name from. Having seen packs of dozens of riders, I didn’t actually realize how beneficial riding within the peloton was for conserving a rider’s energy (drag can be reduced drastically by drafting within the pack). It’s time to earn that coveted yellow jersey, not just by out-cycling your opponents, but bringing your team to victory as a whole.
Tour de France 2024 has all of the World Tour Teams already, but also now has over a dozen Pro Tour Teams as well. In ProTeam Mode you can now take the reigns as a professional team, or choose to create your own team from the ground up if you wish. This of course will take a lot of sport knowledge, as not much is really explained for newcomers without a lot of trial and error. Fine tuning your team and playing for a number of seasons is the goal here if you’re playing for the long haul.
You’re also able to create a rider in ProLeader Mode and then take them through the career, free to change many of the settings for a customized experience. More than just adjusting difficulty, there’s a number of options for you to adjust how you see fit, able to utilize different rulesets you wouldn’t see in the actual sport.
While I didn’t expect racing on bicycles would be exactly like racing in a car, sure the acceleration, braking and race lines are similar, there’s a lot more you need to factor in when manually pedalling a bike hundreds of kilometers. If you push hard and pedal quickly non-stop, your energy reserves will deplete quite quickly and you’ll find yourself at the back of the peloton in a short amount of time.
Endurance is key, so you’ll need to manage your energy levels very strategically, knowing when to pedal, when to attack, and when to draft and regain some energy. Unlike racing games, you don’t always want to be in the lead at the front, as it’s not generally a great strategy since you'll wear yourself out early in a race. It’s about how you finish, and there’s many different strategies you can utilize to ensure you place best as possible.
Racing within the peloton is a great example at how much energy a rider saves while in the pack, as you won’t have any wind resistance or drag if behind others while slipstreaming. Also, leaning low while coasting on the downhill sections are another great way to get your reserves up. Learning how to utilize these tricks at the most opportune times is how you’ll ensure you have enough energy to not only finish the race, but attack at the right moments near each of the stage sections.
Even after my first lengthy outing, I realized that Tour de France 2024 isn’t so much a regular racer. Pedalling and braking are part of it, but instead, you’re really just managing two different bars for your endurance. The blue is for your regular pedalling and energy level, whereas the red is your attacking when you need to stand and push hard for a short period of time. Races take quite some time to finish, so you need to manage these resources long term.
It’s a constant balance of staying within the pack, knowing when to attack, yet not let the lead get too far ahead. A mechanic I really appreciated was being able to ‘latch’ to another cyclist. Holding the ‘X’ button to the closest in front of you will have you essentially mimic what they are doing to stay within range as close as possible, even steering. Since races are so long, sometimes it’s good to do so just to give your fingers a rest for a while too. Most of the CPU’s are decent, so if you do this to one of the riders generally out front, you’ll be in good shape for the race for the most part. This is actually how I started to race better, by learning when to follow, when to peloton, when to rest, and when to attack.
While you’ll surely focus on your main rider, you need to remember you’re a team. This is where the other portion of the game comes in; team management. At any point in an offline race, you’re able to pause the action and decide on which team commands you want to issue. You can issue orders to attack, get in the peloton, defend, and more. You’re able to even swap with a teammate if you want to control one of the others directly. This portion too takes some strong knowledge of the sport, as you’ll be taught how to do it for controls, but not really any of the strategy behind it. I’m still focused on my single rider, and I know learning the team management portion would probably make my team stronger overall.
The bike handling itself is quite basic on its own. Right Trigger to pedal, Left Trigger to brake. Given that you’ll be latching much of the time within the peloton, you don’t actually ‘control’ your biker all that often outside of the occasional attack and passes. AI seems to follow their line regardless if you’re in the way, and the collision detection is quite weak, simply bumping riders over a little each time without any recourse. With invisible walls blocking going off the main road, you won’t have to worry about too many sharp turns either, as you’ll simply bounce off of them majority of the time. You’re more watching your meters than actually pedalling and ‘controlling’ your bicycle.
Like most sports games, it seems that the yearly iteration brings a few new features, but generally nothing too drastic. Outside of the new online Criterium Mode, which I will concede is a drastic and must needed addition in this year’s entry, the rest of the listed improvements are minor in comparison. The inclusion of “Controller vibrations on dirt roads” shows how little new stuff was added outside of the Criterium focus.
Last year’s 2023 edition seemingly had no online multiplayer, only local, which is surprising these days, but it seems this is the big addition to 2024’s outing. Yes, finally there is online multiplayer for you to race against friends and opponents, being called Criterium Mode. While it’s limited to six players currently, at least it’s a step in the right direction. Here you’re able to make a team of two riders from the pool of hundreds of cyclists, and the most important, choosing your jersey.
There's a lot of settings to go through setting these races up, choosing which leg to race that are randomized, as well as which team type from hill, flat, versatile or mountain. It seems the characters statistics are also randomized, as to try and give everyone a fair chance. I wish I could comment on the interesting and long awaited Criterium Mode more, but every time I tried to find a match it just sat looking without finding any other players, and without any crossplay, I worry that the niche audience is so small that the mode is essentially dead unless you have other friends to race along with.
Visually, there’s not much here that will impress other than seeing the peloton of riders all together. While the number of riders on screen is impressive, each individual model is not, neither is the barren environments. Animations are so stiff, including the pace car, and as you bump into fellow riders your rider slightly nudges over awkwardly. Textures are low quality and the draw distance isn’t all that far either, so you can expect some pop-in in the distance. For audio there’s not much to mention here, as bikes don’t make much noise like how car engines do. There’s some commentating that occurs now and then, but aside from that, races are near dead silent with no soundtrack, so you might want to load your Spotify playlist during each lengthy race.
I’m still somewhat surprised at how little actual racing there is, as you’re generally just managing your meters and team orders throughout a race for the most part. Races are quite long, so you need to have a dedicated amount of time to see each to completion, but it does become monotonous to simply be watching two meters for the majority of each race outside of the attacking portions. I’m sure true fans of the sport will enjoy seeing actual Pro’s and Teams as it caters to its niche audience, but as a newcomer there wasn’t enough to want me to compete for that yellow jersey.
**Tour de France 2024 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown
Fans have been clamoring for a new entry in the Test Drive Unlimited (TDU) series for quite some time. In fact, it’s been 13 years since the last, and now Test Drive Unlimited makes its long-awaited return with its third installment, titled Solar Crown. The original Test Drive Unlimited released in 2006, with its follow-up in 2011, so we’re well overdue for this third entry that has quite a cult-like following.Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (simply referred to as Solar Crown here on) aims to keep the DNA of the original series intact while also modernizing it for this new era of gaming. With new developers under the hood, Kylotonn is best known for their WRC and Isle of Man series of racing games, and having a racing game developer taking care of such a popular series is quite the task to live up to expectations.
Keeping its tradition of being a massively online racing game, Solar Crown gives you a massive playground to drive and compete in with plenty to do as you wish. Massive might be an understatement, as its set in Hong Kong on an island recreated at near 1:1 scale with plenty of secrets to find along the way. Purchase cars, customize your character, race against opponents, join a clan and more, there’s no shortage of events to keep you busy.
It should be noted that Solar Crown is a live service game, meaning you’ll need to be connected online to participate, even if playing on your own. This also means that the game is going to be ongoing updates and content over the long term, which publisher Nacon has already laid out the first year’s worth of content coming. I’ve actually delayed posting this review to see how the early access launch has done, as playing before the general public had access was quite different and solitary. I’ll delve into the details shortly, but calling the launch “rough” would be putting it mildly.
You’re met by the owner/runner of the Solar Crown, a prestigious event where only the best drivers get to compete. After a brief tutorial and outing with a sleek Lamborghini to prove you have what it takes to take part, you’re then flown off to Hong Kong Island where the rest of the game takes place. Here you’ll take part in a number of racing events, meet Clan leaders and members, all while trying to impress your peers and become a driver that’s a serious threat with the reputation to back it up.
You’ll begin by creating your character, customizing how they appear, clothing and accessories. There’s not really all that many options for hair and such, but just enough sliders to tweak facial features to be unique. As you play more, you’ll unlock new clothing and accessories, able to come back and customize your driver whenever you like. You then choose your starting car between a Ford Mustang GT, Nissan 370Z, or Alpine A110 Legende.
Hong Kong Island is a unique backdrop, and since it’s been recreated at a 1:1 scale, there’s plenty of roads to explore and secrets to uncover. With over a dozen different districts, each area is unique, as you’ll be red lining along highways, drifting along bended roads, trying to keep on track in the mountain trails, speeding down narrow single lane roads and more, all while solo or among friends. With plenty of hidden collectables to find, there’s always a reason to go off the regular path, and with a dynamic weather and day-night cycle, the conditions could change at any minute. Gas Stations, Dealerships, Meetup points and Workshops will also act as fast travel points to get from one side of the island to the other if you want.
As you drive around the island or check your map, you’ll come across racing events all over which vary in type. Some have class or power restrictions, others have specific models allowed only, so if you’re unable to partake in a specific event, you probably don’t have an applicable car to enter with. You’ll mostly compete in Circuit races (eight players on predefined routes in the city), Time Attack (solo race but must beat the specified time), Sprint (cross the finish line without missing any checkpoints), and Domination races (pointes are added each time you pass a checkpoint, with score tallied at the end).
It appears there’s some dynamic difficulty adaptation depending on how well or poor you play, as there’s no difficulty option in the menus. The first handful of races I was dominating, and as I won more, I could see the CPU difficulty start to increase, eventually having (Expert) beside their names. As I stopped placing first, they seemed to tone down in difficulty, eventually going back up to be serious rivals once I started winning again. The issue is that the CPU is dumb and simply stick to their race lines and don’t adjust for what you’re doing, so don’t expect clean races if you’re battling in the first portion of a race.
Due to the always online requirement given this is a MOOR (massively open online racer), you better hope you don’t get interrupted during gameplay, as there’s no pausing the game. Mid race and badly need to use the washroom or answer the door? Consider that race lost. Annoyingly, there’s also no way to quickly restart a race either. You need to instead completely quit out of the race, go back to the open world, start the event up again, let the lobby try and find people, then you can retry the race. You can start races right away from the lobby and it will fill it with CPU drivers if you don’t want to wait for players, but many times I wish I could simply restart a race due to a bad start or corner early on.
Finding the right car for each type of environment and race is paramount. Taking a street racer onto dirt roads is not going end well, and each car handles so differently it’ll take some time to become accustomed to how each drives and performs. You’ll also need to be conscious of not simply slamming on the brakes, as you’ll lock up and skid most likely out of bounds without hope of recovering to win the race. Even in the mid-tier vehicles, there’s a real sense of speed. The world doesn’t blur all around you like in other games, but you’re so focused on what’s coming ahead as you know there’s likely a turn coming up soon you’re going to need to brake hard for. I found each car was a little different of when I needed to brake and how hard, but you’ll get the hang of it after a handful of races in each.
If you want to simply drive and explore the island you can, and even if you’ve not unlocked the races for the next district on the island yet, you can still drive anywhere. There’s still plenty to do on Hong Kong Island outside of regular races, as you can test yourself in Speed Traps, aiming to gain three stars by passing through each with extremely excessive speeds. There’s quite a few of these all over, so try and see how fast you can go through each.
If you want something a bit more relaxing, you can also find car wrecks all around the island, though you’ll need to find a dozen or so of each type to unlock an exclusive car for your garage. Your GPS will start beeping and alert you the closer you get to one, but they are sometimes hidden quite well. There are also hundreds of collectables to find, netting you bonus credits, reputation, clan reputation and more.
As you drive around you’ll notice you’ll also be rewarded for doing certain maneuvers like drifting, speeding, close calls, and driving the wrong way (the island is in Hong Kong, so remember that they use the left side of the road). You can cash in credits after a certain amount of these feats, but if you hit a wall or object, it goes back down to zero. So, if you’re confident in your skills you can keep letting the amount and multiplier climb for bigger rewards, but lose it all if you don’t cash in before you hit an object. It’s an interesting risk versus reward mechanic for simply driving around while not in races.
As you pass by other players, you can instantly challenge them to a race by flashing your headlights with the D-Pad. Doing so will place you in a race with the winner taking the prize money that was bet on by the players. You’ll also meet other players within certain buildings such as the Solar Hotel, car dealerships, Workshops, and Clan Headquarters, a staple of the Test Drive Unlimited experience.
The Solar Crown spares no expense, so regardless of which car you’re behind the wheel of, you’ll have access to the latest AI that will help you navigate GPS and even use augmented reality to show you driving lines and racing paths. Races won’t have side streets blocked off, instead having holographic barriers instead to guide you on the right path, though the mini-map will also be handy to see an upcoming turn. You’ll also have a handful of different radio stations to listen to if you wish, from Rock, Classical, Club and more. Things can change quite quickly too with dynamic weather effects, so you might get caught out in a rainstorm with the wrong tires on.
A racing game is only as good as its cars though, and while Solar Crown doesn’t have the most robust lineup on offer compared to other games, they do have a healthy amount of over 100 vehicles from a number of different manufacturers. As expected, it’ll be quite some time until you have the needed experience, levels, reputation and cash to sit in the Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s, Bugatti’s and McLarens, starting out with much more modest vehicles instead. It is odd to have a racing game set in Hong Kong, yet barely any Asian manufacturers, as there’s no Toyota, Mitsubishi, and other staples. Every car has been recreated in detail for their outwards and inside views, as well as their unique engine sounds. You can also toggle the headlights, wipers, and even drop the top if it’s a convertible.
There’s technically car damage, but it’s quite minor and doesn’t affect gameplay at all or even look that severe. Crashing into small bushes and barriers will slow you down briefly, as it should, but can easily cost you a race, especially against the harder opponents. Each vehicle has its strengths and weaknesses and performs a certain way. Just as I was quite used to my first car, the Nissan 370Z, I got my next car and it felt drastically different, even more so when you get a vehicle meant for dirt tracks. I found myself attached to certain vehicles, as I was using them quite often to win races until I needed to purchase something else due to race requirements.
This is where the different classes of cars come in. These ‘ranks’ are only purchasable after you’ve reached a certain level and of course, if you have the cash saved. Of course the high-end luxury vehicles are going to cost millions and require a higher rep level, but your first few will be reasonable and won’t require too much grinding to acquire the credits.
You’ll need to keep in mind that you can also upgrade your cars performance as well, which has a cost. Certain parts will unlock at specific levels, then you can purchase them and include them on your rides. These purchases are per vehicle though, so you’ll have to purchase upgrades on each vehicle you want the upgrades on. Workshops around the island is how you’ll do this, and it’s simply done in some menus. I was hoping that there would be some mod kits and visual upgrades as well, but there’s only paint color, interior color, wheels and tint, sadly no spoilers and other parts to visually upgrade your whip.
Progression is quite slow, as you’ll need to grind for the credits to not only purchase the next vehicle you want, but you’ll absolutely need the unlocked upgrades as well, so it can get pricey quite quickly. This results in a lot of races being replayed early on since you don’t have many choices in a first few districts. Sure you’re earning rep and money each time, but it feels as though progression is just a tad too slow in the first few hours.
Another big component of Solar Crown are the Clans. These are two families that are fighting for supremacy: The Sharps and The Streets. These Clans compete with one another, but to join you’ll need to beat one of their own in a one-on-one race. Choosing a Clan opens up more racing opportunities, a headquarters to hang out at, special clothing and more. You’ll be able to rise in the ranks as you earn influence for your chosen Clan by winning specific races.
How do you know what Clan to join though? Both differ in how they express their luxury. The Sharps are more traditional in the sense of driving high-end luxury cars, wear expensive clothing and seem more like your typical rich crowd. The Streets are the opposite, not wanting to blend into the crowd and do what they can to stand out. They utilize an underground nightclub as their headquarters filled with dance music and neon lights, whereas The Sharps HQ is more sophisticated and resembles a fancy bar where you’d order some martinis.
There are special races once you’ve joined a Clan where both clans go head-to-head. These races are the most exciting, as it’s not just your regular circuit race, because traffic is also included, adding a whole other layer of challenges. The number of times I’ve been close to winning a race only to have a head on crash with some traffic, or vice versa where I was able to pass an opponent because they got T-boned. You’ll get bonus influence for each driver you beat of the other Clan faction as well, so it can make for some exciting races.
Solar Crown funny enough shines brightest when it’s in the middle of the night and raining. Here you’ll see the slick wet roads and the neon lights from nearby buildings as you speed by. You’re able to choose between Performance and Graphics mode depending on if you want higher resolution versus framerate. Given the fast-paced racing, I opted for Performance mode for the smoothest racing. The cars naturally look as they should and authentic to their real counterparts, as does the interiors of each. Character models and animations won’t impress though. What’s odd is the complete lack of any foot traffic when outdoors, even mid-day. This makes the island feel hollow at times when you finally notice. Given that humans don’t look all that great, I guess this could be a positive. The real star is the island, as the varied districts make for unique racing backdrops, as does the night-day cycle with the weather changes.
As for the audio, each vehicle sounds unique from one another. Driving my Audi TT sounded different from my Mercedes, and my Ford F-150 sounded nothing like the others. Engine revs sound powerful, you can hear cars coming behind and beside you with some good headphones on, and the loud ‘BANG’ from exhaust backfires always make me grin. The voice acting from the cast of characters you meet are passable, though not great. The radio stations though are what you’ll spend much of your time listening to as you explore the island and was varied enough that it didn’t become stale.
While a required persistent online connection usually wouldn’t bother me, this is clearly going to cause issues for some. Perfect example; as early access launched, my friend who pre-ordered long ago just happened to have their internet go down for quite some time. This meant he was unable to play early due to the forced online component. Also, what does this mean down the line when the community wanes and it’s no longer as popular?
The early access launch has been terrible at the best of times. I’ve had races start only to lose connection mid race, instantly sending me back to the map with no rewards. Another friend was in a persistent crash loop for hours once he was even able to log in. I’m sure these will get sorted, but it puts quite a sour taste in your mouth and was quite frustrating. For a game that has a heavy social aspect to it, I can’t see myself hanging out at my Streets club HQ to chat with other players. I’m sure some friendships will be forged, but I’ll most likely be muting all the players that have open mics or have things to say about my mother when they lose a race.
With the first year of updates already planned and shown, there’s sure to be some cool additions for Solar Crown... eventually, but with the iconic Casino not even arriving until Summer 2025, you’ll need to embrace the grind to tide you over between Seasons. An arcade racer with a heavy social focus is what made Test Drive Unlimited popular in the first place, but in the years since its absence with Forza Horizon releases, the bar has been raised, one that Solar Crown isn’t quite at just yet. Solar Crown has the DNA of what made Test Drive Unlimited so revered, but it doesn’t quite have the same heart yet.
**Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
HYPERCHARGE Unboxed
As a kid, my toy chest was full of classic Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, Hot Wheels, and many more of-the-time figures. Being a kid with a big imagination, I sometimes used to play with my toys, wondering what it would be like to actually be one of them, battling against the bad guys or simply having an adventure. Movies like Toy Story and Small Soldiers brought this idea to life, seeing how toys would be if they were alive. Seeing a trailer for Hypercharge: Unboxed, I instantly thought of the movie Small Soldiers. Originally released on PC then later on Switch, HYPERCHARGE Unboxed is now finally available for Xbox players.It's clear that I’m still just a grown up kid, as the idea of HYPERCHARGE Unboxed is something that just seems awesome. Who wouldn’t want to play as a collection of action figures, battling it out against other waves of toys? The best part is that you can play solo in a campaign mode or alongside some friends, though if you want to play versus one another, there’s plenty of options for that as well. Clearly a passion project by a small team, HYPERCHARGE Unboxed may have been delayed coming to Xbox, but the wait was worth it.
An ancient power source known as the Hypercore is what keeps all of the memories of humans favorite toys. Major Evil wants to destroy the Hypercore though, because, well, he’s evil of course. So it’s up to Sergeant Max Ammo to stop Major Evil and save the Hypercore. This is where you’ll come in, as you’ll need to defend the Hypercore at all costs, or else all those cherished memories of your favorite toys will be lost forever. I couldn’t imagine not having my fond Transformer toys memories from my childhood, so I of course took up arms to help Sgt. Max Ammo in this wave-based tower defense shooter.
There’s an optional tutorial that will show you the basics of the gameplay, though it’s quite simple. Its main mode is a wave-based tower defense where you’ll beef up your Hypercore’s protection with a variety of different traps and objects, then face off against waves of toys trying to destroy it. It’s simple, and most importantly, fun. Aside from running and shooting all the waves of incoming toys, you can also explore the levels finding stickers, coins and other collectables, as well as work towards optional objectives.
Being able to freely swap between first and third person views, you can play however you wish if you prefer one viewpoint over the other. I found myself switching to first person when shooting a bunch of Beyblades and green Army Men, but swapping to third person when trying to platform around the environments. Since this is a bunch of toys fighting, it takes place in our world, so your levels are within a toy store, a kitchen, living room, shed, playground and the likes. This really makes it feel like you’re actually a bunch of toys battling it out while the humans are away and not looking, much like Toy Story.
For playing as a bunch of toys, I didn’t expect the gunplay to be as good as it is. Weapons feel powerful and like they have some punch to them, as a good number of shots will take down enemy toys easily. You have a wide assortment of weapons too, from rifles, snipers, shotguns, flamethrowers, beam guns, grenade launchers, rockets, machine guns and more. They all have unlimited ammunition as well, so no need to scrounge around for ammo, simply reload when needed.
The catch is that you’ll have to explore the levels for these weapon attachments or find them around the stage to purchase with the coins you gather platforming around as well. Instead of actually carrying two weapons, most attachments allow you to place it on the main barrel or underneath, simply able to rotate and swap the barrel to the other ‘gun’ as needed. There’s also sights, handles and more attachments you can find to really beef up your weapon if you take the time to explore, though the default rifle will certainly do the job against regular foes as needed.
The building phase will begin immediately at the start of a match, as well as in between waves. This time is meant to be used to explore the level, set up defenses, gather resources and coins. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for loose batteries, as these are what powers your Hypercore shields. Most stages have three separate Hypercores spread around the map to defend, so you’ll have to keep an eye on them all. While there’s nothing stopping you from exploring and gathering during the match itself, it’s a bit easier to do when you’re not constantly getting shot at.
There are set tiles near and around each Hypercore, and this is where you’ll place your defenses such as LEGO brick walls, poison traps, turrets, spikes, and more. You only begin with a few traps to place but unlock more as you progress and earn match XP. You’re able to repair battered defenses during this build phase if needed, or can demolish what’s there and place something new. Maybe a teammate is short a few credits to place his turret, well you can easily hand them some of yours if you’re so inclined. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Depending on the difficulty you choose, this will give you more, or less, time in between the waves, and if you’re playing solo, you can have bots on your team to help as well.
The defense time is up, now it’s time to survive against waves of enemies trying to destroy the Hypercore. There’s no map or HUD to indicate where waves are coming from (aside from a handy ‘heartbeat’ sensor weapon attachment if you can find it), so you’re going to have to move from area to area to cover each of the cores. Some enemies are easily spotted, whereas others like the green Army Men, can be a bit more challenging, as they are smaller and they tend to stay ‘dead’ once defeated and toppled over, littering the bedroom battlefield.
Choosing your action figure in the beginning you’re only given a few options, though there are plenty of ways to customize your toy, simply by playing. You can unlock new figures, heads, and skins for body and weapons (though most are simply palette swaps). There’s twenty buildable traps and objects to unlock to defend your base as well, and along with 200 hidden objectives, there’s almost always something to work towards. There’s more than 600+ unlockables, and you do so simply by playing. No microtransactions to nickel and dime you, no terrible battle passes, just play, have fun, and unlock new stuff for your action figure.
While you can play completely solo and with bots, HYPERCHARGE Unboxed shines with playing with friends and communicating with one another. Work as a team, call out enemies or pickups, and strategize which traps to lay. Cross-platform play made it so I was always able to find a match, even in the middle of the night when I wanted to get a few waves in. The difficulty scales with the player count as well, so you can always feel challenged, yet not unfair. There’s even split screen mode for up to four players, a long-lost feature in most modern games.
Playing cooperatively with others is fun, but sometimes you just want to shoot each other for a good time. This is where the competitive modes come into play, allowing for your typical PvP modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Battery (AKA Capture the Flag), Infection, and King of the Hill for up to 8 players. Having all these modes was surely a surprise, and never once did I run into any lag issues. Impressive for such a small team.
HYPERCHARGE Unboxed looks as though your toys have come to life. There’s a good amount of different character figures to unlock, and a number of different enemy toys to face against, but the environments are the real star. Jumping around a kid’s bedroom, avoiding burners on the kitchen stove, going down a slide at the park, or jumping across the ceiling fan to reach a collectable all makes it truly feel like you’re a toy in this world. The colors are bright, the framerate is solid, and it simply looked great overall where everyday objects look huge.
The soundtrack has an 80’s/90’s feel to it, but the audio really shines with the weaponry. Guns not only feel powerful but sound it as well. Blasting an enemy with a charge beam rifle sounds great, gatling guns sound fantastic unloading a massive amount of rounds in a few short seconds, and even hearing planes and jets fly overhead trying to bomb you all sounds wonderful with a pair of headphones on. The story sections are done in a comic book style and voiced well across the board.
At first, I was a little unsure about its $29.99 USD / $38.99 CAD price point, but after a handful of hours, I realized I was having fun and I wasn’t being nickel and dimed with microtransactions or asked to purchase battle passes. There are plenty of modes to enjoy, single or multiplayer, and makes for a simple and enjoyable game you can play for a few rounds or number of hours. It’s clear HYPERCHARGE Unboxed was made with a lot of care, and if you’ve ever wanted Small Soldiers to be a game, this is it.
**HYPERCHARGE Unboxed was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER
Every so often I need a break from what I would normally play. Generally delving into a lot of shooters, racers, and RPG’s, sometimes I need something slower paced and calmer, almost like a palette cleanser. This is where I find visual novels a great in-between for my gaming, as it lets me relax and not have to think as much or have to rely on quick reflexes.The one issue I have with a majority of smaller visual novels is that they usually aren’t voiced, so it can be hard to sometimes keep my attention late at night when playing after a long day. Thankfully, this isn’t an issue with Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER, as it’s fully voiced (well, the vast majority of it), and has an interesting story that kept me interested until the credits rolled.
A sequel to 2064: Read Only Memories, NEURODIVER is set in Neo-San Francisco and primarily revolves around a new cast of characters, though fans will surely notice a few familiar faces from the previous game. I was initially concerned that I would be lost having not played the first game, but thankfully developer MidBoss did a great job at making it welcoming to newcomers, as it is its own contained adventure yet some references for previous fans.
In this cyberpunk visual novel set several years after the original game, you play as a young Esper, Luna Cruz, known as ES88. Esper’s are those that have psychic abilities, and she works for MINERVA in a special division. An Esper is able to dive into people’s minds, specifically their memories, and as a new agent, ES88 is excited, yet nervous, for her new career as she gets assigned her first case.
Of course, things don’t go quite as planned, and ES88 is tasked with something a bit more serious, tracking down Golden Butterfly, a rogue psychic who is able to hide inside the memories of others. With the help of your cyborg partner, GATE, you’ll set out to try and find out what Golden Butterfly is, but also how to capture them.
While being an Esper gives you special abilities, you’ll need help. This is where the Neurodiver comes in, a bioengineered creature that greatly boosts an Esper’s ability. Appearing like a large shrimp or prawn, the Neurodiver comes along with ES88 in a container of sorts, attaching to her and her subject that she wants to delve into the memories of. It’s a harmless procedure other than feeling a bit cold, though you sadly never get to see this in action.
Neurodiver hooked me almost from its onset with an interesting narrative. With ES88 helping someone try and recall a memory that seems fuzzy and forgotten, you’ll uncover the truth, showcasing what she’s truly capable of. ES88 is young, naive and not quite sure of herself, but across her journey, she has character growth and becomes much more confident about herself and her abilities. Since the vast majority of the dialogue is voiced wonderfully, it was great to sit back and enjoy the story unfolding before I had to do some detective-like work when inside the memories of others.
When you delve into someone’s memory, they are also conscious of what you’re doing, and you’re able to converse with them as well to get clues or to tell you what they do or don’t remember. These memories might be something as simple as gathering with some colleagues at a bar, chatting with zoo goers, or trying to solve something mysterious on a moving train. The environments are varied and done quite well in its pixel art.
When you’re inside someone’s mind and recollecting their memories, you’ll sometimes come across what looks to be glitches. These are the portions of the memory that your subject can’t quite remember for some reason. As you explore and click around the environments, you’ll come across clues that will help you piece together what happened. This simplistic puzzle has you matching one, two, or three clues to match their story, and when you combine the right objects, the glitched memory is fixed and then you can see what happened. Most puzzles are quite easy, though one or two will require a small bit of pixel hunting, as there’s no way to highlight all the interactable objects in a scene. It appears Golden Butterfly is the one causing these memory glitches, but why? Even with these puzzles, it’s a linear story and quite short, with my first playthrough being about four hours or so.
Many visual novels I’ve played have been hand drawn, but with Neurodiver, it’s all a pixel art aesthetic. It’s done quite well, as the environments are varied, bright and colorful, yet has just enough detail that you can tell what objects are supposed to be. It may not be quite what you think when you imagine a cyberpunk narrative, but it fits the setting well.
The real accomplishment though is the wonderful voice acting across the board. Daisy Guevara as ES88 and Amber Lee Connors as GATE get the most attention with the most dialogue, but the voice over quality across the board is done wonderfully, each with their own quirks and personalities that shine through. The vast majority of dialogue and object clicks are voiced, but it’s odd that some seemed to have been missed or skipped for some reason. Ken "coda" Snyder also composes a great synth soundtrack that’s upbeat and lifting, and also more mysterious and fast paced when story demands.
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER starts out strong with an interesting cyberpunk narrative that had me intrigued with its cast of unique characters, but with a short runtime of around four to five hours, the final chapter seemed quite rushed and made the ending feel unsatisfying since it was just starting to get good. Even so, Neurodiver was still a psy-fi adventure I’m glad I was a part of, even if it didn’t quite and as strong as it began.
**Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
Having been an avid fan of Sam & Max since their first game in 1993, Sam & Max: Hit the Road, I’ve loved their quirky humor. Starting out as a comic, Sam & Max made their way into a handful of games, and even had their own cartoon show at one point. Telltale made three episodic games back in the mid-to-late 2000’s, and I remember spending hours getting through each. Sadly, Telltale shutdown in 2018, so my hopes of getting a new Sam & Max game seemed to be curbed.Sometimes things happen for a reason though, and a handful of the original team acquired the rights to Sam & Max, and with the help of other Telltale staff as well, they aimed to remaster these three episodic games, for original fans and new. Having reviewed the first two remasters, Sam & Max Save the World (Season One) and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Season Two), I’m pretty sure I was legally obligated to review the final Season, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. Originally released as monthly episodes, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse combines all of its episodes in one package. Developed by Skunkape Games, their actually named after General Skun-ka’pe, a character from The Devil’s Playhouse you’ll meet in the first episode. The first two remasters were done well and clearly had a lot of people that cared about the series behind it, so I expected no less in this final Season.
You play as the titular characters Sam & Max once again. Sam is a six-foot dog detective in a suit and fedora, while Max is a hyperactive rabbit-thing with a thirst for violence. The are polar opposites but make a unique and iconic duo that solves crime and sometimes even saves the world, with plenty of banter and humor at every chance. Like the previous remasters, The Devil’s Playhouse is broken into its original chapters and can be played in any order you wish, but the story directly flows from one to the next chronologically, so I’d suggest playing it in order.
This remastered final season begins with a narrator telling you that Sam & Max have found the “Toys of Power”. These childish appearing toys somehow give Max a range of various psychic abilities, and if you’re familiar with how unhinged Max can be at times, you can imagine where this might lead the duo. The first chapter revolves around the alien General Skun-ka’pe coming to Earth in search of these mysterious Toys, so the Freelance Police are tasked with sending him to banishment, known as the Penal Zone. There are plenty of returning characters and jokes from previous Seasons as well (like when Max was the President), so fans that have played previous Seasons will have plenty of inside jokes to catch.
Just like previous seasons, much time, effort and care have gone into this remaster. Character models have been updated, lighting improved, new cinematography, new environment design and music. Technology has changed a lot since the original released, so now of course the game also supports 16:9 aspect ratio and 4K resolution as well. It may seem initially subtle, comparing screenshots of the original release to remastered side by side, but it’s simply a better overall experience and up to modern standards.
If you’ve played any of the previous Sam & Max games, you’ll know exactly what to expect; a wacky over the top point and click adventure filled odd characters, odder puzzles, and witty humor. With Max having special toys that give him powers, it opens up a whole new dimension of puzzle solving, as you’ll have to rely on shrinking the duo into a can of nuts, teleporting to anyone’s phone number, or maybe using a ventriloquist doll to get people to do your bidding.
The core gameplay is unchanged, being a point and click at its heart, but modernized for controllers. Majority of the time you’ll be controlling Sam, but can swap to Max when you need to use his toys/powers. Every scene has a number of different objects you can interact with, sometimes useful and able to be put in your inventory for later, many times simply giving you a quippy one-liner about it. If an item goes into your inventory, safe bet you’ll need it to solve some obtuse and quirky puzzle, though you really need to think ‘out there’ to have Sam & Max’s logic. The dialogue tree is the same as before, and even Sam’s face icon will change based on the response you hover over, a small touch that was animated quite well.
This causes some of the puzzles to be a bit obtuse at times. Sure it makes sense to a maniacal rabbit, but to us 'normal people', it can sometimes be a bit far fetched for some solutions. While there’s not a direct hint system, there are subtle ways that the game will help guide you as to what needs to be done next. Sometimes this is Sam possibly saying something that might clue you in to the next step, or you could check his little notebook that also will give you a subtle hint as to what to do. Some Episodes were much more challenging than others, as I struggled with Episode 2’s swapping between reels, having to eventually check a guide when I became stuck a number of times.
The five Episodes are all done quite well and even though I wasn’t a fan of the second Chapter, the others were great as I expected. Episode 1, "The Penal Zone", has Sam & Max trying to stop General Skun-ka’pe once they uncover his true intentions of coming to Earth. Episode 2, "The Tomb of Sammun-Mak", has the duo watching videos of their great grandfathers as they try and find the Devil’s Toybox. Episode 3, "They Stole Max's Brain!", just as the title suggests, has Sam trying to figure out who stole Max’s brain and helping his buddy get back to his normal self. Episode 4, "Beyond the Alley of the Dolls", has the duo trying to stop an army of Sam clones. Episode 5, "The City That Dares Not Sleep", was my favorite and quite a send off for the duo and ending for the Trilogy.
The signature Sam & Max humor never lets up and there’s plenty of quiet smirks to full on snort laughs. Even though some of the jokes are topical and references of the time, they still hold up after all these years. Older fans like myself will surely catch many of these, but younger audiences might not understand some of the pop culture references.
It’s clear a lot of effort and care went into this remaster, making it simply a better version without changing what made it so great in the first place. They might seem like minor improvements, but collectively they make for the best version to experience when compared to the original. Everything simply looks sharper and smoother, and aside from a few minor bugs, it was great replaying these classic episodes once again with my favorite Freelance Police. Voice acting across the board is done amazingly, and the comedic timing and writing couldn’t be any more perfect.
Now that Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse caps off the trilogy remakes, I’m hoping for renewed interest in the series, as there’s nothing quite like its humor, even still. It’s bittersweet to see a game you enjoyed (again) come to its conclusion, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia trip with one of my favorite duos.
**Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Eternal Threads
I love the 2004 movie The Butterfly Effect. Not because of Ashton Kutcher’s acting, but because of its premise. The premise of the Butterfly Effect is that the smallest decisions can have much larger impacts further down the line in the future. Maybe the smallest or a meaningless decision will affect someone or something else on a grander scale, causing ‘ripples’. A small change can set forward a series of events that result in a completely different outcome. Just like the Kutcher classic, this is the premise of Eternal Threads as well.A single player first person narrative adventure, Eternal Threads is about changing the past, one small decision at a time, seeing the new outcomes and consequences of each alteration. You’re thrust into a story revolving around six housemates that need to be saved. Thing is, they’ve already all died in a terrible house fire. Altering outcomes one decision at a time, can everyone be saved? What’s the consequences of altering the timeline? I was hooked from the beginning and intrigued with how the butterfly effect can completely change future events.
You’re simple a numbered operative from some time in the future, tasked with fixing a corruption in the timestream. You’ve been sent to a specific house in England, 2015, to a house where six people died in a fire. The thing is, you’re not allowed to simply stop the fire from happening, as doing so has greater consequences in the future. Instead, you’ll need to manipulate choices made by the housemates a week leading up to the fire, aiming to save them all.
Able to freely explore all of the events a week before the accident, you’re able to watch all of the events that happened prior, even alter significant events so that other cascading decisions can be made or occur. While a number of events will be minor and simply give background information on people, this is maybe how you’ll find out a combination or where a key is hidden for a locked door in the house. The major events that can be changed have larger changes in the timeline, altering them, or even having different outcomes completely.
As the butterfly effect states, the smallest decision can have massive changes in the future, and with a week of events to witness and alter, you’ll quickly see how things can drastically change from seemingly insignificant choices. Finding the right combinations of choices is the only way you’ll be able to save all six housemates. Saving one or two wasn’t difficult, but making so everyone gets out alive is the real challenge. Choices and consequences.
As you arrive in the charred house, you’ll set up base with a futuristic handheld scanner that will show you where in the house these events on the timeline occurred. Able to look at the timeline of events, you can choose any event and the scanner will guide you to where it occurred. Here you’ll watch what happened for that specific event as holograms of the people replay for you. Sometimes small details in the house will change based on which outcome you choose, which is a small touch that didn’t go unnoticed.
I’ll admit, the story is quite slow to start and it’s challenging to follow along a disjointed series of events for six different characters, but once you get passed the introductions and know who’s who, it becomes much more interesting, especially when you realize you’ve got to figure out what happened and how you can save them. Over the course of the week of events you’ll start to uncover issues some of the characters have, their demons, trauma, and possible ways you could save them.
It takes a while for the narrative to really to start becoming intriguing, but once it does, I wasn’t able to put it down, needing to figure out a way to save everyone. There’s a point in everyone’s individual story where it goes from 0 to 100 real fast, and that’s when I was hooked. There’s even a shorter abridged version to play if you want a quicker playthrough, but this doesn’t give you the full story and every outcome possible, so I highly suggest playing the full version.
The house has about twenty rooms or so, some locked until you know how to access certain doors. You choose how you want to experience the story and events in any order you wish. I opted to go in chronological order of the week, but if you want to lock to one character only and see their story from beginning to finish, you can. Or jump from the end, to the start, and back to the middle if you wish. Making multiple decisions across numerous timelines is hard for me to keep track of, which is why I chose to view events from oldest to newest.
The house isn’t too large, but you’ll be constantly running from one bedroom, to the next, to the backyard, to the kitchen, wherever the events originally occurred. It’s a little tedious at first, but once you learn the layout of the house, it only takes a few moments to get from room to room. Seeing events unfold as holograms make it obvious that these occurred in the past, as does the rest of the room dimming, making you focus on the characters and being immersed on the conversations. If there are others in the room nearby that aren’t part of the narrative or a vital character, like at a house party for example, they are simply silhouettes.
There are over 150 scenes, so keeping track would be quite difficult if it wasn’t for the timeline menu. Here you can clearly see each event, what time and day it occurred, and which of the six characters are involved, usually multiple of them at a time. A feature I really appreciated was the ‘Event Lock’, where it’ll then only show you the scenes that influence, or are influenced by said event. On the scenes were you can choose a different outcome, this is handy to see what it changed on the timeline as well.
The timeline menu is how you’ll keep track of everything, from the minor events to the decision ones, indicated by different shapes. One of the best features they’ve added is that you can replay a scene you’ve already watched, but just skip to where you make the choice, so you don’t have to rewatch the same parts again. If you really wanted, you could simply make your choices on the timeline without having to go to the room in the house and actually watch it play out. It gives you enough information on what happened and you can see the following events that each choice links to.
There are of course different endings with all of the different decisions you’ll make, and there’s different ways to save each person. Finding the way to save everyone though is the real challenge, as changing one event may make someone else not survive for one reason or another. Manage to get the ‘perfect’ ending, and there’s quite an interesting twist at the end that I quite enjoyed.
Investigating a burned down house knowing six people died in it is creepy at first, but there are no jump scares even though I was expecting them at some point. The house and environment is done quite well, especially when you notice small details change based on your choices. Because the characters are always down in hologram form, you don’t always get a bunch of detail, and while the animations are well done, there’s virtually no expressions on their faces and poor lip syncing. The voice acting on the other hand was done wonderfully across the board, each matching their character quite well.
I could see some players not enjoying themselves since much of the ‘gameplay’ is simply running to a spot in the house and watching some dialogue, but if you become invested into each of the six individual stories and can understand how they are intertwined, it can be exciting to see how each decision changes follow-up events. While there’s no replayability once you’ve experience all of the events and save everyone, it’s still a great play on a weekend for narrative game fans.
**Eternal Threads was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Go Mecha Ball
I’m always a fan when a developer tries something new like mashing up two genres, especially when it’s something unique. Sometimes this doesn’t always work, but other times, like Go Mecha Ball, it shouldn’t work, yet does. Mixing pinball-like features with a twin-stick shooter sounds like an odd genre mashup, and I was skeptical at first, yet it oddly just works. With also having roguelike elements, there’s plenty of reasons to come back and go for another run.While there’s technically a story, there’s not really much to be said for it. On planet Spira, Cat Rascal and her friends were simply looking to have some fun. One day, a portal appears in the sky, bringing chaos to the world. Everyone went into hiding underground, trying to find ways to unravel the portal’s secret. The solution they came up with, building a mecha suit that could withstand the portal’s energies. Cat Rascal takes this upon herself as she dons the mecha suit, giving her the ability to fight back and hopefully return fun for everyone. While I appreciate there was an attempt to have a narrative, you’re going to forget all about it within the first few minutes. You’re a cat in a mecha suit blasting away at waves of enemy robots, that’s really it. Don’t expect any other dialogue or cutscenes, just some chaotic gameplay that never slows down across a couple of different worlds and biomes.
Your new suit grants you the ability to morph into a ball, allowing you to traverse faster and dash into enemies. If you’re reminded of Sonic’s spin dash, it’s very familiar. The levels are set almost like you’re inside a pinball machine, as there are ramps, jumps, bumpers, tubes and more, allowing you to zip around the small enclosed stages as you aim to defeat every enemy as to start the next wave.
There are four worlds, each having three stages, and each stage having three waves. At the end of each world is a boss fight that was bar far the highlight, yet also challenging. Each of the worlds have a different biome and theme, and you’ll fight some new enemies in each, though the structure stays the same and the levels are the same each run. You need to defeat every enemy before you can move onto the next wave, and you’ll eventually earn upgrades and modifiers that improve your skills and abilities as you progress.
Being part twin-stick shooter, I made the mistake of trying to play it primarily as one. This doesn’t work because you run out of ammo quite quickly, and the only way to refill is to dash attack enemies. Played in an isometric view, you’ll always have a view of what’s going on, but things can happen so quickly and there’s sometimes so much happening on screen that it’s chaotic at the best of times. You start with a single weapon, but can hold two, as well as have two abilities.
I was initially only using the ball and rolling to evade enemies, but once you realize that the dash attack is one of your best offensive moves, the game completely changes. After a few runs, I actually started playing completely the opposite as I started, not using my weapons often at all. When you start utilizing the ramps and bumpers to your advantage, it becomes a much more controlled chaos. Rolling is also how you utilize the ramps and tubes that will move you from one area to the next.
Some levels are quite vertical which I found the most fun, but this also makes it harder to keep your combo up. The higher your combo the more currency you’ll earn, which is then used for upgrades just before bosses and on new runs. Other levels like the desert world was the most frustrating, as some enemies will be up on a platform, but you can’t shoot at them unless you’re on the same level, so you need to find the ramp that will launch you in that direction. Trying to do this while keeping your combo going is the real challenge.
With over 25 different weapons, you’d think there would be a wide array to choose from and find a favorite, but they need to be unlocked first. Even with a large selection of guns, they all feel generally the same and I never really found a favorite of the bunch, though it didn’t matter much once I used the dash attack to do the majority of my damage to enemies. What annoyed the most though was how weapons don’t automatically swap when you run out of ammo. There’s also over 20 abilities you can unlock, mapped to the bumpers, which can be quite useful. These range from spinning discs, jump attacks, and more.
Being a roguelike, when you die in your first few runs, you’ll start all over, but can purchase new weapons and abilities and perks with your earned credits. Runs will take anywhere from a half hour to an hour if successful, depending on how efficient and quick you can dispatch waves of enemies. There’s also other characters to unlock, so you do have something to work towards long term.
Before each boss you’re able to spend your earn credits on health refills, new abilities, perks or weapons. There’s only three choices and it’s random which are offered on each run, but the costs seem to be a little too high to be helpful in some cases. Having to usually purchase the heal, this left me unable to buy other upgrades most of the time. With a bunch of passive upgrades, like more ammunition, more damage, increased fire rate, more health, etc, these are great to get, but it doesn’t tell you exactly how much your stats increase.
With how quickly you need to constantly be moving, it can feel like quite a lot at the beginning. The first few runs were overwhelming with how chaotic the screen gets. The colors are bright and vibrant, the neons are eye catching, and you’re constantly moving at a fast pace and dashing from enemy to enemy. Gameplay is very smooth and I had no hiccups even when chaos was happening.
While the dashes, rolling and attacks can overpower the audio at times, the soundtrack is dynamic, seemingly changing to what’s occurring on screen at times. The electronic soundtrack can be mellow at times, then quick paced and frantic sounding the next. When it’s chaos on screen, the audio represents and sets the tone.
Go Mecha Ball surprised me. Half pinball, half twin-stick shooter, it shouldn’t work on paper, but it really does. Once you can embrace the chaos and find the best way to play for yourself, it can be exciting. Feeling like it’s truly an original experience, Go Mecha Ball is a fun trip as you dash from one enemy to the next do it all again in the next run.
**Go Mecha Ball was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
War Hospital
We’ve all played War games before, most likely a Call of Duty or Battlefield, and while the combat side of War is often portrayed and shown, there’s a whole other aspect and angle that often gets forgotten but is just as important. Support units, specifically Medics, often don’t get the same spotlight as those fighting on the frontline. These brave soldiers may be wielding surgical tools instead of a weapon, but they are no less important than those trying to defeat the enemy, doing everything in their power to save their brothers in arms.War Hospital is a sim game, but unlike others I’ve played. Here you’re in command of a hospital near the front lines, making constant life and death decisions while trying to protect yourself from an advancing enemy. A War themed game that doesn’t have you actually shooting anyone, instead trying to save a constant stream of patients, supported by the Imperial War Museum for even more authenticity. Even though it’s War themed, you’re trying to focus on the good you can perform by saving soldiers, but you’ll quickly realize not everyone can be saved.
It's the final year of the Great War, 1918, and you are Major Henry Wells, a retired combat medic, but you’ve been placed in charge of a field hospital near the front lines. You’ll have a constant flow of injured soldiers, not enough staff, and nowhere near enough supplies. But you’ll need to do what you can with what you have, as your allies are counting on you.
There’s actually a decent story to be had across three Chapters, not always something included in sim games. I found the difficulty of deciding who to save quite interesting, as you can read their bio cards, telling you about their history, married life, kids, etc. I’ll admit, I was more tempted to try and save someone that was married and had kids than someone that was not, so I could tell my own biases were creeping into my decisions.
Your main goal is to keep the camp’s morale up, though every time someone dies, gets denied treatment, or a slew of other reasons, it will go decrease. Treatment for soldiers is paramount, but this is difficult to do when you only have a handful of staff and nowhere near enough supplies. This is where you’ll quickly learn you’ll have to prioritize, not just patients, but staff and supplies as well. You’re constantly adapting, trying to do what’s best, but not everyone can be saved. Even though you might not be in the trenches, War is still hell for those at the War Hospital that need to shoulder this burden.
While the gameplay comes down to you pushing paper and making decisions, that doesn’t make the weight of those decisions any less, especially when a dozen patients all come in at once, yet you don’t have the staffing to treat them all. The more you treat, the more you can send back to the front line, but this also drains your supplies, as you have a very finite amount of resources. If you think simply hiring more staff is the solution, you’d be in the same thought process that I had, but I quickly realized that your increase of staff now needs more food, another resource to balance.
You’ll need to manage your staff, their fatigue, recruitment, supplies, everything pertaining to the camp, and it won’t be easy. You have Doctors, nurses, scouts, engineers, and more, all of which are specialized for certain tasks. But you need to make sure your staff aren’t overworked either, as they can only do so much before needing to rest. Fail to give them some time off and they’ll collapse of exhaustion, which takes even longer than a normal rest would have been in the first place.
You’ll constantly have to make hard decisions, choosing who lives or dies. A patient arrives in critical condition that will take 8 hours of surgery to complete probably doesn’t have a good chance at survival, as healing two or three soldiers that are in better shape is usually the better option unfortunately. This becomes more difficult if you choose to read the patient profiles, as you might be more inclined to save someone that’s married or has kids for example. I’ll admit, I was letting my emotions cloud my judgement at times, but once you figure out the best way for the gameplay loop, the profiles generally become irrelevant, as you’re simply trying to save as many as you can, regardless of their individual backgrounds.
A patient whose surgery has a high risk of failing probably isn’t going to get chosen over others I can guarantee survival. Things become much trickier when you have VIP’s admitted to your hospital though. Maybe saving a VIP is worth the risk, as you’ll usually be given a special reward if so. You’ll eventually have to think of the patients as numbers and risk assessments, simply weighing the surgery success percentages and discard the others unfortunately.
If you’re impatient like I am, you’re able to speed up, or completely stop time, but the faster time moves, the more you’ll have to deal with at once. If you’re critically short on supplies, you can order them, but they are quite costly and takes time for them to arrive by train. You’re better off having your engineers build certain buildings so that you can refine one resource into another, though this takes time and resources as well.
As you begin your first playthrough there is just enough tutorial hints that it helps you get started, but there could have been a lot more help. It wasn’t until my second attempt at the first Chapter where I really understood all of the mechanics and had a better go at it, as there’s little room for error. Again, morale reaching 0% is Game Over, and when you’re denying handfuls of patients care or even unable to bury them, morale can plummet quite quickly.
Even hours into my second campaign attempt, I was struggling with the controls. Being a PC game first and now ported to console, it takes some refinement to transition from a keyboard and mouse to a controller. While functional, some more work could have been done to make it more controller friendly. First off, there’s no cursor in the middle of your screen, so when you’re moving the camera around and wanting to click on a specific building, you have to kind of guess and sometimes zoom in so you can see the highlighted building to open its context menu.
Your main hotkeys are tied to the Left and Right Bumpers, but this takes some time to memorize where in the radial menu they are. I also found text a bit small, even on my large 65” TV. The worst offender though is trying to choose your doctors’ rest time, moving it between surgeries, as it sometimes felt like luck when I was finally able to move it. Trying to rearrange multiple surgeries was also a nightmare, not able to easily place them where I wanted without having to completely remove them from the schedule and starting over again.
Saving patients is your main priority, but that will only get you so far. You’re going to need to think longer term, needing a constant supply of resources. There’s a large skill tree that you can invest into, but this takes requisition points gained from saving patients. Sometimes you’ll want to send rehabbed soldier back to the front line, sometimes back to HQ, or maybe even discharge them, it really depends on your needs at any given moment. Engineers will build your researched options, as well as create medical supplies and more, though that means they need to work those shifts, something you’ll need to constantly adjust and balance.
My first game did not go well, as I had staff constantly passing out due to exhaustion. Sure, there’s a menu where you can check on all your staff, but I was so focused on the incoming patients that I forgot. You can eventually set shifts later on, but I found it was simply better to do manually once you get a hang of the controls and know what menus to check up on. By my second campaign I figured out the best course of action and was having much more success, though I wish more strategy was taught to me in the beginning to help.
Being a strategy sim game, the overhead camera is typical for the genre, though every now and then you’ll get a brief cutscene of the frontlines at certain plot points. These cutscenes are actually quite dated and not done well at all. It’s not the focus, but it’s such a drastic difference from the majority of the game and simply doesn’t look great. The soundtrack and voiceover on the contrary is done well, and there’s just a looming darkness and despair from being so close to all the death and front lines.
My first playthrough was a harsh learning experience. I felt as though I was losing more patients than I was saving. Needless to say, I didn’t complete Chapter One my first time as my morale had reached 0%. My second playthrough went much better, as I learned I had to simply not make decisions with my emotions, playing a numbers game, knowing when to rotate staff and upgrading the necessary buildings.
Even understanding the game more, it was still quite stressful, as it should be. You’re not given much time at all to sit back and think, reacting and adapting as needed, hoping you’ll be able to save one more soul. Once you come to the realization than you can’t save everyone, you can play more strategically with your mind and not so much with your heart. Sometimes even when there’s a high chance of survivability, things go wrong, so you always have to prepare to pivot and adjust, as it seemed I would get an influx of patients when my doctors were finally getting some rest.
War Hospital tells tales worth hearing and shows a side of the Great War not usually thought about. While it may not be as exciting as being in the thick of battle in the trenches, it’s a unique side of War that’s equally as important. Do your best to prevent casualties of War, but prepare your heart for not being able to save many.
**War Hospital was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
GRAPPIN
Small indie games sometimes surprise me. I might expect one thing but get another. This was the case with GRAPPIN, a climbing game that looked quite basic and simple from its few screenshots, but had me gripped, at least, right until the end. Get ready to reach new heights and aim that grappling hook, as you’re going to need to practice your platforming in this first person adventure. Simple idea, but a surprising amount of challenge, just don’t expect to be swinging around as nimble as Spider-Man.You are awoken in a cave by a mysterious voice, unsure where you are. There’s only one way out and forward, so you follow it. Here you learn how to move and jump, eventually being rewarded with a special piece of equipment called The Grip. The Grip is essentially a grappling hook, but can be shot out at a high velocity and will pull you to where it anchored to, much like Batman. Trick is, you can only grapple and hook onto special clay blocks.
Exiting the cave, you’re greeted to an open and beautiful field full of trees, cliffs and a waterfall in the background. You’re not given any direction other than you must make your way to the Grip Shrine, a far mountain in the distance to return The Grip. So you set off on your journey, unsure where to initially go. This is how you start to explore the world around you, simply seeing where you can or can’t go with your new way of traversal.
When you see the clay blocks and boards you can grapple onto, you know that’s probably a way you’ll need to explore, and while you’re not stuck on a linear path, you won’t be able to progress to the next area/chapter until you’ve found a set amount of Relics that unlock the next area.
As you make your way up the mountain from area to area, you’ll reach new heights, overcome new obstacles, and explore outdoor woodlands, underground lava caves, and blizzard peaks. Your adventure begins out simple enough, grappling from one spot to the next, eventually needing to link your grapples from one to the next in succession. There’s even a dedicated button to perform a 180 degree turn for when you need to quickly turn around mid-air.
Since GRAPPIN is played in first person, you’ll have a constant reticule in the middle of your screen, though it’s always rotating and spinning, so it can be a bit distracting at times. The reticule is white the majority of the time, but when you’re close enough to grapple onto the clay, it’ll be yellow so that you know you’re in range. There’s an option to turn on aim assist, which is normal for console games, but it's broken at times here, locking you on to the clay grapple block, unable to move the cursor away, causing me to turn it off momentarily to look elsewhere.
Many times you’ll need to run and jump so that you can get close enough to grapple on a far distant platform, and sometimes you’ll have to simply make sure you don’t fall off a thin walkway, or jump over moving lasers. You’ll always be looking for the grapple points along the map, as that’s generally the way you’ll want to go, but there’s many times you’ll have to go slightly off the main path to find hidden relics.
Relics are the golden skulls you’ll need to find to progress. Each area has a set amount you’ll need to find, most of which are mandatory before you can get through an impassable barrier, though there are some relics that are optional. You’ll naturally find these at times, as they are generally in obvious out-of-the-way places, but with a button press, you can get a list of the Relics in a stage, each of which all have a clue as to where they are in the level. Examples of this may be “In between four pillars”, or “On top the highest peak”. The clues give just enough description to set you in the right direction, but vague enough to not be too blatantly obvious. I better hint system or arrow would have been helpful at times when I've been stuck for a half hour unable to find the last relic.
Some levels are quite large, sometimes vertically, so it can be frustrating when you’ve been searching nearly everywhere for a relic and unable to find it. With more than fifty relics to find, you’ll be scouring each area to find each. In certain sections your Grip will be upgraded into the Trace Grip. This removes any distance limitations and you’re able to grapple right across the map if you can hover over a clay spot with your cursor. These sections are far and few in between, but are the highlight as you swoop through the air to any distance.
Physics are a bit wonky at the best of times, as you do this small little float once you grapple into your target, and jumping is quite floaty as well. You can imagine how this works out when you’re trying to make precise jumps in first person. I was able to deal with the floaty controls, but that was until I got to the absolutely awful second to last level.
This stage has you losing your Grip, so you have to make a bunch of jumps simply running and jumping. I was quite enjoying myself in each stage, challenging myself to find each relic, slowly making my way higher and higher. The last two levels were so awful, it really killed all my enjoyment I had before it. Trying to land jumps in first person while using momentum just doesn’t work well, and being forced to do so in a whole level caused so much frustration that I didn’t want to even continue. While I did progress and finally see the credits roll, I did quite enjoy the twist ending, but I don’t think many will have the patience to get through the last few levels.
Visuals are quite simple with basic geometry, but each biome adds a new aesthetic and tone to keep things interesting. The first few levels were the most beautiful, as I found the others more confined or having to concentrate intently on making my grapple shots instead of admiring the views. The soundtrack is mellow and fits the gameplay, composed by Benoit Malis.
GRAPPIN gets more difficult as you progress, though not always intentionally, as I would fall to my death multiple times due to floaty controls or missing my jumps because of the first person view. It’s a shame GRAPPIN loses all its good faith and momentum with the awful final stages, though I’m still glad to have played through it for that gripping and intriguing ending.
**GRAPPIN was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Disaster Band
While I consider myself to be quite good at rhythm based games, I have no real world musical talent. I still remember in grade 1 or 2 where we were given Recorders to play for the first time, and as you can imagine a room full of young kids playing instruments, the ear-piercing notes and terrible sounding music that emitted is something I still remember. That said, I can still pay Hot Crossed Buns on the Recorder, so I guess my musical talents aren’t completely zero. Remember that terrible sound of kids playing instruments for the first time? Expect a lot of that in Disaster Band.It was inevitable that with the wild success of Trombone Champ, that there was going to be other similar games following right behind. Disaster Band is that next game, but you are no longer confined to a single instrument, instead able to choose from a larger amount than expected, and form a band of up to four players online for probably one of the worst sounding, yet hilarious, bands you’ve ever been a part of. “There's nothing wrong with playing wrong.” Easy to pick up and play, you can expect some hilarity when playing online with some friends, just don’t expect anything close to a Rock Band experience.
Where Trombone Champ was limited to its singular instrument, Disaster Band vastly surpasses that with 15 “instruments” to use. I quote the “instruments”, as some of them aren’t what you’d initially expect, and there’s also very little difference between them all. Sure a guitar sounds different than a flute, but they all sound pretty terrible, which is half of Disaster Band’s appeal.
With 15 instruments to choose from, you’ll recognize the names and descriptions of most, but there’s also a handful that I had no idea what it was until gameplay started and I could see it. There’s no way to see the instruments or hear what they sound like before choosing it and jumping into a song, so if you’re not sure what a Pipa or Timpani is, you’re in for a surprise.
The instrument list is as follows:
- Trombone
- Recorder
- Vocal Soloist
- Pipa
- Chello
- Choir
- Electric Guitar
- Erhu
- Theremin
- Timpani
- Whistler
- Kazoo
- Violin
- Yangqin
- Cat. Yes, you can ‘play’ a cat, and it sound just as you’d expect.
As in any musical game, your goal is to hit the notes at the correct time accurately for the most points. This is of course the main goal, but even when you do hit the notes perfectly, the music in Disaster Band isn’t really going to sound all that great, though seemingly this is purposeful. Regardless of which instrument you use, they’ll all kind of sound terribly similar. This is of course part of the humour of Disaster Band, though if you’re looking for accurate representations of the included songs, you won’t find that here, but that’s also part of its charm. There is three different assists you can choose from, allowing you to play freely, to an almost auto-play mode, depending on how much you want to challenge yourself.
Just like Trombone Champ, you control a small circle on the left side of the screen that you can move up and down to control pitch. As the notes come from the right side of the screen to the left, you need to try and match up your little circle with the oncoming notes that can be flat and constant, or move wildly as you hold the button. Playing accurately gives you more points, playing poorly does not and also makes fart sounds to occur to indicate how bad you’re doing. Juvenile? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes, for the first while anyways. And no, there’s no way to disable this, so get used to hearing a lot of farts while playing the classics. The simple controls means anyone can play without a tutorial, and even if you do hit all the notes perfectly, you’ll sound terrible as a band, so don’t worry about needing to be perfectly accurate.
I’ll admit, the first hour of hearing terrible renditions of songs was entertaining, and my daughter thought it was hilarious, but it does lose its appeal after a while hearing the same limited tracklist over and over again. Sure, the number of instruments can make songs sound slightly different, but this too gets old after time when you’ve played them all a number of times. Every instrument just sounds out of tune, and I’m sure this is purposeful, but this means you won’t hear how a song is ‘supposed’ to sound even when you hit the notes perfectly. Again, this is meant to be Disaster Band’s appeal, it just grows tiresome after a while.
What sets Disaster Band apart from being a simple Trombone Champ clone isn’t its small track list, but rather its Mod.io support. This means you can create any of your own tracks via a PC (MIDI format) and then share them with the Disaster Band community. The 20 or so included songs have some tracks you’ll probably recognize, but the song list is quite weak overall as they are also quite short. I'll admit, I spent almost an hour trying to do a song myself, and gave up. It's there, but it's not simple or foolproof.
The track list for included songs are as follows:
- Alla Turca
- Amazing Grace
- Brother John
- Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
- Derp Derp
- Family Business
- German Anthem
- In the Hall of the Mountain King
- Maple Leaf Rag
- Morning Mood
- Off to New Shores
- Prelude No. 1 in C Major
- Ride of the Valkyries
- The Blue Danube
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Gymnopedie No.1
- Silent Night
- Toccata Without Fugue
- Trivial Canon
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
If you don’t know the titles by the name alone, there’s no song preview, so just like choosing an instrument, you’ll probably be going in blind for a number of them. There’s also no way to sort or filter songs, though to be fair, with such a small selection it’s only a few button presses away.
The Mod.io integration is what will hopefully make Disaster Band worth it once the community starts to create some songs. There’s only a handful to download at the time of writing this, of which I really only enjoyed one or two and didn’t like the others at all, but of course musical preferences are subjective. There’s infinite possibilities for songs in the future, but judging what was available at the time of writing this, it’s quite bleak.
Another feature that makes Disaster Band set itself apart from Trombone Champ is the inclusion of online multiplayer for up to four people. You can play solo, duo, trio or even as a quartet, with each band member choosing which instrument they’d like to play. You can create private rooms require a code to enter if you want to play with just your friends, or play with random strangers and bond over your terrible musicianship. While I didn’t find a lot playing online, the few jam sessions I did have were lag free. The four positions in the band even take their names after MOBA games (Carry, Support, Mid-Laner, and Tank) for whatever reason.
If you thought playing solo or with a friend had the music sounding terrible, wait until you play with a full band of four. Hilarious yes, at least for the first while. Everyone sees the same sheet of notes scrolling across the page, but the notes you need to specifically hit will be highlighted in green, where all the others players’ notes will appear grey, this way you don’t get confused on which you should be playing. While I applaud the inclusion of online multiplayer, the lack of split screen or local co-op was a downer, as me and my daughter wanted to play together.
I shouldn’t be surprised that the visual esthetics match the audio, as it’s all hand drawn stick figures. I’m sure this was also purposeful, but there’s really not much to look at other than one to four stick figures playing instruments, notes scrolling across the screen, and some background videos that are faded as to not be too distracting. With all the music being MIDI quality, you can guess the quality of the audio as well.
The way Disaster Band attempts to keep you playing is the Mod.io support, though that’s going to fall to the community to create new songs to download and play, of which I’ve not really seen much of yet. The other is making the achievements a slog to unlock, as you need to play instruments for a set amount of time, so you’ll eventually become numb to the out of tune songs and fart sounds by then.
Disaster Band is hilarious... at first. The novelty of playing terrible sounding music is funny for a while, but with such a limited song selection (currently), the gag can get old quickly. The potential for longevity is there with Mod.io support, but that will rest on the shoulders of the community to create, which has not been seen yet. At under ten bucks USD, I’d still suggest waiting for a sale until more song content is created. Maybe my Hot Crossed Buns on the recorder doesn’t sound too bad after all.
**Disaster Band was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
Outcast - A New Beginning
I never got to play the original Outcast, released in 1999, because at the time you needed a pretty beefy PC and graphics card if you really wanted to experience its non-linear open world, not something quite common back then. Its 2017 remaster, oddly named Second Contact, though not a sequel, did come out with a ton of improvements, but it somehow skipped by me once again. Not this time, over two decades later and Outcast has finally received a proper sequel, Outcast – A New Beginning.Cutter Slade and his dry humor returns to the alien world of Adelpha, and better yet, the original team behind the cult classic has also returned, so you know it’s been created with the right team behind the wheel. Going in blind I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but I came away impressed overall at its lush world and traversal, even if it does fall short in other places.
Cutter Slade, protagonist and hero from the original game, returns again once he is resurrected by the almighty Yods (the native species word for Gods). Returning to find that the Talans have been enslaved and Adelpha is being stripped for its natural resources, Slade will need to figure out what this new threat is and how to stop its robot forces. Slade has made enemies in the past though, and when familiar faces return, they’ll have no problem killing him, and again, and again. It’s a good thing the Yods are merciful and keep resurrecting you when needed.
The overall plot will seem oddly familiar if you’re a fan of the Avatar movies, though aside from just a few characters, there’s none all that memorable, Slade being one of them naturally. The overarching narrative is simple enough to follow, but there’s so many smaller quests, events and optional dialogue along the way that you might sometimes forget what you were initially doing. There’s a number of moments that actually made me chuckle, so there’s some dry humor within if you’re into that, like a great cheesy movie.
The land of Adelpha is quite vast, and you’re going to need to use your jetpack and wingsuit to get around quickly. Starting out as just a way to jump higher, then double and triple jump, your jetpack eventually is like a rocket, able to quickly boost and glide slightly above the ground as you speed your way to your destination. Traversing the world actually became one of my favorite things to do, as it simply feels great to get to the top of a massive tree or mountain and glide across a large section of land freely, reminding me a bit of Just Cause. Once you unlock the ability to truly fly like The Rocketeer, it becomes even better and never becomes stale.
After the opening mission you’re set free in a non-linear world where you can decide how you want to complete story missions. You’ll begin in one town, completing their tasks, eventually branching out to others and then are given the freedom of what order you’d like to complete them. This encourages exploration, and while the world is stunning to look at, there’s little to find outside of each checkpoint and specific point on map where there’s an event to check off the list.
These extra events are worth doing though, as this is how you’ll earn new weapon module upgrades and abilities. That said, it becomes a bit tiresome and they’re all generally the same. Also utilizing similar methods to the way Ubisoft games do, you’ll need to find a portal to show where all these events in an area are, then some are unable to be accessed until you deactivate the shields at another base. This surely does give a lot of content, but it’s the same few events over and over in each area.
You’ll find a portal at each of the main towns, though unable to be used until repaired. There are also a few of them scattered throughout the wilderness, and unlocking these makes fast travel points to quickly get from one area to the next. This is great, but you’ll soon realize that with each quest, you’re simply following the compass from point A to point B, as there’s not much in between in the wild, aside from its beautiful scenery, collectable foliage for potions, and some stray wildlife that will want to attack if you’re too close. Once you realize the majority of the quests are very similar, I just simply fast traveled to the closest point, rocketed over, collected or killed what I needed, then fast travelled back. Those simply looking to get more play time will surely be kept busy for some time, but it became a bit overwhelming midway with a dozen main missions and nearly endless side events to complete.
Slade begins with a simple pistol, small but effective. As you explore the world and clear out certain bases, you’ll find large chests that will give you specific upgrades for your weapons. Combat is quite simplistic, as the enemies are braindead as best, and even on the harder difficulties, you shouldn’t have much issue. Defeat enemies and they’ll drop resources that you’ll automatically pick up once close to where they died.
While I never had to specifically go out and find more ammunition, you can always fall back on powerful melee attacks if you get surrounded. You also have an energy shield to block attacks, but if you engage firefights from far enough, you should be able to defeat enemies before they pose any real threat. You’ll eventually find and unlock a rifle that uses a different type of ammo, so when one gun is empty or overheated, you can swap to the other.
Instead of giving you a bunch of different weapons to carry, Outcast’s way of weapon customization is really interesting and had me experimenting to find my perfect loadout. Completing missions and side events will have Slade find weapon modules. These are used to alter your pistol or rifle in a variety of different ways. With quite a few to select from, I was partial to homing bullets and proxy mines, but there’s plenty of others to choose like spread shots, explosive shots, rapid fire, electric bullets and more. This makes for a lot of different combinations, and you can make some truly overpowered builds if you combine the right mods.
Even further, in your skill tree, you’re able to unlock additional upgrades, allowing for more powerful versions of the mods you own, though you’ll need to spend specific resources to do this, again, earned from combat, missions, and events. The more you do, the more you’ll have to spend and unlock, making Slade more powerful.
There are also upgrades for Slade himself, adding new jetpack skills (get the Wingsuit asap), melee and shield upgrades, and more. While I didn’t use it often, there’s also a crafting component that allows you to turn your gathered plants and meat into more powerful potions. I found the basic resources was more than enough to keep me healed when needed, which is probably why I didn’t spend too much time with the crafting. There’s just enough new abilities, mods, and skill unlocks at a good pace that it feels fresh in new ways as you work on completing Slade’s adventure.
The land of Adelpha is absolutely stunning, especially the higher up you are and just start to wing glide across to your destination. It truly does look like an alien planet and I stopped more than a few times to simply take in the vistas to snap a few screenshots. The world is bright and colorful, full of plenty of details in its dense environments. For how good the backdrop and world looks, it does have graphical issues, even on the Xbox Series X. There’s a slight lag of texture pop in when cutscenes begin, and I’ve seen one NPC’s necklace bouncing around for no reason like they were at a rave. Models are passable at best, even for the main characters, and animations can be quite stiff, especially the poor lip syncing.
As for its audio, Outcast’s original composter, Lennie Moore, returns and creates an absolutely wonderful soundtrack, changing based on what’s happening, if you’re in combat, or zipping across a lake on your jetpack. Voice acting is decent for the main characters, as Slade’s dry humor comes across like a series of great dad jokes, though secondary character performances are quite hit or miss.
You know that B-movie that not many people enjoy, but you just absolutely love it for whatever reason? Outcast - A New Beginning reminds me of something like that. It may not have a AAA budget, and it’s certainly clunky in some places, but I enjoy its 90’s vibe even with its flaws. A beautiful world to explore and enough to keep you busy for quite some time, even if it is busywork much of the time, I’m glad I finally got to have an adventure with Cutter Slade and hope for another in the future.
** Outcast - A New Beginning was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m absolutely terrible at MOBA’s and this is why I could never get into League of Legends (LoL or League for short), even at its height of popularity. Because of that, I’m generally blissfully unaware of much of its lore and characters, save for a few. While I may not know many of the League characters and backgrounds, there are a few of the more popular ones I do recognize, two of which would be Nunu and Willump.Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story takes the popular duo from League of Legends and gives them their own single player story-based game. Developed by Tequila Works, Song of Nunu follows Nunu and Willump as they explore the vast lands of Freljord, showcasing their friendship with a lighthearted platforming adventure that really made me enjoy the characters. You don’t need any prior League of Legends knowledge to thoroughly enjoy Song of Nunu, though fans will surely enjoy seeing a few other popular character cameos along their travels.
You are a young Notai boy, Nunu, and the game opens with you struggling in a massive whiteout blizzard searching for your best friend, Willump, who happens to be a cuddly and adorable yeti. This duo of best friends are searching for a magical object called The Heart of the Blue, something Nunu’s mother told him about. As you explore the world of Freljord, a beautiful story unfolds through the special bond between the two friends. With Nunu’s mother also missing, he believes that The Heart of the Blue will guide them to her, so they set off on their wondrous adventure.
While the land of Freljord is beautiful at times, it can also be treacherous, especially the closer they get to their goal of heading towards the Winged Mountain and cross paths with the ice witch, Lissandra. Nunu has vivid dreams about his mother every night, acting as a guide of sorts, but he’s unaware that Lassandra is also always in the background, observing and listening. Unsure what The Heart of the Blue actually is, he only recalls being told by his mother that it’s a weapon of sorts, a way to battle the darkness and cold. Nunu and Willump are determined and will stop at nothing to be successful in their quest.
Being a young boy, Nunu of course wants to play and has a spunky personality, so it’s not uncommon for him and Willump to stop what their doing at certain points to have a quick snowball fight to crown a champion. There are a few different difficulty options to choose from when starting your adventure, even a Story mode where you can’t take any damage in combat, so anyone should be able to complete their adventure, regardless of skill.
A platformer at its core, Song of Nunu will have your duo exploring a large area of Freljord, even if it is quite linear in nature. You’ll be jumping across gaps, freezing waterfalls to climb, and even sledding down a huge pathway from areas as you get closer to Winged Mountain. There’s also some light puzzle elements where Nunu can use his instrument to play a handful of different notes and songs.
Along the way you’ll meet a cast of characters, that if you’re familiar with League of Legends, you’ll surely recognize. Be on the lookout for Braum, Ornn, Volibear and Lissandra, sure to bring a smile to your face if you’re familiar with the cast.
Portions of the game will have you controlling Nunu on his own as he makes his way through smaller areas Willump can’t pass, or maybe climbing somewhere to raise a platform for his best friend to catch up. Willump is smart enough to follow along to show you where to go in these parts, so thankfully there’s no needing to babysit your furry friend. The majority of the time though, Willump will snatch you up so you can ride on his shoulder or back, controlling him to carry you both across larger jumps, fighting enemies, or climbing frozen ice walls.
The majority of the game I absolutely was enjoying myself thoroughly, but in the last portion there’s a stealth element introduced that was a constant source of frustration for me. This last chapter made sense narratively as to why Nunu had to sneak and not be seen, using distractions to get guards to path or look away, but it just slowed down the momentum the rest of the game had to a crawl. That said, the few boss fights were done quite well, with the final showdown being a good challenge yet fun to do.
When the duo isn’t climbing and exploring caves, Nunu will need to put his instrument to good use to solve some puzzles. Your flute can be played with a number of different notes, designated by the bumpers, triggers, and combinations of both. The first few puzzles do guide you through what each symbol means, with arrow or square like symbols, but after a while you’ll need to experiment and simply remember what button corresponds with what note to play.
I’ll admit, this was frustrating for the first handful of puzzles where I simply had to trial and error my way through remembering the combinations, but if you take a few moments to look at the symbols, they do make sense in a way (arrows pointing left means Left Trigger for example). Later on, the songs you play are comprised of six to eight notes or so, needing to be played in the correct order to progress. Eventually I was practically fluent in Nunu’s instrument, playing songs with ease in a matter of seconds.
While there’s not a lot of combat, you’ll mainly be facing off against wolves and other animals that seem to have been corrupted. You have Light and Heavy attacks and a dodge. Once their health is low enough you can perform a finisher by holding ‘Y’, giving a flashy scene with a number of different variations of the best friends defeating said enemy.
Freljord is a gorgeous world of open valleys, ice caves, and numerous vistas to take plenty of screenshots of. Character design is what you’d expect being from League, and the overall aesthetic is quite colorful, bright and friendly. The voice acting across the board was done fantastically, and even though Willump can’t speak, you could still elicit what emotions he was trying to convey with Nunu. The soundtrack is just as whimsical as you’d expect and complimented the lighthearted adventure perfectly.
Nunu and Willump’s adventure was simply a joy watching them interact with each other, and the fact that you can go and hug Willump anytime you want with a button press makes it all that much more adorable. While some story segments I saw coming a mile away, it didn’t matter, as I was smiling the whole way through (until the stealth section at the end anyway).
Even with very minimal knowledge of League of Legends, that didn’t matter at all as a newcomer to its world, lore and characters. Nunu and Willump are an adorable duo of inseparable best friends that I’d enjoy to have more adventures with. If this is the start of more League single player adventures with their more charismatic characters, count me in for each one.
**Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Mediterranea Inferno
While I don’t normally gravitate towards visual novel games, I do quite enjoy a quirky and abstract game if it's somehow unique and sets itself apart from others. Mediterranea Inferno fits this description perfectly. A visual novel at its core, it tells a story about anxiety, friendship, grief, jealousy, desire and deep feelings. Mediterranea Inferno doesn’t shy away from being what it wants, telling a story with many mature and triggering themes, and while a queer visual novel may not be for everyone, it’s done in such a way that is tasteful without being overtly sexual and has a very unique visual aesthetic I quite enjoyed.As this is a visual novel, the core ‘gameplay’ is simply going through the dialogue, so I will be vague as possible for main plot points outside of the beginning chapter or so, as it really should be experienced without any prior knowledge. The story follows three best friends that seemed inseparable before the pandemic in 2020, but as we all know, Covid changed the world in many ways, including these three friendships when they were separated from one another for about two years with the lockdowns.
Two years in lockdown is a long time, and people change. I can relate to this personally, so I totally understand how people can change due to this. One of the friends, Claudio, has the idea to ‘get the band back together’ so to speak by having a vacation for the three friends at his late grandfather’s villa in Italy. Friends Mida and Andrea agree as this will be a short three day getaway to not only relax, but to reconnect as friends that have not seen each other in two years.
Thing is, people change, sometimes not for the better. What should be a fun and relaxing vacation doesn’t quite turn out that way, but the reason would differ greatly depending on whose perspective. The story takes some serious dark turns, and those struggling with their identity can be heartbreaking. The drugs obviously don’t help the trio of friends when they each have their own priorities of what they want from this vacation. One wants to get back to his roots and family heritage, another wants to simply party and get with someone for some sort of connection, and the other became quite popular on social media during the lockdown.
All have their issues and are in for a wild three days that won’t play out anything like you expect. Each character has a story to tell, as well as living a nightmare at certain points, and while I found it difficult in the beginning to differentiate each from one another due to the similar looks aside from a haircut, I was able to relate in ways to each in their own way once I understood how they were feeling and the reasons for so.
While the story was a bit confusing at first, it eventually comes together, even more so when you play subsequent playthroughs and see all the choices you didn’t make the first and second times. The writing is well done for the most part, even if I do find the characters a little whiney, though they are 20-something year olds, so it might be my older generational view. All of the narrative is accompanied by some bright, colorful and even abstract imagery, and while there’s some erotic and queer undertones, there’s nothing overtly explicit.
Three days isn’t a long time to do a lot of activities for a vacation, so you’re going to have to choose which to do at times, making someone happy and probably disappointing the other friends. Picking the daily activity for the trio sets the story off in different ways, also giving you a special insight into certain characters. Maybe someone not getting to do the activity they want brings out some jealousy, fears, or maybe even obsession. There’s no way to make everyone happy, so it’s usually deciding on which character you want to learn more about, seeing how their choices change the outcome of the story. Like ordering one pizza for a large group of friends, there’s no one type that everyone is going to agree upon, leaving someone disappointed; that’s what it’s like with every choice here.
It may not seem like a big deal to choose between going to the beach or a nightclub, but remember, these people are reacclimating to social gatherings and being around people, even themselves as friends which used to be effortless. Where Mediterranea Inferno really starts to stand out is when you get to experience “Mirages”. These are, to the best of my understanding, a sort of trip in your consciousness after being offered to eat a fruit to experience them from some sort of celestial being. Get enough of these and you’re told you can get into Heaven. I know, this portion took me by surprise too.
These mirages are surreal, giving a glimpse of a fantasy, or a frightening nightmare. These are where things get really trippy, able to navigate panes and click on objects as you find you way to the ‘exit’. These are meant to offer a lot of symbolism, so it can be a little hard to follow at times beyond what you see at face value on the screen. There’s a currency of sorts to collect, able to be used in different ways in these mirages, meant as collectables.
Because of ‘choosing’ one person's daily activity, there’s inherently some replay value if you want to see all of the outcomes. This can be tiresome at first but you’ll eventually be able to play scenes at 5X speed and even later skip scenes all together after certain objectives are met. I went through three times as I wanted to understand each character’s motivation and reasoning, some of which I never would have expected, yet could relate to.
Indie developer Lorenzo Redaelli has done a fantastic job at creating a visual aesthetic that is simple yet has a very clear and distinct style. While I found the three friends to be a bit too similar in their design, causing a little confusion at first, the illustrations for the backgrounds can be like a bright and color abstract painting at times. Every panel is unique and doesn’t use your typical visual novel style. Coupled with its mature and dark themes Mediterranea Inferno was certainly memorable and really leaned heavily into the 'visual' novel. The music was equally as good, setting a certain tone for each unique backdrop and situation, almost as trippy as its visuals.
Mediterranea Inferno isn’t meant to be a happy story with a fairytale ending. It’s a raw tale that’s honest, filled with a bunch of emotion and uneasiness. Some might be turned away by the LGBTQ+ theme, but it was certainly one of the more memorable and unique visual novels I’ve ever experienced and I’m glad to have gone on vacation with the trio of friends, even if the ending(s) weren’t what I initially expected.
**Mediterranea Inferno was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Grotto
Grotto: A cave, artificial or natural, used by humans from prehistoric to modern times. The game titles also shares where your experience will take place in this narrative adventure.Have you ever been asked for advice? I’d like to say I’ve got a sound mind for some helpful advice when asked, but what if the advice you gave made the person do something unintended, or they took your words a completely different way than expected? What if the only advice you could offer was between two very poor choices? Do you ever find that you overthink your words when replying to someone? Grotto is about interpretation, so if you’re someone that over-analyzes or over-thinks their responses, you’re going to have your work cut out for you.
A game where you’re playing as a prophet of sorts, a Soothsayer, using the stars and constellations to find hidden meanings and messages. Grotto at its core is somewhat like a visual novel, as there’s not much in terms of ‘gameplay’ aside from choosing a constellation and having dialogue with those seeking your advice and guidance. Your advice has a lot of weight, as your words are like gospel to those that seek meaning and advice, so beware, as there may be unexpected consequences in what others interpret your words as.
You play as the unnamed Soothsayer, residing in a grotto where those seeking answers come to for guidance. Those that come are from primitive tribes, and your ability to read the stars will give them purpose and answers, though what you say versus what they understand may be drastically different things. Your options of responses are based on which constellations you ‘see’ and how you interpret their meaning. Your guidance will not only affect the person your conversing with, but possibly the tribe as a whole.
While you never see yourself, the world is populated with anthropomorphic creatures that can walk upright and speak. This primitive tribe seeking answers has you turning to the stars for answers as they come to your grotto each evening. As you awake from your slumber each night, you don’t have many possessions, only a special stone to stand on to gaze the stars and a small bonfire where locals will come for your advice. How you interpret the stars could vastly differ from how they understand its meaning as well, not always lining up or playing out exactly as you expected. Do you look at each constellation and overthink what each could possibly mean or symbolize, or let your mind freely flow and go with your feelings instead? There’s no right or wrong per se, but different meanings can have drastically different outcomes, from prosperity to possibly even death.
Grotto is the epitome of a slow burn. Events unfold over the 5 hours or so campaign, seeing the outcomes of the advice you’ve given. Each night you’ll have a visitor, you’ll talk to them, then choose which star constellation will act as an answer to their question. You never actually leave your grotto, which is an odd feeling when you start to understand their hardships and plights, even more so when an outcome sounds horrible, only able to imagine what’s happening outside from their tales. While you think you’re helping, sometimes the next day or later the person you gave advice to returns only to tell you something tragic happened, due to how they interpreted your words.
Actually, the majority of the time, the outcomes were nothing that I expected, usually resulting in one of two awful results. A perfect example of choosing a lesser evil is when a parent comes for advice of what to do with their child, either being ritually killed or sold into slavery. Heavy stuff when you legitimately think you’re helping by rationalizing your own reasoning. Be prepared, as there’s some heavy content that should probably have a trigger warning, with themes of abuse, death, torture, and other dark topics. That’s not to say that it’s not done tastefully, but it was certainly unexpected.
As for the gameplay elements, Grotto is set in a 3D world, your small grotto where you can move around and explore, but it’s really just a small room. The characters you interact with nightly are 2D cutouts, and it’s generally always so dark that there’s not really much to see aside from the dimly lit campfire making the cave lightly glow. The character design is well done, and even if you’re not a fan of the anthropomorphic character choices, seeing the different races did make it appear to be set much further in the past.
When someone arrives in your grotto for advice, you’ll listen to their question or plight, then making way to your standing stone where you can gaze upon a small hole in the cave ceiling to see the distant stars. This is where the majority of Grotto’s ‘gameplay’ comes in, connecting stars in the sky to figure out different constellations. This will allow you to ‘read’ the stars and use it as an answer to your visitor(s). How you’re supposed to know what stars need connecting to create and unlock each of the constellations is beyond me. There’s nothing that explains this, so I just started to randomly connect different dots/stars, eventually unlocking a handful of constellations I could then use as answers. Without a guide I’m unsure how you’re supposed to figure out which star connections make each.
Once you’ve unlocked your constellations, great! Well, now the issue is that you can’t simply give the same answer to everyone each time, as after a few uses, it’s no longer a valid option. This meant that sometimes I’d be giving an answer I didn’t necessarily think was the best, but was one of my only options. Turns out you can again connect the stars in the sky, but this wasn’t explained at all either. Thankfully the constellations on your large wall in the grotto show what stars need connecting to ‘get’ it again once unlocked. There are a few moments later where you’ll do something slightly different, like reading bones or going to another plane after smoking something to meet spirits. The vast majority of your time though is waking up, talking to a visitor, choosing which constellation is the answer/advice you want to give them, sleep, then repeat as you see the outcome.
Going through my second playthrough, I expected that given how many different answers you could give to each visitor, the storyline would branch wildly different each time. While I did get some slightly different results, it does seem as though the narrative eventually funnels towards the same direction near its end regardless of your decisions. There is more than one ending, but given how grim most of the results are, it feels almost futile at times to try and ‘save’ everyone, as what I thought was good intentions at times resulting in a drastically different outcome than expected.
While simplistic, I did enjoy the aesthetics for the anthropomorphic characters, they all had their own personalities and designs, yet looked as though they did belong to the same primitive tribe. I’ve always been a fan of the 2D in a 3D world since Paper Mario and Parappa The Rapper, and while a very dark and gloomy design normally wouldn’t appeal to me, it makes sense when the entirety takes place within your grotto during the dead of night. At the same time, there’s really not all that much to look at being confined to a single room. The soundtrack is fitting for its atmosphere, catchy at times even, though could have benefitted from a few more tracks. While there is a little bit of spoken dialogue, it too creates an uneasy atmosphere and tone.
Gameplay is simplistic and rarely changes, and while it is repetitive, it’s more akin to a visual novel. I did make the mistake of playing quite late one night, falling asleep with my controller in hand due to the mellow soundtrack, having the character waiting for my answer for about an hour. That’s not to say Grotto is boring, as it has an interesting premise, but you’re going to need to be in the mood for a narrative heavy adventure with a side order of stargazing and ambiguity.
I’ll be honest, when the credits first rolled I put down the controller and my initial reaction was quite apathetic. I didn’t hate Grotto, but I didn’t really enjoy it either, as I don’t normally gravitate towards visual novel-like games. That said, as I let my thoughts simmer for a day, and especially while writing this review, it just somewhat ‘clicked’ with me, and the more I reflected, the more I realized Grotto was actually quite memorable and how I appreciated what it was going for. I kept thinking of the questions I was asked and how my interpretation of my answer vastly differed from the person seeking the advice. It made me wonder if something similar has happened in real life with advice I’ve given, as there’s usually not always a ‘right’ answer to many questions. While some won’t enjoy the lack of ‘gameplay’, Grotto is a unique experience that makes you think of how you interpret situations and what you would do in times of desperation.
**Grotto was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Horizon Chase 2
Horizon Chase Turbo was a great racer that released back in 2018 that was quite enjoyable. It’s been a number of years, but now its long awaited sequel gets a release on Xbox for returning fans. Horizon Chase 2 brings what you’d want in sequel; improved visuals, a slick soundtrack, and fast paced drifting racing we’ve come to expect. If you were ever a fan of classic OutRun or Top Gear, you’ll know exactly what to expect from its gameplay. Feeling like a game coming out of the 90’s, Horizon Chase 2 is an arcade racer that has you racing at high speed on tracks from across the globe. You can play a campaign, tournaments, or even local or online multiplayer, including cross platform play. You’re aiming to come in first in each race, and while the first few races will be simple, they'll eventually become more challenging and fun as you upgrade your garage of unlocked vehicles.World Tour is the campaign mode where you’ll spend the majority of your time. Completing the career mode will only take a handful of hours, but there’s just enough replayability that you’ll probably have to go back to a few of the races or time trials if you’re striving for 100% completion. You’ll be racing across the world, from the USA, Brazil, Italy, Morocco, Thailand and Japan with over 60 tracks.
Each country is made of three different segments, each consisting of a half dozen races or so. The earlier tracks begin out simple with wide roads and not as many turns, later becoming much more narrow and winding. They are a stereotypical version of what you’d expect from each, and while the color pallets and backgrounds may change, you’ll be so focused on any upcoming corners that it’ll be challenging to appreciate as you speed to the finish in races that last a mere few minutes.
Races will have different times of day and varied weather. While the tracks themselves don’t change - the majority being circuit laps (usually three or four) there’s also the odd point A to B race which changed things up just a little bit. There will also usually be a Time Trial in each segment where you’ll have to put your racing skills to the real test, collecting every nitro and hitting every boost if you’re to make the par time.
While there are a number of cars to unlock as you progress, you’ll begin with a choice of just a few. Each vehicle has a different style (racer, muscle, SUV, hatchback, etc) and their own stats. Given that the majority of Horizon Chase 2’s racing is about high speeds and drifting corners, I opted for the vehicle that had the best handling to start out with, the Hatchback that resembles a Yaris or something similar. Sadly the vehicles aren't licensed at all, but it's pretty obvious which real world car brought the inspiration.
Placing in the top few spots will allow you to progress, and on each race there’s a number of blue coins you can collect. Given that the overall content can be a bit light, focusing on trying to 100% each race is where the value comes in. Your reflexes are going to have to be up to par, as those corners come fast and furious. Wide roads that are about four or five lanes wide make for an easy drift and cornering, becoming much more challenging when only two lanes wide and trying to pass an opponent. Get knocked off the track and you’ll lose all your speed and crash for a moment, just like classic OutRun.
Make sure you don’t lose focus, as one mistake can cost you pole position. You’ll have a few Nitro’s you can use that will push your car beyond its normal max speed, great for passing opponents at a straightaway. I found though that the first or second place CPU would boost just as you start to catch up to them, so it's generally best to let them get ahead for a bit, then boost to overtake on a straight stretch. The majority of the time you’ll simply be holding the throttle down the whole time, though if you’re close to crashing out or missing a turn, you can let go of the gas for a moment. I don’t think I actually used the brake at all now that I'm reflecting. Simply go fast as you can all the time.
As you win races you’ll earn XP, level up, and get to choose an upgrade to permanently boost your vehicle. Each upgrade will have you racing faster, adding another boost, increasing acceleration or handling. At level 10 your car will be fully increased, though each car will have slightly different maximum stats. While the upgrades of your cars are good and all, the customization is what I enjoyed more. You can unlock new body kits, paint colors and rims. You’ll have to spend coins earned to unlock these, which gives you more to work towards, and each car has their own unlocks. There’s only about three body kits per car, a few colors to choose, and rims unlock by completing challenges and Time Trials. It takes quite a grind to earn enough coins to unlock everything, even for one car, so if you want to earn everything for every vehicle, it’s going to take quite some time. I do wish there were more options, as it's a bit light on content.
With online and local multiplayer, you’ll be able to play against your friends, or anyone, regardless of where they are or which platform. Other than career mode, you also have Tournament and Playground mode. Tournament mode is just that, four back to back races of varying difficulty, some of which are actually quite challenging.
Playground is basically what they call their online mode. Here you can race other players online, regardless of platform they play on, as well as some really difficult challenges, like only crashing a certain amount of times, not collecting the blue coins, and other ways to slightly change how you’d normally race. With rotating challenges, there will be new events to look forward to long term.
Horizon Chase 2 is quite colorful, more so than the original game. It has an almost cel-shaded look to it and each country is quite bright and unique. The speed is quite fast and I never had any issues with it all trying to keep up on a Series X. Barry Leitch returns for another great upbeat soundtrack and the sound effects of tires screeching never gets old as you drift at full speed.
While the World Tour may not take long to reach the finish line, there’s enough challenge to try and get 100% completion if you want to collect everything. While I could see myself going back now and then for the online challenges, it may not have the most longevity and replayability, but Horizon Chase 2 was still a fun and stylish sprint to the finish line.
**Horizon Chase 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Arcadian Atlas
Beginning as a kickstarter campaign, Arcadian Atlas met its modest $90k goal, and now the console version of the release is here. Inspired by classic Tactical RPG’s (TRPG), Arcadian Atlas has some interesting mechanics, great sprite work, decent background melodies, and a story that was interesting enough to keep me playing one more battle to see what happens next. While it may not come close to the genre’s best, Final Fantasy Tactics, it’s certainly impressive for being created by such a small team. What you can expect is some light strategic gameplay across a 2D isometric map with a handful of classes.Set in the land of Arcadia, a civil war is unfolding, causing much turmoil, death, and political sides being taken. With a Queen that is forcibly taking over the throne from her husband, her war now turns into the kingdoms. Two lovers and fighters, Desmond and Vashti, are brought together during this conflict, but as events unfold, their views vastly differ from one another when a princess aims to take back her rightful throne from the Queen who will do anything to keep her power.
Part love story, there’s also another plot about something dark and ancient awakening when a mysterious mage meets a young girl. The power they access has the potential to destroy everything in Arcadia once these magical cards are unveiled and used. What starts out as a nation tearing itself apart and dividing, turns into something much more serious and larger in the latter half. The main characters are interesting enough, and there’s just enough story that kept me interested until the end, wanting to see what happens next after each battle.
As is normal with the TRPG genre, victory will require a lot of turn based strategy and planning. Most battles will involve your team of 5 (though there are some missions that allow you to use more or less) against soldiers, animals, and monsters. You’ll need to level up your characters, outfit them with upgraded gear, take on side quests, recruit more units, and of course, strategize what’s the best way to success.
Between battles you’ll be able to move across and overworld map to set points. In towns and cities you’ll be able to enter a tavern to check out the latest gossip, recruit new units to your team, and buy/sell gear for upgrades if you have the money for it (which won’t ever really be a problem). Every time you enter these areas or a battle, you’re greeted with a “LOADING SCREEN” for a few moments. Yes, it’s literally called that as you see your character sprites animate and the bar quickly load. Even on an Xbox Series X these were quite often, though not terribly lengthy.
Before delving into the meat of Arcadian Atlas and its combat, something worth mentioning is the controls and battlefield. Menu controls are fine, even if some options and such are somewhat hidden and not intuitive (I keep forgetting where I need to spend my special medals earned for bonuses). Moving your cursor on the battlefield still tripped me up after a handful of hours. Moving the cursor in the exact tile and direction you want can be challenging, not just because of the isometric view, but you’re unable to rotate the battlefield at all, even though it appears to be 3D.
Not being able to rotate the map wasn’t too much of an issue most of the time, but when there’s a tree or object in the way, it’s sometimes hard to tell where a unit is behind it, or what tiles are currently being affected by damaging fire or other buffs/debuffs. If there was some way to even only show certain ‘heights’, it would have been a welcome addition. The result is sometimes you are simply guessing your move since your view is obstructed and there’s nothing you can do about it, which isn’t very strategic.
With twelve different classes, there’s plenty of variety to choose to suit your playstyle. Well, kind of. There are four base classes: Cavalier, Warmancer, Ranger, and Apothecary. Cavaliers are your knights, wielding a large two-handed sword, or one handed and a shield. While you’d assume they are tanks and can take a beating compared to the lighter armored classes, I never really found that to be the case. Wamancers are your mages, able to conjure fire, ice, or lighting attacks. Rangers are bow and arrow wielders that can shoot from afar. Lastly are the Apothecaries, able to attack enemies or heal allies with tossed potions.
The best part of Arcadian Atlas that I enjoyed was its leveling system. For each character that takes part in battle, they’ll earn a level when you succeed. No need to fill an experience bar, simply use the units you enjoy and they’ll level up each battle. The flip side to this means that the units you don’t use will stay low level, but this isn’t much of an issue either. Whenever you recruit a new unit, they’ll be equal to your highest character, and since you’ll generally use the same units most of the time, you can freely try new builds and classes for a nominal cost of hiring the unit.
Each of the four base classes can be promoted into one of two master classes once a certain amount of skill points are spent. Cavaliers can be upgraded to Inquisitors that are good at battling undead and use holy attacks, or Ronins that use trances and gain bonuses from losing control. Warmancers can be promoted to Sorcerers, able to cast powerful nuke spells, or Druids, using nature and traps to their advantage. Rangers can choose to be either a Hunter, a ranged class still but with an animal companion and traps, or a Reaver that stabs enemies then disappears, like a ninja. Lastly, Apothecaries can become Monks that can punch or use their energy to heal or harm, or choose a Shaman that can sacrifice friends to damage enemies.
When you promote a character to a new class, they still retain all of their abilities from the base class, so there are some interesting builds you could experiment with if you wanted to find what works best for you. That said, melee classes are basically worthless. Any ranged class is able to 2-3 shot an enemy, whereas it’ll take that many moves just to get close enough to attack with a melee class. This was disappointing given the two main characters start out as knights, though there is a way to change their classes later if you wish. Since you’re not forced to use the main characters in battle, you can simply choose to ignore them if you wish as well, which I found odd. There’s nothing special combat-wise about the main characters, as they get no extra or cool abilities, nor any special stats or gear. They simply look different than your cookie cutter recruitable units.
For being a game that’s all about tactics and strategy, Arcadian Atlas fails this at the start of every battle. You’re told how many units you can place on a pre-set number of tiles on section of the map, the problem being is that you can’t see where the enemy units are going to be until you start the battle. This means you have to simply guess where enemies may spawn and place your units accordingly. There’s no undoing this either, so it’s either an unfortunate oversight or poor design flaw. Again, guesswork in a strategy based game.
As mentioned above, not being able to rotate the map really can hinder you at times, especially when an object is blocking view or you have a few units all together in the same area. The reasoning for this is that apparently the map is actually 2D, but it appears 3D because of the isometric view; still a shame nonetheless.
In many tactics style games, turn order is an important factor to think about. Usually you can opt to not move as far, or defend, to gain a bonus and move a little further ahead on the turn rotation. Not here though. Defending because you can’t reach an enemy to attack won’t have your next turn come sooner at all, nor will if you opt to stay still for your turn. The turn order is set and there’s little you can do to change it aside from a few special abilities from certain classes.
Thankfully friendly units can’t get in the way and block attacks, but you can absolutely buff an enemy if they are on a tile your spell will hit, as well as hurt your own units if you do the same with a damaging spell. If your unit does end up losing all their health, they’ll have 3 turns before they are completely dead. Thankfully a few classes can heal or even revive units.
Height also means nothing on the battlefield. You can have a unit at the top of a steep cliff and they can simply jump down or move from it. Verticality doesn’t change the hit chances or block line of sight at all, which looks silly if you’re using a melee attack to hit an enemy on the roof from the ground. Simply choose all ranged classes, focus on one unit at a time, and every battle will be over quickly.
There’s an elemental system in place where one status effect makes a unit weak to another, but I didn’t really rely on this much aside from accidentally doing so. There’s seemingly no real flanking system in place either. Apparently there’s a bonus but I never found it to be substantial enough to be noticeable since almost every hit always lands anyways. All of the above make combat feel dull a majority of the time, even the few boss battles weren’t challenging.
Because you earn so much money from missions and sidequests, you’re able to constantly buy the best equipment for all your units. You can purchase a main weapon, secondary (if equipable, like a shield), helm, chest, and accessory. Every few missions the store will get new items, but you have to check after each battle as it doesn’t tell you. Each better upgrade simply increases the stats a slight amount. I was hoping there would be some unique gear or something specific for certain classes, but nothing that intricate unfortunately.
While not game breaking, I did have a bug that occurred more than a few times. For whatever reason sometimes a specific menu would get stuck, like checking my units’ stats. This overlay stayed on top of the other menus, so I was unable to use other menus beneath. This caused a complete close of the game and a restart. Normally a small bug like this wouldn’t bother me, especially from such a small team, but it happened at least a half dozen times, enough to warrant a mention.
For all the issues I take with the combat mechanics, I will say, the pixel artwork of Arcadian Atlas is done quite well and beautiful. Animations are varied, you can see small details and expressions from characters, and the world is bright and colorful. Each of the maps are varied and showcase different biomes as well. While the music is decent, the jazz-like soundtrack does feel a tad out of place at times, not always matching what you’d expect from a battle against a pack of enemies or a boss.
It's clear that Arcadian Atlas is a love letter to other greats in the TRPG genre, it has just as many things that I liked that I didn’t as well. Loved the leveling system, but combat overall was repetitive and tedious, lacking much of a challenge. Aesthetics are wonderful and animated quite well, yet the soundtrack is completely forgettable and doesn’t always match the tone of what’s on screen. I enjoyed Arcadian Atlas overall for what it is, an indie tactics style RPG, though probably more than I normally would as it’s been years since I’ve played a great one, but it’s got a ways to go to be considered alongside the greats of the genre.
**Arcadian Atlas was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
I grew up in a small town that didn’t have many places you could buy video games at the time, only rent them. So when my family would do a mainland trip to see some family every few months, I knew this was my chance to try pleading and begging for a new game for my collection. While I wasn’t able to get one every trip, one game in particular I remember asking for a few times was the original Tomb Raider on PS1. Then the inevitable happened; I was allowed to get it. Waiting what seemed like an eternity to finally play what I read in gaming magazines, I could finally enjoy my time with Lara Croft and her adventures. No, I didn’t just want the game for her polygon ‘assets’.Lara Croft is a gaming icon. She is right up there with the likes of Mario, Master Chief, Pac-Man, Sonic, and others, and for good reason, as her first three games were absolutely fantastic for the time. There really wasn’t much else quite like a Tomb Raider game in the era. You had a female lead that was badass with dual pistols, exploring ruins and tombs by climbing, jumping and flipping, while also finding treasure and uncovering secrets along the way. Now older generations of gamers like myself can revisit the classic Tomb Raider I – III entries, and newer gamers can also experience what gaming was like in the mid to late 90’s, albeit with a pretty decent glow up in the visual department.
Tomb Raider I – III Remastered has developer Aspyr behind it, the ones responsible for the first handful of Tomb Raider entries being ported to Mac, so it’s not their first outing with Lara. Even better, it’s a full experience, as now the bonus expansions and bonus levels are all now included as well, a first for console if my memory serves right. Having never played the expansions for the first three games, I was quite excited to try out some ‘new’ content with Lara’s adventures. Given that the games have been out for nearly three decades, this review will more focus on what’s unique with the Remastered content. Fret not though, the core gameplay is virtually unchanged, with Lara searching for artifacts and uncovering secrets among ruins and tombs, all while in third person.
So by the title alone, you can probably discern that the first three Tomb Raider games are included, though with the expansions mentioned above as well. You can freely choose from Tomb Raider (1996) + Unfinished Business, Tomb Raider II (1997) + Golden Mask, and Tomb Raider III (1998) + The Lost Artifact. If you’re an old school Tomb Raider vet like myself, you’ll be happy to know you can also start directly on the expansion content for each title should you wish. Given that I’ve completed the original Tomb Raider games numerous times back on PS1, I really wanted to see the content I never got to experience.
What’s going to garner the most attention from this Remaster is no doubt it’s visual improvements. Nostalgia is funny, as you can remember things much better than they actually were. Case in point, being able to instantly swap between new and classic graphics was quite an eye opener. What I remembered in my head was drastically better than what it actually was. Funny enough, I swear I remember the game looking as great as it does now with the improved visuals, not the actual original version. If you yearn for classic Tomb Raider, you can swap to the original graphics whenever you like, and back again to the updated, much like how Halo: The Master Chief Collection did, though practically instantaneously.
Remember how cool the FMV cutscenes were, but the gameplay looked drastically different? Well now the games look much more in line with the FMV quality of aesthetic. Not only is Lara’s model improved (gone is her pyramid chest), the textures, animations and lighting have also been completely redone as well. The odd thing you’ll notice almost right away though is how the environment textures look vastly improved, but the actual sharp edged geometry is still in place, regardless if using new or classic graphics. You stop noticing it after a while, but the improved framerate is quite a difference, as swapping back to half the frame rate with old graphics is a bit jarring at first.
Until swapping back and forth between visual modes, I forgot just how dark the original versions were. I get it, you’re in caves, tombs and ruins, but it was quite a challenge to see where to go at times. Thankfully the lighting has also been completely reworked and changed when in Remastered mode as well. While overall the lighting was much more natural and brighter, there were a few spots where I had to swap to the old graphics to see where I was going, using the toggle somewhat like a flashlight. This wasn’t often, but enough that it’s worth mentioning, and I’m unsure why in one mode it would be pitch black, but fine in the other.
The second biggest change is with its controls. For its time, tank controls weren’t all that uncommon, most notably the style used in Resident Evil, though I’ve never been much of a fan. It worked though with Tomb Raider since you had to take your time to line up jumps just perfectly, and these classic controls are also an option if you want the true classic experience. Just like the visuals though, you can opt to play with a Modern control setting. This is much like any common game these days where you move Lara with the Left Stick and the camera with the Right. I of course opted for this as I wanted to see how it would improve or change the game. Surprisingly, while functional for the most part, it wasn’t nearly as better as I expected for a variety of reasons.
A big part of the original games was lining up Lara to ledges and having the perfect amount of running space before making a leap. This is much more difficult and convoluted to do, though not impossible, with the newer control scheme oddly enough. This meant a lot of missed jumps, falling off edges, and trying to remember which button combinations did what. For the platforming portions, classic tank controls felt much better overall. But I’m stubborn, so I opted to generally stay with the modern controls, as this is a new experience. I’m a glutton for punishment, what can I say? Modern controls for combat wasn’t much better either, as whipping out your pistols also automatically locks onto enemies. When you need to fight multiple enemies at once, it becomes a chaotic mess nearly every time as the camera flips or you lose tracking of your target.
One of the better improvements though is the ability to Save and Load at anytime you wish. About to make a leap you aren’t sure you’re going to land? You better save so you can reload where you just were. While the menu system is clunky and convoluted, it didn’t seem as though there was any autosave system in place, as I forgot to save in about a half hour or more, only to mis-jump a gap and have Lara die. Yup, it put me back at my last save a long time ago. Lesson learned, mostly. Some sort of rewind function would have been quite handy for moments like these.
A few other smaller but notable additions is that bosses now have health bars above their heads so you can see exactly how much of a bullet sponge they are. The photo mode is handy for some scenic pictures, but I’ve also used it to move the camera around an area and see if I could notice any hidden collectables in spots I maybe missed going to. And lastly, there are well over 200 achievements. I completely expected most of them to simply be your typical “Beat Level X” unlocks, but there’s actually some interesting ones that may have you trying something different. And yes, you can still lock your butler in the freezer should you wish. It’s ok, we’ve all done it.
Classic Lara platforming returns, and even though the modern controls seem a bit confusing when compared to classic, our hero can still leap, climb, backflip, side flip, roll, swim, dive, push and pull blocks, and more. The smooth and updated graphics does look great, though the very sharp and rigid environments make for a stark contrast at times. It’ll take some getting used to how ‘slippery’ controlling Lara can be with the Modern controls, as will remembering to save as often as you can to avoid any unnecessary replayed sections.
The old vs new graphics are quite impressive, especially when you can instantaneously swap on the fly at any point. While textures are more slick and modern, the lighting can be hit or miss, sometimes requiring a swap to the other mode to see where you are or going at times. It’s a little odd to have the classic level geometry but everything else has been improved, but I can only assume it’s because of the core platforming gameplay that it needed to stay as is. This is a remaster and not a full remake after all. From what I could tell, the audio went unedited, which is fine since it sounded great in the first place, but it would have been cool to have this updated as well.
Remastering beloved games is a balancing act of remaining faithful to the original games, yet improving just enough for new fans to enjoy as well. While it doesn’t stick the landing in every aspect, and as a Remaster it does feel a tad bareboned without much extras, it’s fascinating to see how far the series has come and how nostalgia distorted my actual memories. Not all things about the original trilogy has aged very well, but the glow up is quite a welcome addition and Lara looks great as ever.
**Tomb Raider I-III Remastered was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Ninja Theory is an intriguing developer, and their resume of games is an interesting one. Makers of Kung Fu Chaos, one of the best Mario Party-like games on the original Xbox, Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (one of my personal favorites), the Devil May Cry reboot with DmC, and even Disney Infinity 3.0, shows how varied they were before dropping Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice back in 2017, a game that really took me by surprise and made me take notice of their abilities.Reviewing gives me an opportunity to play games I would normally never look at or take notice of, and the original Hellblade was one of those occurrences where I wasn’t really paying it much attention before launch, but happened to fall into my lap come release. It ended up being my personal Game of the Year that year for its unique narrative driven experience, and even all these years later, I still think of the game now and then.
Here we are seven years later, and with Ninja Theory now owned by Microsoft Studios, the long awaited sequel has finally arrived. There’s been a few promos and trailers, but there really hasn’t been much marketing or content shown for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II outside a few spots. While this didn’t make me nervous, as Ninja Theory more than proved themselves in Senua’s first outing, there’s always that question mark, if lighting can strike twice.
All of the love and care that went into crafting the first game has clearly been not only retained, but vastly improved. Still a narrative driven action game that revolves around mental health, the sequel looks to amp things up even further, and they've more than succeeded in every aspect. Senua’s journey is once again going to be a brutal affair as she battles dark forces in reality and in her own mind. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II aimed to create the new standard for exclusives on Xbox Series X, and they’ve done more than just that, raising the bar across nearly all facets of visuals, audio and gameplay.
While it’s recommended you play the first Hellblade to really understand protagonist Senua’s character and growth since Hellblade II takes place following the original’s ending, some backstory will give more context into her condition and suffering. That said, there is an included re-cap video crafted to explain the events of the first game so you’re not completely lost if new to the series.
Senua’s original journey had her battling to the gates of Hellheim to try and save her dead lover’s soul. What makes Senua such an interesting character is that she suffers from psychosis, a form of mental illness. This makes her internal battle just as difficult as the external one in reality. A Celtic warrior from the 10th century, Senua’s journey is now leading her to Iceland so she can stop the Vikings who raided her village at its source.
While I don’t suffer from psychosis, both Hellblade games have now given me a basic understanding of what Senua must be dealing with on a constant basis. Hearing voices in your head constantly, seeing things as almost an alternative reality, and even simply understanding situations differently than most is common. Ninja Theory has taken extra care to recreate what these experiences must be like from someone who suffers with it, and like the first game, they’ve worked closely with doctors, scholars and even actual people who live with this mental condition. This realistic depiction is done with the utmost care, and with the latest technology, taken to whole new levels in this sequel.
This next chapter of Senua’s story is even more cinematic than before, raising the bar for visuals and audio to a level I’ve never experienced elsewhere before. With Senua finally making peace with her past and her condition, her perceptions and voices she hears aren't any less apparent, the difference now being that she’s learned how to not let them fully consume her, not let them fill her rage or depression at all times. She doesn’t fear the visions and voices any longer, which is impressive given the visions she sees and the constant whispering in her ears, acting like a narration of what’s happening. Facing a new type of enemy, the Draugr, Senua will also find new allies along the way, each of which I thoroughly enjoyed their story arcs and personalities.
I’m only going to mildly touch on story aspects given how narrative heavy her journey is, as its best left as a surprise if at all possible, but you can expect to take roughly 8-10 hours to see the credits roll depending on how long you search for collectables, take in the scenery and play with the photo mode for some amazing screenshots. Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade II doesn’t overstay its welcome at all, nor does it feel padded to artificially lengthen its gameplay. It’s a closed and linear story, but that’s also why it’s the amazing experience that it is, because of that focus. While there’s no New Game+ mode after completion, there is something interesting you unlock that I will surely play again through to experience, but am leaving that a surprise for you to find out.
Before you begin Senua’s journey, check out the options, as there’s plenty to set based on your preferences or accessibility needs. There are difficulty options for combat, but it goes a step further, allowing you to have Full control, Simple that will automatically use the best attacks and proper defenses, or if needed, full on automatic play. Combat was somewhat a challenge in the first game, so it’s great to see that if that was a barrier before, you won’t have to essentially worry about combat and still be able to progress.
There are three different Color Blind options (Deueranope, Protanope, and Tritanope), subtitle options, text sizes, button preferences (tap versus hold versus auto). With audio being a massive focus, you can change the mix from voices, sound effects and more. If you suffer from motion sickness, you can also change the motion blur and camera bobbing. There’s an impressive amount of accessibility options, so anyone should be able to enjoy the game regardless of any potential accessibility requirements. One option I highly suggest toggling is the walk/run to ‘toggle’ instead of the default ‘hold’, or else you’ll need to hold a Bumper button the whole time you want Senua to run (more like a brisk walk compared to a leisurely stroll).
Gameplay is similar to the first game, and while it may be linear, that by no mean diminishes its experience, fitting the narrative focus. With no HUD and no markers showing you where to go, you’re completely engrossed in Senua’s world. There are some subtle ways the game leads you in the right direction, like seeing some white paint or scuffs on ledges you can interact with, or following the light in a near pitch black cave. The narrative flows so smoothly that you don’t even know what chapter you’re currently on, as it’s all done cinematically. There’s no cutaways or text on the screen announcing chapters, again, fully immersing you in its own reality. Even the change from cutscene to gameplay is indistinguishable until you learn its subtle camera tricks indicating when you have control back of Senua.
While designed linearly, there are odd small paths you can explore, possibly finding pillars that have runes on them. These light up when found, indicating how many you’ve found along your journey. These give you some background lore and a small story told to you, fleshing out Senua’s world even further. While optional, there’s something you can unlock after completion if you’ve found every hidden collectable.
For those virtual photographers, you’re going to be very excited for the control you’re given with Hellblade II’s photo mode. You’re given a huge amount of tools, not just from moving the camera, but adding lighting sources, hiding characters, enabling or disabled background animations like weather, filters and more. What I didn’t expect was being able to enable photo mode during cutscenes, which made for some really interesting peeks behind the curtains so to speak. I fully expect to see some incredible screenshots, and the dozens I took were simply of the gorgeous backgrounds and Senua in the environment.
Puzzles return, much like Senua’s first outing, though not quite as heavily as before. There’s two different types of puzzles, what I call the ‘sign’ puzzles from the first game, and ‘orb’ puzzles. Every so often you’ll come across a door or pathway that becomes blocked as you approach. It will have a specific symbol on it, and the ‘key’ is to find the same parts of the symbol in the world. For example, maybe you need to find a symbol shaped like an “F”. Well, standing in a specific area and looking in a direction might have some debris or tree branches line up to form that symbol, unlocking part of the doorway. Finding the right spot and angle is key here, and you’ll know you’re in the right area when you start to see glowing symbols floating all around you. If you played the first Hellblade, it’s virtually identical.
The orb puzzles have you shifting reality to pass specific blockades or areas. In reality you might see a simple wall, but part of it has a strange glow to it. Find the nearby floating orb and this will distort reality, almost like a secondary plane, making that part of the wall disappear. Find another orb to swap back realities and the wall reappears. The later puzzles will have a few you need to trigger in a specific order to go from area to area, but none really stumped me for too long.
Senua’s journey isn’t an easy one, and along the way she’s going to have to fight in some brutal combat. There are light and heavy attacks, along with a block and dodge, but he biggest change from the first game is that Senua will face foes one at a time, almost like a gauntlet of enemies. Some may see this is a step back, but I remember becoming frustrated in the first game’s combat due to being constantly surrounded by enemies. This drastic change allows for a much more cinematic feel, being slower paced but no less brutal. Senua isn’t a superhero, she fights to survive and doesn’t hold back, and nearly every battle can feel like her last, especially when you’re fighting the tenth enemy in a row. Combat tells a story, not just showcasing her brutality and combat skills, but her desire to survive even when fearful.
One big change from the first game is the bosses. While they exist here, they are quite different than what you might remember from the first game. I’m not going to spoil anything of what to expect, but they aren’t your typical ‘boss fights’ that the first game had. That said, these were some of the most memorable sequences in the whole game, something I know I’ll be thinking of and remembering for some time. It’s different, but it fits Senua’s journey and is pulled off very well.
Unreal Engine 5 is showcased fully in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. The first game seven years ago impressed, and somehow Ninja Theory has taken it to a completely higher level. "Photorealism" sometimes gets thrown around a little loosely, but the facial animations of every character, especially Senua, embodies the photorealism terminology. Those with ultrawide screens will be happy to know that there’s support, and on a standard 16:9 TV or monitor you can expect an anamorphic camera with 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This means there’s a black header and footer, giving a cinematic feel.
With no UI or HUD, you’re engrossed in Senua’s world, not simply following a marker or icon to your next objective. This helps make it feel like a cinematic experience, more than just a ‘game’, it’s a playable cutscene. The original game was motion captured in two days, but combat alone in Hellblade II took 69 days; this alone should tell you how much effort has gone into improving every aspect, down the smallest details. The smallest details from Senua’s movements are realistic, and watching behind the scenes videos, you can see why. Even her outfit in game was created in real life so the actress could wear it and have it be as realistic as possible. I’d argue that the smaller details are even more important than the general visual improvements. I never saw any instances of clipping, as Senua’s hair and even clothing reacts realistically based on her environment and movements. Everything is just so fluid and natural, from facial movements where you can actually see emotion from a small squint in the eyes, to the natural movements in combat when Senua gets knocked down and must get back up before it’s too late.
The environments are equally as beautiful and hostile. Even in the darker scenes, there’s beauty to be had, then when you’re outside and the sun is shining, it’s hard to not snap a few vistas for its beauty. The real world is gorgeous, and the visions that Senua sees and experiences are just as mesmerizing. Lighting in each environment also feels natural. Fighting in the darkness with just a few torches in the background gives an uneasiness, where seeing a mysterious light shine through a cave entrance provokes wonder and beauty.
Ninja Theory is pushing the boundaries of realism, and the motion capture work from all the actors involved needs to be specifically pointed out for how real and raw their performances where, especially from heroine Senua. So many small details makes for a realistic performance, and I could tell how Senua was feeling simply from the smallest facial movements. Even the camerawork feels like a Hollywood level of immersion and professionalism, again feeling incredibly cinematic at all times, not just in cutscenes.
For how impressive the visuals are, the audio experience is even more so. The voices in Senua’s head that are a constant are called furies. They are always there, and while the audio in the first game was incredible, again, Ninja Theory has upped the bar in every way. First and foremost, if at all possible, play this with a pair of headphones on, any pair, but the higher quality, the better. Binaural audio makes the voices in Senua’s head sound so incredibly real, it’s as if they are voices in your own head. While Binaural audio isn’t a new technology, it seems they’ve perfected it, hearing voices distinctly in one ear or the other, appearing as if they are all around you at times. This is produced from a dual microphone setup, and in some behind the scenes videos, you can see performers Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalan circling the microphones as they deliver their lines which gives a 3D sensory experience. This constant narration was something that haunted Senua previously, but she’s clearly learned to deal with their presence.
In the first game only these voices were binaural, but now it’s everything audio related, even the music and background. I swear I thought it started raining heavily outside during one sequence that I took my headset off only to realize it was in game. For how realistic the visuals appear, the audio is on the same level of realism. Even smaller details are highlighted and noticeable, from Senua’s footsteps, a crackling fire, and even waves crashing in the background. Audio Director David Garcia performed something incredibly special in all of Hellblade II’s audio aspects. There’s even a streamer mode you can enable if you’re worried about DMCA strikes if you plan to broadcast to others.
Then there’s the performances from all of the talented actors. The voice acting across the board is nothing less than flawless. Melina Juergens reprises her role as Senua, and does an absolutely unbelievable performance as expected. Every line delivered, to her combat shouts and grunts, Senua’s motion captured and acting comes together in a completely believable performance that made me feel for Senua even more than before. Performances from everyone else are just as amazing, from the voice of Senua’s father belittling her abilities and trying to make her question her own motives, to your new enemies and allies, simply flawless. A special mention to folk band Heilung, crafting a very unique soundtrack that fits the setting and mood at every turn with their chants, drums and piano.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is an absolutely beautiful game, not just in its visuals, but also the audio and Senua’s actual journey from the original game to what she’s become in this sequel. There’s a famous quote stating video games can’t be art; I’d argue that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II proves this inaccurate. Artistry across different senses and technology come together to craft an amazing and meaningful tale worth experiencing. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a linear narrative driven action game that is unique, intense and incredibly immersive. With a focus on mental health and illness, there’s nothing quite like Hellblade II, a visual and audio experience unlike anything we’ve experience before, raising the bar of what ‘next-gen’ should mean. Once again, a Hellblade game is going to be in my GOTY contention.
**Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Metro Simulator 2
There’s no shortage of simulation games where you can perform any job you could possibly think of. The latest in the genre is Metro Simulator 2, placing you in the role of a conductor of a popular metro train. Of course there’s a niche for everything, though this is quite focused on a very specific audience. Uniquely, Metro Simulator 2 has you navigating the tunnels for Moscow, allowing you to ride two separate trains while forcefully following speed limits and picking up passengers.While there’s no typical Campaign, there is a Scenario and Freeplay Mode depending on how you want to play. Scenario is where you’ll learn how to play, acting as a tutorial of sorts, and another scenario where it lets you basically freeplay, visiting each of the stations. While there’s not a lot of scenarios, they do tell you how long each is going to take from the onset, though you’ll need to commit a good amount of time as they can be well over an hour long each.
The scenarios are difficult to complete though for a number of reasons; frustration, understanding, boredom, and/or game breaking bugs are generally the top offenders. Running a metro train isn’t simple though, and even getting it moving can be a challenge in memorization given the dozens if buttons, levers, knobs, and switches. Then you need to watch your speed, up ahead for track signs, stopping properly at each station, and picking up passengers.
The tutorial scenario will teach you the basics of being a metro conductor, but even early on I started to notice a few issues. There’s a lot you need to do before you can even get the train moving, and while I did appreciate that there were arrows pointing at exactly what button to press or lever to pull, if you don’t have a picture perfect memory, there’s no way to go back and read the tutorial steps over once again. The only way to remember it all would be to replay the tutorial over again if you come back to the game after a long break.
It’s all very difficult to control, as you need to move your cursor around slowly, all while the dashboard is beeping loudly at you for speeding over the track limits and the e-brakes kick in. With two trains to operate, one is quite dated and old school, where the other is a more modern train. With lengthy scenarios asking for a lot of your time upfront, the problem is that there’s no saving option outside of the Resume feature on Xbox. If you exit a scenario an hour in because you ran out of time, you’re going to have to start all over again next time as there’s no autosaves or progress points. Having a checkpoint at each station would have been a help to stop some of this frustration.
I could have overlooked some of the smaller issues which are commonplace is simulators like these, but what really started putting a sour taste in my mouth is having a game breaking bug at the end of the tutorial scenario. At the end of the tutorial you reach the end of the train line, having to swap around the direction of the train and go back the other way. For whatever reason, the emergency brakes engaged, which is normally a simple toggle, but it wouldn’t disengage. This meant my train was unable to move, so I couldn’t complete the scenario, losing all the time I’ve invested in the scenario given the lack of saves and checkpoints described above.
Given that I had to review the title, I of course started again, only for it to happen the next time as well. You can guess my level of frustration at this point. Of course I’m a glutton for punishment and go through the whole scenario once again. Somehow things finally worked as they were supposed to and I was able to complete the tutorial and get my achievement. Next scenario had me travelling to each of the stations, which is no big deal now that I’m a master at maneuvering the metro, except each time I tried, the alarm wouldn’t stop as if I was speeding, even though I wasn’t. This meant I had to continually hold ‘A’, and even a single km/h over the limit and the emergency brakes would kick in. Annoying to say the least.
There are two different trains you can navigate, the Nomernoy and the Oka. Nomernoy is the much older train with plenty of classic buttons and levers. This train takes much more effort to get going and stopped, as it’s much older technology. The Oka is much more modern and quick. Getting the train going is very fast, and stopping is substantially better than the older version. Even though I should like the modern train more for its ease, something about the manual controlling of the Nomernoy was more rewarding, having to use multiple levels of braking to stop when required, when it worked of course.
Being a simulator, you’ll need to look at each button and lever to use it, so it can be difficult to see what your current speed is when having to constantly adjust via levers. There’s actually very little notifications to help you, as you can’t tell when a station is coming up until it’s almost too late. More than once I almost blew by the stop as I fumbled around with the controls, and having to zoom in on the dashboard while unable to look out the windshield can cause you to miss things or over speed, which causes the emergency brakes and an annoying alarm to constantly berate your ear.
I can be forgiving when a game has bugs here or there if they aren’t game breaking, but when the game forces you to quit out literally in the tutorial, numerous times, it just sets itself up for failure. I only kept with it because I had to review, but the lack of care and quality assurance is astounding. The text for what it tells you to do is a literal port from the PC version, yet no one bothered to check and change it saying “Use Left Click” to whatever button needed on the controller. Oddly, there’s also certain punctuation missing like apostrophes, so words like “don’t” actually show as “don t”. Small things like this normally wouldn’t bother me much, but it just showed the negligence.
Graphically, don’t expect anything that will impress. Sure there’s generally not much to look at when you’re going through dark and barely lit tunnels, but even the stations are as lifeless as the NPC’s that board the metro. Every NPC looks dead inside and the stations have absolutely no character to them, everything is just bland. While I've never been on the metro in Moscow, I can only assume that its' quite authentic.
The audio is no different, with pre-recorded sounds that don’t match what’s happening at all. For example, the train speeding up should sound as if it’s going slow at the beginning until the engine whirls louder the faster you go. Going less than 10 km/h sounds as if you’re going full speed, and slowing down, going into neutral or a light brake, just stops the audio even though you’re still moving. The station announcements are done well, though I don’t speak Russian, so I’m unable to make sense of some of it until the English version comes over the speakers.
I’m all for odd, quirky, and niche simulators, as I generally find them relaxing, but when you’re frustrated more often than having any enjoyment, it’s hard to recommend. I’m sure if you’re a metro fanatic there will be some enjoyment, but the lack of care and quality on the console version of Metro Simulator 2 is almost at an embarrassing level unfortunately.
**Metro Simulator 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 3.6 / 10
Talos Principle II, The
Croteam, best known for their iconic Serious Sam games, released a very well received puzzle game back in 2014 (and later for console players) titled The Talos Principle. A little shy of a decade later and we now have a much anticipated sequel, also launching for console players. While I never played the original, The Talos Principle II doesn’t require knowledge of the first, though it does take place in the same universe, so those with knowledge of the previous game will certainly get a little more out of it and have an idea of what to possibly expect.With glowing reviews of the first game, I was excited to see what I was in store for with this sequel, and while I was simply expecting a typical puzzle game, I got something much more in-depth and meaningful, with a healthy amount of brain bending puzzles for good measure. Those that thoroughly enjoyed the original’s philosophical overtone and stunning environments will be glad to know that they not only return, but are much more vast this time. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting such a story driven puzzle game that made me think as much as the puzzles did, so it surprised me.
With philosophy being a large portion of The Talos Principle II’s narrative, writers from the first game have returned for the sequel. If you quite enjoyed the original’s theme, it's very similar. Taking place long after the first game, The Talos Principle II's timeline is long after humans as we know it have gone extinct due to global warming causing a deadly virus to be unearthed in some permafrost. Knowing that mankind was doomed, a group of scientists rushed to create advanced artificial intelligence as a way to preserve humankind of sorts. Those that were able to solve puzzles in a virtual reality were then uploaded to android bodies, so while they may not be human on the inside and out, their essence lives on. The first of these androids was Athena, who then created a handful of others so that they could build New Jerusalem, a haven and a reminder of how their kind can do things right this time, learning from the past’s mistakes.
You awaken. You are 1k, the 1000th android to be created, fulfilling “The Goal” from Athena of having one thousand androids, the ideal amount of population for New Jerusalem. Even though Athena has disappeared long ago, she’s viewed as the main creator, almost like a religious figurehead. Now that “The Goal” has been completed, it’s time for celebration, though this ends abruptly when a holographic Prometheus appears heeding a dire warning. With a massive energy spike detected in the far distance, it’s going to be up to 1k and a few others to go investigate what it was and the origin of that holographic figure.
Your team makes their way towards a megastructure that resembles that of a pyramid, but of massive scale. You’re unsure what the origin of this structure is, and you’re unable to gain access for the time being. This is where the puzzle solving comes into place for 1k, unlocking pieces to create a bridge. As you make progress and explore each vast area, solving their puzzles along the way, you get a sense of scale of this world that was once inhabited by humans. Even though this society of androids call themselves human, they are fascinated with the history of their origin and the people before. With many philosophical questions to be had, it made me question my thoughts and beliefs. With AI becoming more prevalent and advancing every day in the real world, even though this scenario may be thousands of years away, it does seem plausible and not all that far-fetched.
At its core, The Talos Principle 2 is a first person (though you can choose to play in third if you wish) puzzle game. Each one is designed to be completed in a minute or two, but that’s assuming you know the solution. Of course this isn’t the case in the beginning as you’re learning the mechanics and puzzle styles, and being stumped on a puzzle for a half hour wasn’t an anomaly. Each puzzle is segregated from the others, and your goal is to unlock some barrier to allow you to press a button, acting as a part of a larger unlock sequence, usually eight puzzles long per section.
Once awoken and active, 1k can explore New Jerusalem, a peaceful and calm city continuing to be developed and built before setting off to the mysterious lands that seem to have been left unexplored as of yet. Tracking down the energy surge leads you to a new land, separated by massive sections and different biomes. If you need a break from puzzle solving to relax your brain, you’re free to explore the land you’re in. It’s much larger than I expected and can feel like an open world game at times given its vastness. While the puzzles are your main objective, there are plenty of things to not only see off the beaten path, but secrets to find and even extra puzzles for those wanting even more.
What I didn’t really expect for a puzzle game was just how large the world is that you can explore. While the main areas are sectioned off into different places that you’ll take a high-speed tram to, each of the areas are quite vast, and it’s not just empty nothingness either, as there are secrets to find, extra puzzles, and even a few interesting Easter Eggs, like Serious Sam standups hidden behind a sectioned off area. There’s no map for you to reference, but there’s a compass at the top of your HUD that will point you in the right direction for the main puzzles and undiscovered places. You may even cross paths with the other androids on your excursion, allowing you to interact with them and choosing dialogue options. If you have a very keen eye you might even find a ‘spark’, allowing you to complete a puzzle without actually finishing it if you truly become stuck and refuse to check online for solutions.
Then there’s the puzzles, probably the reason you’re interested in this title. If you know the solutions to each puzzle, they would probably only take a minute or two, as they are all separated into their own area and not grand in scale, but there were more times than I could count that I spent easily a half hour on a puzzle, completely stumped before I either had the eureka moment or shamefully had to look up a hint online. In each main area you go to, you’ll need to complete the eight main puzzles to progress, rewarding you with a cutscene and story progress. When all eight puzzles are complete you’ll head to the main gate and need to build a bridge by connecting tetromino pieces together in a specific order. If you manage to become distracted and explore a bit, you could use the overhead compass to find your next puzzle, but you’ll also see signs in various areas that act as a clever way to guide you to the next puzzle, blinking and easy to understand what path to take.
There’s quite a few puzzles to get through, starting out simple enough, ramping up in difficulty as you go, adding new mechanics at each new area you access as well. Your main goal in each puzzle is usually lowering a barrier somehow so that you can press the button and complete said puzzle, but doing so isn’t always as simple as you think. Most puzzles are going to involve a colored laser on a wall and a matching colored receiver elsewhere to lower or power certain gates. Things start simple with matching red or blue lasers to their corresponding receiver, but you’ll soon have to deal with walls, jammers, movable crates, pressure plates, fans, RGB converters, drillers, and more. Each new mechanic is introduced one at a time, but you’ll need to catch on quick, as puzzle difficulty ramps up afterwards once the game determines you should know how to properly use each object. Those are have color blindness, there are different options for you, as well as a few accessibility toggles for those that get motion sickness as well.
Some gates will block you from entering, generally the one blocking the button to press at the end of each puzzle, and others will allow you to pass through, but not carried objects, and some won’t let lasers through either. This is where jammers, connectors and converters come into play. You can pick them up and place them where needed to manipulate the laser to go where needed. I hope you know your primary colors too, as the RGB converters will be used quite heavily to change colored lasers when combined, or inverters that swap from red to blue and vice versa. You can probably start to get an idea how much pre-planning or brute force some of these puzzles are going to take. When holding one of the items, you can use a specific trigger to link them, and once placed, the will either work as intended, or not, depending on your placement and line of sight.
Then there’s certain walls that can have a hole created through it temporarily with the drillers, allowing lasers to pass through, or objects placed on either side. Jammers come in handy, allowing you to disable a gate from afar to whichever it’s pointed at. The later half adds some more puzzle elements that I’ll leave as a surprise, but suffice to say, it only amps up the complexity and challenge when you have to think of gravity swaps and verticality. Certain puzzles I found quite difficult, seemingly like it was impossible, but of course once you solve it you feel like an idiot at how you didn’t realize the solution for the last twenty minutes of trying everything you could think of. Many of the puzzles seemed to be step based, as you couldn’t just do one or two things to reach the end, instead having to do manage multiple lasers, moving objects, then adjusting almost like another phase of the solution.
The Talos Principle II has some absolutely stunning vistas. More than a few times I stopped to simply take in the scenery and atmosphere for some screenshots. Without humans the planet is beautiful, and even though there’s only 1000 androids inhabiting New Jerusalem, they do have a thing for cats it seems. The scale of the environments is massive and each biome feels unique from one another, daring you to explore it and maybe find some secret in the distance. The soundtrack is just as beautiful, opening for a melodic background that suits the puzzle gameplay, and the voice acting from across the cast was wonderfully done, being believable ‘human’ androids, each with their own quirks.
Obviously the difficulty of the puzzles are going to vary person to person, given your skill level and problem solving abilities, though I do wish there was some sort of included hint system so I didn’t have to resort to checking externally online when I became frustrated after being stuck for a half hour on a single puzzle. That said, even with how often I was stumped, I kept wanting to try for just ‘one more puzzle’, as that would get me to the next area that I wanted to explore, which is an odd thing to say for a puzzle game. Priced at $38.99 CAD normally, there’s immense value for what you get, lasting you at least a dozen or two hours, and is a more than fair price for the quality and overall experience.
While I could see that some may not enjoy the optional exploration component as much as I did, especially for a puzzle game, the world was so unique and beautiful it couldn’t help but be memorable. I wish I found the original game sooner, as The Talos Principle II should absolutely be in the same conversations as Fez and Portal as one of the best puzzle games there are. There’s an impressive amount of detail, from the environments, puzzle design, character development, and plot, The Talos Principle II is a must play if you’re a fan of puzzles and narrative that comes together in a meaningful way.
**The Talos Principle II was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo
The SpellForce series has been around since 2003 when it first released. Playing somewhat like a Diablo and Sacred game with RTS elements, the series may not have reached the same heights, but it certainly has its following and even got the remaster treatment from THQ for its third game back in 2021. What I don’t think many were expecting as the latest entry, SpellForce: Conquest of Eo, to be drastically different, instead a turn based RPG with some 4X elements, resembling more of an Age of Wonders game instead.Set in SpellForce’s world somewhere in its timeline, you’re in control of your master’s wizard tower, but they have passed and the tower is in shambles, so now it’s up to you to figure out what happened and uncover secrets, all while defending yourself and your tower from others. The Circle of Mages are the most powerful Magi in Eo, and you are clearly nowhere near as powerful as them as a lowly apprentice. You actually are kind of pathetic when you compare your powers, so it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to succeed in the dozens hours long campaign that is procedurally generated. You’ll have many decisions to make along your journey, though it’s all done through text, so don’t expect any exciting cutscenes.
You begin by choosing one of three classes, each of which play quite drastically different from one another. One creates glyphs to improve your units, another crafts items and bombs to support you in battle, and lastly, the one I started with, was the Necromancer, that can raise the undead into a controllable army hoard.
Playing an evil Necromancer was quite fun, raising the undead and controlling a near unlimited army to overwhelm your opponents. Next I tried playing the Artificer, creating glyphs and items to boost my armies after mining a bunch of ore. These units weren’t nearly as many but seemed powerful. Lastly was the Alchemist creating potions and bombs to use in combat, though I enjoyed this class the least. If you don’t want to play either of these classes, you can create your own mixture and your own class, but you’re going to want to have some playtime under your belt so you know what best to focus on. If you choose to spend some more money, there’s also a Demon Scourge DLC that allows you to play as a Demonologist, though this was not included in our review edition, so I’m unable to comment on how it plays comparatively to the others.
As you grow in power from a simple apprentice to a masterful mage, your journey won’t be easy, as the world is full of others that are trying to expand in the land of Eo as well. You’ll quickly begin with a simple minion or two, eventually amassing an army that can all be controlled individually or in squads should you wish. Building up your tower not only makes you stronger, but your home base can also eventually be moved across the map, and will be needed to, to take on eventual challenges and campaign progress.
While your overall goal may be to find the ultimate source of magical powers, the Allfire, you’re going to make friends or enemies along the way, harvest resources, explore a large map, fill your grimoire with new spells and abilities, expand your territory and try to make your previous master proud. Unlike most 4X type of games, you command your tower, acting like your city, but you can move it when needed once you’ve learned the proper spells and will need to be careful, as you need to defend it and prevent it from being destroyed.
Your grimoire is your trusty spell book. You only have a few pages to begin and not many spells to use. You’ll need to spend research to learn new abilities and spells, and completing certain quests will unlock new spells pages which will unlock even more powerful spells. There’s a lot of upgrades to get, and the better and more powerful spells take more resources to research and cast.
Along the way you’ll have the opportunity to recruit special units, acting as a hero or apprentice, able to lead your troops in battle. You can group different units and troops together however you wish, crafting your armies. I do wish I was able to make larger armies as a bigger unit, but learning how to create groups of troops will play into your strategy. Do you surround a tough foe by a number of groups and battle back to back, or separate, divide and conquer? You’re able to cast spells before battles, buffing yourself or inhibiting your enemy, this of course takes some resources to do so though.
When you’re not exploring the overworld map, you’ll be placed in combat. While you can choose to auto resolve most battles aside from the powerful enemies, doing so might have consequences you don’t want, like dead units since you’re not directly in control. Should you decide to actually take part in battle, you’ll be placed in a small hexagonal gridded map and occur in turned based combat. You can see on the map where you can move and decide which enemies to attack if in range. If you’ve been taking place in battles beforehand and leveling up, you’ll have unlocked special abilities and stat increases for your units along the way.
Depending on which class you decided to play, your combat strategies will differ greatly. As a Necromancer I simply overwhelmed my enemies with a huge army, though I found Alchemist a lot more work having to remember to use potions and bombs to win in battle. Other than a few instances, there really seems no alternative to combat much of the time as there’s no diplomacy mechanics. There are times where you’ll anger characters or get them on your side, but eventually you’re going to travel and expand into others territory, and it’s up to you how you’ll react to them defending their area.
While the overworld map is static and doesn’t change from game to game, events and how things play out will each time, so I opted to play a bit differently every game as I tried each class. The world is colorful and the units are varied based on which class you’re playing, but unless you’re actually controlling each battle, there’s not too much detail to see, though I do enjoy the high fantasy aesthetic. The audio however was quite lacking. There’s a light soundtrack that plays as background but there’s no voice acting, which is surprising giving how much dialogue and text there is along the way.
While not quite as in depth as a true 4X title, there’s still quite a lot to take in and learn, and honestly, the game doesn’t do a great job at teaching you every nuance. Controls can be quite confusing, and it wasn’t until my second play as the Artificer where I really started to understand strategic gameplay and planning my moves ahead.
While I found my first playthrough a confusing and frustrating mess, it made much more sense trying the other classes. They all play differently enough to warrant other playthroughs and require different strategies. Once I got the hang of the gameplay and how to best progress, I went from being frustrated to wanting to play ‘just one more turn'.
**Spellforce: Conquest of Eo was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Jagged Alliance 3
While sequels are never a guaranteed thing, it’s certainly not common to get one over two decades later. Jagged Alliance finally makes its long awaited return with a third main installment. With Jagged Alliance 2 having released in 1999, franchise fans patience have finally paid off, and better yet, console fans are now included as well.Taking place in the fictional country of Grand Chien, its president has gone missing after being kidnapped by a paramilitary force known as “The Legion”. Led by "The Major”, The Legion now rules the countryside and is hostile to practically everyone as they take over. The President’s family won’t let this stand, and his daughter works together with the Adonis corporation to hire a group of mercenaries to not only save the President, but also return order back to the country. The story is by no means its strong point, but it’s serviceable enough to give you an overall objective to work towards stopping The Legion.
This is where you come in, a part of a mercenary group hired to track down The Major, defeat Legion, and rescue the President. Even though you have good intentions, sometimes your actions won’t always be perceived that way by locals. During your excursions, you’ll actually have a lot of decisions to make, and there will be consequences for your choices, regardless of intent. These outcomes were not always what I expected, as I thought I was helping at times, only to have a result that was quite different.
A turn based strategy game at its core, Jagged Alliance 3 pits your mercenary team in a number of different situations where you’re going to have to learn to adapt on the fly, with each play being different based on certain outcomes and what team of mercenaries you have with you. Before you begin your rescue mission though, you’ll need to decide how difficult you want your game to be. There’s actually quite a lot of toggles to change, not just the overall difficulty, but other options as well like permanent death for mercenaries and a bunch of others to make things easier or harder. I will say, even with all of the easiest settings enabled, some battles were quite challenging.
I’ll admit, the first few hours going from mission to mission, I wasn’t enjoying myself very much. I was dying, losing mercenaries, running out of money and simply struggling with the controls. I decided to start over once again from the start, seeing if I would have a better run the next time with a few hours under my belt. While there’s tooltips that somewhat help you early on, it doesn’t do nearly enough to actually teach you best how to play or how to handle the poor controls. Starting out with weak guns and low level mercenaries doesn’t help, but soon as you start killing some Legion, you’ll loot bodies and find some better items along the way.
With a steep learning curve, it’s not helped by the terrible console controls. Clearly designed for a PC experience with mouse and keyboard in mind, while it technically works on a controller, it’s a frustrating mess with having to hold either Left or Right Trigger as modifiers for a bunch of commands, or the bumpers to swap targets, none of which are really taught to you. Even hours in I was still making mistakes on the controls or having to try and squint to read what buttons did what, as it never feels natural even dozens of missions in.
As you make your way across the country, you’ll clear sections on the overworld map. There’s two portions to the gameplay; exploration and combat. Before you’re spotted or start a fight, you’re in exploration mode where you can freely wander, talk to locals, scavenge for loot and more. Completing missions will earn you more cash which will allow you to do more and hire better tiered mercenaries as well, as no one works for free.
Your mercenaries are the core of your teams. The game firsts asks you to hire four to start your team off, so I did, not knowing that I could actually hire more and even create my own. This is all done through a UI that’s meant to emulate early internet era, and it’s not always clear what you can or can’t do, even in the menus. It wasn’t until my second game restart that I figured out I could actually create my own mercenary for cheaper.
You can choose to do a ten question quiz that’s quite humorous, which will form a merc a certain way for its class and stats based on your answers, though you can skip this and simply move the stat sliders to whatever you like, as well as choosing two perks. I opted to make a sniper focused character, though you don’t get to choose their starting weapon, so my sniper simply had a pistol to begin with.
There’s about 40 mercenaries to choose from when you’re hiring, ranging from rookie to legendary, with the better mercs costing much more, as you need to pay their salaries for employing their services for days at a time. They all have their own look, style and personalities, some of which are parodies or stereotypes, which I found quite hilarious. There’s also some times where the merc you want to hire refuses to join because they aren’t a fan of one of the people on your team already, so sometimes you need to settle or spend more on someone else. If you’re a fan of the previous titles, you might even see some familiar faces, and as they level up you’ll be able to improve your mercenaries and choose new perks.
The turn based combat can be quite tactical once you figure out its intricacies and wrap your head around the terrible controls. Like other games that are similar to X-COM, you have a set amount of Action Points which can be used for movement or attacks. This AP will vary mercenary to mercenary based on their stats, so you can spend more to move further, or take more accurate shots. Instead of firing a number of times, you can spend more AP to narrow in on your enemy for what I assume is a better percentage to hit. Part of the problem is that it seems the enemies aren’t restricted by AP though, as they can run half way across the battlefield then take a shot at you with ease, as they seem to almost have 100% accuracy regardless of where they shoot from.
I say assume because Jagged Alliance 3 never tells you the chance to hit or miss enemies. This becomes apparent when you land a long range sniper shot, but then miss a point blank shotgun blast. This randomness is by design but makes it near impossible to decide what the best course of action is. If I knew that certain shots were a very low percentage to hit, I’d figure out something else, but missing three times in a row for what seems like an easy attack becomes frustrating every time it happens, which is quite often.
Once in combat and trying to take a shot, you can zone in on specific body parts to aim for, which is sometimes necessary as a portion of them might be behind cover. Obviously a lot of your damage is factored by your position, critical hits, type of weapon, distance and more, but some enemy soldiers seem to be bullet sponges. I’ve head-shotted an enemy more than once and it still didn’t kill them. You also can’t see how much health they have remaining in a numerical value, only text that says “wounded” or otherwise. Again, this makes it hard to strategize when you don’t really know how much health they have left.
Overwatch is a system that can be used, setting up your mercenaries to watch specific areas, shooting if an enemy passes through, but there’s a few issues here. From what I can figure out, again because the game doesn’t teach you much and the controls are horrendous, you can’t freely aim where you want to place your overwatch cover. You can choose to aim at a specific enemy, but this isn’t what I always wanted. Even on my third game starting over, I tried everything and couldn’t figure out a way to freely aim my overwatch direction to anywhere I wanted like you can do on PC. Maybe I’m missing something, but it made it almost useless at times unless you just happen to be in the right area and facing a specific direction.
While I appreciate there is online multiplayer co-op so you can play alongside friends, I was unable to find a single match, nor had anyone join when I was hosting each time I attempted, so I’m unfortunately unable to comment on how that plays or differs from single player.
While the game looks fine overall, but it also won’t impress. Each the maps are detailed enough that it does feel like you’re exploring and fighting in a jungle or desert, but unless you zoom in quite close, you’re going to miss a lot of the smaller details. It’s all passable, including the animations, but there’s nothing that really stood out visually. There’s a good amount of voice overs from all the mercenaries, and while some of the performances were over the top, I believe many of them were meant to be, especially the Arnold-like muscle guy with plenty of one-liners.
While I don’t think as many would have the patience I did to start over three times (the third due to a game breaking bug), even hours in I was still becoming frustrated with the horrendous controls. Clearly designed for mouse and keyboard, while yes it’s been ported to console controllers, it’s not intuitive and was a constant frustration trying to read the tiny text to determine what trigger I needed to hold to do specific actions so I don't accidentally end my turn again.
Waiting more than two decades for a sequel, I’m sure true Jagged Alliance fans will overlook many of its shortcomings and frustrations, as it does capture the same feeling, it seriously needs some work on its control scheme to be more much fluid and less confusing. For every moment I was enjoying, I was equally frustrated when I missed point blank shots or accidently ended my turn prematurely due to a wrong button combination.
**Jagged Alliance 3 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Cookie Cutter
Judging by its name alone, you’d assume that Cookie Cutter is something completely different from what it actually is. It does not involve any sugary treats you might expect, but instead revolves around a futuristic dystopia that is filled to the brim with blood, gore and violence, but looks great doing so. A love and revenge story wrapped in Metroidvania gameplay, Cookie Cutter is a flashy 2D platformer that feels different than others in the genre, as well as being quite challenging, but for non-designed reasons.INFONET promised a utopia that would be built upon the backs of androids, known as Denzels. Like most stories with this setup, this was all fine and dandy for a short while, but then the proverbial crap hits the fan. Shinji Fallon is a brilliant engineer who creates Denzels, creating a special one named Cherry. Unexpectedly, they fall in love with one another, so you’d expect they have a wonderful life together. Well, this doesn’t last long of course. INFONET’s leader, who appears like a clone of Marilyn Manson, decides that they need Shinji to work for them, so they take her by force. Of course Cherry tries to stop this from happening, but in the process, she’s brutally destroyed right in front of Shinji. Even broken into pieces, you try to chase after your love, but are executed in gruesome fashion. I told you the game title alone doesn’t prepare you.
You suddenly awaken one day, unsure where you are. Turns out a mechanic, Raz, found you and repaired you. Now that you’ve been rebuilt and repaired, Cherry has revenge on her mind, to save her creator and love of her life, and if she needs to take down all of INFONET to do so, she will, as violently as possible.
While Cherry is a badass android that can fight, she can’t do it alone, so you’ll have a sidekick that gives you advice along the way, though I guarantee you won’t see this coming. Regina and Cherry will have plenty of conversations, and it might take you a moment to put two and two together, but Regina is your... robotic vagina. That’s right, your sidekick is your talking vulva down in your nether regions. Again, something the title alone couldn’t have prepared you for.
A Metroidvania at its core, you’ll be exploring this sidescroller and destroying any other robots and enemies along the way. Rooms and areas begins simple enough, slowly adding more traps and dangers. The best part is that you can use these buzz saw or electricity traps against your enemies, as knocking them into said pits will cause them to take damage as well.
In true Metroidvania fashion, you’re going to come across areas you can’t access the first time you get there, but eventually you’ll get upgrades that allow you to gain admittance to new areas, allowing for more upgrades and getting closer to extracting your revenge on INFONET. Now and then you’ll come across some warp points, though I do wish there were more for when you need to backtrack or go another way.
Combat begins simple enough, using ‘X’ to punch and kick to attack your enemies, also able to combine with 'Up' to launch enemies in the air for some combos. Your regular attacks can do the job, but will take a lot of spamming to actually defeat the harder enemies. When an enemy is low on health, you can use ‘Y’ to execute them with a finisher, also refilling some of your energy which can be used for heavy attacks. Learning your combos and juggling enemies is going to be imperative when things become much harder the closer to INFONET you get.
While you can use your stored energy to use some heavy attacks and quickly down some enemies, I opted to not do so, as it’s the same resource needed to heal yourself if needed. While this makes you vulnerable as you channel your stored energy into health, it’s a necessity when things don’t go to plan. This becomes apparent early on once you reach some rooms that trap you inside until all enemies are defeated. Seems like no big deal with one or two enemies at first, but eventually these rooms will have an overwhelming amount of enemies that will cause some deaths and restarts at the last checkpoint you reached.
This is where combat becomes very chaotic and you start to feel some of the holes in the fighting mechanics. The biggest flaw without a doubt is the parry system. In theory, you can press a single button, parry an enemy attack, and defeat them. In practice though, you’ll be lucky if you’re able to make it work even close to half the time. For the life of me, I simply couldn’t get the parry to work, even on the basic enemies. They do give a slight indication of their attack that’s about to happen, but the reaction window to react seems so small that it feels broken. I could parry an enemy here and there, then mistime the next ten and end up dying. And that’s just one on one versus a single enemy. As soon as you have two or more, there’s virtually no point trying, as when you don’t hit the parry in time, you’re open for attack. You can’t parry projectiles either, so you’ll also need to rely on your dodge much of the time instead. Facing a boss where you need to parry their attacks, and you can see where a bunch of my frustration started to set in.
This is exactly why I opted to always save my energy to use for self-heals, as every time I didn’t parry properly, I took a massive amount of damage. I honestly just thought that maybe I misunderstood the parry mechanic or was doing something wrong, so I checked online, only to find out that it seems to be a common ‘problem’ with many others trying to enjoy Cookie Cutter to its fullest as well. If I was able to perform parries whenever I wanted, one shotting enemies and refilling my health for doing so, I’d breeze through Cherry’s quest, instead dying quite often and becoming frustrated cause it just feels off. I actually simply just stopped trying to parry, relying on dodges and normal attacks instead, which made every fight slog on.
As you explore each new area, you’ll gain new abilities and fight new enemy types along the way. While you can expect the usual types of abilities and upgrades like dashes and double jumps, in an interesting twist, your new combat abilities are also how you’ll gain access and reach new areas. As you combat new enemy types, certain abilities will be best suited for certain types, but I found myself falling back on what simply seemed easiest, as it can become chaotic at times.
While the combat frustrated me at every turn, the visual aesthetic was easily its highlight. Everything appears to be hand drawn and animated, and done amazingly well. While there’s a hefty amount of blood and gore, it’s all a spectacle to take in. Even the designs of enemies and Cherry herself feels unique and not what you’d normally expect. Finishers are over the top and gory, and the animation is quite slick overall. The metal soundtrack that kicks in during boss fights and certain moments amps up the experience as a whole. I do wish there was some voice acting aside from the opening moments, as I’d be curious what hearing Cherry and Regina banter would be like back and forth.
While all the pieces are there for a great Metroidvania, complete with unique setting and characters, Cookie Cutter frustrated me more often than not due to the broken parry system that rarely works as advertised. I wasn’t expecting to play a love-revenge story as a lesbian android that talks to her robotic vagina, filled with violence and gore, but it certainly was a memorable adventure.
**Cookie Cutter was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Ufouria: The Saga 2
Back in the NES era, if you rented a game that had the SUNSOFT logo, you knew you were generally in for a good time. While I may be aging myself there a bit, SUNSOFT has been around since 1978, bringing a handful of memorable classic titles that I remember fondly from my childhood. One of their most unique titles though, Ufouria: The Saga, released in 1991, was one that I never got to play, though that was because it was only ever released in JP and EU, skipping North America.That said, I found it odd that such an obscure title in their library finally gets a sequel more than three decades later with Ufouria: The Saga 2. It’s said that the characters from these games were once going to be SUNSOFT’s mascots of sorts, though never really worked out that way even though they did get a few cameo’s here and there. Gaming has changed dramatically in the last three decades, and the classic NES title now looks vastly improved with its unique and disgusting adorable art style.
You begin as Hebe, a penguin-like creature with an adorable blue toque for a hat. You awake in your bedroom, which happens to be atop a tree, consisting of your bed and a toilet, also acting as the game’s main hub. You’re interrupted by a strange alien in a UFO who throws bumyons, a purple goo-like substance that sticks to anything it touches. Thankfully Hebe has popoons, the inverse to this sticky goo, a furry Tribble-like creature that absorbs and destroys the goop. So you start out on your quest to stop this alien and clean up your home with your trusty popoons.
While the main plot is for you to stop this alien and get rid of the annoying bumyons, it’s really about making friends and exploring the world for coins and secrets. The first few bosses you defeat allow you to have companions that will accompany you on your journey, each with their own ability that will allow you to progress further. Some will only join once you buy them something they desire from the local vending machine at your home, so save those coins, as you’re going to need all the help you can get.
If you’ve played the original obscure game, the characters will all seem familiar, as they make a return. While the original NES game wasn’t visually pretty by any means, Ufouria 2 is absolutely charming and stunning with its design, appearing as if the world is created by fabric and felt for its backdrops and perler beads that border the text boxes and make up firework animations when a boss is defeated.
A sidescrolling platformer at its core, there’s also some Metroidvania elements thrown in as you’ll be revisiting areas numerous times as you gain new friends with their abilities. The clever way this is done is by giving each companion a different ability, rather than your single character magically getting new skills to jump higher or swim, etc. Like any good Metroidvania, you’ll reach areas you can’t access yet until you have a specific ability and friend alongside.
The world’s layout for zones is static, but what’s interesting is that each time you enter a zone, it’s slightly different each time, randomized for its layout. This prevents the game from becoming stale, as you’ll sometimes need to pass through zones a handful of times, so at least each time is different slightly. Levels will also give you an objective to complete if able, giving a bonus that's usually coins. These optional objectives vary from not getting hit, killing a certain amount of enemies or racing to complete it under a certain time for example, and while not overly challenging, at least gives you a focus if you want the bonus coins or cans.
While not a terribly long or challenging game, the first portion will have you going to new areas, defeating a boss, then gaining that companion after you buy them the item they desire. The second half is using all your new companions abilities to their fullest so you can get to new areas to collect more coins and precious tin cans needed for the vending machine upgrades and unlocks.
Swapping characters once they’ve decide to join you is done with a simple press of either Bumper. This has them give a high fine to one another and swap out the current character for the next. Each character is unique from one another, not just in their ability, but how they look and even walk. While you won’t have a traditional gridded map to remind you of the world’s layout, it’s just remembering where that large gap you couldn’t jump across was before, or the pool of water you couldn’t swim through.
Combat is simplistic in nature, having you either throwing your popoons to destroy the purple goop, or to stun enemies, though there's a little delay as it refreshes to be used again. You can also butt stomp enemies as well for extra coins. The only complaint I have about the butt stomping is that you need to be perfectly in line of the enemy, as if you don’t exactly stomp in the middle of the enemy’s hitbox, it’ll count as a hit against you and you’ll lose a heart. Honestly, the only times I ever really got hit was when I wasn’t perfectly lined up for my butt stomps. A quick popoon hit will stun them in place for a few moments, making it easier to line up your butt attack though.
Even the stage bosses don’t pose much of a threat, as you simply need to butt stomp them three times after removing their bumyon with a timed popoon attack first. Only the final boss is slightly different, though Ufouria 2 isn’t a challenging game by any means. After a boss you’ll come to a room with a chubby bird that offers to fly you home for free if you wish, netting all the coins and cans you’ve found along the way.
Back at home you’ll have a vending machine which is where you can purchase new items and upgrades when you have enough coins and cans. The amount of cans you’ve collected determines what items you’ll have access to and to purchase, you’ll need enough coins to actually purchase them though. Thankfully there wasn’t much need to grind levels for coins, as I generally always had enough for what I needed without having to do another run of collections.
There’s a shocking amount of items and upgrades to buy, and while a majority is optional, it’s always nice to have more hearts, adding challenge rooms, portals to get around the world quicker and more. You can even purchase optional abilities for characters, which is how you’ll find all of Ufouria’s secrets. I kept wanting to find more of the tin cans to see what the next upgrade was so that I could then purchase it and see how it changes the world.
Ufouria 2 is one of the most visually charming and disgustingly cute games I’ve played in recent memory. The world aesthetic of being crafted from layered felt reminded me a lot of Yoshi's Woolly World and how it too had bright colors and simply made you smile gazing upon it. The perler beads also add a nice touch and Ufouria 2’s arts and crafts visual flair just make it a joy to appreciate. The soundtrack is whimsical, and while there’s no voice over, the sound effects are just as cute as you’d expect along the journey.
While it may be a tad on the expensive side ($31.99 CAD), I quite enjoyed my time with it alongside Hebe and friends exploring their world, certainly memorable for its unique design and colorfulness. Ufouria: The Saga 2 is a sequel that I don’t think anyone asked for, or saw coming, but I’m all for it given how adorable is all is. It’s a small and quirky game that’s certainly on the easy and casual side, but sometimes a game like that is a welcome change.
**Ufouria: The Saga 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Wizard with a Gun
Wizards are cool and all, but give a wizard a gun and they become that little bit more bad ass. While I don’t normally gravitate towards roguelikes often, when they are done well, they can be incredibly addicting, wanting to always play ‘one more’ round. Each ‘run’ you get slightly more powerful as you gather more materials and learn how the world works. You’ll play as a Gunmancer, a wizard who can imbue their bullets with a variety of different elements in this interesting twin-stick shooter. You’ll be gathering materials, turning back time, shooting endless foes and trying to srop the world from collapsing.You are tasked with trying to prevent the Collapse, a world ending event that’s going to happen in five minutes. Luckily for you, your home base is inside a magical tower outside of regular time and space, where you’re not confined to the regular time limits while outside. Thankfully for you, you’re able to head back to your tower through special portals, rewinding time back five minutes once again as you try and make another run at preventing the apocalypse.
Every time you set out into the world with your five minute timer, you’re searching for a special gear, one that can be slotted into your time machine back at the tower, slowly accumulating so you can reset the world to what is was once before, before Chaos caused destruction everywhere. To be successful though you’re going to have to not only survive, but craft upgrades, enhancements, and crafting unique types of bullets for your weaponry.
While five minutes surely isn’t a lot of time, every time you enter the world it is randomly generated and filled with plenty of enemies and resources. Long as you make it back to the tower before dying, you’ll keep all that you’ve collected. If not, you’ll lose the resources you didn’t deposit back at your base. Certain Chaos enemies can randomly appear, and if destroyed, will add some time to your clock that’s constantly running out. This is why I found it stressful in the beginning, always having to worry about racing against the clock and making it back in time before it was too late, as the world doesn’t end exactly after the five minutes, but becomes a much more deadly and destructive place until you return and reset the clock once more.
Wizard with a Gun is exploration and crafting heavy, constantly needing mass amounts of resources so that you can survive just a little longer each run, maybe finding another gear or boss to make some overall progress. Create bullets, design modifications, outfit yourself in different garments with enhancements, and even furnish your tower.
While you don’t have traditional spells as a wizards, where your talents come into play is crafting specific types of bullets, once learned. This is how you’ll fight back in each loop once you turn back the clock and head back into the world. With each time to enter the world being randomly generated, you’ll have to explore and search, constantly weighing risk versus reward. Do you opt to stay a little longer before heading back to the tower and risk dying and losing everything you’ve gathered this run, or be cautious and quick to try and keep more resources and progress further even though it may not be as much?
I’ll admit, I was quite overwhelmed and frustrated for the first couple hours, as you’re taught the basics, but there are so many more mechanics and nuances to learn as you go that doesn’t really get explained all that well. You’re unsure what materials to keep, how to make new materials and what you even need to keep or not. While everything has a use in some ways, it’s not always clear or in what step you’ll need each type of item, as the crafting system becomes quite vast and convoluted.
As a twin-stick shooter, you’ll use the Left Stick to move your character and the Right to aim. Triggers are your bullets and you dodge with ‘B’. The core gameplay revolves around your guns, swapping them out and using the different elements against enemies. While there are different types of weapons from rifles, SMG’s, Carbines, Blunderbuss, and other types, the real interesting part is crafting the different bullet element types and choosing which upgrades as you mix and match to figure out what works best for you.
While the varied enemy types aren’t all that challenging, as they simply fire or rush at you, you’ll start to do well in combat once you learn how to use the elements in conjunction with one another and how they affect the world. Using regular bullets to destroy a tree will give you wood, but using fire or poison to do so will give you a different material, such as charcoal or poisoned wood. This again is something not explained very well, so you’ll need to do a lot of experimenting to figure these basics out, then having to memorize.
Upgrades are done in a number of ways. The most obvious is crafting the different ammunition types with resources you gather. Fire, ice, poison, lightning, force, and even bullets that can charm enemies and have them fight alongside you for that run. How you combine these elements will alter how they affect enemies. You’ll eventually be able to unlock and alter specific traits as well, like being a more powerful shot, leaving elemental trails behind and other ways to customize your guns.
While you get to choose a handful of different wizard robes and garments, these seem cosmetic at first, but you’ll eventually be able to upgrade specific components to each piece of gear, adding health bonuses, movement speed, carry capacity and more. The more you can craft, the more you’ll realize how much grinding you’ll need to do for specific materials you need. Certain upgrades may require a specific amount of mushrooms for example, so on your next run you set out with that specifically in mind. You’ll of course become distracted, looking for other materials, finding gears, harvesting Arcana from enemies, all while keeping an eye on the five minute timer.
There’s also been a large 'Bounty of Guns' update recently, adding much more gameplay to the predictable gameplay loop. This added new exciting bounties, where you’re hunting massive minibosses who will have some unique attacks you’ll need to learn the patterns of. More than 50 new guns also await to be crafted, though to find the blueprints you’ll need to scan specific NPC’s and enemies, which is easier said than done when trying to avoid getting hit.
There is an option for two player online co-op, though I was unable to find any games being hosted, nor did anyone join mine in the dozen or so hours I had a lobby open, so unfortunately I’m unable to comment on how co-op changes the gameplay, if at all.
The visual aesthetic is quite colorful and has a very distinct style. Enemy designs are quite varied, and while there is a lot of repetition for creatures, they are designed quite well, as are the animations for movements and attacks, telegraphed with large red markers. The soundtrack fits the mood of each biome and backdrop with light instruments, though largely forgettable for the most part. You’ll mostly hear a lot of your footsteps and weapons firing more than anything else though.
While the tutorials for a lot of the mechanics are lacking or not explained well, with enough time, I went from not really enjoying myself to having to do just ‘one more run’ for a specific upgrade. Once you’ve wrapped your head around all of what’s possible and how to craft, it goes from being a confusing and frustrating grind to being a fun yet repetitive shooter. While it does become tedious at times, Wizard with a Gun starts to really shine once you learn of its elemental intricacies.
**Wizard with a Gun was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator
I’m a sucker for simulation games, and these days there seems to be one for nearly any type of job you can think of. The latest in the genre is Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator, and if it’s got simulator in the name, it’s got to be a pretty faithful recreation of the job right? Well, yes and no. Developed by Simteract and published by Nacon, Taxi life puts you in the shoes of a taxi driver, picking up passengers all over a faithfully recreated city of Barcelona. While I’ve never been personally, I’d certainly love to go now to see how accurate their recreation of the city actually is, I just hope that the drivers in real life and better than the ones in game.There’s no real narrative per-se, you’ll simply be taking a quick road test to introduce you to the gameplay basics of navigating your car controls before you’re set free in the the city of Barcelona to drive passengers from one corner to the other. Earn money and experience for doing so, purchase new cars, upgrade them and eventually even start a fleet of drivers all working for you.
You’ll first begin by choosing your driver, but don’t expect any sort of character creator here, you simply choose one of a couple drivers without any option to customize. You then choose a company name for your save file, a logo from a handful of premade ones, and then you’re off to play however you like. There are a few options you can choose in the difficulty, even how the car itself will handle from simple arcade controls all the way to simulation where you’ll need to use the clutch and shifter.
Gas and Brake are mapped to the Triggers as you’d expect, though it took some getting used to not being able to reverse by simply hitting brake again once stopped. Instead you need to place the gear into reverse, then hit gas, which makes sense in a real car, just not as common for other car games. The D-Pad is for your turn signals, which you’ll want to use if you want to be a courteous driver and earn the most tips from your customers. You can of course use your horn for when people walk in front of you or cut you off, but it doesn’t actually do anything as no pedestrians or drivers react to you road raging with your horn.
Picking up passengers is simple enough, choosing which you want to get from your map and following the GPS to the spot. Park in the designated area and they’ll get into your cab, setting your GPS automatically to their destination. Make sure you follow the rules of the road though, as each customer will tip you based on how accurately and safely you drive. Would you tip a driver who drives down the wrong side of the road or breaks the speed limit? Probably not. It’s the same here.
The simple gameplay loop of picking up customers and taking them to their destination is an addictive one, as you earn money and XP for each successful ride. The city is bustling during the day with traffic and notably quieter during the middle of night. Barcelona is recreated on a 1:1 scale and gives you 286 miles (460 km) of roads to explore, from highways to narrow one-way alleys. There’s just enough detail in the city that it almost feels live, filled with garbage cans, road work, broken lights, car accidents, trees and parked cars, but the pedestrians walking about on very linear and rigid paths quickly take you out of the immersion.
Following the rules of the road may seem easy on paper, but watching where you’re going, remembering to use your signals, stopping at red lights, watching your speed, keeping an eye out for red light runners, and simply remembering what side of the road to be on is a lot to think of all at once. Road rules are slightly different in Barcelona than here, so I had to get used to looking for traffic lights at the sides of the road, not hanging in the middle above. There’s also a lot of roundabouts, multilane ones as well, something we don’t see a lot here on the west coast.
Every so often your customers might strike up a conversation with you. You’re not obliged to engage and speak to them, but you’re given a few choices you can respond with the D-Pad, and after a little back and forth you earn a little XP based on how well they enjoyed the discussion. This happened quite rarely though, maybe once every dozen or so customers. Others may simply ask to have a window rolled down or to wipe the bugs off your windshield.
There’s no shortage of customers, and I did like the fact that once you drop off one rider, it’ll ask if you want to pick up the closest person nearby waiting for a ride. You can see all the people wanting a taxi on the map, able to choose and make a waypoint to them at any time. There are even a handful of special challenges to complete where the customer asks you to get them to their destination as fast as possible where you don’t want to worry about the road rules or speed limits.
Your vehicle is your livelihood, so you need to maintain it as well. You’ll need to make sure you have enough gas, repair any damages and of course keeping it clean, as customers won’t be happy with a dirty ride. When you eventually purchase and unlock an electric car, you’ll also have to monitor its battery level. If you want to take a break from driving customers, there’s also plenty of landmarks to find, each netting you some decent XP for your troubles. I do wish there was some sort of history lesson unlocked for the landmarks though, as I would have been interested to learn more about them.
As you earn XP and level up, you’ll be able to spend points in the skill tree. There’s a decent amount of options to choose from, like earning more money or XP, reduced ticket prices, or increases to how much your staff will earn. It’s not a large skill tree by any means, but enough that it gives you something to work towards for a while at least.
Money is arguably more important, as this is how you’ll be able to purchase new taxis, upgrade your car stat wise and aesthetically, as well as pay your employees and fines. You can upgrade your cars handling, speed and braking, even adding new paint, rims, spoilers, interior, and even undercarriage neon lights if you really want to stand out. There’s not a lot of options, car or upgrade wise, but just enough that I wanted to customize each.
Every new car you buy, you can also hire a worker to join your company. You get to choose from a list of which person to hire, each with their own positive and negative aspects. The menu system for this is a bit convoluted and confusing, but you’re also able to choose their work times and district to cover. Every new car means more potential earnings, though I constantly had issues with them not working when they were supposed to or not bringing in really any money, and I’m not really sure why.
For all the things I did enjoy about Taxi Life, there were at least two more that frustrated or disappointed. First and foremost, the AI in this is basically nonexistent. Pedestrians will walk through crosswalks whenever they please, regardless if it’s a green or red light. Worse yet, they might get halfway across the walkway only to turn around and go back, then change their mind again, basically stopping you from driving until they decide where they want to do.
Then there’s the bug where you pick up your single passenger, but when you bring them to their destination, two or three get out of taxi instead. Or where the quick cutscene plays of them getting into your taxi, but your car continues to roll forwards or backwards without you able to stop the car, which then results in a minor accident and needing a repair later on.
AI drivers are not much better. More than a handful of times I’d be sitting at a red light only to get rear ended at full speed. Drivers also don’t know where they’re going or follow the rules of the road, as they’ll change lanes last minute, or simply stop in an intersection or roundabout for no reason at all. I mean, I guess there are actual terrible drivers like this in real life, but I don’t believe this was specifically programmed to recreate this. Seeing a cop blow through a red light is also something not uncommon given their lights weren't on.
The majority of the time there was no performance issues, but every so often, seemingly in certain crowded areas, the framerate goes from being smooth, down to almost single digits. This of course usually results in a crash as you’re trying to compensate when the stuttering moments. Visually the city can look beautiful as you drive by certain areas and observe landmarks, and while there’s a few radio stations, they are all quite bland and the voice acting from you and the customers during dialogue is terrible at best.
Once you have the majority of the skills have been earned and have a handful of cabbies working for you, there’s really not much else to work towards. That said, there’s still some enjoyment to be had to picking up a few customers and bringing them to their destination within a gorgeous city. Clearly rough around the edges, Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator frustrates in certain ways, yet is relaxing in others.
**Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 4.7 / 10
Airhead
One of the perks I love about reviewing is that sometimes games that I would have never taken a look at happen to fall in my lap to play. This is the case with Airhead, something I probably would have glossed over in the Xbox store and not really given a second thought. I’ve managed to play a handful of memorable indie games that, like Airhead, just happen to fall come across my desk. While not without its flaws, Airhead is certainly a unique platformer that has you exploring an odd world as an even odder character, yourself.You play as Body, a literal body without a head. You fall from quite some height to the bottom of a cave, and this is where your adventure starts. Where did you come from? Why are you headless? What are you? These are questions that you’ll soon forget once you start to explore this mysterious world. Shortly after your harsh arrival to the cave you start to look for a way out, pushing and pulling some rocks to be able to leap up to new heights.
This is where you’ll find a head. Once you place this on your shoulders you somewhat become one entity, though you’re still holding it with your hands and can place it down when needed. Head needs air to live though, and you’ll notice that you’ve already passed a handful if air tanks along the way. Take a moment to fill Head with air and you’re off to explore new pathways that open up. When you move though Head’s air slowly depletes, thus starts your journey of finding a constant stream of air tanks so you can survive as you try and find a way out now as one entity, Airhead.
Body and Head may be two separate entities, but now their fates are intertwined. Body can’t survive long without Head, and Head needs to be carried everywhere, constantly resupplying the air gauge. Slowly leaking air, you’ll need to find a way to not only survive, but a way out, trying to find the machine that stole Head’s air source. While there’s no text, dialogue or cutscenes, there’s a story that plays out in a way for you to interpret on your own.
A 2.5D platformer at its core, you’ll be running, jumping, and dashing as you gain new abilities, allowing you to reach new areas in this Metroidvania as you complete puzzles. Where you once couldn’t reach, you’ll eventually be able to pass or find another way through when you earn these new abilities.
You’re able to place down Head at any time, but doing so also depletes its air gauge slowly, so you can’t be apart for too long. Sometimes this will be needed though, as when Body is holding Head, you’re unable to use your arms to climb ledges since your hands are occupied. This is where some of the puzzle elements come into play, as you may need to place Head down and find a different way around to pass through a smaller area, or to push a rock to make a ledge reachable while holding Head afterwards.
Head can only last a short amount of time before needing a resupply of air. Thankfully there are plenty of air tanks strewn around the world conveniently, refiling your oxygen for a short period. Every time you use an air tank, this counts as a checkpoint as well, and since you’re constantly going from one tank to the next with only about 30 seconds or so in between, you’re never too far back if you manage to die from suffocation.
This is also where some of my frustrations come into play with Airhead as well though. Because you’re basically always suffocating, you’re constantly running and searching for the next air tank to refill your oxygen. This puts a constant pressure on you, especially since you also have to deal with puzzles along the way as well that can be quite challenging. I was so preoccupied with simply trying to reach the next air tank that I found it hard to enjoy myself or take the world in as I was constantly stressed trying to reach the next checkpoint, even if it was only 30 seconds away.
Puzzles start out simple enough, pushing a rock here or there to reach new heights, but eventually become more complex, having to place Head down, let the wind take it, or use different types of air tanks that have you float or sink. As you get new abilities, the puzzles become slightly more complex as you go. I’ll freely admit, a few puzzles certainly had me stumped and I needed to search online more than once for a solution.
Airhead’s visual style is gorgeous, starting out with dark and bleak caves and water, eventually opening up to outside cliff sides, almost as if each area is hand crafted or painted. The background soundtrack is subtle but adds a calm ambience, even when I was constantly stressed trying to each the next air tank to survive. While I had no major issues, I would get hung up on random objects now and then, or missing a jump from not being just perfectly timed, usually resulting in a quick death from loss of air. There's also the odd time where you need to go 'up' or 'down' onto another ledge or path given its 2.5D nature, but this wasn't always clear when or the exact spot to do so.
Even without any dialogue or traditional narrative, Airhead manages to tell a story, though it may differ from one to another depending on your interpretation. It’s clear that Airhead was built with a lot of heart and passion but I found it hard to truly enjoy from being constantly stressed about finding a constant air supply. Challenging puzzles and classic Metroidvania gameplay is to be had for fans, and while it may not be a long adventure, it was certainly memorable for as long as you can hold your breath.
**Airhead was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
Having after launched on PC in 2020 after a successful Kickstarter, King Arthur: Knight's Tale garnered a fanbase with its tactical RPG gameplay and journey into dark Arthurian legend. A few short years later and now console players also have the opportunity to dive into this dark and grim story set in Camelot, developed by NeocoreGames. If you’re a fan of XCOM-like strategic gameplay elements but enjoy a dark narrative and a medieval setting, you’re not going to be disappointed.While we all may know the legendary tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, NeocoreGames has taken the classic tale and given it quite a unique spin, one that is dark, morbid and treacherous. You are Sir Mordred, the black knight from previous tales and nemesis of King Arthur. Using a dark power to invade the lands, you and King Arthur finally have a showdown to the death. You kill King Arthur, but in his last breath, he ends up killing you as well. You both died, yet you both somehow live.
You have both risen from the afterlife. You’re awoken by The Lady of the Lake, resurrecting you and telling you that you need to finish your journey to destroy King Arthur, as he’s now too resurrected but corrupt with evil. It won’t be easy though, as you’re going to have to fight through an army of corrupted denizens in the lands of Avalon. Almost as if the good versus evil roles have reversed, you take on this adventure to find a slay Arthur.
Obviously a drastic shift in the traditional Arthurian legend we know, this storyline had me hooked from the opening moments and constantly wanting to find out more. You won’t be able to fight the hordes of undead armies and monsters alone though, finding other Knights of the Round Table along the way, having them join your side in trying to repel the evil darkness besetting Camelot.
Characters are introduced along the journey and in a natural way. How you interact with them will determine a number of outcomes later on as there’s also a morality chart that you need to be cognizant of, as some knights may approve certain choices, but frown upon others. They all have an interesting background and reason for joining, playing into the larger overall narrative naturally without feeling forced. Do you choose to help someone’s quest for redemption, or ignore another’s brutality all to keep their allegiance? And just because you manage to complete the campaign doesn’t mean the game ends, as an endgame unlocks that offers new extremely challenging quests and boss fights.
If you’ve previously played on PC and wondering what’s been changed or improved for the console version, the list may not be terribly long, but it’s been done well. First, you’re given two graphical options to choose from; Quality that gives 4K resolution or Performance which instead gives a smoother framerate. There is a local PVP option if you want to challenge a friend head on, of course Xbox achievements to unlock, and controller support, obviously. I’ll admit, many games that get console ports from PC don’t always have a great controller layout or scheme, so I was unsure what to expect here. Thankfully, NeocoreGames have put in the work to make the controller feel natural for the most part, aside from a few finicky menus.
The core gameplay for King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is a tactical turn based RPG, so if you’re a fan of games like XCOM, Gears Tactics and countless others, you’ll have an idea of what to expect for the most part. Careful planning and strategies will be needed if you want to survive each battle, as death can be permanent for your knights if you’re not wary. You’ll also have aspects of hero management and the rebuilding of Camelot. There’s a number of different difficulty options, from Easy to Hard, and in the later chapters I found the default Normal to be quite a challenge if you don’t have an ideal party setup or a sound plan going into battle.
Camelot will play as your central hub after your opening mission. This is also where you’ll need to do some building management, deciding what to upgrade and when. You not only want to find and defeat Arthur, but restore Camelot to its former glory as well. This takes resources, which you’ll gather from completing missions, exploring the maps and finding treasure chests. Unlocking and upgrading facilities will allow you to purchase new gear, heal knights, set titles for bonuses and more. It’s actually quite more involved than I expected, as I was always trying to figure out the next best upgrade. Do I want an extra slot in the hospice to heal my knights when they become injured, or add another slot where my unused knights can earn XP as well? Early on you’ll struggle to figure out what best to upgrade, though you’ll steadily unlock more as you progress through the campaign.
On the overworld map is where you’ll choose which mission you want to test yourself with, able to see its objectives or potentially required knights to proceed. Side missions will earn you extra rewards, but also carry risks, as your knights can become critically injured, or even permanently die on certain difficulties, so there’s always a risk versus reward component in play when even choosing to do a side quest or not.
When gathering your knights for a mission and battles, you can take four into battle. Even choosing which knights is a strategic choice, as there are different classes you need to take into account as well. With six different classes, you’re generally going to want a balanced team, but how you choose to do so is up to you. Each character levels up individually, has skills to unlock, and can wear upgraded gear, but the downside is that they can also get critically injured or even permanently die depending on your difficulty option, so rotating new party members in while others rest and recover is generally wise. Loyalty also plays a large factor, as decisions you make will move a marker on the morality chart, and knights that don’t align with your views may decide to not agree or follow, or worse, stand against you. The main opposite views are Righteousness versus Tyranny, but there’s also Old Faith versus Christianity choices as well.
Combat is quite strategic, playing out on a grid and turn based. Here you’ll get to decide where to move each of your knights, what skills to use and develop your plan of attack. You’ll need to use AP (action points) to move and use abilities, and in the beginning you can generally move and attack once, but it becomes more strategic as you unlock more characters and learn more intricacies. There’s traps to keep an eye out for, and if you decide to use your AP for Overwatch protection instead, that’s a perfectly viable option as well which I found worked quite well.
Archers will eventually unlock skills to be more effective, shoot fire or poison arrows, magic users can hurl fireballs across a huge distance, and your knights can generally take a good beating with their heavy armor. How you blend these classes together and proper placement will make a huge difference in your success or failure. Gear can be upgraded with sigils, ranging in quality and stats. You’re able to sort it to only show what each character can use, and can upgrade your armor, weapons, ring and amulet. While the armor upgrades don’t change how you physically appear, each decent upgrade can make a substantial difference in your success. Upgrading buildings in Camelot can even offer new gear to purchase once you start to come across more gold. Explore each map thoroughly though, as campfires are ever important to restore your health or armor, but you'll need to choose wisely.
The dark, bleakness and constant death is a constant. Avalon’s backgrounds are quite detailed and ruins you come by will be crumbled. The color pallet is dark and it gives an uneasy feeling around every corner. Character designs are done quite well also, with your knights appearing as walking tanks in their medieval armor. The grim visuals are accompanied by a similar soundtrack that is haunting at times though unmemorable, and the voice actors all did quite a good job with believable performances.
King Arthur: Knight's Tale does a fantastic job at taking turn based tactical gameplay from titles we love and adding its own twists and dark setting. Strategic combat, moral choices, and a compelling narrative makes it difficult to put down. While it can be brutally challenging at times, even on the easier difficulties, turn based tactical combat is front and center but can feel a bit repetitive after a few dozen missions. A fresh take on Arthurian legend, King Arthur: Knight's Tale offers a memorable journey across Avalon as you try to rebuild Camelot and seek vengeance.
**King Arthur: Knight's Tale was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Bish Bash Bots
It’s been some time since I’ve played a solid Tower Defense game, but whenever I find one I enjoy, the hours seem to just fade away as I play level to level. The latest in the once overdone genre is Bish Bash Bots, an interesting take on the tower defense genre that combines not only strategic placements of your turrets, but bashing robots with your wrench alongside three other friends. If you’re a fan of the Bloons and Overcooked games, Bish Bash Bots melds the two together in an entertaining way that is sure to give some laughs alongside some friends.In the not so distant future, robots have taken over every single mundane job humans don’t want to do. For some reason though, all of the robots are now malfunctioning and have now turned against humanity. It’s up to a group of four comrades to save the world from the robot onslaught and save the world. This will be done with their tools, building skills, gadgets, and turrets.
At its core, Bish Bash Bots is a tower defense game played on a single screen with a top down view. Your goal is to protect the EMP at the ‘end’ of the stage from becoming destroyed by the onslaught of robots. Where it becomes tricky is that the majority of the levels aren’t a singular path that the robots will follow, and you are also only able to place your turrets in specific spots, so strategy will play a larger part than your typical tower defense title.
With 32 different worlds to play in, there’s plenty of different stages to challenge you, and they surely will. Not just simple backdrop changes, levels can greatly affect how you play that stage across the eight different biomes. Levels start out basic enough, though they eventually add other obstacles and environmental challenges such as multiple paths the bots can take, a gap in the middle of the stage you need to jump across, areas you can’t build on until you smash the giant mushrooms away, poison clouds that block your vision, quicksand pits, goop that blocks your turrets from firing until you clear it, and some boss fights that add even more to deal with. New stages never become stale, as you always have something new to contend with aside from turret placement and robot bashing.
The biproduct of this is that you’re continuously busy. There’s never, if rarely, a moment to rest, as you’re always having to do something, be it chasing after a rogue bot rushing to the EMP, upgrading a turret, collecting cogs or dealing with some environment mechanic. As you destroy bots, they’ll drop cogs, which is your currency to build new turrets, and they may even drop upgrade cubes that can be given to a turret to give it a slight boost in its upgrade meter.
I will say, playing solo, I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. It’s very challenging to do everything yourself, clearly designed for 2-4 player multiplayer. When I was able to convince my daughter to play with me for a few rounds, it was a night and day difference. Trying to juggle everything on your own seems near impossible. It’s not quite, but I had to restart levels quite a few times when trying to conquer it by myself. This is where I found that upgrading one turret multiple times was more powerful than having numerous level one turrets.
The four characters are more than simple color swaps as well, as they each have their own abilities and special power that can be used once fully charged. Some are clearly better in a group setting than others, like the one I chose that upgrades turrets faster, but activating these abilities benefits the whole group for a short time. When playing co-op this isn’t as much of an issue, but solo, some characters are immensely better than others because of their special ability.
While the strategy of proper turret placement and types is the priority, being able to bash the bots is where your brawling abilities can help or hinder. Swinging your hammer knocks the bots in that direction, so if you’re not careful, you might bash them past your turrets, or even into the EMP accidentally. If you wildly start swinging at the bots, they are going to get knocked in all directions, so you need to be a little more precise at the angle you attack from. While your attacks don’t do a lot of damage, it’s usually enough to finish off a few bots that are out of range of your turrets, but there’s nothing worse than seeing the bots get launched into the wrong direction or right into your EMP.
Enemies vary as you progress, become more challenging or having more health to deal with. They start simple enough, but then you have to deal with ones that shield all the robots around them until you give them a whack. Then there’s the annoying flying robots which are the worst because only the anti-air turret can hit them, so you almost always need one and hoped that you placed it along the right pathway.
As you progress in the campaign you’ll unlock new turret types such as a tesla that can temporarily stun enemies, as well as a few new gadgets for your wrench that can be equipped, giving such bonuses and stunning robots that are bashed with it. Clearly the best upgrades though are the cosmetic hats you can unlock, adding flair to your character and simply added for fun.
Again, Bish Bash Bots can certainly be played in single player, but it’s truly meant to be a multiplayer game for four players. Able to be played locally or online, four players makes for a much better experience overall. While having online multiplayer is an awesome addition, it’s done by room codes, so unfortunately there’s no random matchmaking to find players to fill out your games on a whim.
Bish Bash Bots is quite colorful with its varied biomes, and each robot enemy is clearly distinct in design from one another. This makes it easy to tell what robots are coming and which turrets you’re going to need for the oncoming wave. Music is what you’d expect, being light hearted and whimsical to match the cartoon visuals, though nothing really memorable.
Bish Bash Bots is a tower defense game at its core, but with all of its other mechanics in play, it’s quite a unique and challenging one, especially solo. Clearly designed to be played alongside friends, it’s a blast with some co-op buddies, but a constant frustration when solo.
**Bish Bash Bots was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
INVECTOR: RHYTHM GALAXY
Having reviewed and quite enjoyed AVICII Invector back in 2019, I honestly didn’t expect a sequel to release. While Invector: Rhythm Galaxy may not be given the Avicii treatment this time around, it took the gameplay blueprint, made some tweaks, and added a slew of new classic and modern songs and genres this time around. Like all rhythm based games, you’re tasked with pressing the button prompts to the beat of the music, here though you do it in a spaceship along a winding track with spectacular neon space environments.Before delving into the gameplay, let’s talk about the track list, as a music based game is only as good as its soundtrack. While music preferences are going to vary person to person, if you’re not a fan of the tracklist below, then it’s going to be a hard sell regardless of how good the gameplay may be. Vice versa, if you’re a fan of the included music then you’re likely to look past its smaller frustrations. AVICII Invector had 25 songs in its playlist, which felt like a decent amount, this time though in Invector: Rhythm Galaxy we have 40 songs total, upping the playlist by a fair amount.
Tracklist:
Adam Lambert – “Holding Out for a Hero”
Alec Benjamin – “Let Me Down Slowly”
Anne-Marie – “Ciao Adios”
Bausa & Zuna – “Biturbo”
Beka – “x – “Legion”
Burns – “Talamanca”
Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”
Charlie Puth – “Attention”
Dan + Shay – “Glad You Exist”
Disturbed – “Down with the Sickness”
Dropgun – “Earthquake”
Duran Duran – ty Fifty – “Cupid”
Garmiani – “Ava”
Greeicy Rendón & Mike Bahia – “Esta Noche”
Griff – “Black Hole”
Gucci Mane – “Classical”
Kojey Radical feat. Knucks – “Payback”
KSI feat. Tom Grennan – “Not Over Yet”
Liam Gallagher – “Wall of Glass”
Linkin Park – “Lost”
Lumix & Gabry Ponte – “Monster”
Maná – “Oye mi amor”
Merk & Kremont – “41 Days”
Mike Shinoda & Kailee Morgue – “In My Head”
Nathan Dawe feat. KSI – Nutini – “Shine a Light”
Paramore – “Ain't It Fun”
PARTYNEXTDOOR – “Her Way”
PinkPantheress – “Boy's a Liar”
Priya Ragu – “Adalam Va!”
Quarantino – “Broken Love”
Royal Blood – “Come On Over”
Sam Gellaitry – “New Wave”
Sam Ryder – “Space Man”
The Spinners – “I'll Be Around”
Tiësto feat. Charli XCX – “Hot In It”
Tina Turner – “The Best”
Wiz Khalifa feat. Berner – “Bluffin'”
It should be noted that 8 of the songs aren’t playable in Single Player mode until you unlock them in the Campaign by completing them, so it’s probably a good idea to start there first. While I initially thought that having a quite varied tracklist would be a positive, there doesn’t seem to be an overall genre or theme across the game, unlike what Avicii had. This meant that I really only liked half the songs at best, so my want to replay songs over again lessened because of how many I didn’t enjoy.
This becomes quite apparent in Campaign mode where you need to make linear progression through songs, and doing a couple back to back can be a drag if you’re not a fan of the genre, artist or song. Of course being a modern day rhythm game, there are DLC offerings of songs for purchase if you want to up the track list. Currently there are two extra packs available, one Latin music themed and the other EDM, but we only reviewed the base game with the included 40 songs.
What I didn’t expect was Invector: Rhythm Galaxy’s attempt at having a story. The campaign is how you’ll go from song to song, but every now and then you’ll get some chatter between characters Ebula and her friends going on an intergalactic road trip together after Ebula’s grandmother’s passing. After every few songs you get some dialogue snippets, and while I commend the effort to having put some semblance of a narrative, it’s completely forgettable and felt more like a disruption between songs.
Campaign is mandatory to get through though if you want to unlock all the songs, ship skins and world backgrounds. While you can play Single Player any time, doing so after the campaign makes the most sense. These unlocked songs are a little more challenging, as your shields won’t regenerate, so you’re only able to have a certain amount of missed notes to complete it.
Songs in Campaign start out easy enough (depending on your difficulty of course), and you simply need to get a specific percentage of the notes to pass. This percentage needed goes up the further in the campaign you get, making for an arbitrary difficulty increase, as the songs themselves don’t generally get progressively harder themselves. Sure there were a few songs that required a few restarts to get the hang of certain note sections, but it seemed sporadic and random, as sometimes the notes were on the bass, melody or vocals depending on the genre and song.
Gameplay is virtually identical from Avicii, and since I enjoyed the original game so much, I had a feeling it would be the same here. For the most part, I was right. One change I noticed right away though is that in the previous game you had to press the button as your ship was over the note itself, now in Rhythm Galaxy though, you have an oval reticule in front of your ship, needing to press it then just before it reaches your ship. I’m not sure why the change but it was causing me issues in the beginning, making me question if my audio/video wasn’t synced properly on my TV. Sure I accommodated to the slight change eventually, I’m just unsure why the change was made in the first place.
You spaceship flies above a set and winding path littered with notes based on the song selection. There are two different highway playfields, the first is a flat ‘road’ where you can be in the middle, left, or right lane where you attempt to press the corresponding button at the right time to the beat. Then there are the triangle highways, where instead of being a flat playfield, you can move to any of the three sides as it rotates, all while winding up, down, and to the sides.
Starting out on the Casual difficulty to get myself warmed up the gameplay, I eventually challenged myself to Normal, Hard and then Ultra. The harder the difficulty, the more notes generally on the screen. On Casual you only have to use the Left Stick, Bumper and ‘A’ button to match with the note prompts. Going to Normal adds more notes as well as the ‘X’ button, Hard adds ‘B’, and Ultra adds ‘Y’ and even more notes. While it’s color coded and obvious what button is meant to be pressed, sometimes it becomes a blur with how much is on the screen at once.
I’m generally quite skilled at music based games, but Hard mode was quite challenging on a number of songs due to different genres playing oddly from one another. With a pop track you generally hit the button to the beat and instruments, but on some of the other songs, you had to go along with the vocals or melody, so it felt a little inconsistent at times. You also always need to be looking ahead of the notes coming down the lanes so that you can prepare for which button to press correctly. This isn’t normally an issue, but at times when you’re going ‘uphill’ on the highway, you can’t see the notes coming until the last second, almost always making for a missed note unless you’ve memorized the song.
If you have friends or family over, four players can play together, each taking a corner of the splitscreen. I didn’t get to test this out, though I do wish there was an online multiplayer offering, though the online leaderboards will have to suffice for now. Even though there are more songs this time around, me not enjoying half of the tracklist made it feel about the same length of replayability as Avicii was.
Visually, Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is a wonder to look at if you’re able to take your eyes off the playfield for a few moments. As you fly through futuristic landscapes, complete with neon highlights, it’s a lot to take in visually, especially if you’re watching it for the first time. While it’s quite chaotic with all the bright lights and fast movement, you do eventually get into the ‘zone’, able to focus and block out all the extra visual noise as you tap your foot to the songs you enjoy.
If you enjoyed Avicii Invector’s gameplay, you’re sure to enjoy Rhythm Galaxy as well, though I’d suggest checking out a few of the songs and see if they are what you’d enjoy, as a music game is only as good as its soundtrack. I do feel as though Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is missing an overall theme or tone with its varied soundtrack selection, but it’s challenging gameplay and gorgeous aesthetic make it hard to not recommend.
**Invector: Rhythm Galaxy was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Make Way
Way Way, coming through! That’s probably something I thought more than a few times as I raced to the finish in Make Way. A top down racer that feels like a mix of classic MicroMachines and TrackMania, Make Way is a cute and chaotic racer where 4 players, human or bots, race to the end on a course designed by the players at each leg. Developed by Ice BEAM and published by Secret Mode, Make Way is a simple idea where fun is the most important aspect, making for a fantastic party game when guests are over and always feeling like I wanted to go for just one more race.While there’s no traditional Career mode, that doesn’t mean you don’t make progress. You begin with just one mode unlocked: Race. This is the simplest mode where you just need to reach the end at each leg of the race. What makes Make Way unique is that there’s no pre-designed levels, instead offering all players a tile to place down, creating a leg of a race. You race that segment, then add more tiles and the track becomes longer each time until there’s a points winner.
As you play you earn XP and level up, unlocking two more modes along the way. At certain levels you’ll then unlock Classic and Chaos mode. Classic is also your standard racing, but now adds weapons to the mix, Mario Kart style where you have to drive over one of the blocks to get the power-up. These range from different types of fun weapons meant to stop your opponents as you make it to the next checkpoint. This mode also adds some blockades and ramps, making the actual racing a bit trickier.
Then there’s Chaos mode, perfectly named. This is like Classic Mode, but more weapons and obstacles, also without any of the walls on the edges of the tracks, meaning you’re going to fall off and be knocked out until the next leg of the race quite often. Chaos mode was quite challenging and I had to purposely drive much slower to avoid driving off the track and not gaining any points. There’s also a Custom mode you can unlock where you can set all the rules exactly how you want.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the scoring system at first, but once I understood it I actually quite enjoyed it. A race is comprised of multiple rounds until one player reaches the maximum points. At the start of a race each player chooses a track tile to place, then you race on that layout. Once that segment is raced and completed, you add another four tiles to the track, lengthening it and racing from the beginning once more. You keep repeating this until someone wins by reaching the maximum of 3000 points, which are given out for segment wins. If you manage to get knocked out or fall off the track you won’t score any points for that segment, but will reappear at the next section. Points are given for each segment you survive, with higher places gaining more points.
The building segments in between rounds takes a really simple idea and makes it into a fun gameplay mechanic. Tiles are laid out randomly and you choose which you like and want to race on, but be quick, as it’s first come first serve. Then it’s a race to place it where you want on the track, so if I place my tile down before you, that’s how the race layout is going to be. Races may only be a few segments if you’re winning each portion getting the maximum points, but if it’s competitive, it may be a dozen segments long.
Not only can you place track pieces, you’ll eventually get to unlock obstacles too, making races more chaotic. Bumpers, ramps, boosts and more can be placed, and while you’ll only have a handful of tile options at the beginning, you unlock more as you level up. Eventually you’ll have really cool pieces like loops, seesaws, twirling ramps and more. Every race is going to be different because the tiles offered are randomized, and players will race to get different pieces and place them in different orders each time.
This takes designing your own tracks to a new levels, because you then race it directly after being placed, and knowing an opponent hates the tiles with no barriers or a gap may be a benefit to you if you’re able to remember the layout and avoid the obstacle. While I may have fallen off the track the first few times, I certainly started to remember afterwards, strategizing how to go about the race. With endless configurations, you more rely on skill and reflexes rather than memorizing a track layout. Thankfully each vehicle handles exactly the same, so it's simply an aesthetic preference as well.
My main issue is with the camera. Given that it’s a top down racer, the camera essentially is locked to the player who’s furthest ahead in first place, meaning if you fall too far behind, you’ll be knocked out for that leg of the race. Even though the camera is locked to you in first place, it’s not zoomed out far enough to see what’s coming, especially if you’re racing at full speed, so you have to hopefully memorize the track layout from the tile placement or be somewhat cautious since you can’t see very far what’s ahead of you until it’s too late.
The weapons can help you knock or stall your opponents, allowing you for a segment win. While there’s not that many different weapon variations, they are light hearted, like a mallet on the top of your car to smash anyone in front of you, or a goo launcher to slow them down. You’ll gain XP for doing so as well, so always a good idea to try and do so regardless.
Completing races will earn you XP in a variety of ways, unlocking new vehicles, track tiles and obstacles. The more you play the more you’ll unlock, so there’s always something new to play with it seems. I do wish there was a way you could see more than just the next unlock, but once you start getting some of the more unique tiles, races become quite fun with a few loops and such thrown in.
Play up to four players online or locally, and if you’re by yourself, you can race three other bots no problem. Even able to choose their difficulty when playing solo I was still having a great time, though I could see playing locally with some friends and a few adult beverages being even more of a blast. While online multiplayer is supported, I was unable to find a single match every time I tried, which was a bit of a dissapointment.
I'll admit, I expected Make Way to simply be another MicroMachines knockoff that I’d forget after a day of playing. Instead, I’m leaving it installed just in case I have someone over, as it’s simple enough to pick up and play and would absolutely be a blast with some friends. When not only the gameplay is fun, but creating the tracks as well, races never became stale due to being completely unique every single time, and the constant slow drop of tile unlocks kept me wanting to play one more race.
**Make Way was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Anthology of Fear 
Anthology of Fear is the latest horror game on console, but it’s not quite what I expected. In most horror games you’re given tools or skills to fight against or avoid your enemy, here though, you simply walk from point A to B for the most part, unraveling a twisted story along the way. A horror walking sim with light puzzle elements, Anthology of Fear may not have been what I was expecting, as I certainly didn’t pay much attention to the minor and brief trigger warning message at the start of the game, though I probably should have.If you have automatonophobia (fear of mannequins) or find it hard to deal with suicide topics, this may be difficult for you to play. The later section even deals with child harm, which as a parent is hard to stomach, especially when it’s a cutscene you can’t intervene in. With some heavy topics being dealt with here, you can also expect some messed up themes, blood, supernatural events and more. The atmosphere is set in place quite quickly and had an uneasy tone throughout until the credits rolled.
Your brother has gone missing, and after months of no leads or findings, you decide to go search for yourself. Naturally in a horror game, this leads you to a dark and creepy alleyway with someone on the other end of a radio guiding you. You of course then up in some sort of abandoned hospital, because where else would it lead you right? Of course this is when the radio stops working also. With a quite short runtime of around two hours, I can’t delve much more into the story without spoiling the main plot points or twists.
Search from room to room and you’ll eventually come across some VHS tapes that are somehow linked, acting like a new chapter or different perspective. I did find it a little hard to follow along at times, but what starts as a missing person mystery, a much darker tale starts to emerge. While the tropes may be overused, I was intrigued to see if my assumptions were correct once I think I had the plot figured out, but rest assured, there’s a few twists and turns I even I didn’t see coming, especially in the last few sections that takes quite a dark turn.
Before you begin your journey though I’d highly suggest checking out the options, as I had to turn off the head bobble and film grain. Yeah, the film grain can make it look grittier and like that of a found footage film, but the environments are so dark already, and the head bob was way too emphasized that I’m sure it may make some people nauseous. Thankfully these can be toggled to your preferences.
Each chapter, or section, has a distinct theme or objective. Some will have you searching the abandoned halls of a hospital looking for certain patient records or finding the breakers to turn on the power so you can use the elevator. Maybe you’re reliving a memory, though things may not be quite as you remember. Sometimes you reach the end of a hallway only to turn around and it’s completely rearranged from the way you just came. Doors will slam shut or lock on you once entered, making for a tense atmosphere.
Then there’s the mannequins. These start out innocent enough, but can be quite creepy once they start to move as you walk by or rearrange themselves. Later on there are paranormal events that occur as well. Is this real? Is this just something you’re imaging in your head? Can you survive the horror? The tale comes together from multiple viewpoints that’s a little difficult to piece together, as it’s not always blatantly expressed who or where you are until later.
A good horror game has multiple layers to try and scare the player. You have mood, music, atmosphere, enemies and of course jumps scares. While jump scares are present in Anthology of Fear, it does become a little overused, as there’s not much else here to scare you aside from your automatonophobia. That said, while it’s not outright scary once you realize this is mostly a walking simulator with a horror theme, you won’t really have much in the way of combat aside from a single section and maybe three enemies. You eventually get this odd looking ‘weapon’ that helps you in a single section, only to drop it and never use it again.
Aside from being able to interact with almost anything, the only other actions you can do is slightly walk faster by holding Left Trigger and the odd QTE event where you’ll need to mash the ‘A’ button to open a door with a crowbar for example. There’s one section near the end that involves some self dental work, but I had no UI to tell me what or how to do so, eventually fumbling my way through it.
Visuals are a mixed bag. The atmosphere and lighting are absolutely on point. Hallways looked creepy and the lights really set a realistic tone and uneasiness. It’s a shame that everything else had incredibly low resolution textures, completely breaking the immersion at times. Even the keyboard on an old school computer you need to interact with had blurry textures. It also doesn’t help that important objects you need, like keys and other things, don’t glow or anything to indicate they are to be picked up unless you happen to have your cursor exactly over the item.
Hallways not only appear visually creepy, but sound the part as well. You’ll hear creaks on the wooden floors, though not always aligned with your footsteps, and things from afar or on the other side of a doorway you hope that you don’t find out what it actually is. The audio sets a tone that makes you tense as you peak around each corner, but again, once you realize there’s no actual danger per-se, you lose some of the horror aspect. The voice acting is passable at best, making it difficult to empathize with what they are thinking or going through.
While Anthology of Fear might not outright scare you, it’s supposed to make you feel uneasy and tense, which is does in certain sections. With some very heavy themes and shocking scenes, I was hoping for more of a build up to these climax, but instead the ending felt as though it came abruptly out of nowhere and not all that satisfying tying up loose ends. If you’re a fan of the P.T. demo, this may be worth a look, just expect a short runtime with a story that will be forgotten aside from a scene or two.
**Anthology of Fear was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Forgive Me Father
Forgive Me Father, for I have not heard of this game before it fell into my lap for review. A retro FPS that harkens back to the days of classic DOOM and Wolfenstein, though with some modern mechanics as well. With a heavy Lovecraftian setting and a comic book visual style, Forgive Me Father is a stylish take on the classic genre, one I enjoyed more than I initially expected.Choosing to play as a Priest or Journalist, you’re called to a remote town via letter that appears to be abandoned when you arrive. Of course it doesn’t take long to realize all of the citizens have turn into monsters and zombies, all trying to kill you on sight. So begins your journey to figure out what’s happened and if you can stop it. There’s more story here, but it’s told in just a few cutscenes and lore pieces you can find and investigate along the way, so it was a bit hard to follow. If you don’t pay attention or find all the notes, quite a bit of background lore can be missed. Let’s be honest though, if I’m playing an old school retro FPS, I’m probably playing it more for the combat and gunplay rather than its story.
As you progress deeper and deeper in this horrifying town, you’ll find more evil at every turn. You’ll start out with a simple pistol, eventually equipping a handful of different weapons. Depending on which character you choose, Priest or Journalist, they also have a handful of different abilities which suit different playstyles, though it would have been nice to know the differences from the start.
I found the Priest much more powerful with his abilities as he can get moments of invulnerability, a few seconds of infinite ammo, a heal and more. The Journalist has an AoE attack, a heal when attacking, an AoE stun and a few others, but I still found the Priest’s abilities much more useful overall. The priest also fits the dark Lovecraft setting as you blast your way through hordes of enemies. There’s some slight differences in the story based on which character you play, though I don’t believe enough to warrant a second playthrough unless you want to play with the other abilities and skill tree loadout.
Given that Forgive Me Father is a retro FPS, it also appears just like they originally did, 2D characters in a 3D world. You’ll find classic health, armor and ammo pickups, as well as needing to find colored keys to match their corresponding doors to make progress. Most levels are fairly linear, and while there’s the odd few branching paths here and there, they usually house some sort of secret like extra armor and ammo. No need to worry about reloading either, as you’ll keep firing away as long as you have the ammunition for it.
There’s a decent range of enemies you’ll face throughout your journey, and yes, you’ll see many of them constantly reused, but it’s no less fun to blast them all away as they rush you. Even though they appear as 2D cardboard cutouts, they are animated decently and sound as you’d expect evil monsters to with their groans. The early enemies will be simple cannon fodder, eventually having more abilities and even annoying flying enemies in the latter half. While not a huge variety of weapons, the skill tree and mutating the weapons is where you get variety. You have your typical pistols, rifles and launchers, each of which is generally best suited for a specific enemy type or situation.
Level design is generally quite basic. The first few chapters are very small cramped and indoor hallways, whereas the latter stages are a bit more open and less confined. There’s no real getting lost, even without a map. As the genre dictates, you’ll need to find specific colored keys for the matching doors to make progress, which almost always ends up with a few waves of enemies spawning right after you pick up said key. There’s even some platforming you’ll need to do early on, with a little more focus on it later, which is part of its weaker sections.
With the Lovecraft backdrop, you can also expect to manage your madness levels. The more ‘mad’ you become, this will make you more powerful, even changing the visuals and audio to a focused black and white experience. It’s apparently tied to a combo meter or sorts, but not explained all that well from the beginning. And if you want to save your progress you’ll need to find the fixed save points. There are usually a couple per level so it’s not a big deal if you die and have to restart, but there a few sections that aren’t fun to redo due to an untimely death.
Luckily the journey is where it’s fun. Shooting your weapons feels and sounds solid, and the huge boss fights were the most memorable highlights of the whole adventure. With each gun being able to be upgraded a different way, even a typical boring shotgun can be something different. There’s a large skill tree, and each weapon can branch into two different options. Typically one will allow for better range, damage or reload speed as per usual, whereas the other option is where it gets more interesting possibly completely changing your gun in other ways. While I could have chosen to have more damage on my pistols, I instead opted for the other upgrade path that allowed me to have two pistols instead. Same goes for one of the other regular guns, eventually morphing it into a grenade launcher that looks like it was designed my Cthulhu himself as it looks as though its covered in moving tentacles.
You’ll also be able to choose how you want to upgrade your skills as well, health and ammunition upgrades, even earn more XP per kill if you want. Make sure you have an upgrade plan early on though, as the experience needed to earn a new skill point in the later sections felt incredibly long. The first few hours I was upgrading quite often, but it certainly slowed down near the end. Enemies near the end also turned into annoying damage sponges and flying creatures that make you waste a lot of ammo, so maybe that was part of it as well.
The comic book style works quite well and suits the 2D characters. Don’t let that fool you though, as Forgive Me Father is absolutely bloody at every turn. Blasting holes in monsters leaves a ton of blood splatter everywhere, a great contrast to the dark and brooding environments. Where the game really shines though is with its kick ass metal soundtrack. When it’s time to fight you’ll certainly know, because the music kicks into high gear and gets you pumped. While the voice acting is decent at best, there’s not much of it, and the soundtrack elevates the audio as a whole.
While not the most unique retro FPS I’ve ever played, I enjoyed my time with Forgive Me Father due to the unique skill tree and weapon alterations you can choose, along with a badass metal soundtrack that I wasn’t expecting. If you’ve ever wanted classic DOOM but with the Lovecraftian setting, Forgive Me Father is absolutely what you’ve been waiting for, flaws and all.
Suggestions: **Forgive Me Father was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition, The
I remember watching The Simpsons growing up, and one of my favorite segments was the bits with Itchy and Scratchy, the ultraviolent cat and mouse that BArt and Lisa used to watch in their world. Then it basically happened outside of The Simpsons with Happy Tree Friends, an ultraviolent cartoon that was more meant for adults, but was quite hilarious if you had a certain sense of humor. While I didn’t watch it religiously, I’ve seen a handful of episodes here and there, as it became quite popular after its debut in 1999.While there may have been a lull for quite some time with the Happy Tree Friends crew nowhere to be found, they have now returned in videogame form. Originally released back in December 2022, The Crackpet Show may not have had the Happy Tree Friends branding or name, but it certainly took inspiration from the cult cartoon, as it was hyper violent, but in a cute way. Well, it’s finally happened. The crossover event is finally here with The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friend Edition. That’s right, your favorites have returned and I can’t think of a more fitting game that suits their style, branding and violence better. Play as your favorites from Happy Tree Friends as you shoot and kill dozens of enemies, all for TV ratings!
Who wouldn’t watch a TV show where the characters are all trying to kill one another? That of course gets ratings, and that’s your goal on The Crackpet Show, to get likes, become famous, and survive. I guess that last part is the most important though. Welcome back a handful of the classic Happy Tree Friends ensemble, such as Giggles, Cuddles, Handy, Petunia, Toothy, Nutty, Flaky, Sniffles, Splendid, even Flippy, and my personal favorite, Lumpy as the announcer.
A rogue-like shoot-em-up at its core, you’ll be placed in arenas until all your enemies are dead before being allowed to progress to the next room. Every kill is over the top bloody, as expected with a Happy Tree Friends setting, though if for some reason you don’t care about the latest update that added this crossover, you can toggle it off and play the base game with the core Crackpet Show characters instead. With this latest crossover edition, not only did we get the slew of Happy Tree Friends characters to play as, but certain death animations for characters were added, which fans of the show will certainly recognize, as well as updated visuals and audio overall.
With up to 4 players locally, it’s up to you to use your guns and weapons to kill all the enemies, as that’s what the audience wants and how you’ll get your thumbs up likes, and if a few audience members gets caught in the crossfire, c’est la vie, they new the risk being an audience member. The bulk of your gameplay will probably takes place in the Campaign Mode, though there is an Endless Mode that unlocks once you complete Season One.
A season consists of six episodes, and each episode is broken into a handful of smaller levels, or arenas. Kill all the enemies in a level and you’ll get to choose the next stage you want to take on, some giving a weapon, perk, item or other bonuses, all randomized. Complete all the levels and make your way to the final arena and you’ll have to challenge yourself versus a difficult boss. Defeat said boss and the episode is complete and you can move onto the next which becomes a little tougher and longer, eventually adding harder versions of arenas and even mini bosses halfway through the episodes.
Before you begin each violent episode though, you won’t last long without a weapon, so you choose one of the four base classes to start out. Assault starts you out with a pretty standard Pew Gun and Anvil Drop item, whereas my favorite, Engineer begins with the Zap Gun and Turret. There’s also a Medic that uses a Lob-o-Gun and Bandages or the Tank that get a Shotgun. These are only the starting weapons, and each suits a different play style, so experiment with each, as you’re bound to find plenty more along your way through each episode.
The more likes you earn by killing enemies after each run, successful or not, you can then upgrade weapons, perks and items randomly chosen between two different ones. This is where the rogue-like elements come into play, as each run is randomly generated, though you will make slow and steady overall progress as each weapon, perk and item gets upgraded over time with your choices.
While most levels won’t give you much hassle until the later episodes, you’ll certainly die at the boss stages a few times. These large bosses have a hefty health pool, so you better hope you’ve been getting some awesome upgrades along the way in that run, as it all resets for each run. These bosses can practically fill the screen with bullets, so you’ll need to your use dodge quite often to avoid getting hit and losing your hearts. Lose all your hearts and it’s Game Over and you’ll need to start the episode from the beginning.
Certain stages will rewards you with a random weapon, item or perk along the way. The perks accumulate and stack, making for a pretty good safe choice, though if you’re not enjoying your weapon or item as much as expected, you’re sure to find something new along the way. The weapons are quite diverse, and since no two runs are the same, it doesn’t become stale. Of course this is where the randomness will either favor or play against you, as I’ve had some terrible runs due to weapons I didn’t enjoy, then next run I beat the episode in a single go because I got an awesome gun and some powerful perks.
After a few episodes you’ll also gain the ability to save your loadout for the next run should you choose. This means placing your current weapon in the fridge, so that when you die, or live, your next run has your upgraded weapon waiting for you from the beginning, giving a huge head start. Unfortunately this weapon holding only lasts for one run, and if you don’t choose to use it on the next run, it disappears until you save your loadout again at a specific level.
While I was disappointed there was no online co-op, there is at least 4 player local support. This of course ups the chaos in the levels, but surely to be more fun alongside friends and family. Even playing solo, I was having a good time, slowly making overall progress even when I died on the same boss a few times. Since my weapons slowly got upgraded, each run was slightly easier each time and I hoped I'd get lucky to find my favorites along the way to the Episode's boss.
An unexpected but completely fitting crossover, The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition looks, sounds and plays just as you’d expect something from the iconic violent cartoon. While it won’t be for everyone, I enjoyed my time each run trying to take out the difficult boss and complete the Episodes and Seasons. It’s been quite some time since I’ve thought about Happy Tree Friends, but it certainly put a smile on my face to see them once more as I blasted hundreds of enemies for some likes.
**The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
KarmaZoo
I believe in karma, that I’ll get what I put into the world, so I always try to do and be good. I’ll donate to causes now and then and be helpful to others where possible, trying to keep my karma up. KarmaZoo takes this philosophy and makes it a game, where you do what you can to help other people cooperatively, rather than competitively. The best part? You play with random people online, yet aren’t able to communicate in the traditional way, so you instinctively try to help one another for the same goal; Karma.Don’t expect some large sweeping narrative in KarmaZoo. Actually, don’t expect any story really, as it’s simply an online cooperative game without any story as to who, what, or why. You share kindness with others by helping one another, and developers Pastagames has somehow managed to make a game where playing with random people online is actually fun rather than frustrating.
A group of up to ten random players online will be placed into a lobby together, then whisked off to a series of levels where you work cooperatively to not only reach the end, but collect as much fruit as possible. Simply getting to the end in this 2D platformer is only part of the goal. Again, your aim is to help one another reach that goal, and no two runs, called loops, will be identical since levels and characters change with each lobby. A loop consists of a couple levels back to back, with a vote taking place between each where the players get to choose a special bonus.
Even if you wanted to rush ahead and try to reach the end goal on your own, you wouldn’t make it far for a few reasons. Usually certain pathways are blocked so you need one player(s) to hold down a button to raise a wall so others can pass, then the players who have passed can hold the door for the original button holder. Also, you have a ‘halo’ around you that keeps you safe. If you have no one nearby it will slowly shrink until you die and respawn, though if you’re in range of another player, your halo’s somewhat meld together, keeping each other safe and becoming larger. This means you can only be on your own for a short time, always needing to be in range of at least one other player.
All good deeds give you and your team Karma. Held open a wall for others to get through? Karma for you! Used your character’s special power to help progress? More karma! All the karma you unlock is essentially a currency that you’ll then use to unlock new characters and more for future loops. The game even tallies all the karma all players earn and put it towards a KarmaPass, unlocking new rewards for all players that helped contribute, which even the bottom of their website showcases the cooperative essence of the game.
You start out as a simple blob with no powers or abilities other than being able to sing. After a brief tutorial teaching you the basics you’re then free to hop online and find others to play alongside. Yes, it’s a multiplayer only experience, which I found odd given the tutorial has you alongside a bot. With cross-platform support between PC and console, I never had an issue finding others to play with, as lobbies generally filled quite quickly.
Stages will somewhat cater towards the characters being used, and since there’s so many and they have a wide range of abilities, it’s pretty rare to replay the same level over again. Even if you do, the players you’re with will likely change, so it’ll be a different experience each time. You’re able to freely change to any unlocked character you own in your sanctuary, your home, but once you join an online loop, you’re committed to that character until the match is finished.
With quite a lot of characters to unlock, they all have a special ability that is used to help others. There is the odd few that overlap in special powers, but for the most part they’re generally unique. Some are cute, like the mouse, clock, lantern and more, where others I enjoy like the turtle, elephant and umbrella for their special abilities. The majority of levels can be completed without special powers, but choosing certain characters with abilities will give the levels a greater chance of needing that power to find all of the hidden fruit.
Each run will take around 20 or so minutes to complete. I seemed to earn on average roughly 2000 karma per loop, but once you start doing the math and realizing how much karma you’ll need for all of the unlocks, it’s can become quite a daunting grind. Character unlocks can range from a few hundred to thousands, there are locks that cost Karma to unlock, books to collect and more. It’s a massive grind if you’re a completionist, though I quite enjoy simply playing it casually and unlocking a new character after every few loops. I do wish the earned Karma per loop was higher, but if it was too high you’d then have everything and nothing to work towards long term, so I understand its design.
If you happen to have friends and/or family over that want to play, there’s also a local multiplayer mode, but it’s more competitive in nature. This mode is called Totem, pitting you against the other players in the room. There’s a handful of minigames that you can vote on by dragging trophies to the mode, then challenge one another to the game. Some are races, collecting fruit and others, though I wasn’t able to test this mode out much. I do wish this mode was online as well.
What I do like about the main Loop mode is that there’s actually no voice chat, forcing you to communicate with jumps and a wheel of limited emoji’s. Sure at times this could be frustrating when you’re trying to somehow tell another player that they need to let you pass a wall, or to step on a button. The majority of the time it manages to work itself out and it was quite rare that a round wasn’t completed within the time limit due to a lack of cooperation. Making a sacrifice to jump on a spike so the other players can pass by feels rewarding in itself, which is impressive, as we’re conditioned to feel like dying is bad. Even though you reappear within moments to get right back into it, you know you were part of the solution.
KarmaZoo surprised me, as I wasn’t sure what to quite expect, but came away addicted to a fun and quirky cooperative game where I actively wanted to help other players that I couldn’t even talk to. While it is quite a grind if you’re going to want to unlock everything possible, it’s quite fun for a few rounds here and there in between other games and downtime.
**KarmaZoo was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Invincible, The
While I’ve not read a lot of classic sci-fi novels, it appears I missed quite an interesting one; The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem, from 1964. While I had not heard of the iconic novel before, I read up on it and Lem’s other works. Known for his futuristic science fiction works, the classic novel has now been turned into a game with the same name, developed by Starward Industries and published by 11 Bit Studios. While it may be a walking simulator at its core, it also manages to tell a compelling tale that had me hooked until the credits rolled.If you happen to know the iconic novel, this game is actually a prequel that sets up the nearly six decade old story. You play as Yasna, an astrobiologist who wakes up on the planet Regis III, but unsure how she actually got there. While she tries to piece together what has happened, her journey eventually turns into a rescue mission when she realizes she doesn’t know where her fellow lost crewmates are. Regis III isn’t like Earth though, as it seems desolate and untouched by mankind, and there seems to be more than what’s visible on the surface.
Your team are a group of scientists that work for a group called The Commonwealth. As you explore the world, danger becomes more and more apparent, but not in the way you might expect. Being a walking simulator, don’t expect to shoot any weapons, use a jetpack, or explore the stars. This is a very isolated story, a journey that will have you finding some deadly secrets of this planet and what happened to your crew.
A planet untouched by humans creates some amazing landscapes, barren yet breathtaking. How can a barren planet be dangerous? What possible perils could there be if it’s not humankind that’s a threat? Explore and find out, as evolution can be brilliant but dangerous.
A narrative that lasts somewhere 8-10 hours, it’s paced perfectly, constantly drip feeding you just enough information to stay interesting and keep you wanting to know what happens next. Even with the excruciating slow walking speed, the narrative continues at a constant pace. At certain times you’ll have dialogue choices to make, should you wish, which will dictate certain scenes and outcomes. While the first half is a very slow paced crawl, the second half is where it really picks up once some revelations are made. With a 60’s sci-fi aesthetic, The Invincible was certainly memorable long after the credits rolled.
The Invincible is a walking simulator, let’s get that out of the way first thing. I know that might dissuade people right away, but this is a tale worth telling, and it just happens to take place at a walking speed a majority of the time. As you try and piece together how you ended up on Regis III you’ll be in constant communication with your Astrogator, kind of like your commander, back up in your ship in orbit. Your constant banter back and forth make a lot of the experience more bearable as you explore this mysterious planet in isolation.
The atompunk setting fits perfectly with the whole experience. Your tools look as if they were plucked out of a 60’s sci-fi show, even your helmet and microphone have that cool retro look and feel to it. Your telemeter is especially retro, indicating with small analog LED lights which direction a living lifeform is when nearby. You also have an x-ray handheld that can detect and visualize metal in the world, which will be quite handy during your journey. You’ll also get to drive a land rover in the latter half, making quicker work of the lengthier distances on Regis III.
Given that the whole gameplay of The Invincible is basically walking and movement, I was hoping it would feel better than it did. Unfortunately, it was quite clunky and at times, excruciatingly slow. While you don’t ever have to worry about jumping or crouching, Yasna will automatically leap over or down spots if it’s the specific designated area, down to the pixel and nowhere else. Even though you should be able to step over that rock or object on the ground, you can’t, you can only move and traverse at very specific points and nowhere else at all. You are able to run with Yasna’s limited stamina, but it’s barely even any faster and runs out as quickly as you started to jaunt.
With how mysterious Regis III is, I was fully expecting that there was going to be some light puzzles to be had, but they never came or happened. There’s also no secrets to uncover aside from the narrative, or anything other than really heading to your latest waypoint. Oddly enough there’s also no manual saving of any kind. You have to rely on the autosave system and hope that if you want to quit and play later that it saved recently. While I never had this to be an issue, that’s also because I completed the game in two sittings, unable to put it down until its conclusion.
While simply walking a barren planet will no doubt bore some, there are a few other things you get to do in between story segments. You do have a few gadgets to use, as described above, though these are really only used at specific points. Sometimes you’ll need to scan the landscape with your space age binoculars to spot an object, camp or climbing spot. There a few spots where you’ll control a drone, though it’s very minimal and for narrative reasons. The rover sections change up the pace a bit, but you don’t get all that much freedom even in the larger more ‘open’ sections.
For how barren Regis III is, it’s oddly beautiful with its landscapes. The retro–futuristic atompunk aesthetic has a great feel and in the later portions once some revelations are revealed, there is some very spectacular scenery to take in for some wonderful screenshots. Given how slowly you walk, it makes it easier to take notice of the planet.
The musical score composed by Brunon Lubas is hauntingly beautiful at times. The music alone can make you feel weary or curious depending on the melodies. Sometimes there’s a lull in the music and that alone makes you feel more isolated on this planet, as dead air can be deafening. The voice actors from the main two characters, Yasna and Novik, is also done spectacularly and made me believe every word they said.
The Invincible is a slow paced first person walking simulator but with a heavy emphasis on its storytelling. It may not have the excitement you’d expect, though I can’t delve into much more of the story for fear of spoilers. Having never read the novel I wasn’t sure what to expect, and the fact that the game is a prequel to the novel is exciting, and now I have plans to read the source material. If you enjoy a slow burn sci-fi story, The Invincible tells quite an interesting and compelling tale, one footstep at a time.
**The Invincible was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Lies of P
I’ll admit, I was initially a bit apprehensive to review Lies of P, not because of a disinterest for the game, but because I generally don’t gravitate towards Souls-like games due to their difficulty. I know, I know, the whole “git gud” mentality that comes with these games, and even though I’m generally not very skilled at them, I do enjoy their worlds and uniqueness. Even though I’d never play a Souls-like on my own if it wasn’t for a review, there have been a few that stood out amongst the sea of clones that did capture my attention, such as Steelrising or Remnant.While some might automatically assume that Lies of P is a Soul-like, it actually more resembles Bloodborne and Sekiro mix rather than an actual Dark Souls. What makes Lies of P unique is its backdrop, as it’s a dark reimagining of the classic Pinocchio tale, hinted at in the title. As Geppetto’s creation, you’ll need to survive this harsh world as you try to find meaning. While I heard many enjoyed Lies of P, I didn’t expect that I would much given its genre, but it certainly surprised me.
You are Pinocchio, awakening in an abandoned train in the city of Krat. This is no normal city though, as the majority of its human population has been slaughtered by puppets from the same creator as you, Geppetto. Being half human, half puppet, you’re the only one that has a chance at defeating a city full of murderous robot puppets. You're awoken by a mysterious voice telling him to head to Hotel Krat, which Pinnochio does, but it won’t be easy. After a number of deadly enemies and your first major boss, you find yourself in Hotel Krat, the last safe refuge in this now deadly city roaming with murderous puppets. Here you meet a mysterious woman named Sophia who is there to help you in any way she can. She gives you a lead on finding your creator, Geppetto, as he needs rescuing and the only person that would know how to stop this puppet uprising.
Now using Hotel Krat as your home base, this is where you’ll come to level up from Sophia, upgrade your weapons and simply take a breather when needed. Here you’re also given a cricket in a lantern, acting as your light, aptly named Gemini. Small details like this makes Lies of P’s connection with Pinocchio's dark retelling so special. Developers have done a great job at creating a world with plenty of lore and telling a narrative that’s interesting yet mysterious at the same time.
The city of Krat is styled after the Belle Epoque era in France (1870-1914), very elegant in nature, but now has streets filled with blood from these puppets killing anything alive they see. While the city isn’t as completely open as past Souls games, being much more linear in design, that’s not saying there’s no side areas, shortcuts and paths to find, but it’s much more linear at its core design.
Having heavy inspiration from Dark Souls and Bloodborne, you’re going to see numerous parallels in its game design. Stargazer’s are your bonfires, which will be used as teleport points, refills your health and healing items to full, but as we all know, also resets the world and all non-boss enemies. Bosses are generally housed behind massive doors which will have you strain to even open before attempting them. Your currency is Ergo instead of souls, used to level up essentially the same way as the games before it. Die before spending it and you’ll leave it at your last corpse, able to be retrieved as long as you don’t die again.
Combat is also very similar, needing to balance light and heavy attacks as well as managing your stamina, blocking and dodging. Just like in similar titles, you’ll die, a lot, learn from your mistakes and progress ahead. This is why fans of the genre enjoy it as much as they do, overcoming that difficult enemy or boss, finally progressing. What is unique is its take on the ‘humanity’ system, but here it’s about telling the truth or a lie at certain points, effecting your path forward and ending as well.
This is where the combat comes in, something FromSoftware has basically perfected, and what I generally struggle with in the genre. Souls games generally have you play more defensively, usually opting to dodge attacks and waiting for your opening for attack. Bloodborne on the other hand was much more aggressive in its design, and this is where you can clearly see Lies of P drew its inspiration from. You still need quick reactions, but Lies of P wants you to play much more aggressively, relying on counters and parries rather than dodging and rolling.
Performing a perfect guard is absolutely required to master, as that’s really your only chance the further you make your way into the city. Doing so is more than to just be flashy though. It’ll will give the enemy some stagger damage, where if you do this enough, will open them up to a heavy or execution attack, as they’ll be vulnerable for a few seconds. These perfect parries also will cause the enemies weapon to become damaged, maybe even breaking, which in turn reduces the damage output they can do. The best part? These also applies to bosses as well, so if you can perfectly parry a number of attacks in a row, you can get a huge advantage against them.
Even for someone like that that finds Souls combat difficult, once I learned the enemy patterns and was able to perfectly guard against them, I was able to play much more aggressive, barely dodging at all. There’s something so satisfying about negating a rapid attack from a boss, only to counter and take off a huge chunk of their health. Boss fights were easily the highlight, each being designed uniquely, having their own movesets, and later on, a good amount will have two phases that you’ll have to contend with.
The later bosses are quite difficult, some taking me at least a dozen tries, but is incredibly satisfying when you finally defeat them and make it to the next Stargazer. Certain spots will allow you to summon NPC’s to help you in these boss fights as well if you have the appropriate item, so it’s a good idea to search off the main path when you can, just in case you want some help at a certain challenging boss.
Instead of Estus Flasks you have health pots, which are used in the same way. In most Souls-like games, once you’re out of healing options, you essentially had to return to a Bonfire to refill them, but that also reset all the enemies of course. Here though, once you’re all out of your healing pots, you can actually refill at least one. Again, perfect parries will slowly refill these for you, again, forcing you to play a bit more aggressively, which is a great balance and reward for doing so. More than once I had no healing supplies left but was able to refill one simply from performing well in combat. A great touch that other Souls games need to copy.
One of the most unique mechanics to Lies of P though comes from its weapon crafting system. Throughout your journey you’ll find new weapons, as expected, but blades and handles can be separated, then combined to your own creations. These aren’t just for visual flare either, as the blade determines how much and what type of damage (blunt versus slashing), but the handle is for certain movesets. This allows you to create some truly unique weapon combinations based on your playstyle. Myself for example, I hate the large and slow weapons. I prefer the smaller and faster weapons, even if they do less damage, as I can get a few hits in before having to parry. Some prefer those large slow weapons that can take off big chunks of health at a time, but that requires knowing your weapon timing very well. Now I can take the blade from a dagger and the handle from a massive wrench, and combine them for something quite unique. Or maybe you do it the opposite way, keep the wrench end and attach the dagger handle for the special move that allows multiple ‘stabs’.
Once you get a handful of weapons it’s worth experimenting with, as every combination is really unique. Once you find a combination that suits you, it can make a massive difference in you being successful, especially versus bosses. The other unique mechanic is that you’ll need to sharpen your weapon when it becomes dull. Over time your weapon dulls, luckily Pinocchio has a portable sharpener on his mechanical arm. Holding the button for a few seconds is all it takes to get the blade back to optimum damage, as not sharpening it will mean you deal little to no damage. This usually isn’t much of a hassle, which is until you’re mid boss fight and trying to find the few extra moments to sharpen your blade. You’ll even get special sharpeners that allow you to coat your blade in fire as well.
Speaking of his mechanical arm, this can be swapped for different types. These each act as almost like a special move and is called your Legion Arm. Each prosthetic arm not only has their own unique ability, but can be upgraded later on to be even more powerful. Your starter Legion Arm starts out like a really strong punch, others will allow you to pull enemies in with a grapple cord, another act like a shield if you want to play a bit more defensively, and one gives you the ability to blast out a bolt of lightning, arguably the best of the bunch. There’s a few more to find throughout your journey, and I’m sure people will have varying opinions on which is best for them.
After a couple bosses and saving Geppetto you’ll also unlock the skill tree, called “P-Organs”. This is where you can unlock active and passive abilities for Pinocchio to suit your playstyle. These require Quartz, a special upgrade material you’ll need to be on the lookout for if you want to customize. This is how you’ll also create your own unique build on top of the weapon crafting. There are four nodes per section, needing to spend a certain amount before unlocking the next cluster. You can choose to heavily invest into one node and unlock special bonuses, or spread your quartz upgrades across the tree if you wish. Once you choose an upgrade, you can also then augment it with special abilities to increase your attack, abilities, survivability or item useage.
Lies of P is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Even though the city of Krat is in shambles, full of death and destruction, the design and aesthetics is wonderful to just take in if you get a few moments to do so. The robotic-like enemies at the beginning are interesting to look at, and later on as they become more monstrosities, they feel more unique. That said, you’ll see many enemies repeated over and over again, but for being puppets, that makes sense at least. The boss designs are fantastic, as the monstrosities are all uniquely designed. The backdrop of Krat is elevated with a soundtrack that fits the dark tone with melodies. By the music alone, you know when things are about to get serious or when you’re safe in the Hotel. The voice acting overall is done wonderfully, and I had no complaints there.
Even though I was initially apprehensive to play Lies of P simply due to its genre, they’ve managed to stand apart from the sea of poor Dark Souls and Bloodborne clones out there. Even though there’s very few in the genre I enjoy, Lies of P is up there on the list, as it was still quite challenging but was balanced just enough that I was able to enjoy it and make progress as well. Bloodborne fans are not going to want to skip this one, as Lies of P is clearly a huge love letter to the game in many ways, and if I was lying you'd see my nose growing.
**Lies of P was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Ad Infinitum
While initial screenshots may have you assume Ad Infinitum is a WWI shooter or maybe a type of survival horror game, you’d be wrong on both accounts. Ad Infinitum is more akin to a walking simulator than anything else, though with some light puzzle and stealth elements thrown in for good measure. Other than being set in the WWI era, I really had no idea what to expect when I started playing, as I did no research beforehand nor heard about it. While I normally don’t mind walking simulators, or linear games, it was hard to get motivation to want to continue forward after each chapter was the same design loop as the previous.It’s not often games let you play as a German soldier, so it was an interesting perspective seeing a soldier from the ‘other’ side coming to terms with the atrocities he witnessed during the war. The War is over, but that doesn’t mean that your suffering is. Can you find peace even though you survived? How has the Great War affected your family? Your mind clearly isn’t the same since returning home, haunted by feelings, emotions and guilt.
You play as Paul von Schmidt, a German vet who returns back home after the Great War has ended. You have a brother, Johannes, father Karl, and mother Madeleine. Your family has been torn apart from the War, something that doesn’t generally get a lot of focus in media. While your family had issues before the War, it certainly went to another level afterwards. Thing is, much of the game takes place in Paul’s mind, or at least some distorted version of it, as he tries to come to terms with his experiences in the trenches.
You’ll explore your home, seemingly altered from what you remember, focusing on memories and then being thrust back into the trenches, but not exactly as you remember though. Exploring your home, you’ll need to solve puzzles to progress, maybe finding a key but not know where the lock is, or a horn that seemingly belongs somewhere specific. After solving certain puzzles, he sometimes gets triggered and falls back into the trenches, but fighting against a different kind of enemy, more of a monster type rather than soldiers.
You’ll eventually come across a blinded Officer, clearly in bad shape, writhing in pain and begging for some medicine. This sets you on a journey across the front lines to find some Morphine for him, as you think you can save him. As you eventually find this Morphine, a massive deranged and twisted female monster, named Despair, attacks and chases you. You don’t have a weapon though, so you can’t fight back in the traditional sense. Instead, you’ll reach an area where you’ll need to play some music, either something she loved, or otherwise, and what you decide to do will directly affect the outcome as the credits roll.
There’s clearly a lot of symbolism in the locations, enemies and even names, which I took as Paul dealing with his trauma in his own way. I was impressed with how the focus wasn’t on Paul in direct combat, or what you’d expect for a World War I setting, but instead how the War can tear apart a family in different ways.
Played in first person, once you start interacting in the mansion sections, having to open doors and cabinets, it felt very much like a Layers of Fear style of game, though without any of the horror elements. Sure there was some minor creepy things that occur and you will hear noises off in the distance, but thankfully not as many cheap jump scares. The house sections are basically a puzzle you need to solve to trigger the next memory sequence, bringing you back to some distorted memory of his time back in the War.
The puzzle elements are quite light, generally needing a key or item to progress to the next step, though I did waste quite a bit of time simply wandering aimlessly trying to figure out what I needed to do next. Pausing will give you a hint on one of the menus, but there’s no markers or waypoints. As you progress through the Chapters and come back to the mansion each time, new areas and doorways will unlock, unveiling more family secrets and notes with lore to find.
Then there are times where you’re transported back to the trenches. I took this as being triggered by some event or item, forcing your mind back to the front lines, possibly representing his mental health. But terrifying creatures are about, you need to be stealthy as you can’t fight back, making sure to avoid the tin cans on strings all about. Later chapters take a different turn, plucking you out of the trenches and placing you in some dark and grimy factory setting. This is merely a setup for the eventual boss fight, though these boss battles aren’t really fights, they are simply puzzles you need to complete with a 'big-bad' chasing you in some way.
It’s odd for a game with a WWI setting to not have combat. In fact, you only use a gun for the first few opening moments, and even then, you don’t even really use it. Because the bulk of the gameplay is more like a walking simulator, even the bosses are simply running to hit a switch or use an object, run to the next, and repeat. The boss designs themselves though, absolutely top notch and even as a horror fan, they had me surprised at how creepy and unsettling they were.
Visuals are decent given the linearity and being inside the mansion at least half of the time. There’s enough detail that it all seems well done, though the animations are quite stiff at times, as are the low poly models of certain objects. The music is quite fitting for the most part, sounding of era and fitting the horror tonality of the setting. The voice acting overall was also done well with no real complains there, especially for a smaller game like this.
A narrative driven walking simulator with a ton of symbolism and horror backdrop makes for a decent playthrough at least once. There’s multiple endings based on certain actions and choices made, but given how slow you walk and the simpleness of the puzzles, once felt more than enough to uncover a war torn family's closet of skeletons.
**Ad Infinitum was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021
I’m a sucker for simulator titles, even with their generally terrible track record of being poorly optimized pc or mobile ports much of the time. Even still, I keep coming back for more, regardless of what odd, quirky or unique job it’s trying to simulate. Developed by Play2Chill and published by Ultimate Games, we now have Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021. Yes, you read that title right. It’s on the verge of 2024, and this is the title we’re now getting. If that doesn’t tell you the amount of effort and care that went into this port, oh boy, you’re going to want to keep on reading this review.From its title, you can safely assume what Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 is all about. It’s you as a motorcycle mechanic trying to start your business by completing jobs for customers for payment. Continue to do well and you’ll keep earning more money. Maybe someone has a junker bike they want restored, or some will come in with requests for specific new parts or attributes like faster speed.
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 falls in a weird spot because it is a simulator in many aspects, taking apart and building bikes back together piece by piece, but there also seems to be some inaccuracies as well. Now I’ll admit, I know nothing about motorcycles other than they usually ride the shoulder to bypass traffic at a standstill, so the beginnings were a little frustrating when I was tasked with replacing a certain part, unsure what that part is or where it’s actually located.
This is due to the lack of a worthwhile tutorial. Your first job shows you the basics, but leaves out a ton of other useful information that would have been quite handy to know. The game will teach you how to dismantle a bike, buy a few parts, and then put it all back together before leaving you on your own to play however you wish. Don’t expect any narrative here though, as you simply use your tablet to choose jobs from an ongoing rotating list, complete the job and move onto another. Finish the jobs and you’ll earn experience and money.
Now and then you’ll get a main mission which seems to unlock at certain progression points and levels. These are usually a little more involved and give you a dozen objectives for the job or so to complete. Side missions can vary from very quick headlight or handlebar changes that don’t have much of a reward, to a customer wanting a handful of completely new upgraded parts or fixes. Side missions seem to come and go quite quickly, constantly offering you a new job, but only lasting for a short time before it’s replaced with a new mission offering. This is fine, but you’re getting these new mission notifications quite often, even when currently working on a bike for a customer.
As a mentioned above, I’m not a gearhead by any means. I know the basics of automobiles like how to change a tire and refill the oil, but that’s about it. Tell me to point where a specific part is or what it does, and I’ll give you that blank stare. Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 isn’t here you teach you what each part does, where it’s located, or how it all works together. It simply expects you to know what every individual part is, where it’s located, and how to get to it to replace. This of course had me wasting quite a bit of time simply dismantling nearly the whole bike to find a certain part I need to replace, but unsure where exactly.
There are some tools to help you find broken and damaged parts, but you’re going to have to constantly wrestle against the terrible menus and controls to do so. In a certain view you can easily see these damaged parts being highlighted in red, though that’s only if you can see it from your viewpoint. What if it’s a gasket or something inside the motor and you don’t know what or where that piece is? You’ll have to do like me and randomly start dismantling the bike in hopes to find it. Highlighting over every piece and component will show it’s ‘health’ and some information of it the part which you can then decide to purchase a replacement, upgrade it, or repair it if you’ve progressed far enough.
The more you play the more XP you’ll earn, eventually unlocking perks and bonuses that will help you perform your job easier and quicker. For example, taking apart a bike completely fully earned me enough XP that I had my screwdriver skills level up and now that takes a shorter amount of time to do. There’s a whole skill tree system in place too that I’ve forgotten about numerous times, allowing you to unlock new perks and such as well, but this too was buried in menus and every now and then I would remember to check it to see what I could upgrade, like faster diagnostics or new equipment for the shop.
Career mode is where you’ll likely spend the majority of your time, but there is a sandbox mode where you don’t have to worry about money limits, simply building and fixing whatever you want. Run out of cash in the campaign though and you may need to take out a loan through your tablet. With a handful of non-licensed bikes and over 400 parts to customize with, there’s certainly a lot to delve into that might seem overwhelming at first, but in the shop you’ll have to choose which type of bike parts you’re looking for, then the category, then the individual part, so it’s not as daunting as you first realize. Don’t come into this looking for your favorite Harley, Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati or Honda bikes, though it’s clear which ones were inspired by which.
As you level up you’ll gain access to new areas. Ever wanted to rummage around a junkyard and find old parts to repair or use on your projects? Or maybe you’ll find an old junker bike that simply needs from TLC to be restored. You’ll be happy to know that’s possible here. Parts are categorized into Classic, Modern, Slick, Fancy, Epic and more, with the better parts costing more but usually giving some sort of stat increase, like acceleration or handling, or simply have a more unique look to them.
You can eventually repaint a majority of individual parts, even putting stickers on them, but the controls are sluggish and confusing at best. The controls though are just one component you’ll be fighting along your motorcycle repairing career. The camera at times has a mind of its own, zooming in so far that you’re inside the table or part, or out so far away that you can’t aim to properly use the screws. The cursor moves quite quickly, so fine adjustments are difficult if you’re too zoomed out.
While Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 has the basics of motorcycle repair down, there’s also some missing things, like not having jacks to support the bike when you take the wheels off. Sure that’s looking for something nitpicky, but if you have simulator in the title, people are going to expect it to be as close to the real life thing as possible. So what do you do after you complete your job before returning it to the customer? Well, you’ll want to make sure it rides smooth right? Yeah... about that.
You can test bikes in certain sections of the map, and this was where I really got a sense of how little effort was gone into the game and the first of a laundry list of bugs I ran across. You can ride the bike you just fixed or built, but it doesn’t matter how good of parts you chose or if everything is working perfectly fine, your rider will lean close to the ground like he’s inspecting the pavement, but your bike has the turning radius of a house. Oh you crashed the bike because of the atrocious steering? No problem, just hit the reset button like it prompts to. Nope, that doesn’t work. Oh look, you're also unable to access your tablet or do anything. The game isn’t frozen, but you can’t do anything. I hope you saved in the last while because the only fix is to hard quit out and restart from your last save. Oh you forgot to save I the last hour? Well, that sucks. Better remember next time.
This is also assuming the mission you were given allows you to have it completed. I had one bike where I needed to get the handling or braking to a rank of 40. I had well over that and the objective wouldn’t update, even after reinstalling the part and buying a new one. So I couldn’t progress and had to cancel that job.
The mechanics for actually dismantling and building the bikes works quite well (aside from the camera). Let’s say you want to take off the front wheel. Well you can’t simply do that, so it’ll be highlighted red when your cursor is over it in dismantle mode, but it will show the part that needs to be taken off beforehand, either in yellow or green. If it’s yellow that means another part needs to be taken off before that one, so on and so on. If it’s green, that’s basically the start of the chain of parts you can start removing. Assembling the parts is kind of in reverse, where it will show a white ghost-like part that you can install next, so you don’t need to remember any sort of order for the parts thankfully.
When you need to change a tire you use a machine to take the tire off the rim, and then place the new tire combination together. Before putting it on the bike you need equipment to balance the tires. Great, no problem right? Well, that’s if the game doesn’t decide to bug out and just not give you your tire back. Numerous occasions I’d just combined my rim and tire to have it balanced, only for it to ‘eat’ my wheel. Now I had no wheel, so I went and bought a new rim and tire and attempted again. Nope, gone once again. The only fix was a hard close and restart. Again, I hope you saved recently.
The same issue happened when I would paint a part, only for it to disappear for no reason. Again, another reset. Then with the repair table you can fix most broken parts to reuse them, but the menu wouldn’t work in letting me add them to the list or actually accept my choices. Another reset. I simply got into the annoying habit of saving before using any of the machinery other than on the bike itself, which became a chore. Even with my new habit, I’d forget to save now and then, only to lose all that progress when I had to restart because of a game breaking bug.
Bikes themselves look decent at best, which is to be expected when dealing solely with hundreds of parts close up, though there are times the textures are muddy and blurred. The soundtrack wasn’t nearly as terrible as I expected and I didn’t have to shut it off after a short amount of time like in some other games.
Lastly, the lack of any amount of care in this port is downright embarrassing. At least a half dozen spots has portions that label the PC controls, like pressing “R”, "Left Mouse Button”, or to “Click”. The controls are poorly optimized for a controller, menus are a mess, and having to search the store for specific parts is a pain. It’s abundantly clear that virtually no effort went into porting this to console, even in its title, which is a shame, as the actual dismantling and rebuilding portions are relaxing, but the amount of game breaking bugs makes it impossible to recommend, even to motorcycle enthusiasts.
**Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Pinball M
I’m glad I grew up in the early years of gaming, as I got to experience actual arcades in their prime, being some of my fondest gaming memories. I was lucky enough to be given a few quarters each day before school, as my mom would allow me to stop at the local arcade on the way home and play a few games before returning. I swear, at least half of those precious quarters went to pinball machines. The arcade I frequented had all the pinball machines in a corner, with dozens of different choices to play, though I generally tended to gravitate towards my favorites that I could play longer than others.While playing pinball at home on the TV isn’t nearly the same experience as pressing those buttons for the flippers in real life, it’s simply going to have to do these days. This is where Zen Studios comes in, easily the biggest name in virtual pinball. Having played their pinball games for many years now, their latest release, Pinball M, is now here for horror and pinball fans alike to enjoy.
I’ll admit, I was a little confused at first, as I reviewed their last title, Pinball FX, which was more of a platform and service to house all your virtual pinball purchases in one place. That’s why Pinball M being a separate game on its own surprised me, as I thought they would have simply added more tables and packs to their core FX game, though there were some monetization choices I didn’t fully agree with.
Like their other releases, the game itself is free to download and play, giving you one table to play endlessly. How they hook you is teasing other tables for you to play on, adding as standalone tables or getting a minor discount if you purchase the bundle. Pinball M is horror themed, so you can expect a bloody good time on these more mature rated tables. Purchasing tables are $6.99 CAD each, or $25.99 for the pack of 4 DLC additions, as the base table is free, for a total of 5 tables.
Wrath of the Elder Gods: Director’s Cut – This is your free table, which may seem familiar if you bought the original version for Pinball FX. This Lovecraftian inspired table seems to be largely the same table as before, though with a little more blood and different music I believe. The top of the table has a sinister monster overlooking the playfield and a Cthulhu creature on the left that may aim for your ball as it passes nearby.
The Thing Pinball – Based on the 1982 classic from John Carpenter, this table has you battling the alien from U.S. Outpost #31. I found this table challenging with some of the quick speeds and steep ramps, never able to get much of a high score compared to some of the other tables. With a handful of different missions, you’ll need to collect blood samples to work towards finding who the impostor is.
Chucky’s Killer Pinball – Based on everyone’s favorite killer doll, Chucky is back, albeit in pinball form. This table was by far the bloodiest and creepiest of them all. There’s a bloody axe that chops away when hitting certain targets, you can see Chucky, his bride Tiffany Valentine and their deranged kid Glen/Glenda painted in the middle of the playfield. A large slashed up Chucky head sits atop the table and watches your ball movement for just that extra bit of creepiness, as is seeing the Good Guy’s packaging off to the side of the table. I too found this table easy to lose my ball down the middle, though became better with more practice.
Dead by Daylight Pinball – Based on the popular online asymmetric multiplayer survival horror game with the same name, this interesting table gives you the choice of playing as a survivor or killer (sadly only Trapper), just like in the game it’s based on. This offers many different quests to work on and each survivor is unique as well. There’s plenty of references to the original game here and if you enjoy numerous skill shots and quests, this table is for you.
Last and not least was by far my favorite table of the bundle, Duke Nukem’s: Big Shot Pinball. Having grown up with the original Duke Nukem games and thinking he was a badass, they’ve incorporated everything Duke you’d expect to find in pinball form. You’re going to have to have BALLS OF STEEL to take down all the alien scum, and I was easily racking up millions and millions of points on this table. There’s some fun quests and skill shots here, one where you even go into the iconic theater and use the flippers to shoot aliens, rewarding you with that sweet pixelated (but clothed) stripper dancing all us young kids enjoyed seeing.
Options allow for portrait or landscape mode, depending on your setup, and you’ll constantly be trying to climb the local and online leaderboards, and just having play a table for ten minutes and think you have a score on one can possibly beat, you’ll get humbled real quick when you see it’s a fraction of the top of the online leaderboards.
Like Pinball FX, there’s numerous ways to play each of the tables. Yeah you could play it in Classic mode, but there’s a number of different ways to play, each of which help you raise your pinball skills in unique ways. For example, one mode may only give you a certain amount of flipper hits, like 200 or so, needing to get the highest score possible without using the flipper as much as you normally would. This forced me to do much less hold and aim shots, as that counts as a use. Or maybe you want to see how high a score you can get in a set amount of time, or maybe with one ball. These modes offer a bit of variety to the standard gameplay that makes a return from Pinball FX.
What is new though is a Campaign Mode for each of the tables. A campaign mode in a pinball game? But how you may ask. Well, the title is a bit misleading, as it’s really just a number of different objectives you pick from the beginning, usually broken up into different modes as described above. The challenging mode was where your score continually decreases after a set amount of time, so you better keep racking up those points to survive as long as you can.
The best part and what makes Campaign Mode worthwhile is the unlockable cosmetics you earn for your individual table's play space. Somewhat like how Pinball FX had unlockable items to decorate with, here there’s no terrible microtransactions or Pinball Pass to deal with, simply earning a currency the more and better you play, allowing you to unlock banners, titles, table skins, icons, ball and flipper skins, and more. Each Campaign mission unlocks a specific ‘upgrade’ to your room for that table, like having a life sized Duke standing beside the table once a specific mission is complete. These don’t do anything to alter gameplay, but certainly made me play each table’s Campaign missions to get all of the unlocks.
Tournament play returns, allowing you to create or join anyone’s specific ruleset. The best change though was giving you a special currency for playing in other players’ tournaments, which will then let you spend a certain amount to be featured, thus have more players play your unique challenges. With seemingly endless tournaments and events, there’s plenty to challenge yourself with regardless of what table(s) you purchase.
Just like Pinball FX, the tables look and play fantastic. Sure I would have loved to have a 120fps mode to match my TV, but each table looked unique and truly represented its franchise quite well. While having two titles, Pinball FX and Pinball M, might confuse some, Pinball M is arguably the ‘better’ title simply given the fact that Zen Studios didn’t try and nickel and dime with shady Pinball Passes or useless microtransactions. With a wealth of horror based games and movies, I’m hoping to see more tables come to Pinball M in the future, as its success will be based on continual table additions. Make a Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween or SAW based table in the future and I’ll continue to come back for a bloody good time.
**Pinball M (DLC Bundle) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Warstride Challenges
If you’ve been yearning for a fast paced twitch-like shooter akin to the new DOOM games or even classic Quake, then you’re going to want to take a hard look at Warstride Challenges. With speedrunning as its backbone and fast reaction times an essential skill, strap in for a new type of challenge, 3 to 30 seconds at a time.It’s you versus the clock in bite sized challenge rooms back to back. Blast enemies, traverse jumps, hit switches and make it to the end before time runs out. You’re competing to not just finish levels, but to do so in the quickest time possible, proving your skills with online leaderboards for bragging rights. With some levels only a couple seconds long, can you master it and find the most optimal path? Every fraction of a second counts.
There’s no need to worry about remembering some big story or reason as to why you’re doing what you’re doing, Warstride Challenges keeps things simple and pits you versus levels back to back. That’s it. There’s no story whatsoever, so just focus on beating levels as you unlock them to continue forward towards harder challenges. It’s all about climbing those online leaderboards, proving you’re the best there is on each level, if that’s your thing of course. With speedrunning being its main focus, you’ll simply focus on that, honing your reflexes and memorization of levels as you move from one to the next.
Each level’s premise is simple, to unlock the exit you need to kill every enemy and hit all the switches. That’s it. Sounds easy right? You’d think so when levels are generally anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds long, but there’s some serious challenge here, especially if you’re actively trying to reach the top of the leaderboards. Each fraction of a second counts, so the slightest non-optimal shot or movement can destroy your ranking. There are a few bonus stages later, like surviving waves of enemies and such, but the majority of your time is going from stage to stage, as each one unlocks when the previous is completed or you have enough medals to progress.
If it was as simple as simply running to the exit as fast as possible, that’d be no problem, but since you have to ensure every enemy is killed first, then things get a little trickier, especially when harder enemies appear in the later stages. Stages start out simple enough, almost being a straight corridor, maybe with a corner or two, but blast the enemy near the door and boom, you’re done. Later on though you’ll need to search for levers to pull, opening up new paths and having more enemies assault you before you can head to the exit.
There’s a variety of weapons you unlock along the way, from standard pistols to rifles, SMG’s and more. Do you quickly swap out your better gun as you leap across a chasm to save your limited ammo of your better guns for harder enemies, or shoot multiple grunts by maybe exploding a barrel nearby? While your goal is to simply get from A to B, everything in between is what will determine your time, even down to the smallest choices.
If you’ve played the previous DOOM reboots, you’ll have an idea as to the overall feel of the game, blasting any demons and monsters in your way. Add the classic Quake twitch-like reflexes needed and that’s what Warstride Challenges is essentially. Bunny hopping allows you to gain a quicker momentum, but you need to time these mini jumps to not hit a wall and lose your speed or possibly overshoot your jump across a gap. You can slide through low pathways, blast blocked doorways, swing across chasms and more, all at breakneck speed.
When you inevitably die or run out of time, simply retry the level again, working to better your time. Maybe you beat the level but only got a bronze medal for your time. Feel free to reply any level as much as you want, especially if you want to crack the coveted top 10 of the online leaderboards, but goodluck, those speedruns are on a whole other skill level.
Even if you’re like me and don’t have the quickest reaction time any more, you can still enjoy Warstride Challenges. Sure I wasn’t competing for any top 10 leaderboards, and sometimes I was happy simply getting through a level in time, but those that are highly competitive will surely have plenty of content to get through. ‘Easy to pick up, hard to master’ certainly applies here. Thankfully there’s also a limited ‘slow-mo’ you can use that not only slows down the movement speed, but time as well, so you can perfectly aim a difficult shot if needed.
I will say, when you have a run that goes well where you’re picking off enemies from afar with single headshots, making jumps smoothly, and getting those great times, the game feels fantastic. Once you get on that ‘zone’ and hone in on a level after memorizing where all the enemies and switches are, you feel like a pro when things just go right.
Most levels will unlock the next once completed, though you’ll eventually reach stages that you’ll need a certain amount of medals to unlock, forcing you to go back to previous stages to better your times on the harder difficulties. That’s right, each of the levels has a number of different difficulties, slightly remixing each stage, not simply making the time requirements shorter. Even though you’re replaying levels, they feel new on each difficulty, so it doesn’t become as tedious as I expected.
Maybe you need a break and need something different to do as a change of pace? Every level has a hidden skull to find that will unlock bonus levels, so there’s always a reason to go back to older levels. I will say though, after an hour or so playing straight, I felt exhausted. You’re constantly moving at a breakneck speed and I was so hyper focused that it weighed on me after a while. My fingers certainly felt it, because you know, pressing the buttons harder clearly is how you’re supposed to do it. The difficulty generally ramps up slowly, but there were certainly a few spikes out of nowhere that took a dozen or so restarts to complete as I did my best to memorize every enemy and lever placement.
Shoot, duck, bunnyhop, jump, swing, use powers, slow-mo and even utilizing a dedicated 180 degree turn button means you’ll constantly be moving, lining up shots, swings, slides and jumps. Combat feels exhilarating when you get into that groove and you feel like a pro when it goes how you intended. For every stage completion like that though, you can expect a few dozen restarts, crashing into walls, falling into pits, or not finding that last enemy, unable to finish the level and running out of time.
The later stages do become quite difficult, not just with the time constraints, but having to shoot enemies while swinging, or doing a 180 to blast a monster that spawned behind you as you’re in the air. Sure it becomes frustrating trying to do this a few dozen times in a row, failing each time, but once successful, it feels incredibly rewarding. Quite a few times I felt like there was absolutely no way a level could have been completed any quicker, only to be humbled by seeing the online leaderboards.
While there’s no direct multiplayer, the Nemesis Mode is a very clever way to compete against friends and the community. You can choose a handful of different players, add them to your Nemesis list, and every stage you play, you’ll see their ghost in your game. You could even add your favorite streamers or anyone you know that plays to compete directly against them. I did this more to see what paths and routes they took, improving my strategies. Knowing I was slightly ahead of a nemesis felt rewarding, or seeing one ahead of me forced me to focus just that bit harder to be better. There’s no better feeling than beating a nemesis of a friend by a fraction of a second, knowing they’ll probably try and do the same to you afterwards.
Warstride Challenges visually is impressive with its corridors filled with monsters that plays at a smooth framerate, though it’s honestly hard to appreciate much of it when you’re only playing levels for 30 seconds at a time, so hyper focused on your aim and jumping. Between stages you’ll head to a menu where you choose your Chapter and stage, though the menus are a bit bland. Audio on the other hand is fantastic, with a metal/rock theme soundtrack akin to DOOM, though not quite at the same level of kick-ass. The weapons feel impactful with every shot and you feel hyped when the music kicks in at the right time, especially on a smooth run.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Warstride Challenges, but it’s a well-polished speedrunner for those that really care about climbing leaderboards and shaving fractions of a second off of runs. While it’ll be a little much for novices and those that don’t necessarily have lightning quick reflexes, those craving to run stages repeatedly to become the best in the world will surely have plenty of content to work towards for some time.
**Warstride Challenges was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Car Detailing Simulator
It seems that every time I look, there’s a new simulator game out there, recreating a job or activity that I would have never expected to be in game form. The latest is Car Detailing Simulator from developers Games Incubator and GameFormatic, published by Ultimate Games. Many of these simulator games aim to recreate its real world counterpart, and Car Detailing Simulator is no different, having you renew cars to their former glory, making sure they are polished and shined with no minor detail forgotten before the customer gets their car returned and you move onto the next job.After a brief opening cutscene about the detailing company you’re working for wins an award, you’re thrust into your first job detailing a vehicle, doubling as the tutorial to the gameplay. Don’t worry though, after a few jobs, you’re going to have the controls down and memorized, as it’s very repetitive. There’s a massive flood and your workplace is all but destroyed, so you have nowhere to go for work any longer. What better reason to go open up your own detailing garage rather than work for someone else? At least that’s the narrative that I took away from the brief storyboard cutscenes. This is a simulator game though, and we come here for the gameplay and recreation of the job, not a story. It’s time to wow and surprise your customers and build your business by focusing on the finer details.
Checking the computer at your desk will show the customers that are wanting to employ your services and drop their vehicle off to eventually look like new. Before choosing which of the jobs to take, you can see how much money you’ll earn and which components will need to be restored to their former glory. Based on how well you do and if you complete each task, you’ll earn a certain amount of money and stars based on your work. There’s even now and then some extra tasks you can do to earn a little more, like polishing the glass or putting a special product on the wheels. You’ll need all the money you can get, as that’s how you’ll purchase new tool upgrades, new garages, and more.
Detailing a car is more than simply getting some soap and washing it down. Yes, that’s usually the first task you’ll complete, getting the grime off the car, but then you’ll need to go a little deeper to make it shine. You’ll have a handful of different tools and kits to use, each with their own use and purpose. The body cleaning kit is where you’ll find your foaming gun, pressure washer and drying cloth. Your tire kit is has special brushes and sprays, where the interior cleaning kit is how you’ll clean the dirty mats and seats.
Every type of detail and clean needs a specialized tool, and while you’re only given the basics in the beginning, you’ll need to eventually purchase the others, like the headlight cleaner kit, polishing kit and more. Knowing what tools you need is only half the job, the other is hoping that the game itself deems your tasks complete, as that’s sometimes the challenge in itself.
Some of the gameplay is satisfying, like spraying down the vehicle with the foam, then the frustration sinks in when you need to annoyingly dry the car by hand with a hand towel, hoping you didn’t miss the smallest wet patch. Cleaning the insides of the car is much simpler, spraying down the seats, scrubbing them down, and spraying out any of the stains. The ‘gameplay’ in most of these sections is simply moving around the Left Stick within a small area, or spraying everywhere before cleaning it up. A small indicator will fill up a circle and disappear once that portion is fully cleaned, with the task coming off your list as well.
Clicking in the Right Stick will highlight any dirty areas or where repairs are needed with a good polishing. Doing so highlights the dirt and scratched in a faint red, though it’s quite difficult, near impossible actually, to see the smallest of the details, especially near the bottom of the car. If the car you’re detailing is red, or something that isn’t a contrast to the color red, good luck trying to find the smallest spot you missed cleaning or buffing out. This will inadvertently add a lot of extra time to the job as you go over every inch once again trying to find it. You can change this color in teh options, but having to do so each time is tedious and doesn't help all that much. In the polishing kit there’s a wand you get to highlight the scratches and such, but it barely does anything to help. I was hoping that the lighting upgrades for the garage would make the highlighting more pronounced, but it did seemingly absolutely nothing.
Once your individual tasks show complete, you can move onto the next, but when you’re 99% done cleaning or polishing for example and can’t see any remaining dirt or scratches, the frustration starts to set in, and this happens quite often. It’s tedious to go completely over the car once again blindly so that your task will complete. Other times it will show your task complete, even though you can see all of the windows haven’t been wiped or there’s still foam on the car. It's not always consistent.
One of the last tasks you might have to do to the vehicle is give it a new paint job. This costs a certain amount, and it’s really just picking a new color and clicking the button. The problem with this is that you might have less in your account than it costs to purchase the paint job, meaning you’ll have to complete the job not fully complete, thus earning less than the full amount.
It’s clear that Car Detailing Simulator was ported over from PC to console, but there doesn’t seem to have been much care into making the controls friendly as they could possibly be. More often than not, choosing a new tool won’t place it in the middle of the screen, fighting to find where it’s at before placing it where you want it. Needing to clear or polish a very specific spot can sometimes be a nuisance, as the cursor moves at mach-3 with no option anywhere to slow it down. There’s even a few spots where there wasn’t enough care to take out the mouse button icons in the tutorial prompts and change it to the triggers for a controller.
Gameplay becomes repetitive quite quickly, as it’s the same tools doing the same jobs over and over. Keeping the cursor in the right area is difficult and the UI is awkward at best. While the cars aren’t licensed, it’s clear which cars at meant to be Mustangs and other classics. Having a vehicle come in dirty and scratched then leaving polished up and looking brand new is quite satisfying. Even with the clumsy and frustrating controls, it’s addictive and relaxing at the same time.
You can purchase tool upgrades in the virtual store for $500 a piece, which generally allow you to complete each step of the detailing process a little quicker. Some upgrades seem quite worth it, like the interior clearer than does two steps in one, whereas others seem to not make much of a difference at all. You can also purchase upgrades for your garage, like shelves for your tool kits, lights for a brighter atmosphere (yet doesn’t help find the dirt and scratches any easier) and others, as well as buying a new garage and showroom. Later in the game you’ll be able to purchase old cars, make them pretty, then sell them and showcase in your other garages and showrooms, though the bulk the game play is still washing, scrubbing and polishing each vehicle.
The port from PC to console was disappointing, clearly not a focus as the controls are clunky and frustrating at best. The awkward menus don’t help much either. The worst part had to be the repetitive music that is bland and had to eventually be turned off for something else. The cars themselves look decent, especially once they are all shiny and polished, though there’s really not all that much else to look at other than stiff and awkward animations.
When you boil down Car Detailing Simulator’s gameplay elements, it really just comes down to changing one soiled texture into a shiny one by holding the Right Trigger and moving the Left Stick. For how simple the gameplay boils down to and for how repetitive it is, it’s oddly soothing, relaxing and addictive. More than one night playing I found myself saying ‘just one more car’. It’s not the most polished simulator out there, but it’s entertaining in its own way.
**Car Detailing Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Shuyan Saga
I’m always intrigued when a developer is willing to try something new. Maybe it’s a cool new mechanic, or maybe, like in Shuyan Saga, it’s a genre mash-up that I’ve never come across before. Blending a visual novel with a beat-em-up wasn’t something I was expecting. While it tells a wonderful tale, showcases martial arts, and has some Chinese culture as its backdrop, even after the credits have rolled, I’m still not sure if I’m sold on the idea of the genres melding together.You are Shuyan, a young princess who has trained many years in Kung Fu. Your peaceful home was invaded by the Guer army, led by the evil Ganbaatar. He aims to search for other Guardian Spirits so that he can take over the Five Kingdoms. It’s going to take more than basic martial arts for Shuyan to save the realm, which she will learn along the way.
Ganbaatar has killed your father, the King, so you must flee if you stand any chance at surviving, but do you decide to help your mother, or one of your best friends escape? There are choices you’ll make along the way with at least two endings to unfold. Told as a visual novel, there’s no animation when its the story segments, illustrated by over 1,400 panels by renowned comic book artist, Daxiong. His beautiful artwork is sure to impress if you’re a comic book fan, though if visual novels bore you, this isn’t going to help much. While it may not be animated, it is voiced, quite well actually, and has an accompanying soundtrack that fits the tone.
Shuyan Saga is a game of two parts. The first is the visual novel aspect, taking up about half your time, watching a tale unfold as you make a few choices here and there. The other half is the beat-em-up fighting, which given the martial arts backdrop seems to make sense, but is by far the weakest portion of the game by a large margin. As for the story segments, the panels flow together well, there’s plenty of sound effects and the voiced dialogue does help raise it a bit. Thankfully you can quick skip scenes if you’re a fast reader or are working on a second playthrough for the other ending and achievements.
Then we get to the meat of the gameplay, the fighting. One thing I will say is that I applaud developers Lofty Sky Entertainment for wanting the combat to be as real as possible. They’ve gone above and beyond by actually motion capturing combat maneuvers from Shifu Longfei Yang, Master of the Shanxi Praying Mantis Style. This of course brings a sense of authenticity to the experience for those that know their martial arts.
Shuyan begins by simply knowing some basic punches and kicks, eventually learning some combos to unleash much more damage against her foes. As you train with a new master halfway through the narrative, you’ll unlock more of Shuyan’s potential with new abilities and special moves. Combat takes place in two different ways though, a 1 versus 1 duel, and then a top down view where you’ll fight numerous enemies at once.
The top down fighting is where you’ll generally need to clear a wave of enemies before another appears, eventually triggering the next story segment to kick in. You can maneuver Shuyan around a small arena as the brainless enemies come at you until defeated. They’ll have a small indicator above their head to show they’re about to do a special move, which is your cue to either dodge out of the way or prepare to grab and toss them, once you learn how to do so with the Right Stick. This combat really doesn’t have much to it, as you kick and punch your way through enemies until there’s none left and rewarded with story progress.
Then there’s the 1-on-1 fights that plays more like a rock-paper-scissors match. While opponents early in the game will be defeated by simply button mashing, eventually you’re going to know how to block and evade attacks. The Left and Right bumpers are how you’ll block high and low attacks, and using the Left and Right D-Pad will be how you Evade and Counter once you’ve learned how to do so. For the first half of the game I was getting by just fine by simply using combo attacks of punches and kicks (X and Y button), but eventually enemies got a little more challenging and was blocking my attacks more.
If an enemy is guarding high, then you’ll want to kick, if they are guarding low, then a good punch in the head will suffice. Once you’ve gotten used to the odd timing and awkward animations, combat becomes trivial, as I was able to counter every attack thrown at me, even the final confrontation with Ganbaatar. For a game focused on martial arts and even motion captured from an actual Master, the animations are quite rigid and don’t always flow together quite well, making for a jarring experience.
The star of Shuyan Saga is clearly the hand drawn artistry comic book style narrative. Even though the writing wasn’t amazing, each panel was done well and quite colorful. This is a stark contrast to the 3D fighting sections with basic models and rigid animations. With a soundtrack from composer Aaron Tsang, it plays beautiful melodies with its orchestral sound, fitting the culture’s backdrop. Even more surprising is that Kristen Kreuk (Lana Lang from Smallville) voices the titular Shuyan, so there was clearly a heavy focus on making the audio as a whole as top notch as it could be.
While Shuyan Saga uses the simple good versus evil trope for its main backdrop, the narrative flows nicely, being broken into three separate chapters. While I didn’t find the climactic final battle all that exciting, actually quite a letdown, I did enjoy seeing all the artwork start to finish. The odd very anglicized pronunciation of some Chinese names and places did seem 'off' at times, and I wish the quality of the combat matched the storyboard artwork.
An odd blend of visual novel and brawler, Shuyan Saga is certainly unique in its own right elevated with its great artwork and colors, though brought back down with its combat and gameplay. For a martial art that’s all about fluidity, it feels quite rigid at times. With an arena mode, a quick side mission after the story is complete, and two endings, there’s surely some reasons to play again if you’re really trying to get your value’s worth.
**Shuyan Saga was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
It used to be that when the holiday times rolled around each year, you knew that’s when the latest and greatest Call of Duty was about to descend upon gamers as well. Even with its massive budget, Call of Duty isn’t always shielded from disappointment and criticism, as it’s certainly had some highs and lows with its yearly releases. There was a time that I would line up at my local game store to get the game at midnight, playing well into the next morning and taking the day off work, looking forward for weeks to play the latest campaign and multiplayer.While I don’t have the excitement for yearly Call of Duty releases I once did, last year’s Modern Warfare II took me by surprise with its thrilling and exciting campaign that left me wanting more. Well it seems that the Activision have realized this, as Modern Warfare III is a direct sequel, picking up directly where the previous game left off. Even though it’s titled as a sequel and fully priced, I do question if this content was initially intended to be DLC or an expansion for Modern Warfare II for numerous reasons which I’ll delve into shortly.
Call of Duty titles generally have two main components, campaign and multiplayer, so let’s delve into the campaign first. Having quite enjoyed the previous game’s story and full on action sequences, I’ll admit, my expectations were a little higher than normal. With Modern Warfare II's ending with a bit of a shocking revelation, we now see what the follow up outcomes are in this sequel. Once again we’re with the familiar faces of Task Force 141 led by the iconic Captain Price as they take on a new, yet familiar, threat.
If you’ve been a Call of Duty fan for the last few titles, the name Vladimir Makarov should ring a bell, also noting how serious this threat truly is. Like most Call of Duty titles, the opening mission attempts to set an exciting tone full of action and plenty of gunfire. Modern Warfare III is no different, as you begin as an elite team infiltrating a maximum security prison in search of a VIP target. I don’t want to spoil much narratively, but having Makarov back as the antagonist was exciting given how cold and calculated he is from his previous discretions. "Remember, no Russian." is probably one of the most iconic lines in the franchise with its Airport level being one of the most memorable and shocking to date, really cementing how ruthless Makarov can truly be.
In most Call of Duty missions, you’re more or less simply going from point A to B, with a little wiggle room in between to give the illusion of a larger scale or freedom, albeit with a lot of gunfire and death in-between. Modern Warfare III does try something new in a handful of missions, giving you more choices. Not only for certain loadouts, but actually different paths and a bit more freeform level design. Thankfully the terrible forced stealth missions and ‘boss’ fights are omitted this time, as they weren’t much fun in last year’s release.
Introducing open combat missions, you’ll still need to get from a point A to B, but how you get to your objective is up to you. Do you go in the front door blasting or opt for a more silent approach, taking out targets one by one? These open missions are spread out across the campaign, though didn’t excite me as much as I expected them to. Sure it’s cool that you and I could play the same mission completely differently with unique loadouts and playstyles, but I found the stealth approach hard to complete, generally resulting in massive gunfire battles either way.
I’d wager that a large majority of Call of Duty players purchase the yearly entries for its addictive multiplayer component, regardless if you’re a fan of standard competitive modes, Warzone, DMZ or Zombies, there’s certainly something here you’ll enjoy. Something I didn’t expect was being able to carry forward all my Operators and Weapons into Modern Warfare III multiplayer, though a byproduct of this really starts to make it feel like an add-on more so than a fully-fledged sequel.
If you’ve played online multiplayer Call of Duty in the past, even more so if last year’s entry, then things are going to feel very familiar, as very little has changed pertaining to the ecosystem. You still have an overarching and confusing Call of Duty ‘app’ where you choose what mode to play and jump right in. There are some new additions and changes this year though, from 37 new weapons, 16 maps (remastered and modernized classics), loadout changes, aftermarket customizations, Tac-Stance and more.
If you’ve been a multiplayer Call of Duty fan for a number of years, you’ll certainly recognize the latest map additions, even if they are reworked classics, along with a handful of new ones. All 16 launch maps from the 2009 Modern Warfare 2 have been updated, including the iconic Estate and Highrise that easily stood out for me amongst the rest. While this may seem like a cheap way to pad the map offerings, because of the new weapons and mechanics, I found players didn’t play exactly the same way as they did over a decade ago on the original versions.
Having access to all my Modern Warfare II weapon unlocks from my first match was certainly a shock, as you can easily tell early on who’s been playing for some time, even at low levels. This means I can instantly start playing with my maxed out weapons and attachments since I put many hours into the previous game, leaving new players at a disadvantage. With over thirty new weapons now included in Modern Warfare III, I of course started to work on these new additions, leveling them up and wanting to check out the new Aftermarket parts.
Not explained well, Aftermarket parts allow you to drastically change some weapons to suit a specific playstyle. For example, as an LMG player using my Pulemyot LMG, the Bullpup Conversion Kit I unlocked after completing a specific challenge allowed my gun to have better maneuverability, hip fire recoil and simply improved its overall performance, not to mention looking badass with the magazine canister angled forwards. Other guns can be converted for some unique changes to how they perform, even some allowing for akimbo loadouts when certain challenges are completed.
Tac-Stance is also a new addition, acting as a middle ground between ADS and hip-fire. I can’t count how many times I’ve lost a firefight because ADS on my LMG is generally quite slow, yet trying to hip-fire with a rapid LMG doesn’t always work well unless in close quarters. Tac-Stance can improve your performance, giving you a bit more accuracy and maneuverability when compared to ADS firefights, available on most weapons, even able to be used with Modern Warfare II weapons. Easily toggled, this took some self-reminding that it was an option, but it certainly saved me on more than one occasion.
What’s old is new again, showcased by the return of some classic Call of Duty gameplay. Once again players can vote for maps, red dots will show on the minimap for non-silenced gunfire, and you once again start with your perks at the start of matches, no longer needing to kill or wait to gain access. It does seem as though player health got a bit of a boost in Core matches, as Time-to-Kill (TTK) seems longer than I’m used to, though I primarily spend most of my multiplayer time in Hardcore where this isn’t affected.
The latest, and arguably largest, addition is the latest take on the Zombies mode. While I’ve never really been a fan of the old classic Zombie mode, the latest in Modern Warfare III is really just a different take on last year’s popular DMZ mode. Modern Warfare Zombies (MWZ) is more PvE based, as you can play alongside other teams, not having to worry about the PvP element that DMZ focused on. Can you survive against seemingly never ending waves of zombies in a massive map? Uncover many secrets with story missions or simply enjoy your time with your squad blasting hordes of zombies with your buddies online as you try to extract and survive.
Instead of downloading a whole new game once I redeemed my code, Modern Warfare III seemed like a massive update for last year's Modern Warfare II. Even the achievements are listed under Modern Warfare II, implying it’s a DLC, even though it’s supposed to be its own new game. With the campaign being a direct sequel from last year’s, and even with the new ‘open’ missions, it did go by quickly. Zombies is sure to be a hit with DMZ fans, but it doesn’t do a great job at explaining all of its intricacies and mechanics for new players. While not the most memorable campaign of the series, and nowhere near the quality of Modern Warfare II’s epic setpieces, it’s a serviceable entry, but feels more like filler that should have been DLC rather than a fully-fledged entry that brings new excitement and potential fans.
**Call of Duty Modern Warfare III was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
UFC 5
“As Real As It Gets” is a tagline UFC has used for many years, and the latest game in the series, UFC 5, has certainly taken this to heart, trying to recreate the sport as faithfully and realistically as possible. With a whole new engine under the hood, massive graphical upgrades, a Real Impact System, new submission controls, new modes and more, make UFC 5 the most realistic MMA simulator to date.If you played UFC 4’s career mode, this is going to feel quite similar. As expected, you start out as a no one, looking to make a name for yourself to get noticed by the UFC to finally get your shot and of course, try to obtain that coveted gold around your waist one day. With new cutscenes and locations, sure it’s new, but it’s basically the same career mode all over again.
Coach Davis takes you under his wing, teaching you the basics from your backyard roots, aiming to mold you into a UFC prize fighter. While I was hoping there’d be some major names and fighters you come up with or train alongside the way, you do get to train at the same UFC Performance Institute gym as Valentina Shevchenko as she guides you as well. You’ve come a long way from your backyard brawls and World Fighting Alliance fights, but now you’re in the UFC, so you’ve got to make a name for yourself.
Before getting into the UFC, the career mode is entertaining enough, with Coach Davis helping train you, giving you advice, teaching you the basics, but once you’ve made it to the UFC, it’s as if there’s nothing else for you narrative wise. Once you become the champ, Career mode just turns into fighting for as long as you can before you retire as your longevity meter slowly depletes over time.
You’ll need to train MMA skills across the board though, from your wrestling, boxing, and BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), but there’s more to being a champion, as you’ll need to boost your social media for popularity, train with other fighters to learn their moves, and even watch tape on your opponent to learn their style and come up with a strategy. Each week before a fight you’re given 100 points to spent on these activities, and you clearly can’t do it all, so where you spend your time before the big fight is up to you.
Each contract you earn will also allow you to choose a sub objective that will net you bonuses based on its difficulty. For example, at the end of your fight contract, you need to have a certain amount of KO/TKO’s, Round 1 Finishes, Submissions or a certain amount of hype per fight. At the end of each contract you’ll earn a new one, generally upping your pay a substantial amount if you’ve been winning as you try and become the G.O.A.T. This all sounds familiar because it is, just as UFC 4’s career mode was.
Aside from Career Mode where I opted to spend the majority of my time, there’s plenty of other modes and things to play as well. There are weekly challenges you can test yourself with, aiming to be aligned with real PPV fight weeks in the future. These are predetermined fights and difficulties, with your first chance being free, though you can retry if you lose the fight for cost. These challenges will earn you special rewards like coins, cosmetics and even Alter Egos for fights, which are basically special attires from fighter’s histories.
Having moved to EA’s Frostbite engine has allowed for and even more realistic presentation, meaning the fighters look more authentic and move even more like their actual selves. With 60 FPS, fights will feel smooth, but the sweat and blood have been vastly improved and are quite noticeable with the improved authentic damage. Facial deformation really showcases cuts, bruises, blurred vision, broken noses, and at worst, the doctor might stop the fight if they think you can’t compete anymore. With 64,000 possible combinations of facial damage, fighters can look quite nasty with enough punches and kicks to the head. With damage actually affecting stamina regen, movement and even takedown defense, this adds all new strategies mid fight.
An MMA game is only as good as the fighters that make yup its roster though, and while it has some of the fighters you’d expect, it’s also missing some big names as well. The notable bonus fighters are Mike Tyson, Fedor Emelianenko, Muhammad Ali, and Bruce Lee, and you can expect many of the biggest names right now like Tom Aspinall, Ciryl Gane, Jon Jones, Magomed Ankalaev, Johnny Walker, Israel Adesanya, Khamzat Chimaev, Jiri Prochazka , Alex Pereira, Paulo Costa, Stipe Miocic , Colby Covington, Conor McGregor, Kamaru Usman, Michael Chandler, Alexander Volkanovski, Sean O’Malley, Valentina Shevchenko, amongst dozens of others.
There seems to be some notable omissions though, such as Brock Lesnar, Francis Ngannou, Yoel Romero, just to name a few. You can expect to see some legends in the roster as well, like Georges St-Pierre, Nick and Nate Diaz, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Royce Gracie, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Robbie Lawler, Donald Cerrone, Clay Guida, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar and more, so there’s surely a good handful of fighters you’ll recognize, even if you’ve not watched UFC in quite some time.
Combat will vary based on which mode you want to play, as there are some more options like Knockout, Stand and Bang, Competitive, and Simulation. If you simply want to have a slugfest and go for some crazy knockouts, you won’t have to worry about learning the ground game. You can even choose to go through the career this way as well should you choose, which was what I did for my first fighter.
If you’ve played the previous UFC games you’ll have an idea at how the controls work, but there have been some adjustments that take a little getting used to. The new damage system is probably what made me change my fight strategy on the fly more than anything else, as I was worried the doctor would come in and call the fight off even though I didn’t get knocked out directly. Spinning attacks have been revamped, and while I didn’t get as many knockouts with them, they’re still just as entertaining to watch land.
Facial deformation really help emphasize the power and damage you do to your opponents, and there seems to be a bunch of new animations for all the different fighting styles, including getting hit from different angles. You have a stamina meter you need to maintain, as trying to hit someone when you’re gassed won’t do much and will simply leave you open for a counter. Head movement plays a larger part of avoiding damage, able to bob and weave in different directions, looking for a powerful counter.
The coolest part though is seeing your handiwork being showcased after a big knockout. There are cinematic replays that shows different camera angles and in slow-mo, showcasing the new damage system and ragdoll physics. These knockout moments look badass of course, but there are times where the ragdoll physics make things look a little off and wonky when they don’t collapse just right or realistically.
You’ll also remember if you’ve played the previous games at how confusing and terrible the submission mechanics were. This minigame took a lot of getting used to, and even then, wasn’t intuitive in the slightest. I was glad to see that the ground game has been completely redone for UFC 5, making for a more fluid tactical game of chess on the ground. There’s some options based on your preferences, able to choose a grapple assist, hybrid or legacy controls, and while I commend the effort to make it better, it’s still challenging and confusing at the best of times with all of the different modifiers and buttons to memorize. Those that enjoy the ground game are sure to enjoy the latest changes, as it makes for more fluid transitions and submissions, but it’s going to take a lot of practice to really learn it so it becomes second nature.
Of course if you want a true challenge, head online and take on all comers to compete and see who truly is the G.O.A.T. You can play quick matches, ranked championships and more. You’ll need to be at the top of your striking and ground game if you want any sort of chance at those ranked belts though. In online career you’ll be able to use evolution points, improve your fighter’s stats and even a prestige system for those truly wanting to prove themselves.
UFC 5 is easily the best looking MMA game to date, hands down. The engine improvements, facial deformation and slow-mo replays really showcase just how good it can look. Fighters are instantly recognizable for the most part, though I did find a few that simply looked a tad ‘off’ for one reason or another. A battered face can be gruesome and can be just as brutal as watching live on PPV. The commentary is done well and comes across just as I’d expect from a live broadcast, though you will start to hear repeated lines after a good amount of fights under your belt. I will say though that I absolutely hated the soundtrack, though musical choices are clearly subjective.
Having watched UFC and MMA for many years, making sure I catch every main PPV I possibly can, and met a handful of fighters, I really enjoy watching the competition, and what UFC 5 does so well is recreating the brutal sport. Being accessible enough for those that want to simply stand and bang by button mashing, to the hardcore fans that want to showcase their submission skills online, UFC 5 is the latest contender to enter the octagon, being as real as it gets, though can feel like simply a prettier UFC 4 at times.
**UFC 5 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Demolish & Build Classic
I don’t expect a lot from a game usually. As long as it’s got a good story, fun gameplay, some interesting mechanics, or is memorable, then I’m willing to overlook its shortcomings. That said, there are limits. Can you excuse a complete broken game because its story is good, probably not. Demolish & Build Classic is certainly memorable, but not in the way it was probably intended. As far as I can tell, Demolish & Build Classic is a port of Demolish & Build 2017 from PC, though it seems little to no effort has been done to improve the game or make it friendly for controller play. Who doesn’t love destroying stuff though? Maybe the gameplay can overtake its many shortfalls? Let’s find out.After a brief phone call, you’re now the boss of your own demolition company. There’s really nothing else to it for a story, and you’re set off into the world without any type of tutorial. You’ll begin by taking a few contract jobs, destroying a few walls with your sledgehammer and earn some money for your troubles. You’re simply thrown into the game without any introduction of how to actually play the game. It’s going to be a lot of trial and error simply trying to figure out certain aspects of the gameplay because Demolish & Build Classic doesn’t make even the lowest amount of effort to show you how to properly play.
You can take contracts that earn you much needed cash to purchase new equipment once unlocked, but the campaign doesn’t progress unless you follow a specific checklist of things to do. You’ll have to do many of the side contracts though to earn the cash needed eventually. When you explore the map and come across specific job sites, you’ll be able to fast travel to them at any point, so it’s a good idea to drive your pickup truck around so you can quickly come back at any time when a contract opens for them.
You’re going to notice quite quickly that the world is basically completely empty. There’s a few cars on the road but they drive so rigid and on their preset path that they won’t know you’re in their way or stop for you, not that it really affects you even if you collide. The environment is bland to look at, and there’s nothing to really take notice of, and once you have all the places unlocked, you’ll want to simply fast travel as much as possible anyways.
Job sites will vary in their objectives, starting off small by demolishing some walls, maybe getting rid of some bushes with your bulldozer, or cutting pipes among other tedious tasks that you’ll do repeatedly. Each job you complete earns you some cash, and you’re also able to purchase certain plots that can be fixed up and earn you passive income, though at times these might need to be fixed up and repaired. This is where your hired worked come into play, as they can do some of these menial tasks, though there’s some they’re unable to do specific tasks due to not being high enough level, yet they don't seem to level up either.
You’ll start with a few hand tools, and each time you level up by progressing the campaign, you can purchase new ones that allow new contracts to open up for bigger payouts. The majority of your time will be in your varied machinery though. You’ll start with your pickup truck, simply used to drive around from site to site before you can fast travel to all the job sites. You’ll then be able to use a Bulldozer, used for flattening terrain or tearing down demolished walls.
You’ll unlock a Skid Loader, used often, and has different attachments that can be used to dig with or with a jackhammer to destroy poles and walls. The excavator is the larger version, used for digging, also able to purchase a jackhammer attachment to destroy walls, houses and bridges. The Cargo Truck will carry materials like wood or bricks to job sites, and the Dump Truck used to delivering sand or scraps. You’ll also get to use a Concrete Mixer Truck and a Road Roller for compacting sand and asphalt. Lastly and the most expensive that you’ll need to do many contracts for is the Tower Crane to deliver materials up at heights, and a Crawler Crane with a wrecking ball to destroy larger structures.
Machinery is tricky to use for a number of reasons. First and foremost, you’re not given any tutorial of how to control each vehicle. Nothing is explained, and when you run out of gas for the first time, you won’t have any clue how to refill it. When needing to use a different attachment, the same problem persists, as you aren’t told how to actually do so. You’ll use the Bumpers to tilt the buckets or move the arms, and the Left Stick to raise and lower the machinery as well. The problem is that the Left Stick is also used to steer our vehicle, so you’ll constantly be moving the vehicle instead of the arms and vice versa.
You would think that destroying a bunch of buildings and wall would be a blast, but the controls are so finicky and you have to be so precise with your cursor that it’s a constant frustration. Equally as frustrating is having to constantly battle against the terrible menus. The menus is where you’ll find the map, contracts, workers to hire, vehicle tab and more. The vehicle tab is where you’ll purchase and equip attachments for your vehicles, yet the game doesn’t tell you this.
I can’t tell you how much time was wasted simply trying to figure how to do what the objectives were asking. For a good half hour I couldn’t find out how to load the Cargo Truck with wood that the objective told me to do, so I brought my Skid Loader, eventually figuring out how to add the crane attachment since the game didn’t teach me this at all. No luck, I wasn’t getting a prompt to actually lift the wood stacks. Turns out I had to park the Cargo Truck on the specific spot but still couldn’t figure it out. I had to press ‘A’ when parked on the spot, which would have been easy if the game prompted that at any point. I had to actually look it up online how to progress and even the video I found had the person accidentally figured it out as well.
Nearly every tool and every machine is a frustrating chore to use. There’s some physics that will help along the way, like taking out the bottom layer of a wall causing the rest to collapse, but being that accurate is near impossible at the best of times. Using hand tools you’ll need to be aiming at just the right angle and distance, but you’ll miss your swings and cuts a lot. The same goes for using your vehicles, as it’s annoying to get your bulldozer stuck on a speck of dirt or corner of something, not something you’d expect with some heavy machinery.
I generally always try and see positives in things, especially in games, but sometimes it’s quite difficult to do so. The graphics look embarrassingly dated, textures are terrible, and objects don’t even line up along the ground where they’re supposed to. Skyboxes are ugly, animations basically don’t exist and it looks as though it’s from a mobile game from ten years ago.
Glitches are constant, and there’s even an annoying one where if you press the menu button while moving, it does this glitching back and forth that could easily make you nauseous. Then of course there is framerate drops and slowdown when there’s lots of dust or rain. Audio is no better. Most equipment makes no sound or has any feedback with the controller rumble. Music plays while in vehicles that you can change to a few different radio stations, which of course are terrible except for one, but sometimes also randomly just turn off for no reason.
I don’t like to be negative, but when there’s so few redeeming qualities, it’s practically impossible to recommend Demolish & Build Classic, even to those that enjoy playing bad games. Graphics are appalling, controls are even worse, and there’s really no enjoyment to be had when you’re constantly frustrated and confused because the game can’t take one minute to explain what or how to do anything you’re required to.
**Demolish & Build Classic was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
Jusant
Jusant: French maritime term qualifying a period of low ocean tide.Ever since I got to preview Jusant back in August, it’s been on my mind. The preview was only the first two hours of the game with a cliffhanger cutscene, and I’ve been wanting to scale the Tower ever since. Having previewed the game, much of that will be included in this review, but I finally got to reach its peak and came away absolutely charmed and mesmerized with its beauty.
Revealed at the Xbox Showcase 2023, Jusant was a small title that instantly caught my eye with its colourful visuals. I was instantly more intrigued once I saw that developers DON’T NOD were the ones behind it. Best known for the Life Is Strange series, but also some other fantastic titles like their latest game, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. Described as a new climbing action-puzzle adventure, Jusant is a relaxing and meditative journey as you scale a seemingly never ending cliffside. Explore multiple paths, find secrets and simply enjoy the experience at your own pace with the help of an adorable and mysterious companion.
Without any spoken dialogue, Jusant’s narrative is told through finding letters and notes left behind from previous inhabitants of this mountainous structure. This is intentionally done so you’re able to interpret the story in your own way and in relation to your own personal experiences. Jusant opens with you wandering the desert and coming across a tower so large, that it goes well beyond the clouds. It’s more than just a mountain however, and you’re intrigued to look closer. While the game doesn’t give you an objective marker or tell you to go explore, you’re curious, so you naturally want to see what’s ahead and upwards.
The ocean used to rise so high that much of this tower was submerged. This is apparent by the broken and ‘beached’ boats you’ll find along the way towards the peak. The ocean has seemed to disappear though, as has the society and people that used to live here, seemingly all abandoned in search for water elsewhere.
Climbing the tower is symbolic for many things, whatever that means to you. Maybe it’s overcoming a challenge in life, achieving something monumental or putting forth some great effort. Jusant uses great use of allegory in a powerful way without outright telling you its meanings or lessons, those are up to you to decipher and uncover. You feel compelled to climb upwards and onwards, and so begins your journey up this seemingly never ending tower to curtail that curiosity of what's possibly at its peak.
Jusant’s concept is brilliantly simple: climb a large tower. You’re given the tools needed from the offset, teaching you how to properly climb. Many games play horizontally, so having a game built about verticality is a refreshing change, as looking up and how much further you need to go seems to never end, yet looking down and seeing how far you’ve come gives you a sense of accomplishment without directly rewarding you as a player. I can’t even count the times I would pan the camera upwards to see how much further I had to go, or stand at a cliff edge to pan downwards to appreciate how far I’ve already come, usually resulting in a few screenshots.
Not aiming to be a completely realistic simulator, Jusant is designed to be a relaxing experience, climbing at your own pace, becoming almost meditative in nature as you simply sit back and relax, enjoying the views and solving how to get up to your next ledge. Often I would see a branching path, explore one way partially, only to go back and see what I could find the other way. This usually ended up in finding a note, diary page, collectable, or even an amazing vista that always prompted a screenshot. I’m excited to see speedruns once released, but playing at my own pace was exactly what I needed to relax and chill.
Controls are as simple as they come, with the Triggers being your hands, so you have to hold Left or Right depending on which hand you want to grip with, using the Left Stick to direct your climb direction. It’s intuitive and works quite well once you get a hang of your reach and abilities by alternating your gripped hands. Of course climbing is tiring, so you do have a stamina meter to watch, but you’re able to rest virtually anywhere and refill your stamina gauge before attempting another climb. Once you get in the rhythm and climb quickly and smoothly, it feels quite rewarding, as does finally figuring out a way to reach that ledge you’ve been trying to grasp.
You have a rope that will automatically attach once you start climbing, acting like a safeguard in case you fall. You’re able to add a few more anchor points as you ascend, refilling as you place your feet back on flat ground. This means you can’t die nor really lose much progress. Even at times where I forgot to anchor and ended up falling, I only lost about a minute or two of progress. Jusant is meant to be a relaxing experience, and I appreciate the design to not have you fall all the way to the bottom. You also don’t need to be careful near ledges, as you can’t accidentally walk off either thankfully.
You’re able to lengthen or shorten your rope as well if anchored to a swing point, useful to reach further off ledges. This allows you to use your rope as a swing at times, so momentum will also play a part of your climb. Sometimes you might need to get some speed and let out your rope a bit to reach somewhere new, though it seems there’s not only one solution to climbing the ‘proper’ path, so I’m sure people will find their own preferred lines upwards. Each wall you climb is like a mini puzzle in itself, as some broken planks and spots you can’t grip or hold onto, so you need to figure a way around or elsewhere. Once you know what ledges and objects to look for, you can usually plan out your climb before doing so.
You’re not alone on this climb though, as you have a small water-like creature with you known as a Ballast. Looking frog-like in nature, it’s not only absolutely adorable but has a connection with this place somehow. This Ballast will not only keep you company, but will be instrumental in your climb, as they’re able to unearth secrets and reveal paths you’d be unable to do so without their help. You need the Ballast and they need you, and it’s more connected to this deserted Tower than you may initially expect.
While in range of some of the rare flora, using your Ballast will cause the plants to grow, allowing more areas to climb with extending flower stalks, or placing a bunch of seeds on the wall that can be used as grip holds. The desert is a harsh environment though, and these seeds only last a few moments in the hot direct sunlight, so you need to be quick at some spots if you want to progress. You’ll also lose stamina slowly in the direct extreme heat, so you can’t always take your sweet time.
You might even find some wandering rock-like creatures that can be used as mobile grips which was always fun to try and time my jumps to reach as they passed by. They can only hold your weight for a short period though, so you’ll need to maneuver across a few of them, like a moving grip point. As you reach the peak, you’ll even need to contend with harsh winds, forcing you to time your jumps to have the wind help push you upwards or in a certain direction.
While the majority of Jusant’s journey takes place outside the massive Tower, there are some sections deep within, adding for a whole different aesthetic and feel. Climbing within the caverns adds for a different backdrop, and there are even some firefly-like creatures that can be used to give you a ‘super’ jump to reach higher at specific points. Walking into a massive open cave and seeing flying glowing jellyfish is quite a beautiful sight indeed.
While your general direction to go is up, how you do so is up to you. There seems to be generally one ‘main’ path, but many times I found short side paths that were alternate ways or housed some secrets. Jusant’s lore is explained through finding collectables, so it will certainly be beneficial to go off the beaten path and explore everywhere you can. The notes you find give insight to the people’s lives that used to live here, or what they were worried about once the tide started to lower abruptly. Where did the people go? Were they scared? Collect these to piece together a heartbreaking story as you ascend. Part of Jusant’s charm is how it lets you explore the world at your own pace. You’re not rushed in any way, you’re free to explore different pathways which usually lead to tidbits of interesting lore, slowly piecing together what’s happened and where everyone has gone.
Climbing a massive structure like this, you get a feeling of how small and insignificant you truly are. Level design is done masterfully for being virtually completely vertical and there was always something in the distance that caught my eye that I wanted to go see what it was eventually. Jusant’s design is so clever, as you’re always given a purposeful structure in the distance that you’re naturally drawn to, and the climbing path happens to head in that direction.
More than once I had to stop and just take in the beautiful vistas, looking down at how far I’ve come, but also glancing upward to see how much further to go, not even able to see the peak beyond the clouds. Once I was above the clouds and unable to see the ground where I started, it really brought a sense of accomplishment. The colorful cartoonish aesthetics are pleasing and you can easily tell certain paths you’re meant to take once you notice the grip points to hang onto. Equally as stunning is the beautiful soundtrack from Guillaume Ferran, creating an atmosphere where the piano ballads hit at just the right time and creates a relaxing tone as you hear the wind whistling near a cliff edge, bringing with it a sweeping and adventurous soundscape of harmonies.
Scaling the tower never becomes dull, adding new challenges and ways to solve each puzzle with a stunning vista viewpoint as my reward. I was unable to put it down, completing it in a single sitting, though I plan to go back again with the Chapter Select to find all the collectables I missed the first ascent.
Sometimes you can just tell when a game is ‘special’, and Jusant gives this feeling almost from its onset. With stunning vistas, a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, and relaxing gameplay, take a few hours out of a weekend and experience its gorgeous ascent.
**Jusant was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Hexapoda
I’m such a big fan of shumps (shoot-em-ups) that I’ll basically try any new game in the genre, regardless of how it looks or may appeal to me. One of my favorite games of all time, and what I regard as the greatest shmup ever, is Ikargua, and while I don’t ever expect a game to reach those heights, I always compare in some way to see if it could be just as good in its own way.We have the latest from small indie dev TOMAGameStudio, Hexapoda. Many insects are actually called hexapoda, something new I learned, and is very fitting given the game backdrop of you shooting hundreds of insects, a nice change from your typical battle versus invading aliens. What may stand out to you initially though is its black and white tones, making the colored bullets pop and stand out more in the foreground.
The surface of Earth is no longer hospitable, forcing humanity to flee and live underground after a war that left unbreathable gasses in the atmosphere. The problem is that under the surface where you dwell, it’s infested by deadly bugs and insects that are massive. This is where you come in, as to survive, someone is going to not only clear out the bugs, but try to find a solution to that you can reemerge to the top side once again.
While you’ll need to clear out as many bugs as you can for safety, your true main objective is to find samples so that they can be tested, especially from the massive Queen that’s said to be deep below. Defeat each boss, grab a sample and continue on your journey. After each level you’ll be presented with a branching path, able to freely choose which way to go. Each path takes you towards a different boss and will also get you one of the few different endings, so there’s some replayability built into its design.
Not usually an option in smaller games like this, you can actually play up to four players simultaneously, each being a slightly different looking ship and a base weapon. There are three different difficulty modes to choose from, Normal, Hard and Manic. Normal wasn’t an issue to clear at all for a shmup vet, but Hard and Manic were actually quite challenging, almost to the point of feeling unfair at certain moments, especially during boss fights.
With four different ships to choose from, they don’t have any stat differences, but their base weapon does vary between the different types you’ll see once you get some power-ups. I do wish this was a bit clearer though, as I wasn’t initially sure what the differences of the four ships were. Across the twelve stages you’ll unlock a vast bestiary as you kill enemies, some only appearing in certain branching paths.
Controls are as simple as they come; you have one button for shooting, one for a screen clearing bomb, and moving your ship with the Left Stick. By default, Hexapoda is a vertical shooter where you’re constantly scrolling upwards, though you can certainly change the video options to play it like the other horizontal styled shmups, all depending on your preference.
Enemies come in waves and you must do what you can to avoid all the bullets on screen while taking out every bug you can. Many will drop stars that can be collected for points, and you’ll also see a bunch of power-ups drop as well that will give you new weapons for a short time. These upgrades only last for a short period of time, maybe 30 seconds or so, so make sure you destroy all the bugs you can in that period of time. Every time you grab a new weapon power-up, the timer will reset, so it’s not often you’ll revert back to your base weaponry.
There are a few different weapon types you can gather, from a condensed laser, spread shot, homing missiles and even a shot that bounces off enemies and walls. These are indicated by H, W, and S floating objects to pick up, as well as a P that can upgrade the spread and damage of your weapons. At times you’ll be constantly swapping weapons as you’re given that many at times when lots of bugs are destroyed together.
While going through each stage isn’t terribly difficult to avoid the bullets on screen, the bosses can feel unfair at times, especially on Hard or Manic. I swear there were spots that were unavoidable to get hit. This may be partly because the hitbox for your ship felt large, so it was challenging at times to avoid a premature death.
The black and white aesthetic is eye catching at first, yet still has plenty of detail in the environments and bugs. Your bullets are blue and enemy shoots purple at you, so these pop on the screen against the monochrome backdrop. The star was clearly the kickass electronica synthwave soundtrack from band Double Dragon that had me excited to play each level, hoping to hear a new track taking a new pathway.
Hexapoda is a simplistic shmup that should certainly entertain for a weekend, and while I don’t see myself revisiting it later in the future, it’s solid overall with nothing really to complain about as you try and climb up the leaderboards each run. Good luck trying to survive the harder difficulty modes though if you want a real challenge.
**Hexapoda was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Virgo Versus The Zodiac
Inspired by the Mario & Luigi RPG title, we have Virgo Versus the Zodiac from developer Moonana and publisher Serenity Forge, a RPG that really surprised me. A traditional turn-based RPG at its core, you’ll also need to be quite attentive with its real time blocking and attacking as well. While you normally play the hero in stories, here you’re the titular Virgo on her conquest to bring back The Golden Age, regardless of how many heretics she must stop in her way to her goal.We know the zodiac signs as just those, symbols of different personality traits and such, but in this universe, each zodiac is an actual person, Virgo included. Each rules over their own realm, like Gods, but Virgo wants to rid the world of heresy, and nothing or no one will stop her, other zodiacs included. Often referred to as Dreadful Queen by others, Virgo believes her way is the only way to righteousness, regardless of the pathway to that outcome.
To bring back her viewed Golden Age, she is on a rampaging mission to gather all the crowns from the other zodiacs, and if they don’t offer it up willingly, then she’ll take it by force. Virgo isn’t alone in her quest though, as she has a small sidekick, Ginger, who also happens to be a cookie. As you travel to each ruler’s realm, they are all unique in not only their backdrop and setting, but their denizens as well. There’s a surprising amount of humor if you take the time to follow along with the heavy amount of dialogue throughout the journey.
Exploring each realm is where you’ll spend the majority of your time outside of battles, displayed in that classic top down RPG viewpoint. Each realm is drastically different aesthetically from the last, suited to which zodiac ruler you’re attempting to reach. Take the time to explore each realm before taking on its ruler, as there’s no way to return after you’ve reclaimed their crown for yourself and head to the next world to conquer. What I didn’t expect was an optional vertical shoot-em-up sections that offer great rewards for the hassle. It feels a little out of place, but at least it breaks up some of the monotony somewhat.
As you explore each area you’ll find numerous characters to talk to and interact with, items to find and enemies to slay. Virgo is obsessed with stopping any blasphemers and heretics and it’s honestly a little refreshing to play a main character that has somewhat of an evil side to her, even being blatantly rude at times. You’re able to save at any time you wish out of battle, so feel free to see where one dialogue option leads, and if you’re not happy with the outcome, reload and try again.
Combat in Virgo Versus the Zodiac is turned-based, but like its Mario & Luigi RPG inspired gameplay, there’s also a constant active component to battles that you’ll need to stay alert for. You’ll need to find a balance of offense and defense for nearly every fight, having quick reactions times as well for the timed inputs is going to make a massive difference in your victories or defeats.
I’ll admit, I was a bit overwhelmed at first, as the game will give you the basics, but doesn’t do a great job of explaining it all or easing you in. After a few hours it was of course no problem and I fully understood the mechanics, but I was certainly a bit lost at first. With no random encounters, you’ll see each enemy on the screen, opting to battle or not some of the time, meaning each battle is designed to be done at a specific point.
You have a bar that’s half split between your health and purity. Think of purity as your shield or guard meter, as once this is depleted, you’ll take damage to your actual hitpoints. Certain actions will not only allow you to refill your purity, but this is how you enable counter attacks as well, so there’s definitely some strategy involved. This isn’t unique to just your party though, as enemies also can do the same. Getting hit when you have purity will enable you to counterattack, dealing massive damage depending on your equipment loadout.
You have different attack types as well, from melee in front row, range from behind, or area attacks that will hit all. Moves have cooldown timers as well, so you can’t always spam your best attacks, meaning you’ll have to strategize when best to use each type of move based on the flow of battle. If certain moves are on cooldown, you could even block to raise your purity again or even times where passing your turn is more beneficial, because attacking the enemy would just allow them to counter you.
The equipment isn’t explained very well either and took me quite some time to figure out. You essentially equip three different weapons and a shield, along with four different armor pieces. The weapons and shield equipped will determine what moves you have, so there’s a bit of trial and error to see what types of attacks go well together and what suits your playstyle. Each piece of equipment has a bonus and a negative, so you need to check each piece carefully and decide what the best tradeoffs are.
You’ll find healing items throughout your journey and through battles as different drinks of coffee, tea or lemonade. These will not only heal, but help boost certain primary stats, giving you a great bonus for a short while. You’re only able to hold onto five of each at a time, so no need to hoard them.
You’ll eventually gather a bunch of different items and weapons, some tied to specific characters, though you’re able to either upgrade or break down items when you’re in the main hub world in between chapters. Where it gets confusing is that the game doesn’t use the normal naming convention for your stats, so it takes some time to figure all of this out and memorize. Weapons are also based on certain stats, so sometimes you’ll want to swap gear if you’re facing certain enemy types.
Even though combat is turn-based in nature, each attack or defense move will require a button input if you want to inflict maximum damage, or negate the most amount of damage. The speed of which you’ll need to react is based on the difficulty you choose I believe, but even on Easy or Normal, there were a few inputs that came quite quick, so you’ll always need to be alert. Miss the timing and you might not crit, or you’ll take full damage, so it’s an important component to being successful. Different party members have different button inputs, though it can be changed to a single button to be easier should you wish. Certain moves will require the D-Pad directions to be used as well, but not as often in my experience due to my gear choices.
There’s a triangle system in place where one color is strong against one and weak against the other, but I found it hard to memorize when colors are also tied to specific stats and morality choices as well. This still takes me a moment to figure out even after a dozen hours. Each time you’re back at your hub world, you’re able to zone into a black hole, allowing you to fight enemies and the previous realm’s boss to farm crafting materials, coin and ever important experience points.
The pixel art is done quite well, appearing at first glance as a retro RPG from decades ago. Enemies have a decent amount of variety, as each realm, has their own types you’ll face. Each realm’s backdrop is also a different in visual style, as each zodiac ruler clearly has different tastes to where they reside. During dialogue sequences you’re treated to some portrait art of each character, though I wish it was more animated. Sadly the hefty dialogue isn’t voiced, but the soundtrack on the other hand is fantastic and catchy, adding to the overall mood of each realm.
With multiple endings, engaging combat and a decent narrative, Virgo Versus The Zodiac really surprised me. RPG fans have a new journey to sink a dozen or two hours into, and it’s hard to go wrong killing heretics while riding a colorful Alpaca.
**Virgo Versus The Zodiac was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Mimimi Games, probably best known for Desperados III, has finally released a new game very much in their wheelhouse being another strategy game, though with a heavy stealth element and cool backdrop. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew takes place in the pirate era, though all of your cursed swashbuckling crew is undead, adding a unique twist on many gameplay elements. If pirates weren’t cool enough on their own, undead ones surely are.You play as Afia, an undead pirate woman with a sword buried in her chest purposely, as it’s where she sheathes her weapon until needed to stab and kill enemies. What good is a pirate without a ship though? That’s the dilemma you find yourself in the opening moments. While you do find a ship nearby, unfortunately it’s been seized by the Inquisition and clearly quite dangerous to be nearby. This ship, named The Red Marley, is no ordinary ship though. It’s a ghost ship, which is quite fitting given your current un-living situation as well.
The Red Marley’s captain, Mordechai, is no longer living, but that doesn’t mean you can simply take the ship without a catch. The ship is essentially alive, with a large green skull that speaks to you, informing you that you simply can’t be the new captain, but a navigator instead. Assemble your pirate crew and search for Mordechai’s long lost treasure, and maybe you’ll become the captain one day. As you eventually unlock new crew members, you’ll be able to talk to them, learn their backstories, and even partake in their specific missions.
The Inquisition will be your main adversary, as they want to destroy anything supernatural, though you’ll uncover a more sinister plot as you progress. Set sail for the Lost Caribbean in this adventure that should take you a good 20+ hours to see to conclusion, much longer than I initially expected.
Playing in a top down isometric camera view, you’ll be able to zoom in all the way to see your individual crew mates, or all the way out to see the island as a whole. Zooming out you’ll be able to even see where every enemy is on the island and which way they are facing or moving, indicated by arrows. While this gives you an advantage, you’ll still need to come up with a strategic plan to take out your enemies, because even though you’re undead, you can still be harmed by human weaponry, which is why this is a stealth focused strategy title.
You’ll only have an island or two to explore and do missions on in the beginning, eventually opening multiple islands in the Caribbean to explore as you try to revive your crew and stop the Inquisition. Each island has very different layouts and will challenge you in unique ways. How you strategize will be completely up to you and vary based on the crew you currently have access to. You’ll revisit islands more than once, as there are numerous missions you can do, and will need to multiple times. For how many times you’ll replay an island, each mission feels unique and can be completed in a number of different ways in the clever sandbox world.
You begin on your own, eventually able to revive your cursed crew if you’re able to find some fabled Black Pearls. Once you obtain one, you can choose any of the eight crew mates to revive and have join your team, completely up to you whom and when. Each of the eight crew are very unique in their design, personality and abilities, so there’s no wrong one to pick first. Different crew will cater to different playstyles, as I opted for a more defensive approach, though you could absolutely play more aggressive if you wanted as well. Each have their own pros and cons, and two special and unique abilities.
The Inquisition will be on the lookout for you though at every turn, led by Ignacia, clearly up to something nefarious. The hidden treasure you’re searching for though isn’t going to be easy to find given they are protected by mysterious relics. It seems as though Ignacia also knows about this treasure too though, so expect resistance at every turn. The tutorial teaches you the basics of staying in stealth and attacking your enemies, and every time you manage to revive a crew mate to join your team, you can play a couple optional tutorial missions with them to learn how to use their unique skills which I appreciated, figuring out how to best use them in conjunction with one another.
As a tip, I’d highly suggest getting Suleidy first, as her unique abilities I used quite heavily in every single mission. She can not only force most guards to move from their post and path away for a short time, she’s able to drop a large bush anywhere to be used as cover. Quentin was another favorite, and even though he wasn’t as ‘powerful’ as some of the others, being able to use his golden skull as a distraction was quite handy in many situations. Each ability has a cooldown period, so you’ll need to plan ahead not only what to do, but the best time to not be seen by other guards also.
Each mission will be played quite differently every time depending on what crew you’ve revived and unlocked so far. You using a different team composition than me will have completely different strategic tactics and can make for vastly different playthroughs. The powers of each crew is balanced quite well overall and play into the whole supernatural undead pirate theme. Just make sure you got a plan B or escape path in case something doesn’t go exactly how you planned.
The mechanic that I appreciated the most though was its clever use of quick saving. Now I’ll admit, if a game lets me save-scum, I’m probably going to do it. This is when something didn’t go as planned, so I simply reload the last save just before and try again. Even cleverer, it’s designed in a way where it fits into the narrative, acting as “captured memories” that can be saved or reloaded at any point.
You’re able to control each crew member individually or move them together as a unit. Even though you’re a crew of undead pirates, you can’t take much damage, so you need to play as stealthy as possible. Once you revive your first crew mate, this is where a lot of the combat strategy will come in. Do you set up each character at opposite sides of the island and work on individual kills, or synchronized together as a team? Make sure you’re keeping the ones not in use hidden in bushes or behind objects, and they won’t retreat on their own if spotted.
Where the best strategies come into play is being able to setup a ‘plan’ by pausing time, moving individual crew to certain spots and queuing up any of their abilities. You can then execute the plan at any point and your pre-made plan will play out. Remember to use that captured memory before trying though, as you never know how it might turn out until it’s too late. These coordinated attacks are extremely satisfying when your plan comes together exactly as you expected.
Earn enough Vigor by completing missions and you’ll be able to upgrade skills of your crew. This allows you to improve their abilities in a variety of different ways, some making missions almost trivial, though it all depends on your preferred crew and playstyle. For example, upgrading Afia’s Blink attack to Grand Blink means she’s able to teleport and assassinate a target from a much further distance and not have to worry about line of sight either.
For a game revolving around undead pirates, the aesthetic is quite colorful and vibrant. The character artwork is done quite well, your ship The Red Marley has its own personality, and the island environments are varied and easy to distinguish from one another. The voice acting is absolutely top notch from every character across the board, making each character have even that much more of a personality.
While I question the timing of its release being smashed in between two of the largest titles of the year, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is excellent at what it’s trying to be; a challenging tactical squad based stealth game. It’s a deep shame that this is developer Mimimi’s final game, as they’ve since shuttered their doors, but they can be proud of their magnum opus and hang their head high at creating a memorable undead pirate themed experience.
**Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Overdriven Evolution
Ever since its earliest forms, I’ve always been drawn to shoot-em-ups, or shmups they’re so lovingly referred to as. There’s something about being able to navigate a screen full of bullets and destroying all your enemies in your path. While I’ll always consider Ikaruga the pinnacle and the best shmup of all time, I’m always looking for the next best thing, and sometimes you find those diamonds in the rough unexpectedly.The latest from TOMA Game Studio, Overdriven Evolution is the latest in the crowded genre, so I was excited to see how it stands out apart from the competition; if it was memorable and if there’s enough replay value within. Like most shmups, you can expect large bosses, tons of enemies, and hundreds of bullets on screen at any time. What I didn’t expect was just how much extra content and modes was included, but more on that shortly.
As to be expected with these types of games, yes there’s technically a story to try and capture your attention, but let’s be honest, we play shmups mostly for its challenging gameplay. There’s some sort of alien race that’s invading so of course it falls upon you to save the universe. I know, probably one of the most overused and tiresome tropes, but it’s basically you versus the invading Kruuthian Empire in your solo ship.
Being a vertical shmup, the screen will automatically be scrolling upwards at a set pace while you can maneuver all around trying to avoid the onslaught of bullets from handfuls of enemies. You begin with two different ships to choose from, looking slightly different from one another, with another unlockable as well, though don’t really expect any differences.
Many shumps will usually give you some sort of weapon that can be infinitely fired and maybe a screen clearing bomb, and it’s mostly the same here as well. The big difference is that you’re also able to convert your regular pew-pew into a focused and powerful laser, but there’s a catch. While this laser will make quick work of most enemies, even quickly drain boss health bars, you move incredibly slowly and are reduced to 20% of your shields. This of course leaves you vulnerable to enemy fire, which the screen is almost always full of.
Much of a shmups difficulty lies in the accuracy and size of your ship’s hitbox. This determines how forgiving the game is before it decide that you hit that stray bullet. Thankfully this seems to be quite forgiving in Overdriven Evolution, as the hitbox seemed to be quite small. Even when you do inevitably collide into some enemy fire, your health bar is beefy enough to take a good amount of hits. As for enemy attack patterns, it’s all quite basic, as even boss attacks weren’t all too difficult to avoid, as I never really felt too overwhelmed.
What I didn’t expect was being able to change the color of your attacks and any given point. I thought this was going to be some sort of Ikaruga-like mechanic where you were going to have to shoot specific colored enemies with opposite colors or something of the sorts. Sadly that’s not the reason. Every so often you’ll come across these white orbs that can’t be destroyed. They’re usually in a group of three or four and one of them will be colored. Because of being able to change your attacks to different colors, you will then ‘paint’ these orbs said color that you shoot. Match three in a row and they’ll disappear, usually letting you pass or uncovering a secret path. Trying to do this in midst of the regular chaos that’s happening on screen with hundreds of bullets isn’t the easiest thing to do though. It feels as though maybe this mechanic was a bigger part of the game earlier on but was left in for some reason and easily the weakest part of the experience.
Bosses are usually the highlight, and it’s no different here. Sure they aren’t the coolest looking or all that memorable, but the multi-phased battles are fun, as is taking on something other than the regular cannon fodder that fills the rest of the adventure. Even their large attack patterns weren’t all too challenging save for a few instances.
Even when you complete your first playthrough, there’s reason to go back; finding hidden collectables and of course, rising up the online leaderboards for bragging rights. With four difficulties to choose from (Easy, Normal, Hard and Nightmare) and a number of different modes to play, there’s a surprising amount of extra content to enjoy even after you save the universe. With seven extra modes, there’s surely something you’ll find enjoyable:
Story: Choose your difficulty and save the universe. Pretty standard stuff.
Arcade: Here you’re only given three continues, so can you get through all the bosses of the Kruuthian Empire?
Manic: No health bar. You got hit? Well, you’re dead.
Challenges: Here is a list of ten curated and specific challenges taken from Story Mode, but with a twist. Can you beat a certain section without getting hit? Can you beat a specific boss under the time limit? These are just fun and challenging enough to entice you, as well as achievements.
Boss Rush: Who doesn’t want to simply battle against the best parts of the game back to back? Take on all bosses back to back to see if you can emerge victorious.
The Line: My favorite extra mode that is simplistic in nature yet works. There’s a red line behind you slowly filling upwards towards the screen. If you or an enemy hits that line, game over. This means you need to make sure you destroy every enemy, but have a much smaller playfield to maneuver in since it can fill a large section of the screen.
Color-Reflex: Easily the mode I enjoyed the least. Remember me describing the color matching with your shots and the white orbs? This whole mode is dedicated to that, and worse, there’s 56 separate levels to do so in. Sure some will enjoy these levels, but the whole color matching mechanic just seems out of place and certainly not worth its own mode.
While it’s not always uncommon for a shmup to have multiplayer, it is much rarer to have one with four player local co-op. That’s right, you and three other friends can play together locally across the whole Story mode, though if you thought hundreds of bullets on screen was overwhelming playing solo, wait until there’s even more happening on screen at once. Of course the lack of online play is disappointing, though expected from a small developer.
Aesthetically, Overdriven Evolution looks... fine. There’s nothing really that stands out, as it can be hard to appreciate the visuals in games like these when you’re so focused on dodging hundreds of bullets. The animations from your partner in between levels is poor at best, but at least there was some sort of effort to have something extra. The soundtrack is similar; fine but forgettable. With some tunes happening in the background there’s not much dead air, but that’s a low bar to set.
Because of the effort to add all the extra modes, there’s certainly some replayability, and the online leaderboards always had me checking my score after a run. While I’m sure some shmup fans will have a fun weekend or two with it, it’s probably a bit too bland for me to remember in the future.
**Overdriven Evolution was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip
I’ve aptly dubbed the We Were Here series “The Friendship Test”. Having played each game in the series, I learned quite quickly that you may think that you and your friend have good communication, but these games will absolutely put that to the test. Shadow dropped out of nowhere, a new entry to the series has arrived, We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip, though more of a bite sized morsel compared to the full games.The FriendShip (for short) is much smaller in scale, yet offers the same tried and true cooperative asymmetrical puzzle solving you’d come to expect from a mainline We Were Here game. The best part, it’s completely free to download until October 13th, 2023, so there’s no reason to not grab it and test out your communication abilities with some friends. Newcomers to the series can expect a couple challenging puzzles, whereas veterans like myself will be tasked with trying to obtain the highest score possible, a completely new mechanic for the puzzles which I quite enjoyed. Will your friendship last even through this bite sized adventure? Let’s find out.
The first few We Were Here games didn’t support much of a narrative aside from you and your expedition partner usually crash landing somewhere, being separated, only to come back together for brief moments as you each solve your own-yet-linked puzzles. The later few titles added a deeper overall narrative that links everything together in a way, though The FriendShip is basically a standalone title.
You and your partner are out at sea when get a distress signal at a nearby island. Upon arrival you notice that it’s seemingly abandoned, and to make things creepier, it seems there’s a rundown amusement park here. After solving your first ‘puzzle’, you and your partner get on one of those boat rides together, and thus your co-op adventure begins in your Friend-Ship.
If you’ve never played any of the We Were Here games previously, The FriendShip is actually probably the best starting point, not just because it’s (currently) free, but the puzzles are mere bite sized morsels and a fraction of the difficulty of the full games. Think of it as a demo, yet it’s a full game that will last an hour or two depending on you and your partner’s communication skills.
Those new to the series simply need to know that this is a cooperative puzzle game where you and your friend play online, almost constantly separated from one another working in tandem on a puzzle. What makes it so unique is that there’s essentially two halves to each puzzle and you two must work together simultaneously to solve them. The only way to do that is with communication, describing what you see and what’s happening around you to your partner, and vice versa.
Sometimes you’ll need to describe a symbol you see, and how you do so will determine if you’re successful or not. For example, one symbol I described as “an alien watching TV”. Thankfully my fellow reviewer here and We Were Here partner, Peggy, was willing to endure another game in the series with me after we last went through the entirety of We Were Here Forever. Let me tell you, that was surely a friendship test, but as long as you and your partner can communicate well with one another you’ll be fine.
The FriendShip is a short adventure, as we were able to finish it in about an hour and a half on the dot, though that was after the second puzzle causing a few retries until we figured it out. It should last most people about 2-3 hours, though can be played numerous times to see each ‘side’ of the puzzle and to try and get a better score.
As you take the ship ride down a creepy abandoned amusement park, it seemingly comes to life, but stops at certain points. Here you undock and are unable to progress until you solve a puzzle which will open the doors, allowing the vessel to continue. Remember, you and your friend are always going to be separated in these puzzles, each somehow affecting the other. The first puzzle will feel very familiar if you’ve played any of the previous games. On my side of the puzzle I saw a handful of different wooden marionette dolls, each with a symbol in front of them. The goal of this is the match the two sides, forcing you to describe the symbols and the emotions the dolls make. How many you complete and how quickly will determine your score.
First puzzle down, great! That was easy right? Well, the second puzzle is sure to stump you. My partner and I had to attempt this one a few times until we understood it properly. On my side of the puzzle I had a hexagon grid where I could place one of three tiles, each of which had different colors on random sides of the piece. Choosing one of three tiles forced Peggy to use a specific tile as well, so we had to decide what’s best for both of our puzzles. I had to try and line up my tiles with colors matching on sides, like dominoes, whereas hers revolved around placing small pillars on specific spots which raised if it patched on my side. To be honest, we got the bronze rating and were fine moving on after six attempts.
The last puzzle was the most unique and something completely new to the series as far as I can recall. Remember when you would blindfold a friend and they had to listen to your verbal instructions to get through an obstacle course of some kind, trusting in your judgement and call outs? It’s the same idea here. I was the ‘caller’, telling Peggy where to go from my high up perch. She got gassed and was hallucinating, so if she didn’t listen to my instructions, she would have fallen off the dock and into the water. While we again got a bronze score, this puzzle I’d like to do again.
Depending on your score per puzzle you’ll earn a bronze, silver or gold ticket, and getting back to the boat to progress, the better tickets will change how your Friend-Ship appears. I quite enjoyed this scoring system, as in every other We Were Here title, you simply passed or didn’t, whereas now you have something more to strive towards. Even though three puzzles seems like very little on paper, they are the same high quality you’d find in any of the main games being well throughout and unique.
Crossplay is supported, so you don’t have to worry about your friends playing on the same system as you. Once you add each other to the universal friend list you’ll be able to play together. The built in walkie-talkies are how you’re supposed to play, with the light indicating your partner is talking. Given they are one-way radios, you need to know when each other is taking a turn talking and describing what they see. Could you join a party chat or phone call and have open mics, sure. Could you ‘cheat’ and send your friend a picture of what you’re seeing since you can’t accurately describe what you’re seeing? Absolutely. I implore you to try the game ‘legit’ first though, as it’s what makes the series so unique. Sometimes it’s hilarious, other times it’s frustrating, but it’s surely memorable.
I promise you, I dub the We Were Here games a "Friendship Test" for a reason. You’re going to be amazed how difficult it is to describe odd shapes and what you see, or flabbergasted at how poorly your friend is unable to do so. While our first playthrough was an hour and a half, I can see us playing once more to try and get those coveted gold tickets by improving our scores. We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip acts as a taste test to the series, but is its own standalone experience, and since it’s currently free, make sure you and a friend download it to see how good your communication truly us and if you'll remain best mateys.
**We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Everhood: Eternity Edition
I’m all for quirky and weird games, which is probably why I enjoyed games like Undertale, Lisa: The Painful and Earthbound so much. Speaking of Undertale, if I had to compare Everhood: Eternity Edition to one game, that would be the one. It has similarities in its simplistic visuals, humor and rhythmic gameplay, but is a completely unique experience on its own merit. Released back in 2021, Everhood is now here for Xbox fans to jump into its weird and oddly addictive world, complete with 16 new songs added by some very big names in the industry.Everhood: Eternity Edition (simply referred to as Everhood from here on) starts with by asking if you are ready to abandon your humanity and accept immortality. Say “No” and the game ends and you go back to the main menu, so clearly you hit “Yes” the next time. The opening scene begins in a forest with a red wooden doll on the ground, aptly named Red, but the limbs are broken apart and strewn about. Along comes a small Blue Thief who steals your arm and takes off. This somehow awakens you and puts you back together, minus one arm, and thus begins your quest to get your arm back.
Up the trail you’ll meet Frog, acting as the game’s tutorial to how the rhythmic gameplay is controlled. You’re then introduced to the save system, which can be done at any street light, and yes, they’ll talk to you as well. You’ll eventually meet up with the Blue Thief, which turns out he’s working for Gold Pig to told him to steal your arm, so naturally that’s who you’ll be trying to find to get your arm back. I don’t want to talk about much more of the story itself, as it’s quite interesting, and honestly, there’s so many plot twists and turns that I didn’t’ expect that you’re best to uncover these for yourself. The plot actually takes some quite dark turns, and the ending sequence had me quite shocked and surprised. With multiple endings and a New Game+ mode, there’s plenty of replayability as well.
You’ll first choose what difficulty you want to play on, from Story Mode up to an unlockable Insane Mode once you complete your first playthrough. As you explore each area you’ll come across a cast of really unique and odd characters. Some are recurring and have more importance, whereas others are just minor and only offer a line or two of dialogue. You’ll eventually make it to the hub area that has a number of different doors you can access (and some you can’t yet) to reach new worlds. Each area is vastly different from the last and memorable in their own way.
As you explore each area, you’ll eventually come across different characters that will battle you. Instead of a turn based system like in most RPG’s, Everhood instead uses a music based approach that is quite similar to Guitar Hero more than anything else. There are five different lanes that the notes will come down the screen, and you must simply avoid them by moving left or right and not being in that lane at the wrong moment as the note reaches the bottom of the screen.
Battles begin easy enough with slow and rhythmic songs, eventually becoming more and more challenging as you progress. ‘Boss’ battles are quite challenging, especially on the harder difficulties, but you have a health bar above your head that will regenerate the longer you don’t get hit by any notes. This gives you a little breathing room for the sections where you’ll accidentally take damage from as handful of notes in succession.
There’s essentially two different types of notes; small flat ones you can jump over (or can lane change to avoid) and taller pillar-like ones that can’t be jumped over and have to be avoided instead. Without spoiling any story elements, eventually you’ll also be able to absorb certain notes as well, charging up two similar colored in a row which can then be used to fire back at the enemy. Absorb a different color than the first though and it won’t count, so you’ll need to be purposely ‘catching’ specific colored notes in a row if you want to fight back. This is much easier said than done when songs become quite challenging, fast paced and the screen starts to distort. Also, you’ll eventually find black notes that can’t be absorbed, having to be avoided, and if you get hit, you lose your charge as well.
I’ll admit, I found the movement to be a little stiff at first, as I couldn’t time the jumps properly and kept getting hit. Eventually I got used to it and had no problems after a handful of songs. Also, once you play a level a few times and get to learn the song’s beat, it makes it easier as well, as you know that when you tap your foot to the rhythm that’s the moment to avoid or jump. Just like in Guitar Hero, once you were able to play Expert difficulty songs, you just get in that zone where you become one with the song and just know how to react instinctively, even when the playfield starts to distort and the screen is chaotic with things all over and flashing lights.
The star of Everhood isn’t the story, the comedy or even the gameplay, it’s the incredible soundtrack from a variety of artists. With a wide variety of genres and beats, there’s sure to be something you like along the way, though I enjoyed them all for different reasons. Even the first few songs you play are bangers. Chris Nordgren and Cazok seem to have made the bulk of the core game’s soundtrack, but with the Eternity Edition, 16 new musical battles have been added from some pretty influential composers. Just to list a few of the standouts:
- David Wise (Donkey Kong Country, Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts)
- Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Shovel Knight)
- Disasterpiece (Fez, Hyper Light Drifter)
- Keiji Yamagishi (Ninja Gaiden, Streets of Rage 4)
Don’t let the simplistic visuals from the trailer or screenshots fool you, there’s a clever story underneath and some really addictive gameplay. That said, if you even have the most minor of any sort of photosensitivity when it comes to flashing lights, Everhood is absolutely not for you. There’s plenty of warnings about it before beginning, but it can be a lot to take in visually, especially in the last section when things get truly crazy. Even not having any issues with flashing screens, it can be quite difficult to discern what’s going on at any moment, though by design.
Everhood: Eternity Edition isn’t just a mere port, it adds a whole new slew of songs for veterans to enjoy as well. The addictive rhythmic gameplay is tough but fair and elevated by the fantastic soundtrack for anyone that loves good beats and chiptunes. The story does take some unexpected dark twists, but it was surely a memorable ride. I’ve never taken any drugs in my life, but I can only expect this is what it might look like if I did. Already a cult hit, I hope more experience the unique weirdness of Everhood that had previously not heard of it, much like myself, as I now anticipate its announced sequel.
**Everhood: Eternity Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Oaken
Strategy based deck building games already tend to intrigue me, as nearly every one that comes out seems to have their own twist on the genre, making them stand out in some way, even if it’s something minor. Oaken aims to do the same with its gorgeous artwork, unique setting, tactical gameplay and adding in some roguelike mechanics for good measure.Now generally in deck building games there’s not always a major focus on a narrative, as you’re generally in it for its card based gameplay. While Oaken is no different, there is story here that takes place in the world of the Great Oak where spirits listen to one voice, called the Oak Song. This voice disappears one day, unsure of what the outcome could possibly mean. There’s a few story segments here and there between stages, but I found it hard to follow along, as I was so focused on thinking strategically for my moves, which cards to choose, what upgrades I want and trying to discern what units were on the hexagonal tiles. This had the narrative really fall by the wayside for me. You play as “The Lady”, accompanied by a companion, think of her like a Hero, with another Hero unlockable as you progress. You’ll need to defeat enemies in each stage to progress forward, eventually culminating in a Boss battle at the end of each chapter.
One of Oaken’s unique traits is that it’s all plant and fungi based. All the characters and enemies revolve around flora, each brought to life in their own way as uniquely designed characters. You can expect plenty of roots, thorns, spores and other plant based themes. Their designs give them human-like qualities and each type looks distinct from others.
Playing out on a hexagonal grid, you’re zoomed out enough to see the whole playfield, but when there’s lots of units in play it can be a little confusing as having multiples of the same type of unit after playing a card, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish yours versus theirs at a quick glance if you don’t focus. The main bosses stand out enough though that you’ll always know who they are. Hovering over any unit will show you some gorgeous artwork of them along with some quick info so you can strategize your next move.
Like most deck based titles, Oaken is turn based. Your main goal is to generally defeat a set amount of foes on the board which will trigger your win, but you’ll also have a secondary objective(s) you can opt to try and complete as well for some bonuses once you learn its intricacies and can plan a few moves ahead. Some of these secondary objectives are certainly feasible, whereas I found others to be near impossible and didn’t even bother trying, though that was likely due to my hero and deck setup.
Being a roguelike, that means that when you inevitably fail and die, you’ll need to start a new run over by again choosing your hero, sidekick and then of course figuring out your deck. Your sidekick is an important unit and card, as they cost more to play, but are worth it for their unique abilities. Once you’re all sorted you begin your run once again, trying and get as far as you can before starting all over once you fail again. Thankfully you do make persistent progress, as new units, cards and upgrades you unlock make each subsequent run that much easier.
Before each stage, you’ll get to choose which level you want to play. You start at the top of a series of nodes, choosing your starting point of what type of stage you want to play. You defeat said level then come back to this grid and choose the next path, usually almost always a choice of two or more, until you reach the bottom stage which will be the boss. Each encounter is a different type, sometimes not being a battle at all, allowing you to make some narrative choices, though most stages will generally be the ‘defeat all enemies’ variety. Even though each level is supposedly different, they all feel basically the same and blend together.
You have your modest deck of just a few cards in the beginning, eventually gathering more as you progress and repeatedly play. As a round begins you’re randomly given four cards from your deck to start with, though you’re able to swap them out at the beginning once for free. Starting with your higher powered cards might not be the best play in the beginning since you probably won’t be able to ‘afford’ to place them for a few turns anyways. Once cards are played, they’ll eventually get replaced in subsequent turns randomly. It will certainly help if you know your deck well, as combining attacks, buffs and debuffs will be your key to victory.
The main goal is generally to not have your main character, The Lady, die. You can attack and defend yourself, but it’s like the King in chess; once they’re dead, game over. Each card in your deck represents a specific creature, unit or spell. You can play your card that has a specific cost indicated by your Lumi, essentially your 'mana' resources to tell you how much you can do in a single turn. Each turn it refreshes and increases, eventually able to play more of your higher tiered cards.
There’s another mechanic to learn that plays a vital role in your success, revolving around changing the color of the terrain of each hex tile. Turn these green and you’ll get a bonus for your characters, or possibly a debuff for the enemy, whereas sitting on a purple enemy hex and you’ll have a disadvantage. Where and how you change these hexes will play a large role in your tactics of being successful or not.
Spending the Lumi to place a card requires pre-planning, as once you’ve played the card and chosen the hex to have the unit on, you’re actually unable to use them to attack until the following turn. Each unit is different in how they attack, as some are only able to do so to units directly beside, whereas others can range attack in a direct line. It takes some practice to learn how each unit best works with one another, but eventually it’ll become second nature of how to best place them. I tended to play a bit more defensively, making the enemy come to me and having my units attack when in range, kind of like an overwatch trap.
Where the annoyance comes in is having to make sure that your units are facing the correct direction. Given the hex grid, they’re able to attack to the hex in front and to the sides of them, but if there’s an attack from behind a unit, they’ll take much more damage and unable to retaliate. There’s some units and abilities that can also ‘shove’ enemies, adding extra damage and forcing units to move places on the grid during an attack. There’s some interesting and high powered ‘combos’ you can do if you plan and strategize correctly.
Then there’s also a whole fatigue mechanic if you’re not playing on the easier difficulty. Some enemies can cause your units to become fatigued if they damage a unit, meaning their wounds won’t heal in the next encounter. You have to either deal with this penalty or spend precious resources you gather from winning battles to heal them instead of using for upgrades.
For how small the playfield is, it’s surprisingly cluttered and difficult to read at times. You can move your cursor over each unit and enemy to see what’s going on, but it’s not always obvious which direction their facing or if they’ve already taken their turn at a quick glance. Remember though, this is a roguelike, so once you die you’re going to have to start back at the beginning. Of course you keep your earned cards and upgrades, making the next run that much easier, but sometimes a good run can be well over an hour or two, so starting over is a bit disheartening. You are given a one-time ‘continue’ where you can restart the current battle once, and if playing on the easier difficulty, you’re at least able to start over from the same chapter.
While not explained in-depth, I did like the upgrading of my units. You’re able to do this at any point in-between stages, using a special currency you earn to improve your cards and units in specific ways, sort of making them evolve. Choosing to improve a card grants you one of three different ways to improve the card, each having a different positive or playstyle in mind. Each unit can only be upgraded once, but since you’ll eventually have multiples of certain cards, you can choose to upgrade each different, or the same, it’s up to you. You can even earn and have trinkets per run that give you powerful passive bonuses and upgrades that can greatly help.
I applaud Oaken for its gorgeous aesthetics and visuals, being quite colorful and all centered around the plant based theme. The artwork of each card is wonderfully drawn and it’s all simply easy on the eyes to appreciate, even if it does become a bit cluttered on the grid. The soundtrack from Ian Fontova is whimsical, full of wind instruments and a fantastic backdrop for the setting and gameplay. Even listening to it now as I write this review, I’ve already added the soundtrack to my saved playlists.
Oaken does feel unique in the deckbuilding genre, though the gameplay slows quite down once you’re trying to truly strategize, inspecting every unit and trying to come up with a plan. Those that enjoy roguelikes and deckbuilding will surely find something enjoyable with Oaken, just be prepared to sink many hours into upgrading your units to make the next hour+ long run that much easier.
**Oaken was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Revhead
I’ll admit, I know basically nothing about cars other than how to drive them, filling the oil and adding gas. Outside of that, I couldn’t tell you where any specific car parts were if you asked me to point them out under the hood. Having now played Revhead, I do believe I have a better understanding about my vehicle and how the hundreds of parts are all interconnected.Revhead is a mixture of two games: one part car racing, one part car mechanic simulator. The goal is to create your dream car so you can compete and win a variety of races, but to get to that point you’ll need to become a master mechanic and learn how to rebuild your car, change parts and customize it to be the fastest on the track. There really isn’t much of a narrative, though I wasn’t really expecting one either. Your friend Charlie wants help at his garage, so you fly over the Australia and start your new career as a car mechanic and racer. How you want to earn more cash to purchase more vehicles and parts is up to you.
Revhead is an ambitious combination of car mechanic sim and racer, but melding the two gets a little messy somewhere in the middle. You’re given a mostly open world map across three different zones, though I’m not entirely sure why, as you’re generally always buried deep within the mechanic menus or racing in events. Don’t expect any traffic, people or any life at all on the roads, as they are barren as it comes. Aside from getting from one map to the next, there’s no reason to really drive across the map unless you want to test out your latest car build.
Revhead: a term for a car enthusiast, which is apparent that the developers are when it comes to the mechanic portion of the game. You’re able to use your car magazine to search for used cars and parts and it’s up to you how want to earn cash. If you want to be competitive in racing you’ll need a vehicle that is up for the task. The starter car you get is basically a clunker, so you’re going to need to fix it up, swap some parts out for better racing gear, and hope that you can be competitive. You’ll need to be able to repair all your components too, as performance will be affected by broken or damaged parts quite drastically.
After the brief initial tutorial, you’re basically left to your own with no direction. Do you repair your starter car? Buy a new one? Get a clunker to strip for parts? It’s completely up to you, and my guess of trying to improve the starter car didn’t work well for me. Once I learned how to buy used and wrecked vehicles, repair and sell those parts, I finally started earning enough money to purchase a new vehicle and then add better parts to it to increase the ever important horsepower.
Actually, the opening moments are an eye opener to the rest of your experience. You have to walk from your hotel to the garage, but you’ll notice how awful the controls are trying to have them ‘run’. The animations are terrible and it just seems unnecessary considering nearly everything else is simply going through menus. While the menus are laid out fine, using a controller isn’t very intuitive and done quite poorly. You’ll constantly hit the wrong buttons, back out of one too many menus, and even install wrong parts, etc because of this. It’s clear this wasn’t built on console primarily, as the controls really aren’t great.
Racing is half the game, and while there’s a handful of events, around 70 or so, there’s only a couple tracks (including reverse versions). You start with only a dirt oval, eventually unlocking a raceway and even some drag racing on the salt flats. Some events are simple 3-5 lap races, you have time trials, and then of course the true races and championships for bonuses. The more you wager the more you’ll earn, but good luck in the beginning. Your starter vehicle is so atrocious, you won’t have a chance at anything other than last place, so you’ll turn your attention to the mechanic part for quite some time.
There are Amateur to Pro races to take part in, but you’ll need to have a seriously tricked out car if you want any chance. You also need to tailor your car for the type of race. Having street slicks on a dirt track is going to cause you issues, as will not having the right setups. My first handful of races were so awful that I ended up restarting over, thinking I did something wrong, as it was borderline unplayable. As soon as you try and take a turn you either spin out or hit the wall while the CPU laps you.
The parts inside your vehicle will greatly affect how your car handles. Tire type, air pressure, weight, steering, differential and more will all play a part in your success or failure, yet Revhead doesn’t teach you this at all. Being car illiterate, I was completely lost, as Revhead expects you to know what parts do what and how they compare to other components. Comparing parts isn’t easy as well, as you have to look at the piece, remember its stats, then look at the others and try and figure out what means what. This was frustrating putting in all this time and effort to try and improve my build only to find it didn’t make a difference or actually decreased.
As for the races themselves, they aren’t terribly exciting. Controls are poor at best, and even with a decent car upgraded, you slide around quite easily. The non-existent AI doesn’t help things either, as they have no idea you exist and simply drive the line they’re going to drive regardless. If you manage to trade paint with another racers, it usually doesn’t end well, as someone is going to spin out and probably launch into the wall. Physics just don't feel right and it's a frustrating mess to try and actually race with any confidence.
The mechanic portion of Revhead is easily the highlight and its best feature. Again, not knowing much about the workings of a car, they’ve made it simple to put together a build by essentially snapping pieces together at multiple points of the frame. While you’re given your first clunker to work with, you can browse the local vehicule buy and sell magazine to purchase something new and have it instantly delivered to you. You’re able to find all different makes and models of cars, wrecked or pre-tuned vehicles, all for different costs. The other pages of the magazines also lists random new and used parts that are for sale currently. Don’t see a car or part you need, then you can purchase a new magazine after a short period of time for another $2.
There’s a few strategies here, as you can buy a wrecked car for cheap to salvage parts to hopefully fix and maybe turn a profit, or purchase a used car and swap some parts you already have out for better performance. If you can manage to find a really cheap wrecked car where the engine isn’t broken, repairing that and reselling for a profit is an easy way to start turning a profit early on, something the game doesn't teach you.
Nearly every part and component in your cars can be removed and changed, all the way from the steering wheel, headlights and engine, down to its wiring and spark plugs. While there’s no licensed vehicles or makes, it’s obvious what some are modeled after. You have a few different engine types and have to make sure the parts you buy are for the same brand of car, or it will be incompatible. Make sure you buy the sames sizer of tire for the rims you have as well, an expensive mistake I made early on.
Once you have a decent bankroll, it’s going to be easier to have numerous vehicles, one for each type of race. Not that you couldn’t remove and swap out pieces to alter your build, but it’s time consuming. This whole process is very menu heavy, and as mentioned above, it just feel clunky on a controller. There’s also no way to directly compare parts and how each will improve your vehicle in what way, so there’s a lot of trial and error. For example, I swapped out some ‘better’ parts, or so I thought because they were clearly more expensive, only to find my engine wouldn’t change gears properly for whatever reason without redlining. Why? I’m not sure, so I had to simply try new pieces and see what worked, so there’s some some trial and error.
To put it bluntly, Revhead is quite ugly to look at. Appearing as if it’s a mobile game that’s been ported over, the draw distance is mere feet away for objects and there’s virtually no textures for everything. The world is already lifeless as is with no other people or anyone on the roads, but it’s got a very bland aesthetic overall that doesn’t impress in any way, even on an Xbox Series X. The audio is about the same; it’s there but you’ll grow tired of the bland and loud engine sounds and repeated background soundtrack.
Revhead is trying to be two separate games at once, though never really excelling at either. The mechanic portion is clearly its strong point, with the racing component being the weakest portion by far. The concept is what makes Revhead unique, building your own car then taking it to race, it’s just been executed poorly for console. Even with the atrocious controls, I still want to buy junker cars, strip them down for parts and sell the engines for a profit. Revhead needs to decide whether it wants to be a simulator or an arcade game, not this awkward mix of both. Unless you're a diehard Revhead, you might want to take this one back to the shop.
**Revhead was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
Nova Strike
I absolutely adore shmups (shoot-em-ups). You know the ones, where you’re usually a spaceship flying either horizontally or vertically while the screen auto scrolls, trying to avoid a screen full of bullets as you make your way forward, usually to kill a massive boss at the end. Nova Strike, developed by SANUK GAMES and published by Nacon, is no different. Easy to pick up and play, Nova Strike adds a little more to the tried and true shmup formula by adding some roguelike elements and persistent ship improvements.Normally this is where I would describe the story, usually involving saving the world or galaxy from some kind of alien invasion as you take the conquest on by yourself, but that’s not the case here. At least from what I can tell, there’s no narrative here at all. Starting the game you’re simply thrown into the first mission guns blazing. No tutorial, no warmup, just start blasting the ships coming at you as the screen scrolls vertically. Given the shmup genre, this will be sufficient.
I did notice that even the first handful of enemies took a few hits to destroy, as normally cannon fodder are destroyed in single shots, but that wasn’t the case here. This gave a feeling of my ship being weak, having only a single blaster. When you go inevitably lose all your shields, health and blow up, starting a new run will look slightly different, as the maps are procedurally generated. While it didn’t feel like a drastic difference, it added at least a little variety where you’ll normally become bored of the first few levels replaying them over and over again.
The main hook with Nova Strike is its roguelike elements where you earn currency earned each run that can then be used to install permanent upgrades for your ship, making each subsequent run slightly that much easier. Each Chapter is split into several small levels, with the final having a massive box to try and defeat. As the screen scrolls vertically automatically, you and your small ship must defeat enemies in your path without trying to take damage, which is of course much easier said than done.
Enemy kills reward you with coins and resources that can be used to improve your health, shields, damage and more for that run specifically, or saved to use at your home base for permanent upgrades when you do eventually get destroyed. Each level only last a few minutes tops, though it can sometimes feel like longer. At the end of each level there’s anywhere from one to three portals where you can choose what type of additional bonuses you want in the next, like more coins, bonus weapons or resources. The game doesn’t do a good job at explaining the differences, but it’s self-explanatory for the most part.
Each enemy type has different attack patterns, though they are simple enough to recognize and avoid. Where the challenge lies is when the screen is full of enemies, all shooting different patterns are you try and avoid everything while blasting enemies. Now and then you’ll reach a point in a level where the scrolling pauses until you defeat all enemies on screen. Smooth controls can make or break a shmup pretty quickly, and thankfully it’s decent in Nova Strike. Taking enemy bullets will lower your slowly regenerating shield, which, when depleted, will then take your health away quite quickly. As you begin the first time playing and without any upgrades, you’ll die quite quickly with a few good blasts, eventually coming more powerful as you equip upgrades.
You simply need to hold ‘A’ to fire your weak primary blaster, though at least you have unlimited ammunition. You’ll find an assortment of different secondary weapons randomly appear from destroyed enemies, the coolest feature being that you can actually see them attach to your ship and able to equip and swap between two. Secondary weapons are limited in ammunition and much more powerful, ranging from lasers, electricity, missiles, spread shots and more. At the end of stages you’ll also sometimes get shops where you can also spend your coin on secondary weapons if you want as well.
Even though there is only a couple Chapters, them being broken into several different short levels makes it feel longer. That and the fact that it’ll take you a good handful of deaths and upgrade purchases to eventually be able to reach and defeat the final boss. The boss battles are the highlight, as they are massive and require some nimble maneuvering to avoid their attack patterns. While not terribly exciting, the bosses are at least a welcome change from the standard enemies you'll repeatedly blast away.
You’ll want to make sure you have some upgrades before attempting these bosses though, as health, shield boosters and refills were the only way I was able to survive the battles early on, as was having plenty of secondary ammunition. They are all multi-tier battles where they change form or do new attack patterns, adding many more bullets on screen than the regular levels.
Regardless, you’re going to die at some point without some upgrades. The Game Over screen will show you how long your run lasted, how many enemies and bosses killed, coins collected and more. This is a roguelike though, so starting over is part of the process. At least some of the resources you collected in the last run will persist, allowing you to purchase upgrades from the shop at your home base between runs. A really interesting feature with this is that if you’ve already maxed out your upgrades, you can spend coins on starting at specific chapters rather than having to start all the way at 1-1 each run.
While you can purchase a handful of secondary weapons, you’ll want to most likely prioritize the skills and passive buffs. Your ship has a finite amount of Chip Slots, and each add-on or perk costs a set amount from one to three depending on the bonuses granted. Obviously the most powerful will cost more Chip slots, so it’s a matter of balancing what upgrades you want and what caters to your playstyle. I preferred the passive upgrades and ones that focused on defense, but you could make a more aggressive build if you wanted.
To make things even more intriguing, you’re only able to install one of each type of upgrade. The categories are Stealth, Weapons, Movement, Repair, Health, Defense and Resources. Mix and match to make a unique build, making your next attempt so much easier each recurring run thereafter. With a maximum of 9 Chip Slots, the best upgrades will require three to equip.
The pixel art is done quite well, and even though there’s little variety with having levels procedurally generated each run, there’s just enough detail in the backgrounds that adds some flair. Sure you’ll not be able to really focus on much else other than bullets and staying alive, but the ship and enemy design is done well. Even with the chaos that ensures in this type of game, my ship never really became lost in the heat of battle as I tried to avoid every bullet on screen. As for the audio, it’s serviceable though unmemorable. It’s got a little beat to dampen the silence, but after a handful of runs you’ll likely want to put on your own music on.
Roguelikes are meant to be played over and over as you slowly make overall progression each time. This works when the gameplay is addictive and you’re constantly teased with the next upgrade to feel more powerful. While great for short sessions with a run or two here and there, Nova Strike is perfectly serviceable, but with only a couple Chapters to complete, it doesn’t feel as though it will have a long shelf life in my played rotation. Not bad by any means, it simply feels like a generic shump, though the $10 USD price tag is about right for what you get content wise.
**Nova Strike was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Starfield
Bethesda Game Studios has a pedigree of creating fantastical worlds that have been absolutely revered in the past two decades. Best known for their Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, while they’ve had a few other titles, it’s the Fallout’s and Skyrim’s that generally garner the most attention from fans. The first new world from Bethesda in over 25 years, Starfield was announced back in 2018, and here we are five years later with the release finally upon us after a few warranted delays.Bethesda games are generally vast open worlds where you can play basically however you wish, and while Starfield is no different at its core, it takes the core concepts from their previous games and expands them to a whole other level. Instead of a singular world you can freely explore, you’re given a whole universe as your playground, allowing you to play however you wish. If you want to be a pirate, you can loot and plunder other ships in the constellations. If you simply want to explore planets, you’re given the freedom to do so. Maybe you want to be a universally known chef and collect rare ingredients from planets far and wide, that’s also certainly a possibility should you wish. Create your character and head to the stars with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey that will play out differently for everyone.
Set in 2330, Earth is no longer humanity’s only home. People have ventured far to the stars, settling on many different planets across the galaxy and beyond. Like other Bethesda games, Starfield’s opening journey is a memorable one. Outside of this opening mission, I’ll be purposely vague and not really delve into much of the core story, as it’s quite an epic journey and I want to avoid any spoilers, best revealed on your own as it unfolds.
I’ll be honest, most other Bethesda games, while their worlds are fantastic to play in, I couldn’t tell you or recall what their main story was really about with much detail. Starfield though is different, with a narrative that sucked me in quickly and kept me wanting to find out what happens next. Sure I spent dozens of hours doing other things such as side missions, exploring and more, but I kept feeling compelled to go back to the main story to see what happens, especially after a dozen or so hours once it went in a direction I completely didn’t see coming.
A COMPELLING NARRATIVE
Starfield opens with you about to embark down a mine shaft on Vectera, a moon of the planet Anselon, working as a miner simply referred to as a “Dusty”. This is where you’re given a brief tutorial about the basics and controls as you follow your crew down into the mine. You get a sense of how claustrophobic this place is, with other ‘Dusty’s’ working hard. You pick up a Cutter, a tool to extract resources from special nodes, the futuristic way of mining. As the crew busts through a wall with their massive equipment, you go ahead to explore only to find something you’ve never seen before, an Artifact. This floating piece of metal is clearly something unique, as it has patterns on it and doesn’t simply look like any typical junk debris. As you reach out to grab it you experience visions, something unknown that you can’t quite make out, only for you to awake later with your coworkers looking over you, making sure you’re alright.
YOUR TRUE SELF
You’ve given a tablet and asked “You know who you are? New recruit for Argos Extractors?”. This is the clever way Starfield then puts you into the character creator where you’ll no doubt spend a good amount of time customizing how you look down to the finest details. Once you’re happy with your appearance you’ll choose a Background (kind of a starting class with a few skills instantly unlocked), Skills, and Traits.
You’re not locked into your opening choices by any means, it’s more of a starting point that gives you a few basic skills to get you focused to play in a specific way. You can of course choose to spend your skill points however you like as you level up elsewhere if the opening choices don’t turn out to be what you end up enjoying as much as you expect. While there’s plenty of Backgrounds to start out with, I’ll just name a few to give you an idea:
Bounty Hunter – Starts with piloting and boost pack skills so you can easily hunt down your targets across the galaxy.
Chef – Maybe you simply want to explore, then this Background will support your culinary skills with extra recipes at the research lab and more scavenging abilities that will net you more materials as you hunt down prey.
Combat Medic – Self-explanatory, but proficient in pistols when combat is required and much more adept at healing yourself and others.
Cyber Runner – Maybe you want to be a stealthy hacker, then this is the Background for you, starting you out with hacking, stealth and pickpocketing abilities from the get-go.
Diplomat – This is the route I went, as I wanted to be able to talk my way out of (or into) a fight. Starting out with the Persuasion skill, I had an increase of speech challenges, eventually opening up whole new dialogue options as I unlocked more. Yeah I can fight and shoot with my blasters, but why should I if I can simply talk people into not fighting and agreeing with what I want?
There’s a handful of more Backgrounds (classes) to choose from, but again, it’s simply a starting point and you’re not locked out of spending skill points into any others regardless of your choice. You then choose three Traits, offering you distinct bonuses, but will also have a negative to it as well. Maybe you choose the Dream Home trait which starts you out with an outpost home already built for you, but you’re locked into paying back the 50,000 credit mortgage weekly. Maybe you want to be an Empath, giving you bonuses in combat when you perform an action your companion likes, but the opposite if it’s something they don’t approve.
I of course chose Hero Worshipped as one of my traits. Remember that super annoying fan from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? Well, he’s back and can be recruited as a companion that will give you gifts and constantly worship the ground you walk on and the air you breathe. The downside? Well, you’re going to have to listen to him constantly narrate how much he adores you and compliments you every time you land your ship astoundingly. There’s a handful of other Traits, and choosing one will not allow you to pick the opposite version. This made me think about how I wanted to play and what type of character I wanted to be.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Now that you’ve created the character you’re about to spend hundreds of hours as, it’s time to continue your journey after waking from touching the Artifact. While you were out, Lin, the supervisor of the mine, reports the discovery of the Artifact to Constellation, a group of space explorers seeking these rare artifacts. This is how you meet Barrett, member of Constellation, as he touches down topside of the mine. Well it seems that Barrett has had the Crimson Fleet chasing him, a band of space pirates, thrown into a battle without much explanation of what they might be after.
You of course win this battle and have a talk with Barrett. This is where you’re invited to become a member of Constellation, as you’re clearly special when he was surprised that you saw ‘the visions’. It’s here that Barrett gives you your Chronomark Watch. Showing more than just the time, it displays your stamina, planet name, local temperature, hazards, oxygen level, gravity and direction of nearby waypoints. Splurge for the Starfield Constellation Edition and you’ll get a real world version of this watch that apparently will link to the game and display the same information, giving you an extra level of immersion. Now that you’re a member of Constellation you make way to New Atlantis where their headquarters are, and thus your epic journey begins however you decide once you touch down in this massive city.
MORE THAN JUST A MAP
Starfield is massive. Not just in each world that you can explore, but as the universe as a whole. This is where you’ll become familiar with the Starmap, a way of getting the information you need of where you are and where you want to go. There are multiple layers and levels to the map system that takes a little getting used to, but is essentially looked at in three different ways.
Planet View – This is available for you to scan the planets or moons for what resources it has, and any notable markers or landing points on the planet.
System View – Back out once and you’ll then see the whole system. This will show its sun, planets and any moons in this whole area. You can see what factions control the system, allowing you decide if maybe it should be avoided for the time being if it’s patrolled by pirates.
Galaxy View – This is where you really start to get a feel for just how expansive Starfield really is. As you explore one moon or planet, you then have a whole system of planets you can land down on. This view goes one step further and shows you each of the galaxies that are light years apart, showing its system’s recommended level as well.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
If you’ve ever played a Bethesda game before, things will feel very familiar from its onset when you realize you can pick up and take nearly anything you see. Want to collect forks and useless cups? Go for it. Want to scavenge every corner of every room for anything of value, go right ahead. If you’re like me, you’ll spend an obscene amount of time trying to find anything of value that can be taken (without stealing of course!) and sold for a profit elsewhere. Because I’m a serial hoarder picking up stuff, I eventually had to spend some skill points that granted me more carry weight. Thankfully your companions can be told to hold things for you, but they have their limits as well, as does your ship’s cargo hold, so you won’t be able to loot every single thing you see.
Maybe you’ll find extremely valuable items along your journey, but these high value objects are generally illegal contraband. Be careful though, as having contraband aboard your ship may be detected when you get scanned while orbiting a planet before landing. If this contraband is detected you’ll need to pay a hefty fine, surrender, or put up a fight. If you plan on wheeling and dealing with these high risk goods, make sure to invest in some appropriate skills that will help. Bounties also exists if you are caught stealing, smuggling or killing innocent people. Sure you can clear your bounty by paying a fee at specific Self-Service Bounty Clearance Terminals, but this can add up quickly if you’re not careful.
Even with companions and ships housing all my found loot, I learned quickly on you can only sell a limited amount of items at a time at most places. Trade Kiosks at most cities only have 5000 credits and take time to replenish, as do most vendors, so I had to offload what I could and then go search for other vendors and kiosks to unload my inventory of found weapons, space suits, booster packs, resources and miscellaneous items. This was a pain initially but once you find some vendors that have a bigger credit pool, you’re able to offload much more at once. You also need to take all the stuff your companion is carrying to sell it, as I wish they could simply be another tab to sell from.
THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
Companions are more than just someone who follows you around, they have a wealth of other benefits should you choose to use them. Sure you can simply use them as pack mules to carry more stuff, they have more versatility. In battle they will help as extra firepower, helping you kill anything that attacks you. Each companion also has their own skills as well, offering passive bonuses to your ship or outpost if assigned there. Certain companions may also have special quests they want you to help with, offering more insight into their background, and possibly opening up romance options if they are fond of you and your actions. While I chose to always have a companion by my side, you can play completely alone should you wish, even getting a bonus if you chose the corresponding Trait. Sometimes you'll even get prompts where you can choose for your companion to reply in certain ways during conversations if you don't want to answer as your explorer.
WHAT THE SHIP
Starfield is a space exploration game, and you wouldn’t be able to get very far without your own ship. Luckily you’re given one in the beginning when you join Constellation, but like anyone’s first car, it’s just a starting point simply designed to get you from point A to point B, with maybe a few space battles in between. Your first ship is modest, allowing you to house two crew plus yourself, having decent stats for maneuverability and combat options. Later in the game once you’ve accrued a healthy amount of credits, you may want to look at either investing in a new ship or maybe upgrading the one if you have.
This is where the Ship Builder comes in. While it will take a good amount of credits, you’re given the tools to completely customize your ships however you like. Want something small and nimble that excels in space combat, you can build that. Want a massive C class ship that can carry a massive amount of resources, that’s an option too. You’re also able to build your ship how you want, so if you want a weird-looking phallic ship, it’s certainly a possibility.
Ship upgrades are probably where you’ll want to start, as it’s not as much of an upfront investment and can make for a decent improvement in your starter ship. The thing to keep in mind that Starfield lacks at outright explaining is that there are different classes of ships. You begin with an A class ship, able to upgrade to B and C classes later on if you have the appropriate piloting skill points spent. The higher classes of ships give you more options and can be made into massive weapons of destruction if you want. You can swap in new upgrades to your weaponry, Grav Drive, Engines, Shields, and more.
Then there’s the full-on Ship Builder mode. Here you can swap in any parts or build from scratch. This is a much heavier investment of credits but allows you to build the ship of your dreams. The controls to do so are quite simple, as each piece has a ‘snap’ point that attaches to other parts, and it won’t let you finish building your ship if it won’t work. For example, if you place all the components in a way where the crew can’t get to certain areas, it won’t allow you to complete the build. While it’s simple to use and figure out, I do wish there was more of a tutorial with the Ship Builder, as it took me a lot of trial and error to figure out why certain components wouldn’t attach or why I had errors in my ship creation.
Bigger ships will allow you to have more cargo space, more room for companions, and even crafting stations. Yes, crafting is possible in Starfield, and with the stations installed on your ship, you won’t have to constantly travel back to a city to do so. You can of course have multiple ships, using specific ones for certain tasks, able to swap out your ‘Home’ ship whenever at a Ship Services Technician at most major city docking points.
Flying the ships themselves feels great in the vastness of space, able to choose first or third person. Your main engine has a set amount of overall power it can use, and you’ll need to adjust where you want that power to go into your system. If you’re simply exploring space going from one system to another, you might want to take some power away from your weapons system and put it into your engine and Grav Drive for more maneuverability, whereas if you get attacked by pirates, you’ll maybe need to increase your shields and weaponry on the fly.
SURVEYS
Now that you’ve got your ship the way you want, sure it’s a mode of transportation, but can also be used to survey planets to show what mining resources it contains. You did start out as a miner before this grand adventure remember? Planet scans will show its gravity, temperature, atmosphere, flora, fauna, water and more. Once you land on the planet you can use your scanner, acting like a detective vision of sorts, to highlight any special resources. This will show you what nodes you can mine, creatures, and flora. The more you scan objects the more you’ll learn about the planet, and maybe you’ll come across people that will pay handsomely for this scanned information.
HOME SWEET HOME(S)
Much like the Ship Building feature, there’s also an Outpost Builder where you can choose to spend a healthy amount of credits to create a home away from home. If a planet is hospitable, you’re able to lay down roots for an outpost that offers a ton of bonuses if you spend the time to set it up. Planets are rich in resources, so a resource extractor will passively mine these materials for you. Building a Crew Station will allow you to assign your crew to specific Outposts, and yes, you can have multiple across different planets. You really could design a home, complete with furnishings should you wish, though I’ll be honest, I’ve only dabbled in this feature so far. Again, there really could be a better and more comprehensive tutorial, as I was quite overwhelmed trying to figure this portion out through trial and error. There’s a ton of potential here to earn passive income and resources, it may just take a healthy investment upfront and some time to figure out how best to do so on your own.
PEW PEW PEW
As soon as you come out of the mine at the beginning of your adventure, you’ll get your first taste of combat. Armed with a pistol and rifle, you can choose first or third person depending on your preference. I’ll admit, at first I felt the combat was a little awkward for whatever reason, but eventually became accustomed to it after tweaking a few settings. You’ll find a variety of different weapons along your journey, from shotguns, lasers, pistols, experimental weapons and more, and while you’re not locked to a single type of weapon, I’d suggest choosing one or two to be the most proficient in for when combat is necessary.
You’ll find a variety of different foods and medical supplies along the way, able to each to replenish your health or cure status inflictions. Jump off a high ledge and you might break a bone, or maybe you’ll suffer from burns, poison or a variety of other conditions. Eating food will heal a small amount of health, but using that to cook better dishes will heal more and possibly add some bonuses.
LEVEL UP
Every time you level up you’ll earn a skill point that you can then use to spend on a number of abilities. Each skill has four different ranks, becoming more powerful the higher the tier, but there’s a really interesting caveat. Once a skill is unlocked you can’t simply spend another point in it to rank up until you’ve fulfilled certain conditions. For example, under my Persuasion skill, I had to successfully complete 10 speech challenges before I could spend another point and unlock rank two. To improve my health in another skill I had to run a specific distance with a certain amount of weight in my inventory. These skill challenges were fun to work on, as I had to get a certain amount of pistol kills before I could rank up my pistol efficiency bonuses. Simply completing the challenge itself doesn’t unlock the new tank of a skill, it simply allows it to be purchased with a skill point afterwards.
Your beginning choices give you a starting point, but you’re free to add new skills along the way whenever you like. Eventually I added Piloting skills because I wanted better B and C class ships, also adding a few points into Lockpicking so I could get into some safes and weapon caches I normally wouldn’t be able to. While I don’t believe there’s a level cap that I’ve seen, you could in theory have every skill with enough dedication.
LOOKS AND SOUNDS GREAT
I’ll be honest, it’s a bit of a running joke that Bethesda games launch in quite buggy states, and I’d be lying if I didn’t expect the same from Starfield’s launch, especially playing before the official launch. I’m more than impressed though, as Starfield is without a doubt Bethesda’s most polished launch, as there have been some minor bugs here and there, nothing a quick game relaunch didn’t fix. There’s been a large patch since just before launch, which has addressed most of these small issues, but I was quite impressed with the overall quality given the scope of Starfield and how many mechanics are simultaneously in play.
Even though it’s currently locked to 30FPS, Starfield visually impresses with its amazing vistas. More than a handful of times I utilized the photo mode to take some stunning screenshots with the starry night or planets in the background along the horizon. The city of NEON in particular stands out, as it feels alive with citizens and gives a cyberpunk vibe with all the neon lighted advertising. With over 1000 planets able to be explored, there’s no shortage of gorgeous backdrops, weird fauna and caves to explore. While there’s a little stiffness to some of the facial movements, it’s got that signature Bethesda look to it we’ve come to expect over the years in their previous games.
Audio is equally impressive, with every character and NPC being voiced aside from you. I can only imagine how much time and effort went into creating all the lines of dialogue for every character and then having it recorded. The clever writing is only enhanced by a fantastic cast of voice actors that did an amazing job at realistic and believable performances across the board. While I have my favorites, and not so favorites, for characters and companions, they were all certainly memorable in their own way. The subtle soundtrack somehow also suits the vastness of space and exploring a new system and planet, unsure what to expect on the next planet.
AN ACTUAL UNIVERSE TO EXPLORE
While I’ve been a massive Elder Scrolls fan, I’ve never been big into Fallout, so I was unsure how I was going to take to Starfield given that it’s clearly an amalgamation of what Bethesda’s learned over the decades of game development. Even with a review this lengthy, there are portions I’ve not touched on due to spoilers, but suffice to say, there’s a near endless amount of content for you to feast upon. Even more than fifty hours already spent exploring Starfield’s universe, I feel like I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. The main narrative is compelling and quite mind blowing when you reach a certain point, but even some of the more minor quests were quite memorable and just as enjoyable. I’ve never even remotely come close to exploring every planet and all of their secrets, and fully expect to put hundreds of hours into Starfield’s universe just as I did with their other games. Bethesda has not only crafted a new compelling and wondrous universe to explore where you can play in any way you desire, they’ve created one of the most important games of this generation and prove once again they’re the best at what they do.
**Starfield was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
LISA: Definitive Edition
I’ll admit, I’ve never heard of the LISA games before. Now on console for a new audience like myself, LISA: The Definitive Edition includes the original LISA: The Painful and its sequel, LISA: The Joyful. Not really sure as to why there was two games included, I had to do some research as to which game to play first, as the titles don’t make it abundantly clear on their own. Start with The Painful, as The Joyful takes place moments after the first game’s ending and won’t make any sense simply jumping into it without any context.While LISA: The Definitive Edition is unlike anything I’ve played before, if I had to compare it to something else directly, it came across like a mix of Earthbound’s quirkiness and Undertale’s humor, but with some serious adult themes. You wouldn’t expect it from the 2D sprite artwork from screenshots, but LISA is not a kid’s game by any means, shocking me at each revelation.
Given that The Painful is the first of the two games, I’m going to mainly focus on that, as much talk about The Joyless is giving away some massive spoilers due to being a direct sequel. LISA: The Painful begins with a group of young boys being beat up for stealing a ball, only for Brad, the main protagonist, to step in and take the blame and subsequent beating for them. Brad stumbles home hurt only to have his dad berate and throw a beer bottle at him before being told to go to his room. These opening moments give a glimpse at the serious topics and tones that will be present throughout.
Many years later Brad seems to have hit hard times, relying on a drug called Joy to deal with his personal demons. He hears a baby in the distance, something completely unexpected and heads outside to investigate. Finding a young baby girl with no one else around, he brings her home to his childhood friends whom he’s living with.
You see, this is an extraordinary occurrence, as many years ago there was an event called the White Flash. After this moment the world of Olathe changed forever, as every female seems to have died or vanished. This means there’s no more babies or women, so this baby changes everything. Brad decides to take her in and raise her as his own, protecting her from the world, as he knows what most will want to do with her. While having good intentions, Brad falls off the horse once again when he finds some Joy, only to come back to home one day with his friends dying and his ‘daughter’, named Buddy, missing.
The titular Lisa was actually Brad’s young sister growing up, eventually committing suicide due to her emotional and sexual abuse by her abuse father. Brad feels responsible for letting it happen, with the guilt burdening him so much that he resorts to alcohol and Joy to cope. He will sometimes even see images of her, hallucinating, being questioned why he didn’t stop it from happening. This is probably a strong reason why he feels compelled to go and save Buddy from the post-apocalyptic world that they now live in, knowing the horrors she’ll face as the only female in the world.
Before Buddy’s kidnapping, the group of guys were told they will be given resources if they give Buddy to the Rando gang so they can start repopulating the human race. Brad doesn’t think this is even an option, but this is a cruel world, and when she’s taken he will stop at nothing to save her, even if that means sacrificing himself or others to do so. If this all sounds somewhat familiar to the Children of Men novel and movie, it’s got a similar premise, though I was quite surprised with how dark the narrative becomes later on and in the sequel.
So if you’re unlike me and have played the games before, you might be wondering what makes The Definitive Edition so, well, definitive. Crisper HD graphics, a 120FPS mode if you have a TV or monitor that supports it, updated battle systems, new art overlays for the borders, new campfire conversations (of which can be absolutely hysterical), new music, a music player and even more secrets to uncover. One of the best additions is the inclusion of ‘Painless Mode’, an item that can be used to make the game easier should you want more of a narrative focus, though the world will still be deadly and you’ll die plenty. LISA: The Painful is a challenging game for numerous reasons, and even with Painless Mode activated (you can’t undo your choice, so be careful), I still died countless times. If this isn’t your first time with LISA, you can even make the game harder for more of a challenge if that’s your thing.
As a 2D sidescrolling RPG, LISA may not stand out from its visuals alone, looking like any other RPG Maker game out there, but the narrative and humor is what makes it so unique. You can’t jump onto higher ledges more than one gap away, though you can certainly fall and take tons of damage or an instant Game Over if you’re not careful. Eventually Brad will find a bicycle which will open up some more possibilities by being able to make small gaps and move much quicker.
Brad can’t find Buddy alone, and along his journey he’ll be able to recruit up to 30 different party members. Many of these are completely optional and missable, so don’t expect to find them all in your first playthrough. The first to join your party is the hilarious Terry, known for leaving hints all around. He’s incredibly weak as a party member, but can eventually grow to being one of the most powerful. Another is Nern, a historian who is one of those people that just... wont... stop... talking. He’s got stories upon stories and loves to tell you about his previous 6/10 wife and his passion for coupons. While never every character was a stand out, they all had their quirks and certainly a place in your group of four if planned properly.
If you come across a crow, these are your save points. I highly recommend using multiple saves, as this world is highly unpredictable. Even using campfires to refill your health and rest for the night isn’t always a guarantee, as maybe someone dies overnight or gets kidnapped. Maybe you even get bitten by a spider and wake up all poisoned.
The world is harsh at every corner. One minute you’re exploring and finding information as to where Buddy was taken, the next you’re given a choice between your arm or your friend’s life. Maybe you like to gamble? Then you’ll feel no shame playing Russian Roulette with your friends lives for some massive profit. Choices are permanent though, and numerous times I’ve had party members straight up permanently killed because of my choices. Thankfully I can easily revert to an older save and try again if needed.
If you’ve played a turn based RPG before, you’ll feel at home with the combat, mostly. It’s not always as easy as attack or skills. As mentioned before, LISA is quirky, you might need to experiment with what certain skills actually do or how useful they are. Every party member is quite unique, so it’s a matter of trial and error to see who works with your composition, how their skills meld with another, and who simply doesn’t annoy you. Be aware, party members can be instantly killed, even permanently sometimes, so always have a backup plan for Brad. As party members earn XP and level up, they’ll learn new abilities and have stats increased, as par the course for any RPG.
While it looks like any other homemade RPG you’ve seen before, there’s clearly been a big upgrade with The Definitive Edition with clearer visuals and a smooth 120FPS option. The sprite work is done wonderfully as you can easily recognize characters at a glance. The soundtrack is catchy and quite memorable, though can be a little jarring at times when it instantly switches or cuts off when changing scene to scene.
I thought LISA was going to be a cute and casual relaxing experience, but what I got was a dark and very adult themed narrative where nearly every character has some sort of messed up backstory. The apocalypse really brings out the worst in people, as showcased in nearly every interaction with strangers Brad comes across in his search for Buddy.
I now see why LISA: The Painful and Joyful are cult classics, though there are certainly some possible triggers here that have no early warnings beforehand. Full of misogyny, abuse, murder and nearly any other messed up topic you could think of, LISA takes a certain focus and mindset to get through with its seriously heavy material mixed with laugh out loud moments.
**LISA: Definitive Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Ed-0: Zombie Uprising
Every now and again a new game will fall into my lap that I’ve never heard or seen before. It’s about 50-50 if it turns out to be an unearthed gem that I end up adoring, or a game I wish left unheard of. Ed-0: Zombie Uprising was one of these games that I’ve never even seen a preview before playing, so diving in without any previous knowledge, I had no bias or notion of what to expect. Essentially Japanese culture x Zombies, I had an idea of what it may be, though I’m not sure I was prepared to die as much as I did in this quirky repetitive roguelike.Ed-0: Zombie Uprising’s backdrop is set in 1854 in a fictional Edo-era Japan. Mysterious ships from elsewhere in the world landed on Japanese land, not bringing with them technology and trades, but something much more deadly. This is how the zombie infection began and spread, infecting virtually everyone. There seems to be a few immune though, called Zom-beings, humans with some sort of mysterious power.
As one of three Zom-beings, it will be up to you to restore Japan to its former glory and rid your lands of the seemingly never-ending undead. Aside from some loading screens here and there throughout your journey, there’s little else in the way of narrative. With an interesting setup, a lot could have been done to make for an interesting story, but there’s really no engaging plot from the opening onwards to keep you intrigued and wanting to find out more.
Being a roguelike, you can expect every dungeon run and playthrough to be completely unique from the last. This is either going to favor or go against you randomly, as I had some great runs with tons of health and upgrades, and others I barely made it a few levels. Eventually you’ll get to choose from a Ninja, Sumo Wrestler or a Samurai as you progress, each of which suits a different type of playstyle best, though the agile and quick Ninja was my favorite by a long shot.
Everything is generated randomly each time you play, not just the map, but the enemies, placement and items. One on hand this always means things are fresh and never dull from repeated missions, but luck is going to be a huge factor on your success as well, not just your skill. Stages are full of items found on the ground and dropped from enemies, some of which like charms can be equipped, but also kept to be used or thrown at enemies as well. Why would you want to throw equipment at zombies you ask? All equipment and items are not made equal, and some will actually give debuffs or have negative effects, so you need to be careful what you pick up and/or use.
Even your special moves are scrolls found on the ground at random, so each playthrough you’ll have your regular attack, heavy attack (from holding the button), jump and dodge, but your specials need to be found and equipped each playthrough. This is where you hope the randomness plays in your favor, as I certainly preferred a handful of skills over others. This means you won’t always have the same ‘build’, and because of this I would use the wrong skills that get equipped since they won’t always be in the same button slots. This too allows for almost infinite possibilities and combinations, great for those that want variety and challenge, but not so much for those that want to take the time to learn a character and their skills to be proficient.
Each area has its own theme and style, with the opening being a dark and mysterious forest. Each map is generally small and you’re searching for a Torii Gate that’s randomly placed somewhere to move onto the next floor. The Torii Gates vary in color though, each denoting a different use or reward. Some replenish health, others food, charms, etc. This is how you can choose what to refill or upgrade per floor depending on your current situation. You’ll also sometimes get an option for a special portal back to your village, your safe haven hub, bringing back with you your earned experience and money. This is a roguelike after all, so dying means you lose much of what you’ve earned to that point, so you need to weigh out your risk versus reward. Do you risk continuing and losing it all, or go for the glory and better rewards if you're successful?
There is even more randomness that sometimes is placed on certain floors, like a Torii Gate requiring a key, so you need to find the specific zombie and kill them for it. Perhaps corpses decide to explode after they are defeated, which is great for AOE damage, but you better not be nearby, and on more than one occasion, I literally starved. That’s right, you need to manage your hunger as well, so always keep an eye out for some rice balls and other food items to keep handy. This eventually becomes easier to manage once you get used to it, but it’s a terrible mechanic overall and feels completely out of place, simply designed to make things unnecessarily more difficult.
Given how random the enemy placement is, you’ll either have very little zombies to fight, with them being nicely spread out, or completely swarmed where you need to be quite cautious or meet a swift death. You’re able to lock onto specific enemies, but the movement doesn’t really work well, and trying to choose a specific target in a sea of zombies goes as well as you’d expect. You’re able to guard and parry, but I found it difficult to use, not because of the timing, but you basically need to be standing directly right in front of said zombie for it to work.
Speaking of zombies, expect to see the same handful throughout the whole game. There are a few different types and looks, but they are constantly repeated, all wearing the same clothes and do the same attacks. The bigger issue is how much damage they can absorb. Even the regular zombies you first encounter take way too many hits to defeat. Expect to hit them a good dozen times or so each to kill. Sure you can use your charged up heavy attack, but you’re constantly just attacking a few times, stepping back, and repeating. For a game focused on slashing and killing hordes of zombies, the combat is immensely boring and repetitive, even with the special moves.
As you play more and become more proficient, you’ll be able to survive more and more floors, eventually taking on a challenging boss. The bosses were easily the highlight, as it’s easy to get bored with the monotony of grinding the same zombies for hours on end. The random drops of items is a great way to improve your character and abilities, but it’s completely random what you get. The other issue is that because many items have negative effects, you need to stop and take a moment to read the description to decide if it’s worth picking up, using, or ignoring, but the game doesn’t pause for you during this. Also, you’ll learn very quickly that tapping the button holds it in your inventory, where holding equips or uses. I can’t tell you how many times I used an item instead of holding, only to have it later kill me from making me drunk or setting me ablaze.
Like any decent roguelike, you do make some overall progress. Coming back to your village with money and experience can be used to purchase items, perks and abilities. These of course make every subsequent run just a little easier, though the randomly generated levels play a much larger role in your success or failure. It’s quite a grind for any real character improvements, so if you enjoy mindlessly killing zombie hordes repeatedly, then you’ve got something to strive for long term.
The Edo Japanese x Zombie setting may not be completely unique, but the backdrop and setting is a welcome change, as is the cool “Edo Shader” setting that makes it all appear cel-shaded. Visually though, Ed-0: Zombie Uprising is quite an eye sore. Enemies are repeated, textures are low resolution, and animations are a bit janky at best. Audio is as unmemorable aside from the Japanese narration for the story in the beginning, so expect constant grunts from zombies and weapon slashing sounds throughout.
You’re going to die a lot, and in the beginning it’s going to feel unfair, especially when you starve to death. You’ll eventually learn all of its quirks and how to circumvent many of its ‘unfairness’, but I found I had to focus on doing that more so than simply enjoying a mindless zombie slasher. Ed-0: Zombie Uprising has a long grind to strive towards, but it’s monotonous and feels like a very low budget title, even if there are brief moments of fun here and there.
**Ed-0: Zombie Uprising was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Marble It Up! Ultra
Marble Madness for the NES was one of my favorite games growing up as a kid, even with its insane difficulty. This is where my fondness for marble games must have sprouted though, as I spent an obscene amount of time with Marble Blast Ultra for Xbox 360 back in 2006 when it released as an exclusive Xbox Live Arcade title. While those days have come and gone, every now and then I think of how much I enjoyed Marble Blast Ultra, so naturally when I was made aware of a new marble game releasing, my interest was piqued. Even better, with some of the original developers of the series, Marble It Up! Ultra is now here for Xbox players and a wonderful spiritual successor to the game that I would spend hours on every night trying to climb the online leaderboards for fractions of a second improvement.I went into Marble It Up! Ultra with meek expectations, not because I wasn’t excited for its release, but when going down ole nostalgia road it’s sometimes hard to compare to what you thought was once amazing at the time. Marble It Up! Ultra is the natural progression of the series and I’m excited to have another marble’r (I guess that’s a term now) to sink hours into, trying to go for those diamond times and climb the online leaderboards. Weighty controls, impressive visuals, great level design and a fun soundtrack all make for a sequel I’ve been waiting almost two decades for.
With a single player campaign that takes place over six chapters and four bonus chapters, there’s over 100 developer curated levels to enjoy. These levels start out easy enough, slowly increasing in difficulty by adding more obstacles, moving pathways, pits, gravity changers, bouncy floors and more. While the 100 levels won’t seem like a lot if you sit and simply try and get through them all, much of the value will come from replaying levels to try and get diamond times (medals are Copper, Silver, Gold and Diamond) or try and become the top name on the online leaderboards. Marble It Up! Ultra was built for speed running and leaderboards.
If you’ve played virtually any marble game in the last few decades, you’ll already have an idea of what to expect; Roll your marble to the goal in colorful 3D stages. Physics plays a large part in how you’ll do so, as does your ability to jump, able to carry momentum while trying to find optimal routes to the end of each stage. The quicker you complete the better ranking you get. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Control movement of your marble with the Left Stick, camera with the Right, jump with ‘A’ and use any picked up power-ups with ‘X’. While there’s not many Power-Up types, you’ll find Super Speed, Super Jump and Floating ones placed at specific points in levels. The tutorial eases you into the basics, slowly teaching you new tricks as you become more proficient.
Could you simply roll through each level and be done with it in a few hours? Sure, but the enjoyment really comes from besting your times trying to get those elusive Diamond ranks and climbing the coveted online leaderboards. Diamond times are actually quite challenging to obtain, and you’ll need to really learn each level looking for shortcuts if you want to make the times. The best part is that once you complete a level and put your mark on the online leaderboards, you can watch ghosts of other players, seeing their strategy and crazy maneuvers so you can try and recreate and compete.
Your marble controls and feels very weighty, and while it was a little frustrating at first with the marble not moving on a dime, it makes sense given how momentum works. Eventually it just felt right, with having to start rolling in a direction well before needed if you have a ton of speed or adjusting your movement for an upcoming jump to land where you want. Then there's the ice sections, which will teach you quite quickly that sometimes speed isn't always best when you want to make sharp turns.
If you do manage to clear all the levels and looking for more, there are also Weekly Challenges that adds a whole new layer of challenge. This gives a handful of levels from the game but adds specific modifiers to the stages, completely changing your previous optimal paths. Maybe gravity is doubled, so jumping is much more difficult, or maybe there is no power-ups? There’s only been a few I’ve been able to play since release, but the possibilities are endless and I found them quite difficult.
The more you play in any mode the more currency you’ll earn, which can then be used to unlock new marbles and items to customize them. Want an Earth marble with a cowboy hat? You sure can do that if you want. Or how about a marble with a D20 in the middle? Sure. There’s a good variety of marbles and accessories, most of which can be bought with your earned currency, but some are locked behind level completions, hidden collectables or specific Diamond times. Fans of the series will be sure to notice a few throwbacks, but it’s clear how the graphical improvements from the previous game have improved and how much more realistic the marble appear.
Want to share some marble action alongside some friends? Marble It Up! Ultra includes online multiplayer that is also cross platform, so players on Xbox, Switch, and PC can all play together. While you can’t play the campaign levels together, there are some fun multiplayer modes to enjoy. Gem Hunt (Team and Free For All), Soccer, Zombies and Sumo modes are voted on after each match, then voting on which level as well. Having a blast mechanic also adds for some fun against your rivals, knocking them away or infecting if playing Zombie mode.
Rewatching some old Marble Blast Ultra footage made me realize how far the visuals have come since then. Certain marbles are clear, have items inside them and the lighting and reflections are absolutely fantastic all around. Levels are quite expansive and colorful, fitting the marble vibe I’ve missed for quite some time. The soundtrack is just as good, never becoming annoying and the marble rolling sounds aren’t as prominent as they used to be, which is great for fans playing for hours on end.
Marble It Up! Ultra reminded how much I really did miss the classic Marble Blast Ultra, and now it’s been improved in virtually every way for a new generation of rollers. While the base stages won’t take too long to complete ‘properly’, you’ll easily spend hours trying to improve your times by fractions of a second to work your way up those online leaderboards. Marble It Up! Ultra is a fantastic Roll Playing Game I’ll be jumping into for some time.
**Marble It Up! Ultra was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
The last few years have been kind to side scrolling beat ‘em up fans with releases like River City Girls 2, Streets of Rage 4, and the fantastic TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. Naturally, this clearly meant that one of the originals that started them all was due for a comeback, and here we are with Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons, adding some new features like a different art style and even some roguelite elements to keep it fresh.The Double Dragon's, brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, are in for a new adventure in this alternative timeline prequel. NYC is plagued by crime and gangs, so the Mayor contacts the brothers to help end the problem the best way possible; with their fists. Set in the year 199X, a post nuclear New York is anything but safe, as gangs rule the streets, each trying to become dominant. You will try to bring peace to the city by taking down the four gang leaders, each a different faction and section of the city.
While you of course start with the iconic Lee brothers Billy and Jimmy, you’re also initially able to choose from Marian and Uncle Matin for playable characters. With 9 extra characters to unlock, each isn’t simply just a reskin or color swap, they all play quite unique and suit different play styles. Two player local co-op allows you and a friend to play on the same TV and you’re even able to customize the game settings to your liking in a variety of different ways depending if you want something easy or extremely challenging.
The more you play the more Tokens you’ll earn, allowing you to unlock a variety of different things, like Tips, Artwork, Music and of course, unlockable Characters. It will take numerous playthroughs if you want to unlock everything, but I appreciate something to always strive towards. While I was able to unlock a few characters and other things after a full playthrough, it’s up to you what you want to prioritize, though I’d suggest the characters first to find which you enjoy playing the most, making each subsequent play that much more entertaining.
Instead of your typical linear adventure getting from point A to B, fight boss and continue on, the level design is where some of the roguelite elements come into play. With four gangs to defeat, you can of course choose any to start with and defeat, but each boss bested in battle makes each remaining gangs more challenging. Not only that, beating one gang makes the mission length of the next longer and more challenging until all are defeated.
The first gang you fight has maybe one section or chapter with the boss at the end, the next gang will have two sections, and so on. So once you know the levels you like and dislike, you might want to play the gang you don’t enjoy as much first since the mission will be shorter. It’s an interesting system and certainly made me play through a few times to see what each level is like when it’s got more sections. There’s even mini bosses that will appear later on, including challenges you can try to achieve for bonus Tokens.
At the end of each section you’re given a randomized list of purchasable upgrades for the money you’ve been earning for defeating enemies and finding cash along the way. These can range from health upgrades, improve special damage, combo improvements and more. Or if you’re struggling, you might want to save your cash to buy revives if you die, whatever you think will have you survive longer to finish each run. Each player and character gets to make a choice of their upgrade and if you have left over cash at the end of a run, it will convert into Tokens for unlock purchases from the Main Menu.
While you begin with four playable characters, you can spend your earned Tokens on 9 others to unlock. While I won’t spoil who, you can expect some familiar faces if you know your Double Dragon lore. Billy was my favorite of the brothers, being much more quick and agile, whereas Jimmy is a bit slower but more powerful. Marian is meant for long range combat and can become overwhelmed easily, whereas Uncle Matin uses his shield to get close for grapples and AOE damage, so there’s plenty of character variety based on your play style. Each really does play unique, especially the unlockable ones, and I’m glad they weren’t simply reskins with each having their own strengths and weaknesses.
One of the main combat mechanics is able to tag your partner in. While you’ll most likely focus on one character, you swap in your partner when needed. This allows for some interesting combos or to get out of some hairy situations. Swapping out characters acts like a defensive move, knocking down the enemies surrounding you. Of course this has a cooldown, so you can’t simply spam it and will need to be strategic of when’s the best time to be used. The character that is tagged out can recover some of their lost health as well, so it’s a good thing to learn this early on.
You have a special meter that fills quicker the more damage you deal and take, but the coolest mechanic has to be that if you finish off multiple enemies with a special move, you’ll gain a food drop, which we all know means health in these beat ‘em ups. Knowing this, I’ll sometimes wrangle up a bunch of enemies, combo to low health, then finish them all at once and get food to replenish my health. It’s a clever way of not only relying on strategic gameplay, but not only relying on food drops from broken boxes, barrels and items. If you need health, you better think of a way to finish off enemies with a special.
Double Dragon wouldn’t be the same if there wasn’t weapons that enemies drop and then be used against them. You can expect a handful like typical knives, bats and more, each dealing incredible damage or can be thrown across the screen as well to stop charging enemies coming at you.
Local co-op supports up to two players, and while I’m glad it’s included, the lack of online multiplayer seems like a huge miss. I understand that it’s a smaller developer, but the latest TMNT game will have a great shelf life because of the online multiplayer, and given I don’t have friends over to play with me, I’ll sadly rarely come back to this once I’m done grinding for Tokens.
While I can see that some might not enjoy the chibi pixel artwork, it reminded me a lot of the Scott Pilgrim game, and the animations are all fluid and done quite well. It’s certainly a modern-retro take on the original and I believe it works for the most part. The audio is just as great, as attacks feel impactful, though the highlight is the soundtrack. I’ll say it, Double Dragon is one of the greatest gaming theme songs of all time, and hearing some remixes of different tracks warms the nostalgia in my heart and puts a smile on my face as I bop my head.
Other than the glaring lack of online multiplayer, I had little complaints overall. Sure combat can be a little chaotic and hectic, especially in the final stages, but that’s to be expected in the genre. I remember how long it took me to beat the original game on NES when I was a kid and trying to survive a fight against Abobo when they appeared. Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons brings some of that nostalgia back, made for a modern audience, complete with iconic soundtrack and characters.
**Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Skautfold: Usurper
Sometimes I enjoy going into a new game to review completely blind, as I’ve been surprised many times before, finding gems that I would have otherwise not even ever noticed. While I don’t normally gravitate towards Castlevania-like games often, it’s hard to not take notice when it’s also got a Lovecraftian aesthetic. Also a Metroidvania, Skautfold: Usurper combines some solid action, exploration and unique mechanics that I enjoyed more than I initially expected.A sequel to Skautfold: Shrouded, Usurper doesn’t require you to have played the first, as it’s a self-contained adventure, though obviously series fans will most likely get more out of the experience. Having never even heard of the previous title, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything in my quest to rid London of demons and defeat the Navigator.
Set in an alternative timeline in 1898, the Lovecraftian setting suits the era quite well. You play as Waltham, a monstrous being that was defeated in battle, but manages to fall into a pit of dead bodies, able to resurrect himself by taking over the corpse of Saragat, a dead knight. Much like Venom, the two must work together if they want to be victorious, as Waltham aims to destroy the Navigator so that he can seize the power of The Citadel for himself. The whole body snatcher premise hooked me from the beginning, though the writing later is mediocre at best and the relationship between the two wasn’t as enthralling as other stories of similar setup.
Being a Metroidvania, the Citadel is one massive interconnected map, though like any good game in the genre, many areas will only be accessible once you have a new traversal ability like wall climbing, teleportation and even flying. The other main focus is its Soulslike combat where it’s meant to be slow and deliberate, where spamming attacks will get you killed quickly if you’re not careful. Fall in combat and you’ll lose the experience you’re currently holding and haven’t spent, so you can see where it starts to feel a little all too familiar.
What makes Skautfold: Usurper stand out is its Guard mechanic. You have very little health but you have a mana shield of sorts that’s tied to your stamina, so the majority of your actions use this meter. Get hit by an enemy and your guard meter will be depleted, not your health, that is until you lose all your guard, then your health will start to take hits. Given that your stamina/guard regenerates quite rapidly, you don’t need to parry or dodge every enemy attack, simply ‘guard’ through it, but more on that shortly.
As you make your initial descent into the Citadel, you might feel a little overwhelmed like I did, as there’s no real directions or guidance for the most part. Given that the world is one large 2D interconnected world, you’ll simply have to explore and remember where that area you couldn’t access until you have a specific upgrade. Each area has a different tone and setting and you can expect to do a hefty amount of backtracking until you can find and unlock the shortcuts, generally after a boss battle. The backtracking becomes much more manageable later when travel isn’t as arduous and tedious, but it’s certainly annoying in the beginning.
While there is technically a map included, it’s virtually useless. It doesn’t show you where you currently are, where you’ve been or able to distinctly tell how it’s all connected. You also don’t’ get that typical grid map tracker like in most Metroidvania’s. The map will show where bosses are located, which would be great if I knew the best way to get there or even in relation where I specifically was aside from an area's name. Due to the artwork it can sometimes also be difficult to determine where certain pathways and doorways are, as I accidently found more than one by accident when I was circling trying to figure out where to go next.
The beginning will feel a little overwhelming when you go down a long pathway in an area only to hit a dead end because you don’t have the ability to progress yet, but eventually you’ll start to figure out the path you should be taking by process of elimination. Trying to defeat bosses quick as possible will make this a much better overall process. The best part is that the enemies you kill stay dead, so when I came back to an area later after being able to smash ice blocks, everything I killed previously wasn’t waiting there once again for me magically.
Being heavy on the 2D platforming and exploration, I did find the controls to be a little stiff at first. Numerous times I would miss ledges with my double jumps for whatever reason. Sure I got used to it eventually, but it wasn’t without some trial and error. For those that want to tweak their experience, you also have options for No-Guard, 1 HP, Permanent Death and a Speedrunning mode as well.
The Guard system is really what makes combat stand out in Skautfold: Usurper. Taking hits doesn’t initially deplete your health bar, but your regenerating shield bubble instead. This allows you different combat options, like negating attacks or trying to be a little more risky instead. If you’re able to not attack or dodge for a few moments, regenerating your Guard points is quite quick. This whole mechanic rewards being accurate rather than button spamming, working quite well in general, even able to reflect projectiles back at enemies.
With the Lovecraftian Castlevania vibe and aesthetic, you can expect a good handful of different demons, aliens with laser guns, possessed book piles and more that will be trying to kill you. The handful of boss fights were the highlight of the combat, figuring out their attack patterns, balancing your Guard with offence and defense. Scour the Citadel and you may even find some pets that will follow and fight alongside you, like a floating brain.
At specific spots and thrones, you’re able to save your game and upgrade your character. You can spend to increase specific stats, able to reallocate if you make a mistake or want to try a different build. With over 90 different weapons to find, you can try a plethora of different builds based on your playstyle. You’ll find swords, axes, katanas, spells, summons, great swords and many more, each suiting a different style of play. While I generally tend to enjoy the weaker but quicker weapons, this meant I had to attack much more than a slower more powerful weapon. The main issue with so many weapons is you might find something you enjoy much later and then need to spend time learning its timing and intricacies, possibly even reassessing your build.
There’s mention of soft and hard caps for those that want to fully min/max their character builds, but I found the stat system a little confusing with not enough information given for me to decide. You will spend your XP (Vitae) to level up, but you also need Yth stones, of which there’s only a finite amount that I’m aware of, so you do have to do a little planning ahead of time to be efficient with upgrades. Simply having a ton of Vitae on its own isn’t good enough.
The pixel art is done quite well, as is the smooth animations and overall aesthetic. While a few doorways can blend together with the background and make it difficult to discern, the Lovecraftian Castlevania setting is done quite well, complete with fitting and moody soundtrack. If you’ve been itching for a new Metroidvania and want to try some unique combat mechanics, Skautfold: Usurper is a perfectly serviceable recommendation under $20.
**Skautfold: Usurper was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Deadliest Catch: The Game
There was a time where I would eagerly await the latest weekly episode of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel, a reality show following the lives of numerous captains who sail the Bering Sea in search for Alaskan king crab. Being an incredibly dangerous job and full of large personalities and drama, the show was a hit and is still going strong 19 seasons later. The show had some unique and memorable characters like Captain Sig Hansen, Wild Bill, Elliott Neese, Phil Harris, Jake Anderson and more. Even the ships themselves were iconic like the Northwestern, Maverick, Time Bandit, The Wizard and Cornelia Marie amongst others.To say I’m a fan is an understatement, so of course I was excited to jump into the world of Alaskan king crab fishing that I’ve watched on TV since 2005. I was hoping I’d be competing against the legendary captains or starting as one of their greenhorns working my way up to captain for my own ship. Being a simulator title, you’ll certainly be in command of your own ship from the beginning, but don’t expect much direct tie-in from the beloved show at all, which was a disappointment.
While you are a greenhorn fisherman, you’ll also be your own crew and captain from the beginning. This won’t be easy, as manning a crabbing vessel requires a crew, which you won’t have right away. This in one way forces you to learn each step about crabbing and how to deal with the confusing controls, but as you earn money from successfully catching crab and selling, you’ll eventually be able to hire some crew to do all the menial tasks for you.
You start out with the bare minimum to go fishing, but any good captain will make sure they are fully prepared with proper supplies, fuel and knowledge. Even knowing where to crab takes some skill and judgement, knowing what type of ground crab like, the water temperature, other captains in the area and more. Your goal is to earn the most money possible at the end of each season with the captain with the biggest haul being the winner. That is, if the game decides to let you...
While Deadliest Catch: The Game does do a decent job at the simulation aspects of actually being on a crabbing ship and what these brave fishermen deal with day in and out, it’s held back by so many technical issue and bugs that the longer I played, the more frustration ensued. Even those that have never seen the show will certainly learn a lot about crabbing from the opening tutorial, so there is a minor educational component within.
While manning your own ship is possible, it’s incredibly tedious and monotonous, so you’re going to want to hire more crew as soon as you’re able. At the port is where you’ll purchase all your supplies, sell crab, buy upgrades and find crew looking for work. First you’ll need to spend a lot of cash upgrading the ability to have 2, 3 and then 4 crew, then you’ll head to the local pub to find fishermen looking for work, because where else would they be? Their salary price depends based on how long the season is it seems, but all the money you earn from each haul goes real quick. I do wish there were stats per fisherman based on their skill.
Once you have a crew of at least one, though I’d suggest two as soon as possible, you can focus on other things like steering the ship if you’re going to set multiple crab pots in an area. Each crew can have a bunch of different tasks to be done when it comes to prepping, launching and recovering pots, and you’ll choose the crew member you want, then the box the task it’s in to assign them to do so when possible. This is your first real introduction to how poor the menu system is and how confusing it can be at times.
To start catching crab you’ll need to prep the pots. These are essentially a giant netted box that’s filled with some fish gut bait and some buoys attached so you know where they’re at on the Sea’s surface. Once in the water it’ll soak on the Sea bed for a good few hours before you go to recover it and see how many crab it trapped. Capturing crab isn’t the hard part though, it’s finding the ones that are legal to keep and sell, as they need to be male and over a certain size. This is where a lot of your times is going to be spent before getting a crew to do it, as you have to inspect every single crab and decide to keep or toss back into the Sea. Each crab only takes a few seconds, but when you have hundreds, it can take some time to do.
Lives have been lost at Sea, as this is no easy or typical job. The Bering Sea is unforgiving, something the show reminds you of constantly. The game ties to replicate this with the harsh weather, but you don’t need to worry about greenhorns slamming 800 pound crab pots into you or losing your footing and being washed overboard, so it’s not quite as dangerous as the real thing.
A large part about being a successful crabber is the captain knowing where to actually find the crab. They have particular grounds they tend to congregate in, so you need to be aware of the temperature and more. Unlike in real life, feel free to constantly fish the same spot, as there doesn’t seem to be much impact from overfishing once you find a decent area, which is odd when this is trying to be a simulator.
Nearly every task you need to do from using the crane to move pots, opening the pots, putting bait in and more, require precision, something that’s not easy to do. You seemingly need to aim your cursor at an expect spot or angle to get some of the interactions to complete or even prompt. Some controls are done with the Left and Right Stick, whereas others are with the D-Pad, causing a confusing mess that had me pressing wrong inputs even hours in. It’s clear that the game was designed for PC with a mouse and keyboard, and doesn’t translate to a controller very well. More than once I accidently dumped the good crabs over the side of the ship instead of the bad ones as I wasn’t paying enough attention.
Over time your gear and equipment will degrade, so you need to be on top of fixing it and keeping it in working order. Unfortunately this is not one of the tasks you can set your deck hands to do, so you need to grab your trusty WD-40 to repair your equipment. That’s right, WD-40 will fix anything. The nets on your pots also deteriorate with use, so you’ll need to repair these now and then as well. You simply have to hold ‘A’ for a few moments to do so, so it’s not difficult by any means.
Once you return to dock you can sell your haul, earning some good cash for doing so. Resupply but make sure to check out the ship and skill upgrade buildings. This is where a lot of your money will go to early on, as it costs money to make money. There’s actually a healthy amount of upgrades to purchase, so it will take quite some time to earn them all.
Deadliest Catch: The Game falls into the typical low budget simulator title where it’s not impressive to look at by any means. I was hoping that there’d be some recognizable people or ships from the show, or maybe at least having the Sea appear realistic. While you can tell what equipment is what, expect a lot of pop-in textures, low draw distance and some terrible animations. The Sea and weather isn’t impressive either, which was a letdown. I’m not a graphic snob by any means, but it sure isn’t pretty to look at. The audio is about the same, being quite dull with some subtle background music now and then and overmixed weather sounds to indicate a harsh storm.
Then there’s the bugs, a laundry list I had to write down. More than once I had a game breaking bug and had to start over from scratch numerous times before I gave up for good. My first career I was about seven or eight seasons in, feeling confident with my full crew and finally making some decent cash and a good handful of important upgrades unlocked. Then I noticed that when my pots were on deck it was allowing me to pre-bait them, so I did. Well, doing this was a massive mistake as my crew weren’t able to use the crane to pick them up into position to prep for some reason. No big deal, I’ll operate the crane. Nope. This pot was essentially useless now and couldn’t be used because the bait was in it, yet I couldn’t take it out. I found a work around by using the crane to grab a different pot then letting the crew take over, but it was tedious.
Then I found my first game breaking bug. For whatever reason, when you need to latch the hook onto the pot to haul it out of the water and back on the table, it showed that it was physically attached, but the game thought otherwise. This meant I couldn’t pull up my crab pots any more. I couldn’t even dump it to get rid of it completely. I tried everything I could but realized I was going to have to start over again. Sigh, fine, but at least this time it’ll go quicker because I know the best upgrade paths and what to do. Not even a single season in I had the same hook bug. Unable to progress I restarted once again. Three seasons in, again, and that’s when I gave up.
Even without the game breaking bugs, Deadliest Catch: The Game will test your patience with its monotony and repetitiveness. I’m actually a fan of ‘boring’ simulator titles like these, but when the game is constantly a frustration and requires you to restart through no fault of your own, it’s difficult to recommend until hopefully fixed. With a big name endorsement I was hoping to be competing against some of the great Captains and iconic ships, but with the lack of any multiplayer and more bugs than crabs, it might be best to wait until next season to go crabbing.
**Deadliest Catch: The Game was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 2.7 / 10
Full Quiet
I still remember getting my NES as a kid. Unboxing that thing is one of my favorite memories growing up. Little did I know that would be the true start of my lifelong gaming obsession, with dozens of classic games I loved and shaped my gaming preferences to this day. NES games were also known for being notoriously hard. Yes, before the Dark Souls ‘git gud’, you had games that were brutally difficult for numerous reasons. Retrotainment Games and 8-Bit Legit have a very specific niche, as they not only create NES era inspired games, but authentic to the point that they make cartridges that work on an actual NES as well. Their latest is Full Quiet, which takes a lot of modern gaming mechanics and ideas and they’ve somehow made it work quite well on mid-80’s console hardware.
A side scrolling platformer / Metroidvania at its core, Full Quiet is a much larger experience than I initially experienced, complete with an open world to explore, somewhat reminiscent of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Keep in mind this is nowhere near the same size of team, so a NES game this massive is quite impressive for being authentic to the hardware limitations.
While the story may start off simple with you searching the woods for your lost son, it doesn’t take long for you to figure out that there’s something else going on here. The forest is huge so you’ll need to follow clues left behind by family and friends, so make sure to brush up on your Morse Code. Radio signals and towers are down, so to find the next clue and area you’ll need to repair them as you come across each.
That wouldn’t be too challenging if it wasn’t for all the monsters roaming around, so it’s a good thing you have your gun with unlimited ammo to fight back, just make sure you don’t go out after dark. Thankfully your ammo is unlimited, because enemies can respawn if you go ‘out’ of the screen. Not quite as harsh as Mega Man handles its enemies, but if you return out of a puzzle or back into an area from another screen, all the enemies will be waiting for you once more.
You can expect plenty of platforming cliff sides, caves, ladders and ropes, firing your weaponry at deadly monsters, solving puzzles, dealing with an actual day and night cycle and managing your resources. Again, keep in mind this is all on a classic NES title, which is even more impressive. I thought it may have been a little too much of an overreach to have all these mechanics included, but they work well together for a cohesive experience.
As you explore each area, the map will get filled out to note that you’ve been there before, which is where the Metroidvania elements come in. You can expect a healthy amount of backtracking, more so until you figure out how the navigating and map actually works. While it’s a side scrolling adventure, you need to pay attention of what direction the screen says you’re moving. Even though the majority of the time you’re moving left to right, or vice versa, those don’t always only mean East or West, sometimes North or South once you’ve taken a path or down a tunnel. Once you realize walking right isn’t simply East, you’ll figure out the map system in no time and how to backtrack to your safe house cabins.
True to the era as well, you’re given basically no direction, no tutorial or anything of the sort. You’re simply thrown into this world after the opening cutscene and left to your own devices to figure everything out. I wouldn’t have been opposed to at least a little bit of direction, especially when it comes to the puzzles. Did you enjoy the pipe puzzles from Bioshock? Then you’re going to have a blast in Full Quiet as it’s very similar, tasking you with reaching the start to finish on a grid with tiles, though I initially wasn’t able to figure out why I was losing health when I failed after a short period of time. These puzzles are timed, which would have been nice to know beforehand. Also, once you figure out that you can simply place tiles down on top of one another until you get the one you want, it saves you a ton of time.
The world doesn’t seem too vast at first, as you’ll eventually loop back to where you started after finding a blocked pathway, but power up the generator by flipping a switch then do a puzzle to unlock the first cabin, your safe house, and you’ll then unlock more areas to explore. There’s multiple areas, and each has a large interconnected map that will needed to be explored to find all of its secrets and even better weapon upgrades if you’re keen enough.
You do have a stamina meter to manage, as you can roll and dodge, but need a quick second before it recharges. This will be helpful as you have a moment of invulnerability when rolling, so you’ll need to use it to your advantage to avoid getting hit by unattackable enemies.
Do make sure to remember where your camps are. The cabins are a safe house and where you’ll want to get before nightfall if you want to avoid even more hellish enemies. Having a Day/Night cycle is quite impressive, as does the game changing in certain ways if you decide to venture out when you probably shouldn’t. These cabins are where you can rest until morning and also save your game, so to say they are a necessity is an understatement. This is where a lot of the backtracking comes in though, as you might have to run quite a lengthy way to get back for a save when you can’t figure out where to go next before dark.
Remember, the NES only had the D-Pad, Start, Select and 2 buttons, A and B. Even though our controllers now have many more, Full Quiet utilizes the two button setup. This again would have been a great thing to explain, that when I’m in the map menu I can move to other tabs. I was collecting health refills but had no idea how to use them for the longest time until I accidently figured out how to get to my inventory screen. There is a help screen that has some handwritten notes and sections you’ll want to study, especially the Morse Code portion, but getting to this isn’t an intuitive as it should be either.
For a classic NES game restricted to the same original hardware, Full Quiet looks fantastic for a game that appears to be from the era. There’s plenty of animations, color and everything you need to interact with is obvious at a glance. Some platforms can be tricky to tell if they are ledges or not, but overall the aesthetic is done quite well. The star though is the catchy soundtrack and tunes composed entirely in Famitracker that I definitely bopped my head to. There’s a few moments of silence which is a little jarring, but that’s forgotten once the next killer track kicks in.
It takes a little time for Full Quiet to really show how expansive it is for a classic NES game with the same technical limitations. Full of modern day mechanics but de-made into a full functioning and entertaining NES title is nothing short of impressive. Retrotainment Games and 8-Bit Legit have once again made a retro 8-Bit game that I wish I had growing up as a kid with my NES.
**Full Quiet was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Super Mega Baseball 4
While there’s certainly an audience for simulation sports games, aiming to be as realistic representations as possible of our favorite sports, there’s also an market for sports games that also have more of a less serious arcade-like focus. Growing up, some of my favorite sports games were Mutant League Football, Base Wars, Punch-Out!!, Blades of Steel and NBA Jam, much more arcade focused on the fun element rather than recreating the sport exact as possible.Having never played the Super Mega Baseball series before, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect other than a more light hearted experience given the colorful and cartoonish looking players and eccentric animations. With the series being around almost a decade now, Super Mega Baseball 4 is the latest that boasts a laundry list of additions and improvements, including over 200 fan favorite pros. Whether you’re a lifelong baseball or a completely casual watcher like myself (Go Blue Jays!), Super Mega Baseball 4 can scale to your skill quite easily depending on the experience you want from it.
If you want to simply jump in and play a game, Exhibition is what you’re looking for, simply choose the league, teams, and set any other parameters you’d like. You can also play Seasons if you want to try and get through to the finals. Want something a bit more involved, then Franchise mode is what you’re looking for. There’s an Elimination mode as well where you try and knock out other teams to see the last one standing. Lastly there’s Shuffle Draft, the most unique of the modes that I enjoyed more than I expected.
In Shuffle Draft you create a league from drafting players one by one, allowing to create some all-star teams and unique rosters. Think of a fantasy draft from complete scratch, but you’re not given the entire roster at once. You’re given eight or so options, each of which you can see their stats and ranks, even able to combine the pools of players from different league should you choose. As you fill your roster, if you’ve not chosen a specific role to be filled yet, you’ll see more cards of those each turn, eventually having to choose one. I’ll admit, I’m not great on my baseball knowledge for rosters and players, but this made it very simple for a casual fan like myself to create an awesome team in a fun way aside from boring menu diving.
Baseball fans will be glad to see over 200 former pro players and legends. Again, while I’m simply a casual fan, there were even a handful of names that I recognized, and it’s cool to see their played years as a pro on their player card. While I’m not going to list all of them, some of the more noteworthy were Willie Mays, Rollie Fingers, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Bautista and even the one and only Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth.
Players have individual traits, of which there are 55 new ones, so you can make your roster more in-depth than before. There’s 6 new stadiums, each of which is unique from one another, even one including the high walls that make for difficult home runs. With a total of 20 stadiums, this means every team in the Super Mega League finally have a home stadium to play in. There’s even a loyalty system included that will adjust based on how your players feel and if they want to stick with the team moving forward.
Not explained very well is the Ego system. For whatever reason, in my first Exhibition game I couldn’t hit the ball or pitch a strike to save my life, as the cursor was moving way too fast to aim properly. After a few games I was about to give up, wondering what I was missing and why I was doing so terribly. Somehow my Ego was set to 99, the hardest difficulty, where setting to 0 would be the easiest. Once I figured this out I turned down the Ego to a respectable 30 and was finally able to actually play properly.
Online multiplayer is not only included, but allows for cross platform play, though this can vary based on the mode. Online Leagues can be formed and played and there’s a ranking system that adjusts the Ego to how you play and are seeded after 4 Exhibition games. The only missing thing seems to be a Homerun Derby or something different outside of normal modes. The few games I played had no lag issues and there's a communication wheel with a few preset phrases to say to your opponent.
Players are very comical and characterized, like as if each of them was drawn by those street artists that embellish your features. While the pros are still recognizable if you know their faces, it’s certainly been cartooned to a heavy degree. Animations are quite varied and I saw a few different events that I wouldn’t have expected. Getting hit by a pitch for example, or smashing my bat when striking out, these added some variety to the presentation. There’s more body types, hair colors and more. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a badass mullet on a player.
While the audio has been revamped as well, you’ll hear plenty of chatter and ambient noise from the crowd. Players will grunt and show their displeasure when they strike out and the umpire will be quite animated in how he calls the strike outs. The lack of any serious play by play commentary does stick out at first, though there’s a soundtrack that plays in the background to avoid pure silence. Writing this I was trying to remember any of the songs from the soundtrack and I couldn’t, which speaks to how non memorable it was.
Admittedly a very casual baseball fan, I thought I was going to play a few games and basically have my fill, but I’m finding myself continuing to play a few games here and there due to being able to scale the Ego system to my liking. Super Mega Baseball 4 may not be quite for the hardcore baseball fan that desire a true simulation, but it’s great at making the sport accessible to all types of fans, even the casuals that want to hit a few Home Runs and enjoy a few quick games.
**Super Mega Baseball 4 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Nocturnal
Imagine returning home only to find everything destroyed and everyone you know has perished. That’s how your journey begins in Nocturnal, trying to free the island you grew up on from a mysterious and deadly darkness that’s engulfed it. Expect a blend of challenging combat, fluid platforming, puzzles and a constant race against time to not let the flames that keep you alive be extinguished. Like the great Bob Ross once said, “Gotta have opposites, light and dark and dark and light”, and that’s a constant theme in Nocturnal.You play as Ardeshir, a soldier of the Enduring Flame who has just returned home to his island of Nahran. There seems to be a deadly and dark mist that’s enveloping the island, and while you’re wanting to find out what happened to your fellow soldiers and brothers, you’re worried about your sister’s whereabouts as well.
The mist is deadly and you’re unable to survive within its grasp. The only weapon you have against it is fire, which will be your lifeline as you progress further to uncover the mystery of what has happened to your home. Ardeshir must wield fire upon his blade, though it’s only for a finite amount of time before he must replenish the fire once again, as it’s the only way to keep him safe from the mist. Without fire you have no hope to survive, and it becomes as necessary as breathing.
Part 2D sidescrolling platformer, part combat based, Ardeshir will be searching for an exit in each area to the next before the mist can catch up and take over. The platforming mechanics start basic at first, simply jumping from ledge to ledge and over gaps, eventually becoming a bit more involved when lighting torches act as switches for moving ramps and turning on other platforms to cross pathways. You’ll need to have precision and purpose when trying to get from one area to the next, as focusing on the actual parkour is only part of the equation, you also need to ensure you light the next torch with your fire before it runs out.
Again, fire is ever important in Nocturnal. Not only is it what keeps you safe from the mist, certain enemies are only attackable with fire, and while you can coat your blade in fire for a short period of time, it’s certainly not permanent. This requires you to make note of where the permanent fire fixtures are, as all you need to do is slash the fire to coat your blade in flames for a short period of time. Attack any unlit torch and fire will then be permanently there, which I always thought of like an anchor, the closest place you can come back to reignite your blade if you happen to lose the flame.
Fire is not only what keeps you safe in certain sections, but can also be used to heal your limited health. At certain times you’ll want to use your remaining fire to heal, but that is where the risk versus reward comes in. In the middle of a difficult battle do you choose to try and get one or two more fire hits in on your enemies, which does extra damage, or use it to heal to prevent a death and restart?
Every so often you’ll see a row of three or four torches that need to be lit, but when you place fire on them all they seemingly extinguish themselves. This is where some light puzzle elements come into play. Some secrets are behind locked doors, and to open them you’ll need to light these torches in a specific order. Remember, your fire only lasts a short time, so once you’ve attempted a combination of torch lighting, you’ll probably need to quickly go back to the permanent fire location to light your blade and try once again. I do wish there was some sort of subtle environmental hint as to the combination for these puzzles, as I found it was simply trying to brute force through it with every combination until I was successful.
Combat starts out simply with being able to dodge, attack and jump. Regular enemies are simple enough when fighting one on one, but once you fight two or more simultaneously, even regular enemies can be deadly. Combat is challenging once you have to deal with certain dark enemies that emerge from the mist, as many can only be harmed with fire attacks. While there’s no way to block or parry, you’ll need to time your dodges if you want to be successful and survive. There were a few frustrating sections, as in the latter half of the game you’re having to constantly fight against multiple dark enemies while having to manage your fire timer as well. The fighting alone isn’t too challenging, but having to balance dodging and recollecting fire while doing so is where it can become a little chaotic at times.
Often you’ll be suddenly pit against a new enemy type without any clue of the best way to defeat them or their attack patterns, so some trial and error comes into play as you try to react and adjust on the fly as best as you can. After defeating the first boss you’ll get your only new combat ability, a dagger that can be thrown that automatically returns to you. This is how you’ll light out of the reach torches, attack enemies from afar, and even cut ropes that hold up a platform. Using the right stick for your dagger slows down time, allowing you to aim with precision and just feels great to use.
While the core combat mechanics feel great when it all comes together, there’s nothing really new introduced after you gain the dagger aside from throwing more enemies at you and making the fire more challenging to reach during these sections. Boss fights aren’t often, but the few you do get were the highlight, as there were new mechanics to deal with, including screen filling attacks that need to be dodged. While some battles required a few attempts, none felt unfair, as I knew it was either my reaction time or misunderstanding of best strategy to defeat them to unlock the next door.
Destroying certain jars and urns will net you a special currency, spendable on upgrades at certain shrines to improve Ardeshir in a variety of different ways. At these Phoenix Statues you’ll be able to upgrade your health, fire duration or speed when fire is equipped, all of which are useful. Depending on your playstyle you may upgrade one way or another, but each is certainly beneficial in its own way.
For a small indie game, Nocturnal’s hand drawn aesthetic is gorgeous. Animations are smooth, and when you get those brief moments of being outdoors or passing by a large open area seeing the vistas I couldn’t help but take a few screenshots. The lighting is done quite well, which I expected nothing less given its premise centers around darkness and light. Watching bushes, rugs and banners burn quickly when I swipe at them with my sword ablaze is always satisfying. The score is just as beautiful, and while there’s little dialogue, I did wish those few lines were voiced so we had just that little bit more of immersion.
While mechanically simple, Nocturnal is very well made and feels quite polished. While able to be completed in a single sitting, it short length felt like the appropriate amount of time, as anything more would have started to wear out its welcome. A great indie title that deserves some attention, Nocturnal is challenging in the darkest times, but makes for a satisfying experience when you fight against it with flames.
**Nocturnal was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Stay Out of the House
Released last year on PC just in time for Halloween, Stay Out of the House has finally made its bloody and disgusting way to consoles for more horror fans to enjoy. If you’re a fan of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Saw or The Hill Have Eyes, you’ve probably noticed that not many games are made with the same premise. Sure there are plenty of horror games, but Stay Out of the House essentially takes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and makes it into a deeply creepy PlayStation 1 style game from the early 90’s. Can you escape the house of a cannibalistic serial killer? While the title will imply you should stay out, going into the house is possibly the last time you’ll have freedom.Before you’re trapped in the horrifying house of The Butcher, fighting for your life and trying to find a way to escape, you begin your adventure working the solo night shift at a local gas station. What can go wrong when you’re working alone at a gas station in the middle of nowhere? As your shift goes on you have a small list of chores from the boss to complete and of course customers to help as they arrive, some friendly, some not so much. While one customer simply wants some gas and pays, there seems to be an inconspicuous white van that goes around the building, slowing down when going in front of the windows and then leaving. Another customer comes in later suspiciously asking if you’re working alone and then leaves. Again, what’s the worst that can happen? Suddenly you hear the door at the back of the store unlock and it’s opened. This is where the kidnapping happens.
Days after you play a different character, Roxanne, taking a road trip with her boyfriend. When nature calls you stop at a roadside bathroom, quickly napping while your boyfriend goes to relieve himself. He doesn’t return, so naturally you go to look for him. With him nowhere to be found, around the back you find his license, so of course you explore further, eventually finding more items from other people, like luggage. After making your way through a corn maze and having a stray dog follow you, you eventually come across a creepy looking house. The dog runs inside, so of course you go in after it. After a quick search, you can instantly tell something is not right here, and at that jump scare moment, The Butcher finds you.
After these two opening chapters, the remaining gameplay has you trying to escape the horrific house, and you’re only given three days (lives) to escape. You awake in a cage with nothing but the clothes on your back and a TV with static replaying the same scene. You eventually find a corner of the fenced cage to pry open and make your escape. Each room and hallway you discover is grimy, bloody and there’s obviously something not right here. Searching some drawers and cabinets you find a screwdriver, allowing you to remove a vent cover and find an alternative path. This is where your nightmares begin, seeing The Butcher carving up a body, blood spraying everywhere.
Trying to escape the house isn’t easy, as doors are locked, boarded up, and there’s traps and cameras over the place. You have a restrictive inventory management you need to deal with, so sometimes you’ll find items but will need to drop what you currently have on hand. The problem is that you won’t always know what items you’ll need at a certain puzzle or point, so you’ll have to remember where you place things for collection later.
Right after from your caged escape you’re constantly stalked by The Butcher. He’s not a dumb hulking brute though and will be smart with how he tries to capture you. The AI that controls your deadly capture is actually quite clever. Not only is he always on the search for you, there’s a bit more under the hood I didn’t expect. For example, in most stealth games where you need to hide, being under a bed or in a cabinet is a default safe spot, but not here. If The Butcher sees you hide, he will keep coming after you. Also, ducking into a vent isn’t a safe spot either, as he will turn on the gas to flush you out of the vents, not even including what other horrors might be waiting for you in the vents.
If that wasn’t bad enough with being constantly stalked and hunted, The Butcher isn’t alone in his home. What’s worse, you’re going to come across a creepy old grandmother in a wheelchair who roams the house hallways, and if you’re spotted, she will shriek, bringing attention to The Butcher to your whereabouts, so you’ll need to go run and hide quickly.
A stealth horror game means you’ll need to manage being in the darkness, barely able to see other than your Zippo lighter, as being in the light will make it easy to be found and captured. You’ll also need to sneak and avoid making noise. You can run for a short period when needing to quickly escape, but you’ll have to manage your endurance.
You’re only able to save when you find a TV set with a VHS player, but to actually save you need to find a VHS tape, much like Resident Evil’s Ink Ribbons. The gameplay isn’t as linear as I expected, as there seemed to be a few different ways to solve each of the puzzles. Opening a door for example might be lock picked with a paperclip, opened from the inside by going through a vent or maybe using one of the limited bullets you find for a gun and shoot the handle off.
Being a small indie game, I never expect the same amount of polish that a larger budget game would get, but I did run into quite a lot of frustrating bugs. The first was being able to carry a chair and warp my way into a locked room I shouldn’t have been able to, unable to escape because I didn’t open the door the proper way, resulting in a chapter restart due to not having a VHS tape to save. Getting the cursor right on the objects you want to interact with or open is a challenge in itself, made worse by the fact that you’re constantly under pressure of death from The Butcher.
With PS1 era graphics, it’s not going to impress at first look, but when you realize it was a design choice and purposeful, I quite enjoyed the retro aesthetic. Just like an old classic slasher film, there’s a number of different filters and options you can also choose depending on how authentic you want it to be to an old horror movie. Want it to look like it’s being played on an old VHS tape or CCTV, that’s an option. Adding on top of the retro polygonal graphics and it’s actually quite creepy overall. Maybe it’s just in my mind, but I found having the VHS filter on was much creepier, even though it’s much more difficult to see more details. Audio is also just as fitting, hearing creepy sounds, and I can still hear grandma shrieking when I was found.
Rough around the edges, if you’re into classic horror movies and old classic PS1 games, Stay Out of the House is a gritty and atmospheric horror adventure that is constantly unsettling. The puzzles aren’t too challenging on their own, but having to navigate the house being constantly hunted is really challenging. I appreciated the multiple difficulty options, even the Very Easy option where there is no enemies, allowing you to focus on the puzzles only without any of the looming threat.
Stay Out of the House has some great suspense and I was constantly looking over my shoulder and listening for my captor nearby. Full of jumpscares, they don’t feel cheap, and the atmosphere feels like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in video game form. Like a great B-movie or slasher flick, Stay Out of the House might be a future cult classic if you’re into retro PS1 graphics and tons of blood and gore.
**Stay Out of the House was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Star Trek: Resurgence
I feel I need to admit first and foremost I’m not a Trekkie by any means. My Star Trek knowledge comes from growing up and watching it during dinner time with the family, and while I know the basics, I couldn’t hold my own if I was to converse with a true fan. That said, I’m a super fan of narrative games, which is why Telltale used to be one of my favorite developers before their messy demise and recent pseudo comeback.At their peak, they were master storytellers, and I still rank their Season One of The Walking Dead game one of the best narrative games of all time. So when I found out that Star Trek: Resurgence was developed by Dramatic Labs, a new studio but a culmination of over twenty former Telltale writers, designers, artists, developers and producers, I was instantly interested, even if only know some very basic Star Trek knowledge.
With a narrative focus first and foremost, you’ll be making choices that will shape and affect your individual storyline. Not only a dialogue choosing adventure though, will you engage in a variety of different Star Trek activities, like using your Tricorder, Phasers, piloting a shuttle and more. You’ll be engrossed into a unique Star Trek adventure that even non Trekkie’s can enjoy, like myself.
Set within The Next Generation universe, Resurgence has you playing as two different characters, Commander Jara Rydek and Engineer Carter Diaz, usually alternating between the two between chapters. Your main mission is to help solve a dispute between two alien races, the Hotari and the Alydian’s, as a neutral party since the Federation has no authority in their reaches of space. The races have some unique backstories and were quite different from one another, of course putting you right in the middle to try and solve their disputes.
Jara Rydek is the brand new XO on the USS Resolute due to the previous XO passing away. The current Captain, Zachary Solano, had a mission go wrong where a bunch of crew didn’t survive, so now the Resolute is being repaired before they leave on their latest mission. Being the new XO, the ship’s crew have heard about your accolades, but some aren’t pleased with promotions not coming from within, so there’s some initial conflict right away as an outsider. Most interestingly, Jara is a Kobliad, an obscure Star Trek race but requires a regular dose of Deuridium to survive, which of course will play into some decisions later on.
The other protagonist you’ll play is Engineer Carter Diaz, a mechanical genius, both of which are very unique and have fantastic stories. Of course their paths will intertwine in certain ways, but he’s a fantastic secondary character that I was quite fond of. You’ll see some familiar faces and names along the way, of which I’ll only mention what has been shown in trailers and previews. Ambassador Spock plays a large part of your journey and mission, and he looks exactly like the true Spock. Of course your simple mission will not be so easy, unearthing something much larger that will take you on a journey across the galaxy.
Being a narrative heavy adventure, like any good Telltale game, you’ll primarily be making dialogue choices, unsure of the ramifications of said decisions until later. You’ll build relationships with both characters, and while there’s not always a simple ‘good’ or ‘bad’ choice, it’s usually more of a grey area. I always play ‘good’ as I can my first playthrough, but I’m looking forward to playing again with all opposite choices to see the differences. There will also be no shortage of quicktime events where you need to press a designated button on the screen at a specific time to succeed.
One of the coolest choices you get to make early on is what your catchphrase for “Engage” is when getting your mission underway. Some choices are small and won’t affect much overall, but of course other decisions will weigh heavily on not only your journey, but your crew as well. Do you choose to save many crew over a single person? Do you risk your ship to try and save an individual? These are just some of the choices you’ll make without much time to think, you simply need to react. Given that a portion of the developers are formerly from Telltale Games, you can expect many of the same drama and morally grey area decisions.
As you meet and interact with new characters, any which are ‘main’ characters will show within the Pause menu and give a brief description of their current attitude towards you and your last interactions with them. Some will like you, some will hate you, sometimes their feeling will ebb and flow depending if you take their advice or not. Relationships are difficult to upkeep and you can’t always make everyone happy, just like in real life. Do you back Captain Solano because he chose you to be his XO, or not have a blind allegiance and question what went wrong in his previous mission? Not every decision is as trivial as you might first expect, and by the final few chapters you can expect full drama and heartbreaking outcomes. Just because you made someone angry with one decision doesn’t mean you’re always locked into a specific outcome, though maybe some choices will leaving a lasting impression, so it’s difficult to weigh your options in the heat of the moment.
While Resurgence isn’t open world, each scene you get to explore does have some optional objects you can interact with and people, to speak to, though it is primarily a very linear adventure which I honestly prefer. There’s not only an abundance of quicktime events, like holding Left Stick up to move forward in scenes or tapping Right Trigger to grab onto a ledge, but there’s a good amount of minigames and puzzle-like elements along the way as well.
For example, beaming up people in the teleporter requires you to find the right frequency on the computer where you plot a specific course. These aren’t challenging to solve, but certainly add some authenticity to the whole Star Trek experience as you interact with the systems you normally don’t see much detail of on the shows. Using your Tricorder will be common as well, as you’ll need to scan a variety of items in certain situations, seemingly authentic to the source material with the corresponding beeps and boops.
There’s a few times where you’ll be piloting a small passenger vessel in space, getting from one point to another. It’s simple enough, having you avoid asteroids and floating space debris, later adding some additional challenges, though I don’t want to spoil what that could be. There’s a few times where Jara and Carter will have to avoid combat, using stealth to bypass enemies and avoid detection. While this is simple as crouching with pressing the Right Stick and avoiding line of sight, it’s quite basic of a mechanic overall.
Then there’s the phaser combat sections, easily the worst part of the whole experience. There will be times where you’ll have to defend yourself with your phaser, though it’s clear that Resurgence wasn’t designed to be a third person shooter. The controls are loose, aiming is terrible and it’s truly an awful experience. These sections were actually the only times I ‘failed’ a Chapter. Thankfully you can instantly retry, also giving you the option to replay in Story Mode, essentially a No-Fail mode to get passed that particular section instead of having to deal with repeated frustration. It’s not that the combat is hard, but you’ll have to shoot particular enemies before they hit you or your team, but the aiming is just terrible to try and do so.
If you’ve played a narrative Telltale game before, you can expect very similar visuals. Characters are easily distinguishable from one another, you can instantly recognize certain races and it looks decent overall. There are some quirks with weird eyebrow movements and clunky lip syncing, but nothing that really detracted from the overall experience.
Given that Resurgence is a dialogue heavy game, the voice acting had to be on point if it wanted to be believable and be a seamless Star Trek experience. Thankfully Krizia Bajos (Jara) and Josh Keaton (Carter) were up for the task and did a brilliant job doing most of the heavy lifting. The cast overall was fantastic but the two main protagonists really stood out and made the whole mission a believable one, as if it was a long lost episode from TV. The score is done wonderfully as well, as if it was taken straight from the show. Sure there were a few small issues like one section not having random sounds and subtitles not always exactly matching the spoken dialogue perfectly, but that’s the critic in me looking for imperfections, not that it took away from the overall game.
I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical about playing Star Trek: Resurgence given that I’m not much of a Trekkie at all. None of that mattered though, as even though I didn’t know much of the previous context or background lore outside of main concepts and characters, I still quite enjoyed my narrative focused mission with Commander Jara Rydek and Engineer Carter Diaz. While it hasn’t converted me into a full Trekkie, it certainly had me going down a Star Trek wiki rabbit hole, wanting to learn more about certain races, characters and factions. Live long, and prosper.
**Star Trek: Resurgence was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Lucy Dreaming
I’m probably going to date myself, but I grew up when Point & Click adventure games were the norm. Before shooters and zombies took over nearly every game, there were dozens of Point & Click games, many of which went on to become iconic classics. Growing up with The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Sam and Max, as well as many others, it was one of my favorite genres, known for their challenging puzzles and usually full of humor.While the genre isn’t as big as it once was decades ago, there have been a few releases in the past few years, most notably being the excellent Thimbleweed Park, so naturally when a new Point & Click adventure releases I become instantly intrigued. Having done no research beforehand about Lucy Dreaming from developer Tall Story Games, it initially was a Kickstarter, now released for console as well.
Looking as though it was taken right from the golden era of the genre in the 90’s with its pixel art, Lucy Dreaming was challenging, hilarious, addictive and an overall wonderful adventure that hit all the nostalgic highs I wanted, as well as having plenty of Easter eggs and modern references that caused a few out loud laughs. You play as the titular Lucy as she explores the real world to solve a mystery, but also having to deal with her own nightmares in the dream world a well. British humor may be a bit drier than I’m used to, but I still found myself chuckling quite often. I mean, I know I’m a man-child, but small birds being referenced as tits is hilarious.
Lucid Dreaming is described as “When you know that you're dreaming while you're asleep. You're aware that the events flashing through your brain aren't really happening. But the dream feels vivid and real. You may even be able to control how the action unfolds, as if you're directing a movie in your sleep.” Lucid dreams are what Lucy is dealing with, finding herself falling once she goes to sleep, a recurring nightmare she wants to stop from happening. To do so she’ll have to find a way to control her dreams, but doing so isn’t easy and will require a lot of out of the box thinking, possibly even jumping from one dream to another.
Lucy decides to use her father’s psychology book to possibly help her take control of her dreams, giving her clues as to how to do so, acting as subtle clues as to what needs to be done. While you think that the majority of the gameplay might revolve around these dream worlds, most takes place in the real world when she uncovers a dark family secret along the way. Maybe things you learn in the real world will be applicable to the dream world, and vice versa.
Like any good Point & Click adventure, you’ll gather items along the way needed to solve puzzles in unique ways or to combine with other items. As you learn more about the people you meet or areas, new places in the town will unlock that Lucy can fast travel to on her bike by using the map. You’ll visit the Library, Town Center and Lucy’s home amongst other places to solve a mystery. You’ll meet a wide variety cast of characters, each completely unique in their own way and quite memorable, and maybe bringing in your beloved teddy bear or a rubber duck into your dream world will have you see them in a completely new way.
While I don’t want to spoil any of the story as it was quite interesting, your first playthrough will probably be around somewhere around a dozen hours or so, less if you’re naturally skilled at classic Point & Click adventures and can think outside the box for puzzle solutions. With a walkthrough you could probably complete it in about half the time, but make sure to explore all you can, talk to everyone and take in its British humor and witty one liners.
Clearly a love letter to the 90’s genre, Lucy Dreaming has everything you’d come to expect from a Lucas Arts-style Point and Click; great pixel artwork, humor, challenging puzzles, Easter eggs and plenty of dialogue to get lost in. The bottom portion of the screen has your usable commands such as “Look At”, “Pick Up”, “Talk To” and “Use”. This is how you interact with the world, objects and characters, deciding exactly how you want to do so. Click anywhere on the screen in each scene and that’s where Lucy will walk to by default.
Puzzles are what make the genre what it is, and Lucy Dreaming is no different. While I’d like to think I’m pretty decent at these types of games, I’ll admit, I got stumped a few times and had to take some time to figure out what to do. Thankfully there’s a built in hint system if needed, but a few of the later puzzles I found to be a little too obtuse to figure out naturally, though like any good puzzler, once you solve it you feel like a certified genius.
As you explore each area and scene, talking to people along the way, you’ll get clues as to what to do next, noting them in your diary as a reminder. You’ll quickly notice that sometimes the real and dream worlds blend together, so what might not seem relevant now may just help you when you get Lucy to change into her PJ’s and go into the dream world. Sher even has a handy dream box of sorts where any of the items she puts into it will go into the dream world with her. A full glass of water on her nightside desk will have the tide rise, while it empty will have low tide. The same goes for your fan, as maybe the direction it's facing will affect how the wind is blowing in your dreams.
For example, putting a joke book in the box changes the dream setting to a comedy club, and if she puts her Teddy Bear in the box, he then comes to life in the dream world as well. It’s done in a very clever way and later on you’ll need to go from one dream to another, done so by waking up, changing the contents in your dream box, then going back to sleep. While your real world inventory doesn’t go into the dream world with you, the items you find and collect in your dreams do persist from one dream to the next. Clearly you’ll need to progress in one scene to make progress in another, though this portion wasn’t explained all too well initially and took some figuring out with trial and error on my part.
Each nightmare, like her falling from the sky in the beginning for example, is essentially its own Chapter. Once you figure out how to have Lucy stop falling, she finds herself stuck in another nightmare, which brings you to the next Chapter. With an overall mystery to solve as well, Lucy is a busy girl, and while I didn’t find the ending completely satisfying, I’m still glad to have played and enjoyed myself throughout.
The pixel art is done absolutely wonderfully, looking as if it came from the 90’s at the height of the genre popularity. There’s so much detail in every scene, and while a few intractable objects can be a little hidden and difficult to notice at first, you eventually get used to pixel hunting like in any other Point & Click game. The most surprising was how every single line of dialogue and character was fully voiced. That’s usually not always a given in the genre, so it was pleasant to have. All the voice actors were great as were the sound effects and soundtrack, totally bringing back some 90’s nostalgia.
Lucy Dreaming is exactly what I was wanting from a Point & Click adventure; full of humor, great pixel art, quirky puzzles and memorable characters. A lot of attention went into adding plenty of smaller details into Lucy’s world, making it feel much more alive and full. A must play for Point & Click adventure fans, Lucy Dreaming was simply a joy to play, even if the British humor won’t always land for everyone.
**Lucy Dreaming was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Panic Porcupine
I have no qualms when a game is trying to mimic another or is heavily inspired, as long as it somehow has its own identity in some form. Paying tribute to a game or genre is one thing, while full on being a clone is another, and sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate where that line is. Panic Porcupine rides this line, and while you’re going to initially think it’s a simple classic Sonic the Hedgehog clone, there’s actually more to it than simply running fast. Do you enjoy difficult platforming games like Super Meat Boy? What if you combined that with the speed of a Sonic title? Panic Porcupine is the result of combining the two.Expect speed, deaths and frustration in this 2D side scrolling adventure. If you’re one to try and collect everything or a speedrunner, you’ll feel right at home. If you’re looking for a more casual Sonic-like game, this isn’t going to be the one for you. Despite clearly looking like a Sonic clone, it’s actually quite challenging with its single hit deaths and constant level resets once you die for the hundredth time.
While there’s not much of a story here, you’re tasked with stopping an evil scientist that looks like a cross between Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Wily, trying to save the Chickabirbs. There’s a few funny lines about how a particular blue hedgehog is busy out filming a movie, so now it’s up to Panic. The hung portrait of a buff Sonic on the wall is hilarious too if you notice. Take on Dr. Preventriculus across 50 stages, find hidden eggs, go for speed runs and collect everything. A platformer with high speed, Panic Porcupine is full of obstacles like spikes, pits, flames and much more that will instantly kill you when touched. Expect to die many times in this unique genre mashup.
Instead of larger levels that require you speed to get through, Panic Porcupine’s levels are much shorter in design, instead challenging you with collecting all the Chickabirbs instead of reaching a finish line. If you know the levels they can be quite quick, maybe 30 to 60 seconds or so, but getting to that point will take quite a bit of repetitious practice to learn each level. Even though speed isn’t the main focus, you will be moving quite quick like Sonic, but need to know where the obstacles are.
With no enemies to face aside from the boss at the end of each stages’ tenth level, it’s you versus the environment. Timing and precision is paramount, as is learning the level layout to not just save all of the Chickabirbs, but even more so if you want to 100% levels by collecting every egg. Expect to reattempt jumps over and over, trying to get over the spikes and buzz saws, getting enough speed to get through some loops and ramps, all while figuring out where the Chickabirbs are.
Each stage is broken up into a handful of different levels, with the final being a showdown against the evil Dr. before he escapes and you move onto the next. The boss fights were fun, simply having you hit him a few times, freeing the Chickabirbs in pods, but each has its own unique challenge. Each zone has its own theme and biome, changing up the backdrops and design of levels.
Momentum is usually a large portion of how to complete levels, and while the controls are generally decent, I did have issues now and then with having to be completely precise in my moment. Bumpers caused me many issues, though not as much as the rotating poles that you kind of stick to before leaping off in either direction. It seems half the time my timing was off and I’d jump to the wrong side.
Many levels end up being trial and error, as you’ll simply need to know when to jump to avoid whatever is about to kill you, eventually becoming more and more challenging as levels progress. This sometimes comes down to reaction time and memorization as you speed across each stage. My main complaint is that you need to button press to have Panic roll into a ball instead of simply pressing ‘Down’ like in certain other hedgehog games.
The retro visuals are done so well that at a quick glance, you might expect it actually came from the 16-bit era. It’s bright, colorful and seeing Panic’s eyes constantly circling when you take a break from moving is always funny. Audio is also fitting for the era with a catchy soundtrack and decent sound effects along the way.
Panic Porcupine isn’t for the faint of heart. If you get frustrated by dying numerous times, then you’re going to have a bad time. On the other hand, if you enjoy a challenge or even want to speedrun, there’s a lot on offer. You’ll need to have reaction speed and accuracy if you want to see Panic complete his journey, and while you might simply assume it’s a Sonic knock-off, it’s more akin to a Super Meat Boy than anything else.
**Panic Porcupine was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Originally released as a one year exclusive for PlayStation, Ghostwire: Tokyo is finally here for Xbox players, and better yet, available with Xbox GamePass as well. Given that it wasn’t even available on my console of choice until recent, I actually wasn’t even following it all that much beforehand, even after its release, so I went in ‘blind’ not really knowing what to expect or how the original reception was. I’m kind of glad I did this, as I went in with no expectations nor any idea what it was even about.An open world game with a heavy narrative focus, complete with supernatural powers, Ghostwire: Tokyo kind of took me by surprise with it being a shooter, though not in the way you might initially expect. Completely engrossed with Japanese folklore, it quickly impresses with its gorgeous visuals that make for an isolating and creepy backdrop for your adventure. With some horror elements apparent and throughout, there might not be many jump scares, but there’s a general overall creepy and uneasiness that is always around, as you never feel completely safe. Also included in this release is the latest Spider’s Thread Update, adding new content to the game such as new custscenes, areas, missions, enemies, improvements, skills and modes, so maybe the wait has been worth it? Let’s find out.
Ghostwire: Tokyo starts out immediately with the action, showing main protagonist, Akito, getting into a serious accident on his motorbike. You’re then shown a spirit flying above, looking for a body to possess. Great timing, as the spirit takes over Akito’s body, essentially reviving him. Everyone in Tokyo has vanished though, seemingly only you surviving due to the possession, and anyone that touches the mysterious fog that’s rolling in seems to disappear. The city is now infested with paranormal visitors who don’t seem friendly, so it’s up to the duo of Akito and KK (the spirit) to not only survive, but investigate the man in the Hannya mask that seems to be behind it all.
While KK wants to go stop Hannya immediately, Akito was on his way to go check on his sister in the hospital who is in a coma, refusing to help KK until he knows she’s alright. Of course he obliges but this is where the internal struggle between the two start, being forced to help one another, yet both are somewhat in control, much like how Venom controls Eddie Brock in a way. Being possessed by a spirit has its perks though, you know, aside from not being dead, as you’ll be using your newly founded supernatural powers to fight back against the deadly forces that seem to be emanating from the fog.
Designed as an open world game, there are initially restrictions of where you can go with the deadly fog acting as your barriers, eventually you’ll be able to uncover more of the map, allowing for more freedom and a seemingly never ending list of side quests and activities to do. Being mirrored to the real life Shibuya City just west of Tokyo, you'll come across a number of famous landmarks if you know the area. While the main story should take around 8-12 hours, there’s about triple that or more if you decide to try and complete all the side quests and activities. While I was attempting to do everything in an area before moving on, it eventually become too much and overwhelming, deciding to simply focus mainly on the story from there on.
While KK is initially viewed as a parasite in Akito’s body, the two eventually form a unique relationship, helping one another, and the bond between them was an interesting story given they must fully trust one another in their own way. Sometimes this was funny one liners, other times serious tones, but it was always entertaining when they interacted or had a conversation with one another.
It seems as though a lot of time and care was taken into making Shibuya a living and breathing world, which is ironic since everyone is dead and you’re fighting spirits. The streets may be barren of life, but there’s so much hand crafted detail that every street and alley feels unique. You quickly learn the ability to use Spectral Vision, a detective-like blast that will highlight objects and enemies nearby. Visually, the city is absolutely stunning and impressive, and even if you don’t focus on one quest or activity you can easily find yourself lost within the city landscapes, as I found quite a few vistas I needed to take screenshots of.
Being able to only stick to some main streets and alleys in the beginning, you’ll need to cleanse massive Tori Gates, and doing so will force back the fog in a large area, allowing you to further explore Shubiya. These act essentially as the viewpoints in Assassin’s Creed, but fits narratively as well. As you explore you’ll also find spirits floating around which are souls that have yet to been captured, so it’s up to you to collect and set them free. Essentially a massive collect-athon, these are your best and quickest way to level up, and there’s no shortage. Some souls only appear after clearing an event, activity or battle though. With how many there are to collect, it can quickly feel quite overwhelming if you're a completionist.
You aren’t limited to walking at street level either, as you can find Tengus, kind of like a spirit griffon hovering in place, allowing you to zipline up onto the rooftops, naturally where more secrets and collectables are hidden. There’s also plenty of food items you’ll come across, though it took me a while to not simply save them all for when low on health. This is because eating food of course refills your health bar, but it also can extend your maximum health every time you eat, so sometimes if you’re hoarding a bunch of food it may be beneficial to munch on some of them to improve and extend your overall health.
Being a first person shooter, you won’t be defeating ghost and spirits with traditional guns, instead using the supernatural powers KK has endowed into you to blast from your hands. You begin with a wind blast attack, eventually unlocking more elements like fire and water. You can also charge your shots to be more powerful depending on the situation you find yourself in. Wind is generally good for almost any encounter, being a quick based attack. Fire is more powerful and explosive, and water is like your ‘shotgun’. Each uses its own ‘ammo’ that needs to be refilled by defeating enemies or breaking floating spirit objects littered throughout the world. While it’s not often you’ll find yourself out of ‘ammo’, there’s always some way to resupply nearby. There are a handful of boss fights during Akito’s journey, and while they are big and memorable, none were really all that challenging.
Combat starts out interesting and fun, though after a few hours does start to feel repetitive. You have a block you can use to negate damage and parry back attacks, so eventually combat gets into the same rhythm of attacking a few times, block, attack, extract soul, repeat, all while backpedaling or circle strafing. Once an enemy has no health left you can extract its soul, killing it from that point on. If you don’t destroy its soul it can regenerate and come back to attack you, so you’ll need to attack specific targets purposely, allowing enough time for the extraction before getting attacked by another.
You’ll eventually unlock a variety of Talismans, essentially your grenades. These are situational and used based on if you want to go a combat or stealth route. While some battles need to be faced head on, sometimes stealth is an option, and sneaking behind an enemy will allow for an instant ‘backstab’ soul extraction kill on most enemies. Without too many spoilers, there's one section early on where you aren't able to use your powers for narrative reasons, forcing you to use your bow or stealth. I found this portion to be awful and really missed having KK's powers.
As you gain experience, save souls and level up, you’ll be able to spend skill points into the three different trees. You can improve certain elemental attacks in a variety of ways, your bow weaponry, Talismans, and a bunch of other skills depending on how you want to play. Do a healthy amount of sidequests and activities and you won’t have much issue filling out the skill trees, so you can become quite powerful quickly if you decide to grind early on.
Visually, Ghostwire: Tokyo is absolutely stunning. There’s so much detail and full of (undead) life that it’s hard to not just take moments here and there to take it all in. Frame rates are fluid, animations are great and it always puts a smile on my face when I come across a cat merchant or stray dog. Voice acting from the main cast is done very well and hearing the shrieks and moans of spirits nearby can be quite creepy when you’re not sure where they are waiting for you.
While there’s an intriguing story that unfolds at a decent pace, it’s easy to get sidetracked with the overwhelming amount of optional things to do. While the story is about the right length, I eventually gave up trying to do everything as combat become a bit repetitive a few hours in. That said, Ghostwire: Tokyo was still a great playthrough and I’m glad it’s arrived for Xbox players to now enjoy as well.
**Ghostwire: Tokyo was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Nuclear Blaze
With an endless list of indie games that release, it’s sometimes hard to get noticed, that is unless it comes from Dead Cells’ lead designer, Sébastien Bénard. Nuclear Blaze initially looks like quite a basic firefighting game but actually has an interesting story and fun gameplay to it, along with a great 2D aesthetic.A massive fire has broken out, and you being a firefighter, are sent to put out the blaze. This one is a bad one though, so you need to be air dropped in to stop it. Everything starts off as normal, putting out the flames and looking for survivors, but you soon realize this isn’t just a normal building fire. You quickly end up in an underground facility and start to realize something isn’t right here. The further underground you go, you find yourself cut off from your team above ground, but you continue on to save anyone you can possibly find.
This secret facility makes you weary once you start to notice radioactive symbols and warnings on the walls. You start to find notes that make mention of some sort of experiment, but everything is quite vague at first. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much of a storyline but it was interesting just enough to keep me hooked until the end to find out what happened. Given that Nuclear Blaze is such a short experience, clocking in at about two hours or so, I won’t spoil anything, my only real complaint is that I wanted more, as I thought I was done maybe the first Chapter by the time the credits rolled.
First you’ll need to choose what mode you want to play. While there’s a normal mode you’ll likely start out, there’s also a Kid Mode and Hold My Beer Mode. Kid Mode is just that, designed to be played and enjoyed by very young children. This is very simplistic, having the firefighter unable to be damaged, automatically jumps and aims at the flames, complete with plenty of helicopters and trucks, because what kid doesn’t like firetrucks and helicopters? This was initially designed for the developer’s child to enjoy, but decided to keep it in, which is a fantastic idea for those with very young children that still want to play.
Hold My Beer Mode is actually unlocked after your first playthrough, but that won’t take long. This is somewhat like a remixed version of the campaign, adding new hidden areas, new enemies and more. Essentially it’s New Game+ that adds a little more challenge and options, warranting a second playthrough after the credits roll for the first time.
Before you begin your firefighting career though, be sure to check out the options as you’re able to finely tune the experience just how you like. Want to have unlimited health? How about faster water pressure? There’s no Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulty options, but you’re given just enough toggles that you can completely customize your experience however you like. The best part is that it doesn’t disable any achievements either.
Primarily a 2D platforming game, you also need to manage your water meter and spray in different directions to put out all the flames. Luckily you have a portable backpack and hose that can refill at specific spots within the underground base. Developers Deepnight Games did a great job at making the flames feel alive, as it can spread and move (unless you disable it from doing so in the options), making for a lot of chaos in the later sections. Miss one little spot and the fire can quickly reignite and spread. You’ll need to look for valves to shut off, electricity panels to switch and sprinklers to turn on if you want to be successful.
A platforming game needs solid and smooth controls or it simply won’t be fun to play. Thankfully Dead Cells was fantastic, so I expected no less here. You’ll be running, jumping and rolling through dangers, and it all just works and feels great to do so. In the beginning you’ll only be able to spray your water hose horizontally, though you’ll quickly get a few upgrades that allow you to shower the flames at any angle and even cover yourself with water like an umbrella when opening a door and getting a massive backdraft.
As you make your way through room by room, some doors will be locked by specific colored key cards, so you’ll need to explore to find them. Other doors won’t open until every single flame is extinguished as a lockdown procedure, so get used to having to put out every single flame you see. You may even find some spots that are electrified, and if you spray them you’re going to get a nasty shock, so you’ll need to find a control panel to turn that off first. Delay too long and the fire spreads, so there’s always an urgency.
The rooms have a subtle red-ish glow when there are still fires somewhere nearby, and once clear it will glow a satisfying blue. It’s a subtle detail but works really well. What would a firefighter be if they didn’t rescue cats as well? Seems as though a few of the facility workers had cats, which can only be found in secrets areas, so be sure to explore every corner if you want to try and find them all. It’s cute seeing them following you in the area until you reach a vent that they can automatically escape from. There’s even something special if you can find them all which I won’t spoil.
The pixel art is done exceptionally well and it’s all animated quite well also. Your character moves smoothly and you can easily distinguish each object, door, ladder and fire. There’s a lot of smaller details and I really enjoyed its simple aesthetic. While the music isn’t nearly as memorable, it is satisfactory and fits the tone of putting fires out in a deep underground facility.
While I expected a simple firefighting game with Nuclear Blaze, it is that, but has a decent story that kept me wanting to find out what happened until the very end. Sure it may be quite short, but there’s at least enough reason to play through twice as you try and find all of its secrets and rescue cats. What’s better than saving some felines in an underground nuclear base while putting out flames and uncovering a dark secret?
**Nuclear Blaze was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Garden Simulator
While I enjoy my online shooters, competitive racing and 100+ hour RPG’s, every now and then I need a gaming palette cleanser. Sometimes I don’t want to be hyper focused, I just want to relax on the couch and chill while I play something. Life has been chaotic lately, so Garden Simulator came at exactly the right time, allowing me to just chill and play at my own pace.As the title suggests, you are in control of creating your own garden, from mowing the grass, planting the seeds for vegetables and flowers, to even designing your whole backyard from scratch. While there’s a brief story intro about how you needed a break from the big city life and quit your high paying tech job to go into the back country for something more relaxing. This is a simulator, you aren’t playing it for a narrative, not that there is any here anyways.
I generally enjoy simulator games like these, as they are often relaxing, but there’s something I don’t mind about odd titles like these. While I’m used to having simulator games having a bit of ‘jank’ to them, Garden Simulator is far from perfect, but it was much better than I expected as it was stable and I had no crashes or framerate issues. Oh, and there’s a cat that wanders your lawn, so feel free to give it a pet when you like.
Garden Simulator begins and simply drops you into the front yard of your new secluded home in the woods. There’s no tutorial, not even anything about the basics or even controller commands. While I was able to figure it all about and discern what did what and what I should do next, a brief intro would have been welcome for those that may not game as much.
You begin with only having a portion of your front yard unlocked, with the other half, sides of the house and rear all taped off, unable to access at the moment. This is fine, as it gives you a concentrated area to focus on and to start earning your Garden Coins. Essentially you’ll need to plant flowers and veggies, then once a few days have passed and they are ready, you can sell them for profit. This is how you’ll slowly earn more and more money to purchase new decorations, different seeds and a handful of different decoration items for creating your dream garden.
You’re given a task list, like quests, to complete and guide you. While you aren’t forced to complete these, doing so will earn you extra money, which in turn helps you grow your garden space and purchase new seeds. Each action you do, from planting, picking, watering and even mowing, you earn XP which fills and gives you levels. Each level you get a skill point to use to increase profits or overall experience earned, speeding up the watering process and more.
Your little sectioned off backyard has a dumpster, a little shed and an area to hang up the tools you don’t need, along with a laptop. This laptop is basically an online store that once ordered, will have a direct drop shipment sent to you within about 10 seconds. Literally a drop shipment, the crate will be flung from the sky and land in the same area every time, so be careful not to start building your garden near there initially.
Before you can start your dream garden though you better clean up the place. It’s clear this house has been ignored for quite a few years, as there’s empty boxes, withered vines, garbage bags and wooden planks that were boarding up the windows. Simply pick up the trash, run it to your garbage bin and you’ll earn a few coins and XP for your trouble. Next you’ll need some tools, like a shovel, watering can and mower, so start saving those coins.
As you choose what seeds to plant, you can see the cost, how long to grow and the selling amount. There’s always a profit regardless of what you plant, it’s just a matter of how many days it takes for each different item to grow fully.
Days end once you go to your front door and choose “Call It a Day”. This has you rest and sleep until the next day. While each day doesn’t progress past 6PM, it doesn’t force you to stop playing on that day until you choose to progress, so no need to feel rushed. Most of the first few days will simply be watering each plant then sleeping to progress to the next day. Until you start to unlock the other sections of the yard and earn some coin you’ll be limited to what you can do in your garden, but that’s where the 'play as you want' nature of these simulation games are relaxing.
Your basic tools will get you started, but there will be upgrades you can purchase as you progress. Many tools, seeds and items are actually locked behind progress as well, and each is clearly labeled as to its progression within the laptop. Later on you can get automatic sprinklers, robot lawnmowers and more to aid your mundane tasks, though it’s completely up to you how you want to setup your garden.
While you begin with a lush lawn of overgrown grass, you’ll need to use your shovel to dig the ground up to prep for planting seeds. You can choose to snap to an invisible grid if you want even lines, or freely dig wherever you want. If you’re lucky you might even big up a gold nugget which will earn you some extra coins once you throw it in the garbage bins, though how that makes sense I’m unsure.
While you’ll only have a seed or two in the beginning, eventually you’ll unlock a large variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Each tier costs more to purchase, but nets you more profit once sold. You’ll start to notice weeds that appear each new day, which can be thrown into the trash for some XP and coin, but once you can afford a compost bin you can dump them into there to create fertilizer for your plants. Putting this fertilizer on your crops before they’ve fully grown will increase their quality which earns you more money once sold.
You begin by planting in the ground, but eventually you’ll unlock planters of different shapes and sizes if you prefer. There will be different furniture items, decorations and even hedges to create your dream garden, but most of these will come near the end of the game when money is no longer an issue.
Being able to place stones, wooden floors and even a barbeque grill is fun when you get to the design portion, but also showcases how ‘wonky’ the physics can be. If there is any overlapping of items you can expect objects to start acting weird or fling in directions. Clipping items is going to cause issues, though you’re able to lock items in place if you want to make sure they don’t move by accident until you unlock them.
Shovel the ground, put in seed, water the hole, move onto the next day and repeat. This is the basic gameplay loop, and while it may sound quite boring to some, I found it quite relaxing after a long day. Certain seeds will need to be unlocked by planting a certain amount of previous tier or selling better quality versions, then unlocking the ability to buy the newest seeds. While there’s not as much variety in plants and decorations as I expected, nor any cross pollination like Animal Crossing, it’s more than enough to last you a handful of hours to unlock everything.
For being a garden simulator, you can probably exactly guess what to expect for its visuals. Usually these simulation games aren’t terribly impressive, though it looked decent. The flowers are especially colorful and bright, grass looks like grass before being mowed, and it’s all serviceable. The light music in the background is sure to put you to sleep during a late night session, but makes for a relaxing time.
With a healthy amount of interesting achievements to work towards, I didn’t even notice that a good five hours went by the first time I played before I realized what time it was. Very addictive and relaxing, Garden Simulator is a great way to de-stress when you need a gaming palette cleanser and don’t mind the ‘jank’ from simulator games. Flex your virtual green thumb and place those garden gnomes for all to see.
**Garden Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Cavity Busters
As the game title would allude to, Cavity Busters is a game that is central around everything teeth and dental related. Playing as a singular bipedal gum, you will fire teeth at all your enemies out to try and stop you. A roguelite mixed with a twin-stick shooter, Cavity Busters is certainly unique, not only with its setting and premise, but many of its mechanics as well. While it might initially remind you of The Binding of Isaac with its cartoonish hand drawn visuals and rectangular rooms, there’s a surprising amount of individuality in its design that makes it stand out in the genre.While there are some minor story-like elements, don’t expect a large encompassing narrative that will have you hooked. There’s something about trying to defeat the dreaded Pearly Knights, which is your first introduction to Cavity Busters’ pun filled adventure. It’s time to defeat some cavities and shoot your teeth at anything that moves.
Being a roguelite, you’ll be dying a lot and going back for ‘one more run’. You explore room by room in effort to find the boss, defeat them and move onto the next dungeon, getting as far as you can before you die and need to start all over again. With hundreds of different rooms, no two playthroughs will be the same. Unlike many roguelites though, there’s no permanent upgrades that make each subsequent run a little easier each time, though there are unlocks you can gain that will help along the way.
Your first few games will probably be short as you’ll die quickly and have to restart over again. There’s a brief tutorial that teaches you the basics, and while it does a decent job at explaining the core mechanics, it’s a lot to figure out and get used to all at once. With a few runs under your belt it’ll start to become more natural and make sense, but it’s quick paced and frantic at the best of times. Being a very quick paced twin-stick shooter, you’ll need to have a fast reaction time if you want to survive. Thankfully you’re given a handful of tools that help your mobility.
As you go from room to room, the Zelda-like map grid will show where you’ve previously have and haven’t been. You won’t know which room the boss is waiting until you happen upon it, but what happens when you explore one direction only to hit a dead end? Well, rather than having to backtrack across a dozen rooms or so, you’re able to jump ‘out’ of the dungeon room and essentially teleport back to any room you’ve already cleared. This makes the exploration aspect much more manageable and I love the convenience factor without having to waste a lot of time constantly backtracking when needed.
You’re also not confined to the set ways rooms are linked together. When you enter a room, every door is locked until all enemies are destroyed, though you’re able to dig your way through any wall if you have a single use shovel, though if not you can sacrifice a single heart from your health pool to dig through. Sometimes this pays off with a hidden room full of upgrades, other times you wasted a heart for no reason, so there’s certainly some risk vs reward.
When you do eventually die, you’ll have a summary screen of how your run went. You’ll be shown how many enemies you killed, rooms explored, and more importantly, how many puns were made. Again, there’s plenty of puns included, all teeth, mouth and dentistry related, which is evident when you start finding the numerous types of upgrades and diseases.
With your initial character, your primary attack will be launching your singular tooth at enemies and then having it come back to you like a boomerang. You can charge your shot for a more powerful attack or tap the trigger for quicker shots. Your tooth shot can pass through enemies, so when you become more proficient with how to aim and when, you can get more damage on enemies as your tooth passes through them on the way back to you.
Simply shooting everything won’t be enough to survive, you’ll also need to dash, wall run and jump. It’s confusing at first trying to piece it all together with how chaotic it becomes, but with enough practice, a few hours in it started to become much more natural. Jumping allows you to kind of float up in the air before you choose where to leap down and stomp on an enemy for high damage. Wall running is another aspect that you’ll need to utilize, as you stick to the walls and run along the perimeter to escape damage or traverse across some gaps. This can also trigger some slow-motion that will help you catch your breath for a few moments.
Boss fights were the highlight, each having a large health pool and a fun challenge. These Pearly Knights aren’t terribly difficult on their own, but if you go into a boss fight with low health or some difficult diseases, the chances of surviving are nil. They have bullet patterns that can almost encompass the whole room, so you’ll need to be quick on your dodge that gives you a brief moment of invulnerability to pass through.
One of Cavity Busters’ unique features is the constant barrage of upgrades and diseases. As you progress and destroy enemies and clear rooms, you’ll come across upgrades that you can decide to take or not. If you’ve never picked up the upgrade before, it will appear as “unknown”, so you won’t know its effects. These can be both positive and negative, hence the upgrade and disease distinctions.
Upgrades are just that, giving you a number of positive effects, whereas diseases give negatives that hinder you in a number of ways. Do you take a really powerful upgrade that comes with a massive negative as well? Well, if you choose not to take these, the level ‘consumes’ it and your run becomes more challenging, so it’s a constant weighing of scaling difficulty. Sometimes taking a disease is a better tradeoff than a general overall increase of difficulty, other times the negative effect you get might be worse.
With dozens and dozens of upgrades and diseases, they are all unique, and even after hours of play I was still discovering "Unknowns". There’s a handful of different characters you can unlock as you progress as well, each playing vastly different from one another, so just as you think you’ve gotten everything mastered and figured out, playing as a new Gummy adds a completely new twist and challenge.
Normally I don’t dedicate a portion of my reviews to accessibility options, but developers SpaceMyFriend went above and beyond to make a challenging roguelite genre available to be fun and enjoyable for all skills. I do highly suggest playing with the default options and settings, but there’s plenty you can change to make things easier or harder depending on your preferences. Want to crank up your damage and instantly one-shot enemies, go for it. Want to start with a dozen hearts to get further, go right ahead. Want to instantly unlock basically everything and every character, that’s an option as well.
Sound effects are fitting for the gross setting, with plenty of goops and squishes, adding more to the tonality and humor of the game. If a tooth could somehow be shot and loop back to me, I have a feeling this is exactly how it would sound. The music fits the tone as well, even if it wasn’t a soundtrack that wasn’t terribly memorable. The hand drawn aesthetic is certainly gross, fitting given its setting, though at times it’s hard to enjoy and appreciate with how hectic, chaotic and quick paced it can be.
Full of puns, Cavity Busters certainly borrows heavily from The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, yet does enough to make it stand out amongst others in the crowded genre. It’s chaotic, frantic, gross, and I enjoyed every minute of it once I was able to get over the learning curve and adjusting to the frenzied gameplay.
**Cavity Busters was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories
The original Melon Journey released over a decade ago, made simply with RPG Maker and launched the careers of developers Froach Club. While I never played the original, the charming pixelated trailer for this new entry was more than enough to hook me to give it a go. Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is the latest adventure for familiar faces with a weird yet delightful plotline, filled with unique and memorable characters. While it may look like a quirky adventure game from its screenshots and trailers, it plays much more like an interactive visual novel.You are Honeydew, a diligent worker at the Eglantine Industries melon factory that gets up for work like any other day, only to find her best friend Cantaloupe is missing. It’s not like Cantaloupe to skip work and of course she worried about her best friend, so she sets off to find out where he might have went. Determined for the truth, she travels to the nearby town of Hog Town to ask around, only to be swept up in a spiraling mystery that will go deeper than you imagined.
Working at a melon factory, it becomes abundantly clear that there’s something off about the melons your company is using. They make a popular drink, now working on their latest 2.0 version, but why are melons illegal over in the neighboring Hog Town? If the police see you with melons, you’ll be thrown in jail, as they are illegal as any other drugs.
Hog Town is full of a number of interesting characters, and there’s even a mayoral election happening soon, with the front runner vowing to unban melons if elected. There’s a local gang, a Cheese Cult and other quirky characters you’ll meet along the way to find the truth of what happened to Cantaloupe. The majority of your objectives are simply fetch quests, going from person to person to find out what happened or gathering items from them, but the main story slowly plays out over the course of 4-5 hours.
You won’t be able to do this alone, so you’ll make some friends along the way to help you in your journey. Each character is written well and the overall narrative has a humorous tone. Characters have backstories and you want to know more about them, completing their quests simply to find out more. The writing is clever, has a good amount of puns, and never really takes itself seriously. It was hard not to smile throughout Honeydew’s journey to find her friend.
First and foremost, you might think that Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories was an original Game Boy game simply from its visuals, as it shares the same greenscale monochrome display and doesn’t even stretch out to the edges of the TV, but that was the style is was going for, much like the original game. Played in a top-down view like classic Pokemon, you’ll be exploring and talking to people to find out where you friend is and why melons are considered illegal.
Even though Bittersweet Memories is more akin to a visual novel than a ‘game’ at times, you still can explore the town, talk to people and even choose to fulfil sidequests for certain characters. I’ll admit, I thought it was initially very linear, but after having the credits roll and not completing about half of the side quests, it warrants another playthrough to see everything.
The walking speed is excruciatingly slow in the beginning but you’ll eventually get a pair of roller-skates to wear to help with this. There’s a lot of back and forth to talk to people, so this will help greatly once you lace them up. Hog Town isn’t large, but there’s a lot of talking to one person at one end, then another at the other end, so it feels larger than it actually is.
Not only do you want to talk to everyone you see more than once, but try interacting with objects as well. The humor throughout will surely get a chuckle out of you here and there, like when a dog was admiring a wonderful statue, only to be inspected and understand it’s a regular fire hydrant.
There’s no minigames, combat, puzzles or anything else really aside from figuring out who to talk to, which is why I feel it’s more like a visual novel more than anything else. Your time is spent walking around and interacting with NPC’s and objects until you find the right person and then have to go to the next. It may sound boring, but the 5 hours to complete flew by with how light hearted it was.
I wasn’t sure about my initial thoughts about the green tinted monochrome color palette, but the pixels had just enough detail to know what was being conveyed and what it was supposed to be. Looking as if it was an original Game Boy game surely brought back some nostalgia as I played through. The soundtrack is just as charming and wonderful as the story and adventure, with some jazz vibes and a few really catchy tunes. There’s some awkward transitions between scenes at times as the music changes abruptly, but nothing that was too distracting.
Full of subtle humor, I might not have laughed out loud but I surely chuckled a few times at the puns or situations, the ghost hamster being my favorite character of the bunch. While it’s a short adventure, it’s a memorable one. The world and characters are endearing and even though I’m usually not too interested in visual novels, Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is charming and endearing, feeling like one in a melon.
**Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Bendy and the Dark Revival
Bendy and the Ink Machine released back in 2017 in staggered episodic releases. While I didn’t pay much attention to it at release, it certainly found its audience, as my young daughter certainly knew about it and watched a lot of videos of people playing. It’s been a long time coming since its initial success, but the sequel is now here, Bendy and the Dark Revival, and thankfully is a full release at once, not episodic in design like its predecessor.Because I’m new to the series, I was wondering how much I was missing by not playing the original game. Thankfully Bendy and the Dark Revival is its own story where you don’t need to have played the original to know what’s going on, but series fans will certainly get more out of it being able to recognize certain characters return. I was quite surprised with how much of a Bioshock influence Bendy and the Dark Revival had, and it’s clear to see that’s where a lot of its inspiration comes from with its gameplay and themes.
You play as Audrey, an animator working late at Archgate Pictures who is working some overtime, simply getting up for a quick break to get some coffee. You come across Wilson, the janitor, and after a brief conversation and quick errand, you find yourself somehow now stuck in a new and mysterious world. Audrey is now in her studio, but in the ink world, and if you’ve played the original Bendy, you probably have an idea how this is going to play out.
Wilson appears to be the main antagonist, and Audrey will need to do what she can to simply survive if she ever wants to escape this cycle that he now apparently is ruling over. Surviving won’t be easy though, as not only will enemies be searching for you, but the dreaded Ink Demon is a sure and swift death if it finds you. What does Bendy have to do with all of this? Who is this other person trying to guide you? Many answers are to be found, unfortunately much of the story and background lore is hidden away in audio logs that you’ll find when exploring the environment and can easily be missed.
Played in first person, you’ll be exploring this creepy world with some survival and horror elements thrown in, complete with plenty of jump scares. The world appears like a vintage cartoon and you’ll need to solve puzzles, explore for hidden passageways, fight against inked enemies and use plenty of stealth to survive. Once you reach a point about halfway through the adventure, you’ll need to deal with the Ink Demon that relentlessly pursues you, forcing you to hide for a few moments until the coast is clear.
While there are some light puzzle elements, the majority of them are simply finding a particular item and then backtracking to unlock a door to finally be able to progress. A portion of the opening chapter will have heavy stealth elements, as you won’t initially have a weapon to defend yourself with, having to find hiding spots in lockers, in barrels and under crates. It’s not always clear how close you can get to these ink enemy before they notice or where exactly their cone of vision extends to, so it’s a bit of trial and error in the beginning. This is where the survival portion comes into play. You have a stamina meter you’ll need to manage for running, though it’s usually plenty enough to reach the next hiding spot if required.
Exploring the rooms and corridors, don’t be surprised if you become lost as there’s no map, so you’ll need to take good mental notes of where you’ve previously been and should be heading to. Sometimes you get a marker of where to go next, though this seemed to only be sporadic. Later on there’s a fast travel system that unlocks, but it’s not as useful as I’d hoped. Strewn all about each room and in desk drawers, lockers are barrels are items you can pick up and collect. This will be used to craft items later on, refilling your health or collecting money.
I was hoping that the crafting system would make for some interesting additions to the gameplay, but it’s quite basic. You can use your found materials to craft keys (Gent Cards) to open specific boxes or save them up to upgrade your Gent Wrench, your main and only weapon, though even with a few upgrades I didn’t feel much more powerful. Making cards seemed really not worth it, as there’s usually just more basic materials inside, but if you’ve been diligent at exploring and picking up things along the way, materials shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Oddly enough, all the food you find can’t be stored to be used later, simply eaten as you pick it up, so if you’re low on health you’ll need to play a little more cautiously until you can find some random sandwiches and other things tucked away. Sure, you could use your money to buy food, but health generally wasn’t an issue other than a few times where I had to fight multiple enemies at once, on the Easy setting at least.
Before you get your Gent Pipe you have no means to defend yourself, so you’ll have to do a bunch of stealth and sneaking portions to get past enemies. Once you do acquire your sole weapon you’re finally able to defend yourself, though you’ll quickly realize how clunky combat is in general. Having a simple pipe, you can swing at any of the ink enemies, though most take a few hits to defeat. It’s difficult to judge the distance you need and when to press the trigger to have it connect at the right time. Versus single enemies is usually no big deal, but there are many times you’ll need to face multiple at once, which is where it becomes more challenging since most areas are tight and confined hallways. This generally results in having to circle strafe and just swing away until everything is dead.
You do earn a few more abilities as you progress, the first being basically a one-hit kill backstab called “Banish”. If you crouch and sneak up behind an enemy that doesn’t notice you, you can instantly kill them with a special power that is imbued into your ink covered arm. The pipe as your weapon simply feels boring, even with the upgrades you can get later on. There are a couple bosses to fight along the way, breaking up the monotony, with the final boss the most interesting.
As mentioned above, even though you can fight off ink enemies once you get your Gent Pipe, the Ink Demon is a different story. You’re told that he is near, the screen dims and shakes, and that’s your cue to find a hiding spot right away, regardless of what you’re doing. Fail to do so and you’ll instantly die and have to try again. Even though it didn’t happen too often, it made me slow down and take notice of any hiding spots I passed by, knowing that’s where I’ll need to run to if this is the moment the Ink Demon decides to roam nearby. It’s weird simply getting a prompt to go hide rather than having to keep a lookout and listen on my own for it when exploring, reducing it to a simple ‘hide or die’.
Audrey will gain a few other abilities as her journey progresses, starting with the Banish explained above. While there’s a few, the one you’ll rely on most is "Flow", essentially a quick dash/teleport forward for a short distance. This can help you escape quickly, cross gaps or catch up to an enemy to sneak and Banish them.
While it might seem bland given the brown and tan sepia tone, it’s deliberate, as you’re stuck in this old style cartoon world of Bendy. The flowing ink and dark outlines make for a good contrast and animation overall is done quite well. Sure there’s a few weird glitches like enemies getting stuck in doorways, walking in place or being a bit stiff when turning, but overall I quite enjoyed the visual aesthetic of Bendy's world. As for the audio, the voice acting is done quite well actually across the board from all those that have lines, not just Audrey and Wilson. You’ll hear noises in the distance, unsure if it’s an enemy around the corner or not. The Ink Demon sounds terrifying and the intensely really ramps up in those few moments you need to find a hiding spot because of the audio alone.
I did enjoy the setting and the overall narrative, it’s just a shame a lot of the story is hidden away in collectable notes and audio logs, some of which will certainly be missed if you’re not exploring every corner of the world. Having never played Bendy and the Ink Machine and only knowing what my daughter told me about it, I was unsure how cohesive Bendy and the Dark Revival would be for a newcomer like myself. Thankfully knowledge or previous play experience is not required here. My main complaint is that the controls are simply too sensitive, even when turned down, as if it was clearly designed for a mouse and keyboard instead. So many times, even hours in, I found myself struggling to pick up an item because I couldn’t get the cursor in the exact spot needed.
While original Bendy fans will certainly get the most out of it, it was difficult to feel invested as a newcomer with the clunky combat and forced stealth sections. That said, the world is created quite well and has a great atmosphere, I just didn’t feel all that invested and become frustrated at times with the backtracking.
**Bendy and the Dark Revival was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
God Of Rock
I always applaud when developers take a chance on something new. Maybe this is adding a twist into a genre that’s been done before, or maybe sometimes they attempt to blend two vastly different genres together, like God of Rock. Modus Games has done just this, attempting to merge two completely different game types into one, and while on paper it should work, it never really feels all that cohesive. Being a massive fan of music based games, I was quite excited to try a new rhythm game, as I’ve played an endless amount of Rock Band, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution and many more.God of Rock attempts to blend the melodic notes of a rhythm based music game fused with the excitement of a fighting game with 1 on 1 matches against a handful of opponents. You’re tasked with fighting to the beat, though the core gameplay is more that of a rhythm game with some fighting game move sets thrown in. A dozen playable characters, eight diverse stage backdrops and over forty songs should make for quite an interesting game.
As you pick one of the characters, they will have a brief storyboard narrative about themselves or some situation they find themselves in. Each character eventually gets invited to a sort of tournament where if they can get through the gamut of other challengers they’ll be able to face the mysterious God of Rock himself, which will grant their wish or desire if defeated in a musical battle. The writing for each character is very campy and brief, and even when you do finally defeat the God of Rock and get their ending, it’s nowhere near satisfying. I’m not expecting much of a narrative for a rhythm or fighting game, as that’s not what they are known for, but there’s really not all that much here for story at all.
Story mode is where you’ll probably be spending the majority of your time, picking your fighter of choice and battling your way through the tournament in hopes to defeat the titular God of Rock for a small story snippet of your character at the end. There are local and multiplayer options if you want to face off against a friend or foe in person or online. There’s a training mode to learn the basics and special moves, something I’d highly suggest going through each so you know how do not just hit the notes, but what all the meters mean and how to do your special moves, this is partly a fighting game remember.
If you want to try something really interesting, why not make your own tracks. While you can’t add your own music, you can design your own notes from scratch for the included soundtrack. The track editor allows you to finely tune how and where you want to place each note, lining up each exactly where you want. You can then try the songs out against others to see who the best really is. I’m sure those that used to make their own songs in Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and other rhythm games will surely spend some time here creating some insanely difficult tracks.
God of Rock’s premise is simple, hitting notes to the beat while also throwing in some Street Fighter moves to eventually win the match once the opponent’s health is empty. The majority of your time will be watching the playfield where the notes come across to hit the notes, but you’ll be challenged not looking elsewhere to see the fighting or being distracted by the flashing lights. Songs will start out easily enough but quickly ramp up and be quite challenging, even on the easier difficulties.
There are a handful of characters to choose from, each with their own fighting moves and style, as well as a variety of different moves and specials. Some are more healing based while others are offensive, each are unique in design though. Some are designed with a fine line between tribute and parody, some clearly a knockoff of Elvis, Freddie Mercury and others, whereas some are more original in design. They all have a few one-liners before their matches that are cheesy, but such is par the course for fighting games, though the lip syncing that doesn't match well is a little of a distraction.
Now where you’ll need to keep most of your focus is the horizontal lanes where the notes come from the side into the middle where you’re supposed to hit the note with accuracy. Now, the vast majority of rhythm games are vertical scrolling, and for good reason. Here though, it’s horizontal and very challenging to learn and master.
You’ll also be using all four face buttons, each on their own horizontal lane. On simple songs this isn’t too much of an issue, but when songs become much more chaotic, it’s quite difficult to deal with the buttons laid out in that horizontal pattern when they are overlapped. The confusion does get easier over time, but it really didn’t ever feel natural, even after almost beating every single character’s playthrough. It becomes even more difficult when you have to combine button presses that aren’t beside each other on the controller, unable to do so with a single finger, like ‘X+B’.
You and your opponent have a health bar, as this is partly a fighting game, and every time you land notes on beat and use your special moves, it will slowly deplete their health. There’s some nuances though, as if you and your opponent perform the same move at the same time (notes are the same for both players) damage is negated, but that’s where the special moves come into play. While the note charting is decent overall, what’s interesting is that songs become more challenging the longer it goes on, so if it’s even match between you and your opponent, eventually the challenge will ramp up until one is left standing.
Landing normal moves to the beat slowly builds your Special and Ultra meters which can unleash higher powered moves. If your opponent does one of these special moves, you can unleash a higher tier move to override theirs, so there’s a constant push and pull of offense and defense, that is if you can remember the move list or manage to do so between the regular notes.
This is inherently where part of the problem lies, having to pull off fighting moves like Street Fighter (simple quarter and half circles ending with Right Trigger), but you need to do so in-between the regular notes. There are three tiers of moves, EX Moves and an Ultra, but trying to perform these while not trying to miss notes is near impossible if there’s not a quick downtown moment in the song. You can even perform reversals, but it’s all a matter of keeping track of what meters you have filled or not.
While the horizontal note scrolling is quite jarring and my biggest complaint, the other is the whole fighting game component. Trying to fit in fighting moves in-between note hitting is hard enough, but having the UI layout the way it is makes for another distraction. Your Special and Ultra meters are right above the note playfield, but your health bar is way at the top of the screen. This is part fighting game remember, so you need to keep track of the health bars. This means you need to take your eyes of the note lanes to glance away, which generally means missing some notes before you reorient yourself.
I was quite surprised that God of Rock had online multiplayer, as I didn’t expect it to from a smaller studio. There’s Quick Play and Ranked, and while I was able to find a few matches, it did take some time to find opponents. I highly suggest mastering the gameplay before going online, as you’ll lose quite handedly if unsure how the whole move tiers and reversals work.
Visually, God of Rock is quite appealing. The character designs are done quite well, as are the stages backgrounds, all with a flashy package. Fights are animated well, but the problem is just how flashy it all is, literally. Every time notes are matched from both players and blocked, there’s this bright flash on the screen, and when quicker paced songs are playing, you can imagine how distracting this is, and I didn’t see any options to disable or dampen them. There’s an odd lag once you defeat your enemy where the framerate drops for a moment, nothing that affects gameplay, yet another distraction.
For a music game, the audio and music is supposed to be what stands out the most, and while there’s a good variety of over 40 songs, there’s really none that stood out. There’s no vocals in the songs and there’s nothing licensed, and even after multiple playthroughs, there wasn’t a single song that was very memorable. I didn’t feel compelled to add any to my Spotify playlist, not that any were ‘bad’, but part of the problem is the audio mixing. By default you hear more of the fighting thuds and attacks instead of the music being the forefront. I had to turn up the music volume and other audio down just to enjoy it more.
God of Rock is an interesting title that blends the odd pairing of fighting and rhythm games, and while it may not always stick the landing due to its odd design choices, there’s some entertaining moments here and there. Even with online play and a track creator, it’s clear extra effort was made to have God of Rock be something special, even if it misses a few notes.
**God of Rock was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Guns N’ Runs
Guns N’ Runs released back in 2021 on PC, but I somehow missed it. Now that it’s on console though, of course I took notice. Now I know what you’re thinking, by the title of the game you’re probably guessing that this is a typical sidescrolling shooter where you’re blasting everything in your path, maybe like an old school Contra or Mega Man. You’d be partially correct, but it’s more like a jaunt rather than a full out run given how difficult the platforming is.While I expected something Contra-like from its name alone, the actual gameplay was a bit different. You of course have to platform from room to room, generally left to right, eventually reaching a boss and moving on, but there’s an integral dash component which allows you to cross gaps, avoid obstacles and even phase through enemies, but actually doing so accurately is quite challenging. The pixel art and soundtrack are done quite well, helping to qualm my frustrations, though not completely.
You play as one of the numerous chooseable members of the Conspiracy Squad. You’re taking part of some rescue mission in the middle of the Atacama Desert, well below the surface in a mechanized bunker. While there is an overarching story here, especially once you defeat the bosses and they ramble on and on, games like these you generally enjoy for the gameplay more than anything else. Basically everything in your way is going to try and kill you, so you must survive to progress and figure out what’s really going on, though those that want more will be happy to know each character has its own narrative.
There’s really not a lot you need to learn for its controls, as you can jump, shoot, special and dash, and once you begin after choosing your character, you’re thrown into a “tutorial”. I’m quoting “tutorial” and being facetious because it’s anything but a tutorial, and probably one of the worst ones I’ve experienced in recent memory. A tutorial is supposed to do just that, teach you the basics, making you comfortable with the controls and mechanics so that once you’re set free, you feel confident, enticing you to want to continue playing.
I restarted the game three times with different characters because I thought I did something wrong or the game was bugged. As you begin you’ll come across these signs which give you a clue of what the controls are. A say clue because it doesn’t outright tell you. For example, one sign will show that you can jump with a picture of your character, well, jumping. What button is it to actually do so? No idea, so you better start hitting random buttons to figure it out. The next sign indicates you can fire your weapon. Great, but again, no button prompt, simply a sign saying it’s possible. I’ve been gaming long enough that I of course figured it out, but it’s counterintuitive to what a tutorial is supposed to accomplish.
I was willing to overlook this until a few moments later I got to the dash portion. Dashing is an integral part of Guns N’ Runs’ gameplay, so naturally you would expect the game to teach you how to do so properly. Nope. Same sign showing that you can dash, but no button prompt or how to actually do so. I needed to reach a much higher platform by dashing and double jumping, but had no idea how to. I eventually figured it out on my own, but there’s even these small orbs that allow you to link your dashes together, but as you can guess, this wasn’t taught at all in the "tutorial".
Manage to figure out how to progress past the opening section and you’ll be brought to a map where you can choose from a number of different paths and levels, though I opted to finish level 1 before moving to 2, etc. With plenty of different roomed challenges to get through, there’s no shortage of challenge within, but sometimes it’s the level design or controls that have you failing and retrying from the last checkpoint. While the controls are simple on paper, actually traversing and dashing at the right time and correct direction can be frustrating at the best of times.
Now and then you’ll find a few power-ups, either changing your shot type for a brief amount of time or giving you a shield that protects you from a hit. Where my main issue comes from when the its combat is that you can only ever shoot horizontally, no aiming at an angle or upwards, so you always have to be in line of your enemies and bosses to actually hit them. Your dash will get you out of sticky situations quickly, and will be absolutely necessary to master if you want to progress, as it’s the only way you can cut across large gaps or phase through electric beams and attacks.
Each level is broken into a handful of rooms, kind of of like Mega Man, where you generally need to progress left to right to reach the next room. This starts out simple enough, but after a few bosses and you try the new levels, things get chaotic and challenging quite quickly. Even though it’s titled Guns N’ Runs, I’d say the majority of your time is slowly trying to platform accurately more than anything else. This usually means dying and trying the room again a few times before eventually progressing, but it’s much more slow and methodical than expected, as I thought it would be a quicker paced game.
Your dash is your primary move, and there are times where you need to be incredibly accurate or else you’ll fall or land in some spikes. With only five health bubbles, this certainly isn’t a lot given how precise your movements need to be at times. While you have a quick moment of invulnerability when you dash, if it’s not done at just the right moment, you could get damaged just as you enter or exit the dash, causing many deaths on boss fights when I thought I was going to be fine initially. This wouldn’t be so bad if the level design was interesting, but it’s generally a lot of the same with a few enemies to kill, as rooms won’t always unlock without them defeated. Things get much more challenging later with moving platforms and poison that drains your health almost instantly.
While you can gather special power-ups to fill your special meter, again, this isn’t really explained in the opening tutorial, so I didn’t really use it all that much, forgetting it was an option. Each character has a different and unique special, but it would have been a welcome addition to show what these do before committing to a certain character only to find you don’t like their move. I do wish there were other weapons to collect or gain along the way aside from the limited use ones that don’t appear often enough.
Bosses are easily the highlight of Guns N’ Runs, taking a few attempts to learn their patterns and best times to dash through to avoid their attacks. Some took me much longer than expected to defeat simply because of the forced horizontal shooting and having to line up my character to their weak spot. Most have you moving away to get some space, unloading a few rounds, dashing to safety and repeating on the other side of the room while avoiding their attacks. Sure it gets old fighting the same boss person each time, but at least he has a new machine and contraption each outing.
The retro pixel art is done quite well, looking like an older game but smooth framerates we’ve come to expect. Sure I had the odd framerate dip here and there, but nothing that detracted from the experience too badly. Each level has its own sort of tone and palette, almost like a biome and I enjoy the retro blocky aesthetic. The soundtrack was done quite well, full of guitar riffs and some good drum beats. The tempo matches the gameplay for the most part and never felt tiring hearing over and over when I was on my twentieth boss attempt.
Even though Guns N’ Runs is quite challenging, even on the Casual setting, the checkpoint system is quite generous, basically setting you back at the room you just died in to try once again. Die on bosses repeatedly and some shield and weapon power-ups will appear to try and give you just a slight edge so you can progress. Even with these aids, I still think it’s quite over-tuned for those looking for a casual difficulty, as it’s nowhere near that, especially the later stages and bosses (I’m looking at you robot spawning, missile firing boss). The fact that there’s a death counter should tell you a lot.
I do wish there was an auto fire option, as your thumbs will get quite sore in long play sessions from all the dashing and having to fire ever bullet manually. There is plenty of replay value with an achievement list that forces you to complete the game with each character and unlockable Survival and Danger modes as well, though I predict this will only be done by a select few trying to get the most value out of their purchase.
Don’t be fooled by the Casual difficulty setting, Guns N’ Runs is quite challenging and demands near perfection and quick reflexes to be successful and progress. While I struggled with the controls throughout, especially having to dash at specific angles or timing, there’s nothing inherently bad about Guns N’ Runs, it simply didn’t hook or excite me all that much.
**Guns N’ Runs was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
ACL Pro Cornhole
Say what you want about the name, but the sport of Cornhole is quite entertaining to play in real life. If I go to a park or barbeque with friends and one of these are setup, it’s basically a guarantee I’m going to challenge someone for a few rounds. While its roots are over a century old, the Cornhole we recognize today took its form in the 70’s and 80’s. It seems as though the game has had a popularity increase since the American Cornhole League (ACL) was founded almost a decade ago in 2015. Since then there’s been a standardization, official tournaments, bags and pro players.The sport has grown enough to apparently warrant the video game adaptation, so here we are with ACL Pro Cornhole, aiming to recreate what it’s like to play as a pro in the ACL. Developed by FarSight Studios, there’s a surprising around of authenticity when it comes to the Pro players included, commentators, official bags and tournament recreations, but the question remains, is it actually fun to play? Well, that’s where there’s some cornfusion.
While there’s no formal career mode, you’re simply thrown into a Tournament without any tutorial or explanation of the sport. Choose your Pro player of choice from a small handful unlocked from the beginning and jump right into the game. It would have been a bit more interesting if you could create your player and work your way up from Amateur into the ACL Pro league, but there’s nothing like that here at all, and calling it a Career mode is a bit of a stretch as well.
While I could only assume that most purchasing ACL Pro Cornhole are generally going to be avid Cornhole fans and know the sport already, given how niche the sport is, some sort of rule explanations would have been helpful for newcomers. I’ll admit, I thought I knew the core rules for Cornhole, but turns out I really didn’t. Naturally once I started playing and not understanding the scoring system or terminology, I had to do some research online.
Now that I was caught up on the rules and scoring, I jumped right in figuring I’d be good to go to at least be somewhat competitive. Well, if there was any semblance of a tutorial maybe I would have been, but no, you’re simply thrown right into a match without any explanation of exactly how to play or given strategies. This is where I paused and went to the settings to see where the button mapping was so I at least had an idea of how to play.
No wonder I couldn’t figure out how to actually toss my bag, because you play your shots much like a golf game, pulling back on the Right Stick and then forward to determine your power and accuracy, and I use that term very loosely. Even if you get the meter exactly where you want, good luck if it actually tosses your bag where you want or does what you expect. You’re able to change the arc of your toss, as well as the angle of the bag and amount of spin, but none of this really matters given how unfair the CPU is with their shots.
Oh there are difficulty choices, but I can't tell any difference from Easy or Hard, as the CPU will simply destroy you every match regardless how you perform unless you can nail your Airmail’s (getting your bag directly into the hole) every single shot, as that’s what they tend to do quite often without any issue. You can choose to toss the bag the slick or sticky side down, and while it tends to make a minor difference, not as much as I thought it would.
While ACL Pro Cornhole boasts that you can play as 32 different top Pro’s, they need to be unlocked which is done via your levels you earn with XP from completing matches. It’ll be rare to win though, so this is painfully slow, so hopefully there’s no a Pro you have your heart dead set on playing early. While I think I only recognize one ACL player, fans should be happy to know that they are recognizable with their real pictures in place and look pretty much their real life counterparts in-game. Apparently they’ve been motion captured to recreate their actual skills and strategy as well.
Adding to the ACL authenticity is also having Trey Ryder and Bernie Nabors as your commentary crew, narrating what’s happening in the match and how poorly you just threw that last toss. There’s not a whole lot of variety in the lines recorded, as you’ll start to hear the same things over again quite quickly, though I do appreciate the effort that went into adding them, as there’s really not much in the way of background music that plays otherwise.
You’re able to also choose Quick Play matches, either 1v1 or 2v2, against the CPU or friends. Again, only against your friends will you have a chance at actually winning though, so best to play this for a while until you get the hang of how to play. As you do slowly and eventually level up, you can spend earned skill points to boost certain parameters like your slide, airmail, rolls and pushes, though even after a handful of point spent, I didn’t really notice much of a difference.
You can also choose from nine different official ACL bag manufacturers such as Local Bags, Lucky Bags Cornhole, Reynolds Bags, Slide-Rite Series, Ultra, Skill Shots Cornhole, Kontraband Athletics, BG Cornhole and Fire Cornhole. They have different colors and patterns and even stats, but again, even choosing the one with the best ‘sticky’ stat, I didn’t notice all that much of a difference.
Playing as your chosen Pro, you’ll unlock more as you level up, but I none of it really mattered given how cheap the CPU is constantly throwing airmail's nearly every shot. You can see a small "slick" or "sticky" side message where you aim, presumably to affect how the bag physics play out when landing on the board, but again, I didn’t find all that much of a difference. Also, it seemed to randomly change my shot type back to slick side even though I prefer sticky for some odd reason. And if you want to rotate your throwing angle or loft, there’s no quick reset to default, so I hope you remember what your preference is and your spin. You can even take a side step to get a slightly different angle on your tosses, but sometimes this defaulted back to my original starting point.
While there’s multiplayer available, unfortunately it’s not online and only local. You can play in singles or doubles, but for some reason whenever I’m paired with a CPU player, they seem to not make those amazing airmail shots every time like the opponents do, so you can’t even count on them reliably to help your team out in a doubles match. It’s frustrating to place a blocker only to have the CPU bypass them entirely every time with pinpoint accuracy, even on Easy.
While the setting of the ACL appears to be quite official with its layout, the markings around the arena and even down to the Johnsonville adverts slapped around everywhere, it certainly does look like Cornhole you’d watch on TV. Between matches I do wish there was something a bit more than staring at the blank arena for a few seconds as things reset, like maybe having the players go to get their bags, but there’s nothing like that. Even the limited crowd barely animates and multiple people are moving in unison, adding for a very empty feeling when playing.
ACL Pro Cornhole certainly looks and sounds like a match of Cornhole and has certainly recreated the sport, but getting consistently demolished by the near perfect CPU every single match only stays entertaining for so long. While it’s hard to recommend outside of the diehard Cornhole fans, those that enjoy the niche sport will surely find some entertainment here, even if the game is trying to constantly setup blockers to prevent you winning.
**ACL Pro Cornhole was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 4.7 / 10
Zapling Bygone
There’s been some memorable Metroidvania games over the years, and while there’s no shortage in the genre, it’s always welcome to have another if it’s done well. This is where Zapling Bygone comes in, a classic Metroidvania mechanically, but with a unique story about an alien hive-mind that defeats bosses for their skulls to gain their abilities, all with a cute retro pixel style aesthetic.You are a part of the hive-mind, a small portion of a larger being, dropped on a mysterious planet as a pretty simple blob, searching for a new home. As you defeat a few small enemies and grow in size, you find your first skull, giving you a ‘body’ so to speak with a number of arms/tentacles. As you seek out these skulls you also gain their knowledge and consciousness, tapping into their memories as you reach specific areas.
As you piece together what happened on this planet and figuring out if it’s going to be a viable home, there’s not too much story aside from finding pieces of comic book pages scattered throughout, giving you small snippets of backstory lore, though only if you manage to collect them. There may be something more sinister on this seemingly desolate planet though, a secret buried that you uncover as you collect more skulls and information.
Being a Metroidvania, the setup is as you’d expect. You begin without any real abilities, eventually reaching areas that are inaccessible until you have some way to get passed or reached. This happens often, usually finding a ledge or something higher up you don’t know how to get to, or a large gap where your jump can’t get across. In most cases, if you’re able to continue progressing, that’s probably the way you want to go, as it most likely has a boss at the end that will give you a new upgrade once defeated (by wearing their skull), allowing you to unearth a new area to explore. This of course causes a lot of backtracking, a normal part of the genre, though there are a few warp points strewn about if you’re able to find them.
As you explore each area and biome that varies, you’ll have plenty of pathways to search for a number of hidden secrets and collectables. Each area has its own distinct style with a boss that guards it at the end. Given how short the runtime is, at just a handful of hours for an experienced player of the genre, I won’t spoil much of the surprises, but I enjoyed the first area the most, the Ratqueen Gardens. As you complete areas and gain new abilities, you’ll see on the map how interconnected the world is.
Controls are tight and responsive, as much of what you’ll be doing is platforming from area to area, and even in the moments where I had to move and hide from enemy fire, I never felt like I could blame the controls when I inevitably failed, even in the frustrating chase sequence later on. Being able to walk along the walls once you beat the first boss opens up a lot of the map to be explored, but that’s only one ability you’ll gain along the way.
As you get new skulls from bosses and new abilities, the map feels larger as you can explore it more. Even though it’s not a massive map, it does feel quite large and you can certainly expect a lot of backtracking as you figure out where to go next. Thankfully there’s a map you can reference, but it doesn’t let you zoom in as much as I’d like, so sometimes it was a guessing game of the pathway I intended to take versus what I actually did. I did end up lost every now and then, or finding a new pathway I couldn’t quite get to yet because I didn’t have a certain ability, like the dash. While there’s not really a set path you go to and from, it is designed in a way that is somewhat linear when you factor in the abilities needed to reach.
The later levels do get quite challenging, especially when you’re in near complete darkness or being chased. Thankfully you do have a way to heal yourself, able to refill one of your health bars after a set amount of time. Even so, you don’t have a large health pool, so you always do need to be cautious since you can only take a few hits before dying and restarting at your last checkpoint. These checkpoints can be found throughout each area, though you’ll need to spend a little of your earned currency from defeating enemies to unlock them. I never really found myself short to not be able to afford one, but if you skip too many enemies you may not be able to unlock it.
Each new ability is gained after you defeat one of the bosses and take their skull as your trophy reward. You not only gain abilities to walk on walls and dash, but can even swing around and shoot laser beams. A unique way they also distinguish themselves is that they each also have a different amount of slots for mutations.
Mutations are further ways to customize your Zapling to play how you want. Maybe you want to attack slower but hit harder, or vice versa, there’s plenty of these mutations to unlock that allows for a bit more freedom to how you play. Each of these mutations though are assigned a special shape (triangle, square, circle, etc for example) and you’ll need to make sure your skull you wear can equip that mutation shape. There’s also of course a limit to how many mutations you can equip, so you might need to use a skull you don’t necessarily want to, but because it has the mutation slots you want to use, you’ll have to.
The pixel aesthetic is done quite well, a retro feel but definitely smooth and modern as well. Each new skull does change how it appears on your Zapling, and every biome certainly has its own feel and look as well. Music suits the mood, rising and lowering when needed, especially during boss fights, though there isn’t a lot of varied sound effects throughout.
While not overly difficult until the later chase section and boss fights, there’s just the right amount of challenge. Your first playthrough will probably take around six hours or so, more if you want to find every secret. While it didn’t grip me as much as I expected, it certainly has charm to it and definitely worth the play if you’ve been craving a new Metroidvania to check out.
**Zapling Bygone was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
King of the Arcade
I’m thankful to have grown up in the era I did, and while I might date myself here, playing games at the local arcade are some of my fondest gaming memories. I would be given a few quarters each day before school and allowed to stop at the arcade on the way home, using the quarters I was given to get a new high score or play one of my favorites. While there are a few places that have a similar setup and idea, like the arcade corner of a big movie theater or somewhere you can win tickets for playing, it really isn’t quite the same as it was back then.You see, “back in the day” there were buildings you went to that housed dozens of different arcade cabinets and pinball machines that were usually only found there. Home consoles like the Atari, NES and other classics did exist of course, but it’s not like it was now where it was much more common. Games in the arcade were built to be played one quarter at a time. There's something special about pulling off a Mortal Kombat fatality in front of a watching crowd because you knew the secret button combination to do so. Having to place your quarter on the screen like a line queue, waiting for your turn to probably lose to the guy on Street Fighter II that seems to be undefeatable was always an anxious and exciting time.
You are Mac McCormick, a gaming prodigy who was an arcade champion as a kid, but like all things in life, sometimes your past is just memories. Once known as a gaming champion, Mac still lives at home many years later and needs to find a job before he gets kicked out. Of course he finds himself wandering the local gaming center, Castle’s Arcade, and with that simply asks the owner for a job. He can’t just give the job to anyone though, so you need to prove that you can play games; quite the application if I say so myself.
Of course, being an arcade champion, even though he doesn’t play anymore and left that life behind him, he obliges and reaches level 5 on a game with his first try. This impresses the owner and now you’re a working employee at Castle’s Arcade. The landlord of the place though is ruthless and wants to take over the arcade to turn it into a NFT (because that’s totally how it works). This landlord, Jimmy Joysticks, does what anyone would do; initiate a hostile takeover by sending members of his arcade gang to prove they are the best players around. So it’s up to you to defeat them in their game of choice and once again become the King of The Arcade once more. This of course starts with a training montage that any classic gamer will recognize hilarious nods to.
It’s a silly and asinine premise but still put a smile on my face. You simply only need to defeat each goon at their game of choice, and once all have been defeated, you ‘win’ and save the arcade. The campaign/story won’t take very long, maybe a half hour at most depending on your random arcade gaming skills, but being able to play the 40 or so games afterwards is what will entice you to keep playing.
Setup just like a classic arcade back in the 80’s, you can roam around the different rooms that are filled with different gaming cabinets to freeplay play as you wish. With about 40 games to play, you can expect class inspired games from all different genres and eras. Now I say “classic inspired” purposely, as you aren’t playing the actual and official games, but instead a nostalgic indie attempt at recreating some of the classics. For example, you must first reach level 5 at Retro Invaders to get the job at the arcade, clearly a remaking of Space Invaders. Nearly every game seems to be a parody or recreation of a classic title, so don’t expect anywhere near the same quality or polish, but that’s where some of the charm comes from.
To play any of the games you simply walk up to it and hold ‘X’ to start the machine. A quick moment of loading later and you can play as much as you want. While not explained initially, you need to press the menu button to pause and then can exit from there to get back to the arcade and wander as Mac. You can play a variety of games from all different genres, from classics like Space Invaders, to racing games, pinball, Frogger and even Whack-A-Mole. Standing in front of a machine will tell you if it’s 1 or 2 players and if there’s an online leaderboard as well. Sometimes you need to be standing at just the right angle to get the prompt to appear, but you get used to it quickly.
With about 40 games to play, I won’t list them all, but there’s a handful of standouts that I enjoyed playing more than a few times:
- After School Beatdown (Streets of Rage). 2 players.
- Scary Clown Pinball. 1 player.
- Retro Invaders (Space Invaders). 2 players and Leaderboards.
- Tire King (The original Donkey Kong). 1 player.
- Goal (Pong, but a soccer template). 2 players.
- Chatter Man (Pac-Man but you’re a pair of chattering teeth). 1 player.
- High Speed Racing (Gran Turismo but with Porches, 2 laps and terrible physics) 1 player.
- Button Masher (Whack-A-Mole). 1 player and Leaderboards.
- Space Ravager (Space Harrier). 1 player and Leaderboards.
- Virtual Enforcement (Virtua Cop/Lethal Enforcers). 2 players.
- Sidewalk Fighter 2 (Street Fighter 2 but with horrible controls). 2 players.
- Retro Driver (Outrun with terrible controls too). 1 player.
- Music Game (Dance Dance Revolution yet has a Pump It Up pad and only 1 song). 1 player.
- City Brawler (Classic Tiger Electronics handheld). 1 player.
There’s a number of other games, as I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises given how short the experience is. There’s a Claw Machine, a Jukebox where you can play a number of different and surprisingly decent tunes (but sadly can only play a single song at a time instead of a playlist), and even a console sitting in the back room that resembles an Xbox 360 and houses a handful of other games on there as well for a single player.
For how dated and low poly everything and everyone looks, it has a certain charm to it. I was instantly reminded of how King of The Arcade looks exactly like the music video for Dire Straits - Money For Nothing. Everything aesthetically screams ‘indie’, even each game, and that’s fine. The audio is about the same, with Mac having either a really odd monotone voice or is created with text-to-speech, it was hard to tell. You’re playing this for the nostalgic games more than the visuals and voice acting, so it can get a pass. Each of the games made me think of how they would probably look if I was to try and remake classic games from my childhood without knowing how to actually code or do so. I don’t mean that as an insult at all, I really don’t, as I find it kind of endearing if anything.
Priced at under ten bucks, it’s hard to not find some nostalgic enjoyment within, even if the knockoff games aren’t quite the exact classic games you remember playing decades ago. While the story is a very brief jaunt, you’ll no doubt want to come back now and then for one or two of your favorites, though I wish every game had the Leaderboards to entice more plays and virtual quarters.
**King of The Arcade was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
SimAirport
Developed by small indie studio LVGameDev, SimAirport was originally released back in 2017 for Early Access then had its full release in 2020. With decent reviews, the time had come for it to be ported to console for other gamers to enjoy, which Ultimate Games handled. Now available on Xbox One and Series consoles, SimAirport is exactly as you’d expect from its self-explanatory title, running an airport from the ground up. That’s a far too simplistic explanation though, as you’ll not just be designing how to build the airport, its walls and scheduling a few flights, but coordinating down to every minute detail you could think of. If you were the type of SimCity player that enjoyed getting super deep into the management and statistical aspects of city building, you’ll have more than enough here to keep you busy.While there’s no real story aside from creating a successful and profitable airport, you can do this in one of two modes: Career or Sandbox. Career Mode essentially challenges you with creating a profitable airport but with extremely limited resources. This mode is quite challenging, as even the smallest mistake in the early game can be quite disastrous. I suggest playing in Sandbox Mode initially until you feel much more comfortable in the early to mid-game, as you can turn off any limitations, have unlimited money, instantly build and more. The lack of any restrictions is a much smoother experience when struggling with learning the confusing controls, but more on that shortly.
Don’t let the simplistic 2D visuals fool you, SimAirport is probably one of the most complex and in depth management sims out there. You might think that there’s not all that much to plan for an airport, but you’d be wrong. Played in a top-down view, you’ll begin with a number of tutorials that show you the core principles and basics of the game. Broken into a handful of separate tutorials, you’ll be shown how to get your basic airport setup, eventually teaching the more in-depth portions like scheduling flights, negotiating with airlines, heat maps, creating runways and more.
This is where your initial frustrations will start to surface. The tutorials themselves are perfectly fine and explain what you need to do, but keep in mind SimAirport was initially a PC game now being ported to console, so all of the keyboard and mouse controls had to be mapped to a controller. Some sim games have figured out how to do this wonderfully, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for example, but sadly the same can’t be said here.
To the point, the controls are absolutely terrible. Sure you get used to it after some time of struggling constantly, but it never feels natural. Being a sim management game, you’ll be neck deep in menus almost constantly. Some menus require you to press ‘A’ while others ‘Right Trigger’. How are you supposed to know which? Good luck; it’ll either just work or won’t. The same goes for even navigating the menus, as you need to use the D-Pad on some and the Left Stick on others. Even hours in I was constantly pressing wrong buttons or going to the wrong menus. I’m sure the same frustrations weren’t the same on PC, but on console it’s a serious hindrance that needs to be seriously looked at.
If you’re the type of sim player that enjoys analyzing data and looking at graphs to determine the best course of action, SimAirport has you covered. You’re given so much information, to the point of being completely overwhelming. And I’ll be honest, much of it went over my head. There’s so much you need to do and concentrate on simultaneously that I sometimes didn’t know where to start. I simply followed the order my tutorials showed me but constantly felt like I wasn’t being efficient enough and forgetting something when designing my airport.
An airport is much more than simply a building where you go to get on a plane. You need to think of customer service, walkways, restrooms, garbage bins, staffing, baggage claim, line queues, order purchasing, security, sales, executives and a handful of other things that seems to be escaping me at the moment. That’s exactly what I’m talking about when you have to constantly be aware of what you need and how to even go about doing so without trying to become overwhelmed or confused.
You’re able to choose to start with a basic airport already constructed which you can build and expand to, or start completely from scratch, regardless of which mode you play. I do suggest playing with the basic airport already built to learn how to best get early game setup, as you’ll be struggling early on with how to place proper zones, walls and expand areas. Constructing new areas, walls and placing objects requires workers, which in turn goes into your payroll. You’ll also need ticketing staff, security, chefs, retail workers and more. All of these aspects need to be weighed and factored into your decisions, as even over hiring can cause you money issues early on if you have workers standing around doing nothing but getting paid. Construction takes materials and has costs, and finances plays a large part of running a successful airport, so it’s almost always top of mind. You’ll need to watch your cash flow, as you’re going to have to budget to hire the staff, build runways, gates, retail stores, vehicles, purchase fuel and much more.
Again, I highly suggest starting out your first few airports in Sandbox Mode with unlimited money just so you can get a feel for how to best layout the airport of your dreams without having to worry about running out of cash. Getting the basics setup isn’t too difficult aside from struggling with the controls, but once you need to start ordering fuel, adding separate runways, scheduling staff, fuel lines and adding a baggage handling system that runs underground, then it’s a whole other level of confusion. There’s plenty here for those that want an incredibly deep simulator, but casual fans will surely feel lost much of the time.
As you start to slowly expand your airport, you’ll probably be excited to see passengers start to flow in for your first few flights, but as demand goes up, so do customer expectations. Having enough facilities for your airport to handle a hundred travelers isn’t too big of a deal, but soon as you start getting into many more thousands, it’s a whole different struggle trying to keep them all satisfied. Do you have enough waiting areas? Are the line queues getting out of hand? Are customers tired and upset because of the long walk from one gate to another? Are there even enough snack machines, retail options and garbage bins around? Are the big spenders happy with a first class lounge? You need to think of all the questions and frustrations you had if you’ve ever gone through a major airport before and ask yourself the same.
As you expand and learn how to play better, the map doesn’t just expand when you purchase land to extend your borders, but you’ll once again feel that overwhelming frustration when you want to start building up onto higher levels. This of course adds completely new challenge and logistical nightmares, and don’t even get me started on the baggage handling lines. I highly suggest when you start to expand to do so slowly. Learn how adding one more shop or room will affect the bigger picture before making a rookie mistake I did by adding 4 more runways and a bunch more gates, only to realize there’s a lot of steps required to make each work with one another, not even factoring in the astronomical costs associated.
After you’ve figured out how to best have your airport operations, you’ll then need to tweak and optimize to make it the most efficient and profitable it can be. This is easier said than done, and sometimes a small change can turn into a large ordeal. Even something as simple as watching fuel prices and deciding to sell excess when prices are high can be a way to earn some cash flow if needed. Even luring new airlines to use your airport might be a challenge, as they’ll have requirements before signing a contract, but you can of course try to negotiate more on your terms.
Visually, SimAirport isn’t too much to look at. The top down perspective makes sense given it’s more of a planning and management game, but all the objects and people are quite simplistic looking, done in 2D. There was no slowdown, even when I had thousands of people all around my airport, but there’s really not all that much to look at. As for the audio, there’s practically nothing to mention. I expected some light elevator music or something to play in the background, but there’s just... nothing. There’s some light sound effects when workers are doing some construction and some minor things, but the lack of any music really made the airport feel dead. Put on some of your best Spotify playlists in the background as you won’t be missing a single thing since there’s essentially no audio.
SimAirport isn’t easy by any means. The learning curve is almost a sheer cliff, though that’s more due to the terrible controls of porting from its PC origins. With better controls I probably wouldn’t have had as many frustrations, but even hours in I was still struggling and constantly having to remind myself which buttons to use in different menus. The $25.99 CAD price point may deter some if you were judging solely based on its screenshots, but there’s an immensely deep management sim underneath if you can spend the time to figure it out how to best develop your dream airport, down to the smallest details, just be aware of the frustrating controls.
**SimAirport was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Fight'N Rage
Originally released back in 2017, solo developer, SebaGamesDev, released Fight’N Rage, a love letter to the classic Beat’em Up genre that Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Battletoads and TMNT made so popular back in the day. Now released for current consoles, a bunch of additions and improvements have been made, and if you’re a fan of the genre, Fight’N Rage is certainly one to check out, especially if you want to play up to three players in local co-op and want a challenge.With games in this genre you’re generally playing for its gameplay, not so much the narrative. While there is a story here that revolves something around how mutants are taking over the planet where it’s now “the law of a jungle”, being led by “The Boss”. Of course there are a few that are willing to try and stop this from happening, beating up everyone in their way.
You have the choice of three initial characters: Gal, a quick and agile martial artist who favors her speed and aerial combos rather than strength. Being quite quick, she was easily my favorite of the group, and if she reminds you of Blaze from Streets of Rage you’re not alone. Next is Ricardo, a Mike Haggar clone, though he’s a minotaur instead of human. Being huge and absolutely ripped, he’s got the power and strength, but he’s so slow I found it quite difficult to play as him. Lastly is F. Norris, a ninja who sits somewhere in the middle for power and agility. He has some cool combos but I found it difficult to get myself out of sticky situations with him compared to Gal.
While most Beat’em Up games simply have you moving from the left side of the screen to the right to clear enemies in the way, you’re sometimes given options to go in a different direction, opening up multiple endings based on your decisions. Thankfully you’re also able to fully skip or fast forward cutscenes if you’re simply going through for another run or speed running.
If you’ve played any Beat’em Up in the past, you’ll be very aware of the general setup of walking to an area, defeating all your enemies until allowed to progress forward, clearing that area and repeat until you reach a boss at the end. While the core design isn’t all that different here, it certainly brings back some nostalgia to a time when the genre was much more popular.
While ‘easy to play, hard to master’ is a bit cliché to describe its gameplay, it’s absolutely true. Sure you might get through a good portion of the game by simply spamming the attack button, you’ll eventually hit a wall and be unable to progress if you don’t learn all of the other combat mechanics. Fight’N Rage is actually much more difficult than I expected, so it will take some time to learn how best to fight each type of enemy.
Also like most classic Beam’em Ups, you’ll replenish your health by smashing barrels and finding food on the ground like apples that replenishes a small amount and roast turkey which is best saved when critically low on health as it refills it completely. Some enemies will also drop weapons like a throwing knife, ninja star, a pipe or even a sword to help you get a few extra hits on your enemies.
While most Beat’em Ups are challenging, many utilize unlimited continues so that you can progress, and while Fight’N Rage is no different in allowing unlimited continues, there’s a few caveats to that that absolutely infuriate me. When you ultimately die and lose all your lives, you’re able to continue, but instead of just restarting where you just died with a new set of lives and freshly filled health bar, you are sent back to your last checkpoint, generally the start of the section or level. Sometimes this isn’t too bad and you only need to fight through a few groups of enemies to get back to where you originally died, but there are a few sections that stood out and were incredibly frustrating.
One of the last portions of a specific level has you fighting on a very small raft where you need to fight waves of almost every single enemy you’ve encountered to that point. The problem is that when you inevitably fall off the raft into the water, you lose a good portion of your health. Sure it’s great that you can knock off enemies into the water to instantly kill them, but you’ll no doubt lose a lot of health or lives here. Even worse, the last section of this is a boss fight, and if you die during that battle, you guessed it, you’re doing the whole section all over again.
There’s another section at the very end before the final boss that again, once I died, I had to fight the room of enemies in the previous room before being able to try the boss once more. The problem here is that there are a few enemies that are so overly challenging that it loses all its fun when you’ve already lost a few lives before clearing the room and attempting the boss once again. And yup, when you continue you’ll have to fight the Dobermans that have invulnerability moments and can easily stunlock you. Even on Easy mode, getting through the campaign was a challenge, but more on the difficulty options shortly.
While there’s really only three buttons you need to worry about (attack, jump and special), there are some different combinations of moves and attacks based on your chosen character. Spamming attack will work in the beginning against the basic enemies, but the ones in the latter portions will require a bit more strategy to defeat. You can grab enemies and toss them into others to group them all up and attack multiple at once, also able to utilize dashes and jump attacks.
Like most in the genre, there’s also a special move that you can use, but there’s a downfall to this as well. You have a Special Meter (SP) that refills over time, able to be used for a ‘free’ powerful attack, usually best saved until you’re in trouble or surrounded. If you want to use your special attack when the SP meter isn’t full though, you can do so but at the cost of a small portion of health. Remember all the continue issues I listed above? That means you’ll basically never want to use it for fear of dying and having to redo a section all over again. Food for health refills weren’t rare, but certainly not plentiful enough to actually want to use my specials.
There is a parry system in place, but it’s not explained very well initially and I found it quite difficult to pull off properly. In most sidescrolling Beat’em Ups like this, you simply move out of the line of attack from an enemy, which is certainly an option here, but you’re often surrounded by enemies so you’ll usually just walk into a different attack if so. Parries allow you to negate some of the damage, but having to press away from the enemy as the hit lands much of the time simply had me now facing the wrong direction.
You know what would have been appreciated? A Tutorial or Training mode. Much to my surprise, there actually IS a Training Mode, but it’s locked away initially. Yeah, I don’t understand that logic either. The more you play the more coins you earn based on your score. These coins are then used to unlock a number of different things from playable enemies, modes, costumes and yes, a Training Mode. You have to play the game a bunch to earn enough coins to hopefully go explore the unlockables section and then find there’s a Training Mode. This mode teaches you how to properly play each character, their moves and combos, and even earn new belts as you pass each tutorial. Good luck actually getting the Black Belt unlock due to the 60 second timer though, but it’s something to strive for. If the Training Mode was available initially, I probably wouldn’t have had as much frustration as I did in the beginning.
New character costumes are generally pallet swaps, but there’s plenty more to unlock, even an Easy Mode. Yes, you have to play and die on Normal to earn enough coins to unlock an easier mode, which is still challenging at times. The problem is that even a full run doesn’t earn you a lot of coins, so you’re going to have to play through numerous times if you want to actually unlock everything Fight’N Rage has to offer. Unlocking enemy characters to play as in VS Mode is fun, as here you can have 1v1 matches against a friend or even watch the CPU only battles.
While you can certainly play solo, it’s quite challenging on your own, especially in the later stages. Thankfully there is local 3 player co-op available, but sadly online play isn’t an option. I hope you have friends or family to play with, as solo did eventually become frustrating and repetitive, and if you want to really have some arguments with your co-op partners you can toggle the optional friendly fire as well. Manage to beat the game on Normal or Hard and you can actually unlock CPU partners to play alongside in co-op as well, again, an option that should have been a default.
With smooth framerates and 120FPS support, Fight’N Rage certainly looks good with its pixel art. Sure you can opt to turn on a bunch of classic filters like CRT mode, scanlines and more, but it’s smooth regardless and I never had any hiccups or slowdown. Animations are well done, enemy designs are done well (even if repeated quite often) and each backdrop is unique as you fight through it. The only thing that I found questionable was how overtly sexual some of the women designs were, even the pose Gal has when choosing her. The soundtrack is exceptional, full of dozens of rock tracks from Gonzalo Varela, and hearing your enemies explode from a full combo is always satisfying.
Fight’N Rage may initially look like any other Beat’em Up brawler out there if you judged it solely on some screenshots, but for a solo developer, it’s quite impressive. That said, Fight’N Rage is incredibly challenging and I question some of the design choices for being unlockables instead of default options. No online co-op is a bummer, but if you have friends and family to play with on the same couch there’s some fun to be had. I missed Fight’N Rage the first time, but this is the best version to check it out if you've never heard of it before like myself.
**Fight'N Rage (Series X|S) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Scars Above
I’ll admit, whenever I see or hear “soulslike” in a game description, I let out a small groan and probably roll my eyes a bit. Not a fan of the genre or the difficult ‘git gud’ game design they tend to utilize, I went into Scars Above with an open mind. Even though there may be some light Souls influences, it’s really not as much of a copy as I expected and does have some interesting mechanics. Scars Above is a third person shooter from smaller studio Mad Head Games, melding a genuinely interesting story, fantastical backdrops and some clever yet challenging gameplay.You play as Kate Ward, a scientist member of SCAR (Sentient Contact Assessment and Response) who is a part of a highly specialized group of people tasked with investigating and trying to communicate with a massive and mysterious object that appeared nearby Earth’s orbit. Humans call it The Metahedron, a massive upside down pyramid-like structure that simply appeared one day. Naturally, when a strange alien structure appears, we can only assume the worst, so the SCAR team is sent to investigate and attempt contact.
Like most times when we mess with things we don’t understand, this awakens the Metahedron and Dr. Kate Ward suddenly wakes up alone on a mysterious planet that is nothing like Earth, unsure where her team went. Being a scientist and not a soldier, Kate will need to use her scientific brain to try to piece what has happened and where her team is, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have to fight, quite the opposite actually.
As events unfold and you learn more about the planet, the hostile creatures and more, you’re guided by a ghost-like figure that speaks to you requesting help. Who is guiding you and how? As Kate analyses her environment, she will become more adept at learning enemy weak spots, crafting new gadgets, how to survive in harsh areas and more. It’s honestly quite an interesting story that hooked me from its opening cutscene, and while it does dip here and there, getting to the next story piece and cutscene is what pushed me to further figure out who and what The Custodian is.
Played as a third person shooter, while Kate isn’t particularly well trained in combat given she’s a scientist first and foremost, she will need to do everything she can to survive, and that includes a whole bunch of shooting. There are three difficulty settings, and even on Normal it can be a bit of a challenge for your first playthrough as you figure out the mechanics and best way to handle each enemy type. While not quite as difficult as a Souls game, there is challenge at figuring out the best strategies and weapon combinations.
As you explore the alien landscape and come across beasts you’ve never seen before, you’ll need to be quick on your feet to survive if you want to find out what has happened to the ancient civilization that was here once before. As you progress you’ll explore completely different and unique biomes, each with their own challenges, such as literally freezing to death in open sections if you don’t have fire nearby to keep warm. While the main design is pretty linear, there are some branching paths that loop back around, usually housing some secrets and collectables that will make the detour worth it.
The opening tutorial will teach you the core basics of melee and maneuvering, slowly introducing you to its other mechanics as you gain new weapon types, gadgets and abilities. While not trying to replicate a Soulslike too obviously, there are some similar features such as managing your stamina for running and dodging as well as the save points. There are large crystals strewn about the alien landscape for you to discover, acting as a save point and refilling all your health and gadgets, but this in turn also resets all enemies. Sound familiar?
While Kate only starts out with a simple blade, it’ll be your last resort to defend yourself should you run out of ammo during your adventure. The vast majority of the time though you’ll be using your unique weapon that can utilize different elemental attacks as you unlock them throughout your journey. Combat itself isn’t overly complex, as you simply need to know where an enemy weak point is and what element is best used against them. Obviously the bigger and badder foes will add more challenge, like protecting the weak spot in their chest as they rush you, but there’s always a strategy that will work somewhat easily once you figure it out.
There’s also some Bioshock-like gameplay where the different elementals can combine for extra damage. For example, use your electricity shots to an enemy that is standing in water and it’ll take massive damage. Or maybe you want to slow them down, so you use your ice shots when they are in the water instead. Combining fire and acid are another lethal combination, so the initial challenge comes from not only knowing what weakness your enemy has (thankfully the color coded glowing spots on their body is an indicator) but also the best way to use the environment around you.
You’ll eventually have to manage four different ammunition types of fire, electricity, ice and acid, and while ammo isn’t necessarily scarce, it’s not abundant either. Certain flora around the world act as ways to refill your ammo, such as electricity or fire plants. On top of the different weapon types, you’ll also unlock new gadgets at a steady pace as you explore the mysterious and dangerous world you find yourself trapped on.
These gadgets can be useful in the right situation, but I found myself constantly forgetting to use them quite often. The two I found most useful was the shield that allows you to absorb some incoming damage for a short time, always helpful when fighting new enemies and bosses, and a grenade-like tossable item that slows down enemies as they pass through it, allowing you to escape or get around to target weak spots. These gadgets use portions of your battery, its own resource, but can be filled by finding Fiber around the world or of course resting at one of the crystals.
Scars Above does have some light puzzle elements as well, but nothing really all that challenging or had me becoming stumped. Some are shooting specific points with the right type of weapon and others will be researching items to find more information about it, focusing on specific points of the device and clicking 'A'.
Kate is a scientist, so naturally she’s going to want to research and investigate any new objects and creatures she comes across. This not only gives you more information about your enemies and surroundings, but finding more knowledge is how you’ll earn new ability points. Scars Above doesn’t use the typical ‘souls’ currency for defeating enemies. Actually, you get really nothing for defeating enemies, instead having a more exploration focus to find more knowledge. This encourages you to explore off the main path, almost always having something for your troubles. As you fill the knowledge meter you’ll eventually earn skill points to use for a variety of different skills and perks. Don’t worry though, before the end you’ll not only max out your skill tree but probably have a handful of leftover points as well.
Keeping in mind that Scars Above isn’t a AAA release at a full asking price, the visuals can be impressive at times. The world Kate finds herself abandoned on are quite beautiful at times, no doubt that will entice you for some vista screenshots. Enemies are designed quite well, though there isn’t a whole lot of variety, instead being recycled quite often and simply changing their weakness to be ‘different’, though the boss fights certainly stand out. Characters are modeled decently and my only real complaint here is that every cutscene stutters quite harshly for its first few seconds, even on an Xbox Series X.
As for its audio, the background soundtrack sets the tone based on the biome you’re exploring or kicks in a bit more when you’re taking on a massive boss. You’re able to hear the bulkier enemies coming from afar as their foot stomps get louder as they approach, and the main characters do a decent job at delivering their lines, so no real complains there.
I did quite enjoy the narrative from its opening moments and was compelling me to continue to move forward, even if combat could be a bit challenging and save points sometimes a bit too far stretched out, causing frustration when I had to replay a good half hour all over again. Combat does get repetitive and tiresome over time, but as an overall package, Scars Above feels like a much larger story wrapped in a AA package.
**Scars Above was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6
Even though I’ve never ridden a motorcross bike, I’ve somehow become the defacto reviewer when it comes to the sport. Over the last handful of games I’ve come to learn quite a great deal about the Supercross sport and would like to think I’m decent at the games by now. Having played the last handful of Monster Energy Supercross titles, I was hoping for some big improvements this year with Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6, as last year’s fifth entry was lukewarm at best. It’s time to gas up the bike and hit the mud and dirt with all the 2022 official bikes, riders and tracks.Stepping into the world of Supercross can be daunting if you’re not already a fan of the sport, thankfully this is where your personal coach will come in, guiding you along the way. And what better coach to have than the iconic Jeremy McGrath, a legend of the sport who has won over 70 SX main events and 7 SX Championships. He will take you through the training events to learn how to win races and impress crowds with your tricks, hopefully resulting in a podium finish.
Almost an exact copy of last year’s entry, you’re able to start out working your way up the ranks from 250CC up to the 450 class. Begin with the ‘Future’ class, starting out with 250CC Championships and finding your first sponsors along the way. From there you graduate to ‘Rookie’, working towards winning those 250 Championships and being introduced to the Rider Shape mechanics, Training Sessions and Challenges. Finally when you’re ready to compete with the big boys, ‘Pro’ has you challenging famous names of the sport all fighting for the 450 Championship, maybe even finding a few rivals along the way.
With a virtually identical career progression as last year’s game, Pro level has 17 live events to compete in, with the lower classes a few less. While it’s great they’ve included iconic tracks, teams, bikes, and riders, if you’ve played the last game, it’s going to feel all too familiar.
If you’re a competitive player, there’s essentially four different modes for you to play. Career is probably where you’ll spend the majority of your time, working your way up the ladder for those coveted Championships. Time Attack is for those that want bragging rights to be the best in the world, constantly trying to save a second or two to climb those leaderboards. Championship Mode lets you choose whatever cup you want to compete for then challenge a friend or play by yourself. Lastly is Single Event where you can setup a single race with almost any parameters you wish.
For those that don’t want to focus on the competitiveness as much, there’s also a few modes here for you as well to simply have fun or improve your skills. Supercross Academy is essentially your tutorial zone where you’ll learn the ins and outs of racing so you can improve your skills and climb the rankings. Supercross Park is your free roam area where you can freely ride around do whatever you like. It’s split into a number of different zones, complete with motocross tracks, SX sections, ramps, jumps and collectables and more. You’re able to ride along here to explore, or invite some friends for some company.
The most interesting addition to this year’s entry though is Rhythm Attack. Here it’s you versus another rider head to head. The catch is that it’s simply a long straight section without any turns, so how you’ll manage the bumps and jumps is going to be key when racing side by side for the first to be across the finish line. Think of it like a drag race, but trickier, as you’ll need skill and speed to win. Single eliminations competition makes for some actual fun events, complete with split screen for local play.
Some of the marketing touts that Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6 has revised physics and AI, supposedly resulting in more realistic animations depending on the type of terrain. While the bikes do feel a little heavier this year, there’s still some questionable physics. If you manage to land on top of another rider, you do this weird floating before landing back onto solid ground. Brakes also seem to not work as well this year, as I could slam on the brakes and still need to almost come to complete halt to make some of the hairpin turns. As for the AI, I’d argue it’s become worse. They are all slower, ride in basically a single line, and it’s not uncommon to win races by over 20 or 30 seconds even on harder difficulties once you get a hang for the riding.
I found it was almost random if I was going to get points for a Scrub or Whip and the physics just feel quite different this year. Even though you’ll create ruts as you go through corners every lap, it’s as though you’re almost unable to bank into them to take the turns quicker. This causes you to have to lose the majority of your speed to make many corners. Lastly, the few times there’s a tall table top, even when approaching at a straight angle, it would almost always change my direction randomly as I go up the ramp section, even before ruts form.
What I did enjoy though was the customization options for riding aids. If you have certain disabilities or simply want an easier experience to enjoy the racing instead of stressing about losing, there’s a number of options here to assist. Options like Auto brakes, Auto Steering, Auto Throttle and more. This allows you to have some assistance in maybe certain aspects but not all, able to ease up the help anytime as you become more confident. I did enjoy the Auto Throttle initially as it taught me the amount of speed I needed for certain jumps to land properly and not over and under shoot.
Making a return from last year’s entry is the Rider Shape system. If you’re constantly crashing and bailing, naturally you’re going to get hurt. Well, when you’re hurt you obviously have a disadvantage when race time comes around, so you’re going to have to manage your overall health. Between races you can see your rider status, and to heal and improve your performance you’ll need to partake in a quick timed event. Taking place in the free roam area, you’ll need to collect the letters S-H-A-P-E for completion. There’s also two other objectives you can attempt to complete within the time limit for even more bonuses and a healthier rider. There’s no reattempts though, so make the most of your time in this event to hopefully gain your bonuses back for the next race.
There’s a long list of objectives to complete at any time during your races, and hitting certain milestones you’ll earn skill points that you can use to customize your rider’s abilities and perks. Maybe you want to have better cornering or braking? This is where the skill points can be put in, with each tier costing more than the previous. Filling the first half of the skill trees won’t take too long, but it will eventually become a grind if you’re trying to earn more later on.
While only for aesthetics, you can fully customize your rider with a long list of brands to choose from for your helmet, gloves, boots and more. There’s even a Helmet Editor where you can create a helmet for your rider in any design you want, even able to share online for others to use or find a cool design someone else has created and put it on your rider.
New to multiplayer is full console crossplay as well as an online ranking system. Now you can finally see how skilled other players in the lobby you’ll be racing are, and while there’s no PC and Console crossplay, at least you and your friends that plays on the other console can finally race together.
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6 looks exactly the same as last year. Play me two videos of the game side by side and I doubt I’d be able to definitively tell the difference between the two. Riders look decent in motion, but animations still feel a little stiff at times. The texture pop-in issues at the beginning of races is still present and unfixed, even on an Xbox Series X. Faces for the riders themselves also looks unimproved and terrible at best. Best experienced in first person or helmet camera, it’s the most authentic way to put you right into the action so you can’t focus as much on its shortcomings.
I hope you like the constant wheeze of the bike engines, as that’s what you’re going to hear from start to finish. Sure you can turn it down, but then you’d have to deal with the boring and unforgettable soundtrack that plays during races. Turn the sound completely off and play your favorite Spotify list, as that’s how I was able to tolerate it after a few hours.
I find myself coming to the same conclusion as last year’s entry, hence basically the same score; if you have the previous year’s game, there’s really not much here to warrant a repurchase. Sure the diehard fans of the sport will enjoy all the 2022 rider and arena updates, but if online play doesn’t interest you, there’s a lot of repetitiveness and really not all that much new this year to excite everyone else.
**Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 6 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Backfirewall_
Have you ever given second thought to when you need to update your phone to the newest Operating System (OS)? Probably not, as you simply hit the update button and let it do its thing for a few minutes before you’re greeted with the latest and greatest software right? Well, what if I told you there’s a whole world and ecosystem inside your phone, where your apps are actually people? What if updating your phone’s OS caused more strife and trauma than you even thought of? What if the old OS was a person, and updating to the latest essentially kills them off only to be replaced?This is the premise of Backfirewall_, an adorable indie game from Naraven Games that wasn’t even on my radar and probably something I’d honestly skip past in the trailers, but more than elated that I got to play through its adventure. As you go through this hilarious adventure you’ll meet a handful of unique, quirky and memorable apps (characters) along the way, visiting numerous areas and sections inside the phone, all while solving puzzles. I can honestly say, I’ll think of my phone a little differently when it comes time for its next major update. If you enjoy games with endless humor like The Stanley Parable and know your technology terms even slightly, you’re going to have a good time filled with plenty of laughs.
You are the Update Assistant, the app that actually, well, updates your system when you’re ready to upgrade to the newest OS. Backfirewall_ starts out in a really interesting way with someone talking to you and a simple icon on the screen. This is when you first get introduced to OS9, a chatty, witty and hilarious personality that will act as your narrator throughout the adventure.
The time has come though, the latest OS is out, OS10, so naturally you would want to upgrade to the best there is to offer right? Well, OS9 doesn’t want that, as it will kill him once replaced with the new OS10, and you don’t want him to die do you? You hold the fate of the phone’s universe in your hands and decisions. Do you save OS9 from deletion? Does finding out that when the OS gets updated that also has you become deleted as well make a difference? Do you want to die? I’d assume not, so you two begin your journey to do anything you can to stop the update from happening.
As you travel throughout the different core components of the phone, you’ll meet a unique cast along the way all played in first person. As you meet new apps and get to know them, they all have their own ideas and thoughts on the update, but there’s more going on here that you start to notice. There’s seemingly a resistance happening, as maybe some apps have realized that they won’t possibly work with the new OS if it gets updated or you see some graffiti on the walls that are sometimes hilarious, and others ominous.
I don’t want to delve too much more into the narrative as it’s not a terribly long adventure, but the story is absolutely its highlight filled with non-stop humor and a wide range of emotions. Even the most minor characters are quirky enough to be interesting and there’s plenty of details hidden throughout if you take the time to look and read all the logs (literally, they are logs that represent, well, logs). If you know your tech terms and some pop culture references, you’re going to be smiling throughout. It’s a very unique setting and I thought it was going to be a little dull from its screenshots before playing, but it’s quite the opposite actually.
As you make your way to new areas of the phone, like the seemingly infinite RAM halls, the WiFi tower, the acid filled Battery, the GPU where you’ll see the User’s photos and more, they all have a unique setting that if I had to guess what an actual ecosystem in a phone was like, this probably wouldn’t be too far off. The world is colorful and simply gives off a ‘fun’ vibe, even when the security bots are trying to find you and OS9, whom has conveniently tucked himself away inside your code.
While there’s some platforming to be done, it’s quite light, with more of a focus on its puzzle elements. There’s plenty more to do though with bugs to find, toys to collect, reading logs, finding text messages and more. If you do happen to ‘die’ from falling off a ledge into the battery acid below or getting caught from the security bots, you’ll simply respawn instantly a moment away and able to try again without any recourse.
You’re in a smartphone remember, so while you don’t have root access to see all the User’s private information like texts, you are able to find them scattered throughout the phone as you adventure on, with yellow texts able to be read and blue which are encrypted, acting like a currency when you’re able to purchase things. All the texts in the phone are initially unreadable, but as you find more they’ll slot in to the appropriate place in each person’s text conversation with the User. It’s a clever way that really made me want to go out of my way to find as many as I possibly could. It genuinely made me more curious about the User, especially when I started seeing photos and videos of her.
As you progress through each section of the phone, you’ll eventually hit a roadblock where you’ll need to solve a handful of puzzles before OS9 can unlock a door for you to walk through. This is done by causing system errors in the area. You’re given a checklist of True statements, such as there being 10 boxes in the room. Well, if you delete one of those boxes, that is clearly no longer a True statement, so the error occurs and you will get an objective update. Finish the five or so puzzles and you’ll be able to move onto the next area.
How do you solve said puzzles you ask? Great question. You cheat. Yup, OS9 will periodically give you new cheat codes which is used in a really clever way in its world, not just these puzzle areas. These cheat codes allow you to manipulate the environment in different ways, acting as new powers or abilities. You first learn to delete items, eventually able to duplicate, change colors of objects and more. It’s all done in a way that makes complete sense given your backdrop and the narrative, so I applaud the originality.
But you aren’t good at puzzle games and this might deter you I hear? Don’t fret, the puzzles aren’t terribly difficult, and while I never had to look up a walkthrough, there is some in-game assistance offered if you should need it. Can’t figure out how to solve a certain puzzle? Ask the rubber ducks. Yes, you’ll talk to rubber ducks that will offer hints that you crave so badly. They do a wonderful job and never directly spell it out for you what to do, but just enough of a hint where they basically tell you what to do or where to go. I’ve had to rely on them once or twice and still felt the sensation of puzzle solving on my own, even if I did get a little bit of a clue from a rubber duck.
While I really did enjoy the level design, the audio and sound design needs special mention. OS9 is an absolute treat with his accent and witty lines. Think Wheatley from Portal 2 and you’ll have a perfect example, of which I’m sure plenty of inspiration came from. Nicolas Oberson’s performance of OS9 is flawless and absolutely makes Backfirewall_ the unique experience it is. Fantastic voice acting all around, which quite surprised me from a smaller studio, but every NPC and App you meet along the way is voiced absolutely wonderfully. The writing obviously plays a large part in the execution of its humor throughout, but the lines were delivered perfectly, only adding to the humor more so. The actors for OS10, Social Media, Alex, Unzipper and more all did fantastic, elevating the experience.
Full of creativity, the initial screenshots might fool you with how basic is looks, but it’s done so deliberately and makes for a truly extraordinary game. I was smiling from the opening moments when I had to choose what my name was from a few different binary numbers, only for OS9 to call me Elizabeth in the end regardless, all the way to the end where I was legitimately sad. Humor isn’t easy to pull off in games, and if you miss the landing, the whole experience falls flat. That isn’t the case here at all.
Backfirewall_ is one of those games I honestly probably wouldn’t have given a second glance to as I scrolled through the store of something new to play, but absolutely delighted that I got to experience such a unique and creative game that clearly had a lot of heart and passion behind it. Indie games like Backfirewall_ need to be experienced, one that I can fully recommend if you need something light hearted, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and gives plenty of laughs along the way, even if it has now made me questioning my phone’s OS update in real life.
**Backfirewall_ was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Pinball FX
I’m glad I grew up in the gaming era I did, as my mom would give me a few quarters to go play at the local arcade on the way home from work. That’s right, I’m dating myself by talking about arcades; dedicated businesses that house dozens of different games that you could only find there, as not every game came out for PC or console at the time. I’d say a good half of my quarters would always be spent on a pinball machine or two, as many arcades used to have a handful of different pinball machines in a specific corner or wing of the building.While playing virtual pinball is nowhere near the same thing as standing at an actual machine and feeling those flippers launch the ball and the lights brighten, it’s a substitute that will have to do as arcades aren’t commonplace any longer sadly. Hands down, the king of the genre is Zen Studios, as this is their specialty, bringing console pinball games for numerous console generations now. For over a decade I’ve been playing Pinball FX and its sequels, always up for a game or two if short on time.
Don’t let the name confuse you, even though Pinball FX released back on Xbox 360 in 2007, this is basically a remake/remaster/reboot, whatever you want to call it, for the modern consoles. Even though this too is named Pinball FX, it’s a completely new entry. Now something to take note of, Pinball FX really isn’t a game. Sure, it includes a free table to give you a taste, but Pinball FX is more of a platform than anything else, which is why it’s technically ‘free’. This platform is how you’ll try out and purchase any new tables that you enjoy.
Being completely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 4, there’s now 4K graphical support ray tracing and “better” physics. I only quote the “better” because even though it’s a major selling point in their marketing, I couldn’t really tell much of a difference after playing dozens of hours of the previous Pinball FX games. Zen Studios excels at creating unique pinball tables that certainly make me wish there was a real life counterpart, but also recreating some of my favorite tables that I remember playing when I was younger.
As stated above, Pinball FX is a free download and comes with one table to play on indefinitely. This is to hopefully entice you to try out some other tables and of course then spend money on new ones or packs. Certain tables can be purchased individually whereas others need to be purchased in packs. With 86 tables to try out and choose from, there’s certainly at least a few you’re sure to enjoy enough to want to purchase and keep. The pinball tables available vary quite greatly, themed from Star Wars, Marvel, Indiana Jones, Universal Studios, classic Williams Pinball tables and plenty of original Zen Studio designs.
Controls are exactly as you’d expect, with your triggers being used for the flippers. You’re able to use your Right Stick as the plunger if the table utilizes that style instead of a button, allowing you to perform specific powered shots. You're even able to 'shake' the table and bump it, though be careful of you'll error out the machine and lose your ball. There are a variety of different camera options depending if you want something stationary and far out, like how you stand over the table in real life to view it all from above, or something much closer that focuses on the bottom flippers, or even a camera option that follows the ball closely as it moves, though I found this one difficult to use with the constant movement and knowing where your flippers are until it’s too late.
Some tables are also what I’m calling ‘virtually enhanced’, meaning that there’s extra flair that can occur in certain modes. For example, playing with this toggled on with the Indiana Table you may see him using his whip to go from one side of the table to another, almost like if it was an augmented reality portion. You can toggle this off to play the table in its standard form without all of these extra distractions, but this is one of the bonuses of having digital tables, as Zen Studios can do a lot of things like this that wouldn’t be possible on a real table.
Given that there are almost 90 tables available currently, I’m not going to fully review every single one, instead saying that the majority are quite good, though having played these games for many years I’ve played a good majority of them already for many hours previously. There weren’t any that I particularly found terrible, though I certainly had my preferences of the ones I gravitated to for many plays instead of others. With 86 tables to choose from, there’s no shortage depending on your brand preferences, but I’m quite partial to the Williams tables as I can remember playing many of these growing up. Some of the Zen Studios original tables are quite entertaining as well.
If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll be happy to know there’s a lot of different themes tables here from almost every superhero. If Star Wars if your thing there’s even more choices, spanning the whole franchise practically, even including The Mandalorian. If you enjoy classic Universal Studios movies you’ll want to check out the pack that has Jaws, Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Back to the Future, and even E.T. There’s a handful of new tables too which I was excited to try out. Themed tables from The Addams Family (probably the hardest table I’ve ever played), Borderlands (and other Gearbox games), Snoopy, Garfield, World War Z and My Little Pony were all quite unique. Even though the Garfield and My Little Pony tables are clearly marketed towards a younger audience, they were simplistic to play, entertaining and quite colorful.
You can of course play each table in Classic Mode, your typical way to play with 3 balls, aiming to get the highest score possible. There’s an interesting Arcade Mode where you can set to have certain power-ups and a handful of different toggles, adding for some fun variety. The modes I enjoyed the most were Timed, Flipper and Single Ball. Timed gives you, well, a set amount of time where you have unlimited balls to reach a high score, not needing to worry about losing your balls down the middle, though of course waiting for a new ball to launch wastes precious time. Single Ball was a surprisingly fun mode though, as you’re given a single ball to see how high of a score you can get. Sometimes this works out well, and others you lose your ball almost instantly. By far though, Flipper challenge is something I gravitated towards. Here you’re given usually 200 presses of the flippers before the game is over. You have unlimited balls, but every time you lose a ball down the middle it counts as one flip, so you still want to play well. This actually made me a better pinball player as I had to be more specific and purposeful with my flippers instead of just spamming the triggers.
Though not a new concept, there’s a collectable aspect to Pinball FX as well. Here you can earn items to decorate your own pinball cave, placing the unlockable items in your display shelves, carpets, posters and more. These items are generally tied to specific score accumulation totals for each table, so the more you play the more you can unlock. The items are usually themed to the table or a small figure from it which you can then place on your shelf to decorate. It’s a fun little bonus and gives you a little incentive to play the tables you might not generally gravitate towards.
If you’d like to create a Tournament for others to play, you’re given a handful of different options including the table, length of time to enter and try, what mode, and nearly anything you can think of. Great idea, but the problem with the Tournament functionality is that it’s just filled with an endless list of other player’s postings, so it’s difficult to find what you want.
Pinball FX’s latest addition, and my favourite, is the Events. These are official challenges that when you’re successful you’ll earn points towards your ‘Season Pass’. That’s right, a pinball game with a season pass. Luckily you don’t have to purchase it, but you only get points by completing these events that go towards your progress. These are fun and rotate daily or weekly, depending on the event. Some also only allow a certain amount of plays and attempts a day, and these can even be some of the more unique modes like Single Ball or Flipper challenges. The best part is that since there’s online leaderboards for everything, you get a quick notification that you’ve passed someone’s score that was above you in the rankings, always fun to see as you’re having a good game. The only thing of note is that many of these events are with premium tables, so clearly another way to entice you to purchase more.
Then there’s what’s being called the Pinball Pass. You know how you have a subscription to Netflix, Prime, Hulu and probably a few more services? How about adding one more for your pinball needs. The Pinball Pass is essentially that, giving you access to nearly every table for as long as your subscription lasts. Some tables are great, others maybe not so much, so instead of purchasing every single table, this is another option for you. There’s even supposed to be more bonuses included in the future, but I can’t speak to those as they’ve not been revealed yet. The Pinball Pass gives you unlimited play and access to the included tables, but there are a few that are not included, which I’m sure is for licensing reasons, but imagine loading up Netflix and being told that the latest Season of Squid Game isn’t included and you need to purchase it separately; it’s the same disappointment.
In typical gaming fashion, instead of simply purchasing the Pinball Pass with real money, you first need to buy their own currency, Pinball Coins, then purchase what you want with those. There’s a handful of different bundles to buy, as you can spend these coins on other collectable items and such, but the Pinball Pass is 1200 Pinball Coins. That converts to $128.99 CAD. That’s NOT a typo. It’s well over a hundred dollars for a year of your pinball subscription. Sure it’s great for the year you have the pass, but I can imagine the frustration when the day comes you need to re-subscribe and are reminded of how expensive that is. Yes you can purchase tables outright to keep, so there are options, but it can get pricey quite quickly.
Pinball Pass questionability aside, if you really enjoy a table you can purchase it to keep and play whenever you want, but what about the players like me that have been playing the Pinball FX games for well over a decade and already have a hearty collection of tables? Well, it seems Zen Studios doesn’t care about that and want you to repurchase everything. Spent hundreds of dollars in the past for tables? Well, too bad. Start all over here in Pinball FX. Not being able to transfer any previous table purchases is sure to give a really bad taste in many mouths with the new engine being blamed for the reason that’s not a possibility. Sadly it gives off a greed vibe, as the new coat of paint and slightly better lighting is questionable for a full repurchase of everything you may have already purchased in the past. Whether I believe the reasoning or not isn’t my job, but it’s certainly questionable. Even a one-time fee import/export I would have been fine with, like how the Rock Band games did, but this is sure to draw some ire form the pinball community for sure. For complete transparency, we were given a Pinball Pass and all the tables not included with the subscription for review purposes.
Also, some tables can’t be purchased individually, so if you only like one table in the Marvel pack for example, well, you’re going to have to purchase the whole thing, which is obviously more expensive. All or nothing seems a bit disappointing and might even prevent some from purchasing what they actually want. Making matters worse is the menu system for downloading the trials and games is cumbersome within game, even if you purchased it externally on the Xbox store already.
There is an option for Performance or Quality in the options menu (on an Xbox Series X at least), though toggling both and scrutinizing multiple tables, I find it quite hard to find much of a difference. I was hoping Quality mode would have drastically better lighting and ray tracing, you know, the ‘reason’ for forcing you to rebuy all your tables, but I couldn’t tell much of a difference other than maybe some slightly better smoothness with Performance mode. The tables look great, just as they did over a decade ago, and reliving some of my favorite tables from my childhood (shout out to Medieval Madness) always puts a smile on my face. The only issue I had with performance was some massive slowdown whenever an Xbox notification popped up on screen, lagging the game for a few seconds as it occurred oddly enough.
Pinball FX is looking to make a comeback on console with this reboot, though your enjoyment is solely going to depend on which tables you enjoy and how much money you’re willing to invest into it. For recreating an actual pinball experience digitally, no one does it better than Zen Studios, it’s just a shame that the cost of entry is quite high to accumulate a decent pinball collection once again and you’re constantly tugged in multiple directions to open your wallet. Pinball FX as its own gaming experience is entertaining and a great way to spend a few relaxing hours on numerous tables once purchased, but the pricing structure is something to check before you dive in head first and sure to massively disappoint those that have already previously bought tables in the past.
**Pinball FX was provided by the publisher (Pinball Pass and numerous table collections included) and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Fashion Police Squad
My personal sense of fashion is one that comfort trumps style. I’m a jeans and t-shirt type of guy; simple. Thankfully I’m not at the socks and sandals dad level yet. Would my clothing choices turn heads? Of course not, and I’m fine with that. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Trendpololis, the setting of Fashion Police Squad, as I would probably be a fashion faux pas. And that is the hook with Fashion Police Squad, you’re given the power to fix the public's fashion atrocities like baggy clothes, flame prints, socks and sandals, and other fashion disasters.Think Doom Eternal, but instead of a dark, gritty and bloody shooting spree, you instead are going through a 3D world but every character is 2D and animated. It’s a classic FPS at its core and plays just like one, but definitely uses other shooter game mechanics, like using specific weapons for certain enemies. The only difference here is that you’re shooting at regular citizens that just happened to have terrible fashion sense and thus fixing and making them modern and fashionable. No blood and gore here, just bright colorful and eccentric style.
You are sergeant Des, a fashion police officer that has some extravagant style, sworn to fix the fashion faux pas that’s occurring throughout Trenopolis. Along with your handful of different fashion weapons and your Belt of Justice, you’ll be saving the city from terrible style. You’ll need to save people from baggy pants, socks and sandals, oversized suits and more. Your partner Haley talks to you over the radio, guiding you along your adventure and where to go next.
Rather than being just a simplistic shooter without any substance, there’s actually quite a bit of emphasis on its story. Is it a bit over the top and silly? Of course, but that’s where some of its charm comes from. There’s a mystery of why all these citizens are committing fashion crimes and it’s up to the Fashion Police Squad to solve who, what, where and why. It plays out much like a parody of itself, media and other games where humor plays a large part of its charm, and while it does get a little repetitive by the end, I still had a great time regardless.
Across a dozen different missions, you’ll be spreading glam and fashion across the city. Levels are quite linear, having you defeat everyone before being allowed to move on, and even having to get different colored scissors to progress past matching colored ribbons (think key cards from Doom). The world, characters and environment is bright, colorful and full of neon as you shoot, jump and swing your way from one end to the other.
As you shoot your way through the fashion crimes, you’ll also come across different pickups like watches, bow ties and mocktails, which will increase your health or armor, again, much like its Doom inspiration. Your Belt of Justice not only acts as way to stun your enemies, but it’s mainly used like a grappling hook, able to attach to certain flagpoles to launch and fling you forward. These platforming sections were fun but very seldom.
If you’re the type to search for secrets, there’s no shortage here, with each level having some sort of secret to be found, even the boss fights. Having found a few, they are tucked away pretty well and will take some time to find them all. At the end of each mission you’ll get a ranking and show what you found for pickups and secrets, but the highlight is the fashion show. All of the people you ‘fix’ by changing their attire, they will run down the catwalk much like a fashion show. It’s done in a really cool way and made it feel like what I did that previous level was for a reason.
Being a FPS, shooting will be what you primarily will be doing with your unique arsenal. You begin with a single weapon but will eventually get more as the story progresses. Where Fashion Police Squad’s hook comes in is with how you use your different weapons based on each type of enemy. Each fashion crime requires a different way to fix it, so you’ll be forced to figure out and remember which weapon is needed to defeat each type of person by altering what they are wearing. Above each person is a health bar that once depleted, turns them into a fashionable version that is deserving of the catwalk.
You’ll need to know what each type of weapon does and which enemies they are used for if you want to be successful, because using the wrong weapon simply won’t do anything to them. You begin with your Paint Shotgun, splattering color to those drab enemies in boring grey suits. You’ll then get a Sewing Machine Gun that shoots needles to tighten those loose fitting clothes, whereas its alternate fire lobs a fabric grenade. Sock Gnomes are funny little grenades that will seek out the sock and sandal wearing offenders. The Water Cannon comes later, allowing you to clear fire from the Guy Fieri knockoff that, well, spews fire. This also doubles as a way to make you run and slide faster if you spray slightly in front of you as you run. There’s a last weapon you get in the final section, but I’ll leave that as a surprise given the runtime is only a handful of hours.
What’s most interesting is that every weapon has unlimited ammo, so there’s no need to scrounge around to find more or wait to defeat enemies to drop some. This is where the needing to use the right weapon for the right fashion crime comes in, and when you have multiple different enemy types coming at you all at once, this is where it becomes chaotic as you try and figure out who to attack first to placate by fixing their clothing. Even at the end there were new enemy types being introduced, and while some were much more annoying than others, it was generally easy to remember which enemy type needs which type of weapon to defeat. My main complaint is that some of the arenas you get locked into at times are quite small and when you have a dozen enemies to defeat, it gets hectic at times.
Thankfully you have a special meter that fills slowly, allowing you to use your Fabulous Slap Glove, essentially an instant kill attack move for a short period of time, best saved for those chaotic portions with waves of enemies. There’s a few levels that try to break up the monotony by having a sniper section where you have different gnome ammo depending if people need their hair, shoes or clothing ‘fixed’, and another where you’re in a car chase using a turret to defeat your enemies as well. These did break up the repetition a bit, but I didn’t enjoy these sections as much as I thought I would. Fashion Police Squad shines best in its unique boss battles, especially the one halfway through that I won’t spoil, but references a number of gaming tropes.
The 2D pixel models in a 3D world isn’t anything new, but it works well here and looks quite stylish, of course. The world is bright and colorful and has plenty of style. There’s a lot of smaller details that make the world more fun and it’s hard to not smile while playing. The soundtrack is done quite well, and while I wished more than the opening sequence was voiced, each gun sounds unique and it’s obvious which enemies are nearby with their lines, even if they are repeated quite often with the low enemy variety.
Sure, Fashion Police Squad is like any other classic shooter but with a gimmick, but it’s a fun one. Full of humor, puns and fashion one-liners, it’s hard not to smile every so often, especially when a new enemy is introduced, because you know you’ve seen this very exact fashion crime at some point. With its classic Doom inspiration, it’s certainly one of the more unique FPS games I’ve ever played, full of fashion and style.
**Fashion Police Squad was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Breakers Collection
In the early 90’s no one could deny that Capcom was on top of the world when they released Street Fighter II and with subsequent improved editions in the following years, but they cemented themselves as the king of the fighting games, save for maybe Mortal Kombat, depending on your style, preferences, and if your parents would let you play it. I’m glad to have grown up during this era of amazing games, as fighting games were some of the best memories I have playing until the wee hours of the night with some friends on the weekend.While Street Fighter II may have taken the world by storm, the Neo Geo was the latest console from SNK, and while it may not have been as popular out here with Western audiences, it certainly garnered a fan base in other parts of the world. SNK needed their own fighting game to rival Capcom’s behemoth, and in 1996 developers Visco released a very similar 2D fighting game, Breakers. Being popular given the small audience, sadly Breakers never made its way outside of Japan, so I don’t feel bad for never hearing of it before, or its 'sequel', Breakers Revenge. It seemingly has a cult following, so I’m glad to have been exposed to it for my own knowledge.
Thanks to QUByte Interactive, they’ve managed to bring the duo of games not only to a Western audience for the first time, but on the latest consoles. Even more impressive is that this is easily the definitive version, as they’ve also included a bunch of improvements and extras as well, so rather than a simply port via emulation, they’ve gone above and beyond.
While there are some slight story elements here, let’s be honest, it’s a fighting game, so you’re playing it to fight other characters regardless of their own motivations. Breakers Collection does include two different games, but that said, there’s little reason to play the original Breakers when the included Breakers Revenge is an improved version. Just like Street Fighter II, why would you play the core game when you have Turbo or even Championship Edition at hand? Same idea here, so I’ll mostly be focusing on Breakers Revenge as it had two extra playable characters as well as a bunch of improvements.
While the roster is small, it’s a surprisingly tight fighting game given that I’ve never heard of it before, though when you’re trying to emulate others successes almost one-for-one it’s kind of hard not to. Even with only ten characters to choose from, they are all varied and you’re sure to find a favorite quickly on, even quicker if you know which character is basically a copy of their Street Fighter II counterpart.
If you needed a few examples, my go-to was Tia, essentially a clone of Chun-Li who was also my fighter of choice, complete with quick leg kicks. Rila is a knockoff of Blanka, Alsion III is Dhalsim and even the final boss, Bai-Hu is Bison almost exactly. I’m all for games that pay homage to others, but it’s quite apparent that the majority of the characters were essentially reskins of their Street Fighter inspirations. What I did find interesting is that when you’re playing a shadow match, both players playing the same character, the second player will be named differently even though they are simply just a palette swap, complete with a backstory and everything. It’s an interesting and unique touch.
So while Breakers Collection will be new to most unless you lived abroad or imported games, this duo pack adds a handful of improvements, more so than I actually expected. You can expect crossplay between consoles and PC, rollback netcode (a must these days), a training mode, unlockable galleries, leaderboards, ranked online battles, online replays, lobbies, a Team Battle mode and more. It’s an impressive list of extra additions that went into this collection and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Like other fighting games from that era, you have a light and heavy punches and kicks. You’re able to combo light and heavy attacks together quite easily and with enough skills, then adding specials into the combo finisher. You can have up to three levels in your Super bar, filled by dashing, blocking, attacking, blocking, taunting, etc. There are more advanced techniques like being able to cancel your regular moves into specials or a special into a super.
There’s a decent amount of combos and attacks, each character having their own style and movesets. When you perform a decent juggle it’s quite satisfying. Given that not only are the characters visually emulated from their Capcom counterparts, if you remember any of their movesets like how to do a Hadoken or Shoryuken motion, you’ll feel right at home. You can even choose to have the moves for the characters currently playing on the side of the screen, much like how the cabinets in the arcade used to have.
Adding rollback netcode for the online multiplayer is a fantastic addition, basically a necessity these days if you want a competitive game. That and crossplay included is what got me excited to play online with others, but even with my crossplay enabled, I’ve yet been able to find any other single player online for a match. You can even choose the server and the population, and every time I’ve checked they were at 0, so unfortunately I was unable to try the online multiplayer for myself. At least I was able to download and watch sone online replays of matches, great for those that want to improve their skills.
For a game that released mid 90’s on the NeoGeo, it still visually holds up. The sprites are done quite well, the background are colorful and the characters are look distinct from one another, even if they are heavily borrow from another game. Animations are smooth and the elemental effects are quite decent. The audio is perfectly serviceable, but the soundtrack is nowhere near as memorable as others in the genre.
I’m glad when I get to discover new games, even if they are decades old, and while I’ve played the classics from Neo Geo, Breakers sadly was never one of them until now. While I question its originality, as it more than heavily borrowed from one of the greatest of all time, that said, Breakers Collection is worth checking out if the fighting genre is your thing, even if it’s advertised as two unique games.
**Breakers Collection was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Wanted: Dead
Depending on your age or when you started playing games, ‘classic’ generations of consoles may be a distant memory or something you look at and wonder how some of us older gamers managed to play given the graphics at the time. Games have certainly come a long way, and each generation of console brings new leaps and bounds of what’s possible from developers. There’s a certain charm though when I play an older game, as it’s not going to be anywhere near as mechanically extensive or visually impressive when compared to releases now, but they can have a certain charm to them due to this. This is what small developer Soleil is trying to capture with their latest release, Wanted: Dead.With a handful of developers from the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series in their ranks, Wanted: Dead aims to create an ‘old school’ experience, specifically being a love letter to classic consoles from the 6th generation: Sega Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Gamecube and the original Xbox. Games from this era had something special about them and many fond memories come from this generation of gaming regardless of console.
A hybrid slasher/shooter, Wanted: Dead is sure to remind you of some older titles, but the one that kept coming to mind was Oni or Devil's Third. With a cyberpunk backdrop, you’ll be running, gunning and slashing your way through near endless enemies as you try to survive just one more day. Expect a lot of bloodshed, swearing and even more blood. You can certainly see some of its Ninja Gaiden roots in its unapologetic violence.
You play as Lt. Hannah Stone, a grizzled Hong Kong cop that is but just one member of the Zombie Unit, an elite squad that gets called upon for the most dangerous and impossible missions. Also in your squad are your teammates Cortez, Doc and Herzog, each with their own unique personalities and combat talents. Your Captain, Simmons, is the one that leads your crew, but you’ll meet a handful of other cast as well, namely your Gunsmith, Vivienne, a former Olympic gold medalist and celebrity chef. If she happens to look and sound familiar you would be correct, as it’s the same actress who played Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Stefanie Joosten.
The main narrative revolves around massive corporation, Dauer Synthetics, and you’ll soon come to realize that they’re at the heart of a major conspiracy. Doing so won’t be easy though, as you’ll have a literal army standing in your way that you’ll need to destroy. With a cyberpunk backdrop, you’ll certainly see a different Hong Kong setting that you may be used to, one where the police force is essentially privatized and use Maserati’s for their vehicles.
The story itself is compelling enough if you’re able to keep the game going without too many deaths and restarts, but I’ve had numerous times where I’ve been stuck at certain sections for quite some time. Most cutscenes will be as you’d expect, taking place in-game, but every so often there’s a hand drawn anime style that I found done quite well and signify flashbacks, even if a little jarring going between the different aesthetics.
As you begin your adventure you’ll first need to decide if you want to play on Normal or Hard. Now, I’m not great at difficult games, as they frustrate me. I know, I know, ‘git gud’, but I simply don’t find enjoyment in dying numerous times to slowly make progress. That said, even on Normal, Wanted: Dead is quite challenging, especially the first portion when you’re still getting used to your moves, abilities and different enemy types, figuring out the best strategies for each.
Taking on mercenaries, private security and even synthetics will feel overwhelming, even in the opening section, as you’re almost constantly outnumbered a good 5 or 10 to one. Hannah is armed with a razor sharp sword, pistol and assault rifle. I’ll admit, I initially tried playing this like a third person cover based shooter, as you automatically duck or crouch behind when nearby walls and objects, but that won’t work long with your limited ammo. You’re going to have to get your hands dirty, more specifically, bloody, as you’ll need to rush enemies to slice and dice them apart. You’re going to die, a lot, and it will take a good handful of hours before you start to feel really comfortable with the combat, as I was trying to play more defensively, but that simply won’t work here when you’re constantly outnumbered and surrounded.
Even though you have a squad with you for most missions, don’t plan on them actually pulling their weight. Sure they do fire their guns and offer as some slight distractions sometimes, but they tend to stick nearby you, so if you retreat to try and get a breather they’ll too come in tow. You have a set amount of health packs that you can use at any time, though you need to become proactive using them, as they won’t be automatically used when you’re downed, and there’s nothing more frustrating than dying with a handful of health packs that you forgot to use.
Certain missions will have Doc with you on your team, and he’s by far the most useful, as he can revive you once per checkpoint if you get downed and forgot to heal or ran out of health packs. Doc is basically a free revive which is fantastic to have when he comes along, but there’s a good amount of missions he’s not with you, so you don’t always have that safety net. The other issue that is that most checkpoints are incredibly far apart, so when you do inevitably die, you’re going to redo lengthy portions over again, numerous times. I can’t tell you how frustrated I became near the very end when I was stuck on getting to the next checkpoint, redoing a good 20+ minute portion numerous times until I finally progressed by some miracle. For those wanting a good chuckle, each time you get a loading screen it’s based on a popular meme, showing that it doesn’t always take itself so seriously.
Part brawler, part shooter, you’ll need to lean more towards the offensive to proceed. While you could try to play it like a third person shooter, this won’t get you far, so you’re going to need to run into the chaos and utilize all your abilities to survive. Being mobile and constantly moving seems to be the best strategy, as once I adopted a more non-stop approach, I was doing much better. Cover is available, and will be needed in certain portions, as picking off a few grunt enemies is a good way to thin the herd, but this won’t work for every enemy type effectively.
Speaking of your enemies, there isn’t all that much variety. Sure they look somewhat different when you start fighting against synthetics, but you essentially only have a few types. Grunts are your easiest ones you’ll begin fighting, taken out with a few good slashes or headshots from your weaponry. You then have stronger versions that generally need to be taken out up and close or they’ll try to come at you direct. You’ll eventually take on ninjas that vary in strength and difficulty, the bane of my existence. Then lastly you have the massive brutes wearing a Juggernaut-like suit with a Gatling gun. I’m not going to spoil the best strategies to take out each, but when you’re fighting all different types at once, you’re going to wish the rest of the Zombie Unit pulled their weight instead of basically letting you do all the work.
Your sword is going to be the base of your damage, but sometimes you’ll need to rely on your other weapons. You do have a pistol, but this is meant more as an interrupter or countering specific attacks rather than causing big damage, even though it has unlimited ammunition. You always have your assault rifle, but this is limited in ammo, good for taking out a few lower ranked enemies or quick damage to the harder enemies. You can also carry one enemy weapon and swap between the two, such as different rifles, SMG, LMG, Shotgun and Grenade Launchers. These are limited in ammo but enemies will generally drop ammo for either your assault rifle or picked up gun, so it’s a matter of finding what’s best for each situation. Where the problem lies is that basically every enemy is a massive bullet and sword sponge, even on Normal.
Combat is brutal. Even early on you’ll be slicing and dicing your enemies in half or even literally disarming them. An ‘unarmed’ enemy is still dangerous, so always be sure to finish them off. There’s over 50 brutal finishers that can be triggered, and these look incredibly stylish and over the top, generally leaving Hannah covered in so much blood she’s pure red. As you take out enemies your adrenaline meter will fill that once full and used, you’ll do some wicked looking Matrix-like moves that will deplete the stamina of enemies nearby, allowing for chained executions. The first time you pull this off, it’s quite badass to witness.
Combat moves are based on different combinations of your blade and pistol, but you’re going to have to be quite defensive at times as well, blocking with your sword or doing a parry if timed perfectly right. I’ll tell you now, get proficient with parrying early on, as you won’t be able to complete the adventure without being skilled at this move. You’re able to dodge out of the way and use limited amounts of grenades as well in a tight situation. As for the enemy AI, they are easy to exploit once you figure out how dumb they can be individually, but where the challenge comes is when you’re surrounded by numerous types and always outnumbered. One ninja rushing you is no big deal, completely different story with three, some grunts shooting at you in the distance and a heavy using its Gatling gun as well.
Stone will earn skill points (SP) when defeating enemies, so the flashier the kill the more points you’ll get. Earn enough and you can spend them in any of the three skill trees. Here you’ll improve your offense, defense and utility skills. About three quarters through the game I had maxed out the skill trees, and had thousands of extra unspent points near the finale. I don’t know if it was a specific skill or upgrade that helped, but there was a certain point where all of a sudden either the skill points made a huge difference or my own skill instantly improved. Either way, from this point on I felt at times invincible; Not always, but some boss fights I even beat on the first try, whereas earlier bosses took a good dozen tries before being successful.
If you need a break from the high adrenaline combat, there's a good handful of minigames and other things you can partake in when you're back at the police HQ between missions. You'll be able to play a crane game to try and grab different collectable statues and balls containing new audio tracks. An in Yakuza-like fashion, there's even some odd wacky games you can play like matching buttons to certain songs to eat bowls of ramen or having a karaoke sing-off with the Weaponsmith. There's also a sidescrolling shooter you can play for high scores later on as well, so there's other things to fill your time when you just want to chill.
Visually, the cyberpunk backdrop and emphasizes violence simply looks cool. While it won’t wow you, it performs quite well and smoothly other than the odd few sections where there was simply too much going on at once, hitting me with some framerate slowdown even on an Xbox Series X, but this was pretty infrequent. The slickness of the combat and shooting is stylish even if much of the level design is corridor based an in enclosed area.
Where I struggle is with the audio. The soundtrack is fantastic across the board, but the dialogue is something quite different. Kind of like a terrible B-movie you just love, it has an endearing charm regardless. I’m not sure if it’s trying to emulate the early 2000’s games that it draws inspiration from or not, but you can expect numerous one-liners and death screams over and over again. The dialogue is cheesy and even though Hannah’s delivery is unique at times, I do think that’s what they were intentionally going for oddly enough.
Even though I think the difficulty can be a little over tuned at times and the checkpoints are a little too spread out at times, for every moment I had frustration, I was still compelled to move forward and try again and again. Sometimes you just need a game where you turn off your brain to slash and blast everything in your way and can have fun doing so with some over the top violence, Wanted: Dead delivers that, even if it does feel way over the top with its style.
**Wanted: Dead was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
OmegaBot
Having released on PC last June, it’s time for OmegaBot to make its entry into the console market for a wider audience to play and hopefully enjoy. Games that come from a solo developer always impress me, as I can’t imagine the amount of work and tireless nights that went into creating an idea into an actual playable product, and OmegaBot from Simon Carny is no different. Even more impressive is that it’s his first game and he clearly took a lot of influence from the iconic Mega Man series, full of side scrolling platforming and shooting action.Everything was fine, the world was at peace, but then a mysterious mist arrived. Anyone who went near the mist somehow turned into a robot that aimed at destroying anyone in their path. So the world’s mightiest warriors that were supposed to save the world from this mist ventured out to do just that, but it seems they have failed, also changing into some sort of half robot. This is where you come in, as robots are unaffected by the mist, and although it seems other robotic heroes have come before you, you’re surely going to be the one to set thing right... Right? Those warriors that came before are seemingly the gatekeepers and will need to be defeated to venture further, but you’re such a small statured robot, what can you possibly do? It won’t be easy but you’ll gain new weaponry, abilities and dare I say, friends, along your adventure.
Much like its inspiration of early Mega Man games, OmegaBot is mechanically very similar in many ways. A side scrolling platformer, you’ll need to jump and shoot your way to the end of each stage, generally on the right side of the screen. You begin with just a singular jump and a basic blaster, eventually unlocking new weapons and abilities. Just like Mega Man, when you defeat the main bosses you’ll gain a new weapon or ability, allowing you to get through the dangerous world of killer robots and tons of pits and spike traps.
While enemies are going to be the thing that generally kills you the most, there’s plenty of traps all over, from spikes, fireballs, pits and more. Navigating these are just as important as defeating your enemies and you’ll do so in a few different ways, from small ‘tap’ jumps, gaining a little extra height on your jumps by using your blaster for a boost, and of course using your double jump and dash ability to get across gaps or out of danger quickly. Using your blaster to kind of ‘rocket jump’ takes some practice, as you need to aim downwards and fire to either slow your descent or gain a little bit more of a boost at the peak of your jump. This can be a bit tricky to get used to and I’ve had more than my fair share of deaths from not being as accurate as needed to land on moving platforms or avoiding enemies.
As you venture through forests, cities, castles and a number of other biomes, each new stage provided a unique challenge that progressively becomes more difficult as you go. As you gain new weapons and abilities you’ll need to combine all that you’ve learned to that point, but that is of course easier said than done. Thankfully there’s plenty of checkpoints that you’ll respawn at when you inevitably get destroyed, usually one every few screens or so. But sometimes these tend to be just a little TOO far apart, causing a lot of sections to be replayed until you manage to live long enough to make it to the next checkpoint.
You begin by facing off against robotic frogs, snails and other cute animal creatures that seem to have been a victim of the mist, but soon enough you’ll be battling against full on robots that will continuously fire and trying to destroy you once you’re noticed. While there’s no jumping on enemy heads to defeat them, you’ll need to rely on your trusty blaster. This required energy to do so though, so every now and then you’ll need to hold off on shooting so it can recharge, as if you let it deplete completely you’ll be slowed and unable to fire for a short while, surely to get you killed in a battle.
Your energy is split into two halves, where your first bit of firing shoots more powerful shots, but then eventually gets weaker in the last section of your energy bar. It’s kind of like a stamina bar in other games, and what makes this tricky is that your dash ability also requires energy to do so, so it takes a bit of getting used to so you don’t find yourself vulnerable often. As you gain new weapons from downed bosses, they vary in strength and type, so it will take some trial and error to find what works best for you and the situation you find yourself in.
Being part platformer as well, you’ll need to be accurate with your jumping abilities, which in itself isn’t too difficult, but anytime you shoot your blaster you’ll be knocked back slightly, as if his weapons are too powerful for his small frame. This can make things very challenging when standing on a small platform but having to fire and destroy an enemy, all while slightly adjusting to not slip and fall off. Boss fights are clearly the highlight, some more challenging than others, though not unfair once you learn their attack patterns across usually two main phases.
With checkpoints being spread out a bit too far at times, sometimes it’s difficult to stay alive long enough to reach the next respawn point. Thankfully enemies will also drop health orbs in varying sizes based on how high the shot counter above their head is when they are defeated. This is a little confusing and misleading though, as you need to gather a number of different orbs to fill the health meter completely to simply get a slight health replenish, something that wasn’t explained very well. Usually it’s just easier to respawn at the last checkpoint with full health, or if you find full heal orbs around the stage you know you’re in for a big battle or boss fight next.
Enemies will also drop gears/sprockets when defeated, also sitting and floating around the stage for you to collect. This is essentially your currency which you can use when at the hub between levels to purchase more health or energy with each upgrade increasing in price. There’s also some special icons to collect that can be used to upgrade your robot to have special perks, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.
For being created by a solo developer, the world of OmegaBot is very cute and colorful, utilizing a pixel art aesthetic that is easy on the eyes, even when it gets chaotic at times. Even more impressive is that all the background items can be destroyed with your shots, purely for visual flair but a wonderful touch. While the soundtrack sets a tone and never becomes grating, it also doesn’t really stand out either, opting to try and listen to the sounds of enemy shots and tells.
OmegaBot is cute and charming, and while it may not reach the same level as its Mega Man inspiration, it’s priced decently for its 4-8 hours of gameplay depending on your skill level. A fun and challenging action platformer that was longer than I initially expected, OmegaBot was clearly made with heart and passion, and that comes across well in such a small and cute robot.
**OmegaBot was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Ships Simulator
Ships Simulator is the latest sim title from Ultimate Games, a studio with a plethora of sim based games under their belt. Given how long I’ve been reviewing games, I’ve played my fair share of sim games, though nothing quite like Ships Simulator. Simulator games usually aim to recreate certain jobs or careers, and while Ships Simulator is no different, there was a lot more arcade-like gameplay to it instead.Doing some research, I first noticed that Ships Simulator looked basically identical to another game, Ships 2017. Turns out it’s actually the same game, simply ported for console. Same game, same logo and font, same 2017 era of graphics. This to me felt a little disingenuous, as it’s not really advertised as the same game from 6+ years ago, though when you press the Xbox Logo button it’s clearly labelled as Ships 2017.
Ships Simulator aims to recreate the role of controlling, well, ships. Not just regular boats though, the massive ones that you see by the docks and ports in major cities. Think of the massive cargo container ships that hauls hundreds of containers across sea, or the oil rig stations that are colossal in size, those will be the type of ships you’ll be utilizing for a variety of different missions.
While there’s no overall narrative or story, you’ll eventually being taking over three separate vessels, each with their own mission types and objectives before moving onto the next. You begin with a Cargo Ship, then a Construction rig, then a Heavy Duty lifting ship. Each of these ships have eight missions per, and once complete a special extra mission will unlock for a total of 25. Missions will vary from loading cargo containers, unloading them, bringing cargo from one dock to another, gathering parts from the ocean, rescuing crew, warding off pirates and more.
Having completed all missions including the special extra one, it was tedious, boring and frustrating to do so due to its poor controls and even worse visuals and audio. When the credits rolled, it was seemingly stuck and I was forced to quit out, not a great final memory to the experience. I’ll be honest, if I wasn’t reviewing the game I would have given up long before completion, and I was glad it was over and could uninstall.
To begin your naval career you first must choose a ship to purchase and repair. This is easy due to only being able to afford one of the three ships, so why it’s prefaced like a choice I’m unsure. Once you buy the Cargo Ship to begin you’ll first need to make any repairs before it’s seaworthy. This is done simply by choosing the broken part on a menu then clicking a button to repair. Wait a few seconds and the repair is complete. Why this is a part of the gameplay I’m unsure, as it’s seemingly just meant to be something you spend a portion of your profits on.
As you complete missions you’ll earn money, eventually able to purchase an oil rig-like vessel that has a crane, meant for moving material and construction, and then the transport vessel with a unique submerging ability. Every vessel plays very unique from one another, each having their own types of missions as well. The container Ship missions are generally quite straight forward, but the Construction Ship was easily the most time consuming due to its frustrating and annoying crane controls. Even though this is a Ship Simulator, you can’t sail the open seas. You’re actually quite restricted to where you can go, and with how slow the overall gameplay is, you wouldn’t want to sail out to open waters even if you could. Each mission has a tight play area and you need to stay within its boundaries.
The Container Ship will have your first missions about using the dock’s lift to load those containers from the back of semi-trucks onto the vessel. This opening mission will show you how unintuitive the controls and camera is, so prepare for a few hours of that going forward. You’ll have another mission to bring the ship to another dock which is how they introduce the awkard sailing controls. Of course at the other dock you’ll then need to unload a certain amount of containers onto trucks waiting.
With those basic missions out of the way you should now have enough cash banked to purchase the second ship, which I’m labelling the Construction Ship due to its crane you’ll need to use to pick up freight and parts and maneuver elsewhere. While it’s the same amount of missions like the other two ships, a total of eight per, this ship will take the bulk of your time with the game due to how finicky and awkward its controls are. You have different controls for moving the ship and then another separate set for the crane itself, neither of which feel intuitive. The crane hook has to almost be perfect to attach, but the camera doesn’t make it very easy to line up and figure out which way you need to maneuver the crane or ship to pick up the freight.
The final ship, the Transport Ship, I actually enjoyed the most, because it was the easiest to control. It has a unique ability to submerge its deck, so the majority of its missions were to motor over to some broken or abandoned ships, submerge your deck, slide underneath the ship and then move the deck back up the surface level to attach to the deck before bringing it back to the dock or a specified area.
Anytime you crash into an object or another ship, your vessel becomes damaged, meaning you’ll need to spend some of your earnings on repairs or part replacements. Money never really became an issue, but something to keep in mind. Take enough damage and the mission might instantly fail, so you can’t simply bump and push ships out of the way for fear of needing to restart the lengthy levels all over again.
Oddly enough, there’s a few missions that don’t really have much to do with the ships themselves, but instead focus on the crew. The first is putting out fires on the ship. You need to command each of the crew to do something, like grabbing a fire extinguisher and then to go battle a fire. This is done with a simple top down view of the ship and just with icons of the crew and equipment. These missions are incredibly confusing with their controls and were hands down the worst part of the whole experience. There’s another similar mission later with the same premise, but having your crew defend against pirates trying to take over the ship, so you need to have them man certain water cannons to survive waves of enemies. Again, these missions were terrible, confusing and just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the game.
While ship enthusiasts may quite enjoy being able to control unique vessels like these, the gameplay itself becomes quite repetitive and dull. Each mission has an objective to complete, sometimes with a handful of steps, but it’s very linear without any freedom to solve how to do so on your own. The game itself isn’t difficult, but dealing with the controls are. Controls are slow, the camera is a nightmare to deal with constantly, and it just never feels like it gets better even after a handful of hours in.
At default, the speed is set to 1X. You will never finish Ships Simulator at 1X. These aren’t speedboats, they are massive slow moving ships. Thankfully you can crank of the speed to 2X or 4X if you’d like, but even at 2X it was excruciatingly slow. 4X at the best of times was barely tolerable, but needs to be set every time if you want the feeling of any progress at all. The problem with 4X is that it feels as though the controls are sped up as well, so the camera whips around and trying to move the crane hook into an exact position is a constant battle as well. On that note, camera is defaulted to the Left Stick, not right, so I constantly made mistakes using the wrong stick, even until the final mission.
Ships Simulator is probably one of the ugliest games I’ve played in quite some time. I don’t mean that as an insult, but it’s simply the truth. The water looks terrible, lightning and thunder is sure to give someone a seizure or blow out your ears if you’re wearing a headset, and the draw distance is so incredibly short you can’t even plan the proper way to the port for unload because a wall or island appear in front of you last minute. It looks like a mobile game from 2017 at the best of times. The music is no better, with annoying loops repeated over and over that you’ll want to mute.
I can deal with the poor visuals and audio if the game itself is entertaining, but unfortunately I was just glad each mission completion was getting me closer to the credits rolling and an uninstall. Tons of bugs, glitches and terrible controls just made it a slog to get through. While they are an easy string of achievements to nab, priced at $18.99 CAD is far too much for the amount of frustration. I don’t generally enjoy focusing on the negatives, but when there are so few positives things to note, you might want to avoid this shipwreck.
**Ships Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
We Were Here Forever
When We Were Here initially released back in 2019 on the Xbox 360 console, I didn't know what I was getting into, nor would have expected to have now played the fourth game in the series. After having played each of the games, including being able to check out the latest, We Were Here Forever, before it's launch, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the console release to once again become stumped alongside a friend. Given that I did a preview for We Were Here Forever, portions of that article will be in this review, but finally getting to reach the conclusion and ending, I was left shocked with the final scene, but more on that shortly. For those new to the series, you don’t need to have played any of the previous games, but there’s some underlying lore that longtime fans will surely appreciate the most.Maybe you’ve never played one of the We Were Here games before, like my latest co-op partner and fellow writer here at XboxAddict, Peggy, whom I will have her input for her experience throughout our journey in Castle Rock. Essentially the series is an online cooperative puzzle game where you need to find a way to escape. The catch is that you’re almost always separated from your friend, so you only have a one-way radio to communicate with one another and will need to work together cohesively and quite well if you want to be successful.
I’ve thus dubbed the series ‘The Friendship Test’, as you’re going to see how truly effective your communication is with your partner, a test I nearly fail each game. Funny enough, I’ve had to play each game with a different partner as they refused to play with me when each sequel released, hence a new partner this time too. Both players require a microphone and I highly suggest choosing a friend to play with that maybe you’ve known for a while or are able to easily communicate with, as it will make a world of difference. Could you play with a random person, possibly, but may the odds be ever in your favor if you choose to do so.
With a clever naming convention for the series, We Were Here was the original game, We Were Here Too is the sequel, We Were Here Together was the third, and now the fourth and latest is We Were Here Forever, aptly titled for how long you’ll probably be stuck on a handful of the puzzles if you decide to take the high road and not look up any spoilers or walkthroughs. I wish I could boast that our team of puzzlers didn’t require a walkthrough, but we had to succumb to a few clues and hints with how difficult and obtuse some of the puzzles were. Will you be able to escape on your own accord and problem solving skills without external help? You’re a better puzzle solver than us if so, but good luck.
The first two games didn’t have much story to it aside from simply trying to escape, but in the third game, We Were Here Together, a much larger focus on story started to emerge, quite obvious in the latest Forever entry. While you’re still essentially moving from one puzzle to the next once you find the solutions, there’s more narrative sprinkled in here and there as you make your way through Castle Rock.
We Were Here Forever has a similar setup from previous games where you and your partner are somehow trapped within Castle Rock’s walls, seemingly unable to escape. Were you betrayed? Was having you here a small part of a larger master plan? Will you find out whatever happened to the other missing explorers? Who is The Jester and why is he trying to stop you? You learn bits and pieces of Rockbury and the resistance against its King and there’s clearly something larger going on, but you’ll need to do what you can to survive and escape alongside your partner, because without them, you’ll be trapped here forever.
To escape the bowels of Castle Rock, you and your partner are going to need to not only work in unison but rely on communication that other games seldom ever force to this degree. You and your partner will bond and need to be like minded if you want any chance of escape. What may seem like a simple puzzle in the beginning might just be one small portion of a larger one, which my partner and I found out within the opening section of We Were Here Forever. We Were Here Forever will test your mettle and communication with your fellow partner with a large focus on how you help one another separately.
Teamwork isn’t just suggested, it’s absolutely necessary, done completely with communication across a one-way walkie-talkie. This one-way radio is important to note, as when someone is speaking, the light on the radio illuminates, indicating that the other person should be listening. If they try to speak when the first person is talking, it won’t be heard. This takes some getting used to, especially when I’m accustomed to open party or discord chats. With the one-way radio, you’ll need to be purposeful in who talks and when. If your partner is talking, the light on your walkie lights up to indicate, so you better not try holding down the button and try to talk to them because they won’t hear your input. This of course makes things a little trickier, and I won’t lie, we simply used Xbox party chat (since we were both playing on that system) to avoid the one-way limitation, though I do suggest at least trying it in-game for the full and authentic We Were Here experience.
Before you and your friend you’ve chosen to have a ‘Friendship Test’ with can start your adventure together though, you’ll need to add each other as friends from the main menu to play with one another. With cross-play now finally here, you don’t have to worry about what system you and they are on, able to play together regardless. I will say, the lobby system was buggy every time we wanted to get us put together, but eventually we figured it out each time and I’m hoping it’s just some pre-launch bugs that will get ironed out come full release.
Let’s get to the puzzles, the bread and butter of the series and why you’ve chosen to play We Were Here Forever. I’m going to get this out of the way first thing: We Were Here Forever was by far the hardest puzzles in the whole series. Maybe this was because it also felt like the longest game of the four, but we certainly struggled almost throughout whereas in previous games it was just the odd puzzle here and there that we needed to search a walkthrough. While not nearly as many timed puzzles in Forever thankfully, there still was the odd one or two that did add a bit of frustration because of the time limit and the mandatory first person view.
You and your friend are almost constantly separated from one another, so you need to be the eyes and ears for one another, figuring out the singular solution that you both contain portions of the answer. This is much easier said than done, and if not successful you’ll be stumped for seemingly forever if you decide to take the high road and not look up walkthroughs. The puzzles vary quite drastically throughout. One of my favorites was my partner describing a scene with some mannequins without heads, and on my part I had to read some book pages describing the background of a dozen or so different characters to determine which head I should send her to place correctly for her scene. Her seeing generic bodies in some sort of scene and me trying to decipher the character from reading pages wasn't simple. There’s a lot of trial and error in basically every puzzle, and if that frustrates you you’re going to have a long road to attempt escaping Castle Rock.
There’s also other puzzles that if it wasn’t for my partner, I would still be sitting there clueless of where to even start. An example, picking up a bunch of different mannequins and sitting them in the correct order in a few rows of pews in a church. Of course there’s a very specific order, with undercover rebels and other restrictions like how certain people can’t sit beside specific others. Since all the mannequins were hanging together there were very slight differences in who they may be. From reading books and using descriptors like “a girl wearing a pope-like hat and curly hair like the mom from ‘That 70’s Show’, I was thankful she understood what I meant. Thank god my partner knew what to do, as I was basically no help on this particular one. Many of the puzzles felt like one player had to do the majority of the work while the second had the solution in front of them, but had to find a way to communicate it. The only problem with this is that once you’re on a certain path and locked into one of the roles, there’s no switching with your partner, like when I was in an underwater maze aimlessly wandering trying to figure a way out while she moved a bunch of pipes to create open pathways and air pockets for me to breathe.
I don’t mind challenging puzzles, but I’d say at least half of the puzzle included were a bit much. Maybe it’s the way I think or my logical reasoning, but my partner also conceded that we were going to have to try and look up a solution online more than once. Even with finding the solutions elsewhere, it never really left like an ‘ah-hah!’ moment like we missed something, more of a ‘well, I guess that worked’ feeling. Don’t even get me started where I had to carry a massive cog, blocking a good 90% of my vision, needing to be directed of where to go. While I’d obviously like to blame my partner whenever we got stuck, it’s a two way street, where it takes some time to figure out what the actual pathway to a solution is, as it’s not often it’s painted out clearly.
Peggy: I think I'm a smart person when it comes to puzzles, especially logic based ones like the mannequins in the pews and, as Adam stated, I proved it there. Sadly, We Were Here Forever often made me feel rather dumb. Normally I can figure it out eventually, or when we finally decided to look up walkthroughs, I expected to have a 'OMG, that's the part we were missing!' feeling, but that didn't happen often. Mostly I was left bewildered by how you should have been able to decipher the solutions without help. I am thankful that Adam and I are both interested in similar pop culture things, movies, shows, comics etc. This made describing visuals much easier when you could reference something adjacent to what you were seeing to help. I had never played any of the We Were Here games prior to this other than a bit of the preview of Forever before launch, and I did enjoy what I played even if I didn't feel the smartest while playing it. It was really well done, the graphics were very fairytale-like and the vocal performances of character you encounter are well done. While I may have been Adam's latest 'victim' to take part in the 'Friendship Test', we are still talking, so that's a good thing. Without spoiling too much, and if you've played the other games in the series, you will understand what I am about to say. Adam's biggest mistake was telling me how he escaped the last three games, and I ruined his 100% success after the ending of We Were Here Forever. No regrets.
Adam: There is a hint system in place if you truly become stuck, but these really are only subtle clues. The first can be unlocked, but the next two or three which will give a little more detail can’t be seen until a certain amount of time goes by. While we used these hints, it won’t explicitly tell you the solution, still getting you to figure out the answer for yourself, but subtly guiding you in possibly the right direction. I never found they gave enough of a hint to be actually useful though.
Visually, Forever is the best looking of the series. Sure for a majority of it you’ll be stuck underground, in some castle walls or confined rooms, but there are moments where you’ll be exploring the grounds outside and can take in some sights, that while not breathtaking, surely a vast improvement for the series. Even some of the puzzles are quite fantastical to take in, like a particular puzzle where you and your partner are going from room to room where gravity doesn’t seem to matter much, all while a massive Jester seems to taunt you. Peggy did not enjoy the Jester and found him creepy though.
There was the odd time I had some texture issues where one puzzle wasn’t properly loading the clues inside some coffins, so I was essentially no help to my partner until they somehow fixed themselves with a reload. Animations definitely seems much smoother and more fluid in Forever compared to previous games and there’s even some fun emotes you and your partner can signal to one another, including some Rock-Paper-Scissors. The atmosphere is done quite well, with the wind whistling and howling as you ride a gondola to another area. The odd times you hear from the Jester and maybe another character, they are done also quite well, sounding just as animated as their look and movements.
We Were Here Forever felt much longer than previous games, as we had the credits rolling at around 11 hours or so. It didn’t necessarily feel arbitrarily lengthy, as there was even a part where you have to go get three different objects to fix something, but can do them in any order you wish. There’s much more story in Forever as well, though depending on your knowledge of the series before, may be hit or miss if you even care about it.
Just like previous games in the series, We Were Here Forever is once again a ‘Friendship Test’. I highly suggest choosing a partner that you know you’re alright arguing with, because it’s not a matter of if, but of when. I certainly struggled with the difficulty in Forever much more than previous games, but that also shows that the developers are evolving with each game, making them much more intricate and challenging and easily the highlight of the series. If you enjoy wracking your brain on a puzzle for a good amount of time and don’t mind plenty of trial and error, We Were Here Forever is right up your alley, but make sure you have a like-minded friend that you might not miss once you’re no longer on speaking terms.
**We Were Here Forever was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Swordship
I absolutely love shmups (shoot-em-ups). You know the ones, where bullets are all over the screen and you somehow have to dodge them in pixel perfect fashion all while trying to destroy your enemies. Well, I can tell you I’ve never played anything quite like Swordship before, and while I guess it would kind of belong to the shmup genre, it also doesn’t really either.Imagine a shump without the shooting. I guess that would make it a 'mup'? I don’t know, I just work here. If you’ve ever wanted to challenge yourself and play a shmup for pacifists, look no further than Swordship, a shmup without the ability to actually shoot. Odd I know, but stick with me, as I initially thought it was a crazy notion at first too. But somehow, developers Digital Kingdom made it work, forcing you to focus on your maneuvers and dodging since you have no real way to directly retaliate against your enemies.
It’s an interesting and unique take with a really minimalistic aesthetic and addictive roguelike gameplay, complete with an attempt at an interesting narrative. Dodge and weave through enemies and their attacks doing everything they can to try and destroy you. You’re going to need lightning quick reflexes and be able to react and think even faster with the best way to trick enemies into destroying one another so you can escape and survive.
Global warming has caused havoc on the environment and most cities now lie underwater. As cities trade containers of goods with one another, those that have been exiled from the cities for various reasons don’t have an easy time, doing what they can to simply survive. You are a member of The Banished, a rebel group that looks to steal these containers of goods from the greedy cities and distribute them to the poor and needy to survive. Think a classic Robin Hood tale, but on speed boats that can do sweet dives underwater. That said, while there’s a story, though it won’t really matter to you, as you’ll simply be doing runs over and over to try and beat your best score.
Swordship’s main hook is that you have no weaponry on your speedboat, yet must outlast and survive the constant onslaught from your enemies. Each run is also randomly generated, so it’s more about reaction than it is memorization. Because of this there’s plenty of replayability, but this is almost offset by the overall lack of content.
Your speedboat only knows one speed – full throttle. You don’t need to worry about laying on the gas or hitting the brakes, as it’s constantly moving forward, somewhat like an auto-scroller, you simply move and maneuver your Swordship along the water in the corridor you’re speeding down. There are 3 stages and then a boss, each stage is then broken up into a few separate levels. Each level will have a certain amount of those coveted containers that need to be swiped, and once they are, or missed, the level will end moving onto the next.
For example, the first level has two containers that will eventually come up for grabs. Once both are deployed, those are your chances to secure them for your people or will pass on by, still finishing the level though. Since you’re always rushing towards the bottom of the screen, this is where you’ll see a yellow lined marker to indicate that these containers are about to appear, giving you just a few moments to prepare and hopefully catch them with your Swordship by being in line.
Of course each stage has a different feel and slightly varied aesthetic and biome background, but the main differences are the new enemies you face off against in each. With ship upgrades, differing abilities, randomized runs, weather conditions and more, there are some reasons to keep coming back if you really enjoy trying to best your high score.
When you manage to snag and steal a container, as the level ends you’ll have a choice to make. Do you send your collected containers back to The Banished, receiving a big score bonus in return, or keep it for your own gain, allowing you to upgrade your Swordship for that run and gaining extra lives? Upgrades will help you on each run, changing special abilities or passive parameters to your ship itself. So it’s a matter of determining your skill, as taking a score boost is much better long term if you don’t die often, but swapping score for extra lives may be better for you in the long run, especially if you end up making it to the boss. The score at the end of the run determines which unlocks you finally get, so it’s important for new bonuses and even extra difficulty modes.
This is a roguelike though, so you can expect to fail and die a lot, so all that matters is the final score you get before your last life is gone. The problem with this is that to unlock the next tier reward, you need to constantly beat your last score, or else the run was essentially for nothing outside of ‘fun’ and practice. The overall XP/Score bar doesn’t stay filled between runs with your progress, so it’s all or nothing.
Controls in a shmup (still going with that genre distinction here) need to be air tight or else the game is dead on arrival. Thankfully for the most part controlling your speedship is quite responsive, as while I did have seemingly unfair deaths here and there, it was more from me not paying attention to something, not the controls. Remember, you have no weaponry, you simply need to dodge enemy attacks to stay alive long enough to steal those containers.
Where the strategy comes in is defeating your enemies. But how do you do so since you don’t have any guns? I’m glad you asked. You actually need to use enemy bullets and attacks against their own. Each enemy attacks you in a different way, so how can you trick them into attacking their own team? Quite simple really. Usually you just have to maneuver your ship behind an enemy so the other can fire at you, inadvertently hitting their ally, thus destroying them. Some enemies fire a laser at you after a moment of locking on, others drop mines that will explode when you’re in their range for a moment as well. You’ll know when to dodge once their red indicator goes from light to dark red, then it will explode or fire, so you better be out of the way.
The easiest way to dodge is to simply be out of the line of danger by moving your ship, but you’re also able to have your ship dive underwater for a short period at a time. This is how you’ll get under some fire beams, lasers and simply out of danger quickly. It takes some practice to learn enemy attack patterns, especially once you finally reach the boss, but you’ll slowly gain the reaction skills to make further progress each run. Once you learn how to act as bait and then use it to your advantage, you’ll be having successful runs in no time.
I quite enjoyed its minimalistic style; simplistic, small color pallet, but it works. The basic looking ship and enemies also have an appealing style, allowing you to see everything happening on screen so you’re able to avoid all the attacks. It’s colorful, basic, and it’s just pleasant to look at. The soundtrack is done quite well, having some good beats that keep your head bopping as you go for ‘just one more run’.
While I’d argue the $25.99 CAD price tag is a bit steep for how little content there is, the gameplay is quite original, as I would have never thought about playing a shmup that has no shooting. Lacking some sort of online leaderboard or modes does bring in the monotony and repetitiveness quite quickly, as I was only able to sit and play a few runs at a time before getting the itch to move onto something else for a break.
**Swordship was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Until the Last Plane
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to manage an airport base back in World War II era? Wonder no longer, as Until the Last Plane does just that, having you manage your pilots, aircraft, base, repairs, and even making sure you have enough fuel, parts, ammunition and bombs on hand for your important missions against the enemy. From solo developer CarloC Games, Until the Last Plane’s screenshots may have you think that there’s some shooting mechanics involved, but that’s not the case at all here really.Air strikes obviously played an integral part of World War II across numerous theaters of war, and with Until the Last Plane, you’ll get to play a part in their hopefull successes in battle. Not only were the pilots brave for dogfighting and going behind enemy lines, but there was a crew of engineers and many others that often get forgotten, keeping their planes in tip-top shape and ready for the next assault.
You’re tasked with managing an airfield base. This is more than simply telling which pilots to attack certain targets, but making sure you keep and gather resources, keeping morale of your crew up, ordering spare parts, fuel and more. You’ll begin by choosing which faction you want to play as from USA, USSR and Germany, and then choose which of the 3 missions you want to attempt, each corresponding with a different difficulty. Successfully complete missions and you’ll move onto the next day as well as gain resources, experience for your pilots, skill points and more.
So with 3 factions and 3 missions each, you have 9 total levels to try and complete. Each mission though varies from their objectives and how many days each of them last, becoming increasingly challenging the more days you need to balance your resources and survive for. To successfully pass each day you must complete at least one mission, and these will vary. Failure to do so or having all your pilots perish in combat will abruptly return you to the main screen for you to start all over again.
Manage to complete a mission and you’ll earn a medal and some skill points to improve different aspects. Complete more missions in a day and you’ll earn more medals and rewards. Even though the core gameplay is simple and there’s a tutorial from the main menu you can partake in, there’s still a lot that really wasn’t explained well, namely the strategy of what to do and when. The best ways to manage your airbase is somewhat explained, but until an hour or two in I didn’t really understand it and how to balance my resources well. This caused for a lot of trial and error, but once you figure out the smaller details and some strategies for managing your airfield, it becomes much simpler.
With three different factions I actually expected the only real differences to be aesthetic, but there’s actually a bit of a difference of how you play each. While each nation has different planes, obviously, each of the campaigns do play different simply from how they earn their resources. For example, completing missions for USA earns you cash which you can then spend on purchasing more resources as you see fit. USSR though does it quite differently, as completing missions earns you political favor, which certain resources will be sent to you automatically as a reward. These subtle differences do require different strategies, though not difficult to figure out best practices with a few attempts. They vary enough to be unique from one another and each have their own small narratives.
You’re constantly racing against the clock, as once 18:30 rolls around, the day is over and your pilot must return, unable to start any more missions. As long as you have one mission type complete before then you’re going to move onto the next day of the 4-7 day mission. Could you complete one mission then simply wait for the other half of the day to pass by until the day ends, sure, but then you’ll lose out on resources from additional successful missions, so there’s a balance of using fuel and ammo to get more fuel, ammo and skill points.
To begin, you first must do some reconnaissance, finding out what targets and threats are nearby. This is done via a quick minigame starting with choosing how much fuel you want to spend. The more fuel the longer distance and more targets (missions) you can potentially spot, up to three, but the longer in the air the more potential for danger from enemy fighters. This minigame is quick, having you choose to move forward and simply pressing ‘A’ when your camera is over a shadow of a target below, adding them to your list of available missions for that day.
These missions will vary from bombing runs, dogfights and more, but more on those shortly. Surprisingly, you don’t really control or fly your planes as you might expect, rather simply giving them commands or aiming up the bombing reticules in these minigames instead. As pilots return to base they will park in designated repair zones where you’ll need to send your engineers to repair, refill fuel, restock ammunition and bombs. You only have a certain amount of workers though, so if you have all your pilots returning at once, you’ll have a backlog of planes waiting to be serviced as they come in together.
You’ll not only need to keep morale of your pilots and crew high, but doing what you can to keep them alive. If a pilot crashes and burns, clearly morale at the base will take a big hit. Between days of each campaign you might be making decisions based on situations you find yourself in or maybe someone asking for help. These could have positive or negative outcomes, so maybe think twice before lending out some of your engineers.
At its core, you’re simply playing a management sim and figuring out the most ideal way to spend and save your resources. Fuel and ammo will be your most used, needing constant resupply to your aircraft, but it’s all about making sure you have enough of everything on hand so you can continue on for more missions and onto the next day of the stage.
The different mission types simply vary in quick different styles of minigames. You need to send at least one pilot on a mission, but can send up to as many that are in your crew if you wish. Sending a half dozen will surely give you more chances at being successful, but then you’ll also be spending that much more fuel and ammunition, so there’s a balance of your needs versus skill at being successful.
After you’ve done your reconnaissance and have anywhere from one to three missions to choose from, you’ll then have a set amount of time to be successful with the objectives laid out before you, usually tasked with shooting down one or a few enemy planes or bombing some targets. The dogfights aren’t a typical shooter like you’d expect, instead giving you three different maneuvers you can tell your pilot to do, moving you forward, left or right, and once all the set moves from you and your enemy are used up in turn based succession, if the enemy is within your cone of firing, you’ll be successful, or else they will escape. If you take enemy fire in return, then your pilot will come back to the base for repairs.
The easiest missions are the bombing runs, and these are simplistic as it comes. As your plane flies forward, you simply need to lock in the aiming reticule cursors for the horizontal and vertical placement. These lines move quickly at first, so you need to lock in on your target, without much room for error. This becomes much easier with some practice, and certain skill points will slow down these line movements as well if you focus on these missions.
Because there are different plane types, some are better suited for different types of missions. The smaller planes are more agile, better used in dogfights and giving you more moves to use, whereas the larger bomber planes can hold up to 3 bombs instead of just 1 in the smaller aircraft, so there’s some strategy when choosing which pilots to send on mission types. There is an automatic combat option for you once you choose your pilots which certainly cuts down on the monotony, but there’s no success percentage shown, so you might send your best pilots and be completely unsuccessful, so it’s generally better to just repeat the same minigames over and over to ensure your success.
The issue with these missions is that they are very basic and repeated over and over. Once you figure out the best strategies to win, shoot down enemies or evade them, it becomes quite simple to always win. When pilots arrive back at the base you can choose to refill their supplies, fuel and more, but you don’t always have to. The more refilling the more resources you use and the longer it takes to do so. This is also dependent on how many technicians you have available as well, so there’s a constant balance game you need to play.
Not explained well is the upgrades you can craft for your planes. You have spare parts, another resource, so do you decide to save some on hand for repairs or spend them frivolously on upgrades for your planes to be more successful in future missions? This is where some strategy and knowing your own skills comes into play, as I knew if I chose bombing missions, those were always guaranteed wins per battle.
Created by a solo developer, the pixel graphics are done quite well, looking like an older game from my childhood. The sprites are done well and you can clearly see the distinction between the different factions and aircraft. The soundtrack is passable, as is the ‘pew pew’ from the gunfire and bomb drops, but there’s really not much else of note. There are a few voiced lines from the pilots, but these will grate on you quite quickly hearing the same lines over and over since you play these minigames dozens of times repeatedly. I was impressed that they are voiced in your chosen faction’s language, it’s just a shame they were constantly overused.
Until the Last Plane can be addictive in short bursts once you figure out its intricacies and best strategies, but there’s a lot of repetitiveness. Even with a few different mission types and objectives, you’re just constantly doing the same menu options repeatedly. The $12.79 (CAD) price does seem a little high given the lack of leaderboards, and while it does feel a bit underwhelming, it’s easy to complete on autopilot once you have the best strategies figured out.
**Until the Last Plane was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
Broken Pieces
I really enjoy when a game has a narrative that piques my interest, where I need to keep playing to find out what the outcome will be. Will the hero saves the world? What’s the big twist? Is there a shocking ending? I love when narrative has the forefront of a game and I’ll easily forgive weaker components if the story is enthralling and captivating. Within its opening moments, I was intrigued by Broken Pieces’ plot as it begins in some sort of alien-like hallway and then you wake up in an empty village, unsure what has happened or why you’re there. Sound interesting? I thought so too.If had to best describe how Broken Pieces actually plays and its genre, it’s almost a mix of Siberia and Parasite Eve, heavy on the mystery and puzzle elements with some combat thrown in for good measure. The isolated feeling of being alone in a village doesn’t go unnoticed, as I was always in suspense of figuring out the next clue as to what’s going on, constantly driving me forward and wanting to see the credits roll.
Elise and her fiancé decided to move away, landing in a small village on the French coast, Saint-Exil. When she wakes up one day though, she doesn’t know where everyone is or went. The village seems abandoned as if no one has been there in quite some time. Not only will you need to figure out the mystery of the village and your presence, but why is the Lighthouse seemingly a beacon in more ways than one? You’ll learn early on there’s also some sort of cult that is, or was, in the village, and before long you’ll have some paranormal entities to deal with. Are you stuck in a time loop? What does the Church have to do with what’s going on? Why is there some sort of force field nearby? These are just a few of the questions you’ll be asking yourself as Elise slowly pieces together what has happened via a constant flow of puzzles and backtracking.
Now I’m being purposely vague with the story for a few reasons. For starters, if you’re good at these types of games and have a good memory of what pathways lead to where you’ve already been, you’ll probably be able to finish it in a single, albeit lengthy, sitting. Others will probably have a good few hours of wasted wandering and backtracking trying to figure out where you should be going next. While you are guided with clues in your notebook, there’s no compass or map, so you’ll need to make a conscious effort to learn the layout of the village and its intricate interconnected pathways.
I really don’t ever like to spoil endings, and I won’t here directly, but what I will say is that for the hours of intriguing plot, narrative and background lore you find along the way, the ending simply falls flat on its face. As the credits rolled I was kind of in shock, not because of some major reveal or crazy plot twist, but more of how ambiguous and unfulfilling it was. It’s a shame too, as the Elise’s story really gripped me all the way until the end. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not worth playing through, but waiting for a big payoff that never comes was a serious letdown.
As you explore Saint-Exil, the gameplay feels like it came right from early 90’s adventure games. While it doesn’t have tank controls like Resident Evil, it’s certainly got an annoying camera system that uses a fixed angle, though offering another angle with the press of a button. Sure you could look around in first person, but then you can’t move, so it’s not generally all that useful. Why we couldn’t just move the camera bound to the Right Stick I’m unsure, as having to swap between the two cameras for each area becomes tiresome as you’re trying to search for clues. An unfortunate byproduct of this camera system is that when the scene changes to a new section and the camera swaps, you’re all of a sudden holding the movement stick in the wrong direction and have to readjust.
As you search and explore Saint-Exil, you’ll come across numerous items and objects that can be interacted with. Some will have items inside that you can pick up and carry in your inventory, others are simply for lore and descriptions. There’s plenty of collectables to find as well, some in the form of favorite items, others, and more importantly, tapes that can be played at any time in Elise’s Walkman that’s always attached to her hip. Depending the options you toggle and choose, the objects that you can interact with will have a thick white outline to make easy indication, but you can turn that off should you wish.
Elise is going to have to manage her inventory, especially the latter half of the game with more puzzles and pieces to carry back and forth to certain areas. You can only hold a certain amount of items, though they are set into different categories based on what they are. Large items like and Axe or Lever for example can only have one held at a time, so if you need both, you’re going to need to remember when you dropped the first item and come back later to get it. Key items and tapes don’t seem to go towards your carry limit which is nice, as your tapes go into your collection and can be played at any time. These tapes are how you get background lore to the area, world and characters, though there’s also some songs you can find that your partner made that are absolutely wonderful to listen to in the background as you explore the desolate village.
Even though there’s lots of wandering around trying to figure out what has happened and how to escape, you’ll only be able to do so with your puzzle solving skills. While the main puzzles aren’t terribly difficult, usually just bringing a lever to a certain spot or changing the weather to adjust water levels or causing wind to blow down some platforms, there are optional puzzles that will probably bring some frustration as you become stumped for a while.
Even though Elise is seemingly alone in the village, she’s going to need to be mindful of the time, checking her trusty watch every so often. Her watch just happens to be a flip open Crab that speaks French. Yeah, I don’t know why either. You need to be home before nightfall, designated by 8PM, because Saint-Exil becomes incredibly dangerous once night arrives. While time slowly ticks away as you traverse around the village, moving to different main areas will actually take a much longer time, usually an hour or two, so make sure you’re being mindful of the time and how long to get back to your home before dark to rest.
What I didn’t expect was how much combat is in Broken Pieces, as I figured Elise being seemingly alone in the village would have no one to fight. While I don’t want to spoil too much, you’re not fighting regular humans or monsters, and thankfully it is basically explained in the narrative. How bullets harm these enemies I’m not sure, but I don’t ask questions. Remember those camera issues I mentioned above? Those carry over into these combat portions where you’re suddenly attacked by a few enemies and locked into an arena to deny any escaping until you’re successful or die.
Combat is without a doubt the weakest component and worst part of Broken Pieces. Interestingly, there’s an option to turn off combat, but there’s still a few parts where it’s forced and it’s made much easier compared to the other option, almost like a difficulty. Trust me, turn down the combat, it’s nothing but frustrating. As enemies manifest and slowly lurch towards you, you’ll need to shoot them a certain amount of times to defeat them. Defeat the wave or two of enemies and the combat section finishes. What isn’t explained initially very well is that the longer you aim your gun the smaller the reticule will get, causing more damage, so don’t just rapid fire, as you’ll likely miss the majority of your shots. As you’re aiming you’re also unable to move, so you can see where the frustration starts, especially since you can’t easily swap targets, so you better hope it chose the enemy you want to shoot at.
Elise also has a dodge and a knockback that can be used, but good luck getting them to use with any regularity when you really need it to work. You have unlimited normal ammunition, but during your travels can find, or craft, High Quality ammunition, causing more damage. I found I didn’t need to really use the HQ ammo until the last portion, and even then it was just to make the combat easier and finish quicker. What makes combat uninspired and boring too is that there’s really only one enemy type. The odd few will get a shield in the last portion, but nothing new from start to finish. I’m glad there was an option to lessen the combat sections, but it really just doesn’t feel or perform well in any way, feeling more like an arbitrary way to lengthen the gameplay even though there is a narrative reason for them to be there. Even the ‘boss’ portions at the end are quite uninspired.
For all the frustrations I had with Broken Pieces, there were some positives as well. The seaside village backdrop certainly paints a desolate area as if it’s post-apocalyptic. Visually the background and scenes are done well with plenty of smaller details, it’s just a shame you’re usually fighting the two camera options constantly to really enjoy much of it. Animations are a little janky at times, Elise doesn’t all that visually impressive and there’s a whole slew of 'jaggies' that stand out, but for such a small team, it’s impressive overall for its aesthetic.
The music though is wonderful, adding some much needed distraction and tone when much of the adventure is quite quiet by design outside of the natural wind and nature sounds. The music you find via tapes is actually the highlight, great to add to any YouTube playlist when you want something light in the background as you do some work. The English voice acting is done quite decently, not amazing, but for how much Elise talks to herself and listens to her own recordings, an overall commendable job when it comes to audio as a whole.
It’s clear that Broken Pieces was a passion project by the team, and while some aspects were wonderful, there was an equal amount of frustration along the way as well. You can expect anywhere from 5 to 10+ hours depending on how much you want to explore and how much backtracking and aimless wandering you do, and while the $31.99 (CAD) may seem a little high, it has potential to be a cult hit with its quirky charm.
**Broken Pieces was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Divine Knockout
If I had to give a quick single sentence description of Divine Knockout (DKO), think third person Smash Bros in a 3D arena. While it’s self-described as “the world’s only 3rd-person platform fighter”, I’m not so sure about that proclamation, but it has a seasoned team behind it. Developed by Red Beard Games and published by Hi-Rez Studios, you might know them for some of their previous hits like SMITE, Paladins, Rogue Company or Realm Royale.Tasked with smashing and knocking out the enemy team, you’ll play as a character from its limited roster, ranging from Gods to special characters. Choose from Ymir, Amatersau, Arthur, Athena, Hercules, Izanami, Sol, Susano, Thanatos, Thor or Zeus, though depending on which edition you purchase will determine what characters you have initial access to. Let me exmplain.
Currently, Divine Knockout is in what’s being called a ‘Founder’s Period’. Essentially Early Access, to play at this current moment you’ll need to purchase one of the two available packs. Now the official FAQ page states “After the Founders Period ends, DKO may become free-to-play. Note that we expect the Founders Period to last several months at minimum, and that each Edition contains in-game content unlocks valued at more than the cost of the Edition.” What stands out here is the word “may”, not stating “will”, so it’s difficult to say what the future holds for its full launch later in the year.
Two Founder Packs are available to purchase: Founders Edition is priced at $31.99 (CAD) unlocking the following: The full game (all maps and modes), 8 Gods (Amaterasu, Sol, Hercules, Susano, Ymir, Athena, Thor, and King Arthur), The Epic Biohazard Sol Skin, King Me Crater Decal, and The Founders Profile Card. Additionally, you’ll receive a special bonus in SMITE (Stormy Chibi Susano Skin and The God Susano, and his Voice Pack).
The Ultimate Edition priced at $63.99 (CAD) includes: The full game (all maps and modes), 8 Gods (Amaterasu, Sol, Hercules, Susano, Ymir, Athena, Thor, and King Arthur), 4 God Tokens (Used to unlock any God of your choice in DKO), The Epic Biohazard Sol Skin AND the Epic Darkheart Athena Skin, 1,000 Runes, “The Ultimate” Title, A DKO Founder Emote and Avatar, King Me Crater Decal, and The Founders Profile Card.
This is where I’m confused at its current state. DKO *should* be a free to play title, which it ‘may’ be in the future, but since you can only play currently by purchasing a Founder’s Pack, you might be surprised that there’s quite a grind to unlock the additional added characters. For example, to get a token to unlock any character you want you’ll need to first grind ten levels, but after that the requirements double, adding hours and hours of more grinding. That or you can simply open your wallet and buy what you want, but more on that mess shortly.
Given that Divine Knockout is kind of like Smash Bros, you’ll need to work on hitting your enemies to whittle down their health so that you can knock them out of the arena with a powerful blow that they won’t be able to recover from. Much like 2D platform fighters, the change to 3D of course adds some different gameplay and unique challenges, always having to mind what’s going on around you, especially in the 3 versus 3 matches.
Each of the arenas you fight in are unique, not only in design, but with their hazards and layout as well. One has outer edge platforms that tend to rotate, others have a spinning spiked bar that can do massive damage to you if you get hit, another has sections of the land that sinks, and even another with a massive rolling boulder. Not only do you need to stay aware of the enemies around you, but the environmental traps as well. You can also use these to your advantage, trying to smash the enemy team into them for a Knockout or at least some huge damage.
While there’s a few different modes to play, it’s more based on if you want to play 3v3, 2v2, or even prove yourself 1v1. 3v3 seems to be its core mode, but there seems to be no skill based matchmaking system included yet. This means that you as a complete newbie might get paired up with, or against, much higher level players. This of course means that some matches are completely unfair based on how it pairs players together, so something to be aware of. Also, I find it annoying that there’s no way to stay as a group after a match, always having to re-queue for a game after one is completed.
For a game that’s primarily marketed as a 3D brawler/fighter, there’s actually a few other modes that get voted on between each match. The team that wins best out of 5 matches first wins. You have the titular Knockout Mode where first team to gain 8 knockouts wins, which is seems like most players tend to vote for. There’s also a Coin Blitz mode where you go around the map to collect coins and then have to stand nearby the chest to collect them for your team. Do you collect tons of coins then have your team try and defend you as it slowly collects, or try and defeat the other team to get an edge on coin collecting time? Lastly is King of the Hill. Standard fare stuff where you need to stand within the designated area that moves every so often, gaining points the longer you stay inside the boundaries.
Regardless of which character you gravitate towards to, they do play somewhat similar. You have a light and heavy attack and then a few different abilities based on the specific character. I personally really enjoyed playing as King Arthur the most, as he has some decent attack abilities, a range attack, a decent ‘Ultimate’, and a great movement abilities. Each one does vary in their playstyle, so make sure to try each (depending on whom you have unlocked) to find what one works best for you. I will say, even though this is technically ‘early access’, there’s some imbalance in characters though, with some being just inherently more powerful or useful as others.
Find out what character has the offensive and defensive abilities you like and work on leveling them up. Each of the abilities has a cooldown timer to reuse, so you need to balance and strategize the best times to use them, as getting hit far out from the map without your traversal power ready means you’ll most likely get knocked out and need to wait on a respawn. Instead of a standard health bar you might expect, it’s much like Smash Bros where you see a percentage above their head, with the higher number indicating the more chance of a divine knockout to occur if you smash them good.
As you level up your characters you’ll be able to customize them to cater to your playstyle. There’s a perk-like system that will slightly alter how efficient or powerful your character becomes, and while it does add some personality to your character, it’s not overtly powerful currently. Sure, having some slightly more damage or more Ultimate charge is great, but it’s not game breaking nor really feels all that different.
What frustrated me was the cash shop. So is Divine Knockout pay-to-win? I wouldn’t go that far since "power" can’t be purchased, though you can buy more skins, cosmetics and the norm, but keep in mind cash shops like that are generally meant for free-to-play games. Sure DKO might be free-to-play in the future, but I have to take it for what it is at this given moment, and it’s currently pay to play.
Yes, you can unlock new characters simply by playing, but the grind is quite arduous and lengthy. Maybe this will also change in the future, but again, in its current state it’s a bit gross to see $130 bundles. Also equally concerning is the prices for characters of course doesn’t equate to certain coin bundles offered, meaning you need to spend more than required and will of course then have left over currency.
What did surprise me was the inclusion of full cross-play and cross-progression, so regardless of where your friends are playing, you can play with, or against, them. It should be noted that purchasing DKO on one platform doesn’t mean you have access on another, so you would need to purchase it there as well. Because of the cross-play, I never had an issue finding a match quickly, though I didn’t see an easy way to discern what platform the other players were on.
The cute chibi-like aesthetic is pleasant on the eyes, as are the very colorful and bright colors. Sure it may look a little odd to see a cute chibi style Thor or Hercules, but it tends to work with how comic-like it all feels. Animations and abilities all have decent looking effects and animations, and while the environments are deliberately small in design, they are all varied from one another with a different theme. The background music does its job at cutting the dead air, but there’s nothing really memorable from its soundtrack. Some of the moves and attacks do sound powerful and like they have impact, as it’s always satisfying to use a heavy attack or ability and hear the enemy launch into the air and then get a knockout.
Given Hi-Rez Studios’ pedigree, especially with SMITE, I had some high expectations with Divine Knockout. While I’m not disappointed with the game on its own, I’m more confused by the decision to charge for its early access, limiting who can play when it certainly feels like it’s designed to be a free-to-play game, made even apparent with its cash shop.
The official wording of "may" and not "will" when talking about its launch plans of possibly going free-to-play later on still seems odd, but time will tell. While it’s currently lacking much variety and content, it can be fun in short bursts, especially once you start to get proficient with your character of choice, but it’s an arduous grind, hard to recommend in its current paid state. Once, and if, it goes free-to-play, it’ll be a no-brainer to give a shot.
**Divine Knockout was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Finding the Soul Orb
I’m all for small indie developers being able to create their vision, as they are usually quite a unique experience compared to the larger and popular games that most play. Finding the Soul Orb is one of those experiences, clearly a labor of love, but there’s always the question if it will resonate the same way with the audience as intended, or if it will get glossed over. A story driven game with a lot of linear walking paths, complete with a crossbow, werewolves and some very light puzzle elements, all while exploring some different landscapes. Even though there’s some very light combat elements, the vast majority of the experience is simply walking, so I’d still classify it primarily as a walking sim despite the other elements included.As you explore the areas you find yourself in, and I use the term ‘explore’ quite loosely, as you’re actually quite restricted to where you can and can’t go, you’ll come across these circular stones that when stood on will give you snippets of the narrative. Whilst standing on these stones, there’s a fog that clouds your vision as text appears on screen, giving you a few sentences of the story each time. The story starts out interesting enough, set in medieval times about a King and his lands plagued by an onslaught of werewolves. A high wizard created something called the Soul Orb that was meant to protect the Kingdom, but then it was suddenly gone. This is where Alexander is talked to by the Soul Orb in his dreams, sets off to go find it, and save the Kingdom. There then is something about an evil wizard and some more backstory, but because of the small snippets of story at a time, it was quite difficult to follow along.
Honestly, even after the credits rolled and I finished all twelve chapters in a single sitting, I was still left confused due to numerous characters simply talked about in story without seeing anything or anyone. Even at the final cutscene, I was still confused as to what has happened. Now what? I have no idea, so don’t go in expecting some interesting narrative or big pay off at the end unfortunately.
Placed in a fantasy setting, you begin your journey by coming landing on shore from your ship on a small rowboat. As you land you see something far off in the distance and decide to start heading towards the mountains in the distance. There’s seemingly different difficulties, but what the actual differences are between the different versions of Easy, I’m unsure.
As you make your way up the opening pathway, this is your first indication at just how linear this experience is about to be. Not only are you confined to the main path laid out before you, but you quickly realize that you’re unable to veer from the designated path at all. Those ankle high shrubs, bushes and flowers means you’re unable to step over, and thus must go where designed. There’s little to no exploring allowed, which is a bit of a disappointment, as you can’t even deviate from the main path slightly, blocked in by invisible walls.
Controls are simplistic as they come, with movement assigned to the sticks as expected, Left Trigger to run, though it’s more of a brisk walk, and Right Trigger to shoot your crossbow once you find it early on in your adventure. Why the default is a slow walk, I’m unsure, so you have to hold the Left Trigger the whole time if you want to jog slightly faster. As you make your way across the dozen chapters, you’ll find the glowing rocks to stand on, giving you those snippets of story in text format. There are a few chapters though that you don’t even really play, as they are dream sequences with the Soul Orb talking to you for a few minutes, then you continue on your journey.
Played in first person, the majority of your experience will be walking from one area to the next. There are some very light puzzle and combat elements, but even calling them puzzles, aside from one, is a bit of a stretch. Puzzles boil down to shooting a switch with your crossbow, sometimes figuring out the order of the two or three handles to progress, and that’s it. There’s one puzzle that has you doing something different, not explained at all until a hint appeared on screen as I thought I was lost or stuck. And the last puzzle oddly enough, was quite difficult, having to shoot levers to rotate some pillars, though unsure of what the solution was until the game actually asked me if I wanted to automatically solve it. I appreciate the offer, but having more of a clue of how to solve said puzzle would be been welcome too.
There are a handful of collectables to find in most of the chapters. These are tied to achievements too, so definitely worth the small deviation. Since your adventure is basically linear, these are essentially just hiding in certain houses or ruins. Demon statues will be sitting in random spots ready to be found and collected, and then there are some gargoyles that stay floating around certain areas, waiting for you to shoot them with your crossbow. That’s about it, and the 1000 Gamerscore is a breeze to get, even without any walkthroughs or guides since they are quite difficult to miss due to the linearity.
The world you explore changes from rocky mountains, gloomy and dark forests, underground mines to gorgeous beachside vistas. Some landscapes are fantastical to take in their scenery while others are completely boring and has nothing of note to look at. What reoccurs though is the werewolves you’ll need to fight along the way that block your path. Certain areas will have the pathway you need to progress blocked with an orange spell barrier, but defeat all the werewolves in the area, usually 3 to 5, and it magically turns green and unlocks, allowing you to pass.
While there is some combat and it’s somewhat frequent, it’s so broken which is why I still categorize Finding the Soul Orb as primarily a walking sim. Stand far enough away and you can pick off the werewolves without them seeing you or reacting. The first half will have single shot werewolves that flail in the air like wrestler overselling a huge bump before keeling over and dying. Better yet, later on there are seemingly some more powerful werewolves that take more than one shot, so you would assume that after hitting them once they would turn to you and start pursuing you right? Nope, they don’t react at all as long as you’re far enough away, so you can simply pick them off one by one without any recourse.
After each shot you have to reload the crossbow, which take a few moments, naturally, though I’m still unsure where you keep the unlimited amount of silver tipped arrows since you can shoot indefinitely. Because there was no risk in combat, it felt completely unneeded, simply slowing you down for a few moments as you miss your first few shots due to the inaccuracy until the shot finally lands and kills your enemy. There seems to be a distance where the arrow won’t hit the enemy, but you can get close enough where they still won’t pursue you on their predetermined walking path. If you do happen to get too close, the music changes and it’s obvious that they are chasing you, but nothing to worry about as they simply come at you in a straight line, slowly, with claws out trying to look intimidating.
Oddly, there’s even an optional crossbow upgrade to find early on, allowing your arrow to shoot through the werewolves and hit any behind, but because you’ll be picking them off one by one from a distance without any issues, this seems completely unneeded as well. Sure, maybe in the last chapter where you fight a few of the ‘harder’ ones simultaneously it’ll help, but don’t stress if you somehow don’t find the upgrade that’s well-hidden ten feet from the main path. Often your character will automatically draw or put away the crossbow, so when nothing is in hand you know you’re simply walking from point A to point B. Once that crossbow comes out, you know you’ll have to deal with some werewolves or puzzles to progress. This kills any tension though, as you basically know what’s going to happen.
Being an indie game, my expectations for its visuals and audio are obviously nowhere near a largely funded game, but I’d still like to be impressed. This is where Finding the Soul Orb is a mixed bag. On one hand, some of the environments are so drab and dull that it’s as if there was little effort made into creating an interesting world to explore. Given that the majority of the experience is on 'rails' and we are forced to see what we were designed to, I was hoping for a bit more.
Then in the later half when you’re exploring outside, it has some of the most beautiful skyboxes I’ve seen, forcing me to take a few moments and a handful of screenshots to capture its beauty. I just wish the whole experience was like this. Stop to smell the roses and you’ll notice how low quality many of the textures and models are, which given how slow you ‘run’, it’s hard not to notice when it stands out poorly. And for whatever reason, it didn’t feel like a smooth experience, so I can only assume it wasn’t anywhere near 60fps, even giving me a weird Xbox menu lag as I was playing as well.
Then there’s the audio, or lack of it. Sure there’s some music that kicks in when combat is about to happen, but a lot of the time there’s some dead silence. The only voiced sections are the ‘dream’ chapters where the Soul Orb is talking to you, but the other story pedestals you find would have benefited from some voicing as well. What’s odd though is that at certain parts of the walking sim sections, some amazing and beautiful orchestral music would kick in, something that made me feel like I was exploring the world of Morrowind or Skyrim.
I don’t enjoy being harsh on small indie games, as I understand how difficult it can be to even create the experiences, but I’m always trying to think of value and longevity, both that seem to be missing. Sure the easy 1000 Gamerscore is nice for two hours of work, but it can be completed in a single sitting and absolutely no reason to ever go back. Even at a low price of $8.99 (CAD), it’s difficult to recommend for such a dull experience since I can't explore at all.
**Finding the Soul Orb was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Saint Kotar
I’m all for trying games outside of my comfort zone, as Saint Kotar isn’t something I would have normally gravitated to towards on my own. Now, I’m not a religious man, not at all actually, but Saint Kotar, developed by Red Martyr Entertainment, makes it apparent from its opening minutes that this game is going to have a lot of themes that revolve around religion, cults and more. I should mention, that there’s also some things discussed that could potentially be trigger warnings for some people, but I don’t recall seeing any at the beginning of the adventure.A psychological horror point and click game, Saint Kotar takes place in a small town in Croatia, and given that I’m not religious at all, it was a bit much to get through at certain points. It surely is an interesting game, but don’t expect your typical point and click adventure, as this has a much darker setting.
You play most of the time as Benedek, sometimes swapping to brother in-law Nikolay. Both wake up in a mysterious house in a small religious town, Sveti Kotar, searching for his sister Viktoria, also Nikolay’s wife. Before this journey begins you actually start the game many years ago as a child, being locked in the basement by your father for disobeying some order, and yes, the lights are completely shut off. So you start the game stumbling around in the dark unsure what to do or even how, eventually finding that your sister, Viktoria, has snuck down there to be with you so you’re not alone.
Religion runs in your family, and your father was very strict when it came to God. This is probably why Benedek decided to become a monk and follow God in his own life as he grew up. When the two men wake up they can tell right away that something is wrong and doesn’t feel right. They can’t find Viktoria and are seemingly locked in this house. Once they do find a way out their journey of finding Viktoria begins, but it’s not that simple when the police arrive to question you of her whereabouts.
It becomes abundantly clear that Sveti Kotar isn’t your typical small town, as you’re brought to the scene of a crime that happened last night. You arrive at a church under police escort only to find the hanging corpse of the mayor dangling from its walls. His eyes are gone, as is the heart and part of the brain. Why would the police show you this? They seemingly have reason to believe it was your sister. But how could she do this? Where was she? Nikolay of course believes in her innocence, but Benedek knowing his sister and how they’ve been distant the last few years isn’t so sure.
I’ll admit, I was intrigued early on as the search for Viktoria was compelling, even with the heavy handed religious overtones. To find out the truth of the murder and avoid being blamed, you’ll need to figure out what actually happened, but it won’t be as simple as you first think. Is your sister involved or actually a victim? You better start figuring out where she is to get to the bottom of this so you can leave this cursed place.
Having a very narrative driven game is difficult at the best of times, but doing so with a pair of characters that are quite unlikable makes it even more challenging. I get that both men are religious, but it’s shoved in your face at every turn, coming across as way too holier than thou. It probably doesn’t help that the voice acting isn’t all that great, but more on that shortly. Even by the time the (actual) credits rolled, I still didn’t like Benedek and feel like he didn’t redeem himself into a likable protagonist.
You will meet a cast of other characters along the way, some stand out, like Detective Mostov who has a massive dent in his head, or a grotesque looking fisherman nearby who seems to have something stuck to his neck. Some of these characters were well written and intriguing, more so than even Nikolay, which I really ended up disliking. I won’t delve much more into the story, as this is a narrative heavy game with lots of twists and turns, but what I will say is that even after I got the ‘real’ ending, I came away disappointed with the big reveal and twist. Also, in more than just a few points of the story, the screen will go black during a cutscene where something important happens. These moments with only dialogue don’t really carry the weight I believe they were intended to and just feel like it’s missing or incomplete. I’m not sure if it was this way to avoid having to do animations, which are basic as it is, or if it’s to have you envision it in your own mind, but it stands out awkwardly.
As you begin to solve the mystery of your sister’s whereabouts and involvement, you’ll be exploring the town of Sveti Kotar, a dark and morbid town, from rundown buildings, police department, a church, cursed forest and more. I hope you have a good memory, as you’ll need to remember the pathways to and from areas, as there’s plenty of backtracking you’ll need to do going from one scene to another. There’s a button to toggle walking and running, but running is already slow as it is, so why you’d want to purposely walk somewhere aside from roleplaying reasons, I’m not sure.
In most point and click adventure titles, you’re given basic commands like walk, use and look. It’s somewhat similar here, but what I did really appreciate was being able to press a button and see all the intractable hotpots in each scene. This meant less fumbling around, easily seeing what the intractable objects were and the pathways to the adjoining areas. I was worried I’d need to move a mouse-like cursor on screen, as this generally doesn’t work all that well with a controller, but thankfully that’s not the case here, able to easily tab between each object with the D-Pad.
Saint Kotar is very dialogue heavy, so get comfortable and settle in for a wild story that goes in some directions you probably don’t expect at first. While there is an inventory and you’ll have a handful of items at most times, there’s not much trial and error, as it’s generally obvious of what items is to be used when. This means there’s not much in terms of puzzles, but also means I didn’t get stuck as much as I usually do in this genre. You will need to combine items from time to time, which can be a bit awkward with the controller setup, but I did get stuck at one point where I had to read a note in my inventory, completely unsure how to do so without testing it with every single button until I finally figured it out.
Instead of random puzzles to figure out, you need to make sure you talk to everyone you can and exhaust every dialogue option. Now and then you’ll be given some actual choices to make, and these will affect certain outcomes and possibly even bring you to a premature credit roll or Game Over screen. This was part of the issue, it’s not blatantly obvious at first what the ‘real’ ending was, as some that see credits roll about halfway through might think that’s it. As you go through the dialogue choices, the ones you’ve already chosen turn a slightly lighter grey, but it’s hard to discern what you’ve chosen already sometimes, so I always just chose top down.
At certain story segments you’ll be forced to swap characters to see a different perspective, other times you’ll be able to freely change whenever you like, but it’s difficult to know when you should to figure out how to progress. You’ll often be aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out who to talk to so you can move forward, and while there’s a map, it’s an overall generic map, not detailed enough to show the pathways between each area showing routes, so it’s quite pointless.
Visually, Saint Kotar isn’t pretty to look at. Even though you have characters walking around some backgrounds, everything looks dated, from the textures to the models themselves. Maybe they were going for a PS1 – PS2 era aesthetic, but the limited animations and slow movement really makes it stand out and feel like it drags on at times. Given the backdrop and setting, of course the town of Sveti Kotar is dark and dreary, but it just appears dull overall.
What did impress is that every line of the lengthy dialogue is completely voiced, something I wasn’t expecting. That said, the voice acting is quite mediocre at the best of times. Maybe it’s the heavy religious tonality of the writing, but it ranged everywhere from cringe to bland; not the worst I’ve ever heard, but certainly not great. The music however does a great job at setting a dark tone and makes the backdrops very atmospheric.
Saint Kotar was an odd title to get through, as it was frustrating in certain aspects, but the story was drip fed just well enough that I had a hard time putting it down, wanting to find out what the actual truth was to its mystery. At $44.99 CAD, it does seem a bit overpriced, but depending on your point and click skillset, you’ll get anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of it. An interesting story with heavy religious and cultist tones, the constant backtracking and weak visuals may deter some. God, Religion and Cultists, oh my!
**Saint Kotar was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Togges
3D platformers can be fun, but those that have a cute protagonist and set in a very colorful world are even better. Togges, developed by two man team Regular Studio, is the latest 3D platformer but has its own unique twist. Not only is it set in a very colorful world and quite adorable, but it’s also got a wacky story that at least helps you have some overall goal aside from simply solving puzzles. Each world is designed to be non-linear and you’re able to freely explore and solve puzzles in any order you wish, all while stacking the cutest little blocks. And if you get feelings of Katamari or Super Mario Galaxy, you aren’t alone.Surprisingly, there is a story within Togges that revolved around some sort of threat called The Void, so you are helping King President to save the universe by dominating it. Even funnier, your character is basically a small Roomba vacuum cleaner, though of course you have some special abilities that will help you solve puzzles along the way across each world.
You’ll be tasked with collecting a handful of different fruits in each world across a handful of different worlds. How this fruit will stop the universe from being destroyed by The Void, I’m not sure; I just work here, I don’t ask questions. You’ll also need to convince each world’s gatekeeper to join your quest to save the universe when you finally get to meet them, something that might be easier said than done.
You’ll not only be tasked with placing adorable cubes called Togges, but sucking them up as well, you are a small and cute little vacuum after all. You’ll be doing so across seven different worlds with dozens of bonus levels, ranging from a lush and green field, desert, carrot cake land, a moon world and more. You’ll meet some characters along the way, some funny pair of brothers, and others that seem to want to chat for what seems like forever. There’s a surprising amount of dialogue for a 3D puzzle platformer, but it shows that effort has gone into making this world livelier, even if it can be a bit much at times.
Togges is quite unique in its gameplay, as it has you spreading your little cubes one at time by holding the Right Trigger. As you do so, a line of Togges will appear behind you, leaving a trail in the path you go. You’re tasked with solving puzzles with the Togges, as Toomba (your Roomba) can’t interact with anything without the Togges there. So this has you stretching your resources of Togges as you try to reach the next fruit you’re searching for. You’re only able to start placing Togges down from specific points, usually the starting point or fruits that you find and collect.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you’re a vacuum, so any Togges you no long need can be sucked back up and put into your pile of available ones to place. You’ll only be able to reach so far without going back and collecting any Togges you no longer need, so you’ll constantly be cleaning up after yourself. Once a Togge is placed you can spread more from that cube, but if you accidentally suck up all the ones you need to reach somewhere, you’ll have to find one of the fruit starting points and make a new trail.
You start with basic red Togges, able to be stacked up to five high, but they can only be placed one block apart. You start off with about a thousand Togges to be placed, which is more than enough to get through a few puzzles without cleaning up Togges you no longer need, but you’ll eventually have to backtrack to vacuum them up and put back into your available pool. Since you need to reach objects with a Togge to interact with an item, like doors to bonus levels, fruit and more, the puzzle elements that come into play is how do you reach your destination with your Togges trail. Sure you can explore freely without placing any Togges to get an idea of what’s around you, but you’ll have to figure out a way to reach your destination with your Togges to be successful and interact.
As you progress you’re going to find new abilities and colors of Togges that change how you approach some puzzles. Green Togges for example are huge, allowing you to reach higher areas but cost more to place. Yellow and conduct electricity and Blue can actually be placed along water like a bridge provided you don’t stop for more than a moment, but aren’t able to be stacked very high. So once you have a few more options you’ll need to be strategic of when will be used to reach your destinations. Making things even trickier is that it seems like you can’t mix and match Togges, as they have to be a line of the same color from the starting point, so you can’t use your normal Red Togges then all of a sudden place form Green’s to reach higher.
You can even find some abilities to help you along the way as well, such as being able to place a massive bomb and knock it in a direction. These abilities will help you find all the collectables, and you’ll be the most successful if you spend the time to explore the world you’re in. Because of the level design, you’re not forced to finish levels in a linear path, though if you try to go too far or place too many Togges, you might not be able to solve the puzzles. This is where you can find small fruit shards that once collected, by placing a Togge on it, will add to your overall Togges count, allowing you to reach ultimately further.
The opening world is a perfect introduction to how you play while not feeling overwhelming. Eventually though I’ll admit, the worlds became absolutely huge, like the Carrot Cake land, making me feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start. I found it best to find the closest fruit I could and simply focus on that, one at a time. Trying to do too much at once simply frustrated me, so I chose to focus on one puzzle at a time.
I quite enjoy Togges' art direction, as the world's are quite colorful and there’s something adorable with the hundreds of cubes you place down having cute little smiles. The level design is done quite well and you can tell the worlds are hand crafted with plenty of detail. While there’s a lot of dialogue, all of the text is done in that Sims-like gibberish and the background audio is relaxing and varies based on the levels.
While I did become stumped quite often at how I was supposed to reach certain areas with my Togges, sometimes taking a break or working on finding another fruit before coming back seemed to help. There’s supposedly a Hint system integrated, but every time I tried to use it I would just get “No Fruit Nearby” even if I could see it, just unsure how to get there properly. It can sometimes be tricky to place your Togges exactly where you want, especially on single cube spots, but you eventually get a feel for doing so more proficiently as you spend more time in its world.
Truth be told, one of our other writers was set to do this review, but was unable to due to some severe motion sickness, so I've asked them to describe what they encountered:
"As a huge fan of Thunderful games as well and Indie puzzle platform games, I was extremely excited to play (and review) Togges. Sadly, I couldn’t play for more than 15 minutes at a time without encountering some pretty severe motion sickness from the way the camera moves and swivels. This isn’t an uncommon problem for me in games but normally you can find a way to adjust the camera or movement or sensitivity settings in the options. This, unfortunately, wasn’t the case with Togges as I saw no setting for any of these, nor things like colorblind mode. I don’t need this feature, but with a game that relies on using a variety of coloured blocks (with differing abilities) in levels to complete them, it seems to be another feature lacking."
Togges excels at placing you in its colorful and whimsical world, and those that enjoy taking the time to explore every corner of the levels will surely get dozens of hours out of it. Those that want a little more guidance might become a little frustrated, especially once you unlock the later levels that are much larger and can be a bit overwhelming at first. Surely to twist your mind and puzzle solving skills, there’s plenty of longevity in Togges, all while placing hundreds of adorable cubes.
**Togges was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Heidelberg 1693
Developed by Andrade Games, Heidelberg 1693 is an alternative take on history that revolves around a Musketeer and an endless amount of zombies and undead constantly trying to murder you at every step. “Survive Morbid” is the official subtitle, and absolutely fitting. A Castlevania clone at its core, Heidelberg 1693 is a 2D action adventure with hints of Ghouls 'n Ghosts and even some classic Prince of Persia.Having done a little research on Musketeers after playing this, they were a very important soldier type who guarded the French King back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Essentially the beginning of a standard rifleman, they were armed with a musket, a long barrel firearm that was deadly but very slow to reload due to the primitive technology back then. And thus, you’re an unnamed musketeer, which is blatantly obvious due to the oversized hat with large feather, who King Louis XIV has sent to destroy his bastard son. King Louis XIV was also known as the Sun King, so of course the antagonist, his bastard son, is the Moon King. Featuring real historical people and places, they of course take some liberties with the historical accuracies, as I don’t remember a mass zombie plague in the history books. Why send his army to defeat the Moon King when he can send you, alone? And so begins your adventure fighting a mass of undead abominations whom the Moon King has transformed all the surrounding inhabitants to stop you.
While the levels themselves aren’t long in design, each will take a while due to the amount of times you’ll die and have to start over from the last checkpoint you reached. As you complete each stage, you’ll make your way across the lands, though the story plays out like a silent movie between most stages which is interesting given the setting, but hard to get you invested in the narrative.
As a 2D platformer that looks as though it came out of the classic era of gaming, Heidelberg 1693 is going to take a good amount of memorization, trial and error, and perseverance to complete. Sure, there’s speedruns out there that make the game’s difficulty look like a joke, but for an average player you expect to die quite often until you can adjust and react to each level’s enemy patterns, attacks and traps. As you traverse each level from left to right, you’ll need to survive against an onslaught of unrelenting undead enemies. These start out as simple lurking zombies that are easy to kill, but eventually you’ll have a number of other types of monstrosities, like floating skull heads, corpse tossers, other musket users and more, and that’s not even including the environmental traps like massive spinning blades and deadly pits. To keep with the horror theme, there’s a heavy coat of blood, guts and gore, keeping that uneasy theme recurring throughout.
To get around the levels and survive you’ll need to be able to jump and reach all the different platforms to progress. There’s even a double jump included, because of course a 2D action platformer needs a double jump, but this is where I find some of the issues arise. When you double jump you automatically also do a spin attack with your sword, which is fine and used for fighting enemies, but this also leaves you defenseless for a moment once you land as well. You also have a down thrust attack which is great for dealing extra damage for enemies directly below you.
Couple this with some iffy controls when it comes to precise movement, and you can probably start to see where some of my frustration came into play. Certain areas only give you the smallest fraction of a spot to land safely, but doing so is incredibly difficult at the best of times, causing a lot of unfair deaths. That’s also not even factoring the general chaos that’s generally happening on screen at all times either with projectiles and handfuls of enemies all trying to kill you.
Armed with just a trusty sword and musket, you’ll need to be patience and clever to survive what’s trying to destroy you. Level design is done well in the sense that enemy placements are generally in tricky to reach spots or at difficult angles to add more challenge. It’s rare when there’s a generally flat sections where you can simply swipe your sword back and forth, carving a pathway through the undead. Instead, expect perched enemies up high trying to toss projectiles at you, making traversing challenging. Also, you better keep an eye on those that you’ve killed, because they may need a second shot to kill them for good so they don’t come back to life if you stay around too long, though this generally never really because an issue and more seemed like a waste of ammo.
You’re a Musketeer though, so naturally you’d think that the majority of your combat would focus on this. It does to an extent, but remember that muskets shot one bullet at a time before needing a lengthy reload, and it’s no different here in Heidelberg 1693. While quite powerful, your musket requires you to reload after each shot before use again, and this takes quite a while and leaves you vulnerable. Because of the general chaos always happening, there’s not many opportune times to reload so it becomes almost a game of trying to find the right moment to reload when you need it most.
There’s also a weird mechanic to actually shooting, as you need to aim with the Right Stick, but you’re seemingly restricted to shooting between certain angles, and without any sort of aimer or cursor you’re going to likely miss a good amount of your shots in the heat of battle, again, leading to some more deaths. Ammo is generally scarce as well, and you can only carry a handful of ammunition at a time, so I tended to rely on my musket for more ‘oh crap’ last ditch effort attacks to try and survive. Thankfully along with ammo, health pickups can appear too, so make sure to defeat any enemies or slash any hanging corpses you can; you never know what may fall out of them.
What I didn’t really expect though was how enemies can hit one another. It took me a while to try and use this to my advantage, as eventually I would try and position myself behind another enemy so that when I was being shot at from afar, they would kill the enemy in front of me instead. Easier said than done when there’s a lot happening at once and you’re frustrated from trying a level for the thirtieth time because the difficulty spiked out of nowhere.
Heidelberg 1693 sports some great pixelated aesthetics, oversaturated in blood and darkness. Animation is done quite well for you and enemy movement and attacks, I was just a little let down with the storyboard version of the narrative as it’s basically a slideshow. While no voice acting, the gushy sounds of things constantly dying is satisfying, as is the brooding soundtrack that subtly sets the tone in the background.
While it won’t be as iconic as its Castlevania or Ghouls 'n Ghosts influences, Heidelberg 1693 is sure to scratch that itch for those yearning for a similar title. Boss battles are large and the highlight of the experience, though infrequent between the random and challenging difficulty spikes.
**Heidelberg 1693 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Firefighting Simulator - The Squad
Having originally released on PC back in 2020, Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is now here for you and your group of friends to fight fires together as one cohesive unit. Like many young kids, at one point I wanted to be a firefighter. Something about running into a burning building saving someone, or getting that cat stuck up in the tree, felt like being a true life hero. Well now the time has come and you can get an idea of what it may be like to fight fires alongside a squad of friends with Firefighting Simulator – The Squad.Before you start your new career of fighting fires, you’ll need to know what to do, which is where the opening tutorial comes in. This starts with the basics then has optional tutorials you can take, of which I would suggest going through for more than just the achievement of course. The basics start with showing you how to move and spray water on the fire, but you’ll also learn how to use all the doors at a firefighter’s disposal, such as axes, pry bars, circular saw and more.
Certain tools will be needed to open blocked doors and windows, even allowing you to smash through certain walls for another entry point. The tutorials do a decent job of showing you how to extinguish a fire, as fire can spread if you don’t battle against it properly. Sometimes you need to think about how to prevent a fire from spreading since you can’t instantly extinguish it. You’ll also be taught how to crouch so you can deal with the heavy smoke before you ventilate rooms by opening doors and windows.
I initially made a joke about the game having backdrafts, one of the best early 90’s movies, and to my surprise they are actually a hazard you need to be aware of in the game as well, though don't seem to happen often. This is a simulator though, so you’ll need to establish your hoses, command your squad and even use ladder trucks to fight the fires from above or to save people trapped inside a building.
I hope you weren’t expecting some story or narrative about being a rookie, working their way up the ranks to eventually be a captain or something, because there’s absolutely no story mode or anything of the sort here. There is a progression system where you get XP for completing missions, but you simply go from one mission to the next. Your goal is to beat all the missions and score the best you can. That’s about it.
Being a simulator, you can expect there’s some realism to the game, and this starts with officially licensed gear from Cairns, MSA G1 SCBA, Leatherhead Tools and HAIX. Now I’m no firefighter, nor know anything about the gear they use in real life, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s probably authentic to the gear worn by actual firefighters. There’s also officially licensed firetrucks as well from Rosenbauer America, such as the TP3 Pumper and T-Rex Articulating Platform. While I doubt many won’t know this gear or brand unless you’re in this career path, I’m sure this will make those that are, happy to see its authenticity.
As mentioned above, you’ll simply be doing one mission after another. You can see the map that spans roughly 15km of roads and there’s about 30 or so missions to complete. You only begin with a few missions unlocked, but as you complete them and earn XP, missions will unlock based on your levels and completion, so it will take a bit of grinding to unlock and complete them all. You can replay missions whenever you wish if there’s some that really stand out, and there’s also randomized missions as well to keep things a bit fresh.
So let’s talk about actually fighting the fires. Well, before you do so you’ll need to drive there from the fire station where the truck is parked. I was expecting to have some sort of minigame of getting your gear equipped or at least sliding down the iconic pole, but nope, you simply start in your truck and are off to the call. Your map will show you the path to get to the fire, adjusting if you miss or make a wrong turn. You can choose to have your headlights and sirens on. Just like real life, most cars will get out of your way when they hear the siren and see you coming, but there’s always one or two that are either oblivious or don’t care, requiring you to swerve a bit to avoid a collision. As for the actual driving mechanics, it’s as basic as it gets. Collide into cars or objects and you get a traffic incident, causing you to be slow and then most likely not getting your quick response bonus.
So you’ve followed the GPS and made it to the scene, now what? Well, you’re a firefighter, you trained for this. Usually one member will do a 360 of the scene to find out what’s happened or notice if any survivors inside. Next will be establishing your lines and hoses, as that’s how you’ll be fighting the fires. First you go to the truck and find the supply hose indicated by yellow and attach that to the fire hydrant nearby. This will supply and route the water through the firetruck once you connect the other end to it.
Go back to your truck and find the red attack hose, attach to the proper connector on the truck, get a nozzle from another compartment and attach that. Now you’re ready to start blasting the fire with some pressurized water, though I'm not sure why nozzles don't come pre-attached, but maybe that's how it is in real life. You can setup these lines yourself or get the AI to do so with the command wheel, but more on that shortly. The truck will also have different compartments with the other tools you’ll need like your circular saws to cut through locks, fire extinguishers for grease fires, axes and more based on your needs.
Now that you’ve got your attack line, you’re ready to do what you do best; putting out those fires. Holding ‘Right Trigger’ will have you spray water wherever you’re aiming. No need to worry about destroying objects, blasting your teammates, or even how the line will get around corners. The attack line magically grows whenever you walk with it, which is quite hilarious at the end of a job, seeing hundreds of feet of hose all around the ground like a den of snakes.
When you start blasting the fire with your hose you’ll start to see small fire icons. These start large and eventually shrink before disappearing, stating that the fire has been put out. You have to be aware of how fire behaves though. Just because you put out the fire on one wall, the other or roof that’s still burning can cause it to reignite, so you need to be methodical about how you’re putting out the fires so that you’re not there not making any progress.
If you decide to play solo, that’s perfectly viable, as the team of four will be filled with AI team members at all times. You do have a command wheel where you can instruct each of the team to do something different if you want, but I found this to work spotty at best. I generally just instructed them to always fight the fire, or go rescue an unconscious person once I’m able to find where they are passed out on the floor.
While you’ll primarily be fighting standard fires, there’s a few other strategies you’ll need to utilize if you’re dealing with a grease, chemical or even an electrical fire. If you try to use your attack hose to put out a grease fire it’ll make things worse, causing an explosion and reigniting everything around once again. This requires you to grab a fire extinguisher instead to put out these spots before going back to the water line. Like real life, fire extinguishers have a finite supply within the canister, so you’ll need to be efficient as possible to avoid having to go back to the truck to grab a replacement. Electrical fires are a little trickier, as if you spray water on these components, they’ll simply reignite from the sparks. To stop this you’ll need to find the electrical shut-off box for the building, sometimes outside, sometimes in a random room. Turn off the power and then you’ll be able to finally make progress on the fires without reignition.
Lastly, you’ll need to keep an eye out for survivors. These are usually people unconscious in specific rooms, able to be carried all the out outside to the ambulance waiting on the road. You can do this yourself or instruct your AI partners to do so, and there’s a few times where I had people awake and scared, simply telling them to follow me out of the burning building to rescue.
While there’s no crossplay between Xbox and other consoles and PC, though Xbox One and Series X|S players can join a squad and play together. Every mission calls for four players, so if you can’t find people or friends to play with, the spots will fill with AI. The most entertainment obviously came from when I was playing alongside 3 other firefighters, each focusing on a different aspect to battle the blaze. Joining other players’ games I did have the odd game drop out, though I’m not sure if I simply got kicked or not, it doesn’t tell you. Hosting my own games I had a few people join here and there, but the community seems to be quite small, so if you plan on playing multiplayer, make sure you somehow convince a friend to purchase the game as well.
Let’s be honest, a good majority of simulator titles usually are quite rough around the edges. Where they lack in polish they make up in having unique gameplay, and Firefighting Simulator - The Squad is no different. Quite ‘janky’, I had a plethora of issues yet still found myself wanting to battle just one more fire before calling it quits for the night. There were a lot of bugs and such throughout though. The pop-in for objects while driving the firetruck to the destination is absolutely terrible at times, especially when hitting top speed. Buildings, trees and background items will appear out of nowhere, and even cars that were previously in your way completely disappear randomly. I once even spawned into a mission with the firetruck flipped on its side and facing the wrong way, dinging me for a traffic accident and of course not making the quick response time bonus. Animations are also quite spotty, like when you go to pick up a survivor, holding the button will eventually just have them appear over your shoulder or placing them on the stretcher instantly without any movements in-between.
Visuals are basically what you’d expect from a small studio doing a sim title. There’s nothing outstanding or all that impressive, though I will say the fire can look quite good when you’re in the middle of a building surrounded by flames and smoke. Audio is what you’d expect as well, with the siren of the firetruck (though no echo when going through a tunnel), radio communications and some information told by dispatch on the way to a fire. The roar and crackles of the fire sound quite good and the background soundtrack is subtle enough without becoming annoying.
While I’d categorize Firefighting Simulator - The Squad more of a simcade than a pure simulator, it does have some enjoyment to it regardless of its many shortcomings. Even though it has a lot of ‘jank’, I found myself trying to do just one more mission until the late hours of the night. Aside from playing alongside from friends though, there’s not much longevity here, as the gameplay loop doesn’t change from start to finish. On a half-off sale I could recommend Firefighting Simulator - The Squad for a few hours of entertainment, but at full price (currently $38.99 CAD), it’s a bit too pricey for what it offers.
**Firefighting Simulator - The Squad was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition
I’ll admit, I know the bare basics about the Warhammer 40,000 universe. While I’ve played and reviewed a handful of their games, the ones I’ve played were mostly very tactical and turn based strategy games. Some I enjoyed, others not as much, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect with Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition, a mouthful of a title. If Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr sounds familiar, that’s because is originally released back in 2018, but this Ultimate Edition has now been improved and now exclusively for next-gen (current-gen?) with a ton of additions and improvements.I’ll admit, I’m generally not all that into Action RPG’s (ARPG) like Diablo, Path of Exile and plenty of others, so when I saw that Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition was along the same lines, I went in with trepid expectations. Hours later, I’ve been unable to stop myself from continuing to play, constantly wanting to do ‘one more run’ to level, grind and get new upgrades. The ARPG gameplay loop definitely got its hooks in me, and I’ve been working on three separate characters continually.
So you previously played Inquisitor – Martyr and want to know what’s all included in the Ultimate Edition? Now available on Xbox Series X|S, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition not only is an ‘all in one’ collection with all 25 previously released DLC’s, but has a ton of other improvements as well. With a bunch of quality of life improvements, visual upgrades, mission packs and more, there’s plenty of content here to last you quite a while. That said, as someone new coming into the game, it was quite overwhelming at first, as not much is taught to you very well or really slow dripped and fed to you, it’s this massive amount of content all at once that took me a good handful of hours to really grasp and figure out.
Probably the biggest portion of this Ultimate Edition’s content would be the inclusion of the Prophecy expansion that most notably added a new campaign and class. This narrative takes place over the course of three decently length chapters that takes place after the main Martyr storyline. There’s not only a new class for you to play, the Tech-Adept, this ‘pet’ class was a lot of fun to play and was very unique compared to the original three core classes. This Tech-Adept Inquisitor must use his constructs to explore new areas and fight new enemies, adding some fresh variety.
On top of this content there’s a slew of other additions and improvements coming in the form of new pets, new cosmetics, more missions in new areas, a ranked game mode, 4K support, new textures, better destruction physics, cross-gen multiplayer, a higher level cap and more. There’s no doubt that the Ultimate Edition is certainly the definitive edition if you’re a newcomer like myself, with no shortage of things to do if you’re looking for a game to sink dozens of hours into.
Taking place in the Caligari Sector, you are an Inquisitor, a highly ranked agent for the Imperium. The narrative actually starts off quite interestingly with you investigating a seemingly derelict ship called the titular Martyr. This is no ordinary ship though, more of a monastery or fortress and absolutely massive in size. As you land on the ship to explore, something of course goes awry and you must figure out where everyone went and what secret is being held within, maybe something the Inquisition might not want to come to light.
Taking place over five chapters, there’s quite a lot going on that Warhammer 40K fans will be sure to piece together into the whole mythos, but was honestly a lot to take in for a casual fan like myself. This is a Warhammer game though, so you can expect near endless waves of enemies that you’ll need to fight through to get to your objectives. Outside of the campaign, there’s plenty of other side missions and content to partake in, not even including the over two dozen DLC’s that are included as well.
ARPG fans of Diablo and Path of Exile will surely have an idea what to expect for its core gameplay loop, as you’ll be fighting hordes of enemies, leveling up, improving your abilities and of course, the mountains of loot you’ll constantly be sifting through. A few things that I wasn’t expecting was how nearly everything was destructible, usable to your advantage, a cover system that I admittedly didn’t use often and even a few missions where you take control of some massive tanks or mechs.
Before you begin your adventure on Martyr though you first must create a character from one of the four different classes. You have the Crusader, the ‘tank’ class that can choose massive guns or swords and can take the brunt of the damage for your groups. The Assassin can’t take as much damage with its light armor, but can sneak in and do some massive damage, especially to single targets with its stealth-like gameplay. The Psyker is essentially your mage, the class cannon. This is the class I chose to play initially as I wanted to play from ranged distance and blast enemies from afar. There’s more to it than that though, as I need to rotate my skills and abilities to make the most of my damage, balancing my skills as to not leave myself as vulnerable. Lastly is the new Tech-Adept, a really fun class that allows you to have constructs, essentially pets and turrets, making for a completely unique playstyle, great for groups with your friends.
There’s also subclasses after you choose which you want to play as, more like a starting point and preferred starting weapon and abilities, though you can customize your character as you level up in a very diverse skill tree the further you progress. The best part, the overall progression is account based, so if you max one character and start another, you’ll carry over many of your unlocks and gear that you’ve placed in your personal storage, as well as the numerous and confusing currencies that are all for different things.
After a few brief missions that act as a tutorial of sorts, you’ll arrive at your home base after each mission. Here you can talk to a few NPC’s that you’ve found and unlocked during your journey, a personal shared bank for your characters, a crafting system, and a lot more that would take me many paragraphs to explain. Missions are chosen at your will, all varying in difficulties with a shown level range. You don’t necessarily have to only work on campaign missions, as there’s plenty of side missions to work on should you want, a necessity for grinding, leveling and finding gear. Kind of like Mass Effect, you’ll choose the sector of space you want to go to, then what system, and finally the planets or stars will show you the missions at each that are available. It’s a little cumbersome at first, but eventually you’ll find the better hotkeys to select it via menu rather than actually exploring the star map.
Combat works quite well on console with a controller in hand. Depending on your gear you’ve chosen, this will alter how you attack, what specials you have and more. For example, for my Psyker class there’s a big difference between Force and Warp rods/staves. A force rod is a small single handed weapon that shoots rapid fire, so naturally having one in each hand was a lot of run to rapid fire enemies that were coming towards me. Then I found the Force staff, a 2 handed weapon that is basically a railgun that can shoot through anything in a straight line, but is slower. Different weapon types have completely different attacks as well, as another type of Warp weapons instead acted like a typical shotgun, or having a flame based staff. There’s so much variety and you can freely swap between two weapon loadouts based on the situation you find yourself in.
The same went for my Tech-Adept, as I of course focused on my constructs when it came to abilities, but choosing a type of weapon that was quicker and more rapid fire gave me more success than a slower sniper-like type of weapon. It really does come down to gear preference, not just your weapons, but the skills and abilities you choose to improve as your rise in levels.
Let’s be honest, the main reason many enjoy ARPG’s like this is because of the loot. There’s something exciting about picking up a whole backpack of loot that you get to sift through once you get back to base after a mission, usually with an upgrade or two if you're lucky. The first 50 levels or so I was constantly upgrading my gear with a piece here and there, though it took some figuring out to determine what was better or not, as I used to go simply my rarity or level, but now I tend to instead focus on the stats on the gear as I’m now nearly indestructible with ‘HP on hit’ gear equipped. With a number of different rarities of gear, you’ll quickly upgrade your starter gear into blues, then greens (why green is higher than blue I’m not sure), purple and even relics.
Eventually gear will also start to have socket slots and you’ll be able to improve or craft gear if you have the credits and materials necessary. I’ll be honest, there’s a lot thrown at you at once and it was actually quite overwhelming at first, as I wasn’t sure what I should be focusing on. Do I sell gear for credits or salvage for components? Do I choose a piece of gear I like and spend a ton to improve its stats, level or even add socket slots, or grind out more to get a better piece instead? I’m still figuring all this out, even after many hours into the game, but there’s surely a ton here to dive head first into for those that really want to min-max their characters.
While perfectly fine as a single player experience, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition is best alongside some friends where you can all grind and do missions together. This can be online or locally with couch co-op. Up to four players can get together to grind missions and you can even make a Cabal, essentially a Guild, to work towards other rewards and gain perks. The menu and inviting system for multiplayer is quite cumbersome though and took some time to figure out, but once you have a group leader that knows how to do so quickly and has some Tarot Cards that are essentially modifiers for missions, you can have a lot of fun together going through missions with a good group of buddies.
Having missed out on the original release, I’m glad I got to play this Ultimate Edition, as I got a ton of extra content and a much improved version visually. While 4K/60 was normal, there were times where this dipped in multiplayer when a lot was going on screen at once. Even for an ARPG, there’s a good amount of detail if you do zoom in to see your character and abilities, though the destructible environments were the most impressive. Cutscenes were quite high in quality and best yet, the voice acting across the board was quite well done. There’s plenty of explosions and heavy sounds when in constant combat and I never felt I needed to mute the soundtrack even when grinding a dozen missions back to back.
If you’ve been looking for a Diablo or Path of Exile alternative, you want to check this one out. Don’t let the Warhammer 40K setting steer you away, as even a very casual fan myself, I found myself addicted to the ARPG gameplay. There’s a ton of content included, and while it does a poor job of slowly introducing each element or teaching you a lot of things, there’s a surprising amount of entertainment to be had regardless of your playstyle or class choices.
**Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr Ultimate Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Charon's Staircase
When I heard about Charon’s Staircase I had a feeling something sounded familiar. Then it dawned on me; Charon (pronounced kind of like ‘Karen’) is the iconic ferryman that carries souls between the worlds of the living and dead in certain mythologies. While not quite the same setting, it certainly has somewhat of a connection to what I expected. Not quite sure what to expect, Charon’s Staircase is a mixture of a puzzle game and a walking simulator, complete with a mysterious and horror-like backdrop.Set within the 1970’s, “The Ministry” used to rule with an iron fist over the country. Now that their rule has ended, it seems as though some of their darkest secrets are starting to see the light of day. You are a special Agent, simply known as “Desmond”, sent by The Ministry to find and retrieve some very specific classified documents from the Oack Grove estate. There has to be a reason they want these documents destroyed, and almost from its opening moments you can tell there are some very dark and disturbing secrets being hidden.
Quickly, you start to piece together some notes and documents that seem to revolve around a pair of twins with some possible supernatural abilities. It’s obvious that some atrocities have occurred, and the further you venture within the Oack Grove estate, you start to get clues about some sort of ‘Project Alpha’, which is absolutely terrifying. I won’t spoil much else about the story, as a playthrough is only going to last you a handful of hours depending on your puzzle solving skills.
A first person “horror" game, even though there’s no survival elements or combat, Desmond must explore his way through the Oack Grove estate looking for his objective and answers. First and foremost, Desmond walks slower than a senior who isn’t able to outrun a snail. The default walking speed is so slow it’s excruciating to simply get through a room or hallway. Holding down ‘Right Bumper’ will allow you to “run” according to the control options, but that turns your painfully slow pace to barely a brisk walk. There’s barely any difference and I bet that a good portion of my play time was due to this slow speed.
As Desmond explores, you’ll be wandering around a number of different environments, from creepy and brooding forests, desolate mansions, a horrific hospital and more. While there’s a narrator that chimes in now and then to explain what’s going on or what Desmond is feeling, the majority of the narrative is given through hidden notes and books littered around throughout the estate.
Being that the backdrop is a horror game, without any enemies you need to face against or any possible way to really fail outside maybe one interaction, it’s hard to really categorize Charon’s Staircase as a horror game outside of the ‘blood and guts’ portion in the later half. There is the odd cheap jump scare, but these moments are usually more of a “what was that?” as a person or something walks across the hallway up ahead, which of course is nowhere to be found when you go investigate where you saw them last.
As you explore the estate, there are some branching paths and doorways, but in general you’re kept pretty much on track with a bunch of locked doors or invisible walls in the outside portions. The narrative is genuinely interesting in the beginning, but making sense of all the characters and what exactly is going on is dependent on how much exploring you’ll do outside of the mandatory puzzles and the amount of reading you’ll do with the notes you find.
The majority of the gameplay outside of the puzzles has you searching every room with the cursor in the middle of your screen to see if something can be interacted with or picked up. With over sensitive controls, even turned down, it can be a bit frustrating to get the cursor exactly where you want. Many times I was stuck, unsure what to do, only to find out it was an item or clue I didn’t pick-up because I didn’t have the cursor perfectly over it the first time I explored the area.
While a majority of the notes you find are tied to the narrative as background lore, some will be direct clues on the puzzles you’ll be tasked with solving to progress. There’s an issue with this though that I found, as the developers clearly had to translate into English, and it’s as though there might be something a bit off with the translations at times. The first handful of puzzles weren’t too challenging, as I needed to find specific four digit codes for a digital keypad lock, which a certain note gave me a big clue as to where to find the solution. For example, my clue said something about specific rooms in order. Each of the rooms had a specific painting that when examined had a number on its description. Simple stuff. Then there’s the last half of the game where the puzzles are completely obtuse.
This is where I feel the English translation caused a lot of my issues, as there’s a handful of puzzles that give you a description about something and you need to set certain objects in a particular way or order. Two puzzles specifically were infuriating, to the point where I gave up after an hour of trying to brute force it and shamefully having to find a walkthrough online. Worse yet, the solution didn’t even make sense, so I didn’t get that “ah hah!” moment. Trust me, the Tarot Cards and the Lantern puzzle need a serious rework to be much less obtuse.
If you’re not a puzzle game fan, Charon’s Staircase doesn’t have much else for you aside from wandering around the estate trying to find clues on how to progress passed certain locked doors, finding keys and passcodes. The latter half of the game’s puzzles really changed dramatically and frustrated me. Remember, you 'run' at snail’s pace too, so all the wandering around back and forth takes forever.
Given its ‘horror’ backdrop, you can expect a lot of gloomy and brooding darkness all around the Oack Grove estate. The 70’s European setting certainly sets a mood and tone, but I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to have to play with the brightness setting depending on your TV. The default is so dark that it’s almost impossible to see anything in corners or areas that aren’t directly lit. So of course I cranked up the brightness, only to find that I was constantly blinded once there were brightly lit areas, so you’ll need to find a good middle ground to even see what’s around you. Darkness sets the horror tone but being forced to brighten it makes it lose some of its atmosphere. As for the visuals themselves, it’s dated as best with simple models and muddy textures.
The audio is actually done quite well all around. In the opening areas there’s some piano that plays in the background, setting a certain tone. The atmospheric audio is what really keeps things tense, as creaking wood, knocking on doors and other creepy sounds really makes it seem as though you’re not alone. The best part is the narrator for Desmond, as he has a smooth voice and is performed quite well with a compelling tone that had me wanting me to continue listening to anything he said.
With over twenty supported languages and a genuinely interesting story if you take the time to find and read the notes strewn about the estate, Charon’s Staircase impressed me most with its great as a whole, and the fact it was created by so few people. While Desmond searches for this mysterious staircase there’s a great foreboding atmosphere you explore, even if there’s no tension or actual danger within its Oack Grove estates' walls, leaving you frustrated with its obtuse puzzles.
**Charon’s Staircase was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Live By The Sword: Tactics
When you think of Tactical RPG’s (TRPG), I bet you the first that comes to mind is Ogre Battle, Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Banner Saga or Final Fantasy Tactics, still the benchmark of the genre in my opinion. While there’s a decent one every so often, it’s not a generally overcrowded genre, so when a new game does release, I tend to take notice. Developed by Labrador Studios, Live By The Sword: Tactics is attempting to recreate the classic retro style of TRPG’s, but they’ve actually tried something new, adding their own spin on a tried and true formula. While some might not agree with the design and mechanic choices, I can appreciate that they’ve done something different and not necessarily the norm.There’s a serious conflict breaking out, and it falls on a pair of brothers to do what they can to defend their lands and do right by their young King. With a campaign that only lasts about 4 to 5 hours or so, I really can’t speak much more about the narrative without fear of spoiling the thin content as it is. It sounds like a cliché trope we’ve all played countless times before, and while it’s somewhat interesting in the beginning, the gameplay is so slow that you’ll eventually just want to get through the missions to get it over with.
I initially was intrigued by the story, but there’s really not much there aside from ‘fighting the bad guys’. This would have been a pass if the cast of characters was interesting and had some development, but there’s really only one or two with some semblance of a personality. Near the end it does wrap up a bit better, but the big middle portion is generally forgettable when it comes to story and characters, especially when you can see a twist coming well before the reveal. After each mission you get a new cutscene and that’s really your only reward for being successful. Because there’s no leveling up, gear or any other sort of progression, that’s where my biggest concern is when it comes to longevity and replayability.
The opening tutorial does a decent job at explaining the basics, teaching you all of the core mechanics, how you can only go up or down one level at a time on the grid map, and that you’ll need line of sight to launch your attacks and abilities. There’s no difficulty options as this is a more ‘hand-crafted’ experience, battles designed specifically for each encounter. Naturally battles become slightly more challenging as you progress through the three chapters, none of which were all too challenging.
Did you notice above that I mentioned that there’s no experience gain or gear? That’s right, there’s no traditional progression in place here. This is one of its main selling points, and I never really thought anything about it, but then it got me thinking because I am exactly the type of TRPG player that would grind for hours to level up my characters and get gear to make the latter half of the game easier. Here, you simply have to be reliant on your strategy and skills. No relying on overpowered gear or levels, forcing you to think strategically instead.
This also means that your characters have set skills, attack power, abilities and health. There’s no way to improve these in any way. I’ll admit, it’s a drastic change that I didn’t initially realize the weight of the design decision. Some will enjoy this element, but without any progression aside from story, there’s not much in the Story mode to keep you coming back.
That said, there are some other modes to help with its longevity after the brief campaign; Adventure Mode and Tactician Mode. Adventure mode is the more interesting of the two. Here is a roguelike take on the genre where randomness is a constant. You start with three random characters, random abilities and are tasked with trying to defeat enemies in increasingly harder challenges. Winning battles earns you treasure which can be used to purchase new characters, power-ups, swap skills and more. Oh, and death is permanent, so might want to use some of that to heal up between fights too. Tactician Mode is basically preset battles with interesting map layouts or win objectives, almost like a puzzle to solve.
Most battles take place on a 10x10 grid, having your team of 3 or 5 taking on generally an equal amount of enemies. You’ll only have a couple party members in the beginning, eventually unlocking more for a total of 7. Most battles only allow you to take 5 party members into battle, so you’ll need to decide which are best for the situations and map layout. Each unit has a basic attack and 6 other abilities, though you’re only able to choose four of the abilities for each battle.
The 7 classes are Warrior, Archer, Alchemist, Medic, Wizard, Brawler and Assassin. There’s no leveling up remember, so their abilities are already set, you’re simply choosing which 4 they each can bring into each battle. Certain maps are better suited for specific classes. For example, the Archer and Wizard can attack from range, good if there’s some different heights on the map they can perch on. For a denser map with trees and rocks, keeping line of sight might be difficult for them, so the more melee based characters might be a better choice.
Each character is unique in its own way with their abilities, and once you figure out how to best utilize them, it becomes much easier to win battles. For example, I hated using the wizard because even though he is able to attack areas at once, he can also hurt your team as well, so I found it difficult to use. Also, no one character or class is overpowered. They seem quite balanced. Even though the Assassin can deal more damage, they have less health to make up for it.
Every ability also has a cooldown period, usually two or three turns before it can be used again, so you can’t simply spam the best attacks each turn. Even though you can end your turn early, this won’t move you up the turn list, instead healing you for 1 health if you don’t attack or use an ability. With most characters only having a dozen health or so, this is substantial.
As for enemy variety, there really isn’t any. You’ll face squads of the same bandits, pirates and thieves over and over again. There’s the odd special ‘boss’ now and then, but for the most part there’s only a few types of enemies, adding to the repetitious nature. Where I find a big gap is that you go into every battle blind. You don’t know what abilities or skills enemies have, making it impossible to strategize how to place your characters and such without trial and error.
The largest frustration is simply how slow the gameplay flows. There’s no fast-forward and each animation takes a few seconds to finish each time before moving onto the next character’s turn. Eventually the amount of strategy simply comes down to ganging up against one enemy at a time to dwindle their numbers. The AI is seemingly random, moving from beside my character with only 1 or 2 health left and go attack someone elsewhere that’s full health.
Surprisingly, there’s also a multiplayer mode included as well. Here two players can compete against one another in local or online battles. These are simply just skirmishes, but simply having the option to battle against friends online is welcome and might be just enough to keep it installed after the quick Story Mode.
The sprite work is pretty decent for its aesthetic. Trying to recreate classic TRPG style, there’s no doubt of what genre Live by the Sword: Tactics falls into. Each character also gets a drawn character panel when it’s their turn, but for the environments, there’s not all that much variety, using the same tiles repeatedly. There’s some subtle details I enjoyed, like having characters kneeling when very low on health to indicate so. The repeated enemies make it feel tiresome though.
The music and audio is decent even though there’s no voiced dialogue. While the soundtrack is decent, there’s simply not enough variety, and because some of the levels drag on, you’ll surely hear them on repeat over time. With some variety and more tracks I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. While developers have been upfront about the content roadmap of what’s being improved and added, I have to base my thoughts at the time of writing. There’s some good additions coming though, like the ability to create custom battlefields and battle speed increases.
The design choice to not have any character progression is an interesting choice that I’m not sure if it’s paid off or not. While it is a unique way to force players to play more strategically, you unlock all the characters quite quickly, and from that point on there’s no more variety really, as I simply stuck with the same 5 characters basically every battle. The current asking price of $29.99 CAD feels a little steep given the brief Story Mode and lack of any character progression, but those looking for a more streamlined TRPG might enjoy the forced strategic play, even if there’s not much variety overall.
**Live by the Sword: Tactics was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Last Days of Lazarus
I’m not sure if I’ve previously played a game quite like Last Days of Lazarus. I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to expect once I installed it and started playing, as I hadn’t even looked at a trailer beforehand, going in without any preconceived notions or expectations. What I got was definitely something I wouldn’t have guessed. A story about a grieving family, suicide, supernatural events, religion and a healthy amount of blood and gore, all set in a post-communist Romania at the turn of the century.You play the titular Lazarus, a man who is coming home after the death of his mother. His sister pleaded for him to return home for the funeral, but he refused due to having ‘important work’. He eventually does return home shortly after to meet with his sister Lyudmila but she seems to be missing upon arrival to their mother’s apartment. It seems something terrible has happened, and this isn’t even about how your mother hung herself in the closet, it seems as though something supernatural is occurring once you see a monster appear in the bathroom.
It’s from this moment on it’s as though two different worlds are blending in some way, and as you unearth the mystery of what’s going on, it goes much deeper than you expected, going a completely different way than I anticipated early on. The apartment is strewn about with religious symbols, ornaments and just enough oddities that you are intrigued to figure out what’s going on. The phone rings and someone familiar answers...
The narrative is interesting at first, as I wanted to find out what happened to Lazarus’ mother and sister, what happened to their dad, and see why they were such a troubled family. The supernatural elements surely adds some intrigue, and while the cast of characters is quite small, it eventually goes in an unexpected direction that I found a little difficult to follow along near the end. It’s a disturbing plot that I don’t want to spoil, as its runtime is only about 3 or 4 hours.
As for its gameplay, Last Days of Lazarus at its core is essentially a first person walking simulator with some light puzzle elements. I’d hesitate to say there’s much exploration due to how linear it is, but there are some collectables to find for those that want to check every inch and detail. Expect to walk around everywhere, simply searching for objects that can be interacted with or collected, as this is how you trigger the next set of events or cutscene.
If this sounds unappealing or boring to you, unfortunately there’s not much else for its gameplay to look forward to aside from the odd few puzzles. The majority of your time is exploring the small and linear confined areas you’re placed within the 8 chapters, simply moving your cursor across every object you can find to see if it’s interactable. Can’t figure out where to go or what to do, you probably didn’t notice the tiny reticle change slightly when it’s over an object you can pick up or interact with. Missed a collectable in a level and want to go get it for your achievements? No problem, there’s a handy chapter select so you can gather all the relics and documents without having to replay the whole game thankfully.
The white cursor over a white item basically makes it impossible to see and surely had me waste a bit of time not knowing it was the item I needed to progress. So many times I was wandering in circles, unable to continue for an unknown reason, turning out to be an item I didn’t at first notice was clickable. This resulting me in mindlessly hovering my cursor over every book, item, painting, doorway, rock and plant to see if it was something I missed (damn you piece of gold ore).
There’s no risk of failing or dying, as there’s no combat or anything that can hurt you. Even though the world is filled with grotesque monsters, especially the apartment you frequently visit every few chapters, there’s no danger. You can even walk right up to these snapping tentacles with teeth without worry of anything happening to Lazarus. I guess this classifies the game as a horror game given how much blood and gore there can be at times, but without any consequences or worry of death or failure, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
There’s only a few puzzles in the whole game, and these are very simplistic for the most part. Most of these are simply interacting with them with the items you’ve already found, and if it doesn’t work you simply haven’t found one of the items lying around nearby. The few that were actually ‘puzzles’ simply had you rotating some knobs or valves or figuring out a positive/negative battery puzzle. These shouldn’t stump you and can usually be brute forced with enough effort if you don’t want to look up solutions online.
As for its presentation, it’s a mixed bag. The inside environments do look quite detailed, with the apartment you frequent often looking as though it’s actually lived in, as not everything is perfectly symmetrical, full of clutter and some mess. While I’m no expert on Romanian culture, the details of the religious symbols and artifacts really do give a level of detail I wasn’t expecting from a smaller studio. The outdoor chapters don’t look nearly as good, actually quite dated, and while most of the characters are created decently, they move quite stiff.
The soundtrack is actually quite decent, setting a certain tone and atmosphere and you explore your surroundings. When something drastic happens, you can really hear it in the headset. This one part where a monster was pounding on the door sounded fantastic, and the first time the classic phone rang for Lazarus I legit thought it might have been in my apartment. Then there’s the voice acting. There’s no emotion and it simply sounds as though the lines are being read from a piece of paper. Even when Lazarus sees a dead person, it sounds completely monotone and devoid of any real feeling. It’s not quite the absolute worst voice acting I’ve ever heard, but it’s certainly a contender.
What starts out as a legitimately interesting story turns into something completely else by the time the credits roll. The whole jaunt with Lazarus will last about 3 to 4 hours, as anything more would have worn out its welcome, and I’m not sure how much more of the voice acting I would be able to tolerate. Certainly a unique game and setting, what’s most important is that yes, you can pet the cat.
**Last Days of Lazarus was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Last Oricru, The
With how many Soulslike games release these days, it’s kind of difficult to not compare them to the best in the genre, making for quite a high bar for expectations. For some developers, this risk pays off if they can create something unique in its own way or is memorable. For others, they’ll get forgotten and compared like it's just another clone, trying to jump on the bandwagon we’ve seen endless times before. I don’t enjoy playing games for a challenge, I prefer more relaxing experiences where I can sink my teeth into the narrative or gameplay. That to me is fun, and yes, I’m aware that generally to play a Soulslike I need to ‘Git Gud’. For this reason, I generally don’t enjoy Soulslike games, forcing me to grind or repeatedly die numerous times just to finally beat an area or boss. My time is precious and limited, but I can absolutely understand those that do enjoy this challenge.Heavily inspired from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Mortal Shell, Lords of the Fallen, and a bit of Gothic for good measure, The Last Oricru, developed by GoldKnights, originally debut as ‘LostHero’ but got a name change to the title we know today. If you’re familiar with the term ‘Soulslike’, you’ll basically know what to expect, though there is a heavier emphasis on narrative choices that will drastically change your game. You awaken somewhere strange without any memories other than a few blurry images in your mind, going by the name of Silver. The world you’re in seems to be in the midst of a serious conflict between two races, the Naboru and the Ratkin. While it seems the setting is set in a high fantasy backdrop, fighting with swords, shields and magic, there does seem to be a semblance of technology, though mostly forgotten.
I’ll admit, there’s a lot going on in the beginning that was hard to grasp. There’s something about the planet being partially terraformed, some sort of barrier keeping it safe, a mysterious item called “The Cradle”, and then there’s a mysterious AI head that is speaking to you at certain points. Sure, it all comes together later on, but the overall narrative isn’t terribly exciting or easy to follow at times.
Where The Last Oricru succeeds is having you pick sides and changing the world based on your choices. Do you side with the Naboru in their quest for dominance, or help the Ratkin that have been enslaved and simply trying to survive. With quite a bit of slavery and racism undertones, especially towards the Ratkin, I opted to help the Ratkin on my first playthrough, as there’s plenty of subtext if you can read between the lines of what’s being said to Silver from both sides. There’s no absolute morally ‘right' or ‘wrong’ choices, only a muddy grey area that you’ll need to play through numerous times to see all of the narrative angles and backstory.
This seems like a great backdrop to an interesting tale, and I’ll admit, I was intrigued at first, but once your protagonist starts to talk more and more, he becomes quickly insufferable with the poor writing and even worse voice acting. Being a burly dude with a half shaved head and beard, the voice that comes out of him is this frail and posh Sherlock Holmes accent that really doesn’t match the visual. He has so many terrible lines and ‘jokes’ that even I barely smirked when it was clearly trying to be a punchline. Having a main character that is unlikeable from the opening moments should have been a red flag.
What The Last Oricru does do well though is change the world around you and its outcomes based on your decisions. I sided with the Ratkin, so I was fighting the human Naboru race for the opening few levels. Starting over again and siding the other way, not only was I then fighting the Ratkin instead, but I got some different backstory that helped make sense of the overall conflict where both factions have their reasoning, good and bad, and you’re trying to decide who to believe and side with. Siding with one faction over the other doesn’t only change the enemies you face, but even the gameplay flow and maybe certain pathways. Many of the achievements are based on your narrative choices, so it will take numerous playthroughs to get them all. The game also forces an auto save every time you make a decision and action, so there’s no reloading an older save to see a different outcome unfortunately.
What I will give The Last Oricru credit for is its inclusion of multiple difficulty options. With a few different choices, I began on the Story Mode, intended to be a much easier difficulty so I could enjoy the world, narrative and setting without too much frustration, hopefully. For the first half I was doing alright, but there were some serious random spikes in difficulty with certain enemies and bosses that caused numerous deaths. I’ve already admitted to not enjoying Soulslikes for its difficulty, though I don’t expect many genre fans will find much difficulty overall with how basic the combat is comparatively.
Oddly enough, in the Prologue section, you’re taught the basics of combat, then are thrown into a forced stealth mission almost right away. Problem is, there’s no indicators to show you where enemies are, no crouch, no nothing in terms of stealth mechanics, and you’re simply supposed to know the layout of the starting area even though you’ve barely explored it to this point. Remember how I said the game force auto saves on you? Well, once I failed this stealth mission in about 5 seconds flat, my ‘choice’ was made and I had to live with those consequences that played out narratively. That said, my choices weren’t always completely ‘locked in’, as you’re given opportunities every so often to swap factions, but not often.
Tell me if you’ve ever played a Soulslike that has these mechanics before: When you rest at the save points your healing items are refilled, health restored and all enemies respawn. Check. How about defeating enemies for essence (souls) which is used as a currency to level up at said checkpoints? Double check. Having to manage your stamina meter, making sure not to block too many items, dodge too often or run too far. Yup, triple check. Heavily inspired by the classic Souls games is almost an understatement, being basically a copy of all of the core mechanics, even down to the ‘fog’ (see through blue here) doors that indicate a boss room ahead. Sure, when a game series does as well as a Soulslike you want to replicate that, but there’s got to be some originality at the same time, something lacking here.
Instead of one large interconnected world, each level is its own section that has a loading screen when you move back and forth if you decide to backtrack for whatever reason. There’s also seemingly only one save point within each, at least that I could find. While primarily linear for the most part, there is of course numerous branching paths between point A and B, housing many secrets and things to find for those that take the time to explore the world. Don’t expect any map, compass or indicator though of where you need to go, simply relying on your exploration and memorization skills. Now and then you’ll unlock shortcuts for quicker access later on as well.
Before I delve into the combat, I needed to mention the ‘A’ button specifically. This is how you jump, which is perfectly fine even if the animation is quite simplistic and ‘floaty’, but the problem is that the same button is used to pick up any drops or gear on the ground, to open doors and interact with switches. You can probably guess where I’m going with this. Need to open a door quickly or want to pick up gear as you run past? Well, you’re going to jump instead. You better hope there’s not an object near an edge and gap you want to jump across, because it’s basically a gamble as to which one it will prioritize in that moment.
Self-described as “The combat is complex and aims to create a tough but rewarding experience”, this is somewhat true, but not because of the actual design. Sometimes it’s tough because your build is ‘wrong’, other times because some of the enemies can decimate you in a single hit or combo if you’re not prepared properly. Be prepared to die a lot, which is usually a badge of honor in many Soulslike, but more frustration based here.
Combat is simple enough to understand, with Right Bumper being your main attack and Right Trigger its secondary. Left Bumper is for dawning my shield (if you use one) and the Left Trigger for its secondary. Weapons have interesting and unique secondary abilities, as I was quite fond of my sword that engulfed my blade in fire with its secondary ability. My shield was able to do minor heal with its secondary, which I purposely increased certain stats for to be able to use. Every item has a specific requirement for stats to be able to use. While I wanted to use a sword and shield combo to play more defensively, I opted to wear lighter armor and use quicker weapons, dumping a lot of my skill points into dexterity. Of course I would get the odd new items here and there that meant I needed a few points into strength or elsewhere to use, always enticing you to wanting to try it out.
You can certainly create some interesting builds, but it will take some time to really learn all of Oricru’s intricacies and find what works and doesn’t. Turns out my initial build was quite terrible in the latter half of the game, as you’ll barely do any damage if you focus on tanking, or be one-shot if you don’t pump some points into vitality to wear some heavier gear. Once you figure out a few of the items that are borderline overpowered, or which to avoid, things will be much easier from this point on. There is a magic component and build that can support this, but magic is done very oddly here. Magic doesn’t refill via potions or items for the most part, instead you have this starter weapon that will drain and sap enemies when melee attacked, thus refilling your mana. Yes, as a weak mana user, you’ll need to get up close and melee enemies to refill your mana, so why wouldn’t you just stay melee in the first place then? You can equip two sets of primary and secondary weapons/shields, easily swappable on the fly given the situation or needed secondary use. While most enemies that are cannon fodder are no big deal, bosses are either so simple that even I beat them in a single try, or get destroyed in a single hit from them, there was no real middle ground.
At the save points you’ll spend your essence to level up your character, adding to your stats, allowing you to equip and use new gear based on certain requirements. You can break down gear you won’t be using for materials and even upgrade your gear multiple times should you have the correct amount of materials. Be cautious though, as this isn’t explained at all, so I decided I would upgrade a bunch of my gear without much thought since I had the proper amount of materials. Well, doing so and making your gear a higher level also ups the stat requirements to use, so you can probably guess what happened. Yup, I was unable to use my preferred weapon until I went and leveled up some more to increase my stats to the number required to wield once again.
Having online and splitscreen co-op I initially thought would be Oricru’s saving grace. Well, while I appreciate the effort, some of the design choices I’d question. For starters, you need to be at a save point to open your game to multiplayer then send an invite. There’s no matchmaking, so it’s friends only unfortunately. Your invited friend shows up as a hologram of you and shares your inventory. Any items you’re not currently using they’ll be able to equip and use, so you better keep some backup items.
I initially thought that the items my friend was looting was being ‘stolen’, but they got put into our shared inventory, something that would have been appreciated to have been explained. When I went to a cutscene and talking to some NPC, my friend could still wander around, coming into my cutscene’s camera, completely ruining the immersion as he tried to constantly attack me and them. The worst part though, I hope you have a very giving friend, as they make absolutely no progress for their own game or character, simply there to help you, not even earning the achievements from my choices made either.
Being built on Unreal Engine 4, there’s definitely some pros and cons to its visuals and aesthetics. In terms of character models, animations and level design, there’s nothing really all that special here. What is done quite well is that some of the environments (except the bleak underground mine sections) and the backdrops can be stunning at times. The overall visual design is done quite well with its high fantasy setting with some technology mixed in, and certain vistas are absolutely worth a screenshot or two, but there’s nothing that will overly impress you, especially the deadness in characters eyes and poor facial animations.
Then there’s the audio, also a mixed experience. Spells and weapons clanging sound perfectly suitable, but the voice acting really brings down the whole experience, especially with how narrative driven it is. This is exasperated with Silver’s terrible writing and even worse delivery, and again, a posh sounding voice coming out of him simply doesn’t seem to visually match the character at all. Some of the secondary characters do a decent job, but Silver’s poor delivery is so distracting that it’s all I could think of and remember when I started to sit down and write.
At $29.99 USD (currently on sale), I’d be upset if it was priced any higher. For how clunky the overall experience is, I will admit there’s plenty of replay value if you can ignore all of its shortcomings, issues and suffer through Silver's delivery. While some might not being locked into their choices permanently, it makes you deal with the consequences of your actions, also a clever way to force multiple playthroughs if you want to experience everything The Last Oricru has to offer and I did enjoy going with my gut reaction rather than seeing a ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ option. Unless you’re a massive Soulslike fan looking for a new game to stream or master, it’s hard to recommend joining the Ratvolution.
**The Last Oricru was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Sophstar
I believe it was 1942 for NES that started my love for shumps (shoot ‘em ups). One of those vertically scrolling shooting games, there were a number of classic shumps back in the NES/SNES era, but once Ikargua released, that truly cemented my love for the genre and is easily one of my top five games of all time. That said, when a new shump releases, I’m always eager to give it a go, regardless of vertical or horizontal scrolling, or if it’s a bullet hell or not (where you have to deal with avoiding hundreds of bullets on screen at any given point). Well, from developers Banana Bytes and publisher RED ART GAMES, we now have Sophstar, the latest in the genre.I’ll admit, very few shmups in the last decade or so have really stood out. I’ve reviewed a good handful, but none have truly stood out ever since possibly Deathsmiles on Xbox 360 back in 2007. Of course, I always root for a newcomer and had high hopes that Sophstar would be a must have for any other shmup fans. While not so much a bullet hell, that doesn’t mean Sophstar doesn’t have its challenge with its multiple difficulty modes.
Inspired by classic 90’s vertical shmups, Sophstar is more than a competent game on its own, but there’s actually some unique and interesting mechanics that I actually quite enjoyed during my multiple playthroughs. You can simply jump in and start shooting enemies and avoiding their bullets, but there’s going to be some practice and strategy needed if you want to challenge yourself with its hardest difficulty modes, great for casual up to the hardcore fans.
While shmups aren’t generally known for their deep and involved stories, Sophstar is really no different, but at least some effort is made to have a narrative and a reasoning behind shooting everything in sight. You are Soph, a Sub-Lieutenant, part of some sort of space army. She’s lived in Galanian for her whole life yet can’t recall anything about her earliest years or how she developed teleportation powers, a useful skill that helps her as a pilot to survive. Being sent on a seemingly simple recon mission, she decides she must find out about her past and what’s going on, setting you on a journey across eight unique stages taking on some sort of alien advance.
Being a vertical shooter, with you at the bottom of the screen as your fly your way to the top constantly, I was surprised Sophstar utilized a classic 240x320 arcade resolution. This of course means that there’s a massive border on the left and right of the screen, but there’s a few options for you as to what artwork you want to have. Being a true shmup, there’s even a Tate mode option, where if you were playing on a widescreen monitor that can rotate, you could have it mimic a true arcade experience. I doubt many will utilize this option, but greatly appreciated to have nonetheless.
With a handful of different modes to play, the main one is Arcade, acting as the story mode. You then get to choose between six different difficulty modes, ranging from Child to Brutal, so naturally my first few were on the easiest setting to get a hang of its gameplay and hit detection. After a few playthroughs I tried the harder difficulties and there was quite a difference. While not a bullet hell at its core, there’s still plenty of challenge, especially in the last few stages.
While normally having a few different ships to choose from isn’t too uncommon, having nine though is quite an accomplishment. Even better, they are so unique in their firing modes, secondary abilities and teleportation skills that each one warrants its own playthrough. They all perform unique, each with their own strengths and weaknesses aside from the fire modes. Some are slower than others but make it up in other ways. Some have weak attacks but have a very wide spread for their shots, where others have a much more narrow firing pattern and is more concentrated.
Experimenting with each was fun, as I clearly had some favorites over others, liking a primary shot but maybe not the secondary. Each also has its own unique teleport pattern and use, adding some more strategic thought into your choice. The wide variety of ships truly does change how you play each time and once I played with the ship that has homing missiles, I found it hard to play as any other. Most important, none were terrible, in my opinion, each catering to a different style of gameplay, though with how many enemies usually are on screen at a time, I generally opted for a ship with a wider spread shot.
Across eight missions, each run will roughly take a half hour or so to reach the end, pretty much on par for many shmups. You’ll fight numerous mini-bosses along the way with a massive one at the end of each stage. Defeating enemies throughout the stages will at times have random power-ups float across the screen, changing what it is every few seconds until you pick it up. This would have been a great tutorial section, as this isn’t explained, and Sophstar isn’t like many other shmups where you start out with weak firepower and need the power-ups to shoot stronger/more. Instead, these power-ups seem to refill your sub/secondary weapon or give you points. There’s even secret question marks that can appear if you fulfil secret objectives, which really isn’t explained either unfortunately.
As for the actual controls and shooting mechanics, it’s solid overall. Control feel smooth with the Left Stick, though you can hold a button that turns down the sharpness of the movement, allowing for more minute and precision movement, though I rarely had to rely on this. Your main attack is simply held down at all times, but you have a meter for your secondary. Each ship will have completely different primary and secondary attacks, so make sure to experiment and see what you prefer. This meter really isn’t explained at all either, taking some figuring out on my own to understand it. There’s a portion of the secondary meter that flashes, though it seems that’s the amount that will be used as soon as you use it. You can hold the button for more use, quickly draining the meter, but good for when you need a quick offensive or defensive boost depending on your chosen ship.
There’s also a key teleportation ability each ship has, but each does so slightly differently. Even though Sophstar isn’t really a bullet hell shmup, there will be times you become cornered in between oncoming bullets. To survive this you can use your teleportation ability, allowing you to move to a different spot without taking damage. Some ships have you move a cursor to indicate where you’ll appear, others choose a random spot, and one of my favorites actually causes a Black Hole to appear at the spot they teleported out of, great to suck in a bunch of enemy bullets to give you a moment to recollect yourself. What isn’t explained at all as well is the square surrounding your ship is actually the timer to indicate if your teleport is ready or not.
There are different scoring systems you can unlock and choose, depending on your skill. When you shoot and destroy and enemy they will instantly drop a token. The longer the token stays on screen the smaller it gets and less points it's worth, so the risk versus reward is that you’ll need to attack enemies closer to the top of the screen to grab those tokens as soon as possible if you want the best scores possible. There’s a combo counter as well, so there’s some crazy scores you can get if you play properly and know how best to extend your scores for the online leaderboards.
Outside of the Arcade, you have a number of different modes you can choose to play as well. Score Attack, Endless Mode, Timed Challenge and even a Cadet School. Ultimate Challenge is very challenging, as it’s basically a boss rush mode that will take some serious skill to see to completion with a number of loops that become harder each time. The most interesting though has to be the Cadet School. Here you take on very specific challenges in a number of different categories. You’re given a specific ship and objective and have a specified time limit to complete it in. For example, maybe you need to stay alive for 60 seconds but your weapons are disabled, so it’s a skill check on your avoidance abilities. Others task you trying to reach certain combos or scores within a short time along with a ton of other unique challenges. It’s a great little mode that I accidently stumbled upon, thinking it was just the tutorial or something initially.
As for its retro styled aesthetics, it looks just like any other 90’s shump, not necessarily a bad thing. Truth be told, I thought Sophstar was some obscure overseas shmup from that era that never released here, that’s how authentic it feels. There’s also a number of different visual filters you can choose if you truly love the old classic CRT lines and such. The soundtrack is decent though unmemorable, as you’ll really only focus on your ship sounds and the endless barrage of bullet ‘pew-pew’s.
Having a robust online leaderboard that separates every mode and ship is welcome, providing plenty of replay value if you want to top the numerous high scores online. Having nailed the classic 90’s style, gameplay and aesthetic, Sophstar is a decent shump overall, and although it doesn’t reach the heights of an Ikaruga, it’s certainly worth your time if you’re a shmup fan.
**Sophstar was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
Like many that grew up in the 70’s who flocked towards Star Wars, I’d argue that many kids in the 80’s, like myself, gravitated towards Ghostbusters. That’s how iconic the movie was, though maybe not the sequel as much. Ghostbusters was my thing. I had the movies on VHS, watched the cartoon, had basically all the toys, including the awesome Firehouse that you poured the slime into and Ecto-1, and I’d argue, probably one of the most iconic and recognizable theme songs of all time. Ghostbusters was a big deal, and with the success of the latest movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, having a new game in the franchise to play obviously made me perk up and become curious.Developed by Illfonic, if you know their track record of games, you’ll probably already have an idea of what to expect. Are you a fan of asymmetrical multiplayer games where it’s usually a 4v1 match? Do you remember Evolve, Predator: Hunting Grounds or Friday the 13th: The Game? If you answered yes, Illfonic also happened to work on those as well, so to say they know the 4v1 genre well is probably an understatement. And what better franchise were this asymmetrical setup makes the most sense other than this franchise, having four Ghostbusters trying to take down a ghost? Exactly, it seems like a match made in heaven on paper.
Ghostbusters fans can rejoice in the fact that it appears as though a lot of time, effort and care went into making Spirits Unleashed as authentic as it can be when it comes to lore, characters and the iconic equipment. Proton Packs, PKE Meters, Traps and more are all just as you’d expect them to be if you know your movies. This authenticity made me smile, and even though you can change and upgrade your gear, even visually, the effort that went into making sure the smallest details, even the basement of the Firehouse where The Containment Unit is located, doesn’t go unnoticed.
Technically a sequel to the latest movie, Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed takes place basically right after the post credit scene from the film ending, a pleasant surprise to know that it’s cannon. To further reinforce this, you’ll interact with a few familiar faces, Raymond Stantz and Winston Zeddemore, surprisingly voiced by the actual actors, something I wasn’t expecting. Winston has refurbished the Firehouse and brought back the Ghostbusters’ headquarters back to its former glory.
The original Busters’ time is over though, Ray has moved on, running his unique book store right across from the building, Ray’s Occult Books, and it’s been decades since they’ve suited up properly, knowing it’s time for a new generation of Ghostbusters. This is where you come in. There’s some new characters brought on board as well, like Catt who is almost like a replacement for Janine Melnitz (can you truly replace her though?) and a new tech research wizard, Eddy.
I don’t want to delve too much into the narrative, as it’s actually quite interesting when you learn about a special Spirit Guide written by John Horace Tobin (which should seem familiar if you’re up on your Ghostbusters lore) and a mysterious package that’s sent from Peter Venkman. What I wasn’t expecting though was how it’s not structured like a traditional campaign. Instead, story segments play out with cutscenes and unlocks every so often, which I believe is level based from playing matches, but this wasn’t really explained, so I’m simply guessing. Play matches and eventually you’ll earn story sections in between matches when you head back to HQ every so often.
Much like Illfonic’s previous games that were also asymmetrical, the 4v1 gameplay is where 4 Ghostbuster players in a team will take on one other playing the Ghost that’s haunting a specific building. While you can play solo, as it will place you with bots when there’s no players to join, but doing so will be quite difficult, as the bots are quite braindead when it comes to their AI and actually helping in any meaningful way. With a few friends though, I was actually having some fun playing alongside some fellow staff writers as we try to take down the ghost. While the website does promote that the multiplayer game is “perfect for all levels”, I’d almost argue against that, as there is quite a bit of a learning curve and a team of Ghostbusters that don’t work together in unison will easily get outclassed by a good Ghost player.
You begin your bustin’ career by creating your character how you like, but it’s definitely not one of the most robust character creators out there. Certain clothes, gear and other options are level locked, so you’ll need to work on the grind for the coolest looking gear, even if it’s basic overall. Something I didn’t even catch until later that I really thought was clever is that the name on your uniform is actually your Gamertag. Small detail but very cool, as it looks just as it would in real life in the same font, color and style.
Once you enter a stage you’ll be searching for the ghost, trying to stop them before they fully haunt the place, but you’ll notice there’s a lot of random NPC’s wandering around the building as well. As they get scared by the ghost or you using your weapons near them, they’ll become panicked. You’re able to run up to one and have a brief conversation with them to calm them down, but this really isn’t explained well. A small and quick minigame appears where you need to press the Trigger at a certain time to improve their nerves, but miss these spots and they’ll panic even further. You get points for doing so, but this takes precious time that could be spent tracking down the ghost or supporting your team, so it’s a balance.
There’s currently only 5 maps, and while they are multi-leveled, usually 3 floors, you’ll become quite bored with the same scenery over and over since you simply play a match one after another in this type of genre. The maps are varied, going from a Museum, Prison, Brewery, Cruise Ship and a Lodge, each with their own theme and style, but it becomes repetitive with such few. You do start with a Grapple Hook item that allows you to attach to higher ledges and railings to quickly reach higher ground, eventually unlocking different gadgets you can swap it out for should you wish.
As part of the Ghostbuster team, you’ll need to locate the main ghost to try and capture them, stopping the inevitable haunting of the building, also searching for their three rifts to destroy, acting as their respawns. You’ll use your PKE meter that will alert you if there’s paranormal activity when you’re close, showing which direction to head in as those antennas rise the closer you get. If you want to stun a ghost that’s in close range, you can overcharge your PKE meter but this causes your PKE needing to cooldown or reboot for a short while as a tradeoff.
So you found a ghost or a rift, so naturally you’ll use your iconic Proton Pack to try and capture them in your beam. This needs to be managed though, as using for too long will overheat your pack, needing to be vented to cool or worse, waiting a long time for a reboot if it overheats completely. While one beam might work for a low level or inexperienced ghost player, you’ll most certainly need others from your team to finally trap that ghost.
Speaking of traps, your Ghost Trap is utilized just as you’d expect from the movies. You can toss it out at any point, and then step on the button to open the trap (done with the Left Trigger). This will open the trap, ready to capture any tethered ghost that is placed right over it. While there’s a brief tutorial, I found this quite difficult to actually do. Getting the ghost directly over the trap seemed to never work for me. This is exasperated by the fact your trap has a battery level, so it can only stay open for so long before you need to pick it back up and close it to get it to slowly recharge.
Also, if you have a ghost currently trapped in your beam and want to toss your your trap, you’ll have to stop shooting for a moment to do so, giving them enough time to get away, so you can see where the teamwork and communication is imperative. You only have one Ghost Trap, so if you forget to pick it up off the ground you’ll have to run back to go get it if you want to use it again. Given that all your equipment levels up separately based on its use, my Trap was always the lowest level since I could barely actually capture a ghost it in it.
While there are four Ghostbusters on a team, choose (or randomly get chosen) to be a Ghost and you’ll be solo. You’ll actually need to complete a few matches before being able to be the ghost, giving you a brief tutorial on how to do so. As a ghost you’ll be able to freely fly around one of the five maps that’s chosen, each ghost type with its own unique abilities and stats. You can possess items, haunt them to act as distractions (they will show up on PKE meters), slime your enemies and have a few abilities to help you attack or defend. You have a stamina-like meter, called Ectoplasm, so you need to constantly manage this meter. Almost everything you do as a ghost requires Ectoplasm, so you better be sure to always have a reserve in case you need to quickly dash away from a Ghostbuster that just spotted to tried to trap you.
Need to refill your meter? No problem, simply possess an item. The longer you stay inside, the more you’ll refill. This will show on nearby PKE meters though, even if you stay still, so I wouldn’t suggest doing so for a long time. You have a lot of different strategies to try and fully haunt the building, your objective for winning, and it really depends on how you want to play. Do you use panicked NPC’s that some players will do the minigame for to calm them down as a trap, so you haunt a few items as a distraction while you work on other rooms?
When you do start to get tethered by a team of Ghostbusters, you’re able to break free by spamming corresponding buttons quickly and moving your ghost a certain direction to ‘fight’ the pull near a trap. You have one last ditch effort when being sucked into a Ghost Trap, but without a controller that has turbo or rapid fire, good luck actually doing so. Your three rifts act as respawns if you are caught, so hopefully the other team doesn’t find and destroy them before you fulfil your own objectives.
I can see the appeal in playing the ghost, as you’re given a handful of interesting abilities, and it always feels rewarding to take down a team of four when you’re solo. That said, I hated playing as the ghost. I understood the objectives and how to do so, but I simply didn’t have fun doing so. To be fair, I also never liked being the monster in Evolve or the killer in Dead by Daylight either in similar games, so that’s more on my personal preference. The issue I had was that even though you can choose a preferred role of Ghostbuster or Ghost, even joining a match as a team with friends it would sometimes also split us up, forcing someone to be a ghost even when we joined as a trio.
You get plenty of experience for playing, completing matches, and of course playing well. As you level your overall rank, this unlocks new cosmetic gear and story progression, whereas your equipment levels up independently based on how much you use them. My Proton Pack was climbing levels because I was constantly attacking the ghosts with it, whereas my Trap barely leveled at all since I struggled to capture many ghosts in my individual trap.
As your gear levels up, you can equip different components that not only change the visual aesthetic of the gear, but its stats as well. My Proton Pack for example now has a different piece that gives me better venting and tethering skills. Think of these like attachments for your guns in a Call of Duty, it’s very similar. Ghosts also have unlockable and abilities they can earn by playing and doing well also. The constant promise of a new attachment kept me hooked for a while, making me want to play one more match so I could try and get some new components for my gear.
For the actual multiplayer, which is what the game is based on, yes it will place you with bots if needed, but they are of very little help. With crossplay enabled, finding matches only took 10 seconds or so, never having to wait long for a match. With matches lasting roughly 15 minutes or so, what I did find was that the balancing really needs to be addressed. Some matches would last five minutes because it was clear that the ghost was a new player and had no idea what to do, and others that clearly favor playing the ghost and has zero issues keeping all four of us players locked down and slimed where we couldn’t really do anything about it. 40 or so levels in, if I saw a high ranked ghost, it was almost always a guaranteed loss as a Ghostbuster team.
Spirits Unleashed has a very cartoonish aesthetic to it, not necessary a bad thing, but I did quite like how the particle beams appeared to be true to the source material. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting the original Ray Parker Jr. theme song for the brand to be included, but I was smiling ear to ear once it loaded up. The voice acting of the iconic Ghostbuster characters included are of course perfect, and the secondary characters aren’t too bad either. The soundtrack is decent, though nothing really all the memorable outside the iconic theme song. You’ll be trying to focus on audio cues from scared NPCs and sounds the ghost may be making to try and get an advantage anyway. The particle beams from the Proton Packs sounds as though it came direct from the movies, always sounding great.
I was surprised that Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed was priced at $29.99 USD ($38.99 CAD - currently a sale), expecting a fully priced game. This is basically that sweet spot when it comes to value and replayability given its repetitive nature and lack of maps. Nostalgia will certainly be the main reason many pick it up, but without any friends to bust ghosts alongside with, I’d question its longevity. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!
**Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Last Hero of Nostalgaia, The
I feel I need to come clean at the beginning of this review. I generally don’t enjoy Soulslike games. I know I know, I’ve heard it many times before; ‘Git Gud’. I don’t enjoy the difficult challenge, the respawning enemies and the repeated attempts to finally make progress. That said, I’ve played quite a few Soulslike’s, and even though it’s not my genre of choice, I can appreciate why many do enjoy them and there’s even been a few that I didn’t hate the whole way through. The Last Hero of Nostalgaia was one of those, keeping me interested due to its satirical take on a Soulslike and the constant gaming references and fan service. I’m a sucker for parodies, so when The Last Hero of Nostalgaia had my chuckling from its first moments, I couldn’t help but smile.Something is happening to the world of Nostalgaia, as if it’s collapsing on itself or going back in time, turning back into pixels. You see, The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is very self-aware of what it is, knowing it’s a game and never takes itself too seriously. As the world is self-destructing, you’re are Nostalgaia’s last hope, but you’re simply a lowly stick figure, how can you help this world? As you fight through this unforgiving world, you not only have to contend with all of the enemies that stand in your way, but be constantly berated by a cynical narrator that always has a handful of one-liners that will surely get a chuckle or two out of you.
It seems that killing Great Ones, the bosses, is somehow restoring the world to its former glory, slowly but surely, or at least slowing down the destruction of the world. With a much lighter hearted take on a usually serious genre, expect plenty of fourth wall breaking and plenty of pop culture and gaming references along the way. The narrator gives a humorous tone overall, as he’ll make things happen that you normally wouldn’t expect, like spawning a train to barrel down a narrow bridge you’re trying to cross, or fill a cavern with flames all around after being taunted. Being the comedic relief, the narrator was one of the better highlights to Nostalgaia, very reminiscent of the mocking narrator from The Stanley Parable.
Like any other Soulslike, you begin by first creating your character exactly how you like. You have a full character customizer, able to choose skin color, body type, age, accessories, tattoos, nose width, eye style, jaw width, endowment and hair style. This alone is absolutely hilarious, because if you read what I mentioned above, I said you, the hero, was a simple stick figure. So yes, you can change these sliders to your preference, but realistically, this doesn’t change anything; you’re a stick figure, how would it? These opening moments of humor sets the tone going forward, and I was all for it.
Once you get your hero looking exactly how you want (heh), you then pick your starting class. You have a few choices from Datadin (a well-rounded defender that favors vitality and begins with a sword and shield), Resolutionary (favors dexterity by being swift and evasive), Formatter (favors strength and is your heavy weapon user), Sourcerer (your magic user), and lastly Randomaster (luck based, backstabs, parries and is great for critical hits). You can see even from the class names, humor again is seeping through everywhere it possibly can.
Once your adventure begins, don’t be surprised if you start to get heavy Dark Souls/Demon’s Souls vibes, as it’s got a similar feeling with its vastly interconnected world and branching pathways, including a poison area that made me want to stop playing out of frustration. You have a light and heavy attack, can block, dodge and will of course need to manage your stamina, a genre staple of course. Remember, this is almost like a parody, so expect to see plenty of gaming references that will surely make you at least crack a smile if not laugh out loud. One of first sets of armor I got was green and called Master Chef’s set, and at one point I even crossed a literal rainbow road bridge.
Instead of souls you’ll earn Memory for defeating enemies and breaking open barrels. This is your currency you’ll use when at resting spots, Beacons, to level up and also spent on upgrading your gear and unlocking certain pathways. Just like other Souls games, when you die, not if, you will drop all your currently gained Memory, and if you die again they are lost forever. Typical stuff for sure. General mechanics are much like almost every other Soulslike, as Beacons are where you’ll rest and refill your healing items, yet respawn all enemies. Here you can also set a singular warp point to teleport back to from any other Beacon, but sadly there’s no overall teleportation system in place, so you expect to do quite a lot of backtracking through certain areas at times. The world is very interconnected, allowing you to open locked pathways from the other side of a door later on, but not being able to quickly teleport to and from areas was frustrating and quite tedious.
A really cool aesthetic is how the world goes from a pixelated and decayed visual to being restored once you use a Beacon. This has the immediate surroundings turn ‘modern’, being well lit and have plenty of details from its initial pixelated look. Because of the lore and narrative, this also has a meaning, not just being a pretty visual effect just for the sake of doing so. Combat is also what you’d expect from nearly any Soulike, managing your stamina and doing what you can to be patient and learn enemy attack patterns. You have a light and heavy attack, as well as a dodge and being able to block. You can also run, depleting your stamina, but there’s no jumping allowed. Depending on the starter class you chose, you’ll begin with some basic weapons to start your adventure and just steps in you’ll fight your first enemies.
Even the first handful of enemies plays into Nostalgaia’s humor, being 2D enemies or facing off against a soldier with a bucket on their head. There’s a decent amount of enemy variety as you go through the entire journey, but there is quite a lot of repeated enemies within in each area. Combat, while forgiving for the most part and not quite as hardcore as the source material, can be clunky at times. I’ve had strikes miss enemies and sometimes it seemed as though my shield didn’t block any of the damage. You can of course heal with an item that is basically your Estus Flask, refilled when resting at Beacons, or finding special items in the world like Green Herbs (great Resident Evil Easter egg) or a hunk of meat.
The hardest enemy though is the camera when it comes to enemy lock-on. Sometimes it works great, and in theory a flick of the Right Stick swaps the enemy it’s focused on, but numerous times it would snap to a random enemy not in the pack right in front of me, sometimes even a different enemy through a wall or above. Good luck if you want to try to lock onto enemies that are up on ledges or far away though, which will be a challenge for magic users. Enemies start out basic and easy to defeat, slowly becoming more challenging and difficult. I don’t suspect those that live for Soulslike's will have much of a challenge, but for a casual genre player like myself, I did die a healthy amount of times, respawning at the last Beacon I used. Enemies later on can even start out 2D and flat, leap onto you to bite, then becoming 3D and more difficult.
Magic and mana is probably one of the most unique takes on the typical mechanics. Instead of a mana bar or that it refills, you have Access which is basically a counter of how many spells you can use. You find Access from enemy drops and in broken barrels but can only carry a certain amount at a time depending on your class and stats. Because each spell use needs to use a specific amount of Access, you can’t simply spam your magic attacks, even as a Sourcerer.
While there’s only a handful of bosses in Nostalgaia, they are of course the crown jewel of its combat. The first few weren’t too challenging, as even I beat them on my first try, but the next were much more difficult and took a few tries. Keeping with the humorous theme, defeating them gives you a very familiar “FINISHED HIM” message across the screen.
Your hero will find plenty of different armor and weapon choices along the way, some given from defeating enemies and bosses, others hidden away. Each seems quite unique, best meant for specific classes or playstyles. The most unique mechanic though comes from the Remembrance system. All this gear you find is quite basic, but each has a special description to it, usually about its lore. This lore will hint at specific points in the world where if you go to those specific spots and ‘Remember’ your items, they get upgraded, not just in stats but extra abilities and its visual as well.
Remember how I said that the lack of a teleport system was a downer though? This is partly why, as I don’t feel like doing a ton of backtracking just to upgrade an item. It’s a really interesting system and seeing your basic pixelated gear transition into modern 3D is also a cool effect, much like using a new Beacon and how it affects the world around it. An even cooler outcome is that you generally want to do this ‘Remembrance’ on each time you can afford to with your Memory, as once you hit certain thresholds you’ll also gain permanent bonuses.
The gear also keeps with the humor theme, as I decided I was going to use a key sword as my main weapon, and having a Hyrulean shield is also good for laugh given the combination of their source games. Your hero is a stick figure though, so whatever gear you decide to wear simply goes on top of these ‘body’ parts. Decide to just wear a pair of white boxer shorts with hearts on them and you’ll be a stick figure running around with, well, boxers on. Something about seeing a stick figure wearing an armored bra but not actually covering anything, you know, since your torso is just a stick, was so dumb it made me laugh.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t actually expecting The Last Hero of Nostalgaia to have much of a co-op mode, but I was wrong. From within the first few moments you have an item where you can summon a friend in and play the whole game through alongside if you choose. Both players make progress but there’s a few major caveats to factor in. First, you and your friend need to be at the same story point, if it’s mismatched, the player who’s lagging behind will need to catch up. Secondly, if either player dies, the game is desynced and you need to do a complete re-invite and start the co-op once more. I would have been fine with this, but there’s no matchmaking at all, so if you don’t have a friend to play with that also purchased the game, there’s essentially no online co-op unless you go make some friends externally first.
The constant play of 2D and 3D when it comes to nearly all of its visuals and even gear is a really interesting contrast that seems to somehow work. Even better, it makes sense given the narrative as well. While nothing will stand out and ‘wow’ you visually, seeing how large Nostalgaia is from certain vistas is impressive once you realize it’s all interconnected in some way. As for the audio, Neil McCaul voices the Narrator brilliantly and the whole experience wouldn’t have been the same without his witty banter and comments along the way. Aside from that though, there’s not much else of noteworthy for its audio, though you’ll hear plenty of weapon clangs and effects and there’s a subtle soundtrack that sets the tone during boss fights.
From its opening moments, to the credits and everywhere in between, the humor The Last Hero of Nostalgaia brings is surely part of its focus, bringing a more lighthearted approach to a Soulslike. Nearly every item description has some humor, even to the achievements, all topped off with plenty of fan service and gaming references you’re sure to recognize. Sure the humor wears a little thin the latter half, but fans should enjoy this different take on their favorite genre.
**The Last Hero of Nostalgaia was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
While I’ve never been too heavily into cRPG’s (Computer Role Playing Game), they have quite a following and have had a number of massive hits over the past few decades; games like Baldur’s Gate, Wasteland 3, Disco Elysium, Neverwinter Nights, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Planescape Torment just to name a few. These generally are high fantasy, a setting I quite enjoy, and I never played it's prequel, Kingmaker, I was quite excited to check out Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, developed by Owlcat Games and published by META Publishing.As the Pathfinder brand was new to me, I had to do some research, coming away amazed with how in-depth the brand really is and what they’ve done since its inception back in 2009. Based on revised 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, by Paizo Publishing, is very consistently ranking in second for sales when compared to D&D, which is no small feat. An adaptation of the “Wrath of the Righteous” adventure path, developer Owlcat Games has made a sequel to Kingmaker that vastly surpasses it in almost every way, not just in sheer scale, but content wise as well.
As you embark on this massive adventure, you can expect virtually endless amount of gameplay depending on your attention span, understanding on basic D&D and how many times you’d want to replay to see all the different options at your disposal. The world is starting to be overrun by demons, and while the Adventure books was split into six main installments, I was quite shocked at how lengthy this campaign was, and that’s not even including any of the optional DLC campaign additions. Do you rise as a hero, fulfilling the impossible to save everyone and everything, or more lean into your nefarious side and choose to do as you like and rule your way? With plenty of customization, actually to the level of being overwhelming, there’s no shortage of playing however you like with any character style or build you want.
A massive rift has torn open among the country of Mendev, aptly titled the Worldwound, where hordes of demons are flowing through led by Demon Lord Deskari. The city of Nanabres is now in ruins, nearly everyone slaughtered and virtually nothing remains. With seemingly nothing that can stop this onslaught of death from the outpouring of demons, you may seem like just a normal mortal, but can you stop the demons in this latest crusade? It seems there’s something even bigger and more evil looming in the darkness, watching over the Worldwound.
You miraculously survive a seemingly fatal blow only to awaken some dormant mythical powers you possess deep within. While you become slowly infused with more power as time goes on, you’ll be making numerous choices that will affect the outcome of the world. Do you become a literal angel and do good, saving everyone you can at every chance? Do you opt for more of an evil inclining, deciding to have power over everything else? Maybe you’re somewhere in the morally grey area. There’s no right or wrong, you can play the narrative any way you desire, complete with numerous endings.
To say that the narrative is massive in scope and that the lore could easily fit in a library is an understatement. I’ll be honest, it was challenging in the beginning to follow along. Not that you need to know the Pathfinder series inside and out, but it’s a monster when it comes to its story, characters and world in sheer volume and scale. Thankfully you can click on specific keywords during dialogue and story sections, bringing up more detailed information on that topic should you want more insight. Remember though, every choice you make will have a consequence, and you’ll need to accept these choices regardless of the outcome. There’s so much depth in this world that even minor characters can have quite a background. I hope you like reading, as much of the dialogue and story isn’t narrated, so you’ll need to make quite a commitment if you want to get the most out of this adventure.
Before you even begin your 50+ hour journey for just the story alone on your first playthrough, you want to begin by customizing your adventure to your liking based on a number of different difficulty levels. Being somewhat of a novice in the genre, I opted for an easier experience, able to change nearly every setting, so you can choose from a very narrative focused journey without much combat challenge, all the way to deeply challenging options that will force you to know every minute detail of its combat, classes and gameplay to even survive. Those heavy into D&D should feel quite at home here, but don’t shy away if you’re like me and very casual with the concepts outside the basics.
Next you create your character. You can choose from 12 races and 25 classes, or go completely your own way and design your character however you wish to suit your playstyle. I chose a basic two-handed fighter so I could focus on the core combat while my teammates would be the ones to cast spells and use cantrips to round out the team. With over a thousand spells, abilities, feats and more, you can truly customize your character to exactly how you’d like if you’re deep into D&D character creation. This is actually incredibly deep to the point that I instantly felt overwhelmed. After a half hour of trying to create my own custom class and character, I decided to opt for something more basic. Which is totally fine, as I enjoyed my class later on when I became much more powerful. I have no doubt that some may spend well over an hour or two in this robust character creation, crafting that character they always dreamed of for their D&D campaign. Pathfinder fans will know what to expect, but it may feel daunting at first for those new to the series.
On top of this deep character creator you’ll also eventually unlock Mythic Paths, allowing you to change the outcome of the story quite heavily. I don’t want to spoil these choices for you, but you have numerous options, like being able to turn into an Angel, a Demon, Lich and more. These Mythic Paths add a whole other layer of options and complexity, but also add near endless replayability if you truly want to get value out of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
When I say you can play how you want, I really mean it. That means being able to kill basically anyone you want, even incredibly important NPC’s that may have serious implications later on should you do so. I always play noble and good aligned though, so I opted to save those who I could, recruiting any compelled to join my cause along the way. You could completely miss some of these companion characters though based on choices you make, so always be careful and read over your options and dialogue choices. With about ten companions that can be recruited to your party, they are all quite varied and have a massive amount of back story. Not a fan of how they act or simply don’t fit amongst your group, you can just as easily tell them to leave at any time and see them on their way or simply not take them in your group of six.
Gameplay is primarily in your typical isometric view, able to zoom in and out to your preference, but this is within each zone or area. Getting from one area to the next takes place on an overview map, as if you’re placing a piece on a warboard, planning your next move. Each area will tell you if you’ve been there before and what specific quests you have in said area. Some will even require specific characters in your party to progress further. You must manage your time though, as the more exploration you do the more corruption you suffer from the Worldwound, eventually giving you massive debuffs and possibly even kill you if you don’t rest and get to safe zones often enough.
At first glance you might expect Wrath of the Righteous to play as a typical action based RPG like a Diablo given its similar camera view, and while you could play this way with real-time combat, where it excels is in its turn based option instead. Slowing things down and playing each turn with strategy is how you’ll survive the harder difficulties as real-time combat can get you in dicey situations with the AI companions being quite dense in difficult situations.
Based on D&D 3.5 rulesets, being able to swap to turn based or real-time on the fly is quite an impressive feat. For basic cannon fodder demons and bandit fights I would let the AI do as they wish, but for the harder bosses and larger battles, I definitely wouldn’t have survived if I didn’t use the tactical turn based mode instead. You’re able to control your group, as a whole or individually, with the typical movement of the Left thumbstick, or with a quick click you can change it to your typical cRPG where you have a cursor to point and interact that way for a more classical experience should you wish. Being able to instantly switch to turn based when battles are starting to favor the enemies was a great feature, allowing me to be able to use some of my special abilities at the most opportune times without having to worry about what’s going on around me and my group and taking my time.
The tactical approach has plenty of benefits, like disarming traps before you accidentally set your whole group ablaze, or flanking an enemy with one of your rogue types, positioning an archer to an ideal spot far from danger or using those special abilities that will be the difference of life and death. Yes that means there’s plenty of micromanaging to do in this mode, but it gives you complete control and will be absolutely needed in the latter half.
You’ll start off with the most basic of weapons and armor, eventually finding better gear as you explore and defeat enemies. Inventory management is probably a large portion of my gameplay time as it’s not as fluid as it could be with a controller. In fact, the whole menu system is clumsy at best with a controller, and while it does functionally work, even a few dozen hours in I was hitting the wrong triggers and buttons because it’s not intuitive.
Remember, this is based on the true Pathfinder ruleset, and there’s an overwhelming amount of things to learn as you go. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t wear gear that had duplicate bonuses or else it becomes a waste. There’s also weapon and gear penalties you need to consider, so you don’t want to simply give everyone heavy breastplates and huge two-handed gear. With how much gear you pickup, you’ll be spending plenty of time trying to manage your inventory for the carrying weight, and even more figuring out if the new gear is an upgrade for each of your characters. Unfortunately this isn’t displayed very easily, so you’ll need to go through every character, check the base stats on what you’re currently wearing, compare to what’s in your inventory then start the process all over again when you hit the wrong button or accidentally switch to a different character with the clumsy controls.
Given the genre and isometric camera, it’s visually pretty much what you’d expect from a game like this. There’s not much up close and in-depth details, but they have done a good job at making some beautiful backdrops and vistas, especially when you factor in just how large and how many areas you’ll be exploring in your adventure. My main complaint here is that there’s a lot of loading screens. Even on an Xbox Series X, because it’s simply an Xbox One game, there’s more loading than I’d like when you transition from zone to zone.
As for the audio, the voiced cutscenes are done quite well with some great performances for the most part, and even though some of the minor characters feel a little over-acted at times, I always appreciate when an effort is made to have voiced dialogue, especially in a game this expansive. That said, a good majority of the game is not voiced and relies on you to read it all. There has to be thousands of pages of dialogue too, so I hope this won’t be an issue for you.
You’ll get what you put into Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Those that can dedicate well over a hundred hours will surely get a deep and lore rich adventure with plenty of replayability. That is, if you can get over the sheer overwhelmingness of it all in the beginning or don’t feel guilty playing on a lower difficulty. Having gone into the experience without any expectations, I’m glad to have had this adventure even if it did take a dozen hours to start to really understand how I wanted to do so well.
**Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Train Life: A Railway Simulator
Having just recently reviewed another competitor Train Sim game, I already had some good base knowledge about the train engineer life, how to generally operate one and what goes into travelling across country on the railway. Having assumed this was going to be just another run-of-the-mill train simulator with its own slightly different twist, there’s actually a good amount of unique content and gameplay with Train Life: A Railway Simulator that differentiates itself from the competition.Now I will say, even though it has Simulator in its title, and it is replicating that to a degree, it’s not quite as in-depth as other train simulators out there. Not necessarily a bad thing, it did have a little more arcade-like touch to its core gameplay, but what makes it most unique is that it’s also a company management simulator as well, opening up a completely different element of gameplay for those that want just a little more than your standard train simulation mechanics.
Once you begin your train life journey, you start by creating your own railway company. Do you want to focus on travel, bringing passengers from one corner of Europe to the other, move commodities and supplies, or a bit of both? The handful of tutorials will teach you the basics of the train controls, how to move, switching tracks, purchasing new trains and the basics of hiring new employees and getting your company off to a strong start. That said, while the tutorials are informative for the basics, there’s a whole slew of things that I had to figure out on my own through trial and error and I swear one part of a tutorial simply wasn't working properly.
Also, after the tutorials are complete, you’re simply thrown into the world with a train and absolutely no objectives or guidelines. Sure, some will enjoy this freedom to do whatever you want however you like, but having no guidance was frustrating from its opening moments. I wasn’t sure what I should do. Even worse, I was still figuring out the controls and menus since not everything is completely covered in the tutorial and the menu system is a bit confusing at best.
The ‘Career’ is simply you doing whatever you want for your company. Do you pick up passengers at one station and bring them to their destinations? Do you pick up some oil tankers to bring across country to sell for huge profits but has a large time commitment? You’ll need to basically figure this out for yourself. Having zero objectives wasn’t fun, nor was having any sort of set path or clear goals other than running a successful railway company, I guess.
To run a successful business, you’re going to have to invest into it, and to do that you’re going to have to start earning some cash, and quick, depending on the large list of game settings you decided on before beginning. You’ll need to purchase new trains, maintain them with repairs when required, hire new staff, choose contracts from different stations and more. If you desired, you could basically play Train Life: A Railway Simulator as a company simulator, but of course most will be drawn to conducting the trains themselves. So get your work gear on and get ready to visit stations all across Europe.
While Train Life: A Railway Simulator has real locations and trains, it’s not exactly always a 1:1 recreation from its real world counterparts. You’ll be visiting stations across Belgium, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and more. There are also some real life stations like Berlin Central Station and Zurich Main Station, but if you know these areas like the back of your hand, you may notice it’s not 100% exact. And that’s fine, it may not be an exact replica but it should seem familiar and be recognizable at least. The same goes for its trains, as they don’t seem to be quite as detailed as like in other train simulator games, but it still does a great job for cabin, controls and design. So set your path and plan to coast along thousands of kilometers of track as you try and earn more profit for your company.
With a handful of different trains available like the ICE 3 and ICE 4, among others, they each control similarly but they all perform differently when it comes to their power, maximum speed and braking power. In other train sim games there were complete different startup sequences and even controls, but as I mentioned above, Train Life: A Railway Simulator is somewhat more of an arcade experience, so the controls are much more simplistic to remember and are the same across each train.
If you’ve not played a train simulator before you’re going to realize quite quickly that these don’t drive like a typical vehicle. You have an accelerator and brakes, but they perform quite differently than your typical car. Triggers will control your accelerator, moving in 10% increments for its power, and the Bumpers are your brakes, also in 10% increments for its braking power. You can’t just slam the train into 100% acceleration because the wheels are going to slip, kind of like a burnout with your car. Also keep in mind, these trains weigh tons and tons, so you need to plan to brake well before you actually want to.
You’ll need to not only pay attention to the train itself and follow the speed limits and zones, but keep an eye out for track controls, animal crossings, hill incline and declines, and even changing weather conditions. Don’t follow the rules and you’ll be fined, so you can’t just have your train leave its departure and ‘set it and forget it’, as there are different speed limits based on your path and you may need to come to a stop and wait for an oncoming train at times as well. One time I fully expected to go full speed from start to finish, only to have to slow way down when there was construction or some fallen trees on a section of track with workers nearby.
Not having to worry about different power lines, startup or any in-depth train knowledge needed, I quite enjoyed the arcade aspect to its gameplay, being much more simplistic. That’s not to say that some might not enjoy it as much, especially those really into the simulation aspects, but this is a great starting point for anyone new to the train simulation genre. The company management component is the tradeoff here, adding another layer of gameplay, complexity and strategy.
The most you’ll need to pay attention to is your speed and the GPS once you have your pathway set on the map from departure to destination. You have a minimap in the bottom left corner, and when you get near a crossing junction you’ll see a ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ appear underneath. While this is very briefly touched on in the tutorial, I think, this took me the most time to actually figure out by trial and error. Tapping ‘Y’ button is how you change the track coming up ahead to Left or Right ‘turns’. You can pause the game and check out the map to zoom in and figure out the path you need, but the GPS is smart and will point you in the right direction by having the ‘correct’ path, the “Left” or “Right” wording, highlight in green if correct and red if not based on your targeted destination. Once you figure this out it’s simple once you have your destination path set, but it can be tricky to get the tracks switched in time if you’re going a little too fast or there are a lot of junctions close together in a station.
The management aspect of Train Life: A Railway Simulator is what makes it unique and differentiates itself against other train simulators. Not only do you choose the logo and name for your company, but you’ll be purchasing new trains, hiring employees to have them complete contracts, maintaining your trains and even upgrade them with new parts. There’s a skill tree that you can invest in as you level up by completing scenarios or contracts, so there’s a bit here under near the hood once you get the hang of it all.
Visually, Train Life: A Railway Simulator won’t impress by any means. Sure, inside the train themselves it looks decent, it’s nowhere near realistic either though. There’s a few camera options, but without a real Free-Cam, it can sometimes be difficult to find that sweet spot of what you prefer. Outside the train though as you pass the world by, this is where things start to stand out negatively though. Buildings, trees and other environmental objects are quite basic looking, and worse, the draw distance is quite short and there’s a ton of pop-in for objects in the distance when using the zoomed out camera, even on an Xbox Series X. When opening the doors to onboard passengers, there’s not even any animations of them doing so, you simply open the door, wait for the timer, then close the doors. No one actually walks in or out of the train, giving the world a lifeless dead feeling as pedestrians just stand around motionless.
As for the audio, there’s nothing really to note. The trains themselves sound decent as the engine powers up or the brakes start to squeal when you hit the emergency brake, but aside from that there’s really not much else. There’s some light music in the background at times and when you radio a station for permission to enter they do speak over the radio, but that’s about it aside from hitting 'bumps' going across junctions.
Once I got the hang of the controls, how to set my destinations and fumbling through the menus like radioing stations before arrival, I started to really enjoy my time with Train Life: A Railway Simulator. Yes it’s not as simulation based as other games in the genre, and that’s alright, it still offers entertainment for those that want to conduct along the rails and allows for the company management aspect of gameplay as well. While it’s much more expensive on console ($38.99 CAD) compared to PC, I’m still getting back onto the rails for a scenario here and there.
**Train Life: A Railway Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II officially launches October 28th, not to be confused with others in the series though. A direct sequel to Modern Warfare (2019) but not a remaster or remake of Modern Warfare 2 (2009) either. This 19th main installment of the series may have a confusing title and timeline of where it fits in, but once I got into the campaign, I couldn’t put it down. If you’ve already preordered you have early access to the Campaign, but the multiplayer doesn’t actually release until October 28th. Needless to say, this review is solely based on the campaign early access.If you’ve played a Call of Duty campaign before, you pretty much know what to expect; a massive world-threatening plot that only a specialized group of Operators can prevent from happening. I admit I went into the Modern Warfare II campaign lukewarm not expecting very much, as the last few campaigns did little to excite me or lost my interest when it jumped the shark a bit too far in space. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the campaign so much, because my expectations were zero, but wow, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II starts off pedal-to-the-metal and rarely lets off until the credits roll. Returning iconic Operators of Task Force 141 will make any Call of Duty fan’s ears perk up. Do hearing the names Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish, Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley and Captain John Price excite you as a Call of Duty fan? They should, they are the most iconic and fan favorite characters of the series and all come together as Task Force 141 in a campaign that far exceeded anything that I hoped for.
In older Call of Duty campaigns, Price and Gaz got their time to shine, and while this isn’t the first time we’ve seen or played as Soap or Ghost, they are certainly the main event for the most part. Alongside them is a newcomer to the main protagonists, Colonel Alejandro Vargas, leader of the Mexican Special Forces. He’s such a breath of fresh air, not that the previous characters couldn’t hold their weight or that I was tired of them, but he fit in his own unique way within the team.
If you’re truly a Call of Duty buff and up on all the storylines, characters and lore, then the names Farah Karim, Kate Laswell, General Shepherd and Commander Phillip Graves (CEO of Shadow Company) should excite you as well. I’m not going to delve too much into the story, as it actually is quite an entertaining ride from start to finish, but the overall plot is that it seems American missiles have been stolen and it’s up to Task Force 141 to prevent a global disaster from happening at the hands of a terrorist.
I know, it’s a story that’s been told many times before in basically every Call of Duty, but there were just enough plot twists, unexpected events and character growth that I was interested until the credits rolled. Clocking in at around 6-8 hours or so (depending on your skill and difficulty level chosen), it was the perfect length and never overstayed its welcome. It’s easy to artificially lengthen a game by having the bad guy get away at the last second a few times before they have to chase him down again, but that wasn’t the case here. For those that want a real challenge, there's even a 'Realism' difficulty that is unlocked only after beating the whole campaign on Veteran, no easy task, and amps up the challenge to being killed in a single shot.
Taking place at various locations around the globe, you’ll have 17 missions to complete, each varying and unique from the others, not only in locale and backdrop, but even the mission structure or major setpiece that follows. You’ll be swapping perspectives and characters on each mission, adding unique perspectives and having the narrative flow. Every mission had a true reason as to your objective, not just simply shooting everything that moves because, and even though there were a few reveals you could see coming a mile away, it didn’t deter from how much I was enjoying myself with Price, Gaz, Ghost and Soap once again. At times it takes itself a little too seriously, at others it goes completely over the top, but if you just strap in for a great weekend of Call of Duty campaign, you shouldn’t be disappointed even if it can feel a little familiar at times.
The campaign starts out with the gas fully floored, having you identifying a target from afar, then controlling a missile to take them out once identified and verified. After this you’ll be infiltrating a base during the cover of dark. With your night vision goggles you’ll need to look for your target, and of course things don’t ever come easy to Task Force 141. If you get vibes of older Call of Duty missions throughout, it’s not just you, developers clearly took inspiration from some of the most iconic missions of previous campaigns and crafted something similar. Not a bad thing at all when almost every mission is varied and memorable in its own unique way.
Seldom slowing down until the credits roll, each mission has you as a different member of the iconic and deadly team, giving you default weapons, gear and equipment that are best suited for the mission at hand. Start out with a scoped SMG and a silenced pistol? You’re probably going to be doing some close quarter combat. Start out with a massive sniper gun? You can guess what type of level you’re going to play through. I’m not going to go through all of Modern Warfare II’s campaign mission, but I wanted to stress how varied the gameplay really can be and how some of the more memorable levels have stuck with me long after the credits rolled.
Do you remember the iconic “All Ghillied Up” level from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (and subsequently Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered) where Price was in Pripyat Ukraine, having to cross an irradiated field with a sniper gun and Ghillie Suit trying to avoid a patrolling platoon and tanks? “Recon by Fire” (Spain) is very similar in the sense that you’re put in a precarious position and will need to take shots from afar and also avoid patrols that walk within spitting distance of you, so you better put away that rifle and stay completely still to not be spotted and rely on your spotter.
Another ‘remake’ level that will seem all too familiar if you’ve been playing Call of Duty campaigns for a good handful of years, the classic “Death from Above” mission, from the same game as above. Here you are controlling an AC-130, reigning death from above with the massive gunship. In Modern Warfare II, “Close Air” (Mexico) is almost identical, as you’re given orders to protect the team at all costs as they become surrounded and need your help to survive as you level everything to the ground before they can escape.
I won’t go into much more of the mission details given the short but sweet campaign, but there’s a really good variety across the 17 levels. One has you checking out an abandoned oil rig in the middle of the sea that has some wonderful backdrops and really showcases how great the rain appears. Another level clearly took inspiration from the Just Cause series, having you jump from truck to truck during a lengthy chase sequence. Sure it’s a bit over the top, but it’s all about the action and doesn’t disappoint. Another level clearly took sections from gameplay from Watch Dogs where you hack into enemy close circuit camera system so that you can guide Ghost from spot to spot, pointing out where and when to move and to instruct which enemies to take out with a pistol or knives. It was very unlike the Call of Duty I expected, but was a great change of pace.
Lastly are the stealth missions. Now don’t get me wrong, these levels make absolute sense narratively why they are taking place, but there’s two sections where you have to play stealthy and can’t get caught. This normally wouldn’t be an issue, but you’re not given all the information you need on your HUD to do so without a lot of trial and error. Also, you’re going to have to scavenge for materials, while also staying hidden, so you can craft makeshift tools, weapons and traps. Yeah it got the job done and completely made sense to the story, but I was so frustrated with these sections and got impatient that I somehow eventually ended up having to shoot my way out.
There’s even a ‘boss fight’ near the end that worked mechanically and narratively, but just felt a bit out of place. This was a section I had to redo a few times as I simply was trying to stay alive while trying to complete my objective. There’s a good amount of mission variety that kept me interested and had a few “oh my god” and “woah” moments, but I also had a few times where I felt frustrated when the gameplay slowed down to a stealth game with poor mechanics at times.
Now I know that many will unfairly judge a game unfairly from its visuals, but this one of those times where you’d be justified to do so. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II proves what talented developers and artists can do with a competent engine and a massive budget. With a buttery smooth framerate, I never once had any graphical issues or slowdown. Locked at 60FPS, if you’re lucky like myself to have a TV that supports 120FPS as well, I can’t even start to describe how good it looks with its fluidity.
Seriously, Modern Warfare II might really be one of the best looking next-gen games I’ve experienced so far, and that’s saying a lot when I recently reviewed a few other ‘big hitters’ when it comes to visual fidelity like A Plague Tale: Requiem. Cutscenes are borderline photorealistic when it comes to facial animations, textures, backdrops and especially the weather effects. Wet clothing looks actually as though it’s damp and seeing Price’s individual beard hairs is incredibly impressive in the plentiful cutscenes. Lighting really takes the realism to a whole new level and I can't overstate how remarkable it all appears.
Audio is also on par, and while there’s no major negatives, it simply wasn’t as memorable aside from the voice acting and weapon sounds. It all sounded great, but even after the credits rolled I was trying to recall any if the massive setpieces had some iconic music or something to set the tone, and nothing was coming to mind. While not every main character’s voice actor is reprising their role in this entry to the series, they all did a fantastic job and each gun sounds unique that I’d not be surprised if gun enthusiasts would be able to tell what they are shooting from its audio only.
It’s been a long time since a Call of Duty campaign has really impressed me to this level, honestly, probably since 2007’s original Modern Warfare. While I’ve played the vast majority of each since for the most part, none have been really all that memorable as a whole. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II may not have the shock value that Modern Warfare 2 (2009) had with news outlets talking about its infamous “No Russian” airport mission, but it doesn’t need to with its movie quality campaign that was not only satisfying in almost every way, but left me craving a direct sequel for its campaign. A first for me.
**Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Campaign) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
PGA TOUR 2K23
HB Studios has made a name for themselves ever since their debut The Golf Club title back in 2014, making for a very simulation version of Golf. Eventually they partnered up with 2K and now and are the developers behind the latest PGA Tour 2K23, as there was a year break in-between the last release, PGA Tour 2K21. I quite enjoyed PGA Tour 2K21, so I was excited to see what would be added and improved with this year’s iteration, and while the addition of Tiger is a huge deal, it seems 2K has started to slowly add their monetization model as well this year. One of the bigger changes is how there’s been a major menu overhaul, so it’ll look a bit different from the previous version.To begin your golfing career you can decide to start competing in the beginner Korn Ferry Tour, or jump straight into the competitive big leagues in the PGA Tour, aiming once again to win the FedEx Cup. You’ll create your own MyPLAYER creation and then compete and go head to head against some of the biggest names in Golf such as Tiger Woods, Lydia Ko, Lexi Thompson and more while also taking on some rivals. As you compete and hopefully win each tournament, you’ll be earning points and hopefully cementing your legacy as this season’s greatest golfer when you raise that FedEx Cup above your head and go to compete in The Players Championship.
Speaking of rivals, it’s an interesting addition, allowing you to choose between two or three different rivals shown, but there’s really not all that much else to it. All you need to do to beat your rival is outscore them, and that’s it. There’s no special rewards for doing so, so major money gain, no special clubs or gear. You simply win and get told good job basically. Kind of a disappointment, so I’m hoping this is further expanded in future iterations.
There's a handful of different tournaments you’ll compete in with your MyPLAYER during the Career, such as the WM Phoenix Open, The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and more, but there are a handful of notable omissions, like The Masters. To win these tournaments though you’ll need to not only have skills on the links, but will start off by creating your MyPLAYER and choosing from one of the five new archetypes that act as a ‘class’ or specialty of sorts.
With these archetypes you can choose from Powerhouse (Not great at the short game, but will blast the ball from the tee further than anyone else), Rhythm (A great all-rounder. Not impressive in any area in particular, but consistent), Sculptor (Can easily finesse their shots around obstacles and has great control, but won’t do well on the green), Woodsman (Can easily ‘fix’ a shot that’s in the rough), and lastly the Greensman which is what I specialized in (Won’t win any records off the tee but will absolutely make up for it on the green with unmatched putting skills).
I wasn’t sure what I would think about the whole archetype system, but being able to choose one of make up for where your skills lack or further improve what you’re good at was an interesting touch. On top of this addition, you will also be able to further improve your golfer with Skill Points and Fittings. Skill Points are earned by leveling up, allowing you to improve certain aspects of your game, categorized between Assist Skills, Zone Skills and Passive Skills. I wanted my golfer to be a putting master, so that’s where I decided to use my Skill Points as I earned them. These give you bonuses and activate and deactivate automatically based on the ones you have and situations you find yourself in.
You’ll also have Sponsors that will give you offers after each round, offering balls, clubs and apparel based on the brand. You can decide to stick with certain ones or switch whenever there’s a new opportunity, but there may be consequences from switching sponsors constantly or too often.
As you begin your MyPLAYER career, you’ll need to first begin by creating them however you see fit, deciding to try and replicate them after your own likeness or trying to recreate the appearance of someone else. While there’s a handful of options, it’s certainly not the most robust player creator out there either. Once they look exactly how you want you would then choose your archetype listed above before hitting the links. While previously you were only able to compete against the actual Pro’s, this time you can play as them in other modes which is always exciting.
With twenty licensed courses included at launch, there are some noteworthy omissions, but still enough variety to keep you entertained. The twenty courses are Atlantic Beach Country Club, Bay Hill Golf Club & Lodge (Arnold Palmer Course), Copperhead (Innisbrook), Detroit Golf Club, East Lake Golf Club, Quail Hollow Club, Riviera Country Club, St George’s Golf and Country Club, The Renaissance Club, TPC Boston, TPC Deere Run, TPC Louisiana, TPC River Highlands, TPC San Antonio, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale, TPC Southwind, TPC Summerlin, TPC Twin Cities and Wilmington Country Club (South Course).
While almost every golf game player has gotten used to the analog swing controls that were introduced years ago, 2K has reintroduced a 3-Click swing in PGA Tour 2K23 which was a welcome addition. As for analog swing controls, it’s as you’ve come to expect over the years, starting your swing by pulling down on the Right Stick then upwards afterwards with how straight you do so determining your shot’s path. These controls seem a little more difficult than previous year, needing to be very accurate or else you’ll slice severely.
I was excited to learn that there’s a 3-Click swing control scheme that has been brought back. This emulated the old-school golf game controls, and while it has its own challenges like the Analog swing, I really preferred it. With the 3-Click, you’ll see a large circular power meter in the bottom right corner, so after you aim your shot where you want the ball to land, this is where you’ll be staring at intensely once ready to swing. Start your shot by holding ‘A’, this will start to fill the circle from the middle outwards. The circular white ring is your ideal power based on where you aimed and if you put it into the red it will give a little extra power, but will be much harder to do the subsequent clicks for accuracy. Once you’ve hit ‘A’ to choose the power you want, a bar will start going counter clockwise around the circle. There’s a small green section you’re aiming for at ’12 o’clock’ and another at ‘6 o’clock’. Hit in these two green areas and you’ll have a perfectly straight shot, but the further you miss the small section the more your shot will slice based on where you stopped the moving line. The best part is that this control scheme stays constant, regardless if you’re hitting off the tee with your driver, using an iron, pitching or even putting. It’s great to have a classic control scheme back and was probably the best new addition to PGA Tour 2K23 that I enjoyed.
Given that this is a 2K game, you can expect some sort of storefront or way to entice you to open your wallet more, even after purchasing a full priced game. This is where the Clubhouse Pass comes into play. While everyone has access to the ‘free’ version by default, it won’t give you any worthwhile rewards, which is where the paid versions come in. Think of this like a Battle Pass or Season Pass, as the content will be refreshed every 10-12 weeks, allowing you to work towards unlocking new bonuses, items and more. As you earn XP you’ll reach new tiers which unlocks said items.
There’s three different tiers: Free (No purchase necessary), Clubhouse Pass Premium ($9.99 USD – Giving you the opportunity to unlock the 50 tiers of content as you level) and Clubhouse Premium Pass Plus ($19.99 USD – Basically the same as Premium, but you’re automatically granted the first 20 Premium rewards as a skip). It’s quite a grind to get through all 50 tiers, but was incredibly disappointing that the Free version of Clubhouse Pass is basically useless. There’s only a few rewards you can get being on the Free version, and even those aren’t all that great when you see what you could be earning compared to Premium.
There’s a Pro Shop where you can but new gear and apparel, but one of the biggest changes is that gear and apparel don’t have stats tied to them in 2K23. You earn money from winning Tournaments and matches, but it’s such a low amount that it’s almost embarrassing. You just won a huge tournament? Enjoy your couple hundred dollars. Just beat Tiger Woods as your rival? Enjoy your couple hundred bucks. Want to buy a new club or a cool looking shirt or hat? You better start grinding as the costs are much more than that. You can expect a slew of real world brands for all your clubs and clothing from Air Jordan, Adidas, Bridgestone Golf, Ben Hogan, Callaway, Cobra, Cuater, Ecco, FootJoy, Goodr, Hugo Boss, Linksoul, Mizuno, Nike, Original Penguin, PING, PUMA, Royal & Awesome, Skechers, TaylorMade, Tattoo Golf, Titleist, TravisMathew and Wilson. The gear will rotate on a daily and weekly basis, but keep in mind it’s all cosmetic now, not tied to performance.
Where the performance increase come into play is what’s called Fittings. These are basically attachments for your clubs and specialty balls. This is how you can modify your favorite clubs by adding these Fittings to them, changing their stats positively and negatively. There are three slots Fittings can go on the clubs: Head, Shaft and Grip. There’s tiers of Fittings as well, from grey colored commons all the way up to much more expensive and rare ones. It’s an interesting system, though you’ll need to grind to get the best Fittings if you want to be competitive online. Of course the Fittings cost in-game money to attach to your clubs, and to put a Fitting onto all of your clubs costs quite a bit, which is where the lack of earning any reasonable amount of cash winning matches becomes an issue unless you constantly grind.
There are also Fittings for your golf balls, acting more like a useable power-up in a way. The issue I have here is that these balls only last for one round and are consumable, and these can make a drastic difference with the higher end balls. This means if you want to be ultra-competitive online, you’re going to need to use your Legendary balls and then of course spend more money to purchase more. This kind of put a sour taste in my mouth, as you might not be able to do as well as someone else because they choose to use the better balls, not simply have better skills.
Being able to save replays of your best shots is always welcome, though for some reason the majority of my replays when they do the TV style focused on me shooting, the camera tended to always focus on the wrong thing, like having it stay focused on me after I hit the ball instead of following it to the hole, or watching the ball in a weird angle where you can’t see how impressive the shot really was because it was simply following it in the sky instead of in relationship to where I took it from.
Course Designer returns and is as robust as ever, allowing you to create the course or hole of your dreams. The tools you’re given are plentiful, as you could make any type of course you want and then be able to share it online with the community to play. I’m sure it won’t take long for people to recreate famous courses that aren’t included in the core game, but I’ve also seen some absolutely wild and unique creations that you could would only see in a game. I did find the controls for the designing to be a little confusing and convoluted, but I’m sure with some time and practice it would make more sense.
While Golf is a solo sport, playing with or against others is where the real entertainment comes in. Online Societies return from 2K21 vastly unchanged. This is where you can basically make a group or club for you and your friends, or anyone really, to join and compete in hand crafted tournaments. Make the rules, handicaps and plenty of other options; your society, your rules. I was hoping for this to be improved from 2K21, but it’s really no different.
Of course you can choose to play online against friends or anyone else, playing in Stroke Play, Skins, Alt-Shot, 4-Player Scramble and the always interesting, Divot Derby. Divot Derby is almost like a race, with players all teeing off simultaneously with the first golfer to make it to the ninth hole and sink the putt first winning. New though is an arcade game called Topgolf. This is a 4 player driving range style of drive-off where everyone has 10 balls to score as many points as possible based on where the ball lands in the colored targets. Each shot there’s a special target that will net you double or triple points, and there’s a very strict time limit, so you can’t spend much time aiming or else you won’t be able to shoot all ten balls. The player with the most points in the end wins.
Visually, PGA Tour 2K23 looks as you’d expect for a recreation of the Golf sport. The courses and details on the greens and fairways looks fantastic, as does the backdrops. I’ll be honest, I was expecting a bit more playing on an Xbox Series X, as the players themselves look decent, but not amazing, and the crowd nearby watching shots are lifeless and have no detail. Of course the official Pro players are instantly recognizable, but your created MyPLAYER can stand out like a sore thumb beside them at times. There is a Quality/Performance option for the visuals on an Xbox Series X depending on your preference.
As for the audio, it’s also as you would expect with solid commentary, but I’m not sure how many new lines were recorded, as I could tell some of the lines I heard hundreds of times in 2K21 was repeated here. I also eventually got a weird bug where my commentary was echoing, unable to fix this in everything I tried. Your swings and that hit of the ball off the tee sounds wonderful, as does hearing a huge divot come from the rough as you try and land in a Pitch shot for birdie.
Being able to choose your caddy that you’ll see now and then between shots and holes is a cool touch, though I would I could have fully customized them like my own golfer. The lack of particular golfers and courses is still 2K23’s shortcoming, just as it was in 2K21. Yeah it’s cool we again get to compete for the FedEx Cup, but players want to compete for that green jacket in the Masters and play on some of the most infamous courses out there.
PGA Tour 2K23 may have skipped a year, and maybe that’s where my expectations were higher than they should have been, but there’s really not a massive upgrade from 2K21 overall. Yes the gameplay is still solid and I really loved the addition of the 3-Click Swing, but the heavy microtransactions and a useless Free Clubhouse Pass is a bit of a turnoff and shows 2K’s influence on the great HB Studios.
**PGA Tour 2K23 (Tiger Woods Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Requiem: A song, chant or poem for someone who has died, generally in an act of remembrance. I never really thought about the title of the latest Plague Tale, but it certainly is fitting after a thrilling and emotional journey with Amicia and Hugo once more. A Plague Tale: Innocence released in 2019 and took me completely by surprise. It initially wasn’t on my radar and by chance fell in my lap for review, turning out to be my Game of the Year that year. Since Innocence had a satisfying ending without any real massive questions needing answering, I don’t think many were expecting a sequel, especially this soon. While Innocence was more of a hidden gem at first, it eventually reached cult status from those that played it and were astounded with its quality from such a small studio, myself included.While Asobo has a handful of titles under their belt, Plague Tale is easily their crown jewel, and now the sequel being better in virtually every way from its predecessor. This is in part due to A Plague Tale: Requiem (simply referred to as Requiem here on) being a next-gen (current gen now?) only title, and it’s clear they’ve been pushing the hardware to the best of their ability. With improved visuals (which is very impressive given how good Innocence looked), the gameplay has also had many additions and improvements, and the narrative and storytelling is as strong as ever.
It’s been six months since the events of Innocence. Amica and Hugo defeated the Grand Inquisitor Vitalis and left to find a new home since Guyenne is all but gone due to the rats and events that took place. With Hugo’s illness and curse now seemingly under control, the de Rune family travel south in search for a new home. They find a large and seemingly happy village and seem to have a lead on an actual cure for Hugo’s ailment. If you played Innocence, you know that Amicia and Hugo’s luck and happiness generally doesn’t last long, and it’s no different in Requiem. It appears Hugo once again becomes taken over by the mysterious Macula curse that causes all of this heartache and death in the first place. If you thought that there were a lot of rats in Innocence, that pales in comparison to what you’re going to have to deal with as the de Rune siblings in Requiem.
When Hugo’s powers reawaken and the rats return, death and destruction follows them again, once more causing them to do what they can to simply survive. Hugo has a vivid dream though, seeing an island with a large bird and some water that surrounds a massive tree. Does this dream mean more or is there a clue to a potential cure for Hugo’s curse? Discover the cost of saving those you love. I don’t want to delve much further into the narrative as it’s an amazing journey that is expertly told with just enough action, drama, sadness and other emotions. The Macula caused a lot of death and destruction before, but the events of Innocence will be nothing compared to their latest journey. Interestingly, this story actually goes into the history of the curse more in depth than before along with a very emotional journey.
If you played the original Plague Tale, you’ll know what to expect for the core game mechanics, primarily focused on stealth based action and some puzzle solving, all while enemies and guards are trying to kill you both and a horde of rats could bust through the nearby walls at any moment. You’ll need to heavily focus on the stealth aspects, sneaking around guards, distracting them, or even killing them with your trusty Sling and alchemy skills.
There’s a few different difficulty choices, even an easy Narrative choice for those that want to experience the story without much of the challenge, and also offering an invincibility option deeper in the settings if needed for accessibility reasons. This doesn’t make you invulnerable to rats, fire and forced stealth sections however. When you first see the rats on screen you’re going to be absolutely astonished at how Asobo Studio went from having a staggering 5000 rats on screen in the first game to now being able to somehow have 300,000 completely collapse city walls and more. I’ve never seen anything like it before in a game and I don’t know what coding wizardry they’ve done to make it happen, but it’s absolutely astounding when a horde of rats appears like moving water.
Just like the previous title, the rats are still unable to be in the light or near fire, your only saving grace when surrounded. This is where many of the puzzle elements will come into play, going from lighted section to section to stay safe. How you do so will be up to you, as there’s not always a single linear solution in many situations. Beware of spoilers if you’ve not completed Innocence yet, but just like near the ending of the first game, Hugo will once again be able to control nearby rats, though with limitations. How you do so is up to you. Do you move a large batch of rats out the way to get by or snuff out a guard’s torch and send the rats after them instead as a distraction?
Combat is very similar to Innocence, and even though you primarily need to rely on your stealth and not engage in direct battles, Amicia has learned some new alchemic tricks to help her along the way. Stalk enemies in bushes, sneak past, set traps and more. Each of these sections are strung together with a narrative reason too, not simply just placing you in an area against guards to prolong the gameplay. While some may tire of the heavily stealth based sections, especially the forced portions where you can’t be seen or it’s an instant Game Over, those that enjoyed the core gameplay from Innocence will most likely enjoy the new additions and improvements overall.
Take the time to explore and you’ll find plenty of collectables and extra crafting and upgrade materials, though many of these will require some careful planning and patience to not be spotted while doing so. Do you take out the unhelmeted guards in a single shot with Amicia’s sling to thin the ‘herd’ of enemies or simply try to sneak by unnoticed? Thankfully when you are spotted you are able to get away and find a hiding spot if you’re careful, but you’re going to have to be quite careful the more heavily armed the guards are.
The combat is familiar at first, but once you’ve learned some of the new mechanics and alchemic options available to Amicia, you’ll see how improved it’s become in this sequel. There’s generally four different types of sections you’ll encounter. The first is simply fighting (or sneaking) against a handful of guards. The next is guards as well as rats, where the the rats can be a danger to avoid, but also used to your advantage if you have Hugo control them in the shadows. Next is some puzzle centric sections where you’re usually trying to find a way into a building or area, figuring how to get from point A to B while staying in the light so you don’t die to the bloodthirsty rats. Lastly is the running or chase sections where you need to get away, usually from a literal waterfall of rats or destruction as you try to survive.
Many of the combat sections has your objective reaching a specific area or door to progress, but how you actually get there and do so is up to you. Sure, the overall progression is linear, but these sections are usually large enough that there’s two or three different main ‘paths' you could sneak or fight through. If Hugo is going to use his powers to control the rats, he can now also ‘ping’ enemies and have them show through walls, like a radar. This Echo ability is also explained through the narrative in a clever way as well, not just adding it for no reason. While he can control rats, there’s also a limit to his ability with how far, how many and for how long, on top of the light restrictions of course.
Amicia has learned a few new concoctions with her alchemy skill too that will give you even more options in combat. One of these is being able to craft tar, expanding the light radius when ignited or being able to douse enemies with it and then setting them on fire. Eventually you’ll also gain access to a Crossbow, a very powerful weapon that can not only kill the most heavily armored enemies in a single shot, but also being able to combine your alchemic properties like you do your Sling's shots. Want to make a permanent fire source, use one of your Crossbow bolts with fire on specific wooden spots and it will lodge and stay there, offering a new spot of respite. The bolts are far and few in between though, so you need to use them sparingly.
There’s also an upgrade system, much like the first game, where you can craft upgrades if you find enough tools and materials along the way, making exploring each nook and cranny generally worth the hassle and effort. This is how you’ll be able to upgrade Amica in different ways, like being able to carry more alchemy ingredients you need to craft specific elements for your attacks and distractions, being able to upgrade your knife to be able to take down larger heavy enemies in a single sneak attack and more depending on your specific playstyle. There are even skills you can unlock simply by playing that will enhance how you play. For example, the more you sneak around you’ll earn perks that further help you to play stealthy, where those that play more aggressively will earn more skills to make Amicia even more formidable in combat.
While I normally would dedicate a paragraph for a game’s visuals and audio, I’m probably going to have to use more here to even try and describe the engrossing and astonishing world that Asobo Studio has crafted, even if much of it is dark, grim and full of death and rats. The choice to make Requiem next-gen only has paid off from a visual standpoint. Innocence looked amazing for the time on Xbox One, and now Requiem on a Series X is a whole other level. Level design is hand crafted with purpose, as the environments are much larger than before. When you see a building far in the distance along the beach you need to get to, you would naturally think that’s a few Chapter’s worth, but no, levels here are absolutely huge at times. Draw distance is basically as far as you can see which is impressive in its own right, but the lighting as a whole is so photorealistic sometimes that I couldn’t help but stop numerous times and just take it all in.
This is where the included Photo Mode added probably a good hour or two to my playthrough timer, as I don’t think my screenshot button ever got such a workout in a game before. There’s so many amazing vistas that I had to constantly stop and take some photos of the beauty from many angles. There’s even plenty of extra options to make that photo absolutely perfect. You’re able to hide Amicia, Hugo, other NPCs, enemies and plenty of more camera options, and I’ve already seen some amazing game photography online from Requiem from other players.
There’s so much light and dark contrast that works so brilliantly with its naturally dark aesthetic that certain sections and areas really can appear to be photorealistic at times. One Chapter you might be in a bright and colorful city filled with vendors in a market, the next you’re slugging through a swamp or beach trying to find a light source to keep the rats away.
Cutscenes really showcase how lifelike the cast can appear, and there are so many different animations for even small movements that it just adds another layer of realism. For example, when you go up a ladder, since Amicia rarely lets Hugo out of her sight, he actually goes up first but then she does so as well, almost on top of him, covering him like a shield. The way they hold hands, how she keeps Hugo close has so many minor details that you might miss if you don't take the time to take it all in. Small details like this really reinforce their relationship and add that realism, like when she has to catch him jumping down a tall platform and the way she braces his for the drop and catch. My only complaint is that the facial animations during gameplay, not dedicated cutscenes, can be a little stiff, but that’s me looking for things that stand out. On an Xbox Series X I had no real framerate issues, even when there was a literal flood of rats on screen.
While visuals generally always overshadow the audio, sound plays just as important role in an immersive experience. The soundtrack is absolutely astounding. The musical score fits the setting you’re currently exploring and knows how to set a scene and tone. When the music changes and has a tense tonality, you know there’s something wrong up ahead and that you’re going to have to sneak or fight. Olivier Deriviere produced an amazing soundtrack that elevates the experience to another level. Enough fantastic compliments also can’t be said for the voice actors, especially from Charlotte McBurney (Amicia), Logan Hannan (Hugo) and Anna Demetriou (Sophia). Their performances are absolutely flawless and the emotion they bring to their performances made characters I already cared about even more human and believable the deeper the story unfolded. Not an easy feat.
Over the 15 to 20 hours the campaign will take to complete you get completely entranced into Amicia and Hugo’s struggles, becoming attached to the returning siblings and astonished within the world they explore. The contrast of the dark and deadly world versus the goodness from within the cast is a great juxtaposition that isn’t always easily executed. Asobo Studio has performed magic, crafting a tale worth telling that’s emotionally charged and enthralling to experience from start to finish. Everything from Innocence is improved upon, from its combat, gameplay, visuals, audio and even narrative. A Plague Tale: Innocence was my Game of the Year in 2019 and they’ve taken that title again in 2022 with A Plague Tale: Requiem.
**A Plague Tale: Requiem was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Asterigos: Curse Of The Stars
Back in May I got to preview a very early build of Asterigos: Curse of the Stars (simply referred to as Asterigos hereon), and while I only got to experience its first half hour and two bosses, it instantly put the game on my radar. I’ve been waiting patiently for this day when I got to explore the full city of Aphes as Hilda, a Northwind Region young warrior that’s on a journey to save her father somewhere within the cursed city. Instantly falling in love with Asterigos’ colorful aesthetic, it almost appears as a blend of Immortals Fenyx Rising with a bit of Kameo thrown in.I’ll admit, I initially rolled my eyes a bit when I read that is had Soulslike mechanics and combat, as there seems to be almost way too many of those lately, but I went in with an open mind and I’m glad I did. Asterigos is more of a Souls-lite than anything else, as I wasn’t struggling as I normally would with Souls games given you can choose difficulties and save anywhere. There’s so much variety with its combat and weapon choices that you’ll eventually find a weapon combo that works best for your playstyle.
You play Hilda, searching for her father within the city walls of Aphes. At the beginning of your journey on route to the city, you eventually reach its outer walls and can’t help but take in the sight of the massive city. Inspired by Greek and Roman mythologies you’ll go through quite a journey that lasted a solid 15 to 20 hours, depending on how much you want to explore and difficulty level chosen. Piecing together the narrative from characters met, lore, documents found and revelations, there’s actually quite an interesting story here that’s separated in a handful of different chapters. You’ll discover the source of the city’s curse, the truth about your father and more as you progress. Choices you make will determine the fate of Aphes, affecting the story and outcomes, even if at times it's a tad predictable.
Soulslike games are generally known for their difficulty, so I was glad to see there were some difficulty options available for those that would rather experience the narrative without a frustrating challenge, though there’s plenty of options for those that want to test their skills. There are many more Soulslike elements within Asterigos as well, such as collecting Stardust (equivalent to souls), managing your stamina by rolling, dodging and blocking, and using special nodes that act like bonfires, allowing you to rest but also resetting enemies that were defeated. You have potions that act as your Estus Flasks to refill health and combat is very diverse with the weapon choices you’re given.
The city of Aphes is quite large, broken into different interconnecting sections. With no real map, you’ll need to simply explore and remember where you’ve been. With over 100 collectibles to find, there’s plenty of secrets to find around every corner. With numerous side quests to work on also as you talk to people within the city walls, Hilda has no shortage of things to do, she just has to make sure she survives the enemies that have taken over the city.
Hilda begins with a single quest, to find out what happened to her father, but it turns out it’s not that simple. You’ll meet a group of characters that act as the cities protectors, but what do you do if you join their battle but it doesn’t always align with your goals? Each section of the city is quite large with many interconnecting pathways, some of which can only be opened from a certain side. Defeat a boss for example and that will generally let you open a door that loops back to the main area or beginning of that zone, allowing for easy access next time you want to explore the area with a quick shortcut now opened.
You begin having access to special magical properties, but as you progress you’ll find different elements that you can imbue your attacks with, from Fire, Ice and Lightning. There are some minor puzzle elements that you need these elemental attacks for, but calling it puzzles are a stretch, more of unlocking a pathway or hidden boss. While I can’t tell if certain enemies are weaker to specific elements, they all vary in attacks, especially if you use the staff as one of your main weapons. Speaking of weapons, you’ll have access to six different types after a brief opening tutorial, choosing from Sword and Shield, Daggers, Spear, Hammer, Staff and Bracelets. They all have different techniques and skills, and you’re able to equip any two you desire simultaneously for some interesting weapon combinations. I opted for Sword and Shield as my main weapon, as I wanted to be able to block attacks, with the Staff being my secondary, allowing me to blast enemies from afar, swapping back to my melee weapon once they get up close.
Daggers are slow damage but very quick where the hammer is the opposite, slow and high damage, also able to break enemy’s defenses. Spear allows you to attack from a slight distance and can also be used to parry attacks. My secondary weapon I enjoyed was the staff, able to shoot magic from afar which is simple when locked onto enemies. Lastly are the magic bracelets, performing quick mid-range magic attacks and creating deadly traps. With these six different weapons you can combine and equip two at a time for a unique combination. Each weapon has a main and secondary attack, so definitely take the time to experiment with all of them and see what works best for your playstyle.
You’re able to swap your weapon attacks on the fly, allowing you to make different combinations of attacks based on when you press the primary or secondary button for either weapon. The Right Bumper and Trigger are your main attacks for your two weapons with the Left Bumper and Trigger being the secondary, all of which will vary based on the weapon you’re opting to currently use. Difficulty is well balanced overall, with certain bosses being quite challenging and some enemies being much more dangers than others.
I never became frustrated with combat, even in the more challenging areas near the end thanks to having more than enough health potions. When using a potion it leaves you vulnerable for a few moments, and they also aren’t instant, slowly refilling your health rather than right away, so you need to find a moment to breathe to use a potion in between attacks. There are even some skills, abilities and gear that you unlock that will allow you to carry more potions or heal for more but carry less for example. While you won't find new weapons or armor, you can equip three accessories, allowing you to boost specific resistances after you have them crafted back at the main base once unlocked.
You have a special meter that refills over time which is how you’ll use your special attacks that you’ve unlocked in the skill tree. These are weapon based and will allow you to deal massive damage, use special stances that change your attacks, or offer buffs that can aid you greatly in combat. The hardest thing to get used to with the combat is that there’s no animation cancelling, so you need to be careful and learn your attacks and the length of their animation. For example, if I’m mid combo with my sword lunges and want to raise my shield to block an incoming attack, I need to make sure I stop attacking with enough time for it to complete and allow my shield to raise in time. With a good 15-20 hour campaign length, including a New Game+ mode, you’ll surely learn the combat intricacies when you fight over 60 different enemy types and 22 different bosses in Asterigos, which were easily the highlight.
There’s a skill tree that you can put your points into that you gain when you level up or find special items, and the tree may look quite small and basic at first, but then it opens up and can feel a bit daunting. Once the skill tree opens up, you’ll see a grid-like system where you can spend your points freely, each sectioned off into six different parts based on each weapon. Myself for example, I spent a lot of points to maximize my sword and shield skill, as that was my primary weapon of choice. Initially I wasn’t able to move when I held my shield up for a block, but with some points into the tree, I can now freely move while blocking.
Each weapon has a good amount of skills and upgrades to unlock, with the most powerful being at the bottom of each tree naturally. There’s a very brief tutorial of how the skill tree and perk system works, but it really could have used some more explanation, as I eventually just figured it out through trial and error. Some stars on the tree give new abilities for your special attacks, others unlock perks that you can choose to toggle on or off, like changing my shield block to a shield throw for example. Sure, now that I understand it and know the differences of the stars in the skill tree it makes sense, but it wasn’t made clear initially and was quite confusing. Certain skills will also unlock other passive upgrades like health and stamina increases too, so there’s always something worth upgrading, even if it’s not necessarily in the weapon trees that you primarily use.
I adore Asterigos’ visual aesthetics. It’s bright, colorful and the city backdrops are gorgeous to take in, varying from the streets and markets of the city, to sewers, mines and more. There’s some minor pop-in issues with smaller assets like bushes and such, even on an Xbox Series X, but it’s not too distracting. Character models are great, as are the facial animations for Hilda, though the lip syncing was a bit off.
As for the voice acting, the main cast of characters you meet throughout Hilda’s journey is wonderfully done, with special mention of Dave Fennoy (Irenaeus), Dawn Bennett (Minerva), and of course the star, Christie Cate (Hilda). Audio as a whole was great, as you can hear weapons hitting enemies, each sounding unique, skills sounding powerful, and a gorgeous soundtrack that fits with the mythology backdrop once the lutes, harps or piano kick in.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is quite approachable even given its Soulslike mechanics, and with my first playthrough finishing at just over 15 hours or so, I started up New Game+ right away to get back into Hilda’s world. For a newer developer, Acme Gamestudio has crafted a wonderful world with plenty of content, replayability and quite polished for the most part, not something I’d expect from a $45 (CDN) title or from a studio's first major release.
**Asterigos: Curse of the Stars was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
While probably not in my lifetime, I can see ‘Shipbreaker’ being an actual job title and career path in the distant future when we aren’t confined to only living on Earth. What is a Shipbreaker you ask? Exactly as it sounds, a salvager that breaks apart derelict ships to reclaim parts and materials for salvage or recycling. I’ll admit, I probably wouldn’t have normally picked up Hardspace: Shipbreaker (simply referred to as Shipbreaker from here on), but given it arrived for review and is on Xbox Game Pass, it looks as though it was fate for me to put my shipbreaking skills to the test. I’m extremely glad I did, as I’m still having a hard time putting it down, fully embracing my new career as a cutter.You work for the LYNX Corporation, a company that single handedly rules over the salvage industry thanks to their patented EverWork technology. You see, Shipbreaking is an incredibly dangerous career path. Sure it pays extremely well, but the risks are immense when you’re in space deconstructing massive ships. Thankfully, LYNX has found a way around this, by being able to clone you should you accidently meet your untimely death. No harm no foul right? Oh, you thought using their EverWork technology was free? You’ve signed up for this new ludacris paying career, but you’ve got a massive debt to pay off and nothing is free, evening joining the company. You actually start your new career $1,252,594,441.92 in debt, so you better get to work and save every penny you can to start paying back that debt, even the $7.50 for the displaying of fees report. There’s smidgens of humor throughout if you take the time to read the computer terminals and listen to your coworkers over the radio. If Amazon was in the space salvaging business, I bet it would be run just like LYNX.
Salvaging ships in space with zero gravity takes some skill and a lot of getting used to. You can’t simply blast apart a ship though, as there may be core reactors and other expensive materials that need to be salvaged properly, so Shipbreaker is akin to a puzzle game, finding the best and most efficient way to do so without getting yourself incinerated, electrocuted, crushed or slung into deep space; easier said than done. With plenty of modes to play the Career in, you can play a much more relaxing experience in 'Open Shift' without many time or resource restrictions, or play in a handful of other difficulty related modes adding much more restrictions like timers and respawn limits. You can even choose to have no O2 drain so you don’t have to worry about your oxygen if you want to simply work on your debt from job to job. I get enough pressure at work in real life, so I chose to not have that burden in game as well.
Every job has a derelict ship placed into the LYNX bay, an open space that gives you enough room to maneuver around it in every direction as you salvage it down to every individual part for components. As you break apart the ship, you’ll need to place them into the correct collection areas, from the red furnace for scrap, blue pit for salvage and the green area below for other components. Before you even begin start cutting away and tearing apart the ship, you’ll need to use your scanner to show you an x-ray like vision of every component of the ship in front of you. This is how you’ll know what part is meant to be tossed into what collection area.
To do your job you’re given two main tools to begin, aside from your space suit equipped with thrusters of course. You’re given a Grappling Beam and a Cutting Tool. These will be how you break apart and dismantle each ship, one part at a time. Ships are large and engineering miracles though, so don’t expect a quick and easy job taking them apart, instead needing a surgical approach if you want the maximum amount of profits to work towards your debt.
Do you use your plasma cutter and cut a massive hole in the side paneling of the ship, or do you instead use the airlocks, go inside the ship and melt away the connector parts that hold everything together? Sure you could cut a huge hole in the ship, but then you don’t earn as much, so you’re better off trying to solve each ship’s ‘puzzle’, the best way to dismantle to get the most rewards possible. This will require planning and solving the best way to maneuver through each ship and which parts to disassemble first. This only comes with practice, so your first few ships will probably either end in disaster or very low income, but eventually you’ll learn how to dissect each ship type with precision and skill, like a surgeon.
While you’re in zero gravity, you still won’t be able to push parts where you want to go with your suit thrusters, which is where your Grapple Beam tool comes in, an integral part of any Shipbreaker. With actual physics in play, you’ll need to be very aware of how heavy items are, what angle you’re trying to push or pull them, and thinking logically. Even without gravity, your tools have limits as to what materials they can cut through, melt or even move with the grapple beam.
Your cutter has two main modes: a pin point laser that melts material, meant for the smaller connection welds, and then a line cutter that does just that, cuts in a straight line. Keep in mind you’re floating in space, so you’ll need to make sure you’re angled and rotated the way you want to cut before doing so to avoid any accidents. The line cutter can be rotated to vertical or horizontal cuts, sometimes needing to be used to cut larger parts into smaller chunks to be more maneuverable into the collection bins.
The Grapple Beam is your other tool, able to help you ‘lift’ and move much heavier and larger materials. You can also use a ‘push’ with it, flinging your beamed material in the direction you’re facing, but remember, physics plays a larger part of the direction it will go, even in zero gravity space. My favorite upgrade you get early on is the Tethers, allowing you to place a retracting beam on one object to another. These are much more powerful than your regular Grapple Beam, so they are to be used strategically, as you have a limited amount before needing to repurchase more (adding to your debt). You can use multiple tethers for one object for much more pulling power, or use to link numerous items together like a train, it’s all a matter of what you think would work best to get the materials and components to the correct collection bins.
The first few ships are quite basic, easy to dismantle and separate, but every time you level up, so do the ships in a sense, becoming not just larger, but more intricate or adding new components that can cause a disaster if not dealt with properly. Some ships will have a reactor that needs to be extracted, but as soon as you disconnect it from its housing you have a limited amount of time before it explodes like a nuke, obviously only leaving you scraps and probably a death. This means you need to plan ahead, not only being careful of where you cut and what parts you disconnect, but having a clear path to deposit it quickly and properly before doing so. This is where being methodical comes in and will help your career. Eventually you'll also get access to demolition charges, and you'll need to decide the best time to use these if you want to be successful.
Eventually you’ll also need to deal with electrical lines, fuel pipes, and even figuring out how to properly decompress parts of the ship to avoid an explosion or death. Nothing quite like accidentally melting the connection plate to a panel and having the ship decompress, instantly killing you. You’ll be nervous the first time you deal with these new additions, but once you figure out how best to ‘solve’ them, they become just another mundane (yet exciting) step in your day-to-day activities as a Shipbreaker. You know that scrap doesn’t pay well, so you’ll do what you can do salvage all the parts you can for the best progress on your insane amount of debt to LYNX.
Not only do you need to salvage every piece and component that you can for your debt, but it’s also how you’ll level up, earning Mastery and LYNX points. One is your overall level, unlocking new tool upgrade slots and ships to work on, the other is basically upgrade points, used to improve your tools in numerous ways. Each tool, including your suit and helmet, all have a skill tree that can be improved in many ways, so it’s up to you to earn more points by doing well on jobs so you can make subsequent jobs easier and quicker.
Each upgrade is optional and unlocks at specific levels, so it’s up to you if you want to spend your points as you earn them or save up for ‘better’ unlocks. For example, I really enjoy using my tethers so I made sure to spend my points on that when possible, able to carry many more before needing to repurchase refills. You’ll eventually unlock demo charges, scanner upgrades and it’s really up to you how you want to upgrade depending on your playstyle.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Hardspace: Shipbreaker initially, though to be fair, I hadn’t really been following it previously either. I’m glad I’ve experienced it though, as it took me completely by surprise and even though I’ve not reached the maximum level quite yet, I’m having a hard time shutting off the game at the end of the night, wanting to do ‘just one more shipbreak’, which the relaxing soundtrack helps with.
An odd mix of relaxing and stressful, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a really clever and addictive puzzle game at its core, unlike anything else I’ve really played. Sure the zero gravity controls take a little getting used to, as does the ‘proper’ way to disassemble a derelict ship, but once all this comes together you’ll truly see how satisfying it really can be to earn the maximum rank on a ship, just make sure that OSHA isn’t watching while you work.
**Hardspace: Shipbreaker was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Soulstice
It’s been a while since I’ve played something similar to an action focused combat game like Devil May Cry or a Bayonetta, that is, until now. Soulstice, developed by Reply Game Studios, takes some inspiration from classic games like Devil May Cry, but adds some twists and a genuinely interesting narrative that had me hooked as I became more powerful the further I progressed. You play as Briar and Lute, sibling sisters who are what’s known as a Chimera, working for The Order, part of the Holy Kingdom of Keidas. Interestingly though, your sister Lute is actually dead, living as a spirit that’s tied to Briar, even through death. She made a huge sacrifice that allowed the pair to become a Chimera, so they have a special bond that is seemingly unbreakable.Sent on a mission to recover the city of Ilden from ruin, there’s a massive tear in the skies above the keep that has an invasion of Wraiths corrupting and taking over citizens of the city, causing everything to burn within. A Chimera is the only ones capable of protecting mankind, so it falls on you to do everything you can to survive and stop the invasion. It turns out that three Chimeras were actually sent, but since you were the last to arrive, you’ll need to search throughout the city amongst your enemies for your partners.
At first the narrative is a little confusing and convoluted, but given the 15-20 hour length, it eventually all plays out and comes together in a really interesting and compelling way. This is most primarily due to the fantastic voice acting from the sister duo (both are actually voiced by the amazing Stefanie Joosten, best known for Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) and main characters you meet along the way. I ended up actually caring about Briar, Lute and it brought me right into Soulstice’s world.
Briar will hack and slash her way through demons and enemies, trying to reach the tear to close it. Fully capable in combat, Briar also has plenty of abilities, also relying on her sister Lute for offense as well. Combat and exploration starts slowly in the beginning, but as you get closer to your objective and progress in the story it starts to pick up in all directions, going from a somewhat average action combat game to one that never lets off the gas.
Briar can explore the city, but it’s generally quite linear aside from a few short branching paths that are usually dead ends that house a few collectables or secrets. Interestingly, the whole game aside from battles actually has a fixed camera. This means you’re exploring the world the way the developers specifically designed, unable to move or rotate the camera. This gives a cinematic feel, but I did get lost a few times because I initially missed a platform or doorway I was meant to go through, unable to distinctly see due to the fixed angles. While these fixed angles are functional, sometimes it can get a little messy in the sense that it may move drastically when you reach the new ‘section’, whipping the camera to a completely different direction, taking you a slight moment to readjust and change the movement direction on the controller.
Because of the linear level design, you’re very confined to the path you’re supposed to take. Even though Briar can jump insanely high, double jump and even dash, you can’t cut corners even over tiny ledges due to invisible walls, forced to take the design pathways and staircases. The environments of the city, inside and out, have a very brooding and dark feeling, especially in ruins, but levels can run for very long and can feel repetitive in the later half. There was one section of a staircase and platform that I swore I already did previously outside the city walls, only to see it again shortly later on.
Combat begins quite basic, having you with a main and secondary attack based on the two weapons you wield. Your main weapon is a long sword that resembles like a homemade weapon that maybe Cloud trained with growing up, the secondary being a massive pickaxe looking weapon that is slower but can deal more damage to armor. While you don’t plate Lute directly, she also helps in combat with her powers also. While you only have some basic attacks and combos in the beginning, this will change a couple hours in when you start to spend specific currencies you gather from breaking wooden boxes, furniture as well as defeating enemies. As you string together different combos you’ll see enemy health bars deplete, though become used to almost always being surrounded by a half dozen enemies or more simultaneously. While it’s never a fair fight, Briar and Lute have plenty of abilities to make sure they come out on top and survive.
As you reach specific spots along your journey exploring the city, you’ll suddenly have portals open and enemies pour out to try and defeat you. In most instances you can’t really continue on until you defeat all enemies, so you’re forced to fight in a confined area before moving on. The camera unlocks during these fights, able to freely move or even do a camera lock on specific enemies, but you’ll almost always have to fight two or three waves of enemies. And this is the general structure to each level: explore, fight waves, explore, fight waves, repeat, sometimes culminating in a massive boss fight at the end of certain chapters.
Switching between main and secondary weapons during combat is seamless, and with different types of enemies, each weapon has strengths and weaknesses that will help you earn a better score in combat. You’re forced to always use your main sword, but the other secondary weapon can be swapped out later on as you earn and unlock new weapons, though this isn’t until a good handful of hours into the game. I wish I could have swapped out the main sword for one of the other weapons as well, but unfortunately it’s not an option.
You begin with only a single combo or two, but will unlock more as you progress once you purchase new moves and abilities, each different for every weapon. This slowly opens Briar’s combat prowess as you become more comfortable in battle, eventually able to easily toss enemies in the air, combo them, slam down and move onto the next enemy. You can see where the Devil May Cry influence comes in during combat. It took a good few hours for me to really get a good grasp on the combat mechanics, not because it’s overly complicated, but it can feel a bit ‘stiff’ at times, so you need to know what its limitations are. Movement is slow in general as well, but once you get a good feel for the flow of combat and best strategies, it will start to feel more natural. Unfortunately once that happens, new mechanics are introduced that force you to play completely differently than the first few hours, adding more to constantly monitor and balance.
You don’t play Lute in combat directly, as she will automatically help you by shooting enemies with her abilities, she acts more like your defensive shield, allowing you to block, parry and freeze enemies who attack you if you time it right. Tapping ‘B’ when the prompt shows on each enemy will allow Lute to do a specific counter, though this is limited based on her upgrades as well. Eventually you can upgrade Lute’s abilities for attack or defensive maneuvers based on your playstyle. The better you do in combat the higher the sisters’ Unity Meter will rise, eventually filling and allowing you to use a powerful special attack. Get hit and the meter drops, do better and it rises. These special moves eventually turn into some crazy and spectacular attacks that even have its own brief cutscene that can thankfully be skipped after seeing it a few dozen times already.
Even though you don’t control Lute directly other than blocks and parries, you do need to watch her to make sure she doesn’t become too overwhelmed and overloads herself. If this happens she will burst, leaving you vulnerable without any way to counter for a brief time until she returns. Once you have to deal with using her red and blue shields, that’s where combat becomes more of a chore. Eventually Lute can use these blue and red fields, used for a number of reasons. For example, if you find a stack of red crystals, hitting them won’t do anything. Instead you need to have Lute pop a red shield around you, making any red crystals vulnerable for attacks. The same goes for blue crystals, needing the blue shield around you to be able to destroy them. There will even be some platforming sections that look impossible until you see that there are platforms that you can only stand on when the blue field is being used, so you need to be switching between the two at times. I think you can see where this is going.
The same goes for enemies shortly in, red or blue, only able to be hit when their within Lute’s correctly colored bubble. She can’t hold this force field open forever though and will eventually overload if left alone. Hitting enemies will lower the gauge though, so you have to be aggressive while fighting these specific enemies or simply take down the field to let her recover a moment, leaving you vulnerable without being able to counter. You can probably see where this starts to become a chore, especially when you need to fight red and blue enemies simultaneously, also ensuring that you’re hitting and locked onto the correct enemy. Even worse, eventually you’ll need to fight these tough red enemies that once you defeat them, a blue spirit pops out, and if you don’t defeat those quick enough they will possess another enemy and you’ll need to start all over again. Keep in mind you’re rarely fighting one enemy at a time, so it can be chaotic at times.
Sure you’ll eventually get abilities and upgrades that can make combat easier and more manageable, but it does become a chore at the best of times. Picking up the red and blue currencies are how you’ll upgrade Briar (red) and Lute (blue) and purchase special items, and these constantly flow in throughout your journey. After each combat section you’re graded based on a bunch of different parameters like time, hits taken, etc, giving you more bonuses the better you do.
Surprisingly there’s a bunch of different accessibility options included as well, something I didn’t expect. While there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from in the beginning, you can also toggle a bunch of different options based on which types of assists you want or need. There’s an auto-combat mode where Briar will continuously attack until the enemy is dead, an option to have Lute automatically use her blue and red fields when in range of a crystal, platform or enemy, or even changing QTE presses into single press or holds. There’s a few other options as well but it’s great to see more options available for those that may want or need.
Briar, Lute and the main characters are designed quite well, and while there’s not too much enemy variety until much later, they are all designed well, being quite distinct from one another. The city in ruins makes for a very dark and brooding backdrop that sets the tone of the adventure right from its opening moments. Combat is generally quite fluid and the red and blue that is scattered throughout the world is a great contrast to the dark environments. The main characters are all voiced wonderfully and written quite well, pulling me right into the narrative even further. Music and combat audio kicks in at the right moment to pump you up, especially when fighting a massive boss blocking your path at the end of a chapter or enter a crazy berserk mode.
I was expecting a quick five or six hour journey with Briar and Lute, but it’s actually more a good 15 to 20 hours depending on your difficulty level, skill and how much you want to explore. That said, it does overstay its welcome and the last half did drag on a bit, as I eventually wanted to be finished with it and move on. Those that are looking for value though will no doubt have plenty to do with multiple difficulties and even two harder ones that can eventually be unlocked as well.
Far from a perfect game, Soulstice feels like it has a soul and some heart. Made by a smaller studio you can absolutely see the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta influences, and while it may not hit that level quite yet, it’s a great homage regardless, a game that should be enjoyed by fans of the genre.
**Soulstice was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Train Sim World 3
I used to think trains were fairly simple machines. I mean, you’re stuck to a set track, so it’s not like you need to steer or anything right, just set the speed you want and you’re off. Yeah, well after a good dozen hours or so with Train Sim World 3 I can now appreciate how much more goes into being a train engineer. Even starting a train up is quite a process, knowing what buttons to press, levers to pull and what order they need to be completed in. Want to stop your train? That’s also quite a process, one that I learned the hard way numerous times.I’ll admit, I as someone completely new to the Train Sim World series, and pretty much Train Sim games in general, I had a lot to learn as I overcame my preconceived notions about operating a train. If you want to get a taste of what it’s like to operate a 4000 to 20000 ton piece of machinery, most likely something most of us will never get to do in real life, Train Sim World 3 has you covered across a slew of different engine types and locales. It certainly lives up to the ‘Sim’ in its title, that’s for sure.
While there’s no traditional campaign per se, you will get a brief introduction into the train engineer life and the newly included Training Centre, acting as a tutorial for the basics. Once you learn how to board, start your train, get going, changing tracks and stopping, you’re basically set free to play how you wish. Do you want to play by trying to keep to a set schedule for passengers. or play through some specific premade scenarios, of which there’s plenty to keep you busy for many hours if you’re a completionist.
Before long I was choosing which train I wanted to go with and its corresponding route area. The scenario based ‘campaign’ is basically bite-sized missions that you can play in any order or repeatedly if you like, as you’ll gain experience for every one you complete. These scenarios can vary in quick one to two minute single stops, all the way to quite lengthy trips that span the whole map that require over an hour long commitment to complete. There’s no shortage of scenarios to play through for each of the train types, so there’s no need to worry about having a lack of content, especially since you can create and share your own routes for the community as well.
Full disclosure, we were given the Deluxe version of Train Sim World 3, so we had a few more trains and Routes to play with when compared to the base game (that’s also currently on Xbox Game Pass as of the time of this writing). I’ll admit, being someone that’s never really researched or know the differences of one train to the next, I now clearly see the distinctions between the different types, classes and styles, from the earliest Steam era all the way to modern bullet trains. Needless to say, conducting a steam train is vastly different from a modern day electric train and even more so from a BNSF freight train.
With having a bit over a dozen trains to try and explore, I had more than enough to start learning how each controlled, and they can differ quite drastically control wise when switching back and forth. For example, I had no idea that there were different types of brakes on a train, so learning how to control those for each type of engine is very different from one another. Because of this constant change of controls, I would suggest becoming quite proficient at one engine type before bouncing around to a few others, as I wish I could say that I never crashed my train, but due to thinking I was controlling a different type of engine and braking system, sadly it’s happened more than once.
While I’ve never stood foot inside any of these train cars, I can only assume its authenticity is top notch for each train type, and doing some research online, it seems developers Dovetail Games have certainly done their homework, not just on the trains themselves, but the real world counterparts and track layouts for each Route and area. They’ve certainly earned the ‘Sim’ in their title with the authenticity.
If you’re not a train buff you probably won’t know the difference between a Class 66 EWS, BR442 Talent 2 DB, BR403 DB, Class 395SEB, BNSF ES44C4 or a LMS Stanier 8F, just to name a few, but if you perk up at any of those train types and recognize them, you’re the exact audience Train Sim World 3 is catered towards. If you’re a train buff, then you’ll also recognize many of the included Routes and areas such as the Schnellfahrstrecke Kassel – Würzburg that has plenty of tunnels at high speed, my favorite, the Great Western Express, or the new and very challenging Cajon Pass with a BNSF engine which I would suggest trying after you’re comfortable in proper train handling and how to deal with some steep inclines safely.
Each train feels and performs drastically different than the next, especially the interesting Steam trains, whisking you back in time. Not only do you have to keep track of numerous valves, meters, levers, gauges and handles, but knowing how to ease into the acceleration is almost an art form in these old time engines. Give it too much throttle and you’re wheels will simply spin, but you’ll need to factor in any inclines, how much weight you’re pulling behind you and more.
For those that want to do even more in Train Sim World 3, you’re able to not only customize your scenarios however you see fit, but also create and download liveries from the community as well. For those that played the previous entry, Train Sim World 2, you’ll be happy to know your content carries over. There’s even an ‘Off the Rails’ mode where you can play any train type on any Route, but keep in mind that not all areas and Routes were designed for specific trains that can go much faster than is supposed to on these tracks.
The tutorials are plenty, able to teach you the basics of each train, how to operate them and even all of the other controls like the outside camera and map. You can easily switch to an outside camera at any time, freely placing it where you like, and can even do the train coupling in this view instead of being forced to get out of the train and do it manually, should you wish of course. You’ll also need to learn how to change the tracks based on what line you’re meant to be on or stop at. This can be done manually again should you wish, but you can also toggle them on the interactive map well ahead of time, adding another layer of planning on longer trips or passing through multi-laned hubs.
Should you want to explore on foot, there’s plenty of collectables and hidden items to find, again, adding hours of extra gameplay should you want to find everything. My main complaint is that there should be some form of a checklist to operate the engines. I found that switching between different types quite often, I forgot which buttons, levers and the order to even get the train moving was a challenge at times. Because of this I opted to stick with the same trains for a handful of scenarios at a time until it became second nature before moving onto the next area and train.
Weather has been vastly improved, adding extremes like thunder, lightning strikes, torrential rain, high speed wind, smoke, fog and more. Because of these weather patterns, they can affect how you control your train, so take that into consideration when the weather take a turn for the worse. With plenty of Train, Routes and Scenarios to play, there’s no shortage of content, especially factoring in community made options within the Creators Club as well. That said, there’s a store to purchase a whole slew of content with real money. If the DLC and add-ons like new trains and Route would be reasonably priced I wouldn’t mind so much, especially since the game is currently including with Xbox Game Pass, but some of the prices for a single train engine are absolutely ridiculous, more so if you’ve purchased the Deluxe version or some of the DLC already. If you want the complete experience, you’re going to have to open your wallet, and wide.
As expected, the attention to detail, even the smallest buttons and switches, inside the cabins are next level. There’s so much detail and a plethora of buttons, knobs and levers to interact with on the train, which is why the tutorials are so critically important. The trains themselves, even outside, are done to great detail, even reflecting the world it passes by at high speed. Lighting has been improved and the outside weather looks quite good when the rain is beading on your locomotive going almost 300 km/h. That said, the rest of the world, especially the environment meters away from the tracks and the lifeless passengers really stand out like a sore thumb. Passengers are duplicated quite often, animate quite stiff, and simply don’t look all that great. Are you playing to look at the lifeless eyes of the passengers on the platforms and on your train, no, but it doesn’t help when you do.
The trains themselves sound wonderful and each quite unique. Hearing the steam engine from a train over 100 years old sounds drastically different than the electric hum of a modern day bullet. The voiced over sections during tutorials is done quite well, I just wish there was more of it throughout the rest of the journey going from scenario to scenario. Hearing the train 'clicky-clack' along the track is always delightful, as is blowing the horn as I come into the station. Squealing brakes and other minor sounds simply pull the whole experience together in a natural way.
There’s some debate that fans and players of Train Sim World 2 won’t necessarily see a massive leap going to this latest entry, but for someone like me that’s new to the series, this is logically the best place to jump in. The menus are clearly designed for a mouse and keyboard in mind, as trying to hit specific small switches with a controller can be tricky at times to perform, especially quickly. How the Scenarios and menus flow into one another could also use some work, as it wasn’t until a few hours in that I then found more options and tasks to complete.
I’ll admit, I learned a substantial amount about the world of trains and locomotives thanks to Train Sim World 3, and while non-fans might not see the enjoyment of running a train for over an hour getting from point A to B, I oddly become quite addicted to the relaxing enjoyment it brought. Veterans are sure to be excited about all of the authentic content, though due to its niche audience, casual or new fans might find it difficult to understand at first.
**Train Sim World 3 (Deluxe Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary
There’s something special playing a puzzle game, becoming so frustrated that you’re on the verge of giving up and uninstalling because of the ‘impossible’ puzzle you’ve been staring at for the last hour, then all of a sudden getting that euphoric ‘ah-hah’ moment and the realization of how dumb you were for not figuring out the solution sooner. That was a basic summarization of my time with Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary, developed by Toxic Games Limited, becoming infuriatingly stuck then unable to put it down as I finally progressed.Originally release back in 2012, Q.U.B.E. was a small indie game that was received quite well, eventually getting a Director’s Cut two years later in 2014, adding a narrative element with voice over, more puzzles, an updated soundtrack and more. Here we are a decade later from its release with Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary, adding both the original and Director’s Cut in one package, along with even more content included, revised and improved gameplay sections, and much more appealing visuals.
There’s an interesting story revolving around you waking up with these special gloves being worn in some sort of massive cube that’s in space somewhere. Someone is talking to you over the radio but you’re unable to respond back, detailing what's happened. It’s actually an interesting narrative that has some twists and turns that I didn’t expect, so I don’t want to spoil much else, something better off experienced than read.
With over 100 puzzles to complete, they will progressively become much more challenging as you continue through this seemingly never-ending room after room. Even if you mastered Q.U.B.E. at release and it’s Director’s Cut, there’s a whole new sector of the game that opens up once completion, adding another 4-6 hours of brain-bending gameplay. Visuals are vastly improved, there’s a whole slew of developer commentary to listen to and plenty of collectables that make an already challenging game even more difficult for those that want even more challenge.
A physics based puzzle game, Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary centers on you trying to progress one puzzle at a time, placing you in a room where you can’t reach the next path or doorway until you reach a specific area or open a doorway. The core principle is that you’re manipulating different colored cubes in a mostly pure white room made out of cubes as well, where each color type is manipulated in a different way. How to use each, when to do so, and how they all interact with one another is the only way you’re going to be able to progress and survive.
Blue cubes act as a springboard, not only for you, but other blocks as well. This is how you’ll reach certain areas or get specific blocks to new platforms. Red cubes can be extended up to three times, as you might not need it to raise vertically or horizontally the full length all the time. Yellow blocks extend into a three tiered staircase or even a podium, as all three sections can’t be the same height. Later on you’re going to have to deal with magnet blocks, lasers, redirectors, arrows that rotate platforms and more.
Regardless if you play the original or Director’s Cut, you’ll explore along a linear corridor until you reach a puzzle room, trapped until you solve it, move to the next room and puzzle, repeat until credits roll. Each chapter or section introduces a new mechanic or block, easing you into the increasing difficulty for the most part, but I won’t lie, around the fifth or sixth chapter, the puzzle challenges absolutely skyrocketed quite quickly.
I’d like to think I’m generally decent at puzzle games since I think logically, so even though I may get stuck here and there, I eventually figure it out. I swear at times near the end I thought some of the puzzles were impossible. The first few chapters really ease you into the gameplay, thinking I was going to breeze through it no problem, then I hit a brick wall, almost ready to call it quits when I was dumbfounded for over an hour on a single puzzle. Of course once I figured it out I realized the simple thing that didn’t ‘click’ with me, thus renewing my enjoyment once I felt like a genius again.
While the majority of the puzzles aren’t timed in any way, there are a handful where you do have to be quick and deliberate with your movements and timing. This is slowly introduced with arrows you can interact with that will rotate or move certain platforms or walls in a specific direction, or magnets that pull blocks in that specific lane. There’s even some puzzles where you’ll have a white ball that drops and then rolls, having to make it go through specific colored boxes to mix ‘paint’ and land in the corresponding colored box to progress. Layer this with rotating walls, lasers and blue jump pads, and you can see were the quick dexterity requirement comes in.
Puzzles become quite intricate and confusing, infuriating me at times because I just can’t figure out the solution for an hour at a time to the point of wanting to uninstall, but then I stick with it and eventually find the solution, wanting to progress even further. With a large number of optional collectables to find along the way, there’s plenty here to challenge even the most skilled puzzle solver.
Vastly improved visuals from its original release, actually decent voice overs and a soundtrack that never overstays its welcome, the generally logical puzzles were a pleasant surprise for someone like me that never played the original releases, now able to enjoy it on my console of choice. The constant ebb and flow of frustration and elation is why I generally enjoy puzzle games like Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary, going from feeling like an idiot one minute to a genius the next.
**Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Isonzo
Developers Blackmill Games and publisher M2H may not have the largest of game releases out there, but they absolutely know what they excel at and their niche target audience. It’s clear their passion lies within the WWI era, as all of their previous releases took place here as well. Verdun (2015) and Tannenberg (2017) both take place during this time period but within different Theaters of War. The latest in their WWI Game Series is Isonzo, another historical setting from the first World War that took place amongst different backdrops within northern Italy.While there’s no shortage of World War shooters, what makes this WWI Game Series stand out is its historical accuracy and much slower paced gameplay. Don’t go in expecting to be running-and-gunning. You have to keep in mind the weapon technology at the time, so combat warfare was drastically different than it is today.
Set on the Italian front, Isonzo focuses on a handful of some of the most iconic battles between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian forces. The Italian backdrop makes for some unique battlefields, especially within the Alps or fighting for historic landmarks like the Salcano Bridge, adding much more verticality to the combat as opposed to fighting through a ruined town.
Let’s be clear, Isonzo is meant as an online multiplayer shooter. Yes you can play offline against bots, but there’s no single player campaign of any sorts, so as long as you’re intending to play online, hopefully with some friends, then Isonzo is worth looking at. These games are enjoyed by fans that want a more accurate representation of how warfare was during this time. Historically accurate and authentic, Isonzo will have you battling in numerous offensives within the Southern Front of the War. While all twelve Battles of the Isonzo aren’t included here, they are each varied and unique in its backdrop.
Isonzo doesn’t try and make things confusing by adding a bunch of different modes that may or may not be used, instead focusing on its core, and only, Offensive game mode. Somewhat of a different take on Battlefield’s Conquest, Offensive has an attacking and defending team working on two objectives simultaneously. Objective ‘A’ is where you need to capture a point, where objective ‘B’ is a point where the attackers are trying to set an explosive to destroy the point. If the attackers capture both objective ‘A’ and ‘B’, then the front of the war gets pushed forwards and opens a new portion of the battlefield further behind enemy lines.
Every map is unique, but each push with their own objective points are also all interesting as well, as you need to constantly be working on your attacking or defensive portions. Depending on the map and the section you’re currently fighting in, you might be battling in trenches, bunkers, forests, towns, open fields or even cliffs. Each section and backdrop can dramatically change battles and strategies when playing, as certain portions might be cutoff by barb wire or other barriers.
While there’s only a handful of maps currently included, I will say, these maps are massive. While you only battle in a small sector at a time based on the objectives that have or haven’t been captured and destroyed yet, starting at the beginning of a match until the very last section and you’ll start to understand how large these battlefields really can be.
While the battlefields and landscape is obviously historically accurate, so is the weaponry, air attacks and artillery, outfits, music and even mustaches as well. Cut paths through barb wire, spot enemies with your binoculars, place sandbags or periscopes, drop sniper shields, use multiple paths or tunnels to flank your enemy or storm head on, there’s plenty of different strategies to employ when you face off against other players online.
Isonzo offers six different classes for you to choose from based on historical roles. While you’ll only have access to the starting weapon and equipment, as you level up each class you’ll then unlock more weaponry and gear to further customize your soldier. Each class has its own strengths and specific role in combat, and having a healthy mix of each type will surely help your side succeed in the War.
The six classes in Isonzo might not seem like they differ too much early on, but once you’ve completed some challenges and unlocked their better gear, weapons and perks, you’ll start to notice a more distinct difference. Officers start out with only a pistol but can send directions of where to attack or place arrows on the map for everyone to see. They can also call in air support if there are flares placed, so they are the main support of your team, and only two officers per team are allowed at one time. Riflemen are your core infantry, Assault can eventually get high impact weapons, Mountaineers can spot enemies and mark them for the team to see with their binoculars, Snipers take out targets from afar and Engineers can build weapons and tools used on the battlefield.
Being historically accurate, a single shot can, and usually will, kill you. If not fatal instantly, you may get critically injured, needing to use your bandage kit or have someone else heal you to you don’t bleed out. When working as a team in squads and in tandem with a specific strategy, Isonzo goes from a run-of-the-mill WWI solo shooter to quite a tactical experience that I really couldn’t get enough of as an Officer, calling in artillery barrages or dropping of poisonous mustard gas.
The more you play and better you perform, you’ll level up your overall rank, but the class you're currently playing will also rise in level as well. This is where the specific class challenges come into play and how you unlock new weapons and gear for them. At specific levels you are given special class objectives that, when met, will give you specific rewards, like the new guns or equipment. These are catered for the specific class, like a Mountaineer spotting a specific amount of enemies or an Officer calling in a number of air supports on objectives. These aren’t terribly difficult but doing so allows you to move onto the next challenges once you reach specific levels.
Surprisingly there is crossplay between consoles, but not between console and PC as of now. With plenty of players currently, there’s no issue finding a lobby to play in, though you can setup a custom match with your friends whenever you like, or even have it open to the public. Keep in mind that when playing in custom matches you won’t earn XP progression though.
Developers have already shared their upcoming roadmap of content, including the next three free expansions that will add plenty of content such as new maps, a new faction, more challenges, more custom match options, cosmetics, prestige, new game mode and more. While the core experience may feel a little bare once you’ve gotten used to the classes and played each map dozens of times, this free content coming is a great sign of future support.
Are there bugs and glitches? Sure. Are there times I got stuck in the landscape and had to redeploy? You bet. Did any of that hamper my enjoyment? Not as much as I expected. Isonzo looks and performs leaps and bounds better than their previous two games, which I can only guess is a direct result to their further experience and the latest hardware. Animations are vastly improved from 2017’s Tannenberg, and while the visuals won’t blow you away, some of the backdrops and battlefields are a visual treat to take in, if you aren’t getting shot at from a marksman of course. Weapons sound distinct and it’s not uncommon to hear someone from either team screaming as they take their last breath after being dropped from a lethal shot.
Easily my favorite in the series, Isonzo offers class based and slow paced World War I gameplay that surely takes some getting used to, but is also a very unique experience compared to other shooters in the genre. The verticality of the level design of cliffside battles and unique classes is what keeps me coming back for one more onslaught on the battlefield, even if the map variety is a bit low and only having a single mode can be tiresome at times. While Isonzo may not have the polish and same experience of a top shelf AAA shooter, it’s quite clear to see that it’s a labor of love and passion from a smaller team that aims to bring a historically accurate representation of WWI combat that should appeal to its specific niche audience.
**Isonzo was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Circus Electrique
Usually when I first watch a trailer for a new game I can generally get an idea and feel for how the game is going to be. I’ll admit, watching the trailer for Circus Electrique left me somewhat confused at to what I was about to experience. I’m glad I did experience it though, as Circus Electrique is an odd blend of turn based tactical combat, a narrative RPG, but also a circus management game, all wrapped in a Victorian era steampunk aesthetic. Intrigued by this unique mashup yet?While you don’t play directly as her, the protagonist is Amelia, a young journalist that’s related to the Ringmaster of the circus, Randy. You’re actually here investigating an event being dubbed as “The Maddening”, which is having people in London being killed at random after becoming violent and aggressive. With her tamed lion along her side, Leonidas, you’ll investigate what’s the root cause for The Maddening with circus performers acting as your bodyguards as you explore six districts within London.
The narrative is intriguing at first, wondering what’s going on and some more sub-plots beneath the surface, but I’ll admit, it was hard to follow along at times simply because of all the circus management and game mechanics you need to constantly be checking in on and having to focus on. As you explore each district you’ll battle against numerous types of enemies, some robotic and others creepy looking. Boss battles await at the end of each district as well, something you better have planned to prepare for well ahead of time.
There’s numerous distinct portions to Circus Electrique’s gameplay, each unique and a lot to remember and manage, but all intertwined simultaneously. A large portion is the actual circus management that plays in a daily cycle. The big top tent is where you’ll plan for your daily (or multiple days) shows, choosing which performers will be the main, secondary and supporting acts. Certain performers are better suited for specific roles, but each character also has preferences on who they like, and don’t like, to work with, that makes for a better show overall. So it becomes almost like a puzzle to figure out the best ‘team’ to make a show from your inventory of performers to earn the most stars. The more stars you earn the more resources you gain, allowing you to craft more items to earn better performers and more fans. It’s quite confusing in the beginning, especially since you also need to keep enough people on your team for the exploration and combat sections, but more on that shortly.
At the end of each day after a combat portion, you then get your rewards for the circus show you setup that was performed, adding a day since The Maddening investigation began. These shows start out with just three performers, eventually going to four or five, but also upping certain ‘stat’ requirements to even start the show, so it’s somewhat a puzzle on figuring out if you have the proper performers to even start some of the shows with bigger rewards. It’s very complex, and even trying to detail and explain it is difficult, as it took me quite a while to eventually figure out.
The circus grounds will have many different areas you can interact with, each meant for a different use. The Train is where you can recruit new performers that appear randomly, but this of course costs money and resources to do so but you can only house a limited number at a time, so choose wisely, as you need to start leveling them up as soon as you can if you want to be successful in combat. When your performers are used for combat rounds they will most likely return injured. This is where the Sleeping Cart comes in, as they will need to rest to refill their health if you want them to survive subsequent battles. The Artisan is where you’ll go to craft items. As you defeat enemies in battle and perform circus events daily, you earn a number of different resources which can then be used to create specific items like healing potions for health and devotion, bonuses for your shows, bomb-like items to use in combat and many more. There’s a huge list of items that can be crafted though you can only bring a certain amount into each battle, so there’s definitely some strategy involved.
You’ll eventually be able to equip Super Skills, so The Workshop is where you’ll go to choose which ones you want to research. These are essentially special attacks that can be used after a certain amount of turns for a huge advantage in battle. Depending on your choices you could get a heal for your whole team, critical buffs, damage to the whole enemy team and many more. With three different tiers of Super Skills, once your Amazemeter is filled to certain levels you can then choose to use these abilities that will reset the meter, so it’s best saving these for difficult or boss battles. The higher the tier the more powerful the skill will be, so there’s a strategy of holding off longer for a more powerful version of the ability.
Before you get into the turn based battles, you first need to explore the district map along a set path. After the first map you’ll then choose branching paths, almost like a board game, all eventually leading you to its boss. Do you choose a shorter path with less ‘stops’ but maybe filled with more battles, or a longer path with possibly more rewards along the way? At these forks in the road you’ll have to make a choice and then you’re committed to that one way path, unable to go the other way until you defeat the district's boss and can then replay the area should you choose.
At each ‘stop’ along the path you’ll get a story segment, special items, healing or battles, depending on the icon shown that you land on. Much of the time you’ll be put into a battle though, and this is where you team of four performers comes to fight four opposing enemies in turn based combat. Keep in mind these are circus performers, so you can expect to build your team across fifteen different archetypes, from clowns, strongmen, fire blowers, mentalists, acrobats and many more. Each class is quite unique and has a different skillsets that works ideally with specific other classes.
Taking place on a 2D field, your team has four positions to fill from front to back, as does the enemy. Each performer has a set of abilities and attacks they can perform, but many are only usable in specific positions. For example, your strongman is generally the ‘tank’, dealing huge damage and able to take the biggest hit from enemies. Generally this means he’s best in the front two slots, as that’s where he can attack from, but if he's in the two rear spots he has an ability that he can buff up his defense and offence and then place him ahead a few positions.
Learning where each archetype is best where takes a while to figure out, plus it also is based on your playstyle, but once I figured out my ideal team of performers and their positions I was performing much better in combat. You can move your characters positions back and forth, but that takes your current turn and you can see the order of your and enemy team turn placement, adjusting your strategy accordingly.
While you might think that simply depleting an enemy’s health to zero would be the way to win a battle, that’s not the only way. There’s an equally important stat called Devotion that is just as imperative, if not more so, to keep track of for yourself and enemies. Devotion determines how they perform in battle, but if it’s completely depleted they’ll retreat from the battle, so sometimes it’s more strategic to use abilities that deplete their devotion instead of their health to force them to flee from battle. It’s a really unique system that takes some getting used to but will definitely keep strategic thinkers on their toes.
After each battle you get the latest newspaper showcasing what happened the previous day for your circus and combat outcomes. There’s some lore and story bits embedded into the recent events, giving some insight into its unique world. You definitely don’t need to read all of these to understand the main story, as that plays out in dialogue cutscenes for the most part, but will give you a deeper appreciation for its world.
Circus Electrique has a gorgeous aesthetic if you’re into the Victorian and Steampunk style. It’s colorful, characters are drawn well, and it certainly feels as though you’re living amongst a cast of unique circus performers for a living. The cutscenes are voiced actually quite well and the soundtrack is something you’d probably hear in one of the circus tents when you go to watch a live show under the big top.
My main complaint is that there’s simply much too much going on simultaneously in Circus Electrique. With a handful of different mechanics, you are taught each one, but having new things to manage and figure out before you’ve even become comfortable with what you just got shown is quite overwhelming early on. Even playing on Normal I was struggling initially, eventually starting a new game and having a more balanced time on Easy. There’s a codex you can reference anytime you forget any of the tutorials or instructions, but it’s a mountain to sift through.
While I quite enjoyed the turned based strategic combat of choosing my ideal performers and how they all best worked with one another, I struggled early on with understanding the management aspect. With enough time you’ll get the hang of it, but there’s almost too much going on, feeling quite overwhelming initially. Fans of Darkest Dungeon should feel right at home, but newcomers and casual players will most likely feel quite overwhelmed in the opening hours until it all starts to make sense and come together.
**Circus Electrique was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Steelrising
Developer Spiders may not produce massive AAA titles, but they have a distinct style and I’m always going to be excited for their releases. Ever since 2019’s GreedFall, which I absolutely loved, I've been eagerly awaiting their next release. Well, that time has come, as their latest title, Steelrising, is now here. I’ll admit, when I first saw the trailer for Steelrising I was quite impressed with its unique premise and setting, especially since it was coming from one of my favorite developers, but then I became a little more cautious and apprehensive once I realized it was going to be a Soulsborne, a genre I generally don’t enjoy due to its difficulty. Now if you’re like me and tend to shy away from Soulslike titles, don’t worry, as developers have given some options to make it much more approachable for those that don’t want to be forced into a difficult challenge, but more on that shortly.Steelrising may draw many similarities to others in the genre due to its combat and mechanics, but it certainly has a unique backdrop and setting that I thoroughly enjoyed start to finish. Set during the French Revolution, you’ll explore iconic locales such as Saint Cloud, Luxembourg and Bastille Versailles among other cities. While this setting isn’t utilized often in gaming, what really makes Steelrising stand out is its alternative take on historic events, as it has a mixture of Steampunk, Teslapunk and Clockpunk subgenres as well.
Paris 1789, this alternative take on the historic French Revolution tells a story about King Louis XVI and how he’s gone mad after commanding a legion of mechanical robots called Automatons. Exemplary engineer Vaucanson was the one who designed and created these Automatons, but not initially for these destructive reasons, as the city of Paris is now burning and crumbling. Citizens are revolting, but they are no match for these Automatons, and as a result are being slaughtered if they are found. Following the King’s orders, there seems to be no one or anything able to stop this destruction and massacre. Who can possibly stop this tyrant King? That’s where you, Aegis, comes in.
Changing the course of factual history, Queen Marie-Antoinette is introduced to her new bodyguard, Aegis, an Automaton that resembles a nimble and royal mannequin, but one that is able to speak and have reason, self-aware and intelligent. Originally designed as a dancer, Aegis only follows Antoinette’s orders and has a surpassingly amount of combat capability given that she was designated as her bodyguard. Unable to leave the palace, Antoinette tasks Aegis with heading to the docks to sail for Paris so that she can search for her missing children and to find your creator, Vaucanson, as it seems he might be the only one that will be able to stop the Automatons since he was their designer.
Along Aegis’ journey you’ll meet other historical figures such as Robespierre and Lafayette, amongst others. You’ll have quite a challenging journey as you try to stop the Mad King, as every Automaton along the way will be trying to destroy you. The French Revolution backdrop combined with the clockpunk setting melds together absolutely perfectly, creating an alternative history that was a treat to explore.
More than simply a sentient robot narrative, Aegis has more about her that you’ll learn along the way. You’ll help save and recover people that stood up to the King, finding more about what happened and learning each step of the way where you’re next target or person of interest will be. That’s oversimplifying though, as you’re going to have to battle numerous enemies around almost every corner, which is where the Soulslike gameplay comes in. You’ll customize your Aegis at the beginning, choosing the basics like her wig, ‘skin’ color and material like what type of metal parts of her are made out of before you leave the Palace for the capital city.
Before I get into the core gameplay and mechanics, I needed to dedicate a section for the developer’s conscious decision to make Steelrising approachable for anyone that wants to play it and see it to its conclusion, regardless of their skill. I’ll admit, I generally don’t enjoy Souls games simply because of their high difficulty, as I don’t have the patience to die over and over to finally progress. To me that’s not fun, but I totally understand why they are also so popular because of these reasons as well. I usually become discouraged because of the genre’s difficulty, so I was elated to see that Spiders made a way for players like myself that wanted to enjoy the game without any of the frustration should I choose. While I’m completely aware this is a polarizing topic where you’re supposed to ‘Git Gud’, but with the inclusion of an Assist Mode, Steelrising truly is a game for all players, hardcore to completely casual.
More than simply having Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties, you are instead able to balance the game to whatever your preferred liking is across a number of different settings. The settings you can toggle are Reduce Damage (0% to 100%), XP lost upon death (Yes / No), Improve Stamina Regeneration (0% to 300%), Activate Easy Cooling (Yes / No). These adjustable settings allow you to play however you want. Want to be invincible to learn the game in the beginning? Go ahead. Want to not lose all your currency when you die? Sure thing. These can be toggled on/off or adjusted whenever you like, so as you become more comfortable with its mechanics and gameplay, you can turn down the sliders to make it more of a challenge should you want to. Not knowing there was an Assist Mode included, I was initially worried I’d not be able to see Steelrising to its conclusion, but thankfully because of the developer’s commitment to inclusivity, I was indeed able.
Yes, my first playthrough was having many of the assists on, slowly turning them down as I become more comfortable and confident, and now I’m working on my next playthrough with no Assists. Some might scoff at adding these assists, but it made me going from being apprehensive about the game because of its perceived difficulty and genre, to being able to enjoy its story and narrative without having to spend hours becoming frustrated. I also believe they’ve found a great middle ground, as turning Assist Mode on disables any achievement earnings, which I believe is fair compromise.
After creating Aegis the way you want her to look from the limited options, you then choose one of four classes. These give you different starting stats and weapons, suited for different styles of play. Bodyguard is your heavy weapon user that is strong but slow, Soldier does more physical damage but less resilient, Dancer uses two metal fans that can combine to be a shield as you move around and attack very quickly, and lastly the Alchemist that specializes in chemical weapons that ignite, freeze or electrocute enemies with ease.
Aegis will explore numerous settings and areas, and while the level design is generally linear, there is of course some minor branching paths that will house many secrets, enemies and more. You can’t really go a ‘wrong’ way but there are many dead ends that somewhat funnel you down the correct path. There’s no map though to navigate, so you’ll need to be aware of where you’ve previously been. You’ll come across many locked doors and paths, but once you explore and find a way around, you can then unlock said doors and thus opening more shortcut paths for the future when you come back later with new abilities. Each level and area is quite large and the interconnectivity is done quite well, even if there’s not too much verticality to its design.
As you reach specific story parts and beat specific bosses, you’ll earn new abilities that allow you to traverse to new areas in a number of different ways. First you’ll unlock a mid-air dash, allowing you to cross larger gaps and get over certain fences that block your path. Your next upgrade allows Aegis to power kick through weak points on specific walls, usually hiding your next path or a secret. Lastly you’ll get a grapple hook that can be used to traverse on specific attach points, very reminiscent of Sekiro’s gameplay. Even better, all of these traversal abilities can also be used in combat for specific situations as well.
To say that Steelrising takes heavy inspiration from other Souls games is putting it mildly. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it feels like a cheap copy like others sometimes feel, but if you’ve ever played a Soulslike before, you’re going to know what to expect for its core mechanics. You have a health and stamina bar that needs to be managed, though your endurance bar is more attached to your overheating since you’re a robot after all. Deplete this meter and you’ll be unable to act for a short period, though thankfully you’re able to vent your heat. This is done with a clever ‘active reload’ mechanic, where if you hit the button at the right time, you’ll get your endurance back much quicker. Instead of bonfires to rest and level up at, you search and find Vestals. Here you’ll spend your hard earned Anima Essence (essentially your souls) on leveling up, upgrading Aegis or purchasing new weapons and armor. Like other Souls games, using Vestals will also reset enemy placements but also refill your health.
Being an Automat, Aegis can be upgraded in numerous ways. You can spent you Anima Essence on improving your specific attributes, leveling you up every time you do so, but you’ll also have four separate different module slots that you can place different upgrades into. Some of these will improve your health, maybe give you more damage when low on health, add more armor and a handful of different options. Each of these slots start at tier 1, able to be upgraded to tiers 2 and 3 for much more powerful improvements if you can gather enough special keys to do so.
At these vestals you’re also able to upgrade your weapons, not only requiring your precious Anima Essence but also a number of different materials as well, some of which you’ll need to do some exploring or beat some nasty enemies to collect them from. Instead of an Estus Flask you instead have a Burette which can also be improved to heal more health or have more doses. Aegis will also find a collection of different armor and clothing along the way, each looking quite distinct and unique from one another and having different attribute improvements. You’ll be able to mix and match hats, chest, legs and boot slots for Aegis, making her look quite intriguing, royal and fancy depending on your choice.
What is a Soulslike without its challenging and unique combat though? Steelrising is no different, having Aegis fight against a seemingly endless army of Automatons. Much like Sekiro and Bloodborne, Steelrising rewards you for fighting more aggressive, though of course you’ll need to be able to dodge, parry and block if you want to survive. Each enemy has different attack patterns that you must learn to counter and avoid if you want Aegis to survive, with bosses, called Titans, testing your skill and patience.
There are 8 different categories of weapons with more than 40 different choices, ranging from Fans, Chains, Claws, Maces, Halberds, Dual Swords, Tonfas and Wheels. Each weapon also has its own special move that could be a block, parry, counterattack, ranged attack, ice infusion and more. The weapons all feel so unique and change the gameplay quite drastically, so it’s definitely worth experimenting with. I initially started my Dancer off with the fans, eventually switching up to some claws for the fast combat attacks.
When it comes to combat, you have light, heavy and charged attacks, as well as the special move for your weapon. You also equip two weapons of choice, allowing you to quickly swap on the fly between them based on your situation. For example, I used my range weapons to try and freeze my enemies before they got to me, then switching to my claws for a barrage of quick attacks before I dodge back out and gather my composure. If you don’t run, you’re also able to sneak up behind unsuspecting Automatons for a massive attack.
Enemy design is done quite well as it’s very steampunk inspired and range from quick fodder to hulking Titan bosses. While the enemy types are somewhat limited and repeated throughout Aegis' journey, it at least makes sense given the narrative and robot army setting. Early on you’ll fight one enemy at a time, but in the later stages you can expect to battle against a few simultaneously which is where you’ll need to rely on your combat prowess to be successful. There is a camera lock which works well for the most part, but can get a little finicky in the more chaotic fights when you need to swap from target to target while locked on.
Steelrising has some amazing and gorgeous vistas when you take a moment to stop Aegis from battle and exploration and simply take in the sights. The landscape of France is quite a sight to behold even though its burning, destroyed and there’s a massacre happening. The lighting and shadows has improved leaps and bounds from their last game and each area had its own style and tone of scenery. It’s obvious that the developers took a lot of time to study the era, as the whole experience feels just as I would imagine the French Revolution would for that time period, but with robots. Human characters on the other hand aren’t as equally impressive, having stiff animations and a lack of emotion even in the most dramatic cutscenes. That said, the voice acting across the board was absolutely fantastic, especially Aegis, sounding robotic given her creation, but with some soul and humanistic nature. The soundtrack is fitting, adding a tone that suits the backdrop and setting, and weapons sound impactful and distinct, especially when you hear weapons clanging off of the Automatons.
For how much I enjoyed Steelrising for its approachability and gorgeous backdrop, there were some issues along the way. Even on an Xbox Series X, there were some massive framerate issues in certain sections, not often, but enough to make note of. Oddly enough, this even happened during some cutscenes, but given that I was playing through weeks before the official launch without the day 1 patch, I’m going to assume this will only improve now that it’s released.
Steelrising is easily Spider’s most ambitious work and I can’t applaud them enough for the unique setting and backdrop, even if the core mechanics are what we’ve experienced dozens of times before. There is of course a steep learning curve in the beginning, but anyone with ample Souls experience should feel right at home. Thankfully you don’t have to ‘Git Gud’ to enjoy Steelrising to completion even as a casual fan, as long as you don’t mind disabling achievements.
**Steelrising was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Cursed to Golf
Just when I think I’ve seen every genre combination out there, I’m surprised once again. Cursed to Golf combines the sport of golf with some roguelike elements, an odd mixture that I certainly wasn’t expecting from developers Chuhai Labs. A simple premise, a morbid story, card based power-ups, bumper walls, randomly generated courses, simple controls and adorable pixel art makes for a unique golfing experience that I didn’t quite expect but had an entertaining time playing.You begin your story playing through a tournament, about to win on the 18th hole by a large margin. As you line up your winning shot the unthinkable happens; lightning strikes your club mid-swing, killing you instantly. You awake somewhere you don’t recognize by a large ghost-like being that welcomes you to Golf Purgatory. That’s right, you didn’t go to Heaven or Hell when you met your fate, now stuck somewhere in between. But not all is depressing though, as you’re told that you can ascend back to life if you can manage to defeat the ominous Greenskeeper in 18 holes of golf across four different biomes. I told you this was an oddly morbid story.
As you progress your way through Golf Purgatory one hole at a time, you’re going to notice that the rules of the sport are slightly different down here compared to what you were used to when you were alive. First and foremost, instead of each hole having a par in the traditional sense, you instead start with five swings allowed to reach the hole, and each swing reduces it by one. As long as you make it to the hole before there’s zero swings left you’ll progress, but there's no way you'll reach the pin on some of these holes in less than twenty shots. Failure to do so though and you’ll be sent all the way back to the beginning of Golf Purgatory, which is where the roguelike elements come into play. It’s an odd ruleset but works quite well with the other mechanics and rules. To survive Golf Purgatory you’ll need to complete all 18 holes in one go, something that is much more difficult than I initially expected.
Because you’re stuck in Golf Purgatory, don’t expect typical courses and holes you’d find in the living world. Instead, you can expect holes that are almost dungeon or puzzle-like, sometimes with branching paths where you can attempt for shortcuts but require much more skill and precision with your shots. To make thing seven more interesting, you also collect cards that offer single use abilities or bonuses, but more on those shortly.
Taking place on a 2D playfield, the randomly generated holes will greatly vary in length, obstacles and difficulty. You’ll not only have to deal with reaching the hole before you run out of shots, but avoiding bunkers, water hazards, spikes, TNT boxes and more. I told you, Golf Purgatory isn’t like real world golf at all. Certain holes will require 10 or 20 shots to complete, so how do you pass the course if you only begin with 5 shots you ask? Littered throughout the course you’ll find silver and golf shot idols, where if you manage to destroy these by hitting your ball through them you’ll gain more shots to your counter. Silver Idols add +2 shots and gold +4, so they are definitely worth going slightly out of your way to the hole to destroy these if you believe in your golf skills.
To keep things simple you only have to worry about using one of three different clubs; your Driver, Iron or Wedge. The driver is for your long range shots, iron for higher angles and wedge for getting out of bunkers and short range shots. You’ll notice I didn’t mention a putter, and that’s because there is none, so you need to factor this in for your setup shots, as the short range ‘putts’ can be a little tricky to do. Pressing ‘A’ start the power meter, press again to determine the power you want, then you’ll see the angle/height meter with ball trail moving up and down. Press ‘A’ one more time and you’ll complete your shot. Eventually you’ll also be able to add some spin to your shots, forwards or backwards, so you can have them land or roll exactly where you want.
Before you even take your shot though, you’ll want to use the ‘B’ button to move the camera around the course to figure out the best path and to watch for any hazards that will be in your way. Many of these holes will have numerous paths you can take to the flag, sometimes even having multiple different holes, so you’ll need to plan ahead which way you want to go, making every shot count. Some holes feel almost like a puzzle when you have to decide to use teleporters or not, though I found it impossible to tell which portal it would exit from if there were multiple.
The Scotsman is the first person you meet when you awake in Golf Purgatory, an ally that teaches you the rules down here, also the owner of Eterni-Tee, a store you’ll be spending your earned cash from each hole for new cards to hopefully survive Golf Purgatory. Clear enough holes and the final one in each biome will have you facing off against a boss, which your friend The Scotsman will be your first opponent. These ‘boss fights’ is more like a turned based race to the hole against your opponent, though there are special shrines that will zap them with lighting if destroyed, causing them to miss one of their turns. They can hit much further and accurate than you, so you’re going to have to play smart, plan ahead and know when you use your Ace Cards.
Ace Cards adds a unique twist on the gameplay, as most holes are so long and technical that there’s no way to reach the hole in the five shots you’re given. With more than 20 different Ace Cards, these vary in what they do for you, allowing you to add shots to your counter, perform mulligans, shoot multiple balls at once, perform a U-Turn with your ball, stop time and more. These unique power-up cards will need to be used at the right times if you want to survive Golf Purgatory and ascend. These cards are single use though, so if you run out of cards early on, the later holes will be near impossible to complete, so you need to only use them when needed. These add a layer of unique strategy, especially during the boss fights and make for a unique golfing experience that I quite enjoyed. Do well on holes to earn cash to buy more card packs at the Eterni-Tee store so you have a chance at getting out of Golf Purgatory.
The bright and colorful pixel art is gorgeous to look at, even when you factor in the dark narrative. The animations are done quite well, as your golfer takes a portal to the ball after each shot and The Scotsman is larger than life in personality. While there’s no voiced characters, instead using gibberish sound effects, the soundtrack is done quite well and is catchy, never wearing out its welcome even after attempting to progress through Golf Purgatory dozens of times.
Cursed to Golf is one of those games that I wasn’t sure what to really expect but came away not only surprised, but smiling every time I played. Even though I’ve yet to ascend out of Golf Purgatory, I’m enjoying each attempt, getting better with my shots and strategizing when to use my Ace Cards. At $25.99 CAD, the price might initially seem a little high for an indie golf game, but the roguelike gameplay and high difficulty adds near endless replayability on the links.
**Cursed to Golf was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Arcade Paradise
I’m glad to have grown up in the era of gaming that I did. Born in the 80’s, I not only grew up with home consoles in their infancy, but I’m also old enough to have many fond memories of arcades, an establishment that really isn’t as prevalent as it once was. Sure there are a few places that have arcade machines, like in bigger theaters and such, but it’s just not the same as it was ‘back in the day’. I would be given a few quarters each day so that after school I could stop at the local arcade and play a few games before coming home, so of course it was natural to dream of running my own arcade when I was a kid.It looks like that time has come, even if it is virtually, as Arcade Paradise is essentially an arcade simulator where you not only run the business side, but can also play every single game in your establishment as well. Gameception! The catch? Well, you don’t actually start with an arcade per-se, but a laundromat that you eventually convert into the business you actually want. You play as Ashley, and after getting a call from your dad, you’re told that you’ll now be running the family business, a neighborhood laundromat. Exciting stuff, I know. So when she goes to start doing the laundry and cleaning up, she notices that there’s a few old dusty arcade cabinets in the storage room. So she does what any gamer of my generation would do; dust them off, plug them in and start letting customers know that there’s an arcade in the back of the laundromat.
Your father doesn’t seem keen on this idea, I mean, who’s going to place their hard earned quarters into the machines to play games when they will need them to do their laundry? Well, it’s time to prove him wrong that you can turn a profit, and maybe, convert the laundromat into an arcade fully, not just hidden in the back room. Oh, did I mention that your dad is Gerald and he’s away on a trip to the Riviera. Oh, and he’s voiced by Doug Cockle, yes, that voice actor best known as Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher. It’s a hilarious little nod that didn’t go unnoticed.
Before you’re able to begin your new arcade empire, you’ll first need to earn money for the basics. It’s a good thing you have a laundromat to start getting some cash flow, but that’s obviously not the business you want to be in for the long term. So to start earning some cash, you’ll do laundry of customers that leave their loads there. First you have to put the load into the washer, wait 3 minutes for it to finish, put it into the dryer, wait another 3 minutes, then finish sorting into a basket for pickup. If you do so quickly without much delay you’ll get a better rank and thus more money.
I’ll admit, the opening few hours are a bit dull and lackluster, as doing loads of laundry isn’t the most exciting gameplay. Sure, in between timers you can play some of the machines in the back, and are encouraged to, but I felt compelled as I needed to focus on the laundry side of the business. That was until the arcade side of the profits started to exceed the boring portion.
So what else do you do to earn cash early on other than some laundry? Well, you earn cash for taking gum that customers stick to random spots, cleaning the toilet when it becomes plugged, and taking out full bags of trash. Again, not the most exciting gameplay elements as it becomes tiresome to have to do so each day, but it’s a simple way to earn some cash early on. You’ll also eventually get daily tasks that you choose to work on that’s sent to your PDA that earn you some bonus cash if you complete them. These tasks usually have you playing a certain game for a set amount of time, clearing a set amount of gum and other tasks.
Speaking of your PDA, the epitome of 90’s digital communication, this is where you can track all of your business stats, settings for your arcade cabinets and more. Your stylish Casio watch also will beep when certain events happen, alteting you to complete laundry wash or dry cycles, toilets clogged, or games that need fixing.
So you’re becoming bored of the laundry business and want the arcade portion to take off, but not sure how exactly? Well, if customers see you playing certain games, they’ll be inclined to do so as well and its popularity will increase, thus earning you more money. Each game also has a list of challenges and goals to reach for those that want more to strive for, though completely optional. Most also have an online leaderboard which was completely unexpected and surprising, but well appreciated.
So if your arcade machines are earning money how do you get those quarters? Well, just like in real life you’ll need to empty out the hoppers, basically a basket where all the quarters stay until cleared out. With your PDA you can not only change the difficulty of each game, but the cost to play as well. Do you make a game that’s hard but cheap, expensive but easy or somewhere in between? The more customers play the games, you’ll see what earns you the most money per hour and can adjust. Of course it doesn’t cost you to play since they’re your machines thankfully.
So where do you put all these arcade machines as you save up and keep purchasing the more than 35 arcade games? Not only can you change the floor plan and layout, placing machines in specific spots, but maybe putting a game that doesn’t do well beside a game that earns the most might help it. Being set in the 90’s you’ll use your dial-up internet in the office to go onto the world wide web to purchase new arcade machines that will show up the next morning once you have enough cash to afford them.
So what happens when you bought all the machines and fill the back room? Well it’s a good thing you know someone that can get you a deal on expanding your back room. Looks like it’s time to take down that wall from the storage closet if that means room for a few more games right? That’s where the core gameplay loop comes in, buying all the available machines, then purchasing the building upgrade for more arcade room, repeat.
Of the 35 or so games you can purchase and play, while there may not be any official or licensed games we grew up with, there’s clearly inspired games from the classics that you’ll know what game it’s ‘supposed’ to be. More than just simple clones, many have their own twists and can be quite addicting to play, forgetting you’re playing a game within a game. You can expect everything from classic vector based games, air hockey, darts, all the way up to some Nintendo 64 or original Playstation era of games and genres. You might even get some emails from customers that want to challenge you to certain games’ high scores. Better yet, many of the games include multiplayer if you have someone locally that wants to play along or versus you, so a lot of effort went into making these arcade games feel like they would as if you were playing them in person.
Oddly enough, there’s two different types of currencies in Arcade Paradise. The most common is your regular dollars earned from doing laundry, chores, tasks and of course emptying the arcade hoppers, but you’ll also slowly earn British Pounds that is strictly used for passive upgrades for you, your business or new CD’s for the jukebox. Upgrades range from quicker walking, though barely a sprint, being able to see the trash and gum easier, buying a new car so you can get to work earlier and then work longer to earn more, among others.
Being an arcade business simulator, Arcade Paradise knows where its strengths are, with its own games, but aside from that there’s a lot of mundane to sift through, especially in its opening hours of simply doing laundry. I find it odd that there’s zero customer interaction, as there’s this weird pixelation that happens when you get close to people until they disappear. The visuals aren’t anything special, basically appearing like any other simulator type of game, but of course I have a soft spot for its gaming content. The soundtrack has some good tunes in the jukebox you can purchase (and earn quarters from) though I wish you could play the songs in a playlist instead of having to go back to play a song after each ends.
Being a simulator game, there is of course a grind, but it’s much more manageable when you’re spending most of your time actually playing games. With over 35 arcade games to purchase and play, you might forget that you’re playing a game within a game, but it certainly reminded me of finding a cool arcade as a kid where I would dump all my quarters after school. A ‘rags to riches’ story where you can also start raking in the money, one quarter at a time.
**Arcade Paradise was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Tribes of Midgard
Released on PC just over a year ago, Tribes of Midgard is finally opening the door to Valhalla for console players. Developed by Norsfell Games and published by Gearbox, Tribes of Midgard is not only finally coming to console, but also coincides with its latest and largest Season update yet, Inferno Saga, adding plenty of new content for even the most veteran players. I’ll admit, I’m always a little hesitant and cautious when a popular PC game comes to console later on, only because they don’t always have a great track record of being ‘console-fied’. How many times have you played a game that was first on PC but when you go to play it with a controller it simply doesn’t feel great to do so, or it’s overly complicated? Well I’m happy to announce that isn’t the case here. Not only will Xbox players finally get to jump into Tribes of Midgard with a slew of content to play with, but it feels natural with a controller in hand as well.An interesting blend of building, combat and survival elements with a Viking inspired backdrop, Tribes of Midgard is a lot to take in initially. At first I felt quite lost, unsure what to do even after the brief Tutorial that really only shows the core basics. With three Seasons of content, there’s plenty here to uncover and figure out, but the game instead does a very hands-off approach and lets you and your friends simply figure it out. That said, I was a bit confused and discouraged in the beginning, as I wasn’t sure what I was really supposed to do, where to go, or better yet, why. That said, eventually grasping some of its concepts and mechanics, it eventually fell into place, made sense, and then I was starting to enjoy my runs.
While I don’t normally gravitate towards survival based games, being able to play alongside with up to 8 friends sure does make it more bearable and fun. You must do everything in your power to protect the sacred Seed of Yggdrasil tree, the only way you’ll prevent the end of the world from occurring. The nightly invasions of Helthings are trying to do what they can to destroy the sacred tree, as are the massive Jotnar, so you’re going to have your hands full. If that all sounds like too much and you want a much more relaxed experience, the latest Survival mode update may be up your alley instead. Here you can play at your own pace without having to worry about protecting your tree nightly from invaders. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself, so let’s start with the basics first.
There are two main modes you’ll play solo or alongside with random players or friends, Saga or Survival Mode. Regardless of the mode you play, you start with nothing but the clothes on your back, so you’ll need to scrounge around looking for sticks and rocks so you can craft some harvesting tools to harvest stones, ore and different types of trees. Gather enough materials and you’ll finally be able to craft items like weapons, armor and more. Each world is procedurally generated, so it’ll be a different experience each time you play in this roguelike adventure.
Regardless of the mode you play, you’re constantly progressing in some way with your overall Season XP, unlocking new items and bonuses as you climb the 50 ranks. The longer you survive, the more rewards you gain. Crafting is a very large component to your success but isn’t terribly convoluted and can be quick to get the hang of. Each item has certain material requirements, and if you have them on hand in in storage you’ll be able to create them without issue. Of course the best items are going to reward unique and hard to get items, so you better work on your combat items and skills to take down the harder challenges the world entices you with.
As I said above, there’s a basic tutorial but it really doesn’t do nearly enough to fully explain all of the different elements and mechanics. As someone who normally doesn’t play games like these simply because of the lack of hand holding or explanation, I felt quite lost and confused at first. The beginning portion is usually focused on gathering materials so you can craft better items, which will then push you further from your home base to find the higher tiered materials so you can continue the cycle.
The first mode to try out, and I’d consider the main or most campaign-like, is Saga Mode. This is where you’ll eventually have access to 8 different classes, each play quite differently but most are locked behind certain progression milestones that will take some time to get through. Saga has you having to defend your Seed of Yggdrasil or else Game Over. Each night you’re attacked by evil forces and becomes more challenging as time goes on, so the challenge becomes greater the longer you survive, but the rewards become greater as well as you can take on some massive and epic bosses.
Once you’ve found the basic gather basic sticks and flint, you’ll be able to craft your Lumber Axe, Pickaxe and Fishing Pole. This will allow you to start gathering from any nodes you final along your exploration on the sizable map. As you gather materials you’ll then craft a weapon such as a sword, axe, hammer or spear, along with a full set of armor. This gear will allow you to take down enemies for other resources and survive the further you go from your home base, eventually finding the next tier of materials and so on.
As soon as the sun sets though you better head back to your town, as Helthings will spawn all around, trying to destroy the Seed at Yggdrasil at its center. You start with some basic gates to keep enemies out, but after a night or two unchecked, they won’t hold back the onslaught much longer. You should be spending your days exploring, gathering and fighting so that you can come back at night to defend your village until the sun rises once again. You can even spend precious resources to build Archer Towers as well if you deem it fit to do so.
You’ll also be able to upgrade each of the vendors which is how you’ll craft the better weapons, gear and items. This takes many materials as well as Souls, essentially the game’s currency that is earned from killing enemies and collecting resources. Each tier of course takes more materials, so there’s a balance of what you want to upgrade first so you can craft the better items. Upgrading these vendors also makes them more powerful when they pitch in to help with the Helthings that makes it through the gates, so it’s worthwhile to do so even if you won’t be crafting much from them in the long run.
Given that Tribes of Midgard is now on Season 3 of its content update, that doesn’t mean the original content is gone. On the contrary, as you can choose any of the main quests, almost like chapters, so you can experience all of its content at your own pace without having to worry about rushing through before a new Season drops, which seems to be roughly every six months or so.
I’ll be honest, even though I now know what I’m supposed to be doing and the general flow to the game, I still find Saga Mode quite stressful with its ‘time limit’ of sorts, having to constantly defend your base each night. Yes the big boss fights are cool, but I find it quite challenging, especially solo. While I normally avoid survival based games, I was quite skeptical that I was going to enjoy Survival Mode here, but surprisingly I ended up enjoying it the most of the two modes. Dubbed as Survival 2.0, it’s been completely revamped and improved to coincide with the Season 3 and its console launch. This is more of a sandbox mode, allowing you to play at your own pace with any out of the pressure of Saga Mode since you don’t need to defend your village. You start out with nothing just like before aside from your ability to build your own settlement however you like, should you even choose to. Here you’ll build the crafting stations you want, where you want, and even build the walls and buildings however you choose.
Instead of having to come back nightly to defend, you no longer have that stress and can explore to seek out the massive Jotnar bosses for great rewards. You can still access the main Saga quests here so you have an overall goal, but aren’t pressured by a specific timeline. Better yet, you’re able to start an online Survival Mode and the server will stay up for anyone or your friends to join. For example, you quit playing on the fifth day but your friends continue to play on your server until day 20, when you came back it’ll be day 20 (or whenever they left it unattended). This was quite surprising, as normally for games like these to do that you need to purchase a rented server, so kudos to the devs for making this a reality. The catch is that you can only have two online matchmaking game saves at once, so you’ll need to leave one of the servers if you want to join a new one after that point. You’re constantly always working towards your overall Season XP, so you’ll get the bonuses you’ve earned to that point regardless.
Combat overall is quite basic with you having to simply press ‘X’ to swing, but depending on the weapon you might have other special attacks. Higher tiered weapons will cost more materials to craft, but will have special properties or abilities, so they’re generally worth the investment. Attacking enemies builds up a gauge which can then be used to use your special moves if you’ve filled enough of the meter. You can dodge with ‘B’, an important and necessary skill to master if you want to survive. You can craft food and potions to help replenish your items, but lose all your health and you’ll die, having to run all the way back to get your corpse.
There’s also a skill tree system called Blessings. In Saga Mode you first make the choice of the 8 different classes you want to play and you’re locked to the choices that class gives you. In Survival Mode though it’s more freeform, allowing you to choose from 90 different skills, allowing you to really make a unique class with a variety of skills you want to combine with a higher level limit of 50. With so many skills, I was trying new ones and combos each game that I started to see what works best with my playstyle, so there’s plenty to experiment with.
If you’ve previous played Tribes of Midgard on PC and are simply wondering what’s new in the Season 3: Inferno Saga content, well, there’s a laundry list of additions, fixes and changes. I’m not going to go through everything, but at a very high level you can expect a massive amount of new content, with Survival 2.0 being one of the main highlights that I just spoke about. Inferno Saga adds a new Ancient Surtr, essentially a final boss, a completely new biome (volcanos are fun but don’t run through the lava), fishing, the new spear weapon that’s simplistic to craft and much more. To explore a volcano you’re going to need a lot of protection from the heat, so do you craft fire resistant gear or opt for some specialty potions instead? I won’t spoil the boss fights, but they were quite challenging but fun to do with a group of fellow adventurers.
I quite enjoyed having the new spear weapon as my first choice since it only requires wood to craft. Because of its length you can fight from a slightly longer distance which is always great as you’re learning the combat and enemy patterns. Fishing poles are also new, a way to not only pass some time, but gather resources needed for specific crafting recipes. When you do finish a game or decide to leave a server you’ll get a new Game Over screen that gives a lot more information such as what you earned XP doing, how the team overall did and a leaderboard-like screen that shows who was best at what specifically, such as healing, crafted items, enemies slain and more.
Being able to play Survival Mode at your own pace was easily the highlight for myself, as I didn’t enjoy the constant pressure of Saga Mode. If I want to spend a few hours simply exploring and gathering resources so I can build my village up or upgrade my crafting stations, I can do so. The building mode itself is quite simple to use, choosing what item you’ve crafted you want to place on a grid scaled to 1x1x1 for ease of use, even able to change height levels if you want to create ramps or stairs. Since there’s no other villagers, all the crafting will be up to you and your friends playing alongside you. The magical Allforge can be placed anywhere and where you’ll also spend your Souls for repairs as well.
You’ve probably noticed I’ve been talking about Seasons, and with many games that use this type of progression, there’s usually some sort of store as well where you can purchase other items. It’s no different here. You’ll earn coveted Golden Horns from doing certain feats and accomplishments in-game, almost like a premium type of currency which can be used in the Shop to purchase items. Most items are basically really cool skins and aesthetic items, though there are a few of the skin packs that I really liked, but can only be bought with a Platinum currency that you have to spend real money on. Normally I don’t mind cash shops like this as it’s for aesthetic skins, but that’s when a game is free-to-play. Problem is, Tribes of Midgard isn’t free, so you’ll be paying more on top of the game’s price if you want the coolest looking gear.
As for Tribes of Midgard’s visuals, they use a cel-shaded aesthetic that somehow works decently with the Viking backdrop. Each biome varies from one another and their environments look distinct. The map itself is quite large, so there’s plenty to explore and find along the way. The highlight is easily the massive Jotnar bosses that really make the world appear to have some scale to their might. As for the audio, there’s not much to mention or that stands out. The background audio serves its purpose of breaking the silence, and enemies will make sounds, but there’s not much else of note.
Tribes of Midgard did a great job of transitioning to console, feeling natural on a controller without feeling overwhelming like many PC to console ports. There’s a mountain of content to get through for the most dedicated but you’ll have to get over the learning curve hurdle before it all makes sense. While playable solo, I highly recommend finding some friends to play alongside with, as I wasn’t enjoying myself playing alone, but with some friends it made a world of difference.
**Tribes of Midgard was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Way of the Hunter
Even though I grew up in a time before the internet and spent much of my childhood outdoors, I wouldn’t consider myself much of an outdoorsman by any means. Being Canadian, I’ve also only shot a gun once in my life, so I’m by no means a master hunter, hell, I’ve never even seen a moose in real life. I was quite curious about Way of the Hunter, developed by Nine Rocks Games, as I wanted to see just how authentic of an experience they could portray as my only real experience is from other similar games in the genre. Way of the Hunter aims to bring an authentic and realistic adaptation of the sport by giving you two massive areas to explore and hunt while being surrounded by a beautiful landscape and natural habitats of the wildlife. More than simply finding your target and shooting them, you’ll truly need to embody a hunter mentality, as animals can change their habits and alter their packs based on how you play.I’ll admit, I didn’t really expect much of a narrative, because if we’re being honest, in a hunting game you come to shoot your prey without worry of much else. Surprisingly, Way of the Hunter adds not only a story, but some interesting elements that revolve around more than simply shooting specific targets. There’s a narrative here that revolves around a family hunting business and the relationships between its members. You play as River, a man who has come to his grandfather’s Bear Den Ranch to take over things while he’s away. Located within Idaho in the Nez Perce Valley, River remembers coming to the Ranch in his younger years when his grandfather taught him not only what it means to be a hunter, but specifically an ethical hunter. The Bear Den Ranch is part of the local community and takes orders from nearby restaurants that needs specific meat, which is where you’ll come in, filling in for your grandfather’s shoes.
Things won’t be easy though, as hunting specific animals isn’t always an exact science, as there’s plenty of variables you need to factor in. On top of this, there’s rumors of people getting sick when they eat the meat from the animals in the area, so is there some sort of disease spreading around? You start out with a brief tutorial that shows you the bare basics such as exploring your ranch, how to use your weapons and gear, and finally going to the range to try out your aim. It seems that the badger population nearby has been exploding, so you’ll be tasked with taking a few out, thus begins your hunting career.
Once the tutorial and a few missions are complete, you’re free to play however you wish, either following the story missions or taking on extra objectives and working on those instead. There’s even a multiplayer mode you can play with your friends, but more on that shortly. I’ll admit, I was quite overwhelmed at first, not because of the amount of objectives I was given, but the sheer amount of freedom once you realize how large the two maps actually are. To say that the maps themselves are large is a massive understatement, and I was trying to figure out a way to convey just how large they are. To put it into perspective, the world map in Red Dead Redemption was 12 square miles and Grand Theft Auto V was 49 square miles. Each of the two maps in Way of the Hunter is 55 square miles. You read that right, both maps are larger than GTA V and when you factor in that much of the gameplay takes place on foot, you really get a sense for how vast your hunting grounds truly are.
Thankfully you also have a Jeep-like vehicle to get around the map a bit quicker, though doing so will scare all the nearby wildlife away due to its loud engine of course. And yes, you can indeed hit wildlife that crosses in front of you, but you won’t get any real money or be able to taxidermy them for obvious reasons. It’s a good thing that you also can’t really damage your vehicle either, as I hit a moose going full speed, which should have destroyed my Jeep, but was completely fine afterwards. Don’t expect to really do much off-roading though, as these have surprisingly little power, making them really only road and flat valley capable. You are able to teleport back to your main lodges and campsites, and if there’s a parking sign you can then summon your vehicle back so you don’t have to walk for miles to get it when you decide to go off-trail for a few hours.
On top of a vast nature backdrop, you have a full 24 hour day and night cycle and changing weather as well. To say that there were gorgeous nature backdrops is an understatement, and thankfully there’s a photo mode for those that want to take some inspiring snapshots. The environments and animals themselves are quite well done and it can really appear like you’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nature which is probably its highlight. While the nature backdrop may be the most visually impressive, the animals themselves are done just as well when it comes to how detailed and realistic they can act. There may be a limited amount of actual species to hunt, but they do have realistic behaviors that can change based on how you play. Constantly hunting near their most used watering hole? Chances are they won’t come back as often. Hunting mostly females will cause the population to drop whereas hunting the low quality males will cause possibly more high quality trophy animals to appear in the future. It’s an interesting ecosystem that I can’t personally verify, but could make for some interesting long term outcomes for those that sink many hours in.
There’s a whole trophy system in place that generates antlers based on a number of factors as well, so there’s some really interesting mechanics in place to add some variety to the animals themselves over time. The more stars the trophy animal has, the more it’ll be worth if you’re able to successfully hunt it. It won’t be easy though, as you simply can’t get close to the animals without them becoming spooked and running into the distant tree line. You’ll not only need to maneuver slowly and purposely, but watch which way the wind is blowing, as they’ll pick up on your scent if they are downwind. Even though there are moose and bears included, they too will be just as scared of you and noise, so you don’t have to worry about defending yourself or being attacked.
You have Hunter Sense, almost like a concentration mode that allow you to focus to find tracks, droppings, feeding areas, watering spots and more. You have to be standing still to utilize Hunter Sense at first but it will also allow you to get a visual of sounds in the distance and even analyze blood spatter when you do make successful shots but they run off. You can customize how many indicators you want or not depending on how hardcore you want your hunting experience to be, but even with everything completely on, it’s still quite a challenge at the best of times.
Hunting isn’t as simple as waiting around for an animal to appear as you aim your shot hoping to take it down. It actually really surprised me with how much work goes into simply even tracking down your game before you can even visually confirm where they are. No lie, I’ve spent over an hour trying to track down some specific white tailed deer, so you need to have plenty of patience if you want any success.
So you manage to follow numerous tracks, droppings and other clues and finally spot some game down a field 500 meters away. You slowly creep closer, eventually making it to about a hundred meters away before lining up your shot. You aim, hold your breath and pull the trigger. The sound of the rifle is deafening and every deer starts to sprint far away as fast as it can. You watch the one you shot but it’s still running from the adrenaline. I make a visual note of the trees I last saw it and head for that area to look for some blood to begin the final chapter of my hunt.
I find the blood spatter and begin following the direction I think it went. There’s nothing to aim you in one direction or another aside from finding the next blood splatter where it dripped and following the trail. I follow the trail and note that it shows a small amount of blood and if there are air bubbles in it, denoting if I hit the lungs or not. I follow the trail for about a half hour and eventually lose the tracks. Yes, you read that right, I was following blood spatter for half an hour and eventually gave up because of frustration. Was it my fault my shot wasn’t as good as it could have been, sure, but the patience required to track an injured animal for miles simply wasn’t fun. Sure, when I made better shots it only took a few minutes to find where they eventually collapsed, but factor in that it takes a good amount of time to even get to the point of finding the game to hunt. Hunter Sense slightly highlights what it wants you to see, and I’m not asking for a glowing flare or arrows, but it’s just as easily missable with its faint outlines.
Once you find your animal you’ll be presented a screen that shows exactly how your bullet hit them, which arteries it hit and how much it’s worth to sell if you don’t want to keep it for taxidermy to showcase in your home. You can see how much energy it was hit with, which weapon was used, the distance, its weight, age, sex and more. Seeing why it died so quickly was easy to determine, like when I shot through its heart or both lungs for example. You can sell your kills which is then used for new gear, weapons and more.
When it comes to your weapons and gear, there’s a handful of choices, but not as much as you might initially expect. You start out with Grandpa’s Old Rifle (30-30 Win) but can eventually afford new and better rifles depending on your preferences. There are some real world licensed gear from Leupold, Bushnell, Overgaard, Remington, Steyr and others, but there’s only a handful of choices. A few of the rifles you can purchase is the Remington 783, Steyr Pro Hunter II, Steyr Monobloc, Steyr SM12, Steyr Zephyr II, Steyr Carbon CL II among a couple others. As for shotguns your choices are Bonser & Klein Standard, Hol-Den the Jack 1502 and Morning silence (20 Ga). That’s basically it for weapons, so you might notice the lack of bows, crossbows and pistols which might disappoint some that wanted to hunt with those.
There are only two binoculars to choose from and a handful of different scopes; Leupold VX-Freedom 2-7x33, Leupold VX-6HD 3-18x44, Leupold VX-Freedom 1.5-4x20, Overgaard Long range 3-15X50 and the Leupold VX-3HD 4.5-14X40. There are even Red Dot or Carbine Optic options but good luck getting that close to your target. For a chance to get your prey you’re going to want to invest in the different type of callers as well; Elk, Roe, Deer grunt, Red Deer, Hog, Duck, Goose, Jackrabbit Predator and Moose. You’ll notice that there’s no ammo choices, which is a bit surprising, as each gun simply get its own ammunition to use, refillable by going to your vehicle truck or at the cabin for free.
There’s a handful of perks you can earn simply by playing as well that will improve different aspects of your character. You can improve in different categories: bolt action, lever-action, break action (shotguns), hiker, outdoorsman, explorer and strategist. Some of these simply require you to walk a certain distance, hit a number of targets with specific weapon types and other objectives. Most of these will come naturally in time, but some are absolutely unreasonable, like crawling for 7 miles while prone. When you see how slow you crawl you’ll understand why this is insane. Funny enough, I had a bug that worked out in my favor and nabbed me most of the non-shooting perks instantly. I joined an online match and it did the typical falling/floating bug which then tossed me below the world. I guess the game took this as walking and crawling distance, as it instantly unlocked all these perks that would take dozens of hours to attain, not that I was complaining, but was an early taste of the amount of issues and bugs Way of the Hunter has, which I’ll delve into shortly.
Able to play in co-op mode with a friend, I was curious how different the experience would be alongside another hunter. First you pick which of the two maps you want to hunt in, the difficulty and then begin playing together. First off, you can’t progress any of your story missions or objectives when in co-op, so don’t expect to get help from a friend to take down the two white tail deer you need for that quest, which is quite a shame. There’s no character customization at all either, so both players looks exactly the same, and while he was able to get into my vehicle and we could drive together, he wasn’t able to use my Jeep as a driver. Any progress you do make from kills, selling and map explored do carry over to your single player game, which is great, but there’s only a handful of fast travel points that are locked behind missions, so expect to be getting a lot of cardio in. It’s a shame you can’t even fast travel to your co-op friend, though I could see why the limitation. Because whoever takes the shot on an animal first, there's no real reason you want to hunt side by side unless you are able to coordinate very efficiently. I've determined that there's essentially no reason to play online with a partner unless you want some company, but even then you might as well just group up in a Party Chat and play separately while talking.
This is where the experience started to fall apart for me, as there are a laundry list of issues, bugs and other problems that can’t be ignored. For a game that heavily relies on audio as a cue to take in for hints of where game may be, I’ve lost count of how many times my audio completely dropped out, forcing me to completely quit out of the game to fix. Or I’ll be running down a small creek which has some trickling water audio, then all of a sudden the volume amps up and it sounds like I’m standing beside some white rapids at a river, then it goes completely silent. There’s no consistency.
During my first mission to cull the badger population behind my Ranch I shot my target then noticed that one of the others was running away, but up in the air, eventually stopping as if it was flying. Of course I took the shoot and got a ‘free’ kill, but this wasn’t the first time. Another time I shot some ducks for a mission and as the others of the flock flew away, they reached a certain point in the air then just stopped. Their animation was still flying, but they were standing targets. Again, of course I grabbed my shotgun and took the kills, but it seriously dropped the immersion.
There are a number of graphical issues, like how my co-op partner’s hand was flipped and the wrong way when using his caller, the gun going through his head without him holding it, or the constant texture pop-in. Even on an Xbox Series X, it’s as though the game isn’t able to keep up with where you’re looking or going, made even worse when driving the Jeep. Even the dot on your scope sometimes takes a second or two to appear when aiming. Plenty of stuttering and you’ll most likely even notice the texture issues from the opening cutscene.
Way of the Hunter can be absolutely gorgeous when it wants to be, especially when you find some vistas that challenge you to not take a photo. The two maps offer so much dense nature that you’re likely to never see all of its hills, waterfalls, rivers and more. The sound of nature can be quite immersive, when it works, like hearing the mosquitos, frogs and crickets at night with some animal breaking some branches in the distance. The gunshots are loud as hell with a headset on and the echo sounds very realistic as it reverberates through the environment.
For all of the things I enjoyed about Way of the Hunter, I was constantly reminded about all of the issues and bugs along the way. There’s some great ideas here, and while it may be a bit basic with its weapon choices and handful of animals to hunt, there’s quite a feeling to be had when you finally track down your kill after spending the last hour attempting to and about to give up. With some polish and patches I could see Way of the Hunter being quite immersive and fun to play alongside friends, it’s just a shame that it’s currently held back by a plethora of issues that frustrate. I have no doubt this will improve in time, but in its current state, Way of the Hunter will absolutely reward the dedicated fans that can overlook its numerous shortcomings and have a mountain size of patience. For the rest of us, you’re going to become more than frustrated and have hours with little to no progress.
**Way of the Hunter was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Severed Steel
Have you ever wondered how much more of a badass John Wick would be if he was in The Matrix, but also able to use bullet time from Max Payne and FEAR while also having the parkour skills form Mirror’s Edge? Think SUPERHOT but on steroids, and that’s essentially what you have with Severed Steel. A first person single player shooter that not only has some kick ass mechanics, but with fluidity to its movement with its interesting parkour, destructible environments, plenty of slow motion bullet time and you, a one-armed badass that won’t let anything get in her way to complete her mission, even gravity.You are Steel, a one-armed woman operative on a mission that won’t stop moving even for a moment, as every second counts and performing fancy parkour maneuvers isn’t just to look cool, it’s to keep you alive. Do you remember how cool it was to play SUPERHOT for the first time, able to move around and avoid bullets with ease? Imaging taking that to the next level, where time doesn’t stop, but you’re given much more maneuverability, even able to disarm enemies and kill them with their own weapons before they can react. Even from the opening tutorial missions, Severed Steel never lets up, constantly having you move, jump, double jump, wall run, dive and more to get to your destination, but of course there are plenty of enemies standing in your way, so you’ll have to become fluid with your movement and shooting if you want to survive, using all the tools available to you.
While there is a semblance of a narrative here, there’s just a few short silent cutscenes that play out as a storyboard across the very short campaign. Because you’ll be able to easily complete this in a single sitting, I don’t want to spoil anything of the 'story', as there’s not much to grasp onto in the first place. You’re playing this for its gameplay, so thankfully it performs that portion quite well. There is a New Game+ mode to unlock and even a FireFight Mode, so there is some decent replay value here even with the short campaign.
First and foremost, I’ll admit, I’m older now, so my twitch reflexes aren’t what they used to be, so I was curious how I would fare at a game like this where every moment and shot counts. Thankfully developers have put in a slew of accessibility options to allow even the newest players still be able to enjoy Severed Steel as intended. Not only are there multiple difficulties, but plenty of options for audio, visual and gameplay choices depending on your needs.
Playing on Easy my first time was a treat because you get unlimited slow-mo/bullet time, no need to use it sparingly. Is the movement a little too quick for you to keep up with? There’s an option to turn down the running speed. Don’t want the hassle of having to trigger the slow-mo manually? Check the option to have it automatically activate when you’re doing a stunt. You’re able to kick enemies that are close to you, so naturally there’s an option to have this done automatically as well if you want. You can even choose to automatically stop at ledges if your reaction time is lagging. With a bunch of other accessibility options, there’s no reason basically everyone couldn’t enjoy Severed Steel regardless of any handicaps or disabilities.
Generally each level is only a few minutes long if you’re quick enough, most having you get from point A to point B, but some levels will require you to destroy certain objects or trigger pressure pads before you can proceed to the next. The levels that require you to kill everyone is always fun, especially since you have like a radar type of vision where you can see enemies through walls, knowing if you should jump or slide when coming through a door. around a corner or through a wall.
Not only do you get some cool movements to be completely fluid, the environment is also fully destructible as well. Don’t want to waste time running up the stairs to get to the object you need to destroy? Blast a hole in the floor underneath and shoot from below for a quicker finish to the level, though little pistol bullets won’t do much, so you’ll need some bigger firepower to utilize this strategy. Early on you get an arm-cannon, akin to Mega Man or Samus from Metroid Prime, and this is how you cans cause the most environmental destruction.
Just as fluid as the parkour movement is, combat is just as stylish, as you’re combining headshots with your jumps, wall runs, slides, dives and even throwing weapons. When not playing on Easy, kills will refill your bullet time meter and health, so you want to find that balance of constant pressure and accuracy. Better yet, when you’re doing these stunts you’re invincible, so it pays off to constantly be moving and being as flashy as possible or than for looks.
Rather than having enemies in set spots simply waiting for you to take them out, there’s a dynamic AI in place that has them constantly searching and chasing you at your last known location. This keeps things interesting each playthrough, as it won’t always be the same each time because it’s based on your actions as well. Have a long hallway with a handful of enemies at the end you can’t reach? Start stunting all the way to them and you’ll arrive unharmed so you can start taking them out. The ‘forced’ aggression takes some getting used to, as I’m so accustomed to always hiding around corners or walls, but this is how the game rewards your constant pressure. Essentially you’re in God Mode if you’re stunting, but you need to get the kills to get that missing health and bullet time back.
Interestingly, there’s also no reloading the guns you find from enemies either. Remember, you only have one arm, so it would be quite difficult to reload while also performing all these acrobatic moves that would put a veteran circus performer to shame. So what do you do when you’re out of ammunition? It’s obvious isn’t it? Throw that weapon at an enemy to stagger them as you close the gap. Sure you’ll find cool guns that you wish you could use for longer, but you’re almost constantly swapping to new weapons as you pick them up and you’re so focused on your movement and shots.
Got no weapon and there’s an enemy ahead? No problem, run right into them with a slide, grab their weapon, kick them away and blast them with a headshot in bullet time. It’s an awesome feeling to grab a weapon from an enemy and then killing them with it a second later while diving backwards or up and over them. Seriously, the movement and shooting mechanics never become dull and you constantly feel like a pure badass, even for having one arm.
Do you miss the classic Firefight Mode from Halo Reach where you had to take on waves of enemies? Fear not, as Severed Steel has that here as well with plenty of stages, a leveling system, weapon unlocks, a bunch of modifiers and even an online Leaderboard. I initially didn’t expect I’d play this mode often, but it’s oddly addicting due to all the weapon choices and modifiers you can choose. With a bunch of optional challenges per level as well, there’s plenty of reason to come back to Firefight Mode after you complete the brief Campaign.
While basic for its aesthetics, I’m fond of its visuals that have plenty of neon and brightness, even if it’s the same enemies repeatedly until the end. A handful of levels had some minor hitching at the start of certain sections, even on an Xbox Series X, but nothing aside from these off few moments. The audio on the other hands is on point. Weapons sound 'meaty' and impactful, but the real star is the electronic soundtrack that plays in the background, blending amazingly with the fast paced shooting and yet even somehow works when you’re in slow motion bullet time. Just like how DOOM and DOOM Eternal’s badass soundtracks elevated its gameplay, the same is here in Severed Steel.
Sure some may scoff at the just under $30 CAD price point for such a short campaign, but this is why there’s a saying of "quality over quantity", and Firefight Mode helps with this near endless replay value. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun in a shooter while also feeling like a complete badass from start to finish. Severed Steel rewards stylish parkour that’s fun to pull off while testing your shooting accuracy in bullet time that has you feeling like John Wick was in The Matrix.
**Severed Steel was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Hell Pie
Do you miss the days of classic 3D platforming? Do you also have the sense of humor akin to a 12 year old? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you might want to check out Hell Pie, an obscene 3D platformer that heavily relies on its humor and crudeness to make you laugh. Developed by Sluggerfly, Hell Pie may looks cute from its initial screenshots, but rest assured, this is an M-rated game for very good reason. Clearly having some inspiration from Conker’s Bad Fur Day when it comes to its humor, Hell Pie takes it up a notch even further, being borderline gross and obscene, and I couldn’t stop laughing or smirking throughout. I normally keep my reviews PG, but given the content, I feel that would be a disservice to Hell Pie’s essence, so there may be some colorful language below.Humor can only carry a game so far though, so if the gameplay and mechanics don’t hold up on its own, then it’ll simply be forgotten. Thankfully that isn’t the case here, as you have a quite decent 3D platformer, creative levels, and movement feels like it flows smoothly once you get the hang of using your chained angel, Nugget, to air jump, swing and get around the vast levels. Yes, you read that right, your angel that’s chained to you. I told you this was going to be out there.
You know how there’s seven deadly sins right? Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride? Well, turns out that there’s actually an eighth, Bad Taste, represented by the small statured demon, Nate, whom you’ll be playing through this obscene adventure. Nate is clearly not taken very seriously in Hell, stuck to a desk job. Sitting in his office the phone rings one day.
Turns out it was none other than Satan himself, instructing his chef to make him a special pie for his birthday. Looks like Satan got the wrong number though and called you by mistake, so it’s obviously your job to make this happen for Satan, or else. You aren’t a cook though, so you head to meet the actual chef, informing him of your task. He’ll bake the pie for you but he doesn’t have the grotesque ingredients, so this task falls on Nate to travel to the overworld to get them in time for Satan’s party.
While quite a tall order for such a short demon, thankfully you aren’t alone, as you’ll have Nugget alongside you, an angel that’s chained to one of your horns so he can’t get away, essentially being your grappling hook and weapon as you swing him around at enemies. Nate and Nugget will explore a handful of disgusting worlds, battle even grosser enemies and swing and jump to their destinations by any means possible while meeting a unique cast of characters along the way.
Again, Hell Pie is deceptively cute looking from the outside, but once you start seeing its content and violence, it’s quite obscene. The core gameplay comes from the 3D platforming as you explore each of the overworlds as you look for those coveted ingredients for Satan. The earlier levels are quite basic and simple in layout, eventually becoming more involved and spread out, requiring more finesse when it comes to your actual platforming skills.
This is where Nugget comes into play, your partner that you keep chained to you at all times, used as your air anchor, grapple hook and weapon. I know, it’s absurd to use a fat little angel with wings as a weapon and hostage, but I told you Hell Pie was M-rated. Nate can jump, double jump and dash, but that will only get him so far when you need to traverse vertically or across huge chasms of death. Nugget is how you can anchor yourself midair to swing and reach greater heights; he is an angel with wings after all. While the movement may not be as smooth as say Spider-Man, once you get a feel for Hell Pie’s physics and limitations, it feels great being able to reach areas via a shortcut because you know just how to swing to make those gaps.
While you’ll be able to use Nugget as an air anchor once in the beginning, search around the levels for some Candymeat and you can upgrade and improve Nuggets skillsets, allowing for even more options when it comes to traversal. While levels will be designed in a way that you’re generally meant to go in a linear and intended path, the freeform 3D platforming and your skills with Nugget can allow you to basically cross levels in almost any way you wish. With some upgrades, Nugget can then be used for more air anchors, other attack moves or even health upgrades. By the final world you should be able to easily traverse Nate around with ease to get anywhere you can see.
As you explore the levels you’ll constantly come across these little purple blobs, as this is the currency you collect throughout. Nate can use these to buy outfits for himself and Nugget. Do these outfits do anything to change the gameplay? Absolutely not. Did I want to collect all the money to buy them all? I sure did. There’s something hilarious dressing the duo up in suits in one level and a BDSM ‘gimp’ outfit the next. There’s a decent amount to unlock and find along the way and at one point I was even gambling my money to try and hit a jackpot to purchase more outfits. Some are quite out there and unique, always good for a laugh.
Aside from currency and cans of Candymeat to collect, you’ll also want to keep an eye out for baby unicorns and golden cats. These tiny unicorns aren’t just to add another type of collectable either, as these are what you’ll use, well... sacrifice, to gain new horns for Nate which equate to new abilities. Yes, you’ll be sacrificing baby unicorns to further improve Nate’s own abilities. While simply sacrificing would be bad enough, Hell Pie has you spamming a button to literally rip the horns out of their heads, thus killing them, to sacrifice to gain these new powers. I told you this game was over the top.
These new horns will allow Nate to run quicker by boosting, maybe charging up for a powerful dash that allows him to break through barred up cages or boxes, and more. I thought that collecting all of these would have been necessary to progress through most of the game, but they don’t seem to be unless you want to collect everything Hell Pie has to offer.
While there were some minor bugs here and there, as well as some annoying camera issues getting stuck or showing an awkward angle, nothing was a deal-breaker overall. The most annoying bug I had was having to use a valve that was invisible on the ground and then wouldn’t be placed where I had to bring it, but simply restarting at my last checkpoint fixed this.
Filled with tons of crude humor, pop culture references and a ton of grossness, there’s nothing quite like taking on some German turds only to collect the used tampon ingredient needed for Satan's pie. Yes, you read that right, I told you Hell Pie was obscene and edgy. Even though your playthrough will take roughly 8-10 hours or so, more if you want to collect everything, I really don’t want to spoil much of the worlds, enemies, situations and jokes, as that’s what kept me hooked wanting to play, more so than the actual gameplay itself.
There’s a surprising amount of bright colors and palettes being used and the art direction is fantastic. Sure some will question the content, like having naked overweight slobs in a feces filled sewer, but each level is quite distinct in its design. Animations, especially for the platforming, is smooth, and together with the great level design makes for a satisfying experience. Audio, while decent, isn’t at the same level, mostly due to the lack of any voice acting. Sure there’s some speech bubbles and the overall sounds are adequate, but no voiced dialogue brought down the experience just a little for myself.
Hell Pie is absolutely over the top with attempting to be purposely obscene and gross, and it succeeds at doing so. While its core gameplay as a 3D platformer is worth the play alone, your enjoyment will lie in how adolescent your sense of humor is. I’m a twelve year old at heart, so of course I laugh at farts, fighting Nazi turds and other taboo topics. While the shock value wears off in the later half, thankfully Hell Pie can fall back on its solid platforming gameplay, simply being a fun game at its core. If you need a cheap laugh and want to just have some fun, Hell Pie is the disgusting and obscene game you might have been looking for.
**Hell Pie was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Train Valley: Console Edition
I remember growing up I had two train sets, some old one that was passed down from my grandparents and the one that many young children had, the wooden one with the tracks that would easily snap into one another for whatever track setting you wanted. There’s some sort of unique simplicity playing with trains as a kid, being able to place the tracks all around your room however your imagination could come up with.Originally released back in 2018 for PC, Train Valley is now making its way to console for a new audience to discover and enjoy their love of trains, aptly titled Train Valley: Console Edition. The premise is not much different than playing with model trains as a kid, connecting and laying down tracks for your trains to reach their destinations without causing any crashes or delivering to the wrong station. While much more of a puzzle game as opposed to a sim-like, I struggled for the first few maps until I got the hang of its controls and mechanics, then it was hard to put down after that point.
So what’s new with Train Valley: Console Edition other than finally releasing on home consoles? Well, there’s obviously controller support and the optional Germany DLC that was released for PC is also included here as well, bumping the original four Seasons of campaign up to five. You need to play the Seasons in order with Germany containing plenty of challenge, drastically more difficult than the rest of the game.
In these levels you’ll start in the World War I era, the fall of the iconic Berlin Wall and to today’s modern Frankfurt Airport as backdrops. I’ll admit, these levels were the most frustrating due to conditions out of your control. In the rest of the Train Valley: Console Edition you simply have to deal with connecting trains properly via tracks to reach their destination, but in the Germany DLC you’re going to have to deal with planes randomly bombing your tracks and having to avoid a massive super train that races across the map at different intervals.
Campaign Mode consists of you playing through the five different Seasons that each consist of 5 regular levels then one randomized longer one. You’ll travel across the globe for each Season, experiencing different eras of trains and scenery: Europe (1830–1980), America (1840–1960), USSR (1880–1980), Japan (1900–2020) and Germany (1830-2020).
As you play through the different locations and eras you’ll also notice different events as you progress through the years. Keen eyes might notice World War references, Cold War, Berlin Wall, the Gold Rush and more. With over thirty different types of trains you’ll have to factor in track length and locomotive speeds to avoid any unnecessary crashes as trains from the mid 1800’s travel nowhere near as fast as modern high-speed ones. While there is a Sandbox mode where you can play without time or money limits, the bulk of your play will surely take place in the different campaign stages as they vary and all have their own layouts and challenges.
I didn’t really know what to expect from Train Valley: Console Edition when I first started due to not doing any research beforehand. I figured the cute little trains would make for a relaxing time placing down some tracks as I got one train from station to the next. I didn’t realize that my first hour or so would be deceptively challenging and frustrating. Sure the first few levels start out easy enough, but then the difficulty curve kicks in and you’re having to manage a half dozen trains all at once without having them crash or going bankrupt which forces a level restart.
While there is a brief tutorial, it didn’t do a great job at explaining every mechanic unless I missed something. I kept having my trains collide and couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until I realized I was able to have trains stop on the tracks while they wait for others to pass, or have them completely reverse the other way if needed. Once I figured this out, I actually started having a lot more fun even though the control scheme on a controller doesn’t feel quite natural as it could be.
Each level begins with at least two stations and it’s up to you to design how you want to lay the track down to connect them. Each placement on the grid costs money and you do have a budget, so you need to be efficient. Simply click on the end you want to extend track from then guide with the Stick and it’ll place the track once you confirm, allowing you to go in straight lines or curves and intersections. This is easy at first, but there’s also obstacles on the map that can technically be destroyed to place down track, but this costs a lot more money, so needs to be avoided early on until you have a bigger profits to draw from.
Stations are color coded and when a train is ready to depart from them randomly, they’re color coded to the station they’re meant to reach, so it becomes a challenge to have tracks leading to one another with a bunch of switches to allow for different turns and bends depending on the departing and destination stations. You want to set your trains out as quickly as possible as each pays a specific sum of money, but that diminishes over time the longer you wait. Earn more money, place more tracks, depart more trains and repeat.
Your track layout is generally pretty restricted in the sense that you can only place on flat ground, there’s no bridges or tunnels, so certain areas of the environment you have to simply avoid and make pathways around it unless specific levels place these bridges and tunnels for you. These becomes more of a challenge when you have a huge lake in the middle of the map and are forced to create a track around its perimeter instead of being able to go straight across.
Where tracks intersect will place switches that determine which way a train will go when it crosses over. This is easy to manage when you only have to deal with a train or two, but soon as you get three or more it becomes much more challenging having to keep track of all of the trains and which will arrive to certain intersections first. Don’t keep an eye on this properly and you’re sure to have many train crashes and probably go bankrupt when having to rebuild your tracks.
You’re able to set how fast you want the overall speed to go, which has some benefits and challenges. The faster times goes the less waiting you have to do for trains to reach their destination, but you’re also going to have to be much quicker with watching all your trains and switches. Also, there’s a yearly taxes to pay, so you better be earning money at a good rate to keep up.
The only way you’ll be able to manage is the critical use of the time pause, not only to keep track of everything going on screen at once in the later stages, but to actually figure out where your cursor is when using the controller. You can build track and change switches while the speed is set to paused, but you’ll need to un-pause to have trains travel and waiting for track building to be completed. Even with using the pause liberally you’ll also have to make sure you know when to stop a specific train or have it go in reverse to allow for a passing train or to switch tracks.
Given that this is specifically the Console Edition, I was hoping that the controls would be on point and simple to use. You use the Bumpers to switch between placing track, destroying objects, sending off trains, switching track directions, and interacting with trains to stop or reverse them, but it never feels great. Even after hours of playing and across all the Seasons, I still had to check the top left of the screen to see what mode I was currently in.
I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally sent a train out for departure when I meant to do something else instead. Part of the problem is that your cursor is so absolutely tiny that it’s hard to tell where you’re currently highlighting. Even on a 65” TV I had to squint to look where my cursor was and had to constantly use the Pause to simply reorient myself as to what I was doing. How’d you’d play this without the time pause I have no idea, as it would take sometimes ten seconds for me to find where my cursor was only to realize I wasn’t even set to the right mode.
Train Valley: Console Edition was oddly addictive once I learned all of its intricacies and mechanics that wasn’t taught well from the beginning. Sure there’s not much substance under the surface other than delivering color coded trains to their respective stations, and the first hour or so will be frustrating, but it eventually clicks and become quite entertaining to make intricate track layouts and having trains narrowly miss one another as they pass by one another. Choo choo choose Train Valley: Console Edition if you want an addictive locomotive puzzler, albeit with some initial awkward controls.
**Train Valley: Console Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Mothmen 1966
Mothmen 1966 is quite a unique experience. Developed by a small indie duo, many games bring some nostalgia to my early gaming days growing up, but this might be going almost as far back as I can remember, having a very mid to late 80’s aesthetic that I remember playing when I was quite young. Before I begin with this review as normal though, I have to be honest, I had to do some research into some of the terms and lore that heavily influences this whole experience.While most people will think of the iconic Tarantino movie when they hear Pulp Fiction, it was actually originally a term for stories that were published in magazines from around 1900 to the 1950’s, actually getting their name from the cheap pulp paper they were printed on, sometimes referred to as "Pulps". If you need an example of how important these were for storytelling later in the future, Conan the Barbarian actually originated in Pulp magazines, which obviously later was adapted to newer media.
Have you ever heard of the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Ogopogo, a Yeti or a Chupacabra? These are called cryptids, creatures that have many stories about sightings but with no scientific proof, aren’t generally accepted as being real. Given the game’s title, it’s obvious that Mothman is the cryptid inspiration for its story. I wasn’t aware, but Mothman is rooted deep in West Virginia folklore from 1966 from people that reported seeing a "large flying man with ten-foot wings" with eyes that glow red.
One of the most miraculous meteor shower displays that ever occurred over North America happened during the Leonid meteor shower of 1966. While this meteor shower happens annually, the one that occurred in 1966 was apparently quite a sight to behold, as these rare special showers only happen every 33 years or so if we’re lucky. Combining this rare occurrence with the Mothman legacy is where this story takes place.
Mothmen 1966 is what’s called a Pixel Pulp, possibly a new genre and style that the indie developers have seemed to nail exactly as intended. I’ll be upfront though, this wasn’t at all what I was expecting, as it’s essentially a very short visual novel that utilizes old 80’s visual aesthetics when gaming was done on bulky VGA monitors with limited color palettes.
Given that Mothmen 1966 is easily completable in a single sitting, lasting maybe an hour or two tops, I’m not going to delve too far into its narrative, as that’s its whole experience. Taking the original West Virginia lore but adding its own twists, feeling much like an episode of X-Files or The Twilight Zone, novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel seem to work well together, as the writing is done quite well and the retro computer graphics complement the story even more.
Mothmen 1966 starts with Holt working at his gas station late one night. Kids come by and are being pesky brats, but he goes back to playing a unique variation of solitaire with his grandmother, Elsie. At this moment three men dressed in complete black enter the gas station and from this point on, things start to get...weird. You’ll then meet the main couple, Lee and Victoria, driving somewhere unknown which is where you see something above the tree line with some bright red eyes.
Each character in the beginning seemed quite one dimensional, but as you play through each chapter you’ll play from a different perspective and character, eventually unearthing their secrets and motivations for what they are doing and why. Holt seems to be building some sort of mysterious project behind the gas station, Lee seems like he’s got some anger issues, Victoria has a secret she needs to tell Lee but can’t seem to get the courage, and Lou is tagging along who seems to know way too much about history and folklore.
Given that Mothmen 1966 is a visual novel at its core without too much interaction, the only real settings you’ll be able to adjust is the message speed and how much of a delay between completed scenes and dialogue if you choose to have it automatically scroll instead of having to press ‘A’ every paragraph to further the narrative. The story as a whole is interesting enough that I wanted to see it to completion, even before realizing it was quite short, though the last section seemed a little rushed.
Much like those old-school ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ types of books, Mothmen 1966 gives the same kind of vibes where you’ll be given some different dialogue options as you progress through the story, though this seems like a smokescreen given that there’s basically a linear path of progression for the most part, especially when it comes to the few puzzle sections. Choose ‘wrong’ and you’ll die, being sent back to the choices again, sometimes having to brute force the ‘correct’ path of multiple choices.
There’s a couple sections where you’ll need to choose how to proceed or survive. The first is when you’re surrounded by a pack of coyotes and you need to choose which ones in order to shout at to keep them away until you can get back into your car. Another situation is when you’re surrounded by Mothmen sitting on top of a few streetlights, but if you don’t choose the exact correct order to smash out the lights you’ll die and have to restart these sections over again. There’s not many of these puzzle-like sections, but they were undoubtedly the weakest portions of the whole experience, simply using trial and error to figure out the correct option path.
Funny enough, the highlight for me aside from its retro graphical style was the inclusion of a replayable “Impossible Solitaire” minigame that you’re taught at the beginning of the adventure. Once unlocked you can replay this from the main menu at any time and is oddly addictive. What makes this variation of Solitaire so different and “Impossible” you ask? You play the game with the same core rules of regular Solitaire, but when you’re out of possible moves you have to grab a card from the discard pile. The trick here is that you have to guess if it’s going to be a Black or Red card. Guess wrong and it’s Game Over and you start all over again. After about a hundred tries I’ve come close but still not completed Impossible Solitaire, though you’re not required to do so to continue on in your adventure.
This is where Mothmen 1966 shows some of its weaknesses and annoyances, as you have to choose from a menu if you want to move your cursor Left or Right, then another menu option to choose your selection, same when you guess Red or Black cards from the discard pile. Sure you get used to it and I get that it’s replicating classic gaming from when this is how games were controlled, but it’s quite tedious and annoying to control instead of giving you the option to move a cursor with the Left Stick.
With a visual novel that only lasts about an hour or so it might be hard to justify a purchase, but there’s a handful of achievements to hunt for to add a bit more replayability, like seeing every death scene. There is a brief demo/side story from the main menu as well, but won’t add much more playtime to the overall package.
As odd as it is to say, the retro pixel based artwork may not impress many, but growing up during the era of gaming where this was how some of the better games looked, it certainly brought back some nostalgia where I would have to play games from old 5.25-inch Floppy Disks. Colors are heavily saturated and the palette only consist of a few colors at most. Utilizing a mostly blue and green tones, the red eyes from the Mothmen drastically stand out, adding emphasis on the storytelling. For how retro the pixel graphics are, there’s a surprising amount of detail in many of the scenes which is quite impressive given the era its trying to replicate. Character profile pictures appear in the top corners when there's dialogue to indicate who is speaking and when with their facials changing depending on the scene. It’s an odd blend of simplistic pixel art without much detail, yet has enough detail so that you can determine shadows and density. It’s wonderfully done and shows a lot of hard work went into its tone and style, a very distinct bravura you don’t see any more.
The audio is also trying to replicate early to mid-80’s computer gaming with very basic ‘beeps’ and ‘boops’. As text is appearing on screen it has a distinct typewriter-like sound, and while there’s not much of a traditional soundtrack there is instead distinct sound effects that was quite grating at times. The screech of Mothmen or other sounds seems to happen often enough to be annoying and more than once my wife asked me to turn it down from the annoying audio. Yes it’s most likely trying to be a jarring experience, but the audio transitions didn’t sound very smooth at times or had basically no audio at all.
Mothmen 1966 is a very brief visual novel with an interesting story, akin to a short story or something I swear I saw on an episode of X-Files once. While the price may be a little steep given the hour or two long adventure, at least you have an interesting take on Solitaire you can challenge yourself with, as long as you can handle the annoying menu base controls.
**Mothmen 1966 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2
Hidden object games (HOG’s) used to be immensely popular way back in the mid 90’s to 2000’s sometime. The last few years, Artifex Mundi used to be really the only developer bringing these type of games to console where you were given a scene and had to find hidden objects in a usually static image that made it quite difficult, much like a Where’s Waldo. It’s a new day and developer Goblinz has decided to make quite an entrance with their latest title, True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2. When Myst released near the mid 90’s and its sequel Riven a few years later, it not only took the puzzle adventure genre by storm, but incorporated some HOG elements where you needed to move from scene to scene to find key items you needed to solve puzzles with point and click, incorporating both genre types.I never played the original True Fear: Forsaken Souls, so I went into its sequel, True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2, completely blind. Doing some research, it turns out the original was actually reviewed and ranked quite highly for a HOG. In generally, most HOG’s are set in some sort of fantasy backdrop, but not here, instead putting you in the middle of a mystery with plenty of horror elements as you try to escape.
It’s been quite a wait for this sequel, as the original released back in 2015, and after seeing the credits roll I really hope it’s a much shorter wait for the concluding chapter that is designed to be a trilogy. If you played the original, you’ll be happy to know that the long wait has resulted in a much longer game and experience overall with twice the amount of puzzles, better graphics and continuing the story exactly where the original left off. Better yet, there’s a demo to try if you want to see if its gameplay is something that might interest you or not.
Having not played the precursor, I was wondering if there was going to be some sort of recap to fill new players like myself in to the events that have happened to this point. While you’ll obviously get more out of the sequel having played the first, there is a brief opening cutscene that explains the events that took place beforehand, so you won’t come into Part 2 completely lost.
Taking place literally moments after the original’s ending, you again play as Holly, searching for her sister within the Dark Falls Asylum. While the narrative isn’t always front and center, the core experience comes from its gameplay and puzzle solving with some story bits thrown in here and there just enough to keep you intrigued, slowly peeling away layers of an intricate story. The story elements are a slow drip, enough to keep a mystery about it all but always just enough to keep you interested to see its conclusion.
By solving puzzles, finding clues and making your way through the Asylum, you’ll not only uncover some answers you’re looking for, but probably have more questions as revelations come to light. What happened to her sister? What about her Mother? There’s no way anyone could have survive that tragic fire, right? Holly might start to see things, or are they really there? With much of the story being told in journal findings, cassette tapes, letters and a handful of cutscenes, keep in mind that True Fear: Forsaken is designed to be a trilogy, so you might not get all of the answers you seek by the end if you manage to solve its more challenging puzzles.
Before you begin Holly’s adventure though you need to decide the difficulty you want to play on. There are three different difficulty settings that offer varying levels of help and hints, as well as a separate setting for specifically the puzzles as well. Even on both sliders set to the easier settings, some puzzles can be a bit obtuse, but with an integrated hint system and even able to bypass puzzles completely if you become stumped, there’s plenty of options regardless of your skill level.
If you’ve ever played Myst, Riven, The 7th Guest or any other similar games in the genre, you’ll have an idea what to expect. Part action puzzle game, part HOG, you’ll traverse the asylum scene by scene, looking for objects that will eventually all play a part of numerous puzzles later down the road. If you’ve played a HOG before, you’ll know that your cursor needs to hover over the item that you want to click, though this is sometimes easier said than done given how large the aiming reticule is. On easier difficulties the objects in a scene will also have a sparkle to them, telling you exactly where to click if you simply want to experience the game without much of the hassle.
Given its horror backdrop, there are a few creepy moments but you don’t have to worry about many jump scares or worrying about being chased or timed in any of the puzzles. You’re simply searching each scene for objects that can be put in your inventory and figuring out where and when to use them appropriately to continue on your adventure. Obvious items like keys will unlock certain doors or other things, but you might need to use a dagger to pry open something, cut some cloth or hammer some frozen ice to find out what that shiny object is underneath.
In many HOG’s there’s generally a little bit of backtracking, but usually once you’ve found all of the items in a scene you’re pretty much done there for the most part. Not in True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 though. Expect to backtrack constantly, even all the way back to the opening scenes as you gather new objects in your bag that can now be used to solve a new puzzle. With roughly forty scenes or so, there’s a lot of areas you’ll explore numerous times, but it never becomes stale. Thankfully there’s also a map-like system in place that is presented in a Polaroid style layout where you can instantly fast travel from any scene to another if you don’t want to use the D-Pad to move in a direction. On the easier settings you’ll even be shown an exclamation point on the specific Polaroid scenes where there’s something you can gather or solve, always guiding you should you want the assistance. Simply stumbling between dozens of scenes would be frustrating, so I was glad to have the guide when needed to save ample time.
As for the puzzles themselves, there’s plenty of different styles, each varying in type and difficulty. Sometimes you’ll simply need to spot a specific amount of differences between two similar pictures, other times you’ll need to use numerous handles to rotate some gears or solve a pipeline puzzle. Given that the puzzles are the core gameplay element aside from the HOG portions, I don’t want to spoil any of them, but some will surely stump you and make you want to rely on the integrated hint system. I’ll admit, there were two or three near the end where I needed to utilize the auto-solve on a puzzle, as spending 15 minutes trying to brute force my way through simply didn’t work.
Kudos to you if you don’t use the hint system or go check YouTube for some sort of walkthrough, especially with how pixel specific you sometimes need to be to even find the puzzle pieces you need at times. If there was a puzzle you really enjoyed you can even replay any of them from the main menu once unlocked for more practice. While some puzzles felt a tad obtuse, at least there were no ‘red herrings’, meaning every item you pick up will be used for something else at some point in Holly’s adventure.
I wasn’t initially sure how a HOG would work with a horror backdrop, but the aesthetic was done quite well and the puzzles made completely sense given the objects found. While you won’t be scared really at any point, there is an overall creepy undertone that never goes away as you explore a seemingly abandoned Asylum. While there’s basically no dialogue outside of finding some hidden tapes and the odd cutscene, there’s classic creaks and noises that will make you think something is nearby around the corner. While not many musical tracks there is some repetition, but it never really outstayed its welcome, probably most likely due to me rather focusing on scanning each scene with my eagle eyes to look for anything that seems out of place and trying to figure out what to do with each inventory item.
For a HOG that should last 8-10 hours or so depending on your skill level and dependency on built-in hints, the $12.99 CAD price tag is by far more than a fair price. I’m definitely going to go back and play the first game as I wait for the trilogy conclusion, hopefully sooner than later. While I wasn’t a fan of the abrupt cliffhanger ending, True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 certainly knows how to engross you an in interesting story, test your puzzle solving skills with a horror backdrop and is one of the better HOG’s I’ve played in recent memory.
**True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX
Developed by Dejima Games and published by Thunderful Games, Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX is finally here for console gamers to play and enjoy after a PC only release last December. With a bunch of improvements, this ‘definitive’ edition of Firegirl, denoted by the DX, is now here and feels right at home with a controller in hand.You are Firegirl, a young woman just starting her career, following in her father’s footsteps. As a firefighter game I wasn’t really expecting much of a narrative, but there is an interesting enough story here that plays out over the few hours of gameplay as you use your firehose and axe to save survivors in burning buildings, trains and forests.
Fires are mysteriously breaking out all across the city, so the Mayor and Fire Chief are going everything they can to help get it all under control, which is where you come in. These aren’t just normal fires though, as they seem as though they are some sort of monsters that have been created or started purposely, as they all have faces and are trying to prevent you from doing your job. As if it wasn’t weird enough to have flames with faces, you’ll also be fighting against bats and birds created from fire as well as some other monstrosities along the way.
Why have fires suddenly started appearing across the city non-stop and what are these Fire Tomb books you keep coming across that the FBI seems so interested in? Looks like there’s a mystery for you to solve as well as putting out the flames. It’s a good thing Firegirl knows how to do her job well, not only utilizing the hose to put out fires but to be able to use it like a jetpack as well to traverse the fire engulfed buildings.
What I was first drawn to in Firegirl, and most likely you as well, is its unique and well done visual aesthetics. A mixture of pixel art, environments and a 2D sidescroller, it really ‘pop’s for lack of better term. Firegirl herself stands out amongst the background and foreground with her pixel design and bright colors and a lot of work was done with the fire to make it blend a cartoony style yet somewhat realistic.
Somewhat a roguelike, every level you play is procedurally generated, so each time you’re in a burning building trying to save the survivors it will be different each time. Being a 2D platformer at its core, you generally can’t see that far in front or below you, adding for some tension, never sure what’s beyond the door you’re about to break down with your axe or below you when you’re about to drop down.
Levels are quite short, starting you with three minutes on the clock as you’re tasked with finding the survivors and escaping before it’s too late. Oddly enough you aren’t forced to fight any fires if you don’t want to. You will have to if you want to get passed certain areas without getting damaged, but I found it odd that this wasn’t tracked in any way. With how the levels are randomly made, it’s not much of a hassle to get through even if you don’t get good luck with a good building layout. Sometimes you’ll find the exit quite early, so do you spend more time in the building searching for survivors for a bigger payout but risk possibly dying when you lose all your hearts, or take what you can get?
While there’s a little backtracking at times, certain doors will engulf with flames once you pass through, forcing you to move forward and finding another way around. You never know how long the other pathways will be or where the survivors are, so it’s always a gamble since there’s no map for you to reference.
The first hour or so will be exploring burning apartment buildings with many floors, sometimes even multiple buildings, but later on Firegirl will also be searching for survivors on a moving subway train, within a forest and even a high class hotel-like building. Regardless of the level type, every time you play the stage is completely randomized. The forest levels are much more vertically designed, the train stages are challenging because if you take too much time fighting fire enemies the detached parts of the train might get away too far to cross the gap. The hotel levels can be multiple floors high but have large open rooms, complete with water fountains that are used as a refill for your water meter but also as a springboard to reach heights way above. The Fire Chief will give you a hint when you’re near a survivor, but that could be in any room above or below, so it’s sometimes a bit misleading.
Each mission has a set amount of survivors you’re on the hunt for before you exit, usually two or three, though you can leave the level early once you find the exit if you want, you simply won’t get the maximum amount of cash by doing so for your expensive upgrades. There are even bonus pets you can find to add extra money and fans if you search every possible room.
Fighting fires means you need your trusty hose and backpack full of water, so you’ll need to keep an eye on your water gauge. Simply spraying non-stop will have you run out of water quite quickly, so once an enemy has been put out you'll want to conserve your water. You’ll also need to use your hose as a jetpack, akin to Super Mario Sunshine, to cross large gaps to prevent yourself from taking fall damage. Using your hose takes a little getting used to, as when you go to spray, Firegirl plants her feet and can’t move, and for some reason it also always defaults to spraying at a 45 degree angle which you adjust with the thumbstick in any direction you want, factoring in the arc of your water.
As you explore you might find broken toilets or water jugs that can refill your water gauge back to full. Not spraying for a while will also refill your tank but that takes time, something you don’t have a lot of in short two to three minute levels. Thankfully every enemy you do put out with your hose adds a second or two to your clock, so it’s a balance of exploration to find survivors within time but also taking the time to defeat fire enemies to add more time to explore.
To smash through doors and piles of collapsed wood you’ll need to use your trusty axe. This takes a moment and I was hoping there would be some other mechanic or use for it, but there’s not. Holding Right Trigger will cause Firegirl to plant her feet and start spraying her hose in the direction you aim. Using her hose as a jetpack takes some practice, but eventually you’ll be able to cross gaps without any issue, especially when going from rooftop to rooftop in certain apartment levels.
You earn cash for completing levels with the amount based on if you died or not and how many survivors saved. Find all of the survivors and you’ll earn huge bonuses, though you at least earn some cash regardless of the outcome. Once you saved them they can be hired at your fire hall, offering different bonuses and upgrades when you spend more cash. In the beginning I was only earning $2000 for finishing a level (without all survivors), and now I get well over $6000 regardless of the outcome, so it takes some time to invest in the different upgrades, but is well worth it in the long run.
The first hour will be quite tough as you get used to the controls and don’t have much of a water reservoir in your backpack or much pressure for your hose. As you buy the upgrades it will become much more manageable, making each run easier. Purchase medkits, more hearts, hose upgrades, fan bonuses and more, there’s plenty to grind as you fight your way through the story and uncover where all these fires are originating from.
Firegirl’s visual aesthetics are simple yet impressive. While I have gotten hit and died a few times simply because I couldn’t see an enemy behind something in the foreground, the layers give it a retro-modern look that I quite enjoyed. The music doesn’t vary much but it is catchy, never feeling like I needed to mute it or put my own playlist on in the background instead.
Priced at just over $20 CAD, there’s certainly some value here, and although it is fun especially once you start purchasing all of the upgrades, it does get quite repetitive, even with the procedurally generated levels. Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX might not set the world on fire but it is an adorable take on firefighting.
**Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
House Builder
If there was ever a game where you could discern what it was about simply from its title, House Builder would be it. Describing its gameplay exactly with its title, you’ll be building houses from all different types and styles from around the world styles including real world construction methods. While I’ve never built a house or done much construction work at all, there’s something fun about being a one-man construction crew without having to worry about all the physical labor, inclement weather, horrible bosses and union dues.While there’s no Career mode per-se, you progress from house to house after each one has been completed in linear fashion. You’re tasked with building a specific style of house based on the world region you’re in. These structures already some with a predetermined schematic, so it’s not like you’re going to actually do any designing or have any creativity, you’re simply grabbing the right tools and materials to place them in the correct spots before moving onto the next step.
This makes the gameplay quite linear and straightforward, yet this is also why I was hooked and couldn’t put it down, as there’s something relaxing about going from point A to point B with material C in hand without having to worry about messing up somehow. You won’t have to worry about contracts, timelines, space constraints or anything else, simply build the house with the materials required step by step.
We all have a different interpretation of what a house really is, though you’re probably picturing a typical box or rectangle with an A-frame roof with a yard or garage right? Well, houses were built long before what we consider modern these days, varying greatly depending on the country and year. A perfect example, the first ‘house’ you’re going to build is a quaint little igloo up in the arctic. That’s right, House Builder starts with you building a house out of ice blocks and snow. Not exactly what you thought you signed up for? Don’t worry, it’s mainly used as an introduction level to its gameplay mechanics and controls.
After about 20 minutes or so it takes to complete this igloo you’ll then move onto the next house, a mud hut in Africa. With only a handful of levels I don’t want to spoil too much given the low number of houses to build, but you can expect many different styles, not just from an igloo and mud hut, but log cabins, a Canadian house, traditional Japanese home, brick house and a completely modern building that would easily cost in the millions. The more interesting thing about each of these stages is that you’re also following the building processes and materials that would be used to construct these in real life.
You begin by choosing which stage you want to play on a world globe that can be rotated, showing you the available stages based on where they geographically located. The first few levels are free to start playing and building, but eventually you have to purchase the next, almost like buying the plot of land before you can build. Money comes in steady enough that you shouldn’t have an issue affording each level as they unlock for the most part unless you get careless ordering new materials, but more on that shortly.
As each house becomes more complex to build there’s more steps in each process, eventually taking over an hour per house to build by the last few. Cutting ice out of the frozen tundra takes a few seconds to gather blocks where you then carry them over to the igloo to begin constructing, eventually moving onto the mud hut where you’ll need to mix water and clay to make some mud tiles, cutting down trees for wood and twine. Later stages have you using modern day tools like nail guns, saws, wrenches and even a crane when you’re building pre-fab homes. Each stages becomes slightly more involved with the steps required and also becomes larger, adding a second floor, roof shingles, insulation and more. It’s actually a bit educational learning the different production methods, especially when I was working on a traditional Japanese home.
Just like in real life, you’ll start at the foundation, working your way up step by step, log by log, brick by brick. While you’re basically just running from point A to get a material to point B and place it down, there’s a certain zen or calmness to the relaxing gameplay without worrying about a timeline or other hazards. Now and then you might have to order supplies from a vendor and have it delivered instantly on a truck (that’s super amazing service) but you’re simply grabbing it from the truck and then carrying the pieces to the dedicated spot to place.
New steps are introduced slowly with a decent amount of explanation. The first hiccup was when I was building a log cabin, unsure of how long I was supposed to cut trees and then how to actually debark them. Making clay and cement was a little clumsy at first too, but once you get the hang of it of how to place items into others it becomes second nature quickly afterwards. Eventually you’ll have to level the land for its foundation, install reinforcement blocks and even place the baseline for the plumbing underground (though this was the most infuriating step in all of the house builds due to lack of proper instruction). The new levels add some curveballs to the gameplay or some new installation methods, all of which are simple to understand once you get used to the wonky controls. There’s even one stage where you want to build a new house, but the old abandoned one needs to be demolished first. It was fun to grab a sledge hammer or ride the bulldozer to tear it down.
Each house type really is built differently based on the region, era and materials. Hammering in wooden pegs for the traditional Japanese home was quite different then using my power screwdriver and nail gun to put up walls in more modern homes. You’ll even need to mix cement and pour it into the foundation or get a cement truck with a long hose to pour for your floor base.
There is a store were you can purchase any of the required materials needed, though the first handful of levels give you all the required materials needed or allows you to gather from them trees or create them by mixing other items together. Eventually though you will need to purchase new materials, so make sure you’ve been saving that money and not spending too much on the completely optional decorative items for around the home. While decorations will make the houses more desirable for when you want to sell them later, doing so means you’ll need to reply the levels again but can be used to earn more money. There’s really no real reason for money once you reach the final home though, as your bank roll will be more than large enough to purchase excess materials without having to worry.
A ton of effort has gone into the house building itself, which is of course obvious given the game title, but I was surprised with how there’s absolutely no detail given to the final steps of building a house, the paint, decorations and furnishing. Once you’ve built the house form a foundational standpoint with floors, walls, siding and a roof, you’re done and complete. No crafting a beautiful yard, choosing paint or even the house layout itself given the blueprints are automatically laid out for you.
As for the gameplay itself, it’s somewhat like Minecraft where you can hold a certain amount of items in your inventory, cycling through each type as you need to place down in the predetermined spots outlined in light blue shadows. You can also hold and carry items to move them around and place where you want, though expect some silly physics at times when items get stacked or bump into one another. There’s also plenty of tools you’ll utilize while building depending on the job site, from saws, measuring tape, chainsaw, shovels, moveable scaffolding, ladders, nail gun, wrench and more. Swapping between tools is a little clumsy at best, but you eventually get used to it, able to swap quickly when needed.
I was a little surprised that there’s no free build option, so you’re stuck with the predetermined layouts and placement of each house. Even when replaying levels it’s always the same, whereas maybe some random blueprints would have made for some replayability. There’s only so many times you can build the same house over and over before coming bored. This is where you can add those decorations I mentioned above, but there’s no real reason to other than wanting to try and decorate for your own enjoyment.
While House Builder is aiming to be more of a realistic sim-like experience, there’s also a skill tree that allows for more quality of life improvements, adding a more arcade feel. For example, when you begin you can only cut down one tree at a time, but do this enough times and you’ll get a new skill that allows you to cut down twice as many from a single tree. Keep doing so and you’ll eventually be able to get a dozen logs from a tree, carry more weight and a whole bunch of other improvements to help streamline the time requirements and tedious walking back and forth.
Gaining these new skills will allow you to create the houses much more quickly and efficiently, able to eventually place down blocks and planks multiples at a time instead of having to press the trigger for each time. Sure this might break the realistic immersion a bit if you’re looking for a core simulation style game, but carrying one plank of wood to the roof and coming back down for another repeatedly would grow tiresome quickly. Eventually you’ll be able to magically carry a pallet full of bricks and other materials without slowing down, placing them in mere seconds. This progression system made it much more bearable and I quite enjoyed being able to attach all of the insulation needed in the walls within seconds when I was on that step.
Small developers, FreeMind, have a number of sim-like games their portfolio on PC, so I’m curious if their others will eventually transition over to console as well. Not a knock on the developers, but you can tell that House Builder is made by a small team as the visuals are passable, but won’t impress by any means. There’s plenty of animations simply missing, physics are a bit wonky at times, controls aren’t optimized for a controller and there’s massive pop-in issues, even on an Xbox Series X. Audio is about the same, with basic sounds for all of the actions and tools you use with some light music in the background, but it will wear on you after a build or two. That said, it is quite satisfying to hear the ‘plunk’ sound of placing down some logs or tiles into place in quick succession.
There’s a laundry list of bugs I encountered along the way though, too many to ignore. One level had my wanting to place the foundation blocks, but somehow it poured the next step’s layer of cement, so I couldn’t see where to place them. I got stuck on corners and random objects more times than I can count, and don’t get me started on using the crane in the final stage, tossing pre-fab walls into space because they got stuck on something and launched god knows where. I found if I did certain steps too quickly it would sometimes bug out as well, like screws not lining up with the wood, or telling me I needed a certain amount of materials, so I order them exactly, yet end up needing more somehow. Lots of clipping issues and other random oddities was a constant.
Even with all the issues I had, even one forcing me to restart a build from the beginning, I still found it oddly relaxing and couldn’t put it down until I was done with my current house. Given that you’re not forced against a certain time limit or other factors, you can easily play this at your own pace and enjoy it while doing something else. Priced at just under $20 CAD, some may scoff at how ‘indie’ it may perform, but this is probably the most entertainment I’ve had building houses on my console, though I question its longevity and replayability long term.
**House Builder was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
FOBIA - St. Dinfna Hotel
Are you a fan of Resident Evil style games, specifically the latest Resident Evil 7 or Village era of the series? Are you yearning for a creepy game with plenty of puzzles and enjoy having to constantly deal with inventory management? FOBIA – St. Dinfna Hotel (FOBIA for short) is probably exactly what you’re looking for then. First person horror with dated mechanics, there’s some serious Resident Evil vibes as you explore an old and completely abandoned hotel, yet need to try and survive. Very puzzle and backtracking heavy, FOBIA certainly has its core rooted in some classic game design, but with that comes classic issues as well.You are Roberto Lopes, a journalist that has come to the St. Dinfna Hotel after receiving a tip to investigate some mysterious disappearances and some paranormal occurrences. After getting checked in you rest for the night, awakening later you realize you’re somehow locked in your room and things seem to look drastically different. The hotel now seems to be in ruins, on fire and completely trashed. Where is everyone, what is that black hole-like thing you just saw, who was that child in a gas mask and what are those monstrous noises you hear in the hallway? You’ll need to do everything you can to survive and escape the hotel.
Early on you find an old classic camera, but of course in a game like this, this isn’t any typical camera. Looking through this lens not only shows you things you can’t see by the naked eye, but seems to show you a different timeline, looking direct into the past. You’re going to uncover an intriguing story that revolves around a cult, paranormal activities and it won’t be easy any step of the way with how many puzzles you’ll need to solve and amount of backtracking you’ll need to do.
While the overall story is quite interesting as a whole, it’s a very slow progression broken into three core chapters. You’d expect that the game would fully take place in this hotel given the title of the game, but there’s actually two other main sections which is where the experience starts to drag on and falter, taking anywhere from 6-12 hours to complete depending on your love and skill at the genre. Due to the narrative I’ll really only delve into the Hotel part of the game, leaving the rest as a surprise for you to uncover.
Because of the first person view, FOBIA can be quite creepy at times, as you’re never quite sure what’s around every corner. While there’s not very many cheap jump scares, there’s much more “what the hell was that?” moments or stuff that was creepy as opposed to outright scary. The camera mechanic is interesting, as it changes your view much like how you used to use it in Outlast as night vision, but here it can allow you to see in the past as well. You might be at a dead-end in a hallway or room, but utilize your camera and magically there’s a pathway that’s open because in the past there wasn’t a collapsed wall or fire in that spot. I thought this camera mechanic would be utilized more but there’s only a handful of times it’s actually needed, as some puzzles will require the camera use as well to solve. The camera will also uncover hidden messages only able to be seen in this view as well, so you’ll initially be switching back and forth to figure out what to do and where to go.
As I mentioned above about FOBIA being more creepy than scary, every now and then you’ll see that small girl with a gas mask walk by, unable to ever really catch up to her. Who is she? Why does your screen go completely black and dark for a moment and then it passes? These moments weren’t scary, but more annoying than anything else.
FOBIA is actually much more puzzle heavy than I initially expected. I was preparing myself to have a very combat heavy game, and while there is some combat included, exploration and puzzles definitely weigh heavier in the gameplay. Like classics in the genre, you’ll be searching for keys, keycards, tools and other objects so that you’re able to progress within the hotel. This of course means there’s a lot of backtracking, as you’ll have to go from one floor to the next, back down to a different one, take an elevator up, run back down another path and more. Making this challenging is that there’s no map at all, so I hope you have a great memory. Sure there’s some of those floor layout plans on the walls of the hotel, but remember you’ll also be trying to find hidden pathways and solve puzzles along the way as well, so expect to have a lot of wasted time simply trying to figure out how to get back to the fifth floor or where that locked door was that you now have the keycard for.
I made the mistake of taking a break for a day or so in between playing, and while your main objective is shown in text form, forget the pathways and you’re going to be struggling to remember the floor layouts. There’s also no checkpoints at all within FOBIA. Instead, you need to use particular clocks on the wall as your save points, something that wasn’t explained very well in the beginning. So when I had my first death you can imagine how upset I was when I realized I never saved for over an hour or two.
I can’t emphasize enough how puzzle and exploration heavy FOBIA really is. If you enjoy solving puzzles and have a great memory then I’m sure you’ll quite enjoy yourself, but if you struggle in this aspect, you might not nearly as much as you would expect. While the core game is quite linear, there are side areas you can explore and puzzles to solve for extra items and secrets. Problem is there’s some puzzle pieces you might not need until much later in the game, but you aren’t to know this, so you’re carrying certain objects in your very limited inventory space hoping it’s what you’ll need soon to progress so you can clear important inventory space.
Are you a fan of having to constantly manage your limited inventory like in classic Resident Evil games? If so you’re in for a treat, as you’ll have to use special chests that can be used to store items you don’t need at the moment, able to extract them from any other chest you find in the hotel. Are you like me though and absolutely hate this inventory management? Well, you’re going to struggle then, as you’re constantly going to have to figure out what you can or can’t pick up, unsure what puzzle pieces you’ll need until you finally find that red keycard door and realize you didn’t bring the key.
Along the way you’ll find backpack upgrades if you explore enough, opening drawers, closets and safes, but even then it’s hard to carry everything you want given that your core items like the Pistol, Shotgun, Flashlight, Keys and more take up an inventory spot or two each. It was a constant struggle to have to go back to the chest, dump in items I didn’t need and swap out the ones I did. Never knowing how many enemies I’d have to face, of course one of my slots was a health kit. Remember combining items to make better health kits in Resident Evil? Yup, you’ll do that here too. I always kept my Flashlight on me in case I got to a dark area, worried I’d not be able to see and then have to come back and get it again, but this wasn't very often. I get that FOBIA is recreating that classic gameplay, but it frustrated me more than anything else.
With all the paranormal activities that’s happening in the hotel you’ll of course have to deal with some enemies in combat. This is where your Pistol, Shotgun and other weapons will come handy once you find them. Even with the sensitivity cranked all the way up, you aim quite slowly, so the shooting mechanics themselves feel quite terrible and inaccurate on a controller. There are some upgrade cubes you can find along the way as you explore the hotel, able to increase certain aspects of your weapons, but even after increasing my accuracy, hitting the exposed heart from an enemy a few feet away from me was a challenge still.
The first enemy you encounter is a lurking skeleton-like creature that will only notice you once you get close, lunging at you directly if they get in range. These are creepy at first and with their exposed hearts it should only take a direct shot or two with your pistol, but because of the controller inaccuracy mentioned above, don’t be surprised if you waste a whole clip trying to put one down. You’ll then come across these little spider-like creatures that are more meant to annoy you, taking one of your health when they bite you. And by the time you see the credits rolls, those are the only enemies you’ll encounter your whole time within FOBIA aside from a handful of unique bosses and a Mr. X-like creature that only appears in specific segments of the story and areas. That’s right, two enemy types aside from bosses. Once you realize how braindead these skeletons are, you’ll probably just have then lunge to you so you can bypass and ignore them.
You have very limited bullets, and in the later section of the game you’ll have nowhere near the ammo to take on every enemy, so get used to avoiding them whenever possible. I was quite surprised that there were multiple boss fights throughout, and while none were particularly interesting or memorable, it at least changed things up from fighting the same skeleton type over and over. Enemy design is cool at first, but without any variety you’ll simply roll your eyes every time you see one.
FOBIA falters in some areas, but one of those isn’t its atmosphere. While not particularly scary, it does ooze creepiness around every corner. Areas can be quite dark. You might see things move in the distance and the St. Dinfna Hotel surely has been better days as it looks like it’s gone through something hellish. While its visuals may not impress, its atmosphere and aesthetic does a fantastic job at setting a certain mood and tone. Audio is a mixed bag. Hotel sounds always has you wonder “what the hell was that?” when you hear a monster through a doorway or some floorboards creaking, the soundtrack is subtle but sets the tone, but sadly the poor voice acting really took me out of the immersion during the phone calls and cutscenes.
It’s clear that developers Pulsatrix Studios was heavily inspired by classic Resident Evils and maybe Resident Evil 7, but it also brought over the poor gameplay portions like inventory management and backtracking. The camera mechanic had a lot of potential but generally gets forgotten in the later half. I’ve only talked about the hotel portion, but the other sections seem almost out of place, though it does make sense when you tie it into the overall narrative.
When I finished the hotel section I was ecstatic, thinking I was done, then it opened up to a completely different section. FOBIA certainly overstays its welcome though if you have a great memory or keep track of how to get back and forth from area to area without a map you might not have as much time wasted from constant backtracking as I did. Priced at just under $40 CAD, there’s certainly a decent amount of gameplay to be had, though you’ll need to be a fan of puzzles, inventory management, backtracking and fighting the same enemy repeatedly in FOBIA - St. Dinfna Hotel.
**FOBIA - St. Dinfna Hotel was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Matchpoint - Tennis Championships
It’s been quite some time since I’ve sunk a good amount of time into an addictive Tennis game, probably not since the Top Spin series and Virtua Tennis era of early 2000 to 2010’s sometime. I’ve tried a handful of Tennis game releases here and there, but none really ever felt like an Ace or has dethroned Top Spin 4 back in 2011. So I was interested to see how Matchpoint – Tennis Championships, developed by Torus Games and published by Kalypso Media, would serve up, especially since it looks as though this may be their first foray into the genre and they generally worked on kids titles.It’s time to hit the court, lace up those shoes, grab your racket and aim to become the world’s best tennis star champion. Focusing on positioning and aiming, Matchpoint takes the generic controls we’ve become used to over the years and tweaks them for a more realistic approach to the sport. It definitely takes time to get accustomed to but ever since being able to nail those Ace serves, I’ve had a hard time putting it down, always wanting to go one more tournament and raise my world rankings.
There’s something very satisfying when it comes to nailing the shot you exactly intend to, seeing your strategy outsmart your opponent for the point and set. The majority of your time with Matchpoint will be most likely within its deep Career Mode where you’ll rise in the world rankings with each tournament placing and win.
Before you start your career though you need to create your aspiring Tennis star, male or female. While not the most robust character creator I’ve seen, it does the job well enough to get a player you’ll most likely be content with. You even choose right or left handed as well as single or doublehanded backhand. You’ll eventually unlock new gear, clothing, rackets, shoes and more as you progress from tournament to tournament and exhibitions. There’s even some officially licensed gear from YONEX, HEAD, Babolat and more for the hardcore Tennis crowd.
Career mode then plays out how you’d expect, starting out unranked, entering tournaments and events to earn points on a unique merit-based ranking system as you try to become the best in the world, also including a handful of licensed professional players. You can expect to play as Amanda Anismova, Andrey Rublev, Benoit Paire, Heather Watson, Kei Nishikori, Nick Kyrgios, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Victoria Azarenka, Taylor Fritz, Pablo Carreno Busta, Madison Keys, Hugo Gaston, Hubert Hurkacz, Garbine Muguruza and Daniil Medvedev. Should you opt to purchase the Legends Edition, you’ll also gain access to Tommy Haas and Tim Henman. You’ve probably already noticed the glaring omissions of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Agassi and the Williams’ for female players though.
There’s over 65 different events and tournaments to take part in, allowing you to choose what you want to do on a calendar view. While these aren’t official events, they vary in player count, rounds, locales and court settings. Certain weeks also offer the opportunity for exhibition matches or even training days if you want to work on slowly leveling up your player stats permanently. As you enter and hopefully win tournaments you accumulate points that raise your world ranking, aiming to be the best in the world against the competition.
So what makes Matchpoint stand out amongst plenty of other Tennis games? For starters, you have very smooth and realistic player animations. Regardless of how your player is positioned or want to move in a certain direction, it flows quite realistically. The ball physics also seem quite realistic and combined make for a realistic flow of a Tennis match. I quite enjoyed the controls once I figured best how to use them, but more on that shortly.
What was probably the most interesting mechanic is how there’s a strength/weakness system that you can learn about your opponents. Throughout matches you might learn that your opponent isn’t good when they are near the net, or that they become better the longer a rally continues. Maybe serving them an Ace hurts their stats, it’s a really interesting mechanic that made me alter my gameplay slightly when I unveiled their strength or weakness, forcing you to adapt.
While I could look past the disparity when it comes to women and men players, a Tennis game without Doubles seems like a glaring miss. That’s right, Matchpoint only caters to one on one matches and no inclusion of doubles in any way, even online. While I’m not sure this decision was made, here’s to hoping it’s added at some point in the future, but disappointing nonetheless.
Where Matchpoint differentiates itself the most is with its unique control scheme. I will admit, it took me a handful of matches to really get the hang of, but once I did it felt completely natural and smooth, save for a few minor issues. Each button is tied to a different shot type: Top Spin, Lob, Slice or Lob, there are also modifiers with the triggers and bumpers depending on how and where you want to drop the ball. You control your player with the Left Stick but you also aim with the same Stick. How is that possible you ask? That’s where the unique controls take some getting used to, but make sense once you don’t have to think about it.
You can freely move your player around the court and once you start to hold down one of the buttons it will start to ‘charge’ that shot in a way. This doesn’t completely stop your player dead in their tracks, but does make them not move as quickly, so you need to do this once you’re relatively near to where the ball is going to land on your side of the court or else your character won’t reach it once the button starts getting held down. Once you’re holding down your shot button your Left Stick changes from your character movement to the aiming reticule of where you want to have your shot land on your opponent’s side.
I’ll admit, this took a handful of matches to get the hang of, as moving your player to one side of the court but then instantly aiming to the other feels odd at first. I promise, it eventually starts to feel quite natural, as you can directly aim the ball anywhere you want as well as the shot type you’re pressing. Practice really does make perfect here. This setup also makes the animations smooth and realistic, as actual players need to start preparing their shot once they get in range of where the ball will land and can make for some lengthy rallies once you get skilled. The only issue I had with this mechanic is that your shots are essentially 'perfect' and will land wherever your aiming reticule is the majority of the time.
That said, there are a handful of times where it’s almost as if my player gets ‘stuck’ even though they should be in range of hitting the ball once I’m preparing my shot. This caused for a few Aces against me simply because my player didn’t want to move. I found simply having them move slightly before receiving fixed this the majority of the time though and doesn’t happen nearly as often now.
You’re able to test your skills online in Ranked or Unranked matches, though due to reviewing this before launch I was unable to find anyone to play against every time I left it searching, so unfortunately I can’t comment on how the online play and progression works. There is cross-play enabled should you want, so finding a match post launch hopefully won’t be an issue.
Great controls aside, the overall presentation of Matchpoint is pretty, well, on point. It may not be officially licensed but does come across quite professional. Replays after long rallies highlight the awesome action that took place and you can even have a quick replay whenever you like after scoring points. While a small nitpick, the ball boys and girls don’t react or move when a ball ‘hits’ them and goes right through them as if they weren’t really there. They also don’t actually move or get the balls as the camera simply resets after each scoring.
While I don’t think Matchpoint will dethrone Top Spin, it’s without a doubt the best Tennis game since with its unique control scheme that allows for some serious skill play. Smooth animations and ball physics feels great and authentic, though the lack of Doubles seems like a serious miss as does not having many of the top stars of the sport. Not quite an Ace, Matchpoint is far from giving Tennis Elbow as well and a great first showing from Torus Games.
**Matchpoint - Tennis Championships (Legends Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
MX vs ATV Legends
Starting out as a crossover game between two different brands back on PS2 in 2005, MX vs ATV over the years became its own brand and series as it offered a unique take on the sport(s). Over the years though the series has gone through some great highs thanks to MX vs ATV Reflex, and unfortunately, many lows. Having been a fan since its first iteration and playing almost every single one, I was quite excited to see a new MX vs ATV game releasing this year with Legends. Given that the last two games weren’t generally received very well, I had high hopes to see a massive improvement this time around, especially since we’re now in a new console generation.As the title implies, you’re not only racing MX bikes but also four wheeled ATV’s as well. While the title doesn’t denote it, there’s also Utility Terrain Vehicles (UTV) that are now an option as well. UTV’s are generally meant for work duties, so why not slap some racing wheels, shocks and gear on them and have you barreling down the desert towards the finish line as well? With massive new environments, a robust career mode across all vehicle types and more, I had high hopes for a strong return to the series with MX vs ATV Legends. What we get though is something a little bit different.
After completing a tutorial that shows you the basics, you’re then dropped into your massive farm where you’re able to freely ride around as you please with no direction or real guidelines. Hitting the menu button is how you’ll choose Career, Online or any other options, but absolutely nothing else is shown to you, like how to upgrade your bike or more. The bulk of your time is likely going to be spent in Career mode, a much larger experience than I was expecting, which is a blessing and a curse.
You begin by racing your MX bike in an event that you’ll be lucky to finish somewhere middle of the pack, even on the easiest difficulty. I get it; you’re brand new to the game, don’t know how to control the bikes yet, haven’t learned the tracks and jumps and still figuring things out. Having you be lucky if you don’t place last though on your first race isn’t a great motivation to want to stick with it much further. You learn from this first race that the AI doesn’t play fair, nor do they care if you’re in their pathway. Not placing on the podium on the first race on the easiest difficulty? I knew something was off. We haven’t even begun to talk about the physics or jumps yet either.
I eventually progressed and unlocked ATV’s and UTV’s, so figured I’d give them a shot. Turns out that each vehicle type has its own separate career, so there’s basically 3 full career lengths here to spend time in, though if you can actually do so without become frustrated is another story. Given that controlling my MX bike was quite ‘slippery’, I figured that racing ATV’s would be better, you know, due to having twice as many wheels. Boy was I wrong.
Somehow the controls for ATV was much worse. If you don’t just tap the stick to steer you end up oversteering and basically spinning out. But doing this means actually making the turns near impossible at the same time. I did eventually get the hang of it but it never felt great, always guaranteed to mess up corners and spin out at least a few times a race.
Naturally, I had to try the UTV’s next, figuring since it’s more like a traditional vehicle it would control better. The best way I could describe how the UTV’s handle was this: Have you ever driven your car with bald tires? How about bald tires trying to take a corner on a sheet of ice? What about bald tires on ice and your steering wheel basically doesn’t work? You’re probably starting to understand what I’m getting at. I thought the MX and ATV controls were slippery, but UTV controls, even after completely upgrading them it got no better. It’s almost as though you’re constantly drifting and have to pre-steer before you actually get any traction. It’s simply 'off' and doesn’t feel good to use at all and I shouldn’t have to struggle to drive in a straight line without constantly fishtailing. I avoided using UTV’s as much as possible, that’s how infuriating it is.
I will say, once I upgraded my MX bike fully after saving up I was performing much better. Even with these upgrades the controls never really felt great, but I did manage to figure out how to deal with it slightly better. AI though is all over the place, as sometimes they are super aggressive and you’ll barely be able to even keep up with them since they don’t seem to always follow the same laws of physics or rules that you do, and other times you’ll beat them with over a minute to spare. There’s no consistency, so I’m not sure if there’s something off for the AI riders in general or that it’s tied to specific races.
I’ll give credit where it is due, and the track design overall is actually done quite well, regardless of which type of events you’re racing in, especially in the new Trails style races. Just a fancy name for Checkpoint races, Trails events were by far the highlight in a sea of frustration, even if they lasted a little longer than expected. These were huge unique maps racing from point A to B to C until you cross the finish line. These were at times much more ‘extreme’ maps, either jumping huge chasms or racing up or down a mountain, which was quite an experience in first person view. It seemed AI had a hard time keeping up on these types of races as opposed to more traditional supercross or nationals style for whatever reason though.
Here’s where things start to go downhill though. As noted above, the controls for all vehicles seem independent, but never feel great, even after fully upgrading. You’re constantly sliding, so when you do inevitably crash and bail, thankfully you can respawn instantly with a press of the button, usually. Your hub world that you have to jump back to after every few events seems like a huge waste of time. Sure, it gets upgraded as you progress through the campaign, but so what? The jumping mechanics also simply feel ‘off’, as you’re going to likely land short on the jump and bail or never be able to get back up to speed until the next set of ramps and jumps regardless how I tried to preload.
As you earn money by progressing through the career you can then spend that on new gear, colors, parts and upgrades. Focus on getting upgrades, as this is how you increase your base stats for your bike and vehicles. For each part there are three tiers of upgrades but also two different sets based on which stats you want to focus on. It seems one set is more geared towards off-road whereas the others are meant for supercross. With a few upgrades you’ll do much better with MX, but fully upgrading my ATV and UTV’s didn’t seem to make much of a difference at all.
You can purchase new parts as well, but it’s simply cosmetic, so there’s no point until you have nothing else to spend your money on. There’s no real world brands, so don’t get excited to see any of your favorite manufactures and part companies. Even changing colors on your gear costs money, every time, so you made a mistake and want to go back to the color you had previously? That’s right, you’re paying again.
The worst offender when it comes to bike upgrades though is that you’ll earn and unlock new bikes and vehicles as you progress in the game, or can purchase very expensive ones whenever you like, but there’s no reason to. Your beginning bike (there are 2 and 4 stroke bikes though) is statistically no different than the most expensive bike you can purchase. Yes, you read that right. Why spend money on a new bike, other than aesthetics, when it’s exactly the same as your previous? I don’t understand this at all, as it doesn’t even change the maximums your stats can reach with upgraded parts either.
There is multiplayer for those that want to play with siblings or friends, splitscreen (2 player only) or online (2-16 players), also able to group up as a squad. While there is online functionality, good luck finding a single person to race against. Even on launch day I wasn’t able to find anyone to race against, and since there’s no crossplay I don’t have high hopes for community longevity.
Now I normally don’t like to focus and point out so many negatives, but when I go through my notes when I’m reviewing and realize the vast majority is issues and bugs I ran into, it needs to be mentioned. There’s a laundry list, but in no particular order:
It’s as though there are animations missing. At the starting line when you and your opponents are twisting the throttle, there’s only an ‘on’ and ‘off’ position, so you get this jarring weird lack of animation at the start of every race. In quite a few races it’s as if the further away your opponents were, the less FPS they had. Kind of like how objects don’t look as good in the distance, it’s like they had to save memory or something by using less frames or animations on other racers in the distance.
Speaking of frames per second, they are simply missing in the cutscenes for new events in Career Mode. A video plays when you reach a new event or race series, but it plays at like 10 FPS and is insanely choppy like you’re watching a slideshow. There’s a massive amount of texture pop-in as well, not only in game, during loading and racing, but even in menus. Glitches happen so poorly in menus that it takes a good few seconds for vehicles and textures to load. It’s awful to the point where I thought a day one patch was missing. Oh you want to load into the menu or maybe pause your game? You better hope the game want to do the same thing. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the pause menu to appear or be responsive. Load times for actually starting events is even worse, even when installed directly on the internal drive of a Series X.
First person view is absolutely exhilarating and quite an experience, but it’s also nauseating because of the camera shake and tilts. When racing in first person, it seems the level loads only what’s in front of you, but because of the loading issues described above, sometimes the track is literally ‘loading’ right in front of you as you race. This becomes very disorientating and gives a very odd effect. Equally as bad, the compass/minimap isn’t always fully loaded as well and updates at random times.
Crashing, hit detection and out of bounds is another constant struggle, one that isn’t anywhere near consistent as well. Hit a little cone or barrier and you might plow through it, the next time you might possibly get launched 10 feet into the air and bail. Cut a little corner and it might reset you back on the track instantly, other times you might be able to be Out of Bounds for 5 seconds or more without any repercussion. On one Trails race I somehow missed a jump but was able to continue going down a different trail to the end, skipping three of the checkpoints.
Lastly and the worst offender is the audio as a whole. It’s as though no mixing or checking was done to any part of the audio at all. There’s a soundtrack with licensed songs, but it’s not balanced or mixed properly, so one minute you think the music is gone or cut out, the next you realize your TV or headset volume is about to blow out your eardrums. Coupled with a terrible soundtrack aside from a song or two (objectively of course), there’s a wide variety of musical genres but this means you might tolerate one half and hate the other. Engine sounds even cut out after a certain RPM or speed, adding to a general inconsistency.
A lack of meaningful customization, slippery and borderline broken controls based on which vehicle you want to race, and PowerPoint slide deck animations was a constant disappointment and frustration. Yes there are three full Career Modes to sink time into and track designs were quite good with varying elevations and layouts, but the myriad of issues makes MX vs ATV Legends a low point for the series, even at its normally reasonable $40 CAD asking price. I normally wouldn’t recommend getting an older game in a series, but when MX vs ATV Reflex from 2009 is still the best in the series, that speaks volumes.
**MX vs ATV Legends was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 3.6 / 10
Redout 2
Do you miss the days of fast paced antigravity racers like F-Zero, Wipeout and Jet Moto? It seems back in the 90’s and 2000’s was when this sub-genre of racers peaked with only the odd title releasing lately that aims to put you behind the wheel (or is it cockpit?) of a vehicle that goes way faster than you’d probably be able to actually control. These racers usually also have insane tracks that could never really exist in real life due to the length, size, loops, massive jumps and more.Self-marketed as “The fastest racing game in the universe”, it may not be too far off given the sheer speeds you can reach once you gain the skills to stop hitting and grinding against the wall at every corner, something that will take a good while to learn. Sequel to the original Redout, this sequel amps up nearly everything, from the graphics, audio, level design and of course, speed.
While most racers have a Career Mode of some sort, Redout 2 is no different, but I wasn’t prepared for just how lengthy and robust its Career Mode was. You can expect well over a hundred or two events, I actually lost track trying to count them all across 36 unique tracks, double that when you factor in that they can be played in reverse as well. More than just simple races, there’s also different types of events as well, from Boss Races, Time Attacks, Last Man Standing and more. Of course your main goal is to cross the finish line first and the fastest but doing so won’t be very easy in the beginning.
Advancing through a series of leagues, starting at ‘B’ League, ascending to ‘A’, ‘S’ and then finally the SRRL Invitational. But before you can even think about making progress in the campaign you’re going to need to go through the tutorials first. Why am I mentioning tutorials when talking about the campaign? Well, you’re most likely going to fail and have a hard time with them. Yes you read that right, the tutorials are so over tuned that you’re going to most likely struggle in the first race or two you partake in.
Tutorials are meant as a way to ease you into the gameplay, teaching you all of the mechanics and allowing you to move on once you’ve proven you’ve understood and can replicate the teachable moments. Great tutorials do this in a natural way, whereas others like in Redout 2 basically tell you how to turn left or right with the stick then completely forget to show you any of the other mechanics or set you up for success. I thought I was doing something wrong, as I was constantly crashing and couldn’t even make the par times for these opening races.
Eventually you’ll fuddle and make your way through these opening sections and then start the long hard road of the B League. You start with a default chassis yet can see the handful of others you don’t yet have access to, each of which have different starting specs, stats and appearance. Prepare to lose every race in the beginning though, as not only are the tutorials quite difficult, but it’s going to take a handful of hours before you start to get a feel for the racing and unique steering.
There are a handful of events, and while I enjoyed the standard races types the most, the Time Attack races are absolutely brutal to try and place third or higher in. These events having you racing to aim for a Gold, Silver or Bronze time, but I swear these are developer times, so good luck actually placing on the podium in the first handful. Even once I was in the A League, trying to get a Bronze placing was near impossible, so I tended to try and skip these events if I could. The Career Mode is going to take quite a while to finish and complete, so there’s plenty to enjoy if you end up figuring out Redout 2’s racing intricacies.
While there’s an Arcade Mode if you want to simply jump in and have a quick race, and a Multiplayer option to play and race alongside friends and strangers, the bulk of your playing is going to be tied into the Career Mode, not because the other modes aren’t as good, but every unlock and upgrade is tied to Career progression, which has issues of its own I’ll delve into shortly.
Like F-Zero and Wipeout before it, Redout 2 is all about its breakneck speeds while racing your antigravity vehicle across some crazy tracks. I’ll admit, I was extremely frustrated with my first two or three hours in Redout 2 due to barely winning any races and constantly grinding against the walls at almost every corner. There’s some difficulty options and settings toggles you can play with, and while I initially left the default settings on, I eventually turned it down and only then I was starting to find some mild success. Even on its easiest settings and assists on, a first place or even podium finish wasn’t always guaranteed.
There’s a super difficult learning curve when it comes to Redout 2’s controls, but once you understand it and get the hang of it, things change almost instantly. You see, instead of simply steering by moving your Left Stick to the sides for the direction you want, you’ll also need to use the Right Stick for strafing. That’s right, Redout 2 is a twin stick racer, something I can’t recall playing before. The strafing is how you’ll drift in the tight corners and you’ll need to learn to use both steering simultaneously and in harmony. The Right Stick is also what you’ll use to control your pitch when you’re in midair taking jumps and having to aim the nose of your vehicle up or down when it comes to steep inclines.
On top of having to learn how to corner and pre-steer with the Right Stick, you’re also going to have to keep an eye on your various gauges for boost and heat if you want any chance of winning races. You have your regular Boost which you can use at any time as long as you have some in the regenerating meter, but this comes with a caveat. Once you fully use your boost gauge you can continue to boost, but then it starts to deplete your vehicle health pool. That’s right, you can over-boost at the expense of using your health if you want just a bit more speed. This is a dangerous risk versus reward though, as you can deplete your whole shield bar, and if you haven’t mastered cornering yet like described above, you’re going to crash and burn. Once you’ve mastered the tricky steering after a handful of hours you can then rely on boosting an extra amount since your health also regenerates after a short while.
On top of your regular boost you can use whenever, you also need to keep an eye on your Super Boost (for lack of better term). This one is more powerful in its speed boost and lasts the full meter automatically. Slam into a wall and it will automatically shut off, eventually recharging for another use shortly afterwards. The goal is to eventually learn how to manage both Boost meters and the best time to use them to reach some breakneck speeds. The health gauge depletion mechanic is a really interesting way to reward those that have higher skill, able to play on the edge of being destroyed with a single mistimed corner when health is low. The goal is to be almost constantly boosting, something that takes some practice, skill and track memorization.
While the vehicle handling is very difficult to get the hang of, once it ‘clicks’, Redout 2 went from a frustrating last place finish in every race to an exciting and addictive antigravity racer. Combining the drifting and pre-steering with boosting at over 1000 km/h is magical when you’re actually starting to corner properly and not grind along walls every single turn. There are even boosters on the ground that give you a short speed increase when you ride over them.
Even after hours of racing though, I still struggle when taking jumps, as you need to control your pitch and rotation so you land properly. To rotate your ship you need to use the D-Pad while aiming your vehicle to hopefully the right lane with both sticks, holding the trigger for gas and probably a Bumper for boosting. Picture trying to do so at insane speeds and needing some quick thinking and dexterity in your fingers. You’re going to crash and burn plenty of times during these jump sections, as it’s not always clearly apparent where you’re supposed to land or to fix your orientation when the landing isn’t always a flat track. Thankfully there’s an option to auto rotate option for your vehicle landings, something that helped my racing immensely.
A mechanic I found out by accident because the tutorial simply forgot to teach me properly about is that there’s a rewind function like many racers have these days. Didn’t land that jump described above? Rewind time and try again. Overshot the landing spot and crashed into a wall? Try again. Simply knowing about being able to do so earlier on would have saved me a lot of frustration. Given the very high difficulty you can expect to make good use of this rewind now that you actually know about it.
As you progress through the campaign, each event will reward you with an unlock or upgrade. Unfortunately these are unlocked in a linear way, with each part, color scheme, livery and aesthetics tied to specific races. That means you’re going to need to not only play every single event in the campaign, but place well to unlock. Thankfully you only need to earn 1 star in an event to get its unlocked item, but doing so in some of the events were even getting Bronze is a struggle can be quite daunting.
Each event has a specific requirement for you to join, either unlocked via star count (meaning eventually only earning single stars won’t cut it) or your vehicle’s power level. This is raised by swapping out parts for the higher powered and tier ones you unlock from each event. I do like the unlock path for the most part, but given the lengthy Campaign, it’s going to be quite a journey to get all of the unlocks to raise your vehicle power to take on the harder races and leagues.
Redout 2 does have a Multiplayer mode but it almost feels like an afterthought. You can join some unranked races (Ranked is “Coming Soon”) but there’s absolutely no lobby system. That’s right, you’ll join a race online but put into a random lobby. Oh, you want to be competitive online? Well, you better have completed the campaign and have all of the upgrades, as you bring your Career vehicles into online. Racing your 300 power rank versus another’s 1100, you can probably guess the outcome.
Loading times are abundant and surprisingly lengthy, even on an Xbox Series X. Even when you crash and want to restart a race, you’re stuck with a loading screen. Yes, I know I’m spoiled with how quickly most games load these days, but even on the internal hard drive it was shockingly slow. When races load it takes a good few seconds for textures to pop in and load, and you can even tell some of the loading is done in the distance as you’re racing. Yes I was specifically looking for things like that during races, but I couldn’t unsee it once I noticed. The ‘flying’ sections when taking jumps just doesn’t feel great and seems unnecessarily difficult.
Speeding at over 1000 km/h feels great and frantic, especially when you start to corner properly and boost stack. The level designs themselves are impressive overall, though I definitely preferred the outside ‘sky’ races as opposed to the underground ones. The music though is fantastic, having a kick ass electronic soundtrack that keeps your head bopping with 42 original tracks and 9 licensed tracks that lasts over 3 hours. My only complaint for the audio is that you’re going to constantly be annoyed by the shield recharging and low health sound once you learn to start constantly boosting properly.
Redout 2 is absolutely fast as advertised, but it’s going to take some time and dedication to learn its unique twin stick steering and dual boosting mechanics. Even with the difficulty turned down, I can see the way over tuned challenge being a turn off for some, especially since you’re likely to fail the tutorial races. Redout 2 is not new player friendly, but put in the time and it eventually turns into an addictive antigrav racer.
**Redout 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
BROKEN MIND
If you’ve not played many indie games previously or know much about them, BROKEN MIND may be what you initially envision, a game with basic visuals and audio, possibly even from a single developer, just like this has. BROKEN MIND is the epitome of a true indie game, built as a passion project from a solo developer over the course of multiple years, so kudos to 2BAD Games, specifically Tony De Lucia, as while it may not be the most visually impressive or leave much of a lasting impression, you can sometimes tell that a developer puts their heart into their creation which come across in this action survival horror game.You play agent Frank Morgan, a grizzled detective that is in a dark place after having to deal with a severe family tragedy. He’s broken to the point that he’s having nightmares and seems to be living some weird dream or illusions in his head, but when a young teenage girl gets abducted during a livestream, Frank feels compelled to do something about it, no matter the cost.
As you start your investigation, you’ll first need to find out what exactly happened by watching the recorded livestream of course. What was really interesting was that once you unlock this section, this livestream is actually a level you play through as the girl that’s kidnapped. This is where many of the gameplay elements are introduced, especially its light puzzle elements and stealth sections.
Everything seems normal until the power goes out, so as this young girl goes to investigate things of course seem weird. She hears noises and other sounds, people in her chat are asking what’s going on but to get the items you need to progress you’ll need to do a little investigating. As this scene culminates, the girl is abducted and Frank has what he needs to start searching for her. Her phone is sending a single from a forest a few miles away so Frank has to act quickly if he wants any chance at saving her.
Given the game only lasts around two to three hours I don’t want to spoil much else of the story, but it won’t unfold exactly as you might assume at first, especially when certain levels have some supernatural elements and play out in Frank’s head at times. The story is decent overall and kept me interested enough to want to find out its conclusion, and the whole inner-mind parts of Frank help keep an ominous tone, even if the gameplay is basic and rough.
BROKEN MIND has you solving puzzles in front of you, though this is quite light in nature. Essentially every puzzles boils down to needing an item, but to get that item you need a different item, and so on. Find item A to get B to get C, etc. Taking place mostly indoors, you’ll explore hallways with some minor branching, but fairly linear. If there’s a side hallway to take it usually ends up leading to one of the items you need like some bolt cutters, keys, clues or other lore items like newspapers or notes.
Being an action survivor horror game, there’s a portion of combat you’ll have to learn to handle given the very limited ammunition count for your pistol. If you run out of bullets you’ll have to fend for yourself with some melee attacks against your enemies. Music kicks in whenever there’s an enemy nearby so you’re not generally taken by surprise, though there’s only two types of enemies: people in some scary ‘fox-like’ masks or some otherworldly shadowy figures with sharp claws, so there isn’t much variety.
As for its core gameplay, you can expect a first person shooter akin to a classic DOOM, as it’s that same sort of aesthetic style with 3D environments but you and objects are 2D as you move through it. The more I think of it, BROKEN MIND’s level design is quite DOOM-like, as the items you need are essentially the different color keys cards you needed to progress in the classic. There’s even a boss fight at the end, though this felt so out of place given there was nothing else like this previously in the gameplay.
Ammo is quite scarce as you’ll only have a half dozen bullets at a time, so you need to make every shot count, so aim for the heads. You have a health and stamina meter as well. While there’s not many health kits you’ll find around, when you do, you generally will need it at some point. You can briefly run for a few moments before your stamina runs completely out, but it’s such a short distance that I’m unsure why it’s even included. This makes Frank seem like he’s completely out of shape, though he doesn’t look like it, as you’ll become winded and unable to run again after about three seconds of sprinting.
BROKEN MIND is completely handmade, down to the individual objects and characters being drawn, apparently numerous times over until De Lucia was happy with the final cel-shaded outcome. While the visuals aren’t going to impress by any means, again, you can tell that BROKEN MIND was a labor of love, so there’s a certain charm to it, even if it wouldn’t normally impress. The music is quite decent and fitting for the environment and backdrops, and while I commend the fact that every line is fully voice acted, the performances themselves are a bit left to be desired. For a small indie game from a solo developer and I can only assume a microscopic budget, it’s also hard to hold it against them. Completing BROKEN MIND’s story gives a brief but fascinating look behind the scenes from early concept to finished product.
I absolutely commend a small solo developer for actually being able to create a passion product to completion for others to enjoy, and while it may not appear visually impressive, you can feel it has some heart and passion to it despite its flaws. While there’s not really any replay value aside from trying the harder difficulties, the low price makes it more bearable of an experience.
**BROKEN MIND was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Pro Gymnast Simulator
Remember that weird and hilarious Flash based browser game QWOP? You know, the track and field running game where you had to move each leg and calf individually, usually having you end up flat on your back or face and the source of many early memes. Well, it seems that the next generation of ragdoll physics is here with Pro Gymnast Simulator, revolving around, well, gymnastics, instead of simply running. But to take things to a whole other level, imagine your gymnast had to compete in their sport but the sets were designed like a level from Wipeout or American Ninja Warrior.Interestingly, Pro Gymnast Simulator was actually developed by a real life Pro Gymnast, so there’s obviously another level of thought and passion that went into this as it’s based on real life experience. While the game has “Simulator” in its title and it is advertised as having “realistic controls”, it’s going to take quite a while to get used to the awkward controls, physics and movement of your gymnast.
While there’s no ‘Career’ per-se, you take part in numerous levels in the hope of not only completing them for a medal, but to earn the extra medals based on time, score and a hidden collectable on each stage. First though you need to design your gymnast, though don’t expect more than a few basic choices. Each person in your household can design and create their own avatar if you want to keep progression separate as well.
To progress through the ‘Career’ you choose what area section you want to compete in, each with a handful of levels within. As you begin you’ll only have the first area available, with all the others opening at certain medal milestones. Levels begin easy, with the first few teaching you the core mechanics, though you can choose to play around in a test gym to hone your acrobatic skills should you wish.
Each level tasks you with getting from your starting point to the finish area, usually a landing mat or specific bar to grasp onto. The better you do the more medals you can earn. Finishing a level earns one medal, you gain others for beating the objective score by doing flips and tricks, completing the level under a specific time which is usually quite challenging, and a fourth if you can grab the secret collectable that resembles a chalk block, generally quite out of the way or in an awkward place. Earn enough of these medals and you’ll unlock new areas which have even more levels to challenge yourself with.
Before you can start to channel your inner gymnast and start to launch yourself in the air and do flips, you got to start with the basics. The early tutorials will show you the core basics, but even after a few hours of playing I still struggled at times trying to do exactly what I wanted. The tutorials explain how the Left Stick controls your shoulders and the Right your hips. Now that you know how to swing your arms and legs you need to factor in your momentum, gravity and speed. The ragdoll physics are always good for a laugh when you fall and crash each time you miss your grab or landing.
Tapping Right Bumper will have your gymnast let go of what they are holding onto, which is how you will let go of bars or ropes to launch into the air, grabbing onto anything in range provided you touch them with your hands which is going to be based on how your launch in the air was. Wish you could slow things down so you can figure out the best time and angle to let go and launch yourself? The Left Bumper will go into a slow-mo mode that when held that shows an arrow of the angle your body will travel based on speed and momentum. Now trying to press the bumpers while using the sticks in different motions on the fly can become confusing at first, and that’s not even factoring the Triggers which pulls in your arms or legs, allowing you to pull of some fast spins mid-air.
The controls are going to not make much sense in the beginning, mostly because the arms and legs move based on your body position, not your rotation in the air. This means that if you swing your legs back while hanging still, your body will slowly move that direction, but if you swing them forwards when traveling backwards you’ll simply kill all of your momentum. It’s very tricky to get the hang of, knowing when to move your legs, arms, tuck them in and letting go for launches.
Because of the ragdoll physics and the hundreds of failure you’ll have, there’s a few laughs to be had simply because of the floppy limbs and fails. This can in turn change into frustration when I’ve spent the last half hour failing the same level repeatedly. Thankfully you’re able to simply quit out of a level you can’t beat for whatever reason and move onto any other you’ve unlocked, coming back later when you have more practice and a better ‘feel’ for how to play properly. I’ve had to do this many times, especially in the last two areas where the levels seem almost impossible without a stroke of absolute luck on your side. When you do get the hang of the movement and are able to finally perform moves you actually intend, it can be fun to swing from one bar to the next, launching exactly like you meant to all along.
There’s a replay option if you want to watch your run back and see what you did well, or not, with a bunch of more camera angles, even in first person which is nauseating to watch. There’s even a level editor to create your own stages, and while it’s simple enough to figure out and use, there’s no sharing option, so unfortunately there’s no way to play anyone else’s creation. There’s actually no online component at all, not even leaderboards for stages to see how you rank, as I would have loved to see how I compared to other players or even see their ghosts.
As for its visuals, it’s not going to impress in any way, looking much like an old Flash game from years ago. Animations are stiff and awkward due to the limbs being controlled individually, but even the backdrops and everything else on screen is quite basic and bland. The audio isn’t anything to really mention either, with some slight music in the background, but that’s about it.
Rooted in reality, the gameplay blends simulation with arcade, though because of the wacky ragdoll physics and awkward controls, it takes some time to really grasp and perform the moves you want to. Think of Pro Gymnast Simulator as a simple sidescrolling platformer where you can perform gymnast moves as you launch yourself in the air from one swing and bar to the next in some crazy setups that would never happen in real life, failing hundreds of times before you finally land on the finish mat but becomes fun when you get the swing of things. 'Dumb Fun' really is the best way I can describe Pro Gymnast Simulator.
**Pro Gymnast Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
SpellForce III Reforced
RTS games generally don’t appear on console very often as they are generally difficult to convert to being the same experience with only a controller versus a mouse and keyboard. Spellforce III released back in 2017 on PC, blending an RPG and RTS experience together in an interesting way. Five years later and now Spellforce III has finally come to consoles. Blending gameplay that reminded me of a Baldur’s Gate mixed in with an RTS Experience, Spellforce III: Reforced, developed by Grimlore Games, has made the jump to console and controller, but RTS games generally are challenging to play on console due to the limited buttons. So how does Spellforce III feel on a controller you ask? Well, after a handful of hours of trial, error and frustration, eventually the awkward button combinations sink in and will become second nature.The campaign tells the story of Tahar and a deadly plague spreading across the land simply known as ‘Bloodburn’. During the prologue you’ll meet the main cast of characters, but the stand out is Sentenza Noria who is voiced by none other than the legendary Doug Cockle (Geralt – The Witcher). Rondar Lacine, leader of The Purity of Light, blames mages for the source of all this misfortune, so it's up to you to find out what’s actually causing this deadly plague, but also how to solve it, though of course there’s more to be unearthed and revealed the deeper and closer you get to the truth.
A prequel to Spellforce: The Order of Dawn, you can expect a massive 30ish hour or so campaign, fully voiced which is impressive, there’s even a co-op campaign you can play alongside friends, though with some caveats I’ll delve into shortly. As for the story itself, I quite enjoyed it, as its writing was done quite well and the cast of main characters were distinct and memorable. The story kept me engaged and had enough twists to stay interesting along the way.
So what’s new in this Reforced edition if you’ve played the original PC version you ask? Well there’s a laundry list that you can look up, but here’s some of the main points other than the obvious now being available on console:
-Improved “Burning Blood” Campaign
-Improved RTS mechanics and reworked RTS faction (Humans, Orcs and Elves) designs, introduced in the expansions Fallen God & Soul Harvest
-Updated Skilltrees with new spell mechanics introduced in the expansions
-Improved Questflow
-Improved loot distribution for a smoother progression
-Added and improved unique artefact puzzles
-Visually and functionally enhanced user crafting
-RTS AI Balance overhaul
-Complete rework of the hub for minimizing downtimes
-Fixed all campaign and quest logic issues of the 40+ hours long campaign
-Improved Coop Mode
-Visually and functionally enhanced User Interface used in the expansions
-Full Gamepad Support for controls and UI
-New Game Modes:
-A new skirmish map “Bitter Canyon” set in a mountainous environment
-Journey Mode: An additional game mode similar to the original SpellForce’s “Free Game Mode”, providing more than 20 hours of unique content and a lot of replay value. Can be played in Coop!
-Journey Skirmish: Play PvP skirmish matches against other players with your Journey heroes
-Arena Mode: An additional endless game mode where you start with a fresh character, fight against waves of monsters, buy items and spells from merchants to compete with other players in the leaderboards including the possibility to play this mode in Coop.
You begin playing Tahar by first customizing and creating your character, choosing gender and skill trees, essentially building the exact class you want. Over the course of your journey you’ll meet a cast of characters, most written and voiced quite well where I actually started to care about them. You’ll need to manage yours and their inventories, from weapons, armor and more. This is where the RPG half of the gameplay comes in, managing inventories, skills and more, playing much like a Diablo or Baldur’s Gate while exploring the current map. Skill trees are simple, allowing you to put points into specific skills or passive bonuses, building your characters exactly how you want. Weapons and armor don’t come very quick though and the majority outside of a few special pieces or store bought are slight sidegrades instead of massive upgrades.
Where Spellforce III comes into its own, for better and worse, is when you reach certain missions where the RTS elements take over completely. Like many RTS, you’ll need to manage resources, construct buildings, make more troops, all while exploring and expanding the map while also defending your base. To even begin you’ll need to construct buildings and assign workers to find wood, stone and food. Thankfully they’ll automatically go find the nearest nodes within the area you’ve captured, slowly filling your banked resources. Of course building anything takes your precious resources, as does making new units for your army, and doing so well will require you to explore the map and capture other regions and nodes so you can expand and build even further.
As you progress in certain missions and maps you’ll find blueprints along the way, allowing you to build higher tier buildings, units and upgrades. While there have been a few RTS games that have transitioned to console decently, these sections were the most frustrating and longest time commitments. Not totally a fault of the PC to controller scheme shift, I think this is partly due to mechanics and design as well. You have the ability to select all units on screen, only choose your heroes, or even section off units into different groups as to switch between so you can divide and conquer, but this is cumbersome at best with the controller. I generally found it easiest to build my army as large as I could and simply steamroll to my objectives. Did this always work, no, but was less frustrating than trying to simultaneously give commands to different units while also having to retreat to defend my base. It felt at times as though he CPU was cheating, making units way faster than I could at an unlimited rate, making these RTS sections feel like a chore and slog to get through, killing my momentum and desire to continue at times.
Combat is simple, telling whatever units you have highlighted to go or attack somewhere with a button press. Want your units and heroes to attack a specific target though? Good luck. It’s as if they attack a general area of the unit you clicked, as I can’t tell you how many times I had my units slowly picked off one by one because they wouldn’t go and kill the rogue archer or mage firing from afar no matter how many times I clicked it. Instead they thought it was better to attack the building that was closer. Plus, trying to even try to target individual units is a pain in huge and chaotic battles, even while zoomed in.
Campaign is where you’ll most likely spend the majority of your time at first, maybe even the online co-op campaign, but there’s a handful of other modes too for those that want more. Journey Mode has you building a new character how you like, taking on numerous missions on specialty maps. This seems to add quite a bit of replayability as it’s not as linear as the campaign. Skirmish mode is what you’d expect, being able to go head to head against other players online that would be just like old classical PC gaming skirmishes. Arena mode is another inclusion where you fight against waves of monsters and buy items from merchants, essentially a bragging leaderboard.
This is where I would normally delve into how all the multiplayer and co-op works for each mode, but unfortunately at the time of this writing the online is completely broken and unusable. Servers were giving errors when you try to join someone’s game online, co-op or any mode, so unfortunately it launched in a broken state. From what I can gather though, it seems that the co-op campaign, the mode I wanted to play most with a fellow staff writer, has some caveats. For example, your campaign is a solo affair, so friends can’t simply join. You need to actually create a co-op campaign if you want to play alongside a friend, yet you can’t start this mode solo, so you can see where I wasn’t able to test this at all. From my understanding it seems as though that your friend joining is simply there to help you, not really making their own progress. That’s a tall ask for a 30+ hour campaign for someone to get nothing back other than gratitude.
Spellforce III: Reforced has some beautiful aesthetics and visuals you’d expect from a classic style RPG along the lines of Diablo and Baldur’s Gate. While the character models and up close details might not be all that impressive, zoomed out and taking in the environments and landscapes can be quite a treat. The music is fantastic on the other hand, completely fitting for the high fantasy setting, though hearing “base is under attack” a hundred times in the RTS missions can be quite an annoyance.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from Spellforce III: Reforced simply due to a RPG/RTS hybrid coming to console has some serious hurdles when transitioning keyboard and mouse to a controller. Is it a perfect experience, no, it actually takes a good few hours of fighting the controls to get a natural hang of it, but it does eventually become easier to understand. Once you can get over the clumsy controller commands and figure the best way to complete the RTS sections, Spellforce III: Reforced can be a pleasant surprise that you’ll have a hard time putting down, probably even more so once the online components actually function.
**Spellforce III: Reforced was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Diabolical Trilogy, The
While I don’t normally review bundles of previously released games unless there’s a substantial update or some sort of improvement, there’s always a first for everything. Truth be told, I saw the included games in The Diabolical Trilogy and remembered playing each one, so it was a great excuse to dive back in and get a refresher on some unique roguelikes from developer COWCAT.This bundle includes Xenon Valkyrie+, Riddled Corpses EX and Demon’s Tier+, and while there’s no gameplay improvements or updates from their original launch, there’s a minor discount for purchasing The Diabolical Trilogy as opposed to each individually ($25.99 CAD for the bundle versus $32.77 buying separately). Given that we here at XboxAddict reviewed each of the three games, portions will be quoted from our original reviews, as after playing each again, I wasn’t able to discern any major changes from when I originally enjoyed them. I’ll also list what our original review scores were per game and then give a new overall for the value of The Diabolical Trilogy as a whole.
Xenon Valkyrie+
Originally a VITA game, Xenon Valkyrie+ isn’t for the faint at heart, as it’s a deeply challenging roguelite platformer, and if I’m being honest, was my least favorite of the three games by a large margin. I was curious as to how the game would translate from the small handheld screen to the large living room TV, but it appeared seamless. Your home planet is under attack from a mysterious moon, so you and your team are tasked with saving the world from imminent doom by stopping an evil witch buried deep within this moon. As you fight through randomly generated worlds each time you play, you’ll unlock new powerful weapons, meet new characters, bosses and enemies.
You begin by choosing one of three characters to play, each with their own visual style and special abilities. It’s been quite a while since I’ve played, so I was hoping there was some sort of reminder or tutorial to jump back in, but unfortunately there’s not. Reading back on my original review, I mentioned that the controls aren’t taught to you at all really, as it took me a while to figure out I even had a gun I could use for ranged attacks. Each character has a sword for up close kills, a gun, grenades and their special ability, so it’s a matter of finding the character that suits your playstyle as they have different stats like defense and vitality.
Being procedurally generated, every time you die and restart your journey you’ll notice that every level is completely randomized when you play. The goal, enemies and everything in between will change each time, so there’s plenty of replayability within. You begin at the top of the stage, aiming to reach the teleporter at the bottom of the stage somewhere. You need to kill enemies in your way, as this is how you level up, able to wall jump and back track when you reach dead ends. Bosses are challenging and huge, easily the highlight of the whole experience.
Multiple endings, hardcore permadeath, great retro pixel aesthetics and some decent chiptune music, there’s plenty to enjoy if you want a roguelite to sink your teeth into. We originally scored it 58% and I’ll still agree with that today, as I simply didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the other two games in The Diabolical Trilogy.
Riddled Corpses EX
We go from my least favorite in the bundle to the best of the bunch with Riddled Corpses EX. A chaotic twin-stick shooter where you fight through hordes of zombies and monsters as you gather and collect gold to purchase new characters and upgrades. Travel through a handful of different stages culminating in a massive boss fight that will surely get you killed the first few attempts. Being a roguelike you’re going to die plenty of times, but you have some persistent progression that comes in the gold you keep when you die and the upgrades you purchase, so you’re constantly becoming more powerful, albeit slowly. While it turns into quite a grind to save up enough gold to make meaningful purchases, knowing that every few runs you get more powerful and make it a bit further each time becomes addictive.
You begin with a regular character with no special abilities, so you’ll need to keep playing to grind away, gather gold from defeated enemies and lasting as long as you can before you lose all your lives and have to start all over again, though you keep your earned gold to that point. Do you decide to save gold for the newer characters that have special abilities like 2X gold earned or acts like a magnet that sucks it in for you so you don’t need to risk running to pick it up? What about using all the gold you have to upgrade your weapons to be much more powerful? The longer you last and further you get, the more gold you’ll earn.
Eventually gold starts to flow more as you become better and can do levels on repeat to defeat the bosses, but some of the characters and upgrades cost 9999 gold which takes a handful of runs to save up for. You’ll become overwhelmed at times, as unlocking a new character means you’ll then need to save up and upgrade their weapons as well. See, I wasn’t kidding about the grind.
To help you from dying quickly you’ll randomly find clocks and dynamite from enemies when you defeat them, which I suggest figuring out the best time to use them. The clocks will stop time for a few moments, allowing you to shoot any enemies on screen as they and any projectiles are frozen in this short period of time. It’s a great way to ‘catch up’ when you’re becoming overwhelmed and need some breathing room. The dynamite does exactly what you’d expect, clearing the whole screen save for the larger enemies and bosses that have much more health.
For a top down retro twin-stick shooter, I quite enjoyed the visuals with each of the enemies looking distinct and no slowdown when your screen is practically overflowing with enemies. The chiptune music is equally as good, able to choose from classic MIDI style music without any processing applied, or a newer ‘smoother’ style of audio. We originally gave Riddled Corpses EX an 80% and even replying it all these years later, it holds up.
Demon's Tier+
The final game in The Diabolical Trilogy is Demon’s Tier+. While I didn’t enjoy this as much as Riddled Corpses EX, I’d choose to play this over Xenon Valkyrie+ if given the choice. Seemingly a blend of both of the games above, Demon’s Tier+ is a twin-stick dungeon crawler that has some persistent progression to always be working towards.
Set in underground dungeons, you move with the Left Stick and shoot with the Right as you fend off against skeletons, bats, wizards and more. There’s no dodge to avoid the onslaught of enemies, but you have a barrier you can sporadically use to block projectiles with the Right Bumper. You start out as a simple Knight, tossing your swords in all directions as needed, able to unlock other characters along the way that each have their own stats and abilities to suit different playstyles.
As you explore dungeons, defeat enemies, bosses and open chests, you’ll earn two types of currencies; gold and D-tokens. Gold is only used for your current playthrough in the dungeons to improve your stats. When you complete a dungeon level, before moving onto the next floor, you can spend your collected gold on upgrades to any of your stats. Do you get hit a lot? Maybe you’ll want to upgrade your health. Want to kill things quicker? Then increasing your damage may be the way to go. It’s completely up to you how you want to upgrade your character for each run.
D-tokens on the other hand are the main currency that you’ll want to be careful with. These can only be redeemed in the village and is the currency to purchase new characters, weapons (once you find their blueprints from bosses) and items like ropes, potions and keys. If you die in a dungeon you lose all your progress, gold and D-tokens. So to make use of what you’ve currently earned you need to use a rope to crawl out of the dungeon pit. These of course cost D-tokens to replenish, but as long as you escape before dying, you can spend your currency as you wish.
To pass a dungeon within its five minute timer you need to complete the objective given to you. This may be defeating all the enemies, blowing up all the explosive barrels, defeating a secret enemy, opening all the treasure chests or something else. You’re only given 5 minutes per dungeon to do so, as once the timer runs out the undefeatable Grim Reaper comes to take you away if you don’t escape in time. This makes for a frantic balance of wanting to spend as much time to kill and loot everything you see, but also being mindful of your remaining time and escaping before the Reaper comes. Just always keep in mind to use your rope to escape before dying and you’ll never have to worry about losing those hard earned D-tokens.
The pixel art is great overall, as enemies vary and are unique, my only problem is that sometimes action can become a little too frantic with so much going on at once. Also, because the dungeons are randomly generated, sometimes you’ll be surrounded right as you enter and can quickly die while you try and center yourself on your surroundings. The later dungeons, such as the lava filled ones, I found to be a little too chaotic, as it was hard to distinguish certain elements. Spike traps were notorious for me, as I died many times to do them since they are hard to see when trying to fight off a horde of enemies. The artistic style is retro pixel art, as is the quality soundtrack that consists of chiptune music. The music is decent overall, but because you’ll be in the same beginning dungeons numerous times, it can become a little tiresome over time. Our original score was 77%, and while I may have scored that slightly less today, Demon's Tier+ can be addictive once you figure out its intricacies and the best way to survive each run.
The Diabolical Trilogy packs three games that were decent when they originally released. While they all have some similarities, especially with their roguelike elements and twin-stick gameplay, each is unique enough that this bundle has just enough variety depending on what you are in the mood to play. Check out the three games included, and if two of them interest you at all, paying the extra buck or two for this trilogy collection is a no brainer.
**The Diabolical Trilogy was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
REMOTE LIFE
Being such a big shmup fan (shoot-em-up), I always look forward to when there’s something new in the genre to play, as there doesn’t seem to be nearly as many releasing these days. REMOTE LIFE is a typical 2D side scrolling shmup but has a distinct artistic style that looks as though it came right out of some famous HR Giger artwork, best known for his ‘biomechanical’ style. This of course reminded me much of a classic R-Type game, so naturally I wanted to get into it right away.While the gameplay and auto scrolling happens at a slow pace, you’re almost constantly moving, trying to shoot aliens and projectiles coming at every angle while navigating down narrow corridors, avoiding crashing into anything, as you’ll die instantly. With seventeen missions to play through, REMOTE LIFE has a decent length, but due to some design issues, doesn’t have all that much replayability. That said, for a complete game made by a single developer I can appreciate the countless hours that probably went into making a unique shmup like REMOTE LIFE.
Like most games in the genre, yes there’s an overarching narrative, but it’s not really the reason you’re going to purchase and play a game like this. Tell me if you’ve heard this before: There’s an alien race that has been discovered and threatening not only just our planet, but all of mankind. So of course you’ll need to pilot a space ship outfitted with an onslaught of weapons as you try and save our planet from these alien invaders. There are some more story tidbits you’ll uncover as you complete certain missions, but it’s a story that you’ll forget moments after you start playing.
With over a dozen levels, they may not take long individually, you should still be able to complete REMOTE LIFE in a single sitting or weekend without much problem. Levels vary in not only their aesthetics, but enemy types and bosses as well. The only issue I had to eye roll when it came to these story sections is that instead of being voiced by an actual person it was instead done via text-to-speech even though it’s supposed to be a human pilot speaking. It simply seemed 'off', yet was hilarious when trying to convey emotion unsuccessfully.
You begin by choosing one of multiple difficulties, from Easy all the way to Very Hard. I’m generally quite skilled at shmups, so I wanted to start out with Easy then ramp up to the higher difficulties to see the differences. While the first half of the levels posed no problems, the last handful were extremely challenging and frustrating, even on Easy, for a multitude of reasons. Start out on Easy and see how you fare in the first few levels before ramping up the challenge.
You’ll begin with only one of three ships available, with the other two unlocking at certain ranks, basically tied to mission progress. This only takes a few levels to unlock the other two and there’s apparently a speed difference in the ships, and you can also choose its color from just a few. It’s as if there was an idea for different ships to play drastically different but then never really did much with it after the fact. Most shmups generally have you piloting your ship as the screen slowly scrolls horizontally and you trying to shoot anything in your way. What makes REMOTE LIFE unique is that it also blends in twin-stick shooter elements, not something I can recall recently another shump attempting to do. This means you can maneuver your ship with the Left Stick, par the course, but you aim your blaster with the Right, able to shoot 360 degrees around you in any direction. With this mechanic you better believe enemies won’t simply be coming at you from the front, but from the rear, above, below and every other angle as well.
It takes a little getting used to, as your blaster is on the tip of your ship's nose instead of directly in the middle, so you have to be mindful as to your ship’s hitbox and where you’re shooting from, as they are different points. To make this even more challenging, a single touch of an enemy or obstacle will instantly kill you, as is normal with games in this genre. What’s challenging though is that enemies and their projectiles seem to not follow the same ruleset as you, so you’ll constantly have enemies flying through objects and shooting from afar with their bullets coming at you from every angle without anything to stop them. This of course seems quite unfair, but you’ll learn to deal with it knowing that you can’t touch anything yet enemies come straight for you through anything in their way.
Most missions are your typical 2D side scrolling shmup, but there are a few times where things change slightly to keep it interesting. The odd time you might have an escort mission, flying alongside a much larger ship trying to shoot any aliens and obstacles in its way that will deplete its shields. The longer the ship is alive the more it can help you. There’s a few portions as well where you attach your ship to this special large device, allowing you to play as a massive turret and blast anything in your way with ease for a few moments.
Then lastly were the ‘open world’ levels. There were only a couple of these different types of levels and sections, but the open world levels were the most frustrating portion of the whole experience. Still playing in 2D, the level is ‘open’ and you can fly around almost anywhere you want within its boundaries and paths. There’s a minimap in the top right with some glowing icons but you can’t really see the map properly and its pathways are not very clear with how small and jumbled up it appears. After trial and error, I figured out I needed to destroy all these energy orbs scattered throughout the level, but I was able to do it in any order I wanted. Since I can’t really use the map well, I was essentially guessing which path would take me where, causing some backtracking when I got to a dead end or further away from my objective. Once you destroy all these nodes the level completes, but the camera isn’t zoomed out very far, so it’s difficult to see what’s shooting you from off screen. These levels caused me the most deaths and simply wasn’t much fun when I had to guess what paths led to nodes and which were a waste of time.
You ship has unlimited ammo with three different weapon types you can switch between. Of course they aren’t very powerful but at least you always have a way to defend yourself from the nonstop alien invaders. There will be power-ups you find along the way which change your shots for each type of weapon with limited ammo. Pickup these power-ups and you can then choose to swap weapons depending on your current situation and enemy types coming at you. With eighteen different weapon types to find, there’s some variety you’ll pick up along the way but I tended to simply stick with my favorite default weapon and saving these better guns for when I needed them in a tight jam or bigger enemies and bosses. The ammo on these pickups get used within a few seconds, so it’s a shame you never get a more powerful upgrade that lasts permanently. There’s a bomb you get as well, though this isn’t always the screen clearing type you’re used to in the genre, as sometimes it’s a cluster bomb or a minefield that can protect you from certain directions.
Enemies come in a variety as you progress levels, and the end of each stage also has a massive boss you must face before completion. Most enemies only take a few shots to destroy, while some of the larger aliens will take a more concentrated effort. The majority of bullets they fire at you can be shot out of your way, but your aim will need to be incredibly accurate given how small your firepower is. After a handful of levels you’ll start to have more and more enemies and projectiles thrown at you, increased greatly if playing on the harder difficulties.
Where the problem comes into play and caused me countless deaths was when enemies or their shots would blend into the background given similar color schemes or how small they were. For example, there’s a few enemy bullets that are what I would guesstimate as one or two pixels wide. Trying to avoid or shoot those while watching everything else on screen is quite a challenge and simply felt unfair at times. I’ve died so many times to these one-pixel bullets and it was quite frustrating since they can come through walls and objects. The most frustrating enemy type are these spores that duplicate when shot. They cannot be destroyed, so continually fire at them and you’ll eventually become blocked by impassable spores that resemble a minefield. So not only do you want to fire at every enemy and projectile coming your way, but you need to watch for these damn spores that duplicate and can make areas impossible to pass without losing a heart.
You start out with a few hearts, so of course if you lose all these and it’s game over and you need to start the mission from the beginning again, even if you were at the boss. Hearts can be replenished if you see some to collect, but I found on the harder stages I was dying quite often quickly, so it was hard to keep up and complete some of these missions.
Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of another shmup that doesn’t have a scoreboard or leaderboard of some sort. REMOTE LIFE chooses not to score your play. I’m guessing this is so that you can simply focus on the gameplay and what’s happening on screen, but the flip side is that there’s virtually no reason to continue playing once complete as you don’t have any score or able to compare to anyone else’s performance; an odd choice that I didn’t think would bother me, but once complete I couldn’t think of a reason to go back and play again other than testing myself on the harder difficulties, just because.
The 3D rendered graphics on a 2D playfield makes enemies and your ship ‘pop’ from the background with its smooth animations and contrast. The HR Giger inspired aesthetic is hard to not appreciate, as every background and enemy has a machine and organic blend while looking menacing. The aesthetic is quite decent but the main issue arises when enemies and projectiles blend into the background, especially when it’s chaotic on screen at times. If you’re playing on a small screen, good luck, as I barely saw many of the bullets on my 65” TV. You can choose some faux 8 and 16 bit graphic options in the menu if you want to put a more retro feel to the gameplay, though it simply appears to be a type of filter that changes contrast and color palette.
As for the soundtrack, there’s techno tracks that play in the background and fits the visual aesthetic, but is pretty forgettable overall. There doesn’t seem to be many tracks either, so you can hear similar tunes throughout but there’s also an awkward silence and gap between tracks as if it’s not totally ‘stitched’ together. Again, the ‘acting’ from the text-to-speech is awkward when it’s trying to convey emotions and surprise and simply seemed weird.
For a shump just under $19 CAD, I really found the blending of genres with a twin-stick shooter interesting, but with no real reason for replayability or even a scoreboard at all, I have to suggest waiting for a sale as you’ll complete it in a single sitting or two. I absolutely commend solo developer Mario Malagrino for creating a passion project into an actual game, and with word of a sequel in the works I hope the follow-up will address the issues I had for a more memorable and unique shmup in the future that can be scored.
**REMOTE LIFE was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Dolmen
It’s no secret how popular Dark Souls has been the last few years with each new game, so much so that there’s no shortage of other games trying to replicate their success. While many try to emulate what makes Souls games so popular, very few actually pull it off or are memorable enough worth noting. There have been a few like The Surge (and its sequel), Hellpoint and Remnant: From the Ashes that take the genre and make it their own, of which I actually enjoyed Hellpoint. Developers Massive Work Studio has opted for a Dead Space meets Dark Souls kind of blend, making for a unique backdrop with some interesting design choices, but the question is the same: Will this Souls-like stand out for the right reasons, or be forgotten with the countless others in the genre? While there’s a few things I quite enjoyed from Dolmen, there was an equally amount of issues that frustrated along the way as well.Taking place on the planet Revion Prime, you’re on a mission to find a substance called ‘Dolmen’ due to its power that it supposedly holds. This incredibly powerful material is going to be very sought after though, not just by you and your team, but alien hostiles as well. This Dolmen allows you to maneuver within different realities, so you can start to see why it is so sought after. There’s cutscenes here and there generally after the main bosses, and there’s a big bad guy, but much of the lore is told through logs and computers you find along the way, so I hope you enjoy searching and reading if you want to piece it all together.
You begin by choosing your class, each varying slightly in its stats and starting weapon, though you’re not locked to playing with that main weapon only by any means, but you’ll want to definitely play to your strengths as there’s no way to respec if you start putting points into the ‘wrong’ stats to change how you want to play later on. Aside from coloring the armor, there’s no character customization whatsoever as you begin. Granted, you don’t ever see your character out of armor, but it was a bit of a letdown to simply have a generic futuristic suit of armor, something you might see in Dead Space or Mass Effect.
As a Souls-like, Dolmen is not only is trying to be like its inspiration, it basically copies all of its mechanics almost exactly. You know when a friend in school wanted to copy your homework and you let them, but made sure they reworded it so it didn’t look like it was blatantly obvious? Think that. With a futuristic setting you can expect the same tried and true game loop that you’ve come to love from your Souls games. Explore levels, kill enemies, manage your stamina bar, earn experience points, use specific points as teleports, kill massive bosses and repeat.
Instead of bonfires you have these pods that act as your safe zones and teleport points. Using these refills all your health and energy, but also respawn every single enemy. Kill enemies for Nanites, the equivalent of Souls, your currency for leveling up a number of different stats based on how you want to spec your character. The challenge is tough, bosses on a whole other level, and you’re going to die repeatedly over and over. Dolmen does do a good job at creating an unsettling atmosphere with its opening environment that’s very organic in nature, eventually changing up some of the biomes and backdrops to more typical sci-fi scenes you’d come to expect.
While the above describes every Souls game ever, Dolmen does do a few unique things which I applaud them for, though I question some of the execution. While it has more of a horror type of setting with lots of hidden enemies and ambushes, Dolmen clearly wants you to play it as a melee type of game, hacking and slashing your way through enemies, but with a ranged weapon you can also shoot from afar as well. More than simply swapping magic using mana, Dolmen uses energy for ranged ‘ammo’, but this refills over time but is also used for a number of other things, such as healing. More on that shortly.
While you can switch between melee and ranged combat on whim (provided you have enough energy), you have your typical Light and Heavy attacks with a Block and Dodge. Block the moment you get attacked and you can parry many attacks and even ranged projectiles, provided they are not the unblockable attacks which seem to be the norm in the later stages. All of these attacks and dodges need to be managed by your green stamina bar, something you’ve become very adept at over the years in other Souls games. I did quite enjoy this dodge, as instead of a typical roll, your character also has this silhouette of themselves from their previous position. Does it add anything to the gameplay? No, but it looks cool. There’s no jumping in Dolmen, yet you’re able to do a jumping attack (running plus heavy attack), so how that makes sense I’m not sure.
Given Dolmen’s horror-like aesthetic, you can expect hidden enemies around every corner and some that even teleport into place just to scare and ambush you. You’re going to need to be aware of what could potentially be above or below you as well, especially in the opening area with plenty of bugs you’ll fight against. The biggest problem I found, even from the beginning, is that enemies are tuned a little high. Their health pool is huge, needing a good barrage of attacks to kill, and even when you start to level up and get new gear, bosses are just massive hit sponges that become a chore to fight against over and over after each death and restart. Melee weapons never feel weighty or do huge damage unless you want to use the giant two handed swords, but even then, that’s not how I wanted to play and I felt I suffered for it trying to dual wield some cool looking blades.
You have an Energy meter that can be used for a number of different things depending on what you need and your playstyle. More than simply a ‘mana’ bar, Energy is used as your ‘ammo’ for your pistols that refills over time and is also able to be used as an Energy Mode, allowing you to imbue your melee weapons with elemental properties and attacks. Lastly, Energy is also used to heal your health after getting attacked, a blend of ranged ammo and an Estus Flask.
So while you can freely simply use it for ammunition for your pistols, as soon as you use your Energy to heal you now have less to use for your shots. This unique approach has you constantly balancing what’s most important at the moment you need it. I tended to favor using my ranged weapons so I constantly relied on my Energy. As soon as I needed to heal and use my Energy, I then had much less ammo to use, forcing me to go back to melee attacks.
You can refill your energy with batteries but these are rare and you only ever get a few at a time. This is where I liked the idea, but the execution is left to be desired. So you’re full health and accidently hit the button to heal? Well, that’s clearly your fault and it uses the Energy regardless. Only missing a sliver of health and accidentally heal? You guessed it, half your Energy gone. It should scale but doesn’t, so you need to wait longer than you sometimes want to if you want to be efficient as possible as to not waste your coveted batteries. Even worse, it takes a full three seconds of standing still use use a battery, so imagine how impossible this is to do during boss fights or when being swarmed when you actually need to in the chaos.
You choose a core reactor for your suit that equates to different elements, from Fire, Ice and Poison. Using your special Energy Mode allows you to use these elements with your melee attacks, negating the stamina use, but uses the Energy instead. It’s a good way to get some extra hits in, useful for openings in boss fights, but again, you’ll drain your Energy almost instantly, so you need to know the best times to do so while you wait for it to refill slowly.
Gunplay plays a large and unique part of Dolmen’s combat. While you don’t need to rely on it heavily, and the game does want you to focus on melee the majority of the time, you can make a fully viable ranged build if you choose. While this sounded fun, as I could essentially play it like a third person shooter, this backfired when I started fighting bosses that essentially negated ranged attacks. You can lock onto enemies, though of course this gets dicey when in closed spaces and fighting multiple enemies at once.
While you’ll need to learn the best strategies for taking on every type of enemy, though there’s not too many, you can expect to be punished for the smallest mistake when you do inevitably make one. Even regular enemies can hit hard and take a ton of damage to kill, but the bosses are on a whole other level. Bosses are meant to be challenging, but when they have so much health and take well over fifteen to twenty minutes to kill, it becomes tiresome, especially attempting the same boss for well over an hour from constantly dying. Bosses start out with a decent challenge then spike in difficulty after a couple, eventually destroying the little enjoyment I was having as I slowly became more stronger and competent.
One of the other interesting things Dolmen does is how it handles crafting. Armor and weapons don’t actually drop from any enemies throughout your adventure. Instead, killing enemies will net you crafting materials and blueprints, with bosses obviously having the better and rarest materials you’ll want to seek out. This encourages farming, which is possible, but quite tedious. You see, when you defeat a boss, it’s dead for good. You can respawn them, but you need a special currency that doesn’t drop often, but this currency is also used for fighting bosses in multiplayer, something I’ll explain shortly.
You can craft melee weapons, ranged weapons and armor from helmets, arms, legs and chest, as well as shields. This is of course if you have the blueprints and enough materials to do so. The higher the tier of item you can actually add components to the item before crafting that will raise its stats in different ways depending on the catalyst you add. Using your special boss drops will greatly improve your items when crafting, but do you use them on lower gear to get a bigger boost early on, or save for later when you can add multiple components for higher tiered items? You’ll need to constantly back out and compare gear in a clumsy menu system though, so prepare to take notes before doing so.
While there is a multiplayer component to Dolmen, it’s so poorly implemented that you might as well pretend it doesn’t exist. If you’re expecting to play alongside a friend in co-op to get through the story and game as whole, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Boss battles can be done in co-op, though to host or join a lobby you need a special currency that randomly drops from enemies. Yes, you need these fragments to play co-op every single time. Oh you’ve died? Yup, you’ve lost your Nanites and these special fragments that are on your corpse.
So while you could farm bosses for the materials, you’ll need to farm regular enemies and hope for these fragments so you can event attempt a boss with a co-op partner. Of course I tried this, hosting a lobby and had someone help me kill the first boss. We beat the boss, which I was grateful for, but then it instantly kicks out your partner and refreshes your game. I don’t know if I had a bug or not, but this co-op kill didn’t count for my story progression, so I had to do it solo afterwards for it to count anyways. You can also respawn bosses if you wish to farm, but then you’re using your shards for this instead of co-op kills. If I could have played alongside a friend for the whole game, Dolmen would have been much more bearable, but the way co-op is implemented here is mind boggling and an utter disappointment.
While I enjoyed Dolmen’s gritty aesthetic taking place on a planet that feels organic in some parts, it does look dated at best. While there’s two visual options, I chose Performance for seemingly better framerates over some slightly better reflections and lighting? The environments themselves look decent and varied when you go from area to area, but the majority of the indoor hallway sections without much to look at can become dull after a while, exasperated with the stiff animations of your character. The audio soundscape is done well in the sense that you constantly hear some creaking and monster noises through the doorways, putting you on notice, but aside from that and your attacks there’s really nothing else worth noting. There’s very little ambient sound, almost to the point of being silent, and while that may be what developers were going for to get the ‘deadness’ of the planet's mood across, having empty audio just feels off. There’s an oddly catchy little song that plays when you go back to your ship to level up and craft, but other than a song here and there with boss fights, don’t expect much else.
For being developer Massive Work Studio’s first major release, I have to appreciate what they’ve done with a small team. Trying to be a Souls game can be very difficult, as you’re going to always be compared to the best of the best in the genre, and about half way through and a handful of bosses in, I simply wanted it to be over. I never really felt more powerful by a large margin when I upgraded my gear and even standard enemies have way too much health. Bosses infuriated instead of making me feel dominant when I was finally able to defeat them, knowing that I’d be slogging through just to reach the next boss gate and preparing myself to die a dozen times.
For those that truly enjoy Souls games, even budget titles, Dolmen should give you a good twenty or so hours of content to get through, but at its current high price I can only suggest waiting for a massive sale for the rest of everyone else curious. While I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as say Hellpoint, I have to commend their bravery releasing this so shortly after Elden Ring. There’s some good ideas here, and with some more polish and refining I probably would have enjoyed my time with Dolmen much more than I did, but as it stands now I simply wanted it to end.
**Dolmen was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Loot River
If there’s two genres I’d never think I’d see combined into one, it probably would have been Tetris and a Souls-like. That’s right, somehow developers straka.studio has managed to meld the challenging gameplay of a Souls-like with the piece moving that many of us grew up with playing Tetris. I know, it’s hard to imagine how they blend together, but it’s quite clever and actually works quite well once you get accustomed to the controls.To make the game have much more replayabilty, it’s all procedurally generated, so no two runs will ever be the same. Also being a roguelike means you’re going to die, a lot, and every death means a new run with new strategies based on how the levels are laid out in front of you. Combined with decent pixel art and addictive combat once you figure it out, Loot River surprised me with its unique ideas and gameplay.
In most dungeon crawlers you need to explore pathways and kill enemies in your way, but here in Loot River, instead of exploring an underground dungeon on foot, you’re instead tasked with moving platforms across a flooded river filled with tons of challenging enemies from a top down viewpoint. I know that this brief description so far doesn’t really explain its main features and gameplay well, but it will all make sense shortly as you move your floating platforms around the river like they are pieces in Tetris.
I don’t want to say there’s not much of a story within Loot River, but it’s certainly not the primary focus of the overall experience, that’s where the gameplay comes in. You die early on in your adventure but get revived into some sort of other worldly place. You’re tasked with adventuring forth to somehow stop this loop you’re stuck in, as you reappear back in this unfamiliar place with just a handful of characters around after you awaken from each death.
There’s a few characters you’ll meet and talk to along the way, but don’t go in expecting some interesting narrative and simply focus on the unique gameplay. One of the most interesting of these is an alchemist named Soap. You’ll need your limited potions to refill your health when you get low to avoid a death and restart, but what happens when you finally start to get some skill and can dodge and parry when needed and don’t die so often? Well, you can opt to donate some potions to Soap who will double what you gave him after a successful run. So do you risk giving up some of your precious health potions for a chance at more after a successful level?
The most interesting aspect about Loot River is undoubtedly its platform moving mechanics that resemble playing Tetris. Keep in mind that platforms float on a river, so standing on one and using the Right Stick will move that platform in whatever of the four main directions you move the stick. Sliding these platform is really interesting and also has somewhat of a puzzle component to it. These platforms can be small square shaped, long rectangles, weird “C” shapes and others, which makes moving around the confined waterways difficult, sometimes having to move to other platforms to move them out of the way of the specific platform you might need to fit adjacent walkways.
While I generally enjoyed this core part of Loot River, it was also at times the most frustrating aspect as well. Because levels are procedurally generated, it’s randomized how levels are designed, so you won’t be able to look up any help if you get stuck. Making these platform sections even more difficult at times is that there’s sometimes higher platforms that you need stairs to reach up, as some platforms will have a small staircase to reach this upper level. Moving around to a platform you think you need only to realize you’re not using a higher tiered section means you might need to do some backtracking and moving a dozen different pieces around to get the specific platform you need to reach another area or fit within a small hallway. More than once I had to manually end a run prematurely because I simply couldn’t figure out these platform puzzle elements or had to do a ton of backtracking and figuring out to progress. Frustrating at times but cool ideas nonetheless.
While playing Tetris with moveable platforms may be half of the equation, the other half is the combat that tries to resemble something you’d experience in a Souls game. You start with two weapons, a sword and a pike, though both play quite differently. There’s a handful of different weapon types you’ll find and unlock along the way, but I always found my best runs were when I stuck with a basic sword for the majority. Eventually weapons will start to have powers and spells attached to them and usable as well and you can swap between two carried weapons when you want.
Combat itself feels quite clunky at first, and since you often get swarmed and have to deal with plenty of enemies it can be a little overwhelming at first. It wasn’t until I learned how to parry properly that I started to really have much more success. Enemies will give a quick telegraph of their attacks with a small icon above their head for a brief second, allowing you to parry or dodge out of the way. I highly suggest learning to parry properly, as dodging can be useful, but it’s not like what you’re used to in Souls games since there’s no invulnerability that allows you to avoid being hit if you time it right. Instead, it’s somewhat like a short distance teleport, simply moving you out of the range of an attack. This of course becomes confusing during chaotic battles, but you will eventually get used to it with enough practice. Parrying properly will allow you to get a much higher damage hit in for ‘free’, as you’re invulnerable during this animation, something you’ll need to master.
I was honestly expecting to be showered in loot given the game title 'Loot River'. While you will find some loot along the way randomly from weapons, rings and armor, there’s really not all that much given the randomness of enemies and drops. Since runs are reset in this roguelike every time you die, it doesn’t really matter in the end either aside from making you more powerful for that specific run. There was the odd really interesting and unique weapons from bosses and such, but not nearly as much as I expected.
You’ll want to spend the first good amount of runs trying to kill every enemy you can, not only to level up and give you a better chance to survive that run, but increasing your stats and earning skill points. These points can purchase you new weapon, magic and armor unlocks that can make subsequent runs that much easier. This is the persistent progression you’re constantly working towards, even when dying on runs over and over, though it is slow.
I quite enjoyed the retro aesthetic Loot River utilizes, as the animations are done quite well and the water simulation as you constantly move platforms is quite impressive, almost looking like pixelated waves. Where I found the visuals lacking though is the distinction between certain weapons. For example, I usually held two different swords, but had to constantly double check in the menus which one I was equipping because the icons for each were very similar without much distinction.
I normally tend to steer away from Souls-like as it’s not my genre of choice. Coupled with being a roguelike, I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it in the slightest bit. Loot River surprised me though with its interesting and unique puzzle mechanics, and while not perfect by any means, “Souls Meets Tetris” is something I never thought I would write, but here we are. Factor in that Loot River is also currently available on Game Pass and it’s a hard title to pass up trying to see if it click with your genre preferences.
**Loot River was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Liberated: Enhanced Edition
If you’re a fan of gritty graphic novels and action games, Liberated: Enhanced Edition is now available for Xbox, bringing some fantastic hand drawn visuals with a story told as if you're flipping through a comic book. As the story unfolds (see what I did there?) you’ll enjoy the stylized aesthetic, then get thrown into levels where you’ll be running, sneaking and shooting your way out of bad situations, but mostly shooting as there’s no real reason to sneak and hide.While you may have played Liberated on PC when it originally released back in 2020, this new release is the Enhanced Edition. So what exactly is new you ask? It has “enhancements in gameplay and content”, whatever that means, full voice overs for English and two new epilogue chapters, “For the Homeland” and “Glory to the Heroes”. I’d question how much was really added as an overall package from its original release, but alas, it’s new to console players, so here we are.
A comic book with a gritty noir setting, Liberated is set in a dystopian future where the government wants complete control of its citizens, violating their human rights and privacy wherever possible. If you’ve seen that Black Mirror episode about having a social score, it’s along those lines where every citizen is ranked on a variety of factors, and if they fall below a certain score they're put under the microscope of the government. The ‘Liberated’ is a group that aims to shed light on this practice, exposing what’s going on for it's people and the world to see.
Would you want your every moved to be tracked and everything you said being heard? Does this sound not all that too far distant in the future given the world we live in today? Spread across four Chapters, separated a four different comics, the story unfolds from different viewpoints. I’ll admit, the story initially intrigued me, as even though it’s got a very conspiracy vibe to it, it’s already mirroring some things we see in our real world today, so it’s really not all that farfetched.
There's large story sections where the comic book panels tend to drag on quite a bit, flipping page to page as the narrative unfolds and is slightly animated, but the characters started to wear on me after a while and felt very stereotypical. The two post story epilogues help flesh out the ending a bit more, as I wouldn’t have been satisfied with the core game’s conclusion, but the first epilogue is simply a visual novel with no gameplay while the second is more stealth focused which really isn’t how you played the rest of the game previously.
When you aren’t moving from one comic panel to the next during the narrative portions, gameplay happens across the larger panels as it zooms in and you focus in that single pane, kind of like Comix Zone for the Genesis but not as fourth wall breaking. The main gameplay portions have you running from the left side of the screen to the right, either avoiding enemies by hiding behind walls, or running and gunning your way through anyone that stands in your way.
Because Liberated is dark and gritty it appears it’s always night time, so you can only tell an enemy is coming off screen by the luminescence from their flashlights, almost acting like their cone of vision. Essentially, if you can see their flashlight, they’ll be able to see you once you’re in range. This means you need to either hide behind cover and wait for them to pass, which would take you an excruciating amount of time to do, or simply shoot everyone and aim for quick headshots.
It feels like the game wants you to employ and use stealth when possible, but the walking paths of enemies are so lengthy and slow that there’s no real reason to. Your guns have infinite ammo, you just need to reload when your clip is empty is all. The problem with these hiding spots is that while most happen around corners and objects, that’s not always the case. You’re only able to hide when you get the button prompt above your head, so you better hope that the spot that you need to duck into right away is an actual spot to prime yourself for a stealth silent kill.
Running and gunning is basically the way to go, as you aim with your Right Stick and want to ideally aim for headshots to conserve ammo. That’s about it for gameplay and there’s really only two types of enemies, those that patrol with their flashlights and those that are waiting for you behind a wall, easily noticeable once you know what to look for after the first ambush. Because every enemy appears from off screen out of your vision, you can’t really run as you’ll end up right into their flashlight and they’ll kill you before you even pull your pistol out. This forces you to slowly make your way across the comic pane at a slog, exasperated by the limited enemy types.
The only other change to the gameplay flow is the odd QTE (Quicktime Event) where you need to quickly hit the corresponding button on screen to perform an action. These are usually included to add some sort of ‘gameplay’ to action sequences where you don’t normally have control of what’s happening on screen, but it’s used quite poorly here. For example, instead of using a QTE button prompt to rush into an area after jumping over a car hood and one button per enemy kill, instead you press a QTE button four or five times to simply slide over the car hood, then the action plays out itself. Or using QTE’s to change lanes during a chase, it just felt unnecessary every time it occurred.
There’s a few puzzles in the game as well, nothing that will stump you or require a walkthrough, usually having you connect all the wires or something similar. I appreciate that there was an effort to mix up the gameplay a bit, and it make sense narratively, but it really slowed down the pacing to a grinding halt.
Combat is basic as it gets, as you can see your laser pointer from your gun, so simply try to aim for heads and rapid fire the trigger and you’ll be fine. There’s not much challenge at all aside from a few elevator rides where you’ll need to kill enemies on both sides of you, forcing you to get the first couple shots in quickly or a lucky headshot or two if you don’t want to restart these sections. There’s a few drones that will attack you in some sections as well, but one good placed shot will destroy these also. While functional, I simply found the core gameplay of slowly walking and shooting tedious, as it doesn’t change at all from its opening moments to the rolling credits.
While the gameplay failed to excite me, the noir setting and comic book style captured my attention. I quite enjoyed the black and white approach, almost as if it came from the 50’s era, yet is set in an almost cyberpunk dystopian backdrop. The black and white hand drawings are done exceptionally well within the comic book portions as the narrative plays out from page to page. The thick black markers and details have a great visual style that works with the setting and tone and being able to slightly move the camera on each panel gives it a feel like you’re actually reading a comic book.
While I applaud that voice acting is included for every line from each character, something you don’t see often in smaller games like these, the voice acting itself is something left to be desired. Voices don’t feel like they match the characters you see on screen in the comic, and where there should be emotion there’s usually quite a flat execution overall. The music is fitting for the backdrop, though unmemorable and I didn’t feel compelled to have it playing in the background as I sat down to write this like I do with other games that have an entrancing soundtrack.
I applaud the concept, as having an interactive comic book is a cool touch and not something we see often these days. The gameplay itself is mediocre at best and I would have been just as pleased if it was a visual novel overall that I could simply watch being played through, as the gameplay didn’t evolve or change by the time the credits rolled after three or four hours. An interesting narrative with a compelling aesthetic unfortunately held back by its tedious gameplay.
** Liberated: Enhanced Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
MotoGP 22
While I’m a casual MotoGP fan, I somehow always seem to play the games, usually skipping a year or two’s entry here and there. I last reviewed MotoGP 20, skipping 21, so I was excited to get back onto the bike for some laps around the track. The MotoGP games is what actually turned me onto the sport, and while I’ll only watch a race here and there, it’s always quite exciting when I do, and that’s what MotoGP 22 is trying to recreate, an authentic MotoGP experience for fans and newcomers. It seems they’ve hit a sweet spot in the series with this year’s entry, adding the best career mode addition to date that is a game changer and had me hooked.There’s a decent amount of content here for those wanting a robust campaign, spreading across the entire MotoGP world and 2022 Season. With over 100 riders, over 20 official circuits, there’s plenty of racing for you to customize and race at your own preferences. You’re able to create your own team or be a part of an official one, and much like previous entries, and you’ll have to hire and reject staff, from management to engineers that can improve your aerodynamics, frame, electronics and engine.
If you want to start out small before jumping into the insanely powerful MotoGP machines, you can begin in the Moto2 and Moto 3 leagues instead if you want something a bit easier to handle to begin. Even if you choose to jump right into the ‘big boy’ MotoGP league, you can customize your game to suit how many assists you want, from nearly fully automatic braking to no assists at all which will take some serious commitment to master.
When you choose what you want to race you can then choose what to partake in on race weekend, from warm ups, practice laps and qualifying, or simply just jump into the race itself without doing so. Depending on how in-depth you want to sink yourself into the MotoGP world, you can set races from just a few laps to the full experience. Choose to take part of the practice laps and you can work towards some challenges your team sets forth for you which will reward you with bike improvements, so it can be worth the time investment, along with the practice to learn your bike better. Aside from menu changes, the main campaign is vastly the same in its setup and execution from previous years.
Now, what surprised me and made me become hooked to MotoGP 22 was the new NINE SEASON 2009 Mode. Here you get to relive and partake in one of the most exciting championships in MotoGP history. Broken down into seventeen separate chapters, you’ll be facing completely unique challenges that happened at iconic moments of this mind blowing championship. Grab your helmet and take control of legends like Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Rossi, all of which need no introduction for fans.
Each episode is captivating, as it shows historical footage outlining the drama and competition between the leaders of the 2009 Season. With almost an hour of actual footage included, narrated amazingly by Mark Neale, I didn’t realize how exciting and how much drama that was involved in this legendary championship. As you complete each chapter you’re tasked with various objectives, such as beating a certain opponent, coming in a specific place or better, and being successful will unlock a new video and race of the championship.
Actually playing as Rossi and the other icons would have been cool enough, but setting up these snippets of races with specific objectives, each with their own perspectives and challenges, was easily the pinnacle of MotoGP 22 by far. You can even unlock riders, bikes, liveries and more going through this mode. NINE SEASON 2009 is more than a simple campaign, but more like a documentary you get to experience along the way, fantastic for casual fans like myself that now have watched hours of YouTube footage on these riders and races. The drama and story of these riders and overall challenges absolutely hooked me and made for a unique experience I don’t find in many sport racers.
I won’t lie, my first few races were absolutely terrible, as I found it difficult to control the bike the way I intended. Racing a 1000cc bike going nearly 300 km/h is unfathomable, and even in game form can be quite a challenge. There’s a new tutorial section, titled the MotoGP Academy, where you’ll learn much of the basics, free to try out some of the assists and difficulty toggles to find what works best for you. These start out heavy handed, auto braking for you, but you can of course change these to whatever setting you wish. The tutorials won’t have you rushing to first place every race from the get-go but at least there’s an attempt to teach you aside from simply throwing you onto the track with cold tires.
Previous MotoGP games allowed you to drive quite aggressively, but I found this to be not the case as much in MotoGP 22. Before I would slam on the brake and lean hard into each corner and be fine. I had a much more difficult time trying to race that style in this year’s game, having to teach myself to let go of the throttle and feather the brake at times rather than simply hitting them hard as I could. Racing two wheeled MotoGP bikes is nothing like typical racing games, as you need to pre-lean and prepare to corner unlike cars. This takes a bit of time to get a feel for, as you have to lean early, but not too early or you’ll cut the corner and get a penalty (and most likely bail). There’s a point where everything simply ‘clicks’ and you get it. Once you’re able to lean in and out of corners, chaining them together with precision while near horizontal and riding the grass edges feels amazing.
Braking too feels vastly improved, having to utilize front and rear brakes while leaning takes time to master, but there’s something special when you feel one with the bike and track, hitting those apex and lines absolutely perfectly. Speaking of assist lines, I tend to keep them on to learn the tracks better, but there’s a few sections where it turns yellow and red to indicate to slow down and how much, but some of these seemed completely wrong and way off. Certain corners I had to brake well before it suggested and even then I would barely make the corner at extreme angles and powering out of the apex. I’m not sure if these adjust for what bike upgrades I currently have equipped, but certain tracks were very difficult due to these inaccurate race lines.
If you want a truly authentic experience to be as close as it gets to the real thing, I suggest turning off all assists and using the helmet camera. There’s nothing else quite like it. I found it insanely difficult but there’s definitely a unique experience to be had racing in this view. Not recommended for new players, but worth checking out for sure if you want to see what riding a bike like these would actually be like without the worry of crashing.
Online multiplayer is virtually unchanged and what you’d expect from a MotoGP game. You can customize your lobbies and races up to twelve players. Even after a couple weeks since release and having cross-gen multiplayer (same console families only), there’s virtually no one playing this online every time I go to check for races online. Maybe I’m checking at the wrong times, but I would have expected a larger community to pay with. If it helps, there’s now a split-screen mode finally included if you have someone locally to play with, something that’s been asked for many times previously.
I was hoping that skipping last year’s MotoGP 21 that I’d be blown away by this entry visually. MotoGP 22 looks fine, as lighting seems better, grass looks great and overall seemed smoother, but some of the models, even the basic choices for your character are quite bland and unimpressive, even on an Xbox Series X. Audio is in the same boat, being completely adequate, but nothing really stood out. Sure the starting line and first few corners are exciting with all the engine roars close by in turn one, but once you separate yourself from the pack, you’ll just hear the same engine whizzing without any music or commentary.
AI seemed basically on rails, as they will race their line, regardless if you’re in their way or not. There’s an option to pick up your bike and get back on track when you crash, but AI doesn’t seem to need to follow these same rules for whatever reason. The standard Career Mode was serviceable, but NINE SEASON 2009 is now the true king of the MotoGP series, one that I hope to see return with another exciting season in the inevitable MotoGP 23 next year.
Without this new exciting career mode I probably would have bailed on MotoGP 22 long before, but seeing documentary footage and racing as iconic legends of the sport was truly exciting. Hardcore MotoGP fans will most likely love this new mode, especially since they’ve made this casual fan a larger one because of it. While MotoGP 22 might be a harder sell for the fans that purchase it every year and know that there’s only incremental updates, this is probably a great entry to dive in for those on the fence or have skipped a few years of entries.
**MotoGP 22 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread
Have you been craving a light hearted, comedy infused 2D action adventure metroidvania game lately? Do you miss the days of actions movies with the overly macho and overconfident hero that wields a big gun and shoots every bad guy in sight? If you’ve answered yes, then you might want to take a look at Blast Brigade vs. The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread, developed by Allods Team Arcade, a comic inspired platforming twin stick shooter with plenty of challenge and much more length than I was initially expecting as you try and save the world.You begin your adventure as Jeff Jefferson, a Blast Brigade secret agent that is tasked with stopping the evil Dr. Cread within his secret lair. Jeff has some funny one liners that might make you smirk now and then, and while there is a large attempt to inject some humor into the experience, it never resulted me having to snort laugh. Thankfully the core focus is on its gameplay, which is challenging yet satisfying.
While there is an overarching narrative, which you could probably guess from the game title itself, the campaign actually surprised me for a few reasons. First and foremost, it is fully voice acted when it comes to the cutscenes, and quite decently as well. I thought I would simply be Mr. Jefferson for a quick four or five hour journey, but I was wrong. You can expect to play a few different characters, each with their own special ability that allows you to access new areas or traversing around the section of the map you’re currently in. Lastly, you can expect anywhere from 15-25 hours of gameplay, depending on how much you want to explore for secrets and how challenging you find some of the rooms and bosses.
Jeff can shoot and jump in the beginning, but that’s about it. You’ll unlock some new skills and abilities as you progress, such as dashing, not only for dodging but to traverse gaps as well, throwing grenades and unlocking secondary weapons. Search hard enough and you’ll also be able to upgrade certain skills and add to your total heart pool as well, increasing your maximum health, something you’ll surely want when you face off against Dr. Cread’s challenging bosses.
As you traverse Dr. Cread’s island trying to find a way to get into his lair you’ll explore a number of different biomes, each with their own art style, mood and backgrounds. Jeff isn’t the only hero in this tale though, as you’ll meet a cast of playable characters along the way which will help you explore each area more thoroughly than previous. For example, you can’t reach many areas until you unlock Shura, as she comes with a grapple hook, allowing you to reach whole new areas and will be absolutely needed in certain boss fights. While there’s some banter between the cast, the gameplay will change slightly based on who you’re using, this is also how its Metroidvania roots start to appear as you might need to go back to a very early area to now reach somewhere new for a collectable.
Checkpoints are indicated by hammocks that Jeff and the others can rest in, not only to be used as where you’ll appear when you inevitably die, but also to refill your health and energy completely if needed. You’re going to die, a lot, so using these checkpoint hammocks strategically will be quite helpful. While they aren’t normally too far spread out, there’s a few times where I had to fight through a handful of rooms to get to the next. This meant that when I inevitably died at some point, I’d have to fight my way through the same rooms once again to try and reach the next checkpoint. This was frustrating when a hammock wasn’t beside a boss room, so I would have to traverse a room or two just to reattempt the boss I just died to for the sixth time.
Don’t let the cute and colorful comic book art style fool you, there’s quite a bit of challenge here early on. Some rooms are filled with enemies, some you can’t escape until you kill everything, and others have tons of spikes on the floors and walls. Each enemy will attack you relentlessly once you’ve been spotted or close by, and it can be annoying to have to try and deal with soldiers shooting at you, bats attacking you from above and plants lobbing poison at you from afar. When you die you drop a portion of the money you’ve earned along the way gathered from killing enemies and reappear at your last used hammock. Thankfully if you can reclaim your dropped money, if you can get back to where you died of course.
While Blast Brigade has large and open-like rooms you need to get through, your map will show how each is connected and where the doorways are. While it may seem large and open, it’s generally quite linear, especially in the first half until you start to get the abilities you need like the Grapple Hook to even get to certain portions of rooms. Each area may be made up of a dozen or so rooms, usually having one spot where you can park your motorcycle. This is Blast Brigade’s version of fast travel, allowing you to quickly zip from one area to the next if you’ve unlocked these nodes.
You control your character with the Left Stick and aim with the Right, much like a twin-stick shooter. This is all well and good, but having to jump means you need to take your thumb off the Right Stick to hit the button. This only became an issue a few times in chaotic battles or where I was trying to rapidly progress, but you eventually learn to take things a bit slower instead of rushing.
You have primary and secondary weapons. Your first primary weapon is Jeff’s trusty Assault Rifle, complete with unlimited ammo, but you will need to reload the clip and be in a certain range to hit enemies. Not firing for a few moments will automatically refill your ammo of your primary, as will emptying the clip. Secondary weapons, when unlocked, have limited ammo but are generally much more powerful, best saved for when actually needed like against bosses or annoying enemies. Your first secondary weapon will be Jeff’s shotgun, eventually getting a sniper rifle and more. Ammo for these drop randomly from enemies, so always be on the lookout to refill.
Where Blast Brigade shines best is during its handful of epic boss fights. The first couple aren’t too challenging, but they eventually become much more menacing and involved. Not only will you need to be quick with your reflexes, but you’ll have to study their patterns and find the best times to avoid, dodge and hide from specific attacks before going on the offensive. Some of these boss fights might make you think a bit more, like why are those grapple hooks in specific places, or is that attack actually avoidable? These bosses are usually huge and was easily the most memorable part of the whole experience. Just hope that you don’t die numerous times to these and have to make the trek back to attempt once again.
Manage to explore the rooms enough and you might come across some blueprints and upgrades. You’ll acquire a PDA during your adventure, allowing you to choose from a number of different upgrades you find. A helpful one for me early on was the passive ability to have money and ammo be attracted to me, so I only needed to get close to them to gather instead of having to run over them to pick them up. There’s quite a number of different abilities that can make a huge difference in your gameplay, but you’ll need to choose wisely, as you can’t enable them all.
The world of Blast Brigade is quite colorful and bright, even when deep underground in a lair or jail area. The animation is smooth and I never had any performance hiccups on an Xbox Series X. The writing is cheesy at times with terrible one-liners, but that’s by design, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a few moments of laughter from some stupid jokes Jeff made. Having all of the dialogue voiced was an unexpected but welcome treat as well.
Solid controls, fun gameplay and much longer than I initially expected, Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread certainly has value for those that are looking for a decent Metroidvania to sink their time into. The gameplay can be quite challenging at times, and although I wish there was some more difficulty choices, I still enjoyed my time with Jeff and the others trying to stop the evil Dr. Cread.
**Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Citizen Sleeper
While I’ve always been a fan of Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPG), I’ve never really had a group of local likeminded friends to get together with and play on the weekends with a few drinks and snacks in hand. Tabletop games can be difficult to transition into a game format, as there’s nothing quite like rolling some dice and moving your pieces along the board. Citizen Sleeper, developed by Jump Over The Age, looks to recreate that tabletop experience with the inclusion of dice and numerous quests, but gives the player the control to experience the game as they wish, letting you choose your own path and make your own decisions. I’ll admit, the screenshots initially didn’t do much to excite me, but after well over one hundred cycles later, I wish it didn’t end.Once you get a grasp of everything going on, the setting and characters, Citizen Sleeper becomes a wonderful narrative based RPG. Set aboard the ringed space station Erlin’s Eye, The Eye for short, you are what they call a sleeper, a digitized human consciousness placed within an artificial body. You’re also simply a disposable asset to Essen-Arp, a corporation that owns and controls you. Did you volunteer to be put in this artificial body? Did you die? Who controls you? Who is Essen-Arp? Why are you on this ship among others? You’re going to have dozens of questions, though by the end you should have your answers.
While not derelict, it’s clear that The Eye isn’t the best place to find yourself in the galaxy, as you’re amongst thousands of other citizens simply trying to get by and survive. Some want to leave and go elsewhere, but what do you want? Do you have your own thoughts or are you simply programmed this way? As it turns out, it seems you’re actually on the run from the corporation that built you, by why, and are they trying to get you back or destroy you?
Given that you just awoke aboard this ship, unaware of not only where you are, but what you are, you’re going to need to build some relationships if you not only want to find answers, but maybe form some friendships that will help you survive to the next cycle as well. Who actually runs The Eye though, as there seems to be a number of different conflicting factions and fragile alliances, though maybe if you can find some common ground you’ll find a way to not only survive, but thrive.
You’ll meet a wide cast of characters, each with their own intriguing backgrounds and motivations, from mechanics to bartenders, assassins and more. Who you decide to help and side with is completely up to you, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ perse, but remember, choices and actions could have ramifications and consequences, intentional or not. There’s a commonality of almost everyone being against the corporations though, so maybe you can use that to your advantage in certain situations.
While I’m purposely being vague and general about the overall themes and tones of the narrative, Citizen Sleeper excels in telling these smaller personal stories. There’s an encompassing story at play, but who you decide to interact with and their stories is what truly excels here, as every character I met and interacted with along the way was quite memorable, written well and had deep backstories that made me care about them one way or another.
You begin your adventure by being awoken by a mechanic that finds you, explaining where you are. Nothing really makes sense at first, so you decide to trust them, as I agreed to work some odd jobs to pay off my debt for being given a place to rest my head and recharge at the end of each cycle (essentially a day). It becomes apparent quite quickly that you’re going to need to figure out a way to survive, not only with your life, but finding a way to earn credits to pay for food as well. Each cycle you awake, you’re able to spend your time however you like. Want to spend your first few cycles working some small jobs to earn some credits, go ahead, or maybe you’ll encounter some interesting characters that may ask you for help in other ways.
Given that Citizen Sleeper is meant to emulate a TTRPG, your actions and what you can do is actually decided by the dice that are rolled for you each cycle, letting you use those dice as ‘turns’ for whatever Drive (quests) you want. You have a few different meters to monitor and keep track of since you’re artificial, remember, so when you’re healthy you’ll be given a maximum of six dice to use. When you start to deplete energy slowly each cycle, depending on how full one of your meters are, you’ll have less dice as cycles go on.
This is where juggling many things at a time comes into play, and if I’m honest, will be quite confusing in the beginning, not knowing what to focus on at first. Do you work on saving credits for some medical supplies to refill your overall health to get more dice and thus do ‘more’ each cycle, or do you give in to your hunger and spend credits on food or repaying a debt? Each action you want to take will require one of your dice, so there’s a lot of justifying what you think the best course of action is each cycle and in the long run.
In the beginning there will only be a few activities to partake in, but as you meet more people and characters and unlock new areas of The Eye, you’ll have many more opportunities open up along the way. Higher rolls of your dice will make a successful or neutral outcome to each event more of a possibility, where using your die with a “1” on a critical event may not be the best idea when it has a high chance of failure. Certain events will need a number of different interactions to complete as well. For example, maybe the local bartender needs help restoring her rundown place, so you offer to help, but doing so requires a half dozen successful rolls of your die.
Do you use all six of your dice to finish that ‘quest’ right away if you manage to get successful rolls, negating the fact that maybe you won’t be able to do a side job for some credits and eat? Where it becomes tricky to balance is when certain events will have time limits, so figuring out what 'best' to do each cycle with your dice are what you’ll constantly be balancing and figuring out. Remember though, like any good RPG, who you decide to help, or not, will have certain outcomes. You’re not only trying to survive for yourself, but do you turn down a father asking for help trying to protect their own child for your own good?
The rolls of your die when you awake each cycle are going to play a large part of your strategy. If you have a lot of ‘1’ and ‘2’ die rolls, only having a 25% chance to be successful in a certain event is quite a risk. Though if you get lucky and have some ‘5’ or ‘6’ die rolls, they are generally a guarantee of being successful in whichever task you place it into. While you’re tied to some randomness of your die rolls in the beginning of each cycle, you could possibly get a skill later on that allows a single reroll of your remaining dice once per cycle, which became invaluable later on.
Knowing what dice to use, when and in which specific events is where a lot of your strategy will come into play. This took me probably a good few dozen cycles to really grasp, but once you do it becomes much more exciting when you ‘know’ the best flow of how you should spend each cycle. Many story elements and events utilize a clock-based timer with either beginning or ending after a set amount of cycles. At first this is going to feel very overwhelming, as there’s no possible way to do everything before timers end, so you’ll need to decide who to help and when, and even if you can given the luck of your dice at the start of each cycle. Who you decide to help or side with will have a longer lasting impact overall.
While it may take a moment to get used to calling quests Drives, this is how you can track certain missions and which node they are at on the ship. More importantly are your skills. At the beginning of your adventure you’ll choose a specific character, almost like a class, with each one having a bonus to one stat and a negative to another. You won’t know how each of these will affect your experience until much later, but completing certain drives along the way or fulfilling objectives will give you skill points to use. You can improve one of five skills tied to Interface, Endure, Engineer, Engage and Intuit, and these play an important role when using your dice on certain nodes per cycle, because they will either give your dice a bonus or a negative.
For example, let’s say one of the missions has you helping a sentient vending machine, no, I’m not even joking, and you want to work on this drive, so you decide to use one of your dice to try and be successful and fill the completion meter. Let’s say this specific mission is tied to the Engineer skill, so if you have that skill and its bonus, using your ‘3’ die will actually get a bonus and make it a ‘4’, upping the chance to be successful. The negative holds true as well, so there’s a lot of strategy of what dice to use on specific missions and when. Once you start unlocking the bonuses for skills and even the higher tiers that take two skill points, this is where Citizen Sleeper really starts to shine. By the end of my first playthrough I was able to completely refill my health, ensuring I always had six dice per cycle, I had enough credits to never worry about food and was able to do hacking missions much easier when certain ones force you to use a ‘1’ die, but now allowed me to use other dice as well.
Citizen Sleeper has a ton of dialogue and a cast of characters that you’ll meet along the way. It’s difficult to not only choose who to help, but who not to when you simply don’t have enough dice to forward progress on a Drive or knowing that your 25% chance of a positive outcome is very risky. Each character has a deep backstory and I actually became quite attached and intrigued with some of their stories, always wanting to do ‘one more cycle’ to see how it progresses. With how dialogue heavy Citizen Sleeper is, it was a bit of a letdown that there was no voice acting to go along with it. In fact, there is some low key beats that take place and are great when they do kick in, but it’s a very quiet space station, so you might want to have your own music going on in the background. The artwork for the cast you meet along the way is very well done, but nothing is animated, so it’s like reading a storyboard whenever you interact with people.
While Citizen Sleeper may not be much to look at aside the station itself and some character drawings, it conveys the vastness of space and how you’re stuck on this station in the corner of nowhere. It will take a good handful of cycles for you grasp all of its mechanics and how to play Citizen Sleeper strategically, but once it clicks, it becomes very difficult to put down when you become invested in the numerous storylines of people you meet on The Eye due to the incredible writing and choices. Wake up sleeper.
**Citizen Sleeper was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Mokoko X
I can’t even remember the last time I saw a game like Mokoko X. It's been a good while but if I had to guess, it would probably be back in the 90’s when Gals Panic was released and was quite a unique gaming experience for its time. Inspired by arcade games from the 80’s and 90’s, Mokoko X isn’t the type of game we see on console very often for a few reasons. While its gameplay is simple in premise, games like these are usually known for their provocative undertones, though you can rest assured, Mokoko X is clean and has no adult content aside from some suggestive poses and dialogue.Doing some research trying to explain the tone of Mokoko X, I actually found the perfect terminology: Ecchi. A Japanese slang term for being “dirty”, sexy” or “naughty” without being explicit, simply being flirty and playful, usually having sexual overtones but not being outright based on that. Games like the Gals Panic series one of the earlier games that did this, letting you uncover scantily clad women to get a glimpse of their undergarments the better you did while playing. While there is an adult patch for the PC version of Mokoko X, the console version is safe from nudity, so rest assured little Timmy won’t see anything he shouldn’t aside from maybe some hints of cleavage and underwear.
Normally games in this genre has one intention; having you play to uncover the naughty picture as your reward. There’s usually no story elements at all, as you’re playing for that specific reason. Mokoko X actually does include some overall narrative as well as mini stories based on each stage’s boss. Every stage has you trying to best a boss and their minions as you uncover the playfield, but each has a story behind their character or reasoning. Are these stories absolutely absurd and make no sense but at least there’s some semblance of a narrative.
Why are you battling a demonic skull with headphones that shoots musical notes? Why did someone get turned into a mosquito to annoy people? Why are ghost pirates stuck in a house tormenting one of the girls? All of these odd questions will get answered, kind of. Main story portions will unlock after all of each girls’ levels are complete, but don’t go in expecting some exciting narrative, as you’re simply trying to save the innocent girls from the dangerous predicament they find themselves in. How that makes any sense given the gameplay I’m unsure, but you don’t question and simply enjoy the gameplay.
So to actually save these girls, you need to uncover 70% of the screen or more, depending on the difficulty you choose, with your little ship that creates lines behind it. You start out along the border of the picture, and once you press ‘A’ and venture beyond the safe boundary you’re open to being attacked. Your trail behind your ship is a line, and connect that to any border or section you’ve already uncovered and it will show that portion of the picture underneath, with your goal to uncover 75% or so usually to ‘complete’ the stage and move on.
What makes this difficult is that if you get touched by any of the enemies on screen while you’re not safe on your already uncovered portions, you will lose the whole line you were just working on and also lose one health. At first I thought it was best to try and make these huge squares and get a large portion done at a time, but that was far too difficult with all the enemies and projectiles on screen most of the time. Even if enemies touch or attack your trail behind you before you connect it to uncover, this will stop your current uncovering section as well, so you’re generally best to make small sections at a time, slowly creeping in the direction you want so you can then connect a large portion at once.
While you’re riding along the edges or portions you’ve already uncovered you’re generally safe from any attacks from the rebounding enemies, though this is tied to your shield meter. Your shield meter constantly drains, but to refill it you must uncover more portions, so you don’t want to have too much idle time as you can eventually become completely unsafe when your shield meter it drained. As long as you’re constantly working to uncover portions of the screen, even if small sections at a time, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about your shield meter until you corner yourself into a small section and are waiting for a safe moment to draw your lines.
Games in this genre, at least the ones that I’ve played in the past, had your cursor as a simple glowing dot of some sorts, making it easy to distinguish where you exactly at when it gets hectic and in confined spaces. Mokoko X has you piloting a ship for whatever reason, which is essentially the same thing, but it’s harder to distinguish where your hitbox is at times given how large you are compared to the lines. You eventually get used to it, but it can be tricky figuring out how to line yourself up in between two obstacles for clearance. It’s a simple concept but can be quite challenging, especially on the final stage of each girl.
There are three different difficulty levels, each adjusting the enemies, shield and most importantly, the percentage of area required to uncover to complete the stage. Only Story Mode is available when you start, but complete each of the eight girls’ groups of levels and you’ll then unlock Arcade mode, which is almost like a hardcore mode as you’ll try to get from the first stage to the last in a single go, seeing how long you can survive.
Each of the eight girls have three levels and then a final stage, for a total of 32 levels. The first three levels will each introduce you to that stage’s boss, then the fourth stage is all the bosses at once on a much larger playfield, adding much more challenge. These final levels for each girl is where I usually had to retry a few times, as you move a bit quicker due to being zoomed out, but this also makes it very difficult to see some of the enemies’ projectiles since the camera is so far out compared to the normal levels.
Each stage’s boss is unique, quirky and has its own enemy types and attack patterns, so each level feels fresh. A few of the bosses are really unique, like adding a poison cloud behind them, shooting bouncing musical notes or pausing the game for a moment constantly due to 'lag'. There are familiar looking question mark blocks that will give you bonus points if you can ‘capture’ them by uncovering the picture around it. On harder difficulties these may have detrimental effects though, adding more challenge to possibly avoid them.
You’re scored after completing every stage based on how many lives left, how much percentage of the playfield you uncovered and more. There’s online leaderboards and you get bonus multipliers based on your difficulty level, so while there’s not much reason to play again once complete, climbing the leaderboards should be incentive enough to go back again at least a few more times. Oddly enough though, many of the leaderboards seem to be filled with bot-like names, so while I placed high on many stages, some of the other people listed were clearly bots or placeholders.
If you enjoy colorful anime waifu artwork, you’ll surely enjoy the animated picture you uncover in Mokoko X. While the artwork quality is passable, it’s also not all that impressive either. If you simply enjoy the type of gameplay these arcade games have, then this won’t even be a concern. Surprisingly there’s also Japanese and English voiceovers for the characters, and while there’s not all that much dialogue, prepare to hear the same one-liners over and over again on the stages from each boss. The voice acting itself is quite amateur at best, though the upbeat music is cute and didn’t annoy me as much as I thought it might.
While a good majority of games like these are associated with being more ‘pervy’, as you’re generally trying to uncover pictures of scantily clad women, you can tell that Mokoko X was more adult in design (it does have an adult patch on Steam) given the girls poses and some of the suggestive dialogue, it’s a fun time waster and brings me back to playing games like these back in the arcades in the early 90’s, but I can foresee many wondering what type of game this is and who would enjoy it. Possibly wait for a sale, but I'm glad to see this genre make a return.
**Mokoko X was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Gunborg: Dark Matters
I truly love twin-stick shooters, the ones where you move your character with the Left Stick and aim with the Right, allowing you to move and shoot independently regardless of your direction of movement. Developed by solo developer Rickard Paulsson, Gunborg: Dark Matters is a challenging twin-stick shooter with plenty of action and some interesting gameplay mechanics, albeit a short experience.With a game that only lasts a handful of hours, there’s not much narrative to Gunborg: Dark Matters, opening with you leaping from your ship in space, crashing into an alien spaceship to try and defeat enemies, aliens and robots as you battle against some massive bosses. You begin with simply an energy sword, jetpack and a shield to fight your way through the alien ship but kill some aliens that are shooting at you and you can pick up and wield their arms back against them.
Choose from different difficulty modes, but be prepared to be challenged, even on the easiest setting. Even on Easy, the last handful of levels even frustrated me and took dozens of deaths and retries before being able to passed. Levels begin out easy enough, having you trying to get from point A to B in a series of individual rooms that make up the dozen chapters. Each chapter has a half dozen or so rooms to complete before moving onto the next chapter, with each fourth culminating in an interesting boss fight that will test your reflexes. Rooms are filled with enemies and traps, eventually trying to overwhelm you with sheer numbers against you all at once, but even eventually massive lasers that you need to outrun as you kill all enemies for the doors to open and let you pass.
The control scheme is interesting but takes some getting used to. You move with the Left Stick and aim with the Right, swinging your sword or shooting any picked up weapon with the Right Trigger. Right Bumper is how you extend and hold out your energy shield and Left Trigger is how you jump. It’s somewhat intuitive and makes sense, but jumping mapped to the trigger takes some getting used to, as does switching between Right Trigger and Bumper while also aiming in the specific direction you’re trying to while simultaneous moving in a different direction.
You can aim in 360 degrees around you at any time, so you’ll need to be aware of the enemies firing at you from any direction. Your shield can block and deflect enemy bullets, be used to ram into enemies and knock them back, and even used somewhat like a sled to cross gaps with spikes and hazards along the floor. Your jetpack will allow you to double and triple jump, so you’ll need to be cautious of tricky platforming sections as well as fighting against aliens and robots along the way.
Combat is very skill based, as you need to be aiming in the correct direction for attacking and blocking, something that becomes challenging when you’re surrounded and need to also maneuver in quick succession. While you simply start with a large energy sword, it can do a decent amount of damage, but the real fun comes in when you kill some aliens and they drop their guns. Any enemy’s gun can be picked up and used back against them, but they have limited ammo, basically one clip, so you’ll constantly be dropping and picking up new guns along the way. Run out of guns and ammo and you’ll always have your trust energy sword to fight back with.
With a handful of different guns, they all have different strengths and weaknesses, from shotguns, lasers, grenade launchers and more. Can’t get close, use your shield to deflect their bullets right back at them, but you need to make sure you’ve got it angled at the correct direction you want to send them back to. The shield has a limited use and durability though, so you have to let it recharge for a short while after prolonged use.
Kill enemies quick enough and get your combo chain up to a certain amount and you can go into a special Dark Energy mode, making your attacks more powerful, even changing some of the properties of weapons. It’s worthwhile to get your combo up quickly to get into this mode, as you’ll defeat enemies much quicker, almost needed in the later sections that are somewhat timed.
Combat becomes quite hectic in the later levels, some sections forcing you to fight waves of enemies before being able to move on. With just a few this isn’t too hard to manage, but when you got well over a dozen shooting at you and a moving laser getting closer by the second, combat becomes quite chaotic and challenging. While deaths cause an instant respawn without any wait, you begin at the start of that stage, so if you keep dying on the third or fourth part of said stage, you need to redo the first couple sections to get back to where you initially died. This checkpoint system was quite frustrating when you die in the last portion of a level but have to fight all the way back through a handful of rooms to try again and ultimately die all over.
If you want some extra challenge on top of the difficult later half, there’s also a handful of collectable robots to find in specific rooms, unlocking special post-game rooms and a harder difficulty. I was trying to gather all these along my way, but when you’re trying to outrun a death beam, taking a 10 second detour is not easy by any means.
Visuals are colorful yet brooding, completely fitting for a spaceship taken over by rogue aliens. Gunborg: Dark Matters has a retro vibe to match a Tron-like aesthetic that plays smoothly without any hitches. The neon pink spikes that surround many areas of the ships will kill you if touched, but pop against the darker color palette and gives Gunborg some character. The audio for each weapon is distinct, but the real standout is the 80’s synthwave soundtrack that plays in the background during your adventure is a joy to listen to and never grew tiresome.
Gunborg: Dark Matters is impressive when you realize it came from a single developer, and while it may be short, clocking in at just a couple hours, I’d definitely recommend when it’s on a decent sale. The later stages spike drastically in difficulty, but those that enjoy challenges and want to hunt collectables should enjoy themselves, even if it’s just for a few days at best.
**Gunborg: Dark Matters was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Chicken Police - Paint it RED!
Just look at the box art or a screenshot or two, and you could probably guess why Chicken Police – Paint it Red intrigued me initially. As you could guess from the title alone, yes, you’re going to play as a detective that also happens to be a chicken. Its absolutely absurd premise is what drew me to it in the first place, and while I honestly wasn’t expecting much, Chicken Police has ended up being one of my favorite games in recent memory. I’m not sure why I’ve never really paid Chicken Police any attention when it originally released back in 2020, though probably because of the state the world was shifting at the time, it’s now gotten the Xbox Series X|S treatment, the perfect excuse for me to see what this was clucking about.I would have loved to see how the idea for this game came to be, deciding on a Film Noir detective game but the people’s heads are replaced with different animals. See, absurd, yet it works incredibly well due to its clever and witty writing along with its masterful voice work and soundtrack. Given its Film Noir backdrop you can expect plenty of swearing, grittiness, self-loathing, mystery and more, completely fitting for movies based on the 1940-1950’s era of filmmaking. Riding the line of satire and seriousness, Chicken Police surprisingly sucked me in with its detective gameplay and intriguing dark narrative. A modern take on classic ‘point-and-click’ gameplay, much of your time will be speaking to numerous different and unique characters as you try and solve the case that has fallen into your lap.
Like most Noir stories, this one starts much the same, with a mysterious Dame coming to your office pleading for help which thrusts you into a very odd case that you didn’t ask for. Chicken Police’s main hook is that all of the characters are anthropomorphic animals, meaning they are animal heads and characteristics placed on human bodies with regular arms and legs. As odd as that is, it works perfectly here due to the writing and voice acting.
Set in Clawville, a brooding city overrun by organized crime, you’ll explore your gritty home full of different locations and interesting characters throughout. You’re a veteran detective counting down the days until his retirement, 121 days to be exact, but gets himself involved in a case that’s going to be more than just dangerous to himself, but his former partner as well. You are Sonny Featherland, and alongside your former partner, Marty MacChicken, you were the infamous and legendary duo, the Chicken Police. This was once upon a time though, as Sonny and Marty aren’t on good terms any longer for good reason that I won’t delve into, so when they are forced to work together once again there will be some tense moments and accusations thrown around.
The duo are complete opposites and will need to learn to not only work together once again, but trust one another if they want to make it out of this new case alive. This all began when Sonny was minding his own business and a seductive goat named Deborah enters his office with a story that couldn’t be ignored. Deborah works for Natasha Catzenko (which you can probably guess what type of animal she is) and was sent here to recruit your help specifically. Why? This won’t become apparent until much later, but Natasha owns the local Czar Club but also seems to be involved with the local ganger mob boss, so this is going to be dangerous to say the least.
Like most noir tales, this simple ask will be anything but, spiraling into a much more involved and darker story filled with betrayal, danger, violence and more. Sonny won’t be able to do this alone, so he’ll have to amend his relationship with Marty if he wants to survive this case before his retirement dates comes. Sure there’s plenty of clichés and tropes used you’ve seen many times before in a noir setting like this, but it’s written so well with drama and humor that I didn’t even care. Clawville isn’t a safe place at the best of times, so having the Chicken Police back together again exploring the seedy underbelly of the city isn’t going to help their life expectancy.
I’ll refrain from any more story details, as it's quite an interesting narrative that I enjoyed all the way until the credits rolled, but I was absolutely hooked beginning to finish, even if I could see certain story elements happen before it was fully explained. Because of the animal characters there’s plenty of humor and puns throughout, like certain swear words changed to “clucking” and personalities of certain characters that embody their type of animal as well. Each character is memorable in their own way, with Sonny and Marty stealing the show given their amount of screen time and witty dialogue. It may seem odd at first to see human bodies with animal heads, but you eventually just accept it, and sure it gets a bit ‘weird’ when you’re at a brothel, but it is part of Chicken Police’s charm.
While the actual gameplay elements to Chicken Police may be light and mostly based on dialogue choices, there are some detective elements and a few mini-games throughout to keep things interesting. You’ll need to speak to everyone you can, investigate objects and find clues to help you in your case, and while most progression is linear, you’re able to do so at your own pace. If you’re a fan of dialogue choice games then you’ll feel right at home with Chicken Police.
While I’ll delve into the visuals shortly, the whole experience wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t presented in the way it is, not just with the character designs, but the realistic photography used as scene backdrops with the classic black and white filter that Film Noir movies were known for. Being able to explore more than thirty different places within Clawville means you’ll have plenty of locales to investigate and explore before progressing in your latest case. Certain areas are completely optional, allowing for extra lore and dialogue with certain characters. “This city never sleeps - they say. Maybe that's why it is so cranky all the time”.
Being dialogue and narrative heavy it may feel more like a visual novel at times, but the gameplay elements have some basic ‘point-and-click’ elements embedded in as well. The more you converse with characters you’ll get to know them, their story and clues that may help you if they are going to be questioned or interrogated. Uncover certain information and you might be able to question them about certain topics, usually leading you in a certain direction or to specific people for new clues. Each scene you explore will have objects you can inspect or interact with, so it’s a good idea to interact with everything you can and talk to everyone fully before moving on.
At certain points you’ll be able to interrogate certain characters, acting as a sort of mini-game where you’ll need to choose a question from usually three or four, but you’ll need to know who you’re questioning if you want them to break and give you the answers you need. If you push too hard on someone that doesn’t like cops, they probably won’t give you the information you need. Each question will move a meter plus or minus based on how they react to your questioning. It takes a few of these interrogations to get the hang of the ‘best’ questions to ask at any given time, but you’re given clues on the best way to proceed with each character you question by asking specific types of questions or maybe avoiding a certain topic altogether. These interrogation sections can be replayed if you want to try and get a better score, as you’re rated on a star based system given how much you fill up your meter by the time the nine or ten questions are done.
Chicken Police may have an odd title that may turn you away, but you’ll be impressed with its unique artistic style and aesthetic. At first I thought the animal head on a human body was odd, especially when they are made to be sexy and seductive, but it somehow really works well. For being a world and story told in black and white, Clawville may be one of the most colorful cities I’ve explored in a game with its unique cast of characters. By the time the credits rolled after about ten hours or so, everything in Chicken Police just felt normal as I was entranced by its world, characters, dialogue and setting. While there’s not much in terms on animation other than some minor movements and transitions during dialogue, I was still impressed by its own cinematic experience throughout. “Weirdly stunning” is how it’s officially described, and I couldn’t explain it any better myself from its aesthetics and how unique it appears.
What needs a special mention though is the audio as a whole. If it wasn’t for the 100% fully voiced over dialogue, I can guarantee I wouldn’t have enjoyed Chicken Police nearly as much as I did. Over eight hours of spoken dialogue was recorded, even for minor conversations and item descriptions, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Not only is it fully voiced, but it’s done so to perfection by a large cast of characters, even to the minor ones that don’t get as much screen time as Sonny and Marty.
Kerry Shale couldn’t have possibly done a better job as Sonny, not only performing with the raspy and worn down voice you’d expect from a Noir title, but adding some humor and impeccable comedic timing. Shai Matheson as Marty was the perfect counterpart, and as a pair they made the perfect match of a believable chicken duo, as odd as that is to write and admit. The rest of the cast also did a wonderful job, making you believe that’s how their animal really would speak and act. All of this spoken dialogue would be for naught if it wasn’t for the witty and clever writing though, as I never once wanted to skip the dialogue and even had a handful of laughs, especially when “clucking” was the swear word of choice of the duo.
Even more impressive than the already perfect voice work is the stunning and beautiful soundtrack. If you take a moment to think of some smooth jazz and if you were choosing music for a Film Noir game, Chicken Police has it and is absolutely fantastic. I actually have it blasting in the background as I write this review, and the main song that Natasha sings, ‘My City Is On Fire’, is simply perfect. Special kudos to Laszlo 'vincenzo' Vincze for the amazing soundtrack filled with plenty of piano melodies. I can’t think of one way it could be any more fitting for this backdrop.
I honestly came into Chicken Police expecting not very much, maybe because of its silly title and premise, but I can admit when I’m wrong. I came away with an amazingly unique experience that I can’t speak highly enough of. Even though it may not seem like it takes itself serious initially, it’s done so well in every aspect that I truly fell in love with the game, probably one of the better games I’ve played in recent memory. Sure, some might find the premise absurd, as did I initially, but give it a chance and Chicken Police may take you by surprise if you give it the time to sink its beak into you. If you’re a fan of Noir style settings and games, Chicken Police is one of the best indie games I’ve recently played and had a clucking good time.
**Chicken Police - Paint it Red! was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril
Every time I go to play a game that is trying to emulate what gaming was back when I grew up on an NES, I’m always reminded and surprised how hard gaming was back in those days. Many games back in the mid 80’s were brutally difficult and we just accepted it, that’s just how it was. I don’t think it was until decades later that I was actually able to beat the Mega Man’s, Contra’s, Blaster Master’s and more of the gaming world.Born during the original NES era, I have a soft spot for 8-bit games that I grew up with, so naturally I was drawn towards Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, developed by Sivak Games. This game was actually released way back in 2010, but as an actual NES cartridge, one of the first early hits of the NES homebrew scene. Published by 8-Bit Legit, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is now released for Xbox players to discover and enjoy with the caveat being that you’re a fan of those brutally difficult classic games from the NES era.
Inspired by Mega Man, Metroid and Castlevania, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is simple in premise but can be extremely challenging at the best of times, even with numerous difficulty options. I’ve clearly aged and don’t find myself enjoying dying over and over, which is probably why I don’t gravitate towards the Souls games, but I’m unable to fault Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril for being challenging, as that is its premise, as games from this era were simply this hard. I’ll admit, I made a conscious decision not to play with my Elite Series 2 controller, as I knew that I was going to become frustrated and didn’t want any risk of smashing or throwing my controller out the window. I made a good choice, as there were times where I was about to cross that line after dying a few dozen times in the same area.
Retro at its heart, you’re able to choose from a Story or Arcade Mode, depending on how much narrative element you want to sit through. While very few games from this era were very narrative heavy aside from RPG’s, I commend Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril for at least having a story to give you some backdrop and premise of why you’re fighting. Timmy is simply a young kid minding his own business talking to one of the scientists when something seems to happen outside, as it appears explosions are occurring and there’s a commotion. You’re told to stay put while the adults go and investigate what’s happened.
You’re a curious young kid though, so of course you’re going to not stay put and go see what has happened. After some brief exploring you find the scientist amongst the rubble as it appears the base has been attacked by someone, or something. You’re given a special keycard and told to pursue who has done this. You’re just a kid though, what can you do? Turns out it seems as though the scientists have been working on a special combat suit, so now it’s up to Timmy to stop the bad guy and recover what was stolen. This suit of course enhances Timmy’s natural abilities, allowing you be stronger and shoot from a blaster, much like Mega Man. So you take off to go pursue your target, but finding them won’t be easy, as the island you arrive on houses a fortress filled with enemies, traps and a handful of challenging bosses.
Much like Mega Man games, you’ll be platforming by jumping from ledge to ledge while using your blaster to shoot any enemies in your way. Unlike Mega Man though where you choose a certain level to play before defeating its boss and moving to the next, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril instead has one large world, interconnected with rooms with multiple different branches and paths, many of which won’t be accessible until you have certain keys or abilities like the double jump you’ll find along the way, adding a Metroidvania aspect to the gameplay. This is all well and good, but with no map present, it’s going to take a lot of notes or paying attention to remember which ways you’ve previously gone or haven't before.
Much like games from this era, you’re going to die, a lot, and then even more times. From landing on one-hit death spikes, getting shot by other enemies or falling to the difficult bosses, just be ready to die more times than you can count. This is why Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril actually has a password system, numerous checkpoints and a death counter. Before starting though, quickly go over to the settings and choose your outer edge border, because Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril plays in a classic aspect ratio, so the outer edges can be filled with some artwork or made to emulate what the old classic TV’s looked like back in the day, complete with classy wood vinyl accents.
While there are multiple different difficulty options to choose from, even me trying to complete Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril on Very Easy tested my patience and reflexes at the best of times. Each difficulty up makes enemies harder and gives you less life, so even with a number of life blocks on the easier difficulties, I’d still die to bosses a handful of times before winning, or land on the instant death spikes more times than I can count. How you’re expected to complete the game on the harder difficulties with only one life bar is beyond me, but the challenge is there if you wish.
The first sections of the game will be fairly linear with maybe just a single branching path or two, but eventually you’ll start to hit blocked paths by certain blocks or seemingly impassable walls given how high and far you can jump. You’re going to find special keys, objects and abilities along the way, as well as specific teleport points labeled ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. Given that the game is one large map, you’re expected to remember where you’ve been or where you should head back to where you were once unable to pass once you have a specific key or ability. Without a map this is of course very difficult if you don’t have a photographic memory, and I can’t even count how much time I wasted going in circles to places I’ve already been simply trying to figure out where I saw that blocked path I should be able to go through now.
Just like classic Mega Man, rooms will ‘reset’ every time you go back to one, even if just for a moment as you transition from one to the next and back. With well over 500 rooms and dozens of enemy types, you’re going to be challenged all the way until the credits roll. Back in the 8-Bit era, games usually opted to use a password system given that not all cartridges had batteries to keep those game saves, and it’s no different here. Every checkpoint you reach here will give you a unique password based on your location, upgrades and unlocks at that point, so get a pen and paper ready if you want to ever take a break from frustration and come back later.
While there are a decent amount of checkpoints throughout the fortress you’re exploring, every time you die you’ll be taken back to the last one you enabled. This is great, except for when you use one just before a boss, defeat said boss, then die before finding another checkpoint. The game doesn’t remember you beat the boss since you haven’t found another checkpoint since, so you’ll probably be fighting a few of the bosses a couple times until you do, something I found myself doing a handful of times.
Aesthetically, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril looks as though it came straight from the mid-80’s alongside others in the genre at the time. Are you going to be impressed by its graphics, most likely not, but keeping in mind that this originally released on an actual NES cartridge with the same limitations, it’s an impressive feat. Sure it doesn’t look as polished as the greats like Mega Man, but again, for a single developer aiming to recreate a game for that era, it’s remarkable. The audio on the other hand is done very well, with catchy chiptune music that also feels as though it was taken straight from the era, fitting for the different backdrops and biomes as you explore.
Your enjoyment will surely depend on your resilience to frustration when it comes to dying over and over again, and while I would at times border on rage from having to do a certain section dozens of times, finally completing that section or boss was exciting and felt incredibly rewarding. Completing Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, even on Very Easy, was quite a challenge, and I can’t fathom Unfair where you get one hit and life, but the challenge is there should you desire. While not as polished as some of the greats of the genre, Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril was an exciting yet infuriating time down 8-Bit nostalgia lane.
**Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha
Chances are that if you’re a fan of challenging 2D platformers, you’ve most likely spent many hours with Super Meat Boy, Celeste and a handful of others in the genre, dying hundreds of time as you try and reach the end of every stage. The latest game that takes inspiration from these classics is Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha from indie developers Three Legged Egg and published by Red Art Games.Generally in games like these there’s not a large focus on story and narrative, instead centering on the gameplay itself, which is why fans of the genre keep coming back for more. What I found odd is that there’s absolutely no story within the game itself, yet the store and game page talks about how you, Glam, are trying to rescue her mother from the realm of Caterina. How she was taken by some sort of evil witch, why, and any other questions you could come up with are not explained or even brought up in the beginning at all. As long as you go in knowing that there’s essentially no story element whatsoever and you’ll be focusing on the gameplay solely, you'll be fine.
An incredibly challenging 2D platformer, Glam is placed into a stage and must make it to the portal at the other end of the room. This is easier said than done though, as you’re going to have to use your jumping abilities, climbing, hair swinging and more if you want any chance of trying to survive and make it to the next stage. You’ll not only be having to wall jump and navigate over chasms, spikes, bullets and more, but you’ll sometimes also have to deal with some goblins and skulls with sunglasses that like to shoot projectiles at you. If that wasn’t enough, there’s some light puzzle elements as well with switches to hit, collectables to try and get and more.
Before you begin your adventure and dying repeatedly though, you’ll want to customize Glam to your liking. You can change the color of her hair, skin, eyes, top, skirt, boots and jewelry. Is there any real point aside from making her look how you want? No, not really, as there’s no gameplay differences, just simply the colors you want to see her dressed in including her hair.
Speaking of her hair, this is where one of Glam’s main skills comes into play. In many platforming games like these you usually have some sort of rope, grapple hook or dash to swing from point to point, but Glam does so with her hair. Yes, you read that right. Glam somehow has the ability to control her hair, use it like a rope and swing with it at specific points. She’s also able to grab onto certain rock portions, allowing her to hang or climb for a short period of time before she gets too tired and will let go. The same goes for swinging with her hair, as you can only do so for a short time before she will fall.
Platforming games like this live or die by its controls. If it’s not precise, players will become frustrated and not want to continue playing due to dying for what seems not their fault. I wish I could say I never became frustrated, but this review took me much longer than I expected for an indie game like this due to having to take breaks now and then when I was dying on the same level dozens of times. While I’ve never been fantastic at the genre, I’m decent, but I’m not sure if it’s the controls or design, but I struggled nearly my whole time with Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha.
Simply moving with the stick and then just three buttons, ‘X’ for your hair swing, ‘Right Trigger’ for grabbing onto walls, and ‘A’ for jump, gameplay should have been easy, but sometimes just feels ‘off’. I’m not sure if it’s simply the default button layout or what, but I lost count how many times I died because I either pressed the wrong button or somehow didn’t hit it in time. When having to grab onto walls or swing, it’s almost like it feels a bit delayed somehow. After a handful of hours I was still having issues on the levels when it becomes chaotic and you need to chain jumps, swings and moves to reach the end of the stage in quick succession.
Speaking of stages, there are 11 Chapters, each with its own backdrop, enemies and theme. The first few worlds aren’t too bad challenge wise, but there’s definitely some imbalance that needs to be addressed. Each Chapter has a good handful of levels with 220 in total. That’s a lot of levels to die in and I’m still trying to reach the final Chapters. Each Chapter tends to add some new mechanic or enemy type, as eventually you’ll be dealing with spiked walls and platforms, shooting skulls, switches to make platforms appear and disappear, bullets to jump on or swing from and more. It keeps the gameplay fresh when you don’t get stuck on a specific level for a prolonged period of time, but that happens often. Every now and then you get a level that the difficulty spike is massive that will cause you to die a hundred times, then the next might be a simple level that I beat first try, so the balance can feel a bit off at times.
With every level being handcrafted, there’s one clear correct path to the finish that will take a bunch of trial and error to sometimes figure out, not even counting the precision movement and timing needed to actually do so. For those that really want more of a challenge, certain levels also have a collectable to try and get, but these are usually incredibly difficult to reach and finish the level alive, to the point where I basically started to ignore them as it was causing me to get frustrated more than normal. A note that I made when I missed a collectable early on was that you can go back and replay a Chapter, but there’s no level select within each Chapter, so if you miss one collectable and move onto the next stage, you’re going to have to replay the whole Chapter from the beginning for another attempt to nab it. Thankfully when you die, and you will hundreds of times, you start at the beginning of the stage instantly after a quick respawn in less than a second, so there’s no waiting around for the level to reset.
What I didn’t expect was a multiplayer co-op mode where you and a local friend can play in 60 unique levels that differ from the single campaign. You’re going to need teamwork and a lot of communication if you want any chance of beating these levels though. Even more so is that you’re going to need a partner that is equally skilled as you, as if you thought the exact timing and precision was difficult in single player, both players in co-op will need to do so in unison and tandem at times to complete certain levels.
Aesthetically, Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha is bright and colorful, looking almost like an animated comic at times. While I question Glam’s design, the backgrounds are done well with some detail, but there’s a lot repetition with assets being reused throughout, causing for some tiredness if playing for a prolonged period of time in one sitting. There are some cute Easter eggs hidden if you take the time to look, like fossils of Pac-Man, EVE from Wall-E and a few others hidden in the soil sections of certain levels. As for the soundtrack, there’s a few good tracks, but there’s not a lot of selection and it doesn’t seem to always fit the mood of the gameplay, so the same few songs get repeated over and over, so after an hour or so you’ll want to put your own Spotify playlist on.
Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha has well over 200 levels, but they can feel very lifeless much of the time. With no story or reason, there’s not much reasoning to play for aside from wanting to complete all of the challenging levels. The difficulty spikes were hard to deal with, becoming frustrated when stuck on a level for quite some time, then breezing through the next handful no problem.
If you’re up for a challenge, Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha can offer a good few hours of platforming, and while the difficulty curve is all over the place like a seeing random speedbump placed on a highway out of nowhere, the gameplay itself is decent if you can get used to the controls. Priced fairly at $5 USD, Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha might not wow you, but it will scratch that 2D platforming itch if you enjoy challenging yourself.
**Glam's Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Slipstream
Out Run was so popular when it released back in 1986 that it became quite an iconic game for the racing genre, so much so that even my wife had played it at some point, and she’s not even all that much of a gamer. There was something exciting when you saw that Ferrari sit-down arcade machine back when they existed, and it took quite a few quarters from my pocket growing up. When I started playing Slipstream, developed by Ansdor Games, my wife even asked me “Are you playing Out Run?”. If you couldn’t tell already tell what Slipstream’s direct inspiration was, it’s a modern-yet-retro take on the iconic Out Run.Just like the game it takes inspiration from, Slipstream has the same setup with you racing against the clock or rivals with some awesome driving mechanics, fantastic retro graphics and an even better synthwave soundtrack that kept me wanting to race after each game ended. Inspired by the 80’s and 90’s, it looks as though it came straight out of that era, purposely, and has a handful of awesome references that you might catch if you have a keen eye, though don’t expect any blondes in your passenger seat in this game.
While there’s no career per-se, there are a handful of different game modes to play depending on your mood. Grand Tour is what I’d call the ‘main’ mode, playing out much like how Out Run did all those years ago. Here you race across different areas and biomes, where at the end of each segment you’ll decide to go Left or Right, all within a specified time limit. Reach the end of each section within the allotted time and you can move onto the next stage that is sectioned off on the grid like a pyramid.
Grand Prix is where you can challenge in one of three Cups that consist of five races. You can choose to play with stock cars, or interestingly can pick to have upgradable ones, tuning your car how you like from stats of Speed, Acceleration and Handling. The higher you place per race the more money you earn, which you can then upgrade your stats, so you better place well in the first race or two or you’ll struggle. The Cups get harder as you progress through, so it’s a great challenge to see how your driving skills have improved over the hours of playing.
Another mode I quite enjoyed was Battle Royal. This is essentially just an elimination race where the last to cross the finish line in each segment gets knocked out until there’s one winner. You can choose a number of different participants depending on how long you want to race for, but these races always added that extra touch of tenseness knowing you can’t finish last or you’re out.
Lastly you have Cannonball, Single Race and Time Attack Mode, with the last two being quite self-explanatory. Cannonball is basically a Custom Mode where you can choose the rivals, traffic and more settings to have a really particular setup. With most of these modes you’re able to play with up to four players simultaneously, though if you’re looking for online play or even leaderboards, sadly they are missing.
Slipstream is like going back into the past playing one of my favorite racers growing up, and while I normally can see right through many games that simply try to clone the success of others regardless of how much time has gone by since, Slipstream surely took its inspiration from Out Run, but has made it its own experience that is worthwhile. You might not be able to tell that Slipstream just released in this modern age with its retro style graphics, but that’s what it’s trying to be. If you really want a nostalgia hit, you can even go into the options for some fun visual options like NTSC and CRT filters if you want to pretend you’re playing on an old school TV that weighed a tonne.
You’re given just a few cars to select from, each with their own body kit and stats, and while they might not be licensed, it’s obvious which car they are supposed to resemble. Don’t expect any supercars here though, these are more meant for drifting at crazy speeds. Some will have higher top speeds but poor handling, others the opposite, while the rest are generally pretty decent across all three being more balanced. It takes some time to learn the drifting mechanics, so you’ll want to pick one car and stick with it until you get that aspect of racing down.
There are two main mechanics you’ll need to learn and become quite skilled in if you want to start winning those Grand Prix, Grand Tours and Battle Royals; drifting and slipstreaming. First off, mastering the drift. We all know what drifting is ever since The Fast and Furious became super popular, keeping your momentum going forwards but around corners at extreme angles, it’s no different here. Once you master how to do so properly, there’s a certain smile you get on your face when you’re able to drift around corners perfectly and within those tight S-curves going from one direction to the next in succession.
Easy to learn, hard to master is kind of the best way to describe it. To initiate a drift you have to tap the break then quickly get back on the gas while steering in a direction. Sounds simple, but knowing what lane you’re in on the road and trying to avoid traffic and opponents is where it starts to get tricky. Not every corner is the same curvature or length, so you need to always be watching the edges to see when the corner ends abruptly. If you hit the objects on the outer edge, just like Out Run, your car will do a few flips before landing back on your wheels, but you’ll have lost all of your momentum. Luckily there’s a rewind feature where you can go back in time five seconds to hopefully adjust and do it properly the second chance.
Slipstream is another mechanic you’ll need to learn if you want those first place finishes. It’s essentially a fancy name for drafting, where you race behind another car, and because they’re in front taking all the wind, you’ll slowly gain speed, able to slingshot past them when close. Combining this with drifting makes for some exhilarating races when you’re barely holding onto the pavement and your rear tires are inches from crashing into the wall at your tail. Aside from those two main mechanics, that’s what Slipstream has to offer, and while it may seem light on paper reading this, it brings me back to a time when games like this were meant to be simple yet has some modern takes on classic gameplay.
Aesthetically, it looks just like you would expect a small studio’s take on Out Run would look like, complete with retro pixel graphics and animation style, but with modern framerates and no slowdown. Slipstream’s greatest feature though is its synthwave soundtrack that always had my head bobbing. There’s only a few tracks but each is done wonderfully. I wasn’t sure how such a mellow soundtrack would fit with a high speed drift racer, but it works, even better so with its soundtrack. Even the tires squealing during each drift never become tiresome and make you feel like the car is barely sticking to the pavement.
Slipstream has simple controls, and once you master how to drift it becomes quite exciting to take the inside lane at a sharp angle as you overtake your rivals. I have no doubt I enjoyed it just that little bit more as I grew up in the era Slipstream is trying to mimic, and I had no idea I was missing Out Run so much until this filled that void. I just wish it had some online component or even Leaderboards would have probably added some longevity over time.
**Slipstream was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Young Souls
I’ve been a fan of beat-em-ups for many years. Classics like Double Dragon, Battles Toads, Streets of Rage, Fatal Fury and more are some of the staples in the genre, so whenever a new game releases I’m generally intrigued, more so if its artwork is beautiful. Developed by 1P2P and published by The Arcade Crew, Young Souls is the latest action role playing game that is not only gorgeous to look at, but addictive to play. Better yet, it’s on Game Pass, so if you’re a member you can go play it right now. So grab a controller, hopefully a friend to play alongside on the couch and get ready to smack down some goblins, level up and sort through dozens of weapons and armor with challenging combat.It might be because I’m a bit older now, but the introduction to main characters Jenn and Tristan emphasize how restless and bored they are sitting at home doing nothing. As orphans, the siblings were taken in and adopted by the town’s scientist. While they’re grateful to have somewhere to stay, they don’t call him Dad and hate being stuck doing errands for him all the time as he’s always in the basement doing his work. The multilevel house has some secrets though, as there’s a locked door that you’ve been told to never go inside. Naturally the siblings are curious but he professor never lets them in or tells them what’s behind the door. Life is boring for the duo until one day when the professor disappears without a trace. The mysterious locked door is finally open, so naturally you go in to explore and see maybe he’s down there.
This is where their world gets turned upside down. They find a portal to another world called the Moon Gate, able to transport you between the human world we know and the underground Goblin’s land. As you grab a rusty sword and some flimsy armor, you’ll need to find your adopted Dad, but doing so won’t be easy with a Goblin onslaught trying to make their way to the surface and escape their underground prison.
The story branches a bit further from here with a cast of interesting characters, and while it can be a bit predictable on your search to find your Dad, it was written well and more narrative heavy than I was initially expecting. Most beat-em-ups aren’t generally lauded for their story and dialogue, but I was quite surprised with Young Souls, especially in the first hour or so where there’s quite a bit of dialogue and setup. With plenty of cutscenes you can expect a lot of back and forth between the twins deciding on the best course of action or maybe some fighting, and there’s also a surprising amount of swearing. Sure, they’re teenagers so they’re going to swear, but it just surprised me a bit with the amount. The only wish I had was that the dialogue was voiced, but sadly it’s not.
A side scrolling beat-em-up at its core, there’s plenty of RPG elements as well that makes the gameplay addictive, as you want to continue playing one more dungeon to get some potential gear upgrades. Playable solo or in couch co-op, Jenn and Tristan will explore four different dungeons, each with their own biome, so expect to play for about a dozen hours or so depending on your difficulty and how much of a completionist you are.
I played through Young Souls completely solo, so you’re able to tag in your other sibling at any point with a quick tap of ‘Left Bumper’, swapping them out on the fly. If you’ve taken damage, swapping to your other sibling will have the hurt one slowly regenerate some of the damage taken, so it becomes a necessity if you want to survive on the harder difficulty. If playing couch co-op you’re able to play alongside a friend, though sadly there’s no online component to play otherwise.
You’ll be traversing between the two worlds back and forth, thankfully this can be done easily with a tablet you have to warp to specific gates and points you’ve been to before. To get around the overworld town you do have a moped to get around quicker, though you’ll rarely use it. Town is where you’ll find the Mayor, shops to purchase some new sneakers, clothes and the Happy Fit gym where you’ll train to increase your stats after you level up.
There’s no traditional skill tree, so instead you’ll earn experience points for killing goblins as you explore the dungeons below. Once you’ve leveled up you’ll need to travel back to your attic bedroom to sleep and use your earned experience. At certain levels you’ll also get a gym ticket that allows you to play a minigame to improve your Strength, Stamina or Resistance. The two siblings can train different stats, so if you want to make one more ‘tanky’ you can or one the powerhouse damage dealer, go right ahead. These minigames are just button spamming at specific intervals as you lift weights, do sit-ups or ride a bike, and while they’re not all that fun they are finished in about 30 seconds or so. The better you do the more stars you earn which will raise your chosen stat a higher amount if you earn five stars.
You’re able to earn regular cash, used to purchase coveted and expensive sneakers that can give some pretty incredible bonuses if you’re able to save up enough. You can also hit the clothing shop to buy some new threads for your characters, though this have no stats at all and are only shown when in the human world, as walking around with armor and weapons in your regular town would draw attention of course.
The bulk of your time in Young Souls takes place underground, this is where you’ll explore four different dungeons with multiple branching paths. Large doors will give you an idea of the suggested level to attempt that section and along the way you’ll find plenty of locked chests and doors that you’ll need specific Bronze, Silver, Gold and other keys for to access. This means that you’ll be traveling back to certain dungeons to access doors after you finally have specific keys to access these areas. This of course means backtracking, but thankfully once you figure out how the warp system works it’s not all that difficult to do so as there are many checkpoints along the way. The map system can be a little confusing, but standing in front of a door will show if you’ve been down that pathway or not, laid out almost like a Metroidvania.
Beat-em-ups can be remarkably deep mechanics wise, and while some are basic with just a few button presses, Young Souls has just enough to keep you engaged without becoming a mindless button masher. You’ll not only need to attack, but dodging, blocking and parrying plays a large part of our defense as well, especially when multiple Goblins are attacking you at once. Time a block just as you get attacked and a parry will leave them open for some attacks, a necessity for larger shielded enemies.
Your attack moves will vary and change based on the weapon and type you’re using and you’ll also have a ranged ability as you find them in your dungeon delving. You’ll be able to use a ranged bow, toss a bomb, mine or use some other unique abilities. These can be upgraded with special stones you find dropped from bosses as well, so it can play a large part of your overall combat strategy. With plenty of accessibility options, Young Souls can be turned from a very challenging combat brawler into a much easier experience with auto blocking, more player damage and more options if there’s a younger player that wants to experience the game without becoming frustrated and constantly dying.
With about 20 or so bosses to find along your journey, these are the most challenging yet fun portions I had in Young Souls. While many were basic and didn’t require any unique strategies, the challenge definitely kept me on my toes and needing to use my health potions. Certain enemies and bosses also have a specific parry endurance bar, so you’ll need to sometimes counter attacks before you can lay the damage on them. Combat overall feels very rewarding and satisfying, moving from the left side of the screen to the right, room to room.
As you explore dungeons and rescue certain prisoned characters, they’ll choose to help you and huge in the over world but in the sewers. This is where you’ll be able to purchase and upgrade your weapons and armor, so you’ll need to smash barrels and jars to find hidden gems and components if you want to improve your gear. I upgraded one of the final weapons to its maximum and was able to basically one-shot most enemies near the end, which felt super satisfying when I was saving all my collectables until late game. With tons of weapon and armor variety, including set bonuses, there’s plenty of gear to find what suits your playstyle and preferences, but keep in mind there’s weight for gear as well, so the heavier you are the slower you’ll move, but the offset is that you’re generally more protected or are swinging a heavier higher damaging weapon.
For how much I enjoy getting new gear and upgrading them, it was also the most frustrating part as well. There’s no easy way to compare what you’re wearing versus what you want to buy or sell. There’s also no safeguard in place to prevent you from selling gear you’re currently wearing, a lesson I sadly learned the hard way. This aspect could have used a little more work to be a bit friendlier so I didn’t feel the need to make notes of stats and names, though not a deal breaker.
Young Souls is visually striking with its bright and colorful pallet that appears to be like an animated comic. The animation is done wonderfully and the contrast between the two worlds has a great duality that emphasizes some of the narrative tones as well. The soundtrack is catchy though the lack of any voice acting was a bit of a letdown. Given how narrative heavy Young Souls is I’m sure it would have been no simple or cheap task, but feels like a missed opportunity to make it that more special.
Young Souls has a satisfying gameplay loop that has you exploring dungeons, attaining gear and delving deeper for more bosses. That said, with no New Game+ mode after the credits rolled, there’s little reason to go back aside from working towards the 100% completion. Given that Young Souls is available on Game Pass currently, there’s no reason that you can’t check it out and see if you becomw just as addicted with ‘one more dungeon’ as I did. I now live by the stone.
**Young Souls was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5
It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to sink my teeth into a Supercross game, so I was curious to see how Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 would pan out considering last year’s release was passable at best. With yearly entries coming in fast and furious for the indoor Supercross series, the fifth entry definitely has some improvements over previous entries, but is it enough for another yearly purchase and add enough new content to excite? The answer is somewhere in the middle.The bulk of your time will take place in the new Career Mode and is essentially what you’d expect in a sport centric title like this. You start as a rookie entering the sport, and while there’s no real ‘story’ per-se, you’re simply moving up the ranks and classes to try and become the champion. Start out in the ‘Futures’ class, proving yourself before moving up to the 250SX class (East and West) then finally proving you’re the Pro champion at the 450SX level. Future has 3 races, 250SX has 9 per and 17 for the Pro 450SX. This of course doesn’t include qualifying races and other side events you can partake in, but you can do the math and see how quickly you could get through the core Career Mode if you try. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, as I was initially enjoying going through the different classes and improving my rankings to win the championship of my category. I even went through both 250SX categories, East and West, and by the time I was nearing the end of the Pro series, I was more wanting it to be complete so I could be done with it, though to be fair I was trying to power through the Career in a weekend instead of slowly enjoying it.
Career Mode this time around has a few new additions that seem interesting at first and are certainly unique, but not sure if they warrant a purchase at full price if you’re still playing last year’s version. One of the more unique mechanics now added is what’s called the Rider Shape System that plays into your rider’s physical conditioning and injuries sustained during races if you are constantly crashing and bailing. Between races you’ll be shown your racer’s condition, anywhere from injured to perfect shape. Certain injuries can actually affect your performance as a rider, so you’ll need to make sure you take care of these so you can be at the top of your competitive game.
This is where Workout Sessions come into play. Taking you to the freeform Compound area, you’ll be asked with collecting five letters spelling S-H-A-P-E, attaining a certain score and then performing a certain amount of tricks like Scrubs, Whips or a Backflip. Depending on how many of these objectives you complete in the very short three minute timer will determine how much healthier your rider becomes afterwards. Keep in mind though, you only get one shot, so you may not get healed fully if you don’t perform well here, going into your next race at a disadvantage.
Between main races you can also choose to partake in training events, teaching not just some base skills, but its way to trying to show you specific strategies in races or how to properly perform certain moves. These become much more challenging as time goes on and may simply feel like glorified training modules, but I did learn a few things to make my racing better overall. There are even optional events you can join in on each week as well if you want to add some more credits to purchase new gear, but eventually money becomes such a moot point that there’s no real need to unless you really want to extended your play time as you wait for next year’s inevitable release.
You’ll also create your custom rider, though don’t expect much here as it’s bare bones as it gets. You can choose from a handful of different faces and hairstyles, change the base color of your hair, and that’s about it. Granted, you’re always going to have your helmet on and be racing when not in menus or watching the opening and closing cutscenes per race, but there’s so few options here that I didn’t even really bother caring what they looked like, which is unfortunate, as I’m usually the type to spend an hour on customizing your character to exactly how I want.
Once you reach the 450SX category after completing 250 West or East, Rivals will unlock. This is where you and another racer are told you’re rivals. Why? I’m not sure, but beating them in a few different categories will earn you a cash bonus per race if successful. Nab that Holeshot, crash less and beat their placement and you’ll almost always win against your rivals. They have a different colored name on the track, but I don’t really see the reason for this, as there’s nothing else to it. They aren’t more aggressive towards you, don’t taunt you or anything of the like, so it seems like an idea that didn’t get fleshed out properly to have any meaningful impact. By the time you reach Pro level, money isn’t really an issue unless you’re wanting to buy new parts or bikes anyways.
There’s also a journal you can check between races that give you a laundry list of optional side objectives to complete overtime. Most of these are basic such as performing certain moves like Scrubs and Whips a certain amount of times or gaining an ability point each of the four milestones you reach for completion. There’s no easy way to stick these on the screen or anything, so you need to constantly go back to the Journal between every race to see how your progress is coming in these optional objectives if you want more skill points.
If you know anything about motocross you then most likely also know or heard of Ricky Carmichael who just also happens to help you take your first steps into this Supercross sport in the early tutorials. Starting out in the Futures category you’ll be eased into the gameplay with a tutorial that will teach you the basics of riding, leaning, jumps, whoops, scrubs and more. Keeping your momentum and speed are how you’re going to win races, and without these basic skills you won’t be standing on many podiums, so best pay attention and practice, though it will take some time for it to all feel natural without thinking.
While I jumped into Career Mode right away, you might want to get a few races under your belt first to get a feel for the controls and how to properly launch and scrub so that you know how to keep up your speed in these intense official courses. Free Roam lets you return to the Compound to freely drive around a private area to explore, Time Attack, Singe Event, Championship and an Online mode are available depending on what you want to do.
Having played one or two of the previous games, Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 definitely feels different, even from its opening moments. Previous games felt a bit ‘floaty’ to me, but that seems to have been improved. Bikes feel much more ‘weightier’ now. No longer can you take the corners at full speeds, as you’ll need to make sure your weight is properly placed if you want to exit at a decent speed without bailing. Not only did I have to get used to taking my finger off the throttle, I had to use the brakes quite often as well.
To be successful you’re going to have to learn how to keep your speed up during turns, bends, whoop sections and more. There’s not many long straightaways, so momentum plays a huge part between first and last place. Not knowing how to lean back and ride whoops (like speedbumps and moguls) will stop you quickly or have you bail. Don’t hit a ramp section with the right speed and you’ll be bouncing from the top of each mound rather than leaping over and probably crashing when you go off track into the barriers. There is an option to enable jump lines which I found quite helpful, much like race lines that show you to turn and slowdown in racing games like Forza, but here they show you how far you should be aiming to jump in air for best results. Unfortunately they aren’t color coded, so it will take quite a bit of practice to learn what the small and large arrows mean in relation to your speed since they don’t hint if you should be going faster or slower to properly do so.
If you do end up bailing or landing in a bad angle, you are given the ability to rewind time and try to correct yourself, but these are limited. You start out with three rewinds that will mostly likely be used quite quickly in the beginning, so what do you do when they are all gone? Well, you’re going to have to land some big air, jumps, scrubs and whips to refill the bars slowly. This of course will have you trying to attempt risky moves when maybe you shouldn’t, but getting that much needed rewind can make a difference in placement.
While the bikes themselves feel heavier and control better than previous years, the AI from your opponents are as brain dead as they get. Instead of good rider AI, it seems a majority of the time the other CPU racers are basically on rails, yet will crash often and make odd choices when it comes to certain jumps. When I’m stuck in the middle of the pack, it seems as though they don’t always have to adhere to the same physics and rules that I do, as they can power through a corner at double my speed without any repercussions even with my bike fully upgraded. Difficulty seems all over the place as well, as Easy will have you lapping opponents a number of times per race, but Hard seems overly punishing and they don’t care if you’re in their race line.
The Compound makes a return, an open outdoor area full of hills, trees and numerous tracks throughout. There are twenty collectables to find, giving you a special suit and livery for your bike if you manage to find them all, but don’t get your hopes up for anything too special. While I appreciate the space to play around to have fun in, there’s nothing really here worth spending the time in unless you simply want a change of scenery from the indoor tracks. Track Editor returns also, allowing you to create the track of your dreams and share it with the rest of the community. There’s a few new tools, namely the Rhythm Section Editor which essentially allows you to save a section of your track, almost like a template, then use that in your other tracks so you don’t have to make a section of track from each individual piece. The editor is still clumsy and cumbersome to use, and while there’s no crazy pieces like loops as the game is rooted in reality, there are a few unique community creations out there worth checking out.
There is a Skill Point system in place within the campaign, allowing you to upgrade certain aspects like braking, cornering, Scrub control and more. You can only reach certain tiers bases on the series category you’ve reached, with the final upgrades being within the Pro 450SX unlock. While there’s many to unlock, it seemed impossible to tell if any of these were making much of a difference. It will take quite a grind if you want to unlock the whole skill tree, but you should have about half of it filled by the time you complete the 450SX championship.
The other half of the customization comes with your rider outfit and components for your bike. The suits, helmets boots and more are simply cosmetic, but there are plenty of choices from a handful of real world sponsors and brands. There are a few special and unique options, but don’t expect anything wacky like chicken suits or anything of the sort that you wouldn’t see in the actual sport. Bike customization also has a large list of manufacturers and parts, both which change the look of the bike for that component and the stats. Some parts will have better stats than others, but there’s no singular ‘best’, as you can get the highest stats from almost every part maker.
Career Mode will only last you so long, so that’s where the online multiplayer will have the longevity with some friends. With crossplay enabled for Xbox consoles and generations, not only is online multiplayer a draw, but split screen multiplayer finally makes a long awaited return as well. Local multiplayer usually gets overlooked and ignored, so for those that have been wanting this to return, it’s finally back. Out of the handful of races I competed online, I had no lag issues or anything major worth noting.
Visually, Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 is certainly passable. Nothing will amaze or 'wow' you, but that’s more likely from the nature of the sport, always being indoors at an arena and racing on brown dirt, mud and gravel. Clothing can move and flow, but you’re so focused on the race lines itself that it’s hard to take notice of much else. There are some minor texture pop-in issues, especially as a race gets loaded in and about to start, and some of the background skyboxes can be quite ugly in the compound, but nothing that takes away from the experience as a whole. What does impress is the first person view or the in-helmet camera and trying to race as you would in real life. This alone takes the experience to a whole different level that is a drastic shift from what you make be used to in Supercross games.
As for the audio, it’s exactly as you’d expect for a Supercross game, filled with loud motorbike engines and dirt flinging. Oddly enough you’re unable to completely mute the engine sounds, so I turned it as low as it would allow as it seemed to unchange for the most part. There’s absolutely no commentary during races, only a few lines before and after that are repeated over and over again. The soundtrack itself is as bland as it gets with a Rock OST that I don’t think I could remember or name any of the tracks. Do yourself a favor and put your own tunes on instead.
A slight improvement from previous year’s entries, Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 is certainly a passable package that will give you some entertainment if you’re a fan of the sport. While it may be repetitive and I question its longevity, especially if online play doesn’t interest you, there’s enough here for some enjoyment, though I’d suggest waiting for a sale, especially if you have last year’s entry.
**Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Shadow Warrior 3
Do you love mindlessly shooting hordes of enemies? If so you might be a fan of classic Serious Sam or the newer entries of Doom or Doom Eternal. What about games filled with toilet and childish humor but still can’t help but laugh at stupid jokes? Then you probably had a fun time with the mediocre Bulletstorm back in 2011. If you’ve ever wanted a game that combined these two types of games, look no further, as Shadow Warrior 3 is an over-the-top off-the-rails shooter that is filled with fast paced gunplay, sword fighting, crazy parkour maneuvers and so filled with poop jokes and pop culture references that I found myself literally laughing out loud at times because that’s the type of humor that I enjoy. Yes, I know I'm a manchild.I’ll admit, I’ve not had the pleasure to play the first two Shadow Warrior games, so I wasn’t sure what to initially expect. Originally released in 1997, Shadow Warrior got a reboot back in 2013 and a sequel in 2016, so it’s got a following over the years. Picking up where the second game left off, you once again play as Lo Wang, a modern day ninja that has some kick ass moves, weapons and quite the potty mouth.
Shadow Warrior 3 starts off with Wang talking to himself, in his underwear, basically giving a recap of what happened to this point, a clever subtle way to recap events from the previous game, explaining how the world is basically doomed now because there’s a massive dragon that was let loose on the world and destroying everything at the closing events of Shadow Warrior 2. As he’s feeling sorry for himself, former enemy, Zilla, enters his treehouse and basically talks Wang into trying to stop the ancient dragon and save the world.
The two will set out, meet some familiar faces along the way and go on quite an epic journey to try and stop the world from being destroyed. Armed with just his sword and a pistol, Wang is going to have a crazy journey filled with hundreds of demon enemies trying to stop him and needing to make insane leaps, crossing chasms and wall running across massive gaps. There is more to the main narrative, but because of the very short runtime of about five to six hours on normal, I don’t want to spoil anything else since it goes quite quickly. All you need to know is that the story is entertaining, gameplay frantic and fun, and Wang is similar to having Deadpool’s type of humor.
Taking place in a Feudal Japan backdrop, there’s some beautiful level design and settings that Wang will traverse, and even though much of the time you need to be constantly moving, dashing and running as quick as you can from area to area, taking a moment here and there to take in the scenery can be quite impressive. Fighting against a number of different types of Yokai enemies from Japanese folklore, they become bigger, badder and more, uhh, unique as you progress in the story, all of which need a specific strategy to overcome.
Played in first person, Wang will be essentially wall running and leaping from point A to B where you’ll then be placed into an arena that is impassable until all enemies are defeated. If this sounds like Serious Sam you’d be correct, as it’s the same design principles. This normally would be a knock against its dated design, but the combat is so frantic and fun that it never become tiresome, nor does the exhilarating running from arena to arena.
There’s almost never a dull moment, as Wang is almost always constantly on the move, either in traversing the levels, leaping and swinging from one platform to the next, but also in combat, as you’ll need to constantly be moving if you want to survive. The level design is very linear but there are a few side paths that can house a secret or two, but they are generally quite obvious and aren’t very much of a detour at all. For those hoping that level design would be like it was in the previous game, sorry, Shadow Warrior 3 is very linear but I still quite enjoyed going from one point to the next as the setpieces were made quite well.
Wang is able to jump, double jump, dash almost constantly, wall run on specifically marked foliage pathways and use a grappling hook to swing from point to point. Because Wang has all these moves, traversing levels is quick and fun, as you’ll need to utilize double jumps and dashes midair to make it to and from certain points. There’s a certain flow that happens in these platforming sections, and once you get it down without having to think it becomes very smooth. This movement also will be needed in battles as well, as Wang only starts out with his trusty sword and a pistol.
Combat in Shadow Warrior 3 is quite simple to perform, with Right Bumper acting as your sword attacks and Right Trigger for your ranged weapons. There’s fewer weapons this time around which you’ll unlock during your journey to stop the dragon (or is it a Wyvern?), but they are all fun to use, especially once you start unlocking their upgrades. If you have access to guns, why would you use your katana you ask? Well, Wang is a ninja, so he’s quite skilled with his sword and can cause a lot of damage. With some upgrades he’ll also be able to charge his attack and send out a fire, lightning or ice attack for ranged hits as well. When you become surrounded by minions, it’s usually better to start swinging away to clear yourself some room.
Your ranged weapons on the other hand generally have quite limited ammo, so they are great to use while closing the distance or when you want to keep away from the more dangerous enemies. To refill your health and ammo you’ll need to keep an eye out in the arenas for red and blue pickups, though later you’ll get some skills that will cause enemies to drop more as well, kind of like how the recent Doom games get you to switch between ranged and melee. I found combat at first a little tricky, as it felt weird to use ‘RB’ for melee attacks, but eventually it feels natural and smooth once you get the hang of switching weapons. That said, this is encouraged, as you instantly reload your guns if you swap to your sword, so it’s generally a great tactic to unload a clip, get in close with your sword to instantly refill and then switch back again.
There’s only a handful of guns you’ll find throughout your journey, but each gun is unique and best suited for certain situations. While enemies will be reused over and over, each level or so you’re introduced to a new type of enemy that keeps things exciting and fresh. The only ones I really hated was the exploding grunts later on that were clearly copies of the Kamikazes from Serious Sam, even down to the screaming as they rush and swarm you and explode.
Wang also has a finisher meter, starting out with two units, eventually gaining three. These are used for special gore moves that leave you with a powerful weapon for a short period after one-shotting the enemy. Small grunts only require one bar of finisher but these generally only give you a quick health replenish or a cryo grenade, but using two bars on the bigger enemies will rip them to pieces as you take their weapon to use briefly. Ripping the arm off a giant troll allows you to use their club and smash enemies all around you, or ripping the eye out of these annoying flying enemies will act like a homing missile going from enemy to enemy. It’s an interesting mechanic that can make a big difference in battle if used properly but gives you a huge damage boost for a short period of time.
As you explore the levels, even in linear paths, you’ll come across upgrade orbs for Wang and for his weapons. Each skill or weapon has three tiers of upgrades, costing 1, 2 and 4 to complete and can make a huge difference in your journey. Weapon upgrades become quite interesting, as you can freely choose what to improve, but being able to shoot elemental attacks from your sword can become quite handy, as is making it so your shotgun-like weapon turns full-auto or never needs to be reloaded.
The world Wang has to traverse is absolutely breathtaking at times, and while it’s hard to take a moment to stop and take it in, the vistas are absolutely gorgeous, especially when you see a massive dragon soaring on by as you wall run and grapple hook to try and catch up with it. I never had any slowdown or pop-in issues, but there’s some harsh transitions between gameplay and cutscenes sometimes, as it can happen instantly and just feels a little off. As for the audio, the writing it juvenile, but it’s meant to be and the voice acting is decent, even if some lines are repeated at times. Wang’s lines and interactions with the other characters is hilarious at times and cringe at others, but I do believe I think that’s what developers were going for.
I quite enjoyed my time with Shadow Warrior 3 from beginning to the rolling credits. That said, the asking price is quite steep for a game that I finished in about five or six hours that is very linear and has no multiplayer component. Your enjoyment is most likely going to be determined on your sense of humor, so if you love poop jokes and swearing, you’ll most likely be laughing like I did throughout in this Bulletstorm and Doom mashup.
**Shadow Warrior 3 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Roguebook
When I think of card based deck building games, the first ones that always come to mind is Gwent and Hearthstone. There’s a decent amount out there in the genre, but if you’re a deck building fan you might want to settle in and pay attention, as Roguebook took me by surprise, even as a casual fan of the genre. Are you a fan of Slay The Spire? What about Magic: The Gathering? If so, Roguebook might be exactly up your alley, as it’s very similar to Slay the Spire in many of its core mechanics, but also the backing of Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering. Choose two heroes, prepare your strategies and build a powerful deck in this roguelike deck builder that took me by surprise.You are trapped within the Book of Lore of Faeria, where each page consists of a new challenge and adventure. You’ll have to choose two champions to find and fight your way to freedom of this Roguebook, but doing so won’t be easy as you’ll need a plethora of strategy, great foresight, a little bit of luck and a great deck in hand.
Roguebook has you choose two heroes that will begin your adventure for that run, and as you progress through the pages and manage to defeat bosses you’ll gain access to extra characters along the way. Each character has their own card decks that suit a particular playstyle and utilize completely different setups and strategies. Different hero combinations will make for unique card combinations and strategies, so it will take some time to find what works best for you, but once you start to understand how to utilize their cards best to synergize with the other hero of choice, that’s when the magic to Roguebook starts to shine through.
You begin with Sharra, a warrior that is more based on speed, stacking her attacks, bleeds and boosting her power. Sorocco has more area of effect cards and large block cards if you choose to play a bit more defensively, a must with bosses. While he wasn’t my favorite partner hero, I tend to use Seifer almost every single time due to his deck style. He has a good health pool and attacks for huge numbers when his rage meter fills, so with some basic setup and planning he can be quite a great partner. There’s one more hero that I don’t want to spoil, and even one other tied to DLC which I quite enjoy as well, though adds for some really unique strategies. Success in Roguebook will come from finding the duo that works best for you and how to have them synergize together well with your playstyle and strategy.
Every time you play a new run you’re brought to an open page of Roguebook. Much like other games’ fog of war, the tiles on the grid are where you can explore, trying to uncover as many tiles as you can for treasure, health, ink and more. To uncover tiles that you can’t access you must use your limited paint brush strokes that will uncover a number of tiles around you. You only have a few of these paint brushes though, so you need to decide what direction you want to try and uncover, as in the fogged area you’ll see some towers or other uncovered spaces that entice you to search that direction. These towers will uncover a large area of the fog, so they are usually a great spot to try and reach.
Tiles will either be walkable on, have barriers like rocks or cliffs, or have merchants, treasure, gold and other things you’ll need to survive Roguebook. The map, or pages, are procedurally generated every time you play as well, so there’s always something new to find or fight against in every playthrough. The boss is always at the top of the page and has a direct path from the beginning, but jumping right the boss will surely end in a quick death, as you need to fight in other battles to earn gold and bonuses so you be stronger for when you do eventually take on that boss with more cards in your deck. Gold becomes important as you’ll need to purchase new cards, not only for your in-hand deck, but certain amounts of cards in your deck will also unlock perks that you can choose based on your chosen heroes for that run.
This ‘overworld’ aspect makes Roguebook more than just a standard deck builder and I quite liked the exploration parts, as this required strategy. Do you take on a few regular battles (indicated by crossed swords) or even mini bosses (red crossed swords) in hopes to get some upgrades and gold so you can get better cards before the boss? What happens if you lose a lot of life though, as health isn’t replenished after battles, so you could easily head to a boss fight and get destroyed quite quickly if you didn’t manage to find any health refills while exploring the page.
It’s not explained very well, but you’ll also notice that cards have open rune slots, which is how you can completely customize and improve your deck quite substantially, which is going to be a necessity to defeat the bosses with any purpose, especially in Chapter two and three. That said, being too overzealous can have its drawbacks, like knowing you’re going into a boss fight without full health, or if you’re really unlucky enough, finding a thief as you uncover the hexagon map that steals one of your accessories unless you can manage to have the ink to get to where he ran off to on the grid and get it back.
Good roguelikes always need to give you a reason to come back and want to play more, even more so than the thrill of finally winning. Roguebook makes each run count, as you do gain some persistent experience and unlocks as you finish each run, even if unsuccessful against chapter bosses. Find pages/scrolls along the map as you uncover the grid and these will be used to purchase permanent unlocks like perks and bonuses which will make each subsequent run just that much easier. Heroes will also level up over time and runs as well, earning new powerful and unique cards that can make a big difference.
With about 200 cards to learn and collect, there can be some really unique runs based on your current deck. There’s also dozens of relics and gems, and since even bosses are randomized at the end of each chapter, each run feels completely unique. Some cards can be quite powerful, and once you know how best to use them and combine with your partners cards, this is when Roguebook starts to become really fun. Sure there’s always a bit of randomness in games like these with the cards you’re given per hand, and it does become a bit of a grind for the first few hours until you start to put together those working strategies and have some great passive bonuses, but when it all comes together and ‘clicks’, Roguebook goes from decent to great.
Battles are turned based, and what isn’t explained all that well in the beginning is how the front and back positions of your heroes plays into strategy, just like the blocking, power and more. The beginning tutorial shows the basics but it will take a few playthroughs to really start to get it and piece it together yourself. Your duo shares the deck cards (though cards are hero specific), block and the mana (amount it costs to play cards). Your hero in the front is the one that’s generally going to be taking the brunt of your enemies attacks, so it’s imperative you know who’s going to be in the front position to take the damage if you can’t fill your block enough to negate the incoming damage.
When it’s your turn you’ll see what the enemy is going to do next on their turn, usually indicated above their head with red swords showing how much damage they’re going to attack you with. Do you forgo defending and use your mana to go on the offensive, or do the math in your head and add to your block to not take as much damage instead? Block is shared regardless of which hero plays their card, something that took me a while to figure out. This is where you need to start formulating strategies based on which cards you’re dealt each hand.
Swapping heroes to the front and back play a large part in your strategies, as sometimes card values are based on their positioning as well. This is how you can start to ‘combo’ cards, knowing the best order to play them in. You’ll also have some cards that summon Allies. Some of these add bonuses, can be saved for a quick heal or attack enemies each turn. Once I figured out how potent Bleed cards and Allies can be, I altered my initial strategies, as playing these cards may cost more upfront, they act as almost passive bonus damage each turn.
Roguebook is quite colorful, bright and has great comic inspired characters. The animation is decent and the music seems very fitting for the fantasy backdrop, almost as if you really were going opening a book and going inside of it. I’ll admit, being a casual deck builder fan, I was initially doubting that Roguebook would sink its hooks into me. Here I am a week later, delaying writing this review because I keep wanting to do ‘one more run’, constantly trying to get more cards and passives to make each run that much better. With plenty of strategy, post-game content once you complete the third Chapter and tons of possibilities with a few heroes and 200 cards, there’s plenty or replay value and longevity.
A very different card game than I was used to or expecting, if you were a fan of Slay The Spire, you’ll most likely quite enjoy Roguebook for its polished and unique take of the genre. I don’t really have much negative to say at all once you’ve figured out its intricacies and built some solid strategic foundations. Generally when I’m done a review I delete and move onto the next, but I’ve kept Roguebook installed and keep going back to it for a few more runs now and then, which speaks volumes for its addictiveness.
**Roguebook (Xbox Series X|S version) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Will You Snail
If you’re a fan of rage inducing platformers such as Celeste, Super Meat Boy or VVVVVV, developer Jonas Tyroller has been working on a new game the last few years, interestingly dev-blogging the whole process, and now has finally released Will You Snail?. Yes, it’s a question, but also the game’s title. Challenging platformers aren’t hard to find, but certain ones like the titles listed above stand out and are memorable for one reason or another. I’ll be honest, I was expecting another typical platformer that I’d forget as soon as I was done with it, but Will You Snail has so much personality and uniqueness to it that even days after completion I still laugh at some of its humor.‘Explore. Run. Jump. Die. Repeat.’ That’s one of Will You Snail’s taglines, basically summing up its experience perfectly. Fast paced and hard as nails, you’ll be tasked with reaching the end in each room you’re challenged with, trying to ignore the AI that’s constantly berating you and figure out what has happened. If you’re a fan of bright neon colors, infuriating challenges, light puzzle solving, fourth wall breaking and a hilarious AI that taunts you every chance it gets, well, Will You Snail is something you’re going to want to check out.
Set in a simulation within some sort of virtual world or computer, you play as Shelly the Snail as you try and escape from the evil AI that constantly taunts and tries to kill you along the way, known as Squid. Squid will constantly be following you, appearing as an ominous ASCII face on the screen that emotes and berates you every chance he gets, hoping to see you die and fail. While your apparent main goal is to somehow escape, it’s not clear why you’re here, why you’re a snail and why Squid hates humanity so much. Tidbits of story are revealed here and there, but the bulk of the background lore is given in piecemeal as you find pillars that unlock small portions of the overall narrative.
It’s completely up to you if you want to search out these pillars to unlock small bites of the story, but they don’t come in order, so you’ll need to try and collect all fifty if you want to piece together what happened and why. Squid constantly breaks the fourth wall, which I always find hilarious, and he’s such an intelligent AI that he’s able to predict where you’re going to jump and move to next, so will constantly try and place traps in those spots to kill you. You’re going to die many times, but death is just a minor setback, starting at the beginning of the room you’re currently on without any wait.
You don’t speak, I mean, you’re a snail, so how could you? Squid on the other hand has tons of spoken lines of dialogue, usually insulting you or making fun when you die over and over. Even though Will You Snail is a solo game, you don’t ever really feel alone, as Squid is always there trying to predict your moments and stop you, making sure you know about it. Lines are also never repeated which is an impressive feat, and some are so specific it’s remarkable. For example, I died in one spot and he laughed at me. I of course died in the exact same spot and he snickered telling me that I’m a dumb human playing this game since I died in the exact spot right away again and didn't learn my lesson.
Left, Right and Jump, that’s all you need to know for the controls. It doesn’t get much simpler, and being a platformer, the rest of the mechanics and tricks are taught along the way. Platforming games can be a constant frustration if the controls aren’t snappy and precise. Thankfully this isn’t the case with Will You Snail, as all my deaths were completely my fault, nothing I can blame the controller or poor controls for. You’re a snail that’s able to double jump but you’ll need quick reflexes to sometimes outsmart yourself, because remember, Squid predicts where you’re going to be in a moment and tries to place traps in those spots.
Are you a fan of challenge? Are you one of those types of players that prides itself on beating games on their hardest difficulty? I bet you’ll have a hard time completing Will You Snail on the Easy difficulty. This is where some of the game’s humor starts to show, because the difficulty choices are actually Easy, Very Easy, Extremely Easy and Infinitely Easy. So naturally, Easy difficulty is actually the hardest one, but can be quite a brag if you’re able to do so. Squid is smart enough that the difficulty will also adjust on the fly based on your performance. Began out on Infinitely Easy but start to do too well? You’ll probably get bumped up a difficulty or two to compensate. This can of course be turned off for the AI to automatically decide for you on the fly, but it’s a great feature to keep a constant challenge without being constantly punishing at the same time. Even on the sections that I died dozens of times I never really become frustrated as each room is small enough and Squids one liners were always amusing, even if he questioned my manhood more than once.
Because of Squid’s AI trying to constantly predict your movements, no two playthroughs of a level is the same, as you most likely are going to try new tactics after a death. It’s quite impressive to think about the work that went on behind the scenes to predict movement from the player, so kudos for such a mechanic in a seemingly basic game like this. Outwitting Squid is sometimes more important than trying to get through a level quickly. For example, in one boss fight I had to hit a certain amount of switches, but kept dying until I realized he was learning my pattern. So I had to switch things up, waiting beside the buttons until some lasers fired before jumping onto the button and trying to be a little sporadic instead of moving in a straight and steady line.
While there’s a few boss fights, these were the highlight outside of the constant beratement towards me, which I always found hilarious. These bosses usually filled the screen and was a great change of pace to challenge yourself with some creative designs, my favorite being the massive spider that slowly crawls after you where you need to shoot its legs and body. Yes, sometimes you’ll find rooms that have turrets that will attach to your shell and fire automatically in a certain direction. This plays into some puzzle rooms and add some minor combat sections.
There are also optional puzzles you’ll find. These aren’t too challenging, but add some longevity and are completely optional if you simply want to progress. You’re able to go back to the level select at any time and go back to find hidden paths and collectables, even replay levels on higher difficulties. There’s also a few unique sections and levels where you might race against a tadpole in the water, maybe play some tower defense or even try and bounce a square “ball” into the net to progress.
I’ll admit, there was one point where I needed a break from dying so much in a single level, so I went to quit out so I could come back later, only to find I’m given the option to quit to the main menu or choose the “I’m Frustrated” mode. Choosing this takes away all frustration and has you collecting smiley faces that float around the level. Collect a certain amount of points and you level up. Why? There’s no reason, simply to be more relaxing. Again, proof of the humor within and so asinine that I couldn’t help but smile and laugh, ironically getting me to play for another half hour when I originally wanted to quit. If you’re into speedrunning, Will You Snail embraces this as well, giving a number of options to assist, and I’d love to watch some speedruns of this in the future.
Will You Snail is visually appealing with its simple retro neon-filled style, and while it may be a basic sprite style aesthetic, there are certain elements that are impressive, like when Squid tries to make levels harder by placing a feint overlay on the screen or changes the background to being in space, making it much harder to see the platform lines. If you’re susceptible to epilepsy seizures you might way to check out a trailer before delving in, but there are a ton of options to tone down some of the features and effects.
The soundtrack is quite decent, having some tunes that had me bopping my head (and is available to download from the developer for free) as I concentrate and try to not die for the twentieth time in a row, but the highlight was easily Squid’s dialogue throughout. The writing is hilarious and because it’s voiced so well it adds such a personality, especially since lines aren’t repeated over and over like in most games.
It’s clear that Will You Snail was a passion project and it shows with the final product full of creativity and hilarity. It might seem a little steep at its regular $15 price point initially, there’s a ton of replayability and extra collectables to find to challenge even the best platformer fans. If you simply want to see the credits roll you can easily make that happen in a few hours, but trying to beat the game on Easy will add a much larger time commitment. Yes it’s hard, yes you’re a snail trying to outsmart a hilarious AI and yes I died a few hundred times, but I enjoyed it throughout. The only question left is, Will You Snail?
**Will You Snail? was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Rugby 22
Before I got together with my wife I had never watched a Rugby game in my life outside of some highlight clips. Being in Canada, Rugby has a following, but it’s all about Hockey here, which is probably why I never really followed it. Well, after marrying a Kiwi from New Zealand I was given an allegiance to the All Blacks, and since learning the sport I quite enjoy watching my boys smash the opposition. Since learning the sport's intricacies, I even have my own official All Blacks jersey and enjoy watching our team dominate when World Cup occurs.With nearly every other sport getting their own games mostly yearly, I was always curious why Rugby didn’t get the same treatment, as it is quite a popular sport in other parts of the world. After reviewing Rugby 20 two years ago I kind of understood, as it’s a harder sport to recreate with all of its special movements, rules and gameplay. Rugby 20 was “OK” at best, so with a two year gap in-between releases, I was hoping there were going to be some notable improvements and additions with this year’s entry, Rugby 22.
The lack of most sponsored teams really made Rugby 20 hard to enjoy, as you generally want to play as the teams and players you know and own jerseys of. So when it was announced that Rugby 22 was going to have the All Blacks officially joining the roster, I was of course excited and needed to play this entry. Now, I’m not going to call it a bait-and-switch, because the All Blacks are definitely in the game, but there’s some massive caveats to that claim. Also, there are still some glaring omissions of big teams, as only 10 of the National Teams are included, but more on that shortly.
Rugby 22 has crafted a Career Mode, and if you’re familiar with how FIFA games do their Ultimate Team Mode, you’ll know exactly what to expect. There’s no ‘story’ per-se, instead starting in the lower tier leagues and work your way up the divisions as you rack up wins. Completing and winning games earns you a currency which can then be used to buy packs of cards which are tied to certain players which you can add to your team. See, just like Ultimate Team.
FIFA’s Ultimate Team is insanely popular for a reason, as you get to collect virtual cards of your favorite players across teams to create your best team possible. Finally flipping that card over and seeing your favorite player is exciting, and I was hoping to get that here with my All Blacks, hoping to see cards of the Barret’s, Whitelock or iconic players like Ma’a Nonu, Richie McCaw or Dan Carter.
This is where Rugby 22 falls into a weird place, as it does have the licensed team, but virtually none of the players are included aside from a few. This means you open packs to players with silhouettes and fake names and stats, deflating the whole purpose behind having a setup like Ultimate Team. Of course you’ll start with low stat players unless you manage to pull a good card or two, but you’ll be needing to improve your team in many facets if you want to take on better competition. This is where buying packs come into play, as does improving certain aspects and stats of your team.
There’s a handful of different modes to play depending on where you want to focus. Quick Match, Career, Online or League are your main options where you can play and adjust various settings based on how you want to play and in what league. Before you even begin though you’re thrust into a training mode that shows you the basics of the game which is great in theory, but there’s quite a few aspects missing that doesn’t even get explained that had be wondering why it was omitted.
If you just want to play a game right away, Quick Match lets you do so against a friend or AI. Online Mode is there, but I’ve been unable to find a single person to play against, which is the same problem I had in Rugby 20 as well, so I can’t comment on how good the servers are unfortunately. League is where you can choose from the licensed teams (though generally just in name) from National, URC, Top 14 and Pro D2. Being a newer and more casual Rugby fan, I was more excited to play as the National teams, but once I get into the included teams, you might be disappointed to know that maybe your team didn’t make the licensing cut this year.
With over 50 Teams included in Rugby 22, keep in mind that is across all of the different leagues. Notice how there’s been no mention of Premiership teams? That wasn’t a mistake unfortunately for those Rugby league fans. The teams for URC, Top 14 and Pro D2 are here, but for National you’re going to notice a few glaring omissions.
The current roster of National teams are as follows: All Blacks, Wallabies, France Rugby, Irish Rugby, Wales, Scotland, Italy, Japan, Flying Fijians and Georgia. That’s right, just those listed 10. Surely a disappointment for England, South Africa and a laundry list of other teams that are sorely missing. Making matters worse is that even the teams that are included don’t have the full official roster either, which is like rubbing salt into a wound.
While I could get over the lack of licensed teams and players, though I’ll admit, I’m willing to give a pass because MY team is included, Rugby 22’s enjoyment will come down to its gameplay and if it’s simply fun to play. This too is a mixed answer. Attempting to recreate the sport’s intensity, some gameplay portions work really well like its Passing and Rucks, while kicking and scrums aren’t as polished.
Starting up Rugby 22 for the first time thrusts you into a tutorial match without any warning. Sure, no problem, this is where I thought I was going to learn all the ins and outs of the gameplay elements and controls. Well, you’re taught the very basics of how to run, move, pass the ball, rucks, throw ins and scrums, but that’s basically it. You’re shown how to add more players into a Ruck (simply pressing B, or holding if you want to add more than once at a time), but not how to Jackal or even kick the ball to avoid getting tackled. Scrums are briefly explained, but is a little confusing without performing them a few times over. This is going to make it very difficult to get those Tries for beginners or new players to the series.
I quite enjoy Rugby 22’s passing mechanics, using the Bumpers to choose which direction and the length the button is held to throw further. It’s not perfect and sometimes it doesn’t go to the player I initially intended, but when it does work and you can get the ball to the Winger and score that Try, it feels great when your strategy works. In general, passing feels fluid and will play into your specific strategies to find holes in the defense and feels better than it did in Rugby 20, though that may be due to the slightly quicker pacing.
Team, kits and stadium licensing is most likely going to be the biggest disappointment for hardcore Rugby fans. Rugby 22’s visuals are passable, but certainly won’t impress. With no real likeness to actual players there’s not much to compare to, but does seem to be a little dated overall when compared to the larger sports titles. As for its audio, well, it’s there, but the commentary is also nothing dynamic or exciting, with many lines repeated.
Rugby 22 is a slight improvement from Rugby 20 and is clearly the best choice for a simulation of the sport that’s recent, but it won’t compare to the FIFA’s, NHL or NBA games in any way for realism, though I doubt developers Eko Software had anywhere near the same budget to be fair. With some friends to play against, Rugby 22 could have some shelf life, but for others, the serious lack of licensing makes it feel stuck in a ruck.
**Rugby 22 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
KeyWe
Having been to New Zealand numerous times, I’ve always been intrigued by the Kiwi, a unique bird that has tiny wings yet cannot fly, nor has a tail, and its feathers are more fur-like rather than traditional feathers we think of. So being one of the world’s most unique flightless birds, developers Stonewheat & Sons came up with the idea to make a game featuring them running a post office. Yes, you heard that right, a pair of small kiwi birds running a mail room is the idea behind the adorable game, KeyWe.Don’t let its adorable birds fool you though, KeyWe is a frantic but fun cooperative game where you’ll be tasked with keeping things running. Doing so isn’t easy for regular workers, so managing the business as some birds without arms, hands or the ability to fly is surely going to be a bigger challenge. Regardless, it’s up to your pair of adorable kiwis to ensure people get their mail and packages sent out on time and correctly, so get ready to jump, peck and butt slam to get the job done.
The mailroom here though isn’t your typical kind, as this was clearly built for a different animal or creature to manage and work at. Because kiwis are so small and light, this will make your job much tougher for your duo. While able to be played in single player, trust me, you’ll want to grab a friend or family member to play alongside with, locally or online, as trying to fulfil these tasks solo while controlling both birds is nowhere near as possible or as fun.
Mailroom tasks are simple in premise, but will need a coordinated effort and constant communication from your co-op partner since you’ll face some unique challenges, like large bugs that will try to pick you up and take you away, move supplies around on you, or wind and dust storms that will toss you around due to your small stature.
To make the kiwis even cuter somehow, you’re able to spend your earned stamps for completing levels within specific times (bronze, silver and gold ratings) on adorable and hilarious accessories to customize your birds how you like. Choose from a range of hats, glasses, backpacks, feather colors and more, some only attainable from playing specific minigames repeatedly or finding hidden items in levels. Being able to unlock new wardrobe and accessories is what kept me wanting to play, able to distinguish the two drastically to make them more unique looking from one another so I didn’t get mixed up with who is whom when mail is frantically flying around.
There are basically four different main level types, and while that doesn’t seem like much, as you progress they become more complex or have new obstacles or steps you need to fulfil to send out the mail. Levels are simple in premise, but can be complex to actually perform your job, striking a balance of fun and challenge that will depend on your chosen partner to play with.
The first of the four main levels revolves around typing a short notice or letter and then having it sent out for delivery. Thing is, this is done on a typewriter, but the keys are all spread out across the room. Remember, you’re a tiny kiwi bird, so you’re only going to be able to jump on one key at a time before moving to the next to finish each word. And yes, there’s a Shift key that you’ll need to coordinate with your partner to press down if you want to capitalize any of the letters, and yes, spelling counts. Make a mistake and you’ll need to run over and peck at the delete key and then resume typing out the word listed on the telegraph. In the later levels, letters get swapped for symbols and you need to refer to the legend to see which symbol replaces what letter, or a pair of letters might get completely swapped for one another, so you need to pay attention. Extra obstacles come into play as well, like vines that block you using specific keys until you peck the flowers away, or flying bugs that will pop off they key caps, forcing you to go grab it and replace it on the typewriter.
The crate shipping level was one of my favorites, having you do a little more thinking. Down the moving conveyor a crate will come and you’ll need to read the included note to figure out where it’s being sent and which stickers you’ll need to affix to the package. For example, you can see the city or town it’s going to, and to print that label you need to type in the correct four digit code laid out on a map. If the letter mentions something is heavy, then it will need the appropriate Heavy label also attached to the top of the crate, or maybe it’s Urgent or Perishable, so you need to carefully read to choose the correct sticker(s). With your kiwi partner, you’ll then need to use a crane to move the heavy lid onto the box once the item is inside, done so by two different levers; one for horizontal movement and the other for vertical. Lastly, to ship the parcel you need to choose if it’s going North or South, determined by where the town code you read is positioned on the map. It sounds confusing but makes sense once you get a few crates shipped under your belt. Carful of the quicksand in later levels.
Next is the chaotic mail room that is managed by a friendly octopus. This is where a bulk of the sorting is done for parcels and mail. Parcels come down two conveyors and need to be moved to the correct outgoing chute, but they must stay on the belt, so you’ll need to move certain ones out of the way to get them passed into the correct chute until all are sent. Then there’s the mail itself, having you looking at the panel to show which person’s mail to send that is circling on a rotating platform. Get the correct mail and send it to the outbox to have it go on its way. The later levels add some interesting variety, like being able to shoot mail into the slots with cannons and more. This is probably the most chaotic of the levels because so much is going on and you don’t always know what to focus on first. Do you both work towards the parcels first then mail, or split up and each take on one responsibility separately?
Lastly, and another one I quite enjoy, is the room where you’ll create brief letters from snipped out magazines or papers, like a ransom note. Sometimes the full words are cut out, sometimes it’s just a small part of a word or a few letters. These are scattered all throughout the room, so you’ll need to find each snipping and place them in order. This is of course only after you grab the tape lying around and put it into the player to get the phrase you need to make on paper. Once complete, bring the note to the animal waiting at the window ready to go by putting it in their backpack and fastening their buckles so it doesn’t fall out. Later levels become quite challenging too, with bugs that will move around the clippings or small tornadoes that fling you and the snippings around.
There’s enough variety and new things thrown into the four main levels as you progress through each season that it feels fresh throughout. This would have been fine enough, but there’s also a plethora of minigames, called Overtime Shifts. These are completely optional and add some unique variety. There’s a handful to check out, but the most satisfying one was by far the one where you’re tasked with popping bubble wrap, being told how many small, medium or large bubbles to pop within a certain time limit. These extra games are how you’ll earn some of the exclusive cosmetic items as well, so they make it worthwhile to spend some time playing and some will even offer extra stamps for completion, enticing you to play more than just the campaign.
As noted above, KeyWe is almost required to play co-op. Single player is absolutely possible but defeats the purpose and is incredibly challenging to even do so, trying to control both birds simultaneously with one controller. Find a friend or family member and KeyWe becomes a great time to laugh and swear at one another. It takes a surprising amount of communication if you want any chance at the silver or gold completion times, knowing what task the other is going to be responsible for and working in unison. I played alongside my daughter and we eventually figured out who was going to do what in each level, then it started to gel and become quite fun working together. I can see this being a hilarious game with some buddies over after a few drinks trying to coordinate with one another and calling each other names for failing to do the right task at the correct time because they forgot again to hold down the Shift key when you were trying to use the typewriter.
I’d wager that there may not be a cuter bird than the kiwi, and while I may be a little bias because my wife is from New Zealand and I love the country, KeyWe is an adorable co-op game that was a fun experience throughout, never really frustrating due to the game design. Find a partner to play with and you’ll have a great time laughing or swearing at one another depending on your communication skills. Being a delightful co-op game, I’d butt slam the recommended button if I was a small kiwi bird.
**KeyWe was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
What Lies in The Multiverse
What lies in the multiverse? What is a multiverse? Well, if you’ve been watching the latest Marvel movies, you’ll know that this is quite a hot ‘thing’ right now. Maybe you know them as parallel/alternate universes or dimensions, but the core idea is that there’s an infinite amount of these universes where anything in our world that could happen, would, each playing out in a different way. What if you chose one option in life instead of another, that would be a completely different timeline, and things get messy when you start to deal with multiverses, as reality could shatter if they intersected or crossed over somehow.What Lies in the Multiverse, by indie developer Studio Voyager, plays off this concept in a lighthearted way, telling a surprisingly interesting story and using 2D platforming and puzzle solving as its core gameplay elements. I’m all for stylish pixel based 2D platformers, which would have been a decent game in itself, but developers Studio Voyager and IguanaBee have crafted a puzzle game that has a narrative and characters that I actually cared about and wanted to spend more time with. Also, just because the cartoonish and bright colorful pixel art may have you assume What Lies in the Multiverse is meant for younger audiences, there’s some subtle dark themes present within.
You play as the Kid, an unnamed child that is tinkering with his computer, trying to simulate parallel universes. Of course something goes wrong and the kid’s world starts to glitch. Transported to some sterile lab he then glitches out and ends up in a lush green world, unaware of where this actually is. You meet an eccentric man named Everett, easily distinguishable due to his overly sized purple hat that looks like a mix of Jamiroquai and Cat in the Hat’s... uhh... hat.
Everett’s personality comes through in the written dialogue instantly, quickly showing the humor that is laced throughout the kid’s adventure. From hilarious one liners to smart banter, you can expect great dialogue and writing all the way until the credits roll. It seems the kid instantly accepts what Everett has to say and why he must help find his partner, Ez, though you’re never sure what Everett’s true intentions really are until much later.
Everett has a cane with a skull on it called The Voyager, the gadget he uses to warp within this new world seemingly from one dimension to the next. As you search for Ez and help Everett along the way, you’ll gain power from The Voyager, able to shift yourself between worlds, but doing so will have a different effect depending on which area you’re in. It seems people are after Everett though, a group of people called ZENITH. Why are they chasing him within the multiverse? What does Ez have to do with it? Why does the kid keep getting zapped? Why does someone get ran over by a pickup truck? These questions become answered eventually with a story that constantly shifts between humorous and serious tones, yet never feeling out of place. With a runtime of roughly six or so hours, I don’t want to spoil much more of the narrative as it’s easily What Lies in the Multiverse’s greatest aspect.
If you’re a fan of iconic platform puzzlers like Fez or Braid, you’ll feel right at home with What Lies in the Multiverse. Its core mechanic has you able to swap between two worlds to maneuver across a world to reach the goal. Of course with the multiverse concept, this plays out in really unique and interesting ways. Some levels will have you swapping gravity, others will put you in the ‘past’ or ‘present’ which has their own barriers that you’ll need to navigate both to get through. Each of these worlds have different ‘rules’ when it comes to the multiverse, but you’re given the tools to learn the concepts each time they are added before becoming more challenging in the later half.
As a puzzler game only, there’s not all that much challenge here. Sure there were a few sections that had my scratching my head for a while with trial and error, but I eventually solved the puzzle and felt smart after coming up with the solution. This is the multiverse though, so you can expect the unexpected. Each level has its own biome and tone, making for some variety as you progress in your quest to find Ez with Everett.
Can’t reach a ledge? You probably need to move a box to get on top of it to jump and reach. No box to be seen? I bet if you went into the other universe there probably would be one. This is where swapping between worlds comes into play and affects one another. Switching between worlds can be where the dark side of its story starts to show itself in subtle ways. For example, maybe in the present you’re walking within a town and see some kids playing. When you switch universes all you see is a pile of bones from two individuals. The same goes for a dog or cat you pet, where swapping over shows a corpse that’s been there for quite some time. It’s dark but in a subtle way without spelling it out or directly saying anything, so there’s lots to see and admire if you pay attention.
Now and then you might see objects or blocks that seem to be glitching, seemingly stuck between both worlds. This is where some of the more unique puzzles start to appear, as you’re going to have to figure out how moving it in one world affects it in the other. Another world will have the present world full of thick bushes that can’t be bypassed, but swapping to the other multiverse has vines appear that can be climbed but also has poisonous air, so you’re only able to stay within it for a few seconds at a time. One level has you able to invert gravity back and forth, also changing how blocks and objects are affected in the world, adding another level of complexity for the puzzles. Be curious and you may find secret paths and hidden collectables, giving you some background information and lore about the world and its people.
As you get further in the story, it seems that Everett and the kid’s jumping between worlds is causing multidimensional rifts to appear. These cause certain areas to prevent you from swapping between worlds, which is a whole other puzzle mechanic in itself. Certain glitched areas may appear, and going through these is how you change from one dimension to the next. These puzzles were the most unique and challenging, roughly halfway through the game, causing me to sit and think for some time of the best way to proceed. There are even a few levels where you’re unable to use The Voyager to swap worlds on the fly, for narrative reasons, and these levels become more about platforming and basic puzzle solving instead. I thought these levels might fall flat considering it isn’t even using the main draw of multidimensional gameplay, but they held up on their own quite well.
Even though its 2D pixel based, there’s a good amount of fine detail, not only in the artwork, but animations as well. There’s a surprising amount of body language and tone you can get from simply looking at the characters movements and reactions, usually playing into the humor aspect. With eight different chapters, you can expect a handful of different backgrounds and environments to explore, all unique from one another in color pallet and tone. Even the audio is done quite well, as swapping between worlds also changes the background music to meet the feeling of that world as well. There’s no voiceover sadly for the dialogue, but the sound effects for jumping and platform movements are what you’d expect for a retro looking game like this.
If I’m being honest, I was completely expecting another run of the mill 2D platformer before playing. Even within its opening moments, I found myself smiling from its humorous dialogue and I loved every moment I got to see the kid and Everett chat and interact. By the time the credits rolled, I was fully invested with its characters and wish there was more story to unfold. Lasting just the right length, I came away more than impressed with a completely satisfying platform puzzler full of laughs that also had a worthwhile narrative.
**What Lies in the Multiverse was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Time Loader
I’m always down for a light hearted puzzle game, especially one that centers around an adorable robot and puzzles that don’t frustrate me and force me to search online for solutions for obtuse solutions. Puzzle games usually focus heavily on its gameplay, sometimes forgetting to add a compelling narrative. Time Loader, developed by Flazm, manages to balance both a fun puzzler alongside an interesting narrative that centers around time travel set in the 90’s using a robot that resembles a distant cousin of Wall-E.There’s something charming about controlling an adorable robot, a small little AI with four wheels and a robotic arm that can be used to push, pull and swing on objects. A young child named Adam is playing in his treehouse one day and ends up tripping on one of his toy cars, causing him to fall from quite a distance and forever being in a wheelchair since. Now as an adult, he figures a way to send his little robot back in time to the mid 90’s to try and stop that fateful event from ever happening, changing his future. Tasked with changing the past, this little robot has a ton of personality and its cute aesthetic makes for a chill vibe throughout.
Being back in your childhood home growing up, you’ll need to maneuver around obstacles on a 2D plane to your destinations from room to room, but to do so you’ll need to solve puzzles along the way to progress. Being a small little robot, your perspective is different than you’re used to, able to squeeze under low objects, through vents and other ways to traverse you normally wouldn’t think of in your home.
We all know that time travel is dangerous though. If you change the past, you change the future in other ways you couldn’t expect. There’s consequences for your choices and actions. What if saving Adam from the accident makes a more serious event occur? What if then fixing that problem makes the future worse for others as well? Messing with time is going to have serious complications once the Butterfly Effect kicks in. With multiple (and a secret) endings, there’s actually reasons to replay once you’ve seen credits roll, something you don’t see often in puzzle games.
Since the gameplay happens on a 2D plane, you’ll move your robot from left to right, jump over obstacles, and use your robotic arm to manipulate certain objects or grab onto specific points to swing across gaps. During your journey back in the 90’s, you’ll also come across various upgrades for your robot, like attaching a screwdriver or soldering iron which will be needed to progress further inside the home. Levels play out fairly linear, though there’s a handful of secret collectables to find for those wanting to explore every inch.
Puzzles in Time Loader are generally simple to figure out and I never got stuck more than a few minutes as I deducted what needed to be done. Most will have you needing to reach some sort of ledge or wedge something in a specific spot to cross a gap. The most struggles I ran into weren’t actually the puzzles themselves, but simply determining what I could travel under or through without trying since certain objects blend into the background or foreground at times. Some of the puzzles become a little more complex near the end, but nothing that had me searching online for a solution and always kept itself light hearted.
Given its 90’s backdrop you can expect to see references, objects and more from the era. I smirked every time I got that nostalgia drop. Seeing a DeLorean, a Super Nintendo, a Playstation One, VHS tapes, a Gameboy and more brought me back to my own upbringing. There’s plenty of smaller details and the overall aesthetic simply has that 90’s look and color tones to it. While the visuals won’t impress, it does the job for the task at hand for a short quirky little puzzle game. The soundtrack has a great instrumental mellow tone and the voice work from the robot is cute even if infrequent.
Time Loader never overstays its welcome, able to be completed in a single sitting within a few hours if you wish, though with multiple endings based on some of your choices, it’s worth playing through again simply to spend more time within its charming world.
I was quite fond of the physics based puzzles that never became frustrating, but became actually invested at trying to save Adam from a lifetime in a wheelchair, attempting to change the past and hoping it wouldn’t make things worse in the new present. Puzzles are fun to complete and the story gives you enough motivation to see it to completion. Time Loader may be short but sweet, but I’m glad to have taken the trip back in time to the 90’s, just like how I remember it.
**Time Loader was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Music Racer: Ultimate
Music based rhythm games are one of my favorite genres. Name it and I’ve probably played it, or at least listened to its soundtrack. So whenever a new musical game releases I always take note. The latest, Music Racer: Ultimate, developed by AbstractArt and Light Road Games, is an updated version of the 2018 game with the same name without the Ultimate suffix. Given that they also advertise the game with a Lamborghini Countach, my favorite car of all time, I had no choice but to check it out.Music Racer: Ultimate is essentially the original game but with some more content and features built in, and yes, original base game owners will apparently get a 50% discount if they choose to purchase Ultimate. The rhythm game was played by many, but the PC version at its original launch was the clear superior version, as it allowed you to import and play your own music, something that was a glaring omission from the console versions. That’s what Music Racer: Ultimate aims to improve, finally giving us console players the same ability, with some unique caveats.
So you’ve played the original Music Racer and wondering what’s exactly new in this Ultimate version? You can expect new vehicles, new backdrops and of course the main reason you’d upgrade, for the ability to play your own music. A music game with a set list of songs can become stale in time, so the ability to add any from your library makes the game infinitely replayable. Don’t go in expecting any sort of narrative, career or campaign at all, it’s simply picking a song and playing it with your vehicle, that’s it. It’s as barebones as it comes, not even offering any sort of tutorial or explaining anything in the menus.
So how do you play your own music you ask? On your PC, Mac, or Mobile device you’ll need to setup a WebDAV server, essentially a way for the game to talk to your external device and stream the music from. Once you’ve installed one of the supported apps, you’ll find your appropriate music folder(s), find your device’s IP then tell Music Racer: Ultimate exactly where to find your server hosting your songs.
Currently the supported server apps are as follows and also come with a complete setup guide:
[Windows] Easy Web Server
[macOS] WebDAVNav Server
[iOS] PocketTheater WebServer
[iOS] Amerigo File Manager
[iOS] File Sharing Manager - Transfer videos & photos over WiFi
[Android] WebDAV Server
[Android] WiFi File Transfer
There are a few technical restrictions though, as you can’t simply import your gigabytes of stores music library and have it sitting in your game. Instead, you actually only download one song at a time since it’s stored in the console’s RAM for the duration of that level, so no permanently saving your audio to the system unfortunately. There’s also a 100Mb size limit and a 40 minute length restriction as well. Going through the FAQ and walkthrough was quite basic to install, setup and get running. I’m quite a techy guy, so things like this are second nature to me. After an hour of trying everything I could, I simply couldn’t get the Web Server’s to work at all on my PC or Mobile, and I exhausted all of my options. I’m not sure why Music Racer: Ultimate was unable to locate my shared folders and files, as I followed every step exactly as described and even reached out for assistance.
As of the time of this initial writing I was still unable to import my own songs with the servers listed above, which greatly deflated my excitement to play Music Racer: Ultimate. That said, it turns out I wasn't doing anything wrong, but instead was an unforeseen restriction with retail Xbox Series units and how it pulls outside data. Developers have since made a 'fix', a different type of work around, but it's not the easiest or user friendly solution out there. In the end though, I was finally able to play my library of MP3's, one at a time, which was the whole point of my excitement for Music Racer: Ultimate. There is also other ways to play songs, with the included tracklist and the awful offerings you can stream from the Audius platform (http://audius.co/), another new addition to this Ultimate version.
Also new are a handful of language translations and the game feels super smooth in 4k 120FPS. While the biggest addition is clearly the song import options, it does take a bit of external legwork and technical knowhow to actually do. There’s nothing even in-game that explains this really or walks you through the steps, so you’ll need to do some research yourself.
The premise of Music Racer: Ultimate is simple; collect white notes and dodge red pillars as you make your way down a three laned track that moves and changes based on the musical song being played. What’s unique is that the track itself and the notes react and are placed based on the song being played, so every song is a dynamic and unique experience. As you collect notes you’ll earn points which can then be used to purchase and unlock new levels and vehicles. The premise is simple and the gameplay even more so. Simply pick a song, drive along the track to collect white rectangles and repeat.
The tracks themselves change based on the song, so a higher tempo means the notes and vehicle will move much quicker, a lot of bass might make for some large hills and dips, and certain audio will cause a screen flashing bonanza that will test anyone without any epileptic seizure history. You want to collect as many points as possible, but the lack of any sort of online leaderboards makes it feel like a lonely and forgetful experience.
All of the level designs vary, unlockable with your saved up points. Most are very colorful and vibrant, with my favorites being the overly saturated neon 80’s aesthetic. Gameplay is done across three lanes; a middle and two sides, though oddly enough there’s one stage backdrop that adds a fourth lane for some odd reason, changing the default note placements. You move your vehicle between the lanes to collect the notes with a flick of the Left Stick or the Bumpers should you prefer. That’s it, that’s the whole gameplay aside from avoiding red pillars that stop your combo in Normal and Hard Mode.
With over a dozen levels to unlocks, there’s always new backdrop to play in, but there’s no real major differences aside from their aesthetics. Some levels are clearly easier than others, as some play out on a much ‘flatter’ pathway whereas others have much higher hills, dips and valleys. The reason I say some are ‘harder’ is because the stages that have more hills makes it impossible to see what lanes the notes coming up are in, even with the semi transparent highways you can see through. Gameplay can be so frantic and chaotic at times that you’re going to miss a bunch of notes because you simply have to guess what lane you should be in as you’re coming up to the crest of one of the hills. This could also apply for the obstacles you’re trying to avoid. There’s no indication of what levels are in what type of style, so it’s a lot of trial and error if you really want to play levels to gather the most points possible. I thought zooming the camera out would help, and it did slightly, but the default camera is basically on the rear bumper of the car and the furthest the camera can zoomed out didn’t help all that much.
There’s a decent amount of cars and vehicles to collect and unlock, clearly trying to replicate their real counterparts without infringing on copyright issues. I loved the default Countach, but you can also find sports cars, Knight Rider, a DeLorean, a Light Cycle and a bunch of other iconic cars. Given that the vehicles play a large part of the gameplay, I initially thought there would be differences between each of them. Sadly it all just comes down to an aesthetic choice. There’s absolutely no difference from one car to the next aside from how it looks, so choose your favorite, change its base and rims color and have at it. With vehicle differences simply being cosmetic, it really deflated my want to unlock them all. Unlocks can cost anywhere from 1000 points all the way up to 100K with seemingly no rhyme or reason as to their respective costs. Normal cars can be very expensive while super cars might be cheap.
Once you’ve chosen a level backdrop you then choose a song to play, and even this has zero descriptions. Choose from Local, Audius or Link. If you’ve not read this review prior to playing, you’re simply guessing what each does. Local are the songs that are included in Music Racer: Ultimate. This setlist has a bit of range from high tempo electronica to slower RnB beats, but don’t expect any licensed music here, just some cool tunes you might bop your head to. Audius is a streaming platform apparently, one I’ve never heard of, but you can choose to play Trending songs or search for an artist. Don’t expect many big names here, as this is definitely nowhere near the size of Spotify or Tidal for example. Lastly is Link where you could theoretically stream songs from your PC or Mobile device, but as described above, getting this to function is a pain and very non user friendly. If Music Racer: Ultimate added Spotify or YouTube support somehow, I could see myself playing quite long-term, unfortunately that’s not the case.
When choosing a song, there’s no artwork and no preview of what it sounds like, just a boring black screen with the song list, so you’re simply guessing and testing each song, hopefully keeping track of the ones you like and don’t. Once you’ve chosen a song you then decide to play Normal, Zen, Cinematic or Hard. Again, there’s no explanations as to the differences, so you have to simply try them out and see what they each entail. Luckily that’s what I’m here for. Normal will place notes on the track and the odd pillar obstacles you need to avoid to prevent your combo from being broken. Hard is just that, the same but music is harder where you’re unable to get hit or else you’ll fail. Zen Mode places no obstacles on the screen, so you can simply enjoy playing without any worry of failure, and lastly Cinematic Mode doesn’t even have you playing, meant to be used more like a moving dynamic background maybe when you have company over or something.
Music Racer: Ultimate’s greatest asset is its synthwave styled aesthetic, bringing those true 80’s vibes with the bright neon, flashing lights and polygon heavy models. Now, I’ve never had an issue with epileptic seizures and flashing lights have never bothered me, but damn, Music Racer: Ultimate seriously will put that to the test. I never got nauseous or headaches from playing, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did. With winding tracks, bright oversaturated colors, massive screen shake and more, it can become a bit much to focus on the gameplay when you’re being visually overstimulated. There are options to turn most of these down but it can still be far too much at times.
For how much I enjoyed Music Racer: Ultimate’s visuals, there were a laundry list of other problems I wasn’t able to ignore. First and foremost, for a music based game, it doesn’t feel like I’m driving over those notes to any sort of rhythm. I’m not moving my car from lane to lane based on the music, simply trying to capture them all somewhat to the music. It’s clear that the lead platform wasn’t console, as it feels like it was made for PC or Mobile and simply ported. Menus are horrendous to try to navigate, as there’s no indicator as to which option you’re currently on or trying to select. You have to simply try and toggle each on and off and hope you’re on the option you meant to.
There’s an option for more Advanced controls, again, without any description to what that means. When this is on, instead of flicking the stick Left or Right to swap lanes, you have to drive it more like a car. This combined with the visual difficulties makes it near impossible to do so. Sure it adds more challenge, but why if there’s no leaderboards? There’s a bunch of other options that can affect gameplay, but again, no descriptions means you’ll simply have to try them and figure out the differences.
The worst offender though has to be the bugs and constant softlocks I ran into while playing. Playing on an Xbox Series X and even with the Series X version of the game, I lost track of how many times my game would randomly softlock. By this I mean that all of a sudden my controller would stop working, kind of. I could still hear Party Chat, but my friends were all of a sudden not able to hear me. The buttons did nothing, even the Xbox Guide button, forcing me to pull out the battery and turning it back on. This fixed the problem some of the time, but not always. I've tried multiple setups with the headsets, wired and wireless but it seems random with the controller 'disconnect'. Sometimes I had no issues for like a handful of songs, other times it does the softlock, usually on the level select screen, but have also had it happen if you're choosing Local or Link modes. Once I've even had it do the softlock after a song was complete and you need to press Replay or Main Menu. Funny enough, I've not had a single issue yet while using the external speakers. I’ll give the developers the benefit of the doubt of an incoming fix since this was reviewed before launch day, but it frustrated me to the point of not wanting to play anymore.
That said, once you’ve played a handful of the songs, you’ve really seen all Music Racer: Ultimate has to offer. Sure you can strive to play repeatedly to unlock new levels or vehicles, but since they don’t alter gameplay at all, there’s no real reason to unless you’re a completionist since the unlocks are tied to achievements.
More a fancy visualizer with some light gameplay elements, Music Racer: Ultimate won’t impress with its basic and bland gameplay without much inspiration behind it besides being a visual smorgasbord overload. Since I spent well over an hour unable to get my own musical libraries working with Music Racer: Ultimate, I was unable to access its most important feature until an alternate fix came later on, one that isn't user friendly by any means. While it’s hard to fault a game when its asking price is quite low and fair, sitting around 7 bucks, it becomes apparent quite quickly that Music Racer: Ultimate is all style and no substance.
**Music Racer Ultimate (Xbox Series X|S version) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Monster Crown
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Small indie studio wants to make a game with their grand vision, so they turn to Kickstarter only to have their initial goals smashed and then finally get to release their game to the masses. It seems like a not so uncommon path these days, and while it doesn’t always work out, it sometimes does, as in the case with Monster Crown from Canadian developers Studio Aurum.Self-described as “A Monster Taming Game with True Crossbreeds, a Dark Story and filled to the brim with content and imagination”, there’s no denying what its main inspiration was, and while it has many similarities to the uber popular classic Pokemon games, they do just enough to differentiate themselves in some interesting ways. If original Pokemon gameplay is something that brings back waves of nostalgia and you want something similar, look no further than Monster Crown, a story about a young child setting forth on a journey that becomes something much larger than themselves. Of course, you’ll be gathering and battling Monsters along the way as well, as par the course of being very similar, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Touted as a dark story, I had some expectations in my head, as I’m used to the more kid friendly Pokemon style of narrative when you see colorful graphics like these. While it does have some darker tones, it wasn’t nearly what I was expecting. It's a bit odd to have some swearing in a game that you instantly equate to the 'other' game, but the story overall was slow to progress and not all that interesting until near the end. You’ll need to make pacts with Monsters (not capture) to prevent an evil threat from someone seeking power enveloping over your homeland, and that’s about it.
There’s a few twists, but I never cared about any of the characters, even when my Father went missing in the woods for some reason. You start out as a young child on a farm as you begin your quest, travelling from town to town, but without any overarching reason or motivation for the most part. I stayed interested because I wanted to see the types of Monsters and level them up, actually forgetting about much of the story.
One of the main differences Monster Crown has is that you don’t capture creatures, but instead make Pacts with them. You offer to take them in under your wing with protection and food in exchange for their support and power in battling other Monsters. Seems a little odd that you shove a contract paper in a Monster’s face to get them to join you, but oh well. To get them to join you though you’ll still need to enter battle with them, getting them low on health, I guess to show them ‘who’s boss’ so that they agree to your Pact. The lower their health the more successful a chance they’ll join your Monster roster.
As you travel from town to town, exploring and battling Monsters, the overworld will feel very familiar with main roads to connect towns to small pathways that might house some secrets. Instead of having to find monster in tall grass though, they will appear on the overworld map as you explore it, meaning you’re able to engage with them as you see fit or ignore them and bypass their pathways. Decide to get in range and you can initiate a battle.
As a Monster Tamer, you’re able to bring along eight different Monsters with you into battle, and just like that ‘other’ game. Your creature choice will have a lot of strategy involved, as you’ll always want to try and counter your foe’s types. These types fall into five different categories and differ from typical elements: Brute, Malicious, Will, Unstable and Relentless. In other games, elements make sense in which beats which. Here though, even hours in, I’m not sure why certain ones beat other types. Luckily they are color coded and have icons, but I’m still having to constantly check which type is best against which.
Battles are what you’d expect, choosing which ability or attack you want to use on your opponent, ideally something that is their weakness to do more damage. You can choose to use your abilities freely each turn, as there’s no Power Point system to limit you, though there doesn’t seem to be as much variety overall in abilities. My main complaint is that the speed of text during battles is far too slow without any way to speed it up, so much of the time you’re simply waiting for your next turn as text finishesscrolling.
Another main differentiator is the mechanic of swapping Monsters in battle. You can freely switch to any other non KO’d monster in your party when it’s your turn, and doing so takes your turn, but the next attack gets a bonus multiplier to your attack. So there’s some strategy involved; do you skip a turn and possibly take damage to do more damage in return next time, or do less damage now and hopefully defeat them before they retaliate?
Now technically you won’t have to grind to beat bosses, but a few extra levels certainly doesn’t hurt as monster stats will grow and they’ll unlock new abilities at certain levels. You’ll need to defeat certain people to raise the level cap of your party’s monsters, much like a Gym Leader, so you can tell what elements were borrowed from other games. What was interesting is that when you get to certain story elements or area bosses, monsters generally far out level you, which initially thought I was going to have to grind for hours to catch up. This isn’t the case. Instead, these boss fights are almost like a puzzle in a way, as the first boss gives you hints about using an ability to infect them for massive damage, or the another boss where you’ll need to interrupt their synergy (monster swapping) to avoid getting bonus damage against you. Once you learn this aspect it becomes a bit more manageable, but it’s not explained all that clearly when you first see yourself facing off against a boss ten to twenty levels higher than you.
Monsters don’t evolve in Monster Crown the way you’d expect either. Instead, you’ll be breeding your friendly monsters with one another to create some really interesting and unique offspring that takes traits from both parents. With 200 base monsters to battle and pact with, this is expanded much further with this breeding mechanic. This comes in handy when you have certain monsters that have great abilities or stats and you want to combine them. These offspring also get unique pixel graphics based on the parent combinations which was a really interesting touch. It’s a really interesting system that is simple and works well, feeling like they are more ‘yours’ than the ones you Pact with in the wild.
Graphics are what you’d expect from an indie game that’s trying to mimic classic Pokemon games from the 90’s. While the art style is 2D pixel based, there is some decent detail in the world and creature designs all things considered, but there’s also a bunch of repeated tile assets that don’t always align properly which can be a bit jarring. With different biomes, you’ll have bright beautiful colors in one area, and dark and dreary tones in another. There is quite a bit of harshness when weather patterns change in an instant though, from day to night or rain without any transition or smoothness.
As for audio, it’s also what you’d expect for the area with some chiptune music and sound effects for your attacks, but aside from that, there’s not much else to mention. One issue that frustrated me though is that for whatever reason, audio is completely turned off and muted each time you load up your save in the game. I initially thought the game audio was broken, because I changed the default music and sound effect levels, but upon starting up again, it defaults back to mute every single time.
At a certain part of the story is where you’ll unlock the Monster Breeding and even an Online component where you’re able to battle other players, theoretically. I say theoretically, as it told me the feature was unlocked, but I was unable to actually find where to do so in the menus after searching.
With a unique Synergy system and Breeding, Monster Crown differentiates itself from being a simple Pokemon clone. Sure there are a ton of similarities, and while it is a shorter affair, the monster variety was what kept me wanting to play, more so than the narrative itself.
**Monster Crown was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Beat Souls
The mid to late 90’s was when we really started seeing a slew of music based rhythm games. Ever since then I’ve become a massive fan of any rhythm based game, so many of my early favorites were PaRappa the Rapper, Bust a Groove, Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania, Amplitude, Rock Band and really anything from Bemani, Konami’s music division, just to name a few. Any time a new music based rhythm game releases I’m instantly intrigued, so the latest in the somewhat rare genre now is Beat Souls from ZOO Corporation and Eastasiasoft. Self-described as a ‘cyberpop’ game, you can expect challenging gameplay, vibrant visuals and an anime inspired theme.Being a connoisseur of musical games, I have to say, Beat Souls is one of the more unique rhythm games I’ve played in recent memory. Of course your goal is like most others in the genre, trying to amass a combo and high score to unlock new songs and move onto the next or try your skills in the harder difficulties. With dozens of songs on the docket to get into, I was excited to see what Beat Souls had to offer and if it would scratch that proverbial rhythm itch I’ve’ been having for a few years.
Don’t expect any sort of compelling narrative or story, not that many musical games have them, but Beat Souls simply has you playing a song to completion to unlock the next and a higher difficulty before eventually having access to the whole library. To do so you’ll need to have a musical prowess, incredibly quick reflexes and a resilience to overly bland song selections.
A musical rhythm game lives or dies by its music song list, which is why I still listen to classics from old games in the genre decades later, but I doubt I’d see myself searching for the song list from Beat Souls anytime soon with its uninteresting soundtrack, not that the songs are bad by any means, but they are very unmemorable, so don’t expect any licensed bangers you'll be tapping your foot to.
As you progress through the song list you’ll unlock up to four playable characters, each with their own unique perks to suit your playstyle and help against your weaknesses. Each character has fifteen songs to compete in and become more challenging the further into their set list you get. Based on your score you’ll receive a rank with bonus points coming for full combos and no hits.
Likes most games in the genre, notes will come from the top of the screen to the bottom, where you’ll need to collect them. As levels get harder, the songs not only get faster but there will be many more obstacles to avoid and more challenging note placement that will take some serious finger dexterity. Essentially you want to collect as many notes as possible to fill your Fever Gauge and avoid any obstacles so you don’t fail the song after losing your health.
Most rhythm games either have you hitting a correct note at the bottom of the screen to the beat at a precise moment, or collecting notes in some way. Beat Souls is no different, but its method is a bit more unique than most. Your character can move freely across five different lanes, tasked with catching all of the notes in various lanes that coincide with the beat of the music. Thing is, instead of your character ‘catching’ the notes, you have two “Otomo” companions that rest on each side of you that need to collect the notes, not your character. If your character hits the Beat Souls, you take damage, so it takes some practice and getting used to for placing your character not in the lane of the souls, but making sure your Otomo do instead.
As your character runs towards the top of the screen the lanes appear to come towards you, like any other endless runner, but you’ll have to maneuver quickly to not only avoid obstacles, but also placing your Otomo’s in the correct lane of the notes coming towards the bottom of the screen where you are. On top of regular walls that need to be avoided in the moving lanes, you’ll also have to look for markers on the floor to jump over as well, or again, you’ll take some damage. Thankfully now and then there are heart pickups to refill some health, but you’re going to have to be very quick with the reflexes to catch these as well, though with your character and not the Otomo’s, so keep that in mind.
So as you move left and right to change lanes as the Beat Souls flow downward, you’re also going to have to move your Otomo from side to side as well. By default one will rest in the lane to your character’s left and right, but using the Bumpers will place both Otomo on that side. This means pressing Right Bumper will have one Otomo to your right and another two lanes over on the right as well. The same goes for pressing Left Bumper, moving them to the two lanes to the left of your character. Get used to this, as the latter half of the game heavily uses this mechanic, as it’ll be the only way to collect both notes at once without your character hitting an obstacle.
To make things even more challenging, later on you’re also going to have to change your Otomo from their default Yellow color to Blue to catch the same color of notes as well. It seems like only a few mechanics to memorize, but it can become quite chaotic quickly, especially since the difficulty can ramp up out of nowhere.
While Beat Souls is quite colorful and vibrant with its palette, because of the speed of the songs and how many wall obstacles there can be on screen at one time, gameplay can become quite confusing at times. Not impossible by any means, but even a music genre veteran like myself had to replay a few songs multiple times to simply get a passing grade. Remember, you need to not get your character hit by the notes or walls, or doing so will reset your combo meter and cause your health to drain, eventually causing a song fail.
The harder songs near the end become quite challenging, having you constantly moving your character, swapping sides with your Otomo and changing their colors to collect the frenzy of notes all while avoiding a wall of damaging obstacles. There’s a leveling system in place, but I don’t see why, as there’s nothing really tied to it aside from achievements. There’s no unlocks or anything else tied to having a higher level, so I question why it’s even included in the first place. Speaking of achievements, I thought it was going to be a grind to get them, but by the time I played through the set list once, I had them all without any extra effort.
Normal difficulty isn’t too bad until the last handful of levels, but completing a level unlocks its Hard mode, obviously more of a challenge. There’s even a Hell mode for songs for those that want an endless mode that’s incredibly harder. The majority of Beat Souls is much too easy, then you hit this wall of insanely difficult songs that require some serious reflexes and memorization of note patterns.
Where Beat Souls falters the most is with is completely forgettable soundtrack, almost a cardinal sin when it comes to musical games. This isn’t to say the music is bad, but it’s all instrumental and certain songs feels like they are just chunks of a larger song, cutoff for an individual level like piecemeal. I normally gravitate towards a more House or JPop-like track, but none were really all that catchy and I’ve basically already forgotten them by the time of writing this review. With some known or licensed music, Beat Souls could have had me wanting to keep playing longer term.
The aesthetics are cute, vibrant and anime inspired chibi characters, but the levels themselves almost have too much going on at once to really take in an enjoy. With the harder levels you almost need to zone out, not focusing on one lane, simply trying to use your peripheral vision to see the note stream coming down the screen and hopefully reacting in time.
Beat Souls adds some interesting twists but ultimately will be forgotten by the time you’ve gotten all of its achievements due to the lack of online play. Sure you could reach for online leaderboards if that’s your thing, but aside from that reason alone, something just felt ‘missing’. I truly love rhythm games and am always excited to try a new one when they release, and Beat Souls was no different, but I doubt I’ll go back to play anytime soon unless showing someone for a very specific reason.
**Beat Souls was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
KING OF FIGHTERS XV, THE
“Shatter All Expectations." That’s the tagline for The King of Fighters XV, the latest entry in the long running fighting series that’s been around since 1994. I actually went into The King of Fighters XV with little to no expectations, not for any fault of its own, but I haven’t played a King of Fighters (KOF) game in quite a few years. While most may think of or gravitate towards the most popular fighters, Street Fighter and Tekken, especially when it comes to eSports and competitive gaming in the genre, KOF has always carved its own niche with fans due to its unique roster of characters and interesting game mechanics.It’s hard to think that it’s been almost six years since the previous game, The King of Fighters XIV, and with such a gap in-between entries, quite a few improvements have been added, such as graphics, mechanics, roster and online improvements. With just shy of forty characters (and another dozen coming in the future with DLC) ranging from classics, popular picks and even new fighters, there’s surely to be a handful of characters you enjoy and gravitate towards to. Classic 3-on-3 battles return but also bring in a handful of completely new mechanics like Shatter Strikes, an improved MAX Mode and tweaked Rush function means there’s something for KOF veterans and newcomers alike. Having been away from the series for quite a few years, The King of Fighters XV was an easy experience to simply jump into and enjoy, yet has enough depth to become masterful without enough effort and practice.
While normally fighter games have an overall narrative, along with each character’s individual storylines, let’s be honest, that’s not why we play the genre. We play to beat each other up and have a good time mastering combos. If you do care about the ongoing storyline in the series, the saga continues from the previous game, coming to an explosive climax. Of course this isn’t really the focus, but there is an overarching storyline to become invested in if you do care about the lore within the KOF series.
A fighting game is generally only as good as its roster and mechanics, and with 39 characters (and a dozen more coming via DLC), there’s plenty of choice here for you to try out and find your ideal team of fighters. Like previous games, matches are comprised of three fighters per team. Instead of being able to freely swap out mid battle, you choose the order of the three fighters, and if you defeat your enemy, you get some health slightly replenished for the next match until all three of one team is defeated. And if you’re a long-term KOF fan, you’ll be happy to know that the original voice actors return to reprise their roles as your favorite fighters.
The King of Fighters XV features three new original fighters to the series this year as well; Isla, Dolores and Krohnen. Isla is the leader of the Rivals Team, focusing on her speed and utilizes purple phantom arms for many of her attacks. Dolores is also a member of her Rivals Team, a beginner friendly fighter that has psychic medium capabilities that allows her to contact spirits of the earth. Last for the KOF newcomers is Krohnen, leader of the team with the same name. Having an arm that can transform and a red shawl, I instantly thought he resembled Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII at quick glance.
Not that you’re forced to pick your trio that belong to the same team, but when you do, their special logo will appear in the prefight screens as opposed to the typical KOF logo; A small but cool touch. Speaking of Teams, characters have been moved around, alliances made, and should make for some interesting matchups for long-time KOF fans that will notice the roster list of fan favorites. The following team compositions are as follows:
Team Hero: Shun’ei, Meitenkun and Benimaru
Team Ash: Ash, Elisabeth and Kukri
Team Sacred Treasures: Kyo, Iori and Chizuru
Team K’: K’, Maxima and Whip
Team Rival: Isla, Heidern and Dolores
Team Fatal Fury: Terry, Andy and Joe
Team Art of Fighting: Ryo, Robert and King
Team Orochi: Yashiro, Shermie and Chris
Team Super Heroine: Athena, Mai and Yuri
Team Ikari: Leona, Ralf and Clark
Team G.A.W. (Galaxy Anton Wrestling): Antonov, Ramon and The King of Dinosaurs
Team Krohnen: Krohnen, Kula and Angel
Team Secret Agent Team: Blue Mary, Vanessa and Luong
Of course in Story Mode there will be some narrative and your ending will depend on who your team is comprised of once you defeat the final boss(es), both of which can be quite challenging to learn how to counter their attacks. There’s nothing terribly exciting about the story mode aside from trying to unlock all of the different endings based on your team composition. If you’re not planning on playing against others locally or online, I suspect your excitement will wane after a short period of time.
The King of Fighters XV plays like many others fighters but utilizes some interesting mechanics, combos and counter systems in place. The traditional 3-on-3 team battle returns, but also adds some new features that should make for some interesting matchups when it comes to fighting others. The latest and newest mechanics is what’s called a Shatter Strike. This is essentially another form to counter attack an opponent, like the series’ previous Parry system, but this can be used offensively as well when you use a portion of your Super Bar.
The previous MAX Mode returns, much like a Super Bar, but has had some slight changes in KOF XV. Simply engaging MAX Mode now takes two bars, activated with ‘LK’ and ‘HP’. Once in MAX Mode your attack and Guard Crush is increased. Max Mode Quick also returns, but is also slightly tweaked, not increasing your power for attacks, allowing you to flow into your next combo without leaving that small gap for an opening.
What would a modern fighting game be without special moves right? There’s plenty here, from EX Special Moves, Super Special Moves, Max Super Special Moves and Climax Super Special Moves. Depending on the type of special moves will determine how much of your Power Gauge will be utilized, from half a bar to three bars. The Climax moves are the lengthy mini-cutscenes that take a healthy chunk of your opponent’s life if landed, but hope you don’t miss and leave yourself open for a counter.
Rush Mode returns, and while some may see it as controversial when you get to the higher level competition, this system is great for newer players like myself that can now perform “auto” combos, even able to chain right into one of the special moves. This is more meant for newcomers, essentially allowing you to string together some combos without having to memorize all of the complicated inputs. All that needs to be done is hitting Light Punch three times, and depending on the fourth input, that will choose what ‘finisher’ your combo ends with. While easy to perform, you can’t simply rely on these Rush combos, as you’ll leave yourself open if you don’t land the initial attack.
While there is a tutorial mode that will teach you the basics and all of the different attack types, what it doesn’t do well is give you a thought process of how they all connect logically. It took me quite a few hours to really grasp when to use certain moves at the most opportune times and even understand why I would at any given moment. Each character then has a more specific and in-depth tutorial, showing you have to string together their lengthy and powerful combos, but after the second or third lesson, good luck. These tutorial combos want to you string together a handful of different challenging inputs that’s going to take a good chunk of time, effort and dedication to really grasp and perform on the fly when needed. It’s very difficult to master a character and all of their movesets and combos, but of course, dedicate the time and it will pay off in the long run when you go to fight others online or locally.
Speaking of fighting others online, a fighting game can live or die by how good its netcode is. If every match is laggy or servers are terrible, the community won’t bother and the game can slowly die. Sadly we’ve seen this too many times, so I was curious what developers SNK have done to make sure that The King of Fighters XV thrives with an online community that won’t settle for anything less. In general, the better fighter games utilize something called 'Rollback Netcode'. This essentially is a clever way to handle latency online, and even after playing a few matches online with a 250+ ping in a few matches, I only lost because of my skill, not blaming it on lag. Being the first canon King of Fighters to have this implemented at launch is a big deal and shows SNK’s commitment to wanting to have a healthy online community.
There’s a handful of different online modes to choose, from typical Ranked and Casual, but also online training, room matches and a few others. While I feel most will likely gravitate towards the standard Casual and Ranked modes, it should be noted that on Xbox at least, the only crossplay enabled is within the same family on console, so keep that in mind when choosing what platform to play on with your friends. This seems like a large miss, especially if the healthy community currently starts to dissipate over time or is playing elsewhere.
There’s a ton of extras for KOF fans to enjoy, like galleries, rewatching cutscenes, and even a DJ Station where you can play any of a few hundred different songs, choosing your soundtrack. Visually, The King of Fighters XV is of course bright, colorful and flashy, especially once you perform a few of the special finishers, though I was never ‘wowed’. Voiced characters are here as well but like most fighters, expect to hear a lot of the same one-liners when performing certain moves.
While there’s a steep learning curve to reach high level play and a ton of content, there’s something for KOF beginners and veterans alike. The King of Fighters XV has a massive roster of 39 characters in the core game before any DLC, and with a healthy amount of mechanics to learn and master, it will take some patience, time and dedication to find your ideal trio to prove that you’re the true King of Fighters.
**THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
RAINBOW SIX: EXTRACTION
I tried to get into Rainbow Six Siege when it was new, but it just never did anything for me. The PvP gameplay simply never resonated with my preferences and I pretty much forgot about it quite quickly. If you ever played the limited mode in Siege, Outbreak, you’ll have a pretty good idea about Rainbow Six Extraction’s premise. Based on a specific mode from Siege, Extraction is now its own dedicated game, focusing on the 1 to 3 player cooperative PvE experience.Set a few years into the future after the outbreak, The Chimera Parasite has escaped containment and has now infected numerous cities across the United States from San Francisco, New York, Alaska and more. The Parasite has evolved over the years, now known as Archaeans, a much more fearsome and deadly enemy that the REACT (Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team) squad is tasked with contaminating. The Rainbow team has always been tasked with some of the most difficult situations imaginable, and their task in Extraction is no different.
At the beginning you’ll have access to a handful of characters, known as Operators, and unlock more as you level up later on. If you’re a big Siege fan, you’ll be happy to know and recognize said Operators, and just like the previous title, each have their own abilities, perks and weapons specific to them and their play style. Assemble a squad of up to three player Operators and take on a cooperative PvE experience against the deadly Archaeans as you try to survive.
Each Operator has their own unique ability, best suited for specific missions, objectives and situations, though that doesn’t mean you’re forced to use them when you don’t want, but you might have a harder time using Doc for example with his healing as opposed to Vigil when a brief moment of invisibility might help you take out an elite foe silently. In no particular order, the Operators currently included and unlockable as you level are as follows, and while they all have somewhat of a back story, it’s not really a focus in Extraction; surviving is.
Doc is your healer with the ability to use his healing stim pistol from afar to heal yourself or friendlies. Finka is the other healer class, able to temporarily boost the team’s shields but also revive downed teammates from a distance. Jager is a pilot who has access to an automated turret, even able to help intercept projectiles within its radius. Rook brings armor plating for his teammates to equip, allowing you to go downed if you fall instead of straight to K.O. IQ returns and is able to detect REACT equipment through walls and obstacles. Fuze is amazing for specific modes, having the ability to place remotely detonable charges on walls and barricades, flooding the room with cluster bombs on the other side before a breach. Tachanka is one of my favorites, able to deploy a mounted LMG whenever you please, great for chokepoints, hordes or against elite enemies.
Sledge returns with his tactical hammer, allowing you to stun enemies and destroy walls and create pathways with ease. Alibi’s ability is interesting, allowing you to place a holographic-like drone that can be used as a decoy to distract enemies. Pulse does just that, setting a pulse that detects almost all objectives, nests and more through walls for the team. Capitao unlocks much later but is able to shoot silent bolts that detonate on impact, able to switch between smoke and venom bolts. Ela is who you want if you want to make use of her sticky proximity mines, great for setting traps and luring enemies into. Smoke lives up to his name, able to throw, well, remotely detonated smoke grenades that will also deal damage to enemies within the smoke cloud.
There’s a few others Operators, but as you can see, they all have their own unique abilities and traits that suit a specific playstyle and group composition. While they will all generally play the same gun-wise for the most part, it’s the synergy between the three players’ abilities that will make a world of difference, especially on the harder difficulty and endgame content. Also, don’t expect to pick one or two Operators and expect to ‘main’ them, as you’re going to need to rotate between almost all of them on a regular basis, as their status changes between matches based on what’s happened to them, such as going MIA (dying), extracting with low health and more. More on this shortly.
18 Operators, 12 Maps, 13 Enemies, 25 Gadgets, and nearly 70 guns feels like it’s got a wealth of content, which it does for a while. I word it that way because it does feel like a grind eventually when you’re trying to get all your Operators to max level 10 and work on your overall level as well. There’s varying difficulty levels as well, and I highly suggest trying to level as many Operators as possible, because if one of your main Operators go MIA and the rest are all low level, you’re going to have a hard time in certain missions taking those Operators in missions.
While there are a dozen different maps, basically every playthrough will differ because of the randomized missions within each. Essentially how it works is that you choose what map you want to play and it will be broken into three different sections (missions). You can then choose how far into missions you want to test your skill and teamwork. Where you’re dropped into the map is the Extraction zone, able to call for an extraction and leave at any point your team wants, though the earlier you leave and extract, the less XP you get, so it’s a tradeoff of risk versus reward. Sometimes retreating and extracting when low on health is the better option of having a teammate ‘dying’ and going MIA, which is a mission type.
Die on a map without being extracted or rescued and your Operator is unusable until they are rescued on the same map later on. The three levels on a map are categorized as tier 1, 2 and 3, generally getting harder on each tier, but the mission types vary and some are much more challenging than others, so it will take practice to learn which missions your team is best suited for and which Operators are the best choices.
While the maps never change, the different mission objectives each time change the variety and keep the experience fresh. The 13 different mission types vary from tracking nests, killing elite targets and more. It will take strategy to learn the best ways to proceed with the different missions and enemy types, as you’re almost always being stalked or hunted by numerous enemies. Nests will spawn enemies out every so often if not taken care of, so you need to have a plan of attack of the best way to proceed. Do you try and take on the next tier of mission when you’re low on health and risk it, or extract and let those Operators rest as you start a new game?
With about a dozen enemy types, you’ll have a lot of repetition with the normal ‘grunt’ types, but once you get high enough to fight the harder Elites and more, they require a lot more caution and strategy to take out. On top of that, on the harder difficulties you’ll also have to deal with mission ‘mutations’. These are basically randomized modifiers such as a dense fog that makes it near impossible to see, armored nests, caustic Sprawl and a handful of others that really make missions challenging. Speaking of Sprawl, the parasite infects everything near it, leaving this black sludge-like substance on the floor, walls and ceiling, slowing you to a crawl if you walk through it. You can see how this can hamper your escape efforts if you’re being chased or need to make a quick retreat. You’re able to shoot the Sprawl to clear a path, but that means you’re using your precious ammo in the process.
For those that sink in the dedication and time into Extraction, the endgame content becomes much more challenging with its Maelstrom Protocol mode. Instead of your normal 3 tiered missions, this mode challenges you with 9, on top of rotating mutations as well. Also, you’re only able to choose from a handful of randomly chosen Operators and you’ll have to deal with the hardest Archaean’s Extraction has to offer, plus you have less time than normal to complete each tier for good measure. This mode is no joke and will take a solid team to be successful with.
Each time you extract you’ll get all of the XP you’ve earned up to that point in the mission(s). Extract early and you won’t get much, finish all three tiers and you’ll get more. The harder the difficulty the more XP you’ll earn.
Each Operator earns their own XP when played, but you also gain an overall level which is where unlocks come into play. Certain cities, Operators and gear unlock at certain level milestones, so you’re almost always given new content to play until you reach max level. Bonus XP will be given if you can complete side objectives, like silent takedowns, shooting weak spots, etc, allowing you to level much quicker. An Operator that goes MIA though doesn’t get their earned XP until they are rescued though, so that should always be a priority for your team.
Operators also earn new weapons and cosmetics as they level up, improving their abilities and perks the more levels they gain. There are over twenty REACT gadgets to unlock as well, mostly different grenade types, claymores and other equipment that any Operator can equip once unlocked. Again, finding that synergy between your team is going to be key, as we made sure someone always have claymores when certain missions were in play.
While available on Xbox Game Pass, if your friend doesn’t currently subscribe they can try out Rainbow Six Extraction with an included Buddy Pass that allows them to play alongside you for 14 days. I can’t emphasize how important it is going to be to have a solid trio to have any success. While you can play solo or with random others online, without key communication, you’re going to have a bad time and have numerous Operators go MIA. Something interesting I found out was when I joined a max level friend and had my Operator go MIA from dying; He had to go and it was only then I noticed that since I wasn’t at the level to play that specific city area yet due to the unlock level, so I basically ‘lost’ that Operator until he was on the next night and could run me through that city to rescue my Operator. I don’t see this being a common problem for many but something to note that you can have Operators go MIA in levels you technically don’t have access to on your own yet.
I’ll admit, not only did I not really enjoy Siege, I fully expected to be underwhelmed with Extraction due to being very similar in gameplay elements. The PvE aspect certainly appeals to me much more but I honestly struggled in the first handful of missions to figure everything out and get a grasp on it all, even after the VR training mission. Once you wrap your head around how all the mechanics and missions work and things start to fall into place, that’s when the fun really begins.
Visually, Extraction is what you’d expect from a Siege spin-off. While I’m sure some parts have been upgraded and improved, both games look very similar aesthetically, but for good reason. Audio is as you’d expect as well, with enemies sounding menacing, weapons sounding impactful and barricades being placed still has that satisfying audio. Since there’s not much story outside of the opening cutscene and in unlocked logs, there’s not much else to note other than Operator one-liners.
Rainbow Six Extraction’s ‘fun’ is almost solely going to be based on if you have a three person squad with some friends and how effective your communication and strategy is. Another reviewer friend that was playing wasn’t enjoying Extraction nearly as much due to playing solo, but once I found two friends and gained out a handful of levels and Operators, it starts to fall into place and the fun begins, even if it does become repetitious later on. As to the longevity, that will depend on if you enjoy Extraction’s very challenging endgame and what content will be released in the future.
**Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction Deluxe Edition was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Infernax
Last month we were lucky enough to get our hands on an early PC preview build of Infernax, an 8-bit adventure that fans of classic NES Castlevania and Zelda II should quite enjoy. I’ll admit though, I was a bit apprehensive at first given that I’m not much of a classic Castlevania fan (I know...) or even Zelda II, so I figured Infernax would suffer the same fate from my genre tastes. I’m happy to report that I was not only wrong, but the early access build that we got to play left me wanting more, waiting for this day when Infernax releases for the masses to enjoy some classic retro gameplay filled with tons of 8-bit blood and gore for good measure.Set in the Crusades era, a knight returns to his homeland only to find it overrun with monsters, ghouls, beasts and dark magic. Armed with just his mice and shield, Alcedor does what he must to cleanse the lands of these atrocities. While there’s not too much story within for an overarching narrative, there’s a handful of side quests that are somewhat interesting, and to solve some light puzzles you’ll need to pay attention to what certain NPC’s say or mention.
Developers, Berzerk Studio, stated they wanted to create a game that looked and felt like a genuine NES game from the era, from what made them captivating, the challenge, yet added some modern mechanics and design choices that I would argue makes for a better experience overall. It’s clear that Castlevania and Zelda II were heavy influences, and not only did they nail the classic 8-bit visual aesthetic and audio, but they’ve also somehow managed to nail the ‘feeling’ and essence of those classics as well, but with their own twist.
Before Mortal Kombat, blood wasn’t all that common in games, at least not in any significant way. Well, those days have long passed, and Infernax takes classic retro gameplay but turns the blood and gore up to eleven, and not just gratuitously without reason. For example, finally defeat a massive boss and his guts will spray all over, leaving Alcedor and the ground covered and dripping. Even with 8-bit styled visuals, there’s plenty of smaller details that don’t go unnoticed.
One of the first events that take place after arriving by boat is you having to make a choice. You encounter someone that looks like something bad has happened to them, asking you to kill them and put him out of his misery. Do you abide by his request or Pray and hope that he’ll be fine. There’s consequences for your choice, one that ends up in a mini-boss fight basically from the start of the game, setting the tone going forward. Choices you make will have consequences later down the road, and with multiple endings based on your decisions, there’s enough replayability to warrant a couple playthroughs.
You have a map in the top corner, highlighting where you’ve been and where else is yet to be explored, which is qhite handy later in the game when you’re trying to solve a puzzle and unsure if you’ve been somewhere or not. You’ll eventually meet branching paths, sometimes unsure where to go, so exploration will help you as you kill monsters and earn experience points. Sometimes these pathways will bring you to secret or currently inaccessible areas, meaning you’ll need to come back later at some point, most likely with some upgrade or ability that you’ll find within the handful of dungeons.
With a few dungeons to find and clear of a massive boss, these are quite challenging and will require patience and enemy memorization. You’ll have to find keys to unlock doors to progress, eventually culminating in a very challenging boss battle. These dungeons usually house another secret or two to find, and to complete everything Infernax has to offer, you’ll have to be quite thorough to find all of the spells and skills needed.
Killing enemies with your mace will earn you XP and they usually drop gold as well. You’ll come across a couple towns along your journey, able to spend your gold on equipment upgrades, potions and more. XP is spent at shrines that act as save points and refill your health and mana. You’re able to upgrade your Might, Health or Mana, depending on your playstyle, with each tier costing more XP than the last. Health and Mana upgrades add more to your vitals, and while it seemed Might upgrades made me dish slightly more damage, I couldn’t really tell even when it was maxed.
Shrines are also where you can input optional codes to help you progress in the game if you become stuck or frustrated, adding invincibility or infinite jumps. There’s even a cool code that was given after seeing my first ending that was awesome, but I won’t spoil what it unlocked. They’re also used as teleportation points, so you can quickly fast travel from one Shrine to the next, which is quite handy when you finally earned an ability upgrade and now can access a new area way back on the other side of the map.
If you want more challenge, there’s an option for Casual or Hardcore modes. Casual allows you to begin in the room you died in with all your gathered XP and gold up to that point, where Hardcore brings you back to the last shrine you prayed and saved at. I really appreciated this option and the optional cheat codes that should appease both types of fans.
Combat is simple with one button for attack, another for jumping and one more for your magic spells. It’s basic in premise yet works quite well. Controls are very tight, as I never once had a death that wasn’t my fault, though some enemies are much harder or trickier than others. With a handful of different enemies, you’ll need to approach each one with a different strategy. Zombies for example walk towards you slowly, floating eyes come at you at weird angles and all enemies required a different approach. While your mace simply extends out slightly in front of you, you also have a shield that can block some attacks. This is done simply by doing nothing and not moving. Not all attacks can be blocked but knowing which ones can will make a world of difference, especially when it comes to skeletons lobbying lances or throwing axes in your direction.
I grew up in the NES era, so of course I have a soft spot when it comes to 8-bit nostalgia with games like Infernax. The retro pixel artwork is done wonderfully, as are the smaller details with enemy design, blood and gore, and the massive bosses. The death animations when you do die are fantastic as well and worth a mention. The audio has that classic retro chiptune style to it as well with a great soundtrack and some ‘oomph’ to your attacks and hits.
I honestly didn’t think I was going to enjoy Infernax as much as I did, as I was unable to put it down once I got the hang of its challenging gameplay. Sure it frustrated at times with numerous deaths, but I learned. It’s obvious when a game is made as a passion project, as it simply has that ‘something special’, and Infernax is one such game. Pucker up buttercup because it’s about to get gory.
**Infernax was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Reverie Knights Tactics
Depending on your age and era you grew up gaming, when a SRPG is mentioned, you probably have different titles that come to your head. Me, I instantly think of absolutely classics like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark, Fire Emblem and Front Mission among others. The latest to enter the genre is Reverie Knights Tactics, developed by 40 Giants Entertainment and published by 1C Entertainment. While I may not have played every SRPG out there, the ones that I’ve enjoyed I’ve sunk countless hours into, so I was quite excited to see if Reverie Knights Tactics was going to scratch that itch.Where’s there’s near endless games in the genre to play, each needs something special to stand out amongst the crowd. Reverie Knights Tactics has some interesting mechanics that we may have seen before, but puts together an entertaining SRPG game that I gladly saw the conclusion of, wanting more as the credits rolled. Depending on your skill, you can even make it very challenging, or enjoy a simpler story based mode instead that is much more forgiving in difficulty.
You are Aurora, a young woman who is on her way across the sea to the city of Lennorian, an elven city that was ambushed and taken over by goblins. The reason she sets sail into dangerous lands is because her father went there in search of something and has not made any contact in quite some time, so of course she becomes worried. You set forth on your journey alone, but will eventually have three other companions that help you along the way for varying reasons. It’s a tale that we’ve heard before, but the writing is decent enough to keep you interested until the credits roll.
Throughout your journey you’ll have decisions to make along the way, changing the outcome and relationships by the end. Instead of ‘Good’ vs ‘Evil’ choices, you have two different possibilities from Chaos and Order. Sure, it’s basically the same thing, but there are not only story changes that will happen based on your decisions, but skill unlocks as well.
Your party of four heroes are all distinct in their personality and skills, each fulfilling a specific role like tank, healer or dps. As you travel across the lands, each area will have different levels to take on enemies in battle, dungeons to explore, loot to find and puzzles to solve. There aren’t many puzzle sections, but most are a lockpicking minigame that was frustrating at times, but broke up the monotony.
As you win battles you’ll earn Cogni, a currency used to purchase certain equipment that adds bonuses to stats. The better items cost more obviously, and each character can equip four different accessories. Each battle has a side list of bonus objectives to complete that are optional, but give bonus XP and Cogni to make the effort worth it.
These pieces of equipment will be vital for surviving, because if you’re not playing on the easier Story mode your health doesn’t refill after battles, so you’re going to have to rely on cooking food and topping up whenever possible. I’m glad that there were two difficulty options, as I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I had to constantly go back to camp each time to get more healing items.
Each character has three different stats that you can put a point into when you level up, customizing them however you want. Keep in mind though that you won’t be able to max out their stats, not even halfway, so choose wisely. You’re also unable to respec, so if you end up putting points into a stat you realize probably isn’t the best for that character, you’re basically out of luck. While there’s no skill tree present, certain levels will allow you to choose from one of two skills presented, allowing you to customize your characters to synergize with one another, but each is only able to equip three skills at a time. Later on, depending on your Chaos or Order choices, you’ll also get skill choices based on these that are more unique.
Battles take place on a grid with a typical isometric view that you’d find in many other SRPG’s and is turn based. Beginning of most battles has a preparation phase where you can place your units in their desired starting positions, but it’s only by a tile or two difference, so I don’t see much point in doing so other than who you want in the middle or edges of the starting spots. then comes the battle phase where the bulk of the gameplay will take place.
You have two Action Points (AP), so you can generally either move with one point and then act with another. Some abilities require two AP to be used or can be a stronger version if so, so there’s a bunch of strategy to be had based on what’s happening and your playstyle. Once each of your characters take their turns then enemy team gets to take theirs, rinse and repeat until there’s only one team left standing.
There’s a plenty of strategies to use that even revolves around how to use each battleground, as there are plenty of traps and other obstacles that can be used to your advantage if you’re clever. Not only are there exploding barrels, but poison, fire and other nodes that can be exploited to defeat your enemies. You’ll need to think ahead, not only of how to attack, but which direction to defend to prevent backstabs and to not be within trap distance if possible. This can be frustrating at times though without the ability to rotate the map in any way, which I found odd.
Each character has their own playstyles and unique special move once their Focus meter fills. These special moves are generally your most powerful moves, so it’s best to use them when needed or against a stack of enemies or a boss. If you happen to have two or more of your characters surrounding an enemy you can also choose to do a Team Attack, where both, three or all four will combine their attacks for extra damage. This adds another layer of strategy and planning ahead your moves if you want to be the most successful.
A few things that I found frustrating was that most moves don’t get explained the best in descriptions and the icons for status effects are so small it’s hard to tell what you’re inflicted with. Even worse, if you accidently move to a grid square you didn’t meant to, or miscalculated how far away to be for a certain skill, there’s no way to undo it or take it back. I can’t count the times I moved a character, thinking I was in range for one of my skills only to find out I was off by a square, so you don’t get that preview ahead of time.
If you don’t play on the Story Mode that replenishes your health after each battle, it’s quite a chore and pain to have to do so between each battle. You’ll need to craft and use items constantly to stay alive. Worse is you don’t even get healed for ‘free’ if you go back to camp either, so I found Story Mode much more enjoyable without the chore work.
Lastly, the animations and gameplay happens at a very slow pace, which I understand for a tactics based game like this, but it’s painfully slow. There’s an option to turn up the animation times by about double, but it’s something you have to remember to toggle every single battle. Why this isn’t simply a default or option that can persist I’m not sure, but it was annoying.
I quite enjoyed the hand drawn art and animations, along with the bright and colorful visuals, Reverie Knights Tactics has a great aesthetic that looks like a graphic novel come to life. Sometimes the maps can be a bit cluttered as I’ve not seen something behind an object or the tile I’m on shows that an attack is coming next move but I wasn’t able to notice it clearly. Sadly there’s no voicing for all of the dialogue, but the instrumental soundtrack is done quite well, especially the opening theme that’s beautiful.
The campaign took me about 10 or so hours to complete, and I did every side mission and quest that was available to me. There’s of course a second playthrough warranted if you want to see both outcomes for the Chaos and Order dialogue choices, and given the $31.99 asking price, it might be a good idea to get the most out of your purchase.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a great tactics style game that I couldn’t put down, but Reverie Knights Tactics did just that, having me wanting to play ‘just one more battle’. While not the most unique SRPG out there, it’s a solid experience overall and even leaves itself up for a hopeful sequel down the road even if its ending happens abruptly.
**Reverie Knights Tactics was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Windjammers 2
I never was lucky enough to play much Neo Geo when I was younger, so I missed out on some classics. One of those classics was Windjammers, a tennis-like sports game played with a Frisbee and special moves that was apparently quite decent, especially for its time. Originally released in 1994, it’s been a long almost three decade wait, but its sequel, Windjammers 2, is finally here for all those original fans.While it may have “2” in its title and has a few special new features, after watching footage of the original, there’s quite a lot of content here that is simply an updated version of its predecessor. That’s not to say that it’s not worth playing, as the new hand drawn graphics totally suit the gameplay and the inclusion of online matches is a very welcome modern addition that was needed. Windjammers 2 respects the original gameplay without changing it too drastically so that original fans would be turned off, yet adds just enough new content and mechanics to warrant bringing it back.
The rules of Windjammers’ sport is simple. A mix of tennis, volleyball and pong, two players are placed on a walled court, much like tennis, but with a goal line behind them. The middle has a net, just like tennis, and the player who scores 15 points first wins the set, and the best of 3 sets wins the match. Interestingly, the goal line is usually divided into three sections, each one denoting a point value.
For example, the very middle of most arenas is usually smaller but worth 5 points and the outer sections of the goal line will give 3 points if you throw the disc past the goal line. There’s a time limit, so if no player reaches the 15 point limit within, the player with the highest points wins the set, or goes to sudden death if tied. Think tennis, but much more entertaining. I wish this was a real sport. There are even a few unique areas where the goal sections are different lengths and placement, and even one where the point value is based on the Frisbee in play that is randomized after each scoring chance.
Simply throwing the disc into the net wouldn’t be cool enough, so there are other ways to do so and score. The disc itself can ricochet off the arena walls, so you can bounce it like you would in Air Hockey or Pong, hoping to land in the goal area. You will also score if your opponent doesn’t catch the disc or you spike it onto the ground on their half of the court. Once you get the hang of Windjammers 2’s speed and mechanics, it becomes quite fun and entertaining when you can start to take on harder difficulties or others online.
While there’s no real career progression, you’ll play a handful of matches across a map against opponents where you’ll get a quick cutscene at the end to denote said player’s ending. If you were a fan of the original, original characters return such as Gary Scott, Jordi Costa, Loris Biaggi, Hiromi Mita and Klaus Wessel. This is a sequel though, so you can expect a handful of new and unique characters as well, such as Max Hurricane, Sammy Ho and a few others.
Each character has different stats, special moves and suit different playstyles. Some are weaker but quicker, others are faster but have less useful special moves. Fill your special meter and you’ll be able to use an EX Move, not a completely unblockable move, but one that will be very difficult to defend against. Each player’s EX Move is unique in power and pattern, as some will shoot diagonally or even in odd varying patterns, so you’ll want to know each opponent’s pattern if you want to play at a high level against others online. Interestingly, some characters are stronger, so a hard hitting move might actually push you into your own net while even catching the disc and score them a point, but these characters are usually much slower as a tradeoff.
You have a regular throw, a slapshot and a dropshot (like a lob). You can jump and smash, but every move has a counter move provided you can telegraph where the disc is going and react quickly enough to do so. Sadly the training mode was just a slideshow of how to perform different moves, bit of a letdown, as the original at least had it animated with how to perform each move with the stick and buttons while the moves get shown. It would have made a world of difference to practice the moves before moving on, so my first handful of matches had me struggling until I figured it out.
There’s not much in terms of modes, as you have arcade, versus and online, though with a sports title it’s to be expected. There are a few minigames thrown in here and there that are fun and quick to break up the monotony, also returning from the original title. Online multiplayer was a pleasant surprise, as small titles like this don’t usually get the treatment. With cross-play enabled, I had no problem finding online players to play against, and there’s even an online ranking system in place for those that want to prove themselves as the baddest Windjammer in the world. The handful of matches I partook in played decently and without too much lag and matches were found quite quickly.
Developers Dotemu, best known for Streets of Rage 4 and the upcoming TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, has a distinct hand drawn aesthetic style in many of their games, and Windjammers 2 is no different. Gone are the original pixelated graphics and in are the slick comic book style hand drawn art and animations, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same artists from Street of Rage 4. The soundtrack is totally suited for that 90’s ‘radical’ vibe yet retains that retro style of tunes.
I honestly expected Windjammers 2 to be quite a simple and bland experience, but there’s some depth to its gameplay for only using a couple of buttons. If you missed out on the original Windjammers, don’t sleep on this sequel. It may seem like an odd mashup of sports, but it works and becomes quite addicting once you become a badass Windjammer.
**Windjammers 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Trophy
I grew up with the NES and still remember that day that I opened my system for Christmas, starting my decades long gaming career. While that statement may age me, classic games from this era are extremely nostalgic for me, as that was my childhood. Needless to say, when a game is built with that classic 8-bit retro at its core, it speaks to me and brings me back to waking up early on the weekend, turning the TV to channel 3 and playing one game all day because of how hard it was.Beginning as a Kickstarter, Trophy doesn’t try and hide its direct inspiration. If you grew up with and loved the classic and ultra-challenging Mega Man games on NES, screen slowdown and all, Trophy is going to fall right into your wheelhouse. Interestingly, Developers Gradual Games initially created Trophy as an actual NES cartridge to be played on the classic hardware. Thankfully they’ve decided to expand and now Trophy is available on Xbox as well, bringing gamers down memory lane with an authentic 8-bit gaming experience.
For better and worse, Trophy is a truly authentic 8-bit game, but that means that there won’t be any hand holding, the difficulty is cranked up, the narrative is loose at best, the graphics are basic, and the chiptune music is absolutely fantastic. Starting as a homebrew game, it should be noted that it’s no easy feat to turn a game from those humble beginnings to a full release for the masses, so kudos thar that feat.
Aside from a handful of RPG’s, games from this era generally weren’t known for their deep and engaging narratives. Trophy is no different, as it instead focuses on its Mega Man inspired gameplay, which is absolutely acceptable, as it nails that aspect perfectly. That said, there is a story that underlines your journey.
Two scientists travel to planet Gearus 9 to explore, finding a wonderful and peaceful place full of robot inhabitants. They end up living there for years, trading cultures and creating relationships. One decides to head back to Earth alongside a small robot, Beeper, as proof of their discovery. In their absence, Quine, the scientist who stayed back on Gearus 9, has slowly descended into darkness, proclaiming himself Lord Q and turning the robot inhabitants into violent machines. This means he must be stopped, so you and Beeper return to Gearus 9 to stop Lord Q. Problem is that Beeper is programmed to be peaceful only, and a simple human has no chance of surviving a robot onslaught. The solution? Beeper fuses with you, almost like a suit of robot armor, and Trophy is born.
As mentioned above, the story won’t win any awards, but that’s not why you play games like this. If you’ve played any of the classic Mega Man NES titles you’ll know exactly what to expect, almost to a fault. You begin by choosing one of eight levels (a ninth and final unlocks afterwards), each their own setting and biome and defended by a large and challenging boss before being able to move on. Keep in mind that Trophy is meant to be designed like a classic NES title, so you have a set amount of life, limited lives and plenty of challenge.
If you’ve not been fortunate enough to grow up in this era of gaming, you’re in for a treat. As you make your way through the levels, the screen scrolls with you, only allowing you to see enemies once they enter your vision at the edges of the screen. This means that many times as you’re moving along and dropping down, you’re not going to see enemies until it’s either too late or you only have a split moment to react. Also, just like classic Mega Man, if you move backwards then forwards to where you once were, enemies respawn where they once were, even if they were out of screen by a few pixels, so memorization will be a must.
You will be jumping and traversing across levels, using your arm blaster to shoot enemy robots that get in your path. Make no mistake about it, Trophy is hard as nails, and while thankfully there’s a classic password system in place to continue when you do inevitably die numerous times. Levels are quite large, decent in length and the bosses are massive and incredibly difficult. Defeat these bosses and you’ll get a become slightly more powerful which is always exciting, though the skill swapping from classic Mega Man games is absent here. Trophy icons will drop randomly from enemies and this is how you’ll regain small portions of health along the way, so always be on the lookout, as you’ll need it.
On one hand, I absolutely adore that Trophy is absolutely authentic to being a classic and retro NES experience, especially given it was made for an actual cartridge initially, but there are a few caveats. The 8-bit pixel work is done wonderfully for the era, the bosses are huge and levels quite expansive, but if you remember that classic ‘slowdown’ from the original Mega Man games, that also is here as well. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was on purpose somehow, but the slowdown can happen when it gets chaotic on screen, but that’s how it sometimes was for the technology at the time. Also, given that this was designed for an 8-bit NES, don’t expect any quality of life or modern improvements, even down to not being played in widescreen format, so it seems ‘small’ on the screen at times.
There are no difficulty options, there’s no way to rewind a mistake and you’re going to die dozens of times, and you’re going to like it. That’s how games were back then, and it’s no different here. The nostalgia is dripping in Trophy, and if you didn’t know it was a ‘new’ game, you could easily assume it was a classic NES game from the 80’s, that’s how authentic it looks and plays. The chiptune soundtrack and effects are perfect for the era as well, and while the opening title theme song isn’t as memorable as the classic Mega Man theme, it’s wonderfully done.
Trophy knows what it’s trying to be, nothing more, nothing less, and it succeeds in every way. Is it going to be for everyone? No, but for those that enjoy classic 8-bit gaming and enjoy that retro gameplay or wants some nostalgia, Trophy fits the bill. While it may be a Mega Man clone at its core, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
**Trophy was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
RPGolf Legends
I’ve got quite a few of developer KEMCO’s RPG’s under my belt, and while they are all unique in their own way, RPGolf Legends is by far the most non-tradtional RPG I’ve played in quite some time. While I never played the original game, RPGolf when it released back in 2018, its sequel is now here for console players to enjoy.Are you a fan of classic adventure RPG’s like Legend of Zelda? What about a connoisseur of classic golf games? Have you been yearning for the day that the two genres would blend together for one singular experience? That’s right, that time has come with RPGolf Legends. Half RPG, half Golf game, RPGolf Legends builds upon its original game by leaps and bounds, and while I thought it was going to be an odd mashup, even though it doesn’t take itself seriously, it simply works.
For an RPG that revolves around golf, the story isn’t going to win any awards, but that doesn’t mean it’s not amusing. There’s been an evil spirt that sealed off all of the golf holes in the world, resulting in the sport unable to be played and almost forgotten. This is an RPG, so of course the holes are sealed off by magic crystals, unable to be broken for any that desire the sport.
You being just a regular girl, you fill your day fishing, but one day you fish up something completely unexpected; a magical spirit golf club that is sentient and can talk. Yes, you read that right. Together, you form a friendship and embark on an amazing journey to save the sport of golf for everyone. Again, yes, you read that right. I told you RPGolf Legends doesn’t take itself seriously. While I won’t delve much more into the narrative, there’s a surprisingly amount of story within, even if it’s paper thin, but it’s simply a fun tale.
Are you travel around the open world, you’ll need to complete all 54 holes to finish your quest. These holes are split up into six distinct biomes, from ice covered lands, deserts, forests and more, each with their own challenges. You need to play the holes in order and certain areas are blocked off until you progress to a certain point, but this is nothing new for RPG fans. As you explore these lands, you’re going to also be attacked by animals, creatures and monsters, so like any good RPG, you’ll have to defeat them in combat to gain money and items.
How do you actually play the holes of golf you ask? Well, they are blocked by an impenetrable barrier that Clubby, your friend that you fished up, has the power to dissipate. The problem is that this takes a lot of energy to perform, and to make sure Clubby has the energy you’ll have to defeat enemies and complete holes to fill a meter. Once the meter is full you’ll be able to get Clubby to unlock the next hole. Rinse and repeat for each hole. Manage to get Par or better on a hole and you’ll have your Clubby meter filled slightly plus get some bonus spins of a wheel that replenishes health, energy and gold rewards.
As for the golf gameplay itself, it’s quite simple. Soon as you want to start swinging, press ‘A’ and the power meter will fill and stop when you press the button again, then the aim needle will move and your shot straightness based on where that needle lands. It’s nothing new for golf games but suits the simplistic gameplay just fine. The game does a great job of choosing the best club for your shot, though you can of course change your club and aim for more precise control. Weather also plays a factor in your shots, from rain to wind and more. For anyone that’s ever played a RPG or a golf game, you’ll feel right at home with how simple it is to pick up and play.
There’s more to the core gameplay than just golf though, as this is part RPG as well remember? Not only will you golf courses for best scores and join tournaments, maybe you want a break from the dungeon exploring and golfing, so why not go fishing for a while. Maybe you’ll want to craft items, or help the dozens of people in town that need help with many menial tasks to keep you busy. How you want to spend your time is completely up to you, as you’re not forced to do one thing or another at any time. There’s even a class system that will be tied to different outfits, giving you new abilities that will needed to progress, but I don’t want to spoil much more than that. It’s a clever take on the RPG job changes yet integrates into the golf gameplay as well.
If you’re not golfing or fishing, you’re most likely going to be in combat. How do you fight enemies you ask? By swinging your golf club at them of course. As you get new and better club sets, you’ll not only hit the ball further and have more control, but do more damage as well. Again, a clever way to integrate both genres logically. There’s a decent variety of enemies, some harder than others, but once you learn their tells for attacking, they become simple to counter. Simply spamming ‘A’ to attack won’t work, so you’ll need to fight strategically.
Tap ‘A’ to swing and attack, or hold down the button to charge up an attack with higher damage, using some of your energy in the process (different from Clubby’s charge meter). There are bosses to find and defeat, and at the each of each biome’s final hole you’ll have a unique boss battle to take on. These have you fighting the boss until you’ve knocked them unconscious, then you have a short window of time to play the course and get the ball into the cup. Once the boss awakens though you’ll have to knock them out again, usually getting a shot or two in before having to do so again. Again, an interesting meld of the two genres that kind of surprised me. You’ll eventually unlock the ability for Clubby to use certain spells, but these do take its charge meter to unlock holes by shattering the crystals, meaning more enemy fighting if you want to use them.
Aesthetically, RPGolf Legends will remind you of those classic 16-bit era RPG’s you grew up with, with golf mechanics as well. Each of the environments feel distinct, not just gameplay wise, but backgrounds and enemy variety as well, all using a different color scheme and retro palette. Music is just as varied and done quite well also. While nothing is voiced, which is acceptable given its retro style, the music changes when needed and ramps up during boss fights as you’d expect.
My only real complaint is that the camera is much too close to the character, so when you’re exploring, you’re going to get hit countless times by enemies you run into because you don’t really see them coming with how close you’re forced to your character. Also, enemies can be hidden behind objects like trees, so again, you’ll get hit when you don’t even know they are there sometimes.
I have to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect by fusing an RPG and a Golf game together, yet somehow KEMCO not only made it work, but also made it an entertaining experience as well. Sure the premise is completely out there and it doesn’t take itself seriously, but that’s where its charm comes from. While the asking price of $38.99 is quite steep and slightly overpriced in my opinion, there is actually a decent amount of gameplay to be had if you want to experience everything RPGolf Legends has to offer. While not quite a Hole In One, wait Fore a sale and you’ll enjoy this odd genre mashup.
**RPGolf Legends was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.6 / 10
Tunnel of Doom
If you’re a fan of Tower Defense games and also enjoy Roguelike titles, then you might be interested in Tunnel of Doom, as its whole premise is combining these two distinct genres together. It may not seem like a logical pairing of game varieties, but it does have some interesting ideas within.Set in the quiet mining town of Goldcrest in 1903, you play as a distraught wife, Angel, wanting to go save her husband who is trapped in the local mine. Problem is, the Mayor has sealed off the mine, and while she’s unsure why, she breaks through the barrier to search for her spouse. Armed with just a pickaxe, Angel defies orders and searches the unknown mines for her missing husband, hopefully finding other survivors along the way. It seems that there’s been a reason this mine was sealed off, as it is filled with creatures that mean to do you harm, but there’s also a seemingly friendly zombie-like character that wants you to help him defeat a foreboding evil. If that means finding your husband, then so be it.
Played in typical top-down view like most Tower Defense titles, this roguelike arms you with not much besides a pickaxe in the beginning, but as you gather materials like wood, stone and glass, you’ll be able to set traps however you like provided you have the necessary amount of materials to do so. If you’re lucky, you might even find a pistol or a rifle to be able to shoot your enemies from afar.
If you’ve grown up with classic Zelda games, you’ll quickly understand how the map system works, showing how all the rectangle rooms interconnect. In Normal mode you’re given a new map in the very first room showing all of the rooms and possible exits to reach the lower floors. Even though there’s only three floors of the mine, it’s going to take at least a dozen or more room clearings to reach an exit to go deeper.
As you enter a room, one of two things will happen. First, either nothing will happen, meaning you can simply gather any materials you find laying around by breaking the benches, chairs and barrels for wood, mining the stone ore with your pickaxe, or smashing glass and lanterns for glass shards. These are the materials you’ll use to craft traps and barriers when you reach a battle room. These are the other rooms that lock you in as soon as you enter and you won’t be able to leave until all of the enemies are defeated. Luckily you’re given time to setup your traps however you like, but more on that shortly.
Certain rooms will have lockers that require keys to open, massive stone nodes that can only be destroyed with dynamite, a wishing well pool that might grant you bonuses if you toss your hard earned gold into it, or maybe you’ll find a merchant room where you can purchase new traps and items. The map is completely randomized every time you play, so no two runs will be the same. Should you die three times in a run, and you will early on, it’s finally game over and you must start anew which is where the roguelike gameplay comes in.
The randomness can either go for or against you pretty heavily. I’ve had runs where I had a half dozen keys but no lockers to open, or the rewards inside the lockers was not worth it at all. The wishing wells on the other hand are all I saved my precious gold for once I learned how to play better. Dropping a ton of cash into this wishing well not only granted me a bunch of bonus perks, but also health refills and even empty hearts to extend my maximum life. I thought the way to go would be to save up for the expensive traps, but quickly realized that turrets and such generally wasn’t worth the cost at all.
When you do enter a battle room you’re able to see a list of which enemies are going to spawn by a list of icons in the top left corner. The more that are going to appear, the more prepared you should be. The room will show you where enemies will spawn from, usually the doorways or pits littered throughout the room. There’s no time limit to prepare for battle, so you can take your time figuring out the best way to set up your traps, which is if you even have enough materials to do so. You’re able to build traps like broken glass on the floor which will damage enemies, but can also create barricades to try and funnel enemies the way you want, like a true Tower Defense title. Until you get to the second floor you’re probably going to be struggling for resources to make any real difference though.
Once you choose to start the wave, it goes until you or all enemies die, then you can progress to whichever connected room you like. Enemies will not only chase after you, but other miner survivors as well which are helpless and sit in place. They’ll also attack your barriers and traps, and because they are so weak, it’s hard to rely on them for any real protection. Coupled with flying enemies that simply bypass your traps and barriers anyways, the whole Tower Defense portion of Tunnel of Doom’s gameplay feels unsatisfying as whole, not broken, but not very fleshed out either.
So how do you fight back? Well, you can use your pickaxe, but that’s going to do much damage and you’ll also likely get hit being so close. All that glass and stone that you picked up can be thrown, and while it won’t do much damage, ranged combat is generally a much safer option. Keep in mind though, throwing these at enemies removes them from your inventory, leaving you with less materials for barriers and traps, so it becomes a vicious cycle. If you’re lucky you’ll find the odd gun here and there, but the ammo is severely limited and won’t even last a single battle room.
I thought the turrets were going to be the end-all-be-all for the combat sections, but they get attacked so quickly that they generally end up not being worth the cost since they’re just a single use if they become damaged anyways. I eventually stopped even using them in my runs and actually got a rare achievement for beating the game without using any turrets, something I didn’t even realize was a challenge. Saving up my glass for ground traps and funneling enemies down a path over it was generally my best defense.
There’s a very small selection of enemies along the way as well. You’ve got annoying tiny spiders along the walls that can spit poison at you when you get close, bats, zombies, ghouls and a few other enemies I’ll leave as a surprise. The first floor shouldn’t give you too much trouble, but it becomes much more chaotic by the time you reach the second and third floor becoming swarmed by monsters. Luckily if there’s any light sources, that seems to hurt them as well, but only if they walk directly in it.
With combat being such a large component of Tunnel of Doom’s gameplay, it was a bit disappointing to how inaccurate it felt at times. Given that this is played in a top down view, you’re only able to attack, melee and ranged, along the 4 main axis’, not diagonally. This becomes an issue later on when you’re surrounded, as you’ll need to move to be in a position to hit directly horizontal or vertically. Melee combat is even more awkward and clumsy, as I’ve missed plenty of attacks because they moved just slightly out of my direct line of attack, only to hit me instead.
Tunnel of Doom utilizes a classic retro pixel aesthetic, and while there’s very little variety within each room of the mine, it’s easy to distinguish breakable objects and enemies from one another, except for those damn poison spitting tiny spiders that crawl on the walls and sometimes hide behind the lanterns. As for audio, well, it’s there. There’s nothing much notable from the few repeated tracks and repeated sounds that your weapons make when fighting monsters or pinging when mining a stone ore.
There are two extra modes that unlock once you’ve cleared the game once, one being a more hardcore mode and the other an endless challenge to see how long you can survive. Even with these extra modes, I can't see many playing through repeatedly over again as it just feels like a shallow experience overall. Tunnel of Doom is hard to recommend for Tower Defense fans, and for Roguelike followers there’s nothing new here to excite you either, so it falls into this kind of ‘meh’ category. Not bad by any means, but nothing excited me either, even when I finally faced and defeated the final boss.
**Tunnel of Doom was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Happy's Humble Burger Farm
I don’t think I’ve played something quite like Happy’s Humble Burger Farm before. Part fast food simulator, part horror game, I doubt you’ve played much like it as well. While it has similarities to Five Nights at Freddy’s, there’s actually quite a deep lore and interesting story here that I wasn’t initially expecting. Also, don’t let its look deceive you, it purposely appears like an old classic PSX game for most of the journey, for good reason.Everything starts out normal-ish, with you heading to your first day on the job at the local Happy’s Humble Burger Farm, akin to any fast food chain you've visited a million times before, but once weird things start to happen, you’re in for quite a ride. The game begins right away with some sort of doctors looking over you as they’re talking about implanting some mind control device in your head. Totally normal for a game about fast food, right?
You start out playing by waking up in your seemingly normal apartment. Looking around, one of the rooms has some weird papers pinned to the wall, though I’m sure they mean nothing and have absolutely no foreshadowing at all. Notes that are creepy, something about being on an island, a nuke that went off and other things that won’t make much sense until you see the credits roll. Once you get a call about how you got the job, you’re told you’ll be on the night shift, alone, well kind of.
You’re going to have to learn how to flip burgers, make shakes, pour drinks, deep fry some nuggies and fries, bake cookies and more, all while the long lineup of customers patiently wait in line. Make sure you don’t mess up their order though, Happy wouldn’t like that. You’re given a short amount of time and very little to no training on how to do it all properly and quickly. There’s a surprising amount of backstory and lore if you take the time to explore and pay attention, one that actually had me intrigued about this odd world that only gets stranger by the day.
You’re going to be confused why you need to actually walk to work each night and why the world looks so dated, but it will all eventually make sense if you can become proficient at flipping those burgers and earning that wage, just don’t go looking where you’re not supposed to. While you’re running the place on your own, technically you have Toe, your neighbor and grilling partner, but good luck trying to understand a single word he says and holding a conversation.
You’re not just the cook though, the boss has also left a list of other objectives for you to complete for a bonus if you want, like taking in all the boxes from outside and stocking them on the shelf, cleaning the lobby and taking out all the dead rats from the traps surrounding the outside of the building. I have a feeling Happy’s Humble Burger Farm isn’t up to code on its health regulations. Before you can start helping customers though you need to clock in and turn on the Open sign, obviously.
Do this and customers will start filing in and placing their order at the till. Here you’ll see their order on the till and you’ll need to make it exact, or else. Get the order wrong or run out of time and you’ll get an infraction. Three infractions and Happy isn’t going to be so happy with you. I don’t want to spoil it, but keep Happy happy at all times.
Manage to get through your first shift and clock out and it’s time to go home and sleep. The next day seems about the same, though the orders become much more complicated and involved, requiring a lot of dexterity and speed if you don’t want to screw up any of the orders. And this is where it felt like the game was starting to fall apart in certain aspects. The controls on a controller are simply terrible. You have a small dot as your cursor, and to interact with any object, pick it up or throw them, your aim has to be exact. Having watched PC players with a keyboard and mouse, they didn’t seem to have the same issues I was with a controller. Do you get used to it eventually, sure, but it never feels great, especially when trying to frantically cook and fulfil customers’ orders without incurring any infractions.
Now, I’ve purposely been very vague about the non-coking aspects of gameplay for a reason. While there’s a few hours of gameplay to be had, the uncovering of the story and lore is the best part about Happy’s Humble Burger Farm. What I will say is that there’s a few jump scares but brimming with creepiness overall, especially once day two begins and your customers are mannequins. There’s got to be a reason you’re able to explore the rest of the small town after your shift right? Maybe you’ll unearth some answers, or even more questions.
While there’s no combat in the traditional sense, the times you need to fend off enemies is done with, well you guessed it, cheeseburgers that you piece together. Doing so isn’t easy in the regular restaurant setting, so imagine trying to do so with exploding mannequins or other distractions. This is part horror game as well, keep that in mind.
At first I wasn’t really a fan of the low-poly graphics, but it has a certain charm to it, feeling like one of those PS1 games that haven’t aged well over the years. Animations aren’t any better and textures are horrendous, but I’d wager this is on purpose, as Happy’s Humble Burger Farm proves it can look much better later on. Again, there’s a narrative reason for all of this, one that I don’t want to spoil. Audio is done quite well, with plenty of creepy sounds and hearing Happy when you incurred your three infractions simply made me tense.
While I do think the asking price is a bit steep, there’s more beneath the surface than I initially expected, well worth the time investment if you’re a fan of the fast-food horror genre, if that’s a thing. Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is best experienced if you go into it completely blind, and while the controls frustrate and never feel great, it’s a genuinely interesting story with an extremely odd and creepy aesthetic.
**Happy's Humble Burger Farm was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All!
Asterix & Obelix has been around since 1959 when it debut, since then the small comic has garnered many fans, spinoffs, games, movies and more. More than 6 decades later, the franchise still has a following, enough so that developers Mr. Nutz have made the latest game, Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! (referred to simply as 'Slap Them All' from hereon). So what can you expect from a game with Slap Them All right in the title? Well, as you can probably guess, a lot of slapping, smacking, punching and more as the titular heroes fight back against the Roman Empire in this hand drawn adventure that looks as it came straight from the comic itself.In 50 B.C., Gaul, what we know today as France, Belgium, Germany and surrounding areas, was occupied by the Romans, well most of it. There’s a tiny little village where Asterix and Obelix reside that are holding their own against the invading forces, so of course they set off an adventure across the land to fight back, by slapping of course. There’s six chapters, each with a handful of levels which span the duo’s adventure, fighting countless Romans, thugs and bosses. While I’ve only dabbled in the comics, I believe Slap Them All follows some of their earlier adventures. While there is an overall narrative, this is a brawler game first and foremost, so there’s some quick comic book style cutscenes between levels and chapters, but you come here for the fighting, not the story.
What surprised me was how lengthy Slap Them All was, taking roughly 6-8 hours from start to finish, and while that seems like there’s a fair amount of content for a game priced at $38.99 CAD, you’re going to wish it was over after an hour or two, as it’s repetitive as it gets, even for a brawler. That’s not to say that brawlers can’t be entertaining for hours on end, as Streets of Rage 4 and Double Dragon Neon were recent revivals of the genre and were fantastic in their own rights.
Side scrolling beat-em-ups are the norm, you know the kind, where you move from the left side of the screen to the right, stopping every so often to beat up all the bad guys in your way, Slap Them All is no different. You control Asterix and Obelix, naturally, and if playing solo, can swap back and forth to either one at the press of a button. At first I was quite impressed by Slap Them All’s visuals, as it’s quite bright and colorful, looking as though it came straight out of the comics, and while the aesthetics impressed, the gameplay actually brought down the rest of the experience.
Brawlers need something that gets you to continue wanting to play, or some sort of progression, even if minor. Slap Them All simply scores you per level, but with no online play or leaderboards, there’s virtually no reason to play a second or third time unless wanting to challenge yourself in harder difficulties, achievement hunting, or really care about obtaining a high score that only you will know about.
I normally really enjoy beat-em-ups, but when you fight the exact same handful of enemies for ten hours across the same backdrops with no variety, it gets quite stale, and quickly. There’s a few odd levels thrown in here and there that break up the monotony, like having a foot race or trying to break all the barrels in a short allotted time, but the rest of the experience is going to be as repetitive as it gets.
For a game that is all about its combat, it’s quite basic. You’re going to be spamming the ‘X’ button to attack, ‘Y’ for special moves and ‘B’ to throw enemy Romans. That’s about it. There is technically a block button, but there’s really no point using it unless you get stuck in an attack loop while surrounded. Special movies require energy and stamina to use, indicated by the lightning bolts at the top of the screen. These in theory should do way more damage and be worth it, but your stamina charges very quickly with normal attacks and these special moves don’t seem to do much more damage, if at all.
Regular attacks make combos the more you spam the attack, and most enemies are damage sponges even on the easier difficulties, requiring a few combos to defeat even the basic enemies. Enemies only come in a handful of varieties, and every single one of them look exactly the same. Most are mindless and simply walk towards you waiting to get attacked, others are bigger and can do a damaging move if you let them charge up, and lastly there’s range javelin throwers that are the bane of your existence. You need to prioritize the annoying enemies first, then the rest can be dealt with however you wish.
Asterix and Obelix can be swapped on the fly if playing solo (co-op together if with a local friend) with a button press, and both have their own attacks and movesets. This makes sense given their stature, but I found Asterix infinitely more useful than his large partner. You attack in the direction you’re facing, and I found that Asterix’s main combo tended to have a larger spread, allowing me to hit many more Romans at once compared to Obelix’s moveset. He also has a grab ability where he can swing it in a circle, depleting your stamina quickly, but hitting anyone within its radius before chucking them to the side of the screen.
Combat rarely feels satisfying though, as you’re constantly using the same moves and combos nonstop until the credits roll. Even boss fights get repeated many times, and these weren’t all that challenging aside from adding in numerous regular enemies at the same time once you learn their moves and how to avoid them. The repeated enemies become quite tiresome though, as it’s literally dozens of the same enemies on screen all the time. There’s only a few additions in the later chapters, but nothing all that exciting. Simply try and get all of the enemies in front of you, spam attack, and you’ll win. Of course barrels will contain money (points) and food to replenish your health along the way, as to be expected.
Again, Slap Them All is very visually appealing. The art style looks authentic as the original comics and even moves and animates as you’d expect the duo to, even down to Obelix’ walking waddle with his hands behind his back. While the enemies do look just as well done, seeing the same few over and over for hours becomes quite tiresome. The background music is subtle but suits the setting and gameplay, and while there’s only a few moments of voice work, mostly from the narrator between levels, it’s a shame the cutscenes weren’t narrated as well. Audio as a whole becomes tiresome though, as you’re going to hear the same punch and attack sounds for hours on end, as well as the Roman death cry repeated even on top of one another.
Adding to the frustration of repetition, I ran into a few bugs that disappointed. More than once I had an enemy stuck outside the edge of the screen where they spawn in, so I was unable to defeat them and continue on my journey, causing a restart of the level. There’s no checkpoints either, so I had to start the same level from the very beginning again too.
Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! was fun for the first two chapters, then I realized I had to sit through another four of the same button spamming. Normally I’m all for length in games if it has a purpose and is entertaining, but Slap Them All definitely overstayed its welcome and I made myself finish it simply for review purposes. Asterix & Obelix fans will no doubt enjoy its authentic look and feel, but the steep price tag is unlikely to warrant a purchase from brawler fans.
**Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Rune Factory 4 Special
Have you been trying to find a relaxing game where you can farm produce and flowers at your own pace? What about one where you can cook a bunch of meals? Or an adventure RPG where you can fight monsters and explore dungeons? What about a game that does all of this, and more, but also looks adorably cute? That’s where Rune Factory 4 Special comes in, a remaster from the original 3DS game from back in 2013. Rune Factory is a spinoff from the STORY OF SEASONS games, which used to be Harvest Moon, so if you’ve played either of those series, you’ll have an idea of what to expect.For those new to the series, Rune Factory 4 Special will allow you to play however you like, be it the life of a farmer, cook, adventurer, fighting or taming monsters, crafting, simply being a social butterfly making relationships with people around town or a mixture of all aspects. Be it newcomer or series veteran, Rune Factory 4 Special will cater to any type of fan, adding plenty of new content for those that already put countless hours into the original 3DS version almost a decade ago.
After an interesting encounter with some thugs on an airship soaring through the skies, events occur and you end up falling from the airship to the land below. Thankfully you end up relatively unscathed as you just happen to fall on top of Ventuswill, a dragon that watches over the lands of Selphia. This fall has caused you to lose your memory, unsure of not only who you are but your original intentions and why you were on that airship.
Thankfully Ventuswill is a friendly dragon, watching over the people of her land, yet unable to leave. After a brief conversation, you’re invited to not only live in the castle and be a member of their community as a member of royalty, but are also given a room and a ‘job’ to earn your keep. You’re simply tasked with planting some turnips and other small jobs, eventually earning the trust of the citizens and being offered numerous jobs such as cooking, exploring, fighting monsters and crafting numerous items, along with farming.
As you earn your keep you’ll take on more responsibilities, though you’re able to focus on whatever tasks you wish at your own speed. Want to take a few days to simply talk to everyone around town to learn their story and likes? How about spending a few days just farming in your backyard garden, to either make and cook dishes or sell for profit? Or maybe you have the itch to adventure the nearby forest and caves, taking on monsters, bosses and looking for treasure. Each day may bring you closer to returning your memories and curing your amnesia, though it’s going to be quite a lengthy journey, taken at your own pace.
So if you played Rune Factory 4 all those years ago on 3DS, you might be wondering why this version has “Special” in its title. Not only is it a remaster with updated HD graphics, but there’s a handful of additional modes and bonuses as well. Dual audio allows for English or Japanese in the main story, though there’s very little voice work overall here, so it’s not as drastic as an addition as you might expect. The graphics are highly improved from its 3DS roots, as going from a small 3DS screen to large TV’s is no easy feat without it appearing pixelated and stretched, and while it’s not perfect, as it simply seems higher resolution, it still looks as though it’s a 3DS game in every other aspect.
In the original game you were able to choose one lucky suiter to eventually marry if you chose, starting a family, and while this was a cute addition, you never really saw what happened to the couple after the credits rolled. This is where Newlywed Mode and Another Episode additions come in. Newlywed Mode allows you to go on an adventure with your wife or husband from your regular game save, having some more time to bond with them in a whole new scenario that centers around them in a unique undertaking. This is also where you’ll see new animations as characters talk to one another, previously just static drawings, and some newly recorded lines.
Another Episode is simply a quickly voiced story about marriage candidates, only having two or three static pictures, but telling a story about the character, able to choose each of the main townspeople you meet in the main game, including Ventuswill. If you already mastered Rune Factory 4 in the past, you’ll be happy to know there’s an even more challenging difficulty level, Hell, making adventuring even more difficult for those that crave it. For players like myself that never got around to playing the original release, I appreciate the effort that went into adding more content and not just making a quick port to consoles on the TV.
As you embark on your adventure, you’ll first choose to play as male or female, though in a really odd way that I’ll leave to you to experience. Once you go through the first bit of narrative and are then set on your own, you’re able to play in any way you desire, never forced to focus on one thing or another. Feel free to play Rune Factory 4 Special completely as a farming game, or maybe spend hours fishing. Want to cook or craft, you can do that too. Maybe you’ll talk to residents, finding out their likes and able to give gifts, eventually able to pursue a romantic relationship if you desire. Or maybe you want to have the best gear in the game, exploring dungeons, fighting monsters and taking down fearsome bosses. It’s completely up to you how you want to live your life in the land of Selphia.
Everything you do has a skill level, raising the more you do it. Running around town a lot, your skill will go up. Farming every day, skills go up. Swinging swords, hammers, sickles or casting spells? Yup, you’ll improve those as well. Even watering your crops, bathing and everything else you do has skills to improve in should you wish.
While not forced, the relationships you can build in town can play a large part, not just narratively, but in the game as well. You can become close friends, have people fight alongside you in battle, and even date or marry one lucky person. It should be noted that it’s clear the game is a little dated, as there are no same sex options allowed, so you only able to date and eventually marry one person from the other sex if you’re able to improve your relationship with them. Each character is very unique, each with their own personalities and able to take on dates, so there’s sure to be some you’re enamored with, and others you might avoid.
Maybe you’re not interested in creating relationships, so why not befriend some monsters and turn them into pets to keep on your farm? Take great care of them and give them some fancy meals and maybe they’ll return the favor by helping you on your farm with simple chores. There might even be certain pets that will give you special items, used in a variety of different recipes and more, so be sure to experiment.
A large part of becoming a part of the town is making choice of what to do with your Princess Points. These allow you to create a better town and attract new guests and tourists. Each day you’re given a choice of tasks to fulfil at the Request Box for certain residents. Complete these objectives and you’re rewarded with items and Princess Points. These points are then used for a number of different things, such as setting up a Festival for your town, upgrading your bags and much more. Funny enough, this Request Box speaks to you, and seemingly only you. I wonder why? Basically you want your town to grow, so taking on these tasks is how you slowly start to do so.
Farming is a large part of Rune Factory 4 Special, and though you never are really forced to, I found it quite relaxing to do so in my off time. You start with a hoe, needing to till each square on your gridded garden. Once the soil is tilled you can then place seeds on it, but will also need to ensure they are watered each day if you want them to grow. You can eventually craft a fertilizer bin to place weeds and other plants in to help your crops go healthy and more bountiful as well. There’s a good handful of different crops, flowers and more to grow, some simply used for selling, while others can be used for ingredients in cooking recipes if you go down that route as well.
If you’d rather play Rune Factory 4 Special as a light hearted take on an RPG, you can do that as well, swinging a handful of different weapon types and magic spells at your enemies. Different weapons allow you to find one that suits your playstyle, either having a heavy slow high damage weapon, or a quick slashing low damage one instead. Magic is another viable option, but you need to keep in mind that almost everything you do utilizes stamina, so you’ll need to rest or eat food if you want to refill your meter. Having a local resident fight alongside you in a dungeon is fun to have some company, but don’t expect them to do much other than the odd attack. The combat itself is quite basic as well, but can be fun when you start to unlock and upgrade your weapons to higher tiers. Bosses aren’t incredibly difficult, but make sure you have some healing food or items just in case.
Cooking is quite simple given you’ve learned recipes and have the corresponding ingredients. If you have the right components you can simply choose how many to make and that’s it. Super simple. Dishes can be a great source of income, as they generally sell for much more than the base components, or can be used as health food and more when adventuring, it’s up to you. Forage enough materials and you’re also able to craft items and upgrade as well, even adding effects based on which materials you fuse with it. It’s also a simple system, but quite fun to play around with, making some unique items along the way for your dungeon adventures.
Seeing the graphical differences from the original 3DS version compared to this one is more subtle than drastic. While the artwork and everything looks cleaner overall, especially the character drawings, the game itself as a whole still looks and plays like a dated 3DS title though. Being able to play however you want, focusing on farming, cooking, relationships or adventuring is really its best strength, never forcing you down a singular path. This results in many hours of gameplay if you want to see and experience everything Rune Factory 4 Special has to offer.
With a new version in the works and coming out shortly, Rune Factory 4 Special is a great introduction to the series for newcomers and a great trip down memory lane for returning players, complete with a few new things to experience. It may feel dated at times, but it can be quite relaxing to farm one day and dungeon delve the next, all while giving gifts to your love interest.
**Rune Factory 4 Special was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Serious Sam 4
Back in early 2001 an interesting new shooter emerged onto the market, Serious Sam: The First Encounter. While the world was already used to shooters, I don’t think there was anything quite like Serious Sam at the time. What made it so different was that it had you facing dozens of enemies at a time, focusing on its gunplay and level design as opposed to any real sense of narrative. If it moved, you shoot it, that’s the Serious Sam way and still maintains that to this day. Serious Sam also never took itself seriously (see the irony?) and just gave you access to tons of guns, some of which were quite unique and still iconic to this day.While developers Croteam have made a couple non Serious Sam games, that’s basically what they’re known for, as it’s a showcase of their own engine, their bread and butter so to speak. With quite a few Serious Sam titles under their belt, the time has obviously come for the latest sequel, especially with the latest generation of consoles now available. Serious Sam 4 takes the classic gameplay formula we’ve come to expect from the series and cranks it up another notch by making the levels much more vast and making hundreds of enemies appear on screen at one time.
Technically a sequel to Serious Sam 3: BFE, which in itself is a prequel to the original game, Serious Sam 4 once again has Sam and his band of comrades taking the fight against Mental’s hordes of endless enemies. I admit, there’s a little more story here than in previous games, though that’s not a very high bar to reach. You’ll be traveling across the globe searching for the Holy Grail, help a Nonna in Rome, exploring vast open fields and of course, shooting hundreds of alien monsters. With 15 chapters to get through, only the hardcore and faithful Serious Sam fans will care the slightest bit about the story, such as finally meeting Lord Achriman. You’ve come here to blast some aliens in the face with some guns, and that’s what you’ll focus on until the credits roll.
Throughout the 15 chapters your goal is to simply get to the end of each, usually culminating in a boss fight of some sorts, some much larger and memorable than others, especially the final boss fight that is easily my highlight of the complete series. Follow the somewhat linear path until you reach a doorway you need to go through. But wait, you won’t be able to go through the door for some reason, forcing you to face off against dozens of Mental’s horde as you try to survive. Defeat all the waves of enemies and you’ll be granted access to progress further in the stage. Repeat this a few times per level and for each chapter and you have a blueprint to Serious Sam 4’s level design. It’s the same gameplay and gating that the series has had for 20 years, so while classic fans will rejoice the gameplay is unchanged, while new players might not be as impressed.
Some elements from their VR outing in the series makes a return in Serious Sam 4, like dual wielding weapons, not only of the same kind, but different as well. This though is gated behind a skill tree system that allows you to customize your Sam to your preferred playstyle. While the series has been simplistic in its design, running from point A to point B while you wait for C to open up, now the introduction of side quests have been added for those that want a little more. While completely optional, these side quests not only add some more playtime but rewards are generally worth it, usually adding a whole new weapon to your arsenal or an upgrade.
Taking place across different continents, the maps are much larger than previous titles. Now though, bigger isn’t always better. This simply means you doing more running from point to point. It may feel like it’s open world at times, especially when you get to the countryside level where you’ll want to take a vehicle to drive to your objective, but aside from the sidequests, there’s no real reason to take the time and explore these vast areas. There’s even a few moments where Sam will get to pilot a mech and destroy any enemies that stand before him, or drive a farming harvester... yup. While it’s cool to see the levels being much larger, they aren’t filled with anything of substance, so it feels empty.
Sam fans will also be glad to know that the staple enemies also make their return, from the iconic headless kamikaze bomb wielders that scream way too loudly, the werebulls, kleer skeletons and more familiar ugly faces. There’s also a couple new enemy types, of which I probably hate the most; I’m looking at you vampires that like to teleport all over the place.
There’s now a skill tree called the S.A.M. (Sirian Artifacts of Might) system. This allows you to improve certain aspects of your Sam based on how you play, generally focusing on melee or ranged combat. How you would play a Serious Sam game primarily based in melee I’m not sure, but the options are there. Each skill takes a point, with the most useful being the ability to dual wield your weapons or being able to mount enemies. It should be noted that you won’t be able to get enough skill points to max out the whole tree though unfortunately.
Like enemies, classic weaponry returns as well, like the shotgun(s), minigun and the iconic literal cannon. There’s a few new toys for your arsenal as well, of which I quite enjoyed the auto shotgun. Some side quests will even offer you upgrades for specific weapons, making them even better in your fight against Mental’s army. There are also gadgets and objects to be found hidden throughout, adding a powerup-like system than can save you from a dangerous situation.
Multiplayer also returns, though with one huge caveat. Older games in the series allowed you to play the campaign in co-op, and that’s no different here, but the player max is down from 16 to 4. That’s fine, I get it, there’s much bigger worlds and better graphics, etc, but there’s one major issue with this; there’s no matchmaking. That’s right, you can only invite people to your game from your friend list, no queuing up for a game with some strangers and a lack of a server browser. I played through the whole campaign in online co-op hoping someone would join, only to realize later that only friends are able to do so. So if you happen to have three other friends who are also Serious Sam fans, great. For everyone else, expect this to be a solo affair. Also gone is versus mode, simply opting for a co-op survival mode, also not playable via matchmaking sadly.
This is without a doubt the best looking Serious Sam game to date, and while that may seem like a compliment, it’s nothing compared to any other modern shooter out recently. Textures for enemies are great, models okay, but animations are quite janky and you only see the same handful of enemies repeated from beginning to finish. Environments are much bigger but lack any sort of character or life. The soundtrack is suitable but quite repetitive, though this is constantly drowned out by gunfire and kamikaze screamers running at you.
There’s some massive load times as well, even on an Xbox Series X. I know I’ve been spoiled with games loading incredibly quickly with the new system, but certain chapters took quite some time to load in between levels. Granted, once the chapter loads there’s no more waiting around, but that initial wait can be quite lengthy. Priced at $51.99 CAD, it’s hard to recommend aside from any of the longtime loyal Serious Sam fans that have been invested for two decades. Granted, Serious Sam 4 is currently included on Xbox Game Pass, which is the perfect price to mindlessly shoot endless hordes of aliens.
Fans of the series will know exactly what to expect; tons of guns, aliens and terrible one-liners. Like a cult movie with a dedicated following, fans will simply get it while everyone else won’t understand; Serious Sam 4 will most likely fall under this type as well, appealing to longtime fans but new players wondering what the hell is going on. Serious Sam 4 is absolutely outdated in its design and mechanics but can be fun in very short bursts for those times you want to turn off your brain and blast away some aliens.
**Serious Sam 4 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Undungeon
Normally I do a bit of research about a game before I delve in, so that I have an idea of what to expect. I decided to not do that this time with Undungeon, starting the game completely blind, unsure what to expect. What I got was a sci-fi pixel art adventure with a surprising amount of narrative and lore, almost too much at times, with some addictive yet challenging combat gameplay. Developers Laughing Machines actually had a Kickstarter to make this a reality after many years in development, and years later it’s finally come together and released for console fans as well, including Xbox Game Pass. With a really interesting story, Undungeon is going to demand your full attention if you want to make any sense of it, something I found hard to do with just how deep the narrative is.Multiverses seem to be the new hot thing, so Undungeon delves into this idea where several parallel universes of Earth suddenly merge together at once, causing a cataclysmic event dubbed the Great Shift. This is of course a universe changing occurrence that also effected time and space causing monsters and creatures to suddenly appear, sometimes displacing homes of where tribes and people once lived. You are the Herald of the Void, part of a secret organization that is tasked with trying to restore peace and order across the chaotic lands who possess a myriad of powers and abilities. Decisions you make, who you help and how you interact with people during your journey will have consequences and outcomes based on your choices. As a Herald, you were actually designed by god-like beings, deciding outcomes of the new universe based on your actions.
If you enjoy reading a lengthy book full of plenty of dialogue and backstory, Undungeon will not disappoint. You’re thrown a ton of information right from the start about the inhabitants, world, the Great Shift, gods and much more. How you’re supposed to take this all in so quickly and know what’s going on, I have no clue. It’s quite confusing and a huge ask to delve into the deep end with so much lore right away, but there’s more than enough to take in if you enjoy that aspect. I was initially following along, but to be honest, it eventually lost me once I started talking to different races and people, becoming quite convoluted.
As you explore the lands, you’ll come across numerous characters, merchants, creatures and more. Maybe if you side with certain characters or raise enough karma, they’ll help alongside your quest as well. The world itself is quite big, but instead of a traditional overworld map that you explore, you instead choose which area to go to and it’ll show Herald walking there, reminding me somewhat like Zelda II's map, as you’ll also see little monster and helper icons along the way.
There’s plenty of places to explore, not just the main mission areas, full of items, merchants and secrets. Your main headquarters though is in Herald’s Undercover Bay, better known as H.U.B. This is your safe area between dimensions where you can speak to people that you’ve recruited, trade with merchants, craft and more. While Herald will be engaging in combat often, you’re going to have to grasp how the character customization works, as the mechanics are a bit different than most games. While you’ll find new weapons and equipment along the way, you actually equip and can upgrade your body parts like brains, hearts, eyes and more. Organs come from defeating enemies or crafting new ones once the option is unlocked during the course of the story.
Your Core though is your main piece of equipment/organs. This is essentially how you create different ‘builds’, as each different core has different slots that can be unlocked and filled with runes, adding bonuses and other features. Each different type of Core upgrade is color coded as well, and you can even combine similar runes to make for bigger passive increases when slotted in. It takes a bit of figuring out and getting used to, but once you do, the customization for your Herald is quite addictive. Interestingly, your character isn’t based on your overall level, but your individual cores instead, so if you swap to a brand new Core, you’re back at level one power-wise. How you build your character to suit your playstyle is up to you, deciding from different weapon choices, numerous ranged weapons, DoT stacking and plenty of different options and even companions.
Merchant trading doesn’t usually warrant a specific mention, but like a few other mechanics in Undungeon, it’s worth an explanation here. There’s no real currency in the game, so instead you actually have to trade items, bartering like you would in real life. Each item you find along the way has a value associated with it, so if you want to buy a new weapon or item, you need to trade that amount worth or more to receive it. For example, if the merchant has a cool upgrade or weapon you want from them and it costs 200, you then need to give 200 worth of items back in exchange for it. You can do this manually, but will spend a ton of time doing so, thankfully there’s an auto button that will do the best it can without overspending too much, but make sure to double check you’re not ‘selling’ something you want to keep before accepting. It’s an interesting trading system that I didn’t really get at first, but eventually came to accept and agree with, as it makes sense given the post-apocalyptic setting.
Next is combat, as Herald will almost constantly be in battles. You start out with a simple claw, able to swipe and inflict damage, but you’re going to have to learn how to dash and dodge, utilize range items, shield blocking and more if you want a chance at surviving and progressing. The beginning is very melee focused and doesn’t teach you much outside of the basics. Eventually you’ll start running into ranged enemies and ones that retreat, and if you aren’t proficient at range attacks, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening.
Combat is in real time, and once you grasp all of its mechanics it can be quite addictive, that is, until you hit a brick wall of difficulty near the end and will be forced to grind to progress. Annoyingly, your weapons and equipment can break, and having this happen at a really inopportune time can be quite frustrating. Remember those organ upgrades I talked about? Those become destroyed every time you die as well, making you increasingly weaker if you don’t have spares to slot in. Thankfully there’s a combat pause when you want to change weapons or equipment, or when weapons break, allowing you to take a moment for a breather and plan what you want to equip.
Another really unique mechanic is how you heal in Undungeon. Instead of a normal healing spell or potion, instead you throw a shard onto the battlefield. The first person or creature to hit and break it gets the healing from it. That’s right, your healing shard you just dropped might heal the enemy if they hit it before you. This doesn’t happen often if you simply run away real quick to drop it and swing at it, but can go awry in the middle of a chaotic battle. This is also combined with a mechanic that makes every enemy that hits you stronger each time, becoming exponentially harder the worse you do, and if you die, adds to the difficulty with your upgrades breaking.
While I wish there were different difficulty settings because of these reasons, much like a Souls game, you simply accept its challenge and try to work with it as best as you can. My only big complaint is a massive difficulty spike near the end that forced me to grind side quests and extra areas for hours to become strong enough to progress.
For how much time you are in combat, you’ll spend twice that reading all of the narrative and dialogue. Thankfully the pixel art is done fantastically, full of detail and smooth animations throughout. Every character, background and object appears to be handmade and it comes across in a great visual aesthetic. The soundtrack is done quite well also, with some low-key electronic vibes, though the glaring omission is voiced dialogue, especially given how much text there is to sift through. I get that would have been a massive order, but it really did feel like a missed opportunity to bring more immersion into the unique cast of characters and lore.
With a game so heavily invested into its narrative and lore, there’s a mountain of text to get through, great for those that love to read novels, not so much for those that want to simply play and progress the story. Undungeon can become punishingly difficult at times, especially when you aren’t focused and hit a bad streak of deaths in a row, yet there was always something bringing me back, wanting to give Herald one more go to fix the shattered universe, especially once you unlock a new character to play as.
**Undungeon was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
I’ve played a lot of weird games in my time, but I have to say, DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game ranks right up there with one of the most odd I’ve ever experienced. And yes, that is the game’s actual title, clearly replicating the average day for a deer in this simulation. Yeah, no, that’s not what DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is about at all. Even after getting all the achievements and both endings, I’m still not totally sure what it’s about to be honest.If you’ve ever played Goat Simulator, you have somewhat an idea of what to expect. Goat Simulator was completely goofy and wacky, but DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game (simply referred to as Deer Sim from here on) takes it to a whole new level. If you thought Goat Simulator was dumb and a waste of time, then you might as well stop reading here, as this won’t change your mind. If you’re like me though and did have some silly fun being a goat, Deer Sim is going to be right up your alley.
Were you the type of Grand Theft Auto player that just likes to run around, cause havoc and never do any story missions? Do you not care if your games have decent framerates, objectives, a narrative and control well? If you’ve answered yes to the above, then DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is going to entertain you for about a full hour or two until you’ve experienced everything it has to offer.
While small games like this are generally ‘janky’ and lack polish, Deer Sim takes it to a whole new level, almost acting as if it's like a challenge, yet oddly enough feels as though it’s supposed to be that way. As a deer you’ll use your stretchy neck, horns and arsenal of weapons that mount to you to blast any buildings or objects you want to. Again, this is a simulator, so keep that in mind, this is obviously a totally serious take on an average day in the life of a deer.
You begin your deer simulation by first creating a human being. Yup, that’s right. While not the most robust creator out there, it’s actually got a lot more options than I was expecting. This is also the first introduction to Deer Sim’s unique and low polygon aesthetic. One you’ve made your human character you start off your journey by witnessing a deer about the get hit by a speeding truck, so you do the most natural thing any of us would do; push the deer out of the way, only to have yourself get hit by the vehicle instead. Are you dead? What happened? Why do you wake up as a deer in a weird city? Who knows, and the game isn’t going to explain any of this definitively really.
So what do you do now that you’re trapped in this deer body you ask? Cause destruction of course, because why wouldn't you? Attack any object or building and it’ll be destroyed, usually leaving behind a weapon of some kind. Grab these weapons and they’ll attach to your body permanently. The pistols you first get replace your antlers, where every weapon thereafter simply sticks to your body or on your head. The more firepower you have the quicker buildings and objects will get destroyed, ranking you on your chaos.
So now that you’re a walking deer of death, what’s next? Every rank your city destruction goes up will alert the police to come and try to stop you. Oh, you thought this was going to be normal police that are human beings? You should know better by now. The first wave of police will be sheep, posing no real threat other than their sheer (see what I did there?) numbers. The second wave of police add some polar bears that can transform into police cars, and wave three are rabbit snipers. There’s even a terminal beside the police station that can be used to edit how many of which police units come with each ranking. If you want to completely destroy and crash the game by cranking up the units on screen at once, go ahead.
So what happens after you’ve destroyed all the cops? Well, a boss appears of course. This massive corgi is waiting for you on an island to challenge you. I’m not going to spoil what happens since there’s very little gameplay as a whole anyways, but it’s certainly something you won’t expect. Once you’ve managed to beat the police boss it looks as though there’s nothing left to do, but there is, and it involves going into the future, because why not?
Once you make it to the same city in the future, you’ll start from scratch with no weapons, but that’s easily remedied, just like before. Also the same, waves of police will hunt you down once you cause enough destruction, but these are much more powerful and take more firepower to defeat. There too is a boss at the end of this world, which is nothing like you’ve played so far, but again, I don’t want to spoil anything given the short playtime. Needless to say, there are two different endings, both of which don’t really explain much and is completely off the wall like the rest of the game. If you’re looking for a cohesive narrative, it won't be found here.
Developer Gibier Games knows that Deer Sim isn’t meant to be taken seriously and completely leans into it as far as they could. Like Goat Simulator, much of this experience is simple dumb fun. Basically a large sandbox for you to play around how you wish, Deer Sim is like asking a young child what they’d want to do in a video game if it was up to them, then they went and made that. Want to take down a massive Koala that’s scaling a skyscraper? Go ahead. Why to play Othello (Reversi) against a 100ft cow? Sure, why not. Want to put antlers on humans and have them follow you like their leader as they Naruto run following you? Yup, you can do that. Want to have a mech suit made from random tigers and animals? You guessed it, totally possible. Being able to swing around the city like Spider-Man with your sticky deer head is amusing at first, but the entertainment value of this wears off quickly due to how small the city is. Oh, and when you run you stand on two legs and run comically fast while flexing your muscles. Yup, told you this was a simulator.
Aesthetically, the graphics are terrible to be quite honest. I’m not even knocking its low-poly style, but it all comes across as completely basic, simplistic designs and tons of glitches. Yes, it absolutely suits the game as whole, but it’s riddled with graphical bugs, glitches and massive framerate issues, even on an Xbox Series X. Audio is basically the same bag, playing cued sounds for basic attacks and movements, though the score is slightly better.
Lasting an hour or two tops, you’ll get everything you need from it within that amount of time, even the full list of achievements. While you can play again, there’s not really much else left to do once you’ve seen it all and destroyed everything in the city. DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is absolutely bonkers at every chance it gets. The graphics are terrible, controls even worse, yet I wasn’t able to put it down until I got all of the achievements. It has that weird charm to it, like a terrible movie that you love for some reason.
Thankfully DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is available on Game Pass, and honestly, this is the only way I can recommend playing it, as the asking price otherwise WAY overpriced at $25.99 CAD. I had to do a double take to make sure this was correct, because even $5 would be a big ask. If you want to turn off your brain and play a truly ‘authentic’ deer simulator where you can shoot a King Kong sized Koala off the side of a building, well, this is the game for you.
**DEEEER Simulator Your Average Everyday Deer Game was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Farming Simulator 22
While I knew farming simulator games existed for some time, I never really paid any attention to them until GIANTS Software finally brought them to console. I started with Farming Simulator 17, updated to Farming Simulator 19 with that release, and now I’ve been farming for a few weeks with the latest entry, Farming Simulator 22. Because I’ve played the previous games in the series I had a head start on knowing how to start my farming career on the right path. Farming Simulator is exactly as it advertises, a simulation about one of the most challenging, yet important, careers you can have. While many won’t find the game “fun” with its monotonous and tedious gameplay, those that do enjoy the calming and relaxing repetition of plowing, sowing and growing your fields will be pleased to know that a number of improvements have been made in this year’s iteration.You are a farmer, but what your business grows or deals in is completely up to you. If you want to have fields of numerous crops, raise animals or even work towards making some serious cash with production chains, there’s plenty for you to take part in. So grab some friends, even cross-platform across consoles and PC, weather the seasons and enjoy building your agricultural empire. Now if you’ve not been following the series for the past few games, I know what you’re thinking; “Why would anyone want to play a farming game?”. Don’t knock it until you try it, as it’s very relaxing when you need something of a different speed. And I kid you not, there are even e-sports for Farming Simulator and it’s absolutely fascinating to watch.
So, what’s exactly new in Farming Simulator 22? My biggest hope was that it was going to be a substantial upgrade from Farming Simulator 19 and not simply a reskin. Thankfully it seems developers have taken the time to make some improvements that make this year’s entry the best of the series, even if incrementally. While there may not be a ton of added crops and gameplay features, the overall game simply feels better, especially in the driving aspect and the addition of production lines.
So as a quick list of some of the new features and mechanics are as follows: stone picking, greenhouses, beehives, grapes, olives, sorghum (grain), licensed MACK trucks, production chains, much improved audio and visuals, fences, gates, better physics, equipment repairs, cosmetic wear and tear, new tires, license plates and Seasons. There’s a handful of other additions and improvements, like the character creator, but those listed above are the majority of the major new features.
As for crops, the newest additions are grapes, olives and sorghum. While Sorghum is just another type of grain, you’ll know how to harvest those, but grapes and olives are completely new, requiring new equipment to learn as well. Now, I was excited to have some grapes in my fields and seeing what I could create with them. First off, you need a cleared field so that you can place the posts that the vines rest on. This is where I was almost instantly disappointed, as you have to manually place all of the length and exact placement of each row. On paper that sounds great, but there’s no grid to ‘snap’ to, so if you’re like me and need your crops to be perfect, I guarantee you’re going to have some crooked crops or spaced 'wrong'. Also, without trial and error, you’re not going to know how much space to have between each row, resulting in wasted space and extra time needed to fertilize. Also, these crops can’t be automatically farmed by hired help unfortunately, so expect to spend an obscene amount of time doing all this yourself or with friends.
The new equipment needed to harvest your grapes after they’ve grown over the course of a few months is interesting to use, as there’s nothing else really like it, but it takes some getting used to and this will depend on how well you placed your rows initially. The biggest feature though has to be production chains. This is where you can turn your harvested crops into new items, like turning your grapes into juice (sorry, no wine), olives into oil, grain to cereal, wheat into flour and then even going further by adding eggs and fruit to make cakes and so on. These add new ways to expand your farm in interesting ways, and like regular products, fluctuate in price. This gives you much more to do and freedom of how you want to have your crops end up as an end product for consumers.
Seasons used to be a very popular mod, and now it’s built into the base game. This adds actual seasons into your game, and now having a snow covered winter is a new obstacle you’ll have to deal with. Also, certain crops, like grapes for example, can only be planted in certain seasons, so when you start to own a lot of land, you’re going to have to plan what to plant and when to be the most efficient. If you don’t want to deal with all that extra planning, you can also toggle Seasons to be visual only or even stay in the one you prefer. Unless I missed it somehow, I don't see a way to toggle the fast crops, allowing almost instantaneous crop completion, possibly due to the Seasons inclusion.
You start off by choosing one of the three included maps, one more than the last version, though one is essentially a remake, Erlengrat, set in the mountainous Swiss Alps. Haut-Beyleron is located in France, having dozens of fields to purchase, and there's also a map in the United States, Elm Creek that actually feels authentic for the area. You then begin a tutorial that will show you the basics, and when I say basics, you’re going to finish the tutorial and then be absolutely confused on what to do next and how. Just like the previous games, Farming Simulator simply throws you in without any hand holding, leaving you to figure out what to do, how to do it and not helping any part of the way.
This has been my biggest problem with the series since I’ve started playing, it’s as though they don’t want new players who don’t have dozens of hours to spend figuring out how to play properly to enjoy the game. You’re shown how to drive equipment, plow, sow and other simple tasks, but it doesn’t teach you how to figure out what equipment you need, where to sell it, what to do with your crops or anything else beyond the basics. Those new to the genre may become frustrated due to this, as you’re told to simply go farm, but not told how exactly. I can’t tell you how much money I’ve wasted on equipment, only to find out it was the wrong tractor or header, not even to mention the time trying to figure out all this on my own. Some slight improvement has been made for this specific situation, as the store will group equipment under crop selections, but still, nothing else is explained without having to resort to looking online externally.
Manage to figure out how to actually play and be a proficient farmer, and you’ll be happy to know that there’s more than 400 machines available for you from over 100 actual agricultural brands like MCCormick, not even including the mods that become available as content creators release new equipment, adding way more mod slots, most likely due to the new generation in hardware. The maps included are varied, each with their own beautiful scenery and farm sizes and the season changing adds more realism. Speaking of equipment, there's also random sales from time to time on used hardware in-game. This means you can get a tractor or header at a huge discount, but will cost you a little bit in repairs. Having the exact used equipment you need when it goes up for sale is a blessing, saving you potentially thousands of dollars. Those that used to have massive farms in Farming Simulator 19 will also be happy to know that the equipment allotment has also gone way up, so no more having to worry about if you have too much equipment before hitting the cap. With the equipment cap raised so high now, I'd expect your game would start to lag well before ever hitting the limit.
Speaking of realism, Farming Simulator 22 adds vastly improved visuals over the previous version but there’s so much more minor details that you’ll notice if you take the time. Yeah, the farms and world looks much better, especially when it comes to grass and rocks but now you’ll actually see your shifter move when you change gears in your tractor as well. Minor detail but adds more realism. Some things on the other hand also stick out like a sore thumb, like looking into the windows of your farmhouse and seeing a terrible textured picture of the inside instead of an actual room. Audio also got a massive boost, as each tractor and equipment sounds more unique this time around for each vehicle and part, as opposed to them all sounding basically the same like before.
Once you get over the mountain of a learning curve and start to figure out how to play the way you want, farming becomes a much more zen-like and relaxing experience. To help with this, you can invite your friends to farm alongside you, regardless of their platform. Having crossplay now means that me on my Xbox can play alongside my friends who play on PC or on PS, helpful if you have a longtime PC player friend that you want some help from. You’re able to work together on a single farm, or each have your own on the same map, working cooperatively. If I was destined to play alone, I would have given up long ago from the monotony, but farming with a buddy, getting orders of what to do and where, was much more enjoyable, working alongside one another. You're also able to rent an online dedicated server, allowing your farm friends to play however you like, changing the rules as you go and always available unlike a players hosted server where you need to be online to play.
Nearly every aspect from the last game has been improved in Farming Simulator 22, from the audio, graphics, UI changes and new crops. On an Xbox Series X, the visual upgrades were pretty substantial compared to the last version feeling much brighter and vibrant overall, adding more details, though probably won’t impress those only used to the latest AAA experiences. Production chains are a huge addition and add another layer to simply farming the crops, selling and repeat. One aspect that's gone unchanged and still annoying is the traffic. The AI simply follows their line and won't deviate from it, so when you get hit by a car hopefully it won't flip youm but it likely will.
Sadly developers have yet to solve the inaccessibility for newcomers, as the learning curve is a sheer cliff to overcome. Still a niche genre, Farming Simulator 22 is a complex and accurate representation of real world farming, and while virtual farmers will no doubt spend over a thousand hours once again in the latest version, newcomers are still going to be left wondering how others could find the monotonous grind entertaining. Those that know, know, so let the good times grow.
**Farming Simulator 22 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Let's Sing 2022
I’m a terrible singer and can’t hold a tune, but that doesn’t stop me from doing so in the shower or during the car ride to work. I absolutely love doing karaoke, as everyone turns into the best singer in the world after a few adult drinks, myself included. So what do you do when you enjoy singing and gaming? That’s where Let’s Sing 2022 comes in.Everyone has that ‘one song’ that they know they can belt out near perfectly, wanting to be that singing sensation that you see on TV and online. Let’s Sing 2022 rounds out their playlist from numerous genres, generations and artists to hopefully satisfy your audio tastes to sing along to. It’s alright if you don’t know the words, as they’ll be scrolling across the screen for you to sing along with. With 20 songs (plus ten more with the free DLC) you should hopefully at least find a few classics or bangers you’ll enjoy to hear and sing along to repeatedly, not just by yourself either, but with up to eight singers or online against other vocalists, regardless if you have a USB microphone or not.
As for the musical selection itself, musical taste is completely subjective, and while there were a couple I quite enjoyed singing along to, the list of 20 included songs are as follows:
The Offspring - "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"
Master KG feat. Nomcebo - "Jerusalema"
Rag'n'Bone Man - "Human"
Amy Winehouse - "Back to Black"
Wham! - "Last Christmas"
Madcon feat. Ray Dalton - "Don't Worry"
Topic & A7S - "Breaking Me"
Joel Corry x MNEK - "Head & Heart"
Backstreet Boys - "Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)"
Jax Jones feat. RAYE - "You Don't Know Me"
Lady Gaga - "Stupid Love"
Imagine Dragons - "Bad Liar"
Calvin Harris feat. Rag'n'Bone Man - "Giant"
Billie Eilish - "everything i wanted"
Ava Max - "Kings & Queens"
Zoe Wees - "Control"
David Guetta & Sia - "Let's Love"
Ofenbach & Quarterhead feat. Norma Jean Martine - "Head Shoulders Knees & Toes"
David Bowie - "Ashes to Ashes"
Nathan Evans (220 KID x Billen Ted Remix) - "Wellerman (Sea Shanty)"
With the Let's Sing 2022 International Song Pack (a free DLC), you can boost your song selection up to 30 total, which include:
Ariana Grande - "positions"
Jason Derulo & Jawsh 685 - "Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat)"
Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber - "Monster"
Aladdin - "A Whole New World"
Sia - "Snowman"
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic - "Leave The Door Open"
The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"
Depeche Mode - "Enjoy The Silence"
Crazy Town - "Butterfly"
P!nk - "What About Us"
And of course, there’s an online song store where you can purchase numerous other songs and packs, but these come at a cost of course, so this review is solely based on the 30 songs listed above that come with a purchase of Let’s Sing 2022.
So how exactly can you sing and have the game recognize your voice you ask? There’s actually a few different options for you. You can plug in USB microphones, so if you’ve been hoarding those old Rock Band microphones, they’ll final pay off. If you’re a gamer, you most likely have a headset for chatting to your friends online, and if it’s a wired version that plugs into your controller you can opt to use these as well. It should be noted that it seems they have to be wired headsets, as none of my wireless ones would register my voice at all.
Lastly, anyone can sing along, even non-gamers as you can use any phone or smart device into a microphone by downloading the Let’s Sing Microphone App (iOS and Android). This is done basically in the same way as the Jackbox games work, having players input a room code to sync their device to the specific lobby. Choose your song(s) and up to eight players can all sing together in certain modes. You’re also able to mix and match devices, so you can have a maximum of four smartphones, 2 USB microphones and 2 headsets if playing an eight player mode.
Speaking of Modes, there’s eight different ones to test your vocals in: Legend, Classic, Mix Tape 2.0, Jukebox, Playlist Creator, Feat., World Contest and Let’s Party. Classic Mode is essentially a quick play option, choosing a song and get to singing to rack up the high scores. Mix Tape 2.0 Mode gives you an interesting playlist every time, so no two times should be the same with dynamically generated mixes. Legend Mode is what you could think of a career or campaign, as you need to earn a certain amount of start to progress and eventually challenge your rivals.
Feat. Mode has you pairing up with a friend or AI to try and sing the best cooperatively. Can you elevate each other to reach new stardom together? Singing alongside an icon was a cool touch I didn’t really expect. World Contest Mode is essentially your online play. Here you’ll challenge friends or strangers online to see who the best singer of them all truly is. Let’s Party Mode is where you’ll be if you happen to have a bunch of friends over that want to impromptu karaoke at some point during the night. This is where up to eight players can all sing together, so get everyone to download the app and they can join in with one another in randomly chosen game modes with two teams. Playlist Creator Mode is just that, giving you the freedom to create any session with the mode and songs you enjoy the most. Lastly is Jukebox Mode where you can simply have music on in the background for your party, though with the 30 song track list, this will obviously start to repeat long before last call.
As for the gameplay, if you’ve ever played any iteration of Let’s Sing, Rockband or any other vocal game, you’ll know exactly how to play. The music video plays in the background with the words at the bottom of the screen. Scrolling in the middle of the screen are the notes, indicating the octaves and tone you need to hit to earn the most points. Even non-gamers will be able to figure it out, and while the voice recognition was iffy at times, myself, my wife and child all had fun when we were singing, even if we were trying to mumble or hum the words in tune at times.
I did run into the odd issue here and there when I had more than two smartphones connected for microphones, randomly dropping in and out, eventually having to re-sync to the sessions with a new room code. Of course this meant we missed a lot of notes and words, and I’m not sure if phones have different quality microphones, but my phone compared to the wife’s seemed to pick up my voice much better than hers, though mine is also a much newer device.
With a song selection limited to 30 included songs, I have to admit that the longevity did wear off after a few days. Sure there were a handful of songs I quite enjoyed, but there’s only so many times I can sing Backstreet Boys - "Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)" before growing tired of it. Again, musical taste is completely subjective and I have a feeling that your purchase decision is going to almost solely be based on what you feel towards the track listing that’s included more than anything else.
**Let’s Sing 2022 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Exo One
Sometimes simplicity makes for a better experience overall. Exo One is a perfect example of this, showcasing fluid but simplistic gameplay within a gorgeous backdrop. Unlike anything else I’ve played before, I was quite impressed with Exo One for how fluid its gameplay was once you get the hang of its controls, able to freely glide, soar and drop to reach new heights and distances in your unique alien craft.You piloting some sort of alien ship, simply starting as a sphere, able to defy gravity and increase your speed by rolling downhill with more force. You are also able to flatten out your sphere craft, shaping into a disc-like UFO or Frisbee, able to gain height and glide for quite a distance. Your goal is to reach a mysterious beam of light far in the distance, and by far, I mean incredibly far. It’s a good thing that you travel at incredibly high speeds, even breaking the sound barrier at times if you enable your gravity enhancer to gain speed, only to shift into the disc to soar further and gain more altitude.
Exo One doesn’t take place on any planets you’ve seen before though, as you’ll journey from one unknown planet to another, each with their own atmosphere and biome. Some are mostly water like a vast ocean, others are barren scorched lands or contain jungle-like valleys.
There is a story within, though very ambiguous at the best of times. On the anniversary of the ‘Jupiter accident’, mankind is sent schematics for an alien craft, which of course we build and called Exo One. Between each world completed you get some flashback and quick snippets of some narrative, though it’s all very open to interpretation after the credits roll. Exo One isn’t a terribly long experience, able to be completed in a single sitting after a few hours should you wish, but it felt just the right length, never wearing out its welcome.
The crux of Exo One’s gameplay is its flowing traversal across alien landscapes as you try and reach a mysterious beam in the far distance. Some worlds will have you flying and gliding close to the surface of land and water, where others will have you well above the clouds or even in space. You need to use gravity and momentum to propel forwards towards your goal, and Exo One does a fantastic job at making you feel as though you’re going at an incredible speed. I actually had to look it up, but the speed of sound is 1,235 km/h or 767 mph, and it never got old to go to extreme heights only to use my gravity toggle to plummet towards the surface, breaking the sound barrier and hearing the ‘boom’ that accompanies.
While there’s no HUD or anything on screen other than your ship and the weather you go through, as long as you generally point towards the beam of light in the horizon, you’ll eventually make it towards your destination. I actually found the lack of tutorial aside from the two button controls intriguing, as you can glide and travel in any direction, but you’re instinctively curious about that beam in the distance, so you naturally want to travel towards it. While there’s no checkpoint system aside from in between worlds, you also can’t fail or die, so it’s a very relaxing experience.
There's something zen-like about rolling down a huge hill or cliff, gaining a ton of speed and launching off the top of the next only to take flight for an amazing distance. This ebb and flow of altitude change is very meditative in a certain way, and once you can master the ‘flow’, it feels very natural to pilot your craft exactly how you intended. It’s all about finding that peak arc, much like the apex in a turn while racing cars.
Each of the world’s only last a short time, but they feel extremely distant and expansive given how fast it feels you’re travelling, especially in the levels where you’re soaring well above the clouds. For the other worlds where you can dive deep into the ocean, this may trigger some with Thalassophobia, as it’s serene, but terrifying being so far underneath the water’s surface.
When it comes to gliding by shifting your craft into a disc shape, you can only do so for a limited time, indicated by how much glow you have on the surface of your craft. Once your ship is out of energy, you’ll turn back into an orb and start to descend, but doing so refills your energy again, so this is how you constantly rise and fall to cover vast distances quickly. Once you get the hang of the timing it feels very natural and simply flows, feeling very satisfying when you hit those perfect arcs.
Most of the worlds are quite relaxing and meditative in their own ways, aside from two worlds that absolute frustrated me. One world has a storm that disables your steering and gliding, forcing you to only use your gravitational pull on angled slopes to try and ‘steer’ you the way you want to go by using momentum to get around or over steep hills. Another is a stage where you’re actually in space instead of on the surface of a planet. Here you need to utilize each of the asteroids own gravitational fields to gain speed and launch yourself into the next nearby asteroid to get close to the beam that will send you to the next world. While I was able to pass these worlds, they were by far the lowlight of the whole experience, though some might enjoy the variety.
While the worlds themselves are all varied and have their own biomes and themes, they are all completely lifeless aside from your craft speeding through them. I do wish there was a way to have a ‘chapter select’ of some sorts, as missing achievements on certain worlds means you’ll have to replay from the beginning all over again to nab them.
Exo One is visually impressive for how minimalistic it is. With no HUD on the screen, there’s no distractions from taking in the beautiful and mysterious vistas across all of the different planets you traverse. Soaring through the clouds at the speed of sound never got old, neither did having my craft hit by lighting storms only to energize my ship to allow me to continually glide further into the atmosphere. Some worlds are more visually impressive than others, but they all had their own interesting features that I wanted to explore further.
The soundtrack is just as fitting, having subtle light guitar or wind instruments that feeds into the mysterious allure of each world, yet also allowing the wind, rain, airflow and gravity take center stage when it comes to audio. Gliding makes a hypnotic whirling sound, and breaking the sound barrier feels impactful. Again, it’s very simplistic in its design, mechanics and audio, but that makes for a better and more memorable experience.
For how much I enjoyed my unique and memorable journey with Exo One, aside from achievement hunting, there’s little reason to go back and play through again unless you just want to chill out and have some ambiance. The gameplay mechanics are very intuitive and feel satisfying, captivating in its own special way. Exo One is a very beautiful and unique gaming experience, one that I’m glad to have explored.
**Exo One was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - Remastered
I was quite saddened when Telltale games closed its doors back in 2018, as they’ve made some of my most memorable gaming experiences over the years. One of the earliest games that I fell in love with of theirs was the Sam & Max series, a point and click adventure filled with tons of humor, jokes and unique characters. Thankfully, some of the original development team acquired the rights to the Sam & Max games, and with the help of some former Telltale developers they’ve been hard at work at remastering the classic episodic seasons for us original fans and new ones alike.I reviewed the first Season, Sam & Max Save the World, and came away more than impressed with how much effort went into the Remaster, as it was more than your typical coat of paint. Naturally, I expected the same treatment with Season Two, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - Remastered, and again, was pleasantly surprised with all of the improvements over the original I played roughly 20 years ago. Sam & Max has been around for quite some time, not just in videogame form, but eventually spawned comics and even a TV series. I’ve been a long time Sam & Max fan, as I even have some original artwork signed hung up on my wall, so I’ve been more than excited when the classic games were getting the Remastered treatment.
For those that aren’t up to date with Sam & Max, Sam is a six-foot talking dog detective, and Max is a hyper rabbit that doesn’t shy away from chaos, mayhem and/or violence when needed, in a humorous way. Created by Steve Purcell, the duo are Freelance Police who get themselves involved into some truly odd and interesting cases and situations that only they could solve. Season Two, Beyond Time and Space, is no different, as you’ll control Sam & Max on their journey to the North Pole, to Space and even down to Hell.
Like the previous season, Beyond Time and Space is broken up into 5 episodic chapters, each directly leading into the next. While you’re not forced to play them in order, the story wouldn’t make much sense otherwise and you’ll miss a lot of the ‘in’ jokes. Pay attention and you’ll notice items you collected or references from previous episodes and seasons which was a nice touch.
I don’t want to spoil the story at all, as it’s the highlight of Sam & Max’s weird adventures, but I’m not even exaggerating when I say that you’ll face off against Santa, stop a volcano from erupting, have run ins with a mariachi band, help someone named Stinky, have zombies dancing on a disco floor, deal with Satan, of course have to help the local store owner Bosco and even have to handle a nipple pierced vampire. It’s definitely more ‘out there’ than the first season, and is better for it, completely suiting the Sam & Max style of comedy. Just make sure no one says that it’s their BIRTHDAY!
Just like the first Season Remaster, developers Skunkape went above and beyond to improve this release as well, taking the time to make this release special. Every episode has been given quite an overhaul, and for a longtime fan like myself that has played through the games more than once, seeing the improvements was exciting as you could tell they put a lot of work into the smaller details, not to mention having Steve Purcell’s blessing.
Gaming back in 2006 when it originally released was quite different from now. For starters, 4:3 was a common aspect ratio and resolutions were nowhere near the common 4K quality of today. First and foremost, Sam & Max Save the World now supports your standard 16:9 ratio, 4K resolution, HDR and much more, so it’s going to look much more modern. There’s a few other major improvements, much coming from dynamic lighting, shadows and improved lip sync. Given that there’s quite a lot of dialogue across the episodes, this was quite noticeable compared to the original release. The audio has also been remastered so that it doesn’t sound as compressed, another major improvement that is noticeable due to the heavy dialogue that takes place throughout their adventure.
There’s some really cool smaller additions and changes too that will please older fans like myself. For example, kid versions of Sam & Max look more like their comic counterparts. And while it wasn’t "appropriate" back in 2008, vampire Jurgen now has car keys hanging off his nipple ring; totally worth it for the Remaster alone. I didn’t even realize that the original game had no falling snow in the North Pole chapter due to engine limitations, which of course is no longer an issue these days, so it was added for the Remaster.
As outlined in my Sam & Max Save the World Remastered review, the voice actor for reoccurring character Bosco was recast for specific reasons, which meant a complete rerecording of his lines, and that is the same in this Season as well. While there were no new lines recorded for this Season, you may notice some small changes compared to the original because of this. Even the soundtrack audio was improved, adding eight completely new tracks with live musicians, along with sprucing up the original OST.
Puzzles were left unchanged this time, though the decal system for your DeSoto car has been updated. Back then, it wasn’t common to have games remember your choices and carry over to the next chapter, episode or game, but this system was the groundwork for how later Telltale games, like The Walking Dead, would remember your specific choices. Back then you were unable to go back and collect any decals you missed, forcing you to 100% complete an episode before moving on. They’ve even added a poster to cleverly show you which ones you’ve unlocked or missing.
Like previous Sam & Max games, the point-and-click gameplay is unchanged here with plenty of puzzles to solve along the way. You mainly control Sam as you explore and interact with objects in each scene. Walking to certain objects will have Sam place it in his inventory, generally meaning you’re going to need it to solve some certain puzzle later on. Each episode lasts at least one to three hours, depending on your detective work or use of a walkthrough, though prepare to become stumped on more than a handful of occasions. Certain puzzles can be quite obtuse, almost forcing you to brute forcing a solution by trying to use every item with every object when you can’t figure out what to do. Because of how over the top Sam & Max can be, sometimes the solutions are too completely ‘out there’ and you’ll have tons of trial and error. The game will give you subtle hints when it detects you’re stuck, able to change the frequency depending on the challenge you want.
Just like Season One, you can expect a handful of minigames along the way, though most will be required to play in your trusty DeSoto convertible, ranging from running over bagpipes to create music, shooting rats and other wacky games. There’s a handful of optional objectives you can choose to do in these sections as well, which is how you earn your decals. Collect all the decals for a really cool surprise at the end.
There really is no duo quite like Sam & Max, completely opposite yet perfectly paired. More than a handful of times I would range from a cheeky smirk to a full of snort laugh at the hilarious lines coming out of Max’s mouth. The writing all these years later still holds up, though some of the pop culture references are obviously dated and will go over younger players’ heads.
Just like the first Season, it’s clear that a lot of love and care went into making Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - Remastered the best game it could possibly be without changing what made it so great and memorable in the first place. While I truly enjoyed my trip down memory lane, I hope that these Remasters help find a new audience for the Sam & Max series, as their humor is perfectly on point throughout.
**Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space – Remastered was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Halo Infinite
WELCOME BACK, CHIEF:There are an endless amount of games, but every now and then there’s one that not only garners a massive following, but becomes the face of a genre, a console, and it becomes a brand as well. When you think Xbox, you most likely think of Halo, as it was what made Xbox so popular in its early beginnings. Halo has always been special to me, and while I do have an obscenely large Halo collection, I’ve also read the majority of the novels, so my Halo lore is pretty on point. While I enjoyed the new direction that Halo 5: Guardians went in terms of its' lore, it is clear that most fans weren’t feeling the same way, so I was quite unsure what to expect with the long awaited Halo Infinite, a direct sequel to Halo 5.
First and foremost, this is a Master Chief story, so no bait and switch playing as someone else for a portion of the game. You are Spartan 117 from the opening moments until the credits roll for Halo Infinite. Also, this review is solely covering the campaign as the multiplayer portion was released weeks ago and is completely free to play.
CHIEF'S CAMPAIGN:
It’s been a very long wait to find out the consequences and outcomes from Halo 5: Guardians, as the game released back in 2015, but Halo Infinite finally answers many questions and ties together loose ends that us fans have been waiting years for, literally. Taking place roughly a year and a half after the events that took place in Halo 5: Guardians, players begin their journey as Chief alongside a new friend and AI partner. There’s so much that’s happened in Chief’s story since the first game that I’m going to assume you know most what what's happened to this point so far, not just because it would take a novel to fill in the backstory, but also Halo Infinite is clearly meant for existing Halo fans. That’s not to say that new players can’t enjoy its fantastic gameplay and dive into the world, but the narrative is very focused this time around and doesn’t delve too far into the history of certain characters or events aside from a brief mention or recap, so existing fans who know the previous characters and events that have occurred will get the absolute most out of Infinite’s continuing saga.
After Guardians’ ending, Cortana’s fate and intentions were still a mystery. What ever happened to her? Why did she do what she did and betray Chief? What happened to Chief since then? All of these, and more, will be answered quite definitively. Along with a pilot that finds Chief floating in deep space (we've all seen the trailer), you’re on your way to Zeta Halo, which is a pretty big deal if you know your Halo lore. Here you’re going to attempt to stop The Banished, an exiled faction that broke off from the Covenant Empire and who just happened to be the main adversary you faced in the Halo Wars 2, led by Atriox, a fearsome foe that had a face to face encounter with Chief.
With your new pilot friend reluctantly willing to help with you, and a new AI simply called The Weapon, Chief is going to do what he does best; defeat any enemies in his way to save humanity and stop The Banished from gaining access to Zeta Halo’s secrets. Are they looking to fire up the ring or is there something else they’re searching for? How did they end up taking over the ring in the first place? What objective was The Weapon programmed to fulfil? If Escharum is leading The Banished, what happened to Atriox? There’s plenty questions like these and many more that will be answered by the time the credits roll.
I’m purposely going to avoid anything else narrative-wise as Halo Infinite is full of questions and answers that are best experienced for yourself, and hardcore Halo fans, like myself, are going to experience some jaw dropping moments when certain events unfold. Oh, and make sure to stick around after the credits. The only other notable mention is that unfortunately co-op campaign won’t be included until roughly Spring 2022, so Halo Infinite at launch is going to be a solo affair for you as Master Chief.
The campaign is easily the series’ most expansive to date, not only because you’re placed on Zeta Halo’s exterior, but the game is now somewhat open world. I say 'somewhat' simply because in the beginning, sections of the ring are essentially cut off from one another and Chief won’t have the equipment needed to get to the next ‘area’ at first. As you play through the various campaign missions you’ll be taken to new areas thanks to The Pilot, and by the end you’ll be able to go anywhere if you can hijack and get your hands on a Banshee. The majority of the first half of the campaign missions take place on the exterior of the ring, going from area to area, whereas the last half is a bit more traditional Halo as you explore linear interior sections. And yes, once the credits roll you’ll be able to freely explore the outer ring once again to finish up any exploring and collectables that you may have missed during your initial playthrough, but more on that shortly.
I tend to find myself usually overwhelmed with open world games, as I like to be a completionist to a point, so simply having TOO much to do in a sandbox at once stresses me out. Thankfully each ‘section’ isn’t too overwhelmingly large, allowing you to capture bases, search for high value targets and more without having the whole map open to you all at once. While I did enjoy the open world variety and options, I felt much more at home in the later campaign missions within the linear forerunner interior level design that brought me some serious classic Halo nostalgia.
EQUIPMENT:
Chief has gotten many upgrades over the years with his Mjolnir armor, and while this is usually one of the biggest features in a new Halo, Chief will now have access to new equipment as well, notably the Grappleshot. This is a wrist mounted device that not only allows you to traverse in completely new ways, but it also has a variety of different uses when in combat. This allows you to shoot at nearly any surface and pulling you up to that point, flinging you with momentum, somewhat like Spider-Man. If you know your Halo lore, Chief in his armor weighs roughly a thousand pounds, so being able to propel him alone shows how powerful this new device is.
Not only will the Grappleshot be used for reaching new areas, it saved me countless times in battles, especially against bosses where I needed to make a quick escape to let my shields recharge. While there’s a small cooldown between uses, you can upgrade your equipment, Grappleshot included, to not only recharge abilities faster but allow you to perform new abilities too, like a charged up punch if you happen to grapple onto an enemy. Tired of Jackals (Kig-Yar) using their shields to block your shots? Use the Grapplehook to briefly make them open up their defenses so you can get that head shot easier. See a nearby weapon on the ground you want to access quickly, simply use your Grappleshot to snag it and pull it to you. There’s a lot of uses for this new piece of equipment and 343 Studios have made it feel like it perfectly fits with Chief’s combat prowess.
If you’ve been playing Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, you’ve already had a taste of the other equipment that Chief will acquire during his adventure. While you begin with just the Grapplehook, you’ll eventually gain access to a few other tools to round out Chief’s combat abilities such as a Shield Core, Threat Sensor, Drop Wall and Thruster. Shield core boosts your shields abilities for a short while and can be upgraded to absorb more damage. Threat Sensor is a little beacon you shoot out, showing outlines of any enemies within its radius. It can be upgraded to cover a larger area and show more enemy information. Drop Wall is self-explanatory, allowing you to drop a one way shield in front of you to hide behind briefly when needed. And lastly Thruster, allowing you to boost quickly in any direction, even while jumping, to evade when needed. It is especially useful during boss fights as you attempt to avoid massive attacks.
Every piece of equipment is able to be upgraded a number of times depending on which ones you enjoy using the most and that compliments your personal playstyle. While I would have loved to use all of the abilities, you can only have one slotted at a time, and while these can be swapped at any point, it’s quite cumbersome to do so as you need to hit a direction on the D-Pad to bring up the menu and then another press of the D-Pad to swap to the ability you want. Sure, if you memorize the directions for each equipment it won’t be an issue, but trying to do so in the middle of a challenging firefight with two Hunters or during a boss encounter will most likely get you killed. Because of this I simply just stuck with my Grappleshot and fully upgraded it first, as I actually ended up relying on it quite often including the ability to shock enemies that I stuck it to. You can swap your grenades the same way, which again, is a hassle to do when needed in a split second.
So, how do you upgrade your equipment exactly? This is where you need Spartan Cores. Each tier of upgrade requires a different amount of them and you’ll get these by completing campaign missions and searching all over Zeta Halo. Without even really spending much time exploring I was able to fully upgrade my Grappleshot to its maximum, so those that want to scour the ring will be able to upgrade more equipment as well. I just wish the way to swap equipment and grenades was more intuitive, which is really the only main complaint I have about Infinite’s gameplay.
ZETA HALO:
I wasn’t completely sure how the transition to semi-open world would feel with Halo’s gameplay, but after finally getting a grasp on how it all works and everything you can do, I quite enjoy its freedom. You’re not forced to just complete the campaign missions until you want to move to the next section of the ring, as the game allows you to explore to discover secrets, find Spartan Cores, hunting down high-profile Banished leaders, clearing out heavily guarded Banished bases and even take over UNSC Forward Operating Bases (FOB), but more on those shortly.
Even though Infinite places you on a very small section of the ring, it feels vast and huge, able to freely explore wherever you like at your own pace. Do you take a Warthog and rush into a base and try to just take out all your enemies in brutal fashion, or do you strafe around the perimeter and try to slowly pick off Banished one by one before you get overwhelmed? Your story missions are always marked on your map should you want to progress Chief’s journey, but you’re never forced to do so. Exploring pays off though, not just for Spartan Cores to upgrade your equipment, but even cosmetic armor unlocks for multiplayer as well.
New to Infinite are Boss Fights. Technically you’ve fought bosses in past Halo games, but now there are numerous ones and they actually have a life bar above their head, so you know they're quite powerful. Some bosses simply take a tremendous amount of firepower to down, whereas others are a little more involved including phases or certain tactics to make them vulnerable. While there are some new enemies you’ll face, familiar foes also return as well, and I’m not kidding when I say that Hunters are absolutely powerful once again, making me dread having to fight pairs of them at a time.
To take down your enemies you’re going to have to utilize all the weaponry you can find along the adventure. Iconic Halo weapons return with the classics like the Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Pistol (technically different than the classic Pistol), Plasma Pistol, Energy Sword, Gravity Hammer, Needler and more, but there’s also a few new ones you’ll have to try out to see if they suit your playstyle. My favorite new weapon by far though is the VK47 Commando, almost a mix of a Battle Rifle and DMR but precise and powerful at the same time, allowing for close and far accurate shots. The Bulldog is a new take on the shotgun and there’s a handful of others to find and try out, which I quite enjoyed, seeing how they all perform against my enemies.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but it felt like ammo replenishes were much more scarce this time around if you weren’t using the main weapons Banished enemies were using. You’re able to carry two weapons at a time (technically three if you’re holding a heavy turret before it runs out of ammo), so I found myself always keeping one powerful or long range weapon as a backup while constantly swapping my main weapon with whatever I could find on the ground after a hard fought battle. There are ammo refill station boxes scattered around, refilling your certain types of ammunition when used, though I’m not sure why these are within the later campaign missions when you’re not in the open world, as it doesn’t make sense lore wise.
FORWARD OPERATION BASES:
Even if you’re not into doing side missions, the Forward Operation Bases (FOB) are well worth your while to do. These are previous UNSC bases that Banished forces have taken over, so if you manage to clear them out you’ll regain control, making these safe zones where you can refill ammunition, call in certain equipment, and even have UNSC Marines join you. In the beginning you’ll only have access to your starter weapons and grenades, but as you earn Valor, a currency gained by completing missions, new equipment will unlock for you to call in at any FOB you have control of. Taking over a FOB also reveals other missions, bases, Spartan Cores and collectibles in the area nearby so you can see everything available to you. Even better, FOB’s also act as quick travel locations, so you can easily travel back to any FOB you’ve liberated at any time, not just as a travel convenience but also to restock should you want to. You’re not required to capture these points, but they come in quite handy later on when you want to explore everything Zeta Halo has to uncover.
ACCESSIBILITY:
I’ve been trying to be much more conscious about Accessibility options lately. As games are evolving to include a larger variety of gamers, accessibility options are becoming more common. “When everybody plays, we all win" isn’t just a catchy phrase Xbox is using for attention either, and Halo Infinite has plenty of options from subtitles, vision choices, UI elements, fonts, controller remapping and sensory settings like adjusting Blur, Screen Shake and more.
A NEW LOOK:
Halo Infinite on an Xbox Series X looks absolutely stunning. On more than a number of occasions I simply stood on a cliffside and took numerous screenshots of the spanning vistas across Zeta Halo. Nearly everywhere you look you can see the beauty of Zeta’s world, even with its mysterious structure that’s become fractured. There’s plenty of life on the ring of Zeta, and not just from the Banished forces, but how gorgeous the nature and biome is as well. I also never had any framerate issues and the draw distance is nothing short of amazing when looking across the whole ring. Chief is more battle worn and detailed than ever this time around too, as you can see plenty of detail in the close-up cutscenes, even the reflection on Chief’s iconic visor. Cutscenes of course are the highlight of the visuals, impressive as ever.
While the stunning visuals will be what you notice first and foremost, the audio can’t be ignored either. While there’s no licensed music in Halo Infinite, there’s no feeling quite like when an awesome battle starts to take place and that iconic theme song kicks in. It STILL gives me goosebumps after all these years, and it’s no different in Infinite. Weaponry audio seems to have been either vastly improved or completely redone, because it all sounds so much more prominent and impactful. Having played with numerous headsets, low-end to high, Halo Infinite’s audio is absolutely immersive. The dialogue is all done masterfully as you’d expect, but there’s a healthy amount of humor injected, not over the top or that stands out, but more than a few times I chuckled because of a Grunt’s one-liner or something The Weapon said.
FINISH THE FIGHT:
Halo Infinite has been a long time coming, and fans have been waiting for answers for a very long time. This latest chapter in the iconic series not only answers many outstanding questions, but asks new ones which we’ll inevitably have to wait for the next iteration to find out. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the drastic changes of having a semi-open world and utilizing the Grappleshot to quicken traversal. Even with all these major changes, it still felt like a true Halo, a refined and improved experience overall.
Playable on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Streaming and even via Game Pass, there’s virtually no borders to prevent you from playing Halo Infinite and experiencing this evolution of the series. I absolutely enjoyed my time stepping back into Chief’s shoes, and I wasn’t sure how connected or how much I would care about new characters, The Pilot and The Weapon, but by the time the credits rolled, I really quite enjoyed The Weapon, making for a fine replacement for Cortana in her own right. As a Halo campaign, this is easily my favorite since Reach and right up there with the best of the series. Get your favorite weapon and finish the fight, Chief.
**Halo Infinite (Campaign) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Circa Infinity
There’s plenty of platformer games out there, but every now and then you come across one that’s really unique, not only in its visual style of game mechanics, but in its brain-melting difficulty and challenge to try and discern what’s actually happen on screen fast enough so that you can react accordingly. This is the case with Circa Infinity, a platforming game at its core, but one that’s not like any others you’re used to. If I absolutely had to compare it to another game, the closest thing, even somewhat, would be Super Hexagon, only for its layered gameplay, but there’s more than you initially expect here.Developed by Kenny Sun, Circa Infinity actually released quite a few years ago on PC, but now it’s getting the console treatment, and the gameplay is perfectly suited for a controller in hand to do so. Circa Infinity is as much about the simple-yet-challenging gameplay as it is the psychedelic visuals and fantastic soundtrack that goes along with it, making for a complete experience that will have you holding your breath and trying to not blink so that you don’t die and go back a ring. While there were times of frustration, I kept wanting to try 'just one more time'.
While there’s no narrative in the traditional sense, Circa Infinity focuses all of its attention to its simple and addictive gameplay. You start off playing as a nameless character that seems to be stuck within a number of black and white circles on a 2D plane. You start on the outer circle, aiming to reach the innermost one, but doing so won’t be easy.
Separated into five chapters, 50 levels await you, though good luck doing so without plenty of determination and practice. Levels start out easily enough, having you jump from layer to layer until you reach the middle, but eventually more challenges await, and not just simple enemies, but eventually a visual explosion of moving objects and enemies that will take some practice to get the hang of. Every level slowly introduces a new mechanic or enemy, adding new complexity, almost throughout the whole experience.
The core gameplay comes from running around the inner or outer layer of the circle you’re currently on, aiming to reach the middle until there’s no more circles to jump into. As you jump deeper into a layer, enemies you avoided in the last stay on the screen as the previous circle expands outwards, still within their original circle. You’re only able to flip into another layer at specific locations, usually indicated by a pie shaped cutout, forcing you to think of when the best time to avoid demons and enemies would be as they follow their own paths or directions.
Enemies vary in types and movement patterns. Some run constantly in one direction, some flip at intervals between layers, others only move when you jump, others fly to block you from jumping at specific points and many more. Things start to get crazy around the third world when you have numerous enemies and types all moving in different patterns, sometimes in opposite directions while others only move when you’re trying to jump to avoid them, not to mention having to control more than a single character.
It takes a lot of practice and quick reflexes to make any progress, so if you become frustrated at dying dozens of times, Circle Infinity might not be for you. Instead of dying, whenever you’re struck by an enemy or jump into one, you simply get thrown back one circle to your previous layer. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but at times I became frustrated from dying, causing me to make yet another mistake, sometimes going back three or more layers due to trying to rush instead of taking my time when possible. Every handful of layers there’s a ‘checkpoint’-like system that is basically an enemy-free circle, so it’s impossible to die and regress any further back. While I wish these were more frequent, it’s a fair system overall.
In the beginning everything is black and white, save for the red colored enemies so that you know to avoid them. Later chapters do introduce new colors and mechanics that involve simultaneously using two characters and changing their colors when needed, but it’s tough to reach that far and where your brain will start to melt trying to discern everything happening on screen at once. Level design is done quite well, and none are made impossible or unfair, so if you’re struggling you’re either not seeing something or need to time your jumps better.
The end of each chapter also has you facing off against a boss, which was the highlight of the whole experience. These have you attempting to reach close to their circle, usually having to avoid projectiles of theirs of some kind or numerous enemies to avoid as well. You need to get all of the required hits in without dying or else you have to start the boss fight from the beginning. The first boss and Chapter is easy, it only scales up sharply from there on.
Once you reach Chapter 3 and 4, there’s so much going on at once on the screen that it can be near impossible at times to figure out what you’re actually supposed to do. You’ll die many, many times, but eventually all of this chaos on screen will start to become clearer, much like how you us your peripheral vision while driving, you eventually gain that ‘sense’ of everything with enough practice. It also takes a little getting used to even knowing which direction the stick will make your character(s) move, as you’re constantly rotating around a circle, so it may not always make sense that ‘Left’ on the stick will make you go a different way. Again, it eventually feels natural with time. Even when I got my most frustrated from constantly dying, I always felt like “okay, just one more try”.
Each hypnotic disc showcases the minimalistic approach while also being beautiful and entrancing in its own way. A warning to those that suffer from epilepsy though, or even motion sickness for that matter, Circle Infinity is absolutely not friendly towards those with such conditions. The audio is done quite well, having sounds for all your jumps and flips and such, but the background soundtrack is done fantastic, even my young daughter said “I love this music” as she watched me play (and die many times).
For such a minimalistic game, Circle Infinity is probably one of the more challenging ones you’ll play, requiring dedication and a whole lot of concentration if you want to make any meaningful progress across its 50 levels. I suspect it will frustrate many, if not most, but finally making to the end of a level feels ever so satisfying after dying repeatedly, provided you have the mettle to stick with it.
**Circa Infinity was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Gynoug
Picture it, you’re in a gamer who’s wanting to play something new on your Genesis back in the radical 90's. You see the usual games that everyone has, but come across a weird looking box with ripped buff dude with some wings punching some flying demon thing on the cover. This exceptional game is titled Wings of Wor. While I don’t remember ever seeing this box or playing this game back in the early 90’s on my Genesis, having now played Gynoug (its original Japanese title), I’m glad to have experienced such a weird and unique shmup (shoot-em-up).Given that it’s Gynoug’s 20th anniversary, it only seemed fitting to release this version to current consoles with modern quality of life updates. This is publisher Ratalaika Games’ second obscure shmup they’ve brought to modern consoles from classic developer Masaya, a trend I hope continues as I’m getting to experience old classic games I never would have otherwise.
Now, in most shumps, story and narrative aren’t usually a focus, as you generally play these to shoot a bunch of enemies and avoid bullets. Gynoug is no different. In the game itself there’s no dialogue or story in any way. The official store listing provides this huge backstory and lore, but oddly none of which is found within the game itself. Essentially, an evil entity known as the Destroyer is attacking the heavens, so it’s up to you to destroy them all and every mutated and disgusting boss that stands in your way. Again, in a shump like this, none of it will matter, as you’re simply just going to blast anything that moves.
Six challenging levels stand between you and victory, as do countless enemies, mini-bosses, massive weird grotesque bosses and power-ups along the way. At the end of each level is a massive boss, as expected, but what surprised me was that instead of piloting a ship in space against other alien ships, you instead are some sort of mythical man-creature thing with wings facing off against gross and weird monsters along the way.
While most shmups have some sort of power-up system, and Gynoug is no different, here though there are blue and red orbs that can be collected to improve your shots and damage, along with different power-ups that change your shot styles and multiple magic types to be used as your specials. The game itself teaches you absolutely nothing about what the power-ups do, how to activate your specials or anything else, so I had to do some research online. So while I was gathering all these different orbs and scrolls, I had no idea what they did or how to even use them.
Blue orbs apparently make your shot spread larger while red increase the damage you do. There’s a meter at the top of the screen that fills once you collect them. Dying will have you lose orbs, but they come so frequently that this doesn’t really become much of an issue as long as you don’t die numerous times in succession.
There are also different gem-like things to collect, changing your shot pattern between a very spread out shot, one that’s more focused forward or another that shoots front and backwards simultaneously. Either of the two are the best choices, were as the one that also shoots backwards is almost useless as not many enemies come from behind, making your front shots weaker.
Lastly for your offensive skills are scrolls you’ll find along the way. These are your magic which are used instead of typical screen clearing bombs that most shmups utilize. It seems there’s about a half dozen magic spells you can collect, holding up to three at a time, ranging from lightning bolts to arrows, shields and more. Honestly, I can only assume they were doing more damage, as I always saved them for bosses, but never seemed to make the massive difference that I was expecting.
The six levels are easily beatable in a single sitting, but because there’s no online leaderboards, I’m not sure who’s going to care much about scoring high without a way to share it, which was a bit disappointing. The gameplay itself is quite simple given the time period it’s from, moving with the Left Stick and simply firing with one button and magic uses on another. You can cycle between your magic spells which are banked, but again, the game doesn’t teach you this at all.
Just like their last release, there’s plenty of extras and bonus options available should you want. There’s not only a CRT option to make it appear you’re playing on an old classic tube TV, there’s plenty of sub options as well. Accessibility is a focus as well, allowing for rewinds when you make a mistake, Save and Load states whenever you like, and even cheat options like invulnerability, unlimited magic and more.
Given that Gynoug is from the 16-bit 1991 era of gaming, you know what to expect from its visuals and audio. Bosses are quite detailed, and given that they are massive and grotesque monsters, it was quite a unique experience for this genre. The audio was decent, not overstaying its welcome during a playthrough or two.
Out of curiosity I went online to see what a physical cartridge copy of Gynoug and Wings of Wor are currently going for. Needless to say I was quite surprised, and the mere $6 CAD to play this digital version is a minor fraction of the cost to get a physical copy. I really enjoy finding old classics that I never got to play growing up, and I hope that the trend continues with weird and unique games like Gynoug.
**Gynoug was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Backbone
I agreed to do the review for Backbone for simply one reason; its backdrop is the city I was born and raised in, Vancouver BC, Canada. Because of this, I felt obligated and looked forward to see how my home was portrayed. I of course smiled and was warmed to see specific areas and landmarks that I know in person, albeit with developer Eggnut’s take on specific areas.Backbone is not only a unique look at my hometown with a dystopian setting, it also showcases an equally unique story and characters with its film noir setting, political and class issues and some dark themes throughout. Oh, and you’re an anthropomorphic raccoon private detective, and everyone else in the city are different animals as well, which isn’t even the weirdest part of Backbone.
You are PI Howard Lotor, a regular run of the mill detective that isn’t really specially in any way. The day starts like any other with a client coming to your office to hire you. This client suspects her husband as cheating, as he’s not coming home, smells weird and has simply changed from his regular habits. You take the case which seems like it shouldn’t be a big deal, first leading you to popular nightclub The Bite. What starts as a simple case eventually evolves into something much more interesting and unforeseen, unravelling a mystery and something much larger than you expected.
I don’t want to delve much further into the narrative, as Backbone’s core experience is its story, and it’s quite a ride, even if it is a linear affair, but it’s interesting to say the least. My only complaint is that it drastically goes in a completely different direction in the last half, becoming much more complicated, which is fine, but I just didn’t feel all that satisfied with the ending in certain ways. Vague I know, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
Backbone’s core gameplay is point-and-click in nature, having you exploring different districts of the city, searching for clues and people to talk to so you can further your case. When in dialogue with another character you’re given multiple options of responses, allowing you to play your Howard in a variety of different ways. While it seems like the majority of your dialogue choices don’t matter for the overarching narrative, I could never bring myself to being a jerk or threatening someone unless it was necessary. Some dialogues can be a bit lengthy, but this allows you to create relationships with certain characters, like your trusty cab driver friend who you can call on when needing to get across town. Aside from one puzzle early on in your adventure, there’s no real puzzles either. The bulk of your gameplay is simply talking to people to further where you can go and explore or uncovering clues.
There’s a few sections where you’ll need to rely on stealth to get by some shady characters or when you’re sneaking within an area you shouldn’t be in. These sections aren’t very frequent, and I get that as a detective you sometimes do what you got to do to reach the truth, but these sections didn’t really add anything to the gameplay or happen frequent enough to have a dedicated button for. Speaking of dedicated buttons, one of the oddest design decisions I think I’ve ever seen is being able to swap to another language of your choosing in the settings at the tap of the Bumper. Why? I have no clue, but if you’re bilingual and want to swap on the fly, you can I guess? For some reason, my game once started in the secondary language and I wasn’t sure how to change it back until fumbling through the menus, trying each option.
Where Backbone truly shines is with its amazing pixel artwork and animation. There’s an interesting 2.5D effect being used, and all of the pixels are in HD, so there’s quite a lot of detail when it comes to characters, environments, backdrops, lighting, rain and more. Usually games that utilize pixel graphics lose a lot of details in the smaller objects or within animations, but not here. Honestly, Backbone probably has some of the best sprite work that I’ve seen in quite some time. Everything is very smooth in its animations and there were tons of details I could make out.
The soundtrack is equally good most of the time. Being a noir style adventure, you’ve got that typical jazz and sax in the background, completely fitting for many of the backdrops and what’s happening on screen. The OST is fantastic when it plays. What I mean by that is that when a song gets to the end of its track, it seems to simply stop, many times I was playing with dead air and no audio at all, which felt very odd. There’s also no voice work for the dialogue unfortunately, which is a shame, as it would have added more to the characters and situations.
While I enjoyed my time with Howard, unravelling the case before me, I’ll admit, it won me over early on simply for being based in my home town. Seeing a familiar yet strange version of my city was exciting, and while most won’t have the same connection, that’s what drew me to Backbone initially. While some might question the latter half of the narrative, I’m still glad to have experienced it, and since it’s currently available on Game Pass, you can do so too with little barriers.
**Backbone was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Demon Turf
Slime-san: Superslime Edition surprised me, so once I learned that developer Fabraz was making a new title, I was of course intrigued. Their latest game, Demon Turf, takes from their 2D platforming game experience and translates it into a 3D world. If you yearn for mid-90’s platforming classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, then Demon Turf is going to be exactly what you’re looking for. Better yet, if you’re the type of player that enjoys speedrunning or trying to inch your way up online leaderboards, you’re in for a real treat, and challenge.The first thing you’re going to notice is Demon Turf’s interesting aesthetic. All of the characters are seemingly drawn in 2D, but placed in a 3D world, much like Paper Mario in a sense. Playing a 3D platformer with flat characters takes a little getting used to, but eventually feels natural once you come to terms of a paper character having a round shadow beneath them.
You are Beebz, a young demon, barely a thousand years old, who wants to become the Demon Queen, but to do that she’s going to have to defeat the other demons who run the turf of certain areas beforehand. These leaders are tough, but are no match for the Demon King himself, so Beebz has her work cut out for her. Nearly everyone around her laughs it off, because how would such a young and naive demon have any chance of defeating the Demon King?
To even get a chance at facing off against the Demon King though, she will need to defeat the four turf leaders, but do even do that, she must find a battery in each level before being able to challenge them. Even though the gameplay definitely caters towards speedrunners and leaderboard chasers, even casual platformer fans can have some fun in this colorful and humor filled world full of demons.
Each level’s goal is to reach the end and get its battery, but there are also some hidden collectable candies to find as well. If you want some hints you can also press in the 'Left Stick' to have an arrow show you where the closest candy is. Each level also has a par time to beat if you want to challenge yourself for a spot on the leaderboards, but good luck with that unless you’re serious about speedrunning, plus you’re going to need some of the unlockable skills later on to even be able to attempt the times. These par times are challenging enough on their own, but world records for each level is absolutely insane. Sadly there’s no way to download someone’s ghost or watch a replay of their ten second run for a 2 minute par time.
In a 3D platforming game you need to have precision controls, or else you’re going to have a bad time, the same goes for the camera control. Demon Turf is decent in these aspects, though sometimes felt as though it could be a bit tighter. There’s an option to have manual control over your camera with the Right Stick or opt for an automatic camera that will somewhat follow you, though this never worked well enough to rely on. Given the handcrafted levels meant for speedrunning, you’re going to want to have full control over the camera when you start trying to skip certain sections and using your powers to bypass portions of the map.
The main hub town is generally meant to travel from one turf to the next to take it over, but there’s also some side events and minigames you can play as well should you want, earning you some extras. This is where you can earn your hard earned candy on abilities mods or changing Beebz' colors of hair or shirt. Each of the main turf hubs all have their own style and biomes. Each turf needs to be completed in order before working on the next, so the progression is generally linear aside from choosing which level to play in order within each turf to get batteries. One cool feature I didn’t expect was that you can challenge yourself in alternate versions of a level once the turf is cleared as well, so there’s essentially double the length of expected gameplay.
Given that Beebz is a demon, her moveset is very fitting as well. You start with just a basic jump, double jump, wall jumps, dash and a float, but certain moves will actually transform her based on the move. Specific moves for example will turn Beebz into a bat, allowing her to spin and float as she slowly descends, or a squid when underwater. You can do a longer leaping jump combined with a float to go longer distances, reminiscent of Mario’s somersault flips, needed to reach the far off platforms. Some levels are very horizontal with trampoline-like platforms, while others can be quite vertical in nature, which takes a different set of precision.
As you reach turf bosses you’ll gain new abilities as well. The first is a hookshot, allowing you to grab onto anything with a small square icon, either pulling you into the air to launch distances, or pulling enemies to you. Another is one that allows you to turn into a wheel, able to speed very quickly in a short burst, needed for speedruns obviously. You get these moves just before fighting a new turf boss, so the boss fights are not only your introduction to your new abilities, but a way to test out and learn how to use them correctly. These boss fights were quite entertaining and unique, the highlight of my time with Demon Turf. Being able to combo your jumps, gliding and abilities are how you’ll start to climb the leaderboards, as this is how you’ll be able to eventually bypass and skip complete sections of a level if you’re clever enough.
Combat plays another role in Beebz’ journey to become the Demon Queen, and the part of the gameplay I hated the most. Beebz shoots projectiles in front of her, based on the camera direction, able to rapid fire or charge for a more powerful version. Enemies either are defeated by knocking them off a platform, if an option, or being pushed into red spikes placed around the small arena. This is where you need to use your charged version, as it will knock them backwards, so you have to get between your enemy and the spikes behind them before attacking. It’s a little weird getting used to firing in the direction of the camera and not the way Beebz faces, and this is where you’ll need to use the manual camera if you want any success.
The coolest part about Demon Turf though is its checkpoint system. In most platformers, reach a certain section in a level and that’s where you’ll reappear if you die. Demon Turf does things differently though, giving you the accessibility to place your checkpoints anywhere you wish. While you only get a couple checkpoints a level, you’re able to freely place them anywhere. Have a difficult jumping section up or some combat sections you’re not good at? Place a checkpoint. Have to do some precision running and gliding and know you’re going to fall all the way to the bottom? Place a checkpoint. You get the idea. This simple idea is great for allowing you to play however you want. You can even challenge yourself to perfect runs without using any should you want, something speedrunnners will definitely be doing. Some levels I never needed to use one checkpoint, others I used all of them. Obviously there are certain sections and platforms you can’t place the flag at, but for the most part they can be used anywhere you want, even able to freely teleport between them if you are aiming to practice some trick jumps and skips. You can even use your candy in the main hub to allow you to have more checkpoints if you wish, so you better be on a lookout for that candy.
There’s plenty to do, but it’s obvious that Demon Turf is clearly aiming towards the platformer lovers that enjoy to climb online leaderboards to show off their best times, replaying levels hundreds of times to try and get just a little quicker each time. There’s nothing to force you to take part and reply levels over and over, but that’s where you’ll obviously get the most value.
The 2D art within a 3D world works well enough. The characters themselves looks decent and animated well, but many of the world textures simply don’t impress. Each biome also has its own style, but can get very oversaturated at times, especially in the opening desert turf in certain sections. The Paper Mario style does make Demon Turf stand out, feeling like a comic book come to life in a playful way.
I actually didn’t expect there to be much voiced dialogue, but almost all of it is which was quite impressive. Better yet, the voice work was actually quite bubbly and fun as well, again, feeling like it came out of a comic book with Beebz and other main characters over exaggerated reactions, giving an almost anime-like feel. Music is there, but even now trying to think of it, none of it was very memorable for the most part.
If you miss the days of mid 90’s platforming titles, Demon Turf is just the throwback that you’re looking for. Easy to get into and you can of course take your time, Demon Turf is meant to challenge you to be as quick as you possibly can to try and earn a spot on the coveted online leaderboards. While it’s a little on the pricey side without a discount, a decent sale would earn my full recommendation if you’re into speedrunning 3D platformers and want to become the Demon Queen.
**Demon Turf was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Corpse Party
Totally not my normal type of game or genre, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Corpse Party. Having never heard of the series before, I didn’t realize how big of a following it has, not only with its handful of games since the mid 90’s, but that it’s also spawned an anime, movies, manga and even a theme park attraction. This cult horror classic has quite an interesting history, so even researching the series was quite a journey, now updated for a new generation of gamers to find and explore.Now, even figuring out what version of Corpse Party this was turned out to be quite a puzzle. Corpse Party originally released back in 1996 on PC using classic RPG Maker software, gathering such a fan base that it eventually received a remake titled Corpse Party: Blood Covered. That remake eventually got a remaster on 3DS back in 2016 called Corpse Party: Blood Covered... Repeated Fear, adding new characters, lines and content. So this new Corpse Party (2021 release) is essentially a remaster of the previous remaster, which in itself is a remake of the original. What makes this release special is that the graphics got a substantial boost (especially when you compare to its older versions), new characters, new chapters and even added voice acting for the newly added chapters that didn’t get that treatment beforehand. Still following along?
For those like myself that are unfamiliar with the series, Corpse Party is a survival horror game that has visual novel elements, but plays unlike many other games in the genre. There are five main chapters to play through but have more than triple that in bonus chapters, almost like extra short stories. Part visual novel, part horror, Corpse Party sure is unlike any other game I’ve previously played, for better and worse.
Given that Corpse Party is so narrative heavy, I don’t want to give much of its plot away, as that is its main draw, so I’ll try and be brief and vague purposely when it comes to the story elements. A group of students from Kisaragi Academy perform a ritual called Sachiko Ever After to send off one of their classmates who are transferring to a different school. Thing is, this is basically a cursed ritual where if you don’t perform it exact and perfectly, you’re dragged into the Heavenly Host Elementary School, an alternate dimension where you probably won’t survive.
Now these students, separated from one another in completely different dimensions, must find a way to not only escape, but stay alive. Heavenly Host Elementary School has vengeful spirits though, and the only way the students will survive is if they can reveal the truth about the deaths and murders of the students that were here long before you. Finding the truth is the only way to escape, but not everyone will survive.
Each of the five main chapters all focus on different characters, and even though they are in different planes of existence, they’re also somehow connected as well. Each chapter has multiple endings, depending on choices you make along the way and even the order you do certain events. There’s a “True Ending” for each chapter, but more often than not you’ll reach one of the numerous “Wrong Endings” for some unknown reason. There are a lot of endings, but getting the “True Ending” is what you strive for to continue on, but there’s nothing anywhere that tells you how to do so exactly.
Endings are based on your actions, and even the smallest non-essential choice can lead to a bad ending, forcing a reload from your previous save. This isn’t explained anywhere and I had to resort to looking online what I was doing wrong. To say that it’s archaic and terrible game design is putting it lightly, and even after seeing what I was doing ‘wrong’, it really didn’t make all that much sense. If you enjoy reloading game saves and trying to redo your actions in numerous ways, then you’ll certainly enjoy yourself here. If not, well, expect to see a lot of “Wrong Endings”.
Given that Corpse Party is a horror game at its core, there’s plenty of gruesome and grotesque details that are explained via dialogue, and even though much of the gameplay is pixel art, there are some very dark themes within. On that note, those sensitive to or affected by murder, gore or suicide, consider this a content warning, as there are none beforehand when you start playing.
Also, there’s some very questionable writing, and I’m not sure if it’s just a byproduct of the translation from Japanese to English or not, but the attempt at injecting some humor seems completely off and out of place. In a horror game about dead students, murders and suicide one scene, the next, two of the girls are talking about how “dat ass” makes her drool, “buttering up your pooper” and needing some “butt lotion”. The main storyline is interesting and full of twists, but then you get terrible writing like this now and then that completely takes you out of the immersion and want to sigh.
Even though Corpse Party is very narrative focused, the gameplay has you exploring the school, trying to further the investigation and finding a way to survive and escape. While most of the gameplay is linear, only allowing you to get to one room or area after triggering specific events or gathering a specific item, there’s plenty of ‘wrong’ steps you can take which will prevent you from getting the “True Ending”. Played in a top-down third person viewpoint, Corpse Party generally has you going from one room to the next, searching hallways for clues and evidence of what’s happened to the deceased students you find along the way. Keep an eye out for hostile ghost and spirits though, as you be chased and pursued at times.
Exploring the school, you’ll come across objects and notes along the way. Reading notes and letters will give some back story to what happened at the school, and objects can be picked up and used when needed, like keys or crystals that save you from a gruesome death from an unexpected spirit. If, and when, you become stuck, make sure to interact with everything you see, hopefully triggering the next event and not the wrong choice to receive the bad endings. You’re only able to save at certain spots, lit candles, so make sure to utilize multiple save slots when allowed so you can trial and experiment without much backtracking.
While there’s no direct combat, your choices are what will determine the outcome of certain events and characters. As for the new and updated content, two students, Miku Shirayume and Ryoka Iwami, integrate into the overall narrative in an interesting way in their own chapters, also having some of the ‘odd’ writing and dialogue too.
The graphics have gotten an update from its original re(release), more so in crisper 16-bit pixel aesthetics and I believe updated hand drawn visuals in the visual novel portions. While there’s not much else to look at aside from the creepy school and the odd pile of bones, much of it is left to your imagination. What I didn’t expect is that all of the dialogue is fully voiced, though only in Japanese. Of course the text is in English, though I wish there was an option for English voice over. That said, Corpse Party is very dialogue heavy at times, but expect a lot of screaming, yelling, grunting and shouting anytime something remotely scary happens. The background music is very well done though, fitting for the mood based on what’s happening, though there are invisible zone lines where the music changes on a dime once you cross.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Corpse Party before starting, and even after getting a handful of different and unique endings, I still kind of don’t. I can see the appeal and why it garnered such a following if you’re a fan of the genre, though it certainly won’t be for everybody. While I question a few of its design decisions and writing, there’s plenty of content to experience in this remaster of a remaster of a remake.
**Corpse Party was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One
We got to check out Sherlock Holmes Chapter One long before official release, and while it was a very early build and not fully complete, it impressed me and left me wanting more time with the iconic detective. Well, the time has come and now that I’ve seen the credits roll on the final release, I’m glad to see that many improvements have been made and the time has made for a better experience overall.Developer Frogwares is no stranger to Sherlock Holmes games, as they’ve got quite a few in their portfolio. Arguably Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments was their best outing yet with you playing as the most celebrated detective of all time (aside from Batman), but Sherlock Holmes Chapter One aims to be much bigger and better than all of the predecessor titles. Even though it has “Chapter One” in its title, this is actually not an episodic game. Instead, the title is in reference to Sherlock actually working his very first case, albeit a very personal one, acting like a prequel of sorts and an origin story.
A story driven adventure, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One centers around a young and spry 21 year old Sherlock as he makes his way back home to the small island of Cordona in the Mediterranean to investigate the mystery of his mother’s death. This is a different Sherlock than we’re used to though, as he hasn’t quite become the man we’ve all read about and seen on TV and movies. He’s young, so he’s a little cocky in his abilities, but he will surely have his detective skills put to the test with an assortment of characters you’ll come across on the island.
Alongside his lifetime friend from childhood, Jonathan, Sherlock and Jon come to pay respects at Violet Holmes’ grave, but things couldn’t be that easy, and thus their adventure begins. While the hotel you arrive in is incredibly upper class, don’t let the looks of Cordona fool you, there’s a seedy underbelly to the city that you’ll start to uncover as you dig deeper around every corner.
You’ll have your childhood friend Jon alongside every step of the way, but this isn’t the same Watson partner that we all know, this is a different Jon and he will play an integral role for Sherlock to turn into the legend we’ve all read about. Jon will keep a diary to record the choices you make, notes about your friendship, bets won or lost and even let you know when something interesting is nearby that you should make notice of. He’s a wonderful character and was a great contrast to Sherlock’s style and personality.
I quite enjoyed Sherlock’s youthful arrogance, as it’s a side we don’t get to see often in the older versions. He’s eager to prove himself, showcasing his brilliance and observation skills, even from the opening moments. While Sherlock’s legacy is already known and well documented, being able to play this younger version as he begins to earn his reputation was a very clever way to ‘open the book’ on their own interpretation of the character. You’ll have many tools at your disposal, the most important of which will be your mind with your deduction and investigative skills, keen eye for observation and of course Jon by your side at all times. Sometimes though you’ll need to get your hands dirty, either through some combat, though this is optional, or even having to utilize costume changes to have people open up to you, because beggars or thugs won’t want to help someone that’s dressed as posh as Sherlock usually does.
I won’t delve into the main storyline cases because they were by far the best part about the whole experience, but what starts out as a simple visit to your mother’s grave evolves into something much more involved and intricate with plenty of twists and turns. This is a detective game though, so you better bring your thinking cap, or else be prepared to look up walkthroughs, sadly something not available to me before launch. There will be some fan service, as you’ll hear about your childhood alongside your brother Mycroft, and there are even multiple endings, something that I was very content and satisfied with once the credits rolled.
As soon as you arrive to Cordona you arrive at your hotel, immediately thrust into solving your first mystery, returning an expensive looking cane to someone that has seemingly left it behind. How you do so will be completely up to you. Of course a simple task like this is no match for the brilliant mind of Holmes, but this leads to uncovering a more serious matter once you find its owner. There’s plenty of twists that came along the way and I came away very impressed with how it was all handled in a way that doesn’t force you one direction or another.
There’s actually very little 'handholding' at all, as cases you’re given can be solved in different orders, you’re not expected to accuse a specific person or with a certain reasoning or even a set way how to acquire some clues. Everything is left up to you to figure out in how you want to work the case(s). I’ll admit, I was expecting to simply follow a marker from point A to B and ask specific people certain questions before given the solution, but this is not how Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is designed at all, and it's better for it.
You’re able to determine guilt or innocence which I really enjoyed, as I fully expect there to always be a ‘right’ solution, but that’s not the case at all. You’re not shoehorned into deciding one way or another; you’re actually not even nudged to favor one direction over another, so your decisions are entirely your own. Sometimes there are two truths to each story, so how you decide to solve and report cases will shape the Sherlock heu grows to be. You’re also able to pursue each case at whatever pace you want to, going off to do side missions or events to break up the monotony should you wish.
The fact that the game is open world adds a whole other layer to this design. Cordona is split into different districts, each with their own theme and aesthetic. It can be quite a visual treat to simply stop and take in the architecture of some of the buildings in the rich part of town. There’s a day and night cycle, and while it doesn’t change anything gameplay wise, you’ll notice less ‘normal’ people on the streets in the dead of night, noticing more vagrants and bandits, whereas more wealthy people only come out during the daylight. While there are no vehicles to drive around, there are fast travel spots around the city where you can instantly warp from point to point should you wish to save time, as running from one end of the Cordona to the other will take a bit of time.
While combat was kind of unexpected, it’s completely optional after the tutorial section for it, able to bypass these sections completely if you would rather focus on the detective portions of Sherlock’s adventure. These combat sections only take place when it makes sense narratively, but the majority of these sections are in optional Bandit Lairs. These are essentially secluded rooms where you’re tasked with taking down all of the enemies, hopefully non-lethally. Before you can make any arrests, you’ll need to shoot off their armored weak points before performing a QTE. Instead of being a typical third person shooter, you’re encouraged to use the environment to your advantage to stun enemies, allowing you to shoot their specific areas of weakness. You’re able to play lethally and shoot enemies, but this may affect your relationship with Jon. Beating these Bandit Lairs earns you rewards and money which in turn can be used to purchase new outfits or items for your mansion.
There’s actually quite a few different mechanics in play when it comes to Sherlock solving each mystery and case that comes his way. Sherlock is a detective, and using his keen eye is what Concentration is for. This is almost like a detective mode where you can discern much more information about things and people at a quick glance, such as knowing one's occupation by his attire or what type of accent they're speaking. This isn’t simply a mode you toggle to get the ‘right answer’, but another tool you’ll use to discern the information to make the 'correct' deductions. Key witnesses or suspects you’ll be able to inspect and observe much closer, gathering some key details then profiling them in one of two ways. No one way is completely ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but it’s what you discern from the information given to you.
Eavesdropping on conversations will also yield valuable information, as we all know people like to gossip. Maybe this gives you a new clue you’ve been trying to find or even a brand new side quest to partake in. This quick mini-game gives you a keyword at a time about a specific topic they’re talking about. If you think it relates to the topic then you circle it and decide to keep it, if not, discard it. Once you’ve found all the keywords that relate you’ll then get a vital piece of information for one of your cases. This can be redone without any consequence if you fail as well thankfully.
On certain cases you might have to use Sherlock’s chemistry understanding to solve a certain clue as well. For example, on the first case in the hotel you’ll need to discern what some alleged ‘ectoplasm’ actually is in composition. This is also done via a mini-game where you need to put certain chemicals together to reach a specific tally, though this becomes much more challenging and involved in the later cases. Like combat, these can be completely skipped without consequence should you become stuck or simply don’t want to do them.
The Mind Palace is where you’ll take all your gathered evidence and tie them all together, eventually concluding on who the suspect is or what actually occurred. There will be points where you’ll actually have to recreate the crime scene and what occurred in your head, choosing the proper placement of people and objects so that you can visualize it on your head before making a final conclusion, these can be tough though if you don't pay attention to the finer details.
Pinned Evidence is something you’ll be using quite often. This is where you have any specific piece of evidence pinned which is how you ask about this information specifically to any NPC’s you talk to. If you have multiple clues and want to ask about a specific one, you need to have that exact clue pinned. It’s a little clumsy at first, but you become accustomed to it after a few cases. Each clue that needs more solving also has an icon to indicate if you need to search somewhere, talk to someone, research it in the archives, etc. This too could have been explained and taught a bit better in the opening, but again, you will get used to it over time. There’s no simple following a waypoint marker, as you’ll actually have to read clues and figure out many things for yourself.
This approach is multilayered though, as you need to be asking about the right evidence, and maybe to get the actual truth you’ll need to wear a disguise.That’s right, you’re going to be playing dress up if you want to solve cases. If you’re dressed all fancy in the slums, most likely people aren’t going to trust you, and vice versa if you aren’t dressed like an aristocrat in the rich areas. While you could wear any suit and clothing for roleplay purposes, there are moments where you’ll actually have to utilize disguises to progress, and not just clothing, but makeup (old skin, bruises, etc), hats, masks, facial hair and more. This is where money comes into play, allowing you to purchase a multitude of clothing options, though any that are required for case completions can be rented freely.
Speaking of side quests and other things to do, there’s more than enough to keep you busy on the isle of Cordona. My Cases are your main quests, but there are a number of Cordona Stories as well, almost like mini-cases that aren’t necessarily involved, but give more lore to people or places. Some of these are quite interesting and there’s even some treasure hunting to take part in should you desire. There are even certain parts of cases where Jon will give you a specific challenge, testing you to see if you can either beat him at something or figure something out before moving on.
While the gameplay hooked me in from the first mission I was given, what surprised me the most was how amazing the voice acting was. Not that I was expecting any poor performances, but even from the first few scenes I could tell that the voice acting was done extremely well. Not just Sherlock either, but Jon and even the secondary characters you meet along the way. There was a lot of subtle accents I could notice, making the immersion that much deeper. I normally skip dialogue once I’ve read it, but I let every line finish due to how good it was performed, so bravo to everyone involved on this front, especially Alex Jordan as the witty Sherlock and Wil Coban as his counterpart, Jon. Sure there was some minor annoyances like NPC’s repeating the same line over and over when asked about evidence they know nothing about, but alas.
As for the visuals, I was more than impressed on an Xbox Series X. There are plenty of facial close-ups when it comes to the main cast and support characters, full of detail and life. Animations themselves are also done quite well, though the lip syncing is ‘so-so’ at the best of times. The city of Cordona is beautiful to take in, admiring the architecture and vistas, even in the slums.
Being in development for over two years, it’s exciting to see that Frogwares’ hard work is paying off in an exciting way with a fresh take on such a legendary character. The campaign case is split into five or so chapters, taking me about a dozen or so hours to complete, but with all of the side cases, stories and Bandit Lairs to partake in, there’s easily 40 or so hours’ worth of content to be had.
I didn’t think that Sherlock Holmes Chapter One would be something I would initially gravitate towards, but I’ve been converted once I felt like a genius after solving my first case, wanting to know more about Sherlock, Jon and his mother’s passing. Not being forced to find one ‘correct’ solution to cases was a breath of fresh air and I was completely content with the ending I received. While it’s not episodic, I’m hoping to get some form of a Chapter Two someday, as I want to see how my Sherlock evolved into the legend.
**Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
My Singing Monsters Playground
While I’ve never heard about My Singing Monsters previously, apparently it’s quite a popular game on the mobile store and PC. Looking to branch out with the IP a bit further, My Singing Monsters Playground is the latest entry in the series, though this game is much more like a Mario Party style of game instead of a tycoon based one. A multiplayer game set in the My Singing Monsters universe, you’ll play as your favorite characters as you and up to three other friends battle locally on the same screen to see who can win the most diamonds.While there’s no main career mode or board game you play on, you instead choose one of the few available characters from the My Singing Monsters universe, each with three unlockable costumes, pick the difficulty level and simply have fun in a variety of different modes. Keep in mind, My Singing Monsters Playground only supports local multiplayer, so players will need to be in the same room, as there is no online play supported unfortunately.
There are three different modes you can your friends can play in: Tournament, Gauntlet or Freeplay. Tournament is where you’ll decide to play in 10, 15 or 20 game matches, with the winner being the one with the most diamonds at the end of the set. There’s a few extra bonus diamonds rewarded for various tasks at the end, like standing still the longest or shooting the most projectiles, where the bonuses awarded could crown a new winner if it’s been neck and neck.
Gauntlet tasks you with seeing how many games you can win in a row, resetting your progress if you lose in any of the games. Lastly is Freeplay where you can choose any of the 25 unlocked mini-games and play to your heart's content in any order you wish.
As you complete games and continue on, you’ll eventually earn tokens that can be used and redeemed for randomized rewards like decorations for your home or new skins for each of the playable characters. I wish these rewards weren’t randomized, but it’s just incentive enough to keep you playing until you earn them all.
What surprised me the most was the introductions to each mini-game you’ll partake in. In most other party games, a simple and looping video plays, showing you how the game should be played. Here though, you see a small gameplay window that looks like it’s a video playing, but it’s actually you playing in a practice-like setting. Below this is the description of your goals and on the right has the inputs, showing you how to actually play. Most of the games only utilize the ‘Left Stick’ and ‘A’ to perform most actions, though some will add ‘B’ button presses in there too depending on the mini-game. My nine year old daughter had no problem picking it up and playing without much hassle, and even my non-gamer wife played a few rounds and had no issues either, so basically anyone can play.
With 25 mini-games in total, there’s a variety of different types of games, not only Free For All matches, but 2 versus 2 and 1 versus 3 as well. My daughter and I found one slight annoyance early on doing some Freeplay on these team matches though. Firstly, you’re unable to swap and change teams. Whatever team setup you’re given you’re stuck to unless you back out and hope the next time it puts you on the same, or different, team(s). Also in Freeplay, once a game is chosen, you’re unable to back out, having to start the game and quit out from there or complete the match. Nothing game breaking, but a slight annoyance if you pick the wrong game by accident. So let’s go over each of the 25 included games, as well as their description when you’re in the practice area before the matches start, as each one usually doesn’t last more than a minute or so.
Free For All:
Hectic Hexes: “Race to the matching images without falling off. Last the most rounds to win.” Here you’ll see a TV with a specific symbol, after the symbol is shown, all of the other platforms with different icons will fall, so you better be standing on the correct icon to continue playing. After a couple rounds, laser beams will go across the board as well, so you need to pay attention to those as well as you make your way to the correct platform. Beware though, you can push one another off should you want to play dirty.
Hazardous Hurdle: “Don’t touch the pipe. It’s hot!” This mini-game is a classic. A long hot pipe rotates from the center of the play area like a propeller and you must jump over it every time it’s about to hit you. Simple but fun.
Stop and Drop: “Keep moving and don’t drop!” This is taken almost straight out of Fall Guys. As you run around the play field, every tile you previously stepped on will eventually fall, so there’s some strategy involved, and although you can jump across small gaps, you’ll have to keep an eye out for other players and where they’ve been stepping as well.
Keep Away: “Hold the glowbe as long as you can to fill your meter.” A simple game of keep away. Hold onto the object until your meter fills and you win. You can dive to steal the glowbe back and these matches don’t usually last all that long. There’s a few small ramps and such that you can use to try and slow your opponents down or run around, but it’s quite simple.
Snow Rollers: “Absorb any snowball or player smaller than you by rolling over them.” If you’ve ever played snake.io you’ll know exactly how this plays. You start pushing a small snowball, adding to your size any that are the same or smaller. As you grow you can absorb larger snowballs and even players if you’re bigger than them.
Tobog-Gone: “Time your jumps to reach the finish line first.” I really enjoy this mini-game, as you need to use the ‘A’ button to boost downwards. There’s a series of large moguls as you sled down the hill and you simply need to press the button to go downwards quicker on the ice patches. Land at the top of a hill with ice and slide down, let go of the button and you’ll launch far ahead. Think of that old classic helicopter game on your classic phone where you pressed the button to fly upwards, but it’s basically that but in reverse, and in snow, and on a toboggan.
Bitter Critters: “Avoid the bitter critters!” This is one of the games I enjoy the least. There are multiple moving platforms that rotate every so often, and your goal is to avoid the spikey turtles that will eventually charge up then fire in different directions. If they hit the platforms they will cause them to rotate, usually having you fall or into another shell that’s flying your direction.
Molten Madness: “Use your shield to bounce the balls away. Don’t get hit in the back. Three hits and you’re out!” In this game you have a bumper shield in front of you to bounce the rocks away from you. Get hit three times in the back and you’re out. Eventually plenty of rocks are fired out, becoming much more hectic as time goes on.
Rocket Punch: “Fire rockets at the competition. 3 hits and you’re out!” This is another one of the weaker games that even my kid didn’t enjoy all that much. You can jump from platform to platform, trying to avoid opponent’s rockets, all while trying to fire yours into them. Get hit three times and you’re out.
Bank Shot: “Sink the balls in your color pocket to score.” This game has you driving a bumper car-like vehicle that can also has a large poker at the front of it. You use the poker to knock balls into your colored pool, where each one in gains you a point. The only issue I had with this game is that you’re assigned a color regardless of the fur color of your monster. My monster’s color was pink, but in this game I was assigned blue. Not hard to figure out but younger players might get confused.
Blast Off: “Run as fast as you can to charge up your ship and try to launch the highest!” This is as simple as it gets. Spam the ‘A’ and ‘B’ button as fast as you can to see how high you can launch your rocket. You only got to spam the buttons for 10 seconds, but of course as we all know, that’s more than enough to have your arm be completely dead afterwards.
Dispter Bop: “Bop the Dipsters as fast as you can!” This is essentially Whack-A-Mole, but instead of in set spaces where they pop in and out, they can appear out of the ground anywhere. You’re also able to smash your other monster opponents to stun them for a quick second or two to try and whack more of the Dispters.
Monster Rally: “It’s a race. Drive fast!” This game has you using a remote control car to race around a track for a few laps. Now and then random boosts will appear as well. The camera is top down and you steer with Left and Right, just like a typical RC car. There are a few different varieties of tracks that I’ve seen from playing a handful of times, but not much variation.
Thumpede: “Run away! Don’t get thumped.” If you miss the days of classic Crash Bandicoot, you’ll love this mini-game. Here you run towards the screen, running away from a wall of critters. You can’t jump, simply trying to avoid any obstacles and green goop that slows you down.
Bouncin Around: “Bounce on another Monster’s flower to score.” Here you’re constantly jumping, able to go from platform to platform, gaining points for how many other players’ heads you can pounce on. There’s a few spots to warp around the map and you can boost jump when you want, but this game gets hectic with everyone jumping everywhere.
2 versus 2:
Unfortunately for these games you’re unable to manually edit teams. I wanted to play on the same team as my daughter, but it kept pairing each of us up with a CPU player instead. Sadly she learned that I can’t back down from a challenge.
Cannon Chaos: “Knock the blocks over onto the other team’s side.” Remember when you used to stack blocks and other objects super high? Now imagine that you and your partner are on one side, and myself and my partner on the other. Both sides have blasters that shoot balls and the goal is to knock as many pieces you can onto the other side of the wall. Simple but fun physics based shenanigans.
Pastry Punk: “Most goals wins. If the timer runs out with a tied score, the next goal wins!” Essentially Air Hockey, but each paddle is a player in a hovering bumper car. You can do a slight boost with ‘A’ and the most goals at the end of the timer wins.
Snow Brawl: “Land the most hits in 30 seconds.” This game is a simple and straight up snowball fight. You have to run up to the snowmen around the playfield to get a snowball, aim at the other team and score a point if you hit them.
Battleball: “Score the most hits in 30 seconds.” This is basically the same as Snow Brawl above, but is setup like a game of Dodgeball instead. You pick up a ball, throw it across to the other side to try and hit the other team, scoring a point if you do so. Shots can even bank off of walls here which is always fun.
Color Bumper: “Jump to your icon as fast as you can! Work as a team to win!” This one is confusing to describe, but there are basically two sets of four squares where each team is confined to their four tiles. Every few seconds you’ll have to jump to the square that shows your player’s icon, as does your partner. Once both players are on their icons you’ll gain a point and you’ll have to hop to your new square. What’s tricky is where the tiles intersect between both teams, and if you bump into another player you’ll become stunned for a second or two.
1 versus 3:
Just like in 2v2 games, you also can’t manually edit the teams here, which can be frustrating if you want to try out the single player component to each game.
Apple Grapple: “Crane – Collect as many apples as you can. Apple Pickers – Collect more apples than the crane, and don’t get collected!” This is basically one of those claw games where you can never win the plushies. One player is the claw, trying to grab as many apples as possible, and the players team together to try and get more apples collectively than the crane.
Glowbe In The Dark: “Hammer – Thump them all. Glowbes – Don’t get thumped.” The entire game is virtually played in the dark side from the three players who are running around with glowbe’s, barely lighting what’s around you. The single player is completely in the dark trying to smash the other players with their hammer, but good luck with that.
Punch-A-Bunch: “Puncher – Thump them all! Runner – Don’t get thumped!” One player sits on top of a three-way punching glove device where the other players are trying to avoid getting knocked out the ring.
Drift Wood:” Logger – Drop the logs to push them off! Runners – Avoid the logs and don’t get pushed off.” In this game, the three players are running up a steep hill with running water, trying to avoid hitting the massive logs that the single player is dropping, trying to get the players to fall off the edge.
Tilt A Slime: “Tilter – Tilt the platform to slime them all! Runners – Avoid getting absorbed by the ink!” Lastly is a game that reminds me of that old wooden ball and maze as a kid where you used the knobs to rotate the playfield, trying to get the ball to the end without falling in the holes. It’s somewhat the same premise with the solo player tilting a platform where the other three players are trying to get get caught by the 3 varying sizes of ink blobs.
The characters and world is very colorful, bright and exactly what you’d expect for a party game geared towards a younger audience. Aside from the background music that plays lightly, there’s not much to note of its audio other than the sound effects of your hammer smashing and projectiles shooting. At the end of a tournament you get to finally hear the Monsters sing, which is cute, but I figured there would be much more singing involved given its name.
With each match not lasting more than a minute, games go quickly, so even those with the shortest attention spans shouldn’t get too bored with very little downtime between games. While my kid didn’t really have a connection to the My Singing Monsters characters or world, she still enjoyed playing a tournament here and there with me, trying out all the games. Some are better than others, but with 25 total games, there’s just enough variety, though the longevity may not last with only local multiplayer.
**My Singing Monsters Playground was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town
I still have my plushy animal pre-order bonuses from the old classic Harvest Moon games, as I’ve bought quite a few in the series in the past, but it’s been at least two or three console generations since I’ve been following the Harvest Moon series, a popular and adorable farming game. Turns out I’ve seemed to have missed a lot in the last decade or so, as Harvest Moon is still around, but the original creators lost the rights to the name which spawned the Story of Seasons series. While both titles exist, essentially the original Harvest Moon developers now create the Story of Season games, which is basically just another version of Harvest Moon from the veteran developers.Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town was one of the more popular games in the series for GameBoy Advance, and as you may have guessed from its title, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is essentially a full 3D remake/remaster that follows the same storyline and gameplay, albeit with a few quality of life improvements and some tweaks here and there. Get ready to harvest some crops, go mining, upgrade tools, make friends and possibly find a love interest in this addictive farming life simulator.
When you were a young child you would visit your grandfather’s farm during the Summer, but like most of us, life happens and we grow up in the big city, forgetting what the country life was like. You remember helping on the farm, tending to the livestock, helping with the crops, making friends and simply enjoying the nature. Years have passed since those days and unfortunately your grandfather has passed, so you get an invite to come back to the countryside as the farm has been left to you in his will. So you roll up your sleeves and aim to restore the family farm back to its former glory, as the farm has not been kempt in many years. After about a year of in-game passing will show you all it has to offer, but you can play indefinitely should you want to continue the farm life.
As you return back to the countryside, you’ll need to restore your family farm, but it’s going to take a lot of work. You only begin with basic tools, so caring for the crops and livestock are going to be quite a chore in the beginning, as there are only so many hours in the day and you will become tired the more you do. You’ll begin with just some simple turnips, eventually able to purchase seeds for a number of different crops based on which season you’re in. These crops once harvested can be used to sell or cook with, but it takes a lot of time and effort to go from seeds to produce; no one said the farm life was going to be easy.
Your farm is of decent size, so you can also raise livestock as well should you want something different. Cows, chickens, rabbits, alpacas and sheep are just a few of the options you have to raise on the farm. There are even some special types of cows that I had to have on my farm due to how adorable they were.
If you’ve played the original Friends of Mineral town from many years ago and put quite a few hours into it, everything will feel familiar including some recognizable friendly faces. Some names and minor details have changed here and there, but it’s vastly the same experience when you head into town to visit your neighbors still living where you remember them all those years ago. Many familiar faces return virtually unchanged aside from updated visuals and new dialogue. There are even some new faces to meet, so even the most veteran players will have something new to discover. If you want even more to strive towards, there are even a handful of different people in the town that are eligible for a romantic relationship should you want to find that special someone in town.
There’s plenty else to do if you don’t want to dedicate every waking moment to tending your fields, such as fishing, exploring a mine, relaxing in a hot spring, talking to neighbors in town, attending events at special times of the year, cook some meals, hang at the beach and more. You’re not forced to play in one particular matter, so you’re free to do whatever you like each day you wake up, just keep in mind you have a set amount of stamina and time in a day to get your chores done should you want to.
Farming is what I spent much of my time with in the beginning, thinking that was going to be the most efficient way to earn money so that I could purchase tools and house upgrades. I started with some basic turnips, but there’s a lot of work that goes into a farm than you might not initially expect. First you need to till the soil on your land, indicated by squares on a grid within your land. Once tilled you can then place seeds of your choosing, but make sure they are crops that grow in the correct season that you’re currently in. Next, any seeds need to be watered, so if it’s not raining that day, you’ll need to get your trusty watering can, fill it from the pond nearby and water every tile that you planted seeds. Next is to simply wait a number of days, depending on the crop you chose. Each day the seeds need to be watered though, so make sure you don’t forget.
Once they’ve fully grown you can harvest them which can be used to sell for money or to have for ingredients to cook with. Different crops all grow at different intervals, some like turnips only grow once, whereas others like tomatoes and corn can yield multiple harvests before they need to be replanted. It takes a surprising amount of time and effort to have a successful farm, so make sure you don’t go too overboard planting at once, as every action also take stamina to perform.
Tilling land, planting and watering all take stamina, and if you have a huge crop to tend to, your whole day is going to be taken up simply handling these, as time progresses quite quickly. There’s a nearby hot spring where you can relax and slowly regain your stamina, but this takes a lot of time, so you’re constantly juggling time versus efficiency before it gets too late and dark to do any chores before bed. Your plot of land is quite large, and even after a year of in-game time gone by, I was only using maybe a quarter of it, as it simply becomes quite time consuming after a certain point even with the tool upgrades.
Maybe you don’t want to always commit to such a tedious chore, so instead you might want to go to the nearby cave to mine for some ore. Ore like copper, silver, gold and more will be needed to upgrade your tools, so you’ll need to invest some time here at some point. Better tool tiers make your farming duties much easier, going from only watering or tilling one tile at a time to much larger grids at once. Upgrading your axe and hammer also allow you to chop and smash the larger logs and boulders on and around your farm for building materials to upgrade your home, so you’ll always want to upgrade your tools whenever possible.
To do so though you’ll need to bring your tools and the required ore to the local store. Pay a fee and hand over the tool and you’ll get it back in a day or two depending on the tier of upgrade. This may require a little pre-planning though, as each shop in town is only open at certain times of day, and even closed on certain days as well. Everyone needs a weekend at some point right? Eventually you’ll know store hours and closed days are off by heart, but you’ll need to reference the town map often in the beginning, planning your day around a different chore possibly.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is adorably cute just like the original game, but it does feel a bit dated at times, even from simple things like switching tools that require a bunch of D-Pad presses. Even though many mechanics have been updated and modernized, it’s still quite a time commitment to get your farm back to its former glory. While the $49.99 CAD asking price seems a little steep, I’ve had hours pass by simply because I wanted to work on my farm ‘one more day’ before calling it for the night, constantly being distracted by one task or another.
**STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Aeon Must Die!
Aeon Must Die is quite a unique beat-em-up, not really like many others I’ve experienced. A brawler at its core, you’ll be fighting against plenty of enemies all trying to stop you along the way in risk-versus-reward combat, a unique blend of balance of offence and defense. There’s so many ideas here that at times it can feel like Aeon Must Die lost track of what it was trying to be, as if it’s trying to do too many things at once. Certain things I really enjoyed, others I detested, so let’s get into it.Aeon was the Emperor of the Void Armada, and I say "was" because he was overthrown and defeated, left for dead by his most trusted generals. Why was he betrayed? Why would his inner circle turn on him? You’re drip fed these answers throughout the twenty or so chapters along the way. With Aeon destroyed, he somehow survives in some form, almost like his soul or power, merging with a nameless husk called a Starspawn. With Aeon’s rage filled soul merged with your body, you now must work together to extract revenge for Aeon, but also find a mysterious entity, Nebula.
You’ll need to work together as you progress, as you still have some control of your body and mind, though that won’t last long as eventually it’s almost guaranteed that Aeon will take full control over your body, but more on that shortly. Aeon is on a revenge mission, and to get to his generals who betrayed him he’ll need to destroy anyone in his way, practically the whole city of Pantheon where he ruled over.
You don’t particularly enjoy the fact that Aeon has taken control over your body, yet you’re still conscious about it and constantly bicker and debate what you should do in situations. Forced on a path forward, you decide to work with one another for now, but every time you fall in battle, Aeon becomes closer and closer to shutting you out and taking complete control over your body. What begins as an interesting give-and-take internal battle, eventually it simply devolves into a revenge plot for Aeon extracting his revenge, but until that point you are able to decide who lives and dies if you manage to take down bosses before Aeon takes over your body completely.
There’s a surprising amount of dialogue that takes place between each chapter, and while I really did enjoy the premise, the writing itself seemed to drag on and on. Your goals and objectives as the Starspawn is really intriguing, but it eventually gets ignored once Aeon takes over, which is what happens once you die a handful of times. Not having the dialogue voiced made the whole experience fall flat as well, as there are a few parts where certain words are voiced, but that’s about it, and it's usually screaming and grunting. Given that its setup and plays out like comic book issues, I get its intention, but there’s so much to read that some voicing would have pulled me into the immersion a bit more.
In most beat-em-ups, you generally walk from one side of the screen to the other, bashing everyone’s heads in along the way. Aeon Must Die does things different though, instead having you fight one on one within a single static area as enemies take turns and swap as they all try to defeat you. It’s like being surrounded by a dozen enemies in a circle around you, but only one step in at a time to try and fight you instead of bombarding you for the easy defeat.
Combat is really the only thing to talk about here, but there’s so many mechanics in place that it’s really confusing, even after the opening tutorials. This isn’t a regular brawler, and if you try to simply spam your attacks and mash the buttons you’re not going to get anywhere. You also need to mix up your offence, as enemies will learn from the same moves being used over and over, also relying heavily on dashes and parries to survive.
The basis of combat revolves around your two different attacks, mapped to ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Your regular attacks fill a cold gauge at the bottom of the screen, where the more attacks you land with ‘X’, the closer to the left edge of the screen the bar fills. The same goes for your flame based attacks with ‘Y’, as if you use them too much in succession the bar will fill to the right of the screen. Why does this matter? When the bars fill completely to one side or the other, you become powerful in certain ways for a short period of time, but also leaves you susceptible to single-hit kills. You generally never want to fill the bar for the most part, so you need to constantly juggle cold and heat based attacks so you can’t get one-shot and die instantly.
On top of this, you also have to be defensive at all times, as you can get hit with some combos and take a lot of damage. Instead of your typical health bar above your and enemies’ heads, instead, getting hit further increases your heat or cold meter one way or the other. So attacking fills your bar, as does taking damage. It’s a really interesting design but it feels cumbersome to constantly juggle the different attack styles as well as having to be defensive with dashes to gain distance and parrying enemy attacks. The problem here is that dashing out of the way adds to the cold side of your meter, so if your bar is almost full and you need to dash out of the way from an attack that can’t be parried, you’re either going to take the damage, putting you in critical condition, or dashing which also fills your meter, also putting you in critical condition as well.
If you do fill your heat or cold meter, you don’t instantly die, but any attack during this phase will kill you, plus you’re unable to dash during this as well, so that’s why I suggest to try and avoid getting to this state whenever possible. There are enemies of different types, each having their own attack patterns and colors, but you’re constantly having to watch the bottom of your screen plus watching for enemy cues to time your parries that it’s all a bit hard to keep track of.
Even though you’re technically only fighting one enemy at a time, you’re not at the same time. The enemies on the outside don’t directly attack, but can assist their buddies in combat with special tag-like moves or place traps on the ground that you’ll almost guaranteed to walk over. The areas that you fight in are quite small, sometimes half the length when shields are placed down, not giving you a lot of breathing room to dodge and avoid certain attacks. Once you get the hang of combat after an hour or two it does become a little more manageable, though that goes all out the window when you reach certain bosses and generals that will kill you numerous times over.
There’s another interesting mechanic that had a good idea and basis, but in execution, needs a lot of rework to become useful. Instead of your typical 'lives', this is called “Purpose”. You begin with nine Purpose (lives), and each time you die, Aeon becomes closer and closer to consuming your will and completely taking over your body. If you lose all your Purpose, I rephrase, WHEN you lose all your Purpose and Aeon takes over, you do get the full suite of his movesets, but this also limits your narrative choices further in the game as Aeon can do whatever he wants now without you holding him back.
The Purpose system is a really interesting idea, and there are ways you can get Purpose back by completing levels with a certain rank or besting a boss that defeated you, but there’s generally no point, as the later bosses are so difficult I died dozens of times at each one. I know what you’re thinking, “git gud”, but I was unable to find anyone with the “good” ending where you complete Aeon Must Die with Purpose still, as you essentially get locked into Aeon’s ending once your Purpose is gone. That coupled with the achievement for even completing the game with Aeon’s ending (1%) is atrociously rare and a low percent, I’d love to see the ‘real’ ending one day (less than 1% of players have this).
The difficulty ramps up quite quickly, and once you lose all your Purpose the game does become easier to complete since there’s no real repercussions for dying anymore. Aeon is enteral after all, which I know because he says it every single time he’s resurrected. A mid-battle death doesn’t really matter, as you simply continue right where you left off. The only time you have to restart sections are during certain boss fights. I generally always look forward to boss fights as they’re usually a culmination of testing your skills that you’ve learned to that point and usually quite flashy and memorable. These boss fights against your generals are memorable, but only because you’ll never forget the frustration of dying dozens of times before figuring out how to actually defeat them. Coupled with Aeon’s generic goal of simple revenge, the dialogue between them isn’t all that compelling or interesting either.
What Aeon Must Die does get right is with its visual aesthetic and awesome electronic soundtrack. The artistic style is futuristic with sharp edged character designs and smooth hand drawn animations suit the comic book style binding it all together. While the soundtrack is good, the lack of voiced dialogue, especially when it’s very wordy at times, is more disappointing than anything. The little voicing there is generally has Aeon shouting, grunting or saying the few one-liners over and over again until the credits roll.
I even debated bringing this up in the review, but when doing my research about Aeon Must Die there was plenty to delve into, and I went down a deep rabbit hole. To say that there’s been drama and allegations during the developmental process is an understatement. I’m not going to go in-depth into it here, but I will say that it’s worth researching if the game does interest you to decide what you believe and whom to support.
I really do think there’s something unique here under the hood, but it feels like it just never came together in the way that was originally intended, which could be for many reasons. While I’m on the fence about recommending a purchase given the situation that is still yet unresolved, I’m not factoring any of this into the final score, simply judging it on the experience I had playing from start to finish, one that I was glad when the credits rolled instead of feeling accomplished due to its repetitiveness.
**Aeon Must Die was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Gleylancer
The year was 1992, and if you were a shmup (shoot-em-up) fan in Japan with a Sega Mega Drive (known as the Genesis outside of North America), you were treated to a wonderful new game, Gleylancer. An awesome 16-bit shump that sadly never made its way out west until much later in 2008 but only for the Wii Virtual Console, so needless to say not many outside of the hardcore have been able to play it, until now.Original developers, Masaya, created a great little shmup that has aged well and still holds up to classic standards, one I wish I could have played back when I was all about the Genesis growing up. Developers, Nautlander, are the ones not only responsible for porting to current consoles but adding a slew of modern day features and mechanics that arguably make it a much better game overall. Published by Ratalaika Games, Gleylancer may not be at the top tier amongst some of the icons of the genre, it certainly surprised me with how many great features it included for being such an older shump title.
Normally shump games all have the same tired old story, something revolving around an alien ambush where you need to save the planet or universe. While Gleylancer does add a little more to the tiresome formula with adding a bit more depth, it’s again a story we’ve all heard before. You are Lucia, the sixteen year old daughter of Admiral Ken Cabrock, a star fighter pilot for the Earth Federation. Facing massive losses after a surprise alien attack, the Federation decides to retreat and withdrawal from the battlefield, but upon doing so they become surrounded by a fleet of aliens, only to have their flagship, Oberon, teleported away to somewhere in space unknown.
This is where Lucia decide to hijack the prototype Starfighter, the Gleylancer, to go search and rescue her father. There’s a surprising amount of story and dialogue, especially for a shump game from this long ago. The pixelated aesthetic has a very anime style to it as well and is quite impressive given the early 90’s hardware limitations. Every few levels you’ll get a quick cutscene to further the story, but let’s be honest, we play these games for its gameplay and shooting down anything that moves, though it’s great that there’s actually some semblance of an actual narrative within.
Like most old school shmups, Gleylancer is a side scrolling shooter were you’re constantly moving on the battlefield to the right, shooting down any alien enemies in your path to face off against a large and bullet-sponge boss before moving onto the next level. Very par-the-course stuff here, but there are a few interesting mechanics that I didn’t expect, and certainly not all that common for games back in 1992.
While you’ve got your classic shoot-em-up gameplay, there’s a couple of interesting features that I really quite enjoyed. First is the option to have your ship move at four different speeds. I initially thought that this was the game speed toggle overall, but it’s actually just the movement of your ship. Well why wouldn’t you want to always be able to move as fast as possible you ask? Well, there are a few stages where you need to fly down and across narrow pathways as the level automatically scrolls, so moving slower will actually make things much easier for finer movements.
During your shooting adventure you’ll come across these silver pods that when destroyed, give you different weapon power-ups. Kind of like R-Type, your main blaster stays the same, but you can have up to two different pods that attach to your ship like a turret. Depending on the weapon type that is dropped, flying over each icon will change your gunners’ weapons, each best suited for different situations and level types. You’ll find weapons such as lasers, wide spread 5-way shots, flamethrowers, bombs that are slow but very powerful, energy sabers and even a Bound Shot that rebounds off surfaces for indoor based levels.
What surprised me more though is the multiple options for your gunner formations, chosen at the beginning of the game or when continuing. ‘Normal’ has the gunners face the direction of your ships movement at any given time. This means if you want to shoot behind you, they will face and shoot whatever direction you maneuver the ship. ‘Reverse’ is the same as Normal, but will fire in the opposite direction of the ship’s movement. ‘Search’ was easily the best choice for me, as your turrets will automatically aim and fire at the nearest enemy. There’s a few other choices, like ‘Roll’ that has your turrets constantly orbit around you, shooting in every direction, so there’s plenty of options for you to try out and see what works best with your playstyle.
While I wouldn’t categorize Gleylancer anywhere near a ‘Bullet Hell’, you know, where you have to make pixel perfect movements to avoid touching any of the screen filling bullets everywhere, the small bullets from enemies that do fire at you can be quite difficult to discern from the moving background at times. This is where some of the modern day mechanics that are introduced in this version come into play, should you want to utilize them. Options like holding a button down to reverse time and undo that mistake you just made, much like we’ve become accustomed to in modern racing games. This is a great feature for when you’re trying to learn a boss’ attack pattern or make a rookie mistake, able to undo and try again without having to replay the whole section over.
Should you need to take an unexpected break, or simply want to reload from a specific point in any of your runs, there are also six quick-save slots you can utilize for this should the need arise. This is one of the modern additions, but not the only. If you choose to play in Modern Mode, you not only get a full English Translation of the narrative parts (this was originally a Japanese only release remember) but you can also use the ‘Right Stick’ to manually control your gunners to fire in any direction you want as well, almost turning it into a twin-stick shooter. There’s even a “Cheater’s Mode” for those that want to toggle anything from invincibility, level skipping or other options to try out for fun. There is of course the included classic mode where you can play the unchanged Japanese version for those wanting a challenge without any modern day tweaks or ting 11 stages, Gleylancer will obviously be beaten in a single sitting, though it’s fun to test your skills with different formations for your gunners and harder difficulties that do make quite a difference. Sadly there’s no online leaderboard, so once you’ve got your weekend fill out of it, I doubt there’s much reason to go back. That said, for a measly $6.99 USD asking price, it’s a great little shmup that has a lot of personality full of varied level designs, massive bosses and a great soundtrack.
While it may be an obscure title, one that I’ve never even played before, shmup fans will surely no doubt enjoy their time with it, either with its true original version or a mode with a bunch of modern day tweaks that make for an arguably better experience overall. Gleylancer is a highly underrated shump that was enjoyable to play and replay with new challenges or settings.
**Gleylancer was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Rover Mechanic Simulator
Well, I’ve done it; I’m a fully-fledged mechanic. That is, within the confines of Rover Mechanic Simulator, developed by Pyramid Games who has a few simulator games under their belt, as well as Mars titles, so naturally they eventually blended together. There’s no shortage of simulator games in recent years, and while there’s almost a sim for every job out there, there’s finally one for those that want to be a mechanic that works on Mars rovers.Your job is simple; repair broken and malfunctioning Mars rovers. While there’s no traditional campaign with an overarching narrative, you instead simply start in some sort of facility, most likely the maintenance or mechanic department of some Mars colony, and begin working once you pass through the doors after briefly looking out the only window you’ll see during your career. Get used to working in a windowless box, because that’s your life now as a rover mechanic.
Looking at your trusty tablet you’ll get to choose which job to take based on the company requesting the fix, the model of rover, a general clue of what’s wrong with it and the rewards for completion. With just a couple rover types to fix, you’ll go from not knowing anything about them to knowing exactly how many screws you’ll need to unscrew and put back for every rover since you’ll do many different repairs/jobs on the same rovers.
Missions all play out the same way, only differing on what you have to repair on the rover or how many steps it takes to go from acceptance to job completion. First you check your tablet and decide which job you want to undertake. There’s always some sort of correspondence from the client saying what happened and what’s not working, such as the camera isn’t working because of Mars dust, or the rover is only moving in circles. Sometimes you’ll get preliminary information about exactly what parts are going to need to be replaced, but this is only for the easier beginner jobs.
Now that you’ve chosen which rover to repair, you’ll need to use the nearby terminal to maneuver a crane to pick up the rover that’s placed in a crate and move it onto your working table. The camera is acting up and glitches, on purpose, though this can be fixed with a skill point later on if it really annoys you. The crane section only takes about 5 seconds, so it’s not really an issue though.
Now that the rover is on the mechanic table, it’s time to fix what’s wrong. But how do you know what parts need replacement? I don’t know about you, but I don’t know the first thing about Mars rovers, so even if you told me what part to take out, I’d have no clue where to even start. This is where you start to analyze individual parts of the rover, and I mean every individual part. Down on the ‘D-Pad’ puts you into inspection mode, which you then hold down ‘A’ for a moment on a specific piece and it will then show you how much durability said part has left as well as it now glowing green, yellow or red to correspond with how much durability is left. You’ll get an exact percentage and everything as well as the part name, as well its icon so you know what you’ll need to print on your 3D printer if you need to replace it.
As soon as you identify what the faulty part is, you then can remove it. You do this by pressing Left on the ‘D-Pad’ to go into disassembly mode, able to take parts of the rover off one by one. If it’s a simple and singular part, you’ll hold down ‘A’ to unscrew the screws, one by one. Thankfully you don’t need to hover over them with the slow moving cursor, but it can be time consuming. Also, you don’t need to keep track of them or anything thankfully. Where some of the time consuming mechanics come into play though is when certain pieces and parts can’t be removed until others blocking it is removed.
For example, to get into the battery and CPU housing of one of the rovers requires you to remove the solar panel on its back. To do that though you’re going to have to remove about a dozen or so other smaller components, each of which has one to a dozen screws each. Getting to a single part you need to replace can take upwards of ten minutes at times simply because it’s buried behind, underneath or inside other components. But you’re a professional, so you’re used to this of course.
You’ve found your faulty part and need to replace it, so this is where your industrial 3D printer comes into play. The 3D printer can print any part you would ever need to rebuild a new rover, so you’ll need to scroll through a lengthy list of parts to find exactly the one that you need. Thankfully the icons are large and color coded to correspond with each type of rover, but you have to find the exact part to replace, as there any many similar parts with confusing names. Choose your part, wait anywhere from ten seconds to two minutes as it prints and it will be ready for use. You can even print whole sets for major parts that house many smaller pieces, but those are costly to print and take longer obviously. If you’re smart you’ll queue printing the parts you need as soon as you identify the ones need replacing to cut down on wait times while you work on other tasks like disassembly.
Now you’ve gotten your newly printed part, it’s time to assemble everything back and hope that you didn’t miss anything. Just like disassembly, but in reverse order, hitting Right on the ‘D-Pad’ puts you in assembly mode, highlighting any missing parts with a feint blue shadow. Thankfully you can replace parts in any order as long as you see that shadow, but you’ll still need to put all the screws back.
Now that your rover is back in one piece and working order, it’s time to calibrate before you mark the job complete. Plug in the calibration tool and then you get to play another mini-game that reminds of the old classic game Pipe Dream on NES. Electricity needs to get from the start and end up in the finish, but you only have a certain amount of specific tiles to do so. On top of that there are red and green nodes that have to have certain voltage options placed, so you need to not only get the pipes to connect, but also end up with the correct voltage to complete the mini-game.
Now that you’re all done replacing faulty or damaged parts and calibrated the rover, it’s time to hand in your completed job. Doing so will earn you a chunk of XP and money that can be used on skill points and currency for 3D printed parts. Now you go back to your tablet, choose the next job and repeat the process over again. That’s about it, though there are some caveats and some more intricate pieces and electronics to replace, but that’s the basis of the gameplay loop.
There’s a few other tools you’ll need to utilize to replace specific parts. If it’s an electronic part you’ll have to fix the PCB’s. This is done at a different bench, but you’ll open up the component and then have to replace certain transistors, capacitors and other small parts, done via the 3D printer of course. To take these parts out you’ll use a soldering iron to remove them, then also soldering the new pieces back into place.
Sometimes you’ll also need to clean parts. If a part is too dirty you won’t be able to analyze it to see its quality. This is done at a different bench and you simply need to hold down ‘X’ as you move the cursor over the whole part until it’s clean. The only annoying part to this is that you then need to reattach it to the rover to analyze it, unable to do so from this bench. This means you might have to reattach a dozen pieces so you can scan it only to find out it’s broken and needs replaced, causing you to disassemble it all again. Eventually you’ll have more than enough money to print any part without thinking about it, but it’s a small oversight mechanically in my opinion.
So you’ve got a ton of broken parts that you’ve printed replacements for, so what do you do with all these worthless components? Recycle them of course! You’ll get a small amount of money in return, nothing that will make a difference, but at least it gets them out of your inventory.
The final major thing to mention is the skill points. Every time you level up you get one skill point to put into one of three trees. The three different trees focus on different mechanic perks. One gives bonuses to disassembly and assembly time, other is about lowering costs and the third is what I focused on first, allowing me to eventually have all parts automatically analyzed simply by looking at the rover, saving me a ton of time. Once you level up a bit and put some points into the skill trees, nearby everything you do becomes less of a chore and happens much quicker.
Aside from the rovers themselves, there’s nothing else to really look at given you’re stuck in a windowless cubed room. The rovers are quite detailed with their dozens of intricate and small components, though the textures themselves are quite low resolution which can be distracting. As for its audio, I hope you like to hear the same few tunes on repeat for hours, and while there’s a few different radio stations you can tune into, these repeat as well. Aside from that, all you’ll hear is the sound of your electric screwdriver when removing or replacing screws for every part. I highly suggest putting some Spotify on in the background as you repair your rovers to keep your sanity.
For how tedious the gameplay loop is, I found myself oddly addicted to wanting to repair another rover after completing one. There are some awkward controls and a lot of monotonous repetition, but it’s oddly satisfying at the same time. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to be a Mars rover mechanic, under twenty bucks will introduce you into its tedious career.
**Rover Mechanic Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
World War Z: Aftermath
Back in 2019 when I reviewed the original release of World War Z, I was quite surprised as usually games tied to movie releases are generally terrible. Saber Interactive bucked the trend and actually made a unique zombie game that differentiated itself from others in the genre, and while it had flaws, it was a fun game that has had a following since and even numerous DLC’s along the way. Well, the time has come for their latest DLC offering, titled Aftermath.Inspired by the movie of the same name, World War Z: Aftermath is touted as the next step and evolution of the game that has seen over 15 million players. While that statement may be a bit of a stretch once I was able to discern what actually was new in Aftermath, it does make it a better game and experience overall. With full PC and console crossplay, gather up to three other friends and take out hundreds of zombies across a multitude of stages. Full disclosure, portions of this review for World War Z: Aftermath comes from my original base game review I previously wrote, as much of the core gameplay is unchanged.
So what exactly is new with Aftermath and is it worth upgrading and purchase? Well, it’s kind of a convoluted answer at best. First off, Aftermath includes all of the content that the Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition of World War Z. If you had just the base World War Z game and was wondering what the GOTY version added, essentially it was a new set of 3 PvE missions located in France, a Horde Mode, and some character and weapon skin packs. Aftermath includes all of this GOTY content as well as its own set of content.
First off, there are two purchasing options, a discounted upgrade kit if you already own World War Z which is essentially half off, or purchasing it outright as a full and complete package. So what’s new in Aftermath you ask? The short form list would include two new maps set in Italy and Russia, a long requested first person view option, a revamped melee system, new characters, a new class, new enemies, a new Horde Mode XL and a few other gameplay tweaks and additions. So let’s delve into Aftermath’s new content shall we?
First, the two new maps are set in Italy and Russia, played as four new characters: Daniela, Giovani, Sophia and Marco. The two maps are just like other campaign offerings, each with three separate acts, both playing quite differently from one another. The first map, Rome, is set in the iconic Vatican City within Italy and culminates in some chaotic and exciting finales. The Rome mission was an interesting change of pace, having you escort an APC throughout the city, ensuring it doesn’t get overrun by near endless waves of zeke’s. This map has some variety to it with its background and street layouts, but also where you’ll encounter a new and annoying enemy; a pack of infected rats. That’s right, zeke rats can swarm you, something you’ll now have to be conscious of to look where you’re going, as they will probably go unnoticed the first few times until you know what to look for. The finale of this map was amazing to witness and really reinforced how the war against the zeke’s is something that really can’t be won.
The second map set in Russia, Kamchatka, is set in a frozen tundra and while unique, was my least favorite of the two. Of course you’ll be fighting against the endless zombie infestation as usual, but this is the dead of winter in Russia so you’ll be battling the deathly cold as well. Given how cold it is in the elements, you’re tasked with finding generators to turn on heaters, but to even get to that point you’re going to have to find fuel for your flamethrower to melt the ice covered doorways blocking your path. Stay out in the cold too long and you’ll actually start to lose health and possibly freeze to death, so you’re constantly in a rush to find the next switch to turn on the heaters to slowly make progress forward. Eventually you’ll also have to solve a simple puzzle, flipping switches in proper order to unlock the path forward, but should someone on your team get the order wrong, it resets from the beginning. You can guess how well this works with random people online on your team. While a unique setting and no shortages of zeke’s, these two maps are the bulk of Aftermath’s offering, so if you’ve been starved for new campaign content, you’ve got these to enjoy as well now.
One of the main selling points to Aftermath is the option to now play in first person view. Normally played in third person, this does change how the game itself feels. This seemed to be a very requested feature by the community, so it’s now been included should you have Aftermath. After using both, I feel that third person is how World War Z is meant to be experienced. Yes, first person works, but it just feels a little off for some reason. Maybe it’s because you don’t actually use the scopes on your guns, instead aiming down the side of the gun at your reticule, but it’s something you could get used to if you really prefer first person.
Previously, while World War Z had a melee system, it was basically a death sentence and really only used as a last resort to fend yourself off from zeke’s. The melee system has been revamped, now actually useful and a way to defend yourself better. Melee weapons now come in light, medium or heavy options, including whole new perks as well. Even better, there’s a dual wield option, so there’s much more variety to suit your playstyle.
I’m not sure if the melee system was revamped for the new class, but it certainly seems like they go hand in hand. The newest class is the Vanguard, a close quarters character that comes equipped with an electrified shield that you can use to run and smash through a horde of zeke’s, even stunning a rushing Bull if timed correctly. You can also use your shield to strategically place in front of doorways and entrances to block your teammates, giving a few moments of breathing room, eventually able to taunt them as well much like a tank class. It’s meant for a unique playstyle and certainly differentiates itself compared to the standard class offerings already available.
Lastly is the Horde Mode XL. As I mentioned in the original review, I don’t know what programming sorcery was used to create these swarms, but even after surviving dozens of them, I’m still impressed every time I witness that horde rushing towards us. I don’t know many other games that can render as many zeke’s on screen as World War Z does with its Swarm Engine.
Most impressive hands down is the technology used to render hundreds of zombies all rushing at once. If you’re familiar with the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about. Zombies in World War Z are unlike others, as they can run and rush at very fast speeds. They gather so quickly that they actually pile on top of one another, able to create an undead ladder of sorts to scale buildings, walls and defenses, and it’s no different here. Sure, the dead ones eventually fade away, but it’s done subtly and you don’t really notice it, or have time to when being rushed. Even more impressive, I never once had any technical issues or slowdown when hundreds of them were on the screen at once and even at 4K 60FPS on an Xbox Series X.
Based on the movie universe, you don’t recreate the movie, nor get to see or play as Brad Pitt, but instead play through separate mini campaigns. Just like in the film, humanity is on the verge of being wiped out from the undead, so you need to do whatever required to survive. While I enjoyed the smaller bite sized campaigns compared to one lengthy one, there was no real overarching storyline to piece it all together, even with the two new maps. While I would normally hold this against a game, it simply works here because you’re coming to kill swarms of zombies; nothing more, nothing less. Each episode has its own special moments and challenges, though generally the gameplay won’t change from beginning to end. Get to a waypoint, fight some zombies, get to next checkpoint, hunker down as a warm attacks you, get to next checkpoint and survive the final swarm of hundreds of zombies rush you. Even though that’s the majority of the game design, the swarm sections never got tiresome as it was always a challenge, especially on the harder difficulties.
Not all zombies are your standard braindead lurkers though. Just like Left 4 Dead, there are the odd few ‘special’ zombies that are much more menacing and dangerous. There are Brutes that wear armor and take a lot more firepower to take down, ones that are wearing hazmat suits that emit poison clouds when killed, Screamers that attract even more zombies and others. While these aren’t as challenging as a standard “boss” in other games, they force you to stick together as a team and take them out, because if you’re singled out and pounced on by these, there’s nothing you can do to escape on your own.
The main highlight of the gameplay though is the defense sections where you’re given a minute or two to find supplies and setup a defense perimeter. You can find barbed wire, machine gun turrets, auto turrets and more heavy weaponry that will help turn the tides. On the Easy difficulties these aren’t much of a problem, but once you start choosing the harder ones and realize friendly fire is a real thing, it becomes much more problematic to survive in. The harder the difficulty the more currency you’ll earn once completed which can be used to purchase new weaponry and skills.
Each class have their own unique abilities and specialties, though I tended to stick with Medic and heal my teammates when needed. Each class begins with a specific starter weapon, though you’re able to swap it out for any other you see during a match should you prefer. Weapons level up the more you use them, and as a Medic I start out with a SMG, so I decided to stick with them and level up that line of weaponry. As you max out a weapon’s XP, you’ll have to purchase the next tier of that gun, for a total of five tiers. The higher the tier, the more powerful it obviously becomes with attachments and stat increases.
Skills unlock at each level as well, allowing you to purchase any you see fit. Some are minor increases and bonuses, whereas others are class defining, so it’s up to you, but spend wisely as coins don’t come easily or quickly early on. Also, I found out very quickly that having to repeat missions and grinding was a real thing if you want to purchase weapons and skills.
If cooperative survival isn’t really your thing, there is a competitive mode as well with a handful of modes to partake in. In these Player vs Player vs Zombie modes (PvPvZ), you’re given different predefined classes to choose from, but like the campaign, will level them up the more you play. While the modes are unique takes on your standard King of the Hill, Deathmatch, Domination and more, the PvPvZ angle add some flair for those wanting to play competitively. I was a little surprised nothing major was added to the PvPvZ aspect for Aftermath, so those that want to fight against others won’t have much new content.
While it does eventually turn into a grind, facing off against swarms of hundreds of rushing zombies never ceases to impress with its technical prowess and core fun of shooting a mass of zombies. While it may not reinvent the gameplay, the Aftermath DLC does add some welcome additions and tweaks that make World War Z and even better zombie slayer.
Simply look at what comes with Aftermath; the two new maps and new class are clearly the highlight and while it runs better on the latest hardware, the asking price seems a little steep for what’s added. Granted, core players can upgrade for about half price ($25.99 CAD), if you’ve previously played World War Z before and was wondering if the latest DLC is going to be enough to change your mind from its repetitive design and grind, Aftermath might be an afterthought. Even so, it’s always fun to fight against a swarm, hoping to survive against hundreds of zeke’s.
**World War Z: Aftermath (Deluxe Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Astria Ascending
It’s been a good year for JPG’s, and given that it’s my favorite genre I’ve been quite a happy lad lately. While I find it very difficult to fit in a lengthy 50+ hour JRPG with my ever-growing backlog, I’ll dedicate the chunk of time to do so if the experience is worth it. Having just finished one amazing JRPG for review, Astria Ascending released shortly after and was my next undertaking, one I was quite excited for given the pedigree of some of the creators behind it.A classic JRPG with beautiful hand drawn visuals, I was immediately excited for Astria Ascending once it was announced. More than the visuals though, there are some seriously big names attached that made me take notice and had me hyped. Names such as Kazushige Nojima (FFVII Remake, FFX, FFVII) who helped shape the narrative, Hitoshi Sakimoto (FFXII, Vagrant Story) who composed the fantastic soundtrack, and graphic designers Hideo Minaba (FFVI, FFIX, FFXII) and Akihiko Yoshida (FFXII, Nier: Automata). These names are big deals if you know your JRPG’s, so my expectations were through the roof.
The visuals are very impressive and full of style, the backdrops are all varied and beautiful to take in and the soundtrack is a delight to listen to on repeat. The credits rolled after about 30 hours or so and by the end I was hoping to want to restart all over again, but sadly I was glad it was over. Not that I hated my time with it, as there are some great parts about Astria Ascending that I did quite enjoy, and it’s hard to fault a team of less than 20 people that developed the game in just a few short years, but I think I let my expectations get the better of me, as it never reached the plateaus of greatness I was hoping for.
Set in the vast and gorgeous world of Orcanon, you’ll fly to many different lands, each with their own biomes and enemy types. You play as a group of eight greatly different and unique characters, demi-gods to be exact, but this choosing of status is a blessing and a curse. Once you’re chosen and given mass amounts of power as a demi-god you’re tasked with defeating any evils within the world, but are only given three years left to live. Where we come into this story is when the group only has three months left to live, and of course this when there’s an ever growing evil that’s starting to approach the main cities doorsteps.
A tale of sacrifice for the greater good, having a cast of eight characters from the opening moments is something that surprised me, as normally you start with just a single character or two and meet the rest along the way, but alas, we start this journey in near the end of their duty. Tasked with bringing peace to the world, they must fight 'Noises', creatures that are appearing mysteriously out of nowhere, unsure of their origin. These monsters are dangerous, so the band of demi-gods must not only defeat any that they find along the way, but must figure out where they are coming from, as they’ve never come this close to city walls before.
I initially expected a grand tale with many twists and turns, even more so with eight unique characters, all of which do get their brief moment in the spotlight to reveal their backstory, but there’s a slog of dialogue to get through, and worse, a cast of characters, most of whom I didn’t enjoy at all for multiple reasons. I’ll admit, I think the writing is a big culprit in my distaste for many of the core characters, as many of them don’t get the same amount of dedicated screen time to flesh out their personalities, but the voice acting is another reason I couldn’t stand having to sit through some of the dialogue.
You’d think for a band of eight characters that only have a short time left to live to fulfil their holy duties that they would work as a cohesive unit to succeed in their adventure. Instead, you get characters that don’t necessarily fight with one another, but have some serious issues that make them come across like jerks, even with some racist undertones given that each character comes from a different background or alien race. There are attempts to have you care about each character by revealing their lives before being a demi-god or the reason that they fight for, but other than one or two of the characters it makes you question about living in harmony with one another.
With such big names behind many facets of its design, especially with Kazushige Nojima working on the narrative, I was expecting a grand adventure that’ve we’ve come to expect in the top-tier JRPG’s, and while it has some potential, it never feels fully cohesive for a few different reasons. Lastly, the ending kind of just happens quickly, not completely out of nowhere, but I was surprised when I saw the credits roll thinking “That’s it?” and didn’t feel satisfied at all.
As you traverse the world across a handful of different bustling cities and more than a dozen dungeons, you’ll become enamored with how gorgeous the artwork is and how addictive the turn based combat performs. While I had the credits roll after about thirty hours or so, there’s easily double that amount if you want to explore every corner of the dungeons and collect all of J-Ster cards that are a mini-game very reminiscent of Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8. Later on there are even some flying levels as you travel from one major continent to another, changing up the pacing but feeling a little out of place. And while there are some great quality of life convenience options I really appreciated, like multiple difficulties and being able to completely replenish your health and mana in cities, there’s also a laundry list of inconveniences that frustrated me from its opening moments until the credits rolled.
Having a cast of eight unique characters from the opening moments means you’ll need to determine what types of classes you want in your party, as only four can go into combat at one time. Each character is technically meant for a specific role, having base stats that are more suited for being a caster, damage dealer, tank or healer. You’re not exactly shoehorned into forcing each character to play a specific way once you unlock sub and support jobs, but they won’t be near anywhere as efficient as others.
Each of the eight characters starts out with a base class, eventually unlocking a main one from a choice of three, so it pays to do some research before locking in your decisions. The job system is quite expansive, reminiscent of the grid system from Final Fantasy X, though there are multiple grids per character to spend your points on, so if you want to min/max it’s going to be an arduous grind. Your character’s main clothing will also change based on their chosen roll which was a cool detail, as does your weapons based on which is equipped. Speaking of which, each town you get to will have new weapons, armor and gear to purchase, though there’s no option to quickly ‘Buy and Equip’, so it’s a bit of a hassle to purchase, go into menus, put on each gear after scrolling through each of the characters, then going back to the shop to sell unwanted gear to recover some of the cost.
As you explore the dungeons you’ll see these blue orbs, which are the “Noises” containing monsters, opening a turn based battle when you attack or touch them. Given how much money and experience you’ll need to beef up your characters I suggest not skipping many battles, as there are some serious random difficulty spikes now and then and you don’t want to have to grind for a few hours just to progress.
Turned-based combat is Astria Ascending feels great... most of the time. With plenty of different monsters to fight, there’s a few interesting mechanics that you’ll need to fully understand if you want success in the later dungeons and bosses. You’ll need to learn how to utilize Cosmo Breaks for massive damage, summoning beasts to help in combat, how to utilize enemy weaknesses and a Focus Point system that is somewhat like Bravely Default’s combat system of enhancing your attacks.
As mentioned above, there are multiple difficulty options you can choose from, not just from Very Easy to Hard, but many choices for random battles such as if stored characters earn XP and more. If you decide you want to simply sit back and enjoy the story you can essentially one-shot bosses on Very Easy, or crank up the difficulty if you’re a fan of grinding. I really appreciated these options that are able to be toggled on the fly, allowing me to earn more rewards quicker so I didn’t have to arbitrarily grind to progress.
The Focus Point (FP) system is something that is only briefly explained, but can be quite powerful when utilized properly. Every time you exploit an enemies’ weakness you’ll earn FP points which can be used to bolster one of your characters action up to 4X/200%. This doesn’t mean you’ll attack or cast four times, but instead it will be that much more potent and its success rate increased. The idea behind this given that many enemies have resistances and weaknesses is that if you have a character that can only cast ‘Fire’ and they Nullify or Absorb fire damage, then at least they can contribute in a way to the party other than simply defending or passing their turn. You’re also able to swap any character in and out of battle freely, though doing so utilizes their turn.
What frustrated me the most with combat was that there’s no way to speed up battles. This means you’ll need to sit through some excruciatingly long battles with no way to do anything about it other than sit and wait. Even worse is that sometimes enemies can stun you for multiple turns and there’s nothing you can do but wait. Some bosses also go through double digit phases and form changes, so some battles can take quite a while, especially on the harder difficulties.
The worst offender though has to be the dungeon map. Instead of a grid or traditional style map that makes sense and is easily navigable, the map in Astria Ascending is borderline useless and frustrating. Every dungeon is separated into numerous singular rooms, of which the map will show you how many doors or exits to each room they have. The problem is that there’s no way to tell where you at in said room via the map. For example, say the room you’re in shows that there are three different doors to lead to other rooms. Great, expect you don’t know where you are in relation to those doors in the room. The only way to check which door it is, is to go through, check how that room attached to the new room with this blue string-like line and hope that it makes sense. You’ll need to check the map constantly and hope that you can understand it to figure out where you’ve previously been or need to go. The saving grace to this frustration is that you can freely teleport to any city or other dungeon teleport location once found without any restrictions or resource needed.
Without a doubt, the artistic style and aesthetic is what sets Astria Ascending apart from the competition. It has such a unique and gorgeous hand drawn style, not without its issues, but is simply gorgeous to look at no matter what’s on the screen. Each character is uniquely designed and each area and background is wonderfully done. There’s a surprising amount of detail in almost everything on screen, though I’d argue that some of the characters features are a little too exaggerated and sexualized. This of course means that every female has a huge chest and thighs that put Chun-Li to shame, which some will enjoy of course, but it felt a little too audacious when things start ‘bouncing’.
The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, something I’d expect from an expansive JRPG that has an epic orchestral score. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the music and soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the voice acting on the other hand is a whole other story. I don’t usually choose Japanese voice overs with subtitles when given the option of English voices, but I’d highly suggestion doing so here.
Some of the characters are voiced decently at best, but a good amount of the others are dreadful, to the point of being completely distracting. There’s also a small weird gap between when one character finishes their line and the next starts to reply or talk, throwing off the whole pacing. Couple this with being unable to fast forward or skip dialogue without skipping the whole scene and you’re going to simply have to deal with some generally unbearable voice acting.
I generally don’t like to focus on the negatives as much, but this is one of those situations where it was unavoidable and a huge distraction that took me out of the immersion. Not helping this fact was also the numerous crashes and bugs I had along the way. I’ve had hard crashes, characters not load into a map, soft locks and more, to the point that I stopped keeping count. I’ve had to do a few console hard resets to fix one bug as well, so thankfully you’re able to manually save at any point, something I do religiously anyways, so I never lost much progress when something did cause a crash.
Normally for a game to keep my attention for 30 or more hours it has to be pretty entertaining, and while I did enjoy certain aspects, I don’t honestly know if I would have seen it to completion if it wasn’t for this review. It’s not that Astria Ascending is “bad” per-se, but the pacing is way off, difficulty spikes cause forced grinding if not playing on Very Easy mode, atrocious voice acting that is incredibly distracting and there’s a lack of numerous quality of life improvements that would make it a better overall experience. Spending dozens of hours with characters you don’t relate to or even simply enjoy is a bit of a slog and not all that fun overall.
For a small studio, it’s impressive what was created in a few short years given how expansive Astria Ascending can be. I think a large part of my disappointment simply came from seeing the legendary creators that were involved and the overall experience not living up to my expectation, so part of that is on me. That said, if you want to enjoy some beautiful hand drawn artwork and an addictive combat system, Astria Ascending is also on Game Pass, so there’s little no barrier of entry without much commitment.
**Astria Ascending was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Embr
While it may have originally released two years ago, Embr is finally here for console players to have a hilarious time with their friends as you act as civilian firefighters. As you team up with your friends to fight fires, not only will you save lives by rescuing people stuck in a burning building, but maybe you’ll decide that taking their hidden pile of cash at the same time is a good way to increase your salary. I mean, who’s going to notice? Not to be taken in any serious way, Embr is almost an un-simulator, as it puts a lighthearted spin on the premise of being a firefighter, focusing on fun and wackiness more than anything else.You’re an Embr Respondr, basically the last line of defense since public funding for firefighting has run dry. While there is a single player campaign, don’t expect any real narrative, as you’re simply placed in new levels as you progress, aiming to earn the most amount of stars and fulfilling your different objectives along the way. There’s no one way to complete a stage either. If you need to save someone on the third floor of a building, maybe you fight the fire from the front door, slowly working your way up as you put out fires along the way. Maybe instead you use your ladder to get to a higher floor then smash your way through some doors, only to then toss the person you’re saving safely to the ground onto a trampoline. It’s up to you, and I found the less conventional the solution, the more fun I would have.
Not your typical firefighter, an Embr Respondr will utilize a number of tools at their disposal. First and foremost is your extinguisher, something that resembles a Super Soaker more than a typical fire hose you’d expect, along with an axe which is how you’ll break down doors and smash apart anything else breakable. As you earn more cash from mission completions and possibly lining your pocket with others’ valuables, you’ll be able to purchase a number of other tools to aid in your emergency response career, such as deployable ladders, trampolines, water grenades and more. Each tool can also be upgraded significantly, though this is going to take quite a while to achieve since there are different currencies and the costs aren’t cheap by any means.
The opening tutorial level will show you the ropes of being a Respondr, how to fight the flames and save people along the way. It’s quite simple and there’s not much to memorize, but even from the opening level you’ll notice how janky and clunky the controls feel. Instead of completely putting out flames, you instead kind of carve a path of safety with your extinguisher, as the flames can spread quite easily and quickly. Not only will you have to watch for fire all around you, but electricity still flows through the buildings, and if you spray some exposed wires, you’re going to electrocute yourself and your partners if you are standing nearby. On the flip side, you can also use water as a conduit to have electricity flow from one wire to another should you want to have a certain switch powered and enabled.
Situations can escalate quickly. One accidental swipe at a gas container and you might be blocked off from one pathway or cause an explosive barrel to set fire to a whole room. Don’t reach someone in need quick enough and maybe it’ll be too late and they’ll simply be a pile of bones, or the building is about to collapse on top of you. Regardless of the danger you got a job to do, and you want to do as best as you can for those five star ratings.
While there’s a number of different modes and objectives you can choose per level, rescuing survivors is always a blast. Your first few will be your standard style of grabbing them and literally carrying them outside to safety, but that’s boring. Why not smash a window and toss them off the second or third floor? There’s a pile of mattresses, so if they land on those they’ll be fine. I hope your aim is good, because if you miss they’ll instantly turn into a skeleton and die. Hilarity for all due to the ragdoll physics.
Your tiny extinguisher that resembles a cool Super Soaker I had once as a kid has quite a reservoir, but the flames you’re fighting against are almost never ending, so to refill you’ll have to find small pools of water, like a kitchen sink for example. Another tool you’ll need to rely on is a small tablet that acts as a special vision, allowing you to see through walls and where clients needs saving. This tablet can even be upgraded to show other vital information like health of survivors remaining or even hidden caches that you’ll want to check out for some extra pay.
You’ll be able to play 25 different missions across three separate districts, each becoming much more challenging than the last. Some of the later missions becomes quite involved and challenging, like having to take a gondola to reach the upper floors and get back down safely, that is unless you are creative with your ladder and trampoline placement. Instead of a difficulty name, instead missions are rated on a danger rating, with the higher being much more challenging. As you earn stars for completion based on a number of different factors, this is how you’ll unlock new levels and your cash can be spent on your equipment and upgrades.
There’s a number of different missions you can choose to play as well in each stage. These drastically change the gameplay based on what mode you choose, altering the main objective. Rescue missions are your standard fare where you need to save a certain mount of people from the building before it burns down. One of my favorites are Salvage Missions. Here you’ll instead need to save the client’s belongings by placing them outside the burning building. Finding small little items may only net you a buck or two, where expensive items and equipment is how you’ll quickly rack up the cash towards your goal. Finding the higher priced items is the key to completing these stages in time. Demolition is basically the opposite of the main goal, seeing how quickly you can destroy the building by blowing up barrels and other ways to spread fire and mayhem. There are a handful of other mission types as well, seven in total, but these were my favorites of the bunch, so there’s plenty of variety for you to enjoy with your friends with daily and weekly challenges thrown in as well.
While completely playable on your own, Embr’s real enjoyment comes from playing alongside three other friends where there will be plenty of laughs and probably a good amount of swearing (if you’re not playing with your kids of course). The host chooses which mission and mode to play and once all the players stand within the starting area you’re whisked off to play. It seems missions scale based on how many players there are, as we had way more objectives to fulfil the more players we had compared to playing alone, so everyone needs to pull their weight. Given that every mission is basically a sandbox to play how you wish, no two playthroughs will be the same. With cross-platform play, in theory it shouldn’t take long to find a match with others online, though even still, there’s usually not a lot of lobbies hosted at any given time whenever I would check.
Played in first person, having your Respondr do exactly what you want can be frustrating at the best of times. Controls in general seem very clunky and awkward, almost as if the game was designed to be played in VR but later adapted for a controller. I’m not sure if developers Muse Games were going for that Human: Fall Flat kind of purposeful awkwardness, but even after a handful of hours, I still had issues placing ladders exactly how I wanted and a plethora of constant smaller bugs. It should be noted that this review was originally going to be written by someone else, but because of how the camera and movement works, she felt physically nauseous after playing each mission. There are even some motion sickness option toggles, so I’m guessing this isn’t a rare occurrence.
Embr is quite bright and colorful, almost as if it came out of a comic or kids cartoon. For how destructible the environments are, there’s plenty of household items that are all detailed. Level design of the buildings themselves are done well and quite varied and seeing how each player dresses up their Respondr is always good for a laugh. Unfortunately, even on an Xbox Series X, it felt like there were some framerate issues when things became quite chaotic. The audios has kind of an elevator jazzy type of music and your extinguisher certainly sounds like you’re spraying water, but there’s nothing else of note really.
Viewing Embr critically I could list a ton of problems and issues I encountered along the way. Playing online with a friend or two makes me forget all these when we’re laughing because I just yeeted someone from the third story and missed landing them safely on the mattresses below. The laughs are memorable alongside some friends if you’re simply playing for fun and not focusing on the arduous grind to unlock everything. Embr doesn’t take itself seriously, and if you can do the same there’s some enjoyment to be had alongside others.
**Embr was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
In Sound Mind
I feel I need to be completely honest from the start; I wasn’t looking forward to playing In Sound Mind at first. Not because of any fault of the devs or game itself, but I’m simply not good at handling scary horror games. Oddly enough, scary movies don’t phase me at all, nor does gore, but when it’s in game form I turn softer than a newborn kitten and generally don’t enjoy myself because of my nerves. But when duty calls, I put on my big boy pants and do what needs to be done, which is what I did for In Sound Mind, developed by We Create Stuff.Having seen what they’ve worked on previously, best known for a popular Half-Life 2 mod, Nightmare House 2, I too must be honest and will admit my expectations weren’t all that high. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong though, as after playing through In Sound Mind, I came away quite impressed with how clever it was made for a number of reasons, as they’ve really stepped up in quality with its gameplay and soundtrack.
I initially thought that as a horror game I’d simply be running away and hiding like in most, but instead experienced a psychological thriller that was designed well, strung together with an interesting story and given new mechanics as you progress. This isn’t your typical horror game, so don’t expect completely dark rooms, hiding from enemies, jump scares, blood all over the walls and tons of gore. Instead you’re treated to some really abstract imagery that could only happen in one’s mind, so it’s a good thing that’s exactly where much of this takes place.
You are Desmond Miles, a therapist who wakes up in his apartment building. As he looks out the window you see that the city has become flooded, but there’s something else in the water that looks toxic, essentially trapping you within its walls. This isn’t the building you remember though, as there seems to be many dark manifests blocking certain paths and you notice that some of the other apartments are the homes which seem to be former patients of yours. As you explore these dwellings you’ll find an old cassette tape that has a recording of your therapy sessions with them. Playing these tapes turn back time, allowing you to go through a doorway into that world, their world and mind. It’s clear these patients had some serious trauma happen to them, and as you uncover each story you get a feeling for how their lives and struggles really were, even if it’s told in an unsettling manner.
As you explore each tape for answers, you’ll find a connected story that is quite interesting, so I don’t want to spoil anything given its 10-ish hour playtime depending on your desire to search levels for hidden collectables. It seems someone is watching you during all of this though, calling you randomly through the payphones or landlines you come across during your journey, almost taunting you every step of the way? Who is this antagonist and what does he have to do with everything? Patience and grace will be how you piece it all together.
As you journey from one tape to the next, each of which will have its own unique setting, weapons, puzzles, mechanics and boss fights. Desmond begins with only a flashlight, more for lighting the way in dark places instead of a form of offence, eventually finding weapons along the way such as a pistol and shotgun if you take the time to explore. Each tape also introduces new mechanics and tools in a way that makes sense to the story that allow you to explore the hub apartment area further once you have them.
For example, the first tape that deals with his patient, Virigina, is a young girl who had a terrible accident and doesn’t want anyone to look at her due to her disfigured appearance. You can’t combat her by traditional means, so instead you’re given a piece of broken mirror. This allows will scare her away from you if she sees herself in the reflection. This mirror shard also is utilized to uncovering many secrets that can only be seen in its reflection with hints and notes on the walls that you won’t see in the real world. Each level and tape introduces a new tool like this in a clever way that relates to the story and will be needed to defeat each boss, playing out more like a puzzle rather than a normal firefight. These new tools will also allow you access new areas, such as the shard being able to cut away police tape or smashing boards down, so you’re constantly making progress in the main apartment hub each time you come back from finishing a tape at a logical pace.
Each level is very unique and differs from one another because each is a about a different patient and their experiences. The second tape for example is nothing like the first, having you dealing with dark and light whereas Virginia’s story is set in a rundown grocery store, so there’s always some variety that takes place from tape to tape. Each tape takes about two hours or so depending on your puzzle solving skills and how much time you want to spend searching for collectable pills that can permanently increase your stats like health and stamina.
The majority of the cannon fodder enemies don’t pose much threat once you have your pistol, acting more like deterrents and tension building. Ammo, health and batteries for your flashlight are generally pretty plentiful if you take the time to look around. What I did appreciate was that instead of straight up giving you direct waypoints or blatantly telling you how to deal with certain enemies or bosses, you’re instead given just enough clues and hints that you’ll put two and two together yourself.
There are a few minor issues though that I did frustrate though. Instead of having a simple way to choose your weapon or specific tool, you have to cycle through your inventory, which of course can be a pain when you’re being chased and you’re fumbling as you try to choose your pistol. Lastly, being played in first person, you’re going to detest whenever you need to jump across any gaps or want to ‘climb’ up onto other objects; it’s very clumsy and just doesn’t work all that well.
I was expecting a very dark adventure filled with blood lined walls and such, as that’s generally the go-to for horror games. Instead, In Sound Mind does have some interesting sights to take in, and there’s a surprisingly amount of color in its palette, even in the darker sections. While textures and animations won’t impress, its overall colorful aesthetic is satisfying. The soundtrack however was the best part, performed by The Living Tombstone, there’s some great tracks to be found and enjoyed.
In Sound Mind was a psychological thriller that quite surprised me. Instead of relying on gore or jump scares, it utilizes its atmosphere and setting to form a certain tone and tenseness. There are some serious subject matters that are dealt with here, but respectfully and in a thoughtful way that was interesting and made me want to move onto the next tape once I completed one. Oh, and you can pet the cat too.
**In Sound Mind was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Tails of Iron
One of my favorite movies growing up as a kid was the animated classic, The Secret of NIMH. The only reason I mention this is because it has a somewhat similar setting, as Tails of Iron has you playing as Redgi, a rat who will embark on a fantastic journey. An adventure that will surely test your combat skills, Tails of Iron has quite a dark setting and plot for how cute the characters and design appear. Don’t let its appealing art style fool you though, you’re in for a brutal and punishing adventure.The time has come for the rat King to choose a new heir to the throne, so his two sons decide to have a duel in front of everyone to see who is most worthy. Redgi of course wins with ease, but just like the Red Wedding, disaster strikes and the Frog Clan, led by Greenwart, not only kills your father but destroys your whole kingdom in the process. You somehow survive, vowing to take revenge on Greenwart but also rebuild your home, Rat Fort. The Frog Clan is merciless though and it will be a long hard and dangerous fight to take back your home as the frogs too have allies of their own.
While the story itself is your standard fare, somehow they’ve got such an iconic narrator that voices all of the important bits that I had to sit up and take notice whenever he spoke. None other than Doug Cockle, best known as Geralt from The Witcher series, narrates all that happens on screen as you try to rescue your family and restore your kingdom; a tail worth telling.
As you explore your kingdom you’ll encounter many enemies, so you’ll first need to save some of your companions so that they can aid you along the way in your adventure. These companions may fight alongside you in certain areas or boss fights, so you won’t always feel so alone as you explore the handful of different biomes. Each area has a vast amount of underground tunnels, these are rats and insects after all. While there’s an overall map you can see how each tunnel and area connects, there are secrets to be found if you search hard enough too.
As you save your brothers and rebuild your home, they too will reopen their shops, allowing you to craft weapons, forge armor and cook recipes. Of course during your adventure you’ll need to search and kill enemies for the resources needed to do so, but taking the time to do so early on will make a huge difference later when things become much more difficult when you start to take a stand against the Frog Clan.
While you have a main quest and objective, there are a handful of side quests available that reward you with new gear or precious gold. This gold is how you’ll afford to rebuild your kingdom, but these side quests are the aspect I enjoyed the least with my time with Tails of Iron. While labelled a “side quest”, they are anything but. At some parts of the main questline you won’t actually be able to progress any further until you have enough gold to afford the costs needed. This seriously halts any progression to stand still as you take a side quest to do a fetch quest and kill a certain enemy located in a specific tunnel.
Funny enough there’s always just enough side quests to reward you with the gold needed to progress the main story, but there’s another issue as well. Side quests can only be taken one at a time, so you’ll take one, go kill your enemies, hand in, grab a new one and repeat. The problem with this too is that you’ll not only sometimes have to go to the same area repeatedly, but there’s also no fast travel, so you’ll have to backtrack every single time as well. Having to run all the way to one corner of an area to kill a few enemies, run back and do it all over again was frustrating, as I wish I could have simply taken all the side quests at once and not have to backtrack multiple times for no reason. This seriously padded the playtime, to the point where I started to not enjoy myself as much when I was doing important tasks like saving my family.
As you kill enemies you’ll be able to harvest or loot them. Some items you gather act as a form of currency, trading certain amount for other items in shops, or maybe you’ll harvest some cooking ingredients along the way as well, used in recipes that can permanently give you some health upgrades. You’ll also find iron bars and such to craft weapons and armor, so it pays to not run past most enemies, but it certainly does make each journey take much longer than you’d expect. While there’s no manual save system, you can sit at any bench or chair during your journey, as these act as save points. They are quite frequent so there’s not much of a loss in time when you do die, you just have to remember to actually activate them whenever you want to save.
Combat is where Tails of Iron truly shines though. I’ll admit, it has a Souls-like feel to it, as you need to dodge, parry, counter and time your attacks, but once you get the hang of the controls and enemy tells, it becomes much more satisfying. If you try to simply smash the attack button, you’re going to die fairly quickly. Combat is very slow and methodical, as you’ll always be waiting for enemy tells to know how you should react. You have no stamina bar, so you can roll and dodge when needed, something you’ll need to become quite adept with when you’re almost always surrounded in most unfair fights against a couple of enemies.
Normal attacks are done with the ‘Right Bumper’, heavy attacks with ‘Right Trigger’ which can also be held for a more powerful charged up version, ‘Left Trigger’ will hold out your shield and ‘B’ button will dodge and roll. Knowing when to use each type of action and reaction is something you’ll need to learn quickly. Enemies telegraph the majority of their moves, so you’ll need quick reaction times if you want any success. Battles may be slow, but you’ll only have a moment to counter with what action you want. Normal attacks can be dodged or blocked, but if the enemy has some colored lines in front of them, they’re about to do some sort of special move.
White lines indicate they’re about to use some sort of projectile towards you, blockable with your shield. Yellow means they’re about to rush at you and will hurt you if you don’t parry at the right time, stunning them for a few moments to get a few extra hits in. Red lines means you’re going to get massively hurt if you don’t dodge at the right moment, not possible to counterattack. And lastly, if they have a red circle you’ll need to dodge again, sometimes twice, as these are usually the most devastating moves. Because combat is slow paced, you’ll need to be patient and almost always counter until you gain access to heavy two handed weapons that can break through some defenses.
You’ll also get a bow and arrow, eventually a crossbow and other weapons, allowing you to shoot from afar, especially at pesky flying enemies. You’ll amass quite a number of weapons and armor along your journey, each with their own stats, damage resistance types and strengths. While you have to be at specific boxes to change your gear, there are plenty to collect to suit your playstyle. Weapons will range from swords, axes and spears and armor varies in light, medium and heavy styles, all of which have a weight to it as well that needs to be managed.
Your first few battles are probably not going to end well. It takes time to get the combat mechanics down where you don’t have to think about it too much beforehand, but once it becomes natural you’ll be parrying and dodging with precision, even against the massive and challenging bosses. Most enemies on their own don’t pose much of a threat, but it’s usually never a fair fight, sometimes having four enemies all trying to kill you at once. While there are no difficulty options, I assure you it becomes much more fun once you become proficient at combat.
Instead of having potions or estus flasks, you instead carry a canteen that will carry your healing juice. Instead of single uses, you simply drink as much as you want to heal your health, which can be difficult mid battle, but possible. This canteen needs to be refilled, either at specific kegs or gutting certain enemies. Like save points, these aren’t terribly rare, so you’re never too far from a health refill.
Tails or Iron’s greatest strength is its beautiful 2D hand drawn aesthetic, almost as though it came straight out of some sort of kids story book, reminding me of The Secret of NIMH, Mouseguard and Redwall. Even with how cartoonish it can look, Redgi’s world is a brutal and hard one filled with violence and death. Even after a hard-fought battle against some bugs, Redgi will have orange splatter all over his clothes and shield. Animations are done quite well also and even background characters and environments are beautiful to take in.
As for its audio, Tails of Iron impresses for simply one reason; they got Doug Cockle, Geralt, to narrate the game. His raspy tone fits the gloomy setting perfectly and is a perfect performance as to be expected. Interestingly, there’s no actual voice acting elsewhere, as the rats talk to each other in the squeaky gibberish with speech bubbles indicating pictures of what they are trying to convey, which makes sense given the animal characters. The music is very fitting for its tone and each area you explore, but the narration is what takes center stage.
While it may not be as tough as others in the genre, I did enjoy most of my time with Tails of Iron. The constant backtracking along with forced “side” quests really felt like padded hours onto Redgi’s adventure, and this is where it started to tire. When I was progressing my main adventure I was wanting to continually play, but having to go back and forth through the same areas a half dozen times became tiresome. Even so, Tails of Iron will last you roughly 10 hours and you can tell it was designed and created with heart and has a lot of charm to it.
**Tails of Iron was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Crown Trick
There’s no shortage of roguelites out there, especially with smaller indie games, so when a new game releases that sells itself as a roguelite with plenty of replaybility, my interest is piqued but I keep my expectations in check. Developed by NExT Studios and published by Team17, Crown Trick is the latest rougelite that claims to add something unique to the dungeon crawling adventure, though doesn’t shy away from its high difficulty and challenge, living up to the roguelite genre at the same time. Crown Trick places you deep in a dungeon that requires a lot of planning and thought, as the key to winning is knowing that when you move, so do the enemies, much like SUPERHOT. Oh, and it’s available on GamePass, so there’s little to no barrier to checking it out if anything so far sounds interesting.You play as Elle, a young girl who is trapped in the Nightmare Realm. As you wake you’re greeted by Crown, a sentient and literal crown that informs you about your unique situation and will guide you throughout the dungeon that you’re now trapped within. As you get to know Crown better, it’s clear that it looks down on most humans, though takes a liking to Elle, helping her as she fights within the dungeons, defeating handfuls of enemies, mini-bosses and bosses along the way. As you explore further you’ll uncover the secrets that the Nightmare Realm holds, trying to delve deeper as you search for answers and who is responsible. All of the dialogue is done in text popups, which is fine and expected for a smaller indie game, though having it narrated would have added more to the experience.
Like many roguelites, you can expect to die quite often, especially for the first few hours before you get a grasp on all of Crown Trick’s mechanics as you guide Elle through randomly generated dungeons and enemies, making slight continual progress each run. As you explore the dungeon each time, you’ll come across handfuls of different weapons, relics, familiars, NPC’s and more. Beautifully animated, Crown Trick’s main catch is its turn based strategy gameplay and combat that has enemies move the same time as when you do. You’ll have to not only use regular swords, axes, spears and more, but master elements, spells, familiars and a bunch of interesting abilities, making each run a unique experience.
Crown Trick begins with a tutorial, teaching you the basics of movement between each room that is gridded. With an isometric camera, you can see everything from a top down view, allowing you to see the grid, enemies and placement of other objects so you can start to strategize. When Elle moves or acts, that’s when time flows, so you can take your time to plan what you exactly want to do, even able to skip a turn by clicking in the Right Stick if it’s better to stay in place and wait for enemies to approach you instead.
Every weapon, ability, spell and familiar has its own attack pattern and best time of use. An axe for example will attack every square surrounding Elle whereas a spear may pierce three squares in front of her at a distance. Other weapons will attack in a ‘T’ shape and other abilities can be cast at quite a distance or can be set as traps for enemies. As you start every new run you’re given the choice of two randomized weapons. Some will have higher attack values but maybe not the pattern that you prefer. Others will have certain buffs or bonuses, though you can find new weapons along the way when you clear or reach certain rooms. You’re also given a list of randomized familiars to choose from to begin your journey as well, eventually able to equip two. Because of this randomness, some runs may not go very well whereas others will go great because of the luck you had at the beginning.
Since enemies move at the same time as Elle, you can get caught in an attack or pinned in a corner if you don’t plan your movement right, which is where your Blink (teleport) comes into play. This allows you to travel across a handful of squares away from an enemy. Some attacks will surround Elle, with the squares showing how many moves until you take damage, so you need to always be conscious of when your Blink is available since it has limited uses per room.
Every enemy has a shield that blocks or negates some damage. If you’re able to break their shields you’ll be able to score a few extra hits as they’ll be stunned, so this is a tactic you’ll have to learn if you want any success later in the dungeons. There’s even a combo system in place if you can break multiple enemy shields, so there are plenty of mechanics to learn that will take a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best. You can also use objects and the environment to your advantage, such as blowing up barrels, tossing fire onto oil patches, zapping water squares with lightning, etc.
Defeating a mini-boss allows you to use them as a familiar, basically granting you access to two spells based on their element. These cost mana to used, varying on their power and usefulness. Thankfully after each room clear you’ll have mana refill, but boss rooms are much more challenging and a bit more drawn out. You’ll be able to equip two familiars at a time eventually, easily swapping between skills with the ‘Right Trigger’. With a couple dozen familiars that are randomly spawned as you go down each dungeon floor, there are plenty of different and unique mini-bosses to defeat so that you can use them on subsequent runs.
Each room is unique every time you play, as are the enemies, room layouts and relics. Relics are special bonuses that you can find that act like passive buffs for the rest of your run. Finding these can dramatically change how successful you are on a run, and since they stack you can make some really interesting and powerful combinations the longer your run lasts. Other rooms will have special treasure chests that will net you bonus gold or weapons, and some rooms will have a large crystal where you’re going to have to make a decision. These crystals will offer great bonuses, like refilled health, mana or items, but maybe these bring a curse or will hurt you. It’s a ‘risk vs reward’ system that adds some light humor if you take the time to read the fine print.
When you die, and you will many times, you wake back up at the main hub. Before going back to your desk to enter another run when you fall asleep, you’ll be able to spend Soul Crystals you find along a way, a form of currency that can be used to upgrade many facets of gameplay, like improving your potions or other upgrades that will be permanent in subsequent runs, making each run slightly better. These vendors must be saved in rooms during your dungeon adventures, eventually housing at the hub once their room is cleared and they are rescued.
With over a hundred monsters, a handful of crazy bosses, loot goblins, dozens of skills, abilities, relics and more, there’s plenty of see every time you play and start a new run. There is just enough incentive and unlocks that make for a persistent progression, like blueprints that allow for specific weapons to have a chance to appear in new runs, while keeping things interesting and fresh with every run being procedurally generated. Successful runs and finally beating a mini-boss or large boss gives a great sense of accomplishment, as does having a specific strategy work out exactly as you planned.
NExT Studios has done a wonderful job with its artistic design and aesthetic. The design is basic but the hand drawn visuals and animations give Elle and each monster some character, showing that a lot of love went into it. Looking as though it came straight out of a book my daughter would read or cartoon she’d watch, Crown Trick will delight with its colorful and cheerful visuals. As for its soundtrack, the music and sound effects of weapons and spells are interesting, but nothing as memorable. Having voiced dialogue probably would have immersed me into Elle’s adventure more, but the music that kicks in during boss sections was always a treat.
Crown Trick surprised me with its synchronous movement mechanic, adding a unique layer of strategy but allowing me to play at my own pace. If you’re into dungeon dwelling or roguelites, there’s something of value here with its charming style and great artistic style. For those not sure or on the fence, Crown Trick is available on GamePass, making trying it out as simple as it gets to see if it hooks you.
**Crown Trick was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Tales of Arise
I’ve always enjoyed the Tales series ever since the popular Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube. I’ve bought most of them since, but the last one I actually played through was Tales of Vesperia back in 2008 on Xbox 360. I absolutely adored that entry, and while I’ve skipped the last few releases, I was more than excited to play the latest Tales game now that it’s back on the Xbox platform. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series, Tales of Arise has finally arrived, and to say the wait has been worth it is a massive understatement. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a really in-depth and amazing JRPG; Tales of Arise checks the box in many ways. And no, you don’t need to have any knowledge of the series or have played any previous to enjoy Arise to its fullest, as it is its own standalone story.Tales of Arise takes place on Dahna, a planet that was invaded by a much more advanced world, Rena. When Rena invaded 300 years ago they enslaved Dahna’s population, forcing them to be slaves as they harvested Dahna’s resources. With Dahna under Rena’s control and three centuries of slavery, the people of Dahna don’t know any other way of life, being stripped of their lives, freedoms, dignity, history and all possessions.
Now that Renan’s control the lands, they’ve separated Dahna into five separate realms: Calaglia, Cyslodia, Elde Menancia, Mahag Saar and Ganath Haros, each ruled by a Lord. There’s a Crown Contest that takes place every so often where all the Lords compete to become the next Renan Sovereign, with the winner of this contest being the Lord that harvests the most Astral Energy from the Dahna population and planet, as it resides in all living things. All of these, Astral Energy is stored within each Lord’s Master Core, associated with a specific element as they do whatever it takes to gather more power, killing any Dahnan’s in the process; a means to an end.
The story begins with a mysterious Dahnan man locked behind a mask that’s unable to be removed, tired of living his life a slave for the Renan’s. As he starts to fight back, chance has it that he comes across a young woman being held against her will. Wanting to change their fate they band together to take on the oppression, though for very different reasons. Given the name Iron Mask for obvious reason, this journey begins with him as someone who has no prior memories other than being a slave. When he meets Shionne, a Renan outcast, this starts a unique relationship and bond that will twist and turn as times goes on.
Most people are taught that only Renan’s can wield powerful magic, called Astral Artes, causing their eyes to glow a bright blue when casting spells. What makes the narrative so interesting from the opening moments is that Iron Mask is unable to feel any sort of pain for some reason. He can get hurt and become injured, but wouldn’t know it since he won’t feel any sort of pain. Shionne on the other hand has something inside her that she calls her “thorns”, harshly electrocuting anyone that touches her. To escape the slave camp, Iron Mask uses a Blazing Sword, a physical manifestation of Shionne’s Astra Energy, though this sword burns anyone who wields it, so it’s fate that Iron Mask can’t feel any pain. Coincidence?
Shionne wants to take down the five Renan Lords for her own motives, but since it aligns with Iron Mask’s objective of freeing his people from Rena’s rule, they decide to take this journey together. There’s actually four other characters you’ll meet and have join you along the way; Rinwell is a young girl that has a pet owl, Hootle, and acts as primarily a spellcaster. Law is a martial artist, using his fists as his main form of punishment to monsters and Renans. Dohalim is an aristocrat, well-spoken and fights with a Bo. Lastly is Kisara, a woman knight that wields heavy armor and a shield, serving under Dohalim for many years. Each character has a very unique and interesting backstory that made me love all of them in their own way, all having a moment in the spotlight to tell their tale and having a natural character progression.
As you explore the world of Dahna, each realm is rooted deep into its main element. The opening region is bathed in fire, lava and impassable mountainsides. Another is a lush green and vibrant jungle, and there's also a frozen wasteland. Each region has its own visual style, enemies and Lord to defeat, and was a joy to explore. You’re given a map of each area, seeing where the connections to other zones lie ahead, and all of the ‘dead ends’ that almost every time has some sort of collectable or secret worth making the extra trip for. Certain areas of most maps, usually the campfires, will act as teleport spots for fast travel should you want to go back to a certain area for side quests, searching for owls or fighting mini-bosses later on in your adventure.
Arise finally adds the ability to swim in water, not something you’ll do often, but will allow you access certain areas or find other hidden collectables indicated by sparkling spot sin the water or flora. You’re also able to jump, but there’s only a few parts when leaping a small gap is required to find a collectible. There are a few puzzle-like elements in some of the dungeons, but nothing you’d expect like pushing and pulling blocks, but instead using a resource called CP (Cure Points) to unblock certain pathways, but more on that shortly.
The monsters you fight are called Zeugles, brought down from Rena and are the primary type of enemy you’ll face during your adventure. These beasts range from small bugs all the way to massive and fearsome bosses that have a huge health bar. As you explore each area you’ll see Zeugles around, allowing you to bypass or engage in combat whenever you see fit. Tales games are known for their real time dynamic action combat, featuring a new and updated battle system that still has that classic Tales feel to it at the same time. There was never really much of a need to stay back and grind anywhere, as each area tended to have just the right levels of monsters for my group. With a handful of different difficulty options and a way to customize your battle commands from Auto to Manual, you can play simply for the story if you want for the most part, as the AI can take care of combat if you decide to further customize their commands and behavior in battle.
Each character can be setup with three aerial Artes and three ground. Eventually you’ll unlock a second bank to equip up to two sets, allowing you to easily change between the two by holding ‘Left Trigger’. Each Artes will have an elemental properly if it’s not a physical attack, allowing for some unique combinations or strategic planning when you’re taking on enemies with certain elemental properties to exploit their weakness.
Unlike most RPG’s, the Artes system is really interesting, allowing you to cast as many of these skills as you wwant, even successively, provided you have the AG (Arts Gauge) points. To cast your spells and special moves, Artes, you need a certain amount of AG to do so, allowing you to string together combos. AG replenishes slowly over time during battle, and you can utilize normal attacks in the meantime to keep the combo meter going while your AG refills. It’s a really interesting system, not having to worry about mana like in most other games.
Cause enough damage quickly and you’ll eventually be able to perform a Boost Strike, allowing for an instant finish of the enemy you have targeted. It usually takes about 90% of an enemies’ health bar to be depleted to trigger these, but they act as instant finishers on non-boss foes. Depending on which character you choose to ‘tag’ in with the D-Pad, you’re given a super flashy and extravagant special move where two characters team up for this Boost Strike. Even after 40+ hours of gameplay, I still enjoyed seeing these take out enemies. The other reason for using Boost Strikes isn’t just for raw damage, but to be strategic in countering enemies. For example, Rinwell can cancel a Zeugle’s casting if used at the right time, or how Kisara can stop a charging enemy in its tracks. Learning the best time to use these will become paramount when you’re facing bosses and optional side quest Zeugles. Boost Strikes also refill some of your depleted AG instantaneously, so there's some times where holding off until you've casted a few more Artes is worthwhile.
You’ll need to be quick with your reflexes as well though, trying to roll and avoid damage when a Zeugle is about to attack. Time this just right and you’ll get a perfect evasion, allowing you to sneak in a powerful counter attack during a brief slowdown of time. While some may be disappointed to know that multiplayer has been omitted this time around, having a team of six characters didn’t make it feel like a lonely experience at all.
While you don’t have to worry about mana in the traditional sense, you do need to watch your CP (Cure Points). While you can use items to heal, CP is how you perform your support abilities and Artes like buffs, heals, regens and resurrections in combat. This means you’re able to spam your damaging Artes no problem (while managing your regenerating AG), but you’ll have to mind your CP points, replenished with special rare and expensive items or resting at a camp fire or inn for the night. There are even certain areas in the field that will be blocked off unless you spend some CP to use a special skill to knock down the barrier. For example, many dead ends will have these walls that need to have CP spent to knock them down. Do you spend some of your precious CP in a long dungeon to hopefully get some worthwhile loot (hint: it’s basically always worth spending the CP) knowing it’s the same recourse you need to heal yourself?
I don’t even know where to begin to try and describe how amazingly gorgeous Tales of Arise is. From its opening moments until the credits rolled, I must have taken at least a hundred screenshots or so to use as my wallpaper, something I don’t normally bother with. For the most important cutscenes you’re treated to hand drawn anime style visuals, and even many of the typical dialogue parts were stylized in panels that look almost like a moving comic book, adding to some of the dramatic flair. Characters, environments, even every Boost Strike move is flashy, colorful and a joy to just look at. More than a few times I found myself stopping somewhere to just look far into the distance and enjoy the vistas.
The same can be said about Tales of Arise’s soundtrack. Filled with orchestral precision, each area has its own tone and feeling with the underlying tracks. Every character is voice acted to perfection, and even though I’ve heard the same battle cries a million times throughout my journey, the quality overall is perfect as it gets. This is one of those soundtracks I’ll probably go and purchase on CD or Vinyl to have for my collection, it’s on par with other JRPG classics.
Generally when I review a game I keep a 'pro' and 'con' list to help me keep track of what I want to write about and convey about the experience I had. Everything you’ve read above is on my pro list, and I had an absolutely unforgettable experience with Tales of Arise until its final credits. As for my cons and negatives list, it was actually blank by the time the credits rolled after about 40 hours. Sure I could nitpick and purposely find a few minor things here and there, but honestly, nothing detracted from the overall experience and I was up many late nights well past 3AM just because I couldn’t put it down, wanting to find out what happened next. There’s even some twists and turns that surprised me, as I was about 20 hours in thinking I had reached the pinnacle of what I thought was the main quest, only to have it open up further for a second ‘half’.
Tales of Arise is not only now my favorite Tales game to date, even surpassing my beloved Vesperia, it’s easily in my top 3 JRPG’s of all time, deserving to be compared to and alongside the best of the genre, and hands down my Game of the Year pick for 2021 without any hesitation. A compelling and complex story, wonderful character development, addictive combat, plenty of side activities to partake in like fishing or farming, stunning visuals and perfect audio are just a few reasons I can’t recommend it enough. Tales of Arise was an unforgettable masterpiece that I’ll surely play through again on NG+ eventually and anyone that’s a JRPG fan needs to play, the sooner the better.
**Tales of Arise (Ultimate Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Super Animal Royale
I feel I should be upfront about something right away; I generally hate Battle Royales. Be it Apex Legends, Warzone, PUBG, Fortnite or the near endless others in the genre, I simply don’t enjoy them all that much. Sure I try them out to see if there’s finally one that will get me into the genre, but nothing has worked yet. Needless to say, I was a little hesitant to even give Super Animal Royale a chance because I assumed it would have the same outcome for me. Here we are weeks later and I’m still dabbling in a few matches here and there though, actually enjoying myself when I get a few rounds in.Developed by Pixile Studios and published by Modus Games, Super Animal Royale is the latest entry into the overcrowded Battle Royale genre, but with their own twist. While the core mechanics are unchanged, pitting 64 players against one another in singles, duos or four player squads in a map that shrinks over time, instead of being ultra-competitive, you play as cute animals that are trying to be the last survivor(s).
Also, Super Animal Royale is played in a top down view, not something you see often in the Battle Royale genre, so it takes some getting used to at first. While it’s still competitive given your objective of trying to be the last one standing, the barrier of entry is much lower compared to other games and clearly doesn’t take itself as seriously. You get to customize your critters with clothing items, accessories, weapon skins and more. Given that it’s also free to play, there’s no reason to not check it out to see if it’s something you’d maybe enjoy, or the kids in the household that haven’t moved up to the more mature games yet.
Not only do you play as cute animals like cats, dogs, foxes, pandas and a bunch of others, even some of the weapons are ‘cutified’ as well, like skunk tails that make for poison gas in an area when thrown. Like most other Battle Royales, you begin a pregame lobby before you start the match on a plane, choosing where to deploy by parachuting to the ground to scavenge for weapons, armor and supplies before others around you do the same. As time goes on the map will shrink, forcing you to be in closer vicinity to your enemies until only one survives.
What I really enjoyed about Super Animal Royale was how it wasn’t all that stressful to play compared to other games in the genre. If I died it was quick and easy to leave and join another lobby before the match starts in a few moments. With crossplay enabled I never had an issue finding a match or filling a lobby full of players.
It will take some time to earn a bunch of rewards like new breeds, skins and other accessories, but you’re always making progress towards something. With seasonal content, battle passes and more, it’s free to play, but dropping a few bucks here and there for SAW tickets (paid currency) and you can get some cool looking skins and accessories if you want to stand out and show off amongst others. What I did enjoy is that most of the cosmetics that aren’t DLC are earned, not necessarily bought.
Not only will you use a plethora of weapons to defeat your enemy furries, but you can also use mounts which double as a vehicle for quick movement when trying to get away from the poison gas that shrinks the playfield of the map, but also can be used to run over enemies and cause damage as well. There’s nothing quite like getting a kill while using a huge hamster ball or riding an Emu as a teddy bear.
While there’s not a ton of different weapons, you have your typical pistols, SMG’s, Rifles, Snipers and more, but like other Battle Royales, there are different tiers as well denoted by their color grade. Obviously the better the weapon and tier the more likely you are to win a firefight, so search everywhere you can for any upgrades. You’re able to hold a few different weapons at a time, so make sure you got something for every situation and that suits your playstyle.
Since Super Animal Royale isn’t played in first person like most Battle Royales and utilizes a top down camera, a ‘fog of war’ mechanic is used, meaning you can only see what’s in front of your cone of vision, not around corners or behind objects. This makes for some interesting strategic gameplay, hiding in areas waiting for an ambush or knowing you’re vulnerable out in the open where everyone can see you.
Simply looking at its bright and colorful aesthetics, you probably wouldn’t guess that Super Animal Royale is a Battle Royale with its adorable characters until you see them shooting one another with some assault rifles. Super Animal Royale doesn’t take itself seriously and I think that’s why I find myself going back to it now and then, dabbling in a few matches here and there. Super Animal Royale might not be what comes to mind when you think of a Battle Royale game, but it’s absolutely adorable and very simple to parachute into for nearly anyone to enjoy.
**Super Animal Royale (Super Edition) was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Bus Simulator 21
When I reviewed the inaugural Bus Simulator on Xbox One back in 2019, I wasn’t blown away but I did understand what it was attempting to accomplish for its specific target audience. It had a laundry list of minor issues and didn’t wow me with its bland visuals, but I still had a certain calm and relaxing experience as I drove around the city on different routes. Well, it’s a new year and Bus Simulator 21 is now here for the masses, so I was interested to see what has been changed and improved, hoping for a slightly better experience with a few needed improvements from the last outing.“Your Bus. Your Route. Your Schedule.”. That’s the tagline of Bus Simulator 21 and encapsulates its core game quite well. Sure, most of your time will be sitting in one of your busses, driving a route to earn money for your company and drive citizens to their destinations, but the other half of the game is the management part of running a transportation business. Part bus driver, part city planner, Bus Simulator 21 expands on its base game allowing for much more personalization with bus liveries and route planning across two very large maps compared to the previous game.
While I’m not a bus enthusiast by any means, some people out there are, and they’ll be happy to know that the same bus brands make their return like MAN, Setra, Mercedes and IVECO, but developers stillalive studios wanted more, so they’ve also now included other brands like Volvo, Alexander Dennis, Scania, BYD, Grande West, and Blue Bird, adding to a total of 30 licensed busses and unique options that are a first for the series. They all appear to be authentic, as you can sit in the driver seat in first person and toggle every knob, switch and lever as you drive from stop to stop.
Before we delve into the rest of the game maybe you’re wondering what’s exactly new in Bus Simulator 21 compared to the last version like I was. While there’s not really a bullet point list of new features, a few of the notables would be the latest inclusion of not only double-decker busses but also now e-buses as well. Driving these new additions are an interesting addition and you’re even able to walk to the top deck as well. The other major addition is a whole new map, Angel Shores, based in the US. The European Seaside Valley map returns from the previous game but it’s been slightly revamped and improved but also includes the map extension, making for a massive city to plan, route and drive. There’s also a handful of other minor improvements like AI, route planning and character customization but those previously listed are the major additions for this year’s entry.
Before you delve into your new bus driving career though you’ll be tasked with creating your character, vastly improved from the last version with 15,000 combinations, but still quite limited compared to other games. The choices are decent, though there’s some odd clothing choices available, as I had my driver in a crop top and super short skirt, not something you’d expect for professional bus attire. There’s a complete lack of lip syncing as well when you do see people talking to you up close, not a deal breaker, but distracting enough to take the immersion away.
Once you complete a short tutorial you’ll be able to choose one of the two maps depending on your preference. I of course felt right at home in Seaside Valley from the previous game but chose the new Angel Shores map to see if there were many differences. I guess given that developers are based overseas, as is the European map, it was specifically pointed out that you can turn right when at a red light, a common rule of road here though I guess not overseas. Just like the original map, each has its own districts that vary from residential, commercial and more. One area was littered with restaurants, clubs and a place where the nightlife comes alive, so I had to create a route that serviced that area during the later hours when citizens were wanting to go out for a night on the town.
As you progress through the career you’ll have main objective to complete, though you aren’t forced to do them right away if you want to sit back and enjoy driving certain routes and earn some cash for your booming business. You’ll start with a few small routes with just a few stops, eventually creating more routes as you earn enough to purchase more busses and having multiple stops all across the city. Your main objective isn’t just to constantly drive a bus route either, but plan and build routes and schedules that will earn you the most money and service the city for its citizens.
As you drive routes and stop at your scheduled bus stops you’ll drop off and pickup new passengers. The more you service these stops they’ll be able to level up, allowing more routes to connect to them. In the beginning a bus stop might only support one or two bus routes at a time, but drive the route enough and they’ll level up, allowing you to add more routes to them as you progress. As you drive and complete routes you’ll also earn cash for the business based on how well and accurately you drove. You’ll lose star ratings based on if you hit any potholes, objects, cars, people, speed, forget to use your turns signals and more, just like in real life. This is a simulator so you need to keep all of this in mind, as well as being at your stops on time. As you drive better you’ll earn more. While it’s not explicitly explained, I believe that the better you drive a route, the better the AI will drive it as well if you choose to have them take over. You can leave driving a route at any time and have a fellow AI employee take over at any time, and vice versa if you want to drive a specific route that’s already on the road.
You can build as many routes as you want, connecting any of the bus stops on the map, but you’re given much more information about people’s habits and wants, when peak times are and more, so if you delve into it you can earn much more if planned properly. Have a super heavy route full of riders that say leave school at a certain time or want to go downtown at night, then maybe you’ll want a larger or double-decker bus for those specific routes. Have very windy roads and sharp turns? Then it’s probably not a good idea to set a double length articulating bus in that area.
There are numerous difficulty and accessibility options, allowing you to customize nearly every aspect you want, like turning traffic violations off, speedbumps, potholes, automatic cashier, etc. Driving a bus route is much more involved than simply driving point A to B, as you’ll need to do your best to stay on schedule while dealing with traffic, fare evaders, changing weather and more. The simulator in the title really lives up to its name, as you’ll need to hit a switch or button for nearly everything you want to do on your bus, from turning on your lights, lowering the hydraulics, extending the ramp, e-brake and more. There’s a redial menu that you can use to quickly access these or you can play in first person and actually hit each button if you want the most authentic experience of being a bus driver, even if it takes much more time to do so.
A few quality of life improvements have been added, like being able to jump to any specific stop on the map, fast forward time, fast travel to specific points like your headquarters, bus shop or even take over any route from the NPC’s currently driving it whenever you want. Even with these minor features added, the overall gameplay felt much more fluid with not so much downtime as before. One feature that wasn’t improved though was the atrocious voice acting from the passengers that say random one-liners from time to time, and while there’s more sayings than before, it’s some of the worst voice acting I can recall.
With many more busses this time, there’s surely a few that will be your favorite, as they all drive quite differently based on their engine, turning radius, length and more. The articulated buses were very challenging to take in tight corners, but the smaller regular sized buses were much easier to maneuver in the smaller streets. The driving and turning itself does take quite a bit of getting used to and I guarantee you’re going to hit quite a few objects for the first while until you get a feel for it. You’re even able to update your buses with liveries and different colors and paint schemes. There’s even some ads you can place on the sides of buses, and while it’s nowhere near as in-depth or customizable that you’d expect from a Forza title, it certainly helped me distinguish which bus was what in the menus.
Creating and editing routes still feels a bit ‘off’. This is all done in the menus with the city map and is completely functional, but can be quite confusing once routes start to overlap each other. Routes are color coded, but having two slightly different shades of blue overlapping one another can be quite confusing as to which one you’re currently highlighting. I found it easier to delete a route and build a new one rather than editing, but you do eventually get used to the wonky menu controls the more you spend time with it.
Those that have a steering wheel for Xbox will be happy to know that a handful are currently officially supported: HORI - Racing Wheel Overdrive, Logitech G920 Driving Force and the Thrustmaster TMX Force Feedback. I have a Fanatec wheel and there are others out there, and even though they aren’t on the official supported list, they should all still work as long as the Xbox itself recognizes it as a steering wheel. You’ll simply need to configure the wheel manually and all the functions may not completely work, but it’s still great that there’s wheel support at launch, adding another layer of simulation.
Driving a bus route can be tedious and boring if you do it for a long time, so why not invite a friend to help you out? Playable in single or multiplayer, Bus Simulator 21 allows you to invite up to three other friends to help your growing transport business, with some caveats. Playing cooperatively, you and your friends can either split up and drive separate routes, drive in convoy along the same route, or ride along in each other’s bus checking passengers for fare dodgers. Be careful though, as any fines they incur goes towards your company, so if you have random people join your game and they start hitting pedestrians, you can lose all of your money and go in debt within minutes, though there are a bunch of toggles you can choose to restrict players that join you from doing certain things to prevent this.
While there are a bunch of improvements from the last game like the new dynamic weather system and a day and night cycle that does add to its realism and is welcomed, it still isn’t going to impress you with its visuals. Sure, the busses themselves are recreated to appear as their actual real counterparts, but aside from that everything else still looks quite dated. Passengers look simply 'fine' at best, but animations of walking and movement is quite janky and stiff. The environments and roads look decent, but anything not directly on the road like buildings and rock formations are of a much lower quality. Audio is basically the same, with the busses having a whirling engine sound, hearing the hydraulics release its pressure as it lowers and even being able to hear the turning blinkers, but the passenger voice acting is so terrible that it’s incredibly distracting.
Bus Simulator 21 is a slight improvement from its previous outing, adding new and welcome features like a whole new map and bus types, but still feels like it’s lacking a lot of polish. Surely simulator fans will overlook its shortcomings and enjoy creating and driving their routes but it’s a bit of a harder sell for casual bus drivers.
**Bus Simulator 21 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X with a controller/Fanatec steering wheel/pedals**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Lake
Xbox’s Summer Game Fest was a great event, as there were a ton of games that released limited timed demos that we got to try and get an early look at. One of the games that easily stood out for me was Lake, a gorgeous narrative driven game that revolves around you fulfilling your duties as a mail courier and speaking to your customers. I’ll admit, as someone who is a courier for their day job, this was the main draw that initially intrigued me with Lake, but by the credits rolled I was glad to have gone on such a unique journey.Now and then I need a completely different gaming experience to take a break from the high action and multiplayer games I normally gravitate towards to. I also like to reminisce about my youth, a time where things were just simpler. There was no internet, no cellphones, people knew one another and talked to strangers in public without much worry. I’m glad to have had the childhood I did, so when a game is set in the same time period, it’s almost like going back in time.
Developed by Gamious and published by Whitethorn Digital, Lake is set back in 1986 when life was much simpler, set in the small sleepy town of Providence Oaks, P.O. for short. Life in Providence Oaks is as laid back as it gets. There’s a corner store where everyone gets their supplies, a local diner that has that old classic style with vinyl covered booths and blueberry pie that is unlike anything else you’ve ever had, and a few people that live off the main road up a dirt trail, all surrounding a vast and gorgeous lake.
You are Meredith Weiss, a successful woman who works in IT in a large city, coming back to her hometown of Providence Oaks to not only take a break from her busy city life, but to help her dad who’s taking a two week vacation down in Florida. You agree to give a hand, as a small town like this really only has the one mail courier, so what better person to fill in for your dad other than his daughter who grew up in the small town? Can you readjust to a slower paced lifestyle after all these years away or you will return home at the first opportunity? The choices will be up to you.
For the next two weeks back in your hometown you’ll be tasked with delivering the mail. This is a small town though where everyone knows everyone else, and their business, so naturally many of the people are going to talk your ear off, especially when they recognize Meredith who has been gone for twenty years or so. You’ll come across many familiar faces that you haven’t seen since you were quite young, catching up on all the latest news and gossip of the small rustic town. Some people you won’t recognize as well, so maybe you’ll want to get to know them more, possibly igniting a spark of friendship or something more between you and them.
Lake tells a simple but interesting narrative in one of the most laid back ways I’ve ever experienced. Lake is very grounded in reality, having you perform a mundane job but allowing you to take in beautiful vistas during your route, talking to interesting characters both quirky and rude. There’s no right or wrong answers when choosing dialogue or way to play, further reinforcing the laid back atmosphere Lake exudes. When your two week vacation is up, will you decide to return back to your fast paced city life, or was your time in Providence Oaks an eye opener for a lifestyle that you missed for a long time? You’ll be able to see the final choices and endings coming a mile away, and while my first playthrough didn’t have the most satisfying ending, I still felt like I made the right choice for my Meredith.
Lake is such a laid back experience that you’re not forced to play in any specific way, even to the point where you can even deliver the mail in any order you desire as well. I honestly thought the mail delivery gameplay portions were going to be much more structured or timed, but they are not, completely fitting for the slow paced setting of Providence Oaks. More importantly than your day job during your vacation is talking and reconnecting with people in your hometown, all of which are interesting in their own way with their own quirks and personalities.
Because this is such a small town set back in the mid 80’s, as you deliver mail, certain people will want to chat with you, seemingly forever sometimes. It’s a good thing you aren’t timed for your route or have a quota to complete other than your dozen or so deliveries a day before you return back to the post office to complete your day. After a hard day at work you’ll have the choice of watching TV or reading a book if you didn’t make any other plans with other people during the course of your day. Some people will ask you for favors if you choose certain dialogue options, such as bringing their sick cat to get checked out, or maybe cat sitting after work one night. You can choose whatever you think is best, as there are no right or wrong choices. Maybe doing favors will open other dialogue options with people, or maybe you’ll get in trouble from your boss for sending some mail when they didn’t pay for any postage.
Meredith can choose how involved or not she wants to be in people’s lives, completely blowing them off and ignoring their requests, or try to reconnect with old acquaintances and possibly patch up a long misunderstanding after all these years. Don’t expect anything too farfetched or crazy in the story, as this is based in reality, more focused on relationships. There are two obvious choices for a love interest should you pursue it, but I didn’t end up choosing either in my first playthrough, as I simply didn’t feel all that connected to them, though will certainly see how that differs when I get around to playing a second time.
The dialogue is written well and acted quite decently, but the problem is you cannot skip any dialogue or cutscenes, even if playing for a second time to see different options, forcing you to sit through it all. At a design level I can understand this choice, as you want players to be invested in the story and characters, but when I had my game crash out and lost an over an hour of progress, having to sit through all of the same conversations again was excruciating. This is also why I didn’t delve directly into a second playthrough right away even though I do want to see the other choices and endings eventually.
Just as frustrating is the walking speed of Meredith. By default she is set to walk, which is no big deal when there’s an included run button, but even running only makes her walk ever so slightly faster, not even at a power walk speed. Again, I get that Lake is supposed to be a slow burn experience where life is a slower, but this is beyond agonizing at times when I just wish she would walk at a normal person’s pace. Take your time and enjoy the views, as you can’t force the experience to go any quicker anyways, so might as well appreciate it.
The majority of the gameplay will revolve around Meredith completing her mail courier route, driving from place to place that has either mail or parcel deliveries for the day. Pulling up the map will show you your list of deliveries for the day. There’s no path you’re forced to take or timeline it has to be completed in, so simply deliver in any order whenever you like. If that means taking a few minutes break to take in some great views around the lake or in the woods, so be it.
For those that have mail, you’ll simply pull up to their house, press ‘A’ on their mailbox and it will come off your list. If they ordered a parcel, you’ll need to go to the back of your curbside truck and choose the correct package listed by addresses. Knock on the door and if they answer you’ll get some dialogue and possibly some narrative choices before delivering. If they aren’t home you’ll simply leave it on their front steps or porch and move onto the next. The gameplay for the delivering is quite basic and really only acts as a mechanic to get you from one person to the next to forward the dialogue and narrative day to day.
Oddly enough, there’s no reason to follow any road rules, so you don’t have to worry about speeding, parking on the wrong side of the road or even hitting cars or objects. Again, you’re not graded or scored on any of this, so it doesn’t become stressful unlike doing the job in real life. An annoying design choice though was the default camera view chosen when driving. It’s actually quite low behind the truck, and because the curbside’s are quite boxy and tall, your view is obstructed partially at all times.
The main buildings in town such as the Post Office, Diner, your home, etc, will allow you to enable an auto pilot if you want to simply enjoy the scenery as Meredith drives herself there. It would have been great to have this for any address or house on the map though. There are also four major points on the map around the lake that you can instantly teleport to should you wish to save some time from the serene driving if you simply want to get through Lake quicker, though this defeats the whole purpose behind Lake’s relaxed atmosphere.
Sadly there’s also no reason to explore other than for your own curiosity or to get some gorgeous screenshots. I was hoping there would be some sort of collectables, even for some behinds the scenes artwork or something, but alas, there’s not.
One of the things I love most about Lake is its visual aesthetic. It utilizes a comic-like art style but is very colorful and has beauty everywhere you look. Lake has a very unique and distinct artistic style, one that takes your attention right away even though it’s not meant to be realistic. The audio also sets the tone, from the local radio station that you listen to during your daily courier route to the overall soundtrack that is something you’d totally expect to hear on a local indie station. All of the main characters are voiced well, adding to their own personalities and making for some memorable encounters, even the guy that works at the motel that is a jerk because he’s too busy playing video games instead of accepting the package I’m trying to deliver.
While Lake’s visual style is more than impressive, there was a laundry list of issues I encountered. At one point I had a dialogue choice not appear on screen, making it so I wasn’t able to progress. This meant I had to force close the game, losing over an hour of progress because I forgot to manually save. Because of the unskippable dialogue, I had to endure the same cutscenes all over again as well. There’s also a lot of polish that is lacking, especially in the final stretch where many shadows were glitchy and whole animations completely missing. Not a deal breaker, but it certainly stood out like a sore thumb, taking me out of the immersion of Meredith’s journey near the finale.
Lake’s atmosphere is as cozy as it gets, never forcing you to rush or engage with people more than needed if you don’t want to. After a week in I was able to drive to certain houses for deliveries without needing to reference the map, enjoying the views along the way, especially along the lakeside. Lake has a ton of flaws, but even after sticking through it until the credits rolled, I was glad to have had my experience with Meredith in Providence Oaks for her vacation.
Lake is a relaxing gaming experience that is quite unique, not just mechanically, but with its laid back game design. You can tell that Gamious made Lake with a lot of heart, as it’s a charming experience that can be enjoyed in any way you see fit. While the courier parts may become dull after a while, Lake is a great example of a charming and unique gaming experience unlike anything else if you’re looking for a comforting game to unwind with.
**Lake was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Rustler
In 1999 a little sequel called Grand Theft Auto 2 released. To say that it influenced many games after the fact is an understatement, and I can’t even start to guess how many hours I sank into its world. It’s not often that older games in this style get reproduced, but Jutsu Games attempts to take what made GTA 2 so great in the first place but put their own spin on it, complete with a whole new setting in medieval times. The top-down type of gameplay isn’t seen as much anymore, so Rustler brings back this back in a hilarious parody of the popular game.Rustler takes your classic GTA gameplay but gives it a completely new makeover set in medieval times where you’ll be laughing throughout if you enjoy poop, fart, pee and other debauchery jokes. I myself am a man-child, so of course I thought Rustler was absolutely hysterical. Rustler has some great ideas that fit the setting, like stealing horses and delivering corpses alongside other “historically inaccurate” missions but you’ll constantly fight the clunky controls, boring missions and become frustrated when you have to redo a whole mission after dying or being caught by the guards on horseback.
As you start up Rustler you’re given the game’s intro, but what makes this unique is that it’s a live action video that plays, introducing your character, Guy, and his buddy, Buddy. Even from this opening video you can tell that the tone of Rustler doesn’t take itself seriously as it shows you causing a ruckus, committing Graft Theft Horse, fighting guards and more. Rustler doesn’t take itself seriously in any way, and this is apparent from its opening minutes and lasts throughout until the end. After this intro you get treated to a hip-hop song as the game does its introduction, also hilarious if you listen to its lyrics.
You play as Guy; yes, that’s your name, and alongside your friend, Buddy, you want to join and win The Great Tournament, going from a nobody to a champion. How you do so is up to you, or ignore all of this and simply cause a ruckus for the fun of it, because why not? Full of dumb but hilarious humor, there’s plenty of pop culture references along with a heavy dose of Monty Python jokes and fourth wall breaking.
While the campaign is a decent length, many of the story missions eventually become gated off, forcing you to play though a handful of side missions until the next ‘chapter’ opens up. The story absolutely won’t win any awards, but it sure did give me some laughs throughout. You’re going to be causing havoc with your weapons, on horseback or even throwing piles of crap at your enemies to slow them down. Missions begin easy, having you smash barrels, steal a knight’s horse, bringing a body to sell to someone, roughing people up and more. Mission design is very reminiscent of that GTA 2 style, just with a completely different backdrop.
The inspiration from GTA 2 is quite obvious, from the mission types, the circles on the ground to begin missions, the type of text font that has a GTA-esque style to it, to even having a music jingle when you complete a mission. Guards are Rustler’s version of police, as you’ll earn a wanted level for killing people or doing terrible things in their line of vision. The higher your wanted rating the more will pursue and try to stop you, again, just like GTA. Guard’s horses even have red and blue lights if it wasn’t apparent enough that they are the police and will seemingly chase you forever. To get your wanted level down you either need to find Wanted posters on walls to tear down, or simply ride your horse through the Pimp-A-Horse, akin to GTA’s repainting a car. It’s absolutely absurd but fits with Rustler’s over the top humor.
Horses play a large part of traversal, as the map is a decent size when completely unlocked and you run quite slow on foot, so get used to the horse’s awkward controls because you’re going to need to use them whenever possible. You’re able to gallop and cantor with a horse, though this of course uses their stamina that must be refreshed when depleted. You’re able to also fight with certain weapons on horseback, but be careful, as running over a peasant will cause guards to chase you if they see it happen, even if by accident.
Rustler separates itself from a straight up GTA clone by also adding in a skill tree. Completing missions will get you anywhere from 1-6 skill points, depending on if you finish a side or main quest. You can spend your points on increasing Guy’s health, stamina, carrying more bolts for your crossbow, cheaper vendor pricing, not getting knocked off horses, how much throwing piles of crap on enemies slows them down by and more.
To enter The Great Tournament you’re going to need a large sum of cash. But you’re a simple peasant with no work, so clearly you’re going to do jobs for your shady ‘boss’ and other interesting characters that probably don’t do everything quite legal, acting as almost like a mercenary, doing anything you can for cash. Missions usually have a few steps in each, though failing or dying means you sometimes get put back at the very beginning section, adding for a lot of repetition and frustration. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if poor controls and bugs weren’t the main reason for failing.
I can’t count how many times my horse got stuck behind or in an object, unable to get out before the guards came and killed me. Another time a certain mission wouldn’t trigger the next step, causing me to quit out and do it all over again. It simply feels very janky with its controls and combat, but for every frustration I endured I had at least two laughs to make up for it with its absurd writing. While dialogue isn’t voiced, everyone sounds exactly like Crazy Dave from Plants vs Zombies mixed with The Sims gibberish. It somehow works quite well given Rustler’s tone and ridiculousness.
Bards were a thing back in these times, so why not hire one to follow you around? Changing his song based on what’s happening, there’s something absolutely stupid, yet hilarious, with a beatboxing bard following you side into battle or running from guards on horseback. Don’t like his song? Give him a smack to encourage them to change it up.
While it’s easy to simply categorize Rustler as a knock off GTA parody, it can be fun in short bursts. Love poop and fart jokes? Rustler is going to make you chuckle and laugh if you’re into immature and toilet humor, so I know exactly where my maturity lays. Rustler’s enjoyment either way is solely going to be based on your sense of humor, and even though I’m probably their target audience, the $40 (CAD) asking price seems a little steep for how clunky it can feel at times. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
**Rustler was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Merek’s Market
We got to check out an early version of Merek’s Market a short while ago, coming away impressed that its fully voiced dialogue and how much addictive and challenging gameplay there actually is for up to four players locally. Reminiscent of Overcooked’s gameplay, Merek’s Market is quite a drastic shift in backdrop, having you, Merek, running his own medieval shop. You’ll be running non-stop off your feet trying to fulfil everyone’s orders as you craft armor, weapons, gloves, and more. Some customers will even come into the store looking for other specific items, trying to haggle with you for a better price, taking away from your crafting time. Running a shop can’t be that difficult and stressful right? Yeah, you thought wrong.Not only is there a lengthy 50 level campaign where you strive to earn Bronze, Silver and Gold Crowns based on your speed and accuracy of crafting your patrons orders, there’s also many multiplayer levels as well for up to four players locally to join in together. There’s even small narrative that takes place as you progress, upgrading your shop to be bigger and better the further you get. Not only can Merek strive to make his shop the most known and successful, with three other friends you can all enjoy the chaos that ensues together having to deal with weird customers, odd requests and people that simply aren’t buying and just want to chat, wasting your time.
Generally with games like these you simply go from one level to the next with each becoming progressively more challenging, but nothing majorly changes. Merek’s Market actually surprised me in a few ways. Your recipes for crafting start out quite basic; chop a piece of wood to craft a staff, cut some hide to make a belt, combine mud and coal to craft a vase, etc. As you get more recipes for completing stages, they too become much more involved and multi-stepped. Eventually you’ll be making swords, shields, spears, chairs, glasses, gloves and more.
Every tenth level is even a ‘boss’ like stage where you have an overall objective you want to complete, like creating a massive statue for a customer, but also trying to serve your regulars as they pop in as well. Complete these stages and your shop will be upgraded, allowing for new recipes, more room in your market and extra equipment like two furnaces or cutting boards. These were the best part of Merek’s Market, as you’re given blueprints in steps, much like reading Lego instructions, but to make these unique items you need to craft a handful of the regular items. Keep in mind you also have regular customers coming in wanting your wares as well, but make them happy and you’re timer will freeze for a short time, so you’ll need to find a way to balance both, as these levels complete when you finish crafting the big requested item. Placing each of the main pieces result in a quick minigame, either having you dance to a beat, holding your hands in a specific place that move or memory based games where you need to step on certain squares to the pattern it shows you.
Some customers aren’t interested in your craft, instead simply wanting to purchase other items you sell like bread, hammers, armor and others. They’ll give hints as to what they want and how much they want to purchase it for. This is where you need to have a keen eye, as if they’re in a rush or have fancy clothing on, they’ll probably pay more than someone that says they can’t afford as much or doesn’t have some nicer clothing. You can try to force a higher price for an item, but they may decide to go elsewhere if it’s outrageous. Can’t blame them, I do the same thing in real life as well. So you need to try and set fair prices whenever possible, that is of course if you can find the time to haggle with them between crafting a dozen other pieces of equipment for the other customers waiting in line. Some also simply want to come in to talk, sometimes giving you hints that the next knight that’s coming in to your shop later desperately needs a mace but will try and say he’s broke when in fact he’s super rich, so it’s good to pay attention.
The four player multiplayer co-op is simple to setup, simply having anyone else with a controller joining in. The controls are simple to grasp, picking up items with ‘A’, holding ‘X’ to use tools and that’s really about it. Having someone, or someones, to play with will make quite a difference, though that’s if you can get them to work at your speed and you know how to communicate well. The multiplayer levels are unique to that mode and become incredibly challenging the further you go. My wife who doesn’t really game was able to constantly craft iron bars and other items after a few practices without any problem.
One issue we did have when playing three player is that sometimes the inputs wouldn’t always work instantly, as if there was some sort of lag. Sometimes when I tried to do the button combination for when a customer is trying to pay, pressing the D-Pad direction or button wouldn’t do anything, then all of a sudden it would work. Given that we played well before the launch day and most likely fixed a Day 1 patch, I’m going to assume it’s a pre-release bug that hopefully will get fixed. Another issue that creeped up now and then is when you want to toss an item to pass to someone or simply place elsewhere so you can do something else in the meantime, the objects can get stuck behind or between objects, resulting in them being inaccessible and forcing you to re-craft said item, losing precious time. And I hope you remember where you tossed the items for later, because there’s no indicators to show where they are at a quick glance, and trying to remember where you tossed some small gloves in a four room Market is going to waste a lot of critical time.
Where the real challenge comes in is the level layouts. Some levels have a completely open layout where any player can fulfil any task or crafting, but eventually you’ll be segregated to your own section in multiplayer, forcing you to perform specific jobs. My wife for example was stuck at the furnace so she was forced to make all the iron bars and pottery since my daughter nor I could access her area with barrels blocking our way. Eventually you’ll have floating tables that need to have materials placed on it by one person until it floats to another area for someone else to take off and craft with. It’s absolutely chaotic, eventually becoming almost too much for my non-gaming co-op partners, but they still had fun trying even if we were failing often.
Once you get a perk that shows what the customers will be ordering that day within the allotted time limit, things do become a little easier, as I used to simply create any item I could during the small windows of downtime in hopes that’s what customers would be ordering. Once you memorize the recipes, Merek’s Market becomes a natural flow to play when you see an order coming up, though you’re always able to reference your crafting book if you become overwhelmed and forget how to craft a specific item for a customer. Once your market becomes multi-roomed, there’s going to be a lot more running around to do which adds a whole other level of difficulty.
All of the dialogue was not only fully voiced but done quite well, something I never expect with smaller indie games like these, so that was another welcome and unexpected surprise that I enjoyed. The visuals are quite colorful and cartoonish, as are the character designs. There’s more of a story here than expected and the challenge constantly ramps up, never giving you a moment of rest. The online leaderboards for every level should keep some coming back for more, trying to be the top Market in all the online lands.
Merek’s Market is a constant pressure of trying to appease all your customers in the quickest way possible while trying to be efficient and planning ahead, as that’s the only way you’re going to earn the top scores. It takes some getting used to, but once you have all of the recipes memorized and don’t have to consult the book, everything will start to flow much quicker when you learn how to have multiple crafts on the go. There’s a certain chaos and stress that comes with each level’s objectives and orders, but there’s also a great sense of accomplishment when you see Merek’s Market get a huge upgrade as the campaign goes on.
**Merek’s Market was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
King’s Bounty II
While it seems sequels are commonplace, what isn’t so common is when a game more than three decades old finally gets a direct sequel. I might have been too young at the time to fully appreciate and enjoy the original King’s Bounty back in 1990, but it’s finally getting a true sequel more than thirty years later. There’s been a handful of spin-offs and spiritual successors over the years, but never a direct sequel until now. I can only imagine how excited super fans of the original must be.We actually got to try an early preview build on PC back in the Summer, not quite sure what to expect or how it would translate on console. Having put more than a dozen hours in across multiple characters in the preview, I came away intrigued and wanting more. Developed by 1C, King’s Bounty II makes its return as one of the classic iconic turn-based RPG with tons of improvements for a new generation of gamers to experience, expanding its lore with a whole new story, enemies and more. I’ll admit, I'm not normally one for strategic and tactical games like this, but that might simply be because not nearly as many release on console. 1C is looking to change that with King’s Bounty II, adding their own unique spin on the genre.
Taking place in the land of Nostria, it seems the world as a whole is taking a turn for the worse. Bandits litter the roads between towns, conspiracies and dangers are everywhere, creatures lie in wait for any travelers and overseas kingdoms have started to become defiant, denying the King’s rule over them. Maybe a savior will emerge to become the kingdom’s last hope to reunite the lands, even if those heroes are accidental. The overall narrative is decent at best, but that’s most likely due to the terrible voice acting makes it hard to bare at times.
Your journey begins by first picking one of three characters. Aivar, a warrior who used to be a knight of the Royal Guard was one day banished when he refused to cooperate in a coup. He escaped to a faraway land, eventually earning a reputation for himself as a masterful mercenary and leading his own troop, the Hounds of War. Eventually captured and jailed, one day he is set free by Prince Adrian with an offer that may give him his previous role and life back. Things seem too good to be true though, so he stays cautious of the offer. Being a warrior, he specializes in more physical based combat, adding damage, resistances and more when you take on battles. While he may not be capable of using magic himself, units under his command are boosted greatly due to his leadership, even earning more experience per battle.
The mage Katharine comes from a noble bloodline, spending many years away from Nostria lands searching for arcane magic and knowledge. The funds for these expeditions eventually stopped, so she returns to attempt to regain her power from the King. Being a mage, she of course sides with magical abilities compared to Aivar, utilizing very powerful magical abilities and spells. Having instant access to Air, Fire, Death and Darkness spells which will help greatly early on in battles.
Lastly is Elisa, a Paladin, somewhat of a hybrid between Aivar and Katharine. She’s decent in combat but can also delve into the spell trees as well if you want to dabble in both styles of gameplay. I enjoyed Elisa’s backstory more so than the other two actually, so there’s reason to play each character. Between all three characters I did enjoy my playthrough with Katharine the most though, simply because of the powerfulness of her spells which made a massive difference in battles early on when I was struggling.
What I found quite interesting with King’s Bounty II since I never played the original was how it feels like its gameplay is set within two completely different genres. Most of the time you’ll be exploring the lands of Nostria in third person, akin to Witcher, Dragon Age, etc, then combat is something completely different with its hexagon turned based strategy. Truth be told, I struggled with combat early on, and while there’s a brief tutorial, it doesn’t really teach much strategy wise, something I had to learn through plenty of trial and error. You’ll build an army, taking them into battle, but every single skirmish will certainly challenge you with its high difficulty.
I did quite enjoy the exploration part of King’s Bounty II, either on foot or horseback, taking my time to search for glowing objects usually containing sellable loot and gold. As you explore the lands you’ll come across different pillars, some used for fast travel, others for mana and experience. There’s also a surprising amount of side quests that are completely optional, though basically forced since you won’t be able to win many battles without doing so without their rewards of loot and experience. Once you reach the first city after meeting the Prince, the world itself feels quite alive, bustling with NPC’s going about their own business, even having conversations among themselves. There are even notices left up on the boards across town written by citizens, some being quite humorous if you take the time to read them. While not completely open world like other games, you are able to play non-linearly and explore however you wish, to an extent. You can freely explore the world until you reach a border where battles are strategically blocking your path. Manage to survive these battles and a new chunk of the map is open for you to discover further.
Instead of brute forcing your way through every problem and conflict, you’re sometimes given multiple ways to solve the issue, or forced to side with one person or another. Early on you’re given two sides of a conflict and you’ll need to decide who you want to fight and scare off based on who you think is in the right. Decisions are based on one of four influences: Power, Finesse, Anarchy or Order. The more you decide to align with one of these ideals, you’re character will eventually categorize your character as such. I chose Order when I played as Aivar and the opposite as Katharine to see the different outcomes, but also because your armies will gain bonuses if they are aligned with your ideals as well.
The other portion of King’s Bounty II comes with its strategic combat. You command an army of units, leveling them up if they survive battle and combining different types of units. While hexagon turn based combat isn’t new or unique, it feels like it’s done in an exciting way, complete with tons of challenge, though tuned way too harshly. The first battle you take part in gives you a slight tutorial of how to move units, send attacks, use abilities and magic use, but it’s so brief and doesn’t do anything to teach you strategy at all.
Even just a couple battles in, I initially lost most of my units due to poor planning and execution. Once they die in battle, they are permanently gone, so you’re going to want to be careful as possible when planning your attacks. You can replace new units by recruiting them via quests or purchasing them at a vendor (like hiring), but it will take some time to get the hang of battles, especially once you make it further than the main city, as they will require much more planning to be successful. Different unit types exist like typical bandits, sword and spearmen, hounds, and even undead that can join your army. Some unit types are better suited for different situations, so it will take time to figure out all this on your own. Some even have certain ideals tied to the influences you choose in quests, which will make them more powerful or weaker in battle, so there’s a lot to take in and learn as you go.
The problem though lies in combat’s difficulty. Many battles will cause you to lose many of your units, so you’ll have to spend the coin to recruit new ones if you want to take on new battles to progress further within the lands of Nostria. Almost every battle I seem to lose quite a few units, which racks up the expenses of getting replacements. This is why even though there are a handful of sidequests at any given time, you’re basically forced to do them all so that you can explore, loot and get enough rewards to afford new army units to progress one more step further in the story.
One major factor of my combat success came with my spell book. Aivar initially can’t utilize any spells other than single use scrolls whereas Katharine has access to many from the beginning. Yes, you could spend talent points earned from leveling up and give Aivar access to spell lines, but then comes the question about being masterful in one way of fighting or more balanced overall. I struggled quite hard with Aivar’s more physical based combat approach and had much more success with being able to use Katharine’s spells once per turn. Being able to use a high damage spell on a mini-boss fight made a massive difference, so I ended up choosing Katharine for the majority of my King’s Bounty II experience. Of course there’s a mana cost for using spells, and you can only use one per turn, so you still need to be quite strategic in choosing what spells to use and when as it’s a finite resource.
The combat difficulty only gets worse the further you progress as well, something I think may frustrate many players. It did get tweaked slightly from the early preview build that we played previously, but it’s still much too harsh. Couple this with how slow movement is when you’re exploring Nostria and having to constantly backtrack places, even on horseback, and it can feel like a slog at times, especially when you need to reload a battle for the fifth time to hopefully finally survive or not lose half your army.
World exploration combined with hex-based strategic combat is a unique blend, and while King’s Bounty II is full of high points, there's also many lows that were hard to ignore, the worst offenders being the voice acting and combat difficulty. I’m not normally one for strategic games like this, but King’s Bounty II kept me engaged, always wanting to progress one more battle so I could explore a new corner of the world. “Good things come to those who wait”, even if that wait has been thirty years.
**King’s Bounty II was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Action Arcade Wrestling
Back in May I got to preview a small little wrestling game developed by two people that missed the old school classic arcade wrestlers I grew up with like WWF Wrestlefest, WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game, Tecmo World Wrestling and Saturday Night Slam Masters to just name a few. Their main goal was simply to make a fun wrestling game, one that doesn’t take itself seriously in any way or is grounded by any worldly physics, and with that in mind, they’ve succeeded. While most wrestling fans flock to the yearly WWE 2K installments simply because there’s really no alternative, Action Arcade Wrestling is taking a completely different approach, trying to be a completely over the top (rope) arcade wrestler instead of anything resembling matches you’d watch on Raw or Smackdown.Previously branded Chikara Action Arcade Wrestling, when the promotion shut down they had no choice but to drop the license and its roster, which is the game we see today with Action Arcade Wrestling. Fast paced, simple controls and aiming to bring simple joy for wrestling fans, Action Arcade Wrestling will let you body slam, clothesline and powerbomb your opponents, as well as being able to shoot lasers, wield lightsabers and other completely over the top movesets that you won’t see in other wrestling games.
Action Arcade Wrestling only utilizes two buttons for every action possible, much like classic N64 wrestling games. This makes it extremely easy for anyone to simply dive in, and even my young daughter enjoyed playing a few matches against me because of this simplicity. Strikes are mapped to the ‘X’ button and grapple to ‘A’. Moves will vary based on if you simply press the button, hold it for a stronger version or combine with a direction on the D-Pad. Anyone that’s played old 90’s 16-bit era wrestling games will feel right at home.
You aren’t able to spam moves either, as if you repeatedly use the same moves over and over it’ll automatically get blocked and reversed. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you’ve ever played a wrestling game against someone that knows how to perform the best moves in a game repeatedly, you’ll know how unfair it can be when you don’t know how to block or reverse these moves with perfect timing. Also, just like in Street Fighter, you only need to hold ‘back’ to block any attacks, making the experience easy to understand naturally.
Sadly there’s currently no career or campaign mode, but there are more than a handful of different exhibition matches to choose from. 1 versus 1, Tag Team, Battle Royal, Battle Rumble, Tornado Matches, Three Way Matches, Four Way Matches and even up to 5 versus 5 and more. The first thing I took notice of when I played my first match was how hyped up the crowd was. No one was sitting in their chairs, the lights were spinning around the arena and the crowd looked as if it had that rock concert feel to it. Even with a bunch of match types, they all generally felt the same, but sadly there’s no Cage or Hell-In-The-Cell type of setups yet.
There’s a few things that really make Action Arcade Wrestling stand out and be unique. Remember, this is an arcade wrestling game, not a simulation, so you can expect to see power-ups appear, giving you bonuses to health, defense or offense. This can change the outcome of a match really quick, as you can also take other characters’ powerups by performing a heavy move on them as well. You of course will have a ton of traditional wrestling moves that you’d expect, but this again is an arcade wrestling game, so don’t be surprised if you see certain moves that also shoot lightning out of your hands.
Even after dozens of matches I’m still smiling and having a ton of fun if playing in short bursts. There’s nothing quite like throwing your opponent outside of the ring, running to the complete opposite side’s turnbuckle and launching yourself across the screen onto them. It’s moments like this that I couldn’t get enough of. Now and then you’ll also have “Spots” to try and complete. These are randomized moves that will give you bonus points if completed in the allotted time. These points go towards your overall level progression at the end of matches, unlocking new moves or items for your wrestlers as you rank up slowly over time. You’ll quickly notice how braindead the AI is when playing against the CPU, even on the Hard difficulty setting. Most of the time they’ll just stand there waiting for you to attack them or coming directly to you, making it easy to grapple.
By default, you’ll be able to unlock up to 30 unique wrestlers. Some are obvious nods to the industry and you’ll be able to discern who they are meant to be if you know your wrestlers. While there’s huge roster of unique wrestlers included, this has been solved with the inclusion of a Create-A-Wrestler feature, titled Wrestle Lab Creation Suite. This is where you or anyone can create any wrestler you can think of, so you know all of the classic real life wrestlers are there available to download, along with some interesting and odd designs. Keep in mind though that since wrestlers don’t actually have any stats, the only differences are their skins and movesets that you can alter.
While you’re limited to 60 downloads a day of wrestlers and arenas, this never really was an issue after the first day when I was downloading as many 80’s and 90’s wrestlers I could that I watched growing up. The creation tool is actually a separate app, completely free to use, and you can basically create any wrestler you could think of quite easily as it’s very simple to use for the most part. They even let you edit layer and upload pictures for textures. The issue here though is that you need to download their app on Steam. This is the only way you can create your own wrestlers and arenas, though it makes sense given that you can create nearly anything you think of if you have the photoshop skills. The creation tool even allows you to add custom textures and body morph, but it will take some time to learn to create a wrestler or arena that looks half decent.
As for weapons, you can expect tables on fire, sledgehammers, chairs, garbage cans, lightsabers and other wacky weapons if you choose to enable them. While there’s currently no ladders, it’s hard to fault a two man dev team. The glaring omission though was online play, as Action Arcade Wrestling only supports up to four players locally on the same screen.
Keeping in mind that it’s a small indie game, the cel-shaded aesthetic actually works quite well, and since this isn’t licensed and unable to do any body scans, it made sense. Not meant to look lifelike in any way, the flashy visuals and neon colors only accentuate the crazy gameplay and makes it feel like and old school game I may have played growing up.
There are plenty of animations for all the movesets and finishers, but you’ll most likely be distracted from the random bugs you’ll come across. I’ve had my wrestler get on the top rope only to then float above everyone else, unable to do anything. I’ve had my downloaded Macho Man’s tassels disconnect from his boots and follow me around like they were orbiting my head, and once even had my character stuck in place, unable to strike or grapple anyone until it randomly decided to work. All of that being said, for such a small dev team and creating a game out of passion, it’s really hard to hold it against them. Even with a laundry list of bugs, some were funny enough that I was still smiling and having a blast.
Sure, there’s a whole essay I could write about features and modes I want, like walk-in intros and online multiplayer, especially for the asking price of just under $20 CAD, but Action Arcade Wrestling is designed to be a not-so-serious arcade wrestler where you simply enjoy yourself with how over the top it can be. It’s not trying to compete with WWE games, and the casual gameplay design means anyone can simply drop in for a match or two when you have friends over for some laughs. Can I get a Hell Yeah?
**Action Arcade Wrestling was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Recompile
I’ve always been into computers ever since home PC’s were a new thing when I was a young gamer. When shows like Reboot came along, it always made me think of what goes on inside each virtual world and your hardware. This was clearly some inspiration for developers Phigames with their latest 3D metroidvania platformer, Recompile.Set within a 3D Mainframe backdrop, Recompile starts out as a basic 3D platformer, eventually evolving into slightly more, adding combat, hacking, puzzles and more for quite a unique adventure. You play a sapient AI that just came to be, taking place completely within its own digital world. You’re essentially tasked with figuring out what happened to the digital world and choosing to bring it back online or not with a rampant AI that will try and stop you, as you now have the gift of choice with your new life.
There is more to the story, but you’ll only ever get new information whenever you find hidden collectables strewn throughout each of the levels. These data logs are dry text only affairs, but do offer an interesting perspective if you take the time to piece them all together. Having them somehow narrated would have at least helped keep my attention with them or something in between each stage to have some narrative continuing. Given that levels aren’t linear, you can miss some important text logs, and unless you find them all you’re not going to get the whole picture. The coolest part about the whole overarching narrative that your 8 hour or so playthrough actually takes place within one second of real time.
As you begin your journey, you’ll first notice how cool your character and the Mainframe world you’re in appears. As an AI, you resemble much of the protagonist from the classic Rez game on PS2, a humanoid-like structure, but clearly compiled code or something of the like. As you traverse around Mainframe you’ll notice how computer-like it appears, dark in background with bright and colorful accents you might see in Tron. The first level acts as a tutorial of sorts, showing you that there are multiple ways to get to certain areas, hidden collectables and how to find and utilize upgrades for your character.
After you complete the opening area you’re put into a hub world that you’ll be coming back to often. This is where you’ll access the four separate areas and biomes, each with their own color schemes and distinct focuses on gameplay. At the end of each you’ll battle an incredibly challenging but memorable boss, filling up a progress bar that will eventually unlock the final area and boss.
Recompile isn’t linear though, and you’re welcome to play any of the biomes in any order you wish. Now there is a suggested path as each world will net you different upgrades which will be necessary to go further in the biomes you’ve already explored. This is where the Metroidvania gameplay comes in, so you better be a fan of backtracking and aimlessly exploring until you find the missing upgrade you need before being able to progress further elsewhere. There’s a lot of places you won’t be able to reach if you can’t Dash, Double Jump or even use a Jet Pack for example, so if you choose a ‘wrong’ level to play first, you’re going to have to go back there later on once able to traverse properly, though this isn't really explained well. I eventually got stuck, spending an hour trying to figure out how to pass a huge gap only to realize I didn't have one of the necessary upgrades yet.
Certain biomes focus on different parts of the gameplay, such as one that is more combat focused, one that’s primarily platforming and another that utilizes a lot of hacking. Most of the gameplay is going to revolve around exploration and the platforming, but you’ll also have to defend yourself against enemies with your weapon as well.
There’s some light puzzle elements, mostly just having you step on a button to light up some circuitry. Hit all of the switches and a path opens or platforms appear that allow you to progress further. These aren’t terribly difficult, though the later ones do become much more involved, needing you to turn certain ones on and off again to get the correct combination for the amps to light up. While I didn’t mind these puzzles, they really slowed down the gameplay to a crawl at times as opposed to constantly moving and exploring the level you’re in.
With Recompile’s computer and data background, it only makes sense that its UI is done in classic ASCII format. This of course fits the setting absolutely perfectly, but it’s quite cumbersome to read as you aren’t always presented what you need right in the middle of the screen. This also applies to its ASCII map, giving you an idea of what section you’re in and what upgrades are nearby, but good luck figuring out how to actually use it in any realistic way.
Combat was a mixed bag, though it did get better once I got all of the weapon upgrades. You start out with a basic pistol-like weapon that is quite weak but you don’t ever have to worry about ammo. They all have computer terms for their weapon versions, like the Rocket Launcher being called BSoD. You’ll get a shotgun and even a railgun that takes a few seconds to charge up before shooting, each better suited for specific enemies and situations.
While the weapons feel great, something about the combat simply feels off. Having more than one hovering enemy attacking you is almost a guaranteed loss of half your health given how odd the aiming system is. These flying enemies will go up quite high, but as you hold Left Trigger to aim your gun, there’s actually a limit with how high you can look and aim upwards. This of course will cause you to take a lot of damage when you aren’t even able to fight back. This means you’ll need to back up so that the enemy can be in your sights, but you might back yourself off a ledge, or they’ll simply fly upwards again. Killing enemies is satisfying when they explode and their bits travel towards you, but the real challenge comes when you face off against the massive and interesting bosses.
These bosses are extremely tough, and if you go in without a few certain upgrades, you’re going to have a much more difficult, near impossible time. I’m all for challenging boss fights, as they represent skill checks before moving onto harder enemies, but the majority of Recompile doesn’t focus on combat, so these frustratingly difficult boss fights seem much more harder than they have any right to be. Be prepared to either die dozens of times from one-hit kills before making any progress or checking online how to actually find a cheap way to beat the bosses. That said, the bosses themselves are quite an experience to take in and stands out from the rest of Recompile’s gameplay in the best way.
The visual aesthetics have quite a contrast from dark black nothingness and the neon colors that accentuate many of the platforms. I have a feeling that if it was at all possible to jump into a computer and explore it digitally, this is probably not far off of how it may actually appear. The soundtrack is also fitting, adding to the mood and dark digital themes.
While I wasn’t much of a fan of the backtracking and not knowing what upgrades I got or missed, or its clumsy combat, Recompile still gave me a unique gaming experience I’m glad to have had. Its visuals are gorgeous at times, even with its minimalistic style, and while the story isn’t told in a traditional way, I quite enjoyed its concept. Given that it’s also included on Xbox Game Pass, there’s no reason to not check it out and see if it’s a program you’d like to execute or not.
**Recompile was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Mayhem Brawler
Ever since my earliest gaming days on the NES, I’ve been a fan of Beat Em’ Ups/Brawlers since my first time spending dozens of hours with Double Dragon. From there I moved onto Battle Toads, Final Fight and Streets of Rage just to name a few. While the genre isn’t as popular as it once was back in the day, there’s been a couple titles lately that have put Beat Em’ Ups back into the spotlight. The latest is Mayhem Brawler from Hero Concept, a Beat Em’ Up that brings back some of that classic 90’s nostalgia with its difficulty but has a decent comic book style aesthetic that’s easy to look at.You are a part of Stronghold, a team of super-powered officers that are tasked with not just fighting crime, but will need to eventually save the whole city from different threats. You choose from Dolphin, Star or Trouble, three distinct officers with their own style, movesets and playstyle. Trouble looks as though Abraham from The Walking Dead got mixed with a werewolf, Dolphin is your musclebound slow but strong character and Star is the telekinetic female officer of the team.
The storyline takes place across comic book style boxes, all voiced decently and with a very colorful palette. Mayhem Brawler doesn’t take itself too seriously and has some comedic tones to its narrative, even sometimes breaking the fourth wall. During these story sections there’s also a fake Twitter on the right side of the screen with fans reacting to what’s going on. It’s an interesting narrative choice but is certainly unique.
You begin by checking out a situation unfolding at the local docks, but as you complete each level you’re given an option of different places to check out, each with their own backdrop, enemies and sometimes bosses as well. Each level choice isn’t just simply a different background environment either, as it will actually change the flow and outcome of the story going forward and even have three different endings available to try and get.
The comic style aesthetic is done quite well, especially the level selection as it’s offered as if you’re choosing a favorite comic book cover with a description of what your choice entails narrative wise. These comic covers are done really well, something I’d probably actually read if it was offered in real life. Complete the campaign and you’ll unlock Arcade mode, a much harder version that offers a decent challenge for those wanting more.
There are multiple difficulties, ranging from Cadet, Officer, Superhero, and Legend (described as ‘You were the best Beat Em’ Up player in the neighborhood’). I started on Officer, assuming it was the ‘Normal’ difficulty, but got wrecked quite quickly. There are a ton of enemies that have super cheap moves and attacks that can make quick work of you, so I had to go through it multiple times on Cadet, as it’s quite challenging solo.
Like basically any other Beat Em’ Up, you control your character along the playfield as a 2D sidescroller, clearing an area before it lets you move further to the right, eventually culminating in a boss fight. You spam the ‘X’ button to attack, ‘Y’ performs your special move, ‘A’ jumps and ‘Right Bumper’ is how you block. It’s not very common to have a block in a Brawler, and even on my third playthrough I would forget to rely on it, though I would highly suggest doing so as a good portion of the enemies will cheaply projectile kill you from afar if you don’t block and rush them.
Having three different playable characters means you’re going to want to do a playthrough with each at least once, but the level and story choices in between stages will offer at least a few more should you wish. Sadly there’s only local co-op, so I got my daughter to play with me for one of the runs and I had a fun hour with the kid, but she was done after that single playthrough and had little interest to do it all over again with a different character. Online co-op would have definitely added some longevity to the title, so it’s a shame that it’s absent.
You play a Beat Em’ Up for its combat, and Mayhem Brawler is no different. You’ll fight and combo against regular enemies with weapons, pipes, knives and guns, eventually facing off against more supernatural enemies like witches, wererats, werewolves, vampires, ghouls and more. Some enemies are quite basic and will simply attack if you get close, others will try to stay at a distance and simply fire their gun or projectiles at you, so you need to absolutely prioritize taking them out first. Bosses have three different phases, adding a handful of extra enemies as well between each. Most have some easy tells to distinguish before they perform some super strong move, so you just have to be careful and pick your times to go in and lay the beat down before backing away.
Defeat an enemy wielding a weapon like knives, guns, crowbars, swords and you’ll be able to pick them up and use them for yourself for a couple of hits. Usually after three hits it breaks and that’s all you get, but they do a great deal of damage. Get hit and knocked down while you’re holding a weapon though and you’ll drop it, so maybe you’ll want to toss it across the screen at those annoying projectile tossing enemies instead so you can close the gap while they recover.
Like most Brawlers, you’ll gain health by destroying barrels and eating whatever food you come across. While playing multiplayer you’ll need to communicate and organize who takes what food and when, as someone with just a sliver of health remaining can eat and take the cooked turkey, a full heal, whereas the person with barely any life left should be the one to eat it instead.
Your special attack with the ‘Y’ button has limited use, tied to a blue bar under your health, but this can refill as you do more in combat or eat certain foods. It’s not a full screen clear type of move, but will definitely help you get out of some sticky situations when you become surrounded by a handful of enemies. I was hoping there was going to be some sort of super move or team-up specials, but sadly there aren’t.
Mayhem Brawler nails the colorful and vibrant comic book aesthetic, as the backgrounds and characters are all drawn quite well, though the animations aren’t the smoothest I’ve seen. The soundtrack is about what you’d expect as well, giving some decent beats to have your head bop to as you pound some enemies into the ground, and it was great to have all of the cutscene sections actually voiced, even if the delivery was adequate at best.
Without any online multiplayer, I can’t see myself going back to this anytime soon unless my daughter randomly wants to play it again with me sometime. Mayhem Brawler is fully competent as a Beat Em’ up, checking off all the boxes, but doesn’t do much else to stand amongst the classics that we’ve seen many times before.
**Mayhem Brawler was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
RiMS Racing
While there’s no shortage of racing games out there, there’s not nearly as many motocycle based ones when compared to their four wheel counterparts. If I had to name a few moto series games off the top of my head, MotoGP, TT: Isle of Man and Ride are really the only ones that I could think of that aren’t MX based. There’s clearly an audience for it as the sport is quite popular, so when a new entry into the genre emerges, my interest is piqued.Developed by Raceword Studio and published by Nacon, RiMS Racing is a new entry into the moto genre that aims to not just simply be another run-of-the-mill simulator, but actually adds a few different gameplay mechanics that I can’t recall seeing in any other racing game. There’s big competition though if you want to take on established brands, so not only does RiMS Racing provide solid simulation two wheeled racing, but also adds a unique engineering mechanic where you’ll need to actually swap out individual parts in the garage, just as you would in real life.
Career Mode is where you’ll be spending the bulk of your time, spanning 70 grueling events that will take dedication to complete all of them. You begin by creating your racer, though not with many options compared to other racers, then choose your first bike. While there’s not a large selection of bikes, only eight actually in the base game, they are some of the most powerful and desirable European and Japanese motorcycles available today. Your first bike is free, so choose from the Ducati Panigale V4 R, MV Agusta F4 RC, Aprilia RSV4, BMW M 1000 RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000R, Honda CBR1000RR, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR and Yamaha YZF-R1.
With such a low number of bikes, it definitely seems as though more effort has gone into making them as accurate and realistic as possible, especially when you can ‘explode’ the bike to swap in and out parts, but more on that shortly. While I’ve never rode any of these dream bikes, I can only assume that they perform exactly as they would in the real world given the collaboration with the manufacturers.
Throughout the course of the season’s 70 events you’ll take part in plenty of different style of races, each with varying rewards, though you’re unable to skip any events and must participate in them in order. Just like the low bike count, the circuits also aren’t plentiful, but they do include iconic courses like Laguna Seca, Silverstone, Nurbergring and more. There’s even a handful of point A-to-B maps that are quite challenging as they take place on regular roads across different country landscapes instead of closed race tracks.
With only 10-15 tracks or so including reverse versions, and 70 events, you’re going to be racing many of the same courses numerous times, so a bit of repetition can set in after some time. Races will vary in laps, length, weather and more, so there is some variety, as racing the same track in the rain is night and day compared to dry conditions. Where RiMS Racing stands out from the competition is being able to swap hundreds of aftermarket parts into your bike, changing its handling quite dramatically. While it’s easy to simply swap in parts to increase your bike’s performance, those that want to tweak every aspect of their setup and loadouts are going to get even more out of the RiMS experience.
Most racing games tend to choose to cater to a more arcade or sim-like experience. RiMS Racing absolutely lands on the sim side of the gameplay, offering a realistic racing experience that takes some getting used to. Your first few races will be filled with crashes and penalties for going off track, but once you start to dial in your bike and figure out its handling, it becomes thrilling to take 300+ kph straightaways or making perfect S-curves as fast as possible. There are numerous difficulty and realistic settings, so it’ll take a bit to figure out what works best for you when you’re starting your racing career.
The physics in RiMS Racing is absolutely incredible. You’re going to crash a lot, but that’s not the fault of the game or your bike, you just have to know how to best control your machine and make the necessary tweaks to be at peak performance. Even mid-race you can pause the action with a Motorbike Status Check (MSC) and see detailed information on nearly every part of your bike so that you can determine the best time to pit stop if needed or to change how you play. Slamming your brakes too hard and you’ll get feedback for doing so. Maybe your tire pressure or wear is starting to get low. This information is integral to being able to tweak your bike setup to suit your racing style.
Leaning and braking are integral to racing on two wheels, and you can’t simply slam the brakes or go full throttle, as the bike will absolutely fight you along the way and you’ll most likely lose control and go over the handlebars. You’re going to have to utilize easing on the triggers in and out of corners, knowing when the gear shift happens to then floor the gas as to prevent your wheels from slipping. Even knowing the angle you’re leaning is going to make a difference of when you should lay on the gas, as your back wheel will come out from under you if you gun it when you’re near horizontal or riding the edge of the grass.
Your headquarters is where you’ll spend your time in between races, not only changing and replacing parts for your bike, but choosing where to spend your upgrade points, either on Management perks, Research and Development or other areas. Certain race rewards grant you team points which can be spent in a variety of different trees, offering store discounts, more detailed information of upcoming races, less wear and tear on your bike or auto completion of mounting or unmounting bike parts. Each tree also has sub objectives that will give you bonus credits if fulfilled, like winning races with certain manufacture's parts or equipping a set amount of aftermarket parts on your bike.
Making RiMS Racing even more challenging are two other design decisions that some might question. First, there is no rewind feature at all. Sure, this makes sense for a true simulator, but there’s nothing more frustrating than bailing on a turn in a half hour race only to get passed near the end. To be fair, this does force you to become a better racer and more cautious. What I can’t get over though is how unfair and aggressive the AI can be when racing bots. They race in their dedicated line, and if you’re in their pathway, too bad for you, as they’re going to crash into you no matter what. This of course is hugely frustrating, so you’ve got to play cautious in those first few turns at the starting line until you see a clear passing opportunity.
Your default bike, regardless of choice, is going to be an amazing machine to control, but once you start to earn some cash and need to swap out worn out parts, it can make a night and day difference for performance and handling once you fit in some aftermarket pieces. Not only do you purchase from over 500 official parts, but you’re going to have to disassemble your bike to equip and unmount them, just as you would if you were a mechanic in the garage. I thought that changing some of the parts would make somewhat of a difference, but wow, spending the money on the bigger upgrades made a massive difference when it came to my bike performance. You get what you pay for.
Being able to disassemble your bike almost completely is a really unique mechanic I’ve not seen in any other racers. While someone like me that simply knows how to fill my vehicle with gas and put in oil, gearheads will most likely really adore this feature, as you have to unmount, unscrew and remove parts just to get at others. No parts are locked behind any progression walls either, you simply need to be able to afford them, having access to all of the official parts from the beginning.
Also, swapping in and out parts isn’t just a typical button press either. You’ll actually have to perform specific inputs like rotating the left stick to unscrew, holding a direction and pressing ‘A’, among other mini-games. It’s a really interesting gameplay mechanic that adds some realism and personalization to your bike, though having to do it every few races eventually does become a little tiresome. Thankfully you can opt to spend skill points on being able to auto mount and unmount parts should you wish. This also goes for pit stops, as you need to do this mini-game inputs during these as well.
While Career Mode is where you’ll spend the bulk of your time, there are a handful of other typical modes that you’d expect to find, as well as an online component. There are weekly online challenges you can partake in that test you on a specific track and bike, completing with an online leaderboard to see who is the best rider out there. There’s also a lobby system to race against other players as well, but over the course of reviewing, I was unable to find a single match with anyone else to try, so I can’t speak to its online quality. I’m hoping this doesn’t mean that the community for RiMS Racing is that small though, as once you’ve completed Career Mode there’s not much reason to repeating races unless you care about besting your old times and placements.
The KT Engine that Nacon uses in some of their other games, the bikes and tracks themselves look fantastic, as does the smooth framerate and animations, even down to the sparks when your foot pegs scrape the asphalt when cornering hard. Where the visuals falter is the draw distance, even on an Xbox Series X. You’re going to not most likely notice it given that you need to focus intently on your bike and racing lines while racing, but looking in the distance you can see the track boundaries and trees popping in far in the distance. Not a deal breaker by any means, but certainly not expected on a Series X while the rest of the game looks fantastic. For an even more immersive experience, you can race in first person view or even helmet cam, taking quite a lot of getting used to the pre-leans.
As for its audio, bikes sound authentic and unique based on which bike you’re racing with. I’m no expert, but I’m almost certain that I could hear a difference when I swapped in some aftermarket parts as well. You’re able to hear splashes of the puddles during races in the rain and even the back wheel squealing for traction when you’re hard banking a corner faster than you should. I quite enjoyed its EDM-like soundtrack, making my head bop during racing, getting me into ‘the zone’ and focusing that much harder. It should be noted though that you’re going to need to turn down the engine sounds audio specifically if you want to hear anything other than the whine of all that horsepower.
RiMS Racing is quite an enjoyable and addictive racer, adding unique gameplay elements when it comes to checking real-time bike information with MSC or choosing from hundreds of aftermarkets parts that you’ll need to actually mount and install onto your cycle. While a simulator at its core, many hardcore racing fans will find enough content here to keep them entertained for quite some time yet is just accessible enough for casual players to jump in and work towards completing the lengthy career. RiMS Racing strikes a great balance of quality and uniqueness, and I’m excited to see what they’ve got in store for a hopeful sequel in the future.
**RiMS Racing was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
Golf Club: Wasteland
We got to check out an early build of Golf Club: Wasteland a short while ago and came away impressed with its relaxing vibe, ridiculous (yet grounded) premise and amazing soundtrack. That was an early version, and now the full release is finally here, so the question is, has the wait been worth it? It sure has.Demagog Studio has done something quite interesting. They’ve made a 2D platforming golf game, but one that has a narrative and some heart to it. How is that possible you ask? For starters, Golf Club: Wasteland doesn’t have a normal backdrop. Yes, it’s on Earth, but this takes place long after the planet had been wiped out and escaped to Mars to colonize. Now only the ultra-rich can afford to go to Earth for their favorite pastime, golfing. It’s a ridiculous premise, but the more I thought about it, it’s completely something that we could all see coming. I mean, two of the richest men in the world literally just went to the edge of space privately due to their privilege, so this really isn’t all that farfetched.
You are a lone golfer, Charlie, playing through various holes on Earth in your spacesuit while listening to a nostalgic radio signal from Mars while you’re above ground shooting the links. Between each hole you’ll get snippets of backstory, of which I don’t want to spoil given Golf Club: Wasteland’s short playthrough of 35 holes. Basically Earth has been long abandoned due to climate change, natural disasters and the top 1% greed; sounds familiar doesn’t it? Now that humans live on Mars, Earth has been relegated to a glorified golf course instead of a home since it’s now uninhabitable.
To prove that the ultra-rich run the world, even on Mars, the colony you’re from is actually named Tesla City, but this also is a way that Golf Club: Wasteland makes its political stances without outright directly referencing anyone or organization. Faded neon lights still litter the apocalyptic remains of Earth buildings with “Covfefe” and other billboards and graffiti that mimic the times we live in now. It’s a powerful statement done in a subtle way full of other Easter Eggs and references you may figure out if you keep an eye out.
Each hole feels unique and has its own tone. The holes begin to feel almost like a puzzle as you’ll sometimes have different options of how you want to reach the hole and find those perfect shots. Given that this is a 2D golf game, you can expect there to be shortcuts and other little tricks to find how to get the best scores possible. Certain holes will require you to hit a wall mounted button to open a garage door, while others will have shortcuts but much smaller platforms to land on that requires a lot of skill and practice.
The best part is that while you are tracked on your shots and score, it’s not the emphasis on your first playthrough, to the point where your score isn’t even shown on screen and there’s no fanfare for doing well or booing if you played a poor hole aside from your own disappointment. This made for a very relaxing experience as I hit the links across abandoned buildings, swamps filled with radioactive goo and other oddities. This meant I could focus on my shots and appreciate the background visuals, but also actually concentrate on the relaxing soundtrack from Radio Nostalgia.
For casual players wanting to simply enjoy a relaxing golfing experience, the Story Mode is where you’ll want to spend your time. You’ll earn backstory for holes you make par, but it’s not forced and you can come back to any hole you want later on. Play well enough and you’ll unlock the diary of the lonely golfer to learn more of the backstory and what happened to him and why he’s here. This gives players incentives to revisit certain chapters in hopes of a higher score. Those that want to prove their worth as an astronaut golfer can try their luck in Challenge Mode. Here you’re unable to move onto the next hole until you make it in Par. Sounds easy but some of the holes can be quite challenging until you figure them out and get the skills to land the ball exactly where you want. Lastly is Iron Mode. Here you’re unable to make any mistakes and will need to basically play perfectly to complete or you go back to the beginning, so good luck.
Most people will know how to golf in games naturally, but the controls are quite simplistic. Basically you aim the Left Stick the direction you want to hit the ball and you’ll see the aimer indicated with an arrow, the further you move the stick, the harder you’ll hit the ball. Hit the button and you’ll make the swing. These controls were changed since the preview build we experienced, so it took a little getting used to. Your golfer will automatically head to the ball with his jetpack once you’ve made your shot as well, so anyone really can pick it up and play without any need for confusing tutorials.
When you think of Grand Theft Auto, the soundtrack is probably one of the more memorable features, it’s no different with Golf Club: Wasteland either. The Radio Nostalgia that plays throughout was easily the highlight of my Golf Club: Wasteland experience. The whole game has a relaxing tonality and the chill music only helps set the mood. The broadcast will also have short stories from survivors who tell interesting stories about their memories on Earth or how they got to Tesla City. The DJ has an ultra-smooth and relaxing tone and the audio couldn’t have been any better in this aspect. Complete the campaign and you’ll even be given a QR code to download the OST, something I highly suggest doing as the music is fantastically done by Igor and Shane Berry, a former Tokyo-based DJ and Sound Designer.
It’s odd that for a golf game, the golfing aspect really isn’t its main focus. Yes, that’s what you’ll be doing throughout playing, but the underlying message feels much more important here. The artistic style is basic but beautiful for taking place on a desolate planet, even when you see seagull crap on a monument where your next hole is located or a giraffe that eats your ball if it lands nearby.
Golf Club: Wasteland’s atmosphere is great and its relaxed vibe was something I looked forward to after a long day at work or as a palate cleanser from my typical game genres. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and made for a really unique golfing experience. While the adventure is a brief one, able to be completed in a single sitting, you’re always able to work on bettering your score or truly challenging yourself with its Iron Mode, or do what I do and simply load it up to listen to its OST.
**Golf Club: Wasteland was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Greak: Memories of Azur
When a game has a beautiful artistic style and aesthetic, it can be easy to forgive some of its other shortcomings. Sometimes though when the frustration outweigh the positives it brings down the whole experience, no matter how much you wanted to enjoy it. This is a tale of a gorgeous sidescrolling adventure with hand drawn visuals that I instantly fell in love with when I saw it, eventually forcing myself to play through it once you have to fight against the main mechanics the whole way through. This was the case for me with Greak: Memories of Azur.You start out playing as the character Greak, part of a race called Courines who are under attack from a rival faction, the Urlags. The situation is getting so dire that soldiers aren’t returning home and now the Courines are starting to make plans to leave their home of Azur via an airship that they’re attempting to build. Greak’s brother and sister, Raydel and Adara, have gone missing, so before he can do anything else he must search for them among the swamps, forests and temples that neighbor their village.
Greak wields a small sword and is quite proficient with it. He’s also able to jump and climb and will need to utilize all his skills to defeat the Urlags along the way. The overarching narrative is a typical tale of you having to save everyone, though you’ll need to find your siblings before you can do so. As you eventually find and save them, they’ll join you on your quest to run errands to find parts for the airship so that everyone can escape before the Urlags take over and kill everyone. Not only is the artwork great with its colourful palette, but the few cutscenes you do get are all hand drawn, looking like a classic anime, adding even more life to the characters.
While you’ll only begin with Greak, you’ll eventually get to add siblings Adara and Raydel to your team as you progress and make your way through the lands of Azur. Most of the time you’ll be jumping and climbing platforms, stopping every few moments to fight and defeat enemies that randomly spawn along your path. Now and then you’ll have to deal with some puzzles, mostly pressure switches or sending one character to turn a crank to hold a door open while the other passes through. You’ll gain just a few more basic combat moves as you complete side quests, but there’s no skill tree or special moves.
As you explore areas you’ll come across locked off parts which you’ll need special keys or items to access. Reaching the end of one area usually culminates in a boss fight and then having you backtrack all the way to the village to hand in your quest and talk to someone. There’s a couple fast travel points, but not enough to solve the frustration of constant backtracking. The areas are decently sized but you’re constantly slowed down by having to get each character across larger gaps one at a time, but more on that shortly.
All three characters, once gained, have their own skills and playstyles. Greak simply double jumps and can attack with his sword, Adara does a small float, much like Princess Peach in classic Mario Bros games, and lastly Raydel deals more damage and can block attacks and other things with his shield. Individually they are perfectly fine to play as regardless of whom, but having to control them all simultaneously is where Greak: Memories of Azur starts to quickly fall apart.
Once you have control of two characters, you need to control both at the same time. One button will make them run to your position provided that there’s no gap or drop, and another will make them run alongside you when held. This in theory works, but in execution it’s one of the more frustrating mechanics I’ve ever had to suffer through.
Crossing small gaps shouldn’t be a big deal when you have two or more characters running alongside you, but the problem comes in since they all cross gaps differently. Greak double jumps but Adara floats when the button is held. This means they’ll land in different spots or fall into a pit. The only real solution to this is taking one character, getting them across to safety, swapping to the other and then taking them across hoping that an enemy doesn't attack the first character. Do this for every gap and large leap and you’ll start to understand how tedious this becomes, even more so once you have all three characters. If there are enemies around, good luck, because they don’t really defend themselves and if any one of the three characters die, game over and back to your last save, of which there’s no auto saves.
This issue is exasperated when it comes to boss fights. Not only do regular Urlag enemies pose problems, but bosses with large health bars are near impossible to do if you bring all your characters in to fight, because again, if one dies, game over. I suppose you’re supposed to quickly swap between characters when safe to do so and attack them at different times, but actually doing so isn’t really practical. Instead, I just hid two of my characters up on a ledge or in a corner and took on the boss solo with just one instead.
The fact that the core gameplay is built around controlling three characters, yet is the worst part of the whole experience, the longer my adventure went the less I wanted to play it when I kept failing because of the poor controls. Just as equally terrible is the inventory management. You can only hold two or three items initially with each character, but this is nowhere near enough space given you need to always have healing food and items along with quest items and more. Your bag is going to be constantly full, even if you shell out the gems to purchase a bag upgrade of a single slot. That’s right, 100 gems for a single inventory slot and only purchasable once.
There’s a mechanic about finding cooking pots to create food from three separate ingredients, but I tended to never have enough ingredients when I eventually found these pots due to lack of inventory space. Also, your inventories aren’t shared, so if one character is low on health and you’re not controlling them, you’ll need to swap, open their bag then eat before switching back.
Even worse, quest items count as bag space that needs to be held onto. So when you get two keys to open some mysterious doors, that’s two less healing items you can take with you until they are used. Also, the stacking quantity is so low that it just adds to the frustration. Some items are meant to be brought back to town to be sold for a decent price, but again, good luck having the bag space to actually do so since you’ll need as much healing food on you at all times due to the terrible group mechanics listed above.
Greak: Memories of Azur is so beautifully drawn, I hated to not enjoy the gameplay so much, as I wanted to stay within its world to admire its vistas and animation. The colors are so bright and the cutscenes are done to perfection. There’s plenty of small details and is simply a delight to take in visually. The soundtrack is done just as well, with a live orchestra performing a soothing and fitting tone that fits the aesthetic perfectly.
It's a shame that for how great Greak: Memories of Azur looks and sounds, it’s brought way down by its artificial difficulty from its poor escort controls and mechanics. I should want to play more the further I get into a game’s world, but instead the longer it went on, the less I was enjoying it, simply wanting it to be over due to its controls. Controlling multiple characters is much more frustrating than it should be, especially given how stunning its visuals are. I wanted to love Greak: Memories of Azur on its gorgeous aesthetic alone, but find it hard to recommend at its current price point due to having to constantly babysit multiple characters for a ten hour playthrough.
**Greak: Memories of Azur was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Aliens: Fireteam Elite
The Alien movies have a massive fan base, as it’s one of the more influential and important cinematic movies of our lifetime for its genre. An instant classic, Alien spawned multiple movie sequels, novels, games and more, so to say that fans are passionate about it is an understatement. We all know the history with movie licensed games though, so I’m always skeptical when a game releases that’s tied to a movie franchise. There are exceptions to the rule, but there are also textbook cases like Aliens: Colonial Marines that was a complete disaster, so I went into Aliens: Fireteam Elite with tepid expectations, as it’s built as a three player cooperative survival shooter, not tied on any specific movie.Set 23 years after the original movie trilogy, Aliens: Fireteam Elite takes place aboard the UAS Endeavor, looking to explore and extract any survivors. If you’re an Aliens buff, you’ll be happy to know that there’s plenty of lore here that revolves around the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, or as most know it by as “The Company”, Xenomorphs, iconic weaponry like the Flamethrower and more. Given that this takes place well after the movies, mankind knows much more about the Xenomorphs, which is why you’ll have no problem shooting down hundreds of them without much effort, unlike in the movies when they were a new and unknown threat.
If you didn’t know any better, you’d swear that many of the levels were ripped right out of the movies, as it felt very much like a true Aliens experience traversing down tight corridors, never knowing what’s around the corner or ceilings. While there is an overarching narrative that takes place across 4 Chapters, each of which have 3 Acts, there’s not much to talk about unless you search around and find the hidden logs. This is exasperated by the fact there’s no real cutscenes you’d expect from a huge franchise like this, nor was any effort put into actually having NPC’s you talk to attempt any lip-syncing at all, so much of its narrative just falls flat.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is billed as a cooperative shooter, so you’ll choose from one of five unique classes: Gunner, Demolisher, Technician, Doc and Recon. It should be noted though that you don’t actually gain access to the Recon class until after you’ve completed the campaign unfortunately. Each class has its own leveling, abilities, perks and more, so make sure to try them out and see what suits your playstyle and team best. Thankfully you are able to double up on classes, so you don’t have to worry about playing a class you don’t want to if someone else is wanting the same one. Weapon types are tied to specific classes, with more than 30 available, along with plenty of mods and attachments for your weaponry to alter their effectiveness as you take out Xeno’s. I did find it odd that Aliens: Fireteam Elite only utilizes three player co-op, yet has five classes to choose from.
Each class has two abilities mapped to the Bumpers, unique for each. I mainly played the Doc, so one of my abilities was a deployable canister that healed anyone within its radius, and the other gave an accuracy buff for myself and teammates. You aren’t forced to play a certain class or composition, but it sure did help having a Demolisher friend in our group that was able to do massive explosions when we started to get overrun by Xeno’s or Facehuggers. The Technician has a deployable mini turret that can be great when you’re trying to hold your ground against an oncoming attack, and while I didn’t gravitate to every class, you’re sure to find one that speaks to your playstyle.
To further customize your character aside from weapon choice, there’s an interesting perk system that I really enjoyed once I took the time to understand it fully, as it’s not really explained well. You have a perk board that set in a grid-like system. The grey squares are where you can place any unlocked perks and mods but they have to physically fit in this grid, much like how you had to physically fit your loot in Diablo 3’s inventory. Some perks are large 2x2 squares, others are 1x3 or larger, so you’ll need to figure out which ones you want to use and then see if there’s a way to even do so with the other mods and perks. To make things even more complicated, certain mods, usually 1x2 in size, are small, but need to be attached to certain sides of the grid where your abilities rest on its outer edge. It’s a little complicated at first, but as you level up your class you’ll unlock more grid area for your perks, allowing you to fit in more or however you see fit.
There are multiple difficulties to choose, from Casual up to Extreme, though you need to complete the campaign to unlock the two hardest. Even on Casual, your first few chapters are going to be rough going until you can get your gear score up and learn how best to stave off against the never ending swarms of Xeno. While there are 12 levels in all for the campaign, they will all generally play out the exact same way. You rush from point A to B, once there you have to hold the line and stay alive for a few minutes, then go to the next point to do it all over again until the exit of the level is accessible. There’s really no variation of this gameplay loop at all save for the final level nor is there any massive cool boss fights or setpieces. While it’s enjoyable for a while, every level is literally the same setup, so there’s some mundaneness that comes with repeating the same level layout over and over again.
The best parts are when you’re having to interact with a button or something, waiting for a door to open or a download. This is where waves of unrelenting enemies conveniently start to rush at you, becoming more challenging as you go, eventually spawning Spitters, Warriors, Preatorians and other Xeno types. These swarms can be quite challenging and hectic, but you’ll also find caches of equipment at certain points alongside ammo crates and health packs. This equipment can be special ammo types, mines, turrets and more, and will be necessary to use at the best times if you want a chance at surviving on the harder difficulties.
While you’ll fight off generic Xeno fodder most of the time, the harder enemies are much more of a bullet sponge, forcing your team to focus fire and utilizing your abilities if you want to take them down quickly before you get overrun. Remember though, Xeno’s blood is acidic and will harm you if you step in it, so you’ve always got to be aware of your footing. Thankfully this fades away quickly, as does the corpses, though it would have been cool to see a mound of Xeno corpses piled up after a massive firefight.
Just like in the films, Xenomorphs can seemingly come out of nowhere; tunnels, cubby holes, vents and any other crawl place, so you’ll always need to be on your toes. You do have the iconic radar system, looking and sounding as if it was ripped right out of the movies themselves. You do though need to learn to always be on the move though, as even when you clear one of the mini horde sections where you’re just trying to survive, enemies will almost always be in pursuit of you. This means there are very few moments of actual rest, so if someone on your team needs to use the washroom or step away, you’re going to be in for a bad time.
There are some hidden lore documents within the levels to be found, but aside from that and one hidden cache per level, there’s no real reason to explore the levels sadly. This means you literally just want to run to your objective markers whenever they appear and focus on that instead of exploration, which is a shame given how good some of the levels are designed and appear. Another design choice that some might not agree with is that there’s no regenerating health of any kind unless you have a Doc on your team. You’ll need to look for health packs set at the main checkpoints, though there’s only ever one per player placed for you, so you’re going to have to communicate who needs it the most, though you are able to heal other players with yours if needed.
So you’ve beaten the campaign and wondering what else there is to do aside from grinding through it multiple times to level up your other classes? There’s also a card system that you can choose to play if you wish that adds modifiers to each level you use them on. This card system will add unique modifiers that will make gameplay near impossible but give massive bonuses to XP and credit rewards, or rare cards that give bonus money for completion for a certain amount of damage or headshots. I enjoyed the idea of these cards but it’s implemented incredibly poorly. For example, there’s one card that challenges you with trying to headshot 75 Synthetic enemies. This is fine and good, but if you play this card on a level where you don’t find any of these enemy types, you’ve just wasted the card for no reason. The same goes for if you crash out or quit the match, the card is gone from your inventory once it’s played. The bonus XP and credits make the challenge worthwhile if you have a good enough team to fulfil these side objectives, but they can add some extreme difficulty, like doing double damage, but also taking twice as much as well.
So if Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a three player cooperative survival shooter, you’d think that its online multiplayer component would be its biggest focus right? I assumed that too but was completely wrong. You are able to play solo or with two players if you wish, and bots will replace any missing human players. Sounds good, but they are near useless on the harder difficulties and they can’t really pull their own weight in any way for the most part once you start playing on Insane or higher.
The worst offence though comes from how the matchmaking actually works. First off, there’s no drop in/out, so you’ll need to gather your party before queuing up. Worse is that if a player crashes or drops out, they are replaced with a bot but unable to rejoin until you finish or quit as well. Don’t have friends to play with but still want to play with others? Good luck. When you matchmake to find other players, you’re queuing for a specific level, Chapter 2 Act 3 for example. A 60 second timer begins to count down and if it doesn’t find any other players looking to queue for that exact level within that time, bots get placed in your game. That means you need to hope that people are queuing for the exact level and difficulty you want to attempt within the same 60 second countdown or you’re going to be playing alone with bots. There’s no lobby system or viewer and I was only able to find other players via the Looking For Group built into the Xbox. Oh and to make things worse, there’s no crossplay, so you better hope your friends also bought the game on the same console family.
Aesthetically, Aliens: Fireteam Elite looks as if it absolutely belongs in any of the iconic films. Level design, weapons and Xeno’s all look legit and can impress when you have a few moments of breathing room to take in the visuals. Audio is decent at best, as the Xeno’s screams sound just like in the movies, as does the motion tracker, but the weapons sound quite weak overall. There’s a few sections where some awesome music kicks in when you’re fighting off a horde of Xeno’s, but this is far and few in between.
Even though it’s not a fully priced new release ($49.99 CAD), it’s still quite mediocre overall. Guns don’t feel all that impactful and levels are varied in design but play out exactly the same way no matter which you choose. Having a class and a dedicated Horde mode locked behind campaign completion seems like an odd decision to me, and while that will only take a handful of hours since each level lasts roughly a half hour, you’ll most likely have your fill by the time campaign is complete.
If it wasn’t for the franchise backdrop, Aliens: Fireteam Elite would be just a basic horde shooter that becomes tiresome and repetitive unless you really want to grind to max out each of the characters and weapons. For a game that focuses on multiplayer, a mountain full of more effort could have went into quality of life improvements to make it a seamless shooter to gather friends online and shoot some Xeno’s. Game over man, GAME OVER.
**Aliens: Fireteam Elite was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Eldest Souls
Bosses are meant as a way to be not only be a reward of sorts for surviving through a level, but to also challenge you and test the skills you’ve amassed so far up until that point. Boss fights can be very memorable experiences, as they’re usually quite challenging and act as a gatekeeper, making sure you have the skills and abilities to defeat them before moving onto the next chapter of a game. That is with traditional game design though, so what happens if you take the rest of the ‘game’ out and simply just leave the bosses only?This is essentially what developers Fallen Flag Studio has done with Eldest Souls, getting rid of all that unnecessary ‘filler’ of normal enemies and exploration, opting for a unique Boss-Rush soulslike experience instead. Eldest Souls simply pits you in one boss battle until you’re proficient enough to defeat them before moving onto the next. Those that enjoy the difficulty challenge from the Souls games will feel right at home, for others, you’re going to want to make sure you have a backup controller for when you inevitably want throw yours across the room after an hour of dying to the same boss repeatedly.
While there is an overarching narrative, it’s clearly not the focus here. You’ll get snippets here and there but no major cutscenes or revelations for the most part. Man managed to fight back against the Old Gods, eventually imprisoning them within the sacred walls of the Citadel where they still remain. In retaliation, the Old Gods released calamity upon the world and now most of mankind is gone. You’re one of the sole survivors, the only one that can change fate. Armed with a massive greatsword made from pure Obsydian, you’re tasked with uncovering the mysteries of the Old Gods and saving the world before it’s too late.
Having a game describe itself as ‘soulslike’, I already knew I was going to be in for a rough time with some extremely difficult challenges. Given that Eldest Souls is a boss-rush game, you only get the best, and hardest, parts of the game one after another. Manage to survive and your character will grow in skill, able to take on the next boss challenge that awaits you.
While the boss fights back to back are the hook for Eldest Souls, there is some light exploration as you go from area to area before taking on another boss. There’s a few NPC’s to speak and interact with, some offering minor sidequests or rewards if you can find certain objects hidden along the way. It’s clear that a lot of work went into creating this world but there’s very little to do within it aside from taking in the beautiful pixel artwork.
Combat is where Eldest Souls excels. Fast paced and deliberate, you’ll need to have quick reflexes and be able to learn from your mistakes when you take on each boss a number of times before finally figuring out their attack patterns and tells. Bosses rarely let up, always keeping you on your toes, and that’s before they go through a number of phases, altering their attacks and becoming even harder as the fight goes on. I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent well more than an hour on a single boss before being able to defeat them, making the satisfaction of doing so that much better.
Being able to, and knowing when to dodge is going to be the only way you survive in Eldest Souls. If you’re a Dark Souls player that spam rolls in combat, you’re going to have a bad time. You’re only given a limited amount of stamina, so you won’t be able to freely dodge constantly; you’ll need to be much more deliberate when you do so, learning to make use of that moment of invulnerability.
Utilizing a top-down view, this means there’s also some bosses that make use of some projectiles that will make you feel like you’re playing in a bullet-hell. While there’s only eight or so bosses, they are all quite varied, each with their own attack patterns, phases and difficulty. It’s clear that these were created with a lot of thought behind their design, each challenging you in completely different ways.
While it would have been a decent experience to have a Boss-Rush mode with typical combat, there’s a really unique mechanic that really made me enjoy its combat even more. You have a light attack which is where you’ll do much of your damage, but there’s also a charge attack that will dash towards the boss and do heavier damage. This charge attack also fills a meter that will then heal you for any subsequent attacks. So it’s not like you have to be perfect for each boss fight, as you can do a charge attack then some light attacks to refill your health, but knowing the timing to do so is where the skill comes in.
There’s also a variety of different skills and abilities that you can freely swap on the fly between battles depending on what suits your playstyle. There are three different skill trees, and you can only utilize one at a time. Windslide favors those that want quicker movement, Counter allows you to deflect attacks and Berserk Slash is more offensive based moves. For each boss you kill you get a crystal that can be slotted into these trees, allowing you to customize your abilities to suit how you play. Being able to respec for free at any time means you can experiment with what build works best for you on each boss until you can finally defeat them.
The 16-bit style aesthetic is done wonderfully, as the characters and bosses are done with pixel perfection, having a surprising amount of fine details. While the world you explore between bosses is beautiful, it’s empty but makes for some scenic backdrops. Audio is done just as well; even though there’s no real dialogue, the soundtrack is done fantastically and suits the mood and tonality of Eldest Souls perfectly with epic and chaotic battles.
If you’re a glutton for punishment there’s more than enough challenge here for you. Souls fans will no doubt be able to finish the game in a few hours the first time through, but there’s New Game+ and more in store for those that want to grind even further and challenge themselves to the limits. I’ll admit, I’m still working on trying to best that final boss on my first playthrough, but I’m not getting as quickly frustrated as I do with regular Souls-like games.
For under $20 USD, Eldest Souls offers tons of replayability if you’ve got the will to endure its extreme challenge. When you die dozens of times to the same boss but start to learn their attack patterns and intricacies, you can start to see progress in your skills once you wipe away your tears of frustration. Once you finally do best that boss you’ve been stuck on for well over an hour or two, the satisfaction is insurmountable and thrilling when everything finally goes to plan.
**Eldest Souls was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Blightbound
As an avid MMORPG player for over two decades, I always get excited when a game releases that not only utilizes and requires co-op, but even more so when the “Holy Trinity” is used. For the unaware, this is when a group of players require a Tank (The character that’s on the front line, usually with a sword and shield, soaking up all the damage and keeping agro in close quarters), DPS (Those that deal massive amounts of damage) and Support (Usually a healer or mage of some sorts). Best known for Awesomenauts, developer Ronimo Games has created a multiplayer dungeon crawler game that could best be described as Castle Crashers meets Diablo where three heroes band together to take on endless enemies that threatens the land.A band of legendary heroes defeated and slayed the Shadow Titan, a massive beast that was threatening every living thing. Their victory was short lived though, as when he was defeated, it left behind a broken Sun. A fog flowed from its husk and turns any living thing into an evil creature that is exposed to it for too long. The only safe place from the Blight is high in the mountains, where our heroes take upon themselves a quest to fight back against any evil within the fog. An ancient race created powerful items that protect against Blight, which is how you stay safe within, trying to fight back and hopefully recover your homeland one day.
A team of three heroes will band together, either locally or online, and choose a dungeon to delve into that’s randomized in difficulty and rewards. Blightbound is very much a dungeon crawler, as you’ll be fighting numerous enemies, solving light puzzles and searching for loot along the way. At the end of each dungeon is a massive boss that will most likely destroy you the first few times you attempt them until you start to get better gear and improve your stats.
Each player, or bot, has a specific role to play based on their archetype. Warriors will block damage, the Rogue will deal massive damage and the Mage can heal allies. Only one person can fill a specific role in each party, so if two players enjoy playing the Mage for example, one will have to be one of the other classes if they want to play together. You begin with one of each type of hero, eventually able to find and purchase more along the way, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles.
I opted to stick with the first healer given simply because of his ability to keep my teammates alive and also place a shield on anyone that grants invulnerability for 5 seconds. Each class plays differently as well, and while I tried them all, I really enjoyed the Mage much more than the others, though you can freely switch to any other character or class between dungeon runs. This is actually encouraged, as you’re going to need to do quite a grind to reach the endgame and craft the best loot.
Each hero is unique, not only with their passives, abilities and ultimates, but how they actually play. Mages for example can heal, but to do so I need to have mana. These are dropped from combat randomly and need to be picked up shortly after they appear or they dissolve and disappear. When these orbs are gathered, not only does the person picking it up get a small heal, but I as a mage gets to bank that orb regardless who gathered it.
Knowing when to use your abilities and how to stay alive is going to make a drastic difference in your success. To use my heal I actually place a circle on the ground that then heals whomever is in it at the time, though this means you’ll need to communicate with your team, as they can be wasted if they don’t stay within the circle when the heal goes off. Dodging and avoiding enemy attacks becomes absolutely paramount later on as well, as you’ll need to avoid large damaging abilities on the ground, lasers and other attacks that can instantly kill you if you’re not careful.
Very reminiscent of Castle Crashers, Blightbound is a 2D brawler that also takes inspiration from Diablo with its loot and leveling. Based on your party makeup, levels and gear you’re given an estimate of how powerful your team is with a score. As you choose which dungeon to run, each will randomly vary in difficulty based on its Blight level. The higher the number the more challenging it will be. Good luck once you start to play the Hard or higher difficulties, as you’re going to get whooped if you don’t have a solid team that understands all of Blightbound’s mechanics.
While there’s a handful of dungeons, the randomized difficulty levels make for completely unique and challenging runs. Enemy attack patterns change on higher difficulties quite drastically as well. For example, there’s an enemy I absolutely hate that shoots out a beam from their chest that can easily destroy you in a matter of seconds if you’re not careful and avoid it. On a higher difficulty they actually have four lasers that rotate around them, making for a much more chaotic and challenging battle. I won’t lie, I had to grind the lowest Blight level dungeons for a while before I was able to slowly move up and take on the harder ones.
While there is gear and loot for you to strive to get, it’s nowhere near as in-depth as Diablo. There are multiple tiers of loot as you’d expect, but when it comes to your weapons there’s only a few options for each class in the tiers. Once you start to get blue tiered weapons for example, there’s really only four or five choices. Once you start to get higher tier gear, you’re almost forced into choosing specific gear and weapons as they eventually start to have bonuses for specific skills and abilities which you’ll want to utilize based on the heroes you have that utilize said skills. For example, I eventually got a trinket I could equip on any of my Mages, but I definitely wanted to use it as it gave me a 10% chance of casting my heal for free. Or maybe a piece of gear makes the Ice Beam skill more powerful, something that is basically useless to me since my specific Mage doesn’t have that ability.
There are bounties to complete, challenging you with defeating a certain amount of specific enemies or other objectives. There’s also a Forge where you’ll be able to create some impressive gear the further you progress your base camp, but these require a lot of dungeon grinding to get the materials you need. Some items need specific tokens you can only get by playing certain classes, which is how Blightbound encourages you to grind each archetype.
While you can play with bots if you don’t have any friends online to play with, Blightbound is a much more rewarding experience with some friends in party chat. There is cross-play enabled to find players across other platforms, though I tend to have to sit in the lobby for a few minutes each time waiting for someone to join, so I usually just end up running solo with the two bots.
Surprisingly the bots are quite decent at combat, able to dish out some serious damage and use their skills somewhat appropriately, but when it comes to puzzles it’s a whole other experience. Most puzzles have you either standing on pressure switches or hitting some lanterns until you find the right pattern to unlock the door. With three switches to stand on the AI will have no problem going to them and waiting if it’s a basic puzzle, but once there’s a little more involved you’ll start to understand my frustration. The worst of this occurred in a spot where all three characters had to stand on the pressure plates, but it was also around a tower that infinitely spawns enemies until you completed the puzzle. Needless to say, the AI bots didn’t want to complete the puzzle and simply stayed in combat the whole time.
Aesthetically Blightbound is cute and colorful to look at. Characters are hand drawn 2D cutouts but move in 3D within the dungeons, adding for an interesting Paper Mario-like effect. Much of the narrative is voiced, but it’s not experienced like most games where you have cutscenes after pivotable sections of the game, instead giving individual character stories and background based on whom you’re playing and find within the dungeons.
While I wasn’t sure what to initially expect from Blightbound, I quite enjoyed the 'Holy Trinity' class setup and addictiveness when it comes to playing alongside some friends, trying our luck on the harder difficulties as we slowly improved our characters and skills. If you have a friend or two that you’re able to grind for quite some time with in some dungeon runs you’re going to have a decent time with Blightbound. If you’re going to rely on random online players or AI bots, you’re going to have nowhere near as rewarding of an experience.
**Blightbound was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Sam & Max Save the World
If I had to name some iconic characters from early 2000 games, you can bet that Sam & Max would be up there on my list somewhere. Sam & Max has been around since the late 80’s, starting with a comic, eventually branching out to TV and games. If you played an adventure game in the 90’s, it almost certainly was from LucasArts, as they were undeniable king when it came to the then popular adventure genre. I’ve been a long time Sam & Max fan, as I even have some original artwork signed hung up on my wall, so you could say I was excited when I found out Sam & Max Save the World was getting the remastered treatment for current gen.They had a bit of a break after their first game, but returned with another in 2006. Originally released in six separate episodes under the 'Season One' banner, Sam & Max Save the World was eventually what the collection name of Season One came to be when it was complete. Oh, you’ve not heard of Sam & Max? Sam is a six-foot suit wearing dog that has quite a vernacular, and Max is a frenzied rabbit that is always hyper, incredibly quick witted and always wanting to cause bodily harm if the opportunity arises. Oh, and they also happen to be Freelance Police, created by Steve Purcell.
Before Telltale Games really broke out with their The Walking Dead series, they were the ones responsible for Sam & Max Save the World, and as far as I know, one of the first episodic game releases that I can think of. Having released on Xbox 360 under the Xbox Arcade banner, it’s been a long time coming, but Sam & Max are finally back in the spotlight with this Remastered version.
More than a simple coat of paint, developers Skunkape (a clever nod to the Sam & Max universe if you know your games) along with a handful of original Telltale team members have taken the time to make this release special. All six episodes have been given quite an overhaul, and for a longtime fan like myself that has played through the game more than once, seeing the improvements was exciting as you could tell they put a lot of work into the smaller details, not to mention having Steve Purcell’s blessing. Given the recent history of Telltale shutting its doors, this Remaster was completely unexpected but welcomed.
Gaming back in 2006 when it originally released was quite different from now. For starters, 4:3 was a common aspect ratio and resolutions were nowhere near the common 4K quality standard of today. First and foremost, Sam & Max Save the World now supports your standard 16:9 ratio, 4K resolution, HDR and much more, so it’s going to look much more modern. There’s a few other major improvements, much coming from dynamic lighting and improved lip sync. Given that there’s quite a lot of dialogue across the six episodes, this was quite noticeable compared to the original release. The audio has also been remastered so that it doesn’t sound as compressed, another major improvement that is noticeable due to the heavy dialogue that takes place. Five completely new tracks from some of the original musicians were also made for this release, so there’s something new for original fans like myself as well.
Character models themselves have also been slightly tweaked to appear better, more resembling their comic counterparts. A couple puzzles were ‘fixed’, as it turns out quite a lot of players got stuck on specific puzzles, so they simply moved an item or two to make it more noticeable. One of the biggest changes though probably has to be with the recasting of Bosco, a pivotal character you interact with in all six episodes. This apparently wasn’t a decision taken lightly, as it was originally a white actor doing a stereotypical African American impression, so it was re-recorded with a Black actor with some minor changes to the dialogue, of which the performance was fantastic.
There’s actually quite a lengthy post by the developers outlining all the changes and improvements, as there are many more, and it goes to show that all of this work was done not just deliberately to create a better game overall, but to also balance while not changing too much of which the original team created at the same time. This is where Remasters become tricky, as too many changes might draw ire from old school fans, but simply putting a new coat of paint on top can come across as lazy as well. If I had one complaint for this Remaster was that there wasn’t any section for ‘extras’ anywhere that could be unlocked, giving behind the scenes footage, storyboards or anything else you might expect.
At the beginning of each episode Sam & Max will receive a call from the Commissioner to give you your next case that needs solving ASAP. Each episode has its own contained story and case that you’ll solve, but there’s also an overarching mystery that takes place across the six episodes that you’re working towards as well. To crack the cases you’re going to have to put your detective thinking hat on and talk to everyone you can to get clues on how to proceed with each obstacle in your way to the truth. You can expect some crazy situations and situations you’d only expect to see in a cartoon or comic, which is fitting given Sam & Max’s personality and zaniness. The overarching story gets crazier and funnier as you go, so make sure you take your time and enjoy all of the cleverly written dialogue throughout.
You mainly control Sam as you explore and interact with objects in each scene. Walking to certain objects will make Sam place it in his inventory, generally meaning you’re going to need it to solve some certain puzzle later on. Each episode lasts at least one to three hours, depending on your clever detective work or use of a walkthrough, though prepare to become stumped on more than a handful of occasions. Certain puzzles can be quite obtuse, almost forcing you to brute forcing a solution by trying to use every item with every object when you can’t figure out what to do. I surprisingly remembered quite a lot of the game from my original playthrough over a decade ago, but I too became stuck on more than a handful of occasions. Because of how over the top Sam & Max can be, sometimes the solutions are too completely ‘out there’.
The majority of the time I was laughing at the jokes Sam & Max would quip to one another, especially Max’s crazy antics and one-liners. The duo get into some very peculiar situations, and seeing them talk their way out of a situation had me snort laugh more than once. While some of the pop culture jokes will go over the heads of a younger audience, the writing overall is one of the wittiest and more humour filled experiences you can have. There’s so much voiced dialogue that you’ll want to explore every option with every NPC you come across, as I guarantee you’ll chuckle on more than a handful of occasions, many of which the jokes still hold up over a decade and a half later.
Returning to playing a Sam & Max game sure brings back some serious nostalgia, and I’m so glad to report that Sam & Max Save the World still holds up to this day. Keeping in mind this genre isn’t as popular as it once was, it’s a glimpse into what early Telltale Games’ experiences were like, one that I surely miss. While it’s all been but explicitly confirmed by Skunkape, I’m now waiting for Sam & Max Season 2 and 3 to release hopefully sooner than later to continue the wacky duo's adventures.
**Sam & Max Save the World was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Observer: System Redux
I actually quite enjoyed the original release of >observer_ back in 2017 when I initially reviewed it. It was a very unique take on the cyberpunk genre, mixing detective work, abstract sequences and a future that really isn’t that farfetched of an idea at the rate our world is going these days. The game got a new facelift, added mechanics and more and renamed itself Observer: System Redux back in late 2020. While I never got around to playing System Redux when it released, it recently just got an update to make use of next-gen systems on Xbox Series X|S, so of course I had to go through it one more time on my Xbox Series X to see what all the fuss about having an improved edition is all about.Before I delve into the game itself, much of this will be from my original >observer_ review, as the core game itself hasn’t changed much aside from some new cases, mechanics and of course improved visual fidelity. If you’ve played the original >observer_ before and want to know if it’s worth going through once more, it’s more than a simple pretty paint job.
On an Xbox Series X you can expect 4K resolution, 60FPS, many upgraded textures, ray-tracing, HDR lighting and even new models and animations. The original game looked great at the time on Xbox One, so you can tell that Bloober Team has taken the time and effort to make it stand out even more on the latest consoles. You can swap the ray-tracing and more in the options on the fly, noting the differences, and with everything turned on, Observer: System Redux is quite impressive to take all in. The most notable change is obviously going to be the graphic fidelity and loading time, vastly improved from its original release. The lighting is much better, ray-tracing adds more realism to the water effects and reflections, and some models seem even more realistic. While it all seemed familiar, it certainly did perform and look much better than I remember.
Other than these improvements, Bloober Team also says that there are new mechanics, redesigned stealth (which was my most hated aspect of the original game and still is), quality of life improvements and even three new side cases that are optional, adding roughly about 20% length to the overall playtime should you do everything. If you’re unable to get into doorways the normal way, you might need to hack and decrypt the circuits to gain access. As for the improved stealth, I couldn’t tell you what was changed, as the sections where you required it were still terrible and frustrating to get through.
The bulk of the new ‘meat’ though comes in the form of the three new cases: Errant Signal, Her Fearful Symmetry and It Runs in the Family. I don’t want to give anything about these new cases away as to not spoil them for potential original players experiencing them for the first time, but I was more than impressed. These new cases were very unique and actually more memorable than some of the campaign cases itself, well worth replaying for.
Observer: System Redux tells the story about Daniel Lazarski, voiced and by the late Rutger Hauer, investigating an apartment block in Krakow set in 2084 looking for his son. This is the future and set in the cyberpunk genre, so you can expect a lot of neon, electronica and some truly unique imagery once you delve into people’s minds as Dan tries to find clues about his estranged son.
You see, Observer is attempting to be a physiological thriller, and while there may only be a handful of jump scares, some of the abstract imagery could be classified as horror. Observer feels fresh, as if they were trying to do something new, and even though there’s a handful of faults, I kept having to play until the story came to a conclusion and the credits rolled, even for a second time when I knew the outcome already.
Observer simply asks: What would you do if your fears got hacked and used against you? It’s an odd question, as I know what fears I have and what scares me, but what other twisted things could possibly be in other people’s heads? Daniel Lazarski works for a corporate funded ‘police’ unit whose sole function is to hack into suspects minds, known as an Observer. This is achieved easily, as it seems nearly everyone has had some sort of cybernetic implants, making the Chrion Corporation a super power that runs nearly everything in this digital focused world.
There’s been a digital outbreak, simply known as the Nanophage, which brings the digital dependent civilization practically to its knees. Observers are meant to be used to investigate crimes, easily finding the truth, as you can’t hide information that’s in your mind when hacked, using the evidence against you. It’s a scary vision of a world that could be, and possibly in our lifetime.
Observer begins with Daniel sitting in his car, receiving a troubling call from his distant son with no real explanation before the call ends. He tracks down his whereabouts to rundown apartment building in the seedy part of the city. This building seems to house some nasty people, and as you investigate further in search of your son you’ll uncover some troubling situations and people, which you’ll need to interact with and solve what’s going on. I don’t want to go much more into the narrative, as the story that unfolds was quite interesting, even if it only lasts around six or so hours depending on how many side cases you pursue.
You play in first person, and at its core I would best describe it as a puzzle/detective/exploration game. The majority of your gameplay in the beginning will be based around searching the apartment complex for clues and investigating crime scenes. There’s the odd dialogue choices you get to make when conversing with people, but they are only minor. There’s no weapons or combat, as a good portion of your experience will be inside the minds of others.
Your overall mission is to find your missing son, but in these slums people don’t cooperate with Observers, so you won’t find much help, leaving you mostly on your own to solve the mystery, following the smallest leads and clues. There’s no overlay map in the game, so you’ll routinely become lost, even when you find the apartment maps plastered on the wall. Luckily you’ll eventually become accustomed to the building’s layout, but it will take some time of aimlessly wandering around until you feel comfortable navigating the multi-floor building. Nearly every door is locked with no means in, so if you’re lucky, you’ll have one of the neighbors answer the door via their telecom and actually talk to you. This reinforces the fear the citizens have of the Nanophage and also the isolation many of us have been dealing with for the past two years.
Eventually you’ll come across crime scenes that need to be investigated, which brings in one of the main mechanics to Observer. To search the scene for clues, you’ll need to use your three different vision modes, each with its unique function. Right Bumper allows you to see cybernetic items, like implants, wires and anything else digital based. Left Bumper is your Biogenic vision which allows you to examine biological material, namely blood, in search of clues. Clicking in the Right Stick allows for some subtle night vision, something that will come in handy in the near pitch black basement.
I was stuck in the very first room for a while, as there isn’t a lot of explanation teaching you how to properly use your different vision modes. Once you get the hang of it and what to look for, you’ll feel like a digital version of Batman in no time, knowing what to look for with the glowing outlines of objects that can be scanned or interacted with. Using these visions basically blurs everything else I your vision except the cybernetic or biogenic objects, based on which view your using.
Scanning these items, objects, clues and people is where you’ll put your case together, learning more about your objective or how to find out where to go next. There are even a few sidequests that you can partake in if you’re adapt enough at finding and solving certain puzzles and clues. While this adds a little more length to the gameplay, they are completely optional. There’s even a mini retro game to play should you find all of the terminals hidden throughout.
Where things gets weird is when you hack into someone’s mind. The main idea behind Observer is hacking into people’s subconscious, so you’ll experience imagery like you’ve never seen before. You’ll witness events of what’s happened in their past, their fears, memories and more. Many of these sequences won’t make sense in a traditional way, and there’s a lot of symbolism that takes place, but to say that these sections are ‘weird’ is putting it lightly.
If you’ve ever wondered what a subconscious looks like in visual form, I would suspect Observer: System Redux does a great job at trying to visualize that concept. Some is extremely disturbing, horrifying and plain confusing, but one hell of an experience. There’s only a handful of these sequences, so I don’t want to spoil them, but I will say that the level design, even though mostly linear, is very memorable and unique to anything else I’ve ever experienced.
Reality can be distorted in the mind, and that’s the case here as well. Sometimes you’ll have to solve a puzzle, some of which are done in a very clever way. For example, there’s an endless hallway that seems to repeat itself every time you walk through the door, but you’ll notice a TV off to the side shows a picture of a specific doorway, so you go that way instead. The next time you walk through the door it shows a different doorway, which is your clue to follow this specific ‘path’. Do so successfully and you’ll make your way out of the never ending hallway, fail and you’re doomed to be forever wandering aimlessly in someone’s mind.
Later on there will be some hacking sections where you’re pursued by a creature, and while I completely understand why due to the narrative, these sections were more tiresome than enjoyable. I get why these took place, but always dreaded knowing that I had to avoid a hulking creature trying to find me as these stealth sections simply aren’t fun, even with the so called “redesigned stealth”. To say that these mind hack sections can disorientate you is an understatement; remember, there are no rules in someone’s mind, and you need to let go and accept that.
Visually, Observer: System Redux is quite impressive, even more so when you realize how small the team that originally developed it was. The world is completely believable, as you see the bright cyber influences at nearly every corner counteract with the dark and dirty real world. While everything does look quite well in 4K/60FPS, there were times of some minor slowdown, even on an Xbox Series X. Nowhere near as obviously as it was on Xbox One, but just noticeable enough to realize it’s happening at times.
Sound design is worth noting as well, as the background ambiance completely fits the mood and backdrop, and some of the voice acting is done quite well. I say some though with regret. Daniel is voiced by the one and only Rutger Hauer, which has quite a film pedigree, so there’s no question to his acting ability, but there were quite a few times where the delivery of some lines felt completely flat and monotone, not really feeling fit for some of the situations he was in and how he delivered the lines. That’s not to say it’s all bad, but it’s not perfect.
Observer: System Redux is a very unique title, as it’s heavily narrative driven and contains some of the most visceral and unique imagery I’ve ever experienced in a game. Some of the mind sequences are quite horrifying and paint a light on a future that, in all honesty, isn’t really that far off from our reality. Even though it may be wrapped in a science fiction cyberpunk offering, the experience within is a very dark one.
The gameplay elements may be basic and not exciting on their own, but it’s more about the journey you undertake than reaching the end point. The level design is brilliant and some of the experiences are very memorable even though it has flaws, namely the forced stealth sections. If you’re into the cyberpunk genre and want to experience something completely unique and twisted, look no further than Observer: System Redux, especially if you have an Xbox Series X or S to get the best visual experience unlike any other.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Lawn Mowing Simulator
It’s time to lace up those white New Balance shoes and grab a beer because it’s time to mow the lawn. Skyhook Games have taken the mundane task of mowing the lawn that many of us hated doing as kids and made a full simulator out of it, though with ride-on mowers that would have certainly made it my time cutting lawns as a kid feel less of a chore. With a few simulator games under their belt like Train Sim World, Train Simulator and others, Skyhook Games have built a reputation on creating simulator gaming experiences, and this one just happens to be about mowing the lawn.I’ll admit, I initially scoffed at the idea when Lawn Mowing Simulator was announced, though in the last few years, simulators for other genres and mundane tasks have gained an odd popularity and following, and I don’t see this one being any different. I never used to understand the appeal of certain simulators, but my view shifted once I ended up reviewing Farming Simulator a few years back. While not for everyone, simulators like these can be quite entertaining in their own way, and while I live in an apartment and don’t have a lawn of my own to take care of, I can now do so virtually in Lawn Mowing Simulator.
I remember when I played the demo that was released a few weeks ago, thinking I was going to try it out and uninstall afterwards quite quickly, but I found myself oddly mesmerized with wanting to make the perfect lawn mower cuts and see how great I could make the lawn appear. This game is going to have a specific audience, but I have to admit that there’s been a few nights where I just needed a game to relax after playing my main gaming buffet of shooters and racers, and Lawn Mowing Simulator fit that bill perfectly. Now you too can enjoy trimming the lawn along the countryside in Great Britain. A simulator wouldn’t be worth its weight without any actual brands or manufacturers, and Lawn Mowing Simulator brings in authentic mowers from top brands like Toro, SCAG and STIGA, so those dads out there that really know their mowers should be quite pleased with its authenticity.
The bulk of your experience will come in its career mode. Here you start out as a single person accessing contracts that vary in pay and experience. Your goal is to build your lawncare business from the ground up, eventually hiring employees and managing all your expenses and assets. You’ll basically start with nothing, eventually saving enough cash to purchase better mowers, a headquarters, building upgrades, advertisements, attachments for the mowers and of course repairs, fuel and more.
You begin your lawncare career by first creating a male or female avatar. Don’t expect much of a character creator though, as you can’t even edit the basics, you simply choose from a handful of different templates and that’s it. Next, you’ll design your business logo, again, by simply choosing from a couple of icons and options without any way to add personality or edit them into something creative. Lastly is your business name, and this is where I can see some humor and puns come into play. Being the man-child that I am, my ‘Landing Strip’ lawncare business was set to take the world, well, Great Britain at least, by storm.
The majority of your gameplay is cutting lawns of course, but until you play and save enough, you’ll need to also handle your business affairs. Oddly, the business management aspect if the game was quite addicting, as you need to balance your cash flow, deciding the best time to purchase a new mower, hire a new employee or when to bite the bullet and purchase an expensive new building to accommodate your growing business.
Eventually you’ll be able to hire a worker for a weekly wage. People will apply to your business once you make a certain popularity rank, allowing you to choose to hire, ignore or fire if need be. When you do have an employee on the payroll, their skills and abilities will determine their pay. The better and more experienced they are the better job they’ll do, so naturally they’ll want to be compensated more so than an amateur landscaper. Each week you get to choose your job contracts that are available, allowing you to see the pay, experience, suggested size of mower and estimated time to complete. At first you’ll want to focus on earning as much money as you can, but this will shift later to RP (experience) gains to get your rank up quicker once money isn’t as big of an issue.
Once you have an employee working for you you’ll get to choose two jobs a week, assigning yourself one and the other job to your employee, along with what mower to use that you’ve purchased so far. I didn’t really notice a big difference in job performance of employees who were higher ranked compared to amateurs, as they always got the job done without many fines, plus employee’s level up the more jobs they do, eventually becoming specialists anyways. With enough popularity you’ll eventually be able to hire a second employee, allowing for three contracts to be completed each week, which is where the money really starts to roll in. Of course I would set them to do the longer and higher paying jobs where I could focus on the quicker contracts since they all complete when you're done your job.
So, do you save up to buy bigger and better mowers and attachments like stripe rollers, mulching kits, recyclers, grass collectors and more, or do you upgrade your headquarters and purchase more bays to store your mowers? What surprised me was that you can only ever hire two employees, even once you’ve reached the final tier of popularity and have acquired the maxed out headquarter upgrade. I found this a little odd since when you buy the last headquarters it shows you having multiple company trucks in its parking lot and a massive building, yet will only have three people working there, one being yourself.
There’s a lot that goes into mowing a lawn perfectly, more than you’d initially expect. After starting a contract you’ll first need to do a ground check. This is where you run around the yard looking for a set amount of items that have been left on the lawn, because if you don’t pick them up you’ll damage your mower if you accidently run over some sheers, garden gnomes, toys, sticks and other items. This only takes maybe a minute or so to complete but it will earn you a small bonus if you find them all in time allotted.
Next on the list is to get back to the mower on your trailer and start the engine. Put it into gear and you’ll be riding towards wherever you wish to begin the cutting. Lastly, each client wants their lawn a specific height, usually between 5-8cm, so you need to make sure your blade is adjusted accordingly. Once all of this is complete, you then begin doing what you do best, landscaping to perfection. Each job has a requirement of completion needed to be met before you can finish if you want the full payment, usually 99.5% to 99.9% cut, which is to be expected.
Your first few mowers will not be all that quick or powerful, making for yards with some hills or a lot of flowerbeds and trees quite a challenge. Eventually your mowers become larger and much more nimble, making quick work of jobs once you get used to the handling of each. Clicking in the Right Stick when still will highlight any grass you’ve yet to mow, usually a last resort to find those odd few patches you missed when making your initial passes. While I tended to cut along the edges first and work my way inwards, others may choose to do straight lines across and back; there’s no wrong way. The only time you’ll need to be very specific in your directions is when you want to add striping to the lawn, you know, the fancy lines you see in some yards or sports stadiums, only possible with a roller attachment on some of the mowers. This of course takes a little more precision and patience, but damn does the yard look good when you’re complete.
Set in Great Britain, the majority of your jobs will be in high end cottage homes, castle grounds and even some fields and farms. Some yards even have some slight inclines, making it a challenge for the smaller mowers with less horsepower. A few yards are also very intricate and have lots of curves and twists, while others are straighter and rectangle but have more trees to work around.
The grass itself can be quite tall if the owners have let it grow for quite a while, meaning your smaller mowers might need to make more than one pass at different cut heights as to not overload and damage your mower. Constantly pass over the same spots and your wheels will ruin the lawn, resulting in a fine, as will cutting any flowers or hitting the owner’s properly like fences or ornaments on the lawn. These fines aren’t major but make you want to be more precise with your passes, as you can also damage your blade and mower too if you’re not careful, resulting in larger repair bills down the road.
As mentioned above, Lawn Mowing Simulator wouldn’t be a true simulator without real world brands to back it up. This is where mowers from Toro, SCAG and STIGA come in to play, offering a dozen real world mowers that I had no idea were so expensive. Each mower has its own style of riding, steering, attachments and more. Some come with collectors that need to be emptied once full, others will mulch the clippings, it all depends on the contract and what the client wants. While there’s currently no classic push mowers or weed whackers, I’m hoping these might get added down the road. The only other glaring omission is wheel support for Xbox. I hooked mine up hoping I could find a way to make it work, but nothing as of yet, though developers have said it's in the works.
When you complete the career mode or just want a break from it, you can choose either Challenge or Free Roam mode. Free Roam is just that, allowing you to freely cut any lawn without any consequences or limits. Challenge Mode is interesting. You are tasked with very specific objectives. Sometimes this means you only have a short time limit to complete a job, or maybe your mower only has 10% fuel left, so you need to be very deliberate in your passes. These unlock the further you progress in popularity in the campaign and range from quite easy to very challenging.
While the character models and animations won’t wow you, the lawns themselves and scenery do look quite good. You can clearly see the lanes you’ve cut after you’ve passed over an area of grass, especially if the blade height is quite low. It can be a little tricky to figure out where your blade line begins and ends for cutting, but this comes with practice, of which you’ll have plenty if you want to afford everything Lawn Mowing Simulator has to offer.
I was kind of surprised that there wasn’t much of a soundtrack when mowing. Menus and such have some light music, but when you’re mowing all you’re going to hear is the 'WWHRHRHRHHRHRHRHH' sound of the engine and blades the whole time. Yes, I get that it’s like that in real life, but I highly suggest putting on a favorite Spotify soundtrack as you get your 'mow-on'. Thankfully you can turn down individual audio portions like the engine so it’s not as grating over time.
I admit, I initially laughed at the idea of Lawn Mowing Simulator when it was first announced, but after playing for hours on end, there’s nothing quite as relaxing after a long day of work, turning on the console and mowing some grass. Maybe it’s just the dad in me, but I quite enjoyed my time with Lawn Mowing Simulator and satisfaction of seeing a lawn moving job well done. Even with its minor issues and lengthy grind it still made the cut.
**Lawn Mowing Simulator was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone
Originally a simple prototype by Doborog Games, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone went into Early Access way back in 2017 on Steam. Since then it has garnered a following for its addictive gameplay and hilarity with many updates along the way. Four years later it’s finally set for its full launch on PC, but it is also releasing alongside consoles for us Xbox fans to enjoy as well.Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is an interesting mix of slice-em-up roguelike gameplay, robot voxel graphics and tons of humor throughout. I got a very For Honor/Chivalry II vibe from its gameplay, though with a completely different objective and aesthetic. Because of the voxel design, you can actually parts of your body removed, so if you lose a leg or an arm, it’s going to be much harder for you to survive and win. There’s not many things cooler than wielding a flaming laser sword that’s on fire or taking down a massive robot dinosaur though, both of which Clone Drone in the Danger Zone has.
Given that the bulk of Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is an arena brawler, there’s not much of a campaign here. Yes there’s some semblance of a story for those that only plan to play single player, but it’s definitely not the emphasis here. Essentially, humans are slaves to the robot overlords and have had their minds uploaded into robot bodies so that they can fight for the robots' amusement. If you die, no problem, there’s plenty more human minds to go around and be uploaded, hence where the Clone Drone title comes into play.
Not only will you have to entertain the onlookers of robots in your shiny new machine body, but you’ll have two robot announcers commentating on everything you do for the audience. This commentator duo is aptly named Commentatron and Analysis-Bot who just happen to have over 38,000 spoken words of dialogue. This duo is absolutely hilarious and is the majority of the reason I wanted to continue playing, even after the repetitiveness crept in. Spoken in your typical text-to-voice monotone speech, they will berate your failures along the way, make fun of humankind and even drop a few terrible dad jokes along the way. This comedic duo truly makes Clone Drone in the Danger Zone have some heart even though they are robots without one.
An arena game at its core, you’re essentially stuck in a room with a bunch of enemies until either they all die or you do. Once you’re dead it’s Game Over and you start from the beginning, which is where the roguelike comes into play. Waves of enemies will become progressively more challenging, either with their attacks, weapons or sheer number. And yes, you will come across massive bosses, like the Spidertron 5000, so you’ll need to learn how to not only fight, but dash out of the way and block certain attacks and projectiles. Of course Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is light hearted and doesn’t take itself seriously, so you can feel free to use emotes whenever you like as well.
There’s a handful of different modes if you plan on playing solo, offering a decent variety based on your tastes. Story Mode has a small narrative that is about human defiance, so good luck staying alive longer than the last contestant, the one before that, and of course the many before that. Endless mode is just that, as it challenges you to last as long you can survive, going up the ranks and finding the gameplay more challenging the longer you live. Lastly is Challenge Mode, where you’re given specific objectives or restrictions and need to see if you can complete them, like only using a Bow or Hammer. These are quite difficult if you’ve become accustomed to a specific weapon, but is also a great way to learn and practice with the Spear or other ones you might have initially avoided.
Voxel dismemberment isn’t just a catchy tagline to describe the gameplay, it’s actually something you’ll rely on in combat. Yeah it’s cool to completely cut off another robot’s arm or leg, but it will actually affect their ability to swing their weapon or maneuver quickly. However, the same goes for you. Lose a leg and you’ll be hopping on one foot, most likely about to meet your demise by another robot that can dash quickly. The same goes for arms, where you’re going to be at a massive disadvantage if you lose a limb.
Combat in Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is very much a jousting match. Go in too early and swing and you’re left open for an attack. Run out of energy and you won’t be able to shoot your bow or dash out of the way. This cat and mouse combat takes a little getting used to but will eventually become second nature. With a handful of different weapons you’ll also be able to choose how you want to play, wielding a slow but wide sweeping and high damage hammer, or shooting from afar with a bow and arrow that takes much more skill and timing. You can even get a kick ability that knocks your enemies off platforms and into traps. Once you take a fatal blow though, that’s it, your run is over. This usually happens with a decapitation, losing both legs or simply taking enough damage overall.
Between each successful wave you survive you’ll head back into the basement as the robots setup the next arena to try and stop you. This is where you earn one skill point for each wave you survive, allowing you to upgrade your robot as you see fit. Want to boost your laser sword with fire damage? Go ahead. Want to use a Hammer or Spear? Sure. Want to have a Jetpack, more Armor or extra lives? Spend your upgrade points freely to suit your playstyle. There’s not a huge skill tree, but each wave you survive means you get to become more well rounded and dangerous.
While you could play Clone Drone in the Danger Zone completely single player by yourself, the online modes make it much more of an entertaining experience, as who wouldn’t want to mangle other human players online for supremacy? Online Co-op allows you to team up against the waves of robots together to try and survive the Arena. Private Duels allow you to challenge a friend or foe in 1v1 battles to the death, but the real bread and butter of Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is in its Last bot Standing Mode.
This is your typical Battle Royale mode where 15 players face off in a shrinking map until there’s only one winner robot remaining. With crossplay enabled you’ll have no problem finding a match in a matter of seconds, so even when you lose you can quickly jump into another match if you don’t mind facing off against PC and other console players. In the warmup lobby you’ll see how many wins each player has above their heads so you know who to avoid which also showcases how poor the matchmaking is, as you’re going to lose quite a lot of Last Bot Standing matches before you likely get a win since you’ll be matched with very experienced players.
While graphics in games like this don’t generally matter, the voxel aesthetic works for its premise and silliness, but the real standout is the commentary by the announcers. Seriously, more than a few times I laughed out loud and the hilarity never got old. Unless you care about the online Last Bot Standing mode I’d question its longevity and the $26.99 CAD asking price. That said, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone will make you laugh on a number of occasions and can be fun to simply jump in for a few matches here and there.
**Clone Drone in the Danger Zone was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Within the Blade
If you grew up in the classic 8 and 16-bit era, you’ll no doubt probably have played or seen classic side scrolling ninja games like Strider, Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi, just to name a few. There are very few things cooler than a ninja, so Ametist Studio made their own Shinobi based game, Within the Blade. If it looks familiar, that’s because it originally released a few years ago on PC under the name Pixel Shinobi: Nine demons of Mamoru. Now that it’s coming to console, and most likely because Sega owns the Shinobi name, it’s been renamed but seems largely the same experience. Since I never played the original release, I was excited to dive right in and get my ninja on.A 2D side-scrolling stealth adventure, Within the Blade tells a tale set in 1560 A.D. about a massive civil war happening across the land. With every clan fighting it out for power, the “Black Lotus” ninja clan is Japan’s last hope to stop the “Steel Claw” clan and their warlord, or else demons, death and despair will consume the land. There’s a handful of levels, each with a narrative about getting one step closer to finding the one responsible, but you won’t care too much about the story and will instead focus on the ninja action gameplay.
There’s a few mechanics to Within the Blade that takes center stage, but at its score you’ll be playing as a Shinobi in a 2D world, complete with stealth and RPG elements. You’re encouraged to take a stealthy approach, as trying to mix it up face to face usually doesn’t end well, but you also need to be quick as well. On one hand the game wants you to not be spotted and act as a ninja, but most of the time simply rushing seemed to work much better overall. As soon as you get spotted you either need to quickly kill them or run away, the latter you’ll be doing the majority of the time once you reach the last few stages.
There are basically three different types of missions. Outside ones where you hop from building to building, avoiding traps and trying to sneak up on your opponents for some quick assassinations, trying to get to the end of the stage on the far right. The indoor levels were my bane, making me sigh every time I had to complete one of these. These levels give you a Metroidvania-like style grid map where you can see every room you’ve either been in or not. You won’t know where the exit is initially, and when you do find it you’re first going to have to explore to find the red key for the red door, green key and sometimes blue as well, making for a lot of backtracking. I didn’t enjoy these levels at all, as they were generally quite packed with enemies and traps, always giving you secondary objectives for more experience should you wish. Lastly are the boss levels at the end of each chapter, the highlight of Within the Blade by far.
There’s an optional tutorial you can choose to play at the opening menu, and it teaches you everything from the basics to dashing, assassinating, blocking and even using a hook rope to climb ledges high above. Sounds cool right? Well, you won’t get many of these abilities or tools until much later in the game, and that's if you even decide to purchase them.
As you explore each level trying to reach the end you’ll come across numerous enemies that can be killed for experience and loot. You’ll also find randomized chests along the way, generally giving you a handful of crafting materials or some secondary items like bombs or shurikens. For those that want to level up, earn more skills and loot, you can take your time and explore every inch of the stages and kill anyone you see. For those that want to progress quicker, a speed dash to the end is what you’ll be looking for.
Combat is quite fast and fluid, when it works properly that is. You’ll only start with a basic combo with your blade, but as you level up you can unlock new perks and skills based on your playstyle. The issues arises when you try to actually connect with your combos sometimes. Each attack makes your character ‘slide’ slightly forward and since you’re spamming the attack button, the moment you whiff an attack, the enemy will usually retaliate and punish you for it. You sometimes have to be pixel-perfect and this takes a lot of practice to learn the distancing and timing before attacking.
You have a block button that can deflect basic attacks, but this will need to be upgraded if you want to be able to deflect almost anything. Eventually I was able to stand on a boss and simply hold block and pick my shots. This button is also how you perform assassinations if you sneak up to an enemy undetected. If you unlock the ability you’ll also have a dash by utilizing the Bumpers, yet the game incorrectly says to double tap a direction. As you dash, flip, jump and attack, the animations look quite smooth as they string together, making you feel like a ninja when it all goes to plan.
At the end of each stages you’re given a scorecard based on a number of factors like how often you were spotted, how many damage you took and other things. You’re given a score and a title based on how well you did, but I found it quite difficult to get a decent score, as you’re going to be spotted quite often for numerous reasons, some of which are out of your control like difficult enemy placement.
There are a variety of enemies you’ll face, even zombies that only ‘die’ for a short time before coming back to life. The harder and more difficult enemies later on becomes quite a challenge until you have some critical abilities, some of which can even one-shot assassinate you as well if you leave your back exposed to them. With plenty of enemies to face, the real excitement came from the ten unique boss fights. These were the highlight of Within the Blade for me and was the reason I wanted to continue on my journey to face off against the next one.
Then there’s the weapon degradation, one of the mechanics that made me want to stop playing outright at times. Samurai and Ninja swords are supposed to be some of the most quality steel and blades known, yet can completely break on you at any given time. That’s right, your forged steel sword can simply break, leaving you to fight with just your equipment you’ve found along the way and your fists. Now, I will say that once I put my points into the bare handed skills and abilities, this wasn’t a big deal, but it takes time to do so and fighting more than one boss without a weapon wasn’t the best experience.
After most stages you’ll have the option to go back to your village to buy items, craft new ones and spend your skill points. The shop has some basic swords and such, but are much too expensive until you start knowing how to make money later on. Instead, you’ll be crafting weapons and items from materials you find along the way. With more than 200 recipes there are plenty of items to craft, but I never had a great stream of items flowing in to make much use of doing so. Also, there’s a few NPC’s in the village that you can talk to and shop at, but this isn’t told anywhere, so I didn’t even know you had to press ‘Up’ on the D-Pad to check their wares until I did it by accident.
The 16-bit style pixel visuals are a treat to look at for old-school gamers like myself, with each enemy looking unique and plenty of smaller details in the environment. Cutting down tall standing bamboo never gets old, nor does seeing tons of blood explode from an enemy. The animations are quite fluid and well done. While there’s no voice acting, the soundtrack definitely suits the feudal Japan era and has great sounding sword clashes when in battle.
The ‘floaty’ combat still caused me to make mistakes hours in and I had plenty of unfair deaths causing level checkpoint restarts. While I wasn’t a fan of the indoor level design, the boss stages made the effort of suffering through them worth it in the end, as did eventually unlocking and upgrading enough abilities to feel like an unstoppable ninja by the time the credits rolled and starting New Game+.
**Within the Blade was provided by the publisher reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Forgotten City, The
I review a ton of games, and because of such, I tend to forget many of them once the credit rolls before I move onto the next. Every now and then though there’s a game that sticks with me long after its completion, which speaks volumes to its quality, gameplay or memorable narrative. This was the case with The Forgotten City once I saw a few of its endings, especially its fourth and canon one.If The Forgotten City rings a bell, you were most likely a Skyrim player that liked to dabble in mods, as it was originally a critically acclaimed mod that garnered more than three million downloads and a prestigious award, and for good reason. If you were a fan of the mod, you’ll be happy to know that it’s now not only its own stand-alone title, but has been re-written, has a new setting, new characters, twists and more. Add a fantastic orchestral score and professional voice acting, and you’ve got quite an entertaining and unique gaming experience.
You begin being woken up by a stranger who pulls you out of the river, saying she saw you floating by as you were unconscious. She said that someone named Al just previously was here as well but ventured away to explore, so she asks you to search for him. Once you find a mysterious portal, this is where things start to become very interesting, capturing my attention until I saw multiple endings. Now, I’m going to be intentionally vague with certain story elements and gameplay mechanics, as spoiling it would absolutely ruin much of the memorable experience, so go in as blind as you possibly can.
Upon entering this portal you’re transported 2000 years into the past within the walls of an underground ancient Roman city. There’s a catch though, there’s not only twenty three inhabitants and many golden statues of citizens, but there’s a sacred Golden Rule that absolutely cannot be broken; If one person sins, everyone dies. That’s right, if one person does something terrible, everyone pays the price. To make things even more intriguing, you’re caught in a time loop and the only person that keeps their memories each time.
The Golden Rule plays a major part not only narratively, but gameplay wise as well. Decisions you make will change future outcomes, as each secret you uncover and item you take can be used in each time loop to make new events or conversations happen. You of course need to be careful, as if you break the Golden Rule everything will come to an end. I won’t giveaway what happens exactly, but it can be quite nerve wracking if you’re far from the portal which needs to be reached to reset the day. Much like Groundhog Day, you’ll eventually start to learn people’s patterns and how to best approach them to get what you want.
This time loop makes the gameplay become quite interesting, as confronting someone with one of their secrets that you already know completely can change the outcome of specific events. The fact that you can steal an item, reset the day and keep what you took makes the gameplay quite interesting. Once you learn how to utilize and exploit the time loop, The Forgotten City becomes quite addictive as you figure out ways to solve everyone’s individual problems and needs. Not everything can be solved in the same day, so sometimes it’s best to work on one quest or person, time loop, then work on another.
Your main objective is to get back to the present in your own world by creating a paradox, but doing so won’t be so easy since you’re seemingly stuck in a time loop. You’ll need to help the other inhabitants with their problems, as doing so might get them to talk about how they got to the city or if they know how to escape, giving clues on how to get back to your time, but maybe even answers to the larger questions, like who created the Golden Rule. With four endings and multiple quests that can be solved in almost any orders, there’s plenty of mysteries to uncover within The Forgotten City.
Play a character that you get to choose their origin, gender and backstory. Certain options will give you extra bonuses for that character, like other dialogue choices or a gun with one bullet. This adds a little more flair to your options, and while you can get the endings with any character you choose, it’s more to suit your playstyle.
As you explore the city, you’ll come across plenty of objects, graffiti, statues that seemingly whisper hints to you and more. It’s quite creepy at first to see these golden statues tilt their head or give you hints as you pass by, but you’ll soon come to rely on their advice if you’re clever. There’s nothing off limits, and if a door to a building is locked, you simply need to figure out another way in or whom you can get the key from and how. Maybe helping someone with their problem will rewards you with a key, maybe purposely getting someone killed will benefit someone else. But isn’t that a sin? You’re going to find out.
The Golden Rule appears to be a deterrent initially to force you to play ‘good’, but once you learn how to use these rule breaks to your advantage, possibilities really open up. “The many shall suffer for the sins of one.” is repeated numerous times, but what if it’s not you that sins, but someone else that thinks the Golden Rule is a farce? What about the person that wants to commit suicide, is that a sin? These moral tug of wars was truly fascinating to see how certain people justify their actions, including myself thinking I was making the right decision sometimes. Sometimes being a shoulder to lean on will get you a long way, other times you might have to bribe or intimidate someone. Thinking ‘outside the box’ usually works quite well when you start to exploit the time loop.
Combat is an option eventually, but it’s very minimal. Rumor has it there’s a beast roaming the underground passageways, so you ought to be careful. While most of the golden statues littered throughout the city are just that, stationary statues, some will guide you along your way, while others may very well come to life and try to attack you. It’s up to you how you want to handle these moments, but keep in mind the Golden Rule at all times.
As you explore the Roman city, you’ll be impressed with its authenticity when it comes to its architecture and clothing. This was achieved by utilizing actual historical consultants, so if you’re a Roman history buff, you’ll enjoy simply exploring the city. Graphically, The Forgotten City is impressive in its scope. Yes, you’re in a small little underground city for the majority of your adventure, but it feels large when you’re sitting at the edge of a cliff and soaking the gorgeous vistas in. Environments and characters look fantastic which makes playing around in the photo mode a delight, but you can still somewhat see it’s Skyrim mod roots when it comes to rough facial animations and lip syncing, something that’s supposed to be improved in a future patch. The voice acting is top notch from every memorable character and the orchestral score is a delight to listen to.
The Forgotten City may have started out as a simple mod, but the small team at Modern Storyteller has taken the time and effort to craft it into its own memorable experience, one that I’m glad to have had and implore you to as well if any of the above has piqued your interest. Well worth the price of admission, The Forgotten City will leave a lasting impression once final revelations are revealed, just always keep in mind the Golden Rule.
**The Forgotten City was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Imagine Earth
When you think city building games, Sim City, Anno or Cities: Skylines are most likely the first titles that come to mind. You know the genre, where you start with nothing and need to build a bustling city full of people, commerce and prosperity. Imagine Earth does this, but on a global scale upon a small planet. More than a simple city builder, Imagine Earth also has a large emphasis and focus on sustainability when it comes to the global climate as well.Imagine Earth task you with building colonies on various planets, starting with a city center, building power plants, food supplies and establishing trading partners. Hopefully if you do things properly and responsibly, you won’t have to deal with too many natural disasters or population leaving in droves because of pollution. Of course, you’ll have to deal with pirates and other unknown anomalies along the way.
The year is 2048 and massive corporations have depleted all of Earth’s resources, forcing energy companies to look to the stars for new habitable planets. Looking for a new home, your job is to take a virtually untouched planet and create a colony that thrives, but of course your boss will have specific objectives for you to fulfil before being successful and giving you a promotion to work on the next planet.
The campaign takes place over the course of nine different planets, each becoming increasingly more challenging as you progress. You’ll be harvesting the planet’s natural resources, creating income, attracting population, making trade partners and more. You’ll have to deal with numerous different people and aliens along your journey with objectives constantly updating or changing based on how you’re playing. For example, I was using a lot of Oil Factories for energy generation on one planet but eventually had to clean up all the spills afterwards.
While the campaign isn’t terribly challenging, you are given three different difficulty modes with the harder ones offering more score bonuses. The last few planets do get quite difficult in some of the situations it throws your way, but nothing unfair or unmanageable. I did appreciate how Imagine Earth has a large emphasis on climate change and pollution, but doesn’t come across as too preachy or as if it has an agenda. You can build your colonies with whatever energy sources you wish, but coal, oil and other toxic ones will have detrimental effects on your planet, just like our own.
The first planet acts as a tutorial, teaching you the basics of how to start your colony by placing your main city center, creating farms and energy sources, then warehouses and harvesting numerous types of resources from within your set boundaries. Speaking of boundaries, even though the game is played on a small planetary scale, the grid itself is done with triangles instead of your typical squares or hexagons. You’re able to extend your borders for a cost, and will be able to place multiple city centers almost anywhere you desire.
Any resource within your borders can be mined and harvested, but you’ll need a warehouse to store them. You can set how much to always keep on hand for crafting items or even set to automatically sell any excess inventory. Figuring out all this isn’t really taught well, so it took some time to figure out on my own, but once you have auto selling setup it becomes much easier to earn money passively as you build your colony. Much of the game had this problem, where you’re taught the basics but are left to figure out everything else for yourself. Given that there’s a lot of menus to delve into if you want to get really in-depth with the management side of things, it takes some time to figure it all out.
The more you expand and build your colony, the more energy and food resources you’ll need. To attract more population you’re going to need housing as well, requiring more resources, so there’s always a balance and adjustments you’ll need to be mindful of. Any resources you don’t need, you can sell to other merchants or donate to potential allies. Some resources can be used to craft unique items like medicine, bombs and other items that can be quite useful or traded, depending on how you want to play.
Almost everything relates to the environment of your planet. Too much pollution and not only will people not be happy, but natural disasters like tornados, fires, oil spills or storms will appear. You’ll also have to deal with asteroids falling from space, though you could create a tower defense system should you feel inclined. You’re also going to have to deal with other organizations looking to make their mark on the planet as well, so you might make some rivals along the way if you approach on their borders.
Where you place all your buildings is quite important, as placing a specific factory or food processing where resources are nearby will make it much more efficient, so placement take an important role. With a whole tech and upgrade tree, you’re able to improve certain aspects of nearly every unit and building, offering more production, less energy consumption and more. You’ll also need to be quick on your toes, as you’ll need to deploy medicine for sectors that are in quarantine, de-escalating riots or fending off pirates trying to steal from your warehouses.
When you do finally complete the campaign there are a few other modes to keep you playing afterwards. Endless mode is just that, allowing you to freely play however and as long as you wish. There’s also a Competition Mode where you compete with other companies for the settlement license on an uninhabited planet where the first colony to reach a certain number of victory points is the winner. You can even set a custom game here to your exact preferences. Lastly, Editor Mode allows you to create a complete planet however you want in a ‘God’ mode, allowing you to even terraform if you wish.
Gameplay is quite smooth on an Xbox Series X, as I never had any slowdown when spinning the planet around from one side to the other. Buildings and resources are varied, able to distinguish what they are when zoomed out, but can see much more detail when inspecting close up. Seeing asteroid orbiting the planet above looks great, as does watching it crash down onto your buildings. The voice acting is decent but the calming ambient background music was the highlight, especially when I wasn’t worrying too much about my objective and simply working on expanding my borders or harvesting resources. One annoyance was seeing that some Keyboard/Mouse commands prompts were left in by accident on a few of the tool tips, so clearly this was ported from it's PC counterpart.
Every now and then you need a game that allows you to chill on the couch and just simply relax. Imagine Earth fits that bill perfectly. Being simple enough for anyone to jump in and start playing, but also deep enough for those that want to micromanage nearly every aspect of their colony, Imagine Earth is an entertaining colony management game that also focuses on its ecosystem and sustainability.
**Imagine Earth was provided by the publisher reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Worms Rumble
I still remember the day a friend showed me the original Worms back in the mid 90’s. A tactical turn based strategy shooter game that featured worms had me hooked from that very first game I played, and I’ve been a fan ever since, going on about two and a half decades now. Since then I think I’ve purchased or played every Worms game since, even the terrible foray into 3D gameplay, but we won’t talk about those. So I guess you could call me a hardcore Worms-er (if that’s a word).Depending on who you ask, most old school Worms fans would probably rate Armageddon or WMD as when the series peaked, as many since those have felt very redundant without really adding much new to the formula aside from new weapons and level templates. But times change and so must franchises if they want to stay relevant with what gamers want. A handful of years ago it seemed zombies was all the rage, so tons of games coming out was set within that genre, but in the last few years popular games in the Battle Royale genre have exploded in popularity like Fortnite, PUBG and Warzone, spawning countless others. The latest to enter the Battle Royale is Team 17’s take with their longest lasting franchise, Worms Rumble.
That’s right. Gone are the traditional turn based tactical gameplay Worms is best known for and in are the Battle Royale rulesets that have you trying to be the last team, squad or worm wriggling. It’s a very drastic change from the classic gameplay we’ve come to love for decades as you now play a single worm in real time trying to shoot your enemies. While many things do translate well to the genre shift like the classic jetpack, bazooka and holy hand grenades, it’s also played in that classic Worms 2D view and there’s always tons of chaos, so it can be a little much at times to take in and figure out what exactly is going on. Just know that Worms Rumble is absolutely and completely different from any other Worms game that came before it and you’ll be able to keep your expectations in check.
Before you begin you’re going to want to customize your worm to your liking. You’ll only have a few options at the start from skin patterns, hats, accessories, eyes and more, but as you level up and earn coins you’ll be able to unlock more. The more you play the more XP and money you’ll earn, allowing you to purchase more skins, emotes, unlocks and more. While the gold comes quickly enough to purchase almost anything you want, sadly the coolest looking skins, outfits, emotes and more seem to be locked away behind a paywall.
That’s right, Worms Rumble has microtransactions riddled throughout. Yes, they are all cosmetic and won’t affect gameplay or balance, but the in-game unlockables are nowhere near as cool as the sets you can buy for real money. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if the cost wasn’t too bad with a low price or able to earn in-game from lots of playing, but expect to pay roughly $5 - $10 per DLC offering. PER, not all. It really feels like being nickel and dimed for all the skins and emote packs which, for a first impression, wasn’t a great start.
Before you jump right in you’ll first want to decide what mode you’ll want to partake in. You have Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Last Squad Standing and Last Worm Standing. Certain modes have level suggestions but you are able to jump into them right away if you desire to lose quickly. I’m not sure why Last Squad Standing has a level suggestion of 5 and Last Worm Standing of 10 since you can simply jump into them regardless, and there are no ways to upgrade your worm’s stats or weapon damage, but I guess those modes tend to be a little more competitive compared to Team Deathmatch or Deathmatch and developers may not want players to become quickly discouraged.
The other issue that I noticed was that the matchmaking isn’t balanced very well. Nearly every match had fresh level 1 newbies paired or pitted against higher level players. Sometimes my squad wouldn’t even be completely filled out before the match started either, so you can guess the general outcomes of mis-matches like this. It is worth noting that Worms Rumble utilizes 32 player cross platform multiplayer, so filling matches generally doesn’t take too long and you’ll be able to play with friends on PC or other consoles. 32 players all playing a single worm at once can lead to some very chaotic matches, yet still retains that ‘worm-ness’ about it even with the drastic genre shift. I do wish that you could muti-queue modes to make it quicker if you don’t really care what mode to play though. While most players will likely stick to their favorite mode of choice, I found myself sticking with the Last Squad standing, as it’s fun to play alongside other teammates and try and utilize strategy when the maps starts to fill with poisonous gas blocking off certain areas.
You begin with a random weapon, usually a pistol, assault rifle or shotgun as well as your trusty baseball bat, each of which looks and sounds like it’s straight from any of the classic Worms titles. Since Worms Rumble is a Battle Royale you’ll need to find crate drops which vary in colors denoting if they contain regular weapons or the more unique ones you’d expect to find in a Worms game like a sheep launcher, rocket shield or a sentry launcher. Each weapon type is best suited for different situations and play styles, as I tend to prefer the assault rifles given how hectic and jerky player movements can be when in a firefight. There’s also no slow paced jumping to maneuver around, as you can climb up walls with ease or roll to ‘run’ for a short time. Makes sense in the quick paced Battle Royale genre, but simply doesn’t feel like classic Worms in the slightest.
While the classic Ninja Rope is gone, you can instead find a Grapple Gun, essentially a plunger with a rope tied to it, to zip around the stage in and our of danger wherever you like much quicker. The classic jetpack also returns, allowing your worm to fly in any direction for a short time. Since this is a Battle Royale, you’ll find health kits to replenish your HP or Energy Drinks to boost your shield meter. Some of the classic Worms staples are missing though, like concrete donkeys, girders, destructible environments and others. There’s also no way to buy back teammates who have gone down either other than a brief few moments to revive them before they’re finished off.
The heart of Worms is still there with banana bombs, holy hand grenades and sheep but the change to real-time combat and Battle Royale genre swap does take quite some getting used to. While I’m not normally a Battle Royale fan and admit I wasn’t very fond of the idea of a Worms game switching genres so drastically, I did give it an honest shot and it begin to grow on me, though probably just because of my affinity towards the Worms series more than anything else.
I’m trying my hardest to not be a Worms elitist, as I’m sure Worms Rumble will find its audience and fans, but for a longtime Worm fanatic like myself, I’m not sure how much longevity it has for someone that isn’t into Battle Royales. The best part though is that Worms Rumble is on Game Pass for Xbox and PC, so there’s no reason to not check it out regardless if you’re a Worms or Battle Royale fan to decide for yourself.
**Worms Rumble was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Curved Space
I’m a bit of a twin-stick shooter aficionado. It’s one of my favorite genres and I’m generally quite skilled at them, so when a new shmup (shoot-em-up) releases, you can bet than I’m intrigued and will to check it out. While many twin-stick shooters all tend to rely on the same mechanics and generally don’t differ all that much, Curved Space, developed by Only By Midnight, tries to switch things up by having it’s play surface set in space mapped to a 3D surface. So while you’re still playing on a 2D plane for shooting, the levels themselves are 3D, allowing you to fly up walls or any surface with your ship, perfectly suited for a space-based adventure.Curved Space is more than just a cool name, as it’s the core of its gameplay as well. Each level is either an asteroid or space station of some sort with flowing and bended areas, edges and more where your ship will constantly stick to any surface, allowing you to fly from one surface, down a curve to the underside or any other. Given that this is in space, the vistas are quite beautiful to take in as you slowly spin and rotate while trying to focus on avoiding bullets and staying alive.
Most shmups tend to have a very simplistic narrative, usually revolving around saving the world, mankind or the like, and while Curved Space does have some story elements, it’s certainly not going to win any awards or be the reason why you play. The campaign revolves around a story dealing with an energy shortage and a spider invasion in space. While I have arachnophobia, thankfully these space spiders aren’t really your typical eight legged crawlies you find in your home, but instead brightly red colored enemies with a handful of different variants.
You’ll take on this spider invasion in your space ship, eventually choosing one of three versions of yourself while hinting at some major deja-vu. Each choice you make in-between levels will have you playing on a different stage or against a unique enemy. There are a red, green and blue version of yourself, each with their own idea of what the best course of action should be, adding some branching paths and levels, so seeing everything Curved Space has to offer will take a few playthroughs. This deja-vu element plays into the replayability of Curved Space, and while I don’t want to give away its hook, it’s not all that hard to see coming from a mile away either.
Like most twin-stick shmups, the Left Stick is how you’ll move your ship and aim in a direction with the Right while Right Trigger is how you’ll shoot enemy spiders. While many of the typical mechanics are here, there’s a few interesting ones as well, like having weapons drop from enemies that you can freely grab in and swap for others, supercharging your firepower with Overdrive and of course, sticking to any curved surface along with your bullets that stay along the terrain as well. It’s cool to see your bullets curve along the surfaces, and you can use this to your advantage at times if you know there are enemies around the bend, shooting them out of sight.
This curved gameplay is quite novel in the beginning, but that’s about it, as not much else is done with it mechanically. Once you realize that enemies will come to you, usually the best course of action is staying within a small area trying to avoid their bullets. Generally you’ll only need to constantly fly around the levels when you’re fighting a massive boss that’s trying to attack and chase you. Each level though is broken into smaller sections where you’re given a different objective each wave, usually having you defeat a certain amount of specific enemies, survive against endless enemies, draining energy conduits and others. Where monotony starts to set in though is that every level will have you basically doing the same objectives each time, eventually culminating in a boss battle before moving onto a brief narrative choice and starting a new level.
You’re eventually given the ability to have a dash which becomes invaluable. This short little burst in a direction is not simply for avoiding enemy projectiles, but it gives you a brief moment of invulnerability, allowing you to deflect bullets. This of course comes down to proper timing, but will be how you survive when things become chaotic, especially on the harder difficulties and boss battles. There’s a small pause between dashes for it to recharge, so you simply can’t spam it and think you’re invincible either.
You’re also given a leash ability. This is a beam that shoots straight outwards and ties them to your energy beam. You can then fire the beam to chain to other enemies or lash to designate posts to siphon their energy. Unfortunately there is one wave objective that forces you to do this, and it takes quite a long time to drain the required energy from spiders. This means you need to take the time to successfully beam your enemy then lash it to these posts, all while enemies respawn and fire upon you as you simply wait. It’s the most tedious and annoying objective in each stage and I rolled my eyes and sighed each time I had to do so.
A good shmup wouldn’t be worth its weight if it didn’t have difficulty options, online leaderboards and a handful of different modes for longevity. Thankfully Curved Space has these and checks all the boxes. Difficulties range from Casual, Normal, Hard, Extreme and Nightmare, as well as different toggles to make a custom experience and even more challenge should you desire. Each difficulty has its own leaderboard as well, so there’s plenty of reason to keep playing for those bragging rights.
Aside from campaign there’s also a handful of different modes if you’re looking for something a little different, as campaign runs can take well over two hours in a single go. Endless Mode is self-explanatory, seeing how long you’re able to go with randomized challenges. Survival Mode pits you against adapting challenges that become more difficult the longer you go. Arena Mode gives you dozens of different challenges to take on plucked from the campaign and lastly, Daily Run is a different challenge that varies each day trying to get the highest score possible.
There's a handful of different weapons you’ll find along your adventure, starting out with a simple blaster, to flamethrowers, lasers, mowers, rockets, plasma rifles and a bunch of others. Certain weapons are better suited for specific spider types but any weapon can technically get the job done. Some weapons have limited ammo, as they are much more powerful, with basically every weapon having limited ammo on the harder difficulties. To actually get one of these weapons you’ll need to fly over to it in your ship and pick it up. The problem is that the weapons appear as little pucks and can slide around the maps and might be in the middle of a pack of enemies and projectiles. They can also be destroyed if shot enough, so you'll need to watch your fire if you're trying to pick one up.
As you defeat enemies and collect their energy, eventually your Overdrive meter will fill that can be used to unleash some massive firepower for a short period of time. While in Overdrive you’re able to shoot your equipped weapon free of ammo and doing extra damage, so it’s quite useful to utilize when in a pinch. There’s even an upgrade where you can turn a full Overcharge meter into an extra life, depending on how long you want your run to go.
You’ll need to become a master at ‘lash and dash’ if you want any sort of chance at the leaderboards. This is where you leash onto an enemy, tying it to you, then dashing into it, destroying it and causing it to usually drop some health or weapons. Because dashing gives you a moment of invulnerability, it’s a very handy tactic to take out smaller enemies and even damage bosses. And while the boss battles are cool, there’s nothing really all too unique about them other than being huge in size and massive bullet sponges.
While there’s only a handful of different spider types of enemies, they all are unique in the best ways to destroy them. Some avoid your shooting from head-on while others rush right at you, but once you know the best strategy for dealing with each, it’s all about avoiding enemy fire while trying to shoot them down. After you defeat each stage’s boss a number of different upgrades will drop, though you can only choose one as a permanent choice. Some of these increase your score multiplier, allow your ship to carry more weapons, raw firepower increases and more.
The space vistas and backdrops were the most impressive visual aesthetics within Curved Space. Yeah the maps that you rotate around are cool to experience, but seeing the vastness of space or a black hole sucking everything in while your ship is stuck to the surface of an asteroid was simply awesome to watch. The only visual issue I ran into was some extreme slowdown during the final boss fight, even on an Xbox Series X, but aside from that there were no issues. The space theme is coupled with a Synthwave soundtrack from a number of artists that kept my head bumping as I took on endless spiders. That said, the voice over work in the narrative sections weren’t all that great, detracting from the overall audio experience.
Because of the curved nature of the levels, if you suffer from even mild motion sickness, Curved Space is absolutely not for you. There are a few options you can toggle to try and help with it, but constantly flipping sides and rotating around a level can be quite disorientating at times.
I always enjoy when a twin-stick shmup tries to do something different, and while Curved Space is unique in some of its design choices and is a completely competent entry into the genre, the runs can be quite lengthy and monotonous as you’re simply redoing the same objectives on each stage before repeating it all over again. Those that enjoy climbing leaderboards will have near endless replayability while others may simply enjoy staring into the void of Curved Space.
**Curved Space was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.6 / 10
Dark Alliance
Dungeons & Dragons has no shortage of followers or games. While I’ve dabbled in the tabletop RPG in the past, I’ve never dove into its lore or games very heavily, so I would be classified as a casual fan. The latest game in the dynasty is Dark Alliance, which I believe is canon and takes place somewhere within the official lore and timeline, but a much more knowledgeable D&D fan will have to research exactly when. So gather three of your friends and gear up for an adventure that you’d expect to find within the world of Dungeons & Dragons, fighting against spirits, goblins, giants, trolls and massive bosses as you take on your enemies and find loot. Oh, and it’s available on Game Pass, so there’s little to no barrier of entry to check it out.While I’m not versed in the world of Dungeons & Dragons’ lore at all, I do recognize many of the characters and settings, which should be quite a treat for the devoted fan base. While there is an overarching narrative, it’s a very brief jaunt, as you instead focus on the smaller chapters’ stories as you make your way to the final area and battle. Without spoiling much, you will get to explore the world of Icewind Dale as you fight your way through each increasingly difficult area.
Join your friends for four player online co-op, and while you can play solo and alone offline, it’s a far better experience alongside others. First you’re going to have to choose one of the four characters you want to play as, each with their own distinct weapons, abilities and playstyle. For those D&D fans, you’ll be happy to see some familiar names of the characters you can play as. Choose from Drizzt, Wulfgar, Cattie-Brie or Bruenor.
Drizzt is your fast paced rogue DPS, wielding two weapons to take down his enemies when sneaking from behind. Wulfgar is your big brute that wields a massive two-handed hammer that can slam an area and take out enemies. Cattie-Brie is your typical archer, staying in the back line plucking away at enemies from afar. Lastly, and my choice, is Bruenor, the short and stout Dwarf that may be small in stature, but wields an axe and shield as he protects his allies from harm in the heat of battle.
Each character plays differently from one another, has their own set of unique abilities, skills and ultimate move. As you earn experience and level up you’ll be able to spend your hard earned gold on unlocking new moves and abilities, allowing for more varied combos and team move setups. There’s one major issue currently with the team setups, as only one player can play as any character at a certain time, meaning you can’t have two Cattie-Brie’s or Drizzt’s in a group together, so you’re going to have to organize beforehand who’s going to play whom. Apparently this is going to be changed and fixed in a future update, but in its current state it’s a bit frustrating that I was forced to play a character I initially didn’t want to because another friend already chose the one I initially wanted to first.
Missions, or as I like to call them, Chapters, are given to you a handful at a time. From the map in the hub town you and your friends will meet in you can choose which mission to play. Initially you’ll only have access to a few chapters, each of which are broken into three separate acts that need to be completed. Once you complete all the chapters you currently have access to a whole new set of missions will open up, eventually unlocking the final chapter in the story once completed on any difficulty.
As you pick an Act to play, you’ll then choose the difficulty you want to challenge your party with. There’s a gear score suggestion on each of the six difficulty ratings, and I highly suggest following the recommended gear scores when choosing, as the difficulty really starts to ramp up after level 4 if you don’t have a full set of Legendary gear. Higher levels of difficulty offer better rewards and loot, so there’s always some risk versus reward when deciding what difficulty to take on an Act with your party.
Each mission will generally play out in the same way; you begin with your main goal of getting to the end of a level after beating its boss, but there are plenty of enemies in the way with branching paths, hidden chests and secondary optional objectives. These optional objectives generally vary from finding ten specific collectables, destroy objects and defeat a secret boss. You’ll always have a marker guiding you to the main objectives and levels you’ll need to pull to progress, but you’ll constantly find optional paths that usually pay off with secrets, loot and more.
Combat is basic and allows anyone to jump in and smash some buttons, but when you start taking on the harder difficulties you’re going to have to know specific moves and how to block, parry and dodge if you want any chance of surviving. You begin with Light Attack with the Right Bumper and Heavy with the Trigger. There’s a few moves you get by combining other buttons or directions as well. For example, I can hold Left Bumper to utilize my shield and combo right into a forward rolling attack from that stance. There’s a number of new moves you can purchase with gold as you level up, of which some are level locked, but I’m not sure why these are optional, as you’re going to want the most versatility possible, especially when you take on the level 6 difficulty Acts, as enemies turn into massive sponges of damage.
While there is a lock on, it’s terribly implemented and I stopped using it quite early on. Locking onto one of the larger enemies will have the camera facing near the top of enemy, meaning the camera angle is all wonky, blocking you from seeing any incoming attacks and will generally get you killed. Even on smaller enemies, the lock on system just didn’t work as well as it should have, so I don’t suggest even bothering with it.
Combat itself does feel a little floaty at times. It can be hard to actually hit the enemy you intend, sometimes missing completely which will obviously get you killed a few times before you start to get the hang of it. The same goes for blocking and parrying, as it’s meant to be a way to stay in battle and retaliate, but sometimes the timing just seems ‘off’. When parrying does work it feels great to stun all your surrounding enemies, but when it fails and you get more than half your life taken from an attack, it can also be frustrating. Many of the larger enemies and boss attacks can’t be fully blocked, so I just started to rely on dodging primarily instead. The biggest issue with combat though comes with the team moves. Certain abilities will allow your and your friends to perform a special move by pressing Y+B, but 99% of the time when I try to trigger these attacks I either end up wasting one of my regular abilities tied to pressing 'Y' or dodging since it's the 'B' button. I have a little more luck if I don't press anything else, but I simply stopped trying to do it after failing almost every time.
You’ll be able to equip two abilities of your choice, activated by pressing ‘Y’ or holding it for a moment. Like blocking, when it works it’s great, but when you get interrupted or roll mid-animation and the timer gets used but the ability doesn’t take effect, it’s frustrating once again. You’ll unlock a handful of different abilities, so you can tailor each character to suit your playstyle. Now that I’ve been grinding the hardest difficulty mission, my group heal with Bruenor when he takes a swig of ale has been a necessity, though you could equip a taunt or other damaging moves if you decide. Each character also has a preset Ultimate move that can be used when fully charged, and when your whole team saves their abilities and Ultimate’s for a boss fight, they can be defeated in seconds if stacked correctly.
In each mission you’ll progress through the level, eventually defeating a big horde of enemies. At these designated spots you’ll be offered to rest at a camp, refilling your health and consumable potions, or you could risk it and boost your loot. These are essentially checkpoints, but you’ll need to decide as a party which to choose, as the first person to decide makes the decision for everyone in the party. Once you get proficient at combat, you’ll most likely always choose the loot increase, but can always fall back on a rest in a pinch when things go terribly wrong.
Loot will primarily drop from mini-bosses, bosses and chests, but there are the few random pieces that will drop here and there, varying in quality and tier. One design decision that I enjoyed was that you can’t actually check your loot until the mission ends and you’re all back in town, preventing party members form slowing down the mission progress every time they get a new piece of gear they want to check out. Sure, this means each trip to town takes a little longer, but everyone does it at the same time so it’s usually not too long of a wait.
Where the issues arise in loot gain though is that it seems completely random. Playing on the hardest difficultly, I’ll still get grey, green or blue gear. Obviously at my level only purples and legendary will suffice, so doing a run and getting no upgrades and useless grey's can be a bit disheartening. Gear also has up to 5 ranks, so a purple tier 5 of gear is generally going to be better than a legendary tier 4. Each piece of gear can also be upgraded with crystals you accumulate along the way, but with how often you’ll upgrade, there’s not much use until you start getting that legendary tier 5 gear. So what do you do with gear you’ve outgrown or don’t want anymore? Sell to the merchant for gold. That’s it; no deconstructing for crystal materials or anything useful, as gold becomes a moot point after you’ve bought all the consumables, upgrades and moves aside from the negligible amount to reskin gear you have with different color palettes.
There’s a few issues with this looting system though, as you don’t obtain it until you get back into town and open the chest. Firstly, if you don’t finish the mission for whatever reason, you get absolutely no rewards. There’s no partial progress; you either complete the mission or you get nothing. More than once my party and I had to quit out of a mission because an enemy or boss wouldn’t trigger and spawn, so we had no way to progress. Another time a friend lost connection and dropped from the game without any way to rejoin. This meant he had to wait until we completed the mission without him and he got nothing because of it.
This brings me to a laundry list of issues that I ran across throughout my time with Dark Alliance. Normally I wouldn’t dedicate a section to negatives like this, but many did detract from my overall experience. Yes, the game just launched and will no doubt get patched to be a better experience overall, but as of the time of this writing there were simply a bunch of minor issues that weren’t game breaking, but frustrated beyond measure. After every mission the game will disconnect you and your party, forcing you to reform all your friends together before taking on another mission and repeating the process.
Enemy AI is dumb at the best of times, even to the point of allowing you to shoot them from afar with the archer without them triggering and agroing anyone. This means if you wanted and didn’t care about how long it took, you can almost cheat every encounter and just pick them off from afar. I’ve also found my character has an interesting combo that can basically stun lock enemies, even bosses sometimes if I push them into a wall or corner. When things do go wrong and you get one-shot from a boss or go down, teammates can revive you, but the timer for doing so is much too long, making it very difficult to actually do so when there’s still a bunch of enemies about.
Visually, Dark Alliance absolutely looks as though it’s part of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, something you visualized many times while playing the tabletop or reading the novels. The level design is great, feeling as though you really are exploring a long lost dungeon or corner of some world that hasn’t been written about yet. The four main characters themselves animate well with their movesets and the armor you wear changes their visuals which is a great touch. Enemies do looks quite good, but there’s very few enemy types, so expect to fight the same trolls, goblins and more numerous times, though some will be elemental based with poison or electricity. Cutscenes are top notch and have a far better quality to them than I was expecting. Audio is about on the same level with enemies having some banter between them before you interrupt them with your onslaught and can be quite hilarious when you hear two goblins talking about their toenail collection.
While Dark Alliance doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre and has a long list of flaws and issues, I did enjoy my time with it, powering through some missions hoping to earn an upgrade to my gear along the way. While I’m unsure about its longevity once you do obtain all the gear you want, it’s a fun ride until you hit that point. Case in point, now that we've grinded all the levels on the hardest difficulties and have our sets of gear, there's little reason to go back in for more. For what it is, the $39.99 asking price is about right for the content you receive, though it is available on Game Pass for subscribers, so there’s no reason to not check it out.
I can’t give a full recommendation if you plan on playing solo, but with a few friends Dark Alliance is a much richer and better experience, even with its current shortcomings. D&D fans should have enough here that will appease while casuals can still enjoy an entertaining dungeon crawler with some buddies, a perfect fit to try out with Game Pass as long as your group can agree which characters to play as beforehand.
**Dark Alliance was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus
I’ve been reviewing long enough that there isn’t much that surprises me anymore. Sure a plot twist here and there will take me by surprise, but it’s quite a rare occurrence. The credits just rolled for Doki Doki Literature Club Plus and the only thing going through my mind is “What the **** did I just play?”. Oddly enough, that’s a huge compliment, as I’ve never quite experienced anything even remotely close to what Doki Doki Literature Club Plus offers.Developed by Team Salvato, Doki Doki Literature Club originally released back in 2017 but is getting some improvements and additional content, hence the Plus in the title now with this release. I implore you that if you’re going to play Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (DDLC+) to go in completely blind if at all possible, just as I did. If you simply look at the screenshots you would most likely come to the conclusion that this is a basic run of the mill dating sim visual novel, but you would be way off base. Every description you read mentions disturbing content and how it’s a psychological horror experience. I almost didn’t believe them given that the screenshots and trailer don’t hint at this at all. I was so wrong. DDLC has quite a following, and now I see why.
Primarily played as a visual novel, you play as the protagonist who reluctantly gets coerced into joining the Literature Club at your high school, focused on reading and writing poetry. Sayori, your childhood friend, eventually talks you into joining, though you tend to tire from her overall positivity and constant excitement. When you finally make your way to the club for the first time you’re introduced to the other members. Natsuki is the one that tries to act tough but can bake an amazing cupcake. Yuri is very soft spoken and quiet, quite the bookworm and will take some time for her to open up about her thoughts and poetry. Lastly is Monika; just Monika, the President of the Literature Club and will constantly give you hints on how to write better poetry.
As you progress through the story you’ll chat with the girls from the club, learning more about them and their poetry writing styles. This of course will lead to different choices depending on how you decide to write your own poetry, but honestly, this isn’t really where the game starts to take a hold of your attention. As mentioned above, DDLC+ is best experienced if you go in completely blind, so because of this I’m not going to spoil anything to the best of my ability, but this also means many portions of this review are going to be vague and ambiguous, this is on purpose.
If you’ve played the original DDLC you might be wondering what’s new in this Plus edition and if it’s worth a rebuy to experience. Not only have the visuals been upgraded to full HD, there’s also six new side stories that add a couple more hours of content that in quite unique. You’re able to unlock and view more than a hundred images, art, wallpapers, sketches and more. A built in music player that you can play all of your favorite DDLC songs including 13 new unlockable songs. That might not seem like a lot of new content on paper, but I’m simply happy that I now got to experience such a memorable game on my console of choice, as I’ve actually never heard of it beforehand.
The very first warning you get when booting up DDLC+ is “This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.” There's even an option to receive a warning before the disturbing content happens should you wish. This isn’t going to many any sense for the first two hours or so, as it starts out like any other visual novel, but when things start to ‘happen’, it goes in a completely different direction. I hate even mentioning that there’s a ‘twist’, but I’m not sure how I would feel if I had bought the game expecting a completely run of the mill dating sim visual novel but got ‘this’ instead. If you suffer from depression, anxiety or are easily disturbed, DDLC+ is not suitable for you. Again, I know this reasoning is vague, but it’s warranted.
The first two hours plays out like any other visual novel, having you sit through tons of over the top dialogue as you spam the ‘A’ button to progress each line. I’ll be honest, I was starting to fall asleep during this opening section while playing late at night as it can be a bit of a slog to get through. But then things get... weird to say the least. I normally have a good sense for twists coming, but I didn’t see this one, that’s for sure.
One of the main hooks of the game is how you need to create poetry of your own and then share it with the other girls in the club the next day. To create a poem you’ll be given a page full of different words and you simply choose any one you like. After you choose twenty or so you’re done and the narrative will progress. Depending on your word choices, you’ll notice the chibi avatars for each girl jump up and get excited if it’s a word that they approve of. If you have a keen eye, you’re going to notice that not all the words offered are cheery, bright and something you’d expect from a dating sim game. The girl who liked your poem the most will give you some extra dialogue and scenes with them.
The music and art style are disgustingly cute in the beginning. Everything sounds and appears so cheery, bright and colorful. The hand drawn artwork is fantastic and the soundtrack very memorable and already added to my Spotify playlist. This of course changes, even down to the music when things alter. The cute and cheery feeling in the beginning completely shifts in a different way, making it such a memorable experience, though I do wish the dialogue could have been voiced throughout.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus isn’t exactly what it looks like on the surface. Again, if at all possible try and go into playing DDLC+ completely blind if you don’t already know anything about it. Like some of the bests twists out there, DDLC+ was just as shocking when you first watch Fight Club or The Sixth Sense, because if you knew their twists beforehand, it wouldn't have been the same memorable experience. DDLC+ is no different and I wish there was some way to experience it for the first time once more.
As a game on its own, DDLC+ not all that exciting when it comes to gameplay nor does anything unique mechanically, but because of how well it's executed it's incredibly memorable and has turned me into a massive fan. There are very few games that stick with me after the credits roll, and even days later, I’m still thinking about DDLC+. While some of the content and imagery may be difficult to take in for some, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is truly something unique. I had no idea what to expect and got something twisted far beyond anything I would have even guessed. It won’t get out of my head. Welcome to the club and remember, Just Monika.
**Doki Doki Literature Club Plus was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Arkan: The dog adventurer
Are you a dog lover? Do you wish there was a game where the dog was the hero defeating its enemies? What if that dog was like a humanoid, wearing plate armor and could use its stick to whack a ball back at its enemies? If that very odd and interesting concept for a game was ever your desire, then there’s now the perfect game for you in Arkan: The dog adventurer.That’s right, you’re an armor bearing dog that can freely move and jump around and wields a bo-like stick to whack a ball back at your enemies. If you grew up with classic brick breaker games like Arkanoid or Breakout then you’ll know exactly what to expect, except the gameplay is played horizontally instead of vertically. It’s an interesting mash up of platforming and brick breaking genres to say the least. As I write this, I also just realized that maybe the dog’s name is Arkan for its Arkanoid game roots.
You’ll move Arkan with the Left Stick, aim with the Right and hit the ball in whatever direction your cursor is aiming with the Right Trigger. There’s a bit of a delay between hits you can perform with your stick, so you’re going to want to practice your timing since you’re unable to spam the attack when the ball gets near. You’re also able to do a short teleport in the direction you’re aiming, also slowing down time in the process with the ‘Left Trigger’, and while it works, I simply forgot I had the ability until things got crazy and hectic.
While this control setup is all well and good, what doesn’t feel natural is that jumping is tied to pressing ‘Up’ on the stick instead of a dedicated button. When you want to double jump, you guessed it it, you’re going to have to press ‘Up’ twice, as well as trying to watch for the ball and maneuver Arkan on small ledges. It’s functional and works, but doesn’t feel natural, even after playing for quite a while.
Akran plays on the left side of the screen while all the bricks and enemies are on the right. Each enemy shoots a different projectile type at you and eventually you’ll also have to deal with zombie hands that raise from the ground where you’re currently standing on the very few platforms you’re given, so you’re generally always going to be on the move to avoid the other projectiles. There’s a force field that blocks Arkan from getting too close to the right side of the screen and there are plenty of pits that cause a game over if you fall in.
From what I can gather, your ball becomes slightly more powerful and quicker each time you combo hit it before it zooms off the screen if you miss it, but this really isn’t explained well. When you do miss the ball and it goes off screen it simply reappears in front of you, so there’s really no need to get yourself in harm’s way to try and save the ball. You do have a health bar though, so the most important thing is to not get hit by the projectiles or fall into the pits, or else you’ll need to restart the level. It takes quite a few levels to get the overall feel and timing, but eventually it becomes second nature as you try and survive the enemies shooting at you while double jumping from platform to platform trying to whack the ball at a specific block in front of an enemy.
There are three worlds with 20 levels each and you’re scored up to three stars, based on how many of the three stars you’ve smashed with your ball. That’s right, you aren’t scored based on how quickly you finish a level or how many bricks you broke, but how many of the three stars you collect before you destroy the last enemy to finish the level. You’re able to choose from three different difficulties, and interestingly, they aren’t tied to their own progression. This means if you’re playing on Hard and get stuck on a level, you can play it on Easy to get your stars and go back to Hard if you wish. Certain levels seem to randomly have massive spikes of difficulty, even on Easy, but you don’t have to play levels in order and can freely jump around in different levels if you get stuck.
From what I can tell, the major differences between the difficulties is the enemy count, which means many more projectiles to avoid. Hard mode is quite challenging, especially once you reach the third world. This final world essentially turns each level into how many projectiles can they throw at you and hiding enemies behind as many near destructible bricks as possible rather than clever brick placements.
With cute pixel drawn artwork, Arakan: The dog adventurer won’t ‘wow’ you by any means, but it serves its purpose by having a light hearted and colorful aesthetic. The music is about on the same level, with just a couple sounds and music tracks, but nothing memorable.
Some sort of online leaderboard or other scoring system would help Arakan have some longevity, though as it is, you're not likely to play much after you've collected all the stars and challenged yourself to every level. Truth be told, I initially thought Arakan: The dog adventurer was a mobile port brought to Xbox, but for a game that’s priced at about $5, it’s hard to complain for some simple pick up and play brick breaker action, even if its concept is a little far-fetched.
**Arkan: The dog adventurer was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.4 / 10
Chivalry 2
I review a lot of games, and sometimes the odd one lands in my lap that I wasn’t following at all, only knowing it by name, and come away quite surprised after digging in. This is the case with my latest endeavor, Chivalry II, and I love being pleasantly surprised like this. It’s time to return to the medieval battlefield with Chivalry II, a first person hack and slasher where brutality takes a front seat. Without much downtime, you’re going to be almost always on the battlefield trying to decimate the opposing team in 64 player online battles across all platforms. So grab your swords, halberds, maces, crossbows and literally anything else you can find on the battlefield and aim for those heads; it’s time for war.First off, there’s no story mode, no campaign, simply online matches with up to 64 players in brutal medieval combat, and the focus of competitive multiplayer makes it a better experience overall, as you’ve got to have something special to compete with the other medieval games in the genre that are more narrative and single player focused. Chivalry II knows what it is and does it well, not trying to be anything more or less.
Very few movies and TV shows actually convey how brutal medieval warfare truly was. Thankfully, Chivalry II isn’t trying to make a Hollywood movie, but instead embraces the brutality of combat, allowing you to fight alongside a band of brothers as you try to dismember and decapitate your enemies on the battlefield for glory. I never played the original Chivalry so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, especially for it being a first person melee based game. There’s something awesome about picking up a battle axe and simply swinging it in a crowd of enemies and friendlies, even before you start to learn the combat nuances that are included for those that want to become more proficient.
64 player carnage across a handful of different objective based maps means you’ve always got something to fight for. Sometimes you’re storming a castle, burning down huts or simply fighting the opposing team in team deathmatch. While there’s only a handful of maps the chaos and carnage is always evolving and changing each match, and even though I played the same maps numerous times, each battle felt different and unique due to what the players were doing.
There are essentially three different game types: Team Objective. This is where you’ll have different objectives based on if you’re attacking or defending. This was the mode that I enjoyed the most, kind of like how Conquest is the main mode Battlefield is known for, Team Objective is where Chivalry II really shines. You then have Team Deathmatch where the two factions simply go at it with one another until one team’s spawn counter reaches zero after a certain amount of kills. No objectives to get in the way here, simply kill every enemy you come across. Lastly, and my least favorite, was Free-For-All mode. Here it’s everyone for themselves, usually ending up in complete chaos. These arenas are much smaller and the first player to reach a certain score wins.
There are two factions, the Mason Order and Agatha Knights. While neither has unique traits or perks, you get to choose your playstyle by choosing one of the four classes, each with three subclasses to unlock. Each class and subclass has their own unique weaponry and abilities, though there is a little overlap with a few of the choices. Each class has their own stats, with heavy armored Knights that have a higher health pool compared to the much weaker Archers.
Knights tend to gravitate towards your more traditional tank architype, eventually unlocking swords and shield combos. Footman is kind of the middle ground, able to use long range weapons. Vanguard seems to be heavily DPS, slow to attack but are the ones wielding the massive weapons. And lastly, and my personal favorite, are the archers, able to pick off enemies from afar but have a very limited ammunition that must be found to replenish. You’ll need to reach certain levels with each class to unlock their subclasses, and while this doesn’t take too long if you focus on one at a time specifically, this is going to vary based on how proficient you can get kills and experience. Once I was able to start head-shotting with my crossbow, I was earning huge amounts of experience and unlocks.
Each subclass also has a unique ability as well. Think of this as like your Ultimate; once charged fully by doing damage and getting kills you can utilize it to help your team in various ways. Some abilities will heal nearby teammates, others will allow you to set your arrows on fire for a short period and more. There’s a handful of different abilities, though as mentioned above, some do overlap. Healing for example is doable by more than one subclass, though albeit a little differently (playing a trumpet as opposed to putting a banner down).
As you level you’ll earn new unlocks for each class, mostly cosmetic skins for your weapons and armor. Gold is earned in game by simply playing, though there is a premium currency for those wanting to unlock the coolest skins right away, as gold doesn’t tend to come in very quick, so it can be quite a grind to unlock the pricey items. Thankfully these are all simply cosmetic, so it makes no difference to the gameplay.
Combat is where Chivalry II really shines, feeling very ‘weighty’ and satisfying when you land a killing blow, decapitating your enemy after blocking and countering their attack. Combat is all about what swings you take, the angle of your attacks and timing. Combat is very fluid, and while you’ll need stamina to continually swing or block, you can also become easily outnumbered if two or more decide to gang up on you.
Interestingly, you have three separate attacks. A horizontal slash, a stab and an overhead swipe. These moves can be combined together provided you have enough stamina, and you can also hold the buttons for a longer wind up stronger attack but this leaves you open to being hit as well. Learning how to ‘drag’ is how you’re going to start winning fights. For example, if you just hit the trigger to do a horizontal attack, you’re going to have to wait for the animation to start from the far side until it connects with your enemy. When you ‘drag’ your attack, you essentially hit the swing then rotate your body so that the tip of your weapon hits the enemy sooner. It’s a really unique system and does take quite a bit of getting used do, but the practice will pay off, as many battles are won by who can land that critical first strike.
There’s a cat and mouse game pertaining to combat as well. Do you go on the offensive and hope that your enemy misses their counters and blocks, or try and parry against their attacks instead? This rock-paper-scissors style of gameplay can be quite exciting when you’re throwing in feints, kicks, mixing quick and heavy attacks and finally get that sweet well-earned kill. When you start to get really fancy you can even throw whatever weapon you’re holding at an enemy if they decide to run away. Yes, this will leave you defenseless, but you can literally pick up any weapon you see on the battlefield, even tons of random objects like barrels, crates, shovels, pitchforks and even chickens in a pinch.
It seems that crossplay is enabled by default, as I wasn’t able to see an option to disable it. This is fine, as matches fill quite quickly and I never really stood around long waiting for a match to populate. But on the other hand the most of my deaths came from PC players that are going to have a bit more finesse when it comes to ‘dragging’ the melee kills. With 64 players in a match you can decide to run in head first into a pile of enemies and just start swinging away hoping for the best, but you can also cause team damage as well, so this isn’t always the most viable solution. Also, once you get surrounded by two or more enemies, it’s very rare for you to survive when you’re outnumbered.
While there’s no traditional narrative or story, you do get some speeches you’d expect to see in a movie just before the two sides clash against one another, getting you hyped for the upcoming battle ahead. The sounds of war are brutal, as weapons clashing makes a distinct sound, as does your team mates utilizing their battle cry as they run into the battlefield after a respawn. Some instrumental music plays in the background, adding some ambiance without drowning out the shouts of your teammates and the fierce sounds of combat. Combat not only feels weighty but sounds it as well, the highlight of the Chivalry II experience. Visuals are decent, especially for having 64 player matches and large arenas that you progress in, but the models themselves are a bit dated and there’s not many skins that made me go “wow” and want to drop some real cash on.
There’s a fine balance of arcade-like gameplay that allows anyone to simply jump in and swing a massive halberd around to get some kills, but also a deep enough combat system that allows for refined and purposeful attacks that rewards your skill after hours of practice. While it’s a grind to unlock all of the subclasses and gear, it never become a frustrating chore, as I’m always happy to jump into one more battle to add a few more heads to my glorious collection.
**Chivalry 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground
There’s no shortage of Warhammer games out there, almost in every genre, but the latest is trying something different, not only with its genre melding gameplay, but fans are finally getting a Warhammer game based on the Age of Sigmar universe. Warhammer tabletop is known for its massive battles, but Storm Ground is doing something a little different, condensing the battles into smaller piecemeal affairs with a roguelike turned based strategy game that also utilizes cards. That’s a handful of different genres and mechanics, so I wasn’t sure what to expect initially. Thankfully the gameplay is addictive and strategic, even if the difficulty and grind to progress is quite high.Instead of one long overarching narrative you play through, instead you’ll choose from one of the three included factions: Stormcast Eternals, the ghostly Nightnaughts or the poisonous Maggotkin of Nurgle. Each of the three separate campaigns have their own storyline, though to be honest, I couldn’t tell you much about them, as there’s a little dialogue here and there, but much of the lore is buried away in collectable lore scrolls, so don’t expect many cool cutscenes.
Each campaign is going to take quite a while to complete your first time, and given there are three factions, there’s quite a hefty amount of replayability and value within as long as you can endure the arduous grind and roguelike mechanics of constantly dying and starting over. Thankfully each playthrough will vary slightly, as you’re given randomized options for your missions and rewards. Manage to complete the campaign and you’ll unlock harder difficulties, essentially doubling the length of the campaign and adding new enemies and situations, so there’s plenty to see if you can keep with it long term.
Each faction plays very unique and differently, so make sure to try out each one and find which best suits your playstyle. This will take some time though, as you’re going to have to play multiple times, slowly building up your units and cards to have a better army and hopefully make it slightly further each run. Storm Ground utilizes a bunch of mechanics from very different genres. The core gameplay is a typical turned based strategy affair, but your units are actually based on the cards you’ve earned along the way, able to be leveled up and equipped with other unique gear you also find cards for when you complete matches.
Let’s start out with the cards, as that’s one of the more unique features or Storm Ground and requires understanding to fully grasp how it intertwines with the combat and roguelike progression. As you complete missions you’ll earn randomized cards varying in type and rarity. There are cards for weapons, unit types, skills, gear, skins and more. These cards are how you’ll fill out your army and what their effectiveness will be, essentially building and slowly stacking your army to become more powerful as you progress.
Units are important to get, because these are the ones that will fight alongside your hero in each mission. Some are ranged based, other melee and some have specific uses like being able to move from one end of the board to the other, particularly useful for collecting chests or making a hasty retreat. Your card collection will grow as you earn more rewards, but every time you fail the objective or your main hero dies the game is over and you must start another new campaign from the beginning. You’re allowed to choose three unit cards (and the gear their equipped with) to start each new campaign, so you are constantly making progress, albeit very slowly, almost to the point of being unnoticeable at times.
You can also get multiple cards of the same item, equipment and units, so when choosing what units to bring with you in a new run, do you choose a max level card that already has everything, or a lower leveled one that could use the experience and level up? There’s a lot of balancing like this that honestly takes a few hours of trial and error to figure out what works best for your playstyle. Make no mistake though, there are going to be times where you’ll be faced with an objective in a mission and if you didn’t bring the “right” setup of units or abilities, it’s basically impossible to beat. The randomness of the cards you earn can work for or against you, as the problem I keep having is that I have a dozen different swords for my main hero and melee units, but have only found one extra shield card in all of the hours I’ve played, so some of my units have starter equipment still while I have tons of spare swords not being able to be used.
Battles themselves are your typical turn based affair with a gridded map, showing how far you can traverse in a turn and the reach your abilities have on enemies. Your main unit is the hero for your faction, and obviously your most powerful, but you’ll be able to summon extra units based on the cards you’ve equipped before choosing the mission. While limited on how many you can summon, some units are better suited for certain missions than others, so make sure to read the mission descriptions beforehand. The main issue I had with this though is that while there’s a difficulty rating for missions, it doesn’t always seem that accurate, as I sometimes had no problem with 3 skull missions but would get destroyed in a single skull. Most missions will be some variant of killing all enemies, defeat a boss or capture a point of some sorts.
Because of the grid based system much of your tactics will be about strategic placement. You can get up on higher platforms, giving you a height advantage and combat bonuses, but the same works against you if an enemy is above. You’ll have to watch your footing as well, as there are planks of wood that can be destroyed, instantly killing a unit if they are standing on it and a certain ability is used. The same goes for edges of the map, allowing you to knock off enemies, but they can do the same.
Your strategy is going to depend on the units you’ve chosen, their abilities, skills and positioning on the map. It’s quite common to be outnumbered, so you’ll generally want to keep your team able to focus fire enemies down, but after a few hours of the same mission types, it does become a little repetitive. The main culprit to this is that the animations for movement and abilities is quite slow, with no way to speed up or skip them at all. So you have to sit through each animation every single time, not even able to queue up your other units’ until the previous finishes, so it can become a slog at times.
Each faction plays completely unique from one another and requires totally different tactics, strategy and planning to be successful. Stormcast are your typical humans, allowing you to spawn units right beside the hero and has a balance of melee, ranged and other unit types once you collect their cards. The Maggotkin were the most difficult for me to be successful with, as you can only spawn units in special poison pools but are able to change and modify these in certain ways with multiple steps of planning beforehand. The Nighthaunt uses special pillars to spawn units at, able to be placed in strategic places. I had the most success with the Stormcast as they play more ‘basic’, but for those that really want to flex their strategic planning, the other factions are a great fit that require totally different strategies.
While you generally only earn new cards from finishing a battle, each mission will also have a treasure chest on the map that can be collected by the first unit to reach it. This is great when you obtain it, as it gives you 3 bonus cards, but the issue lies in the fact that enemies can also get them, basically screwing you out of obtaining the chest for bonus cards. There are also smaller lore urns to be collected for those that care about backstory as well, but again, enemies can take it away from you if they happen to land on that grid spot first.
For those that manage to somehow complete all the faction’s campaigns there is also an online mode where you can 1v1 battle other players, with crossplay enabled. Here it’s simply your squad versus theirs. I’d love to go into more depth about what’s unique for online play, but I’ve yet been able to find a match in all my time playing Storm Ground. Every time I tried I let it sit for quite a while but an opponent was never found. Interestingly, the numbers for current players and such is shown, and the numbers are quite abysmal for online player count.
While I don’t play the tabletop Warhammer, everything in Storm Ground looks as though it’s been plucked out of the board game and converted into a video game. You’re able to zoom far out of the map or close up to see each unit’s details, and while it’s not overly impressive in its visuals, Age of Sigmar fans should enjoy the authenticity and recognize some of their favorite units on the battlefield. Better yet, you can even ‘paint’ your units to customize their color schemes which was a cool touch and a nod to its tabletop roots. As for the audio, it too is also passable but nothing very noteworthy. There’s a decent amount spoken dialogue when the Heroes have something to remark but the voice acting itself is simply acceptable at best.
For a game that’s based on strategy, I found myself sometimes frustrated because I wasn’t losing due to my lack of it, but the luck of what cards I had at any given time. Yes, as a roguelike you’re expected to fail many times before be able to progress, but the grind does get quite arduous when the rewards are seemingly randomized, forcing you to play yet again in hopes that you get an upgrade.
There’s some roughness around its edges and it does frustrate in certain aspects, but Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground does do a good job at being accessible for newcomers to the strategy genre while adding tons of replayability, as long as you enjoy the roguelike grind that follows. While it feels priced a little high, the value is there if you’re willing to sink the hours into the lengthy and challenging campaign.
**Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
REKT! High Octane Stunts
Rekt! High Octane Stunts is not only the game's title, but actually the most perfect name to describe its gameplay. As you try and do crazy stunts in your car and don’t land on your wheels, you’re going to get wrecked... er, Rekt! If you’ve ever played a Tony Hawk game in the past, you’ll be well aware what it’s like to string along a combo for the whole round timer only to crash and bail at the very end, losing all your hard work; Rekt! High Octane Stunts is very reminiscent of that, even down to its score based gameplay, except you’re in a car instead of on a skateboard. So get ready to get behind the wheel, flip, spin, barrel roll, drift and perform as many stunts as you can to rack up the highest score possible before time runs out to place on the leaderbaords.Rekt is as simplistic as it gets, simply placing you in an arena and giving you a time limit to get the highest score possible. While there’s no career mode of any sorts, you’ll still have objectives to work towards such as unlocking dozens of vehicles, spoilers, wheels, levels and saving up your currency to improve your vehicle’s stats. Because of the score attack nature that Rekt bases itself around, it can get a little tiring after about an hour straight, but makes for a great party game or some quick time to play if you only have a short time.
The main goal is to earn the highest score possible by performing stunts, ideally comboing them together in a single string until time runs out if you want any chance of topping the online leaderboards for bragging rights. While there’s only five different arenas to play around in, each one is vastly unique from one another, having their own style and unique setups of ramps, gates and rings. Very arcade-like gameplay allows you to flip, twist and spin your car in the air in any direction and drift with ease while your wheels are on the ground. Land on your wheels and you’ll earn a clean landing bonus, improving your score and combos even further. Land on anywhere else though and you’ll get ‘REKT!’, losing all of the combo and work you’ve amassed to that point.
The arcade action is simple enough to pick up and play but will take some practice to master, especially when you hit a ramp a little wonky, corkscrew a half dozen times and then need to right yourself to land on your wheels in less than a second or two. Most rounds last between a minute or two, though there are clocks scattered throughout the stages to extend your time, something that will be critical if you want to climb those leaderboards for the top spots.
As you complete runs you’ll earn currency which is used to spend on upgrading the stats of your vehicles or to spin a slot machine-like system for 1000 at a time, randomly giving you a new vehicle, spoiler, wheels or more currency. It will take some grinding to amass enough coins to unlock everything, but will eventually come in time. Each vehicle has their own stats, though it doesn’t feel drastically different from one to the next aside from a few special ones once fully upgraded. For the completionists though, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Upgrading your vehicle takes currency as well and you can boost its stats like Boost, Speed, Handling etc, though you can’t fully max any of the vehicles that I’ve noticed so far, but can come close. You can freely change your spoiler, wheels and sticker on the bottom of your vehicle to any that you’ve currently unlocked, though I do wish I could have spent coins on specific items instead of having to play the slot machine a thousand coins at a time.
Each time you play a Highscore attempt you’re also given three randomized objectives that you can choose to complete. Doing so earns you more coins and works towards the achievements as well. Many of these challenges will vary, usually tasked with performing two flips, spins, corkscrews, other stunt combinations or knocking over piles of blocks, going through gates, etc.
Given that Rekt was initially a mobile game, there is of course not much ‘meat on the bones’ so to speak. When you’re playing solo there’s actually only two modes to play: Practice, which has no real point since you don’t progress in any way, and High Score. The lure of a high score and online leaderboards is what will keep you playing, even after you’ve finally unlocked every vehicle and spoiler.
As for performing the stunts themselves, it’s very simple to do. Launch your vehicle off a ramp and flick the Right Stick in a direction to rotate it that direction. Up will frontflip, Down for backflips, Left or Right for spins and Bumpers to barrel roll. You can of course combine any of these to earn more points, but the real skill comes in trying to right your car properly for a perfect landing. Interestingly, you can hold ‘A’ and the car will stop rotating if you want a little more assistance in trying to land properly, and while I was crashing almost every time for the first hour, I eventually got the hang of it and was able to right myself for clean landings almost every time afterwards. An interesting feature too is that the color of the stage changes as your combo goes higher, almost like a filter gets applied to visually show you that your combo is going up. It’s a subtle effect but I quite enjoyed it once I realized what it meant.
You will also have some Boost, usable with the ‘B’ button, to help you get some more speed to launch yourself further and higher off each ramp if you want. When you’re attempting to land on certain platforms or go through rings, it’s going to take a lot of practice to figure out how much speed you’re actually going to need without coming up short or launching clear across where you intended to land.
Now there is multiplayer, up to four players, but sadly it’s local only. This means you’ll need to have people over on the same couch to play some of the unique multiplayer modes. Score has you challenging against each other to see who can attains the highest amount of points before the timer ends; simple. Baja is basically a checkpoint race where the first player to reach a checkpoint earns a point with the winner the first to five. Capture the Crown is your typical keep away mode where the first player to hold onto the crown for 90 seconds is the winner. Lastly is Virus, basically an infection/zombie mode where the player with the virus needs to tag everyone else, spreading the infection. The Venom-like effect on the cars was a cool touch.
I get that a small arcade game like this came from its smaller app roots, but a map editor or some online play would have kept me playing longer term. Being able to download other players’ ghost runs would also have been interesting, seeing what others do to attain those ridiculously high scores. While there is some multiplayer, it’s nothing noteworthy unless you happen to have people in the home to play with regularly. There’s plenty of unlockables to work towards but its gameplay loop is more fitting for sporadic play here and there instead of hours at a time.
It’s hard to complain for a simplistic and entertaining game that’s only priced at $6 USD. REKT! High Octane Stunts is a blast in short bursts but probably won’t have much longevity. When you finally land that full run combo and see your Gamertag appear on top of the leaderboards it’s exciting but, prepare to get REKT countless times.
**REKT! High Octane Stunts was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Jay and Silent Bob - Mall Brawl
I grew up as an 80’s child, so I’m no stranger to brutally difficult NES games. Many games from that era were so challenging, usually requiring you to start all over again from the beginning when you lost all your lives or continues. Games like that really aren’t as commonplace these days, so naturally I was excited when I saw Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl, not just because I was due for some classic gaming nostalgia, but I’m a huge Kevin Smith fan, having watched all of his movies numerous times ever since the release of Clerks in 1994.An 8-bit retro beat-em-up, Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl has you controlling the iconic duo of Jay and Silent Bob as they battle numerous enemies and bosses, filled with plenty of View Askewniverse (Kevin Smith’s fictional universe) references for Smith fans. Originally meant to be a free bonus for Kickstarter backers to a still unreleased Jay and Silent Bob game, Chronic Blunt Punch, Mall Brawl released on PC and Switch last year, finally making its way to Xbox in this Arcade Edition with a few extras for Smith and NES fans to enjoy. If you miss the days of classic beat-em-ups like Double Dragon or River City Ransom from the late 80’s, you’re going to want to take note, as this is as close to those games as you can get.
Technically Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl is a direct sequel to Mallrats, as the story it setup in a way where Jay and Silent Bob successfully sabotaged the Truth or Date gameshow in the mall and now must find a way to escape the mall and make your way back to the Quick Stop to hang out like they always do. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve sat down and watched Mallrats, so I took the opportunity to do so before diving in to make sure I would catch as many references as I could, and there were plenty throughout. Of course LaFours makes an appearance as the first mini-boss, the security guard who constantly tries to thwart the duo in the movie, but there’s plenty of other non-Mallrat movie references as well which I quite enjoyed as a fan.
Like many classic games from the era, you aren’t going to get any real narrative here, as the opening scene explaining the setup is all there is for any story elements. Fight your way out of the mall and make it to the Quick Stop; that’s the whole setup and payoff. Technically there’s a little something extra once you unlock Hard Mode, but I’ll leave that as a surprise.
Taking place across nine levels, you can play solo or alongside a friend in local co-op. This is of course trying to recreate that 80’s classic NES gaming, and the difficulty is no exception, so expect to die and have to restart levels many times. Old school gamers like myself won’t be shocked by this, but the difficulty does have some quite steep spikes now and then, especially near the end when you have to take on a boss gauntlet back to back. Thankfully once you beat a level you will restart at the beginning of that stage if you die, except for chapter nine, putting you back to the start of level eight if you fail the final boss fight. While I was finally able to complete the game on Normal after a handful of tries for each stage, Hard Mode unlocks after completion, but good luck ever completing that.
The classic 8-bit retro visuals, audio and gameplay made me smile, not even including all of the movie references that fans will catch onto. This updated Arcade version has a few extra bonuses, like being able to toggle between classic NES style mode or a slightly more refined Arcade version, though there’s very minimal differences that I could tell aesthetically. You can also choose different borders and toggle CRT monitor scanlines if you really want a true authentic retro experience.
Almost every level is going to most likely take you a few tries to complete, as the classic NES challenge is always present. Playable solo or alongside a friend locally, Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl is certainly able to be enjoyed by yourself but co-op makes it a much more tolerable and better experience given its difficulty. Half the challenge is figuring out each enemy type’s attack pattern and how best to counter it. The skateboarders for example need to be jump kicked off their decks if you want to use it against them, or knowing how to avoid getting gored by the Mooby's mascot.
There’s actually a ton of references, not just on the Kevin Smith side, but nods to NES classics as well. For example, you’re going to have to eventually fight some musclebound pretzel head enemies, aptly called Adoughbo, a satire of Double Dragon’s mascot Abobo. There’s even a tough as nails level where you have to ride a shopping cart through the mall, trying not to crash or hit anything, a nod to the iconic Turbo Tunnel level from Battletoads. Of course there are plenty of View Askewniverse references that any Smith fan will notice instantaneously, like beating up the Easter Bunny, a Sockful-o-quarters, a boss with a huge fist and more. Many of the achievements are inside jokes that fans will smirk at as they’re popular jokes from the movies.
Combat is basic but exactly the type of gameplay you’d find from games in that era. Like Double Dragon and others, you have a Punch, Kick and Jump button, as a well as being able to swap from Jay to Silent Bob when needed. It’s a simplistic control scheme but being swarmed by enemies from all sides when playing solo can be quite difficult. This is where the character swap comes into play. With the press of a button you can freely swap between Jay and Silent Bob. More than simply playing the character you like more, there’s a strategic reason for doing so.
If you’re playing Jay for example and end up losing all your health, it will automatically swap Silent Bob in to play. The character not being used will very slowly regenerate their health and once it’s half-filled they can be tagged in again. If the second character dies before the first is ready to be swapped in, then it’s game over and you start over again from the chapter you’re currently on. The character swap eventually needs to be done strategically, as you’ll want to swap in or out based on how much health you got left or if there’s food to pick up on the ground. It would have been nice to have a moment of invulnerability when swapping, as many times I would tag in only to get hit right away, but that’s part of the challenge. When you attempt Hard Mode though health doesn’t regenerate, so you’re going to have to beat each level without both characters dying; good luck with that.
I really enjoyed the classic 8-bit visuals, giving that classic nostalgia that I grew up with. Characters from the movies are instantly recognizable and if you didn’t know any better, you might actually think it’s simply a classic NES game from the era. The chiptune music is also just as well done and also fitting for the adventure. While many movie licensed games are generally quite terrible, Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl blends a fun but frustrating 80’s game experience with pop culture movie references, a perfect blend of Double Dragon and Kevin Smith source material.
While the challenge may be a little too steep for some, gamers from my era should know exactly what to expect. It by no means does anything new with the genre or gameplay but was an entertaining yet frustrating few hours of nostalgia gameplay I mostly enjoyed aside from the final two levels. It's a good thing I’m the perfect demographic for Jay and Silent Bob – Mall Brawl; an 80’s NES kid that loves Kevin Smith movies. Snoochie Boochies.
**Jay and Silent Bob - Mall Brawl was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2
It’s been a long two year wait since it first released on other consoles, but DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 has finally made its way to Xbox and Xbox Game Pass. The Dragon Quest games have been around since the mid 80’s on the NES, having numerous sequels over the past few decades, primarily focusing on the RPG genre. Then roughly a decade ago a little game called Minecraft released, creating a whole new genre which almost everyone has played in some form at this point. It’s easy to make DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 comparison to Minecraft simply because of its blocky nature and block building gameplay, but this isn’t a simple Dragon Quest reskin you might initially expect. Even though it may focus more on the building side than typical RPG, there’s a great balance and blending of the two genres. For the Dragon Quest fans out there you can expect tons of Easter Eggs, references, music, slimes and more, just as if it was a typical Dragon Quest entry.While I’ve played Minecraft before, I could never really get into it. Many love its freeform gameplay without any hand holding, but that’s exactly why I never really enjoyed it. This is where DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 absolutely excels, giving you a narrative based experience that you’d expect from any of the mainline titles but also melding together that block building gameplay that you enjoy. With a much more focused approach yet still letting you create however you like, DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 kind of took me by surprise, as I was initially expecting a Minecraft clone of sorts, but I couldn’t put this one down due to the addictive and quite lengthy campaign. Having no real narrative or core objectives is what made me not really care for Minecraft, and the fact that DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 actually focuses on this instead is what really made me stick with it for longer than I expected. While you’re given a linear story to follow along, this lets newcomers not only to the Dragon Quest universe feel at ease, but even players like myself that never felt at home in Minecraft, teaching you new tools and mechanics slowly as you progress without ever becoming overwhelming.
You are a fabled Builder, a person with an ability to crate anything you can think of to note down in your recipe book. The Children of Hargon are an evil kind that has made ever person and monster think that destruction is the way of life, capturing and imprisoning any Builders they can find. You too become captured and are being taken somewhere on a mysterious ship, that is, until your shipwreck on a seemingly the seemingly unknown Isle of Awakening. As you awake and find everyone else dead on the shores, it seems someone else has survived, Malroth, though he doesn’t remember what happened to him or how he got there. With new friend in tow, you two embark on a journey that will work on making you the best Builder out there to fight against the Children of Hargon, but doing so won’t be easy or quick.
This is just the beginning of your adventure and only one of many islands you’ll explore during your journey. Not only do you need to fight a force of evil but uncover what has happened and why you have the special abilities of a Builder. You can’t do this alone though and Malroth will be by your side throughout. With a focus on story the journey is quite lengthy, though this is most likely due to the constant distractions of building, farming and other quests that you’ll constantly be tasked with.
As you work on your journey to become the ultimate Builder,you’ll need to start off small and work your way up as you learn new recipes and experience. You’re first tasked with creating a small room but will eventually have the freedom to craft and build anything that you like, though you’re always guided by story based quests to progress further whenever you wish to do so. Each new area and island has its own materials to craft with, farm, cook and more, so even after 30+ hours I was still learning new recipes and building new items.
Early on certain areas will be blocked off, either by vast bodies of water that are impassible or certain blocks that aren’t able to be smashed and collected, acting as a barrier to keep you contained to particular areas. As you progress in the story you’ll eventually learn new abilities or gain new gear that will allow you to explore new places. For example, you’ll eventually gain access to a Windbreaker, a parachute-like item that allows you to glide across large gaps and prevent taking falling damage. Clearly a nod to Zelda, this is one way the game slowly opens you up to new areas to explore.
Because the maps are so large there’s a handful of different teleport stones you can find to use to instantly warp to and from once found, which becomes quite useful since you’ll be doing many fetch quests. While the latter half of the game does become a little more of a grind, you are almost always learning new recipes and things to craft as you progress. Even after 15+ hours I was gaining new tools to help me become a better crafter, so you never become overwhelmed all at once.
Given that the majority of DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 is much like Minecraft you can expect to be building often, be it small fences, watering holes, farms or even massive buildings, able to freely swap between first and third person whenever you see fit. Early on you’ll be given blueprints for certain buildings, showing you exactly where to place which blocks and its layers, though that’s only to be used as an early template, as you’ll want to create your buildings and farms whatever way, size or shape you wish. You’re also able to create dozens of decorative items, allowing you to customize all your creations in near endless possibilities.
The further you progress in the story the more materials you’ll be tasked with finding and collecting so you can make new items, thus the treadmill of becoming proficient and building one thing before learning new items begins. The building itself is quite easy, even in third person, as you can ‘aim’ up or downwards with a button press to place blocks exactly where you want. You’re really only limited by your imagination, and while I never really created anything extravagant, seeing what others have made online was nothing short of impressive.
Surprisingly, farming plays a large part of DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2’s gameplay. This is because instead of being by yourself, you make friends along the way which will help you at your base by cooking food, harvesting, planting crops, defending your base against monsters and more. Even though you’re primarily playing by yourself, though technically with Malroth by your side, it feels like a community based game at the same time in certain aspects which I really enjoyed. I wasn’t simply building for no reason; it had purpose. Your crops need to be planted, watered and looked after, which in turn can then be used to cook special food for your adventuring and villagers as well.
Combat plays a large part of DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 as well, not to only gather materials from enemies, but monsters are always roaming the lands, usually where you want to gather. That said, combat is easily the weakest part of the whole DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 experience. Yes you can craft new armor and weapons to survive better, but combat is quite simple that devolves into button mashing for the most part. Malroth will start fighting anything you attack so you always have backup, but all you’ll do is spam the attack button and quickly back away when the larger enemies telegraph their big attacks about to hit; rinse and repeat. You are able to charge your attack for a spin-like move, but its damage isn’t worth the time of not hitting a few times instead. Combat isn’t ‘bad’ per-se, it’s just incredibly basic and not memorable aside from the annoying times where monsters will rush your base, forcing you to fend them off. As you level up from experience in combat you’ll learn new combat abilities, but basically your and Malroth's health will go up and that’s it.
After the opening handful of quests, you’re whisked away to a completely new island, tasked with bringing back the Furrowfield Farm back to life. It’s in abysmal shape, so this is where you’ll start to learn the basics of setting up a gated farm, different housing types, how to tend to your crops and more. Quests come in small chunks, letting you focus on one or two things at a time instead of giving you a massive checklist and becoming overwhelmed. After a dozen or so hours in this area, finally completing my main objective, I thought I was near the end of my journey. Holy was I wrong. This first area, about 8-12 hours or so is basically the introduction to DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2, acting like a very lengthy tutorial.
That’s right, your first ten hours or so are going to be doing the first chapter of the game. After this it opens up even further if you’re trying to complete the campaign. This really shocked me but shows the value within that you’ll get, even if you don’t waste a lot of spare time building anything not needed directly to progress. As you do complete quests and objectives like harvesting, your villagers will drop hearts to show their gratitude and happiness. These are important to collect, as they are used to level up and improve your farm and village, later on being used to unlock special items, recipes and blocks as well.
If you’re like me and don’t really have an interest at building a massive castle or abode, you’ll be happy to know that up to four players can join together to work together on a single project or area. There’s a large caveat to this though; First, you need to complete that opening ‘tutorial’ I mentioned above, so you can’t even access the multiplayer until you’re about a dozen hours in. Second, from as far as I was able to tell, once you do open your Isle of Awakening for friends to join, that’s all that is allowed to join; only friends. This means you can’t have random people join you or you can’t find others to join if they aren’t already on your friends list and send an invite. Maybe there’s a workaround this that I’ve yet to figure out, but even so, multiplayer seems like a very small portion of DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2’s gameplay, focusing instead on the narrative and single player aspect.
While I think that Minecraft purists may not gravitate towards DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2’s more narrative and quest based approach, this is exactly what the genre needed for a player like me to become interested and invested in its world outside from simply given freedom to create whatever I want. This change of pace was very welcomed, and just as thought I was nearing the end of my journey, the game opened up further, giving me even more to play with however I wished, but always able to come back to that linear structure when I desire.
Block building mixed with RPG and survival elements and even farming works quite well within the Dragon Quest backdrop. Slimes and traditional enemies are fitting for a cute aesthetic like this and I kept wanting to progress further to see what new items I could craft and build with. Able to focus on any aspect you desire, DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 is a great blend of genres and may surprise you with how expansive its world actually is.
**DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Biomutant
Back in 2017 Biomutant was announced. Since then, development goal dates have come and gone, but not anymore, as its' long awaited release date is almost here. Truth be told, I wasn’t really following its development until the past few months when it seemed the release was finally going to happen. Then something magical happened; it arrived in my lap to review and I have to say, the game has seriously surprised me. Every now and then there’s a title or franchise where I don’t have high expectation or wouldn’t have thought much of it, but then once in awhile I get to play a gem that I’m absolutely blown away in the best way. This was the case with Biomutant.Developed by Experiment 101, it is a smaller dev-team comprised of former Just Cause developers and a few other industry types, for a total of about 20 staff. The game is published by THQ Nordic. Biomutant does what many games do, taking inspiration from other great titles while having their own take on certain aspects. If I had to compare Biomutant directly with another game I’d lean towards Fable, but with a post-apocalyptic setting filled with guns and kung-fu. There are other nods to many other games like the Zelda franchise, Devil May Cry, Fallout and more, but I kept getting that Fable feeling the more hours I sunk into Biomutant’s fascinating world. Oh, and you play as some sort of Racoon/Cat/Squirrel creature, so there’s that.
An unusual story with an unusual end is how developers describe Biomutant’s narrative, and after getting through it all and working on a New Game+ playthrough, I’d have to agree. The Tree-of-Life is what keeps the world going but over pollution has caused it to become sick and dying. Its roots are massive, spread into different corners of the world, and it is bleeding due to four massive World Eater creatures trying to destroy it. You will determine how you want to proceed, and thus, the fate of the world is in your hands.
The land is also controlled by six different factions, all divided up via their own specific ideologies and these nations are in need of someone to either unite or defeat them. Whatever choices you make along the way, the Narrator is with you every step, describing the story about your actions and consequences. Which faction will you side with? Will you show mercy or destroy everything in your path. This is your story to tell either way. The campaign itself should take you about 10-15 hours or so, but that’s only if you ignore the massive amount of side quests, exploration and puzzles you’ll come across during your journey. The world is so full and so rich with characters and narrative that it’s hard to not get sucked into someone’s side quest simply because of their personality or spend an hour in an abandoned town looking for every piece of hidden loot.
Before you begin your adventure though you’ll first need to create your character. You’re some sort of a Racoon/Cat/Squirrel-like creature and you start by choosing your breed from six different choices, each of which has its own advantages and traits, then your attributes and class. While some mixtures will go best together depending on how you want to play (melee, ranged or psi-based), you’re not hampered for choosing one over the other. The coolest part about the character creator though is how it actually changes your character’s visual appearance. For stats you’ll put points into Strength, Vitality, Intellect, Agility, Charisma and Luck, and each time you level up you get to put 10 points into a single stat, either boosting what you’re good at or making up for what you’re not.
Instead of the typical bars to adjust height, weight, etc., you can freely adjust nearly every aspect which will change your physical attributes. Choose to be smarter and your head grows bigger to showcase that massive brain you have. Want to be stronger, well if you do you’ll look more buff. Decide to play more defensive and agile? Well then, you’ll be smaller and skinnier. It’s a fun character creator to simply play around with and gives you the freedom to make your character look exactly how you want, even down to fur patterns and colors. These choices can be changed later on down the road in your adventure, but I’ll leave that up to you to figure out how. You’ll also choose a genetic resistance that will be needed to access certain areas that are full of radiation, biohazardous material, and heat or cold, but this will only give you a small portion of the 100% resistance required to fully explore these areas, but that’s where gear will come into play later on.
I spent quite a while debating over which class I wanted to play but don’t overthink it too much, as this is more of a starting point than an absolute. You’re simply given some starter skills and weapons based on your choice but and you can learn more skills and use any weapons you choose further down the road as loot starts to become plentiful. These are basically starting points and allow you to try out a certain playstyle from the beginning, like dual wielding weapons, 2-handers, range based or more skill casting.
As for the classes themselves, there are five different choices: Sentinel has increased armor, Saboteur duel wields melee weapons and can evade much better, Psi-Freak is your ‘caster’ build that has a much higher energy regen, Commando (my personal choice) is the ranged class that deals more gun damage and finally the Dead-Eye, which is the “all-around” class that allows for ranged weapons to be reloaded instantly. You’ll get to play with any weapon and skills later on, so don’t stress about choosing that perfect class in the beginning even if it doesn't initially vibe with your playstyle.
After an opening tutorial you’re put into an open world where exploration is encouraged. You’ll have a main quest to guide you from area to area, but the more you discover what’s off the beaten path, the better the whole Biomutant experience becomes. Biomutant mixes Fable RPG storytelling with melee, ranged and special abilities to make for a really satisfying experience. Each area you discover is unique, throwing in some cool enemies and puzzles along the way. Some areas have their own local storylines and characters while you progress on your overall quest dealing with the Tree-of-Life and the rivaling Tribes.
As you explore the lands you’ll come across quests that once completed will give you special mounts. Sometimes these are typical ridable animals, a mechanical horse, a clockwork hand and others, but you’ll eventually experience a submarine, massive mech-suit, Jet Ski and more that are required to explore certain areas and fight against World Eater bosses. The best part about these particular mounts is that you can find special items to customize them to change how they look. It’s simply for visual aesthetics, but it allows you to add a little personality to your rides, as I loved my Jet Ski with a duck head on the front.
As you venture across the lands you’ll come across many puzzles, abandoned towns and other secrets. Puzzles are plentiful but quite basic, usually having you rotate dials of some sort to matching colors lines in a set amount of moves. Fail and you’ll take some damage before being able to try again. These puzzles sometimes award loot or allow access to a new doorway where even better loot is kept. They are simple in nature, but I always enjoyed stumbling across them.
As you come across certain areas, instead of being blocked off by locked doors they’ll usually be covered in radiation, poison or have no oxygen. These zones require your resistances to be maxed out if you want to venture inside uncover their secrets. The Dead Zone is an area that you’ll explore during the course of the campaign with your mech suit, though because of the open world nature of Biomutant, you could theoretically head there well before you are guided to do so, but you’d need to have a set of gear with high enough resistances to survive. To explore the other areas that you’ll need resistances for, you’ll need to either have appropriate gear or find special suits that will give you 100% protection for that type of danger, usually given from certain quests.
The six Tribes in the world offer more than a narrative reason for siding with one or another. As you amass favor for your Tribe of choice you’ll fight against rival clans by taking out their outposts before being able to challenge their leader to a showdown. Do you decide to take them out and anyone that opposes you or so you try and reason with them to have them join your alliance? Either way you’ll earn a very special and unique Tribe weapon as well as learning their Wung-Fu style, giving you a new combat technique.
This is where Aura comes into play, a dark versus light / good versus evil system. Good and Bad are subjective of course, but you’ll gain Aura points based on your actions and decisions for many choices. Choosing a ‘good’ answer sometimes will give you Aura points, or what you do with a captured prisoner will also earn you some as well, deciding to let them go or killing them. Aura of course will play an important part of which ending you receive, but there’s more to it than that. This Aura also is a sort of ‘currency’ in a way, as many powers are locked behind these Auras. For example, to use a special Ice ability I had to be sided with the good Aura, whereas Dark players get a completely different skill. You’re never locked out of powers either and can freely sway your Aura back and forth between good and bad, so you can try a different route and choices whenever you wish.
This is where I played completely different in my New Game+. Yes, Biomutant has a NG+ where all your progress and gear carry over, allowing you to start anew to either further enhance your character or play in a completely different way. All your gear, skills and abilities carry over but the world essentially resets, allowing you to side with a new tribe and maybe explore some more areas you ignored the first time. Enemies scale based on your current level, so you’re generally always fighting opponents within a certain range of your level, with harder mini-bosses usually a few levels higher than you. Given that you’re constantly improving your character through gear, skills or abilities, I never felt like I was underpowered, the balancing felt just right, even for the World Eater bosses.
Combat was something I really enjoyed even after 20 hours of gameplay under my belt, as it always feels satisfying with its comic book style aesthetics. Given that Biomutant is a blend of martial arts and gunplay, there’s a great balance of offensive and general movement, which reminded me of Capcom's Devil May Cry air juggling mixed with Batman Arkham's combat style. This blend of melee and ranged combat really allows you to play however you like. I preferred the ranged gunplay, but wasn’t afraid to get up and close when needed. It’s not uncommon to be overrun and outnumbered by swarms of enemies, so you’ll need to be agile and learn to dodge and parry attacks if you want to survive. Parrying opens enemies to devastating attacks or air juggles, so it pays to get right in the thick of battle sometimes, taking out the swarm of minions before the larger enemies.
This is where your powers and abilities will help. There are two types of abilities: Biomutations and Psi-Powers. Biomutations are combat abilities that enhance your melee or ranged damage, usually adding a new combo or finisher and it requires you to purchase it with biopoints that you’ll find scattered and hidden throughout the world. Psi-Powers are unlocked with Psi-Points, also hidden around the world, but these are more your special abilities, some of which are locked to Dark or Light Aura’s and it just happens that these ones are the best ones.
Combining these powers and regular combat is natural, fluid and flows really well once you find a groove for how you want to play. My go-to, for example, is using one of my abilities to infect an enemy so that he fights for me for a short time, freeze the ground so enemies slip around back and forth as I slowly pick one off at a time with my rifle. Some abilities aren’t only useful for combat, but can help you traverse areas or get across large gaps. There’s nothing quite like using a giant bubble to get enemies stuck to it then exploding them outwards.
Your damage and armor is only going to be as good as your gear though. Thankfully there’s not only a ton of interesting and unique loot out there to be found, you’ll also be able to craft your own insanely unique weapons. You’re not limited to the starting weapon types you begin with, so you can freely swap and change weapons based on what you enjoy most, earning new skills as you progress. Gear of course has different rarities, and surprisingly the Luck attribute does seem to actually make a huge difference on finding better gear, as I was finding tons of high level parts and loot once I dumped some points into the attribute after leveling up. As you get higher, gear will start to give special bonuses as well, so there’s always going to be some new cool loot to find. You can even buy new gear from vendors, some of which is quite good, but if it’s too expensive you can improve your charisma to get better prices.
I didn’t sell any items, instead I broke them down for parts and materials, which in turn can be used in crafting and improving your gear. You are also able to craft your own weapons and this was probably one of my favorite features in Biomutant. You can not only craft a new weapon from scratch, but you can also improve the ones you have if you really enjoy it. As you find random loot throughout your adventure you’ll come across random parts and pieces that can be used to improve your gear. Even items like pencils, chains and other ‘garbage’ can be used to improve your gear’s looks and stats. It never gets old seeing what weird combinations you can create, like a massive 2H weapon with a toothbrush base and a chainsaw on the other end, or a rifle that looks something straight out of Mad Max.
You’re able to freely craft whenever you like from the menu, but you also find a workbench in many of the villages and you’ll be able to enhance your gear’s quality and rarity, for a resource fee of course. This starts to get quite costly for the highest tiers of improvements, but it makes a massive difference in your gear score, damage and more. While you are limited to only crafting weapons from scratch and not armor, any gear can be improved based on how many add-on slots it has. Of course every item also has its own base stats, so there’s near endless loot for you to compare.
Photo Mode is also included for those that love to take screenshots of their favorite moments. Simply press both Thumbsticks down and you’ll be able to play around with the camera to get that perfect shot. I ended up spending more time taking gorgeous pictures of vistas than I expected, as Biomutant’s world is to vast and lush and beautiful, even in its most ravaged areas.
On an Xbox Series X, Biomutant’s world is absolutely stunning to take in at times with 4K 60FPS. The greens of the forest are so full of color and the variety of each area really feels like you’re exploring new regions in the vast world. There’s so many small details, not only within the environment itself, but even how your character visually changes when you put on new gear and weapons. Seeing the Tree-of-Life’s roots from afar really makes you feel how small you are in this world and while there’s not a huge variety in enemy types, they all have their own unique style. Also, the comic book style words that appear in combat is a cool touch, like a “click” when you try to fire before reloading fully or “Thump!” when slicing an enemy. These of course can be turned off, but I personally though it was very fitting.
As for the audio, the Narrator that describes everything that’s happening on-screen and translating what people are saying as you converse since they all talk Sims-like gibberish, is done absolutely perfectly. Reminiscent of Fable’s narrator, Biomutant's David Shaw Parker is a calm and soothing voice, telling you about the world around you if you just got to a new area or about the Tribe that you’re about to face. Even better, many regular pre-apocalypse ‘old-world’ objects have funny names, like a guitar being called a “twing-twang” or a train a “chug-chug”, and hearing a nature documentary-like voice over narrate these always puts a smile on my face. For those that find it a little too intrusive or annoying, you are able to turn down the frequency of the narrator should you wish, or completely off, but that would definitely give you Dark Aura points in real life.
While Biomutant may have been unveiled a little early, the extra time they’ve taken to make a complete and polished game has not gone unnoticed. The only real negatives I had in my notes were minor glitches and bugs, but that’s even before the launch patch dropped. For a new studio to make something not only of this caliber and scope, while also making such an engaging world I don't want to leave is nothing short of amazing.
It’s been quite a while where I’ve been at my paying job simply waiting to come home so I could dive right back into a game; Biomutant did that for me. Even after completing the game I started up NG+ right away and continued on my journey with the same excitement. For such a small team, all of their hard work has paid off, as Biomutant is easily my top contender for Game of the Year at this point.
**Biomutant was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Cosmic Top Secret
I’ve always enjoyed history. Back in high school I had a great teacher that made the dry material and date memorizations actually digestible, so I’ve always been fascinated with reading about what’s happened in our world, hopeful to learn from the mistakes others have made previously. Many would most likely find history fascinating, but truth be told, simply reading about it can be daunting and very hard to focus when it’s in textbook form. Movies help this somewhat, as I’m sure almost everyone has seen a great war movie that retells a specific historic event, but these usually are embellished to make for a more entertaining watch. Documentaries are great and addictive to watch, but sometimes tend to fall down the same hole of being quite dry to take all in.This is where gaming comes in. Sure there are games that have historical accuracies or lets you play in a specific battle, but doesn’t do much to outright teach you about its history in the traditional sense. Cosmic Top Secret looks to change this, telling a unique story while also giving a serious history lesson along the way, but in a digestible and entertaining way without bombarding you with too many terms, dates and other distractions.
Based on an actual documentary, Cosmic Top Secret is based on an actual audio documentary made by Trine Laier. Her parents worked in the Danish Intelligence when she was growing up, apparently as spies, so she wanted to interview them and find out more about their past. Because of the nature of the subject matter, Cosmic Top Secret actually needed official clearance from Danish authorities to be released, as there’s some interesting situations and facts within that have now been deemed declassified.
The title isn’t just a fancy name either, Cosmic Top Secret is an actual term that NATO uses for top confidentiality, even higher than the ‘Top Secret’ classification. You play as Trine, “T” for short, as you talk to your dad about their time in Intelligence and explore areas based on the facts and stories being told. The stories are brought to life with a cast of characters you’ll meet along the way or in collectible clues as you explore. More like a storyboard playing out than a traditional type of game, Cosmic Top Secret has a very unique look and objective, so don’t expect it to really be like anything else out there.
Given that the whole point is to uncover secrets that your dad is telling you about his time during the Cold War, I don’t want to spoil any of the revelations, but I was constantly wanting to learn more as the stories went on, getting closer to that Cosmic Top Secret clearance and ultimate reveal. There’s more emotional ties that are included as well, some unexpected, but help paint the broader picture and more about T’s secrets and life. It actually makes me wonder how much I actually know about my parents and their lives when I was growing up.
Unfolding like a storybook, Cosmic Top Secret has a very unique and distinct artistic style, as it appears it's been made from paper cutouts and cardboard, with some abstract flair for good measure. You control T within five separate stages, each of which becomes higher in its security clearance as you progress. T is made out of paper, so when she moves she rolls into a crumpled paper ball or gets thrown about when she jumps a far distance. It’s quite odd at first to witness, especially since characters, T included, all have large googly-eyes, but the oddity of it makes it that much more memorable and unique.
With five main stages to explore, each one lasting roughly an hour or so, there’s tons of items to collect and find, along with hidden secrets as well. The story naturally progresses as you find collectibles, usually resulting in a picture or video from the object you found as you start to piece together the overall narrative. To complete a level you’ll need to find all the required objects, most of which are simple enough to find, but sometimes you’ll need to use your head as to where to go next.
Given that this is a game about secrets, not everything is going to be handed outright to you, forcing you to do a little exploring and thinking. As you find recordings, pictures and intel, more is shared about T’s life, her parents or events that took place during that period in the timeline of events. Once all nine required objects have been found to complete the stage, you’ll need to find the exit door and figure out the passcode. This is where some light puzzle elements come into play, forcing you to relook at the clues you’ve found and figure out the correct digits’ order to unlock the door. None of these are terribly challenging, and I really only had issues with one puzzle section, having to brute force trial and error my way through, but this adds a sense of accomplishment like you’ve decoded some sort of secret; fitting for this adventure.
You’ll be exploring these main stages, even more in depth if you want to find all the collectibles, but this is where one of the main issues rears its head: movement. T turns into a crumpled ball of paper when she’s not standing still, and seems to roll as smooth as you’d expect one to. Trying to be accurate and move in straight lines was a challenge the whole way through, and in the beginning stages this isn’t much of an issue, but there’s a weird thing where T can’t move in the opposite direction the camera is facing. When you’re attempting to make small adjustments on narrow pathways so you don’t fall later on, a little frustration can set in. There are other weird glitches like simply not being able to fall off an edge at certain times or awkward controls when T turns into a paper airplane, but I understand this indie game was created with a small team and is meant to be a deeper experience overall, so it’s somewhat forgivable.
The 2D characters in a 3D world look like paper cutouts, somehow fitting for the scenarios and setting. It’s very abstract, but that’s what gives it a certain charm. Yes, the level design is quite bland and basic, and characters look bizarre with their large googly-eyes, but it makes it feel more authentic in an odd way. While everything is voiced, it’s not in English, so you’ll need to be reading subtitles the whole way through, unless you speak Danish of course.
I initially expected Cosmic Top Secret to be a quick humor filled game solely basing it at first glance from its goofy visuals and artistic flair, but instead got an interesting documentary about a daughter interviewing her dad’s secret life as she was growing up during the Cold War. If Cosmic Top Secret was going to be reviewed and based solely on its “game-ness”, it wouldn’t be very exciting or fun and score much lower, but given that it’s an interactive documentary about really interesting subject matter if you’re into history, it somehow works as a complete package, as I see what its overall purpose and goal sets out to be.
I’ve never really experienced anything like Cosmic Top Secret before; part game, part documentary, where I actually learned quite a lot of fascinating information about the Danish Intelligence and Cold War. This makes me think that gaming could be an interesting format and medium for teaching history to gamers, but in a unique way that could resonate, as even days after completion Cosmic Top Secret still lingers in my head and I'm glad to have experienced it. Ending Transmission...
**Cosmic Top Secret was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Flowing Lights
When I think puzzles games, I tend to think of locked doors needing keys, an abundance of pieces to fit together or some intricate series of challenges to finally unlock a door or something similar. Flowing Lights took me by surprise, as by its screenshots you might be expecting a typical bullet hell shooter of some sort. In Flowing Lights though you get quite a challenging puzzle game that revolves around an alien space ship trying to simply get from point A to point B but will need to use strategy to figure a way to do so with the planet life trying to shoot at you as well. Dubbed as an 'Arcade Puzzle Shooter', each fight is a carefully crafted puzzle that you’ll need to figure out, and the challenge starts to get quite high in the later stages.While there’s not really a deep narrative by any means, the general idea is that your ship was attracted to an unknown planet that has an unusually strong gravity pull, forcing you to land and unable to leave. This sets the backdrop as to where you are and why native life is trying to attack you. The gravity though also does play a large part of the gameplay, as you’ll need to shoot up and alongside walls, curving your shots or making them swirl around a pit to destroy carefully placed enemies.
Your ship is equipped with weaponry, which is how you’ll take out your enemies blocking your path to each stage. Your main weapon is your blaster with infinite ammunition, simply shooting straight ahead of you. Fire into a pit or along a steep wall and your bullets will curve based on the gravity and angle of the slopes. You’re also able to shoot a ‘missile’, where you hold a button, pull back in the opposite direction like a slingshot, and fire away. This attack too will adhere to gravity and will be used usually even more so than your regular shots, as this is how you’ll gain your combos, able to see the direction and curve your missile is going to follow with a simple red line.
Each world is broken into a handful of smaller bite-sized chunks, allowing you to tackle smaller sections at a time or try to complete a full world in one go. The puzzles slowly evolve and become more challenging as you go as you’d expect, even adding new enemies and obstacles in the way even in the last few worlds. While your goal for each smaller section is to reach the end, you’ll also need to destroy every enemy as well, something that will take some experimentation and a lot of deaths to figure out. Many times, especially in the later worlds, you’re going to be retrying levels dozens of times as you try and figure out the perfect strategy to progress, as you have limited health. Thankfully restarts are instantaneous so this never really becomes bothersome.
With 200 fights hand crafted, each one truly does feel like its own unique puzzle you need to overcome, complete with optional challenges for those that want to climb the leaderboards and earn the best ranks. There’s an online leaderboard, so I foresee plenty of bragging rights to be had for those able to earn the quickest S ranks. Each level will grade you from rank C, B, A and S based on your speed, combos and more. At first I was aiming for A and S ranks, but by about halfway through I was simply trying to beat the stages with any rank, usually resulting in a ‘C’ grade at best.
While enemies don’t get “harder” per se, the placement and their attack patterns are where you’ll meet the challenge. Some shoot at set intervals, some shoot a nonstop flow of bullets, while others do patterns. Some will sit in place, others will move on a set path, whereas some will either mimic your movement or do the opposite, much like how each enemy from Geometry Wars had its own pattern and strategy to beat, it’s no different here. Keep in mind the way gravity works on this world and that’s where the unique gameplay comes into play.
Thankfully, developers gFaUmNe Inc (FUN game) know that not everyone is going to have the skill or patience required to get through every level, never mind attaining 'S' rankings, so if you manage to die enough times on a stage and simply can’t beat it, you’re given the option to grab a power-up, such as deflecting off bullets, so that you can move onto the next stage. This in turn though disables leaderboard rankings, but you’re able to go back and retry any stage from any level again you’ve been to without using the power-up to place on the leaderboard, and subsequently earn achievements, of which most are tied to completing worlds with certain ranks in all stages, so good luck with that achievement hunters. This means that even though you may simply get stuck on a specific level, or two, or dozen, you can still progress and come back to them later when you’ve finally composed yourself once again. I did this quite a few times, making progress on later levels when I became stuck, then coming back to it again later on with better skill and more confidence.
Flowing Lights is quite unique in a number of different ways. An Arcade Puzzle Shooter that will seriously test your skills the whole way through its 200 hand crafted stages and may fool you with its simplistic and bland visuals, its challenge becomes borderline infuriating until you get that inevitable “ah-hah!” moment and see a simple solution all along.
**Flowing Lights was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Super Meat Boy Forever
I still remember the days of booting up my Xbox 360 and checking out the newest releases on Xbox Live Arcade. XBLA was generally a place where you could find smaller indie games, and a handful were essentially the ‘face’ of these types of games. Super Meat Boy was one of these, a smaller indie game but caught a lot of attention with its perfect yet challenging gameplay. It’s crazy to think that more than a decade has gone by since the world was introduced to Super Meat Boy, and while the gaming landscape has changed quite dramatically since, the time has finally come for a sequel; aptly titled Super Meat Boy Forever.Taking place after the events of the first game, Super Meat Boy Forever starts off by showing the latest member of the family to join Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, their small bundle of joy: Nugget. Nugget is absolutely adorable beyond measure, and while on a picnic in the park, that nasty Dr. Fetus returns to kidnap their offspring. So obviously Meat Boy and Bandage Girl set on a quest to get back their baby, but doing so won’t be easy, literally.
Super Meat Boy was known not only for its precise gameplay and controls, but its brutal difficulty. It wasn’t uncommon to die well over a hundred times in a level, but that sense of accomplishment you get when you do finally complete a stage is insurmountable. Super Meat Boy Forever is no different, as you’ll be jumping, dashing, punching and diving your way through levels, but expect to die a countless amount of times once again.
Now with most sequels the core gameplay doesn’t all change that often, usually just evolving or improving in some aspect, so the change to Super Meat Boy Forever is quite a drastic one as it’s now an auto-runner. This means that once the level starts, your character starts running in the forward direction automatically with no real way to slowdown or stop. I have a feeling this is going to turn off some original fans with such a drastic change. Yes it’s different, and yes, it takes a lot of getting used to, but the controls still feel familiar in a weird way. Just because you don’t control Meat Boy’s movement in a traditional sense, don’t for a second think this neuters the difficulty in any way, as it’s still far from easy. If anything, you almost have to be even more precise and perfect with timing your jumps and slides.
Since you don’t have to control Meat Boy’s movement with the stick you basically only need to learn two buttons. Pressing one of the face buttons will cause you to jump, and if you press it again in the air you will dash forward with a punch, also used to combo into enemies to go further. Pressing Down will cause you to slide, slipping underneath buzz saws and other obstacles but also diving quickly downwards to avoid objects as well. It may seem simplistic to only have two inputs, but the level designs are so well done that you’ll lose count of your deaths after a short while. The only issue I really had with this button setup is that since jump and punch are the same button, you can sometimes inadvertently punch dash instead of jump before you land on a platform, causing a quick death.
While the auto-runner is a drastic change, it’s not the only one. Levels are somewhat randomized when you start your game save as well. Apparently the developers made tons of ‘chunks’, basically small sections of levels which are then used based on the randomized seed you get at the beginning of the game. So each level is a handful of these ‘chunks’ put together seamlessly for a smooth experience, aside from your repeated deaths of course.
This means that every playthrough is going to seem completely unique every time you play. I’m not sure how many are going to want to replay through all over again if you do manage to complete it, but the replay value is near endless because of this design, allowing you to play almost forever, as the title suggests. While some will miss the handcrafted feel to each level, it’s going to take quite a while before you see any repeated levels. I actually got so frustrated early on and stuck that I decided to start a new game to see how different the levels would actually be, and yeah, they can be dramatically different.
Levels feel much longer than the original game, but there’s a decently forgiving checkpoint system in place that will spawn you back at when you do eventually die, usually only a few short jumps back from where you were, which I can assume is where the ‘chunks’ are seamed together. With a handful of worlds, each one is broken into six or so stages each before you get to take on a massive boss fight. These were the highlight of the experience with Super Meat Boy Forever, as they are massive room bosses, challenging you into figuring out how to actually defeating them. Finally beating these bosses are immensely satisfying the first time you finally manage to do so.
It seems almost every world introduces you to a new mechanic the further you progress as well, not only keeping things fresh and you on your toes, but also keeping the challenge and difficulty ramping up. For example, in the second world all of a sudden you’ll have to deal with waterfalls of broken glass, that if you stay in it too long you will die. A small indicator appears around you and once it fills up in a few short seconds you’ll die, so you need to constantly be moving and plan your jumps accordingly. Some levels will require you to find keys for locked cages, blocks that change based on your jumps and slides and more. These new mechanics are introduced at a steady pace, but it can feel quite overwhelming at times.
While visually everything still looks like classic Meat Boy, it definitely looks more polished and sharp overall and the gameplay is smooth as it gets. Each world has its own aesthetic and theme, so there’s some variety, but the real improvements and treat are with the cutscenes between worlds after beating a boss. These cartoons are high quality and animated quite well. While the soundtrack may not be quite as memorable as the first due to a different team, it still is quite good and changes based on the world you’re in.
If you’re an achievement hunter, you’re in for a world of hurt. Many are tied to completing levels without dying, so goodluck with that. There’s plenty of collectibles to find along the way as well which are in very difficult to reach areas, so there’s plenty to do even if you manage to complete all the levels somehow.
While many of its fundamentals have changed, some of which veterans may disagree with, it still has that same essence that made Super Meat Boy so great in the first place. I won’t lie, some levels took me well over a hundred deaths to complete, yet I still wanted to keep going to save Nugget thanks to the generous checkpoint system utilized. Super Meat Boy Forever has the potential to be played almost forever, or it may take you that long to simply beat it.
**Super Meat Boy Forever was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Little Mouse's Encyclopedia
Fun fact: Did you know that an ant hill’s longer side is South orientated?A bunch of facts like this are small tidbits of trivia you’ll learn when experiencing Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia and will be peppered in throughout this review, as there were a ton of little details like this I learned along the way. Developed by Circus Atos, Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia isn’t so much of a traditional game as it’s more of a learning tool, almost like a book you’d get from the library for one of your younger children. Relax by controlling an adorable mouse, inspecting plants and animals while learning facts about them as you go. While it’s obviously an experience meant for younger kids, I myself even learned a few things.
Fact: Apple trees can live up to 100 years.
Less of a game and more of an experience, Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia is actually described as an interactive Encyclopedia, and I completely agree. Meant for younger curious gamers, you’ll wander across some interesting landscapes, able to interact with certain wildlife and learn things along the way. As you explore one of four areas, animals and plants will have a magnifying glass that can be interacted with which will pop up a fact card with illustrations or can animate many of the animals. With over 160 species of animals and florae to discover, there’s a lot for a young gamer to learn, even if it won’t be a long lasting experience. More than once either myself or my daughter commented “Wow!” or “Really?” when learning some interesting facts about some animals. I just wish there was more to the experience, like maybe nature videos or animations about certain aspects of the facts rather than some dry reading for younger children.
With four different areas to explore, your cute little mouse will start in its burrow, able to explore its underground tunnels and the flowers above ground. You’ll also travel to a forest, garden and pond, each with their own types of animals and vegetation that you’d actually find in the area you’re exploring. The pond for example focused more on water based plant and animal life as you swim around with an adorable mask and snorkel. There’s a few cute little details like this that gives Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia its charm.
Fact: A brown centipede’s rear legs are longer.
Controls are simple to grasp, moving with the Left Stick and using a button to either look at the fact sheet or interact with the objects. One issue that happened repeatedly when my daughter was playing though was that pressing the ‘B’ button backs you out to the menu and level select. There’s no confirmation of any kind, so when you accidentally press ‘B’, you’re whisked back to the menu.
Funny enough, the tutorial is literally just reading one slide before the achievement for completing the tutorial pops. Speaking of achievements, if you really wanted, you could unlock all of them in ten to fifteen minutes if you tried, so that’s a nice bonus for achievement hunters and to my knowledge, probably a front runner for the easiest 1000 Gamerscore ever.
Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia may be extremely light on content, as it can be ‘completed’ in a half hour at most, it's absolutely gorgeous to look at with its hand drawn illustrations, as if it’s almost done with paper cutouts. If you’ve ever read a book meant for children with colorful artwork, this is very reminiscent of that style. Tereza Vostradovská did a wonderful job with the illustrations, and while there’s not much of a ‘game’ substance, it was beautiful to look at and experience. The same goes for its audio, as it has a very soothing and relaxing soundtrack, something you’d expect to hear in the background if children books had background audio.
Fact: Catfish can live up to 40 years.
Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia reminds me of a few of the early books I bought my daughter when she was younger, though simply in game form. With 18 languages for support, nearly anyone can experience and learn something regardless of your native dialect. With it currently priced at $13.49 CAD (on sale), I have to admit, it’s a little steep for the longevity since you probably won’t get more than a half hour, hour tops, before the kids will want to move onto something else. Given than it’s also twice as much on console compared to its PC/Mobile version, I would certainly recommend waiting for a bigger sale.
Fact: Hedgehogs are solitary living creatures and has up to 8500 spines.
While more interactive encyclopedia than traditional game, Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia has a beautiful aesthetic with an emphasis on learning about nature along the way. For what it’s worth, my daughter said she would have scored it at 7 for its “cute art and mouse”, but by the last area even she was skimming the fact cards and wanting to go back to her regular games.
**Little Mouse's Encyclopedia was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Bad Dream: Coma
When I first saw Bad Dream: Coma from developer Desert Fox, I initially expected it to be a small little one-off indie game. Doing so research though it seems as though there’s actually been a handful of games in the series, though the previous entries were small piecemeal games, only lasting about a half hour or so. What intrigued me the most about Bad Dream: Coma though was that it’s actually a point and click adventure title, a genre we don’t see very much more of these days, especially on console. Given that I grew up with the genre as a kid with the classics, I had to see what it was all about.I don’t know if I was ready for what I experienced though. Disturbing is one way to put it. Taking place within a dream, this opens up the possibilities where almost anything can happen, and given its title, you know it’s not going to be all about rainbows, butterflies and unicorns. Quite the opposite, so get ready for an odd psychological thrill ride with a creepy atmosphere, blood and some extremely odd imagery. Remember though, your actions and choices will have consequences, some that won’t always be immediately apparent.
There is an overarching plot, but it will only take you a few hours to complete depending on how good at puzzle games you are, so I don’t want to really get into the narrative much as it would spoil much of the experience. Just know that you’re going to experience very odd and creepy imagery set within a very bad dream. There are even times where the fourth wall gets broken, adding a whole other weirdness layer to the whole experience.
Like most other point and click titles, you’ll be within a scene, usually with a few objects that can either be interacted with or picked up and put in your inventory. Split into multiple chapters, each one will consist of a dozen or so areas that can be explored, and you’ll need to remember how each area is attached to one another as there’s no map for a visual. With just a simple hand cursor you’ll start your adventure in this messed up dream world with a number of different ways to solve puzzles blocking your path.
Bad Dream: Coma may be a point and click, but it isn’t like your typical kind where you can basically brute force your way through by clicking every object you see, as you’re going to want to think about your actions, as there are always repercussions and consequences for your choices, actually changing the game as you go depending. There’s not much narrative outside from a few conversations with a couple characters but the world is still quite atmospheric, giving you a general ‘goal’ of solving or finding something, but doing so won’t be so easy.
Scenes are connected usually by arrows, indicating that a specific area is over that way when you click said arrow. Sometimes though the arrow blends into the artwork itself since it’s all hand drawn, and can be quite difficult to discern at first. More than once I was unable to figure out where to go simply because I wasn’t able to see the arrow to click on to navigate. Also, because there’s no map you’re going to have to fumble around with how each scene is connected with a lot of trial and error. The navigation is illogical at the best of times, and while yes, you do eventually get used to it after clicking to the wrong area a dozen times, it could have been implemented much better.
There are multiple endings and playthroughs to experience, which I’ll get into shortly, but I bring this up now because a single choice can ruin a run without your knowing. For example, I was working on the good ending and made a mistake unknowingly, locking me out of the ending I wanted, so I went to reload a previous save only to find I can only restart the chapter I was currently on. This means if you don’t notice right away that you made a ‘wrong’ mistake and a chapter ends, there’s no way to go back to a chapter select and will have to completely restart your run if aiming for a specific ending since there’s only one game save per run.
There were a number of issues I ran into though. One sequence in particular had the ‘A’ button on the dialogue box to progress actually sitting over the dialogue itself, and since it’s not voiced, I had no idea what was being said. Another time I had a “13” ticket in my inventory but had to also go collect a “3” ticket. I did so without problem but it never showed in my inventory properly, so when I gave the ‘wrong’ ticket to someone it immediately locked me out of getting the good ending, causing a whole chapter restart, which thankfully somehow worked the next time I reloaded the game. Lastly, I’ve also had the game hard crash to dashboard, causing me to lose my game save in the process. To be fair I’ve not read about others having this issue, but you can no doubt guess that I’m going to do another playthrough at a later date because of this.
Puzzles make up the bulk of the gameplay, aside from aimlessly wandering and clicking every item you come across of course. The cursor has a weird drift that is very small but noticeable when trying to click on a very small object. You’re not able to tell what’s clickable or not without hovering over the item either, and sometimes an object may not be clickable in one section, but is able to be picked up in another, so there’s a lot of repetition and aimless searching.
While the puzzles aren’t exactly linear, obviously many sections and areas won’t be accessible until you solve the puzzle before it, but this is where you start to figure out that puzzles in Bad Dream: Coma are nonsensical at the best of times. Some puzzles are logical and can be figured out with some thought, but the vast majority are extremely obtuse and not intuitive at all. I get that the setting is an odd dream world, but some of the solutions simply don’t make much sense. Traditional puzzle solving simply isn’t going to work here and thinking outside the box is a necessity, also known as trying every object in your inventory on every other object to see if anything works. I won’t lie, while I was able to solve many of the puzzles on my own, I’m not sure how I would have fared without having to check some walkthroughs online when I was stuck on numerous occasions, especially since some solutions seemed to not relate at all to the puzzle in question.
As mentioned above, Bad Dream: Coma has three endings for you to strive towards: Good, Neutral and Bad, adding some replayability for those that want it. Now I expected these endings to be tied to a few choices I made along the way but there’s much more to it than that. I was trying to work on the Good ending at first but quickly realized how difficult that actually was. This ending requires you to be, well, good at all times, not causing any direct harm, though doing so isn’t always as direct a consequence as you might expect. For example, there’s a board game you can play and if you decide to cheat, boom, you lose the good ending. That’s where the Good and Bad endings become quite challenging to get, as you basically can’t screw up once, which is where walkthroughs will come in handy.
A good example of this is in the very first scene you start your adventure in, allowing you to click on some crows. Doing so punches and kills them, instantly locking you from the good ending if that’s what you want to strive towards, so you need to think about your actions rather than just clicking everything you see. Even more surprising though is how each playthrough is quite unique from one another. Puzzles and events change based on which ending you’re currently navigating towards and the choices you make. Within the first ten minutes of my Bad playthrough compared to Good, I had some drastically different puzzles and outcomes, so multiple plays are going to be required to see and experience everything Bad Dream: Coma has to offer.
The hand drawn visuals look as though it’s been done on some old parchment, seemingly done in ink, adding some creepiness to the visuals and atmosphere. It’s a very simplistic style but works well for this world and genre yet still has a decent amount of detail when you take the time to notice. Even though the majority of the aesthetic is black and white, there are some moments with splashes of color, usually with creepy notes or blood, adding some uniqueness to its overall feel. While there’s not much for a soundtrack, the sound effects are done quite well and also add to the creepy environment and scene that you’re currently in. When you’re trying to solve a puzzle but can hear someone banging on a door, it adds some tension. While I would have preferred the dialogue to be voiced, the audio overall is passable.
While the main narrative is likely to confuse you at first, it does become interesting the further into the dream world as you progress from chapter to chapter. While there may be some symbolism and meaning behind many of its characters and scenes, but you’re most likely to come away with some frustration as you try and figure out some of the most obtuse and odd puzzles in a point and click adventure that I can remember in quite some time. That being said, Bad Dream: Coma is creepy, dark and disturbing, but it was also quite memorable and has decent replay value with its three unique endings.
**Bad Dream: Coma was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Outriders
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve played a decent shlooter (shooter + looter) akin to a Destiny, Borderlands, Anthem or The Division. Square Enix is now wanting a piece of the action, so they teamed up with developers People Can Fly, best known for Bulletstorm, to create their own take on the shlooter genre. If you like shooting, looting, fighting hordes of near endless enemies and massive bosses, then Outriders needs to be on your radar with its sci-fi backdrop and 1 to 3 player co-op with drop-in/out gameplay. STORY:
There’s a large emphasis on narrative with Outriders, honestly more than I expected, and while not the most unique or mind blowing story out there, it’s just interesting enough to keep you engaged until the credits rolled and the endgame opens up. Earth has become inhabitable, so you among thousands of other humans have left your home in search to make a new one on the planet of Enoch, an Earth-like habitable planet among the stars. Enoch is quite the distance away though, about 80 years to reach, so you’re put into a cryosleep to pass the years as you travel.
The first people that set food on Enoch are labelled as Outriders, a squad of elite soldiers to ensure that the area is safe for everyone else. Something is wrong though and there’s a massive storm, labelled the Anomaly, destroying the majority of your fleet. Somehow you survive and are put back into cryosleep for another 30 years only to wake to a now hostile planet. You’ve become an Altered though, a soldier with special powers that you’ve absorbed from the Anomaly instead of dying like everyone else, making you a super soldier.
You’re now tasked with searching for a mysterious radio signal on the other side of the massive Anomaly where you originally landed, but doing so won’t be simple as you embark across a hostile planet filled with countless enemies and monsters through forests, swamps and deserts; it’s a good thing you inherited all those special powers Altered. There are some secondary characters you’ll meet along the way that will help you in your journey, some of which are quite memorable like Jakub, and there’s some decent twists along the way, but I don’t want to spoil much else for its narrative.
While the story itself is interesting, at times it can feel quite rushed and awkward. For example, your character seems quite uninterested in being there or wanting to do much at times and also can be incredibly brutal. There are also more than a few times where cutscenes simply jump from one moment to the next, like later on when you’re escaping from an exploding ship but the next cutscene simply shows them all fine and dandy with no explanation or showing of how they actually got out. It’s not a major plot hole or anything, but it did feel a little disingenuous with the story pacing and impact scenes like that are supposed to have. Also, while you can play co-op up to three players, only your character is shown in cutscenes, so you won’t ever see your friends even in the background oddly enough.
GAMEPLAY:
My initial impression about Outriders was that it felt a lot like The Division meets Gears of War due to its shlooter mechanics and cover based system you rely on early in the game. This cover system really goes completely out the window later on once you get a true grasp on the encouraged aggressive gameplay that it wants you to play like. Yes, there is waist-high cover setup everywhere which you’ll instinctively want to utilize early on out of habit, but Outriders is designed to be played very aggressive, and since you actually heal yourself from using your abilities and skills, you want to generally be in the thick of battle. This doesn’t mean you’re invincible, hardly the case especially on the hardier World Tiers, but once you stop trying to use cover you’ll do much better overall, particularly since endgame is all about playing through runs as fast as you possibly can, so you don’t got time to sit back and use cover.
Outriders' gameplay revolves around combining your weaponry and supernatural powers, based on which class you’ve chosen to play as, melding typical shooting mechanics with some RPG elements as well. Guns vary from your typical Assault Rifles, Snipers, LMG’s, SMG’s, Shotguns and more, but it’s really how you mix the shooting with your powers which will determine how successful you are. I admit, the aggressive approach took me some time to get used to, but once you learn which skills heal you, you start getting some great gear upgrades and learn how best to defeat certain enemies, Outriders starts to feel mechanically great, even if there are a slew of issues along the way. One of the worst offenders has to be the overabundance of loading screens. Moving to a new area? Load screen. Transitioning from one pocket of a map to another? Small cutscene. On an Xbox Series X these aren’t much of an issue especially since they can be skipped, but for those with older Xbox One’s, you’re going to detest every time you need to move to a new area.
CLASSES:
Your first character will go through a brief tutorial about the basic shooting and cover mechanics where you’ll get to choose one of four classes and begin your Altered journey once complete. The four classes are Pyromancer, Trickster, Devastator and Technomancer. Pyromancers can conjure flame abilities, burning enemies and are meant for medium range damage. Devastators are your typical tank-like class, meant to get into the thick of battles with shotguns. Tricksters are a rogue-like class, leaping in and out of battle able to do short high-dps bursts of damage. Lastly is the class I went with, the Technomancer, a medium to long range class that is more support with turrets, able to actually heal other teammates if you spec down a specific line of abilities.
Each class has its own skill tree that has three distinct subclasses to suit different playstyles. So for example, my Technomancer can spec as a healer/support, or go a more poison based damage role if I want. While there’s no “best” build for each of the classes, I did tend to find many often generally choose the same skill tree and abilities for the most part. You’re able to equip any three skills you like from your class, of which you have more choices, but depending on your build certain skills will be best suited for that playstyle. For example, my Tech Shaman build is focused on ice for not only freezing enemies in place for easier headshot damage, but I also make sure that my gear has ice based mods as well, boosting its effectiveness, but more on that shortly. Turns out it’s not just about getting the best and coolest gear, but how it all ties together with your skill tree and mod choices which is going to determine your damage output and survivability.
TIERS:
Instead of typical Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties there’s actually a completely different system in place that can be adjusted whenever you want for various reasons. You instead choose from World Tiers, ranging from 1 to 15. You begin with World Tier 1 unlocked, and the more you play you eventually earn enough XP to unlock World Tier 2 and so on. You need to be playing the highest available World Tier to earn towards unlocking the higher ones, but there’s numerous reasons you’ll want to, or not.
First, not only does World Tier 1 offer the easiest difficulty, but it won’t net you much good gear either. Playing on World Tier 15 for example instead will be much harder, but gives you much better rewards as well, so there’s a balance of finding what works best for you and your group. World Tier 1 for example has enemies two levels lower than you and also drops gear two levels lower, so getting an upgrade isn’t very likely. There’s also no modifiers for Legendary loot (the top tier of gear) to drop because of the ease. World Tier 15 though has enemies and loot +12 of your level along with a massive chance for rare and Legendary loot to drop, but this will be a much harder experience obviously. By the time you learn all of this and finish the campaign though none of it will matter, as endgame has its own separate tier system that is used in Expeditions, but more on that shortly.
LOOT:
Loot. Who doesn’t love loot? That’s why you play games like this generally, killing endless enemies hoping to see those purple and yellow beams of light indicating dropped gear. You’re able to equip a pistol, two main weapons, chest, legs, helmet, gloves and boots, so there’s plenty of gear you’ll be sifting through as you progress through your journey. Early on it’s easy to tell what’s an upgrade, as an item will have a green arrow if it’s basically ‘better’, but as you get near the end, especially endgame, there are many more factors like mods and attributes you’ll need to take into consideration when contemplating gear and upgrades.
There are of course different rarity of loot, though you’ll end up only caring about purples and Legendary stuff by the time you get to endgame. Unwanted gear can be sold or broken down into other materials which is used for crafting, upgrading and changing mods of other gear. You’ll most likely have times where you’re short on scrap currency to purchase gear, so then you’ll sell gear instead of breaking it down, only to find that you need to break more gear down to get shards to upgrade the gear you just got, so there’s a constant balance of trying to sell versus breakdown.
MODS:
You might get one piece of gear that is an upgrade in one aspect, but possibly has the ‘wrong’ mods that won’t benefit you at all, or is a sniper with close range damage bonuses, so there’s lots of factors you need to consider when swapping your gear. Mods play a large part of your gear, as these are bonuses that enhance the skills you use for your class. Blue gear has one mod slot whereas purple and above have two. Mods come in three different tiers, and the only way to ‘learn’ these mods so that you can apply them on other gear is to break down items with those mods, which is why breaking down gear early on is so important.
Purples will have tier two mods where Legendary has Tier three. Yes, you’re going to have to break down some of the best gear in the game if you want access to their mods to put on your ideal sets, which hurts to do at first. Interestingly, you’re also only able to change one mod on a piece of gear, so eventually you’re going to want to find gear that already has one of the mods you desire based on the skills and skill tree you’re using, so that you can keep that one and swap out the other mod that’s not as useful to you. You’re able to change the second mod as many times as you like for a small resource fee but you’ll generally find new gear at a steady rate, having to ‘fix’ its mods every time you upgrade until you reach endgame. How you stack and equip mods is going to make an absolute massive difference in your gameplay and success, so take the time to learn its intricacies and plan ahead what gear you want to use and it will pay off in the end.
CO-OP:
While you are able to play through the game completely solo, Outriders definitely shines when played alongside two other friends. And yes, the irony of having four classes and only three player co-op is not lost on me, nor do I understand the decision, but alas. In theory, Outriders is a simple drop-in drop-out co-op experience that you and your friends can simply enjoy, in reality though it’s a buggy mess, so much so that I have a dedicated section below for all the issues I’ve run into, including co-op problems.
There is some sort of scaling that happens when playing co-op though. Enemies seem to gain more health and deal more damage when playing with a partner. Add a third and that scales up even more, almost to the point where a friend and I don’t really enjoy having a third, as it makes all of the hardest elite enemies just massive bullet sponges. Two player co-op seems to be that ‘sweet spot’ for challenge and difficulty while still being able to do Expeditions within the allotted times. Basically anytime we have a third, we generally have a much harder time, even with the extra damage.
EXPEDITIONS AND ENDGAME:
Remember everything I said above about the World Tiers, difficulty and utilizing cover? Well, throw that all out the window, as once you beat the campaign the real endgame begins with a completely different grind. Endgame is all about Expeditions, basically time trial runs in a randomized assortment of missions, usually lasting 10-15 minutes, where the better time you make the better chance at gear you have. That’s why I said you won’t be using cover after the opening few hours, as endgame is all about rushing to beat missions as quickly as possible.
Expeditions has its own Tier system, also rank 1 to 15 to be super confusing, and is somewhat like the World Tiers where higher is harder but gives better rewards. This is how you’ll start to get the best gear, as beating missions has you opening a pod where 10-15 items spew out at the end as your reward. Where in the campaign and side missions of the core game enemies will randomly drop loot, the only loot from Expeditions are at the very end, determined by your time attack placing.
That’s it. That’s the endgame. There’s a special mission you can take on once you reach Tier 15, and yes, the gear changes are much higher and better in Expeditions, but there’s no raids, no nothing else other than grinding for Pods, the new endgame currency which you can buy the best gear with. Problem with this though is that loot scales based on which tier you’ve unlocked, and every time you tier up, the costs for gear also go up. Generally it’s going to take five to ten runs to get enough Pods to afford a piece of gear, and that’s hoping that it’s a piece you want with the correct stats and mods as well.
This is where the grind really sets in. With 10-15 minute runs it’s manageable in short bursts, but given there’s only a dozen or so Expeditions to partake in, which is randomized each time only offering a handful of choices per attempt, endgame feels like a completely different part of the game created by someone else compared to the campaign and side missions you did before the credits rolled. There’s also no raids or anything after the fact, so until more content gets added it does feel quite bare if you’re not into grinding endlessly for a chance at some high end gear.
VISUAL/AUDIO:
Visually, there were many times I had to stop, take in the vistas and nab a few awesome looking screenshots. The environments are all varied, and seeing the Anomaly is quite a thing to experience. Even though you may be trekking through a desert, it’s not all drab and brown, especially with your elemental powers adding some visual flair and brightness. Character models are decent, nothing amazing and certainly passable, though there really only is a handful of different enemy types that are constantly reused, so expect to fight against the same monster types and enemies without much variety.
As for its audio, the musical score was done quite well, adding a fitting atmosphere for your environments. Weapons all sound varied and skills impactful. I quite enjoy hearing my turret blasting nonstop only to hear that sweet sound of ice freezing over or smashing, knowing that’s my cue to start dishing out some serious damage to a frozen target. The voice acting throughout was decent, but nothing amazing, though I think that may be partly due to the writing and rushed scene transitions at times.
BUGS AND CRASHES:
Where to begin. I’ve actually lost count of how many times my game has crashed playing through Outriders, to the point that myself and friends actually made it into a drinking game, seeing who would be the next one to crash to the dashboard. For a massive ‘AAA’ game like Outriders, the amount of crashes and bugs really surprised me, many of which are still issues as of the time of this publishing. Outriders at times was more frustrating than it was enjoyable at times due to all the issues myself and others have had since its launch, which surprised me given how well the demo performed before launch. To be completely honest, if I wasn’t reviewing it, I probably would have given up playing and uninstalled, that’s how bad it was at one point. That being said, something keeps bringing me back every time I see a friend online playing as well.
While random crashes were the bulk of the issues I ran into, even on an Xbox Series X, we had a laundry list of other problems too. I’ve been stuck inside the environment, I’ve fallen through the world, I’ve respawned as a camera unable to move with my body, I’ve had weapons refuse to reload, we’ve had horrible lag in co-op games, missions not triggering, waypoints not showing up and a slew of other issues along the way. While I was fortunate enough to not run into this issue, many others were, and still are, reporting a massive bug where the game wipes your whole inventory of your loot, causing all your hours of hard work to be gone for absolutely nothing. Obviously this is being addressed by developers, but is a severe issue that unacceptable.
While they would like to claim Outriders is NOT a games-as-a-service type of game, there’s not only a requirement to create a Square Enix account, but even if you plan on playing solo for your whole Outriders career, you’ll need to always be require to be online to their servers. Many times even playing solo I was dropped from my game for some reason or another, and means there’s no pausing either. This also means that the game can be tweaked and changed on the fly from the backend, which has already seen the Trickster class receive some extreme nerfs, causing one of my friends to make a whole new character and class. While server drops have gotten better overall since launch, it’s almost daily when my friend and I have issues getting into each other’s game for some reason or another.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I have no doubt that Outriders will improve over time but I’m kind of torn about how I feel for it in its current state given its issues. On one hand I’m addicted to the shlooter treadmill, but on the other, having already reached endgame and grind the hell out of it, I think I see my end in sight without much further to do aside from yet another run for hopefully a new piece of gear. That said, Outriders is currently included with Xbox GamePass, so there’s no reason to not jump into the shoes of an Altered to save Enoch, even if it does turn into quite a grind later on and having to suffer through numerous game crashes daily.
**Outriders was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Suggestions: Launching in its current state is unacceptable.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
DARQ: Complete Edition
It’s no secret that developers borrow from one another, be it under the guise of ‘inspiration’ or not, but the ones that are able to take a known style but make it their own are usually the ones that are more memorable. If you’re a fan of Little Nightmares, Limbo or Inside, then you’re going to instantly become intrigued by what developers Unfold Games have created with DARQ. It’s obvious that those classic games were the inspiration for DARQ, but they’ve put their own flair into the mix, creating a short but unique experience that looks like it’s a creation of Tim Burton. While DARQ originally released back in December 2020, the latest DARQ: Complete Edition recently came out, boasting not only upgraded Xbox Series X|S visuals, but all the DLC as well.While there is a narrative, it’s not told in your traditional manner. Instead, you play as Lloyd, going through his dreams that quickly turn into nightmares. When Lloyd is awake, he instantly becomes sleepy, and as soon you rest your head on that pillow he has an almost outer body-like experience as he sinks into a dark dream world.
Good dreams don’t happen here though, as Lloyd is seemingly tormented by something in his subconscious, so each dream (level) becomes creepier with each sleep. In this dream world Lloyd needs to figure out how to escape by solving numerous puzzles and finding the exit. For a puzzle game I fully expected to become stumped, resorting to having to look up a walkthrough on YouTube, but that never happened. Actually, just as I was becoming quite proficient with its gravity altering and unique puzzles, it was over. There’s no dialogue or explanation of the ending, so if you’re looking for a narrative driven experience you’re going to be disappointed. Simply come in with some expectations of solving some puzzles for an afternoon and you’ll be fine.
So if you’ve already played DARQ at its initial launch you might be wondering what’s new in this Complete Edition. You of course get the base game, but it’s been improved for next-gen if you happened to have an Xbox Series X or S. You’re given an option of ‘Performance’ or ‘Cinematic’ options, Cinematic giving you subtly better looking visuals but lower framerate, or Performance mode which runs much smoother but not quite as sharp. Of course I went with Performance, but there didn’t seem to be all that much of a graphic difference between the two from what I could tell. The Complete Edition also comes with the two DLC’s that have released since, The Tower and The Crypt. While both are quite short, you interestingly don’t need to finish the base game in order to play them if you’ve already completed DARQ previously.
As you begin Lloyd’s journey, you’re simply thrown in once the game starts. There’s no text, no dialogue, you simply start moving around and have to figure out what you’re supposed to do and what button does what. If you want some hand holding, don’t expect any whatsoever. The same goes for its puzzles, as you simply need to figure out what you’re supposed to do, what items interact with others and so on. Because of the very short length this really isn’t an issue, but at least being taught how to interact with objects or change gravity to walk on walls would have been appreciated. While the world is built in 3D, you’re constrained to a 2D linear plane. This may seem simple, but you’ll eventually be walking up walls, changing ‘worlds’ to access different areas and more. Sometimes being able to walk on a ceiling will open up a different path for you to take you were previously unable to access.
There’s also some light stealth elements involved, and while there’s a dedicated button to crouch and move silently, you only ever are required to do so two or three times throughout. As you progress from each dream to the next, the world in Lloyd’s mind wanders to become more and more strange and twisted as you go, from creepy nurses that try to grab you, mannequin heads and arms that run away and need to be found and even a man with a tuba for a head. The whole world looks like something only Tim Burton could come up with, which is an extreme compliment, making DARQ memorable in that respect.
While you’re not told what to do or where to go, you’ll explore the worlds and find puzzles that either need to be solved or an item needed to progress. While the items may seem completely random at first, you’ll generally brute force your way through, sometimes having to remember where you saw an item or where to use an object you have with some light backtracking.
The puzzles in DARQ are obviously the crux of its gameplay and experience. While the world is fantastical to admire and take in with its unique visuals, the puzzles are the bulk of your experience as you finish one dream to the next. The bulk of the puzzles are simple enough that I was generally able to do them on the first or second try, though there was one puzzle in particular where the camera would constantly rotate from what you were looking at to the nurse coming slowly to get you, forcing you to try and complete it by memory off screen. This was really the only frustrating puzzle I absolutely detested in the base game, but aside from that particular one, the complete journey only took around three hours or so to complete, never really frustrating me for the most part.
The DLC’s aren’t required to have the base game completed before attempting, so you’re welcome to dive right in should you wish. While both are quite short, lasting 15-30 minutes or so, there is some new gameplay mechanics introduced, though I much enjoyed The Tower DLC compared to The Crypt.
The Tower has Lloyd diving into another dream, though this area looks so much different than anything before. Here you have multiple floors you need to explore, finding specific objects to escape the tower. At certain spots Lloyd is able to change from the dream world to some horrifying nightmare version where you’ll need to traverse back and forth between worlds to figure the way out. The Crypt on the other hand had me so frustrated I didn’t even want to complete it, as it relied much too heavily on timed and very challenging puzzles that weren’t as intriguing if you negated the strict time restrictions on each attempt.
Aesthetically DARQ has a very unique and distinct artistic style with its grey, black and white tones that looks washed out and a little hazy, as if you were trying to remember a dream after waking. Even with the bleak visuals, it stands out given its unique visuals and dream landscape. As for its audio, there really isn’t all that much aside from the footsteps and puzzles clanging here and there. When there is some light horror elements you do get a sense of tenseness, unsure what’s around the corner, but I wish its soundtrack was a little more prominent.
While DARQ’s adventure is quite short, there are some hidden collectibles to be found for those that want to get a little more out of their purchase. Oddly enough, achievements weren’t tied to level completions, but finding the hidden collectables instead. While this adds some replayability, you won’t really care unless you’re into achievement hunting most likely.
DARQ: Complete Edition is an example of quality over quantity, as it is quite short and doesn’t offer much replayability, but it’s a unique and memorable experience with its surrealism. Just as you start getting into it though, it’s over, and while not all that challenging, it may be a little too expensive at its full price, but find a good sale and you’ll have a short but sweet time exploring Lloyd’s dream world in a single sitting.
**DARQ: Complete Edition was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Dungeon Defenders: Awakened
Chromatic Games has a specialty of creating tower defense games under the Dungeon Defender names. The latest entry to the series, Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, has just released onto console for those looking to scratch their tower defense itch. It’s been a few years since the release of Dungeon Defenders II, so Awakened now celebrates its return to the genre with four player co-op action to try and save the world of Etheria. Mixing traditional tower defense and action RPG combat, Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is an entertaining few hours with some friends, but a test of patience solo.While there’s no traditional campaign with a larger overarching narrative, there are three main acts to get through, each with a handful of stages before taking on a challenging boss. While the campaign is not terribly lengthy, there are a handful of difficulties should you want to challenge yourself. You’re simply tasked with defending Etheria, somehow linked to the crystal that you must protect, but to do so you’re going to need a good amount of strategy and hopefully a friend or three.
While the three main acts won’t take too long to complete with friends, there are some other modes at least to fill your time when you do complete them. There are a few interesting additions like Challenge maps but I enjoyed Survival Mode the most. As you could probably guess, this will have you trying to survive as many waves of enemies as possible before they manage to destroy your crystal, and it’s just a matter of when, not if. Tower Mode was another interesting option, not allowing you to fight in combat, but simply having to rely on your built defenses to defeat the waves of enemies, something that is much harder than first appears. With tons of loot that’s constantly dropping and the ability to play alongside some friends, there’s enough longevity should you want it, though I found playing solo wasn’t nearly as entertaining compared to playing alongside a friend or even randoms.
Your main goal is to protect your crystal but your also going to be leveling your different characters, customizing them and hoarding tons and tons of loot along the way. Team up with 4 players and choose from one of five different characters, each of which play completely uniquely. The tutorial has you begin with the Knight character, teaching you the basics of the different phases, how to place defenses and attacking enemies. Aside from that there’s really not much else that is taught, which is a shame, as it actually hindered me in the later acts because I didn’t know about some specific mechanics which I’ll delve into shortly.
The five classes you can choose from are your typical choices of Mage, Knight, Archer, Monk and well, Robot. Each plays completely different from the others and has its own role to play in a party makeup. Now, you’re able to create multiple characters, but can only place four in your Hero Deck. The purpose of this deck is to quickly swap heroes when needed but all the experience you gain in matches are shared among your Hero Deck. While I like that I won’t have to grind out multiple characters separately, the odd choice to not have 5 spots in your deck, meaning that one character is going to get left out if you decide to try all the classes. This is how you’re going to check your loot on one character, swap to the next, outfit any upgrades, swap to the next and so on. It’s very tedious and I eventually gave up constantly trying to gear all my characters as once because of the tedium.
As you start a new map you’ll be given some time to look around, orient yourself to it and all the lanes that the enemies will be coming from. The first real phase will then be the build phase. Here you’re going to place all your defenses and traps that will hopefully impede or kill all of the waves of enemies. You’re able to see the lanes that enemies will take to get to your crystal, so you’ll know the best places and chokepoints to set your traps.
Your build options are going to vary depending on the character you choose, so some are more defense based like having pinball bouncers, spiked shields, laser grids, auras and much more. Which defenses you have access to is based on your level but it doesn’t take long to unlock them all. You have a set amount of defenses you can place though with a hard cap. Different traps cost a varying amount, so do you place many weaker defenses or less more powerful ones? You’ll also have to have enough gems dropped by enemies to even build in the first place, so you’ll have to become versed in combat as well. You’re also able to upgrade your towers and traps by spending gems, but this is something not really taught to you in the beginning, so once I learned this I began having a much easier time, especially versus the boss levels. This is pretty essential to learn and be successful, so it was frustrating that I figured this out by accident once I was in the second Act.
Once you’ve placed all your traps and you’re happy with their setup, it’s time to begin the attack phase. This is where a wave will start, having enemies pour out through the doors to try and destroy your crystal along specified lanes. While you could simply sit back and see if your defenses and traps will do the job, you’re going to want to get into the thick of battle. Each class will play completely differently, but I favored the Squire, as I liked getting up and close with my sword and being able to block with my shield. Each character also has their own special abilities that can help you in combat, such as my sword swing that let me spin in a circle and hit everything nearby for massive damage. Each class will suit a different playstyle, so try each one out and you’ll find the one best for you against the hordes of goblins, orcs and more.
Each stage is broken up into about 5 waves, but in between each you’re able to rebuild your defenses and spend your gems on upgrades should you wish. Bolster those defenses and grab your loot, as there’s going to be a ton of it on the ground to scavenge. You’ll also be rewarded with a chest of loot after each wave as well, so it’s worthwhile to take a few extra moments to check the gear for any upgrades, even though this is a very tedious process. To say that you’re going to get a lot of loot during each stage is an understatement. Oddly enough, actual upgrades are far and few in between, so you’ll be selling most of it. Also, actually picking up the loot itself is tedious, as you need to hit ‘X’ with the tiny cursor over each item, but it needs to be pixel perfect or it won’t work. This basically results in you spamming the button whenever you see loot nearby, hoping to pick it up as you run by.
While multiplayer is a big component to ideal gameplay, it’s not without its issues. For starters, quite a few of my matches had some serious lag, to the point of teleporting around and ping-ponging back and forth. I’m not sure if dedicated servers are being utilized or if its peer-to-peer (my guess), but I had issues about half the time with random players, but was generally fine when playing co-op with friends nearby. Also, to progress from build phase to attack or even finish a match, all players need to accept, so if someone doesn’t hit the button you simply sit there waiting which can be frustrating and made me want to stop playing online with random people.
Visually, Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is very colorful and bright, though there isn’t much enemy variety across the three short Acts. Also, if you’ve played the previous Dungeon Defenders titles, many assets seem to be quite familiar. There’s not much noteworthy about the music or audio either, as you’ll get typical sound effects from battle and attacking enemies, but that’s really about it.
Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is a perfectly serviceable Tower Defense with action elements to it, but it just feels a bit janky, especially navigating the menus, swapping heroes and cumbersome loot management. If you’ve got a few friends to play alongside you should have an entertaining time with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, not so much if you’re going to play alone or solo though, even if there are plenty of modes to challenge yourself.
**Dungeon Defenders: Awakened was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 - Xbox Series X|S
Even if you weren’t a fan back at its initial release, you probably at least heard of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. While there were skateboard games before it, this was the series that really highlighted the sport and did skateboarding games justice. The first two games were masterpieces in their own rights and I can’t even begin to count the hours I spent on my original Playstation playing the Tony Hawk games over the years. When you think of the series, you most likely think of the opening Warehouse level, that iconic Superman song by Goldfinger and of course trying to pull of insane trick combinations that were absolutely not possible in real life; and that’s what made the series so great.The two best games in the series, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, were remade and released for Xbox One last Summer just a few short months before the new console launches, and while they did work on Series X, there were no real developer made improvements, until now. Activision has now released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 for Xbox Series X|S adding better textures, framerates, reflections, shadows, audio and more, for a price.
Now, if you’ve not played the original release on Xbox One and want to pick it up now for you Xbox One X or S, no big deal, get the Cross-Gen Deluxe bundle and you’re good to go. Where things get trick is if you already previously bought the game on Xbox One, or worse, bought a physical copy. The quick and dirty explanation is that if you bought a digital copy for Xbox One, you can upgrade to the Series X version for $10. If you are a fan of physical media and bought it on disc at a store, or wanted the awesome Collector Edition with an authentic Tony Hawk deck, well, you’re not going to be happy knowing you’re expected to pay full price again for the Xbox Series X|S version with no upgrade path to take.
While I’m not a fan of the forced rebuy for people that bought the disc version originally on Xbox One, leaving them without any other option, I do have to say that the improvements made from Xbox One to Series X is quite substantial. Full disclosure; we were provided a physical copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 at its initial Xbox One launch and another digital one for this Series X|S version. Also, the bulk of this Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (X|S) review will have content from my original review that pertains to the base game as that aspect is virtually unchanged.
So let’s quickly go over what’s new in the Series X|S version that Activision is trying to say is worth the upgrade price. The first two major features are going to be the native 4K support, but I really enjoyed the Fidelity vs Performance options that you’re given. Fidelity Mode lets you play in 4K60fps which is great, but Performance is a real treat for those that have a 120hz capable TV’s, as this mode plays in 1080p but 120fps. Say what you want about the real world differences between 60 and 120fps, but man, landing those grinds and combo-ing tricks in buttery smooth 120fps feels simply amazing, like a completely different game. Everything simply feels much more fluid and natural now going from trick to trick, rail to rail.
Textures appear to be sharper, shadows and reflections are definitely improved and even lighting seems to be enhanced, though maybe because I played the last version on my older TV compared to my newest I notice such a major difference. There is some extra content you get with the bundle, but what surprised me was that all of my save data carried over as if nothing changed, so thankfully I didn’t have to start my skate career all over again.
Nostalgia is a funny thing, as it can sometimes make you remember things far better than they actually were. With a slew of remake and remastered games coming in recent years, it’s easy to get swept up in nostalgia. Sometimes playing an older game you loved when you’re much older can bring disappointment, as you realize it really wasn’t as great as you remember. Thankfully this isn’t the case with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, as much care went into recreating these two classic games, arguably the best in the series, and is now the defining experience for skateboarding games. Both games were popular back then, and if my friends list is any indication, then it seems many have been clamoring for the return of a great Tony Hawk game.
Rebuilt from the ground up, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 brings its classic gameplay into the modern age with a boost of graphics, updated mechanics and of course, online gameplay for you and all your friends to enjoy skating together. It wasn’t clear what the future of the franchise was going to be after the abysmal Pro Skater 5 back in 2015, as it seemed to have lost that magic touch of what made the series so great, so it’s great to see classic Tony Hawk gameplay make a return, even if it’s the original two games remade.
You begin your skate career by either choosing your skater or creating your own. The options for creating are fairly decent, allowing you to create your male or female skater, but many of the options are bland or limited for the most part. While much of the clothing and gear will be locked until you reach a certain level or have enough in-game cash to purchase them. If you choose to create your own skater you’ll have low stats and will need to collect the stat point icons across the stages if you want to improve your skater.
You can also choose to skate as the iconic and legendary Tony Hawk of course, but there’s a slew of returning pro skaters, as well as some new ones for this release. Some of the notable returning pros are Chad Muska, Eric Koston, Bob Burnquist, Elissa Steamer, Bucky Lasek and more. It’s been many years since these two games originally released though, and many new and upcoming skaters have been making headlines and are now included in the game as well. Skaters Nyjah Huston, Leo Baker, Leticia Bufoni, Aori Nishimura, Lizzie Armento, Shane O’Neill, Riley Hawk and Tyshawn Jones round out the new class of skaters and is a welcome addition to the series.
Across both games, you have a persistent skater level that ranks up as you complete more challenges, regardless of which skater you’re currently using. Leveling up will earn you access to new clothing, skate gear and trick slots for specials. The cosmetic store is quite expansive and it will take a lot of hours playing if you want to purchase everything that is offered. With an absolute ton of challenges to attempt to complete as well, you’ll have plenty to focus on even after you’ve unlocked every level.
If you’re new to the Tony Hawk series, the gameplay is simple enough to play but takes time and effort to master. You’re given two minute runs to get the highest score possible or complete certain objectives like finding the letters S-K-A-T-E, hidden video tapes, grinding a certain amount of tables and much more. This 2 minute piece-meal approach is an old mechanic, but still works and suits the gameplay quite well. The games were known for not only pulling off crazy tricks, but combo-ing them all together in a completely unrealistic way, like pulling off Tony’s iconic 900 spin off a building to grind a bus and pulling off a manual with a dozen tricks in-between. This arcade take on skateboarding is what made it so fun in the first place and still holds up all these years later.
Skate Tours is where you’ll take on level by level, unlocking new ones as you complete certain amounts of objectives. The levels were just as iconic as the gameplay and soundtrack, so it was fantastic diving right back into familiar territory with levels I could probably recreate and draw from memory I put so much time into them when I was younger. Everything simply feels authentic and just as you remember, which is impressive given how much new is included as well. The majority of all the content from the original games are in, save for a few of the songs for licensing reasons I could only assume, but is amped up with a new graphic engine, new models (that look more realistic than ever), HDR lighting and smooth gameplay that makes it a better experience than ever before. There are some fundamental changes though which took me a while to get used to, such as being able to revert, a move that wasn’t available in these first games (it was introduced in THPS3) but allows for more combo transitions from landing vert moves. While some purists may frown upon adding changes, I believe this one is for the better overall, even if it does change the original flow and combo lines of the games.
So you’re now a pro skater and have collected everything the game has to offer and unlocked every stage? Well, this is where Create-A-Park comes in. While not a new feature to the series, now that online gaming is the norm you’re not only able to create any crazy skate park idea that you can imagine, but also upload it and share it for anyone else to try as well. The tools are quite simple to use and offer a lot more variety and options than ever before as well, so make sure to check online as there are some absolutely crazy park creations out there. Online simultaneous multiplayer is now an option as well, so gather your friends and challenge them to a variety of different challenges, like longest combo, highest score and more. There are casual and ranked sessions you can join, and although functional and lag free, having more robust options would be welcome.
Arguably, more iconic than the gameplay for the THPS series is its soundtrack. At the time, not many games used real world licensed soundtrack to this degree and opened me up to a ton of different musical genres. These games were actually the first gaming soundtrack I ever purchased on CD and defined a bunch of my musical tastes. With a quick click of the Right Stick you can instantly skip the song playing, or even completely disable certain songs you don’t like in the options. The developers knew that the soundtrack is a big deal with this remake, so they were able to get the majority of the original soundtrack included for this remaster, which is exciting, but also added 37 completely new tracks, most of which feel as if they blend into the original soundtrack seamlessly. What really matters though is that “Superman” by Goldfinger is still included and great as ever.
Remastering old games that gamers cherish is tricky, because if you put minimal effort into it you might ruin that classic feeling and nostalgia people have for said game, but change too much and you have the same results, so there’s a fine balance needed to preserve but improve at the same time. It’s abundantly clear that a lot of effort, time and care went into this remaster, balancing classic gameplay but improving many aspects simultaneously.
More than a simple coat of paint, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 for Xbox Series X|S not only brings back that nostalgia and great memories growing up playing every chance I could, but modernizes many of its fundamentals without completely changing everything about the classics that made it so great in the first place. For fans of the classics like myself, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is a perfect example of how to preserve its original essence as to what made it so great in the first place but adding many improvements at the same time.
Even for the biggest Tony Hawk game fans out there like myself, asking gamers to fork over a full repurchase if you happened to buy a disc version instead of digital on Xbox One is quite a steep ask, one that may put a bad taste in some mouths. The $10 upgrade fee for previous digital owners is also going to put some people off, as many games are offering the free upgrade for the Series X versions via Smart Delivery, so it's a shame to not see that here as well. That said, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 - Xbox Series X|S is absolutely worth it if you have a newer 120hz capable TV or haven't already purchased it on Xbox One, as there’s no better arcade skate game out there on the market today nor one that will play as smooth.
**Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (X|S) was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
SAMURAI SHODOWN
Samurai Shodown, or SamSho for short by many in the community, has been around since the early 90’s, though if you weren’t a fan of the series and followed it I couldn’t blame you if you’ve never really played many, if any, of the series prior to this one. While I’ve played the odd one here and there since it’s Neo Geo roots, it never really found the same audience over here to the same popularity as the Street Fighter’s, Tekken’s, Mortal Kombat and others. That being said, after finally putting some time into the latest Samurai Shodown, I actually prefer many of its mechanics compared to other fighters.Touted as a reboot for the series, Samurai Shodown isn’t like other fighters were it wants you to memorize complicated movesets and trying to string together lengthy combos. Instead, Samurai Shodown bases its gameplay around its weapon based combat and much slower pace. Most fighting games try and have you attack and retaliate as quick as possible to string together high damaging combos before your opponent can counter or recover. Samurai Shodown on the other hand is more about being patient and waiting, punishing your opponent for any mistakes they make. While there are combos, they aren’t the main goal or way you’ll defeat your opponent. Simply countering a missed or blocked hit with a heavy attack can cause some serious damage where single moves can easily do more than half of their health if landed.
Samurai Shodown actually came out in 2019, so why are we reviewing it now? Well, with the new consoles now available, many games are updating their games to be Xbox Series X enhanced, and Samurai Shodown is the latest game to do so. If you’ve already purchased Samurai Shodown on Xbox One, you’ll be happy to know that SNK has opted for the free update via Smart Delivery; no repurchase up upgrade fee needed that other publishers are requiring.
While of course 4K is one of the new features, there are two main reasons you’ll want to play, or replay, on an Xbox Series X: 120 FPS and load times. The loading was quite atrocious on Xbox One, not only in length but frequency when going from menu to menu or even fight to fight. With the new hardware, fights load in quicker than half the original time needed to wait, so now you’ll only be sitting for 10 seconds or so for each load screen; a huge improvement from last gen.
The main selling feature about the Xbox Series X version though is no doubt its 120 FPS. That’s right, your traditional 60fps is all well and good, but the framerate is now literally doubled. Not once did I experience any slowdown or hiccups, and I have to admit, playing a fighting game that is THIS smooth did take a little getting used to. Granted, you do need a compatible TV to make use of this feature, which thankfully I do, so experiencing it was quite a treat as there’s no other fighting game that can claim this feature to the best of my knowledge.
It’s also worth noting that all of your previously bought DLC carries over, as does your save data, so no need to worry about starting all over again. Lastly, I have to say, with the new D-Pad on the new Xbox controllers, fighting with a controller did feel much better. Of course this is absolutely in no way a substitution for a traditional fight stick, but for casual players, the new controller does feel substantially better for this genre compared to last gen.
If you’ve been following the Samurai Shodown games since its iteration, this one is actually set before the first game within the timeline. Like most fighting games outside of a few, there’s no real overarching narrative, but instead, each character you play has their own smaller storyline, culminating in the same boss fight at the end. So don’t expect much from a single player point of view unless you’re a fan of simply honing your skills versus the CPU.
At its initial launch there were 16 fighters included. Since then a number more have been added, almost doubling the initial count via DLC and Season Passes. Many fan favorites have returned, and while it doesn’t come anywhere near the ‘jiggly physics’ that the Dead or Alive series is known for, quite a few of the women characters are quite oversexualized in their costumes. On a side note, the Deluxe Edition gets you a handful of new characters, skins and Season Pass, giving access to even more characters. It would have been a great gesture to offer an Ultimate version or something that came with all the DLC, but alas.
Interestingly, there is a tutorial mode that will teach you the basic mechanics, but it’s not really like other fighters. Instead of learning all the moves and combos, you instead learn the individual systems that Samurai Shodown utilizes, like movements, rage meter, disarms, counters and more. What it doesn’t do well at teaching you though is when to use these. Yes, you know how to activate them, but not any strategy for the best time to do so.
What surprised me was that each character really only has a handful of moves/specials unlike most fighters that give you way too many to remember. This means that a lot of your fighting will come from the simple light, medium and heavy attacks. Since you’re fighting with weapons, this will generally suffice in the end. This makes Samurai Shodown much easier to get into without becoming overwhelmed with remembering an endless amount of moves and combos. A single well placed attack can easily change the momentum of battle.
To also celebrate the launch on Xbox Series X some major balance changes went live with the latest patch, but the big addition was a completely new mechanic called Guard Crush. Because Samurai Shodown is a much more defensive and counter based fighter, players tend to turtle and just wait to punish mistakes, so Guard Crush was added to counter this. There’s a lot of intricacies with this new mechanic, but essentially if you block way too much, your opponent will basically get a free heavy attack on you as punishment, so you better start practicing your parries and counters. Another reason you simply can’t button mash in Samurai Shodown.
While there are many layered mechanics that you’ll need to master, my favorite was the Rage Bar. This is a meter that fills when you counter or take damage that allows you to go into Rage Mode for a short time. During this short window you can than utilize your ultimate attack, Lighting Blade. This is a move that does absolutely massive damage if you can land it on your opponent, but should you miss, that was your only chance to do so. Again, a single move like this can easily change the outcome of a match, so never count yourself or your enemy out.
There’s plenty of online and offline modes, but I really enjoyed being able to download other players’ “ghost” characters. Think of these like Forza’s Drivatar system where the game learns how you play then other players can play versus your skillset without having to play each other in real time. There of course is online play against other players, casual and ranked, but given that the game is now two years old I had a hard time finding any games to play every time I tried, so I’m not quite sure how active the community still is.
Samurai Shodown is much slower paced compared to other fighting games, which I really enjoyed. Button mashing will absolutely not work and the name of the game is to counter and punish your opponents’ mistake rather than memorizing long combos and a phonebook of different moves per character. You always have a fighting chance to make an extreme comeback.
Visually, Samurai Shodown is quite impressive, not just from its fidelity, but 120 FPS for a fighting game is absolutely fantastic to play; smooth doesn’t even begin to describe how it feels to play. Granted, you’ll need the TV that supports this, but if you do you’re in for a treat. Most fans will enjoy the authentic Japanese voice acting as well, adding some authenticity to the setting.
Much like most fighting games, the barrier of entry is low as Samurai Shodown is simple to pick up and play, but there’s plenty of underlying mechanics that will take some dedication to master. While button mashers won’t fair well, Samurai Shodown plays quite differently from many others in the genre. Being full priced still two years after its launch is a little surprising, but there’s also no other fighters on the market that can boast about 120 FPS.
**SAMURAI SHODOWN Xbox Series X|S was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Hunting Simulator 2
Being a city born friendly Canadian, I’m not much of a hunter at all. Truth be told, I’ve only ever fired a handgun once in my life, so I know basically nothing when it comes to actual hunting wild game in the woods. After having played Hunting Simulator 2 for Xbox Series X I may not be a master huntsman, but I surely did learn a lot about the sport/hobby. Regardless about your feelings towards hunting, there’s a game for nearly every niche out there, and it’s no different here with Hunting Simulator 2 from Nacon. So grab over 160 licensed and official weapons, clothing and accessories and learn how to hunt 33 different species of animals across Texas, Colorado and Europe.Normally this is where I would jump right into describing the campaign or story mode, as usually this is where you spend the majority of your time in single player games, but there is none included in the base game at all. You’re simply thrown into a quick tutorial that teaches the basics and can be skipped if you like, but then you’re simply let loose into the world, choosing where and what you want to hunt without any other direction or tutelage. Basically it’s open season and you’re able to hunt whatever animals you wish, provided you purchase the corresponding license and correct weaponry. Now, there is a more narrative experience that is offered through DLC, but it’s not included in the base game in which this review entails.
So you’ve previously played Hunting Simulator 2 already on Xbox One and wondering what is new? Well, like most upgraded versions on Xbox Series X you can expect a sweet 4K resolution along with smooth 60 frames per second and virtually no loading times. While I’ve not played the original release on Xbox One at its initial launch, I was quite impressed with the visuals on the Xbox Series X version, especially in the vast environments and vistas since you’re always on foot and don’t run all that fast, so you can take in the scenery as you’re trailing game.
The other thing of note is that like other Nacon games, these Xbox Series X versions are NOT playable on Xbox One. That means if you want these upgraded versions you’re going to have to pay for it, even if you previously bought Hunting Simulator 2 on Xbox One originally. Most publishers allow for a Smart Delivery upgrade if playing on Xbox Series X, but Nacon is still charging extra for those that want the better version if you happen to have an Xbox Series S or X. If there were some major differences I could see the argument, but with their other Xbox Series X offerings, you simply get a better performing and prettier version without any other drastic improvements. If the new story DLC or even weapon packs were included in the Xbox Series X version it would be a little more forgivable, but sadly it’s not, so if you’re debating a repurchase it’ll simply come down to if you want a slightly better looking version with no real load times.
The opening tutorial shows you the basics of how to track down your prey and what to do with it after you successfully manage to kill your target. Outside of that, you’re simply thrown into the game and expected to know the best way to progress, something I struggled with for the first few hours before having to delete a few game saves once I figured everything out for myself.
You begin in your lodge, your homebase where you can purchase new weapons, clothing, gear, licenses, practice in the shooting range and admire your trophies. To start out you need to buy a license for the animals you want to hunt. Going down the list you’ll see all the 33 different animal species along with the type of ammunition required to legally hunt them down. For example, to hunt fowl and other flying animals you’ll need to use your shotguns, bigger game will require your rifle and different calibers of ammunition. This is important, as you’ll accrue massive fines for killing animals you don’t have a license for or kill them with the wrong ammo type. This is briefly touched on in the tutorial, but doesn’t sink in until you make a grave mistake and lose all your money from fines.
To start hunting you must first choose your first license of what you want to hunt. Now, you’re able to choose anything from ducks to bears or even moose, and the first animal you choose gives you an unlimited amount of them you’re able to hunt. This is something very important to note, as I found out the hard way of choosing a much more difficult animal to hunt means you’ll struggle for much longer. After choosing big game as my ‘free’ animal with an unlimited amount I could kill them, I must have wasted the first two or three hours not successfully killing anything, getting frustrated and killed any animal I could find, only to get fined and lose all my money. This prompted me to delete my save and start again.
Next attempt I decided that I’ll simply buy all the licenses I could and hunt anything I come across. I bought nearly every license I could across all three maps and thought I’d found a way to cheat the system. I was wrong. After buying all these licenses I had no money left for different guns, meaning I only had my starter weapon, unable to kill the big game without a rifle. Of course once I did come across a bobcat and shot it, I was massively fined for using the wrong caliber and was broke again. This was the second time I deleted my save, as you can purchase a duck license, but you need to do so for each of the three maps if you want to jump from one map to the next and hunt the same game.
So I had finally figured it out. I chose a map I liked with a watering hole right beside my starting point, so I decided to buy licenses for duck and geese on this map only and focus on building up my trophies and rewards slowly but surely. This started to work, as I would hunt my unlimited amount of geese whenever I saw them and also bag any ducks nearby as well. Then I ran into another problem; my starter companion dog wouldn’t go fetch the fowl I shot down that was lying in the water, as if he didn’t know how to swim. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, so I had to resort to Google to solve my problem. Turns out the starter dog isn’t able to pickup and carry game you’ve successfully killed in the water, something that wasn’t explained anywhere in game that I was unable to find. So this meant I had to go back to my lodge, buy the other dog type and finally could send him to fetch my kills. Problem solved, kind of.
There was one more issue that I ran into before figuring out how to play much more proficiently. While my first license was set to Geese, this meant I could hunt them in an unlimited amount, no big deal. I chose ducks as well though, and each license gave me up to ten that I could capture and sell. Now this is where it got a little frustrating. You’re able to kill as many as you want, but you can only sell up to the 10 at a time. You’re not allowed to capture or sell any more than your limit until you return to your lodge and purchase a new license, but where the problem came in is that I had actually shot down more than a dozen, and any unclaimed game left on the map when deciding to head back to the lodge results in a fine. So yup, you guessed it, because I shot down more than my allotted amount, I was unable to sell them or repurchase another license without going back to my house and getting a nasty fine. This meant having to keep track of what exactly I’ve shot down and not going over so that I could return to the lodge and repurchase a new license without any fines.
The lands of Colorado, Texas and Europe are quite varied, each offering their own distinct look and feel, from dense forest to muddy swamplands that are quite vast, just keep in mind you need to purchase licenses for each area, even if it’s the same animal species. Some game is easier to hunt than others, as I chose fowl because they are easy to find where you’d expect in watered areas, whereas bigger game like deer, elk, cougars, etc need to be tracked by following their tracks and droppings. This is where your trusty sidekick dog comes in, as they can find a trail or even lead you to them. It’s not always that easy though, as I’ve spent well over an hour tracking an animal only to lose its trail and nothing to show for it other than wasted time. The animals themselves all have their own AI and react to the situations, so you’ll have to learn how to be out of sight and to cover your scent with items as well.
While I’m not a hunter in any respect, over 160 of the included items, clothing and weapons are officially licensed from their real world counterparts from brands like Winchester, Bushnell, Kryptek, Browning and more. While I can’t verify how realistic they perform compared to their actual counterparts, they certainly look the part and appear to be authentic. Clothing has different visibility stats but I couldn’t really tell much of a difference of how it actually affected gameplay all that much. You can also purchase binoculars, callers, scents to attract or cover your smell also.
Visually, Hunting Simulator 2 is quite impressive when it comes to its lush environments in the wild, and the audio made it sound like I was actually lost somewhere deep in nature. More than a few times I found myself stopping to simply take in the landscapes and nab a screenshot or two. While the graphic jump from Xbox One to Series X is decent, it totally doesn’t warrant a repurchase if you’ve already bought it for last gen. If you’re playing for the first time and have an Xbox Series X, then obviously it’s a given that this will be the best version you can get.
While not the most exciting game, you’ll spend the majority of your time simply trying to find your prey, tracking it in a number of ways with a trusty canine companion by your side. When those moments of discovery finally come and you only have a few moments to take your shot, this is where Hunting Simulator 2 becomes quite exciting. Be ready to take long lonely strolls through the woods though, as that will be the majority of your experience without any campaign to guide you.
**Hunting Simulator 2 Xbox Series X|S was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Signs of the Sojourner
I always appreciate when a game developer tries to come up with something new. I’m even more impressed when they can actually pull it off. Signs of the Sojourner from Echodog Games released last year on PC to many praises and acclaims, so naturally the time has come for console players to experience this unique narrative based deck-building game. That’s right, narrative plays front and center, but the gameplay revolves around the unique card management play that is used to navigate conversations between characters. I’m not sure if there’s technically a narrative card genre, but Signs of the Sojourner is just that, having you converse and connect with people along your journey, talking about the past, present, future and experiences along the way.Given that Signs of the Sojourner is a narrative heavy game, it’s odd that your character is completely silent. Actually, none of the dialogue is voiced, which would have had me immersed just that little bit more, but I digress. As you play your cards, based on if you do so ‘correctly’, you’ll either get a positive or negative reaction, and thus is the crux of the core gameplay.
Sadly your mother has passed away and now it falls upon you to take over her store. But it’s not so simple, as you’re going to need goods to sell, meaning you’ll have to travel to other nearby towns to find items to sell in your shop. As you adventure from place to place you’ll meet interesting and unique characters, some that will share stories about your dear mother and others that simply are a delight to converse with. Just like how your mother travelled for all those years to stock up her store, you’re going to now have to figure out a way to do the same. Thankfully a good friend back in your hometown of Bartow will watch over the store as you’re away trying to procure a supply chain of goods.
While Bartow is your hometown that you’ll need to return to after every lengthy trip, you’ll get to visit a dozen or so other towns, each with their own style, look and community of people. Given that you’ve never really been on the road by yourself, you won’t really have an idea where you should go, but as you talk to different people they’ll reveal information like nearby cities or shortcuts between areas. Some characters reside in certain towns, whereas others will drift and wander. It’s completely up to you who you want to talk to and when, forging friendships or rivalries, depending on how your card based strategy plays out.
With numerous people to talk to in many places, there’s no way to experience everything Signs of the Sojourner has to offer in a single playthrough. Do you choose to focus on stocking the store and living up to your mom’s reputation while saving Bartow in the process, or do you try and figure out what exactly happened to your mom and her past? There are many branching narrative paths and endpoints, and while there’s not one specific way to “win”, even that will be subjective. This allows for multiple playthroughs and endings, and doing so differently each time gives a unique perspective and experience.
Signs of the Sojourner’s gameplay comes from its card based mechanics. Your cards act as your way of conversing with another character and you have a deck that shows at the bottom of the screen. The middle of the screen shows how many cards must be played in order for a section of dialogue to be finished, and how you successfully, or unsuccessfully play those cards will determine the type of reaction you’ll receive. Each card has a symbol on the left and right edge in the middle and you’re tasked with matching the last card’s symbol with your next card, much like how you play dominoes. These symbols start out with just triangles and circles, but eventually you’ll also have to try and match diamonds, squares and swirls. Each symbol also represents certain traits and ways that conversations will go. Even more interesting, each symbol relates to specific dialogue paths, so there’s plenty of experimentation to be had.
You’re only allowed to have a certain amount of cards in your deck at a time though, so if you’ve built yours around circle and square cards for example, you’re most likely not going to have much luck trying to converse with a character in another town that utilizes mostly a diamond or square deck. Thankfully you can see what each character generally has in their decks before choosing to talk, and outcomes of conversations will affect the narrative and ending you get at the end of your journey.
So to ‘finish’ a conversation you’ll need to either fulfil each ones requirements to succeed or fail, indicated by white dots at the top of the screen to succeed, or a certain amount of black to fail. Each time you get through the play field matching cards you’ll get some small dialogue. Win enough times, usually two or three, and you’ll succeed in that conversation, sometimes getting an item for your store or other pertinent information. Fail enough times by not matching and you’ll lose a black dot, lose all of these and you’ll ‘fail’ the conversation and not get items or information towards the larger goal you’re working towards.
It may sound simple to basically utilize the mechanics of dominos with cards, but there’s quite a bit of strategy involved that took me some time to really grasp. One of the most important mechanics you’ll want to master as soon as possible is how to Accord. This basically adds a safety net, allowing you to play a mismatched card without penalty of failure. An accord will get added to the last card played once four of the same symbol are played in a row, so four triangles for example. This means you can play any card you want next and the accord will go away but you won’t fail the conversation, acting as a proper play even without the match.
The problem I had on my first playthrough was that I was trying to visit every place and collect every type of symbol and card, but you can only hold a dozen or so in your deck, so it’s impossible to do so. About halfway through I was failing so many conversations because I simply didn’t have the correct cards for the people I was talking to, so that’s when I decided to focus on two symbols only and simply talk to solely those people. This meant I wasn’t able to visit certain places because I know I wouldn’t be able to succeed in dialogue with them, but that’s what I then focused on for my second playthrough instead. Again, you’re goal isn’t to talk to everyone and go everywhere, so you decide how you want to steer your focus each time.
You’ll want to acquire as many as items as you can before you return back home, but travelling too far will give you fatigue cards, which are basically unplayable cards that cause an instant conversation fail, making the difficulty ramp up. This is where a lot of my frustration came into play, as I wanted to travel and talk to people but you’re essentially penalized for the amount of distance you travel. These fatigue cards are also not compatible with the accord setups either, and since both sides of the card are blank, you’ll lose one black dot for playing the card, then another when the NPC can’t match it either. Thankfully your fatigue cards are removed once your 30-50 day trip comes to an end when you return to Bartow though.
The other system in place that I didn’t really enjoy was the card swap you’re forced to do after ending a conversation. No matter if you win or lose, you have to choose one of your cards to swap out with one of theirs. This usually results in a downgrade of cards, so you’ll want to always keep one card reserved as a ‘junk’ card to swap out each time once you have a deck build that you’re generally content with. This also means there’s no real ‘best’ deck because you can only hold a small amount anyways, which is why you’ll want to specialize in two symbols or so. I just wish I could have chosen to not swap a card at the end of a conversation.
Road trips take days and weeks, so you’ll see how long the drives to each town is going to take. The calendar will show where the travelling caravan is going to be as well as special events possibly taking place in towns, so it’s up to you the routes you want to take each trip. At the end of your fifth round trip you’ll receive your ending based on your store performance and relationships you’ve fostered along the way.
Signs of the Sojourner appears as if it’s been completely hand drawn, which has its own charm to it. The color pallet is quite varied and each town you visit has its own style and look to it. Aesthetically it almost looks as it’s been quickly sketched and colored, but this also gives it a somewhat playful and warm feel to it. The soundtrack on the other hand was very well done in every way. Just like its visuals, each town also has its own sound and feel to it, making each area feel unique as you visit and converse. While I do wish the dialogue was voiced for more immersion, the light and instrumental soundtrack made up for what it lacked.
Signs of the Sojourner is a really unique and fascinating way to approach dialogue in gaming. While some may see the gameplay as simplistic card placement, there’s an underlying reasoning for your card choices. It’s simplistic to understand the card game mechanics but will take some dedication to not only master its deeper intricacies, though it will require multiple playthroughs to see everything Signs of the Sojourner has to offer. Regardless if you aren’t generally into narrative heavy games or even card based ones, Signs of the Sojourner is a really unique experience that I’m glad to have had.
**Signs of the Sojourner was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Kaze and the Wild Masks
While I grew up in the early days of gaming, some of my fondest memories and franchises come from the classic 16bit era. Just like how shooters and Battle Royals are commonplace these days, back in the 90’s it was all about platformers with games like Sonic, Mario, Mega Man, Bubsy, Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot to name a few, each of which had a special something to them, as they still hold up quality wise all these decades later. Kaze and the Wild Masks clearly took inspiration from the classics and has recreated an experience just as good as if it was from the original era itself. Kaze and the Wild Masks takes that fast paced classic 16bit platforming action from the 90’s and puts its own spin on the formula, resulting in an experience that brought me back to those days as a kid when I was glued to the TV on my SNES or Genesis.Normally games in this genre don’t rely too heavily on a narrative, and it’s not really any different with Kaze and the Wild Masks either. There is a light story revolving around something about the Crystal Islands becoming cursed, so Kaze needs to save her friend Hogo, only to find that vegetables have gone enraged and will attack her on sight. You’ll find special masks that transform you into legendary guardians and give you powers as you try and restore order to your home islands. Much of the lore is actually hidden behind finding collectables, so you may miss out on a few details if you don’t spend the time to find everything in game.
The opening world is akin to Sonic, being green and lush, teaching you how to jump, float and spin. Many enemies can be defeated with the spin attack that slightly lunges you forward, while others will only be able to be defeated by jumping on them due to their teeth. As you work your way to the end of the stage at the right of the screen, you’ll battle carrots, corn and other vegetables that eventually can shoot at you with fireballs. While they aren’t difficult themselves to defeat, the handcrafted worlds are done well where you’re going to have to time your jumps just perfectly if you don’t want to get hit.
While the majority of the levels are linear in design, going left to right, there are plenty of secrets and collectables to find for those willing to risk falling into pits or getting hit by strategically placed enemies. While you could easily get through Kaze and the Wild Masks in a single sitting if you didn’t care about any of the collectables, it will take much longer to find everything, not even including the Time Trial challenges that unlock once a stage is beaten.
Rather than having a cluttered UI on the screen, instead, your sidekick Hogo indicates how much health you have by its color. Of course falling into a pit or something will instantly kill you, but you’ll be able to refill your health with hearts you find throughout the levels. Each world consists of about seven or eight levels, culminating in a really fun and challenging boss fight before moving onto the next island in your airship. Like most games in the era, worlds will vary in styles from jungle, ice, lava and more. Eventually there will be some stages that rely on timed run-away sections which were challenging but fair. There are even some stages that feel ripped right out of Donkey Kong Country with its barrel blasts, bringing back some serious nostalgia.
Actually, not once did I really become frustrated with my time in Kaze and the Wild Masks, and this is due to the perfect controls. A platforming game with poor controls can absolutely kill a game, so thankfully this isn’t the case here. Even with underwater sections, everything felt precise and smooth, even when having to make quick evasions and perfectly timed jumps. With 4K 60FPS, Kaze and the Wild Masks is simply a smooth experience all around.
While you want to get to the end of each stage, you’ll also have side objectives of finding the letters K-A-Z-E, collect 100 gems, find and complete both bonuses stage challenges and then the Time Trials as well. This means you’ll most likely be playing levels numerous times to find everything, and while I didn’t obsess about finding and collecting everything, especially in the later and more challenging levels, being able to take a break from repeated dying in a stage and trying again later adds longevity. Completionists will be kept busy with plenty to do.
Something I didn’t even know was a feature until later on in the difficult stages is the ability to skip levels if you die repeatedly. On Casual difficulty, dying over and over again will eventually prompt and ask you if you’d like to skip the level and move onto the next. Of course you won’t get to keep any of the collectables and will have to go back to get them, but this was great for my daughter who simply wanted to try a new level when unable to beat a specific level or boss. And yes, this goes for boss levels as well, so anyone on casual mode can progress, even to the end if they require the assistance; a feature my daughter and I really appreciated.
While the majority of the game will have Kaze running and jumping to get to the end, every few levels you’ll find a mask that when donned, transforms you into a mystical creature with unique powers. You’ll get to experience being an Eagle, Shark, Lizard and Tiger. Being the eagle allows you to fly by tapping the jump button and shoot a projectile. Being the tiger means you can dash quickly in a direction and wall climb. Sharks can swim very quickly and indefinitely in the water but I enjoyed being the lizard the most. The lizard auto runs without being able to slow down or stop, reminding me of the great boss levels from Rayman Legends. These sections of gameplay are catered to the animal you currently are, changing things up and breaking the monotony of the standard levels.
If you simply glanced at Kaze and the Wild Masks you might even guess that it was actually from the 16bit era. Yes, of course it looks a bit shinier and prettier, but the pixel art is top notch and wonderfully done. The color pallet is bright and gorgeous, as are the smooth animations from Kaze’s moveset and enemies. The level variety and massive bosses are simply enjoyable to look at and take in, as the atmosphere overall is simply well done in every way. The same goes for the audio, where it may not be quite as memorable, but the soundtrack themes are fitting and changes to set a mood and tone based on what’s happening on screen or what level you’re currently exploring.
Kaze and the Wild Masks brought me back to a simpler time where I just enjoyed playing a memorable platforming game. It pays homage to numerous classics but makes a name for itself along the way. While it may not gain the same level of appreciation and following as the classics, it can certainly hang in there with the best of them. If you yearn for those 16bit glory days of 90’s platforming, Kaze and the Wild Masks will bring back those waves of nostalgia while giving you plenty to strive to collect.
**Kaze and the Wild Masks was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Black Legend
For me to get hooked onto a game it generally either needs a really intriguing narrative or some addictive gameplay. Developers Warcave have attempted to do both with Black Legend, and while the overall plot is an interesting mystery to unravel, I quickly became hooked with its addictive turn based combat and unique class blending mechanics. I wasn’t really sure what to make of Black Legend from its initial trailers, but glad to have put the time into it that I have.Set in the 17th century, the city of Grant is believed to have been cursed, as a thick and dangerous fog suddenly envelops as far as you can see within its walls. As it turns out, this deadly fog has actually been created by a mad alchemist and leader of a cult, Mephisto. This cult is killing anyone in their way and taking over the city, so you and a few mercenaries are tasked with doing everything possible to stop them and find a way to rid Grant of the deadly fog that enshrouds its streets. This fog not only hides cultist enemies in every corner but beasts as well. Few refugees remain within Grant’s walls but will give a helping hand, for something in return of course. The focus will be the main story, but there are a handful of sidequests to take on as well for those looking to experience more of Black Legend's lore.
Exploration is one half of Black Legend’s core gameplay. Here you’ll be wandering the streets of Grant in search of loot, survivors, enemies and other secrets. Exploration is slow paced, so you get to take in the brooding atmosphere within Grant’s walls. Even though the fog sets a grim and bland grey overall tone, the atmosphere of a desolate and dangerous city is conveyed with corpses being hung in the streets, streaks of blood and enemies roaming around nearly every corner.
Speaking of roaming, expect to get lost quite often. There’s no minimap, or map of any kind actually. This means you’re going to have to find the street signs placed at intersections and read the directions to each place to find the way to go. These sign posts will point you in the right general direction, but many gates and doors will be locked until you open it from the other side, which means a slight detour usually. There are a handful of districts, and within each one you explore there are a number of different named areas. While this isn’t too much of an issue, where it gets confusing is if you need to backtrack two or more districts, as none of the signs tell you how each district is connected or in what direction, so expect to be lost if you don’t have a great memory. I understand the lack of a map is intentional, but it’s also the source of almost of all my frustration with Black Legend as well.
A feature I really didn’t expect but appreciated was being able to customize the difficulty to cater however you want. Not only can you choose from Easy to Hard difficulty, but there’s a bunch of sliders as well, allowing for auto healing and resurrections after battles, experience point amounts and more. While I enjoyed the easier difficulty options, Normal seems to be that sweet spot of risk versus reward while also keeping a decent challenge. You can of course make it much more challenging if you want to be punished for every mistake you make as well.
The class system is what I really enjoyed playing with once I was able to put some time into it and really understand how it works. With 15 playable classes, you’re able to freely choose and swap any character to any class outside of battle. Better yet, mastering classes allows you to unlock certain skills, abilities and passives that can be used to cross-class. Since classes are weapon based, you can learn skills from a class then use them as secondary abilities when you change classes again. While you could simply stick with one class, there’s no reason to, as I focused on learning as many abilities as I could from all classes for each character, able to create some really unique class combinations and cater to my playstyle or situation at hand. This also plays into how to properly synergize your team for the combat in battles you’ll face.
When you aren’t exploring the streets and alleys of Grant you’ll most likely be in combat all of the other time. Enemies wander and patrol in the city, each with their own cone of vision you can see on the ground. Enter their sight and you’ll be instantly placed into turn based combat, somewhat reminiscent of an XCOM. This means you can completely bypass and ignore combat should you wish most of the time, but you’re going to want all the experience you can get to level up those class abilities.
Once you’re in combat you’ll notice a bar at the top that shows everyone’s turn in order. This is based on many factors relating to class and stats. During your turn you’re given a set amount of movement and action based points. While not explained very well in the beginning tutorial, once you start to learn its intricacies, combat becomes quite interesting and strategic. You’re not restricted to set move and action turns in order either, as you can move, use an ability then move again if you wish, provided you have the resources to do so. Played on a grid-like system, you’ll need be able to see your travel distance and which squares your abilities will hit within.
While this basic combat would have been sufficient, the alchemical system is really what makes Black Legend’s combat stand out. Many skills when utilized will apply a ‘humour’ on its target, ranging from four different types indicated by their corresponding color. You can pile stacks of humours on a target, displayed by arrows above the enemies’ head, though this is a bit confusing and could use some refinement to be easier to quickly understand. Stacked humours can then be ‘exploded’ so to speak with a Catalyzing Attack. This is basically using all the humour stacks on the target as bonus damage. Once you get a good portion of the way through Black Legend, this is really going to be the best way to dish out serious damage, especially against the unique and very difficult bosses. Something to keep in mind is that enemies can use this humour stacking system on your team as well, so you’ll need to always be mindful of when it might be best to use one of your turns to cleanse yourself instead of attacking.
Combat itself is quite interesting and challenging, but it does take quite a bit of time to learn all of its intricacies. I do wish this was taught better in the beginning, but with enough time invested you’ll eventually start to figure out the small details that will make combat much easier overall. My biggest complaint in this regard is that the bar at the top shows the class icon of the turn order, but if you’re using multiple people with the same class there’s no way to know which one is going to be next. Thankfully though is there is a 1X, 2X or 3X speed multiplier for combat, so you don’t have to spend as much time simply waiting for actions to play out.
Overall, Warcave has done a great job with the fundamentals for Black Legend, I just wish there were a few smaller improvements that would make for a better experience overall, the lack of a map being the most obvious and frustrating one. The camera during battle is top-down, but it can be impossible at times to see what’s going on without zooming in quite far, as if the camera gets set behind an object or a tree for example, it doesn’t make that item invisible so you can see through it, so your view becomes obstructed quite often. Lastly, the UI is serviceable but could have more information, especially when buying and selling from the NPC stores.
The aesthetic is very fitting for the 17th century time setting, being very dark, grey and gloomy, varying in each district, but the visuals are quite dated overall. The voice acting all around wasn’t all that great, but the music and soundtrack fit the dangerous and deadly streets of Grant quite well, setting the atmosphere. While the audio or visuals won’t blow you away in either respect, it still comes together to create an interesting setting that drew me in each time I played.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Black Legend after watching its trailer, but came away with an addictive combat and class system that made me want to fight every battle I came across in the streets of Grant to create even more unique class combinations. With an interesting narrative I wanted to find out what caused the deadly fog that had engulfed the city and enjoyed doing so, even if there were bumps in the bloodied road along the way as I became lost after every turn without a map.
**Black Legend was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Suggestions: A map... please.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Monster Truck Championship Xbox
Back in October 2020, Monster Truck Championship released, touted as being the first monster truck simulator as opposed to the typical arcade experience you get with these types of games. I actually ended up reviewing the original Monster Truck Championship on an Xbox One X as it was just before the new console launch, and while I appreciated a new take on the monster truck genre, it had a slew of issues with its visual fidelity, framerate drops and draw distance which took away from the experience as a whole.It seems they’ve taken feedback to heart and have made some improvements for the new consoles, releasing a version specifically for Xbox Series X/S. Now boasting 4K 60FPS, Monster Truck Championship on Xbox Series X fixes many of the issues I had with its original release on last gen. To be honest, I expected to be given the option of a Quality or Performance mode like how most next-gen titles are doing, but that isn’t the case here, as you simply get a smoother experience overall. It should also be noted that this isn’t a free upgrade/patch like how many titles are doing if you bought last-gen versions that upgrade to Series X, so if you’ve previously bought Monster Truck Championship for Xbox One and want it for Series X, it’s going to cost you another rebuy unfortunately, which is quite disappointing.
That being said, I wish this next-gen version was the version I initially reviewed, as it’s a much smoother experience overall. Full disclosure; we were provided a code for Monster Truck Championship at its initial launch for Xbox One and for Monster Truck Championship for Xbox Series X. Also, much of this Monster Truck Championship review will have content from my original review that pertains to the base game, as nothing substantial on that front hasn’t changed aside from the fresh coat of paint.
The tricks Monster Trucks can do now these days is absolutely insane, and I can’t even imagine having the power of nearly 2000 horses at your disposal to crush anything in front of you. Monster Trucks, before the world is in the situation it’s in these days, were so popular that they were able to fill arenas full of fans wanting to watch these machines do what they do best.
What initially intrigued me about Monster Truck Championship, developed by NACON and TEYON, is that it touts itself on being the first Monster Truck “simulator”. While there’s been a handful of Monster Truck games in the past, they were usually always very arcade-y, so I was curious to see what a simulation take would be. Now on one hand, if a game is being touted as a simulator, I would expect it to reflect the sport as accurately as possible, which meant I was excited to see the classic and best known trucks there are such as Bigfoot and Gravedigger. Sadly Monster Truck Championship isn’t licensed at all, so don’t expect to see any real life counterparts in the game.
The majority of your time is going to be spent in the Career Mode, and while there is an online component, there’s little to no reason to play it, which I’ll get into shortly. You start your Monster Truck career with a basic truck with basically no stats in the lowest League possible. As you win events you’ll earn points and money, allowing you to eventually move up the ranks and into the bigger leagues. There are over 25 arenas for the different event types, some indoors and others out, but they all blend together, none really standing out from the others.
Each of the three leagues are broken into different events, with each event then consisting of two to five individual races or destruction modes. You have your typical races, drag races and then destruction and freestyle events. It’s important to differentiate these two main types of events, as the physics are completely different in both, which takes some getting used to, but more on that shortly. The early events won’t cost anything to enter, but the closer events get to the finals the more the entry cost becomes, though so does the rewards you can earn for winning. As you earn points from winning events you’ll eventually be able to participate in the Finals of the league where a win allows you to move up into the next tier. You’ll begin in the National League, eventually moving up to Professional and then Major.
As you earn certain amounts of points in the leagues, you’ll also unlock parts for your monster truck, though there are other ways to do so as well. You’ll also have access to sponsorships, choosing who you want to work with. These are essentially small challenges and objectives that if you complete them within the allotted events, you’ll earn money and parts for your trucks. You’re also able to hire staff for your team, each of which have a small cost, but will give bonuses to specific components like extra cash earned, lower entry costs, better torque for your engine and much more.
Now, since this is a ‘simulation’, don’t expect your typical driving game. Actually, Monster Trucks don’t control anything like a regular vehicle, which should be obvious given their power, height, weight and stature. The biggest initial shock was that you are able to steer both the front and rear axles independently. That’s right, one stick will move your front wheels and the other the rear. This takes some serious getting used to and is briefly touched on with the tutorial. The tutorial will go over the basics and how to do all of the tricks you’ll need to master within the Freestyle and Demolition events.
All of the events take place across the United States and events will range from race and trick types. Races are your typical lap style races where the first across the finish line wins. I actually really enjoyed the Drag Races though where you go one on one with another driver in separate identical lanes where the first driver across the line advances to the next round in a knockout setup.
When you think Monster Trucks, you most likely think of them launching into the air and crushing dozens of cars, which is where the Freestyle and Destruction events come into play. Freestyle has you chaining tricks together like donuts, flips, high jumps and a bunch of other tricks to net a high score. Destruction is basically the same, but has more objects like cars, outhouses, trailers and others are placed around that will give point boosts and can be used to combo between tricks. Where the issue comes in is that these modes where you focus on tricks utilizes a completely different physics than the racing, so going back and forth in-between event types can be a little confusing as to why flooring the gas makes you wheelie in one mode but not the other.
As you win events and earn money you’ll get to customize your trucks in a variety of different ways. Most of your options will be cosmetic only, changing the body type, wheels, flags and other visual flairs. There are only a handful of upgrades you can purchase to improve your truck stats like engine, brakes and more, but these are earned from progressing in the career. In the Xbox One version I was excited to add a Canadian flag to the back of my truck, hoping to see it flap in the wind as I take jumps, but sadly it was just a static flag that doesn’t move at all. This seems to be something that was updated for Series X, as I can confirm that my Canadian flag now flaps in the wind (before I break it off from crashing or rolling my truck). That being said, it’s quite entertaining to see your truck body be a dog or a massive toaster.
Now, for whatever reason I had issues trying to play multiplayer online, having my system hang and crash to dashboard each time I attempted in the Xbox Series X version, so I'm going to simply base the multiplayer on my previous review for Xbox One, as I've been unable to find anyone else with the same multiplayer issues I've had. As of the time of this publishing I've still yet to find a fix sadly, so since the rest of the game is basically unchanged, I can only assume the multiplayer portion is as well for those that won't have any issues with it.
While I didn’t expect there to be a robust online mode, and is included, it’s incredibly bare and disappointing. You’re able to create a lobby for your friends to join and race, but that’s all. You can choose Racer or Drag Race. That’s it. Why is there no option for multiplayer Freestyle or Destruction? This is a monster truck simulator and you’re unable to crush cars with your friends online. Even worse, there’s absolutely no progression to be made online. You don’t earn cash to be used in single player, there’s no ranking system and no real reason to play online since there’s no progression in any way, and the lack of any lobbies every time I’ve checked proves this. I just wish I could figure out why multiplayer in the Xbox Series X version refuses to play nice with me after dozens of daily attempts.
My main issues with the last-gen version of Monster Truck Championship was mostly with its visuals. It had terrible textures aside from the trucks, the draw distance was incredibly close and distracting, the crowd was simply cardboard cutouts and the framerate would constantly dip when many trucks were on the screen at once. It seems like many of these problems were addressed, though not all. Framerate drops are no longer an issue, as I didn’t notice any real dips during races, and of course in 4K everything simply looks better overall without any more draw distance problems. It's not as drastic as a jump as I'd have hoped, but it was noticeable.
Campaign is where you’ll spend the majority of your monster truck time, and while there’s a decent amount of variety, it won’t take long to complete all of the events and purchase all of the upgrades for your truck. Sadly, when you complete this portion, there’s nothing really left to do unless you care about trying to climb the online leaderboards, but the online component really needs to be reworked and improved to make it worthwhile doing so.
While it has some good ideas, its execution still feels sloppy and having to rebuy the game again for a slightly prettier version on Xbox Series X for early adopters might leave a bad taste in some mouths, especially when many other publishers and games are offering the free upgrades. While it may not have the licensed trucks we’ve come to love in real life, Monster Truck Championship for Xbox Series X does entertain in short bursts when you get a hang of how to control these 2000hp monstrosities, plus it's the most visually appealing and best performing version of the game if you've not played previously.
**Monster Truck Championship (X|S) was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
3 out of 10: Season One
Given that I primarily game on my Xbox, this sometimes means that certain games that aren’t on console slip by me now and then. 3 out of 10: Season One was one of these games that I had no idea even existed until it came to console. I’m beyond thrilled that I got to experience 3 out of 10, as it was immensely enjoyable and had me laughing almost nonstop. Released last Summer on PC, 3 out of 10: Season One has now made its way to consoles and feels like a completely natural fit for chilling on the couch with a controller in hand, especially since it’s episodic and plays out somewhat like a sitcom, so the time commitment isn’t terribly high.With a narrative that is a comedic take on the game industry as a whole, 3 out of 10 tells the tale about the worst game studio out there and their employees at Shovelworks Studios. They are known for their terrible games and hope that their latest game will finally score higher than a 3 out of 10. Its premise is absolutely silly and absurd, but that’s what makes it so entertaining and memorable.
The story begins with the newest member to the team, Midge, as she is hired on to replace Javier, who seemed to spontaneously combust. Thing is, she was simply coming in for an interview and then finds out that Javier’s entrails and blood are still covering his desk after exploding. This doesn’t seem to really phase any of the other team members though. Midge is very level headed and is trying to figure out why the studio has its reputation for making terrible games and just how anything actually gets done at the studio. So it will fall on her to solve problems they encounter, like returning interns to the school they were created, posing a toy mannequin for the lead artist and numerous other absurd tasks.
She came just at the right time, as their newest game, Surfing with Sharks, is early in development and has announced. But this game has a twist; it’s like an endless runner, but get this, it has an end. That’s right, an endless runner with an end, breeding a completely new genre; the endfull runner. You can start to see the type of humor used throughout even from its opening moments with absurd premises like this.
Season One is comprised of 5 separate episodes, each lasting roughly a 30-40 minutes or so given how much you want to take the time in the minigames to earn stars. The overall premise is that much of the game plays out like a sitcom, watching events unfold just like on TV. Eventually the team will run into some sort of self-inflicted issue which is where the gameplay comes in. This will vary each time though, giving a wide variety of game mechanics and styles from across numerous genres. Better yet, everything is fully animated and voiced amazingly, giving each character just enough screen time for you to really start to enjoy their quirkiness.
Kevin is almost like the leader of the team, but very naive. Ben is the cool guy that just wants to have some peace and quiet and get some work done but never can because of the antics always going on. Francine works for HR and is grounded in reality. Vyper is a Wolverine lookalike that has a wall of energy drinks at his desk and is clearly the muscle of the team with his intensity. Pylon is a green skinned tech artist that is the quirky and weird one of the bunch, that is if you consider someone that chugs ketchup like its water weird I guess. Joan is the middle aged lady that runs the office but has some serious Battle Royale skills. Jeb is your typical clueless boss that wears no shoes and eventually wants to pivot the game in a whole new direction halfway through development. Lastly is Timothy 3000, the office robot that is designed to do anything you ask, but can't actually do anything at all.
Each episode is paced very well, never overstaying its welcome, and given that they are about a half hour or so each I really don’t want to give much away about each one’s narrative, though there is of course an overlying plot to tie them all together and setup the next Season (due April by the way!). It’s almost as if each episode tries to outdo the last, becoming more and more absurd and ridiculous, but that’s what makes it work so well with its setting. Spoofing what it’s like to work at a small studio, the writing is done extremely well, as humour can be very hit or miss when it comes to games, but 30 out of 10 absolutely kills it on every front. I literally snort laughed more than once.
You walk around in a 3D world within the office, but characters and objects are 2D, akin to like a Paper Mario style but more cel-shaded. It’s a subtle effect, but when the camera moves with you it looks quite slick on the presentation side. Objects and people that can be interacted with will show an ‘A’ button prompt above it, allowing you to speak with team members or inspect certain objects. A keen eye will find certain rubber ducks and cereal boxes that have hidden stars if you take the time, which will be added to your final scoring at the end of each episode.
During certain story moments, you’ll be thrown into a minigame that varies. This is based on the situation you find yourself in and usually only last a few minutes tops. These are quite basic and only have a couple of controls to learn, but breaks up the monotony of simply watching the story play out without any interaction. You can earn a maximum of five stars per minigame, though you aren’t required to earn any to progress if you simply want to enjoy and watch the episodes. Better yet, you can completely skip every minigame or chat sequence if you desire. These games are so varied that it would take some time to even list all of them, but there’s almost something from every genre. Are they great? No, but I think that’s part of the meta they were going for given Shovelworks Studios’ reputation. That said, the stealth minigames were the only times I wanted to skip any of them.
As you explore the office, you’ll get to play the latest build of Surfing with Sharks, seeing how the game progresses in development each episode. It’s a terrible endfull runner with odd design decisions thrown in, but that’s the point. You can even find classic games in the office that resemble Pong and other primitive era of gaming. These aren’t required to be played, but offers some variety.
Having released originally on PC one episode at a time, the console version had to wait, but we got all episodes at once plus a handful of extra exclusive features. On an Xbox Series X you can expect 4K 60FPS, but there’s a ton of other bonuses like a soundtrack, concept art, actor profiles, director commentary and of course, a big head mode. Who doesn’t love a big head mode? The director commentary was fascinating to hear the behind the scene insights and you also got to freely explore the studio doing so.
I really enjoyed 3 out of 10’s visual aesthetic, as every character looks unique and fits their voiced personality perfectly. There’s a lot of small details in its world that didn’t go unnoticed if you take the time to look, plus, as a Canadian I have to give bonus points for including a Canadian Spider-Moose. By far though, the standout is the brilliant writing and accompanying voice acting across the board. Every character is written so well, and even though the setting and situations are completely absurd, they all react exactly as I think they would given their over the top personalities.
For being priced under $13 CAD, you must absolutely pick up 3 out of 10: Season One if you enjoy over the top humor and want a relaxing experience that you can choose to sit back and watch, or challenge yourself to earn all of the stars available. While many might think that they’ve jumped the shark, 3 out of 10: Season One is simply a ton of fun that had my laughing throughout all five episodes. I’ve already marked Season Two’s release date on my schedule.
**3 Out of 10: Season One was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
In rays of the Light
Developed by Sergey Noskov, In rays of the Light is actually a remake of his 2012 game with a similar name, The Light. Having watched a playthrough of the original The Light, I was actually unable to see much of a difference between that and this version for consoles for the most part, so if you were a fan of The Light, I can’t say there’s much of a difference, though loading doesn’t really exist once you’re in the game on an Xbox Series X.While walking simulator games usually get a bad reputation for being dull, there are a few that have done it right, adding some interesting mechanics or an enthralling narrative you keep you interested while you, well, walk. In rays of the Light blends a walking simulator with some light puzzle elements, and while there is an overall bleak narrative, it’s only really told through notes scattered around the building you’re exploring, leaving you to make some of your own interpretations.
While some will find its gameplay dull, as you’re simply slowly walking around an abandoned building that nature has taken back with the absence of people, I do have to praise its audio quality, as there’s a soft overtone of desolation with the music and once you get into the basement, the light horror elements really get ramped up and will have you looking behind your back to see if anything is there.
It’s a gloomy story that if you can piece it together, has a larger meaning overall about how destructive mankind can be, which is fitting given you start out in an abandoned building with seemingly no other life nearby aside from some birds chirping outside. I was instantly making connections to Chernobyl, as it felt like exploring a long abandoned building that I shouldn’t be anywhere near, especially when I opened up a trunk of a car outside only to hear a Geiger Counter clicking sound, indicating that the area is contaminated by an unhealthy amount of radiation.
It’s clear that people have left this place quite some time ago, as there’s no power, windows are broken, mostly everything has been looted and the ivy on the side of the school reaches from the ground to the roof. Even though the area you’re in is quite small and you’re bound by walls and fences, it still has a feeling of being somewhat open world. You’re going to need to explore every corner, door and everywhere you can think of to hopefully not just find a way out, but to figure out what exactly happened here. Being that your first playthrough should take about two or three hours, mostly because of the slow walking pace and aimless exploration, there are technically twenty minute speedruns for those that want a quick achievement netting game. While there are two endings, unless you’re a walking simulator fan, I don’t see many striving to try for both.
Played in first person, In rays of the Light tries to make the experience as immersive as possible, as there’s no HUD on the screen at all, but the side effect to this is that you don’t always know exactly where your cursor is to interact and pick up objects, which can be clumsy at the best of times. There’s also a ton of graffiti on the walls, by whom you don’t know, and most of it I was unable to read given that much of it was in Russian. I understand that due to the geographical area of the setting, but I’m sure I would have gotten a little more from the experience if I was able to know what exactly was written on the walls.
I initially thought that there was going to be some sort of horror element, and there’s a section in the basement where it seems like this is the case, especially since you’re holding a pipe for much of your time, but there’s nothing to combat against. That said, the audio and atmosphere is done so well that you actually do think that something or someone is stalking you at times, but there really is no threat, so you can take your time exploring without fear.
The majority of the puzzles aren’t terribly difficult, mostly just having you find a key to access a new area or wing of the building. There are a few lock combinations you’ll have to figure out by reading the collectable notes, but aside from that, the puzzles elements are pretty light other than the basement section which does things quite differently. I won’t spoil anything given its short playtime, but be prepared for lots of aimless wandering in the dark in this section.
As for the visuals, it’s not the most photo realistic game I’ve ever experienced, but given than this is made from basically a single developer, it’s quite impressive. I’m not sure what has really been approved from its initial release on PC almost a decade ago, but there are a few small things that detract from the experience and took me out of the immersion. Small things simply seem out of place, like the vines on the side of the building that seem 'off' because of their bright coloring, or two sinks side by side that are exact copies of one another with their stains. Yes, I was critically looking for things to find and point out, but given how slowly you walk around the same areas repeatedly, they stood out more than I would have normally noticed. There were also a few graphical glitches and shadows don’t look natural at all with their blocky edge when outside in the sunlight. That said, the presentation overall absolutely nails its intention of a desolate and abandoned building, giving a feeling of isolation.
The audio on the other hand was easily the most impressive about the whole experience. To match the visual aesthetic, a melodic soundtrack was composed by Dmitry Nikolaev and was fantastic to simply stand around to and listen. The isolation feeling was further enhanced with all the audio queues and soundtrack. While there’s no enemies or creatures, you’re going to think there are due to the excellent audio, adding a lot of tension in one of the more unique areas.
While normally walking simulators aren’t my thing, In rays of the Light was a really unique experience, albeit quite short and able to be finished in a single sitting. While some will find aimlessly wandering searching for notes a bit dull, you need to look deeper for its actual meaning. For a world that’s so desolate, empty and gloomy, there’s a lot of beauty within if you look hard enough for it.
**In rays of the Light was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Monster Jam Steel Titans 2
As a kid, was there anything cooler than a monster truck? I mean, how do you get ANY cooler than a truck with wheels as big as your house and watching them crush regular cars? I think many kids from my era always had a fascination with monster trucks, as there really is nothing else like it. Monster Jam has been around a while, and now the sequel to its game series is finally here. So does Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 bring back all those great feelings I got as a kid watching these behemoths? Kind of...The original Monster Jam Steel Titans didn’t exactly wow us or set the world on fire, which to be fair, was their first game, so the sequel had plenty of potential to improve nearly every facet of its gameplay and design choices. Steel Titans 2 does improve many things from the original, and you can expect many more trucks, new worlds to explore and new online multiplayer modes in this purely arcade experience.
Career mode will take you across five different themed worlds as you progress, unlocking up to 38 trucks as you win matches and complete events. You’re only given the choice of a truck or two in the beginning, but you’ll start to unlock new ones as you progress through the career or find secrets, able to choose your favorite and even improve their stats the more you use them.
There are 12 authentic stadiums for the freestyle and destruction events, but that’s only half of the equation. The other events will have you competing in waypoint races in an open world setting, allowing you to choose the best way to each checkpoint as you see fit. Thankfully for each event, you’re able to choose from Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties, allowing you to best set your own challenge, though even one single screw up even on Easy means you’ll most likely lose a race or event.
You’re set into an open world area from the beginning, allowing you to search for secrets and collectables, or can go to the locked door, allowing you to participate in a series of events. Complete enough of these events and the next world will unlock, allowing you to repeat the process over again until you unlock all five worlds. Each series consists of 4 or 5 events that will unlock the next one as long as you place third or better, which shouldn’t be too challenging if playing on Easy or Normal. Most of these series will have you doing a few stadium events and then a waypoint race or two in the world you’re currently in.
Events will vary, from two-wheeled trick attacks, freestyle point accumulation, destruction based or head to head races on a small circuit. The head to head races has you partaking in a 3 round tournament where the winner moves onto the next round. These only last a minute or two and requires more precision driving than anything else. The stunt events has you trying to accumulate the highest trick scores you can attain within a minute or two and usually isn’t too difficult to come out on top. The destruction based events are what I was most excited for, as you’re a monster truck, so I wanted to crush a ton of cars, but that’s not really what you get here. Instead, there are porta-potties, crates and other objects setup around the stadium, and you need to be a bit strategic trying to combo as high as you can before the timer runs out. The higher your combo the quicker the meter will get to stopping your combo, so you need to have a plan of what objects to hit without too much ‘dead time’ between smashing items.
The outdoor race events on the other hand are quite a different experience. These are either a circuit race with 3 laps or a waypoint race. Some of these waypoint races will be ten to 20 markers long, having you race on a somewhat defined path, where the waypoint races with only two or three checkpoints are usually setup as a freeform 'one corner of the map to the other and back' race where you can choose the best way to go. This means you’re going to need to learn the open world portions of the map if you want even a chance of winning these races, as going the ‘wrong’ way can easily get you in last place quite quickly. Also, races are much more challenging than the skill based events, as one flip or bad landing, and you’ll have to either reset your truck, losing precious time, or struggling trying to get back on your wheels and ahead of the pack.
The stars of the show are of course the roster of 38 iconic Monster Jam trucks, including the legendary Grave Digger. A much bigger roster than the original game, there’s plenty of choice here to find your favorite, but it will take a lot of time to unlock all of them. Some are obtained by simply progressing through the career, the others are secrets in the open world or obtained by collecting all of the Monster Jam icons hidden throughout each of the five worlds.
With a huge roster of trucks, you’ll not only be able to find a favorite, but you can also improve their stats the more you win events with them. You can upgrade their suspension, tires, chassis, transmission and engine, and won’t take long to max one out. The only issue with this setup is that once you have a truck maxed out after a few events, switching to a different truck means you have to deal with a lesser stat truck, so why would you? Once I maxed out one of my earlier trucks, I simply stuck with that for the rest of the game, as I didn’t want to start all over, even with a cooler looking truck that I unlocked later in the career.
Even without any of the career events, the five worlds are a decent size that will keep you busy for a while with all of the secrets and collectables to find. As you explore you’ll see a number of Monster Jam icons hidden throughout which can be collected. You’ll also uncover a few question marks on the map, and these require you to bring the correct truck to that area to get its unlock. For example, there is a tower that had no electricity, but when I brought my lightning themed truck to that spot, you’ll uncover its secret. There’s a huge doghouse as well, so bring a certain canine themed truck there and you’ll get its unlock. There’s nothing telling you what truck belongs to which spot, so it’ll take some trial and error, but was a fun way to pass some time.
As for actually controlling these monster trucks, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Controls are basic, but now you’ll use both sticks for steering. The left stick controls the front wheels, and the right the back, so you can do some quick and crazy turns when needed. The difficulty curve is generally pretty smooth, but the hardest thing will actually be keeping your truck upright and steady as opposed to trying to stay ahead of your opponents. As mentioned above, one screw up and flipping your truck even one time will sometimes mean you’re going to go from first to last place. Hit one corner wrong or a hill with too much speed and you’re going to crash quite hard, losing precious time.
Multiplayer has a much bigger focus in Steel Titans 2, able to play locally or online with your friends in a variety of events. While very basic, at least it’s been added this time, allowing you to freeplay in the open world, race or do stunt events. There seems to be a decent amount of players online, and racing had no major hiccups from the handful of races I partook in aside from the odd glitch or two clipping while rubbing against other online racers.
While the visuals won’t blow you away, the trucks themselves look quite decent and panels and parts of the trucks will smash off as you crash and land poorly. The environments themselves are all varied based on the world you’re currently in, ranging from desert, haunted lands, futuristic and more, but again, won’t blow you away. The audio is what you’d expect, with the roar of the massive engines being much too loud and constant, so I eventually muted the generic music and sounds to play some Spotify instead.
Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 is a big improvement from the previous game in many ways, and while this is a good thing overall, there’s a lot of tedium having to do many of similar events repeatedly. While some will enjoy searching the worlds for the collectables and unlocking all of the trucks, once you’ve completed all of the events and have all the vehicles, there doesn’t seem to be much longevity afterwards. For those that really enjoy monster trucks, Steel Titans 2 is a fun excursion as long as you keep your expectations in check and want to have some mindless fun with larger than life trucks.
**Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Killer Queen Black
I’ve been out of touch with the arcade scene for probably two decades now. To be fair, they don’t exist in the same capacity that I grew up with all those years ago. In doing so, I’ve somehow missed out on an arcade game that apparently has quite a cult following; Killer Queen. This was a small indie game that made its way into arcades, offering addictive and frantic multiplayer action that after now having played Killer Queen Black, I wish I was able to try the original in person. Obviously arcades aren’t what they once were, so Killer Queen Black is now making its way to console, and better yet, included on Game Pass, including xCloud to play on the go as well.In short, Killer Queen Black is a 4v4 where both teams are trying to win the match in one of three different ways. You can win by killing the enemy Queen three times in a match, depositing enough berries into your base, or ride a snail across the finish line. Yup, you can ride a snail. With multiple ways to win a match there’s a surprising amount of strategy involved, constantly needing to be adjusted on the fly as you see what’s successful against the other team or to counter how they’re attempting to win. It looks really basic as you play through the tutorial, but after playing against some teams that actually employed real strategies, I became more intrigued and impressed with its premise.
You’re able to quickly jump into some Quick Play matches to get some experience under your belt, but also have the option to dive head first into some Ranked matches once you think your team is strong enough to compete. You can even make custom matches for friends, and you’re given a handful of toggles to change gravity and a few other options as well should you wish for some unique matches. Plus, cross-platform is also supported, so finding Quick Play matches never took too long for the most part.
When you begin you’ll choose what class you want to play, a Worker or the Queen. Teams consist of one Queen and three Workers each, though once in game you’ll be able to upgrade your Worker to be a Soldier should you wish, which has its own style of gameplay and specific role.
Playing as the Queen you can tap the button to fly around freely while also using your rapier to dive and thrust, killing any enemies in your way. The Queen has a few roles to play though, with the most important being that you ensure you don’t die three times, or else the enemy wins the match. You can either choose to try and take out enemy Workers, Soldiers or Queen, but this will also put you at risk as well. The playfield also has a few stations that the Workers can choose to upgrade into Soldiers if they wish, but only if that team’s Queen has captured it for themselves, designated by the team color.
Workers can only jump and not able to attack, but they too also play a pivotal role in a match, either grabbing and delivering berries to bring back to your base or to ride the Snail slowly across the finish line. If a Worker wants to actually be able to attack and defend, then they’ll need to use one of the machines to upgrade their character, choosing from a couple of different weapons. These are the units you’ll need to attack against the enemy Queen and to get Workers off the Snail. Keep in mind though, Soldiers can’t pick up berries or ride the Snail, so you need to balance your team so you don’t get left out of certain options if needed. Every class and player has a specific role to play at any given time based on your strategy.
As mentioned above, there’s basically three different ways to win a match: Economic, Military or Snail. A Snail win is when a basic Worker sits on the Snail and rides it all the way across the map to their finish line. Sounds easy but you can’t defend yourself in any way when doing this, so you have to constantly be weary of enemies coming nearby to take you out. Economic is when these Workers grab berries and bring them back to their base to fill the holes, usually requiring a dozen or so. Again, you can’t defend yourself as a plan Worker, so you have to try and avoid the enemy Soldiers and Queen. Lastly, a Military win is when you manage to kill the enemy Queen three times in a match. Win three matches and the game is finally won.
While these seem like simple ways to win, you have to constantly adapt and change based on what the enemy team is trying to do. If they are trying to go for an Economic or Snail victory, then you’ll want to play a little more aggressive, trying to take out their workers. If you’re going to try and go for a Military win by taking out their Queen, this is viable, but focusing on this strategy alone leaves the Snail and berries open for the other team if the enemy Queen simply flies around to avoid being killed, distracting you from their strategy. I’ve run into a few really good teams that seemed almost unbeatable, and having communication with the three other players on your team (if not filled in with bots) will be absolutely critical. No one person can carry a whole team.
Once a match is over and a victor is crowned, you can choose to play again or shuffle teams if you got destroyed. I’m not sure how Killer Queen Black decides on how to match-make and pair players together, as I’ve had a few matches that were completely lopsided. While I had no problems jumping into Quick Play, especially since bots can tide you over until players join, finding a Ranked match took much longer. If you simply want to sit back and watch how other people play, you can choose KQBTV (Killer Queen Black TV) from the main menu which will put you into a random match to simply spectate.
The retro pixel graphics are animated quite well, the characters and levels are bright and colorful, and while the level design is simply a static stage that you maneuver your teams around, I still enjoyed its presentation overall. The audio is also retro, utilizing ‘ping’ and ‘pong’ like sound effects for jumping and interactions of your characters. I do suggest throwing on some Spotify or your own music in the background though, as there’s really not much of a soundtrack aside from a few short loops, making some matches feel a little hollow when you notice it.
I’ll be honest, I initially wasn’t expecting much from Killer Queen Black with my first impressions after getting through the tutorial, but once I started to really understand how each class is integral in their own way, you realize there’s a surprisingly amount of strategy needed to succeed. I’m not sure if it could hit eSports levels of competition, but it certainly did impress me overall once you start to really understand its gameplay and depth, constantly having to adapt on the fly.
Games like Killer Queen Black will only be relevant as long as there is a large community playing it, so thankfully it has landed on Xbox Game Pass, removing much of the barrier to giving it a chance. There aren’t many games that allow you to win by riding a snail over a finish line, but this surely is one of them.
**Killer Queen Black was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Curse of the Dead Gods 
While roguelikes aren’t my favorite genre that I clamor towards, the ones that are done right tend to sink their hooks into me. While I don’t enjoy dying and having to start all over, as long as there’s some sort of overall progression that I’m working towards, slowly becoming more powerful as I run the game once again, then I’m interested. I’m surprised how many roguelikes forget this key element, as that what makes me want to continue to try 'one more time', as each run becomes slightly more manageable as I become better skilled and obtain better gear or stats. Thankfully Curse of the Dead Gods does this right, slowly giving you an overall progression that gives you just enough reward to make you want to play again when you inevitably die.While Curse of the Dead Gods does have a narrative, it’s thinly veiled and you won’t remember what it’s even about aside from wanting riches, eternal life and taking on a number of different gods. In a game like this it’s not a deal breaker, as you’re more focused on the gameplay and progressing in power slowly. Prepare to enter the depths of dungeons to take on hordes of enemies, all while avoiding traps and trying to stay within the light as much as possible, before the curses pile on and make it incredibly challenging to simply survive.
As you're thrust into different temples and dungeons, you’ll be exploring room by room, having to clear each one of all enemies before being able to progress further. With an Aztec-like aesthetic, the dungeons are exactly what you’d expect; dark, dirty, full of breakable pottery, gold, traps and enemies. Traps are a near constant, and not just the typical spiked floor ones that will no doubt be difficult to avoid mid battle, but many other types, especially ones that spew fire or simply look like they’re regular statues but will attack if you get too close.
Like most roguelikes, much of the gameplay is based on its randomness and procedurally generated rooms. One run you might start off with a sword and shield, the next maybe you’ll have a pair of claws and a whip. The weapons are quite varied and alter your playstyle, though the randomness can be a blessing or a curse, as I found I really enjoyed the ranged weapons and claws, but when I didn’t get to start with those I didn’t last nearly as long. The randomness will also sometimes work in your favor or make you want to quit when you have a really bad run.
As you start each run, you’ll choose from one of three different dungeons types that correspond to its god, the boss you’ll hopefully survive to face off against. As you complete each room you’ll be shown a map, allowing you to select which room you want to go to next. These are indicated by the type of reward or treasure you’ll get in said room, so if you’re not happy with your starting weapon for example, maybe you’ll want to choose a weapon reward room. Low on gold? There are rooms that focus on that as well. There are even a few healing rooms where you can refill your health, but for a cost of more curses, but more on that shortly. The room paths keep working towards the boss at the top, culminating a boss fight that generally aren’t too challenging once you’ve learned their patterns after a few attempts, though that’s if you survive long enough to make it there. This is a roguelike after all, so prepare to die quite often.
As you explore your dungeon, you’ll have two weapons, akin to a light and heavy attack, eventually also getting a larger two handed weapon if you’re lucky enough. You also have a torch, and this plays into the light and dark mechanics that, while I understood, still frustrated me. Your torch emits a light and you can set fire to certain objects to light up the room. You’ll want to do this as often as you’re able, not just because light will unveil any traps nearby but you take extra damage if you’re hit in the darkness. Keeping a source of light around you until you’re quite skilled at combat is imperative in the beginning.
While you’re going to die often, what does persist through death is any crystal skulls and jade rings you find. These are essentially two different types of currencies that you’ll be able to spend on a variety of different items, perks or bonuses that will make each subsequent run just that little much easier. If you’re a fan of a specific weapon you can unlock them to have a better chance at receiving them before each run at the table you choose from, though it’s still not guaranteed. Or maybe you want some passive bonuses that will suit your playstyle and make you take less damage in the dark or some other perk. There’s a small gameplay loop, but it’s rewarding as you unlock new items and bonuses, though you’ll need to defeat the bosses of the temples if you want the most rewards of course. It’s an uphill treadmill of progression, but it does start to ease out as you become more proficient and gain some unlocks, making each run slightly easier each time.
Combat, while challenging, it very rewarding once you start to get the hang of it. You have your basic attacks with your weapons, allowing you to combo with them, but you’re also going to have to watch your stamina meter. To dodge or parry you’ll need stamina, a skill you’re going to have to master if you want to make any meaningful progress, forcing you to stop attacking for a brief time to refresh. Perfectly timed dodges will refill one bubble of stamina, so as you become better at combat you’ll be able to sustain your damage and avoidance much more smoothly. Parrying is another skill you’ll want to master, as it leaves enemies open for more damage on the next hit, and some of the enemies have large health bars, so it comes in quite handy.
Chain attacks and combos and it starts to feel really good once you start to get a good feel for it. You can even charge attacks, so the combat is quite varied and left in your hands how you want to approach each wave of enemies. Remember, you take more damage in the darkness, so avoiding being hit is almost more important that dealing the damage, though enemies can attack the lit torches and extinguish them as well. As you chain kills together you’ll earn bonuses as well, making combat feel really smooth after you get over the learning curve.
What makes Curse of the Dead Gods the most unique though is actually in its name: the curses. Every time you clear and enter a new room your corruption gauge will fill. One it’s full you’re given a curse, of which you can have five stacked at once. Curses aren’t all bad though, as there’s also a tradeoff of positives as well, not just negatives that will make you frustrated. These curses are also random, so some are a little more punishing than others, but I found none to really be rage inducing.
Just like your randomized weapons and rooms, these curses are going to play a large part if you’re successful in your run or not. With dozens of different curses, you’ll surely see the same ones a handful of times, but there’s enough variety to keep things interesting. An example of a few of the curses are, maybe there will be plenty more gold drops, but it will disappear after a short amount of time. Or another curse where you no longer take extra damage in the darkness, but also lose your regular torch, forcing you to play completely different than you normally would. There’s no avoiding getting curses, and some enemies’ attack will add to your corruption meter as well. Remember that healing room I mentioned above earlier? Would you pay to heal yourself and survive longer but add to your corruption? These are the choices you’ll need to make nearly every run.
Visually, Curse of the Dead Gods has a very Diablo likeness to it, not just in its isometric camera, but its overall tonality of being in a dark and brooding dungeon full of enemies and traps. When you’re in the light it can be quite delightful to take in the environments and enemies with an almost comic book-like aesthetic to it. Music is quite decent but the sound effects from traps and combat hits and dodges are the most satisfying.
While most roguelikes eventually frustrate me, Curse of the Dead Gods has a rewarding treadmill that I didn’t really tire of, especially because of its excellent combat that feels great once you learn its intricacies. While certain aspects did frustrate me, that simply comes with the territory in the genre. Never once did I die and felt as if it was unfair, as I knew it was something I did or didn’t do, and the blame was directly on me. If you’re looking for a challenging yet gratifying roguelike, Curse of the Dead Gods should be on your list.
**Curse of the Dead Gods was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Control: Ultimate Edition
The Summer of 2019 was great, as the long wait for Control was over and gamers got to experience a unique world crafted by one of my favorite developers, Remedy, best known for Max Payne, Quantum Break and Alan Wake. I ended up reviewing it and scored it quite well as I really enjoyed its narrative, combat and unique gameplay. For how much I enjoyed it, I did have a laundry list of issues with the game, such as map problems, major slowdown and screen tearing just to name a few.Having released a year shy of the new consoles, many were wondering if Control would eventually get the X|S treatment to improve the game in numerous ways. The answer wasn’t so simple though. Many games will simply download the Xbox Series X version/update of a game if the developer and publisher has made it a free upgrade, of which the vast majority of games have done so free of charge if you previously purchased the Xbox One version already. While there are a few games that force you to rebuy the Series X version if you want the upgraded game, this isn’t common overall. Unfortunately, 505 has gone the route of making original Xbox One purchasers rebuy the newer Control: Ultimate Edition if they want access to the Series X version of the game. That’s right. If you’ve already purchased Control at its original launch but now want to replay the much better version, you’re going to have to pay for the Ultimate Edition to get access to it. There’s a whole bunch of PR speak of why this route was chosen, which I won’t delve into, and I have my own personal thoughts on this practice, but regardless of how I feel about the situation, Control: Ultimate Edition on Xbox Series X is the version I wish I could have played originally.
Full disclosure; we were provided a code for Control at its initial launch and one for Control: Ultimate Edition. Also, much of this Control: Ultimate Edition review will have content from my original review that pertains to the base game and its DLC.
Narrative has always been Remedy’s strong suit, even if it can get a little crazy at times with its supernatural elements; Control is no different. The Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) is a government agency, much like our real world FBI, but they focus on paranormal events and phenomena. You are Jesse Faden, searching not only for answers at the FBC but also your brother, only to be greeted by the Janitor upon entering. Even finding the FBC headquarters isn’t possible by normal means, so it’s clear that Jesse has some sort of deep connection to what’s taking place.
Jesse’s mainly looking for her lost brother Dylan, but she’s being guided by someone, or something, that she can converse with in her head. There’s also a major threat from an invading enemy known as The Hiss within the FBC walls, known as the Oldest House. The Hiss can corrupt nearly everyone it comes into contact with, as the vast majority of FBC workers have been possessed and turned into hostiles with super abilities. Jesse is special though, and regaining control is a job that she’s thrust into as the new Director of the FBC. I’d love to go into more narrative detail, but the story, lore and how it plays out really is Control’s greatest strength, and I won’t want to spoil much else. It’s also at times absolutely crazy, so trying to explain it in simple terms would also take a dozen more paragraphs.
Played in third person, much like their other games, you’ll feel at home if you’ve previously played Quantum Break, but you’ll also have access to supernatural abilities as you progress. You’re able to freely search the Oldest House, but certain pathways will not allow access until you find specific keycards. So while it’s somewhat an open adventure, you’re confined to a linear progression that’s narrative based, though there are a few branching paths with more than enough collectibles to seek.
Normally I’m not one to hunt and find out collectibles, but there’s an absolute truck load of them within the FBC walls. You’ll find memo’s, posters, notes, recordings and more, each of which expands the lore of Control’s world, almost to a point of being overwhelming. While I don’t want to spoil anything, there are ties to other Remedy games like Alan Wake, and more than a simple Easter Egg as well. Find enough of the collectibles and you might figure out how Control’s world is actually related to the one in Alan Wake as well. This alone excited me enough to seek out more of the hidden items and was foreshadowing, as eventually we got a second DLC: AWE, which tied the two worlds together in a really interesting way.
Because the FBC deals in the supernatural and paranormal, the building itself is also very deceiving. From the outside it looks like a standard building you’d see in any downtown core, but once you start exploring it within, you’ll realize that the innards are much larger than its walls. Walls will shape shift, move, extend and more as you progress, adding some very cool sequences along the way. Speaking of, one of the absolute best sequences actually occurred during my playthrough near the final chapter of Control. I won’t spoil what happens, or how, but make sure you make it through the Ashtray Maze at some point. Enough said.
Much like any government building, there are signs everywhere that show arrows of how to get to certain areas, rooms, sectors and more. This is how you’ll generally navigate your way from objective to objective. Since there is no breadcrumb trail leading to you where you need to go, you need to rely on this map heavily at times, it became quite frustrating, leaving me lost at times trying to figure out where I had to go, even on my second and third playthrough. The somewhat saving grace of this frustration was the inclusion of waypoints, cleverly referred to as control points. The main areas and hubs of the Oldest House need to be cleansed of all Hiss infecting it, and once done Jesse can revert the area into a safe zone, also allowing it to be used as a fast travel point, helping with exploration as you’ll need to backtrack many times to reach newly unlocked areas as you gain more clearance levels as the Director.
Jesse is chosen as the new Director, proven by wielding the Service Weapon. This paranormal gun may seem like an ordinary pistol at first, but there’s much more to it that you’ll uncover during your adventure. The first few firefights will feel like any other third person shooter, but eventually Jesse will come across Objects of Power, granting her new abilities like flying, telekinesis and more. Once you start to blend in abilities with the shooting mechanics, Control really starts to feel like its own experience, one that I enjoyed more as it progressed.
Your Service Weapon starts out as a basic pistol, but will eventually be able to be morphed and changed into having other properties, like a charge up shot or rapid fire like an SMG. Interestingly, Jesse can equip two forms of the gun at once, able to freely swap between their forms, but they share the same ammo source, one that refills automatically when not being used or shortly after its clip being emptied. This took me a while to get used to, as pressing ‘X’ switches your gun’s form, not reloading, as that’s done automatically. Eventually you’ll become accustomed to it, but it’s certainly not the norm. Also, your health doesn’t replenish automatically, so you’ll need to pick up glowing sprites from defeated Hiss to refill your health; something that can be quite dangerous during a massive battle.
Because of this shared ammo resource, you’ll also need to rely on your abilities to take out Hiss as well. I heavily relied on my telekinesis throw ability, allowing you to pick up nearly any object, or even debris, launching it at great velocity at enemies. Your abilities also share a resource as well, so you can’t freely dash everywhere or launch items without needing a rest period, so you’ll need to balance their usage. Enemies vary as well, so some will be nearly immune to bullets, yet can be killed easily with a thrown object, others will fly around, making it nearly impossible to hit with objects, so gunfire is your better option. While there’s not a vast variety of enemies, knowing how to defeat them individually and how to prioritize targets is how Jesse will survive large battles. Once you see these orb-like Hiss, you’ll need to make those priority number one, as they can heal enemies, but they move incredibly fast, so it’s a cat and mouse game of being mobile and interchanging weapon fire and abilities. This becomes quite chaotic later on, especially in the last few battles, but it’s also what makes Control shine and feel unique.
There’s also an upgrade system in place for Jesse to improve her Service Weapon and abilities. You’ll be able to craft a handful of different forms for the weapon, and even be able to upgrade them much later on, adding more mod slots. Defeated Hiss will drop random mods now and then, which can either be for your weapons, some for specific forms, or for Jesse herself as a personal mod, like more health, energy, quicker dashing, etc. You’ll gather numerous types of resources from enemies and hidden secrets, eventually unlocking all the way up to tier 5 mods which cost an extreme amount to craft, but add some huge bonuses. These upgrades really open up Control to play how you want, as you can boost headshot damage, reload speed, less ammo when floating and a ton of other mods to suit your playstyle.
Visually, Control is beyond impressive on Xbox Series X. One of the best improvements it made was adding a Performance or Graphics Mode. Graphics mode targets 30fps but on Series X it also adds ray tracing which gives the world reflections in many places. Graphics mode is absolutely beautiful to take in, especially with the newly added Photo Mode, as the reflections you see in the glass and shiny floors really adds to the realism, but the 30fps makes it perform just like its original release when I played on an Xbox One X. Performance mode is what I stuck with for my whole playthrough once I realized how smooth 60fps was. This mode does 1440p render resolution and 4K output, but the smoothness you get from the 60fps makes it feel like a completely new game. As for its audio, the voice acting is flawless due to Courtney Hope’s portrayal (whom you’ll recognize as Beth from Quantum Break), weapons and explosions explode with power and the soundtrack is very fitting for the setting, especially the sequence I alluded to above.
Control: Ultimate Edition not only includes the better looking and performing version of the core game, but also the two DLC packs as well (which are simply built into the game and not as separate DLC downloads, something that wasn’t explained clearly); The Foundation and AWE. So the first thing you’ll need to know about The Foundation is that it takes place directly after the main campaign, meaning you’ll need a completed game save from the base game, but for good reason, as you won’t have any idea what’s going on otherwise. Once installed, you’ll have a quest for The Foundation that begins in Central Executive then heading to the Hotline Chamber. As usual, the phone will ring, this time sending Jesse underneath the FBC only to learn that the Astral Plane is starting to bleed into reality.
So what’s new in The Foundation? Obviously the story continuation is its main draw but there’s new missions, mods, abilities and a new enemy you’ll encounter here as well. While the core gameplay is essentially unchanged from the base game, your new abilities are quite interesting. One allows you to use your telepathy and create crystal platforms to use as ledges, essentially pulling them out of specific spots on certain walls. The other allows you destroy specific crystals that obstruct you from venturing any further until you have said power. Using your powers on specific traps can be used to your advantage in combat as well, lifting a row of spikes to damage enemies or create a wall to block enemy projectiles. Keep in mind that these abilities are only used in The Foundation, but they fit fluidly into Control’s flow and combat quite nicely.
While only introducing one new enemy was a little bit of a letdown, these Hiss seemed to have been workers in the Foundation at some point is my guess, as they will charge at you with their pickaxes at great speed, even using some minor teleportation to avoid attacks and dodge your projectiles. While they are simply grunt enemies, they can quickly overwhelm you in combat when also having to deal with other Hiss types, ones that you’re more than used to by now from the main campaign.
As for the AWE expansion, I was really excited to play this, as Alan Wake is one of my all time favorite games, so I couldn't want to get back to its world in some form. Given that Alan Wake had a light and dark element to it, it is the same here, as you'll need to use your telekinesis to hold lights at certain black goo that stops you from progressing. There's a constant boss creature that you're following throughout a new wing in the Old House, and these were quite challenging, usually forcing you to turn on some lights so you can defeat it; if only it was that simple. If you aren't a huge Alan Wake fan you'll probably be annoyed with the constant darkness and these boss arenas as you progress, but for fans, the integration of Alan Wake into Control's shared world opens up a ton of possibilities, especially when you see AWE's conclusion.
More so than the 60fps addition, I really enjoyed the quality of life improvements that have been added and included since I originally played at launch. While I was able to get through the game initially without too much trouble, there were some very difficult firefights and sections that took a few attempts. Since then, some quality of life improvements and assist mode options have been included for those that want them. For someone going on their third playthrough, this was very welcomed as I wanted to simply get through the game as quickly as I could since I’ve already experienced the narrative already. The main options that you can toggle are some very severe auto locking on enemies, quicker energy and ammunition regeneration and even single hit kills on enemies, including the harder enemies and bosses. For someone that would want to experience Control for its setting and narrative and doesn’t want to have a hassle with combat, these accessibility options are an amazing addition for those that want it.
While Control didn’t always run very well on an Xbox One X, it was at least mostly consistent. I actually lost count how many times Control: Ultimate Edition crashed to the dashboard on my Series X, much more than any other game I’ve played on the new console since its launch. Yes, the game is rendering higher output along with 60fps, there’s heavy physic based combat and explosions are plenty, but it crashed on me way more than is allowable. Thankfully the autosave is often, so there wasn’t much backtracking I had to do, but still, it’s unacceptable, more so if you’ve purchased the game for a second time to get the Series X version.
Control has that signature Remedy feel to it, from its unique combat to its completely out there narrative, something only Sam Lake could be a part of. Although the story is Control’s strongest asset, it will take a lot of concentration to piece it all together. While I’m not a fan of forcing a rebuy to get the Series X|S version if you bought the base game at launch, Control: Ultimate Edition is without a doubt the definitive edition you want to experience, even if it’s for the second time, as the 60fps Performance Mode makes it feel like a completely new and better game. Welcome to the FBC Director.
** Control: Ultimate Edition was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Redout: Space Assault
The original Redout may not have set the world on fire, but it was a fun and competent high octane racer, a serious competitor to Wipeout, which was always a good time for some frantic racing. Now, generally when a sequel is announced, you’d most likely expect generally the same game, or at least within the same genre as its predecessor. Redout: Space Assault looks and plays absolutely nothing like the original Redout, so fans expecting another fast paced racer is going to wonder why the gameplay is now essentially an on-rails shooter, much like a Panzer Dragoon or Star Fox.Redout: Space Assault lives up to its name; putting you in a space ship and having you shoot tons of baddies in third person combat. You’re going to have to be quick with your reflexes to avoid the incoming fire and quicker if you want to take down all of your enemies before it’s too late in space combat. What first intrigued me about Redout: Space Assault was its visuals, as the space backdrop seemed quite impressive for a smaller studio, so I thought I had an idea of what I was getting myself into. What I got though was something different, not that it’s a bad thing.
Tehcnically a prequel to the original Redout, Space Assault actually is quite narrative heavy in the sense that there’s a lot going on with the lore, numerous characters and their motives, much more than I was expecting to be honest. Set far in the future, the narrative revolves around you, Leon Barret, a pilot that is simply following orders but eventually becomes entangled in a conflict that is much larger and has some serious implications.
Mankind is struggling to survive and must colonize elsewhere as Earth is slowly dying and losing its resources. As you’re trying to pave the way for safe passage to Mars, you’re tasked with keeping your crew safe from space pirates and rebels looking to do what they can to take you out and survive as well. The narrative eventually turns into a typical rebels versus governments, but there are some interesting turns later on in the story, even if a little predictable. Leon of course is an amazing pilot, so everything will fall onto your shoulders as you become the leader you were born to be when you take a stand against atrocities you witness.
Again, don’t expect any quick paced racing you experienced in the original game, as the bulk of Space Assault’s gameplay is an on-rails shooter, though there are a few other sections that break up the monotony but are easily the weakest parts of the whole experience. Gameplay is very quick paced and the backdrops are quite enjoyable to take in, but the gameplay itself is quite basic once you learn its intricacies.
Since the majority of the gameplay is on-rails, that means your ship is flying on a determined path on its own. Yes, in the vastness of space, you’re confined to your set path without any control of where to go freely aside from a handful of missions. Since your ship automatically is on its set course, you will simply be maneuvering your ship to move your reticule that will be used to shoot down any enemies on sight.
This is where I start to question some of the game design choices. First off, your ship automatically shoots when an enemy gets within your crosshairs (by default). That’s right, you don’t fly your ship for the most part and it shoots for itself. All you need to do is aim slightly near them and your weapons will take them out. You do have access to missiles that require hitting the trigger, and can be helpful, as you can lock onto three targets at a time in the beginning before any upgrades that allow for more. The odd thing too about these is that you don’t even have to hover over the enemies with your reticule, simply hold down the missile button and it will lock onto any enemy or destructible objects currently on screen.
You’d think that for a game revolving around space combat it would be quite quick paced, but it’s almost as if you’re always stuck in first or second gear. You never feel that speed rush like in the original game, which would have made for some interesting gameplay given that it’s mostly on-rails. There aren’t many types of enemies and most are destroyed with a single shot, but there are some that take a few hits, and even boss-like that require some serious firepower and avoidance to destroy.
Even though much of it is on-rails, there are some very cool sections when you’re barrel rolling through narrow spaces, zig zagging through an asteroid field or generally doing some cool looking space maneuvers. You do have buttons to allow for a quick roll left or right, but this is generally meant to simply avoid oncoming missile locks, though you’re not able to fire during as you wait for the animation to finish. You can also utilize a quick boost or brake, though it’s only for a short duration and not generally needed aside from a few of the race sections. Just like the rolls, you can’t stop the boost once you start it, simply having to let it play out for a few seconds before you resume back to normal speed, which can be a pain during the race missions, but more on that shortly.
Each chapter is broken into a handful of different missions, each with its own objectives. You have a main objective to complete the level, but also will have secondary optional ones as well, like destroy a certain amount of enemies or collect an amount of items. These are optional, but will greatly help you with your upgrade costs if you can manage to do so. Now, this is where I again question some of the design choices again.
Since you’re on rails, many of the missions simply require you to get to the end. That means you can basically put down the controller and it will play itself as you’re on a set path. Yeah, you’ll die, but you’ll still complete the levels. Now where the challenge comes into play is that all of your collected coins, which are used for upgrades, are reset to zero when you are destroyed, so naturally you don’t want to die so you can get the most from each mission. Also, there’s no checkpoints or amount of lives, so you simply just respawn if you die, negating the need to really do much if you don’t care about the upgrades. The problem though is that if you die at the very end, the whole level's work has been for naught as you won't get many coins.
While the vast majority of the gameplay is on-rails, there are a couple of other types of missions that break up the monotonous gameplay, though these are the weakest parts of the whole experience. Now and then you’ll be given freedom to fly wherever you like, generally looking for a specific beacon or NPC to continue the story. You can spend this time to find hidden coins should you wish, but these missions are generally quite short and usually a narrative segway.
Ironically, the absolute worst parts to Redout: Space Assault are its race missions, which was kind of surprising given its pedigree. In these missions you’re pitted against another pilot for one reason or another, and have to beat them to the finish to complete the level. Problem is that since you’re in space, you’d expect it to be a freeform race from point A to B however you see fit. That’s not the case though. Instead, you’re set on an invisible race track, but have to navigate it around walls and through tight spaces, but can’t actually see the barriers or what ‘corners’ are coming up next. This means a lot of trial and error, as usually a few crashes means it’s impossible to win and will cause for a restart when you fail.
Sad to say, I’ve actually become stuck near the very end of the game, unable to progress because I can’t finish and win a specific race. This race forces you to be absolutely perfect, and of course after hours of retrying over and over, I’ve become so frustrated and want to give up. These races eventually become a task in memorization, knowing when to speed up, where to turn, etc. There are even rings you can fly though that will give a speed boost, but miss one and you’ll likely not win. The balance for these races is completely off and needs some serious balancing.
I thought that maybe I should focus on redoing some old missions to upgrade my ship since it might help me progress, but this isn’t the case, as you can upgrade your Hull, Shield, Weapons and Missiles. No upgrades pertain to speed or handling, so even when I pumped up my shields hoping it would help when I messed up, it didn’t make a difference in the races. For the regular missions, upgrading my weapons to a certain level allowed me to equip more weapons and types (tied to story progression), making me easily kill any enemies in my way. Upgrading your missiles will allow you to prime more than the starter three, so it’s a matter of how you want to play, though you can grind and fully upgrade everything should you wish.
After each mission you’ll also get three separate cards at random, of which you can choose to equip one at a time. These will range from one of the four upgrade categories, usually giving it a percentage boost. As you play the harder levels you’ll receive better tiered cards, and the unchosen ones get turned into more coins to be spent for your upgrades.
I admit, the impressive visuals from the trailer and store page fooled me into thinking Redout: Space Assault was something completely different than I was expecting. While not the most visually impressive space based game out there, the backdrops are wondrous to take in when possible, but that’s not too often given its gameplay mechanics. Truth be told, Panzer Dragoon is one of my all-time favorite games, so the on-rails gameplay didn’t bother me at all, though I could see how some might find it unsatisfying. There’s not many games in that genre released these days for whatever reason, but it brought me back to a different era in gaming.
As for its audio, the shooting of different weapons all have their own effects, the whizzing of your ship is noticeable when doing rolls and avoiding enemy fire and the soundtrack is decent, but boy, the voice acting is quite atrocious. Now, it’s hard to fully blame the actors when the writing is as bland as it is, and I get it’s a smaller studio, but it really was cringe worthy at the best of times.
While fans of the original Redout might be wondering why Space Assault isn’t a lightning speed racer like its predecessor, it’s a competent on-rails shooter, but doesn’t really stand out either. The visuals will most likely impress you at first, but once you start to get into the core gameplay, you might start to question some of its design decisions like I did. I didn’t hate my time with it by any means, but I can’t seeing myself hopping back into the pilot seat any time soon.
** Redout: Space Assault was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Disjunction
Ever since the classics of Metal Gear, Thief and Deus Ex, I’ve been a fan of stealth games. If there’s a way to be sneaky and backstab my enemies without being seen, I generally try and take that route whenever possible. The cyberpunk genre has been picking up some momentum in the past few years, even without the recent massive release, and Disjunction is the latest 16-bit entry into the category, developed by Ape Tribe Games.A completely solo affair, Disjunction is set in the not too distant future of 2048 in the seedy underbelly of New York City with a narrative that revolves around three playable characters. The main hook to Disjunction is that it offers you a choice of how to play. Do you want to try and be as stealthy as possible and knock out all your enemies, or go guns blazing, killing anyone in your way to solve a constantly unraveling mystery?
There’s a new synthetic drug circulating the streets of New York called “Shard”, and while finding out the origin of this deadly drug is a concern, there are many more events occurring simultaneously that will have the three different playable characters’ stories intertwine in interesting ways. While the story is a bit text heavy at times without any voice acting, it is an interesting plot, especially when you try and factor in the rationalization for your choices and actions. Your choices will have consequences and interestingly, I played the characters completely different based on who I was, as you’re going to be given the choice to arrest, kill or let certain NPC’s go when interrogating them. Also, the campaign was quite lengthier than I expected, which should last you between eight to twelve hours depending on your patience and reliance on stealth.
Disjunction utilizes stealth-action based on how you want to play, but also has some RPG elements as well. Each character has their own unique abilities as well, so they will approach certain situations in completely different ways. You can choose to utilize non-lethal takedowns should you wish, but killing everyone in your path is also a completely viable option if that’s how you want to play.
I chose to mostly play a stealthy run when possible, staying in the shadows, watching enemy pathing patterns and figuring out the most opportune moment to knock out everyone in my way. Sometimes I would hide the bodies, other times I would leave them in open view so that the guards saw them, interrupting their regular pathing, opening up new opportunities for me to pass or attack them I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Oddly enough, running is your default speed, but it’s also loud. There are times where you’ll need to run to get out of a security camera’s view or to pass by a floor trap in time, but the majority of your time will be spent crouched, as it’s silent but also much slower. Much like in Metal Gear Solid, as you’re crouched you’ll see enemies’ exact cone of vision. While this makes it easy to see where you can and can’t go without alerting them, this also devolves much of the gameplay into simply avoiding the vision cones, usually getting as close as possible but still out of range. If you can’t avoid their vision, then what ability do you have to bypass or distract them? Or you know, just shoot and kill them, as that works too.
This is also where you’ll see how abysmal the enemy AI can really be. All that matters is what they see, or don’t see, in their cone of vision. This means you can literally take down an enemy within inches of them, but as long as you’re not in their sight, they won’t notice the enemy that just got taken down at their feet or directly behind them. Keeping bodies in plain sight is a tactic at times, as when they become alerted they’ll never end searching for you, which means they won’t reset to their original spots or pathing either.
Each of the three characters plays unique, as they have their own styles and abilities, which is where the light RPG elements come into play. During each stage you’re generally looking for a key to access to the next section but hidden throughout each stage are upgrade kits. This is a cyberpunk game remember, so you can upgrade your augments between stages if you find them, also improving your talents. While you won’t gain any new abilities, you’ll simply improve the ones you have and rely on the most. Since I like to use my stun baton the most to take out enemies quietly without killing them, I opted to boost the damage and speed of my melee attacks. Maybe you prefer the weapon approach, which is completely viable, so you could upgrade that instead if you wanted.
Generally though you’re simply reducing the time to use or refresh an ability, sometimes you’ll also make an ability cost less energy to use as well. You have a set amount of energy, which your abilities require to be used, so you have to decide when is the best time to use them as you can’t overly rely on your abilities. I opted to only use them in a sticky situation or when I couldn’t find a way to get passed a roaming security bot, but again, there are multiple solutions to every problem. And this is where Disjunction starts to shine, as when it comes to its gameplay, it’s essentially a puzzle game, trying to figure out the best way forward but with multiple solutions based on how you want to play. Yes, this means you’ll sometimes sit around to watch and learn pathing patterns from enemies, but once you execute what you exactly wanted to without being noticed, it’s a great feeling of accomplishment.
Level design is generally pretty basic, starting out as simple rooms with just a guard here and there, but eventually become more involved, throwing more in your way to make it harder to proceed without being noticed. You’ll have more enemies, then security cameras, eventually security bots, floor traps and more. Eventually you’ll have to learn how best to hide behind objects, following moving boxes on conveyors and more. Some of the robots that roam around also have a rotating camera that needs to be avoided, adding another layer of challenge. Again though, most of the gameplay simply boils down to simply avoiding all of the vision cones more than anything else.
My biggest complaint though comes from its camera. Disjunction is played in a mostly top down view, though at a slight angle. While that’s not an issue, because you’re generally indoors, you’re having to use items and corners for cover, but because of the odd angle it’s sometimes hard to determine if you’re against a corner or wall until you see the vision cones get close. I’ve had numerous deaths because I thought I was hidden behind a corner, only to find out I was standing out in the open because of the camera angle. Yes, you eventually become accustomed to it and will compensate, but it’s frustrating early on. This is where the single checkpoints per level come into play. When you die you’ll respawn at your last checkpoint, but with only one per stage, it can sometimes mean some long backtracking and reattempting half of a level all over again. Oh you saved with low health, energy and ammo? Gooduluck then.
Aesthetically, Disjunction utilizes classic 16-bit style pixels artwork, but plays very smooth and has a lot of detail and animations to it. By far though, the cyberpunk influenced soundtrack was the most enjoyable part of Disjunction with its brooding yet somber synthwave style, scored by composer Dan Farley.
Taking clear inspiration from Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid, Disjunction rewards you for being patient if you’re going to play a stealth run. While the game simply devolves into avoiding vision cones more than anything else, the three playable characters are not only are for narrative purposes, but showcases different ways you can play based on your playstyle. Cyberpunk enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy their time in 2048 New York, as will fans of stealth games, though casual fans will probably enjoy Disjunction best in bite sized sessions rather than a longer playthrough.
** Disjunction was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Olija
Every now and then a game falls in my lap to review, usually something that was not even on my radar but is a pleasant surprise. Olija is one of these occurrences, as I never saw about it aside from what was listed on the digital store, but never really paid much attention to it either. That turned out to be a mistake, as by the time the credits for Olija rolled, I was really glad that I got to experience it, even if it wasn’t the longest experience.Developed at Skeleton Crew Studio, more specially one developer at the studio, Thomas Olsson, Olija gave me some serious vibes from old classic games like Secret of Monkey Island, Prince of Persia and Another World in terms of its classic pixel visuals and ‘gibberish’ voiced dialogue, yet the quick pace of the combat felt very modern.
Olija tells a tale about Faraday, a Lord of a small fishing village who not only becomes shipwrecked, but has his people and crew captured. He manages to survive when he’s saved by an old man, brought to a small remote island. Now stranded in the lands of Terraphage, Faraday is going to have to sail to different islands to explore and find magical keys that lock a mysterious door, hopefully that will lead to back home. The old man agrees to take you by boat from island to island to help you on your quest, and thus Faraday’s adventure begins. There’s a bit more to the narrative, involving a royal-like woman named Olija, but I don’t want to give much more else away as the whole game only took about four hours or so to complete, and any spoilers would take away from the experience.
At its core, Olija is a 2D platformer adventure title with some light puzzles and combat. While not overly difficult, there’s plenty of secrets to find, enemies to battle and bosses to overcome, even if its runtime isn’t terribly long. You begin on an island that acts as your home base and hub, eventually expanding as you rescue people during your journey.
Faraday will find a mystical Harpoon early in his journey that is somehow linked to him, allowing him to not only throw it like a weapon, but will be used as a tool to maneuver through levels, as he’s able to teleport to it when thrown into specific anchor points. This is how you’ll traverse around the levels, and even used in combat as you can stick enemies with your harpoon and use it as an instant dash to them, a tactic you’ll need to master against bosses.
Combat is fluid, fun and surprisingly brutal. You have options from a handful of weapons, but your main will most likely be your rapier, a quick stabbing device that will kill almost any enemy quite quickly with its rapid hits. You’ll also have access to a few other weapons that require ammo, but I never really had to rely on using them outside of a situation or two. While Faraday does have a dodge button to get out of harm’s way, I found it to be somewhat useless, as if you dodge into a wall or barrier, you fall down, taking a moment to get back up. I’m sure some players will rely on it, but I didn’t use it once after half way through.
As you hop on the old man’s boat and show him a map you’ve found, you’ll be able to sail to any of the destinations uncovered thus far. Olija is generally progressed linearly, so you’ll play most levels in a designed order, but your goal is to find a gold key or two after beating a mini boss to gain access to that island’s boss to obtain a blue master key. These master keys will be needed to gain access to the final area and boss, and thankfully Olija slowly teaches you every skill you’ll need to master by the time you reach these doors.
Each level is hand crafted and a joy to explore. While most paths are going to be linear, there are secrets hidden throughout for those that want to take the time to find them and materials for crafting hats. That’s right, there is hat crafting included. Gather specific materials along your journey and you’ll be able to craft a variety of different head ornaments that each have their own bonuses and uses. Some are better than others, but there should be one that suits your playstyle, even if there only a couple choices to craft. You’re able to select any of your crafted hats before you enter any level, so feel free to experiment, though I basically stuck with my favorite almost the whole playthrough.
There are some light puzzle solving elements included as well, nothing terribly challenging, usually revolving around utilizing your harpoon teleport to get around blocked areas or to electrify switch panels. Eventually you’ll have a second way to teleport to one of your weapons, adding another layer of puzzle complexity, but again, nothing too challenging. Truth be told, there was really only one section, a boss fight near the end, which took me a few tries to complete. Outside of that I breezed through Olija, which I appreciated, as it wasn’t purposely trying to be difficult just for the sake of it which is honestly what I expected.
Olija’s pixel art is fantastic. As I mentioned above, it has a classic feel that looks as if it’s from the same era as the classic Another World and Prince of Persia. If you’re a fan of this retro style you’ll be smiling throughout, as the animations are fantastic and smooth, and the backgrounds are varied and detailed even being crafted from pixels. The audio is fitting for its oriental themes with its melodic soundtrack, almost always putting you at ease.
Olija feels unique, original and has a lot of charm to it. It’s abundantly clear it was created with a lot of love and care, and while the journey didn’t last as long as I’d hoped, I enjoyed every minute in the lands of Terraphage with Faraday.
** Olija was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Bonkies
I’m always on the lookout for a game I can enjoy side by side with my daughter, as there’s not many that we can both get into easily. The latest co-op party game is now here, Bonkies, challenging you to build side by side. Sounds boring? What if I told you Bonkies is set in space, you utilize a banana-fuelled jetpack and have a robotic arm to lift all of the heavy pieces? Oh, and you’re a monkey too. Yup, I couldn’t make this up. So get up to 3 of your closest housemates and slap on those jetpacks, but get ready to swear and cuss at one another once they screw up and knock over all the hard work!So what is the narrative behind a team of monkeys that cooperate to construct objects out of smaller pieces and parts? I assume something about colonizing the planets as you go from one to the next, but the story and narrative isn’t why you generally play games like these. You play these to have a few drinks with some buddies, or some quality family gaming time with the kids and hopefully have some fun doing so.
While you can play solo, only do so if you must, as it’s nowhere near as exciting or entertaining to do so, but alongside a friend or three you’ll have a blast. You’re tasked with creating objects within a set outline but only given a set amount of pieces and blocks, so it’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to stack and place each piece. These trials will begin out simple enough, but the difficulty ramps up quite quickly, even more so if you’re playing solo, as there’s always a looming time limit you have to contend with as well.
Your best chance at success is to have a local co-op friend or three help you. It seems as though the puzzles for each stage scale based on how many players are currently alongside you, but I know I certainly struggled when I tried to progress on my own. Clearing these stages though will require not only a steady hand and concentration, but lots of communication, which will ultimately be the reason you succeed or fail. Each planet has a set amount of stages, that once complete will move you onto the next planet for even a bigger challenge.
Bonkies’ premise is quite simple: simply stack blocks and pieces so that they remain within the outlined area, filling a silhouette. Once all of the area is full, you’ll have to make sure it stays there for a full three seconds before getting the completion and moving onto the next stage. Most levels are broken into two or three stages, with each becoming more challenging by tasking you to stack even higher or more awkwardly.
For such a simple premise, the controls on the other hand are going to take some getting used to. You can fly around seamlessly with the ‘Left Stick’, boosting with the ‘Left Trigger’ and your robo arm is controlled with the face buttons ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘X’ and ‘Y’. How you want to move your arm is based on the orientation of the buttons. For example, if you want to move your arm upwards, then hold the ‘Y’ button since that’s the top button. Want your arm to maneuver left? Hold ‘X’. Given that Bonkies utilizes physics based gameplay (yet somehow in space), you’re going to have to be quick when reacting to falling pieces or trying to rotate a block a certain way.
Because of the physics, it’s not terribly difficult to get the hang of this, but it will take practice as you need to hold ‘Right Trigger’ to grab onto an object, then use the different face buttons based on how you want to move it with your robotic arm while also flying around with the Left Stick. Much of the time you’ll also need to hold the arm direction you want, to stabilize your arm as you fit a piece into a specific spot nicely without causing your stack to fall. My main complaint with this is that I don’t see an option where you can actually choose left or right for your robotic arm, so I assume it’s randomized. Not that puzzles can’t be completed regardless of which robo arm you’re given, but I found it quite easier to grab and hold things on the corresponding side of my robo arm as opposed to the opposite.
Monkeys in space building objects would be too simple, so of course Bonkies also utilizes a handful of different blocks to make things much more challenging. Blocks will come in different sizes, shapes and properties, forcing you to think quick and how best to utilize each one. You’re never given extra pieces, so you always have to figure out the perfect way to solve each puzzle.
My favorite are the glass bricks. These will break if they take enough falling damage, forming into smaller pieces. This is sometimes a benefit, but will take more time to place more blocks. For example, I once had a large round glass circle. I dropped it and it split into two semi circles. I broke it again and it turned into quarters, which are the pieces I needed at that given moment. You’ll have scaffolding pieces that are used for placing blocks at certain heights or using for counterweights (but don’t count towards filling the objective outline) or gravity cubes that can float in one spot but only hold a certain amount of weight before giving out and having everything come crashing down.
Rocket blocks act as a normal block until you grab it, which then turns on the booster and will start to fly upwards (or whatever direction it’s facing). This is usually used for lifting a base higher, as some objective outlines won’t always be on the ground, so you’re going to have to get creative through trial and error. The explosion blocks though are the bane of my existence, as if they get bumped too much too quickly, they’ll explode, sending any blocks nearly outwards, basically wrecking your stack and forcing you to start over. There’s just enough variety to keep things constantly challenging, almost too much at times, and will require a lot of communication and thought to be successful.
Levels all have a set time limit that need to be completed in, but have target times that if beaten, will earn you a banana. These are then used to unlock new characters, all of which are simply visual changes, but you can eventually unlock other animal species like dogs, cats, koalas and more. Good luck making these times though, as I usually struggled just to complete levels in the time limit, not even factoring the banana time. Again, for that you’re going to need some good co-op friends or family alongside you.
Certain blocks are much heavier than others, which is where the co-op and communication comes into play. If I’m unable to lift a block on my own, either from its weight or awkwardness of placement, I’m going to have to explain to you what I need you to do, and quickly. While I was only able to test multiplayer with two players, Bonkies supports up to four.
Now, the main problem with the console version for Xbox is that the multiplayer is only local with no online option at all. Normally I wouldn’t hold this against it for being a smaller studio, but in the world we live in currently where we can’t have friends come over, the lack of online co-op is quite a detriment, as you’re only able then to play with those in your household. Don’t have anyone in the home that wants to play? You’re not going to have as great a time playing the single player compared to co-op. Those that purchase Bonkies on Steam can play online via “Remote Play”, so there’s a workaround there at least, but console players are left without the option sadly.
I gave my eight your old daughter a controller and invited her to play alongside me, unsure how it would work out. As expected, the controls at first were difficult for her to grasp, with the arm controls being mapped to the face buttons, but she eventually got the hang of it. Before too long we were passing levels, albeit after a handful of tries. Not that it’s any fault of hers, but it was apparently your Bonkies co-op success is going to come down to the weakest player. Everyone has to pull their weight, not just with communication but execution, and if you have someone that keeps knocking over your stacks or place something wrong, good luck beating the clock. With some friends and a few drinks, I could absolutely see quite a bit of swearing thrown at one another when you have to start all over again because they screwed up, again.
Bonkies is very challenging, not just in its gameplay, but design. You’re given a bunch of oddly shaped blocks or special ones and have to simply figure out how they all connect, placing them perfectly within the time limit that’s not always very forgiving. My daughter was good at placing blocks, but we sometimes struggled simply figuring out how they all connected and how they should be placed to progress. The hardest part of Bonkies was figuring out where and how to place the blocks, not actually physically doing so. For a game that I expected to be a breeze, Bonkies was much more challenging than I anticipated. The difficulty ramps up quite steeply early on, making it a frustrating affair if playing alone.
Co-op is needed to get the most enjoyment from these space monkeys’ construction workers, but the lack of online co-op for console was a major drawback and disappointment. If you have some local friends or family to play alongside with, Bonkies can be quite an entertaining night of gaming, but if you’re planning on playing alone, you may want to wait for a deep sale before blasting off.
** Bonkies was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
SYNTHETIK: Ultimate
I’m a fan of roguelikes when done right, and enjoy twin stick shooters even more so, so every time a new one releases I’m intrigued and need to check them out. The latest in the genre is SYNTHETIK: Ultimate from Flow Fire Games. SYNTHETIK: Ultimate is incredibly challenging, quick paced, confusing, yet rewarding all at the same time. SYNTHETIK originally released for PC a few years ago, but has since been improving the game and adding content, eventually announcing the Ultimate edition along with coming to consoles, so here we are.Set in a future where you’re doing what you can to survive from a robot uprising, you’re going to need to put your twin stick shooter skills to the test if you want any chance in surviving, though thankfully there’s plenty of options to toggle on or off to customize your experience. Primarily played like your typical top down shooter, there’s some unique mechanics that really make SYNTHETIK: Ultimate stand out amongst the crowd, for better and worse.
Instead of being quick paced like most twin stick shooters, SYNTHETIK: Ultimate instead wants you to take a slower pace, as you’re going to have to be cautious and deliberate where and when you decide to reload your guns when your clips run out of ammunition. For those that can master this reload mechanic, you’ll do well, but struggle with it and you’re going to have a very difficult time.
So if you’ve played the core SYNTHETIK game previously on PC, you’re probably wondering what’s new in this Ultimate version other than it being available on console as well. This major update brought some new story elements, new rare enemy squads, new music, new shop items, balance changes and more. It was a pretty major update, so it made sense that the console release happened afterwards, making SYNTHETIK: Ultimate the best game it can be.
The world has utilized some extremely advanced AI to further technology, but after a few short years this backfired when the robots started an uprising against mankind. These machines started building more machines, which is now causing humanity to be hunted down and eradicated. This is where you come in, to prevent a Skynet situation from occurring before it’s too late to be completely stopped. Now, normally in games like these you play them for their gameplay, not necessarily its narrative, and SYNTHETIK: Ultimate is no different. Basically, you’re going to be shooting bad guys and robots nonstop with a huge arsenal of guns, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Played in a top down view, SYNTHETIK: Ultimate plays much like any other twin stick shooter for the most part, with the Left Stick being for movement and the Right for aiming. Some things are a little different than your typical game though, as your reticule will expand or shrink, depending on your movement speed and motion. Standing still you’ll be quite accurate, though try to run and gun and the reticule will be quite large, causing you to miss many shots, so you’ll need to find that ‘sweet spot’ for movement speed for each gun to be as efficient as possible as you don’t have unlimited ammunition like most other games.
First you’ll choose from one of eight classes to play as: Breacher, Sniper, Engineer, Assassin, Raider, Riot Guard, Heavy Gunner or Demolisher, each with their own specializations, play styles, weapons, perks and more. Each class has their own individual levels and persist through each death. Some classes seem to be better and more unique than others, but there’s many different ways to play based on your preferences. Do you prefer to be up and close and sneak, taking out enemies with melee? Do you want to snipe from afar? How about using explosives with a not so subtle approach or turrets to do the job for you? SYNTHETIK: Ultimate encourages experimentation, as it’ll take a few games of each class to really find which one you like best.
Your overall goal is to reach the top of the Citadel so that you can save humanity, but it won’t be easy to do so, and you’re going to die, a lot and repeatedly. Thankfully you’ll have access to an arsenal that continually grows as you progress, as your unlocks will persist through each death even though you’ll have to start over each time. Each class also has access to special abilities that play into their strengths and specific playstyle, so there’s a little more substance here than most simple twin stick shooters. It’s all about finding what class, items and equipment work best for your preferred playstyle and preferences.
Most levels will start the same way, placing you in a rectangular map where you’ll need to find the exit to head to the next area, but you won’t know where the exit is, and the map is filled with enemies that will shoot you on sight. Throughout each level you’ll find items, upgrades, equipment and a wide variety of weaponry if you take the time to explore. This is a roguelike though, so keep in mind that every time you play, the map, enemies, item placements and even bosses will all be completely randomized with each run after a death. After a handful of stages you’ll take on a boss that will give you some great rewards if you can destroy them, though I absolutely detest the conveyor level and would rather stop playing when this one appears (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get to it).
Now, for a game that’s all about running and gunning, you have a wide variety of weapons you can equip you find along the way. You’re actually cable to carry three weapons, but the problem is tapping the ‘Y’ button switches only between two of them. You need to use the D-Pad if you want to swap to the third which is a bit cumbersome and hard to remember when things become chaotic in the heat of battle and you realize your out of ammo. I’m not sure if this was an issue on the PC version or if it’s solely a controller mapping oversight. Factor in you have lots of abilities and equipment you can also use on the fly, and you’ll constantly have to manage and monitor what you have available at any given point.
Something unexpected that I really appreciated though was the modifications you could make to tailor the gameplay to how you want. Do you actually prefer a much harder challenge? Then turn up the difficulty by toggling certain options that make the game much harder, but will reward you better as well. Or if you’re like me and simply want to try and survive, you can turn down the difficulties but have less rewards as well, it’s up to you.
I mentioned above that SYNTHETIK: Ultimate does something that makes itself stand out amongst others in the genre, and that’s because you’re going to have to not only utilize an active reload like Gears of War if you want the quickest reloads, but you also need to eject each magazine before a reload. That’s right, you need to press one button to eject your clip, then another to reload and again if you want the quickest active reload. At first I couldn’t really understand why this was a deliberate mechanic, but I eventually came to understand that it forces you to not blindly shoot and waste ammo, because reloading takes time and you can become overwhelmed quite quickly if you’re not strategic when you decide to reload. Do I like the mechanic? Not particularly, but I understand its purpose. Since you can eject a magazine at any time, this also means you can waste a lot of ammo if you eject and reload before the clip is empty.
Not only do you have to deal with the reload mechanics, but your weapons can also randomly overheat or jam, causing you to take more time to fix it in the heat of battle. Of course this is completely random, but it seemed to always happen to me at the most inopportune moments, sometimes resulting in a death.
SYNTHETIK: Ultimate has that old school aesthetic, blending 3D and 2D together, resulting in a game that looks retro yet modern at the same time with its smooth animations. Damage numbers can fill the screen when you’re shooting lots of enemies at once, and you can at times get lost in the chaos that fills the screen in the later stages. The camera angle can also make it a little awkward at times to figure out when an enemy is hiding behind an object or not, but you’ll start to figure it out after a handful of runs. Weapons sound great and impactful but I really enjoyed the EDM music that seemed completely appropriate for overthrowing a robotic threat to mankind.
You’ll want to play quickly like other twin stick shooters out of habit, but need to take a more slower and purposeful approach as you handle your inventory and active reloads. You’re going to die quite often and be challenged with its long grind, but it can be rewarding if you sink the time into it. Roguelikes are a dime a dozen, but SYNTHETIK: Ultimate does differentiate itself in a number of ways, though I found I would have stuck with it much longer if online co-op was an option on the console version.
If you like extremely difficult rougelikes then you might want to take a look at SYNTHETIK: Ultimate. It’s not hard just for the sake of it, but you need to be very deliberate and methodical in your approach to every level, as it’s quite easy to become overwhelmed. It’s also going to take many hours to put in the work to become proficient, but there is a decent reward at the end of the tunnel for those that make the commitment to learn all of its intricacies. While I wouldn’t suggest it for the casual fan, it does make for a unique one, even if it’s frustrating at times.
** SYNTHETIK: Ultimate was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Medium, The
While they’ve only started recently hitting their stride in the past few years, Polish developer Bloober Team has a few notable titles under their belt; The Layers of Fear games, Observer and most recently, Blair Witch. While these may not have set the world on fire, I’ve come to quite enjoy their releases, so when their latest was announced, I sat back and patiently waited. The time has come and The Medium is now released, and the wait has been more than worth it.A PC and Next-Gen only release for Xbox Series X|S, The Medium is easily Bloober Team’s most ambitious title to date, though having played their previous games, it’s quite a treat seeing not only Easter Eggs hidden throughout, but recognizing mechanics or things that were in their previous games but now vastly improved. For example, there’s one section where you need to follow a dog through the woods for a short time, clearly a nod to their Blair Witch game.
I can watch the scariest or bloodiest movies without any problems, but put a scary game in front of me and a controller in my hand and I’ll usually have a hard time getting through it. This is most likely due to being in control of the actions of the characters instead of a linear experience like watching a movie, so I was a little apprehensive to start The Medium, knowing it was going to have some unsettling and mature undertones. I did manage to get through it until the credits rolled, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, but I was quite tense at certain points due to its audio design, visuals and amazingly voiced antagonist.
“It all starts with a dead girl.” This is how The Medium sets its deeply unsettling tone from the very beginning. Set in Krakow, Poland, in the late 1990’s, you start out playing as Marianne, a young woman that seems to have a special gift in the form of being a medium. She’s able to not just be able to communicate with spirits, but actually enter and explore the spirit world, a world that is almost a reflection of our reality, but as you’d expect, a much darker and more sinister representation, almost barren and desolate. Thing is, she lives in both of these worlds simultaneously, which in its self is used as a game mechanic at times, but more on that shortly.
Marianne is haunted by a vision of a child’s murder, though she’s unsure if this is simply a reoccurring nightmare, a long lost memory or even something that hasn’t happened yet. Nothing is quite as it seems, as Marianne is having to go through one of the most difficult days in her life, putting her father to rest, when she receives a mysterious call from someone claiming to know her, what she is and that he has the answers she’s looking for. Only giving his name, Thomas, he tells her he’s out of time, but to meet her at the Niwa Hotel, a long abandoned communist retreat.
Upon arriving, you quickly start to understand that something isn’t right. Seemingly no one is at Niwa, so you’re going to have to use Marianne’s unique abilities to uncover what happened and why Thomas brought you here. I really don’t want to delve into much more of the story, as it’s quite a thrill ride from beginning to end, best experienced for yourself without any spoilers, but I was completely hooked from that initial phone call from Thomas all the way until the end, not wanting to put the controller down.
I normally have a hard time getting through thriller games like these, but I had to keep continuing to find out what happened, who Thomas was, what her visions meant and how it all came together. It’s a hell of a ride until its final moments, full of terror, anxiousness, puzzle solving, stealth sections, simultaneous realities and some serious mature topics with plenty of symbolism. As Marianne progresses further into Niwa, everything won’t be what you initially thought and expected, as there are plenty of revelations, twist and turns to keep you constantly on your toes. The story is fantastic and the writing extremely well done, constantly slow feeding you just enough to keep you engaged but always making your situation tense, unsure what could happen next.
If I had to make a quick comparison to other games, The Medium takes the best parts from Alan Wake, Resident Evil and Silent Hill, tosses them in a blender and adds its own unique flair to the mix. I kept getting vibes of Alan Wake when I was exploring the spirit world or having to survive chase sequences. It takes classic Resident Evil queues from its fixed camera angles and old school tank controls. This does feel a little archaic at times, but you do get used to it quite quickly, and having these fixed cameras means they can have you experience exactly what they want to you to see at any given moment, so you never really miss anything. As for its Silent Hill comparison, there’s not many games that set the constant tenseness and creepiness much better, especially on its audio front, and The Medium absolutely nailed this, even more so once you’re introduced to The Maw.
“How your perspective changes your perception” is the underlying theme that Bloober Team was going for with all aspects of The Medium, not just from its gameplay, but narrative, aesthetic and even soundtrack. This is even truer once you see the credits roll and need a minute to take it all in, reflecting on the whole experience. This is most prevalent in The Medium’s main gameplay mechanic, the dual reality sections where you control Marianne in both the real and spirit world simultaneously. This allows you to see literally two sides to situations or events that occurred. As they say, there’s always two sides to a story.
Being in two different worlds at the same time give you two completely different perspectives to not only your surroundings, but events and characters that you need to interact with. These worlds are somewhat shared as well. For example, in the spirit world when Marianne gives a mysterious young girl, Sadness, a ball to play with, you’ll notice the ball floating in the real world when she’s tossing it around. The same goes for Marianne though, where if she is thrown around by a sinister creature out to get you in the spirit world, she’ll also get tossed in the real world as well. Remember, the spirit world is almost like a reflection of the real world, but a much darker and unsettling version, yet coexists.
While you won’t always be traversing both worlds simultaneously at all times, when you are, this is easily The Medium’s most unique moments. This is literally two games being played at once, which is why it’s a next-gen only title, as it simply wouldn’t be possible on older hardware. This dual reality isn’t just for narrative purposes though, as some puzzles must be solved across both to progress. For example, maybe a fuse box isn’t working because it’s not worked in many years in the real world, but in the spirit world, a discharge from Marianne’s Spirit Blast ability will give it power back in reality.
This is how you’ll uncover new areas, unlock doors and more, and is just one of Marianne’s unique abilities as a Medium. She’s also able to utilize a Spirit Shield to protect her from dangerous insects that can block her way otherwise. Normally any movement she makes happens in exactly the same way in both worlds, but there are times where you’ll need to utilize her Out of Body experience, allowing her to simply go into a trance in the real world but freely explore in the spirit one. This is very taxing on her though, so it can only be done for a short period of time, usually just enough to hit a specific switch or interact with something needed to progress. For example, maybe a door is locked in the real world, but in the spirit world she can go through, but since her physical body can’t go through walls and objects, this is when she would use her Out of Body ability.
Gameplay is broken into roughly thirds. One third has you controlling Marianne in reality, another third in the spirit world, and the final with the dual reality gameplay explained above. This makes the pacing quite constant and almost as if you’re playing detective on two different fronts. Remember, perspective is going to change your perception, and this is true throughout the whole experience. Learning what happened in the real world might make certain events occur or manifest in the spirit world, usually with some serious symbolism and morality that will tug on your heartstrings.
I was fully expecting my time with The Medium to be filled with cheap jump scares, which would get me, but are often thought of as a cheap tactic to instill fear in the short term. Instead, The Medium doesn’t utilize this at all, instead using its atmosphere to create a constant tenseness and uneasy feeling. This is masterfully done not just with its visuals, of which the fixed cameras help on this front, but I’d argue that the audio was much more important for setting the tone. Legendary composer Akira Yamaoka, best known for the Silent Hill series, creates a brooding soundscape that is filled with not just a fantastic score that sets an uneasy tone, but is also filled with so many minor sounds that makes you wonder what could have made it or if something is behind you. Arkadiusz Reikowski co-composed the other half of The Medium, setting the tone for Marianne’s reality world, also setting a specific tone that matches the scenery and background of your surroundings. Having a soundtrack co-made by these two greats couldn’t be any more fitting for a game that’s all about duality.
Furthering the immersion is a masterful performance from every voice actor, bringing life to the characters in a completely believable way. The great performance from Troy Baker as The Maw will most likely get the most mentions due to his notoriety and popularity, but everyone else involved deserves just as equal credit, as there wasn’t a single poor performance from any of the voice overs. Kelly Burke did a masterful performance as Marianne, not just with delivering lines, but putting emotions into the bigger scenes and subtlety into the smaller narration parts. Graham Vick and Angeli Wall also need to be recognized for their performances for Thomas and Sadness as well, as they portrayed their characters perfectly, adding to the overall experience and immersion.
As for its aesthetic and visual style, inspiration from Zdzislaw Beksinski, a famous Polish artist who did surrealist paintings before his death, was used for the spirit world. After checking out his portfolio online, it’s easy to see the similarities from his disturbing and ominous flair. With 4K visuals, 60 FPS, HDR lighting, Ray tracing, VRR and more, The Medium looks and plays absolutely fantastic, even when controlling the Marianne in the dual worlds simultaneously. Not once was there any slowdown, stuttering or screen tear. The only negatives that I had noted down was that because of the fixed cameras and classic Resident Evil tank controls, sometimes your character can move a little janky at times. You’ll be completely engrossed into The Medium’s world, only to now and then be taken out of the immersion when you’re running in place at a corner, or turning Marianne around in a robotic manner. It’s only a minor gripe, but one that’s constant due to its controls.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make from The Medium before playing even though I was quite excited for it to release, but came away more than impressed. Bloober Team may not be the biggest studio out there but they are consistent, and The Medium proves not only that they’re improving and making better games, but creating experiences that are unique, engaging and one of those titles that stand out. The dual worlds is not only utilized as a storytelling device, but also works brilliantly as a gameplay mechanic as well. The fact that The Medium is also available on Xbox Game Pass means it's available now for you to experience if you're a subscriber with basically no barrier, and I'd argue is still worth the purchase even if you do have Game Pass.
There’s always two sides to a story, and you only know half until you see The Medium to its conclusion. Rather than winning, The Medium is meant to be an experience, which it more than succeeds in. With a deeply immersive narrative and symbolism throughout, it never wore out its welcome with its 8-10 hour length and will be one of those games that I’ve been thinking about long after its credits rolled. The Medium truly is something unique and special.
**The Medium was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Override 2: Super Mech League
While I never got around to playing the original Override: Mech City Brawl from 2018, its sequel is now here with Override 2: Super Mech League. For those looking for an arena brawler full of massive and wacky robots, look for further. While it might seem like a niche, many mechanics have changed since its original outing, so fans of the original are going to want to do some research before jumping straight in blindly.From the first moments of starting my mech battling career, I began confused, trying to figure out where the single player or career mode was. Apparently this is now called Leagues. This is where you’ll try and climb the Mech Leagues rankings to be the best pilot there is. Apparently there’s some sort of background story that encompasses why you’re fighting, but none of this is really explained. You simply are fighting one another because...? To be fair, you usually don’t play arena battlers like this for its story, so it’s forgivable.
League mode is where you’ll most likely be spending most of your time, trying to rise up through the ranks to become a legendary pilot. Mech Leagues matches will vary in a handful of different match types, from 1 versus 1, duos, tournaments, Control (King of the Hill), four player free-for-all’s and even a pseudo horde-like PvE mode. Interestingly, nearly all the modes are playable online against other players or versus AI bots, which I’ll delve into shortly.
As you duke it out against other robots, you’ll work towards earning reputation and collecting coins to spend on unlocking new mechs and customization options. Your first few matches in League will give you a choice of a few different mechs until you earn enough coins to purchase your own and favorite. Each of these costs 1000 coins, which isn’t terribly difficult to get, but will require some dedication if you want to unlock them all. While this really isn’t an issue, this is assuming you already know what characters you want to play the most. Say you pick a robot that you simply don’t enjoy or can’t get the hang of. Well, too bad. You’re stuck with it until you can save up another 1000 and purchase another, so playing a few versus matches beforehand to learn what mech suits your playstyle best is going to be paramount in the beginning.
The way the Career Mode, er... League Mode is structured is a little odd. You’re given a few choices of match types that you can battle in, but these are completely randomized. Maybe you’ll have a choice from 1v1, Duos, or a free-for-all, but after each match this is randomized again. Say you’re like me and you heavily prefer to play the 1v1 matches. That’s great when it’s one of the choices for a match, but when it’s not, you’re forced to battle in the other modes until it randomly refreshes again. This in turn will at points force you to play in match types that you don’t enjoy, like the tournament ones that take much longer to complete, so you’re forced to try out all the modes eventually.
Each match type also has its own ranking system, starting at F grade and going up from there. The problem is that because you can’t simply always play the match types you like, you’re going to have to spend time in the others. To raise your overall rank and titles you’re going to need a certain rank across different modes as well. For example, for me to become Veteran, I had to go up to B rank across three different match types, half of which I didn’t really enjoy and felt forced to participate in. Another odd design decision is that sometimes you’ll also have an entry fee to join specific matches, I assume to tempt you to play one of the other types, yet the match winnings weren’t all that much more to make up for the cost. I get that developers want players to try out all the modes, but it feels so forced that half the time I was having to participate in match types I didn’t really want to or enjoy as much.
Another odd decision is that these League matches aren’t strictly a solo affair either. As a match is about to begin it will look online for other players also trying to get into a specific match type, potentially matching you up together or against one another, or you can press ‘Y’ to cancel the search and fight against abysmal AI bots for easy wins. This is fine, but when you’re playing a tournament match type with a handful of battles back to back, between each it forces you to wait as it searches for more players, even if you chose to play against AI bots in the first match, slowing down the whole process.
Of the 20 mechs available to fight as, each are designed quite well and are vastly unique from one another. Fans of the original will be happy to see that many of the classic characters return, each with their own unique abilities, special and ultimate moves. Some look like they’ve been ripped straight out of Gundam, while others are quite wacky and much lighter hearted. There’s a quick load at the beginning of matches as you drop into battle, but load times were basically nonexistent on an Xbox Series X outside of looking for players online.
Combat was not quite what I expected, as each arm, right and left, are assigned to the Bumpers, while your legs, the Triggers. So this is how you perform your basic punches and kicks. Special moves are generally combinations of these buttons and don’t require difficult movement inputs like in most other fighters. There are some combos, but nothing too lengthy or difficult to do, though most matches will essentially boil down to spamming your special attacks. Want to know how to do your special moves, then simply check the menu after pausing the game. This is where a major issue appeared though, because as I was doing the commands it said to press, it wasn’t working. Turns out, for some of the characters and their listed moves, some of the inputs are wrong. That’s right. Some of the menus that show you how to do certain moves are simply labelled wrong, but only for some characters and moves, which you wouldn’t know without trial and error.
Fans that played the original are going to be quite confused with the changes to the combat system, as there’s no longer and overheating system or stamina gauge of any sorts. That means you can simply spam any of your moves constantly as much as you want. That’s right, you can spam your best or cheapest moves non-stop without any recourse really. Have a mech that you’re fighting that you don’t want to get close, then spam away your projectile attacks. Surrounded by a few enemies at once, then spam your AOE attacks. As you can imagine, things get chaotic with up to four mechs all spamming their attacks constantly, and because there’s no stamina gauge or anything of the sorts, there’s no reason not to sadly. Of course there are counters to handle players like that, but it still goes without saying.
The levels and arenas seem to be smaller than the original game, forcing you to almost always be within a dash distance of one another. Almost every stage also has hazardous areas, such as lava, electrified water, lasers, rockets and more. There’s usually also environmental items that can be picked up and thrown at your enemies such as containers, buildings and other items, like giant strawberries. Yes, you read that right. You’re also able to grab your opponents and toss them as well, but this is really broken at the best of times. When you grab someone, there’s literally nothing they can do to escape unless you basically don’t throw them within a set amount of time, so you can imagine how overpowered this can be if you can get your hands on them.
Ultimate moves return as well, but honestly, they don’t feel all that ultimate. During a match a certain section of the arena will have a small radius that if you stand in, will fill up your Ultimate gauge. Once full you can click in the Stick to unleash your Ultimate, but they feel quite weak for how long it takes to charge up fully.
As you win matches and go up the ranks you’ll also be able to spend your coins on not only new mechs, but also customizing them with some interesting and wacky accessories. Once you progress to a certain point in League, the Garage menu opens, which is where you’ll do your customizing, from icons, titles, colors and accessories. Sadly there’s only a couple colors to choose from for each limb and section of your mech, and there’s no cool skins that drastically change your look. Instead, you’ll be able to get items like hats, belts, glasses, bowties and other odd items, but because the action is so frantic you’ll never really get to show these off.
It seems as though the game was built with a large online player base in mind, hence the option to fight against other players even in League mode, but I can count the matches that I was able to find anyone to play with or against, so I generally just opted to play versus the AI bots instead. This is where issues with the online play started to show though, as there’s not really a simple way to play with your friends. In theory you’re supposed to be able to have private versus battles, as there’s even a button to invite friends, but it simply doesn’t do anything when my friend took the invite no matter what we tried. The only way we were able to fight against another was coordinating starting the same League match at the same time, hoping it put us together.
Remember what I said above though about not always getting the specific mode you want to play? That’s right, if you want to coordinate a 1v1 but don’t have that option in your match lineup currently, you won’t be able to. Also, if you want to team up with a friend to do Duo’s against others, there’s no way to do this either, as sometimes it put us together, and other times paired each of us with an AI bot. For a game banking on a heavy multiplayer base, it’s lacking a ton of things to set this up properly. What I will say I was impressed with though is that when a player drops due to quitting or connection issues, the match doesn’t quit out, their character simply gets taken over instantly with a bot, basically instantly, allowing you to finish the match.
Visually there seems to be a big improvement from the original, not just in the overall graphics, but designs of the robots as well. Environments, mechs and moves look great, it’s just that battles are so chaotic that you can’t really sit back and really enjoy any of it, as all you’ll see is special attacks being spammed over and over. What was cool is the inclusion of Ultraman if you drop some extra cash for the DLC or Season Pass, so I’m hoping for other cool additions that would make sense in Override’s universe.
While fans of the original might be turned off from the drastic combat changes, what I will say is that it feels much more accessible, as my daughter was able to easily jump in and start doing cool moves without having to memorize a bunch of inputs. While this opens it up to a larger audience, it by no way feels even remotely balanced and usually degrades into who’s spammed special moves can outperform the others spammed move sets.
** Override 2: Super Mech League was reviewed on an Xbox Series X **
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Call of the Sea
If you told me that Call of the Sea was the first game from studio Out of the Blue, I’m not sure I would have believed you if I didn’t do the research beforehand. For a debut game and a small indie studio, Call of the Sea impresses in a number of ways. Set in the 1930’s, this first person adventure is filled with an engrossing story about love and mystery, set on an island in the South Pacific with heavy Polynesian influences. A story focused affair filled with puzzles, you play Norah, a woman searching for her husband on a mysterious island, full of surprises and unknown.Norah’s husband, Harry, went on an expedition but has since gone missing, so she has set sail to go find out where he is and what has happened. She is sent a package from someone unknown, filled with a picture of her husband and a peculiar looking ritualistic knife. Norah has a unique illness and incredibly rare condition, causing marks to form on her skin and the source of her pain and nightmares, seemingly visions at times.
Left to her own devices on this mysterious island, she quickly learns that even the locals are deathly afraid of this place. As you search the island you’ll come across remnants of Harry’s camp and expedition along the way. He originally came to this island to find a cure for Norah, but what you know to be the truth in the beginning is vastly different from what occurs near its conclusion. Furthermore to add to the mystery, it seems the island you’re on matches what she envisions in her dreams. Following Harry’s trail, you’ll slowly unravel what events took place via photographs, notes, recordings and more.
The writing is done quite well, and given that Norah is voiced by the one and only Cissy Jones (Darksiders III, The Walking Dead Telltale Series), you end up caring not only for Norah and her condition, but and the relationship with Harry as well. The more I uncovered, the more I wanted to know and figure out what exactly happened to Harry. I wasn’t prepared for the ending I got, of which there are two different ones, and I won’t spoil anything, but it wasn’t exactly what I initially thought was going to be the outcome I had guessed.
As you begin your adventure on this mysterious island, you’ll be taken back by its sheer beauty. Again, simply looking at Call of the Sea, you would never guess that it was made by a small team and their first game, but it impresses with its colorful and bright visuals of densely packed forest, filled with pathways and secrets. You won’t know where to even begin looking for Harry, so you’ll need to keep an eye out for clues. Usually these come in the form of notes and photographs left behind at camps along the way, but why were there so many, and why do they seem they were abandoned so quickly?
This means you’ll need to investigate everything you can interact with. Most clues can be rotated, sometimes holding another clue on the backside of a picture or note. Anything that seems very important, Norah will jot it down in her journal, able to be referenced later and almost like a clue system to tell you what you need to be looking for. These notes and clues will be what you use to solve the puzzles laid out in front of you. Most of the time you’ll be unable to progress without solving some elaborate native puzzle of some sorts, so you’ll need a keen eye and sharp mind to crack the codes.
Thankfully you won’t have to worry about any inventory management or combining objects together, you’ll simply use them if they are appropriate for what you’re interacting with. As for the puzzles themselves, the smaller ones are quick and simple to figure out without much work, but before moving into a new area and chapter you’ll generally have to solve a much more elaborate and involved puzzle, usually in multiple steps and stages. The puzzles themselves are quite clever and varied, eventually giving quite a challenge in the last two chapters. I’d liked to say that I was able to breeze through each puzzle laid before me without any assistance, but I did have to refer to a guide for two of the more intricate ones at the end when I became perplexed on how to proceed when brute force didn't work.
There’s no combat whatsoever to speak of, thankfully, and also no real timed puzzles where you need to be quick. This makes for a much more relaxed experience, able to take in the setting and environment much more than I normally would in a puzzle focused game. With six chapters to get through, it should take you anywhere from 6-10 hours or so, depending on your puzzle solving abilities, though Norah tends to walk quite slowly, even when ‘running’, and there’s usually a bit of backtracking, adding to the playtime.
The narrative is done excellently, slowly drip feeding you just enough information to stay interesting yet always hinting at what could come next. The only time the pacing of the campaign is slowed down is when you’re stuck on a certain puzzle for an hour at a time and become frustrated. The voice acting is done to perfection and the background ambiance and soundtrack is very fitting for a 1930’s adventure. Visually, Call of the Sea really impresses with its lush forests and island setting. The color pallet is bright and varied, differing based on what area you’re in on the island and what type of puzzle you’re currently working on solving. Again, for a small studio, it’s beyond impressive.
My only real complaint is that there’s very little replay value outside of getting the second ending (though it’s just a final choice you make, so you could just play the final chapter again), searching for hidden collectables and cleaning up missing achievements. The setting and narrative are fantastic and it’s an adventure I’m glad to have been a part of. You can tell that Call of the Sea was made with much care and love as it’s one of those games that simply has a lot of character and heart.
**Call of the Sea was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
John Wick Hex
I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to play John Wick Hex, as we all know the reputation that licensed movie based games tend to have. While there have been a few decent games based on movies, they are far and few in between and usually disappoint, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from John Wick Hex. Truth be told, I had only watched the original movie, so I had to do some “research” and catch up on the trilogy before playing. After three John Wick movies under my belt in a single day, I was ready to dive in and become The Baba Yaga.The John Wick movies was brilliantly performed by Keanu Reeves, giving us a glimpse of what the life of a former assassin is like. Not just any assassin either, one of the most feared from anyone that knows his name and pedigree. If you were on his list to eliminate, there’s really nothing you could do, regardless of the size of your gang. If you’ve not seen the movies, they surprised me with not just your typical action, but how brutal Mr. Wick could be with direct headshots and his fighting abilities. John Wick Hex looks to recreate this action, trying to have you think strategically, not simply going in guns-a-blazing like most action games, but instead using precise and methodical decisions and actions.
Set prior to the events of the movies, this adventure has John on a mission long before meeting Helen, trying to rescue Winston and Charon from a new villain, Hex. While I didn’t expect Keanu to reprise his role for John in a game, which he didn’t, the infamous Troy Baker does voice the antagonist, Hex. Shockingly though, Ian McShane reprises his role as Winston and Lance Reddick as Charon, adding some true authenticity to the John Wick experience.
John Wick is a professional hitman, taking out his enemies with complete precision and brutality. If you’ve seen the movies you’ll know what I’m talking about. John Wick Hex tries to recreate the action from the films, giving you control of Wick’s signature ability to take out anyone, regardless of the odds or how outnumbered he may be. Every move you make has consequences though and takes time, so you’re going to have to think and plan ahead, as John Wick Hex isn’t your typical action shooter game.
I fully expected a typical action game where I was going to be John, blasting his way through countless enemies to get to his target, like in the movies, but Hex is nothing as I expected. Instead, the gameplay revolves around time-based actions and movements where you need to plan ahead nearly every action beforehand, almost like a game of chess, but filled with guns and death. As you progress through the 6ish hour campaign, you’ll come across new locations and unlocks, but you’ll always have to be deliberate in every action you take, as you can’t play this like other shooters.
Movement is done on a hex-like grid, showing where you can move, though most of the locations are interior hallways and buildings, so the decision for hex-based instead of a regular grid feels odd at times, with an isometric view. Ammunition is also limited, which is realistic, but will cause a lot of frustration when you run out of ammo mid-fight. This also means you’ll need to take out your enemies and use their weapons against them, but even picking up guns and shooting takes time, which is what Hex is all about; managing your time.
Now, in the movies John is basically unstoppable, not invincible, but can take out nearly an infinite amount of enemies regardless of the odds or what’s at his disposal. In Hex though, I don’t feel quite as badass as Wick should, as you can become quickly overwhelmed if you become surrounded by more than a few enemies at a time. You have limited ammo and even in close quarters, John doesn’t feel quite like he should when compared to the movies. I fully expected that I would be able to combo from gunfire to strikes to takedowns, but it’s not really laid out as such. Instead, you need to make numerous smaller movements, all while trying to survive and make your way to your objective, killing anyone that gets in your way.
As you begin your journey, you’re given a light tutorial that shows you the basics of how to fire, move and melee, but not much effort went into teaching you how to strategize your actions. Because every action and movement costs a certain amount of time, represented by a bar at the top of the screen, you’ll see how long it takes to move John to a specific hex position, reload, strike, takedowns, throwing guns and every other action. You don’t gain any new moves or abilities as you progress, so all of the move sets you learn in the beginning is all you’ll be able to do throughout the rest of Wick’s quest to save his colleagues.
Now, regardless of being able to become overwhelmed quickly by swarms of enemies and the lack of being able to combo and chain actions together, it still feels like I’m John Wick when things go right. That being said, it’s going to take a lot of trial and error to really understand how to properly play Hex, more specifically, how to manipulate the poor AI once you learn how it works. When you start to plan your moves with precision and purpose, Hex starts to come together as the Wick simulator that I expected, even if it’s not quite as badass as Keanu in the films.
Learning how to best utilize the time for every action is how you’ll be successful with John. Enemies have the same time constraints that John abides by as well. Even though it’s played with a top down isometric view, John can only see enemies that are within his visual range. If you’re hiding behind a corner or wall, you won’t know what’s on the other side, as the same goes for doorways. Once an enemy is in sight, time stops and goes into a pseudo turn based combat which is where you need to watch the timeline at the top to see when John and enemies are going to perform their actions. It definitely takes some getting used to, and I can’t think of another game that does something quite as similar, but totally fits the John Wick combat persona.
One feature I really enjoyed was watching your graceful performance after a level is complete. Once you reach the exit you can watch a replay of every action you did but in real time, as if it was a scene from one of the movies. Now if this was a smooth and fluid replay it would look great, but remember, it’s just replaying all the actions you just performed, so if you ran in spot back and forth, or did weird actions, it shows this as well. Sometimes instead of a scene ripped straight from one of the movies, it’s almost as if I was controlling John like he forgot how to be the infamous Baba Yaga and instead should have Yakety Sax as his soundtrack.
The replays also showcase how janky the animations can be, which I started to notice the more I played. For example, when picking up a new gun, John makes the animation as if he’s already holding it before actually picking it up. The same goes for the melee combat, as it’s clear that specific animations are tied to moves like strikes and takedowns, but it’s all very janky instead of a singular fluid motion going from one enemy to the next. That being said, John has his iconic stance and aim that Keanu performs in the film as he’s moving forward and scanning rooms for any targets.
John Wick Hex utilizes a cel-shaded type of visual aesthetic that feels like it could have come straight out of a stylish comic. You mostly resemble a younger Keanu, but it does look just a little off from a complete resemblance. The audio is done quite well though, with the voice acting done by talented actors across the board, though John not having any lines or voiced by Keanu feels a little empty. By far, the gunplay is the best of the audio experience, as each shot sounds impactful, complimented by that signature Wick brutality with headshots and no mercy.
When it comes to being a John Wick simulator, Hex feels great... eventually. It takes some time to get the hang of the unique timeline mechanics but once you wrap your head around it, you somewhat start to feel like John Wick, even with his limited move set. It has its flaws, but it was still an interesting experience throughout, as I wasn’t expecting an almost puzzle-like experience instead of a straight up shooter.
While not the best movie based game out there, John Wick Hex is far from the worst as well. It’s got an interesting story that is cannon within the movies’ timeline, and some of the actual actors, aside from Keanu, reprising their roles adds some authenticity to its commitment of being more than just a simple cash grab most movie based games tend to be. While you might not feel completely like the deadly Baba Yaga from the movies, you’ll still feel like quite a badass hitman once you learn John Wick Hex’s intricacies.
**John Wick Hex was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Chronos: Before the Ashes
Remnant: From the Ashes really took me by surprise when it released back in 2019. At first I didn’t get it and was about to give up on it, but then a random stranger online took a buddy and I under his wing and taught us the ropes, which in turn had us really enjoy the game and its expansions, making us fans of the series. So naturally, when Chronos: Before the Ashes was announced to be coming to Xbox, I instantly jumped on the opportunity to cover it, as I figured it would be more Remnant-like goodness that we’ve come to love. I don’t want to say it’s a bait and switch, but Chronos is absolutely nothing like the Remnant we all know.Technically a prequel to Remnant, Chronos was actually originally a VR only game but has been since 'console-fied', and while it may play absolutely nothing like Remnant, it does dip its toes into a different genre that Dark Souls helped propel into the spotlight. While Chronos may play much like a Souls-like, it does make some mechanical changes for the better that I did enjoy, but it’s definitely a ‘lite’ version and not quite as hardcore in certain respects.
Given that Chronos isn’t a terribly long game, I don’t want to delve too much into the story, as the lore is quite interesting if you’re a Remnant fan and know the basics of what’s going on in its world. Chronos takes place about a month before Remnant, and when you manage to complete the game, it makes for a very interesting setup to Remnant, as you’ll recognize certain locations, enemies and characters. Essentially you’re tasked with stopping a Dragon by venturing into what’s known as the Labyrinth, but the interesting part is that when you die you are cast out from the world, unable to return and try again for a full year, adding age to your character which makes gameplay differences as well. When you die, and you will, you lose a year of your life.
As you begin your journey you’ll first choose between three difficulty levels: Casual, Adventure and Heroic. Casual is for those that simply want to experience the game and lore without having to worry too much about difficult combat. Adventure is your balanced and ideal experience, and of course Heroic is more Souls-like and much more unforgiving.
After choosing your difficulty you’ll decide if you want to play Male or Female. Unfortunately there’s absolutely no character customization at all, so if you’re looking for a personalized character here, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Next is deciding what type of weapon you want to use, based on if you’d rather block and parry your attacks, or dodge like in most Souls-likes. There are new weapons to find along the way, and can upgrade, but there’s not a whole lot, so I generally stuck with the same weapon or so throughout my game. This also meant I was just using a weapon because I had to, rather than really enjoying it or changing my playstyle a certain way. Even though Chronos is a Remnant prequel, there’s absolutely no guns included, making for a strictly melee affair. There is some magic thrown in, but it’s more for enhancing your weapons and attacks rather than spell slinging.
As you level up you’ll be able to improve your stats, though only Vitality, Agility, Strength and Arcane. Each one will cater to a specific playstyle, though I opted for a Vitality and Agility based run to allow for more health and forgiving dodges, though this changes as you age.
Being a Remnant fan, it was awesome seeing those iconic glowing red World Stones return, acting as waypoints and checkpoints just like in Remnant, along with having to use Dragon Hearts to replenish your health. Aside from some other tie-ins though, Chronos is vastly different from the original game I really enjoyed. I’m usually quite terrible at Souls-like games but always willing to give them a chance to see what they have to offer. I really appreciated the easier difficulty options, as I simply wanted to experience the game without having too much frustration from constantly dying like most in the genre. While I did get that, what I didn’t expect was becoming even more frustrated with its very heavy puzzle reliance in its later stages.
Combat isn’t as refined or robust as other Souls games, as it’s quite easy to funnel the AI where you want and to dodge attacks coming your way. Normally in games like these you need to manage your stamina, as balancing the risk versus reward of attacking and dodging without leaving yourself open to attacks is half the strategy. In Chronos though there’s no stamina use from attacking, so you can spam away as long as you know when to dodge appropriately. Health is done quite differently as well, as you have Dragon Hearts to heal yourself like in Remnant, but the main difference here is that they don’t replenish even when you get to a new World Stone. The only way to get your Dragon Hearts back after use is when you die. Yes, you have to die if you want to heal yourself after running out, or be lucky and level up. Dying will also reset enemies that you’ve previously killed, so be prepared for that as well.
As for the level design, the Labyrinth is a great analogy, as the path to take isn’t always clear and linear as you may expect. As with any Souls-like, you’ll have a series of interconnected pathways, some that will only open up and offer shortcuts once you’ve made it to a certain point or beaten a boss. Of course behind nearly every corner are going to be enemies trying to stop you. You’ll learn most of their attack patterns quite quickly, able to block, dodge or parry many of them, while others are quite a nuisance and I dreaded running into them every time.
The most unique and interesting feature in Chronos though has to be its aging mechanic. You begin at the tender age of 18, and every time you die you age a full year. You start to look older as you age as well, eventually having your hair whiten your skin get wrinkled, but your stats will change, favoring strength as you’re young, changing to arcane as you get older. If you do struggle and start to age with each death, you do gain new traits every 10 levels, adding passive bonuses to your character, but as you age you also get closer to death.
What took me the most by surprise aside from the gameplay shift to be Soulslike, is how puzzle heavy Chronos was. Many times you’ll be stumped where to go with a handful of random items in your inventory, unsure where to go or how to use them. Sometimes you also just need to be extra observant and notice certain symbols or sequences so you know how to use a certain object to progress. When I got stuck multiple times, it wasn’t dying that frustrated me, it was the countless time wasted trying to figure where to go as there’s no map, so you need to have a good memory to figure out where you’ve been and how rooms interconnect.
Chronos: Before the Ashes is a capable Soulslike that isn’t terrible by any means, but when comparing to it to Remnant, the lack of guns and complete genre shift simply doesn’t feel as satisfying or stand out. Maybe this is partly due to its VR roots, and while it makes some interesting changes to the typical Souls template, Chronos: Before the Ashes is a much simpler experience overall, not just with its combat, but overall design.
**Chronos: Before the Ashes was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Mars Horizon
While there’s a slew of management and space sim games on PC, there’s not nearly as many for console players. Some games like Kerbal Space Program did eventually make its way to console, but it was a poor console port at launch, didn’t run well and was very unintuitive with its controller use. So, when a decent space management sim makes its way to console, I’m excited to check it out, as was the case with the recent Mars Horizon.While the screenshots may make it look simplistic, there’s a somewhat deep management game underneath that has you leading a space program in the hopes to not only take man beyond Earth’s orbit, but eventually a Mars landing as your ultimate goal. To give some legitimacy to their game, developers Auroch Digital actually teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to bring some authenticity to their simulation game. While it is a short experience overall, it took me by surprise with its addictive gameplay once you start to get the hang of all of its mechanics.
While there’s not really a campaign in the traditional sense, you’ll begin with a few tutorials but then be left on your own to figure out how you want to manage your space agency in a race to reach Mars on a manned mission against other nations. While you have your ultimate goal, you begin further in the past, so you’ll need to make smaller steps at first, like launching a satellite into orbit, reaching and landing on the moon, and eventually further and more distant planets.
You begin with a modest budget, but your budget comes under review each year, resulting in a larger payroll the more progress you make. Every new mission and mechanic is slowly introduced, giving you new things to learn little by little until you start to get the hang of it. You’ll only be able to afford and send one mission into space at a time, though eventually you’ll be handling a half dozen simultaneously with some well thought out planning.
You’ll be sending small unmanned rockets into orbit at first, and it will be a long road until you’re sending astronauts to the moon and beyond, but every action you take will determine your success or failure. Do you take some shortcuts to try and be the first to land on the moon, or delay a launch because of poor weather? It may seem quite basic at first, but it becomes much more robust and involved once you start to reach the final era of missions.
You begin by making your space agency, choosing from one of five different agencies, and while each has their own bases, rockets and traits, they all essentially play the same for the most part. You’ll create a base, design rockets and manage nearly every aspect of your space agency as you make every decision to further your journey to Mars. You’re going to need to make many strategic decisions, such as which astronauts to hire, which rocket components to use and when to plan every launch. Every choice will matter, and even if you make all the ‘right’ decisions and precautions, there’s always a random chance that a critical failure can occur, setting you back crew, time and money.
How you decide to pursue the space race is completely up to you, such as focusing on researching spaceship parts, improving your base or what missions you can partake, but in essence you’re going to have to work on all facets to be successful. You’ll also need to handle the diplomacy aspect of your relationships with each of the other agencies and press as well, though you’ll eventually be able to do cooperative joint missions if your relationship reaches a certain friendliness. That being said, the lack of a multiplayer mode was disappointing as I would have really enjoyed to ‘race’ against a friend to see who could reach certain space milestones first.
You’ll begin with just missions for Earth, eventually opening up the Moon and other planets. Each planet is basically a hub for missions, some campaign based and other ‘extra’ missions that will give you bonus rewards when successful that will help with your bank roll, experience and even perks for your rockets. Each mission has different lengths, distances and how long it will take to complete, so when you start to have multiple missions happening simultaneously, you’ll need to balance many things at once. Even though missions occur turn-based, month by month, you’ll still need to keep an eye on many facets at once to plan accordingly. Thankfully you’re able to make time move forward a month at a time at any point, or directly to the completion of your next mission or event.
There’s research trees that doesn’t cost anything to start enabling, but each one takes a certain amount of time to complete. There are three trees: Missions, Buildings and Vehicles. Missions are how you’ll eventually ‘unlock’ planets’ missions to orbit and other special missions once you’ve done enough research.
Sometimes though to actually go on that mission you’re going to need certain buildings on your base, which is where the second tree comes into play. The Buildings research is where you’ll unlock larger launch pads and other bonuses. You only have a certain amount of grid space to place all your buildings though, and you’ll also want to layout your base with strategy though, as certain buildings will get bonuses for being attached to other specific structures.
All of this costs money though, which you’ll earn from completing missions. Certain missions will require specific payloads or rockets, which also cost money, so there’s a balancing game you constantly need to play until funds start to roll in. With no real cost to research things aside from time, you’ll eventually unlock everything with enough time and patience.
With each mission you’ll have a specific payload that’s going to be sent into space, and to do so you’ll need to make sure you build a proper rocket that can not only hold the weight of your payload and reach its destination, but that you can also afford it. You’ll actually get to design your own rockets, with better and larger components costing more money and taking longer to build. You’ll eventually find pairings that work well for most missions and you’ll want to constantly use, as those parts will level up and become better in time once they reach the maximum level of five.
There’s a lot more that goes into launching a rocket into space though aside from the hardware itself. You’ll also need to consider many other facets, like launch reliability, weather and more. Once your payload and rocket has been built over the course of a few months you’ll then choose a crew, if any, the strategy you want to take like bonus reliability or extra currency, then you'll choose a launch date. This will open a calendar, showing ideal and not so ideal launch dates. Again, you’re in a space race, so do you delay a launch by a month or two for better weather, or risk possibly having a disastrous launch?
Once you’ve researched the whole components tree, you’ll have plenty of different rocket parts to choose from, some historical as well. In the beginning you won’t have many money issues, but eventually the costs for everything will start to skyrocket, so you’ll need to be pickier in what components and missions you choose. Eventually money and other resources won’t become an issue, but it takes quite some time to get to that point.
Visually, Mars Horizon is simple and clean, and given that it’s mainly a management game it’s very menu based, so there’s usually not a lot to look at. That being said, the UI is designed very well as it is simplistic and has been console-fied. You’re generally always only one button away from doing what you want to do, so a lot of work has gone into making it very accessible and easy use with a controller, which I appreciate. Even though there’s a slew of menus you’re constantly going through, it’s quick and simple to navigate. As for the audio, there’s some background ambient music that plays, but there’s absolutely nothing memorable otherwise. The countdown for launch and the rockets blasting off is fun to watch and listen to for the first few times, but eventually you’ll skip these scenes after a repeated launches into space.
With multiple factions and difficulties, there’s technically some reason(s) to play through the campaign again once completed, especially if you missed any achievements the first time around, but honestly, there’s so little replay value as there’s simply not enough variation with the different factions. So, once you’re done with the campaign, there’s really not much reason to start it all over again unless you want to challenge yourself on a harder or custom difficulty.
I honestly was expecting to be quite bored with a management game that is quite menu heavy; however, once I started getting the hang of how to prioritize my research and start to make enough cash, I became hooked at trying to win the space race to Mars and furthering my reach into our solar system. It might not have much replayability, but Mars Horizon might just be something that you'll be positively surprised with if you give it a chance.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Exit the Gungeon
Back in 2016, a little indie roguelike amassed quite a following with the release of Enter the Gungeon for its addictive and challenging gameplay. Here we are four years later with its pseudo sequel, aptly titled Exit the Gungeon. While some might not consider it a true sequel, and more of a spin off because of a drastic change in its gameplay, its cannon does take place directly after the concluding events of the first game. If you’re yearning for a challenging rougelike bullet hell, Exit the Gungeon might just be the spinoff you’ve been looking for, though fans of the original should be aware that the gameplay has shifted from its classic top down view to something drastically different, but there’s also plenty of fan service and details you’ll recognize from the first game.Remember that time you entered the Gungeon and got a gun that could kill time? Well, turns out that in doing so the Gunslinger caused a paradox, fracturing time, so naturally the Gungeon is starting to collapse on itself. This is the setup and smart way to setup the change in gameplay, as you’ll be trying to exit the Gungeon via elevators. Of course the enemies won’t let you do so easily, so prepare to shoot your way out while you try and survive.
Enter the Gungeon was a top down adventure, exploring and surviving a series of interconnected rooms. Exit the Gungeon on the other hand has you trying to escape on seemingly never ending elevators, making this a sidescrolling roguelike shooter instead. While some purists may not enjoy the drastic shift in gameplay, it works well and obviously makes sense narratively speaking. This also means that most levels are quite basic, as there are different types of elevators with plenty of varying enemies and traps, but there’s not much else in terms of variety for level design. This singe room approach will at times make you feel claustrophobic and cramped, especially when bullets really start to fly, as there are traps to avoid and lots of pits that can kill you as well.
The other major change is what they tout as your blessed weapon. At the beginning of each run the Sorceress will bless your gun causing your weapon to change randomly into another type of gun after dealing a certain amount of damage, a set amount of time, killing a certain amount of enemies or running out of ammo. That’s right, your gun is going to constantly be changing on you, and because this is a roguelike, it’s completely random. This sometimes works out in your favor, but can also severely hinder you at times as well if you get a terrible gun in the middle of a big battle or boss fight. There’s apparently some sort of system where you get better weapons based on combos, but this isn’t explained all too well, and honestly, there’s way too much going on screen at one time to even pay attention to details like that anyway. Simply just be prepare to have your weapon swap on you at the most inopportune moments.
There’s another optional mechanic where you can toggle specific weapon drops, but these guns will require ammo, whereas your blessed randomized weapon(s) do not. You’re going to always start with a lame simple pistol, but then it gets weird when you start getting really odd weapons, such as one that shoots bubbles, leaves, a tentacle or even one that shoots “bullets”, yes, the letters that make the word “bullets”. Some weapons are vastly superior to others, but the problem lies in its randomness. Sometimes you’ll get surrounded by a ton of enemies and you get swapped to a weapon that only fires one bullet at a time. Or maybe you’re fighting a boss, needing to keep distance, but you get randomly swapped to a shotgun.
The Pilot, Marine, Convict and Hunter return, allowing you to choose from either, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and play styles. Not only will who you choose slightly change how you play, but the elevators you experience will slightly differ as well for each run. You’re able to freely swap, so you’re not totally locked into a specific character. Each character will need to roll and dodge to survive, a skill you’ll need to master if you don’t want to die and have to start all over again. As you roll or jump, you have a moment of invulnerability, so this is how you escape seemingly impossible spots when bullets are coming towards you from every direction. While there’s a brief tutorial in the beginning about these skills, it took quite some time to react with it naturally and become much more proficient with staying alive longer than a few floors.
Some stages themselves can be inherently much more difficult than others just based on how its elevator is setup. Some for example have a large gap in the middle, and if you fall down you take damage, effectively cutting off a good portion of moving and breathing room to dodge. Some platform sections move, others are pressure buttons that will shoot at you if you don’t step on them after a short period of time, and even one elevator is made up of platforms that sit atop of balloons that randomly pop.
As you kill enemies and survive, each elevator will result in a boss fight if you’re able to survive that long. I don’t want to spoil any of these, as they were quite fun to battle, and challenging, but fans of the original game will surely smile when they see some of their favorites return but in new forms and attack patterns.
In between each section and taking the elevator up a level, you’ll enter an area where you can purchase items at the shop with the currency you’ve collected, or partake in optional challenge rooms with a few enemies to earn some extra cash or items. This can work for or against you though, as you might leave these rooms with less health than you began with, so choose wisely. The shop will be your best friend, as this is where you’ll be able to purchase health refills, armor and more, should you have enough of course. Remember Resourceful Rat from the first game? He’s back but will now sell you keys to save your imprisoned friends, adding new NPC’s that can change a variety of different things, like stores to purchase special items and more in subsequent Gungeon runs. Spending money on keys means less to refill health and purchase other weapons though, so again, choose wisely.
I’m all for a challenging roguelike if it’s fair, and while Exit the Gungeon is absolutely beatable, it’s quite a journey to get to that skill level to actually do so. The small elevator level design feels cramped and claustrophobic at the best of times, and the bullet hell on screen at certain times can be overwhelming with all the chaos happening simultaneously. While Exit the Gungeon might be a drastic change in its gameplay from the first game, it still has all the charm and essence that you fell in love with in the first place.
**Exit the Gungeon was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Serious Sam Collection
Back when the Serious Sam games originally released, I remember thinking how amazing and mind blowing it looked and played. Nostalgia is a funny thing though, as you sometimes remember things quite differently from how they actually are. Case in point, revisiting Serious Sam after all these years made me realize just how primitive it actually was by design, especially compared to today’s gaming standards. Serious Sam has a simple concept: Give you guns and a near endless amount of aliens and enemies to shoot, rinse and repeat. Serious Sam will never be known for its story or cutscenes, and that’s fine, as it’s simply meant to be a mindless shooter where you blast anything that moves. Like I said, my nostalgia made me remember so much more, but playing through again I realized how utterly basic its gameplay really is.Back in ‘the day’, shooters were very simple affairs. Many didn’t have elaborate set pieces, lengthy cutscenes or even much of a story, and Serious Sam is the epitome of this classic and simple game design. Harkening back to a simpler time, the Serious Sam Collection will give you a glimpse into the past of early 2000 shooters, for better and worse.
There’s really not much of a plotline when it comes to the Serious Sam games generally. This was improved in part 3, but for the most part, Sam is fighting against a never ending onslaught of aliens and machines that serve an alien overlord that humans call “Mental”. You never see this overlord though, and the “story” is paper thin at best, but that’s not why you play a Serious Sam game. You play to blast aliens in the face nonstop, of which Serious Sam knows how to deliver. Combat is constantly chaotic and frantic, with enemies coming at you almost endlessly, so you need to constantly be moving, finding health, shield and ammo pickups as you try and navigate towards the confusing land of Egyptian pyramids and relics. Combat is as simple as it gets, simply point and aim at the enemies constantly rushing towards you with your pistols, rifles, rocket launchers, cannons, alien guns, shotguns, minigun and more. It’s as basic and brainless as it comes.
So what’s included with this latest collection? The Serious Sam Collection includes all content from Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and Serious Sam 3: BFE, including The Legend of the Beast and Jewel of the Nile expansions. Oddly enough, the latest Serious Sam 4 isn’t included, though it hasn’t been released on console yet so I can see why, I guess to get you ready for it next year. I also expected the awesome spin-off Serious Sam Double D XXL to be included, as it was with an older collection, but sadly it’s not here, just the main core games.
So what’s been improved and updated since the last time we played as Sam? It really doesn’t seem like a lot. Yeah it’s got its resolution upped to 4K, but its ancient textures still make it hideous at the best of times. Multiplayer has been added for cooperative and competitive 16 players, but throughout my days of reviewing, I was only able to find a handful of other players to join every time I tried. Aside from that, it’s a pretty bare-boned collection without much in terms for extras.
The first two Serious Sam games are very similar and quite basic in design, sadly also showing their age and not much content within. You need to make it from area to area in Egypt, but as you reach a locked door you either need to defeat every enemy that spawns over a set amount of time, or find special relics that will then unlock said door. Enemies spawn almost constantly, so you need to always be moving and strafing to survive as you blast everything in your way. You can quickly become overrun, so don’t back yourself into a corner. Game design is as basic as it comes in these first two games, but such was the time in that era, so it’s hard to hold it against it.
Serious Sam 3 is where the series started to take a more modern approach to game design, with more intricate levels, cutscenes and even ADS (aim down sights) for your weaponry. It’s still very rough and basic compared to other games, but the graphics were much improved, especially the lighting and water effects, and actually had some minor dialogue thrown in for good measure. You were also able to reload weapons in this one as well, so you can see just how basic the original games were in comparison.
What makes Serious Sam so unique is its odd and unique enemies that barely change throughout the whole series, the most iconic being the headless men that run at you with bombs strapped to their hands screaming (somehow). You’ll fight undead skeleton horses that toss bolas at you, robots, one eyed monsters that look like a ringer for Gossamer and more. There’s really not much change or additions in the series from the first game to the latest aside from the visuals being improved slightly as time went on. Firefights will become quite repetitive over time, as it’s always the same setup with being trapped in an area with enemies rushing you, especially if you play the games and DLC back to back.
Being a game series from back in the early 2000’s, its mechanics are also from that era as well. You don’t have regenerating health and shields, so you must search the map for pickups as you blast all enemies you see. Level design in this era was also quite basic, and to be honest, really quite poor when compared to anything even remotely modern. Even though I’ve played through the Serious Sam games a number of times in the past, I still found myself lost now and then, unsure where to go or what I was missing.
One big bonus that I wasn’t expecting was its multiplayer addition. Yes, the series has had online components before, but now it allows up to 16 players at a time, even co-op campaign as well. As noted above though, it seems there’s a very small community playing this currently, as I was only able to find a handful of people playing every time I tried to do so since reviewing the collection. Sure you can play solo, but it’s always better with friends.
Graphically speaking, Serious Sam hasn’t aged very well. Yes, it’s got 4K support and framerates are very smooth in Performance mode, but the textures don’t seem as though they’ve been updated or improved, so you simply are looking at a 4K version of ugly at the best of times. Serious Sam 3 improves the visuals quite dramatically compared to the original games, but still looks quite dated. The audio is basically the same, as it is filled with repetitive gun sounds and enemy groans and screams. The small amount of voice acting included is cringe worthy at best, and the music is fitting for the massive gunfights, but is forgettable overall.
For newcomers to the series, the Serious Sam Collection is basically the best entry point, as you get all of the core games in one place with arguably the ‘best looking’ and performing versions of each. There’s a decent amount of content within, but it’s very repetitive and barely evolves from game to game. That being said, there are a handful of customization options included to make the game more accessible, easier or harder, depending on your preferences, of which don’t affect achievements either surprisingly, something I really appreciated. Playing with infinite ammo was quite a blast and fed into that Serious Sam mindset of shooting anything that moved.
Sometimes you want to simply turn off your brain and shoot a bunch of aliens, and this is where Serious Sam excels, as not many brain cells are required to play or enjoy this collection. Like a movie that has a cult following, most won’t see what makes Serious Sam so special, but to those fans that do love the series, the nostalgia should be worth the price of admission, even if it’s priced a little high for little to no extra care or content added.
**Serious Sam Collection was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
YesterMorrow
While 2D platformers are commonplace these days, sometimes there’s one that stands out amongst the crowd for a number of reasons. While YesterMorrow isn’t the best of the genre, it sure did catch my attention with its gorgeous retro visuals and interesting time travel mechanics. A 2D platformer at its core, you’ll also be solving puzzles across two different timelines, making for some serious challenge at times. You’ll also need have quick reflexes, as some jumps will need to be timed perfectly, and boss fights will take all the skill you have to defeat.If you’re like me, you have at least some sort of regret in life that you wish you could take back or do-over in some sense, fixing something that went terribly awry or righting some sort of wrong. This is the premise for our hero, Yui, who is on a quest to save everything, and everyone, that she loved when it was all destroyed.
Yui lives with her family in a small village, when one fateful night an evil shadowy figure invades their world, plunging the world into eternal darkness. Everyone scurries for shelter to hide, including her family, but they are kidnapped and taken somewhere unknown. Yui manages to survive, vowing to take revenge and fight against the darkness to save her family, though unsure how to do so. She’s going to have to travel back to the past to save the future, making for a really interesting story and timeline meshing. Hence the title, as she’s going to have to return to Yesterday and Tomorrow, simultaneously.
I’m not sure why, but I expected YesterMorrow to be a short and quick game I could breeze through, but I was completely wrong. The world is quite expansive, taking you to a number of different areas within Yui’s world, each with their own setting, puzzles and enemies, complete with a day and night cycle that isn’t simply just for visual looks. Remember, bad things happen and enemies appear when darkness falls.
Yui will need to learn to harness the power of time travel, going into the past and future, to solve many puzzles. For example, maybe you can’t access an area or get past something because its pathway is blocked. Most times this means you’ll need to travel back in time to hit a switch or cause something to happen, which in turn changes the world in the future. This is a really interesting way to keep things engaing, as even though you’re constantly backtracking and going through areas twice, it can play out drastically different based on which timeline you’re in. My only complaint with this mechanic is that it’s relied on quite heavily, and almost any new area can be expected to be ran through twice because of it.
This also causes enemies to change based on which timeline you’re in, either before the cataclysmic event or afterwards. In the darkness filled world, enemies will harm you when touched, whereas most regular enemies in the past can be jumped on without issue. Yui’s physical form changes based on the timeline you’re in as well, either her younger self as a kid, or as a dark and badass ninja in present day. You’d think that someone in the village would listen or believe her when she tries to warn them in the past, knowing what she knows now, but alas no one does, so she’s on her own to save everyone.
Doing so won’t be easy though, and along your journey you’ll uncover and learn new abilities as needed. You begin with only being able to jump and roll, as combat isn’t a big focus early on, but the platforming aspect takes the main stage instead. As you explore and progress you’ll learn new abilities, like being able to attack dark enemies with light bombs. This will cause the shadows that have taken them over to be expelled, meaning you’ll have to toss another bomb to finally dispatch them for good. You’ll eventually unlock double jumping as well, allowing you to traverse to new areas, and each new ability is introduced at a steady pace to make sure you don’t become too overwhelmed at once, though this frustration will happen regardless as you need to usually be pixel perfect and time your jumps flawlessly to progress as you venture forth.
This is where I started to take issue with YesterMorrow the more I played. The level design is great overall, and the controls work, but you have to be absolutely perfect at times or else you’ll fall or fail. Checkpoints aren’t always close together either, and I can’t even count the times I’ve had to replay lengthy sections numerous times because I kept failing a specific jump, or worse, not grabbing onto a rope or spider web. This took some getting used to, as if you want to grab onto a vine or anything of the sort, you need to simply press ‘UP’ alone on the D-pad, not diagonally like in most games. With practice you’ll get used to it, but it felt very frustrating in the beginning.
As you explore and adventure across the different worlds and timelines, you’ll face many different enemies and a handful of unique and challenging bosses. These bosses were easily the highlight of my time with YesterMorrow, usually taking a few tries to defeat as you learn the patters and work on your jump and bomb timing.
Visually speaking, YesterMorrow utilizes some amazing and gorgeous retro aesthetics. Yes, retro pixel graphics are nothing new, but it’s done surprisingly well, has lots of little details in each character and area, like the water effects, and the animations are quite fluid and smooth, plus, there’s adorable animals you can find and pet just because (and for achievements). Each timeline has its own mood and feel, being bright and cheery in the past and dark and ominous in the future. The audio is also fitting, based on what’s happening on screen at the time, varying based on your timeline and area you’re exploring. While the soundtrack is decent and melodic, there’s also subtle detail layered in as well, like chains clanging when hanging onto them or the clacking of an enemy centipede’s feet boss as it travels around the screen.
While not the most difficult platformer out there like others, more than once I felt like quitting due to frustration of having to redo large sections over again due to inconsistent checkpoints. More than a handful of times it felt like a slog to get through the same sections all over again, or backtracking to get somewhere I needed now that I had a new power. The time travel mechanic is interesting but slightly overused, as you’ll come to expect having to explore each area in both timelines. Even with all the issues and frustration that I had, YesterMorrow was one that I’m glad to have played. It’s not perfect by any means, but you can tell it has a lot of heart and charm to it.
**YesterMorrow was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition
JRPG’s are one of my most favorite genres. While it’s very difficult for myself to find the time to sink dozens of hours into an expansive game like most JRG’s, I make sure to find a way somehow if the experience and journey is worth it. I don’t have a lot of spare time, meaning I can’t generally play through a game twice unless it’s something special. I previously played Dragon Quest XI back when it released on Playstation a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Here we are a few years later with an updated version, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition, and I’ve purposely made the time to sink another 50-100 hours into one of the better JRPG’s I’ve played in recent memory, extremely excited to see what’s been added in this Definitive Edition, but also the improvements on an Xbox Series X.The Dragon Quest series has been around since the original NES, so over the course of over three decades, it’s amassed quite a following with quite a few games and spinoffs over the years and console generations. While I’ve played the odd one here and there, I never really got around to sinking a large amount of time into any of the previous games until this one, but now that I’ve done so twice, it still ranks up there in one of my favorites, even before the great Definitive Edition treatment.
So if you’re like me and have already sunk in countless hours into its original release, you’re probably wondering if this Definitive Edition is worth the upgrade, what’s new and if you should set aside another hundred hours all over again. Obviously the full Dragon Quest XI game is included, but with a slew of additions, quality of life improvements, new character-specific scenarios, new soundtrack, a 16-bit 2D mode and much more that made it a joy to play all over again while also feeling fresh.
That’s right, if you yearn for those classic days of 16-bit sprites but don’t want to dust off your Super Nintendo, you’re able to play the game from beginning to end in this classic mode. Not just the visuals can be changed though, as you can choose from the original soundtrack or an orchestral version. On top of that, you can also decide to have the voicework in English or Japanese. These may not seem like a big deal, but there are very few games that have gone through this much rework to add a completely different way to experience the game.
The original game was a bit slow paced, and because of this feedback, a X2 and X4 battle speed multiplier has been added if you wish to utilize it. This allows you to complete battles much quicker, especially if you set your tactics for your team to automatically fight. For those that have already done everything in the game preciously, there are completely new Draconian Quest settings, allowing you to alter certain elements in the game itself, making for a much more challenging experience. And lastly, a photo mode was finally added, and while not the most robust one out there, is sufficient enough to snap some gorgeous landscapes and make poses with your party.
Set in the land of Erdrea, it’s said that the Luminary is the one who will save the world from its darkest hour from an evil unlike any other seen before. You, the hero of this tale, is the reincarnation of the Luminary, as you bear the mark on your skin. Many of the world don’t see him as a savior, but instead a threat, as if he exists, it means that the presence of the opposing evil does as well.
The Luminary ends up being thrown in jail after informing the King of his true self, as he wants to try and stop the prophecy from coming true. You meet a fellow cellmate named Erik who helps you escape, seemingly tied into your own fate. I don’t want to say much more about the narrative to avoid any spoilers, but it’s an epic journey that will see the Luminary and his group of memorable friends embark on an unforgettable adventure to uncover the mystery of his own fate while all intertwining in different ways. The main campaign will take you a few dozens of hours alone to beat, but with all the sidequests and extra things to do, you can easily spend more than a hundred hours in the world of Erdrea.
The world itself is quite vast, as each area has its own map, some large enough that you’ll want to utilize your horse for quicker travel. What makes Dragon Quest XI interesting is that battles with monsters aren’t simply random after a certain amount of steps, but instead, you see them visible as you explore, for most areas. Run into them, or them into you, and you’ll begin combat, or completely avoid them if you’re trying to get quickly from one point to the next. It should be noted that in 2D mode though, battles are randomized, due to not showing enemies on the map.
Like most JRPG’s, you’ll be adventuring, leveling up, learning new skills and gaining new gear along the way. Towns are vibrant, full of characters, shops, inns, hidden chests, collectables and quests from residents. Generally you’ll come to a town, get a few quests that send you to the next area and town, rinse and repeat until the credits roll. As you learn more about the main plot, you’ll eventually be able to sail the open seas and even fast travel to and from any campsite and town you’ve been to along the way, drastically reducing wasted time.
While you can purchase new armor, weapons and accessories from the shops, you’re also able to craft your own once you find the necessary blueprints and have the materials to do so. This forging of gear is like a mini-game though, as it’s not simply pressing a button and you magically have the item. Instead, you actually need to craft the item in a forge-like game, filling out bars to determine its quality with a set amount of action points. Become proficient enough at this and you’ll be able to create gear up to +3, adding some extra bonuses to their stats. Or if you just spent a ton of gold on a new item, you can use the forge to improve it to +3, as you can only purchase base items.
While I opted to not utilize any, there are a handful of Draconian Quests you can alter your gameplay with if you want a much more challenging experience. Turn on game changing options like No Fleeing From Battle, No Shopping, Much Stronger Enemies, and more. If you enable these and find it too annoying or challenging, you can turn them off at a save point, but won’t be able to re-enable them without starting a new game, so decide wisely and plan ahead.
Combat is done well and allows for some customization. You can enable traditional style combat with turn based battles, easy enough to learn and get the hand of, but can also utilize a pseudo real-time combat system where you can move your team around the battlefield as well. Defeat monsters and enemies and you’ll earn experience points to level up. Level up and you’ll earn Skill Points to unlock new abilities and bonuses stats. Luckily there really wasn’t all that much grinding that was needed for me to progress through, though if you get lucky and defeat metal slimes and bosses, you’ll net a ton of experience and usually gain a level each time.
The skill tree is basic in design, allowing you to see a grid of different abilities, choosing the ones you want to unlock as you save up enough points. These new skills are different for each character, allowing you to specialize in different ways based on your playstyle. For example, the Luminary can attack with swords or great swords, so if you prefer one over the other, then choose to spend skill points into the corresponding tree to improve those abilities more. Some also offer passive bonuses like extra stats, MP, and more. If you happen to end up not liking your build, you are able to respect your skill points, but for a gold cost.
Dragon Quest XI looked great at its initial launch, but Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition looks absolutely stunning in 4K 60fps on an Xbox Series X. The world is so bright and colorful, the characters designed with that signature Japanese style, and of course it’s Dragon Quest, so plenty of adorable slimes throughout as well. Changing zones and going in and out of battle was near instantaneous playing on an Xbox Series X installed on the internal drive, something that was a hinderance with its initial release on last generation consoles. Some of the vistas are absolutely amazing, and I made good use of the Photo Mode to capture some of these beautiful backdrops.
Nearly every line of dialogue is voiced as well, and the main characters are very memorable. The voice acting is done quite well, though the Luminary himself doesn’t speak that you ever hear, which can be a little jarring at first. The soundtrack is epic as you’d expect from a massive JRPG, especially the newly added orchestral version, and each track fits the mood and setting of what’s happening on screen perfectly.
Regardless if you’re new to the series or a longtime fan, Dragon Quest XI is the perfect game to experience what Dragon Quest is all about. Not only is Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition one of the best JRPG’s you’ll find on Xbox, but it’s actually in my top 5 of all time. Easy enough for new fans to get into but enough optional challenge for those that crave it, this Definitive Edition really does live up to its name and is the version I wish I originally played two years ago.
** Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Yes, Your Grace
Most games that take place in kingdoms are generally open world adventures that has you fulfilling some magical or world saving quest. Yes, Your Grace does things completely differently. Instead of some grandiose adventure, you, King Eryk of the land of Davern, will perform your daily kingly duties, listening to petitioners, deciding courses of action that benefit your subjects, your livelihood and kingdom. Yes, Your Grace plays more like a kingdom management game than anything else, which isn’t what I was expecting, but surely made me think differently about the daily duties of a King.Developed by a small indie studio, Brave At Night, you’ll be faced with making some very difficult situations, some of which you won’t realize the repercussions until much later. Do you decide to help your subjects short term, or think long term and do what’s better for the kingdom as a whole? Do you turn away starving people to better bolster your defenses? How do you even know if the person asking for help or a handout is even telling the truth? Much of the game will be weighing your decisions, trying to decide what the best course of action is, but it’s not always so black and white.
While he may be a King, Eryk seemingly doesn’t have the wealthiest of kingdoms, so you can’t simply throw gold at every problem, as you’ll quickly run out. The same goes for your supplies and men, so you need to constantly balance how and whom you want to help. Decide to help no one and your subjects will turn against you, so you have to constantly be watching your gold, supplies, men and morale. Ideally you want to keep everyone happy, but it simply isn’t possible.
Every new day you’ll have a line of villagers and messengers asking for your assistance. Some request assistance with monsters attacking their village, whereas others might want a helping hand to open a tavern. You have no idea who is telling the truth, or if they’ll simply run away with your gold instead of doing what they said they would. Then there are some very difficult choices, like marrying off your daughters in return for protection and an alliance from other Lords and Kings. I don’t want to delve into the main plot points, as that’s what the gameplay revolves around, but it was interesting enough that I wanted to see it through.
Much of Yes, Your Grace is designed to make you believe your choices matter, and while they do to an extent, there’s many events that occur that take place regardless of your choices, which forces the narrative in a specified direction. The major plot points are going to play out generally the same way regardless of how and whom you choose to help, which is fine, but once you understand how to manage your resources, that’s what most of your decision making will come down to. If any of your resources like gold, supplies or following dips to zero or below, it’s game over. I’ve reached a ‘Game Over’ screen at least a half dozen times before figuring this out, then I was able to finally reach one of the endings.
A management game at its core, the main emphasis is keeping your subjects content, though you’ll have numerous other issues to deal with, like your youngest daughter who keeps finding random animals to keep as pets, or another daughter that is taking up sword fighting against your better judgement. While the crux of the gameplay will be listening to all your petitioners each week, you are able to move around your castle and explore the other areas, talking to NPC’s (though generally if it’s only relevant for a quest), gathering evidence or sending your General and other special servants to explore areas outside the walls for you.
As you listen to everyone and do everything you can in the given week, you’ll then finish your week with a summary of your gains, losses and costs. This will all be a direct result of the decisions you make. If you spent gold to help repair buildings, then maybe that will pay you returns in the future. Maybe giving some peasants supplies pays off in different ways in the following weeks. All it comes down to though is that you can’t hit zero or negative on your gold, supplies, army or following. This weekly screen is where you can decide to invent more into certain projects, pay the weekly payroll for certain subjects or even slowly pay off your debt from loans. It’s not explained all that well in the beginning, but after a few ‘Game Over’ screens you’ll start to catch on.
As you get further into the story, certain quests will appear, allowing you to send your General, Witch or Hunter, if you wish. Choosing to do so will send them out for a week or two, but what happens if two people require the help of your General? You need to make tough decisions. Do you try and give them supplies or gold instead? That’s difficult because your army needs to be fed as well, so there’s a constant pull from every direction, trying to figure out the best course of action short and long term. You can’t keep everyone happy, which was hard for me to accept at first. You’re also only allowed one game save at a time as well, so no choosing one option and reloading a different save to see what the outcome is. You’ll have to live with your decisions, for better and worse.
You’ll also be able to invite Lords to your castle via pigeon carrier, so it will take a week for them to arrive. Do you invite a guest that could potentially join under your banner when the time comes for battle, or would you give into their sometimes unfair demands for their protection? Maybe one Lord wants to turn you against another though. These are the decisions you won’t see the outcomes until much later, which can help or harm your efforts into surviving the ever looming battle. You interact with your family enough and learn about their backstory that you actually start to care about some of them as you progress, which speaks volumes about the quality of the writing and narrative.
Yes, Your Grace utilizes retro pixel based graphics, something akin to a classic King’s Quest or from that era. Even with its retro aesthetic, the artwork and animations are done exceptionally well for its style. Characters look distinct, animation is smooth and even the opening title screen is wonderful to look at. The same goes for its audio and setting, as it utilizes that classic retro music that sounds like it came directly out of the 80’s or 90’s. While there’s no voice acting, they do use that distinct Sims-like gibberish instead of actual lines of dialogue. The audio and visuals blend together so well, making for a wonderful overall experience that felt modern yet retro simultaneously.
Yes, Your Grace does make you feel like a King, but that comes with making difficult decisions where you won’t always know the exact repercussions until much later. While it may be a kingdom management game at its core, it does have a certain charm, personality and feels like a completely unique experience, plus it’s on GamePass, so there’s no reason to not check it out Your Grace.
**Yes, Your Grace was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Shoot 1UP DX
I’ve played my fair share of shmups (shoot-em-ups) over the years, and one of my favorite games of all time is one of the best in the genre, so there’s a high bar a game needs to hit to stand out amongst the crowd for me to take notice. Somehow, Mommy’s Best Games has managed to remaster one of their games from about a decade ago and bring it to console, and here we are with Shoot 1UP DX. I actually never even heard of the original, so I went into this completely blind, unsure what to expect. If I’m being completely honest, from the screenshots alone, I simply expected another run of the mill indie shmup, which is fine, but was actually impressed by its main mechanic.Most shmups have you controlling a singular ship at a time, but that wasn’t good enough for Shoot 1UP DX, as its main hook is that you’re controlling all of your ships at once, up to thirty at a time! More so than simply adding more ships to fire from, you can also expand and contract your fleet, changing your offensive and defensive abilities. It’s a very simple premise but works very well.
Now, there is a semblance of a story within, something about your home world being destroyed and you leading the charge to extract revenge and stop them, but let’s be honest here, you don’t play shmups for their narrative. Even with my favorite shmump of all time, I really don’t care about its narrative; it’s all about the gameplay, and that’s no different here. You’ll be shooting across eight unique stages, filled with near endless enemies and screen filling bosses, choosing paths to take and expanding your fleet. While each run won’t take you long, well under a half hour, there’s some replayability to be had, including online leaderboards to always strive towards.
At certain points you’ll be given the option to take an easier path where the screen orientation doesn’t change and you simply keep shooting upwards to the top of the screen, though if you want to mix things up, you can choose the harder path. This will generally change the orientation of the gameplay for a short while, so instead of shooting upwards, it might get rotated so that you’re shooting to the right, or maybe even in weird angles. It’s a little jarring at first but once you know what to expect you can adjust on the fly quite quickly.
While controlling a fleet of thirty ships would be interesting on its own, Shoot 1UP DX ups the ante even further, allowing you to freely expand and contract your ships. This means you can expand your ships into a large circle, changing their formation and attack patterns. This allows you to fill nearly the whole screen with bullets and even forms a massive laser in the middle of your ships, but also means you’re easier to be hit as you're spread out. Contracting your ships to overlap one another makes you smaller and easier to dodge, concentrating your fire in a single line. This means there’s a lot of balance between trying to be offensive and defensive on the fly.
Each time you get hit you lose one your ships, and when you reach zero left it’s game over. To counter this, collecting any of the floating 1UP’s adds one more ship to your count, to the maximum of thirty. It’s a really simple premise but works quite well and something I can’t really recall in any other shump recently.
The campaign’s eight stages won’t take too long to complete, so there’s another mode to try where you only have one life to see how far you make it and survive. This mode though instead doesn’t allow you to gain any new ships, but instead will upgrade your firepower whenever you grab a 1UP. It’s a much more challenging mode but one that skilled shmup fans will enjoy. Both modes also allow you to alter certain settings like the game speed and more, though some will disable achievements. Even changing the difficulty will make for new enemies and bullet patterns.
If you have a friend to play alongside on the couch, you can also play cooperatively, with each player controlling their own ships. That’s right, you can have up to 60 ships on screen at once in two player mode. This of course causes the already chaotic gameplay to go up a notch, almost being way too much on the screen to discern what’s going on.
While I quite enjoyed Shoot 1UP DX’s gameplay and mechanics, it looks quite dated, probably because of its age. There’s a lot of repeated enemies and not much in terms of animations, but for a smaller game, it does the job. The audio is pretty much as generic as well, but again, the gameplay is actually quite good and allows for a pass.
Shoot 1UP DX took me by surprise, as I really wasn’t expecting much from it initially, but its unique mechanics really made for a great experience. It’s also fairly priced at a couple bucks so even though there isn’t much content wise, there’s just enough replayability with its online leaderboards for those that want to challenge themselves. While it won’t catch the world on fire, it’s a decent shmup none the less.
**Shoot 1UP DX was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
PHOGS!
I guess I should come clean and admit that I’m a cat person. I’ve actually never owned a dog until recently, yet somehow a game about a two headed dog fell into my lap, so here we are. That’s right, I said two headed dog, and actually, they are conjoined by their stretchy belly too. If you couldn’t tell already, PHOGS! is clearly a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is better for it. I can’t think of any other games off the top of my head that lets you control a two headed doggo set in whimsical and very colorful worlds, complete with numerous puzzles and minigames, so there isn't much direct competition.PHOGS! is from the teams at Bit Loom and Coatsink, and it’s clear that it was a labor of love over the years. From its opening minutes of seeing the cutest game doggos in recent memory, you’ll constantly have a smile on your face from start to finish along its 8-10 hour journey, depending on how you choose to play; solo or alongside a friend. It’s not without its issues, but at its core it was a fun experience I’m glad to have had.
Man’s best friend, named Red and Blue, are linked doggies that also happen to have a stretchy belly, so they are inseparable. Across three distinct worlds you’ll solve puzzles and navigate across 24 different levels. The worlds themselves are all quite varied, as you’ll go through Sleep World, filled with pillows, teddy bears, dim lights and annoying alarm clocks. Food World has you traversing across mountains of tasty treats and food, complete with massive chocolate rivers. Lastly, and my favorite, was Play World. Here you’ll go to the beach, an amusement park and even an old school arcade that brings me back to my youth, complete with tons of minigames Red and Blue will have to complete and solve.
Every world is very distinct and unique, each with their own themes and puzzle types. In Sleep World you’ll have to utilize light to get passed some puzzles, while Food World has you using fountains of chocolate quite often to progress. While there’s a brief tutorial to teach you the basics, new mechanics and puzzle types are slowly introduced, letting you get a grasp on how to solve them going forward. While there is the odd spike of difficulty that had me stumped for a while, the difficulty curve is quite steady throughout for the most part, meaning almost anyone could play alongside you and still progress.
While you’re generally getting from point A to point B, or more specifically, from the worm you entered and heading to the next worm to slide down, there are plenty of extras to find, such as golden bones that can be used to purchase unlockable headwear for the companions, and other collectables for those wanting to get more out of their purchase.
As for the puzzles themselves, most of them are quite cleverly designed, and since much of the gameplay utilizes physics and momentum, it’s always fun to swing Red and Blue from grapple point to the next, or stretching to wrap around a ball to maneuver it where you want it to go. Better yet, some of the minigames in Play World has the doggos playing air hockey, fishing and other interesting games that I quite enjoyed.
While there’s no direct narrative or dialogue, some NPC’s will have a thought bubble above their head, showing you an item they want, usually rewarding you with a secret golden dog bone. Some of these are mandatory, others are not. Each world is broken into six different levels and a boss. Some stages can be longer than others, but on average, it took me around two hours or so to beat each world and move onto the next. You’re able to freely start in any of the worlds you like and go back and forth, but you won’t know what happens when you complete all three worlds until you do, and no, I won’t spoil it for you.
So how does one control a two headed dog? Quite simply actually, depending on your control scheme. If you’re playing alone you’ll control both heads with one controller. If you’re playing local co-op, each player can use their own controller and control their own head, or you can play online with a friend, each controlling Red or Blue. Surprisingly, even playing solo wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be for the most part, save for a few certain puzzles and timed sections.
Red and Blue are conjoined, but move independently. The Left side of the controller controls Blue, and the Right, Red. The sticks move the head, the Bumpers grab onto objects and the Triggers make your body stretch, allowing them to reach further objects. It takes a little getting used to in the beginning, especially solo, but once you learn what side is Red and which is Blue, it almost becomes second nature eventually. The Bumpers will get the most use, as they are how you latch onto objects. For example, to get across a gap you might have to bite onto an anchor point with Blue, stretch and swing your body over a gap with Red and grab on, then letting go of Blue and shrinking back to regular size. It’s interesting puzzles like this that you’ll utilize throughout your adventure.
The doggos even have emotes that they can use with a press of the face buttons. This allows you to communicate with your partner if you’re happy, sad, confused or want to look for the objective. There’s no real necessity to utilize these, but they are cute to have, plus, using the sad emote when your co-op friend constantly screws up is always good for a laugh.
As you collect golden bones that are hidden, you’ll come across shops along your way, allowing you to spend them and decorate Red and Blue however you see fit. These hats add no gameplay variations of any sorts, but make some of the cutest dogs in gaming even cuter somehow. Some of these are quite well hidden, so you’re going to have to be quite thorough if you want to find them all, of which a handful of achievements are tied to.
At the end of each world you’ll come across a boss ‘fight’. I use that term loosely, as it’s still mostly just platforming and puzzle solving, but they are done quite well. I don’t want to spoil any of them, as there are only a handful, but they were easily one of the highlights with my time in PHOGS!.
Normally with small indie games like these, online play is something you can’t really expect, so when I saw that this was actually included with PHOGS!, I was quite surprised. Given the way that the state of the world is in right now, couch co-op simply isn’t an option, yet I was still able to play with a friend in online co-op, so kudos to Bit Loom and Coatsink for putting in the time and effort to do so.
Now the only real issue I had with the online component is that it’s only co-op with people on your friends list. You choose to make an online game and then invite a friend, meaning there’s no matchmaking or lobbies if you wanted to play with someone unknown. I get it though, as you need a lot of communication, so doing so with a stranger might not be the best idea, but if you have no friends that also have the game, then it might be an issue and you'll have to play solo. That being said, PHOGS! is on GamePass, so there’s really no reason you shouldn’t be able to convince a friend to go for a walk beside you.
This of course isn’t without its issues though. More than a few times a friend and I that played together had random issues where she couldn’t see what was going on, or things that were happening on her screen totally differed from mine. Whenever we ran into oddities like this we either simply respawned back at the last worm or simply re-invited to the game again. Thankfully there’s really not that much time lost even doing so, as checkpoints are plentiful.
PHOGS! has a certain charm to it. From its opening moments you’re thrust into a vibrant and colorful world that just makes you want to smile. The doggos are absolutely adorable, and even though I’m not a dog guy at heart, I’d adopt Red and Blue in a heartbeat. Level design is done quite well and the only real issues I ran into were weird physics that would sometimes fling my doggos in weird directions or not control as smoothly as I anticipated. Each of the three worlds are very distinct and was a blast to explore and solve. Audio is just as fitting, with light tunes that suit the worlds and backdrops, and the woof’s that Red and Blue give every time you press the bumpers never gets old. Also, those damn alarm clocks are utterly annoying with their ringing, but designed to be, so it’s hard to hold it against it.
There’s a laundry list of small little bugs I ran into, to the point where I actually stopped taking notes, and while I was initially going to list them all out, I realized that by the time the credits rolled, it didn’t matter because I had a smile on my face nearly the whole time. PHOGS! doesn’t take itself seriously (I’m not sure how it could with a two headed dog anwyay) and works well as a single or co-op experience. Yes you can play solo, but it’s a much better experience alongside or online with a friend, even though you’ll probably curse at each other at least a few times when they screw up.
I wish Red and Blue actually existed, as they are utterly adorable and would no doubt be the goodest boys you could ask for. PHOGS! puts a smile on your face, is utterly weird yet charming, and unique. Give a two headed dog a bone, or two, and download PHOGS! on GamePass if you’re looking for a unique puzzler that is simple yet entertaining.
**PHOGS! was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
GONNER2
While I’ve seen it in passing, I never actually played the first GoNNER. I’ve played my fair share of difficult roguelikes, though usually only when they fall in my lap for review. So here we are today, with GONNER 2, the sequel to the well-received original from 2016. Going into GONNER2 as a completely new player, I didn’t know what to expect aside from the description of the store page: “a messy, cute, fast-paced procedurally-generated platformer” and “Intense platformer shooter action”. Intense doesn’t even begin to describe its extreme difficultly at all. If you’ve played the original GoNNER you’ll know what exactly to expect, but if you’re new like I was, you’re in for a rude awakening. GONNER2 is a procedurally generated platformer-shooter roguelike that is very colorful and whimsical in its aesthetic, but don’t let its cute and basic visuals fool you, you’re going to be dying often and repeatedly.This is where I’d normally delve into the narrative and explain the setting, but there’s absolutely nothing in explained within GONNER2 in any way. No tutorial, no dialogue, no hints, no direction, nothing; just go and figure it out. To figure out what was actually going on I again had to reference its store page to find a description: “In GONNER2, our altruistic and unexpected hero Ikk is back! And this time Death needs his help. Her lair has been taken over by a mysterious presence and she needs Ikk to take it down. Journey your way through deep dark chaotic places with sparks of unimaginable colour and crazy bosses, all while trying to literally keep your head!!”.
Now, I’m not sure how you’d actually figure any of this out as none of the above is actually said or explained in any way, but none of this will matter as you start playing, dying and starting all over again as Ikk delves further into the world to help Death.
Levels are generally small in size, squeezing you out the end of these worm-like creatures, with your goal to make it to the other end and go down the next worm, rinse and repeat. Sounds simple yet it’s anything but, and because every level is procedurally generated every time you play, there’s no memorization to be had, as it’s random. Between the start and end of each stage are tons of enemies, though thankfully the controls are tight and feel quite responsive on a controller.
As you fight your way through each stage, you’ll also want to be mindful of your combo meter once you start to get a grasp on the gameplay and don’t have to focus on simply surviving so heavily. After a certain amount of stages you’ll be able to spend your earned coins on extra hearts and other items before you head into a massive boss fight. Beat the boss and continue on your journey. Die and start over. Pretty run of the mill stuff for more roguelikes.
What makes GONNER2 stand out though is how Ikk can find and equip firearms, but also different heads as well. Ikk starts off as basically a simple blob with legs, but can get a head, backpack and a weapon. You’ll start out with a simple rifle, but can find more weapons hidden along the way. From what I can gather, Ikk’s head makes it so you don’t simply die in one hit, akin to Sonic having at least one ring. When you do get hit you have to go pick up your weapon, head and backpack, as you’re much too squishy and will die without them quite quickly.
If you’ve played the original, you might have to get some used to the fact that you can now aim in any direction, not just the basic four directions. Don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s going to make GONNER2 a cakewalk though, quite the opposite. As you traverse in the stages, the whole world is essentially blacked out aside from the small area around Ikk, almost like having a spotlight constantly on you.
Ikk can move and shoot in any direction, jump, double jump (eventually), dash to damage enemies if you run out of bullets and fire weapons. You have limited ammo though, so you need to be deliberate with your shots and aim well so you don’t be wasteful. Killing enemies will sometimes drop ammo, as will running over sunflowers. Again, something that isn’t explained and I had to figure out on my own. Your combo meter is how you’ll rack up the high scores, needing to kill enemies in rapid succession or else the meter will stop, but this isn’t something you’ll need to worry and focus on until many hours in when you can survive more than a few rooms and bosses at a time.
With a bunch of unlockable secrets, heads, weapons and more, there’s plenty of gameplay to be had, but it’ll simply be determined by your patience of dying dozens and dozens of times. There’s even a local co-op mode if you happen to have someone within the same household to play with, though sadly with the state of the world is in currently, I was unable to test this mode out to its fullest, as I wish an online mode was included.
While I enjoyed my time with GONNER2 even though I was constantly frustrated at dying repeatedly, my biggest issue comes from the fact that there’s no real overall progression. Yes, you get to keep your unlocked weapons, heads and such, but you’re never really working towards much else aside from a highscore and leaderboard bragging rights. Great roguelikes always have that carrot dangling in front of you to entice you to continue playing, and if trying to become a highscore chaser doesn’t appeal to you, there’s not much else here for longevity. I wish there was something else to work towards, like more health or unlocks to make each subsequent run that much easier to survive.
The other issue I constantly had to fight against was its randomness. Yes, it’s procedurally generated levels are one of its features, but I can’t even tell you the times I’ve respawned right into bullets, enemies or unfair spots. Even a handful of times I’ve had it where I was coming out of a worm right into some enemies that were unavoidable. Also, when things get crazy and chaotic, you can get lost in the pandemonium quite easily, which usually ends up in a swift death.
Now, what I did enjoy most was GONNER2’s visual and audio aesthetic. While the graphics are quite basic, it’s colorful, bright and beautiful in a minimalistic manner that screams indie. The audio cues like the different weapons all sound unique and the soundtrack never once grated on me, even after hours of dying. I also never once had any slowdown of any kind and gameplay was smooth throughout on an Xbox Series X.
Difficulty is one thing, unfair is something completely else. GONNER2 fits somewhere right in the middle, though leaning slightly towards unfair and almost out of spite. If you enjoy brutally difficult roguelikes then GONNER2 is exactly what you’re looking for. GONNER2 is also on GamePass, so there’s no reason to not check it out and see if you can handle its challenge.
**GONNER2 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Gears Tactics
As a long time Gears of War fan, I’m always excited when anything related releases, be it a toy, board game, novel or obviously, a game. I have quite the collection too, including two full sized lancers among a ton of other figures and such, so I know my Gears. What I wasn’t expecting though was such a drastic departure from its signature third person cover based shooters with the latest in the series, Gears Tactics. I previously reviewed Gears Tactics back at its PC launch in April, and while I enjoyed it, I, among many others, were waiting for the console version. Thankfully they waited, as the new Xbox Series X and S are here, and Gears Tactics looks absolutely fantastic on the new hardware.Gears is synonymous with Xbox. When you think gears you most likely picture huge buff dudes that spend way too much time in the gym and shoot Locust from behind perfectly placed waist-height cover. Gears has always had the same gameplay throughout its series for the most part, but Gears Tactics completely changes all of this.
Instead of the typical Gears formula of third person cover based shooting, instead, Gears Tactics is more like an X-COM style of game. I know, quite a drastic change, and I wasn’t sure how the gameplay would translate or if it would even still feel like a Gears game at its core. Once I took the time to figure out its mechanics and start to develop strategies, I’m happy to report that it still feels very much like a Gears game, just obviously controlled in a different manner. Even better, Gears Tactics takes from some of the best games in the genre and not only utilizes what makes them great, but even improves in a few aspects as well.
Gears lore is massively robust. Not even including the games, there are at least a half dozen novels and a comic series as well that go into the history of the characters, settings and of course, the war between mankind and the Locust. Set a dozen years before the first game, Sera is under attack from a Locust Horde that’s starting to rise to the surface. You play as Gabe Diaz, which should sound familiar if you’ve played Gears 5, as he is Kait’s father, the protagonist of Gears 5. Gabe was a decorated Lieutenant Colonel for the COG, but after a mission with huge sacrifices, he demoted himself to Sergeant and and refused to work for the COG any further. This is of course when COG comes calling, essentially forcing him back into action begrudgingly.
Gabe’s mission is to find the leader of the Lucust army: Ukkon. It’s said that he’s the one behind the creation of some of the biggest Lucust Sera has ever seen, like the Brumak, so he must be stopped at any cost. Major Sid Redburn will fight alongside Gabe, a veteran who’s been on numerous top secret missions, as will other characters you meet along the way. Gabe can’t fight this fight alone, so he’s going to have to convince others along the way to help save Sera, something only a true leader could manage.
Regardless of everyone’s reason to joining and helping Gabe in their mission, they all agree to Ukkon must be stopped, regardless of the cost. While Ukkon may not be quite as memorable as Skorge or General RAAM as the main antagonist, once his background is revealed, he’s just as important to the overall Gears lore as any other main character, which is incredibly exciting for hardcore fans like myself that are enthralled into its narrative. Luckily, Gears Tactics’ narrative is very self-contained, so if you’re not completely up to par on Gears lore to this point, you can still enjoy an interesting story, though fans are going to get the most out of it when major plot points are revealed. I won’t lie, I had more than one jaw dropping moment watching the beautiful cutscenes play out between missions.
The biggest change is obviously the drastic shift in genre and gameplay, swapping third person shooting for top down strategy. Now you’ll need to think very strategically with its turn based gameplay as you’re given numerous goals and objectives in your missions. If I’m being honest, I was somewhat expecting Gears Tactics to essentially be a reskin of popular games like X-COM and the like. Thankfully I was wrong and they didn’t simply copy other games, but added and tweaked a few features that I would argue is much better for the genre overall.
Instead of simply defeating all enemies on the battlefield, you’ll almost always have some sort of secondary objective you’ll need to meet before finishing a mission, such as destroying something or reaching an extraction point with all your team members. Most missions allow up to four squad mates, though some are designed for less. Even though the camera view and gameplay has drastically changed from what Gears fans are used to, the levels and environments still feel like a Gears game with its semi destroyed landscapes and rubble strewn areas.
Even with its isometric view, it’s easy to appreciate the level design and even the verticality when having to deal with a Locust sniper in a perch locking you down from advancing. While the camera isn’t always perfect, as it was sometimes a little confusing to figure out specific pathways your squad can maneuver without trial and error, there’s enough complexity to add variety to the gameplay where there’s not simply one way to defeat enemy Locust. Some players may opt for a more aggressive flank, while others setup overwatch areas to prevent enemy advancement like I did often.
The campaign flows very well and fluidly in the beginning, that is, until you hit the required side missions. At first I was fine with having these added in, but it eventually started to feel like filler between campaign missions. As a huge Gears fan, I wanted to experience the campaign for its narrative quickly, but was arbitrarily slowed down with these side missions that can’t be skipped. These missions aren’t bad per-se, but have simple objectives compared to the core campaign missions when I simply wanted to progress the narrative more than anything else.
Gears Tactics plays very aggressive. You rarely get to take a breather and relax, as reinforcements are almost always a turn or two behind any Locust clearings you manage. Even if you manage to clear the battlefield, there’s almost always an emergence hole or new swarms of enemies en-route to your position, so you must always be maneuvering with purpose and deliberately thinking of your next move.
Most games in the genre give you one maneuver turn and one for actions like shooting or setting up overwatch. Gears Tactics changes this up and not only adds three actions per character a turn, before any extra bonus actions which can be augmented with gear and abilities, but they can be used for any action. If you want to use three action points (AP) to move your squad further ahead or away, you can do so, as you’re not restricted to a move action then combat separately. Conversely, if you’re in position, you can take utilize 3 AP to fire at enemies each time as well if you wish. This adds a ton of utility, and it wasn’t until the first major boss fight where I realized I could swap between characters between AP use as well, which is substantial when it comes to strategy.
For example, you may become trapped behind cover with enemies using the overwatch ability in your direction. You could flank with one character, disrupt their overwatch, then change back to your hunkered down squad mate and return fire before going back to your flanker for more AP moves. I also fell in love with the overwatch system as you can essentially setup kill areas for any Locust crossing your watched path, but keep in mind, each attack utilized one of your rounds, as reloading takes one AP as well. Factor in that there’s other ways to add more actions and abilities that open a variety of different gameplay options, and you can start to see how robust the tactical side of Gears Tactics truly is. In true Gears fashion, executing a downed enemy will reward you with a bonus action, so there’s always a risk versus reward in your battle strategies. Do you jump out of cover to try and get that execution for special bonuses, or play it safe and try for one more shot for the kill?
Gears is also known for its epic and intense boss battles. Hell, I still remember the General RAAM boss fight after all these years. Gears Tactics is no different, as at the end of each act you’re going to face off against a massive boss. I won’t spoil what you’ll face off against after your first Brumak encounter, but you’re in for some surprises. Boss battles not only has you utilize different strategies from regular missions, but you’re going to have to constantly adapt and adjust based on what the boss is doing or what reinforcement Locust arrive to the battlefield.
While these boss battles are much more drawn own than regular Gears gameplay, they almost feel like they have a puzzle element to their strategies. For example, the Brumak can launch rockets which will explode on the marked areas on the next turn, so you need to balance not only moving out of rocket range, but being in position to attack the Brumak itself but still in cover from regular enemies. Just like most videogame bosses, you’ll need to generally deplete the major segments of health to trigger each battle phase, forcing you to adjust, usually quite drastically. Factor in that Locust reinforcements constantly arrive and emergence holes can appear at any time, and you’ll have to constantly adjust your strategies, not only for your current turn, but thinking ahead as well.
An unexpected surprise was how much customization Gears Tactics allows for your squad. Not only can you change and customize your gear (pun intended) visually, but you’ll also earn statistical mod upgrades for your weapons and armor as well. If you want Gabe to rock an all pink suit of armor, go ahead. When you start to earn new armor pieces with different stats and abilities you can really start to customize your squads to suit your preferred play style. Each character has a set role and abilities, so some missions will favor more sniper ranged characters, where other missions will be much tougher and require Gabe to use his med grenades to heal the squad.
With a decently robust skill tree, you can customize each character how you like, and even respec if needed. While I’m glad tons of work went into the customization, it’s a little monotonous to constantly check and rebalance my teams between each mission. Missions will grant loot chests, and if you’re able to grab chests strewn around the missions, you can earn bonus packs. Thankfully there is no microtransactions, so these loot boxes are all earned by simply playing, even if their rewards seem completely random at times.
You may have noticed that I’ve not mentioned any sort of co-op, skirmishes or multiplayer at all, and that’s because Gears Tactics is solely a single player experience. While there are multiple difficulty options ranging from Beginner to Insane, there’s even an Ironman Mode for those that want an extreme challenge where no deaths are allowed throughout. With no multiplayer component, some may complete it and never touch it again, even though its campaign is a decent length if not padded with side missions.
I was curious how the controls would transition over to console with a controller, and even though I already played through previously on PC with a controller, you just never know what might change since then. Thankfully the controls are tight and intuitive and feels like it’s at home with a controller in your hand. Sometimes games like these must be played with a keyboard and mouse to play properly, but Gears Tactics feels at home on an Xbox controller. Also, some cool bonuses has been included as well since the PC release, like being able to have the awesome Jack robot from Gears 5 join your team with his own unique skill tree, and of course, 4K/60fps on a Series X.
Even though Gears Tactics is a shock to the franchise’s core gameplay, the new strategic take still works for its unique setting. It may not play like any Gears that you’re used to, but it still fits and feels like a true entry into the series without feeling forced. While I could have done without the padded side missions, Gears Tactics still has amazing visuals, writing, gameplay and everything else that fans have come to love about the series. Super fans will obviously get the most from its narrative as it has deep ties into the series’ overall narrative, though strategy game fans can jump in and still enjoy the experience without being a Gear-head.
**Gears Tactics was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars
Back in February I got to get my hands on with an early version of Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars in Game Preview and came away intrigued, as it blended card based gameplay with an almost board game-like overworld and turn based strategic combat. I was curious to see what coming back to its world would be like and what changes and improvements have been made since I last played months ago. Set in a world where a vampiric war is breaking out, you’ll spend the bulk of your time with its lengthy campaign but also have options for Sandbox and Skirmish modes as well if you’re looking for a bit more once the narrative is complete.For a game with “Vampire Wars” in its title, it lives up to its name. Three vampiric bloodlines are at war with one another, with regular mortals caught in the crossfire. The clans of Dracul, Moria and Nosfernus are all vying for power in their own way. The Dracul rule over its land with humans in a unique way, that at long as the humans allow them to be feasted upon when needed, then there will be a ‘peace’ of sorts with lovers Vlad and Cecilia protecting them from outsiders. The Moroia is led by Elizabeth and lays in the outskirts in solitude, with a focus on magic. Lastly, the Nosfernus don’t follow as many rules, feasting whenever they please, waiting for an opportunity to take control of the land of the living.
Each clan has its own leader, playstyle and mechanics. The campaign is split into a dozen intricately crafted missions that took much longer than I was expecting, as each mission can sometimes take well over an hour or two if you take your time and fight each battle manually. While a dozen missions might not sound like much, it’ll last you longer than you expect. Throughout the campaign you’ll see different perspectives and get a glimpse of their motivation and agendas.
Gameplay is essentially broken into two different halves and styles. First is the overview map, titled Kingdom Mode, which plays much like a top-down view of a board game. Here you’ll control your units and leader within a set amount of moves and actions per turn. You can choose to move further into the map to uncover more of the fog, or utilize actions on special panels like villages and such where you can feast, draw new cards, upgrade buildings, recruit troops and more.
There is also a deck building element you need to be mindful about as well, that if used properly, can completely change the outcome of your mission. Some cards will heal your armies, recruit units, give buffs and more. To use your cards though, each has a set amount of blood that’s needed to play per card, so the better and more powerful the card, the more blood it will take to use. To get blood you’ll need to be in control of certain land and villages, as you’ll need to feast on its population to gain blood, sacrificing population for the points. There’s a lot of strategy in knowing what cards to play and when, but more importantly, when to utilize your blood and sacrifice when needed.
As you venture across the overview map you’ll eventually run into enemies, usually blocking the single space needed to progress further, and so comes the other main half of the gameplay, the battles. Played upon a grid based map, you’ll fight against your enemies, be it humans, beasts or other vampires in a turn based strategy. While minor battles will give you the option to auto complete if you don’t want to sit through it, based on your army’s strength versus theirs, the main and story battles need to be manually controlled. There are a handful of different unit types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but there are also objects like trees and buildings on the grid based map too, so you need to be mindful of not blocking your own units’ access to move or others. Battles will take a lot of trial and error to get some decent strategies, but once you start to figure out the best ways to play each, it becomes much more rewarding.
Each unit is meant to be played in a specific way, like archers raining down arrows from afar, and they all have their own abilities as well that can be utilized. Just like on the overview map, you have a card deck for battles as well. These cards again can change the outcome quite dramatically if played properly, allowing you to buff your troops, place shields, heal, deal extra damage and many more. While much of the combat is melee based, there seems to not be many restrictions with line of sight for your ranged units, something that changed many outcomes in my favor once I learned how to block the enemy with my healthier tanks or Lord. You’re going to lose a lot of battles early on until you start to get a hang of some successful strategies, but once you turn that corner and can plan accordingly, it again becomes much more rewarding.
For those wanting a completely custom challenge, Sandbox mode allows you to tweak basically every setting you could think of, even the win objective. Maybe you want to try a two versus one match for more challenge? Go ahead. Skirmish Mode on the other hand allows for one versus one where you pick the clans, their levels, equipment, armies, items, map and more. This mode is where I got to test out all of the clans and their abilities before progressing that far into the campaign. While these are great ideas, there’s absolutely no online multiplayer, so the longevity simply isn’t there.
One of my biggest complaints from the earlier version I played was how overwhelming it can feel in the early stages. Yes there’s a tutorial, but it really only teaches you the basics and the controls, not so much about all of the cards, best times to use them and strategies. Many lost matches with trial and error is how you’re going to learn best, and honestly, jumping back in after not playing a few months was quite difficult, and I had to relearn how to play. This isn’t to say that the controls were ‘bad’, but it’s also not the most intuitive either. Also, my other main complaint was the small font size, as reading the text on the cards can sometimes be difficult, even on my 65” TV.
On and Xbox Series X the load times were incredibly fast, though likely from the hardware and SSD itself more than anything else. Visually, nothing is going to impress you. The models are quite dated, jagged and the voice acting is notably terrible at times.
I really enjoyed the tonality and setting, but it’s hard to justify the asking price of $47.99 CAD for a single player only affair, though a decent sale at half price would be more in line with a solid recommendation. Somehow the different gameplay elements do blend together well, making for a very strategic experience, though it will take a lot of trial and error to fully understand it. Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars may not be the most robust strategy game out there, but has a unique setting with an interesting narrative if you’re starved for a new strategy game.
**Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
DIRT 5
While I’ve played a few of the DIRT series entries here and there, I never really spent much substantial time with any of the iterations over the years. Now that the Xbox Series X has launched, I was looking for some Xbox Series X|S specific games to test out the new console and TV with, to see what all the hype was about. Luckily, DIRT 5 released just before the Series X launch and had Smart Delivery, meaning I got to get the upgraded version for my Series X, which this review is based on.Codemasters has been around for quite some time and I’ve been a fan of their other racing games for years, so I was excited to finally dig my feet into DIRT 5 for the first time, unsure what to really expect other than some pretty visuals. On paper there’s plenty to do here, from a decently sized career across many different race types and weather patterns, split-screen and online races, and even a track editor where you can race endless maps made by the community.
The career is where you’ll spend the majority of your time, rising from a no-body to a star within the sport, under the coaching from another icon. I was also quite surprised to learn that voice over icons Nolan North and Troy Baker lent their talents to part of the campaign as well, adding a professional touch to the whole experience in the world of off-road racing.
Your racing career will span the globe across ten different locations, from Brazil, Greece, Nepal, Norway, China, Italy, Morocco, South Africa, Arizona and Roosevelt Island. Across these locations are multiple routes for each area, plus a handful of different race types as well. Each area has its own distinct look and feel, but my favorites were the uphill one-way races where the terrain is your biggest competition. Even more impressive was the dynamic weather where you can be racing in clear conditions one moment, then be in a near whiteout blizzard or a dust storm that makes it near impossible to see.
While DIRT 5 doesn’t have an extensive car list, each category has a handful of different makes and models to choose from, and while you can add stickers and paintjobs with the livery editor, it’s nowhere near as expansive that we’ve become accustomed to in other pinnacle racers. Vehicles will range in types from trucks, buggies, GT, rally and even 900bhp sprint cars.
What I will say about the career mode is that it’s quite short and not all that challenging overall. Having to restart the odd race here and there because of a mess up on my part, I breezed through the campaign without much worry, even in the last handful of events. What I did enjoy is the option of what pathway you want to go through the campaign. For example, once you finish the opening race there are two choices of race you want to do next. Maybe one is an uphill race and the other a gymkhana. Complete that race and then that branches out further to other selections, so you can aim your career in a way for the events you want to partake in, or avoid others (like how I generally avoided the Gymkana events). There’s nothing stopping you from going back and racing the other choices should you wish, and you might actually do so once you win the final race. I really appreciated being able to focus on the events I enjoyed and avoid the ones I didn’t.
As you win races and move onto the finals of circuits, you’ll earn new sponsors, experience, money and fans. Each race will also have a few optional objectives to strive towards as well. Given that DIRT 5 is primarily an arcade racer, many of these goals are ‘get X seconds of air”, “trade paint while drifting” alongside the typical “stay in first place for X seconds, “overtake X opponents”, etc. These aren’t mandatory, but will give you a slight bonus upon race completion for doing so. You’ll also choose sponsors, of which each will also have their own objective list to be met if you want to rank up and earn new rewards like stickers and decals for popular brands.
I was kind of surprised to see DIRT 5 cater more towards the arcade experience this time around, which is fine, but if you’re looking for an authentic rally experience, realistic driving or even tuning or visual upgrades for the vehicles, you won’t find those here. There’s not even any qualifying races, you simply need to start in last each time and manage to win each race in first. Most racing games take time to learn how its handling and drifting works, and I never really had any issues here, even in my first few races. The controls feel well done and drifting isn’t too complicated to perform exactly how you intend, other than the ice track races of course.
Money comes so quickly that you won’t ever have an issue affording any car you want in each class. This poses a small problem though, as you can basically buy all of the best cars for each class quite early on, and since there’s nothing else to upgrade or purchase, once you’ve done so, money becomes essentially worthless.
The dynamic weather system in DIRT 5 is what really impressed the most. You’ll be racing no problem, then all of a sudden things can change almost instantly. Maybe the clouds open up and a downpour drenches the tracks, or a whiteout blizzard comes out of nowhere and makes it near impossible to see. In particular, the mud in DIRT 5 is absolutely astounding. Zooming through a mud patch will leave your bumper and back of the vehicle dirty, but looks completely realistic.
When you’re done with the campaign and done all you can do, this is where Playgrounds comes in. Here is where you can create any track you could possibly come up with, share it with everyone else and of course, race on other people’s creations. Not only can you make standard race courses, but Gymkhana events, Time Attacks and Smash Attack’s as well. People have some amazing creativity, as I’ve played some completely wild tracks people have created, so be sure to check them out as there’s endless creations, complete with leaderboards.
There is also of course online multiplayer as well for those that want to race the competition online or with friends. Up to 12 players can compete but there’s also four player split screen, which is somewhat of a rarity these days. If you want something different, there are even a handful of different objective based modes as well, so there’s plenty of variety for your friends to enjoy.
For those that want even more content for DIRT 5, there’s an Amplified Edition that gets you a few extras: All of the post-launch DLC, 3 exclusive vehicles (Ariel Nomad Tactical, Audi TT Safari and VW Beetle Rallycross), 3 sponsors with objectives, rewards and liveries on top of some currency and XP boosts. The difference between this and the base game is about $17, but you’ll need to determine if the cost difference is worth it to you for those cars.
While I was able to play DIRT 5 on my Xbox One, I waited until I had my Series X in hand to start my racing career, which this review is based upon. There are multiple visual options, allowing for fidelity, resolution or framerate. Having tried them all, I absolutely stuck with the framerate mode as it was incredibly impressive. Having just got a new TV as well that supports 120hz, framerate mode makes DIRT 5 feel silky smooth if you are able to enable the 120fps and I encountered no hiccups, even when the weather got crazy. As for the game’s aesthetic, it’s bright and colorful and has a simple joyous feeling to it.
The audio is done quite well also. Yes, it’s going to get bonus points for having Nolan North and Troy Baker included for voicing in the game, though it would have been cool if they had a larger role to play. Each vehicle class sounds unique as you rev their engines and drift corners, you can hear mud slinging up the side of your car and rain hitting the windshield if you race in cockpit view. The soundtrack is serviceable and has a few decent tracks, thankfully I never had to mute it or put my own playlist on out of annoyance.
While previous DIRT fans might not be so sure about its arcade direction this time around, for everyone else, it’s an accessible and fun racing game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you happened to get one of the new consoles, playing DIRT 5 in framerate mode is how you can showcase what your new TV can or can’t do. While there’s not much length to the career mode, Playgrounds allows you to create or play anyone else’s track, adding longevity, even if the overall package is a little light on substance.
**DIRT 5 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
WARSAW
While originally released on PC about a little over a year ago, WARSAW Console Edition is finally here for, well, console players. While there’s dozens of games set in the World War II era, you mostly like think of your typical Call of Duty or Battlefield shooters, but every so often a different game in the genre comes in, like WARSAW. Instead of your WWII shooter variety, WARSAW instead is a turn based tactical RPG set in the historically accurate streets of Warsaw when it was occupied by German forces. War is brutal, and it’s no different here, so prepare for a hard fought road ahead, not to win the war itself, but to simply survive.Set in 1944 near the end of the War, the whole backdrop takes place in the ruined city of Warsaw. To fight for your freedom, you’ll need to recruit everyone that you can in the fight against the uprising. Kill your enemies, loot what you can and save all the salvage, as it will help you survive another day. While it’s a historical setting, it’s not too heavy on the history lessons, but instead chooses to focus on its characters with their backstories and minor events that occur doing your missions.
The city is divided into a handful of different districts, each of which needs their morale and supplies to be maintained. If these get too low enemy forces will overtake the district, but you completing missions for the resistance will help keep all of these as high as possible, if you’re successful.
There are essentially three different sections to WARSAW’s gameplay. The first is the map and missions. Here is where you’ll chose a mission in a specific district, each with its own win conditions. You’ll encounter enemies, traps and even historical events that actually took place within the iconic city. The camera is viewed from top down, showing you as a simple round icon navigating the ruined city streets, with arrow icons indicating nearby objectives. As you find supplies or enemies, you can choose to engage or loot, but it all feels very basic, as if you’re playing a board game.
Enemies are indicated by their icons, some of which can be avoided and don’t have an alert radius, and others that have a wide range alert radius that forces you into combat if you step within its boundaries. Supply crates will be littered through the city, but sometimes they are placed by nearby enemy forces, so you’ll need to weigh the risk versus reward for gathering some ammo and supplies. There will also be event icons, which if activated, will usually have some sort of quick narrative and a choice to make. Some of these choices are basic while others will need a skill check to be successful. Some of these are gut wrenching decisions you must make and there’s not always a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ morale option, just a muddy grey area.
You also need to be deliberate with every movement across the map, as you’re only given a certain amount of movement points, and if you don’t succeed in your mission before running out, then it’s a mission fail. While I understand the idea, as you don’t want to be wandering around an enemy occupied city longer than needed, if you get some bad luck and don’t get your objectives randomly placed somewhat nearby or happen to choose the right directions by luck, you might fail.
The second main mechanic of WARSAW is its combat. When you do engage in battle, you’ll be placed in some challenging firefights against the enemy. Not only turn based, you also need to keep tabs on your resource management as well, like ammo, as every move costs something to do; usually your ammo to fire. Every character will have their own weapons and abilities, and being able to make a team of four for each mission means you’ll need to be strategic on whom to take. Do you make a well-rounded team with a medic, heavy bazooka, rifles and machine guns, or do you prefer a more aggressive approach? Be careful though, as death is permanent, and if you lose one of your better characters you’re going to have a much more difficult time going forward.
Viewed in 2D, each side of the screen is broken into a top and bottom lane of four grid spots each. The left side of the screen are your allies, and the right the Nazi’s. You have a certain amount of Action Points that can be used per turn on movement, melee or abilities like firing or buffing. Each turn allows you to use AP for your squad, and interestingly, this means you can choose to use one character multiple times for damage output, but there are downsides to doing so, as this will deplete your stamina, causing you to take more damage and lower your accuracy. Also, most of your attack abilities have specific range requirements, so you’ll have to know where to position yourself to attack the enemy best.
Cover plays a big role as well, as you’ll take decreased damage if standing behind cover, but the enemy will do the same. Some characters will have special abilities to drop cover as well, so it’s a balance of figuring out the best tactics for the battle at hand. There’s a surprising amount of strategy that needs to be figured out, and sadly the game doesn’t teach you much, so your first couple playthroughs are going to end poorly, but once you start to figure out how to best utilize your squad’s abilities it becomes much more enjoyable. Combat is quite difficult, and seemingly randomized for hits and misses, though you can see the exact percentage before committing to an attack.
The last part of WARSAW’s gameplay is within your Hideout. Here’s where your team will hide in secret, able to recruit new members, plan your next move and take a breather for a moment. While you are able to recruit new members, it’s quite costly to do so and they are very generic skill wise, so you best take care of your main characters or you’re almost surely going to lose battles going forward. You can decide what missions to undertake, trying to focus on research gathering or taking down the enemy. There’s a lot of long-term planning you’ll need to assess as well, as to survive the War, you’ll need to be managing multiple different facets of your resistance.
While I had a hard time with WARSAW, what I did enjoy the most was its visual aesthetic with its hand drawn characters and backgrounds. Character design is fitting for the time period, as is the atmosphere and has that brown and grey hue to it that would encapsulate a war torn city in shambles. While the background audio is decent and adds to the atmosphere, there’s not much else of note as it does become a little repetitive.
I always appreciate games with such important historical importance like this and was thankful it wasn’t just a dry history lesson. At the same time, it was quite challenging to keep on top of everything needed to survive, especially when much of my success felt luck based at times. While it has its moments of enjoyment when everything goes according to plan, having to restart numerous times because you lose an important squad member like your medic becomes quite frustrating. There’s a lot of depth and strategy to be had within WARSAW, but surviving will be the priority and fun being a distant second.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
FUSER
I absolutely adore music based games, so when a new one comes along you can bet that I’m all in. From developers HARMONIX, best known for Rock Band and Dance Central, their latest hit is a DJ based game titled FUSER. I played DJ Hero before and expected a similar experience, but got something completely different instead, and thankfully, a much more rewarding experience.Rock Band has a special place in my heart, as a group of my friends would get together every weekend whenever possible and play for hours without fail. Obviously the gaming landscape became too oversaturated with the plastic instruments over the years, and I can’t remember the last time a group of friends got together for a Rock Band night (not that that’s even an option these days), so HARMONIX had to come up with something different. Thankfully this wasn’t too hard, as they basically had already done it previously with their release of Dropmix, a physical card based DJ game that, while may not have done well sales wise, has been translated into videogame form and what we’re talking about today; FUSER.
Described as a nonstop virtual music festival, FUSER has you controlling the music for the masses as a DJ. Not only will you be crafting unique and interesting mixes, but you can combine multiple parts of over 100 songs or work alongside friends online to create some really unique and awesome tracks. Thankfully with HARMONIX behind the wheel, their track record proves that once again that they’re the masters of the musical genre, as I haven’t been able to stop playing since headlining the stage.
After creating your DJ to look just how you want, complete with that signature HAMRONIX character art style, you’ll begin your DJ career as a nobody and obviously work your way up to the main stage the biggest music festival. The campaign will start out simple and with very basic mechanics. As you complete sets and move up the stages, you’ll learn new mechanics that adds another layer of difficulty, but also the creativity opens up fully by the end.
Each set gives you a certain amount of songs you can utilize however you wish, and you’re obviously tasked with not only making a great sounding mix, but trying to appease the audience requests and scoring as high as possible. The requests can come in different forms, such as a specific song, instrument, genre or year. Doing so properly and in the short time given will earn you extra points and make you a better DJ overall, allowing you to freely switch on the fly, not only purposely, but awesomely. You’ll work your way across six different venues, each with its own style and crowd, becoming progressively more difficult.
If you just want to mess around without the pressure of much else, then Freestyle mode is where you’ll want to hang out and mix, though I highly suggest playing completely through the campaign as it’s going to teach you all the nuances and how to create a better sounding mix overall. Simply jumping into Freestyle will allow you to mix songs no problem, but without knowing how to change key, pitch, modes, loops and more it won’t be as possibly good as it could be.
A music based game is only going to be as good as its content; the music. Thankfully HARMONIX knows what they are doing when it comes to musical content and has included more than 100 tracks across a variety of genres, decades and artists. There’s something special about being able to create a mix with 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’ beat with Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gunna Give You Up’ vocals then fade it into some ‘Old Town Road’ mixed with some Salt-N-Pepa ‘Push It’. The options are limitless and can really show your creative side. While listing every track would be far too long, here’s a handful of the notables that I really enjoyed and constantly put in my crate (usable songs on a set):
50 Cent - "In da Club"
A-ha - "Take On Me"
Ace of Base - "The Sign"
Benny Benassi presents The Biz - "Satisfaction"
Blue Öyster Cult - "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe"
DMX - "X Gon' Give It to Ya”
Labelle - "Lady Marmalade"
Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz - "Thrift Shop"
Megadeth - "Symphony of Destruction"
Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up"
Salt-N-Pepa - "Push It"
Being that this is a music game, and if you ever played Rock Band, you most likely also purchased a handful of extra songs here and there. There are also another 25 songs that will be in the first batch of DLC, but is also included in the slightly pricier VIP Edition. I am curious to see what new additions will come in the future, as the store was not live or populated as of the time of this writing pre-launch.
So before you start to set the stage on fire with your mixes, you need to pick the right look for your DJ. While not a ton of options, you can customize them to look almost exactly however you wish. There’s a decent amount of options for clothing and accessories, but I did expect a lot more for some reason. Not only will you customize your character, but everything that goes into your stage as well, including lighting, fireworks, pyrotechnics, video screens and more. Again, while not a ton of options, at least it’s there to add some personality to your stages.
Your main mixing will come from the four different colored turntables that sit in front of you on stage. This is where you can easily choose any song and drop it on your table, deciding if you want the beat, instruments or vocals. Somehow FUSER makes the majority of even the oddest song mashups work. It’s not perfect, as there’s the odd times where certain mixes don’t sound all that great mashed up together, but for the most part, they have some sort of magic that makes it flow and sync together nicely. Blend any pairings from any song in your current crate to make a totally neat and rocking beat for the crowd.
While the core gameplay comes from mixing in this way, there’s a lot more you can do to really amp up your mixes as well. You’ll eventually gain access to instruments, many of which are unlockable, and can be played on top of your current mix or even have loops crated than placed on one of your turntables to fit right in with the rest of the music naturally.
You can also eject discs at any time if you abruptly want to drop a beat, instrument or vocals, mute any layer, or even have any disc solo if you want to focus on one component of the mix at any time. There’s also a bunch of effects you can lay over your individual tracks, or have them play over the whole mix. There’s so many options here at your disposal that it really just comes down to your creativity and style. Yes, the controls for it all takes some time to get accustomed to becoming proficient at doing exactly what you want quickly and when you want, but once you learn how to queue tracks, blend in and out and more, your mixes start to become elevated the better you get. There are even colored markers on the moving timeline that indicates the best time to drop a part of a track for extra points. Again, the timing takes getting used to, but eventually it becomes second nature to drop and swap tracks on a downbeat for a natural flow.
As you complete sets you’ll earn XP, leveling up as you fill the bar each time. A level gives you access to new customization options and will also give you a handful of points that you can spend to unlock new songs. Yes, not all songs are unlocked from the beginning, but they can all be unlocked by simply playing FUSER, the only issue with this is that the rate for XP growth is so slow that it’s going to take quite a while to get enough points to unlock each song and instrument over time.
Given that I was reviewing FUSER before its official launch, I wasn’t able to test its online capabilities, even though I tried numerous times, but no one joined. There is cooperative and competitive DJ modes, depending on your preference. With online freeplay, 4 DJ’s can work together on a set, each having their own time in the spotlight, able to cheer one another on when waiting for your turn. The Battle Mode is the competitive side where you go one on one versus another DJ, attempting to deplete their health by making a good mix, matching audience requests and forcing tracks to drop form your opponent. The best part about the online and social aspect is that you’re able to save your mixes and share them out to the community, or even enter weekly challenges with unique prizes for the top DJ’s.
There’s just enough musical variety that FUSER can appeal to nearly everyone from any musical taste or genre. No matter what mix I was trying to attempt, my head was constantly bobbing and my foot was tapping along to the beat. While I don’t fully understand the scoring system, as getting 5 stars on songs seems quite difficult, I still have fun every time I play and try out some new combinations of songs, always having a smile on my face and grooving to my own beat before sharing it online for everyone else to hopefully listen to. FUSER has recaptured that something special that Rock Band did years ago.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Commandos 2 & Praetorians: HD Remaster Double Pack
It seems the last few years has had a major focus on gaming remakes and remasters. Some of these are long awaited and done very well, while others have simply some upped HD-like textures and call it a day. Commandos 2 & Praetorians HD Remaster Double Pack brings Xbox players two classic PC strategy games from the early 2000’s that I didn’t know had so much of a following that it warranted the HD Remaster treatment. Truth be told, I’ve seen the game covers before but have never played either one. While they’ve been ‘console-fied’ for a new audience, they absolutely show their age and makes for an odd console experience.Originally developed by Pyro Studios, this double pack includes two different RTS games, but each is wildly different from the other. Commandos 2 is set in World War II and has you behind enemy lines whereas Praetorians is set further back in the Roman Empire. Both have had updated graphics, though you wouldn’t know it unless you’ve seen how dated the original releases appear. While textures and resolution seemed to have been improved, it seems as if the animations didn’t get the same upgrades, as movement is very stuff in both games, especially Praetorians. Both games are played in the angled top-down isometric view, and while the controls do work, it’s not refined by any means; a problem many RTS games have on console.
Commandos 2 – HD Remaster:
Commandos 2 places you behind enemy lines in World War II where a group of, well, commandos, must stealthily complete their missions and turn the tide of the war. War is unforgiving, and it’s no different in Commandos 2. The difficulty spikes quite early and there will be a lot of trial and error as each mission becomes more challenging and involved.
Most games ease you into its controls and gameplay, giving you tiny tidbits of information and having you master one thing at a time before introducing the next. Not with Commandos 2. The moment you’re given the reigns after the opening cutscene your screen fills with a wall of text showcasing what every single button and command is for. That’s it for the tutorial; read it and figure it out. This of course results in you failing and dying numerous times before figuring out things slowly on your own. I understand that games back in that era was difficult by design, but there’s no reason a small tutorial couldn’t have been added to ease you into the gameplay.
The first few missions are actually labeled as training missions, but again, you’re simply thrown in and have to figure it out. What I did like most about Commandos 2 though is that each mission feels like a puzzle that you need to solve. Each unit you can control has their own uses and abilities, so some are better in certain situations. Need to get over some powerlines or scale some walls? Then you’ll want to utilize the Thief. Want to knock out enemies and tie them up so they can’t eventually wake up and alarm other guards? Then you’ll want the Green Beret. While missions can be tackled a variety of different ways technically, I found stealth is really your only option for the most part, as you’ll lose firefights very quickly if it escalates to that point. As I said, missions feel like puzzles, and while you’re technically given the freedom to ‘solve’ them however you wish, most missions felt pretty linear in the sense of object placement and objectives.
Thankfully the way around all this trial and error is the save system. You’re able to save whenever you wish, so this resulted in me saving like a mad man anytime I successfully took out a guard or objective. This allowed me to try something I thought might work, and when it failed, I just reloaded my last save from a few moments earlier. Don’t do this and you’ll need to restart the mission all over again, which is where you can see the frustration was starting to set in. Did killing that guard with your rifle alert everyone? Restart. Did the tank steamroll your squad? Restart. Did you putting on an enemy uniform allow you to sneak past unnoticed? Oh, it did? Then continue on and save.
I can see why Commandos 2 was popular and revolutionary back at its initial release. Maps could be rotated in 3D, you can peek into windows and plan out your next moves, you had multiple unit types with different abilities, and while the constant failures do frustrate, it does feel satisfying to finally solve each mission and progress. With a handful of missions, Commandos 2 should keep you busy for a few hours at least, it just won’t be pretty to look at while you do.
Praetorians – HD Remaster
The second game in this double pack is Praetorians – HD Remaster, set within the Roman Empire. Here you’re on a journey that lasts around twenty missions or so, becoming progressively more challenging as you get closer to the Emperor. You’ll have to prove yourself in battle across Egypt, Gaul and eventually Italy on your crusade. To become victorious though, you’ll need to learn how to manage your troops and come up with strategies for the challenges ahead; Easier said than done with a controller.
While an RTS, the main focus is on its combat and unit management. There is some minor civilization building aspects, but only to make new troops and weapons like catapults, battering rams and such. There are a number of different units, from auxiliary soldiers that need to be used to create things, archers, spearmen and more, all of which are strong against a certain enemy type but weak against another, so you’ll need to be strategic when sending troops headfirst into battle. Of course, doing so easily on a controller isn’t the greatest experience, and while you can hotkey certain groups of troops, I basically just powered my way through each battle by sending the whole army at once to steamroll anything in front of me.
You can employ some strategy, like having units face a certain way, set stationary stances for more defense and more, but doing so quickly and easily with the controller can be inconsistent at the best of times. There’s a submenu that can be accessed with the ‘Y’ button as well, where you can use your special abilities, combine squads, split them evenly, change their stance and more. The same problems with Commandos 2 are present here as well, with an ugly-at-best game to look at with very stiff and dated animations and even poorer voice acting. I’m aware this is basically just a fidelity bump for its visuals, but it has not aged well at all.
While I was unable to find a single other player online, there is the option for Skirmishes, though thankfully you’re able to at least setup matches with CPU opponents should you want to get a little more time out of your purchase with anyone choosing any of the factions. Maps vary in size, and even on the easier difficulties the CPU can be quite challenging.
I really appreciate that old classic games like these are being ported over for console players to enjoy that may have never known of them previously. While you can purchase each game separately for $25.99, this double pack comes in at $51.99 CAD, so I’m kind of surprised there was no incentive or cost savings to do so unless you were a fan of both games. While each game has their own achievements, they are simply tied to campaign progression, which can be a slog to get through.
I’m not sure if anyone was really clamoring for this double pack on console, but here we are. While not a bad pairing, the main issue is that both games, Commandos 2 and Praetorians, suffer from showing their age. Time has not been kind to them, and while they’ve been given the “HD Remaster” treatment, it’s still quite a rough go visually and mechanically. I actually ended up enjoying Praetorians moreso than Commandos 2, but time has not been kind to both games.
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
Watch Dogs: Legion
I was a big fan of the original Watch Dogs when it released back in 2014. There was something so cool about being able to hack nearly anything and everyone with just a press of your phone. It laid the groundwork for its gameplay and sequel, and now we have the third in the series, Watch Dogs: Legion. With a new sequel comes a new gimmick, though I hate to label it that, as it’s actually quite game changing; allowing you to recruit and play as basically any NPC you come across in the game, from the homeless, beekeepers, grandmothers, adult film stars, street performers to your average person. I initially didn’t think this feature would be as big of a deal as it turned out to be, but I can admit when I was wrong, as it really impresses and changed how I thought about basic NPC’s and their virtual lives.We first met the hacktivist group DedSec in the original Watch Dogs, set on fighting injustice and corporations like Blume that clearly have nefarious roots and schemes. DedSec operates all over the globe, and the setting for Legion is in good old London, abeit in the slight future where autonomous cars and drones are commonplace. Albion has taken over nearly every facet of the city after a massive bombing that left London in pieces that DedSec wrongfully has been blamed for. Not only has DedSec now hated by the public, but they’ve all but been exterminated or away in hiding for fear of being found.
You won’t stand for this though, and after choosing your first recruit, you aim to not only build DedSec back up to its former glory, but to take down those responsible for framing you as well. Doing so will be much easier said than done. You’re just one person though, so you’re going to have a long road ahead of you, attempting to recruit more to the cause and taking the fight to Albion and any others involved. Albion is a private security company that has taken over policing, has state of the art tech, drones, and is watching every one of London’s citizens, as well as searching for your group.
It would be too easy to simply blame Albion though, and as your uncover more information and find out who’s behind the bigger picture, the narrative becomes quite interesting. You’ll have to not only deal with Albion around every corner, but Clan Kelley, Blume and a mysterious hacking group that seemingly knows everything about you, Zero Day. Nearly every corner unveils a new threat and there’s a rollercoaster of events and twists that occur that keep you guessing right until the credits roll. The writing is done very well and actually makes you hate each of the antagonists, though beware, some of the events and themes can get quite dark in nature.
Interestingly, there’s not a set protagonist. Yes, you the player are the ‘hero’ per-se, but because you can be and choose anyone you come across in London and recruit them to DedSec, there’s no one centralized and focused character you’re forced to be at any time. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but surprisingly, it blended into the narrative so seamlessly that I really didn’t notice. Yes, I played my favorite character every chance I could and viewed them as the ‘leader’, but your game will be completely different based on who and how you play. Also, if you’re new to the Watch Dogs series, you don’t necessarily have to have played the previous two to understand what’s going on or to enjoy it, though you’ll obviously get a little more out of it if you are a fan and have played the prior entries.
Legion's main new draw is the play as anyone gimmick, and it works. Literally anyone you see can be recruited for DedSec, though some will need some more coaxing if they aren’t a sympathizer. Each player is unique not only in their backstory and daily schedule, but could have unique abilities, weapons and vehicles as well. If you see someone you’d like to convert you can tag them as a potential recruit and they’ll give you a mission when they are able to join your team. These missions are usually quite basic, such as getting information for them or a fetch quest of some sort, but completing it will then bring them into your team as a playable character. There are some unique characters you can get from doing special missions as well, so always keep an eye out for special NPC’s. A construction worker for example can enter an off-limits construction site and have a less chance at being noticed. The same goes for an Albion security guard, as they can wander around special restricted areas and will be harder to be noticed.
If you really want to care about your team, there’s even a mode where you can toggle on permadeath. With this enabled, any team member that is injured or dies is gone forever. That’s right, all that time and effort you took to get them on your team is now for naught because of a careless mission or bad car crash. Permadeath really makes you take care about your team much more and are more careful with your actions. Should you find that one of your characters simply aren’t that useful anymore, you can also remove them from DedSec just as easily to make room for better characters.
Being that Watch Dogs is about hackers, naturally a bulk of its gameplay also centers around this as well. If you’ve played the previous games you’ll have an idea what to expect, as you’ll be hacking countless CCTV cameras, drones, arming traps, controlling spider-bots and more. Many areas are enemy territory, so if you step foot within these buildings you’ll be spotted and attacked. Naturally, the answer to this is to remotely hack into their camera system, tag your enemies, set up traps and even have your spider-bot do the dirty work for you with its silent takedowns, as long as you’re within range of course.
I initially wasn’t using my Spider-bot ability very much other than when needed to unlock doors remotely, but once I figured out I was able to takedown enemies easily with it, I barely step foot in dangerous areas until nearly every enemy is cleared out. You’re able to pick up certain collectibles and interact with most panels with your spider-bot, so it’s an easy way to do many objectives while you stay outside the building in safety.
Drones are another way to scout or clear out enemies as well. Some are your standard mobile cameras, but others like the riot or counter terrorist drones also have weaponry included as well. If you’ve spend enough tech points into these (which I’ll delve into shortly), you’ll not only be able to hack and take them over, but you can even simply set them to betray your enemies, doing much of the work for you.
Every so often there will also be puzzles you need to solve. While not inherently challenging, you’re simply trying to make the whole network flow from the beginning to the end by rotating pipes in certain sections. These begin out easy enough, but eventually the puzzles will wrap around buildings, pillars and even take place during a boss fight where enemies are constantly surrounding you as well. Some of these will need to be done with the surrounding cameras or your spider-bot and drones, adding another challenging layer.
As you complete missions and explore every inch of London, you’ll earn two types of currency: ETO and Tech Points. ETO is basically the bitcoin of the Watch Dogs realm, allowing you to earn or steal it in a variety of different ways. ETO can be used to purchase new cosmetic items from numerous stores around the city, ranging from outfits, jackets, shirts, pants, backpacks, shoes, hats, glasses and more. There’s plenty of different clothing to choose from, but it was annoying that each store had its own variety (which I know makes sense realistically), but I’m sure I didn’t notice a bunch of different clothing cause I’d bypass many storefronts.
The other, and more important currency, is Tech Points. You earn these by completing missions or finding them hidden throughout the city, usually in dangerous areas. These are how you purchase and upgrade new abilities and weapons. It’ll cost a certain amount to unlock a new ability, like being able to disable riot drones for a short time, but spend more points into its tier two and three abilities and you’ll also be able to turn it against your enemies as well, or be able to AR cloak yourself. The best part is that all your unlocked and upgraded abilities are shared across your whole team, so while individual characters don’t progress or level, you’re constantly making overall progress.
The mission variety was a welcome change as well. While most will have you infiltrating an off limits building to hack into a server or download some information, there are some unique missions that broke up the monotony. Some have you needing to use a spider-bot to get through vents to access rooms you aren’t able to, others have you tailing enemies, and one mission has you controlling a nano-bot, but it’s so cool that you can play each mission in a variety of different ways. I stayed true to the hacking methods by floating above the area I needed on a service drone and using my spider-bot, but another friend went in guns blazing instead. Both are completely viable.
For as much as I enjoyed Watch Dogs: Legion, it did have some issues that need to be addressed. First off, I’ve had numerous crashes, even post day-one patch; not a ton, but enough that I had to note it down and include it in this review. I also had the game turn my Xbox One X completely off and said it overheated (it didn’t) after dropping to single digit frames in a specific mission that you may have read elsewhere, oddly enough on a mission called 404. Visually everything looks fantastic, especially the London night life, and this is simply on an Xbox One X, so I’m excited to see the improvements on an Xbox Series X shortly. My only complaint is that the lip syncing can be quite off, to the point of being a distraction. The writing and voice acting is great, it just doesn’t always match what the mouth is doing.
While multiplayer hasn’t yet been implemented, it’s due to come out next month in early December, and from the sounds of Ubisoft’s promises, sounds like I might be making a return to London once it does as I want to experience some four player co-op and pvp in the Watch Dogs setting.
Watch Dogs: Legion really impressed me with its ‘recruit anyone’ mechanic. While I wasn’t initially sure what to make a the non-central main character, it really didn’t affect things as a whole expected it to. The city of London is visually impressive and I’m constantly deep scanning NPC’s I come across to see if they’d make a worthy DedSec member. If you’re a fan of the series, Legion improves many facets of its gameplay, has a great campaign with clever writing and had me wanting to hack the planet by the time the credits rolled, even if the odd crash here and there frustrated.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Necromunda: Underhive Wars
While Warhammer 40,000 has had numerous games release under its banner, the Hive World, Necromunda, is finally getting its time in the limelight with the latest release, Necromunda: Underhive Wars. Being the first adaptation of the popular tabletop game, there were some high expectations, and while I wasn’t quite sure what to expect given I’ve not played the tabletop version before or into the Warhammer lore, but came away intrigued with its design choices, as I was expecting another typical turn based tactical RPG, but got something a little different.Far below the surface of the hive cities of Necromunda is what’s called the Underhive. This is the deep and brooding underground where gangs run rampant and are in constant battle against one another for survival. 'Dog eat dog' is a great way to put the constant power struggle in the Underhive, as only the strongest will survive.
Numerous gangs flood belly of the Underhive, each acting under a certain House/Banner. Underhive Wars focuses on three of the Houses: Escher, Goliath and Orlok, each with their own personalities, unique leaders and motivations. Necromunda’s narrative begins with you controlling the Escher’s, comprised of an all-female gang that is the definition of badass that tends to rely on stealth and strategy rather than brute strength. Orlock are the ones you’ll enjoy playing if you want a team full of meathead brutes that would rather bust through the front door guns blazing. Lastly, the Orlock House is somewhat of a middle ground, calculating their actions. Each faction has their own leader which by the end of the campaign, I really started to understand them and like them as time went on.
DeVos, a scavenger that doesn’t affiliate himself with any faction, has found information pertaining to a new power source located in the bowels of the Underhive, the Archeotech. This power source is obviously what every House is going to start to fight over once the word gets out, so it’s up to you to recover it for yourself while fending off all of your rival gangs. The campaign is actually quite lengthy and will have you controlling all three of the different houses, seeing their side of an event or reasoning behind their actions. While typical tropes are used, such as each leader fighting for power and will do anything to stop the others, near the end when they need to start working together it becomes much more entertaining from a narrative standpoint. You don’t own something if someone else can take it away from you.
Given that Necromunda is a tactical based RPG, I was expecting an experience much like X-COM. While it does utilize some of the elements and mechanics the genre is known for, it also does a few things different that helps differentiate itself as well. There’s a tutorial in the beginning that will teach you the basics of using your movement points, action points and tactics, but after the brief walkthrough you’ll be on your own to figure out strategy and the rest for yourself. If you’re a veteran in the genre you’ll feel right at home, but even then, the unique movement system in Necromunda will take a little getting used to.
Normally games like these are played on a gridded system where you can see how many squares you’re able to move and act within. Necromunda changes this up and I’m still unsure how to feel about it. Here you’re able to freely move around with the Left Stick as you would in any other third person game, but you constantly drain your movement points as you do so. So this means you’re able to maneuver and place your units exactly where you want. This is great in theory, but I ended up getting stuck a couple times in odd places or corners when I ran out of movement points. There’s a few issues with this movement system though, as you don’t see a barrier of how far you could potentially move to, so you might run out of movement points, unable to reach the spot you wanted because you wasted some of your points by running back or forth for whatever reason. The same goes for setting up ambushes and overwatch, as you’re unable to see how far an enemy is going to be able to reach on their turn as well. I’m also unsure if enemy AI has the same movement constraints, as I’ve had them move nearly across the whole map on certain turns, much further than I could ever traverse in one move.
Each mission is unique in the sense of its goals. While many will have you defeating the opposing team(s), you’re also going to be given a handful of secondary objectives as well, some of which will be optional. This is where some frustration starts to seep in. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve failed a mission because of a secondary objective fail or simply got overwhelmed and defeated, but unsure as of why. Some characters can spend all of their action points and defeat you in a single round, others seem incredibly weak if not utilized properly. Problem is, none of the abilities are really taught to you, you simply got to read each one and figure it out with trial and error, though usually more error than naught.
While the maps aren’t huge per-se, they are usually very vertical and intricate, with many walkways and pathways to flank or setup ambushes and traps to set. Some characters can do some serious damage if you use a Death From Above skill, seemingly dive bombing an enemy below if you’re on higher ground, while others are more area based on their attacks. You’re able to check the map in 3D view and move it around to figure out where enemies and objectives are, and you’ll actually have to do this quite often, as the regular HUD in-game doesn’t give much assistance in that area.
With each mission taking at least a half hour, though usually bordering on over an hour, a fail can become quite frustrating as you have to restart the whole thing from the beginning. The difficulty spikes randomly out of nowhere too, as I was a handful of missions in, holding my own, then got absolutely decimated and lost an hour of progress and had to redo the mission all over again. The AI also seemed inconsistent at times, as one mission they were near impossible to defeat, but on others seemed completely useless by not really doing much other then moving around a bit then kneeling and waiting for their next turn. What I did enjoy though was that each mission and map almost felt like a puzzle I had to solve, as you always have to be cognitive of your mission objectives other than killing the enemies.
Once you figure out the nuances to combat, it can be fun if you learn how to use your team properly. Attacks and actions cost AP (action points) to use, so you need to be mindful of what you want to do and plan accordingly. Want to call and elevator so you can go up a floor and flank? That’ll cost AP. Want to jump down from a ledge? That’ll be AP as well. Want to use a zip line to quickly get to the other side of a gap? You got it, more AP to spend. Sometimes you’ll get to where you want but barely have any AP left to actually attack your enemies, especially when some of your abilities can be quite costly to use. Once you figure out how to properly use your team and their abilities, you can create some interesting tactics but it will take some time to get to that point. Even after a dozen hours or so I was still struggling to figure out how to best use some of my abilities strategically.
Combat can be interesting, but man, is it boring at the same time. Everything is so slow, and given that it’s all turn based, you’re going to be spending a lot of time just waiting for the enemies to finish their turns or figuring out where you should go. A single round can take quite some time, and I’ve had matches that took well over an hour to complete, so don’t expect to get a quick match in here and there. Once you start getting two teams of two facing each other, the wait only becomes even more excruciating. This means you can easily lose track of where everyone is at one time, meaning you’ll need to reference the map once again which adds even more time. Games like X-COM are turn based, but has a constant flow, whereas Necromunda felt like it had much more stop-and-go downtime.
Combat is also in the same bag, meaning at times it can be cool to see your flamethrower damage a group of enemies standing together, but others only hitting for small damage numbers without any ‘ommph’ to them feels weak. You’ll need to learn how to best use your weapons too, as having a melee character with two chainsaw swords can deal some serious damage, or a sniper giving cover with overwatch up above can turn the tide of a match. At the same time, taking the time to flank an enemy and whiffing on an attack which in turn then gets you killed is completely deflating.
When you’ve either completed or had your fill with the lengthy campaign, you have Operations to partake in. Here you actually get to customize and build your gang from scratch, completely customizing their looks and with the loot you get from completing missions. You can also level up and fully customize each crew member here, so for those that want to prove they have the baddest House in all of the Underhive, take your gang online and challenge others to see who reigns supreme. In my time reviewing Necromunda though, I was unable to find a single match, so sadly I’m unable to comment on how the progression here works, if any.
Warhammer 40K fans will feel at home with the dark and brooding aesthetic, and I’m sure Necromunda fans specifically will be ecstatic to see familiar faces and places. The atmosphere is very fitting of the Underhive setting and gritty gang wars constantly taking place. Cutscenes are quite decently presented, as is the voice acting across the board, but the audio for in-game is simply ‘okay’, with nothing really standing out.
Put in the time to learn its nuances and you’ll come away with a game that rewards you for the time you put into it, it just takes a very long time to get to that point. There’s a lot of potential to be had, but I found missions to be much too lengthy and tedious to keep my attention with its excruciating slow pacing, especially when losing an hour’s worth of gameplay and having to redo it all over again. Necromunda: Underhive Wars is going to mainly appeal to diehard Warhammer 40K fans and those that want to play anything similar to X-COM with its tactical gameplay, but it’s a hard sell for the casual fan that will mostly likely feel it’s a little too clunky.
Overall Score: 6.6 / 10
Monster Truck Championship
I remember my first Monster Truck event I went to as a kid. I remember distinctly standing beside the tires that towered over me, the smell of the gasoline, the deafening of the engines as they floored the gas to do their tricks and the excitement I got watching a Monster Truck crush some cars. The tricks Monster Trucks can do now these days is absolutely insane, and I can’t even imagine having the power of nearly 2000 horses at your disposal to crush anything in front of you. Monster Trucks, before the world is in the situation it’s in these days, were so popular that they were able to fill arenas full of fans wanting to watch these machines do what they do best; crushing cars.What initially intrigued me about Monster Truck Championship, developed by NACON and TEYON, touts itself on being the first Monster Truck “simulator”. While there’s been a handful of Monster Truck games in the past, they were usually always very arcade like, so I was curious to see what a simulation take would be. Now on one hand, if a game is being touted as a simulator, I would expect it to reflect the sport as accurately as possible, which meant I was excited to see the classic and best known monster trucks there are, namely Bigfoot and Gravedigger. Sadly Monster Truck Championship isn’t licensed at all, so don’t expect to see any real life counterparts in the game.
The majority of your time is going to be spent in the Career Mode, and while there is an online component, there’s little to no reason to play it, which I’ll get into shortly. You start your Monster Truck career with a basic truck with practically no stats in the lowest League possible. As you win events you’ll earn points and money, allowing you to eventually move up the ranks and into the bigger leagues. There are over 25 arenas for the different event types, some indoors and others out, but they all blend together, none really standing out from the others.
Each of the three leagues are broken into different events, with each event then consisting of two to five individual races or destruction modes. You have your typical races, drag races and then destruction and freestyle events. It’s important to differentiate these two main types of events, as the physics are completely different in both, which takes some getting used to, but more on that shortly.
The early events won’t cost anything to enter, but the closer events get to the finals the more the entry costs becomes, though so does the rewards you can earn for winning. As you earn points from winning events you’ll eventually be able to participate in the Finals of the league, where a win allows you to move up into the next bracket of competition. You’ll begin in the National League, eventually moving up to Professional and then Major.
As you earn certain amounts of points in the leagues, you’ll also unlock parts for your monster truck, though there are other ways to do so as well. You’ll have access to sponsorships, choosing who you want to work with. These are essentially small challenges and objectives that if you complete them within the allotted events, you’ll earn money and parts for your trucks. You’re also able to hire staff for your team, each of which have a small cost, but will give bonuses to specific components like extra cash earned, lower entry costs, better torque for your engine and much more.
Now, since this is a ‘simulation’, don’t expect your typical driving game. Actually, Monster Trucks don’t control anything like a regular vehicle, which should be obvious given their power, height, weight and stature. The biggest initial shock was that you are able to steer both the front and rear axles independently. That’s right, one stick will move your front wheels and the other the rear. This takes some serious getting used to and is touched on within the tutorial. The tutorial will go over the basics and how to do all of the tricks you’ll need to master within the Freestyle and Demolition events as well.
All of the events take place across the United States and will range from race and trick types. Races are your typical lap style races where the first across the finish line wins. I actually really enjoyed the Drag Races though. Here you go one on one with another driver in separate identical lanes where the first driver across the line advances to the next round in a knockout setup.
When you think Monster Trucks, you most likely think of them launching into the air and crushing dozens of cars, and this is where the Freestyle and Destruction events come into play. Freestyle has you chaining tricks together, like donuts, flips, high jumps and a bunch of other tricks to net a high score. Destruction is basically the same, but more objects like cars, outhouses, trailers and others are placed around that will give point boosts and can be used to combo between tricks. Where the issue comes in is that these modes where you focus on tricks utilizes a completely different physics than the racing, so going back and forth in-between event types can be a little confusing as to why flooring the gas makes you go on two wheels in one mode but not the other.
As you win events and earn money you’ll get to customize your trucks in a variety of different ways. Most of your options will be cosmetic only, changing the body type, wheels, flags and other visual flairs. There are only a handful of upgrades you can purchase to improve your truck stats like engine, brakes and more, but these are earned from progressing in the career. I was excited to add a Canadian flag to the back of my truck, hoping to see it flap in the wind as I take jumps, but sadly it’s a static flag that doesn’t move at all. That being said, it’s quite entertaining to see your truck body be a dog or a massive toaster.
While I didn’t expect there to be a robust online mode, and is included, it’s incredibly bare and disappointing. You’re able to create a lobby for your friends to join and race, but that’s really it. You can choose Race or Drag Race. That’s it. Why is there no option for multiplayer Freestyle or Destruction? This is a monster truck simulator and you’re unable to crush cars with your friends online. Even worse, there’s absolutely no progression to be made online. You don’t earn cash to be used in single player, there’s no ranking system and no real reason to play online since there’s no progression in any way, and the lack of any lobbies every time I’ve checked proves this community is going to be quite bare.
Visually, Monster Truck Championship won’t impress. Yes, the mud that splatters over your wheels and truck’s body looks cool, and the truck damage when panels break off will make you smile, but everything else looks simply bland. Textures look dated, and if you stop and look at the crowd when you’re not moving, you’ll be shocked at how badly these models look, some of the worst crowd models I can remember in recent memory. Frame rate also dips quite regularly, even on an Xbox One X. The packed starts of races with eight trucks all at once can slow to a crawl and the draw distance of objects, trees and shadows is incredibly close and a constant distraction. That being said, being able to drive your massive monster truck in first person view makes it feel much more authentic and I have a feeling most won’t even experience this since it’s not set by default.
Campaign is where you’ll spend the majority of your monster truck time, and while there’s a decent amount of variety, it won’t take long to complete all of the events and purchase all of the upgrades for your truck. Sadly, when you complete this portion, there’s nothing really left to do unless you care about trying to climb the online leaderboards. While touted as a ‘simulator’, that’s more of a loose description.
If Monster Truck Championship was a budget title for $20 to $30 or so, I’d have no problem recommending it for a fun weekend that is much like a guilty pleasure. Sadly, it’s priced at basically double that, and while it has some good ideas, its execution feels sloppy and comes across more arcade than simulation, even with having to use both sticks to control your monster truck. Like your favorite fast food you know isn't great for you, you still enjoy it every time you pull up to that drive through window, though you may have to crush a few cars in the way with your monster truck.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Torchlight III
It’s crazy to think that it’s been just a little under a decade since Torchlight II was released. A lot of games in the action RPG (ARPG) genre have released since then, with some able to hold their own against the undeniable king of ARPGs, Diablo. While I never got into the Torchlight series before for the most part, Torchlight III kind of took me by surprise, as even after a dozen hours I still wanted to play continuously with my friends online to grind and improve my character. Even though the gameplay is repetitive by design, that carrot on the stick dangling in front of you with new abilities and gear is what makes you keep playing, even after maxing out your level and finishing the campaign.While there’s a narrative to Torchlight III, it’s told in small tidbits, cutscenes at the end of each of the three chapters. Novastraia is in danger, as a looming threat and invasion is on the horizon, so you must save the world. Yes, it’s a tired trope, and while I would have enjoyed having a deep story with in-game cutscenes, at least there’s some semblance of a story, even if it’s not very original or gripping. Thankfully in ARPG’s like this, most enjoy them for its gameplay rather than a strong narrative, and Torchlight III is no different, as the excellent gameplay will be your primary focus throughout.
Like most ARPG’s, you’ll be exploring the world, grinding away, leveling up, gathering gear, crafting, defeating massive bosses and repeating it over and over. There’s no shortage of activities to do, not even including grinding for new gear after reaching the max level of sixty. Oddly enough, there’s only four tiers of loot; grey, green, blue and orange. Even after maxing level and grinding, it feels like there should be one higher tier of ultimate loot, but alas, there is none. Thankfully there is an endgame and a hardcore mode for those that want a bigger challenge later on.
To begin your adventure you first choose one of four classes and a choice of five relics, which is essentially an element, all of which have their own skills, abilities and bonuses. With a bunch of combinations, you can spend your skill points freely as you level up to improve and customize your class in any way you wish, but be aware that you’re caped at 70 skill points by the time you reach max level, so you won’t be able to max and utilize every skill at once.
While the four classes fall into the typical roles of dps or tank, they are quite unique in their playstyles and abilities. The Dusk Mage is your ranged magician, acting like a glass cannon. The Forged is an adorable robot that uses his heat meter to unleash attacks and can become quite a beefy tank. The sharpshooter is your typical ranger and can destroy enemies from quite a distance. Lastly, and my personal favorite that I stuck with throughout, was the Railmaster. This is your dps class that can utilize a massive two-hander for big hits, but also has a train that follows you around, allowing you to outfit it with different cars like mortars, shields, turrets, or flamethrowers.
Each class plays quite differently, and while I had my favorite with the Railmaster, there’s reasons you’ll want to try and level them all, aside from the achievements of course. Interestingly, each class has two different skill trees you can spec into, choosing to become a powerhouse with one and focusing on one playstyle, or spreading out your abilities across both to be more rounded. For example, on my Railmaster, one tree allows me to focus on my train and its bonuses and abilities, while the other is more based on two handed hammer skills. What I really liked was focusing on just a few abilities that I made really strong rather than a handful of different ones in a rotation.
To further customize your character, you’ll also choose one of five relics, unable to be changed though, so choose wisely and determine what would best suit your class and playstyle. These relics add not only another skill tree full of bonuses and abilities, but can drastically change how you play as well. Choose between Bane (Poison), Blood Drinker, Coldheart, Electrode, and Flaming Destroyer. These essentially act like a subclass, and since I focused my Railmaster on his train abilities, almost like a pet, I chose Bane so that I could summon more spiders and minions to fight alongside me, almost turning it into a Necromancer-like class. Even playing the same class with a different relic and make for a completely different experience, so make sure to try them all out, as they are quite unique and have some really interesting abilities that pair well with certain classes. Should you spend points into your class or relic skills and simply don’t enjoy it or want to swap them, you can refund points with Respectacles, which you’ll earn throughout your adventure in a variety of different ways. This allows you to try out even more abilities or combinations to see what works best for your playstyle without having to save a bunch of points and spend hours researching beforehand.
Returning from Torchlight II is the fame system, though it’s been altered this time. Now you’re given three different categories you’d like to work towards. Some give cosmetics, fort items, loot and other bonus items. Fame is basically a specialized experience you get for defeating the harder and more unique monsters you’ll find throughout your adventure. These fame bonuses are nothing really substantial, but at least give another layer of progression you can focus on in endgame.
An ARPG just wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t focus on its gear flow and progression, and Torchlight does this fantastically. You’ll find a variety of different armor and weapons basically nonstop as you play, almost always upgrading, even if minor at times. Not only will each item change the look of your character, but there’s a ton of variety in the stats and bonuses, so you’ll be looking quite some time for that perfect set of gear.
Pets also return to Torchlight III, fighting alongside you and can be used to hold your extra gear pickups or even be sent back to town to sell your items for you. You’ll earn new pets as random as you defeat certain bosses, ranging from Alpacas, Cats, Dogs, Birds and more. These range in rarity as well and can equip a few pet only items to improve their abilities and stats.
Early on you’ll unlock your Fort, your home away from home. This Fort, which is account based, can be fully customized with items you earn from your Fame levels, allowing you to decorate it however you wish. You’re able to access your account stash here to swap gear with your other characters and sacrifice items to increase your gold percentage drops and more. While I didn’t really spend much time in the decoration side of the Forts, my friends did and they had some really cool looking homes that I was able to visit and see for myself.
Once I completed the campaign, I was around level 45 or so. With a max of 60, I was unsure how I was going to grind until then. Thankfully, once you complete the game, the real endgame begins with challenges. You’ll get a genie you can place in your Fort that allows you to challenge yourself with progressively harder levels, allowing you to grind for experience, gold and items. The catch though is that each rank of challenge has you choosing from three different randomized cards, each with a positive and negative to that outcome. Maybe one card will give you bonus loot change or fame, but it’ll probably also have a serious negative like double monster health and speed. There’s some variety and will keep you playing long after you reach level sixty. Also a post-game addition is the ability to improve your gear that has enchantment slots, which is a whole other grind and money sink as well.
For how much I loved playing Torchlight III, there’s a laundry list of bugs and issues with it as well. Firstly, I’ve lost count how many bugs and crashes I’ve encountered. I’ve been stuck in areas unable to move, my train wouldn’t spawn or follow me, I’ve had the game freeze for 30 seconds at a time, and numerous crashes to the Xbox dashboard. It got to a point where my friends and I were simply expecting one of us to crash or get kicked sooner rather than later. There’s so many issues and bugs that I’m sure will be fixed in time with updates and patches, and I could forgive the odd crash or issue here and there, but it was a substantial issue we had to constantly deal with from beginning to end, even on an Xbox One X. Truth be told, I've actually held off playing until a substantial patch fixes these issues.
Even after a dozen hours and more, I still want to log on every night with my friends and grind some genie challenges out to try and get a new piece of gear and upgrades. Best enjoyed with friends, visually it can become quite chaotic when four players are all casting their spells and abilities, filling the screen with particles, explosions and damage numbers. I don’t normally get hooked on ARPG’s like this, but Torchlight III is addictive, beautiful to look at and sounds great, it’s just a shame that there’s so many issues and crashes that are a constant frustration. With a patch or two that fixes its main problems Torchlight III could easily hang with the bigger names in the genre, but until then it’s still an entertaining game to enjoy, but you’ll constantly have to battle against the game itself.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Bartlow's Dread Machine
Old-timey: “old-fashioned or reminiscent of the past.” This is the first word that came to mind when trying to come up with the best way to describe the latest twin-stick shooter by Beep Games. Bartlow’s Dread Machine is a reminder of how far technology has come, not just in our electronics, but toys as well. My grandma would tell me stories about some of her classic toys, made of tin and metal, full of gears, sprockets and cogs, as many electronics that we take for granted today were just in its infancy. Times were simpler back then, as were the things you played with growing up.Growing up, there used to be this one old classic game in the arcade I used to frequent where you put in your money and you could move the helicopter up and down with the joystick. This was an old-timey game though, so the helicopter was actually attached to a metal rod and your joystick moved and rotated gears, which in turn maneuvered the helicopter. This is the basis of Bartlow’s Dread Machine, a game with the same classic type of design, crafted of metal and gears that was clearly created with love and care.
You play a secret service agent that’s in charge of protecting President Theodore Roosevelt. The president is kidnapped, so it falls upon you to save him and return him safely back home. This isn’t your typical presidential kidnapping though, as you’ll be facing off against a slew of monsters and the terror group known as the Anarcho-Satanists. You’ll start your rescue mission in New York but will end up travelling across the United States and other worldly places spanning six chapters, broken into a handful of levels each. Oh, and you’ll also come across other famous historical figures along your journey as well. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
Silly plot aside, the core gameplay is essentially a twin-stick shooter. You know the drill, moving with the Left Stick and aiming with the Right. Rather than your standard twin-stick though, there’s an interesting twist on the gameplay that makes it somewhat on rails. Because Bartlow’s Dread Machine is actually based on one of those classic old-timey arcade games described above, your character is actually bound to specific predetermined lanes and path that they can traverse. Think of the pathways that Pac-Man can go down and across, and it’s much the same.
As you maneuver through each lane and 90 degree turn, you’re able to freely aim in any direction and shoot the onslaught of enemies trying to stop you. I’m unsure if there is any aim assist though, as many times I’ve wasted tons of bullets trying to shoot someone quite close to me, unable to hit them at the desired angle I intended. Even in the later stages with lots of experience under my belt, I still had issues now and then hitting exactly what I was trying to, seemingly missing by a hair nearly every time. Of course though the enemies don’t have the same problem, so be prepared to get shot at many times, as you can dodge bullets, but only on the predetermined tracks you’re stuck to. While there’s some sort of deflect or dodge-like move that you can use, it never really worked reliably for me and I ended up forgetting I even had the ability to do so.
As you progress from the left of the screen to the right, the stages you play on usually conforms or changes right in front of your eyes, but in the same old-timey style that the rest of the game adheres to. Sometimes tiles will rearrange, flip or rotate and really culminates in the unique boss fights, where sometimes the perspective changes, but you still always shoot on a 2D plane. There are a few sections that have some puzzle elements to them as well. For example, you might be blocked by a locked door, so you’ll have to shoot through a window to an angled metal plate to ricochet your bullet off of to hit a lever. These puzzle sections can be a little confusing at first, as they aren’t slowly introduced, and one level you’ve suddenly got a handful of these to deal with out of nowhere.
There are checkpoints strewn throughout the stages, resetting you there should you die. Lose all your lives and it’s obviously game over. You’ll also come across ammo crates that refill your primary gun and health to restore your hitpoints. All of these need to be passed by or through to flick the lever as you go through the lane they are situated on; another neat touch that adds to the genuineness of the old-timey machine backdrop.
As you kill enemies, they will drop money bags where they died, so you must make sure to collect them as quickly as you can, as they will disappear after a short time. This collected money goes into your stash that can be used to purchase new clothing, weapons and items between stages. Different clothing items will give you bonuses to ammunition, defense, speed, offence and more, so you can build your character however you like provided you can save up enough cash to purchase the items. The items become extremely expensive later on for the top-tier gear and will require a lot of saving up. Once I was confident in not dying as much, I swapped to a different set of gear that allowed me to carry more ammo and fared much better overall.
There are multiple characters to choose from in the beginning and you’ll find secret ones along your way, but the problem is that you’re locked into that character you chose in the beginning unless you start a new game completely. These hidden characters add some bonuses and try to give some replayability, but once the credits ran for me once, I was done with my time in Bartlow’s Dread Machine.
The visuals in Bartlow’s Dread Machine is absolutely fantastic. The classic old-timey theme is done to perfection, as everything looks and feels authentic to those classic machine games from the era. Animations are subtle but also add a lot of flair, such as levels reorganizing, the long metal rod moving your car up and down the chase sequence, or even your character’s arms or legs slightly whipping back and forth with the sudden jerk in movement as you maneuver the laneways. The audio is just as fitting, having that classic player piano soundtrack; you know the style, with the piano that plays itself based on the roll of paper that has specific holes cut out of it to determine what key plays and when.
Once you’ve completed a few levels, not much changes aside from a few new enemies and the odd puzzle here and there. The boss fights can be fun and challenging, but there’s really no replayability unless you really want to do it all over again with another character. While it has its flaws and is not your typical twin-stick shooter, Bartlow’s Dread Machine is utterly charming with its old-timey aesthetic design, regardless of how often I may have become frustrated with it.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Gleamlight
I’m a sucker for games with a gorgeous or unique visual aesthetics, which is what initially intrigued me with Gleamlight. Immersed in a beautiful stained glass world, Gleamlight will certainly impress you with its visuals and its opening moments, but it’s not often that I start to dislike a game the more I play it.You play as an unnamed protagonist who doesn’t talk or emote in any way. Your adventure starts out with taking a sword in the ground for yourself, seemingly turning you from a colorless being to full of vibrant and stained glass with a glowing light inside. I’d love to explain what the narrative is, but there is none, at all. There’s no dialogue, no text or even interactions with other characters other than some mysterious being you’re trying to follow from the opening moments, aside from all the ones you swipe at and destroy with your sword. There’s also no UI either, the game simply starts and goes from there without any indication of where to go or why.
Normally I wouldn’t spoil the ending, or in this case, lack thereof, but it’s an important factor in deciding if you want to purchase Gleamlight or not. The game is short, as in your first playthrough should only take thirty to sixty minutes, tops. When you do finally reach the end and defeat the final ‘boss’, credits just roll out of nowhere. That’s it. I normally don’t start games over once I’m finished with them, but I was in disbelief that the game could be that short. There’s no indication telling you you’re supposed to start the game again, and it’s more than a simple New Game+.
Starting again has you begin where you just finished the final battle, working all your way back to the original start point, though with much harder and denser enemies this time. I suffered through this backtracking, complete with repeated bosses, only to be met with a completely unfair and unbalanced ‘final’ boss. I persevered and beat it, again, just to be met with a short ending and then credits. Again, I thought this was it, and with just over an hour of gameplay and two different endings, it wouldn’t let me start my game for another New Game+, that is until I read online that I actually had to delete my game save to start again and continue progress. That’s right, with zero indication anywhere telling you this, you’re instinctively supposed to know to delete your game save once you’ve gone through twice already to progress even further.
Again, the world you’re put into is gorgeous, and the lack of any UI elements at all also further this, but at the same time it makes the final product feel rushed or unfinished. A clever mechanic that wasn’t explained in any way (nothing is) is that your health is actually indicated with how bright your character is. If you appear very colorful and bright, you have an abundance of health, though if you’re basically purely grey in color, you’re most likely a hit or two from dying. Cool mechanic, but it would have been nice to have had that explained, among other things, like how the enemies have the same health indicator. The same goes for the combat, as you gain health for hits you land on enemies. This means that most fights you can simple spam your way through, especially some of the bosses, making for a shallow experience.
It’s no secret that developers Dico took inspiration from games like Hollow Knight, which is all well and good, but don’t expect an experience anywhere near that caliber. Truth be told, the controls are kind of a mess and not nearly as responsive as they should be. Combat sometimes registers your hits, though you can sometimes hit enemies through walls, as they can do the same as well, so be prepared for a lot of cheap deaths. The same goes for the platforming, as more often than not the game tends to decide which way you want to face, regardless of what way you were aiming beforehand. Countless times I would land a jump, but be facing the wrong way for some unexplained reason when I landed.
Level design is another aspect that frustrates quite often as well. The camera is fixed on your character, which is all well and good, but there are times where you need to traverse downwards, or into a pit, and you’re unable to see the spikes and enemies below. There’s no way to pan the camera either, so you have to go into many areas blindly, usually resulting in a few hits or getting ping-ponged until you land. While the level design is very linear, each room acts as its own checkpoint, so when you die you begin at the start of that room to try again. There’s no secret paths, no branching areas to explore, simply get from one end of a room to the other and ultimately a boss fight. Eventually room exits become locked until you find a red orb hidden somewhere and smash it first. Usually this is guarded by a few annoying enemies or nearby some spikes though, naturally.
Speaking of boss fights. These weren’t terribly difficult aside from the flying jet-like one and the horribly unfair “final” one that took me about twenty tries to finish. When you do finally defeat a boss, you gain a new ability. You know how I know that? The achievement that pops up says so. Yup, that’s right, the game itself doesn’t tell you or inform you at all that you just learned a new ability. This also means that you have no idea what it does or how to even perform it. I by chance went and looked at the control mapping screen and each new ability I gained was shown there, like double jumping, dashing and more. This is simply poor design, not letting the player know they now have to use a new ability to progress nor showing them how to do so.
If I was simply basing Gleamlight on its visual aesthetic it would pass with flying colours. The stained glass effect is gorgeous, and even though the level design is quite basic and bland, with it all being so colorful and bright, it’s always pretty to look at. As for the audio, the basic sounds like slashing enemies is passable, and the ambient music fits the dark yet colorful tonality of the gameplay, but there’s nothing memorable with no dialogue or anything else to note.
While not a terrible game, Gleamlight simply has way too many flaws to overlook, not even including the $21.99 CAD price tag for one to two hours of gameplay that frustrates more than it gives enjoyment. At half the price it would still be a hard sell, but bearable for those that wanted a quick game to finish on a lazy weekend, but even with its colorful aesthetic, there’s little to see here.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Definitive Edition
While I’m a massive RPG fan, I never really got into the cRPG genre for games. The biggest names in this genre are your Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Pillars of Eternity and Planescape Torment, which have a massive following. Developed by Owlcat Games, Pathfinder: Kingmaker was originally released just over two years ago on PC, now finally making its console debut, complete with all of its DLC, hence the Definitive Edition label.Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition took me by surprise. Not only did it have some massive length to its gameplay, it was incredibly deep and in-depth with many of its mechanics and character customization, though is borderline too complex and deep for casual fans, as even I found myself a little overwhelmed with everything you can do.
While I’ve never played Pathfinder, after doing so research I had no idea that it was essentially one of the main competition when it comes to classic pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons. So if you’ve played Pathfinder before, you’ll definitely recognize some familiar names and places. Set in the Stolen Lands, your adventure starts out in the castle of Restov who are offered title and land if they are able to dispatch of a nefarious bandit, The Stag Lord. Just before you’re set to set off on your bounty hunt, the castle is ambushed, attacking and killing nearly everyone inside.
You find other survivors in the castle and band together to fight your way out. As you finally make your way out, you are accused of leading the ambush by one of your teammates. Given that this is an RPG, you’re able to respond in different ways, choosing how you want to react and reply. If you have more charisma and knowledge you might be able to talk your way out of situations, or maybe you prefer the brute strength approach, it’s completely up to you. The Stag Lord questline is only the beginning of your adventure, as many more plotlines branch further, leading you down different paths and escapades. I initially thought that the Stag Lord plot was going to encapsulate the whole adventure, but turned out to be only a minor part of the overarching storyline. The plot is quite in depth, well written and is carried by some great voice acting from a large ensemble of characters throughout.
You’ll start out by making your character, and to say there’s a bevy of options is putting it mildly. You could spent quite a lot of time creating your character just how you want, as there’s a lot of classes and subclasses that allow for some very unique gameplay. Much like D&D, you’ll put points into different stats depending on how you want to play your character. I opted for a classic Paladin build that uses sword and board but you can choose many other classes, skills and styles to suit what you want.
If you’ve played the classics like Baldur’s Gate or Planescape Torment before, then you’ll already be accustomed to the isometric view these games used. It’s clear that the developers were inspired by these games as many other mechanics are also borrowed and will feel very familiar, yet has made some quality of life improvements and looks modern, especially with the inclusion of being nearly fully voice acted.
During your journey you’ll come across numerous companions, making for a party of six at a time. These characters all have unique personalities and traits that can make for a well rounded out team. Do you make a team full of melee based characters that can take more hits, fill it with hard hitting magic casters or create a balanced team of tanks, casters and ranged? It’s up to you.
Combat takes some getting used to, but you’re actually given an option of classic turn-based or in real time, able to switch on the fly with a single click of the stick. You’re able to issue commands to all of your team members whenever you wish, or go through the options and toggle many different choices based on how you want to them to perform. While you can’t setup scripts like in other games, you can automate different abilities and options should you wish. Combat success and failure is based on typical D&D dice rolls, determining if you hit or get hit, how much damage you take and other saves when exploring and conversing with NPC’s.
Outside of exploring a quite vast map and constant combat, there’s also a whole Kingdom building aspect as well. This is where I started to feel a bit overwhelmed, as I wanted to focus on the narrative and lengthy campaign, but constantly had to keep tabs and handle on the Kingdom as well, deciding on what to build and invest in.
While I’m glad Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition has made its way to console for more gamers to enjoy and experience, the controls need a lot of work and feel quite clunky and cumbersome. One trigger allows you to switch characters and swap to them for battle commands or inventory management, while the other trigger is how you open the menu system. It’s clear that the original controls were built for keyboard and mouse, and the transition to controller, while functional, requires a lot of effort and thought to press the correct buttons and get to the menus you’re wanting.
While I really enjoyed my overall time with Pathfinder: Kingmaker, there were a few issues that frustrated my time with it, aside from the aforementioned control problems. It felt like much of my time was doing very little, making no progress. When I got new items, weapons and armor, it’s a daunting task to have to go through each item, seeing if it’s equippable by whom and if it’s an upgrade. Leveling up allows you to improve your characters in many ways as well, but none of this is really explained, so you can accidently waste these points and specializations for skills that aren’t really that useful if you’re not careful. Also, there’s a ton of loading screens. While each doesn’t take terribly long on an Xbox One X, they add up since every zone and area needs to be loaded each time you enter or leave. Also factor in that movement itself on the map and in areas is quite slow and you’ll start to see how much of your playtime is being padded by housekeeping and waiting.
While not without its list of issues, the length of Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition is deceptively long, the voice acting is quite well done, the dialogue is written well and the world has more than enough lore to get lost in. While its console port could have used a little more care and work, it’s still a great gaming experience if you crave those classic cRPG’s from the late 90’s – early 2000’s and want a classic D&D-like experience.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Port Royale 4
I’ll get this out of the way first; I’ve never played a Port Royale game before, so needless to say I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started its inaugural voyage on Xbox One with Port Royale 4. A completely unique and interesting game, Port Royale 4, and the previous entries in the series, has never been on console before, and sometimes a PC port to console isn’t always as smooth as it could be. Some games have a problem transitioning from the standard keyboard and mouse controls and mapping those to a controller with limited inputs. I’m happy to report that this isn’t the case with Port Royale 4, as the control scheme works well, is logical and eventually becomes second nature with a little practice.I initially expected Port Royale 4 to be a game about sailing the open seas, swashbuckling and full of pirates, and while it has those elements, it’s much more focused on the sailing and the trading aspect of the times more than anything else. Once I accepted this and learned its intricacies, I started to enjoy my time with it much more, trying to amass my wealth to epic proportions and become a prosperous trading city hub.
Taking place during the 17th century, you’ll choose from one of the colonial powers of France, Spain, England or Netherlands as they try and compete for control over the seas and lands of the Caribbean. While there’s no story or narrative in the traditional sense, you’re simply tasked with amassing a wealth and fulfilling certain objectives your Viceroy appoints to you. Each faction has its own strengths, weaknesses and playstyles, so make sure to try out each one to see what you prefer, but be aware you’re unable to change your faction once a decision has been made.
Once you choose your faction you’ll then select the character you want, essentially a class. Do you want to be a Merchant that focuses on trading alone, a Buccaneer, an Explorer or maybe be a ruthless Pirate and plunder what you can? You'll get to choose your own flag, though there’s only a handful of options for icon and colors which was a bit of a letdown. You’re also unable to edit how your character looks as well, though this doesn’t really matter in the long run since you don’t really have any interactions with other players or characters in any meaningful way. There’s no stats for your chosen character, but they too have different playstyles; for example, I wanted to focus on trading, so the Merchant was an obvious choice, as they don’t require a costly trade license at each city.
Before delving right into the Campaign or Free Play, I highly suggest going through the dozen or so tutorial missions. These are broken up into bite-sized pieces, each one teaching you a small portion of Port Royale 4’s unique gameplay which you then piece all together for the whole experience. The collection of tutorials will take you a little under and hour, but they are well done and I was able to start my adventure and trading quite smoothly from that point on. There’s also a guide that can be referenced at any time should you need, though it’s a lot of information to sift through so make sure you pay attention and take it in.
While the Campaign has four separate chapters you can play, one for each of the factions, I actually quite preferred to play the Free Play mode much more, as it wasn’t as strict on objectives and winning guidelines. Regardless of which mode you play, they all begin the same, with you in your hometown free to start sailing and trading wherever you wish in the hopes of supreme wealth and prosperity. You’ll have a Viceroy who will send you objectives every so often, guiding you, and if you fulfil these you’re rewarded with bonuses and skill points that can be used in different ways.
The bulk of your time with Port Royale 4 will revolve around its trading mechanics. Here you need to focus on your city’s prosperity by trading goods from one city to another. Every city produces some sort of commodity, be it grain, fruit, metal or many more items. Earning money is simple enough, as you buy items that are being produced for a low price, sail to another city that has those in demand and sell them for a higher cost; rinse and repeat. With dozens of different cities to sail to, you can create a complex trade route once you get a handle of how to do so.
The menu for determining what you should buy and sell is simple enough to understand with bar graphs and prices for every commodity a city has or needs. If a city has an abundance of an item they will sell it for cheap, and if another is completely of out of that product, they’ll buy for much higher to meet demand. You can sell any commodity anywhere, but it’s figuring out the best places to do so for the most profit that will net you the most gains in the long term.
At first I was simply sailing from one city to another, checking prices, then checking the other cities to see where the most profit would come from. This become quite tedious and time consuming, and even though I did a tutorial on trade routes, once I started using them it was a complete game changer and really excited me more to play.
Instead of manually checking each city, sailing there and figuring out what to purchase and sell, you can setup automated trade routes, designating what to buy and sell automatically and even have it sail from city to city for you. This automates much of the tedious work and you can set individual fleets on different or multiple routes. These routes can be as small or complex as you want. Do you find two cities that have corresponding wants and needs, or sail to dozens of cities at a time to offload what you can where you can?
Creating the routes is simple enough, choosing what cities you want to visit, but to really optimize it you’ll also need to factor in your sail paths. The Caribbean houses a stormy sea and there are winds that blow in certain directions. Sail with the wind and you’ll gain precious time and trade even quicker, sail into the wind and it’ll take you twice as long. You can customize these paths and it’s quite satisfying to see your money start to skyrocket once you have a few good trade routes setup properly. Some may feel that this automates the game too much and almost plays itself in a way, but there’s always some tweaking you can do to make it more profitable or efficient. Yes, with some great trade routes setup you can sit back and start to earn money without doing anything, but your Viceroy will give you other tasks now and then as well. When the money really starts to flow it feels very rewarding, but when your routes are costing you instead it can be a hard hole to dig out of.
While sailing and trading is where you’ll spend the bulk of your time in Port Royale 4, there’s a whole city building aspect as well that needs to be maintained. As you complete objectives for your Viceroy you’ll gain access to new buildings, ships and more. There are a few dozen buildings that can be erected in the hex grid of your city, each having their own use. Some are simply production nodes, others help your production, some are residential housing, churches and more that will be needed to balance and fulfil your citizen’s satisfactions. My problem that I learned the hard way was trying to expand much too quickly, so when I placed a dozen buildings at once, all of a sudden the demand for materials spiked, so I started hemorrhaging money very quickly; lesson learned.
What would a ship-based game be without naval battles though? These too are included in Port Royale 4, though are drastically different if you’ve played the previous entries. Naval battles are now turn based and are played on a hex grid with numerous ships. Every ship has a certain amount of action points that can be used to maneuver, attack or use your special tactic ability during their turn. Different ship types have their own abilities and each will have a captain of your choosing, which also have their own skills and bonuses. These battles are quite strategic, and even though you may be outnumbered by a pack of pirates, you can survive and win if you’re strategic. While I tended to focus much more on the trading aspect, having naval battles was a must for a game like this where pirates became famous.
Visually Port Royale 4 is very bright and colorful, fitting of the Caribbean in the century. Able to zoom all the way out to cloud level or all the way into nearly on your ship’s deck, there’s the odd slowdown but nothing game breaking. As for the audio, it’s there but nothing memorable. Zooming in allows you to hear your ship cutting across the waves or the torrential rain sailing through a storm. The soundtrack is simple ambient music in the background, so I ended up playing my own Spotify playlist (full of sea shanties of course).
I really wasn’t sure what to expect with Port Royale 4 being a newcomer to the series, but came away with an appreciation for the simulation and management aspects of its gameplay. While it may seem a little steep being fully priced the same as a ‘AAA’ game, there’s plenty of value within if you’re a fan of these strategic and management type games. It’s very overwhelming to get the hang of initially with the slew of menus, but once you setup some trade routes and figure out how to best trade, you’ll soon be the new conqueror of the Caribbean.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Heroes of Hammerwatch - Ultimate Edition
I’m no stranger to games with a huge grind, as I used to play the same MMO for many years. I used to think MMO’s were grindy, then I played Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition. Even if only the base game was included, there’d be more than enough content within for you to basically play endlessly. But that wasn’t good enough for developers CrackShell, so in this Ultimate Edition they’ve also included all of the available DLC also, adding whole new areas, classes, modes and tons more. It’s a LOT to take in and learn, but once you wrap your head around it all and figure it out, I’ve been unable to put it down. Truth be told, this very review is a few days late because I wanted to progress further and further every night when I got home with my friends online.As you begin your adventure, you’ll start out by choosing your starter class, each having their own playstyle, strengths, weaknesses and bonuses. You’re actually going to want to play every class eventually for various reasons I’ll delve into shortly, but everyone has their favorite. If you prefer your ranged attacks, then Ranger will be your choice. If you like to have a little more survivability, then Paladin will be your melee powerhouse. There’s a handful of other classes, so make sure to try them all out, as I ended up making a Warlock my main, which is not the style of class I generally gravitate towards. Some classes can also be unlocked through various means, so there’s always something to work towards.
Once you chose your class you’re thrust into your quaint and quiet little village called The Outlook. This has a few empty and tattered buildings along with a few people to chat to. This is your new home and you’ll be building it up and improving it as you progress. Your little town will grow over time, adding new vendors, new items to buy, new shops and more. You’re here so often between runs that it does start to feel like home after a few dozen hours.
The bulk of your time in Heroes of Hammerwatch (simply referred to as Hammerwatch from here on) will be within its randomly generated dungeons as you try and survive as long as possible each time. Did I mention that Hammerwatch is an action based rougelike as well? That’s right, you’re going to be dying, a LOT, and losing much of your progress when you do. That doesn’t mean there’s no constant progression to be made though, as you’re always working towards something, even if you die. The beginning mine dungeon accessed at your town will be your first foray into many runs to come. You’ll need to squash bugs, avoid traps, collect gold and ore, and most importantly, survive.
Combat is handled the way most twin-stick shooters control, with the Left Stick used to move and the Right to aim. Right Trigger is your main attack and will be how you do the bulk of your damage, and every character uses their mana tied to their Left Trigger and abilities you unlock later on. Every class performs quite differently and needs to be played a specific way if you want to survive, so keep an eye on your health and mana.
I struggled quite badly in the beginning, as nothing is really taught to you at all, not even really the basics. You’re simply thrown into this world and left to figure it out for yourself. Truth be told, I’m still learning new things even today the more I delve into it and play with more veterans. The main thing to keep in mind is that Hammerwatch is a roguelike, so when you die, you’re going to lose everything in your possession. There are two ways to keep your spoils though; finish a complete run and defeat the final boss, or find lifts that you can send your gold and ore back up to your town, though this comes with a hefty tax cut, but anything is better than nothing right?
Do you risk going to another floor of a dungeon to find more ore and gold, both of which is incredibly important for long term progression, or send up what you can when you can, little by little? It’s a small price to pay, but progression in Hammerwatch is slow and gradual. Don’t expect to max everything out in a day or two. Actually, don’t expect to max anything out, as there’s not really an endpoint per-se, hence the crazy grind. Every enemy you kill nets you experience, eventually leveling you up and making you stronger overall. This in turn makes your next run a little bit easier every time as well. All the gold and ore you were able to send up to town can also be used to purchase new items, buildings and more, also adding to your progression in numerous ways.
This constant grind of being slightly better than before is where Hammerwatch really shines. Your skills will level up, you can purchase new passive bonuses and your village is also shared across all of your characters, which is why you’ll want to eventually play all of the classes. When you complete harder runs, you earn stat bonuses that apply to all of your characters. For example, after being New Game+(2) with my Thief I earned some great gold gain for my subsequent runs. Doing the same with my Paladin earned me defensive bonuses. None of this is explained to you, so it’s a lot of playing around and figuring out things for yourself, or be lucky as I was and have a high level player explain much of it.
Another mechanic that took some getting used to and figuring out was that you don’t equip items and gear on your character in a normal way like most games. Instead, in each run you’ll find items in random chests, from boss drops and other ways, and these stay in your inventory and give a ton of bonuses and perks, but only for that run; you don’t keep this gear. Also, there’s a fountain in your town where you can make each run easier or harder, based on what you want to accomplish. So if you’re wanting to grind experience, money and ore, you’ll want to turn the dungeons to much larger, fill it with way more enemies and make them harder as well. There’s actually a ton of options so you can really customize and save presets for different run types based on what you and your friends want to focus on.
Once you do finally beat the final boss you might think you’re done, but you’ve only begun. From here you can start playing New Game+ (NG+). This makes enemies harder but the rewards are greater. Oh, you managed to finish NG+ finally? Great, now you’re ready for NG+2. This keeps going, and as far as I know I don’t believe there’s a limit, so the grind technically never ends. Getting to about NG+10, runs become much harder, so you have to be very good at your class and know how to play well once you start farming NG+. If that wasn’t enough for you, there’s also a Mercenary Mode that can be accessed once you reach level twenty. This is basically a Hardcore mode where death is final and permanent, but the rewards are well worth it and unique if you can handle it.
While I was enjoying Hammerwatch on my own, once I started playing with friends, it become an addiction. Up to 4 players can join together and there’s plenty of reasons you’ll want to. While the village will only be the Host’s for what is unlocked and accessible, any progression you make with experience, items, gold and ore are saved to your character as well. While you’ll have to go back to your own game’s village to do any upgrades, you can use their vendors for any other purchasing for the most part. Also, you can get carried through the game with some good friends, allowing for some quick powerleveling if you want, but keep in mind the game scales based on how many players are in as well, so it also adds a handicap if doing so. I was surprised the online worked as well as it did and was user friendly, allowing you to keep your own progression in someone elses game, which is probably why I’ve been logging on every night to play.
I really enjoyed the retro pixed based aesthetic, looking like it was a game from many years ago, yet has enough flair, details and lighting to be modern. The coloring and tones are great, and while the pixel art is fantastic, my only complaint is that there’s usually way too much going on screen at one time to really appreciate much of it. Runs eventually turn into speed runs, so you won’t be looking at much aside from the map and spamming attack, trying to get to the end as fast as possible. Also, everything is quite small, even text, so it can be hard to focus on one thing at a time.
Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition ended up surprising me in the best way possible. While I normally uninstall games once I’m done playing and reviewing them, this one has stayed in my nightly rotation when my friends are on to do a few runs. There’s so much depth and value here with near infinite gameplay that it becomes addictive, as you want to make your characters that much better with every run, even if it borders on being an arduous grind later on. It’s a lot to take in and figure out, and it will feel daunting at first, but put the time in and find some friends to play with and you’ll easily get your gold's worth with Heroes of Hammerwatch: Ultimate Edition.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Relicta
Puzzle games are always a conundrum for myself. On one hand I like the break from the typical shooters and racing games I usually play, but on the other, getting stuck in a puzzle game is one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I experience. Some people have great intuition when it comes to puzzle games, being able to find solutions as naturally as breathing, while others are stumped at nearly every turn, almost citing that it’s impossible. I fall somewhere in the middle. I’m usually decent at puzzle games like Relicta, but man, this one was quite challenge at times with its physics and magnetic based puzzles. Relicta is more than a simple puzzle game though, adding a narrative with an interesting backdrop and lore based on the moon. While at its core you’re simple moving boxes to solve puzzles and progress, there’s quite a bit of challenge within that had me look up a walkthrough more than once.Relicta starts out with you, Doctor Angelica Patel, dealing with a collapsing containment field while your boss Doctor Laia Alami yells at you to not approach the Relicta chamber. Of course you don’t listen and approach, trying to shut everything down with an emergency override. The screen goes dark and you begin your gameplay two years prior when you arrived to the De Gerlache Dome, one of the terraformed areas on the moon that humanity is planning to inhabit. There’s an odd alien artifact, known as the Relicta, which has propelled humankind’s technology massively in a short amount of time. Case in point, Patel is able to use specialized gloves that allow her to manipulate certain objects in the environment, adding positive or negative magnetic charges, or even allow a small gravitational field on an object.
Patel is seemingly left to her own on the base, tasked with investigating the Relicta. The narrative within is actually quite intriguing at times, and while you only get snippets of story here and there between gameplay sections, the backdrop was captivating and as you find out more clues hidden via collectibles and emails, a larger more sinister plot is unveiled. If you’re able to power through the complex and challenging puzzles, the narrative is interesting enough that it made me want to constantly progress to find out what happened next before those opening moments. While not its main focus, at least there’s been some work put into a story other than simple throwing puzzle after puzzle at you for no real reason.
Even though the backdrop is a moon base, it has been terraformed and has created some beautiful environments to explore, though it will take a backseat as you wrack your brain trying to solve each puzzle put before you, as you’ll solely be focusing on that instead. You’re also confined to a very specific and narrow path with invisible walls and barriers, so there’s really no exploration to be had in these beautiful and lush environments.
Between each main section of the areas you’ll be able to explore the lifeless moon base you’re stationed in. These areas have a very futuristic sci-fi feel to it, but are completely devoid of any other life, which makes sense in regards to the story, but also makes for some of the most boring sections of Relicta, though there are some extra collectibles to find for those that want to flesh out the lore further.
The majority of your time in Relicta will be attempting to solve its complex and confusing puzzles by manipulating cubes that can be picked up, polarity changed and even gravitated. These elements add a challenging layer to each puzzle that will no doubt stump you at times. This is done by specialized gloves that you wear, each of which can add a red or blue polarity (positive and negative). Place two boxes beside one another of the same color and they will fling away from one another, and if the colors are opposites, they attract and will stick together, just like magnets.
Puzzles start out simple enough, simply having you place boxes on pressure plates to open and disable specific barrier doors so that you can pass through. There are a number of different barriers though, some of which you can walk through but boxes can’t pass, and others that block you as well until a certain amount of pressure plates have boxes on them simultaneously to trigger it to open. It sounds easy in theory, but in reality it’s anything but.
Eventually you’ll have puzzles where you’ll need to utilize the red or blue polarities to navigate them into specific areas, or even adding a gravity field to the boxes, allowing them to float. Combine with this polarity switching on the fly and precise timing, and you can start to see where puzzles become challenging real quick. While the earlier puzzles have some leeway to how precise you need to be with your aim and timing, the last half of Relicta will require much more perfection. There will also be special plates where you can teleport cubes to other areas as well, so there’s a lot of trial and error (usually more error) before you start to figure out the puzzles.
There are a handful of different terraformed areas you’ll travel to, each of which has its own handful of puzzles before heading back to the main moonbase hub area to find the next level. Every area becomes more challenging, throwing more tricks your way, but the problem is that there’s not really a great tutorial outside of the basics. Sometimes new mechanics are introduced but barely teach you how to utilize those new skills to solve what’s to come ahead. Once you get a few hours in you’ll start to become accustomed to the solutions, but you’ll have to think logically step by step on your plan of attack. The problem with this trial and error is that you can sometimes become completely get stuck, unable to progress. There is a button you can hold to completely reset the area and puzzle, but this sometimes has you backtracking a little bit and having to redo a previous portion of a puzzle which can be frustrating.
Relicta looks gorgeous though. The sci-fi setting of a terraformed moonbase is beautiful, something you’d expect to see on a distant and flourishing planet. Each area is distinct and has its own visual theme and tone, and while pretty to admire, they simply are backdrops, as you’re forced to stay on a linear path and are only given the puzzles in front of you one after another, without any way to explore elsewhere. The audio is adequate as well, with some light ambience in the background, though there’s really not all that much to note aside from the decent voice over work from the actors. There’s only a handful of characters you’ll encounter, decently voiced, though nothing amazing, but that’s most likely due to the script and dialogue.
I’m always down for a good challenging puzzle game, and having a physics based one adds another layer of complexity, but nearly every puzzle felt similar in nature. This became a little tiresome over time and after I finished one level with a handful of puzzles, I honestly wanted to take a break for a while before heading off to the next. While I appreciate the interesting narrative, it made the gameplay felt very stop-and-go, not even factoring when you get stuck on a puzzle for well over a half an hour, unable to figure out how to progress. Those moments when you finally solve a puzzle that you’ve been stumped on for the last thirty minutes and progress is what puzzle games are all about, that "ah-ha" moment, but then you simply get stuck again and become frustrated.
The idea and gameplay behind Relicta is interesting, as is the story, but the puzzles become quite challenging in certain sections, sure to frustrate some. While it’s quite a lengthy game for its genre, it does feel like it wears out its welcome near the end, as I just really wanted to finish it and be done. While there’s no reason to replay once you’ve completed the story aside from any missed collectables, I’m still glad I got to experience Relicta and Doctor Patel’s journey across the moon.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Lair of the Clockwork God
"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a saying when you create or do something and dabble in a bit of everything, but not being an expert since the sole focus isn’t on one creation or task. This is normally true, even for gaming. Some games will try and blend different mechanics and even genres together to create something new and unique, but it doesn’t always pay off as it’s usually not as satisfying or refined as a focused experience.That being said, there are times where the rule gets broken and proven wrong, as is the case with Lair of the Clockwork God. Creating an odd mix of classic point-and-click adventure gameplay with an indie platformer is the main premise behind this game developed by Size Five Games, best known for their Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Why play one game genre when you can play two? Better yet, both at the same time! I wasn’t sure how these two completely opposite genres would blend together, but came away more than impressed.
If you’ve played their games previously, you’re probably already acquainted and met Ben and Dan, the protagonists to Lair of the Clockwork God. The opening tutorial level doesn’t just serve as a gameplay and mechanic introduction, but also starts the narrative off with you searching for a mystical flower that apparently cures cancer, so you can save your friend, Matt C., from colon cancer (specifically this Matt though, obviously). As you delve a bit further into their quest, the narrative changes to something completely else, like teaching a master computer about feelings, as you’re now stuck in a world with multiple apocalyptic events happening simultaneously. That’s right. What’s worse than an apocalypse? Multiple apocalypse’s of course! You can start to get a feel for the humor within from this point on.
The main hook for Lair of the Clockwork God is the duality of both playing a point-and-click adventure and an indie platformer, sometimes simultaneously. You’ll constantly be switching between Ben and Dan, using their unique gaming abilities to solve puzzles and progress. Normally having to control one character to reach a checkpoint before switching to the next to catch up would be tedious, but somehow they’ve blended the genres together so well that you don’t really notice the back and forth as much as you would expect.
I can’t even start to express how much humor is within Lair of the Clockwork God. The writing is so cleverly written and hilarious that I actually snort-laughed on more than one occasion. It doesn’t take itself seriously and parodies other games and genres, sometimes breaking the fourth wall, but all in a very clever way. If you take the time to talk to everyone and read every line, you’ll surely laugh too if you have any sense of humor. Even the ‘free game’ that’s included, “Devil’s Kiss”, serves as a visual novel prequel to Ben and Dan’s story and is equally as humorous.
My favorite, Ben, is your old school die-hard point-and-click adventure fan, harking back to the old days of LucasArts games, Monkey Island and the like. Ben is stuck in that old 90’s gaming mindset, so he refuses to exert himself in any way, including jumping or climbing, regardless of the height big or small. Funny enough, pushing an indie dev onto a bed of spikes so that Dan could jump across a pit is fully acceptable though.
Much like those old school games, Ben will be the one to talk to NPC’s, gather items and combine the oddest ones together in obtuse solutions to progress your journey forwards. Sometimes you’re solving puzzles for yourself, other times you’re doing so to make Dan a new pair of shoes, or a battery acid energy drink so that he can learn to run quicker. It’s this ebb and flow that somehow meshes the two genres together in a logical way. The conversations Ben can have with people are outright hilarious, so be sure to check out every dialogue option available (some are tied to achievements as well), as it’s some of the best clever writing in recent memory I’ve experienced. Some jokes will be dumb, some silly, others outright walk the line of crude and obscene, but I knew I was in for a good joke or two when Ben had to talk to people.
The other half to the core gameplay is when you’re controlling Dan. Dan is your classic indie sidescrolling platformer, akin to a Sonic. Dan likes to run, jump, push/pull objects, shoot guns, double jump and more. Sometimes you need to reach a new area with Dan for Ben to proceed, or vice versa, able to instantly swap between the two with a button press. Dan will test your reflexes, and seeing him in a knock-off Green Hill zone from Sonic early on was awesome and hilarious. While the platforming sections can be a tad frustrating with its accuracy being a little loose and its reversed gravity sections, it’s functional and shouldn’t take you more than a few tries at each section to proceed. Thankfully there are plenty of checkpoints strewn throughout the stages, so you’ll never have to backtrack very far when you do accidently drop Dan down a pit.
On paper, Lair of the Clockwork God shouldn’t work. Blending point-and-click with an indie platformer just shouldn’t work; but it does, and brilliantly, thanks to the amazing writing and dialogue that had me constantly chuckling or outright laughing. While it’s a satire on the genres, it also executes them near perfectly, and simultaneously. I legit had a wonderful time with my adventure alongside Ben and Dan and haven’t laughed this much at a game in quite some time. Two games in one; half point-and-click, half platformer, all hilarious.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Darkestville Castle
Some of my fondest gaming memories growing up were with classic point and click adventure games like Maniac Mansion and Secret of Monkey Island. While the genre isn’t as popular as it once was back in its heyday, there’s been the odd point and click adventure game released in the last few years, which always excites me. Darkestville Castle, developed by Epic Llama, is the latest in the genre and surprised me with its incredibly clever writing, dialogue and joke filled adventure.If you yearn for classic point and click adventures from the 90’s like I do, you’ll be happy to know that Darkestville Castle has that Monkey Island feel to it with its gameplay and overall hilarious tone. Fully voice acted, hand drawn and complete with extremely odd and obtuse puzzles, you’ll feel right at home if you’re a fan of the genre and made me want more once the credits rolled.
You play Cid, the evil demon that inhabits the solitary castle in Darkestville. Cid is a simple demon, as he likes to prank and commit evil deeds on the town’s residents whenever he gets a chance. As he wakes up and checks his evil to-do list, he tries to leave his castle so that he can go be malicious and, you know, do evil demon stuff obviously. Problem is it seems that Dan Teapot, a local that’s always trying to stop Cid, has barricaded Cid inside his castle so that he can’t go torment the village any longer.
As Cid and Dan talk, it’s made very apparent that Dan is standing on a trapdoor outside the castle gate that seems to be malfunctioning. This of course sets Cid on a journey to fix said trap door so that he can escape his castle and go about his evil day. It’s an obviously lighthearted tone on demons and such, very fitting for the humor and gameplay. It seems that Dan though has written a letter to the Romero Brothers, the most famous demon hunters in all the land, and they are on their way to come capture Cid and rid the town of his annoyance.
Of course, things don’t go exactly to plan, so Dan gets trapped inside Cid’s castle and the Romero Brothers ended up capturing Cid’s giant pet fish and best friend, Domingo. Cid won’t let that slide and sets out to save his beloved pet. This being a hilarious point and click adventure, you’re sure to set out on a silly and obscure quest that changes as new events happen, which I don’t want to spoil. Set across a handful of chapters, the campaign length was just perfect, though play time will vary based on how well you are at puzzles and figuring out obscure and obtuse solutions to wacky situations Cid finds himself in.
Like any good point and click adventure, Cid will be able to interact with NPC’s and objects, able to look, grab and talk to. As with any game in the genre, you’re going to have to be quite diligent at exhausting all your options with everything that you’re able to interact with. Yes, that means event attempting to talk to inanimate objects at times. A perfect example of this that stumped me and had me searching a guide was trying to pick up a crab on the beach, but Cid refused because he didn’t want to get pinched. Turns out I needed to look at the crab first to deduce that it wasn’t a real live crab, which then meant it was safe to pick up afterwards, so you’re going to have to think outside the box at times, as is the case with games like these.
There’s tons of dialogue as well, all of which from every character is fully voiced and done quite well. Cid has a certain malicious yet innocent evilness in his tone where you know he’s more of a prankster than pure evil, for a demon. While not every joke lands, I was laughing more than a few times at some of the dialogue and the humor is filled from its opening scenes until the credits rolled.
Like other games in the genre, you’ll be collecting seemingly random objects across your journey, of which will have a use at some point, though you’re really going to have to think outside the box for some of them. You’re also able to combine items, and will have to every so often, so if you’re unable to progress or don’t know what to do, keep trying to see what items may go together, even if it’s not obvious at first. Dialogue trees have a handful of different options as well, and just like searching and gathering everything you can, you’ll need to exhaust all your talking options as well whenever possible, as this may also lead to new clues or items.
The main hook of games like these are its puzzles, and while there are some difficult to find objects in some of the scenes, I found the puzzles in Darkestville Castle to be quite illogical at times. While I’m not an expert in the genre, I’ve played enough to have a general idea of their ‘logic’ when it comes to solutions. I admit though, more than a few times I had to reference a guide to solve some of the puzzles within, as they seemed completely out of left field for their solutions. This is where your gameplay length will vary, depending on how clever you are at the constant flow of puzzles. Not every puzzle has a logical solution, so you’ll need to really think within the game’s humorous logic many times.
Being completely hand drawn, all of the characters feel unique and have big personalities, even your pet fish Domingo. Animation for Cid’s movement is generally fluid and the backgrounds and each scene is varied and colorful. Never once did I have any framerate issues and everything felt smooth overall. The voice over cast is fantastic as well, as each NPC and demon sounded unique and had a completely believable performance, bringing them further to life.
Darkestville Castle took me a little by surprise, not because of its quality and great humor, both of which I expected, but how authentic it comes across as. It’s as if Darkestville Castle was hiding away all these years, taken straight from the 90’s and only unearthed now for fans to enjoy. It nailed the comedic aspect and gameplay just right, and although I found many of the puzzles a little too obtuse, I was smiling all the way until the credits rolled and should be played by any classic point and click adventure fan.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Coma 2: Vicious Sisters, The
I was new to the Coma series when I reviewed the original, The Coma: Recut. Building upon its predecessor, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters has now arrived, adding more characters, areas, puzzles, mysteries and of course, danger and blood. Just like the first, The Coma 2 centers around a high school student that’s not only trapped in her school after dark, but must fight to survive the night while dealing with an alternate world.A Korean based survival horror game, The Coma 2 appears to be ripped right out of a manga, not only with its interesting story but unique art style as well. Set in the Sehwa district, you play as Mina Park, a student of Sehwa High. A series of events happen that I don’t want to spoil, and Mina finds herself locked in her school after dark when there happens to be a Blood Moon in the sky, unable to escape. Things don’t appear to be normal though, as if she’s either in another dimension, or that something else is bleeding into her world, aptly called The Coma.
The Coma is full of horror and death around every corner, so Mina will have to do all she can to survive the night and find a way to escape back to her world. It doesn’t help that there’s constantly someone trying to hunt you down, someone that resembles her teacher. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll know exactly what to expect, if not, you’re in for quite a surprise and won’t have much time to rest.
Setup essentially identical to the first game; you explore The Coma 2 like any other 2D side-scroller, exploring areas and rooms, always on the lookout for clues and hiding places, but is larger in size and expands on different aspects. You’re simply a student though, so don’t expect to have any weapons to fight back with. Mina really only has the ability to carry a few items that replenish your health, stamina and a few others items, meaning you’ll need to run, escape and hide when the time comes to get away from your pursuing demon teacher.
You’ll be periodically checking your trusty map, trying to make sense of the school’s layout, as many pathways will be blocked or barricaded as the school has a handful of floors and secret pathways. Thankfully rooms that have a save point will be marked once found, and the place you’re supposed to go will usually have an exclamation point to indicate that’s your current objective. You’ll have to manually check every door to what what’s locked and how each area connects, but eventually it becomes second nature as you constantly backtrack.
As Mina explores the school, she’ll learn more about The Coma and what these demons are pursuing. As you explore the school you’ll come across a handful of enemies, though most are in set spots and are static. It’s the middle of the night though, so seeing anything other than right in front of you is quite difficult, though not impossible if you take your time. This is where you need to decide if you want to take your time slowly making sure you don't run into one of these enemy traps, though this allows your teacher to possibly find and catch you. You also have access to a trusty lighter to light up the area nearby, making it much easier to see enemies and collectibles, but this means that the enemies will find you much easier as well, so there’s a balance of risk versus reward you need to constantly weigh.
Basic enemies can be easily avoided if you wait and bide your time for a moment, but you constantly have to be on the lookout for ones on the floor that can grab your ankles, poisonous plants and hands that can scratch you from the ceiling, all while trying to be quick. If you get attacked by an enemy, you will start to bleed, where if not bandaged quickly, will cause you to lose a bar of health. Her teacher though can actually chase you, and can be quite frightening when you start to hear the sound of the clacking high heels get louder, closing in on you. This is where you need to hide under a table, bathroom stall or in a locker, hoping she will pass, but this starts a quicktime event that you need to succeed to hold Mina’s breath and stay hidden. Fail this or be caught in the open and it’s a certain death unless you managed to buy some mace to use as a second chance to escape.
The story will have you venturing further out than just our school, as you go from area to area, though each setting is setup very similar. You’ll search for a map of the place, then figure out how to get passed the locked or barred doors so that you can escape and move onto the next area. Sometimes you’ll need to find a secret passage or a key, other times you’ll have secondary objectives that, while optional, are highly recommended to complete. This is for a few reasons actually that I didn’t expect. For example, there’s a “crafting” system in place, which if you’re able to find certain items, will help you on your journey.
Yes it’s optional, but I decided to ignore this and move onto the next area, only to be bit or scratched on my escape, permanently losing a bar of health because I didn’t protect myself. It’s an interesting way to have you explore more without forcing you to do so, but once you realize the consequences, will make you want to complete these objectives before moving on. There are even dozens of notes scattered throughout on the walls that flesh out the game’s lore much deeper, but to collect these you need to use your lighter to light the room, so you’ll need to risk it to do so.
Just like the first game, The Coma 2 uses a manga artistic style. The cutscenes are hand drawn and is a nice change from the dark and gloomy gameplay. While the animation during gameplay is basic and a little janky, it oddly fits with the manga setting. Character design varies and each looks unique, as do the creepiness of the monsters that are trying to kill Mina, especially that sadistic smile of your constant pursuer.
Audio is just as good, as you start to feel tense when you hear footsteps closing in on your position. There’s a constant creepiness factor to the ambient background sounds and music, fitting of an abandoned school from another dimension where everything is trying to kill you. With English subtitles and the original Korean voice over work, The Coma 2 feels authentic, adding to the immersion like any good manga you can't put down.
More than a simple sequel, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters improves nearly every aspect from the original game, yet still keeps the same authentic feel. While the horror aspect has the odd jump scare, there’s a surprisingly lengthy campaign for Mina to adventure in, even if it does become a little tiresome and repetitive by its conclusion.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
OkunoKA Madness
I’m supposed to write a bunch of paragraphs describing the game I review to entice you to either purchase or avoid said game. If I’m proficient enough in my writing ability, I can make you read from the opening words to the final sentence, so there’s always a trick to get you to ‘stay with me’ as I explain said game to the reader, always wanting to leave that punchline or final recommendation until last. Some games don’t need all of that though. Do you like super difficult and challenging games like Super Meat Boy? Then you’re going to love OkunoKA Madness.OkunoKA Madness is absolutely not for the casual fans. While in the platforming genre, I’d further categorize it into the Masocore genre, not only meaning hardcore, but the difficulty is near masochistic at times, requiring the highest degree of skills and reflexes to complete. If you get frustrated dying over and over, OkunoKA Madness is absolutely not for you. If you enjoy having a serious challenge and want to prove yourself on the world leaderboards and showcase your skills, then OkunoKA Madness will be right up your alley.
Don’t let its colorful and fantastic visuals fool you either, as my daughter wanted to give it a go, and after a few minutes she declared she was done and couldn’t beat the level she was on. I have to admit, as a full grown adult, I had the same reaction by the time I got halfway through the 100+ levels and had to repeatedly tell myself to relax and that it IS possible to beat. Did I complete every level, get every secret, reach S rank on every stage and see the credits roll after the final boss? Absolutely not, and I’m ok with that, as I understood where I peaked with my platforming skills.
You play as KA, a small round blue creature that resembles Lolo (Adventures of Lolo from NES) that sets out to save the world of souls from the big bad guys, the Evil O’s. I know, I don’t really get it either, but alas, there is a small narrative to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing, but you play these types of games for their brutally and unforgiving difficulty more than any thread of story. KA is on the search in each level to find some black fuzzy creature so that he can digest it and I guess cleanse its soul? Again, it’s not going to win awards for its writing, but that’s the general plot set forth for your journey.
Each world consists of a bunch of individual levels, and as you progress one by one, slowly, you unlock the next, eventually facing off against a big boss before moving onto the next world. Again, everything will look cute and cuddly, but it’s anything but. At some place in each stage is a black fuzz ball creature thing, and when you do finally make it to the end and reach it, you get a quick cutscene showing KA eating it before pooping it out, changing it from black to gold. This is how KA is going to save the world I suppose. It’ll be easy at first, but you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, believe me.
The premise is simplistic; get from point A to point B. Simple right? Hah! Okunoka Madness eases you into the mechanics of jumping, double jumping, dashing and eventually controlling different elements for various reasons, but eventually it makes you do this more and faster. As you make it from stage to stage, you’ll find a bunch of secrets if you have a keen eye, unlock new characters, fight bosses and hopefully beat the over 100 stages if you’re quite skilled.
Early on you’ll get to control an ice element. This will toggle any ice platforms, which is simple at first, but you’ll eventually need to toggle them on and off to either grab onto a wall where one is placed, or make it disappear so you can pass through unimpeded to the other side. Later you’ll also gain access to fire and lightning as well, so you’ll need to toggle back and forth on top of avoiding spikes, pits, enemies and more. Even though the learning curve is fair in the beginning, it eventually ramps up quite steeply about halfway through, putting your skills and patience to the test.
Okunoka Madness is meant to be a speedrunner’s heaven, so you’re constantly timed on every attempt. The better your time the better rank you’ll achieve, though good luck with the S-ranks and don’t even bother checking the world leaderboards, as they seem inhuman and unattainable. While there’s generally one path to your finish, there’s minor variations you can make in your gameplay to be just a little quicker and more efficient.
This is where the controls come in. In games like these, you need absolutely perfect controls or else the whole experience falls apart. I guarantee you’ve played a game at some point, died, and blamed it on the controls. Usually I wouldn’t agree with you, but it does happens when games don’t have precise controls. Luckily here the controls for Okunoka Madness are quite tight, though at times it can feel a little too overly sensitive, but that may just be me trying too hard. While I got frustrated when I died for a few dozen times in a row, I know it wasn’t because of the game, but my skill instead. If it was due to the game having poor controls, we’d be having a different conversation.
With over 100 levels to complete, there’s also three different types of speedrun modes as well; All Worlds, Single Level and Custom, so there’s plenty of content here to keep you entertained and more than challenged should you desire it. There’s even a Madness mode that kick the gameplay right up to eleven from the opening moments, so good luck.
While I’m really glad a leaderboard system is in place, and it’s great to see that my minute finish on a level doesn’t compare to someone else’s 7 second run, I really wish there was a way to download and race against people’s ghosts to see how they got these insane times, as some of them I simply don’t believe is legit possible.
Visually, Okunoka Madness is a delight to look at. The seemingly hand drawn aesthetic is super colorful, bright and simply pleasing to look at, it’s just a shame you can never stop for a moment to appreciate and take it all in. You’re able to distinguish spikes and traps you should avoid and looks beautiful overall, even with many thorny vines covering many of the pathways.
For a game that’s so gorgeous to look at, you wouldn’t assume that it’s one of the most challenging and anger inducing ones simultaneously. While it’s going to slap you across the face then kick your ass when it comes to its brutal difficulty, it’s also what makes Okunoka Madness so great for those that love the genre. Even though it’s deliberately designed to infuriate you, I still kept coming back for more and more. Yes, I eventually reached my limit and almost tossed a controller through a window, but I’m also not its intended audience.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Bite the Bullet
Sometimes adding a small twist on familiar gameplay makes for an interesting and unique game, as is the case with Bite The Bullet. Growing up with the classic NES, I was raised on side scrolling run and gun side-scrollers, with the most famous of all being Contra. As years passed, others came along, with the other most notable series being Metal Slug. Developer Mega Cat Studios clearly had a love for the genre when developing Bite The Bullet, but came up with an interesting twist where you can also eat everything you see including your enemies and their bullets, turning the game into a run and gun and eat.The silly premise is accompanied by an equally over the top story as well. Taking place in the far future on a dystopian world, the world as we know it today is long gone. There was a severe food shortage, so the natural solution to such a problem is to invent and create implants for humans that allow them to eat anything inorganic to sustain themselves. Of course this had undesired effects, resulting in mutations and these humans titled “ghouls”, being used as soldiers to eat and recycle any waste, or being, in their path. These ghouls took over Earth, forcing the rest of humanity to flee to other planets to inhabit. This is where mercenaries Chewie and Chewella come in. Against your will, you’ll choose either (or local co-op if you have a partner) hero and be sent back to Earth to eat these so-called “ghouls” so that the CEO of DarwinCorp can learn more about them. I told you it was silly.
With a handful of areas to explore and consume, each of which have three to five or so stages within, you’ll simply try to get from point A to point B, but there’s going to be a lot of enemies blocking your path, so it’s a good thing you can eat essentially any enemy or bullet that is thrown your way. Powered by Bawls, yes, the energy drink of yesteryear, Earth isn’t quite like you remember it, swarming in robots, zombies and near endless other enemies that will do everything they can to stop you.
Much like Metal Slug and Contra, you’ll be side-scrolling in this unique run and gun and eat adventure. You’ll chow down on food, enemies, bullets and nearly everything else in your path. You’ll be constantly shooting your weapons as you try to deplete their health low enough so that they can be eaten. While you don’t need to eat everyone and everything you see, you’ll want to as it’s also how you’re going to upgrade your skills, abilities, weapons and even transform into a near impenetrable Zombro to smash faces. While I’m still remembering I have access to a shield a few hours in, you can also use this to protect yourself when bullets are flying everywhere.
Moving with the Left Stick, you’ll also be able to aim in any direction and fire as well, though it can be quite difficult to get the exact aim and angle you want in the thick of battle. You’ll also have access to an air dash to quickly get you out of danger or to stun and damage enemies in your path. Each weapon also has their own style and uses, like the A-salt-rifle that is your default gun with infinite ammo, but you’ll pick up plenty of other food-pun weapons as well, like a rocket launcher with Meat-Seeking Missiles, most with a secondary fire as well. You’ll also find crafting stations at certain points of levels, allowing you to create and modify your favorites, for a price though. This adds another layer of personalization and I eventually rolled some great damage and mods on my rifle that I used until the end.
Obviously the main catch and gimmick of Bite The Bullet is your insatiable appetite and ability to eat enemies and bullets. This has many uses, as it’ll be the primary way you heal yourself but also gain proteins and fats, both of which have different uses. When I say you can eat nearly anything, I mean it. Took down an annoying flying robot that was firing at you? Not a problem. Slaughtered a ton of enemies in your path and need to refill your health? Looks like a buffet was just served. My only complaint with this mechanic is that it takes a moment for you to eat anything, so the constant forward flow you’re supposed to experience in games like this almost always has a constant stop-and-go to it.
Not everything is good for you to eat though. While yes, you CAN eat anything, should you though? Every food drop and enemy has their own nutritional information, and if you tend to eat more protein based food, you’ll start to get jacked and ripped, putting Rambo and any MMA fighter’s body to shame. The same goes for fast food and fat based edibles, as eating primarily these will make you balloon in size, becoming quite slow but more defensive as well. It’s an interesting mechanic to see your body size and type adapt to what you eat, but the main problem is that not only is the text so small and difficult to read even on a large TV, doing so in the heat of battle is almost pointless, especially when you really need to heal. It's not like you're going to calorie count when you're low on health.
Each world has secondary objectives for you to complete, and if you’re able to fulfil these and beat them quite quickly, you’ll earn yourself a badass looking bandana to wear, not only for aesthetic purposes, but will give you an awesome stat or ability bonus as well. These objectives are quite challenging to complete, so you’ll have to become quite proficient at running, gunning and eating, especially if you want to try and beat the levels in under ten minutes.
The highlight of the combat though had to be the crazy and massive boss fights. These monstrosities at the end of each world are quite challenging and have a great amount of detail within their design, but once you learn the attack patterns after a few tries, there’s not usually much to the fights other than shooting through their numerous health bars. Of course you’ll be rewarded with a ton of food for destroying them, so I hope you’re hungry.
Unexpectedly, there’s quite a massive skill tree that you’ll get to spend points in. I was simply expecting a simple run and gunner, but there’s a bit more RPG depth within that I didn’t fully expect. There are four main classes you can choose from, each with their own branching tree, perks and abilities. Choose from Herbivore, Carnivore, Omnivore or Robovore (yes, you can eat robots). The skill tree is deceptively large and has a lot of nodes for you to purchase between levels, though for how large the tree itself is, even a slight touch of the stick makes the screen fly in that direction for some odd reason.
I of course opted for the class that can eat anything and everything, but each plays slightly differently, giving you different perks and abilities based on what you can or shouldn’t eat. This will determine your playstyle slightly as well, as you’ll have to be conscious of what you’re eating, which is why I opted to eat everything, so I didn’t have to stop and read every enemy's nutritional information before gobbling down. While most of the nodes are simple stat increases or lowers the amount of calories you gain or lose, there’s a lot of options for you to try out each class.
Sticking with the retro theme of classic Metal Slug, visually it looks as if it came from the same era of gaming with great pixel aesthetics and modern lighting. Each enemy type looks distinct and the pixel work is top notch, as is the animations for the main characters and bosses. While I enjoyed the metal based soundtrack, the constant stop-and-go of the gameplay didn’t always feel as it was syncing up the flow.
Bite The Bullet doesn’t take itself seriously, even for a second. The writing and puns within are written well and quite funny if you take the time to read everything. The eating mechanic is an interesting take on the classic run and gun gameplay, and while it works and is completely unique and full of humor, I kept having to stop the flow of moving forward to eat everything I could. For classic Contra and Metal Slug fans, or someone that has always wanted to eat flying robots and bullets, you’ll find an entertaining few hours on your hands that’s satisfying like some fast food. You are what you eat; literally.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Hellpoint
I’ll admit, I wasn’t keen taking Hellpoint on before I started playing. For starters, I’m absolutely terrible at Souls-like games. I like them, but I eventually become so frustrated I give up after a while. Also, I incorrectly assumed this was going to simply be another knockoff Souls-like, as there has been many since Dark Souls defined the brutally difficult genre. Surprisingly, developers Cradle Games has crafted a fresh take on the genre, and while some may simply write it off as a sci-fi Dark Souls set in a derelict space station, there’s quite a few mechanics that they’ve changed and has more focused on exploration and secrets, arguably for the better and a smoother overall experience.You are simply a vessel named Spawn, created by The Author who wants you to save the space station you are now on, Irid Novo. There’s been a catastrophic event labelled as The Merge, and now Irid Novo is orbiting around a massive Black Hole. Something happened to the ships inhabitants, as they’ve all been turned into monsters, so it’s up to you to explore and find as much data as you can to solve what went wrong and how to stop it.
The backdrop of Irid Novo is quite stunning once you’ve put in the hours and fully realize just how big this derelict space station actually is. With a dark sci-fi setting, Hellpoint is very atmospheric in its level design, though good luck following along with the main narrative, as there’s not really any traditional cutscenes to piece it all together, instead leaving it to you to find tidbits of information of its lore left behind from talking to NPC’s and computer logs, of which you may not come across in your journey. While I enjoyed the premise and backdrop of Hellpoint, you’ll be much more focused on exploration and its combat while the narrative takes a backseat of importance.
I can’t state enough how impressive the level design is in many ways. The Irid Novo space station is absolutely massive, broken into a handful of different districts, most of which are interconnected in different and secret ways. With a heavy emphasis on exploration, you’ll be spending hours wandering around since you’re never given a map, and will simply need to remember how it all connects. Yes, this becomes frustrating later on when you are looking for somewhere specific you’ve passed before, but any Souls fan should be accustomed to this by now.
The level design is also not linear at all. You’re free to go almost anywhere you want from the beginning, and at times you’re sometimes given a path choice. Eventually you’ll need to explore it all anyways, but a friend and I chose different paths, leading to very different areas, but eventually you’ll loop around and explore each district regardless of your earlier choices. For example, you might defeat a massive boss for it to be hiding a special access keycard that’s used in a different district, or maybe the elevator behind it is how you can now quickly travel from the Observatory hub to other places. The interconnectedness is quite impressive even if it’s maddening and confusing most of the time. There’s also a vast sense of verticality when it comes to the districts as well, full of tons of secrets for you to find. You’ll also find green and yellow handprints along walls and surfaces along your journey. Green are developer made hints or clues whereas yellow are player made messages, usually pointing out secret areas nearby.
Like Dark Souls, you start out as a basic character, and as you level up and collect experience (Axiom, the equivalent to souls), you can improve whatever stats you wish, based on how you want to play. I’m terrible at these games, so I opted to bump up my health and stamina so I could take more hits and dodge/attack more often. You’ll also have to think of what weapons and armor you want to use, as they have specific requirements as well. As I dumped a ton of points into health, I eventually found a massive shield I got from a boss, only to find out I needed to put 18 points into strength to use it, and from what I able to see, there’s no way to respec your characters, so I had to grind for a few hours to eventually spend those points to wield it.
Just below your health, energy and stamina meters in the top left of the screen, you’ll see an odd clock-like icon. This is the Black Hole Clock. Remember that Black Hole I mentioned above that the space station is orbiting around? At certain times of the ‘day’, this clock will start to glow red, which I call the Black Hole Hour. During this short period of time, different dynamic events can occur. Enemies may become harder, maybe a mini-boss will patrol an area or secret doors are suddenly usable. Some areas will also have a red-like haze blocking them, much like the fog walls for Dark Souls’ boss fights, letting you attempt certain bosses or even really challenging horde-like events that can earn you special items. It’s a really interesting mechanic but is not explained anywhere, as I had to do some research online for myself to try and make sense of it all.
As Hellpoint is more exploration based, there’s going to be many times you’ll need to put your platforming skills to the test. I’ll warn you now, the platforming is by far the absolute worst and more infuriating aspect of Hellpoint without a doubt. You can run and jump, but the controls simply aren’t precise, so you’re going to fall into many pits, losing your saved up Axiom unless you’re able to retrieve them where you last died without dying again before doing so. There’s a massive amount of secrets and items hidden on places you can only reach by jumping over pits and dangerous areas, so just prepare yourself for some abysmal platforming that made me want to quit more than once.
Just like Dark Souls’ bonfires, Hellpoint uses Breaches. These tears in space and time are where you rest up and spend your hard earned Axiom to level up. There are a few differences though with the Breaches in Hellpoint. For starters, while they will refill your health, using a breach does not refill your health pots and consumables. Also, it doesn’t reset the enemies, so freely use them as you find them. If you scavenge for secrets along your journey you might even find special items that allow you to raise or lower the difficulty, though be warned, if you bump up the difficulty early on, you’ll easily get one-shot by nearly everything you come across. There are even rare items that can make any breach a teleportation spot/hub for you to fast travel to, so it’s a good idea to use these items wisely once you know the areas and layout a bit more with experience.
There’s a slew of weapons and armor for you to choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and styles of gameplay. Do you choose a very quick but weak dagger like myself with a shield and heavy armor, or instead opt for a ranged weapon and a heavy massive club? They all have their own stat requirements to use and can be upgraded in a unique way.
The more you use a weapon the more proficient with it you become, allowing you to unlock special abilities like weapon throwing, backstabbing and other unique traits. This encourages you to find a weapon you like and stick with it for the long haul. What makes the upgrading of weapons unique is that you don’t actually upgrade the weapon itself, but instead a conductor chip. Even better, these chips can be freely moved from weapon to weapon if you decide to change what you’re currently using. These chips are hard to come by and cost your Axiom to use, but not being afraid to committing to a specific weapon because of these upgrades was probably one of my favorite aspects of Hellpoint.
You also get an Omnicube, a little floating box that follow you and can be outfitted with different gadgets like a flashlight, heat warmer, breadcrumb trail or other uses. Using this drains your energy though, as does using projectile weapons. Thankfully, landing melee hits refills not only your energy, but also your heal ‘pots’ with enough hits. This encourages you to actually fight enemies along the way and not simply bypass and run away from everything.
Bosses are usually quite large and intimidating. They are obviously the more unique fights, though they can be infuriating and near impossible solo, most of which I probably wouldn’t have been able to do easily without the help of a co-op friend.
That’s right, Hellpoint allows for co-op, local splitsreen or online co-op. This reason alone is actually why I started to really enjoy my time with Hellpoint, as I was really struggling solo, but co-op made it a much more manageable experience overall. There are some quirks and caveats to this online experience though. Firstly, you can’t simply invite a friend through the normal Xbox menu and means. Instead, you need to communicate to them your unique online code, they punch it in and will eventually merge into your world. It’s an odd step that I don’t understand, but this also means no joining random people either, as you need a specific eight digit room code to join, much like a friend code.
Co-op also essentially breaks the game difficulty in many ways. It doesn’t seem like the game scales to co-op, and the AI doesn’t know how to handle two players. Essentially you’ll have one person pull an enemy, they’ll continually chase them, and the friend can simply follow and slash away until it’s dead. Yes, even for bosses. Another oddity is that only the host can interact with the main doors and elevators, and if they change districts, you’re swept away with them as well. There's also no indicator to show where your co-op friend currently is in the district, so if you separate, you'll have to communicate to find one another again.
If the co-op friend dies, the host can get to their death spot and use half their health to resurrect their friend, but should the host die, that’s it, you both go back to the last breach you visited. Once we figured all this out, I had my buddy do the exploring and taunting, as I killed things freely or revived him if needed, taking much of the risk away from myself. Even better, the friend never has to go back for their corpse and gets to keep all their items and Axiom even if they die or quit out to their own game, so it’s a great way to farm.
Graphically, I really enjoyed the level design of Hellpoint, but it’s very sterile and bland, though to be expected for the derelict spaceship backdrop. Some areas have different moods and feels to it, like the massive Egyptian-like district or the one that had more organic materials oozing from the walls. The design and enemies are great, but none of the visuals aside from the backdrops will wow you. Factor in that there are some major frame drops in the areas that are simply too big, yet smooth as butter in others, it can be a jarring experience at times.
Audio seems to be about the same. The background ambiance always keeps you on your toes as you hear creaking metal from the ship or enemies lurking nearby. Many times I’ve had issues with sound cutting in and out, and while there’s a background soundtrack, it’s not memorable. Weapons can sound impactful when they swing and hit, when the game detects it properly, though that seemed to really be more of an issue with the online co-op rather than in single player.
If you’re a Souls fan, you’ll most likely enjoy Hellpoint, as long as you can handle its lack of polish and extremely janky platforming. It would have been easy to write off Hellpoint as a simple Souls knock off, and I almost did until I found a friend to play alongside. It’s unforgiving in every aspect and doesn’t hold your hand in any way, something Souls fans will appreciate. The co-op feature makes it much more accessible for casual fans of the genre like myself, but there’s enough content within to really test yourself with for those accustomed to difficult challenges.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Spellbreak
The premise for most Battle Royale games is quite simple; place a bunch of players in an ever shrinking play arena where the last one, or team, standing wins. This simple premise has spawned many insanely popular games, not just limited to Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone and the latest Fall Guys. While I’m not normally a big fan of Battle Royale’s, there’s something great about being a battlemage, slinging all different types of elements at my enemies, even making lethal combinations as I hunt my enemies down across the Hollow Lands.In this unique Battle Royale, you’ll weave your spells into different combinations as you try to vanquish your enemies and be the last battlemage standing. Very simple to pick up and play, it will take some time to master all of the smaller intricacies that really give Spellbreak some strategy depth to earn those wins. While Battle Royale is its only mode currently, there are plans to bring other types of modes in the future, so Spellbreak is going to evolve over time. The best part? It’s free to play, so there’s very little reason to give it a go and see if slinging spells is your forte.
Like most other Battle Royale’s, the map begins off quite large, but there’s an ever shrinking circle that you must stay within or you’ll start slowly taking damage. The circle starts to shrink quite quickly after the match begins too, so you’ll never know if you chose a good side of the map or not, where you’ll have to rush to reach the borders. As each new safe zone completes you’ll level up, earning you a new skill to fight your foes with. The final circle is so incredibly small and can create a frantic play area that usually ends in a matter of seconds with every player throwing whatever spells they can into the minimal space.
You queue up games as solo, duo or a squad (three players), aiming to defeat all other battlemages and be the last one standing. When playing in duo or a squad, if you manage to have your health depleted to nothing, you’ll turn into a lighted wisp, allowing 90 seconds for one of your teammates to revive you and get you back into the fight, though you’ll only revive with a portion of your health. Enemies can exile you as well, which means you’re completely out of the match, so make sure to work and communicate as a team if you’re not playing solo.
The basic gameplay is quite simple to understand, as you can jump and levitate around the stage, which is built suit vertical gameplay as well; you are all battlemages after all. You have a set amount of mana which can be used to shoot your spells and activate your abilities, but also levitate for a short period to reach higher areas as well, so there’s a balance of offence and defense as you wait a moment for your mana to recharge. Do you go on the offensive making it so you have no mana left to levitate or escape quickly, or not play as aggressive and leave yourself some mana to get to some high ground if needed?
Before you jump into your first match you’ll need to choose your class: Conduit, Pyromancer, Toxicologist, Frostborn, Stoneshaper or Tempest, each of which essentially starts you with one of the elements as your ‘main’ attack. You can freely swap your class before each match, but they all individually level and each have their own progression, and each has their own playstyle, so play around with each to find what suits you best.
You control the elements with powerful gauntlets. While you can’t change your main element/class, you can pick up a second gauntlet during the match and swap that one freely whenever you find another if you want. There are six different elements you can control: Frost Lightning, Stone, Toxic, Wind and Stone. So while you’ll begin with your match with your classes element gauntlet, you’ll get to pick up another gauntlet for your other hand, allowing you to combine elements for some crazy results.
For example, with my lightning abilities I can electrify any puddles or ice on the ground, make toxic clouds or even turn tornados that are filled with lightning. With the different elements there are a ton of different combinations that can create some unique strategies. Each element has its own strengths and weaknesses, allowing for different playstyles. Some are better for damage over time attacks, close range, long rage, burst firing and others, but it will take time to learn each’s intricacies and counters to one another.
While spell slinging takes the forefront of the gameplay, there’s a lot more that goes into winning a match of Spellbreak, such as equipment, runes and talents, adding another layer or strategy. Equipment is just that, pieces of gear you’ll pick up from downed enemies, scattered throughout the map and from chests. You can pick up Amulets (increases maximum mana), Belts (maximum armor), and Boots (run speed). Gear comes in different tiers of rarity as well, and it’s quite simple to quickly see if an item on the ground is an upgrade or not as you stand nearby to pick it up.
Runes are a special ability that can be activated after a cooldown that are meant for more mobility or strategic options. Runes will vary from abilities that allow you to dash, teleport, fly and more. Some like the Wolf’s Blood Rune are meant for more combat options, granting a temporary run speed boost and seeing enemy outlines through walls, or a rune that allows you temporary invisibility, allowing you to flank or escape quickly and setup a new attack. Runes also come in varying rarities, with the legendary version allowing you to fly, jump or stay invisible for much longer than common tier.
You also have a four slot inventory that can hold two potions in each, for a total of 8 consumables. Potions come in two types; health and armor regen but also in small or large versions. Health potions will regenerate your HP bar slowly, and armor ones your Armor bar, obviously. It took a while to get the hang of these being regen consumables and not instant, so it takes some strategy to know the best times to use these when in combat.
Talents are how you customize your build even further, beyond what runes and gauntlets you’re using. Divided into three categories of Mind, Body and Spirit, you’re given six points you can spend on one talent per category. So do you spend 3 points on one of the best abilities like an auto resurrection, leaving you with less points to spend in the other trees, or do you use others that give you a more well-rounded build? Your talents are usable and activate at the beginning of the match, but can be upgraded by finding and reading scrolls you find throughout the arena, improving that categories talent specifically to a third tier.
Chests are scattered throughout and one way you’ll find some of the best equipment, gauntlets, runes and more. There are different sizes of chests, with the bigger ones netting the higher tier gear. Mana chests appear on the map and are the best chests that will give you Legendary rarity gear, but they slowly open and takes twenty seconds for them to spill their treasures, leaving you open for an ambush as it is easily heard from nearby if someone is opening one of these loot boxes.
Your battlemage improves over time, earning experience points for matches completed and how well you performed. You’ll earn ranks for your current class you chose at the beginning of the match and your overall Mage Rank. At each new rank of class and mage, you’ll earn new bonuses or unlocks, usually gold for the store or new cosmetic items. Yes, as a free to play game there are microtransactions but it appears to be for cosmetic items like costumes, banners, icons and such for now.
The best part is that even in its early state, not only is Spellbreak Crossplay, but also Cross Progression. This means you can play anyone else on any other platform (and team up with), but also freely swap from one to another and keep your progression, stats, unlocks and more. Kudos to Proletariat for including these features so seamlessly this early on in its lifespan, as I never once had an issue populating a game with cross play enabled.
While the Battle Royale genre is oversaturated at the best of times, Spellbreak manages to carve its own niche with its wildly unique battlemage gameplay and extremely colorful visuals. With the promise of more modes to come, I’m excited to see how Spellbreak evolves over time, as it already feels decently balanced in its current state and a literal blast to play.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2
There’s a few games that when you look back and reminisce they probably define your childhood or gaming career. I have a few of those games, of which were the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games. I can’t even fathom how many hours a friend and I would play the Tony Hawk games all day, every day, whenever we had the chance growing up. When it came time for the weekend, we would load up on chips, snacks and energy drinks just so we could play for as long as possible; it was a simpler time back then and some of my best gaming memories.Nostalgia is a funny thing, as it can sometimes make you remember things far better than they actually were. With a slew of remake and remastered games coming in recent years, it’s easy to get swept up in nostalgia. Sometimes playing an older game you loved when you’re much older can bring disappointment, as you realize it really wasn’t as great as you remember. Thankfully this isn’t the case with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, as much care went into recreating these two classic games, arguably the best in the series, and is now the defining experience for skateboarding games. Both games were popular back then, and if my friends list is any indication, then it seems many have been clamoring for the return of a great Tony Hawk game.
Rebuilt from the ground up, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 brings its classic gameplay into the modern age with a boost of graphics, updated mechanics and of course, online gameplay for you and all your friends to enjoy skating together. It wasn’t clear what the future of the franchise was going to be after the abysmal Pro Skater 5 back in 2015, as it seemed to have lost that magic touch of what made the series so great, so it’s great to see classic Tony Hawk gameplay make a return, even if it’s the original two games remade.
You begin your skate career by either choosing your skater or creating your own. The options for creating are somewhat limited though, allowing you to create your male or female skater, but many of the options are bland or only give you a couple choices. Much of the clothing and gear will be locked until you reach a certain level or have enough in-game cash to purchase them. If you choose to create your own skater you’ll have low stats and will need to collect the stat point icons across the stages if you want to improve your skater.
You can also choose to skate as the iconic and legendary Tony Hawk of course, but there’s a slew of returning pro skaters, as well as some new ones for this release. Some of the notable returning pros are Chad Muska, Eric Koston, Bob Burnquist, Elissa Steamer, Bucky Lasek and more. It’s been many years since these two games originally released though, and many new and upcoming skaters have been making headlines and are now included in the game as well. Skaters Nyjah Huston, Leo Baker, Leticia Bufoni, Aori Nishimura, Lizzie Armento, Shane O’Neill, Riley Hawk and Tyshawn Jones round out the new class of skaters and is a welcome addition to the series.
Across both games, you have a persistent skater level that ranks up as you complete more challenges, regardless of which skater you’re currently using. Leveling up will earn you access to new clothing, skate gear and trick slots for specials. The cosmetic store is quite expansive and it will take a lot of gameplay if you want to purchase everything that is offered. With an absolute ton of challenges to attempt to complete as well, you’ll have plenty to focus on even after you’ve unlocked every level.
If you’re new to the Tony Hawk series, the gameplay is simple enough to play but takes time and effort to master. You’re given two minute runs to get the highest score possible or complete certain objectives like finding the letters S-K-A-T-E, hidden video tapes, grinding a certain amount of tables and much more. This 2 minute piece-meal approach is an old mechanic, but still works and suits the gameplay quite well. The games were known for not only pulling off crazy tricks, but combo-ing them all together in a completely unrealistic way, like performing Tony’s iconic 900 spin off a building to grind a bus and pulling off a manual with a dozen tricks in-between. This arcade take on skateboarding is what made it so fun in the first place, and still holds up all these years later.
Skate Tours is where you’ll take on level by level, unlocking new ones as you complete certain amounts of objectives. The levels were just as iconic as the gameplay and soundtrack, so it was fantastic diving right back into familiar territory with levels I could probably recreate and draw from memory I put so much time into them when I was younger. The level designs are largely unchanged, but graphically improved in so many ways that they actually feel like an actual place somewhere in the real world now. The graffiti on the walls for example looks realistic, as does the night time lighting. It's wonderful to see old levels I remember in my head, but now realized in modern day graphics.
Everything simply feels authentic and just as you remember, which is impressive given how much new is included as well. The majority of all the content from the original games are in, save for a few of the songs for licensing reasons I could only assume, but is amped up with a new graphic engine, new models (that look more realistic than ever), HDR lighting and smooth 4K/60FPS that makes it a better experience than ever before. There are some fundamental changes though which took me a while to get used to, such as being able to revert, a move that wasn’t available in these first games (it was introduced in THPS3) but allows for more combo transitions from landing vert moves. While some purists may frown upon adding changes, I believe this one is for the better overall, even if it does change the original flow of the games, though there are options to have classic move-sets only should you really wish.
So you’re now a pro skater and have collected everything the game has to offer and unlocked every stage? Well, this is where Create-A-Park comes in. While not a new feature to the series, now that online gaming is the norm, you’re not only able to create any crazy skate park idea that you can imagine, but also upload it and share it for anyone else to try as well. The tools are quite simple to use and offer a lot more variety and options than ever before as well, so make sure to check online as there are some absolutely crazy park creations out there already.
Online simultaneous multiplayer is now an option as well, so gather your friends and challenge them to a variety of different challenges, like longest combo, highest score and more. There are casual and ranked sessions you can join, and although functional and lag free, having more robust options would be welcome.
Arguably, more iconic than the gameplay for the THPS series is its soundtrack. At the time, not many games used real world licensed soundtrack to this degree, and these games specifically opened me up to a ton of different musical genres. These games were actually the first gaming soundtrack I ever purchased on CD and defined a bunch of my musical tastes that still stands today. With a quick press of the Right Stick, you can instantly skip the song playing, or even completely disable certain songs you don’t like in the options. The developers knew that the soundtrack is a big deal with this remake, so they were able to get the majority of the original soundtrack included for this remaster, which is exciting, but also added 37 completely new tracks, most of which feel as if they blend into the original soundtrack seamlessly. What really matters though is that “Superman” by Goldfinger is still included and great as ever.
For the true Tony Hawk fans, if you can find the Collector’s Edition, it even comes with an actual full sized and completely usable Tony Hawk skateboard that looks sweet as hell, of which I’ve proudly mounted to my wall for display.
Remastering old games that gamers cherish is tricky, because if you put minimal effort into it you might ruin that classic feeling and nostalgia people have for said game, but change too much and you have the same results, so there’s a fine balance needed to preserve but improve at the same time. It’s abundantly clear that a lot of effort, time, thought and care went into this remaster, balancing classic gameplay but improving many aspects and quality of life options simultaneously.
More than a simple coat of paint, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 not only brings back that nostalgia and great memories growing up playing every chance I could, but modernizes many of its fundamentals without completely changing everything about the classics that made it so great in the first place. For fans of the classics like myself, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is a perfect example of how to preserve its original essence as to what made it so great in the first place but adding many improvements at the same time, and for newcomers, there’s no better arcade skate game out there on the market today.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
No Straight Roads
As soon as I watched the first trailer for No Straight Roads, I was instantly intrigued with its stylish and bright neon visuals, but its EDM versus Rock narrative as well. Plus, when you have the brilliant minds of Wan Hazmer (Final Fantasy XV) and Daim Dziauddin (Street Fighter V), you stop to take notice. After finally taking down the evil EDM Empire, NSR, I’m glad to have experienced No Straight Roads, even if parts of it aren’t anywhere near as perfect as its soundtrack.You play as Mayday and Zuke, a duo rock group that call themselves Bunk Bed Junction (of which I’ll leave the origins of the name for you to find, because it’s quite an amusing cutscene). Mayday is the outgoing and fiery personality, which is probably why she’s the lead guitarist, whereas Zuke is the laid back and more level headed drummer. These two have polar opposite personalities, but work so well with one another that it’s near impossible not to become a fan instantly.
No Straight Roads opens with Mayday filming an interview, trying to get Zuke to play along and ham it up for the camera, giving you a first glimpse of their personalities and relationship. You are on your way to perform an audition for Lights Up, a reality show like America’s Got Talent, but specifically for bands to get signed onto the No Straight Roads record label, the same label who controls the whole city and governs nearly every aspect.
Bunk Bed Junction absolutely kill it in the audition, but they played Rock music, and Vinyl City is ruled by NSR who only will allow EDM to play. Tatiana, the CEO of NSR, dismisses you both regardless of your amazing performance and fan support. This of course forces the rock duo to set their sights on taking the evil NSR down and bring back Rock for the population to enjoy. Now it’s up to the two to initiate a musical revolution and take down the EDM Empire. While it may be a silly premise, given the gameplay and setting, it actually works quite well as you journey from boss to boss, getting closer to NSR headquarters to take Tatiana down, but more importantly, bringing Rock back to the masses.
My initial thoughts when seeing No Straight Roads for the first time was that its gameplay was going to be very heavily musical and rhythm based, much like a Space Channel 5. While it does incorporate some of those elements, as it is a musical game at its heart, it’s more a platform brawler than anything else. Half exploration, half boss battler, No Straight Roads is an interesting mixture of gameplay mechanics that works well in some sequences, but frustrates in others.
Half of your time with No Straight Roads will be exploring Vinyl City. Here you’ll be collecting energy and choosing to use it to restore power to the city at certain sections like lights, lamps, vending machines and more. NSR is hoarding energy for their own uses, so you’re a modern day Robin Hood, saving the general population from their tyranny. The platforming sections are functional but lack precision, as when you're exploring Vinyl City, you’ll get hung up on odd ledges and corners or hit invisible walls.
Like any good resistance group, you’ll make your base of operations underground in the sewers. Here is where you can relax and check out the collectables you find from defeating bosses, eventually adding more areas like a concert room, a tinkering room to add mods and stickers to your instruments, a radio room for interviews and even a dedicated place to feed your pet alligator. As you reach the end of each district, you’ll find the coolest and most rewarding part of No Straight Roads, the boss battles.
As you collect batteries in Vinyl City and restore power, you’ll gain fans, which levels your fan base, allowing you to unlock more in the skill trees to improve your combat and abilities. To be honest, these exploring sections, while relaxing, is the weakest part of No Straight Roads and feels more like padding to extend the gameplay more than anything else.
Combat is unique, as both Mayday and Zuke use their instruments as their weapons for attacking. Use the power of music to fight back their NSR enemies, trying to sync your attacks and dodges with the rhythm of the music. Robot enemies for example will jump slam on the beat, making it easy to time when they are going to attack if you pay attention to the rhythm. Interestingly, you never really learn new abilities and combos, but instead will have new enemy types thrown at you as you progress.
Flying enemies can only be attacked with the power of music, more specifically, musical notes you pick up during combat, and since you can freely swap between both characters, they each can only hold a certain amount of musical notes at a time. You’re also able to hold down a button to transform certain objects with your music to help you in battle. For example, a seemingly plain object can transform into a mini turret to help you in battles, specifically against bosses.
You’ll need to upgrade your abilities though if you want any chance at survival. As you defeat bosses and gain new fan base ranks, you’ll be able to upgrade certain aspects to both characters, such as Zuke being able to extend his combo, or transformations take shorter time to do. You’ll also find new sticks and mods along your journey to take down NSR, allowing you to improve base stats like melee damage, speed, health and more. Mods allow you to equip special abilities to your Triggers, and these vary from minor heals to different attack types, but these deplete your energy bar that slowly refills overtime and through combat.
The real crux of the gameplay is within the eight varying worlds that culminate in amazing, but frustrating, boss battles. Each world section of Vinyl City is defended by one of NSR’s henchmen, each with their own personality, design and musical genre. From DJ music, to concert piano, and even a pop boy band, each boss is really unique and the absolute best part of No Straight Roads. These battles make an interesting mash of their EDM versus your Rock music, but there’s one massively frustrating problem: dying.
Each boss fight has multiple stages or phases, each one adding some sort of new mechanic or enemy type. While this isn’t normally too big of an issue, the later bosses are quite lengthy, but when you die you start back at the beginning of the boss fight; not the beginning of the phase you’re on, the whole battle. On the final boss or two, this means you not only have to fight through 15 minutes or so all over again, but also watch unskippable cutscenes at times as well. While not a deal breaker, attempting a boss fight for the fifth or sixth time can take away from some of the ‘special sauce’ that makes the boss battles so great and really start to venture into frustration.
Couch co-op is an option, one that would make things much easier, but sadly there’s no online co-op, so if you don’t have someone come over to play you sadly won’t be able to experience it for an easier time as a Rock duo. Also, there’s no difficulty options, so if you’re struggling early on, it’s only going to become harder as you reach each new district and boss.
While the gameplay for No Straight Roads is decent at best, what really makes it stand out is its visual aesthetic and its absolutely amazing soundtrack and voice acting. All of the characters, not just Mayday and Zuke, are brilliantly unique and have a ton of personality. Each character has their own style and the world of Vinyl City of excitingly bright, neon and very pleasing to the eye. While there’s the odd graphical glitches, it was generally a smooth experience throughout and nothing major that was a deal breaker.
Where No Straight Roads excels is in its audio. The electronic-rock soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, from opening home screen to the credits and every boss battle in between. Each boss battle is unique in its musical genre and I’ve actually added the complete soundtrack to my favorited list on Spotify since. Artists like Falk Au Yeong, Andy Tunstall, Funk Fiction, Cliqtrack, Masahiro “Godspeed” Aoki, Az Samad, Clyde Rabatel, the Video Game Orchestra and more fill the soundtrack with amazing music from beginning to finish. Equally as impressive is all of the voice acting throughout, especially from Mayday and Zuke, as they truly bring life to the characters, heightening the clever writing, making me laugh on more than a handful of occasions.
No Straight Roads is far from perfect, but when it comes to everything related to its audio, from the soundtrack to the great voice acting, there’s really no better. It’s clear that No Straight Roads was made with passion and care, and it shows with its uniqueness and visual flair. While I wish the gameplay was equally as satisfying as its soundtrack which elevates the whole experience and more than makes up for its shortcomings, I’m glad to have been a part of Bunk Bed Junction’s fight at taking NSR down and restoring order to Vinyl City while rocking out.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Tell Me Why
Story and narrative is why I gravitate to specific games. Telltale really nailed this down with their The Walking Dead series, then seemingly out of nowhere a little studio named DONTNOD Entertainment brought us Life Is Strange, also a narrative driven series but with their own unique take and mechanics. Tell Me Why is the latest from DONTNOD, telling an intertwined story with many branches, revolving around twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan. Set in a small town in Alaska, Tell Me Why navigates some serious subject matter by bringing its characters to life in a believable and authentic way, and by the end, having you reflect on your own memories and beliefs.Par the course for DONTNOD and similar games, Tell Me Why is releasing in three separate chapters. Normally we would review each chapter individually, but we were given access to all three right away and played from beginning to finish. This review covers the complete narrative across all three chapters, but will try to avoid as many major spoilers as possible, as these moments and revelations are really what makes Tell Me Why shine. Normally the wait between episodes in most series can take weeks or months, but thankfully DONTNOD is releasing them weekly. Chapter One is available now (and through Game Pass) with Chapter Two releasing September 3rd and the final chapter on September 10th.
Set in Delos Crossing, Alaska, twins Alyson and Tyler are finally being reunited after ten years apart as they return to their childhood home. A decade is a long time, so they must navigate learning how to interact with one another once again as they recall memories and discuss what life has been apart for each of them. Growing up together, they didn’t have an easy childhood, as their mother was apparently quite strict. In the opening chapter it seems as if they had very little fond memories of their mother, though this is to be expected, as the reason they’ve been apart for so long is because the situation surrounding their mother’s death. This is your fair warning for narrative SPOILERS ahead, as it’s hard to bring any context to the heaviness of the story without divulging some pertinent information;
For the last ten years, Tyler was sent away due to the fact that he killed his mother out of self-defense. Mary-Ann, their mother, was pointing a shotgun at Tyler when he showed her his new haircut, seemingly having lost her mind, though Tyler believes this is because she wasn’t supportive of him being transgender. The scene cuts to black and that’s what you currently remember.
As you and Alyson reminisce, they start to remember details about that life altering night, sometimes even doubting what they actually remember at times. Have you ever been in a situation with someone and when you discuss what happened or what was said, but you both have very different recollections of said event? There are situations like this that the twins will have to face, describing what each perceive as their own truth as you relive certain memories from different perspectives.
These flashback sequences are done in an interesting way, almost as a scene that plays out in front of the twins that only they can see simultaneously. As they reflect on their childhood, many emotions will come flooding out, such as Tyler seeing himself as a child before his transition, or Alyson when her best friend was her sibling. These flashbacks help piece together parts of the puzzle that led to the events of what actually happened that night with their mother. All is not as it seems though. In the opening Chapter, you really despise Mary-Ann for the way she treated the twins, but things aren’t that cut and dry sometimes. As you unravel plot twists and revelations, you may question what you initially judged about her, or not, it’s up to you to shape their story with new evidence and clues you uncover. With each chapter only taking a few hours to complete, its length was just perfect and the ending left me not only satisfied, but surprised.
While the main focus of Tell Me Why, and really all of DONTNOD's games, is the narrative, gameplay is very similar to Life Is Strange. You’re put into new scenes and areas you can walk around and explore, inspecting objects and finding collectibles, but the core gameplay will come from the dialogue choices and decisions you make. Given that Tyler and Alyson are twins, they share a unique bond that not only allows them to share their memories, but they also share a “voice”.
This is how the twins use a sort of telepathy to communicate with one another. This “voice” comes in handy when they are conversing with someone and want to figure out what their next best move is, but can’t openly talk for whatever reason. The choices you make, not only in dialogue, but in choosing specific memories, will play a role in the siblings’ relationship going forward as well. If the person you trusted more than anyone else in the world remembered the same situation drastically different, would you instantly believe them and cast doubt on your own memories? What if you were remembering a specific situation out of necessity to shield and protect yourself? This is some of the questions asked in Tell Me Why.
There are also some light puzzle elements within, though this aren’t done in a traditional sense, as they also tie into the narrative as well. You see, as kids, the twins wrote and illustrated stories they made up, even keeping a big book of all of them together. Have you ever read something very old you wrote and can read into it a bit deeper now that you’re older, wiser and have more experience? This is somewhat the same idea behind their fairy tales. These stories aren’t simply extra flair, but actually play an important role in the later chapters.
One puzzle for example is a unique lock on Mary-Ann’s bedroom door in your childhood house that has a bunch of unique symbols and icons. You’re clued into the fact that maybe they relate to one of your stories from your childhood fairy tales, though you aren’t directly told which story each puzzle is related to. These offer a change of pace to the gameplay, but can be quite challenging and frustrating, as you have to really pay attention to the stories and see which one relates to the puzzle at hand. For those that find this frustrating, there usually is an option to brute force your way past these puzzles, but it’s worth the time and effort to try and solve them.
When it was revealed that Tyler was transgender before release, this caught a lot of people’s attention. While some may take issues with this fact, I applaud DONTNOD for tackling the subject matter in a deliberate and very respectful way. Not only did the studio work with GLAAD to ensure an authentic representation, but even Tyler's voice actor, August Aiden Black, identifies as a trans male. Tyler’s birth name, or deadname, is actually never used to in the game as well in respect, only referring to himself as “Ollie” in the flashbacks, as he chose it because it sounded similar to Alyson’s nickname “Aly”. While Tyler being a trans man is part of the narrative, it’s not the sole focus and only a piece of the overall story. I have to admit, I’ve done a lot of research and asking questions after playing Tell Me Why about transitioning and people that have gone through it, as I wanted to learn more and be respectful, not only in this review, but in my personal life as well, so I’m glad playing has opened up dialogues for myself.
Just as informed and respectful the developers were in regards to Tyler’s character, they also took the same liberties with the cultural significance of being set in Alaska, as native Alaskan Tlingit also play an important role in Tell Me Why’s world. DONTNOD partnered with Huna Heritage Foundation to also portray all of the related elements to gameplay and setting to be respectful and authentic as well, not only ensuring proper Tlingit language pronunciations but artwork and more. Given that two prominent characters are Tlingit, this was an important component that they did so properly.
I don’t want to delve any further into many of the story elements and reveals that take place, but Chapter Two and Three are done just as well, if not better, than the opening episode. The final major reveal and decision actually quite surprised me, and while I guessed a few narrative elements early on, I struggled with my final choice, trying to weigh all my options before committing to my decision. While I will play through again in the future choosing differently next time, I was quite content with the ending I received and came away with a very memorable experience.
Visually similar in tone and style to Life Is Strange 2, Tell Me Why has that special DONTNOD flair to it. The Alaskan backdrop is an amazing sight to behold when given the chance, especially on the ferry ride to Delos Crossing early on, and the characters have smooth and realistic animations that had to have been motion captured, as they seem quite authentic and natural. The real star though is the performance that all of the voice actors portrayed for their characters, and not just Tyler and Alyson. The writing is done quite well and the performances are completely believable, bringing you right into their world, making you care about them even further. The ambiance too of the Alaskan wilderness doesn’t go unnoticed, and while there are some minor issues like clipping and the odd lip syncing, nothing really detracted from the overall experience.
While the overall experience is a handful of hours across the three episodes, it never wore out its welcome and felt like just the right length. There are some morally heavy decisions you have to make, and how you react to situations is actually quite telling on your own beliefs. I applaud DONTNOD for the careful and deliberate representation when it comes to Tyler, as it would have been too easy to write and develop his character full of tropes and stereotypes.
It’s abundantly obviously that Tell Me Why was made as a labor of love, and my time with Tyler and Alyson, while short, was very memorable. More importantly, it made me learn something new, ask questions and broadened my knowledge to other people’s plights that I’ve never had to personally experience. Not many other games have had the same lasting impact that Tell Me Why has.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Nowhere Prophet
While I never really got into many card based games, even in real life, ever since the popularity of Gwent in Witcher 3 I’ve really started to gravitate towards them more. Now, when a new card or board game gets the videogame treatment, I’m inherently intrigued. Enter Nowhere Prophet, the latest deck building game, but with a roguelike twist. As a Prophet, you need to lead your followers to safety and salvation, but your journey won’t be that easy. Your followers are cards, as are your abilities, so the journey is a fitting backdrop that fits naturally with the gameplay.As the last hope to your followers, you’re tasked with leading your caravan across randomly generated wastelands each time you play. Do you try and avoid as many encounters with enemies as possible to save lives, or take your chances to defeat them and find more supplies and food along the way? Sometimes surviving will be the biggest challenge, not even factoring succeeding in your mission. Civilization is broken on a planet called Soma, and after a catastrophic event called the Crash, nearly everything has collapsed. Because of this harsh new world, nearly everyone you come across has gone mad or will try and steal what you have.
As a leader, you have special abilities, other than leading the faithful, based on which cards you’ve unlocked and are in your deck currently. With turn based card combat, it’ll be a long journey to reach not only the end of your current map with many points in between, but to reach the mysterious and fabled Crypt that is said to provide safety and salvation. Lead your followers and try and survive the harsh wasteland.
With randomized maps every time to you play, you’ll quickly get used to the very high difficulty and steep learning curve as you slowly gain new cards and build your deck to suit your playstyle. As you travel from node to node towards your destination, there will be branching paths that tempt you in different ways. Do you forgo the path with more combat to try and keep your food supplies in check for the journey, or do you take a longer side path with more rest points and chances to purchase new equipment, resulting in a longer journey which means more food and resources used?
It’s a fine balance of surviving versus thriving, and each game will differ given the procedurally generated maps every time. You’ll be put into different situations during your journey as well, such as given the option to give starving people you pass by food, but food is a precious commodity, so do you sacrifice your own following’s survival to help others? That’s up to you, and the answer will probably differ each game. Keep in mind though, some rewards come to those that help and succeed.
As you journey across the wastelands, you’ll gain new cards, which happen to be followers, and these are the units you’ll place into battle from your hand. These can be from special events, helping others or defeating enemies in combat. With hundreds of cards to collect, you’ll be searching for quite a while to fill out that ‘perfect’ deck. And as you retread across the wastelands over and over, when you die you start back at the beginning.
Reach certain milestones or fulfill specific objectives, and you can even unlock new Prophets as well. As you level up you can gain new abilities and access to new cards in combat as well. Keep in mind though, you’ll need to spend resources to level up, so there’s a balance you’ll need to be aware of here as well, and the leveling up bonuses are only for that specific playthrough.
Combat is the other main half of the core gameplay. Here the goal is to simply defeat the opposing leader, but sometimes you can’t directly damage them as you might need to take out their followers first. Each leader, including yourself, has a set amount of health, and when that reaches zero, game over if it’s your leader, or success if it’s theirs.
There are two different types of cards: Convoy or Action. Convoy are the main cards in your deck that relates to your followers, each with their own specific use, damage and health. Some followers have high damage and low health, or high health and low damage, whereas other ones have specific bonuses like gaining stats when any other follower card is destroyed. There’s actually quite a variety of cards and types, allowing for really unique strategies and playstyles.
You start with a certain amount of energy, three, and can play any combination of cards or moves that equal that amount. Each turn you gain one more energy, eventually allowing you to play higher value cards, which are obviously more powerful in some form or another and can easily change the tide of battle. An interesting mechanic is that your followers can’t actually attack until the next turn, so there’s some strategy of when to play your cards as you plan your moves ahead of time.
There’s an icon that indicates which cards can attack on your turn, and choosing what cards or leader to attack plays an integral part of your strategy. There are even cards or special abilities that place a Taunt on a card, meaning you are unable to attack the leader until that card is destroyed or nullified. Even where you place your cards on the grid plays an integral role, as followers are unable to attack if they are behind an obstacle, though you can play special Action cards that allow you to push or pull followers on opposite sides of said obstacles, adding yet another layer of strategy.
The AI, even on the easier difficulty, can be quite unfair at times, as they like to play a lot of monsters or shield buffs for their leader, making for prolonged or near impossible battles. At the same time, this allowed me to see different types of strategies that I tweaked to suit my own deck and playstyle. It will take quite a few games to really get the hang of all of the mechanics, especially when you realize that followers can permanently die or follower cards can get a special buff if they get the killing blow on the enemy leader.
With numerous Prophets to unlock and an absolute ton of cards to collect, there’s a surprising amount of content within Nowhere Prophet. While there are a ton of card and board based games out there, Nowhere Prophet really does feel unique and balanced. While there’s not much graphically to look at given its card based mechanics and background, the audio on the other hand is fantastic with its electronic soundtrack, though having the text-heavy be narrated would have added some more immersion.
Not only does Nowhere Prophet reward you for playing strategically, it feels awesome when you start to unfold your intended plan a move or two ahead of time and finish off the enemy leader. There are some really unique ideas and gameplay elements that actually meld together quite well, making for a unique experience that actually surprised me more than I expected and easily stands out amongst other decks of cards.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Rocket Arena
Are you a fan of Overwatch? How about Smash Bros? What if I told you there’s now a game that essentially combined these two, would that excite you? On paper this sounds like an amazing combination, and you’d think throwing in some rocket based gameplay would make it even cooler. The result is a little more muddled than that though. A 3v3 online shooter, Rocket Arena aims to gain its audience with its bright visuals, flashy gameplay, and if you happen to love rockets, even better.What makes Rocket Arena stand out against the competition is mainly with its gameplay. The main twist is that instead of a standard health bar that needs to be depleted to kill someone, instead, you need to fill their meter and get a finishing shot or blow on them, much like Smash Bros, to knock them out of the arena. And just like said game, you can also recover if your enemies are unable to finish the job. This Blast Meter makes the gameplay unique, as you don’t necessarily have to be low on health either, simply reach out of bounds of the play area and you can get knocked out.
As for the shooting itself, it’s functional, but something feels lacking overall. Every character shoots, well, rockets, so if you were a fan of playing Soldier in Team Fortress 2 or Pharah in Overwatch, you’ll have an idea what to expect. The shooting is quite hard to get the hang of, as you need to lead your shots, but after a few hours you’ll start to get a feel for it. Not only will you need to learn the intricacies of combat, you’ll have to master dodging and using items as well. You can not only use your rockets to rocket jump, but using them along walls or pillars to ‘climb’ upwards. It takes some getting used to but you can easily maneuver around the handful of maps quickly in no time once you've got the skills down.
To be honest, I wasn’t utilizing the dodge much at first, but came to learn that it’s quite important, for more than the obvious reason. I tend to play slightly aggressive, so I usually forgo defense for more brute force. This wasn’t working too well, as I was constantly getting eliminated but unsure how to defend against it. Dodging not only allows you to, well, dodge incoming rockets, but it also is how you can free yourself from a stun and get back into the fight, provided you’re not knocked out of the arena first.
Scattered throughout the arena’s you’ll find items and gift boxes. These will give you bonus one-time usable items like a bomb that can be tossed, a ninja headband that enhances your dodging for a short time or a rocket magnet that traps any rockets that pass nearby. These can be useful and give a slight edge, but generally nothing that will change the tide of a match drastically.
Currently with eleven different characters to choose from, each with their own shot types and abilities, you’re bound to find one that suits your playstyle, though this took me a handful of hours to find the two or three I enjoyed more than others. Each character is unique in their playstyle, not just because of their shot types, but how they control and perform. You’ve got slower types of characters, ones that can snipe, some that are weak but has more rockets, and others. It will take some time to not only master the physics based shots, having to lead your rockets, but learn when best to use your abilities to earn those KO’s.
What I did enjoy was that each character leveled the more you used them, unlocking new skins to customize their look, banners, totems and more. You’ll also unlock artifacts. Think of these like specialized passive perks, and these can level up as well, becoming more powerful the more you equip them in matches. While I never found a character I fell in love with, as I usually find one I enjoy and main them 100% of the time, there were a few that stood out.
Amphora has a special ability that allows her turn into a water puddle that has quick movement then can launch them high out of the arena for massive damage or KO’s. Flux is entertaining because her rockets look like kitten rainbows and she can also warp into another dimension for a brief time to get out of danger quickly. Plink is fun as he has a large amount of rockets before needing to reload, but they don’t do much damage, so he’s a great support character or someone that can get that last KO hit in before enemies can recover since he can shoot so many before needing to reload. Izell is whom I’ve gravitated towards for my main though, as she is great at pressuring, is quite mobile, and can even load a charged dash to knock back or out enemies. Every character has their own unique quirk and style, so make sure to try out each to find what one works best for you.
Season One is now live, adding a new hero that will come in each (Flux was this season’s), new map, events, challenges and more. For those that really like Rocket Arena and want to get the most out of their time with it, there’s also a Blast Pass that can be purchased, much like a battlepass from other games. Of course, the Blast Pass is only purchased with real money, and while you’ll earn a few bonuses for leveling and such without it, you obviously earn many more items and unlocks if you purchase the pass.
Since there’s no campaign and this is strictly an online shooter, you can choose from Social or Ranked matches, and given that everything is Rocket Themed, so are the different modes. Knockout is 3v3 and basically your Team Deathmatch, scoring points for every enemy you knock out of the arena and finish. The King of the Hill mode is called Mega Rocket, but the more unique modes come from Treasure Hunt and Rocketball.
Treasure Hunt has you picking up a chest and keeping possession to earn points, but you can also collect random coins around the map as well. Rocketball is essentially basketball where you get points for scoring in the opponent’s goal. The problem though with Treasure Hunt and Rocketball is that some of the characters are so overpowered because the gameplay is more about speed and agility rather than shooting or KO’s, so a bad team makeup can spell disaster and a sure loss. I personally prefer RocketBot Attack which is a PvE mode of 3 players versus 3 bots.
Now this is where things become messy and awkward; Microtransactions. Now, I have no problem with microtransactions when they are done right, offering no gameplay advantage like skins, but sometimes you don’t hit the mark. Naturally, every character in Rocket Arena has a ton of different skins, unfortunately, many are gated with very high level progression or Rocket Fuel, the currency you purchase with real money. Factor in that Rocket Arena is NOT free to play, they try and tempt you with a Blast Pass when possible AND want to sell you skins as well, and it starts to put a bad taste in your mouth. Do you NEED the skins? Obviously not, and sadly there’s not even that many amazing special ones, as most are just slight variations or palette swaps. I never once felt compelled to purchase any of them but that’s also due to their high cost and general blandness of offerings.
Rocket Arena has an interesting concept and a great art direction with its Overwatch/Fortnite aesthetic and character design, but with a change to free-to-play, I could see Rocket Arena garnering a stronger following given that players are already being asked to purchase premium currency for skins and a Blast Pass to get the most out of it. While fun in short bursts, it took me quite a while to settle on a main, as many characters never clicked with my playstyle, and the poor matchmaking balancing was quite demoralizing as a new player, though bonus points for incorporating crossplay.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Dungeons 3 - Complete Collection
Dungeons 3 is a few years old now, but as they say, everything old is new again, right? Part real time strategy, part dungeon builder, Dungeons 3 – Complete Collection is now available for those that want a good challenge and dozens and dozens of hours of gameplay. With more than enough DLC that you can shake a stick at, Dungeons 3 has been popular for fans of the genre, and can finally get all of its content in one place. Build your dungeon, set traps, create monsters and destroy the do-gooders in the overworld. If you’re a fan of pop culture, breaking the fourth wall like Deadpool and parody, you’re going to have a great time with lots of laughs.The core campaign is quite decently sized, which should take you at minimum 20-30ish hours to complete. Factor in another handful of DLC’s, seven to be exact, and you’ve got a lot more gameplay ahead of you, which should nearly double the campaign. Cleverly narrated, Dungeons 3 tells the tale of Thalya, a dark elf that’s raised by the noblest of Paladins. You though are an omnipotent evil being that simply wants to cause destruction and general debauchery, so clearly you’re going to take over Thalya’s body and use her as your vessel.
The campaign is actually quite good, though there are some major spikes in difficulty in random places where one mistake will cost you the match. There’s essentially two halves to the gameplay: the dungeon building and the overworld. Inside the dungeon you use your minions, lovely referred to as “snots” to carve tunnels, gather resources and build parts of your base, the RTS part of Dungeons 3. Your lifeblood comes from the massive crystal in the middle of your dungeon, called a dungeon heart, and should you get invaded and it becomes destroyed, you lose. The overworld is where things are happy and glee, until you destroy everyone and everything in your path of course, turning the world into dark and gloomy sections as you take them over.
While the campaign is filled with humerous parodies and memorable characters, all pale in comparison to the narrator; yes, the person that, well, narrates everything. With an unmistakable voice performed masterfully, the narrator will guide you along, giving you hints and probably make fun of you along the way, constantly breaking the fourth wall. While many will have played the base game itself, I’ll instead delve a little into each DLC, giving an idea of what type of content you can expect with this Complete Collection. I’d have hoped that many updates and patches would have happened since I last played, fixing some performance issues I previously had, but there’s still some major slowdown when action gets chaotic, even while playing on an Xbox One X.
Once Upon a Time:
This DLC has the Absolute Evil heading to the Good Fairy’s home, Fairyland. You’ll find 3 new campaign maps and evil hubs, new tile sets for your dungeon and of course a new boss, The Good Fairy. Seeing so many cute and good deeds makes Thalya sicks to her stomach, so it’s amusing to see their reactions.
Evil of the Caribbean:
With another 3 new campaign maps, evil hubs and dungeon tiles (most of the DLC’s add this many), here you’re sent to the island of Turtoga (can you guess the reference?) where you’ll have to get rum for someone, but stop the good guys from destroying it, as well as battling another new boss. It’s a fun parody and the setting fits, but even the initial mission was quite difficult.
Lord of the Kings:
With 3 more campaign maps, here you’re helping King Arcturus as he finds his city of Stormbreeze destroyed. This DLC actually has an interesting plot and twist, so I don’t want to spoil anything, but definitely play this one once you’ve got the hang of the whole dungeon building aspect.
Clash of Gods:
This was one of the first major DLC’s, as instead of three maps, you get eight, adding some more gameplay. You’ll face off against a whole new type of enemy set out to stop the Absolute Evil, the Goddess of Light. New traps will need to be used if you want to survive any invasions to your dungeon and this was the major update that also included co-op, though you’ll surely need to invite a friend, as I was unable to find any multiplayer matches at all, across all the DLC. This expansion had more emphasis on the overworld, adding the ability to utilize special outposts to stop invaders as you try to take down their bases.
An Unexpected DLC:
With a title like that, you know it’s full of parody and humor. You’ve already defeated the Goddess of Light in the last DLC, so what’s left to do? Taking on the Queen of the Forest across 3 new campaign maps of course!
Famous Last Words:
This DLC was the final campaign DLC and actually my favorite of the bunch, because of how asinine and out of the box it became. The premise is that since Thalya has done everything she can, the narrator is now bored, causing Thalya to get on his bad side. Big mistake. Since the narrator can do whatever he wants, as he’s the narrator, he turns himself into Narratus, conjuring anything he can think of to stop you. This campaign while hilarious, was also quite challenging. Stick with it though, as it was my favorite content of the bunch.
A Multitude of Maps:
This final DLC was actually the weakest of the bunch. Instead of any new campaign missions, you’re instead given a map pack for skirmishes. While these maps are unique and add even more challenge, like helping a golem find its resting place, I wouldn’t categorize 3 maps as a “multitude” and it will only appease the hardcore fans that want more co-op content.
Dungeons 3 is a unique game, with its tongue in cheek approach to humor, which works flawlessly, and dual plane gameplay that requires a lot of planning and concentration. One minute you could be building a great and efficient dungeon, only to get invaded and overrun in just a few minutes because you weren’t watching the overworld map for the heroes’ movements.
While it may not be perfect with its difficulty spikes, performance issues and awkward controls, it more than makes up for it with its clever writing and amazing narrator. With dozens and dozens of hours of content to be had, Dungeons 3 – Complete Collection is an absolutely hilarious RTS with equally unique DLC.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
PGA TOUR 2K21
Shortly ago we got a chance to preview the latest golf game, PGA Tour 2K21, and came away quite impressed. HB Studios, the developers behind the popular 'The Golf Club' series, having seemingly impressed the right people, as their latest game is now partnered with 2K and has directly licensed with the PGA as well, bringing us authentic and recreated courses, golfers, brands and tournaments. While the last few years have had the odd golf game release here and there, none has really stood out to the point where I even took notice. Taking two years to work on PGA Tour 2K21, HB Studios has done a great job at not only creating a great golf game for fans, but has made it accessible for nearly any skill level to play and enjoy.MyPlayer:
Like most sports games, your career will have you starting out as an unknown, aiming to work your way into the PGA and eventually win the FedEx Cup Tournament. Before your journey to becoming a pro begins, you’ll have to create your MyPlayer golfer. While not the most robust character creator out there, it gives you just enough options to make them look almost exactly how you want. Start out with male or female (which is interesting since there’s no LPGA pros included) and then completely customize their appearance with sliders that can change facial features, weight, height, hair and more.
Pro golfers also need to look the part, so you’ll also choose their attire as well. Do you choose something more traditional with some slacks and a fitted polo shirt, or do you go old school with the poofy golf knicker bottoms and knee high socks? Better yet, you’ll get to choose from a handful of actual real world brands like Taylor Made, Under Armour, Sketchers, Ben Hogan, Bridgestone Golf, Puma, Ralph Lauren, Wilson, Callaway Golf and more. While you won’t be able to afford any of the best looking wardrobe in the beginning of your career, as you level up and earn coins (or purchase virtual currency – VC – which you’ll recognize from other 2K games) you’ll be able to as you start winning rounds and earning that prize money. Some gear, including clubs, are also only attainable from winning versus a rival as well, so some of the gear you’ll have to earn the hard way. You can even save presets of your wardrobes if you really want to play into it, allowing for a quick swap of shorts and hat for the courses that are in the desert or any style for certain courses.
Now that you’ve recreated your likeness, or any variant thereof, you’ll need to choose what clubs you’ll be bringing with you onto the course. An interesting development choice is that your golfer themselves don’t actually have any stats, but instead, the clubs you choose will have varying stats based on different attributes. For example, I choose a driver with the furthest power and distance stats for obvious reasons, but if you’re struggling to keep the ball straight without any slices or fades, then maybe you’ll forgo a club like that, sacrificing some distance for more control instead. There is no “best” set of clubs with all stats maxed out either, so there’s no need to worry about needing end-game clubs to win or stay competitive. It’s all about choosing clubs that either boosts your strengths or help make up for your weaknesses. The only club that has no stats at all are the putters, as the short game comes down to your pure skill instead.
Career:
Now that you’re ready to hit the links and work your way into the FedEx Cup playoffs, let’s quickly go over what’s been included from the sport’s real world counterparts, as the PGA license is a big deal when it comes golf. For the courses you’ll be playing, there are 15 licensed TPC courses which include:
Atlantic Beach Country Club;
Copperhead Course;
East Lake Golf Club;
Quail Hollow Club;
Riviera Country Club;
TPC Boston;
TPC Deere Run;
TPC Louisiana;
TPC River Highlands;
TPC San Antonio;
TPC Sawgrass;
TPC Scottsdale;
TPC Southwind;
TPC Summerlin;
TPC Twin Cities.
If by some miracle you’ve actually been fortunate enough to have played on these iconic courses, you’ll no doubt be impressed by the realistic recreation of each to provide an authentic experience. HB Studios actually used drones and laser scanning technology to capture every aspect of each course, to the point that the topography of each course is down to one centimeter of accuracy.
The PGA Tour wouldn’t be the same without the pro’s to play against as well. Most notably, the cover athlete for PGA Tour 2K21 is the surging Justin Thomas, but there’s a handful of others that you may recognize. Winning the FedEx Cup is no easy feat, and you’re going to have some stiff competition against the pro’s. While it’s only their likeness that was scanned into the game, and not their swings, movements and mannerisms, it’s a great start to have some recognizable names. The pro roster is as such:
Justin Thomas;
Cameron Champ;
Bryson DeChambeau aka “The Scientist”;
Matt Kuchar aka “Kuch”;
Kevin Kisner aka “Kiz”;
Gary Woodland aka “G-Dub”;
Billy Horschel aka “Billy Ho”;
Ian Poulter aka “The Postman”;
Tony Finau aka “Big Tone”;
Jim Furyk aka “Mr. 58”;
Sergio Garcia;
Patrick Cantlay.
Accessibility:
Do you choose to begin in the Korn Ferry Tour and earn your way up the ranks, earning that coveted PGA Tour card, or do you simply dive head first against the pros? More impressively, there’s a ton of work that’s gone into the accessibility so that nearly anyone can play while enjoying themselves and even be competitive. With six different difficulties to choose from, you’ll easily be able to birdie every shot on the easiest settings, but will probably struggle for double bogey’s on Legendary. The more assists you turn off, like putt preview, the more your earnings multiplier will go up, allowing you to net more based on your difficulty choices. Completely casual players can find enjoyment with little to no penalties and a ton of assists like not hooking or slicing your shots, whereas more skilled players can challenge themselves for higher risk versus reward.
While golf can be a solitary experience, you need great commentary for fans to follow along and call all the nuances and information that we amateurs might miss. To bring more authenticity to PGA Tour 2K21, Luke Elvy and Rich Beem were brought onboard for the play by play and witty banter. Having recorded thousands of lines, the duo performs amazingly, sounding completely authentic and reacts based on how your gameplay is unfolding. It’s clear that they have amazing insight into the sport with their in-depth knowledge, but even better, their chemistry works so well together that you’d swear at times their in the booth somewhere calling out your play in real time. Not once did it ever sound as if recorded lines were simply spliced together, but instead appeared to be an authentic commentary based on your gameplay in real time.
Sponsors and Rivals:
Pro athletes get paid and endorsed by sponsors, that’s no secret. It’s no different here either. Once you’ve earned your PGA Tour card you’ll be able to choose which sponsors you want to work with, giving you the chance to unlock exclusive clothing or clubs from many different brands. Some brands, like Adidas, will have special shirts, hats, shoes and more you can unlock if you fulfill certain objectives, whereas others offer unique and special clubs, which I always opted to work towards. You’ll get to choose if your objective are Easy, Medium or Hard, with each having varying different prerequisites before you earn the unlocks. Some challenges have you hitting a certain amount of birdies in a round, driving from the tee a certain distance, scoring no bogeys and many more trials. Each sponsor level you raise will unlock new items, though I didn’t find a way to tell what item of the bunch I was currently working towards unlocking.
Another way to earn special gear, usually clothing, is to beat your current pro rival. You’ll be given a pro that is your rival, and as you finish courses, you’ll earn rivalry points based on how well you performed on the course compared to them. Manage to best them on all of the set guidelines and you’ll ‘beat’ them in two or three courses, unlocking certain gear only obtainable by doing so. Eventually you’ll challenge all the way up to the big dog himself, Justin Thomas, though I do wish the unlocks were something more special other than some clothing that didn't really suit my style.
Course Builder:
While having official PGA courses is all well and good, what’s even better is an endless amount of player built courses with the Course Builder. If you’ve played any of their previous 'The Golf Club' titles before, you’ll have an idea what to expect, but now you’re able to do even more. If you’re like me and want to see what kind of crazy creations and holes you can come up with, you’re certainly able to do so. Start by choosing your theme, like Swiss, Desert, etc then dive straight into designing your course however you wish. You’re able to terraform as well, so you can really come up with almost anything you can think of.
I started by making a course where the hole was on top a crazy steep hill that you had to use a wedge from the tee to try and land it on the green. I’m sure people will create realistic and gorgeous courses, but I’m curious to see what more ‘unique’ holes are created, like the one I made where the pin was in the middle of a sand bunker and no green. Course builders will also be pleased to know that you’re no longer restricted to assets tied to a certain theme, so if you want to put an obstacle course of alligators on your Swiss course, you’re welcome to now. The best part about Course Builder is that once you create and publish your course, it will be available to everyone across all platforms (even though there’s no crossplay).
Gameplay:
While gameplay is familiar, it also feels more refined from what I’ve played previously. You’re able to choose your shots and change clubs obviously, but you can change the type of shot like chips and flops, also able to adjust the angle of the club face, allowing for more control of every shot. Doing so is quite easy, and once you get the hang of adapting your shots, you’ll be able to start sinking those birdies in no time. With the easier difficulties you won’t have to worry so much about the wind and other factors, but for the pro’s, you’re going to have to account for every possible factor that goes into each shot and adjust accordingly. I’ll tell you though, it’s an amazing feeling once you land that first hole in one or sink it in from the fairway from 200+ yards out.
Societies:
While golf can be solitary at times, it’s also social as well. There’s nothing quite like hitting the links with a few friends, and it’s no different in PGA Tour 2K21. This is where Societies come into play. Think of these like groups for friends and competition. You can create your own or join multiple different ones if you’re looking for more people to play with, even creating events that players can compete on. While I’d like to see more features built into the Societies, it’s a great starting point and should at least be able to find you like minded golfers that would like to compete in friendly or competitive matches.
Multiplayer:
And thus, here we are, talking about PGA Tour 2K21’s multiplayer offering, which is quite robust. Obviously you’ll be able to play Match Play versus another golf title, but there’s a handful of other modes that are worth noting, such as Alt-Shot, Stroke Play, Skins and 4-Player Scramble. Stroke Play counts the amount of strokes each player takes to finish the round, with the winner being the one who had the least amount. Stableford is where you score points based on the number of strokes taken per hole with the winner being the player with the most points at the end of the round. Four Ball is a 2v2 team format where the teammate with the lowest score on a hole earns their team a point and the winning team is the one with the most points. Alternate Shot is interesting, as it is also 2v2 teams based, but you take turns playing a shared ball with your partner until you sink the hole. Lastly, Scramble is also a 2v2 mode, but here each team decides which of their shots was better and then play from that location, for every shot. I’m glad there’s been some thought into adding more unique modes, which I can forsee being a blast with a group of friends, or rivals.
Final Thoughts:
Once you finally compete, and hopefully win, in the FedEx Cup, the season will end and you’ll simply start anew on your way to another hopeful win. Once you finally compete in every course and tournament, and beat every rival, it does lose a little of its appeal unless you’re working towards more course wins or saving up for more gear. It does take a while to ‘grind’ enough courses to earn some decent currency for the more expensive gear, but nothing obscene or that compelled me to spend actual money on VC instead, though the option is there for those that wish. Courses are impressive visually, as is the faux television broadcast style of replays and menus, though the crowd surrounding the greens are generally bland if you take the time to notice. Commentary is flawless from the great duo of Luke Elvy and Rich Beem and power hits from the tee sound like there's some real impact to the swings.
While it doesn’t have every official golfer, course and tournament, PGA Tour 2K21 a great start to the series that should no doubt keep your interest until the next iteration. The Golf Club series was a decent golf game in its own rights, but HB Studios and 2K’s new partnership seems to be off to a great start, laying solid groundwork for the series and creating an addictive and entertaining golf experience that anyone of any skill level can enjoy. It’s time to hit the links once again and win that FedEx Cup. Fore!
Suggestions: Thanks to 2K for providing early access. This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game and was reviewed using an Xbox One X.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
NASCAR Heat 5
I have to admit, I used to be one of those people that simply assumed NASCAR games were just turning left and trying to cross the finish line first. After a handful of hours into NASCAR Heat 5 under my belt, my first NASCAR game in quite some time, I fully concede to the fact that there’s quite a bit of strategy and nuance that goes into NASCASR racing, even if the majority of that time is indeed turning left. Pack racing is a completely different style of racing than I’m used to, so it took some time to change my mindset of how to properly race when merely inches from your opponents at all times.Developed by 704Games, the studio has been the sole developer of NASCAR games for the past few years, thus the NASCAR Heat series is now into its fifth iteration less than a year from the previous offering. NASCAR Heat 5 puts you right into the 2020 season, including the official teams, drivers, cars and liveries that go along with the high adrenaline sport.
Before you delve head first into Career mode you’ll need to design your character, customizing them exactly how you want. Once you’ve done so, you begin your career as an unknown, so you’ll do what they call Hot Seating. This is where teams may need a driver for a specific weekend for one reason or another, so you’ll get an offer to drive for a team for a race. Do well and they might consider giving you an offer to be their permanent driver in the upcoming season. So your first few handful of races will be with different teams and cars, and come the start of the new season you’ll make a decision of whom you want to race for, though you can opt to create your own team, but I highly suggest doing that after your bank roll has a few million saved up, as it’s a very expensive venture, but more on that shortly.
You begin in the Xtreme Dirt Series, kind of like the minors, as you work your way up the ranks, eventually graduating to the Gander RV & Outdoor Truck series, the Xfinity Series and finally the NASCAR Cup Series. While you can dive head first into the NASCAR series from the get go, I enjoyed working from the bottom with the dirt and slower trucks and cars before getting into the big leagues.
Since NASCAR Heat 5 is officially endorsed, you’ll get to race alongside the official teams and drivers, so fans of the sport should be happy to see their favorites on the track alongside them. As for the tracks themselves, these are also officially licensed, so you’ll get 34 recreated tracks and events, including the iconic Talladega, Daytona, Indianapolis and a lot more. There are even a handful of fictional dirt tracks, boosting the course number to almost forty, which is quite impressive. Sure, most of them are ovals, but tis the nature of the sport.
If you choose to start at the Xtreme Dirt Series in career, it’s going to take quite some time to work your way up to the NASCAR level, as each season is quite lengthy. Work your way up the ranks and take those wins to hopefully earn not only the respect of your fellow driver and peers, but the championship cup as well. As you move up to the higher classes of series, you can choose to participate in the lower races too, but this will add a ton of additional time to each season.
Joining a team means you only get a cut of the winnings, as you’re simply the driver, but as you amass your earnings, you can eventually earn enough to start your own team should you desire. Here you can create your team however you wish, including hiring staff that have specialties. These staff are meant to increase your car’s abilities and performance, but I honestly found it a bit confusing. After dumping a LOT of cash into maxing out my staff to get a bonus in my next race, it didn’t help me at all, and I was doing worse than I did with a base car when I was part of someone else’s team. There’s some light management sim here for those that want it, but it’s an absolutely huge money sink and it didn’t feel all that rewarding compared to simply jumping into race after race.
If you want something other than Career Mode, there’s also Quick Race, Multiplayer (online and splitscreen) Test Session and Challenge Mode. Test Session simply allows you to practice tweaking your car’s setup and trying it out on the track without any opponents. This allows you to see what works and what doesn’t so you can adjust things before the actual race. I can see the hardcore crowd making use of this mode to find that perfect setup, and this is one of the ‘big’ new features in NASCAR Heat 5 oddly enough.
What I did appreciate though was the Challenge Mode. While we’ve seen modes like this before, this is where you can race in very specific scenarios, recreating or changing history. NASCAR has had some memorable moments in the history of the sport, so this is where you can race in the shoes of some of those drivers in the exact same scenario. Can you pull off a win from being last in the pack? Can you avoid a massive crash, weaving through the wreckage and pull off the win? Longtime fans will appreciate the work that’s gone into these scenarios, where newcomers like myself can simply enjoy the challenge of these very specific scenarios and win conditions.
NASCAR Heat 5 also allows anyone from any skill level to also jump in and enjoy themselves. You have a ton of accessibility options, more so than the standard difficulty levels. You can adjust a bunch of other options relating to how the AI controls and reacts, to how much drafting can give you a boost if done properly. This can make the game extremely forgiving, even making it difficult to hit the wall, as it can automatically brake for you should you wish. Obviously pro players will net faster lap times without as many assists, but it was great to get a handful of first place podium finished with the assists on to see how it feels.
As for the racing itself, pack racing is very different than your standard type of racing. You need to be mindful of who’s beside you at all times, as the smallest bump can send you or them flying into the wall. The AI, regardless of the different difficulties I tested, seemed to almost always run a perfect race, which was quite difficult to overcome. This is where drafting comes into play, as it’s one of the only ways you can pass people cleanly in the pack, which is also assuming the leaders haven’t pulled too far ahead for you to even catch up to. It takes some time to get a feel for the controls, but once you do, you’ll start to pull ahead of the pack in the corners heading towards the finish line.
Between every race, you’ll become very accustomed to the lengthy loading screens. While I wouldn’t normally mention something like this, what stood out more than anything else is that essentially every single loading screen was for Fanatec products like steering wheels and pedals. Of course this piqued my curiosity so I checked out their website, and was quite shocked to realize they make incredibly high end racing products, well into the thousands of dollars for a setup. Not that the advertising doesn’t fit the audience, it was simply overly used as you’ll see it every single loading screen throughout your career.
For those wanting some competition online, you’re able to race against 39 other drivers in real time. I wasn’t sure what to expect for the online play, but hosts can setup races however they wish, toggling a bunch of different options. I was quite surprised that I experienced no real lag, and while actual players race drastically different than the AI, especialyl when it comes to poor sportsmanship and shoving on the track, having 40 player races was impressive. There’s even an option to play in the eNASCAR Heat Pro League when certain events are currently ongoing.
While there’s an option for Performance or Graphical Mode on an Xbox One X, sadly the Performance Mode didn’t feel anywhere near 60 FPS. While not a deal breaker, it was quite noticeable when I’ve played other racing games that do offer it. As for the graphics themselves, they are passible, but won’t impress. While the liveries are realistic and accurate, and you can create your own, even the cars themselves look “ok” at best. That’s not to say things look bad, but again, nothing really impressed overall. Also, races never gave that sense of high speed. When I’m racing 200 MPH, it should ‘feel’ fast, yet doesn’t. Oh, and there’s (still) no photo mode for those wondering.
Audio is about the same; passable. While I had to almost instantly mute the music and soundtrack for its terrible song choices, (that’s obviously subjective) your mileage might vary, but there was way too many country songs for my liking. Engines make your standard car sounds and roars, but nothing sounds distinguishable from one another. What was great though are your spotters, telling you if you’re clear on the in or outside lanes, letting you know when it’s safe to make passes or block, especially if you’re utilizing the hood or cockpit view.
If you’ve played NASCAR Heat 4, you’ll know exactly what to expect from the latest sequel. I mean that almost literally, as the main complaints from the community is that it’s essentially the same game with the 2020 season liveries and driver updates. If you already own last year’s outing, there’s not much reason to upgrade unless you’re a die-hard fan, but if you’re new to the series or skipped a few of the last ones, NASCAR Heat 5 is a great starting point, even for amateurs to the sport.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
SUPER. HOT. If those two words mean anything to you, you most likely played and enjoyed the original SUPERHOT from back in 2016. There was nothing quite like it at the time, melding that sweet slow motions bullet time with Matrix-like moves that had you feeling like a super version of John Wick. SUPERHOT really stood out from the competition with its minimalistic aesthetics but super addictive gameplay. While there was a VR version, a full-ish sequel is now here with SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE, adding more moves, enemies, hacks and tricks up its sleeve to get you addicted all over again. It’s still the signature SUPERHOT that you enjoyed, but has improved in many ways without losing what made it great in the first place.Do you crave more meaning? Do you want reasons for doing what you do in SUPERHOT? Do you wish you had purpose? With SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE has this by adding some narrative elements to the gameplay; kind of. There’s little snippets of story here and there, but it isn’t laid out in linear fashion like most games. Instead, you’re teased with story in an interesting way. Yes, I’m purposely being vague, as the narrative snippets are more like messages you find in a terminal that you’re hacking more so than grandiose cutscenes you might expect, teasing you with "meaning" behind what you're doing.
So if you’re like me, you may never had played the original SUPERHOT. It was always on my list but I just never got around to it for one reason or another, so I was quite excited to get into SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE. The premise is basically unchanged; you’re thrown into a level that is untextured and all white, and enemies you need to kill are the only thing with color, a bright red. The catch is that time only moves when you do, aside from an incredibly slow pace that’s always constant no matter what. The enemies aren’t terribly difficult to kill, but you’ll need to use any object you can find to throw at them or fire any weapons you might find lying around. Even if enemies have weapons, you can see the bullets coming at you very slowly, as if you’re in the matrix, so you always have time to move, just keep in mind time also resumes when you move.
Any object you can use will be black in color, so it’s easy to tell what’s usable, as the whole environment is a blank white. Where the coolness factor comes in is how you string together your kills. Do you grab a shuriken, throw it at an enemy, making him drop their gun, so you grab their weapon and shoot someone else in one fell swoop? Or maybe you rush at an enemy with a katana, slicing them in half, grabbing their pistol, shooting one enemy, throwing it at another to drop their knife, grabbing that knife and chucking at someone else? If all of this sound awesome, it’s because it is. Once you dispatch enough enemies, the level will end and it will show you a recording of how your level played out but in real time.
While the core gameplay hasn’t really changed much, there are quite a few new additions that are added with MIND CONTROL DELETE. The level structure is now done like most roguelite’s, where you’ll need to pass a handful of levels without dying (losing all your hearts) or else you’re sent right back to the beginning stage and need to try again to do it in one go. There’s an overworld ‘map’ of sorts, more like a pixel based ascii version, where you can choose which node you want to play in order. There are other nodes you can also choose if you unlock the path to them that also grants you new hacks (powers) or snippets of story elements described above. While I’m not usually a roguelike fan, given that levels are only a minute or two each, even having to restart a sequence over again doesn’t set you back very far.
The first bit of your adventure will have you trying to kill every red enemy you see, but eventually the enemies too get upgrades. At first you’ll be able to attack them anywhere on their bodies to kill them, but eventually some will have sections of their body whited out, meaning you can only hit them in their limbs that are red. This is where you’re going to have to be more accurate, as hitting an arm or head is much more difficult than a whole body or torso. Eventually you’ll start to get swarmed with more and more enemies at once and some will even have spikes on their bodies, meaning they’ll explode when killed, adding more projectiles to avoid.
So if the enemies get upgraded over time, you do too right? Yup. As you progress through the nodes, you’ll earn new abilities, known as hacks. At certain points between stages you’ll be able to choose one of two random hacks you've unlocked to aid you in your journey. These are randomized, but can make you incredibly powerful and help you along the way. Some hacks will offer more hearts, others will start you with a random gun or katana every level and later hacks allow bullets to ricochet, and a ton more that add some unique gameplay. These hacks allow you to change up your strategies on the fly, so you’ll need to be conscious of which hacks are activated. Two of my favorites that I always chose when given the option was charge, allowing me to use a short teleport towards and enemy to attack them and get out of harm’s way and make them drop their weapon, or an ability that allows me to recall my thrown katana back in my hands like a Jedi with their lightsaber.
Everything you do you will repeat over and over. Kill enemies, repeat. Shoot enemies, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The new mechanics and hacks keeps things interesting, even though you’re repeating your same actions over and over as you try and make your way to the ‘end’. Combat feels smooth and exciting, even when I’m retrying a level numerous times. The gameplay has been greatly lengthened from the original SUPERHOT, and should last you at least 5-6 hours or more.
For a game that utilizes such a minimalist artistic style, it still has that cool and smooth look to it. Movement is fluid, animations are slick and watching your replay and the end of a level in real time is always satisfying. Audio is just as great, as weapons sound powerful, punches and thrown objects have some oomph to them, and certain levels are absolutely kickass when the music kicks in and you are bullet dodging and stringing moves back to back.
Even with its new roguelike progression structure, you almost always get that ‘one more time’ feeling, wanting to progress just one more node before you turn it off. Combat is exciting and intense, especially once you have a string of good hacks installed. Even though it’s incredibly repetitive at its core, it doesn’t ever feel as if it wears on you. If you enjoyed the original fluid combat of SUPERHOT, you’re going to really be excited for what MIND CONTROL DELETE adds to the mix. While it feels more like a great expansion than a fully-fledged sequel, SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE really is super hot.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Those Who Remain
When I initially looked into Those Who Remain, I fully expected a horror game that would be full of jump scares and that creepy feeling that makes you nervous and want to play with the lights on. What I actually got was part walking simulator, part horror game. Those Who Remain is an interesting premise with some symbolic meaning and supernatural elements that impressed at times with its set pieces while also being dull and frustrating the majority of the time.You play as Edward, someone that clearly is troubled and going through something dark when you see he’s been drinking quite heavily. As you begin his story, you come to realize that he’s off to some seedy motel to meet his mistress and call off their affair, feeling the deep guilt from cheating on his wife. As you pull into the motel that seems abandoned, all of the doors are locked except the office, but no one is there. You search around and find out what room she was staying by noticing her alias in the log book.
Once you find the key and finally gain access to the room, it too is completely empty, but Edward becomes instantly distracted when someone steals his car from the parking lot. Of course this sends you chasing them down a long dark road, only to come to a dead end that’s pitch black with a crowd of people seemingly watching you from the shadows, but they have blue glowing eyes. You are told to stay in the light, for if you venture into the darkness, you’ll die. Thus begins Edward’s journey to figure out what’s going on, being lured to the nearby town of Dormont, but remember, always stay in the light at all costs.
For a first person thriller, Those Who Remain had a lot of potential, but once you realize that the ominous blue-eyed beings simply act as barriers to guide you to the right direction, there’s not all that much horror elements included otherwise. While the story is interesting at first when you’re starting to piece it together of what has happened and how Edward is involved, you’ll eventually see the conclusion coming from a mile away, though there are multiple endings based on certain choices you make during the journey.
The opening area with the motel sets the tone for the next few hours of gameplay, simply having you stay within the light looking for green glowing clues like notes and newspapers to flesh out the narrative while searching every drawer and cupboard to find the objects you need to progress, such as a key, bolt cutters, fuse and other items. And so begins the gameplay loop of getting to a new area, searching for clues and the item you need to get to the next area without any ideas as to where, all while avoiding any darkness you see to stay alive.
The main hook is that you’re being watched by these entities, but they disappear in the light, so you need to constantly be on the lookout for light switches and other light sources. One part I enjoyed was figuring out a way to turn on some car headlights to light a path to my destination, or a basement where the lights didn’t work, so I needed to move some boxes blocking the basement window so the light could shine in, giving me a safe path. I initially expected these blue eyed entities to chase me or something, but they don’t. They simply act as barriers to guide and funnel you to the correct path, even though it may not be obvious at first. Get too close and you’ll instantly die, but eventually the horror element disappears completely once you know you’re completely safe in the light.
There are some minor puzzle elements where a second dimension comes into play. Sometimes you won’t be able to progress, having exhausted all of your options and searched every place you could think of. At times though, there are doorways that shine a pure white light, sometimes leading you to another dimension of the same place you’re already in, though seemingly a different timeline.
For example, the example above with having to turn on the car lights, I was unable to because there was some mysterious force blocking me from opening the driver door. Once I got to this other dimension I found the car was entwined in some thick weeds. I found some pesticide and cleared the vines, then the car door was able to be opened in the ‘real’ world, allowing me to turn on those headlights I needed. It’s an interesting mechanic, but isn’t used all too often throughout which is a shame, as it added to the supernatural element.
While the glowing blue eyed entities don’t really pose a real threat, there are moments when you’ll need to avoid a creature that’s searching and hunting for you. Obviously you don’t want to be seen, but this isn’t hard to do, as there’s no stealth elements, you simply just can’t be in front of them. There are even a few chase-like sequences, but these aren’t too challenging aside from one where you need to move objects out of your way with the clumsy physics based controls.
Eventually you’ll reach narrative sections where you’ve been given information about a person involved with what’s happened, and it’s up to you to judge them. Do you give them forgiveness or condemn them for their actions? These choices lead to different endings, but the evidence you’re given is pretty cut and dry, so there’s a clear “good” and “bad” decision to be made. These choices are supposed to weigh on your conscience, but never once did I feel bad for those involved given the information. For example, would you forgive someone that killed your family because they tried to save theirs? It’s dilemmas like that that don’t tend to make the decisions very difficult or weighty.
Those Who Remain won’t impress you with its visuals, and that’s not because of its models or textures, but the game is so immensely dark that it’s near impossible to see anything other than what’s directly in the light itself. I had to crank up the gamma, which works to see slightly better, but results in a washed out look to it. As for the audio, the ambient sounds are quite decent setting the mood, but the voice acting is passable at best, with nearly everyone having very monotone deliveries. The controls actually frustrated me more than anything else though, as they are so sluggish on the controller, taking a few seconds to turn 180 degrees. On top of that, the performance is quite poor at times as well. Even on an Xbox One X, the framerate dips quite often and there is notable screen tearing, even with turning so slowly.
While Those Who Remain will only last a handful of hours, depending on how much searching you need to do for the items to progress constantly, the gameplay loop is quite dull and never really changes. I did enjoy the narrative once I started to figure out what’s going on and what Edward’s involvement was, but I eventually just wanted it to end. Sure there are multiple endings to encourage multiple playthroughs to make different moral choices, but I was good once I the credits rolled the first time.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Tannenberg
If you were asked to name a few WWII or Modern based shooters, you could probably think of at least a half dozen without trying too hard. Now, think of some World War I based shooters. Can you think of any off the top of your head? There’s the odd one here and there, but it’s an era that got largely ignored for whatever reason. Blackmill Games and M2H have noticed the lack of shooters in this genre and decided to create a series of WWI Games. Their first outing a few years ago was with Verdun, and while it was authentic, we reviewed it quite poorly due to many bugs, design issues and a messy launch.Since then they’ve fixed and improved the game quite drastically with its remaster, but I mention it because it made me nervous when Tannenberg was due to release, as I was unsure if history would repeat itself or if they took feedback and improved many aspects. I’m happy to report that feedback was apparently taken very seriously, so much so that all the console versions were now being handled in-house, built from the ground up. This is no easy feat, but shows the heart and dedication to wanting to craft a much better experience for their player base.
Games set in the World Wars have near endless history and documentation to derive from, and it's obvious they've done so as they’ve recreated a very authentic WWI shooter experience. Now, keep in mind, WWI was over a century ago, so weaponry and tactics were drastically different from modern times, but it’s obvious that the developers have a deep understanding and passion for the era. Tannenberg is a squad based first person shooter set on the Eastern Front, and you can expect an online experience with up to forty players in matches, though bots can fill those spaces if needed while waiting for more. Get your rifle, pistol, sword and gas mask ready, because trench warfare is brutal and unforgiving.
Don’t go into Tannenberg expecting some lengthy and epic campaign. Actually, don’t go in expecting a campaign at all, as there is none. This is an online multiplayer squad based shooter at its core. They decided to focus on that, and while some might find that disappointing, this also allowed them to focus on creating a more refined experience.
I’m no history buff, but of course I had to do my homework and read up on what and why Tannenberg was so significant in the War. I won’t delve into the details here, but it was a major battle within the first month of the War between the Russians and Germans that had quite an interesting series of events, and an even more shocking outcome; if you have the time and interest, it’s a fascinating read.
Authenticity is paramount in Tannenberg, so you can expect accurately recreated weaponry, uniforms down to the details, battlefields and squads. You’ll be able to fight as the Russians, Germans, Bulgarians, Latvians and more. For those history buffs out there, I know this is already exciting you.
As there’s no campaign, you can expect three different game modes to delve into the trenches with. If you’re a fan of Team Deathmatch, the Attrition Mode is where you’ll want to be. Here you pick a main rifle and a secondary pistol or equipment and try and defeat the other team. If you want to go solo, then Rifle Deathmatch is the mode you’re looking for, having every solider on their own versus everyone else.
The main, and most exciting, mode for Tannenberg is its Maneuver matches. Here is where 40 players can join battle across a massive battlefield (the Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch modes are quite small in size in comparison) that looks to emulate actual battles that happened on the Eastern Front during the War. While you’re fighting for the Russians or Germans, you actually pick smaller factions and allies, each comprised of four person squads. The large map is broken into a handful of smaller areas, much like you’d see in a Battlefield game, and if you can claim the landmarks for your team, you’ll slowly drain the enemies’ tickets. Do you try and go on the offensive and capture as many as you can quickly, or defend the ones you own hoping to make a push forwards once the barrage subsides? Deplete the enemy resources and you win; simple, right? No, this is War.
The map is broken into different sections, so if you’re not careful, the enemy could easily flank you and conquer your landmark for themselves. This constant tug-of-war can be exciting when things are going your way and you’re advancing, but frustrating when you get killed from stray bullets from who knows where, but that’s how War was; brutal and unforgiving.
You’ll never need to fight alone or wait for a lobby to fill, as you can load up to twenty bots in a Maneuver Match that players can replace as they join, something that’s always a welcome bonus. Your squad of four consists of different roles, though I tended to gravitate towards the leader role, as I can tell my squad what objective to go for or defend, gaining myself bonus points if they follow orders. I can also call in air support like mortars, mustard gas and recon fly overs should I capture a base and use its phone. While there’s not all that much variety between the roles, it won’t matter that much when you’re in the thick of battle.
Again, the historical detail is top notch, from the smallest details to the uniforms and weaponry, authentic battlefields, to actually being able to get stuck and die in barbed wire if you’re not careful. Trenches played a big part of the warfare, and it’s no different in Tannenberg. Encampments will have LMG’s that can be manned to stave off attackers, but obviously leaves you open from behind if they manage to flank your trench.
With dozens of different weapons to try, it’ll take some time to unlock and master them all. As you level from experience, you’ll earn unlock tokens that can be used to unlock certain presets with squad roles or specific weapons if you’re playing Deathmatches. Keep in mind, this is based in WWI times, so the weaponry is going to reflect the era. Don’t expect many mods or attachments for your rifle though. In fact, most will only allow a bayonet to be put on your rifle, though the odd gun will allow for a scope (that’s incredibly hard to use) but so much of the online shootouts are sniping from afar that it’s hard to get up close kills. You’ll need to lead your shots and keep a keen eye out for enemy movement, as I promise you you’re going to die more often than not, unknowing where your attacker actually was. It’s slow paced compared to modern games and eras of weaponry, but one single bullet can kill you, so the realism is there.
The map design is fantastic, though most likely because it’s been recreated from actual historic accounts. Trench warfare is chaotic and having a weapon with a clip of 5 shots only is something that takes getting used to. You need to be deliberate with your shots and try to find ways to flank the enemy. The WWI era is very authentic in Tannenberg and should be a history buff’s dream. While the visuals won’t wow you by any means, they are passable, though there is some major pop in and texture issues, even on an Xbox One X. Audio is impressive though, hearing the gurgles of a nearby brother in arms dying after getting shot, or the twang of the barbwire you’re entangled in. While I don’t know my guns very well, each rifle appeared to sound authentic and had distinct sounds when fired.
Tannenberg isn’t trying to compete with the Battlefields and Call of Duty’s, as it’s a completely different experience; one much slower paced, deliberate and brutal. Some will be turned off by is clunkyness and sluggish gameplay, but the realism and recreation of WWI battles is on a whole other level. If you’re looking for realistic trench warfare, Tannenberg will pit you in 40 player WWI battles that history buffs will relish in.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
I’ve always been fascinated by the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. Games Workshop has created not only a brand and lore so expansive that it’s impressive by any means, but there’s numerous games, figures, toys, novels and more based on it as well, including dedicated retail stores. Unfortunately, I never really got into the tabletop game and collecting the figures, though I’ve dabbled into the games periodically, and the newest in the series is finally on console with Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus, where you get to control the most technologically advanced army within its universe: The Adeptus Mechanicus.For the Warhammer lore buffs, Mechanicus’ cannon resides within the middle of the Dark Imperium storyline. For those that aren’t up to snuff on their Warhammer lore and knowledge, it won’t mean much, but those wanting an authentic storyline should be pleased to know that author Ben Counter, whom has written a handful of Warhammer novels in the past, has created a story about the faction, filled with interesting characters, even if it is long winded at times.
The Adeptus Mechanicus faction are cybernetically enhanced, so they detest anything organic, constantly trying to improve themselves and make every part about their beings perfect as can be. Knowledge is power, and any part of them that’s organic is viewed as a weakness. You’ll lead an excursion on a newly rediscovered planet, Silva Tenebris, which happens to be the dormant resting place of the Necrons, a race of robotic creatures that are aggressive when awoken to your infiltration. Every decision you make will change the outcome moving forward. Do you destroy everything in your path only to anger the Necron further, or try and tread lightly in hopes that you can gain more knowledge in different ways? Each decision matters and will set you on paths towards different endings.
Playing over the course of dozens of levels, including the Heretek DLC that was released on PC, the core gameplay is in the form of a top down turn based RTS of sorts. From the main hub you’ll get to choose which mission you want to take on, check your currently unlocked characters and more. Once you choose a mission, each with their own difficulty and rewards, you’ll see a layout of separate rooms.
From your beginning area you need to eventually make it to the room that’s labelled with an exclamation mark, noting an important room with your objective. Other rooms are either blank, has a glyph symbol that can give a bonus or detriment, or has enemies lying in wait. Now, the more rooms you explore, the more rewards you can find, but there’s a fine balance of doing so because the longer you linger and explore, the harder the challenge becomes, as more Necrons will awake. As the gauge fills up, the challenge becomes harder, as certain levels of the gauge mean you’ll have more enemies in battle with reinforcements or they will reanimate faster upon death.
Basic rooms will give you some text to read, usually describing the room while giving you three options to choose from. Glyph rooms are interesting, as they simply give you the options of choosing two symbols, some of which will give you great buffs, bonus currency, heal your troops, though it could backfire as well, hurting you or raise the Necron awakening meter, so it’s also a gamble of how you want to play things out.
When you do finally make your way to one of the objective rooms, you’ll be thrust into battle. Here’s where your Tech Priest and other units will attempt to survive and take out the enemy Necrons. Played in a top down view, this is where your traditional turn based gameplay comes into play. Not only will every friendly and enemy unit have a turn designated at the top of the screen to show their turn in sequence, you also have to manage Cognition Points (CP) to do virtually any moves, abilities or attacks.
You’re given a set amount of ‘free’ moves within a set amount of tiles around your unit that doesn’t cost CP, but if you want to venture further, that will cost a CP to do so. Attacking costs CP, as does your abilities, so it’s a constant balance of managing your CP and planning out your actions very deliberately and strategically well ahead of time. To help manage this, there are pillars and other objects strewn about the map that can be gathered to gain more CP, some of which can be done with a free use of your scanner probe, though that can also be used to scan an enemy to see their health and stats should you wish.
At the beginning of each new turn you’ll also be able to send in your cannon fodder troops. These are essentially the grunts, each of which have their own strengths, weaknesses and purpose, and while they can attack and do some damage, they are generally better used for other purposes, like running interference or taking a shot to save your Tech Priests, as the mission will fail if all your Priests perish in battle. The cost to using these units though is that the majority of them cost Blackstone to deploy, the currency you’ll need to upgrade your Priests. So again, do you forgo spending a little extra Blackstone in hopes that it’ll help you win the match and earn a bigger reward after all, risk it and try to do with just your Priests or cut your losses and avoid spending any unnecessary costs knowing you’re going to lose the battle? Again, it’s a fine balance that will take some time to figure out and learn what the right move at the moment will be.
Most enemies aren’t too challenging on their own, but I guarantee you’re going to die quite often, almost every mission for the first dozen or so until you figure out all the mechanics and upgrades. Necrons are synthetic remember, so even when you bring their life to zero, they have a chance to reanimate in one to three turns, based on how high your awakening meter is from when you were exploring the dungeon previously. To destroy a Necron you’ll need to attack it one more time once it’s down, or if you’re lucky, a critical hit on the final attack will vanquish it outright, though you can’t always rely on that.
What’s not explained all too well is the upgrade system. From here, you can spend your hard earned Blackstone to upgrade your Priests abilities, unlocking new slots and gear. There are a handful of different trees to spec into, allowing you to create different types of classes, from extra ranged damage, to healers, tanks and more. I first thought that specializing into one tree would be the way to go, but after losing basically every match, I decided to cave and research online what others were doing. I basically chose the worst possible thing to do, as you want rounded Priests overall that are better in certain aspects. Obviously you can upgrade them however you wish, but once I spread out the upgrades to other trees a bit more, allowing me to gain free CP and health per turn for example, I was faring much better and actually started winning matches.
There’s a ton of upgrades and abilities that you can unlock, including powerful passives and access to certain gear. Once I started to specialize one Priest into melee and another with ranged, things started to go much better in battle. As you win certain missions, you’ll gain access to new troops and eventually more Priests as well. There’s honestly a ton of stuff to go through in the skill trees that I’m still figuring out what works best for my playstyle and trying new combinations with my Priests to find what works best in tandem. Do you spend upgrades on getting more health, or would you rather have more dodge chance and the ability to heal? There’s near endless combinations you could come up with, it’s just a shame that I had to figure this out the hard way through trial and error.
As for the visuals, they are serviceable at best, as you can zoom in close to units, but you’ll need to be zoomed out the majority of the time to play strategically anyways. There’s little detail on the characters outside of your Priests, though I did enjoy that whatever gear and weapons they are equipped with are shown on the characters themselves. You can change the color pallet of your Priests, but that’s about it and it's very basic. The environment is dark and gloomy, to be expected when scavenging and exploring Necron artifacts and tombs. The audio on the other hand was quite impressive. Even though there’s no voice over work for most of the experience, which would have been welcomed given the amount of lore and text involved, the sound design of the soundtrack and background audio is fantastic. As I’m also testing out a new headset, the bass and music thumped in my ears as did the roboticness of the weaponry and movements of characters throughout.
I have to admit, if I wasn’t reviewing Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, I probably would have given up on it early on. Thankfully because of my review commitment, I stuck with it, and once I wrapped my head around all of its intricacies and strategies, it went from a seriously frustrating experience of constant losing, to wanting to do one more match to see what I can earn and upgrade. Even playing on the Casual setting, I was losing quite often early on, but wasn’t offered help on how to avoid doing so. It will simply take trial and error and a lot of time and perseverance to figure this out for yourself, but once you do the struggle will have been worth it. There are even more options you can set to make things harder or easier, but diverging from the default difficulties will disable achievements, so beware if you care about those points.
There’s a ton of lore and backstory that Warhammer fans should truly enjoy, finally getting to play as The Adeptus Mechanicus faction. While non or casual Warhammer fans won’t be as impressed or enthralled with the attention to detail and amount of lore within, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is an entertaining turn based strategy game that can offer a ton of challenge for those wanting it as long as you can get over the initial frustrations and learning curve like the pathetic organic lifeform the Mechanicus believe us to be.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire
I’ve been a massive shmup (shoot-em-up) fan ever since my early gaming days on the NES. As gaming has evolved, so has the bullet-hell genre. You know the kind, where the screen is almost literally filled with enemy bullets with seemingly no way to avoid and survive. Some games take this to the extreme for its challenge, but there’s a few that have a special place in my heart, like Ikaruga. So when a new shmup gets released I’m instantly intrigued and want to give it a go. Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire is the latest in the genre to release on Xbox One, though its aesthetic may not be for everyone.The Castle of Shikigami series has been around for quite a while, and while Sisters Royale isn’t a direct sequel, it’s clearly influenced and a spiritual successor to Castle of Shikigami 2, even down to many of the same mechanics and shot types. For everyone else that isn’t as deep into shmups that I am, Sisters Royale offers up a decent vertical scrolling shooter but seriously lacks longevity and content to keep you playing after a few runs.
Normally games in this genre don’t focus on story and narrative, as that’s generally not what you play them. Sisters Royale does include a plot though, albeit one that seems cute at first, but will have you rolling your eyes by the time you play through with each sister. There are five sisters that are prophesied to defeat an evil demon, Saytan (yes, actually spelled like that) and save the world. The people of Pultima have been waiting for them to be saved by these sisters, but that day never came. This is because they hate one another and are too busy squabbling with one another as to who is going to marry the man they’re all fighting over, Yaskin. Yup, I told you your eyes will roll.
The sisters constantly squabble and fight with one another by throwing childish insults, each vying to win Yashin for themselves. There’s an additional character that can be purchased separately as DLC, Ode, and she offers a different viewpoint from the sisters, but again, the story isn’t why you’re going to play Sisters Royale. Even though there’s only a few lines of dialogue between the five acts, none of the sisters come across as likeable as they all fall into the cliché sterotypes we’ve seen a million times before.
As you begin, you’ll choose which sister you wish to play as, each with their own unique shooting patterns and bomb types. While they all have the same size, health and speed, their shot types are quite varied, and some I found were much easier than others. Gameplay is vertically scrolling, constantly moving towards the top of the screen at a set pace. The stages will fill with enemies more and more, each shooting towards you, which is where the bullet hell component comes into play.
There’s going to be plenty of projectiles on the screen, and on the harder difficulties it’s near impossible to stay alive with seemingly no safe zones. At the end of each act you’ll have to face off against one of your sisters, and the levels aren’t terribly long, so be ready to be done with each playthrough in about a half hour or so, depending on the amount of continues you’ll have to use.
There are three difficulties to choose from: Easy, Normal and Hard. The higher the difficulty, the more challenging enemy patterns become, obviously. Not only are more projectiles thrown your way on Hard, but bosses will have more health bars as well. Early on you’ll be somewhat overwhelmed, but once you get a feel for the shooting mechanics and movement, it becomes easier in time. That’s not to say Hard Mode is a cake walk, quite the contrary, offering some serious challenge, though you have unlimited continues.
Each sister is presented in chibi form, a super cute and emphasized version of themselves. You have a regular shot, a summon ability and access to bombs that help you scrape by in a pinch. Each character is unique in all of these attacks, as some sisters shoot a concentrated blast directly straight ahead, while others have weaker homing shots or shoot only diagonally. There’s obviously going to be some better suited than others, but allows you to find a favorite that suits your playstyle. The summon ability is an alternate form of shot that is more challenging to use, but can get you out some trouble, though each one is uniquely different. One sister’s ability can be held down as it simply locks on to any target on the screen and kills them, whereas others can act like a bullet sponge, soaking up a certain amount before throwing it back at your enemies. Again, some are much better than others, but offers some variety.
Normally these types of games don’t offer a tutorial, but Sisters Royale should have had one for its Tension Bonus System (TBS). Your normal shots don’t do much damage on their own, but there’s a system in place that changes your shots into a Power Mode that makes your attacks much more powerful when you’re nearby an enemy or projectile. It’s an interesting risk versus reward system that isn’t explained and something I had to figure out for myself once my shots started going red and doing more damage.
Each boss at the end of each act is challenging, but fair, and you’re given 90 seconds to defeat them. It’s an odd mechanic and seems unnecessary, as that’s usually more than enough time to do so since you’re constantly shooting the whole time, but also because if you die and have to continue, the timer gets reset.
This also plays into the scoring and coin system, as you can collect coins from downed enemies to increase those high scores. When you die your score is reset to zero though, so you need to try and stay alive for a whole act if you want to attain those high scores; something easier said than done. The problem with the coin system is that a stack of coins on the screen at one time really clutters up the already minimal play space you’re given. Couple that with avoiding hundreds of projectiles and you can see where it starts to become a real challenge to stay alive in the constant chaos. With a lack of any unlockables or any sort of online leaderboard, there’s really no point to chasing high scores aside from your own bragging rights.
As for its visuals, its basic but it works. It’s clearly anime inspired but it’s an odd contrast to the sisters we see in the cutscenes versus their chibi counterparts while playing. The aesthetic is going to either win you over or make you want to avoid it and the levels themselves have some color to them, but you’re unable to appreciate them given the bullet hell chaos on screen. As for the audio, the characters aren’t voiced at all, but the soundtrack is cute and bubbly to match the character design and lighthearted narrative.
Sisters Royale offers a decent challenge with its multiple difficulties, but a very short runtime, no unlockables and lack of any progression makes it hard to recommend other than to die hard shmup fans like myself. You’re encouraged to chase for those high scores, yet there’s no online leaderboards to strive towards or show off with. Sisters Royale is a short lived experience that was fun for a couple hours, but that’s about it, even after seeing each sister’s story to conclusion.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Night Call
Have you ever taken a cab and gotten one of those drivers that just have a way of opening an interesting conversation with you, only to have your whole drive to your destination gone by quicker than expected? That’s the premise of Night Call essentially, where you play as taxi driver, conversing with your passengers to try and solve a murder mystery. Your meter is running and you only have a certain amount of time before your shift ends, so you better start piecing clues together to figure out who the killer really is.You’re a taxi driver that works the late shift in Paris. You’re a friendly type that just allows people to feel that they can open up to you and talk to you about whatever, even wildly inappropriate topics and situations. There’s a serial killer in the city though, and he not only murdered your passenger, but left you for dead. You somehow survived though, and after months of time off, you’re ready to get back to work, trying to put the whole traumatizing ordeal behind you. As situations unfold, you’ll be forced to play detective and help catch the killer, not just by figuring out clues that you’re given, but by talking to passengers that may have been involved, victims or have witness testimonies.
You’re just a simple taxi driver though, how can you catch a serial killer? You have a special gift that allows people to entrust you like a confidant at times, so it’s up to you to talk to whomever you can to get whatever information possible that would be relevant to the case. Problem is, you also have a job to do. You’re only able to work a certain amount of hours on the night shift and you still have expenses to pay like gas and fees. Do you give a homeless guy a free ride somewhere in hopes that maybe he has some credible information for your case even though that means you won’t get paid or get a tip? It’s small decisions like these that will determine how much information you can gather towards solving the case.
As for the gameplay, Night Call is more akin to a visual novel than a traditional “game” per-se; Narrative driven, but very little gameplay aside from choosing who to pick up and what responses to choose in dialogue sequences. You begin with an overview map of Paris, seeing where you currently are and passengers all over that are requesting a ride. You only have a certain amount of time in your shift, so you’ll need to be strategic in whom you pick up, as the further they are, the more time and gas is used. Do you opt to pick up closer passengers to try and get more information overall, or focus on specific witnesses and suspects? It’s completely up to you, but you’ve only got a handful of days before you need to choose a suspect with the evidence you’ve uncovered by your conversations with your patrons.
At the end of your shift you’re forced to go home. This is where you’ll see your list of suspects and victims and all of the clues you’ve gathered so far. Clues come from various sources and if they match the police reports, they will be highlighted and attached via string on your board to the person of interest. It’s an interesting system, but quite basic.
The meat of the “gameplay” will come from the conversations you have with your passengers. Some have nothing to do with the case, some are oblivious that you’re even in the taxi with them and others are clearly hiding something. Some people just want someone to listen to their rambling, though maybe they’ll accidentally admit something they shouldn’t if you poke and prod them for more information. How you do so will be up to you though. Do you take a more aggressive approach or let them spearhead the conversation and follow their lead? What if they talk about something that makes you uncomfortable or propositions you? Would you give into their request or lie to simply get information? You choose all of the responses and every person is different, so it’ll really matter how you reply to some people, as the same type of questions or answers won’t elicit the same reactions from every passenger.
On top of watching your limited time each night during your shift, you also have to manage your cash flow. With how much driving you do, you’ll need to fill up gas at some point, which costs money. Do you forgo picking up an important passenger on the other side of town to take on a few paying customers nearby? There’s a constant balance of time versus money that needs to be watched carefully, especially if you decide to play on the harder difficulties, not even including trying to navigate the best ways in conversation with customers to try and get the information you want.
There are three different cases you can take on, though they are play nearly identical, with you waking up from a coma and having to solve the serial killer mystery. What is interesting though is that the killer is different with each playthrough, and with dozens of different characters, you can’t make any assumptions from one playthrough when you start anew, as someone guilty in your last game might be completely innocent this time. With nearly a hundred different cast members, each one with their own quirks, personalities and backgrounds, it will take you a bit of time to complete fill your “Passidex”. Now and then there are even a few ‘supernatural’ customers. These initially threw me off but they add just a little more flavor to the seedy and mysterious world of Paris at night.
What makes Night Call stand out the most though is its visual style. It utilizes a noir style aesthetic, so every scene and character is hand drawn in black and white, giving it that classic graphic novel style to it. The art style couldn’t be any more fitting for the backdrop and setting and fits wonderfully. While the animations are a little rough at times and transitions seem to loop quite often, overall I truly enjoyed the noir style artwork.
The biggest miss is that there’s absolutely no voice work for any of the characters. While yes, Night Call is more of a visual novel, having spoken dialogue would have made the immersion that much deeper. I kept picturing the driver with a deep scruffy voice, you know the kind, which narrates to himself and breaks the fourth wall. While the lack of voiced dialogue is disappointing, the musical soundtrack is fantastic. The ambiance is heightened because of the great music and I actually enjoyed it more than the gameplay after a handful of cases.
While Night Call may be perceived as a simple visual novel by most, and it is at its core, it’s not only compelling but has a unique and interesting backdrop that all comes together well. While it takes a case or two to really get the hang of the best way to play and spend your time and money, it’s a distinctive experience that I’ve glad to have played, even if the gameplay becomes repetitive over time. With dozens of characters to interact with and many branching dialogue trees, there’s plenty to talk about, even if it’s just a few minutes with the stranger in the back seat.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout - Anniversary Edition
I’m grateful that I got to grow up in the age of gaming that I did. Some of my fondest gaming memories are from my childhood, with quite a few of them from the classic point-and-click adventure games that used to be so popular back in the day. I’d spend countless hours with classics like Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle and many others. While the genre definitely hit its peak in the 90’s, there’s been very few releases lately save for the odd one here and there, as it’s simply not as popular as it once was.Developer Daedalic Entertainment seems to have missed the genre as well, as one of their first developed games was Edna & Harvey back in 2008, a small point-and-click adventure game that many may not have played, but it certainly had a following. Twelve years after its initial release, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition is finally here for console players to enjoy that have missed the long lost genre. While I don’t understand the importance of a 12th year anniversary, never the less, here we are, complete with new visuals and control scheme.
Edna wakes up from a slumber, only to realize she has no memory of what’s happened or why she’s in a padded room, something that clearly resembles a mental asylum. She has no idea how she got in there, or why, but she’s determined to find a way out, alongside her companion Harvey, her blue plushy rabbit that also speaks. Is she crazy? Maybe.
As Edna goes along her adventure to figure out what has happened, you’ll meet a wide cast of characters along the way that are also locked inside the sanitarium, some of which are clearly insane and absolutely belong within its locked and confined walls. Why is everyone locked in though? Why do certain things remind you of your father and past? Why is Edna talking to nearly every inanimate object she comes across? How is she travelling back in time to her childhood and reliving certain traumatic experiences? If you’re very clever and can figure out the numerous puzzles laid out before you, or have a really good walkthough you found online because you became stuck at nearly every turn, then you’ll find out soon enough.
Just like the classics before it, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition is clearly inspired by the tried and true mechanics of being able to take, look, talk to and interact with nearly every object in each scene. This is where your crazy journey begins, as it’s up to you to figure out how to progress with every puzzle set before you.
If you managed to play the original release, you’ll be happy to know that the visuals have been completely redone from the ground up and look much improved. Everything is still hand drawn, but is much cleaner and easier to discern overall. For those wanting to experience the classic game, you can easily switch between modern or classic visuals at any time in the menu, but it takes a few moments to switch, so don’t expect any instant swapping back and forth to compare like we’ve come to expect from the Halo Remaster with the same trick.
The controls have also been improved overall, as most games in the genre have a box along the bottom of the screen with all your options and commands, but in this Anniversary Edition, instead there’s a radial menu when you click on an object, so you have all the options you need close by. It works, and it’s not terrible by any means, but it still feels clunky, especially when you need to combine items or are trying to select a specific object in a crowded scene.
Each scene will have a small dot on any object or person that can be interacted with. It’s up to you if you want to try and ‘take’ the item, ‘use’ it, talk to it or simply look and inspect. Characters are the same, and when you try asinine things, like trying to ‘take’ a person or use something absurd, there’s always some sort of witty one-liner from Edna. Scenes can have a lot of objects and characters that can be interacted with though, so you’re going to be spending a lot of time looking at, trying to use and combine items, attempting to find a clue to how you’re supposed to progress in your current puzzle. Given the amount of hours of trial and error and eventually becoming stuck numerous times I had to deal with, you could easily spend a dozen or two hours with Edna, though I would have never finished it without a walkthrough, as some of the puzzles are extremely obtuse or vague.
While every puzzle has a clue hidden somewhere to solve it, sometimes you’d really have to think outside of the box to make the connections. Factor in that every object isn’t always used for a puzzle, or that you may need to talk to a person multiple times to progress, you’re going to become stumped for prolonged periods of time, not even factoring in the aimless wandering from room to room you’ll do, as there’s lots of back and forth backtracking to get from one end of the sanitarium to the other. While old school fans of the genre will probably enjoy the completely and challenge, it can become a bit much at times for those that may be rusty or novices.
The other major issue comes with its dialogue. When you're talking to someone and given the option to reply, there's a certain amount of responses you can choose from, each in their own box. This would normally be fine, except for the fact there's no indicator or highlighting to show which one of the responses you're actually choosing. This means if you want to choose the third response down, you need hit down twice (as you obviously default to the top selection) and then hit 'A' to choose it. My guess is that it's an oversight from porting from the PC where you'd simply click on the box you want with your cursor, but when you want to choose the seventh option down, it's annoying to have to count aloud how many times you're pressing down so that you don't choose the wrong selection.
When comparing the new and old art style, it’s clear that a lot of work went into redrawing every scene and character, as even Edna looks much better with this new coat of paint. The coloring and palette seems much brighter overall and almost like some sort of cartoon you’d watch on a popular YouTube show. At the same time, animations have also improved, but there’s lots of ‘jankyness’ to some scenes. Sometimes the movement of characters are quite fluid, whereas other times it’s quite noticeable that it’s not as fluid as it should be, sometimes missing animations altogether.
The writing is quite good and there’s a hefty amount of dialogue within, much more than I was expecting for a small indie-looking title. I was happy to see that all of the dialogue was also voiced as well, which is a great touch. The voice acting for Edna and Harvey are excellent and the supporting cast did a decent job overall as well. With tons of wacky characters and plenty of witty writing, there’s more than a few laughs to be had throughout Edna’s journey to the truth. The setting may seem a little serious at first, but contains quite a bit of humor from start to finish, even when things turn quite dark.
I miss old school point-and-click adventures and forgot how much until I got to experience Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition. While it isn’t without its faults, they are easy to forgive when fans of the genre like myself are so starved for anything new to release. While simply putting a new coat of paint on decade old game won’t make it sit amongst the greats, it was an entertaining and peculiar experience filled with laughs and giggles I’m glad I got to experience, even if I had to look up a walkthough more than a few times to see the credits roll.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Demon's Tier+
I’m a sucker for any twin-stick shooter, as I’ve always been a fan of the genre. So, when a new one comes along, of course I get excited and need to check it out. Enter the newest game, Demon’s Tier+, the latest game from Diabolical Mind, best known for their Xenon Valkyrie+ and Riddled Corpses EX, seemingly blending the best of both games into one.Combining twin-stick gameplay and roguelike elements, you’ll be exploring randomly generated dungeons in the hopes to collect treasure and save the world. It sounds familiar I know, but it’s got some interesting mechanics that made it stand out and wanting me to come back for more time after time.
Ancient tales say that over a thousand years ago the world was engulfed with evil and darkness, but one hero was able to stop it and prevent the world from being overrun. It seems that was only able to last for so long, as there’s a massive nearly endless pit that has opened up in a small remote village that has evil starting to seep out of. Will you be the hero that saves the world once again by entering the dungeons of King Thosgar and defeating all of his minions?
As a twin-stick shooter, you’ll control things similarly, moving with the Left Stick and shooting in the direction you aim with the Right. While there’s no dodge per-se, you can block projectiles by tapping the Right Bumper, but this has a slight cooldown, so you’ll still need to be nimble and avoid most attacks. Every character has a special ability that can be used once their meter refills, but it’s with the ‘X’ button, something that can be a little tricky to do when both thumbs are already constantly on the sticks in a chaotic battle while also trying to stay alive.
You start out as a knight, tossing swords in any direction you see fit. There are a handful of other characters you can eventually unlock, each with their own stats and abilities. Each character has unique attributes such as health, attack, speed, stamina, defense, weapon range and combos. The knight, for example, is a good all-rounder, whereas the mage is incredibly slow to move, but does more damage. Each have their own pros and cons, and unique ability, so it’s a matter of finding out what works best for your playstyle. I personally opted to stick with the tried and true knight most of the time, but it will take some time and dedication to unlock the later characters such as the Archer, Cleric, Assassin and even secret other ones.
As you explore dungeons, defeat enemies, bosses and open chests, you’ll earn two types of currencies; gold and D-tokens. Gold is only used for your current playthrough in the dungeons to improve your stats. When you complete a dungeon level, before moving onto the next floor, you can spend your collected gold on upgrades to any of your stats. Do you get hit a lot? Maybe you’ll want to upgrade your health. Want to kill things quicker? Then increasing your damage may be the way to go. It’s completely up to you how you want to upgrade your character for each run.
D-tokens on the other hand are the main currency that you’ll want to be careful with. These can only be redeemed in the village and is the currency to purchase new characters, weapons (once you find their blueprints from bosses) and items like ropes, potions and keys. If you die in a dungeon you lose all your progress, gold and D-tokens. So to make use of what you’ve currently earned, you need to use a rope to crawl out of the dungeon pit. These of course cost D-tokens to replenish, but as long as you escape before dying, you can spend your currency as you wish.
When you do die, and you will often, you start all over. You lose all your currency and stat increases. Also, to prevent people from becoming too overpowered, every time you use a rope to escape and spend your D-tokens, you also reset your gold earned upgrades as well and need to start in the beginning dungeons all over. As you defeat bosses you might earn a weapon upgrade for the class you’re currently playing, which are unlocked once you invest enough D-tokens to finally craft it. The only issue with this is that while every new weapon will have bonus stats, you don’t know what they are until you’ve fully unlocked them. A few times I spent a bunch of D-tokens to unlock a new weapon, only to find out it wasn’t better than one I’ve already unlocked.
If you do die in a dungeon, not all is lost. If you can manage to get back to your corpse before dying again, you can earn and collect all your D-tokens from your previous run. Die before doing so though and they are gone forever, ala Dark Souls. Unlocking every character and weapon will take a long time to do, so there’s plenty of replay value within for those looking for a roguelike to invest a ton of time into. The dual currency system is a really interesting mechanic once you learn how to best use it to your advantage for each run.
Every time you play a dungeon, its layout is procedurally generated, meaning each time you play, it will be a different experience. Not only is the layout of the dungeon different every time, but so is your objective. To pass a dungeon within its five minute timer, you need to complete the objective given to you. This may be defeating all the enemies, blowing up all the explosive barrels, defeating a secret enemy, opening all the treasure chests or something else. You’re only given 5 minutes per dungeon to do so, as once the timer runs out, the undefeatable Grim Reaper comes to take you away if you don’t escape in time. This makes for a frantic balance of wanting to spend as much time to kill and loot everything you see, but also being mindful of your remaining time and escaping before the Reaper comes. Just always keep in mind to use your rope to escape before dying and you’ll never have to worry about losing those hard earned D-tokens.
The pixel art is great overall, as enemies vary and are unique, my only problem is that sometimes action can become a little too frantic with so much going on at once. Also, because the dungeons are randomly generated, sometimes you’ll be surrounded right as you enter and can quickly die while you try and center yourself on your surroundings. The later dungeons, such as the lava filled ones, I found to be a little too much, as it was hard to distinguish certain elements. Spike traps were notorious for me, as I died many times to do them since they are hard to see when trying to fight off a horde of enemies. The artistic style is retro pixels, as is the quality soundtrack that consists of chiptune music. The music is decent overall, but because you’ll be in the same beginning dungeons numerous times, it can become a little tiresome over time.
Two player local co-op is also available for those that have someone to play with on the same couch, though as usual, I wish this was an option for online play instead for those that don’t have someone to play with locally.
Once I figured how to best utilize the dual currency system and escape with my rope as needed, I started to enjoy my time with Demon’s Tier+ much more. While the grind is long and arduous, there’s plenty of replay value within for those that want a challenge to unlock everything it has to offer, including multiple tiers. Highly addictive twin-stick gameplay combined with tough-but-fair roguelike elements make for quite a decent experience overall, one that had me trying “just one more time”.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Project Warlock
I find it incredibly interesting that developer Jakub Cislo took inspiration from games that came out well before he was born. He was introduced to the classic first person shooters like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D and Hexen among others, and seemingly fell in love with the genre, causing him to create his own game; Project Warlock.If you grew up with the classics listed above, you know exactly what to expect: fast paced FPS action with plenty of bullet fire and billboard sprite artwork. If you didn’t know any better, you could easy mistake Project Warlock for a game that actually came out in the same era as the classics, and that is a compliment in the best way given that’s the aesthetic and gameplay style he wanted to create.
The world is being invaded by an evil force and it falls upon the shoulders of one warlock to rid the world of every last demon, beast and machine to save the world. While it won’t win any awards for its narrative or character development, that’s not why you play games like this; you play to shoot everything in sight at a frantic pace, finding keys and secrets along the way.
Rather than be a simple clone of Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, Project Warlock introduces some modern elements into its mix with character progression, spells, weapon customization and more. This makes for an odd blend of old and new, but tends to work for the most part. Through 60 levels of action you’re going to be shooting and casting spells in a handful of different settings. Just like the classics, you can bet you’re going to have to find colored keys for specific doors, elevators and fight massive bosses with your arsenal of guns and spells.
There’s quite a few guns to be found and use, each of which can be upgraded to have alternate fire modes or passives like using more ammo to do more damage. Some are better than others and it’ll vary based on your playstyle and what weapons are best versus certain enemies. Combining the weaponry with your spells is how you’ll make the most out of your runs once you’ve unlocked a handful.
One area where Project Warlock falters is in its weapon wheel. There are two different ways to swap your weapons, neither of which are intuitive or easy to use when you’re being chased by a swarm of enemies. It doesn’t really teach you how to use it effectively either, as there’s apparently two choices for each weapon type once unlocked, but I had to figure this out by stumbling through a handful of button presses with trial and error. There’s a more classic way to swap weapons as well, but it too is also cumbersome and not very efficient when you’re in the heat of chaotic battle.
The other area that was a big letdown for Project Warlock was its minimap. There’s one in the corner, but it’s basically pointless. It’s very zoomed in to your position, which is fine, but there’s actually no way to zoom out and see the whole map, so you’ll never really know where you are where you need to go. Also, once you do find your colored keys for the matching doors, these also aren’t labelled on the map. I can’t tell you how much time I wasted simply randomly running around trying to find where to go even after I had the key I needed. If there’s going to be a map, then it needs to be functional by allowing us to see it all at a minimum.
The more modern mechanics included are a little bit of customization and RPG elements. As you kill enemies and find secrets you’ll earn XP. Earn enough and you’ll level up. When you complete a handful of levels in a set you’ll be able to come back to the hub area and spend your skill and unlock points if you’ve found any. Here you can put points into your basic stats, but interestingly, putting a set amount of each will unlock other bonus perks. While I would normally dump all my points into health early on, there were other bonuses I could earn if I spread them out a bit more, which was interesting. The same goes with your weapons, allowing you to spend points on customizing them in certain ways to suit your playstyle. Finding what works best for you will be crucial when you start to challenge yourself on the harder difficulty modes.
With tons of secrets to be found, numerous enemies and tons of blood, Project Warlock gave an odd sense of nostalgia, yet is something completely new. The enemy variety could be upped, but given you’re going to be shooting anything that moves in front of you, it’s hard to fault it given it’s trying to be like the classics. The sprite work is great, and seeing that rotating billboard effect never gets old. Where Project Warlock shines most is in its soundtrack. Its got that retro feel to it, and every level has its own track as well, so you won’t become bored with the same tunes over and over.
Project Warlock is an interesting blend of nostalgia and modern but works quite well overall, save for a few minor issues. I can appreciate someone loving a genre so much that they want to create their own take on it, but it’s even better when they succeed, like they have here. It certainly won’t be for everyone, but for those like myself that grew up on 2.5D games like these, I came away more than impressed.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Cyber Protocol
I wasn’t really sure what to expect just before starting to play Cyber Protocol, as if you check out the screenshots beforehand, or even dive in and watch a video of gameplay, it’s all very confusing at first glance to actually figure out what’s going on. Thankfully the developers made the learning curve easy enough to figure out what’s going on with the first handful of levels before slowly introducing new mechanics and steeply raising the difficulty.What if you took the core gameplay from Pac-Man but changed the setting to have a cyberpunk backdrop and twisted the gameplay just enough to be almost like a puzzle game? That’s essentially the experience of Cyber Protocol, as your android friend, G0X6, had been shut down, so it’s up to you to hack into the system and activate the protocol to cause a reboot. While a narrative isn’t really needed for games like this, I appreciate the effort that went into making a reason for doing what you’re doing. Obviously, as you hack deeper into the system, more security measures are in place, hence the difficulty spikes.
As mentioned above, think of the core gameplay much like Pac-Man. Your avatar traverses through a maze in the traditional top-down view collecting coins and other tokens if you’re able to figure out how to do so. Once you hit a direction, you’ll automatically travel that way until you hit a wall or object, stopping you. From there you can choose what direction to go next, but you have to plan ahead carefully your moves, as the levels are laid out much like a puzzle game.
The first handful of levels are simple enough, having you navigate around corners and bends by rushing from wall to wall, but eventually you’ll start to encounter traps and enemies that will make things much more challenging. There are diamonds that follow a set path back and forth that can’t be touched or else you’ll restart from your last checkpoint in the level. You’ll have lasers that charge up for a short while then blast outwards; another obstacle that must be avoided or you’ll have to restart. Eventually you’ll have to deal with portals, which will whisk you to another place in the maze, tiles that can only be touched a set amount of times before turning into instant death spots, walls that will cause you to explode upon impact and more.
The levels start out simple enough and gradually become more and more challenging, though never unfair. Even after dying dozens of times on a stage, I never really felt frustrated, as I knew it was my poor timing or trying to rush that was the cause for my restarts. Those that wish to collect every coin and token (which earns you new avatar icons) will have plenty to strive for, though I eventually conceded and tried to simply make it to the end whenever possible, as the amount needed are way too high in my opinion.
Cyber Protocol is all about trial and error. Sometimes moving into a portal will teleport you somewhere where there’s an enemy or laser in your path at that exact moment, so it’s all about timing. You’re able to zoom the map out and get a layout of the whole maze, but there’s a lot going on, and sometimes you’re going to have to be incredibly quick and accurate to make it out alive. Some tiles can be rushed through once, but then leave a wall brick behind, or others that block lasers until you pass through them. There’s a lot of different types of strategies that will have to be utilized to finish the increasingly difficult levels.
Even when you do understand what’s going on and what needs to be done, it can still be a little overwhelming at times to take it all in, as it can feel muddled at times with all the different types of blocks and moving parts to figure out. It’s not terrible design or anything to do with the visuals, it’s just a lot to take in with lots going on and strobing lights, though you do become accustomed to it over time after a handful of the 100 levels under your belt. As stages become more and more challenging, it becomes about logically thinking about how to solve the solutions and having incredible reflex skills. There’s even an Arcade mode where you and play competitively alongside four friends on the couch, though I wish online play was supported.
Where Cyber Protocol shines brightest is its Synthwave soundtrack. There are some real gems here, to the point where I actually sat on the music player screen and listened to the whole soundtrack a few times, even while writing this. Sure, there’s an achievement for using the music player for a set amount of time which is why I initially sat and listened to it, but I’m glad it was included, as I got to experience some amazing synthwave tunes. While there’s not a ton of tracks, they are kickass in every way if you’re a fan of the genre, as it’s fitting for the cyberpunk backdrop. The 8-bit graphics are retro and feel like you’re back in the 80’s playing an old classic game. You’re even able to unlock other visual and audio themes as you collect tokens during your playthrough.
I would have never imagined that taking Pac-Man’s core gameplay and spinning it into a hacker game with a cyberpunk backdrop would make sense or work, but here we are. Cyber Protocol may be repetitive at times and challenging with its trial and error difficulty curve, but at least the soundtrack is absolutely kickass throughout. I’m a sucker for anything cyberpunk, and if it has a kickass synthwave soundtrack, consider me sold. Needless to say, Cyber Protocol checks both of these boxes.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Persistence, The
Two years ago The Persistence released, but was a VR-only title for PS4. Set in space with horror and roguelike elements, it was a decent game for VR at the time, but now developers Firesprite have taken out the VR elements and brought it to other consoles for more people to experience. The horror genre set in space is nothing new; hell, one of the greatest movie franchises uses that backdrop, so while it’s been done to death before, The Persistence actually nails the tone and makes for an interesting experience that will have you fear being in space all alone.Your ship has stopped working in the middle of space, just by chance near a black hole that’s causing a massive amount of problems, you know, other than imminent death. You seem to be the only one alive and the onboard AI is going to help you repair the ship so you can get to safety before anything else goes wrong. Sounds like a normal narrative for a stranded ship in space right? Well, you’re actually dead. Well, you died, and you’ve come back as a clone as yourself thanks to the ship's AI, complete with your memories of everything that’s happened to you before. This specialized 3D printer clones humans, and given that this is a roguelike, every time you die, and you will a lot, your body is simply reprinted and you start your adventure again.
There’s been a problem though, and no one else seems to have survived and has been turned into mutants of sorts, all of whom will kill you on sight. Also, every time you explore the ship, you realize that it’s actually shapeshifting and changing its layout, which I have to say, is a very clever way to have a narrative reasoning for procedurally generated levels. It’s an interesting backdrop that added a little more flair and reasoning other than ‘save yourself and the ship’.
Given that The Persistence was a VR title previously, I would have expected the controls to be remade from the ground up specifically for controller use. While you do move around and look with the sticks as per usual, there seems to still be some remnants of its VR roots intact. Wherever your 3D reticule is placed, you can use a short teleport in that direction, which uses a resource that needs to regenerate before use again. In the vast majority of games, opening or interacting with objects is done with a button press, but again, the VR roots begin to show here too. Instead, you simply hover over the item you want to interact with, like a door or an object you want to pick up, and it will automatically do so for you after a moment. It doesn’t negatively impact the gameplay in any way, it just feels odd and takes some getting used to, especially when you interact with a trap and don’t move your cursor off of it before it explodes.
You begin your adventure with a simple harvester weapon. This isn’t really a weapon per-se, but more of a tool that you can harvest stem cells from enemies if you’re able to sneak up behind them, much like an execution. While you’re able to swing and smack them a few times to kill them, you’ll want to harvest as much stem cells as you can as you don’t get very many guns and weapons in the game until later on, so you might as well get used to it while you’re weak in the beginning. You also have an energy shield that can block attacks for a short time, and if you time it right, you can actually parry enemy attacks which leaves them open to a harvest by spinning them around.
Every time you die, and you will often, you’re reprinted and must start your journey anew. This is a roguelike after all, so any progress you’ve made will have to be done all over again in terms of any weapons you were carrying, though the currency and collectibles, like schematics for upgrades and upgrade tokens, persist through death thankfully.
Enemies will start out simple and brainless, with them attacking you on sight, but there will eventually be different types that you’ll need to know how to counter and combat. For example, there’s a blind enemy with half its skull missing that can’t see you if you stand still or move incredibly slow, so you need to sneak around or behind them to take them out for a harvest. Later you’ll have ones that smack you and run away, or big hulking brutes that can easily ruin your day quickly. Enemies with weapons can be a real pain, but kill them and they’ll drop their guns and ammunition, though you generally only ever have a handful of bullets at one time.
With all the currencies and collectibles you gather, you’ll be able to spend them on unlocks and upgrades, depending on your playstyle. Do you focus on weapons to gain access to those, or maybe permanent implant upgrades like more health or stealth bonuses? You’re going to die a lot in the beginning, so spend the time to gather everything you see and eventually runs will become easier and easier with more upgrades unlocked. Once you get access to some of the later weapons and gadgets, it can make a huge difference, as throwing around a hulking brute with a gravity gun is always a joy to perform.
The part that bugged me the most though was how incredibly slow your character moves. I get it, you’re in a spaceship all alone, so why would you go running, but at the same time I wouldn’t be wandering around like I was having a walk in the park on a sunny day without a care in the world. Certain areas will be blocked by rubble, which is where your teleport comes in. And because of the controls mentioned about earlier having to hover over objects to pick them up or open, this slows you down even further for a moment every time you interact with something.
Because the ship’s layout rearranges itself every time, you’ll need to constantly reference it to get to your current objective. There seems to only be a handful of room types, but how they connect to each other in each run is completely randomized, so no run will ever feel the same. This randomization though means you might simply be a few rooms away from your objective, or have bad luck and have to bypass a dozen or more filled with enemies to get where you want to.
While I’m not normally one that gravitates towards roguelikes, as I don’t find losing all my progress that enjoyable, The Persistence is meant to be a challenging game where you learn from your mistakes. For those wanting an easier experience, there is an option for an Assisted Mode that makes things much simpler, but be warned, this isn’t able to be toggled off afterwards and will completely disable any achievements gained from that point onward with that save file. While I decided to not utilize the Assisted Mode, I can appreciate the option was available and ample warning given before deciding to do so.
For a horror game set in space, you can expect a lot of darkness. The lighting is decent and enemy models are fine, but there are tons of the same exact enemies throughout your runs. Visually, everything is adequate, but the real experience comes from The Persistence’s audio. If you have a high end pair of headphones, you need to bust them out to hear some great atmospheric background audio. Minor sounds like creaks, bangs and other noises constantly ring throughout the ship, and while you can hear the zombie-like moans of the hostiles, it adds a layer of dread when you can hear them, but not know exactly where on the other side of the door and the lights off. On multiple occasions I had to quickly look behind me to see if an enemy was there because of something I heard, so prepare to feel quite tense at times.
While I suffered no real technical hiccups, the small leftover VR mechanics constantly irked me. The gameplay loop may become stale after a while, though the progression treadmill of earning another upgrade or unlock was enough to have me constantly wanting to do one more run. It wouldn’t be impossible to power through the campaign in a short while on a second playthough once you know what you’re doing and how to combat each enemy, but much of the experience comes from learning from your mistakes.
The Persistence nails the eerie tonality of a horror sci-fi set in space, but has an interesting enough narrative that stands out, even if it only comes in small chunks when you finally make progress. Mechanically it may be a little clunky with its VR roots left over, but the audio is so finely crafted that it makes for an immersive horror experience, even if it’s one that probably won’t get much replay, if at all, after you’re finished your mission.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
We Were Here Together
Little shy of a year ago, I got my first taste of the We Were Here series. The result? A lot of swearing at my co-op friend. like, a LOT. If you’ve ever wanted to test the communication skills between you and a friend to see how strong your friendship really is, then We Were Here Together, the third game in the series, is here to do just that. A co-op puzzle game where communication is paramount and absolutely necessary, We Were Here Together will test not only your puzzle solving skills with obtuse and challenging problems, but also teach you how hard to can be to describe the simplest objects you see in front of you.Similar to the first two entries, We Were Here Together puts you and a co-op partner together on a new adventure, only to be separated once again as you work your way further towards your goal. There’s a minor narrative within that tries to piece together a motive as to why you’re doing what you are, and while I applaud the effort, it’s honestly a shoestring story with some cutscenes thrown in here and there to break up the puzzles between chapters. When you don't see a cutscene for an hour or two because that's how long you've been stuck on a puzzle, it loses a little of its impactfulness.
An online only cooperative adventure, We Were Here Together is played in first person where you’re only armed with your wits and a walkie talkie radio to your partner. Along the way you’ll be separated from your partner, but will need both parties to partake in solving a singular puzzle in their own rights, sometimes even under the pressure of a timer. What makes this setup unique is that since you and your partner are separated the majority of the time, you’re unable to see what your partner can see and their surroundings, and vice versa, so this is where strong communication comes into play and is an absolute neccessity.
There’s not much to learn in terms of controls, as you move and look with the sticks, interact with the ‘A’ button and use your radio by holding the ‘Left Bumper’. These radios are old, so they are only one-way, meaning only one person can talk at a time. When your partner is talking the light on your radio will shine, indicating they are speaking. When you speak, their radio will light up. This is meant to cause any unneeded chatter and to make sure you focus on what they are saying when they are speaking. The game even says that you should be playing with the game chat so that the radios can be used. Yes, technically you could simply talk in an Xbox Party chat for constant communication, but there’s something about the one way radio chatter that makes your communication more pertinent given the setting.
Now one thing to keep in mind is that you’re going to want a friend to play with. Yes, you can technically create an open lobby and have some random person join you, but even with a friend with communication skills, it was hard enough; I wouldn’t even want to attempt it with a stranger. You’re going to have to describe nearly everything you see in your room to your partner, and they will have to do the same, that way you can come up with the solution together. Are there books on the floor that are numbered? How does that relate to your partner’s room? They might have a bunch of random symbols on the wall or a recipe on how to grow specific plants, so they’ll need to communicate that to you so you can figure out how that pertains to what’s in your room and figure out how to progress. Once you’re successful you’ll almost always have that great “ah-hah!” moment, realizing how dumb you were for the last hour before figuring it out, or in my case, how terrible your partner was at describing the easiest objects.
Nearly almost everything in the puzzle rooms have meaning, though there was one puzzle in particular where there were extra items that didn’t pertain to the main solution, which was a bit frustrating to find out after the fact. Every puzzle will stump you in the beginning, but pay attention to all of the smallest details and you’ll eventually figure them out, even if it takes a lot of trial and error. One aspect I didn’t enjoy as much in this sequel though is that there seemed to be a bit more timed puzzles. While each one becomes increasingly more difficult and involved, the ones that had a short timer to solve were the most frustrating and tense.
Visuals seemed slightly improved from last year’s outing, though it won’t impress by any means. The animations, especially with the wave and pointing emotes seem much smoother this time, and while there’s no dialogue for your characters, the sound effects and ambiance is done quite well, with minor sounds like cracks or electricity coming through quite well, though maybe that’s because of the immense concentration I had while trying to focus on each puzzle.
If you enjoy puzzles games and have a like-minded friend, then We Were Here Together should definitely be looked at. I figured that since I reviewed the previous game with a friend, I would try this one with a different one to see if I had the same result in communication breakdowns. Sad to say, the results were almost identical, even with a completely different friend this time around. When frustration sets in and things don’t make sense, I promise you, you’re going to end up blaming your co-op partner, regardless if it’s their fault or not. We Were Here Together will give a cooperative adventure unlike any other, but it will surely put your friendship to the test, one that I almost failed, again.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Maneater
There’s something fantastical about sharks that spark curiosity and wonder. I mean yeah, sure they are predator, there are reported cases of shark attacks and the movie Jaws made many people scared to go into the open ocean, but when that Shark Week on primetime TV comes on, you know there’s always some good binge watching entertainment to be had. While there’s been the odd game about sharks over the years here and there, none are really all that memorable, probably for good reason.That ends now with Maneater. No, not the Hall and Oates song (though it’s almost criminal they didn’t license the song for the intro), a dedicated game where you are a shark, aptly described as a ShaRkPG. What’s a ShaRkPG you ask? A game where you’re a shark, with RPG elements of course. You start as a small infant pup, eventually leveling up and growing into a larger and fiercer predator. Eat. Explore. Evolve.
Yes, somehow there is also a story within Maneater. Scaly Pete, celebrity fisherman, has finally caught a massive shark that’s been a menace to the area for some time. Now that he’s caught this mother shark, he kills her and rips her baby from within prematurely. Before tossing the baby, he scars the baby so that he can identify it as the same one in the future. That baby bull shark is where your journey begins.
Tossed aside, Scaly Pete serves as the antagonist in your story, as you start out as a baby pup, eventually growing into an apex predator. You begin in a swampy bayou, only able to feed on small fish, but eventually you’ll level up and grow, allowing you to feed and hunt bigger prey, including humans of course. Narrated by Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Rick and Morty), the whole premise is that the backdrop is a reality TV show. It sounds like an absurd setup and idea for a game, and on paper seems like a terrible idea, but surprisingly works quite well.
Played in third person, you control your shark, and while normally underwater sections in game aren’t always done well, it works decently here. You’re able to maneuver pretty easily in the water, and if you start skimming the top of the water to go faster, you can easily dive with a press of a button. You begin as a small pup though, so you’ll be quite small and weak, needing to avoid other predators in the bayou like alligators that will make a quick snack out of you. The more you eat, the more experience you’ll earn, which in turn levels you up and makes you grow. So the first few hours should be spent on simply exploring and feeding on anything you come across. This will pay off in the end later on as well, as you’ll need to consume lots of other fish and animals to gather different currency types for upgrades.
As you explore the multiple areas, the map will show you certain locations where collectibles and other points of interest are. Some might be sign posts, license plates, crates or banners to smash through. Yes, you’re a shark that can catch some serious air and even go on land if needed, though only for a short time. Some areas are gated off with metal grates that can only be smashed through when you’re an appropriate size and age, so you’ll constantly be revisiting old areas, like the starting bayou, later on when you’re an adult or elder shark. Most missions will start off simple, like eating a certain amount of fish in a specified area, eventually giving you more quests like killing and beating larger apex bosses.
You’re able to tail whip to stun your targets and you’ll be spamming the Right Trigger almost constantly to bite with your powerful jaws. Small prey will only take a bite or two, but once you start feeding on humans and fighting against alligators, simply spamming attack won’t just cut it, and you’ll need to be more strategic. Once you’re able to take on humans, Maneater becomes much more interesting.
The more humans you attack and kill will raise your threat meter, much like a wanted level in Grand Theft Auto. Once you’ve maxed out the meter, you’re going to have hunters with spears and guns start to chase you, trying to take you down. Continue to fill your meter and you’ll have unique Bounty Hunters also start to try and destroy you. While you could quickly retreat and swim away to safety, taking down these bounty hunters will earn you special mutations, so they are absolutely worth trying to eat. These humans will come in force on boats, jetskis and more. While you can eventually destroy their floating fortresses, it’s always satisfying to leap midair and snatch a human off their boat as you devour them under the surface.
Taking down the difficult bounty hunters will allow you to evolve. You begin with just a simple sonar ability that allows you to track anything nearby in a certain range, but evolving your skills after collecting these bonuses really change the gameplay a great way. When you’ve unlocked your grotto’s that act as a home base, one in each area, you can choose to evolve your shark as you see fit. I enjoyed how the slots were on different parts of the body, like your teeth, body, fins, organs and more. I was quite fond of the bio-electric bonuses, and each evolution can be upgraded even further to make you more powerful, which take more resources. There are numerous sets and options for you as you unlock them, so it’s a matter of finding out what suits your playstyle best and changing your evolutions appropriately. The coolest part is that all your evolutions, especially when leveled up, actually changes how your shark appears, so you can have a pretty badass looking shark by the time you’re an adult.
Where I did have a constant issue though was in combat. You can click in the stick to snap and look at the nearest enemy, but there’s no lock-on mechanic at all. So this means you’re going to constantly be dashing at an enemy or predator and miss quite often. Keep in mind you’re a shark, so you’re swimming in full 3D, so it can become a little disorientating without any lock-on system when you’re trying to find your target before they take a bite out of you. Also, when you have a bunch of hunters chasing you down, it can be hard to choose and attack the specific target you intend.
There are a handful of areas to explore, each having a distinct feel and look to it, all with plenty of collectibles to find and full of details within the murky waters as well, such as floating debris. Audio is decent as well, with the narrator chiming in here and there with some witty writing and quips, and of course, the screams of the humans you’re eating.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Maneater, but what I got was an odd mixture of Grand Theft Auto for its threat level and Assassin’s Creed for its map markers, all while being a shark. While it has its flaws and can suffer from fatigue in long bursts, it’s also a unique experience (I’ve never heard of a shaRkPG) and can be quite entertaining and comical. Oh-oh, here she comes, watch out boy she'll chew you up. Oh-oh, here she comes. She's a maneater.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Super Mega Baseball 3
While I’m not usually one for sports, one of my favorite classic NES games was actually a baseball game, albeit it wasn’t a real simulator. (It was Base Wars by the way, in case you were wondering). While most may look for realistic takes on their favorite sports games, sometimes that’s not entirely possible on all consoles. Case in point, try finding an official MLB title on Xbox One in recent memory. If you wanted authentic MLB action, sadly you’ve had to play elsewhere.While Super Mega Baseball 3 is not licensed by the MLB in any way, shape or form, don’t let its cartoonish style fool you, it can hang in there with some of the better sport sim games, regardless of its visual aesthetic. No it won’t have any of your official teams or players, but as a pure baseball game, it can surely hold its own. Even better, it’s very simple to just pick up and play, but has a ton of options and other things for super fans to do as well.
To be honest, I was totally expecting a very arcade-like experience when I took this review on. Yes, I falsely judged it from its visual style and full expected there to be wacky power-ups and the like, but instead, I was greeted with a quite authentic baseball simulator that just happens to have cartoonish visuals.
You can of course simply hop into a quick exhibition match and set the amount of innings to try things out, but where Super Mega Baseball 3 really shines is in its newly added Franchise Mode. Here is where you’ll take your team of choice across multiple seasons, constantly growing and evolving them into hopefully the top seeded team. Not only will you play every season game in this mode, but also participate in the postseason, develop players, handle retiring ones, signing and releasing free agents and more. For someone that’s not a big sports buff, it was all accessible and easy to understand what each option did and how it would benefit my team.
While there’s no trading of players, you can purchase special traits for players which can make a drastic change. These work like buffs and can add bonuses or weaken your players, so there’s a bit of a gamble. Maybe you’ll get a buff for your pitcher that greatly increases their fastball, or can boost someone’s power for when they are at bat. There’s a ton of options after each game and added some variety and development to the team which I enjoyed.
You’ll begin with a handful of tutorials, teaching you the basics like hitting, pitching and fielding, each of which are simple to understand but will take some practice to really get the hang of the timing. Batting is quite simple; with a press of ‘A’ you’ll swing, seeing where the ball will travel in the strike zone or not. Of course this will be very reactionary, and the better contact and timing you have with the ball, the better chance for a homerun. If you want to try a power hit you can hold ‘X’ and release it just at the right moment, improving your chance of a heavy hit. Timing is what will take getting used to, but it’ll eventually become second nature after a few games.
Pitching is another aspect that will take some time getting used to. Each pitcher has different pitches they can throw, which you pick with the Right Stick. You choose where you want to pitch to within the strike zone box, and you’ll need to match the moving cursor to your desired aim spot before it reaches the batter. It can be quite tricky to pitch exactly where you want, but again, with enough practice it’ll become second nature. Fielding is much simpler, as the players will automatically run towards the ball, though you can dive and leap for the ball if need be. Timing for these is also a little tricky, but it feels great to make a diving catch for an out.
With 14 different ballparks to play in, there’s variety with its different day and night settings. Not only can you customize and create your teams, uniforms and logos but you can even make leagues and custom seasons. There’s also multiple levels of difficulty you can set, from super beginner where I was netting like 20 runs a game, to hardcore expert where I couldn’t get a single base.
For those that want to take on competition online, you’re able to play 1v1 matches in cross platform Pennant Race Mode. From the matches I played, I had no lag and you can communicate with some preset hotkey phrases which was entertaining. For those wanting to know if Super Mega Baseball 3 is going to be for them, you can actually download the free trial which actually allows you to play an unlimited number of games in said Pennant Race mode.
I admit, I completely misjudged Super Mega Baseball 3 from its cartoonish looks, expecting a wacky baseball arcade game with a ton of over the top power-ups. What I got was a pretty decent baseball simulator that just happens to have a cartoony aesthetic. Don’t let its visuals fool you. Super Mega Baseball 3 may not be officially licensed by the MLB, have actual team or players, but it does offer some decent baseball gameplay for casual or serious fans of the sport.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Arcade Spirits
Being that I was born in the 80’s, some of my fondest memories are from arcades I would visit after school on the way home. For those that might be too young to have frequented an arcade before, there used to be a time where home consoles weren’t really something nearly every gamer had, and to play the newest games you’d have to bring a pocket full of quarters to your local arcade and hope it was enough cash to beat it in one standing. My mom would give me a few quarters every day before school so that I could stop on the way home to play a few games, and that’s most likely where my passion for gaming started.I miss those days, as arcades aren’t a commonplace any longer since everyone has consoles at home now. That being said, there’s nothing quite like an arcade experience. There’s something about the sights and sounds of the machines and cabinets, hearing the pings and pongs from the pinballs machines and the curiosity of a crowd gathering around a single game when someone is on the verge of a high score. When you’re putting actual money on the line every game, it’s a different feeling and experience compared to simply hitting continue at home.
If you’re my age or older, you’ll most likely remember the video game crash of the early 80’s. E.T. was a monstrous movie for the time, and of course, there had to be a tie-in videogame, but it turned out to be so terrible that it nearly crippled and destroyed the whole industry. Look up the specifics and the documentary, as it’s a fascinating sequence of events, but it’s a major point in videogame history early on. Set in 20XX, Arcade Spirits takes this series of events but flips it, asking what if that crash never happened? It’s an odd premise for a game backdrop, but as Arcade Spirits is actually more visual novel than game, it’s quite fitting.
You begin by creating your character from a handful of different looks, choosing their name and pronoun. The default name is Ari Cader, which I thought was clever, so I kept it. Your family has a long line of back luck streaks, and now that you’ve found yourself recently unemployed, you believe the bad luck has finally caught up with you. This isn’t a good excuse for your long time best friend and roommate, Juniper, as she suggests trying out the new Iris app on your smartphone to find a new job. Not only does she want you to find a new job, but one you’ll really enjoy and love.
Of course, you eventually launch Iris, which turns out to be more than a simple app, but more an AI that can read your personality and report on your traits and relationships. As you’re given different dialogue options, they’ll be broken into different categories such as quirky, steady, gutsy, kindly or basically, each with its own symbol to show what type of answers you’re giving, though you can toggle these off if you don’t want ‘hints’ as to what replies will trend towards. There’s no right or wrong, and you can create any type of personality you want as you progress.
Iris finds you a job interview in a matter of seconds, so naturally you go with it and try it out. After nailing the oddest interview you’ve ever had with the owner Francine, you’re the newest employee at the local arcade, Funplex. Sure, you start out as just a lowly floor attendant, but this becomes more than just a 9-5 job, as you search for what you actually want, discovering yourself in the process.
You’ll meet some interesting customers and fellow employees along the way. Gavin is the assistant manager, tasked with keeping the doors open and the books balanced. He can be a bit dry at times and focuses on work almost solely, but has a good heart. Ashley uses cosplay as her outlet for her personality when she’s not busy working alongside you at the arcade. Naomi is the one I relate to the most, as she absolutely loves arcade machines and is the resident fixer of said machines, appreciating their worth and value on more than just a physical level. Teo is a star at the hottest dancing game, keeping tabs and organizing the community. QueenBee is the top of her class in eSports, taking on all comers and trash talking like no tomorrow. Percy is a seemingly regular guy, but going for a world record on a classic retro game, but why is it so important to him? With a wide range of characters, there’s some depth given each of the personalities, and it’s up to you to decide how you’d like to interact with each when given the opportunity, maybe it’ll even lead to some romance down the road.
Given that this is a visual novel moreso than a traditional game, there’s a lot of reading you’ll need to do. Some sections of the dialogue is spoken, but not all, which seems odd. You can toggle the settings and have it auto play, only stopping when there’s a dialogue choice to be made, or you can wear out your ‘A’ button if you want to press it at your own pace. Part of the appeal is playing as yourself, or something completely opposite. Your choices will have certain reactions and outcomes, so naturally this means multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything Arcade Spirits has to offer, but that's quite a daunting commitment.
You’re able to boot up Iris at any time to see how every relationship is trending and what your personality type is like. Again, there’s no right or wrong, so it’s interesting to see how each character reacts to certain response types. Sometimes you’ll also need to interject with irate customers or handle a crisis, and with a few hours of narrative, you’ll come to appreciate how much writing and dialogue went into Arcade Spirits.
I enjoyed the comic style visuals, as everything is bright and neon, though being a visual novel, there’s barely any animations. The dialogue is decent and occasionally funny, though filled with pop culture references that might go right over the heads of some. The voice acting is decent at best, but it’s jarring when some lines are voiced and others are not, especially since nothing your character speaks is voiced at all. The soundtrack also cuts in and out depending on what dialogue box you’re reading, so it can be a little distracting at times.
While Arcade Spirits won’t be for everyone, especially since it’s a visual novel at its core, it’s really meant for gamers of my generation that have fond memories of going to arcades back in the day and craves that nostalgia. Even though there’s no real ‘gameplay’ aside from dialogue and decision making, it’s done in an interesting way with a narrative that, while quirky, had a lot of charm to it. More than a simple story about working at an arcade in the year 20XX, Arcade Spirits tries to delve deeper into something more meaningful with its array of interesting characters, though it’s completely up to you how you want to forge your relationships.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Telling Lies
FMV (full motion video) games used to be really popular back in the 90’s. Since then it’s mostly died out, though it has made a small comeback in the last few years with a handful of titles. Instead of handcrafted experiences and graphics, instead, everything is filmed much like a movie, though with some added interactive elements. Telling Lies is the newest in the genre, and nothing like anything else I’ve played before.Has someone you known ever given you their phone or PC to check something out? What about when they weren’t looking; did you ever get the impulse to start sniffing through their photos, texts and videos? Let’s be honest, if you’ve not done it you’ve most likely at least been curious what the next picture in their roll is. What if you were going through someone’s private messages and videos and become so intrigued and curious that you had to delve even further down the rabbit hole? This is what the basic premise to Telling Lies is, combing through a backup of a hard drive with tons of secretly recorded videos of people’s video chats. Directed by Sam Barlow, creator of the smash FMV hit Her Story, starring Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé and Angela Sarafyan, Telling Lies is more of an experience than a game, but one that will test how intuitive you can be.
Most narratives have a beginning, middle and end, and while Telling Lies has this as well, it’s not given to you in the correct order. You see, you’re sifting through a hard drive with nearly 200 videos and hours of footage broken into small chunks, and since there’s no timestamps, this investigative thriller is told in a non-linear way. We like to be oblivious, as we all know that our phones and computers are constantly recording everything we search, watch, message and record, but choose to ignore that fact. Telling Lies showcases what can happen if someone were able to check all of these secretly recorded videos, piecing together part of your life. Would it uncover secrets you didn't want others to know?
You are some sort of agent that has a stolen NSA hard drive of these footage clips, desperately trying to piece together what happened and who was involved so that you can find out the truth. Instead of simply having a folder with all the videos in it, you’ll need to search keywords to watch said videos. Every clip is usually anywhere from one to seven minutes long, but is captioned, allowing for easy searching.
The game starts out by searching the keyword “love”. From here you’re shown any clips where this word is spoken in the captions, bringing you to that moment in the matching clips. You can scrub the videos, deciding to rewind or fast-forward anywhere in the clip or simply watching from where it started. The searched words will bring up any related videos, but in no particular order. If you happen to search a specific keyword that takes place in the last video, that’s possible, but you won’t know any sort of timeline or meanings until you all piece it together; something easier said than done.
Part of what makes doing so difficult is that every video is only that person’s camera viewpoint and audio. Have you ever listened into someone else’s conversation, unable to hear what the other end was saying? That’s exactly what every video here is like, as you’re only getting one viewpoint of a conversation. So to find the other ‘half’, you’ll need to be creative to figure out a keyword that the other person’s video would also have or relate, then match them together in your head.
Given that all of these videos are recorded without the people’s knowledge, there’s obviously a lot of stuff that is quite private, leading to a shocking ending that I didn’t really expect. David, the main character, is the first person’s videos you’ll start to watch. You’ll be introduced to a handful of other characters as your search more words and terms, one where the real “truth” is sort of a moral grey area and that you decide for yourself. I don’t want to delve into any of the story or characters, as that’s the real meat of the experience, and one that you must determine.
Interestingly, your whole experience is utilizing and navigating a fake computer desktop, opening files, folders and searching. There’s no real tutorial, as the game assumes you know how to use a computer for the most part, though nothing is terribly hard to figure out. Scrubbing through videos is as simple as using the Right Stick to rewind or fast-forward, and bookmarking videos is done with a single button press. You can even pause the video, move your cursor to a word or phrase in the closed captions and search it simply that way as well. This really is the majority of the experience within Telling Lies, so if that sounds boring, you may want to look elsewhere for a more traditional ‘game’. For those that like to be nosey and pry into people’s lives, you’ll have your work cut out for you, trying to figure out the timeline and how all the videos and characters relate to one another.
You’ll need to have not only a sharp eye, but try to remember certain conversations and which ones relate to others. There’s no mechanic that tells you if you’ve watched all the videos or the timeline order they are supposed to go in, so be prepared to make a lot of notes. When I finally had the credits roll, I was glad to see that someone pieced together every clip in order and side by side, so it was like actually watching the conversations, though having this included inside the game would have been a much better experience.
Given that Telling Lies is a completely FMV game, it needs to rely on the strength of its actors and actresses to carry the weight of the narrative. Thankfully this is done excellently, especially with Logan Marshall-Green’s performance, as he is completely believable and conveys a range of emotions. Powerful performances from Alexandra Shipp and Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) also help Telling Lies carry weight in its believability, as the cast all around was fantastic.
In one video I really liked the David character, in another I think he’s a jerk, but it’s not until you get the whole picture and piece it all together that you can accurately judge the characters. Once you start to go down the rabbit hole and see what’s really going on, and why these videos are so secretive, it’s quite a depressing story, even if you have to sift through hours of mundane and one sided conversations. Telling Lies certainly isn’t going to be what everyone thinks of a game or an entertaining time. It can be downright boring at times, watching minutes of a one sided video where they are simply listening to what the other person is saying, but you’re unable to hear or see what they see on their screen.
It’s obvious that a lot of work and care went into crafting the unique experience Telling Lies gives, it simply takes some out of the box thinking to really appreciate and hours of patience to piece it together. While I enjoyed the outcome and its complexity, it’s tricky to recommend unless you’re the type of person that would enjoy snooping through hours of private video conversations and can somehow keep track of it all.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
MotoGP 20
Developers Milestone has been around for years, and they have quite a resume when it comes to dual wheel racing games. Most notable of the bunch would easily be the MotoGP games that have been around for quite some time. Much like other sports titles, the yearly installment of MotoGP is here with MotoGP 20, aiming to add a bunch of new features, modes and perform much smoother overall. Is this simply a fresh coat of paint with a couple new additions, or is it worth another lap around the track? Start your engines.While I’m not new to motorbike games, I found that I almost always generally gravitate towards the four wheeled kind of racing instead, so jumping back into two wheeled racing was a bit of a shock in terms of difficulty. MotoGP 20 aims to be a simulator, and there’s plenty of challenge regardless of your skill and experience. For someone more novice like me, I was able to turn on a bunch of assists to help stabilize my rider, even with an option for auto braking, though pro’s can turn all of these assists off and play a much more hardcore and realistic version should they wish.
You’ll get to experience the official 2020 season in MotoGP 20, not just from the MotoGP, but Moto2 and Moto3, including a new official track that fans should be happy to have included; Kymi Ring. Given that you’ll be racing up to 300 mp/h, there are some seriously tense moments when you’re trying to brake hard before an apex to try and gain a position or two without wiping out. This is when bike racing is at its finest.
The bulk of your time will most likely be within its robust career mode. Here you’ll start out as a typical nobody, deciding what team to join, official or completely brand new, and starting your race career in either MotoGP, Moto2 or Moto3. I enjoyed starting out in the lower league, working my way up to the main show eventually as my skills improved. Like most career modes in racers, you’ll have a calendar to manage, highlighting what weekends are for racing and which are not.
There’s also a large element of career management as well, developing not just your rider, but your team. Yes, only one rider is out on the track, but teams are much more than that. You’ll start with a manager, eventually hiring other facets and roles, allowing for other perks and bonuses if successful. This also means you’ll have a bank roll to manage, so you better start winning to cover your costs. The better the candidate for a roll, the more their salary and signing bonus will be. While the bulk of your gameplay will be racing, obviously, you’ll be spending a fair amount of time within the career menus as well, as there’s a lot to sift through, not even counting the performance upgrades, R&D development and contract opportunities.
As this is an official MotoGP sim, you can expect actual teams, bikes, liveries, riders and of course, tracks. The classic and legendary staples are here like Laguna Seca, Le Mans and around twenty or so others. You’re able to pick a realistic and authentic team, but you can also completely customize them as well with their own liveries. The graphic editor is simple enough to use, allowing you to create some unique and custom tags and graphics should you wish for your helmet, racing number, stickers and more.
Some other improvements over last year have been included as well, such as the new physics, improved graphics and more. Playing on an Xbox One X, there’s an option for frame rate or visuals, and other than the odd hiccup here and there, the overall experience was quite smooth. The new physics are what most will probably have to take some time getting used to.
As a novice to the series aside from dabbling in it here and there, it took me quite some time to get used to the handling of the bikes. Without any assists on you can fully expect to wipe and slide out on nearly every corner as you’re beginning. You’ll want to play with the settings and assists to find a balance that works for you until you become comfortable with the cornering and braking. You’re on two wheels and need to balance yourself on your bike, so you have to pre-lean a little before your turn and find that sweet spot of letting off the throttle and not completely gunning it out of the apex to prevent your rear tire from coming out from under you. Factor in the aggressive AI and you’ll have your work cut out for you. Thankfully you can toggle the rewind feature to fix all of your poorly mistimed and too speedy turns that failed miserably and try again as much as you wish.
You’ll also be able to customize your bike much further than before, as now you’ll also need to tackle tire wear and fuel consumption as well. With damage turned on it can be either be simply cosmetic, or fully affect your bike’s performance if you take too big of a crash, taking you out of the race.
Newly added Historic Mode, is sure to please the true and hardcore fans of the sport. Here you’ll get to race as and compete against MotoGP legends such as Mick Doohan, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and many more. This mode allows you to relive MotoGP history by giving you daily randomly generated races that reward you with a specific currency if successful that can used to purchase special bikes, riders and teams. With more than 40 riders and bikes, there’s tons of historic content here for true and lifelong fans that will surely put a smile on their face. Each race also has multiple difficulties so there’s something for everyone to check in on daily.
For those that were let down with last year’s outing and preferred to play online multiplayer, you’ll be ecstatic to know that MotoGP 20 has finally decide to utilize dedicated servers for their online play. No more laggy races, though you’ll still need to deal with the riders that like to slam into you through the corners. You can not only setup private and public matches, but even a Race Director lobby, allowing you to setup the starting grid, penalties and more. The few matches I played online had no lag and seemed to work flawlessly, though I didn’t always find many lobbies waiting for players
Graphically, MotoGP 20 impresses overall. The bikes look fantastic and incredibly detailed, as does the minor features, like the rubber on the tarmac as you race around lap to lap, the smooth animations of your rider leaning side to side coming out of a turn or looking behind to see who’s on your tail, and of course the weather effects. Rain in particular looks absolutely fantastic and completely changes how you race and tackle each corner. Puddles form, meaning you can hydroplane quite easily, leaving you unable to take corners at extreme angles and speeds, forcing you to adjust on the fly. The riders themselves also look quite good, but the mini scenes before races with secondary characters can look quite dated, though it doesn’t detract from the overall experience. Audio is just as good, as bikes sound distinct and you can hear the engine go through its gears as you shift. While there's no music during races or commentary, you’ll simply hear the engine whines constantly as you race, though nothing playing some of your favorite songs on Spotify in the background can’t fix.
While MotoGP 20 will be challenging for novices, it’s still accessible with its assists and options to make it possible to still be competitive in races eventually, though it will take quite a few hours to get to the point of actually winning as there’s not much in ways of a tutorial to ease you into the gameplay. For vets and MotoGP fans, there’s enough here to keep you challenged and tons of new additions that should appease you for another year until the next season starts.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Inner Friend, The
I’m normally a big fan of odd and abstract games. You know the ones; they seem as though they were conjured out of some weird acid trip dream gone wrong, then decided to be put into videogame form. The problem with these games is that it’s very difficult to convey not only how they play, but the experience that you’re engaged in, as they are usually very nonfigurative with unique visuals and experiences. The same is true for The Inner Friend, developer PLAYMIND’s first outing as a studio, where a combination of platforming, puzzle solving and light horror elements combine to make for a very odd but memorable experience.While it released for PC back in 2018, The Inner Friend is now here for console players, and while it’s a very unique and memorable experience, it certainly won’t be for everyone. I honestly had no idea what to expect going in, what I got though was a psychological horror game filled with symbolism and tense creepy moments, which at times can be more unnerving than a game filled with blood and gore.
As you begin The Inner Friend, you start floating at the ceiling in a room, looking down on someone as it appears they’re having some sort of nightmare. Are you a ghost or their soul? Is this an outer body experience? Thing is, instead of a face they simply have a beam of light coming out. As you move closer, the background changes to a familiar bedroom. You assume it’s yours, as you’re now some sort of mannequin child with portions of your ‘skin’ missing, like a jigsaw puzzle. As you look around the room you see a tear in the wall, leading to some sort of tunnel with no end. Of course, you go into it and start to plunge into nothingness.
You start freefalling, eventually landing on some floating buildings with no end in sight. As you fall into a portal you arrive in an old school that appears to have had some sort of catastrophic event within. You notice shadows of other children, seemingly frozen in time by some sort of red beam that’s pulsing. Levels are generally quite linear, and though you can explore the odd nook and cranny for collectibles, it’s generally a quite linear experience with little room to explore elsewhere.
There’s a handful of ‘levels’, each with their own goal, though don’t expect any sort of narration, story element or hand holding. You’re literally thrown into the game and nothing is explained to you in any way, even the meaning behind your motivation or what you’re actually doing. At first I initially thought it was about the person we see in the beginning on the bed maybe living through some nightmares, though after seeing the credits roll, I still have no idea. I don’t want to delve into any more of the levels, as The Inner Friend is quite short, and you’ll easily beat it in a single sitting, so detailing any more would ruin much of the experience.
Played in third person, you maneuver your character around the stages trying to reach the goal at the end, whatever that should be. Some levels have some platforming sections, though because the controls don’t feel very tight, you’re going to miss jumps quite a bit due to not always going the exact direction you attempted to. There are a couple puzzle sections later on as well, and these suffer from the same control issues also. Not that they are impossible by any means, but you’ll certainly have a few restarts due to it. In the last few sections you’ll also have a few stealth sections. Now, these aren’t very challenging, as it’s more just memorizing movement patterns from what you’re trying to avoid, but you don’t want to get seen and caught.
Where the gameplay is very minimal, simply walking and jumping around, sometimes escorting a shadow person, the real experience comes from its extensive and amazing visual and audio design. The visuals won’t blow you away by looking anywhere near photo realistic, but the way that the developers have crafted something so surreal and unique can be a sight to behold. One of the first things that came to mind was some of the set pieces from Alan Wake when objects were floating and moving around, or a scene you might remember from Poltergeist with hundreds of chairs stacked to form a massive pile.
Scenes like this really add a mysterious element to the whole experience. Jumping through broken mirrors into a seemingly forever darkness, only to come out the other end back into your bedroom is always a trippy experience. The best way I could describe it all is that you could think of the weirdest things you might have in one of your dreams, and The Inner Friend will top those. The psychological terror makes for some quite tense moments, even if it’s not designed to be outright “scary”.
Almost every level has a lot of tension to it, and this is masterfully done with some fantastic soundscapes. The audio is done so well and created such tension and an uneasy feeling, which even my seven year old daughter that was watching had to eventually cover her ears when she was enthralled with what I was playing. While there are no outright jump scares, the audio can really make you feel uneasy with the smallest of details.
The storytelling is more done through its overall experience rather than a traditional narrative that we’ve come to expect from most media. Visually driven, The Inner Friend gives you a very short experience, clocking at about an hour and a half, but it’s a memorable one. The Inner Friend is like one of those movies where the ending is left very ambiguous, allowing you to drawn your own conclusion however you will. Some enjoy these types of experiences, whereas others like myself, usually enjoy having a definitive answer. Don’t expect that here, even after the credits roll, as you’ll probably be left with many, many questions.
While flawed, especially when it comes to controls and a quite short runtime, I still enjoyed my time with The Inner Friend. I may not have completely understood all of its symbolism, but if you take it like more of an experience than a game, you can appreciate it more without your typical expectations. Bizarre and odd at times, but surreal for the majority, The Inner Friend tells its story through fantastical imagery, but it’s up to you to determine what all of it means to you.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Construction Simulator 3 - Console Edition
While I’ve never worked in construction, after a handful of hours with Construction Simulator 3: Console Edition, I have a new respect and understanding for how much planning and work goes into completing even simple production and construction tasks. You would think that using a bulldozer to flatten some land would be a quick five minute job, though, that’s until you need to actually perform said task for yourself. Luckily, you can do so without hours of training and getting behind the wheel of machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars from the comfort of your couch and an Xbox One.Simulation games like this usually revolve around the gameplay itself, focusing on delivering the most true to life experience you can get without actually doing it, but doing so usually means that other elements, like narrative, aren’t much of a focus. This is the case as well with Construction Simulator 3: Console Edition, as you’re going to get a very in-depth construction sim, but not much else in terms of visuals, audio or narrative.
I will say, I give the developer kudos for trying to incorporate some sense of a story element within, but it could have done without. After you choose your character’s look and come up with a company name, you’re thrown right in. You were previously a game developer who was successful, but it wasn’t your true calling. Apparently your passion was running a construction company, so here you are, to learn the ropes and start to build your own empire. Pump the brakes though, you don’t even know what the equipment is, what it does, how it works or how to even the proper steps to operating said machinery. This is where your mentor comes in, teaching you the ropes of how to start building your construction empire.
Set in a small German village, you begin in a little corner of a town, eventually embarking out across the map as you make your way to bigger and better jobs and contracts as you progress. You begin with a handful of tutorials, showing you the basics, eventually teaching you every machine that you’ll be using in your jobs and how to become proficient with them. Thankfully, there’s a ton of tutorials, which should last at least a few hours if you were to do them all back to back, so there’s a great attempt to give you all the knowledge you’ll need going forward, just make sure you pay attention during these, or else you’ll be wasting an exorbitant amount of time trying to figure out what to do and how to do it properly.
There are dozens of contracts and jobs to partake in, starting simple such as flatting some piles of dirt and moving some cut down trees, eventually becoming grander in scale, constructing larger buildings and other massive projects. With a ton of variety of vehicles and equipment, you’re going to have your hands full for hours of construction 'entertainment'. As you complete jobs and earn money for completing contracts you’ll be able to purchase additional vehicles and even upgrade some perks with an RPG-like system in place as well.
With over fifty machines to get behind the wheel of, players that are actually in the industry will be happy to know that there are tons of licensed vehicles from over a dozen popular brands like CASE, Caterpillar, STILL, ATLAS, Bell and a bunch of others. To add even more authenticity to this simulator, you can even get inside vehicles with cockpit views, adding another layer of realism of what it’s like to actually be behind the wheel of this equipment.
If you’ve not played the previous entries of the series, you’re in for a surprise when you actually start to use the equipment. Now, the basic controls like moving the vehicles around are simple enough, but when you need to start using its other features, like the bulldozer, or a crane arm, this is where things start to get complicated. Most vehicles have multiple modes that can be toggled with a button press, and doing so will change its control scheme as well.
Your backhoe for example, once you plant its feet, you can use the back digger, with the Left Stick controlling some of the arm movement and the Right controlling the bucket. This is where you’re going to struggle for the first few hours. Yes, the UI will show you what direction on each stick does what, but it really doesn’t come naturally until you’ve sunk in enough time and practiced until it's second nature. To make matters worse, the camera can be atrocious at times. You never seem to get the right angle you want to see what you’re doing, and when you finally do, you’ll need to move which messes up your camera, forcing you toggle from your vehicle controls back to camera; rinse and repeat. There are different camera angles you can play with, but you’re going to constantly struggle with it and the controls. Factor in that nearly every machine controls slightly differently, and you'll start to see where the frustration can set in when you want to do a simple task, but struggle doing so.
Even from the beginning moments, it will surprise you with how dated everything looks, almost as if it was a straight port from its mobile counterpart without much improvement for its console counterpart. There’s nothing pretty to see, and the bland audio matches as well. That said, I oddly enjoyed my time with it. While I’ll never actually operate in any of this machinery in real life, I have a new respect for how much work goes into what you might consider a small construction task.
Sim fans are surely the ones that will get the most out of Construction Simulator 3: Console Edition, especially those that know the industry, and even though it’s very rough around the edges and visually dated, I still enjoyed my time with it for the most part, aside from the constant battle with the camera and controls.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition
Originally released on PC back in 2017, Deep Sky Derelicts was met with some decent fanfare. Granted, I primarily game on my console, so it passed me by, but in the time since then, developers Snowhound Games has been hard at work, not only bringing out two DLC packs for the game since launch, but has now finally brought it to console gamers on Xbox One with the Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition, and it feels like a natural fit for the most part. Combining turn based strategy card combat with exploration and roguelike gameplay, Deep Sky Derelicts is a gritty yet often humorous adventure where you’re fighting against plenty of enemies and aliens, all while looking as if it came straight out of a comic book.Mankind hasn’t done so well lately, with essentially two classes of rich and poor strewn across the galaxy. The poor class do what they can to survive in space, scavenging what they can from derelict space stations that have seemingly been long abandoned. There’s a rumor about a Mothership that you are hired to find more information about, so you and your team of scavengers take the job and agree to report any findings as you explore and search numerous alien ships. With the promise of a better life and full citizenship, you have all the motivation you need to put your life on the line in deep space.
While this is the main premise of the narrative, there’s a lot more to it that unfolds as you explore and uncover new information, of which the writing is actually done well as you meet new characters and search each new area. There’s plenty of humor included as well, from simple one liners that gave me a chuckle to full on laughing, again, which speaks to the quality of the writing. Obviously though the first thing you’re going to notice about Deep Sky Derelicts is its unique comic book graphic style. It’s dark and gritty, but suits the setting and narrative quite well actually, though I do wish it was voiced and narrated.
So if you managed to play Deep Sky Derelicts previously on PC, you’re probably wondering why this is titled the Definitive Edition. Essentially it’s the all in one package with the core game and its two DLC’s that added quite a bit of content, mechanics and features, for the better. The first DLC that’s included is New Prospects. This expansion added new stances like Stealth, Rush and Normal that allow you to add another layer of strategy when trying to ambush enemies or sneak past to conserve energy which can make a huge difference in the outcome of a battle. New hazardous conditions have been added, like blizzards and even a new class, the Miner. With new missions and a bunch of other features and mechanics, this DLC actually made the core game much better overall.
The second DLC included is Station Life. This expansion more focused on your survivability and life on the station, as the name suggests. Now you’re able to craft new equipment, take on random and challenging battles, new missions, contracts and of course a new class, the Inventor, that relies on health regeneration rather than shields like other classes. Having not played the core game itself without the DLC’s, I can’t imagine how different the experience must have been without all these additions and improvements, so thankfully the wait for a console release has been worth it.
Your group of three mercenaries are hired to find out more information about a fabled Mothership, so you’ll search and scavenge derelict ships in search for more information and loot. Sometimes you’ll encounter hostile aliens, robotic machines, friendly settlers and other mercenaries. When you do engage in battle, combat is done in turn based card battles and you’ll earn experience and loot for winning. Every card has its own buff, attack damage, energy cost and more, so it's paramount to create a great deck as you progress. Your home base is where you’ll spend your time recruiting new members if needed, crafting new items, unlocking new perks, healing up and more.
As you land on a new derelict station, you’re presented with a grid-like map of the ship, though you’re only able to see a handful of squares around your area. As you explore grid to grid, you’ll uncover new areas and encounters along the way. Thing is, energy is required to move squares and to partake in battles, so it’s a resource you’ll need to constantly manage. Do you spend a lot of energy exploring a ship hoping to find a second landing pad, almost like a continue spot, or do you play it safe and return back to your home ship and pay to recharge your energy and engage in a few more battles to earn some more experience and loot? There’s a surprising amount of strategy required to be successful, something that’s not taught very well in the beginning, so be prepared to be confused for the first while until you figure it all out by trial and error.
Your three man team consists of different classes of your choosing, but again, it’ll simply take some trial and error to finally decide what suits your playstyle best. Each class has their own role and specializations, so it’s a matter of finding a great meld of abilities that works best for you. Do you take a bring brute that’s very heavy weapon and melee based, a medic that can heal or more ranged based damage dealers? They all have their own strengths, weaknesses, abilities, skill trees and more.
While turn based games or card battlers are not new to me, I’ve never quite played one that blended the two together in such a way like this. Your deck of cards are randomized for battles, so you’ll have a number to choose from each turn based on whose turn it is. Do you play your damaging cards to try and get quick kills and finish the battle, or spend precious turns buffing and regenerating shields to hopefully survive another enemy turn? There’s a surprising amount of strategy involved, not just in the combat, but upgrading and improving your team as you level up and gain more gear.
As you explore ships and come across NPC’s you’ll also be given optional side quests that can help you greatly down the road. Sometimes you’re given a choice of how you want to react or respond in conversations, which can have some unexpected, and sometimes hilarious, results. Then there’s the customization menu that is more than overwhelming when you’re beginning. Here you can upgrade your equipment with new gear you’ve found along the way, spending skill points to have specializations and much more.
The menu is serviceable, but it’s obvious that much of the controls and menus were developed for PC play moreso than console, as there’s seemingly a lot of button presses and menus that are cumbersome with the controller. Yes it works, but it takes some getting used to and isn’t the most of fluid experiences. For example, you can equip mods on your weapons, which are indicated by specific shapes to show what can fit with what, but this isn’t really explained very well and really confused me until I took the time to sit down and figure it all out. On the flip side, once you’ve learned how to navigate the menus and what goes where, you can really start to customize your characters and improve your damage and survivability quite substantially.
The graphic novel aesthetic is dark and gritty and fits the tonality of the game. While I enjoyed the art style, there wasn’t much variety of backdrops and the environment. The background music and ambient sounds are quite decent and never really became stale even after a handful of hours, I just wish there was some narration and voiced characters to give it a little more life.
With a Story and Arena mode along with the two included DLC’s, there’s plenty of content to sink your teeth into if you can get over the cumbersome and confusing menus. Once you learn its intricacies and how to upgrade your characters efficiently, Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition becomes a much more enjoyable turn based card battler. The writing is well done, combat is incredibly strategic and there’s plenty of depth for anyone looking to be a space mercenary and earn their citizenship while fighting aliens and raiders.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
HyperParasite
I actually got to play HyperParasite about a year and a half ago on PC in a very early access state with the promise that it would be coming to consoles eventually. Well, that day is here, and HyperParasite is finally on Xbox One ready to infest any and all human hosts it can find. Developer Troglobytes Games originally asked for $37K on Kickstarter long ago to bring their gaming vision to life. While it didn’t meet its goal, they somehow managed to not only make their game a reality, but also bring it to console as well.While the world is in turmoil, there’s a new threat to mankind, an organism that’s capable of taking over a host and controlling them, much like a body snatcher. This is you, you are HyperParasite. The President has called for everyone to come together; criminals, police, homeless and average basketball players alike will all try and stop you in your journey to try and take over the world. Your goal is to infect the President and use his body to press the big red button that will surely end the world as we know it. Doing so won’t be easy, as the whole world will be against you.
To make this backdrop even more appealing, it’s set in the 80’s, so expect a palette of bright neon and tons of pop culture references from the era, something an 80’s child like myself really enjoyed and appreciated, though younger audiences probably won’t clue into these references. Snatch, zap, repeat.
You’re a simple parasite that resembles a blob, but of course you have the ability to take over the body of any host you come across. When you’re in your true form you’re incredibly weak, barely do any damage and can die with one bad hit. When you take over someone’s body though, you are that person, so you gain access to their stats and abilities. Turn into a cop for example and you can use your pistol to shoot enemies from afar. If you take over a papergirl, you’ll throw, well, newspapers at your enemies. Need to take over a homeless dude with a shopping cart? You got it, you’re going to start ramming people with said cart. When your host loses all of their health you’re forced out of the body and must try and infect another before you die, which is easier said than done when things become chaotic.
Gameplay is like another other twin-stick shooter with some roguelite elements mixed in. When you die, and you will, you start all over again, though there is some progress that does carry over. I would best describe HyperParasite’s gameplay as Kirby meets Hotline Miami. The 80’s aesthetic really makes it stand out amongst others, as does its humor and great pixel work. The camera is top-down with the Left Stick moving your character and the Right the direction you’re aiming. If you’ve played SmashTV before, the way you’re locked into each room is similar, as you’ll need to clear each one before being able to move onto the next. Levels are procedurally generated so every run will always feel fresh.
There’s a ton of enemies you’ll face against, including mini bosses and full blown baddies that will take many tries to overcome. While you won’t be able to infect and take over every character right away, eventually you’ll face off against a harder version of a certain character, and if you bring their brain back to the safe zone shop, you’ll be able to unlock them and use them when you spend enough coins. The better the characters, the more coins it costs to unlock. This means your first few hours will simply be trying to gather as many brains as possible to get the character unlocks, then saving enough coins to actually be able to use them. Luckily this is the progress that carries over each time you die.
During your adventure, you’ll come across cracks in the ground that the HyperParasite can use to upgrade its attack, defense or lives. Your natural form is very weak, so you’ll always want to take over someone’s body, as those are essentially your lives. There’s about 60 different characters, and the special ones like Rocky, Detective McClane, Hulk Hogan and Teen Wolf are just a few of the pop culture references you’ll come across, but of course they are called something different to avoid copy write infringement and are very tongue in cheek. With each character having its own unique attacks and specials, you’ll eventually find a handful you prefer that suits your playstyle. While I’m glad a multiplayer mode was added to play alongside a friend, it’s a shame it’s only local couch co-op only and no online support, as HyperParasite is quite challenging solo.
While I may be a little bias in favor of the 80’s neon aesthetics, as I’m a sucker for bright neon and pop culture, it really suits the overall feel and mood of HyperParasite quite well. The pixel artwork is done quite well but the synthwave soundtrack is even better. While I don’t normally pay much attention to soundtracks and audio, I was grooving along to the beats the whole time I was body snatching, so kudos to Van Reeves and Joe Kataldo for the kickass soundtrack.
HyperParasite is an interesting concept with fundamentally decent gameplay, but where its shines is its heart, as you can tell a lot of passion went into this project. Having seen it evolve over the past year and a half proves a lot of work has gone into making it the best game it can be. It’s hilarious, has tons of pop culture references and more than enough glowing neon that you’ll know what to do with. If you’re a twin-stick shooter fan, HyperParasite is worth checking out and infecting the human race for as long as you can handle its challenging difficulty.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Complex, The
Have you ever watched a movie and wish you could actually make the character on screen decide what to do because you clearly know better? Movies are an interesting medium, as they tell a story, but it’s a linear experience, as you simply sit there and watch the narrative unfold without any decision making or input. Things are changing though, and if you’ve experienced an interactive film before, either with Wales Interactive’s previous ‘games’ in this genre, or even Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch on Netflix, then you’ll know what to expect with The Complex.Essentially you’re watching a movie, as it’s all filmed with real actors, but you’ll be given choices now and then on how you want the character to react or respond, giving you a choice of how events unfold, much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book from eons ago. While some might not believe that having you press a button or two every 15-20 minutes constitute as a “game”, it’s still an interactive form of media, and the quality is there to still make it an entertaining one at that.
Filmed in the UK, The Complex is a sci-fi live action interactive adventure that will have you making some tough decisions from its very beginning moments. There’s not always a right or wrong, as sometimes you need to skirt a morally grey area. Case in point, the first decision you make is going to be choosing between two people who lives and whom dies. There’s no traditional ‘game over’ in a sense, as your choices simply change the outcome moving forward, and with eight endings to strive for, there’s a decent amount of content to experience if you’re able to make all the “right” choices.
The Complex’s narrative, written by Lynn Maxcy, takes place after a massive bio-weapon attack hits London. Two doctors, Dr. Amy Tenant (played by Michelle Mylett, best known from Letterkenny) and Rees Wakefield (played by Al Weaver, which I know as Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2) are trapped in an underground laboratory where Dr. Amy has been conducting her revolutionary Nanocell technology. The lab is on lockdown mode, and not only is time running out, but so it their air supply. Of course, this technology is very sought after by nefarious people, but to complicate matters more, someone that was on the subway, sick and bleeding from the eyes, is also in the lab with them, which is no coincidence.
You control Amy’s actions when given the choices and The Complex will actually track your relationships between all of the characters as you work your way towards finding the multiple endings. Amy and Rees have history, so how does that play out in your first playthrough? Once you learn some critical information about your boss Nathalie Kensington (played by Kate Dickie, best known as Lysa Arryn in Game of Thrones), will this change how you interact with her and her assistant during your video calls? I don’t want to delve into the story much further, but you’ll need to make some tough choices along the way, justifying them either way to yourself and seeing the consequences for doing so. Sometimes you won’t be able to save everyone, or the choices you make won’t show their results on the surface until the very end.
Given that this is an interactive movie at its core, the majority of the time will you be watching said movie play out, but now and then you’ll be given usually two choices for Amy to make. You’re not always given a lot of time to think it over too, so your first or second playthroughs will be reactionary until you see the main plot points unfold in different ways. Every choice you make it tracked and Amy’s personality will be shown at the end of the credits, determining your personality. Was your Amy agreeable, neurotic or open? You’ll see at the end of each playthrough.
Much like most movie experiences, The Complex will run around about the 90 minute mark per playthrough. Obviously they want you to play a handful of times to find all of the endings, though I wish there was some sort of marking to indicate what choice I’ve made previously when given them again so I can go down a different path of choices. Given that The Complex is live action, I’m more judging the visuals on its sets and CGI. It’s obvious that this had a budget, and given that the majority of the narrative is told inside the lab, there’s not all that much to look at. When there are moments with CGI, it’s quite noticeable and the production quality is something you’d find from a straight-to-TV B-movie. That’s not to say the acting isn’t fantastic, as everyone did a great job throughout, especially Michelle Mylett as Dr. Amy. The $16.99 CAD asking price is right on par with the value it gives as well.
The story is interesting, characters have growth and mystery, acting is done wonderfully and the multiple endings means you’ll always have some sort of surprise by the time the credits roll again. My first ending was dramatically different from my second, so I’m glad it wasn’t just minor differences for the outcomes as a way to sell the multiple ending angle. The real question is, will you choose to smash or blow up the toilet?
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Bless Unleashed
Ever since a friend showed me Everquest back in 1999, MMORPG’s have had their hooks in me. Since then, I’ve literally put thousands of hours into various MMO’s over the past two decades. To say that it’s my favorite genre is an understatement, so when a new one comes along, I tend to dive into the deep end feet first and completely immerse myself in its gameplay and world. Bless Unleased (simply referred to as Bless from here onwards) was no different, as I’ve actually been playing it well over a month now, and usually I review games quite quickly purposely, but being an MMO, it’s not one that can be rushed. Truth be told, I wanted to hit end-game and max level before writing this review, but as it turns out, Bless has a serious grind to it, along with some gating that forces you to halt rapid leveling and progression, which is nothing new to me, but others will, and do already, find the grind very taxing and frustrating.If you’ve played numerous MMO’s before, you’ve probably heard of Bless before. Now, this isn’t the failed PC MMO Bless Online. Yes, it’s the same studio and set in the same universe, but it’s a completely different experience, and not just because it’s an Xbox One exclusive on console. Also, Bless is completely free to play (F2P). Now I know what you’re thinking; probably something along the lines of “but aren’t all F2P games simply pay-to-win (P2W)?”. Honestly, this is usually the case, but with over 200 hours already put into it, I’ve not felt compelled or forced to open my wallet and drop some money into the game. For complete transparency, we were given a Founder’s Pack which netted us some items, mounts and bonuses, and I’ve also spent some money on other items and conveniences, not that I never hit a brick wall where it felt forced like in other F2P MMO’s.
As you begin your journey in Bless, you’ll choose one of five classes: Crusader, Berserker, Ranger, Mage or Priest. All of the classes fit the typical roles you’ve played countless times before in other games, where the Crusader is your heavy armor tank with sword and shield, Mages nuke from afar and Priests heal, but Bless changes thing up quite drastically with its action oriented combat. There’s also no real ‘holy trinity’ where every group absolutely needs a tank to soak up the damage, a healer to replenish life and damage to kill things. Yes, some of these classes fill these roles in certain ways, but get those traditional MMO roles out of your head, as Bless does things differently, for better and worse.
Once you’ve chosen your class and customized your character to how you want them to look, you begin your adventure within a dream with a highly powered character. You have a very powerful character with lots of abilities unlocked and start blasting away at enemies. This is how the game teaches you the basics of combat in its tutorial, but being an action based MMO, there’s no simply spamming a hotbar of a few abilities like in most MMO’s. Instead, you’ll need to be actively dodging enemy attacks, watching for visual cues and utilizing different combos for your attacks and abilities as you unlock them with each new Blessing you receive. Once you defeat a boss at the end of this dream state, you awaken in the world of Lumios, taken down a road filled with despair, enemies and of course, you’re the one that will save the world.
Like any MMO, you’ll begin as a weakling and with little to no gear and abilities. As you quest, level up and gain experience, you’ll slowly start to become stronger as you progress and find new gear and combat abilities. This is an MMO though, so you’ll constantly see and interact with thousands of other players during your adventures. Sometimes this is helpful, as you’ll be killing a boss and anyone else is able to join in and help for their own credit as well.
Your quests begin simple enough, usually having you run to somewhere nearby, killing a few enemies or doing a fetch quest for someone, the usual MMO fare we’ve come to expect over the years. Bless begins no differently, as the quest chains will guide you on a specific path from one area to the next, generally keeping you within enemies that are meant for your level range. As you defeat enemies and monsters, you’ll earn gold, experience and sometimes new gear. Gear is more than a simple comparison of choosing the one with better stats, as there’s a whole ranking from E to A class and rarity that can be improved, for a cost. Keep in mind though, as you level up, enemy scaling is also in place, so even though you may be max level and go back to the beginning area, enemies will scale to your level as well, so in one way you never feel like you’re becoming more powerful because of this.
Combat in Bless is interesting yet challenging. Instead of a hotbar of abilities you spam over and over like in most MMO’s, Bless as action based combat where you have numerous different combos that all have their own uses and situations to be used in. For example, I play a Priest, so one of my combos allows me to do some big damage quickly, but leaves me open to attack while I wait for the animations to complete. Another combo I have is shorter and does less damage, but pushes back enemies if successful, allowing me some breathing room when I’m soloing. As you press the different attack buttons there are prompts on the screen to show you what button press will link into the next combos, granted, after you’ve put in enough hours into your character, these become second nature, as I already know I need to hit ‘RB’ three times then ‘B’ three as well for my big damage combo.
Somewhat like a Souls game, you’ll also have a stamina bar linked to your running and dodging. This becomes incredibly important, so the quicker you learn it the better. Enemy attacks need to be physically avoided, or you’re going to sustain a lot of damage, so you always need to be on the lookout for tells from enemies, either from their wind up or certain animations to indicate the imminent attacks. Regular enemies obviously won’t hurt as much, but when you mistime your dodge from a boss, you can easily die in one hit if your gear isn’t up to snuff. Factor in that health doesn’t replenish automatically unless sitting at a campfire, eating foot or using potions, you’ll quickly learn how important dodging is, or else you’ll go broke from having to constantly buy potions or waste hours sitting at a campfire as your health slowly refills.
While your core attacks are your combos, your main abilities come from your Blessings. Think of these as specializations. You only get access to the abilities within each of blessings, so there are different uses and times you’ll want to switch from one to another. For example, one of my Blessings that I’m currently working on is much more PvP focused, and since I loathe PvP, I don’t plan on using it very much if at all. The one I currently use almost exclusively is very heal focused, allowing me to drop heal orbs for allies to pick up but still has some utility and damage abilities as well. And yes, as a healer I can’t simply target you and heal like in other MMO’s, another factor as to why communication and being very aware of your surroundings in Bless is extremely important.
As you complete quests you’ll earn Skill XP (SXP), and once filled to 100%, you’ll earn a point that can be used to unlock new abilities or improve ones you already have. Each Blessing has a finite amount of abilities, usually four, but the later ones will cost many skill points to fill completely, so you’re going to learn that there’s a real grind early on. If you do manage to completely fill a blessing with skill points you earn a passive bonus that is permanent, so it’s worthwhile investing the time into doing this for the long term.
Once you reach a certain level you’ll gain access to partake in Arenas, Lairs and Dungeons. Arenas are for two players facing off against a single boss. These start easy, but the later ones become quite challenging and will require teamwork. Lairs is the same deal against a single boss, but consists of a party of five. Lastly, Dungeons are five players in a traditional pathway filled with mobs on your way through to some bosses. Most have three bosses within, but unlike most MMO’s, the only rewards you get is after you defeat the final boss and loot the chest. Mid-dungeon bosses don’t drop loot, so if you’re unable to finish the final boss, you’ve wasted a lot of time with no reward.
The problem with these chests you get for completion though is that they need to be unlocked with keys. How do you get said keys you ask? Well, if you have certain perks, you’ll get a maximum of two keys a day. TWO. That’s right, I’d love to spam dungeons all day at the chance of getting the gear upgrades I desperately need, but when you’re only able to open two a day, you don’t actually want to do more as they don’t stack in your inventory, which is always at a premium. Yes, you can purchase more bag and bank slots for real money if you wish, or find pieces to unlock them hidden within in the world, but obviously that convenience becomes quite tempting when you’re constantly struggling for bag room early on. Because of this design, it feels as though Bless discourages you from playing how you want at times.
Currency starts out simple enough with you earning gold, but eventually you’ll be introduced to Star Seeds, Artifact shards and cores, and a ton of other marks for different Unions. You’ll eventually become a millionaire in gold, but quickly realize that doesn’t have much value later on for the most part. Star Seeds can be gained once a day and you’ll be able to convert a small amount of gold into Star Seeds, which is then used for many things like upgrading equipment, buying and selling on the marketplace and much more. Star Seeds become incredibly important, so you’ll need to find a balance of selling items versus breaking them down for artifact cores when it comes to having enough resources to upgrade your items.
Let’s talk about the enhancement process for a minute shall we? The majority of your gear will start out either rank C or B and usually blue in rarity. If you spend Star Seeds and Artifact Cores, you can upgrade them from +1 to +5. From there, you can turn a +5 blue into a purple item, increasing its gear score with each upgrade. After it’s +5 at purple, you can then turn it yellow into a legendary and so on. Sound easy? Technically yes, but it’s going to cost you a fortune of resources, even if you're successful.
There are two different NPC’s you can use to upgrade your gear, the Common or Master Enhancers. Common costs much less resources to upgrade, but there’s a chance that your gear goes down a rank if it fails. So if you have a +5 item and fail 3 times in a row, you’re back down to a +2 item. The Master Enhancer doesn’t have this issue, but the flipside is that he costs an exorbitant amount more to do the upgrades. You can still fail the upgrade, and will often, but you won’t lose a ranking if utilizing the Master. Factor in that the percentages of success aren’t shown and failing numerous times in a row completely drains your Seeds and Cores, and you can see where people start to become frustrated. That being said, finally getting that upgrade to Legendary or Mythic is an amazing feeling and makes you forget the dozens of failed attempts previous.
Being F2P, I fully expected there to be a cash shop, and there is, but you can’t really buy power. Sure, you could spend money and then sell the items on the marketplace which in turn could be used to buy upgrades and boost your gear score, but it’s not all that practical to do so. The cash store mostly has cosmetic and convenience items, the most importantly being resurrection scrolls. These allow you to instantly revive yourself if needed rather than waiting for someone else to do so after a long prompt, which becomes near essential in the later dungeons. You could spend cash on more bag space or some fancy new costumes, but I’ve not felt much need to dump much cash into the game.
Because it is F2P and we were given a Founder’s Pack, I did purchase a Bless Pass. This is the equivalent to Battle Pass/Season Pass that other games use, especially Battle Royals. Everyone has the base tier of Bless rewards for doing specific objectives in game, but should you purchase a Bless Pass, you gain extra rewards, like costumes, gold, Star Seed boosters and more. Is it worth the purchase? That will come down to preference, but I’m glad I bought the inaugural pass to check it out.
I’ve been fully engrossed with Bless since its early access and launch. I’ve logged in every day, done all the content I can up until this point, and the game is still halting my progression in numerous ways. Gating is a way that developers ensure players don’t progress too quickly, usually to buy them time to add or change endgame content as everyone is leveling up and gaining gear. The first major gating players ran into was a large level gap from 17-20 where you simply ran out of quests, forcing you to grind mobs for minuscule XP so that you can progress. Next, dungeons require a certain gear score to queue up and get in, and if you go in with the bare minimum, you’re going to have a bad time, so much time and effort was spent into upgrading my gear.
Now, in the mid-30’s of levels, I’m gated from questing any further until I earn enough Prestige Marks by doing a series of quests that appear at random, and since I can’t be on the game 24/7, I sometimes miss and have to forego completing some of these. I’m already aware of what the next few methods of gating are going to be, so prepare for a repetitive grind of doing the same quests and bosses every day until you’re allowed to progress. I completely understand the need for an MMO to be a time sink and that you need to put in the time to receive the rewards, but this goes far beyond being reasonable at times.
The other major complaint I constantly deal with in Bless is its open world PVP. Once you reach around level 20 and venture further into the world of Lumios, essentially everywhere is a free for all PVP zone. Now, in the beginning there were no real restrictions with who could attack who, so you would have higher level players picking on lower ones, but some small improvements have been made in the last few patches. There are a few safe points in certain towns and soul pyres where you rest, and there’s a harsher penalty for these outlaws, but it still doesn’t change the fact that at some point, you’re almost forced to PVP, something I absolutely loath in games like this. There’s no dedicated PVP server as well, and I understand the intent was to make the world feel more lively, but when there’s little to no checks and balances for those that don’t want to participate, frustration comes in once again. Only recently they’ve made it where people can’t PVP in the big boss areas, as nefarious PVP players were killing everyone at the end of a battle with no recourse.
It’s not often that a MMO gets a dedicated and exclusive console launch, and I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but I’ve been hooked ever since that first day. There’s a laundry lists of issues I have with Bless, one that could write a lengthy article about on its own, but when it comes down to it, I’m still logging in every day to play with my friends, work on my quests and clear a few dungeons. Visually Bless is quite decent on an Xbox One X, with characters, environments and animations feeling current, and it’s clear it was designed for a console from the ground up with its ease of use for controller combat. Audio is decent as well, as many NPC’s are voiced, and even though you’ll hear the same combat sounds a million times throughout your adventure, it’s always impressive on a scale that MMO’s demand.
As an MMO, Bless Unleashed it perfectly serviceable, but those that want to make rapid progression are going to be sorely disappointed and frustrated with many of its draconic design choices. MMO’s are hard to review, as they are constantly evolving, being updated and changing with what the community and developers want. As of this point in time, I can certainly recommend giving Bless Unleashed a shot since I still find myself logging on every day, and given that it’s completely free to play, there’s no real reason not to. Be warned, as you’re in for a long and arduous grind if you stick with it, and it’s incredibly challenging when it comes to combat in the later dungeons, but I only expect Bless to improve in many facets in the future.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Roundguard
I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong. Case in point, I unfairly pre-judged Roundguard as a simple Peggle knockoff. To be fair, it’s hard to blame me, as when you see the screenshots and notice the peg board pachinko-style gameplay we’ve all played before, it’s easy to make assumptions. But I was wrong. Yes, it plays like Peggle at its core, but there’s enough variety and gameplay tweaks that it does feel like a different experience that Peggle made popular.If by some miracle you’ve not seen or played Peggle before, it was a very popular game last generation where you were tasked with clearing pegs by shooting a pinball down a pegged board, watching it be pulled to the bottom of the board by gravity. It was very simplistic yet absolutely addictive. Developer Wonderbelly Games clearly has taken this addictive nature and made some minor tweaks to the core concept that actually changed the gameplay, arguably for the better. You wouldn’t think that adding a dungeon crawling element and roguelike gameplay to Peggle would work, but they’ve managed to pull it off for an entertaining adventure.
While there is a shoestring of a story element within Roundguard, revolving around you trying to save the king and recover his gold, let’s be honest; it’s nice that it’s included, but you won’t care about it when you simply want to shoot your ‘balls’ down the play field, trying to make it to the end of the dungeon. You only have one life though, indicated by a health bar, so this is where the rougelike element comes into play, as when you lose all your life you start all over again from the beginning of the dungeon.
In classic Peggle, the pegs on the board are just that, standard pegs, that disappear when you hit them with your ball. Roundguard changes this up and makes it fit the dungeon theme, so pegs can be health or mana orbs, poison, monsters, pots that smash open and drop gold or other items you’d find in a dungeon. Instead of a plain pinball to drop on the field, you’ll actually choose one of three heroes; a warrior, rogue or mage, each of which have their own starting stats and abilities based on their class. Warriors obviously have the most health where the rogue can use sneaky attacks against their enemies. Mana is used for your special class abilities, so when you run out, you’ll need to find some mana orb/pegs to hit to replenish.
Just like Peggle, you aim from your crossbow at the top of the screen, aiming at your target and then launching. In Peggle, once you launched your ball you would generally just wait until gravity does its thing and the ball reaches the bottom of the screen. In Roundguard, there’s a bit more ‘gameplay’ to it if you will. Once launched, you still won’t have direct control of your character as they bounce down the board, but with your abilities, you can choose when to use them, some of which will require some quick reflexes, planning and of course, luck.
In Peggle you simply had a ball counter that you needed to fulfil your objective before running out of balls. Roundguard however changes this up a bit. Instead of a ball counter, you have a health pool. When your health is depleted it’s game over. There are health pot pegs though placed randomly across the board, so sometimes you’ll need to forego hitting that monster to pass the stage, as doing so also hurts your character as well. And yes, when you attack a monster by hitting them, you take off a certain amount of their health pool, but they have an attack stat as well, and you’ll also receive damage for doing so. Even the bottom of the screen is filled with spikes, hurting you if you don’t land on the scrolling cushion that will spare you some damage at the end of a launch. Lose all your health and your run is over.
Just like a good dungeon crawler, you’re also going to find upgrades to your abilities, armor and weapons along the way as you make your way further down the dungeons stage to stage. These will be paramount as you make your way from stage to stage on the way to the bosses. When you do eventually die and have to restart, you’ll gain a bonus for your next run, hopefully making it an easier go the next time around. If you’re able to beat a handful of bosses and clear the dungeon completely, you’ll earn an ever important relic that is a permanent choice to toggle on or off, changing gameplay in different ways, like maybe having more health and mana pots on the board.
Dungeons are also randomized every time you play, not just the peg placements and other items, but even quests and bosses, so it doesn’t become stale as quickly as I expected. There’s also online leaderboards, so there’s plenty of competition to be had against your friends and other Rounguard-ers. The visuals are very cartoonish, there is some decent humor present and the music is basic but catchy. Obviously someone playing a genre like this isn’t playing it for its narrative, graphics or audio, but for its simple yet addictive gameplay.
I honestly expected Roundguard to be a simple Peggle re-skin, but came away very surprised that this wasn’t simply a 'shoot and wait' experience. On paper a roguelike dungeon crawling Peggle game shouldn’t really make sense or work, yet Roundguard has manages to give an exciting experience that is just as addictive as the game that the genre is best known for, and in some ways, surpasses it with its depth.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Underhero
Every now and then there’s a game that comes along and really surprises me. Usually it’s some small indie game I’ve never heard about and just happens to fall into my lap. This was the case once again when I started playing Underhero. Having never seen anything for it previous to booting it up, I had no preconceived ideas of what to even expect. Sometimes going in this way is a real treat, as you’re experiencing a game for the first time almost shrouded in mystery, so you’re unsure what to expect.I got lucky this time, as Underhero really impressed me, not only with its fantastic visuals and soundtrack, but its humor and gameplay were fun beginning to finish. At its core, Underhero plays almost like a mix of Paper Mario and a Metroidvania. You explore the world in 2D platforming but then have a unique battle system as well, all encompassed with an interesting story filled will laughs throughout.
We all know how the story goes, where the hero comes in to save the princess and defeat the big bad boss to save the world. That is no different here in the beginning. You start off as a legendary hero, max leveled and dawning the shiniest and best gear there is. How come no one ever thinks of the minions that try and halt the progression of these heroes? You ever wonder what these cannon fodder enemies do all day simply sitting and waiting in a room for a hero to arrive, only to die mere seconds later? This is the premise of Underhero.
You, the Underhero, were simply waiting for the hero to arrive so that you can try and stop him, which of course shouldn’t ever happen because, well, he’s the hero and heroes always prevail over evil. Underhero doesn’t follow this standard trope though, and by some miracle, you manage to actually kill the hero, and your two friends that were in the room with you as well. That’s right, a random minion finally killed the hero, something no one has been able to do before. And of course, since Underhero is filled with humor, you of course defeated him by dropping a chandelier on his head, crushing him.
The now flattened hero was carrying a magical hilt with him, and because you’ve just now become the protagonist, he must go with you now. Yes, the hilt speaks and actually convinces you to work against your evil boss and fulfill its destiny. Your boss, the big bag evil Mr. Stitches gets wind of what has happened and has not only promoted you in light of your massive achievement, but he also lets the captive princess go since she’s no longer needed. He has other plans for you though and sets you on a quest, one you must follow along with for the time being until you’re powerful enough to take Mr. Stitches on directly.
Dialogue is witty throughout and the thought of a simple henchman turned hero is funny in itself, as you now must complete the hero’s quest with your magical hilt guiding you along the way. Underhero is very self-aware and constantly breaks the fourth wall, as it had me laughing throughout. There’s even a butterfly that has two personalities and talks to, and argues, with himself. And don’t forget that when Taco Tuesday gets cut for budget reasons, people will forget the 30% pay cut.
2D sidescrolling is how you’ll explore the world, with slightly branching paths housing secrets and money, puzzles and more. The platforming itself isn’t terribly difficult, which I enjoyed, and the world can seem quite large when you piece together all of the scenes. While there are collectible bonuses, you don’t generally have to explore every inch or do all that much backtracking, which I also appreciated, as it always felt like I was making progress forward.
Between battles you’ll be talking to NPC’s, purchasing items from merchants or stores, or even get to partake in some of the interesting and odd minigames from time to time. These have you racing against bugs with wheels for feet, or maybe taking part in a trivia game show that tests if you’ve been paying attention and talking to people. These sections break up the pace a bit, which is welcome, as I didn’t expect Underhero to be nearly as long as it is.
Combat is the other major component to Underhero that I ended up enjoying more than I expected. Not really turn based, but kind of, combat utilizes a timing based system where if you attack during the musical beat in the background, you’ll gain a critical damage to that attack. There’s a stamina meter you need to keep track of, as if you deplete it, you’ll be unable to block or dodge for a short period of time.
Before battle begins you can actually talk to every enemy, as they may tell you some secret or other information you’d otherwise not have known. Battles too tough? Why not use your hard earned gold to bribe your way out of said battle then? Do you try and squeeze and extra attack in and hope the enemy doesn’t return the favor, or do you use your shield to try and block or parry with the last of your stamina? Land a dodge and your stamina replenishes much quicker, so there’s a balance of offense and defense you need to master as you progress.
You can use your sword for regular attacks, or hold it for a more powerful swipe. You have a hammer that takes a long time to wind up, but does huge damage. For ranged or flying enemies, you have a slingshot that you need to manually aim as well. Your shield can block or parry, but using it too frequently will cause it to break, meaning you’ll have to spend some cash to repair it. The combat eventually becomes quite skill and reaction based in the later levels but never feel unfair, and of course you earn experience points for winning, allowing you to level up and add bonuses to your stats.
Underhero has a fantastic visual aesthetic that screams retro pixel graphics. The animations are done wonderfully and the world and backdrops all vary and fit the tone of the scene you’re in. There’s a lot of small details thrown in if you take the time to look, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. The audio is just as good, with an original soundtrack composed by Stijn van Wakeren, someone that I’m not familiar with, but certainly enjoyed the musical bliss throughout.
There’s no doubt that Underhero was made with a lot of love, as it shows in nearly every aspect, not just its visuals and audio, but the clever writing and depth of the gameplay. While you’ve probably not heard of it, Underhero really is fantastic experience start to finish. While I normally love betting on the underdog, you’ll definitely want to bet on the Underhero.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate
A Musou game is one where you’re put into an open map and simply need to hack and slash your way through hundreds of enemies. It’s not going to challenge you with puzzles or have an engaging narrative, but it’s mindless fun. The best known Musou games are most likely the Dynasty Warriors series. They’ve been around for about two decades and have more than a dozen different iterations and sequels over the years, so they’ve clearly gathered a following over all that time. While I’ve played a handful of them over the years, none of them really gathered my attention long term, as I found the gameplay to be quite repetitive and basic. With the new release of WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate, I was curious to see just how much the core gameplay has changed and evolved since the last time I picked up a Musou title. Turns out, not all that much.What you usually look for in a Warriors game is killing near endless enemies with just a few simple button presses. WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate does this and more. With nearly 200 characters to choose from, all of which are unique in their own fighting styles and attacks, there’s a ton of content within to keep you busy for quite some time as long as you can deal with the monotony and repetitiveness of the mission structure that doesn’t seem to have changed all that much in the past decade.
Warriors games tend to have a grand story, and while there’s a lot of dialogue, they’ve never been able to hook me, this title included. While there are some quick tooltips that explain events of the previous game, there’s little done to catch you up on what’s happened thus far in the series. Maybe it’s the massive amount of characters that I found confusing, or that much of the story is given through dialogue before, after and during gameplay, but I just found it hard to follow who was who and most importantly, why.
This Ultimate edition adds a whole new chapter that takes place at the end of the regular WARRIORS OROCHI 4, which many fans felt like the original ending fell flat. Luckily this is remedied, but it’s still a slog to get through the campaign’s first couple chapters even if you’re trying to be quick about it. Given some more background and expanding on events that happened in the base game is a welcome bonus, but every story mission is going to be the same flow of running around, killing enemies and waiting for doors to open as characters talk to one another.
So if you’ve played WARRIORS OROCHI 4 already, you’re probably wondering if upgrading to the Ultimate Edition (purchasable separately for original owners) is worth it and what’s actually included. Turns out, quite a lot has been added in the Ultimate edition. First off, there’s a handful of new noteworthy characters to choose from: Gaia, Yang Jian, Achilles, Hades, Joan of Arc, and the one that had me most excited, Ryu Hayabusa. All of these characters are quite significant, so it’s great to see them finally included in Ultimate.
As noted above, you’ll get a new chapter that takes place after the original ending, expanding upon events and adding sub-scenarios to flesh out the story even further. Newly added are Infinity and Challenge modes as well. These add more missions and ways to grind and level your characters. Interestingly, you’re now able to swap Sacred Treasures out with other characters, allowing you to customize them even further, making for some unique combinations and strengthening your play style.
You’re also able to utilize a reincarnation system, allowing you to reset and re-level your characters with bonuses, much like prestige ranks in other games. Doing so for all characters will take some serious commitment, but for the hardcore and faithful, there’s something to strive towards. Some minor updates have gone into making the menus easier to navigate, especially when searching through the mass amount of characters. A good majority of the Ultimate add-on is meant for end game grinding and improving your characters and teams even further, but for a price.
For those that haven’t played a Warriors game before, you control a team of three characters that categorize into different class types. You begin with only a handful but will eventually have more than you’ll know what to do with. While I appreciate the massive amount of playable characters, it eventually gets to a point of being overwhelming, and even testing out each character is going to take some time, so prepare for some long gaming sessions if you want to get the most out of it.
The majority of the game can easily be beaten if you find a character you like and spam the same attacks repeatedly. What is new is the introduction of the Magic system, tied to which Sacred Treasure is equipped. In the beginning it allows you to cast a couple of different magical abilities, almost like a special move, but as you begin to understand the systems further, especially when many enemies start to become immune to regular attacks, it’s a welcome addition to the standard Musou formula that has become a little stale over time. There are even new additional Musou attacks that everyone gets, much like a super move, which is how you can wreak some real havoc in the thick of battle.
While the Warrior games have always had a lot of content, it’s always been very generic and repetitive. Sure, the core formula hasn’t changed much, but the additions that the Ultimate edition has added are some welcome changes overall. The main issue is that it feels as though all of these additions and changes should have simply been a game update, but instead, you are forced to pay for these ‘fixes’, and it’s not cheap either.
If you already own WARRIORS OROCHI 4, it will cost you over $50 CAD to upgrade to Ultimate over the base price of the game itself. To make matters worse, that doesn’t even include the Season Pass content either. Granted, WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate is priced like a regular new release, it’s really the original owners that get screwed over the most by the pricing. Factor in that most of the content is meant for post-game and grinding, it’s truly only the hardcore that are going to make the most use out of the additions.
For newcomers, WARRIORS OROCHI 4 Ultimate is easy to recommend if you simply want a mindless button masher, enjoy killing thousands of enemies with ease, don’t mind outdated graphics and repetitive missions and audio. There’s not much thinking involved unless you’re trying to follow along with the narrative and keep track of the insane amount of characters, but generally gamers that play Musou’s know what they are getting into. If you’ve ever played a Dynasty Warriors in the past, you’ll also know what you’re exactly signing up for, albeit with a ton more content this time around.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac
I’m a big fan of games that have a lot of heart and that don’t take themselves too seriously. Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac is one of those games. You’re Edgar, a whacky hermit that lives on the outskirts of town by their lonesome. Well, not totally alone, as he’s accompanied at all times by his trusty companion, a chicken named Precious. While the journey isn’t long, only lasting a couple hours at best, Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac is an interesting game that focuses on narrative and has a great artistic style to it.Edgar loves his squash, so much so that he farms his own on his land. Edgar’s worst nightmare comes true as his squash plantation becomes ruined by a batch of insects. To remedy this grave situation, he’s going to have to leave the confines of his home and venture into the nearby town in search for an extremely rare metal, Razidium. While he’s been a loner for many years and not used to socializing, he’s unable to find any Razidium but also starts to clue in that something strange is going on. With Precious by his side, Edgar sets out to figure out what’s going on, all in hopes to save his squash farm.
Gameplay for Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac is quite simple. You simply maneuver Edgar around in the local town, talking to people and interacting with items. You have the ability to look at your inventory, but there’s no real need, as you’ll simply use the proper item when interacting with the correct object. That’s really all there is to it. You move Edgar around with the Left Stick, talking to the locals to find out more, eventually making progress as you go and uncovering secrets as you interact with the ‘A’ button. I expected there to be more puzzle elements included as well, but this really is narrative focused more than anything else.
What does cause some frustration is when you’re unsure what to do for the next step of progression. Sometimes you need to talk to someone to get an item or to get new information. Where the problem comes in is that there’s no quest guide or markers of what you’re supposed to do, where to go or whom to talk to. This results in you aimlessly wandering at times, simply interacting with every object and person you can to hopefully make it to the next step of the journey. Given how short the adventure is overall, this can be forgiven, as it’s an overall straightforward game more focused on the narrative, but having some guidance or indication of what to do next would have been very welcomed, especially when coming back after a while, unsure of what you were supposed to do.
I absolutely loved the artwork and tonality of the visuals, as it’s very colorful and simple. Character design is fun and dialogue is written well. The only lacking feature is that there are no voiceovers included. While I get that that’s a costly venture for a small indie game of this caliber, it would have added more flare to their personalities, though the background music is decent overall and never wore on me during the adventure.
While some of the puzzle solutions are a little obtuse at times, much of the progression will simply come from trial and error and talking to everyone you come across. Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac never takes itself too seriously and contains a funny, strange and wacky story that’s worth the journey, even with the minor frustration. While I did expect it to have more humor, Edgar and Precious had enough moments that made me smile throughout, as it should for you as well, just wait for a decent sale though.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Project Starship
You could say I’m a shmup (shoot-em-up) connoisseur. Ever since the early days of gaming, I’ve always been drawn towards bullet hell shooters, otherwise known as Danmaku (which translates as a barrage of bullets). What makes these games addictive is trying to remember the insane bullet patterns while trying to avoid the hundreds of bullets on the screen at one time, so when a game like Project Starship does things slightly differently, it can be a little jarring at times.Looking as if it was ripped right out from the late 80’s or early 90’s, Project Starship screams indie pet project with its very simplistic and pixelated visuals. This isn’t generally a bad thing, but it can appear very basic at times. That being said, you’ll see all the bullets on the screen while you fly your ship trying to avoid all the projectiles.
You take the role of Garret or Gwen, two different pilots that play the exact same, trying to save the world from evil. While they fundamentally play the same, it seems each can receive different power-ups, at least that’s how it appeared after my dozens of playthroughs. What makes Project Starship unique in the Danmaku genre though is that every run is procedurally generated. This means that you won’t necessarily be memorizing bullet patterns and enemy placements, as every run will be randomized and different. This on one hand forces you to adapt on the fly, but it is a complete crap shoot if you get lucky and have a good or terrible run because of the randomness.
While the core gameplay is like any other shmup with the screen being filled with dozens of bullets, especially on Hard mode where you’ll lose a life, or in this case, a shield, if the core of your ship gets hit. Great shmups have precise controls and you can make a clear distinction of the projectiles you need to avoid in relation to where your ship is. This is where Project Starship flounders a bit. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been hit by something I totally couldn’t see, either from behind me or elsewhere. In the later stages there’s so much going on, not just bullet barrages, that it can become confusing and cluttered on screen.
Of course, you’ll find power-ups randomly dropped from enemies as you destroy them. Some add additional bonuses like missiles or shields, others add an extra life or change your weapon type to something more powerful like shurikens or lasers. Yes, shurikens in space. There’s also an odd voice over that announces when you pick up any of these that seems out of place. This is all well and good, but again, because every run is randomly generated, you could have an amazing high score run one time, and the next, you’ll die before even challenging the first boss.
At certain times you’ll also encounter random sequences called Mad Events. These break up the standard gameplay and usually have you dodging bullet patterns or flying though narrow spaces for a short period before gameplay returns to normal. This is usually not a big deal, I swear there were times where it was unfair and seemed as if it was unbeatable without getting hit.
Normally in games like these you also have special bombs or something of the like that clears the screen of enemies for emergencies. This is included as well, kind of. There are special items you can pick up, but they are odd and not always effective. For example, one of these special items is literally called “TV Doesn’t Work”, and when used, causes a fake static to appear on screen for a few seconds where you’re unable to see anything, but also clearing enemies on the screen. Another has you dialing a phone, but I’m still unsure what this power-up actually does, if anything.
While the game is unique in its visuals and design, it’s quite basic. Funny enough, there’s an epilepsy warning at the beginning, and there’s so much flashing on the screen at times that I completely agree with these warnings. While not often, I did deal with some major slowdown in the later stages when things became hectic on screen, more so when playing Hard mode. You’re simply aiming for a high score, and sadly, there’s not even an online leaderboard to compare how you’ve done against your friends and others.
For around $5 you can experience an interesting Danmku game that is retro inspired but lacks replayability and features unless you want to constantly try and beat your own high score. With an online leaderboard I would have had more motivation to play long term, but you’ll even attain all the achievements in just a handful of runs.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Valfaris
I’m always a sucker for a game that brings back waves of nostalgia, reminding me of games I grew up with. Valfaris, now with an included Full Metal Mode, did just that, bringing me back to a time where pixel art games were hard as nails and didn’t hold your hand even the slightest. I enjoyed their previous game, Slain: Back From Hell, for many of the same reasons; amazing pixel art, a kick ass soundtrack and more than a fair share of challenging gameplay. If I had to make a direct comparison for its gameplay, it’s akin to a Contra or the classic Batman for NES.You are Therion, born of a place called Valfaris, and as you are scouting the far reaches of space, it seems the lost Valfaris has reappeared, though now infested with a near endless horde of enemies and monsters. You’ll now return home to find out what has happened, but it won’t be any easy task, and you’ll die many times, as such is the case in games like this.
Therion begins with a simple gun and sword, but as he adventures further into the deeps of Valfaris he’ll uncover more savage weaponry to help him defeat his enemies. Full of gore, violence and metal, Valfaris is a love letter to old Contra style games where the difficulty was brutal but the gameplay was excellent.
You’ll have the classic 8 directional aiming, though at times I found it quite difficult to hit the exact angle or enemies I intended in the thick of battle. Your enemies start out basic and won’t pose much of a threat, but as you venture further, they become much more challenging, with plenty of bosses that will test your patience along the way. You’ll collect gems that can be hoarded, or used in specific spots as save points, replenishing your health and allowing you to swap out and upgrade your weapons. You’ll need to be strategic though, as some sections will be easier than others, so do you use them at each save point when you can, if you even scrounged up enough, or try and get one more checkpoint further and hold onto them for a little while longer?
Each new area you explore in Valfaris has its own mood and setting, each with its own unique traits, mood, visual style and quirks. One for example has you needing to kill a specific drone to get its pheromones to open certain doors, whereas another has you piloting an awesome skeleton mech that makes you feel like a complete badass.
While Valfaris released last holiday, the reason we’re covering it now is because of its newest update, aptly titled Full Metal Mode, adds new reasons to play if you’ve already mastered the game. This is essentially their take on New Game+ but with a ton of extra additions. For starters, you do begin with your collected arsenal and upgrades, but enemies are buffed slightly with increased health, attack and are much more aggressive; the same goes for bosses as well. There’s also new Destroyer Class weapon to seek out and Therion takes more damage this time around, so you’ll be challenged more than before. While the new Full Metal Mode is a great idea and addition, the core game itself is quite difficult, and I can only see the most hardcore of players getting to not only experience the new additions and challenge, but really appreciate it for its worth.
By far, Valfaris excels the most in its gorgeous pixel art visuals excellent metal soundtrack. There’s a ton of detail and animation in the pixel style, and I want to rock out every time Therion puts up the horns and head bangs when he attains a new weapon. Spearheading the amazing metal soundtrack is former Celtic Frost guitarist, Curt Victor Bryant. You constantly want to rock out and even dying for the hundredth time isn’t as frustrating as I expected, as I constantly had a great soundtrack to fall back on.
I wouldn’t usually categorize a game as ‘metal’, but that really is the best description for Valfaris. I’m not great at Valfaris, given its challenging and difficult gameplay, but I never really became discouraged with it to the point of an uninstall or great frustration. I’m slowly making progress and is an easy recommendation if you’re into challenging games with a retro look, feel and kick ass metal soundtrack.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Rugby 20
I’m married to a Kiwi, so I’m obligated to watch and like Rugby in our household, specifically the All Blacks. This isn’t against my will mind you, as I did fall in love with the team and sport after learning its many intricacies. Hell, I even own an All Blacks jersey, so you could say I’m a real fan. I even stayed up to watch the most recent World Cup as well, which is when I was curious as to why there hasn’t really been a great Rugby game that I’ve played before. There’s been a few here and there, but there really hasn’t been a standout in many years. This is where Rugby 20 hopes to cash in.The problem with Rugby is that it’s a challenging sport to convert into a game, which is probably why there’s only been a couple of decent Rugby games in the past. Rugby 20 does a decent job overall, especially with its Tackles, Rucks, and Passing, but there’s also a handful of letdowns, like its terrible Kicking mechanics and lack of licensed teams.
While you can jump into quick play exhibition matches, sports games thrive on their career modes. At first, I thought Rugby 20 was lacking said mode, but as it turns out, Solo mode is where your traditional career-like gameplay begins. Here is where you’ll be spending most of your time, as you’ll create your team and earn currency to buy new card packs. That’s right, it’s essentially like FIFA’s Ultimate Team. As you earn new cards, you can build your team how you like, hopefully constantly upgrading your lesser ranked players with higher ones.
As you play more matches and win you’ll earn more currency, allowing you to buy bigger and better packs, but it’s a long arduous grind. I do wish I was able to play Solo with a real team, but alas, you’ll need to create one from scratch and work your way up the leagues. You do get to design the uniforms and logo, but it’s quite basic and there’s not a lot of options aside from colors and a few patterns.
As you begin, you’re only able to compete in two of the smaller leagues, but as you level up and play well, you’ll be able to enter into the higher leagues as well. Keep in mind, you can also be demoted to the lower leagues again should you start to lose again. You’ll also need to manage your team, healing injuries (this is hard hitting Rugby after all), improving player skills and more, but it’s very cumbersome how it needs to be done.
For starters, the prices are exorbitant to heal players, and when you need to constantly do so, it’s hard to keep up with the costs. It won’t let you play your next match if you have an injured member on your team, so you’ll need to unequip that players’ card if you can’t afford to heal them. This may mean that another player will have to take his spot on the team, even if it’s not the position they excel in, lowering their effectiveness. Eventually you’ll earn enough cards where you can swap in more than enough players on the fly, but it takes a long time to get to this point, even if you simulate a handful of matches.
Rugby 20 boasts a handful of different teams and leagues. You can compete in the Top 14, Pro D2, Gallagher Premiership and Pro 14 leagues, and international teams are included as well. While this is all welcome, the biggest letdown is that international teams are NOT licensed. This means I can play as a team that resembles my All Blacks, but it’s not them in appearance, logos, names or stats. The flip side to this is that the small leagues appear to be licensed, but I was really hoping to play as my favorite players from the team I wanted.
As noted above, Rugby is a difficult sport to translate into entertaining gameplay, usually due to its slow moments. Rugby 20 seems to have found a solution to this, as you’ll get to experience all stages of Rugby plays, from Rucks, Tackles, Passing, Kicking, Line-outs and of course, Scrums. While you’re on the pitch, you’ll need to assess the situations and tweak your strategies accordingly. You’ll be able to choose specific tactics and plays which makes for a more realistic Rugby experience overall.
By far, the highlight of Rugby 20’s gameplay is its Passing. Tossing the ball from side to side is seamless and simple to do with the Left and Right Bumpers. The longer you hold the button, the further you’ll toss the ball, trying to find that open space in the defense, aiming for those elusive Tries. Passing feels fluid, responsive and I was always able to quickly pass to whom I was trying to easily.
On the other side of gameplay, Kicking for goals is absolutely terrible. There’s a meter that you’ll need to pull down on the stick, then up, like in golf games, but you also need to aim in the direction you want somehow at the same time. Even after doing the training a number of times, I’m still unable to Kick where I want on command and opt to just give up.
Rucks happen constantly, and on the lower difficulties, you can essentially keep the ball in possession almost the whole game. Rucks also are simple to perform and transition into a Pass or Kick whenever you wish. Scrums are also quite simplistic, with a quick Quicktime event to start it off, then keeping your cursor over a moving target to indicate if you keep control and possession of the ball.
Rugby is certainly a dangerous sport, as you have massive men running and tackling into each other without any protective equipment. Tackles in Rugby 20 also feel authentic, as there’s a timing aspect that’s important, and successful attacks feel like they are hard hitting with some oomph behind them.
Multiplayer is included, local and online, though I suggest having friends come over or others that have also purchased the game, as I was unable to find a single match online every time I tried during my review period, so unfortunately I’m unable to speak upon the online quality and features of matches.
Visually, Rugby 20 isn’t going to impress in any way. The camera options are quite far back, though purposely so you can play more tactically, but close up shots of the players and areas aren’t anything pretty to look at. The animations on the other hand are quite decent and appear as if they were authentically motion captured. If my team was licensed I would be able to see the comparison to their real life counterparts, but we’ve already spoken about that letdown. As for the audio, the commentary is passable, but it doesn’t seem to flow realistically at times with audio clips that sound like it’s obviously spliced together.
Rugby 20 is certainly a passable experience for the sport, one of the better ones in previous years, but it doesn’t do much more that’s exciting. The lack of licensed teams was its biggest letdown, but those wanting an authentic Rugby experience really has no better option out there right now, even if it’s a moderate try at best.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 3
Since its inauguration, it seems that we’re going to get a yearly installment of the Monster Energy Supercross games. Now, if you’re a fan, you’ll no doubt be looking forward to the yearly titles, and now the third is finally upon us. Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 3 is just that, the defacto experience for the sport complete with an abundance of in-game advertising that makes you want to go buy a pallet of energy drinks. Given that the series has turned into a yearly outing, fans will obviously be eager to learn what’s new, and like most yearly franchises, there’s always a few small improvements, but is it enough for one more lap around the track?With over a hundred riders, you’ll get to relive the 2019 season and even join the official teams across 450SX and 250SX within 15 official stadiums. While I don’t follow the sport, I’ve played my fair share of supercross games, so having authentic stadiums and being able to join the official teams is a cool detail that it has against the competition, as you can race with, and against, your favorite riders.
For the career mode itself, you’re essentially going from race to race, trying to place as best as you can. From time to time you’ll get to choose whether you want to race for a team or a sponsor, each with its own objectives and rewards. The better you place, the more you’ll earn, meaning you can purchase new gear to customize your character. Now and then you’ll get invitations to take place in a special race or event, but the career progression is as basic as it gets for the most part. Some variety would have been great to have to break up the monotony of simply racing back to back.
One of the biggest new additions is the option to create your racer in the beginning, but as a female if you wish. New ground and in-air physics are boasted to be new, giving you more control, as is new models and animations. For the models themselves, the faces still look lifeless and the hair awkward, but the animations do seem to be quite improved overall. Not only the riding motions, but the intro and podium sequences look smooth and realistic in their motions.
As for the new physics and controls, I’m still on the fence about how I feel about it. On one hand, you do feel like a pro racer when things go to plan, cutting tight corners, landing the perfect jump on a down slope, pulling off a perfectly horizontal scrub over a huge jump or nailing that holeshot before the first corner, but half the time you’ll spin out, land on an opponent’s head without any recourse, and lose a ton of momentum in the whoops sections when you don't gauge the amount of speed you need properly.
In general the controls feel decent, as you can shift your weight however you desire, on two wheels or in the air, but this only comes after a handful of hours of practice. The tutorial that is given is barebones as it gets, essentially teaching you how to lean and press the gas, leaving you to figure out the rest on your own. I really wish more care went into teaching how to holeshot better, setup yourself on jumps properly and banking into sharp turns. Yes, you’ll be able to aim where you want to go and step on the gas, but it’ll take time to master the smaller nuances to start to begin to win races, as it’s not always about going full pedal.
When you do eventually make a mistake and screw up, there is a handy rewind feature should you want to retry that corner or landing again, but you’re given bonuses for not using it. I almost always play racers in third person, but Monster Energy Supercross 3 feels like a much more authentic experience when played in first person, either showing your handlebars and fender, or even as if you’re wearing your helmet and looking out the visor as you would in real life.
Aside from your career mode where you’ll probably spend the majority of your time, you also can participate in championships, time attacks, single races and still be able to ride around your compound freely. There are even some challenges to complete in the compound for rewards and increasing your skills.
Track Editor is where you can create any tracks you could possibly think of. You’re able to upload your creations, download others and vote for the ones you like. That being said, people have figured out ways to create incredibly short tracks that give massive amounts of money and experience, whereas others have created some truly interesting and challenging tracks.
Multiplayer of course returns as well, and seems like it has a bigger emphasis this year with its dedicated servers. You can race in public lobbies, create private matches for your friends or even dictate the races that others will play as a Race Director. Here you can choose and edit nearly every option, like race settings, camera, penalties, starting positions and more. With a group of friends, Race Director mode could really be entertaining for everyone to play together with. You’re also able to hop into the compound with friends to free roam, checkpoint race or treasure hunt, so it’s clear that they want people playing online more and for longer with this year’s entry.
Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 3 adds a few new features this time around, though none make it feel like a drastically different game from the previous year(s). While it may just feel like another lap around the track, it is a slightly smoother go this time around.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Journey to the Savage Planet
Some people like being directed and hand held of where to go in games, others, they like to be thrown into a world and let loose to play however they wish. If you fall into the latter category and prefer freedom in how you play, then Journey to the Savage Planet might just be for you. If I had to directly compare to a single game, No Man’s Sky comes to mind, albeit with a much lighter and humorous tone, though you’re stuck on a single planet in Journey to the Savage Planet rather than giving you complete freedom in in the universe.You are the newest recruit of Kindred Aerospace in the Pioneer Program. Kindred Aerospace proudly boasts that they are the 4th best interstellar exploration company, and you are tasked with determining if planet ARY-26 is suited for human life. Sure, you’re dropped onto a planet with no equipment, experience or plan, but hey, you get to have an adventure! The deep seeded humor is set from the opening moments and never lets up until the credits roll, making it a journey I enjoyed much more than expected. That, plus you can slap and kick any creature you see.
As you begin your journey, you’re given a few guides as to what you should be doing and how to control the basics, but after that, you’re essentially left to your own to discover and explore ARY-26 however you wish. At first, things may not seem as savage as the title suggests, as the first creatures you encounter seem quite harmless, and actually are quite adorable. As you venture further from your ship though, the environment and creatures start to become more dangerous the deeper you delve into the planet.
While you can freely explore, many areas will be locked away until you have the right equipment to traverse around, so there’s going to be a lot of backtracking and going to new areas once you have a grapple beam, able to double jump and more. This makes for some Metroidvania exploration, but you’re tasked with determining if the planet is habitable for humans, so you’ll also need to scan every flora and creature with your visor to add them to your database as well. Doing so will give you hints as to deal with certain threats or how to properly use specific plants for your benefit. For example, plants with large orange seeds can replenish health, others act like bombs and can blow up cracked walls, and scanning another specific plant will alert you that its poison can be used to melt hardened amber.
As you gain new equipment and upgrades, you’ll be able to delve further into ARY-26, and if you scour enough, you’ll also find ancient relics that act as teleportation devices so you can fast travel to specific points on the planet. Your ship is outfitted with the latest 3D printer capabilities, and this is not only how you craft your new upgrades when available and you’ve gathered the required amount of materials, but this is how you’ll come back to life once you die. Oh, and you will die, so it’s quite convenient that a replica of yourself is printed so you can get back to your adventure as soon as possible. When you do die though, all the resources you’ve gathered will be at your corpse, waiting for you to pick them up and deposit them back at your ship.
What excited me the most for Journey to the Savage Planet was that I was going to be able to play alongside a friend while exploring with the built in co-op. After doing so, I’m sad to report that the co-op features are as bare bones as it gets. First, you can only invite people from your friends list, so no random players or matchmaking, and you can’t even start playing until they’ve joined your lobby. Second, it seems you don’t share resources and only the host makes progress in their game. That’s right, if you’re the friend joining someone, you won’t keep anything you’ve earned to go into your own game; only the host keeps any progression. Why you would want to play as the friend joining other than to help, I’m not sure, but it was quite a letdown, as my friend didn’t want to waste his time if he wasn’t making progress as well.
Visually, Journey to the Savage Planet is gorgeous, as everything in the world is super bright and colorful. Creatures may not have a ton of variety, but the different versions of each is interesting, like the ones that wear hardened amber on their heads for armor. The boss fights are far and few in-between, but they are challenging and quite a sight to behold. There’s even a great photo mode included for those that want to take breathtaking snaps with some gorgeous vistas. As for the audio, the soundtrack is fitting for the mood and the voiceover work from the CEO of Kindred and the commercials is done wonderfully.
I enjoyed my time with Journey to the Savage Planet, not only for its simplistic gameplay and exploration of an interesting and beautiful planet, but especially for its humor. Even the way that you hold items in your left hand throughout is funny, as is every email and commercial you receive on your ship. Typhoon Studios has created something special in their very first outing as a developer, and while it may not be perfect, it sure was an interesting Journey to the Savage Planet.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Without Escape: Console Edition
There used to be a time where point and click adventures were all the rage. Back in the early days of gaming, certain games like Myst were some of the most popular games around. But as technology grew, the genre seemed to pretty much die out save for a few odd titles here and there. As the saying goes, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again”, and developer Bumpy Trail Games has taken this to heart with their release, Without Escape. Harking back to an age of gaming that’s almost been long forgotten, Without Escape feels like it’s ripped straight from the 90’s with its first person graphic adventure, pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV cutscenes.Do you remember when you were younger, when staying at home all alone at night might have made you nervous? Any small noise you heard got your imagination going full speed. Were you the type to hide under the blankets, or go to investigate? Given that hiding under the blankets would probably make for a dull game, this is how Without Escape begins, with you waking up in the middle of the night after hearing an odd noise.
As you awake just before 3AM, you notice a piece of paper beside on your dresser beside the bed. It has a phone number written on it that you don’t recognize, and thus begins your adventure and uncertainty. As you begin to explore your home, you notice odd symbols and other things that don’t make any sense, such as locked doors and finding hidden keys throughout. Where do these keys take you? Click on enough doors and objects and you’ll eventually figure out.
If you’re too young to have played a classic point and click adventure, or it’s been a long period of time since doing so, gameplay is summed up by looking at a pre-rendered screen, in this case, many different rooms of the house you’re in, and you have your cursor that you can move around, clicking objects to interact with them or to move to different scenes. There’s a cheesy film grain toggled on by default, but thankfully you can disable it in the options.
Some objects are obvious, like paintings, clocks, phones and such, but sometimes you’ll need to pixel hunt (essentially moving the cursor everywhere on a scene to find the clickable area) to find an object you might not even know you’re looking for. One item in particular had me looking up online what I was supposed to do to solve the current puzzle I was on. My main issue with the puzzles is that some of them are really obtuse. Why are you finding keys or switches in the weirdest places? And one puzzle in particular forces you to google something online unless you happen to know your periodic table of elements. With no combat or timed puzzles, you can take it at a leisurely pace.
As you click on objects, you may obtain certain items, such as a key for example, which will automatically be put into your inventory. You have the ability to look at your inventory of currently held items, but I’m not sure why, as they will be used automatically if you have it on hand and click the right door or object. Thankfully this means that there’s no trial and error testing every object with every item you’re currently carrying.
As you progress, things take a more supernatural turn. I don’t want to spoil anything simply because the gameplay is short; extremely short. In fact, it’s taken me much longer to write this review than finishing Without Escape itself. If you really wanted, you could follow a walkthrough online and be done in less than ten minutes. Yes, it can be that short if you wish. For achievement hunters, this is great, but if you’re looking for a long term puzzler, this isn’t the experience you’re hoping for. That being said, there are multiple endings for those that do want to see and experience all that Without Escape has to offer. My personal favorite moments in the short journey were the classic FMV cutscenes, and even though they only last a few seconds each, it definitely brought back some nostalgia.
While the genre may not be around much anymore, it’s always fun to play one again, as it brings me back to my early gaming days. While many might find a point and click adventure like this mundane and basic, it’s a widow into the past, showing how far gaming has come in such a short period of time. While some might find the length disappointing, it’s at least priced to match at just a few bucks. If you’re not a master at puzzle games, you might get an hour or so of gameplay out of it, but for most others, Without Escape will easily be beaten in a single sitting.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Dragon Sinker: Descendants of Legend
I’ve played quite a handful of KEMCO games over the past while, as they have a massive catalogue of mobile games that they’ve been constantly porting over to Xbox One for classic RPG fans to enjoy. The newest entry, Dragon Sinker: Descendants of Legend took me a little bit by surprise. To be completely honest, many of the KEMCO titles are very similar to one another. It’s clear they have a template and formula that’s been working for them for quite some time, and after you’ve played a handful of them, you start to see many of the similarities. Yes, Dragon Sinker feels like many other KEMCO JRPG’s, but this one actually hooked me and had me playing even after I was done the main story.If you’re as seasoned as I am, then you’ll have fond memories of classic 8-bit RPG’s such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and more from decades ago. If you grew up loving these types of games, or even have a soft spot for them now, then you’ll be happy to know that Dragon Sinker plays much like a love letter to those classics, albeit with its own modern spin on a few things. So if you’ve been craving some classic 8-bit RPG nostalgia, buckle in, as Dragon Sinker will scratch that itch.
For how much I enjoyed its gameplay, the plot is as cliché and predictable as it gets. The evil dragon Wyrmvarg demands a sacrifice from the human kingdom yearly, of which the human King has been compliant. Unbeknownst to Prince Abram though, he sets off to go defeat Wyrmvarg and fails, only infuriating the dragon further. Now to defeat Wyrmvarg, Prince Abram is going to have to scour the continent in search of three legendary weapons; the only ones known to have defeated him ages before.
Doing so won’t be easy though, as Humans, Elves and Dwarves no longer get along and have animosity towards one another. Along the way you’ll just so happen to befriend an Elf and Dwarf, gathering other followers during your journey as well. So while the overall narrative is a dated and overused trope, and the writing is passible at best, I still wanted to stick with it until the credits rolled and I saw one of the numerous endings.
You’ll have your typical setup where you’ll follow the main quest from town to town, exploring a dungeon and defeating its boss, gaining upgraded equipment before moving onto the next. There are a handful of optional side quests that you can partake in, usually asking you to revisit an older area or dungeon, though the majority of the rewards generally never felt worthwhile, aside from the quests where someone new would join your party.
Progression is generally very linear, with the overworld map having sign posts of where to head next and most other pathways blocked off. The same goes for dungeons, as any dead ends generally have a treasure chest, but you never veer too far from the main path. In these dungeons you’ll come across two or three pentagrams on the floor, allowing you to quickly teleport to any of the others you’ve activated in the same dungeon. Lastly, if you plan on completing the optional side quests, you’ll want to spend some gold and invest in a handful of Rainbow Feathers, as these are the items to fast travel to any main town or area you’ve previously been to.
At each new town you’ll have access to purchase new weapons and armor for your three main characters, and if you’ve grinded enough battles along the way, you’ll generally always have enough to afford the top tier equipment at the time. Your journey should take roughly 10-15 hours depending on the difficulty you choose, whereas I got my first ending at just about 8 or so hours in without too much extra grinding. That being said, there’s a lot to do post game if you wish, especially an optional boss that you’ll need to massively grind to even stand a chance against, so there’s plenty of gameplay within should you want.
You’ll face against your typical fair of slimes, goblins, wurms, birds and more. There’s really not a lot of variety of enemies, and harder versions are either pallet swapped or enlarged, indicating they are much stronger. While I do wish there was much more of an enemy assortment, the 8-bit visuals are done great and you’d be hard pressed to tell if this was released recently or back in the 80’s for the most part.
The party system was something I found interesting, though completely useless. You’re able to create 3 parties of 4 players each, for a total of 12 that can be used or swapped to at any time in battle. Abram leads one team, Mia another, and lastly, Bowen the third. Each of these leaders are permanently alongside you to the end, but each can also have 3 other minor characters in their party as well that can be freely swapped out whenever you choose.
The idea of this 3 party system is that you can create three separate types of parties, then swap them interchangeably whenever needed in battle. In theory this works, as I don’t see why not, but I simply balanced my main group, Abram’s, with a tank, healer and damage classes. I actually never swapped out to the other two groups ever aside from trying it out. Factor in that there’s more than a dozen different jobs, of which the appearance of each character will change to suit, and you can create some interesting party combinations.
When one of the minor characters max out their job, usually at level 10, they can switch to another, granting one of your 3 main characters a special bonus ability they can learn, so it pays to level many of them up. Thankfully, all of your 12 used characters will gain experience and job points for winning battles, even if they aren’t technically ‘tagged’ into a battle. Once you find a few class abilities that mesh and work well together, you’ll eventually become unstoppable if you plan out your attacks accordingly.
What surprised me the most though was when I realized there was a lottery system included within. Here you can spend lottery tickets for a chance at some amazing prizes, though you’ll also earn a different currency during regular gameplay that allows for lottery entries with better prizes. While the majority of the time you’ll simply earn some decent items, I got very lucky early on and won a special pet character that was usable in my party and some insanely overpowered gear. This gear actually lasted me to the very end of the game and my pet was by far the strongest of my 12 for quite some time. Thankfully you’re not able to spend real money in this lottery gimmick, though being a KEMCO title, there are some extra DLC’s you can purchase such as double experience points, faster walking, no enemy encounters and other helpful bonuses should you wish.
While it’s obvious at times that this was originally a mobile game that’s been ported, given its extremely repetitive background music and uninspired enemy variety, I still enjoyed the gameplay enough to stick with it to the end. The writing has some humor to it, but is cliché and predictable as can be. Even so, for whatever reason, this has easily been my favorite KEMCO title to date, even if it feels like I’ve already experienced much like it before.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Pathologic 2
I’ve never really played anything quite like Pathologic 2 before. While I’ve not played the first, the setting and plot of the sequel really intrigued me. When you think of horror games, you usually think of killers, blood and jump scares. Pathologic 2 does the genre quite differently though, as its “horror” is more based on a depressing and dying world around you as a plague sets in, one that you’re not immune from. While the world sucks you into its narrative, it’s very rough around the edges, making it hard to stay immersed in this decaying and desperate world.You begin as Artemy Burakh, also referred to as Haruspex, a doctor whom has been away from his village for many years to complete his medical training. One day he receives a letter from his father, pleading for him to return home as there’s something he needs to help with urgently. You hitch a ride on a train only to be greeted by another stowaway that emerges from a coffin. This is where the weirdness begins to set in.
You start having visions, but they seem so real; are they actually visions? You are attacked as you exit the train, so in self-defense, you end up murdering the three assailants. You arrive back in your village, only to find out your father has been murdered, but how, by whom and why? There are mime-like creatures, plague doctors and other odd characters you'll meet in this remote rural village. These are only some of the questions you’ll need to solve, but there’s a much bigger threat that’s consuming everything in its path; a plague.
This deadly outbreak starts out as a small nuisance, but now that you’re the only healer in town, people will want your help as well. But no one is immune, including yourself. Is self-preservation more important than saving others? Because this small village is so secluded, food, medicine and even water are resources in high demand, but low in supply.
You’ll need to constantly manage your own thirst, hunger, exhaustion and stamina, but what if a group of kids are starving and ask for help? Do you help them instead of hoarding your supplies for yourself? What if bottling someone’s blood could save others but turn people hostile against you? These are just some of the situations you’ll come across during your unfolding journey full of suffering and death. It quickly becomes apparent that you can’t save everyone, oh, and you only have 12 days to do so.
12 days isn’t a lot of time to save yourself and a town from a deadly plague, so there’s no time to waste. Time is your biggest enemy, as you’ll need to determine what to do with your time, who to help and who to ignore, as you simply won't be able to help and save everyone. While you’re given a map of the town and markers of quests you’re currently on, you’re completely left open to play however you wish. You’ll talk to a number of characters, each with their own personalities and backgrounds.
Some simply want help, whereas others will have their real motives hidden. There are usually numerous dialogue choices for each conversation, of which you can choose however you wish to respond, affecting the outcome of that relationship. It’s not as simple as good versus bad choices though, as there’s going to be a lot of morally gray area, and what you do to help one person may upset others or even hinder yourself.
The hardest aspect for me to become accustomed to in Pathologic 2 was its survival elements. This is where you’ll need to manage your hunger, thirst, exhaustion, stamina and more. This is a small village, so finding resources isn’t as simple as checking every canister and shelf. I personally really dislike games where I need to worry about aspects like this, but in this setting where the world is succumbing to a plague, it’s eerily fitting. Thankfully there are a ton of settings in the options that can be adjusted, like how hungry and thirsty you become, the quickness of exhaustion and much more. At nearly every point when adjusting these values though the game tries to remind you that Pathologic 2 is meant to be challenge and you’re meant to die, so tinkering these parameters changes the intended difficulty, but you’re certainly welcome to do so if you wish.
You might find more than enough food and water during your first day or two, but resources diminish as time passes. What do you do for water when the water supply becomes tainted? If you steal food from someone’s house that was infected, do you risk eating it? Would you trade your only gun and bullets for a simple drink? It’s not too harsh in the beginning, but as days pass and people die, your situation becomes ever more desperate. This is where the ‘horror’ element starts to sink in, as you won’t always know what the best course of action is or should be when you and others start to become fraught.
This is where the high difficulty starts to kick in. 12 days seems like a lot in the beginning, but time becomes much harder to manage as you progress. Certain quests are only available at certain times, or maybe you absolutely have to complete one before another event happens. You’ll never know for certain what’s going to happen beforehand, so every decision you make through dialogue and choices affect other outcomes as well. Some will really enjoy this difficulty and challenge, whereas others will find it hard to even sit through the first day of gameplay.
Sometimes you’ll need to defend yourself, and in the beginning, this is done with your fists. Hand to hand combat is how you’ll experience most combat in Pathologic 2, as you will eventually gain access to a pistol, but bullets are a rare commodity just like food and water. Fighting in Pathologic 2 is, simply put, horrendous, most likely due to playing in first person view. You can punch, charge an attack to break an opponent’s guard and block, but it feels so janky and never rewarding.
Even after a handful of hours, I was still losing fist fights quite often; it simply doesn’t work well, and if you’re fighting off more than one opponent, you’re sure to lose. At one point I was hated so badly in town that everyone basically tried to kill me on sight, though to be fair, that was my fault for harvesting organs from someone I defeated earlier. I knew I was going to lose a fight to four thugs, so I ran away, but they found me and knocked me out. Turns out I respawned right beside where I died and they were still in the area, so they instantly started attacking me again. I was basically in a death loop where they were spawn camping me until I was able to flail about in combat and eventually defeat them between deaths.
If you purchase the bundle with the included DLC or separately, The Marble Nest, this puts you into the shoes of a different doctor also trying to save the town from the deadly plague as well, but in a much more self-contained story that only lasts for a single day. It’s an interesting DLC that shows a different perspective to the overall narrative, adding some more gameplay for those that enjoy the overall narrative.
Most of the audio is quite decent. Some of the soundtrack is perfectly fitting for a plague backdrop and when voiceover is used, the performances are quite decent. The only issue I had was that many one-liners are used, especially when it comes to combat, and I really wish all of the dialogue was voiced, not just a few lines here and there. Graphically, Pathologic 2 does look quite dated, especially when it comes to the combat animations and bland backdrops, but the world is so dark and grim and the character models in conversations quite decent, so it gets a pass at best.
The world and narrative does a great job of immersing you into a bleak and desperate world, only to be constantly taken out by long loading times, pop-in textures and terrible combat. While I wasn’t a fan of the survival elements, those that enjoy their challenging games should thrive with the difficulty. You can’t save everyone, sometimes not even yourself, but Pathologic 2 surely is an experience unlike any other, for better and worse.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Fishing: Barents Sea Complete Edition
At one point I was tuning into Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel at its peak. Something about that unique career path made for some entertaining viewing every week. Of course, I also imagined what that job would be like day to day. Now, with Fishing: Barents Sea Complete Edition, I can get an idea of what the day to day might actually look like, and it’s tedious.I will say, when I first played a Farm Sim title and the like, I was very skeptical as to why anyone would find that type of gameplay entertaining, but after delving into a handful of titles, I now get it, not making the same mistake this time around. Yes, this is a slow paced simulator, but there’s an audience for nearly everything, and if being a commercial fisherman peaks your interest even slightly, then you’ve come to the right place, as Barents Sea has some depth to it.
Having released on PC long ago, this complete edition now finally makes its way to console, including both of the DLC’s that previously released for the original game. The first, Line and Net Ships, added 5 new vessels to captain, and King Crab added, well, you guessed it, crab fishing. Both are included along with the base game now that it’s been released on console.
You’re given a fairly small fishing vessel and are set on your own in the Norwegian Sea, searching for prized fishing grounds and the start of your lucrative career. Your initial boat is very small, can’t hold much fish and is excruciatingly slow, but you have to start somewhere right? You’ll begin small, catching a single line or two at a time, eventually working your way up to bigger and better vessels where you can also hire a crew and upgrade your ships.
Once you learn the very basics, you’re essentially left to your own in a huge open map. You’re given a large circumference area where you can see fish density and population, but like other games, you’ll need to actually venture out into the greyed out parts of the map if you want to see underneath its ‘fog’. Obviously, after you’re able to afford the better boats, exploration and fishing will come faster, and with a handful of different boats, there’s plenty to work and strive towards.
Given that you’re a commercial fisherman, don’t expect to grab any fishing rods. Instead, you’ll fish with various methods such as long-line, trawl and net, each of which has its own style, method and controls, each of which is simple to learn, but to master and gain the most bonuses will take some time. My only complaint is that the controls for the menus themselves is very awkward and cumbersome, having you tap directions on the D-Pad numerous times to select the option you want.
If you’re a fishing buff you’ll be happy to know that there’s officially licensed equipment too from Scanmar and TrawlEye. While most will probably not know this equipment or brands, those that do should find the authenticity that much more accurate. As you raise your bankroll, you’ll be able to customize your boats with upgrades, not just to your engine to be quicker and more reliable, but to expand your storage containers and more across your whole vessel. The better your equipment, the better and bigger your catches will be, so it pays to invest when thinking long term.
As you sail across to the Barents Sea, you’ll need to periodically dock at one of the harbors to repair your boat, offload and sell your catch, upgrade your boat, refill your supplies, hire staff, take out a loan and more. As you sail you’ll deal with different weather, seasons and even day and night cycles, all of which affect fishing spots and patterns.
Sailing times can be excruciatingly slow, especially in your first boat. Thankfully, you can set waypoints in any area that’s been previously explored and doesn’t have the ‘fog’ on the map, which you can then fast forward time as it does all the traveling for you in mere seconds. While this is handy, as time will fast forward in real time too, you can only skip ahead time manually when you’re docked, not on the open water. Keep in mind, traveling around uses your fuel, which costs money, so you’ll need to figure out how you want to pass time when you’re waiting for your lines to soak and attract more fish. I just wish there was a way to pass time quicker on the actual boat itself, but at this point, there is not a way to do so.
I fully expected there to be a sandbox mode like in other Sim games, where you’re given an unlimited, or at least obscene, amount of money and can just freely play with whatever equipment you want. I didn’t find that here, meaning you’re going to need to grind and work for that money if you want to try out all the ships, equipment and upgrades. Also, if this had a multiplayer mode, I would have really enjoyed fishing alongside with a friend or two, cooperatively or competitively.
Yes, Fishing: Barents Sea Complete Edition is going to cater to a very niche and specific audience, but just like Farm Sim and others alike, those that do enjoy this time of super realistic gameplay that most will find mundane, will surely enjoy the attention to detail and authentic representation. While I’m not the specific audience for a title like this, I can appreciate the work that goes into trying to show an accurate depiction of such an interesting and unique career.
Sometimes you need a break from all the shooters and action games. This is where Fishing: Barents Sea Complete Edition comes in; when you just want to sit back, sail your boat across some open water and commercially catch some fish for some profit. Just be prepared to sink a ton of time into it if you want to make any real progress.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Dead End Job
Everyone’s most likely had a dead end job at some point in their life. You know, the one you know isn’t really a career and you hate getting up for in the morning, but it pays the bills, so you stay. That’s the case here too with Dead End Job, a game that has you controlling a Ghostbuster of sorts, without all of that trademark infringement of course. A twin-stick shooter at its core, you’ll be shooting and vacuuming up ghosts non-stop in this whacky adventure where you’re stuck in a dead end job.You play as Hector Plasm, tasked with clearing out all of the unwanted ghosts and ghouls from a number of different places. You’re equipped with a plasma gun and a vacuum and will need to exterminate and clear out business offices, parks and more. Your mentor has died though, and you need to get her soul back, but only have 30 days to do so. Each day you take a job to earn money, and to ‘win’, you’ll need to earn enough money, but doing so won’t be as simple as it sounds. It’s a silly premise, but given the artistic style and gameplay, it melds well together.
As you begin your ghost busting career, you’ll only have access to the Business District. Here is where you’ll be clearing out ghosts in office buildings, complete with furniture, shelves and photocopiers getting in your way. As you complete jobs and earn cash you’ll eventually unlock the other areas at certain goals, offering more challenge but more rewards as well. The main goal is to earn cash so you can have a chance at the final boss, but every time you die, you’re demoted and lose any perks you’ve gained along the way.
Every level and room is procedurally generated, so no two plays will ever be the same. While each room isn’t terribly large, at least there is some variety, as you’re going to die a lot and repeat levels many times in this roguelike. To complete a job, Hector will need to rescue a certain amount of civilians before making it to the exit. As you enter each new room, ghosts will randomly appear, and while every room isn’t forcing you to clear it, this is how you’ll earn extra cash and experience to level up.
To defeat ghosts, Hector needs to use his plasma gun to whittle down their health, and once depleted, you use your vacuum to suck them up and collect the cash. Once all the ghosts in a room are defeated that room is now cleared and won’t respawn. In the rooms where the civilians are being held, you’ll usually have to fight a handful of more challenging ghosts before moving on from these locked rooms. If you have a buddy over and wants to play as well, there’s asymmetrical drop in/out gameplay included as well, which makes for a much better overall experience, though I wish there was online co-op support.
While the core gameplay is simple with the twin-stick setup, you'll be moving with the Left Stick and shoot in any direction with the Right. Vacuuming up ghosts is done with the Left Trigger and any items you pick up can be used with the Bumpers. It’s a simple setup and works for the gameplay. You’ll have a tricky time though, as ghosts can wander and shoot through objects, they are ghosts after all, but you must adhere to the laws of physics and avoid tables, desks, trees and other objects. Photocopiers for example will blow up if you shoot them enough, causing you harm if you’re too close, but will also sometimes dish out cash or items. Also, your blaster has a heat meter, so you’ll need to manage your firing and vacuuming so you don’t overheat, left unable to use your blaster for a short time.
To earn extra cash you’ll also be given a list of optional objectives. Most of these are things you’ll already do, like clear a certain amount of jobs, use X amount of items, defeat a number of ghosts, etc, and will help you reach your cash goals faster. You’ll sometimes also earn tickets that can be redeemed to unlock concept art as well, which is a little bonus for those that like that kind of thing. My only complaint with this is that these optional objectives don’t automatically complete themselves, meaning you need to go into the menu and claim the rewards before you’re given a new sub-quest to replace it.
As you defeat ghosts you’ll also earn experience for doing so. Fill up the meter beside your character and you’ll level up. Each time you do so you’re given a promotion with a funny title and get to pick one perk to make gameplay that much easier, such as faster shooting, better blaster cooldown, show where hostages are on the map and more. The problem is that since Dead End Job is a roguelike, you’re going to die a lot, and when you do, you’re demoted and lose all of your perks that you’ve earned to that point. This means that every time you die, you’ll need to work your way up the ranks and earn those helpful bonuses all over again. Trying to do the harder stages with no perks isn’t generally going to end up going your way, so you might need to do a few of the easier levels first, though keep in mind you need to earn a certain amount of money before the 30 days is up as your overall goal.
There’s also around 100 random items to find along the way, ranging from super blasters, bomb-like throwables, disco balls, food for health and much more. While most of these are very helpful, some are power-downs, like making you maneuver super slow or slide like you’re on ice. The main problem is that I know what certain items do by their icon, like food, but others will be a complete random guess, as nothing is said anywhere what it’s called or what it does until you use it. When you’re in the thick of things and trying to defeat a hard ghost, you might inadvertently cause yourself to die by using a terrible item by accident.
For those streamers out there, there’s also interactivity included for Twitch and Mixer. Here you can toggle your viewers to be able to choose your power-ups, or downs, for you; a nice touch for those that stream a lot and want another form of interacting with their audience.
Visually, Dead End Job looks like a weird cartoon or a flash game you’d play on the old Newgrounds site. It’s very colorful and contains a bunch of humor, especially the very clever and catchy opening theme song. Factor in that the music is done by Will Morton of Grand Theft auto fame, and you’ve got a fun adventure in short bursts that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
If you’re a twin-stick or roguelike fan, Dead End Job is worth a look, even if it’s not perfect and does suffer from repetitiveness quite quickly. While I enjoyed my time with Hector busting ghosts, it’s a fun little title to play on a long weekend with its variety of enemies, items and levels. A completely serviceable title that fans should be able to sink a few hours into before moving on from their dead end job.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Blacksad: Under the Skin
From the moment I saw the first trailer for Blacksad: Under the Skin, I knew that I was immediately interested in delving into its dark and gritty world. Based on the comic that released in 2000, Blacksad takes place in 1950’s New York with you as the titular detective, John Blacksad. What makes this world unique though is that it’s actually filled with anthropomorphic animals, meaning that instead of humans, each character is a different type of animal but with human traits and qualities. Blacksad is a cat, and with that comes his heightened senses of smell, vision and hearing, something you’ll use to your advantage many times throughout this murder mystery.While it’s set in the same world as the original comic, it’s a whole new story for Blacksad to partake in, so longtime fans will be happy to know that it’s not simply a retelling. If you’re a fan of Telltale adventure games where you get to navigate dialogue however you wish, or dark L.A. Noire style detective games, you’ll surely enjoy your time with Blacksad as he tries to solve a murder and missing person case that falls into his lap.
Boxing gym owner Joe Dunn is found dead, hanging from his apparent attempted suicide when the cleaning lady arrives early in the morning for work, calling the police to her finding. Bobby Yale, his star student that has his most important fight in his career about to come up has also gone missing, this sets the tone right away about a dark and gritty mystery that will have Blacksad search the bowels of the city for answers, wading through shady characters, corruption and more ugliness that he expected to find.
Sonia Dunn, Joe’s daughter, takes over the gym and hires Blacksad to investigate. While she wants to know why her father apparently committed suicide, she seems more concerned with finding Bobby, as his big fight coming up is the only way they are going to be able to afford to keep the gym open. Everything is not as it seems though, and Blacksad starts to go down a rabbit hole that he never expected, filled with more corruption and evil than initially thought. It’s a great story filled with lots of twists and turns, as I wanted to keep playing until its conclusion.
Even with its anthropomorphic characters, the setting of Blacksad is fantastic, as you get sucked into its world almost immediately with its 50’s noir backdrop and breadth of varied and interesting characters, some of which comic fans will recognize as well. As for its core gameplay, this is a detective game, so the majority of your time will be searching areas for clues, deducting said clues and how they fit together, quick time events (QTE’s) and of course, questioning people with many dialogue options.
Much like a Telltale game, much of Blacksad is dialogue heavy, allowing you to react and choose your questions and answers. Sometimes you’ll have a good amount of time to choose your responses, others will need to be snap reactions, not allowing you to overthink every situation and outcome. That being said, there are some wrong answers, in the sense that you’ll be greeted with a death or a game over screen, though you can quickly retry until you find the ‘correct’ dialogue path.
Much of the time you’ll be in a scene, wandering around for clues and objects. These sets are generally designed well, but Blacksad walks at a snail’s pace, so it can be a little frustrating at times when you simply want him to hurry up. The poor camera angles at times don’t help matters either, and when you are near an object of interest, an ‘A’ button will appear, allowing you to interact, but sometimes you’ll need to be exactly on top or beside the object which can sometimes be tricky.
Blacksad is a detective, so naturally he’s curious and wants to ask everyone questions. How you ask, what you ask, or more importantly, what you choose to ignore, will shape his personality and ultimately, which of the multiple endings you receive. Relationships can completely change an outcome of certain situations, as I chose to hide that one of Blacksad's clients was cheating on his wife, from his wife, in turn for a favor, one that I redeemed much later in the story. Of course, Blacksad’s morality wasn’t as high as it could be and that situation could have played out completely different based on which choices you make. You can even choose to be silent in situations as well, which is viable, and sometimes necessary, in certain situations.
Once you do question people and find clues you’ll then need to piece together these small pieces to draw specific conclusions. This system will allow Blacksad to conclude new theories and answers. Doing so is simple, as you’re choosing two or three clues, and if they go together and ‘match’, then Blacksad will deduct what it actually means, allowing you to progress further in the story. This is heavily relied upon in the later sections when you’re finally putting together all of the pieces and clues, but there’s no penalty for pairing the wrong clues, as it will simply reset your choices until you choose the right pairings.
Given that Blacksad is a cat, he’s going to rely on his senses at times as well. Your feline abilities allow you to utilize your superior hearing, smell and sight at certain times. For example, when you’re interrogating someone, you could listen for their heartbeat and see if it’s beating quickly, usually indicating that they are lying. Maybe you’ll quickly glance at a piece of jewelry they’re wearing, allowing you to deduct that they belong to a certain shady gang, opening up other dialogue options. While it’s not used a lot during the course of Blacksad’s investigation, and while there’s no way to fail these sections, it’s an interesting addition that plays into the animal characteristics of the characters themselves.
Blacksad’s world completely engulfs you into its dark and seedy roots. The 50’s noir detective backdrop is wonderful and completely believable with its varied and interesting characters. It looks as if Blacksad and the backdrop has been taken directly from the comic and the 50’s jazz-like soundtrack simply enhances the immersion and believability of the world. The majority of the voice acting is done exceptionally well, especially Barry Johnson who did an excellent job with Blacksad.
While I immensely enjoyed Blacksad from beginning to finish, it’s absolutely littered with a laundry list of bugs, even post patch. Clipping is notorious, not just from clothing and minor objects, but even a part where Blacksad had to operate a forklift, almost as if they didn’t get to finish a proper sitting model while driving, so he just ‘sat’ in it by clipping through it. There’s also a weird glitch when a camera angle changes and the clothing ‘pops’ in, reacting weird to the gravity. Sadly I’ve also experienced more than a couple hardlocks and crashes, one where I almost lost my game save.
While there’s a plethora of technical issues, I’m hoping these will eventually get fixed, as aside from the bugs, Blacksad is very well written, contains a ton of twists and turns and takes place in a fantastic 50’s noir backdrop. I admit, Blacksad is generally more interesting because of its anthropomorphic characters, but it surprisingly doesn’t feel out of place or odd once you get sucked into its dark world.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
AVICII Invector
While I was never a massive AVICII fan, I did quite enjoy his hits that I would hear daily on the radio. Even though I’ve never purchased any of his music, his passing in 2018 was quite sad, as he was one of the faces of a whole musical genre and quite influential. Where there’s darkness though, there’s always light, as we now get to experience 25 of AVICII’s top hits in a new rhythm based game dedicated to his body of work; AVICII Invector.There’s no denying that AVICII has some amazing hits that even casual fans of the genre have probably heard, such as Wake Me Up, Lay Me Down, Without You and more, so to say that he had an influence and reach around the world is an understatement. With AVICII Invector, we get to experience his body of work, celebrating it with an interesting and challenging musical game that I ended up enjoying more than I expected. And as a bonus, a portion of each sale is going to the Tim Bergling foundation to support mental health awareness, which makes this tragedy have some semblance of positive in it.
Like any good musical rhythm game, you’ll need to press button prompts in tune with the music, which happens to be very catchy and fantastic melodies as well. While I can appreciate that a snippet of narrative was included between certain stages, these cartooned cutscenes don’t really tell a captivating story and don’t feel all that needed. There are certain types of games that are just fine without having to add a narrative in just to have one, and musical games like this are one of those. These cutscenes more felt like a slight interruption between stages rather than a reward. Again, glad the effort was there, but simply didn’t feel needed in a game like this.
Invector is broken up into multiple sections with a handful of songs in each before being able to move onto the next group of songs. You’ll need to hit a certain score threshold before ‘passing’ the song, though this is incredibly easy to do so on the Easy difficulty, and not too terribly difficult on Medium once you have a grasp of the mechanics. Songs become progressively more challenging of course as you progress, but the difficulty lies more in with what mode you’re attempting them on, as Hard mode is just that; Hard.
So you’re the biggest AVICII fan and simply want to know what 25 songs are included? I have to admit, while I knew the massive hits, I actually fell in love with some of the lesser known songs the more I played through them on multiple difficulties, trying to raise my highscores.
Tracklist:
Can't Catch me
Pure Grinding
What Would I Change it to
The Nights (Avicii by Avicii)
Waiting For Love
Gonna Love Ya
You be Love
Friend of Mine
Sunset Jesus
Fade Into Darkness
Wake Me Up
Lonely Together
Without You
Hey Brother
Levels
I Could Be The One
You Make Me
Lay Me Down
For a Better Day
Broken Arrows - M-22 Remix
True Believer
Talk To Myself
Heaven
Tough Love
Fades Away
You control a small spaceship flying along a set path, tasked with hitting specific button prompts as you pass over them to the beat and music of course. There’s basically two different types of ‘highways’ you’ll be cruising along as you attempt to fly over the prompts and hit them to the beat. You have flat three lane 'roads' where you can be on the left, right or middle, or will be placed in a triangle tunnel, much like a Toblerone box, where you can navigate to any of the three sides. Each has its own challenges, as the flat ‘road’ will have turns and hills that can obstruct the upcoming button prompts when it gets going quite fast, and the triangle tunnels and mess with you when you’re rotating around each face quickly.
Crank up the volume and enjoy the melodies that made AVICII known. I suggest starting with Easy to simply get your bearings of the controls, then move up to Medium and Hard as you become more comfortable and can react quickly without having to think as much. As for the button presses, you’ll be using either of the Bumpers, the face buttons and Left or Right on the stick.
When you pass through or over a white beam of light, you want to match that with the press of the Bumper at the same time. You’ll also pass over ‘A’ or ‘X’ button prompts on Easy as well. When you move up to Medium difficulty the ‘B’ button is tossed in, and Hard also includes ‘Y’. It sounds easy, but given the quick tempo of some of the songs, you’ll need to be on your game and looking ahead to watch’s coming if you want to hit the correct button on the beat.
What I really thought was clever is the subtle tutorial system in the beginning. For example, it’ll teach you to press the Bumper when you pass over or through one of those white beams, or hold it for certain sections, but get enough correct in a row and it’ll stop showing the prompt. Make a mistake and it’ll remind you for a few notes until you start doing well again. Certain sections will also free you from the restrictive lanes and allow you to fly your ship freely through some rings floating around for extra points, as these serve as small sections to break up the gameplay or help during the slower portions of songs. You can even use a boost after getting enough points, acting as a multiplier for higher scores, but the notes come towards you much faster, so it’s challenging to do so perfectly.
Games like these suffer from longevity unless you’re the type to want to climb and try to top the leaderboards. Given that this is solely an AVICII game, you’ll also need to be a fan of his, obviously, if you want to get the most out of it. With only 25 tracks, you’ll be playing many of the same songs repeatedly, trying to do better than the last to climb those online ranks. Making the jump to higher difficulties does feel genuinely more impressive, especially when you nail those really challenging sections at a quick pace. And for those that have more than one gamer in the house, there’s also a two to four player mode as well for everyone to enjoy AVICII’s work together. I really don’t have any negatives to mention about AVICII Invector. The mechanics work well, the visuals are bright and colorful, and of course, the music is fantastic throughout.
Music based rhythm games are one of my favorite genres, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve enjoyed one this simplistic in premise, but challenging at the same time. Obviously your enjoyment will depend on how much of an AVICII fan you are and if you want to challenge yourself to climb the leaderboards, but if you fall into those categories, AVICII Invector is a great way to spend some time experiencing the work of the late, great AVICII.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Felix The Reaper
While I’m no savant when it comes to puzzle games, I do quite enjoy them, as I tend to think very logically and systematically and can generally get a good grasp on the solutions with some practice. Then there’s Felix The Reaper, developed by Kong Orange, a puzzle game that nearly broke me and has me on the verge of quitting. That’s not to say that it’s a bad game, but challenging is putting it quite lightly.Felix The Reaper’s core mechanics revolve around navigating a gridded map with a 3D isometric camera angle as you manipulate the Sun and shadows to solve each bite sized puzzle. It’s setting is quite odd and unique though, as you’re a Grim Reaper, Felix, sent to make sure that when people are set to die, you’re there to assure the immanent death happens without any problems, even if that means setting up how it’s going to play out without their knowing.
Felix works for The Ministry of Death, loves dancing, and has fallen instantly in love with the busty Betty The Maiden, whom happens to work for The Ministry of Life. He goes to the human world to not only fulfill his job, but in the hopes that it’ll mean that he’ll be able to meet Betty and impress her with his sweet dance moves as well. Of course the premise is absurd and silly, but it suits the gameplay and overall tonality of the game. The catch though is that since Felix is undead, he’s unable to be in the sunlight, which is where the puzzle mechanics come in, given that you’re on Earth and all.
There’s no doubt about it, Felix The Reaper is a very challenging, and at times, frustrating, puzzle game. You need to make sure people die or that certain events happen, but can’t ever be in the sunlight, so you’ll need to strategize on where to move, where to place objects and when to change the direction of the sunlight to cause shadows to move elsewhere, all while dancing the day away doing your job.
Played on a gridded map, Felix can navigate anywhere there are shadows. Given that most levels are flat, you’ll need to be very strategic where you maneuver, as going into the sunlight simply isn’t possible for Felix. Eventually you’ll need to move objects, or even stack them to make their shadows outreach to longer places. Since you can’t go in the sunlight ever, you’ll need to figure out where you want to go ahead of time and setup nearly every movement beforehand. Sometimes this means hiding behind a box where the shadow will keep you safe, or placing a barrel on a box and then moving to another spot where you know there will be shade once you rotate the sun. It’s all about creating pathways of shadows, and doing so is much easier said than done.
The shadow mechanics is really interesting, and surprisingly, quite difficult to wrap your head around. You’re able to freely rotate the sun in one of two directions, simply going by trial and error, but you’re also able to preview what shadows appear before committing to the sun’s movement if you wish for better points. Trust me, eventually you’ll stop caring about high scores and points and will simply be grateful for level completion.
Your overall goal of each level is to have Felix essentially setup and ensure that your target’s death occurs without hitch. The main problem I found was that there’s very little in ways of a good tutorial. The game shows you the basic mechanics quickly but then leaves you to it on your own to figure out. Levels become progressively harder, of course, and it feels like you hit a brick wall quite early on. I simply had to push through with tons of trial and error when I got stuck, and became more frustrated as time went on.
Part of the problem though is that it seems as if you can make wrong movements, almost permanently getting yourself stuck and having to restart. This normally wouldn’t be a huge deal, but when you keep making the same mistakes over and over again, unable to progress, it’s frustrating to not be able to figure out what or why you’re doing something wrong. There is a hint system in place that you can utilize that’s supposed to let you see what step to do next, but it’s quite vague. For example, it’ll just show an arrow on a square, not determining if that’s where Felix should be, if you should place a barrel there or which direction the Sun should be. Some steps are obvious, but when you’re given a hint showing three different arrows at once in different places, it doesn’t help all that much.
There’s also an option to rewind to the last milestone, almost like a checkpoint along the process of solving the puzzle, but you never know when these occur until you use this ‘rewind’ feature. While it was nice to not have to completely redo the whole level from the beginning, the basically useless hint system will leave you either frustrated with hours of trial and error, or resulting in looking up a walkthrough if you become truly stuck.
To be fair, when you do finally fumble your way through a puzzle, the feeling of accomplishment is quite great, even when it’s a sloppy solution with dozens of trial and error mistakes. For those that are truly gluttons for punishment, there are hardcore versions of each level to unlock and even time trials as well. You’d need to have a serious commitment if you want to tackle these extra challenges, but they are there for those that want it.
Felix The Reaper is visually cute and whimsical, as Felix is a portly dude but always makes you smile with his constant dance moves, especially when you navigate from tile to tile. The shadow mechanic works well, even if it’s quite challenging, though sometimes it’s difficult to tell if certain corner tiles are navigable or not. Characters have a very cartoon-like appeal to them, but the true star is the great soundtrack that Felix listens to on his Walkman. With a selection over 10 different indie songs and artists, there’s some good tunes here if you need something to try and keep you relaxed and focused before becoming too frustrated with the puzzles themselves.
I really enjoy puzzle games, even those with some steep challenges, but for some reason, Felix The Reaper frustrated me more than usual with its steep difficulty, and moments of ‘fun’ were far and few in between. Levels should only take a matter of minutes, but when I’m repeatedly trying one for over an hour, it’s hard to not let the frustration set in. If you really want to challenge yourself then Felix The Reaper is a great choice for those that truly want to test themselves with some punishing difficulty. For the more casual puzzle fans, it’s hard to recommend as you’ll get stuck quite early on, something that even Felix’s charm and dance moves can’t overcome.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Children of Morta
I sometimes find it hard to keep my interest in roguelikes for the long term, usually because there’s not much, or very difficult to progress overall. But that’s also the charm to roguelike titles; that you’re challenged with either completing games in a single sitting or having to make a certain amount of progress, but usually if you die, your progress is wiped and you need to begin all over again. Great roguelikes though usually have some form of constant progression, even with the numerous deaths. Children of Morta thankfully does a fantastic job at giving you purpose and progression, regardless of how great your runs are or not.At its core, Children of Morta is a roguelike hack and slash RPG, akin to a Diablo dungeon dweller with some Binding of Isaac flavor mixed in. What makes Morta stand out amongst the competition is not only its delightful 8-bit visuals, great combat mechanics and character progression, but its lore, perfect narration and fantastic storytelling. While 8-bit roguelikes are nothing new, few have had all of the cohesive elements come together as wonderfully as Morta does, as I became hooked after just a handful of hours.
The narrative revolves around the Bergson family, a close knit clan that is attempting to stop the Corruption that is spreading across the land. Residing at the base of Mount Morta, the Bergson’s are the only ones that can stand up against this unknown evil. You begin as John, the father figure of the family, wielding a sword and shield. You’ll only have access to your basic attack and a dodge at first, but eventually you’ll learn new skills and abilities that will make each character unique in its own way.
While the narrative begins out with your typical ‘save the world' trope, it eventually evolves into something much more, sure to tug on your heartstrings when unfortunate events occur. There’s a narrator that is constantly adding to the story, not only explaining what’s going on, but done in such a fantastic way that he deserves a special mention, as it’s probably the most memorable aspect of my whole time with Children of Morta.
Procedurally generated dungeons means that every time you play is going to be a unique experience, for better or worse. As you explore each layer of a dungeon, you’ll delve deeper, eventually facing off against a powerful boss, though not after a handful of deaths and slowly becoming stronger as time goes on. Because every level is randomly generated, your experience may vary from run to run. Sometimes you’ll have a fantastic run where you feel super powerful and getting a ton of great bonuses to help you along the way, while other runs will feel the exact opposite, leaving you scrounging for every health pickup you can find before your untimely death.
While you simply begin with John, a typical sword and board type of melee based character, you’ll eventually unlock and be able to play as a number of different Bergson’s, each with their own unique playstyle, abilities and perks. Each Bergson plays different from one another, but there’s basically two types of play: ranged or melee. With six playable characters to unlock, you’ll choose from four that are melee based and two ranged.
While I vastly preferred my ranged characters, there’s a reason you’ll want to play as each family member, even if it’s not suited to your preferred playstyle. My favorite, Linda, is an archer that is best played by kiting enemies one by one and not becoming surrounded by monsters, whereas Joey, whom uses a sledge hammer, can take out a group of weaker enemies in a single swing. There’s a time and place that each Bergson will be best suited for, as Kevin is a very quick fighter that uses daggers, Mark is a martial arts fighter and Lucy is a fire mage.
Linda for example can move and shoot with her bow and arrow, but only for a short time. Lucy on the other hand has to be stationary to cast her fireballs, so it’s a completely different playstyle. The other melee’s generally play the same, but there are certain strategies you’ll need to use to avoid being hit, like dodging out of the way, or actually into enemies, if you’re Joey for example.
Even though I know I want to play Linda all of the time, the game forces you in a way to play the others. Play too many runs consecutively with one character and they’ll become ‘corrupted’ for a short time, usually lasting a handful of runs. This means that their maximum HP will be drastically lowered, making it near impossible to complete runs with them until they’ve rested and become better. This is when you’ll be ‘forced’ to play as other characters, so make sure to become accustomed to each Bergson.
The other reason you’re going to want to play as each is that every character has their own skill tree. Spend enough points to unlock bonuses and abilities and you’ll eventually unlock perks for the whole family at set spent goals. For example, 4 points spent in a skill tree will unlock the first Bergson perk, like extra dodge, damage and other bonuses, regardless of what character you’re currently playing. It’s honestly a clever way to promote trial and error with each character, as you’ll want the bonus perks for every character eventually.
Thankfully, all of your skills and gold carry over with each death. So while you will die a lot, there’s no real consequence other than having to attempt that dungeon again and again until you become powerful enough to make it through to the end and best the boss. This means that you’re always progressing, even if slowly at times, as I’m currently farming runs for gold to unlock bonus damage and experience points for the whole family.
Not only do you constantly progress as your characters grow in power, but the story also unfolds between runs as well, not only tied to overall dungeon progression. This way of continuing the narrative in small snippets, regardless of your skill, is very clever at keeping you interested in the lore as you repeat runs numerous times. If it wasn’t for the perfect voice acting of the narrator between each run, it wouldn’t feel as impactful; thankfully that’s not the case here.
Between runs you’ll be able to spend your gold to increase your damage, armor, speed, critical damage and much more, again, for the whole family, regardless of who you use. This means you’ll want to not only kill every enemy you see and explore every corner of each dungeon floor, but smash open every pot and vase as well for that sweet gold accumulation.
Local co-op is an option if you have someone alongside you to play with, adding for a much more entertaining experience, but the lack of online co-op was a serious let down. I know that I shouldn’t come to expect online co-op to be included with smaller studio titles like these, but man, such a missed opportunity, as a friend and I had to play separately on our own games in party chat, talking about what we were each experiencing and thought instead of doing so together. Here’s to hoping that online co-op can be added in the future, as it would turn this great game into something truly fantastic.
Visually, Children of Morta has some of the best 8-bit art and animation that I can recall in recent memory. Everything is done by hand, and even though it’s very old school, the animation is done so well, you’re never guessing what the characters are trying to express or convey simply by watching them. The world is colorful and looks as if it’s taken from a classic NES storybook.
Audio is just as impressive, again, mostly because of the masterful work of Ed Kelly as the narrator who describes the tales of the Bergson’s at every corner. The story is captivating, and because of the narrator, it’s as if you’re part of some fantastical fairytale. I actually didn’t mind dying so much because it usually meant I got a snippet of story between each run, almost as if that was the reward itself for even trying.
While at first glance Children of Morta may simply appear to be another typical roguelike RPG hack and slash, it all comes together in a wonderful and charming way, making you forget that you’re generally repeating dungeon runs back to back. While the lack of online co-op was really the only negative I have, the rest of the experience with the Bergson’s was a very memorable and entertaining one throughout.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Fisherman: Fishing Planet, The
I can count the times I’ve actually gone fishing in my life on one hand. Even so, I did enjoy each time I went, and for whatever reason, I’m always drawn towards new fishing games when they release even though I have barely any real world experience. Fishing is much more than simply getting a hook, tackle and drinking some beers on a lazy weekend. For enthusiasts of the sport, they know there’s much more to it than that, and The Fisherman: Fishing Planet aims to bring that reality to console. I even learned quite a few things about the equipment and techniques that I previously didn’t.Truth be told, Fishing Planet has actually been on PC for quite some time as a free to play title. While The Fisherman: Fishing Planet is essentially the same game but ‘console-fied’, it essentially includes a mass amount of DLC that’s been released for it over the years, including a few bonuses and exclusives on top to entice new players. It’s great to see that a previous free-to-play title riddled with microtransactions now has an all-encompassing package with a ton of content and new additions like the Creuse (France) map and trolling technique.
You begin your fishing career by first creating your character. Now, don’t judge the game by these first 10 minutes, as the character creator is as basic, bare bones and quite frankly, disappointing, as it gets. Visually, it doesn’t impress either, as you only have a selection of a couple faces and clothes, appearing to be from something last gen. Don’t fret, as The Fisherman becomes much better after this point and will start to look much better as you begin to reel in those fish along the lakeside.
While there’s really not an overall traditional campaign structure, instead, you’re guided by tutorials and missions to aim you in a progression path. Think of The Fisherman as a true fishing sim, as you’ll not only need to buy and choose your equipment, but decide what works best for each type of fish you’re wanting to catch that day. You’ll need to setup your ‘profiles’, consisting of what rod, line, bait, hooks, float and more you'll want to use. You’ll cut the line to the length you want, adjust resistance, reel speed and much more. I knew there was a lot to the sport, but this gave me a deeper appreciation for how much thought and purpose goes into every equipment decision.
The tutorials and mission structure are well designed, slowly introducing you to new equipment, techniques and menus, all while highlighting what you need to exactly choose to progress. Obviously, if you want to prove your own worth, you can freely fish at any of the unlocked bodies of water and have at it at your own pace as well. Just like real fishing, you may have a stroke of luck, or sit for hours without nothing but a nibble. Sometimes if you choose the right equipment and time of day, you’ll have fish chomping at your line as soon as you cast, or you may be waiting minutes at a time for any interest as well.
Regardless if you’re a beginner like myself, or a pro angler, there’s a lot to learn here with a surprising amount of depth. With almost 150 different species of fish, they all are distinct and react like their real-world counterparts. Some prefer certain temperatures of water, times of day or even depths, all of which will need different equipment to catch efficiently.
Did you know there are more than one type of fishing? I didn’t (except for fly fishing I guess). The Fisherman includes Float Fishing, Spinning, Bottom Fishing and newly included, Trolling. All of which are different techniques that you’ll need to master. I tended to have the most luck with Bottom fishing, as I found it more successful, but there’s plenty to learn, especially for beginners like myself.
To say that there’s a boatload of content would be putting it mildly. There are nearly twenty different fishing environments to take in the scenery, more than 1000 different products to purchase for your angling career, dynamic weather changes, a day and night cycle, seasons and even single and multiplayer competitions. Yes, at times it can be a bit overwhelming, but as you spend time with it, you become more accustomed to how the menus work and where to find exactly what you’re looking for quickly.
Once you’ve got a grasp of how to set your equipment, line and begin to fish, this is where The Fisherman begins to shine. While the visuals are not going to blow you away by any means, they are quite decent when you’re sitting at the edge of a lake, surrounded by forest, noticing ripples in the water from the fish swimming by and have some sun-rays breaking through the treetops. It’s easy to feel like you’re actually in nature, as there’s no overlying soundtrack either, just you and the sounds of local wildlife. The only downside to this is that I’ve actually fallen asleep numerous times playing late at night, as it was quite calm and relaxing.
Once you’ve figured out where you want to cast your line, a tap of the Right Trigger will set the power meter going, and another to stop it at the distance you want. After that and your float is in the water, it’s time to play the waiting game. While you’re able to look at your float in the water for movement, there’s actually an icon in the top right that shows a more detailed model of what your rod and floater are currently doing. Unfortunately, this is really where you’ll need to stare the whole time, as this is your main indicator that a fish as taken your bait and is on your line. Look away even for a split second and you might miss a bite before you strike. Reeling in your catch is going to depend on a variety of factors as well. Do you risk reeling in quite quickly and putting pressure on your line, hoping it doesn’t snap? Or play the long game, letting the fish tire itself out and slowly reeling in when it’s taking a break? Of course, this also depends on the fish, its weight, your equipment and patience.
The lakes and ponds are shared worlds, so as you fish long the bank, you might see other players populate nearby as well. You’re able to see via chat who has caught what and its weight. It’s a subtle way to introduce players to one another and promote competition. There are of course actual tournaments you can enter as well for sweet prizes and bragging rights, and with free updates and seasonal events, there’s always something new for you to partake in, more than just your standard fishing.
The best thing about The Fisherman is how it doesn’t force you in a specific way to play. If you feel like getting on your kayak or boat to catch some fish by yourself, you’re free to do so. Maybe you want to work on those missions to earn some extra gear and bonuses. Or maybe today you enter that tournament and try and catch one of the trophy fish. If you have friends that play as well, you can even create private rooms to have a calm and relaxing experience together. The more you catch, the more you earn, unlocking new fishing holes, gear and objectives, so there’s always something new to strive towards, even if you’re casually just wanting to catch a few at a time.
My biggest complaint though is how the menus are navigated and controlled. Some menu sections require you to use the D-Pad, while others the Left or Right Stick. Some even require both, one for main and the other for sub menus. I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrated I’ve become at times because I can’t figure out how to simply scroll down and choose the equipment I want to because I hit the wrong bumper or used the wrong stick. It’s confusing and terrible design. Yes, I eventually got used to it, but this menu control scheme needs a tutorial of its own if it’s not going to be changed or fixed.
Given that The Fisherman prides itself on being a broad yet focused fishing simulator, it’s more geared towards those that want to experience the sport, more so than simply throwing your line out and pushing a button to catch your fish. Proper fishing takes patience and preparation, and to get the most out of The Fisherman is no different. Yes, you can jump in for a quick catch here and there, but to become a true angler, you’ll need to dedicate some time to it to learn all of its intricacies.
For those seasoned anglers, you’ll appreciate just how much detail went into the over 1000 items, nearly 150 fish, numerous fishing holes and detailed gameplay. While I may be a fishing beginner, I really appreciated just how in-depth The Fisherman: Fishing Planet really was while also never feeling too overwhelmed with its steady mission structure or the option to freely do whatever I want and still progress. If you’ve been curious about the sport, or simply can’t wait until next summer to do the real thing, The Fisherman: Fishing Planet has more than enough content to keep you busy until the next fishing season begins.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Race with Ryan
If you don’t have young kids, I couldn’t fault you for not knowing who Ryan is. For those of us that have seen more Ryan videos than we can count, you know all too well how crazy kids go for Ryan, his channels, toys and now games. For the uninitiated, Ryan’s World is a YouTube channel currently sitting with 22.4 million subscribers that started with Ryan, a young kid, essentially reviewing toys and games. As his channel grew, so did their production, popularity and now he’s a brand and local household name for anyone that has a young child. He’s taking in millions a month, has a toy line at Walmart and now has a new videogame, Race With Ryan; he’s doing pretty well for himself.Just as the name implies, Race With Ryan is just that, a simple kart racer that takes influences from Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing and other greats, but injects the signature Ryan characters and kid-like aesthetic. If you know Ryan’s World, your kids will be ecstatic to know that all the known characters like Ryan, Combo Panda, Gus and the rest are all included, as are clips of him and his parents on their couch to introduce cup races. Am I the target audience, of course not, but my seven year old daughter was more than excited to play as her favorites.
Included are six tracks, ranging from a kid’s room, western themed and spooky haunted ones among a few others. Each track can be raced in reverse as well, totaling 12 different races you can partake in. Is that a very low number of tracks for a kart racer, yes, but will your young kid notice or mind, probably not; at least mine didn’t. At least each track is varied enough and has a different feel to keep them interested for longer.
There’s also enough variety in the character selection as well, as each character has a few different vehicles they can have. Some are car based, trains, helicopters and more. There’s no having to worry about each kind having different stats, as they are purely a cosmetic change. While I wish that any character could use any vehicle like in Mario Kart, my kid didn’t seem to mind.
Given that Race With Ryan is meant for a younger audience, the menu and mode selections are quite basic. You’re able to choose from a Quick Race if you want to simply get in and race as soon as possible before the kids lose interest, or the Career Mode where you’ll probably spend the majority of your time, which consists of a handful of races back to back.
Career Mode has a handful of different cups you can race in, all of which can be played in Easy, Medium or Hard difficulties. Cups will begin consisting of 3 races, but by the final cup, will have 6 to gain points in. Surprisingly, even career can be played in four player split screen if you have a bunch of kids and controllers at home, sadly there’s no online component though, strictly couch co-op.
Now I’ll be honest; I wasn’t really expecting much from the gameplay itself, given it’s meant for a much younger audience, and holding itself to Mario Kart’s high bar is a bit unrealistic. What I will say is that I was impressed with how smooth and decent the racing itself felt. The speed isn’t terribly fast, as again, it’s meant for a younger audience, and you can power-slide to drift and gain speed boost, much like Mario Kart, for the better skilled players. If you have very young kids or players that aren’t as skilled, you can toggle automatic acceleration and even an assistance for steering so they don’t constantly crash into the wall; a great touch for the very young players that want to play alongside their siblings.
Like any good kart racer, there’s also a bunch of powerups that can be used to help you during races. These can help you gain a speed boost, shields that rotate around you like hamburgers, paper airplanes that mimic a red shell, or tossing tennis or soccer balls to stun opponents. As you can see, this is a much more light hearted take on the standard Mario Kart powerups, fitting of Ryan’s World; though there’s not a lot of varied powerups overall.
Kids that are fans of Ryan will be pleased to know that not only is he featured in Race With Ryan, obviously, but they’ve also filmed short little intro videos that you’ll see throughout your time playing, either introducing you to cup tournaments or offering encouragement when you lose. The video looks as if it was filmed on someone’s phone, and the audio is even worse. Did my kid notice? No. Does it really affect the overall experience? Not really, but it was noticeable and seemed out of place with the lack of polish compared to the content they usually push out.
While my kid had a ton of fun with it, I wanted to get a few quotes from her about her thoughts about Race With Ryan, as she’s the target audience and has a ton of Ryan toys as is. I tried to get her to formulate a paragraph, but here’s her raw thoughts:
“It’s really good because you get to get new characters and I like racing with other people like my Mom and Dad.”.
“The graphics are really nice and colorful and the animation is good.".
"It's really hard to control (the drifting) and I hit the wall a lot.”.
“I like that all the characters are there, because my favorite is Combo Panda, and it’s awesome when I come in first place.”.
“I like seeing Ryan in the videos and that everyone sounds like they do on his channel.”.
“You should buy it because it’s a good game.”.
That final quote about sums up her experience with the game, as she really enjoyed her time with it. Do I have a laundry lists of issues with it? Absolutely. Does any of that matter when my seven year old is enjoying the game and is the target audience? Not in the slightest. What annoyed me the most was that the achievement unlocking doesn’t stack. There are achievements for winning each cup on each difficulty setting, but beating it on Hard doesn’t unlock Medium and Easy, so you will have to do each cup a minimum of 3 times to complete everything and unlock all of the extras. Again, my kid wasn’t discouraged by this, as she knew daddy would do it for her, but having to complete a cup on Hard to get her favorite character was a bit of a pain when I already did it twice before on the lower difficulties.
If I was to score the game solely on my experience and comparing it to others in the genre, it would have received a much lower score for its lack of track variety and dull gameplay overall, but I’m not basing this on my experience; I’m basing it on my daughter’s, who now gets to play a video game as one of her favorite YouTube stars. If your youngster is a Ryan’s World fan, they’ll certainly enjoy this youth friendly outing with Ryan and all his friends for a few laps around the track, even if it can’t hold a flame to classics in the same genre.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
Pig Eat Ball
Having done reviews for over a decade, I’ve played my fair share of nearly everything out there, even some of the weird Japanese stuff that I used to import back in the day. Pig Eat Ball might be one of THE weirdest games I’ve ever experienced, which is saying quite a lot. Developed by small studio Mommy’s Best Games, creators of Shoot 1UP and Serious Sam DD XXL, Pig Eat Ball is perfectly titled given that you’re a pig, eating you guessed it, balls.I don’t even know where to begin describing the gameplay other than chaotic and insane. You need to eat all the tennis balls in a level to win, but the more you eat the fatter you get, so you might get stuck or not fit down narrow corridors, so you’ll need to barf out some of said balls to get skinny again and fit through. Yes, this game is about eating tennis balls and barfing them out. I told you it was weird. It really is unlike anything I’ve played before. Oh, and it has bearded clams; like actual clams with beards on them... perv.
While the gameplay is insanely weird, as is the story that frames it all as well. Your dad, King Cake, has decided to marry his pig (literal) daughter off, you, to whomever can win the official Royal Games. Of course she doesn’t want to get married, but King Cake is not having it, so she decides to go undercover with an ultra-sneaky disguise, glasses, and win the Royal Games herself to avoid getting married to anyone else.
Now that Princess Bow is taking matters into her own hands, er, snout, she’s going to have to travel across all of King Cake’s Space Station Kingdom, consisting of five massive worlds, earning pearls to challenge the bosses before moving onto the next. I honestly expected a short and quick adventure with a smaller studio game like this, but was surprised there’s actually a massive amount of content for hours of entertainment. With over 200+ levels to challenge yourself in, you’re going to have to dedicate some time if you want to see Princess Bow’s adventure until the end.
To complete a world, you’ll need to earn a certain amount of pearls to unlock the final challenge against a boss. To earn pearls though, you’ll need to challenge each bearded clam (I still giggle when I see these) and complete all of their levels, usually consisting of 3-5 or so. These levels are bite sized, usually tasking you simply eating all of the balls at once to win. Doing so is much easier said than done though, as you can choose to barf out the balls at any time since you won’t be able to fit down certain pathways when you’re super fat. When you barf out the tennis balls though, they’ll be covered in puke and you’ll need to eat them up again, making you sick all over again.
Played in a top down perspective, Pig Eat Ball is a puzzle game at its core, but there are some minigame elements to it as well. Each hub world has secrets to uncover and every level will grade you from bronze to gold based on how quickly you complete them. If you’re a real glutton for punishment, you can try and challenge yourself to getting all gold medals to unlock super-secret items as well. And for those that love bragging rights more than anything else, an online leaderboard will keep you busy indefinitely.
Remember, Princess Bow is partaking in this tournament in secret, so she’s going to need disguises, of which there are plenty. Some are hilarious, like adding a mustache or giant wax lips, and each has its own pro and con of choosing it, like making you move quicker, but less suction power to eat balls for example. Some levels benefit from a specific strategy, so you’ll want to experiment with each disguise, as they may make some levels much easier or difficult. For example, I was using the Wax Lips that gave me more suction power, but in one level it made it more challenging because spiked balls get sucked up too in whatever direction you’re facing, hurting you.
Each of the five giant worlds are individually themed, as the first world is space ship based, whereas the second is a sushi lover’s paradise. You’ll also face new types of puzzles and enemies with each new world as well, constantly keeping you on your toes as you progress. While many levels will simply require you to eat all of the balls at once, some have a time limit or a certain amount of times you can get hit without failing. While none are overly challenging, it can take a try or two to simply figure out what’s going on with all of the chaos happening on screen at one time. There’s nothing like being one ball away from winning, only to barf all of them up, sending them scattering everywhere. Prepare yourself for some wild bosses as well, as they are just as crazy and weird as the rest of the game.
If you happen to have some friends or family over and want to play some multiplayer, assuming you can explain the Pig Eat Ball’s premise and still keep them interested, up to four players can play against one another in local competitive play. These minigames range from typical ‘eat all the balls’, to who can make the most amount of sandwiches (by sucking up the ingredients and then spitting them out), among a bunch of other weird games. It’s a fun mode should you have friends over and want to show them your super weird new game.
Visually, Pig Eat Ball looks as if it’s from the classic 8 or 16-bit era. If you’ve played classic wacky Japanese games in the past, you’ll have an idea what to expect. It’s very colorful but it can be very confusing at times what’s actually happening given how much chaos is on the screen at one time. The soundtrack is fantastic though, consisting of upbeat classic chiptunes that appear to come from the same era the visuals consist of. The sound effects are even better, with barfing sound like, well, barfing and the scream of pillbugs as you hit them always put a smile on my face.
Pig Eat Ball is one of the most creative, weird and oddly satisfying indie games I’ve played in quite some time. Weird is really the most descriptive way to put it, as there’s nothing really like it out there. Even still, there’s hours of content to be had and plenty of laughs if you’re like me and can’t get over that you need to earn pearls from bearded clams.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Dauntless
While I absolutely loved Monster Hunter: World, I eventually stopped playing due to the serious grind to make any real progress. Since then, nothing has really filled that gap. I’ve been tempted to go back but decided not to once I think of the time and effort I’d have to put in once again. Enter Dauntless, a free-to-play co-op action RPG that clearly took some cues from the long standing Monster Hunter playbook, but changed enough so that it’s a unique experience, yet familiar.The biggest thing Dauntless has going for it is that it’s free-to-play, so you can start playing right now without having to put any money down. I know what you’re thinking, that most free-to-play games are okay, but eventually ‘require’ you to pay something if you actually want to make any real progress or look cool with unique skins. Yes, Dauntless falls into this somewhat as well, but you could easily progress without ever putting a dime into it, though you won’t look as cool as those that have.
A series of floating islands in the sky, aptly called The Shattered Isles, is under attack by massive beasts called Behemoths. While in normal circumstances this wouldn’t be a huge issue, they are eating Aether, the mysterious force that is keeping The Shattered Isles afloat in the sky, so needless to say, they must be stopped at all costs. Your first few hunts will show you the ropes, but you’ll eventually be faced off against more challenging and larger Behemoths as you progress.
You’re a Slayer, tasked with taking down the never ending threat of Behemoths alongside up to three friends. Besting these beasts will reward with you with experience and loot which can be crafted into powerful new weapons and armor. If you’ve played Monster Hunter: World, then you’ll have an idea of how this works already. The best part? Dauntless is completely cross play and chat, so you can play alongside your friends regardless of console or PC preference. Because of this, I never had an issues waiting for a hunt to begin, and actually played with more PC and PS4 people than I anticipated. Sure you could play solo, but that’s nowhere near as rewarding and much more challenging.
Behemoths come in all different shapes, sizes and difficulty. You’ll be faced off against numerous different enemies that have an element types to their attacks. For example, if you’re fighting versus a fire behemoth, you’ll want to use ice based weapons for extra damage but fire armor to take less. While it’s not forced, it’s highly suggested, as you even have a ranking on your offence and defense in the lobby based on your currently equipped gear. There are more elements as well, like Terra (Earth), Shock and even Radiant or Umbral as well. Each type has their own strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll need to make sure you got the right tools for every type of hunt.
There’s a ton of different sets of weapons and armor to craft, based on your playstyle and preference, so there’s always a constant grind to partake in, it’s just a matter of how rounded you want to be. To craft these items though, you’re going to have to hunt certain Behemoths for specific parts. For example, certain weapons or armor require parts from certain monsters, such as maybe a part of their tail or horn.
Some items drop regularly on a kill, while others are rare drops and require you to break off certain parts. If you happen to do enough damage to a tail for example, it could break off, dropping you a rare component, but also leave it susceptible to more damage as well. Be wary though, as a Behemoth can become enraged or completely change their attack patterns if they lose a horn or tail for example, so always be aware and on your toes. Once you’re trying to craft a complete set and see the grind that needs to be done to acquire all the components you need, you’ll need to dedicate some serious time into Dauntless to make any serious progression.
How you fight and what weapon you’ll use is also up to you, and there’s a plethora of weaponry to choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and specific specialty. You begin with a basic sword, a good all-rounder, but eventually will be able to craft and choose from War Pikes, Axes, Chain Blades, Hammer, Aether Strikers (fists) and Repeaters. Every weapon feels and plays completely different, has an ideal range, strike zone and specific purpose. Certain weapons are meant for constant sustained damage, like my Repeaters, while others are for stunning or breaking off Behemoth parts and armor, so having a well-rounded team will make all the difference. Every weapon also has its own progression as well, so the more you become experience with a specific type, you’ll become more proficient with it, able to craft higher tiers.
Hunts are you choosing what type of specific hunt or patrol you want to partake in. If you want to simply hunt a Blaze Behemoth, you can do so, though if you want to track down a specific one, you can do that as well. Patrols will place you in a queue to fight any of the element type, whereas a specific hunt will look for other players wanting to do said explicit Behemoth. Eventually you’ll want to hunt certain ones to grind for specific pieces and components you need, all of which are laid out in an easy to understand list when you’re in the crafting menu.
Hunt Pass is an interesting component to Dauntless that tempts you to a certain type of progression. Your Hunt Pass is essentially a checklist of objectives that you rank up once you complete bounties and find collectibles in the hub zone, Ramsgate. This basic Hunt Pass is free, but being a free-to-play title, they need to tempt you to drop some real money into the game right? This is where the Elite Hunt Pass comes in.
This is a second set of tiered rewards that you can earn as you rank up as well, usually given you cosmetic skins, useful potions or even Platinum, the confusing real world turned in-game money to purchase other cosmetic items. Think of this like a Season or Battlepass from other games and that’s how you’ll find its worth to you or not. If you really want to gain some of the early items from Hunt Pass levels, then there’s even a purchase you can make that skips you ahead 15 levels instantly, unlocking some of the items. Of course, this costs real money, and if you want, you can even buy Platinum and skip all the way to the final tiers, but this becomes costly of course.
This is where we need to have a talk about microtransactions. Yes, Dauntless is completely free to play, and no, you aren’t forced to spend any money on it should you choose. You’re always tempted though, especially when you see the Hunt Pass Elite rewards, or cool skins on the marketplace. Once you convert the money it roughly works out to be $5-10 per skin or purchase. You’re able to buy bundles of Platinum of course, ranging from $6 to $130. While it’s not shoved down your throat to spend money, you are reminded often about it, constantly teased when you see someone with the coolest skins out there. Full disclosure; we were given a VIP code and a handful of Platinum, so you can bet I bought the coolest looking armor and weapon set I could afford. Did I need it? No. Am I glad I look awesome now? Absolutely.
Visually, Dauntless shares a colorful and cartoony style that almost mimics that of Fortnite. In fact, my daughter saw me playing and actually thought that’s what I was playing. Even though it has a cartoonish visual style, the Behemoths are very well designed and vary based on the type you’re fighting. Animations for characters and monsters are very fluid and you can customize the color pallet of your armor to be almost exactly how you want, granted, if you put some money down for the cool dye sets of course. Standing on a plateau you’ll be able to see the far distant edges of the floating island you’re hunting on, always on the lookout for sparkly collectible plants and rocks for crafting as well. Weapons sound like they have some ‘oomph’ in their hits on impact, Behemoths sound intimidating with their attacks and snarls, and the battle music is very fitting for hunting some huge monsters.
My biggest complaint with Dauntless though has to be with its camera. Given that you hunt in third person, the camera can get a little wonky at times when you’re backed against a wall or the Behemoth is close up to you. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve fallen off the edges of the islands because I was unable to move my camera around quickly enough while also trying to keep track of their attacks. Also, what I would give for a camera lock-on system. Currently there’s no way, that I know of, to lock onto a Behemoth, so you’re having to track it and adjust constantly while also aiming for specific parts to attack. Some Behemoths constantly pounce, leap and teleport around, so keeping track is incredibly difficult in the thick of battle. Sure, you can press in the ‘Left Stick’ to center your view on them, but doing this constantly while also trying to maneuver and dodge isn’t the easiest of tasks.
Dauntless kind of took me by surprise. While I expected a game that was Monster Hunter-like, and it is, I actually prefer Dauntless’ progression path, as it’s not discouraging overall. Yes, there’s a big grind the higher tier you get, but the payoff for finally crafting that new armor or weapon is fantastic. If you’re paired with a poorly skilled team, you’ll most likely fail, but I love that it’s simply fighting the Behemoths without useless filler in between, so getting right back into the thick of things doesn’t take long with the cross play enabled. It’s free to play, so might as well check and see if it’s a hunt you’ll want to partake in.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Megaquarium
I’ve always been drawn to Sim games. Not only the classic SimCity’s that I’ve spent hundreds of hours with, but everything from SimEarth, SimAnt, SimTower, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Theme Hospital, just to name a few off the top of my head. There was nothing quite like waking up on a weekend and building your city until it was time for dinner. While theme park sims are nothing new, I’ve never actually seen a dedicated one tailored around an aquarium with this much depth and options.While yes, you’ve played games like Megaquarium previously, most likely with a different theme, there’s a decent amount of content within to keep you interested and challenged for some time. At the same time, it has some depth, but the console translation was done quite well, utilizing the controller well without being a burden or confusing with a ton of button combinations. Not only will you need to be the curator of a great aquarium, but you’ll have much more on your plate, like managing staff, designing all facets of your business and of course, being profitable.
The campaign is done well, broken into 10 different bite sized scenarios, starting you out with just a handful of different fish and tanks, slowly teaching you the basics as you progress. Your first aquarium will be small in scale, as you won’t have access to much livestock or equipment, but each scenario teaches you something new, tasking you with more involved and complex objectives. At first you’ll simply be trying to fulfill your objectives, like have a certain amount of fish or earn enough progression points, but eventually you’ll need to start thinking and planning strategically. Once you complete all the objectives in a scenario you’re able to leave and progress to the next, but if you’re enjoying it and want to continue playing, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so either; a nice touch I enjoyed.
For example, you begin with just a basic square aquarium tank, but you’ll eventually gain access to different shapes and types as well. My favorite are the kind that are hidden behind walls, with just the viewing size accessible to the public, like you’d see in a real aquarium. This though requires some pre-planning if you want to design it properly, like building walls around it and a staff only door so the public doesn’t go where they aren’t supposed to. Some tanks are also quite tall, so you’ll need to build platforms and stairs, not to mention planning where your pumps, heaters, skimmers, chillers and other equipment are going to go, depending on which type of livestock you’re putting in said tank.
The campaign does a great job at easing you into the gameplay and difficulty increase. The adage ‘easy to learn, difficult to master’ is completely true with Megaquarium. In the later scenarios, you’ll really have to pre-plan what you want to accomplish before spending money on doing so. Do you hire a ton of staff to keep all the animals fed, the place clean and your equipment running in top shape, but ballooning your payroll? Do you build a queue system where visitors needs to follow a floor path, much like an Ikea visit on the weekend? Do you have one central staff area sectioned off with all your tools and feeders, or spread them out along your floor plan? It’s completely up to you and will take time to figure out what works best for your play style and given objectives.
While the later stages can have some challenge, you never really feel overwhelmed given the steady difficulty curve you’re given. Even learning the UI is done slowly and laid out so it makes sense. I was honestly a bit concerned at first, as Sim games can be a little daunting on console given the limitations to a controller compared to a keyboard, but they made it work in a sensible and logical way. You’re only ever a few button presses away from what you’re trying to accomplish, which sometimes isn’t the case with console versions in this genre.
The build menu for example is broken down into multiple sections. Are you wanting to add to the floor or walls? Building a tank or adding equipment? Even decorations and livestock are in their own sections, so it’s never confusing and very simple to find exactly what you’re looking for. If you do become overwhelmed, you’re welcome to completely pause the time and think about what you want to do, or fast forward time if you want to hurry up progression.
The beginning types of fish are quite basic and simple to keep happy and alive, but as you progress you’ll need to be a bit more mindful as to their needs, as some require a certain amount of rocks for shelter, specific water temperatures or even lighting. As you progress you’ll gain access to more exotic, and usually expensive, animals to showcase in your aquariums, actually coming up to nearly 100 species, some of which are only accessible by trading certain fish with other aquarium owners.
The amount of equipment will also be plentiful, as you’ll start off with basic heaters, pumps and more, but eventually will be able to utilize much more powerful and larger versions. It will take some getting used to, especially when you want to connect your equipment via a pump, not physically attached to your tanks, but once you experiment and figure out what works and doesn’t, the gameplay really sstarts to open up as you plan more strategically.
While profit is obviously one goal of your business, you actually progress with science and ecology points instead. Science is how you’ll unlock new tools and equipment, where ecology is how you’ll gain access to new fish, coral and more. There’s even an overall leveling system called prestige which opens up even more advancement; a nice carrot to constantly dangle in front of you to compel you to keep playing.
You’re only able to hire a limited amount of staff, so do you train them all to be OK at everything (repairs, feeding, cleaning etc), or have each one specialize in one job? There’s no right answer, as each aquarium setup will be different, so be sure to experiment with what your current needs are. You’ll also need to keep your guests happy, so you’ll have to plan space for vending machines, washrooms, benches to rest, gift shops and more. Keep in mind, you’ll also have a budget and limited cash flow, so manage those finances if you want to be successful.
When you do complete all the campaign scenarios there’s also a Sandbox mode for you to enjoy and create whatever you wish, complete with a bunch of different settings, toggles and even a challenge generator. This is the mode I found super relaxing when you need a simple night of calm gaming, which the chill music helps with, even if it becomes a little repetitive over time. If you really want to start customizing your aquarium, you even get access to decorations, allowing you to really customize your business to nearly anything you can think of, adding some personality to your business.
What I enjoyed most is that there’s different difficulty levels, so feel free to start out on beginner that allows for easier management of your funds and less harsh penalties overall. Of course, if you like a good challenge, it’s there for you should you want it.
What Megaquarium does best is offer a laid back relaxing sim experience on console without feeling too watered down (pun intended). You’re given the tools you need at a slow and steady pace without ever feeling overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure how a dedicated aquarium sim would be, but it’s got a lot of charm and really is quite a calming experience overall for fans of the genre.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Indivisible
You’d never guess that Indivisible is only Lab Zero Games’ second main release. Best known for their 2D brawler Skullgirls, they branched out and made something completely different this time around with a RPG that completely surprised and impressed me, in all the best ways. A solid blend of RPG, action and adventure, Indivisible impresses most with its spectacular hand drawn art. Watching the opening cutscene alone, you couldn’t be faulted if you thought Indivisible was based on an actual anime, that’s how impressive the art style is. If you’ve played Skullgirls previously, it’s similar in visual flare, but has certainly been improved with this new title.The narrative centers on a young teenager, Ajna, daughter of a remote town’s leader whom is killed when they are attacked by an enigmatic person. Of course this not only turns Ajna’s life upside down, but it awakens a mysterious power that’s been lying dormant inside her. It’s here that she sets out on a quest of revenge, and while its base is a story we’ve been told a million times previously, it becomes much more involved and interesting as you progress and lasts much longer than I anticipated.
For starters, it seems Ajna is part diety, harnessing an extremely powerful force within her which also sets her up for trouble, as Lord Ravannavar is looking for people with such power, unable to find many until now. The story begins quite slow and run of the mill, but once you start to meet new companions and unveil some of the larger elements to the narrative, it changes from a simple story to a much more engaging and emotional tale, full of great writing, interesting characters, humor and great gameplay to top it all off.
The world itself has a good amount of lore and character, but the writing really shines with every new companion she meets along her journey. While in most games, secondary characters are just that, not really given a lot of time to have their personality shine through and have much character development; not with Indivisible though. Sure, the main narrative focuses on Ajna’s quest, but her friends and companions along the way get their fair share of screen time and spotlight, give you enough time to become attached and form your favorites.
Due to Ajna’s unique powers, she actually absorbs these “incarnations” into her head, only to come out during battles. An odd setup, one that I didn’t get right away, but simply go with it and it’ll make sense given the narrative. You’ll eventually have quite the large amount of ‘friends’ to choose along the way, allowing you to bring four into battle, all of which have their own combat styles and abilities, so there’s plenty for you to experiment with.
My personal favorite throughout is easily Razmi, a pyromaniac who wears her dead tiger’s corpse on her head like a headdress, constantly making hilarious comments and one liners. There’s a handful of others too, all with their own personalities and quirks that really make them stand out due to the fantastic writing and accompanying voice acting.
Indivisible is one part RPG and combat and other part Platforming, making for an interesting hybrid. Given that it’s played 2D, it falls best into the Metroidvania genre, where you’ll explore an area, but have many sections blocked off or inaccessible until you come back later on with new abilities and knowledge of how to progress. Combat itself is in real time, but is quite unique and challenging, something that I really enjoyed once I wrapped my head around how to execute it properly.
Your party will consist of four members, each of which are mapped to one of the face buttons on the controller. The amount of actions each character can take at a time is shown with the number of button icons are below their health bar, beginning with just two. How you execute the real time combat is completely up to you. Spam all the buttons and everyone will fight at once, though as you progress, you’ll need to be much more tactical as you venture on versus harder enemies.
Simply pressing a button will have that character attack, but each also has different attacks and abilities when combined with a press of the Up or Down on the D-pad as well, so you need to think strategically, as some attacks are purely for damage while others are for setups or air launch combos. This is the basis of the combat, but each character has their own strengths, weaknesses and utility. This is where you’ll need to experiment with the well over a dozen characters to find the team that works best for you. While I found my perfect team early on to mid game, some might opt to stay with the beginning four or constantly change it up as new teammates are added along Ajna’s journey.
There’s also a Super meter that fills as you land attacks or take damage. This meter has multiple levels, and expands as you progress, allowing you to unleash special moves, with the power based on how many bars of your Super meter you want to use. With a ton of characters and unique attacks, there’s plenty of depth within for you to find exactly what you like. Combat isn’t simply about attacking though, as it’s in real time, and enemies will also be aggressive towards you as well. When they do, you’ll see a red ring around the base of the character that is being targeted. If you’re able to perform a perfect block by tapping the button that said character is tied to just as the hit lands, you’ll absorb a share of the damage. This will need to be perfected once you start making it throughout Ajna’s journey and take on some of the massive bosses. Some of the bosses will also attack the whole group at once, which can be blocked, but depletes your Super meter as well.
Combat will be confusing at first, as you’re really only taught the basics and simply left to figure it out yourself afterwards, but becomes quite rewarding and engaging once you figure it out. If it become too overwhelming, pressing ‘RB’ will allow you to slow down time, allowing you to choose which enemy to focus on, or simply take a quick breather and figure out what order you want to setup your attacks with.
The other main component to Indivisible is its platforming sections. Much like any other Metroidvania title, you’ll constantly have areas you can’t reach or access until you come back later with new abilities or powers, allowing you to venture further. Simply starting out with her mother’s Ax, Ajna will be able to use it to smash certain walls or hang onto walls before wall jumping higher. As you progress you’ll earn new weapons that allow for more mobility to reach new areas. The spear lets you spring vault to higher areas or bounce on deadly spikes. Your bow and arrow will allow you to hit targets that toggle platforms from a distance, or even coat a wall of spikes with flowers that can be jumped on.
There’s a surprising amount of abilities you gain as you progress, much more than I was expecting, but it keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting. Once Ajna begins to unveil her hidden powers from within, you’ll be able to traverse quicker and with purpose, constantly on the lookout for Ringsels. These are floating red crystals, that when enough have been collected, can increase your offence by adding more attacks, or defense. This adds a purpose to exploring more of the world as you traverse, though many will be hidden quite well.
My only real complaint actually has to do with these prominent platforming sections. Yes, they break up the gameplay and makes sense given the genre, but this is also where I had the most frustration from many deaths from mistimed jumps or hitting the spikes below. Some of these sections are timed with crumbling platforms, so you need to be precise and perfect in many of these sections, which can be frustrating at times. Many boss fights also mix up the combat and platforming as well, so there’s no escape from it.
By far, Indivisible’s most impressive feature is its art, as it’s beautiful in every way with completely hand drawn visuals. When you get to witness the full blown cutscenes, the quality only goes up and I swear it could have been taken from an anime I’d never heard of before. I can’t even imagine the amount of work that’s gone into every animation and character, and it doesn’t go unnoticed with the beautiful color spectrum and smooth animation, even if there’s the odd framerate dip now and then. The audio is just as impressive, though nowhere near as memorable really aside from the wonderful voice acting across the board. Every character’s personality really shines through due to the great voice over performances from everyone.
Indivisible starts out with a typical trope about revenge, but grows into something much larger and meaningful by the time the credits roll, all due to the excellent writing, fantastic voice acting and simply great gameplay overall. While many games can be great, few are memorable, and Indivisible is one that I’ll be thinking of for some time. You’ve earned a new fan Lab Zero Games.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2
Were you like me as a kid, constantly drawing and imagining that those scribbles were coming to life? No? Well, this is how us kids entertained themselves before the days of the Internet and gaming as we know it. A lot of time has passed since those days where I was filled with imagination, but now, with Draw a Stickman: Epic 2, my drawings actually can actually come to life, even if they are more... uh, adult in nature.Not only does Draw a Stickman: Epic 2 allow you to draw anything you can conceive in your imagination and bring it to life, but it also includes the Drawn Below expansion, adding some more value to the low $9 CAD price tag. You begin by drawing your character, and while most will probably opt for some basic stickman of sorts, you’re given just enough sizes of pencils and colors that you could technically draw anything you wanted. I’m just a simple man-child, so of course, my character was very... uh, phallic. We’ll just leave it at that. Check online and you'll see a plethora of creativity that people have come up with, which is very impressive.
Your drawing instantly comes to life and can walk around with some basic animation. You then need to draw a friend, which can be anything you want, and this is where the narrative begins. There’s some sort of evil ink that takes over your friend, turning them from your comrade into an enemy, and what’s really cool is that the game’s title screen changes based on what you named your friend. It’s a neat little touch that I didn’t expect.
Here you’ll enter the handful of stages, which if you’re a good puzzle solver, won’t take you very long to complete. Yes, it can be quite short, but there’s a certain charm to the simplistic world and more than enough bonus collectibles for you to search for should you want to find extra colors to use among other extras. You must become the hero and save your friend, but you’re going to have to get your drawing hand ready, as you’ll be using a number of different pencil types throughout your journey, all of which have a different use.
I honestly had no idea that Draw a Stickman: Epic 2 was actually a puzzle game at heart. While it has some light combat and exploration elements, puzzles are generally what you’ll be solving. Starting you off with a simple green pencil, this allows you to draw leafs onto dead trees. Draw whatever shape you want on a dead tree with this pencil and leafs magically grow. This is how you’ll defeat enemies early on, as they don’t like to be touched my any color, so you have to lure them into the trees to defeat them.
As you progress, you’ll gain access to numerous pencils, all having their own specific use. While the puzzles themselves aren't too terribly challenging, and the gameplay is quite short overall, I don’t really want to give too much else away as then there wouldn’t be any surprises left. What I will say, is that you’ll have to also draw other items, like a sword or a pickaxe to use in your arsenal as well. Again, these can be any drawing you can imagine, so get creative.
You’ll unlock the ability to utilize your sketchbook as well. Not happy with your initial stickman drawing, or want to simply improve upon it? Here you can basically have numerous drawings for your characters and items saved in your sketchbook, allowing you to swap freely whenever you wish. There’s no benefit to having a better drawn character, but it can be quite entertaining and hilarious to see what you and your friends can come up with. Do a quick YouTube search and you’ll see the crazy kind of stuff people have come up with.
The world itself is very lighthearted and comes across as if it’s being told from a comic book that a child drew themselves. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it suits the overall mood and type of game, but my seven year old had an absolute blast drawing a handful of characters and seeing them come to life. Is this meant for a younger audience? Yeah somewhat, though the puzzles were a little complex for her at times and I had to intervene and do those parts for her. She simply wanted to spend her time drawing and seeing it walk around the world.
For less than $10 you can get a simple game in premise, but is only limited to your imagination. While I may find it hilarious drawing lewd and inappropriate characters and seeing them come to life, my innocent daughter had a great time just drawing a ton of characters and laughing the whole time. If you’re a creative artist or have kids, you can find a few laugh filled hours in Draw a Stickman: Epic 2; for everyone else, there’s not a lot of content to keep you going for more than an afternoon.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince
The Trine series has been around for a decade now, and in that time, has amassed a following, deservedly so. While I never got around to trying the series previously, the general consensus was that fans loved the first two, but the third departed a bit too much and wasn’t as well received because of it. It seems that developers Frozenbyte has taken that criticism and feedback to heart and has returned with an even better outing this time with Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince.Returning back to 2.5D glory, Trine 4 once again follows the iconic trio in a new adventure, to save Prince Selius from his nightmares that seemingly are able to invade the real world. Pontius the Knight, Zoya the Thief and Amadeus the Wizard band together once again for a new journey that takes place in a world that looks as if it’s taken directly out of some sort of children fairytale. The Prince has gone missing, so it’s up to your trio to not only find him, but to stop the world from being invaded by his nightmares.
While the majority of the gameplay will focus on puzzles, this also means there are a handful of combat elements as well. Each character has their own set of abilities and uses, but won’t be able to solve many, if any at all, puzzles on their own. A blend of platforming and puzzle solving, Trine 4 will absolutely put your brain to the test with its complex puzzles, as you’ll need to swap characters on the fly to solve each puzzle.
Amadeus is a wizard whom is able to conjure a cube into reality, which is then able to be used in a multitude of ways. Most common would be using the box as a platform or to reach higher places, though can be used in other ways as well. Need to lodge a see-saw in a certain way? Box! Need to block projectiles so you can jump by? Box! While he is unable to fight traditionally, he’s much more of a support character and has specific uses.
Zoya is an archer who primarily uses her bow and arrow to attach to hooks and create tightropes that can be walked on. While she has the ability to use her arrows against foes, it’s not very efficient, as you need to aim in a direction for a short period before firing. When she starts to become much more useful is when she gains access to fire and ice arrows that has a multitude of uses, such as freezing platforms in place.
Ponitus, my personal favorite, is a beer bellied knight whom is much more straight forward with his sword and shield. He’s best used in the combat sections, but has many more uses, like being able to reflect light beams with his shield or bounce flowing water in another direction. He’s also able to eventually dash into objects and send them flying to smash certain barriers as well.
Together they all have their own uses, but it’s how you combine their abilities together that will take practice. For example, maybe you need to conjure a box and place it somewhere so that Zoya can attach a rope to it and swing to the next area. Or maybe Zoya can make a tightrope that Pontius can get across and reflect back a light beam to unlock a door. There’s a million situations like this that will take some practice, but being able to swap characters on the fly is simple and instantaneous. There are even skill trees for each character, adding some more depth and unlocking new abilities as you progress, like different types of arrows, other conjured objects and more.
Like any puzzle game, things start out quite basic and you’ll be flying through them with ease. Eventually they become a little more challenging and require some thought, then you’ll eventually hit a brick wall of frustration. That being said, the puzzles are quite clever and almost always require more than one character to solve. Once you start playing co-op, this is even more true, but more on that shortly.
Given that the prince is making his nightmares come to life, now and then you’ll come to a room where a bunch of enemies spawn, unable to progress until they are all defeated. These generic battles aren’t very difficult, as I simply use Pontius and slash away until they are all gone, but the bosses are a little more tricky and involved. I’m guessing that the combat sections were added to give some gameplay variety, but honestly, these were the sections I enjoyed the least. Trine 4 is a puzzle game at its core, so deviating from its greatest strength seems like an odd design decision. The fighting simply feels bland and repetitive and I wouldn’t have held it against it if it was missing these sections completely.
Just as I thought I was really getting the hand of solving Trine’s puzzles, I opted to try the game in co-op. With support of up to 4 players online or local, I thought it was going to be cake walk with another player able to also choose any of the three characters as well. What I didn’t know is that Trine 4 automatically scales a majority of the puzzles based on how many co-op players there are. While figuring out a puzzle playing solo could be tough, having another player who has their own responsibilities that needs to work in tandem with you, is a whole other level of challenge.
Once you need to deal with mirrors reflecting light, portals, magnets and more, adding another player essentially doubles the amount of ‘steps’ required to solve said puzzles. Yes, it’s still a better experience playing cooperatively with a friend, but the challenge does ramp up; I can’t even imagine how challenging the 4 player puzzles must be. Even though it was much tougher playing cooperatively with a friend, it was a better overall experience with two people trying to solve a puzzle as opposed to being stumped on your own, even if your partner can't always pull their own puzzle solving weight.
What maybe surprised me the most though was just how gorgeous Trine 4 can look at times. It’s as if the trio’s adventure was taken straight out of a fairytale story somewhere. The models for each character is impressive, but it’s the world and environment itself that really shined. There’s a whole pallet of beautiful colors that are utilized, bright and pastel with a ton of charm. Even though the game itself is in 2.5D, the world looks fully realized and quite the sight to simply take in. The audio is just as impressive, with an engaging soundtrack that suits each backdrop and excellent voice work overall from every character.
For as much as I enjoyed Trine 4, it felt very crowded when it came to mechanics and having to utilize certain abilities and combinations. Yes, you’re introduced to them gradually, but it’s a lot to take in and remember. I don’t think anyone would be saddened if the combat sections were cut, but I understand why narratively they’re included. While I may have missed the boat on the first few Trine games, I certainly won’t from this point forward; you have a new fan.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Hunt: Showdown
Back when Hunt: Showdown released in Game Preview, we got to check it out and came away with some hope that when it was released as a final product, that many additions and improvements would have been made. Well, that day has come, as Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown has now been officially released. At its core, Hunt: Showdown is a competitive PvPvE matchup set in the Louisiana swamps where you’re fighting otherworldly creatures and monsters and fending off other players. It’s an interesting premise, and while it’s definitely improved over the last few months since I’ve played last while in Game Preview, it still feels as though more works needs to go into it to really make it something special.Seemingly set in the old Western times, you’re on the hunt for some mythical and powerful beasts, but before you can vanquish them, you’ll need to gather clues as to where their hideout may be in the massive swampland. Along the way though you’re going to come across other beasts, zombie-like creatures and even other players, all trying to kill you and your team.
Once you find a boss, and if you manage to kill it, you’ll still need to make your way to the exit on the edges of the map, but will have all of the other bounty hunter players chasing you as well. It’s very challenging to get the hang of and you’re going to die a lot, but if you persevere and put the time required to level up and learn the mechanics, it starts to become more enjoyable. That’s a big if though, as when you fail, you’re character is permanently dead after a certain level, as is their gear. The only upside is that the experience you’ve earned is then shared into your Bloodline and can be used for another new hunter, but more on that shortly.
You only begin with a simple gun and not much else. You also have a special power called Dark Sight that allows you to peer into another realm, highlighting where clues to find the boss location is currently at. As you find clues, the map will show an area of interest, narrowing you in on the boss’ lair, but you’ll need to constantly press a button and check the map, as there’s no mini-map on the HUD unfortunately. Keep in mind that all of these matches are online, so there’s no pausing, so you better find a safe spot to check your map to figure out where to navigate to.
This Dark Sight darkens the whole screen, allowing you to see some glowing blue particles in the far distance to wherever a clue is located. This feels cumbersome, though I understand the reasoning narratively, but you’re unable to fire your weapon when focusing on utilizing this power. The other main use of this Dark Sight is that it will also mark where a player carrying a bounty to the exit is currently, making it much more difficult to survive as the player(s) who defeated the boss. Generally you’re going to die well before a boss fight though, sometimes from the PvE monsters, but usually from some massively overleveled players that are also matched up with you.
Bounty Hunt matches consist of up to 12 players, either all solo, duos or trios. The problem is that you’re never allowed to see a player list of the server, or have any idea of how many remain, if any at all. There’s no messages showing that someone has died or left the server, so you always have to be weary and on your toes, keeping an eye out for other deadly players. My biggest gripe with the Game Preview version was that there seems to be some terrible matchmaking, meaning you as a level 1 will be paired up against max level or prestige players. This obviously makes for a horrible imbalance, and when you’re spending the first few hours simply trying to figure out the mechanics, it makes for a terribly frustrating experience. sadly this wasn't remedied for the full release, and you'll find the same frustrations that I had. That being said, when the shoe is on the other foot, you’ve put in your time, leveled up your Hunters, unlocked a plethora of new deadly weapons and get paired with some easy kills, it’s hard to not take advantage. Though to get to that point you’re going to have to really dedicate some time into Hunt: Showdown.
While there’s only two or so maps, they are quite large, the bosses you face are randomized, as is the time of day or night you play in. Playing in daytime is absolutely nothing like playing when it’s dark out, so the experience will vary nearly every time you queue up for a Hunt. In the Game Preview versions there were only two bosses available, though it looks like one more has been added since. Once players in a match find enough clues to locate the randomized boss’ lair, you’ll fight against the Butcher, Spider or newly added Assassin.
These bosses are huge, require a ton of damage to defeat, and once the location is known, you can bet that other players will be heading to the location as well, either to help defeat the boss, or kill players and extract the bounty for themselves. The Spider is just that, a massive arachnid that can poison you and deplete your health. The Butcher is a brute of a monster that can easily kill you in a single swing if you get caught in a bad spot. The Assassin is quick, nimble and able to ‘teleport’ out of harm’s way by turning into a swarm of insects.
Each boss is challenging in its own way and requires a specific strategy to beat; not even factoring in the other players that may try and ambush you. One thing I noted in the Game Preview version that still appears to be broken is that the bosses are unable to leave their lair. For example, if they are in a barn, you can simply stand at one of the doorway entrances, pop a few shots, back away and wait for them to come back in range since they’re unable to leave their building. I’m not sure if this is by design, but it defeats much of the challenge to the fights themselves. The flipside to this is that other players also know this strategy, so you can easily ambush other players, or be aware that they’ll be looking for you outside said doorways.
Once you reach a specific level, your Hunters are prone to permadeath. While they’ll die and you’ll lose all their gear, their experience goes towards your overall Bloodline level. This XP can then be used towards a new or other Hunter, so it's a trade-off to death in a way. It’s an interesting mechanic, though should you be able to extract and escape with the bounty, you’ll earn much more money and experience to improve your Hunters.
There is DLC available as well, as we got to try out The Legends of the Bayou add-on. This DLC first and foremost is basically a cosmetic pack and doesn’t really offer any advantages for gameplay itself. Essentially this DLC gets you two new Legendary Hunters; The Bone Doctor and The Weird Sister, two legendary weapons and 500 Blood Bonds, a form of currency to purchase said characters and items. The odd thing is that you’re still forced to ‘pay’ for the DLC characters, and not simply given to you, with the Blood Bonds you’re given, which I found an odd design choice. The new Hunters look quite unique compared to your standard randomized Hunters, but that’s one of the perks of purchasing said DLC, as you are getting a ‘cool’ skin for your character that most won't have.
Get ready for some serious loading times. From pressing Play to the start of the match, you might as well plan to go make a snack or get a drink ready. The loading time is quite lengthy, and while it runs fine once loaded, it’s excruciatingly long at times. Factor in that max level players will kill you on sight almost instantaneously, and you’ll have to get ready for the lengthy loading all over again. This forced PvP element is what really deters me from continuing to play long term. The skill and equipment gap is simply much too large, and being matched up against players like this is sure to deter new comers that are struggling to simply learn the mechanics and intricacies of the gameplay itself.
While Hunt: Showdown is nothing special to look at from an environment perspective, especially at night when you’re able to barely see anything a new feet in front of you, where it truly does shine is in its audio. Every monster has a unique sound, stepping through the swamp or forest will sound realistic, with the swashing sound of running through water, to the snapping of branches as you walk over them. If there’s a doorway with chains hanging in it, they will clang as you pass through, not only adding to the creepy vibe overall, but possibly alerting an enemy team to your whereabouts. The audio absolutely blew me away and I actually use Hunt: Showdown as one of my games to test new headphones out with; the atmosphere is that engrossing and sucks you right into the world.
While it’s come a long way since I played it in its first iteration from Game Preview, it still feels as though something is missing. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the forced PvP elements, as I’ve died to other players much more than any boss or monster in the game. Yes, that’s part of the experience, but it would have been a less frustrating experience if I was at least paired up with players of equal skill and level, not those that have done it all. There’s obviously a following, but with a PvP-less option, I know I would have stuck around longer with some friends trying to collect those bounties.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
We Were Here Too
Have you ever wanted to test your true friendship with someone? Think you and them have amazing communication? We Were Here Too will prove to you how terrible your communication is and surely test the bonds of your friendship. I used to think Mario Kart was the game that did this previously, but after spending a few curse filled hours attempting to solve puzzles in We Were Here Too with a good buddy, we surely put our friendship to the test, and almost didn’t pass.The Premise of We Were Here Too (WWHT) is very similar to the first entry in the series; a two player cooperative puzzle adventure where you’re stuck in a castle, split up with only a radio to communicate with one another and need to help each other escape an abandoned castle.
We Were Here Too opens with a cutscene showing a group of adventurers traversing through a blizzard. They get split up and find themselves reaching for a castle in the distance for safety. They arrive but realize shortly after that they are split up into different areas of the castle. With only their radios for communication, they’ll need to help each other escape, but doing so will be anything but easy.
Played in first person, We Were Here Too is a forced cooperative puzzle adventure where you’ll need to communicate with another player, online (sorry, no local co-op) to escape a variety of rooms and solve puzzles along the way. Until the very end, you’ll be separated, unable to see what the other player sees; this is where your handy radio comes into play.
Communication will need to be constant, clear and concise if you want to not only get out of this dungeon together, but spare your actual friendship as well. Controls are quite simplistic, as you move and look around with the sticks, interact with ‘A’, and ‘Left Bumper’ for your one-way radio. Since you and your friend are separated and can’t see one another, each will have a specific role to play in every puzzle.
Every puzzle requires some immense cooperation, and since you only have a radio to communicate with, you better hope that you can describe the smallest details you see as good as you think you can. I’ll let you know right now, it’s a lot harder than you’d expect. For example, I’ll be locked in room A with a bunch of symbols on the wall. You, in room B, will have some sort of puzzle to solve, but won’t have any clue how. This is where I describe what I see in my room, hopefully properly, allowing you to figure out a solution to escape. Once you solve the puzzle, we both get to move onto another room separately. The puzzles are much more complex than that, but that’s the general idea of the gameplay structure.
Puzzles become increasingly more difficult as you progress, with the last handful becoming borderline infuriating. One in particular had me trying to go up a spiral staircase, but being blocked by a locked gate. The only thing I could see was a picture on the wall of a cross with different shapes in each quadrant, as if you unfolded a cube. My friend, had a room full of cubes and needed to match the one I was describing and put it on a pedestal. If he got it right, the gate opened and I walked up the stairs and we attempted the next one. Oh, what I didn’t mention is that the stairs were slowly retracting into the wall, so if he didn’t solve it in time I would fall into the lava below and we’d have to restart. To make it more chaotic, if he chose the wrong cube, a handful of stairs would retract at once, so you can start to see how vital key and important your communication will be.
Another puzzle that almost broke us was me having to navigate a circular maze of sorts. I had to reach a specific marker on the ground before the puzzle reset, and since it’s played in first person, I was essentially running it blind. My friend had a vantage point from up above though, so he had to quickly guide and direct me of which way to go and what marker I needed to get to next. I will say, we did have to cheat for this one and co-stream, as I simply couldn’t do it with his poor directions. Things become frantic and once frustration sets in, as communication drops as well. Most puzzles seem to be randomized every time you die as well, so there’s no simply looking up a walkthrough of solutions, only how to arrive to the solutions themselves is key.
You each have a one way radio, and WWHT suggests playing without party chat that has open mics. Playing properly with in-game voice, each person can talk, but only one at a time, indicated by the light on your walkie. If your light is on, that means your partner is talking. If you don’t let go of your radio button, neither of you will hear each other. This means you need to start to respect when each other is talking, taking turns and listening. Yes, you could use party chat, Skype or whatever form of communication, but We Were Here Too truly is meant to be experienced this way, and is better for it.
Having to explain what certain shapes and symbols looks like seems easy, but having to actually do so, and with a timer on some puzzles, is much more difficult than you would initially expect. For example, one room had me locked in with a bunch of weapons on a rack and armored knights not holding anything. He had to explain what knight was holding which weapon in which hands, all while the room was closing in on him, close to crushing him. I had to not only follow his orders and what he was communicating, but also reverse the crushing wall every so often with the turn of a wheel. Again, communication is key, and without it, you won’t even pass the first puzzle in the 3-4 hour adventure.
Can you cheat by sending pictures to one another, or in my case, streaming your game so each other can see what you see? Absolutely. Do I suggest it? Absolutely not. This really was a last ditch effort to try and reach the end when we only had a few puzzles left, but it kills the importance of communication, which is what WWHT is based upon. Yes, you’re going to swear at one another, more than once, but when you do finally escape, I guarantee your communication between one another will be better for it.
As for its visual and audio, it’s a mixed bag. Visually, the castle and environments look great. The castle has that dark, gloomy and spooky vibe to it and the puzzle symbols can be clearly read and interpreted. As for the character models and animations themselves, when you do finally see one another, they are a lot left to be desired. Yes, I know it’s a small indie game, so it’s hard to hold it against it, but it looks very stiff and out of place once you do finally get to be in the same room together. Audio is quite decent overall, with the castle having spooky sounds and many audio cues to tell you if you’ve solved a puzzle or done something right or incorrect.
The main problem with We Were Here Too is that there’s virtually no replay value. Yes, you could play through twice to see and try the other half of each puzzle, but it’s akin to seeing the main plot twist in Fight Club or Sixth Sense, you simply can’t recreate that magic you experience the first time around. Once you realize there’s a ‘secret’ ending, you could justify the second playthrough, though hopefully your communication has improved since your first outing.
If you’re a puzzler fan and have a friend that is also like minded, then We Were Here Too should be absolutely on your radar, as this sequel will put your puzzle solving, and friendship, to the test. Given that We Were Here Too is relatively cheap, even though it has a short playtime and not much replayability, I did quite enjoy my time with it. I certainly learned that me and by buddy have to work on our communication and that if we somehow got into a situation like this in real life, we’d have absolutely no chance of survival or I’d leave him behind and save myself, which I’m OK with.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series, The
I’ve been a Walking Dead fan since its graphic novel days, before the show even began. Since the show grew in popularity, the brand itself has exploded into many spinoffs, including a handful of games that were lovingly developed by the previous Telltale Studios. The first episode of Season 1 released back in 2012, and since then, we’ve had a handful of follow-up seasons and spinoffs as fans clamored for more characters, stories and lore. Finally, everything Walking Dead related to Telltale’s series is at last in one place, including all four of the main seasons, 400 Days and The Walking Dead: Michonne as well. Taking place over 23 episodes and easily lasting more than 50 hours of gameplay, there’s a ton of extra bonuses as well that justify The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series title.To fully understand and appreciate how significant this collection and release is, you need to also be aware of the saddening story behind the rise and fall of Telltale Games. While I won’t delve into too much detail here, as that’s for another story, the main takeaway is that Telltale was being mismanaged for so long that halfway through the development of the final season, they closed their doors for good.
This not only left many out of work, but fans wondering if they were going to see Clementine’s story finished, a character and narrative that fans have waited years to see the conclusion of. Long story short, Robert Kirkman’s company, the creator of Walking Dead, Skybound Games, came in to save the day and finish the final season with some of the original development team. Not only did we almost not to get to see Clementine’s story to its grand finale, but now this collection wraps up everything in one neat little package with a bunch of bonus extras as well.
Taking place in the same universe as the comic and show, The Telltale games told a story that revolves around a young child name Clementine. From the beginning of the first season, she begins out scared and alone when her parents are nowhere to be found, but by the end of the final season, is easily on par with any of the cannon characters from the comics or show in terms of strength and importance to others.
If you’ve not played any of The Walking Dead games previously, you should know that Telltale games always have a heavy emphasis on narrative. Choices you make (mostly) matter and affect the outcome of events later on. Yes, you’re still going to go from point A to point B in the story, regardless of your choices for the most part, but as the saying goes, “It’s not the destination, but the journey”. This couldn’t be any more true to the series, so get ready for an emotional ride.
Season One / 400 Days:
I’m not sure anyone knew what to expect the reaction to a narrative based Walking Dead game was going to be before its initial release. Sure, I’ve played Telltale games previous to this, but after this inaugural episode, it was clear that Telltale had something truly special on their hands and hit a stride of compelling storytelling rarely seen in gaming. While the series revolves around Clementine, a small first grader in this season, you actually play as Lee Everett, who vows to watch after her when he finds her alone at her house.
Taking Clem under his wing, you’ll teach her how to survive in this new harsh world. Sometimes that’s deciding to protect her from things she doesn’t need to know, or simply keeping her hair short so it can’t get grabbed by walkers. Their relationship blossoms to a point where they would consider each other family and do anything for one another. With a handful of supporting characters, including Glenn, weaving the game into cannon from the comics and show, the season unravels, forcing you to make impossible decisions at every turn and will leave you in tears if you have any sort of heart.
Season 2:
When the final episode of Season 1 ended, it wasn’t clear if there was going to be a follow-up season or not. Luckily we got one, and got to continue Clementine’s journey, though this time you were in complete control of Clem trying to survive the apocalypse with a new group. This is where we start to see Clem grow into who she’s destined to be, becoming quite the bad ass along the way for such a young girl.
Season 3:
While I was always excited for a new season of Walking Dead, Season 3 was easily the letdown of the series. Here you play as Javier, and while Clem is involved in the story, she has a much smaller role and sits backseat for much of the narrative. There’s nothing wrong with the season per-se, but it was the one that I felt the least connection to.
Season 4:
The final season. This is where Clementine’s journey ends. Again, she is the focus of the story, along with AJ, the child for whom she’s now watching after and raising as her own family. They find a boarding school run by kids, which adds a unique dynamic when she’s thrust into an ongoing battle. Just after episode two of four is when the Telltale closure happened, so fans were unsure of what was going to happen with the remaining episodes of the season. I’ll admit, I was legitimately saddened when news broke, for the employees, but also unsure if I’d see Clem’s story finished after all these years and being so invested into the series.
While only four episodes long, it feels the most structured and focused overall. They knew the end was coming, so many things were wrapped up. New elements were added and a ton of nostalgia for fans that have been around since the beginning. While it’s a miracle the season was finished with Skybound coming in to complete it, the fact that there’s closure at all is something I’m more than thankful for. It’s a hell of a journey that Clem partakes, and even after years since its first release, I usually get around to playing a season or two now and then; that’s how strong the narrative and storytelling is.
MICHONNE:
One of the comic and show favorites, Michonne, got her own spinoff story. Only 3 episodes long, it’s the shortest of the series and doesn’t directly interject with Clem’s story. This was more of a fan service for followers of the comic. Taking place when she leaves in issue 126 and returning in 139, this mini-series essentially shows you what happened and where she went. Some of her origin narrative is also explored, adding more depth to the fan favorite character.
Given that this is the Definitive Series edition, there’s more here than simply bundling all of the seasons and spin-offs. There’s actually a decent amount of extra content within that is sure to delight longtime fans and give more insight into the game and development process itself. The most notable addition is the graphic improvements and options. There’s a new “Graphic Black” setting that matches the style of the final season and brings it in line with the graphic novels with much thicker black lines and shading. Some scenes become much darker because of this optional style, but it really does make it look more in line with the graphic novels if you’re a fan. Luckily it can be toggled on and off on a whim, but this coupled with the improved lighting, animation and lip syncing, it felt almost like a new game at times.
There is also a plethora of behind the scenes bonuses that include watching playthroughs of some of the most critical episodes, complete with a commentary track comprised of developers, and even the voice over artists themselves. These require some commitment though, as they are roughly around two hours long each. There’s even a short documentary about the Telltale closure, though purposely avoiding many of the ugly details. My only complaint about these commentary tracks is that it seems as though the subtitles are hardcoded into the videos themselves, unable to toggle them off.
There are other typical bonuses as well, such as being able to use a music player to play the tracks across all of the seasons and a 3D model viewer that allows you to inspect, rotate and play with the character models. I’m glad that they’ve decided to keep the original season menus intact though as a great throwback for longtime fans, though there’s a new overall Definitive Series over-menu that needs to be navigated first.
While the majority of your gameplay will consist of choosing dialogue options, hoping you made the ‘right’ decision, there are some exploring and navigating elements as well, though not as prominent until the final season. Being created in a custom engine, the original releases were quite laggy, buggy and full of issues. It seems the majority of these issues have been remedied, as it felt incredibly smoother, and many mechanics, especially lip syncing, have been drastically improved. It absolutely felt that this edition is the way Telltale originally intended the experience to be.
With about 50 hours of content to get through, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series is the absolute best way to experience one of my favorite games in recent memory. If you’ve never played the series previously, or never got around to finishing all of the seasons, this Definitive Series is the absolute best way to experience one of the most emotionally engaging narratives in gaming in recent history.
While the closure of one of my favorite studios is a sad cliffnote to the series, Clementine’s journey is one of the most notable and memorable stories I’ve experienced in any medium previously, largely due to the perfect performances by the voice over cast and writing team at Telltale. Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye to something you love, and while I’ve already said my goodbyes to Clementine and her story, it’s a journey that I’ll always treasure having experienced over the course of nearly a decade.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Bus Simulator
There are niche games, and then there are super niche games. One such super niche title is the newly released on console Bus Simulator. I never used to think that anyone would want to play odd games like Farm Simulator, but after reviewing a few, I learned to see the appeal. Bus Simulator is no different, as there’s a crowd and audience for everything, even being a city bus driver.Bus Simulator is true to its name. Not only are you a bus driver, but part city planner as well, as you’ll be creating the routes, managing staff, efficiency and more. You’ll have access to a handful of different licensed buses from Mercedes, MAN, IVECO and Setra. I can only assume that these are the go-to for names in the bus world, but they appear to be and are said to be authentic. Not only can you simulate your bus career, but you can bring along friends online to join your company and play with them as well.
Your bus career begins in Seaside Valley, a city sorely needing someone to spearhead the transportation infrastructure development. Seaside Valley has many different and unique districts, from residential, commercial and industrial, just like any large city. Your opening tutorial will show you how to create a small route with just a few stops then drive it, but eventually you’ll need to create many varying routes, hiring drivers, purchasing buses and more, adding some long term goals to strive towards, rather than simply driving a bus itself.
As you perform good routes and bring passengers to their destinations, you’ll earn money along the way. This is how you’ll afford to purchase new buses and hire more staff to drive the routes you’ve created, which in turn earns you more money. You’ll also earn a star rating based on the route you’ve driven and how well you drove. You’ll lose rating if you drive recklessly, hit potholes, speed bumps, speed, crash, etc. Drive well, stay the speed limit, arrive on time and use your turn signals and you’ll earn more. Drive better, earn better.
While you can freely drive any routes you create, there is some mission structure given to guide you along the way on how to connect areas and try new things like night driving and return routes as you aim to make your city more connected. There are a ton of other options if you want to boost the difficulty and effort required, like giving passengers change if they need to purchase a ticket, picking up garbage customers leave behind' a more realistic and challenging mode and across the nearly 6 square miles of roads.
You may think that driving is a bus is simply getting from point A to B, but there’s a lot more than goes into it, especially if you want to keep passengers happy by being prompt and drive properly. Sometimes you’ll have to face against freak weather, speed traps, terrible drivers, traffic, construction zones, fare evaders and more.
If you’ve played any of the Farm Simulator games, you’ll feel right at home knowing that your buses have an obscene amount of knobs, levers and buttons, all of which have a specific purpose that you’ll need to utilize. The initial tutorial will teach you the basics, but there’s a handy radial menu to quickly access certain toggles like lights, wheelchair ramp, E-brake and more. If you choose to play with cashier mode on, this is where you’ll need to see what type of fair they want to purchase, then give them the appropriate amount of change. I found this to be WAY too time consuming and tedious, but the option is there for those that want the realism or challenge.
What did surprise me was that you’re actually able to customize your buses with different graphics, colors and vinyls. Not only can you color your bus to nearly anything you like, but you can put different patterns and graphics on it as well. No, you’re not going to have any crazy layering like we’ve come to expect from a Forza obviously, but the fact that it’s there is a really cool touch and was unexpected. If this supported mods, it would have been awesome to have actual ads on the sides of your fleet.
Why drive alone though? Invite your friends to ride alongside you in real time; another feature I didn’t really expect. Up to four players can play together, though I found the most fun when one of my friends came with my on my route and simply pestered passengers to see their ticket. If he found a fare jumper, they actually get fined and we earn more money. Thankfully there wasn’t a happiness meter attached to the riders though, as I'm sure we would have had a harassment suit filed against us.
Visually, Bus Simulator is pretty terrible to look at in general. Yes, the internal bus view is recreated from its real life counterpart and looks decent, but basically everything else is incredibly dated. Buses themselves look plain and uninspired, but the models and animations for the passengers are exceptionally terrible. The same goes for the voice acting overall, though thankfully the bus sounds themselves are somewhat decent, as I've come to know the hydraulics lowering sound all too well. While some parts aren’t as realistic as can be, as passengers are friendly, cars let you merge and there’s no weirdos on the bus, everything else is as authentic as can be in relation to the actual driving itself.
Bus Simulator aims to be just that, the defacto simulation experience for not only driving a bus, but all of the other work that goes into running a transportation company for a large city. Yes, many will find the gameplay quite repetitive and dull, but there’s a certain calmness to it that I enjoyed and found relaxing. Yes, it’s a seriously niche game that will cater to a very specific audience, but if you’re in that demographic, there’s no better options out there, even if it’s not very pretty to look at.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
GreedFall
From the first time I saw a Greedfall trailer I knew I was going to be hooked. What’s not to like? It’s got a very Witcher 3/Dragon Age vibe but set in a colonial backdrop, reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed III. If this hasn’t already peaked your interest, then you’ll be happy to know that I enjoyed the vast majority of my time with Greedfall, even after about 30 hours worth. French studio, Spiders, last known for Technomancer, have finally brought a release that not only stands up alongside others in the genre, but stands out as well. Yes, it’s flawed, but I couldn’t put it down until the credits (eventually) rolled and came away incredibly impressed by its beauty, mechanics and depth of lore.There’s a horrible disease spreading called the Malichor, seemingly unstoppable and killing nearly everyone it infects. With no known cure, De Sardet and their cousin set out for a mysterious and relatively unknown island, Teer Fradee, in search for said cure. Having a noble background, you’ll start an investigation into the Malichor, what’s causing it, and more importantly, how to stop it. Doing so will not be a simple task though, as you’ll need to navigate not only dangerous lands with wild beasts and enemies, but have to handle the political sides of a civil war between settlers and natives.
With a 17th century European backdrop, the world is completely believable, looks the part and is surprisingly gorgeous to take in its vistas. The towns and cities are bustling and look aged, and the woodlands have some great backdrops full of foliage and pathways that house secrets. Your dear cousin is taking the new role of Governor on Teer Fradee, so naturally you’ll be given special access to areas and leading the expedition to find a cure. As the Ambassador, you’ll have no navigate very delicate situations when it comes to politics and warring tribes, as well as beasts trying to eat you.
I don’t want to give much more away about the narrative, but I will say that it’s wonderfully written and keeps you hooked until near the very end. My only real complaint is that it feels very padded near the last act or so, as I was forced to help many people to progress, but to help them I needed to prove my worth by helping other people, and so on. When I thought I was at the end initially, I still had a few more hours to go before the credits rolled. Some may see that as great value, but it definitely felt like it overstayed its welcome just a little too long. That being said, the writing was fantastic, the story compelling and the voice acting top notch.
If I had to choose a single game to best compare Greedfall to, it would be most likely Dragon Age. You’re on foot exploring a vast island with magical properties. You’ll upgrade your weapons and armor, have companions of your choosing at your side and be hooked on a deeply lore rich narrative for at least a few dozen hours. You’ll first begin by choosing your male or female character then customizing their appearance; choose wisely, as you’ll be seeing this face for a very long time with hours of cutscenes and dialogue.
From there, you’ll choose a starting ‘class’ per-se, setting you on a guided pathway of skills and abilities, but you’re by no means locked into that specific playstyle, as you’ll be able to earn many skill points and abilities to completely customize your character to play however you wish. I chose the typical melee warrior build, but by the end of my journey I was able to heal my party, set traps, explode bombs and use the highest tier guns as well. Your initial choices are just a starting point, but you are able to reset all of your points and abilities should you wish later on. There are a ton of different skills and abilities, allowing for very unique gameplay and custom builds, so it’s a matter of experimenting and finding what works best for you.
As your adventure progresses, you’ll meet new companions that will aid you in your journey for their own reasons. You’ll be able to take two alongside you at all times, and they are also categorized into specific classes. Since I was a melee archetype, I chose to have the healer and the ranged damage dealer alongside me, but there are other choices as well that can mesh quite well together. When you outgrow your gear and find better pieces, you’re also able to give them to your companions, like a hand-me-down to a younger sibling. Any weapons or armor that isn’t going to be used can either be sold or deconstructed for materials, which in turn will be used to improve your gear, but more on that shortly.
As you explore towns and countryside, you’ll unlock camps and villages which can in turn be used as fast travel points. While Greedfall is made up of a bunch of areas, you’re able to freely fast travel to any point you’ve been to at any camp or zone boundary. This will save you an immense amount of time, as Teer Fradee is deceptively large. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to find a correct path when having to search for something or someone up or downstairs, but you’ll need to refer to the map quite often as there’s no glowing breadcrumb trail, just an icon on your HUD pointing you in the correct general direction.
Having to navigate a political landscape was an aspect I didn’t expect to be as deep as it was. There’s so much lore and history with all of the races and factions, making navigating certain talks and deals quite tricky at times. In general, the settlers and natives are always blaming each other and fighting, so it’s going to take a lot of patience and proof that you can be trusted enough to help them with whatever they want. If you’re dealing with someone that absolutely despises the natives, but have one alongside you as your companion, it’s going to be a much trickier situation to talk your way out of. Since I dumped my skill points into Charisma, there was a ton of conversations that I was able to talk my way out of, or influence them how I wanted, to get the outcome I wanted, though brute force is an option as well.
Saying that there is a healthy amount of quests is an understatement. Not even including the main quest storyline, there’s so much side quest content that could easily keep you busy for many hours. While it may not be on par with the likes of a Witcher 3 in terms of content and depth, it’s still a staggering amount to take in if you’re a completionist. Even better, quests can sometimes be completed in different ways, depending on your skills and choices.
For example, when confronted with a looming battle, do you go head first into war, or sneak around finding dirt on your opponent and blackmail them to stand down? Maybe to gain someone’s trust you’ll need to prove that you hurt another faction. Do you do that or lie, hoping there are no repercussions? Because I had max lock picking skill, I was able to bypass a lot of extra searching guards and rooms for keys, saving a lot of time. There are many situations where you’ll need to decide between stealth, diplomacy or combat, and there’s no wrong choice, just yours. Keep in mind that many of these choices do ultimately matter, as you do have a rating of how the factions like you, which will affect outcomes and options further in your adventure.
Combat feels great and responsive, and with a vast skill tree, you can customize to any playstyle you wish. Able to wield two weapons, I opted for a quick one handed sword and a secondary two hander that cuts down shields and armor. Eventually I was able to pepper in gunfire, magic and traps as well, with my companions keeping my health topped off and damaging from afar. If the real-time combat becomes too overwhelming, there’s also a tactical pause that allows you to figure out your next move and queue up an ability. While I opted to hotkey these to my D-pad, there were certainly times where the tactical pause came in handy against the bigger bosses.
Combat and quests is how you’ll earn experience and level up, allowing you to put more points into the skill tree and unlock new perks and abilities. If you decide to spend points into crafting, you’ll be able to upgrade your gear that has open slots. This allows you to further customize your gear and add a multitude of stats to your gear, but it also physically changes its visual look as well. When I added a rare purple handle to my sword, it had a different look for that specific spot. The same goes for armor, as adding plate additions actually made the armor look slightly different. The crafting may not be the deepest system out there, but it sure was fun and enjoyable to upgrade my gear beyond its basic stats when I started getting high end purple and gold tier gear.
I have to be completely honest; I don’t know what I was going to expect from Greedfall before starting it, as it’s from a smaller studio that’s never done anything this vast before aside from Technomancer. Playing on an Xbox One X, I can safely say that Greedfall looks absolutely stunning at times. The world is created beautifully, be it a city or woodland, lighting is great and monster design top notch as well. Yes, there were bugs and glitches like framerate drops and screen tearing here and there, but nothing that really drops you from the immersion for too long. Main characters look great and have a ton of detail, though secondary NPC’s seem to either simply stand around or wander aimlessly.
The soundtrack is just as good, as it fits the atmosphere and backdrop of the dark and gloomy world of Teer Fradee. As you near enemies or have to be careful, the music changes to indicate danger, swords clang and magic sounds powerful. The voice over work across the board was more than impressive and completely believable, so kudos to Spiders for stepping up, as poor voice acting in a 30+ hour game would have been utterly disappointing.
Having spent nearly 30 hours in Greedfall, I’m glad to have experienced it. The narrative is deep, rich of lore, complex and has many twists and turns; it’s just a shame it feels a little too long by the end with some superficial padding of forced side quests. If you’re a fan of Dragon Age or Witcher 3 and have been craving a new RPG to sink some hours into with some depth, Greedfall should be at the top of your list. It’s a shame that it released in the busiest holiday window and will be overlooked by all the other AAA games out there, but those who manage find it amongst the crowd and give it a chance should be more than pleasantly surprised.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship
There used to be a time where I would play nearly every rally game I could find, especially when they hit their stride with the Colin McRae games back in the early 2000’s, which eventually morphed into the Dirt series we know today. Around the same time, the WRC series emerged as well, though for whatever reason I never dived head first into them. It’s been a long time since a dedicated rally game has caught my attention, though to be fair, with the Forza Horizon series basically encompassing all different race styles, which may be what has kept my rally hunger at bay all these years.Today is a new day though, and after sinking a good dozen or so hours into WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship, based on the current 2019 WRC Season, I may have become addicted all over again to the absolutely insane racing that takes an unfathomable amount of skill, braveness and just a hint of crazy. Have you ever watched an actual WRC rally race? You need to have steel balls if you were going to try and attempt that, though the same could be said for the spectators that watch along the sidelines, inches from a speeding car on the verge of chaos.
It’s been a little bit of a layoff since the previous WRC 7, as it was welcomed with lukewarm reviews overall. It seems though that with the time off, Bigben and Kylotonn have improved on nearly every facet and mechanic, making WRC 8 a truly authentic experience that fans should appreciate. Not only is it the official simulation of the World Rally Championship, you’re going to have access to actual WRC drivers and co-drivers, WRC vehicles, WRC 2, Junior WRC, legendary cars, but you’ll do so over the course of 14 rallies, equaling easily over 100 stages, varying in challenge, difficulty, weather and more.
While there are a handful of modes to play and try out, Career Mode is where I spent at least 90% of my time with WRC 8. While the bulk of your gameplay will obviously be racing in the stages and championships, there’s a whole new element to the Career mode this time around, as you’ll actually partake in being a part of the whole team like a manager. That’s right, a racing team is a lot more than its driver and mechanics. You’ll have to hire and pay staff for R&D, repairing damage to your vehicle between stages, finance managers, meteorologists, engineers and more. This whole ‘team sim’ aspect actually took me by surprise, but I did enjoy it, as you had a balance to budget and do more than simply jumping from race to race.
You’ll have a calendar where you can see the upcoming events of the series you’ll take part in. Between these large events you can choose how to fill your days, such as resting if you simply want to get to the event sooner, or maybe try out a legendary race, race in some extreme weather or even test out a new manufacturer’s vehicle. There are even rare events that you might be able to partake in, so there’s always something interesting to do other than the main rallies.
Another aspect that surprised me was that there’s a fully-fledged skill tree as well. As you earn XP for racing, you’ll be able to spend skills in a vast skill tree, of which there are four main categories. I decided to focus on earning more money, job roles and such for my team, but there are a bunch of different ‘builds’ you could work towards. It added a little more personalization to the campaign, setting it apart from others which I liked.
It seems the extra time in development has helped improve almost every facet of WRC 8, from its improved and more robust campaign mode, much more impressive graphics, a new physic engine, and my favorite, the dynamic weather system. Make no mistake, WRC 8 is much more on the simulation side as opposed to arcade, though there are a bunch of difficulty options and assists you can toggle if you’re new to the series. Be prepared to crash a lot in the beginning though, as I would nearly go off the track at every corner early on, but once you start to get a feel for it, the experience completely changes for the better.
Of course, for the hardcore fans and the ones that want a super realistic experience, you can tweak nearly every setting in your vehicle to perform however you wish, even the damage can be turned to realistic where you’ll need to watch your tire wear as well. As I said, it does take quite a bit of getting used to, but once you overcome that steep learning curve and can start tackling corners that are barely wider than your vehicle itself, it becomes quite thrilling, just like watching the actual sport.
I have to say though, while dynamic weather is nothing new in games, they are more than a mere nuisance in WRC 8. Usually in most racing games when it starts to rain, sure your tires will slide a bit more and you’ll get rain on your screen to simulate the real thing, but weather in WRC severely affects your racing and handling, which I don’t think I’ve experienced to this level before. For example, in one race it started to rain; no biggy, I just slowed down a little more than normal for the upcoming corners. Then, it started to really downpour, substantially more.
As I hit puddles in dips that formed, it would actually alter how my car handled through them. Have only one wheel going into a puddle? Your car is going to pull that direction, just like in real life. You may even hydroplane if you don’t straighten out before going through as well. Snow takes this to a whole other level and this means that your races can always be unpredictable.
You’ll not only have daytime races, but night as well, which adds an additional level of challenge. Sure, you have your co-pilot barking out upcoming turns and directions, but having that limited visibility, coupled with the dynamic weather, and you’re going to have to put your big boy/girl pants on to place well. You’ll also want to make note of the track type before a race, as you’ll want to equip the most appropriate tires to match what type of race you’re partaking in.
Fans of the sport will be happy to know that not only are actual teams and rallies included, but stages are replicated from their real world counterparts as well, so keen eyed super fans should be able to recognize some of the stages. While I’m not a super fan by any means, the variety of stages was quite staggering, as each had its own feel and look. Racing down incredibly narrow dirt paths is quite different from drifting along cliff edges or a tarmac race. There’s plenty of variety to keep you challenged and entertained.
While multiplayer is included, I was unable to find a single game to play with others online with a Quick Match. I tried hosting a lobby as well numerous times, but no one ever joined, so I’m unable to speak to the quality of the online multiplayer unfortunately. I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that the community isn’t large, but luckily there are weekly challenges that you can partake in to challenge yourself on the leaderboards against others. They are calling this is WRC eSports, and can see it being a weekly event to return to in the long run if you like competition.
Visually, WRC 8 can be incredibly impressive. Lighting looks fantastic with sunrays peeking through the treetops, dirt will form on all sides of your car as you progress through stages and the rain effects look absolutely realistic on the windshield, especially when it starts to downpour heavily. The vehicles themselves though look simply average. I never once had any performance issues and the framerate was incredibly smooth throughout. I’m not sure if it was 60 FPS, but it sure felt like it on my Xbox One X. As for the audio, engines roar, you can hear the pops of gears being shifted and the backfire of the exhaust.
I actually have very few complaints overall aside from crashing which seems very buggy and ‘floaty’. When you hit a rock or spin out, it’s like the physics sometimes follow a different set of rules compared to racing. Sometimes I’ll stop dead in my tracks, other times I’ll spin out wildly, and finally, I’ve launched myself nearly into space on occasion. The crashes sound great, but feel inconsistent and not weighted.
My only other major flaw I noted was the lack of vehicle selection. Yes, you’re getting actual drivers and cars from manufactures, and there’s multiple types of cars from WRC, WRC2, Junior WRC and Legendary vehicles, but it seems like there’s not all that much variety. Again, I’m no WRC expert but I wish I had more selection choices, as I get it, the Lancia’s are legendary.
Kudos to Kylotonn though, as they’ve gone above and beyond adding support for a wide array of steering wheels and peripherals. While I didn’t have a wheel and pedal combo to test it on, I did watch others play who did, and it seemed like an even more authentic experience, especially for the wheels that have force feedback.
While I’ve been out of the loop for many years on rally games overall, WRC 8 has sucked me back into the fray, eagerly awaiting to see what improvements the inevitable sequel will bring. WRC 8 improved on nearly every aspect and should be considered if you’re looking for an actual FIA World Rally Championship simulator; it’s even quite fun to boot.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Remnant: From the Ashes
I’ve always enjoyed playing Soulsbourne-like games, even if I’m not particularly skilled at them. While the challenge is usually high and the difficult great, the reward for finally passing an area you’ve been stuck on for hours is quite satisfying. Gunfire Games, the studio that brought us the latest Darksiders game, is finally taking their crack at the Dark Souls formula. While I wasn’t sure what to expect, and the first few hours frustrated the hell out of me, once things clicked, Remnant: From the Ashes completely went from a frustrating experience to an incredibly exciting one.There’s a dozen Souls impersonators out there already, so I was curious if Remnant would be any different. While it does borrow quite heavily from Dark Souls mechanically, the most drastic change is that Remnant is played with guns instead of swords and shields. Not only does this change the gameplay dramatically, they seemed to have nailed that ‘special sauce’ that made fans fall in love with the Souls games in the first place.
An ancient evil has invaded the world from another dimension and much of humanity has been destroyed. You are on the last remaining remnants of mankind, so you’ll set out on a path for revenge and to stop the enemy so mankind can rebuild. Doing so will be much more difficult than it seems, and you’ll even need to utilize portals and travel to other realms to stop The Root, alongside two other friends should you wish.
While Remnant does borrow quite heavily from Dark Souls, the way it handles its campaign is quite different. Each time you play through the campaign, you’ll navigate the major story sections, but every stop between point A, B, C and D are randomized. This means that not only are the areas you go through are different every time you play, but that also means the mini dungeons and even bosses will vary each playthrough.
This means that the replay factor is through the roof, and there are a ton of secrets and goodies that will take a lot of farming to find. For example, there’s a very rare dungeon that after a dozen or so hours of resetting the world and running though, me and a friend finally got it to spawn. This dungeon houses a unique boss that when defeated, drops one of the rarest gear sets in the game, one that I proudly sport when playing.
This was only possible because of hours of farming and resetting the campaign. But this is also encouraged, as you can farm gear and items this way as well. Even leveling up isn’t done in your traditional sense, as with Remnant, instead of a “level”, you’re ranked with how many Trait points you’ve spent instead, but more on that shortly. What I do enjoy about Remnant’s mechanics compared to Souls is that your progress is always saved and carried over. Died? No problem, no need to get back to your corpse, you’ll simply restart at the last crystal you rested at. Didn’t get a randomized boss or dungeon you wanted? Reset your campaign and continue with your character just the way they are.
That being said, this was after literal HOURS of frustration of not understanding many of the Remnant’s mechanics. Nothing is really explained outside of the beginning tutorial, and that’s more focused on the gunplay rather than how the world works systematically. If I had to rate Remnant on its introduction alone, it would get a hard “F” grade, as I was almost ready to give up on it. Then by chance me and a friend joined a random game with someone that knew Remnant inside and out and took it upon himself to not only teach us the mechanics of how the worlds worked and how to upgrade gear properly, but helped us with a run through of the campaign.
This was the tipping point of going from a game that I nearly uninstalled, to wanting to play alongside a friend nearly every night to farm better gear and challenge ourselves in Hard or Nightmare mode. I fear that some people won’t be as fortunate as I was though, as the game itself won’t teach you very much, simply throwing you in and letting you figure it out for yourself.
As you begin your adventure, you’ll create your character to look how you wish, but the character creator isn’t very robust, and honestly, once you start getting new gear, it won’t really matter anyways. Just be prepared to die a lot in the beginning, but stick with it and learn how the world works, and you’ll come across one of the most rewarding experiences once you start to level up.
You wield two weapons; a main and a secondary, both of which use different ammunition. Killed enemies can drop ammo, as can finding it by breaking items and boxes in the world (generally anything made out of wood), and you’ll always need to be on the lookout, as you’ll be fighting off hundreds of enemies. Played in third person, depending on the class you chose, you’ll begin with a simple pistol and a sidearm like a rifle or shotgun. While the classes don’t make too much of a difference initially, you’re able to make any sort of build you want later on, so they are more starting points for certain playstyles rather than hard locked choices.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you’re able to also play alongside two friends with drop in/out gameplay. While there is some scaling that takes place with multiple players in a game, Remnant is a much better experience overall with a friend or two in a party. Things never really become stale either with every area being randomized each time, alongside with bosses and loot.
If you’re a Soulsborne fan, you’ll feel right at home, as many mechanics have not only been ‘borrowed’, but straight up copied. Estus Flasks are replaced with Draognhearts, which you can eventually upgrade to have more down the road if you defeat a certain boss fight and find a specific item. Need to refill your health and ammo? Sit at a floating red crystal, which is a replacement for the bonfires, and yes, this also resets the regular enemies as well. Even boss fights are sealed off with that grey fog in the doorway to indicate that you’re in for a battle next. There are even more mechanics ripped right from the source material, but if it’s not broke why fix it?
Earn enough experience and you’ll gain a trait point. These can be spent in a variety of different ways for a multitude of stat increases. Need more health, feel free to dump them into your vigor. Want more stamina or elemental resistance? Feel free to do so. Each stat caps out at 20 trait points, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a cap to how many trait points you can earn, so you’ll eventually be able to fully max out and have spare trait points after dozens of hours. While I’m currently sitting at about 170 Trait level, I’ve played with people that are well over 700 or so.
This not only allows for some character customization, but even some of the traits themselves are hidden. For example, there is forced friendly fire in Remnant when playing co-op, and I kept getting hit from my friend because I would constantly step in front of him. After he downed me ten times, I earned a new trait that allowed me to put trait points into that allows me to take less damage from friendly fire. Now that this trait is maxed at 20, I take maybe 1 or 2 damage from his shots. There’s a ton of hidden traits like this that will require some research or luck to find.
In the newest patch an Adventure Mode has also been introduced. Here you’re able to re-roll individual worlds. For example, you begin out on Earth for the first world, but maybe you want to re-roll the Rhom or Yaesha worlds to try and farm for a specific boss or gear. Now, instead of having you play through the whole campaign, you can simply reset these individual worlds and try your luck. Again, all items you collect, and any progress you make with your character are all saved and carried over regardless how you play.
I won’t lie, in the beginning I was quite frustrated and died, a LOT. There’s a wide variety of enemies, each of which need a different strategy to defeat efficiently. In the beginning, you’re going to learn the hard way how to do this, resulting in many deaths, much like Dark Souls. Also like Souls, you’ll have a stamina meter which is needed to run and dodge. You’ll become best friends with your dodge button as well, as this is how you’ll avoid most damage from enemies and bosses, but required precision timing in harder battles. Watch your gear and weight though, as the heavier you are, the most stamina dodging will take.
There are also a handful of items that will become quite useful during battles, such as a Bloodwort, which is akin to a health regeneration potion, items that can cure disease and other negative effects and even ammo boxes that can be used in a pinch. Once you learn Remnant mechanically, you won’t need to rely on these items often until you start to challenge yourself in Hard and Nightmare mode, which is a massive bump in difficulty, but as are the rewards.
Loot isn’t given in the form of weapons and gear for the most part either, but instead, parts and items that are then craftable into new gear. For example, the first time you kill most bosses, you’ll earn a unique item which can then be used to craft a new specific item back in the hub world. These are generally the most powerful items, and if you get a rare boss, usually amazing gear accompanies if defeated as well. You’ll need scrap (currency) and items like Iron, to create items though, of which you’ll find throughout your adventure.
Not only are these needed to craft items, but you can also increase your favorites in levels to higher tiers as well. For example, regular items can be boosted to +5 with regular iron and scrap, but to go higher you’ll need the next tier of iron and more scrap, so you need to collect any shiny items you see along your adventure, as the costs stack up quickly.
There are also Mods that can be earned and crafted, adding a whole new dimension to the gameplay and can be quite a game changer. For example, we defeated a rare boss and I got its item that allowed me to create a new mod that is quite exceptional. When I use my weapon that it’s attached to enough and fill its meter, you can then unleash your mod power. Mine is a swarm that infects any enemies nearby, dealing massive damage. This alone was a game changer and allowed me to tackle harder enemies with ease.
Gear sets will also have bonuses if you wear 1, 2 or 3 pieces of a set. My set for example allows me to heal a large amount of damage to my co-op friends when I use one of my Dragonhearts to heal myself, because I’m wearing the 3 pieces together. There’s a ton of different gear sets as well that you’ll earn from bosses, and each caters to a different playstyle. My friend for example has a set that allows for a chance to not use ammo upon firing, and since he’s coupled that with a single shot high damage weapon, it’s a deadly combination when you pair certain gear together.
Remnant is quite impressive visually the further you make it through the worlds. While the starter area and Earth won’t really ‘wow’ you, the worlds you explore later on are impressive, not only in their scale, but how detailed it can be. One desert and barren world has a solar eclipse in the background that I’ve actually been using for my wallpaper, and the ancient ruins underground feels like it’s straight out of Battlestar or some other sci-fi adventure. There’s a lot of variety, color pallet and bosses will always be terrifying upon first glance.
Remnant: From the Ashes dumps you into its world without any sort of hand holding or explanations. While some will enjoy this, I found it incredibly frustrating in the beginning, not sure how the world worked mechanically, or even that areas were randomized. If I didn’t have a bit of luck and be aided by a high level player that spent hours teaching us how Remnant actually worked, I don’t think I would have stuck with it in the long run, which is a shame, as I think some will have the same initial experience I did. Do some homework, watch a bunch of YouTube tutorial videos with tips and tricks, as it will make Remnant a massively better experience once you figure out how it all works together.
If you take the time to learn its mechanics and grind for some gear, once it ‘clicks’, Remnant changes from a simple Souls-like game to a completely unique experience that I could hardly put down. It’s a shame that it released in the busy window that it did alongside some massive AAA games, as I’m sure it’ll get overlooked, but if you’re a Souldborne fan and want an entertaining co-op adventure with some friends, Remnant: From the Ashes should seriously be looked at. While I was almost ready to give up at one point, it’s a fantastic game once you learn its intricacies.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Gears 5
It feels like it’s been far too long since I’ve enjoyed a Gears of War game. Matter of fact, Gears 4 released back in 2016, so it’s been longer than I expected. To say that I’m a gears fan is a bit of an understatement, as I own an obscene amount of merch, including two full size lancers, so the wait for Gears 5 has been a long one. But the day has finally come and the wait is over, and now that Gears 5 is here, there’s a more than enough content to keep even the most hardcore fans busy for quite some time.CAMPAIGN:
I’ve enjoyed every Gears campaign to date, but Gears 5 is easily my favorite so far for numerous reasons. While Gears 4 focused on a narrative revolving around JD, Marcus Fenix’s son, essentially passing the torch to a new generation of COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments), as Marcus, Cole and Baird are much older now, yet can still fight. Gears 5’s narrative starts with you playing as JD, but eventually shifts to Kait Diaz, which had a pretty substantial plot twist at the end of Gears 4.
Kait has a unique connection to the enemy, and Gears 5 will explore what that is and how dangerous that can be, not only to her, the COG and everyone else, but Sera itself. As you uncover her origins, alongside Delmont (Del for short) and Jack, the trusty robot we’ve had alongside us in previous games. Campaign is now playable with three players, with one taking the role of the unique Jack. You can play online or splitscreen co-op alongside your friends, and it’s a complete emotional rollercoaster from beginning to finish. I really don’t want to spoil any of the main plot points, but it’s easily my favorite Gears campaign, and I believe, also the longest if you factor in the open world segments free exploration
GAMEPLAY:
Are you one of the new players to the Gears series, or simply haven’t played in a long time and are quite rusty? This is where Boot Camp comes in. Acting as a tutorial for the basic mechanics, you’ll learn the ins and outs of the signature Gears core gameplay. Not only will you learn how to fire your weapons and use the active reloading, but how to duck behind cover, utilize advanced techniques and more. Sure, a Gears vet will know all of this already, but it’s a great addition for those new to the series.
Gears 5 also supports crossplay with PC and Xbox players, so finding a team for a campaign run or a Horde match shouldn’t ever be a problem. While the core gameplay is mostly unchanged, veterans will be pleased to know that there are some new additions and tweaks that should be welcomed. One I really appreciate is the fact that some weapons can have more than one execution animation, or that there’s open world segments in the campaign.
Even better, there’s an Ally system in place to encourage you to play with others on your friends list. Yes, every mode can be played solo, but each is enhanced when playing as a team together. The more you play with specific friends, the more honor you’ll earn for doing so. As this raises in ranks, you’ll earn more XP when playing together, so there’s now a true incentive to play together, more so than just not being lonely.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Gears 5 seems to have gone more than just an extra step with accessibility, and for good reason. Given that Gears 5 is part of Game Pass, this may very well be the first foray into the series for many people, so many options and additions have been included to cater towards all types of players. You have Adaptive Controller support, controller remapping, subtitles with a ton of options including font sizes, narrated menus and UI and even a friendlier Beginner option for aiming, for those not well versed in shooters.
While aim assist is nothing new to console gaming, as it slightly helps you aim at enemies to line up shots on a controller easier, this new option ‘snap to aim’ is geared towards very new players, acting as an extreme aim assist. With this option toggled, you can simply aim down the sights at an enemy, and it will generally lock onto it for you until you stop aiming. This allows for 'automatic' headshots, and during boss fights, even locking onto their normally hard to hit weak glowing spots. While some may think of this as ‘cheating’, not everyone is very versed in shooters, and if this optional inclusion means that more people can enjoy the franchise I love as well, then I see that as total win-win.
JACK:
Jack, who’s been a part of the squad in previous gears games, finally gets his time to shine in the spotlight. Previously, he simply would open doors and do mundane tasks, but now in Gears 5, he’s a fully playable character and has quite a few abilities that changes the typical Gears gameplay. Jack can now utilize a number of new abilities, which you’ll learn as you progress through the campaign and complete sidequests. Can’t get passed a fire patch on the ground? Have Jack boost your shield so you can briefly run through it unharmed. Can’t sneak by some turrets without being seen? Jack can turn your squad invisible for a short time. Becoming overrun and need some help in battle? Jack can hack enemies and turn them against the Swarm for a short time as well. These are just some of Jack’s abilities and he’s a great help in battle by being able to stun enemies and revive downed squadmates.
Not only does Jack make gameplay feel much more tactical in Gears 5, as a well-timed ability can change the outcome of a tough battle, he actually feels like a real part of the team and has a lot of interaction with the main characters throughout the narrative. Truth be told, he turned out to be my favorite character in all of Gears 5 by the time the credits rolled. Sorry Kait, you’re a close second.
SKIFF:
Another drastic change for Gears 5 is the inclusion of the Skiff. While Gears has always have vehicular sections, they’ve always been on rails and was simply a way to change the gameplay for a short period. Now, with the Skiff, you can freely explore some open world sections of the world. Generally in Gears, you’re give a very linear line of travel from point A to B, but now with these chapters where you get to control the Skiff, you can freely explore and even do side missions should you chose.
The Skiff is basically a sled that utilizes the wind to propel, like a kite board, but on land. In these sections, you can freely explore however you wish. I was totally expecting there to be some sort of combat element to it as well, but thankfully there wasn’t. This meant that I knew I could relax and simply speed around to my heart’s content across vast desert or ice tundra’s, depending on the chapter. While it’s simply a fancy way to navigate around a vast area, it feels slick, fast and I’m hoping it’s a trend that stays come the inevitable sequel.
VERSUS:
Versus, the online player versus player matches return, obviously. Of course, your ranked matches that people flock to returns, but as expected, is filled with nearly everyone using a Gnasher shotgun and wall bouncing so much it looks like a pinball machine. Fans will surely enjoy it, which is fine, but thankfully, for those less hardcore, there’s a versus mode for you here as well, aptly titled Arcade Versus.
In Arcade, things are changed up, which makes for an interesting take on your typical matches you’d come to expect. As you take out enemies, you’ll earn skulls, which in turn can then be used to spend on new weapons. What’s more interesting is that just like Horde and Escape modes, each character is unique in their loadout, so it actually matters who you choose, as they each only have access to specific weapons. While it’s an interesting twist, there’s some strategy to it as well in relation to spending your skulls. Do you save more and wait for a better weapon, or spend less and more frequently on lesser weapons? This less hardcore-like version of Versus is a welcome change for those of us that aren’t aspiring pros or enjoy using the Gnasher.
HORDE:
Horde mode makes a return in a big way, but with some drastic changes as well. Every character has their own special ability, like an ultimate that charges over time, and is meant to fill a specific role and play style, locking them into a role essentially. For the uninitiated, Horde mode because quite popular when it was introduced, having you trying to survive 50 waves of enemies, with each 10th having a boss of sorts to best as well. It’s a simple premise, but fans took to it, and it’s been a Gears staple ever since.
Surviving progressively difficult waves sounds easy on paper, but execution is much more challenging. Luckily bots are able to fill empty spots finally, but you’re going to need some serious communication and teamwork if you want to tackle the harder difficulties. Each character isn’t simply a re-skin of one another, as they each play uniquely to their loadout, perks, abilities and ultimate. Engineers are the defense builders, scouts can zip around quickly, tanks take the brunt of the damage and others are your ones for taking out the enemy. One feature I absolutely detest though is that you can’t have two players playing the same character in a match.
I myself only play Jack, as I love his support playstyle and unique abilities like being able to hack and take over an enemy with my ultimate. If I join a match and someone else is Jack, I’m forced to play someone else, which makes me simply leave the game entirely. If you’ve played Overwatch before, you’ll know what I’m talking about, but when characters make progression, I’d rather focus on the one I like and want to play, rather than being forced to play a class or character I don’t enjoy.
As you down enemies, they’ll drop energy that can be picked up. This energy has a multitude of uses, such as building fortifications, healing others, repairing or even purchasing perks for yourself between waves. Do you hoard all the energy for yourself to boost your own gameplay, or deposit what you’ve gathered into the team base for all to share?
While Horde mode is generally a defensive game type, there are new Power Taps that allow for a little more aggression and risk taking. These are extra points on the map, which if captured, will generate more energy at set intervals. Enemies will try and destroy these as well, so do you use them as bait, or spend more energy and build defenses nearby as well? This will depend on your team cohesion and strategy.
What I enjoyed most about Horde though is the progression your characters make after it ends as you earn XP. Each character has certain perks or abilities that are equipped with cards. As you begin at level one, you can only equip one card, so you much choose wisely. As you gain levels, you’ll unlock new cards and the ability to equip more at once. You randomly gain new cards after matches, and if you get duplicates, you can actually level up the cards themselves, making them more powerful and effective. Horde has changes, for both good and bad, but overall it feels a bit more accessible, even for newcomers, yet has the long term progression for those that decide to stick with it.
ESCAPE:
Escape mode is something completely new for the Gears franchise, and I’m still not completely sure how I feel about it. In essence, it’s almost like an opposite to Horde, as a group of three players are tasked with escaping from a hive. The catch is that there’s a time limit, as you set a bomb and must get out before it explodes. Like Horde, each character has their own abilities, ultimate and loadout, but don’t expect any of your favorite Gears cameos here, as it’s generally the lesser known characters on the D-list.
While the premise is simple: Get to the extraction alive and close the door behind you before the bomb goes off, it can be anything but depending on the players you have with you. Having a teammate rush ahead, or lag behind, can be a death sentence for success. Even worse, you may have someone that doesn’t share the weapon pickups or ammo. I highly suggest playing this solely with friends.
What is very cool though is the ability to create your own Escape Mode map. With a simple to use map editor, you can create custom maps for your friends, or even upload and share them online for everyone to try out. There’s some interesting ones out there already, and I’m curious to see how creative people become with this in the future. There’s even a weekly featured map to challenge yourself with and earn rankings for should you enjoy the mode.
VISUAL/AUDIO:
I’m going to go out on a limb and straight up announce that Gears 5 is easily the most visually impressive title on consoles to date. Playing in 4K, 60 FPS and HDR lighting (on an Xbox One X) is nothing short of stunning. The facial animations in the cutscenes during close-ups looks damn near realistic from the main characters, character models are extremely detailed and the vistas and environments vary and all have their own tonality. Gears has previously been known for its very dark, drab and grown color palette overall.
Gears 5 completely gets rid of that stigma and infuses a gamut of colors based on where you are in its world. You may be exploring a lush green forest, a tundra filled with white and blue hues or a desert filled with a deep red sand. The color infusion is what the series sorely needed and it’s never looked better.
Audio is just as impressive. The voice work from the whole cast is completely flawless and more than believable. Not only do the facial animations enhance their performances, it’s actually got some humor included that made me chuckle more than once. While the weapons don’t sound as impactful as they once did in previous games, that simply may be just my memory playing tricks on me. When the wind hits the Skiff’s sails, they unfurl and you can hear the poof of them as they fill with a gust of air. Small audio details like this breathe more life into the experience and enhance the world of Gears even further.
While some may not welcome the changes and tweaks, I’ve completely fallen in love with Gears all over again because of them. The Microtransactions are vastly improved over Gears of War 4 with the removal of random loot boxes, but the prices are still insanely expensive and disheartening. I’m not paying $5-10 for a blood spray of country flag, but obviously others will. For any negative I could think of, I can easily list two or more positives that I absolutely fell in love with. For example, Jack being playable completely changed the strategicness of the core gameplay, as does the Skiff opening up the open world gameplay and offering sidequests.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had Gears on the brain, and now that Gears 5 has been extremely addictive and taking a large chunk of my time lately, I’m glad to say that not only is Gears back, but better than ever with a slew of additions, changes and improvements. Kudos to The Coalition for taking the risks they did. I’m no longer worried that one of my most beloved franchises are in safe hands going forward.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Control
Remedy has always been one of my favorite developers. While The Matrix may have ‘invented’ bullet time, Max Payne was really the pioneer of showcasing it on the gaming front. From there, and a Max Payne sequel, we were given Alan Wake, an extraordinary narrative that still has fans begging for a sequel to this day. Later, Remedy tried something completely different with Quantum Break, a mix of action gameplay with live action TV show elements. While I was a fan, it got mixed reviews. Now, in 2019, Remedy’s newest release is finally here, titled Control. Having built upon their previous releases, Control feels like the pinnacle of their efforts, and it shows.Narrative has always been Remedy’s strong suit, even if it can get a little crazy at times with its supernatural elements; Control is no different. The Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) is a government agency, much like our real world FBI, but they focus on paranormal events and phenomena. You are Jesse Faden, searching for answers at the FBC, only to be greeted by the Janitor. Even finding the FBC headquarters isn’t possible by normal means, so it’s clear that Jesse has some sort of deep connection to what’s taking place.
Jesse’s mainly looking for her lost brother Dylan, but she’s being guided by someone, or something, that she can converse with in her head. There’s also a major threat from an invading enemy known as The Hiss within the FBC walls, known as the Oldest House. The Hiss can corrupt nearly everyone it comes into contact with, as the vast majority of FBC workers have been possessed and turned into hostiles with super abilities.
Jesse is special though, and regaining control is a job that she’s thrust into as the new Director of the FBC. I’d love to go into more narrative detail, but the story, lore and how it plays out really is Control’s greatest strength, and I won’t want to spoil much else. It’s also at times absolutely crazy, so trying to explain it in simple terms would also take a dozen more paragraphs.
Played in third person, much like their other games, you’ll feel at home if you’ve played Quantum Break previously, as you’ll also have access to supernatural abilities as you progress. You’re able to freely search the Oldest House, but certain pathways will not allow access until you find specific keycards, granting you access. So while it’s somewhat an open adventure, you’re confined to a linear progression that’s narrative based, though there are a few branching paths with more than enough collectibles to seek.
Normally I’m not one to hunt and find out collectibles, but there’s an absolute truck load of them within the FBC walls. You’ll find memo’s, posters, notes, recordings and more, each of which expands the lore of Control’s world, almost to a point of being overwhelming. While I don’t want to spoil anything, there are ties to other Remedy games like Alan Wake, and more than a simple Easter Egg as well. Find enough of the collectibles and you might figure out how Control’s world is actually related to the one in Alan Wake. This alone excited me enough to seek out more of the hidden items.
Because the FBC deals in the supernatural and paranormal, the building itself is also very deceiving. From the outside it looks like a standard building you’d see in any downtown core, but once you start exploring within, you’ll realize that the innards are much larger than its walls. Walls will shape shift, move, extend and more as you progress, adding some very cool sequences along the way. Speaking of, one of the absolute best sequences actually occurred during my playthrough near the final chapter of Control. I won’t spoil what happens, or how, but make sure you make it through the Ashtray Maze at some point. Enough said.
Much like any government building, there are signs everywhere that show arrows of how to get to certain areas, rooms, sectors and more. This is how you’ll generally navigate your way from objective to objective. While there is a map you can pull up with a press of the D-Pad, it was completely unreliable for me throughout my whole time with Jesse. For some reason, the map would constantly fail to load properly, only showing me the icon of where I am and the labels of certain areas, but the actual map layout wouldn’t load. Since there is no breadcrumb trail leading to you where you need to go, you need to rely on this map heavily at times, but when it fails to load most of the time, it became quite frustrating, leaving me lost at times.
The somewhat saving grace of this frustration was the inclusion of waypoints, cleverly referred to as control points. The main areas and hubs of the Oldest House need to be cleansed of all Hiss infecting it, and once done, Jesse can revert the area into a safe zone, also allowing it to be used as a fast travel point, helping with exploration as you’ll need to backtrack many times to reach newly unlocked areas as you gain more clearance levels as the Director.
Jesse is chosen as the new Director, proven by wielding the Service Weapon. This paranormal gun may seem like an ordinary pistol at first, but there’s much more to it that you’ll uncover during your adventure. The first few firefights will feel like any other third person shooter, but eventually Jesse will come across Objects of Power, granting her new abilities like flying, telekinesis and more. Once you start to blend in abilities with the shooting mechanics, Control really starts to feel like its own experience, one that I enjoyed more as it progressed.
Your Service Weapon starts out as a basic pistol, but will eventually be able to be morphed and changed into having other properties, like a charge up shot or rapid fire akin to a SMG. Interestingly, Jesse can equip two forms of the gun at once, able to freely swap between their forms, but they share the same ammo source, one that refills automatically when not being used or shortly after its clip being emptied. This took me a while to get used to, as pressing ‘X’ switches your gun’s form, not reloading like practically every other game, as that’s done automatically. Eventually you’ll become accustomed to it, but it’s certainly not the norm. Also not what I expected was that your health doesn’t replenish automatically, so you’ll need to pick up glowing sprites from defeated Hiss to refill your health; something that can be quite dangerous during a massive battle.
Because of this shared ammo resource, you’ll also need to rely on your abilities to take out Hiss as well. I heavily relied on my telekinesis throw ability, allowing you to pick up nearly any object, or even debris, launching it at great velocity at enemies. Your abilities also share a resource as well, so you can’t freely dash everywhere or launch items without needing a rest period, so you’ll need to balance their usage.
Enemies vary as well, so some will be nearly immune to bullets, yet can be killed easily with a thrown object, others will fly around, making it nearly impossible to hit with objects, so gunfire is your better option. While there’s not a vast variety of enemies, knowing how to defeat them individually and how to prioritize targets is how Jesse will survive large battles. Once you see these orb-like Hiss, you’ll need to make those priority number one, as they can heal enemies, but they move incredibly fast so it’s a cat and mouse game of being mobile and interchanging weapon fire and abilities. This becomes quite chaotic later on, especially in the last few battles, but it’s also what makes Control shine and feel unique.
There’s also an upgrade system in place for Jesse to improve her Service Weapon and abilities. You’ll be able to craft a handful of different forms for the weapon, and even be able to upgrade them much later on, adding more mod slots. Defeated Hiss will drop random mods now and then, which can either be for your weapons, some for specific forms, or for Jesse herself as a personal mod, like more health, energy, quicker dashing, etc. You’ll gather numerous types of resources from enemies and hidden secrets, eventually unlocking all the way up to tier 5 mods which cost an extreme amount to craft, but add some huge bonuses. These upgrades really open up Control to play how you want, as you can boost headshot damage, reload speed, less ammo when floating and a ton of other mods to suit your playstyle.
Visually, Control is impressive, but I had some major slowdown at times, some screen tearing, and honestly, just expected a little more. Facial animations from the main characters were impressive in cutscenes, but I wasn’t blown away. The environment was actually the most impressive, especially when walls start moving and shape shifting when you take over a control point. As for its audio, the voice acting is flawless due to Courtney Hope’s portrayal (whom you’ll recognize as Beth from Quantum Break), weapons and explosions explode with power and the soundtrack is very fitting for the setting, especially the sequence I alluded to above.
Control has that signature Remedy feel to it, from its unique combat to its completely out there narrative, something only Sam Lake could be a part of. Although the story is Control’s strongest asset, it will take a lot of concentration and thought to piece it all together, as I’ve still got many questions even after the credits have rolled. Luckily you can continue Jesse’s journey once completed, allowing you to finish up any sidequests and other activities as we wait on the upcoming DLC that will hopefully answer more questions. Welcome to the FBC Director.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Wreckfest
One of my all-time favorite games was back on PS1 with Destruction Derby. Since then I’ve always loved watching derbies. I even wore out a VHS tape my grandma had that was some local derby event when I was kid. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a truly great derby game though, and while the FlatOut series somewhat filled that gap, nothing’s really grabbed my attention long term or impressed the way Wreckfest has done.Developed by Bugbear, the people who actually made the first two FlatOut’s, Wreckfest has actually been on my Steam wishlist for quite some time, but I never got around to pulling the trigger. Things sometimes works out though, and now fans can enjoy Wreckfest on Xbox One. Luckily, it seems the wait has been worth it as well, as full on collision, wrecking and smashing is in full force without any slowdown. While you may think that Wreckfest is simply a racing game with crash physics, which it does have, you’ll need to become quite used to full-contact racing and breaking the rules if you want to emerge victorious.
While there’s no story contained within the campaign, which is fine, there’s plenty of content to dig through, even if you don’t plan on playing online with randoms and friends. Career mode is sectioned into different leagues and events, starting with the Regional Juniors. Each league has a dozen or so events that you can partake in, given you have the proper type of car, and you earn points for winning said events.
To graduate to the next level of completion and unlock more events, you’ll need to reach the point threshold in your current championship. For example, once you reach 2000/2000 points in Regional Juniors, you’ll unlock the next series and a whole new set of races and events. While it’s a basic structure, the events are quite varied and will have you racing and smashing in derbies and more. Certain events have car restrictions, like imports, FWD, etc, so you’ll eventually need to purchase new cars if you want to partake in all of the events and progress. As you win events you’ll earn XP and money, which can then be used towards new purchases and upgrades.
The tonality of Wreckfest makes it a completely different experience to say a Forza racing game. In Forza, if there’s a jerk driving backwards or smashing you into a corner, you generally get upset, because that’s not the way that type of racer is supposed to be played. In Wreckfest however, it’s not only encouraged, but it’s quite rare when someone isn’t trying to smash you into a wall or wreaking havoc with a bus in the middle of a figure eight intersection.
What I also really enjoyed about Wreckfest was its lack of rules. Yes you need to drive the right direction, but for example, there’s a track that’s shaped like a horseshoe with both ends having a looped turnaround to get you going back the same way you came. Most people tend to stick to the outside and loop back in on the inside, but Wreckfest doesn’t force this. If you’re like me and want to be a little more chaotic, you can take the loop on the inside and exit on the outer edge. Sure it’s risky with the chance of more head-on collisions, but there’s risk vs reward.
Many of the maps are a ton of fun as well. Some are figure eights, which after a few laps is complete insanity and destruction at the intersection, and others have a lot of overlap where head-ons occur. There’s even one track that has a loop, aptly titled Death Loop, and you can imagine the chaos that ensues with lots of ramps and jumps.
While there are no licensed cars, some are quite obvious as to what vehicle their real world counterpart are. Each vehicle takes some time to get used to, especially with cornering, as they are quite heavy and weighted, and that’s before you start to take damage from your opponents. These cars aren’t generally meant for drifting, so cornering will take some getting used to, but be prepared to crash a lot, especially with ramps, barriers and opponents that are using you to bounce off of.
While collisions and cars being smashed is nothing new in racers, none have taken it to the level that Wreckfest has. Not only will your vehicle become barely recognizable after a few good hits, but you can even lose parts, wheels, smash in your ends and more. Damage yourself too much and you’ll be completely wrecked and out of the race, though trying to limp across the finish line with a wheel missing is always hilarious to watch. Sure, it would be nice if everyone drove perfectly and didn’t try to hit one another, but don’t expect that here. I’m already at the point where I don’t get upset if I get smashed into a wall or wrecked in a race, it’s just part of the Wreckfest experience.
Cars are basically junkers once you purchase and unlock them. This is where the cash you’ve been earning by playing campaign, or online, comes into play. You’ll find everything from sedans, speedsters, muscle cars, wagons, busses, limos, harvesters, lawnmowers and even a couch. Yes, you read all of that right. Wreckfest adds a ton of variety, not only with the great track design, but unique vehicles as well. There’s nothing quite like trying to do a loop in a motorized couch or lawnmower.
Regular vehicles can be upgraded though, improving their performance. You can upgrade its engine, boosting its class level should you wish, various other parts and even cosmetic items like wheels, hoods, spoilers and more. Improving the car’s handling, speed and more is quite rewarding, especially once you can start to keep up with the competition, and adding cosmetic changes just adds a flair of welcomed personality.
If you want to race with a bigger emphasis on smashing and wrecking, then maybe you’ll want to outfit your vehicle with more armor. While this will greatly boost your strength, it’ll make you much heavier, so speed, acceleration and cornering will take a hit. My suggestion, create one vehicle specifically for destruction derbies with tons of armor, and a separate for racing events. You’re even able to tune your vehicles before races; nothing to the level of Forza obviously, but the option is there to make some tweaks to your differential and more.
You’re even able to change the paintjob of your car as well. Unfortunately there’s only a handful of liveries and choices, as there’s no painting or layers like we’ve come to expect from a Forza, but at least the colors of each section can be altered if you wish. I do wish there was a little more customization in this department, but at the same time, we all know what happens when people are given free rein to those types of tools.
If you want a break from Career, you can create a custom single player event, completely customizing it however you wish. Want to race busses on a figure eight? Go ahead. Want to have a limo only destruction derby? Feel free to do so. Want a ton of laps or realistic damage? It’s all up to you. My only complaint is that these custom matches are only playable in single player, so there’s no creating a wacky event for you and your friends to play together on.
Arguably, the star of Wreckfest is its destruction derbies. This is where all of the players are put into an arena, with the last car functioning the winner. You get points for smashing, spinning out and obviously, wrecking your opponents. If you think you can simply stay away and try to outlast everyone, think again, as there’s a timer where you need to make contact with another player every minute or so, to thwart people trying to simply run away while everyone else does the work. There’s also a Deathmatch derby mode where it’s a set timer of a few minutes, and the player with the most points at the end wins. Here you can respawn if your car is wrecked, so this takes a different strategy compared to Last Man Standing where you don’t get any second chances.
Wreckfest is visually impressive when considering the amount of damage level and wreckage that takes place on the track, even more so when you realize wrecked cars don’t despawn either and stay on the tracks as an obstacle. While it won’t wow you by simply looking at it, it’s the smaller details that impress more if you take the time to notice. Audio on the other hand is atrocious. While the vehicle and crashing sounds are impactful and sound like they hurt when hit, the in game soundtrack is on a whole other level of terrible, to the point of having to completely mute it and play my own tunes.
I could gush all day about what I love about Wreckfest and that it’s the most multiplayer fun I’ve had in quite some time with a bunch of friends, but there’s also a laundry list of issues that I have as well. While I’m glad it supports 16 players, it’s a shame it’s not the full 24 that the PC version has. While there’s absolutely no slowdown, even when all 16 players are smashing into one another, the loading time before each race is almost to the level of being a joke, even on an Xbox One X. When you’re playing a 3 lap race then having to load a new track between each time, you load for almost as much time as you play. Factor in the minute or two of lobby time between races too and you’ll need to find something to fill your downtime with. The menu system is quite buggy, not always allowing you to change your car for some reason, or explaining why you can’t pick a bus on certain tracks.
There’s seemingly also some crazy slingshot mechanics when racing the AI. You could be in first by a long shot, but the AI will make a comeback out of nowhere, even when your car class is much higher than theirs. While I primarily stick to online play now with friends, this was quite frustrating when I would lose campaign races due to this. And just to reiterate, the soundtrack is absolutely horrible, so make sure to mute it as soon as possible in the options.
If I was to score Wreckfest solely on its fun factor, it would easily get a 12/10, but there are issues here and there that do hinder its enjoyment at times, especially the excessive loading. Even though there’s the odd technical and design issue here and there, I’m still getting on every night after convincing a handful of friends to pick it up, as we race and smash until the middle of the night.
Wreckfest is the epitome of white knuckle driving, as you’ll clench when you can see an oncoming hit about to happen, or laugh uncontrollably once you completely destroy someone and send them flying off the track. Wreckfest is chaotic and frantic fun at its core, and even though it has its issues, it’s a complete blast to play and enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Ancestors Legacy
What usually kills a decent RTS when it comes over to consoles is its control scheme. With a mouse and keyboard you have full control of what you want to do quickly. Mapping that to a controller is no easy feat, as proven by the numerous RTS games that have released on console, but very few have done it successfully. This is usually the first aspect of a console RTS that I experiment with and judge, as it will completely make or break the game. Luckily, I can attest that Ancestors Legacy is one of the few that have seemed to have manageable controls; not perfect, but much better than others out there.While I’m no RTS aficionado, as I’m generally not very skilled in them, I do enjoy them regardless. Top down strategy games usually require a lot of skill, as you need to multitask and manage nodes, build your base, command units and fight off the enemy; Ancestors Legacy is no different. If I had to directly compare it to another RTS, I’d say it’s mechanically similar to Company of Heroes, yet has a Middle Ages setting; a good pairing if you ask me.
Set between the 8th and 13th century, Ancestors Legacy surprised me most with its quite lengthy campaign. You begin by controlling the first of four nations, the Vikings. After you complete the first few missions, which act as the tutorial, you’ll be able to then freely choose between the Viking, German, Slav or Anglo-Saxon factions, each of which have two stories and characters each. Each person’s campaign is broken into five lengthy missions, totaling forty missions to sink your teeth into. Factor in multiple difficulties as well and you have quite a bit of value contained within.
According to developers Destructive Creations, many of the single player campaign missions are based on historical events as well, which is even more impressive. As you progress, missions become longer and more involved. I initially just expected each faction to simply be a pallet or skin swap, but they are quite different, each of which’s campaign was interesting and kept my attention throughout.
Being a strategy game, there is of course base building and resource management, along with combat, but something about the Middle Ages setting really interested me. Once I grasped my head around the resource management and capturing nodes, I finally got into a good groove where I was able to execute my orders to my squads exactly how I intended, or retreating when I knew the battle was lost, sparing a few lives.
While combat may not be as large scale as some other titles, it’s manageable, and you’re able to freely zoom far out to see the whole battlefield, or up close and personal with individual units. I do recommend that you stay zoomed out though, as the visuals are passable as a whole, but zooming in does show the lesser quality animations and models when in close range.
Like many other RTS’, you’ll be tasked with capturing enemy nodes, halting their resources and giving them to you. There are other mechanics in play though, such as being able to utilize tactical advantages, like flanking from cover in a tall field, knowing what units are strong and weak against others and destroying and pillaging anything in your path.
While the overall mission variety is generally the same throughout, having you start from nothing and eventually building an army, surviving an onslaught, recouping and overrunning the enemy, the story between missions make it all mean something, tying it all together in a way that matters. Have enough resources and you can amass quite an army, ploughing through nearly anything in your path, but there’s specifically a retreat command purposely given to you, as you’ll need to rely on it when you become overrun. There’s no shame in running away to live and fight another day.
Each faction has a handful of different units that can be created and utilized in different ways. With the Vikings for example, you can make scouts and send them out on horseback at incredible speeds, spotting enemies and figure out your next plan of attack. Do you build an army that has mostly soldiers, or have shield bearers that can endure the most damage on the front lines. Once I had access to creating archers, combat became much more interesting and tactical. Be warned though, as friendly fire from archers can, and will, hit and kill your own members, something that happened quite often.
As your units are victorious in battle, they’ll level up and become stronger. While you could simply build more units and send them into the meat grinder, having units able to level makes you want to take care of them more. Doing so is easy, as in between battles you can heal your surviving units by having them rest and camp. I would trick a solo enemy unit into my trap, defeat them, rest up and continue on my path. And yes, there are actual traps you can build as well, great if you want to play with even more strategy and purpose, though I didn’t rely on them very much overall.
While there is base building, it’s quite basic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it keeps the gameplay more focused on the combat and strategy elements. You’ll need resources to build and create units though, such as wood, ore and food. Take over an enemy encampment and capture it for yourself and you’ll be collecting all of its resources for your own army. Each building and unit takes a specific amount of resources, so you’ll always want to capture any nodes you possibly can.
Your enemies will not let that slide though and try and retake them, so do you set a group of units to defeat these nodes, or spend a lot of resources and build an archer tower that can help defend itself. There’s a fine balance that you’ll need to figure out, and once it all ‘clicked’ for me, it worked wonderfully.
The only real oddity I found with the base building aspect was that you’re unable to freely place the buildings where you want. Building a tent will set it in a specific spot, as will a barracks, blacksmith, archery range and others. While it’s not a deal breaker, some might find this small detail a little disappointing.
While the overall visuals are serviceable and fitting of the medieval setting, zooming in close to units really doesn’t hold up well and starts to show its flaws. That said, the soundtrack is fantastic and sets the atmosphere well, even if the voice acting in the campaign is quite dreadful at times.
With four separate factions, each with two campaigns, there’s a ton of content here to keep you busy for quite some time, and that’s not even factoring in the multiplayer skirmishes as well. It may not be the most robust RTS out there, but it’s a great console RTS that vets and newcomers alike should enjoy. Plus, who doesn’t like Vikings?
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Truck Racing Championship
Some sports I understand, others I just don’t get the appeal. That’s not to say that others don’t find them interesting, such as NASCAR, but sometimes it doesn’t just grab your attention. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Truck Racing Championship (called FIA European Truck Racing Championship elsewhere for some reason) initially, as it’s racing, but with massive 5-ton trucks, instead of the NASCAR, Formula 1 or MotoGP that we’re accustomed to spectating.To say that racing huge heavy trucks changes the racing dynamic is an understatement, as it’s not simply the same thing as regular racing but slower (though it is obviously), but there’s more nuances you need to manage, such as the heat and wear of your brakes, as stopping a massive truck at high speeds is much more taxing on the vehicle than a regular car.
I knew that trucks were raced before, but it’s not really got a huge following here, as far as I know, so I’ve never watched an actual race. After spending hours with Truck Racing Championship, the FIA ETRC (European Truck Racing Championship) league is something I’m now aware of, and have even watched a handful of the races on YouTube. It’s unreal to see these racers perform how they do in these vehicles, and ETRC has some really interesting rules that makes it stand out, like being speed limited to 160 km/h for safety precautions.
More on the simulation side of racing, Truck Racing Championship is trying to emulate the actual ETRC sport, and if you’re a follower, you’ll be happy to know that this is an officially licensed game, developed by N-RACING, and includes actual circuits, drivers, teams and liveries. Even if you know nothing about the sport itself, you’ll get to race on infamous tracks like Laguna Seca, Fuji Speedway and Nurburgring, among others.
The bulk of your gameplay will come within its Career Mode. Here you have two options, from ETRC racing or a World Series Tour. ETRC is what the sport is actually modeled after, so I decided to spend the bulk of my time there, as the other career actually isn’t based on real events and has you racing a different type of truck that is noticeably faster. Both careers can be played separately, as they have their own progress, but mimic one another structurally.
You begin as a freelance driver, looking at the contract options and what teams need a driver for their team for said weekend race; a two day event. In the beginning you’ll change teams on short term deals, but eventually work towards a long term, which unlocks the ability to modify and upgrade your vehicle, though it takes a while to get to that point given how long races take.
This is because every ETRC event is more than just the race itself. It begins with a Practice run, Qualifying, Super-Pole and then the four races (2 races on each day). That’s a lot of racing for one track, though thankfully you can skip all of the pre-races should you choose to. Luckily you can also set the number of laps, as a full race is about a dozen and will take a serious time commitment per event if you decide to keep it that way. I chose short, which makes races 2-3 laps, depending on the length, and was a little more bearable. Factor in that these trucks are quite slow compared to your regular sports races, and you’ll see where fatigue can start to set in quite quickly.
There are dozens of trucks from actual manufactures, and each of the two types handle quite differently. The ETRC trucks, resembling a classic Optimus Prime look with a square boxed cab, whereas the others are more of your standard semi-trucks you’d see driving on the actual roads with the front nose. ETRC trucks are much slower and handle nothing like your typical race car. These are 5 ton beasts, and as such, will take some time to get up to full speed, and even more skill needed to brake properly for turns.
Visually, everything looks authentic, though not impressive when compared to the latest Forza for example. Not to say that it looks terrible, as I was quite impressed by the water and reflections on the tracks, but it’s nowhere near a Forza in terms of visual fidelity. While I normally always play in a far out 3rd person view in racing sims, the cockpit view was quite interesting here, as you sit much higher in a truck and it gives a much different perspective, able to see upcoming turns and opponents easier.
Before you can get racing though, you’ll need to obtain your license. If you’re having dreadful flashbacks of having to do the same thing in Driver on PS1 back in the day, it’s about the same. You’ll go through a handful of tutorials that teach you the basics, not only of turning and maneuvering these big rigs, but more importantly, how to brake in them properly. It’s a pain at first being forced to do these, but it does teach you invaluable tips that will make your racing career much more successful in the long run.
Braking is what arguably sets Truck Racing Championship apart from other race sims. These are 5 ton trucks. Have you ever heard a semi slam on its brakes to avoid hitting something ahead of it? It’s not a pleasant sound, and these trucks are doing it at up to 160 km/h and in hairpin turns. Much like how professional drivers want their tires to be a certain temperature for ideal grip and turning, the same goes for brakes with ETRC drivers.
If your brakes overheat, they will eventually give out, and if they are too cold it’ll take longer for you to stop, so there’s an ideal temperature that you’ll want them at to be the most effective. Because of this, trucks are actually equipped with water reservoirs, used to cool down the brakes after a heavy stop by dumping water on them. You actually have to do this with a press of the ‘B’ button, and while it’s doubtful you’ll run out of your water in the tank, it does need to be monitored via the HUD.
Remember, these trucks aren’t built like super cars, and as such, don’t corner like them either. You will need to acclimate to the controls, as you can’t really drift in these vehicles like you normally would in other games. When you brake, your wheels lock up, so you need to plan ahead of turns and slow down purposely well beforehand if you want to keep the best momentum possible.
AI opponents seem hit or miss for how they decide to drive. Sometimes they concede to my position and won’t try to hit me or rub, other times it’s as if they don’t know that I’m there and use me as a wall to bounce off of. What did surprise me though is that the AI will make human-like mistakes, such as a spinout, drifting off into the gravel now and then.
That’s not to say that you’ll have an easy time winning, as it seems they have much better speeds and handling than you do, even if racing near perfectly, making those first few turns ever so important to get out in front early. Also, there’s sadly no rewind feature, so if you make a huge mistake, you either live with it and finish, or restart the event from the beginning.
There is multiplayer support, splitscreen and online, though as this was written well before the official launch, I was unable to test the online functionality as no one joined my lobbies any time I made one. What I did get to test was how to mute and disable the terrible narrator that does nothing to really help you at all. Now and then you’ll get advice like “try and overtake” or “work for a better position”, even when it contextually makes no sense as to what’s currently happening in the race. Factor in that there’s no musical audio during races either and you can see what it became a nuisance to only hear engines, squealing brakes and a brain dead narrator.
Truck Racing Championship may not be the most polished or impressive race sim out there, but it’s meant for a specific audience, one that I believe will appreciate the authenticity to the ETRC sport and trucks themselves. It’s a different racing experience than I’m used to, but it definitely piqued my interest in the actual sport, something I had never heard of or paid any attention to until playing Truck Racing Championship, even if the game itself wasn’t terribly robust.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Damsel
While I don’t normally gravitate to challenging 2D platformers, Damsel piqued my interest with its colorful comic book inspired visuals and frantic paced gameplay. Be prepared to dash, shoot, hack, disarm, rescue and kill thousands of vampires throughout your adventure. In the beginning I was quite enjoying my time with Damsel, trying to simply survive and progress, but about half way through, repetitiveness reared its ugly head.The campaign is broken into three main chapters, each of which are made up of 25 bite sized levels. As you complete a mission, the next is available to challenge yourself, meaning you need to beat them progressively in order to continue on and unlock new missions and chapters. For the narrative, it’s presented in an actual comic book form, which is why the accompanying visuals tend to match and work so well.
You play as Damsel, a secret agent which is the only one that can stand up against the evil forces of the Red Mist, an organization comprised of vampires, set out to take over the world. She has a team that helps her along the way, narratively anyways, as she uncovers Red Mist’s secrets. Between levels you’ll get to watch a few panels of comic book styled storyboard, progressing the story as you go. Does that story relate to your current objectives? Not usually, but at least there’s a decent amount of narrative within.
Damsel has lightning quick reflexes with her dash ability, has killer melee abilities if close range to a vampire, all topped off with a powerful shotgun that can blast any enemy in your way. Your goal is to cause distress, and Damsel has the abilities to do so, it’s only a matter if you can keep up as well. Each mission is bite sized, lasting anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes, depending on your skill and practice.
Not only will you have to deal with dozens of vampires, but also traps, bombs, lasers and more. Levels are meticulously designed to be played out in a certain way, if you’re trying to aim for a highscore or speedrun that is. If you’re aiming to work on your score or time, you’ll need to play many times to experiment and see what works best to maximize your efficiency.
Each mission has a specific objective, ranging from defeating all the vampires, hacking computer terminals, disarming bombs, saving hostages or destroying coffins. You need to do so quickly though if you want a high score or a good time and grade. There are other traps and different types of vampires will challenge you in unique ways. You can’t simply spam your shots, as you’ll lose the mission if you accidentally kill a hostage, something you’ll do countless times by accident, prompting a restart.
While there is an easier Chillout Mode, where you don’t need to worry about dying and can simply enjoy it for fun, Damsel is crafted around speedruns and leaderboards. While you have a main objective, there are also skulls strewn about the levels, strategically placed, allowing you to amass much higher points. If you're a true glutton for punishment, the most extreme difficulty forces you to keep your skull combo constantly going if you want to progress.
You’re going to have to utilize all of your skills and abilities if you want any chance at succeeding, from your double jumps, dashes, melee, wall jumps and precision aiming. Most of your kills will come from your shotgun blasts, as you can aim in the main vertical and horizontal axis, yet no diagonal. Each vampire will have its health above its head, displayed as a number of hearts. A shotgun blast or melee will do one heart worth of damage, so sometimes you’ll need to figure out how many shots you’ll want to purposely shoot, as one extra might kill the hostage they are guarding, again, causing a restart.
While there are a handful of enemies you’ll encounter, I was hoping that the second and third chapters would add something new, either from enemy variety or bosses... something. Sadly, what you experience in the first dozen or so levels will be what you do for the remaining as well. While no new mechanics or enemies are introduced, the difficulty does spike quite sharply about halfway through by various means. When you get close to a bomb for example, you’ll need to perform a quick QTE to disarm it, but if an enemy shoots you, you get knocked back and have to restart the process. Given that there’s a short timer, you’ll die many times from these explosions due to a random enemy projectile or getting too close to start the timer when you didn't mean to.
This is where repetition and practice comes into play, as levels are designed in a specific way, so it’s only a matter of memorization of enemy placement and pathways if you want to be successful. That being said, because each mission is short in nature, Damsel definitely contains that “one more try” urge, as I would constantly get frustrated from having to restart numerous times, usually due to accidentally killing a hostage, but yet went back for another several tries. The small levels also means you can quickly jump on and play for a few minutes if you don’t have a lot of time to sink in at once.
For those that are a glutton for punishment, or really want to challenge themselves, there’s also an Arcade Mode. Here is where you’ll be tasked with trying to complete the campaign mode, but are only given a set amount of lives per stage. While there’s nothing new added here except difficulty, this is where the best of the best will climb the leaderboards for bragging rights.
Visually, Damsel is beautiful with its colorful and lighthearted comic book style. While the comic book narrative between missions is welcomed, animations of all of your moves is fluid, and stylish to boot. As for the audio, the soundtrack is decent and never really grated on me, even when retrying a level more than a dozen times. The only glaring miss is that the comic book panels aren’t narrated, which would have added some depth to the boring characters, though maybe they purposely wanted to keep the silent comic book aesthetic.
Damsel is absolutely designed for those that either speedrun or want to climb global leaderboards for bragging rights. For the more casual, it might be a little much with its challenging and frantic gameplay, though that’s where the easier difficultly option comes into play. In short bursts, Damsel can be a lot of fun, but play too much in one session and you might start to feel frustrated with the need for perfection and repetitiveness.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Redeemer - Enhanced Edition
Before the Mortal Kombat’s of the world were ushering a bloody good time, we had to settle for bloodless beat-em-ups, like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. Gaming has come a long way though, and a blood-filled romp is commonplace these days. The latest in the genre is Redeemer: Enhanced Edition, complete with buckets of blood and full to the brim with violence.You are Vasily, a Kratos look-a-like that used to be a security officer for a shady weapons company. His job had him get his hands quite dirty, including murder, and he wanted no part of that life anymore. He managed to escape and leave, fleeing to a remote monastery and living a violence free life for two decades. Living amongst the monks he found peace, but one day he returns to nearly the whole village murdered once the corporation found out where he was hiding all this time. Now it’s time for redemption, and do to do, he’s going to have to get bloody.
Previously being released on PC, the new improved Enhanced Edition is now available for console players as well. If you managed to play the original Redeemer, then you’ll be happy to know that a few improved have been made, granting the Enhanced Edition title. New content, level’s difficulties have been balanced, abilities are now divided into two sections (Monk and Soldier) and the biggest addition that’s been requested, a 2 player co-op mode for when you have a friend over.
If you’re like me and never experienced Redeemer in the first place, it’s a top down brawler, complete with gunplay that has you fighting your way through levels, leaving a huge blood trail in your wake from anyone that tries to get in your way. You’ll be using your fists, kicks, melee weapons, guns and even environmental objects to kill everyone in your path. If it sounds violent, it is.
There are 15 levels or so, each lasting maybe 20 to 30 minutes, give or take, depending on your skill and difficulty chosen. Levels are very linear, so you’ll essentially be going from point A to point B, but there are a few short hidden paths that lead to some surprises, though there’s not much of an exploring element here, just simply killing everything in your path to the exit. If that’s not your bag, there’s also an Arena Mode where you can take on waves of enemies if you want a change of pace.
The majority of your combat will be with your fists and feet, making combos based on button combinations. If you manage to sneak up behind a normal enemy, you’ll be able to instantly execute them with a single button, essentially getting a free kill. This works quite well and will help thin the numbers before a large battle.
You’ll find a variety of weapons laying around, from torches, knives, axes, crowbars, staffs, hammers and a bunch of other nasty arms that will cause death. Every melee weapon has a durability meter though, usually only lasting a few hits, so make them count. The same goes for firearms, as there’s only limited ammo in each gun, and you can’t simply collect ammunition on the ground, you need to pick up the other guns and swap them out.
As you begin, you’ll face basic soldiers that pose no threat, and obviously as you progress through the levels, the difficulty will increase as you go, adding new enemies that need to be dealt with in very specific ways. For example, the difficulty randomly spikes about halfway through the story, quite sharply out of nowhere, where you’re pitted against a bunch of new monsters. One has spikes and will hurt you if you try and punch and kick them without a weapon, another spits acid and needs to be avoided at all costs, and another that’s a hulking beast and can hurt you real quick if you’re not careful. On their own they aren’t too challenging, but combined, and multiples of each becomes a bit much and chaotic.
Eventually, because of the sheer number of enemies you’ll be facing off against at a time, fatigue sets in with the same repetition of attacking, spamming parry, attack, parry, attack, parry and a few dodges here and there. That being said, I never died because of poor controls, only because I became overwhelmed with the harder foes at once. Stringing together combos, attacks, dodges and parries comes easy, and with that, Vasily’s baddass-ery goes up a notch.
Surprisingly, there’s also a progression system of sorts, relating to your abilities. As you use your attacks more, you’ll become more proficient with them, eventually able to upgrade them and picking perks. For example, eventually you can add another hit to your punch or kick combos, have your punches cause lightning damage or your kicks fire. Melee skills are separated from weaponry, and they level up the same way with perks being able to be chosen at certain levels. Oddly enough, there are also hidden scrolls strewn throughout the levels, and collecting these gives you new skill points as well.
While I didn’t have anyone to play co-op with, it seems most people that played the original were constantly asking for co-op to be added, so now it is to much rejoice. The second player is one of your Monk brothers, though I’m unable to confirm if the second player increases difficulty or enemies in a playthrough. Sadly it’s only couch co-op, as I would have probably dabbled in an online co-op if it was included.
While not often, there was a handful of times where framerate would dip down, one time well into single digits. The fact that I’m using an Xbox One X is what surprised me most about the extreme slowdown. That being said, the loading between stages is quite quick though, so it’s almost a tradeoff.
Redeemer: Enhanced Edition scratches an itch, albeit a seriously violent one. There’s so much blood and violence that it’s almost comical at points, though I don’t see many parents agreeing with me. Certain kills will have the camera zoom in to Vasily performing the execution, which is quite pleasing when it’s a special environmental kill. Graphically, it’s suitable for the tone, though you’ll see hundreds of the same few types of enemies and the same corridors repeated. The audio is slightly better, with the voice acting being half decent and attacks sounding like there’s some real ‘oomph’ to every hit.
Redeemer: Enhanced Edition was a fun distraction for a few hours, but it’s very repetitive, and once you’ve completed it, there’s no real reason to go back and do so again unless you really want to challenge yourself with the harder difficulties. At $38.99, it has priced itself out of the market, especially if you have a capable PC and can get it for much less than half of that elsewhere. If you’re seriously needing a fix of an ultra violent brawler, it’s a decent playthrough, but there’s no real lasting appeal afterwards.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Streets of Rogue
While I generally don’t gravitate towards rogue-lite’s, as I prefer a grand story and character progression, sometimes there are games in the genre that command my attention and I quite enjoy. Streets of Rogue is one of those titles. I initially made two mistakes when first starting Streets of Rogue though. One, I thought it was going to be a different take on Streets of Rage, a side scrolling brawler. This it is not. Second, simply from its visuals, I thought it was also going to be some variation of the Prison Architect games, but I was wrong again.Instead, I got a twin-stick rogue-lite that is fully packed with humor and allows for a multitude of different play styles, promoting experimentation. One part The Binding of Isaac, another part Deus Ex, there’s near infinite replayability that is quite entertaining, and one action can set off other unintended reactions within the city.
While it doesn’t play a heavy role in the gameplay, there is a main narrative that revolves around trying to usurp the tyrannical mayor. He’s outlawed many things, including chicken nuggets (the prized currency of the people), and you, the Resistance, is trying to end him. After the tutorial though there’s essentially no story elements aside from a few quips here and there between characters. It’s an absolutely silly premise, but it fits, as the dialogue is cleverly written and full of laughs throughout.
Played in a top down view, the core gameplay is much like a twin-stick shooter, but depending on the class you choose, you may not even have access to guns. Levels take place in a city, starting with the Slums, Industrial Zone, The Park, Downtown and Uptown, working your way up to the nicer parts of town to confront the mayor.
The city is full of citizens, all going about their own business. Police patrol areas, gangs own territory, merchants have stores to purchase from, cannibals will gnaw on anyone that passes by and zombies will do their best to infect others. Wait, what? This is just a small example of the different types of NPC’s that inhabit the city and need to be interacted with in different ways. If you start shooting people, police will come after you. If you steal from people, you won’t be liked either. Streets of Rogue allows for a multitude of ways to handle any situation, which is part of its free form charm.
Each level has a main mission for you to complete, with a handful of side quests that are optional as well. You can complete these missions in any way you see fit as well. Need to destroy generators? You could simply shoot and destroy them, but why not set a trap, or hire a gang to do it? To do this, you’ll come across a variety of different equipment to use in any way, like banana peels, detonators, traps and a ton of other items that are fun to experiment with. While I originally only wanted to play with the Soldier class, shooting everything and everyone, once I started to try other characters and experiment, it was very entertaining to see what works and what doesn’t.
The final area of each level will also have some sort of disaster that occurs. Maybe a zombie outbreak happens, or bombs randomly fall from the sky, or an ooze slowly spreads throughout the level, or even a bounty is on your head, having everyone be hostile towards you. These add another layer of not only difficulty, but uncertainty. Maybe you were trying to play a pacifist run, but when everyone is attacking you, sometimes your plans go out the window.
As you complete missions and level up, you’ll earn those previous chicken nuggets. These allow you to purchase new mods and items for subsequent runs. This is a rogue-lite remember, so you will be dying a lot and having to start over, but there is some overall progression which makes it more entertaining each time. There are even modifiers you can toggle for specific types of runs. Want infinite ammo? Turn it on. Want to make things more challenging and items cost more? Go for it. It’s up to you how you want to play each run.
Furthermore, the class system is where Streets of Rogue really shines. I initially started out with a basic solider, but eventually tried a multitude of other classes like a doctor, zombie, gorilla, comedian, thief and more. Each one also plays completely different from the rest, as they all have their own abilities and play style. As a doctor, you don’t use guns, so you’ll have to rely on your tranquilizer gun and chloroform for takedowns from behind. Maybe your comedian can talk a guard out of his keys, or being a zombie to infect as many others as you possibly can.
Each class has their own main quest per stage as well, which plays into their own playstyle. I was quite surprised with the variety of gameplay, as each class can be quite drastically different from the others. Playing as a hacker is nothing like playing as a super gorilla, and you can’t expect them to play anything like a standard soldier.
Can’t decide on what character you want to play? Why not make your own? Yup, you can completely customize essentially every aspect of your character, from its looks, stats, perks and abilities. You have a set amount of points to use, and the better abilities and perks obviously use more points, but there are dozens of options available, making creating your perfect character simplistic. Certain abilities or perks may make things even harder, like people hating you, so it’ll give you more points to use to balance out the difficulty increase. There are a TON of options here, and I spent an hour just reading all of the hilarious descriptions.
Want to cause chaos and mayhem alongside some friends? No problem! Streets of Rogue supports up to four players locally or online. I could see this being extremely entertaining, as each player’s class would dictate a different way to solve quests. I did host a few games, but never had anyone join, and while there’s a player base and a server browser, it’s a little unintuitive to simply jump in and play with others.
The old school pixel art is endearing, perfectly suiting it for the humor and gameplay presented. Surprisingly, classes did look unique and distinct, which goes a long way to show how much heart went into the pixeled visuals. The audio is just as serviceable, as there are a few catchy tunes, but each level simply has its music repeated every play, so it does become stale after a while, especially the first few levels that you’ll be replaying many times.
Streets of Rogue took me by surprise. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but came away with a rewarding experience that promoted experimentation. While some classes shoehorn you into a specific play style, being able to create your own opens up nearly unlimited possibilities and new experiences, all while laughing throughout. If you’re looking for a rogue-lite that allows you to tackle gameplay in a variety of ways, allowing you to be creative and a variety of multiple endings, then Streets of Rogue should be your next play.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
They Are Billions
I initially wasn’t quite sure what to make of They Are Billions. It’s described as a Steampunk strategy RTS, which is technically true, but it also has a flavor of Tower Defense in certain ways. You’re tasked with simply surviving an eventual horde of zombies, but to do so you’ll need to build your colony so that everyone inside its walls are safe, as a single mistake can infect and destroy everything.They Are Billions lives up to its name, as when the Horde does eventually charge, provided you can survive until then, the screen will literally be filled with thousands of zombies. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you’ll excel if you’re a fan of RTS games, as you’ll need to manage resources and base build, but when it comes to RTS titles on console, very few games have gotten down the mouse and keyboard transition to controller right. I wish I could say They Are Billions was on this list of controller friendly gameplay, but unfortunately I’m unable to currently.
Narrative wise, there’s absolutely nothing here aside from simply surviving and defending your home base. There’s no campaign to speak of at all. That being said, there is a full-fledged campaign with the PC version, but on console, it’s completely absent. While it’s most likely of a when, and not if, as to when campaign will get added to the Xbox One version, at the time of this writing, there is only a single Survival Mode to play, so keep that in mind when deciding to purchase.
Instead of a typical RTS top down view, They Are Billions is played in an isometric 2.5D perspective. You’re able to zoom in very close, seeing individual units and zombies, but also zoom out to see just how many zombies are approaching your camp walls at once. The Steampunk aesthetic fits the dark and gloomy setting, as does the artistic style with its cartoonish style of character design.
Every game you begin in Survival mode is built as a randomly generated world. Your base is placed randomly within the map, sometimes in a great position near a bunch of water and nodes to harvest from, other times, well, you’ll be struggling a lot more when the random placement doesn’t work for you.
Truth be told, I’m generally quite terrible at RTS games; always have been. A feature that is specifically made for me is the ability to ‘real time pause’. This means the game is still running, but events and actions are paused. I can use this feature to figure out what I want to build and where, setting up the plots, without having to constantly worry about zombie swarms until I’m ready. With how difficult the controls are, which I’ve delve into shortly, this feature made the gameplay somewhat more bearable until I got the hang of it over hours of trial and error.
You’ll need resources to do nearly anything though, from wood, iron, stone, food and more. To gather you’ll need to have specific buildings in place that are in range of nodes and not blocking others. To build these structures though, you’ll also need resources, so it’s a cycle of resource management. You can also eventually upgrade buildings, so you’ll need to keep an eye on many things at once, even your energy costs.
It’s a lot to take in, and the main problem is that there’s absolutely no tutorial of any sorts. So when I started my first Survival game, I became quickly overrun by a swarm, unable to figure out what happened or how to prevent it. It took me a good handful of hours to really dig in and want to learn what does what, and I’m not sure everyone will have the same patience to do so. A basic tutorial of how to build, navigate the clumsy controller setup, how to successfully build defenses and more, would have gone a long way to have me enjoying They Are Billions from my first game instead of hours of frustration from the beginning.
Until you start to grasp the many intricacies of how to properly build a base and survive, you’re going to fail a lot. What’s worse, a single stray zombie that bypasses your defenses can completely destroy your whole base and cause a game over. As soon as a zombie infects one of your buildings, it will quickly spread to the rest, making them unusable until fixed, though at that point, the damage has been done. Your workers and population will also turn, making it impossible to contain once the infection spreads, so you need to make sure you defenses are impenetrable.
You can send your protectors to explore the map for more resources, or defend your base, it’s up to you. These attackers will be your best defense against the zombie horde, which is impressive given that up to 20,000 units each have their own AI at any given time; and no, I didn’t accidentally add a few 0’s there. When you see the horde for the first time, it’s an actual horde and quite impressive, though good luck surviving it.
Survival mode has you trying to last a certain amount of days, with numerous difficulty options and map types once unlocked. There’s also a Challenge mode that gets rotated weekly. Here, everyone will play the same exact map, vying for a high score on the leaderboards. It’s an interesting way to promote competition in a single player survival mode.
Where it starts to fall apart, almost instantly, is from its control scheme. Initially a PC title, They Are Billions was clearly designed for mouse and keyboard gameplay. The remapping onto a controller simply doesn’t work intuitively, and even after hours of gameplay, I was still making mistakes with button presses, accidentally deleting buildings because I forgot to deselect it with a different button, and never was able to accurately select individual units or setup hotkeys.
While very few RTS games on console have nailed the controller scheme, it is possible, but They Are Billions is probably one of the worst and most cumbersome I’ve experienced yet. That doesn’t mean the game itself is terrible, but when you can’t control it properly and do what you want on the fly without having to really think, or simply guess, it doesn’t work fluidly and effects the fun factor. That being said, They Are Billions does support Mouse and Keyboard play on Xbox One, which is a great gesture, but it feels as though it’s absolutely necessary if you want any chance at being successful. You won’t be able to sit on the coach and relax with a match or two of Survival if you’re planning on just using a controller sad to say.
On top of controller issues, there’s also times where you’ll have some massive slowdown. I can only assume it’s from when a lot of action is happening on screen, or in the background, but it happened more than a handful of times to be noteworthy. The biggest offence though is the complete lack of any campaign. Sure, if Survival Mode is your thing, you’ll be content with randomly generated maps, but for those that want more, it’s not going to hold your attention for too long, even less if you don’t have a spare keyboard and mouse to play properly with.
It feels great when you survive a swarm that is stopped at your walls, but when you lose a game because of one stray zombie that manages to infiltrate your walls, it’s quite frustrating, as it’s as if you need to play absolutely perfectly to succeed. With a proper tutorial to teach you how to play, and a campaign, I would have enjoyed They Are Billions immensely more, but in its current state on Xbox One, it simply feels empty and a work in progress.
If you have a mouse and keyboard to play with, then They Are Billions can be an entertaining time once you’ve learned its mechanics and strategies; if you’re going to play with just a controller though, I’d recommend at least waiting until an update with a campaign is added to make the value more worthwhile having to deal with the frustration.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Illusion of L'Phalcia
It seems like every month, KEMCO releases another one of their RPG’s from their PC/Mobile catalogue on Xbox One. With no shortage of titles to port over, the newest, Illusion of L’Phalcia is what console players are now able to enjoy if they’re looking for another run of the mill RPG. While there are no shortage of KEMCO titles to choose from, Illusion of L’Phalcia does pack a lot of content, even if it does run on a little longer than expected and is quite a grind in its endgame.Created by Sage Elpis hundreds of years ago, The Sword of Amal contains within it the mystical power to grant wishes, provided it has a magic source of sorts. Seeing how powerful it was and weary that it could be used or evil, the sword was hidden away with the only clues to find it being a map torn into six different pieces. Protagonist Ryser, along with his talking cougar friend, aptly named Cougar, are Seekers; treasure hunters of sorts.
Ryser seeks to be rich with gold, and Cougar, well, he’s a foodie and would use his wish to eat a buffet of the world’s finest foods. They are in search for the map pieces to find the Sword of Amal to fulfill their shortsighted wishes, but like any RPG trope, will find friends along the way that join them to help, or for their own reasons. You’ll come across Tiana, a girl being chased by soliders, her guard Ferio and Caldina, a mysterious warrior, all of which are searching for the Sword of Amal for their own reasons.
While the story is one that we’ve seen a hundred times before, the character interactions is quite entertaining, especially the first half when Ryser and Tiana are constantly at each other’s throats for minor reasons. Sure, it gets old after a while, but as the story progresses, there will be twists, albeit obvious ones, but it at least keeps you engaged until the credits roll.
Much like practically every other KEMCO RPG, Illusion of L’Phalcia is a homage to the classic 8bit RPG’s that we grew up with. This means the majority of the gameplay is your top down sprites with limited animations, though combat within this one is done in a 3D aesthetic. Also like nearly every other KEMCO title, you’ll learn about the main story, talk to townspeople, head to your next destination, beat a boss, move onto the next town for more information and repeat until the final confrontation.
There are a few extras thrown in, like a handful of sidequests that you can choose to do, but these generally simply having you going through a previous dungeon and bringing back a specific item or two. As you explore the world map, you’ll also come across optional area bosses that are much more challenging than regular monsters and will give you special rewards if defeated.
Combat is your typical run of the mill turn based RPG style, choosing whether to attack, use a skill, magic or item. Attacking doesn’t cost anything, but magic and skills will utilize your MP, so they can’t be relied on as heavily. If you simply want to auto battle with attacks, pressing ‘Y’ will allow you to do so, essentially fast forwarding the dull combat.
As you fight in battles and use abilities, you’ll also charge your special meter, allowing you to pull off a triple team attack when used. This will randomly choose a skill from each of your three chosen teammates and use them, free of charge from MP. It’s handy to have in a pinch, but I wish I could queue up which abilities were used instead of it being randomly chosen. Where the real diversity comes in is with L’Phalcia’s interesting rune and magic system.
As you progress, you’ll find and earn Gems throughout your journey. These runes are how you equip your characters with specific types of magic (black for damaging and white for protective). What makes this unique is that each character has their own grid of a different size and shape. This grid is where you need to fit in runes, somewhat like moving around items in your Diablo inventory, making them fit within the grid constraints. As you gain levels, you’ll earn grid expansions, and as you earn higher level runes, they’ll become bigger or odd in shape.
A standard white magic rune is as simple 2x2 square, where a black rune is more like a “Z” shape. The high end runes are much bigger and more oddly shaped, so it’s difficult to slot in everything you want, requiring some strategic choices of who’s going to utilize which runes. There are other types of runes as well, like counter attack, physical damage bonuses and more, but the trick is to somehow make them fit within each character’s grid. Even though you can rotate pieces, it’s very tricky to figure out what the best rune combo for everyone is given these grid restraints.
Defeating those area bosses on the world map will earn you some special points, which can be used for high end items and gear, so it makes them worthwhile challenging yourself to. Given that the base game is $18.99 CAD, I was surprised to see that there was optional DLC also offered as well, though I shouldn’t have been given this isn’t the first KEMCO title to offer DLC like these.
Instead of story, quest or character additions, DLC for L’Phalcia is offered in the form of shortcuts. For $6.49 CAD, you can have a XP x3 bonus, full restores after battle and even disable random encounters. Sure, these are completely optional, though at the endgame, you’re going to be very tempted once you start to grind to max level to take on the biggest bosses. Luckily the game doesn’t pester you to do so, but when the base game is priced as it is, it would have been nice to have these as built in options.
While I find the classic 8-bit visuals endearing and nostalgic, obviously they aren’t anything pretty to look at. The hand drawn characters during dialogue are done well, though the 3D battle animations are quite stiff and basic, especially some of the skill attacks and enemy designs. Your 12-20 hour journey will have a handful of repeated audio tracks that become quite repetitive, especially when you’re grinding in seemingly never ending dungeons. Seemingly, narrative important scenes are fully voiced, though only in Japanese and no option for English. Transitioning from voice to text back and forth is jarring and the bland writing doesn’t help much either.
Even with my complaints, I was sucked into the predictable story all the way to its credits, and is a decent way to spend a weekend if you’re looking for a serviceable classic RPG experience, even if it won’t be a memorable journey that you’ll think of afterwards and has a massive difficulty spike near the end.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Omensight
I’ve always been drawn to strong storytelling, especially when it incorporates some type of time travel element to it. Needless to say, I have a soft spot for the classic movie Groundhog Day, and when games use this narrative device, I’m automatically intrigued. Omensight uses this Groundhog Day element, where you’re stuck reliving the same day over and over while trying to figure out a way to save the end of the world.You play as the silent but deadly Harbinger, a mysterious warrior that only appears in times of a cataclysmic crisis. The lands of Urralia are torn apart at the end of the day when a deadly and evil god appears, Voden, seemingly unable to be stopped. But this is where you come in as the Harbinger, as you’re the only one that can prevent this catastrophic event from occurring, again.
Doing so is impossible though on your own, and you’ll need to recruit help, but convincing others is going to be difficult, as Urralia is under a civil war with the numerous factions. Urralia’s Priestess has been murdered, seemingly at the heart of the reason for Voden’s awakening, so it’ll be up to you to solve this mystery as well, as it may play a key role in being successful.
Again, that won’t be easy, as each race’s faction and cities are at war with one another. The nations of Pygaria and Rodentia are at war, so helping one side will make the other resistant to aid you going forward. This is where your choices come into play. Do you help one person to learn more information on the other and see how their side of events played out, or choose the other for a different perspective. Oh, and even though there’s a Game of Thrones element where each nation is vying for power, every character is actually an animal. It sounds silly and out of place, but it works, reminding me almost like a Secret of Nimh setting.
This is where the brilliant storytelling comes into play, as at the end of each day the world ends, but you as the Harbinger will travel back to the start of the day with your newfound knowledge, allowing you to either make different decisions, or even use that information to confront others on their actions. I don’t want to go into any details about the overall narrative, as that’s easily Omensight’s strongest asset, and spoiling it would be an injustice.
Seeing different perspectives of certain events is really interesting, and even better when you confront characters about what they know or have done. You’re also able to use your Omensight ability, projecting your visions into their mind, allowing them to see what you’ve witnessed as well. The story becomes more and more interesting as you progress and solve smaller mysteries, eventually leading up to the murder of the Priestess and Voden’s awakening.
While the narrative is what will keep you interested, each day is chosen by who you want to accompany alongside. Each level will have you progressing through a linear level, though there are hidden areas that can be unlocked once you have specific knowledge of how to open them that correspond with colored locks.
The camera takes a little getting used to, as it’s a locked and fixed camera based on the area and action that’s happening on screen, though it tends to work well the majority of the time. If you do happen to get put behind an object, it will actually turn see-through so that you won’t be blind as to what’s happening. There are a few platforming sections, which, with the fixed camera can be a bit of a pain, but I only died a couple times due to this.
While there aren’t that many levels, you’ll be playing through them numerous times, due to the storytelling mechanic of reliving the same day every time. Every ‘new’ day you relive though, you’ll have new knowledge, so maybe your companion will open a new path, or a slightly different event will occur during your next day playthrough.
As you explore each stage, you’ll fight hordes of enemies blocking your path. Depending on whom you choose in each day, they’ll fight alongside you, and the AI is actually half decent as well. Each companion will do their own part to help fight, but you’re able to use Right Trigger to utilize their special ability when needed.
Combat is very smooth and fluid, reminding me much of a Batman Arkham style where you need to attack, dodge and heavy smash. As you defeat enemies you’ll earn XP which can then be used to level up in your hub area between levels/days, unlocking new abilities for you to use in combat with each level gained. You’ll also earn shards, which is like a currency, allowing you to purchase upgrades for your abilities, health upgrades and more.
This is when combat becomes quite fun, as you’ll eventually have access to new abilities that are much more powerful, but can only be used once you’ve stored enough orbs from performing combos in combat, making you focus on executing a constant barrage and dodges. As you progress further, your choices will effect whom you fight and when. If you side with one faction, maybe the Rodentian’s (rat race) will fight against you, or vice versa when siding with the Pygarians (birds). This is how replaying the same levels stays fresh, as new events and actions occur based on what information you have and if you decide to share it or not.
While I enjoyed the combat, it does become quite frantic in the last leg or two, with numerous types of enemies that all need to be dealt with in a specific way. Shielded enemies needs a heavy attack to allow you to open them up to hits, flying enemies can constantly spit goo at you if you don’t take care of them in the air, and massive sharks can destroy your health quickly if you don’t dodge in time.
Once you learn enough information, major reveals will come to light, like who killed the Priestess, who’s plotting against whom and other revelations. Using your Omensight is how you’ll get the truth out of people, as it will show them true events of what has happened, either making them confess or rally with or against you. It’s a great storytelling mechanic that kept me intrigued all the way until the end.
The cel-shaded visuals are oddly fitting for the character design, though maybe that’s just because of the animal aesthetics, but it all blends together fittingly. The voice acting is absolutely top notch, as is the soundtrack that accompanies it. Truth be told, Omensight has a perfect balance of storytelling, combat, platforming and ongoing character development. While Omensight doesn’t last a long while, it was a fantastic journey throughout, one that will be remembered for quite some time due to its unique and superb storytelling.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Verlet Swing
I generally tend to gravitate towards the weird and abstract. Why, I’m not sure, but I did so once again as soon as I saw the trailer for Verlet Swing. Weird and abstract is definitely how I would best describe Verlet Swing. It’s premise is basic as it comes; swing from point A to point B to beat the level. Much like Spider-man, you’ll have a hookshot of sorts to do so, but simply getting to point B won’t be easy, not in the slightest.While there’s no narrative or story at all within Verlet Swing, it’s as if you were having a very weird dream, complete with floating pizza slices, dolphins in the air and any other weird stuff you can conjure in your mind. Your goal for each stage, of which there are 100, is to make it to the end, denoted by a glowing orb. The first handful of levels will be easy, swinging from anchor point to anchor point to the end, but by about half way through the game, you better have some self-control so you don’t toss your controller through the window.
Maneuvering from point to point to reach the end takes a lot of time and practice. Sure, pro speed runners are able to do levels in a matter of mere seconds, but there’s been times where I’ve been stuck on a single stage for at least a half hour at a time. Nearly anything you see can be latched onto and swung from, though there will be a lot of curve balls thrown your way as you progress further. Eventually you’ll have many items and objects that can’t be tethered to, so you’ll need to swing around, up or under them, using momentum to propel yourself.
Playing the previous Spider-man games, you feel fantastic when you’re swinging at high speeds, maneuvering exactly how you want. Sadly, you don’t always get the same feeling with Verlet Swing, usually due to falling or dying, as touching the ground or any object instantly kills you, prompting for a restart. You’ll need to fling yourself through tight spaces, around corners and with absolute precision. Problem is, it’s very difficult to do so. I’m not sure if it’s a controller limitation, as I could see it being a little easier with a mouse to do, as I would constantly latch onto the wrong object, or one way in the distance instead of the one I intended right in front of me.
When I described Verlet Swing as weird and abstract, I meant it. You’ll start by swinging across levels with plain columns, pillars and geometry, but eventually you’ll have Easter Island Moai statue heads that break apart as you get close, allowing you to swing from the smaller debris fragments. Soon you’ll swing from pizza slice propellers, flying bubbles, giant dolphins and many other weird imagery that I can’t even begin to describe. It truly is something you need to see and experience for yourself to wrap your head around, as simple words don't do it justice.
Progress is gated by completing the stage you’re currently on to unlock the next. This means that once, not if, you hit a brick wall of difficulty, you won’t be able to progress any further. I’m somewhat near the end, but I’ve thrown in the towel after a massive amount of frustration. I wish you were able to bypass levels and possibly come back, or maybe have the teapots you earn per level (essentially stars) dictate what levels you can attempt. Either way, the difficulty ramps up real quick, and while I’m generally patient, I eventually gave up due to frustration.
That being said, not all levels are needed to be completed in a single way. While you do need to make it to the orb at the end to finish the levels, how you get there is completely up to you. One of the earlier levels has you navigating these narrow corridors, which was near impossible, but once I figured out a spot to fling myself up and over the wall, the 15 second level only took me 3 seconds or so. While not all will be laid out like so, I’ve definitely completed some levels in an unintended way.
While you are scored per level via the teapots, this indicates that you’re able to replay levels if you really want to challenge yourself with climbing leaderboards and besting your own times. Trust me though, eventually you’ll just be happy that you can complete a level, regardless of the time it took to do so. For those that really want a challenge though, there is Mixer integration, so when you stream it to your audience, they can mess with your game, throwing you even more curveballs and difficult situations.
Right Trigger is how you swing from the object your cursor is currently pointed at, provided it’s an object you can anchor to. You use the Sticks to move and look around, needing to adjust your movement slightly in the air to take tight corners. While you’ll never feel as smooth as Spider-man swinging along rooftops, when you do hit a good flow, purposely, it does feel great. On the flip side, dying for a half hour straight to the same object or corner will make you want to uninstall it just as quickly.
Verlet Swing’s appeal is going to be based on how much patience you have, if you really enjoy challenging yourself or crave climbing leaderboards. You’re going to need to persevere through a lot of frustration if you want to even get close to completing all 100 levels, but my hats off to you if you’re able to do so; at least the soundtrack is upbeat and doesn’t wear out its welcome. Sure it’s got some really out there visuals and is the definition of abstract, but patience is a virtue, and absolutely required to get through Verlet Swing.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Riverbond
Are you a fan of Voxel based games such as Minecraft? What about a good dungeon crawler like a Diablo? What if you could have both in one game? That’s what Riverbond, developed by indie studio Cococucumber, is aiming to be. Casual gameplay by design, Riverbond is, oddly enough, a relaxing experience for a dungeon brawler. Meant to be played in short bursts, and generally aimed at a younger audience, there’s some fun to be had if you’re just wanting to kill a good half hour or so at a time, or really enjoy trying to compete cooperatively alongside some friends on the couch.Set in a beautiful voxel cubed world, you’ll take on an adventure across multiple realms alongside your friends, smashing everything in sight and defeating all enemies along the way. Since the world is voxel based, meaning made of tiny cubes, like Minecraft, everything you kill or destroy explodes into smaller blocks.
While completely playable single player, Riverbond is much more entertaining when you have up to 3 other friends alongside you playing on the same screen. With support of up to 4 players, and drop-in drop-out gameplay co-op, your kids should have no problems swiftly picking it up for a quick round of gaming. Meant for casual play, gameplay is very simplistic and the difficulty is beyond forgiving, so there shouldn’t be much frustration had from anyone that isn’t as skilled as the other siblings or friends playing.
Pick your favorite skin for your character and start hacking away. While skins have no inherent traits, and are simply for looks, there will be some interesting, and funny, skins you’ll acquire as you find them hidden in chests along your adventure. Search hard enough and you’ll even unlock special skins that are crossovers from other games, such as Bastion, Enter the Gungeon, Shovel Knight and Guacamelee! Or, if something more basic is your style, you can be a sword swinging donut, bacon, pig, or multitude of others that will surely make you chuckle.
There are eight worlds that need to be cleared by defeating their respective bosses. Each world is made up of a handful of individual stages, usually 5 or 6, and last roughly a half hour or so each. Each level also gives you a specific objective before unlocking the gate to allow you to progress. These are usually very basic and has you defeating all enemies, finding keys, destroying objects, finding hidden things or other silly goals.
Clear all of the stages and you’ll finally take on that world’s boss, which if you simply circle strafe while shooting your projectile weapon, you’ll eventually whittle them down to nothing, even with their respawning adds. These bosses may not be the most challenging encounters, but again, they aren’t really meant to be, as Riverbond is a more casual experience, meant for a younger audience.
Interestingly, you’re able to play any of the eight worlds in any order you like, and apparently they are all tied together in some way, but the narrative is so paper thin that I couldn’t even remember much of it by the time I got to writing this after finishing it. Again, this is alright, as the younger audience will simply want to hack and slash until they move on to something else.
What surprised me the most was how death really isn’t a hindrance at all. I fully expected that when I died, I would have to restart that level all over again from the beginning, but you don’t. Instead, you simply respawn at the beginning of the level you’re on, or checkpoint if you’ve unlocked one, and continue searching for your objectives. All of the enemies you killed are still dead and they don’t even reappear. For the younger players, or less skilled, this is a great feature.
Riverbond’s main hook comes from its wide variety of weapons and skins you find along the way. You begin with a simple sword and gun, allowing for melee or ranged combat, but you’ll find a ton of more weapons along the way in chests. I can’t tell if weapons you find are fixed or random, but it seems the quality of weapons you get can vastly fluctuate. For example, your starter sword may do 15 damage per swing, but the new one you just found can either be much better, or even worse, damage wise.
Sadly, there’s no way to tell how good a weapon is either until you swing, or shoot, away on a few enemies and look at the numbers. I wish there was some way to see the stats of a weapon before picking it up, as you can only hold, but rotate, a certain amount of weapons at a time. There are a variety of weapons though, so you’re bound to find one that suits your playstyle. Some may like the slower swinging, but higher damage, clubs, whereas I chose to stick with the low damage but ultra-quick dual weapons.
Even better, weapons are just as silly as the character skins. Sure, you’ll find some standard swords and machine guns, but you’ll also find bear claws, samurai swords and a few other hilarious ones that you’ll want to try out. Ammo is unlimited, though you’ll need to take time to reload when your clip is empty, and ranged weapons greatly vary just like their melee counterparts. With over 50 weapons to find and play with, my only complaint is that I wish I could see their stats before replacing them in my inventory.
Riverbond’s world is beautiful, even in its simplistic form. Smashing almost everything I see is fun, as is defeating the massive bosses at the end of each world. Audio is just as fitting and never seemed to grate on me during my playthrough of each world either. Unlocking new skins is fun and I found myself rotating new skins each level just to keep things fresh, even if they have no inherent abilities or differences aside from their looks.
If you have kids in the house, or friends that come over often, Riverbond can be a fun way to spend a few hours. While there’s little reason to continue playing after completing all the worlds, aside from trying to get a better high score, there’s potential within, even if it is basic at its core, as I know I would have stuck with it for a few more playthroughs if it had online co-op. Even still, if you have Gamepass, it’s free, so you might as well get to swinging that voxel sword.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Outer Wilds
I’ve always gravitated towards games that have a strong narrative. Some games utilize lengthy and dramatic cutscenes to tell its story, others immerse you in a living world, but in the case of Outer Wilds, it focuses on exploration mechanics for you to search and find out more about its lore. Outer Wilds is an interesting concept that took me a while to wrap my head around, but once I did, I kept wanting to go back after every 22 minutes, but more on that shortly.If I was forced to make a direct comparison, I would best equate Outer Wilds to something that resembles a No Man’s Sky, though nowhere near in size and scope. That’s not a bad thing though, as Outer Wilds has some very interesting roguelike elements that keeps gameplay quite interesting throughout your space adventure. Normally I like to be guided and told what to do and when, but Outer Wilds is exactly the opposite, allowing your curiosity dictate where you want to go and what to do.
You’re the newest recruit for a small space program, the Outer Wilds Ventures. Your goal is to find answers and explore the known solar system with your trusty spaceship and suit. This solar system is nothing like our own though, with many moons, orbiting planets nearby and even more mysteries as to why your alien race is stuck here in the first place.
There was another race here before you though, as there are remnants littered throughout the galaxy, pieces of which you’ll find during your vast exploration. The main catch though? You’re stuck in a time loop where the solar system is engulfed by the Sun turning into a Supernova. When you die though, you simply wake up once again at your camp fire alongside a friend; something you’ve done countless times before.
Sure, once I realized there was a Groundhog Day element to the narrative and gameplay, I was intrigued, but it’s a very clever way to add roguelike elements to the gameplay. Even though the universe is destroyed every 22 minutes and your game restarts, you keep any progress you’ve made with found clues and researched lore. For example, your first task is to find the launch codes for your ship so you can take into orbit, and even though you’ll die in 22 minutes, or sooner if you have a mishap, once you’ve found those codes, you’ll already start your next time loop with that knowledge. So while it’s a roguelike with guaranteed deaths, you do constantly progress as well.
Every time you die, be it the Supernova, running out of oxygen, crashing your ship or numerous other means, you’ll always awake moments later back at your campfire. Why is this happening, what happens if you can stop the time loop? Can you even do such a thing? These are the questions that are asked and for you to solve on your own through exploration in the solar system.
You’re going to need to venture into unknown space to find answers. Where do you begin? Do you equip tools and check your map? Do you aim for the nearest planet? What’s that dark planet in the distance that looks like it’s frozen in time after exploding? Why is there ancient text strewn around nearly everywhere? Your curiosity will get the best of you, and you’re not guided in any way or another, so free to choose what you want to explore.
There’s a surprising amount of detail within Outer Wilds’ worlds, as each planet looks and feels distinct, every cave and mystery is unique and some of the landscapes you’ll come across are simply magnificent to take in and enjoy.
Getting around the galaxy though will take some practice, as you’ll need to deal with navigating all of the axis’ in your ship and suit. You’re going to crash a lot in the beginning, but eventually it'll become second nature. You can also use the autopilot to get within range of a planet before setting down to explore. There’s a steep learning curve, not only in the controls, but how to progress, and more importantly, why. Just as you discover new areas, you’ll plunge down a rabbit hole that will only open up more questions and be presented with puzzles that will almost certainly take a good walkthrough to solve. However, solving the puzzles and deciphering ancient text that reveals more about the lore is very rewarding. Yes, you’re going to die in 22 minutes, again, but all of your discoveries carries over into the next time loop.
22 minutes might not sound like long, but when you’re exploring the galaxy, I actually ended up dying most of the time well before the Supernova event occurred. Sure, a few of those were accidentally ejecting myself into space and running out of oxygen, or crash landing onto a planet at breakneck speeds, but every time you awaken at the campfire once again, it only takes a few moments to get back into space and your next destination. While you’ll only make minor overall progress in small steps, once things start to come together and uncover the past, it’s quite rewarding.
I really enjoyed that there were no enemies or combat elements within. That doesn’t meant there aren’t specific dangers that need to be avoided, but I really appreciated the exploration focus rather than adding a survival element. Your ship's on-board computer will keep track of all the progress you’ve made, laying out the ‘quests’, so to speak, in an easily visual way that makes sense and allows you to figure out what you want to do next or set markers.
Puzzles will play a large part of your exploration, as certain orbs can be moved along paths, much like switches, or finding a room where touching a crystal changes the orientation or gravity. There’s many more secrets to uncover within, many of which I could list off as immensely cool moments, but that would be spoiling grand events that truly need to be witnessed and experienced.
Visually, Outer Wilds may look basic at first glance, but once you start to take in the universe as a whole, explore within the layers of planets and appreciate the more unique moments, ‘impressive’ is only the start of how to describe how everything looks. Arguably even better is its soundtrack, with movingly beautiful instrumentals that fit a great space exploration perfectly. Witnessing your first Supernova death with the orchestral soundtrack is simply a beautiful experience.
While some may be turned off by the lack of focus and direction, Outer Wilds excels because it doesn’t do either of these, allowing you to explore the galaxy at your own pace in any way you want. Curiosity will constantly pique your interest, pulling you to new places every new time loop, with tons of secrets and mysteries to uncover for those that want a specific goal. Oh, and it’s on Game Pass currently, so there’s absolutely no reason to not suit up for 22 minutes and explore wherever you desire.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
A Plague Tale: Innocence
What if I told you that a relatively small studio that created Fuel for Xbox 360 about a decade ago would go on to craft one of my favorite narrative driven storylines I’ve played in recent years? That’s exactly what Asobo Studio has done with their most recent release, A Plague Tale: Innocence. Truth be told, A Plague Tale wasn’t even on my radar before release, yet fate dealt me it to review, and I’m extremely grateful that it did, as it’s easily gone to be one of my favorite titles in recent memory, easily up there with the likes of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.Set in 1349 France, A Plague Tale tells a narrative driven saga about the de Rune family, specifically a young 15 year old girl named Amicia and her 5 year old brother Hugo, born into a wealthy family. Hugo though has essentially been isolated from everyone since birth, even from his own sister Amicia, so they don’t have much of a relationship, if at all.
The heartwarming, and wrenching, story begins when the Inquisition invades your village, destroying everything in their path and killing anyone in the way to find Hugo for some unknown reason. Not only is the Inquisition a deadly force, destroying everything in their path, there’s a plague ravaging the lands, carried by thousands of filthy rats that infest every area where there’s no fire or light, seemingly their weakness.
One moment Amicia and Hugo are innocent children living a life of luxury, the next, they are fleeing to escape the Inquisition together after seeing everyone they know slaughtered. Siblings are now forced together as Amicia tries to take Hugo to safety, away from the Inquisition that is unrelenting and constantly on your heels. The 1300’s were dark times, and having a plague to deal with on top of the situation they are thrust in makes for an absolutely intriguing narrative that I wish wouldn’t end. From the opening moments you start to care about these characters, and by the end, I was fully invested in their struggle and did what I could to have them and their friends survive.
While the narrative and character development are the main focus, the core gameplay is a mix of stealth and action with some puzzle elements thrown in. While the adventure itself is linear, eventually you’ll be able to solve puzzles in a number of different ways. With a playtime of roughly a dozen or so hours, it was just the right length and never felt like overstayed its welcome.
You control Amicia for the majority of the adventure, and instead of a standard sword and shield combat mechanic, she instead is only armed with a sling to fling rocks at enemies and her alchemy knowledge. While being only able to sling rocks at armed guards may seem like weak design, it adds a strong degree of tension. Sure, a direct headshot will instantly kill guards, but eventually they’ll wear helmets and have shields, making you figure out other solutions to defeating them.
The first half of the game is very stealth focused, as you don’t have a lot of tools at your disposal aside from slinging rocks, but eventually Amicia will be able to craft special alchemy concoctions, like igniters, poisons and other tricks to use against the Inquisition. The Inquisition isn’t the only enemy you’ll need to worry about though, as if you allow the hordes of rats to touch you, it’s game over. But the rats are afraid of light, so staying within the light is paramount above all else.
New crafted items are almost like abilities, as dealing with the rats are essentially the puzzle elements in A Plague Tale. There’s a guard blocking a doorway, so do you use your sling and try fighting against him directly, use an extinguishing potion to douse the torch they are carrying, causing the rats to eat him, or simply try and sneak your way past? Eventually you’ll be able to solve these puzzles in a handful of different ways, just like above. Without spoiling anything, the final hour or two of the game added a new mechanic that changed things up and I absolutely loved.
While none of the puzzles were overly complex, some do take some trial and error to figure out. What I really enjoyed was that it’s almost as if you’re solving micro puzzles one after another throughout your journey, and when I felt stuck, I would simply check my abilities and what would be the best way to progress. Sometimes grabbing a torch that burns quickly to reach the next fire pit is all it takes, other times you may need to light a brazier and push it along a cart to keep the rats at bay.
Amicia will collect items during her journey, such objects like sulphur, oil, cloth, rope, etc. These are used to craft items when you find workbenches to upgrade your sling and other abilities. You’ll need to be very thorough if you want to upgrade though, as these materials are also how you craft your needed alchemy items as well, so it’s a balance of creating the items you need to survive in combat, but also saving enough to upgrade your sling, ammo pouch, etc.
Graphically, A Plague Tale took me by complete surprise. Not that smaller studios can’t craft beautifully stunning visuals, but usually cutscenes and scenery are only this impressive in top tier AAA titles. To say that A Plague Tale looks stunning is an understatement. Amica’s journey will take her from village to forests, ruins, castles and other dark settings, all of which look amazing. While Amicia’s face may look a little dead and lifeless during gameplay, the cutscenes are absolutely top tier. I don’t know what technical wizardry the developers used to have hundreds of rats constantly on screen at any given moment, but never once did I experience slowdown or framerate drops.
The same goes for the audio, as the soundtrack is brooding and fitting the dark tale of the era, and the voice acting is some of the best I’ve experienced in recent memory. Kudos to Charlotte McBurney (Amicia), as the performance was completely believable, and more impressive, was her first voice acting role as well. Logan Hannan (Hugo) also performed flawlessly, and combined, made the siblings a pair of characters I truly cared about by the time the credits rolled. Even the supporting characters you meet along the way were amazing and made the journey much more engaging and believable.
Asobo Studios needs to be applauded for creating something so stunning and fantastic in every way. It’s not easy to make you care about characters in a short dozen or so hours, and the fact that A Plague Tale will be etched into my memory is no small feat. I don’t like to loosely throw around the term “Masterpiece”, but this is absolutely one of my favorite games that I enjoyed whole heartedly in recent memory. Needless to say, this is one plague you won’t want to avoid.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection
As a kid growing up in the 80’s, I got to experience a golden age of gaming. Not only did I have a Nintendo at home, but I would plunk fistfuls of quarters into my local arcade, something I wish still existed. While I played endless amounts of home console games, I can tell that by this SNK 40th Anniversary Collection that I’ve missed out on the far superior arcade versions of games I knew growing up.Last year was the pinnacle 40th anniversary of the legendary studio SNK, hence this anniversary collection (even if it is a year late). Not only are there a ton of classics included here, but even more impressive is how much work went into making the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection something truly special with all of its extras and bonuses.
A compilation of SNK titles from console and arcades ranging from 1979 to 1990, there’s going to be something for nearly everyone here, even though they aren’t all winners. Compilations aren’t a new thing, nor are remakes, but it truly is all of the extra work that’s gone into this collection that makes it worth the price of entry if you’re a true retro fan, even if the price is quite steep at a hefty $51.99 CAD.
With nearly 30 titles to play, here’s the list of included games:
Alpha Mission (1985), Athena 1986), Beast Busters (1989), Bermuda Triangle (1987), Chopper I (1988), Crystalis (1990), Fantasy (1981), Guerilla War (1987), Ikari Warriors I, II and III (1986 and on), Victory Road, Iron Tank (1988), Munch Mobile (1983), Ozma Wars (1979), Paddle Mania (1988), P.O.W. (1988), Prehistoric Isle (1989), Psycho Soldier (1987), SAR: Search and Rescue (1989), Sasuke vs. Commander (1980), Street Smart (1989), Time Soldiers (1987), TNK III (1985), Vanguard (1981), and World Wars (1987).
One title to make special mention of though is Baseball Stars (1989) and is an Xbox One exclusive. What makes many of these titles special is that you can play either the console or arcade versions of each (most are supported and included) and see the true difference of how much superior the arcade versions were compared to the home versions.
One of the coolest additions to each game is the options you’re given to alter how you want to play. Many games will let you edit starting lives, amount of points needed to earn a free life, how many continues, etc. There are even modern day quality of life improvements, like a rewind button we’ve come accustomed to in our racing games, so when you die to a random projectile, feel free to rewind and try again. You can add old school TV filters, toggle the border artwork, create and load save states and more. Obviously updated graphics to support modern resolutions and controllers have been added, as expected. What I would have given to have these options as a kid growing up with many of these games.
The coolest feature though, for every single title, is the ability to watch the game. I don’t mean the intro loop of a specific part in a level, I mean a complete playthrough of the game. I can’t tell if it’s from a pro speed runner, or AI, because every run is essentially perfect. This means that even though you’re never going to be able to beat a specific game, you can still watch it from beginning to finish. Sure, you could YouTube a walkthrough or speedrun, but there’s something awesome about doing it in-game then trying it yourself. You’re able to fast forward and rewind, if you simply need some help or want to see how a pro does it, but this inclusion really surprised me and I hope more games utilize something like this fantastic feature.
While Arcade is where you’ll play all the games, nerds like myself will truly enjoy the Museum section of this collection. Here you’ll see a history of SNK, much of which I didn’t know, artwork, never before seen promotional materials, manuals and fully fledged soundtracks. Yes, not just the title theme, but full soundtracks. There’s a ton of material to enjoy, and I really appreciate the time and effort that went into adding aspects like this that I find truly fascinating.
While I enjoyed mostly the side and vertical shooters in the collection, there were a few standouts that were entertaining to relive once again. That said, there’s also a few stinkers included that I played once or twice and will most likely never go back to. Sure, everyone will have a different preference, but this means that there’s something for nearly everyone if you’re into the retro genre. I couldn’t believe how vastly superior arcade versions were compared to the console ones I grew up with, something I would have never known without this collection. Nostalgia can be a funny thing, making you remember things far better than they actually were, as was the case with a title or two here for myself, but that didn’t hinder the fun I was having.
More entertaining than the slew of games themselves is the bonus and extras that were included. I really hope that other retro collections take note going forward, as SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is the new baseline of effort needed to truly grab someone’s attention, though hopefully they won’t price is as exorbitantly high as this one.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Fission Superstar X
Do you enjoy space shooters? What about roguelites with random generation of enemies? Do you thrive on a very difficult challenge with permadeath for when you screw up? If you answered yes to these questions, then Fission Superstar X is THE game for you, developed by indie creators Turbo Pelvis 3000.Sometimes when a story is so absurd and over the top, it makes it better than when it’s trying to be super serious and comes up short. Such is the case with Fission Superstar X, a tale about a jaded Doctor Leopold that hails from Planet X. This mad scientist has created a massive Planet destroying bomb, lovingly nicknamed Celine, and the main target is Earth. Earth is very far away from Planet X though, and you’ll need to make stops along the way, including Pluto (it’s still a Planet damnit!).
Generally lifeforms don’t take kindly to being blown up, so everyone will attempt to stop you and shoot down your ship along your way across the solar system. It’s a silly story, but it’s fitting, as the gameplay is what you’ll come for more so than any narrative.
As for its core gameplay, Fission Superstar X plays out like a standard side scrolling space shooter, though like any good roguelike, when you die it’s permanent and you begin all the way at the start. Combat is interesting though, as you begin with a standard turret near the top of your ship, with options to purchase and add one on each side of your ship as you progress. What makes the shooting interesting though is that you can only physically shoot at angles that your turrets can see. This means that you’ve only got about a 45 degree angle of coverage on each turret side, which makes sense, but adds a lot of challenge.
Once you have a turret on the top, bottom, front and back, shooting down enemies will become much easier, but until then, you’re defenseless on sides with no turret, making the first few levels a challenge. This is due to the randomness of enemy placement. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and they’ll appear from off screen in an ideal spot, within your turrets range of sight, but other times, you won’t be so lucky and will have to attempt to maneuver your ship so you are able to shoot them down.
This means you need to constantly be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, but also figure out how to avoid enemy turrets and weaponry as well. The AI seems smart enough to know where its weapons are placed and will make it challenging to get out from their weapon's ideal positioning. For example, maybe an enemy has a chainsaw on the bottom of their ship, which does massive damage, so the AI will generally know to try and stay above you so that it can attempt to kill you. One on one isn’t too bad, but when you get a few levels deep and have multiple enemies at once, you can get shot down in a matter of seconds if you’re not careful and take them out swiftly. This isn’t even factoring the special levels that also have debris, like floating space cows or cars, which needs to be avoided as well.
This is where your shield comes into play. This shield will allow you to block incoming projectiles, push away enemies and even tractor beam in cash and pickups from blown up enemies. So why not just always have the shield going then? Well, your ship also has an energy meter, tied to not only your shield use, but your turret firing as well, so it’s a delicate balance of offensive and defensive you need to find.
The ship you begin with will be very basic and as you progress from planet to planet, but should you decide to blow it up after defeating its boss instead of making it all the way to Earth, you’ll unlock new ships, but keep in mind this will end your run just like a regular death would. While I liked the idea, sadly the newer ships seemed to be just cosmetic changes and had no added statistical benefits (though there was an achievement).
That’s right, you’re going to have to survive many levels to get to each of the Planet’s bosses, of which are incredibly challenging. To put it into perspective, after about an hour or two of trying over and over and finally making it to Pluto and defeating the first boss, I got a rare achievement that only about 5% of players had unlocked. That’s how challenging Fission Superstar X is. Get used to the first two planets though, as getting further than that is truly an accomplishment in of itself.
Levels last anywhere from one to three minutes, and once you survive, you’re given the option of what you want to do next. Do you repair your ship, heal your crew or boost their shields? Also, you’ll pick from a list of random vendors that sell weapons, shipyards and crew recruitment. In the beginning you’ll want to recruit ASAP so that you can fill all four turrets and defend yourself on all sides, but this costs money, as does upgrading your weapons. You don’t get many of the super cool weapons until much later in the game, but again, good luck making it that far without a dozen hours of practice and the RNG gods on your side.
So many times I was shy just a bit of money for the crew member or weapon upgrade I wanted, so be sure to spend wisely. This doesn’t factor in that if an enemy or boss completely destroys one of your turrets, it’s gone until you buy another crew member. Interestingly, when you pick what you want to do after a completed level, it will also show the length of the level (one to three minutes) and how many jumps ahead it’ll put you closer to the Planet and its boss (again, one to three). Usually the shorter the jump the shorter the stage length, but it seems completely random. I tended to go with the largest jumps and shortest times so increase my odds of survivability, but again, the RNG gods can be in your favor or completely against you.
There’s a lot of strategic balance you need to take into account. At the beginning you’re given a few DNA points to create your pilot and improve their skill, aim or armor every time you start anew, and when you recruit new crew, do you spend more on someone that has more armor or aim, or save some money for upgrades and hope you can last another level or two until the new vendor option appears? Again, randomness plays a huge part, so you may get lucky, but don’t always count on it.
When you do finally upgrade your ships weaponry, have a great crew and are taking out enemies almost instantly, Fission Superstar X is a ton of fun. Conversely, the opposite is true as well, as a bad run will make you question if you should give it another go. It would have helped if many of the mechanics were explained much more clearly, such as DNA points and how to get more, or how many jumps it takes to get to the boss, but you’ll figure it out in time with dozens and dozens of deaths and start overs.
The artistic design of Fission Superstar X is wonderful. Enemies are unique and varied, seeing them explode is even more wonderful, as are crew members, ship design and even the backgrounds in space as you zoom from stage to stage. In motion is all seems to work and flow together nicely, coupled with a fitting chiptune soundtrack that has me bobbing my head every time I visit a vendor or recruitment area.
There’s a lot of depth and strategy to Fission Superstar X, it’s just a shame that the difficulty is so astronomically high that most won’t get to experience most of it before giving up, as it will take some dedication to make any real progress. Even with constant death and restarts, I enjoyed my time carrying out Doctor Leopold’s orders, well attempting to, as I’m still working on trying to blow up Earth.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
World of Warships: Legends
Wargaming.net, best known for World of Tanks (WoT), is no stranger to military combat games. Obviously World of Tanks is what put them on the map and gathered quite a following, but that wasn’t everyone’s bag, myself included. I’ve played World of Tanks a bit before, but could never sink a lot of time, or money, into it and get myself hooked. This seems to have changed though with their most recent console release, World of Warships: Legends.If you’ve played World of Tanks before, you’ll know what to expect from a Wargaming title, yet there’s more here than a simple boat reskin. Just like their other games, World of Warships is a free to play title, meaning there’s no cost of entry to play, so there’s no harm in checking out if it’s something you’ll enjoy. Take to the seas with dozens of warships, historical commanders and a ship load of torpedoes. Let’s see if they’ve blown this one out of the water.
Like WoT, there’s no real traditional campaign. Instead, you get bite sized skirmishes, with matches usually lasting 5 to 15 minutes depending on a variety of factors. Each level has its own unique layout, as some have much more open water, whereas others are littered with dozens of small islands that need to be navigated, or used strategically for cover. To win is simple; either capture all the enemy territories or defeat all of the enemy ships, as there are no respawns. The majority of the time you’ll be fighting to the last ship standing, but capturing is a completely strategic and viable option if the opportunity arises.
You may have noticed that the original World of Warships released on PC just short of 4 years ago, so what makes Legends so different? Simply put, it’s not just straight PC port, as there are quite a few differences, the main being that Legends was built from the ground up and tuned specifically for console users.
Best of all, the controls translate very well to the controller, as there’s no crazy or overly complicated button commands to remember or that needed to be ‘dumbed down’. Controls are quite simple, with a button to increase or decrease speed, aim, fire and switch firing modes. Navigating your ship is intuitive, it simply takes some getting used to remembering to start to steer very early, as giant Battleships turn as quickly as a house on a good day. This simplicity meant that I was able to concentrate on the gameplay and think strategically rather than fighting against or trying to remember specific controls in the heat of battle as a swarm of torpedoes heads my way.
Developers have managed to find that sweet spot of arcade versus simulator. I found WoT a little too hardcore for me once you started climbing the tiered ranks, but I haven’t had that same feeling here with Legends yet. If you want to jump in for a quick match or two and only have a half hour to play, that’s possible, or if you want to binge for an 8+ hour session, there’s nothing stopping you either.
You’re given daily and weekly missions to work towards for extra rewards, on top of other campaigns and missions for special loot boxes and XP bonuses. Yes, this is a free to play game, so there needs to be a way for them to make money, and while there are certain pay to win aspects, they didn’t feel as completely overpowered as they did in WoT, but more on that shortly.
As you begin you’ll have three factions to choose from: USA, Japan and the UK. You’re not tied to a specific choice, so feel free to try them all, as each have their own line of ship progression, strengths and weaknesses. It’s said there will be more nations coming in the future as well, so there’s always something to look forward to.
You’ll begin with a Cruiser, a medium strength ship that has decent shielding, firepower and speed. As you progress you’ll gain access to Destroyers and Battleships as well. Each has their own specific type of playstyle that they’re best suited for, so make sure to give each of them a fair shot and see what you enjoy the most. Myself, I’m a Cruiser all the way.
Destroyers are your most quick and agile, as they can be sent out for recon and also pack some nasty firepower with their torpedo barrages, but have very little health. Battleships are on the other end of the spectrum, as they have a massive amount of health and shielding and can fire all of their cannons quickly, but if you aren’t accurate, you’ll be a sitting duck as you wait for the slow reloads and even slower maneuvering abilities. Cruisers are a happy medium of in between, which is why I tend to gravitate towards them. I can hold my own in a firefight, but also maneuver in and out quickly enough if needed. It’s all a preference, and each plays completely different.
If you’ve played the PC version you’ll notice that the popular Aircraft Carriers are absent, but developers has said that it’s more of a when than an if, of when they’ll be coming to Legends. They want to do the game right and make sure it’s balanced before bringing it over to console, which I can appreciate.
Legends progression feels much more streamlined than in World of Tanks, maybe because there’s only 7 tiers of ships and 3 types, but it wasn’t nearly as confusing either. You begin at tier I, obviously, and are the weakest and slowest of the bunch. These act as like a tutorial of sorts, as you learn how to properly maneuver and play strategically. Win a few matches and you’ll earn XP, allowing you to gain a Tier II ship, where you get your first Destroyer. Again, win a handful of matches and level up to Tier III and you’ll gain your first Battleship. From here on you can focus on whatever ship line you want to, or all of them should you desire, all the way up to the top Tier VII monsters of the seas. It will take some time and dedication to reach Tier VII without putting any money into the game, but it is possible, and fun to do so.
Not only will you unlock new ships, but you’ll be able to purchase new parts and blueprints for your ships to improve their stats as well. As you level even further, you’ll also be able to unlock commanders, each of which is historically accurate and adds a whole other level of complexity and strategy to your loadout. Each commander has their own specializations, such as firepower, torpedoes, maneuverability, etc, and as they level up with their own XP pool, you can upgrade them and unlock new perk slots as well. There’s a lot of depth to it and you’ll need to choose wisely which commanders you want in which ships to suit your playstyle. It’s not overly complicated and every option feels purposeful, not simply thrown in just because.
This is where the free to play aspects come in. Like their previous games, you’re able to spend real money for certain perks, bonuses and even ships should you desire. While this isn’t needed in any way, it sure does make life much easier and the grind less arduous. You can purchase individual Premium Ships, which can only be bought with real money (a Dubloon currency within the game), and these are obviously much better stat wise than others in the same Tier. While this seems overpowered, it didn’t feel as unbalanced as it did in World of Tanks, where Premium users generally dominated without fail.
You can purchase other bonuses, XP boosts, coins, commanders and more, and while some will cry “pay to win”, it feels much more complicated than that. Sure, having a top tier ship will be nice and help, but you’ll still need to know how to properly use them and strategize. Just because you dropped over $100 for the Ultimate edition with a half dozen Premium ships doesn’t mean you’re going to go into matches like Superman and destroy everyone and everything. The bought bonuses are obviously nice, but they aren’t required.
Matches are 9 versus 9 and can be played single player versus AI or online with friends against the world. Form a division with your friends, a party/group, and easily go from battle to battle with one another. Much like WoT, when you’re dead, you’re able to leave the match as it continues and start another with a different ship, as you’ll be given the rewards when the initial match finishes, so there’s no downtime needed if you don’t want there to be.
Most impressive was Legends’ visuals. While the water effects may not be on a Seas of Thieves level of realistic, the water effects are done quite well, as you can see waves coming from your ship as you engage your engines. While the default is zoomed out so you can see much more all around you, if you do zoom in, you’ll notice there’s a massive amount finer detail to the ships themselves, as you can see each cable line, turrets rotating, smoke stacks and a ton of other small details that is quite impressive. With HDR lighting, the levels themselves are quite impressive as well, and 4K support is on the way as well.
If you have a great sound system, crank up the bass and sub and smile every time you fire a barrage from your Battleship, or clench those cheeks as you narrowly miss an oncoming torpedo as your warning systems are going crazy. Turrets have that metal grinding and squeak to them as they rotate, and when you hit landfall, you know you messed up from the audio alone. While I did end up playing my own music over top eventually, the smaller audio details are quite impressive when you take the time to notice them.
I honestly figured that World of Warships: Legends would essentially just be a reskin of World of Tanks (but on water obviously), but came away quite surprised. I gave up on Tanks eventually due to the grind and complexity, yet don’t feel that at all here. Even though I’m still working towards the Tier VII’s I want to have, I’m able to hold my own now that I’ve put a good amount of hours into it and have developed a few good strategies with a buddy that also plays.
I came away quite impressed with the amount of fun I was having with the dozens of historical ships and finally being able to lead my shots many kilometers away from my enemies. Suited for the hardcore or casual, World of Warships: Legends has no barrier of entry aside from having to wait for it to download. It’s free to play so there’s no harm in giving it a shot, and you don’t feel as forced to sink money into it as you do with World of Tanks.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
World War Z
There are very few things that are certain in life. One of these things though, with about 99.9% certainty, is that movie videogames are going to be terrible. There is that 0.1% chance though that just because it has a movie license tied to its name, that maybe it’ll actually be a decent game as well, and not just a quick money grab. Sure, the odds aren’t great, but there is the odd exception to the rule, and I’m excited to report that World War Z belongs to that 0.1% category.Based on the 2013 movie with the same name, World War Z is a four player cooperative adventure that will have you fighting for your lives against hundreds of zombies. And I know what you’re thinking: Yet another zombie game? I know, I thought that fad died out too (see what I did there?) but fans have been begging Valve for a new Left 4 Dead, and since they’re unable to produce it, developers Saber Interactive have taken their own spin on the gameplay formula. Sure, it’s got a movie license tied to it, and it’s changed from first person to third, yet somehow, it works great.
Based on the movie universe, you don’t recreate the movie, nor get to see or play as Brad Pitt, but instead, play through four separate mini campaigns. Just like in the film, humanity is on the verge of being wiped out from the undead, so you need to do whatever required to survive. While I enjoyed the smaller bite sized campaigns compared to one lengthy one, there was no overarching storyline to piece it all together, though if there was, I somehow completely missed it.
While I would normally hold this against a game, it simply works here because you’re coming to kill swarms of zombies; nothing more, nothing less. Each of the four campaigns have their own secluded stories, broken into 3 smaller chapters (though Episode 4 only had 2 chapters). You’ll venture across different areas of the world, from Moscow to New York, Jerusalem and Tokyo. Each campaign has its own unique characters to choose from, though they make no difference gameplay wise. Complete the campaign with a character and you’ll unlock a small clip of their backstory.
Each episode has its own special moments and challenges, though generally the gameplay won’t change from beginning to end. Get to a waypoint, fight some zombies, get to next checkpoint, hunker down as a swarm attacks you, get to next checkpoint and survive the final swarm of hundreds of zombies that rush you. Even though that’s the majority of the game design, the swarm sections never got tiresome as it was always a challenge, especially on the harder difficulties.
Most impressive hands down is the technology used to render hundreds of zombies all rushing at once. If you’re familiar with the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Zombies in World War Z are unlike others, as they can run and rush at very fast speeds. They gather so quickly that they actually pile on top of one another, able to create an undead ladder of sorts to scale buildings, walls and defenses, and it’s no different here.
I don’t know what programming sorcery was used to create these swarms, but even after surviving dozens of them, I’m still impressed every time I witness that horde rushing towards us. Sure, the dead ones eventually fade away, but it’s done subtly and you don’t really notice it, or have time to when being rushed. Even more impressive is that I never once had any technical issues or slowdown when hundreds of them were on the screen at once.
Not all zombies are your standard braindead lurkers though. Just like Left 4 Dead, there are the odd few ‘special’ zombies that are much more menacing and dangerous. There are Brutes that wear armor and take a lot more firepower to take down, ones that are wearing hazmat suits that emit poison clouds when killed, Screamers that attract even more zombies and others. While these aren’t as challenging as a standard “boss” in other games, they force you to stick together as a team and take them out, because if you’re singled out and pounced on by these, there’s nothing you can do to escape on your own.
The main highlight of the gameplay though is the defense sections, where you’re given a minute or two to find supplies and setup a defense perimeter. You can find barbed wire, machine gun turrets, auto turrets and more heavy weaponry that will help turn the tides. On the Easy difficulties these aren’t much of a problem, but once you start choosing the harder ones, and realize friendly fire is a real thing, it becomes much more problematic to survive in. The harder the difficulty, the more currency you’ll earn once completed which can be used to purchase new weaponry and skills.
There are six classes to choose from, each with their own roles, abilities and starter weapons. These range from Medic, Hellraiser, Slasher, Exterminator, Fixer and Gunslinger. Each have their own unique abilities and specialties, though I tended to stick with Medic and heal my teammates when needed. Each class begins with a specific starter weapon, though you’re able to swap it out for any other you see during a match should you prefer.
Weapons level up the more you use them, and as a Medic, I start out with a SMG, so I decided to stick with them and level up that line of weaponry. As you max out a weapon’s XP, you’ll have to purchase the next tier of that gun, for a total of five tiers. The higher the tier, the more powerful it obviously becomes with attachments and stat increases.
One thing that frustrated me though was how you stop earning XP in a weapon once it’s maxed. Even though I maxed my tier 3 SMG out, I didn’t have enough currency to purchase my tier 4 yet, as I spent it on skill upgrades instead. Essentially you always want to be working on progressing different weapons, as you choose what version of a SMG, Rifle, etc are in your matches with your loadouts, based on what you’ve leveled up and purchased.
Skills unlock at each level as well, allowing you to purchase any you see fit. Some are minor increases and bonuses, whereas others are class defining, so it’s up to you, but spend wisely, as coins don’t come easily or quickly early on. One thing I wish was taught to me though was that you’re only able to equip one skill per vertical row of the skill tree, something I didn’t know, so I was purchasing every skill as they unlocked but was unaware about this restriction. Also, I found out very quickly that having to repeat missions and grinding was a real thing if you want to purchase weapons AND skills.
If cooperative survival isn’t really your thing, there is a competitive section as well with a handful of modes to partake in. In these Player vs Player vs Zombie modes (PvPvZ), you’re given different predefined classes to choose from, but like the campaign, will level them up the more you play. While the modes are unique takes on your standard King of the Hill, Deathmatch, Domination and more, the PvPvZ angle add some flair for those wanting to play competitively.
While the core experience is the cooperative campaigns, you do hit a wall of grinding that must be completed, as to play on the harder difficulties and survive, you’re going to need quite a bit of upgraded firepower and skills to do so. Even more importantly, you need a team that works together. Luckily I had a friend to play with, and when coordinating attacks and defenses it made a world of difference, as going in with a group of randoms on the harder difficulties is a death sentence, from my experience anyway.
While it’s unfortunate you don’t get to play as Brad Pitt, or have much of an overarching narrative tying all the mini campaigns together, World War Z scratches that Left 4 Dead itch that I’ve been craving for a few years now. While it does eventually turn into a grind, facing off against swarms of hundreds of rushing zombies, it never ceases to impress with its technical prowess and core fun of shooting a mass of zombies.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Xenon Racer
Before Forza Horizon took the crown of arcade racers, you had classic titles such as Need For Speed, Burnout, Split/Second and Ridge Racer where you could drift your way to victory. Xenon Racer is the latest to enter the arcade racer genre, with a super futuristic design and a trailer that got me super excited to check it out.If you were to simply watch the trailer, you’d come away being impressed by its super stylish visuals, smooth as butter framerate, breakneck speeds and exciting drifting based racing. Thing is, trailers can be deceiving, and while the core gameplay does have a Ridge Racer-esque gameplay to it based around drifting and boosting, the trailer is ten times more exciting than actually playing the game itself.
It’s the year of 2030, and flying vehicles are finally a reality. Obviously everyone will transition to airborne vehicles, but before that becomes the new standard, a special racing championship has been organized for wheel based ground vehicles, open to all of the top vehicle manufacturers. These cars are extremely technological and run on electricity and Xenon Gas, which results in super speeds as you race across multiple continents and cities, from Boston, Tokyo, Dubai, Canada and more.
Racing itself controls similar to most others in the genre, with Right Trigger being gas, Left Trigger for braking, Left Stick to steer and ‘A’ for your handbrake. Simple on paper, but actually controlling your vehicle and making it do what you want to do are much easier said than done. Given that Xenon Racer is arcade based, you’ll speed very fast and need to drift around corners to fill your boost meter.
To win races, you’re going to need to go as fast as you possibly can, obviously, but to do so, you’ll need to utilize your boosting as much as you can as well. To fill boost you need to drift or collect powerups littered throughout the track, but keeping your car controlled properly during your drifts is a whole other story.
Tapping the brake or hand brake will start your drift, but there seems to be some sort of lag before the drift actually starts, regardless of which vehicle you’re currently using. Even after a handful of hours of struggling through races, I still can’t consistently drift without hitting walls on a constant basis, even with upgraded parts, and this is only the beginning of a handful of problems.
The difficulty is absolutely insane, even from the get go. The first tournament in the career requires you to place at minimum 5th out of 8th, which doesn’t seem too bad, until you constantly place last your first few tries. Once you somehow manage to pass the first leg, the next few races will require you to come in first place; not top three, FIRST. Again, this is MUCH easier said than done.
You’re able to upgrade your cars with parts you earn from winning, but you need to win to get parts, and to get parts you need to win. See the dilemma? The difficulty ramps up steeply in about 3 races and I can foresee many becoming quite frustrated with it very early on, not giving it a full chance, but I wouldn’t blame them at all after wanting to give up myself. When it feels impossible to win, why would you keep trying?
When you do start to earn parts and upgrades, they can slightly change the performance of your car, though I didn’t find any massive changes to the gameplay even with these installed. With better handling you won’t grind the corners AS much, but you’ll sacrifice speed to do so, so it’s a balance you need to figure out. Each race only allows certain types of cars to participate as well, so sometimes you’re forced to play with a terrible car that you have no upgraded parts for instead of the one you’ve become accustomed to and is improved.
As you drift, your boost meter will fill. Completely fill one of three sections and you’ll be able to boost for a short period of time based on your car’s specs and upgrades. Even while at full speeds, you’ll need to drift the corners, but is obviously much more difficult to do so, especially on hairpin turns. When you inevitably crash and grinding the turns, your damage meter will drop down from 100%. If you manage to completely wreck your car and hit 0% for your meter, the car will reset and you’ll lose a few seconds, which basically dooms your chances at winning. You don’t lose any racing performance that correlates with your damage percentage, so it’s only there to force you into driving almost perfectly, which is near impossible when the hardest rival isn’t your opponents, but the controls.
Then comes the biggest offender of all; absolutely abysmal performance. Now, I know trailers are going to over emphasize how great a game is, showing off its best parts, but actual gameplay looks nothing like what was shown. Graphics are nowhere near as pretty or shiny, and it’s anything but smooth. Playing on an Xbox One X, you can choose between Performance and Quality, though choosing Quality makes the game essentially unplayable.
Performance mode makes the game run somewhat smooth, though there are still some serious hiccups at times, dipping quite a bit in framerate. Quality mode though is a complete disaster and shouldn’t even be included. Even when toggling on the prettier visuals, you can barely notice a difference aside from some slightly better HDR lighting and shadows. What suffers though is the performance, to near single digit frames per second. Once you start crashing against walls, causing sparks, or going through a tunnel, kiss those FPS goodbye. It slows down to the point of essentially being unplayable, and I can’t even imagine how the performance is on standard Xbox One’s.
While the career mode will be where you spend the bulk of your time racing, there are other mode options like Time Attack, Elimination races and Online, well, in theory. In the whole time I’ve been reviewing Xenon Racer, I’ve checked online every day for a lobby or match to test out how the game plays with other people to face against. Not a SINGLE time was I able to find a match or lobby. I created a lobby and left it open, yet not a single person joined either. Consider the online DOA unless you happen to sucker other friends to play with.
I really don’t enjoy focusing on negatives, but when there are so few positives to note, it makes it quite difficult. What I did enjoy the most was how the futuristic cars slightly transformed when hitting certain speeds, like spoilers folding out or the wheelbase extending, but that’s one of the very few notes I have in the ‘pro’ column. I was absolutely taken back when I checked that the price was $59.99 CAD on the marketplace. Even at less than half of the asking price would make me feel guilty if I recommended it.
Sure, if futuristic racing is your absolute happiness and joy, then obviously you’ll probably enjoy the aesthetics alone, but for everyone else, there’s more frustration than fun. Xenon Racer is trying to be Ridge Racer though looks like it’s two generations too late and is topped off with terrible drifting controls and unbalanced difficulty from the get go.
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
Shadowgate
If I knew how many times I was going to make my mom rent my Shadowgate for NES back when it released, I would have done the math and shown her that simply buying it outright would have been far cheaper in the long run. I can’t even imagine how much she spent on renting me that game every weekend, as I tried every time to solve puzzles and make my way out of that castle. Eventually Nintendo Power, or one of the other gaming magazines at the time, published a walkthrough, well before the internet days, and I was finally able to beat it. The hours I sunk into Shadowgate are probably easily in the hundreds, as the soundtrack and gameplay have been etched into my brain, and still to this day is one of my favorite games ever, bringing back a flood of childhood memories.Naturally, when Shadowgate was remade a few years back, I was intrigued, but for some reason never really pulled the trigger and played it, even though I knew I would enjoy the nostalgia trip. Here we are in 2019, and the Shadowgate remake is finally on Xbox One, and I’ve finally gotten that trip down memory lane that I’ve been yearning for.
A cult classic, Shadowgate was quite popular at the time, showcasing new gameplay mechanics in a first person point and click world. While the genre had many come before it, Shadowgate was different, not just in its death mechanics, but tonality, puzzles and absolutely amazing soundtrack. More than just a simple remaster, this version of Shadowgate has been completely remade from the ground up by some of the original developers, and more than a simple paint job; new gameplay elements and puzzles have been included as well. I wasn’t completely sure if the genre would hold up to today’s standards though, and tried to look past the nostalgia with my rose tinted glasses.
You play as The Seed of Prophecy, a descendant from a long line of heroes who must save the world. To do so though, you’ll need to traverse and solve dozens of puzzles in Castle Shadowgate, where an evil Warlock resides, trying to bring hell upon the world. Told in a storyboard style, cutscenes will occur at various points throughout your journey with a narrator to add drama and depth. The original Shadowgate simply threw you into the game and didn’t do much for narrative, so it’s great seeing more focus on that this time.
Delving into the options before I began my adventure into Shadowgate’s depths, I was surprised with some of the choices given. Should you desire to have maximum nostalgia, you’re able to toggle on classic graphics, audio, text boxes and more, or go with the newly improved versions, it’s up to you. My first playthrough I wanted to experience all that was new, audio and all, which was great, but on my second, I went full retro and couldn’t stop smiling at the amazing soundtrack throughout. This satisfies new players and old alike and I have to give kudos for doing so in a fantastic way without feeling simply tacked on.
Difficulties have also been added, allowing a much easier experience for new comers, or extremely difficult for those that want a challenge. The easier difficulties make puzzles much less complex and will actually prevent you from dying in many ways, such as not even having to worry about keeping your torch lit, but more on that shortly. On the harder difficulties, the puzzles become much more intricate, involved and obtuse to solve. There’s even an Ironman Mode that disables saving and needs to be completed in a single sitting.
The UI has been drastically overhauled as well, as the classic version would appear gaudy and too old school. Instead, you have a wheel-based menu system that you’re able to toggle whenever needed, only getting in the way when you enable it. Played in first person, you move your cursor around on 2D hand painted backgrounds, able to interact however you wish. If you want to look at something for more information or detail, you have to select the "Look” command and then click on the object. The same goes for “Use” and other commands available. To open doors for example, you’ll have to “Use” them, then go through it with another click.
Sure, these days it would be terrible game design, but this harkens back to a time three decades ago when games like this were revolutionary. The same core gameplay hasn’t really changed, it’s just been remapped to the wheel-based menu and less prominent use of screen real-estate. It takes some getting used to, but after an hour of exploring Castle Shadowgate, I wasn’t fumbling with the menu system any longer, quickly accessing my hotkeys and whatever inventory or spell I needed at the time.
As you solve puzzles and progress from room to room, your map will automatically update, showing you how every room in the castle connects. While there’s no option to fast travel, be ready for a lot of backtracking throughout your adventure, sometimes having to go all the way back to the very first handful of scenes to solve puzzles later in the adventure. This does become annoying, as it takes a moment for every scene to load, and I constantly had to recheck my map for the correct path, though it’s part of that classic experience.
Part of Shadowgate’s original charm was how many different ways you could die. Pull the wrong lever? Dead. Went down a random ladder? Dead. Didn’t pick up the shield before a dragon breathed fire? Dead. Your torch fizzled out? Dead. You get the idea. Keep in mind, this was back in a time where not many games ever did something like this, especially on NES at the time. This new Shadowgate is no different on the harder difficulties, and you’ll want to make very good use of the quick saves and loads. And yes, the torch mechanic returns, so you better make sure to always keep that flame going.
A puzzle game at heart, Shadowgate didn’t simply settle for pretty new painted scenery but keep all the same puzzles. Quite the opposite in fact. A handful of the puzzles have a familiar feeling, but aren’t solved in nearly the same way as the original. It’s a great fan service to original fans, but allows for a new experience. I’d actually guess that the vast majority of the puzzles are new.
Many of the puzzles are actually quite challenging and had me trying every combination and spell I could think of. A handful of times I became actually completely stumped, having to resort to a walkthrough online, which I’m not ashamed to admit, as I would have never figured them out on my own. Some solutions are very obtuse, though maybe I just missed something along the way, nevertheless, I never became overly frustrated, I just wish there was a little more guidance when needed.
The cutscenes are backdrops that are hand painted with beauty, and I even recognized many of the scenes when compared to the original 8-Bit versions. It brought a smile to my face a few times, recognizing what exact room I was in from the classic, though much more modern and prettier. The real star of Shadowgate though is its soundtrack. Sure, I’m bias and much prefer the original Hiroyuki Masuno chiptune versions, but they did a fantastic job at also modernizing the audio, making it still recognizable at the same time much like the graphics. Sure the voice acting isn’t top notch, but the soundtrack is absolutely worth the price of admission if you want a trip down memory lane.
I didn’t realize how much I really loved the original Shadowgate until I started up this remake and heard the iconic opening music. If you were like me and grew up on the original Shadowgate, you owe it to yourself to pick this version up to experience the difference three decades can make. If you’re new to the title or genre, it’s still a great investment that will challenge your puzzle solving skills, even if it can be a little obtuse at times.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Windscape
I enjoy when developers create something that clearly had a strong influence from other games, as you get to experience a different take with their own spin and creativity. Windscape is one such game, as it’s abundantly clear that it had some massive influence from legendary titles such as The Legend of Zelda and Skyrim. I’ve come to fall in love with some indie games in recent years, as they are generally a completely different experience than your typical AAA titles with multi-million dollar budgets. You can tell that many games like Windcape were crafted with love, even if the end product isn’t near as exciting or fun as maybe it was originally intended.You play as a young kid who lives a humble life with your parents. Once you begin your journey and set foot outside to do some simple errands for your parents, you’re made aware of the unique world of Windscape almost instantly, as there are many floating islands in the sky. But all is not well, and these islands are starting to crumble and fall, so you set off on a journey that will no doubt put you in the role of world savior. It’s a very thin overlying story that gives you a main purpose, but there’s nothing very interesting throughout, as most quests are small jumps from area to area to guide you on the right path.
Played in first person, the first game I instantly wanted to compare it to is Skyrim, as it feels much like the same type of adventure where you fight monsters, explore, gather materials and craft. Sure, it’s very low poly models and world obviously don’t compare, but as an experience, it really felt like a 'My-First-Skyrim' playset of sorts. If you’re going to emulate and draw inspiration from a game, it might as well be one of the most beloved.
As you explore the world, you’ll venture across vast fields, deserts, castles, forests, graveyards, dungeons and much more. Handfuls of enemies inhabit these areas, and you’ll be faced with numerous sword fights, puzzles and bosses along the way. Towns will be filled with NPC’s that can be talked to (in a Sims-like gibberish with captions), merchants and of course, quest givers. Many of the opening quests are simple in structure, having you do mindless fetch quests that are actually quite far in distance. Couple in the fact that you walk at an incredibly slow pace and have to hold a button to run, it becomes tiresome when I see a quest marker in the far distance.
As you pass specific totem poles, your progress with automatically save and your health replenished. These obviously come in handy when low on life, but are spread quite far out from one another, usually one in each of the main areas you need to venture in, dungeons included.
After picking up an axe and pickaxe, you’ll be set to start gathering materials. You can cut down nearly any tree you see for wood, mine metal nodes for ore, gather plants and more. All the materials you collect can eventually be used to create items in a surprisingly vast crafting system. Enemies will drop materials too, so it pays to defeat them since there’s no real leveling up system in place.
While I was cutting down every tree in sight in the beginning, I eventually became too bored waiting for the small timer to count down as I did so. Earn enough gold and you can simply buy the majority of the materials you’d need from vendors. I crafted the first few of the best items I could in the beginning but never really felt that much stronger. Going from a wooden club to a handmade sword, I assumed would make me much more powerful, but certain enemies still had to be hacked away at for much too long.
Each crafting station will display the recipes you can create items for and the ingredients required to do so. Armor and weapons will have a few different stats to take into account, like the damage, or resistance, to cut, smash, etc. I think the game wants you to see what enemies are weak to, indicated on their health bars, and use the best weapon for maximum damage, but that’s too much of a chore to do in the thick of battle, even using hotkeys.
Combat is as basic as it gets. Right Trigger to attack, hold it for a more powerful smack, and Left Trigger to block. AI is about as braindead as it comes, as the majority of every enemy, and even most bosses, can simply be defeated by circle strafing as you swing away wildly. You do have a health meter that needs to be watched, and this is where crafting potions and food comes into play to restore yourself, but you shouldn’t need to rely on it too heavily due to the non-existent AI.
If you were to simply look at screenshots of Windscape, you most likely wouldn’t be impressed with the low-poly graphics, but there’s a certain way its cel-shaded filter reminds me of Zelda in a way. Sure it’s not traditionally pretty to behold, and the world can be quite bland and barren at times, but it has a certain charm to it. The same goes for the audio, as it won’t do much to impress you with its basic attack sounds, pings from deflections and overly loud creaks of opening a chest, but the soundtrack is quite good and fitting for the world that you’re currently adventuring in.
Windscape was an odd experience for me. While I enjoyed the Skyrim-like feel to many of the mechanics, it simply felt like a poor man’s Skyrim for the whole adventure. There’s nothing inherently wrong or poor with Windscape at all, it simply didn’t do anything to impress me and I never really got that sense of vast accomplishment, even when completing a dungeon and defeating its boss. Windscape is completely average, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s tough to keep your attention in the long term.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Operencia: The Stolen Sun
When I think of Zen Studios, I still regard them primarily as a pinball game developer, where they made their mark. But times change and they are branching out, creating new experiences that don’t solely involve flippers and balls. Operencia: The Stolen Sun is a departure from the typical Zen Studios affair, nothing quite what I expected, but I walked away impressed with what they’ve created.Operenica, a first person dungeon crawler, is like a throwback to a simpler time in gaming. It’s been awhile since I’ve played an entertaining dungeon crawler quite like this, and it instantly made me miss the days when this genre was more common. Set in a fantasy world with some ties to Central European Mythology, the RPG experience within took me by surprise and for an adventure that lasted much longer than I was expecting.
The world of Operenica has been left in darkness after the vanishing of the Sun King, Napkiraly, and it’s your quest to find and restore the light to the world. Fail, and the world will succumb to darkness, so off you set on your journey, meeting a band of characters along the way that will join you. As your quest progresses, you’ll venture though many fearsome forests, castles and dungeons. Each party member you recruit along the way has their own reasons for wanting to join your fellowship, and these relationships can be quite amusing as you explore the very atmospheric world, filled with danger puzzles and loot.
You begin by choosing your character, their look (though only a few presets to choose from) and their class: a Swordsman, Archer or Mage. Each will have their strengths and weaknesses and you can alter a few stats, but that’s about it. Further customization will come from skill unlocks and stat increases as you level up, slowly moulding your character into the type that you want to play. While the beginnings are simplistic, choosing what skills to unlock and when is where some of your strategy will come into play as your adventure becomes more difficult. Take note though, as you’re unable to change your look or class once you begin, so choose wisely.
The beginning dungeon is a tutorial of sorts, slowly feeding you tips of how to traverse, interact with objects and of course, battle and level up. The difficulty curve does ramp up eventually, especially when you challenge your first few bosses, but it’s generally fair once you figure out all of the mechanics and best how to use them to your advantage, like knowing when to rest at a campfire and replenish all your health and mana; strategically of course.
The first mechanic that you’re going to notice, and struggle with, is your traversal. While Operenica is played in first person, the layout of levels are done in a tile based system, like a top-down D&D map. You’re able to freely look and rotate your camera, but you can only move in the four main directions if an open tile is free beside you. This takes quite a bit of getting used to, as I kept finding myself unable to move as I was trying to cut corners, since you don’t see tile lines of the ground, just on the map. Though once I trained myself to move along the grid, it become less of an issue as hours went on. It’s an odd combination of movement and design, but you simply become accustomed to it.
You’re able to also choose your difficulty for specific features, such as limiting saves, a permadeath option and more, rather than your traditional and simplistic Easy, Medium and Hard. This allows you to craft an experience for exactly how you want to play. As you progress, you’ll be quite surprised with how much length there is to Operenica. I’m not sure why I expect a short affair, but it was anything but with over a dozen massive levels, filled with plenty of monsters to battle and even more puzzles to solve.
While some of the puzzles are your typical finding a key for a specific door, they become much more intricate in the later levels, some of which had me stumped for quite some time before having to consult online for a hint of what to do or where to go. There are even a handful of secrets in each level, giving completionists even more value if that’s your thing.
You’ll battle dozens of different types of enemies, also something that surprised me, as each area had their own varieties of monsters to slay. Once engaged in combat by running into the enemy while traversing, you’re taken to a turn based battle where range plays a big part of your strategy. There are three lanes: close, medium and far, and different types of attacks are strong against certain ranges. Melee for example will do the most damage if the enemy is in those closest of the three lanes, whereas archers excel when they are further away. Mages are powerful in any lane, but this is where spell types and resistances come into play.
Each character will have their own types of abilities and traits that play a large part of battle strategy. Each attack has its own strengths and requires a mana-like resource to use. Every enemy will be strong or weak against certain abilities, so if you try and use a poison based skill on a poison resistant, or immune, enemy, you’re wasting valuable attack turns. It’s all about finding weaknesses and exploiting them to your advantage, but learning to do so will take a handful of hours. It wasn’t until my third dungeon when I had a really good grasp on specific strategies that allowed me to taunt, block damage, heal and emerge victorious without breaking a sweat.
As you kill enemies you’ll earn XP, loot and gold. Earn enough XP and you’ll level up, allowing you to choose new skills, perks and increasing your stats however you wish. There’s a decent amount of depth to the skill tree lines, each with their own focus and purpose, though make sure to diversify, because if you specialize in fire only skills and run into a dungeon with many fire enemies, you’re going to be in trouble without other skills to rely on. Loot is also plentiful as well, not only from enemies, but chests and solving puzzles. While you won’t feel massively powerful with each new upgrade, it does add up, boosting your stats to make you more powerful as your adventure progresses.
You’re going to amass a bunch of loot in the first few levels, but as you gain new party members, you’ll be able to outfit them however you wish. While you’re only able to take four into battle with you at any given point, luckily the unused party members will continue to level up as you do. Each character has a distinct personality and when you make it to certain cutscenes, or rest at a campfire, you’ll hear some banter between members that brings a bit of humor to the experience.
Speaking of campfires, these become very important later on. Not only is this where you save your game, but if you use a piece of wood that you’ve collected during your travels, you’re able to start a fire with it and completely replenish everyone’s health and mana. While you shouldn’t ever become terribly low on wood, as you can find them randomly, loot from battles and by smashing barrels, it’s imperative to know when the best time to use them is. Eventually you’ll also unlock a crafting component, allowing you to create new items and potions that will be a massive help, especially against numerous enemies and bosses.
Graphically speaking, the world is quite dark, purposely, as you’re exploring dungeons and forest, and you know, the whole missing Sun thing, but it works. While nothing terribly impressive, regardless of which level you’re in, the world feels alive, or barren, sucking you into the experience, as if you we replaying Dungeons and Dragons in first person. Cutscenes are beautifully done with 2D cutouts and portraits for characters. As for the audio, the background soundtrack is very fitting for whatever mood and setting you’re in, though some of the voice acting is very hit or miss, depending on the character.
Operencia: The Stolen Sun took me by surprise and I’m going to have to start thinking of Zen Studios as more than just a great Pinball developer. It packs a decent story, memorable characters, robust combat strategy and challenge, a huge world and plenty of playtime. Currently in Xbox Game Pass, you’re able to try it out right now if you’re a subscriber, but even if not, I wouldn’t feel any guilt recommending Operencia even at its full $38.99 CAD price tag if any of the above sounded appealing to you. While it won’t be for everyone and has its quirks, it’s a specific game meant for old school dungeon dwelling fans like myself that miss the genre.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Truberbrook
Some of my favoring gaming memories from my childhood stem from point and click adventure titles like Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey Island, among many others. Two years ago, Thimbleweed Park released, and I absolutely fell in love with it, as it hearkened back to a time when gaming was different. I truly miss the genre, as it’s not as popular anymore these days and very few games release in this style, so when one does, I jump on the opportunity as fast as I possibly can.I’m not exactly sure why the genre died out, but I surely do miss it. For whatever reason, I always make a bunch of new memories every time I play a new point and click adventure, and the newest game to enter the genre, Truberbrook, is no different.
While point and click adventure titles aren’t common anymore, nearly almost every single one I’ve played permeates that it was designed and created with a ton of heart and love. You can tell that a countless hours of blood, sweat and tears went into crafting the experience, and Truberbrook is the same, though possibly even more so once you learn that the world was literally crafted by hand.
Inspired by X-Files and Twin Peaks, Truberbrook tells a sci-fi mystery tale set in a small German village, Truberbrook, in the 1960’s. You play as Hans Tannhauser, a physicist who won a lottery for a free vacation to the remote village of Truberbrook, yet he doesn’t remember entering any lottery or contest; thus begins your adventure and mystery to solve. Hans was suffering from writer’s block, so he fully intends to use his time in this minuscule remote village to relax and reset, though like any good adventure, it won’t be that simple by any means.
Hans is staying in a quaint hostel where he’ll meet Gretchen, an anthropologist doing some research in the same rural village. What are the chances that two outsiders are in an unknown town at the exact same time? He later awakens to someone stealing his work, yet mysteriously disappears when he tries to stop them. This is where your quest to save the world begins, complete with a ton of unique and memorable characters, filled with a ton of humor.
Unless you’re my age, or have an affinity for classic titles, there’s a good chance that you possibly haven’t played a point and click adventure title in recent years, which is no fault of your own, as the genre simply doesn’t really exist these days when gaming is dominated by Battle Royals, Shooters and AAA titles. You control Hans within each scene, moving him around free, looking for items to inspect and interact with, along with other characters to converse with to obtains clues of what to do next.
You’ll also have a cursor that you can freely move around, and if you hover over an interactive object, a radial wheel will appear in the corner, showing you your current options. If you have items that can be used on it, or that Hans thinks should, it will also give you that option as well. I hope you have patience though, as Hans walks infuriatingly slow, and while you can hold down the Right Trigger to walk slightly faster, it’s not even at a power-walk pace. Given that you’re going to be doing a massive amount of backtracking and walking through scenes many times, it can become frustrating, though you simply need to deal with it.
The big hook about games in this genre is that you’re constantly solving puzzles in a myriad of different ways. You’ll need to find item A to give to person B, whom will give you item C, which is then used on object D. Sometimes you’ll need to combine items in odd ways to craft a new object which then has to be used, and these are usually the most abstract puzzles that reduces you to attempting to use every item with every other item.
Why such abstract puzzles are a big part of the genre I’m not sure, but Truberbrook doesn’t fall into this same trap. Instead, there’s no manual item combining thankfully, and if you need to use three different items on a specific object, it’ll automatically show you that they are being used together. While purists might find this a little too simplistic, I enjoyed not wasting hours randomly trying to combine items. Also thankfully, there are no red herring items within Truberbrook. These are items placed in other point and click adventures that have on real use, simply put in to make you think they are important. While some of the puzzles were a little challenging, it was more due to me not seeing an item I could have picked up and clicked on due to it blending into the background, but that’s on me given that you’re able to press a button and see all of the interactive objects in a scene, highlighted with a small 'X' mark, almost like a hint system. I’m not ashamed to admit I needed to check a walkthrough once or twice, but none of the solutions were unreasonable, it was simply me not thinking straight.
I truly did enjoy my time in Truberbook, but there were a few issues I ran into that couldn’t be ignored. Firstly, there’s no manual save option, and there’s no real indication when your last auto save happened either. One night I had to end early to head to bed, got to a new chapter and figured it saved once I did. I was wrong, as I reloaded my game and lost an hour of progress. When I replayed a certain sequence, the person I was talking to wouldn’t progress to the dialogue that I knew I needed because I’ve already done it previously. This required me to restart the game all over again from the beginning, which brought up my second frustration; you are unable to skip any cutscenes.
I understand that the developers want you to experience their game in full, as time and effort went into the cutscenes, but when I’m replaying the game for a second or third time, sometimes I’d rather not sit through it again. To add onto the lack of manual save frustrations, there’s also no chapter select, so if you’re achievement hunting and want to replay a certain section, you’re going to have to restart all over from the beginning. Lastly, on the majority of the scenes you explore, you simply can’t walk from one to the next. Instead, you need to click on the door or side of the screen and interact with it. A deal breaker by no means, but just an odd design decision that adds unneeded effort.
I also had a major game crash at the very end of my game during the credits, denying me my completion achievement, which was quite disappointing, as you can guess how far back my last auto save was. There are technical issues as described above, but even so, I truly enjoyed my time within Truberbrooks gorgeous world. Sure I could nitpick about the odd spelling mistake or punctuation with the subtitles, or that the cursor isn’t very friendly when there are two items beside one another and you’re trying to select a specific one, but these didn’t detract from the overall experience.
Interestingly, there’s even a ‘Kid Friendly’ mode in the options that has absolutely no explanation as to what it does or changes in the game. As it turns out, it makes some minor changes to Truberbrook, such as making it so none of the characters smoke, or that a scene where you find a “Personal Massage Device” to trade for another item, are altered. It would have been great to know what this option did beforehand, but it’s great to see an option at least for those parents then don’t want specific situations shown who game in front of their children.
What makes Truberook stand out amongst the competition is undoubtedly its unique and impressive visual style. You see, every backdrop in the scenes Hans explores is actually hand crafted miniacture sets that were then 3D scanned and digitally put into the game. Creating actual miniature models for every scene makes it even more impressive, especially when you see the fantastic opening credits. This makes for a very unique artistic style, and it works beautifully. There’s so much detail put into each scene, and when you remember that it’s an actual miniature, it’s even more extraordinary.
Audio is almost just as impressive as well. Every character is fully voiced in your choice of English or Deutsch and the acting itself is well done for the most part. Side and minor characters’ performances aren’t as impressive or captivating as Hans and other main characters, but that’s to be expected. The only anomaly I found was that sometimes the spoken dialogue and subtitles didn’t always perfectly match up, or that dialogue was cut short, which I assume is from translation timing. The soundtrack is fantastic as well and very fitting for the type of mysterious adventure. The opening cutscene song was very memorable and this is one of the games I’m going to attempt to find an OST to purchase.
If I had to simply think of one word to describe Truberbrook, it would be charming. It’s clear that it was crafted as a labor of love, and the impressiveness with its visual style is beyond remarkable. Games like Truberbrook bring back a flood of memories to my favorite point and click adventures from my childhood, and I can easily add this to my list of my favorites in the genre. While it’s not perfect, it’s remarkable, memorable and pleasure to experience.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Crimson Keep
Over the past few years I’ve come to really enjoy most indie games I’ve come across. They offer a unique experience you sometimes don’t get with regular AAA games, and are often made with love, as it’s usually a passion project. I’m always open for new experiences and keeping an open mind with smaller titles, as they will obviously be nowhere near as polished as bigger titles, but sometimes it’s difficult to do so. This is one of those games that I had a hard time staying positive with throughout, for many reasons.As a game journalist, I’ve had my fair share of great and terrible games. Sure, it’s great when you are surprised by a title that you would have never expected to be fantastic, but the other end of the spectrum is that you’ll be surprised with the completely opposite as well. I’m not one to completely be negative towards a title without giving a good basis as to why, but I really struggled to find many positives while playing Crimson Keep. Knowing that this was only made by a couple of people too makes it difficult to be so critical towards, but I’ve also got to be honest.
Crimson Keep has you descending into a procedurally generated dungeon, filled with traps, monsters, permadeath and frustration. You need to find a way to escape and destroy every beast that stands in your way. Normally I’d delve more into the narrative and story, but that’s really about it, and it won’t matter since you’ll be dying many times due to poor mechanics.
Core gameplay revolves around dungeon delving in first person, meleeing or casting magic at your enemies until you ultimately die and have to restart all over. I have no problem with rogue-like titles, as there’s usually some type of progression you’re always working towards or that carries over, but not here. In Crimson Keep, when you die, you start completely over with no progression of any sorts.
Randomly generated dungeons, enemies and loot sounds like a great idea, but execution is a large part of the enjoyment as well, something Crimson Keep completely missed the mark on for numerous reasons. Even delving into the options, you’ll notice that “Mouse Sensitivity” wasn’t even changed from its PC port to reflect the console version, not that I would hold that against it, but it was a sign of things to come.
Played in first person, you’ll be able to attack, defend, cast abilities and dash. Your first choice every time you die and restart will be to choose from a melee user, a wizard or unarmed. Melee starts you off with a hatchet, wizard a spell casting twig and the unarmed, well, nothing but your weak fists. Next you’re literally dropped into a cave with a small tutorial section to teach you the basics.
Drop into the pit ahead and you’ll start your adventure, the first of many, within winding and randomized caves, caverns and pathways, filled with an assortment of enemies. Here you’ll blindly guess where to go, as you’re not given a map of any sorts and simply need to wander until you find the next pit to drop down further into the dungeon, denoting “progress”.
There’s an assortment of enemies you’ll face, from skeletons, headless monsters, imps, rock creatures, ogres, floating skulls and more, none of which are really unique in their attack patterns or require any real strategy to defeat. While the enemies are at least somewhat varied, the levels themselves are bland and barren of anything interesting aside from the odd wooden barrel and lava pit.
While mechanically Crimson Keep is very simple, it’s executed quite poorly. Combat is very slow, AI is nonexistent and you’ll be happy if the game even registers the hits you think you should have landed. Sure there’s a bit of a learning curve to overcome these issues, but it’s not intentional and causes a lot of frustration due to many unfair and untimely deaths. Given that permadeath is a thing, you’re going to be punished for a lot of unfairness.
If you’re lucky enough to find some apples, bread or potions along your adventure, you’ll be able to heal up, but the amount you’re healed is so miniscule that it’s almost worthless to do so. While the levels themselves are randomly generated every time you play, so are the enemies and loot. This means you’ll either have a decent run with some good upgrades, loot and food to heal up, or get multiples of the same weapon or armor that does you absolutely no good at all. Start praying to the RNG gods now.
If you’re really lucky, you’ll find armor, necklaces, rings and better weapons along your journey, but it’s completely random. You may find a ton of swords when you’re a magic user, doing you no good, or wands when you’re a melee character. Even if you do by some miracle gain a bunch of upgrades, you won’t feel any more powerful. Even one run when I managed to have over 200 health, I still died quite quickly when I became swarmed and ran out of ‘ammo’ for my wand.
Yes, as a mage, your little twig that shoots magic will run out of ‘ammo’. Now I’m not sure if this is a bug, but if you drop your empty wand on the ground, pick it up and reequip it, it’s magically full of ammo once again. Keep in mind that doing so and playing with your inventory doesn’t pause the game either, so if you’re fighting more than 3 enemies at once, you’re in for a bad time and most likely a death.
As you kill monsters you’ll earn XP, and as you level you’ll get to pick one of a couple of perks and abilities that will help you along the way. While a few of these abilities are somewhat decent, they need to be recharged, and perks don’t really seem to make much of a difference. So while there are some light RPG mechanics, again, once you die, you’re going to have to start all over from the beginning, as nothing carries over from one playthrough to the next.
I really don’t enjoy being negative towards a game, especially a smaller indie title, but there’s no possible way in good conscience I can recommend Crimson Keep in any sort of fashion, especially at the exorbitant $25.99 CAD pricepoint. There are so many glaring issues mechanically that it was a constant frustration to play, devoid of any real enjoyment and doesn’t seem to be self-aware enough to realize it.
Overall Score: 2.5 / 10
Bonds of the Skies
If there’s one company that has no shortage of JRPG’s, it’s KEMCO. They’ve been putting out quite a few lately on Xbox One, seemingly every month, and this month’s release is Bonds of the Skies, developed by Hit-Point. While their back catalogue may have already released long ago on PC or Mobile, they’ve made some changes for the console releases for obvious reasons. While many are your typical JRPG’s affair with predictable storylines and traditional gameplay, there’s always room for titles like that in my gaming queue, as I love the genre, even if they aren’t all hits.Eil is a young boy, coming of age, about to take part in his town’s ceremony. Of course, this is precisely when the town is attacked by the God of fire, Rednaught, and also when he happens to stumble upon the air God, Nogard. Gods have become less relevant in the world, as people have stopped praying and believing in their existence for the most part, which means no one can see them any longer.
Eil though can see Nogard, and forms a pact with him to seek the world for the other Grimoas (Gods) in an effort to stop Rednaught’s path of destruction. Nogard is an adorable being and knows the whereabouts of his fellow Grimoas, so they set off on their journey. Along the way they will meet other companions and band together to stop Rednaught. There’s a little more depth to it as you progress, which I enjoyed, but that’s the main narrative and reasoning for your journey.
If you’ve managed to play many KEMCO titles previously, you’ll know exactly what to expect for the most part, given that they are very traditional JRPG’s mechanically. Just like many before it, you’ll be wandering from town to town, figuring out who needs help with what, exploring dungeons and beating bosses before moving onto the next town to repeat the steps once again as you get closer and closer to its conclusion.
As you travel from town to town and dungeon to dungeon, you’ll fight hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies along the way. This is due to the incredibly high random encounters with enemies that happens every few steps. So as you’re traversing a new dungeon and lost along the way, prepare to fight many battles. The plus side to this is that leveling is generally easy and you won’t really need to grind much until the very end where the difficulty spikes.
Instead of the traditional view of seeing your party on the side of the screen versus your enemies, you instead fight turn based in a first person view, so you’re unable to see your party. What makes combat unique in Bonds of the Skies is that there’s a position system in place that determines how well you can hit an enemy or not. For example, If Eil is located in the middle position of your party and the enemy is in front of you, you’ll do the most damage to them. If the party member on the left is attacking an enemy on the far right, they will do less, so you need to factor in some strategy when determining who is attacking and when. There are abilities that can be utilized to prevent enemies from moving, or forcing them to move and such, but I never needed to rely on that since I was generally always overleveled due to the overly frequent battles.
Dungeons were laid out very well and had a decent length to them. Every so often, and just before boss fights, you’ll come across a green crystal that will freely replenish your HP and SP (mana), which makes for great grinding spots if you want to earn some more XP for your team. These dungeons usually have a decent amount of diverging paths, and if you ever get stuck or need to escape and want to start over, you’re always able to freely leave the area you’re in and be placed at the beginning once again, something I used often, as I hate backtracking. My only real complaint is that it was quite difficult to see the proper path sometimes, as it was a small opening or blended into the other background tiles.
Once you get a few hours in you’ll also start to face nasty enemies that don’t necessarily hurt you much, but will place debuffs on you that make you essentially worthless. The worst offender for this is any enemy that casts Pancho upon you, turning you into this little cute creature that has no offense or defense for the most part, forcing you to cure it every single time. This is done with items and not hard to do, but becomes quite an annoyance when you have to use multiples after every single battle.
Combat aside from that above is your typical turn based affair, though you have a meter that fills in combat, allowing you and your Grimoa to unleash a sync attack and utilize incredibly powerful skills. Speaking of skills, you’re able to customize your party with whatever skill and perks you wish as they become unlocked. You’ll eventually unlock a massive amount of skills, each tied to your character and Grimoas by the time you’re max level. Some will slot in abilities whereas I found I liked perks like more HP or damage. You can only slot in a set amount of skills and power base, so you’ll need to choose wisely.
As a JRPG, Bonds of the Skies is perfectly serviceable, but really doesn’t do anything new or exciting for the most part, not that that’s a bad thing, but it won’t leave a lasting impression like some of the greats. Staying to the tried-and-true JRPG format works here but it also feels like dozens of other classic JRPG’s you’ve played numerous times before. It won’t wow you by any means, but it’s completely serviceable and a decent distraction for a handful of hours if you’re craving a new classic JRPG to explore.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
FromSoftware is best known for their catalogue of incredibly challenging and difficult games, namely Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series. They’ve actually become synonymous with challenging gameplay and has resulted in a ton of knock-offs, all trying to capture that special Souls-borne magic that FromSoftware has perfected over the years, but no one else has quite succeed with the same quality or cult following.While most assumed that another entry into the Dark Souls series would be what was next for FromSoftware, many were excited once Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was unveiled. It is their newest game, not part of their most popular franchises and it's published by Activision. Sekiro has FromSoftware written all over its game mechanics and gameplay style, including their signature brutal difficulty that will challenge you from the first enemy to its final boss, should you make it that far.
More than just a Shinobi skin on top of a Dark Souls, Sekiro takes place in the 1500’s within Japan, even allowing you the option to have a Japanese voice over. Sekiro, also known as the “one-armed wolf”, is bound to protect his young Lord. After an invasion from a rival clan and kidnapping his Lord, Sekiro faces off against a brutal foe, losing one of his arms in the process. Awakening in a mysterious and unknown land, Sekiro must not only save his lord, but extract his revenge. He will stop at nothing to save his Lord and regain honor; even death won’t stop him.
With Hidetaka Miyazaki directing, who also headed the Souls-borne titles, there was much anticipation for Sekiro. And while the gameplay may look drastically different from what we’ve come to expect, it all feels familiar, both mechanically and within its core design. Just like previous titles of theirs, Sekiro is a third person action game that focuses on combat.
First warning, and one that you must know, you’re going to die, A LOT, and while that frustrated me greatly in the Souls series, it felt much more balanced with Sekiro. FromSoftware are masters at balance. Yes, you’re going to die more times than you can count, but it’s generally due to your lack of skill, not cheap or unfair deaths for the most part. You’ll need to adapt, though most importantly, you'll need to learn from your mistakes.
While I do wish it wasn’t so difficult at times, it wouldn’t be the same experience if it was easier. You’re taught the basics early on, with the difficulty curve never spiking too crazy until you hit your first boss. Even then, it’s teaching you how to read combat cues from your enemies, and by about my twelfth attempt on the first boss, I was finally able to take him down.
Much like their previous games, the world of Sekiro is absolutely beautiful and interconnected in ways you’ll only uncover as you defeat bosses, opening up side paths and hidden areas. The biggest design change though has to be how much verticality the world has now, which suits the Japanese setting quite well. You’re not simply restricted to being on foot, as you’re able to use your prosthetic arm as a grappling hook of sorts, but more on that shortly.
Most impressive is how varied and challenging the bosses and minibosses of Sekiro are. The first miniboss is essentially just a tutorial for some of the mechanics, teaching you how to execute and fill the posture bar. You see, combat isn’t done in the traditional sense when it comes to the bosses of Sekiro, as you don’t simply whittle down a health bar slice by slice. Sekiro, and the game's enemies, have a posture bar that needs to be filled before they can be executed. While simple grunts won’t give you much hassle, it’s the bosses that use this mechanic instead of a standard health bar, as they have a certain amount of health bubbles, which indicates how many executions it takes to finally defeat them. To pull of an execution you’ll need to completely fill their posture bar by attacking, deflecting and parrying. Once full, they are open up to an execution move, and once all their health bubbles are empty, they’ll finally be dead (for the most part, but I’ll let you figure out what that means).
Bosses are very unique and varied, each teaching you something new along the way. My only issue with them is that they completely gate progress at some point. Yeah, obviously you can’t run straight to the final boss, but people that have problems with the difficulty will eventually become stuck and possibly give up. You’re going to need a lot of persistence and determination if you’re going to see the credits roll.
Combat is incredibly fluid, visceral and bloody. Executions are just that, and Sekiro has no problem thrusting his katana through his enemies, impaling them in brutal fashion. You’re going to see a lot of blood, be it theirs or yours. Combat is substantially more close quarters based than what I was used to from the Souls games. Here you’re generally going to want to be up close and personal rather than gaining a lot of distance.
If you simply mash the buttons, your enemy will deflect and parry your attacks and simply kill you. Combat is all about being tactful with your attacks and defense, knowing when you should be aggressive and when to wait for a deflect, raising their posture bar. When you get into the flow of combat and perform well, it’s a beautiful sight to behold. You need to constantly be watching the enemies’ movements, looking for an opening so you can attack, learning their patterns. Even grunt enemies can kill you in swarms, so pick and choose your battles carefully.
This is where stealth comes in; you are a Shinobi after all. While stealth isn’t what Sekiro’s gameplay revolves around, it does play a large part of it should you want to play it that way. Sneak up behind an enemy and you’ll be able to execute them right away without any combat required, providing no one else witnessed it. You are able to hide in tall grass and bushes to make your approach. Personally, I always opted for the stealth approach if it was viable, and if I became overwhelmed, I quickly ran or grapple hooked my way out of there to safety.
There’s even a way to distract and lure enemies, somewhat, and will play a large part of your strategy if you end up playing the way I did, always looking for those ‘free’ kills. If you’re able to sneak up on the bosses, you can even begin that fight by executing one of their life bubbles away instantly, so stealth is worthwhile to become proficient with.
I found defense was ultimately more important than offence, even more so when it came to boss fights. Being able to deflect, parry and dodge is going to win you more fights than any other strategy. More importantly, doing so is how you quickly fill up the enemy posture bar, so it becomes imperative, as you’re unable to execute until that is full.
Once you start earning upgrades for your prosthetic arm, that’s when gameplay opens up a lot more and it becomes much more interesting. When you start your adventure, your arm is only able to help you traverse, though eventually you’ll earn upgrades that will aid you in combat. The upgrades you gain are generally meant for very specific circumstances.
For example, once you get the ability to use your axe, it’s meant to destroy enemies with wooden shields so you can actually start attacking them. It’s how you use these abilities that will make a world of difference. Also, you need to have a certain item to use certain abilities. Although these are scattered throughout the world, it’s how they’ve balanced simply relying on using the most powerful abilities over and over to make things too easy. It’s an interesting way to balance the gameplay, yet it works beautifully and seems quite purposeful.
What surprised me was that you don’t actually upgrade your weapon or armor at all, so you simply need to rely on your combat skills and hope you become better. Sure, you could grind enemies for experience (kind of like souls) and then spend that on new abilities, giving you more options, but that will take quite some time to do. What didn’t surprise me though was the essential copy of bonfires, where you can choose to rest and refill your items, though at the expense of resetting all the enemies, save for bosses.
When you die, you will lose a large portion of your XP and money. Not only that, die repeatedly and you’ll succumb to what is called dragon rot. While you don’t directly get harmed by this consequence, the collateral damage affects the NPC’s of the world. You might not be able to interact with certain ones or maybe they won’t help you, if your Dragon rot is too high. Yes, there are ways to cure it, but it’s something to always be aware of.
When you fall in battle (when, not if), you’ll be given the option to resurrect, essentially putting you right back into the battle that killed you. This is very handy when it comes to boss fights where you know you could kill them if you could just get another attack or two in. Die again and you’ll be forced to restart at your last shrine checkpoint (bonfire). Use the resurrection and you won’t have access to it again until you kill a handful of more enemies, so there are pro’s and con’s to deciding when to give it one more try.
The artistic design and Japanese aesthetic of Sekiro’s world is absolutely stunning. For reference I played the game on the Xbox One X. More than once I caught myself simply standing on top of a building, taking in the beauty of the world. Even more impressive is knowing that the whole world is interconnected and open once you unlock all of the gateways. Audio is just as top notch, as the voice acting is fantastic and believable (I played in English, though I’m sure Japanese is just as well) and the audio score fits the mood and setting perfectly.
Going in to this review I wasn’t sure if Sekiro was going to be simply a ninja re-skin of Dark Souls, but there’s more than enough that’s different, and improved, that it stands on its own within the genre, even if it’s from the same developers. Like every other FromSoftware title, the difficulty is either going to be what drives you to become better, or make you shy away. I believe that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is going to be on many Game of the Year lists for 2019, and for good reason.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Queen's Quest 2: Stories of Forgotten Past
Artifex Mundi has no shortage of Hidden Object Games (HOG’s) in their ever expanding catalogue of titles. Over the past while, they’ve been bringing these relaxing puzzle games to Xbox One, and I’ve been hooked ever since the first I've played. There’s something relaxing about just sitting on the couch and not stressing about being shot or coming in first place, which is probably why I enjoy these titles so much, even if many of their titles are very similar.Originally released almost two years ago, Queens Quest 2: Stories of Forgotten Past has finally made its way to Xbox One for fans like myself to enjoy. While I keep up on Artifex Mundi releases, I wondered if somehow the first in the series passed me by without me noticing, but alas, it hasn’t yet come out for my console of choice for some reason. Nevertheless, you don’t need to have played the first to make sense of the second, as it seems it’s only a sequel in name, not so much in its narrative. Plus, with this genre, you’re generally playing for the puzzles and gameplay and not so much its story.
There has been some evil killings in the land as of late, and the only solution the King can seem to come up with is to hire you, an alchemist, to investigate and solve the mystery. Being the alchemist you are, you have knowledge of potion crafting that allows you to shapeshift into animals and provide other feats of supernatural origins. Of course, this main key plot point is only the beginning, and twists will come as you meet Robin Hood, Little Red Riding Hood and even Hansel and Gretel. While the narrative wasn’t anything exciting, it was the gameplay that kept me interested until the end.
If you’re like me and have played numerous Artifex Mundi titles already, nothing really has changed and you’ll know exactly what to expect. For those new to the genre or their catalogue of HOG’s, you’ve got to solve numerous puzzles, find hidden objects and craft potions that will allow you to progress further when there’s a barrier in your way. You’re going to be collecting numerous, and seemingly random, items along the way, but every item has a purpose in some small way, allowing you to solve the next obstruction.
The last few titles have introduced an alchemy portion of gameplay, and it’s just as prevalent here in Queen’s Quest 2. Being an alchemist, obviously that’s where your bread and butter is at, as you’ll need to craft specific potions with the instructions placed in front of you. How you get these new recipes isn’t ever really explained, but I just went with it and didn’t question too much. These potions once crafted will allow you to shapeshift, essentially bringing you to the next area or act of the story. None of these elixirs are difficult to make, as you have instructions right in front of you, and you won’t even be prompted to do so until you’re at a specific point and have all of the required items.
I really enjoyed these parts only because it means I was going to usually get to talk to some animals. Yup, you’re going to be able to converse with a hamster and a snail, which funny enough, I liked much more than any of the humans. How this is explained, again, I don’t really question and just went along with it.
Most of the gameplay will come from searching for random items across many scenes which will allow you to eventually solve a puzzle once you have the required parts. Most of the hidden object puzzles will give you a list of items to find, but what I’ve noticed that has changed in this title specifically is that the hidden objects are actually hidden behind other items. This means that scowering the scene for the items on your list won’t do any good, instead, you’ll need to move and combine items to find your desired ones. This results in a lot more button spamming rather than a sharp and keen eye. Not all of the HOG’s are like this, but it felt as if there was much more than I was used to in previous titles.
There are other traditional puzzles as well, but there aren’t nearly as many as I’m used to. Some will have you matching tiles, fixing a windowed artwork and a couple of other types, none of which were terribly difficult, though there always is the hint option available to you should you become stuck at any point, allowing you to completely skip a puzzle if you become too frustrated and want to progress.
Visually the background drawings are beautiful and vibrant, full of color, fitting the fantasy setting, and the soundtrack is calming and appropriate for this type of adventure. The voice over work used to be Artifex Mundi’s Achilles heel, and while it’s not great, it was decent, much better than previous titles where it was atrocious.
While the gameplay will only last you 2-3 hours, depending on your puzzle prowess and knowledge of Artifex Mundi titles, including the short bonus epilogue, once again I did enjoy my time with it, even if it’s a lot more of the same that I’ve become accustomed to. It seems there’s been two more Queen’s Quest titles released, so here’s to hoping that we’ll get to experience those sequels shortly as well, as I had a calming time with this one, even if it wasn’t their best offering.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
MX vs ATV All Out - Anniversary Edition
While I’ve never actually rode a motorbike or ATV, I’ve played quite a few games covering the sport. So while I’m no expert in real life, I’m quite versed in the videogame counterparts. I completely missed THQ Nordic’s release of MX vs ATV All Out last year for whatever reason, though luckily with its year anniversary upon us, they’ve released the aptly titled MX vs ATV All Out Anniversary Edition that includes some of its most popular DLC for some added value.Developers Rainbow Studios have crafted a racing experience that lives up to its name, allowing you to race with a handful of MX motorbikes, ATV’s and even UTV’s. While I think most will gravitate towards the MX bikes, I found I quite enjoyed the ATV and UTV’s much more when I was able to use them in races and events.
So what if you’ve played MX vs ATV All Out that released last year already? Well, then this version really isn’t for you, for the most part. This Anniversary Edition is essentially the base game along with a handful of the popular DLC that was released for it as well. I choose my words carefully there, as you may notice I didn’t say “all” of the DLC, and that’s because it doesn’t include it all, just a few of the main popular packs, but more on that shortly. As a newcomer to the series, or simply this version, there’s more than enough content here to keep you busy for quite some time, but for a returning player, it’s more of the same you’ve already experienced before.
So the main DLC packs that are included with this Anniversary Edition are: Ricky Carmichael Farm – GOAT, Slash’s Snake Pit and Hometown MX Nationals. This may not look like a lot of DLC, but some of this tracks are quite lengthy, and my favorite compared to the base game, so there’s a decent amount of bonus content within.
Ricky Carmichael Farm – GOAT includes a handful of races to compete in: 2 Opencross, 1 National, 2 Supercross, 1 Waypoint (my favorite mode) and a handful of new sections in Freeride. Slash’s Snake Pit includes 3 absolutely massive Supercross tracks alongside a FMX area where you’ll be able to pull of some crazy stunts. Lastly, Hometown MX Nationals includes authentic Nationals tracks and 2 Freeride places to have fun about in.
Again, while the DLC list may not seem large, some of these tracks take quite some time to complete, and add a ton of replayability on top of the base game itself. What took me by surprise though was that only select DLC was included, and not all of the available options. This means that even though you’re given extra content to play and compete in, you’ll go down the Series list or Bikes to buy and notice that you’re going to have to purchase them separately. While a few bucks here and there might not be a big deal to some, if certain DLC wasn’t good enough to be included in this Anniversary Edition, then why is it being charged for? An all-encompassing Complete Edition would have been in a better move in my opinion.
As you begin your MX or ATV career, you’ll be placed into an open area, essentially your home hub. Here you’ll drive to points of interest that will include Tutorials of the basics and race styles. I really enjoyed this hub-like area, as it allowed me to freely roam around and have fun and test out my rides, but could also easily jump into a Series race or other events through the menu system whenever I desired.
Racing is as you would expect, with you controlling your vehicle with the Left Stick, leaning with the Right, and Gas and Brake with the triggers. Where the challenge comes in is in learning when, and how much, to lean into a corner and rut, allowing you to take the sharpest turn possible while keeping up your speed. You’re able to play with your clutch for quick speed bursts, perform whips and preload your jumps, and learning to do so purposely will take quite a bit of practice.
The menu will have numerous modes and events for you to compete in, from Series, Single Events, Online and more. Series is essentially your career mode where you’ll take on a set number of events, earning points to go up the rankings, trying to edge out the competition to be in a first place standing by the end. With the included DLC from Anniversary Edition, there’s a decent amount of racing to be had here, especially when each Series is 5 or more races each. Win races and championships and you’ll earn money which can then be used to purchase new vehicles and upgrade parts. You’ll also be able to choose your difficulty which will determine just how braindead the AI racers are, and believe me, on the lowest settings I’m surprised they can even stay balanced on their bikes.
You’ll have a ton of variety for race types and tracks, but my favorite is the Waypoint races. Here you simply need to get to the specific checkpoint before moving onto the next, but there’s no pathway you need to strictly follow. I tended to go in a straight line, jumping over raceways at odd angles and hurdling through trees. It’s all about finding the quickest way from point A to point B.
Stunts are possible by holding down the appropriate bumper and moving the sticks in different ways, allowing for some insane aerobatics when you get enough air to perform them. While the stunts are easy to perform, the flashiest looking ones are obviously the coolest, but require much more airtime to pull it off. The smaller tricks, like sitting sideways on your seat can be performed simply by holding the button down, and you won’t even crash, but simply have the animation quickly reset. It’s a bit jarring and awkward, and I’m not sure why it doesn’t make you crash, as holding onto the larger stunts will have you crash if you land before letting go.
Buried within the menus is where you’ll be able to upgrade and even perfectly tune your vehicles to your desires. As expected, you’ll be able to upgrade your engines, tires, seats, chassis, clutch, handlebars and more for each of your bikes and ATV’s. Very cool is that you’re able to upgrade to original performance parts, though all of this is going to cost you the coin you win from races and series. Start saving too, as some upgrades can be quite expensive, and if you’re looking to upgrade all of your vehicles for different events, it adds up quite quickly.
Most impressive is how the tracks deform to the slew of racers riding over the same areas, causing ruts to form in specific areas. These ruts are like mini ditches, showing the line that racers have ridden on previous laps. These ruts will also allow you to dig your tires in and take sharper and deeper turns, and you’ll need to essentially stick to these lines if you want the smoothest path during each event. Hit a rut the wrong way, or land awkwardly off a jump and you’ll crash off your bike to some hilarious ragdoll physics. The collision detection isn’t very realistic either, as I’ve crashed off some weird angles and yet bounced off other riders and objects completely. Even ‘grinding’ against another rider doesn’t seem to really do much to force you to lose your balance, so there’s no reason not to do so if needed.
Also available is an online mode for up to 16 players to race against one another. Take into account that the original release was a year ago and you’ll come to realize that there’s really not many people playing this online much anymore. While I was able to find a random lobby here and there, it took quite some time sitting and waiting for it to fill, so if you don’t have a handful of friends to play alongside, I wouldn’t bank on a robust online community to compete against, given my luck trying to play with others.
While the graphics won’t wow you, MX vs ATV All Out Anniversary Edition is an Xbox One X enhanced title, so it can look quite pretty at times. Given that most of the areas are quite barren, nothing really impressed me either at the same time. There were even multiple times where I had severe slowdown, to the point of single digit framerates, somehow always when I was crossing into my final lap and the white flag was shown on screen for a few seconds. Audio was similar, as there’s some licensed music that plays in the background, but the majority of what you’ll experience is the hisses and whines of the bike engines as you take turns and launch off ramps.
For someone that wants to experience the chaos of MX bikes racing alongside ATV’s, and even UTV’s, MX vs ATV All Out Anniversary Edition will scratch that itch. It’s a shame that not all of the DLC is included in this version, but the ones that are will add a decent chunk of gameplay to keep you busy for a few extra hours. While nowhere near a perfect experience, it can be fun in short doses and allows an accessibility for newcomers to the series and genre to enjoy while having a decent amount of depth and replayability for veterans.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Treasure Stack 
Anyone in my age bracket most likely grew up playing some form of Tetris, Columns, Puzzle Fighter or Dr. Mario, and if you were like me, couldn’t get enough of the tried-and-true gameplay. While each of these titles are slightly different from one another, they all share the same core mechanics of utilizing falling blocks to match or create lines to clear components for a higher score. These games were incredibly easy to understand and pickup, but required an exorbitant amount of practice and strategy if you wanted to truly master them.Enter Treasure Stack, developed by PIXELAKES, they’ve created something very similar to the titles above, but have their own spin on the core gameplay that does make it stand out amongst the crowd, for better or worse. As you begin, you’ll get to choose from Solo, Local or Online play, though I highly suggest practicing in a handful of Solo matches to get the hang of Treasure Stack’s unique gameplay. Yes, there’s a brief tutorial, but it didn’t do a great job of explaining every detail or strategy, so it will simply take a ton of practice to become proficient.
Somewhat like a mashup of Tetris and Dr. Mario, blocks of two will fall from the top of the screen, usually in the form of a colored treasure chest or key, as you control your character navigating the bottom of the screen, able to grapple and pull down the falling duo stacks and place them where you wish.
This is where the basic gameplay comes in. You’re able to use your hook to pull down the falling ‘bricks’ and place them where you want, even moving them afterwards whenever you wish. Sounds easy but it becomes anything but very quickly. Time is sped up and eventually you’ll have multiple chests and key blocks falling as you’re still scrambling to place the last set that came down. Match a similar colored chest with the corresponding colored key and the blocks will vanish. So it’s a matter of placing your chests and keys in ideal spots where you can setup combos and long chains. Again, doing so seems easy at first, but good luck once the skull blocks start to fall.
As time goes on, a meter fills on the side of the screen, and once full, a layer of skull blocks will drop across your playfield. These blocks can only be destroyed when a neighboring chest and key are combined beside them, so there’s a lot of strategy you’ll need to think of, as these demon blocks are inescapable for the most part. These junk blocks can really ruin your setup quiye quickly, so you’ll need to have a plan of how to deal with them, on top of your regular strategy of clearing chests. Like any block based title, once the screen fills to the top, it’s game over.
Luckily, there are also randomly placed item blocks that will also come down. These won’t activate automatically, like matching keys and chests, but instead, need to be picked up by your hero and activated to be used. These blocks come in the form of Bomb, Sword and Anvil. Anvil will clear the line vertically you place it on, the Sword horizontally, and lastly the Bomb will explode everything near it within a few squares. These items are very powerful and will save you on numerous occasions, but they don’t drop frequently, so use them wisely.
As you complete matches, you’ll earn gold. This gold is like your experience bar, and once full, you’ll unlock a new skin or grapple item for your character. Every item is simply cosmetic, so there’s no real reason to grind unless you want to see every character skin and item for the fun of it, or to showoff online.
Solo play is where I spent most of my time, as I seemingly had no chance against any of my online opponents each time I attempted. Should you be lucky enough to have friends come over often, the Local play is a fun time for up to four friends. Where you’ll want to test your real Treasure Stack-ing abilities though is Online. Here you’re able to play in a Head to Head, or more interestingly, a Season mode. Here you’ll play multiple matches and work towards earning unique rewards. Cross platform is enabled, so you should have no problem finding matches during the day, but when I played late at night, I was unable to find many, if any, matches at all, though your experience may vary.
Treasure Stack has a really unique idea, with your character physically being able to grapple and move stacks, but the controls simply feel awkward. If a stack is too high to jump onto, you can pick it up completely, then place it down and you’ll appear on top of it, but doing so in the thick of it with numerous skull bricks ruining the playfield becomes hectic at best. Even after a handful of hours into it, I still make a ton of simple control mistakes and have to mentally focus on what I want to do and how. I did enjoy the cute retro pixel graphics, and the soundtrack was decent, though not very memorable.
I appreciate that there’s a new take on a seemingly ancient genre, I just wish it blended together more smoothly and the controls weren’t so awkward. The difficulty curve is extremely sharp and will take hours to feel natural. While constant unlocks are something to work towards, they are simply cosmetic and there’s little left for any gameplay depth or longevity.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Trials Rising
If I had to guess, I’d probably wager that I’ve sunk at least a few hundred hours into the original Trials on Xbox 360. I absolutely fell in love with it and its challenging physics based gameplay. I became quite good at the time, mastering the hardest tracks, but as the sequels eventually came one after another, I simply lost my interest. For me, it seemed like the Trials series was simply trying to cater to the super hardcore, making extreme tracks that even frustrated myself, with many I couldn’t bring myself to complete.It seems developers RedLynx have gone back to the drawing board to figure out what made Trials so much fun initially, and have essentially gone back to their roots with Trials Rising. While it may not have the same sparkle it did back in the day, I’m excited again to be sinking dozens of hours into Trials once again.
For those uninitiated, Trials is a dirt bike game where you need to simply make it to the finish line, but doing so is anything but. Physics are your biggest obstacle, as you’ll need to know when to lean back and forth, feather the gas, and how to react to the world around you. Controls are simplistic, as you lean with the Left Stick and use the triggers for Gas and Brake, but knowing how to balance and use the tricks to vault over objects and land properly is what separates the great players.
While there’s no real story campaign for the most part, your Trials career will take you across many tracks from all around the globe. From Hollywood movie sets, to Europe, to Cambodia and everywhere in between, you’ll see a ton of backdrops, each with their own unique style and feel. What Trials Rising does near perfect is ease newcomers into the game, gradually progressing in slightly more challenging levels as you go. In previous games, the difficulty would spike drastically early on, scaring away new fans, but Rising does it just right.
Now there are also classes you can take, teaching you the basics, and eventually much more complex and challenging skills you’ll need to master if you want to take on the most extreme courses. What’s done right about these lessons is that you’re not simply forced to reach the end, granting an A+, as you can tap out anytime you wish if you simply think you won’t be able to make it any further, giving you an appropriate grade based on how far you reached. You’re always welcome to go back and try again, seeing if you can earn those coveted A+ marks once you gain the skills necessary, something I’m still working on for a few of the challenging classes.
Trials is all about momentum. Sometimes you want to floor it and leap high as you can, other times, you’ll want little air as possible, to get more speed on a downhill slope or to land perfectly. Knowing when, and how, is what makes great Trials players, from numerous level repeats and practice. Track design in Rising is absolutely stellar and much more exciting this time around. Not only is there more ‘fluff’ with background action and explosions, but certain aspects of levels are designed so uniquely that they are a joy to play. For example, in the movie set stage, the background actually changes to a scene from the movie as you ride through it, or a level where logs slide down as you land on them, so you need to prepare your landing just perfectly and not go full throttle. Never once did a level feel unfair. If I had to restart, it’s because of my own mistake.
On the world map is where you’ll chose what race you want to participate in, and if a friend beats your time, there will be a notification to let you know so you can earn back those bragging rights. Finishing levels will earn you Bronze, Silver or Gold medals, and luckily, progress isn’t gated on how many you’ve earned. Instead, you’ll eventually get to challenge yourself against the best of a league, and should you win all the heats, you’ll be able to move onto the next, usually upping the difficulty.
Sponsors will also pop up now and then, showing interest in your riding skills and give you objectives to perform during levels. Complete these objectives, like don’t fault more than 6 times or finish under a specific time, and you’ll be granted bonuses. Also, you’ll eventually be challenged to some one on one races against rivals, and if you’re able to beat them in all 3 races, you’ll earn a very special loot crate. Yes, Trials now has loot crates, but more on that shortly.
One of my favorite aspects from the first few Trials was its Skill Games. Here were a handful of minigames to simply have fun in and set records. The amount of time I put into the original long distance game is somewhat embarrassing, but I had a ton of enjoyment doing so. Over the years, the Skill Games never had that same special wow factor to me. Sure, they were fun, but nothing ever really felt special like those originals. The same goes here for Rising as well. They are included and unique, like Basketball where you need to grab a ball after launching off your bike, then slam dunking into the net, but none of them had me going back for more.
The garage is where you’ll be spending a bit of your time, as this is where you can customize your rider and bike once you start opening your loot crates. Yes, every time you level up, you’ll earn a loot crate to open, each of which houses a random assortment of stickers, rider gear, bike parts, stickers, stickers or more stickers. Yes, the majority of what you earn will be stickers, which is quite a letdown. And to make things worse, you can get duplicate items as well.
Given that you can also spend real money on crates for Acorns, a separate currency, you could just buy the cosmetic items if you want, but the prices are quite disappointing and way too high priced for my liking. You’ll earn coins as you win races as well, and this can also purchase some gear for your rider and bike, but the coolest items are usually only purchasable with Acorns, so you can see where I started to get a bad taste in my mouth.
You’ll earn jackets, shirts, pants, helmets, gloves, shoes and more for your rider, able to customize just how you wish. And for your whips; tires, rims, body kits, headlights and more are at your disposal as well. You can even spend your hard earned gold on poses and emotes for the lobbies before and after races, but again, the coolest ones aren’t purchasable with simply gold, only Acorns. Even if the top tier items were purchasable with gold, you don’t earn them quickly enough and will struggle to get your bank roll up if you want to purchase many.
There’s an online multiplayer component, but I found it by accident while navigating the menus. I had a lot of fun challenging myself to others online, and should add some longevity for Rising. Oddly enough, the Private Multiplayer is greyed out and is still simply “coming soon”. Why this launched without this included, I’m not sure, but an ETA at least would have put some fears to rest. There’s local co-op should that be your thing when friends are over, and you can customize your races to your heart’s desire, but where the real hilarity comes in is with the new Tandem Bike.
The newly added Tandem Bike is for two players to play simultaneously, both controlling a single ride. Given that everything is shared, from the acceleration, braking and steering, you better be in sync with your partner or it’s not going to end well. While I’ve yet to have someone over yet that is on the same wavelength as my own Trials skills, this could be an absolutely hilarious party game in itself, though prepare many swear words at your friends beforehand, as some will most certainly come out when they can’t pull their own weight.
Trials Rising looks absolutely gorgeous. The series has come a long way since its humble beginnings, and while the visuals themselves aren’t anything spectacular, what does look amazing is the overall aesthetic and level design. Again, the level design here is simply flawless, and there’s and endless amount of small details I’ve noticed that most will pass by, as they are simply trying to reach the end. The audio goes hand in hand with a suitable soundtrack that sets the tone without becoming overbearing or annoying.
Trials really is the “one more time” formula, and Rising makes it even harder to put the controller down. Rising is simply a refined experience of the Trials formula, and I’m excited to see how newbie friendly it’s become, yet holds a ton of opportunities for veterans that want to challenge themselves. RedLynx has found a great balance of accessibility versus catering to the hardcore.
While new players will surely hit a wall of difficulty at some point, it’s never unfair and simply requires you to learn the appropriate skills to overcome the hurdles. I’m so excited that Trials is back to where it once was and I wish I could count the times I’ve said “only one more try” repeatedly, I just wish the loot boxes and microtransactions didn’t feel so tacked on.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Sometimes I simply need a break from my go-to shooters and competitive multiplayer games. Usually I unwind with something less stressful, like a racing game or puzzler, but recently, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles has been capturing my attention for this specific need. While there’s objectives and goals to meet, they are in no way forced upon you, and you’re free to openly explore and do as you wish in Yonder, something I found truly relaxing, helping de-stress at the end of a long day.Set in the world of Gemea, you are aboard a ship before it wrecks on a mysterious coast. You awaken, but can’t seem to remember anything about the place you were travelling to. A mysterious entity sets you upon a journey and it’s up to you to free the island from an enigmatic Murk that blocks access to certain areas and houses many secrets within.
There’s an overall narrative, nothing too serious or involving, but the real journey of Yonder is exploring at your own pace and doing whatever it is you want to do at any given point of time. You’ll need to seek out adorable creatures known as Sprites to rid the land of the mysterious Murk, but there’s plenty more for you to also do to fill your time and adventure.
Where Yonder shines is in its sense of exploration and freedom of gameplay. Never are you forced to play a certain way or progress if you don’t desire to, but eventually you will need to find Sprites if you want to clear the Murk and explore blocked off areas and uncover more secrets. Even so, you’re able to fill your time with exploration, crafting, cooking, fishing, farming, trading and a handful of quests whenever you see fit to do so.
Your general progress will be gated behind these Murk gates, a black magical substance that requires little creatures, known as Sprites, to clear the way for you. You only have one Sprite at the beginning of your adventure, and will need many more if you want to uncover all of the islands secrets and areas. Every Murk blockade requires a specific amount of Sprites on hand to clear, and while the first few will be easy to find, gathering them all will take some time and set you on quite a journey. Sprites like to hide, so finding them isn’t always so easy. Sure, they have a glow around where they are hidden, but the island you’re on is quite large, and you’ll have to explore every inch if you want to find them all.
Early on, the majority of my time was simply gathering any wood, rocks and flowers I saw lying on the ground. Eventually you’re given all the tools you’ll need to gather more, like a pick axe, hammer, scythe, axe and fishing rod, and again, it’s completely up to you how you want to play. Maybe you want to go on a wood gathering binge, cutting down all the trees you see to harvest some wood for your Guild and crafting.
Obviously, you’re going to want to replant trees so that you can cut more down later after they grow, so you’ll need to use your scythe on bushels of grass to gather some seeds, which can be planted where you cut those trees down. It feels very much like a cycle of life, as I would cut down regular trees, but plant more exotic ones, allowing me to trade them for a higher yield and for better items at traders. The same goes for stone, as you can use your hammer to smash boulders into to smaller collectible portions. Every material has a use, and by a few hours into Yonder, you’re going to want all you can get your hands on if you want to explore all that it has to offer.
Crafting eventually plays a huge part in the gameplay, as the mechanics in place are very simple and easy to understand. Want to create a pen for your animals for your farm? The crafting menu will tell you exactly what materials you’ll need to do so. Join a Guild, like the Carpenters for example, and you’ll have access to special recipes and craftable items, even more so after you’ve become a master in said guilds. And there’s numerous guilds from all different professions to join, so there’s plenty to delve into should you want to take the time to explore and learn it all.
Eventually you’ll be given a plot of land for your very own farm, something I wasn’t sure if I was going to sink a lot of time into, which was until I noticed an hour easily slipped by. Your plot of land is fully customizable, and while you’re given a few basic items to start out with, this is where the crafting system comes into play should you want to further customize it more. You aren’t simply given animals to populate your farm though, so you’ll need to find wild ones, feed them their favorite food, and then they’ll follow you back as you guide them back to your farm.
After you’ve got an animal or two, that’s where the farming becomes quite enjoyable. Your farm is rated on its cleanliness and care of animals, so you’ll want to check in every so often to make sure you’re cleaning up their poop. Yes, they poop all over the place. You could even setup gardens if you wish, for flowers and trees, and you’ll even earn materials for any animals you have, like milk, so it pays to spend time doing so. You’ll even be able to eventually hire farm hands to take care of your day to day duties for you, allowing you more time to explore or do whatever else you wish.
Or maybe you want to become a cook and spend time fishing? While the fishing minigame is simplistic, as you only need to move the thumbstick in the direction of the moving arrow to reel it in, it’s soothing and relaxing to try and catch a new type of fish, or a rare large catch in a new pond. You can use these fish to trade and barter, cook with, or feed to your farm hands to hire them, so there’s lots you can do with your catches.
NPC’s will be scattered throughout Gemea as well, but instead of simply selling all your unwanted items for money, instead there’s a bartering system in place. If you want an item from a vendor, you’ll need to trade something of equal value to obtain it. It’s simple, but it works, so this is where your hours of gathering, fishing and farming come into play. Maybe you don’t have the materials to craft a specific component, so you’d rather trade for it instead; this is completely possible and could save you some time if you have spare materials for trade. It’s an interesting system and is very easy to understand.
All of Yonder’s mechanics are actually quite easy to pick up and understand. There’s some menu management when it comes to crafting and equipping new cosmetic clothes, but nothing terribly difficult to figure out. And for those looking for even more to do, there’s tons of quests to be had, some of which are very simple and quick, whereas others are a little more vague and will take some exploration to solve. There are rewards of course, and even hidden collectables to find throughout Gemea, like cats; a simple way that makes me want to explore more of the island.
Yonder is very pretty to look at from an aesthetic perspective. The world is very bright and colorful, animals and Sprites are absolutely adorable and practically any area you see in the background can be explored, given you can clear the Murk blocking its path. More than once I saw an interesting object on a faraway hill and went to explore, sidetracking me for a good hour. While the character models are quite basic, it has a certain charm. Audio is just as suitable, as the calming soundtrack sets the mood and tone for your adventure, never becoming too serious or unnerving.
I’m actually glad there’s no combat involved. While it would add more gameplay, Yonder is suited for the experience that it is; a freeform adventure to calmly explore and do as you wish. There’s no shortage of discovery and adventure to be had, all at your own pace and prerogative.
While Xbox will never have Animal Crossing come to the console, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is essentially as close as you’re going to get, and arguably, a more robust experience. Sure, Yonder could use a little more depth in some areas, I appreciate the freedom to do and focus on whatever I want without any pressure or objectives I don’t want to complete if I don’t desire to. If you’re looking for a title to relax and unwind with that’s simple to understand and play, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles should be looked at.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Salt and Sanctuary
To say that the Dark Souls series has made an impact on the gaming industry would be an understatement. They’ve not only made a series that fans clamor for, but have since been synonymous with “difficult” games due to its challenge. Obviously when a new game or genre comes along, many copies also follow suit, and there’s been no shortage of Souls-like games in recent years. While most of these knock offs are simply trying to be a ‘me too’, developers Ska Studios, best known for their The Dishwasher titles, has decided to put some new twists on the traditional Souls-like gameplay mechanics, making for a unique experience that’s not simply trying to emulate its inspirational material.Salt and Sanctuary begins with you on a ship that gets attacked in the ocean. As you kill the invaders and make your way to the deck, you’re greeted with a massive sea creature that will most likely demolish you in a few seconds (though it is possible to defeat it). Regardless of the outcome, the ship crashes and becomes a wreck on a nearby shore that you awake on much later. As you get your wits about you, you’ll meet an older gentleman that gives you a mysterious item and to let you know that you must find the princess that was aboard the ship as well.
Yes, it’s an overused trope, but it sets the framework of the much larger objective, but doing so won’t be easy. You’ll have hours of exploring and fighting ahead of you, coupled with hundreds of deaths as you learn the intricacies of the mechanics. You’ll be exploring through swamps, dungeons, forests, crumbled cities, underground tunnels and much more throughout your journey. I have to admit, for a smaller indie game, I didn’t expect as much depth and length, but was proven wrong after looking up how much further I had to go after a dozen or so bosses.
To say that Salt and Sanctuary is simply a Souls-like would be doing it an injustice. Yes, many mechanics and design decisions carry over and are similar, but it’s also part Metroidvania and more of a platformer, given its 2D sidescrolling gameplay. You begin by choosing your character, class and other details before being thrust into the world with little to no hand holding at all. And just like the Souls games, which I’m terrible at, I was initially quite awful at this as well. I’m not one for super challenging games generally, but Salt and Sanctuary, just like Souls, is never truly unfair, you just have to take your time and learn what you did wrong, and adjust, learning from your mistakes.
Traversing the huge world on a 2D plane is simple at first, but eventually you’ll reach areas that have vanishing platforms, platforms that can only be stepped on with a special light equipped, and even have sections where you’ll walk on the ceilings for a short period of time. I didn’t expect the world to be nearly as expansive as it was, as it took me by surprise just how big the world really ending up being.
Combat plays the other large part of Salt and Sanctuary’s gameplay. Simplistic to figure out and execute, eventually enemies become much more challenging and deadly, with bosses able to essentially one-shot you if you’re not careful. Luckily, you’ll have access to well over 600 items, weapons, armor sets, spells and more to truly customize your character(s) just how you wish. Being that I’m not as skillful in these games, I initially opted for a safer heavy armor and shield bearing Paladin to try and mitigate some of the incoming damage. While this worked for the most part, I found it was much more efficient to become better at combat and simply roll and dodge out of the way of attacks instead. The same goes for weaponry, as a large 2-handed broadsword did an incredible amount of damage compared to my single handed maces and swords. I’ve dabbled with the magic and spells slightly, but it’s simply not my play style, though I could see it being very overpowered if spec’d properly.
You’ll earn souls, er, salt, and gold for killing enemies, which is used to level up and upgrade your equipment. I completely understand that games like these are very hands-off with the lack of any real tutorial or easing into the gameplay, but I have to say, I did become frustrated early on when I kept dying and losing all my acquired Salt from silly mistakes. Yes, those mistakes were mine, I just wish more of the mechanics were explained more clearly from the early beginnings. For example, Salt and Sanctuary’s version of bonfires are the Sanctuaries, but it’s not explained outright what using one does. Yes, you’ll eventually figure it out, but it took some time to learn how to setup vendors like a Blacksmith or how to fast travel to other Sanctuaries I've previously been to.
Again, just like Souls, you’ll have a stamina meter that is tied to your attacking, blocking, dodging and magic use. Spam attacks and you’ll be left vulnerable, dodge and roll repeatedly and you won’t be able to attack or block for a short period. Even the lesser grunt enemies can take you out if you’re not careful, so learn to manage your stamina at all times.
You’re able to setup two different weapon loadouts, so I began with my sword and shield for when I need to block, then can freely swap to my 2-hander for damage dealing when the opportunity arises. It will take quite some time for you to learn the controls of doing so, blocking and using items, but once it clicks and you don’t have to think about it anymore, it becomes more natural.
Even though there’s a lot of Metroidvania influence within, there’s actually no map to speak of. Even after a dozen hours of gameplay, I still hate this absent feature. I get that it’s supposed to be challenging, but having to do a ton of backtracking and then getting lost simply negates any fun I was having, especially when I die and have to figure out where my body was to recover my salt. Just as you think the world is large, you’ll acquire brands, which allows you to access new areas via special abilities, such as wall jumping, or traversing upside down in a specific area. You’ll be revisiting areas you’ve already been to once you gain these abilities if you’re looking for all of the world’s secrets and bosses. Sure, once you defeat bosses, usually there’s a shortcut of sorts to easily get to another area quickly, but again, you’ll have to have a photographic memory to make use of it.
There are also times where you’ll get to pick a Creed, essentially a faction, granting special bonuses, though be careful, as if you claim a Sanctuary for your own under a rival Creed, locals will not take kindly to this, so there’s always a risk and consequence for your actions. Again, I wish these were explained in more detail, as I found I had to simply experiment with each and figure out not only what each did, but their specific bonuses as well.
Also included are some RPG elements where you can not only upgrade your gear, but a massive skill tree that’s actually quite intimidating to look at and figure out the path you want to ascend in. Seriously, the skill tree is absolutely massive and trying to take it all in took quite some time. This allows you to truly customize your character almost exactly however you wish, it’s just a very daunting visual to take in and understand without any context. Upgrade and level up enough, and you’ll eventually become incredibly powerful, so there’s a balance of challenge and payoff depending on how much work you put into it.
Also, just like souls, you’re able to leave messages in bottles for others to find and read. You could leave helpful hints, or set a trap by luring you into a false sense of security. It’s not game changing by any means, but a great nod to the source material.
Again, I don’t try and hide the fact that I’m terrible at games like this, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve still yet to see the credits roll. I’ve put in hours and hours into it, but I’ve hit a brick wall where I’m close to throwing the controller out the window. I know if I stick with it and take my time, I’d overcome the struggle, as this isn’t the first time I've become stuck, but doing multiple corpse runs only to lose more and more Salt really grates on you after a while. Sure, some will find Salt and Sanctuary much easier, as they may be Souls veterans, or have a build that works like magic for them, but I struggled almost the whole way.
The visuals are very basic, as everything appears hand drawn, though the aesthetic is very dark and brown, which makes sense given the narrative backdrop and setting of a dark and dingy world inhabited by monsters. Audio is very basic, with the groans of monsters and attack animations, though I do wish there was more of a robust soundtrack, as it seems it was the same few tracks repeated over and over.
I completely appreciate and understand what Salt and Sanctuary is accomplishing and trying to be. While some will be turned off by its difficulty, the elation that comes when you finally become better skilled and progress is unlike any other. Salt and Sanctuary isn’t simply a 2D Souls-like, as it has its own creative merits and is its own experience, something that needs to be applauded.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Anthem
Since Anthem was first shown back at one of the E3’s, there’s been a feverish excitement and following for its release, and for good reason; it simply looked awesome. You control a mech (javelin) much like Iron Man, and it had remnants of Destiny and Division loot based co-op gameplay. Oh, and BioWare is behind it, so naturally fans became quite excited quickly. It was easy to get aboard the hype train once it was shown, and now Anthem is finally here, so has it been everything we’ve been waiting for? Well, kind of.Given BioWare’s pedigree in storytelling and narrative based games, I was expecting big things from Anthem’s narrative. You’re one of the few remaining Freelancers left standing after the battle within The Heart of Rage. This was a legendary battle where almost all but a handful of Freelancers fell in battle after things go south quickly. The world doesn’t really see Freelancers the same way they once did since that day, and even though two years have passed since the resounding defeat, you’re still trying to do the right thing and prove Freelancers are still great as they once were.
Sentinels are essentially the army and police in Anthem’s world, yet Freelancers are the ones that will need to take out contracts and repair their reputation amongst the public. Your main hub, Fort Tarsis, is a small city where a large portion of your gameplay will take place. Here is where you’ll talk to merchants, make friends, accept contracts and more. In typical BioWare fashion, you’ll have dialogue choices to make during conversations, though none of these decisions feel like there’s any weight to them for the most part, simply picking one of two responses as the opportunity presents itself.
The Dominion is the other faction, the ones that are trying to harness the power of the Anthem of Creation for themselves, destroying anyone who gets in their way. Essentially the ‘bad guys’, they will be your main enemy throughout the storyline, led by a very ruthless and powerful foe that you’ll learn more of as you progress. You’ll meet more characters as your journey extends, some of which are very unique and memorable, while others are annoyances and simply serve to give you more missions, albeit with a lengthy talk beforehand. While the few main characters you’ll forge relationships with, the rest of the characters simply feel empty shells.
Get used to slowly traversing in Fort Tarsis, as you’ll be here often after every mission and lengthy loading screen. Even on an Xbox One X, with Anthem installed on an external drive, the load times are absolutely atrocious at times, and frequent. You’ll have not only the main story missions, but a plethora of side missions and contracts to complete as well, and I suggest as doing as many as you can before you eventually hit the wall of progression halting.
At one point in the story, you’ll be in search of specific Tombs, but won’t have access until you fulfil a certain amount of side objectives, like killing a certain amount of specific enemies, finding hidden engrams, melee kills and more dull objectives that force you to play a specific way for no real reason at all other than to gate your progression. Luckily I didn’t need to do much ‘back tracking’ to fulfil these, but I’ve heard of players who have had to spend time simply doing these poorly thought out tasks to progress.
Anthem is simply the greatest Iron Man simulator you’ll play. Your Javelin suit can instantly turn on its jets to allow you to fly, for a short period, and you have an arsenal of weaponry at your disposal. Something to keep in mind though is that Anthem requires a persistent online connection, as well as Xbox Live Gold. While this won’t matter to most, you’re always going to be at the mercy of the servers and any updates that are pushed through.
While fully possible to play alone for most of Anthem’s experiences, it truly is meant to be played as a team of four, ideally friends with constant communication, as anything less is simply frustrating and nowhere as rewarding. You begin your journey by choosing which of the four Javelin’s you wish to pilot, but will eventually have access to all and be able to switch between missions whenever you choose. Each Javelin is very distinct, not only in its visuals, but more importantly, its playstyle.
Myself, I fell in love with the Colossus, a Hulkbuster-like brute of a Javelin that utilizes a literal shield and can take the most damage of the four, essentially the tank class. Ranger, the most rounded of the bunch is adaptable to any situation is great at massive single target damage. Interceptor is the smallest, but more agile and melee based Javelin. Lastly, and arguably the most popular, is the Storm, an elemental based attacker that can deal some massive damage, even on their own, while also having the ability to hover.
It takes some time to find the Javelin to suit your playstyle, but once you do and figure out its nuanced playstyle, it becomes much more rewarding. Once I learned how to effectively use my Colossus’ shield to not only mitigate incoming fire, but to cover and distract enemies, the team based gameplay opened up so much more. While there’s no “perfect” group composition, as I’ve completed missions with 4 Colossus, but had a much better time when the party was more rounded with different classes.
Every class has its own specialty equipment, as well as an Ultimate that can be used once the meter is filled. My Colossus for example can launch rockets that do massive damage to anything it hits, or in the vicinity. There are also specific weapons meant for certain Javelins, like my Autocannon for my Colossus for example, but you can generally equip any of the weapons you wish to suit your play style.
Unless you’re a Storm class, you’ll do the majority of your fighting on the ground. This is because your jet thrusters can only be used for a short time before needing to be cooled down. The world of Anthem is incredibly vertical, so there will be many times where you’ll need to fly from the ground up to the top of a large waterfall. Being able to fly for only a short distance before needing to rest your jets a moment so they don’t overheat, is a little of a downer, as some of the best gameplay comes from these Iron Man-like moments of flying through a narrow tunnel or open archway. While you can temporarily cool off your jets by flying through some mist of a waterfall, or rapidly descending, having more flight time would have made for a much more exciting experience, instead of the on/off gameplay. That being said, the handling of the suits is near perfect, as I can thread the needle when needed and land whenever I want quickly.
While most classes will rely on their guns for the majority of their damage, again, every class plays quite differently, and I actually rarely use my weapons now, as I prefer to use my abilities and melee ground pounds to deal the majority of my damage as a Colossus. Enemies aren’t much of a threat on Easy, Normal or Hard difficulties, but once you start to challenge yourself on the Grandmaster 1, 2 and 3 difficulties, you’ll quickly learn that even the smallest enemies can be massive bullet sponges, a problem I absolutely detested in the original Division.
Making enemies soak up massive amounts of damage doesn’t make you feel powerful; quite the opposite. When I’m using a 200+ round autocannon and it takes a full clip to kill a single grunt enemy, that’s simply not that fun. Yes, you’re meant to use all of the tools available to you, like your equipment, abilities and most importantly, combos, but it becomes tiresome, even more so when you fight the Titan bosses that require even more damage to be taken out.
Also, you’re going to be fighting the same handful of enemies over and over throughout your Anthem career. This doesn’t ever really change, nor does the formula of reaching point A, kill X amount of enemy waves and progress to the next point to start the cycle all over again. Sure, sometimes things vary slightly, like having to defend a certain point as a meter fills, or find a handful of collectibles to move onto the next stage, but it’s all generally the same formula from start to finish.
While the gunplay itself is a bit underwhelming, due to enemies being bullet sponges, the real thrill comes from learning how the combo system works. Every Javelin’s abilities are either pure damage, a Primer or Detonator. While the pure damage abilities will show you big numbers, being able to setup and pull off combos is where the massive damage will come from. To start, you need one of your Primer abilities. My Colossus for example, I have a wall of fire, that when enemies pass through, take slight fire damage, but become primed for a combo. When primed, you’ll see an icon above their heads, or they'll completely frozen if ice is used, and if you use a detonation ability, like my melee ground pound for example, you’ll combo other enemies in the area for a huge amount of destruction. Having a team that can effectively setup and perform combos are an absolute must in the harder Grandmaster difficulties, as a Turret for example can easily lay waste to your squad if not taken care of quickly and efficiently.
Once you complete the campaign and reach level 30, this is where Anthem starts to open up more, it’s just a shame you need to slog through he rest before then to really start to experience the chaotic and rewarding nature of Grandmaster difficulties. The higher the difficulty, the more rewards can be gained, so it’s a balance of skill and challenge, based on how effective your squad is. While you can play with random’s for any mission or Stronghold (dungeons with bosses at the end), it’s a completely different, and far better, game with 3 other friends in party chat.
I was quite excited once I got to experience my first Stronghold, as its Anthem’s version of dungeons. The same formula applies though, as you get to point A, kill baddies, repeat until you reach and vanquish the boss. I was hoping for some very cool and interesting boss mechanics, and while some do have a few tricks you need to utilize, they are just even more massive bullet sponges for the most part and none are very memorable, except for that turret boss of the second Stronghold; Eff that guy.
You begin weak, and as you defeat enemies and find loot, your power level will increase, much like Destiny’s light system. Common loot begins white, eventually you’ll find greens, blues, purples, masterwork and legendaries. The better loot seems to be tied to player level and progression, as I joined a Grandmaster mission early in my career through a friend, but was only getting rewards based on my own level. As you increase your Javelin’s power, enemies become easier to defeat and you become stronger, thus the hamster wheel of searching for loot begins.
While I’m all for diving head first into a shLOOTer, the progression needs to keep up, especially in a game like Anthem where you’ll be running the same exact missions and Strongholds over and over again. If I need to spend an hour doing a Stronghold, I better get a reward out of it. And this is where BioWare has currently dropped the ball. Yes, you’ll get upgrades, but it’s completely randomized, and I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve gotten the SAME drop, resulting in me simply deconstructing it for materials to craft later on. Even once I started getting top tier gear, I noticed minor improvements in my power and abilities, but was never 'wow’d' by the increases. There’s a long and arduous grind for the gear, and you simply need to hope that luck is on your side when it finally does drop, or else you’ll be running those missions all over again in hopes for what you actually want.
Most impressive is Anthem’s visuals. Not simply its fidelity playing on my Xbox One X, but the aesthetic throughout. Anthem is a very vertical game, and flying through the world in Freeroam is a delight to see all of the backdrop and scenery that you pass by. Javelin’s are incredibly detailed if you take the time to look up close, and while the world itself isn’t nearly as large as I expected, it’s beautiful from end to end with flora, waterfalls and nature surrounding every corner.
Audio is a mixed bag, for a few reasons. Voice acting is top notch, and the sound effects are fantastic, especially when you kick in your thrusters for your jets and take off, but I’ve had nothing but issues with audio since day one. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve had my audio completely drop for no apparent reason, forcing me to restart to get it back; Party chat worked the whole time, so it was simply the game audio that would drop. This has happened more than a dozen times, even up to three times one night when I was doing some Grandmaster Stronghold runs with some friends. To say that it’s frustrating is putting it mildly, and that’s not even factoring the hard system crashes that has happened to me as well.
Anthem has some grand ideas, and what it’s great at is a lot of fun, but there’s so many odd design decisions that baffle me. It’s almost as if they didn’t learn from all of the mistakes Destiny had at its launch. Even as of now, the proposed fix for loot still isn’t working as intended (white and green loot dropping for a level 30 is a waste of time). I get that an online persistent game is going to have its issues, and this is BioWare’s first foray into this specific genre, but I feel like nearly half my time played is walking slowly around Fort Tarsis, delving into menus or waiting on a ridiculously long loading screen.
I have no doubt that down the road, Anthem is going to be fantastic, special even, but the road there is long and bumpy. Polish and changes for the better will come with time, no doubt, but there’s a laundry list of frustrations that let me down. That being said, I’m still getting on every night to play with my squad, running on that proverbial never ending treadmill for new and better loot, so it’s got to be doing something right, I just hope more variety gets added soon.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
RIOT: Civil Unrest
Riots look like one thing on TV, yet are a completely different world when you’re in the thick of it. I’m actually able to speak from experience here, as I was once stuck in the middle of a riot, granted, not a political based one as this game, RIOT – Civil Unrest, portraits. Simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, I was stuck in a crowd of thousands of people when things starting turning for worse. I wanted to go one way, but the crowd was running the other, and I knew if I fell over, I would have most likely been trampled to death. Then the tear gas from police came. That stuff hurts; believe me. I made it out eventually, but experienced firsthand how quickly chaos can spread with the right conditions, something I hope to never experience again.Yet here I am, playing it in game form. I can handle that though, and even some of my first initial impressions brought back some of those feelings of chaos. I can’t even imagine what it would be like for someone to be there willingly at a political protest when things turn south. RIOT will let you experience that in a handful of different scenarios. It’s an absolutely unique and interesting game idea, as I guess I would categorize it as a ‘simulator’ of sorts, but there really is nothing else quite like it.
The idea came from RIOT – Civil Unrest’s creator, as he himself also experienced firsthand chaos at the NoTAV demonstrations in Italy. Never heard of that world event before? Don’t worry, I’ve not either, nor any of the other scenarios contained within aside from maybe a headline here and there, but RIOT gives you some simple background information on each setting, purposely trying to be as unbiased as possible. In fact, as you begin, you’re greeted with a message about how RIOT is built from a small group of people and actually suggest you do research yourselves elsewhere to learn more about the conflicts. This is a great way to not cater to the protester's, or police, side of the conflicts, and allows you to see where you stand yourself without outside influence.
What makes RIOT really interesting is that you get to play out these handfuls of conflicts, but can choose from either side, protestors or police. While there’s no real right vs wrong here, both sides have their own reasons, abilities and playstyles that need to be taken into consideration. You’ll witness events from around the world, in Italy, Spain, Greece and Egypt, as well as a handful of others as you progress.
I don’t really want to delve into each of the ‘stories’ backdrop, as they were the most interesting to uncover for myself, especially with the online research I did afterwards on my own, as I found the subject matter quite interesting to learn about. As many conflicts, they start out with good intentions and peaceful protests, but usually the perfect storm occurs and things take a turn for the worse, even to violence. Each of the main campaign houses 4 separate scenarios where you choose which side to experience. For protesters, you’ll need to hold your ground, or occupy a space, though how you do so, peacefully or with violence, is completely up to you. The same goes for playing as the Police, as you need to usually disperse a mob or deny access to an area, but things can turn ugly real quick when protesters start chucking rocks and Molotov’s.
As for the gameplay, it’s a completely mixed bag of confusion and awkwardness on a controller. At the top left, you’ll have your abilities that can be utilized, based on which side your chose, if they are in offensive or defensive stances and other variables. Executing the abilities starts a cooldown period of each until they can be used again, but sometimes certain abilities won’t enable, and I’m unable to figure out why. Or for example, I had my protesters sit in a spot, only to realize I was controlling the wrong group, and I couldn’t get them to stand back up so I could move them again where I wanted.
You can also switch between your numerous groups, able to place certain ones in key locations or using them for specific objectives, like pushing back police, destroying barriers or calling in backup via social media. The same goes for the police side, as you’ll need to control each group of police separately, from the riot squad with shields, tear gas launchers, water cannons and more. Given the utter chaos that happens on screen, it’s very difficult to tell what’s exactly happening at a given moment, but that’s true for the real life counterpart as well I guess.
I preferred the rioters, trying to protest peacefully without bringing out the rocks and Molotov’s, but when police start pushing you back, something’s got to give at some point. There’s a meter at the top that shows just how peaceful, provoking or violent each side is, but most of the time, my outcomes were almost always violent. Part of this is because there’s no tutorial at all of how to play the game, so I was initially just mashing buttons and trying to see what would happen, but of course, that meant using my more offensive tactics.
I tried a few scenarios with only peaceful abilities equipped, like megaphones, cameras, and social media, but seemed to have much more success when I was using rocks, bottle rockets, homemade smoke bombs, firecrackers and more. As you can imagine, once a few rockets and Molotov’s get thrown, the chaos starts to ensue and the mob mentality sets in. From here on violence will quickly begin, so you better have a plan.
On the police side, I found these same scenarios much harder, also due to a lack of any tutorial or explanation of mechanics. Do you put all your force together and push back as one, destroying barriers, or you to turn on the water cannon to disperse the crowd, inciting rage? While I found the tear gas worked quite well, and you can aim to a specific spot in the crowd should you desire, I rarely won any of the police scenarios, and I’m not sure why. When I had to clear an area of protesters, there’s always a few lingering somewhere, and once you move your units to arrest or attack them, others come in where you just were, so it always felt like a losing battle. Just like rioters, I tended to play the police much more violent than I initially wanted to, as I was unable to get any results I wanted the peaceful way.
While you have most of the campaigns behind the Story Mode, there’s also an Online and Versus mode. Online isn’t what you think, as it plays out each mission in a row, granting you bonuses or negatives for the following riots, based on how you perform or which side you pick. Almost like an endless or challenge mode, there’s a lot of content to tackle here, but I found it quite challenging. If you’ve got a friend over, you’re able to able to play against one another, but it would have been a bonus to have online play enabled instead.
As for its visuals, the aesthetic is done in a retro pixel style, which by all means shouldn’t work with how much chaos is happening on screen, yet somehow does. While there’s not much detail to each person, you’re able to clearly make out every character, and for the cops, can determine which ones have your riot shields, etc. I really enjoyed the visual aesthetic and think it is RIOT’s strongest feature, aside from showcasing the conflicts themselves. As for the audio, the sound effects are very powerful, with tear gas launching sounding terrifying (maybe because of my past experience), but the majority of all you’ll hear is the shouting and murmur of the crowd more than anything, which overpowers everything else.
RIOT – Civil Unrest sets out to show a side of riots you may not think of, and does so perfectly fine in an unbiased way based on real life protests. Riots are chaotic and unpredictable, and it’s no different here. It’s a shame that the controls aren’t very controller friendly, nor any subtle learning curve, as I probably would have enjoyed my time with it more if I knew what I was doing, how it was going to affect the outcome or even what the repercussions will be. But maybe that’s what RIOT does right, simply throwing you into the fray and letting the chaos ensue, though it almost always ended in a bloodbath for myself.
Overall Score: 6.1 / 10
Away: Journey to the Unexpected
While I’ve never really been a fan of much anime, I’ve always appreciated the unique and distinct artistic style that they utilize, compared to the westernized cartoons I grew up on myself that are a stark contrast. When I think of Japanese anime, I think of bright vibrant colors and fluid animation. It seems that the developers behind Away: Journey to the Unexpected also love their anime as well, as a two man team has crafted an experience that looks like it’s actually based on an anime. I actually had to do some searching, as I did assume it was based on an anime that I’ve simply never heard of, but it’s their own creation, and something that could easily pass off as a TV show tie-in.Away is an absolutely gorgeous and vibrant adventure that has its own unique flair and artistic style, something I don’t think I’ve really seen anything similar that I can think of. You play as a child who isn’t out to save the world, isn’t a hero, nor has any combat skills. All you’re armed with is a stick, literally. With the power of friendship, you’ll go on a colorful adventure, whacking bugs and enemies out of your way.
Technically a FPS (First Person Stick?), Away utilizes some rogue-lite elements as well, meaning that when, not if, you die, you’ll be right back at the beginning, though with some specific progress saved, like money and unlocks. While you navigate the gorgeous 3D world, every character and enemy you encounter is a 2D cutout that rotates based on your viewpoint, somewhat like Paper Mario. It’s a really interesting aesthetic that somehow blends and works well artistically, arguably Away’s greatest feature.
Your world has been invaded by monsters, so you’re going to do what you can with your trusty stick (I know, it’s hard to take serious) to thwart all that you come by. As you explore, you may come across NPC’s that will have a story to tell, and if you’ve found a companion cube, you’ll actually be able to recruit them to your team to join you on your journey. You’ll come across a mechanic, a talking tree, a robot, sorcerer and other oddball characters that have interesting personalities. Sometimes you’ll also need to answer their questions properly though for them to join you, something I’m not sure is ever really explained and took me numerous times to guess right.
Combat in Away is literally you hitting every enemy with your stick, when you’re playing the main protagonist. You only have this one melee attack available (well, technically you can charge up your attack, but it’s difficult to time), and even after hours with Away, I still struggled to get the hang of the proper timing. Even though enemies have nonexistent AI and simple run straight towards you, you’ll only be able to hit them when they get close enough when your reticule turns red, which is a very fine line of you getting hit back. I can’t even count the times I got hit when I shouldn’t have, or mistimed my attacks.
While visually Away is stunning, the combat and gameplay hinder it more than I expected. Combat feels dull and frustrating, and even though you can eventually unlock a shield block, fighting projectile enemies until that point is frustrating to say the least. Where you need to strategize is the friends that you recruit. You’re only able to play one character at a time, and can freely swap between, but you’ll want to use your companions first and foremost for numerous reasons. The main being that it’s only a Game Over when your main character loses all his health, if your companion does, you just lose access to them for the rest of that playthrough, so you need to think of them more as extra health or shield for your main character.
Also, some of the friends are vastly overpowered, especially the sorcerer that can throw fireballs from afar, negating the whole combat issue mentioned above, or the bat that can freely drop hearts for you to pick up. The tradeoff though is that your companions can only be used for a limited time, as they have an energy bar that depletes when attacking, so you can’t use them indefinitely. It’s an interesting mechanic, not very well fleshed out, but you use it to your advantage as best as you can to avoid any restarts.
Not only is enemy AI nonexistent, but the later enemies simply have higher health bars that require more stick whacks to defeat. The first enemies you encounter will only take one or two swings to defeat, but near the end, knights can have up to 10 health. The AI is so brain-dead that they get pushed back a little for every hit, then come straight at me again, so you can actually just stand in one place as they come at you over and over.
As you progress in your adventure, you’ll need to go into three mini dungeons to pull levers to unlock the boss dungeon. Beat the boss and you’ll gain access to new worlds and lands, where more friends can be found. While the boss fights aren’t very interesting, the dungeons themselves seem slightly randomized, though I did venture through a few of the same ones a few times. While I won’t spoil the ending, it should only take you a handful of hours to earn enough unlocks to take on the final boss, which was one of the biggest jokes and let downs that I can remember.
The visual aesthetic of Away: Journey to the Unexpected sold me right away, as it’s absolutely gorgeous with its blend of 2D and 3D and bright colorful environments and characters. Below the surface though, the rest of the experience is as bland and uninspired as you can imagine a boy fighting with a stick would be. It’s tough to recommend when it’s only redeeming quality is how pretty it looks, like a gorgeous date you picked up that happens to have a terrible personality and annoys you.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Bombfest
I guarantee that if I mention video games and bombs, the overwhelming majority of you probably instinctively think of the Bomberman series, and for good reason. Indie developers, Sudden Event Studios, are looking to change that status quo though, as they’ve created a bomb focused party game for four players to enjoy, but use completely different mechanics and gameplay from what you’d expect from a bomb-filled party game. Yes, there’s still tons of explosions, and it’s inspired by a myriad of other titles, but it’s completely different from what you'd probably expect, nor is it grid based gameplay. Simple concept and execution make for an entertaining party game for when you have company over.Gameplay is as simple as it comes; four players are placed on a small playfield, and the last one standing is the winner. BOMBFEST changes things up though, and your characters are actually simple block-like figures, fighting it out in, or on, everyday objects, like the kitchen sink, a jenga-like board table, a toy train track, a rubber ducky and other interesting backdrops. Obviously, your weapons of choice will be the varying line of bombs at your disposal, and knocking back your opponents off the board is how you win.
Not good at games? No problem, you really only need to know how to pick up and toss your bombs while moving away from any explosions. It’s as simple as it comes, yet it works to be easily accessible for all. For example, my 6 year old daughter was able to join in and play alongside me after a single match of practice, even if she wasn't able to completely follow along with what's happening on screen at all times.
What if you don’t have 3 friends that are awaiting your beck and call to come over for every new party game you get though? Worry not, as even if you don’t have any friends (not like THAT) available for some couch co-op, as it’s rare for me to have a lot of company over these days, AI can step in and challenge you to some quick matches should you desire. Sure, the AI won’t be as fun as your real life counterparts, as there’s nothing quite like swearing or throwing something at your friends when they win/cheat, but at least you’re able to actually play by yourself if you want.
Matches are very quick, and as you unlock more modes and bombs, the chaos only becomes greater the more you enable at a time. You’re able to completely customize your matches however you wish, from the types of bombs in play, the amount they are generated, the arenas and other bonuses I’ll leave for a surprise for you to figure out and unlock. I became quite fond of the 1 round with instant nuke death bombs raining from the sky, but some may opt for a 10 match d20 BOMBFEST instead, it’s completely up to you.
Matches only last anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or so. Physics are a real thing, as you can use bombs to topple over building blocks, or use the toy train going around the track to block you from being blasted off the playfield. Chaos really sets in once you start some crazy chain reactions with bombs on the floor coupled with what’s being tossed in every direction. You’re able to choose from a handful of different characters, and will unlock more as you play.
With almost a dozen bombs to unlock and toss, there’s some really interesting combinations that can be quite deadly with some quick thinking strategy. Obviously you begin with your standard bombs that blow up after a few seconds, but eventually you’ll have many other types, like mines, d20’s that explode with a random effect based on how it lands, nukes, ice bombs and more. I enjoy playing with all bombs unlocked, as it can give almost anyone a chance at winning if they get lucky with the better more powerful ones.
What I enjoyed the most was BOMBFEST’s unlocking structure. I would have initially guessed that you would have to win a certain amount of matches to unlock new arenas, characters and bombs, but instead, you simply need to play a lot of matches. In the beginning, you’ll earn unlocks every match or two, eventually taking 5 or 6 to get to the next unlock. The costume unlocks are always fun, as you can customize your character however you wish, and I have to give bonus points for adding a Bob Ross inspired beard and afro; it’s like they knew what I wanted, and they delivered. You’re always progressing to something new, so something is always in reach with just a few matches, adding to the replayability.
Yes, BOMBFEST is very simplistic in design, mechanically and graphically, but it has a certain charm to it, and most importantly, it’s accessible to anyone to simply have fun in short bursts. Online multiplayer is lacking, but to be expected for a small indie title, so make sure to call some friends over for some hilarity. Bomberman could learn a few things from BOMBFEST, so get those bombs ready and your curse words prepped, as both will be flying towards your friends.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Alvastia Chronicles
It seems KEMCO has been having some success with porting their previously released PC and mobile RPG’s over to Xbox One, as it seems nearly every month or two a new title is released for console fans. For classic RPG fans, this is a great thing, as there’s always an influx of new titles to play and enjoy, though sometimes the quality can sometimes be hit or miss. With their newest release, Alvastia Chronicles, my interested was piqued, as I grew up with classic RPG’s, so I truly appreciate the retro inspired pixel graphics and traditional gameplay. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Alvastia Chronicles initially though to be honest, but I’m glad I sat down and gave it a chance, as I enjoyed it all the way until the credits rolled, fulfilling that retro niche that needs a scratch now and then.The world of Alvastia is under the protection of 4 magical crystals, that is, until once day on of the crystals is shattered, unleashing demons into the world and terrorizing citizens. These crystals also act as a barrier to hold back the evil Archfiend Valhyt from coming to the world to destroy it. While the Archfiend himself may be held back from returning to Alvastia, his right-hand guards are not, and they begin to destroy and kill whatever, and whomever, they see in their path.
A casualty of this carnage happened to be the parents of Alan and Elmia, a pair of siblings that vow to set out for revenge. Ten years pass, and now that the brother and sister are teenagers, they’re ready to set on their journey to challenge the Archfiend and restore balance, but there’s no way they’ll be able to do so alone, so they require help, and lots of it.
While Alan and Elmia survived the attack a decade ago, both haven’t been the same since. Alan hasn’t been able to speak since that day, and Elmia does ever want to leave Alan’s side, for fear of something terrible happening. To say that they are inseparable is putting it lightly. Not only are they out to avenge their parents deaths, but they’re going to also have to stop the other crystals from becoming destroyed, as it will unleash the Archfiend unto the world.
Along the way, Alan and Elmia will come across others that want to help along the way, joining your party and boasting your ranks. Your main additions will be the beautiful Raine, an ogre warrior, and Gil, the pleasure-seeker that will do anything to impress the ladies. There’s a decent amount of interaction between the characters, allowing for each personality to become fully developed. Even though Alan can’t speak, he uses a notepad to write down his thoughts and questions. Gil is constantly hitting on any female he sees, or even hears a mention of, and easily became my favorite by the end of the journey. There’s some humor throughout and I quite enjoyed the storyline, even if it does utilize the cliché ‘crystals that protect the world’ trope.
While you’ll forge bonds with your main companions, one of the main hooks about Alvastia Chronicles is that you can recruit up to 100 other companions. That’s right, triple digits of characters. Doing so won’t be so easy though, as some will have strict conditions before deciding to join your party, whereas others will simply join because you talked to them, or they like your hair, or the sky is blue. Each character has their own interesting abilities and stats, so you’ll want to recruit as many as you possibly can to create the perfect teams to suit your playstyle.
These 100 characters though don’t get any storyline spotlight or any real interaction aside from the quips when trying to recruit them. They instead are added to one of your main three teams, of which Alan, Raine and Gil are the leaders of. Each leader can take 3 others into battle, along with Elmia providing backup, totaling 13 characters in play at all times. Do you want to create 3 melee heavy parties, or balance one out with magic and healing? It’s completely up to you, and the more companions you have to choose from, the more of a perfect combination you can form.
Every time you recruit a new companion, you’ll also be given a handful of Hope Stones. These are essentially a special currency that can be used to unlock new bonds and permanently increase a companion's stats quite dramatically. Given that there’s up to 100 companions, there’s no way you’ll be able to minx/max everyone, so you need to be strategic with whom you want to not only use, but permanently increase their stats.
Finding a team that works is easy, but finding the perfect team is what will take some time, testing and practice with. The most powerful companions will require you to complete other objectives, but they are well worth the effort if you want to sink some post credit time into Alvastia. Certain bonds can also be unlocked as you progress as well, allowing for parties to essentially have a very specific buff or bonus applied at all times. Some are basic like extra damage, but others are more unique and specialized, allowing for some very powerful combinations if created properly, and something that will need to be utilized for post-game challenges.
Visually, you may assume that Alvastia plays like your traditional turn based Final Fantasy, but instead, there’s a bar that the top of the screen that indicates when everyone’s, including enemies, turn takes place, based on varying stats and speed. What I really enjoyed was seeing my full team of 13 characters on the screen at once fighting against the enemies; it really make it feel much more epic than simply 3 or four characters standing alone.
Combat is your general fair once it’s your turn, and even though each of your three leaders each has a team of three companions, if you choose to attack, that whole team will attack as its turn. Subsequently, if you choose to use an ability or magic instead, you only get to use one per team on your turn, choosing form your leader or companions. It’s a simple and basic mechanic, but very effective and simple to understand.
While Elmia is unable to participate in combat herself, she’s able to unleash a Burst Attack once her gauge is full, allowing you to queue up a list of special attacks with no real cost associated. These can easily turn the tide of battle, mass healing or dealing damage in quick succession. There’s a lot of strategy to be had, and while you can toggle an auto battle if you wish, certain bosses will destroy you if you don’t pay attention to what types of damage they are currently reflecting; something I found out the hard way.
Another really cool feature is the ability to upgrade your weapons. While you’ll find and be able to purchase better weapons in new towns and from monsters, the real improvements come from upgrades themselves. Whatever weapon you want to upgrade, you can “feed” it lesser (or better if you wish) weapons to give it additional damage and bonuses. It’s very simple to do, and once I had an endgame weapon and upgraded it massively, I was having no problems dealing massive damage, even to bosses.
I really enjoyed the retro inspired visuals, as it looks like it was taken straight out of the 8-bit era. The same goes for its audio, as the chiptunes and music was a wonderful companion to go along with the aesthetic. I had the credits rolling in just under 7 hours, but I could easily go back for another 20+ if I wanted to participate in battle arenas and find all 100 elusive companions.
While some may simply think of Alvastia Chronicles as a low budget retro RPG, but for under $20 CAD, you could do a lot worse; the characters have enough depth and personality that I was chuckling at many points throughout my journey, wanting to see its conclusion. KEMCO did a great job here, giving classic RPG fans a great value with just enough depth to be an interesting adventure.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Kingdom Hearts III
To say that the Kingdom Hearts series has a fiercely loyal and patient fan base is putting it lightly. With just over a dozen games in the series, fans have been waiting a long time to finally get some closure since the series began back in 2002. Announced back in 2005, Kingdom Hearts III has been one of the most anticipated sequels, and only short glimpses of it were shown before its release.If you have not been following the series over the past 17 years or so, its premise revolves around your typical light versus dark, good versus evil and friendship, but what made the series so special in the beginning was its blend of Square Enix games, like Final Fantasy, mashed up alongside Disney franchises. Collaborations aren’t uncommon, but this was one of the first major titles done with this much quality and creativity with such a massive brand behind it.
Not only has Kingdom Hearts III been a long time coming, and teased, the wait is finally over, and it almost feels surreal to finally be playing something fans, like myself, have been waiting well over a decade for. Given that this installment is on current generation consoles, the graphical prowess that it harnesses now is unlike anything seen in the series previously, and it’s apparent once you start to experience some of the flashy mechanics like attractions, but more on that shortly.
Sora, fighting alongside Donald and Goofy, are on a journey to save their friends, revolving around a friendship theme, which is very fitting for a Disney based title. Sora will need to overcome the darkness with light and the power he holds within his heart. You are tasked with stopping Master Xehanort, and the Heartless swarms, that are trying to bring darkness upon the world.
If you’ve played previous installments of the long running series, you’ll encounter many familiar faces such as Organization XIII, Riku, Aqua, Roxas, King Mickey, as well as dozens and dozens more. Sora must learn the “power of waking” to save his friends, so he will set across many different worlds in search of not only what that is, but how to obtain it. The Heartless of course will be around every corner trying to thwart their plans, so you’ll be forced to fight, almost constantly.
Normally I would delve feet first into the plot to give you an idea of what you can expect, without spoilers of course, but the storytelling in the Kingdom Hearts series has become so convoluted and confusing that I would struggle to explain it well and coherently. Before even playing Kingdom Hearts III, I had to watch a recap video of what’s happened to this point to try and explain it all, and even though there is a section in the main menu that does give you the basic back story of everything that’s happened to this point, it doesn’t do a great job of detailing it in simple terms for newcomers to the series.
While I’ve been a fan from the beginning, I’ve missed the odd game or two in the series, and I still was confused from the onset, so I can only imagine someone new to the series trying and figure out what’s going on, why Sora has multiple “hearts”, which version Xehanort is from which timeline, what a Keyblade is, and more. I would actually categorize Kingdom Hearts storytelling and narrative structure just as confusing, if not more, than the Metal Gear series. It’s A LOT to take in and it is terribly confusing, an aspect I think that really holds it back in certain ways. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy my time with it, as things eventually came together by the time the credits rolled, but that was with me paying fierce attention and making notes as I went along, something I don’t see many others doing when they're simply trying to enjoy the experience.
Sora and company will travel to numerous Disney and Pixar worlds in search of answers. You’ll travel to the worlds of Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Frozen, Winnie the Pooh, Big Hero 6, Pirates of the Caribbean and more. I don’t want to give away all of Kingdom Hearts III’s secrets, but the one massive draw that I truly loved about the series initially was the inclusion of Square Enix’s worlds and characters from their Final Fantasy series. For some reason they are completely lacking in this long awaited sequel. There is a quick blurb about that universe in a cutscene early on, but that is it. I’m not sure why this focus has changed so dramatically, but the whole experience is purely a Disney focused one. The quality and overall narrative is there in droves, but I don’t understand why the lack of this other portion of world and characters has been completely ignored this time around, which let me down.
As you explore each world, you battle numerous types of Heartless and Nameless enemies. Combat has evolved since the last outing with Sora, feeling much more fluid, exponentially flashier and beautiful. Now, Sora is able to equip up to three different Keyblades as he unlocks them from completing each Disney reel, and he is able to swap on the fly mid-combat. Each Keyblade (essentially your sword) has its own attributes, stats and abilities, so you can create a combination to suit your playstyle. I preferred the melee heavy attacks, so I went with the more physical based Keyblades, though a more magic based approach can be used should you wish.
As you land hits and combinations, you’ll unlock abilities that can be used in combat for a brief while. For example, when I fill and unleash my combo meter with my Monsters Inc Keyblade, it transforms my weapon into dual yo-yo’s with spikes around the rim, allowing me to do more area based attacks at once. Other Keyblades each have their own transformations and unique abilities, so make sure to test with each one, as having the ability to shoot enemies from a distance can come in quite handy, allowing you to combat any situation.
Combat feels very smooth and fluid for the most part. At times the camera will become confused with certain angles and walls if you use the lock-on feature for enemies. That being said, for the most part you’ll eventually have no problem juggling enemies in the air, dashing from one foe to another taking down swarms of Heartless at once. This is where your skills come into play. As you level, you’ll earn more skill points, allowing you to equip more abilities at once. Each ability has a different cost, so you’ll need to decide which one you want to equip to suit your playstyle.
I equipped every air ability, allowing me to dash and air combo with ease, and eventually I was able to free-fly and increase my speed. However, you may prefer to boost your Fire, Ice, Water, or other magical abilities if you prefer to play with magic based attacks instead. Goofy, Donald, and your quest partner from the corresponding world you’re in, will also need their own abilities equipped, so you can have your main magic user, Donald, use a boost to his curative magic, or boost to his damaging magic instead, it’s up to you.
Magic has an interesting mechanic too, and doesn’t rely on the overused mana based system found in so many RPG games. Sora has a set amount of magic in a bar, and you can cast as much as you want until it’s empty. Once it’s empty it will slowly refill over time, allowing you to cast again once it’s full. It’s great to either save as a backup for emergency heals, or shoot Heartless from afar with lock-on magic attacks like Fire, Blizzard and more.
Attractions are hands down the most visually appealing combat moves you can perform throughout your time in Kingdom Hearts III. Here you’ll essentially ride a Disney themed attraction you’d see right out of Disneyland Park, and it is used as a super move of sorts. Teacups, Bumper Car Blasters, Water Ride, Train Roller-coaster and more are just a few of the attractions you’ll use along your journey. These are an absolute spectacle to witness, as it’s super bright and colorful, much like a lit up ride at a night. The fact that you ride these interactive attractions alongside your closest friends makes it hard not to smile at every time you perform them.
There is also gear you can equip, but it’s quite basic, and it is essentially just your armor and accessories. There’s no multiple slots for arms, legs and other pieces, though you can eventually wear multiples as you progress in your adventure. What I found really interesting was that gear generally only has slight improvements as you earn, and find, upgrades. Sure, you become more powerful as you upgrade, but it was never a substantial difference that I could tell, as that was more based on my Keyblade of choice and its abilities.
As you progress, find chests and defeat enemies, you’ll acquire pieces needed for synthesizing, which is essentially a crafting mechanic. Defeat hordes of Heartless, bosses, and find secrets chests to net yourself the required components, allowing you to not only craft new and unique powerful items, but also allow you to improve your Keyblades by upgrading their damage. Returning to the series is the Gummi Ship, a small spacecraft that you’ll pilot in space to get from one Disney world to the next. Here you can explore space, blast meteors and even take on swarms of Heartless in minigame sidescrolling-like battles. As you unlock and earn new parts for your ship, you’ll be able to upgrade and design your own Gummi Ship to your liking. You’re not forced to really focus on this aspect of gameplay, but I found myself spending hours in my Gummi Ship, adding more turrets and finding crazy designs people have made online. I went for a purely offensive design, but again, you can design and spec it however you wish.
There’s a lot going on with Kingdom Hearts III, not just mechanically, but narratively as well. It’s difficult to take it all in at once if you haven't been following the series closely up to this point, that doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible for you and other new comers. Even if you’re unable to make any sense of the vastly convoluted plot, you’re still able to enjoy the combat and seeing Sora and friends get included into the Disney worlds.
The only noticeable oddity I found in nearly every world is that many of the iconic voice actors aren’t used and reprising their roles. For example, Woody and Buzz aren’t voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, but instead people that sound similar, or doing an impression of their performances (to be fair, Woody is voiced by his brother, but it’s still not quite the same). I get there’s a budget, or maybe the actors didn’t want to take part in the game, but when a character has such an iconic voice, it’s impossible to not notice when it simply sounds off, not bad by any means, just different. There are others that did reprise their roles though, and they sound just as great as they did in the movies themselves, so it’s a mixed bag. The soundtrack though is exactly what you’d expect for each respective world, with the iconic music faded into the background as you play.
So, has the decade long wait for this anticipated sequel lived up to all the hype? It’s hard to say. I did enjoy my 30 hours with it by the time the credits rolled, and can easily go back for another 50+ hours for bonus stuff should I desire in the future. It’s such an odd feeling to finally have some closure and finality to the series I’ve been enjoying for almost two decades, but it’s finally time to say goodbye to this chapter of Kingdom Hearts and await to see what comes next, hopefully with a much shorter wait this time around and a much more concise way of storytelling.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition, The
Twin-Stick shooters are one of my favorite genres, stemmed from my absolute love of Geometry Wars back on Xbox 360. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with many since, each with their own merits and unique take, though, The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition may be one of the more unique ones I’ve experienced yet. As you could guess from the title, you’ll be fighting against undead/zombie vegetables. I can hear the sound of your eyes rolling, but stick with me, as it really surprised me as well.The planet is under attack from vegetables that alien invaders have mutated to be alive, and you’re the only one, and baddest dude, that can save the world. It’s an absolute asinine plot, but it absolutely works here with the retro styled graphics coupled with an 80’s aesthetic. I’ll be honest, I know I should know better to judge a game by its looks and screenshots, as I wasn’t expecting much initially, but I can admit when I’m wrong, and I was here; I became completely hooked with The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition grind, even if it was a tiresome one at times.
You move your character with the Left Stick and aim with the Right. As usual, Right Trigger is your shooting action and that’s the general controls aside from using your Right Bumper for melee. You begin with a simple unlimited ammo pistol that requires no reloading, but eventually you’ll come across Uzi’s, Sniper’s, Shotgun’s, Alien weaponry and a bunch of other goodies for your arsenal. You’ll also come across other melee weapons and gadgets that can be tossed or used to alter some abilities.
Thing is, every time you play, every level and stage is completely procedurally generated, so games never really become stale since the levels, enemies, weapon drops, buildings and more continually change each time, that is, until you hit the long arduous grind for the perk unlocks. Even bosses at the end of each stage is seemingly random which one you’ll have to fight against, which is a great change of pace now and then.
A campaign is broken into 3 stages, each of which houses a boss at the end. Each stage needs to be explored a certain amount before a small, and quite annoying, alien will taunt you and try to kill you. Destroy him and he hidden boss door will appear, allowing you to challenge them. Defeat bosses and you’ll earn Radrocks, a currency that carries over from playthrough to playthrough, as you’re going to die many many times.
That’s right, it’s also a rougelike, meaning that your progress, aside from any Radrocks you collected from boss kills, doesn’t carry over every time you die. Yup, you start right back at the beginning after every death. Normally the lack of progression just kills my interest, but the developers included a smart system of progression, even if it is quite a grind and minimal in steps.
For example, when you die ten times, you’ll unlock a perk that allows you to equip an extra heart. You only have a few perk slots though, so you’ll need to grind for the numerous and different perks to suit your playstyle. If you plan on getting them all, you’re in for a very lengthy grind of many hours, not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s much lengthier than I expected. If you’re simply looking to “beat” the campaign, there’s even an achievement for doing so in under 20 minutes, so the true value comes with the replayability and progression towards the unlocks.
As you take out the evil vegetables and fruits, you’ll earn gold per kill. Destroying objects like tires and trashcans will net you keys if you’re lucky as well. These keys can be used to open chests or doors. Chests will have ammo and gold, as every weapon aside from your default needs to have its corresponding ammunition type to be used, and is a great way to fill up your bank roll. Be lucky enough to find the shop, the building with the “$” sign at the door, and have a spare key, and you'll be able to spend your hard earned gold on a bunch of items like new weapons, health refills, more keys and very special unlocks with your hard earned Radrocks should you wish.
While the lack of online support for co-op is severely lacking and quite a disappointment, it’s understandable given this is a small indie game from a handful of guys. Couch co-op is included should you have the partner to play alongside, and is a great experience to have backup in your journey to rid the world of these rotten vegetables in your CORNquest. Hopefully online co-op is something that can be added in later on to add some longevity.
A fantastic 80’s aesthetic, combined with a great retrosynth makes for a radical experience that I just love soaking in. I’m ashamed to admit that I almost dismissed this game initially from first glance, but I’m very glad I got to experience it. While the grind is quite an arduous undertaking, it also means that there’s quite a lengthy amount of gameplay to be had. The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition really is one in a melon and salad as a rock.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Aftercharge
While I’m not huge into competitive shooters these days, I do still dabble in a few games of Overwatch now and then when a buddy or two are online. I’ve always gravitated towards the team-based game modes like Team Deathmatch, as opposed to a Free-For-All style of gameplay. I’m always game to try the newest offerings for team based games, even more so if it’s online and competitive, so I was quite intrigued when Aftercharge released.Touted as a 3 vs 3 competitive asymmetrical first person shooter, Aftercharge is full of interesting, and even unique, ideas that makes for an experience that really is unlike many others. At its simplest form, a team of invisible robots must destroy energy extractors on a battlefield as the defending robots must do what they can to stop them. It’s an interesting premise, and works as an idea, but has a little ways to go before being a fully-fledged experience that crowds will flock to.
Dusk 11 is a far and distant planet that the Aftercharge corps saught after for its abundance in energy beneath the surface. A line of worker robots, called Workonics, were built to do the work and given stealth technology to avoid any corporate espionage. When construction was complete, Aftercharge left the planet behind to be automated, including their now useless Workonics robots. Like any great story, some seismic activity occurred, releasing some sort of energy, reanimating all of the Workonics that were left behind, and they only have one goal to enact: destroying all of the energy extractors. Now they’ve sent in a team of Enforcers to stop the Workonics from destroying their assets.
Honestly, I was a little surprised that there was a decent backstory for what and why you’re doing what you do in Aftercharge, but it’s a welcome backdrop to put in some perspective into your objectives. With four maps currently available, you’ll be tasked with either attempting to destroy or protect these precious energy extractors alongside your other two teammates. Doing so won’t be as simple as it sounds though, as Enforcers need to be near the extractors themselves to refill their energy based weapons, and Workonics need to smash the extractors ten times before it will be destroyed.
Factor in that the robots are invisible all the time save for punching or when in range of an Enforcer, and you’ll quickly learn that your team is going to need to be quite tactical in their approach, regardless of which side you’re on. Each map has multiple extractors, so it’s generally not difficult to get a couple of Extractors destroyed, but once you’re down to one or two, that’s where the gameplay becomes quite chaotic and exciting.
Each faction has five different characters to choose from, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles. If you’re a Workonic, you’ll always be focusing on stealth based gameplay, wanting to be able to dart in and out of the enemies’ range to not be seen, whereas Enforcers have weaponry and gadgets to do what they can to stop the pesky shrouded robots when they are in range to be uncovered.
Both sides have two completely different ways of playing and winning each match. Workonics need to destroy all of the extractors to win, but the Enforcers will have lots of abilities to notice, capture, trap and destroy them whenever possible. Enforcers will win if they can down all 3 of the attackers simultaneously, as robots can revive each other an unlimited amount of times, so there’s a lot of strategy that comes into play with every attack and defense.
Obviously, certain elements have been borrowed from other games, but as an overall experience, it feels truly unique. The fact that Enforcers need to constantly stand near extractors to refill their ammo means they can’t chase attackers for too long, or else they’ll be left useless without any ammo. The invisible mechanic is really interesting and can be quite fun, setting up a perfect attack, but you’re only able to punch and knock back Enforcers, unable to disable them really, so it’s a cat and mouse style of gameplay.
Do you have one Workonic play the speedy type to whack an extractor, making him visible for a short period, to distract and attack another extractor, or have your whole team rush in for a quick objective destroy and risk losing the match? You’re going to not only need reflexes, but more importantly, communication. Because of this, you will absolutely need a group of friends if you want to become a serious competitor, as playing with random’s seemed to always end in a complete disaster for myself. Luckily, Aftercharge features cross-play between PC and Xbox One players (and soon to be Nintendo Switch when launched), so ideally you should have no shortage of players to compete with, though my experience was quite the opposite, but more on that shortly.
I really enjoyed the fact that the robots were able to infinitely revive teammates that were down, as you can somewhat carry a teammate that may not be as skilled. Interestingly, you’re also able to essentially freely use your abilities as much as you wish; another mechanic that breaks the norm and takes some getting used to. These ideas make it feel fresh and interesting, even if it’s not perfectly balanced yet.
Each faction has the five characters they can choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and abilities. Each one is very strong and effective against another from the opposite team, but also is weak against another. Workonics abilities range from providing cover, escaping quickly, healing, distracting and more. Enforcers on the other hand have roles that are more suited for damage dealing, pursuing, shields and others. There’s a finer meta at play, and it will take some time to not only find the character that suits your playstyle and fits in your trio, but how to enact your strategies against the enemies based on their team composition as well.
As you play and level up, you’ll earn unlocks for randomized characters. These are simply skins, emotes and cosmetics but are quite bland and generally just a palette swap. There are much cooler skins and such you can purchase, but as you can guess, you’re going to have to open up your actual wallet if you want these.
Given that cross-play is enabled with PC and Xbox One currently, I expected there to be quite a pool of players to fill the multiplayer games. I was dead wrong. A buddy and I queued up for a match and sat for literally over 30 minutes without finding one. We tried again later and found one after about 20 minutes, but proceeded to lose 30 seconds into the match. You can see where our frustration started to set in and we didn’t want to sit around for 20 minutes at a time for a single match.
While I couldn’t research concurrent players on Xbox One, I was able to see how many were and are playing on PC, and it’s not a pretty sight. Unless there’s a massive sale, I don’t see it getting much better in the future either, and completely explained why the queue for every match was so long. While Aftercharge is included in Gamepass on Xbox One, I can’t see many opening their wallet for the overpriced cost of $25.99 CAD for a simplistic shooter as this with such a minute player base.
Sure you could play versus bots, but that’s only going to entertain you for so long. While you could work on leveling up, there’s really no reason to aside from getting pallet swap skin unlocks. There’s no other real unlockables or progress to work towards, nor is there any type of skill tree or anything of the sort.
One thing I did learn from the two online matches I got to play in an hour or queuing was that Enforcers are able to push your downed body, meaning they’re able to essentially place it somewhere that’s incredibly difficult to get a revive at, like a forted up extractor covered in mines and shields. Maybe this is a bug that’s being worked on, but I can see this becoming quite frustrating, and even game breaking, if used maliciously.
I’m not a game designer, nor do I claim to know any better, but when I research the current playing user base on PC, I’m no longer wondering why I can’t find a match when queued for over a half hour. While it does come with Gamepass, possibly a switch to free-to-play would benefit them where they could charge for awesome looking skins and aesthetics, as it may bring more concurrent players to the playerbase. It’s a very fresh idea with some really interesting mechanics, but it feels like they’ve priced themselves out of the market.
If you’re looking for a competitive game with some truly unique ideas and interesting mechanics, Aftercharge has you covered if you’re wanting something new, it’s just hard to recommended in its current state knowing that you’ll mostly likely sit queuing for a match longer than it actually takes to play one. With a deep discount and a much bigger install base, Aftercharge could really be something unique and interesting to play, but that’s a steep mountain that’ll need to be climbed before it gets there, which is a shame, as the game has a huge amount of potential.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
39 Days to Mars
I love my puzzle games. I’m not always the best at them, but every now and then I need a break from my typical RPG’s, Shooters, Racers and Action games. Sometimes I want to just chill on the couch and use my brain to figure out some solutions. Sure, sometimes this backfires and I get more frustrated due to getting stuck, not being able to figure out the solution, but it generally brings an overall calmness knowing I’m not playing something violent or competitive. I’d love to say that 39 Days to Mars, developed by small indie studio ‘It's Anecdotal’, was that calming relief I was searching for, but man, this may have been one of the more confusing and frustrating puzzle experiences I’ve had yet, and it’s not even their fault.Let me explain. 39 Days to Mars is designed to be a co-operative adventure puzzle game, hell, even the icon for the box art says co-operative. Unfortunately, my wife isn’t very skilled at using a controller, so I generally don’t have someone to come over and do the whole couch co-op with me much these days (thank you online multiplayer). Simply put, 39 Days to Mars is absolutely designed to be played with two players on the couch. Now, the developers were smart and did include a way for people like myself that don’t usually have a partner to play with, to still play and enjoy the game.
Set in a steampunk aesthetic, you’re going to need to use all your brain power to figure out these unique and interesting puzzles, even more so if you’re playing solo like I did. I’m generally terrible at trying to focus and do two things at once, which would explain why I’m quite subpar with RTS’s, but wow, 39 Days to Mars almost made my head explode at times, forcing me to not only solve the puzzle, but move the sticks in opposite directions and use the separate triggers simultaneously. Can you rub your head and pat your belly at the same time? This game is the equivalent to that.
You play as Albert, a classy gentleman who wants to make his inaugural voyage to Mars, alongside his partner, Clarence. Each player will control one character, but will have to work in tandem in nearly every single task set forth in front of you. The steampunk background suits the story and narration, as these puzzles won’t be your typical ‘square peg, round role’ type of deal. Instead, you’re going to have to make a correct cup of tea, or make a scone that he wants to eat, exactly to his recipe desires. Not exactly the types of puzzles you’re most likely used to, but it works in this setting and context perfectly with the Victorian characters.
The hand drawn visuals are really interesting and adds to the overall tonality of the gameplay. Set in a 2D world, a side cutout of Albert’s ship, you’ll have numerous obstacles to face and solve before being able to progress. The hand drawn visuals really makes it feel as if the game has more heart and was designed with love, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security; the frustration is coming shortly, so prepare.
Even being played with two players, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have an easy time. Each player needs to work in tandem with one another for a common goal. One puzzle for example has you needing to pick up and bring back and item in a crane-like game. One player controls the horizontal movement of the claw and line, while the other is in charge of the vertical movements. Naturally, you’re going to have to have some excellent communication if you want to work together. As they say, “teamwork makes the dreamwork”, and without it, you’ll never make it to Mars.
So what if you’re like me and don’t have a partner to rely on for half of the problem solving and controls? Well, you’re going to have to burden all of the responsibility for everything on your own shoulders. That crane example I gave above? You’re going to have to control all of the movements yourself at the same time, requiring both halves of your brain in use simultaneously. For some that might not be a big deal, for me though, I more than struggled throughout the whole experience.
Again, it’s hard to hold that against the game itself, as it blatantly advertises itself as a co-operative adventure, but I can only imagine the shouting and yelling me and buddy would have if we had to get through this together. Maybe playing solo was a good thing, saving a friendship from a lot of screaming at once another because he can’t do his portion of the task.
If you don’t have a partner to play with, Clarence will instead be taken over by Albert’s cat. That’s right, you’ll have a cat for a partner. That doesn’t mean it’s any easier with an AI feline following you around, as you’ll still need to control all aspects of the gameplay. Most puzzles have you controlling each character’s hand, and playing solo like I did, one of those hands were a cute little paw; a small detail that I appreciated.
For the puzzles themselves, they are bite sized and meant for quick sessions, though that’s only if you’re actually able to solve what you’re supposed to do, not even including how to go about doing so. There’s no real tutorial for each puzzle, as you’re simply thrown in to each one without any explanation of even the controls, so it’s a lot of trial and error of simply figuring out what the controls are for each.
The puzzles themselves are quite clever, as maybe you’re solving a problem in the electrical room, having to solve a puzzle about the system’s wires, or maybe you’re having to connect multiple tubes and hoses to the proper pipes, of which there’s only one solution. It may sound easy, but keep in mind each stick is used as an individual hand. So if you want to rotate a piece or object for example, you’re going to have to hold it in one hand with the corresponding trigger, grab it with the other hand (stick) and hold the other trigger while you rotate it with the hand. So you need to think with both halves of your brain, and doing so much easier said than done, taking lots of practice and even more patience.
Something I found very interesting is that it seems that it’s slightly different every time you play, as a friend was also playing at the same time at his place, so when I got stuck and sent him a picture of my vessel for help, he replied his was different and showed me a picture, and it was. The same goes for the puzzles. For example, maybe the scone I need to make requires a slab of butter and a strawberry, but the next time I attempt it, it will ask for something completely different. I do like that it switches time to time, but that also means it’s going to be near impossible to follow a walkthrough should you break down and require one.
What I realized a dozen puzzles into the game was that a good portion of them weren’t necessarily brain teasers, though some are, but many were much more dexterity based, given that two people are supposed to simultaneously work together for the common goal. Even though it’s not hard to ‘solve’ the tea or scone puzzles for example, actually doing it is a whole other ballgame in itself.
At one point you’ll have puzzles that will make absolutely no sense at all, like a massive garden with flowers and leafs with a simple checklist at the bottom corner. What you’re supposed to do is go to the library in a different room, organize the papers so that the right chapters are together, which again, isn’t hard to figure out, but to execute is the real challenge, and memorize those pages. I actually had to organize the pages, take a picture of them with my phone, then go back to the garden puzzle with the picture open, as my memory isn’t the greatest. It’s tedious, and I wish there was a better solution than my ‘cheating’.
Even though the game can technically be completed in under an hour, as there are achievements for it, I’ve been stumped on specific puzzles for well over an hour at times. Sure I became frustrated, but I never really got to the point of wanting to throw the controller through the window. Many of the puzzles suffer from simply not telling the player what to do, or how, which I guess is the puzzle in itself. Certain puzzles are repeated as well, making different types of tea and scones for example, which becomes annoying and seemingly a way to add some fluff to the short playtime. Every now and then you’ll get to a puzzle to attempt, only to be told that Albert is hungry again, so it’s back to the kitchen to solve yet another scone puzzle for the hundredth time.
Many of these puzzles also require very precise controls and movements, but the sticks aren’t always as sensitive as it should be, either moving way too slow, or making objects fling because it’s too quick. Many times I’ve had my scone just about finished, only to have the tip of my knife catch on a corner or something and flip all around, tossing my hard work into the air.
If you’re a puzzle fan, 39 Days to Mars is a short but entertaining adventure, even if it’s flawed in certain aspects. The aesthetic is appealing, especially to steampunk fans, and many of the puzzles are entertaining, but the controls is really what holds it back at times.
It’s a shame there’s no online co-op, as a friend and I would be all over this if that was possible. While you are fully capable of playing solo, I don’t recommend it in any way if you don’t have a partner, as this journey to Mars really should be taken with a good friend that you have no problem swearing at when he screws up making a proper scone for the twentieth time.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition
Tales of Vesperia was one of my favorite JRPG’s from last generation. The long running Tales series surprised everyone when it was originally an Xbox 360 exclusive before being ported to PS3 about a year later with added content that Xbox owners never saw. Well, it’s the game's ten year anniversary and Bandai Namco has released Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. I know what you’re thinking, yet another Definitive/HD/Remake edition that’s most likely a simple and lazy upscale with minimal bonus content, but you’d be wrong, as lots of content we never got to experience outside of Japan is finally available for fans.Main protagonist, Yuri Lowell, is an ex-knight who is thrust into a seemingly easy journey to recover a stolen Blastia, essentially a crystal that provides a safe barrier around cities and towns from outlying monsters. Unaware who stole the Blastia, he pursues all his leads but ends up in jail when captured. Of course, when he breaks out he runs into a princess, and thus a small quest turns into a lengthy adventure that will take, at minimum, 40-50+ hours to complete.
Along the way you meet new comrades that will accompany you on your quest, each with their own personalities, battle style and reasons for joining your ragtag crew. To say the narrative is lengthy is quite an understatement, as the half dozen members of your party will each have their own back stories, quests to undertake and add hours of dialogue you’ll need to sit through. If you love cutscenes and story, you’re going to absolutely love Vesperia, as there’s absolutely no shortage of either.
Cutscenes are frequent and quite lengthy. There are even optional dialogues that you can trigger with the ‘Back’ button at certain points of the story that aren’t necessarily pivotal to the narrative, but more add some flair between each of the characters. These conversations are where you start to see the personalities of each character shine, be it Estelle’s naivety, Rita’s brashness and slaps, Yuri’s internal thoughts and more. I enjoy these sections, but they always seem to happen right after a lengthy cutscene, and it’s as if you get 20 minutes of gameplay for every hour of cutscene at times.
So, let’s quickly delve into what’s new, as returning players, like myself, who enjoyed it last generation are probably wondering if the added and improved content is justification for the fully priced game. First and foremost, the graphics and native resolution have been updated to full HD. To say this is a beautiful game is an understatement, and there’s no way you would be able to tell it’s a decade old simply from its visuals, which is quite impressive.
Even more seamless is the inclusion of all of the DLC, such as extra costumes, characters, locations and more that were previously only released in Japan. Also new is that the extra content was translated and voice actors recast, but that’s a separate issue I’ll delve into later. Fans now get to play as Patty and Flynn, each with their own unique personalities and combat skills, along with a handful of unique costumes to add a little more flair to your adventure. Better yet, all the bonus content has been seamlessly integrated into the main narrative, so instead of doing a lengthy sidequest to get Patty in your party that might be forgotten or missed, it’s simply a step in the main quest now, so you get to experience all of the content in the proper order it was meant to be.
Mechanics are eased into the gameplay, not overloading you all at once. In fact, even at the 30 hour mark you'll find new mechanics are introduced, allowing you to become accustomed to combat before dumping more on you. There’s a lot to take in, and it’s a great thing that they keep you on a pace where you’re able to do what do slowly, as it would simply be too much at once, especially when you start to learn how to create items through synthesizing and learning new skills.
Every weapon has its own abilities attached to it; while the weapon is equipped you will have access to those abilities, but use it enough and you’ll actually unlock the skill and can equip it to your loadout to use whenever you wish. So, a great strategy is to buy every item and weapon that has skills attached to it until you learn them before swapping them for another. Doing so will allow you to bank a huge amount of skills that you can swap whenever you wish, like more physical damage, defense, special abilities and a huge amount of unique characteristics and bonus to tweak your party just how you want. You only have a certain amount of SP (skill points) per level though, so the better abilities require more SP to equip, while the basic ones not as much.
Artes are your combat abilities that can be mapped to specific button combinations. You’re only able to equip a certain amount, but there’s a ton of different kinds to test out and practice with, finding what works best for your play style. While most will likely stick with playing as Yuri, as an offensive fighter, you’re free to control any of the characters in your roster if their play style suits you better.
You’ll eventually have four characters in your party that can be brought into every battle (and yes, non-participating members will still earn XP), able to freely swap and change them whenever you want. While I enjoyed having a rounded party of a tank, a healer and two attackers, you’re free to build your party however you wish, then augmenting them with certain skills and artes as well. You’re able to set up strategies for your AI controlled members, and for the most part, they do quite a decent job in their respective roles. You may have to tweak things a bit, as early on, my healer was gobbling down TP (mana) pots like they were going out of style.
Battles aren’t random, as you can see the enemies on the overworld map as you explore, and you can choose to engage in battle or not. Regular battles won’t have you breaking a sweat, but bosses, and optional side-bosses, will surely put your combat skills to the test, something that I really appreciated. Again, I simply stuck with playing as Yuri from beginning to finish, but feel free to experiment with each to find the one you like best.
Visually, this Definitive Edition is stunningly gorgeous. Sure, there’s a few graphical hiccups like some minor clipping and rough animations, but keeping in mind this is a decade old game with a new coat of paint, is still quite impressive. The world, and the characters found within, are wonderfully vibrant, bright and colorful and it’s simply a joy to look at.
Then there’s the audio. Now, the music and soundtrack is amazing, but there’s a major issue with the game's voice work. The voice acting itself is fine, even wonderful at times, and all of the original voice work from the original 360 version was left intact. Where the issue arises is that all of the new content has had some rework done to the voices, which normally wouldn’t be an issue, but the original voice actor wasn’t used, so there’s some scenes that sound vastly different and ‘off’ from what we’re used to. There’s a whole drama about it, one that I’ll leave out for you to google yourself, but the fact that two different voices are used for the same character is quite jarring and confusing at times.
Gameplay is fast and fluid, but the overall experience is bogged down with hours and hours of cutscenes and dialogue. While some will enjoy the heavy emphasis on narrative, as I usually do, it does get to be a bit much by the 30 hour mark. I don’t mind its anime-like visual approach, but I know it may turn some others off. Mechanically it’s great once you’re used to combat and every character is completely unique and memorable in their own way.
If you loved the original Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360 and want to experience it again, this is obviously a no-brainer, as you’re given new content on top of a shiny new coat of HD paint. It may be pricey for a ‘Definitive Edition’, but the added content does boost its value to make it worth experiencing. If you want a great JRPG that you may have missed last generation, then Tales of Vesperia should be high on your list if you’re looking for a new game to dump 50+ hours into, as long as you can handle a dialogue and cutscene heavy experience.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
8-Bit Hordes
I’m terrible at RTS games; always have been. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them, but I won’t be winning any tournaments anytime soon. It’s no secret that RTS games generally don’t work well on console, due to lack of mouse and keyboard precision, though there have been a few exceptions in the past (Halo Wars series). With the recently announced support for mouse and keyboard on Xbox One, maybe we’ll start to see a resurgence of the genre on console. Until then, developers are still trying to figure out the best way to map PC controls onto a controller, with some scattered minor success.8-Bit Hordes is the latest entry into the genre for consoles, developed by Petroglyph, who house some Command & Conquer veterans, so they do know what they’re doing in the genre. I was hoping that their pedigree would once again prove that RTS games do belong on console, and while it’s completely serviceable as a RTS, it’s also quite bare boned and basic as well.
You begin your campaign by choosing which faction you want to play as, from either the typical ‘good’ or ‘evil’ sides. The Lightbringers are your heroes, while the DeathSworn are your evil orcs. Why these two factions are at war, or their history, will be nowhere to be found. There’s no story included in this ‘campaign’, just a laundry list of skirmish matches to complete. You’re given a cute 8-Bit RTS game with zero narrative and simplistic controls, for better or worse.
The beginning missions will teach you the basics of how to mine resources (gold) and create your units, with each subsequent mission adding difficulty and unlocking new units and buildings as you progress. You’ll need to slog through the campaign though to gain access to the top tier units, a task that will take some time depending on your RTS abilities. While there are difficulty options available, each campaign mission is essentially the same as the last, but with more challenge or unique objectives to complete. For those that want to get the most value, there is quite a lot of content to work towards completing, but don’t expect much variety in the core mission structure.
The first thing you’re going to notice is how fantastic the world of 8-Bit Hordes appears. The retro inspired voxel cubes make up everything in the world, from the environment, units, buildings and more. Your standard isometric view is utilized but don’t expect to be able to rotate or do much else with the camera aside from panning. The visual style works, and seeing little cubes fly in explosions is always a treat.
As a RTS, 8-Bit Hordes is simplistic as it comes, and while that’s needed for a console version to some degree, it’s almost too basic. You can easily select a group of troops you have, but if you want to target a single unit and give them a direction, it’s difficult and tedious to do. There’s also not that many different types of units. Sure, by the end you’ll have a handful, but it’s still very minimal if you’re used to more popular titles in the genre.
Sure, it ticks off all the checkmarks a RTS needs mechanically, such as base building and resource gathering, but even that is very limited. Your minecarts will find the nearest mine to gather from until it’s depleted, but the AI isn’t very bright, as it’ll simply go to the next nearest mine when depleted, even if it’s in enemy territory. Your resources is how you afford to create new buildings and units, and even though it’s simplistic in nature, there’s still a lot of micromanaging to be done.
Barracks are needed to create units, and farms are needed to feed those units and raise your population cap. When you’re choosing a unit, it will be grouped into one of the three buttons you press, allowing you to have a quick hotkey to one of three groups. Press that button twice and you’ll select the whole group of units in that squad. Again, if you want to do more minute movements, like pick half your units, or certain ones, you’re going to see where this is extremely limited. For example, I wanted to split one of my squads up to scout ahead and also guard my base, but there’s no way to select an area of units by dragging a cursor; it’s basically all or nothing. Sure, you could select each individual unit and then tell them where to go, but it’s horribly inefficient. It’s almost as if you’re encouraged to build large hordes (hence the name I suppose) and send them towards the enemy en masse, rather than smaller intricate strategies.
Building also suffers from too much simplicity, as you’re only able to create or upgrade one building at a time. This causes for a lot of wasted time, either waiting until it’s complete, or refocusing on your base to build the next one you want, as you can’t queue them like units. Also, you can only build within a very small radius of your buildings, so you’re confined to a small area unless you build a row of arrow towers or farms, allowing you to build within range of them. Again, since you’ll have to take your focus away from your hordes to do this every single time, it becomes quite a chore.
Even with its drawbacks, I was learning to deal with the shortcomings, but you’ll eventually hit a brick wall of difficulty in the campaign on top of everything else. Enemies become much harder and more aggressive as you progress, which is normally fine, but it really spikes out of nowhere, adding to more frustration on top of the mechanical ones. Eventually I was just queuing up a backlog of units to create as they would suicide into packs of enemies, slowly making progress. It didn’t at all feel tactical or strategic though, but it’s as though you don’t have the tools to do much else, as opposed to what other 'fuller' RTS games offer.
There is an option for multiplayer online, though don’t expect much of a community to be playing unless you already have friends also with the title, as I was unable to find anyone else to play with the whole week I was playing, though that was before the masses were playing it as well, so it's hard to judge. Skirmishes are a fun way to pass the time, but the campaign is really the meat of the whole experience. Interestingly, there's cross-title play between their other games' factions from 8-Bit Armies as well; Armies, Hordes and Invaders factions can all battle one another.
For all of its shortcomings, 8-Bit Hordes still serves as a capable console RTS, even if it’s almost too bare boned. While I like the simpler styles of RTS, the lack of tools given really don’t allow for much strategy aside from amassing large hordes and sending them hurling towards the enemies. I really enjoy the 8-Bit visual style, as it suits the gameplay and setting, it’s just a shame it’s leaps behind the competition when it comes to features and mechanics.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Legendary Eleven
I don’t play sports games. Well, that’s not totally true, I do love me some arcade style gameplay, like NBA Jam, Mutant Football League, and other not-so-true-to-real-life types of sports games. You’ll never see me play a full on FIFA game either, so I was a little apprehensive to try Legendary Eleven, even though I knew it wasn’t attempting to be a true simulation of the sport. I’m glad I dove in though, as I ended up enjoying the basicness and fun gameplay that’s simple to learn.Touted as being inspired by classic football (referred to as soccer from here on, sorry) from the 70’s to 90’s, Legendary Eleven won’t have actual player names or anything, but it does have huge hair and very short shorts, from the golden age of soccer.
The bulk of gameplay will come from its Championship Mode and Legendary Matches. Championship Mode is very self-explanatory, where you pick which cup you want to win, from the Asia Cup, Africa Cup and all the way up to the World Cup should you want to put your skills to the test. Certain cups are lengthier than others and it plays out in a typical tournament bracket style.
Legendary Matches on the other hand are specific matches that played a huge part in soccer’s history, but you must win with specific conditions, like not letting in a goal, or winning by a certain amount of points. These are a bit more challenging with these added objectives, but should add some replayability for those wanting to get the most out of the $14.99 CAD price tag with about a dozen scenarios to play through.
With dozens of national teams to choose from, you’re sure to find your favorite, each with their own stats for offence, defense and more. Gameplay is as simple as it comes as well, with only need for a few buttons, unless you want to try some fancy passes and shots. ‘A’ allows you to pass and ‘B’ is to shoot, but you do have other options to pass-through, sprint, steal, slide and switch characters. It’s very simple to get the hang of, but the best part is that you’ll look stylish doing it, performing some super shots, complete with bicycle kick.
What is a super shot you ask? You have a meter that fills when you have ball possession, and once full, allows you to unleash a virtually unstoppable shot for a nearly guaranteed goal. It’s not 100% a sure thing, but I can count the times it was actually blocked. These are how you do the most stylish moves, and even after dozens of games, they still put a smile on my face. My only real complaint about this feature is that there’s no real counter to the opposing team performing one, aside from frantically trying to steal or dive before it goes off.
If you want a somewhat more realistic game, you have the option to turn off super shots should you desire, but the gameplay here is all about the arcade style. Winning matches in Championship will also grant you special stickers that can then be equipped before a match. These stickers gives your teams special bonuses to your offence, defense, stamina and more, so this is how you can improve your team to your liking, or help counter the opposing team’s strengths.
While there is an online multiplayer component, it appears it’s only by friend invites only, and not general matchmaking, so needless to say, I was unable to test this portion of gameplay unfortunately. Some will think that Legendary Eleven is far too basic, which is true, but it’s not trying to compete with FIFA or PES titles. Instead, this is meant for casual fans like myself that don’t care about ultra-realism and simply want to score some flashy goals with huge afro’d players.
Legendary Eleven is basic, and that’s what makes it work. Newcomers and casual soccer fans can simply jump in and enjoy themselves, and there’s just enough content to make the purchase worthwhile, more so if you have a friend to play online with.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Odium to the Core
Remember the Flappy Bird craze from 5 years ago? You know the one, where you play as a... ummmmmm... flappy bird thing, and had to tap to go upwards and let go to go down? Odium to the Core is essentially the same style of gameplay, complete with single button controls, but it is much more stylistic and challenging. Come to think of it, my first experience with this genre was way back on my old Nokia phone where you controlled a helicopter or paper airplane, I can't remember exactly, seeing how far you can reach before ultimately crashing into a wall. Sounds easy right? You’d be dead wrong.Gameplay progresses from left to right automatically, but you need to press ‘A’ to go up, and let go to go down. Keeping yourself level and within the confined areas is where the challenge comes in, especially when gameplay ramps up and is in sync with the electronic soundtrack. While Flappy Bird and others play in a straight left to right direction, Odium to the Core feels more like the world is revolving around you instead. Sure, you’re technically still maneuvering from left to right, but you feel as if you’re going up or down when the world rotates around you. It’s tricky to explain, but adds a sense of chaos and challenge.
Synced with the electronic soundtrack that has a Chemical Brothers feel to it at times, your and your enemy's movements seem to line up with the beats. For example, when it’s a slow portion to a song, the gameplay actually slows down and zooms in, adding an odd sense of challenge, as momentum changing so quickly can be quite jarring when you’re ‘in the zone’ to the fast beat and you're suddenly being brought to a near halt for a moment. It works though, and enemies will also ‘attack’ during beats of the music. Not so much attack, but pop out and need to be avoided.
You play a black spiked red eyeball, which I assume is a/the Odium. As mentioned, press ‘A’ to go up and let go to go down. That’s it mechanically, but don’t let the simplistic controls lure you into a false sense of comfort. Make no mistake, Odium to the Core is incredibly challenging, to the point where I had to stop playing with my Elite controller, for fears I was going to throw it across the room out of frustration. Yes, you’re going to become very frustrated the further you progress, but that’s not due to unfairness, but more your skill and lack of focus. Sure, it will feel unfair at times, requiring pixel perfect precision, but the elation from finally passing that level you’ve been stuck on for a half hour is gratifying.
Throughout the levels are red orbs floating around, which act as not only scoring points, but also the optimal 'safe' path that you’ll want to follow. At times you’ll only have a split second to react and figure out if you’re supposed to be closer to the top or bottom, and these orbs will give you a general idea of the proper path you should follow. Saying what to do and actually doing it are completely different things, and even with a guide, you’re going to die hundreds of times. Matter of fact, I’ve unlocked numerous achievements for dying more times than I’m comfortable to admit.
Even if you master a level or two, there’s a good amount of replayability, as each level also houses some hidden secrets that can be found for those much better than myself. Oddly enough, there’s a scoring mechanic in place that rewards more you for pressing the ‘A’ button less. So if you’re able to master the long button press and floating up and down at a sharper angle, instead of numerous and short button presses like myself to keep my Odium level, then you’ll score much higher.
New enemies and attack patterns are slowly introduced, allowing you to familiarize yourself with new additions as you progress. Eventually levels become so challenging that you need to essentially be perfect as you can to reach each checkpoint. Speaking of which, levels have a few checkpoints within, but far too few. You’ll be replaying what seems like 60 second sections over and over again due to deaths. More often than not, I’d finally beat a very hard section, only to die to a simple narrow passageway, thus restarting at the checkpoint far back. I do wish there was a slightly easier mode that offered more checkpoints, as hearing the same 30 second section of a musical track can become grating on the ears.
For those that excel at these games though, there is a Nightmare mode that lacks checkpoints and makes your runs require absolutely perfection. There’s even an Endless mode for those that want to challenge themselves with a procedurally generated level that’s unique each time they play. After every few levels you’ll encounter a Boss level. While you don’t technically fight it in any traditional sense, you’ll have to navigate and avoid their attacks that change of the pace from the typical gameplay. These are quite challenging and I just wish these bosses had something a little more to them aside from avoiding their attacks and movements.
Like most, I fell into the Flappy Bird hype when it released. Odium to the Core may have the same gameplay mechanics and principals, but it’s much more stylish and a million times more challenging. I am not ashamed to admit that I eventually threw in the towel, unable to complete the last handful of levels. As I mentioned before, you’ll become frustrated, and during my time with the game, more than a few curse words came out of my mouth quite loudly, but I kept wanting to try and complete it. There’s a breaking point though, and I eventually hit that wall.
As I reflect on all the time I spent playing this game for this review, I can't say I didn’t enjoy my curse-filled time with Odium, on the contrary, its addictive feel roped me in, but those that get frustrated easily will want to look elsewhere. If there was a mode that offered more checkpoints I would have gladly stuck with it longer and possibly beaten all it, but as it stands, this was a little too Odium to the HARDcore for me.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Atari Flashback Classics - Volume 3
Nostalgia can make you remember something much better than it actually was. I found this out a few years ago rewatching a few of my childhood TV shows and replaying a few classic games I grew up with. Needless to say, it certainly wasn’t the experience like I remember. One of my first gaming memories is actually playing the original Pong at my grandma’s house, with the paddles, which is most likely how I become hooked on gaming in the first place. It wasn’t long after that she had an Atari 2600 and my gaming love grew from there.I remember playing those classic games, plugging in the cartridge and flipping the TV to channel 3. I grew up with those games before the Nintendo boom started with the NES. For those wanting to replay those titles but not dig the classic machine out of the garage, along with an older TV with the proper connectors, Atari has you covered with their newest release: Atari Flashback Classics – Volume 3.
For the older crowd, or anyone wanting to see gaming in its infancy, Atari has included 50 games, yes, 50, in this bundle. Some are hits, some are misses, but you can experience many classics from the arcade, the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. If you’re an old school Atari fan, you’ll no doubt enjoy this bundle, but for others, it’s going to be a hard sell.
First, let’s get the included games out of the way so you can peruse the list and see if your favorites are included or not, as I’m sure that will be the make or breaking point for some.
1. Adventure II (2600)
2. Air Raiders (2600)
3. Aquaventure (2600)
4. Armor Ambush (2600)
5. Asteroids (5200)
6. Astroblast (2600)
7. Atari Baseball (Arcade)
8. Atari Basketball (Arcade)
9. Atari Football (Arcade)
10. Atari Soccer (Arcade)
11. Avalanche (Arcade)
12. Canyon Bomber (Arcade)
13. Centipede (5200)
14. Countermeasure (5200)
15. Dark Cavern (2600)
16. Destroyer (Arcade)
17. Dominos (Arcade)
18. Final Legacy (5200)
19. Fire Truck/Smokey Joe (Arcade)
20. Frog Pond (2600)
21. Frogs and Flies (2600)
22. Holey Moley (2600)
23. International Soccer (2600)
24. Maze Invaders (Arcade)
25. Micro-gammon (5200)
26. Millipede (5200)
27. Miniature Golf (5200)
28. Missile Command (5200)
29. Monte Carlo (Arcade)
30. MotoRodeo (2600)
31. Pool Shark (Arcade)
32. Realsports Baseball (5200)
33. Realsports Basketball (5200)
34. Realsports Football (5200)
35. Realsports Tennis (5200)
36. Realsports Volleyball (5200)
37. Saboteur (2600)
38. Sea Battle (2600)
39. Sky Diver (Arcade)
40. Space Attack (2600)
41. Star Raiders (5200)
42. Star Strike (2600)
43. Super Breakout (5200)
44. Super Bug (Arcade)
45. Super Challenge Baseball (2600)
46. Super Challenge Football (2600)
47. Sword Fight (2600)
48. Wizard (2600)
49. Xari Arena (5200)
50. Yars’ Return (2600)
So did you see something on the list that brings back fond memories, or one that you vaguely remember playing years ago? While not all the games are hits, keep in mind this is the third compilation of Atari games. There were a few games I enjoyed from the list, but one has to wonder "Could it have done without multiple games of the same sports?" Absolutely, but there were a couple I enjoyed replaying, and trying for the first time.
Given that the genres are fairly varied, there should be something here for everyone. I thought I was going to put the most time into Super Breakout, but a friend and I played Dominos and Sword Fight the most, which was surprising. While the number of included games is impressive, honestly, there’s a few that I didn’t enjoy and most likely will never touch again. Obviously, everyone will have different tastes, but in the end there were only a handful of games from the list that would cause me to boot up the game to play again.
My biggest takeaway from this bundle was simply how far gaming has come. Many games look hideous, and control even worse. It makes you appreciate how great gaming is today, which wouldn’t have been possible without Atari and these games that paved the way nearly 40 years ago. I suspect that non Atari fans are going to become very frustrated with these games though, as they generally control quite terribly and it isn’t explained very well how to properly play.
Case in point, the Super Breakout paddle moves at mach speed, making it virtually impossible to play. I looked and looked but was unable to find a sensitivity option for the paddle anywhere. I guess I could have changed it in the Xbox accessory settings, but I don’t see anyone going through that much hassle and effort to do so every time. Some games are confusing with how to even start them. There’s a UI layout to the left of the screen for some games, which I guess is to mimic the hardware controls on the old Atari consoles themselves, but it’s confusing, doesn’t make sense and eventually becomes frustrating.
What Atari did do right though was add a few extras; not as many as I would have liked, but it’s appreciated. Firstly, you can view the original cabinets and manuals. I miss the days when games came with a full manual, and seeing the original Atari ones digitally is the next best thing. The biggest, and most surprising addition that I didn’t expect in any way, is online multiplayer.
That’s right, you can finally challenge your buddy across the country to some Super Breakout, Sword Fight, or other Atari classics to see who really the best is once and for all. With online multiplayer and leaderboards, I’ll forgive Atari for the lack of other extras and ‘fluff’ given they went this extra mile. You can simply host a match for a friend to join, though it would have been awesome to see a lobby of sorts where anyone could join, or tournament style setups. I’ll take what I can get though and be grateful.
Nothing has been remixed or altered, and these classics look and play just like they did from their original cartridge versions. Obviously the games are now in HD, but you can’t hide how terrible some of the games look from back in the day (Side note: the visual, audio and gameplay scores are obviously low, but aren’t being factored into the overall score, as it’s unfair to judge them in today’s standards). If you really want an authentic experience, you can toggle filters to make it look like it has that classic RF static. Needless to say, it will bring waves of nostalgia, good or bad, reliving these classics again.
If you take Atari Flashback Classics – Volume 3 for what it is at face value, a trip down memory lane of a time when gaming was in its' infancy, and you keep your expectations in check, you may enjoy this collection of games, especially if you're an Atari fan and/or played the Atari consoles so long ago. While I’d argue the $20 (CAD) price point is a little high, even factoring in that it’s 50 games, it’s a decent collection if you want to feel some nostalgia and see what gaming was like back in "the day".
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Nippon Marathon
I absolutely loved watching MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) on TV when it used to play. This show had contestants tackling a variety of events, though usually falling, slipping and getting hurt; think Wipeout or American Ninja Warrior for the newer generations. There’s always something funny about seeting people falling and failing, right? Don’t tell me I’m the only one.Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A girl dressed as a Narwhal (NOT a unicorn), a man dressed as a lobster, an old man dressed as a school girl and a dog with a human body are all participating in a yearly marathon obstacle race... No? Me either, but that’s the general narative behind Nippon Marathon. If you find that weird, that’s just the beginning.
There’s always a handful of party games I’ll load up whenever I have company over, and to get into that rotation of titles, it takes something special to stand out amongst the crowded genre. Nippon Marathon certainly stands out, but there’s no way it’s going to get played when I have friends over, unless I want to show them something for a quick laugh.
I really don’t like to be negative in my reviews, and always look for what a game does well or unique, but there’s some games, like this, where that’s a struggle. Developers Onion Soup Interactive has released a party racing (on foot) game that absolutely is unique in its own right, but it’s extremely rough around the edges. You’ll be not only running down the streets of Japan, aiming for a first place finish and influence of fans, but you’ll be dodging flying fruit, dogs, vehicles, businessmen and a whole slew of other oddities that I can’t even begin to describe. San! Ni! Ichi! Hajime!!! It’s time to see what Nippon Marathon is all about.
Party games aren’t generally known for their narrative, as the general point is to have you and a few friends simply participating in whatever activities the game want to you. This is where Nippon Marathon is different, instead focusing on a very narrative heavy experience, which kills the multiplayer vibe if friends are over.
You begin by choosing one of four very oddly designed characters; Elizabeth Nishibori, a girl obsessed with saving marine life and dresses in a Narwhal (NOT a unicorn) onesie, Xen Bae, an old man that dresses in a school girl uniform, lobster suited J Darwin and finally, Snugaru, a dog with a man’s body. I can’t even make this up. Each have their own lengthy, and arguably unnecessary, plot, explaining their motives for wanting to participate in this year’s Nippon Marathon.
Handsome Hazuki is the longtime reining undefeated champion of the Nippon Marathon, someone that looks like Freddy Mercury’s half-brother, but as you progress through the ranks in each stage of the marathon, you’ll uncover secrets about it and its organizers plans. I won’t spoil it, but it’s nothing terribly exciting, and quite frankly, silly and completely over the top.
This is one of my biggest problems though, as the story is so thick and long winded, which normally isn’t a problem, but you’re unable to skip the lengthy cutscenes between races, forcing you to sit through each terribly written dialogue sequence. I eventually forced myself to finish the game with two of the characters, but simply couldn’t muster up the enjoyment to do it another time or two with the other characters. I get that it’s supposed to be light hearted and humorous, but it doesn’t come across that way for the most part at all, and would have enjoyed being able to skip these sections and focus on the races themselves.
Nippon Marathon is a footrace separated into different sections and rankings. As you win a leg, you move up the rankings and race against more challenging adversaries; in theory. I didn’t notice any difficulty increases along the way aside from having to deal with glitches and unfairness, which I’ll get to shortly. You’ll be racing the busy streets of Japan, the snowy mountain hilltops and even on top of a speeding bullet train. The general controls are simple to grasp, as you can jump, duck or dive, which you’ll need to do often.
The Nippon Marathon is all about craziness though, and you might be restarting a section of race, but be interrupted with an impromptu interview or a mini-game to partake in. Why? I have no idea, but just roll with it. The general hook about the gameplay is that it utilizes ragdoll physics, so when you get bit by a dog, run into a wall or trip, your body will flail around, you know, like a rag doll. It was funny in the first race or two, but then you start to see issues arise. You don’t instantly get back up sometimes, and I’ve even become stuck in a ‘falling’ loop until I was eliminated in that section of the race.
And this is where the scoring inconsistency comes into play as well. Obviously it’s a race and you want to finish in first place, but there’s some star gaining mechanics based on fan influence that’s never really explained. As you race, the screen scrolls, and if you lag behind in last, or fall into a pit, you’re knocked out until there’s only one racer left. Then the race restarts at the nearest checkpoint and repeats itself until you eventually reach the finish line. If you’re the sole survivor in these sections, you’ll earn a star. How this plays into your score, or if first place is more important, I still don’t know.
Much like Mario Kart, you’ll find blocks of items littered throughout the race, though only a handful of items are available. You can drop banana’s, toss a watermelon to the first place runner (even if it’s yourself), or if you’re really lucky, get a pineapple balloon that lifts you in the air, allowing you to effectively and easily skip a small section of race obstacles.
There will be random times where you’re about to start running again at a checkpoint, only to be interrupted with an interview request or a weird mini-game. Sometimes you’ll get a slot machine that will give everyone a random power-up, maybe you’ll be put into a rat-like maze, or the worst of them all, the interviews.
Here Wedy (yes, that’s how it’s spelt) will interview the contestants about some random topic, asking their thoughts and opinions. You’ll have to make a few selections of answers to create a sentence, but the problem is that you need to choose so quickly, that you’re basically unable to read the responses. Even worse, each response can only be used once across all racers, so either guess and be quick with a button press, or be left with whatever response is left over. Some responses will earn you more fan influence, others won’t. There’s no way to tell what fans will like or not, so I don’t see the point of this poorly designed mini-game and waste of time.
The biggest, and most consistent issue Nippon Marathon suffers from though, is its terrible camera. I could complain about the lack of instruction, or the poor performance when lots of things are happening on the screen at once, but the camera is its biggest offender. You’re partaking in a race, the camera will generally follow whomever is in first place, to eliminate those that lag behind. The problem though is that the camera can’t even always do this right.
Numerous times I would be in first, but the camera was unable to keep up, leaving me to either run ahead and guess what’s coming, resulting in an elimination, or slow down and let others catch up. Sometimes you’ll also run in a different direction completely after a turn, but it’s like the camera doesn’t know that until it’s too late. That being said, it seems that there’s been a recent patch on PC to fix some of my issues and complaints, but as of the time of this writing, us console players have yet to see these improvements, and must be judged so.
While you’re able to play just fine in single player, you can have drop in/out 4 players should you wish. Again, being that the story mode is way too narrative heavy for players to enjoy at length, this is where the separate mini-games come in. Would you find diving into a shopping cart and rolling down a bowling alley into some massive pins fun? Then this is for you. These extras are appreciated that they are there, but I honestly don’t see much longevity within, even if you get the hang of the awkward controls.
Now we move onto its visuals. I get that a small indie studio isn’t going to have the budget to create anything modern looking, but man, Nippon Marathon isn’t very pretty to look at in any way. Most characters and objects have very poor models, being very basic in style, but the animations are at times downright atrocious. I don’t know if this visual style was intended, but it looks like it come straight out of a PS1 era game at best. The audio isn’t much better either, as the few tracks that are present are repeated over and over. Worse yet, certain dialogue sections are accompanied with upbeat or serious tones, but changes instantly between when dialogue boxes change from character to character. It’s jarring and odd to say the least.
I’m all for wacky and silly over-the-top Japanese games and culture, and Nippon Marathon does have a few decent qualities about it, it’s just that the negatives vastly outweigh the few positives. What I will say though is that my six year old daughter had an absolute blast watching the craziness happen during races, laughing along the way, but couldn’t understand why she lost sometimes, and I wasn’t able to explain it either. I honestly would have scored this much lower if my daughter didn’t have a fun time playing it, and maybe that’s the intended audience, but then the forced weighty story makes no sense.
If this had online multiplayer, it would be a little more entertaining and exciting, but I can’t picture a time where I would load this up over the other party games I have whenever I have company over. Nippon Marathon is zany, wacky and simply odd, but it feels like a marathon trying to finish it at times. Unless you’re dying to race as a lobster-man, hold off until a really deep discounted sale before entering this marathon.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
The Witcher series is one of my favorites of all time, and I’d even place Witcher 3 in my top 10 ever. I absolutely loved Witcher 3, and honestly, I’d have to guess that about half my time within that world was probably playing Gwent, its own card based battle game. Developers CD Projekt RED never anticipated Gwent to be so popular, to the point where it got its own spinoff game, solely based on the cards themselves, aptly titled Gwent. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is the newest addition to the Gwent side of the series, but instead of focusing solely on the card battles, Thronebreaker now has included a handful of RPG elements alongside a strong narrative. Not only do you get an updated, and more streamlined, version of Gwent in Thronebreaker, you’ll also be exploring unseen lands in an isometric point of view along your journey.When Thronebreaker was first announced, I simply assumed it was going to be a Gwent expansion, and not quite sure what to expect. What I came away with though after sinking a dozen hours into it was a worthy expansion into the Witcher series that just happens to be based on Gwent mechanics. I’m glad I got to experience Thronebreaker, as I had a great time following Queen Meve’s adventure and challenging myself to dozens of interesting Gwent puzzles. Yes, card based puzzles, but more on that shortly.
You are Meve, the Queen of Lyria and Rivia, facing a Nilfgaardian invasion. She’s not the type of leader to sit on her throne and sit back as her armies do the hard work. She’s the queen her subjects respect, as she is alongside them on the battlefield when needed. Her people respect her and love her, but treachery is afoot and she is dethroned. Set on a course for revenge and redemption, she will have to trust strangers and make countless difficult decisions along the way back to reclaim her throne.
Taking place within the timeline of the novels, and before the first game, Thronebreaker gives you a great insight into series’ lore, revolving around the second Northern War. For novel fans like myself, seeing places and characters we’ve not experienced in game format before is quite the treat. I won’t spoil much else, but super fans will get the most out of Thronebreaker, yet you won’t need any prior lore knowledge to enjoy it either, as it’s all framed very well for newcomers. With over 20 hours of gameplay and reason to replay, there’s tons of value within, especially if you want to work on seeing all of the endings.
As you begin, you’ll have to choose your difficulty level. The lowest option is simply if you want less challenging Gwent battles, but most interestingly, allows you to skip them entirely if you simply want to experience the adventure RPG portion of the game and focus on the wonderful narrative. Normal is a good balance of challenge and difficulty, but there’s even a higher difficulty should you wish to put your Gwent skills to the real test.
Given that Thronebreaker is based on Gwent, let’s delve into that portion quickly for those that have never experienced it previously. You and an opponent play against one another with a deck of cards, aiming to win a best 2-out-of-3 match. The core principals still exist here, but there are some drastic changes, some of which I like for the better. Now there are only two rows to each person’s playfield, down from three previously. Each player plays a single card at a time. Each varying in a value number which determines the current ‘score’. Do you cut your losses and save your cards for another match if you’re losing, or use more cards to try and pull off a win? This is where a lot of strategy comes into play.
The core gameplay is easy enough to understand, but it’s the special cards and abilities that really force you to think creatively and strategically. Some cards will allow you to use an attack or bonus, on top of your card placement on your turn, while others will banish or return cards. Even with this extra layer of options, it’s fairly easy to grasp the main concepts. If you didn’t really care for Gwent in Witcher 3, this won’t change your mind on the core card gameplay, but for those of us that did, it feels much more streamlined overall.
That being said, the majority of the Gwent gameplay outside of the story battles, isn’t actually your traditional Gwent, per-se. Instead, you’re tasked with numerous hand crafted battles, though I equate them more to puzzles. These are mostly optional and have you trying to solve a particular Gwent battle with a predefined deck of specific cards to use. These puzzles usually require a very specific plan of attack to succeed, or have very specific win conditions. Challenge fluctuates from incredibly easy to controller-throwing frustrating, though never unfair. Complete these puzzles and you’ll be rewarded with numerous goodies, from gold, wood, soldiers, cards and more.
The other half of Thronebreaker’s gameplay is set in an isometric adventure, having Meve traverse many lands along her way. You’ll need to search for resources (gold, wood, soldiers), take place in random battles, puzzles and make difficult decisions as a leader. The areas you’re put in initially don’t appear that large, but then I found out you could zoom and scroll, and it was much larger all of a sudden. You’ve given an objective you need to reach, but doing so won’t always be so easy. There will be lots of obstacles in the way, be it monsters, invaders or others asking for help.
Should you wish to spend your hard earn gold, you’re able to send scouts to uncover materials, making them easier to find along your journey by marking them on your map. While the majority of these areas are linear for the most part, there are some secrets hidden within should you take the time to explore. With a handful of chapters to complete, each map is large and beautifully crafted. My only complaint is that I wish there was a minimap on the main screen, as having to open the map menu up every so often to see which way to go was annoying after a while. Also, it’s sometimes difficult to determine what areas are traversable, or figuring out why you can’t walk around a specific object, or how to get to a collectible in sight.
Materials you gather are used for many things, such as choosing to build a bridge for a quicker path, or paying to save a prisoner’s life, but the majority of your gold, wood and soldiers will be going towards building your camp and crafting new Gwent cards. With enough materials, you’ll be able to upgrade your camp, accessible at any time, providing you more bonuses (like extra gold per Gwent battle won), or access to create higher tier cards. I found this part the most addictive, and by the end, I was able to save enough to fully upgrade my camp completely. To earn enough though, you’ll need to be diligent in your exploration along the maps.
Surprisingly, there are even special chests to collect, most hidden away with only a treasure map to go by for reference. Find these chests and complete special objectives, and you’ll gain special unique cards, banners and icons for Gwent (the standalone separate game). For Gwent fans, this is a no brainer, and will add more hours of gameplay to find them all. It’s a cool bonus to include rewards for their other game for fans.
Artistically, the world is absolutely beautiful to look at, even the disgusting swamp area that you can almost smell. Card animations are subtle but add a certain amount of flair, and cutscenes are done in a comic book style of sorts. I do wish the cutscenes were more traditionally animated, but the saving grace is the perfect voice acting all around. Every actor and actress did a wonderful performance, especially Meve, and should be commended.
Even though I put more than a dozen hours into Thronebreaker, and loved it along the way, it’s not without its issues. Foremost is the performance issues. Almost beginning to finish, it felt like an unoptimized mess at times. Menus can be laggy, the game freezes for moments at a time, especially when looking at the cards in your camp, lots of skipping and framerate issues, and I even had a hardlock and crash to Home once during my journey. Luckily with the type of gameplay involved, these aren't major issues or dealbreakers, but it was a constant all the way until the credits rolled.
That being said, performance issues aside, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales does a fantastic job at blending the beloved Gwent gameplay alongside from adventure RPG mechanics. Even though I really appreciated the lore that Thronebreaker delves into, casual fans may be let down knowing that Geralt isn’t the main focus, nor are other Witcher's really aside from a handful of brief moments.
CD Projekt RED is known for their quality and superb games, and this is no different with Thronebreaker, aside from performance issues. Even as a standalone separate experience from the core Witcher games, Thronebreaker is a great diversion if you’re looking for a deep and challenging card/RPG title, even giving you the option to skip the card portion completely if you wish, allowing for more people to enjoy it how they wish.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Farming Simulator 19
Farming Simulator 17 was my first foray into the farming simulation genre. I was completely new to the series, wasn’t sure what to do, how to do it or the proper order to do so. After sinking hours into it, I came to appreciate the realism it tries to capture, as farming in real life is a grueling lifestyle and career, and doing so in a game can be just as challenging sometimes. Sometimes a simulation is just that though, as not all careers make for an entertaining game when the grunt work itself is very monotonous and tedious. At the same time though, there’s something calming and relaxing about plowing, sowing and growing your fields, then selling them for a profit to purchase bigger and better equipment.Enter Farming Simulator 19, the newest sequel with an onslaught of improvements and upgrades over the previous release, making farming one step closer to its reality counterpart. GIANTS Software is undoubtedly the king in this specific genre, as their Farming Simulator titles are the gold standard when it comes to true simulation gameplay. There are other farming sims on the market, but they are nowhere near in-depth simulation wise, and now with the newest ’19 edition upon us, that lead is even a larger gap versus the competition.
Two large maps are available from the start (and one added since as a mod); one American and European, based on your preference, completely open to your farming preferences, be it wheat, oats, animals and much more. Now, if you’ve played the Farm Sim’s before, you’ll know exactly what to expect for the core gameplay, aside from the newest additions. At its core, it’s essentially the same game as years’ past, so while it won’t do much to entice new non-farming enthusiasts to jump in, fans will surely enjoy the slew of additions and improvements.
So let’s quickly delve into what’s new, as fans will most likely be the ones upgrading from previous year’s versions, as opposed to new players jumping in fresh. First and foremost, the graphics engine and audio has been improved greatly. Nothing ground breaking or ultra-realistic, but a big improvement from ’17 for sure. There’s much more minute detail, as you can actually see corn on the stalks, smaller details in the foliage and certain equipment seems to have much more detail to them, upping the immersion.
Speaking of new equipment, Farming Simulator 19 finally welcomes the John Deere line of agriculture equipment to the game; one of the most recognizable brands in the world. It may not seem like a big deal, but it’s been a notable feature missing for a long time, so it’s great to finally have it included.
Also new is a handful of new crops, like Oats, Cotton, having to lyme fields, taking care of weeds, horses that you can even train to ride, or chickens that you actually need to feed and care for. The latest patch though brought one of the most sizable, and needed, additions to the game in quite some time; Landscaping. Now you’re able to actually modify the ground to either flatten or raise certain areas. Not happy with the hill your crop is on, slowing down your machinery? Level it out! Want to create the perfect farm and pathways around your land? Design it however you like with a handful of different material options like gravel, sand and more. Of course there’s a large cost to doing so, but those that have successful farms can finally personalize and customize their farm to exactly how they want.
Just like in ’17, there is an included tutorial that shows you the basics of farming, something I strongly suggest you do, but just as I complained about in the previous release, it’s still not enough for new players to really grasp all of the mechanics, or why, to become a proper and efficient farmer without a lot of trial and error. There’s a button (well, more accurately, a combination of many buttons) for nearly everything, from turning on the equipment, lights, to maneuvering the arms and attachments. The tutorial gives you the bare minimum of how to utilize the basics, but stops there. I really wish there was not only a more in-depth tutorial that explored more of the mechanics, but how to also setup specific farms.
For example, I wanted to try out log farming, but had no idea how or what equipment I exactly needed. Luckily I have a friend that has literally sunk over a thousand hours into ’17, so he walked me through it, but there really needs to be an option somewhere in the game that at least gives you a checklist of how to start a specific farm with its proper equipment. The same went for my horse farm, as I was unable to figure it out on my own how to properly get started and had to ask for help. All of this information should be located in the game somewhere, but it’s not, which is going to turn new players away, as I know I would have gotten frustrated if I had no one to specifically ask for help.
Career mode gives you three choices from the get go, depending on how proficient, or challenging, you want your farming career to be. You can choose to begin with some money, land and equipment, or basically nothing at all. There’s also a slew of options to further customize your game, allowing you to not have crops wither, having to lyme your crops, game speed and more. From here you’re essentially left to your own to farm what you want, how you want. Learning how to do so properly, efficiently, and most important, profitably, will simply take a lot of hours of trial and error to figure out. Devote the time and learn the intricacies though and you’ll be making tons of cash in no time.
With over 300 pieces of equipment and attachments to utilize, you’re going to have a ton of options at your disposal depending on the type of farming you wish to partake in. You’ll have access to tons of name brands like John Deere, Fendt, New Holland, Krone and a ton of others I’ve never heard of, but appear to be authentic. While I’ve never sat in or used any farming equipment, I can only assume that their authenticity is top notch, else the name brands wouldn’t allow them in the game most likely. Each brand has its own feel, mechanics, sounds and more, so you’re sure to find some favorites (though I always gravitate to the cheaper ones).
Once you have a handful of equipment, you’ll be able to instantly swap from one to another instantly with a press of a button, which I found incredibly useful for getting around the map quickly when needed. You’re even able to ride and control the train that travels around and throughout the map, utilizing it to transport goods should you wish.
Where the farming starts to become interesting, and much more enjoyable, is when you can gather a few friends together and working cooperatively on the same farm. Now a group of friends can get together online, have their own bank rolls and farms, or work collectively on one person’s farm together. If I was destined to play alone, I would have given up long ago from the monotony, but farming with a buddy, getting orders of what to do and where, was much more enjoyable, working alongside one another in tandem.
While mods aren’t new for the Farm Sim series, they are included here as well. Be that ’19 is brand new, there isn’t many mods released yet aside from some new equipment and pieces that add a bit more flair to the gameplay. What’s missing is a mod to allow for infinite money (even if it disables achievements), Seasons, and a bunch of other quality of life mods. My biggest pet peeve is that when you join a friend’s multiplayer farm and they have mods enabled, it won’t let you join without those mods installed, which I understand, but it doesn’t give you an option to directly download which are missing, or offer a 'download all' option.
Even though a slew of improvements and additions have been included in ’19, it’s still very inaccessible for new players. That’s not to say that Farming Simulator 19 is ‘bad’; far from it, but it’s lacking some hand holding and focus in the beginning for new players and the not-so hardcore sim genre fans. I initially scoffed at the idea that farming could be fun, but there’s a certain calmness and Zen that accompanies the gameplay, once you’ve figured out the controls and mechanics after many hours through trial and error.
Even though Farming Simulator 19 isn’t very newbie friendly, it’s unmatched in its core appeal for being the most thorough simulation on the market, even if the learning curve is extremely steep. It’s hard to recommend for newcomers that only want to play casually, but for previous fans of the series and genre, there’s no better currently available.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Project Highrise: Architect's Edition
I’ve always been drawn towards Sim games; be it based on theme parks, hotels, towers, ants and of course, cities. I’d actually be curious to know how many hours I’ve sunk into Sim City as a kid, as this was the first game that made me realize how much OCD I have when it comes to symmetry and creation. I needed roads to be an exact length apart, perfect square blocks, and god forbid if a natural disaster occurred and wiped out all my hard work.While Sim City is generally the king of the genre, Sim Tower was another that I used to play on my PC way back in the day (I’m showing my age). Instead of a massive and complex city, you were instead tasked with creating a massive and profitable building tower instead; same concept, different execution. While simply glancing at Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition, you may assume that it’s a simple copy of Sim Tower, but you’d be wrong. Sure, same premise, but there’s incredibly deep and challenging mechanics buried within that I didn't expect.
Do you want to construct a massive skyscraper that would make building in Dubai jealous? How about a massive apartment building, a casino, mall or even a hotel? The choice is yours, but it won’t be a quick or easy path. Not only do you have to contend with simply creating the infrastructure like water, gas, electricity, HVAC, phone lines and more, but you’ve also got to do so on a strict budget, slowly growing your building to become more and more famous and popular to entice more people to frequent.
While building a city is grander in scale, don’t let the thought of only having to design and plan for a single building will be easy, because it isn’t. The layers of complexity luckily are unveiled in small chunks, starting with a handful of tutorials to learn the basics, and luckily, the largest and grand creations you can include are locked behind a progression system, forcing you to grow your highrise naturally and at a slow pace. Sure, you could jump into the unlimited money mode (which disables achievements), but I found the most enjoyment came from being able to grow and budget accordingly myself, complete with restrictions.
Previously released on PC, the console Architect’s Edition includes the original game plus all of the DLC that was released post launch. The DLC’s are as follows: Las Vegas, Tokyo Towers, Miami Malls, London Life and Brilliant Berlin. Each of the packs are obviously themed after their real world counterparts, adding their own backdrops, items, shops, styles and more. It’s a lot of added content, so there’s plenty for you to delve into and start to figure out how you want to build.
Inspiration no doubt derives from Sim Tower, but there’s a ton of depth within Project Highrise, almost overwhelmingly so. Not only do you have to build your skyscraper and fill it with tenants, each tenant will have different wants and needs that can alter how you build the rest of your monstrosity. For example, if you rent to a lot of businesses and law firms, they may require a water bottle service, fax room, couriers or more. Certain people may not even move into the large upscale apartments until you have a wide variety of food and restaurants available as well. There’s always some sort of prerequisite for nearly every action, and it’s the planning ahead of time that will save you in the long run.
Luckily you’re able to control time here. Pause time whenever you wish if you want to get some things built, or simply want to step back and plan out how you want to proceed, or even fast forward time in double speed, hurrying along the building process or rent collection. If people are starting to get upset and move out, you’re best to pause time, figure it out, and fix it, before resuming, or else you risk losing even more tenants and visitors.
If you wish to simply jump in and play, you’re able to do so, choosing the backdrop and a few other options. There’s no real direction here, simply letting you build and design however you like in a sandbox. For those that want a little more direction, Scenarios are where you’ll want to start out. Here you’re tasked with very specific objectives, such as reaching a certain population or popularity before unlocking the next scenario. Others will be much more specific and the needs to be met, each having its own unique challenges, budgets and more. With nearly 30 different challenges, there’s tons of content to try, though I do wish they weren’t progression locked, as I eventually hit a brick wall for difficulty (and my patience).
Luckily, not every option if available to you at the start for items, art, designs and more. This is because they are gated behind your progress relating to popularity and reputation. The better you do, the more options will open up to you, allowing you to thus bring in more crowds. Some of the end-game options become very complicated and advanced, especially if you’re going to go the casino, mall or hotel route with multi-level lobbies, escalators, parking garages and more.
It took me a few hours to figure out that you want to progress at a slow and steady pace. I kept trying to build as much as I can, as fast as I could, and I kept running into money issues. Expand at a steady pace, learn what your tenants want and how to do so efficiently and you’ll become a great mogul in no time. Sometimes cutting someone’s rent in half is the cheaper option, rather than having them move out and trying to find another tenant to take its place with different needs.
I for one need all of my floors perfectly organized; stairs in one area, elevators in another, certain floors of apartments, another for business, etc. What irked me was that there was no simple way to move or swap rooms that have already been built and moved into. You can shuffle them around if there’s empty room, but it’s a bit convoluted to do so, and my OCD was kicking in when I accidentally rented an apartment on my business floor.
Gameplay is slow and steady, very menu heavy and strategic. Some won’t like the monotony of the gameplay, or having to figure out why one floor suddenly wants a cable TV line installed, but if you can delve into the mechanics and menus and solve tenant issues, there’s some rewards to be had. Sure at times it feels a bit of a grind, but when you start hitting that stride with rent coming in, in the positive, you'll want to expand bigger and better.
I’ve always loved my Sim games, and I’m glad that I can add Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition to that list. The complexity within is quite astounding, as even after a handful of hours of tower building in, I’m still learning and figuring out how to be a successful landlord. While I don’t find it as addictive as some of the more classic Sim games, the enjoyment and replayability is here without a doubt. Even if you don’t want to get hardcore into the building strategy side of the menus, casual fans too can build some low rise apartments or malls should they desire.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
World of Final Fantasy Maxima
I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan, complete with a merchandise collection that’s borderline embarrassing. Yet somehow, I skipped over playing World of Final Fantasy back in 2016 when it originally released, even though it’s still sitting in its wrapper on my shelf. I’m fine admitting when I make a mistake, and not playing World of Final Fantasy until now, with the release of World of Final Fantasy MAXIMA, was one of those big mistakes.MAXIMA is essentially a Game of the Year version of the core game, complete with all the updates and DLC it received post launch, that, and the fact that it has finally come to Xbox One for fans to enjoy as well! While MAXIMA feels more like a spin-off Final Fantasy game, it fits right in with the series, complete with tons of references, cameos, and more that veterans will be sure to enjoy.
Even looking at the box art, you’re going to instantly notice that MAXIMA’s art direction is nothing really like any of the previous Final Fantasy titles. Instead, a more chibi-like style with anime influences are utilized, and while I don’t normally gravitate towards this style, it simply works here.
To add another layer of addictive gameplay, there’s also a Pokemon-like 'catch-em-all' system in place where you’re attempting to collect monsters you battle during your adventure, but more on that shortly. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of MAXIMA, with its art direction and over-the-top cuteness, but as I got further into the game, I couldn’t imagine it being any other way.
Siblings Reynn and Lann, wake in their small town working at the local café, only to realize no one else is around. They are interrupted by a mysterious girl who seems to know a lot about them and their history, even though they can’t remember anything about themselves. Taking place in the world Grymoire, Reynn and Lann are placed upon a quest that becomes larger than they could imagine, revealing bits about their past that seem too unbelievable to be true. I won’t delve further into the story, as I found it quite interesting and engaging, especially as you progress, but the fact that Reynn and Lann can shrink or be full size on a whim (Lillikin and Jiant form) also plays a vital role in the core gameplay.
So, you’ve already played World of Final Fantasy and simply want to know what’s new and included with the MAXIMA edition? Well, the siblings can actually change INTO the fable Champions themselves with the Avatar Change system. New Legends will also make an appearance, and more than a quick cameo as well, so expect to see Noctis, Lightning and a few other notable names from the series’ past. Sure, there’s also a bunch of more quality of life improvements, like being able to carry more active mirages into your party, sharing experience, New Game+, Nightmare Difficulty and more, but the real addition is a Noctis minigame where you fish!
World of final Fantasy was actually a celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary, combining many mechanics and aspects from previous titles, but also with a drastic change to entice new fans to the series as well. Complete with a traditional Active Time Battle (ATB) fighting system, new is not only the ability to capture and collect monsters, of which many will say is a Pokemon ripoff, but you also get to stack said monsters on your head to create powerful combinations.
Yes, you’re going to stack cute and adorable monsters on top of your head. It’s silly, and in any other setting it would be ridiculous, but again, somehow it simply works and makes sense here. My daughter has watched me play a few Final Fantasy games in the past, especially when I put over 100 hours into XV, but when she sees me playing MAXIMA, she sits down beside me and totally gets into me trying to capture more mirages (monsters) for my team. The adorable and colorful art direction certainly helps gain the attention of a younger audience, and while it’s still a bit too much for her at age 6 mechanically, she’s enjoying coming along with me for the ride each time I play.
Don’t let its child-like visuals fool you though, as this I a fully-fledged Final Fantasy, complete with a deep and engaging plot, satisfying gameplay, excellent voice acting and surprisingly, a non-stop amount of humor that had me laughing throughout. Combat is probably one of the biggest changes and additions, as the stacking mechanic is a bit clumsy with its menus and does take some getting used to, but more on that shortly.
Like Pokemon games, monsters can be fought in battle and they can also be captured if the correct specifics are met. For example, to capture a Black Chocochick and create its Prismtunity (susceptible to capture), you’ll need to heal it. Others may need to be put to sleep, poisoned, damaged with specific magic, and numerous other conditions that must be met before you can attempt to capture it. Capturing mirages isn’t simply a gimmicky mechanic added in for no reason either, as there’s a narrative reason as to why you are trying to, and should, capture as many as you can.
Each Mirage is unique, with its abilities, size and evolution options. That’s right, you’re going to get to evolve your mirages, but unlike Pokemon, it’s not a choice that’s final, as you can freely change between their forms. Stacking mirages is very strategic though, as you can round out your abilities with all different magics and attacks, or specialize in one type and become very powerful using a specific type of attack. For example, if you stack multiple mirages that use Fire abilities, you’ll gain access to the –aga versions of the spells, allowing for attacks against multiple monsters at once.
Like a totem pole, your stack must consist of a Large (L), Medium (M) and Small (S) mirage, but Reynn and Lann have to be in each stack as well, either as their medium chibi-like Lillikin forms, or their large Jiant form. There are pros and cons to both types of setups, something that will take quite a bit of time to learn and figure out on your own through trial and error. While you could unstack your stack, each individual mirage is weak on its own, and stacking makes the stats of each one combine, including magic, health and more.
There are reasons, and specific times, you want to unstack, but for the most part you’re going to want to find the best stack(s) that work for you, as you’re much stronger as a trio. Keep in mind that when stacked, you are not only granted all of the bonuses together, but the weaknesses as well. So that fire based stack that can cause a ton of fire damage, it will also be very susceptible to water attacks, so there’s a balance you need to figure out.
Not only will you be hunting down elusive and rare mirages, but each can be leveled up and most can evolve into more powerful versions. Somewhat a watered down version of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid, the experience you earn can be spent on stat increases and new abilities for each individual mirage. You can even spend your skill points on special abilities on some, allowing you to ride them in the overworld or having them walk alongside you, notifying you on hidden items. What I enjoyed best was that you don’t need to level each form of a mirage, as it pertains to all of its unlocked forms, so you can simply swap between them when needed, as sometimes you’ll want its S, M, L or XL version based on the stack you’re trying to accomplish.
While the core game utilizes Champions as summons, where you are able to call in specific Final Fantasy legends to perform some powerful attacks, MAXIMA has included the ability to actually transform into a Champion with Champion Jewels. Equip these jewels on Reynn or Lann and they will visually transform into that specific Champion, while also gaining some of their iconic abilities. There is a balance here as well, given there are some good reasons, as well as some drawbacks, when using these powerful jewels, something that I’ll allow you to figure out on your own. Suffice to say though, seeing chibi-style versions of some of the most iconic Final Fantasy characters is a treat, even after a few dozen hours of playing.
A Final Fantasy game wouldn’t be complete without side quests, mini-games, and tons of distractions to sink hours into, and it is no different with MAXIMA. Once unlocked, the coliseum challenges you against specific enemies or stacks to test your battle abilities, or simply to try and capture any mirages you’ve missed along the way. Most interestingly though are the Intervention quests. Here you’ll learn about the history of specific characters you’ve met during your journey and you get to relive specific moments, intervening, by playing as them without them knowing, usually resulting in rare rewards that are well worth the effort. These side quests were a lot of fun and I highly suggest spending the time doing them.
I could go on further about some of the deeper mechanics, but part of the fun I had was simply learning how everything worked and then tweaking it to suit my playstyle. The stack mechanic seems silly and shallow at first, but creating that perfect stack is quite challenging, yet rewarding.
I was completely surprised with how funny MAXIMA was, from start to finish, something that I’m not used to when playing a Final Fantasy game, and this was only accomplished by the absolutely stellar and perfect voice acting contained within. As for its over-the-top cute and artistic style, I absolutely adored it, but it can be a bit much, as a friend that tried it out with me was actually turned off by it and its silliness. Look past the nauseatingly cute factor and you’ll be surprised with MAXIMA’s deep mechanics and storyline.
Even after dozens of hours, you'll still have a long way to go, and I found that I did get that ‘catch-em-all’ fever. Even though I’m not a Pokemon fan, I’ve really gravitated towards the mirage capturing, as each one has its own prerequisites that must be met, and not simply using an item. You can spend countless hours leveling every mirage and evolving them should you desire, adding a ton of more value and length.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I started playing MAXIMA, as it doesn’t appear, or play, like any traditional Final Fantasy I’ve experienced before, but that’s what’s so charming about it. It fits within the Final Fantasy universe while also carving out its own place amongst the greats. Its disgustingly cute art direction is something I really enjoyed, and there’s more than enough fan service contained within for series veterans as well. The game is accessible for new fans, yet deep enough for those who've play many Final Fantasy games too. World of Final Fantasy MAXIMA is a great entry into the series that should be experienced by all, as long as you can handle the obscene amount of cuteness contained within.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition
I’m not one for traditional sports games. Sure, I dabble in a few here and there, but for the most part I simply don’t enjoy or play them all that much, save for a very select few. One of these sports games that I’ve actually spent countless hours playing is actually an old Genesis title that I still own a copy of to this day, and that game is Mutant League Football.Originally released in 1993, I’ve spent countless hours with this unique take on Football over the years, so when it was announced that it was going to finally receive a spiritual successor with Mutant Football League (MFL), I was more than excited. For the unaware, what makes MFL so unique is that it is not licensed by the NFL at all, and instead it is more of a parody, where your players are monsters, skeletons, ogres, robots, werewolves and more.
Simply re-skinning players as monsters is only the beginning, this is the MFL after all. Obviously you want to outscore your opponents, but what makes the MFL stand out among other Football titles is that you can also dismember, and even kill, your opponents. Not happy how things are playing out? Bribe the ref. Want to cause massive carnage, equip some chainsaws and slice through the opposing team. Carnage is what MFL is all about, and it’s a blast, even after more than two decades.
Mutant Football League actually released just over a year ago, but now the Dynasty Edition is upon us. While yes, this is essentially a Game of the Year edition, with all of the released DLC included, the new additions are actually quite plentiful, adding much more varied gameplay to the overall experience.
The biggest addition is the inclusion of the brand new Dynasty Mode (hence the title). This is essentially your season/career mode where you take a fledgling team of nobody’s and work towards making them MFL champions. You’ll play many games throughout the season, but you also get to be the GM and Coach of the team, making decisions on who to cut, trade and sign on, in hopes of creating that championship team.
It’s not so simple though, as just like real life teams, you’ll have salary caps, injuries, free agents and more. Do you invest a big chunk of your budget to sign on a legendary player in hopes he’ll bring glory to the team, or spread out your resources evenly? You’re also even able to edit your playbook to suit your preferred play style and cater to your strengths and weaknesses.
There’s also two main add-on DLC’s included with the Dynasty Edition. At first I thought it was simply two themed teams that were added, but there’s actually a little more to it than that. The first is the Demonic Legion Pack. This includes a new monster type, winged demons, that help them make higher leaps, perfectly suited for receivers. Two new teams are also added: The Full Metal Mayhem and Cracksumskull Juglars, both of which are awesome to play as with their insanely high skill rating, and both of which also come with their own home arena for some new scenery. Also included are two new Dirty Tricks, both of which are really interesting and unique, but more on what those are shortly.
The second included DLC is the Werewolf Rampage Pack. I’m sure you can guess what species these include. The Karcass City Creeps and New Gorleans Zombies are the two teams added, along with their own respective arenas as well. This DLC pack also adds two new Dirty Tricks as well. So, while these may seem like small DLC additions of simple teams, they do add some varied gameplay, scenery and strategy.
MFL is a 7-on-7 Football game with blood, gore, swearing, puns and awesomeness. While it’s a true spiritual successor to the original Genesis title, its over the top gameplay also resembles the classic NFL Blitz from back in the day. While you could play MFL as a traditional Football title, there are much better, and entertaining, ways to win games, namely, destroying and killing off enough of the enemy team so that they cannot compete.
Dirty Tricks are special plays where you can pull of unique, sometimes only usable once, actions that will decimate the other team. You can electrify yourself, use the ball as a bomb, equip weapons, rewind time and more. These plays are like crazy audibles, meant to mangle and kill the other team, and are a blast to use. You can even bribe the ref if you want a play to go your way and skirt the rules a bit. This is what makes MFL so unique and entertaining, and you can also attack players after the whistle is blown; just be careful though, as excessive attacking won’t always be tolerated.
Another aspect you’ll need to be very weary of is the arenas and playfield itself. Each arena is themed after its own team, but the playfield will be littered with mines, lava pits, monsters and many more deadly obstacles. This is another element you’ll have to factor into your strategies and each series of downs you make.
Hands down though, the best feature about MFL is that developers, Digital Dreams Entertainment, chose the absolute best commentator available, of all time: Tim Kitzrow. You may not know the name, but I guarantee you know his famous lines from NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, like “Boomshakalaka” and “He’s on fire!”. I simply wanted to play more games to hear his hilarious commentary and play by play announcements. There’s no better in the business and MFL is a better game for including him so prominently.
Humor is also a huge part of the MFL charm. Not only just the commentary, but the players will also have small quips and sayings after big plays, usually taunting the other team or grabbing in some off-color fashion that is absolutely hilarious. And if you’re an NFL fan, you’ll most likely appreciate the parody on specific team and player names as well, as there are some interesting takes on using monster themes for each NFL team that is parodied.
Mutant League Football is honestly one of my favorite classic childhood games, and seeing its spiritual successor on a current generation console is a real treat for fans like myself that don’t usually play traditional sports titles. It’s not going to be for everyone obviously, but for someone looking for a much less serious and self-aware approach to a Football, Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition is a great diversion, full of blood, broken bones, violence and hilarity. Now, I’m hoping that the follow-up to their original Mutant League Hockey game is next on the list, as that’s what us Canadians really care about.
**This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game, which we were provided with. Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition is available at North American retail in addition to digital**
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
WWE 2K19
It’s been quite some time since I’ve sat down and watched some WWE wrestling, so long in fact that SmackDown used to be on Thursday nights. I can’t remember when I stopped watching, or exactly why, as I used to be quite a dedicated fan, watching every week, every pay-per-view and even still to this day own a handful of shirts and merchandise. I know it’s been a long time though, as when I started up WWE 2K19, I wasn’t familiar with much of the roster. I know the legends, the guys that have been around for quite some time, but not many of the newer guys, NXT, or others. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy playing the games, as I used to own every yearly iteration back when I used to watch religiously.So grabbing WWE 2K19 was going to be my first baby step back into the WWE universe, not just the games, but the programming as well. The last WWE games I actually played and owned was 2K15, as I’m a diehard Hulkamaniac, but have skipped the iterations following, until now. Skipping a few years and jumping into WWE 2K19, I knew there would be some drastic changes and improvements, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this varied, robust and impressive (at times).
So you’re a WWE fan no doubt, else why would you be reading this review, so I’ll first delve into what’s new with 2K19 over the previous years’ installment, though it’s a lot, and while I can’t cover every single detail, it should give you an idea about how much effort has gone into make this year’s edition the most robust yet, with more options and modes than I knew what to do with.
While MyCareer isn’t new by any means, it does have a lot of new features that really surprised me. The first thing I noticed was that this career mode is now fully voiced. Not just your wrestler that you design from the ground up, but even some WWE superstars lend their voices to the experience as well, making it much more interesting and believable. Sure, the story itself is your typical narrative about a new wrestler to the biz, starting out in the local indie scene and hoping to one day be a WWE Hall of Famer, but that’s fine, and I actually really enjoyed the slow progression.
What is new though is how you actually progress stat and skill wise. As you wrestle and win matches, you’ll earn MyPlayer Skill Points, which can then be used in a much more visual skill tree now. No more simple sliders to put a point into, as now there’s a three way branching tree for you to customize your wrestler just how you want. Broken into Attack, Body and Defense trees, putting skills into one will unlock new stats, abilities and skills the further you go up each. There are even ranks that you can reach once you put enough points into a tree, all the way from Rookie to Hall of Famer. Taking a page from Call of Duty, you’re also able to Prestige should you desire, allowing for even more options to be customized the further you progress for the truly hardcore. For someone that really enjoys creating and playing with their own wrestlers, there’s more than enough content here to keep you busy for quite some time (probably until 2K20).
Creating your wrestler has also been streamlined, as you can now choose one of five base fighting styles: Striker, Technician, Powerhouse, Giant, and Cruiser. Obviously, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but it’s up to you how you want your base, then allowing you to further customize your looks, movesets and more. The only major downfall to this new mode is that there’s a lack of choosing to be a female wrestler. Not a deal breaker by any means, but I’m sure there’s an audience out there that would really enjoy seeing this implemented in future sequels.
Of course, a 2K game wouldn’t be complete without its loot packs, provided in different tiers of cards you can purchase with in game currency, or of course, real world cash, should you desire. Simply playing enough will earn you a decent amount of currency to purchase individual parts, clothing, moves, styles or a ton of other options, if there’s really that one thing you want, but it’s pricey and a long grind this way. Luckily, items you don’t like or want can be scrapped, refunding you a small amount of currency, though it’s completely random what you’re going to get in each type of pack.
Showcase makes a return, focusing on Daniel Bryan’s WWE career path. You begin with the story of his WWE introduction, through to his “YES!” era, all the way to his Championship gold. Between each match you’ll have pre-recorded video of him telling the story of what happened and why, and then you get to recreate those pivotal matches yourself. You’ll get to experience the highlights with actual footage, as well as in-game recreations of specific situations.
During these matches, you’re meant to recreate the match as it happened in real life. For example, you’ve always got an objective in the top left that you need to accomplish before moving onto the next. Sometimes this is simply damaging your opponent in the ring, sometimes it’s a little more specific, but complete enough of these and you’ll trigger cutscenes from some of his most iconic moments. My only complaint about this objective system tied to the matches is that they don’t trigger auto saves at all. So when you’re 20 minutes deep into a match and end up losing, you need to start from the beginning all over again unfortunately. I wasn’t watching much during his time in WWE (I knew about his YES! though), so I really enjoyed this mode, as I got to see his career path from start to present.
A completely new mode addition to 2K19 is Towers. This pits a specific superstar in a gauntlet-like style of matches back to back, challenging you to survive them all in one go. Here you’ll not only have to survive back to back matches, but also win with specific stipulations or match types. Each tower has a different theme to it and is uniquely challenging in its own right. It’s a fun little diversion and addition if you’re looking for a challenge, as the really difficult ones don’t even let you regenerate health between matches either.
While the onscreen wrestlers are still set to eight, it’s said that it’s much smoother this year, keeping a more constant framerate, which I would agree with. Not once did I notice any slowdown or framerate issues, though loading menus and changing character options takes forever still. Commentary has over 15,000 new lines, though there are still times where transitions feel a little awkward or don’t apply as well as they should, and when you’re wrestling in the indie circuit, you’re going to hear the same terrible lines over and over again.
Tons of new mode additions for 5-8 player matches have been added, and a Women’s Royal Rumble, but some of the biggest changes are with the Steel Cage and Hell in a Cell matches themselves. Now you’re able to fight each other on the Steel Cage while climbing and will have to perform a small minigame when trying to escape or open the door.
I never realized that the Cell in the games was actually a bit larger than their actual counterpart in real life, so this has been scaled down slightly to be much more realistic. I thought it felt a little more cramped when fighting outside the ring and within the confines of the Cell walls, and this would be why. Now, with enough damage from regular moves, you’ll be able to break through the Cell walls and even climb all four sides. Just like the cage, you’ll also now be able to fight while climbing the massive structure as well. There’s also more panels on the roof of the Cell that can be broken, sending superstars hurdling through, also able to be broken with enough damage from standard moves.
Also new is a few Money in the Bank changes, for the better. My favorite is the ability to now design and customize your own briefcase to match any wrestler you desire. You’re also able to determine when you want to cash in before, during or after a match, which can make for some exciting events to unfold.
While reversals are still a staple to shifting momentum your way, with precision timing needed, there’s now a Payback system in place to help further this. Taking a lot of damage and losing, unable to turn the tide of a match? Then this system is for you. The more damage you take, the quicker your Payback meter will fill, allowing you to utilize some unique abilities to get out of specific situations if you’re repeatedly on the losing side. You’re also able to choose these abilities from a handful to suit your wrestler or playstyle as well.
While there are even more new additions and changes, these were the most important that stood out to me while playing across dozens of matches and modes. With a roster boasting over 200, anyone that’s up to date with current WWE will surely find the majority of their favorites. For someone that’s been out of the loop for at least a good decade, it’s great that many staples and legends are included as well, and if they aren’t, it’s almost a guarantee that someone has made them and posted it online for you to download.
Visually, everything looks vastly improved overall from the last time I’ve played. Sure, it’s been a couple games since then, but it’s still impressive... most of the time. Certain superstars and intros looks absolutely identical and realistic to their real life counterparts, like HHH, whereas Ronda Rousey’s character looks really off. The majority of wrestlers look fantastic, as do the animations for the most part, but there’s still a little ‘jankyness’ to some of the animation transitions. I’ve also had the ropes do some very odd things when limbs get caught between them, wobbling like a soundwave.
While I found most of the controls simple enough to pick up and play, there’s a lot of thinking involved when you want to do something specific, like holding two buttons to drag someone onto a table, or figuring out how to drop a weapon before the referee notices. Strike and Grapple controls are vastly unchanged, but maybe because I’m not playing this every year like most, it was hard to acclimate to the controls and learn specific timings for reversals.
It may not be enough to make me tune into RAW and SmackDown every week once again, but I am enjoying my time in the squared circle after such a long hiatus. There’s no shortage of modes to enjoy and fans should be content with the additions and changes in 2K19. I’ll definitely be checking out 2K20 next year to see what more improvements have been made on top of these, as this is a great step in the right direction. For the non-fan, sure, it’s not going to convert them, but that doesn’t mean there’s still not a good time to be had baw gawd.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
In 1998, Playstation had a platforming hit on their hands with the release of Spyro the Dragon, even if it wasn’t completely apparent at the time. It spawned numerous sequels and Spyro even became the mascot for the super popular Skylanders series that is currenly on hiatus. While I grew up with the series, I was never really big into them at the time. Luckily, Toys For Bob is bringing back the original games with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, for fans of old, and those who are new to the franchise.Included in this trilogy is the original classic, Spyro the Dragon, as well as Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, each of which was great in their own rights at the time, but now they have been remastered. I know I know, yet another remaster right? That seems to be what a ton of games are doing lately. Some are lazy ports with some minor improvements, while others, like Spyro Reignited Trilogy, are true remasters, almost to a fault. If you’re a Spyro buff, you’ll be happy to know that this trilogy is much more than a simple HD port, but rebuilt from the ground up, yet preserving the classic gameplay, mechanics and even design, to what made it so great in the first place.
In the original Spyro, the purple dragon we've come to know is the only one that can save his fellow dragons that have been turned into crystal statues by Gnasty Gnorc. Of course Spyro has his trusty friend, Sparx the Dragonfly, to aid him along the way. The original game in the series was the first time we got to experience the adorable Spyro, and was two decades ago. In the sequel, Ripto’s Rage, Spyro must help save the land of Avalar from the evil sorcerer. Lastly, in Year of the Dragon, Spyro is up against Rhynoc and an evil sorceress, challenged with saving all of the valuable Dragon Eggs. While narrative wasn’t its strongest suit, the gameplay is what really shined and made Spyro a household name during the time.
So let’s get to what you’re probably wondering the most: "What’s new?". Well, a lot actually. Nostalgia is a funny thing, as it can help you remember memories far different than they actually were. Looking back at old Spyro gameplay on the original PlayStation, it simply isn’t pretty to look at. Yes, at the time it was amazing, but my nostalgia sure did remember something quite different. No more hard edges, blocky characters and bland textures. The remaster is truly a remaster.
Obviously there’s little technical limitations these days with current consoles compared to two decades ago, so Toys For Bob was able to put the much deserved love into the project to make all the games included in this package look the way it was always meant to. Not only is the game in HD and plays super smoothly, but it appears every single character, even minor ones and background characters, and the environment they are in, has been completely redesigned, but yet it feels familiar. The art direction looks like a high quality animated cartoon you’d see on TV or Netflix these days; the production value is quite amazing honestly.
Every level has been remastered as well. Gone are the bland flat green color for grass, as there’s now foliage, grass blades, flowers, light rays and tons of small little details added to make it a much more believable and gripping world to enjoy. My only wish is that there was a way to switch to classic graphics on the fly, much like the Halo remaster, so that you could truly appreciate the work that’s gone into this impressive remaster. Seriously, watch some gameplay videos of the classic 1998 version and the Reignited Trilogy version and you will be blown away.
Now, to get this out of the way, there’s a little controversy at the moment if you purchase the retail disc version. The original Spyro game is on the disc, but 2 and 3 need an update for them to be playable, which is quite a big download. This to me isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s an obtrusive and odd decision that is sure to, and already has, displeased some fans.
Even more impressive than the visual upgrades is how Toys For Bob left the original gameplay, mechanics, placements and everything else virtually intact. If you are able to play the original games with your eyes closed from memorization, you could probably do the same here. Even Spyro’s signature dash, side roll and flame moves are intact, if not more stylish. So, to say this is a faithful recreation for the fans is a gross understatement. In today’s graphical standards, I was more than impressed. Gameplay was super fluid and looks absolutely stunning with bright and colorful visuals.
That being said, staying absolutely faithful to the original games is almost a fault in its own right though. Especially in the original Spyro, where you’re given nearly zero guidance as to what you’re supposed to do, how or why. There’s an option to turn on a handy minimap, which helps a great deal, but it’s set to off as a default oddly. I also suggest playing though the games in order, as you can see how much Insomniac improved on each title in terms of level design, mechanics and gameplay. Ripto’s Rage finally got rid of the terrible drowning in a tablespoon of water, allowing Spyro to actually swim. Year of the Dragon was even more impressive, as mini-games like Skateboarding and Hockey were introduced as side activities.
I played Spyro alongside my 6 year old daughter who loves to game as well. She has no problems playing games after a little time with them, as she can play 3D platformers like Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 without any assistance from myself. She was really enjoying Spyro (and subsequently now wants all of the Spyro merchandise and toys she sees; thanks Activision and Toys For Bob!) but eventually hit a steep curve of difficulty. As we progressed through the games, she needed my help more and more for certain tricky sections. I’ll admit, the games start out very simple at first, but there were a few parts that even I had to attempt numerous times to pass. It’s hard to fault Toys For Bob for this, as they are simply keeping the original Spyro experiences the way they were designed, but some minor tweaking of the difficulty for the younger audience would have been welcomed.
Toying with people’s fond memories and nostalgia is a tricky situation to be in. Do you try and stay faithful to the source material but change it to your own style, only to have the masses hate it, ala Michael Bay’s Transformers, or do you stay absolutely true to the source, recreating a classic experience for a new audience, faults included? Toys For Bob has gone with the latter, recreating the classic Spyro experience I enjoyed in my day. No matter how you choose to remaster a title, people will always wish that something was changed or kept the same, and I feel Toys For Bob has found that sweet spot of not messing with something that isn’t broken, even if a few mechanics could have been improved slightly.
More than a simple coat of paint, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy brings back a wave of nostalgia, seemingly improving my fond memories of the classic purple dragon. Now a new generation, like my daughter, can enjoy Spyro, and Toys For Bob should be commended for creating this remaster with the proper love and care that Spyro deserved for original fans, and they have truly outdone themselves.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption
Since Dark Souls (I guess technically Demon’s Souls) came onto the scene, there’s been no shortage of others trying to replicate its success. For those uninitiated, the Dark Souls franchise that is a series of brutally difficult action adventure games that has amassed quite a following of players who really gravitate towards the challenging gameplay and unique combat mechanics. Like any successful title, there’s always other games that release afterwards that are inspired and have their own twist on a proven formula. The newest Souls-inspired title comes from a small indie developer with an appropriate studio name, Another Indie.I know what you’re thinking, an indie’s take on one of the most brutal and popular genres will most likely not hold a flame to the source material. I’d be lying if that wasn’t my initial reaction as well, but Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption does just enough differently, changes a few main core mechanics, and makes some design choices where it actually is its own unique experience, and not simply a rip-off that touts “inspired by...”.
So, what makes Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption differentiate from its inspiration? You know how exciting the boss fights in Dark Souls are, challenging you over and over until you learn their mechanics? What if you’re not that great at the genre, like myself, and don’t always get to experience every uniquely crafted boss sequence because of the need for hours of leveling and exploring required to do before reaching them? Sacrifice for Redemption has streamlined this and is essentially a boss rush mode. That’s right, no vast world to explore and navigate. No need to level up and gain new abilities. Simply fight boss after boss, each with increased difficulty. It sounds a little shallow being explained, but it works for what it’s trying to accomplish, and in relation to the narrative.
You are Adam (maybe I’m a bit bias because of his name), guilty of some major sin, but you have also lost your memory, so you’re unsure of what you’ve done. You’re on a quest of redemption, to solve what you’ve sinned and restore your memory. There’s more to it than that, but given that the overall gameplay isn’t terribly long (not including deaths and restarts), I’ll leave it to you to find out the conclusion. Needless to say, once the credits roll, the overall narrative makes sense and I quite enjoyed it even though it’ll be viewed by some as a shallow boss rush battler.
In most games, the first option you’re usually given is to choose your character or customize them somehow; not here though. Oddly enough, your first decision will be if you want to utilize a freely rotating camera or a fixed angled camera. As a newbie to the game, I chose fixed, but some may want to use the free camera instead, out of habit. Given you’ll want to be locked onto the bosses nearly the majority of the time, I was fine with my choice.
You’ll face-off against eight distinctly unique bosses, with the first seven based on the deadly sins. After a brief tutorial about the controls, which feel natural, you’re set in a small hub area where you can pick and choose what boss to fight, in whatever order you wish, though with a twist. You see, before each boss fight, you’ll need to sacrifice something of yourself. At first it’s simply a chunk of health you lose access to, but as you progress, your damage and defense will suffer, you’ll have less items to use, or you'll even lose the ability to heal yourself. This means the game becomes more challenging as you progress, regardless of what boss order you decide to go with.
As I began, I hated that I was becoming weaker as I progressed, instead of stronger, but this is Sacrifice of Redemption's subtle way of telling you to get better as you progress. So, while the bosses don’t inherently become “harder”, the setbacks you are given make a huge difference, especially if it’s a boss that you’re having trouble with initially. Some are obviously more trickier than others, but like any game, once you’ve figured out their mechanics and patterns, it’s simply having the patience to strike when appropriate.
Consider this a warning: "Be ready to die a lot". I swear I must have tried a certain boss a hundred times before finally besting it, but the gratification of finally doing so is immense. In a way I really appreciated that the game forces you to become better with each new debuff you inherit, as it doesn’t go away after beating a boss. But on the other hand, I really enjoy becoming more powerful as I progress through a title at the same time. You’re also able to freely leave a battle and attempt another boss if you’re simply becoming too frustrated and need a change; something I did a handful of times.
Combat in Sacrifice for Redemption is quite challenging. You’re able to use a sword and shield combo or a large two handed sword, based on your preference. You can also use a handful of other items like spears, fire bombs, health potions and more. Just like Dark Souls, you have an endurance bar that dictates how much you can swing your weapon, run, or dodge roll before having to take a moment to rest and let the action bar replenish.
Now, I’m not good at the Souls games in any way; terribly bad you might say, but I do enjoy them still, even with constant frustration from repeatedly dying. Combat is fair, yet challenging. Not once did I die to something unfair, as it was a result of poor judgement or impatience on my part, or unknowing what to expect from the boss. Eventually I enjoyed being forced to become better, rather than being given a toolbox of new skills and abilities to rely on and learn.
Where Sacrifice of Redemption shines is its bosses, obviously. Each one is completely unique and distinct, matching their respective sin in an interesting way. Each boss has its own pattern for attacks and abilities, something you’ll need to learn by trial and error, but each feels like its own hand crafted experience. Simply knowing how to beat one will have no bearing on the next. I don’t want to spoil any of these experiences, but nearly every single one was memorable in its own way.
I don’t normally delve into achievements for a review, but I really enjoyed the ones this game, as there were a handful for each boss. Some were comedic, others were skill based, while others based on a lack of skill, like one you earn from dying from a first attack. For being an indie game, you never know what to expect visually, but I was actually quite impressed with how Sacrifice for Redemption looked and performed. It clearly has that Souls-like style to it, but coming from such a small studio, I was quite impressed, especially with the boss designs and animations.
Even with its very short length, Dark Souls vets will find some entertainment here with its unique bosses and increasingly difficult gameplay. If you’ve been shy to try the genre because of its difficulty, this may be a good first step into it, as you’re not weighed down by hours of gameplay and exploration, and simply get to experience the best portions back to back, even if that does make for a slightly shallow experience with little payoff.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Time Carnage
If I told you there was a game in which its main premise was shooting wave of zombies, dinosaurs, monsters and robots across time, and with tons of different types of weapons, would that sound exciting? Traveling through time and shooting dinosaurs with flamethrowers, snipers and rifles sounded fantastic on paper. That’s about where the fun will end though, as it sounds like a great idea, but the execution is anything but. I don’t like to start out reviews with a negative tone, but when there’s very little redeeming qualities, it’s difficult to look for the few positives with such a generic and bland shooter.While there is technically a campaign, something you’ll want to play through first for unlocks, don’t expect any semblance of a narrative though. I’m sure there’s a reason to why, and how, you’re travelling through time to shoot waves of enemies, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. There’s some slight hints in the tooltips, but there’s no traditional “story” included in any way, shape or form.
Campaign is basic as it gets, going through 4 separate time periods, each consisting of 4 levels that each have you trying to survive 5 waves of enemies for said time period. The only real differences between the time periods is the enemies and beackdrop. Sure, fighting dinosaurs will place you in more jungle-like areas, and robots in a futuristic setting, but all in all, there’s not much difference between them aside from re-skins. Simply survive 5 waves, which should only takes you 5-8 minutes, do that 4 times to beat a time period, and do that 4 times to complete the campaign. I’ll let you do the math, but campaign mode isn’t really built for longevity.
So while Time Carnage is a survival wave shooter at its core, there’s a unique, and arguably terrible, reloading mechanic that makes it stand out amongst others. Also setting it apart from others is the pedestal that you’re encased in and unable to move from. Essentially you’re standing inside a very small bubble shield that enemies are unable to penetrate, yet are trying to whittle down the shield with every hit. This shield will absorb damage, but with ongoing waves of enemies, you’ll need to be quick to dispatch them before your shield is depleted, or else you lose. That’s about it in a nutshell. You’re unable to move really, aside from a foot in any direction within your pedestal area, so you’ll simply need to move your aimer and look in each direction. No strafing for you.
As you complete levels in campaign, you’ll unlock new weapons to use whenever you wish, eventually having access to over 20. Before each level you’ll get to choose 4 weapons to bring with you to help survive the waves of enemies. Problem is, that there’s no real reason to be strategic with your weapon choices for the most part. You’re allowed to pick the same weapon for all 4 slots (2 for each hand), so while I usually picked two really slow and powerful guns for one hand, and two rapid firing for the right, you can simply choose the most powerful weapon for all slots and rotate them in and out that way (more on that shortly).
I believe the intended design was to be strategic with your weapon choices, but when you’re not given any restrictions, why wouldn’t you simply choose the best you have at all times? Weapons have no real weight to them either, so even sniper rifles and bigger guns feel and sound like toys. Worse yet, you’ll have to deal with a cash register sound every time you make a headshot, not just a kill.
Time Carnage’s most unique mechanic lies is within its reload system. It’s touted as “Shoot, drop, switch, repeat!”, and it is just that. The reason you choose two weapons for each hand is that you’re unable to manually reload your guns. That’s right, you can’t manually reload your ammo. Instead, when you swap for your other weapon on the same hand, the unused one gets placed on your pedestal and starts to automatically reload slowly. So you need to dock your weapons to reload them, thus using your backup weapon instead as it does so. It’s an interesting idea, but I still can’t figure out the why. I get that I’m stuck in this small confined shield and unable to move, but that about sums up the combat.
Depending on which era you’re currently in, you’ll shoot hundreds of zombies, monsters, robots or even dinosaurs. Each level has its own unique location, but there’s nothing noteworthy or special about any of them for the most part. While I personally enjoyed the robot era simply for its neon light backdrops, you’ll find that enemies tend to blend into the background quite often, resulting in a lot of unnecessary damage taken because you're unable to see them before it's too late.
Each waves becomes progressively more difficult as you progress, each adding a new slightly more challenging enemy or simply more of them at once. By wave 5 you’ll see all of the types of enemies, from the standard grunts all the way to the massive T-Rex, Ogre, or Tank-like bot. The bigger enemies will obviously do more damage and absorb more, but they are usually slower, making them easier to deal with. The real frustration comes from the smallest enemies; the dogs, flies, bugs and spiders. These ******* are small, quick and incredibly difficult to shoot (mostly due to the controls) and cause me the most grief in every level. Even with the FOV set to max, you’re unable to see enemies coming from certain directions at times, so you’ll constantly get hit, unaware where from.
If you sat down and plowed through the campaign, looking for something else to do, there are two more modes for you to work towards; Arcade and Challenge. Arcade is simply creating a custom game however you like; choosing your enemies, weapons and setting. Nothing special, but you can select enemies from all the eras should you desire, and even perks that you’ve unlocked that can alter gameplay in unique ways.
Challenge mode is a little more interesting, as it gives you a specific criteria to try and complete. Maybe it’s shooting the annoying flying enemies with a bow and arrow, or trying to stay alive as long as you can with a rubber duck gun (don’t ask, though it was my favorite weapon). The challenge mode should keep your interest a little while longer, as it’s going to force you to play in a specific, and usually quite challenging, way that you normally wouldn’t.
Time Carnage was designed with VR in mind, and given that this isn’t the VR version, but instead the standard console edition, it’s simply not the same experience. Would VR save this game from its terrible controls and poor design? I doubt it, but it would be slightly improved. The reloading mechanics sounds like an interesting idea, but doesn’t translate very well. Sure, it’s functional, I guess, but again, I don’t understand why I can’t simply reload my weapons like normal.
Gameplay is very repetitive, and I’ll be surprised if it’s able to keep your attention for any length of time. The campaign is painful to get through, but luckily you only need to do so once for the unlocks before moving onto Challenge Mode instead. Even so, that won’t last you long unless you want to try and beat your high scores. I wanted to enjoy shooting waves of dinosaurs, but I wasn’t in any way with the weak gunplay, terrible controls and an onset of boredom. Great premise, but no real execution to a simple idea.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey 
Assassin’s Creed has always had a good base formula: Fight the bad guys (Templars), assassinate their leader, and save the world by solving a much broader scope of mystery. That is essentially the magic mix for the Assassin's Creed titles in a nutshell. Of course there’s much more to it than that, with almost each game being set in its own era, but with a ‘real world’ counterpart to tie them all together in the same Assassin’s vs Templar.The franchise as a whole has always done an exceptional job at portraying the era and setting that the specific game is placed in, from the Third Crusade in the original game to last years Egypt. The newest game, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is set in Greece during the Spartan era. While I’ve never been to Greece, especially hundreds of years ago, I imagine this is as near perfect a representation you could find anywhere else that conveys the land and time so accurately. You’re surrounded by gorgeous scenery, bustling cities, farms, mountains and more, all which I wish I could visit in real life. Spectacular doesn’t even begin to describe some of the gorgeous vistas you’ll see along your journey.
If you played last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins you’ll have a rough idea of the framework used for Odyssey. Origins was a big change for the series, allowing you to access a massive landscape and giving you the ability to freely explore it however you wish. There were also other drastic changes for the series. Well, Odyssey takes this template and expands upon it tenfold. If you thought Origins was a daunting task to get through, Odyssey puts it to shame, as now you also have the seas to sail in Greece.
Overwhelming is a word I keep coming back to when I’m describing Odyssey to friends and other people. There’s so much to do that it can be daunting at times, even figuring out where to begin, but yet the game allows you to play however you wish. For example, I was about 20 hours in before I even really started to push the main story quests onward, as I was so focused on trying to complete every quest I came along and uncover each question mark on the map as I passed by it.
I know every new big AAA game that releases always boasts about how large their world is and how there’s so much to do, but kudos to Ubisoft, as there’s an overwhelmingly abundance of things for you to complete in Odyssey, should you desire to. So romance those men and women that allow it, hunt animals for pelts, try to become the biggest and baddest mercenary of the lands, hunt cultists, become a threat on the seas, or do a million other things if you wish, it’s completely up to you how you want to play.
Set in the ancient Greece just after the infamous Spartan era led by Leonidas, you begin by choosing to play as Kassandra or Alexios, a choice that cannot be undone or changed along the way, so don’t expect it to be like Syndicate where you could freely switch between the two main characters in that game. You are a descendant of Leonidas, armed with the end of his legendary spear. This is important, as this replaces your typical hidden blade that previous assassins have used in the franchises other titles. Choosing either character isn’t simply just a visual change either, as some events will unfold differently or you will be given different options during your adventure.
Regardless of your character choice, you fill the role of a Misthios; essentially a mercenary. You are given the option to fight alongside or against the Spartans or Athenians, but your main goal is a narrative that involves family and a nefarious plot that must be stopped. I honestly don’t want to give much more away, as the main story is actually quite good, and spoilers would only dampen some of the reveals and excitement I had going through it blind my first time. Your journey will begin small in scope, but like any good Assassin’s Creed, will eventually unravel into a wondrous tale of intrigue, deceit, revenge and mystery.
Greece is a beautiful landscape, and it’s actually quite difficult to fathom how large the land is, as your training area is quite large, but as you zoom out to see the world, you will notice that it’s quite a small island in comparison to the surrounding lands. As you make your way to Athens and beyond you’ll start to get an idea for how populated and how much work went into making this virtual ancient Greece a living and breathing world, filled with numerous things to do.
Like Origins, areas and quests are level gated. While you’re welcome to try them at any level, I found that trying to combat enemies that are 2-3 levels higher than yourself is a death wish for the most part, and that’s not even including the mercenaries (more on that shortly). What I loved about Origins was going back to previous areas and slaughtering everything in my way like an unstoppable force once I gained a few levels. This isn’t really an option in Odyssey, as enemies and areas level up alongside you. While I’ve come to terms with this and have altered my gameplay around it, I really wish it was an option instead of a forced default.
Another early choice you’ll need to make is if you want to play on Guided or Exploration Mode, both of which drastically alter how you’ll experience Odyssey. Guided Mode is very traditional, where you’re given a quest and an icon appears on your map and HUD to indicate where you should be heading or where your target is, just like in previous games.
New however is Exploration Mode, seemingly how the developers suggest you should play. Here, you’ll be given a quest but won’t be given a direct marker of where you should go. Instead, you’ll need to find clues to figure out where your target or objective is. For example, if the person gives you a quest telling you that they last saw some bandits by a waterfall, you’ll need to speak around and ask people about bandits, or where a waterfall is. You’ll have a certain amount of clues needed before being given the direct marker, so it adds a lot more to the exploration of the world, making you pay attention more and interact with the game's environment and NPCs more deeply. While I prefer the Guided Mode, my buddy swears by Exploration and loves having to figure out where he needs to go next, so it’s a preference.
Combat feels somewhat similar to Origins, yet abilities have been changed, for the better, and it allows for many more types of playstyles. Combat isn’t necessarily harder, but you’ll need to dodge and parry more often rather than going in swinging wildly. Perform a perfect dodge or parry and time will slow, allowing you to get some heavy hits in on the enemies.
Skills and abilities are broken into three separate categories: Hunter, Warrior and Assassin lines. Each time you level up you’re able to spend an ability point on any skill from either of the trees, though some are story or level locked for progression. These separate skill trees allow you to build a Misthios to suit exactly how you want to play.
Hunter abilities focus on your bow skills, allowing you to do massive damage with headshots, shoot multiple arrows, or even concussive arrows to stun enemies. The Warrior line of skills is your brawler, allowing you to take and deal more damage, break shields and even perform the iconic Spartan Kick to enemies. I preferred to play like a traditional Assassin’s Creed game and went down the Assassin’s line mostly, though I supplemented abilities from across all three skill trees. I’m able to do massive damage from hidden areas, apply poison to my blade and even completely disappear if needed.
Your gear plays a large part into your skills too, as each weapon and piece of armor will have an amount of Hunter, Warrior or Assassin damage on it, along with other bonuses or even massively useful set pieces for the best gear. Much like the system from Origins, every item will have a required level and vary in quality from common, blue, purple or even gold quality. You’ll need to keep your gear updated as you level though, given that enemies scale with you, so make sure to visit a blacksmith and upgrade your best pieces to be in line with your current level. This of course takes many materials, things you’ll find along the way doing quests and hunting, like stone, pelts, wood and more. Once you get to about level 30 or so, the requirements for gear upgrades becomes massive, again, adding to the overwhelming feeling, knowing you may have to grind for a bit to gather the supplies.
Then comes the quests. This is where I became overwhelmed quite quickly. In the beginning you’re given a handful of simple and easy quests in progression, and once you’re released into the world, BOOM. You’re going to have so many quests that you won’t know where to start. I myself always try and go from closest to furthest, but you are given a bunch of quests that will also last you until the end of the game as well, giving something to always work towards. While you’re not forced to do any side quests if you don’t wish, keep in mind that areas are heavily level gated, so if you don’t, you’re going to be very underpowered as you progress through the story. There are daily quests, and other quests as well, that will reward you with a special currency that can be saved up and exchanged for some of the best legendary gear available.
Many games boast the choices you make change the world around you, and sure there are some that live up to that claim, but Odyssey does this very well, and naturally. For the first time in the series, you’re actually given dialogue choices. Sometimes these are superficial choices, but they are choices nonetheless. For example, me and my friend did the same quest but chose completely different options, and both choices played out drastically different. He stopped a plague from spreading whereas I did not, and it’s changed other things in the world because of it. It’s not always clear what impact your choices will have, but they can be radically different based on your decisions.
About a couple dozen hours into Odyssey, I started to notice a trend with many of the side quests. Many will simply be fetch quests, ‘go kill this guy’ or investigate an area, but they alter enough to avoid becoming stale, and given that I’m rewarded with money, gear and experience, I opt to always do them regardless. There are also numerous romance options, and while nowhere near as involved as say Mass Effect, you’re not limited to one person or pairing, so sleep around if you wish, virtually speaking, even if it is mostly meaningless (but that’s half the fun, right?).
Origins utilized Phylakes as badass bounty hunters that would hunt you down and try to kill you. While a cool idea, it always frustrated me as they were extremely challenging and relentless. This has been improved in Odyssey, replaced with Mercenaries. If you kill too many highly ranked people, or cause too much of a ruckus or murder, your wanted bounty level will rise, causing these randomly generated mercenary hunters to track you down. These are essentially mini-bosses that can be a great challenge and give you some fantastic gear if beaten.
As your bounty level rises (think wanted star levels from Grand Theft Auto), more and more menacing bounty hunters will start to track you down. What makes this mechanic so interesting though is that they can appear all over the world and at any moment. So, it doesn’t matter that you’re in the middle of a story quest, dispatching enemies, as they show up randomly, or even in pairs. You are able to pay off your bounty if you wish to be left alone, but that cost rises steadily, so it’s up to you how you want to deal with these baddies.
Eventually you’ll unlock a Cultist menu, showcasing special targets that relate to the main story and unlock some of the best gear and set pieces. You won’t simply know where all of these cultists are though, and will need to do some investigative work to uncover their identities before they can be marked on the map.
To add even more things to do in Odyssey, Conquests play a large part in ‘freeing’ a specific region or area. These are epic clashes with Spartans versus Athenians where you choose which side you wish to fight for. To unlock these battles you’ll need to lower the regions control by clearing out forts, burning supplies and killing specific targets before they are available. These battles have a heavy 'For Honor' vibe to it (another Ubisoft title for those who may not know), as you need to lower the enemies’ count in battle, facing off against numerous enemies and captains at once.
Lastly, a series favorite, ship battles, make a return. This is not only how you’ll traverse from island to island, but you are able to openly engage in naval warfare should you desire. While the core gameplay is mostly familiar, you are now able to not only upgrade your ship, but you can also recruit lieutenants to your crew (instead of assassinating them), which will help in ship battles. Your lieutenants are even able to be summoned on land (if you purchase that ability) to distract and fight for you for short period of time. There are naval quests for you to take on if that’s what you wish to focus on as well, so there’s a ton of options for you to play however you desire.
Odyssey still has the core Assassin’s Creed gameplay to it, and while I play it that style, you’re able to play in a completely different way should you desire. You can decide to play as a Hunter/Warrior hybrid if you want and it actually feels like playing a Witcher title at times. Yes, quests eventually become slightly repetitive, but they are completely optional and you can play them however and whenever you desire. While I almost constantly feel overwhelmed with how much there is to always do, it goes to show how much content has been included, only adding to the value and replayability.
During my first week of playing, I was hard crashing and freezing at least once or twice a day, which obviously became very frustrating. It seems this has been fixed with the latest patch, but it happened enough in the beginning to be noteworthy. There are a ton of smaller bugs riddled throughout, though nothing I’ve personally experienced that’s game breaking, though a friend of mine had one of his main quests glitch out on him pretty badly at one point.
Even with a few hiccups, Odyssey is one of the best Assassin’s Creed games to date. It allows you to play it nearly however you want, doesn’t intrude too often with the ‘real world’ segments (even though I quite enjoy that aspect), and it is simply a better product overall than previous entries. While Black Flag may still be my favorite in the series for its pirate setting, and Ezio as my favorite protagonist, Odyssey tops my list for overall experience with all of its additions and improvements. If you enjoyed Origins, Odyssey is a vastly improved version, and if you’ve fallen out of love with Assassin’s Creed over the years, this is the one to reel you back in with an overwhelming amount of stuff to do however you wish.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Fishing Sim World
There really isn’t a wide breadth of options for dedicated fishing games on console if you’re really into the sport, which is a shame, as I tend to always gravitate towards fishing if it’s included in game, even as a simple side activity with little reward. Truth be told, I can count the times I’ve actually gone fishing in real life on a single hand, but even though I’m not an avid angler in real life, I do enjoy my virtual line and reel whenever possible.Dovetail Games aims to remedy this isolated problem on console with their newest release, Fishing Sim World. Aiming at being a realistic fishing simulator, you’ll travel to many bodies of water and use dozens of pieces of equipment to start your angling career off on the right foot. So does Fishing Sim World tick all the right boxes to get you hooked? Let’s dive in.
From the opening, you’ll be able to create your character, male or female, and slightly alter how they look and what they wear. There’s really not a lot of options available, or that look great, but at least you’re able to somewhat customize a fisherman, or woman, to suit your preferences. I will say, the blandness of the visuals is apparent from the get-go, as the characters and animations themselves are far from impressive by any means.
Next up I would suggest heading to the tutorial area, as that’s going to be how you learn how to begin your fishing career off on the right foot. This was the first disappointment I had though, as instead of an in-depth tutorial that shows you and gets you to practice all the intricacies of the fishing life, you’re instead simply given a list of tutorial videos to watch and hopefully remember. There’s a handful of videos, going over each topic, from casting, reeling in, tackle box and equipment and more, but for a game that’s boasting about being a realistic simulator, some hands on practice would have been a far better option instead of this back seat approach.
You’re able to then choose where you’d like to fish from a handful of different areas and lakes, aiming to catch more than a dozen different types of fish along the way, and do to so, you’re going to need a multitude of different equipment types, from lures, bait and rods, depending on what you’re aiming to catch. Do you prefer to hit the lakes in Florida, New York, France, Germany, Austria or the UK? It’s completely up to you, and of course, each area houses different species of fish. To navigate these large lakes you’re going to need a vessel, and as it just happens, you have access to a boat, allowing you to search and scour for your favorite fishing spots with your on-board fish sonar and GPS.
Fishing won’t work without the right equipment, and included is a number of items for your tackle box from a number of officially licensed brands such as Bass Cat Boats, Delkim, Rat-L-Trap, Duckett Fishing, Korda and Mainline Baits. While I’m not an avid fisherman myself, I can only assume that the licensed gear is an accurate depiction of its real life counterparts and works similarly.
What I love the most about fishing is that you can simply do it at your own pace and relax. Sometimes I need to unwind from the everyday shooters and racers, and want something different to reset my gaming state. This is where Fishing Sim World excels, as you’re not forced to catch a certain amount or imposed with strict time limits (unless in a tournament), allowing me to freely fish at my own pace and speed however I wish.
So you’ve boated all around your chosen lake and found a spot that seems full of fish with some great natural beauty to it to relax to. Now this is where your patience will be tested. Fishing is tricky, as you’re simply left to chance, depending on the fish, how hungry they are, if they’ll bite and more. Sometimes you’ll find a spot where you’ll constantly get bites nonstop, whereas other areas I’ve had no luck with a single bite for over 15 minutes. This of course is partly due to the fisher’s skill of setting the line and reeling it in in a specific way in order to tantalize the fish into biting.
You’ve given two different options for casting and using your reel. A more realistic version labeled ‘Total Cast Control’ and a simpler easier option. The easy option simply has you aiming and then holding down the power button on your cast until you hit the percentage you want (100% being the maximum distance), whereas Total Cast Control is much more involved and will require a bit of practice to get used to. It takes a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of, but you can cast much more precisely and is more involved if you take the time to learn its intricacies.
Fish won’t simply bite just because you cast your lure into the water though. This is where your skill as a fisherman comes into play, as you need to make your lure maneuver in a specific way to entice the fish into thinking it’s real food. There are different types of lure movements you can use, depending on the specific lure and the type of fish you’re trying to attract. You can constantly reel in, stop and go or make twitch movements. Each have its own purpose and is indicated if you’re doing it properly by the color of its icon in the water (green for good and red for poor).
Your line is on the water and you’ve finally got a bite! Indicated by a large “!”, you’ll need to snag the hook into the fish’s mouth quickly if you want to keep it attached without it breaking free. This is called the strike, and the quality of your strike will depend on the movement and timing of your rod snap from when the bite happens. This takes a little getting used to, but it’s always exciting to see that lure dunk into the water as your rod bends.
As the fish fights you, you’ll need to fight back in moderation. Your fishing line is set for a specific weight limit and tension, so if you fight too hard against the fish, your line could snap. This is where the cat and mouse game begins of letting the fish tire itself out before you reel it in. If the fish is swimming away to the left, you’ll want to maneuver your rod to the right as you reel it in slowly, keeping an eye on the tension meter. When the fish takes a break, that’s when you want to reel in as fast as you can, before it fights back and tries to swim away some more. It’s always satisfying to reel in a huge catch that was a back and forth battle.
Progression is based on your earned Tackle Points, TP for short, and this is what you earn for catching each fish. Earn enough TP and you’ll be able to spend it on new gear, clothing and more equipment, based on your fishing preferences or style. It’s a basic as a progression system comes, but at least there’s a reason to continue catching other than for the love of the sport itself.
Should you have other avid fishing friends online, you’re able to play together in 4 player multiplayer and even begin a live tournament to see who the best fisherman is by comparing catches. Depending on the tournament you choose, you’re not simply ranked on who catches the biggest or heaviest fish, but sometimes the amount caught, combined length or combined weight. These add some variety to the gameplay and simply catching one huge monster trophy fish won’t always net you the win in every case.
While the world itself is very bland and uninspiring, it’s still somewhat calming, being in the middle of a lake by yourself, waiting for a bite. The sunlight and reflections on the water look decent, but for a game that absolutely revolves around being in and around the water, I was hoping for more in the visuals. Of course I wasn’t expecting it to hit the realistic water standards set in Sea of Thieves, and you can see a small bit of transparency in the water when the fish near the surface, but everything else simply looks average and bland at best.
There’s really no music included either, and while I get that as a design decision, as you’re supposed to be on the water alone, quiet and calm, when you don’t get a bite for over ten minutes, the downtime can become boring. Maybe that’s because I’m not an avid fisher in real life and simply ‘don’t get it’, but never the less, I still had fun when the fish were biting and I caught a new personal best bass.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Immortal: Unchained
Darks Souls, and games like it, have a huge following. I’m not great at these types of games, as the ‘tough as nails’ genre isn’t really for me, but I have forced myself to sit through the Souls games to try and become better and see what all the fuss is about. While I’ve yet to finish one to completion, the genre intrigues me, as the hardcore RPG will punish you harshly for your mistakes, but once you learn how to overcome those obstacles, you become much more proficient and start to enjoy it more.Dark Souls, clearly the inspiration behind Toadman Interactive’s newest entry, Immortal: Unchained, is the leader and king of the genre, but Immortal is attempting to usurp the throne with some drastic, and questionable, changes to the proven formula. While yes, Immortal: Unchained is Dark Souls-like and is just as hardcore, it’s extremely challenging for different reasons.
The question is that if Immortal: Unchained has emulated what Souls does so well, but changes it up enough to be unique in its own right. Well, it certainly changes up the formula in a drastic way, as it’s primarily ranged base weaponry instead of melee, but it doesn’t seem to ‘click’ as well with some of its other design choices. At first I thought I was falling into the typical “git gud” trap where I simply wasn’t learning from my mistakes, but after my time with Immortal, I’m convinced “It’s not me, it’s you”.
You are labeled an ultimate weapon who’s been imprisoned for a millennia but is unleashed to stop a catastrophic event that’s about to unfold. Not only is the world in danger, but all of the universe, and it’s only you that is able to prevent that from happening. That would be the extremely scaled down synopsis of the main plot, but there is a lot more lore thrust at you that makes the overall narrative quite convoluted and confusing at times. A lot of information is thrown at you at once during cutscenes, and if you’re not paying attention, much of the intricacies will fly over your head, leaving you confused.
As you begin your journey, you’ll need to create your character, choosing their looks and then which class you want to play as. Classes range from Tracker, Vandal, Raider, Wanderer, Marksman and Mercenary, each with their own specific strengths and play styles. More or less, your class will determine what weapons you ‘should’ be using, as they will be more proficient with them, though you’re able to completely customize your stats as you level up, allowing you to utilize other weapons with their specific requirements.
If you want to use shotguns for example, you’ll probably want to pick the class that is more geared towards that play style, as Immortal tends to give you more loot items early on that are suited for your specific class. By the time you make it to the first boss fight, you’re going to know quite quickly if that class is suited for you or not. I had to reach the first boss three times before settling on a class that was more suited to how I wanted to play. As you gain levels, you’ll also earn the ability to equip aspects. Each class has one they begin with (most do anyways) and then you’ll be able to select more at specific levels, such as a weapon damage increase and other passive bonuses of your choosing. You can use these to enhance your playstyle or help a struggling aspect, it’s up to you.
To say that Dark Souls was an inspiration for Immortal: Unchained would be an understatement. Sure it changes things up with being primarily ranged weapon based with guns, but you’ve got your typical stamina bar for running and dodging, health syringes are your Estus Flasks and instead of Bonfires you have Obelisks. While I don’t knock them for essentially copying the same formula, the changes they did make are quite questionable once you start to getting a few hours into it.
Killing enemies and opening chests will earn you scrap (currency). This is the currency you’ll use to upgrade your character and weapons. Prepare to hoard it though, as each time you do so, the successive level up will cost slightly more and more each time. Being able to upgrade your weapons is a great feature, though it’s hard to do so with the requirements needed for each tier, so prepare for a grind. It wouldn’t be a hardcore experience without many cheap deaths. Just like Souls, when you die you’re going to leave all your gathered scrap on your corpse. Should you go back and retrieve it, great, but if you die again, it’s lost forever.
This is where obelisks come into play, as they are used as your save points, how to change your loadouts, refill your ammo and upgrade your character. Yes, when you run out of ammo, you’ll need to use an obelisk, which in turn resets all of the enemies, meaning you’ll need to use ammo again to defeat them. See where this design starts to falter? The same goes for wanting to change weapons. If you just picked up a sweet new gun or want to upgrade one you’re using, you’ll need to visit an obelisk, which aren’t generally placed conveniently along the path you need to go, and spent your scrap to upgrade skills and weapons. Same goes for leveling up, as you’ll need to use these points, respawning all the enemies, causing a lot of unneeded backtracking and killing.
This is where the main change to ranged combat comes into play. Yes you have a melee weapon, but it’s generally only used as a last resort when you run out of ammo and can’t find an obelisk to refill. This ranged based combat forces you to play Immortal drastically different from others in the genre. You can either manually aim at enemies, targeting head or limbs, or use the lock on for easier aiming. The problem is there’s pros and cons to both.
You see, sure using lock on is great and easy when it decides to lock onto the guy you actually want to fire at, but you’re unable to freely aim at head and limbs this way. Sometimes you’ll want to free fire, as shooting an arm can make the enemy drop their weapon, or blowing their leg off will stagger them for a short period. While that’s great and promotes strategic gunfire, your ammo is so limited that I chose to mostly use the lock on to avoid missing any shots so that I didn’t have to backtrack to an obelisk to refill my ammo. It doesn’t help that the manual aiming simply doesn’t feel right, as I wasted a lot of shots trying to aim properly, and reloading takes forever at the default rate before upgrades.
With combat being ranged based, you’d think that you’d be given some sort of shield or defensive mechanics to counter enemies’ attacks. Nope. You’re simply given a dodge that uses your stamina. When you’re being surrounded and have to avoid incoming fire from enemies, it can be chaotic at best to figure out where and when to dodge, especially since there’s no hit markers of which side you’re being shot from.
And don’t get me started on some of the enemies. I know games like this are supposed to be difficult, and in the beginning it’s manageable, but later on you start to face off against grunts that will rush at you and explode, and worse, teleporting enemies. These bastards break your lock on and can warp in nearly any direction and distance, so when you’re fighting multiples, along with other types of enemies, prepare for some great frustration. Sure, enemies have weak glowing spots on their backs that can use massive damage, but good luck actually getting behind them when being flanked from all sides from teleporting enemies.
What I did enjoy were the numerous boss fights. Sure, they utilized basic attack patterns with obvious tells for the most part, but their challenge level was just about spot on for the most part, that is until you get to the ones that spawn more enemies and other crazy attacks. Prepare to die on these fights though, as one wrong move and you’ll earn a cheap death. The first boss, for example, has a tell when he’s about to rush directly at you, prompting you to dodge out of the way. Fail to do so and you’ll be knocked down and stunned for a moment, where he’ll most likely follow-up with a ground pound, killing you in the process. Expect many cheap moves like this and simply try and circle around to their backs and shoot the weak spots.
Dark Souls was so popular, not simply because of its daunting challenge and difficulty, but its balanced and fair gameplay once you learned from your mistakes. That doesn’t really exist here as prominently with the major change to ranged combat. Sure it has the difficulty, but it’s lacking the soul and fun for the most part. This immortal should have stayed chained.
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
Phantom Doctrine
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, which I believe is true, but what happens when you’re trying to imitate one of the most beloved games in a genre, yet can’t quite capture the essence that makes it unique and special? That’s somewhat what we have here with CreativeForge Games’ newest title, Phantom Doctrine; a top down 3D turn based tactical game that has borrowed very heavily from games like XCOM. They’ve brought some great ideas, some of which I hope Firaxis takes note of and ‘borrows’ back, but it’s hard to compare to one of the best in the genre, even if it’s decent in its own right.Instead of an alien assault and saving planet Earth, the narrative behind Phantom Doctrine is that it is set within the Cold War in the early 80's, with the CIA versus the KGB in a battle of information, spies and assaults at its height of tension. You never know who you can trust and you begin to question everything. An agent has been missing for a week and returns unexpectedly; do you interrogate him out of paranoia or take him at his word? You risk having your informant lay dormant in an enemy filled country; do you have them lay low and risk being caught, or try and find out more information about a conspiracy? These are just some questions you’ll need to ask yourself as you progress in the campaign.
You lead The Cabal, a secret organization that’s tasked with stopping a global conspiracy. Of course, you’ll need to do so in the shadows with covert ops, spies, interrogations, highly classified documents and more. But you’ll also need to be swift and decisive, as there’s a more sinister plot at stake that could mean doomsday if you don’t act quickly. The campaign is said to have 40+ hours of gameplay included, which sounds about right if you’re counting the multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything.
You see, you’re able to choose from the CIA or the KGB, altering gameplay somewhat, along with a second playthrough that will be needed to experience the fuller narrative with the campaign. Why some lore and other things are locked behind the extended playthrough, I’m not sure, but finding out I would need to play through it all again just to see everything was a letdown in someway. Sure, you’re given more of a reason to spend more time with the game, which is never a bad thing, but for someone like myself, who has limited gaming time, asking me to go through again just to see some new content was disappointing.
If you’ve never played a XCOM game or any XCOM-like titles before, it’s a turn based strategy game where you play on a grid-like system, moving your team as you try to defeat enemies in turns. Things become much more involved, but it’s all about strategy; how to place your team behind cover, disguise yourself, how to flank enemies, and in the case of Phantom Doctrine, how to be as stealthy as possible for as long as possible, as going hot and loud has some dire consequences.
Even though the XCOM influence is heavy at times, the whole 80’s espionage theme and stealth focus makes for a great change from the standard that has been set before it. While the bulk of your gameplay will undoubtedly be focused within stealth missions and firefights, there’s almost as much to do outside of these missions, which oddly enough, I found myself enjoying more than the traditional gameplay.
Regardless of choosing CIA or KGB, you’ll have a home base that you’ll do all of your investigative work, interrogation, brain washing, hiring new agents, forging money and more. You earn limited money over time, so you need to choose wisely what upgrades to spend towards, but you’ll also need to budget for hiring new agents, technology upgrades, extra slots for infirmary, DNA upgrades, forging documents and a whole lot more. This part will take a bit of time to get used to, as the tutorial for the base operations is not explained very well, barely at all even, which is what frustrated me greatly early on. Once I got the hang of how everything worked and was intertwined, it became much more strategic.
Your base is where you will have access to a world map. It is here where you’ll be able to fly your agents out to many counties and states, having them investigate leads, scout for headquarters when the enemy finds out your HQ location and more. Certain opportunities will arise where you’ll be able to send in agents to gather extra intel, or even thwart your opponent's plans entirely. Sometimes the extra intel will make a huge difference before going into an assault mission, as you’ll know where the computer to shut off the cameras and alarms is located beforehand.
This is where you need to balance your time and money for gathering your own intel and using counterintelligence as well. Agents will level up when completing missions, able to craft new items like weaponry, gadgets and earn new abilities. Something that doesn’t make sense to me though is why I need to spend so much money on weapons and such. You work for the top intelligence agency in the world but have to simply use a pistol because you don’t have enough funds for something else? Oh, and I found out the hard way that there IS a doomsday clock in play, much like XCOM, so don’t sit back and dawdle too much or else you’ll find the forced game over once the enemy carries out its own plot without much resistance.
Now, we get to my favorite gameplay mechanic about Phantom Doctrine; the Investigation Board. As you gain clues from your agents and informants, you’ll have to piece them together on a classic corkboard, tying string from the clues that match together until you have all the clues needed and make a logical connection about your target. Some clues appear as a classified document, where you need to click the button over certain words you may think are clues, until you find them all.
For example, you found a clue and one of the key words you found was “Tredwell”. Now with your other clues, you’ll need to see if that same keyword exists, and if so, tie a string between the two, as there’s a logical connection. You do this until all of the clues piece together and point you to your mystery target. It may be basic, but putting together these clues was the most enjoyment I had from the whole gameplay experience. The classic corkboard has a very retro vibe to it and it is something you’ve seen on TV a million times before. Bravo, and I hope other games implement something similar, as this was quite unique.
And now we come to combat within missions. Ideally you’ll never need to experience combat, as you want to be stealthy in the shadows, ducking in and out before you’re even noticed, but that’s not what’s going to happen a good portion of the time. When, not if, you get spotted by a guard, enemy, or even civilian when in a restricted zone, an alert appears and every enemy will know exactly where you are, with reinforcements coming non-stop. Yes, a game about stealth punishes you for being in combat so harshly that it becomes harder the longer the match plays out.
When you’re able to stay in stealth, avoiding guard’s paths and line of sight, it can be exhilarating, but more than once I found that these “hand crafted” missions had flaws in them. One mission, for example, had me needing to neutralize a target, but there was absolutely no way to get into his second floor room without being seen by a civilian or camera. Of course I had to go hot, and that’s where I learned about the endless waves of enemies that will come until you’re able to extract. Given that some missions force the combat as well, prepare for a lot of frustrations, for numerous reasons.
One of the biggest complaints I had about XCOM was its combat randomness. This is where you’re literally standing beside an enemy and miss a shot, or an enemy is shooting you from within a building as you’re behind cover and still picks you off. This is frustratingly present here as well. I can’t count the times that I had been on the square next to an enemy, only to graze or miss completely. Yes, there is an awareness stat that helps with this and avoidance, but it’s ridiculous in situations like this.
The AI is very challenging and is able to snipe you with a pistol from an unreal distance, even if objects and walls are in the way. One mission had me lose an agent because I was in cover on a staircase heading up to the extraction zone, yet the enemy below me, with zero line of sight, was able to headshot me without any issue. Overwatch is an option to guard your position while waiting for an enemy turn to play out, but with limited movement and action moves per turn, it’s going to take a lot of getting used to through trial and error to see what works and doesn’t. Also, pro tip, reloading your gun takes an action. Something I too found out the hard way; R.I.P. Agent Cortana. Luckily there is an auto save after every move, so you’re able to reload any save if you messed up badly with a wrong decision and want a re-do.
I simply found the assault portion of combat very unbalanced and incredibly challenging when you have an attack chopper shooting a mini-gun at you for every turn you’re in sight. The new Breach ability was a cool addition to the traditional gameplay, allowing for a more assault orientated run should you choose. Additionally, some missions also have side objectives you can complete for bonuses should you want to challenge yourself. There is a multiplayer option if you and a friend wants to challenge each other head on with some 1v1 , but even after a week of playing the game, and trying to find a match each time, I was unable to find a single game to join. I even hosted games, hoping someone would join, yet not a single person did. So don’t expect much of an online community to be playing this. From my experience, expect to bring your own friend if you really want to play online.
Phantom Doctrine has a lot of potential. While the combat didn’t really jive with me personally, the whole CIA cloak and dagger theme suits the gameplay and genre quite well. Oddly enough, I quite enjoyed the other aspects to the gameplay much more, particularly the base management and connecting clues together on an old school pinup board. Frustration will surely kick in at the beginning, as you’re barely taught any of the non-combat mechanics, but once you figure it out on your own, it can be quite strategic, even if it’ll be in the shadows when compared to certain other mega hits in the genre.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Shikhondo - Soul Eater
I don’t like to brag, but I’m quite skilled at playing shmup (shoot-em-up) bullet hell titles, such as Ikargua, Deathsmiles and Radiant Silvergun, and dozens of others. These are the games where you pilot some sort of ship or character, and the screen is practically filled with enemy bullets, requiring some intense concentration and dexterity to avoid them. There are dozens of bullet hell shmups out there, but very few have done something supremely refined or uniquely enough to stand amongst the greats in the genre.Shikhondo – Soul Eater is a Korean bullet hell shmup that is surely unique in its own way, one that doesn’t have you piloting a space ship as most, but instead, you use one of two girls, set in an Asian mythology backdrop, something completely unique and it's unlike anything that I have before. Even though the game is short in length, there’s lots of difficulty levels to try your hand at and an online leaderboard to work towards bragging rights.
Like most shmups, the story in Shikhondo – Soul Eater is paper thin, revolving around a demon army, known as the Yokai, who have escaped from Limbo and are stealing souls across the world. You must defeat these enemies and free all of the souls. Not having a strong narrative is par for the course in this genre, which is passable, as you play these for the gameplay more than anything else, which is true here as well.
You begin by choosing one of two young women, each of which have their own attack types. The ‘Grim Reaper’ utilizes a spread shot as her default attack, but you can focus the shot to be more condensed and powerful. The other option, simply called ‘The Girl’, shoots straight forward, but has two orbs that not only use homing shots , but can be utilized in a way that they can float near enemies and shoot at them more directly as well. Each of two 'women' play differently and needs separate strategies. For my playstyle, I enjoyed using ‘The Girl’ much more simply for her orbs.
You dodge and shoot across five separate levels, each of which will fill the screen with countless bullets. Each level also ends in a boss fight that will challenge all of your skills. I must say, having played lots of shmups and bullet hells, Shikhondo utilizes one of the most unique bullet patterns I’ve seen in quite some time. Most bullet hells simply put tons of bullets on the screen going in a straight line, but here, there’s tons of patterns and rhythms you’ll need to contend with, and of course, they will overlap at times for added difficulty.
Boss fights are exciting and quite challenging. The bullet patterns that these screen filling bosses employ will take a large amount of memorization and skill to overcome, and each will take place in two separate waves. Defeat the first form of each boss and you’ll then need to contend with its second, and more powerful, form. Persevere and win and you’ll get to choose from an extra Soul Attack (bomb) or an extra life (butterly). Both of which are equally useful, so it’s up to you to choose which would suit your play style better.
For a shmup, the hit detection is quite forgiving (on easy mode), and what I really found interesting is that you can actually see your character’s hit box as indicated by a small glowing blue orb in the middle of her body. That is all you need to worry about, and focus on, in order to not touch any enemy projectiles. It takes some getting used to, but you’ll eventually get a feel for it over time, but don’t get cocky, as you’ll most likely breeze through the first half of the game, but he second portion will have you most likely relying on infinite continues.
Another unique mechanic that I really enjoyed once I got used to it was the Soul Gage system. You shoot by holding down the ‘A’ button, but using the Right Trigger allows you to use your characters unique ability, focused shot for Grim Reaper or sending your orbs to attack enemies with The Girl. Now, when you hold down Right Trigger, you move much slower, maybe half speed, and in a bullet hell, being able to maneuver quickly is paramount. This is where a lot of skill comes into play, as sometimes you want that fine minute movement, but there’s also another reason to do so.
When you’re using your ability and moving slow, bullets you get close to and graze will fill a meter, which is indicated with a circle around your chosen character. Once this circle is full, as a result of ‘near misses’of a bunch of bullets, you can use the Left Trigger to activate your Soul Collect mode. Here your firepower is increased substantially and you’ll do massive damage to enemies and bosses for a short while. So, it’s a risk versus reward mechanic of utilizing your ability to charge your meter to then unleash when needed. It’s very tricky to pull off in the heat of battle, but worth the risk once you have the skills to do so when required.
While Arcade Mode is the standard gameplay, there are a few others modes to try out as well, including Boss rush, Hardcore, Custom Game and even local co-op. There are a handful of difficulty modes that are selectable, from Easy to Extreme, with the harder options giving a higher multiplier bonus for score attack. Hardcore gives you a single life, so good luck trying to complete it without any continues. Boss Rush will have you going head to head against all five bosses back to back, a great way to practice and improve your skills if you’re looking to improve your global score as well as achievement hunting for beating the game without any continues. And of course, local co-op is also available if you have a skilled friend to play alongside you.
Visually, Shikhondo is beautiful, as it’s all seemingly hand drawn and has a very distinct Asian style to it. It’ll take some getting used to, as enemies blow up into souls and automatically get sucked into you when defeated, but you’ll learn to separate the chaos the more you play. Bullets seem frantic and impossible at first, but you’ll start to learn their unique patterns, and at times they can be quite beautiful to simply watch. My only complaint is that it’s near impossible to watch your hit box orb during mass chaos, and so much of avoiding projectiles has to rely more on a feel than direct visual avoidance.
As for the audio, there’s not much here aside from the typical ‘pew pew’ sounds and explosions. I for one quite enjoyed the soundtrack though, as it was filled with a light electronic undertone, unique for each level, but given there’s only five levels, you’ll eventually grow tired of the same songs if you repeatedly play to improve your scores. There’s not much longevity to Shikhondo – Soul Eater with its short five levels unless you want to work on harder difficulties, and you could easily see it all in a single sitting or weekend, but it was an entertaining experience, one that I’m glad to have experienced.
It’s a little pricey at $13.99 for its short length, but for those that want to get the most out of it, there are enough modes included along with an online leaderboard to constantly strive towards climbing. With a distinct art style and near beautiful bullet patterns, there’s a lot of challenge included here for true shmup bullet hell fans, like myself, and it is a game that shouldn’t be overlooked, even if it won’t make many top 10 lists for the genre.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Splash Blast Panic
I don’t have many friends over often, you know, with real life commitments and busy lives always getting in the way, but when I do, I have my go-to for multiplayer party games. Depending on the friends, it’ll either be a racing, fighting, board game or like many, a Smash Bros title or something similar. Splash Blast Panic aims to take what people loved about Smash Bros and make it their own with some small twists on the gameplay.Aimed to be family and kid friendly, instead of throwing fists and fighting in a traditional sense, you instead use water pistols and jetpacks to defeat one another in battle. That’s right, you’ll be flying around the screen with an unlimited jetpack, shooting one another with blasts from water based weaponry, attempting to knock one another completely out of the screen. Like any good party game, you’re going to have fun doing so, but probably ruin some friendships along the way.
There’s no real arching narrative at all, I mean, sure, there’s some menacing figure that appears and you battle it the end of Arcade mode, but aside from that, Splash Blast Panic is simply a multiplayer affair for up to 4 friends simultaneously. Clearly influenced by Smash Bros, the overall goal is to push your enemies so far outside the edges of the screen to make them lose a life. While there’s no real life bar that you need to deplete first, you could win quite quickly with some great placed shots or take quite some time to knock them out.
You maneuver on your jetpack with the Left Stick, able to quickly fly around in any direction, though the controls are very floaty and you’ll constantly skirt the boundaries off screen, only to overcompensate and come shooting back the opposite direction. You’ll eventually become accustomed to the loose controls, though if you manage to get one of the specific power-ups, you’ll fly around with perfect precision control, something I wish as the norm.
Shooting your water based weapons is done with the Right Stick. Simply aim in the direction you want to shoot and you’ll start to fire. You’ll need to reload after a short while, automatically done by simply not shooting, and the opening burst of your weapon is how you get the greatest push against your opponents. So part of the strategy is to know when to not simply keep firing, thus shooting weaker, and when to reload and wait for the perfect aim to blast them further. It took me quite some time to learn this, but once I did I was performing much better with quicker knockouts. Of course, this is something veterans will worry about more, as my kid was content with just flying and shooting all over the place simply having fun.
To make things even more interesting, each individual level has its own environmental hazards you’ll need to watch out for as well. Some have swinging scales that tip when stood on, heavy wind gusts that can blow you off the screen, a giant slot machine that can spawn fireballs or platforms and more. It adds some variety to the levels and can make combat even more chaotic with so much going on.
While it’s meant to be played as a multiplayer title, even in team based matches or a free for all, there is some gameplay if you’re playing solo as well, including fighting against bots, something I didn’t really expect, as usually the multiplayer focus is forced in games like this. That being said, playing alone will not last long and be quite boring after a handful of times going through versus or arcade. Where Splash Blast Panic really shines is having friends over, cheering, yelling and swearing at each other the whole time, especially after a few adult beverages.
To add even more variety to the gameplay, random offensive and defensive power-ups will fall from the top of the screen every so often. Manage to pick it up in time and you’ll have an extra powerful weapon for a short duration or a defensive buff. There’s only a handful of different weapons to pick up, and some are much more powerful and useful than others, but picking the right one up at the most opportune time can shift the outcome in your favor quite quickly. The same goes for each character’s individual special that can be utilized once their meter is full, unleashing a devastating attack if you can learn how to use it properly. Again, I found some of these specials way more powerful than others, but it’s all about learning whom suits your playstyle best.
If you have a group of friends that come over often, then Splash Blast Panic will get its money’s worth easily if you’re a fan of Smash Bros-like gameplay. While the loose controls take some getting used to, and it’ll seem like pure chaos at first, there is some fun to be had with the right group of friends. Even though it’s geared towards a younger audience with its water based weaponry, and it won’t have much longevity for myself, my six year old has been asking to play it every so often, which is a great sign for that audience.
“Easy to learn, hard to master” may be cliché, but it fits Splash Blast Panic’s gameplay nicely. With a lot of practice, some 2v2 competitive matches would be a riot, though having friends and family simply join in and see what happens in a free for all match is just as exciting. Longevity and value will solely depend on how many friends and family you have to constantly play with. Gather some friends and get ready for some water splashing panic to ensue.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Train Sim World
I’ve ridden a train once in my life. I was a kid going to some summer camp thing, and while I don’t really remember much from the camp itself, I do remember the train ride there and back more vividly. I remember sitting in the window seat, staring out the glass, seeing the world go by with the clicky-clack of the train constantly vibrating the seats. I also had a few train sets as a kid, nothing extravagant, but it was always fun to setup and watch them circle around the track for hours. Yes, I’m showing my age, but that’s what kids did with toys back before the internet and videogames were commonplace.Regardless if you’re a train enthusiast or simply appreciate trains for what they are, Train Sim World by Dovetail Games will allow you to be a train engineer, allowing you to experience what it would be like to operate a locomotive barreling down the tracks, having to pick up passengers and making stops. The “sim” in Train Sim World’s title is completely accurate as well, as you’ll be sitting in the engineer seat with dozens of levers, knobs, dials and more in front of you, just as you would in real life if you were so lucky.
Don’t let that deter you though, as you’re taught the basics of getting your train moving and stopping, though there’s a lot of in-depth gameplay here should you want to dive in even further. Luckily it’s accessible for people like me that don’t know the real differences between electric and diesel trains, yet deep enough for the enthusiasts that want to experience different trains and railway systems, looking for that niche to be filled on console finally.
While there’s no traditional campaign or story, you simply fill in the role of an engineer, playing scenario to scenario which simply consists of stopping at specific train stations, letting your commuters on and off your train before moving onto the next stop. Rinse and repeat. So while there’s no narrative, the main experience comes from being able to control these massive trains in a realistic setting. You have to adhere to certain pickup schedules though, as commuters have places to be, so get used to those train controls as you don’t want passengers to be late!
Not only will you be operating the train, but you’re able to freely walk around the train, stations or even sit in a passenger seat and enjoy the ride itself. Some trains don’t have all of its operating panels sitting right in front of you either, meaning you’ll need to walk back a cabin or so to sometimes flip a switch or two, adding to the authenticity. While I’ve never been in the engineer’s cabin of a train before, I can only assume that it’s extremely authentic, as there are panels and lights everywhere, a complex system for hauling a few hundred tons of machinery.
As far as I’m aware, I don’t believe there’s been a train sim on console like this before, not this in-depth and realistic, especially played in first person. You’ll be able to try your locomotive skills across three different countries with different types of trains. While they all generally control similarly for movement, they handle, sound and look very distinct in their own ways.
Each train type has its own tutorial that’s easy to follow along, with markers placed exactly on every button and lever that you’ll need to interact with. My only complaint is that once you go into the scenarios, you don’t get any more hints or tips pop up, so if you forget that you need to charge the battery for 5 seconds, or that the parking brake is engaged before moving, and can’t figure out why you aren’t accelerating, there’s no help to be had. The learning curve does take getting used to, and there’s dozens of buttons and switches you CAN press, though I’ve found no need other than using the basics to get moving.
There were numerous times I would accidentally press a button, engaging the emergency brakes, throttling into reverse or some other beginner mistake, causing my train to stop in its tracks, literally. I wasn’t able to figure out how to get the train moving again without a lot of trial and error. Depending on your locomotive, sometimes you need to reset the gears to neutral, or let things recharge before accelerating. Once you’ve run into this problem a handful of times and overcome it, you’ll know exactly how to deal with it; simply part of its tricky learning curve.
Certain routes will allow you to nearly drive seamlessly from point A to point B, though other tracks or stations are much more crowded, requiring much more monitoring on your speeds and stops. While stations may only be a few minutes apart, fully expect each scenario to take about an hour or so to play from start to finish, meaning this isn’t much of a quick play kind of game. This is also a simulator, so don’t expect any calming soundtrack or anything of the matter, as there’s actually no music at all, so make sure to load up Spotify for your own sanity if you’re going to play out some scenarios.
Included are three different countries you’ll get to experience, each with their own trains. Travel in the Amtrak ACS-64 from New York or the GP38-2 YN3, Britain’s crowded railways on the Class 66 DBS, Class 166 GWG or the Class 48 GWG, or rapid transit in Germany with its BR1442-6 Talent 2. Each train is wonderfully detailed and completely unique. Again, I can’t speak for the authenticity, but I would guess it’s extremely accurate from my guesses.
You’re able to choose certain weather effects you want to ride in and can even explore stations as you make your stops, something you’ll want to do if you’re an achievement hunter and want to find all of the hidden collectibles. While the trains are incredibly detailed (some trains even a small first class section), the rest of the world is grossly underpopulated, uninspired and bland. Stations should be bustling with passengers and commotion, but you’re able to count the people in the distance. The same goes for the outside world that you pass by, as you won’t notice any people walking, cars driving and planes in the sky to indicate that the world is actually alive in any way. Even passengers in the train are lifeless and don’t do anything other than sit there.
As for the audio, the narrating voice over for the tutorials is very pleasant, but I do wish there was more, as there’s simply no other audio in the game aside from the train’s sound that it makes from the engine and button presses. The diesel exhaust spewing locomotives sound gritty and heavy as they start up their speed, whereas the electric train hums are much quieter and doesn’t have as much noise pollution.
You’re able to choose from a variety of camera angles, inside and out, giving you a different view when you’re in a for a long 40 minute haul. I have had the camera ‘break’ on more than one occasion though, as I was using the outside angle to watch my train, but as it went into a tunnel it somehow detatched from its default spot and allowed me to maneuver anywhere inside or outside the train, forcing me to change the camera angle again to fix it. There’s also a few performance issues, as running down the cabin while your train is going full speed causes some major laggy framerate issues, depending on where you’re at.
If you’re not a train enthusiast and don’t know the difference between a ACS-64 and a Class 166 GWG, I highly suggest watching some videos or gameplay of Train Sim World before jumping both feet in. While I’m not a big train fan by any means, I can appreciate what Train Sim World is trying to accomplish here with its authenticity, as I wasn’t previously aware the impact a 0.5% grade in upward slope could do for a train’s momentum before playing.
Train Sim World fills a niche for a specific audience, and while that won’t be for everyone, myself included, for the people that’s always wanted to drive a BR1442-6 Talent 2, there’s no better options out there on console currently. Some may find it incredibly boring, as I did in the beginning, but there’s a lot to do and accomplish here if you can learn the intricacies of being a train engineer in this realistic depiction.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Defenders of Ekron - Definitive Edition
Whenever there’s a new shmup (shoot-em-up) released, I always jump on the opportunity to try them out, as it’s been one of my favorite genres since I can remember. Defenders of Ekron: Definitive Edition is the latest entry into the genre on Xbox One. We’ve all played a shmup before, so what makes this one so different? Well, it actually has some unique ideas that make it stand out, which took me by surprise. Of course you’ll be shooting in all 360 degrees, but you’ll also be exploring, analyzing enemies, solving puzzles, changing combat modes and more. While I applaud the innovation of adding elements like these into the genre, as it all works mechanically, I have to note that they don't blend cohesively well at all times, like mixing two drinks that shouldn’t be together.You fill the role of Ekeas, an eager cadet who’s been training, as long as he can remember, to pilot one of the coveted Anakim mechs. These mechs have special abilities that allow them to absorb nearby energy and convert it into their own special abilities called Isvara. Something is wrong though, and Ekeas isn’t able to use his Isvara ability for some unknown reason, so he’s thrust into an experimental program instead as they try and figure out why.
Of course this revelation happens at the worst opportune time, as the fleet is attacked by the Renegades, a group of previous members focused on starting a civil war for their own reasons. While the story isn’t anything unique, and you’ll see the ‘twists’ coming a mile away, I appreciate that developer In Vitro Games has at least tried to focus on adding a comprehensive story to a shmup, even if it is a bit long winded and dialogue heavy at times, all across 10 individual missions.
At its core, Defenders of Ekron is a top down twin stick shooter. Most levels will follow the typical ‘shoot everything until it dies’ design, but there are some exploration and puzzle sections later on to change and freshen up the gameplay. Problem is, I’m not sure if these really fit or blend together well. I play shmups because I want to shoot and blast everything while trying to avoid a screen seemingly full of bullets. These sections really slow down the gameplay to a crawl, and while some will enjoy the change, I wasn’t as fond of these sections nearly as much.
You’ll not only have to shoot enemies, but analyze them, explore, use your shield tactically, as well as upgrade your mech whenever possible to keep going. Every boss is super-sized, usually filling the whole screen and having multiple segments to destroy, which I quite enjoyed, even if they weren’t terribly challenging. This Definitive Edition has included some improvements, mostly consisting of more balanced gameplay and an entertaining vertical 2D 8-bit version of the game, titled Invaders of Ekron. Also included is a Boss Rush mode, allowing you to tackle 13 bosses in a row should you desire.
Your mech has different modes that can be utilized depending on the situation. You’re able to traverse in much greater speed, but you will be unable to fire without transforming back, or scan enemies to get a readout about their weakness, but again, you won’t be able to shoot when utilizing this skill too. While they aren’t needed, they do add some depth to the gameplay, but since it’s unneeded for the most part, there’s generally no reason to do so unless forced.
Shooting is far more involved than your regular shmup. Sure, you could hold the Right Trigger down, but you have a meter that acts as an ammo/heat display, so you’ll eventually have to stop firing for a short while to recharge. This slows down the gunfire quite a bit, as you have to pick and choose your shots or recharge whenever able. More than just your regular bullets utilize this meter though, as your homing bombs do as well.
The Left Trigger allows you to lock onto enemies that your cursor is over, hurling a bomb from where you that is locked on, but this also uses your blaster meter. Problems arise when using these, as your cursor becomes independent from your movement and have to hover over each enemy to lock on (or analyze). Doing so in the heat of battle is near impossible and confusing, and it caused me to not even bother unless needed for a puzzle or specific enemy.
You also have access to a shield. In most shmups you have a bomb that can clear the whole screen and its bullets, but instead, here you have the ability to use a bubble shield whenever you like, protecting you from regular bullet damage. I thought this was amazing at first, as when you’re in a bad area where you WILL get hit, you can simply shield out of it and fly somewhere else. The only issue is that this uses your blaster meter as well, so if you’re low on ammo and try to bubble, you won’t be able to until you recharge. The shield will drain your meter quickly as well, so you can only use it sparingly.
There are tutorial-like missions that you can play, gradually teaching you the aspects of certain gameplay elements and how to overcome them. Some of these are straight up skill based, such as having to defeat enemies in certain ways, and others are much more interesting, like puzzles that require ricochet shots or shields to get by. They begin interesting and simple enough, but they eventually ramp up the difficulty to 11, especially if you want to earn gold medals, forcing you to be near perfect with your new abilities.
There is one mechanic I really do enjoy though, and I hope other games take note. Enemies will drop energy when destroyed, so you naturally will collect this. Fill your energy bar and you’ll earn a skill point. Fill the bar many times and you’ll have many skill points to upgrade your mech after a level should you wish. What’s really interesting though is the option to utilize that hard earned energy to restore your health if you desire.
Do you keep getting hit on a boss and don’t want to fail the level and restart? You can use a bar of energy to refill your health if you think that will help, though you’ll have less skill points to spend afterwards. It’s a risk versus reward done in a very clever way. At one point I had 6 skill points saved up, fought the boss and had to heal so much I walked away with only a single skill leveled up as the battle that had just occurred required many health regenerations. It’s clever and it works to help with those sections that are just a pain.
I absolutely love shmups, and while Defenders of Ekron: Definitive Edition is completely serviceable as one, it didn’t do much to excite me, even with some new interesting mechanics and a rarely found narrative focus in a schmup. I applaud the risk of trying something new, but the blending of different mechanics doesn’t always work as well as I would have hoped. While not terribly long, $12.99 is a little steep for what you get, but worth checking out on a sale if you’re in desperate need for a new twin stick shooter shmup.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Shenmue I & II
As I write this, I’m currently staring at my Dreamcast copy of Shenmue. You see, I’ve owned it for many years, along with my Dreamcast, yet I never really got around to playing it after all this time for some reason or another. I’ve seen lots of videos about it, I know its impact that it had on the game industry and of course I know about the infamous sailor’s meme’s. I’m finally checking Shenmue I & II off my 'shame-to-have-never-played' list after all these years.For its time, Shenmue was the most expensive game ever developed, and funny enough, for how revered it is by all the people that played it back in 1999, it never really sold all that well, which is probably why Shenmue III took nearly two decades to get off the ground and out of development hell. Do some research and you’ll see how the Shenmue development is an intriguing tale, and I can’t even imagine the fans that have been waiting since 2001 for some closure, waiting feverishly for Shenmue III.
I’ve heard so much about Shenmue over the years. How amazing and revolutionary its gameplay was, how broad in scope the adventure became, and all of the minute details that really made it unlike anything else at the time. Yu Suzuki is the main man behind the vision, having developed one of the most ambitious titles ever created at the time. There was a realistic time mechanic is place, stores had opening and closing times, every NPC could be talked to, arcade games could be played, there were collectable figures, drawers could be opened and items inspected and rotated. Sure, these days that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but in 1999 this was absolutely mind blowing for Dreamcast owners.
Here we are, nearly two decades later, and a new generation will get to experience Shenmue is all of its glory, as well as allowing fans of the Dreamcast original a chance to relive their nostalgia. Shenmue tells a simple story about revenge. You play as Ryo Hazuki, a highschool student that witnesses his father’s murder by the hands of Lan Di. Lan Di steals a mysterious item called the Dragon Mirror for some unknown reason and Ryo vows to extract his revenge. The story is quite lengthy and interesting, so I don’t want to give much more away, but it’s the real reason to continue playing to see how it plays out. Sure, it’s a simple revenge story, but there’s more to it as you progress the narrative across both games.
What I didn’t expect was how slow the narrative plays out. The story is strong, but the game forces things to a crawl at certain instances, to the point where I’d estimate nearly half the game play time is ‘wasted’ with side stuff to do or waiting for a certain time of day. I love great narratives as well as characters that have depth and are interesting, and while Shenmue has this, the gameplay mechanics arbitrarily lengthen the gameplay to a crawl more than I expected. Case in point, there’s a section where you need to get a job for five days driving a forklift. I get that it’s slow by design, but there are times where it’s excruciating to get the willpower to get through another day.
Before walking simulators were a genre on its own, I think Shenmue could be categorized as one at certain points. It is more of a detective game more than anything else, and to find out the information you’re after, you’re going to have to walk around the town, asking people what they know, trying to find clues and piece together what to do next. Any NPC you encounter can be talked to, though the majority of the wandering ones are simply there to liven up the city and offer no real value or information.
Any relevant clues you come across get written down in Ryo’s journal, giving you hints such as where you have to go next or whom you should talk to. This way you don’t forget where or when you’re supposed to be next when you come back to playing. The biggest challenge you’re going to face though is simply controlling Ryo. Keep in mind that this game is from 1999 when control schemes weren’t as fleshed out as they are today. Remember in Resident Evil where up meant forward regardless of which way you were facing? That’s right, horrible tank-like controls are here and are absolutely terrible in every way, as I can’t even add up the amount of time I accidentally turned the wrong way or ran into a wall. Ryo can run forward with Right Trigger, but it will take some getting used to for taking corners.
So, you’ve played Shenmue nearly two decades ago and want to know what’s been improved for this collection re-release? Sadly, not all that much. The graphics have been slightly improved to HD quality, yet oddly enough cutscenes are still in 4:3 ratio. Japanese audio is included should you wish and the UI has been updated slightly. Aside from that, you’re going to have to deal with the ugly models, textures, and horrific voice acting. Consider Shenmue I & II simply a port with some very minor improvements, though being able to import your save data from the first game into the second and transfer over some items is welcome.
Sure, the 1080p upgrade is welcome, and I wasn’t hoping for a full remaster, but wow, the majority of the textures are outright ugly. Keep in mind that in 1999 this was revolutionary and absolutely mind blowing, but after all these years, it has not aged well at all. While loading is virtually nonexistent anymore, a welcome change, there’s a ton of bugs that I constantly struggled with. At least half a dozen times I somehow had my cutscenes messed up where it would use some far off default camera, making it too hard to see anything that’s going on, yet I was still able hear the dialogue. Another time I somehow had the camera stuck in first person view when controlling Ryo, which ended up with a game restart having to be implemented to fix.
In Shenmue, nearly everything is interactive. See a dresser, open its drawers and maybe find something pertaining to your quest. While in the beginning I was checking every interactive object I could find, there’s only a handful that are actually needed. When you do find an object, Ryo will hold in in his hand and you can rotate it around and inspect it. You’ll see how mechanic and stiff the animations are during this, but again, you have to remember that for its time there was nothing else like it. You’ll spend tons of time going to stores and checking items, just because. Seeing items close up is also where you’ll notice the low resolution textures, as even magazine covers and labels are completely illegible. Even main store names outside, the ones that are in English, will have you squinting to try and figure out what it’s supposed to say, hoping it’s the place you meant to go.
Time. This was my biggest frustration in the first Shenmue, more so than even the controls, visuals or voice acting. Particular events only take place at certain times of day. Stores have open and closing hours, like in real life, so much of your time is going to be waiting. If you need to meet someone at 6PM, you need to fill your day with activities to pass time, or simply wait it out. This causes such a slowdown of gameplay that it became incredibly frustrating, to the point where I didn’t want to sit and play for any prolonged length of time. Sure, there are tons of extra events you can do, mini-games and other things, but eventually these become tiresome as well. While Shenmue II fixed some of this, it’s absolutely painful to deal with in the original.
To pass time by, you’ll want to entertain yourself with mini-games and collectables. For those old enough to remember, there’s even an arcade to go visit and play a handful of games, including a few classic SEGA titles. These help distract you from the time sink for the first while, but after so many plays, it becomes somewhat boring quite quickly, so make sure to get some games of darts in, gambling or an arm wrestling match or two, simply to experience all of what Shenmue has to offer before it becomes mundane.
While not the first to use them, Shenmue is generally regarded as the game that really fathered the QTE’s (quick time events) in videogames in the current form that we’re used to. These are when you see a button or stick prompt on the screen during a cutscene, adding an element of interactivity that would normally be a linear watching experience. I personally enjoy QTE’s in games, whereas I know some loathe them and regard them as lazy development. They are not overly used here and make sense when they are added, so you need to pay attention during cutscenes just in case you get a prompt. Again, for 1999, this was an amazing feature, one that Yu Suzuki is generally regarded to as creating in its current form. Luckily if you fail, you’ll simply restart that cutscene again, hopefully having memorized the proper sequence to complete it.
Periodically Ryo will need to defend himself, as searching for the killer of his father will only get him deep into the underbelly of street gangs. Given that Yu Suzuki was part of SEGA’s AM2 development house, known for the fantastic Virtua Fighter series, naturally some of those mechanics were also introduced into Shenmue with its fighting sequences. When Ryo has to fight, you’ll be pulling off moves, much like in Virtua Fighter, with punches, kicks, throws and dodges. There’s many moves for you to learn as master (by practicing), and while it works in theory, some of the enemies are so cheap that you’ll sometimes have to resort to button spamming and praying you’re going to survive.
Simple attacks are done with a single button press, but you’ll learn more powerful and complex moves that require longer inputs, again, just like Virtua Fighter. Even if you master the moves, performing them while being attacked by 5 enemies is a whole other story. The input seems very laggy, so trying to utilize the more advanced moves never really worked out for me, especially during a 70 man battle in the first game and its boss fights.
Reviewing this Shenmue package was something I was very excited for. I’d finally get to experience one of the most iconic games from the Dreamcast era for myself, seeing what the big deal was. It was very difficult to review though, as I had to constantly keep in mind as if I was playing it in 1999 versus 2018. In 1999 I can see why it was such a big deal, as it introduced so many mechanics, a truly narrative driven and in-depth experience, something not really seen at the time. In today’s terms though, it would get ripped apart for those same reasons.
Playing Shenmue in 2018, I rarely enjoyed myself aside from the narrative. I was constantly frustrated with time management, terrible controls and absolutely atrocious voice acting. If I had played this in 1999, my nostalgia would have me grinning from ear to ear, so I understand the difference nearly two decades can make on a game.
Sadly Shenmue has not aged well, and given that Shenmue I & II is more or less simply a straight port, albeit with some minor improvements, it was almost torture at times to sit through. If I ever play a game again where I need to get a job as a forklift driver, it’ll be too soon. That being said, I can completely appreciate and respect it for what it is and the era that it released in. New players to the series, like myself, will find it hard to overlook its extremely rough edges, but original fans should fall right back in love with it. I hope that new players to the series can overcome its issues and experience and appreciate it for what it was back in 1999.
My score isn’t solely based on Shenmue’s experience from 1999, nor simply as a 2018 title, but instead, a mixture of both. It’s ugly to look at, the voice acting will make you cringe, it has a ton of issues and frustrations, but it’s a very unique experience, one that I’m glad to have finally enjoyed after all this time, even if it has not aged very well at all.
Shenmue has a very important part in videogame history, as a whole, for numerous reasons, which is why I wish it got some updated polish and improvements that it rightfully deserved. Given the series' turmoil history though, we should be happy we’ve at least gotten this port. If you want to experience a game unlike any other, and can keep an open mind about when it was originally released, you’ll start to appreciate it for what it was at the time, and in the present it is almost like a time capsule directly back to 1999.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Frost
I usually really enjoy card based deck building games. Something about the strategic element of thinking numerous moves ahead, or how to plan accordingly, generally comes naturally to me. There’s always going to be a random-like element to a card game for the most part, even with a game like Solitaire, where you have no idea what the next face down card that you will put in your hand will be, and how you must adapt. But what do you do when the odds are so unfairly stacked against you that it’s seemingly impossible to win most of the time? That’s where Frost comes in, a card based title that boasts a narrative reasoning behind its premise.A frozen world is being engulfed by an approaching deadly winter storm, and your group must flee in search of refuge. Where you live is the only safe place you’re aware of, but the storm is constantly approaching behind you, and the journey won’t be an easy one. You’ll cross paths with many dangers, not only limited to wolves and other people, but managing your resources and hunger also.
So how does Frost implement this narrative into a deck building game? In some ways, very cleverly, but in terms of the execution, very frustratingly. The Frost is indicated by a counter in the top left of the screen, and at the end of every turn, the dial either counts downwards (closer), or upwards if you’ve managed to move forward on your journey. You’re going to need a certain set of cards to clear each step of the journey though, and with the Frost constantly within reach, and a seemingly unfair set of winning conditions, you’ll become quite frustrated before ever reaching the refuge for the first time.
Most cards games are simple in premise, so they are easy to pick up and play, but they require time and practice to master. Frost requires time and practice, but it is absolutely not a simple game to pick up and play; that is, if you actually want to win. You’ll need to think very strategically, not just to win, but to even stay ahead of the Frost that is a constant reminder of your impending doom. You’ll need to clear twenty or so areas to make it to the refuge, but you’ll soon see why this is incredibly more challenging than it first appears to be.
You’ll be given a preset deck of cards in the beginning, with food, wood, survivors and despair cards. These are your resources, and while small, must be managed essentially perfectly, and need to hope that the randomness doesn’t play against you too harshly, though it will. To clear an area and move ahead, you’ll need to ‘feed’ the area card the resources is desires, such as a certain amount of survivors, wood or food, by handing in these cards. There are also idea cards where you can trade a certain amount of one resource for another, or more appropriately, a chance at another, so long term strategic thinking is an absolute must. This won’t become apparent either in your first few dozen games until things start to make sense, even after completing the tutorial.
The Frost is constantly moving towards you, and at the end of every turn, it will either get closer or further way, depending on if you cleared the area or not. If you fulfilled that area’s required resources and choose to move ahead, the Frost counter, which maxes at eight moves, will move upwards, indicating you’re further away from the Frost. If you don’t have the resource cards to fulfill the requirements for the area and exhausted the cards in a hand, the Frost counter ticks down, killing you once it reaches zero. You’re going to waste a lot of turns on moves where it seems you’re unable to win, and in some cases, is actually impossible to do so.
Moving your cursor around and menu management is a pain. You navigate by clicking up and over rather than using a free range cursor. So when you want to click on a card at the top of the screen, you need to constantly press up and over. It’s not very user friendly, and the menus are even more frustrating, as you’ll need to navigate to the “X” to close the menu instead of simply pressing “B” for back.
Some actions have hotkeys linked to buttons, like End Turn is Right Trigger, and Move Ahead (when you clear an area) is Right Bumper, but there’s another design flaw here. When I clear an area I want to move ahead to the next, thus bumping up the Frost Counter and progressing. The problem is both options are there for you, including 'End Turn', which makes your frost counter tick down closer to death. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve accidentally hit Right Trigger to end my turn instead of Right Bumper to proceed. There really should be no reason End Turn should be an option if I’ve fulfilled the area requirements, or at least warn the player, as I’ve lost a handful of games due to this.
You’ll start off with access to only basic cards in the beginning, but the more you play, the more you’ll unlock. At first I thought it was a great idea to play as much as possible to unlock all the different cards, hoping it would make finding the refuge much easier. In fact, it did the complete opposite. You see, cards you’ve unlocked will randomly be thrown into your game, even if you’re a beginner playing on Easy mode.
For example, I unlocked a higher tier enemy card that required three spears to kill (if I don’t want to take health damage), and because decks are built randomly, I was lucky enough to have this card given to me in the first area. You don’t start with spear cards to ‘fight back’ enemies in your opening hand, as you need to trade resources for those, so I started off on a losing battle because I have this card unlocked permanently in my deck now. There are a few dozen cards to unlock, but like I said, the game becomes more difficult as you unlock them, which to me seems like backwards design.
At the top of the play field you’ll see Idea Cards pop up each turn. These are where you can exchange resources for others. If you’re completely out of wood, hopefully you’ll see an Idea Card where you can trade a food and survivors for some wood. This is where the resource management comes into play. You always have a counter of your resources in your deck, though it’s randomized what cards you’re given per hand of five, including the junk despair cards that are simply unusable.
You won’t progress far if you don’t start trading these resources for others, so you have to not only think very strategically, but hope that the randomness is on your side for once. Happen to get a handful of despair cards that you are unable to do anything with? You’re going to have to waste a turn, thus ticking down the Frost counter, to just refresh the cards in your current hand. It’s a constant battle of watching the Frost counter, hoping you have the right resources and trying to battle any enemy cards that get placed as well. To say it’s a continuous and unfair battle is an understatement.
If you’re short on the right resources needed to progress, you can also send out your survivors in your hand to scavenge, hopefully bringing back exactly what you’re looking for. They can bring back food, wood, other survivors, worthless despair cards, or even die, so it’s a gamble of how badly you want to risk sending them. Lose the required survivors and the game will tell you it’s basically unwinnable, causing you to lose and start anew once again.
So, not only do you have to satisfy the current area’s resource requirements to move on, you’ll also be given a random event in every area as well. With any luck it’s a simple trade opportunity, like an idea card, but now and then you’ll come across wolves or enemies that will attack you. At first, wolves are manageable, once you figure out to trade for the spears AND hope you get that card in your hand before moving on, but eventually you’ll have to battle harder enemies. Some will take two or three spears to kill, and others will even attack you at every turn, not just at the end of moving on from the area if not defeated.
If you don’t kill the enemy you’ll take damage when you move onto the next area. You only begin with four health, so you can either take the damage yourself or sacrifice one of your survivor cards in your hand, if you’re lucky enough to draw one that is. When you unlock the higher tier cards, there will be ways to replenish health if needed, but these are usually quite costly, and again, simply another resource you’re going to have to balance and manage.
Once you’ve finally got luck on your side, and you manage to finally make it to the refuge, there’s no grand scene that plays out or anything that feels rewarding. It took me a dozen or two games to get my first ‘win’, but when you do finally do so, Custom and Endless modes will unlock. Custom Games allow you to build any game with certain win parameters and Endless Games is self-explanatory. You’ll also unlock Scenarios as you play, with each one having its own twist to the game, such as not having to worry about Frost, or having some special abilities available. These are entertaining for a change of pace, and offer some varied gameplay.
For a game that’s very minimalistic with hand drawn art, it’s odd that there are some performance issues, even on an Xbox One X. Certain motions, like dealing your hand a new card, or changing areas, tend to lag out a bit, only worsened if you’re trying to hit the buttons needed before the game is ready to do so. This is by no means a deal breaker, but something worth noting.
The biggest frustration for me though was its difficulty. Even on Easy Mode, you’re going to lose dozens of times before you just happen to get a decent loadout of cards that tend to go your way. You’re constantly pressured to move ahead and progress, but are given minimal resources to do so, which in turn takes you longer to do.
Great games are supposed to ease you into the experience, to build your confidence and strategy building skills before hitting a steep difficulty curve. Frost does nearly the opposite, simply throwing you in, causing you to lose a lot of games before getting close to the refuge and losing again because of a bad hand. Frost is unforgiving, and worse yet, seemingly more based on luck than skill, which is a shame, as it has a ton of potential otherwise.
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
Danger Zone 2
I can’t believe it’s been a full decade without a new Burnout game. Burnout Paradise, while great, was missing the uber popular Crash Mode from the previous titles where I spent countless hours playing over the years. It’s been a decade and I’m craving more Burnout for its crashing excitement. While not the exact same thing, Danger Zone 2 is essentially a spiritual successor, and since EA isn’t giving us our fix of Burnout in the last decade, so it’s what we’ll have to enjoy in the meantime.If you stripped Burnout’s Crash Mode from some of its previous games, Danger Zone 2 would essentially be the result, though not as detailed or polished. If you’ve yet to experience the wonder of Burnout and its Crash Mode, let me explain. You fundamentally hurling your vehicle down an open stretch of highway into a busy intersection, seeing how much destruction and mayhem you can cause. Oh, and your car can also blow up, sending others flying into traffic and causing more damage, and all of this is tallied in a figurative dollar amount. While there’s no story present in any way, shape or form, that’s ok in a game like this that can be fun to just cause vehicular destruction.
While the crashing itself is physics based, the physics used are certainly exaggerated, as rear ending a car, or slamming it from the side, will send it flying forward at a speed and angle that shouldn’t be possible. Your goal is to create as much chaos as possible with the traffic driving on the roads, tallying the biggest dollar score possible with every crash, flip and explosion. Most ‘tracks’ will have a stretch of highway for you to either avoid, or start your crashing early, before reaching the goal area where the major accidents are to take place.
If you sit down and play Danger Zone 2 in lengthy spurts, you’re going to notice that every level looks and feels virtually the same. Sure, some have longer road run ups, or ramps, but every highway and background looks essentially the same with very little variance between them. Some variance of backdrop would have been welcomed, or weather changes of some sort, but all 23 challenges (yes, 23) will all blend together and play nearly the same throughout.
Hit a car on the run up at just the right angle and you’ll be able to check it, launching it forward without crashing yourself. I wasn’t able to really tell if the vehicle you’re given really makes a difference for the car hitting and distance, though I found I was crashing a lot less when I was using the larger semi. Even better, flatbeds moving supercars, or trucks delivering pipes, will cause even more damage and havoc if checked, especially into oncoming traffic. Seeing cars flying into the air and smashing a ton of others will always put a smile on your face when the sparks start to fly.
With only 23 levels to play in, there’s very little content included unless you really enjoy chasing high scores and leaderboards. To get the coveted in-game Platinum medals, you’re going to need to not only cause some mass destruction in the danger zone, but also complete the run up objectives for bonus cash. These objectives range from simple ‘Hit X amount of cars’, ‘Boost combo X times’, ‘Use Slow-mo camera off every ramp’ and more. These aren’t necessary to complete levels and attain a bronze, but will be if you want to Platinum each level you'll have to complete them too.
Each level gives you a predetermined vehicle (semi, taxi, truck, F1 car, etc.) and layout. Almost like a puzzle game, you need to figure out the best path and way to cause the most damage to get those coveted Platinum medals. The issue is that once you’re plunked into a new level, you’re basically going to have to fail a few dry runs to learn the traffic patterns and bonus pickups to plot the best course of action. Doing the most damage to other vehicles is paramount, but placing yourself in range of other bonus money pickups and smashbreakers can be just as equally important.
What’s a Smashbreaker you ask? This is where you’re able to blow up your car on command, after a certain criteria of smashed cars is obtained. This will cause a massive sonic boom around you, pushing cars all around, exploding them and hopefully launching them into others, causing bigger jams and more destruction. One of the major things I noticed in the first few crashes though is that the camera is permanently fixed on your car only. So you’re causing all this destruction and chaos, but won’t see much of it, as it happens elsewhere, further away from you. Burnout was great at swooping the camera around to show you where the accidents were happening, but that’s missing here. You’ll hear a lot of crashes and screeching tires, but won’t see much of it for the most part.
When you use your Smashbreaker, you’re able to subtly maneuver and glide your car a short distance. This is paramount, as to get the other powerups and extra Smashbreaker tokens, you’ll need to make sure you’re placed somewhat nearby, as you can’t really glide that far during the slow motion sequence. There’s nothing more frustrating than being inches away from another Smashbreaker powerup (which lets the countdown timer go longer) but you're unable to get it, ending your run.
Enhanced for Xbox One X with 4K support or 60 frames a second at 1080p, it looks smooth and pretty. Granted, the models and textures aren’t anything mind blowing, but there’s just enough paint scratching and sparks with particle effects to make it look great. What is missing though is the soundtrack. It took me about an hour to notice it, but there’s absolutely no music in the game. All you’ll hear is your engine and crashing, that’s literally it. Sure you can put some Spotify on in the background, but it’s a very odd omission to have, be it due to rights or costs.
Danger Zone 2 isn’t a terrible game by any means, but it is bare bone and almost devoid of any personality. It’s a fun distraction in short bursts if you really like climbing leaderboards, but there’s no longevity. There’s no soundtrack, no multiplayer, no replays and the menu system looks as tacked on as it gets. At $10 I could see it being a hard sell, but fun for those of us that miss the classic Burnout days, but the problem is, it’s being sold for double that. $20 for a single game mode from a classic just isn’t enough when it doesn’t even match its quality and personality. That, and there’s no Kenny Loggins.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
MOTHERGUNSHIP
I love bullet hell shooters. You know the kind, where you need near god-like dexterity and reaction time to avoid an onslaught of bullets and enemies. Most games like this aren’t usually in first person view, like a standard FPS, so MOTHERGUSHIP was something completely new to me. Essentially a bullet hell FPS, MOTHERGUNSHIP adds some interesting ideas that makes it unique and fun to play, such as randomly generated stages and a crafting system where you actually build the guns you want to use. Yes, you build your guns to suit your playstyle; not simply customization either, actual crafting.You are a member of the resistance, fighting back against an enemy robotic invasion, come to destroy earth in the search for information and data. Sure, it’s a trope we’ve seen a thousand times before, but the story really takes a backdrop to the gameplay. You’ll need to shoot and fire your way through thousands of killer robots to make your way to the MOTHERGUNSHIP and save Earth, but doing so won’t be so easy, so prepare for a fight with your own creations of weaponry. Characters speak over comms, and although interacting with them would have been favorable, they are written and acted quite well, and there are even some moments of hilarity and witty jokes.
While the core premise is simple, destroying everything on your path as you make your way each step closer to the final confrontation, how you do so with the guns you craft will be where most of your entertainment lies. Each level is procedurally generated, so the experience stays relatively fresh throughout. Gameplay is very quick paced, maybe not to the twitch levels of Quake, but certain stages and boss fights will require you to be very nimble with the shooting and dodging.
You begin with being able to triple jump, not only to allow you to reach ledges and heights, but to avoid the near endless projectiles constantly coming your way. Enemies will drop health, coins and pickups, such as extra jumps that last that series of stages, and with enough, you can seemingly almost fly at certain points.
MOTHERGUNSHIP’s real bread and butter though is its crafting mechanic for its weaponry. Using three different categories of parts, connectors, barrels and caps, you can create a weapon that you’ve always wanted to utilize in a shooter before. Personalization and customization is much more than a simple paint scheme and an attachment or two. Have you ever wanted to shoot saw blades with a gatling gun? Or a 10 barrel shotgun that also launches spiked balls? The choice is yours when you craft your weapons, given the parts that you have on hand anyways.
You have two hands, so you’re able to create two weapons for dual firepower. A barrel is basically the type of standard weapon, such as rocket launcher, shotgun, pistol, etc., and can be equipped on its own if you wish. Attach it to a connector though, and that’s where things start to become interesting. A '3-connector' for example allows you to place 3 separate barrels, or caps, to each of its sockets. So, if you want one weapon to shoot rockets and shotgun shells at the same time, so be it.
There is a catch though, or else everyone would simply place the most powerful barrels on a single gun and one-shot everything. The more powerful weapons, like a rocket launcher for example, takes more energy per shot, whereas typical weapon types use less. Also, the barrels must physically fit on the connectors if you want to attach multiples. So yes, you can make completely crazy weapons, but the more powerful they are, the more energy it takes to shoot. Do you want a triple rocket launcher that can kill nearly anything in one hit but takes forever to reload, or something that constantly fires, albeit weaker shots? This is where part of your playstyle comes into play, and once you get a hang of which enemies are more annoying than others, you’ll probably cater your weaponry choices accordingly.
Caps are small little attachments that essentially act as mods. These can increase a weapon’s stats, giving it more damage, faster rate of fire, bouncing ammo and more. Again, these caps need to physically fit on the connectors with the barrels, so it becomes a metagame of making everything fit just right if you want to use larger pieces. Eventually you’ll start to earn higher tier parts as well, something that, I found, became even more addictive. Simple grey parts are what you’ll begin with, eventually working towards the most powerful purple and yellow pieces to craft with.
It will take you a few hours to really learn the ins and outs of each barrel type, mods, and what works best together. Given that you’re restricted to a certain amount of parts you can bring with you into a ship, it’ll simply take time to 'trial and error' what works best for you. Sometimes things go your way and you find a combination that works great, and other times you’re lobbing bouncing spiked balls at a ton of flying enemies, which isn’t so efficient. Since the levels are procedurally generated, you’ll never really know what you’ll be up against either.
Each level is an alien ship you are invading, clearing room to room until you usually face some sort of boss or simply make it to the end and hit the destruct button. Not only will you have to face off against dozens of enemies in the levels, but also a ton of environmental hazards and turrets that can’t be destroyed, almost acting as a deadly wall to avoid. Some rooms are very basic and minimalistic, whereas others are much more vertical and have more jump pads to navigate around.
Before you enter one of the doorways to clear the next room, you’ll notice its threat level. This is basically the difficulty of that room, with each subsequent room becoming more challenging as you progress. Rooms can only be exited once every enemy is killed, and while some have a single exit doorway, others may have multiple exits, or a quick pit stop where you can purchase and craft your guns once again. Some rooms are designated as challenge rooms, earning you a bonus if you can survive X amount of seconds, kill X amount of enemies in a certain time, don’t use your left weapon and more mini objectives. These earn you a bonus and makes you try and play a different way for a short period.
Enemies randomly drop coins, and when you reach a safe upgrade room after it’s all clear, you’ll be given a random set of parts and health that you can spend these coins on. Happy with the weapons you’ve made this time around? Then save them for when they are needed. If you only have enough parts to craft one weapon, then spend those coins and make a second, or buy a better part to swap out the piece you’re unhappy with. It’s an interesting way to change up the shooting gameplay mid stage, allowing you to improve or purchase some much needed health replenishment.
The real excitement comes in the end of a final room marked with a red skull, indicating a boss fight is next. These bosses are easily the highlight of the gunplay and design. Not simply a large enemy with some powerful guns, these bosses fill the whole room and will require a lot of firepower to take down. I won’t spoil any of these experiences, but they are why I kept on playing and wanting to progress, even more so than earning new gun parts.
You’ll earn experience throughout your bullet blasting adventure as well, which can be used to upgrade your suit that you fight within. You can improve a myriad of stats, like health, jumps and more. These upgrades end up costing more and more, but are a good way to supplement your play style and preference, even if it is a bit basic and feels tacked on.
Given that you’re fighting a robotic horde in their ships, the tonality is very metallic and inorganic. Gameplay is fast and frantic, and while it all looks decent, there’s nothing that will ‘wow’ you, maybe aside from the cool bosses. There I some minor hiccups now and then when things get really chaotic, and there’s a weird lag when each room door is loading before it allows you in. As for the audio, it is also on par, with weapons sounding powerful and booming and the characters voiced very well. The musical score fits the style of gameplay but is unmemorable in the long run.
At first MOTHERGUNSHIP wasn’t really doing much for me. I enjoyed the gun crafting and seeing what absurd weapons I could come up with, but the gameplay is the same mini treadmill repeated over and over of clearing room after room of enemies. That being said, it grew on me after a handful of hours, but it felt like a lonely experience. Luckily the developers have addressed this with the newest patch to include cooperative gameplay with a friend. Now two friends can take on the MOTHERGUNSHIP together, adding more chaos and fun. The best part? When one of you die, you turn into a turret on the other player's shoulder, so no waiting around for them to hopefully finish the level to respawn. This co-op patch has added a ton of additional excitement to the title, though I wish there was a lobby system to join random players, as it's only your friend list currently that can be invited.
MOTHERGUNSHIP is a crazy frantic bullet hell FPS, a first of its kind experience for me. Crafting weapons and seeing how they perform is fun, even if it’s trial and error. I wish that there was more upgrades in relation to leveling up, but even so, I enjoyed my time with it. Boss fights are what kept me going from ship to ship and the humorous writing along the way helped balance the experience. It may be a little shallow aside from its shooting mechanics, but sometimes you just need to turn your brain off and shoot an onslaught of robots to relax.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
No Man’s Sky
To say that No Man’s Sky was a hyped launch when it was released on the PS4 two years ago would be an understatement. Excitement for the game was high and it was one of the most hyped games I’ve seen in quite some time, which is even more impressive given it wasn’t a AAA known brand IP. Then the launch happened. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was probably one of the most disastrous launches in recent memory, resulting in near exile for the development team and a less than favorable appeal for the title to say the least.Previously, No Man’s Sky was not available on Xbox One, that is, until the game's latest update, titled NEXT. Essentially fulfilling their promises from the launch two years prior, the NEXT update surely improved the game dramatically from its initial incarnation, to the point where I’m actually having spurts of fun with it. Yes, the fun comes in spurts, because the rest of your time is filled with frustration and resource management.
Part Minecraft, part ARK, part exploration, No Man’s Sky literally dumps you into a galaxy that is beyond the scope of comprehension, as its sheer size is near as infinite, as it is a procedurally generated universe. Because of this design, you’ll be able to travel the cosmos and explore planets that no one has ever seen before, and discover flora and lifeforms that may never be seen again. Better yet, when you make these discoveries, you’re able to rename them to nearly anything you like, profanity excluded. If you come across my planet, called Buttsville, you’ll know it’s mine, and that I’m a grown child at heart.
No Man’s Sky is essentially an amazingly vast universe that is a giant sandbox for you to explore and play in however you wish. With all of the updates since launch, the experience has become much better and robust, but it’s been a long arduous road. While there is technically a narrative and story to experience, it’s by no means the focal point, and more of some slight guidance. You’re looking to reach the center of the universe and uncover long dormant mysteries. Of course there’s a little more to it, but that’s one of your main ‘goals’ if you’re looking to follow a narrative. Now, I won't spoil anything, but be very wary of doing so, as there is a consequence when you do reach the 'end' that you are given no warning about. I'll simply leave it at that, but I know that I wasn't very happy with the outcome.
How you want to play is completely up to you. Choose between different modes that suit your playstyle, from a casual experience on Normal, slightly more challenging Survival mode, a hardcore Permadeath mode or even a relaxing Creative mode where you can explore and build freely without costs. I made the mistake of starting off on Survival, and because you’re simply thrown into the world with very little help at the beginning, I found that I wasn’t enjoying myself from the very start, so I decided to start a game on Normal and during my playtime for this review I have now been enjoying it much more, especially after the steep learning curve in the 'be-free-to-explore-the-galaxy-as-you-see-fit'.
If you want to simply mine for materials on the surface of a planet, do so to your heart’s desire. Do you want to fly through space dogfighting pirates and blasting asteroid belts? Do so if you wish. Hell, do you want to travel from system to system, planet to planet, to find that perfect atmosphere and build roots for a home base? Again, it’s up to you. With essentially infinite planets and systems to explore, you’ll always have new things to do and new areas to discover. It’s exciting to see new planets and life forms that have never been discovered before, staking your claim as the first to experience and witness them. Of course, doing so with HDR10 and 4K support looks amazing if you have an Xbox One X to play on as well.
Depending on your luck, your initial impressions will happen within the first few moments of being dropped into this vast world. You’re placed on a random planet, and with my amazing luck on my first Survival game save, it also happened to be in a poisonous atmosphere. So, here I am, 10 seconds into the game, slowly dying and unsure why or what to do. You’re given small quests in the beginning, acting as a sort of tutorial, but very little is explained from the opening moments, so if you’re like me, you’ll become increasingly frustrated without being taught the proper knowledge. Sure, you can read through dozens of text sections in the help area of the menus, but it’s a slog to get through and won’t make much sense without much trial and error by experimentation.
This is one of No Man’s Sky’s biggest faults, as the smallest things aren’t taught to you in a simple and effective way. After playing for an hour or two, and having to quit out, it was then that I realized that even how to save my game wasn’t really taught to me, as you need to enter your ship (once repaired) and exit to create a manual save. I obviously didn’t do this, or know to, before quitting, so I had to start over again. Lesson learned; and its many situations and mistakes like this that you’ll encounter during your adventure where you’ll do the most learning of what, and not, to do.
In a game so vast, with this scope, a helpful menu system would have been a blessing. Instead, it’s a disaster that takes many different button presses to do the simplest tasks. If you want to take a quick glance at how many of a certain material you have on hand between your exosuit and starship inventories, you’re actually unable to do so and need to do the math yourself. Want to have a button to automatically organize your limited inventory space? Not currently an option to do so. For a game that’s so much about exploring and resource gathering and management, you’re not given many tools to make it a simple job to do so, which is one of my constant frustrations, made worse by the fact that you’re given so few inventory slots early on, leaving you with little room to work with.
Regardless of how you decide to play No Man’s Sky, its core is all about managing your resources, which is where a lot of your play time will take place, including using your mining tool destroy plants, rocks and other items on the planet’s surface to harvest the materials you require. This is where a large part of the grind comes in, as nearly everything you need to do, or craft, requires a handful of other materials. To collect these resources you’ll need to fire your mining beam at rocks, plants and other objects, and doing so will break them up and place them in your inventory. Flora, for example, nets you Carbon, which you will need for many recipes and craftable items, and also to refill your mining beam. So, it’s a constant hamster wheel of gathering materials to use them for crafting, to gather more.
I love exploring space and flying anywhere I desire, but to do so efficiently, you need fuel. To get fuel, you guessed it, more mining for materials. If you want to focus on making money and selling wares across galaxies for profit, you’ll need special fuel to jump from galaxy to galaxy, so no matter how you want to play, you’re always going to have to devote some time to mining for some time. If you’re a Minecraft fan, and desire to play in that style, then you’ll be in heaven, with endless worlds to explore and gather from.
The majority of planets are quite barren. Granted, I fully appreciate the tech and sheer work it must have been to even create the experience along with trillions and trillions of worlds, but every single one I’ve been to are all essentially the same vast barren landscape. Sure, each will have its own flora, animals and resources to gather, but if you’ve been to one planet, you’ve been to the majority of them. Some are more friendly, toxic or dangerous, but they all seem similar in experience.
Using your scanner allows you to see special materials or points of interest on your HUD in range, such as special nutrient rich flora or others that can simply be picked up. At night these also tend to glow quite brightly in the distance, so they are easy to spot from afar. You also able to use your visor to show you hidden areas or special points of interests that you can then tag and make your way to. This visor view will only show you points that are somewhat close, but there’s always something of interest within walking distance, that is, if you have the resources to unearth it.
Yes, you will need to dig into the planet’s crust to unearth many other materials and secrets. Once you have the ability to terraform with your mining gun, you’ll be able to dig holes anywhere you see fit. Need to get out of a dangerous storm that’s depleting your shields? Dig a hole underground and get out of the storm to regenerate your shields. More often than not, dig down a few dozen feet and you’ll most likely find an underground cave, rich with deposits and materials to harvest. High value materials, like copper, gold and other deposits, can only be mined with the terraformer, which of course uses more valuable resources to power, thus begins the constant cycle once again.
So, you’ve found a planet you like that doesn’t have too harsh an environment, has great resources and you want to call it home. That’s where the base building comes in. If you have the materials (again, there’s the catch), you can easily build floors, walls, roofs and other pieces quite simply. Almost done in a Fortnight style of snapping pieces together quickly, you can build nearly anything you can think of, from a simple box with door, to an elaborate base with a unit producing farm. As you progress, you’ll learn blueprints that allow you to craft new machines and decorations for your base, if you decide to play that way and focus on that of course.
You begin with very limited inventory space in your exosuit and starship, but as you earn more credits, quest and explore, you’ll be able to upgrade and purchase new pieces, allowing for more abilities, upgrades and precious inventory space. How you upgrade is also completely up to you, so if you find yourself on harsh environmental planets, you can upgrade your radiation shields, or health if you desire. There are limited upgrade slots per piece available though, so you need to carefully weigh what you want to slot and where. In terrible design, you can also install these upgrades into regular inventory slots instead of dedicated upgrade slots, making you waste precious space and unable to reverse the mistake. You can probably guess where I installed my first upgrade slots.
Leaving the atmosphere and into space is a wonder to behold, especially since there’s no loading screens at any point. Delving into the vast darkness feels great every time, as you are going warp speed through asteroid belts to your next destination. I’ve spent hours freely shooting asteroids for precious materials, though be warned, you’re going to at some point, run into deadly space pirates. A warning signal will appear and if you answer in time and you’ll be able to barter or pay them off to not attack you, but since credits are so sparse in the beginning, you’ll be attacked without much choice. You’ll usually face against two or three ships, and it’s basically the last man standing. During battle you’re unable to use your warp drive to escape, so you’re better off fighting and trying to defeat them; it most likely won’t go your way the first few times though, until you get a hang of the controls.
With the latest update, NEXT, multiplayer has finally been included, allowing you to play alongside three of your friends at a time. Given that this was a promise from the initial launch, and a source of much of the drama, having it included has been a long time coming. So what does playing cooperatively with your friends do differently? Well, really not that much. You can see each other and trade materials and items back and forth, but there’s nothing very co-op focused to do. Need a ton of copper for building something? Have your friends come with you and do so much quicker, or fight alongside each other in space against some pirates.
It’s easy enough to join friends through the main menu, which will put you in their galaxy and within range, but the targets and markers tend to bug out quite often when playing together and be inaccurate. I wish there were more benefits for playing together, and maybe there is that I’ve yet to discover, but from my experience in doing so, the only real reason to play cooperatively is to not be so lonely in the universe. From what I can tell, there’s also no simple way to find random players and join them either, I guess unless you randomly happen upon another player in the vast universe and communicate that way.
I’ve had such an odd time with my experience with No Man’s Sky. One minute I’m really enjoying my time, especially once I figure out a blueprint, defeat some space pirates or manage to find a motherload of valuable deposits. The next time however, I feel like shutting the game off out of frustration because I can’t figure out how to do something, craft an item or I am dying to space pirates again. It’s an odd rollercoaster of enjoyment to frustration, repeated over and over. I’m finding at times it’s very hard to focus on one single thing, as 10 other processes or materials are needed to do almost anything. The universe is so vast that there’s almost too much to do, becoming overwhelming at times, even more so once you work on your factions and can undergo quests. Regardless of how you want to play, you’ll constantly be drawn into the endless grind that repeats infinitum. Even so, I’m finding new things to do, craft and explore, even after dozens and dozens of hours.
The small grand moments of wonder and realization can be breathtaking, but they are too far and few between. Granted, that’s with how I played, so it may be completely different for you. The majority of your time will be simply managing your materials and meters, then spending time gathering materials to do what you intended to do an hour ago, only to find out you need another type of material to do a different step of the process. It’s odd to have such a rollercoaster of highs and lows of excitement and frustration, even after learning so much and adapting to its faults. That being said, I’m still exploring the galaxy with the free time I have and realizing four hours have passed and I've missed my bedtime by a long shot due to wanting to explore just one more thing.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Tempest 4000
I was lucky to be born early enough to see, and experience, the birth of gaming. While the likes of Pong and such were slightly before I was born, Tempest actually released the year I was born, so I remember experiencing it at a young age at some point. If you’re unfamiliar with Tempest, it’s a very old school ‘tube shooter’ that utilizes the classic vortex style of graphics. Watch some classic 80’s movies and you’ll most likely recognize those classic Atari visuals.Normally I wouldn’t dive too deeply into a game’s history for a review, but there’s a reason that related directly to this newest release, Tempest 4000, so bear with me. Originally designed by Dave Theurer, Tempest was very unique and impressive for its time, gaining quite a following over the years. A decade later, game developer Jeff Minter released a sequel, Tempest 2000, for the Atari Jaguar. Do some research and you’ll see how that console turned out, yet Tempest 2000 was still one of the best games released on it.
Roughly another decade later, in 2015, Minter released a game titled TxK for the Vita, with plans to release on PC and other platforms. The problem was that TxK was essentially a ripoff of Tempest, and not even slightly, it was Tempest, even with the iconic claw ship that the player controls. Sure, you could get into a discussion about how he designed Tempest 2000 a decade prior, but in the end Atari wasn’t happy and stopped any further sales of his TxK title, which people seemed to enjoy.
Here we are three years later, and Tempest 4000 is now available from none other than Minter and Atari working together. This was kind of surprising, given the things he had to say about Atari at the time of the lawsuit, but here we are. This isn’t meant to be an in depth history lesson on Atari or Tempest, but having done some research after playing Tempest 4000, I’m convinced this is simply a ‘remaster’ of his TxK, with Atari’s blessing.
That may or may not be the case, but if you take the time to watch some videos of each game you’ll notice very few differences. That being said, those who really enjoyed TxK, or classic Tempest games, now have a new title to play. For the rest that aren’t as nostalgic or who may appreciate the ‘classics’, it’s not going to make much sense for what you’re looking at, what you’re supposed to do, and how much they priced it at.
You control the Claw, a ship that, well, looks like a claw. You’re on one end of a geometric plane shooting at the enemies on the far end before they can reach your side. Your main goal is surviving wave after wave of enemies and earning the highest score you can, but if you’re unfamiliar with Tempest, you’re going to be utterly confused from the opening moments. You need to destroy every enemy before moving onto the next stage, but that won’t be so easy with dozens of enemies to kill at once and sloppy controls.
You need to keep in mind the technology available back in the early 80’s when Tempest was designed, and here we are, nearly four decades later, and Tempest 4000 still plays essentially the same, albeit with much more visual flair yet the same vortex-like graphics at its core. The play field you navigate from side to side is called a web, and your claw ship can move back and forth across it, shooting down specific lanes towards enemies when lined up. Each level has a different web shape, which can dramatically change the flow of the gameplay, especially when you have intersecting points and have to remember which way left or right will move your ship.
You’ll begin by choosing between the three different modes, which aren’t really explained very well in terms of the differences between them. Classic, Pure and Survival will all play the same save for the amount of lives given and the ability to continue from your last reached level or not. Survival mode nets you 10 lives to see how far you can reach before losing them all, whereas Pure mode gives you three lives and the inability to continue.
When power-ups appear, you’ll need to catch them with your ship if you want the bonuses. These are seemingly randomized, upgrading you with the ability to jump, faster bullets, laser beams and more, though they only last for that specific level. Every level you’re also given one bomb, allowing you to clear the screen of enemies and gain a 2x multiplier on the ones destroyed. This is also a free pass when an enemy has grabbed onto you and is about to kill you by dragging you to the back of the web.
As you clear a level and move onto the next, you’re given a small minigame that lasts a few seconds. Here, you need to traverse your ball of light through some rings to earn a ton of extra bonus points. This is all well and good, but there’s no real indication of where you are in this black void of space. I thought I was in the middle of the rings, but apparently I wasn’t, resulting in missing out on a ton of points. There’s nothing to aid with your relation to the rings and why you aren’t scoring. Granted, it only last a few seconds, so it’s not too big a deal, but it doesn’t feel very well thought out or intuitive.
The biggest issue I have with Tempest 4000 isn’t its abstract premise or retro graphics, but the controls. To say that controlling your claw feels ‘slipperly’ would be an understatement. You don’t have any precise movement unless you move incredibly slow, which won’t work for this game given how quickly you need maneuver from side to side of the webs to destroy approaching enemies. It feels as though you’re moving on ice, so stopping at the exact lane you want is nearly impossible in the thick of battle. Many times I’ve lost lives due to sliding past how far I actually intended to move because of this.
Tempest 4000 still looks like the classic Tempest that I grew up with, but with an upgrade to the colors and background visuals. Given that nearly everything is presented in that classic wireframe style of art, it’s not pretty to look at in the traditional sense, but those that are my age or older should enjoy the nostalgia of growing up with titles like this in the arcade. Shapes and colors will constantly splash across the screen in bright neon, and it will take some time to figure out what you’re exactly looking at, but it is beautiful in its own way, even if it looks like randomness at times.
The highlight for me was the retro soundtrack. While the game sounds are very basic and repetitive, the techno inspired soundtrack was bumping on each level, oddly fitting for the graphics and gameplay, and I really appreciated that I could listen to each individual song buried in the credits menu.
Even though Tempest 4000 boasts a title that implies it’s in the future and is a sequel, very little has changed since Tempest 2000 for the most part. This is more of a refinement than an overhaul, and given that it seems like a ‘remaster’ of TxK from a few years ago, you may have already experienced Tempest 4000 in some form or another. I can appreciate the retro style of gameplay and graphics and don’t really hold the retro-ness against it, as it simply is what it is, but at the end of the day, I wasn’t having as much fun with it as I used to 30 years ago.
Diehard Tempest fans will no doubt really enjoy it for its abstractness, colorful and psychedelic visuals, and beat inducing soundtrack, but if you’re not part of my generation and grew up with titles like this, I don’t feel there’s going to be much appeal or appreciation for games like Tempest 4000.
The final issue I have, and something that is the biggest hurdle Tempest 4000 has to overcome, is its ridiculously overpriced cost of entry. I was absolutely in shock that Atari is charging $29.99 CAD for this. At half the price it would still be a hard sell, but at nearly half the price of a full retail game? There’s very little chance that I can recommend it simply because of its price. If it was regularly $10 or so, that would be a different story, but for a game that only permeates fun in short bursts, unless you’re the specific target audience and diehard fan, it’s difficult to recommend otherwise until there’s a serious sale or price drop.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Bomber Crew
When you think of a war game, you most likely think of Call of Duty or Battlefield, or maybe a flight combat or RTS, but probably nothing like Bomber Crew has crossed your mind. Developer Runner Duck Games has done some great work here, not only designing a bomber flight crew based game, but a highly addictive and adorable looking one at that. Don’t let the cartoonish visuals fool you, Bomber Crew requires a ton of strategy and quick reflexes if you want to not only win, but manage to not lose your whole crew as well.While there is a campaign, it mainly consists of bite sized missions that you choose before taking on the critical mission and progressing the difficulty. There’s no real overarching narrative that takes place other than pushing back the enemy, as it’s loosely set in the WWII era without any specific theater of war backdrop. Essentially it’s setup as a bunch of small bombing missions that you choose the order of, progressively becoming more challenging and rewarding.
I’m absolutely terrible at micromanaging and having to multitask with many different things at once, which is most likely why I shy away from MOBA’s and RTS style games, so when began my bombing career had me manage a ton of things and crew all at once, I was a little overwhelmed at first. Battles become very chaotic, hectic and intense, and you’re never able to simply focus on one single crew member or task, as each person and system need to be worked in tandem to achieve victory.
I was very overwhelmed in the beginning, as there’s a lot of button combinations that you need to do, depending on what you want to accomplish, and there is very little downtime, as you need to constantly be doing something with your crew, being it targeting locations or enemies, repairing your plane, healing your crew, or putting out fires. After about an hour though, the controls began to make sense and I wasn’t having to think about how I wanted to execute what I was trying to do. Once you stop struggling with the controls, or what you should be doing, the game becomes enjoyable and addictive.
There’s a little bit of a learning curve in the beginning, not just with the controls, but the proper way to use your crew and how to react when things don’t go quite your way. One early mission I lost a couple of my crew, which introduced me to the permanent death mechanics. From that point on I was much more careful and strategic in my combat choices and priorities.
Bomber Crew gives you a crew that takes to the skies to bomb specific targets. Each member of the crew has their own role and specialization, but should things go wrong, anyone can jump in and fill anothers' shoes, albeit nowhere near as efficiently. It’s your job to make sure they are given orders and carry them out, all while trying to succeed in your mission and bring them home safely for the next bombing run.
At its core, Bomber Crew is really a management game. You don’t technically fly the plane in a traditional sense, though you can give your pilot orders to soar at specific altitudes or take evasive measures when needed. Your gunners will shoot down any enemy targets you spot, the engineer will repair damage when necessary, and of course, the man of the hour, your bomber, will be the one dropping the heavy payloads onto the marked areas when in range and your reticle is over the target.
There’s much more to it than that though, as you’ll have to manage your fuel, refill ammo when empty, make repairs when taking damage, and heal your crew back to health if they become wounded. Just like in real life, sometimes things simply don’t go your way, and moments after takeoff maybe the hydraulics stop working, so you’ll need to send the engineer to fix them quickly. Doing one task at a time is no problem, but when you’re getting shot at by a dozen planes in the midst of a flak barrage with a dreaded enemy Ace pilot on your tail, it becomes frantic quite quickly.
Every crew is equally important in their own right. Even losing one teammate can spell disaster for your mission and crew. Moments after takeoff you’re going to constantly have enemy pilots after you, AA guns firing your way, and other dangers. It won’t make a lot of sense in the beginning what you should focus on and how to prioritize things to become victorious, but it does come in time if you stick with it, and is quite rewarding.
Your navigator will spot directional points, and if you focus on those for a few moments, your pilot will take that as your next waypoint and fly in that direction. It takes some getting used to, as you’re not directly controlling the flight of the plane, but it makes sense in the grand scheme of things. The same goes for enemy pilots, as your crew manning the radar will sense enemies in the vicinity, and you’ll need to hover over their blip for a moment to have them targetable by your gunners. Failure to do so will result in your gunners being essentially blind and unable to shoot at anything. Sadly, you’re unable to choose one specific target to fire at, but your crew will become better over time, learning new usable abilities and becoming much better at their roles.
That is, until they die, and it is not if, but more of a when. You’re able to purchase improved gear for each individual crew member, adding to important stats wherever you deem fit, hopefully to help them survive missions. You’re able to customize each person’s look and name, so have fun naming them after family and friends, which will help you care about them a little bit more. As they complete missions and level up, you’ll unlock special abilities and even subclasses, so it becomes imperative to try and keep them alive for as many missions as possible. When they die, you’ll have to recruit a basic crew again, without any abilities, so do everything in your power to save them when needed. A nice touch is that the main menu has a memorial to honor all of those that have perished in previous missions.
Completing the short and low risk missions as often as possible will allow you to earn some easy money, which in turn will go towards upgrading your bomber plane. Not only can you customize the paintjob of your plane, but even upgrade its parts. This is where you’ll start to see the grind, as parts are quite expensive, but absolutely necessary. In the beginning I was getting damaged quite a bit in missions, so I focused on upgrading my planes armor, but with that comes an added weight, eventually hitting my weight cap. So, then I needed to upgrade my engines to allow a higher weight allowance, but that dropped down my armor, so there’s a balance you’ll need to figure out as you progress.
Do you want way better turrets, well, be prepared to add a ton of weight, or you may want add some extra med packs and fire extinguishers just in case, also adding weight some weight. It’s all about figuring out what works best with your playstyle until you earn enough intel, another type of unlock currency, to gain access to the top tier parts. I do wish there were more bombers and planes though, something that I hope gets addressed in a future patch or sequel.
Missions range from low, medium to high risk, as well as length. Shorter and easier missions don’t have as much of a payday, but there is less of a chance to lose your crew if things go sideways. I grinded the easiest missions I could for a while just to earn enough cash to upgrade my bomber enough so that I wasn’t being shot down so easily. Every now and then you’ll notice that there’s an Ace Pilot that is inescapable in your missions. These act as minibosses, on top of your regular bombing objectives, and will take some serious upgrades to take head on. At any point you can take on the critical mission, which when completed, will essentially progresses you to the next difficulty stage of missions and bigger paydays.
Challenge Mode also awaits you when you grow tired of the grind. This mode puts your crew into a bomber, tackling nonstop waves of enemies and objectives to see how long you can survive. The best part is that there’s no consequence to failing in this mode, so experiment with loadouts add see how a different playstyle works for you. Since it is nonstop waves of challenges, you’ll need to navigate to the floating gasoline pickups to refuel, wrenches to repair your bomber, or health pickups to restore your crew. It’s an interesting change, but I preferred the campaign simply for the progression you make customizing your bomber and crew.
The biggest downfall is how the menus are laid out and control. You need to use the bumpers to change the main categories, then again once you’re in the menu you want, but you’ll constantly hit the wrong button or back out, something I catch myself doing even after many hours invested. For as much I enjoy my time with Bomber Crew, it does become quite a grind if you’re wanting to reach the top tier of upgrades and gear.
Even with the grind that hits at later levels, I kept telling myself to do just one more mission. It’s a little intimidating and overwhelming at first, but stick with it for an hour or two and you’ll start to make sense of the complexity and chaos, resulting in a lot of enjoyment when missions start to go the way you expected. Don’t be like me and initially judge it by its cartoonish visual style, as there’s some serious strategy involved with each bombing run to ensure your crew survives.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
War Thunder
It’s no secret that if you wanted to have online tank battles against a healthy community on console, World of Tanks is where you’ve gone ever since the last generation. Gaijin Entertainment wasn’t satisfied having only PC fans enjoy their competitive title though, so now they’ve brought it to Xbox One players while also including cross platform play. War Thunder is much more than tanks though, as not only do you fight in armored vehicles, but you’ll take the skies in planes and also across the seas in naval combat as well. To say that War Thunder is an all-encompassing battle simulator is an understatement.Better yet, it’s free to play. Well, it will be, but currently in Early Access, you’ll need to pony up for one of the packages if you don’t want to wait until its full release. Since cross play is included against PC players, you’ll have plenty of opponents, and teammates, to play against and alongside (though this can be turned off if you wish to only play with console players). World of Tanks may have had a huge head start on console, but the experience War Thunder delivers is quite a different one altogether.
Much like the competition, War Thunder is pegged as an online military battle game, so don’t expect any sort of traditional, or any really, campaign or narrative. So while you’re simply playing in online matches, the vehicles are from the World War II and Cold War era, and since there’s more than just tanks, but planes and navy fleet as well, there’s a ton of historical weaponry for you to choose from based on your fleet preference.
If you have an Xbox One X, the first thing you’re going to notice is its great visuals. Enhanced for Xbox One X, War Thunder supports 4K resolution for those that can make use of it. Even without a 4K TV myself, everything looks very crisp and sharp in the heat of battle. Exterior damage will show visually, and certain mechanical problems will arise when you become damaged, jamming your tracks, turret, flaps along with another multitude of issues, so damage isn’t just visual, and adds a whole layer of realism. The audio is equally as impressive, as the cannons from each tank sound varied (and I assume authentic), engines can be heard straining going up a hill or dive-bombing in your plane and even the tracks from a tank have a lot of subtle sounds that feed into the immersion.
As soon as you begin your War Thunder experience, you’ll probably run into the same problem I had: being utterly lost and confused with the menus and what to do. It’s clear that this console version was a port of its PC counterpart, so much in fact that you need to move the ‘mouse’ around with your Left Stick and use the Right Trigger, not the standard ‘A’, to select anything. Pressing ‘A’ does do certain things though, so it took me quite some time to figure out that the Right Trigger was meant to emulate the Left Click of a mouse. Confused yet? I haven’t even delved into the menus confusion.
The fact that even this isn’t explained is only the beginning. There’s a lot of menus you’ll need to navigate; a LOT, and it’s not explained at any time where to find things, what they mean or how to do what you want. If you were a previous World of Tanks player, you’ll have somewhat of an idea, as it’s the same premise and layout for leveling your tanks and vehicles, dumping research points into them so that you can move up in tiers, but if you’re fresh into the genre or casual, you’re going to struggle from the opening moments, leading to some early unneeded frustration.
Every tank, plane and boat will handle differently, and there’s a massive amount of button combinations you’ll need to master if you want to become proficient, again, that really isn’t taught to you well. For example, if you want to use your binoculars to spot enemies from afar, there’s a button combination to even do so. Or you’ve put a plane into your lineup and don’t know why it doesn’t let you fly one ever in a tank match? That’s because someone needs to call in air support, which you need to then do another button combination to even take part of this quick air run against the enemies.
My favorite part though has to be when you land a good shot on an enemy, as a small window will pop up showing an X-Ray view of not only where it hit them, but the penetration angles inside against the crew as well. This helps you see where you hit if it ricocheted and bounced off, so that you can adjust your angle, decide to flank or change your ammo type. And yes, there are multiple types of ammo for different situations, something you’ll need to decide on how much to bring into each battle. After dozens of battles, I now know how much ammo I average in a match, so I decide to not bring as much, as it leaves you more susceptible to blowing up and explosions if you’re carrying tons and tons of ammunition.
Up to 32 players can play in a match, and you’re given the option to choose to play cross-network with PC players. This has pros can cons, as matchmaking is usually under a minute with cross play enabled, but substantially longer without. Also, when you’re just starting out and not well versed in warfare, I’ve found that portions of the PC community isn’t very friendly to you as a newbie console player, not that that’s any fault of the game itself.
There’s a healthy amount of maps that you’ll be randomly put into, each of which will require very different strategy and teamwork, from snowy hillsides, to heavily populated residential buildings and barren deserts. I did find though, just like its competitor, is that it’s not uncommon to be placed in a match that’s not balanced very well. Even one person having a tier or two higher of a tank can make a massive difference in a battle, as does player rankings for the experience factor.
The main differences will be depending on where, and how, you decide to play. There’s essentially two modes you can choose from: Arcade, which is just that, quickly played matches, enemies being spotted and other assists. Or, Realistic, which is a whole other ballgame and experience in itself. Realistic doesn’t have any guidance, enemies will kill you without you having a clue from where and teamwork is absolutely essential. I think of Realistic Mode as a racing game without any of the assists turned on in ranked competition, then getting the crap kicked out of you because you don’t know how to play properly. It’s no joke, and will require dozens of hours of dedication if you want to play in this more simulation mode. I even have a friend that’s been playing non-stop since War Thunder has released, and even he is apprehensive about going into the Realistic matches.
Lastly, there is a fun Assault Battle mode which has you and a number of other players playing cooperatively against increasingly difficult waves of enemies that are trying to take your base. These can be very fun, but your lowly Tier 1 tanks will be wiped out quite quickly if that’s all you bring to the fight, so I suggest going in once you have a few tanks of different tiers ready to go.
While War Thunder is all about land, sea and air battles, its bread and butter really is with the ground warfare of tanks vs tanks. You’ll be able to grind to unlock dozens and dozens of tanks, from many different countries; from light, all the way up to heavy tank destroyers or AA guns. Just like its competition, there are also premium tanks, of which have to be bought with real money, but these are kitted out and upgraded and are amongst the best in the game. We were lucky enough to have been given the Elite Bundle for review, so we had access to some premium tanks as well as the premium currency to buy more, and upgrades, with.
There’s a healthy amount of aircraft to choose from as well; not as many as the tanks, but still a fair amount, ranging from standard gunfire to bombers. You’re able to freely choose if you want to play a tank or plane match, but the beta for naval battles is also included. It took some time to figure out how to play these, and even more for a match to populate, but it is there for those that are able to navigate the confusing menus. Currently there’s nowhere near the amount of naval ships to choose from compared to tanks and planes, but I can see these being added later quite easily.
You’ll begin with choosing between a handful of free beginner vehicles, eventually earning XP and able to upgrade them and purchase better ones. Research points are needed to unlock the next vehicle down the line you’ve chosen, which you earn through battle. Money, represented as Lions, is the main currency which you’ll need to hire new crew members for your tanks and aircraft, or to upgrade them to be more efficient. Of course, you’re constantly tempted with a quick unlock with the premium currency, Eagles, and the game will remind you at any chance that you should buy some, either to buy a fancy new premium tank, or upgrade your current one without having to grind as much.
And that’s where you’ll start to notice the grind. If you have your hearts set on a top tier tank, plane or ship, it’s going to take quite some time to earn it by simply playing. The ‘money sink’ is a very easy trap to fall into, especially if you want the better premium vehicles, of which some are only sold in bundles. This means that those with more disposable income will have a head start and easier time from the beginning, or have an insanely cool looking tank that they bought cosmetic items for with their premium currency.
Yes, it’s free to play (eventually), but you’re going to be outclassed with someone that can drop $50 on a super tank that comes fully kitted out. With multiple types of currency, it can become quite confusing on what you should use and when, again, something that’s not really explained all too well. As a newcomer, I know I was quite confused and frustrated trying to figure it out, so I can only imagine others that actually paid for access, only to find out you’re going to “have” to spend more money to be competitive, or dump hundreds of hours into it to be competitive at the higher tiers.
Given that War Thunder is in Early Access, and essentially a PC port, right down to its mouse controls, expect bugs to creep up now and then. I’ve had my ‘mouse’ become bugged and slow numerous times and the game crash at inopportune times, but I keep coming back, as getting a really good match in when you’re on point and making all your shots count is exciting. Yes, War Thunder is fun, but it’s a not just a mountain to climb for its learning curve, but more like a sheer cliff. While Arcade Battles are slightly easier to simply dive into, once you’ve figured out the menus, it can still be quite a hardcore experience, and that’s not even including the realistic mode.
The menu, currency confusion, being outclassed by pay-to-win players and lack of help is very off-putting in the beginning, but it does start to make sense if you can devote the time to learn it and stick with it. It’s not going to be for everyone, and I’d still wager it’s more catered towards the hardcore crowd, or those with disposable income, but War Thunder can be a deep and exciting game in the heat of battle. Once it’s free to play and out of Early Access, there’s no harm in giving it a shot, like your tank cannon.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered
Volition, best known for developing the Saints Row titles, also had a hit last generation with its take on the Red Faction series with Red Faction: Guerilla. While it was a generally decent game, albeit with a bland story and setting, what really set it apart was its destructible environment and explosive gameplay. This is the remaster generation after all, so what better time to re-release a somewhat popular title for people that may have missed it, or want to revisit Mars once more. So the question is, is this remaster, cleverly titled Re-MARS-tered, the one we’ve been waiting for with tons of upgrades, additions and improvements? I wouldn’t go that far...Red Faction: Guerilla tells a tale about Alec Mason and his brother, looking for a new life on Mars. Within the opening moments, you’re introduced to the oppressive Earth Defense Force (EDF) when they viciously kill your brother. This sets the pieces in motion for Alec to join the resistance and extract his revenge by taking out the EDF by any means necessary, usually resulting in mass destruction of their property. Alec now fights for liberation of Mars, and of course revenge, so it’s up to you to bring the fight to the EDF.
Ironically, I found the story missions to be the more boring and dull compared to the plethora of side quests available. So, while you’ll need to push through the campaign missions to progress the narrative, there’s plenty to do outside of that, and I actually found a handful of these other missions much more memorable, and more importantly, fun, than the campaign itself. One of the earlier quests, for example, has you barreling through tall EDF transmitters while being chased, or demolishing a ton of EDF buildings with a combat walker. It’s an exhilarating mission that was more entertaining than a bulk of the story missions, and there are a handful of these.
Set in an open world, you have freedom to tackle missions however you like, or simply be destructive and destroy every building you see should you wish. Played in third person, there is a shooting aspect to it as well, as you’ll need to engage EDF forces at nearly every turn, but the true gameplay comes from its physics based destruction mechanics. You’ll need to work on faction missions to progress, unlocking more help and more missions for you to work on. Luckily, you’re able to tackle missions in any order you desire, or do none and simply just destroy stuff, but it’s cool seeing more resistance members joining in the fight against the EDF the better your faction becomes in an area.
So, you’ve already played Guerilla before and simply want to know what’s new in the Re-MARS-tered edition? Essentially, it’s just a shiny coat of paint on top of the same experience from nearly a decade ago. Improved shadows, textures, lighting, and of course, 4K support. Having seen side-by-side videos of the original vs Re-MARS-tered, it indeed looks sharper and cleaner, but visually it still has that dated 360 look overall, especially with the pre-rendered cutscenes.
Obviously the visuals were the main focus of this release, but the small amount of DLC that was offered post launch is also included here. Aside from that, there are no fixes or extra content of any kind included. There’s a quick prequel mission that you have access to, or those wanting a little more lore, but once completed there’s no reason to play it again. Wrecking Crew mode on the other hand is nearly worth the price of admission alone, where you’ll challenged with causing as much destruction as possible within a time limit and specific weapons.
Given that nearly a decade ago, it was super impressive that Guerilla looked and performed as well as it did, I was really hoping to be seriously wow’d with this remaster, and while the 4K inclusion is always welcome, it brought along with it some performance issues. Slowdown isn’t uncommon when things get truly chaotic and explosions are happening everywhere, even on an Xbox One X in performance mode, which was quite disappointing. Camera issues are still a constant frustration, especially in chaotic demolition of buildings.
Which brings us to the real reason to even play and experience Guerilla; its physics based destruction. This is the bread and butter of this game. Not only can you destroy buildings and objects, but it’s extremely entertaining to do so. There’s nothing quite like knocking out the support and structural beams of a building and seeing it topple in grand fashion, killing some EDF in the process. Need to quickly ambush some EDF inside a building? Blow a hole through it, or drive into it directly.
Even all these years later, the environmental destruction is still some of the best in gaming. Other games have destruction as well, but usually not to this level, or they have restrictions on how much a building can be destroyed. There’s simply nothing quite like placing a few strategic remote charges after swinging my sledgehammer at a building’s corners, and watch it come crashing down.
Destroying isn’t just for fun and entertainment though, as this is how you will collect scrap, Guerilla’s form of currency. You’ll also earn scrap from completing missions, and then use it to purchase upgrades. The problem though is that you don’t earn much scrap per mission, or even for demolishing large buildings, so there comes a point where you’ll need to seriously grind to get the upgrades later on.
I remember dropping a few hours into the multiplayer back in the day when the original game was still new. It wasn’t great by any means, but the destruction mechanics added another layer of strategy onto your run of the mill shooter gameplay at least. I was hoping for a few fun hours once again with this version, but it seems those fans have long moved on, as it took an incredibly painful amount of time to even find a match. Of the two matches I was able to eventually find, and participate in, not a single one had players that didn’t drop out during the match. Even though Guerilla supports up to 16 players online, matches won’t start until 4 are present, and simply finding 3 others took an exorbitant amount of time.
If you’re looking for a deep and interesting story with fleshed out characters and great driving and shooting mechanics, look elsewhere. If you’re simply looking to demolish some EDF buildings for the resistance, and blow a ton of stuff up, then you’ve come to the right place. Red Faction: Guerilla Re-MARS-tered is a fun distraction if you want to turn off your brain, but don’t let the title fool you, this is as shallow as a remaster comes, as it’s simply a new thin coat of paint on top of the same experience we had almost a decade ago. There’s no need to play again if you’ve already have, but it’s an entertaining experience to destroy everything in sight if you haven’t.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Insane Robots
I keep telling myself I would stop judging a book by its cover, well, a game by its cover, but I still find myself unknowingly doing it at times. When Insane Robots arrived to review, I checked out some of the screenshots and assumed it would just be another forgettable indie title that I wouldn’t even remember playing in a week. Luckily, I can admit my mistakes and be pleasantly surprised when I’m proven wrong. Don’t let insane Robots’ cute demeanor fool you, there’s some fantastic gameplay within for anyone yearning for a card battle type of game with some deep strategy and addictive gameplay.Starting out as a basic robot named Franklin, you are sentenced to death for simply “asking questions”. By whom or what, that’s a different question that you’ll uncover during your journey. Any robot that is perceived to be malfunctioning is labeled as insane, forced to battle against other insane robots, hence the title. The plot is interesting enough and sets a decent framework as to why you’re battling other robots in an almost battle royale type of setting.
You’ll eventually learn about “The Kernal”, who is apparently the one behind all of this, so it’s up to you to battle your way as a sole survivor to take down this mysterious foe. Even though the story is paper thin, it’s not a problem, as the gameplay itself does more than enough to carry the rest of the experience on its shoulders. The campaign will take you a handful of hours, and there’s plenty of replay value, so the price of admission is well worth it.
I’ve dabbled in card battler games before, such as Hearthstone, Gwent and others, but they usually have a high barrier of entry, as they are usually quite deep and involved from the get-go, and can be quite intimidating to delve into head first. I expected the same with Insane Robots initially, but after a handful of hours, I kept wanting to do just one more tournament.
You traverse on a hexagonal grid, and as you explore the map you’ll come across money pickups, mini-quests and of course, other insane robots to fight. You are only able to move a certain amount of spaces per turn, as are the enemy robots, and as you land on another robot, you’ll begin a battle. You’ll also come across shops where you can buy upgrades, health replenishments, and more, to help outfit your robot into a powerhouse fighting machine of death, for a cost of course.
When you begin a battle, you’ll take turn-based moves where you’re going to need to plan out the best strategy with the hand you are given. Even though I’ve labelled it a card battler, I guess technically it deals you chips, you know, to match the robot aesthetic. Your deck will be randomized every time, so there’s no need to build that ‘perfect deck’, which is great, as it keeps the randomness and challenge ongoing. You’ll need to outfit your chips in a way that allows you to simply deplete the enemy’s health to zero to win. Sounds simple, but it becomes much more challenging and deeply strategic the further you progress.
Setting up your attack and defense numbers is simple at first, as you need to slot both attack or defense areas with a chip for it to take effect. The value of each chip is randomized as it goes into your deck, but there’s a smart system in place that allows you to bolster your stats, or deplete theirs. So, simply slot two attack chips into your robot and you’ll have the combined value usable as your offence. The same goes for defense, as you gain those bonus shield points if you slot two chips, gaining the combined total of both.
It costs energy to slot in chips though, and each turn you have a limited amount, so there’s a very important resource management in play that you need to be aware of at all times. At first it comes down to simple math, as you will damage the enemy with your attack number, as long as you have the resources to do so (it takes three energy to launch an attack) and your offence is of a higher value than their defense. So, it becomes a cat and mouse game of balancing keeping your offense and defense up, but also trying to whittle away your opponent’s health. These are where the hacking and other special chips come into play.
There’s a number of special chips that can instantly alter the outcome of a battle and have to be utilized in specific ways to be very powerful and useful. You begin with basic hack chips, allowing you to boost your attack or defense chips that are slotted, or decrease the enemy robot’s numbers. Swap chips allow you to do just that, swapping your chip with the corresponding enemy’s chip, to boost yours and decrease theirs. There are also lock cards, allowing you to lock a specific chip so it’s unhackable and can't be swapped by your enemy, or used to break their locked chips. You can see there’s a ton of strategy in play, depending on what your play style is more geared towards, and how you react to theirs.
Certain chips can also be combined with others, for an energy cost of course, allowing you to combine a weak card with another to boost it to full power, or make an uber hack, etc. Again, when the best time to create the super cards, place them, attack, or stack up on defense, all depends on the situation and battle. There’s a surprising amount of depth given there’s only 20+ different chips.
When you finally defeat your enemy you’ll gain money, which can then be used to buy upgrades and other items to enhance your robot. Each battle allows you to earn a certain amount of cash, based on how your battle played out, and you can earn another larger bonus at the end of the tournament when every robot is defeated if you’re victorious. Some of the upgrades are permanent and extremely useful, like a lower cost on certain chips, maximum health and more, so it’s worthwhile grinding for some money simply for the upgrades. Factor in that you can unlock a bunch of different robots, each with their own perks, and there’s a ton of value and replayability within.
Other than Campaign, there is Quick Battle, simply placing you against a certain enemy, each becoming progressively harder, but it’s with a default robot, not the one you’ve powered up through your campaign spoils. There is also local co-op battle, as well as online, which I was excited to try out. Sadly, every single time I’ve attempted, I’ve haven't been able to find a successful match, not even once. So, while it’s great that online battles are included, unless you have a friend that also purchases the game, good luck finding a match. I’m not sure if it’s a server issue, or simply a lack of people playing online at the time though, but luckily the campaign is broad enough to keep your interest for quite some time.
Visually, Insane Robots is quite colorful and has a great comic based art style to the robots, making them extremely adorable. Each robot looks completely unique and has its own personality, each of which includes their own smack talk during battles as well. The soundtrack is just as good colorful, adding some beats to each battle, upping the intensity.
My only real complaints are the lack of community playing online, as described above, and the overly heavy loading screens. The loading screens don’t take long, but they happen quite frequently, but they can also basically be skipped, so I’m not sure why they are even included at all.
Insane Robots is an amazing example of how to ease players into a genre without demanding too much of a learning curve, yet also being deep enough to satisfy the players that want to strategize at a much higher level. A bunch of smaller ideas come together to make a great experience, one you’d be insane to pass by.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Eventide 3: Legacy of Legends
I can’t even count the number of Artifex Mundi titles I’ve played and reviewed on the Xbox One so far, nearly every title I believe. Even after a handful of games that differ slightly from one another, I still find myself enjoying my time with them, as it’s a calming getaway from the regular shooters, RPG’s and racers that I normally indulge in. The standard formula hasn’t changed much in nearly all of their titles, except for the previous release of Grim Legends 3, which was a big step up in production value, so I was hoping that would be the norm going forward with their newest releases.It seems that’s not the case though, as Eventide 3: Legacy of Legends feels much like the standard type of Artifex Mundi HOG (hidden object game) rather than a step forward. Not that that’s a bad thing, I just had some high hopes for something new and impressive, as it all feels very predictable when you’ve played nearly a dozen of the same type of game, especially from a single developer.
I believe it was last year Eventide 2 was released, and the original, Eventide: Slavic Fable, the year before it, so it’s been a yearly endeavor for me within this beautiful and colorful world. The Eventide series resolves around a celebrated botanist named Mary. Following the events of Eventide 2, you’ll finally have a conclusion to the overall narrative. Mary’s brother, John, is kidnapped by a mysterious creature, so she sets off with her sharp mind, and potion concocting abilities to save him and stop a sinister plot.
Yes, it’s another ‘someone is kidnapped’ tale, but the story themselves have never been its strong suit, as it’s all about the puzzle gameplay in a genre like this. Mary isn’t alone though, as she’ll befriend a magical creature, known as Aitvar, which I would best describe as a huge owl-like creature. It’s a good thing too, as you’ll need to periodically call upon him to ride his back to fly to the floating isles where you need to be. It’s a fantasy setting and that plays into its surroundings, beautifully hand drawn and full of color.
If you’re not like me and haven’t played every single Artifex Mundi game to date, their HOG games essentially have you exploring scenes for items and objects which can then be used to uncover other items, which in turn allows you to solve a puzzle and progress. Sure, that’s a horrible simplification, but that is its' core gameplay cycle for the most part. There’s plenty of scenes to explore, dozens of puzzles to solve, and tons of great artwork to soak in. So if you’ve played any of their titles before, you’ll know exactly what to expect, almost to a fault.
For those new to the genre, or a casual fan, you’re able to choose Normal difficulty. Here you’ll have access to a hint system, giving you clues of where to go next, or you can even completely bypass a puzzle if you’re absolutely stuck and need to rely on it. Expert mode is also available for the more tenured puzzle solvers that don’t require any hints (and want every achievement). Sadly though, there’s no epilogue like in some of their titles, so once you hit the credits after a couple hours, your journey simply ends, as there’s not much replay value aside from lingering achievements. Also not included this time, like in previous titles of theirs, there are no alternative games to play instead of the HOG puzzles, something I quite enjoyed in the past.
Returning from Grim Legends 3 is the Rune Battle minigame. Here you’re tasked with winning three rune battles against your enemy. They will be a number of runes on the AI's attack, and you must choose the runes on your side that don’t match any of theirs. Choose correctly and you’ll win the round, and you need to win three rounds to defeat them. It’s not as in depth or as challenging as it was in their other title, so it does feel a little tacked on, but it was one of my favorite new features in their games, so I’m also glad to see it return, even if it’s not quite the same.
The difficulty curve of the puzzles themselves is fairly decent, though there were a few more challenging puzzles, like color matching, rotating puzzles and more. The HOG games themselves obviously return, where you have a shopping list of items, and you need to find them hidden within the scene. Some are quite obvious and stand out, whereas others will have you spamming the ‘A’ button as you move the cursor around, swearing it doesn’t exist until you happen upon it accidentally. The puzzles themselves are more catered to novices of the genre, which is fine, but there’s enough different types of puzzles to keep you interested, regardless of skill.
A staple in the series, and all of their titles really, is the beautiful hand drawn artwork. While the animations are quite rough and basic, the backgrounds are incredibly gorgeous and always a pleasure to take in while you’re searching for your next item or puzzle. I was hoping that the bump in art and production would return from the last Grim Legends 3, but it seems Eventide 3 follows the older traditional template of design instead.
Sadly, the cringe-worthy voice acting returns once again, Artifex Mundi’s achilles heel. Almost all of the voiced lines aren’t acted very well, nor are believable at all. Luckily, the gameplay is what you come for, not the story or voice acting. You don’t need to have played the previous two Eventide’s to know what’s going on, as it’s a completely self-contained story within itself, though obviously you’ll get a little more out of it if you’ve played the previous two.
Artifex Mundi are the leaders in this specific niche genre, and while this latest game is not their best offering, it’s still worth a recommendation, as the formula is simple and a great escape for a few hours. The fact that I’ve not grown tired of their games after about a dozen or so speaks volumes for their gameplay, as there’s no better offerings on the console within the genre.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Anima: Gate of Memories - The Nameless Chronicles
I reviewed the previous Anima: Gate of Memories game back when it was released, and was impressed for what it did given the small development team. Sure it had its flaws, as the voice acting wasn’t great and I was constantly lost, but it had an interesting artistic style and a half decent story if you were able to follow along. When I found out there was a sequel coming, I was intrigued, as I had a decent outing the last time I was in the Anima world, hoping they would address some of the issues I had and looking forward to some more lore of its interesting world and characters.This sequel, The Nameless Chronicles, actually takes place alongside the original game, except instead of playing as The Bearer and Ergo once again, you’re actually in control of Nameless, someone you’ll remember quite well if you’ve played the original. While Nameless was portrayed as the antagonist in the original game, seeing his story from his point of view gives you a very different perspective and reasoning to his actions.
Eons ago, Nameless, along with others, sealed away a demon that could destroy the world, Baal, and has uncovered a plot about a group planning on releasing him from his prison. Given that this takes place parallel to Gate of Memories, you’re going to run into some familiar faces, like The Bearer and Ergo, and if you’ve played the first, you’ll get to relive some of the battles they had, but from Nameless’ perspective this time. That being said, expect the same outcomes from their run in’s the first time, though there’s much more to Nameless’ tale than these few encounters.
Much like Gates of Memories, the narrative in The Nameless Chronicles is interesting and quite involved, but you really need to give your full attention to it or you risk being confused and lost as to who, what and why. The overall narrative has the same framework as before, but the deeper and more intimate tale of Nameless’ immortality, along with being helped by a mysterious spirit known as Unknown (yeah, they aren’t the greatest at naming characters), made for an interesting saga the more that was uncovered. That being said, I still found The Bearer and Ergo a much more compelling tale, probably because of the personality clashes between the two characters.
Because The Nameless Chronicles takes place alongside the first game, you’ll eventually have a sense of déjà-vu if you’ve played the the previous title, as you’ll start to notice reused assets. The worst part of the original, the puppet mansion, returns for another go as well, and while it makes sense from a narrative point of view, it hasn’t gotten any better. Your main hub is now The Nexus of Memories, a small area where you’ll routinely travel back to when you complete a main section, or become lost and don’t know where to go.
This was my biggest gripe with the first game as well, that you have no guide or marker to direct you where to go next. Sometimes you’re in an area that’s very linear, but other times you’ll be wandering aimlessly from area to area, trying to figure out where to go. Again, like the first game, this had me frustrated at times, as there’s no real quest journal or clear indication of where you should be heading next.
While combat will make for the bulk of the experience, there are a few puzzle elements that take place as well. Some were done quite well, others were much more subtle, but I enjoyed the odd break from the mind-numbing combat now and then, I just wish there were more of these segments. In combat you have access to a lock-on targeting system, but it’s fairly wonky, and at times, more of a hindrance than a help, especially with enemies that constantly move and teleport, whipping your camera all around.
In general, combat is nearly identical to the first game, without the character swapping of course. Nameless prefers to get up close and personal with his sword, though you do have access to a ranged shot as well, something you’ll need to heavily rely on in certain battles. You have light and heavy attacks, an uppercut where you can start an air juggle, and more, but I found it near impossible to string together more than a few simple hits before being interrupted.
Much of the combat strategy is also utilizing your meter that also allows you to become much more powerful for attacks, but slowing you down in the process. This energy regenerates slowly, and some enemies’ defenses won’t break without these more powerful hits. You’ll also find new weapons along your journey, offering better stats and damage for different play styles, but even by the end, I felt no more powerful than I did in the beginning for the most part.
You will also need to heavily rely on dodging, again, represented by another stamina bar you’ll need to manage during fights. You can specialize in either close range melee or long range attacks, but there’s no real fusion between the two. Sure it’ll look cool as you dash in, hit once or twice, dash back and shoot from afar, but there’s no system in place to encourage this. Keep in mind, if you’re using the lock-on system, you’ll constantly get spun around from warping enemies, opening yourself up to attacks when fighting a group at once.
Maybe it’s just been awhile since I played the first, but I found the combat in The Nameless Chronicles to be much more challenging than the previous game. You’re kind of eased into the mechanics, but even the tutorial is a miniboss fight to show you the ropes. Even generic enemies can easily overwhelm you in numbers if you’re not careful (or using lock-on). Boss fights are quite challenging, not because of the telegraph moves are difficult to notice or avoid, but because they last forever. Even after numerous weapon and skill upgrades, I never felt more powerful, seemingly doing only a minor increase of damage, and when you are fighting a boss and minions simultaneously, it’s actually quite challenging.
Luckily health refills when killing enemies, but you’ll always need to be on your toes. The large scale boss fights are quite enjoyable though, with two being quite memorable. I won’t spoil anything, but I really enjoyed the mechanics for the final confrontation, even though it meant I had to slog through all of the previous hours.
Killing enemies will also earn you XP which you can then use to level up your skills and abilities. Nearly identical to the first game, you can spend your skill points however you wish, bolstering your favorite skills or choosing others to round out your abilities. Luckily this time you only play as Nameless, so the skill tree is much simpler this time around. When you choose to unlock a new skill, you’ll also earn passive bonuses that are linked between the two, so sometimes I was choosing a new ability more-so for the passive bonus, like extra health, rather than the skill itself. A small issue I had with the first game returns here as well, as the skill tree is done with diagonal lines, so you can’t simply press down to see the skill below it, you have to follow the skill path line. While not a deal breaker, it makes it more cumbersome and a chore than it needs to be.
Visually, not much has changed from the first title, that I can tell anyways. It still has that anime inspired artistic style to it, which suits the source material. I get that a small team can only do so much, but it does look quite dated at this point, even if you enjoy the art direction. There’s sometimes a distinct clash though, as many areas will be dark and grey, while others are very bright, vibrant and uses great lighting and effects. The soundtrack is pleasant enough, but again, the voice acting is very hit or miss, depending on the character.
If you’re a fan of the lore and Anima series, then The Nameless Chronicles is a no-brainer and an easy sell. If you’re looking for challenging combat with some RPG elements, you could do worse. It has a very interesting story if you can follow along, more-so if you’ve played the first, but is simply bogged down by its constant and repetitive combat that does little to excite.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
NieR:Automata BECOME AS GODS Edition
Last year in 2017, NieR:Automata released for PS4 and PC to much critical success. Sadly for Xbox One owners though, many were unable to enjoy this completely unique and exciting title, but good things come to those that wait, and now NieR: Automata has finally arrived for Xbox fans to also see what the big deal has been this past year. With PlatinumGames behind the development, and visionary director Yoko Taro directing, NieR:Automata BECOME AS GODS Edition has not only been bundled with its previously released DLC as a single package, but some massive graphical improvements have been included for those playing on an Xbox One X, such as 4K resolution and HDR lighting.I somehow managed to avoid spoilers of any kind when it came to NieR, and I’m grateful that I managed to, as the campaign and narrative were incredibly exciting, engaging and one of Automata’s best aspects. Set far into the future, mankind has been driven from their home, overdriven by invading machine lifeform. The world is in near ruin after the invasion, so androids were created for the sole purpose of taking it back. Part of the YoRHa squad, androids 2B and 9S are the ones tasked with succeeding this near impossible mission.
While it may seem like a typical “save the world” type of backdrop for story framing, there’s a lot more to uncover as you progress, something I don’t want to spoil in any way. It begins simply as an ‘us’ vs ‘them’, but there’s more to it than what’s on the surface, something you’ll uncover from separate narrative angles with 2B and 9S along the way. There are some pretty important “woah” moments where your jaw may be on the floor, especially at a couple of the endings.
Oh, you noticed I mentioned multiple endings? To really understand the whole story, Automata will need to be played through multiple times, and for good reason. Bear with me, as I’m usually not one for multiple playthroughs with games due to weaning interest and simple lack of time, but you need to invest the time into Automata if you want the full experience from it.
Described as “routes”, you begin the game playing as solely 2B, and completing her story is labeled ‘Route A’. Once the credits roll you can then start up Route B which has you playing as 9S’s point of view. While some major events will cross over, this isn’t simply playing the same game again with a slightly different character, quite the opposite actually. 9S’ campaign intermingles with 2B’s, allowing you to see what took place from a completely different area or perspective, all encased in a very clever way, but also with some interesting changes.
Normally I wouldn’t bother with second, or third playthroughs, but you’re allowed to carry forward the progress you’ve made in levels, experience and more, making it much more rewarding rather than simply starting over from scratch. These Routes are also more than a simple New Game+ mode as well, as they are essential to the overall narrative. You’ll encounter new enemies, mechanics, plots and more, so it’s absolutely necessary to stick with it. Yes there are multiple endings, but don’t consider the campaign truly complete until you’ve done so after at least Route C. I won’t say anything more, simply trust me.
With no loading times, aside from fast travel, the world is expansive and seamless. The post-apocalyptic setting gives an eerie backdrop, devoid of any human life, with visuals that look fantastic on the Xbox One X. Automata's gameplay was something I really wasn’t expecting, even from the opening segment. While the majority of your gameplay is a 3rd person hack and slash, what took me by surprise was not only the subtle shift to 2D sidescrolling platform run & gunning sets, but parts where you’re piloting a ship and essentially playing a top down bullet hell shooter for certain segments as well. These aren’t simple one-off sections as well, as some bosses are fought with your swords on foot, and others in your ship. There’s new mechanics introduced in Routes B and C as well, but I won’t avoid spoiling much else.
While the story is a linear tale, there are handful of sidequests that are optional to undertake, should you want to spend more time in the fascinating world. These sidequests are done quite well, giving you special rewards or lore. Many even have quite a bit of humor, something I didn’t expect from a heavy machine based narrative. There’s a handful of sidequests I highly suggest doing, as they make the overall experience much more rich, but I’ll leave that up to you.
So what’s new with this BECOME AS GODS Edition you ask? The very uniquely named 3C3C1D119440927 DLC included adds new outfits for the main characters, skins for your Pod and more. The costumes are obtained through some arena battles that unlock as you progress and are quite challenging, even on the easiest setting. This allows you to have another goal to work towards, even after multiple playthroughs. This DLC is welcome, but certainly catered towards the player that’s going to grind for levels and chips long after the final Route is finished.
Combat is very fun and addictive, and with the chip system in place, you can customize your character’s abilities to suit your playstyle. 2B has access to two weapons and her Pod, whereas 9S can only use one melee weapon at a time. Weapons range from light and quick swords, to big slow heavy hitters, again, based on your preferred play style. Luckily the controls are customizable, as I found the default layout to not be so intuitive, so I have ‘X’ and ‘Y’ for my light and heavy melee attacks, Right Trigger for my Pod and plane mode shooting and Right Bumper for my dodge.
Attacks feel, and sound, powerful, and dodging an enemy attack will give you a slight moment of slow motion, adding to the coolness factor of it all. Like most PlatinumGames titles, the combat is very addictive, smooth and rewarding once you take the time to learn its intricacies. Once you have a grasp on combat and learn that there’s no limited or stamina meter for dodging, something you’ll need to heavily rely on, it all feels and looks so satisfying and stylish.
2B and 9S have a floating Pod that follows them around, used as a form of communication with HQ, but also an aid in battle. These pods will not only help you safely float through the air from tall heights, but can be outfitted with different weaponry. Laying down on the Right Trigger will have your Pod shoot an endless stream of bullets forwards, or towards your locked on target. You can purchase other abilities for your Pod to equip later on when you save up enough credits, each of which are unique and worth experimenting with.
Chips are how you’ll customize 2B and 9S, not just their combat abilities, but also regenerative, hacking and even running speed options. This is the main RPG element to Automata, and once you wrap your head around how the system works, with the cap of slotting chips, it becomes quite interesting to build the perfect set of ability improvements to suit your style of play.
Chips have ranks of +1 and so on, and the higher versions of a chip have a higher cost to equip. You start with a low cap of chip values you can have equipped at one time, but eventually can upgrade the cap to use more. The better the chip the much higher a cost it will have to slot it, so it depends on if you want to be specialized in a few abilities, or decent in a variety; this is where your customization comes in to cater to your gameplay. If you need more cap to equip an awesome new chip, you can unslot the chip that shows map, damage numbers, quest markers, HUD and more. Given the context that you’re an android, it’s a very clever system.
Combat can be quite difficult to get the hang of, so rather than having a very difficult barrier of entry, the easier modes allow you to equip “Auto Mode” chips that will automatically attack, shoot and even dodge for you if you equip them. I found these quite helpful in the beginning when I was getting my bearings around all of the mechanics and systems in place, as there’s not much help tutorial wise aside from the opening basics.
Should you die, well, more when you die, you’ll learn about Automata’s death mechanics in place. Much like Dark Souls, when you die, you lose your stuff, or in this instance, your upgrade chips. To get them back you’ll have to make it back to your body without dying again, and while this amy seems harsh, it felt purposeful here, as deaths weren’t generally unfair, and more a lack of skill. On the flip side, when you die, you leave a corpse for others to find (if you decided to play connected to the server).
Now, also somewhat like Dark Souls, when you find corpses on the ground, which means that a player has died there, usually indicating a challenging fight ahead. You have two options when you happen upon a corpse; resurrect it to have it fight alongside you, or loot some of its gear and credits. While you can only resurrect one player at a time to fight alongside you, essentially think of corpses you find as mini treasure chests, granting you free loot for every one you find. One boss battle in particular, the floor was just littered with corpses, so I resurrected one to distract the boss as I went on a looting spree.
Visually the world looks amazing, as the post-apocalyptic setting feels very realistic without a human presence, and the finer details look superb in high definition. Even more impressive though is the audio and soundtrack. The voice acting is perfect across the board, but the musical score is absolutely amazing. Each boss fight, each area and event has its own distinct sound and feel to it, completely suiting the mood it trying to convey visually. This is one of those soundtracks I’m going to go buy separately.
NieR:Automata is a stunning action RPG that I’m incredibly excited that I got to experience. There’s plenty to uncover, all with a deeper meaning if you stick with it through to the multiple endings. Many games get forgotten once completed, as I’m glad to have played many, but very few stick with me for quite some time, and even less that I euphorically have to recommend experiencing. NieR:Automata is one of those must have games, as it’s completely unique and unlike anything else I’ve ever played. Thank you to those directly responsible for bringing this amazing gem to the Xbox One for more fans to enjoy, as I probably would have never gotten to experience it otherwise.
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Slime-san: Superslime Edition
I generally don’t like to compare games to others, as each is unique in its own right, but sometimes the comparison is simply the easiest way to describe it, or it's so heavily influenced by the source material that it’s near impossible to not compare directly. This is the case with Slime-san: Superslime Edition, as you can tell that it’s been heavily inspired by the classic, and challenging platformer, Super Meat Boy. There’s been plenty of games trying to replicate its success, but nothing really captured what made it truly special, so when something similar releases, I’m understandably a little skeptical. Truth be told, I really wasn’t expecting much from Slime-San before starting it up, and you’d think that after years of reviewing games, I’d learn to not judge a game by its cover. This is one of those instances where I’m glad I was wrong, as Slime-san completely took me by surprise.Not only does Slime-san hide its greatness behind its simplified visuals, the gameplay is so spot on and perfect that I have no qualms comparing it directly to Super Meat Boy for its quality of gameplay. Are you a fan of super challenging gameplay, speed running and want a massive amount of gameplay and replay value? Slime-san has you covered in spades. Don’t let its confusing and simple graphics fool you like it did me, give Slime-san a shot and you’ll be greatly rewarded with a fun and lengthy experience that simply gets it right.
Included in this Superslime Edition is 3 separate campaigns, each of which are unique and entertaining in its own way. The core campaign, Mama’s Madness, revolves around your slime being swallowed by a massive worm, and you need to get out by platforming your way back up its stomach and out its mouth. Beware the deadly stomach acid that will creep up on you during levels though. The Blackbird’s Kraken campaign is a similar tale, but this time you’re swallowed by a huge kraken, so again, you much jump and platform your way out before it’s too late.
More unique is the Sheeple’s Sequel campaign. In this tale, Sheeple comes to realize he’s simply an NPC in a video game, so he decides to re-code himself as the villain and challenge you in much more challenging ways than simple platform jumping. In total there are a couple hundred levels, almost feeling like too many at times, not even including all the extra bonuses, New Game+ and the handful of exclusive levels included in this wonderful edition. The best part is that the bulk of the content is not gated behind progress, so you’re welcome to jump between campaigns freely without having to slog through hundreds of levels before trying out the newer content.
You play a small slime, hence the title, and you’re tasked with progressing from level to level in an attempt to escape the giant animal that has eaten you. You’ll need to not only jump, but dash, swim and more, but with accuracy and speed. Each level has 4 smaller segments that should only take you roughly 10 seconds or so to complete, but that’s quite a stretch, as it will take a lot of time and practice to become that proficient, but it does eventually click, resulting in not having to think so much about what you want to do and simply doing it by reaction alone.
Part of Slime-san’s charm is its simplicity, not just in its gameplay, but the visuals as well, but this design choice has a purpose other than aesthetics. White lines and platforms is regular ground that you can walk (do slimes walk or slide?) on, red are traps and enemies and should be avoided, and lastly, green, which can be used as a surface to pass through or interact with. While this color scheme seemed natural to me (green good, red bad), you’re freely welcome to change the colors to whatever works better for you including a number of colorblind options.
While it might sound like a simple premise with only a couple moves to worry about, it’s anything but. Levels become increasingly more difficult and complex, but Slime-san does an excellent job with its learning curve, slowly introducing new enemies and mechanics at a steady pace, as to not completely frustrate you suddenly with a sudden difficulty spike. That’s not to say you won’t be challenged, and you will die a lot, but I found I never really became overly frustrated, especially with the levels being broken down into four smaller bite sized sections. While there is a timer always present, it can be ignored until you have the confidence at working towards those faster times and collecting the bonus coins and apples along the way.
So you’ve played the original Slime-san and wondering what’s new in this Superslime Edition? Essentially it’s a GOTY edition with all of the campaigns included along with some bonus content, including 10 exclusive levels where you get to play Grandpa-san himself. Honestly, there’s almost too much content here, and will take you quite a while to get through it all, so the value is easily there for the price.
Controls in a platforming game need to be on point, or else you become frustrated from unfair deaths. I certainly became frustrated at times, but it wasn’t because of the controls, it was simply due to not having the skill needed to do what I needed to complete the level yet, something that I gained in time. I never had an unfair death, and every time I did die, was because of my miscalculation or mistake, not the game.
You move your slime with the Left Stick, jump with A, dash with X or phase through green blocks with Left Trigger. The bonus with phasing is that it also slows down the gameplay, so in really hectic situations you can slow things down slightly and be a bit more accurate. Luckily, you’re also able to completely remap your buttons however you wish should a different control scheme suit you better. Different slimes and characters will have different abilities, so even if you can’t get the hang of it, there may be a different playstyle that suits you better, or if you want a bigger challenge. Again, the amount of options and content offered, even small, is staggering.
Levels begin basic, slowly introducing more elements, obstacles and enemies. Eventually some puzzle elements get introduced and need to be tackled as well as speed. It can, and does, become overwhelming eventually, but that’s the beauty of having the other campaigns not gated at all, as I can switch to any other one at any time should I become bored or stuck. Sheeple’s Sequel for example is much more puzzle based than the other campaigns, having you touch every specific block before the exit opens. I wasn’t great at these levels, so I decided to play the other campaigns more, but the freedom to switch back and forth on a whim was a brilliant design decision, as I probably would have shelved the game long ago if not.
When you want a break from the seemingly never ending levels of the campaign, you can leisurely explore the large hub city where you can spend the apples and coins you may have collected along the way. These areas are filled with NPCs to talk to, many of which are hilarious and unique. More than a few times I found myself laughing at their writing, names or situation, so kudos to the writer for all these characters. You’re able to shop for many different types of items, ranging from background art, sketches, cosmetic items for your slime, new characters (with unique abilities) and even some mini games and arcade titles.
I thought this hub world was going to be a thing I just visited once, but I kept going back once I had a handful of apples to spend (there are different items to collect based on the campaign you’re playing). There are hidden areas to uncover and a bunch of unique mini games, including a purposely terrible rip-off of Superman 64. I’m not even joking. You’re also able to purchase different shaders to have as a filter for the game, one of which is literally the red and black Virtual Boy style. Tons of little details like this is what gives Slime-san so much charm. If you manage to uncover some secret areas in the regular levels, you’ll come across some rare coins which can then be spent on arcade games that mimic a Mario Kart, Doom and more.
The retro graphics simply work well for this type of gameplay, and the varied options are a welcome addition for those that want to customize their experience. The soundtrack is filled with some fantastic chiptune music that keeps the energy high and matches the tonality of the gameplay. The music is very catchy and doesn’t simply devolve into a boring loop like some games rely on.
For how much I really appreciate the plethora of content and the options given, oddly enough that was also my main gripe with Slime-san as well. Campaigns are almost too big and can drag on and on. Because of this, I found myself getting a little bored at times, and while the campaign switching and bonus games help with that a bit, it’s hard to see the end in sight when there’s hundreds of levels to get through.
Slime-san: Superslime Edition is hilarious, perfectly tuned and has an astonishing amount of content, more than enough to keep you going for quite some time. Don’t let the simplistic graphics fool you like it did me initially, as the gameplay is near perfect and can suit nearly any play style or preference. Even after a dozen hours or so, I’ve still a long way to go and much to master. For its price, the value and replayability is enormous and near unbeatable.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
ZAMB! Redux
There’s no shortage of tower defense games available, so to stand out amongst the crowd you need to do something different or unique to catch those who enjoy the genre's attention. Sometimes this involves a specific gameplay mechanic, or in the case of Zamb! Redux, mashing up two genres together, specifically Tower Defense and Twin Stick Shooters. It’s true, this combination has been done before, but is there enough uniqueness and fun within to make a worthwhile purchase? Kind of...Originally released on PC back in 2014 as Zamb! Biomutant Extermination, improvements have been made, rebalancing has been done, and of course, it has been brought for a new audience, those who play their games on console. The game is an interesting mashup that includes local couch co-op, a necessity if you want to have any longevity with its mediocre gameplay.
The game's heroes, Cye and Chrome, are tasked with taking down an evil genius’ biomutants. I’d like to report more about the story but that’s really the only framework given. We don’t learn anything more about the characters or enemy, and while a strong narrative would have been appreciated, there usually isn’t strong ones included for this genre; case in point.
Gameplay is pretty basic, as you control one character while a friend can locally control the other, or if you don't have a friend over, then the AI will control the other. You use your weapons to shoot, or punch through, waves of enemies while also building turrets and using special abilities for maximum damage. Waves of enemies will pour out along set paths after hacking into one of the placed reactors. Killing enemies levels you up, earning you skill points for upgrades that I’ll delve into shortly.
More importantly, mixing and matching combos and elements will cause massive damage, coming in handy when things become a little hectic. This comes in handy as enemies will drop gems quicker, which in turn can be used to build your turrets or use your special abilities, depending on whom you’re playing as and prefer. Each reactor will set off a handful of waves, becoming marginally more difficult each time, and you win the match by activating all reactors and killing every enemy before moving onto the next, and ever so slightly, different map and going through the same motions all over again.
If enemies manage to destroy all reactors, or kill both of your team members, then you lose the match and must restart. The difficulty is set fairly low, so don’t expect much punishment aside from some dullness. When playing alone, you’re able to swap between Cye and Chrome on the fly should you want to swap for their abilities. Obviously playing co-op would make this much easier, as your AI partner will simply follow you around and attack whatever is in its vicinity, as you’re unable to send them to guard or attack specific points separately.
Levels are setup almost like an arena, with the reactors placed in specific spots and the enemy spawning nearby. Unfortunately there is not much variation in the levels, as nothing, other than the boss fights, stood out from one another. Most stages will have barrels littered around that can also be thrown for massive damage, though as I found out the hard way, you can instantly kill yourself and partner if you are too close to the explosion. Because of the lack of stage variety, once you find a strategy that works, you can essentially do the same thing throughout your whole campaign. That being said, there are bonus objectives to strive for should you desire to work towards more stars.
Cye is a brawler who can use his fist-like swords to get up and close with the enemies. Chrome on the other hand, uses a blaster from afar, so they both play fundamentally different. Cye uses the collected gems to activate one time use abilities, like lightning sparks or setting traps, whereas Chrome uses the collected currency for placing turrets of many different types. Cye has to get close, so will usually take more damage, but he doesn’t feel all that much more powerful, whereas Chrome shoots for practically no damage but moves equally as slow.
Given that turrets will last permanently, as long as they aren’t destroyed (and they don’t have much health), I found they were a much better overall investment since you’re constantly struggling for gems to craft more turrets or use special powers. There’s a whole combo system in place to do big damage to enemies, but I found it was hard to time these correctly, and only a handful of enemies really require it in the later stages.
You’re only able to bring 3 types of turrets and abilities into each stage attempt, and you’ll have plenty to choose from as you unlock more. There are numerous types of turrets, from standard firepower to freeze rays, poison, healing and more, so there’s a healthy amount to cater to your specific playstyle or preferences. I do wish that turret placements had more strategy associated with them though, as I’ve tried to setup a tactical placement of turrets, only to have it not really matter much in the end. There are a few spots where, if a turret is placed, it will get a bonus to its range, damage or life, but these specified spots aren’t usually ideal.
Earning skill points from leveling up will allow you to spend them however you choose. You can upgrade each power a variety of different ways, or even the life, range or damage output of every single turret you’ve currently unlocked. While I did like this addition, it feels like quite a grind if you really want to max out all your abilities and turrets.
Graphically speaking, the game's visuals are passable. You'll find that the art style has a comic book vibe to it. Sometimes the camera is a little frustrating, hiding you behind a pillar or object, but the levels are so small that it won’t matter too much in the end. The audio is nothing special to write about either, as it’s just some bland beat looped indefinitely.
There’s a few boss stages that change things up, which I enjoyed, but they were too far and few between the monotony of the regular stages that have little variety. While I did like the leveling system, and being able to improve each type of ability and turret in many ways, it will take some serious grinding to upgrade everything, which normally wouldn’t be much of an issue if the core gameplay is fun and made you want to continue playing.
In my opinion, the regular $20 price tag is simply too high, and would still be a hard sell at about half of that. Given the lack of stage variety and basic gameplay, it’s mediocre at best, borderline boring at times, slightly improved if you have a partner to play with at home. It really comes down to if you want to play a new tower defense game, and if you do, enter into this one with caution.
Overall Score: 4.8 / 10
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn
The 90’s was a weird time with its trends, and on the gaming side it seemed like nearly every sports pro athlete was getting their own video game at the time. One of the most memorable ones from that era was Shaq Fu. Sadly it wasn’t remembered for how great it was though, as it’s usually on many 'worst games' lists of all times. It revolved around putting uber popular basketball player Shaquille O’Neal into a fighting game, and history wrote itself from that point on.A few years ago a crowdfunding campaign began to bring Shaq Fu back with a complete reboot. This was no simple or small request either, as its goal was near a staggering half million dollars. Surprisingly though, the goal was surpassed, so the wait for the release on console began. It would be a long wait, but the time has finally come, as Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is now available in an attempt to clear its sullied name. I’ll admit, given its pedigree, I was fully ready to write it off from the beginning, but it is much better than its predecessor, though that bar wasn’t set very high.
The story has an abandoned baby, Shaq, being found in the village of Hunglow in China, taken in by his master, Ye-Ye. Shaq was always teased for his size compared to all the other children and he became a lowly rickshaw driver, but Ye-Ye knew he had something special within him, so he taught him the way of martial arts. Shaq’s village comes under attack, and with his master’s last words, he warns him of an evil being that has been progressively trying to dumb down the population for years. Shaq’s mission from that point is to kill these demons who just happen to disguise themselves as famous celebrities. Yes, you heard me right, Shaq is required to kill some celebraties that you might just know.
I wish I could come up with crazy stories like this, but I can’t make this stuff up, as this is actually the game's plot. You’ll travel across the globe to find these celebrities in an effort to put a stop to these evil forces across six different stages. A complete run through should last you roughly 2-3 hours or so, and once you’ve completed the campaign you most likely won't find a reason to play again, unless you care about increasing your scores.
Once you reach the main menu, you’re greeted with a new rap jam from the man himself, Shaq, boasting about himself of course. As corny and as dumb as the jingle is, it’s catchy, and sets the tone when going forward with its grossly juvenile humor. For its gameplay, the core mechanics are based on your typical beat-em-up, with shades of classic Final Fight, you control Shaq as he beats up near endless hordes of enemies, varying from fascists all the way to whips on Wall Street.
Like most typical games in the genre, you have light and heavy attacks and a dash attack that can stun enemies. Your light attacks will be the bulk of your damage throughout, but charge your meter enough and you can unleash Shaq’s size 22 boots into enemies for more damage. Now and then you’ll perform a stylish finisher, slowing down time and zooming in on the enemies being defeated, but I’m not sure what the criteria on making this happen is, as it just seemed to occur at random. My favorite though is when you smash an enemy so hard that they fly into the screen, seemingly cracking it in the process, something I adored from the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade games and Battletoads.
Littered throughout the stages you’ll also find weapons you can pick up, like barrels, signposts, and more, that are quite powerful, but they also break after a few hits. Every couple of levels you’ll also get to transform into Big Diesel (another 90’s Shaq reference) or, get this, a cactus. Yes, Shaq turns into a cactus and shoots hundreds of needles at enemies. Again, I can’t make this up. Funny enough, these sections were fun since you are completely overpowered and simply need to defeat a certain amount of enemies before moving on.
Design throughout the game doesn’t really vary. You’ll simply have to defeat a handful of waves of enemies, walk forward a new scene, repeat numerous times until you beat the boss and you then move onto the next stage. Certain enemies require specific strategies, as one type will counter attack you if you try and use your heavy attack, or you will come across a lawyer who will shoot pages at you, requiring you to throw them back at him. The waves never really stop and you simply need to slog through until the end. Enemies and objects drop coins, something I was hoping to buy new abilities or movies with, but it’s simply for points, which I don’t see a reason to care about in a game like this.
The basics are all present, as combos seem natural, but after three hours of spamming the same buttons it does become a bit repetitive. Enemies and objects will drop health orbs to replenish your life, and in typical Shaq fashion, pick up an Icy-Hot and you’ll have a 100% heal to full. Again, an obscure reference that 90’s kids or Shaq fans will only know.
Boss battles happen at the end of each stage after hundreds of enemies have been beat down. These are the demons you must defeat to progress, but they are disguised to everyone else as a celebrity. You’ll have to defeat Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and more. Each boss level has its own tone and style to it, and while it’s interesting to have celebrity bosses, it’s very pop culture and won’t be relevant forever (is Paris Hilton still relevant?).
The humor contained within is very awkward at times. It starts out light hearted but silly, like Kim Kardashian turning into a large floating butt that farts gas to hit you, and the voice acting is terrible, but it has that “so bad, it’s good” vibe to it. There is even numerous fourth wall breaks, a la Deadpool, but with shallow and corny jokes. What took me by surprise was how insensitive the humor eventually becomes, cracking insults at overweight people, gays, and the use terrible Chinese accents. I’m no prude by any means, and make terrible jokes when I shouldn’t, but this game almost feels like they were desperately trying to be edgy, but it can come across borderline racist at times. I’m not one to get offended, but others most likely will, so just a forewarning.
20 bucks for a 3-ish hour campaign is asking a bit much, especially when it’s repetitive, short, and has little to no replay value. I fully expected Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn to be a complete disaster, and while it has faults, it’s competent, but yet mediocre at best. Even though it’s not completely terrible like its predecessor, Shaq needs to be remembered for his ball skills, not voice “acting” and games. Icy-Hot won’t save you from this one.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of a game described as an “ancient Germanic future”, but here we are with Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition, a small indie game developed by two people that has a basic premise, but challenging gameplay. If I had to simply describe its gameplay in one simple sentence, it would be something along the lines of "A lightspear throwing experience where you face near endless hordes of enemies".You are given power by the gods, well, a god who is kind of bored actually and they simply want to see what happens when you’re given the power of the Lichtspeer, a spear that automatically regenerates, giving you an endless supply of this weapon. And you’ll need this endless supply too, as you’re going to have a violent road ahead of you (in a light hearted way though), trying to impale everything that rushes towards you such as zombies, ice giants, sorcerers, walruses and more.
It’s up to you to please the gods for their amusement, but one mistake and you’ll perish, having to restart at the beginning of the stage. I wish there was more to report regarding the narrative, but that’s literally it. While there’s a framework built as to why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re playing Lichtspeer for its gameplay, not its' story.
Each stage is broken into a handful of waves, each becoming progressively more difficult and adding some type of new enemy or obstacle to keep you on your toes and test your aiming abilities. Most stages will have you in the bottom left corner, standing in place, chucking your endless spears at the oncoming enemies. Think Angry Birds, as you need to hold your power button and aim, factoring in angle and drop. In the beginning this will be easy, but eventually different types of enemies need to be prioritized, as some will walk slowly, some others run, and some even slide down a chute into your face. Aim, shoot, kill and repeat, that’s your objective and what you’ll be doing the whole time, with many deaths peppered in between.
If your accuracy and aim is on point you’ll be able to pull off headshots, and these are basically one hit kills, which again, in the beginning isn’t difficult, but the action will become much more frantic later on, resulting in difficulty of have the time to pull off multiple headshots in a row. Headshots raise your combo meter, allowing for some crazy high scores, but things become so crazy later on that you’ll be more occupied with trying to stay alive rather than aim perfectly. One touch from an enemy and you’re back at the beginning of the stage to try all over again, unless you’re on a boss, then luckily it starts you there again.
In the beginning it’s a little jarring to aim exactly where you want, as you need to hold down a button to power your shot, but you also will need to aim up and down for the exact arc you desire. Eventually you do become more proficient, not having to think as much for angle and distance, but that’s also when you start getting more and more difficult enemies, such as flying animals, jumping fish and more, that require very skilled shots. Other enemies, like the giants, take two hits if you don’t land a headshot, causing more commotion. When there’s multiple types of enemies on screen simultaneously, that’s where quick thinking and strategy comes into play. By the end, it’s almost borderline unfair and calls for near perfection.
To help with this, you earn LSD for completing stages. Calm down, this is simply the currency you earn for your performance in the levels, not the hallucinogenic drug. The higher the score the more you earn, and this LSD can be spent on purchasing new skills or upgrading your favorites. There’s a surprising amount of abilities to be unlocked, though only a handful are truly useful and worthwhile. This encourages replaying levels numerous times to earn currency, which can make subsequent runs that much easier. I do wish there were more useful abilities, maybe even passive bonuses, instead of having a choice of a dozen skills.
The available abilities will refresh over time and should be used when in a tight pinch. These types of sections are usually the challenging, but refreshing, boss fights. Each stage is broken into 5 level sections, and at the end of each second stage is a boss fight that will require some quick thinking and precision. Eventually bosses become quite challenging, and since you’re stationary and unable to move, throwing your spear into a small pink block will allow you to teleport to other footholds on the playfield. Combine this with shooting down projectiles and other enemies and you’ll find that you can become overwhelmed quite quickly.
If you find yourself not doing well, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a 2-player local co-op mode available, for those times you really need some help. The second player gets to play as the main character’s pet (I believe it’s his pet anyway), throwing their own spears wherever they like for double the firepower. Having online support would have helped with longevity, as I don’t really have friends over much, and this wouldn’t be my first choice of a party game if I did.
What I did enjoy was the soundtrack and audio. It has a heavy techno vibe with good beats which suited the visuals quite well, changing based on the levels you’re playing. Headshots sound satisfying, making you want to achieve more of them. And for those wanting more, there’s even a Rage Quit mode, seeing how far you can go in a single life. Not for me by any means, but a great inclusion for those that enjoy difficulty.
Within minutes I was reminded of playing those old pocket tank-like games from my youth, Scorched Earth and Scorched Tanks, as the premise is somewhat similar, keeping you rooted in place and you angle your shots at enemies. While the controls may be clumsy, seemingly better suited for a mouse or touch controls, you do eventually become used to it but you will still suffer cheap and unfair deaths, quite often in the later stages.
The biggest offender in what affects this games overall experience is its repetitiveness. Sure new enemies are introduced often, but the one hit death mechanic can become quite frustrating. Having a dozen near useless abilities doesn’t help either when you learn which few overpowered ones to save up for instead. Unless you are longing for those Scorched Tank days from way back when, you may want to 'spear' clear until a decent sale.
Overall Score: 5.6 / 10
Earth Atlantis
As anyone who reads my reviews should know, shoot-em-ups (Shmups) are one of my favorite genres, and always have been. From the days of R-type, 1942, Raiden, Gradius, and my personal favorite of all time, Ikragua, I’ve always been drawn to the genre and became quite skilled at them as time has passed. So, anytime a new shmup is released, my interest is instantaneously piqued. Enter Earth Atlantis, developed by Pixel Perfex. It is a shmup that has you piloting a submarine, instead of the typical space or aircraft, set under a waterworld-like backdrop. What makes Earth Atlantis stand out right away is its unique artistic style, a choice that is equally refreshing yet somewhat frustrating.“The Great Climate Shift” has hit the planet, leaving 96% of the Earth’s surface covered in water. Machines have adapted to this new paradigm shift of humanity’s downfall and have filled the endless ocean with marine machine hybrids. You, a “Hunter”, are now tasked with taking down the worst of the worst machines, but it won’t be easy, as you’ll have to fight against mechanical fish, squids, crabs, sharks and more. It’s a really interesting premise, but don’t expect a much more in-depth storyline aside from what's told in the beginning, but at least it gives a decent framework for your motivation and reasoning.
While the core gameplay is like any typical shmup, shooting down near endless enemies while trying to survive, it also has a Metroidvania-like map setup, allowing you to explore open pathways and caverns in the ocean depths. Interestingly, there’s also a monster hunting aspect to the gameplay, as your main goal is to reach every accessible boss and destroy them. Doing so will obviously not be as easy as you might assume, as you’ll have a ton of exploration to perform, with many dead ends, and tons of enemies to get through to progress.
One of the most unique aspects Earth Atlantis utilizes is its da Vinci style of sketch art style. The whole game looks as if you’re playing on an old parchment from the 15th century, which is something I’ve not seen before and quite enjoyed, but that was until it was more of a detriment later on. Let me explain.
Given that the bulk of the game has the same visual style of aged parchment, there’s not much variation in the hues, and it is devoid of all other colors for the most part. Where you start to run into issues with this visual style is that many of the enemies’ projectiles later on are pure white and easily blend into the lighter background. During boss fights you’ll take a handful of hits, given it’s incredibly difficult to distinguish all of the bullets from the background when things become incredibly hectic. While I applaud the unique visuals, there’s absolutely no variation, so over time it actually becomes a little dull.
You only have access to the first submarine at the start, with three others that you can unlock should you be lucky enough to randomly happen upon one of the other pirates. Destroy these pirate submarines and you’ll gain access to their sub, though this really isn’t explained all too well in the beginning. Each ship has varying stats and shot types, suiting different playstyles and situations. As you defeat enemies you’ll find random power-ups, such as rockets, electricity, homing missiles and more, adding to your arsenal.
The beginner sub simply shoots forwards and backwards, with more bullets added to your shots as you collect power-ups. The other ships have different shot types, such as one that shoots in a near 360 degrees around him, but less concentrated, while another one has a spread shot in front and back, and another one emits a super concentrated lasers on both sides. Even though it says the ships have different stats, I didn’t seem to notice much of a difference between them, and I made my choice based on a sub's maximum shot power and type.
What’s not explained from the beginning is how the minimap in the top left corner works. You’re dumped into the water world and you need to figure out what to do and where to go. The map will show you where the boss you need to defeat is located, but because the actual level layout isn’t on the map, you won’t know the exact path to get to where you want to go without trial and error. Sure, it has the Metroidvania-like map, but it is missing the most important part, showing how the levels are actually laid out. If the map was actually more useful, I wouldn’t have had as much frustration as I did given how often you need to backtrack. A proper execution of the map mechanic would have made for a much friendlier experience, as I wasted a lot of time trying to find the right path, only to hit a dead end and have to double back and try another section a long way.
There’s also no progression in terms of becoming more powerful. Sure you’ll find power-ups that increase your damage output and shots, but you can also lose them by getting hit by certain enemies and bosses. When you finally find the right path and are presented with a boss fight, these are exciting at first, but eventually you are forced to re-fight them again later on, albeit a more powerful and annoying version with new attack patterns.
There’s more than twenty bosses to fight, even some that more event based, such as having to kill 45 of a specific enemy, but you don’t really get much from defeating these foes aside from the map updating showing you where the next one is located, vaguely of course. There’s a handful of bosses, some more unique than others, each with their own attack types and patterns that will challenge you. Some bosses will open up a new pathway to use as a shortcut between main sections, but again, it’s not labeled on your map, so you better have a good memory.
This is how the progression of Earth Atlantis unravels: You search and search for the right way to the boss, littered with enemies, defeat them and try to find the next boss, and repeat until your map is clear of boss icons. There is another mode that unlocks when you finally manage to defeat all of the bosses, and you’ll most likely have unlocked all the ships by then. Once I was done, I didn’t have much desire to continue on again with a higher difficulty.
While I applaud the unique setting for a shmup and its interesting art style, you’ll take many hits because of how projectiles blend into the background chaos. After a couple hours, it becomes very frustrating to have to kill a boss on one side of the map, then have to traverse to the complete opposite side, essentially blind, unless you have a photographic memory. Ideally, killing bosses would ‘unlock’ a new pathway to a new area and grant you access further into the ocean depths with harder enemies, but you’ll constantly be motoring from the easy beginning side all the way to the more difficult with each boss kill.
After the final boss was completed, I had my fill. It’s not that Earth Atlantis was a bad shmup, it was simply kind of dull. The majority of your time will be trying to find your way to the boss located on the map without any indication that you’re going the right way or not. You'll also be restarting from checkpoints because of the later bosses that are quite annoying to fight. If you’re dying for a new shmup to kill a few hours you could do worse, but I’d wait for a sale before entering the depths of Earth Atlantis.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Gorogoa
Every so often you come across a game that it stands out amongst the crowd for various reasons and is memorable long after the credits roll. To say the puzzle genre is crowded would be an understatement, so to be noticed in the genre you need to be different in some way. Sometimes right from the beginning you know a game is going to be special, like when you rewound time the first time in Braid, or you went through a portal in Portal or you fought against the Flood for the first time in Halo. While I don’t think Gorogoa will go down in the history books as one of the greatest of all time, it sure does stand out in a crowded genre with its unique look, style and gameplay.More importantly, this curious little puzzle game is a one man show, created by Jason Roberts, first shown as a demo in 2012. Released late last year for PC, it’s now arrived on console for puzzler fans to enjoy. Hand drawn and made as a labor of love, Gorogoa will be in the back of my mind for quite some time, even if it has its own quirks and issues along the way.
Framed with a story, Gorogoa uses no dialogue or text, as it is simply animated and static images that are used to convey the narrative instead. It’s almost done in an abstract way, as a boy sees a fantastic creature in the beginning and sets out to collect five different colored fruits. I understood it as an offering of some sorts, but that’s what happens when a story is told in an abstract way, everyone will have their own interpretation of what they think it all means. While you may not understand much of what’s going on, or why, this is the gateway to the unique gameplay, having you click and move pieces across panels as you try and solve what you’re actually tasked with in the first place.
Your ‘play field’ is four square panels in the arrangement of a window pattern. Gorogoa opens with its beautifully drawn artwork in one of the panels, though you can move that particular one to any of the others should you wish. Some objects are interactive and others you can actually separate from the main panel. Eventually you’ll have four panels open at all times, each one allowing you to explore its own environment, delve deeper within it, or even combine them of sorts if you place them correctly adjacent to one another. Other times you’ll need to combine certain panels with others to create a new one, which can then be explored or separated even further.
It’s a really interesting gameplay mechanic that requires some getting used to. So many of the puzzles are cleverly created that I wish there was some sort of tutorial included. You’re simply dropped into this world and left to figure out not only what you’re supposed to do, but how. There’s a friendly ‘ping’ that happens when you click on a non-interactive section on a panel, giving you an audio and visual clue of what you’re able interact with, though there’s no other hint system in place, requiring a lot of trial and error.
You’ll need to think creatively to solve Gorogoa’s sometimes complex puzzles. Detaching a panel may give you an outline with a cutout that you need to match with another panel, or you may be able to zoom into a panel multiple times to rotate an object, etc. You truly need to think out of the box and the gameplay needs to be experienced for you to fully understand. It’s an interesting system that makes all of the panels share the same world and design, but at the same time they are different and isolated in worlds of their own. There’s literally depth in every panel you can play with, sometimes even having to scroll to the side to see other events unfold.
Great puzzle games reward you with those “ah-hah” moments when you finally solve a puzzle that you’ve been stuck on for what seems like ages. Gorogoa does this in spades, as you’ll surely get stuck at some point, but then you will feel a sent of great relief, and feel like a genius, once you solve it. Eventually the puzzles become very complex and intricate, though they still feel natural with a controller. Oddly enough, for my anyways, the middle part of the game was incredibly difficult when compared to the easier final section, something I didn’t expect.
Obviously your puzzle skills will determine your playtime from beginning to end, but I was able to complete it in a single sitting without much issue. I’d expect most people to complete it in roughly 2–3 hours, but there’s even an achievement for speedrunning it in under 30 minutes. Speaking of game length, even though it’s a little light on length, there is an interesting unlockable once you finish. You can actually play through the 2012 E3 demo, adding a little extra play time, but more interestingly, you can see some of the same puzzles and how far the game has evolved over the years and ideas matured.
The color pallet is beautifully hand drawn with many vibrant colors, and it has a kind of watercolor style to it. While the animations are basic, it has beauty and charm to it, especially when panels are paired together to work in unison. The audio is very light hearted and places a great backdrop for the journey before you, seemingly calming you even with your frustration when you become stuck.
While Gorogoa is an amazing experience, it’s a very brief one with little to no replay unless you’re chasing the few achievements you missed the first time through, or you may really want to experience it again afterwards with a better grasp of its mechanics. As a puzzle game, it’s unique, interesting and absolutely gorgeous. It’s obvious that Gorogoa was a labor of love, and it shows. Mechanically it’s ingenious and what it lacks in length, it makes up in quality. Quality over quantity is the perfect slogan for this unique puzzler that I’ll remember for quite sometime.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Grim Legends 3: The Dark City
Artifex Mundi has carved out quite the niche genre for themselves on console in the past year or so. They specialize in hidden object games (HOGs) with a heavy emphasis on puzzles. Most of their catalogue utilize a fantasy backdrop, have decent stories, and some beautiful artwork. The original Grim Legends was actually my first foray into the HOG genre by Artifex Mundi, and I’ve been hooked since. I used to think games like this were a waste of time, but as I’ve gotten older, I tend to really enjoy these types of games more now, as everyone needs a break from the typical shooters and racers now and then.I really enjoyed the first Grim Legends, whereas the second was not quite as polished, especially with its atrocious voice acting, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this third installment. Truth be told, it’s as if Artifex Mundi has a cookie cutter template for their games, although they do vary now and then, but they all follow the same suit with some minor tweaks. I fully expected to go through another typical HOG adventure, and while the setting and mood always changes, the artwork, animation and voice acting are usually always very similar regardless of which title you’re playing from their library. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they’ve been working on improving their ‘template’ in a big way.
You’re thrust into the role of a monster huntress, a member of The Order, a special and high ranking group of people whose sole purpose is to protect the world from evil forces. There’s a powerful artifact that keeps a horrifying monster in another dimension safely away from others. Of course, evil forces want to steal the artifact and unleash the Koshmaar monster upon the world, so it’s up to you and your mentor to track down the person responsible, and of course, save the world. I only wish that there was an effort to give some backstory to the two previous games, as this is the third chapter in the series.
You are taken away to the mysterious land of Lichtenheim, with a tale that will keep your interest for as long as it lasts, and even though I was able to complete the game in a single sitting, I still enjoyed myself throughout. When you do complete the main narrative, there’s a short-but-sweet bonus epilogue that rounds out the abrupt ending, giving a little more playtime and a handful of puzzles.
As per any title in Artifex Mundi's catalog, you progress from scene to scene, looking for items to gather and use to move further along, unlock items and find more puzzles to solve. You’ll be solving a variety of puzzles, completing mini-games, and of course the HOG’s as well. While not new to their games, there was certainly a lot more focus on combinable items from your inventory. Certain items will have a “+” located in the top left corner of the item, indicating you have another item that can merge with it, creating a completely new item for you to use that you’ll need. While I didn’t mind this, Grim Legends 3 seems to rely on it much more than any of their other titles I’ve played to date.
While I was able to complete Casual mode in a single sitting, there is an Expert mode available as well for those looking for more of a challenge. Those wanting to really get their money’s worth can also search each scene for a ton of hidden collectable items, something that is great for the completionists. Given that this is a puzzle game at its heart though, the majority of your time will be searching for items and engaging in puzzle solving.
There’s a handful of puzzles you’ll solve throughout your adventure, though I didn’t find very many of them very challenging. If you aren’t proficient at puzzles though, there is a hint system in place that can also automatically solve said puzzle for you should you become completely stuck. There’s a variety of puzzles to keep things interesting, such as its own take on Sudoku, some alchemy mixing, tile swapping, HOG’s and more.
New to the series is the entertaining Rune Battles. These act almost like a boss battle of sorts where you and your enemy have an energy shield braced on one another for combat. You’re tasked with choosing a symbol on your playfield that doesn’t match any of theirs. Choose correctly and you win that round, win 3 rounds and you defeat them. These are quite easy early on, but eventually you’ll have multiple symbols on both sides as they rotate and move, making things more challenging.
This new addition to the game didn’t go unnoticed and I quite enjoyed them. After completing the Rune Battle you can then remove your opponents mask and dine into their Memory Mirror, almost like saving their soul in a sense. This mini game has you moving panes of stained glass to correctly match the story being told. Again, I really enjoyed this new addition.
As I mentioned above, nearly all of Artifex Mundi games have a very similar visual art style to them, slightly varying based on its setting and backdrop. One thing that always bugged me was the paper doll-like animation they utilized, as it was quite basic, albeit pretty. What took me by complete surprise in this latest entry though was the new animation added to Grim Legends 3: The Dark City, as it seems they’ve upped their game by adding actual cutscenes in certain plot points. To be quite honest, it actually looks quite good, so kudos for trying to improve their experiences.
As well, the voice acting was never great, and sometimes, like in the case of Grim Legends 2, downright terrible. It seems they’ve taken this ongoing criticism to heart and have vastly improved their voice acting quality. While not perfect by any means, it wasn’t as laughable as in previous titles, so again, I’m glad they are trying to improve the quality of their games.
With all of the drastic improvements made to their formula, this was the most enjoyment I had from an Artifex Mundi title yet. They relish in having their own style, puzzles and pretty much go unchallenged in the genre. If more improvements, like the ones included here, continue to advance, I’ll be even more excited for all of their releases. While still a short affair and not too challenging, I had a great relaxing few hours solving puzzles, Rune Battling and saving the world.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Drive on Moscow
I expected a RISK-like experience when I chose to review Drive on Moscow, but what I got was something drastically different and much more in-depth than I anticipated. You don’t really see a lot of games like Drive on Moscow on console, the kind whose physical board game contains a few hundred pieces and requires a solid day and a half to complete. Designed by Ted Raicer, creator of the popular Paths of Glory board game, this digital historical war game is surely to fulfill a very small niche market, as it’s not a common genre found on console.Created by developers that also brought us Battle of the Bulge, you are tasked with leading an offensive strike on the Soviet capital during a pivotal battle in World War II, or trying to defend your motherland as the Soviets. Drive on Moscow is a historically accurate representation of this specific battle and time period, to the point of being very unbalanced, as that’s how the war was. You are the commander, organizing and directing troops across the campaign, crafting strategies and planning counterattacks against your enemies. You’ll not only need to battle the opposing faction, but the harsh weather and terrain as well.
I’ll be honest, at first I was beyond overwhelmed. If you’re not used to extremely detailed and intricate war based board games, or a massive history buff, it’s a lot to take in at once. Visually, it’s represented much like a classic board game, complete with little tiles representing your units and area zones outlined with borders. I don’t want to say that the gameplay is dry, but the only real animation presented are your unit tiles being shifted around during movement choices. Even battles play out as simple gunfire from tile to tile instead of a grand visualization of war.
There are only four scenarios to experience, though you are able to play each one on both sides of the front should you wish. Granted, the offering is quite small, but keep in mind that there is a very specific battle that is being depicted here, so it’s to be expected. This particular moment in history was quite pivotal, and it seems that historical accuracy was chosen over gameplay, which is fine, as long as you prepare for that beforehand. Could changes and tweaks have been made to make these scenarios more fun and balanced? Absolutely, but that’s not what happened in the war, so expect some lopsided battles and near impossible odds.
There is a tutorial that teaches you the basics, but even after completing it twice, I was still quite confused at just how in-depth and intricate your strategies need to be to stand a chance. Even after a handful of full matches, I was only starting to understand how the mechanics and scoring systems worked. You should fully expect to lose your first few matches, especially depending on which scenario you are playing, as you need to keep in mind that some sides are much more overpowered, as that’s how certain battles historically were.
The singular map is divided into sections, not quite hexagons like most board games, but more sectors or zones, much like towns or cities. Branded the ‘impulse based’ turn system, the moves play out turn based, but there’s much more to it than that. During each turn you can choose any region and command all of the troops in it to attack, flee or occupy other nearby zones. Movement allotment and range is based on troop types such as front line soldiers, tanks, convoys, airborne, cavalry and more, as well as connected railways, bridges and roads, so there’s plenty of strategy in play at all times.
Moves take time, and certain scenarios have a maximum amount of time to be played out, yet each move can cost a different amount of time. For example, moving your foot troops may forward the clock ahead a couple hours or half a day. So, a large part of your strategy needs to be looking ahead to the move ‘schedule’, as timing is almost as important as the moves themselves. This will take a long time to get the hang of, as it did for me. Once a unit has been moved they are unable to be commanded again until the end of the movement phase (usually 72 hours).
Even the easiest AI setting will be no pushover, as they are tailored for each side of the battles for specific scenarios. Again, don’t expect to win your first handful of games, but once you start to piece together all of the mechanics, and truly start to develop some sound strategies, victory tastes oh so sweet. Even though there’s only a handful of scenarios, playing both factions feels almost almost completely different games. Having to defend Moscow from an onslaught of enemies is drastically different in gameplay than trying to strategize how to break through the defenses.
The controls will take some getting used to, luckily though you’re able to back out and cancel moves before finally committing to your choice. It doesn’t feel natural or fluid with a controller, as even picking specific map areas can be tricky at times. For those that always dream of “what if’s”, especially in a historical setting, Drive on Moscow is perfectly suited for those types of people, as it allows you to try and change the outcome of history, even if the stakes are very much against you.
If you’re a fan of strategy games like RISK, then Drive on Moscow takes that depth to a whole new level, focusing on micromanagement and preplanning. History buffs should truly enjoy the accuracy depicted within, and those that can’t afford the very expensive physical board games will be happy to only pay a fraction of the price to enjoy similar gameplay.
Drive on Moscow is very unfriendly towards new players if you’re not willing to put in the time to learn all of its strategic intricacies, though if you put in the time and really plan ahead, there’s some great historical gameplay to be had within, even if it looks extremely bland and uninviting. Sure, it’s going to only satisfy a very specific niche, but those fans will most likely really enjoy this theatre of war.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Through the Woods
It’s not uncommon these days for a small studio of just a few people to turn to Kickstarter to help fund a portion of their vision. They detail what the game is about and why they need the help, and if they can sell their vision to likeminded gamers, then it becomes funded and the wait for a release begins. This is what happened with developer Antagonist and their successfully backed game, Through the Woods.Having released in 2016 on PC, Through the Woods has seemingly made the travel through said woods and has finally released on console. Before starting to play, I checked out the trailers and initial pitch and thought I was going to be in for a horror based experience, as a background of an empty forest with the protagonist set aside essentially writes the horror for itself. Instead though, not many scares were had, and instead, a more story based adventure took place, albeit with some minor horror elements, but not at all what I initially expected.
At its narrative core, Through the Woods tells a tale about how far a mother would go to save her son. Inspired by Norwegian folk tales, the adventure begins with the mother, Karen, recalling events of what exactly happened to her and her son, Espen. When asked where her son was, this is the beginning of her tale.
She recalls her and her son retreating to the wilderness for the weekend, but when Epsen wants to play, Karen is much too tired from her pile of work. You can tell there’s some tenseness in their relationship, events happen and eventually Espen is missing. Finding small traces of her son’s whereabouts, she explores and delves deeper and deeper into the seemingly empty forest nearby. Expect to feel lonely and afraid, as being alone in the woods can be frightening on its own, but factor in that you’re searching for your lost son with mysterious forces seemingly all around you, and the setting is a grim one.
Your only real tool you’ll have access to in your search for Espen will be your flashlight. Luckily it seems to have endless batteries, but eventually you’re going to prefer the darkness as your friend, as using the light to see easier will also bring you unwanted attention at times. And yes, I’m being vague on purpose, as the adventure is quite short in length, as I finished it in a single sitting in roughly 2 hours or so, so any spoiler really detracts from the overall experience.
Just like in real life, when you can’t see well, your other sense become heightened, and you’ll be hearing not only the wind whistling softly through the dense thickness of trees and foliage, but also what may lurk within the shadows.
Left Trigger will allow you to sneak slowly and unheard when needed and the Right allows you to run when needed to escape or simply traverse along the lengthy paths quicker. There’s no attack option, simply because there’s no combat. If you manage to run into, erm, an enemy, you’ll simply die outright and have to try again. While this creates a ‘run or hide’ tenseness in certain moments, this is also part of the problem of having dull gameplay.
The majority of your gameplay will be running from point A to B with only a few slightly off the beat paths to find a hidden collectable, but for the most part, Through the Woods is mainly a walking (well jogging I guess) simulator as there’s no combat or puzzles to solve along your journey. Having nothing else to essentially do along the way really also cuts down the horror element. Sure, there’s one or two spots that are a bit tense (again, purposely being ambiguous), but don’t expect any jump scares.
This was a little bit of a letdown, as exploring the woods at night by yourself is a perfect and natural backdrop for a frightening tale. That being said, I was always compelled to journey on and find Espen, as I wanted to find out what happened, and being a parent myself, I know I would continue on as well, regardless of the danger. While it may not have the fights or excitement, it managed to keep my attention with its slowly unfolding dialogue as I proceeded to search the woods.
I would normally detail the visuals before the audio, but the audio here is much more important for this tale. Given that you’re nearly always in the dark in the thickness of the woods, you’ll rely on audio clues around you in place of visual clues. You’ll hear things in the woods, unsure if it’s a natural animal, or something else entirely. Certain creatures react to you differently, sometimes chasing if they see you, some being blind but can hear you, among others, so you’ll learn what’s nearby with their auditory queues.
The ambient sound, wind in trees and minor noises brings more tension than anything else, and the soundtrack is quite decent when there’s a section of exploration and the backdrop of music. It’s a shame that the voice acting on the other hand is near atrocious for mostly everyone else. It’s not the worst I’ve heard, but far from even average. In a horror-like game, you need to believe their performances or else the whole experience simply falls flat. I wasn’t convinced for a second that Karen was in agony trying to find her lost son, and Espen surely didn’t sound convincing either.
Visually, everything is a mixed bag as well. The forest backdrop looks decent, though I guess it’s hard to tell when you’re almost always in the darkness. Most textures look passible, but certain pieces, even the skybox at times, looks terrible. I took a screenshot of me looking into the sky, and the sun simply looked like a white circle. The same went for night time, where the stars looked like an MS paint drawing with square dots littered throughout. While the villages you come across are decent, the animations clearly need a lot of work. Every movement feels janky and very robotic, and if you look at Karen’s face as she’s talking, she looks like an animatronic more than a mother in deep distress.
I can see the appeal for Through the Woods, as it does something a little different, but the 2 or so hour length coupled with the dull gameplay will be sure to be a disappointment to some. Despite its list of flaws, I was compelled to see it to the end, and to be honest, I think the ending will stick with me for quite some time.
Even though trailers may suggest a horror experience set in the lonely woods at night, it’s not exactly that. Its substory is its real strength, but is hidden behind hidden optional collectables littered throughout the woods. It does have a tense and eerie atmosphere, but lacks depth and interesting gameplay more than anything else.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Ys Origin
I knew the Ys series has been around for a while, but I didn’t realize it debuted over thirty years ago in 1987. I’m normally very well versed on my JPRG’s, but for some reason or another I’ve never actually gotten around to playing a Ys title before, despite owning a handful of them. Now that developer DotEmu has decided to bring the series to Xbox Fans for the first time, I dove in head first with the newest release, Ys Origin. While this title was released for PC back in 2006, then on Steam in 2012, it’s now making its console debut with a few bonuses for Xbox fans who may want to jump into the series.Taking place 700 years prior to the first Ys title, Origin serves as a prequel, so no prior knowledge of the series is necessary, though Ys fans with keen eyes will notice some fan service. The world is at peace until one day an invasion of demons wreaks havoc on the lands, constructing a massive tower, aptly named the Devil’s Tower. The land of Ys is ruled by twin goddesses, Feena and Reah, but they mysteriously go missing once the invasion begins, so naturally, it’s up to you to find the goddesses, restore order in the land and destroy the demons plaguing your home. Of course nothing is simple, and the search party gets separated from the Holy army, thus leaving you on your journey, one which begins at the base of the Devil’s Tower.
You’ll begin by choosing your difficulty level, ranging from Easy, Normal to Nightmare, then you will choose between two characters to play as, Yunica or Hugo, each of which has their own complete playstyles and abilities. Yunica is a young and eager apprentice knight that is unable to use magic of any kind, so she uses her large axe to attack and has quick mobility. Hugo on the other hand is the magic user, shooting magic from afar, but he is much slower. Both play vastly different and their stories are separate, even if they result in the same end point. This promotes multiple playthroughs and allows you to see a different point of view, which is always welcome.
The majority of your gameplay involves exploring the tower’s many levels and floors, searching for levers, items, and whatnot, while encountering hordes of enemies along your journey. Actually, you’re whole adventure takes place in the tower, which I thought was just going to be the beginning area, but alas, you’re stuck inside the almost never ending tower for your adventure.
I was initially disappointed about this, but your environments will change while inside the different sections of the tower, so while it may not be a large overworld map you’re exploring, the scenery does alter, even if it does all take place indoors. You’ll come across water based floors, fire and more, as any typical RPG would employ.
You’re going to need to find keys to open doors, find switches to move platforms, and even search for hidden secrets. While the general layout of the floors isn't terribly confusing, there’s no map system included, so it is possible to get lost if your memory isn’t sharp. I wish this wasn’t the case, as it seems like an oversight, nevertheless, rooms will respawn full of enemies every time you zone out and go back in, so it is possible to grind some levels and experience should you wish.
Speaking of combat, it’s pretty basic and plays more like a hack and slash than a traditional turn based JRPG, as you simply maneuver and attack, something I didn’t expect but really enjoyed. Controls were spot on, attacks felt powerful and it’s always fun to see an enemy explode into EXP gems, items, SP and more. As expected, enemies in the beginning will pose little threat, but as you progress further up the tower, things becomes much trickier, especially when it comes to the bosses.
When you come across a Goddess statue, they will not only serve as save points, but also teleportation spots and where you’ll spend your gathered SP. There are upgrades that will improve your equipped armor and weapons, run speed, abilities, resistances and more. It’s an interesting change of pace from the norm and really forces you to grind quite a bit if you want the highest tier of upgrades. Luckily rooms fully respawn when you re-enter them, so it’s a matter of finding the most efficient spots to grind in, which I highly suggest, as bosses will surely challenge you with their interesting and unique battles.
When you do make your way through the six hour or so campaign, you are treated to some new game modes that unlock, all of which add some replayability and longevity to the game. Time Attack is pretty self-explanatory, challenging you against the clock. Arena Mode will have you facing waves of various enemies from the different floors, unlocking new arenas as you progress. What’s really cool are the two Xbox One exclusive additions: Blood option, which was previously a hidden PC setting, and Speedrun Mode. Speedrun is more than just the time attack, as the dialogue can be skipped, you can’t use save points, and certain glitches were intentionally left in for those that want to utilize them for quicker runs.
Visually, Ys Origin is absolutely gorgeous. To be honest, I was worried it was going to have that 'mobile remake' style of visuals that updated remakes have been getting lately. These aren't as pleasing as classic traditional sprites, but that’s not the case here. Even though all of the environments are set indoors, the variety in the visuals is quite decent and looks pleasant. Backdrops, enemies and characters are all drawn wonderfully. The audio is just as good, and even though I wish it was voice acted instead of text bubbles, the music is very fitting to the mood of the floor you’re exploring.
I really only have one negative to point out throughout my experience, that being that it’s very difficult to tell where you are on the Z-axis when trying to fight enemies, bosses and crossing platforms. While using shadows helps one to figure out where one's placement is, having to run up the back of a boss is quite difficult simply because you aren’t easily able to tell where you are in relation. Not a deal breaker by any means, but something that I was occasionally running into.
At $20, Ys Origin is priced perfectly with the amount of value you get within, allowing for multiple character playthroughs and unlockables to be discovered. The story and characters are interesting, the gameplay is solid, boss fights are interesting and memorable, it looks beautiful, and the gameplay is fantastic. Fans of the series will enjoy seeing some backstory while new fans, like myself, now have an entry point to start from, bringing them into the series.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Laser League
Developers Roll7, best known for OlliOlli, have released their newest game, Laser League, hoping to break into the sports genre with tons of lasers and a colorful Tron-like artistic style. Maybe it’s due to being an 80’s child, but I instinctively find myself always gravitating towards games with a vibrant neon Tron-like style. Like most sports games of this nature on gaming consoles, you’ll catch on really quickly to the core mechanics, but you will need to spend some time to learn its intricacies and strategies to win consistently.The year is 2150 and the hottest sport is Laser League, where you fight for control of nodes that spawn deadly lasers of color, attempting to not only defeat, but destroy your competition to win. This is the future though, so obviously everything is bright, vibrant, neon and of course, lightning fast. You’ll surely need to use your reflexes, master fakes, and strategically choose your classes and power-up use timing if you want to be victorious across the handful of arenas.
Like most sports, there are different types of players, categorized into classes. While they may not have positions like in traditional sports, each one is completely unique and has their own special abilities, making half the strategy choosing the correct classes to outplay your opponents. The six classes are as follows:
Blade – Able to utilize a short range attack to eliminate the competition.
Smash – Equips a shield that can short-range dash into enemies, knocking them backwards and briefly stunning, hopefully into the moving lasers.
Ghost – Allows a brief moment of invulnerability, allowing you to phase through a laser to escape or revive a teammate when needed.
Thief – This class has an ability that allows you to steal an active enemy node away from the competition.
Shock – This class has an ability to produce a small area of effect that will briefly disable (stun) enemies
And lastly Snipe – This class allows you to drop a marker, which produces a line between it and wherever you are, allowing you to teleport to it, subsequently eliminating any enemies if the path if timed correctly.
Surely, some people will gravitate towards specific classes, as they cater to certain playstyles, but over the course of playing dozens of matches, I found most players online tend to stick with Smash, as the knockback is simply too good to pass up, especially when you learn its range and timing, both offensive and defensively. I’m hoping some balancing tweaks will come in the future that will make choosing the other classes more enticing. Not only do you have a choice of class, but modifiers as well, to help augment your playstyle, either to help improve your class or make up for your shortcomings.
During a match, you’ll not only have to keep track of everything from players to lasers constantly changing and moving, but power-ups will also appear on the playfield randomly. These can be game changers and sway the match in your favor, but it can also sway against you if the enemy uses them at the appropriate time. With over a dozen different power-ups, you’ll want to learn the icons, as grabbing the power-up that swaps all laser colors, especially if you’re in the lead, can be more of a detriment. There are over a dozen power-ups that will wildly change the field for a short time, such as swapping laser nodes, cancelling all active ones, reversing laser directions, pausing lasers and many more.
Another skill you’re going to have to master quickly if you want to rack up the wins, is the wall wrap. This allows you to evade or attack by quickly warping from one side of the arena to the other. Simply walk into the left wall and you’ll appear on the right side. Run upwards and you’ll appear on the bottom. You’ll need to master this if you want any hope of winning, as it’s usually the only way to avoid the laser grids and opposing team.
When you’re playing 2v2 or 3v3 and a teammate gets eliminated, there will be an icon on the ground indicating where they died. If you manage to run over the icon, they can be revived, though this becomes very tricky when avoiding lasers and enemies alike. A good team will have each other’s backs, making reviving a priority whenever possible.
There’s a level-up/progression system, and it is based on how well you do certain things such as winning matches, etc. There’s also a ton of character customization items you can unlock as well, allowing you to tweak your character to your liking. It does take a while to unlock many of the pieces, but this will help with the longevity if you want to have all of the unlockable items.
Local competitive play is available, and so is online 2v2 and 3v3 matches. While a multiplayer only game will live or die by its community numbers, Roll7 did something smart and included bots for when players can’t be found to fill matches. I’d say about half my matches played were against someone with AI substitutions, and the rest were matches full human controlled players. It seems as there’s not much of a matchmaking system behind the scenes though, as numerous times a group of us low level players were pitted against much higher ranked players, rather than evening out the teams. Maybe I’ve just had bad luck, but that was my online experience while reviewing this game.
Laser League is very easy to understand and pickup, but like most great titles, it will take time and patience to master. There’s a lot more to the gameplay than simply avoiding lasers, even though that may be your first impression, as there’s a surprisingly deep strategy that needs to be employed to pull off those wins, along with lightning quick reflexes. Laser League is fresh, new and exciting, and even though it emanates an obvious Tron vibe with its visuals, I applaud its innovativeness and accessibility for those looking for something different than what’s offered now in the competitive landscape.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Phantom Trigger
I’ve never heard the term or genre Neon Slasher before, but that’s what Phantom Trigger is marketed as, so expect plenty of hack and slash gameplay coupled with a vibrant neon color palette of pixel art. If you’ve played Hyper Light Drifter in the past, you’ll have a moment of déjà vu, as the gameplay is very similar on the surface.You’re introduced to Stan, a normal middle class man leading an ordinary life, which is until he runs into some severe health issues. Given that his condition is likely fatal, Stan chooses to opt for an experimental treatment rather than a grossly expensive surgery. The majority of the gameplay has you controlling The Outsider, set in a mysterious and brightly neon world, with the vague connection between the two people and the worlds.
There’s clearly a connection between the two, with small snippets of story told through flashbacks, which was my favorite trait about Phantom Trigger, as there were some interesting reveals and twists. Slowly things will come together and make sense, but you won’t really know what’s happening, or why, until the very end.
A hack and slash at its core, Phantom Trigger relies heavily on its combat to keep you interested, the problem being that it’s simply not that enjoyable to begin with, as there’s a lack of variety. Each level has you searching around a wide area for paths to explore, with every corner infested by a variety of enemies, all whom are trying to stop and defeat you. You’ll find checkpoints randomly across the level, serving as respawn points when you inevitably die.
In certain spots you will find yourself locked into a small play area where you won’t be allowed to progress until every enemy is defeated, which usually occurs after a handful of waves. These aren’t terribly difficult, but they happen so frequently, and your checkpoints are so far and few in between, that you’ll have to attempt sections repeatedly due to dying.
It doesn’t help that there’s no tutorial, as I didn’t know that I had different types of attacks or that combos were a thing, as you need to rely on them heavily throughout the 6-hour or so adventure. A great example of this shortcoming is when I came across the first puzzle. Four pillars appeared of different colors, popping up at different intervals. I kept hitting them but I was doing something wrong, and when I did so, enemies would spawn. After about 20 minutes I was unable to figure out what I was doing wrong after repeated fails and deaths.
As it turns out, The Outsider actually has 3 separate weapons and attacks, conveniently color coded as well. A blue quick slashing ice sword, heavy fire knuckles, and a green whip that allows you to pull in enemies. If this was taught to me beforehand, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time on the color based ‘Simon Says’ puzzle, as all I needed to do was match my specific weapons to the pillars in order.
You also have a quick dash that allows you to briefly teleport in the direction you aim, allowing you to phase through attacks, avoid enemies and traverse levels quicker. Combine all of these elements and you have the basics of the combat system, yet for some reason though, even after hours of gameplay, it didn't feel natural. Individual weapons don’t have combos, but combined attacks in three hit sequences, and you’ll perform combos, something you’ll need to almost exclusively rely on to reach the credits.
There’s only a handful of combos in the game, but there’s clearly one or two that are superior, so eventually the combat devolves into spamming the same button combinations until you win, or die and try again. The combos are all about timing, as is the rest of combat, though most enemies are repeated throughout the game and take a lot of damage to defeat. There are boss fights to spice things up a bit, though most of these aren’t anything special and simply have you attacking it along with waves of endless enemies.
With the never ending bombardment of enemies thrown at you, I expected there to be an interesting progression system, something that would improve your abilities or made you stronger. Alas, that isn’t the case here. Your weapons will naturally level up the more you use them, but you don’t ever become stronger with their attacks. Instead, certain combos require your weapons to be at a specific level, so that’s really the only progression you’ll make. It was disappointing to not have your weapons become stronger over time, forcing you to rely on the combo attacks solely for the majority of your damage.
For those that enjoy streaming, there’s some built in Mixer integration, which I hope catches on with more games. Should you have an audience to stream to, your spectators can decide to give you more health, upgrade your weapons, or of course spawn enemies. Given that this is the internet, expect to have many more enemies spawned if you do decide to stream with the Mixer integration turned on.
While the combat was repetitive and I felt somewhat let down, the art style is very aesthetically pleasing. The neon isn’t terribly 'in-your-face', nor does it look like it’s ripped straight from the 80’s, but it’s colorful, bright and vibrant at the same time. While the level design lacks variety, the pixel art is wonderfully done and flows naturally. Audio is on the same level, as each attack, especially the fire punch, sounds distinct, unique and powerful. This is all wrapped with a great electronic soundtrack that fits the mood and visual style of Phantom Trigger perfectly.
While Phantom Trigger looks attractive and very inviting, the lack of any meaningful progression and repetitive combat throughout really hinders its enjoyment. Priced at $18.99 (CAD), your enjoyment is going to solely be based on how much you find on repeating the same combos over and over fun or not. After the first few hours, I wasn’t enjoying the gameplay much aside from knowing that I was close to another story segment, something I did enjoy.
If you’re looking for a new weekend game to play and be done with, check out Phantom Trigger when it’s on sale. At $10 I could see this doing much better, but as it stands right now, it’s an alright game that simply lacks motivational power to entice you to continue on.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Runestone Keeper
I enjoy my dungeon crawlers and my roguelike games, both of which combined isn’t necessarily uncommon, but I have not quite experienced something quite like Runestone Keeper before. Runestone Keeper seems to blend a dungeon crawler with some roguelike mechanics, but the gameplay is more akin to that of a board game of sorts. I’ll admit, I was a little turned off when playing in the beginning, but as I put some time into it, and learned the inner workings that isn’t directly taught to you via a tutorial, I started to enjoy it much more and simply took it for what it is.Don’t go in expecting some grand narrative. Actually, there’s no story here really at all, as your first selectable class is simply named “Guy” with no real reasoning for your quest other than progressing further in the dungeon. You’ll have a brief tutorial that teaches you the basic mechanics but many of the ‘deep down’ mechanics you’ll simply need to learn for yourself.
The general concept of the game is to explore dungeon levels, defeating monsters, and progressing as far as you can before ultimately succumbing to death, resulting in having to start all over from the first floor. You view the dungeon from above, in a grid-like format, controlling a cursor and choosing which tile to click and uncover what may lie on it. Only one tile is viewable from the beginning of each floor, so you need to click any adjacent tiles to uncover them, almost like the fog in a RTS title. Each tile you click has a chance at being something beneficial, an enemy, an item, or other surprises that are completely randomly generated every time you play. And of course, a good dungeon crawler wouldn’t be complete with every floor becoming much more dangerous than the last, and that’s no different here.
Given that every tile is randomly determined when it loads, and you don’t know what is on each tile until you click on it, so randomness will either work for you, or usually, very much against you. Traps are plentiful, hurting you and decreasing your health pool when you uncover one, and special items can be acquired and used when needed, again, completely dependent on the randomly generated floors. You may find special shrines that allow you to pray to Gods for special buffs, though be prepared to uncover many enemies on the tiles at the most inopportune times.
All you need to progress floors to find the exit, some simply need to be clicked, while others will require a key that a certain enemy is holding. While you can quickly jump floors with some luck, you may want to explore nearly every tile per floor, as you’ll need to kill enemies to level up, making each following floor easier to handle. Simply rushing through floors will not end well for you when enemies can easily take you out without sufficient levels and equipment.
So, by that description above, it may sound like you’re simply clicking on boxes to uncover what’s underneath, and at its core this is true, but once you start making it to double digits, you’re going to have to be very strategic in every move you make, taking into account your health, soul points, mana, items, and more. If you’re lucky, you’ll uncover hearts that can be used to replenish your health, as permadeath occurs once you reach zero.
Every time you uncover a tile, you earn a soul point, which you use for items that have a soul cost to them, as do other abilities and bonuses you can uncover on floors as well. You’re only able to hold three items at a time, so many times you’ll need to weigh which is better suited for your playstyle and current situation. Once you start taking all of these into account, as well as your mana to use powerful character based abilities, there’s actually a decent amount of strategy and depth involved in the gameplay.
Monsters are varied, and even though they only appear as icons on the tiles, they can be quite formidable. Their icon will show their attack, health, and shield stats, so much of the strategy is figuring out who to attack, when and with what. To do so efficiently, you’ll need gear and equipment to do so. Enemies can drop gear, which is also randomized, though you can also spend your precious gold on upgrades in the random stores you happen across as well. You’ll start with a basic sword and armor, but eventually you’ll come across other gear pieces with varied stats that can make a world of difference in your survival.
There are two sets of weapons you can have as well, and while it may not seem like there’s much point at first, you’ll eventually come across deadly ranged enemies that will attack you each time you click a tile, and if you are numerous tiles away before you get into sword attack range, you’re going to die very quickly, hence the need for a bow or staff so you can attack from a distance.
Like any good RPG, Runestone Keeper also implements a leveling system that allows you to choose from an increase to your specific stats that not only makes you more powerful, but it allows you to equip higher level gear and items as well. This is where part of your playstyle will come into play, as you can increase your damage every time you level, or decide to gain more health with heart pickups instead. I suggest trying to stick to a specific stat or style, as having rounded out stats never really worked out well for me for the most part.
When you die, you will lose all of your gear and progress, and the only persisting item you’ll keep is the gold you earn from each playthrough. This accumulates and can be used for numerous different bonuses, making each subsequent playthroughs slightly easier. The smartest use for your gold though is to save up and use for permanent passive upgrades, like extra gold and XP per kill, among others, though you need to back out to the main menu to purchase these. As well, any of the Runestones you find will also persist through death, along with Gods you’ve unlocked by preying at their alters. For a nominal gold fee you can also start a run with certain items pre-purchased, though you’ll always be at the mercy of the randomness.
It’s taken quite a few hours of grinding for nominal amounts of gold to save up for the passive bonuses, but now that I’ve got a grasp on the deeper mechanics and have devised some of my strategies, I last much longer than I used to, nearly always reaching double digits in regards to the dungeon floors. The randomness can result in your death very quickly or it can be incredibly lucky with tons of heart pickups, there’s no telling how a run will go beforehand. This may frustrate some, but you always earn some gold at the end, so it’s a matter of sticking with it long enough to save up for some bigger upgrades and bonuses.
It’s clear that Runestone Keeper was originally built for PCs overseas, as some translation issues have slipped through the QA process (e.g. - I’ve been told to use space bar) and doesn’t always read fluently in English. By no means is it a deal breaker, but it’s noticeable and awkward. It’s simplistic in nature, but there is some depth and strategy needed to be consistent and successful, and that’s only if luck is on your side. If you put in the time to slowly progress, you’ll enjoy your dungeon crawling experience, even when you’re dying every few floors, it’s just a shame that the majority of your success is out of your hands and relies on pure luck.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Pure Farming 2018
I reviewed my first farming simulator last year, fully expecting for it to be a waste of time and skeptical that it could be fun, initially scoffing at the idea, and the genre, but I came away kind of surprised with how in-depth it really was, and more importantly, how much work farmers put in. I was really surprised with how popular the farm sim genre is after being exposed to it, as I didn’t expect it to be with how niche it is. Previously, there really has only been one main game in the genre that releases every few years, on console anyway, but developer Ice Flame is looking to break into the market with their inaugural offering, Pure Farming 2018.Sure, farming sims may only appeal to a small market, but the fans who play them are very passionate about what they do, and don’t, like from their farming games. Pure Farming 2018 seems to have done their research, adding some very interesting features not found elsewhere, yet somehow also missing some big ones, like multiplayer and mods.
If you’re not a farmer, or a farming game enthusiast, it’s hard to find the appeal of any farming titles, as you need to work hard for any pay off, just like real farming. If ploughing a field for 45 minutes before sowing and watering for another 45 doesn’t sound appealing to you, then there’s not much these games will do to make it exciting, but if cultivating your own crops and selling them in other markets for huge profits sounds fun, you’ll most likely enjoy Pure Farming 2018 for what they’ve added to the genre, hopefully resulting in the competition stepping up their game as well.
Surprisingly enough, there is actually a campaign with a story attached to Pure Farming 2018. It won’t win any awards, as it’s simply a tale of your grandfather passing and leaving the farm to you, along with the debt that comes with said land. So, it’s up to you to save the family farm and turn it around into a profit. I appreciated that at least there was some type of narrative involved aside from the simple objective of making money, as there’s a reason behind doing what you need to do. So, you strap on your boots, put on your hat and overalls and start your journey to becoming a farmer that would make your grandfather proud.
To turn a profit, you’ll need to plant seeds, cultivate crops, raise livestock, run errands and drive heavy farming machinery. One thing I found very challenging about the other farm sims was just how in-depth they were, as you needed to turn the engine on, hit the lights, rotate your equipment, turn it on and more, and doing so with a controller only was quite challenging and unintuitive. Pure Farming 2018 doesn’t go as in-depth per se, but that doesn’t mean it’s not just as good of a simulator either, it simply does things differently, allowing you to focus on other aspects and separating itself from the competition.
My First Farm mode is actually the campaign/tutorial, guiding you step by step on how to move around, how to drive and how to use equipment, and of course, harvesting your crops properly. Even though you’re generally given step by step instructions of how to perform your task at hand, it’s not done well enough, periodically keeping you confused and frustrated as to why what you’re supposed to do isn’t working. Some instructions are vague, eventually not giving you every single step in the process, leaving you to search the old tutorial tips or struggling to remember what you needed to do hours ago the first time.
Luckily, as a modern farmer you have your trusty tablet on hand at all times. This is where you’ll get your emails (tips and tutorial), statistics, view marketplace to buy new equipment for delivery and resources, taking another loan from the bank (if needed), hiring extra help and even launch your drone should you want to fly around the farm to get an aerial point of view. What I really enjoyed was how beginner friendly many of the options (and tablet menus) were, so newcomers shouldn’t be too intimidated once you’ve learned the ropes and general controls.
You have the choice of three different modes to play: My First Farm, which is the starting tutorial and campaign as described above, Free Farming, where you can choose the continent you want to farm on and even your starting cash flow (up to $5 million), or Farming Challenges that have you focusing on specific objectives to be successful. Free Farming is suggested for more experienced players, as there’s no hand-holding in any way, allowing you to freely farm however you choose. The nearly unlimited budget (should you chose) is a great way to test out new equipment and farm types. Farming Challenges will surely put your farming skills to the test, as they are objective based with very specific gear and goals.
As I mentioned above, you can choose a mode that allows you to pick where you will farm. That’s right, Pure Farming 2018 allows you the option to choose which continent to play on. You’re able to choose from areas such as Italy, Japan, Colombia, and of course the biggest map of all by a large margin, Montana, USA (and Germany if you buy the DLC). I didn’t think that having different areas would be a big deal aside from aesthetics and a varied backdrop, but I was surprised to see that each area has their own specific crop types that you can only farm there. For example, in Japan you can have rice farms and in others, hemp and olives. It was really interesting to see the different types of agriculture based on the various countries. You can even then farm crops in one country and sell to another for massive profits.
Farming isn’t possible without the proper equipment, and there’s plenty available for you to choose from, each with their own costs and stats. There are actual manufacturers included, such as Gregoire, Zetor, Mitsubishi and more. Granted, the selection is nowhere near the amount that other titles in the genre offer, but for someone like me, it was more than enough to offer varied options of how to cultivate my crops.
While you can obviously harvest wheat and potatoes, Pure Farming 2018 includes many more options based on what kind of crops you want to grow. Chickens, cows, rabbits, apples, help, rice, olives, greenhouses, cabbage, peppers and even green energy such as solar and wind, among others. There’s quite a large selection, some of which are only accessible on certain continents, so there’s plenty of gameplay should you desire it. Factor in that a large plot of land can take well over an hour to properly plow, seed and water, and you’ll start to get an idea of how much work farmers actually go through.
There’s really only two glaring omissions from Pure Farming 2018: no mods and no multiplayer. Mods allow for much more gameplay to be released by the community, and multiplayer would sure make the grind much more bearable with a friend or two. I’ve put in some hours into my crops, but it does grow tiresome after a while when doing it alone. Having a friend that could help me, or at least keep me company, would be much more preferable.
What I really enjoyed about Pure Farming 2018 is that it’s much more accessible than some of the others in the genre. Granted, the tutorial doesn’t do a good enough job, but I did eventually figure out what I had to do and how through trial and error. It’s still a simulator, but it feels much easier to do minor things overall, allowing you to focus on more farming aspects. It may not be the prettiest game out there, and it has its technical issues, but fans of the genre will most likely overlook these and enjoy their time cultivating their hard work.
Farming is hard work and takes time, and it’s no different here. You’re going to have to put in the hours to have a large, successful and profitable farm, but if you’re willing to do so, you’ll enjoy all that there is to do in Pure Farming 2018 that the competition simply doesn’t offer. If mod support and multiplayer are included in the hopeful sequel, there will be some serious farm sim competition in the genre.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Tiles
I’m always down for a good puzzle game. On one hand they can be very relaxing and a change of pace from typical shooters, racers and action games, on the other, difficulty can easily turn to frustration if something just doesn’t click. At first look, Tiles, created by lone man developer Romans I XVI Gaming, looks incredibly simplistic, and it is, but don’t let that lure you into a false sense of security, as you’ll eventually hit a brick wall of difficulty, or your fingers will become too tired to continue, one of which will come surely first.As for Tiles’ presentation, don’t expect much in the visual department, as it's as minimalistic as it gets. Puzzles play out in a grid-like layout on top of a black background; that’s it. On a positive note, that means there’s absolutely no distractions, as you’re simply focused on the puzzle placed in front of you, nothing else. While catchy, the lopped music does tire over time, especially if you’re attempting to play for any length of time. There's also no attempt of a real tutorial, you’re simply thrown into a level and set out to figure everything out for yourself, so it can be a little confusing at first.
Your starting point is always on a green tile and your goal is to reach the red tile, but only after you’ve crossed every single blue tile on the screen first. Levels will start off easy, of course, then promptly ramp up in difficulty. If you think you can simply rush to the red tile to end the level before clearing each blue one, you’ll promptly be restarted and need to try again, so there’s some forward thinking needed to figure out the quickest and most optimal path. Oh, and blue tiles fall and disappear after a few moments, so you need to constantly be moving quickly and with purpose.
The biggest part of your strategy is not only figuring out the pathway to the exit while hitting every blue tile beforehand, but also timing your moves when you have to navigate with tiles that disappear quickly. The later stages are so elaborate that it will take some time to figure out the proper path, though the hardest part will be having the finger dexterity to actually do so in time accurately.
This is where the real difficulty for Tiles comes into play. The speed which you need to navigate stages becomes so incredibly fast that the majority of the time you die is because you’ve accidentally stepped one tile over too many into the abyss, prompting your level to reset. While I’d like to think I have pretty decent reflexes, as I’ve been gaming for over thirty years, the main problem with Tiles is that it forces you to use the D-Pad, and not the Thumbsticks, to maneuver your white tile around the level. Also, you can’t simply hold a direction, so when you’re plotting along a level with 50+ blue tiles to touch, along with others to avoid, you need to press the D-Pad every single time to move in the direction you want.
If the controller D-Pad’s were better, then maybe this wouldn’t be such as issue, but no matter what controller I tested it with, be it an original, Razer or an Elite, the D-Pad simply restricts your movement from being as nimble and quick as your mind wants to play. Tiles is also a Play Anywhere title, I also loaded it up on my PC to test it out, and it has the same problem, as you’re unable to simply hold the direction you want to move and are forced to tap the direction every single time, even on a keyboard.
Should you have someone in the household that you’d like to test your finger dexterity against, then you’ll be happy to know that Tiles also supports competitive multiplayer, seeing who can complete levels the quickest. I do appreciate how it’s simply drop in and out if someone wants to give it a shot without having to back out all the way to the main menu.
The main ‘campaign’ is filled with 90 levels, which, good luck if you’re able to complete them all, as I was unable to. If you do manage to somehow find a way to complete the dozens of levels, or simply get stuck and unable to progress, you’ll be happy to know that there’s much more content for you to enjoy, nearly an endless amount actually. Included is a level creator and sharing capability, so you have thousands of user generated stages at your (sore) fingertips. The level editor itself is very simplistic to use and figure out, choosing the grid size you want and then placing the different colors of tiles you want exactly where you choose. All you need to remember is what each color of tile does.
Blue: All of these must be stepped on before reaching the end red tile. If it’s the lighter shade of blue, it will need to be stepped on twice before disappearing.
Yellow: This tile falls at a predetermined time once the level has begun, even if you’ve stepped on it or not.
Orange: This tile constantly falls and reappears at set intervals.
Purple: A safe tile that never falls and allows you to ‘catch your breath’, well, rest your fingers, before continuing on.
Green: This is your starting tile. This needs to always be placed.
Red: The exit/goal to the stage once all blue tiles have been touched.
Keep these tiles properties in mind and you’ll be making some truly unique creations in no time. What surprised me was that since this is a Play Anywhere title, you can sort levels created by PC or Xbox players, so there’s tons of interesting creations for you to test your skills on. The user generated levels are very challenging and creative, as many players have even designed pixel style drawings that integrate into their levels in a clever way.
While Tiles is very basic in premise, the puzzle aspect of solving the proper pathway is quite entertaining. What isn’t as polished though is the forced D-Pad integration, as it’s quite difficult to do the moves you want to do in rapid succession because of it. Roughly 9 out of every 10 deaths were because I pressed the D-Pad too many times in a direction trying to keep up my pace, or accidentally pressing a wrong direction due to its imprecision. The later levels require your reflexes and speed to be near perfect, and trying to do so with the D-Pad alone is where the majority of the difficulty stems from.
Played in small doses, Tiles is a fun time waster if you’ve only got a short time to play something and don’t want to get too involved. You can plug away at the campaign levels or test out your finger dexterity with thousands of user created levels should you choose. Levels become quite involved and tricky to solve, and at some point your fingers will most likely tire because of the need to mash the D-Pad for every single move. If you’re looking for a fun puzzler for around $5 with near endless levels, Tiles has you covered, just prepare for a challenging and bland experience that will have your fingers begging for a break afterword.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Fear Effect Sedna
I still have both original Fear Effect games on disc for the original Playstation in my collection, so to say that I was excited to hear that Fear Effect would be making its return after 17 long years is an understatement. I have fond memories of the original games, as it was one of the first to really make use of the cel-shaded art style and had a Resident Evil-esque vibe to it. Interestingly, Fear Effect Sedna was actually funded via a Kickstarter campaign and developed by Sushee with a little over $100,000 being raised, so clearly there were others like me that yearned to see the series return.While the iconic cel-shaded visuals are intact, the gameplay has completely done a 180, as Sedna is played as an isometric shooter, puzzler and stealth game. If that alone is making you raise an eyebrow because you’re an old school fan of the series like myself, you better sit down and prepare yourself, as that’s not all that’s changed. Luckily the iconic characters like Hana and Rain return, among others, and the story itself is decent, even if the writing and delivery itself is quite weak. I was more than excited to see Fear Effect was back, and I wanted to love it, I really did, but it wasn’t even the major gameplay change to isometric that turned me off, it was nearly everything else. There are parts that simply aren’t fun and don’t work well, but in general, it’s mediocre at best.
Taking place after the first game (as Part 2 was a prequel), Sedna follows Hana and Rain once again, delving into more of their backstory as they’re hired for another heist. Just like the previous games, a simple job turns into something much more heinous as there’s an underlying supernatural element to it all as well. The story is interesting enough to keep you intrigued and wanting to see what happens next, but it doesn’t seem to flow well. A few times I was left confused of what I was doing, and more importantly, why. It doesn’t help that the writing is subpar, but the voice acting is even worse, making it difficult to relate and believe the characters that I’ve known for many years.
Just like its predecessors, Sedna too utilizes a fear meter. When your fear rises you’ll take more damage, but you also receive a buff that boosts your outgoing damage as well, so it’s a tradeoff. In theory this works, trying to force you into a stealthy type of gameplay, but the AI is so bad that you’re unable to do so, constantly resulting in firefights, frustration and restarts.
Much of the time you’ll be in control of two or more characters at the same time, with the others simply following you and providing extra firepower when you get noticed. When your companion doesn’t take cover and dies, you become more fearful, thus taking more damage, yet your damage output increase doesn’t seem to make up for it in any way.
This is where the tactical portion of the game comes into play. Well, where they try and force you to use it until you realize it doesn’t work nearly as well as it should. This allows you to pause time and plan your attack. While the world is paused, you can choose any of your characters and maneuver them where you like, leaving a breadcrumb trail. You can also then choose any actions like shooting at enemies or using their special abilities. Next you’ll switch to your other character and move them to where you want them to go and what actions to take. While in this mode it’s essentially recording your actions, and when you come out of the tactical mode it will automatically recreate everything you just did automatically.
This at first seemed like a really interesting concept, but almost from the first fight on I saw two glaring flaws. First, you don’t know where the enemies are going to go or be, so you’re making these plans by guessing. Second, the AI doesn’t care that you’re hiding behind cover and will simply walk up to you and start shooting you in the face nearly every time. At this point it simply turns into a gunfight and the last man (or woman) standing wins. Nearly every gunfight turned out this way, and I stopped using the tactical mode for the most part due to it. It’s virtually impossible to avoid being seen when trying to be stealthy, always resulting in either a game over or a mass shootout.
Stealth is a big element to the gameplay, and in some sections it’s forced, but if you even get one pixel into their cone if sight, the alarms go off and you get detected. I simply ended up shooting in real time, using my abilities and rolls to try and survive each encounter, healing myself afterwards when possible. Even though you can instantly kill enemies if undetected, it was never reliable as it should have been.
Every so often you’ll get thrown a few puzzles to change things up, though I found most of these frustrating as well. Even the first wire cutting puzzles took me a while to figure out, resulting in many game over screens and restarts. I did enjoy that the puzzles varied, though it may just be because it took me away from the awful combat for a few minutes each time.
Not all is gloom and doom though, as Sushee nailed that Fear Effect look that makes it unique and stand out. The visuals are striking and bright, and it’s great to see some old friends once again in HD after all these years. As for audio, the soundtrack itself is great and fits the setting, but the voice over work is terrible, almost across the board. There’s no realism to the performances, though that’s partly due to the poor writing as well. Rarely do the characters sound believable, making it difficult to care about their development or emotions.
I can deal with the drastic change to isometric gameplay, but there are so many other design decisions that don’t feel like they meld together very well. Puzzles can be frustrating, level design is basic and combat is terrible, though only second to the voice acting. I wanted to enjoy Fear Effect Sedna, I truly did, as I’m a longtime fan of the series, but even as a fan, it’s hard to recommend.
Overall, Fear Effect Sedna felt very underwhelming and mediocre at best. I’ve been searching for reasons to recommend it, but coming up with almost none. On the bright side, the developer is working on a remake of the original game, so there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for the series, sadly Sedna is going to be its black spot though. Goodbye Fear Effect, you had a great run back on the PS1.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was probably one of my favorite games on Xbox 360, and I’d probably put it in my top 10 or so games ever. I also really enjoyed DmC: Devil May Cry more than I expected. What does this have to do with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice? Well, all of them are made by the same developer, Ninja Theory (they also created Heavenly Sword), so they have quite a pedigree when it comes to quality titles. Somehow I missed that Hellblade released last summer for PC and PS4, as I’m usually up to date on my favorite developers, yet somehow this slipped by me. Here we are, almost a year later, and Hellblade finally makes it way to Xbox One for more gamers to enjoy. In a way I’m glad I waited, as it’s been enhanced for Xbox One X in a substantial way, and given that I’m using an X, I got to enjoy it the way it was designed to be.I didn’t realize how critically acclaimed Hellblade was before it landed in my lap, and after seeing the credits roll, it deserves every single accolade it has received, and more. With a tale that revolves around mental illness, exploring it in a way that truly makes sense and is incredibly eye opening, Hellblade is fascinating from start to finish.
With a backdrop in the Viking era, a Celtic warrior named Senua is on a dangerous mission alone to the gates of Hellheim to save the soul of her dead lover. From the very beginning of her journey, Senua’s tale is dark and disturbing, and not just from her surroundings and situation, but the internal battle that is happening within her mind; it is one that is even darker. There’s a larger, over encompassing story arc in play here as well, about where she needs to go and explore, and more importantly, why, but the most interesting experiences comes from what Senua thinks she is experiencing.
Each step of the way, Senua will battle her psychological condition, which makes it difficult to distinguish what is real and what isn’t. This explains all of the voices she hears in her head, which will act as a guide for you as you progress, warning you of danger, or what subtle clues to find. You’ll constantly guess if Senua is actually experiencing what you’re playing, or if it’s an intricate hallucination her mind is playing on her. Keep in mind, because of the era this takes place in, it wasn’t diagnosed as a disorder, but instead, people thought they were cursed, which adds so much more context into her battle.
Ninja Theory actually worked in collaboration with a team of neuroscientists to recreate what having psychotic breakdown (psychosis) is actually like, and has done so in a respectful, yet frightening manner. You can’t imagine what it would be like to live with a blurred line between fiction and reality, but you can get a sense of it for the eight or so hours you play Hellblade, and it’s terrifying to imagine if that was your day to day reality. Even though the gameplay is very linear in fashion, the story is told in a very unique and compelling way due to Senua’s condition, one that I can empathize with.
Gameplay is very linear, but it works for the setting and narrative path. As you explore the areas, you’ll come across pillars with some runes plastered on them, allowing you to focus your mind’s eye, giving you some lore, told as a story, as a reward. These are not mandatory in any way, but they further flesh out the world and its surroundings with a story to tell.
The first thing you’re going to notice is how absolutely stunning the visuals are, borderline photorealistic at times. This allows you to be immersed into Hellblade’s world. I routinely caught myself stopping to simply look at the scenery and take it all in. To help further the believability of this world, there’s absolutely no user interface or HUD at any point in Senua’s journey to remind you that this is a game, and it’s better for it in every way. Even animations are incredibly fluid, as she will gracefully sidestep and backpedal if moved in that direction. Her dreads flow naturally against her body in relation to her movement, and her face, I swear at times, is that of a real actress. The believability in Senua’s facial movements is so unreal it kept taking me by surprise that it’s not a real person but all in-game visuals.
There will be times where Senua will have to fight to protect herself against opponents, be they human or demon. While the combat is very basic, it works and is simple for the most part. You have light and heavy attacks along with some melee attacks, and you will also find the ability to dodge and block. When you enter a combat section, Senua will automatically pull out her sword initializing the combat sequence, and the sequence will end after you kill a few waves of enemies. They start off easy in the beginning, but they become quite challenging, especially the bosses, near the end of Senua's tale.
What I didn’t expect is the inclusion of permadeath should you 'meet-your-demise' too many times. Senua seems infected by some sort of blackness, and every time you die, it spreads further across her body, eventually killing her if it engulfs her. When you start to fight three enemies or more, simultaneously, you’ll need to listen for audio queues to block and dodge correctly, though you do have a focus you can sporadically use to slow down time in essence, helping you to defeat them easily.
The other major portion of Hellblade is how it handles its included puzzle elements. You’ll constantly come across doors that are locked by some sort of dark magic with runic symbols etched across them. The only way to unlock these doors is to find and match the same symbol somewhere in the environment nearby. For example, if the door has a cross symbol as its barrier, you need to find something in the environment that makes that exact shape. This is very clever, as the solution may be looking for a dead tree standing tall in front of you, with a branch from another in the background, and when you look at it at just the right angle, it forms the symbol you’re looking for.
The first few puzzles will surely stump you, though once you figure out what to generally look for, it becomes easier in time. Sure, this puzzle element is repeated throughout, but it’s still a clever way to do so. Other puzzles will have you walking through portals that seem to distort time, allowing you to explore your area, but in a different time. For example, going through a certain portal may cause you to go back to the past where the rubble that was previously blocking your path has now returned to its former glory of a functioning staircase. Again, it’s a very clever mechanic that also feeds into her psychosis condition.
If you’ve ever needed a game to use as an excuse to get an Xbox One X, as an upgrade from your original or S, Hellblade is one hell of a valid reason to justify doing so. On the X, there’s are three separate game modes for you to choose from, based on your preference, and they are resolution, visuals or framerate. If you choose Enhanced Visuals, the world is much more full and lively with added foliage, fog, improved shadows and other effects. If you have a 4K display, then you’ll want High Resolution mode, as the game is displayed in 4K at 30fps. I chose High Framerate, as I don’t have a 4K display, but playing at a smooth 60fps was an absolute treat, making movement even more fluid, including combat. If I was to actively search for flaws, there are some minor texture pop-in and some clipping in a few spots, but that’s me actively looking for minor faults. Given how amazing the overall package looks, arguably the best on the console to date, it gets a pass.
I’m normally not a huge audio guy, as I’m partially deaf in one ear, but you are prompted at the very beginning that it’s suggested to play with headphones on for immersive 3D audio. Sure, if you have an insane audio setup at home then you may not need to rely on headphones, but trust me, you’ll want to play with a good pair if you don’t have true 7.1 sound setup at home, as the audio is hands down, the best I’ve ever experienced in a game to date.
Normally for audio I tend to focus on the soundtrack and voice acting, but there’s so much more here in Hellblade. When it simply comes to environmental sounds, I’ve never heard anything so realistic before. The thunder in the background actually made me believe it was outside my apartment, as it was raining that night. Footsteps are subtle but noticeable, as are the crackles of passing by a fire.
The voice acting is on a whole other level, and probably one of, if not the, best performances I’ve ever experienced in any media before. Melina Juergens puts on a performance unlike any other, and given the fact she had to do multiple personalities for the voices in her head that you constantly hear as well, it’s an absolutely stunning performance. Not just her, but every voice actor involved is perfectly portrayed and completely believable. Do yourself a favor and use the best headphones you have access to, as Hellblade has easily the best audio design I’ve ever experienced before.
After experiencing Hellblade, it may shock you to learn that not only is Ninja Theory not a huge ‘AAA’ developer, but the price is also half that of a new release, making it an absolute must purchase. While some may not be fond of the simplistic combat, puzzle elements or linearity, I feel they were absolutely suited for this specific narrative. Enslaved is one of my favorite games ever, also created by them, but Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is easily their crowning achievement in every way.
You may think you know what it’s like to hear voices in your head, but Hellblade will allow you to experience it in a very raw and frightening manner, yet also being respectful to the mental illness, shedding light on the disorder. It just happens to also be an amazing game at the same time, again, with the best audio design I’ve ever experienced before, something Ninja Theory should be commended for in every way. I constantly felt fearful and tense, yet determined to help Senua along her journey, and even though the credits have rolled, Senua’s Sacrifice will stick with me for quite some time. Xbox owners may have had to wait to experience Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, but as they say, good things come to those who wait, and this is without a doubt already on my Game of the Year contender list.
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
TERA
While there are a handful available, consoles generally don’t have a wide selection of MMORPG’s to choose from, for numerous reasons. One such game is TERA. It was released on PC back in 2012, but here we are, 6 years later, finally able to explore the world of Arborea on consoles. So, while TERA is old in terms of an MMO in age, it’s brand new for the Xbox One, and given the updates the game has received over the years, and the unique console friendly gameplay, I was more than excited to get back into the world I left so many years ago on PC. Oh, and it’s also free to play.As the case with nearly any MMO, you’ll have an endless amount of quests to complete as you level up, become more powerful, and earn new skills and abilities as you progress through your journey. As typical to most in the genre, you’ll be able to create your character to your liking, first choosing a race and then a class. It should be noted that not all races have access to each class, and even further, some classes are not only forced to a race, but also the sex as well. For example, if you want to be a brawler, as of writing this review, you are forced to play as a female version. This will get changed in the future with an upcoming patch, but more on that later. There are some interesting races, like the Popori that resemble animals or the Elin which is a small dainty looking type of race.
What separates TERA from most other MMO’s is its ‘True Action Combat’. Instead of queuing up a bunch of skills and auto attacking, you have to fight in real time, almost like a hack and slash. You’ll need to avoid or block attack from enemies and bosses while using your abilities to deal damage and stay alive. During massive boss fights, it doesn’t feel like a typical MMO at all, but more like a Platinum developed game or Capcom's Devil May Cry of sorts, as you need to be on your game, constantly maneuvering and countering boss abilities with your own. The transition from keyboard and mouse feels natural for the most part, when it comes to the combat portion anyway.
I wasn’t new to TERA, but it’s been quite some time since I played, so I was surprised with how much things have changed over the years. Controls are as you’d expect, with movement and camera tied to the sticks, and all of your abilities on the face buttons, bumpers and triggers. Holding the Left Bumper will also allow you to use the abilities set in another bank of menus, all of which can be customized to your preference of course. It’s awkward at first, but once you’ve spent some time with it, it becomes second nature.
I decided I wanted to play a tank for my group of friends, the class that stands in front of the enemies and takes all the damage. I made an adorable Popori cat looking creature and fell in love with being able to hold my shield up and block nearly any damage that came my way. Of course to balance this I don’t do nearly the damage other classes do, but I enjoyed it and stuck with it. My blocking drains an endurance gauge, and to refill it in combat I need to use my abilities that take mana. To refill my mana I need to use my standard weapon attack, so there’s a lot of thought that goes into a good damage rotation, as I needed to constantly think of each of my bars. There are a number of classes, each unique in their own way with their own specific purpose, so make sure you experiment and find the classes that speaks to your playstyle best.
Every MMO values different types of play. Some value questing, while others cater to dungeons and grinding. TERA seems to implement a value on each of these, as you’ll be questing and exploring dungeons throughout your TERA career. Quests will guide you from zone to zone in a progressive path, though once you learn that dungeon runs and PvP earn you a vast more amount of experience (XP) and rewards, there’s no real point to do much questing aside from some basic rewards and story reasons. You’ll be constantly upgrading your weapons and gear, becoming more powerful, and when you reach endgame, you’ll be grinding hard if you want to improve your gear to +9 and +12, each of which takes serious dedication. The only downside to this setup is that you’re so hastily rushed through levels that you don’t get to experience much of the world itself, as it’s simply not time efficient to do so.
Dungeons are where the fun of TERA really begins to shine, as does the difficulty, because this is where you’ll start to see that combat is very much skill (and gear) based more than just mashing some buttons. TERA utilizes the classic holy trinity for party makeups: Tank, Healer and DPS, and this rule-set will have to be followed when matchmaking for dungeons as well. The earlier dungeons will introduce you to some of the boss mechanics that you’ll encounter later on, as many bosses are reused throughout the higher level dungeons, but they become more difficult and they get added abilities to their arsenal every time you encounter them, especially once you reach the Hard Mode's top tier.
Dungeons are very diverse, though they usually have you fighting a gauntlet of bosses with trash mobs to clear in between. Some of the boss fights become incredibly technical, forcing you to pay attention to not only their attack patterns, but other events that can happen, like electrified water that covers half of the usable area, or rush attacks from adds that need to be killed before they reach the boss. Sure, once you learn the mechanics it becomes much simpler, but there’s also a gear check that takes place before you even enter a dungeon. Each dungeon requires you to be in a very specific level range, but also be above a specific gear score or else you won’t be able to queue up for runs. When you do die, you’re able to be resurrected by the healer if able, but you can also spend some of your hard earned gold to resurrect yourself in a pinch as well, which becomes quite costly later on.
Gear is not only granted to you via quests and drops, but you’ll also have access to Avatar Weapons every handful of levels. When you reach a specific level, you’ll start to see bosses drop relic shards, which when you collect enough, will unlock your best in slot weapon for that level range. Since levels come so quickly, you’ll constantly be upgrading, though you’re going to want to enchant those weapons as soon as possible. When specific tiered items are acquired from enemy drops, you can upgrade your gear to +9, adding many more stats and enhancements. The hardest part to enchanting is simply getting all of the materials you need to do so, and once you reach endgame, you can bring your gear to +12 with much more expensive materials. This is the treadmill you’ll constantly be working towards as you farm dungeons and missions for materials.
If PvP is more of your thing, then you’ll be happy to know that there are PvP servers, though you can only participate when you’ve reached max level, and there are also PvP events that anyone can queue up for. There’s a standard Team Deathmatch that’s included, but very few people seem to play this mode simply because the rewards for the other mode is vastly inflated, and sadly, one of the best ways to level. Kumas Royale is one of the most odd, and worst, PvP modes I’ve ever played in any game, yet rewards you immensely if you’ve able to win a match doing so.
Kumas Royale replaces your character with a default fat baby monster wearing a diaper and pacifier. Yes, you read that right. Everyone has the same static abilities and there’s a singular boss Kumas on each team. The goal to this mode is to damage the other team’s boss, and the boss who has the most amount of health at the end of each five minute round wins. This is where the problems begin for this mode, as whoever gets to the enemy's boss first gets to control them, for better or worse. Bosses have a bunch of abilities, but if you try and play offensively and use them, you’re going to lose, guaranteed.
You see, the goal of everyone on the team, save for the boss, is to try and damage the enemy boss, and once their health is lower than yours, you simply play defense, blocking and killing all of the other players trying to damage your boss. The problem is the abilities you have are terribly inaccurate and you move at an incredibly slow pace with no way to speed up. This is only part of the frustration though, as many players seemingly don’t know how to properly play and will lose matches seemingly from the get go by trying to play offensively with the boss and taking tons of damage.
I can handle losing matches, it's no big deal, but the problem with that is how the rewards are set up. You get some massive XP boosts and rewards for winning, making it totally worth the 10-15 minute matches (best of 3), but the problem is that should you lose, you get nothing. Not even half the amount of XP or rewards; absolutely nothing. You can imagine how losing a few matches in a row and getting nothing for it after a few hours can become frustrating. If the gameplay itself was fun it could be overlooked, but it’s not in any way at all.
Now given that TERA is free to play, there has to be a way for them to make money right? Well of course, and this is where the cash shop for EMP comes into play, as does Elite Status. There are many items in the TERA shop that you can buy with EMP, their own currency, which of course you purchase with real money. The majority of these are cosmetic costumes, mounts and other items, but you can also purchase extra bank slots, character slots and more should you wish. Can you get by without buying any EMP? Of course you can, but you won’t look as good doing so.
Elite Status on the other hand is also completely voluntary, though there are enough bonuses that make it completely worth it. Elite Status is $15 a month, as per most pay-to-play MMO’s, but gives you a ton of bonuses like 100% extra XP and gold, loot boxes you can open every day, and even the ability to teleport instantly to any main city or town. Normally you’d have to spend gold on a Pegasus flight or 'teleportal', so this makes it completely worth it. You also get to do double the amount of dungeons a day, so to me, someone that’s sinking many hours into it a day, is well worth it. Yes, you're capped with how many dungeons you can do in a day, but Elite status lets you double that.
Lastly, there are also Founder Packs currently on sale (but it’s not been said for how long). These range from from $30 (the pack we were given for review) all the way up to $150. Each one has their own special items and bonuses like Elite or specific amounts of EMP. While I don’t see the items offered as pay to win, you can purchase high end fashion items and sell them on the broker for in-game gold. To me, it feels they hit a great balance of time saving items, and of course cool fashion pieces, without reaching the dreaded pay-to-win that plagues other MMOs. TERA is completely playable as free to play, but if you want to save some gold and time, look into what’s offered with EMP and Elite.
Now, this is where things get a little tricky, as TERA is many years old on PC, but new on console. The console version is not up to date as the PC version is, and by most of the community’s guess, roughly a year or two behind on major patches and additions. Some of these exclusions are apparent, as we console players don’t have access to certain classes yet, like the Ninja, Valkyrie, Gunner and female Brawler. There’s also no ETA of when we can expect these additions that many players are yearning for. There’s always going to be a disparity between PC and console, and I’m hoping that we’re given a roadmap soon of what, and more importantly, when we can expect more up to date content.
I’ve truly enjoyed my time with TERA for the most part, but man, this was not ready for a full release yet. TERA is riddled with bugs, atrocious performance, multiple crashes and a slew of other issues, yet I keep finding myself logging on every night to run some dungeons with my friends. Luckily I have an Xbox One X, so I’ve not had to deal with the multitude of crashes and hard locks that many of my friends are experiencing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see my fair share of performance hits. Certain areas and fights will cause framerates to dip into single digits, menus can become laggy and there’s a ton of bugs you can read about if you visit the official forums.
TERA has some massive issues, but it is playable, for the most part. When it’s working well, your group is making progress in a dungeon and everyone is playing their specific role, I could play for hours. That being said, when someone in the party keeps crashing to the Home Screen, forcing your group to wait before pulling a boss, it can become quite frustrating. There’s a ton of design flaws, yet the foundation is there to be a great MMO that feels natural on a console. While the launch is a bit rocky, I’m able to play with my friends every night as we go farm some dungeons to make the high end gear, allowing us to then attempt the Hard Mode dungeons and endgame raids. This is what keeps me playing.
Technical issues aside, TERA is a blast to play with friends if you have a perfect group composition to run endless dungeons. The combat is fast, exciting and skill based, so you better know your stuff and practice as much as possible. That being said, the bugs and flaws also can’t be completely ignored, as it’s rampant and incredibly unoptimized. If the developers had great communication with the community and at least appeased players by engaging in conversation of what to expect and when, for fixes and content additions, then it wouldn’t feel like they did the launch and forgot about us. At the same time, it’s completely free to play and you can play without spending a single dime should you wish to wait until it runs better and has more of the PC's content. For now I’ll be sticking with my Lancer, running with my friends through some dungeons and having a blast nightly, until we’re forced to wait for them to log back in from their crash.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Story Goes On, The
Roguelike games tend to all have that one thing in common; permadeath. Normally I find this frustrating, as you lose your progress each time you die, though the ones I do enjoy though do have some sort of progression that persists through death so that all of your hard work wasn’t for nothing. This leads me to my review of The Story Goes On, which is a game that will have you (and a friend should you choose) exploring randomly generated worlds, searching for the elusive boss key which allows you access to fighting that world’s leader.At its core, The Story Goes On is a top down hack and slash title, but with roguelike qualities. There’s a scarecrow that loves talking in puns, and it’s a very light hearted affair that doesn’t take itself too seriously. You start off with access to only one character, Aiden, a kid who is equipped with a sword and hookshot that allows him to traverse quickly, much like a dash.
Levels are randomly generated, filling each section with enemies that you kill for loot, coins, and keys. If you’re lucky you’ll find special upgrades that increase your speed, damage, attack, and other abilities, making survival that much easier. You’ll also find a slew of items and loot, some of which need a key to open treasure boxes to obtain, of which you’ll find plenty of during your adventure.
Played in a top down view, you control your character like any other twin stick shooter. The left stick is used for movement and the right stick is used to aim. The triggers and bumpers are how you attack and use your items and abilities, so it comes as second nature pretty quickly. A friendly scarecrow will walk you through the basics during a tutorial of sorts, as you’ll begin incredibly slow and weak. As you start adventuring further, and gathering upgrades, you’ll become quite proficient in combat, becoming quite a hero in the process.
Much like a typical Zelda map, you move from room to room, with each one only unlocking after all of the monsters are killed. You'll be searching for a boss key, which unlocks their lair. The map in the upper right is very helpful, as it will show the room layouts and a breadcrumb trail of where you’ve been, so you know where you may want to explore next. The more enemies you kill, the more potential coins and keys you can find, so it’s not always a good idea to make a mad dash for the boss if you haven't fully explored every room, as those upgrade are going to come in handy very shortly once you die.
While it’s not hard to find the boss keys or their doors, the fights themselves are quite entertaining. There’s a handful of bosses, which are randomized as well, so every time you get to the first boss after dying and restarting, it will most likely be a different boss than the previous run. This helps with the monotony, though they are never too terribly challenging. Most bosses are simple hack and slash fights, but there are a few that are a little more unique and interesting. I quite liked the snow boss that was essentially a 'cup and ball' game, having to keep an eye on the quick moving igloos and choosing which of the three you think he’s hiding under. Choose wrong and an enemy will attack, choose right and you get a few moments to attack him before repeating the game again, but much quicker.
Oh, I should mention that you will die, but not because of the difficulty, as it’s actually quite casual in that aspect, but it will be more due to simple mistakes, or even boredom to be honest. The bosses aren’t even all that challenging, as it’s just pattern recognition. After every boss you’ll fall into a black hole where the scarecrow greets you once again, offering you a handful of choices of items to buy, ranging from weapons, hearts, keys and even a random item that could benefit or hinder you. When you die, you start at the beginning again, though there are certain upgrades that stay with you and persist through death, making each subsequent run through slightly easier, and eventually you'll become quite powerful. This is the hook that kept me playing, even though I was dying now and then, at least all of my progress wasn’t completely wiped.
There’s a surprising amount of humor contained within the game as well. The scarecrow uses silly puns that would make dad jokes proud, and even some of the items and their descriptions got a chuckle out of me. The randomness can work for or against you as well. Some run throughs will become incredibly easy, based on the random loot and weapons you get, while other times you might not get anything that suits your playstyle, causing you to die much sooner. With over 50 different items, each run will feel different given the random placement of the levels themselves, bosses and loot.
The first few runs, even with the deaths I experienced, was entertaining, but eventually the monotony began to set in. After a few hours you’ll probably have had your fill, unless you’re hunting for achievements, or specifically enjoy the random aspect to everything. As for the visuals, the game has a storybook feel to it, but it’s quite basic, even if it is colorful. That being said, some of the stages are quite dark and it can be hard to see the room doors, so it’s hard to appreciate some of the work that’s gone into it. As for the audio, I really appreciated how the soundtrack sped up and became more exciting if there’s lots going on, adding to the experience.
What I found as I played, was that I ended up dying from simple mistakes, and not out of sheer difficulty, especially once my character was more powerful. The hardest part about The Story Goes On is battling the tediousness, and sometimes the randomness. While the randomness adds a little longevity to the title, it can also go against you at times too, so it goes both ways.
For being a roguelike game, I enjoyed how The Story Goes On kept certain aspects of your progress, not being too harsh with its penalties. The core gameplay is decent, though not terribly exciting. It has some interesting ideas but definitely won’t wow you out of the gate. That being said, for $8.00 you could do a lot worse with games that offer a lot less.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Bridge Constructor Portal
There’s no denying that Portal is going to stand the test of time and forever be on many top gaming lists well into the future. It’s got such a fan base behind it and has become synonymous with puzzle games. You could seemingly attach its premise to almost any other game and strike gold. Well, someone has already thought of this, mashing up Portal and Bridge Constructor, aptly titled Bridge Constructor Portal. I know for myself, if GLaDOS is included, count me in. Luckily that’s the case here!Bridge Constructor on its own was an entertaining game, but once you attach a huge license with unique gameplay like Portal, it takes it to a whole new level. Not only must you create structurally sound bridges, platforms and ramps, but now you’re going to have to manage with propulsion gel, turrets, and of course, portals. Simple triangles and engineering won’t be enough to complete your objectives, so bring your thinking hat, because the puzzles here are going to take some serious thinking.
Once again, you find yourself in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, though this time instead of being one of the test subjects, you’re instead a manager of sorts, in charge of ensuring that your subjects get their forklifts to their destinations in each level, though doing so will take some craft bridge engineering skills to complete. You need to make sure your test subjects arrive safe, and to do so it will test all of your portal and bridge crafting abilities.
While the story itself is your standard GLaDOS affair about testing subjects, for science of course, the bridge making aspect does add a neat twist to it. Gameplay is on a 2D playing field, but don’t let that fool you, as each test chamber comes increasingly more difficult and challenging as you progress. While Bridge Constructor Portal may not be narrative heavy, it makes up for it in charm and challenge. It may only be sparse, but the fact that Ellen McLain is once again reprising her role as the iconic GLaDOS brings that extra authenticity, really making it feel like it truly belongs in the Portal universe.
What Bridge Constructor Portal does great is that it blends both games together, nearly seamlessly, forcing you to not only focus on your bridge and platform making abilities, but factoring physics from portals, placing companion cubes on switches, disabling turrets and more. Not only must you factor in all of this, but you also need to make sure your forklift vehicle, on its own set path, makes it out of each test chamber safely. Easier said than done.
Each test chamber has an entrance that your forklift will automatically drive forwards from, as if the gas pedal is stuck, and you’re simply tasked with making sure it gets to the exit tube to reach the next test chamber. Problem is there’s always a gap or some other obstacles in your way that makes that simple objective much more difficult. Your only tools at your disposal are planks (and supports) and support cables. You’re only able to attach to specific nodes, so that’s where the challenge comes in, as you’re restricted with specific points already laid out for you.
Planks can only reach a certain distance, though you can place as many as you wish without limit, so it’s not really a factor. Support cables seemingly don’t have the same restriction, but again, you’re only able to attach to certain nodes. Where the challenge comes in is with the bridge creation itself, as you can’t simply lay out a line of flat planks, as it needs support, like real bridges. This is where triangles become your best friend, as they are the strongest shape you can use to create the support needed to keep your bridge up.
When you’re placing your planks, you’re going to want to angle them and distance them exactly the way you think will work best, the problem is though that getting that perfect angle or length isn’t always as easy or fluid as it should be. You can zoom in, quite close actually, to make absolutely perfect placements, but this requires some getting used to when making fine adjustments. While you’re about to place a plank, it will show you if you’re able to attach to any other points within distance, which allows you to make decisions on how many joints you’ll need for what you’re trying to build.
I found on quite early that the bulk of your gameplay will be trial and error. You’ll have this grand idea for a platform or bridge, create it, only to find out it can’t handle its own weight and buckle, or some other oversight. You’ll see stress points on specific supports and joints if it’s about to break as it turns red, and the smallest change can make a huge difference in not only keeping your structure upright and together, but making sure your test subject makes it to the goal. Luckily there’s no limit to how many pieces you can place, so you can try and make something elaborate, though I found early on that the simpler, the better. Luckily there’s a helpful guide in the menus that will show you the best ways to create supports, and even suspended bridges should you require some tips and best practices.
So you’ve finally built your structure and your forklift has made it to the exit; awesome! Well, that’s only half the challenge, as you can move onto the next test chamber, or you could challenge yourself to send a convoy of vehicles to the exit in succession. Sometimes it’s only 3, other times up to 10 or so. But you’ve already built your bridges and figured out the solution, so what’s so difficult you ask? Well, many of your structures will probably work for about one vehicle, as its weight adds stress to the joints, as I’ve had many fall apart after one or two forklifts cross them. You also need to factor in that vehicles may be crisscrossing in air or on ramps, so some carnage can occur if not setup just right.
Levels start out very basic and quickly ramp up in difficulty, and I mean quicker than landing on some propulsion gel. You simply start getting from A to B, then working with portals, throwing in turrets that shoot on sight, companion cubes for switches and more. Anything you did in Portal will also be included here for the most part. Trial and error is luckily not too difficult to tweak your platforms, as you can make minor adjustments with the press of a button, or completely delete it all and start over from the drawing board if something simply isn’t working.
You’ll be challenged with 60 levels, of which I’m still working on trying to complete, as the difficulty randomly spikes quite harshly. You’ll need to navigate multiple portals pathways, and while it’s not frustrating as some other puzzle games, expect to spend quite a lot of time on a single level trying to figure out the perfect placements and angles for all your platforms. The main issue I found was that the majority of my ‘play’ was the platform creation, not so much the puzzle solving itself. I put more time into trying to perfect my planks and figuring out how to keep them stable, more than solving what I need to do for the test chamber itself.
I was kind of surprised that more materials don’t come into your disposal as you progress. Planks and cables is all you need, so it’s just a matter of figuring out how to make those work for what you’re trying to do so you can get from point A to point B in a very convoluted way. Whoever came up with the idea of mashing up the two games is genius, as it simply works. The bulk of the gameplay is still Bridge Constructor, but the whole Portal element and backdrop adds a whole new aspect to the gameplay.
Sure, having something with more narrative and GLaDOS would have been welcomed, but like most puzzle games, I accept it for what it is, and you’ll get what you want out of it if you’re a fan of the genre. It would have been easy to simply throw a Portal paintjob on top of the base game itself, but they’ve gone beyond, adding many of the core mechanics from Portal and implemented them in clever ways, especially since this is played in 2D. Bridge Constructor Portal feels as though it belongs in the actual Portal universe, and that’s no small feat, even with its high difficulty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I was promised cake.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Overdriven Reloaded: Special Edition
If you’ve read any my previous reviews, you’ll know that I’m an avid fan of shmups (shoot em ups). These are the games with a ship of somesort that flies, usually vertically, avoiding a barrage of bullets on-screen while collecting power-ups. There are some classics in the genre that others are inevitably compared against, such amazing games like Raiden, Gradius, and my personal favorite of all time, Ikargua. There’s no shortage of games in the genre, so to stand out you need to do something special if you want to get noticed. So, the question remains, does the one-man developed Overdriven Reloaded: Special Edition have that distinct mechanic or design to become noticed? Well, there are some color matching that takes place, making it somewhat unique.Overdriven Reloaded: Special Edition (simply referred to as Overdriven in this review) starts out completely normal, with you choosing one of two ships, unaware of what the differences are. Well, it turns out that one ship’s fire pattern is a spread shot while the other is much more narrow and focused. So, you will want to take that into account when deciding which ship will better suit your playstyle. The stages slowly scroll upwards as you navigate the enemies, traps, and of course bullets. Much like nearly every other shmup, there are collectibles for you to gather (gold stars) to earn points and power-ups to grab to make your weapons stronger and faster.
You have a dedicated button to change your lasers to different colors, such as red, blue, green or yellow, which is the unique and interesting mechanic of Overdriven. While there’s no difference on what color your weapons are when shooting them, you’ll occasionally come across colored orbs blocking your path. Some are permanently a specific color, while others can be changed with your colored fire. The trick is to notice which one is the permanent orb and then match the attach orbs to that same color, as they will only disappear when three of the same color are touching.
Most of the time these simply block off (Editors Note: See what we did there?) a secret artifact to pick up, but sometimes it will also open an easier path as it allows you to avoid the bullets coming at you. It’s an interesting idea, one that took me by surprise, but there’s only a few sections in the whole game that this mechanic is relevant, plus trying to do so when the screen is full of enemies and bullets is quite a challenge.
Aside from this interesting color mechanic, everything else in Overdriven plays like your standard shmup for the most part. The Left Stick controls your ship and the ‘A’ button is used for your regular shots, though using the ‘X’ button allows your ship to go into 'Overdrive'. What this does is replace your regular shots with an incredibly focused and condensed laser that does much more damage, but the catch here is that you move incredibly slowly. Your health is also reduced to 20%, so it’s a risk vs. reward move, as it makes you incredibly vulnerable when being used. Stop using 'Overdrive' and your health will regenerate. Finally, the ‘B’ button will let you use your bombs, clearing the screen of all bullets and doing massive damage.
While I really like the classic 1-hit death in shmups, as it promotes perfection and skill, it was refreshing to have something different in Overdriven. Instead of the standard one bullet kill, you have a health bar, so it’s a little more forgiving. There are also health packs that can be collected from destroying specific enemies, refilling your health gauge, as well as collecting extra lives, so while it may seem much easier because of this, don’t let that fool you, you’ll still die plenty of times.
When you do die, you’ll respawn with only your basic weapons and without all the power ups, so you need to really be careful when you die. Don't worry though, power ups aren’t usually uncommon and you’ll have decent firepower after a short while. Should you lose all your lives, you’ll be given the option to restart the stage again, though you can choose to select any unlocked level as well, which is great as you don't have to start all the way back form level one.
What took me by surprise was the multiplayer offering. Two players isn’t uncommon for shmups, but four players is., but surprisingly Overdriven allows up to 4-players to play together locally (yes, sadly no online multiplayer support), turning the chaos up to 11. I’m unable to tell if there are more enemies with more players, but even with two players the general chaos on the screen was doubled. There’s already a lot of visual stimulation playing alone, so adding more friends only ups the commotion on the screen at once.
Once you’ve bested the final boss and completed the story mode, there’s plenty of more mode offerings for you to check out, not including the multiple difficulty levels. Arcade mode is simply the Story Mode but with the ability to continue when you lose all your lives, and Manic Mode is the same as the Story Mode, but much more difficult. There’s a handful of challenges awaiting you as well, each tied to a specific achievement, like killing a certain boss under a specific time, beating a level under 6 minutes, or not getting hit. There’s only a handful of them but they are fun challenges for a distraction.
Although I was disappointed with the number of times you get to use the color mechanics, you’ll be pleased to know there’s a ton of mini-levels that focus solely on this mechanic in Color Reflex mode. Here there’s no enemies, just lots of colored orbs blocking your path to the exit, so you need to constantly swap colors and clear a path for your ship to get through. The beginning levels start easy, but eventually it does become more challenging. The mode I really enjoyed though was The Line. Here you have to stop never ending enemies from reaching, well, a line at the bottom of the screen. Chaos ensues when you have dozens of enemies on screen, each shooting multiple bullets, while also keeping an eye on how close each enemy is getting to the line.
The visuals are very basic and there’s only a handful of enemies you’ll face, though it’s hard to look at much when you’re constantly avoiding bullets while your screen scrolls upwards, and there are stars, that clutter the screen, that are there for you to gather. The overall level design is pretty bland and basic but it does the job for a schmup. Finally, the audio is decent and fits the mood of the gameplay and genre, though nothing really stands out.
Leaderboards for most modes is a welcome addition, especially for those that want to claim bragging rights. Normally for a game like this with a price tag of over $10 (currently $10.29 CAD) it would be a hard sell, but, I love the genre, and even though I’ve finished what I want with this game, there’s a lot of content within for those that want to get more value out of it. Multiple difficulties, lots of extra modes, 4-player local co-op, and, one of the better points, it’s also an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so the value for the price is certainly here. It’s just a shame that the main color changing mechanic didn’t have a bigger spotlight, as it could have made Overdriven Reloaded: Special Edition stand out more in a crowded genre.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Guilt Battle Arena
There will always be a market for local co-op games, as there’s nothing quite like having a group of friends over and playing a game together, usually complete with taunting and swearing amongst your buddies. Developer Invincible Cat, a one man crew, has come up with what they believe to be the next indie party game hit that you’ll want to gather your friend over for, titled Guilt Battle Arena. There’s no shortage of indie games, nor party titles, so the question remains that if this one is worth the price of admission and what the longevity is.With a cute and quirky ensemble of characters that resemble something straight out of Castle Crashers, you’ll be able to play amongst family and friends in some frantic local couch multiplayer, cooperatively and competitively. While I don’t do the whole having friends over to play couch co-op anymore for the most part, when the rare occasion does occur, we have the typical go-to titles, so does Guilt Battle Arena have enough to earn a spot into my coveted party game rotation? Well, kind of, for about 15 minutes anyways.
While there’s no real story per-se, there’s something about your characters being a part of the GUILT patrol, tasked with battling against Dreadful Judge’s evil henchmen. That’s really about it, as narrative isn’t a focus here at all, as it’s simply a drop in and play multiplayer game for the most part. Guilt Battle Arena’s sole focus is as a multiplayer party game, and it doesn’t attempt to do anything more. There’s actually no real campaign at all, though I guess you could call the cooperative mode its campaign, but it only consists of a handful of levels that will take about 10 minutes to run through once. So if you’re looking for something with a lot of substance, start looking elsewhere.
Played in 2D, there are two main mechanics that you’ll have to get the hang of to become successful and earn up to three stars on each stage. First, you’re constantly in motion the direction you are facing, and while you can move back and forth from left to right freely, there’s no real stopping in the small playfield, so this will take some getting used to. Secondly, you have one bullet for your gun, which you’ll need to pick up and gather each time you want to fire it. This odd design decision actually adds an odd level of strategy, making you think quickly on what needs to be fired at first before retrieving your bullet and shooting again, weighing when it's safe to do so.
These premises are very simple, almost to a fault, but they work. While I don’t necessarily enjoy the constant motion and movement, you become accustomed to it quite quickly. There will be enemies that approach from both sides, on the ground and in the air, so you’ve got to constantly be moving to not only avoid getting hit and losing one of your three lives, but to pick up your bullet once shot as well. You’re able to dash by double tapping the stick in the direction you want, and you can also quickly dive down, though you cannot butt stomp enemies like a certain mustached plumber. Actually, it took some time to figure out, but you don’t actually take damage from enemies unless you are hit by their weapons, not their bodies, so this is another layer of strategy on determining what to attack first once you realize the hitboxes.
The foundation and controls are simple, yet it’s not clear how you earn 3 stars on certain levels. I’ve lasted a long time during a few of the stages, only to be granted a 2 star rating, so I’m not sure if there are certain other conditions that need to be met to earn those elusive third stars or not. The more you play though, the more characters you’ll unlock in addition to the initial 10 selectable. These are simply skins and don’t have any advantage or one another, but there’s something cute about a cat cop that made me smile. With over 30 characters to unlock, there’s at least something to works towards, though you just aren’t explicitly told how to do so, but I’d assume star accumulation.
You’ve essentially got two different mode choices; 1-2 player co-op or 2-4 player versus. That’s it. Cooperative has no friendly fire, seeing how many enemies you and a friend can defeat before someone loses their three lives. That’s right, if one person loses all of their hearts, then its game over for both players, so the better player can’t really carry the other person. This made it really difficult to play with my 5 year old daughter, as she was drawn to the game for its bright and colorful visuals, but we constantly had a game over after about 30 seconds every time. I do wish there was some way to bring back a friend, but alas, expect many quick game overs if you’re playing with a less skilled person alongside.
Versus mode is where things really get frantic, especially if you have 4 players all fighting against one another. You’re able to choose the different stages, each of which has a special modifier on it, like missiles coming at you, chickens to avoid, cannonballs and more. There are also some other toggles you can enable should you desire, like more bullets, jetpacks, invisibility and more. While these add some unpredictability and variety, they aren’t anything really special and might give you a few more matches of entertainment before you move on.
I initially thought Guilt Battle Arena was made by the Castle Crasher developers, as the art style is eerily similar, though I guess as the saying goes, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". It's very cute and colorful, which is probably why my daughter gravitated towards it and wanted to join in playing as soon as she saw it. The audio is very fitting, with cute sound effects to match the cartoonish style for every gunshot and attack.
While Guilt Battle Arena makes for a fun distraction, there’s simply not enough content included to justify its staying power, rotating into party game night, mostly due to its price. If it was priced at about $5 then it would be a different story, as I’d have no problem dropping that for a quirky party game now and then, but it’s listed at $13. Sadly, the price tag is too high for what’s offered.
That’s not to say it’s bad, but it’s very simple and you’ll mostly likely had all of your enjoyment out of it in the first hour or two. If I wasn’t reviewing it, I would have uninstalled it long before I did, as it really felt like a ‘play once’ type of game, and when that content only lasts you an hour or two, you can see where the issue about its pricing comes in. Guilt Battle Arena has a neat premise but there’s simply no longevity to its gameplay.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Xenon Valkyrie+
Normally I’m not into rogue-lite games, you know the genre, the ones where permadeath is a real thing and the difficulty is usually astronomical. With that being said, there are a few that reward you just enough to tease you into continue playing, even after your thousandth death. While I enjoy playing the newest games with their current-gen graphic fidelity, there’s always a warm spot in my heart for retro inspired games, as that's what I grew up with, much like Xenon Valkyrie+. Originally a VITA game, console owners now get a chance to see if the wait has been worth it to wet their rogue-lite appetite. One of the big questions I had, and think a lot of people may also have, is how a game that was on Sony's portable gaming maching would transer over to the bigger consoles and on a TV.
Your home planet comes under attack from a mysterious moon that has an evil witch buried deep inside of it, so naturally you and your team take it upon themselves to save the world from imminent doom. It’s nothing terribly exciting or involved, though these types of games you generally don’t play for the story anyways.
Rogue-lite games usually frustrate me. They are generally very difficult, by design, but require you to retry numerous times to learn allowing you to hopefully get further on each attempt. This premise sets you up for failure and asks you to stick through it, as usually you need to begin at the very start without any progress saved, and that’s no different for Xenon Valkyrie+. I can appreciate that there’s an audience for these types of games, and the great ones have some sort of progression that persists through death to keep you strung along, constantly working towards a bigger goal, even if you have to constantly restart from the beginning. While Xenon Valkyrie+ does somewhat have this in place, it’s wasn’t enough, or substantial enough, to keep my interest in the long term.
You begin by choosing one of three characters, each with their own look and special ability. Unfortunately, these abilities aren’t taught to you, nor are the general controls, so you’ll be left to figure them out on your own. It wasn’t until an hour or two in that I actually figured out I had a gun, which would have been helpful to know from the beginning. Each character has a sword, gun, grenades and an ability, and each character has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Renna’s special ability is a radar that will ping special points and enemies on the mini map. Eloen has a bomb she can plant every so often and Nue has a super jump, allowing him to get into much higher areas. Each character has a different attack, a different defense and different vitality stats, so it’s a matter of choosing whom suits your playstyle best.
Every time you begin your journey, usually after a death, you'll discover that the levels are procedurally created, so the map changes each time you play, placing the goal and enemies in various locations. You’ll always begin at the top of a level, trying to make your way downwards to the randomly placed teleporter to move onto the next stage. You have the ability to wall jump too, allowing you to traverse back up if you find yourself at a dead end. Killing enemies will earn you experience points that helps to level you up and grant talent points. Destroying caches nets you gold to spend too. Killing every enemy you see takes time, but the talent points earned will make the rest of your run that much easier.
In between stages if you manage to make it to the teleporter, you’ll be whisked away to a little area where you can spend your hard earned talent points and gold. With your points you can increase stats like health, damage or defense. With your gold you can purchase upgrades, ammo refills and more. Just be prepared to lose it all when you inevitably die, because it will happen over and over. Everything you earn gets wiped when you die and you start all over in a completely randomized level layout with none of the upgrades you've purchased.
While you’ll generally progress slightly further and further each time, especially as you become more comfortable with the game and its mechanics, there’s not enough that persists through death to keep it exciting and enticing you to continue playing. If you manage to defeat any of the bosses, who feel overpowered, and somewhat unfair given that for some reason it disables your gun use, you’ll earn a random amount of Teamerite currency. This is a special currency that persists through death and can be used to unlock super weapons and other goodies. I don’t want to spoil these, should you actually make it this far, but even after unlocking a weapon it was underwhelming and not enough to keep my interest for many more subsequent runs.
There’s a few other issues too that, with a few tweaks, could make this a much more enjoyable game. If you manage to defeat one of the larger enemies in a level you’ll be granted a key (or choose the character that always starts with one) which can be used for unlocking a super powerful weapon, or a minor upgrade. This is where randomness comes in, as there’s times where I’ve been given a weapon that does massive damage and kills anything in one hit, while other times it actually feels like more of a downgrade. You should always feel as though you’re becoming more powerful, and when permadeath is a constant, being given a weapon that is worse then what you're currently wielding is like kicking you while you’re down.
It took me quite some time to figure out that I could use the Right Stick to slightly move the camera in different directions, which came in very handy since you have to constantly drop down from ledges, unable to see if there are any traps or enemies below you. The amount of times I lost health and died, because of this exact problem, is way too often. Again, this is where the randomness rears its ugly head.
If you enjoy brutally hard rogue-lite games, then Xenon Valkyrie+ will surely have something for you, as the same goes for those gamers who are speedrunners, since there’s a timer always on the screen, teasing you with how short you lived on each run. More often than not, I felt like I died due to unfair randomness rather than my skill and abilities, and I kept wishing that some of my progress persisted through death, but alas, I was stuck restarting often, becoming increasingly frustrated each time. in the end, this game is somewhat good in short bursts as Xenon Valkyrie+ scratches an itch, but it lacks long term appeal due to its randomized difficulty.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
SWORD ART ONLINE: FATAL BULLET
I’ve never been that much into anime in general, but there are a few that I really enjoy, and Sword Art Online (SAO) is one of those special few. I am also a massive fan of MMO’s, so naturally I gravitated towards an anime that revolved around one as well. I fell in love with the main characters, especially protagonists Kirito and Asuna, so I’ve been craving to have more adventures in the SAO universe, yet I have passed on playing the previous games based on this world. But not any more.Revolving around the second season of the anime, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet takes place in the VR MMO world of Gun Gale Online. For those not familiar with the anime, Fatal Bullet’s backdrop takes place in an online MMO that users play in VR for hyper realistic experiences, though some mysterious deaths started taking place in online world of Gun Gale, and out, which the show’s protagonists investigate. What’s very interesting, and caught me by surprise, is that I fully expected to be playing as the main cast from the show, but it’s actually quite the opposite.
While you’ll have plenty of interaction and cameos from your favorite show characters, you actually play as a completely new character that you create and customize. So, instead of playing as the immensely powerful Kirito, you’re a newcomer to the online world of Gun Gale, which is a slick way to introduce you into the world and the gameplay mechanics. Your best childhood friend is the one that introduced you to Gun Gale Online, and VR MMO’s, which serves as the clever tutorial. Shortly after you start you become separated from your friend by chance, only to stumble upon one of the rarest items in the game that even the best players haven’t found yet.
While you might assume the item in question is a super rare and powerful gun, given that the world is based in a 3rd person shooter, you actually come into possession of an extremely rare and powerful AI that everyone wants. It is an ArFA-sys that you can customize how you wish, one that people will try to steal for themselves throughout your journey. Your luck at finding such a prize so early in your Gun Gale Online career catches the attention of Kirito and gang, which is how you’re introduced to the Sword Art Online characters.
What I really enjoyed about the story is that it wasn’t the stereotypical trope of the world ending, with you as the only savior that can do something about it. Even more so, I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much as I did since I didn’t get to actually play as my favorite characters from the show, but you do get to recruit them into your party and fight alongside them, so it’s an acceptable trade off. There are twists and turns to be found during your adventure that keep you interested, and I was very impressed that they didn’t simply rehash the season and that they created something unique that fits in naturally into the universe.
You begin your adventure by first creating your character, and while it’s not the most in-depth character creator I’ve ever seen, there’s enough choices for height, face, legs and more to fine-tune your male or female look and make them look like they belong in the Sword Art Online universe. You are then thrown into the world in a clever tutorial that has your best friend showing the ropes of how to interact and play in the online world of Gun Gale and the basic combat mechanics.
You primarily explore and run though indoor dungeons, though there are few larger outer world areas that you will traverse to get from place to place and unlock fast travel waypoints. Oddly, the majority of your gameplay will be indoors in cramped bland looking virtual dungeons filled with enemies. These areas are essentially connected rooms and corridors that do allow for a bit of exploration as you make your way to the eventual boss room, which you must defeat to continue on. Aside from the standard enemies you face, these areas feel very desolate and bland, which is kind of a shame, as it’s not like the online world of Gun Gale from the show at all, as you simply clear room after room. That being said, the boss fights are frantic and fun, forcing you to create a well-rounded group of different abilities.
I fully expected this game to feel like a standard 3rd person shooter, but it has a few tweaks to it that I really enjoy and that sets it apart from others. One of the more prevalent things you’ll most likely notice is that there’s absolutely no aim assist when looking down your weapon's sights. This makes it very difficult to shoot at exactly what you’re trying to, especially given that enemies have weak spots that can be exploited for massive damage. Instead, there’s an aiming assist when firing from the hip if you enable it. This allows for much more run-and-gun gameplay, and even though you won’t aim for the weak spots, it’s more than enough to help you get by most enemies. In the beginning I naturally tried to always aim down the sights, but as I played more, the hip fire aim assist became very handy and I found that I rarely tried and manually aim. It takes some getting used to, but I really enjoy it now that I’ve learned its mechanics and limitations.
You begin with some dodge and roll abilities, allowing you to escape fire quickly, but as you progress, and level up, there are a handful of other abilities you can purchase to help you settle into a specific type of roll, even a support one with healing bullets should you wish. While the classes could be more fleshed out and varied, it’s intriguing given the possibilities that you can combine, making for some unique classes and playstyles. You’re also given a grapple hook of sorts in the beginning, which is necessary to scale certain ledges and pull down aerial enemies.
Given that Fatal Bullet takes place in the online online world of Gun Gale, you can fully expect to have access to a slew of different weapons to support whatever play style you want, such as sniper rifles, SMGs, assault rifles, LMG’s, and more. You’ll earn tons of weapons and armor throughout your journey, with big upgrades coming every so often. You’re also able to improve items if you can gather enough of the proper materials, so there’s a hefty RPG system in place that I didn’t expect to be as robust as it really is. The customization is a welcome addition as I was always on the search for rare or better gear, then wanting to improve it, watching my damage and abilities improve. Interestingly, weapons have stat requirements, so the best weapons will require you to dump your skill points into such as strength, dexterity, etc.
Even though Fatal Bullet takes place in a fake MMO, there is an actual online component to play with other players, cooperatively or competitively. While the modes themselves don’t have a lot of depth, as you’re mostly just fighting a boss with, or against, other players, the fact that it’s included for some extra gameplay, to tackle with friends once you’re done, the campaign is a plus.
I absolutely love the source material, so while I love being able to hang out with my favorite characters, I was surprised how much I enjoyed actually playing my own character alongside them. I honestly expected a pretty bland shooter, yet I was surprised with the depth, length, and progression of the game. While fans will get the most out of it, it doesn’t alienate newcomers to the universe either. It’s by no means perfect, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of action packed within, from start to finish, and I think you will too.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition
I remember first watching someone play Kerbal Space Program (KSP) on PC back when it was released, being intrigued by the sheer freedom given to the player to create essentially any type of spaceship they wanted, complete with cute little green men. The PC version had quite a following after its release, leaving console players wishing they could experience the same spaceship building antics. While it did release on console 2 years ago, it was a buggy and unoptimized mess. Here we are once again, but this time with the Enhanced Edition, promising some much needed improvements for console players hoping to have an improved PC-like experience.It seems this Enhanced Edition has been remade from the ground up to utilize the consoles much better, addressing the numerous issues from the first release, yet it’s still far from perfect. While it is an improvement over the initial version, it’s still galaxies away from the PC version in terms of controls and ease of use. With a sudden interest in space travel again thanks to SpaceX, Kerbal Space Program: Enhanced Edition might just scratch that itch, as long as you’re willing to put in a substantial amount of time to learn its metric ton of features and controls.
While there’s no real storyline per-se, you are in control of the grand Kerbal Space Program, hence the title. Kerbals are little green aliens that are determined to create all sorts of spaceships, allowing them to explore the galaxy and perform science experiments. While you won’t need a degree in astrophysics and rocket science, there’s so much packed here that I’m sure that if you did understand every nuance, you’d also be impressed. Your Kerbal Space Center is your headquarters, based on the planet Kerbin, naturally, and you’ll be creating spaceships, rovers and nearly anything else your mind can come up with. If it flies or not is a whole other story, and if you want it to land again afterwards, you better be prepared to sink in some serious hours to learn all of the minute intricacies with mass experimentation.
The core game is unchanged, allowing you to focus on whatever aspect you desire, though I found the ship building, and launching (though usually after many failed attempts), the most entertaining. When you create a multi stage rocket with numerous fuel tanks, engines, wings and other highly technological parts, you’ll feel like an absolute genius that should be working for NASA, though, that is until you try launching and have it either explode or crash moments from liftoff, bringing your ego back down to earth. Once you do start to figure things out, slog through the unfriendly tutorial and eventually make it into outer space, it’s quite a thrill to see your adjustments finally succeed.
Tutorials are generally included to teach you the core mechanics of the game, easing you into the experience and make the learning curve much smoother. While KSP does have a quite lengthy tutorial, and it’s absolutely vital if you want to learn how to even maneuver the camera properly, the learning curve is absolutely insane. Even with the improvements included in this Enhanced Edition, the ease of use for newcomers to the game is so difficult and unintuitive that it’s actually a deterrent.
While I’m not a fan of difficult games usually, certain ones like Dark Souls for example is difficult by design, forcing you to learn from your mistakes and punish you for them, encouraging you to play more and learn. The same can’t be said with KSP, as it’s difficult, though not by design and simply due to a terribly poor job of teaching you how to play properly. There’s a ton of tutorials to go through that will take you step by step of learning the basics, and eventually the more advanced mechanics as well, but when I got stuck on the very first tutorial, that says a lot about its design.
Tutorials are done via pop-ups that need to be read and understood, explaining how to maneuver the camera, go to the menu of items, sub-menus, radial menus and more. Once you complete the step it asks you to perform you need to press RB+A to get back to the tutorial screen and then confirm. If you’ve done the step correctly it will move onto the next dialogue to explain what to do, but if you’ve not, the menu will sit there, leaving you confused as to why you can’t progress in the tutorial. Yes, you become confused and can get stuck on a step in a tutorial. I literally had to quit of the first tutorial numerous times because my cursor become stuck, as I wasn’t sure of the button combination to cancel out of what I was currently doing, or get rid of a misplaced piece. Get used to random and very awkward button presses and combinations, as there’s a handful of them that you’ll need to know to become a KSP master.
I’m totally on board when it comes to difficulty, forcing you to experiment and fail, but that shouldn’t apply to the tutorial and base controls. Even hours in I was struggling with the controls, having to purposely think of what I was trying to do and then remembering how exactly to accomplish going so. The PC version wasn’t as painful for its controls, as you have a keyboard and mouse, but the controller mapping is so incredibly unintuitive and unfriendly that it was making me not want to play as much as I should have. If I wasn’t reviewing KSP, I probably would have given up a long time ago due to this constant unwinnable battle.
If you manage to grasp the controls, the numerous tutorials will start you off with the basics, like creating a very simple rocket, all the way to learning how to make multi-staged boosters, how to land on the Mun (Kerbin’s moon) and even orbiting the solar system for science experiments. Many of these tutorials also assume you just understand why you need to change the fuel levels in certain fuel cells, or why certain wings are better for aerodynamics, and while it does try and explain them briefly, it again doesn’t do a good job of teaching and guiding you. Many times I simply followed the tutorial instructions, unsure why exactly without understanding.
While spaceship building was the feature I enjoyed the most, there’s a ton of other things you can focus on too should you wish, such as taking control of your whole staff, learning complex creations, landing on the Mun, research science experiments, using an orbit to slingshot deeper into space and more. There’s a large navigation ball, or NavBall, on the screen that will help you navigate space in 3D, directing you to your targets as you focus on other aspects of space travel.
In addition to the lengthy tutorials, there are different modes that can be played based on your preference. Sandbox mode was my favorite, as it simply puts you in the game with every item and technology unlocked, allowing you to create whatever you desire without having to worry about a budget. This mode was great for simply experimenting with each type of part, what they do and how they affect your ship. With unlimited funds, you can simply try and test anything you can think of in this mode, as I found it a great place to learn what worked for me and what didn’t. Scenarios are also available, essentially mini missions that task you with a very specific objective, such as landing on the Mun or orbiting a specific planet.
Science mode is almost like a career-lite mode, as you’re simply tasked with conducting specific experiments without having to worry about any money restrictions or other distractions. Doing this research will earn you points to spend into a development tree, thus unlocking new features. It’s a good segway mode before diving head first into the deep end of Career Mode.
Career mode is the all-encompassing mode for KSP, requiring you to run all aspects like building, upgrades, funding, staffing and more. You’ll need to take on missions and experiments to earn points that allow you to boost your headquarters, allowing for more features to be unlocked. I was quickly lost in Career mode, overwhelmed with the sheer amount of work you need to do and keep on top of. You’re going to have to sink a ton of hours into KSP to even attempt to perform well in career mode, but the option is there for those that enjoy that aspect and want a challenge.
I really do appreciate what KSP does and offers, as there’s no other experience like it. If you’re patient enough, can deal with the unintuitive and non-friendly controls, have a ton of time and patience, then there’s a ton of value here for you. There’s a ton of problems with this poor PC port, yet there’s still a certain charm to it. I’m not sure if it’s the dumb lemming-like grins on the Kerbal’s faces when I’m spinning them in space at crazy G-forces I can’t even fathom, or seeing their screams as I know I’m about to crash my poorly designed ship, but either way, I keep coming back to try a crafting a different type of ship and experiment with other parts. Sure the walls of text aren’t the best tutorial, isn’t user friendly, and the controls will take days to get the hang of, but there’s no denying the level of simulation KSP can achieve, I just wish this Enhanced Edition was even more enhanced and much more user and controller friendly.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament
Being a Westerner, I’ve never heard of the Xuan Yuan Sword series before, though not to the fault of the developer, as they’ve never released them over here before. Finding out that there’s been over a dozen games in the series already, much like the Final Fantasy series, I was actually quite shocked. It seems the series even bleeds into other media as well, so the name has some weight behind it overseas. Softstar Entertainment Inc has decided that the time is right to bring the series over to this side of the waters, but given its heavily Chinese influence, it’s a risky move. While I’ve got a laundry list of issues with Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament, it’s an odd JRPG, and I keep finding myself going back to it regardless of the concerns I have.A great RPG’s backbone is usually its story, and I wasn’t sure what to initially expect from The Gate of Firmament, but as I put the hours in, I found myself interested throughout. Like most RPG’s, the main narrative starts off incredibly slow, and small in scope, but as you progress and unearth more events, the scale and urgency of your journey will become more and more important. You begin as a normal village boy that’s simply trying to protect his home village, but like most RPG’s, you fall into some extreme circumstances which will have you turn into a hero by the time the credits roll.
The Gate of Firmament is more than just a subtitle, as it’s the actual gateway between our mortal world and something else. In ancient times, the divine Jade Emperor opened the gates of heaven, allowing mortals into his world to gain power, but only if they agreed to help find his missing daughter. Of course, someone took advantage of this, causing evil to invade the land of mortals.
The story is actually quiet decent, as long as you have the patience to read along if you’re not proficient in native mandarin. There is no English dubbing, just captioning. You start off as Sikong, a quiet young man from a small remote village, eventually recruiting others along your journey, all with their own backstory that you’ll explore along the way. I enjoyed the overall narrative, and the relationships between each character, but you’ll need to enjoy a very traditional Chinese setting to really appreciate it.
As you explore the world, you’ll be in certain areas rather than one massive seamless world. It’s a little jarring at first, but reach one of the end areas of any specific level and you can then fast travel to any of the areas you’ve previously uncovered. Each new area will give you a marker that you'll attempt to reach, which will most likely trigger a cutscene to watch. Get used to this, as there are a lot of cutscenes throughout the game, many more than I was expecting. The main storyline scenes will play out like a movie, whereas the minor scenes are rendered in game.
As you explore each area the map will be greyed out until you traverse down each path, revealing any branching routes or hidden treasure chests. Enemies wonder the areas as well, and you can choose to avoid or engage in combat, though I suggest battling as much as possible early on to gain some very important levels and skill points. As you run around, and if you are quick enough, you can actually preemptively attack monsters to gain an advantage in battle. Depending on which character you are actively controlling, you’ll get a different bonus for the battle, such as enemies starting with lower health, bonus treasure, or beginning with them stunned for a short time.
Combat is in real time and uses a global cool-down for ability usage. When you use an ability you’ll need to wait a short period of time before using another. You have two varying attacks that don’t take any mana, eventually allowing you to create different combos with different effects as you level up and unlock them. For example, spamming ‘A’ is your basic attack, but ‘A’->‘B’ will do a different combo, usually with some sort of bonus damage or effect. As you spend skill points that you earn by leveling up, you can also train in magical abilities, that do either damage, heal, or buff your team. These abilities can be used at any time when the cooldown timer has reset as well, so you need to pick carefully what ability, melee, or item you want to use, including healing or mana items.
Once you have your full team of 4 characters, you can swap to any one of them freely in battle with the d-pad, allowing you to take control of their attacks and abilities individually should you wish. Eventually you’ll unlock formations, somewhat like the Paragon system from Final Fantasy XIII. These stances will give your team extra damage or resists, and can be customized who will get what applicable bonuses per stance. It’s not terribly in depth, but it’s more than I was expecting, and once you learn to start relying on the elemental bonuses, it can change the battle outcome in your favor quickly. The majority of the game you’ll breeze through for combat, but bosses can be brutally difficult if you’ve not leveled up appropriately and have a ton of healing items.
A problem you’ll start to notice once you have a full team is that the AI is absolutely terrible. When in control of one of the characters, the AI will automatically use the other characters, but it does so terribly. There’s almost no logic in what abilities they decide to use, as they will cast a spell over and over, or use potions when not needed, draining your supply. They will even buff you and the rest of the team when battles are about done, and make other poor decisions that make absolutely no sense. The lack of monster variety doesn’t help matters either, as you’ll see the same variation of animals and weird faced baskets throughout your journey as you go from area to area.
There’s a lot of other mechanics included that surprised me, each of which are unique and blend well together with one another. Crafting, for example, works quite well once you figure out how to do it. Say you loot a steel staff, it would have regular stats for damage, but if you craft a steel staff instead, the damage output and other stats would be vastly greater than the one you found, or even bought. To craft you’ll need to hunt enemies for materials and search for treasure chests, but you’ll also need to purchase recipes at the merchants to learn how to craft the different items.
Speaking of chests, some are your standard click and open, but there are also higher level chests that require a quick puzzle for you to solve in order to open it. Oddly enough, the puzzles revolve around words and spelling the word with a missing letter. So you’ll be shown a word with a missing letter, like _UGGAGE for example, then given a row of 4 different letters, and you need to choose the right letter across 4 different words to successfully open the chest. It’s an odd mini-game that isn’t challenging, especially when you have words like LOCK or BUG for example, and completely unnecessary if English is your native language.
Interestingly, there’s a system in place once reach it you get an adorable pet boar that can be used to capture enemies in battle, which can then be used for a multitude of purposes. He carries a small urn on his back that, when the Right Stick is pressed, can attempt to capture a monster, much like throwing a pokeball. The captured monsters can be infused with one another to create stronger versions that you can you bring out in battle, or you can also use them to infuse weapons and equipment to level them up and make them stronger. It’s a very odd system at first, and one that isn’t explained very well, but once you learn its intricacies it becomes one of the more addictive parts of The Gates of Firmament.
The game's soundtrack is very lucid and beautiful, matching the scenery and setting, and even though I can’t speak Mandarin, the voice acting itself seems to be decent, at least if the emotions conveyed match the subtitles. That being said, the subtitles have clearly been done either in a rush or by an amateur, and they do not seem to have been proof-read, as the translation to English isn’t always accurate or how it would be natively spoken.
While I can forgive the fault of poor subtitles, the visuals are a whole other story. Plainly put, I was constantly reminded that The Gate of Firmament looked as if it belonged on the PS2 or original Xbox. Visually, you’re going to be blown away, specifically with how dated and ugly it is at times, which is a shame, as some of the backdrops of the areas are gorgeous, and the story encourages you to keep playing. It’s ugly to look at, simply put, and that’s before even factoring in the mass amount of texture glitches that stretch across the screen and the terrible object pop-in in the backgrounds. These distractions really take away from the experience, and even if you are able to ignore them for the most part, they last throughout and become very disrupting.
Even with the myriad of bugs there’s an odd and endearing quality that Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament possesses. Sure, the $25 asking price seems a bit high when you judge it on its looks alone, but there’s a surprising amount of gameplay held within, as long as you can stomach the lackluster visuals, poor translation and bugs. If you’ve been craving a new JRPG game to enjoy, there’s enough ‘meat on the bone’ here to keep you interested, even if there are better choices available. With some more QA time, and a better translation, this might have been a completely different, and even more enjoyable, experience. All the typical checkboxes have been marked to make for a decent experience, and there are a few mechanics included that I really enjoyed, but like a good B-movie, I enjoyed it for unintended reasons instead.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Monster Hunter: World
I’ve tried numerous times to get into the Monster Hunter games, but I have seemingly failed each time due to their lack of feeling accessible and friendly to new players. I always go in hoping that I’ll finally catch onto the allure, as it’s a very popular franchise, but it seemingly loses me quite quickly with every single iteration I try. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve gotten intrigued about Monster Hunter, so when Monster Hunter: World was revealed, my excitement began to peak again, hoping this would be the one to finally pull me in. It seems as if Capcom knew they needed to do something to bring in new players into the franchise, and in doing so, not have they only made an absolutely stunning experience, but it gained myself as a new fan, all without alienating the longtime players.Welcome to Monster Hunter: World, where you play the role of a hunter, tasked with taking on veracious beasts within living and breathing lands full of flora, wildlife and danger. You can hunt on your own, or alongside three friends, and if you’re worried that Capcom has strayed from the tried and true Monster Hunter formula, fret not, as you’ll be hunting monsters to collect items to craft new gear to try and take on even more fearsome enemies.
You are a hunter, a Fifth Fleet member, who barely survives an attack from a massive beast, Zorah Magdaros, and you are landing in the town of Astera. This new town will be your main hub where you meet new characters as you hunt your way to find the path of destruction Zorah has left behind. The main narrative is interesting and conveys a much broader scope of the gameplay you’ll become accustomed to, which I really enjoyed. My only complaint about the campaign is that your character is the overused silent protagonist, simply nodding or being interrupted instead of being a voiced character.
Every monster you battle, no matter the size, feels like an epic boss fight, and while that first monster may have given you problems in the beginning, it pales in comparison to what you’ll need to defeat later ones as you progress. Each new area feels unique, not only because of its area (visuals and environment), but because of its inhabitants that you’ll be hunting as well. I was impressed with how the difficulty curve has been fixed, as I found the previous entries to be very challenging right off the get-go, which eventually turned me off, but it feels just right here. You progress through ranks of missions, with each subsequent quest becoming more and more challenging as you proceed in the campaign.
The first, and arguably most important, task you’ll be faced with is creating your character and customizing how they look. You’re given a healthy amount of options, and there are some creative ways to make your hunter look exactly how you want. Next, you’ll be customizing how your Palico looks, a sidekick that will aid you in battle, which just happens to be a large cat. These feline companions are absolutely adorable and will be a great partner for you as you are in battle. I won’t lie, I’ve become quite attached to my Palico with the dozens of hours we’ve hunted together.
You are introduced to the basics early on through a handful of tutorials. You’ll learn the core mechanics, but even after a the first dozen or so hours into Monster Hunter: World, I was still learning things that I wish were taught to me early on in a clear manner. Some things were very confusing. For example, as I’ve had to self-learn how to create my own ammo and traps, both of which play a big part into how I hunt my prey now.
One of the game’s greatest strengths though is how it naturally encourages exploration without giving you a quest telling you to where to go. The world is built in such a way that you want to explore every area, check out every climbable surface, and see what’s in those gloomy caves. Further enhancing this world is the fact that every area truly is an ecosystem that plays into one another. Plenty of flora and wildlife inhabit nearly every corner, and the large monster you’ll be hunting will even have a feeding ground and are territorial when others come into their nests. Much like previous games, each map you explore is sectioned into different areas, but now traveling between them is seamless, as it should be, as its one large area. No more loading screen between areas, and you’ll need to explore it all if you want to become a master hunter.
Movement is fluid and straightforward, as you can change direction quickly and smoothly, and when you're fighting a monster, you can dodge and dash to get out of the way. The graphics engine does a great job of not only showing the action, but letting you do all the required moves as well. Making the moves will drain your limited stamina gauge, and should you run out you’ll be prone and vulnerable for a few moments as you catch your breath. You can even climb quickly with your grappling hook, as the maps are very vertical as well, though this will also cause strain on your stamina.
You hunt with your weapons, and Monster Hunter: World gives you the option of 14 different ones to adapt to nearly any situation and playstyle. Weapons range from standard long swords, a sword and shield, a bowgun, lances, bows and arrows, massive claymores and even a huge blunt horn that can play songs and buff your party. Every weapon handles very differently and it will take you some time to find the weapon that suits you best, along with what fits in your group. I simply wasn’t feeling the first few weapons I tried, but I eventually found one that I was happy with and started to stick with it and upgraded it as I went along. The same goes for armor, as there’s a ton of different sets to craft and create, each with their own special properties, and they too will take a lot of getting used to. There’s no way you can simply button mash during gameplay as you’ll get wrecked by the monsters. Somewhat akin to Dark Souls, combat can be brutally difficult when facing monsters for the first time, so you best be cautious and don’t get too reckless, or you will pay for it. You can hack and slash, or even shoot, away at the monsters, but you’ll really want to focus on specific body parts, trying to uncover their weakness or manage to stagger them to cause more damage. You’ll notice that they have no health bars, and this is by design. Instead, you won’t know exactly when a monster is close to death, but there are visual indications, like the monster trying to limp away and flee, or its tail is broken off. This made the world feel more natural without the floating bars everywhere, and it lets you focus on the enemies attack patterns, rather than some HUD.
Killing the monster is only half of the battle though, as you’ll first need to track and hunt them before engaging in combat. Your hunter is equipped with a special vial of fireflies that help you navigate to nearby objects that can be interacted with, be it gatherable flora, pick-ups, or even monster tracks. This setup, again, makes the in-game world feel natural without having an arrow pointing you exactly where to go. Things don’t always go as planned though, as one time I was fighting my tracked monster, only to have a massive T-Rex come in and start to defend his territory. Do you stand back and let them fight and pick off the winner, or risk taking on both for double rewards? Natural occurrences like this really makes the world come alive and feel like you’re simply experiencing a part of it.
Interestingly, there’s also no traditional level-up system, instead you’ll simply need to craft your better gear by grinding out missions and foraging all you can which allows you to take on harder monsters, and thus the cycle continues. Quests are simple to understand, and your fireflies will generally direct you where to go when having to hunt and track down your specific monster. Before each mission be sure to stock up on supplies, ammo, potions, traps, and anything else you’ll need, but be sure to also leave room for your spoils. You can even purchase food beforehand which will give you invaluable buffs for your next hunt.
Tracking and hunting will get better in time, as you can essentially level up your tracking abilities per monster. The more footprints and claw marks you investigate, the more proficient you’ll become at knowing how that monster navigates the territory, and you can eventually become proficient enough to see where he is exactly on the map at any given time and where he will be heading next. Investigating also allows you to earn Research Points which then is used to unlock new items and quests.
Expeditions are almost like a mini-hunt, where sometimes you’ll be tasked with taking down a great monster, but you’ll be able to freely roam afterwards, allowing you to casually explore at your own pace instead of succumbing to the usual 50 minute timeline in hunts. This is a great feature of the game that allows you to work on your optional quests and bounties, explore, work on investigations, and more without a time limit to curb your progression.
Hunting monsters may be the main draw to the series, but I was floored with how in depth the crafting becomes as you progress. Every item or monster remain essentially has some sort of purpose, most of which is for crafting items, potions, ammo, traps, gear, and of course weapons. You can forge gear, based on the resources you’ve gathered and even upgrade weapons to keep up with the scaling difficulty of monsters. The cycle is quite simple: Kill monsters for items, use items to craft better gear, kill harder enemies and repeat.
You’ll have to farm monsters numerous times if you want to craft matching sets of gear, which is great when they have a bonus/buff for completing a set. If you’re constantly swapping weapons and armor, you’re going to struggle to keep up with the crafting components without having to constantly grind. You can even upgrade your Palico’s armor and weapon as well, though it's not as in depth, but it also takes from your resources, so it’s a matter of balancing of what to upgrade and when. Certain weapons and gear will also give you bonuses to elemental damage, which needs to be taken into account when fighting certain monsters, so the depth is massive. It’s an endless cycle, but it’s rewarding and exciting when you craft yourself that new upgrade.
While you can certainly play Monster Hunter: World solo, it really shines when you’re part of a team of four players who cooperatively take down a massive T-Rex. Bear in mind that as more players join, the difficulty and health pool of the monsters scale alongside to stay balanced. I sometimes found playing in a team more challenging, solely because in hunts you have three lives before the mission fails. If you’re playing co-op, those three lives are shared across your whole team. While playing with a group of friends that each pull their own weight is a fantastic experience, playing with random people online that aren’t as skilled and keep dying, causing you to fail, ends with frustration.
I find in general the pros for playing with other people outweigh the cons, as when I have friend join me, especially when they are able to not only do massive damage to a monster due to their gear, but they can also exploit weaknesses when the monster is distracted, allowing you to freely attack weak spots. Most weapons also become dull with lots of use and need to be sharpened, so playing with others allows you to quickly jet away and sharpen your weapon while they continue attacking.
Actually, the most frustrating portion of Mpnster Hunter: World is its online component, not playing together though, but actually getting it setup properly and joining. While the co-op is fantastic itself, there’s so many odd design decisions that make you jump through arbitrary hoops to even make it happen. For example, I’m playing a Hut mission and want you to join, but you’re actually not able to until I’ve watched the cutscene. Ok, no big deal, right? Well, not all cutscenes happen at the beginning of a mission, as some only play once you’ve managed to track down your target monster, which could take a while if you’re unable to find them easily.
After I finally watch the cutscene I then need to use an SOS Flare, signaling that I want people to help me in my mission, wait a good 5-10 minutes for my quest to be posted, then wait for people to join. It’s a convoluted way to get cooperative play working when it’s one of the main focuses of the game, and there’s usually some hoops you need to jump through to get it working, or find the exact lobby you want. There were some severe server issues at launch, like SOS flares not actually starting lobbies to be found, but it seems most of those issues have been fixed. It’s still asinine that I need to wait for people to watch a cutscene before I can join they hunt and have no simple drop in/out way of doing so.
Monster Hunter: World does an amazing job at simultaneously making you feel very powerful, yet keeping you always on your toes with dangerous foes that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Make sure you never feel over confident though, or else you’ll pay the price. The environment you play in is more than a simple man-made level, it really does feel like a living and breathing world that you’re experiencing.
Is Monster Hunter: World perfect? No, but its damn close. There’s some poor design choices, especially when it comes to cooperative play, but aside from that, you’re going to get lost in its world for dozens and dozens of hours. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it, and I really had to search to look for the negatives to complain about. It’s convoluted in its own ways, but it’s also incredibly deep, making for a robust RPG experience unlike any other. Find your favorite weapon, customize your adorable Palico and get hunting some voracious beasts in one of the better games that’s come out in quite some time. Monster Hunter: World needs to be explored and experienced.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China
For a long time I’ve been looking for a game to replace Crimson Skies as my favorite arcade air combat title. There have been numerous contenders over the years that have tried to do so, but none have even come close. It seems that developer ACE MADDOX is now the newest dev-team to try and put a game in this genre out for fans as they recently released Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China (FTSOC). There’s not many air combat game releases these days, so when one does come along, I get excited, as I want to experience air combat whenever possible.Flying Tigers does something a little different though, although the game is set during the World War 2 era, it places you into the roll of pilot in many lesser known encounters from the war, rarely depicted anywhere else, specifically, the China-Burma-India theatre. I’m not a war buff by any means, but I know the talking points and battles, and everything included in FTSOC was completely new to me. Prepare to dogfight, man turrets, perfect bombing runs, land air strikes and more as you help defend China against Japan in these rarely seen battles.
You are a part of the American Volunteer Group, a little known squadron that fought alongside the Chinese troops in the war, helping with torpedo drops, night runs, bombing, dog-fighting and more. While I wasn’t aware of the specific battles included in the campaign beforehand, history buffs should be excited to experience specific missions like the Battle of the Salween Gorge, Invasion of Malaya, and raids on Rangoon, just to list a few. These missions are based on actual historic battles, so it’s quite interesting to see some of the missions that took place, and how chaotic and dangerous it really was.
I actually never knew there was an American Volunteer Group of pilots that helped within World War II, so it was fascinating to see this during the game and in a different context other than simply being a Air Force, Navy or Marine pilot. The campaign starts off simple with basic dogfights, but eventually you’ll need to fly close to the water to launch torpedoes, strafe ground targets with your guns and bombs, destroy search lights and Anti-Air turrets, and a whole lot more among the other missions.
While there’s a little variety in the campaign, I do wish it told the stories better. You’ve given a dossier to read before and after the missions, and there’s some brief cutscenes sprinkled in with some voiceover work, but nothing exciting or that will wow you. It comes across as very dry, and more than once I forgot what the point of my mission was, only to be reminded with the objective listed in the top left of my screen. Missions are simply given to you without much context, so nearly each one simply devolves into destroying all enemies, sometimes before they reach their intended target. There are a few exceptions to this rule, and I really enjoyed a mission where I needed to break up a Japanese bombing run by damaging each plane a specific amount, forcing them out of formation.
After a handful of missions you’ll realize that nearly every campaign stage has you shooting and destroying your targets before being able to progress. Yes, this is what the genre is about, but there’s not much excitement to it, even when you’re essentially using a new aircraft during each mission as well. Even though it’s repetitive, the campaign was fairly entertaining to play through at least once, even if it was a little on the short side, but luckily more modes have been added to attempt to keep your interest.
In terms of the game's modes, you have access to one's like Dogfight, Challenge and Free Flight. Dogfight is self-explanatory, as it focuses on the air combat portion. You choose any of the planes available, location, number of enemies and finally either Avenging Ace or Survival. Fighting against 10 enemies can get chaotic and will surely put your flight wings to the test. Survival is just that, seeing how long you can survive against endless enemies, adding a different type of gameplay to challenge yourself. Challenge mode is a handful of five specific missions with objectives, but the best part is that there’s a global leaderboard for these missions, so you best start practicing if you want to prove you’re the best pilot in the skies.
As for the flight controls themselves, it took me a little time to get used to them, and there’s an option for Arcade controls, making things a little simpler and accessible. Full control is where you can control the Pitch and Roll of your aircraft, so I advise you to start with Arcade controls to get a feel for the controls, but once you’ve got the basics down, you’re going to want to have full control if you want to become the best pilot out there. There’s also a few extra moves and mechanics you can utilize, such as using a slow-mo to shoot your enemies easier for a brief period of time, using the D-pad to loop and roll to avoid enemies, and even one where you use the Left and Right Bumpers to bank hard to try and flank your enemies. It’s not the most complex system out there, but it works, even though it did take me some time to stop using the right stick, as that controls your camera instead of your flaps and yaw, which I am used to.
With smaller titles like this, usually local multiplayer is present, but I was surprised to see that an online component was included, and on top of that, for up to 16 players in a match as well. There’s a handful of Online modes you can battle in, such as Team Dogfight, Rocket Battle, and even a Capture the Flag variant titled Flagbusters. Each player gets to pick their aircraft and test their skills against the rest of the world, so you better know what you’re doing before venturing into this foray.
That being said, there’s little to no community playing this online, as every time I try to find a match I had difficulty finding one. Luckily I had a friend with the game who was able to test it out with me, and once we were able to get into a match with 2 others. Unless you have a group of friends that all purchase this game, don’t expect any actual 16 player dogfights anytime soon. It’s a shame, as the potential to have Flying Tigers be a title to dabble in now and then for some online multiplayer loses its charm when there’s no one else to play online with.
Graphically, the planes look decent, as do the backdrops, but it's nothing that will blow you away. The same goes for the soundtrack, as it’s there and sets the tone with its orchestral tracks, but nothing memorable. One song that did stand out was one that plays during the credits, as it doesn’t seem to fit with the game at all. Not that I’m holding it against it, but it just seemed like a very odd decision to have a song play that doesn’t fit the rest of the tonality to the game itself.
Oddly enough, the game is rated M for mature, and this is mostly due to the racial slurs that are used when talking about the Japanese. Yes, this is accurate for the time period, so it’s not out of place, but there’s also a lot of other swearing during combat that I didn’t expect, causing me to mute it when my little one was nearby watching and listening.
If you’re craving an aerial combat title, as not many release these days, then Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China will certainly get you through a slow weekend with nothing else to play. The $18.99 CAD price tag isn’t completely out of the ballpark, but that’s as long as you know there’s essentially no community playing this online, which is why you would keep continuing to play after the brief campaign is completed. Flying Tigers is completely serviceable for what it offers, but don’t expect to be blown away, even if the premise of experiencing rarely depicted battles excites you.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery
If there’s one company that’s fulfilled a specific niche, Artifex Mundi sure has done so by bringing casual HOGs (hidden object games) to the Xbox One in droves. For about two years now they’ve been bringing their backlog, and some new titles, to the console, which I initially didn’t think would work well, but they seem to fit, as sitting on the couch with a controller in hand, solving some puzzles at a casual pace works. This time around we get the sequel to Lost Grimoires, aptly titled Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery. If you’ve previously played one of their titles then you’ll know exactly what to expect; a journey filled with mystery, fantasy adventure, twists and a whole bunch if puzzles to solve.While technically a sequel to the first title, I failed to find many ties between the two, aside from the King that was in the first game and you playing another alchemist. The King’s alchemists crafted a Chasm Mirror, used to banish the evil witch Drosera into another dimension. The King’s health is starting to fail though, so he begins to prepare his son, Prince Fern, to take over the throne. On the day of his coronation he goes missing, and it’s up to you to find him and solve what has happened.
Like other titles in the genre, the story really isn’t the main showcase here, as it is filled with fantasy tropes and beautiful backgrounds for you to explore. Luckily you don’t need to have played the first game to make sense of this one, as the hook to these games is all about the gameplay and its puzzles.
Gameplay is much like any of the previous titles, as you’re searching scenes for items and clues that can be used elsewhere. You move your cursor around and you can point and click certain objects. Some will need to be solved to gather, such as needing a key for a lock, or a saw to cut planks of wood, but the theme stays true throughout until the credits roll. You’ll scour scenes, sometimes having hidden object games to sift through, or solve standard puzzles before allowing to you to progress.
The hidden object games were the highlight for me, as you’re either given a word list of items to find in a cluttered scene, or given simple silhouettes that you need to find the corresponding items for. Sure you could spam the button and move the cursor around, finding them with no effort, but trying to do it with no errors and purposely is much more rewarding. There’s a handful of different puzzle types you’ll encounter, though none of them will stump you for too long. Actually, I found Lost Grimoires 2 substantially easier than most of their other titles, though if you become truly stumped, you can use a hint that’s on a recharge timer to solve any puzzle, should the need arise.
Unlike most of their other games, there’s no alternative way to play a puzzle. In some of the titles, if you weren’t proficient, you were able to play some other type of mini game, like dominoes or something similar instead, but that is not present here. The same goes with the epilogue that many of their past titles have after completing the campaign, yet that is absent here too, so I’m not sure why some of the titles get certain treatment, yet not others.
One of the puzzles you’ll be solving regularly is when it comes to conjuring your alchemy ingredients. Once you have all three specific items needed to craft a recipe, you’re whisked away to a small game that resembles something like Bejeweled. Here you need to match 3 or more of an identical symbol to make the needed counter reach zero. Once you’ve done so successfully, the potion is made and you can continue on your journey. This mini game needs to be played every time you craft a new potion, and it becomes increasingly difficult as you progress. Well, I wouldn’t say difficult, as you simply need to make more combinations before you ‘win’. Again, these are not challenging at all, and not once did I have to reference a walkthrough to complete the adventure.
When you manage to complete the game, you can play an Expert difficulty level, though the only thing this really changes is that you don’t get any hints of where to go and the recharge for your hint timer is much longer. So, while it’s welcome to have a slightly more challenging experience, I wish the puzzles were more involved, as a single playthrough will easily be doable in a single sitting.
Casual puzzle fans should enjoy Lost Grimoires 2, as it’s a title you can sit down with and enjoy in short bursts if needed, and it isn’t overly challenging. For experts in the genre, you may want to look elsewhere if you’re looking for puzzles that are going to stump you, though luckily playing the first game isn’t a prerequisite to enjoy this one. While this isn’t Artifex Mundi’s strongest title in the catalogue, Lost Grimoires 2 is a fun distraction for $10 if you’re looking to relax and try out your alchemy skills on a lazy weekend.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Hello Neighbor
We’ve all had that neighbor at some point in our lives. You know, the weirdo that you wonder why they always have their their doors locked, windows closed and the drapes drawn, year round. What if you were a brave enough kid to sneak into their house and investigate the going-ons for yourself, only to find doors with multiple locks, further heightening your curiosity. That’s the premise of Hello Neighbor, though he won’t simply let you wonder around his house, so you better not get caught...or else.My 5-year old actually knew about the game before I did, from the YouTube videos she watches, since then it seemed interesting. When I first saw Hello Neighbor myself, I was quite intrigued, as I can’t really think of a game with the same premise. Kids are curious creatures, and I know I always imaged what the inside of people’s houses looked like when I was growing up, so getting to act that out seemed like an interesting premise. Ideas are only half the equation though, and while it’s an intriguing backdrop, the execution is something completely different.
The core premise of Hello Neighbor is that you witness your next door neighbor seemingly grab someone and lock them in a closet from afar. You not quite sure if that’s what you actually saw, so being the juvenile you are, you decide to sneak into his house and investigate for yourself. That’s the hook for the most part. If I had to categorize it, I would say that this game falls into a blend of stealth, platforming, puzzle and slight horror genres.
Broken into three main acts, it’s simply you versus the AI neighbor. The game claims that the AI will learn from your actions and play style, thus making counter decisions to thwart your trespassing. But don’t let him catch you or else you’ll be subdued and locked away as well. There’s no real narrative, as there’s no dialogue, voice acting, or anything of the sort, it’s simply you with the gameplay, as you are left to determine what the meaning behind the abstract levels could symbolize, if you can even get to those points.
Developer Dynamic Pixels did a good job at creating a neighbor that appears to give off a creepy vibe, with his old man sweater right down to his mustache, he fits the part perfectly for the backdrop. As above, not only is there no real story in a traditional sense, but there’s no tutorial, map, arrows, or nothing at all to help guide you in your mission to quell your curiosity without getting caught. It’s a shame though, as the only real help your given is the control mapping on the pause screen. Aside from that you’re on your own to figure out not only how to do things, but why and where.
It’s odd though, as a game about trying to sneak into some creep’s house, there’s no real sneaking involved. Sure, there’s a button to crouch, and I assume make less noise, but you won’t make it far if you don’t constantly run from place to place inside the home. It seems the AI does get a little smarter the longer you play. He seemed to catch me in the same spots a few times when I would retry the same entry points, like a broken window or through the front door. Luckily there’s many ways to lure him where you want, like breaking a window and going the opposite way, turning off the power, etc.
Even though Hello Neighbor is broken into three Acts, I don’t think many will get past the first one. You need to find keys to unlock padlocks that restrict access to other areas of the house, and doing so is no easy feat. This isn’t because of the difficulty that’s been carefully crafted and designed, but more to do with struggling with the core gameplay mechanics when trying to do what you want, when you want.
Should you manage to struggle through the first Act, the second plays quite differently, as you'll find yourself locked in your neighbor's house and need to find an exit. I don’t want to spoil much else, as the gameplay from this point on isn’t as frustrating, but it’s a shame that you have to endure the opening bit to even try to make it here. The difficulty is a little off putting, not because I don’t like a challenge, but the unfairness and randomness is a huge burden.
You can tell when 'the neighbor' is nearby, as the visuals and audio change slightly to be more tense, but there’s no indicator of where he’s actually at in relation to you, if he’s actually seen you, or anything else to help guide you. If you’re outside the house and he’s on the other side of the wall, the game makes the same indicator as if he’s seen you and is making chase. Since the AI somewhat adapts, what worked in one attempt will be thwarted the next, so you need to constantly try new tactics.
Even if you didn’t have to constantly worry about being caught and locked up, Hello Neighbor would stay just as challenging due to the poor platforming that’s required to progress. Remember when I said Act One would probably be as far as many will make it? This is exactly why. For example, you’ll need to get on his roof, and there’s no way to do so, at least every time I’ve tried to do so, without stacking items on a bent shelf. The problem here is, even jumping to get to the top of the bent shelf is a challenge on its own with odd physics and some clipping. If you manage to get a box, or other item, to drop exactly where you want, you will need precision maneuvering, and almost an act of god, to make the jump you intend to make, though you’ll likely fall and probably get caught by the neighbor, forcing you to start all over again.
Controls aren’t any better either. Many times I had to press the interact button repeatedly for it to pick up and move an item, even though the reticule says I’m in range. Having to do this while being chased is near impossible, and that’s if you don’t happen to run into the handful of bugs I did in my playthrough. At one point I got stuck on some object I threw, tried to pick it up, only to be launched about a mile straight up in the air, falling to my death and restarting once again. Items will clip through walls and other objects, and the sound of it constantly jamming is enough to mute the game all together.
While the game is riddled with bugs, I will say that the artistic style used is quite refreshing. It has a cartoon-like stylization to it with a simplicity, though this also means it’s difficult to determine what items can be used or picked up at times without trial and error. Sure, bugs can be fixed in time with patches, and maybe a compass or map will be added, or even an indicator of where your abductor is in relation to you, but in its current state, Hello Neighbor is a nonsensical mess. Most times when I die I’m thrown back into the street to start all over, whereas other random times I’m locked in a room, having to run to the exit, then have to start over again. I just don’t get it.
If Hello Neighbor was in Game Preview, this would be a completely different conversation, as it would be in its early stages with promises of additions and fixes, but that’s not the case. Instead, you’re being asked to pay $30 for a game that not only doesn’t feel finished, and it is severely lacking not only polish, but more importantly, fun. Oddly enough, watching someone play Hello Neighbor on their stream is almost the exact opposite experience for some reason. Watching others play that know how to deal with the frustration and poor design is fascinating when you see how it’s intended to be played, rather than struggling against it.
There was a lot of hype behind Hello Neighbor, and I've even started seeing merch at stores to purchase, but at this point in time it hasn’t lived up to it yet, not even close. The ideas are there, as is the premise and backdrop, but the execution is severely lacking in the worst possible way. Sure, some fixes might make it a better experience, but there’s no way this should be a full release in its current state. With all this in mind, I say "Goodbye Neighbor".
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Hand of Fate 2
The first Hand of Fate really surprised me as I expected some sort of standard card based game, but I got anything but. Developed by Defiant Development, the anticipated sequel is now here, aptly titled Hand of Fate 2. Just like its predecessor, it may lure you in with its promise of card based mechanics, but there’s much more to it than that, including challenging combat and deck building strategy, but I hope you have luck on your side, as you’re going to need it throughout. Even though you might assume it’s a card based game, which it is, it plays much more like a classic tabletop game you’d bust out with friends more than anything else.The memorable and mesmerizing dealer from the first game returns once again for the sequel, taking place a century after the previous game. Oddly enough, there’s no large overarching story, but instead there are 22 separate mini stories that act as levels themselves. It's here where you’ll be tasked with new objectives, meeting new characters and learning the evolving gameplay mechanics as you progress, all of which are very reminiscent of the first game.
If you haven't played before, you sit at a table in front of a very mysterious man that informs you is about to tell you a tale with his cards that are laid out on the table. You are represented by a small carved figurine, and you choose which pathway to take among the cards, each card revealing the story laid out in front of you as you progress. Some cards are helpful, coming in the form of shops or blessings, while others are traps, destined to make you fail your journey or resulting in you having to face ambushes of enemies trying to defeat you.
The stories that you are told are interesting, though mostly short, but some of them will take some time to complete given the secondary objectives you must do if you want to appropriately finish that particular story with a gold medal before moving onto the next. It’s a very interesting blend of RPG, card, and board game, as there’s not really much else like it that I’m aware of, done to this quality.
Cards are taken from your deck, which you specify for the most part, and your ultimate goal is to reach the end, usually ending with a battle against a challenging foe. As you progress, the objective becomes much more complicated, as you’ll need to earn enough fame, or find relics, etc., before making it to the end of each chapter. The cards are laid face down, so you don’t know which each one entails as you land on it, though the majority of them will have you facing battle or losing gold, health, or food supplies.
Certain cards allow you to make a dice roll to determine the outcome. Roll over a certain number and you’ll have success, fail and you’ll likely be thrown into combat against a group of thugs, thieves or worse, the new musketeers that can fire at you from afar. You’re given three dice and are allowed one re-roll of however many dice you choose.
Outcomes are also determined a few other ways, usually via a choice of 4 cards that are shuffled in front of you, but there’s no way to realistically follow a specific fail or success card to choose from, so it’s simply a game of chance. There’s also a ‘wheel spin’ of sorts, placing a number of cards in front of you and spinning them quickly, as you try and stop it on the card you want to choose. This takes practice to learn how much lead time you need to have in order to accurately choose the card you want, so this is even more chance based than skill as well. These little mini-games are fun, and even though I’ve had long stretches of wins, I've had even longer bouts of losses, in a row.
You’re also in possession of inventory cards than range from weapons, gear and accessories. These can be put into your deck to give you a leg up on the combat that you’ll face ahead. As you progress and clear missions, you’ll earn better gear, some of which is special, like a very high damage axe that requires you to have enough fame to wield it in each mission. To get fame you’ll need to explore the ‘map’ more and take your chances with landing on more cards, but this is where your resources come into play. You have cards for food, gold and health. Certain quests will ask you to decide whether to use some food cards to feed the poor, or maybe hand over some gold to avoid a battle, but if you don’t have enough resources, you’re going to suffer.
Sometimes luck is on your side and you’ll have an abundance of food, which at a camp, is usable at any time between card movements, and it can be converted into health, which you no doubt may have lost during your last combat or had bad luck on a game of chance with the cards. When not at camp you’ll be traversing a mountain, losing health almost every step of the way, so it’s a balance of how many cards you want to land on and turn over, hopefully gaining a reward, versus simply staying alive and making to the end this time around which seems more challenging than before.
You can attack, parry, dodge and bash, along with use specials and finishing moves with the triggers. Battles are short, as you are usually up against a handful of enemies, but they will challenge you as different types of enemies start to get mixed together. Combat itself is much like the type that the Batman games perfected, with colored icons above enemies’ heads displayed before they are about to make their attack, allowing you to dodge, counter or bash appropriately. The challenge comes when you’re surrounded, with later foes who are quite quick, testing your reflexes. While not as fluid as the Batman games, I started to do much better when I stopped button mashing, and instead, purposely hitting each button at specific times, sometimes waiting for a counter instead of constantly attacking.
Fill your combo meter and you’ll be able to utilize a special attack which varies based on which type of weapon you’re wielding at the time. These are very powerful and are a great reward encouraging you to try and keep your combo count up without getting hit. Certain zombie-like enemies will also have to have to be 'dispatched' with a finisher or else they may come back to life, so there is some prioritization of who to kill, and how, in some battles.
As you play more you’ll learn each enemy type’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, the stronger Viking-like enemies are very powerful, but slow, so you can easily counter or dodge away, whereas thieves are weak, but you need a much quicker reaction time to counter their attacks. Eventually you’ll be pit against a dozen or so enemies at a time, and it can become very satisfying when you’re able to do so without taking much damage.
Arguably the best addition to the series, and its combat mechanics, is the fact that you now get to take a companion into battle with you. As you progress through the campaign missions, you’ll meet, and recruit, new members into your party. While there’s only a handful to obtain, each of them add a completely different type of sidekick that will be best suited for different play styles, so you’ll need to play with, and experiment, to find out which suits you best.
Even though you choose your deck before starting attempting a challenge, the randomness of how they are laid out means that chance, or lady luck, plays a large part of your success or failure. Even though Hand of Fate 2 isn’t very narrative driven, which is ironic for a game where reading is involved between played cards, the gameplay is engaging and fun, even if it’s heavily luck based. I do wish that the dealer narrated all aspects of the reading parts though, as he has a wonderful and mesmerizing voice that calls your attention.
If you were a fan of the first Hand of Fate, the core formula hasn’t changed all that much, but it’s been refined as a whole. Some new additions, like companions, add some new exciting gameplay are to be found, but in the end, it’s essentially the same experience as before; slow progression and a feeling of repetitiveness now and then. Oddly there’s a lot of stutter and hitching during certain scenes and loading, though during gameplay it seems fine, even on an Xbox One X.
On one hand, the randomness adds in a factor of replayability, but on the other, the sheer randomness and luck involved with some of the elements can either be very rewarding or outright punishing. While it can become repetitive after a while, the decision to cut-up the campaign into mini stories is a great one, as you can sit down and do a challenge in a short amount of time if you don’t have much time to game in a single sitting. Even hours in, the gameplay is challenging and the randomness will constantly keep you on your toes, forcing you to weigh your options ahead of you. When all is considered, Hand of Fate 2 is still worth your time, so pull up a seat and get dealt in.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Oh My Godheads
It’s not very often these days, but when I do have friends over I always try and find a multiplayer friendly game to bust out for everyone to enjoy. While many people will always default to Mario Party or Jackbox type of games, Titutitech is banking on their newest game, Oh My Godheads, to become that go to couch multiplayer game. A local only multiplayer game, Oh My Godheads pits up to four players against each other with silly characters and an even odder premise that is a unique take on capture the flag. You’re armed with weapons and explosive pies, and there seems to be a massive Godhead placed in the middle of the map. While it will take some time to learn how to play, the hilarity will ensue shortly after you figure the controls and premise out, though fully expect to some foul language to be thrown at each other based on how you and your friends are when you game together.
The game throws you straight into a match without any tutorial or explanation of what’s going on. This was a very jarring experience, as I had no idea what to do or what the giant Godhead on the map was for. There’s no story either, not even an attempt at one, so this needs to be looked at as simply a couch multiplayer experience and nothing else. While the gameplay isn’t confusing, and I was able to figure it out, some aspects I didn’t learn until I started to do the challenges later on, like being able to throw pies, use powerups, and dash attack. Once you know how to play with every tool available, the game completely changes, so it would have been nice know all of this from the beginning with some sort of tutorial to get you started off on the right foot.
Mayhem will ensue, and if you’re unable to gather three of your friends over for some rounds, then CPU players can be added should you really want to play. This experience of course is nowhere near as fun, but at least the option is there. You can even mix two players with two AI and decide teams, which is a nice touch.
Matches take place across 10 different locations, such as Japan, Cambodia, Mexico, Egypt and more, each with their own theme and hazards. There’s a handful of characters to choose from as well, complete with low polygon models, but they are purely cosmetic differences. Having some varying stats would have been interesting and allow you to focus on a specific playstyle. You’ll also have to utilize the 10 different Godheads, each of which has its own ability that, when held and utilized, completely alters the gameplay, sometimes in your benefit, sometimes to your downfall.
At its core, Oh My Godheads is a unique take on classic Capture the Flag, aptly titled Capture the Head, where teams of two must capture the Godhead and take it to their own base to score. The catch is that when you’re holding the godhead, you walk at a very slow speed and can’t attack. Oh, you don’t know what a Godhead is? Well, it’s literally the head of a God, but in statue form. You’re able to throw the Godhead if you want to try passing it to a teammate or simply throw it away from the enemy team. Do you let the other team capture the Godhead first so you can get a few moments to run with the Godhead after killing them, or focus more on the powerups littered throughout the stage to gain the upper hand?
The gameplay itself is quite basic, but it’s the Godheads’ powers that really make the gameplay interesting. Zeus’ head, for example, will unleash a wide area of lightning, blasting anyone in its radius, including you if you’re holding it. The Bastet Godhead turns things around and will literally reverse the controls on you if you’re holding it once it’s powered up. Skadi’s Godhead will freeze everyone in the vicinity for a short duration when charged, so it’s how you utilize these unique game changing elements to your advantage that will make you rise on top. These Godheads usually cause the most chaos in a match, usually resulting in some pretty loud laughter or choice words.
Aside from the basic Capture the Flag, there’s also King of the Head mode where the winner is the one that holds the Godhead for the longest amount of time. Because the Godhead charges up the more it’s held, it becomes strategic when to hold it and for how long. If these objective based modes aren’t to your liking, then there is also Headhunters, which is essentially Deathmatch for up to 4 players. This mode is chaotic and has you chasing and swinging your weapons at the opposite team. Also included is Last Man Standing, where you guessed it, the last man standing is the team that gets the point. I found that when I played with friends we focused more on the combat focused modes, but obviously that’s a preference, as your group of friends will vary.
If you want some practice and learn new skill sets, then Trials of the Gods is where you’ll want to head. These are a series of short challenges, which ironically is as close as you’re going to get to a tutorial. This sequence of trials is where I learned about my other abilities, like throwing my explosive pies, using powerups, as well as jump and dash attacks. If I knew this from the beginning I probably would have done much better from the get go. There’s a decent amount of challenges and some bonus unlockables are hidden behind progression in these.
I enjoyed the low polygon art style, and even though it looks basic it has a certain charm to it. I really wish some online component was included, as it’s rare for me to have friends over these days, and if you’re like me, the single player component doesn’t hold its weight when it comes to value. Sure, you can play versus AI or work on trial challenges, but the core game is meant to be enjoyed by friends locally on the couch.
The modes may be limited, and the graphics bare, but when you have friends over and enjoy slicing each other up and using giant foot powerups to stomp each other, Oh My Godheads can become quite fun. An introduction at the beginning would have been very beneficial, as there’s a decent amount of strategy involved once you know the whole move sets and abilities each Godhead can use, altering how the match plays out. If you regularly have friends over and are looking for a new game to play with them, Oh My Godheads is a decent option to go with, but with a price of $19.99, if you don’t fall into that exact category, the single player value simply isn’t there by a long shot given the shallow gameplay versus the CPU.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
Sky Force Reloaded
Infinite Dreams and Crunching Koalas know what they do best: shmups (shoot-em-ups). We enjoyed Sky Force Anniversary when we reviewed it last year, and this year they are back with Sky Force Reloaded, a completely re-imagined and vastly improved version of their previous game. Like any shmup, this is a vertically scrolling shooter that will challenge your skills, reflexes and patience to grind your way to the best upgrades.It’s no secret that I’m very fond of the genre, especially classics like the brutally hard Ikargua or classic Raiden, so I wasn’t sure where Sky Force Reloaded would fit in amongst this crowd, especially being from a smaller indie studio, but man, was I blown away. Like any good shmup, you’re going to have to learn the levels, the enemies and the shooting patterns, hoping to reach the final boss before you die and start again. Sky Force Reloaded is all about fluidity and coming back stronger than ever each time you replay a level. It’s very easy to pick up, but the true challenge is there for those that seek it. Reloaded becomes incredibly difficult, but only for a matter of time, depending on how much you want to put into it, not only improving your skills and memorization of each level, but improving your ships as well.
Reloaded begins right away, as you pilot a fully upgraded ship, destroying anything in your path. You battle against a boss and inevitably lose, almost as if you woke up from a dream. This clever introduction to the game is a sneak peek at what the endgame can be like, if you’re willing to put in the time and effort into the game. It’s quite a shock going from a flying death machine to only having a peashooter, but that’s part of its charm to entice you, and I know it worked for me.
Normally, this is where I could delve into the story, and while there technically is one, it’s basically a throw away. Typically this would be a knock against a title, but let’s be honest, we play shmups for their addictive gameplay. I know I’m shooting the endless waves of bad guys, so adding fluff to a story I won’t care about is unneeded.
When I played my first few levels, I initially thought it was going to be yet another generic shmup, navigating the screen to avoid bullets, shooting anything that gets in your way, and picking up any power ups left floating around. While yes, it has all of these checklist items for a great shmup, it’s when you start to spend more time with the game and work on the included objectives that you realize how much more is under the hood for the gameplay and progression.
Destroyed enemies drop stars that you collect and use as currency to purchase specific upgrades. You'll find them amongst a wide selection of choices to suit your play style. Surprisingly, the difficulty curve is nearly perfect, with the first level or two being no problem to complete, but then it starts to ramp up as you unlock more levels. Each level begins on normal difficulty, and if you can beat all four challenges, which I’ll delve into shortly, you then unlock hard. Complete the objectives on hard and Insane unlocks, and so on. This is a clever way to add replayability without having to spend a fortune on level design. While some might scoff at having to replay the 15 levels repeatedly, and I thought this would be a huge negative, they’ve done it in such a way that it feels fair, and more importantly, fun, even when I’ve completed level 3 for the 100th time.
While collecting stars and beating the level is always your main goal, the four specific objectives is how you’re going to unlock the higher difficulties, which in turn allows you to earn more stars and upgrades. For example, a full clear on normal may net you 100 stars or so, and on hard maybe 300, and on insane over 1000, so the risk versus reward is finely balanced and you feel great being able to master those insane difficulty levels.
The four objectives across all levels and difficulties may not change, but completing them on Hard and Insane will surely test your skill. They are: 70% of enemies destroyed, 100% destroyed, 100% humans rescued and clear the stage without getting hit. Luckily you don’t need to complete them all at once, but the higher difficulties won’t unlock until all four are complete. This makes you replay the levels many times over, forcing you to memorize enemies and patterns, figuring out if you’re strong enough to attempt it now, or if you’ll need to go back to grind some more stars for upgrades to become tougher before attempting again.
I initially thought that I was going to hate the grind, having to reply levels over and over again to earn stars for upgrades, but Reloaded does something very smart, as each upgrade actually feels like it makes a difference. Every time I upgraded my weapons, or health, I seemed to make it further and further every attempt, becoming more powerful with each improvement. Normally most shmups are a one and done kind of affair, but after a week straight of playing, I still find myself going back to earn more stars and climb the leaderboards.
Each level varies in size with most ending with a massive boss that has numerous waves of attacks, though there is a level where your weapon is disabled, forcing you to do a pacify run, which is an interesting, and terrifying, change of pace. Each level becomes progressively harder, forcing you to spend the time to grind and craft a stronger ship. Once you’ve completed a level a handful of times, it becomes easier to memorize, but sometimes you’re simply just not able to shoot fast or hard enough to make it through easily.
Each upgrade adds more firepower, but there are a few other bonuses you can work towards if you want, like having a stronger magnet to pull in stars from afar, or boosting your health bar to take some more hits if needed. I highly suggest focusing on your offensive powers, as that’s what’s going to make your life much easier in the long run. There are many levels of upgrades to complete, with each subsequent installment becoming slightly more expensive. You can even boost how many slots of bombs, lasers or shields you want to employ if you prefer to play that way. The upgrades are very addictive, as being able to see your power increase only makes you want to grind more to become even more powerful than before, thus the cycle continues. As you become stronger, runs become easier, so the grind isn’t that bad once you’re used to it.
If the hook of constant upgrading wasn’t enough, there’s also a leaderboard for you to compete in and see how you hold up versus the competition. There’s a weekly tournament that takes place every weekend, adding an endless stage to see how long you can last, and even extra ship parts to collect, creating new ships with specific uses in mind if all pieces are collected. Play long enough and you’ll start earning tokens that will unlock technicians, whom add special bonuses to your gameplay.
Cards will also randomly appear throughout stages, and should you complete the stage alive, you then earn that card. There are blue cards that give you a specific bonus for 15 minutes of gameplay, and gold cards that are permanent bonuses. Even after dozens of hours of gameplay I’ve yet to collect every card, but it sure is exciting when I have a new permanent bonus, like starting every level with a bomb, etc. The blue cards are an interesting way to keep you continuing to play. For example, I got one in what was to be my last match of the night, then of course had to stay for the 15 minute duration to get the maximum bonuses.
Local co-op allows for 2-players to pilot separate ships, and while it’s fun, the lack of online multiplayer is really the only negative I can say about Reloaded. I get that couch co-op is fun, but it’s not really feasible for me these days, yet my friends who also have the game aren’t able to play with me online. The game allows you to see where your friends died in specific levels, and if you’re able to cover over their icon for a few moments, you’ll earn some bonus points. This is the same way you save the stranded humans, but as you hover over them for a short period of time, you'll just hope you don’t get shot down before their transfer to your ship is complete. The lack of online multiplayer doesn’t drag down the experience at all, it's just a disappointment.
I love shmups, they’re one of my favorite genres, but outside of a few of the greats, none really have longevity when it comes to replayability. This isn’t the case with Sky Force Reloaded at all. While it’s a grind to get the best upgrades, and the ship parts and cards are attained seemingly at random, I can’t put this game down. Even if I’ve only got 5 minutes, I’ll get a few runs in for some more stars, then realize two hours just went by.
Presentation wise, the visuals are great, with only some minor slowdown on the massive boss battles. The screen can also seem a little cluttered at times, when you have dozens of stars on the screen to gather, trying to discern the small enemy bullets, but the memorization comes in time. The audio is fitting as well, but there’s only so many times you can listen to the same down tempo beat before muting it and putting your own tunes on, since you’ll be replaying levels dozens of times.
Sky Force Reloaded never feels unfair, because when you die, you know it was your fault, prompting you to go back and grind some more stars for upgrades. While the grind is real and might turn some off, the reward for doing so is great. Prepare to sink many hours into this game if you want the pay off, but once you get there, it’s amazing. For a title that’s under $10 CAD, the amount of value within is outstanding. While it doesn’t surpass Ikaruga as my favorite shmup of all time, the fact that I had to think about it and compare it should speak volumes. I haven’t been this hooked and excited about a shmup in many years, and Sky Force Reloaded completely blew me away. If you’re a shmup fan at all, casual or hardcore, you need to have this one in your library without question.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume One
Nostalgia is a funny thing, as it usually makes us remember things better than they actually were. Case in point, I remember Shadowgate for NES being one of my favorite games for the console growing up. If I only knew how much money my parents spent on renting me that game over the years, it would have been much cheaper to just buy it outright. But that was 30 years ago, so while I’m showing my age, I have so many fond memories of my NES and a handful of the titles that went along with it.8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume One consists of three classic adventure titles that all released on NES, but also on the Mac beforehand: Déjà vu (1985), Uninvited (1986), and my personal favorite from the genre, Shadowgate (1987). The question is, does nostalgia make us remember these games in a way that is much better than they actually were? I probably haven’t played Shadowgate in at least 20 years, so I was excited to see how it, along with the other games, actually were now that I’m older versus how I remember them.
Starting with the oldest of the titles, Déjà Vu takes place in 1941 Chicago where you wake up in a bathroom with absolutely no memory of who you are or what has happened. You find a wallet, trench coat and a gun, and that’s before you stumble across a dead body. You’ll uncover a tale about kidnapping and blackmail, all wrapped in a Noir-like setting.
Next up, Uninvited tells a more supernatural tale, where you wake up alone after a car crash, unsure of where your sister is as she has mysteriously vanished. But not all is right, as the car explodes as you exit, leaving you stranded in front of a creepy mansion. Inside is a seemingly abandoned house, yet there looms a presence that leaves you uneasy. You’ll come across ghosts and ghouls while you search for clues of what has happened to your missing sister.
Lastly is Shadowgate. Here you’re placed in a fantasy setting as the ‘Seed of Prophesy’, aiming to stop an evil Warlock who wants to destroy the world. This castle backdrop is much broader in scope compared to the other two titles in this anthology, with mazes and mysteries that has death at nearly every wrong turn. What makes this one drastically different from the others is its forced time limit, represented with your torches. You can collect torches along your adventure, but should the flame go out, it’s game over.
Regardless of which game you begin with, they all have very similar UI’s, something that will take some getting used to as it’s very archaic and not user friendly by any means. Keep in mind these games were released more than three decades ago and game design was very different back then. The screen is divided into boxes, each of which has a different purpose. The largest main box is your character’s view and where you’ll interact with the world. The bottom houses a list of commands, such as examine (or look, depending on which game), open, speak, hit, drop, use, take, etc. These are the commands you’ll become very familiar with during your adventures and will have to be used for nearly any action, as even doors need to be clicked on with ‘open’ before being allowed to pass through.
Movement is done differently as well, as even though you play in first person, movement is controlled with the ‘move’ command, then either clicking on the door or passage you want, or by clicking the available exits listed for that specific room on the mini-map at the bottom. The inventory management becomes tiresome, as you need to flip through pages of items you’ve collected, move the cursor over the command you wish to use, then click on the play screen of what you want to interact with. It takes some getting used to, especially with flipping to your spell page or address book (based on which game you’re playing), but the template and gameplay generally stays the same throughout, across all three titles.
The common theme amongst all three titles is that at its heart, you’re solving a mystery, thus, the gameplay is to solve puzzles. If you can’t open a door, try any keys you’ve collected, if there’s a mysterious hole, try inserting any of the small items you have. Most of this gameplay is trial and error, usually more error that leads to death, but that’s part of its charm. Some solutions are more obtuse than others, especially in Shadowgate, but there’s also lots of extra items you can pick up and take that have no bearing on the main story, so not every item you come across will be useful.
You will die a lot, and in an odd choice for achievements, each of them are related to the different deaths you’ll come across. There’s no achievements for completing each game, just dying, which I found a very odd decision, though you’ll most likely find many of them natural as you play through each game if you’re not using a walkthrough. Some deaths make sense, like using the gun on yourself in Déjà Vu, while others are simply a lesson learned, like how stealing a pot of gold or smashing the wrong mirror in a roomful of them. These games came from a time with zero hand holding, so you made notes and adjusted for the next play through. Luckily game saves have been implemented in this anthology should you run out of time to play, and when you do die, you simply get reverted to the previous room before your untimely death.
It’s unfair to judge these games with how they look and sound compared to today’s standards, as these are more than 30 years old. During the time though, these were impressive. Sure, they don’t look good today, but there’s still an appreciation I have for 8-bit graphics and sounds, which is done wonderfully here. The soundtrack is also very rudimentary, with only small repeated music loops, but again, I was whisked right back to my childhood once I heard the music for Shadowgate start up. The music is very basic, and will surely grate on some peoples nerves, but I find it endearing to a gaming age long gone.
While these games are straight ports, there were a few small additions that allow for different TV settings to replicate old style TV’s, further enhancing your nostalgia. You can turn on CRT lines, play in black and white, even play with visuals like those old tube type of TV’s that had the rounded corners, among others. You can even choose different aspect ratios should you desire, but there’s no gameplay change or additions aside from the option to freely save.
Games like these really show how different gaming was back then, showcasing how far we’ve come across all facets, such as visuals, audio, user interface, and hand holding. Games back then were brutally difficult and completing games like these required patience and experimentation. These are faithful ports, even with their flaws intact, though I wish there was some extras or bonus material to unlock, or at least something other than combining the 3 game roms into one package and calling it a day.
8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume One is simply a port of three classic games from the mid 80’s, and for just a few bucks ($7.99) CAD, it’s a great way to see what games were like three decades ago when kids my age were growing up, dealing with brutally difficult games and zero assistance (unless we were able to find a strategy guide or gaming magazine with hints and walkthroughs). Even though they don’t age well, they bring me back 30 years, sitting in front of my tube TV for hours on end. I can’t wait to see what games are included with Volume Two.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
>observer_
I’m usually not one for the whole cyberpunk dystopian futuristic setting, but >observer_ (simply referred to as Observer from here on) was a compelling experience essentially from the very beginning. It really kicks it into high gear once you realize what the hook of the game is, and that is experiencing some truly unique and abstract visuals that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen, not just in games, but even film. Created by Bloober Team, best known for the critically acclaimed Layers of Fear, there’s no preparing you for what you’re going to experience from a visual perspective with Observer.You see, Observer is attempting to be a physiological horror game, and while there may only be a handful of jump scares, some of the abstract imagery could be classified as horror, and you can see the team’s progression as a game studio. Observer feels fresh, as if they were trying to do something new, and even though there’s a handful of issues, I kept having to play until the story came to a conclusion and the credits rolled.
Observer simply asks: "What would you do if your fears got hacked and used against you?" It’s an odd question, as I know what fears I have and what scares me, but what twisted things could possibly be in other people’s heads? Set in 2084, you play as Daniel Lazarski, a corporate funded ‘police’ unit whose sole function is to hack into suspects minds, and you are simply known as an Observer. This is achieved easily, as it seems nearly everyone has had some sort if cybernetic implants, making the Chrion Corporation a super power that runs nearly everything in this digital focused world.
There’s been a digital outbreak, simply known as the Nanophage, which brings the digital dependent civilization practically to its knees. Observers are meant to be used to investigate crimes, easily finding the truth, as you can’t hide information that’s in your mind when hacked; and they will use any evidence against you. It’s a scary vision of a world that could be.
Observer begins with Daniel sitting in his car, receiving a troubling call from his distant son with no real explanation before the call ends. He tracks down his son's whereabouts to rundown apartment building in the seedy part of the city. This building seems to house some nasty people, and as you investigate further, in search of your son, you’ll uncover some troubling situations, and people, who you’ll need to interact with. I don’t want to go much more into the narrative, as the story that unfolds is quite interesting, even if it only lasts around 6 hours or so.
You play in first person, and at its core I would best describe Observer as a puzzle/detective/exploration game. The majority of the gameplay in the beginning is based around searching the apartment complex for clues and investigating crime scenes. There’s the odd dialogue choices that you get to make when conversing with people, but they are minor. There’s no guns or weapons, as a good portion of your gameplay experience will be inside the minds of others.
Your overall mission is to find your missing son, but in these slums people don’t cooperate with Observers, so you won’t find much help, leaving you mostly on your own to solve the mystery, following the smallest leads and clues. There’s no overlay map in the game either, so you’ll routinely become lost, even when you find the apartment maps plastered on the wall. Luckily, you’ll eventually become accustomed to the apartment block’s layout, but it will take some time aimlessly wandering around until you feel comfortable navigating the multi-floor building. Nearly every door is locked with no means in, so if you’re lucky, you’ll have one of the neighbors answer the door via their telecom and actually talk to you. This reinforces the fear the citizens have of the Nanophage and also the feeling of isolation a world like this could become.
Eventually you’ll come across various crime scenes that need to be investigated, which brings in one of the main mechanics to Observer. To search the scene for clues, you’ll need to use your 3 different vision modes, each specializing in a function. The Right Bumper allows you to see cybernetic items, like implants, wires and anything else digital based. The Left Bumper is your Biogenic vision which allows you to examine biological material, namely blood, in search of clues.
To be honest, I got stuck in the very first room for a while, as there isn’t a lot of explanation to introduce you how to properly use your 3 vision modes. Once you get the hang of it, and know what to look for, you’ll feel like a digital version of Batman in no time, knowing what to seek out with glowing outlines of objects that can be scanned or interacted with. Using any of your different visions basically blurs everything else in your sight except the cybernetic or biogenic objects, based on which view your using. There’s also a night vision mode to navigate dimly lit areas, but there’s only one or two places throughout the campaign where you’ll need it briefly.
Scanning items, objects, clues and people is where you’ll put your case together, learning more about your objective or how to find out where to go next. There are even a few sidequests that you can partake in if you’re adept enough at finding and solving certain puzzles and clues. While this adds a little more length to the gameplay, they are completely optional. There’s even a mini retro game to play should you find all of the terminals hidden throughout.
Where things get weird is when you hack into someone’s mind. The main idea behind Observer is hacking into people’s subconscious, so you’ll experience imagery that you’ve never seen before. You’ll witness events of what’s happened in the past to that person, their fears, memories and more. Many of these sequences won’t make sense in the traditional sense, and there’s a lot of symbolism that takes place, but to say that these sections are ‘weird’ is putting it lightly.
If you’ve ever wondered what the subconscious looks like in visual form, I would suspect Observer does a great job at trying to visualize that concept. Some of it is extremely disturbing, horrifying and plain confusing, but it is one hell of an experience. There’s only a handful of these sequences, so I don’t want to spoil them, but I will say that the level design, even though mostly linear, is very memorable and unique to anything else I’ve ever experienced.
Reality can be distorted in the mind, and that’s the case here as well. Sometimes you’ll have to solve a puzzle, some of which are done in a very clever way. For example, there’s an endless hallway that seems to repeat itself every time you walk through the door, but you’ll notice a TV off to the side shows a picture of a specific doorway, so you go that way. The next time you walk through the door it shows a different doorway, which is your clue to follow this ‘path’. Do so successfully and you’ll make your way out of the never ending hallway, fail and you’re doomed to be forever wandering aimlessly in someone’s mind.
Later in the game there are some hacking sections where you’re pursued by a creature, and while I completely understand why, due to the narrative, these sections were included, they were more tiresome than enjoyable. I always dreaded knowing that I had to avoid a hulking creature trying to find me and that these stealth sections simply aren’t fun. To say that these mind hack sections can disorientate you is an understatement; remember, there are no rules in someone’s mind, and you need to let go and accept that.
Visually, Observer is very impressive, even more so when you realize how small the team that developed it is. The world is completely believable, as you see the bright cyber influences at nearly every corner counteract with the dark and dingy real world. That being said, there are some framerate issues, even on the Xbox One X, quite frequently actually. Navigating from one area to another will almost always chug down the framerate into the low single digits, completely pulling you out of the immersion.
Sound design is worth noting as well, as the background ambiance completely fits the mood and backdrop, and some of the voice acting is done quite well. I say some though with regret. Daniel is voiced by the one and only Rutger Hauer, who has quite a film pedigree, so there’s no question to his acting ability, but there were quite a few times where the delivery of some lines felt completely flat. Acting and voice acting are completely different skillsets, and I’m not sure if the was going for the whole monotone style, but it didn’t seem fitting for some of the situations his character was in. That’s not to say it’s all bad, but it’s not perfect.
The framerate issues are probably the worst offender to negatively affect the game, but I’ve also had some minor bugs that were more frustrating than critical. For example, I’ve had the game outright crash on 3 separate occasions completely randomly, though I only lost 5 minutes or so of progress each time. Also, I had times where my UI became bugged, one time locking me into one of the vision modes, unable to switch or disable it, causing me to restart the game yet once again.
>observer_ is a very unique title, as it’s heavily narrative driven and contains some of the most visceral and unique imagery I’ve ever experienced in a game. Some of the mind sequences are quite horrifying and paint a light on a future that, in all honesty, isn’t really that far off from our reality. Even though it may be wrapped in a science fiction cyberpunk package, the experience within is a very dark one.
The gameplay elements may be basic and not exciting on their own, but it’s more about the journey you undertake rather than just reaching the end point. The level design is brilliant and some of the experiences are very memorable even though it has flaws. If you’re into the cyberpunk genre and want to experience something completely unique and twisted, look no further than >observer_.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
N++
When Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360 was in its infancy, N+ was one of the first titles that I played and truly enjoyed that was from a small developer. Metanet Software originally created a game called N as a small Flash game, eventually sparking the sequel, N+, which was to become one of the better titles from the Xbox Live Arcade’s early days. Here we are many years later with another sequel, appropriately named N++ (pronounced N Plus Plus), and even though it may not have many huge changes to its core formula, it’s much bigger in scope and has enough replayability to last you quite some time. It’s been 10 years in the making, but N++ still has a minimalistic approach to its gameplay with stripped down visuals, focusing on fun while being incredibly challenging at the same time. Just like N+, N++ deserves just as much praise.Even though there’s a single player component, there’s no real narrative, well, not really anyways. What is there is a very clever way to explain the game mechanics as if it’s part of a story and reason why you play the way you do. In fact, here’s a piece what is written in the game under the Story menu:
"You are a ninja. Your god-like speed, dexterity, jumping power, and reflexes are all the result of an amazingly fast metabolism; tragically, so is your natural lifetime of 1.5 minutes. It emphasizes pacifism, humility, and the need to traverse a series of 5 rooms before the end of your lifetime, a feat known only as 'beating an episode'".
If you’ve played N or N+ in the past you’ll feel right at home and know exactly what to do with little instruction. If not, the basic premise is that you need to use momentum to reach your goal, oh, and you’re a stick figure ninja that can run, wall jump, and more. The catch is that you only have a short amount of time to beat a set of 5 levels, and each set is called an episode. A ninja needs some serious skills to reach the goal, a TRUE ninja will do it fast and accurately, collecting dots along the way to increase ones time. If anything, N++ almost feels like a map pack to N+, as the formula is vastly unchanged, aside from some tweaks and small additions, but included is a massive amount of levels that will challenge you the whole way, over 4000 of them actually.
The learning curve for N++ feels just right, as you don’t hit a brick wall of difficulty out of nowhere. The game does will get very difficult much later in the game. New mechanics and enemies are slowly introduced, allowing you to become accustomed to them, then slowly ramping up the challenge as you progress. Even though the game can test your 'gaming skills', I never felt any kind of frustration that made me want to quit playing. Movement and momentum play a large part of the gameplay, and once you get a feel for the controls and start to maneuver your ninja where you want, it becomes a smooth experience.
It should be noted that every one of the 4000+ levels are completely hand crafted, no procedurally generated levels here, which means that each level has been painstakingly created and tested for a specific solution. It’s a puzzle game in a sense, as to solve each level you need to hit a switch to open the exit gate before proceeding to the next stage. Jumps, ramps, and enemies are placed with purpose, so if you can’t figure out how to complete a level, it’s not because of the design, but you just need to think harder, and try harder. Every single stage has a leaderboard too, so you can see how you stack up against everyone else online including your friends. These leaderboards even exist for yours, and everyone else’s, created levels, which is unheard of, especially for a smaller indie game like this. While N++ may have a very bare bones minimalistic visual look to it, there’s a slew of color pallets and schemes you can unlock as you progress to further customize your game should it start to become stale.
The 4000+ hand crafted levels are spread across a range of different modes such as Solo, Hardcore, Co-op and Race. There’s more than enough content here to keep you, and your friends, busy for quite some time.
The cooperative mode allows for local play for up to 4-players, and the levels are designed with multiple players in mind, some of which will require one or more players to actually sacrifice themselves to be completed. Only one ninja needs to make it to the entrance, so you’re all working together, but some will get glory, and others, well they will get electrocuted.
Next is the competitive mode, which is for up to 4-players as well, called Race. Here you are racing against one another to reach the exit the quickest. The ninja with the fastest reflexes will earn a bonus before moving onto the next stage.
Lastly, and for those that can truly best all that N++ has to offer, there is a hardcore mode. Here is where you will find the hardest challenges that will require some serious skill to not only complete, but to finish with a good time. The clock isn’t reset when you die, unlike in the normal mode, and gold adds time to your bar, but only after you reach the exit. Dying equals a game over, so you better get those reflexes ready for some serious challenge.
If you’re the creative type, the fantastic Level Editor returns once again, allowing you to not only create any levels that you can imagine, but also share them online for anyone else to download and play. This essentially takes the massive 4000+ included levels to a whole new level, essentially giving you endless gameplay. Every single stage that has been created by users has a leaderboard associated with it as well, so you can see how you rank against everyone else, or how others fair on your creation.
I understand that indie games don’t usually include online multiplayer, and even though local co-op is supported, I kept wishing I could play with others online. Worst case, I wish that ghost downloads were possible from the leaderboard screen. I know this is more of a wishlist request, but it does feel that’s the one component that could have brought N++ to an even higher level. That being said, the soundtrack is a great mix of electronic artists and the gameplay is essentially refined to near perfectness.
N++ is incredibly challenging, but never unfair (not including the insane player made levels), as controls are very precise and everything simply works the way it should. It takes some serious skill to tackle the later stages and hardcore mode, but that comes in time. There’s absolutely no shortage of levels to play, as the amount of content is baffling, again, not even including the online creator level sharing capability. I’m glad that N++ is here and in my game library, as I felt right at home ninja jumping and sliding from the get go, as it caters to the gamers that want to sit down and play for hours, or the kind that only have 10 minutes to get a few levels in.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Raiders of the Broken Planet
Raiders of the Broken Planet is an intriguing title. What, you haven't heard of it? That’s ok, neither had I until this fell into my lap to review. Developed by MercurySteam, best known for Clive Barker’s Jericho and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (along with its sequel), they are a small developer, but they have a solid pedigree, so it was my assumption that there was little concern about how Raiders of the Broken Planet would turn out. Well, I guess I should have been a little more cautious in my expectations.In an interesting business model, you’re actually able to download the tutorial and first mission for free. This will give you taste of the gameplay. Should this entice you, it then offers new episodic content for purchase separately should you desire more time with it. Normally I would really be impressed with a pay model like this, as it’s not a simple demo of the best part, but it is the actual beginning of the game where your progress carries over should you purchase the episodes.
That being said, you’re going to absolutely need 3 to 4 friends to fully enjoy this title, as it’s heavily suggested you play online, as doing it with random people is an absolute nightmare if you can even find other players to begin with. Even if you manage to have the perfect group of friends, there’s a lot of design choices and mechanics that raise flags and concern, as you will struggle to figure out the most basic premises as well as what the handful of currencies entail and how to get them. Luckily for you I’ve put in more hours than I wanted to, but I believe I finally have a grasp on the game as a whole.
First, let’s begin with the narrative that takes place on a literal broken planet, dubbed, the Broken Planet. This planet has a massive crack in it and is split in half, but there’s a mysterious substance inside, Aleph, that everyone seems to covet. This substance has attracted many different factions, including your gang, the Raiders. When soldiers take Aleph, it turns them into super soldiers, so think of it like steroids mixed with Energon in a sense, so that’s why it’s so valuable. Of course the shady factions and bandits want it for nefarious reasons, trying to stockpile as much as possible.
Your group is led by Harec, and he only has a small team to thwart humans off of the Broken Planet and send them back to Earth. Harec and company are essentially trying to bring peace to this shattered world, but they meet mass resistance along the way. Each of The Raiders in this rag-tag group is an anti-hero in their own right, and each possess a very distinct personality (and gameplay).
As for the setting, the backdrop has a Mad Max/Borderlands feel to it, mixed with some Gears of War hulking brute archetypes and cover based gameplay. Sure, the story is a bit cliché, and these are overused tropes, but the characters are interesting, even if the voice acting is a little mismatched at times. It’s as if they had a checklist of accents they wanted in the game and they gave each character a different one just for the sake of being well rounded, so it’s a little odd at times, especially with the amount of swearing that comes out of their mouths. I’m not opposed to foul language by any means, but it just seems a little forced and out of place at times, making for a more intolerable character instead of one you want to rally behind. While the premise is interesting, there’s numerous issues in gameplay and design choices that drag this down further than it should.
The core gameplay is a cover based third person shooter where you can choose from a handful of different characters, each with their own weapons and abilities. I’d like to say gameplay is much like what you’d expect from Gear of War, given that much of your time will be behind cover, but don’t expect anything near that quality, as there are a lot of odd design decisions that bog down the experience, and the shooting mechanics even feel weak.
Missions task you with varying objectives, from holding off an attack, shooting down air support, planting bombs, and of course, boss fights. What I did enjoy was the varied objectives, as each mission feels distinctly different in its own right, but the endless respawning of grunts and enemies means you’re constantly having to move and work without much time to assess what to do next, so you should make sure to simply focus on your objective as best as possible. Playing solo on normal isn’t too challenging, though that depends on the mission, as some are very challenging to do alone. Play with people online and the number of enemies and difficulty will scale based on how many Raiders are in the match. While you can technically play Raiders of the Broken Planet offline and solo, it’s not the same experience, and you earn better rewards for playing with others.
Where Raiders begins to falter early on is in explaining its mechanics and objectives. For example, in the first mission you’re tasked with shutting down some reactors, but when you’re beside them you don’t have a prompt to do so, nor can you shoot them. Regular grunts are simply distractions and don’t pose much threat, but every so often, usually in phases, there will be more challenging enemies that are buffed from Aleph. What wasn’t explained very well, and had me scratching my head on what to do, was that you need to kill these elites to gain their Aleph, which is then used for the objectives, like shutting down the reactors.
Oh, you shot down the Elite and didn’t get any Aleph? That’s because you’re forced to melee them to absorb it. In a terrible design decision, this is also how you replenish your ammunition. Yes, shooting enemies in a cover based shooter won’t make enemies drop ammo, but instead, you’re obligated to run into melee range and defeat them that way, even if you’re a sniper. It wasn’t explained very well that I had to not only absorb Aleph from elites, but also melee to get it, so while I was doing that portion of the objective, I was confused why I was facing endless enemies over and over again.
Another core mechanic that the majority of gameplay is based upon is your character’s stress meter. Yes, giant hulking anti-heroes apparently become stressed from shooting, dodging, and even running. If your meter fills up past a certain point, enemies will be able to sense your heartbeat and zero in on your location. You can also see enemies through walls due to their heartbeat too, and this is important since there’s no map at all. Every so often you’ll see an enemy with a blue heartbeat, and they are weak but generally simply there to stop you from your objective. In the example above, the engineers simply try and cancel your objective meter from filling, which means you need to absorb more Aleph from an elite and start over. You can start to see how this becomes frustrating, especially if you’re playing solo and can’t cover each objective efficiently on your own.
As you progress through the campaign, you’ll unlock new characters. Most of these join Harec’s team through some sort of rescue mission, and while they are all unique and interesting, you can’t go back to older levels and use them on stages they weren’t meant for. It’s an odd decision, as focusing on a certain character’s abilities and customizing them seems almost a moot point if you’re not playing the missions they aren’t allowed to enter.
You’ve got different characters that use different such as snipers, shot guns, energy weapons and my personal favorite, a gatling gun. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses while filling in a specific style of gameplay for your squad. Players cannot choose the same character when online, so if you get stuck with someone you’ve never played before, or don’t enjoy, well too bad. There’s a real world money option should you want to purchase new characters, but after doing the math conversion, paying over $30 for character access is just atrocious.
This is another area that’s not explained at all, as you can upgrade your character in specific ways, but you’ll need to sift through and figure out what character points, faction points, gold, and coins do. There’s a card based system that determines what abilities your character currently uses, but I’ve still yet to figure out how to get new ones, or if it’s completely random. You can add more perks, but that costs character and faction points, a currency you earn for completing online missions. Yes, you don’t earn these from solo play, so if you’re not planning on playing online, well, good luck. So much here isn’t explained, and the only reason I took the time to try and figure it all out is because of trying to do this review justice; your average player won’t have a clue what to do or how.
This is where the multiplayer comes in. As noted above, you’re essentially forced to play online if you want to make any meaningful character progress. There’s an option in the top right menu to play solo or online, so of course I went online to be paired up with other Raiders. After sitting for literally 15 minutes I finally got a lobby match and hit ready. Well, it seems someone else didn’t press ready and when all four players don’t accept, it boots you back to the level select menu, only to start the search all over again. Yes, you’re going to be waiting a long time for a match, and praying that everyone is there and ready to go.
If you manage to find people attentive enough to start a match you’ll begin with four of you, working towards a common co-op goal. Since there’s more human players, the difficulty ramps up, which then makes apparent another terrible design choice: shared lives. Yes, you and your team share a set number of lives, so if you have even one person not pulling their weight, or simply not that good, your mission will be over real quick. Lives can replenish after a set time, but this is arduous and adds more unneeded difficulty since the challenge has been boosted to compensate for the amount of players.
Yay, you finally completed a match and get to see your rewards for completion! Wait, you have to choose what reward you want? Ok, so do you choose faction points, character points, or gold? Character points? Awesome, wait, others are choosing the same reward. So now instead of earning the 2000 character points that I chose, me and the other player both had to split it, each only taking 1000. Yes, you not only share lives, but the spoils at the end as well, regardless of performance. With a group of friends this shouldn’t be a big deal, but with random people, you can see where the frustration starts to come in, especially when you may have carried the team.
To top it all off, after each match you’ll notice that the team gets broken up and everyone gets put back into their own games. Yes, you get disconnected from the server every time you manage to complete a match. I hope you wrote down the gamertags of those other players, you know, since it takes a good 10 minutes or more to find a match, because you’ll need to search all over again once completed. Design choices like these simply baffle me and should not be present in a final state game.
If you’re unfortunate enough, you’ll begin your match online with a notice that a certain player is the antagonist. This turns the game into a 4v1 match, where the Raiders still need to complete their objectives, but there is also a real player on the enemy team to have to fight against. There’s absolutely no option anywhere to turn off this option, so any match you find will be open to those that choose to be an antagonist. The enemy antagonist plays solo alongside the grunts and other AI to try and prevent Raiders from completing their objectives. Because of the fundamental mechanics, like melee kills, antagonists can easily one-shot you and kill you with minimal problems. Factor in the shared lives for the Raiders and you can see how the game can turn into griefing other players. We had one match where the antagonist decided to quit, making us win the match instantly even though we were only half way through the mission, so if that’s a bug, I’m not sure.
For all of the poor design choices and mechanics listed above, I will say that I really enjoyed the art and visual style of the game. It has a gritty Mad Max-like tone to it, characters look strong and beefy, and the cutscenes have some amazing camera work. It’s a shame that the rest of the game comes with it and isn't explained in any way. With a team of four friends, each specializing in a certain character, I could see Raiders of the Broken Planet being a lot of fun, as you need constant communication.
Having tried the newest DLC campaign, Wardog Fury, this adds four more missions to compete in, allowing you to recruit new characters as well. When the core experience isn’t much fun, adding more missions doesn’t solve the inherent problems. Raiders of the Broken Planet needs a massive overhaul of many issues, the most important being that the player actually needs to know what and how to do what they are supposed to do. Sadly, even after completing missions online after the massive wait and restarts, there’s little to no sense of reward. I’ve done missions numerous times to work on my character points, but it’s a long grind if you want to earn everything.
Something that I will admit, I found myself continuing to try to find another match, but it’s just a shame that it takes literally 10 minutes or more to find one each time. I’m not sure if this is due to server issues or low player population, but it doesn’t matter, as not many will put in that amount of time doing nothing, especially when it doesn’t feel rewarding in the end.
There’s a ton of potential in Raiders of the Broken Planet, but it feels like a game that shouldn’t have been released without more QA testing and all of the campaigns available. There’s only so many times you can repeat the same four missions, eight if you buy the Wardog Fury DLC, unless you’re a true glutton for punishment or simply have an obscene amount of time to wait for matches to be found. Sadly, potential doesn’t equate to an enjoyable experience, as the game in its current state, even with the second campaign DLC, is nearly void of this completely.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Coma: Recut, The
While I’ve never been a huge fan of the overseas school based anime and manga, The Coma: Recut aims to change that by setting the stage for this horror game inside the hallways of Sehwa High, an updated, remastered if you will, version of the Korean cult hit The Coma: Cutting Class. Updated with new cutscenes, art, and animations, The Coma: Recut aims to lure you into its darkness with an interesting story and some fantastic ambience, but fails to fully engage with its tedious gameplay.You play as Youngho, a high school student studying at Sehwa High who’s ready to take his exams. As he arrives to school there’s a scene unfolding, as it seems a fellow student has died. That’s not enough to cancel class though, so exams must still take place, as grades are everything. You’ll quickly meet his friends and the attractive teacher, whom he has a crush on. Youngho falls asleep in class though, and when he wakes he finds himself in some sort of alternate reality where it’s dark, creepy, and he’s also locked inside with no one else nearby.
As it turns out, he’s not alone, as he runs into his teacher, but she’s different, and she tries to slash him with a box cutter, so naturally he runs and hides for his life. This is the setting to The Coma: Recut, as you need to solve the mystery of what’s happening, where you are, and most importantly, why your teacher is hunting you and trying to kill you while trying to escape. It’s an interesting story, as you need to figure out all the what’s and why’s while being chased and hunted. Unfortunately, while the story has an interesting premise, the gameplay is a little bland.
Gameplay is very basic as you walk, and run, while being chased on a 2D plane. You can move left and right along the screen, enter doorways, and interact with certain objects. You’ll need to search the area for money, as you can purchase items from the vending machines. You will also need to keep an eye out for clues, as well as blackboards, which act as save points (it is a school after all).
You have a map that can be accessed at any time, showing exactly where you are on the school’s blueprint layout. This also allows you to pinpoint where you need to head to next. Usually this entails searching for clues to the story, a key, or password to access the next area or locked door. You have a backpack that can only hold a certain amount of items and also have a flashlight that can be used to light the surrounding area nearby, though that will also make you an easier target for the killer to find you.
The setting is very dark and creepy, with minor sound effects setting the tone perfectly. You know exactly when the teacher is nearby, as the music changes, adding a heavy tension tone. When this happens you can either run or hide, as you have no way to fight back at all. Most of the time you’re going to have to run, using your precious, and slowly regenerating, stamina. If you’re lucky enough to be near certain closets or stalls, you can hide in there and wait for her to pass, but the chances of being near one was usually not the case for me. Holding the Left Trigger will allow you to crouch and hide in the darkness, covering your mouth to not be heard, but I found this rarely ever worked for me, as the teacher would slash me nearly every time I tried to hide this way. Hiding like this also drains your stamina, so it’s limited how long you’re able to do so.
The fact that you’re unable to fight back in any way is what makes the tension so high, as you are forced to run and hide, knowing she’s likely right behind you. You can purchase snacks to refill your stamina and health should you find enough coins during your adventure, but again, you can only hold a limited amount of items. You do have an ability to roll out the way if she gets close, but this too uses stamina, almost too much, and I ended up rarely using it, as all of my stamina usually went to running as far as I possibly could. Manage to get away and you’re safe, but only until the next time she nears.
Your teacher isn’t the only threat though. As you progress, you’ll also need to deal with tentacle plants and corpses that attempt to stop you as well. Given that the majority of your gameplay is done in the darkness, it’s very difficult to notice these enemies, but that’s half of the strategy; do you risk being found by the teacher by using your flashlight so you can see, or be safer in the dark but unable to notice these other monsters?
I’m pretty much a wimp when it comes to scary games. The first couple times hearing that music change, and not knowing what direction the teacher is going to chase you from, is terrifying. That being said, this happens so often throughout the course of the game that its initial shock value wears off and becomes more of a hindrance than anything else. Yes you’re going to get hurt, but you’ll manage with the proper items, and there’s enough blackboards around the school that finding a save point is usually not an issue.
Visually, the art style resembles that of an illustrated manga, unique in depiction, but also hardly animated. The story segments play out like a comic book, with dialogue boxes, yet no voice acting. The lack of voice acting really brought me out of the experience, as it could have elevated an interesting story even further. As for the sound design though, it’s very impressive and sets a very atmospheric mood that always sounds creepy and dark. When that chase music kicks in, your hands clench a little harder and you become very tense, which proves the effectiveness of the audio.
I really enjoyed the overall story element, but the constant having to run and hide became tiresome, as it usually meant having to double back and hoping to remember where that last closet was to hide in. I wish there was some way you could fight back, but unkillable threats do add a certain tension and fear factor to the gameplay. It seems the teacher’s presence is random though, as sometimes after taking a staircase, she would be nearly right on top of me, unfairly mind you.
While you can complete the game in a single sitting if you really try to rush through, finding the clues and taking your time to explore, watching the narrative unfold is the hook to The Coma: Recut. Multiple endings add some replay value if you really want to get your money’s worth and enjoy the gameplay, and while I’m not usually big on the genre, I can appreciate what it does well, even if it has some flaws.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
White Noise 2
I say this every time I have to review a scary game, but it bears worth repeating; I’m absolutely terrified of horror games. I don’t understand this fact though, as horror and gore movies don’t scare me one bit, but if I’m playing a scary game, I turn into a complete wuss. Yet I like these games, as the jump scares and a brooding setting always makes me very tense, usually resulting in a handful of obscenities being shouted out and the lights permanently on. My newest horror game to check out was White Noise 2, a 4 vs 1 type game, much like Evolve, but in a much more confined and creepy setting. Creepy atmospheres in games really get me, so while yes, I fall victim to jump scares, the brooding atmosphere of being in the dark knowing something is hunting you, sets a certain tone, one that changes based on if you’re playing alone or with others.
There is an overall narrative, the basic premise being that as a paranormal investigator, you’re tasked with finding clues in a 'creepier-than-it-should-be' enclosed area along with your team. You’re only given flashlights to defend yourself, as the demons hunting you don’t like the light, and it is the only way to defend yourself. There are a handful of clues you must find in the form of audio tapes, each of which unravel a small portion of the story audibly as you continue your search while trying to survive. Stay together as a group though, as venturing off alone is surely to get you killed when there’s no one nearby to save you.
The gameplay of White Noise 2 involves 4 investigators versus 1 monster, hence the comparison to 2K's Evolve. As the human players, you need to not draw any attention to yourself, conserving your flashlight’s remaining battery power, all while fumbling in the dark with no map or general sense of where to go. If you become lost from your team you can shout to one another to highlight each person, but this will also highlight your position to the predatory monster as well. Should the monster catch one of your members, you have a short time to shine your flashlight at it to force it to release them, causing it to flee and search for your team once again.
The monster has a bunch of tools in its arsenal to help catch its prey though. It can disable investigators flashlights for a short period of time, place idols that will disorientate, and it can even teleport nearby. The default monster is very basic, but as you progress by leveling up and playing, you can unlock more monsters, each with their own unique abilities and play style to suit how you want to stalk your prey. Unlocking all the monsters, and playable characters, will take some dedication though, as leveling is a very slow process, at least with the matches I was able to play in, when I could find them.
The setup for gameplay is basic, but what I didn’t expect was that even if you get caught and killed by the monster, you’re not completely out of the game. You respawn as a ghost, able to help your teammates in other subtle ways, while also being able to destroy any idols placed. You are unable to see the monster, since you could easily chat via party chat and relay its location, but it’s a neat idea to keep players that have already died invested in the match and not simply waiting for it to be over. Should the monster capture every investigator though, it wins and the match is over.
There’s a handful of maps, and while they are each based in a different setting, it’s hard to appreciate them since you’re constantly fumbling around in the dark without a navigation map to reference. Luckily, you have an ability that you can use once in a while and it allows you 'ping' the nearest clue and show you what direction it is on your compass, but it’s very vague and only meant to point you in the general vicinity, not right towards it.
A neat addition is that when the match has ended, there’s a slate that shows the path that every player, and the monster, took during the match from beginning to end. What’s interesting about this is that even though I thought the confined area I was in was huge, I seemed to always loop around the same places many times while searching for my clues. This should be no surprise though, as the majority of your viewpoint is nearly pitch black.
Audio is done decently, aside from the voice acting. The general mood is very creepy and you’ll constantly hear small noises, making you wonder if that’s the monster behind you or not. There are some jump scares thrown in, even when the monster isn’t around you, which seems like a cheap tactic for fear, but hey, it worked on me numerous times.
There’s a major fault with White Noise 2 though, in that it absolutely needs to be played with others online. No, you’re not forced to, and you can play single player, but it’s a completely different experience, a terrible one that I feel some might base its gameplay on. I initially tried playing single player, which is the same game but, well, by yourself. Yes it’s a little creepier knowing that you’re alone, but it’s a bland experience that will likely result in being caught since you’re not given many tools to fend off monster attacks. To be honest, I initially wanted to give up only after a few matches of solo play.
I went to seek a match online to join random players and see if the experience would differ with others. Hooray, I found a lobby! I chose my character and flashlight (since I had only unlocked one at that point) and waited for other players to join, or the host to begin the match. Well, I stayed for about 20 minutes and no one joined and the host wasn’t responding in voice comms, so I left the lobby and searched for another. No matches found. Search again. No matches found. After about 15 minutes of no lobbies to join, I gave up for the night, figuring I would have better luck the next day.
Next day rolls around, I search for a game, and voila, I get put into a nearly full match. Everyone picked their character, and monster, and we waited for the host to start the match. Well, I guess he was away from the controller, as the match never began. This experience has been, I’d say, about 90% of what I go through when I try finding people online to play with. Eventually I found a match with a host that was there and we began our clue searching horrorfest.
Even with random players, White Noise 2 online is a great deal of fun. Even though the other players had no microphones to talk with me, we were able to communicate with one another, sticking together, trying to save one another when one of us got captured. Teamwork is required, and there are even puzzles to figure out, so communication is key. While this is somewhat possible with random strangers, with a group of friends, White Noise 2 has a lot of potential to be a lot of fun. It’s a shame that the requirements for that are so narrow though, as nearly every other experience I’ve had has been frustrating. From my time with the game over the past few days, there seems to be a very small community of players actively playing, making grouping up a harder task than it should be.
Though solo play wasn’t very exciting, finding a group of like-minded players online to play with made White Noise 2 feel like a completely different game. I can only imagine a group of 5 friends together, working as a team, how much better the experience would be. The premise may be simple, and there’s not much to see due to aimlessly wandering poorly lit hallways and rooms, but if you’re a fan of the 4 vs. 1 genre, and enjoy horror based games, White Noise 2 is worth checking out for these reasons alone.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2
Even just the thought of playing a new LEGO game makes me smile, and it’s hard not to, as who doesn’t love the brick pieces, unlocking whatever your imagination can conjure? We’ve seen a handful of franchises receive the unique LEGO treatment, adding a unique flair to whatever IP it attaches to. The LEGO games have always been charming, even though you may think they are simply meant for the younger audience. I still enjoy them to this day, maybe more so now that I get to play with my 5 year old daughter. The LEGO games are generally accessible by anyone, as they are simple to understand, yet they have a ton of content and unlockables to keep you playing long after you may, or may not, finish the main campaign.The newest entry, LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2, will be sure to bring in some fans once again with all of the comic book entertainment out there these days. I went into this review with a different mindset as normal, as I wanted to have my daughter play alongside me and take note of her thoughts and enjoyment from it, maybe even more so than my own, as my viewpoint is greatly different. For me, LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 does what every LEGO games does, checking the same boxes that make it a very similar game when compared to any of the previous one, for my daughter though, she really enjoyed being able to play as all of her favorite heroes, like Spider-Man, Thor, and countless others.
The Guardians of the Galaxy appear to be the main hero crew within the narrative, as they are called upon to help stop the ever powerful Kang. Kang is using time manipulation powers for nefarious reasons, so it’s up to Star Lord and his ragtag gang, as well as other superheroes, such as Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, and dozens of others to save not only the day, but the universe. Each character, like in every other LEGO game, has their own abilities and powers, and you’ll need to utilize each one at specific points to progress further. While there is an overarching storyline to the game, which I don’t want to spoil, it’s nothing really memorable, though it does have its moments, as it’s constantly filled with humor for all ages.
The main hub of the game takes place in Chronopolis, which is where you’ll explore and head to new worlds to play separate levels and side missions. Some characters are better suited to flying or swinging around, making travel around the city much quicker, though you can unlock vehicles as you progress should you not want to always rely on Spider-Man or Star Lord to quickly get around.
You begin with only a handful of Marvel characters unlocked, but as you complete missions and progress further in the campaign, dozens more will unlock, many of which I’ve never even heard about, though to be fair, I’m not the biggest Marvel comic buff. Each character will be needed at specific points to either progress in the game or unearth hidden collectibles, a staple within the series that adds dozens of hours of gameplay should you want to unlock every character and bonus available.
At any time you can swap between the characters on screen by pressing ‘Y’, though if you’re playing the campaign missions you’re locked to a set team of heroes, whereas in free play you can switch to any character in the massive roster you’ve unlocked so far. Each new story mission will mash up a certain roster of characters that will have to work together, along with their powers, to progress past each puzzle and boss. With a ton of characters to unlock, you’re surely to find a favorite, but you’ll have to utilize many different ones should you want to put in the time to find every well-hidden collectible.
Combat is as simple as mashing the ‘X’ button, where the attacks vary depending on whom you are controlling. During certain situations you’ll see prompts to press ‘Y’, which will essentially perform a combo move with a nearby teammate, adding more damage and switching to the other character. It’s not a flawless gameplay mechanic though, as the opportunity window is a little narrow, sometimes having you simply switching characters rather than doing the combo attack. My daughter liked being able to “beat up the bad guys” with a single button, and while yes its basic, it’s a LEGO game, generally meant for a younger audience, so it’s completely acceptable to not have a deep mechanic in this game.
Visually speaking, this one looks like every other LEGO game released to date. There seems to be a little more polish, and loading times have improved over previous games, but it still looks like the same game I was playing last generation as well. For the audio, the voice actors did a great job overall, but it’s still odd not hearing the actual real life voice actors that I’ve associated those characters to. That’s not to say that they performed poorly, but the voices are definitely different from what fans will be used to, not that I expect every celebrity to revive their role for a LEGO game.
I don’t recall having any issues in relation to bugs or glitches in previous LEGO games I played, but I ran into two separate occasions where I essentially became stuck, causing me to restart the mission and retry. The biggest one I ran into was a boss fight against Enchantress. Here you need to utilize Dr. Strange’s time manipulation powers to progress, as he can fast forward or rewind time, a mechanic you’ll need to rely on many times throughout the campaign.
I was tasked with rewinding time to destroy an apple that was blocking my path, so I stood in the right place, used my powers, but nothing happened. I thought that I may have missed something, so I went searching across the whole level, destroying everything in sight, only to be halted from any progress. After about a half hour of trying everything I could think of I resorted to watching a walkthrough on YouTube to see what I missed. I didn’t miss anything, it’s just that the event wasn’t triggering when I was rewinding time, so I was forced to restart the level from the beginning in hopes that it would work the second time. I did so and it worked, but it was frustrating never the less. My daughter was a little frustrated as well, as we weren’t able to go in the door, which was the obvious next step.
What LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 does really well is what all of the LEGO games do as it provides an entertaining adventure filled with nearly every franchise character you could think of, many of which you may not even know exist. You’ll be smashing bricks, collecting studs, fighting baddies and building objects throughout your adventure, the backbone of any LEGO game experience. For me though, this is more of the same, as it’s essentially the same game I’ve played for about a decade now, causing some fatigue to set in.
That being said, my daughter had a lot of fun with it, even if it’s a little too involved for a 5 year old to figure out its puzzles. She loved smashing LEGO bricks and collecting studs as her favorite characters. Due to my daughter’s enjoyment, I’ve bumped up the score a bit than what I would have given, as I’m experiencing it from a completely different viewpoint. For her, “getting all the LEGO people is so fun!”, so I’m going to stick with that as our final thought on the game.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Blood Bowl 2: Legendary Edition
I don’t play sports game much, if at all, except for the odd few exceptions. That leads me to this review as I took on the duties to check out Blood Bowl 2: Legendary Edition. I expected it to be a football-like game akin to something like Mutant League Football, but oh boy, I was way off base, as I never realized that Blood Bowl has actually been around since the mid 80’s; just over 30 years actually. I’ve never gotten into Games Workshop board games before either, and these people are known for their Warhammer IP, which is probably why I’ve never really been into their stores and noticed Blood Bowl as a board game before.This is a digital age though, so naturally, Blood Bowl 2 has been adapted to video game form for gamers to get into. The game was developed by Cyanide Studios and was actually released back in 2015, but now the Legendary Edition has been released with a slew of added content to appease fans while hopefully garnering new ones. Blood Bowl 2 is essentially a mashup of the tabletop game Warhammer and American football, and while I expected the gameplay to perform like a Madden football game, it’s actually nothing like that at all, and more like a strategy game, akin to the board game version out there.
So, what’s been added with the Legendary Edition you ask? At a quick glance, you get the base game as well as the expansion and team pack, all of which adds a ton of content to the base game, and all of which is the content currently released. I initially thought the bulk of the DLC was simply cosmetic, as you’re getting 16 new races in total, but there’s also a ton of new features and modes that’s been included and improved upon since the core game's release.
The expansion (again, which is included) adds 8 new races to the roster: Ogres, Amazon, Halflings, Elven Union, Goblins, Vampires, Underworld Denizens and the Kislev Circus. There’s a new stadium, a new single player mode called Eternal League, a Challenge Mode, and for the first time ever you can create a team with a combination of different races, which adds a whole new level of entertainment and creative teams. Even though it’s based on a real world sport ideas (football), this video game plays nothing like it.
Believe it or not, there is a Story Mode to be found here, which revolves around a human team known as the Reikland Reavers. The team used to be legendary, but they are cellar dwellers now, so the club owner has called for a new coach to bring them back to their former glory, which is you the player. It’s a simple setup but it works, playing over the course of a dozen games or so. As far as I know, this is the same campaign that the base Blood Bowl 2 used as well, but it’s a great starting point to learn the basics and mechanics of Blood Bowl 2’s gameplay that becomes deeper the more you learn about it.
It does an alright job at teaching you the basics, though I would have liked a lot more explanations about certain movements and strategies. It took me a handful of lengthy games to get the hang of things and how to properly strategize given the mechanics. The first game or two are simple to win, as certain modifiers like rolling a die to successfully throw and catch a pass for example, is disabled, as it attempts to ease you into the deeper strategies. Eventually you’ll need to factor in your chances to run or throw while hoping you land those dice rolls in your favor. Yes, remember, this is a video game based on a tabletop game, so a large bulk of the strategy you come up with will also almost come down to chance with die rolls.
New for single player is the Eternal League, which is aptly titled, as getting through it is going to feel like an eternity itself. This mode has you playing as any team, even one you create should you wish, across all four seasons of the year. Each season has a number of events that attempt to change up the gameplay in different ways, and this will force you to adapt with new strategies. Since this campaign is much lengthier than the Story Mode, you’ll be able to improve your team’s players and skills, which will be needed to overcome the constant string of new challenges and teams.
Challenge Mode is also a new addition. In this mode you are given a specific objective or situation and you will need to solve it. It’s almost like a puzzle, as you’ll need to learn specific skills and strategies to figure out the solution. It’s a fun distraction when you don’t want to play a lengthy full game.
Even with the Story Mode's tutorial at the beginning, the game didn’t give me as much information as I hoped in an effort to really learn how to play properly and strategize. I was frustrated in the beginning, not really sure what I was doing or how to avoid constantly getting knocked down, but I kept with it, playing more and more matches, and eventually I started to get it, trying to form my own plays in the process to score.
Kind of like the classic game Mutant League Football, most teams are made up of monsters, orcs, ghouls and more. As this game is based on a board game, gameplay is turn based, allowing you to move each of your members in a set amount of actions per turn before giving the opponent their turn at attempting to score. Nearly every movement has a die roll attached its success or failure. While normal movement can be done without consequence for the most part, unless you’re in range of an opponent, you can tempt fate and roll the dice to attempt to move an extra few squares along the playing field grid.
The same goes for nearly every other action, as tackling or blocking is based on a chance die roll as well. Naturally, some teams and players have specific bonuses as a base or situation, so there’s a lot of strategy when deciding what team will play best into your strengths and play style. Giant hulking linebackers, for example, will have a bonus die when rolling to tackle, giving you an extra chance at succeeding in your roll.
This is Blood Bowl though, not standard football, so expect plenty of knock downs, injuries, and even deaths. I honestly expected a little more blood given the premise and setting, but it’s more just heavy hits rather than brutal attacks. Some teams are more proficient at running plays and dodging tackles, while others excel at the passing game, and some are simply best at trying to run over opponents, hurting them in the process. It took me some time to find my ideal team, but experimenting with each one was interesting as you get to see the different possibilities based on the styles of gameplay.
There’s also a slew of other additions and improvements in the Legendary Edition, like being able to create your own team with mixed races. This leads to some very unique team compositions, some of which are completely overpowered should you build it just right. Small things like being able to customize your cheerleaders is quirky, but fun, and creating tournaments among friends has a lot of potential to be a blast. My biggest complaint is that matches take quite some time to complete, so don’t expect a quick 5-10 minute match when you don’t have a lot of gaming time to commit.
Team management has some depth to it for those that want to truly customize their team to their liking, and while it may not be as deep as other sports manager games out there, it does the job considering its setting, even if it’s a little too much in the beginning. Visually, the game is best described as adequate, but nothing really stands out positively, as I was distracted by the poor lip syncing from the commentator ‘cutscenes’ and janky animations that transition abruptly.
Even when you create the perfect team and develop the best strategies, there’s always going to be a huge chance element to the gameplay that is completely unpredictable. It’s silly to see your player trip on an extended run because your die roll wasn’t good enough with an 80%+ chance to succeed. A large portion of the gameplay is being able to adapt and react to the times that these unfortunate die rolls tend to happen, which are usually more often than not.
If you’re looking for a traditional football video game you better look elsewhere, as this game plays more like a turn based strategy game than anything else, it just uses the football backdrop as its setup. Blood Bowl 2: Legendary Edition took some time to grow on me, and while I don’t see myself playing it much longer in the future, I definitely appreciate its strategic elements that require some unique tactics based on your opponents. If you’re already a Blood Bowl 2 owner and enjoyed it, the Legendary Edition is an easy sell with the 16 additional races alone, even if many of them require some serious skill to use properly. For those new to the genre, Blood Bowl 2: Legendary Edition is a great addition if you want to take the time and learn all of its intricacies and develop some strategies to become skillful in a strategy based game, just don’t let its football setting fool you into thinking it’s a regular sports game like I mistakenly did.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
INK
Sometimes simplicity is key, as you don’t always need fancy graphics when pure gameplay is addictive and entertaining enough. INK is the newest indie platforming game to release, hoping to make a splash for fans of the genre with its minimalistic approach to game design. Don’t expect any type of story or deep game mechanics though, even though INK is as bare bones as it comes for simplicity, it’s still an entertaining platformer while the fun lasts.INK begins as a ‘at your own pace’ type of platformer, but eventually you’ll be racing against an imaginary clock with enemies out to get you and moving obstacles that require near perfect navigation to complete. INK would be best described as a mash up of Splatoon and Super Meat Boy, though both in their most simplistic forms. The main object is to complete each of the 75 levels found in the game, and these levels become progressively more difficult. The catch is that you need to splat ink around to uncover the initial blank canvas of a level. It’s a clever mechanic, but one that I wish had a little more depth to it in the grand scheme of things.
INK begins with you as a simple white cube, seemingly floating on a blank screen. As you move and jump, ink splatters around you, landing on the previously invisible 2D landscape. Having multicolored ink touch the surface of the levels is how you’ll know where the platforms are and how to reach the exit of each stage. It sounds simple, and it is, in the beginning at least. You’ll spend time double jumping around and sliding down walls to paint the surfaces so that you know where to traverse to reach the exit. Given that levels are only maybe 30 to 60 seconds long, half your time in a level will be uncovering most of it with your ink, then finally reaching the end.
The premise stays the same throughout the entirety of the game, though obviously more challenges appear as you progress, like spikes and enemies. Luckily when you die, all of the ink that’s been splattered around the level stays, making each attempt easier now that you’re aware of your surroundings. This is a good thilng as you’re going to die a lot, from spikes, enemies, pits and more. It takes some time to get used to the gameplay, but even jumping out of bounds of the level on the sides, or even top, will kill you as well. Each death makes you explode with ink, thus covering the stage even more.
Once you stop worrying about death and trying to complete the level in one go, it becomes much easier. For example, on new levels I purposely jump and slide all around, even die on purpose, until the majority of the stage is covered in ink, allowing me to make a real attempt at completing it. This mechanic made me not worry about death, but instead use it to my advantage, uncovering the world with my mutlicolors.
The difficulty curve is fairly decent, but there are some random spikes (pun not intended) in the last half or so that require precision timing to avoid enemies and spikes. Levels begin incredibly easy, as you’ll blow through each one in about 30 seconds, if that, but eventually they become much more complicated, and you’ll spend a few deaths just painting the level. There’s only a handful of enemies, the most annoying being the triangles that shoot in a specific direction, requiring you time your jumps perfectly to avoid dying and restarting.
Many levels are crafted in a very smart way, especially when you’re dealing with moving platforms, shooting enemies and the need for exact timing. Progress enough and you’ll face one of the three bosses. I don’t want to give much away, as there are so few of them. I do wish there were more, as it was a great short term distraction from the standard gameplay. The bosses aren’t very difficult to beat, as you simply need to memorize their patterns and jump on them a number of times.
INK is simplistic in nature, but almost too simple to a fault. There’s an option timer you can toggle on to see how long your attempts are taking, but there’s no reason to, as there’s no leaderboard or bonuses for completing stages faster. There are hidden pickups that need to be inked to be seen before being collected, but this is only for those that are really trying to stretch the value of their purchase. Some sort of leaderboards would have been fun, being able to see ghosts of other players speed runs, but once you’re done all of the levels, there’s very little reason to replay, given that there’s no relation to how fast you complete levels.
The art style is very minimalistic, but the ever changing colors as you slide, jump, and splat on the platforms is quite beautiful, even if it’s basic at its core. It’s refreshing to play a game that simply relies on its gameplay, even if it’s basic in premise, rather than fancy graphics or any other distractions.
What stops INK from being truly great is that the controls are very slippery, so many of the precise movements will cause many deaths from trying to overcompensate your jumps and landings. If simplicity is your thing, and you enjoy platformers, you’ll have a great time with INK, even if it’s beatable in a short amount of time. Now get INK'ing everything you see and move onto the next level.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Assassin's Creed Origins
I'll admit it, I’ve been a massive Assassin’s Creed fan since its first inception a decade ago. Since then we’ve had numerous titles. Some of them have been absolutely amazing, such as Black Flag, which took us to the pirate era, and some no so great, such as Assassin’s Creed III. Even with its highs and lows, I've played and completed every yearly entry, but even for a massive fan like myself, series fatigue was starting to set in. Ubisoft decided to take a year long break from the scheduled annual release and put extra time into its next entry. So, here we are, essentially two years since the last main Assassin’s Creed title, hopeful that the extra time away would help refresh the series and bring it back to what it once was. With this in mind, I am happy to report that the extra development time has indeed done this, as Assassin's Creed Origins is one of the best, and most ambitious entries in the series yet.The two main facets of the series that I’ve always looked most forward to, aside from the gameplay, is its historical setting, adding a fictional storyline that’s intertwined with factual events and characters, and the game’s ‘real world’ storyline about the evil Abstergo corporation. The Assassin’s Creed franchise as a whole weaves a tale about the eternal conflict of Templars versus Assassin’s, but Assassin’s Creed Origins does things a little different, as it goes back to its roots to show you the actual origin of the Brotherhood, a tale that’s previously not really been delved into in much detail. Taking place in about 50 BC, ancient Egypt is the newest backdrop for Assassin’s Creed, adding a completely new and unique landscape to parkour and explore, almost to the point of being too big, but more on that later.
Set long before the events of even the first Assassin’s Creed, you play as Bayek, a seemingly normal man that is consumed with a quest for revenge. Why is part of the mystery, so I won’t spoil much more about his motivation. Bayek is a Medjay, which is sort of the equivalent of a sheriff of today, but as he meets new personalities along his journey, such as Cleopatra and other historical figures, his authority rises as well.
As the narrative unfolds, he uncovers a huge corruption that engulfs the land of Egypt, and he is tasked with protecting the people and making things right in the world, along with satisfying his own vengeance as motivation. Expect to explore the vast world, or Origins, as if you can see it in the background you can most likely go there, even the massive pyramids in the distant horizon when you begin. You’ll uncover many secrets, help countless people, and witness the birth of the Creed. Even though sometimes you’re performing simple tasks, like helping local farmers or saving people from bandits, you still feel like you’re a Medjay making an actual difference. As for the ‘real world’ storyline, it’s finally been changed and is nothing like the previous games, which is completely refreshing, but I don’t want to spoil anything else related to this segment, as it’s a pretty big deal in the grand narrative.
If you’ve played an Assassin’s Creed before you’ll feel right at home, for the most part, in relation to the parkour traversing. The main change is that you no longer need to hold the Right Trigger for high profile movement, as climbing is simply done with the ‘A-button’ and descending with the ‘B-button’. It’s intuitive, and the fluidity has been vastly improved, even since the last Assassin's Creed title. While not perfect, Bayek will mostly move where you want and how you want without much effort.
There are some vastly different mechanics to learn this time around, even for series veterans, such as the new RPG leveling system, Destiny-like loot, and a completely revamped combat system that takes some getting used to. Now you can customize your abilities, unlock skills from a large skill tree, loot legendary weapons and armor, and even use a crafting system that encourages you to explore and hunt off the main path quite often. There’s almost too much to do. My first dozen hours or so was simply learning the new mechanics, hunting animals and completing nearly non-stop side quests to gain experience. This isn’t simply just another re-skinned Assassin’s Creed.
Like the last few titles in the series, Origins follows the same structure, where you have a main objective, but also a slew of side quests to keep you busy. Whereas in previous games, side quests were completely optional, which they technically are here, but you’re going to want to focus on completing as many as possible simply for the great experience and rewards upon completion. Missions, main or side quests, have level suggestions, not requirements, and make sure you are within the appropriate levels to try and tackle them, as even a quest that is a level or two higher than you can become incredibly difficult, especially early on when you’re becoming accustomed to the mechanics and don’t have great gear sets. There’s actually so much side stuff to do that it’s almost overwhelming coupled with how large the world is you have to explore.
In previous Assassin’s Creed titles you were able to use Eagle Vision, a way to see though walls to track targets and objectives in the environment. Gone is the status quo, as you now have control of your pet eagle, Senu, whom you can control to get an aerial view of anywhere you want to from the air. There’s no limit to Senu's range either, that I’ve found anyways, and you can tag enemies you see to track them easily when sneaking and hunting as Bayek. Senu can fly nearly anywhere, and even hover in any spot for you to search the area for more targets and objectives. Your other animal companion comes in the form of a horse, or camel should you choose, which will help you quickly traverse the vast deserts if you don’t wish to fast travel. The best part about this is that you can have your mount automatically run to a waypoint for you, allowing you to bask in the absolutely stunning environments as you pass by.
Combat has been completely revamped and requires some learning to grasp its mechanics. In previous Assassin’s games, each enemy would essentially attack you one at a time, for the most part, allowing you to parry and attack with ease. This time around Bayek will get attacked from all angles by multiple enemies, or animals, at once. You’re now equipped with a light and heavy attack, shield defense, ranged attacks, dodge, and even an attack that can be unleashed for massive damage. There are multiple types of weapons, from spears, axes, swords, pikes and more, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Finding the right weapon for the situation you’re confronted with is half of the strategy of combat, as sometimes you’ll need a faster sword as opposed to a slow lumbering axe.
Levels of you and your foes play a huge factor into battles as you can see the level and health bars above each enemies’ head, allowing you to strategize the best route of attack. If an enemy is much higher than you, a red icon is placed above their head, and they should be avoided at all costs. The multiple types of bow and arrows play a huge factor in combat as well, as there are multiple types for different types of situations. You’re able to lock onto enemies, which makes attacking much easier, though in close quarters this can be a little clumsy with some wonky camera angles in the heat of battle. Luckily this isn’t the norm, but it does happen from time to time.
You’re an assassin though, so stealth is also an option, and usually encouraged, but this has changed in some ways as well. Previously, if you could assassinate someone it was an instant one hit kill, though now the level differences play a huge part on your damage, even from your iconic hidden blade. If you don’t level up your hidden blade’s damage, and you perform an assassination on a target, it may only take off a small chunk of their health, instead of the instant kill. This is usually only the case with targets much higher than you, but it’s quite the shock the first time it happens.
Then, there are the Phylakes. Once you progress into the story to a certain point, elite bounty hunters will be strolling the land in search of you. If your regular enemies manage to call for backup by lighting a bonfire once you’re noticed, expect these servants of death to be in your vicinity shortly after. These named enemies are no joke, as I’ve died multiple times by their hand. You’re given a large warning when they are near, so you're best to hide from view of any of them passing by unless you want a serious challenge, best suited until endgame when you’re a higher level and have some upgraded gear.
Speaking of gear, this is a whole new mechanic to the series as well, and one that I really enjoyed. As you kill enemies, loot bodies, chests, and complete quests, you are rewarded with level appropriate gear, varying in rarity from common to legendary. Yellow (legendary) gear is usually the best you can obtain, having extra passive bonuses to enhance Bayek in combat such as fire damage, damage reduction, poison on block, and much more. This tiered loot reward is addicting, as you’re almost always upgrading your gear from drops, though if you find a weapon or shield you really enjoy you can spend your hard earned money to upgrade them to be much better.
Because you’re constantly earning new weaponry, there’s little reason to upgrade your weapons until you are near the endgame with the best loot, though you’re able to do so whenever you wish. Gear you don’t want can be dismantled for components to craft and to improve your other items, like hidden blade damage, health and more.
There’s a ton of costumes Bayek can earn and purchase throughout his journey, though they are simply cosmetic and meant to suit your style. There are even skins that can be purchased for your mounts, offering a unique visual style for your ride, but this also plays into the included microtransactions that have since become the norm as of late. You can purchase Helix credits for real money, allowing you to purchase exclusive skins, gear, skill points and even time savers like crafting resources. Yes, these are optional and not forced, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted a few times to buy some crafting materials to save some time, though I didn’t.
The other massive change to the series is its RPG elements, allowing you to earn skill points as you level, spending them on the skills you want that cater to your play style. There are three separate trees you can spend points on, each focusing on different ways to play and abilities to boost your play style. You don’t start out with many abilities, but spend some time leveling and you can gain access to fire bombs, sleep and poison darts, combat upgrades, unique bow skills and many more. While the skill tree is basic, and nowhere near what you’d see in other RPG focused titles, it’s a welcome addition and I hope to see it improved on moving forward.
The extra year of development, along with the recent release of the Xbox One X, has brought some absolutely stunning visuals, especially with the enhanced patch that brings 4K Assassin’s Creed to fans. To say the world looks beautiful is putting it mildly. The large landscapes and backdrops may have that grey and brown overtone to it, but stop to look at the finer details and you’ll be more than impressed. Exploring the inner maze of a gargantuan pyramid with just your torch for light is captivating, or running through the wildlands with packs of hyenas or hippos ready to attack is also quite the sight to see.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is so large that it’s almost overwhelming at times. I tend to stay to the main path in most games, but I’ve easily spent hours doing side quests, hunting crocodiles, and exploring ruins for treasure. This may be the largest world to explore in the series yet, but it’s not all just about mass, as each area is filled with a living and breathing ecosystem. The cities and towns feel alive, not just simply populated, and traversing across the barren deserts offers a stark contrast.
If you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan like myself, and thirst for any new entry, Origins is an absolute no-brainer, as this is easily one of the best in the series. Mechanically there’s so much new here that the series once again feels fresh, and the world so large that there’s always something new to uncover and explore. If you’re new to the series, or haven’t played the last few ga,es, Origins is a great point to jump in, especially since the narrative takes place before others and sets up the subsequent games in the timeline. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that it is easily one of the best looking games on the market right now, not just for the series, but playing on an Xbox One X in 4K is amazing.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Jackbox Party Pack 4, The
It’s pretty rare for me to have a bunch of friends over and play some games, as everything is played online these days for the most part, but there’s always one exception to the rule. When I do manage to have a few guests over I try to get them to play any of the Jackbox Party Pack’s when they release. These are collections of smaller bite sized games that anyone in the room can play as they don't need a controller. They can simply use their phone, tablet, or portable computer. Since you don’t need controllers to play, this removes nearly all barriers for someone to join in, making it a welcoming title for nearly everyone. You can play with anyone; friends, family, or strangers, but as I found out with the gathering of people I was hanging with recently, the experiences will wildly differ based on the audience and their sense of humor.
Every game of the 5 and a half included (yes, one counts as a half) requires 3 players minimum to start, with classic Fibbage being the only one that requires 2. If you don’t have people to come over and play on the couch with you, The Jackbox Party Pack 4 is online and streaming friendly, with a plethora of options to make this experience a better one, giving you a multitude of options. We had well over a dozen people playing during a gathering of friends, and usually every gathering we do for each new Jackbox Party Pack goes well into the night, but something felt different with this one, as it wasn’t uncommon for people opting to sit out for games instead of clamoring to join in as soon as possible.
So let’s go down the list of the 5 and a half included games.
Fibbage (2-8 players):
This is classic Fibbage, hosted as always by the lovable Cookie Masterson. You’re given 'fill-in-the-blank' type questions and need to choose the correct answers in a bed of lies created by every player. You get points for choosing the correct answer and for having other players choose your lie. You want to be clever with your lies, as you can easily win by having other players constantly choose them, even if you don’t know the correct answers. This is the same formula as the previous Fibbage games, but of course it has updated questions.
The half game included in The Jackbox Party Pack 4 is a slight variant on Fibbage, called Fibbage: Enough About You (3-8 players):
What makes Fibbage: Enough About You different than your standard Fibbage ruleset is that you aren’t tested on weird facts and news knowledge, but instead, how well you know your friends. You’ll be prompted to write one truth and one lie about yourself, seeing who knows you best and not at all. This is a great game if you have a group of friends that know each other, but if you’re in a setting with mostly strangers, or playing online, this just doesn’t really work as well as it could. I was playing with a dozen people I didn’t know as well as I could, so it essentially turned into 50-50 for my guesses of which facts were the truth, provided people were telling the truth when prompted to do so. The closer the friends, the better this mode will be, but if they are just acquaintances or strangers, as you might want avoid this mode.
Survive The Internet (3-8 players):
The basic premise of this mode is taking comments from other players out of context and twisting them into hilarious ways. At first you’ll be given a question to answer, something basic and innocent. Your answer is then anonymously given to another player, without knowing your question, and they are in charge of coming up with a question for that answer.
The funny part is how the answer is usually going to be taken completely out of context, so the mash up of answers and different questions causes some hilarity to ensue. After they are all shown, players vote on the most construed or hilarious pairing, and points given for votes. This quickly devolved into making the comments and questions as dirty as possible, at least with my group of people playing, and it became absolutely hilarious seeing the “fake” comments. The whole presentation will remind you of a Windows 3.1 desktop with some classic internet nostalgia like old AIM conversations and what not.
Monster Seeking Monster (3-7 players):
This is, without a doubt, the most unique and metagame like of the whole bunch. You’re tasked with messaging other monsters, trying to match up with them for a date, yet each monster has a hidden power that adds for some strategic thought. Truth be told, this game is quite fun, but it will take a few plays to really understand its intricacies. Every player is a unique monster hidden within a human body at the beginning. Your overall goal is to earn hearts by dating other monsters, but that only happens if they match with you too, somewhat like a limited Monster Tinder.
There are 6 rounds, and during each round you’re only allowed to send 4 text messages to any of the other players. With these 4 messages you want to try and secure that match with someone else. So, do you use all your written messages with one specific player, trying to win them over for a match, or play the field with only a single message or two with a hope of getting multiple matches.
After the messages are sent, each player then chooses who they want to date that night. If both players choose each other it’s a match, but if the hookup is only one sided, then it’s a rejection. The hilarious part is that the text messages between players are shown on screen for everyone to see before the reveal of match or rejection. This was quite funny, and as the night went on our messages started turning quite lewd and to the point. This will obviously vary based on your group of friends and the comfort between each other, but this unveiled an unforeseen awkwardness.
Dating for some people is very awkward, and since your messages to one another is shown on screen, you sometimes want to be funny or crude, or might waste messages with a simple “hi”. There were some couples playing, so it was a little awkward to send messages to someone’s partner, asking to match (my words may have been a little more forward than that), since their significant other is going to see everything that was written between you too. The game has the best of intentions, but this may cause some tension in the wrong setting, so beware.
To make sure that couples, or predetermined people, can’t simply keep matching, each Monster has a special ability that requires specific objectives to be met for bonus hearts, or to make others lose hearts. For example, the person who gets a vampire will essentially make anyone they match with a vampire, along with anyone that person subsequently dates as well, so this person will want to try and match with as many players as possible as they get a bonus half heart for each person they date. I even had a monster that would take a heart away from someone that rejected me, so I would flirt with one person, trying to get them to match with me while I chose someone else.
This is where a lot of strategy can come into the gameplay, as each round the top scoring player has their special power revealed for everyone to see, so there’s plenty of reasons to pick, or not pick, a certain player to match up with. With the right group of friends, like the one I was playing with, it was quite hilarious to see the dirty messages sent to one another only to be rejected for one reason or another. On the flip side, this may be a little embarrassing for some to play or raise some eyebrows. The rules are quite in depth once you try and factor in monster ability strategies rather than simply trying to match with the cute person in the room, even if it’s a ‘joke’.
Bracketeering (3-16 players):
This consists of voting on dumb arguments, but in a sports tournament bracket form. Every player is given the same question, such as name a movie, and each player replies with their own answer. Each answer is randomly paired with others in a tournament bracket. The first round may ask “What’s the greatest movie of all time?” and you would vote on the selections for each bracket. Once you move onto the next round, the winning answers will stay the same, but the question will change, such as “Which is the best movie to play in your house to scare a burglar out?” This completely changes the context of the answers and may have a completely different answer move ahead in the bracket.
You can change your vote during the countdown phase as much as you want, and the game updates in real time as votes are cast. While it’s funny to see answers going back and forth until the timer reaches zero, we had some major lag with a full 16 people playing, constantly changing their votes. It got to the point that the final 5 seconds left went to a standstill, taking well more than 10 seconds to complete as we thought the game was frozen. This game can be fun, but again, it’ll be based on the type of friends you have and how creative they are with their answers.
Civic Doodle (3-8 players):
Last up is Civic Doodle, essentially a new take on the previous Drawful. The backdrop is that you’re hired to paint a mural within the make believe city. Two players are given a mostly blank canvas to draw whatever they desire, with the winning drawing being the one most voted for at the end. The next two players will add onto that drawing and voting begins once again. The winning drawing continues to move forward, eventually becoming the final mural.
The final round has everyone drawing at the same time on their own canvas with a little more direction. Each time a winner is voted and everyone continues on from that drawing. This means by the end the drawing itself is usually a mess and indiscernible, but it has some moments of hilarity. My group in particular was quite fond of, well, phallic objects, so many of our murals probably wouldn’t be approved by the city if it was real.
For those wanting to stream online with random people, their Twitch/Mixer followers, or just friends, there’s a slew of options for you to take control of your game if you’re not going to have a bunch of people over at your place to play locally. The first player to join the game is the VIP, they are the one who decides when to start the game and can even censor input from others if required.
Anyone can generally participate, as the audience can support up to 10,000 players playing along with the host. Doing so is easy, just like local games, as you log onto jackbox.tv and put in the unique room code. If you plan on playing online while streaming, there’s an option for Extended Timers, allowing longer time to input answers and drawings, to compensate for the lag that Twitch broadcasts.
I’ve streamed one of the previous Jackbox Party Packs, and almost every time it would devolve into racist and lewd answers from anonymous players in the audience. There is a 'Require Twitch' option that can be enabled, forcing players to log into Jackbox.tv via their Twitch account. This takes away their anonymity, allowing you to see who’s being inappropriate, giving you options to boot the player.
My group of friends always enjoy when a new Jackbox Party Pack releases, but this one felt different. I really enjoyed Monster Seeking Monster, but it is a very heavy metagame that not everyone is going to understand, and simply use it to hit on other people at the party. There was some hilarity that ensued throughout the night, but there were also times where people simply didn’t want to join in as well, a first for our group.
We ran into more technical glitches in this pack than any other previous ones, with numerous people randomly getting booted from rooms, unable to rejoin, or simply not being able to join without multiple attempts. While I welcome the new games, someone actually suggested we play the previous Pack, which is a telling sign. The new games are decent additions, but the fun factor is going to completely depend on your group of friends and if they have like-minded humor as you.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Call of Duty: WWII
It’s been a few years since I truly cared about, or even really played, a Call of Duty title; since Black Ops II to be exact. I’m not sure why it fell off the radar for me, but the last three or so in the series simply didn’t connect with me. The series was, and still is, an absolute monster for sales though, as nearly every friend on my ‘friends list’ would be playing it at some point, though drastically less so in the last few releases. There was a time where a group of us would log on nightly at the exact same time and play Call of Duty until it was far too late to get up at a reasonable hour, every single night. I really miss those nights, playing classics like Gun Game mode on Nuke Town for the millionth time.The World War II genre in games seemed to be over saturated at one point, but it’s been a few years now, so I was excited to see the Call of Duty franchise get back to its roots, to what defined the franchise over a decade ago. Three years in the making, by over 500 people, Call of Duty: WWII is finally upon us. I went in with zero expectations, as I wasn’t sure if Sledgehammer Games would bring back my excitement for the series that I once had years ago. Well, it looks like it’s time to get the squad back together, as Call of Duty: WWII is a brilliantly crafted cinematic experience with its campaign, an addictive multiplayer that will keep you up into the late hours of the morning, and an incredibly challenging and horror filled Zombies experience.
The game is essentially three different encounters, so I’ve broken each down into their own sections, as each is quite an in-depth and lengthy experience. First up, which is what I was looking most forward to: The Campaign.
The narrative focuses on the story about Ronald “Red” Daniels and the actions of his squad during 1944 to 1945 within the European theater of war. Daniels and his squad are part of the infamous US 1st Infantry Division. Your mission, so to speak, is to fight back the Reich as the Allied Forces start to gain a hold of more territory by taking it back from the Third Reich. Returning to its roots, the twelve-chapter campaign delivers a compelling narrative filled with unique and interesting characters as they fight their way into, and out of, seemingly impossible situations. You’ll visit many areas of war, from the D-Day beach storming of Normandy, which is an absolutely emotional journey to experience, to the liberation of Paris, and finally into Germany’s stronghold. Heroism isn’t a strong enough word to describe Red’s division by any means, but what Sledgehammer has done beautifully is craft a tale set within the actual confines of historical events. I was fully expecting the overused trope of ‘find and kill Hitler’ for the overall narrative, but it actually doesn’t go that way at all, instead focusing on a much smaller scoped tale, yet was absolutely instrumental in part of the Allies eventual victory in the war.
The chronicle feels much like you’re playing something straight out of Band of Brothers. You’re not a super soldier that will single handedly win the war, quite the opposite in fact, as developer Sledgehammer has opted to use a health pack system instead of regenerating health. At first I thought this was an odd decision, but after playing through the campaign in 8 or so hours, I completely understand the reasoning behind it. No regenerating health means that the gameplay slows down, you’re cautious about what you do, and each bullet that hits you feels like it truly matters. You’re able to hold onto a few health packs, using them when needed, but I’ll admit, I died quite a few times by simply from not realizing I was so low on health before getting hit one last time. Your health bar is always indicated on screen, but there’s no obvious red glow, or anything like that, to constantly remind you you’re low on health, so you need to get into the habit of monitoring it at all times. This is where your squad mates come into play. Each brother in your squad is a specialist with a unique ability that can be used every so often. One of those abilities is to toss you a med pack when available. The trick is to monitor when their abilities are ready so that you can use them as often as possible to maximize their effectiveness. You do need to be quite close to them to order them to assist you, but you’ll also eventually have their abilities to use too, like mortars, giving ammo and spotting all enemies in the vicinity. These abilities can be quite helpful when used and managed properly, so be sure to use them as often as possible.
Call of Duty is known to hire well-known actors, not just for their voices, but their appearance as well, and WWII is no different. There’s a handful of cast that is included, the most notable being Josh Duhamel (All my Children, Las Vegas, Battle Creek, 11.22.63 (TV Mini-Series)) for the campaign. Duhamel portrays your squad’s sergeant, and a large portion of the events that take place are focused in some way around his character. He’s a great actor and, needless to say, the voice acting from top to bottom was a huge standout. This helps you connect with your squad and the characters, and you actually start to care about your squad brothers, doing what you can to make sure you all go home alive after this war. As for the cutscenes, they look amazing, borderline realistic at times, and they are a visual treat to be rewarded with.
The campaign will take you across many countries, and even vary in different set pieces as you make your way to Germany. The opening mission is immensely intense, as you are tasked with storming Omaha Beach on D-Day. Not even the soldiers themselves knew what to expect and this gives you a small glimpse of the horrors of war as you are tasked with clearing the bunkers in the distance. There are segments where you’ll get to drive a vehicle in pursuit, and escape, and even though these are guided linear sections, they aren’t completely on rails, giving the player a sense of excitement and action you’d come to expect from a Call of Duty game.
I don’t want to give away too much of the campaign’s gameplay surprises, but one of the more memorable missions involved sniping from the top of a church before it becomes a target. There’s even another mission where you have to make your way to the sniper tower that has your squad pinned down. This is what Call of Duty: WWII does best, making nearly every mission feel unique, complete with a grand set piece that makes it memorable. One such mission was Collateral Damage, where you’re piloting a tank within a nearly destroyed city. You feel vastly overpowered, able to shoot anything down the narrow roads that gets in your way. That is, until you have to take on a tank that flanks you from behind, then two at once. This was interesting, because in most games tank missions are set in widely open fields, giving you plenty of space to circle around and flank, but in narrow streets with buildings all around, you feel suffocated, unable to maneuver how you want to in a dire situation. Another favorite mission is the infamous Battle of the Bulge, piloting one of the ‘boys in the sky’ to drive back forces before you need to hold off incoming tanks with airstrikes. Missions like these really tend to break up the standard shooting, giving you another view of the war from a different perspective.
Another mechanic that you’ll need to learn during a handful of the campaign missions is based around a stealth component. You’re given a silenced pistol and can melee from behind, but being spotted or heard will alert everyone in the vicinity, making the mission much more challenging. One such mission is Liberation in Paris, where you’re one of the females, posing as an undercover Nazi. What’s unique about this mission is that you’re given your documents to review about your cover story, as you’ll be questioned as you progress deeper within the compound, so you better know who you are and what your business so you can answer the questions asked. The last part of this mission involves trying to accomplish an objective from a stealth perspective. From nearly everyone else that played through the campaign at the review event we attended, all said the same thing, that when they broke stealth, either by purpose or accident, they had to finish the mission by shooting their way out. There’s an indicator for when a Nazi sees you, causing an alarm when it’s full, but since there’s no real map, it’s difficult to plan your best route without spending a long time watching for guard paths. I loved the whole campaign, except for the stealth sections.
I found that they were not as fun as one might hope, and I was unable to complete any of the missions without being caught for one reason or another, except for the one mission where you’re forced to complete it without being noticed, though that took many retries to do. The stealth moments provide a change of gameplay for sure, which some will enjoy, but there are many sections like this and, in my humble opinion, they are easily the low point of the campaign. One checkpoint seemed to auto save after I was detected, so when I died it reloaded and I was still under fire. You’re simply not given enough tools to make the stealth gameplay compelling or fun during these sections.
Authenticity was a huge pillar in creating Call of Duty: WWII, as Michael Condrey, Director of WWII stated, and they went across the globe to make sure they got to personally see some of the areas where battles took place and they even recruited a notable historian. This made for a more authentic and true to fact experience, many of which your average gamer won’t notice or appreciate, but war buffs certainly should. One example was how they had placed bunkers in one of the forest levels, yet when they went to the actual site, they realized that the doors weren’t placed in the right direction and they weren’t even in the right plane on the hills either, so they went back and made changes to represent what they saw making it a more authentic experience.
The next major component to World War II is its multiplayer mode.
I honestly expected a simple re-skin of previous Call of Duty multiplayer experiences, but playing it safe wasn’t good enough for Sledgehammer Games, as they’ve crafted a multiplayer that I have a feeling will bring friends back together for more online shenanigans. In nearly every multiplayer game you click on to play, you are put into a static lobby and as it populates and fills with enough players it will then begin each match. Post games are the same, as you wait around while all the work in the backend does what it needs to do before placing you in another. Turns out the developers realized that staring at a static room isn’t a fun experience, and so, Headquarters was born.
Headquarters is essentially the same idea of waiting in a lobby for the next match to begin, but now it’s a hub where 48 players can gather together in a virtual space when not in a match. Here you can run around in a compound-like area, able to interact with one another, competing in activities, picking up missions and more. Here is where you’ll open your supply drops or watch others open theirs, challenge others in quick 1 vs 1 standoffs, use the firing range and even test out the scorestreaks. That’s right, you can finally test out every scorestreak to see not only which ones you enjoy, but how to use them properly before wasting them in an online match. I didn’t think I would make much use of the 1 vs 1 challenges, but it’s quite fun, as it’s’ first to 3 kills with a short time limit. You’re given a list of 3 random weapons at the beginning, with each player able to veto one weapon, leaving the unchosen one as the weapon each player is forced to use. There are challenges that relate to the 1 vs 1 arena to, and I can see myself finally settling who is better amongst my friends. Headquarters may just simply be an interactive lobby when it comes down to it, but it’s incredibly smart and well done, as there were times where I wanted to simply hang around the HQ with others instead of jumping into a match right away.
The first thing you’re going to do is choose your division from five groups: Infantry, Airborne, Armored, Mountain and Expeditionary. These are essentially classes and you’ll be given a tutorial video of how each one plays into specific strengths. Depending on your preferred playstyle, each class will be better suited depending how you want to play. I started with Armored for example, as I always gravitate towards the LMG’s, whereas snipers will want the Airborne class. You can eventually unlock all the divisions, so you’re not permanently locked in by any means. While you don’t absolutely need to use the weapons that the class is meant to play, you do get specific perks that make it worthwhile. For example, I got a bipod for my LMG’s as an Armored class, not that another class couldn’t pick up my LMG when I die, or that I couldn’t pick up another class’s rifle, but I won’t be as proficient with it if I do. It’s a clever way to encourage you to stick with the weapon types each that class is most proficient in, which also allows you to level up specific weapons quicker when you’re not constantly switching weaponry.
As you level up by getting kills and winning matches, you’ll earn experience (XP) and credits. These credits can be used to unlock portions of weapons and outfits, and should you save up enough to purchase every piece, you’ll be granted some of the best weapons or coolest looking outfits (visual only) in the game. You’ll also earn Supply Drops from time to time which will net you anything from Common to Legendary emblems, weapons, emotes, XP bonuses and more. These are really exciting to open in the HQ, as other players can watch and see what you get from them as well.
You can expect many authentic World War II era guns, from LMG’s, Rifles, SMG’s, Shotguns, and more, each of which is better suited for one of the divisions. Each gun you use individually levels up as well, unlocking attachments as you go, helping work towards unlocking the camouflage and skins. You’re even able to prestige your weapons once they hit max level, adding things like your Clan Tag or Score Counter to the gun, but doing so will reset its progress and attachments to level 1, just like doing a regular prestige for your character (which yes, is included as well). You’ll also have equipment, such as common grenades, eventually unlocking smoke and stun grenades, mines, and other tools to help you in your multiplayer matches. There’s only a handful of this equipment to unlock, and I know it has to stay within the era range to be included, but there’s definitely not as much of a focus on it compared to previous Call of Duty titles.
Map selection was quite decent, with a handful of maps (with more to come as DLC in the future) that range from close quarter combat within a village, to a vast open field with a massive cannon parked on the railway in the middle. Combat is fast paced and grounded, though it didn’t take me long to figure out that mounted machine guns are incredibly deadly to unsuspecting enemies filing down an objective lane. One problem that always frustrated me with Call of Duty multiplayer was the constant flipping of spawns when players died, meaning you got shot in the back more often than not. Gladly, I didn’t find this to be the case nearly as much as previous titles. That’s not to say it’s nonexistent, but it’s surely not as prevalent.
War Mode is a completely new narrative driven experience to multiplayer that was assisted in its development by Raven Software, who has helped build Call of Duty components in the past as well. War Mode is a 6 vs 6 of Axis and Allies with a varying three tier objective. You could be tasked with destroying radios, blowing up artillery, stealing gas for your tanks that you just escorted, building a bridge and more. Each objective is an offense versus defense with a strict time limit, and you’re unable to move onto the next objective until you complete the previous one first, much like Rush Mode from the Battlefield series. Sure, at its core it’s simply objective attack versus defend, but the 6 vs 6 gameplay really makes it much more exciting, as I’ve lost a match with our escorted tank at 99% because of certain bottlenecks the defense created, and I had a great time even though I lost in the end. Communication and squad diversity will play huge roles for War Mode, as trying to build the bridge for your tank to cross without someone using smoke grenades was near impossible, as was trying to defend without a sniper or two.
If more traditional modes are to your liking, WWII has you covered as well. You’ve got your Team Death Match, Free For All, Domination, Hardpoint, Domination, Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy, and an odd one that I initially thought I wouldn’t enjoy as much, Gridiron. Mosh Pit is random fan favorite mode that rotates and I was glad to see Hardcore included as well, though there’s only Team Death Match, Domination, Search and Destroy and Free For All for Hardcore players like myself. You may notice that Gun Game is omitted, which was a surprise for a few of us at the event, and while it’s not out of the realm of possibility to have it included in future, it’s an odd mode to not be initially included as it’s quite popular.
Gridiron is 12 players fighting for the single ball on the map, attempting to score in their opponent’s zone at opposite ends of the map. Sure, it’s Call of Duty’s take on Halo’s Griffball, but man, there were some intense matches, with a few ending in a tie with double overtime. There’s a lot of strategy to Gridiron, as someone needs to carry the ball, unable to shoot when doing so, so you’ll need escorts and defenders, as you can toss the ball a fair distance. You’re also able to throw it out of bounds of the map, causing it to spawn in the default spot in the middle of the map. This was a viable strategy we used on defense many times, so I’m curious to see the strategies teams will come up with to be wildly successful, as communication is key once again.
Last up is the ever-popular Zombie’s Mode, though aptly titled Nazi Zombies here.
This is a horror story co-op based mode for Zombies fans. I’ll admit, and I’m not sure why, but ever since its first introduction many Call of Duty’s ago, the Zombie mode never struck a chord with me for whatever reason. I was really hoping something would be different here with Nazi Zombies, but even after a full day of playing it numerous times with different people, it still hasn’t stuck on me. That’s not to say that it’s not well done, as fans of the mode will appreciate the additions, but its core still feels plays and feels the same, albeit with a horror theme. There’s an overarching plot that takes place, centered around a team of four that is exploring a small village in Mittleburg, Germany, attempting to reclaim priceless stolen artwork back from the Third Reich. Something is not right though, as the undead start to attack, and as you make your way deeper into the village and uncover its secrets, the more nefarious a plot you discover to help you understand what’s going on and why.
If you’ve never played a Call of Duty Zombie’s mode before, it’s a 4-player cooperative mode that puts you against increasingly difficult waves of undead, but there’s more to it than a simple Horde-like mode, as there are many secrets to uncover if you want to not simply fight the undead forever. Just like the campaign, Nazi Zombies uses famous actors’ likeness and voice as well, as you’ll get to choose from Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible Series, Pulp Fiction, Con Air) and David Tennant (Jessica Jones, Doctor Who, The Escape Artist, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), just to name two. Sure, it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay per se, but when you have an awesome actor like Ving included, it’s really cool to experience it, more so if you’re a fan of them, though the only difference between each character is purely cosmetic, regardless of the class you choose.
Just like the regular multiplayer, you will earn Supply Drops for leveling up in this mode as well, earning you more gear and bonuses, eventually being able to truly customize your character to suit your playstyle. You’ll come across multiple types of zombies, some requiring some massive firepower to take out, so you better have some great communication and coordination with the rest of your team. You’re only given subtle hints of what you’re supposed to do, but not really how or where, so there’s a lot of experimentation that’s involved before you’re able to truly see how large the map is with the underground tunnels and secret pathways.
Killing zombies earns you currency, which can be spent on new weapons and other powers and upgrades, but you’ll also need to save that money for unlocking gates to progress forward as well. There’s a lot of strategy that goes into how your team plays, as each wave becomes increasingly more difficult, so sometimes it’s best to leave a few zombies alive while you run around, scrounging for supplies or trying to solve the next step of the overall mystery. Fans who love figuring this stuff out on their own will no doubt have a good time doing so, as for me, I wish a little more direction was given, as I had no clue what to do and constantly had pressure from the horde of zombies trying to kill me.
Call of Duty used to be the flagship title for World War II shooters, but it’s been quite a few years, almost a decade, since it started to transition to a more modern and futuristic setting instead. The timing for Call of Duty: WWII is perfect, as the World War II genre isn’t stale anymore and fidelity has come a long way, as playing in 4K was an amazing experience, unlike any other Call of Duty I’ve experienced before. The wheel may not have been reinvented, but what has been done here make me excited about playing Call of Duty once again. There’s something here for everyone, as it feels like almost three separate games based on what you prefer to play. Sledgehammer Games has become a great storyteller with their (mostly) exciting campaign, solid multiplayer that keeps you hooked as you level up and earn Supply Drops, and a Nazi Zombie mode that’s sure to have you and your friends scratching your heads trying to solve its mysteries. They could have played it safe, but they weren’t happy with the status quo, which is where Headquarters and War spawned from, a great multiplayer addition to the series, and one that I hope stays going forward. It’s time to get the squad back together and get back into some intense World War II action as Call of Duty is indeed back and this year’s entry is pretty much a ‘must play’ for fans of the series, and fans of video games alike.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Dead Alliance
A few years ago it seemed nearly every game had some sort of zombies attached to it, but lately it seems if the zombie frenzy has calmed down a bit, as it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it used to be. Everyone knows that to kill a zombie you need to bash its skull in or shoot it in the head. This way of dispatching zombies is found in Dead Alliance, the game being reviewed here, but there’s an interesting twist on the tried and true formula that makes up one of the main pillars of its gameplay. In Dead Alliance, you’re able to temporarily make the zed’s your ally, hunting your enemies and earning you kills. This really intrigued me, as I was expecting some really interesting core gameplay changes, being able to turn hordes of zombies against my enemies. What I got instead was a great idea wrapped in a poor package of disappointing gameplay and design.This is where I would normally delve into the plot and campaign, starting with the single player, but Dead Alliance does something really interesting; they offer the single and multiplayer as separate purchases (though you can purchase a bundle of them together). I would normally applaud a forward thinking move like this, as it means that people that only truly care about multiplayer can simply purchase the section of game they want, with the ability to upgrade later on should they desire.
The core fault here though is that the single player offering is essentially useless. Given that Dead Alliance is a multiplayer team based game, the single player modes are essentially bot matches of the same core multiplayer game. There’s a horde-like mode to survive against endless waves of zombies, but the core single player experience is simply mimicking the multiplayer experience offline with bots. There’s no campaign, no plot, just bots if you want to play alone.
Trying to mimic huge successes like Halo and Call of Duty, Dead Alliance is putting all its eggs in one basket, hoping that gamers will flock to the game with its focus solely on the multiplayer experience. That would be well and good if the gameplay was balanced, if it had unique gameplay modes, and the gameplay was refined and the graphics looked good, but every one of these qualities is unfortunately missing here. What makes Dead Alliance stand out mechanically is that the map is constantly filled with zombies spread around the map, making your standard running and gunning a little more challenging than it normally would be in other shooters.
You would think that shooting zombies who are in your way would be the best tactic, but this is usually the worst thing you can do. Firing your weapon alerts zombies to your position, along with other players, so you can be swarmed quite quickly resulting in you having to try to shoot your way out of a bad situation. It’s a good thing you have a knife that can instantly one-hit-kill regular zombies, that is if the hit detection actually decides to work.
The better, and unique, solution here is getting swarms of zombies to join your side for a short period of time, hunting down your enemies, earning you score from kills. This is where your P.A.M. grenades come in, as zombies caught in its blast will temporarily fight for you and rush your enemies. There’s a handful of unique items and equipment you can use to focus on this style of gameplay should you wish, such as an L.R.A.D., which is essentially a noise making device. This will cause any zombies in the area to focus on it, either allowing you to pass a heavily infested chokepoint, or, if you’re clever, gathering a horde of them in one place before using your P.A.M. grenade.
This is the type of gameplay, which if it was executed well, could have made Dead Alliance really stand out amongst the others in the vastly overcrowded genre. Zombies that turn (see what I did there?) to your side will have a green highlight around them, and any enemies on the opposing team that have turned will highlight their temporary allies with a red outline. There’s a handful of equipment that is really interesting, such as a grenade that will only turn one zombie to your side, but it will be much more powerful than your standard zombie, with increased damage and health. All of these zMods make for some unique loadouts, but you’re going to have to grind for quite a while to unlock the top tier equipment, traps, attachments and perks.
There are three classes for you to play as: Light, Medium, and Heavy, all of which are completely stereotypical and standardized. There’s an option to make a custom class, choosing from your currently unlocked perks, weapons, attachments, zMods and score streaks, but the two default potions for each class they give you will have to be used if you actually want a chance at defeating other players and winning. The custom classes should only be delved into once you’ve unlocked every item and perk, which again, will take a long time to do so.
You’ll earn in-game cash and experience for finishing matches, with more being awarded for kills and wins obviously, but you’ll need to horde that cash if you want the best equipment, so prepare to repeatedly play the same maps and modes for quite some time. There is a decent progression system, but it’s nowhere near as refined or exciting as something like Call of Duty pulls off, constantly trickling upgrades to you to play with and become better.
You’ll are given the standard Team Death Match, Free For All, Capture the Flag, King of the hill and Attrition modes to select from. What caught me by surprise was the mode that melds FPS and MOBA together. This is set up exactly like a MOBA, with towers that need to be defeated in order for you to take over the enemies’ home base, with the minions being ‘friendly’ zombies that rush the towers. There’s even zombies that are literally called lane and jungle zombies, so there’s some interesting gameplay here for those that really want to delve into it, but you’ll need to suffer through the actual gameplay and myriad of problems to play it, or any mode for that matter.
If you’re unable to find a match online, as I was a handful of times, you can still play offline with bots, allowing you to earn experience and money, so you can grind easily this way if you don’t want the hassle of poor or laggy online gameplay to unlock all of your equipment.
Sadly, this is where I need to go through the laundry list of problems that I found with Dead Alliance that really drags down the whole experience, regardless of what mode or how much you try to enjoy its gameplay. Until you unlock the majority of the equipment and weapons, you’ll often find yourself overwhelmed with zombies, cornered without much of a way to fight back effectively. Even though the zombie AI is completely brain dead (maybe ironically by design), sometimes you can shoot your weapon and nearly everything in sight will start charging at you, other times you might shoot an LMG beside a pack and nothing will notice you (yes, this happened to me).
Presentation wise, many animations are either simply missing or poorly made. Zombies can attack you in close range seemingly without an animation showing them moving, while attacking with your melee knife isn’t a smooth experience, and if you try and vault over a hip-height ledge, you kind of simply slide and warp over it instead of seeing an awesome animation. This is very jarring, yet goes hand in hand with the incredibly low quality graphics that I would have expected to see last gen.
Hitboxes at times feel like they are completely broken, both for players and zombies alike. Many times I attempted to knife a zombie right in front of me, since that’s the best way to take them out, but more often than not nothing happened, the attack completely missing them. The same goes for players, as I’ll pump a clip of ammo into them, complete with a red cursor, yet they won’t go down. That’s also if you can manage to fight the poor controls. While I don’t advocate for mass auto aim on consoles, you become accustomed to it in every other shooter, but it’s not present here at all, so it takes quite some time to get used to it.
Sprinting seems to be completely random, as at times I'd seemingly run forever, while other times I'd be out of breath after a few moments. There’s no stamina meter displayed anywhere, so it’s difficult to judge how long you’ll be able to run away from players and zombies. Animations are probably one of the worst offenders, as the majority of them are very basic, or completely nonexistent, and it kind of takes away from the whole experience.
Just like Call of Duty, you can earn score streaks, many of which are tactical, such as radar for enemies and zombies, and there are even weapons you can deploy on certain parts of the map. The issue with this is that there’s no animation or indicator of such. You pick a zone of the map and someone will simply die if they are in range, so you can imagine how aggravating this is when it happens to you repeatedly, especially since score streaks aren’t challenging to obtain.
It’s a shame, as Dead Alliance has a really intriguing premise and idea behind it, as using hordes of zombies in your favor temporarily is kind of interesting and original, but there’s not enough emphasis to push that as its main focus. The MOBA-like gameplay is also really interesting, but not fully realized, as it nowhere does it teach you the mode and how to play properly.
With a myriad of issues, especially extremely outdated visuals and poor performance, sadly this is a very bland shooter with awful execution. Normally I don’t tend to focus on the negatives, but instead talk about what a game does well, but there’s simply not that much done well here aside from a neat idea with poor gameplay execution. At the end of the day, and like its enemies contained within, this game should stay dead like its zombies.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Echoes of the Fey: The Fox's Trail
Many people enjoy massive open world games where they can explore to their hearts content with little direction of what to do and where to go. Then there are others, like myself, which enjoy simple and linear experiences now and then. Sometimes I want to sit on the couch and relax, not having to worry about shooting people online, racing against the pack of cars or futuristic vehicles, or solving mind bending puzzles. There’s a time and place for every type of game, and it seems Echoes of the Fey: The Fox’s Trail may have found a unique niche for a certain type of gamer.Developed by Woodsy Studio, Echoes of the Fey is essentially a linear visual novel that you interact with, telling a story from point A to point B, though you are given some minor choices in between. Apparently this is only the first episode in a planned episodic series, which is obvious once you see the final dialogue that, when presented, sets up the next episode, whenever that may be.
Echoes of the Fey is incredibly rich in backstory and lore, to the point that you probably won’t have any idea what’s going on until you’re an hour or so into it. Doing my research, apparently there’s even a prequel episode that gives a little more backstory about the main protagonist, Sofya, which would have been a great inclusion in this release, as you’re simply thrown into the world of Oraz with a massive amount of information being hurled at you.
There was a war between humans and Leshin, an Elvin-like race, but it seems there is finally some peace in the land of Oraz, at least temporarily. Tensions are high and peace is clearly fragile at the moment when these two races are forced to interact with one another. You are Sofya, a human private investigator with a deep secret, working with her Leshin partner, Heremon. Together they are investigating the mysteries of their city, Vodotsk, when they are approached by a mysterious woman who asks them to search for her missing son, who she refuses to believe is dead.
During your investigation you’ll unearth many secrets throughout the pages and pages of dialogue that will eventually become a chore to read through. At certain points in conversations, you’ll be given dialogue options of what to respond with or how to react. I’m not sure if this changes the finality of the ending itself, as I believe it’s a set ending, but it gives you an illusion of gameplay. These dialogue options allow you to further interact with different characters, unearthing more information and exploring relationships with each character. It would have been helpful to have some sort of logbook to reference each character and Sofya’s direct relationship with them.
The overall story is much more involved and incredibly complex than what’s described above, but that’s the overall premise of the narrative for your motive and reasoning. There is so much dialogue and lore that you will most likely feel overwhelmed with all of the terminology, relationships, characters and more, I know I did. I can’t stress how dialogue heavy Echoes of the Fey is, which is normally a great feature, but I found it difficult to follow along at times. The fact that there are outside materials related to this story and characters should prove how in-depth the writing for the world of Oraz really is, and even though the graphics may appear amateur, the story is surprisingly a mature tale, even throwing some adult situations into the foray should you find them.
As for the gameplay, there really isn’t much, as this is more visual novel than “game”. Sure, you move Sofya across some 2D planes within the city, pressing ‘A’ when you want to enter one of the dozen or so buildings, but that’s really about all you’ll be doing when you’re not sifting through the pages and pages of dialogue. You are able to explore the few corners of the city of Vodotsk, though don’t expect to search for any collectables or secrets within. The core gameplay has you talking from one character to the next, trying to exhaust all the dialogue options with each person you come across, or simply hiding in the shadows in cat form.
Oh yes, Sofya can magically turn into a cat on demand, a secret that only her partner Heremon knows. He begs her to keep it from everyone else, as it will put her in grave danger if anyone found out about her powers. She’s a chirpy young woman though, not one to listen, and doing what she wants, so obviously she reckless and can wander around in cat form as well. Even though you have this power to shapeshift on demand, there’s only a handful of uses for it. Sometimes you’ll be able to only enter a building in cat form, sneaking through a window (via dialogue) so you can eavesdrop on the people inside. It feels as though this mechanic is simply thrown in and serves no real purpose in terms of gameplay.
There are a handful of sidequests that you can partake in should you wish, most of which are fetch quests and extended dialogue. These few quests add a little length to the game, but there’s no real reward for doing so unless you want more lore about the characters and world. Sure, you’ll earn a few coins here and there for doing so, allowing you to purchase a handful of items, like a wig or clothing dye, but these simply change Sofya’s cosmetic look ever so slightly.
I feel as though the developers knew that this was the story was extremely dialogue heavy, as there’s a button you can hold to fast forward dialogue boxes at an incredible pace should you desire. I didn’t expect a certain romantic path to be a viable option, but I guess I played my cards right, and low and behold, I found an extended scene with Sofya and partner in their underwear, with some very obvious clues as to what just occurred.
The more time you put into it, engrossing yourself into the lore, world and characters, the more you’ll get out of this game, just be prepared though, as it’s a lot of reading. To help combat this, there is some voice acting included, though I heavily want to point out “some”. For some reason certain sections of dialogue are completely voice acted, other parts with none, and some with just a few words. I don’t understand why the disconnect and inconsistency, and I highly believe that if the whole game was voiced, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time following along.
When you do have voiced dialogue, the voice acting fairly good for the most part, not what I expected from a smaller developer, which is why I was disappointed that the whole journey wasn't narrated. There were some other minor things that kind of bugged me, as some of the dialogue on screen were different words than what was being voiced, or one character spoke while the other was silent. Consistency, either way, would have helped with the immersion and believability. The animation for the characters when speaking is very limited, only having subtle movements and their mouths, which does not seem to be synced with their dialogue either.
Even though Echoes of the Fey only lasts a handful of hours, it felt a little too packed with lore at times. There’s so much dialogue included that it can be a slog to get through as you have so much to read, especially when sometimes it’s voiced for you and other times not. Given that the entry point has a low cost of $7.99, it’s worth a shot for those looking for a story with rich lore and backstory with the hopes of subsequent episodes in the future. If you’re big on reading fantasy novels then Sofya’s journey should intrigue you, but if you’re looking for interesting gameplay, or any gameplay for that matter, then you may want to skip this glorified visual novel.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
NASCAR Heat 2
I have to admit, I never found the appeal to watching NASCAR, aside from top 10 highlights, and of course the crashes. I completely understand the appeal to those who enjoy it, as well the complexity behind the sport, it’s just that it has never been my thing. I approached NASCAR Heat 2 with an open mind hoping to learn from my time with it. I did learn a bit about the sport from playing it, such as the plethora of actual real-life drivers, teams, and events. Even though I’m no expert on the matter, I do know that Nascar Heat 2 plays more like an arcade version of the sport than a simulation, despite its best efforts.It’s no secret that Nascar has a huge following, as speedways are filled with fans every time I catch an see it on TV as I'm flipping channels on a lazy Sunday. While most will simply pass off the sport as ‘turning left’ repeatedly, there’s a lot of intricacies and strategy that goes into a race from a drivers perspective. You need to be mindful of your tires, cars around you, apexes and the angle of the banks of the turns, among other things. Developer Monster Games has attempted to improve on their last title, and in many respects they have, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be enough to sway people into the NASCAR world, especially given the grind the career becomes and the somewhat mediocre gameplay.
You’ll begin your career as a custom character, male or female, but don’t expect many options for face or body type. Now that I’m writing about it, you don’t ever really see your character from this point on, so I’m not sure why this is even an option aside from your portrait on a few menus. You also begin by designing your vehicle, including what stickers you want to plaster on it and where. Again, there are options here, and a handful of layers, but it’s basic overall, so don’t go in expecting Forza-like paint jobs or cool color schemes.
You begin as a nobody, obviously, and don’t even have a team to drive with, so your career begins racing a handful of Hot Seat races. These allow recruiters to see how well you drive, helping them to decide if they should offer you a spot on their team or not. Your first handful of races are not going to end well, so don’t expect the door to be knocked down with hordes of teams trying to sign you. Your goal is to do just well enough for a team to want to add you to their roster, thus your real career begins at that point.
You sign on the dotted line and you’re now an official driver in the Camping World Truck Series, revolving around driving trucks of course, not stock cars. Those come later; much later. You have the option to set races to full length or just a handful of laps depending on your preference and time constraints. This is a double edged sword, as fewer laps allows you to play more events, as the career mode is quite lengthy, but not doing full races will almost guarantee you’ll never finish in first, as you need a lot of laps to slowly inch your way up the pack.
You are given objectives over a set amount for races, like coming in better than 20th, placing in qualifiers and more. While it’s nice to complete these, there’s no real incentive to do so. Sure, you’re given a small amount of money for winning, but your bank roll literally has no use in this game, so I’m not sure why it’s even included, as you can’t spend it on anything.
You’ll eventually earn your way into the Xfinity Series, and even the coveted Monster Energy Nascar Cup Series should you not only prove yourself worthy, but manage to stick with the career mode grind long enough to do so. Becoming the overall champion will take dedication, as there’s a long length to the career, just not nearly as much substance though. There’s an attempt at trying to make things more interesting with a rivals system and short recorded messages from actual drivers, but it all comes off as a little bland in my opinion; however, I am sure true fans will enjoy this aspect.
You’d think that holding down the gas and tapping left now and then would be all it take to win, but the truth is you’re going to have to race a little dirty if you want to take advantage of the AI, which you will need to do at times as the AI can be downright unfair now and then. You’ll gain speed by drafting behind other drivers, though it’s very hard to slingshot past them, so you need to draft the car that’s two ahead of you if you want to make your way up the pack. That, or you could simply spin them out or push them into the wall with zero real consequences. That’s right, there’s no consequence for driving dirty. Sure, you’ll get the AI racers to hate you and try and take you out more often, but even then, feel free to drive as dirty as you wish.
It took me quite a few races to really get a grasp on the driving intricacies. The drafting mechanic is never really explained (but true fans will already know this tactic), and the moment you ease off the gas or hit the brakes, you almost instantly lose your position. I found that constantly keeping the accelerator pressed while tapping the brake slightly was the best option to keep up your engine revs and speed without slowing down too much. Of course, finding the optimal racing line plays a big part, as does the slope of the bank on turns, but be prepared for frustration until you learn how to keep your speed in the corners without crashing.
I’m glad the career is lengthy, but it felt almost daunting at times, as you aren’t really given a set end date for events ahead of time. I’m sure if you know how the sport works, and how it is scheduled, you’d have a better idea, but as someone that doesn’t know the sport too well, it simply felt like I kept racing for no real reason. If you’re content with racing over and over with no end goal, then you’ll feel right at home. It's not that I wanted some form of rubber banding, but one bad crash or rub and you practically lose all hopes of winning a race. The longer the races the more time you’ll have to move up, but it always felt like I was bounding around in the middle of the pack, never near the front.
There are 29 official tracks, and while that seems like a lot, they all feel very familiar aside from a few, like the infamous Eldora Speedway dirt track and road courses. Some tracks have tighter turns and higher banks, but they all are generally the same and don’t require much difference in racing strategy. The road tracks only tend to showcase the arcade-ness of the braking and controls, and while the dirt track is fun for a change, it feels like a completely different game when you’re constantly sliding and almost drifting when you’re not supposed to be.
There’s a number of other modes should you tire of career and want to attempt something different. Challenges is a mode that is quite interesting, especially for someone like myself that isn’t as very knowledgeable about the sport. Here you’re given a very specific task with a certain driver based on real life events that has taken place in NASCAR history. Finishing a race when you’re running out of gas, holding back a pack of racers, or coming from behind to win; these are just a few of the almost 30 challenges you can attempt. Your prize is a video showcase of what actually happened, complete with footage and interviews, something that I really appreciated as a non-fan, so I can imagine these would be quite cool for a real NASCAR fan to see (again).
There is a Championship mode should you want to jump right into a full season of the Camping World Truck series, Xfinity Series or Monster Energy series, being a part of the team that you choose. Essentially this is just career mode without the extra fluff, allowing you to focus on exactly what you want to play without having to grind your way to get there. Of course there’s also an option for Quick Play should you want to just jump in and start racing.
There is an online mode present, as well as a split screen mode for those times when you're sitting on the couch with a friend at home. In terms of the online mode, what caught me by surprise is the support for a full 40 players online in a single race. Granted, I’ve yet to find a lobby this packed, and after playing online with others, I would want no part of that disaster. Online is where you generally go to prove yourself, testing your skills against others online, rising up the leaderboards and playing with friends. Remember above when I mentioned there’s no consequence for driving dirty? The same applies here, so expect nearly every other human driver push, shove, and slam you into the wall to get past you. Given that there’s no reason not to drive dirty, every match I played ended up this way. Instead of proving your driving abilities, it degrades into who can cause the most havoc behind them. Sure, it’s fun with a friend or two, but the chances of you and 39 other people, friends and general public, all playing at the same time with a gentleman’s agreement to race proper most likely isn’t going to happen.
Lastly, given the point that we are in the life cycles of the consoles, I generally expect a racing game to look impressive, nowhere near Forza games of course, but racing games tend to generally take advantage of the hardware. Sadly this isn’t the case with NASCAR Heat 2. Sure, there’s some nice details, like the decals on the vehicles, but nothing here really impresses at all. Come to a complete stop and you’ll see some ugly looking textures and many jagged edges, which surprised me.
I do appreciate that a lot has been improved on from the last release, which should appease fans, but there’s simply too much grinding and blandness to the overall package for casual or non-NASCAR fans. I enjoyed the Challenges mode, almost using it as a NASCAR history lesson, but I‘m still baffled as to why I’m trying so hard to win money in career that has zero use, other than as a gauge of how much I’ve won to this point.
Fans of the sport will surely enjoy seeing their favorite teams and drivers, but there’s not much weight to that novelty here for the rest of us. I went into NASCAR Heat 2 with an open mind, hoping to be won over, and possibly even becoming a fan of the sport; neither of these really happened and I found that unfortunate. At the end of the day, NASCAR fans will find something to like here for sure, but for gamers as a whole, I'm not quite sure that this would fill their need for a racing game nor be an experience that would help them to understand, or even enjoy, what NASCAR may have to offer.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Tricky Towers
Tetris is one of the most well-known games of all time. Its classic gameplay is as simplistic as it gets, and it has spawned countless iterations and knock offs, all trying to slightly modify the gameplay just enough for it to be different and fresh. Needless to say, when a Tetris-like game releases, I usually don’t take much notice, as we’ve seen it all before. That’s what shocked me about Tricky Towers though, it actually did change things up just enough to be interesting and capture my attention.Tricky Towers is a byproduct of mashing up classic Tetris and Jenga. Jenga is all about building your tower as high as you can without it toppling while managing the constant fight against gravity. In Tricky Towers, instead of standard Jenga blocks you have the tetromino pieces we’ve come to expect from any Tetris game. The idea is very simple but it works, so not only are you trying to interlock tetromino pieces, but you also need to be mindful of the weight and placement of each piece, as gravity is a factor in your game.
Tricky Towers boasts itself as a multiplayer focused title, not something you see often in many smaller indie games, so it’s a very welcome addition. There is a single player component as well, should you want to relax and play at your own pace. The premise of Tricky Towers is simple: Build up your tower and try and topple your opponent’s, or challenge yourself in the puzzle mode, attempting to use every piece you're given without tipping your tower over.
Naturally, I started to play Tricky Towers simply as a Tetris clone, but there’s a few factors that differentiate itself as a simple knock off. The biggest mechanic you’ll need to become accustomed to is the movement of the pieces. In standard Tetris, each piece is made up of a formation of 1x1 blocks to create its shape, and when you move left or right, your pieces move 1 block exactly. Tricky Towers has half movements, so when you tap left on the D-Pad or the Left Stick, your piece will actually move half a block over. While this means you can make very precise and minor movements, you’re also going to make countless mistakes as you'll be slightly off when placing your pieces due to this. It’s not impossible to learn, but something you’ll constantly have to remember.
There’s a decent amount of gameplay to be had, even when playing solo, as the game has 50 increasingly difficult levels to tackle in Trial mode. There’s an endless mode to challenge you too, seeing how tall you can build your tower before it inevitably comes crashing down. Puzzle, Race, and Survival modes are the three included modes that will each offer a slightly different experience with widely different strategies. Single player is great if you’re just looking for a few minutes of gameplay, as completing a certain amount of levels will unlock the next tier of difficulty and more stages to complete.
Race mode is my personal favorite. This mode is simple in concept, as you simply need to beat your opponent to the finish line above. Different strategies are completely viable here; do you build slow and wide, making a sturdy base while slowly building upwards, or do you risk balancing pieces and soar towards the finish line, hoping your tower doesn’t come crashing down? Playing against the AI is one thing, but playing against another player makes it much more challenging and entertaining.
To make things more interesting there are power-ups that you’ll gain from reaching certain threshold heights. These power-ups give you an option of being helpful to yourself, or detrimental against your opponent, so you need to quickly weigh which option is better in that certain moment. Do you place an unmovable piece on your tower, creating an anchor-like base to build from, or do you use it against your opponent, causing one of his pieces grow 5 times in size, surely to make his tower crash. These moments are incredibly satisfying, especially once you see the chaos that ensues on your opponent’s tower.
There’s more than a dozen different powers to use, each of which have a very specific strategy. As you get near the finish line you'll find the match becomes very chaotic, as you not only need to build your tower high enough to reach the finish, you also need your tower to be stable enough to cross and stay up for more than 3 seconds. Do you take more time and build something structurally sound or risk it and hope that it’ll stand for a simple 3 seconds for the win? Using your power-ups at these times is a great way to start fights between friends!
Survival mode gives you a specific amount of bricks that need to be placed to win, but you only have three lives, which you lose each time a block falls into the abyss. The first few levels of Survival aren't too bad, as you’re not racing against an opponent, so you can be more deliberate with your placements, but eventually these stages become very challenging. Later levels eventually throw distractions at you, like smoke clouds that block your view, usually causing you to misplace your brick placement rather then putting it where you intended, or random pieces growing to 5 times the size, throwing off your perfect build. There are even Survival stages later on where every piece is locked, preventing you from any rotating, so there’s plenty of challenge to be had in this mode.
Puzzle Mode starts with a predefined platform, challenging you with placing every piece you’re given without any falling into the pit. Oh, but the most difficult thing about this mode is that there’s a laser above the platform, so every piece played must not fall and touch the laser, or you lose. You’ll need to figure out how to interlock each piece just perfectly to complete these levels, for as far as I can tell, there’s only one solution to each of these puzzle levels. They are designed quite well, and you feel a sense of satisfaction when you finally figure out the exact placement of each piece, but expect to be stumped on specific levels for quite some time before you figure out the solution.
Lastly, there’s Endless mode. Here you can attempt to build your tower forever, but every 15 seconds or so a new wave occurs, applying a modifier in attempt to make your tower come crashing down. Some of these modifiers will cause your blocks to fall incredibly fast, become huge pieces, lock the rotation and more. This mode is quite addictive, though a tough modifier will put your skills to the test.
All of the modes can be played across multiplayer as well, locally or online, which was a shock to see included. Up to 4 players can compete against one another, making for some chaotic gameplay. You’re able to choose your mode, difficulty, and number of rounds in a tournament. The only problem I found while playing online was that you have to completely back out to the main menu if you want to change the game mode or settings, prompting re-invites to all of your friends. Lastly, and somewhat unfortunately, there’s absolutely no one playing this online, as I’ve been unable to find a single random game every time I’ve tried, so unless you plan on playing local couch co-op, don’t expect there to be a community online playing.
I enjoyed seeing the online leaderboards, allowing one to see how they stack up against the competition. While the whole game is accessible, there are microtransactions in place in the form of skins for your pieces and character skins. Granted, these aren’t game changing, but it would have been nice to have been able to work towards these unlocks organically within the game itself.
Multiplayer is where Tricky Tower shines, causing some hilarity at the best of times, and anger directed towards your friends the other times. Sure, you’ll get frustrated now and then, as it’s sometimes hard to recover from a misplaced block, but that’s where the challenge comes for this game. Tricky Tower is quite 'tricky' to get the hang of, as it takes some time learning, and remembering, the ‘half’ moves the blocks make, and that these same blocks aren’t locked in place once they land. At the end of the day Tricky Towers can be an enjoyable experience, especially if you’re craving some Tetris-like gameplay with a unique twist.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell
Speedrunning has become its own sector of gaming, even with games never intended to do so. There’s actually yearly charity events where gamers get together and speedrun through their favorite games as fast as they can for bragging rights (and charity). Look up nearly any game you can think of and there’s probably a speedrun for it on YouTube somewhere. There’s very few games that are actually based on speedrunning through it natively, but here we are with SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell, looking to change that.It’s interesting to see a game that has speedrunning at its core, as usually it’s a byproduct of gamers eager to challenge themselves, so a game with a dedicated purpose of going through it as quick as possible should excel at it and have many features to showcase it above others then right? Well, mostly, in the case of SEUM. SEUM does as advertised, challenging you with completing levels back to back as fast as possible, constantly forcing you to be quicker and reacting with lightning fast reflexes. No matter how hard I try not to compare, SEUM constantly reminds me of Quake if it had a heavy metal backdrop and forced you to play as fast as possible, of course.
SEUM never takes itself too seriously, as its narrative is as silly as it comes. You’re Marty, a redneck, complete with trucker hat, relaxing at home with beers in hand. Suddenly his front door is smashed open and there before him stands the devil. Satan isn’t here for Marty though, he’s actually come to steal his beer. When Marty fights back his arm is ripped off, but before Satan can retreat with 6-pack in tow, Marty manages to cut off Satan’s arm in retaliation.
What would any respectable redneck do at this point? Obviously attach Satan’s arm to where yours previously was and follow him through hell to get your beer back! With demon arm now attached, Marty will run through hell to get his beer back, but you’re going to have to be incredibly quick and nimble with some crazy reflexes if you want that 6-pack back. As I said, it’s a crazy premise, but oddly enough it’s all that’s needed to make the gameplay meaning make some sense as to why you’re running through dozens of levels in hell.
Single Player mode is where you’ll likely start out, tasked with slogging through the dozens of levels, one by one, as they become increasingly difficult as quick as possible. To get through hell you’ll need to complete 10 levels before being able to use an elevator to go deeper into hell. Early levels will be very simple, only requiring minimal thought and skill, but eventually you’ll be retrying levels numerous times in effort to make the time limit.
Controls are very simple, as you can move with the sticks, jump with A, and Right Bumper for shooting fireballs from your demonic arm. Some levels will give you access to other abilities for said levels, such as anti-gravity, activated with the Right Trigger. Every level will have hazards all over, be it pits, spikes, blades and other dangers that you need to avoid. If you die, well, WHEN you die, you’ll need to restart from the beginning of that level and try again.
Your goal is to reach the blue portal at the end of each stage, though the real challenge comes in with the very strict time limits per stage that it has to be completed under. SEUM has speedrunning right in its title, so you better get used to going as fast as possible, as any mistake will be cause for a restart or quick death. Most levels will have you platforming from ledges to ledge, avoiding traps and pits, though some levels, especially the ‘boss’ stages that are more intricate and involved, requiring you to shoot fireballs at specific objects to unlock walkways or gates.
SEUM simply wouldn’t work if the controls weren’t on point, given that you have to be incredibly fast and accurate, thankfully this isn’t an issue for the most part, and any mis-shots or jumps are usually user error from overthinking or panic, not poor controls. You’re going to die, a lot, and retrying levels is simply part of the experience. I got into the habit of playing new levels a few times as slow as I could, just to memorize the exact pathways with what’s needed to be done before trying it at full speed. Luckily new powers are introduced at a decent rate, allowing you to learn them in progressively challenging levels to become accustomed with them, as you’ll need to link multiple abilities and movements together flawlessly to progress in the later stages.
Given that you’re playing in first person, there’s a sense of speed that, at times, can feel a little overwhelming at times. You’re constantly under pressure from the clock, and while you may simply be aiming for the par times to pass the stages, there are Uber times to beat if you’re truly a skilled speedrunner along with leaderboards.
The difficulty curve is pretty smooth overall, though there are a few levels that seemed to spike the challenge quite drastically out of nowhere. Sure, you’re going to become frustrated by replaying the same level a few dozen times, especially when many levels are well under 30 seconds long, even more so when you miss the par time by milliseconds, but the gratification comes from finally besting these levels and progressing.
Level design is quite clever, with stages becoming more intricate as you progress, offering new challenges, forcing you to think of how to make the smallest shortcuts to shave off precious time from your run. Leaderboards give you a great sense of how you compare to the best players in the community, though you’re going to need some serious skill and dedication if you hope to compete in any serious way. As much as you’d like to blame controls or poor design for failing for the hundredth time, it’s honestly just you, as I’ve not run into any unfairness, poor framerate or bugs to blame it on.
What would a game like this be without a matching heavy metal soundtrack to complete its setting? Audio is great, complete with metal riffs, though it would have been great to have some licensed classic metal music to go alongside. Visually nothing is going to impress, but given that levels only last from 10 to 30 seconds, and you’re moving as fast as possible, it’s not like you’ll have time to soak in the backdrops.
Should you manage to complete Single Player by some miracle, or simply need to take a break from a stage you’re stuck on forever, there are a few other modes included for you to become equally frustrated with, if not more so. Extended Play sounds as if these levels were originally a DLC pack of sorts, and these seem to have a slightly different feel to them when compared to Single Player. These levels are truly challenging and offer some slightly different gameplay.
Speedrun Mode is truly for the most dedicated, as you can retry sections and levels once mastered, aiming for the top speedrun spots on the leaderboard. If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can even attempt to complete the entire game as fast as possible which will unlock an even more challenging mode. I don’t see many people being able to do so, but the challenge is there for those that dare.
Endless Mode is quite self-explanatory, as it’ll throw you into a randomized level that apparently never ends. I’d like to confirm this, but I’m lucky if I last 30 seconds in this mode. You see, there’s a grinder that chases behind you, constantly forcing you to move forwards as fast as possible, so there’s no time to sit and think of what to do next. This mode is great, but only after SEUM's gameplay becomes reactionary for you, as you won’t have any time to think; you simply need to instinctively react instead. This mode also has a leaderboard, so there’s more encouragement to stick with it, even after a few hundred attempts.
I really thought that SEUM was going to be a one-and-done for myself, but I find myself going back to it now and then to see if I can beat that level I was previously stuck on. Once you do conquer that level you thought was impossible, the gratification is satisfying. Given the first person view, at times it will be frustrating to not completely understand why you died, or thinking you jumped over a spike when you actually didn’t. It does have a learning curve to become proficient at its hectic gameplay, but you’ll eventually start to bypass obstacles without much thinking. When you chain together the perfect moves and barely scrape by the par time it feels very rewarding, more so if you manage to earn an Uber time.
I’m not usually one for very difficult or quick paced games, but SEUM is a solid representation of what speedrunners should be at its core. Gameplay is fast, challenging, fun, but more importantly, rewarding when you finally conquer that seemingly impossible level. Even though I’m not a competitive gamer by any means, SEUM’s leaderboards had me retrying levels many times to simply move up those rankings numerous times. If I had to search for complaints, I do wish there was a multiplayer mode, as going head to head with a friend online would have been a lot of fun. More so, I wish that I could download people’s ghosts from the leaderboards so I could watch how they somehow achieved their seemingly impossible times per level.
It’s going to take a lot of dedication and skill to get the most out of SEUM, but there’s a lot of content within for those willing to sink the time into speedrunning with the best of them. Sure at times it will become infuriating, and the narrative is silly at best, but as an overall package, SEUM more than delivers a true speedrunning experience. It’s not a matter of if you can complete the levels, it’s more if you can simply do it fast enough with its challenging-but-fair par times, constantly keeping you under pressure and forcing you to become a better player.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Cuphead
I grew up watching classic cartoons every Saturday morning. I not only loved what was new at the time in the 80’s, but I also enjoyed the classics that my grandma had which were on stacks of VHS tapes. Thanks to my grandma, I have very fond memories of old cartoons from around the 30’s era, such as Felix the Cat, original Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Betty Boop and more. If you’re wondering why I’m referencing cartoons from nearly a century ago, it’s because the developers at Studio MDHR have essentially recreated the unique and distinct artwork and style from those classic cartoons. Simply looking at Cuphead, I’m whisked back away to my childhood, waking up early to watch classic cartoons, popping in those VHS tapes I’d watched a million times. With that being said, there is no way around it, Cuphead will draw you in with its gorgeous visuals and art style. There is more here too, aside from pretty hand drawn graphics, as Cuphead has been a very long time coming for those of us anticipating it. There’s been a buzz for a few years about Cuphead, so I was cautiously optimistic, as I really didn’t want to be let down with something that I’ve been eagerly waiting to play this since I first saw it in 2014.
I’m happy to report that not only does Cuphead exceed expectations, but surpasses them in almost every way. A run and gun title at its core, with a boss rush mode, the graphics may look very friendly and inviting, but the gameplay is one of the most challenging, and rewarding, I’ve played in years. Cuphead isn’t just challenging though, it can be downright infuriating, yet I never wanted to completely give up, always coming back for more.
You’re going to have to have serious reflexes and think very quickly if you want to be able to progress through the numerous and wonderfully created stages and bosses. Prepare to have your patience tested though, as even the normal level of difficulty is sure to test your restraint in regards to wanting to throw your controller out the window. Even though this may sound like I didn’t enjoy my time with Cuphead, it was quite the opposite, and I encourage everyone to experience it simply for its creativity and beauty, even if the genre isn’t normally for you. It’s been a long wait, but it was certainly worth it.
Cuphead, along with his brother Mugman, live on Inkwell Isle. One fateful day they find themselves within the Devil’s Casino. Turns out they like to gamble, and they were on an insane streak. The Devil himself appears and makes them an offer that they can’t say no to: Win this next roll and double or winnings, lose and he gets their souls. Of course the brothers take the deal, and of course they lose the next roll. Now, they’re about to lose their souls to the Devil, but they manage to cut a deal with him, as they become essentially debt collectors for him. It’s a surprisingly dark premise given that the presentation is so light and welcoming. Few games have the charm that Cuphead possesses, and even less that can be simultaneously frustrating yet completely rewarding once you’ve put in the time to become proficient.
Not only is Cuphead, and all the game's characters, drawn wonderfully, but the world as a whole with its water colored and hand drawn backgrounds are too, and they all make for a complete package that’s easy on the eyes. Each world has its own theme, yet completely fits within Cuphead’s visual style regardless of the backdrop. Across all the levels, enemies aren’t recycled, so it’s obvious that a serious amount of time has been taken to make the exact game Studio MDHR wanted to create with crazy attention to the smallest details.
All of these beautiful visuals are capped off with an equally impressive soundtrack that also feels as if it was taken straight from the 1930’s as well. Not only does it have a vintage Jazz orchestral vibe to it, but it comes complete with the recognizable white noise of a record and scratches of the pin to further enhance the experience.
Cuphead is all about learning and memorizing attack patterns. Being able to recognize a slight visual clue as to what attack is coming next, then being able to react swiftly to avoid being hit, that’s Cuphead in a sense. Just like other challenging games, you’re going to have to learn from your many mistakes before you can become good enough to push onward. There’s no quick way around it, it’s simple trial and error, and Cuphead holds no punches with its difficulty. If you manage to complete Cuphead on Regular mode (there is a Simple mode for those wanting a slightly easier time, though this won’t unlock certain boss fights near the end) you’ll gain access to the Expert mode, which I can’t even fathom.
Level selection is done via an overworld map where you have some slight branching pathways allowing you to choose which level to attempt or what boss to challenge next. There’s the odd character littered throughout, usually offering a line or two of dialogue with some hints of how to progress.
Cuphead has the ability to parry certain attacks and projectiles coming at him, the catch is that they have to be specifically colored pink to do so. Parrying an attack not only allows you to avoid it from hitting your low health/point pool, but it will also give a small boost to your 'special' meter. There’s not many projectiles to parry during these fights, but doing so successfully can mean the difference between a death and restart as opposed to winning.
During certain levels, the run and gun stages to be exact, you’ll be able to earn a handful of coins if you’re able to collect them as you make your way to the end of the level. These coins become invaluable later on once you visit a shop, allowing you to purchase new weapons (fire modes) and other charm bonuses, such as an extra health for your health bar. There’s only a handful of different weapons, but each certainly has their time and place versus specific bosses. I’m partial to the homing shots that are weak but accurate, but there’s always a good time to use your spread shot as well. There’s no ‘right’ loadout, as you can complete the game with the standard shooter, though the different weapons allow you to cater to your playstyle.
There are essentially 3 types of levels you’ll play throughout your time with Cuphead, as you try and work your debt off. First are the run and gun levels. These are your standard platforming type of stages where you need to run left to right to reach the finish line. This is Cuphead though, and doing so isn't as simple as it sounds. There are no checkpoints, so when you ultimately die, you’ll need to replay the whole stage from the beginning. These stages are more for breaking up the monotony of boss fights and to collect precious coins for upgrades. While it’s good to have the regular boss battle combat broken up once and a while, these levels aren’t nearly as memorable, and they somewhat feel more like filler than anything else when compared to the amazingly crafted boss stages.
A handful of the boss fights will have Cuphead flying his trusty plane, allowing you to shoot forward and lob bombs. You can parry the pink projectiles in your plane as well, so make sure you keep an eye out. These stages, again, are not quite as good as the standard boss fights, but they are still enjoyable and incredibly challenging. In these stages, your powered up 'special' turns you into a bomb, allowing you to fly into any enemy you want for massive damage.
And finally, we have what Cuphead does best: Boss battles. The majority of Cupheads gameplay revolves around these boss fights. These are incredibly well designed and laid out that and it’s hard not to admire the artwork and thought that’s gone into every single one. These boss fights only last around 2 minutes or so, but that’s when you beat it, as the time I mention does not including the previous 20 minutes to an hour you’ve already spent repeatedly dying.
These boss fights are incredibly intricate and will go through certain phases once the boss is damaged enough. While you won’t see a health bar for the boss anywhere on the screen, you will see how far you progressed until its' demise, complete with phase markers. There are times where certain phases are chosen randomly, so there is some randomness to certain fights, which is both good and bad. Every time you manage to beat one of these huge bosses, you feel a huge sense of accomplishment, encouraging you to tackle the next one. I’m averaged about 2-3 bosses a night before calling it quits for the evening, though there’s no harm in playing for a prolonged amount of time either.
Cuphead has a brother, Mugman, so naturally this means that you can play local co-op with a friend on the couch (apparently online co-op is in the works, so here’s to hoping). You would assume that having twice the firepower would trivialize these fights, but honestly I found it even more chaotic and confusing with more happening on the screen at once. Should you or your friend die, you can bring them back to life by parrying their ghost before it floats off to the top of the screen.
I came away more than impressed with Cuphead, as it actually exceeded my expectations. Sure, there are a few things I could nitpick if I had to, like the lack of leaderboards, downloadable ghosts, or online play, but as a whole package, Cuphead more than delivers a unique experience, even if it is frustrating at times (by design).
There’s no doubt about it that Cuphead’s greatest strength is in its visual aesthetic. I simply want to smile whenever I see those retro 1930’s hand drawn graphics. Many times when I died I found it was because I was admiring something specific in the background, or the animations of the bosses. Cuphead looks, sounds and plays unique, and in the best ways possible. There’s nothing quite like it and I highly suggest you check it out, even if you’re normally not into very challenging games like myself.
Cuphead is going to be one of those games that many people recognize, even if they don't know its name or if they had played it or not, simply for its amazing artistic style; it’s that unique and should be applauded. It is one of those games that you can tell has been a labor of love, and by a very small team none the less, which makes it even more impressive. Stick with it and you’ll experience one of the most enjoyable titles in years, constantly challenging you but always a delight to play. I’m really hoping it does well, as I want a sequel one day, and hopefully by then I’ll have finally mastered Cuphead and bested every boss.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Surf World Series
I’ve played two surf games in my whole life before receiving Surf World Series to review: T&C Surf Designs and California Games, both were classic NES titles. That shows you how few dedicated surf games are out there. There have been a few odd ones that have released over the years, but given that it’s such a niche sport and audience, I can see why it’s never hit mainstream. I’m sure the sport as a whole is huge in its own circles, and developers Climax Studios hopes to cash in on its sectioned popularity. I won’t pretend to know much, if anything, about surfing, and given that I’m not even able to swim, I’ve never pursued it much either, so I was curious to play the game and maybe even learn more about the sport.Upon starting Surf World Series, you’re thrown into the tutorial mode, as you’re going to need to take some time to practice how to maneuver properly on a moving wave. The basic controls work fluidly, though it took me some time to get used to the design decision that pressing right on the stick moves my surfer to the right of the screen, not necessarily to their right (as you face the front of the surfer). You’ll learn how to paddle and get momentum to stand up on your board, move across, and up and down the waves, and of course you'll learn how to do awesome tricks once you catch some air off the crests. Training takes some getting used to but you’ll be fine until you need to link a certain amount of combos together (repeated tricks back to back reset your counter).
Once you grasp the controls, you begin the campaign, though don’t expect any sort of narrative about working your way up from an amateur to a pro, as it’s simply a series of 40+ quick events in succession across a small handle of event types. There’s essentially only three types of events you’ll compete in: survival, where you need to simply last without crashing into the wave, championship, which has you needing to break a specific score barrier to succeed, and battle, where your average score is taken over a set time. It sounds basic because it is, and survival is simply beating the boredom of the timer, as you can crash quite easily if you don't have a handle on the game controls.
You’re able to customize your surfer to your liking as well, though you’re only given a couple of choices to choose from, both male and female. You’re also able to change your outfit with a handful of options as well, choosing from different tops, bottoms or wetsuits. There are a decent amount of patterns to suit your style, and you’re also able to choose different colors and hues. The more you play and progress through the game the more different patterns for the clothing you unlock. It’s very minor, but at least there’s something for you to constantly work towards aside from the campaign progress.
For being a game based on, and in, water, I was hoping to see some amazing looking water systems with unique physics. Very few games have gotten water to look very realistic, even less has it interact in a realistic way as well. Unfortunately the water in Surf World Series looks and reacts mediocre at best. There isn’t much detail in the crests of the waves, or mist of the water, so it was a little disappointing considering it should have really been the showcase of a surf based game.
You’ll travel the world across different locales, though each of the counties don’t feel any different aside from the slightly different backdrops. Brazil, USA, Portugal, Australia and more are a few of the places you’ll surf at, but again, each looks exactly the same as the rest, so don’t expect varying scenery from one country to the next. Your camera viewpoint is constantly facing towards you, looking out to the sea, so it would have been nice to see other views of the closely approaching beach to change things up.
As a whole, there’s a constant surf vibe to the overall package. The menus have gorgeous sunsets and a warm pallet, looking like photos with filters you’d take on your phone. Musically, the game also has the whole surf vibe as well, with calming soft rock. It would have been nice to have some popular licensed music that I’d recognize, but even audibly there’s a warm feeling to the game as well.
The tutorial will give you the basics of how to perform tricks once in the air, but it will take some time to really grasp how to do it naturally, without having to think about it ahead of time. Essentially, you need to queue up your tricks ahead of time and you only have a short period before you launch off the lip of the wave, as it will automatically perform the trick based on the combination of buttons you press beforehand.
It’s a little odd that spins midair are performed with a pre-queued bumper press instead of rotating the stick, and perfect landings are based on a button press as well. You can add grabs to your tricks with button presses mid-air, but it adds a little more complexity, as you’re going to need some finger dexterity to string together tricks before the combo meter ends. I was quite good at doing complex tricks in Tony Hawk games, but doing them in Surf World Series seems much more complicated than it needs to be with the pre-loaded moves while having to avoid the crashing waves.
What really surprised me was that there’s an online mode for you to compete with your friends. After 2 days of trying I’ve been unable to find a single person playing online, so don’t expect to find much competition unless you have a friend that’s also going to pick it up. I applaud the effort made, but from what I can tell, there’s essentially no community playing this in any substantial way to be meaningful.
Surf World Series sets out what it intends to, as it’s a surfing game meant for fans of the sport. Is it going to have broad appeal to the masses that don’t surf? Probably not, as its counter intuitive controls tend to hold it back, even though the overall theme has the perfect surfer vibe to it. After an hour or two of gameplay, you’ll have experienced everything Surf World Series has to offer. There’s only a handful of achievements to be had and the career progression is about as bland as it comes. It may be a decent title for those specifically looking for a surfing game, but that’s a very narrow and niche market. If you’re not in that very precise demographic of the targeted player then there’s not much here for you aside from a slight distraction for a few hours of awkward controls.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
KILLING FLOOR 2
I believe I’m in the minority, but I’ve never really enjoyed the Zombie mode from the Call of Duty series for a number of reasons, so I was a little weary about Killing Floor 2, as I assumed it would be very similar. Turns out my tepidness was unfounded, as Killing Floor 2 plays much more like a bloody version of Horde mode from Gears of War than anything else. It’s no secret that the zombie genre has been overdone in the past few years, so to stand out amongst the crowd is becoming increasingly difficult. I honestly expected to be let down with this game, if not just for the stigma of the genre, but I came away quite surprised, as I’ve put quite a few hours into it and keep going back for more, despite its flaws.The original Killing Floor originally began as a mod for Unreal Tournament and became so successful that Tripwire Interactive was requested to create it as a standalone game. This was around the time of Left 4 Dead’s popularity, so it was a fine alternative. Having released on PC and Playstation 4 last year, Xbox owners were left out of the loop, but Xbox's time has finally come, complete with exclusive content and further graphical updates once the Xbox One X comes out later this year.
Killing Floor 2 is primarily a multiplayer focused affair. I guess technically there’s a story somewhere buried in the game’s lore or wiki, but you won’t find it anywhere within the game. Essentially zombies have taken over the world, an overused trope sure, and your team must survive the oncoming waves of nearly endless Zed’s. That’s about it for its narrative, which is fine in this circumstance, given that its focus is solely on being a multiplayer shooter. Would I have liked at least a little effort taken into some type of story to ties everything together, giving you a reason why? Sure, though most would have probably not paid much attention to it anyways, to get right into the combat.
Killing Floor 2 has three separate game modes: VS Survival, Weekly, and its main focus, Survival. Survival has up to 6 players cooperatively trying to survive 10 waves of enemies, culminating with a challenging boss fight at the end. VS Survival is 6 vs 6 teams of humans and monsters battling against each other if you want to scratch that PvP itch. Lastly is Weekly, which is a more challenging mode that changes every week, so it’s worth coming back and checking it out every so often.
Survival Mode is Killing Floor 2’s bread and butter, playing much like the coveted Horde mode from Gears of War. Usually these modes are a bonus from a larger scoped game, but this is what Killing Floor 2 has based the bulk of its gameplay on. I thought I would grow tired of the same gameplay repeated over and over, and to be fair, I did at times, but yet I kept coming back for more to either level up one of my classes or to try out a completely new one.
Early waves begin with only a handful of simple Zed’s to kill, with each wave becoming increasingly more difficult in terms of sheer numbers and harder enemies. There is only a handful of enemies you’ll encounter, so once you learn the best strategies to defeat them, you won’t have to worry about any crazy surprises from new enemies once you’ve seen them all. I do wish there was some more variety of enemies, but there are different types, such as bloaters, spitters, crawlers, brutes, witches and more Left 4 Dead-esque zombies.
What I enjoyed the most from Killing Floor 2 is its class system. There are 10 separate classes to choose from, much more than I expected, each of which are unique and feel balanced with their own strengths and weaknesses. A few of the classes feel very unique, and add strength to the overall party, but you’ll need to make sure you balance out your team to cover all the bases, as each class has specific strengths and weaknesses against certain enemy types. Personally I favor the Medic, being able to heal my teammates with darts and heal grenades, but many people seems to enjoy the Sharpshooter, Demolitions, Support, Pyro and others. It’s all about finding the class that suits your play style best and what works for a cohesive team composition.
The XP system is clever, as you earn XP for killing Zeds, obviously, but your class’ level is based on the weapon you’re using. As a medic I prefer using my Medic specific weapons, as this will level my Medic class, but at any time I can pick up a sniper and start to level my Sharpshooter, for example. So, even though I’m playing the Medic class, I can earn XP in any other class based on the weapon I’m using, though I won’t get to use my secondary abilities, like my healing, while using a weapon outside of my class.
As you gain XP you’ll level up, with every 5 levels allowing you to choose one of two perks for that particular class. These perks allow you to customize your class even further, being able to swap between them freely as you begin matches to better support your team. For example, as a medic I can choose to heal more and buff speed or I can choose more survivability for myself. These perks start to make a huge difference as you reach maximum level, as you’re rewarded for sticking with a class and becoming proficient with it.
As you complete each wave, you’ll be instructed with a visual indicator where the nearest Pod is. These Pods allow you to spend in-game cash, called dosh, you’ve earned from killing enemies and supporting your teammates. You spend your dosh on armor, ammo, and weapons of your liking. You can upgrade your simple pistol or buy much more powerful weaponry, but the most powerful weapons obviously cost more, forcing you to save more across waves. Luckily you’re even able to dish out your dosh to teammates should they be low on funds and in need of upgrade purchases. You only get a short amount of time to make your purchases, so you need to be quick with your choices. Luckily there’s an option for quick upgrades by holding ‘B’ if you want a suggested upgrade path with the amount of money you currently have.
On the final wave (wave 10) you’ll have to face off against one of two bosses, with some minor enemies sprinkled in to make the experience more chaotic. You’ll battle against the hulking Patriarch, a return from the first game, or against Dr. Hans Volter, a mad scientist that looks like a cross breed between Edward Scissor Hands, Freddy Krueger and Bane. Patriarch can absorb a mass amount of damage, turn invisible and tries to flee to regenerate. Dr. Volter can spew cluster bombs all around him, causing massive damage if you get caught within the explosions. Each boss can be lethal very quickly, requiring specific strategies to defeat. It’s a shame, and quite a detriment, that there’s only two bosses that you’ll ever encounter, as you’ll get a sense of repetition when it comes time to battle them once again.
Along with your class, you’re also able to choose your character skin and cosmetic items. There’s not much selection, but at least there’s something to choose from. You’re able to purchase packages of cosmetic clothing should you desire to stand out amongst the crowd, but there’s no way to earn currency from simply playing, so you’re going to need to open your wallet if you want to look special. The issue that irks me the most is that you’ll also earn chests that can be unlocked that contain weapon skins and other goodies, but there’s no way to earn these keys by simply playing the game. This forces you to purchase keys with real money if you want to open these chests and get the rewards. Granted, the rewards are cosmetic, but even a steep treadmill of grinding would have been an acceptable way to slowly earn keys without having to use microtransactions. Oh, and these keys are $2.50 a pop; no thanks.
While there is a single player mode for you to play should you lose your internet connection, or want to learn the maps, you essentially need to be connected at all times. There’s also no campaign of any sorts to speak of, so as long as you know that Killing Floor 2 is a multiplayer only focused shooter, you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into. The forceful key purchases only reinforce the view that many have of microtransactions, as there should have been some way to earn keys, even incredibly slowly, simply my playing. That being said, even though there are some faults to be found, and only two bosses included, I’m still enjoying my time within. Killing Floor 2 feels much more cooperative focused than other Horde-like games, contains a healthy amount of maps, and a large class selection that you’ll surely find a good fit for your playstyle. Faults aside, this isn't a that bad of a game at all, and worth a close look.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
X-Morph: Defense
It seems that at one point Tower Defense games were insanely popular. There have always been a lot of them around and there’s no shortage of games in the genre. That being said, if you’re looking for something new and unique, that’s pretty rare these days. It seems EXOR Studios has addressed this shortage though, combining tower defense with a top down twin-stick shooter. Oh, and you’re also the intruder this time around instead being the one who tries to stop the alien invasion. I was expecting another typical tower defense game, but instead I enjoyed what is offered, although it is far from perfect.You play as an alien race, seeking planets to harvest for resources. Scouring the universe, you happen to come upon that blue planet you see in so many picutres. Yep, you arrive at Earth, a resource rich planet that looks prime for the taking. It’s a shame that humans don’t take lightly to alien races harvesting their planet, so you’re going to need to defeat waves of armies to protect your base as you attempt to terraform the Earth.
You begin your planet takeover going country to country, each one acting as a new level, each one showcasing more human resistance as you progress. You’ll need to deal with ground and air armies, along with a few special surprises along the way, and although playing as the bad guy is a fun take on the genre, it does tend to get a little repetitive after a while. The narrative has a base guideline but there’s no engaging storyline aside from its general premise, which is a shame, but at least some effort was made, unlike most tower defense games that lack any narrative purpose or basis.
The core gameplay takes place is two separate stages. The first stage is where you prepare for the imminent human attack. Pressing ‘Y’ allows your controllable ship to move around in Ghost Mode, making you move very quickly and be invisible to your enemies. This also allows you to use your limited resources that you’ve gained to place turrets nearly anywhere you like on the map in strategic locations. Your superior alien knowledge allows you to visualize and determine the human’s pathway of attacks, allowing you to strategically choose the best attack and choke points.
The other stage of battle is during the actual attack phase, defending against waves of human armies who are trying to destroy your base. Once the armies are wiped clear, and your base is safe, you’ll repeat this process 5 or 6 times per level until you reach the final boss stage. I won’t spoil these end waves though, as they were some of the best moments from X-Morph: Defense. Complete each wave and the level is complete, allowing you to move onto the next country for world domination.
While humans won’t overpower you with weaponry, as you’re an alien lifeform that can shoot lasers (pew-pew), bombs, and other weaponry, what they do well though is overwhelm you with their sheer numbers. Most enemies are easy to destroy on their own, save for some heavy tanks and other vehicles, but when you have dozens coming from all directions simultaneously, you can become quickly overwhelmed. You’ll need quick reaction time and be able to place your limited towers strategically if you want to keep your base intact against humanity.
The routes that the humans use to reach your base can be visually seen on the overview map as you pilot your ship around. If left untouched, the armies will make a quick trek to your base and defeat you quite swiftly, so one of your main goals is to make their path as long as possible to reach your base. Although there is a singular path that can potentially reach your base (or else it would be easy to trap them in a loop), when you have many starting points all around the map, there will almost always be multiple exits for enemies to reach your base.
You’re able to place towers in designated areas of the map, though you’ll always want to place them near the enemies’ set route. Not only do turrets act as automatic fire against the humans, but if you place two nearby each other and you can actually link them together with a light fence, stopping any troops from passing through (unless of course there’s the only one path to your base remaining). These fences force the humans to take a different path, making their journey to your base longer, allowing you more time to destroy them. This is a unique take on the tired turret placing; however, what I really enjoyed was that they can be moved at any time without consequence, and should one become destroyed, you gain back your resources to replace it once again instantaneously.
The combat of X-Morph is a lot of fun, being able to maneuver your ship and shoot in any direction like a decent twin-stick shooter. You’ll have special attacks that can be charged up for more damage and the controls work surprisingly well. You can’t simply rely on your turrets, as they won’t be enough to stop the enemy alone, so the bulk of your gameplay will be controlling your ship and shooting everything that’s attempting to swarm and reach your base.
Between matches you’re able to choose from an array of different upgrades, meant to deal with different situations. These cost in-game points to use, so you’ll need to decide on which upgrades to load for each attempt. This upgrade system allows for varied gameplay when you try the stages again on harder difficulties, allowing you to experiment with different strategies. The number of upgrades is quite surprising, and before selecting each stage you’ll see what types of enemies you’ll be facing to help you better decide which upgrades to focus on, such as changing your turrets to counter air or ground units specifically for example.
Even though X-Morph eventually feels like a grind, there’s many reasons, and options, for you to continue playing and repeat levels numerous times. While I’ve yet to delve deeply into the local split-screen mode, as I don’t generally have friends over to game, it’s worth noting that it does exist, something that many in the genre don't tend to possess. Having one person responsible for attacking and the other dedicated to building and turret maintenance sounds like a ton of fun.
Even on the Easy difficulty, the gameplay can become quite challenging in the later stages, as one wrong turret placement or failure to relocate them quick enough can result in becoming overrun and your base will fall. I never tend to get excited about a new tower defense game, as a majority of the time it’s always results in a 'been-there-done-that' kind of feeling, but X-Morph: Defense did enough to switch things up, adding new mechanics and gameplay, yet still preserving that core Tower Defense feeling.
If you’re a fan of the tower defense genre you’ll no doubt enjoy your time with this game, testing out the upgrades, working on optional objectives and fighting bosses that break up the monotony. Even though fatigue may eventually come quickly for casual fans of the genre, and the difficulty can spike quickly, kudos to EXOR Studios for creating a different tower defense X-Perience.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Super Comboman: Smash Edition
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Small indie studio starts a Kickstarter to fund their game and bring their vision to gamers around the world. Yea I know, this is a pretty common routine these days, and sometimes the result is an awesome game, while other times not so much. Super Comboman started out this way, asking for a modest amount on Kickstarter to help fund their game to bring it to the masses. Enough seemed to believe in their vision, as it released on PC initially, but is now here for console players as well.You’re Struggles, a lovably chubby older brother who takes care of his younger sibling, Biscuit. Struggles is having a hard time making ends meet financially, something I can relate with, so he sets off to collect coins and money to help pay their mortgage. Where their parents are, I have no idea, but to make ends meet Struggles will punch, kick and combo his way through all of his construction co-workers to get the job done and collect his coveted paycheck at the end of each stage.
If that sounds like an odd premise for you it only gets weirder when you realize Struggles is trying to emulate Super Comboman, one of his favorite comic book heroes. Oh, and he has a talking fanny pack. Yes, you read that right. It’s an odd premise and setup, but the colorful and friendly visuals seem to just make it work, so don’t question it too much as you fight your way across a 2D landscape through dozens of enemies.
The core gameplay will have you punching and fighting your way through tons of worker enemies, though at first it will seem a little confusing with the controls. You have a regular attack, a stun attack and a power move, along with being able to double jump, though your move repertoire will expand greatly as you progress. As you play more and more, fighting will feel more natural as you get used to the controls and enemy patterns.
Your light attack is what you’ll be mashing the most, as you can attack with it as much as you like, but does very little damage. Your heavy attack will knock back enemies and do a large amount of damage but is tied to your stamina, so you can only use it sparingly. You also can utilize a Stun attack, also tied to a slowly regenerating meter, allowing you to knock enemies off their feet for a short period so you to gain an upper hand. Use the heavy or stun attacks too much and Struggles will briefly become stunned himself, leaving himself vulnerable to enemy attacks, so you need to watch your meters and combo efficiently across all types of attacks.
As you smash boxes and defeat enemies they will disperse coins to collect and food that will replenish your health. These coins will later be used in the Combo Store, allowing you to purchase new movesets that will allow you to combo attack in many new ways. What surprised me was that many of these moves are performed with Street Fighter-like inputs, rather than straight button combinations. While this adds an interesting fighting element, it’s a little convoluted when you need to smash buttons and also twist in some Street Fighter inputs like fireballs as well.
You can also purchase Perks, allowing you to gain a short term bonus once you’ve reached a certain combo number. These perks activate automatically once your streak becomes a specific number, adding defense, offence or other bonuses. You can have two perks at once, switching them between stages to suit your play style or make up for where you lack skill wise. Level design is very straight forward with only one real path to follow, though there are a few short paths to find hidden sticker collectibles. These are strictly for collecting, adding a little more length to the gameplay should you be inclined.
The first few levels start off easy enough, throwing just a handful of enemies at you with nothing terribly challenging. Eventually more enemies, and more difficult ones, will be thrown your way, along with having to platform and avoiding instant death spikes as well. You begin each stage with three lives, a classic staple for games of old, with nostalgia eventually kicking in when you start dying repeated times, having to restart stages from the beginning. Game Over’s can be frustrating when you near the end of a stage, only to have a new tough enemy thrown at you without warning, causing you to die and have to restart all the way from the beginning.
Balancing could use a little work, as new enemies should be introduced near the beginning of a level to teach you how to fight against them properly, instead of near the end, causing you to die and have to repeat the whole stage over again numerous times. I became quite frustrated with this, as 30 minutes into a level I keep dying, only to be reset at the beginning. There are a decent amount of checkpoints, but they only are for your 3 initial lives, not continues.
What helps set Super Comboman apart from the competition is its vibrant and colorful art style. The characters of the world look like stickers, so the animations are simplistic yet work fluidly. The story is told through cutscenes and dialogue boxes, but sadly they aren’t narrated. In general, the audio as a whole is a little unforgettable, as you’ll mostly be hearing the attacks and smashing of boxes more than a memorable soundtrack.
If you’re a fan of the 2D platformer brawlers, then you’ll no doubt enjoy your time with Super Comboman, especially with its vibrant and colorful visuals. There’s some depth here for those that want to grind for coins and unlock new movesets and perks, but your average fan might be a little overwhelmed with the sudden spikes of difficulty. Super Comboman was fun, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression, so unless you’re a huge fan of the genre I suggest waiting for a decent sale to pick it up before helping Struggles with his struggles.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
BLEED
It’s funny that indie games still have a stigma about their quality. Sure, many of them don’t look pretty, but I know my thoughts about them have drastically changed over the last couple of years, as you sometimes find some gems that you probably would have never even looked at twice otherwise. BLEED is one of those games that I wouldn’t have probably even glanced at previously, but after playing it I can honestly say that I am quite glad that I got to experience it.You play as female protagonist Wryn, determined to become the greatest hero of the world. The problem here though is that the world already has a handful of beloved heroes, so to take the glory all for herself she’s going to have to prove that she’s the better than those that are already considered the best in the world. To do so she’s going to have to defeat some massive monsters plaguing the world and even rid the previous heroes in an effort to prove that she is definitely better qithout question. It’s a cute premise, and while there no real narrative beyond that idea, BLEED’s strengths comes from its straightforward and challenging gameplay.
BLEED controls much like a twin-stick shooter, moving with the Left Stick and aiming/firing with the Right. Since you need to constantly use both sticks, jumping and dashing is done with the Right Trigger, which can feel unnatural in the beginning, but eventually it won’t become much of an issue. You’re able to double and triple jump with the trigger as well, something that you’ll need to master to not only reach high and far platforms out of normal reach, but to avoid enemies and bullets. When you double or triple jump, it acts more like a dash in whatever direction you aim, so it takes some getting used to, but it becomes absolutely critical later on, especially on difficult boss fights. Wryn also has the ability to slow down time for a short period with the Left Trigger, a necessity for also surviving boss battles and mass projectiles.
Story Mode is where you’ll want to start, as that’s how you’ll unlock the other modes, which I’ll delve into shortly. There’s only a handful of levels, with each feeling unique and has its own setting. Defeat the two bosses found in the stage and you’ll be able to move onto the next. Stages aren’t terribly long, with the whole game being able to be completed on Easy in roughly an hour, but there are multiple difficulty levels and upgrades to earn that add some replayability. I initially started on Normal difficulty but I quickly bumped that down to Easy until I got the hang of things with some much needed practice.
Wryn begins her journey with a pair of dual pistols and a rocket launcher, but as you progress through the game, and earn credits for completing levels, you’ll be able to purchase new weapons, though I still mostly continued using the dual pistols for the duration of my gameplay time due to their quick firing and decent damage. You are also able to spend your coins upgrading your health bar or extending the duration of your slow-mo, which ever one manages to fit your play style. I suggest playing through the Easy levels a few times, earning credits and spending them on upgrades, before attempting Normal and above.
Due to the low number of levels found in the game, you’re meant to play through each level multiple times, especially since some of the levels can be completed very quickly. Luckily, checkpoints are more than generous, and when you do eventually die, especially on the harder difficulty levels, you won’t lose much progress. If you become a master at BLEED, then you’ll want to challenge yourself with the Arcade mode, which tasks you with attempting to complete the whole game with one life whole managing not to die. I’ve still yet to do this successfully on Easy, so goodluck.
Boss battles are fun and frequent, and while you simply need to memorize their attack patterns, they can be quite challenging, requiring you to use all your tools at your disposal, especially your slow-mo dashes to avoid being hit. No boss was terribly difficult, yet they were still a challenge, so the balance was just right. There’s also a Challenge Mode that pits you against 1 to 3 of the bosses of your choice once you’ve beaten them in Story Mode. Battling two at a time was a great challenge, though I’ve still yet to beat three at once. Again, it adds more value to BLEED for those wanting to sink more time into it after the short campaign.
BLEED challenged me a lot more than I thought it would, especially on the harder difficulties. You’re going to need quick reflexes and perfect aim to conquer these difficult challenges. Even though the level count is very low, being able to earn currency by completing them numerous times encourages replayability, making subsequent runs somewhat easier with each upgrade, eventually giving you the confidence to try a harder difficulty. With its low cost of entry, BLEED is a fun little title to tide you over for a day or two if you want to challenge yourself and don’t mind replaying levels a handful of times. Heck, BLEED is also a great distraction when you want a break from playing any of the triple A titles that may be out this fall too.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Vostok Inc
I’ll be honest; I would have never looked at Vostok Inc if it hadn’t appeared in my lap to review, but I am sure glad that it did. All I knew going in was that it was a money-making game where you’re trying to amass a fortune... in space. I honestly expected my playtime to be very quickly done, but here I am, hours later, letting the game run in the background as my bank account skyrockets while I do chores and write this. Your goal is to make obscene amounts of moolah, yet the game is presented in an odd mashup of Geometry Wars and Clicker Heroes of sorts; not what I expected, but the result was entertaining none the less.You’re the CEO of Vostok Inc and your primary goal is to earn as much cash as you can. This simple goal will have you traveling to other solar systems to take over and colonize every planet you can find to set up different types of refineries and watching your bank account bloat. Aliens don’t take kindly to you trespassing in their corner of space from planet to planet to take over their homes, which serves as a very loose storyline of sorts.
To begin you’ll need to raise some capital, done so by destroying asteroids with your tiny ship in space. Yes, this capitalist game takes place in space and plays like a twin-stick shooter for many parts of it. Destroying asteroids will net you small amounts of money, but collect enough and you’ll be on your way to starting to mine planets. You’ll also have Jimmy, whom will annoy you at every chance he can get with tips and tricks of what to do next, or offer repeated and useless advice.
Be prepared to hear from Jimmy on a constant basis, as he’ll constantly be spouting gibberish (with subtitles), attempting to be helpful, but becoming more and more annoying as your journey extends. You just destroyed an asteroid? Jimmy will tell you the benefits of doing so. Had your shields depleted from enemy aliens firing at you? Jimmy will remind you that they replenish over time. Want some random one liners and quips? Jimmy’s got you covered there too. It was only until a handful of hours in that I found the setting to disable Jimmy’s annoying antics from popping up (save for storyline segments), so make sure you do so as soon as possible.
You’ll be taught the basics in the beginning, but I wish there was some more help with the menus and getting started when you colonize planets. The game is simple enough, and after some time you’ll become very quick with the controls, but some more explanation in the beginning would have been quite helpful to understanding the metagame quicker. I didn’t realize that you could buy ship and weapon upgrades, along with general perks to make quality of life much better for the gameplay. Even combining weapons was trial and error as it wasn’t explained. The first while I was simply focusing on combat and asteroid destroying as my source of main income, something that was a huge mistake until I learned better.
Given that a large part of the gameplay is a twin-stick shooter, you’ll feel right at home with the controls. Movement of your ship is controlled with the Left Stick and you fire in any direction with the Right. Fans of Geometry Wars and the sorts will have no problem digging right into the space battles.
Enemies will randomly appear on screen as you travel around in top-down 2D space. Most enemies will be simple with low hitpoints, but as you level up and travel to new solar systems, you’ll encounter more challenging enemies, occasionally to the point of being overwhelmed. Every so often you’ll have a couple of very elusive enemies around you, and if you’re unable to defeat them you’ll be locked into a battle against waves of enemies. Beating these encounters earns you some decent money rewards, so it’s worth doing in the beginning, but that’s before you realize how ludicrous farming for money on planets becomes.
There are even boss battles that need to be defeated before moving onto the next galaxy, though they won’t appear until you’ve earned an obscene amount of money (for that solar system) to even attempt. These are fun little distractions if you enjoy the shooting part of the game, and while not a huge challenge once you’ve learned how to upgrade your ship and weapons, they’re a welcome change of pace.
Speaking of upgrades, once you earn enough spare cash, you’re able to improve your ship and weapons in many ways to suit your playstyle. Improving shields and regeneration can become quite overpowered once you realize that your regenerating shields have to be depleted before you lose hitpoints in battles. Weapon upgrades too cost an obscene amount, but you can eventually unlock 3 different weapons in 3 different slots. Combining different slots makes for some very interesting and unique weapons. Having a pulse laser on its own is no big deal, but have another laser in the second slot and you fire a beam that ricochets and bounces off everything. There’s some interesting combinations that promote experimentation, though some are simply much better than others. You can even hotkey weapon combinations to the D-pad for quick swapping which is a nice touch.
Once you have enough cash you’ll then want to invest in the perk to find managers and executives floating in space. This will put a small blip on your radar, indicating that there’s a person that needs to be rescued before their oxygen runs out. Collect them in time and you’ll recruit them to your empire. These managers will add bonuses to your earnings and can make quite a drastic difference. Executives on the other hand are the ones that will permanently give you awesome bonuses as well. To get these bonuses you need to make sure they’re happy which requires destroying asteroids and enemies to collect items. Give these items to the execs and their perks will make you earn money even quicker. You could focus solely on keeping them happy, but then you’d be missing out on the most rewarding part of the game; earning stacks of cash.
When you land on a planet, you’re able to spend money to place specific buildings, which earn you money over time, only limited to your cash flow and which buildings you’ve unlocked so far. Power Stations are what you’ll begin with, as they are cheap and don’t earn much in return. Eventually you’ll unlock farms, malls, and a handful of other buildings, each costing and earning more than the last. Each building unlock as specific requirements, so just as you think you’re earning a lot of money you’ll unlock a new building that earns more than double than the last. Each building also has a handful of upgrades that can be purchased as well, increasing the income or efficiency of each building.
Keep in mind this is planet to planet, and you’ll need to do the same for each one. You can even save up a lot of money and install an A.T.M., which means you will constantly earn the money, even when not on that planet, or else you need to go to each planet every time to pocket the earnings. Once you learn these mechanics, this is how you really start to rake in the huge dollar amounts. I used to think thousands a second was a lot, then millions, then billons, but your empire grows exponentially, even across solar systems as you progress. Once you realize that the more you spend on your enterprise, the more you’ll earn in return; it just takes time.
This is where a little of the grind comes in, as numerous times I’ve sat the controller down to do other things as my money keeps rolling in, even a half hour at a time. Coming back to a huge bank account is awesome, as is spending all of it quickly on upgrades and more buildings. Earning millions per second is awesome, which eventually becomes billions, trillions and more. Everything eventually costs more, so the earnings are scaled to your progression for the most part, though there are a ton of upgrades I’ve still yet to buy because of the exorbitant prices.
This is where the cycle begins, as you need to spend money to earn money and vice versa. The shooting mechanics are fun, though at times it can feel like two completely different games. I chose to focus on the money earning aspect more, but you will need to do a bit of everything to progress.
Vostok Inc can be funny at times and it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The humor makes its silly premise work and the core gameplay can become quite addictive when you want to build just a few more buildings to make your earnings replenish quicker. Vostok Inc is a grind but a fun one, and with its $14.99 (CAD) price tag, I recommend it if any of the above has sounded entertaining and you want to amass an obscene fortune across the galaxy with some addictive gameplay.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure
Even with the stigma of failed Kickstarters, there are a few projects that live up to their promises, Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure being one of those. Developer COWCAT, though technically a one man show by Breton Fabrice, asked for a modest $2500 to help fund his game, and nearly double that was pledged. Technically it didn’t hit the stretch goals to bring Demetrios to consoles, but it seems they made it somehow, as it’s now arrived on Xbox One for point and click fans.There’s very few point and click adventure games that release these days, nothing like in previous years when there was plenty to go around, so whenever one comes, especially to console, I’m always eager to give them a shot. So how does Demetrios compare with others in the genre, especially with ones from the likes of Artifex Mundi who has the genre on lock down on console? Well, it depends on how immature you are and if you find farts and toilet humour funny. It’s clear that Demetrios doesn’t’ take itself too seriously, which is all part of its charm.
The narrative follows normal guy Bjorn Thonen who runs an antique shop. After acquiring an odd antique he is attacked from behind and his new statue is stolen. Your main goal is to figure out what happened, who did it and why. Bjorn is just a regular dude though and by no means a detective of any sorts, so he’ll need any help he can get, mostly from his next door neighbor crush Sandra.
You’ll start your adventure in your messy apartment, eventually uncovering new locales like down the street, a hotel, bar, graveyard and other exotic places. The tale takes place across 6 different chapters, some lengthier than others, but lasting a surprising amount of time, clocking in just under 6-10 hours or so based on your prowess in the genre and reliance on the hint system.
Bjorn is not the smartest man, so many of his revelations are quite silly, as is the solutions to many of the puzzles. At times the content can become a little gross and vulgar, like using vomit as ‘glue’ for example, but it’s this immature humor that makes Demetris stand out among others. Demetrios has its moments with its humor, eliciting a chuckle here and there, again, if you find toilet humor, farts and urination stuff hilarious.
Visually Demetrios looks like an amateur comic book, with all the dialogue done through text boxes (sadly the goal wasn’t reached for voice acting to be included), though there’s only some minor animations, usually just subtle details like eyes, hair and background items. Just like the genre entails, you’ll be searching for items to collect and saving them for the right puzzle to complete or combining with other items for peculiar solutions. The majority of the puzzles have logical solutions, though combining some of the items together for the item you need can be a little nonsensical at times and a stretch of logic.
Controls are very basic, as you simply move the cursor around and click on objects that can be inspected or interacted with within each scene. Many intractable objects are simply for decoration and fluff, though you can hold the X button to see all of the items in the scene highlighted with labels. What surprised me though was the amount of minigames also included during Bjorn’s journey. Usually games of this type is the same start to finish, but there were times where some minigames were required to progress, such as fishing, horse racing or shooting a fart gun at animals. Yes, you read that right. These games are ridiculously simplistic and don’t require much skill but they help break up the monotony of searching for items across numerous scenes.
There’s an interesting hint system in place that requires you to eat cookies per hint. In every scene there are three cookies hidden in plain view. Each cookie you collect can be eaten to give you a hint of what to do next should you be come stuck and unsure what to do next. The first cookie will give you a very subtle hint, the second a little more description and the third basically telling you exactly what to do. This three tier hint system is quite helpful, and some of the puzzles are a little abstract, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for the cookies to use them for later. The main issue with finding these cookies is that they are so well hidden in the scenes that it turns into a pixel hunt most of the time. Some you’ll find no problem but others will have you completely stumped, as many simply look like a brown pixel or two hidden somewhere. There’s even an achievement for finding every cookie in the game, so good luck without a walkthrough.
Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure doesn’t do anything special that others in the genre don’t, but what it does well is stand out amongst the crowd, even if it is mostly for its immature toilet humor. Man-child’s like myself found myself laughing on more than one occasion as it never tries to take itself seriously at all. Given that Demetrios is created by a single person is even more so impressive, as I was expecting a very short adventure. The story draws out and isn’t as captivating as in the beginning, and there is a lot of going back and forth from scene to scene numerous times, but it’s still an entertaining adventure.
For $10 it may seem a little steep at first glance with its hand drawn visuals that appear low budget, but the length is surprisingly long. Puzzles are never too difficult for the most part, and even if there are moments of frustration of what to do, this is where the cookie hint system comes into play, allowing you to rely on it as much or as little as needed. If you have a juvenile sense of humor you’ll surely enjoy Demtrios for the silliness it presents, even if it can smell at times.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Fortnite
I’ve spent many, many hours in Gear of Wars' Horde modes over the years, and possibly even more in Halo’s Firefight modes, so I clearly enjoy the genre and gameplay, but something about recently released Fortnite just hasn’t clicked for me yet to fully enjoy it. Fortnite is portrayed as a mashup between a survival, building and shooter, and it has some great concepts, even in its Xbox One Game Preview state. Normally we don’t do full-fledged reviews for titles in Game Preview, but given that Epic is currently charging $39.99 to $149.99 (CDN) to play (though it will be Free to Play in 2018), we’re treating it essentially as a regular release since it costs to play.Story wise, "The Storm" arrived without warning, wiping out 98% of the world’s population. Shortly after, a seemingly endless horde of monsters started to arrive, called Husks. Clearly victims from "The Storm", these creatures are obviously former humans, as you can notice some of them wearing their former skin almost like a jacket. You’re tasked with fighting and pushing back by any means necessary. Overall it’s a pretty intriguing story, though I wish it was delved into the premise a little bit deeper and in a more interesting way than what is presented.
Fortnite is essentially a mashup of Horde mode and the game Minecraft of sorts. You need to split your time gathering resources, building a base to defend and defeating waves of Husks to survive before moving onto the next mission where you repeat the process once again. You’ll collect many different heroes with varying abilities as you progress, so there’s no one hero for you to focus on, as you’ll want to have some diversity to round out your groups. You’ll even have a home-base to call your very own, allowing you to showcase your creativity given you have the materials needed to build your dream base.
Most missions follow the same structure, dumping you into a map so you can harvest wood, stone, and metal resources with your pickaxe. At one point you’ll need to defend the Atlus, a device that thwarts those affected by The Storm, so you’ll need to use your materials to build a base on, and around, the device so that the Husks don’t destroy it as it charges power. This is where the gameplay turns into a shooter with Horde-like elements. During a match it feels as if the genre of gameplay shifts quite quickly from one type to another.
The basics are easy to comprehend, but the game eventually opens up to the point of being vastly overwhelming, which is furthered by the fact that so little is taught to you. I normally play and finish my reviews quite quickly, but this one has taken much longer than usual, and to be completely honest, there’s still a few things I still don’t fully understand; that’s how involved Fortnite can become, yet it doesn’t do a satisfactory job at teaching you much of it. That being said, it’s very simple to jump in and start harvesting and shooting, but the more in-depth meta game will take a lot of time and effort to learn on your own.
Your first dozen hours or so will breeze by, rarely being challenged, but eventually you’ll hit a brick wall and you will be forced to figure out how to craft better weapons, break down unused items, how the game's survivors work and more. It also feels that eventually you get to a point where, if you don’t have some of the top tier weaponry and know how to grind efficiently, you’re going to fall behind, unable to progress without frustration.
In the beginning Fortnite will feel as though you’re playing a survival game, chopping down trees, breaking down buildings and demolishing cars with your pickaxe. Once you have your materials, gameplay then switches to a Minecraft-like style of gameplay. Using your spoils you'll create floors, ceilings, walls, and ramps to defend your base. Lastly, the game then feels like a Horde type of game with non-stop shooting and meleeing hundreds of Husks in an attempt to survive. The varied gameplay is a novel idea. but the problem is that nearly every mission plays out exactly in the same 3-tiered path. To top it off, there are collectible cards, items and literal 'loot pinatas'; this is Fortnite in a nutshell.
Weaponry includes your typical pistols, shotguns and rifles, but you can also arm yourself with hammers, axes, swords and more if you want to be a more melee centric character. Obviously, the more rounded your group composition the better you’ll do, but given you’re randomly acquiring specific characters from loot boxes, you may not find a character that suits your play style for quite some time. It took quite awhile to finally get a decent rare character with skills that I enjoyed before leveling him up. Each different type of class has its own strengths, weaknesses and bonuses, so it’s all based on how you want to play, even if your focus would rather be gathering or building as opposed to shooting.
When you start a game session you’re simply dumped into a world with a short checklist of things to work towards. You’ll want to harvest as much as you can for materials, but there are also items that can be searched for bonus items, allowing you to craft ammunition and gather pieces for crafting better weapons. Treasure chests also randomly fill the world, so you’ll want to find these as soon as possible, as it’s everyone for themselves for the loot within (and material gathering for that matter).
Once you’re onto the building section of the game session, you essentially have freedom of what you want to create and how, though your tools are a bit limited. You work with 3x3 sections of floors and walls, and you can also make ramps from your different materials. If you want to create a window in your wall you just cross out the middle block of the grid before placing it (or edit it afterwards). If you only build the bottom 3 cubes of the grid you’ll make a low lying wall to block Husks from charging in, allowing you to shoot easier. It’s nowhere near as creative as Minecraft, and the interface is very simple, but it gets the job done for basic designs done quickly, which is what you’re usually after.
A major gameplay issue that is quite noticeable is that during most matches anyone can trigger the next phase of gameplay, and without fail someone will always trigger the Atlus defense, usually well before a solid base has been created. This 10 minute defense period requires cooperation to complete successfully, so it’s a little frustrating playing with random online gamers that are just doing whatever they like, sometimes unknowingly.
One of the main issues I have is that items have specific durability. So, you spend all this time farming materials and finally get an awesome blueprint, only to have it decay after a certain amount of use. In the beginning to mid-game point this isn’t a big deal, but when you’re crafting the high end items and they break over time, it’s clear it’s a design mechanic to sink more money into as an artificial challenge. Once you finally wrap your head around the crafting system you’ll come to realize that most of the items you get are pretty standard and not worth much of the hassle.
With all the matches I played, I can without a doubt say that Fortnite is a better game if you play strictly with friends. Playing with random people can work, but rarely as evidenced by the times that I encountered random online gamers. People will go off doing their own thing, and some won’t even help during the defense phase, so it becomes maddening to try and make up for others slack. That said, with a group of friends, especially with one or two that know what they are doing, and can help teach you mechanics better than the game ever attempts to, then it becomes fun. Rounding out your squad is a lot of fun, as is creating a base together to defend exactly however you wish.
My biggest complaint is really just the repetitiveness of the design. Nearly every match plays out the same way and the load times are quite lengthy, which doesn't help. Even though Fortnite will eventually be Free to Play, you need to purchase it to be able to play now, and numerous times, when loading the game, it checks to verify your purchase. This stage (checking my purchase) failed for me quite a few times, requiring me to hard reset my Xbox One to solve the server issue. Yes, this game is in the Game Preview program, so of course there will be bugs, but when people are laying down a lot of cash, this is not acceptable.
For whatever reason, Fortnite simply didn’t sink its hooks into me. I appreciate that it’s trying to be different by melding different styles of gameplay together, but when you’re not a fan of certain aspects and are forced to focus on them every match, it can become tiresome. If the tutorials were better, and taught more of the metagame, I probably would have understood things much clearer than I even do now. Trying to figure out all the currencies, crafting mechanics, strategies, cards and more is quite cumbersome and requires some serious dedication. In the end, you’re going to have to grind, even for simple things like creating ammunition, or of course you can pony up some cash and bypass these roadblocks.
If you have friends to play with and want to devote a good chunk of time into it, Fortnite can showcase a lot of entertaining times with some great teamwork and cooperative builds. As it stands right now though, I think gamers should wait a little while and see what gets added, changed and tweaked. Maybe by then there will be some more variety added to spruce up the tired repetitive gameplay and it will be more of a game that will make a more positive impression on those who play it.
Overall Score: 6.6 / 10
Gigantic
I’ve never been one for MOBA games, so I went into Gigantic with tepid expectations. Like others in the genre, Gigantic is based on a free to play model that allows you to join in without any cost commitment. It is also an Xbox Play Anywhere title, allowing you to play on Xbox One or Windows 10. Like others, there’s a rotating list of free characters to use, though play enough and you can buy your favorites with the in-game currency you earn, or you could pony up and buy it with real cash.For a MOBA, Gigantic feels very approachable and not too encumbered with very specific strategies that need to be employed to win. The colorful and cartoonish visual style also play a part in this approachability, as does the constant action within the confined maps. I had to describe Gigantic to a friend the other day, while playing it for this review, so I could convince him to give it a shot, and the best I could come up with was a mashup of League of Legends, Smite, World of Tanks, Paladins and Overwatch. Needless to say, that got him to give it a go and we’ve been having a blast together within Gigantic since. Even though it takes influences from other titles, its own unique spin on the genre, and polish, makes it stand out amongst the crowd, and I’m consistently learning new things about it, especially when it comes to gameplay strategies.
There’s no real main story or narrative to Gigantic, which is par for the course for the genre, but your overarching goal is to have your team’s gigantic Guardian defeat the enemy's Guardian, with each team of 5 attempting to help damage or defend. While you don’t control your Guardian directly, the actions you and your team take by defeating foes and other smaller objectives does. It’s a little much to take in at first, even with the tutorial, but once you figure out the smaller intricacies and strategies, Gigantic becomes a ton of fun when you have a team working well together and you’re proficient with a handful of characters.
The game is online multiplayer only, and it allows for 5 versus 5 gameplay (or 5 versus AI bot matches), though you’re forced to complete a tutorial in the beginning moments to give you a brief understanding at some of its mechanics. The tutorial will teach you the basics of shooting and objectives, but there’s simply not enough information given to you to really get an overall grasp on all mechanics, as some of it is very vague or only briefly mentions what things are for, like upgrading creatures. I was overwhelmed at first, not really understanding some of the objectives and mechanics, but I found that once you push through that barrier and ‘get it’, the game opens up completely and starts to make sense.
It actually took me a handful of hours of playing to really understand how all of the mechanics work together. A few matches in I also realized that I was able to upgrade my abilities in different ways. Sure, it was briefly shown to me in the beginning, but not in a clear way, and this is where Gigantic falters, as you won’t really understand many components to it until you’ve put some time to learn on your own with trial and error.
Luckily, you need to rank up a little before being thrown to the wolves in PvP action, so get used to bot matches for the first while, which is welcomed, as the difficulty seems just about right to not only learn the core mechanics, but also test out new characters that suit your playstyle or pique your curiosity. Winning matches, even against bots, earns you overall experience for your account and character that you played that match. Two modes may not seem like much, as is the low map count, but I fully expect more to be added in the future if popularity rises, and while action based shooter MOBA style games aren’t new, the Guardian component of this game really makes Gigantic stand out among the competition, giving it its own flavor to the genre. Each team has its own Guardian, which currently there’s only two of, a griffon and a snake. You fight alongside your Guardians but on a much smaller scale. The two Guardians stay on their respective sides of the map and don’t do much else aside from attacking enemies that get too close, much like towers in other MOBA’s, until your team reaches a certain score.
Once you’ve earned enough points from kills you’ll be prompted that your Guardian is about to strike the opposing team’s Guardian, which is when the most chaos tends to take place. During the time when the Guardians are fighting, the enemies’ Guardian is vulnerable to direct attack from your team, as this is the only time you can actually damage it. This brief window of opportunity will have both teams colliding into a small area to attack and defend, and it brings some serious excitement when it happens.
The Guardians have 3 bars of health, and if you do the maximum damage per Guardian battle, you’ll deplete a full bar of health from them. So, in a perfect match you’ll only need 3 Guardian attack phases to win the game, as the opposing Guardian dying is the ultimate goal, and how you win, though there will be times where the defending team doesn’t allow much damage to get through, so some matches may take longer with more attack phases needed.
While the Guardian battles are your main objective, this is a MOBA, and instead of towers around the map that need to be destroyed to push forward, you instead summon different types of creatures that act somewhat like a traditional MOBA tower. The interesting thing about these creatures is that they are located at certain chokepoints, but you’re able to choose specific creatures that either heal nearby teammates, block pathways, spot nearby enemies and more. While I favor the healing creatures personally, there’s clearly a strategy required for placing the ‘proper’ creature at specific spots to help your teams effectiveness. You’re also able to upgrade them as the match continues on, making them more powerful, so they can be quite an asset and need to be defended, as letting the enemy team kill them will grant them more power.
Combat plays a big role in Gigantic, with your skills being mapped to the triggers and bumpers, and there is even an ultimate move, called a Focus Attack which powers up by defeating enemy players. You’re able to sprint and dodge, though these moves consume your slowly regenerating stamina bar. Every skill and ability can be upgraded along two different paths, so as you earn experience from kills and other objectives, you’ll earn skill points to upgrade your firepower. By default there’s a quick recommended upgrade path, such as more healing power, faster shots, etc., or you can look at the options and decide to spec a specific way. You should also note that these upgrades are specifically for the given match you’re competing in and not permanent beyond that.
Being able to specialize a certain way really opens up some unique strategies and how to better meld as a cohesive unit with your teammates. I main play a healer, Vadasi, and most of the time I’m focused on healing my teammates, but there are times where someone else will also be playing a healer on the team as well, Uncle Sven for example, so in situations like this it’s great that I have the ability to spec towards a slightly more DPS build or buffs instead of straight healing. This versatility is true for each character and encourages experimentation, finding what works best for your play style and team composition. The recommended upgrades are quick and simple, but knowing exactly what each skill can branch into will go a long way, separating the casual players from the pros. My biggest complaint is that there’s nowhere in the menus outside of a match to look up and study this information, so you’ll need to take valuable time per game to read and decide.
Like most MOBA’s, Gigantic also employs a ton of characters, some quite standard and others very unique. Of course you have your typical DPS that can be melee or ranged, tanks, and healers, but there’s also a handful of hybrid characters that play quite unique from many of the others. Aisling is one of my favorites for example, listed as Summoner/Utility, she is able to summon a ghost of her dead father to fight alongside her or can even pull him back inside her sword for a quick heal when needed.
There are currently 19 heroes in the selection screen, though clearly more will be added in the future. Popular among MOBA’s, there’s always a handful of characters that will be available to play for everyone, and as this is a free-to-play title, so they rotate the free characters every so often. Obviously you can buy a pack of characters or specific ones once you find out which characters best suit your play style. Full disclosure; we were sent the Ultimate Pack (around $30), which grants every current and future champion, so I’ve been able to give every single one a go, clearly favoring some over others. There’s a Starter Pack as well for those not wanting to jump in both feet first, but even the $30 price point is decent for everyone included.
Even if you decide to stay as a 'free play' user, this is where the Fortune Card system makes it a little more tolerable. You earn currency for winning matches, but there’s also an included mission objective system built in with Fortune Cards. These are randomized cards that you get that will give you specific objectives to complete, and doing so will earn you extra experience and currency. You can have seven cards in play at any given time, working towards multiple ones simultaneously. Once you complete one, you’re able to choose one of three randomly drawn cards from your deck (should you have any, as these are also given for leveling up).
What I enjoyed about this system more than your typical objective missions, that say World of Tanks gives you, is that you have a choice of which you want to work on. Some cards will be rare and harder to complete but give better rewards, while others will be for specific characters as well, which encourages you to try out someone you may not have previously, as I normally tend to stick with what I know. You’re also able to discard a card in play as well if you know you’ll never work towards it or have no desire to.
I really enjoyed the aesthetic Gigantic uses, as it’s cartoony and colorful, somewhat like a mix of Overwatch and Paladins, and it seems to suit the mood and feel of the game as well, especially the Guardians. When playing online, even in full 5 versus 5 matches, I had no performance or lag issues, which is welcome at launch for a multiplayer driven game like this.
As I mentioned above, I was very unsure going into Gigantic, simply because I’ve never found a MOBA that I’ve really enjoyed for a long period of time. Even though there needs to be some balancing and more maps added in the future to prevent staleness, Gigantic is off to a fantastic start with a wide selection of unique characters, fun upgrades for abilities and some unique mechanics that allow it to stand apart from others in the genre. It may not be popular enough yet to dethrone other games from the top spots in the genre, but it sure does have some 'gigantic' potential.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure
It seems that back in the 90’s, platforming games were the go-to for hit titles, producing some instant classics like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie among others. There’s been a slight resurgence of the genre, especially with Yooka-Laylee releasing recently, so I was interested on how Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure would hold up against others in the genre, as it’s been quite some time since I’ve played a great platformer.The genre might not be anywhere near as popular as it once used to be, especially with the lukewarm reception Yooka-Laylee received, but I always enjoy a decent platformer, so I had high hopes for Unbox going in. I was surprised with how much charm Unbox had, as you play an adorable cardboard box (yes, you read that right) that rolls and hops his way across a huge adventure, complete with a silly, yet fitting, story premise. The beauty about the genre is that it’s generally quite easy to pick up and play without too much instruction needed to learn complicated mechanics, and it’s no different here either. The world and art style is very cute and welcoming, so the younger audience should have a fun time controlling Newbie even if there are some decent challenges within that will require some serious platforming skill.
You play as Newbie, an adorable cardboard box (it’s hard not to smile while writing that) that’s off on a grand adventure. In fact, every character is some sort of cardboard box, so it’s a unique world and setting right from the get-go. While it’s a typical ‘save the world’ type of narrative, kind of, it’s got a cute twist on the trope that seems to also fit with the adorable setting. The Global Postal Service (GPS) are sentient boxes that deliver themselves, but one day some of these boxes split and made a new faction called the Wild Cards, essentially turning into the ‘bad guys’. The Wild Cards are bent on stopping the GPS, so Newbie is set out to defeat their leader and bring the GPS back to its former glory. It’s a story that’s absolutely silly but feels fitting given the characters and backdrop. Given that Unbox never tries to take itself seriously, it simply works, and you don’t question it oddly enough.
Newbie may be a simple cardboard box, but he has the ability to move in any direction, jump and even unbox, which acts as a double jump of sorts (though you can do it up to six times). You move with the Left Stick and control the camera with the Right, pretty standard stuff, and it may seem like you’re controlling a rolling sphere at times, you need to remember that Newbie is a cube, so sometimes his movements won’t be a smooth as expected given his edges.
At the title menu you’re actually able to customize Newbie from a plain brown box to be outfitted with eyes, hats, clothes and accessories. There’s only a handful of options from the beginning, but as you progress through his adventure, you’ll unlock more customizable options, some being quite silly, again, adding to the charm of your own personal Newbie.
I found the unbox mechanic to be quite unique, as you’re able to jump with a single button press, but you can have a maximum of 6 unbox charges, allowing you to essentially double jump, up to 6 times in succession. Every time you unbox, a slightly smaller Newbie pops out of the box and is your new controllable Newbie, much like a Matryoshka stacking doll. Around the world you’ll find pickups that can replenish your unboxes, but his is how you’ll traverse to many difficult to reach places. It’s an adorable take on the mechanic, and you’ll need to be very strategic with how and when to unbox if you want to find all of the hidden collectibles throughout the world.
I’m not normally one to obsess over finding collectibles hidden throughout the world, but something about finding the 200 golden tape rolls had me searching high and low for as many as I could. There are also hidden stamps and prisoner boxes to rescue as well, so there’s plenty to accomplish if you’re a completionist. The core gameplay is you progressing through challenges so that you can earn stamps, allowing you to challenge the Wild Cards’ leader once enough have been earned. Some of these challenges are simple time limited delivery missions, others have you traversing tall buildings and more. You’ll notice after a handful of hours that many challenges eventually repeat and feel shallow, but that’s when I would go hunting for some golden tape as a slight distraction.
Many of the challenges are quite simple once you have a feeling for how Newbie controls, but there’s always the odd time that you’ll lose precious time from getting stuck in random places or the camera disorientates you, not uncommon to 3D platforming games. These challenges were easy enough for me to complete, save for a few, but quite challenging for my 4 year old daughter, so it will come down to your platforming skill.
My daughter loved being able to roll around as a box, but enjoyed customizing Newbie even more so once I unlocked silly accessories like goofy classes, bunny ears, and more. If you’re simply going to focus on the challenges and progress through the campaign, it can be finished in short work, so I highly suggest taking the time to do some collectible searching to add some length to the gameplay.
Newbie’s world is very colorful and inviting, putting a smile on your face when you realize you’re talking to cardboard boxes. There may not be any voice acting involved, as it’s simply Sims-like gibberish, but the writing is quite clever and there’s quite a few humorous lines contained within if you take the time to read the dialogue between characters. The soundtrack is also very fitting, employing a fleeting and lighthearted vibe that fits with the fun backdrop.
While there is a local multiplayer option included, I rarely have friends come over to game, so it was a little disappointing to see the lack of an online multiplayer component included, as I would have played for much longer if I was able to search for gold tape rolls with a friend online. Given the slightly high price tag for this type of game ($22.49 CAD), this would have added a lot of value and justified the asking price. There are some random bugs that I ran into such as framerate drops, getting stuck in odd places in the geometry, long loading screens and other minor issues, but these are more nitpicky observations. In general, Newbie plays and performs fine for the most part, but it will take some time to become accustomed to how to control Newbie with precision.
The genre may not be what it once used to be, but Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure proves that you can still create a fun and inviting game within its constraints. While it won’t reach classic status like Banjo-Kazooie, Unbox is a fun distraction that offers a decent amount of gameplay should you want to invest the time into it, all while being an adorable cardboard box. If you’re a fan of the 90’s platforming and have been yearning for another adventure, come meet Newbie and help the GPS, as it will most likely put a smile on your face.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
SUPERBEAT: XONiC
I’ve always gravitated towards music and rhythm games, so when the genre exploded in the late 90’s and 2000’s I had more than enough different types to play depending on my mood. From DDR, Beatmania, Guitar Hero, Pop N Music, PaRappa and even more, if there’s a rhythm based game out there, chances are I’ve played it. This is why I was excited to get my hands on SUPERBEAT: XONiC, as it’s a spiritual successor to the DJMax series, though it looks or plays nothing like it. Even though I never really got into the DJMax series, developers PM Studios clearly knows what they’re doing when it comes to rhythm based games given their pedigree. While the gameplay is unique and incredibly challenging, the only thing holding me back from really loving it was the music catalog.Very few music based games revolve around any type of narrative, and that’s no different here, as you’re just focused on the music and gameplay more than anything else. While gameplay is incredibly important in a rhythm game, I’d argue that the music itself is even more important, as if you’re just not into the beats that are offered, there’s little hope that you’ll return to keep playing after unlocking every song. This is somewhat my problem with XONiC, as I enjoy the incredibly challenging gameplay, but the music catalog isn’t really my cup of tea.
Actually, I didn’t recognize a single song in the whole playlist, as it seems a bulk of the music is very anime inspired and comes from overseas, so don’t expect any licensed music that you may be hearing on the radio at all. That’s not a knock against the game itself, and I’m sure fans of anime-like soundtracks will enjoy it, but I found it uninspiring to continue playing once I unlocked the bulk of the songs. That being said, some of the music was beautiful, as many songs are low tempo with lots of lyrics, though there are a few EDM-like tracks and much more ‘harder’ types of songs sprinkled within as well, I just wish there was more variety, or some more western based music.
Like all music based games, your score is dependent on how accurately you can press the corresponding buttons in rhythm at the correct time. Even though there is a small tutorial in the beginning, the UI will take some time to really grasp ahold of and understand, and the buttons you use are dependent on the mode/difficulty you play on. 4Trax mode is essentially the easy/normal mode you want to begin, as it doesn’t use all of the buttons and is an easy entry way into the melodic gameplay. Once you jump to 6Trax though, it’s a whole new game with many more button inputs to follow and succeed with. For those that truly have skill, there’s even an unlockable 6Trax FX mode that amps the difficulty even higher, though I’m still struggling with 6Trax myself.
The notes you need to play originate from the middle of the screen and flow towards the outer edges where you need to press the corresponding button at the right time. If the regular bar notes go to the left side of the screen you need to use the up and down on the D-pad to hit that note, if they go to the right then the buttons are used instead. There are yellow arrow notes that need to be flicked with the corresponding left or right stick at the appropriate time, and also notes that need to be moved up and down with the rhythm with the stick. Once you get a hang of the regular notes, the flick notes and stick holds will surely throw your rhythm out of balance until it starts to make sense and feel natural.
Combined with hold notes and you can quickly see how challenging this can become. Once your skilled enough to try the 6Trax mode, there’s essentially 3 lanes on each side which use the up, down, and left/right on the D-pad for the left side notes, and the top, middle and bottom face buttons for the right side. Once you make it up to the 6Trax FX mode, they also throw in FX notes that uses the bumpers to hit, so when you become quite skilled at XONiC, nearly every button and stick will be used at all times, resulting in frantic but satisfying gameplay.
Stage mode is where the bulk of your gameplay will happen, where you choose one song at a time to play and net an overall ranking once a certain amount of tunes are completed. You need to pass your current song to move onto the next, and at the end of all three songs you’ll be given an overall ranking and are able to play those songs in free play. World Tour mode is a set of predetermined song set lists and goals to achieve that you play back to back. What I enjoyed most from this mode is that your combos continue between songs, so it’s possible to rack up some massive combos when you’re playing 5 songs in a row.
XONiC has a leveling system in place that I didn’t expect, and is done in a unique way. As you level up you’ll unlock more songs, naturally, but you’ll also unlock new DJ’s that can be used. At first I thought they were just profile pictures, but it turns out each DJ has its own passive bonuses that can really improve your gameplay experience. Some of these DJ bonuses range from extra XP, more health, able to miss notes without your combo breaking and more. Once I saw the bonus perks for each DJ, the gameplay became a lot more interesting, as I would use a DJ with an XP bonus on songs I had no problem completing, but used others to help carry me through the more challenging tunes. I do wish this was explained more clearly early on, as I wasted a lot of gameplay time before realizing the bonus perks for using different DJ’s.
You’ll also unlock different sound effects that can be used during play. These sounds are your ‘hit’ markers that you’ll hear hundreds of times a song, and some sounds are better suited for specific types of songs. You’ll get the typical snare drums, high hats, and boops and beeps, but eventually you’ll start to unlock odd sounds like dog barks and such that add a unique flavor to the music, but are more silly than practical.
SUPERBEAT: XONiC has a lot of potential and offers some really unique and challenging gameplay. Its worth is essentially going to boil down to two factors though: It’s genre of music selection and its bulky $39.99 price tag. Granted, there’s a good amount of songs included, but as I mentioned above, if you’re not into the genre that it heavily relies upon, you might feel the asking price is a little too steep.
There’s a lot of gameplay mechanics I really like, as it’s been quite some time that I’ve been this challenged with a music game, as I normally can master them quite quickly, but XONiC still confuses me in a good way. I’ll surely dabble back into it now and then for its gameplay, it’s just a shame about its music selection and price, as I could see this one doing well otherwise for fellow rhythm based lovers like myself.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
A Hole New World
It’s not uncommon these days to launch a Kickstarter to help fund a game, going from concept to reality. A Hole New World is no different, as a few years ago it had a modest goal of $8000, which luckily was met. Their pitch was to have a NES inspired retro title with modern playability and mechanics, so clearly there is still a desire for gamers to have this type of game in their library. Well, the game is now on the Xbox One for console players, and I’m always excited to play some NES retro goodness as that was my childhood as a young gamer.Created with simplicity in mind, A Hole New World doesn’t over complicate things with tons of mechanics or fancy features. In fact, if you didn’t know it was a recent release you would most likely mistake it for a classic NES game from decades ago, that’s how well they nailed not only the retro visuals, but the incredibly challenging gameplay as well. You start out only being able to attack by lobbing an endless amount of potions, but you eventually learn new abilities and attacks as you progress through the handful of worlds.
You play as a potion master who is seemingly the only one that can defeat the evil Lord Baduk, an enemy who has torn the world in two after finding one of the world’s powerful and mystic crystals. The regular upper world is good, while the invasion of enemies have come from the evil one below. You’ll need to traverse across through both worlds, and many levels, to finish your journey, but don’t expect it to be an easy feat, as the classic and challenging gameplay of an era gone by has been amped up, even seeming unfair at times.
Within minutes of playing you’ll recognize the games that inspire A Hole New World, as there are traces of Castlevania, Mega Man, and Ghouls ‘n Ghosts to just name a few. There’s no easy mode setting or tutorial, but it does boast that you should already know how it play with its simplistic jump and shoot control scheme, and it’s true. While it’s quite difficult later on, you should instinctively know how to play right from the get-go. Pressing ‘A’ will jump and ‘X’ will shoot, and eventually when you gain more potion types you can switch between them quickly with the bumpers. If you’ve ever played any of these types of classic games before, you’ll have no problem jumping right in.
As mentioned above, the developers absolutely nailed the visuals, making it look like a classic NES title with its retro graphics. The spritework is amazing and the animations are fluid, just as if they belong in the NES era of gaming. I swear some of the animations were taken directly from some classic games like Castlevania, that’s how great they look. Controls are just as tight, as you’ll jump and move exactly where you want, and when you die, it’s usually your own fault; usually.
The world setup is taken from classic gaming as well, as you’ll need to progress from world to world, defeating the big bad boss that, once defeated, grants you access to a new type of attack, a la Mega Man of sorts. Your default potion attack is a simple arced lob, but as you vanquish each boss from the worlds you’ll gain new attacks like a lightning strike, fire and ice ricochet and more. You’ll need to combine all your attack types with jumps and dodges if you want to progress, and eventually you’ll hit a brick wall of difficulty, especially once you’re forced to traverse the underworld more often.
One mechanic I didn’t expect, and actually found out by accident, was a dual world mechanic, going back and forth between the two main worlds. Most games from this era had tons of pits that if fallen into would instantly kill you, but in A Hole New World the game takes you to the other world underneath. So, when you first fall into a pit by accident, don’t expect to die, as you’ll be underneath the surface still playing. When you’re in this other world though, everything it’s reversed, as you’re walking on the ceiling and gravity is reversed, so this gameplay can mess with your mind, even more so when gameplay becomes chaotic with tons of enemies shooting and chasing you.
The difference between the two worlds is noticeable, as the overworld is bright and colorful while the underworld has an evil vibe with fire and poison traps all around. The underworld isn’t just a pallet swap either, and in the later worlds, when you’re forced to play more underneath the surface, you’re going to curse yourself for not getting used to the ‘backwards’ world earlier on.
The game's difficulty has to be noted. Now, I know that games back in the NES era were difficult by design, but wow, the difficulty of this game really spikes right around the second world boss. All of sudden you’re constantly dying and you have to be much slower and methodical with your plan of attack. Boss fights are the worst for this offence, as normally it’s simply a matter of memorizing their attack patterns and adjusting, but most bosses do massive attacks that can cover nearly the whole screen. At first I thought I could hide from these projectiles by jumping to the underworld, but nope, they go across both of the worlds’ plains. Expect to get hit and die a lot, especially during boss fights where you’ll need to hit continue a dozen times or so while you pray for some luck.
Many enemies start to become unfairly cheap as well, as eventually their projectiles can travel through barriers, yet you’re unable to do so. Just like in classic Mega Man fashion, if there’s a single platform you need to jump to, I guarantee there will be some sort of enemy waiting for you there or one around the area just about to shoot something your way to cause you to fall off. It becomes frustrating and seemingly unfair at times; nothing that can’t be learned, but be aware you’ll need some patience.
Not only does the art style and graphics fit the 'classic' era, but so does the music. The melodies fit the mood and tone of the world you’re in, though expect to hear the same riffs over and over, as it restarts every time you die, just as it did back then as well. Some modern day enhancements have been added though, as there is the option for a New Game+ if you have the fortitude to actually complete the game the first time through, Boss Rush, and more, so those seeking a challenge and longevity, you’ll be happy to know there’s a lot of content here for the price.
There is one massive black stain on the whole experience that I ran into many times, resulting in numerous unfair deaths. When there’s too much going on the screen due to enemies, projectiles, or both, the framerate starts to tank horrendously. The odd dip here and there could be tolerated, but in a game where you need perfect precision to live with a small health pool, and framerates dipping down to literally 0 at points, it’s unacceptable. Even during boss fights there were times where they did their massive area attacks and the framerate literally stops for moments, causing numerous unfair deaths.
At the end of the day, even though I personally feel the difficulty was set a little too high, I enjoyed my time with A Hole New World for the most part, save for the horrendous framerate issues that pop up here and there. I grew up in the NES area of gaming, so titles like this are close to my heart and whisk me back to a day where I would sit at home all day on the couch trying to beat a single game. Sure, the game is unfair at times with its difficulty, but that’s how games were back then, and this is a love letter to an era long gone, which is a shame, as the artwork and gameplay comes from a special time in gaming, something you don’t see replicated well very often.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan
It seems every month or two there’s a new Artifex Mundi release that finds its way onto my lap, and to be honest, I always look forward to it. I’ve become a fan of their simplistic HOG (hidden object game) gameplay over the last half dozen releases. I find these types of games quite relaxing, and even though puzzle games generally have the ability to frustrate if you become stuck, there’s a welcome hint system should you need to rely on it to progress.Not all of their titles receive a direct sequel, and I quite enjoyed the first Grim Legends, so I was looking forward to continuing on this journey that had already played out its first telling. Does Grim Legends 2: Songs of the Dark Swan improve on its predecessor to call itself a great sequel, or is it more of the game with simply a shared name?
You play as a healer, summoned to the kingdom to help the Queen recover from a terrible sickness. As per the course with Artifex Mundi titles, the situation spirals completely out of control once you arrive, leaving you alone to solve the mysteries held within and save the day. Given that the campaign can be completed during a single sitting in two or three hours, depending on your puzzle solving prowess, I won’t give much away, but like nearly every other Artifex Mundi game, you’ll see the plot twist coming a mile away. Sure, the predictability may come down to its writing, but in the end it’s still an entertaining journey due to its gameplay.
If you’ve played any of their HOG titles before, you’ll know exactly what to expect with its search of items and solving of puzzles that impede your progress. Slider puzzles, check, rotating puzzles, check, HOG’s, check. It’s as if they have a master template of a game saved somewhere and just add in the new storyline elements and call it a day. While it should be becoming stale after this many titles of generally the same gameplay, I’m still finding myself enjoying each title that releases.
Given that I categorize these types of games into the HOG genre, they of course make a return in Grim Legends 2 as well, though I found the ones included here much more difficult than normal. Sure, you could simply spam the ‘A’ button and move the stick around to find all the items randomly, but part of the fun is to find each item legitimately, scowering the scene for items hidden in plain sight. If there was an award for being able to blend objects into the background, Artifex Mundi would certain be the champions, as I had to sometimes result in the hint system or the ‘A’ button spam to find those elusive objects.
Just like most of their titles, eventually you’ll gain a small sidekick that can help you reach or retrieve items, adding another subtle layer of complexity to some of the puzzles. Most of the games from Artifex Mundi allow you to have the sidekick for a short time, but in Grim Legends 2 you’ll actually gain access to three different sidekicks; an otter, forest spirit and a small bird. They don’t play a huge part of the gameplay, and will only be used a handful of times, but they are cute and resourceful as always.
You’ll complete the campaign in a handful of short hours, so luckily they’ve included a short-but-sweet bonus episode that gives you another hour or so of gameplay. Most of their games include this bonus story that plays as an epilogue, though this bonus story simply revolved around the forest spirits trying to get rid of a sleeping dragon. Not that I’m complaining, but it didn’t really relate to the main story as well as some of their other games.
If you’re concerned with longevity and replayability, the standard casual and expert difficulty are present, with casual giving you more hints should you become stuck. There are also hidden collectibles scattered throughout each of the scenes should you want to find absolutely everything and lengthen your gameplay.
I’ve always been impressed with Artifex Mundi’s art direction, as enough good things can’t be said about their hand drawn backgrounds. Each scene is seemingly hand painted, vibrant in colors, and each feels unique in its own way. The animations have become much better with each title’s release. Facial animations are much improved in Grim Legends 2, as they don’t look like puppets with stiff animations any longer. It’s not perfect, but it’s a vast improvement, which gives me hope that the next title will look even better.
As for the audio, they still have the same problem as before: very poor voice acting. It’s like a black spot on the series, and I would be willing to overlook it if the main characters were voiced decently, with the side characters being done poorly, but some of the voicing in Grim Legends 2 is absolutely cringe worthy. There’s a handful of characters that sound as if they’ve never acted before and will completely take you out of the immersion, and I truly hope this gets remedied in future titles.
I’m a fan of the HOG genre and nearly every Artifex Mundi release, and for $10 it’s a great diversion from your regular go-to titles if you simply want a break from the norm. While Grim Legends 2 wasn’t very challenging overall, save for a sliding puzzle or two, it doesn’t wear out its welcome. Even though it’s a sequel, it’s still a great title to jump into if you’re new to the genre and looking for a relaxing HOG puzzle game, even if it doesn’t necessarily add anything new.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Perception
I’m not usually one for survival horror games, as I become very tense with the suspense and jump scares that ensue. I’m also not usually one for walking simulators, as they usually don’t offer a lot of gameplay other than, well, walking around. The recently released game Perception seems to have blended these two together, which seems like it would be my worst nightmare, but given the fact that the development team houses some industry veterans, I went in with no expectations.Perception has you navigating a haunted mansion as a blind girl trying to solve its mysteries, all while some “presence” chases you down. Given that you’re blind, you navigate with echolocation, which makes for some unique visuals, but sometimes lackluster gameplay as well. Perception is an unusual title with some good concepts, some that I’ve not played before, but there’s a few issues that need to be addressed.
Story wise, you play as Cassie, a blind girl who has reoccurring nightmares about a certain mansion, so just as any sane person would do (note sarcasm), she seeks out the haunted mansion, alone of course, and decides to investigate it. It’s seemingly been abandoned, but it doesn’t take long for Cassie to realize that something isn’t right here, as if there’s a presence watching her every move. You’ll be searching throughout the house, through the previous owners’ things, to gather clues to explain what’s happened.
As it turns out, there’s a spirit of some sort that inhabits the house, seemingly for generations, and now that Cassie is trapped within, she must solve its mysteries if she wants to survive. The narrative is broken into separate chapters, each of which revolve around a different story of each one of the house’s previous owners. You’ll explore vastly different stories, and each one also makes the house itself slightly shift to match its narrative. There’s one chapter that revolves around a wife worried about her husband deployed overseas during the war, and certain hallways will transform into bunkers with barbwire. Another chapter will have you going to the 1600’s. This 'shifting' is an interesting way to change the backdrop even though it’s still confined within the mansion itself.
Due to Cassie’s blindness, you ‘see’ with echolocation, much like how Daredevil does, with sound reverberations. Stand still and you’ll see nothing, but tap your cane and take some steps, or turn on a fan, and the soundwaves allow you to see a short distance all around you. It has an interesting aesthetic, as everything is outlined in a blue hue for the most part, with doorways and hiding spots highlighted in green. Even though you can somewhat see due to this, you’re still at the mercy of your disability though, especially in the later chapters where you don’t want to constantly be tapping your cane, as sound also attracts “The Presence”, the ghastly creature trying to find you.
You tap your cane with the Right Trigger, and anything in your immediate vicinity lights up, allowing you to essentially see for a short period of time. This means that you need to constantly be tapping your cane, which does become annoying after a while. On one hand you need to tap to navigate, but on the other you’re also discouraged from doing so, as it allows 'The Presence' to find you as well, so it’s a mixture of a unique way to display Cassie’s handicap, but it also makes for frustrating gameplay.
You have no weapons to defend yourself, and while there’s no combat in the game, as you simply need to run or hide when you’re being chased, the bulk of your gameplay will be fumbling around in the dark, searching for objects to help you explain what’s happened in the mansion. Cassie does have a phone, which she will use from time to time to allow for picture-to-speech, and it is also a clever way around her blindness. There’s also an app that she has that allows Cassie to upload a picture to a representative whom will describe what they see.
The suspense in Perception is quite high, as you’ll constantly be hearing sounds from afar, not knowing if it’s something nearby or simply the house itself. There’s no real enemies aside from the handful of times when 'The Presence' chases you, but there are a bunch of jump scares that you’ll need to endure. Most of these are cheap scares, but there were a few instances when I was really creeped out. For example, I came into a room with a disturbing doll held within a barbwire cage and a single note on the ground at a dead end hall. I used my phone to scan the note and it translated it to say “behind you”. Needless to say, I didn’t want to look behind me, and it’s these moments that the game shines when Cassie’s vulnerability feels like yours as well.
Even though the gameplay itself is quite slow and simple, I ran into some problems that really brought down the whole experience. One time I was getting chased by 'The Presence', and as I interacted with a hiding spot to escape, but I guess it caught me at the exact same moment, killing me and having me fall through the world. No buttons worked and I was forced to quit and retry that section once again. Another time had me opening a door, as usual, but the game completely froze, forcing a dashboard quit, only to restart from my last auto save, losing a half hour of aimless wandering progress. Needless to say, with these two issues are examples of what you might experience, and I know that I felt frustrated and wondered why they occurred.
What Perception does do right, and very well, is its narrative, especially once you piece together the story arcs and figure out what’s going on. More importantly though, the voice acting is a highlight. The woman who voices Cassie does so amazingly, as her performance sounds completely believable, even when doing a quick monologue about the mundane objects she’s inspecting.
Sadly though, the majority of the gameplay focuses on you fumbling around in the dark, trying to find the next object that triggers a door to unlock or pathway to open. Given that the house can literally shape shift and change, it’s hard to sometimes keep a bearing of where you are or where you’ve been with your lack of sight; a conscious decision I’m sure, to play into the blindness effect, but it really makes the gameplay mundane and frustrating.
There’s very little reason to reply the game once you’ve completed the story unless you’re searching for all the hidden collectibles. The gameplay is very repetitive and generally devolves into you frustratingly getting lost and going in circles until you happen upon an object you missed the first ten times you walked by it. Perception has some great ideas and concepts though, and there’s definitely some tension and suspense that highlights the horror aspect, but as a game, it’s more unsatisfying than it is entertaining. I applaud its uniqueness and blind girl heroine, but there’s too many shortcomings and bugs to offer it a full recommendation.
Overall Score: 5.5 / 10
Town of Light, The
I had no idea what to expect from The Town of Light before I began playing it, what I ended up experiencing though is a dark and heavy narrative based on real life events. Mental health isn’t an issue tackled very often in gaming as gaming is meant to whisk you away from the real world for a short time, free to clear your mind of any issues and and allow you to have some fun, so when a game tackles serious subject matter like this, I always become intrigued as it’s not something you get to experience often in a game format. But after the credits rolled, I asked myself if The Town of Light was really a game, or more of a slightly interactive story.The Town of Light takes place in the 1930’s and 1940’s, revolving around the mental health care system in Italy. Mental institutions, as their aptly called, are a backdrop used in many creepy or scary games and movies, and for good reason; sterile rooms, long dark hallways, screams of patients and staff that usually take advantage of their patients, all of which apply to The Town of Light’s story as well.
By its looks alone you’d expect The Town of Light to be full of jump scares, but that isn’t the case at all, as you explore an abandoned mental asylum years after its doors have been closed, finding bits and pieces of information relating to a young 16-year-old patient named Renee. The further you dig the more horrifying the revelations become, as developer LKA does not shy away from any of the adult content, which includes abuse, rape, and lobotomies. Needless to say, The Town of Light deals with some very heavy subject matter, and even though some topics are simply alluded to, it gives you an eerie peak into atrocities that actually happened not all that long ago.
What makes the game's content even more disturbing is that much of this tale is based on facts and evidence found years later. As a matter of fact, the building you explore, is an actual place as well that was in Italy, named Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, is an actual mental health institution from years ago. Seeing pictures side by side makes the tale even creepier, and ultimately, incredibly saddening knowing that these events have taken place in some form or another.
So, while the narrative of The Town of Light is rooted deep in fact and horror, the gameplay can be simply described as a walking simulator. You interact with certain items by pressing ‘A’ with your reticule over them, but the majority of this interaction consists of simply opening doors or finding the item you’re looking for. There’s no HUD at all, so you need to listen and pay attention to know where to go next, as the character will say things like “I should check the nurse’s room” to give you a clue of where to head off to next. Sometimes the hints are a little less subtle, but you shouldn’t really become stuck at any point. This is the majority of the gameplay, simply finding where to go next in the massive building and progress the story along.
As you explore you’ll learn more about Renee, finding out why she’s there, and more importantly, what horrific things happened to her under the care of her doctors. There’s no combat, there are no jump scares, there’s simply walking around at an incredibly slow pace to read letters, diaries and look at pictures so that the narrative can unfold before you. The pace of the gameplay is much too slow, and if you don't have any patience for walking simulators, slow ones at that, you’re going to grow tired of how long it takes to get places, not even including becoming lost and wandering aimlessly.
You can press a button to repeat the last hint to tell you where you should head next, but I ran into one part where it didn’t actually tell me that I needed to find a specific room and close the door and windows to trigger the next event. After an hour of aimlessly wandering at a snail’s pace, I had to resort to looking it up online, which made me wonder why I wasn’t told what to do it in the first place; possibly a bug I guess.
For those that want to explore everything, there are a handful of Renee’s diary pages to be found, giving you some more insight into her character and the tribulations she faced. At certain points you’ll be given options of what to think and how you can respond (to yourself), which can lead the narrative in a slightly different path. You can either play into Renee’s thoughts or completely disagree and disparage her opinions, which results in different branching paths. So, while this is a great way to add some replayability once you see the credits roll, the painfully slow pace kind of made me not want to play it again, even if I’d experience some slightly different cutscenes. The initial loading times are also excruciatingly lengthy and the menu is sluggish, which clearly doesn’t help encourage you to want play any longer than you have to.
While the environment looks very detailed and fitting for the setting, there are numerous graphical issues, like lots of framerate drops and some serious screen tearing. While you’ll only see other characters in Renee’s memories, they appear quite dated, slightly taking you out of the intended immersion. On the other hand, the voiceover work was done incredibly well, as you should really be able to relate to Renee through the narrator, like I managed to do. The rest of the audio has a very distilled soundscape to it, making the deserted building almost come to life.
Gameplay didn’t add anything to the experience, and to be honest, it probably took a little away from what this gaming experience could have been. It’s a journey of discovery, but one I would have rather watched than ‘played’. It’s hard to believe that situations within this narrative actually happened, but we know it has at some point, and this is quite an eye opener, for myself at least.
The Town of Light’s narrative is incredibly heart wrenching, and at times very disturbing and difficult to watch without eliciting some sort of emotional response. The ending I received will be remembered for quite some time, and I appreciated the short live action summary once the game was concluded, but that made me realize something very important; The Town of Light would have been much more engrossing and powerful as a short film instead of a game, it simply feels like the wrong medium for such a tale.
Overall Score: 5.6 / 10
Jump Stars
I hear the cries for local multiplayer and splitscreen games all the time, and I have to admit, I was once in the camp of yearning for more couch co-op games with my friends, but that was years ago before online gameplay was the norm, as it is today. Nowadays it’s pretty rare for me to have a friend or so over, and if I do, it’s usually for more sophisticated reasons, like dinner or playdates for the kid, so I don’t have a need for many local multiplayer games anymore as I once used to. Sure there are people out there that still gather weekly or so and do local gaming together, but no one I know does that anymore, including myself, as we all just get online and play together from the comforts of our own homes. There’s a time and a place for everything though, as having a fun local multiplayer game is great to have ready at hand for those rare occasions that you do have a friend, or three, over.Jump Stars aims to be your new go-to for local multiplayer antics with friends, as it’s filled with numerous minigames and quick play sessions that can be customized however you deem fit for your group of friends. Yup, Jump Stars is a local multiplayer only game for 2-4 players, so don’t go in expecting any sort of single player component or online play with your friends, which was my mistake, but for the low entry price point, it’s hard to argue.
The general premise of Jump Stars is that you’re participating in some sort of demented gameshow on TV where the prize is to win and stay alive. You, and the manic host, are cute little cubes with faces, and you’ll take part in a handful of event types across 20 or so stages. You need to survive the tournament by defeating your opponents in each minigame, yet need to work together as well if you want to boost your overall scores, so things can become an interesting affair when your friend suddenly turns on you, trying to ‘cheat’ his way to a victory when you assumed cooperation. This is Jump Stars’ strength, yet is also its weakness, as it doesn’t feel as if it has one unified goal, or way to accomplish it well.
Once you’ve gathered at least one friend to come over and play with you, you’ll head into one of two modes: Tournament or My Show. Tournament has you playing through a random series of events, each of which end when there’s only one player standing. Your goal is to accumulate a high enough score by the end of the small series of events to participate in “The Gauntlet”, which requires teamwork to even come close to doing. If you want to completely customize your party experience, My Show is where you can modify each game type and stage to your, or your friends’, wishes and play up to 9 events in a row.
Each minigame is somewhat unique, almost playing out like a watered down Fuzion Frenzy or Kung-Fu Chaos for those original Xbox owners out there that remember these classic party style games. Some events will have you jumping over a rotating arm, others playing hot potato with TNT, and even one where you need to eat the pies quickly or else you’ll shrink into nothing from hunger. Sure some of them are a little wacky, but it’s fitting with Jump Stars’ backdrop.
What makes the gameplay frantic is that you can also punch either direction to other players as you’re jumping and bouncing around, knocking them backwards a short distance. You can’t deplete any health bars of any sorts, but knocking off your friends into pits or into a pillar about to drop down is how you’ll win most of your matches, as the stages become increasingly faster as it continues.
Eventually random modifiers will manipulate the levels, throwing your strategies into the toilet, as it’s near impossible to do what you intend when controls are reverse, the world is upside down or everyone jumps incredibly slow. It’s an extra pinch of chaos, surely to create some loud shouting, possible swearing and tons of laughs depending on your group of friends. Medals are awarded at the end of each event, showing your score and how close you are to hopefully participating in The Gauntlet.
This is where Jump Stars starts to have a little bit of an identity crisis, as you’re trying to obviously win each event for yourself, but you also need to all work together to raise the overall points. This can go very well, or poorly, depending on the types of friends you have. Running over your own color’s platforms will make the overall score go up, but you never know if your friends are going to help you, or hinder you in their own quest to try and get first place.
After a short while you’ll also see all that Jump Stars has to offer. There’s only a handful of actual minigames, with the number being inflated from simple skin changes to the levels. Jump Stars will wear out its welcome very quickly if you try and play for hours on end, as you’ll participate in every event type quite quickly, so unless you want some bragging rights, or had a few to drink with the buddies, Jump Stars is best enjoyed in bite sized doses.
Most of the game types are simple to pick up and understand, as it will give you a brief outline of each minigame’s goal, but there are a few types of levels that my four year old had issues getting the hang of. Sure she’s well under the recommended age for this game, but for a few of the easier stages she did grasp the concept and really enjoyed herself. It got to a point where I had to build a playlist of the rotating arm stage on repeat, 9 times. Sure I’m looking at the game more critically, but my daughter really enjoyed the stages she was able to understand the goal to, even if she’s not the greatest at jumping exactly where she means to all the time, so the younger audience should have a blast with this one.
A lack of any simple player component, even with bots, and no online really brings down the replayability, and you’ll notice the repetition kick in quite quickly if you’re playing for more than a half hour at a time. That being said, if you do often have a few friends come over and are looking for a quick multiplayer game to laugh at each other with, Jump Stars has you covered, even more so if the ones playing are a younger audience.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Chroma Squad
I’m not going to lie. At first glance I expected Chroma Squad to be a cheap mobile-like game that was a clear knockoff of The Power Rangers. Granted, it does say it’s inspired by Power Rangers right on the title screen and doesn’t attempt to hide this fact by any means. I didn’t realize that it was actually funded by Kickstarter, almost doubling its asking goal too, so there was clearly some interest behind the concept when it was pitched to the masses. What I came away with was surprise. Chroma Squad impressed me with its mechanics, deep RPG elements, silly premise and writing. If Power Rangers was going to make a parody game of themselves, Chroma Squad would be that game.The narrative revolves around a group of 5 stuntmen (and woman), the ones who play the Chroma Squad members in the TV show. Yes, in this game you’re playing as the stuntmen who act in a cheesy Power Rangers-like show. The actors get fed up with the terrible director and decide to not only quit on the spot, but create their own studio so that they can create the episodes they want, just how they want. With only access to a small and dingy warehouse, their company begins small, but as you amass a fan base and contracts, earning money in the process, their grand vision is your ultimate goal as you film from season to season.
You begin by choosing your actors, each with their own special abilities, specific play styles and pay grade. You need to fill each of the roles, like Leader, Techie, Scout, and more, just like how each Ranger in the show had their own specialized role. I was impressed with the vast options of characters to choose from, and once you make your choice you’re locked in, so choose wisely.
Once you have your crew hired and set you’re off to begin filming. You record episode to episode, each with its own plot and overarching narrative to the whole season. A season usually consists of two to four episodes, with each episode being a single set or even broke up into three mini sections, all of which revolve around battling a slew of minion monsters with a big boss battle at the end of every episode. It’ll bring you right back to your childhood if you’re in my age bracket, and the whole “we’re filming a TV show” twist was a welcome addition of humor, as the enemies are actors in costume as well.
What surprised me was the amount of text contained within, not that I’m complaining, as some of the writing is actually quite witty and funny, but after a handful of seasons, it feels like fluff to lengthen the gameplay. There’s a fast forward button you can hold if you wish to skip right to the fighting, but be sure to pay attention to the season finales, as there’s an overall arching storyline as well.
At its core, Chroma Squad feels like a watered down take on a Final Fantasy Tactics style of gameplay. You get to make your moves and actions with each of your characters, then the enemies get to react accordingly. Certain characters can move further than others, but there are also special acrobatic moves that allow one team member to be vaulted a few more spaces on the battlefield grid. You’re given multiple objectives per episode that will net you bonuses should you fill the requirements. Sometimes this ranges from killing X amount of enemies, or hitting a boss in the first turn, among others. I appreciated these small objectives, as it gave me a small goal to complete per episode, allowing me to try some different tactics that I wouldn’t’ have normally utilized.
After a certain amount of turns you’ll be able to morph into your power suits, er Chroma suits, allowing you to use special abilities, more of which unlock as you progress in your TV seasons. I ignored these abilities for the first while, but once I learned how useful they could be, I never looked back, using them whenever possible. The season will cumulate with the one thing the real show was best known for: giant robot battles. Sure it’s not technically a Megazord, but you’re robot fighting a giant monster, so we all know the truth. As seasons go on you’ll fight with it much more often which is always fun, doing massive damage in a timing skill based minigame.
Your main goal is to build up your audience, which in turn earns you more money. More money allows you to purchase better weapons, armor and robot parts. There’s even a crafting system built in from enemy drops that allow you to create upgrades for your squad as well which was quite unexpected, but welcome. You’ll eventually get tons of offers thrown your way from marketing firms, fans, directors, mysterious people and more. You’re also able to upgrade your studio, allowing for more earnings should you decide to spend your money that way instead.
I’m a sucker for anything Power Rangers related, and even though I unfairly expected the worst, I was more than pleasantly surprised. The small bite sized episodic format allows for quick gaming sessions, but the RPG elements make it deep enough to play for a longer stretch at a time if you desire as well. The whole ‘filming a TV show’ angle took me by surprise, but it works, as you can imagine some of these silly conversations actually taking place if you were to film your own Chroma Squad episodes. This homage to one of the classic kids’ shows was not only entertaining, but I wanted to keep 'filming' just one more episode to see what happens next in its retro representation.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Tekken 7
I’ve always enjoyed fighting games. Ever since I could remember I was either battling in some Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, Battle Arena Toshinden, and of course, Tekken. At one point I was so into the genre that I bought one of those fancy fight sticks, granted, I never became actually good enough to become competitive, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself when I did play. While not always my very go-to, the Tekken series has always been a great backup fighting game to my library over the years. I remember playing hours and hours of the first few Tekken games, though to be honest, I don’t think I’ve played very much of the last two or three iterations, with Tekken 3 or 4 being the last one I put any serious time into.Here we are in 2017, just shy of almost a decade since the last major Tekken release, so fans no longer have to wait as their beloved series has finally returned, and in a big way with some great changes that not only adds new gameplay mechanics for returning veterans to learn and utilize, but added layers of simplicity for new players to the series to jump in without feeling as overwhelmed with the perfection needed that other fighters tend to do. With a huge roster, working online multiplayer, and some great fighting, Tekken 7 has returned to the forefront of the genre in a big way.
One thing that I’ve always enjoyed about the Tekken series is that its main narrative continues on from game to game, with each getting closer to a final conclusion regarding the main conflicts. It seems Tekken 7 may have finally concluded the overall main storyline involving the G-Corporation and Mishima family once and for all. The story mode last a few hours, being told by a journalist narrating what he’s uncovered about the real truth behind the conflict. There’s even a few really cool parts where you get to reenact, er fight, classic battles from before, but with the new mechanics employed in Tekken 7, complete with the updated graphics, something that diehard fans of the series should really enjoy.
Story mode allows for multiple difficulties based on your skill level, but there’s still a level of AI smartness that will adjust to your fighting strategies. Simply mashing buttons will work some of the time, but eventually you'll need to be purposeful with your move inputs or you’re going to get wrecked very quickly, especially from the ‘boss’ stages. Once you do successfully complete the story, another difficulty unlocks alongside extra bonus stages and a slew of other options that open up the gameplay even further.
I really only had two complaints about the story mode: First, the narrating journalist is poorly voiced and simply not engaging enough to care about. While the main characters are of course done very well and are entertaining, having to slog through the narration bits can be frustratingly boring, especially since many of the cutscenes are done in a comic book style and not in-game, which I found odd for such a AAA game. Lastly, there are some serious loading issues. Not just the loading times between stages, but it seems the game loads during these cutscenes, so there are some major hitching issues that present themselves. As you’re watching a great cutscene, all of a sudden it will completely stop as it buffers and catches up on loading, taking you completely out of the immersion. While it only happens during the cutscenes and not actual gameplay, it’s still a major distraction and was unexpected.
Tekken 7 has a huge roster from the get-go with over 30 characters available, each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses and cater to a specific type of play style. While the roster may not be the biggest lineup in its history, the majority of the staple characters return, complete with a new ingame engine.
Tekken’s unique control scheme maps each individual arm and legs to one of the buttons, so it plays different than other fighters, which is one reason why so many people flock to it and enjoy its style. Each character has simple moves that can be combo'd by button mashing, but there’s a lot of depth contained within each character if you truly want to become a Tekken master. It’s cool being able to put together a few awesome looking combos, seemingly by accident, but once you learn the intricacies of your preferred fighters and learn their move-sets, it becomes even more rewarding when you’re pulling off intricate combos with ease and purposely.
There are two main mechanics that really make Tekken 7 stand out and show that the developers are trying something new to entice new and old players alike. First is the ability to essentially absorb an attack mid-animation, allowing you to take some slight damage, but perform a powerful move to counter, almost like their version of an EX-move. When the AI starts using this in the later fights you’re going to start cursing the system, but once you learn how to harness its powerful capabilities, it’s a game changer.
Secondly is the newest, and arguably coolest, addition to Tekken 7, the Rage Arts. These are fundamentally an answer to Street Fighter’s Ultras, or Mortal Kombat’s X-Ray specials. This is completely new for the series, and while it takes some getting used to if you’re a pure Tekken player, I find it’s done very well and balanced accordingly. When you’re down to roughly a quarter of your health left you’ll start to have a red aura glow around you, indicating your Rage Arts is ready to use. This move is performed with a specific combination of buttons, varying from character to character of course, and will do massive damage if it lands, while of course performing a flashy cinematic move to sit back and enjoy. Miss though and you’re left open for a serious counter attack, so you need to learn your timing and range to utilize it to its fullest.
On a less serious note, you can now earn money and unlocks for playing certain modes, allowing you to purchase cosmetic items for your characters. These items allow you to dress up your favorite characters in some seriously cool, and utterly ridiculous outfits, to suit your preference. There’s a ton of items to get, and if you want to unlock them all it’s going to take some serious grinding to be able to afford them all, which brings up the replayability value substantially for Tekken 7. You can find normal everyday items like cowboy hats, sunglasses and shirts, but there’s even a more completely ridiculous roster of items like frog hats, sushi backpacks, horned hats, sexy outfits and more. This allows for some crazy customization and simply allows you to show your personal flair on your favorite characters, online and off.
Speaking of online, I was honestly expecting the online multiplayer to either not work outright, or not well at launch. I can happily report that neither of these are the case, as I have zero issues finding someone online to battle with each time I tried. Instead of simply waiting in a lobby for someone to join doing nothing, you’re put into a practice arena where you can practice some moves and combos as you await a challenger. There’s a ton of different options and with all of my matches I had no lag creep in, making for some flawless matches online.
I applaud the series for continuing an overall narrative, and the surprise characters and reveals were quite exciting for its story mode. Tekken 7 is not only a return for the series to the forefront, but a great addition to the genre as a whole. It tries new things and succeeds in almost every way, and even though I’m not the biggest fighting fan these days, as I’ve retired my fight sticks, I’m still quite enjoying my time with Tekken 7, in lengthy or short bursts. Even my 4 year old really enjoyed playing, being able to put together a few combos by button mashing, but more importantly, dressing up the characters quite silly to her liking. There’s lots to do for series veterans to learn but is also a great entry point for newcomers to the series. Tekken 7 is back and shouldn’t be missed, regardless of your skill level.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Race the Sun
Race the Sun is an endless runner, much like Temple run and others in the genre. You are tasked with running forever, or in this case flying until you inevitably crash. While simple in premise, there’s something relaxing about the endless runner genre, and even though Race the Sun is quicker paced than others, it still has a serene quality about it as you narrowly dodge obstacles and hover slightly above the ground. Your enjoyment may vary depending on the day you decide to play though, as the courses change every 24 hours, for better or worse; a great way to keep the limited content feeling fresh.There’s no narrative within, and your goal is right there in the title: Race the Sun. You need to simply race to the sun in the distance, which is obviously not possible to reach, so seeing how far you can race before you crash or before the sun sets is your goal. You see, your ship is solar powered, so if the sun goes down you have no energy to continue racing and it’s game over. The challenge comes with the increasing speed and sheer amount of objects you’ll need to avoid as you hurl yourself constantly forwards towards the setting sun.
Gameplay starts out fast and frantic, and you’ll crash many times early on due to the learning curve of the controls and getting used to the speed. You’ll really need to ‘get in the zone’ and focus on what’s ahead of you, as you don’t have a lot of wiggle room to react, sometimes relying on pure instinct for your reaction time. Luckily when you do crash, the restarts are quick and you’ll make a mental note of what to avoid the next time.
The controls are as basic as they come, as you use the Left Stick to steer your ship, though eventually you’ll get the ability to jump with the A button once you collect the corresponding power-up. Since you always start at the beginning after each crash, you level up by completing mini objectives that are set out to you beforehand, with easier ones earning you one point, and the hardest nets you three points. Gain enough points and you’ll rank up, earning new customization options for your ship, or even other modes to play.
Once you gain the ability to jump, and collect the green jewel power-up, you can leap high into the air, gliding for a short while above all of the obstacles below. This allows you to get a quick overview of what’s coming ahead, but be careful of your landing, as you can crash into a wall just as easily. You also need to keep an eye out for blue orbs, which when collected bump up your multiplier for your score. The more you collect the faster your score will rise, but the longer your run goes the more difficult it becomes, so you always need to be focused.
There are two ships to choose from in the beginning, though I was unable to find any gameplay difference aside from the aesthetic. Eventually you’ll unlock attachments that will help your efforts, like being able to store two jumps or have the multiplier orbs magnetically fly towards your ship. The more you level up the more you’ll unlock, naturally, so it’s a little bit of a grind to get everything available to you.
Because of the breakneck speed you need to stay focused on what’s ahead of you on the screen, and Race the Sun has decided to use a minimalist style to help cope with the speed of which objects are thrown at you. The game looks bare bones basic, yet has a certain drab style to it even though the world is simply made out of rectangles, triangles, spheres and cubes. The world is passing you by so fast that anything more detailed would probably become a distraction, so it works. It’s not going to win any artistic awards, but the enjoyment comes from the gameplay.
As you level up you’ll eventually unlock randomly placed portals in the levels, which if flown into will whisk you away to a special serene world that is a slower paced and lets you relax for a few moments before throwing you back into the hectic speed based sun chasing stages. You’re also able to unlock a Sunrise mode, which is a slow paced endless mode. There’s nowhere near the amount of obstacles in this mode, as this is meant for a more relaxing gameplay experience with some chill ambient music in the background.
One of the most unique features about Race the Sun is that the levels you play are always the same but only in a 24 hour period. Each day the levels will randomly change, and even though it’s all the same objects, their placements will make for a completely different race each day. This can work for or against you. You can eventually learn a course inside out, but after the day passes, you’ll be given a whole new world to race in. One day I got really good at the courses, but once it changed the next day I found it much more challenging, so it can work both ways. On a more positive side, even though the content is very slim, this daily automatic level switching ensures the gameplay stays entertaining and fresh each day you play, allowing you to return on a very regular basis for a new experience.
To unlock the top tier attachments, and modes, it will take some dedication, and eventually gameplay does become easier, but no matter how good you get you’ll eventually crash or have the sun set on your gameplay. The pace is frantic, the speed is tense, and Race the Sun is a perfect pick up and play game that allows for short burst play. I don’t suggest sitting for hours at a time with it, as the courses change each day, but if you’re looking for a quick in-between game, you can try and Race the Sun, but your enjoyment may vary depending on the day.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Crawl
If I tell you that Crawl is a dungeon crawler, you’ll probably think of a dark and gloomy underground dungeon where you must fight hordes of monsters to try and escape. While you wouldn’t be totally wrong, as that is the general premise of a dungeon crawler, Crawl tends to add something unique to the mix by not only focusing solely on the hero that needs to survive, but it also adds a gameplay element where you get to control the monsters themselves to try and stop them from escaping. This unique take on the genre takes a generic trope and makes it much more exciting and entertaining, tenfold if you actually have friends to come over and play with you.Crawl is presented in a retro pixelated style, which I know is overdone at times, but it seems to fit the mood and gameplay just fine. You and 3 friends are trapped in the depths of a dungeon, and only one can escape, so you fight to the death with a lone survivor. Your goal is to simply survive and escape, but to do so you’ll need to reach level 10 by defeating monsters just to gain a chance at escape by defeating a boss.
Remember those friends that you murdered? Well, they turn into ghosts and they are able to haunt objects and spawn nefarious creatures to stop you, because if they do stop and kill you, their humanity is restored and they become alive once again while you turn into a ghost. It’s a great concept, though while shy on any deep narrative it is a fun premise and at least sets a reasoning for your actions and situation.
I knew that Crawl was meant to be played with up to four friends, which is fine, but I didn’t realize how well it would play solo, as you’re able to set up the 3 AI bots with varying difficulties. Sure, the AI won’t be anywhere as fun as 3 other friends on the couch, but it’s great that it’s an option to allow solo players to experience Crawl for what it is.
So, the beginning has only one person standing after a duel who turns into the 'dungeon crawler'. As the sole survivor, you need to explore, kill enemies, and gather experience points and coins, all in an attempt to reach level 10 as soon as possible. Doing so allows you a chance against the dungeon’s boss, and your only way to escape.
The catch is that the other 3 players (or AI) control ghosts, out to kill you, because whichever ghost lands the killing blow is transformed into the human, swapping places with them. Ghosts can possess items like barrels and tables, launching them at the 'dungeon crawler' in an attempt to hurt them. In larger rooms there are pentagrams on the floor which indicate that the ghosts can spawn and possess a powerful monster, again, in attempt to try and kill the human and take over their body. One really cool feature during the boss fights is that the ghosts can possess certain body parts or objects of the boss, making survival for the human much more difficult.
It sounds simple in concept, and it is, but I was surprised with how fun it was being both the dungeon crawler and the implementation the ghosts. Possessing items brought me flashbacks of the Sega Genesis game Haunting, which had a similar mechanic, a game I remember fondly. Exploring the dungeon is quick and most rooms need to be cleared of all monsters before allowing you to progress. You collect gold as you search rooms, allowing you to spend them on items or more powerful weapons in the shop once you find it. Given that the dungeons and monsters are randomly generated each time, there’s a ton of replayability within.
Controlling the monsters is a lot of fun, as there are numerous types to play with, each with specific upgrade trees. The more the dungeon crawlers you defeat as a ghost, the more ghost XP you earn, allowing you to become a stronger ghost to try and defeat the dungeon crawler. It’s a very clever way to balance the leveling of human versus ghosts, and even if you continually get defeated by the human, you’ll become stronger each time, giving you a better shot at killing them when you meet them again.
While I’m a sucker for the retro pixelated visuals, as it brings me to my childhood, things can become very hectic on the screen at times, especially with 4 players. With the blocky visuals, it can a little chaotic and messy to track exactly what’s going on at times.
Crawl is hands down best played with 4 friends together locally, and the biggest fault is has going against it is a lack of online multiplayer. While I understand this isn’t always an option for smaller indie studios, not everyone has the ability to do much couch co-op. Online play would have been a blast, especially trying to kill the survivor as the ghosts, but sadly that will have to remain a long shot hope.
The balance of the 'alive vs. undead' is done almost perfectly, and while I appreciate the randomness of the entire gameplay, sometimes you’ll have a few runs that are much more difficult because the monsters you’re given aren’t as good or they don't suit your play style, or the weapons in the shop are simply not as powerful as they could be. Given that runs only last about a half hour or so, it’s hard to dwell on it, as each game will be unique, but there are great runs and not so great ones due to the randomness.
Even if you play solo, Crawl is a fun title that doesn’t require a huge time investment to gain some enjoyment. Defeating a dungeon’s massive boss is exciting and rewarding, as is landing that final blow to the survivor and regaining your humanity. With 4 friends on a couch, playing locally is a blast, though expect many swear words to be thrown at each other while doing so, in the best possible way of course. Even though an online component is sorely lacking, Crawl is still worth crawling through the dungeons for.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Flinthook
When a game touts itself as a roguelike, I tend to go in cautiously because I don’t generally have as much time as I would like to play games, so dying repeatedly isn’t something that generally interests me, which is usually what happens in roguelike titles. Certain games though find a way to make the constant deaths not as frustrating as they usually are, usually due to a great mechanic or some form of progression so that you don’t feel like you’re just wasting time. Developers Tribute Games has found a way to do this with their title, Flinthook, which, excuse the pun, has me hooked. What’s not to love? You play as a pirate who can zip around with a hookshot, use slow motion powers and shoot enemies in 360 degrees. Gameplay is very fast paced that revolves around action and looting, complete with RPG elements to keep things interesting. You’re going to die a lot, and that’s simply part of the experience, but you still progress in certain ways, so all is not lost.It seems the galaxy is overrun with pirates and generally despicable aliens, all of whom want to become rich, but there’s an overarching evil looming, threatening life as we know it. Cue our hero Flinthook, tiny in stature but the toughest and most nimble pirate there is who is attempting to save the galaxy on his own. There’s a little more to the story, but not by much, and that doesn’t matter, as the gameplay is what will keep you hooked, coming back for more even after dying numerous times.
From the first few moments of gameplay you’ll be taught how you use your trusty hook to zip around the stages, all of which are procedurally generated and laid out in a metroidvania style map. You’re invading other pirate ships in search of coins, treasure and secrets, hoping to find clues of where the next bandit is located in the galaxy. Don’t fret when you start dying quite often early on, as things will naturally feel almost too fast and frantic. Even after quite a few hours of gameplay, I still find myself panicking at the chaotic nature of some of the levels. Stick with it though, as it becomes much better once you start saving up for a few upgrades and perks, making each run slightly easier, until it becomes second nature.
Your general goal of each stage is to find the end of the ship, which is randomly generated, and loot the huge treasure chest. Doing so will net you a special stone, and a certain amount of these stones will finally reveal to you the boss ship and let you attempt to defeat him. So for example, the first boss, called a bounty, requires 3 of these stones for your compass (which is adorable) to locate where the boss is hiding in the galaxy, allowing you to attempt to challenge him. Doing so clears the bounty, earns you massive gold and experience, and moves onto the next bounty. The trick is that you need to clear 3 of the levels in a row without dying for the stones to reveal the boss level, and that’s where a little of the grinding will come into play.
Because you’ll obviously fail often in the beginning, you’ll feel like having to start at the beginning of the 3 stage wave is frustrating, but you keep all the gold and experience you’ve earned to that point. So even though you’re failing, you’re progressing, which is its saving grace. This allows you to try again, only slightly better stat wise this time around. It’s addicting, as you can tell each attempt that it’s slightly easier than before.
Each ship is a maze of navigation, complete with secrets and traps all over the place. Even only a handful of bosses into the game, the challenge begins to spike pretty harshly as you progress. Traps become more unfair, enemies become more infuriating, and I keep going back for more. Most ships are roughly 50/50 when it comes to platforming exploration and combat. Many rooms will lock, preventing you from leaving until every enemy is defeated. For those really wanting a challenge, there are even daily and weekly challenges for those wanting to master the game and have more bragging rights.
Your hook is your bread and butter at traversing each ship’s rooms. Every room has specific rings hanging that you can hook onto, propelling yourself in that direction. It takes a lot of getting used to, but once you’re able to move around the stages without having to think about it, avoiding enemies and their fire, it feels smooth and natural when it all comes together, you just have to make it over the steep learning curve to get there. Flinthook can also wall jump, though I found this skill not as useful aside from a handful of situations, though to be fair, levels are randomly generated, so maybe I just got lucky.
You also have a pistol, your main way of destroying your enemies. This can be fired in any direction, but is also mapped to the left stick that is also your movement, so it can become quite tricky to be accurate. At first it feels dumb that movement and aiming is on the same stick, but there’s not many times you want to be standing still, or even standing at all, especially in the later levels. You’ll need to constantly be moving, and quickly, but that’s where the slowmo ability comes into play.
Using this ability you’ll be able to briefly slow down time, allowing you a few extra moments to either maneuver a certain way, line up a better shot, or phase through some lasers unharmed. It’s an incredibly useful ability, one that even I forget to use as often as I should, but it can only be used in very short bursts, so you can’t rely on it as a crutch too often.
Whenever you die or complete a bounty, you’re able to cash in your earned experience and gold for upgrades. You have a certain amount of perk slots that you can fill with either more health, better combat abilities, earning more experience or more unique abilities. But these slots fill out quickly, so you’ll need to purchase more to equip numerous ones however you wish, opening up the RPG elements and building your pirate to cater to your playstyle. So even though you’ll be dying a lot, especially early on, you’re able to upgrade often which makes each subsequent playthrough that much easier.
Being persistent pays off in Flinthook, as you’ll slowly become accustomed to the frantic gameplay, becoming better and getting further each time you upgrade and retry. Don’t let the opening hour fool you with the many deaths, as the more time you put into Flinthook, the more it rewards you for sticking with it. Even though the difficulty eventually spikes quite significantly, getting that much closer and closer to a boss stage is addictive, as is unlocking a new perk or ability to test out.
The 2D pixel art is brilliant, as it’s vibrant, has a ton of detail, and looks incredibly sharp and colorful, complete with fantastic animations and smoothness of gameplay. The soundtrack is also very well done, with fitting tunes that suit the retro vibe and set a tonality. for the gs no doubt about it, Flinthook is a highly challenging 2D roguelike that wants to keep you playing, and even though it’s a steep challenge, there’s just enough wiggle room of fairness that hooks you, wanting you to come back and give it one more try.
Sure you’re going to swear at the bubbled enemies that need to be hooked before they can be attacked, and you’ll die to an ‘unfair’ trap a hundred times, but you learn your lessons each time, improving as you progress. With tons of hidden collectibles and procedurally generated levels, there’s a huge amount of replayabiilty within, even if you do master your hook and become the best pirate in the whole galaxy. For a small indie title, I came away impressed, not with just the quality of each aspect of Flinthook, but that in the end, it was simply fun to play, even with its frustrations.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
'n Verlore Verstand
I’m a big fan of completely quirky and abstract games, so when I read that in ‘n Verlore Verstand I will be “transported to a reality of dreams and nightmares. What will you discover about yourself in this journey through the subconscious?” I was insistently intrigued. I love when developers create something so unique that it can even border on nonfigurative, which is done here, but the other piece to an intriguing game is having an actual entertaining gameplay to go alongside, something that seems to be a missing piece here.If you’re wondering about the pequliar name, ‘n Verlore Verstand essentially translates from Afrikaan to mean “a lost mind”, which is quite fitting once you experience some of the imagery shown within. I don’t like to generally use the term ‘walking simulator’, but that’s where the core of the gameplay will be derived from, that and terrible first person platforming sections that will have you restarting dozens of times. So get ready and let me attempt to explain the experience of ‘n Verlore Verstand as best as possible.
From the game’s description, I interpreted it as you living through your subconscious, most likely dream sequences. There’s no dialogue, there’s no HUD, there’s nothing aside from you walking, running and jumping your way through each scene. This was a deliberate design choice by developers Skobbejak Games, which I understand, but there’s also no explained meaning of what you’re doing, where you’re going or why. Being that you’re exploring the subconscious, everything you experience and see could be a metaphor, or it could be literal, that’s up to you to determine.
Your only goal is to each this peculiar tree that you can constantly see in the far distance of almost every scene, and when you do so you’ll be whisked away to the next scene, though usually a very different setting. There’s no verbal clues to figure out where you need to go aside from the isolated tree that sticks out amongst the backdrops you’re exploring. You’re left to answer all the questions you have yourself, which can be intriguing, but also create no connection with the game if you simply don’t 'get it'.
The entire game is played in first person view, so I simply assumed I was playing myself in my abstract dreams. Certain items in specific levels can be interacted with by simply walking up to them, like payphones and lights, but your main goal from the start is to walk to a bleak tree located in the distance. The first level is a plain blank world with only the tree in the distance, and that’s how you’re taught that your goal is to find this tree to progress.
The second level transports you to an abandoned mansion with narrow hallways, the perfect backdrop for a horror game, yet there’s no life in these dreams aside from yourself wandering. There’s an almost endless amount of doors to explore and eventually you’ll find a painting of the same tree from before, which will send you off to the next scene. Thus begins your journey across 18 scenes, each becoming progressively more challenging with its platforming controls and level of ambiguous objectives to reach the tree.
The only constant across all of the scenes is that you need to reach this tree for some inexplicable reason. The levels only vary slightly, as some are pure platforming based and a little more involved with figuring out the correct path to the end. Eventually you’ll revisit scenes, but they will be extended slightly, adding more pathways, like hallways and doors in the mansion, or more sections where you’ll need to avoid being run over by drivers on a bridge. If this sounds confusing, it is, but that’s part of its charm, simply soaking up these theoretical experiences, like jumping across floating and moving blocks high above the ground.
Where things start to fall apart is the platforming scenes. Because the gameplay is in first person, you need to jump across blocks and moving platforms where you’re unable to see your feet, so you don’t always know where you’re going to land. You’re going to fail and fall a lot, causing a restart at the last checkpoint, which by the way there’s no indication of, so sometimes you have a long retry ahead of you. Your viewpoint makes it very difficult to judge when to jump off a ledge at the very end, or how far you’re going to jump. The city scene is a great example of this frustration.
There are some things that ‘n Verlore Verstand does very well though, aside from have you experiencing nonsensical imagery. A few of the levels have some fantastic atmosphere, making it feel like you in some sort of dream landscape. The lighting is great most of the time with the sun or moon emitting glows, and with clouds that seem to react to your movements. The soundtrack is great as well, as it sets a mood and tone with its electronic vibe. The sound effects, especially the subtle sounds in the mansion levels create an eerie setting even though you know there are no enemies within.
The latter half of the game becomes a frustrating challenge to slog through, especially a level that has you platforming high in the air, but instead of dying when you fall, you land on the ground below and need to restart from the very beginning all over again by walking all the way back. The scenes where you’re trying to cross a bridge while avoiding traffic is maddening, as you don’t know when or where trucks are coming from behind you before they kill you, forcing you to restart.
If there was an engrossing story that tied all of the scenes together, or at least gave you an overarching reason or explanation, it would have been a more cohesive experience, but instead you get poor platforming gameplay surrounded in abstract interpretation. There are optional colored plants to collect for achievements, but no way to tell which ones you’ve gathered or how many are in a specific scene to collect.
If abstract platforming is your thing, you’ll enjoy ‘n Verlore Verstand, but beware that the mechanics are not fun or entertaining with the first person view, and with a lack of any ‘reason’ to play, you probably won’t feel very connected to the symbolism it represents. ‘n Verlore Vertstand is an interesting concept, but as a game it’s not very entertaining. I fell somewhere in between trying to understand my motives and the visuals for what they mean, but also trying to enjoy a game at the same time. I’m not sure if I ended up accomplishing either.
Overall Score: 5.2 / 10
Deformers
Deformers is probably one of the more unusual arena combat games I’ve played in recent memory. At first glance it looks adorably cute with its small and round squishy characters, represented as balls. What makes it really unusual though is that fact that developer Ready at Dawn is behind it, the studio best known for bringing us The Order 1886. Going from one genre to this is a drastic jump, and while I’m glad they got to work on something a little more lighthearted, the execution was overall lacking for numerous reasons.Deformers is strictly a multiplayer experience, be it splitscreen or online, so don’t expect any offline gameplay or any sort of story. Deformers is simply an arena combat game, nothing more, nothing less. So while the asking price may not be full retail price, it still feels a little high given the content, or lack thereof, contained within the package.
You play as these squishy round balls named “Form’s”. These forms can be rolled in any direction, jump, grab objects and other players and shoot little pellets. Depending on the mode you decide to play, your objective is either to throw other Form’s off the map, destroy them or score goal in a Rocket League-like mimic.
As you begin you’ll only have a few skins of Forms to choose from, but there’s a ton of cute characters and customizable items to unlock as you progress through the ranks online, should you be able to get it to work, but more on that shortly. The characters are adorable, each with their own unique look, ranging from barnyard animals to a stack of pancakes or hamburger. You can then further customize them visually, but again, that content is locked behind your progression.
There are only a handful of different maps that you’ll play on, ranging from a carnival theme to different deserts. As you’re about to begin your match you’ll need to choose from one of five different classes, each of which has their own strength to match your play style. Speedster is obviously the quicker one, Ranger is average in everything, and the others are suited for offence or defense, depending on your play style.
In Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch, you defeat your enemies by either making them explode or knocking them off the edge of the very small circular maps. You have the ability to do a Sonic-like dash that can blast an opponent quite a distance and damage them, you can pick up your enemies and throw them or even shoot tiny pellets from your limited arsenal if you decide to play that way instead.
Movement in general takes a little getting used to, as motion doesn’t feel precise at times. In the beginning you’ll no doubt overshoot where you wanted to go and miss many of your dashes into other players. Shooting also feels a little off, as it takes some getting used to to do properly. Shooting your pellets is a way to defeat the other enemies, but you have very limited ammunition and it takes a lot of bullets to defeat another Form from full health. The majority of your points will come from your dash attacks either splatting or knocking enemies off the edge of the map.
There are three different modes for you to compete in: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Form Ball. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are self-explanatory where the player or team with the most points at the end of three rounds wins. Form Ball on the other hand is an attempt at trying to be like the uber popular Rocket League, yet devoid of the fun and excitement. If you’ve ever wanted to play Rocket League with squishy balls instead of cars though, Deformers has you covered.
In theory, Deformers’ 8 player online competition sounds like a ton of fun, which I believe it absolutely would be, that’s if I could ever find a match. In the whole time I’ve had Deformers to review, I’ve spent an obscene amount of time waiting and looking for a match online to compete with other players. I’ve been unsuccessful in this attempt even once. So I’m not sure if it’s a server side issue or simply a lack of any player base, but I was unable to compete with other players online, which is how you level up your rank and obtain the unlockables.
So how fun is a multiplayer only game where the multiplayer doesn’t work? Not very. So I had to play split screen and make custom games (which do not award experience points). You’re able to add dummy bots to your game, but there’s no way to change their AI, so I populated my match with 7 other AI and began, only to become even more disappointed. Even though you're able to add dummy AI into my game, but they aren’t actually AI, as they literally just sit there and do nothing. Granted, this was an easy way to farm some achievements, like kill a certain amount of Forms, but the fun was nowhere to be found.
Luckily I had a friend who also owned the game, so I matched up with him to give multiplayer a go. I was able to add Dummy AI in once again, but it was really just him and I trying to throw each other off the map. There were inconsistencies with lag on his end and was even a time where he wasn’t able to see me moving anywhere on the map, yet I was still able to hit him. Needless to say, after a few games of this and a 1 vs 1 in Form Ball, I’ve had my fill with Deformers.
Ready at Dawn has made an incredible game in the past, but Deformers won’t be their crowning jewel. Gameplay is incredibly basic but the content within is severely lacking with only a handful of maps and 3 very basic modes, one of which is a knockoff of a currently popular game from a completely different genre. If some new and interesting modes were added for free and the matchmaking actually worked, then I could see Deformers being a fun time waster. As it stands now though, the cuteness and squishiness of the characters isn’t enough to justify the asking price when the core premise of online multiplayer doesn’t even work properly which the gameplay revolves around.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
BUTCHER
With a game title like BUTCHER, you’d expect it to be filled with tons of violence and gore, and you’d be right, as developers Transhuman Design have done just that, but in a stylish sidescrolling 2D aesthetic. When the main quote for the game is “The easiest mode is ‘HARD’!”, you know you’re in for a good time of brutal, gory, and challenging gameplay. And if you were wondering, yes, the title BUTCHER is in all caps, probably in an attempt to be more hardcore.BUTCHER can be described very easily: If the original DOOM was made as a 2d sidescrolling shooter instead of a FPS, this would be the result. Even though the gameplay is quite different, it’s got that DOOM spirit, complete with awesome metal inspired soundtrack, vicious brutality, and enough blood you could paint the walls. If you’re going to make a tribute to a game, it’s hard to go wrong with one of the legends of all gaming.
Just like its inspiration, BUTCHER isn’t going to wow you with a dramatic narrative, in fact, you’re a cyborg tasked with eliminating all of humanity. With your wide array of weapons, ranging from your trusty shotgun, assault rifle, flamethrower, grenade launcher, and even a rail gun, you’ll shoot anything that moves to complete your mission as you travel from stage to stage.
The inspiration from DOOM is apparent from the get go, as the levels are displayed in the same manner, and upon completion, even the blood style drips to wipe the screen happen, bringing you nostalgia if you’re as old as I am. The easiest mode is HARD (though technically there’s an easy mode, but it’s far too easy and meant to just experience the game), and while that’s true, it’s borderline too difficult to be fun, especially in the latter levels when you’re fighting incredibly hard enemies.
Your go-to weapon will be your trusty shotgun, as it’s your starter firearm, but it doesn’t perform like any other shotgun I’ve used before in any game. While it is incredibly powerful close range, you can get some incredibly long range shots that are accurate, thanks to the slight aim assist, making for some rapid gameplay. You get new and more powerful weapons as you progress, finding a favorite that suits your playstyle, though eventually you’ll run into certain types of enemies that have weaknesses to specific types of weapons over others.
The best part about your arsenal is that each weapon feels incredibly powerful. Seeing an enemy splatter into a pile of red mist is always entertaining, and even though the graphics are pixelated and 2D, the amount of detail put into the blood effects is astounding. Puddles of blood will drip based on where the enemies have died, and body parts will even stick to some surfaces. The relatively clean areas will eventually become painted in red blood by the time you clear each stage, especially the sections that has you trying to survive waves of enemies.
There are a handful of stages, each broken into four levels that don’t take terribly long to beat, though there are hidden collectibles scattered throughout the levels for those that want to earn 100% completion and achievements. Some levels are much quicker than others, where the later stages are a little more complex, having you flip switches to raise and lower doors and platforms to progress. Your first playthrough will probably take a few hours until you get the hang of things, but subsequent runs should be much smoother, depending on your difficulty level of course. There’s even achievements tied to completing the game under set times, which is going to take some dedication.
To accompany all of the bloody goodness is an awesome metal inspired soundtrack, something that sounds as if it was taken directly from DOOM as well. With each stage having a different backdrop and theme, the music tends to fit alongside. The pixelated 2D graphics may seem primitive at first, but there’s an incredible amount of detail and style hidden within.
My only real complaint is the controls. While the shooting works just fine, you need to jump with the Left Trigger, something that doesn’t feel natural, and cycling through the weapons with the Bumpers wasn’t as easy or as quick as I wanted, causing for a few unfair deaths. It feels awkward at first, but you will eventually become accustomed to it, though just be prepared to die and restart from the beginning of the level until it feels natural.
While DOOM was revolutionary for its hyper violence in the early 90’s, seeing violence and blood in almost any form of media these days is par the course. So while it doesn’t have that shock value that the legendary game BUTCHER is pulling its inspiration from, it nails the soul of the game perfectly, even with its completely different visual and gameplay style. BUTCHER doesn’t wear out its welcome with its perfect length and options for replayability with harder mode and collectibles.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Human: Fall Flat
It’s odd. On one hand I absolutely love physics based puzzle games, as I enjoy the challenge that comes with solving problems with physics and gravity in a game, but on the other hand, usually these types of games become so frustratingly difficult that I usually end up giving up before it’s finished, Human: Fall Flat is no different.Human: Fall Flat’s premise is a quirky one, as you play an ordinary guy that controls as well as someone who’s constantly drunk. You don’t walk in a straight line, you barely have use of your arms, yet you’re tasked with solving increasingly difficult physics based puzzles as you progress. If you were a fan of the game Octodad, you’ll have an idea what to expect, as doing the simplest tasks will take patience and many attempts since you don’t have full control over your limbs.
You play as Bob. Bob is a simple human without any special abilities or powers. He’s plain white (though can be customized in the options to add a little flair and clothing) and resembles how you would make a human being out of clay or playdoh. Bob has a problem though, as he can’t walk straight nor use his arms very well. I’m not sure if he was out on a crazy bender the night before or something, but Bob needs your help traversing to the end of each stage, something that sounds simple, yet is anything but. That’s the essential mechanics to the game, getting to the end, but you’ll need to test your patience when trying to get Bob to do exactly what you want.
While Human: Fall Flat is a puzzle game at its core, the real challenge is the controls, but it’s done purposely, as the poor controls were a conscious design by developer No Brakes Games. You’ll need to master how Bob controls each of his limbs, as you’ll need to run, jump, climb, pull switches, swing across caverns, and more. Bob’s limbs seem to be made of Jell-O at times, as your arms and legs can go veering off in inhuman directions at times, which results in hilarity and frustration.
The most unique mechanic has to be that each of Bob’s arms are controlled individually with each of the Left and Right triggers. Oddly enough though, you don’t move your arms with the sticks, but instead they will go where the camera is facing. So, if you want to grab something above you, you need to look straight up and hold the triggers down to hold on, the same goes for grabbing things below you by having to look at the ground. It’s a very odd control scheme, one that will take you a handful of hours to become accustomed to. Even when you become proficient at certain maneuvers, like climbing or swinging, knowing what you need to do and executing it are two completely different things.
Bob can pick up small objects and move them where he likes, but the heavier the object the move effort it will take to move, usually requiring some problem solving beforehand. A good example is when I had to move a beached motorboat but only had two logs to move it with, as the boat itself was too heavy to push. So I moved the logs in front of the boat to act as a rolling ramp. After a good half hour of repositioning and swaying back and forth I was finally able to get the boat into the water as I originally intended.
The hardest part about the controls is that you don’t always know exactly where you’re trying to grab since you need to move the camera in the direction where you want to move your limbs. This makes grabbing smaller objects, or specific spots, a patience test of trial and error. The camera can sometimes fight you as well. There was one puzzle where I needed to use a long candy cane stick to swing across a pole, but the top of the stick wasn’t always in view, making for a lot of guesswork in a puzzle that required precision. Even worse is when you need to rotate a crank to a catapult or two independent ores from a rowboat.
Early in Bob’s adventure you’ll find small remotes that will play videos for you, giving you a tutorial of sorts, which is how you learn the basics like climbing onto ledges. Climbing is another great example of a simple task, but not always easy to accomplish because of the camera related controls. To climb a ledge you must look up to raise your hands, hold the triggers, then jump and hope your hands grip onto the ledge you’re aiming for. You then need to move the camera downwards while still holding the triggers, thus pushing your arms down and your body upwards. Don’t forget to let go at the right moment though or else you’ll fall down and have to reattempt it all over again.
One great thing about a game that supports ragdoll physics is that there’s usually some hilarity involved when things happen to your character that probably shouldn’t have. Case in point, in one puzzle I got Bob’s head stuck between some bars, unable to get free, so the result was his body flailing around while I laughed historically at his misfortune. Sure, I became frustrated once I realized that I was going to have to redo a whole puzzle section all over again, but there are small moments of humor littered throughout, usually unintentionally.
Nearly every object you see can be manipulated in some way if it’s free to move and not too heavy. The physics within are serviceable but also allow you to solve puzzles in numerous ways, like building a ramp, catapulting rocks or yourself, and other imaginative ways to solve what blocks your path. A friend and I were playing our own game simultaneously and a handful of times we both solved puzzles in completely different ways.
Levels start out small and grow in size and difficulty as you progress. You’ll think you have Bob’s limbs mastered, only to be given a puzzle that seems impossible. Each level has its own theme, with my favorite being the castle level. You’ll need to swing across gaps, knock down walls with a crane, drive a boat, and even launch yourself in a catapult. The levels are varied and will constantly have you wondering how to progress. Even when you do figure out what you’re supposed to do, actually executing your solution is a whole other game. Fun can be severely dampened when Bob’s limbs don’t do what you’re trying to accomplish for the tenth time. The best example of this is the Water level, which I won’t spoil, but it wasn’t long after that I raised my arms in the air in defeat, unable to progress any further without my controller being thrown out the window.
On one hand, Human: Fall Flat is hilarious, engaging, and will give you a ton of laughs, especially when you solve a puzzle in an unorthodox way, probably not the way intended by the developers. On the other hand, frustration can set in quite easily when you’re reattempting the same puzzle a dozen times without making any progress. I get that the controls are purposely quirky, as that’s the whole gimmick, but it’s also the source of most of the frustration as well.
Human: Fall Flat was a rollercoaster of a ride, as one minute I was laughing hysterically, then cursing shortly after. Sure, you’ll feel like a genius when you solve puzzles in a unique way, or by accident, as you get those “Ah-ha!” moments, but prepare to resist the urge to destroy your controller shortly after when Bob won’t do what you want him to do because his arm is stuck behind his head. It has a steep learning curve, and even once you understand how to play, the game will constantly challenge you every step of the way, by design and arbitrarily. At the end of the day the game is worth the play, as long as you know its flaws head of time, and then you should enjoy seeing Bob moving in awkward and hilarious ways.
Overall Score: 6.6 / 10
FlatOut 4: Total Insanity
I used to really enjoy the FlatOut series, especially FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage for Xbox 360, as I’ve spend dozens of hours with its popular Stunt Mode. It’s no secret that since then though, that the series simply hasn’t been the same ever since switching developers with its declining quality and forgettable gameplay, so when FlatOut 4: total Insanity was announced, I was cautiously optimistic, as it’s another new developer, Kylotonn, trying to bring back FlatOut to the masses once again.Thankfully it seems that Kylotonn has laid some great groundwork at getting the franchise back to where it once was, not surpassing it, but makes an entertaining destruction based racer that also doesn’t forget why many enjoyed the series in the first place with its Stunt Mode. While it doesn’t break any new grounds, it’s a completely adequate return even if it does become repetitive after time.
FlatOut 4’s campaign is broken up into two main sections: Career and FlatOut. Career is very standard, starting with you choosing one of two cars to start your racing profession, both of which aren’t very good stat-wise. There are three classes of cars and events, but you’ll obviously begin with the lowest class and need to make your way up the ranks to earn more money to purchase better vehicles and upgrades.
The three different tiers of cars also house their own set of cups to compete in, for a total of over 2 multi-events to take part in. Ranking in these events are how you unlock new paint jobs, drivers, horns, and more. The first issue you’ll encounter when playing through the campaign is that even if you place well, which you won’t until your car is fully upgraded, is that you don’t earn money quickly, making the campaign almost feel like a grind at times. You’ll be able to max out your car’s stats in a decent amount of time, but saving up for a whole new car, especially in the higher tiers, will take some dedication.
The next thing you’re going to probably notice is how frustrating the difficulty can be, not that there’s a difficulty setting to choose, but how madding it can be for the AI to tap your bumper as you spin out or crash, losing a ton of time when forced to respawn. Some races it seemed I would be left alone for the most part, and others as if I was the only target that the AI tried to make crash. I’ve lost many cups and medal placings because of this.
While the career mode does try and switch things up now and then by throwing some different types of events at you sparingly, the majority of your time will simply be racing, aiming to place high as you can for points for that series. I wish there were more destruction derby events thrown in, or even a handful of the Stunt Mode trials would have been refreshing, but because the racing is what you’ll primarily do, it becomes tedious after a handful of hours.
Even if you do manage to stick with it long enough to grind out enough races to save up for the higher classes, it’s essentially the same setup, but with less rusty and much faster cars. There are over 20 different tracks, some of which are more unique than others (I’m looking at you ice track…) while some are generic racing-through-the-forest for a backdrop.
That being said, the destruction physics are quite entertaining, as you can plow through almost all the obstacle sin your way, complete with sparks and explosions. In fact, that’s how you fill your Nitro meter, along with slamming into your competition. While not anywhere close to breakneck speeds of say Burnout, unleashing a full tank of nitro in the highest tier of vehicle is pretty exhilarating.
FlatOut mode is essentially a secondary career mode, but is more varied than simple standard races, as it offers more unique challenges, like Assault Mode (racing plus weapons) and Arena (varying from Deathmatch, Survivor, and CTF). These series are slightly more entertaining as it’s much more varied and usually centers around more destruction based events, which is always entertaining.
Why many fans flock to the FlatOut series though, like myself, is its popular Stunt Mode. Not only does Total Insanity bring back six classic and re-imagined mini games like High Jump, but also brings us six completely new games to launch your driver through the windshield for points, complete with online leaderboards.
The majority of these events will have you driving down a short ramp with a blockade at the end. You’re tasked with holding the ‘A’ button to get just the right angle and launching your driver through the windshield, complete with ragdoll physics. Depending on what particular event you choose, you’ll be launching your driver into a castle made of blocks for destruction, a golf course, a baseball bat to get a home run, among a handful of others. As far as I know, this is also the first driving game complete with beer pong, so there’s that.
For those that tend to have gatherings of friends locally, you’ll be happy to know there’s an included Hot Seat Mode where players can take turns in the crazy stunt mode. If you want to test your skills, you can even play online with up to 8 people in specific races and events, though after a week of playing and searching, I was only ever able to find a single match online, so I’m not sure if it’s a server issue or simply a very low player base.
The best part about online play is that you can customize your race lobby just how you wish, so if you want the number of laps, damage or even your Nitro gain to be at 200%, you’re welcome to. By default though each race is allowed to be entered by any class, so this can make for some seriously outmatched competition if not double checked. The biggest miss though is that there’s no online play for the game's crown jewel, the Stunt Mode. Sure there are leaderboards, but being able to play online with friends, even if turn based, would have been a game changer, so it’s extremely disappointing to see that it was excluded.
After a half dozen hours in the campaign it simply dawned on me that while FlatOut 4 has its moments, namely in its entertaining, yet offline only Stunt Mode, the campaign itself was simply average. The main problem is that it feels like a grind and there’s no hints at what’s needed to unlock all of the customization items like paint jobs and exhaust flames. FlatOut 4 is completely serviceable game, but there’s a lot of issues with its AI and buggy physics, as I’ve fallen through the world more than once. While it won’t bring the series back to the forefront with its rough edges, it has a decent amount of content within, topped off with a delightful stunt mode that will constantly having you aiming for a higher score, even if it is a solo affair.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Planetbase
Developed by Madruga Works, Planetbase released on PC back in the tail end of 2015, and here we are two years later with their console adaptation of their popular planetary colonization title. Now Xbox One, gamers gets to experience the trials, tribulations and hardship that is required to survive on another planet. Be prepared to fail a lot and have endure many citizen deaths, as Planetbase is as harsh as the planets you’ll try and inhabit with its difficulty, but the payoff comes twofold once you understand all of its intricacies and mechanics, learning to use them in your favor.If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to colonize Mars, or some other foreign planet, Planetbase is a great rude awakening to how difficult survival is when starting from nothing, let alone creating a civilization. Humans have ventured to the far reaches of space to inhabit neighboring planets, and you’re tasked with taking a handful of humans and helper robots to create not only a community, but to fully colonize a planet with your very limited resources.
You’ll need to prioritize everything you do, balancing what you can and can’t live without to continue survival for your people. You not only need to worry about oxygen, but power for your settlement, food, water, rest areas and more. You’re given enough resources to get a few things built and started, but how you do so, and in what order, are completely up to you, and you will fail the first few times quite quickly, even after completing the tutorial, as it’s a very fine balance of survival and expansion.
This is where Planetbase falters at first, as while there is a tutorial, I followed it almost exactly to a tee during my first real playthrough attempt and everyone ended up dying quite quickly. The first time they didn’t have enough oxygen, the second was not enough power, then a lack of food, etc. Planetbase is a lot about trial and error, and the very steep learning curve may be a little too high for some, as I know I got frustrated to the point of having to resort to watching a few 'beginner' videos on YouTube to help my early game start off much more efficiently. Once you have the basics down though, and understand the “proper” order and manner in which to build and expand, Planetbase truly opens up and becomes a lot of fun.
Each colonist has their own specialty which determines their specific job at the base. At first this is infuriating, as you only start out with a handful of people, and should they perish there’s not much you can do to recover at that point, as other people can’t take over someone else’s job. Medics can only heal, workers move items, biologists handle the crops, etc, so you need to make sure you have the right amount of each type should the worst happen, which is almost inevitable.
Just like people in the real world, your virtual people need to be kept fed and happy or else they won’t work. This is where your building skills will come into play. You’re in charge of creating the base however you deem fit. You determine where you want to build each type of room and corridor, but be aware, there is an ideal placement for nearly everything you do, as you want everything to be as efficient as possible.
You’ll also start with two robots to help your colonization get started. These helpful androids can carry materials and are the ones responsible for actually building your structures once you’ve placed them. These are simply robots though and can break down, and this is where your engineers come into play, as they need to not only repair them but also repair your worn down structures like solar panels and wind turbines. Nearly every structure or unit somehow relies on another unit or resource, and this is where the deep meta of the game comes into play.
Before you can build more structures and expand, you’re going to need to gather resources, but to gather resources, you’ll need even more resources and manpower, so it’s a constant cycle, one that takes some time to learn how to do properly. There’s such a thing as building too quickly, as expanding rapidly will deplete your resources like food, water and oxygen faster than you’re producing, which will require you to expand more, thus making the problem worse.
Power is one of the most important components you’ll need to focus on creating right away, as without electricity, nothing in your base will function. The two main sources for energy are solar panels, which is great in the daytime, and wind turbines, which generate electricity when it’s windy. You’ll need to create both if you want enough energy for your ever expanding base, as solar panels don’t help you at night, and turbines only work when the wind is blowing. You’ll also need to create energy capsules to store your energy, for those times when it’s night time and there’s no wind blowing.
When creating any building or structure they need to be placed close enough to another building so that it can be connected, the problem being that you don’t always know where you’re able to place buildings due to uneven land or not enough room before trying to do so. Structures can be made small, medium or large, but the larger versions take more resources to do so. This is just another example of how a simple decision can be your undoing, as making a large structure might have used the last resource you needed to build something else critical.
To net more resources you’ll need to mine, plant, and refine, which of course takes certain types of workers to do so, along with an area for storage. Nothing happens quickly though, and this is where planning the layout for your base comes in. The longer it takes for workers to walk to and from places can be the difference of survival and extermination. You need to plan your base layout strategically for the best possible results.
Should the need arise to construct a building in an emergency, you’re able to prioritize a structure over others if the need is dire. You’re also able to cut the power to any building or area if you start to run low and need to conserve it for any reason. In the beginning, before your base is completely self-sufficient, you’ll need to learn these strategies quickly if you want to start your expansion.
Building a landing pad will allow other colonists and visitors to come to your settlement, and this is how you’ll gain new members to your colony and workforce. You’re able to set exactly what type of workers you want to land, and every so often you’ll see a drop ship come with new people to add to your settlement.
You start out with only access to one Mars-like planet, and to unlock the others you need to hit a certain amount of milestones. These can be certain objectives like reaching a specific population, building a number of structures and so on. Unlocking these is how you access the other planets, which become more challenging as you progress.
So, how does Planetbase fare with a controller in hand instead of its native mouse and keyboard? Well, I’m glad to say that it seems developer Madruga Works has taken the time to make their game very controller friendly. They’ve redesigned the controls to make use of the controller in a logical way. You can move the camera with the sticks and the bumpers are how you access the numerous menus. Poor controls can be a death sentence for a PC to console port, and I’m glad they’ve taken the time to do it even though there will be more frustration than not until you learn all of the intricacies of how everything works together.
That game is also a constant balance of resource use and expenditure. You’re going to think the AI of your workers is broken, but it’s not. You’re also going to learn the hard way, many times, that you need to watch over everything. I had a little over 60 people in my colony and was expanding when needed, but I wasn’t watching my workers’ numbers and expanded too fast. I started to run out of food, then energy and finally oxygen. I went from a thriving colony to everyone dead in a matter of minutes simply because I forgot to turn off new visitors on my landing pad, unable to keep up with the expansion. One small mistake will be your undoing, so make sure to save often and learn from your faults, as the next attempt will go much smoother, although you'll find lots to learn.
The game can seem unforgiving, forcing you to learn how to play properly on your own through trial and error, but once you learn how to play correctly though, the game opens up and is very entertaining; it’s a large hill to climb to really figure it out in the beginning but it can be done. I know if I didn’t make an effort to look up some tricks and beginner help videos I would have given up quite early on. After learning what and how to prioritize when starting out, my opinion completely changed once I started enjoying myself.
Once you learn how to build a self-sustaining colony, there’s a lot to do, but you simply have to remember not to do it too fast or you’ll expand too quickly and will suffer for it later on. There’s nothing like being well on your way to expanding, only to have a meteor destroy your oxygen tank or other life support system. Planetbase starts out incredibly infuriating but becomes really enjoyable after you make it over the steep learning curve. If you’re looking for a colonization simulator that controls well on console, look no further than Planetbase.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Anoxemia
The dictionary defines Anoxemia as “a deficiency of oxygen in the arterial blood.”, or in simple terms, a lack of oxygen. This is fitting for Anoxemia, a game developed by BSK Games, as it’s set in the ocean, underneath the surface, where you are constantly in search for oxygen. Looking up the medical symptoms of actual Anoxemia is very fitting for the game as well, as anxiety and confusion is something that you may also experience by playing this dark and brooding underwater title.You are Dr. Bailey, a scientist who is at the bottom of the ocean and tasked to find and collect specific plant samples for research, but your submarine has crashed, so you must not only finish your mission, but also survive by finding scattered oxygen tanks throughout the ocean bed. It seems odd to me that Dr. Bailey must complete his mission no matter what, especially after such a catastrophic event, rather than focusing simply on survival.
These plant samples seem to be of some serious importance though, and it’s not only until about half way through that you start to question why, or what the motives may be to collect them. The story itself is told through comic book style panels rather than animated cutscenes, and while not terribly involved or exciting, it has just enough mystery to keep you wondering why, hopefully retrying the levels over again when you inevitably die many times for numerous reasons. Many small details of the story are heard through quick quips from Dr. Bailey, so you best be listening to get the most out of the minimal story.
You’re deep under the surface in the ocean, so there’s virtually no light aside from the small glow around you. This is where your sonar comes in, as with a press of a button you can quickly see, at a glance, any imminent danger like mines, enemies, and even a general idea where the plants you need to collect are. And that’s the main goal of the game, finding all of the stage’s plants allowing you to progress through each of the game's levels to find all of the plants. It sounds basic because it is, but don’t be fooled, things become much more difficult in later stages.
The complete gameplay experience involves Dr. Bailey underwater with his trusty little drone guiding him where to go. You don’t actually control Dr. Bailey, but instead the small drone, as the good doctor will follow it to the best of his ability throughout the levels. The drone will gain a few abilities as you progress, like a harpoon hook and a speed boost, but the core mechanic simply revolves around exploration in a timely fashion, as your oxygen is a limited resource.
There are plenty of traps for you come across causing you to perish, like acidic water, harsh currents, enemies, mines and more. The biggest challenge will be determining if you should spend precious time searching for more upgrades and oxygen, or try to rush to the plants to beat the level. Certain actions, like speed boosting, uses more oxygen as well, so when you run out and can’t breathe, you die and need to start the level over.
Eventually you’ll collect dynamite to blast open weak walls, but the issue here is there’s no simple way to determine if you’ve picked up dynamite, or how many you possess. There’s some small meanings to the icons on your drone, but it’s never explained well, and even after a few hours in, I was still guessing if I had collected what I needed to or not. Make sure to move away before the explosion goes off though, as being caught in the blast radius which will instantly kill you, sending you back to the start of the level once again.
Dying is something you’ll become very accustomed to, especially in the latter portion of Anoxemia. Clipping a mine, having an enemy shoot you, running out of oxygen, or accidentally being too close to your dynamite explosion will send you back to the start of the level. In the beginning stages this isn’t a big deal, as levels are just minutes long, but later on the levels become huge and much more involved, and without any checkpoint system a simple mistake can lead to death and a lot of frustration as you have to restart.
Since you’re always trying to follow your drone, and the controls aren’t’ perfect, you'll find that you will become stuck on edges or other small objects like rocks, only to get permanently stuck, forcing you to run out of oxygen, die and try again. This issue becomes even worse in the handful of ‘inside’ levels, where you’re exploring the insides of a sunken bunker or ship with little room to move or a clear direction to go.
Movement is very difficult, though it should be since you’re underwater, but at times it’s not fair, especially with certain physic puzzles as you struggle to deal with the lack of precision of said control. If you happen to stumble upon Anoxemia’s version of a treasure chest, you need to use your sonar to unlock it and you are forced to wait a few moments before it opens. This doesn’t pause the action around you though, and you'll die many times from an enemy that will get you, unfairly, while you are waiting for the chest to unlock.
As for the visuals, the artistic style is dark, brooding, and claustrophobic, but it should be as you are supposed to be at the bottom of the ocean floor. While interesting, there’s not much detail to appreciate, as the majority of everything simply looks like silhouettes as you move across the scenery. There’s a few moments where it feels you’re in a 3D world, but these are far and few in between. The comic book elements of the narrative are well drawn, but there’s simply not enough to keep you engaged between levels to make you care enough to collect underwater plants.
Given that Anoxemia is only a few bucks, it’s hard to knock it too much, and if you can deal with the frustrating controls and the seemingly unfair deaths, there is a decent amount of gameplay here with almost 40 levels to explore. With a few checkpoints thrown in between each level, I would have enjoyed my time with Anoxemia so much more, but there were times where I was wanting to hold my breath, hoping it would be over sooner than later.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom
It seems developer Artifex Mundi has found their stride releasing their catalog of titles on Xbox One, both new and old, seemingly having a new one to play almost every month. It feels like it has only been a few weeks since I reviewed their last release, and here we are with their newest release, Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom. I’ve been a fan of Artifex Mundi since their first Xbox One port, so I’m always excited to try out the newest game from them, as I find their Hidden Object Games (HOG’s) a nice relaxing distraction from my normal gaming regiment.While I love enjoying my time with the genre that Artifex Mundi has single handedly brought back to consoles, Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom simply doesn’t feel as complete or as special as their previous titles, even though this is one of the newest titles in their catalog. Something just feels missing even though some new things were introduced, and tried, in this latest game.
Lost Grimoires tells a story about a young alchemist who is raised by a caregiver after being orphaned as a young child. Your caregiver, whom you call uncle, is a powerful alchemist and has shown you everything you know about becoming a great alchemist of your own. The heroine has finally returned home only to find a masked thief has broken into her house before she is knocked unconscious. There’s a magic amulet involved, a mystery surrounding your parents, and maybe your caregiver isn’t the person whom you thought him to be. From here you’ll experience a tale full of clues and puzzles as you uncover the truth to what’s really going on and what happened to your parents.
Many of the plot points you’ll see coming a mile away, and I found the character development really lacking this time around. I didn’t really care much about the protagonist, and the villains motives are never really explained aside from him thinking it’s what needs to be done. Normally I can finish each Artifex Mundi HOG in a single sitting after a few hours, but Lost Grimoires seemed to be over very quickly, much more so than their other titles. All of their games have an unlockable bonus chapter, but that’s not included here, so the replyability aside, from missing achievements and a harder difficulty level, is quite low.
If you’ve played any HOG’s before, you’ll already be familiar with the general mechanics and layout of the gameplay. The art is beautifully hand painted, and while the animation is quite lacking, the visuals have their own distinct style which I can appreciate. You’ll progress across a number of scenes throughout your journey, solving puzzles and collecting items as you go. Each item you collect will allow you to progress further in another scene elsewhere, most of the time, so there’s a little jumping back and forth between scenes. Luckily the game map allows you to quick jump from one area to another instantly, so that you don’t need to navigate each scene manually.
Unlike many of their previous titles, there’s not as much collecting of items in Lost Grimoires, as each item you procure will be used almost immediately after. In previous games there were items you needed to collect a certain amount of before being able to solve specific puzzles, and while that is included here, it’s nowhere near as much as previous games. There’s also not much backtracking or scene jumping compared to other titles, so that could be a positive or negative depending on your viewpoint. I personally liked not having to jump between scenes so often (and the instant map travel helps greatly), but it sure did cut down the overall play time. The map is handy, as it will show you where you are and what areas have a puzzle that needs completing provided you’re playing on casual difficulty, as expert won’t give you hints.
Given that these games are classified as Hidden Object Games, you’d think that this would be a primary focus on the puzzles within, but it felt like Lost Grimoires had the least amount of them compared to other titles for the developer. Maybe it’s just the overall shortness of the game, but it really felt as if there was only a handful of HOG’s to complete.
There has also been a conscious decision to remove an alternative game to skip through some of the HOG’s that the rest of the other titles have always used. This was a way to play a different type of mini-game in lieu of completing the classic HOG style of puzzle. I always preferred to play the HOG myself, but it seems like an odd exclusion. There’s even a few HOG’s that instead of giving you a checklist of items to find, you’re given riddles to solve instead, where the answer is the item you need to find. This is an interesting change and much more challenging, but even I had to resort to spamming the ‘A’ button across the scene when I became stumped.
There’s an option to get hints, and even completely skip puzzles if you become stuck and frustrated, an inclusion that I never had to rely on in previous games until now. These 'skips' will automatically complete the puzzle for you, and while the overall difficulty didn’t seem much more difficult than previous titles, for some reason I had a lot of troubles with one of the types of puzzles, forcing me to rely on the skip here and there. It’s a great option to have when it’s needed so that anyone can experience the whole game, regardless of skill.
The biggest addition Lost Grimoires is the inclusion of an alchemy mechanic. Throughout your journey you’ll concoct more than a dozen different potions from collected items, each with a different and specific use to progress the narrative. Along your adventure you’ll find specific items that aren’t used for puzzles, but instead are ingredients, simply used to create a specific potion. Once you find all of the recipe’s ingredients you’ll mix them together then need to solve a puzzle to complete the potion brew. These mini-games revolve around rotating some gears with colored orbs, tasking you with creating a specific pattern. These begin out simple enough, but become much more difficult near the end, which is what I needed to rely on the hint system for.
It’s not a groundbreaking mechanic, as you’re simply collecting items which then gives you a quick puzzle to solve, but it feels new to the genre. I simply wish there was more depth to it, as once you create the potion it’s obvious that’s what you need to use next to progress, and there’s no making potions twice, as you’re always working on a new recipe after completing the previous.
While the Artifex Mundi games have never been known for their great voice acting, Lost Grimoires seems tobe the worst of the batch, in my opinion. None of the lines are delivered in a believable way, which is probably why I didn’t end up caring about the characters in any way. While I still enjoyed distracting myself from my regular games for a few hours with Lost Grimoires’ puzzles, the story was very predictable.
Maybe it’s the onslaught of releases, or genre fatigue, but Lost Grimoires simply felt as if something was lacking compared to their other titles, which I really enjoyed each time. If you’re looking for a quick distraction and want some puzzles to solve, you could do worse though. Given its cheap price point it still garners a recommendation from myself, a self-proclaimed HOG expert, even if it isn’t as great as their other titles.
Overall Score: 6.9 / 10
Cities: Skylines - Xbox One Edition
When you think city building games, and how they began, you’ll most likely think of Sim City right away, depending on your age and gaming history. It’s no secret that after the debacle of Sim City 4’s launch, the brand hasn’t been what it once used to be, and in those shadows has emerged a new, and arguably more feature rich, city builder over the years. I’m of course talking about the Cities games.Released back in 2015 for PC, Cities: Skylines made a big impact on the city simulation genre. It was robust and offered some fantastic gameplay, and now just a couple of short years later we finally have a console edition for Xbox One. Fear not, as there are no online requirements, other any other arbitrary barriers, to block you from playing, but how well can a very in-depth city builder translate to console when going from keyboard and mouse to a controller? Turns out developer Tantalus Media has somehow figured out the very solution, making Skylines a wonderful console experience for those of us longing to build our dream cities.
Skylines not only is just a port of the PC title, but it also includes the popular After Dark expansion, adding more content and a complete day and night cycle for those that want to experience it. Simply building a few roads and buildings won’t cut it though, as there’s so much depth here that you’ll need to play for a while to learn all of its intricacies and how to best solve your populations ever changing needs and problems.
As you begin your first city building adventure, you’ll be able to choose your backdrop. Some areas have more watered space than others, and each has different amounts of resources. While there’s not really a hard or easy mode, there is the fantastic decision to include an option for “infinite money” and “unlock all buildings”. I would suggest building a city or two with these options on until you learn how to set up the basics for your city, like energy grids, water ways, traffic flow and more. Take note though, playing with these options enabled does disable any achievements, so those wanting to add to their Gamerscore are going to have to earn them the legitimate way.
You're taught the basics at first, like how to lay down some roads, building an energy source, connecting powerlines and creating waterways for sewage and fresh water. While the hints are helpful, they could have been a little more in-depth, as it took me some time to figure out how to setup my pipelines properly, not knowing I had to connect them all to the same system for it to flow correctly. This is just one of a handful of things you’ll need to figure out yourself before becoming a great city builder in Skylines, which is why I suggest playing with the unlimited money option the first few times.
All of your menu options are located along the bottom of the screen in different categories. Once you select one of the categories, more options open up to you, so if you want to build a road, you open the road menu and that will give you a bunch of more options, like one way streets, highways, etc, depending on what you’ve unlocked up to that point. Navigating these menus is very simple with the D-Pad, and while a little more information would have been helpful, you’ll eventually figure it all out with some simple trial and error.
If you’re not playing with unlimited money, you’re going to want to start out small, simply building a road or two and setting up all your infrastructure before you slowly start to expand. Expand too quickly and your expenses will outweigh your income, and it takes time for your city to grow in population. Slow and steady is how you want to progress. Seeing your city evolve and expand is a lot of fun, especially once you hit thousands of citizens and witness how busy your creation is becoming.
Once you get the hang of how to generally build and expand, there’s more depth hidden underneath for those that want even more flexibility and customization. There’s a whole menu dealing with your economy and loans, zoning areas to specialize in certain traits, and a whole bunch of graphs and charts for those that truly want to deep-dive into the inner workings of their city. Even after dozens of hours playing, I’m still learning how to efficiently run my city as best as I can, as there’s a lot here to learn if you want to even balance budgets for nearly everything.
You’re given the option to pause time if you wish, allowing you to plan and build without anything distracting you or your metrics changing, but unfortunately one feature that has been left out of the console version is the ability to fast forward time. Sometimes you have everything built just how you want and you'll need to simply wait as your city populates even more, as there are certain milestones to reach that unlock a bunch of features and buildings. Sadly, you’re unable to speed up time, so you’ll need to leave the game running if you’re simply biding time for whatever reason. This isn’t a major drawback, but defiantly something that is lacking when you become proficient at constructing your city.
The first city or two is actually a little overwhelming, even with infinite money enabled, as there’s simply so much to do and learn. Planning roads is one thing, but adding a bus system is a whole other ballgame, as you need to create lines, routes, stops and more. The same goes for taxis and trains. You’ll begin with a single squared area, but can eventually expand up to nine of these squares should you wish to create a massive metropolis.
Eventually you’ll need to focus on meeting all of your citizen’s needs and desires as you expand. You’ll need to make sure there’s enough schools and educated people, a police force, hospitals, parks, and a whole lot more. You can create specific laws for certain areas should you wish, like pet bans, smoking bans, no noise allowed after certain times and more. These policies allow you to create a truly unique city with different suburbs and districts, allowing for more freedom of creation.
The biggest win that Skylines has on console is how fluid and natural the controls feel and work. It’s incredibly simple to create what you want, how you want, without any effort required. Essentially everything you need is only a button press or two away, even if you want to switch from straight roads to curved or free-form. Holding the ‘Y’ button allows for context sensitive options and information to be displayed or chosen, something that you’ll need to learn on your own, as it’s not really taught to you.
Also simplified is the ability to snap roads, pipes, powerlines and more together. While the snapping will do most of the work for you, sometimes you’ll need to zoom in with the triggers if you want a very precise placement, as doing things zoomed out can be a little trickier if you want something placed perfectly. There are times where I’ll be placing a road or powerlines through another road or other obstacle, and it’s not smart enough to know to move over the blocked object a hair so I can place it. Something like this forces you to demolish the object and build what you wanted in the first place, making for an extra step, something that could have been a simple solution with a confirmation instead.
While Skylines doesn’t have all of the up to date expansions and DLC found on PC, After Dark is included, which is highly praised for its day-night cycle and additions of new policies, zones, transportation (taxis!) and more. I was hoping for mod inclusion, but alas, we’ll have to do without for this first time console release.
There’s obviously some give and take needed to bring Skylines to console, as the draw distance is nowhere near what it is compared to PC, especially with the traffic. You can see individual cars and people, but only when you’re zoomed in quite close, the same goes for foliage and other small details. The larger your city grows the more that’s going on underneath the hood, and it seems this is where sacrifices had to be made. There’s the odd framerate hiccup, but nothing major or deal breaking.
I was truly impressed with how Cities: Skylines port to console performed, not just in its implementation, but its obvious that a conscious effort has been made to make this version feel natural on console. It’s great to see your humble town evolve into a massive metropolis, becoming more and more expansive and intricate as your population grows.
Kudos to Tantalus Media for streamlining the menu system into an easy to use and understand layout. This is a fantastic step in the right direction and proves that city building games, previously thought of as PC-only, can work well on console if done with the right amount of effort and care. Being able to relax on the couch and slowly grow one's city as mayor is fantastic, and even with its few limitations and sacrifices, Cities: Skylines is clearly the go-to for city simulation/building game on console.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Punch Club
If you’re a fighting game fan like myself, you might have gravitated towards a small little title, called Punch Club, simply for its name. Developed by Lazy Bear Games, you may initially think it’s a pixelated retelling of the movie Fight Club in some form, but Punch Club is nothing of the sorts. Sure, there’s some fighting involved, but don’t go in hoping for some form of fighting game to tide you over.Punch Club does something else completely different, putting you in the role of a fighter who needs to train, sleep, eat, fight, and train some more, and it is done in a simulation manager setup. So, while you won’t be directly in control of any fighting per-se, you’ll be managing the daily life of the protagonist, which just happens to include a lot of mundane tasks to do in an effort to get you to your next fight. As long as you know you’re going into a simulation management game, you’ll know what to prepare for, as it’s much more in depth than I was expecting.
Punch Club starts out with you, as a child, witnessing your father being murdered. You make a vow to your dying dad that you’ll avenge him one day, so from that day on you set upon a path to become the greatest fighter ever and find out who killed him. It’s a silly premise for a story, but it works for the context of the game setting, as it’s littered with humor and tons of 80's and 90’s pop culture references.
You are now grown up and are about to embark on your fighting career to become the best fighter in the world. To do this you need to eat healthy food so that you have the energy to train hard in the gym, but to do so you need to buy your groceries from the store, but to do that you need money, so you get a part time job. Now that you’ve worked you’re hungry and tired; and this is essentially the lopped premise the gameplay revolves around. You always want to do something but you need to complete a separate action to do so.
This is where the management simulation starts to kick in, as you need to constantly balance your time, food, health, training, work and of course, finding the time to fight and rise up the ranks. So while it’s billed as a boxing management game (though it’s more MMA or Kickboxing), the majority of your time will be managing your fighter’s day to day life and chores. While it may not sound exciting at first, and believe me the screenshots fooled me too, there’s a lot to do in Punch Club and you won’t realize it until you spend a few good hours playing.
As you begin your career you’ll almost exclusively need to worry about training and eating, but eventually your money runs out, forcing you to work, which takes time away from the set hours in the day. As you progress further, more special and unique events and opportunities open up to you, like delivering pizza to the sewers, joining an underground fight league, turning into a super hero and more.
Once you join the rookie fighting league at the local gym, that’s where your journey really begins. Fights are scheduled a few shorts days in advance, so you need to plan out your schedule ahead of time to make sure you’re rested and trained for fight day. You’ll want to make sure you improve your main stats and skills through training, but you can’t neglect your other duties either, or else there will be consequences. It’s a delicate balancing act, one that has a steep learning curve to figure out on your own.
If you don’t make the time to train, rest, eat, and more, your performance in your fights will suffer, which makes you slide further down the rankings. As you progress you’ll have more priorities to balance, harder decisions to make, and more storylines to unfold should you decide to focus on them. Just remember, there’s always a consequence for ignoring something else. You essentially need to find the correct gameplay balance if you want to progress positively, which by halfway point can become a little mundane.
Training may seem like a simple task at first, but there’s quite a lot of depth within. The more you train, the more your stats will go up, like strength, agility, and stamina. At the end of every day you also have stat degradation though, so no matter how well you do to balance stats, you’re always in a ‘2 steps forward, 1 step back’ approach. It took some time to learn that you really want to focus more or less on a single stat, as it’s near impossible to keep them all level.
The reason for this is the skill trees that tend to favor a specific type of fighting style/stat. If you want to be a hard puncher you’ll want to train strength obviously, which plays into the 'Way of the Bear' skills, which requires high strength to use specific moves. The same goes for the other two stats, with their own corresponding 'Ways' with skill sets and moves.
You can only train for so long before you become tired or hungry, which starts the cycle of needing to rest, work, etc. It is addictive once you figure out the proper ‘formula’ to being efficient with your time, money, and training, but it does start to become like a mundane grind after triple digit days.
Just like life, you’re constantly struggling to keep everything balanced, and while I applaud how many choices there are, and things to do, none of it is explained very well aside from a quick tip or blurb here and there. If you venture off the efficient path of training, working, sleeping, eating and fighting, it can feel like a struggle to get back on track. I ventured off to try one of the side missions, only to fall behind on training and having my stats decay to a point where I felt discouraged from experimenting and enjoying, as all my hard work was gone so quick.
What surprised me the most about Punch Club was that you don’t even participate in the fights you sign up for either. You have a specific amount of fighting moves and ability slots that you choose to set however you see fit, then once you start the fight you sit and watch it as it unfolds randomly in front of you without any sort of input. This is where your training comes in, as you will do far better if you focus on a specific path and stat, yet not completing and ignoring the others as well.
My first few fights did not go so well, but eventually I was able to unlock some new abilities and moves, making my way up the rankings, but that’s when I decided to pursue a relationship in the game, which in turn took time away from training, bringing more losses to my record. As you fight though, and in between rounds, you can swap moves with others if you think there’s a better strategy or balance, but with a small and limited amount of slots to use, it’s hard to strategize and usually feels more like luck than anything else.
I do wish there was some sort of mini-game during the fight that would allow me to help sway it in my favor. Watching the first dozen or so fights is fun as you watch how your fighter wins or loses, but eventually I would start the fight and just ignore it until it was done as it needed no input from me whatsoever. If you enjoy simulation management then this will be right up your alley, just don’t expect a fighting game with some sim elements thrown in, as it’s not that at all.
The retro 90’s graphics suit the game well, especially with the constant pop culture references. I still smile whenever my virtual fighter goes to work out in his garage and see that he drives the A-Team van. On the other side of the coin though, the music can be a little repetitive over time and all of the dialogue is done via speech bubbles. Oddly enough, I think some cheesy voice acting would have been a great fit for this title and fitting for the setting.
At first I was hooked on the slow progression once I figured out how to balance my daily duties, but the progression eventually slows down, almost to a halt, and if you’re not constantly on top of what you need to do something will always suffer. I lost multiple points in my main stat then become broke when I tried venturing off my proven treadmill of progression. Upgrades eventually become incredibly expensive to purchase, which requires more fight wins, which in turn requires more training, etc. Even after getting one of the upgrades I had been eyeing for quite some time in my 'Way of the Tiger' tree, it didn’t feel like it made a big difference at all, which was kind of discouraging.
To the developer’s credit, there is essentially an easy mode that stops stat degradation if you simply want to focus on winning and story elements, but achievements are disabled in this mode too, which is why I skipped playing it. Punch Club can be addictive, and if you’re a sim-management fan you’ll feel right at home with tons of things to balance and do, weighing the pros and cons of every choice. In the end I think that Punch Club Manager would have probably been a more fitting title for this game.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Late Shift
Movies are a linear experience as you sit there for about 2 hours watching a story unfold from beginning to end without any interaction or input. Games on the other hand can be very cinematic, but allow for interactiveness, as you forge your own stories and destiny based on your actions. What if there was some sort of way to blend the mediums together, allowing for a Hollywood-like cinematic experience, but with options given to you, the audience, to change the story and outcomes?Late Shift, created by CtrlMovie, a small Switzerland studio, is aiming to do just this with what they’re touting as the world’s first fully realized 'choose-your-own-adventure' film. Blending the two mediums together feels different at first, but that’s simply because it’s a newer medium. That’s not saying that Full Motion Video (FMV) games haven't been tried before, as it seems there was a small boom in the 90’s with the Sega CD, but it never really caught on. This is where CtrlMovie hopes to change that, with a fully-fledged interesting movie that puts you in control of the two styles of entertainment together.
Late Shift gives you up to 180 decisions to choose from, with seven endings in total to experience. You’re in control of the major decisions of the ‘game’, allowing for the main character to react however you see fit. With a budget of $1.5 million, you can expect a full HD quality movie that actually has quite an interesting story with a cast of wonderful actors and a well written script.
Written by the author of Guy Ritchie’s 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes, Late Shift has a compelling story revolving around a seemingly nobody that gets forced into joining a heist at gunpoint. You ‘play’ as Matt, a seemingly normal guy working the night shift at an underground parkade where rich people keep their exotic, and incredibly expensive, cars. Late Shift is all about making decisions, some trivial, like choosing to help a lost tourist with directions, and others that carry more weight, like trying to run away and escape your kidnapping, or playing along and waiting for the right moment. It’s these decisions that will shape the story that unfolds in front of you, usually different every time you play.
Nearly every decision you make has a consequence in some way. Deciding to help or not help the cute girl wanting to borrow some car keys will certainly lead you down a different path later in Matt’s story. You’re given just a few seconds to make your choice, forced to live with your decision afterwards, watching events unfold from that point on, just like in life.
I don’t want to give away too many plot points, as there’s numerous and different scenes to uncover based on your decisions, and it’s actually quite an interesting tale. This interactive movie will last roughly 90 minutes or so, but some decisions could lead to a longer or shorter runtime, as certain scenes will play out, or not, based on your choices. If you were to watch every scene in Late Shift, there’s about 4 hours or so of footage, which shows you how much work has gone into creating the multiple branching paths of storyline that can possibly play out.
Matt, played by Joe Sowerbutts, and May-Ling, played by Karuka Abe, both do a wonderful job with their acting as the main characters. The support cast also fills in their roles with believable performances and I’m glad that this came across like a true Hollywood movie experience in terms of the cinematography and acting, as I was prepared for a B-list performance given the medium has a somewhat a rocky past.
Every so often there will be 2, sometimes 3, buttons that appear on the bottom of the screen, and these are your choices for what action, or reaction, you want to make next. The options only appear for a few seconds so you can’t spend much time thinking about what your decision will be, but instead react emotionally. The feature that surprised me is that there’s no in-game pausing to make your decision, so the movie will play on regardless if you make a choice (it defaults to the left choice as opposed to the right I believe), leaving no awkward pauses between scenes. That being said, there seems to be a slight lag, or hitching, when the scene transitions from one to the next, but it is nothing too terrible to ruin the experience, but it is noticeable.
There is also no way to fast forward or rewind scenes, so if you’re playing for the tenth time, there’s no skipping the parts you’ve already seen, even the credits. There is a built in checkpoint system should you need to go quickly or turn off your Xbox One, allowing you to continue near where you last left off. I understand the thought process into not being able to skip scenes, as it’s supposed to be a cinematic experience, but a 90 minute commitment, multiple times, is a tall ask, and even after going through Late Shift about half a dozen times, I’ve yet to see every ending, as I don’t want to sit through the same scenes over and over again, back to back.
Late Shift is all about decisions, and then living with the choices you made. The first time I played I decided to do the ‘right’ thing, trying to play along, waiting for my time to make my escape, just how I think I would react in a crazy situation like that. By the fourth or fifth time playing, I had no regrets and wouldn’t hesitate clubbing an old man with a golf club. What’s interesting is that if this was purely a cinematic experience, I would have never been able to see completely different viewpoints and events.
It’s thrilling at first to see your choices play out in front of you, especially since it’s acted out by human actors. You feel as though you’re watching a movie, but now when you shout at the screen to “look behind you”, they’ll actually do said action. Choices are all about reactions and consequences. Do you make a run for it when you’re held at gunpoint, do you play along and try to turn in the bad guys, or do you give into the situation and demand a cut of the payday? Each plays out in completely different ways and have their own butterfly effect later on.
Deciding on the more difficult choices makes them feel as though they have weight to them. Do you give up the girl and blame her when you’re being tortured, or trust she won’t say anything and endure the pain? It’s exciting to replay through a few times, seeing all the twists and turns the story can bring, some of which completely shocked me, especially one of the endings.
I do wish that you could go to any of the scenes or checkpoints after completing a playthrough, as apparently this is an option on the mobile app version. Not that that’s a bad thing that you have to sit for the full experience every time, but there’s only so many times one can see the same scenes over and over again, knowing what one's decisions will be ahead of time. I’m actually planning on having a friend come over and play it so I can see their decisions, which I think will be quite interesting.
Is Late Shift any good though? As a movie experience, I’d say so, as you finally get to choose what the protagonist does. Do you lean in for the kiss from the girl or hold off for later? Do you get into a street fight or flog them off? This makes you feel like you’re the star of the movie and Matt is simply your vessel. As a side note, the developers were smart by moving the achievement and notification box that pops up on screen out of the bottom-middle of the screen up to the top right, as to not ever block your decision choices from view, a small touch that didn’t go unnoticed.
As a game, there’s no real mechanics here aside from choosing between multiple options and selecting them with the ‘A’ button. So, while it may not be interesting in its gameplay, that’s not what it’s setting out to do. Late Shift is attempting to blend two mediums together, something I think they did well, making certain decisions weigh heavily on your conscience, unaware of the ramifications later on. You’ll need to commit some time to see all of what Late Shift has to offer, but finding a new branch to the storyline is exciting, and I’m still trying to find a few of the different endings. It's a game experience where your decisions are yours alone to make. Your decisions are you.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
NeuroVoider
I absolutely love twin stick shooters, as for rogue-lite games though, they need to stand out for me to really enjoy them, as I usually find permadeath somewhat off-putting. There are exceptions to this rule for me though, and it seems that Flying Oak Games has crafted an engaging and fun rogue-lite twin stick shooter that hooked me from the first time I played their latest release, Neurovoider.The thing about rogue-lite games, at least for me, is that I usually become frustrated with permadeath in games, as I don’t find losing all my progress, and having to restart and grind to get it back, that enjoyable. Somehow though Neurovoider has remedied this either with its constant flow of loot upgrades or its brilliant nemesis system. Even when I died and had to restart I never become frustrated, which speaks volumes.
Normally games like these aren’t known for their compelling storytelling and narrative, and it’s no different with Neurovoider either. There is a story, something about robot partying on planet earth, but you’re just a brain that busts out of its tube and into a robot exosuit in an effort to put a stop to it. Don’t worry, I’m just as confused as you, but at least there’s some sort of reasoning behind your actions.
What makes Neurovoider shine is its' mechanics and gameplay. Everything in the game is essentially procedurally generated, meaning that all the levels, loot and even the enemies are all random, meaning that you’ll never play the same level twice. You begin by choosing one of three main exosuits to pilot, each of which have their own strengths, weaknesses and abilities to suit your preferred play style.
The 3 classes of the exosuits are Dash (very fast and can dash in directions, but low stats), Rampage (decent stats and can boost his attack) and Fortress (high energy and health, but very slow and can make a bubble shield). Each of these exosuits match different types of play, though I tended to favor Dash by a large margin, as you need to stay alive at all times, and dashing away is the easiest way to do so.
There are 5 stages, each of which are broken into 5 levels, and while that may not sound like much, keep in mind that the game becomes progressively more challenging. There are bosses at the end of each stage that will require some serious twin stick skills to survive. The majority of the levels simply require you to destroy core reactors before you can progress, but you can continue to explore the levels if you want to earn more loot from vanquished enemies.
At the beginning of each stage you’re given a choice of 3 different levels (save for boss fights), each being a different size, while the number of elite enemies and loot is randomized. So you can choose to play the shorter and easier levels, but the longer and more difficult ones will yield better loot that you can equip between each stage. There are miscellaneous random levels that have special objectives, like simply get to the end of it, but you’ll have to survive the hordes of MANY enemies. There are others as well, but I don’t want to spoil them, as they are quite entertaining, challenging and a great change of pace.
Like any twin stick shooter, you control your movement with the Left Stick and aim with the Right. The triggers control your left and right weapons, which vary depending on what you decide to equip. Gameplay will drastically change depending on your loadout and you’ll need to constantly upgrade and swap parts and weapons to keep up with the enemies in each level. This is easy to do though as you’ll have a stash of loot to sift through between levels and always have upgrades to choose from for the most part.
Loot drops from nearly every enemy and it varies in rarity, all the way up to the best ‘glitched’ weapons that are the most powerful in the game. Each item can be upgraded (boosted) up to 5 times and it will add longevity to it, but it will cost you credits to do so. There are 3 different parts for your robot (body, head, and legs), each of which will be upgraded as you progress and find better parts. These parts don’t drop nearly as much as the weapons do, so when you get an upgrade make sure to boost it to have to last longer.
There’s no shortage of regular enemies that generally take one or two hits depending on your weapon, but there are some nasty elite enemies too and they can wreak havoc on your plans. Some of these enemies are borderline unfair and can one-shot you if they have a nasty weapon equipped. This is where you’ll learn the rogue-like elements to the game, but what I didn’t expect was the nemesis system, which will basically be waiting for you in the same level in the next game, conveniently carrying your loot should you defeat him.
Once you get the hang of the elites and the gameplay, get ready to die again when you reach the bosses, as they are no joke. Multiple enemies spawn during a boss fight, so you need to avoid the bosses fire along with taking care of the never ending minions that shoot at you as well. On the harder difficulty levels these boss fights will take some serious skill to beat.
When you’re sifting through your loot it will take some time for you to get used to properly navigate the menus. It’s a little convoluted and busy for my liking, but once you’ve done it a few times you’ll get the hang of scrapping unwanted items for more credits or boosting items without pressing the wrong button. The best part about this menu though is that you can look at every item, see what stats are upgraded, and even see how each weapon will fire and its usage of energy per second.
While I love that Neurovoider throws loot at you on a constant basis, a good portion of your gameplay will actually be staring at the intermission menu between levels going through all your loot, simply because there’s so much, almost feeling like a chore. Eventually you’ll learn the tricks, like selling items that aren’t for your class quickly, but it takes a few playthroughs to become proficient at it. You’ll also eventually learn what kinds of weapons you prefer, be it rapid fire guns, flame throwers, bio weapons, rail guns, lasers, electricity, and tons more. Given that loot is procedurally generated you’ll always have some surprises to try out.
I haven’t even gotten to the best part of Neurovoider yet, its' visuals and audio. Going for a retro vibe, it looks as if it’s straight from the 80’s with pseudo CRT monitor edges and a super colorful palette that’s bright and varied. The absolute best part hands down though is its soundtrack, created by Dan Terminus. Its 80’s retro synth varies from each level type and gets the blood flowing and head bobbing, sounding like it was taken straight from the 80’s. I wasn’t expecting much from an indie game soundtrack, but this one truly blew me away, so make sure to check it out on bandcamp.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started playing Neurovoider, and even though I died and had to restart many times, I never once became frustrated, always wanting to get in 'one-more-go' in the hopes of finding better loot. At the end of the day this is an awesome game for anyone that likes the mashup of the genres. Neurovoider is a challenging and gorgeous game that has addictive gameplay and an even better soundtrack.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Thimbleweed Park
I grew up in the 80’s, and I’m glad I did, as I got to play point and click adventure games in their prime as a young kid. Back then, LucasArts and Sierra were common household names if you were a gamer, as they were responsible for a vast majority of the great classics that I came to love early on.One of my favorite games, not just on the NES, but of all time, is Maniac Mansion. There was nothing else really like it at the time, and I could have bought it multiple times given the amount money I spent repeatedly renting it from the video store. I remember not being able to beat it for a long time, as back then there was no internet to quickly look up anything you wanted when you were stuck, so you either had to wait for one of the gaming magazines to come out with a 'hints & tips' section or somehow convince your parents to let you to call the expensive 1-900 hint line numbers. And yes, I’m guilty of calling those once or twice, possibly without my parent’s permission.
Maniac Mansion’s 30 year anniversary is coming up in a few months, and it’s crazy to think that I still have a ton of fond memories about this one game that was solely responsible for hooking me onto the genre. Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick are the ones essentially responsible for creating Maniac Mansion all those decades ago and starting the genre in many people’s eyes. In 2014 they started a Kickstarter to bring back the genre in a big way with a new game as it’s been dead for many years aside from a handful of releases.
Fastforward to the present and here we are with their recently released game Thimbleweed Park, a new point and click adventure title that feels like it’s been ripped straight out of the 80’s, yet modernized and updated to today’s standards, pixel aesthetics in tow. So, I hope you know Maniac Mansion, or at least something of it, as Thimbleweed Park makes constant references to it, and while you won’t be missing out on anything if you’re not aware of their previous game, there’s a ton of special content that fans of the classic will be elated to experience, as I was.
Thimbleweed Park takes place in 1987, ironically the same year Maniac Mansion originally released. You play as federal agents Ray and Reyas, who just happen to resemble a certain duo from the popular X-files show. Along the way you’ll meet a cast of other playable characters, each of who are incredibly unique and very memorable.
In the small town of Thimbleweed Park a man has been mysteriously murdered and it’s up to the agents to figure out who did it, why, and how a pillow factory, rude clown, and other strange events all fit in. Oddly enough, it seems that a majority of the town’s citizens, population 80, don’t seem very phased by this odd turn of events. The bigger question though is why a town of 80 has a phonebook with hundreds of names and phone numbers in it, or why the Sheriff is also the town Coroner and Hotel Manager, yet he vehemently denies it every time he is questioned.
I don’t want to give much more about the narrative away, as it’s actually quite entertaining, and uncovering each plot point is fulfilling and rewarding in itself. Each new character you meet is hilarious in their own way, the writing is phenomenal, and humor is a constant, even more so when you collect specks of dust or have a literal bag of red herring, another reference only the old school gamers will understand.
If you’ve ever played a classic point and click adventure from LucasArts or Sierra, you know exactly what to expect from Thimbleweed Park in terms of its mechanics. For those who haven't, you move around the screen by clicking the cursor where you want to go, but it’s the use of verbs listed on the bottom left that dictate how you’ll interact with objects and people. But bringing back a genre that’s almost died out completely wasn’t enough, as many improvements have been made, many that would have saved me a grounding or two because of having to rely on calling 1-900 tip lines as a kid.
First and foremost, there’s no more haphazard deaths or dead ends. These were mechanics to arbitrarily lengthen the gameplay back in the day, but it wasn’t fun if it actually happened to you, so this problem has been remedied. Near the end I thought I messed up and was in an unsolvable loop, but I eventually figured my way out of it, so there’s ‘proof in the pudding’ as they say.
Even minor characters stand out, such as a duo of plumbers that just happen to dress as pigeons, or a girl who works at a diner and will only serve you 'soon-to-be-rotten' hotdogs (which will excite you if you know your Maniac Mansion characters). All the characters have great lines in their dialogue and are generally voiced very well. That’s right, full voice acting for a point and click adventure, something I wished I could have had 30 years ago.
For a game that centers around a murder mystery there’s a heavy reliance on comedy and humor, as it should be in this genre. No matter how creepy or dark the source material becomes, it’s hilarious every step of the way. Thimbleweed Park constantly makes you wonder who the main suspect could be, as every new character you meet seems to have some sort of reason why they might have killed someone.
It’s hard to not peg Ransome the clown as your first suspect, as he constantly swears and has a Krusty the Clown/Sideshow Bob vibe to him, yet much more vulgar. Ransome actually turned out to be my favorite character in the whole adventure, as his quips and one liners are incredibly funny in a juvenile way. Plus, having swear words literally “*beep*”ed out is funnier than actually hearing and reading the curses, and there’s absolutely no shortage with Ransome.
While the overall plot has you solving the murder mystery, many other problems will present themselves that require your skills. While you’re constantly trying to solve one issue after another the game does a wonderful job at throwing in just enough story in between to keep you interested and on track. Every scene has places to explore, items to interact with and people to talk to.
The majority of the puzzles are logical in their own silly adventure game kind of way. There are none that require a lot of guesswork, just a keen eye and a want to explore and interact with everything. That’s not to say the game is a cake walk, as I did become stuck a handful of times, only to simply oversee a small object or neglect to exhaust all of my dialogue options.
Generally these games have a limited scope and are confined in the number of scenes you’ll actually interact with, but Thimbleweed Park feels quite large. There’s a ton of areas to explore, dozens of to-do items, and even more items to keep track of and experiment with. Eventually it becomes so large that you’ll have access to a map that allows you to quickly move from area to area without having to traverse the whole thing each time you go back and forth. For how big it is, the world is full of small details, many of which I didn’t notice or overlook until I became stuck, forcing me to scour and ‘pixel hunt’ nearly every inch of this crazy town.
Another mechanic that was brilliantly added is a to-do checklist for each of the playable characters. This is a general list of all the things you need to accomplish to progress further in the story, yet it leaves out any real hints of how to accomplish the solutions. It’s a clever way to point you in the right direction while not give anything away, as puzzle solving is what makes this genre so magical.
The majority of items you pick up can be shared across any of the characters, save for a few special items that are tied to certain characters. I initially thought that many of the puzzles were going to require a specific character to solve them, and while some do, you can complete a good portion of the gameplay with your character of choice, as I did when possible.
Keeping with its classic roots, everything is controlled by a cursor as you command where to walk, what commands to use, and how to interact with objects and people. It was a little clunky on consoles all those years ago, and it is still is today. There are times it feels that it’s been vastly improved in many ways. For example, you can use the D-pad and Bumpers to cycle through options and objects. Then you'll find times it’s still not perfect. Hover the cursor over an item and it will give you the most common verb use for that item, like “Open” for a door, but do so with elevator buttons and it will simply be looked at instead of used.
Generally the controls work decently, but some fine tuning could have made it even better. I wish I could have had my cursor over an item and then use the Bumpers to cycle between the verbs, rather than having to move my cursor to the verb and interact with the object separately. It’s not a big deal, as I’ve grown up with this control scheme for many years, but newcomers to the genre might find it a little tedious.
Something that surprised me is the inclusion of two difficulties, Casual and Hard. Casual is for those who simply want to focus on the story, which is what I did for my first playthrough. Hard mode adds many more steps to certain puzzles that will greatly lengthen your play time in this odd town. Having played through about half of the game a second time on Hard mode, I am impressed with how much more involved some of the puzzles are on the higher difficulty. There’s some minor differences otherwise, but Hard mode will certainly challenge you, as I found a few of the solutions to be much more obtuse with all of the extra required steps. Don’t be ashamed if you need to resort to walkthroughs on Hard. It’s a great way to add replayability as it includes seemingly ‘new’ content the second time through.
At a quick glance you would probably be fooled into thinking that Thimbleweed Park was taken right from the 80’s, but upon closer inspection, and by viewing old Maniac Mansion gameplay, the visuals have been improved, quite drastically. The pixel work has much more detail yet retains its nostalgic roots. There’s a color gamut used and each scene and character look distinct in its own way.
As a whole, the voice acting is superb, save for a select few who felt a bit flat. Unfortunately, one of those few is one of the main characters, Ray, as the performance simply didn’t do anything for me and sounded monotone throughout the whole adventure. This was why I actually opted to play as Reyas whenever I was able to. Other characters, such as Ransome and the Sherriff/Coroner/Hotel Manager, more than pick up the slack with their hilarious and perfectly timed deliveries of their lines, thanks to the fantastic writing of course.
Gamers my age will be sold on Thimbleweed Park with nostalgia alone, and if you enjoyed Maniac Mansion as much as I did growing up, you need to go and play this right now. There’s so many references and jokes that only fans of the original game will understand, and people like me are their exact audience that will enjoy it to its fullest. A few Easter eggs that stood out for me are that the mansion in this game is called Mansion Mansion, there’s a hamster in a microwave at some point, a poster talks about a meteor, and even the layout of some of the areas mimic ones from the classic. If none of this makes any sense to you, that’s fine, you won’t miss out on anything, but for fans of the original, there’s so much fan service here that it’s worth the purchase alone.
I’m not exactly sure why the genre died out over the years, but playing Thimbleweed Park made me realize how much I miss it. It has modern upgrades, not just visually, but mechanically, to make it stand out amongst the crowd, and the fact that it’s created by two legends in the industry who happen to be responsible for one of my favorite games of all time speaks volumes for its creativity and quality. It’s not going to resonate with everyone, as it’s still a niche genre, but as someone who’s been waiting decades to play an amazing classic point and click adventure, Thimbleweed Park does more than satisfy that craving, it renewed my passion for the genre and bring back a flood of great gaming memories.
The fourth wall consistently gets broken and the conclusion was very satisfying. It was much lengthier than I expected, as solving one puzzle usually requires a handful of other objectives to be met beforehand, and just when I thought I was done, it was simply the end of a chapter. My first casual playthrough was around 10 hours or so, but yours could easily take a handful more or less, depending on your puzzle solving prowess. Hard mode should take considerably longer with the extended puzzles and there’s many non-story things that can be done as well for those that want to explore and do everything.
Gilbert and Winnick have seemingly captured lighting in a bottle once again, as they’ve created something very special and memorable in Thimbleweed Park. I was smiling constantly while playing, and even afterwards while writing this review, I already know it’s going to leave me with some great gaming memories, just as their other title did 30 years ago. Thimbleweed Park is full of personality, not just from its characters, but its setting, writing, and everything else that encompasses the experience. It’s clear that this was a labor of love, and there was no two better people to be at the helm of bringing back this long lost genre. “Give” your money to developers Terrible Toybox and experience one of the best point and click adventure games in decades. And as an added bonus, this is the first game in history that I'm aware of that has a setting for 'proper' rolling of the toilet paper in game. That alone is worth a purchase and speaks about its level of detail.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Dark Arcana: The Carnival
Artifex Mundi started releasing their Hidden Object Games (HOG’s) on PC a number of years ago, and as of a few years ago, they also started to release their catalog of games on Xbox One. Normally HOG’s don’t translate well to console, so you don’t see many of them, but Artifex Mundi has somehow figured out how to make these types of games work with a controller, and I’ve been hooked ever since.Sometimes you just want a relaxing game for those nights when you want to chill out on the couch, and that’s exactly what has hooked me on these HOG’s. Generally not too difficult like other puzzlers, these games usually have you trying to find a specific list of items in a cluttered area and playing a handful of mini-games to progress further in the journey.
Dark Arcana: The Carnival is the newest Artifex Mundi release for console, yet is one of the oldest titles in their catalogue. The Carnival is a much spookier backdrop than I’m used to for a HOG, as it takes place in a twisted amusement park and has some wonderful visuals to accompany your journey. Of course there will be twists and turns, especially once you realize there’s an alternate dimension that can be traveled to through a mysterious mirror.
The Carnival opens with a mother and daughter visiting a seemingly normal amusement park, but in an unexpected turn of events the mother is kidnapped, leaving her daughter stranded, alone, and unsure where her mother was taken. I was totally expecting the child to be kidnapped like in most other stories, so having a slight twist to the trope was a welcome change.
You play as the female detective who is assigned the case. You set out to find where the mother has been taken to and reunite the family. The daughter is visibly upset and as you try to have a word with the park manager Jim, and he takes off running, locking the gate behind him. Obviously something is amiss and this is where your journey begins to solve the disappearance of the woman and what the park manager is really up to.
You eventually learn that the woman has been taken to another dimension, hidden away within mirrors, but this version of the world is very dark and twisted. This fact doesn’t stop you from getting to the truth of what happened. There’s more to the story, but with how short in length the game is, I’ll let you uncover the rest of what has happened, even if many plot points can be seen coming from a mile away.
Like other Artifex Mundi games, the backgrounds are wonderfully painted, seemingly by hand, and given that you’ll be travelling between the real world and an alternate dimension of the amusement park, you’ll see two very distinct versions of the same area. The colors are bright and varied, and even in the dark dimension, with its twisted version of every object, it’s beautiful to look at and has a ton of detail. Given that there’s no movement in the scenes for the most part, the beautiful artwork keeps your visual attention throughout.
The core of Dark Arcana is solving one of 3 different types of puzzles: HOG’s, collecting items, and a handful of mini-games. You’ll explore many different scenes, each with its own barriers preventing you from progressing further, which is where the puzzles come into play. Sometimes you’ll need to complete a mini-game to unlock a door, or collect a handful of different items from numerous scenes to find the solution you need. Any items that you need to collect and/or interact with will have some glowing sparkles on it to make it stand out, on normal mode anyways, as expert mode takes away this advantage as well as any reliance on the hint system.
Early in your adventure you’ll befriend a monkey who will become your best buddy in a few situations, as he’s able to reach items that you would have no hope of retrieving and return them back to you. There will be times where you might become confused, as you can’t figure out what item to use to solve your problem, so keep your primate companion in mind in these situations.
Like many of these types of games, you’ll return to each scene numerous times, usually with a new item in your inventory to help you progress where you were previously blocked. Throughout your adventure you’ll also have to find a collection of items like masks, gears, and other things before you can attempt to solve its related brainteaser. While many items will generally only be a few scenes away from one another, there are times where you’ll have to backtrack a half dozen areas to find the item(s) you need. Luckily you’re given a map that shows you how each area connects in case you get lost, though a fast travel system would have been ideal in some cases.
Given that the Carnival is one of Artifex Mundi’s earlier titles, I can tell how their games have progressed as I’ve played and reviewed their other newer titles in the past. The difficulty here is generally pretty flat, never terribly challenging and nowhere near as difficult as their newer games. I never had to skip any of the puzzles, which is a great inclusion for those that aren’t as skilled, nor use any hints, which will help you solve any puzzle you may be stuck on. These features allows any skill level able to complete the game yet has achievements for those that want a greater challenge, like solving a HOG without any misses, or completing the game without using any hints.
If you truly become stuck you can even completely skip puzzles, getting the game to automatically complete it for you, allowing you to progress without becoming frustrated. Like their other titles, there are also an alternative puzzles you can play if you simply don’t understand the initial one given to you, revolving around you matching cards until you clear a certain amount of powered-up cards. It’s nowhere near as challenging, but again, is a great alternative for those that need it.
The HOG’s are the showcase in these types of games, as you’re given a list of items to find in a cluttered scene. Sometimes you’ll need to combine items to create the one thing you need, like adding a candle to a candlestick, or polishing some shoes with a scrubber. Sure, you could simply spam the ‘A’ button while moving your cursor around the screen and complete them that way, but it defeats the whole purpose of these types of relaxing games.
As for the negatives, the voice acting stands out prominently, as it’s quite poor. I understand it’s one of their earlier games, but it’s quite a distraction and not believable in any way, even when the final plot twist is revealed and credits roll. The Carnival is quite easy in relation to their other HOG titles, even when played in expert mode, as I was able to easily finish it in a single sitting, including the bonus epilogue that explains events that take place after the main campaign. The other complaint is that it almost feels like they were cheating, given that you will essentially explore the same areas twice, in the real world and the alternate one.
Even with its flaws, and understanding it’s one of their older titles, I still enjoyed my time with Dark Arcana: The Carnival, even if it was a short adventure. I love these types of games for those nights I simply need to relax and not worry about shooting anyone or racing against my friends. You might scoff at HOG titles, but they are quite relaxing, and if you’re not proficient at puzzle games the difficulty here isn’t very high and it allows you many alternative ways to progress if you ever become stuck. While not Artifex Mundi’s best title to date, it’s still a fun adventure and a great way to get your feet wet with their catalogue in a long forgotten genre.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
2Dark
If questioned what game started the survival horror genre, most probably answer Resident Evil, and while that game did help propel the genre to new heights, the classic franchise Alone in the Dark actually arrived a few years prior, yet it still goes unnoticed and forgotten. While it did spawn a few sequels, it also brought us a terrible movie that I wish I could forget. Frédérick Raynal was the one who created the iconic series, and he now returns with a new gritty horror game, 2Dark. In an attempt to mix survival horror, stealth, and point-and-click elements, 2Dark is a great premise with an eerily dark and gruesome storyline that tends to hit a little too close to home being I am a father with a child.2Dark opens with Mr. Smith, a police officer, taking his family out for a camping trip in the 1960’s. He begins to set up their tents as his wife and two kids go in search for some firewood. Moments later Smith hears cries coming from afar, something you never want to hear in the woods with your family. He eventually finds his wife but she’s been gruesomely decapitated with the kids nowhere to be found. He hears them crying out only to see a truck speeding off with the children in the back crying for their father.
It’s a dark beginning to a game that makes me realize that I don’t want to ever imagine going through something like this as a father myself. In a single night Smith loses his whole family, so understandably he’s become a shell of his former self in the years following. It’s now the mid 70’s, and while no longer a cop, he continues looking for his children. There’s been a string of kidnapped children in the city of Gloomwood where he resides, so he takes it upon himself to do what he can to save the kids and solve what’s going on, as maybe it will lead him to the answers he desires about his own kids that he has not seen in many years.
It doesn’t get much more bleak and dark than that, and the opening totally hooked me for what I had hoped to be a strong narrative going forward. You are tasked with not only saving as many children as you can in each of the few levels, but you’ll also need to find evidence of what’s going on in the bigger scheme of things so that you know where to look next. So, while you need to save all the kids you can in each level, it feels weird that it’s almost more important to find information of a possible child trafficking ring, as you won’t be able to progress without doing so.
2Dark utilizes a top down perspective where the layout and background is made of 2D sprites, but all the characters are 3D and have a unique visual style that looks as if they are stylized in a ‘chibi’ fashion, meaning their bodies and limbs are small but have slightly oversized heads. It’s an interesting visual style that definitely makes it its own flair. The overhead view is how you know where to hide in the dark with stealth, and it also allows you to have a broader viewpoint of everything happening around you. Don’t let the pixels and weird chibi-like characters fool you though, as 2Dark’s backgrounds fit the disturbing content with plenty of blood filled rooms and other gore-filled backdrops.
My biggest complaint is that it’s almost always too dark to see or appreciate any of the artwork. Yes, I get how ironic that is with a game titled 2Dark, but the darkness leads to many unfair deaths and an unrecognized effort when a large portion of your environment is completely pitch black. This deep darkness means you need to always have a light source with you, be it your trusty lighter or flashlight, but as soon as you do so you’re unable to use stealth, so it’s an odd design choice indeed.
2Dark’s tutorial is cleverly laid out at Smith’s home when he returns one night seemingly locked out of his residence. This is where you learn the basic mechanics of searching and finding items only to then be introduced to the abomination of the poorly designed inventory system that you’ll be wrestling with until the credits roll, but more on that later. Smith’s house is essentially your hub between levels, as you research all the information and leads you’ve uncovered so far that assist you to plot your next area to search for children and information to find.
The first level will take you to an abandoned amusement park, the perfect backdrop of a creepy and dark kidnapping that you will search by yourself. You witness someone taking a child into a rundown building and you take off to save them. You'll also notice an even creepier funhouse that will eventually show you how unforgiving 2Dark can be with handfuls of enemies and unfair pit traps. There are a handful of instant kill traps hidden inside in the darkness, so you best have your light source out at all times.
It’s near impossible to see in the dark, as your lighter barely lights up anything, even directly around you, and your flashlight takes batteries to use, so you need to constantly balance using your flashlight and turning it off when it’s not needed. Because Smith’s visibility is so poor, you’re going to constantly run into the 'death' pits and one hit kills before you even encounter an enemy.
By poor design, the first level is actually one of the harder levels, so as long as you can get past this first test you should be mostly fine afterwards. Littering the opening level with such unfairness when players are still learning the core mechanics is very off putting though, as I felt that I wanted to give up after a few dozen tries.
Enemies will patrol the area, and while you will find weapons like a crowbar, knife, and even a gun, combat is not recommended as most enemies are bullet sponges. This is where you need to learn very quickly that stealth kills (and later on, traps) is how you’re going to have to defeat the bad guys if you want to survive. When you’re in the darkness enemies won’t see you, but in a lit room they’ll spot you no problem and give chase. They’ll also hear you if you’re within their circle of awareness (which has a visual cue) unless you hold Left Trigger to tippy-toe silently past. Sneak up behind an enemy and you can execute them with a one-hit kill, so you’ll have to rely on this tactic to take out your enemies.
Bosses are even more difficult, and without a full clip of ammunition you’ll want to avoid open conflict whenever possible. Combat in general is very clumsy and not very reliable, maybe by design to force players into the stealth element of the game, but it simply doesn’t work well when you need it to and just feels awkward.
When you do manage to find one of the children they’ll instantly know you’re there to help them and follow you, something I don’t imagine happening if they’ve been previously kidnapped. Most kids will instantly follow you, except for the odd skittish child that you simply need to use candy to lure them to follow you. Yes, you read that right, you use candy to lure a child that was previously kidnapped to follow you. Sure, it makes sense in a way, but it feels off-putting given the context. If needed you can even pick up and carry a child if you don’t want to wait on how slow they are, again, another odd depiction of carrying a kid over your shoulder given the context.
You can have the kids follow you like the pied piper, or get them to stay put somewhere as you clear the path forward with your stealth executions. I’m not used to games that allow children to be killed, but even more shocked when you can actually see the murders, something I was totally not expecting. The kids can, and will, be killed if you get them in harm’s way, so you need to bring them back to the beginning of the level to get them to safety.
The majority of your time with 2Dark will be played through experimentation, figuring out what works and what doesn’t and then restarting from your last save when something goes horribly wrong. Luckily you can save at any time you wish by having a smoke from your inventory, but that surrounds you in a light source (your lighter) and doesn’t pause the game while you wait for it to save.
You’re going to die a lot, so prepare to save your game whenever you reach a new area in the level, as you’re never sure what’s hiding in the dark (e.g. instant deaths) or when patrolling enemies are going to surprise you. There’s no difficulty option, but it’s definitely on the more challenging side, I just hope you remember to save somewhat recently, because reverting to your last save when it was over a half hour previous is disheartening.
And now we get to the crux of 2Dark that made me want to stop playing it nearly every time; your inventory. Your inventory is represented as a column along the left side of the screen, visually showing you everything you’re currently carrying. Levels have you picking up lots of items, even clues for unlocking the next stage. As you pick up more items the inventory expands, literally to the point of taking up a quarter of the screen. It also doesn’t allow you to drop or hide items, so when you’ve already looked at a clue it will still sit there taking up valuable screen real-estate. Another issue is that even when you use a consumable item, the blank box where the item was stays there and doesn’t shrink.
There are context menus that can be used with the shoulder buttons, as Smith can hold a light source in his left hand and a weapon in the right hand, but the problem is that the game doesn’t pause when you’re fumbling around with your inventory, resulting in many deaths as you try to escape chase while switching weapons. There will be more than one instance of you accidentally turning on your flashlight as an enemy walks past because of a wrong button press, guaranteed.
Worse still, say you need a key to open a door, you need to be holding that item in your hand, as it’s not simply good enough that you’re carrying it in your inventory. So imagine having to do that while being chased or in the midst of combat. You can move items in your inventory with the Y button, and even combine certain items like the gun and ammo or the flashlight and batteries, but when you inevitably move the cursor to the wrong item, you’re going to be confused why something isn’t working.
During boss fights this poor inventory system makes things a hundred times as worse, as you can’t simply reload a gun with a simple button press, you need to drag the bullets to the gun in your inventory, and keep in mind the game doesn’t pause when doing so. You’ll want to get in the habit of organizing your inventory so that it makes the most used items much more accessible, but it’s tedious and you shouldn’t have to resort to this in order to overcome poor design. The inventory management is painful and is by far the biggest frustration and drawback of 2Dark.
Even though I took issue with many of 2Dark’s problems, such as poor voice acting, unfair deaths, and one of the worse inventory management systems I’ve experienced in recent memory, I can see the appeal of it. Its' replayability will come down to saving as many children as you can while collecting all that you can find, in the fastest time, but for many, that won’t be enough for much longevity. Once you learn how to deal with 2Dark’s issues it does become easier as you learn, it’s simply not as fluid as it should be nor as fair.
2Dark seems to suffer from an identity crisis, unsure if it’s trying to be more of a stealth game or lean towards horror roots. I was impressed by the very dark and mature subject matter, especially since 2Dark holds nothing back, adding to its atmosphere, but certain design choices seem odd or simply in bad taste. It’s a gritty tale surrounded by average gameplay, and even though it has some serious hindrances, I think that some will find the stealth gameplay engaging and fun, but for the average gamer many of the mechanics behind 2Dark are 2Difficult to deal with.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
I’ve never heard of the Momodora series until this review landed in my lap. What surprised me was that Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is actually the fourth game in the series. Normally I’m up to speed on my Metroidvania games, but this completely flew under my radar. Even more surprising was how great the game is, not because I was expecting it to be poor in any way, but usually delivering such a polished game like Reverie Under the Moonlight takes some serious dedication and knowledge. Well, developer Bombservice seems to have that in spades, as this game can easily hang with some of the better Metroidvania’s out there.Kaho is a priestess from the small village of Lun, forced to find a cure to a curse that is spreading across the land, and she has her work cut out for her before it’s too late for everyone. Armed with just her bow and trust leaf, she sets on her journey to find out what has happened and put a stop to this curse by travelling to the city to see the queen, but getting there won’t be so easy now that monsters have invaded the lands.
While not a completely original trope to rely on, the story is interesting enough, but the enjoyment from Momodora comes from its tight gameplay and not necessarily the narrative itself. Yes, there’s a story present, and you’ll make small footsteps in the direction to figuring out the who, what and why, but the gameplay is what will keep you coming back. I personally wish there was a little more emphasis on a much more fleshed out story, but the narrative is simply used as a backdrop for your journey and exploration, harking back to the classic days where gameplay was more important than anything else, a trait I’m sure Momodora is trying to emulate.
The first thing that’s going to jump out at you is the game's classic inspired 16-bit graphics, though clearly with a modern touch with its incredible amount of attention to detail and sharpness. You’ll move from district to district, each with its own distinct visual mood and setting. Much like other Metroidvania’s, each area has its own boss that allows you to gain an item, generally allowing you to access a previously locked area, progressing your journey forward.
The next thing you’ll probably come to realize after a little bit of play is how difficult it can be. Not excruciatingly punishing, but it’s certainly got some challenge to it. Health is a premium that can be extended with found items while instant kill pits and spikes litter the environment seemingly everywhere. Checkpoints are scattered around the world in the form of bells that need to be rung, and while not spread out too far from one another, if you forget to save at one and then die, you lose all the progress you’ve made since then, which can turn to frustration real quick.
In classic Metroidvania style, the world map is represented by connecting squares, and as you progress through it you’ll realize that many areas intertwine once you have the needed ability or item to progress past certain points. While the design is tried and true, I wasn’t a big fan of the amount of backtracking that was required before the warp ability comes into play, especially early on when you’re simply lost, trying to figure out where you need to go.
What I did appreciate though is the inclusion of an Easy mode, as this allows a little more leeway for those that either can’t commit a lot of time to become more proficient or simply don’t have the skills too. Easy mode gives you the maximum amount of health allowed from the beginning, which is a great help to get you accustomed to the gameplay. It’s an addition that opens up the game for newcomers to the genre or players who simply want to enjoy it in a different way.
Where Momodora excels is its action and combat, brought together in a wonderful package emphasized by the beautiful artwork and animation. Kaho uses her leaf for melee attacks, allowing you to achieve a 3-hit combo. Her bow allows for ranged attacks but is much weaker, but combining both weapons is how you’ll become much more proficient at Momodora’s combat trials ahead. The animations are wonderful, as no matter what combo or series of buttons you press, the transitions are smooth and have a large amount of detail.
In regards to traversing the game's levels, Kaho can double jump and dodge roll out of danger. Eventually you’ll even be able to transform into a cat to move faster and into smaller areas, unlocking their hidden secrets. Kaho controls exactly as she should, as I was never able to blame a death on spotty controls, even once. You’ll find numerous vendors across your journey, allowing you to spend your collected ‘munny’ (yes, it’s called that) on new items that will grant you new abilities and even passive bonuses.
Momodora is a visually striking game. Even though its visual style is cemented in the classic 16-bit era, the amount of detail put into even the smallest feature is very impressive. While the pallet is a limited one, the animation and how it flows is what makes it stand out amongst others that I’ve played going for the same sort of art style.
Even when you’re standing still you'll notice small animations, such as objects that move in the background, allowing for more immersion into Kaho’s world. My only complaint is that certain enemies blend into the background due to the limited color pallet, making for some cheap hits and deaths. The same goes for pits, as sometimes you’re able to move down to the next area, and others are actual pits of death, but they are difficult to discern from one another.
The audio is just as good, as each area has its own mood and tone that seemingly fits to the setting and story. While not composed by a full orchestra, the music is retro inspired, like its visuals, and brings me back to the days where a game’s soundtrack was just as memorable as its gameplay or story. The melodies change based on the setting, ranging from low key tunes to larger piano harmonies.
I hope the previous games in the series make their way to Xbox One, as I’m now invested into the series, even if this is the latest entry. With its dark setting and undertone, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a worthy and memorable Metroidvania adventure, even more-so to those that like to find every secret or love to speedrun. Visually it’s a masterpiece, and clearly a labor of love that hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially its' fluid animation in pure 16-bit bliss. Even though it does have a few minor faults, as an overall package, especially at its price point, it should be experienced for anyone that loves the genre or wants to relive the 16-bit glory days.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Bloons TD 5
There’s absolutely no shortage of Tower Defense (TD) games. On console there may not be nearly the amount as on PC, but there’s still a handful to choose from if that’s your genre of choice. Truth be told, there are a handful of decent ones out there but they are usually overshadowed by the sheer amount of poor to moderate Tower Defense titles. So while I like the genre, it’s hard to get excited when a new one arrives, as I tend to usually just expect the worst. Luckily, Bloons TD 5 surprised me, by quite a margin actually.At first glance you’re going to assume that Bloons TD 5 (Bloons for short) is a tower defense game aimed for a younger audience, and I wouldn’t blame you, as I thought the same thing. I mean, how can a TD game based on monkeys stopping balloons from popping at their bases, wrapped in a cartoonish visual style, not make you think it’s based more towards kids? Well, you would be wrong, as Bloons is incredibly deep, much more than I was initially expecting.
While Bloons employs the same base mechanics of placing your towers (monkeys) near a path that the balloons take, tasked with stopping every one of them, there’s a level of deepness and strategy that really took me by surprise. I thought I was going to be done with it quite quickly, but it’s anything but, as I want to keep playing to level up. Bloons knows what type of game it is, plays into that fact, and is better for it.
If you’ve managed to avoid playing a tower defense game previously, the basic goal is to stop the enemies (balloons in this case) from reaching your base on a specific path. You do this by building towers, each with their own types of weaponry and attacks, though in Bloons your towers are actually different types of monkeys. Don’t roll your eyes quite yet, as I made that mistake initially as well. You earn cash for popping these balloons which helps fund placing more monkeys, or upgrading the ones already placed to make them even better. That’s the core mechanics of the gameplay, but what Bloons does so well is include a ton of towers, erm, monkeys, that have multiple upgrade paths, tons of different challenges and modes, and more.
I initially had my doubts about this release on console, as usually mobile and PC ports don’t go very well for numerous reasons, controls usually being one of them. On a mobile game you can instantly touch the screen to do what you want, but on console we don’t have that luxury, so I was concerned that having to use the sticks would make for sluggish gameplay. Well it turns out that developers Ninja Kiwi have managed to solve that issue, as controls never really become an issue after learning the basics. You have instant access to what you need and also even a way to move with precision when attempting to place a monkey in the absolute perfect spot.
As you're starting off you’ll begin by choosing which difficulty to play, and I highly suggest Easy until you learn the monkeys inside and out and have leveled up enough to have some bold strategies with multiple different placements. You level up the more you play, with each level unlocking a new monkey to utilize or a specific upgrade for them, so it pays off to continue playing, even if you manage to complete the generous amounts of levels included.
Easy will make you do 50 waves of balloon popping with only 200 allowed to pass to the exit. Bump up the difficulty and you’re tasked with more waves and less allowed to pass through. I thought transitioning from Easy would be simple, but you really need to know your monkey’s strengths and weaknesses to even have a chance at completing the higher difficulty levels.
A TD game is only as fun as its towers and upgrades are, and Bloons has no shortage whatsoever with over 20 different towers, each very unique and meant for a specific type of strategy. As you level up after a few hours of play time, you’ll notice that there are some imbalances, as some monkeys are simply overpowered and needed, whereas others aren’t as usual at all. Sure there’s a strategy for each type, but a handful of the more powerful ones are usually all you need in most setups. I tend to front stack the start of the trail, trying to pop as many balloons as I can as they spawn, but other viable options are to spread out your monkeys across the whole designated path as well, it’s completely up to you.
Part of Bloons’ charm is the monkeys themselves, as they are all varied, have unique abilities and are simply fun to experiment with. If you are truly devoted and sink enough time into the game, there’s even an area where you can purchase permanent upgrades by training them even further. The units won’t level up unless you use them either, so make sure you try to use them all, even if you don’t rely on it often, as you never know how amazing that fifth tier upgrade could be in the future.
The upgrades for each type of monkey is where a lot of the fun comes in, as seeing a simple cannonball shooter turn into a missile launcher is awesome, or your ninja monkeys upgrading their headband colors as they become more powerful from upgrades. A simple super monkey that gets upgraded heat vision is easily my favorite though. The visual upgrades are a nice touch and can make a big difference between success and failure. My only complaint is that you only get the description of what the upgrade specifically does when you initially level up, so if you forget, there’s no simple way to recheck it during a game (you have to go back to the main menu), so best remember what each visual represents.
Most monkeys first upgrade is usually based on more popping power (damage) or quicker attacks (shooting speed), but there are two different trees to work your way up into on each unit, each with 5 unique upgrades. The catch is that you can’t fully maximize each unit, as once you spend 3 points into one of the trees, that’s the only upgrade path you can upgrade to the maximum level. If you want the try the other upgrade path, you simply buy and place another unit down and upgrade that one differently.
The customization of the monkeys is much more in depth than I was expecting. There are even other types of towers you can place like a banana tree that drops bananas which converts to more money for you, or a monkey hut that buffs other monkeys in range in a variety of different ways. This is what allows for many different strategies to work and is a welcome addition to a usually stagnant genre.
There’s also a massive amount of levels, well over 50 I believe, so you won’t becoming bored with the same backdrop with repeat plays. They are really varied, from farms, to icebergs, hedge mazes, and even space. Some pathways are much easier than others, so there’s a lot of variety, not even including the difficulty options. Pathways with many U-turns and corners are great for the units that shoot out at 360 degrees, but not generally as useful beside a straight path, so the variety allows you to test new placements and strategies. Some levels even have pools of water, allowing your water-only units to be deployed for even more depth.
Other than the main campaign, there’s a ton of different and specialty modes which really adds a ton of longevity and replayability. These special modes are like specific scenarios that you need to try and complete for an extra mount of money and currency. My favorite was being given starting cash of $50,000 and using just that amount against a massive wave of balloons. It sounds like a lot, and it’s fun to have 100 times the normal starting amount, but it was incredibly challenging, yet a great change of pace when monotony kicks in after a long play session.
With a ton of levels, upgrade paths, units, modes, difficulties and more, there’s way more content included than I expected to have. I thought after an hour or two I would have seen and done it all, but here I am, many hours in and still tons of stuff to play and unlock. Easy mode allows new people to the genre to jump in whereas the harder difficulties will surely test veterans.
Given that Bloons was initially a mobile title, I have a feeling it had some pay elements to it where you could buy currency with real money to exchange and use for upgrades and other items. I’m glad to report that there’s no microtransactions like that included on this console release, but it seems like the groundwork for that system has been left in place, as there’s numerous forms of currency which doesn’t seem like it makes much sense using without that original economy. Getting the coin currency comes slow unless you want to take the time to grind for them, not an impossible task, but surely one that will need some devotion if you want to unlock the best upgrades and improvements.
I almost wrote this one off before trying it but came away shocked with its quality and mechanics compared to other tower defense games. Ninja Kiwi has done an excellent job at “consolefying” (yes, I just made that up) their game without it feeling like a poor mobile port, a fate that many games suffer from, so kudos for doing it proper. I was expecting an hour’s worth of content, but can easily see myself sinking in more than a dozen or two to simply do everything. Bloons TD 5 on one hand is a simple to pick up and play tower defense, but the more you invest time into it, you realize there’s a whole lot of depth to it, so don’t let the cute visuals and silly premise fool you, this is a very solid tower defense game that should be played if you’re a fan of the genre and been looking for a new title.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Inner World,The
Growing up in the golden age of point and click adventures, I fell in love with the genre. How could you not when you had amazing classics like Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, and nearly every LucasArts game from the 80’s and 90’s. The genre seemingly died out after the 90’s for the most part, which is a shame as some of my best gaming memories are embedded into the games listed above. That’s not to say there’s been no point and click adventures in recent years, but nowhere near the amount that there used to be.So when a new point and click adventure releases, I become very excited to try it out and hope to enjoy myself just as much as I did when I was growing up with the classics. The Inner World actually released on PC back in 2013, yet it passed me by completely, but now that it’s making its way to Xbox One I jumped on the chance to check it out.
Created by German developer Studio Fizbin, The Inner World is exactly what I was hoping it would be: a funny, engaging and challenging point and click adventure with a ton of heart and charm that’s clearly been a labor of love. The art style is completely hand drawn, giving it a unique look and style, though don’t let its cartoonish visuals fool you that it’s intended for kids, as there’s a ton of adult underlying tones and innuendo that even surprised me.
To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect from The Inner World’s narrative when I began, but I was pleasantly surprised with an engaging story filled with memorable and amusing characters throughout and an overarching story that kept me playing to find out what was going to happen next. Taking place in the world of Asposia, a unique landscape, as it’s simply a world of infinite soil and dirt, except for the small hollow bubble that the Asposians live in. Their air supply used to come from three separate wind fountains but they stopped working, angering the wind gods, the Basylians. They were so angry that they started turning nearly all of the Asposians to stone, save for a select few.
This is where you’re introduced to your protagonist Robert, a cute yet ever so clueless character that has a heart of gold, but has no idea of the adventure that lies before him. Robert is the apprentice to Conroy, a wind monk watching over the last functional wind fountain, who has also sheltered Robert his whole life in his palace. Conroy forces Robert to play a soothing song with his unique flute nose, consisting of a single note, and this is where the quirky adventure begins.
From the onset you can tell that something isn’t right with Conroy, and while some plot points of obvious from the get go, that doesn’t dull down the narrative in any way, as you’ll meet a handful of memorable characters, each with very distinct personalities. You’ll spent the bulk of Robert’s adventure with a shadowy thief named Laura and a pesky pigeon named Peck. Once Robert is off on his own he starts to see how sheltered he has been his whole life, and while usually oblivious characters like this are annoying, Robert is so wonderfully acted that I couldn’t help but cheer for him the whole way.
Even just the main plot is odd, but that’s part of what makes The Inner World have so much charm. It’s a unique story wonderfully written and has a very distinct art style that only helps emphasize its quirkiness. My wife and daughter actually asked what I was watching, not playing, when I was going through it, and my daughter sat and watched it just as if it was a cartoon she’d see on TV. The whole game is completely hand drawn, so there’s a ton of details and intricacies in nearly every scene that simply wouldn’t be as natural if done otherwise.
It’s not easy to have a playable game that looks like it’s simply a cartoon playing, as the animation is completely smooth, even when you’re in direct control of Robert. So while it’s labeled as a point and click, you do control Robert as you normally would any other 2D game, moving from scene to scene and object to object. Not enough flattering comments can be said about its visuals, as I instantly fell in love with the distinct style.
Part of the reason many games in this genre don’t translate to console well is the awkward controls with a controller, and while not completely perfect here, it works once you figure out how to utilize it efficiently. Given that you control your character with the thumb stick and not the traditional point and click, this solves half of the tedious problems. Part of the solution Studio Fizbin came up with is the ability to press the bumpers to cycle through all of the interactive objects on the screen that are within range.
As you begin, this seems to work decently, as there’s usually only a handful of objects that can be inspected or manipulated, but in the last few chapters, there’s a surprising amount of objects on screen sometimes, making cycling through objects a little tedious. Granted, you can stand close to the item you want to select it quicker, but sometimes that isn’t as efficient. If an object is selectable, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to interact with it at some point, either by taking, manipulating the item or talking to the person.
Selecting an item will show you 3 different icons that represent different ways to interact. You can look (magnifying glass) at it, interact (gear icon or speech bubble), or add an item from your inventory to combine (the plus symbol). While there’s no real tutorial that explains how to do so, it’s pretty obvious and doesn’t need much explanation. It would have been nice to have been taught how to combine items, but you’ll also figure that out on your own easily once needed. When you do have a conversation with another character you can choose the topics of what you’d like to talk about, represented by a specific icon, though you won’t know if all of the conversation has been exhausted until you try to speak about it again a few times.
The core gameplay of The Inner World is solving the numerous puzzles placed before you, though these aren’t your standard types of puzzles, and will have you wracking your brain as to what the solution could be. The puzzles seem to be completely tailored for the world of Asposia, as it never takes itself seriously and will have you thinking in unorthodox ways to solve Robert’s problems. One example: having to distract a guard that won’t let you pass, so you make him look the other way, swap your wanted poster for a poster of himself, then watch as he arrests himself. This is the type of silliness you can expect, and it's a better game for it.
It’s quirky thinking like that that will have to be used to progress your adventure. While many puzzles have a logical solution, you simply need to figure out the Asposian way to doing so, usually leading to some hilarious moments and obtuse solutions. Even though each chapter only contains a handful of scenes in each, you’ll be moving from one to the next as there’s always a handful of tasks to complete, generally in linear fashion. If things become overwhelming or simply don’t make sense, this is where the fantastic hint system comes into play, something which I had to rely on numerous times. While some may feel the hint system is cheating, it’s completely optional and is done in such an ingenious way, offering you as much or as little help as you want.
The hint system is multi-layered, so if you look up a clue to what you need to do, it’ll generally start out with a much broader clue. Still don’t get it? Keep checking the hint system and it will eventually tell you exactly what to do next, even to the point of using item A with object B, or talking to a certain person about a specific topic. Many times I needed some help, but only needed a slight clue, other times I needed to be hit on the head with what to do next, so having the multilayered hint system was a great mechanic to have. This allows everyone to complete the game regardless of their puzzle solving abilities and skill level.
I’ve said many great things about the distinct and beautiful visuals of The Inner World, but the script and voice acting also needs its own mentioning. Sometimes when you get a game what was initially developed in another language, converting it to English sometimes makes it lose its humor or leaves poor translations in its conversion. Luckily these concerns aren’t a factor, making for excellent dialogue and even better voice acting.
Voiced by Mike McAlpine, Robert is a lovingly believable character that comes to life with an amazing performance. Robert is so naive that you just want to love him for how innocent he really is. Nearly every character in Asposia you come across is voiced wonderfully, adding to their character and quirky personality. I’m done playing The Inner World, but I’ll remember many of these characters for years to come.
Given its cartoonish hand drawn art style, you would think that The Inner World is more aimed towards kids, and while there’s nothing stopping them from playing, there’s times where it seems like the much more adult demographic was intended. There’s a barkeep you’ll come across that goes on about her adult exploits, simply done with innuendo of course, or a female creature that gets into a verbal spat with Laura, causing for some interesting choice of words to be used while insulting each other. While I myself found these moments hilarious, just be mindful if you want to shelter the younger ones away, as the childish appearance may make it look kid friendly.
For how much praise I give to The Inner World, it did have a few issues I came across. Namely the control scheme, while functional, is a little cumbersome at times when you need to tab between multiple items to highlight the one you want. Given that much of the gameplay is trial and error, it becomes a pain if you’re simply guessing over and over what to combine with what having to cycle between a dozen objects on screen.
I also had one instance where I was unable to move after interacting with an object, clearly a simple bug and one I was able to remedy by playing my flute nose, but I had that small moment of panic wondering if I was going to have to restart and lose my progress. Lastly, some of the puzzles will make sense after solving them, but when you’re struggling to figure it out, it can seem a little too obtuse at times. Granted, the hint system is there to help when needed, but you’re going to have to learn to think completely out of the box for some of the solutions.
I didn’t want my time in Asposia with Robert to end. Each character was a treat to interact with and the writing is filled to the brim with humor and even better voice acting. The graphics are stunning for its style, and even though you’ll be done The Inner World in roughly 6-10 hours depending on your puzzle solving abilities and reliance on the hint system, I was completely satisfied once the credits rolled.
The humor will constantly having you crack a smile or smirking, and you can’t help but get the sense that The Inner World was a labor of love. Simply put, The Inner World is endearing and charming and I’m glad I got to experience it, as should you. If you’ve been craving a great point and click adventure, or simply want a game with some fantastic visuals, audio, and narrative, look no further than The Inner World and spend a wonderful few hours in the world of Asposia with some memorable characters.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Ghost Blade HD
Ghost Blade HD can be described best in two ways: “Shoot-em-up” (shmup) and “Bullet Hell”. If you’ve not played a shmup bullet hell game before, they were huge in the 90’s, with the most popular titles in the genre being Raiden, R-Type, Gradius, and my personal favorite bullet hell of all time, Ikaruga. Most of these games are played with you piloting some kind of ship, usually moving vertically along the screen instead of horizontally. The term bullet hell comes from the sheer amount of enemies and bullets on screen, filling the movable area with seemingly nowhere to safely maneuver. You need some serious skills to be proficient at shmups, and while there’s a ton of good and bad titles in the genre, let’s find out where Ghost Blade HD sits amongst the greats with this retro inspired indie title.These games are primarily known for their gameplay, and while some do have a trace of story attached to them, you’re generally a lone pilot trying to fend off some sort of alien invasion, or some variant of the overused trope. The same goes here with Ghost Blade HD, as there really is no story, but the gameplay fits the motive. You’re coming to shoot waves of enemies and avoid screenfulls of bullets, and that’s what Ghost Blade HD gives you; no more, no less.
You begin by choosing one of 3 different ships, each with its own female pilot. There’s no statistical differences that you’re shown, but they do play slightly different from one another. One has a wide spread shot, another has a medium spread shot, and the last has a more focused middle shot. I don’t believe there’s any statistical differences between the three that I could tell, damage or speed wise, so it’s mostly a preference and suitability to your playstyle of which to choose. I personally enjoy the middle pilot best, as the wide spread shot is extremely handy in the later levels when enemies come from nearly every side of the screen.
From there you pick between Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty and are then let loose into some bullet hell goodness to see how long you can last against the onslaught of enemies. If you’ve played any game in the genre before, you’ll know what to expect: shoot tons of ships, get some powerups, and close the levels out with a huge and challenging boss fight that fills half the screen as each level becomes progressively more difficult. So while it may follow the tried and true cookie cutter approach to the genre, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the gameplay is mostly solid, even if it is a little short in length.
With the first 30 seconds of gameplay you’ll basically have your weapons powered up to max, which I found quite odd, so there’s no need to worry about being weak with tiny missile shots for too long. Normally I wouldn’t say that a tutorial is needed for a shmup like this, but there’s a very important game mechanic that I didn’t learn until I was basically done playing just before starting to write this review.
Your ship has two ways to fire, with the standard shot that fires your spread shot with the ‘A’ button, or a second focused shot with ‘X’ that pulls all your bullets into a thinner but much more condensed line of fire, destroying almost anything except for bosses in a matter of moments. This focus fire isn’t taught to you and I had no idea you could even use such an attack until I was basically done with the game. This focus shot is how you easily (as easily as you can do so while avoiding hundreds of bullet anyways) take down the more larger and powerful ships that fire at you.
Once you learn this key mechanic, it’s all about rotating between shots, and learning when to do so, as focus firing makes you move much slower, usually a death sentence in these types of games. As per the usual, you will also have access to a number of bombs, clearing the screen of any bullets for those in-a-pinch moments to prevent you from exploding and losing a life. Another mechanic I wish was explained was that destroying enemies with normal fire will drop multiplier stars, whereas focus shot kills go towards filling/replenishing your bomb meter. Mastering this balance will be needed to succeed, especially on the Hard difficulty.
As the screen fills with enemies, and you destroy them, their dropped stars will automatically start to fly towards you to be picked up. At first I loved this feature, as you don’t have to worry about picking up those nagging power-ups or stars (except for the land vehicle stars, as those won’t automatically come towards you and stay grounded), leaving you to focus on your shooting and dodging. The downside to this is that there are always a mass amount of stars heading in your direction, so it becomes extremely distracting, even more so when the screen is already littered with bullets and you’re simply trying to dodge them.
I always start new shmups on the easiest difficulty even though I’m quite skilled at them, as it gives me an idea of what to expect from enemies, bullet patterns, and potential strategies. One feature I absolutely enjoyed on Easy mode is that when you get hit, and if you have a bomb left, it will automatically use it for you, clearing the screen of most enemies and all bullets. Think of it as an 'auto-oops' feature, and it’s a great way to learn the patterns before tackling Normal and Hard mode. Just be sure you don’t rely on it too greatly, or else you won’t have any bombs left when it really matters, namely against bosses.
For those wanting a challenge, Hard mode surely provides that. I can’t tell exactly what’s different, as enemy patterns seem to be identical, but I swear there’s more bullets on screen and they tend to move faster, but maybe that’s just my psyche playing with me. Most casual fans will have a hard enough time with Normal mode, as it won’t automatically use your bombs to save you from your mistakes like on Easy.
Ghost Blade HD is visually impressive for a small indie game. The genre isn’t known for its realistic visuals, as it tends to focus and rely more on its gameplay and bullet patterns to wow the player. At its heart it feels retro, but it surely has a modern skin on top of it all. The only fault here is that there is a crazy amount of slowdown when things become a little too chaotic on the screen, namely during boss fights where you barely have any space to maneuver. Even the sound effects slow down until the screen is clear of a certain amount of bullets.
As for the audio, it’s nothing to write home about or memorable, but it’s fitting for the genre and sets the mood for the action. Each level seems to have its own tonality, both visually and with the audio, but you’ll be far too focused on avoiding bullets to truly appreciate either.
The controls work great, and without precision movement a shmup game is doomed to be a failure. Luckily that’s not the case here, aside from when you have to fight against the massive slowdown that intermittently occurs. If you die it’s because it is your fault, not the game. There’s no blaming any cheap deaths on the controls.
While Ghost Blade HD is a completely serviceable title, it has a lack of longevity with its only 5 included stages. Sure, there are multiple difficulties and a very welcome local co-op mode, but only the diehard fans of the genre, like myself, will truly appreciate it, whereas I think casual fans might feel the price is a little steep for only 5 levels worth.
As an indie 'bullet hell' title, Ghost Blade HD was a fun little title that I sunk a few hours into. Once I learned all of the mechanics it utilizes I had a lot of fun with it, as should you, regardless if you’re a casual or hardcore fan of the genre. Is it going to sit amongst the legends in the genre? No, but for the price of admission, shmup fans like myself will have fun trying to climb the global leaderboards trying to prove their shmup prowess amongst the community.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Sublevel Zero Redux
I can’t believe I was a teenager when Descent first released back in 1995. I remember it vividly because as far as I can remember, I believe that was the first six degrees of freedom (6DoF) game I ever played that looked and played as advanced as it did for its time. While I’m unsure that Descent was the game that really invented the 6DoF control scheme, it certainly was one of the first to make it popular, as it spawned numerous clones and similar types of games with its unique mechanics.Sadly, over the years not many games aside from space and flight sims really use this control scheme often anymore, and for valid reasons, but apparently developer Sigtrap games didn’t get the memo, as they’ve brought Sublevel Zero Redux to Xbox One. Older gamers who grew up with these types of games will no doubt experience some flashbacks to their youth, especially Descent and Forsaken fans, but can this Redux bring back a long lost genre to its former glory?
You’re a lone pilot searching for answers to a cataclysmic event, and your only hope is to pilot a small ship and search mysterious places for answers. So while yes, there is technically a story, it’s not really worth noting as it’s paper thin, but not all is gloom & doom, as Sublevel Zero Redux’s strengths are actually within its gameplay and mechanics. While it would have been interesting to have a ‘real’ reason to care about why you’re doing, the lack of any true story won’t hinder your gameplay experience in any tangible way, as you’ll be solely focusing on surviving and piloting to worry about much else.
So let’s start off with the control scheme. It’s technically labeled as a “six degrees of freedom” structure, as you can move your ship up/down, left/right, forward/backwards, but also have the ability to move along the other axis’, yaw and roll, hence all six directions (6DoF). Essentially you are also able to barrel roll or front/back flip your ship along with the standard movements in other games. The controls do take some serious getting used to, as Left Stick moves the ship, Right Stick is your aim, and the D-Pad is used for rolling and height. Factor in sections where it auto rotates you, or leans you in specific ways without your input, and you can get lost real quickly.
Even after more than a few of hours of replaying Redux, I still often found myself fumbling with the controls in the heat of chaotic battles. I understand that 6DoF controls are nothing new, but if you’re not into the few genres that utilize them often, you’re going to have a very steep learning curve ahead of you to become proficient in your piloting abilities, even more so if you plan on using the boosters to travel faster.
That being said, when you do start to get the hang of the unique controls, and start to perform all the moments you’re intending to without thinking, Redux can feel great at times, especially during boss battles when you dodge incoming fire masterfully. As long as you take time to learn the controls it does become easier in time without having to focus too much on which direction to rotate, I promise.
An interesting choice that Sublevel Zero Redux implements is many rogue-like mechanics, meaning you better get used to permanent death. While I don’t normally gravitate towards games like that, when done right they can bring a lot of enjoyment and tenseness to the gameplay. If you manage to be a master at these types of games, a single playthrough can easily only last 2 or 3 hours, but for the rest of us, prepare to have to restart from the beginning many times over.
Luckily the levels and maps are procedurally generated, so every playthrough will be unique, though you’ll eventually start to notice reused rooms after a handful of attempts to reach the end. The levels are crafted by connected rooms. Sometimes a room will have multiple exits and tunnels, or just a single one, it will vary room to room and on each playthrough. Luckily there’s a handy 3D map that can be viewed at any time, as you’ll no doubt become lost and turned around often until you get the hang of the 6DoF controls. Eventually you’ll need to find colored key cards to pass specific doors, usually the path to the stage’s boss, your only exit to the next level. One lesson I learned the hard way is that your game doesn’t pause when you’re in the menus or map, so make sure you’re in a safe spot before doing so.
You’ll need to collect a specific amount of currency to do said upgrades and crafting, which is what most enemies will drop, along with ammo replenishments and the sought after health packs. Crafting upgrades is gradual, as you can’t simply create the best weapons right away, but there’s no real guide on how to create specific weapons or the branching paths of combinations. With a very limited inventory as well, you may not even see many crafting options, as you’ll most likely have to drop many items on your journey.
If you’re a completionist, you’ll have your work cut out for you as there’s logs to find hidden within the levels, new ships to unlock, and tons of challenges. To be honest though, if you’re not that into grinding for new ships, achievements, or unlocking every bonus, the replayability may be a little light for you value wise.
Enemies that are alerted to your presence will start to chase you, firing in your direction. The early enemies aren’t much of a big deal, but in the later stages survival is going to be a great challenge. Given that you can fly in any direction in the rooms, many enemies will be hiding in spots you may not think to check, seemingly from almost every angle at times. Most of the enemy ships are braindead and will simply try to run at you, but later on you’ll face smarter AI that avoids attacks and even tries to out maneuver you, so if you’ve not mastered the controls by that point, you’re going to have a very difficult time.
What I didn’t expect was a crafting system, allowing you to create new and different types of weapons for your little ship. Your ship can equip 2 primary and secondary weapons, each with its own type of ammunition. Killing enemies will drop ammo, currency, and sometimes weapons, allowing you to use them for crafting even better guns and missiles. The biggest downfall though is the crafting menu is poorly made and terribly confusing, and it's not helped by the fact there’s no real tutorial of how to use it properly. It actually took me quite a few playthroughs to figure out what I was crafting exactly and if it was going to be better or worse than what I already had.
Granted, you can simply equip the weapons you pick up, but the crafted upgrades are generally better, or used for even higher tier creations. You can also create ship upgrades to suit your play style, if you’re lucky enough to get the parts you need of course. While I’m glad there is a crafting system in place, the confusing menu and UI needs some serious work if they want it to be a focal part of the experience. Many times I crafted a weapon, using up the one I had equipped, only to find out I didn’t like it nearly as much as my original.
Graphically, Sublevel Zero Redux is an awesome blend of retro style low polygons, but almost as if it’s a modern take on Descent with its bright colors and smoothness. Screenshots don’t really do the game justice. The soundtrack is fitting with the overall mood and theme of the game as well. Audio is also retro-like with its upbeat tunes, but it has a sci-fi vibe to its tonality. I never once had to mute the audio or play my own playlist, which is a big win.
Normally I’m not big into roguelike games that tend to punish you for dying, but something kept me coming back for just one more try. Maybe it was the soundtrack, or flying with precision after hours of practice, but it never felt unfair when I did die. With only a handful of control schemes, it may take some time to find one that feels just right, and that’s not even including the steep learning curve for the 6DoF controls.
If you were a fan of Forsaken or Descent from back in the day, Sublevel Zero Redux is a no brainer, as it plays great once you learn it, looks fresh, and sounds great. Sure, it has some hiccups, but if you didn’t grow up in that era or are new to this type of genre, it’s a decent game to jump in with, as long as you know it will take some dedicated practice to learn how to fly how you want to without having to think about it.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
A Pixel Story
My gaming habits have changed within the past few years. I used to be able to play for hours upon hours a day without worry, but times have changed. I don’t have as much free time as I used to, so I enjoy the smaller indie games to fill my limited time as they don’t usually require a huge time commitment. A Pixel Story, developed by Lamplight Studios, fits this bill perfectly. It's a game that takes me back to my childhood, growing up in the 8-bit era and progressing to modern day gaming with its unique visuals. It's this aspect that truly impressed me. Bit there is more to this game then just the looks.In most people’s eyes Pong is generally known as the first widely recognized videogame, and that ties into A Pixel Story, as your character’s life starts out as the iconic ball from Pong. Something goes awry and the ball, which is you, smashes through dimensions, causing a headache for people and damage elsewhere. You crash on a beachfront where you receive help from a small robot named Search, as you are inside of a computer after all. You are given a body, legs and arms, like a real ‘boy’, and so you set off on your adventure, but not before a pesky seagull steals the magic hat Search was about to bestow upon you to fulfill your destiny and destroy the evil operating system (OS).
This trope may have been used thousands of times before, as you need to fight the evil that lies ahead, but the narrative is told in an interesting way, allowing you to progress through many different eras of gaming, and this is where A Pixel Story truly shows its charm and heart. While you don’t speak, as you are simply a Pong ball, you’ll meet a large cast of characters along your journey, each with a distinct personality, some being very memorable.
Your beginnings may start out in classic 8-bit fashion, but you’ll eventually work your way to 16-bit graphics, and even up to modern day standards, as you progress through the worlds. The world is completely filled with humor and numerous pop culture references that will surely put a big smile on your face if you recognize the source material. While a platformer at its heart, A Pixel Story will surely resonate with gamers who grew up the era with the classic NES and Genesis, though it’s done well enough that even younger gamers will enjoy it as well. Seeing your character, and the world around you, change throughout the gaming eras, is awesome with its beautiful and colorful pixel landscape.
What I didn’t expect was that there is absolutely no combat in A Pixel Story, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as this allows you to focus simply on the platforming gameplay, which you’ll need to do if you want any hope of progressing to the end. Once you get your hat back, from the pesky seagull who stole it, during a brief tutorial of basic mechanics, this is when the game really starts to open up and show you what it has in store for you.
Your hat essentially allows you to teleport back to it whenever you feel like, and the majority A Pixel Story’s puzzles will play into this aspect, even some that are physics based. It may sound simple, and at first it’s not too challenging, but that will change as you progress, believe me. When you teleport (cache, as it’s called in computer terms in the game world) back to your hat, you regain any momentum you began with, so you may get a small vibe of Portal gameplay here and there, which is never a bad thing. Your hat can also float anywhere you drop it in the 2D landscape, and you’ll need to use that to your advantage as you progress.
So, say there’s a platform just above you that you can’t quite reach. You jump up high as you can, place your hat, then jump once again and cache at the same time, allowing you to reach the higher platform, as you keep your inertia from the jump before teleporting back to your hat (which happens to resemble a certain plumber’s iconic headpiece).
Eventually you’ll have to combine this mechanic with bumpers, moving platforms, platforms that can move your hat, bouncing walls, and more. The new mechanics are introduced slowly, allowing you to become accustomed to them during that specific level, adding those skills to your repertoire. Flipping switches and perfect timing will become commonplace and you’re going to need to react with near perfect accuracy if you want to progress in some sections. What A Pixel Story does well is never become unfairly difficult, as almost every section you know you can do, you just have yet to figure out the proper way to do so.
That’s not to say it will be easy, anything but, especially the final stages. Prepare to die, a lot here. The good news is that checkpoints are plentiful, as you’re almost always placed nearby where you died without having to backtrack too far. If I had to do a large section over and again after each death, I would have given up, so Lamplight Studios got this part just right in my opinion. You learn from your mistakes, and you will still most likely die another dozen times or so before making that jump you need, but man does it feel satisfying once you figure out what you need to do and executing it flawlessly.
While the platforming aspect is what you’ll be focusing on for the most part, the game is filled with quests, and even sidequests, that will challenge and reward you. The main story missions will progress you through the story, allowing you to move onto the next generation (era’s), but sidequests will net you a bunch of coins and other collectible rewards that give you more backstory (and achievements). The majority of these sidequests are simply finding someone or retrieving an item they need, but it’s always entertaining with some of the more unique personalities, like 'Not Batman' (trust me).
Normally when I die repeatedly in games I tend to become frustrated, especially when it’s not entirely my fault, but somehow A Pixel Story keeps pushing you forward, wanting you to try ‘just one more time’. Once you make it to generation 2 and see the graphics improve, that pushes you to want to make it to generation 3 and further. While certain sections will leave you dumbfounded for a while, the inclusion of humor and numerous hilarious pop culture references will make you forget all the frustration you previously had once you start laughing. Seriously, there’s nothing quite like playing a dancing minigame to “What Is Love?” or watching the iconic lava scene from Terminator 2.
While the main game is difficult enough as it is, for those truly wanting a challenge you can spend your gathered coins on special locked doors that open up Challenge Rooms. Now I know in most games a special ‘challenge room’ may not be a big deal, but man, they are no joke here. Seriously, I was unable to complete a single one for each one I’ve unlocked thus far. While they are technically passable, as I know what I need to do to reach the goal, doing so with perfect precision and timing is a completely different matter, one that I’ll leave to completionists and those much better than I.
Some will find A Pixel Story a little too difficult, especially in the the later stages, but it never crosses the border to unfair. A majority of the time it’s your fault from such things as poor timing or improper hat placement, though there are times where the controls do feel a tad too ‘slippery’, which can cause a little frustration when you need absolute perfection and timing. The plentiful checkpoint system, and mechanic that allows you to warp to any previously unlocked checkpoint, is basically a saving grace for those not wanting to backtrack constantly.
While it probably resonates with me more so simply because I grew up in the classic era of gaming, it’s a real delight to see your hero evolve from 8-bit to 16-bit and beyond with each world completed. The inclusion of many pop culture references and easter eggs only adds to the charm which, for me personally, constantly brought a smile to my face, making me forget the frustration I previously had from dying a dozen times in a row. A Pixel Story is well worth the purchase as the time and enjoyment is fairly high, and I truly adored my time with the unnamed Pong ball hero from start to finish. If you enjoy platforming games of any kind, A Pixel Story needs to be the next one you experience, even more so if you grew up in the 8 and 16-bit eras or appreciate those classic games.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Chime Sharp
I absolutely love puzzle games, and rhythm based ones as well, so when there’s one that combines both I’m eager to give it a go. Truth be told, I somehow missed the first Chime game, released on the Xbox 360 Indie store, but now we have its direct sequel, Chime Sharp. At first glance you’re most likely to compare it to Tetris because of it requires blocks that need to be stacked and interlocked, but it’s a mix of that and Lumines if anything. Chime Sharp adds some new and incredibly challenging game modes with a great soundtrack. That being said, it will take some dedication to learn all of its intricacies.Chime Sharp at its heart is a puzzle game where you need to stack blocks in traditional Tetris fashion, but many of the blocks aren’t your traditional squares and lines, but instead oddly shaped pieces that make creating combined blocks a more difficult task. What makes Chime Sharp different than Tetris though is that instead of creating a single line, you need to make a ‘Quad’, comprising of at least a 3x3 block without any missing spaces between.
Creating these quads will clear the board underneath said quad, so the larger quad you create the more of the board you ‘clear’, with your goal to try and clear each block for 100%. You’re only given 2 minutes to do this, but with good play you’ll net time bonuses, allowing for more time to clear the board. I’ve still yet to 100% a stage even with a lot of hours played, as Chime Sharp is quite difficult for a number of reasons.
Chime Sharp is also a rhythm game, as a glowing line sweeps across the screen, clearing your quads as it passes over them if the quad timer has ended. Any blocks not part of the quad will be left over, and after a number of passes by the sweeping line, they will disappear. If this all sounds confusing, it's because it is, and it’s not helped by the fact that the game only teaches you what a quad is, but nothing about gameplay or strategy. So prepare to fail a lot in the beginning until you learn the mechanics on your own.
While this is the core gameplay, the new modes add even more challenge, but no matter what mode you’re playing, the music contained within is fantastic. As stages begin you’ll only hear a basic beat, but as you clear more of the stages with your quads you’ll add new sections to the song’s beat, making for some unique music, as it’s based on how you play. The tempo and instruments can change and be added based on where and how you place your blocks on the screen, so that’s how Chime Sharp belongs in the rhythm genre as well as puzzle.
The biggest thing about Chime Sharp is that you’ll eventually just ‘get it’. There are no tutorials in the game, which I feel is a big miss, as you’re not sure on what strategies to use or why you sometimes fail quickly and other times not. Eventually you will simply understand how it all works though, and once it ‘clicks’, Chime Sharp becomes MUCH more enjoyable, as you’re now the one dictating the music and trying to 100% the stage purposely.
Each level is a single song, and I suggest starting with Practice Mode. This allows for no time limit when playing and it will not be as chaotic as the other challenging modes. Once you’ve gotten the hang of the mechanics of placing blocks and creating quads, you then need to strategize where and how to place blocks as well.
My problem starting out was trying to create quads in the same area, but once a quad is cleared by the scrolling pulse, you don’t need to place any more blocks in that area, as that part of the stage has already been cleared. So, you want to focus on sections at a time, progressively working outwards, aiming your quads to cover each block of the stage. Easier said than done though, and practice makes perfect.
You don’t need to clear a level 100% to progress, only 60% completion is needed to unlock new tracks and modes, though your progress is a basis for your overall score, as well for the leaderboards. The music is varied, some better than others, but the difficulty doesn’t seem to go in a natural curve. Each level has some areas where blocks can’t be placed, adding some unique challenges to each stage, but the faster the song tempo the slightly harder it is. So for example, the first level isn’t necessarily the easiest, as I was passing the middle levels in one go, whereas other stages I had to play multiple times to get the minimum 60% to unlock the next.
Difficulty is also based on the shapes you’re given. Each stage has a handful of preset shapes and blocks, and some are naturally easier to interlock than others, so even though you may love the song that’s playing, trying to fit “Z” blocks together may prove difficult for you to progress. The more obscure the shape, the harder it is to fit pieces together without any gaps to make your quad.
While you’ll begin on the normal mode, doing well will eventually unlock new songs and more modes. Be aware though that these new modes are incredibly more challenging, so be sure you’ve got a few hours under your belt and fully understand all of the mechanics.
Once you’ve completed a level with a minimum of 60% the Sharp mode of that song will unlock. There are 2 other modes to unlock, Strike and Challenge, but I’ll be completely honest with you, it’s going to take some serious skill to even get to these modes, but this allows for a lot of replayability for those that are truly determined.
Sharp mode is very challenging and the objective is slightly different than normal mode. Any blocks that stay on the playing field for too long will eventually disappear, and each block you lose will take one of your 10 lives. So not only do you have to focus on quad creation, and aiming for 100%, you can’t leave unused blocks on the stage for too many passes of the sweeping bar or you’ll lose lives quite quickly. You need to use your shapes in the most logical way that allows you to use the left overs to create new quads as well.
Strike Mode is even more challenging with a much more aggressive timer, and to be honest, I’ve yet to be unable to unlock the final Challenge Mode. The regular gameplay of Chime Sharp will take some getting used to and it’s unfortunate that there’s no real tutorial of how to play properly. It actually took me a few hours to learn how to play properly, as you don’t know why you’re sometimes scoring high or completing with a certain percent completed.
Visually Chime Sharp is basic, and many of the levels color schemes do it a disservice, as they clash making it difficult to determine what sections are completed or not. As I said, eventually things will just make sense and click, and once it does, Chime Sharp becomes a completely different game; one with great music and interesting gameplay that will constantly challenge you. In the beginning you’ll gravitate towards playing it like Tetris, but that strategy won’t get you very far, as you need to play completely different to be successful, eventually learning the precise timing needed to craft beautiful music as well.
If you love puzzles games with some great music you’ll enjoy Chime Sharp as long as you do have the time and patience to learn how to play properly, as it doesn’t hold your hand in any way, or even to teach you the proper mechanics. It’s rewarding and quite fun once everything ‘clicks’, but I do think that the difficulty level will most likely be a little too demanding for the average player to master the music, the gameplay, and the need to learn on their own.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Vaccine
I knew absolutely nothing about Vaccine, created by Rainy Night Creations, before it fell into my lap. From the initial screenshots I looked at, it instantly had a Resident Evil / Alone in the Dark vibe to it, so I was intrigued to give it a go. To say that those games were used as its inspiration is putting it mildly, as Vaccine tries to emulate what made those games so great 20+ years ago. Where issues start to arise is that sometimes games don’t age all that well, for numerous reasons, so emulating them with said faults and issues might not be the greatest gaming experiences to be had these days. But not all is dull, as there are some redeeming qualities, so let’s see if Vaccine is worth the money, time and commitment.The story to Vaccine is as basic as it comes, you need to find a vaccine for your infected team member within 30 minutes, a trope we’ve seen used countless times before. I’d delve more into the story, but that’s literally it. “Despite all your efforts, your friend got infected again. Find a vaccine before the time runs out.” is what greets you every time you begin the game over once again, and that is the motivation for the bleak narrative.
As you begin the game you’ll choose between a male or female protagonist, searching for the vaccine for your infected team mate (the one you didn’t choose I assume). It’s your job to save them, but you must do so within a half hour or else they’ll turn. Now, there’s no getting around the large elephant in the room: Vaccine is trying to be like the original Resident Evil, to a fault. There are fixed camera angles, terrible combat mechanics, and some of the worst controls that I can remember in recent memory.
I get that Rainy Night Creations is most likely paying homage to Capcom’s titular PS1 classic, but man, there’s so much cross over that it’s hard to not label it a ripoff in many ways. After noticing the low resolution splash screen and choosing between two characters, a voice even says “Vaccine”, trying to emulate that classic Resident Evil opening line with a gritty tone. Oh, and the whole journey happens inside a massive randomly generation mansion. Sound familiar yet?
The biggest redeeming feature about Vaccine is that there’s an experience system where you gain XP for nearly everything you do, from opening doors to attacking enemies. This XP can be spent to upgrade your character’s many different stats, though given that you’re going to be dying dozens of times and having to restart over from scratch, you’ll probably want to boost your health and damage to start off with. Each character has slightly different starting stats, but nothing drastic enough to make the decision game changing.
You’re then thrown into the game, with no tutorial or explanation for anything other than the 30 minute timer counting down, and that’s it. You don’t know who you are, why you’re there, what the vaccine is, nothing. Granted, there are some snippets of information that can be found littered throughout the mansion in your journey, but it’s not terribly engaging or interesting. Speaking of the mansion, once you die for the first time (which won’t take long), you’re going to wonder why the layout is different than minutes before. Well, the mansion is randomly generated every time you start the game over, so there’s no memorizing rooms, items, monster spawns, or anything else, as it changes each time you start anew. This in some ways is great, as it makes each playthrough unique, interesting, and adds replay value, but soon you’ll learn the frustration of that randomization, which I’ll delve into shortly.
First let’s talk about the controls, as this needs to be put out there. Remember the tank controls from the original Resident Evil, where up moved you forward, down backwards, and left and right just rotated you? They were called tank controls, and they were awful 20 years ago, which is why the series improved on them since then, so why you’d want to mimic one of the worst mechanics a game had is beyond me. Tank controls are clunky, unintuitive, and are going to cause you many deaths, which results in starting all over. To ready your weapon, most likely your knife that’s always in the starting room with you, you have to hold Right Bumper, then A is to attack (or shoot once you get a gun and ammo). The B button will allow you to sprint for a short while, but you won’t need to worry about that for quite some time, until you learn how to deal with Vaccine’s unfairness.
The controls wouldn’t be such an issue if you weren’t pressed for time, but given the time constraint, you need to learn how to deal with them quickly and early on if you want to make any sort of meaningful progress. It’s going to take a lot of failed runs to simply learn how to run through doorways and take corners without having to stop and rotate if you want any chance of actually beating the game to completion.
Couple in the fixed camera angles and you may have flashbacks of being attacked by an enemy you didn’t see because the camera wasn’t facing the right way. Expect that many times here, as you’ll die numerous times from an enemy hiding behind a door or corner that you can’t see until it’s too late. Many deaths are unfair and not your fault, for more reasons than just the controls and camera angles, as the randomization of item placement as well is surely going to also cause you dozens of deaths.
Just like the rooms, items and monsters are randomly placed throughout the mansion as well, so in one run you might find a gun and ammo like I did, and the next dozen nothing but proxy mines and ammo (without the gun). This randomization of the items can really work for you, but it can also cause massive frustration, especially once you run into the wanna-be ‘licker’ monsters.
These enemies take a lot of attacks to kill, and there’s no way to do so with your knife without dying, but you also don’t want to waste your pistol and shotgun ammo on them either, as you need those for the ‘tyrant’ boss that guards the vaccine. So your only hope is to find a repellent item, which will cause enemies to not attack you for 10 or so seconds, even if you’re beside them and attacking them. This means that if you get unlucky with the item randomization on your run, find no repellent and run into a ‘licker’, you’re basically guaranteed to die and have to start all over. If you end up using your ammo and mines on them instead of the boss, then you won’t get the vaccine either, so you’re forced to play a certain way and hope that luck is on your side.
So you’ve managed to get extremely lucky with the mansions randomness, somehow defeated the boss and brought the vaccine back to your friend! Yay, you win right? Nope. You’re greeted with “Despite all your efforts, your friend got infected again. Find a vaccine before the time runs out.” nce again. What? Didn’t you just do that in 10 minutes? Oh, now you have only 20 minutes to do it all over again, albeit with your currently leveled character.
So you only had 20 minutes this time to get the vaccine, but you managed to bring it back. That’s surely it now right? “Despite all your efforts, your friend got infected again. Find a vaccine before the time runs out.” is what you’re greeted with once again. I’ll save you the agony, as you actually need to find the vaccine up to 9 or 10 times to actually ‘beat’ the game, with each run having a shorter time limit. Monotony is no joke in Vaccine.
Each run you need to prey to your gods though, hoping you’ll get lucky in your item drops and that the items you need, like keys, will actually spawn. I’ve had multiple runs where I checked every corner of every room and was unable to find a key or any way to progress. I’m sure I was missing something ever so slightly, as it’s very difficult to see items that can be picked up (they sometimes sparkle, once again, like Resident Evil), and I didn’t see the items I needed to progress, causing me to have to restart once again.
I keep comparing Vaccine to Resident Evil, which is something I don’t generally like to do, but there’s no way around it. Even visually, it looks like a PS1 era Resident Evil game with its muddy texture and very blocky character models. Even the environment looks incredibly basic and ripped right from the era, so while some will enjoy its retro style, others are going to find it looks absolutely terrible in terms of today’s standard. Myself, I’m somewhere right in the middle. I appreciate the feel it’s going for and influence, but it’s been 20 years since then, and many improvements have been made. The audio seems to fit right in with the setting and era as well, though there’s no real queues for when enemies are nearby, or behind a door, which would have prevented many unfair deaths.
Unless you’re a diehard fan of the old school style of gaming from the 90’s, you’re going to most likely hate the first few hours of Vaccine, as you’ll die unfairly a majority of the time. The other times you die will be due to poor controls, bad camera angles, or plain unluckiness of the randomization the mansion gives you. I know that doesn’t sound like a good time, but something weird started to happen once I figured out Vaccine’s intricacies (or simply learning to deal with them), as it started to become fun, somewhat.
Leveling your character’s stats does have a noticeable impact, and once you come to terms with having to die many times to make progress, the frustration somewhat goes away. Not completely, as there are still many issues, but there’s interesting ideas here, even if they are ones we’ve played 20 years ago. Even though I compare it heavily to Resident Evil, don’t expect any horror or tense situations, as this is more of a survival game more than anything horror based, even with the zombie enemies.
Starting a game off incredibly difficult and then getting easier as you go seems like backwards game design, but if you can reach that apex of gameplay and bring back a vaccine or two, subsequent runs become actually much more enjoyable, again, as long as the randomization gods are on your side. Given that you have to restart each time you die, Vaccine is decent for those wanting a game to sink 10 to 20 minutes into now and then, but if you’re actively going to attempt to ‘beat’ the game, get ready for some serious frustration. “Despite all your efforts, your friend got infected again. Find a vaccine before the time runs out”.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Typoman
All those years of playing Scrabble and Words with Friends are finally going to pay off in Typoman Revised, a slightly altered version of Brainseed Factory’s hit from 2015. While you may be fooled into thinking that the core mechanic is based around the wordplay contained within, which there are parts of, the majority of gameplay is platforming based. One question remains though: "Are there enough improvements that make Typoman worth the literary journey this time around?"Typoman’s premise is a simple one, and one that has been told endless amounts of times before. It is a tale that is essentially about good versus evil. The backdrop is a unique world where letters make a bulk of the environments, creating a dreary and dark world that should be a simple black and white; however, it is anything but once you fulfill the role of the HERO. I spell HERO like this as your character is a mashup of the letters H-E-R-O and he is trying to survive in a harsh world filled with hostiles, EVIL, DOOM, and more.
While HERO may be small, he has a very unique ability that allows him to rearrange letters in the environment, crafting creations from letters that form specific words. Oddly enough, for a game that revolves around words, there’s no real narrative or dialogue contained within, as you’re left to interpret what’s going on and why. That would normally be a big detriment for a game, but oddly enough it seems fitting here, as letters seem to act more as objects in the world, that is before HERO is able to manipulate them.
While you may be expecting large changes and improvements in Typoman Revised, provided you played the original when it was a WiiU exclusive, it seems as though there’s been some small tweaks here and there. After completing the game I watched a few walkthrough videos of the original and saw very minor differences for the most part. Some small features were improved, and environments altered, but it’s largely the same experience without much extra content added.
At its core Typoman is a 2D platform puzzler. The majority of your gameplay requires you to jump from area to area, climbing ladders, swinging on ropes, jumping, and figuring out how to pull levers, but there’s also the puzzle aspect that revolves around HERO’s ability to manipulate letters within 4 chapters (prologue plus 3 chapters) contained within the campaign, each lasting roughly an hour or so depending on your word creation abilities and reflexes.
Things aren’t as simple as crafting any words you want, much like Scribblenauts, but instead figuring out the generally pre-determined word solution that can help save you from enemies, open doors, raise platforms and more. Sometimes puzzles are as simple as moving a letter to the end of a word, or simply switching “NO” to “ON”, while other times you’ll have to deal with a handful of letters to find the specific one you need, then use a LIE to craft the opposite word, using those letters for your initial solution, but more on that shortly.
HERO’s path starts out easy, simply trying to find an escape exit after being created from discarded letters, but soon you’ll run into monsters and creatures that are formed from words like EVIL, FEAR, DOOM and more, who are out to destroy you. Generally you simply need to survive and escape from these creatures, as you don’t have any real offence or attacks to thwart them their efforts. This is where word creation will come into play. There are also handfuls of secrets to find in the form of quotation marks, and these will give you a snippet of a much larger tale. It’s an interesting take on collecting secret items and they aren’t very hidden or difficult to get until you near the final chapter.
As for the platforming sections, most of them work very well and have obvious solutions. When you’re making your way across the screen it feels fluid and natural, though there are times, especially in the final half of the game, that you’ll want to completely give up. Certain sections are incredibly difficult and require absolute precision and reflexes when jumping, causing many deaths and restarts. Thankfully the automatic checkpoint system is very plentiful and forgiving, not setting you back very far from your mistake.
The feature that makes Typoman unique though is its wordplay elements, allowing you to scramble letters and create objects, or events, with words. This is much easier to explain with a few examples, so let’s say there’s a locked door blocking your path, but a jumble of letters placed nearby. If you have the appropriate letters to spell OPEN, and move that word near the door, voila, it will magically open. If there’s a switch that’s locking something that you need to get past, but the word beside it says NO, simply rearrange them to say ON and it will power up and allow you to progress. There are sections where gas fills the area, and you can only walk through it for a short time before you die, but bring along a letter P to put at the end of the word GAS creating GASP, and you’ll have a safe-bubble to breathe in.
These types of puzzles are fun to figure out and solve, though by the time the credits roll you’ll have most likely noticed that there are really only a handful of puzzles like these, and they are utilized over and over throughout the adventure. Since you’re always given a specific set of letters, you also need to figure out the developer’s solutions, as there’s not much variety to create more abstract words for unique results.
In the final stage you’ll come across a completely different type of puzzle, one where you’re given access to a machine with a certain amount of letters. You can use the machine to create any words you want, not just using the letters once like you may have done previously, so some sections become much harder with these as you may need to use a letter more than once as you’re not under the same restrictions as before.
My biggest complaint is that the controls for manipulating the letters is not very intuitive, having you rely on using the Right Trigger to move or discard letters rather than the standard A button. Even at the end of my journey I was constantly making mistakes hitting the wrong button when in a rush to craft a word.
The last noteworthy mechanic that’s introduced in the latter half of the game is the LIE creature. Sometimes these creatures are already in the world, requiring you to use them properly, and other times you’ll be given letters to summon a LIE. LIE’s are tiny little creatures that aren’t hostile, but will suck up any word and spit out the opposite word, killing itself in the process. So say you need a set of specific letters to OPEN a door, but you don’t have one of the letters, you would then create a LIE, make a word, have it spit out the opposite word, hopefully containing the letter you require. If that sounds confusing, it is, and one of the puzzles before the final boss requires you to do this word swapping numerous times to find the correct words.
The world of Typoman is a dreary and dark one that emits sadness, but it is beautiful in its own way. Seeing the world around you react and crumble is what gives it its own character, and even though the world appears to be dying, that’s what makes it look alive oddly enough. The only issue I had was that there were numerous times that there were visual stutters when new sections of the levels seemed to have been loading. Nothing that caused any unfair deaths, but noticeable enough to be worth mentioning. As for the audio, it fits the mood of the world and gameplay well, and I highly suggest checking out the game's soundtrack online.
I really enjoyed the first half of Typoman, but as HERO’s adventure goes on you will notice that you’re relying on the same small handful of words and solutions to the majority of the puzzles within. The LIE creatures could have been explained a little better, as the final area before the boss almost made me completely give up. To top it off, the final boss fight wasn’t anything I expected, and it feels a little anti-climactic once you learn how to avoid and defeat it.
Overall I did enjoy Typoman for what it is; a fun, short 2D platform puzzler. It may not have a long gameplay length or much replayability, aside from achievement hunting, but I enjoyed the majority of my time with HERO. Well, at least the times I wasn’t dying repeatedly or standing around trying to figure out what word I needed to create to get the opposite word, so I could construct a different word, and the opposite of that, to solve a puzzle. Its biggest downfall is that you’re essentially shoehorned into solving the puzzles in a way they were specifically designed, not allowing much freedom or the ability for your own creative solutions. Typoman may be a short one-off adventure, but its best parts are fun and work well, making up for its those sections that bring frustration.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Vertical Drop Heroes HD
I’m normally not one to shy away from games with punishing difficulty, but ones that include permadeath and force you to begin anew each time you die isn’t my ideal definition of fun. With that being said I also don’t gravitate towards roguelike games as the aforementioned idea of permadeath is the biggest deterrent for myself, but indie title Vertical Drop Heroes HD really surprised me. I expected to have to slog through it, but low and behold I actually enjoyed this game. Let me explain why.Two main characteristics that define a roguelike game usually revolve around permanent death and randomization of levels and enemies. There are a few more features that help define the genre, but these are probably the two big ones that are really make a game fit into the category. Vertical Drop Heroes HD makes a great compromise though. Even though you’re going to die hundreds of times, restarting as a new character each time, portions of your progress are carried over, making subsequent playthroughs slightly easier, until you get to the point of being able to survive long enough, hopefully to the end.
I actually never played the original Vertical Drop Heroes, which appears to have originated as a simple flash game on Kongregate, and now it’s returned with a HD version on console, and after trying the original flash version, for this review, that’s many years old, this HD version is vastly superior and actually much more addictive than I thought it would be.
The story revolves around a prophecy that describes a hero in search of some sort of Holy Sanctuary hidden across many strange and fantastic lands. The problem is that this prophecy is very generic and not descriptive about the hero, so everyone thinks that the great hero is actually themselves. Vertical Drop Heroes HD is a tale, not about the hero, but the endless piles of corpses of heroes that actually paved the way for the 'true' hero that the prophecy foresees. It’s a clever backdrop for a narrative that actually explains the permadeath mechanic and actually makes sense, so kudos to developer Nerdook, a single man developer, for coming up with a unique and hilarious narrative setting that relates to the gameplay.
Keeping up with true roguelike mechanics, each level you play is randomly generated, but what makes Vertical Drop Heroes HD stand out is that you’re actually progressing vertically downwards, instead of the traditional side to side (left or right). Each beginning offers you three different heroes to choose from, each with their own stats, weapons, and eventually, abilities, leaving you to traverse the levels downward to defeat each boss and move onto the next world.
But it won’t be that easy, as each level is littered with enemies, bosses that are very difficult early on, and even traps like fire, projectiles, and more that will make some serious attempts to kill you. Expect to die quite often, and quickly in fact, especially during your first few dozen runs. Dying in a matter of minutes is commonplace as you begin your journey, but any coins you’ve gathered, and abilities purchased, will carry over into your next character selection which incrementally helps surviving become easier.
Given that this game is roguelike, the gameplay itself revolves around knowing that you’re going to be making repeated runs through the levels multiple times. Each time you begin you’re given a choice of three random warriors, some of which will have huge swords, dual wielding, shields, arrows, magic wands, and more. Each character plays slightly different and can cater towards different playstyles. So, what happens when your heroe inevitably dies? You’re given another selection of three randomized heroes, but you’ll eventually notice that you’re sometimes given the same character you played before, but that character is the next one in the bloodline. With this in mind, though the warrior Earthstrider was valiant for example, he perished, but you might get to play as Earthstrider II, III, IV, and more as your hero continually dies and is replaced by their kin.
Since hero selection is randomized, you’ll have to make some runs with characters that you may not enjoy, or are not good with, but you can still make some progress by collecting coins or trying for achievements. During your runs you’ll come across merchants, again randomly, that will offer to sell you abilities and upgrades for subsequent heroes, and it's a safe bet to spend your hard earned coins here. These abilities are varied, some are more powerful and useful than others. My favorite is the one that causes all the coins on the screen to automatically be sucked towards you, making it so you don’t have to go and collect them individually. The abilities are also randomized on the heroes, so even though you really enjoy playing with Earthstrider III, his abilities may not be as useful as you’d hoped, though it’ll be completely different for Earthstrider IV.
As you defeat enemies you’ll level up, which is very handy as it also refills your small health bar each time. You may ask "what’s the point of leveling up if you’re just going to end up dying shortly afterwards?" Well, as you level up you become stronger, allowing you to progress slightly further, which allows you to gain more coins, allowing you to accumulate more money to purchase more upgrades. For the first few hours you’re better off simply focusing on collecting coins and purchasing upgrades, as it’ll allow you to survive longer and gather even more coins, eventually making each run slightly easier. While the first bit of the game will feel like a grind, the randomization of the heroes, levels, abilities, and even bosses, keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting even though you’ve played through the first level or two a hundred times.
Even though you’re restarting every few minutes, and the difficulty is quite high, you do feel slightly more powerful on each run after a handful of upgrades. There’s a hub that you begin in with each new hero, allowing you to spend coins on permanent health and weapon damage upgrades that can make a huge difference. The controls are quite simple, as there’s even an option for auto attack, which can be incredibly useful. The boss that guards the exit at the bottom of each stage will grant you many coins and experience points should you be able to defeat them.
There are a ton of treasure chests that are also randomly scattered throughout the levels, offering coins and health, but you’ll need to collect keys to open them. These keys are also used to free prisoners trapped in cages, which if freed, will fight alongside you until their health is depleted. These can be knights, thieves, wizards, and archers, each with their own pros and cons, but keys aren’t plentiful, so you need to strategize when to use them on treasure chests, for the always important coins, or freeing companions that will allow you to progress further, which in turn can mean even more coins gathered.
Enemies are randomly placed in levels, and even though the first stages always have the same type of enemy, and second stage has it's own enemies, and so on and so on, there are other 'one-off' enemies randomly thrown in that are much tougher for the level they reside in and they can kill you almost instantly when you’re simply beginning your journey. The payoff for being able to defeat these mini-bosses are a coins and experience, so there is good reason to defeat them if you think you’re able.
A unique mechanic within is having random teleporters placed throughout where you to warp back up to the top of the stage, essentially allowing you to drop down once again and collect every coin and key while defeating all enemies, should you wish. Sometimes you’ll want to rush through levels and progress, but other times you’ll want to kill as many enemies as you can to help level up, making the following levels and bosses that much easier.
For those wanting a real challenge, there’s even a way to play in a pacifist approach. At the start of a stage there will be floating heart-like icons that, when collected, grant you coins and experience, but they disappear once you kill an enemy, adding for an extra challenge, especially since the levels are randomized, so there’s no memorization allowing for an ideal route. Though you need to defeat the boss to unlock the portal to the next stage, a pacifist run requires a handful of keys to unlock the portal instead, so there’s quite a challenge in doing so on your vertical drops, especially without killing any enemies. There are even side quests that are randomly offered by NPC’s looking for you to collect a hidden treasure, collecting items, or other varied goals. These quests are an easy way to earn some bonus gold and experience and adds more variety to the simplistic premise of making your way downwards as quick as possible.
Vertical Drop Heroes HD may look basic in its visuals, but its style is very clean and doesn’t resemble anything as rough as its flash based roots. The animations are smooth and each of the 10 worlds are varied in looks and gameplay. Even more impressive is the great soundtrack, especially World 4, which makes me want to rock out every time I make it that far. I was expecting very basic visuals and sound, but I was incredibly impressed with the outcome for a small single developer indie game.
There is a multiplayer component, though sadly it’s only local split screen only, so those that have people to play on the same couch will find a lot of fun, but those wanting to play online with their friends sadly don’t have the option. I never expect online co-op in smaller indie games like this, but it sure would have added a lot of enjoyment and replayability if it was present. While it will take quite some time to complete all 10 levels, opening up New Game+ will allow more play for those seeking a challenge. In terms of overall gameplay, the journey is had in the hours and hours it will take to complete the stages, making baby steps each time you start anew. Normally I grow tired of having to play the same stages over repeatedly, but with the randomized levels and heroes, it never became stale.
Vertical Drop Heroes HD may not have lasting power to keep you playing for months on end, but it will satisfy you for a good amount of time, even more so for those looking a serious challenge. This game has sold me on the roguelike genre, which is quite an accomplishment and speaks volumes for its quality and gameplay.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Aqua Kitty UDX: Xbox One Ultra Edition
I say it every time I get to review one of these types of games, but it bears repeating: I love Shoot Em’ Ups, or shmups for short. Aqua Kitty UDX: Xbox One Ultra Edition (UDX for short) may have a lengthy title, but if you managed to play Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX elsewhere before, then UDX is essentially an updated version with a handful of upgrades and additions to warrant the new lengthy title. So has the wait been worth it for Xbox One fans to finally get their hands on these aquatic felines?I was born when video games were still new and very primitive. Games like Donkey Kong, Galaga, Tempest, and Defender were groundbreaking for their time, giving this new medium for people to play games in original ways. I mention Defender specifically, as Aqua Kitty UDX plays essentially the same as the beloved classic. Well, with kittens, oceans, and robots of course. Even though the core gameplay may have its inspiration and roots from a title over three decades old, there’s something endearing about playing a fun shmup without any crazy controls to learn, though the light hearted silly narrative surely does help put a smile on your face as well.
Developers Tikipod have cleverly come up with a story so silly and wacky that it almost makes complete sense. The world has come upon hard times with a massive milk shortage for the cats, so they are on the search for more milk sources, which they happen to find. Unfortunately the source is at the bottom of the ocean, and we all know that cats and water don’t mix well. Solution? Use submarines and get to excavating that precious milk!
It’s a silly premise, but it works given the game’s setting. So, unlike Defender being based in space, it’s essentially the same, but in the ocean instead. It’s a clever way to change the backdrop and keep the same core mechanics in place, plus it’s about kitties, so there’s always that. While the crews are extracting the milk from the ocean bed, it’s your job in your submarine to defend them from an onslaught of robotic creatures out to stop them. Why? Who knows, just go with it.
Controls are very simplistic, with a shoot button and one of the Bumpers to change your facing direction from left to right, and vice versa. With the mechanics being so easy, the challenge comes from the onslaught of enemies, all of which will be shooting at you to prevent you from protecting the kitties harvesting the milk. Aqua Kitty UDX has 3 main modes to enjoy; Classic, Arcade and Dreadnought, and there’s even an endless Infinite Espresso mode where you can challenge yourself to see how long you can last. Each mode has its own merits and would have been fun to play if it was the only option, but with this many being included, it ups Aqua Kitty UDX’s value substantially.
Classic Mode is the default choice, so many will start here. This is essentially the campaign mode, though there’s no story progression when you make your way through the levels. In each level you’ll face waves of enemies, each becoming harder and more numerous from the last, but you also need to protect your allies that are harvesting. There is a specific type of robotic jellyfish that can snatch them, and once they are brought to the surface, your feline friends are gone forever, as are your point potential.
The first few levels start off easy enough, but eventually you’ll also have to battle a boss as well as dealing with waves of enemies and potential kidnapping of your milk harvesters. Levels become progressively more challenging and eventually you’ll hit a brick wall of difficulty. Nothing completely unfair, but certain levels will require a few attempts with its onslaught of enemies.
There’s the oddly named Infinite Espresso mode that’s access through the Classic map. Here is an endless survival mode to see how long you can last against endless waves of enemies. It’s only a matter of time before you become overwhelmed by swarms of your foes, so last as long as you can.
Arcade Mode is the same layout as Classic, but with two huge differences. The first is that you only have one life. When you are dead you start all the way back from the first level, so this mode is for those seeking a challenge. The other mechanic that is changed is that you’re able to keep your powerups from one stage to the next, almost like an upgrade system, but nowhere near as robust. I liked the idea of progressively becoming more powerful as you complete stages, but once you accidentally die there’s not much incentive to start all over again from the first stage.
Lastly, and arguably the best, is Dreadnought Mode. These are essentially levels against one massive boss, along with waves of smaller bad guys of course. You need to destroy blocks of the massive ship’s body to open up its core, which needs to be destroyed to succeed. It sounds easy, but I was only able to complete a few of these Dreadnought stages, as they require much skill and dexterity, even for shmup veterans. It’s a constant balancing act of trying to keep the smaller enemies numbers down versus when to focus and attack the boss itself. It’s a fun mode that asks for a lot of skill, but completing these stages feels very rewarding.
The default difficulty level is Normal, and while that sounds simple, it’s anything but, especially on Dreadnought Mode. Easy Mode is much more realistic, but even then, the later stages become incredibly challenging even on the lower setting. Luckily you’re able to change difficulties at any time and only a few achievements require the Normal setting to unlock.
Much like the old school Gradius or R-Type games, powerups vary from different types of shots, to health, to bombs. Some shot upgrades are immensely more useful and powerful than others, like the spread shot that shoots at 45 degree angles, as opposed to the not as useful vertical shots. Powerups only last a limited amount of time, so when you get one make sure you destroy as many enemies as you can.
Local co-op is available for friends that share a couch with you, but alas, sadly there’s no online co-op. While online co-op wasn’t something I expect from a smaller developer, it would have been awesome to play alongside some of my best friends online, as doing it solo can become a little monotonous in long play sessions.
To be completely honest, I thought Aqua Kitty UDX was going to be a play once and be done with it type of game. I clearly judged it too early and have grown to really enjoy it. The best part is actually its fantastic soundtrack that plays while you’re shooting robots under the sea. The soundtrack is an old school electronic style that fits the gameplay and mood of the game perfectly.
Aqua Kitty UDX blends simple gameplay with modern visuals and an awesome soundtrack. Obviously with its silly name and premise it won’t appeal to everyone, but if you’re a shmup fan and want a simple and fun game to enjoy, then help these kitties harvest the much needed milk from the ocean floor right meow.
Suggestions: Online co-op would be a fantastic addition!
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
iO
While not everyone is a fan of smaller indie titles, there’s something great about having small and simple games that you can play for minutes at a time when you simply need a break from the norm. If they say that “less is more”, then developers Gamious took this saying to heart, as iO may fool you with its barebones visual appearance, but don’t let that deceive you, as there’s a really interesting platform puzzler contained within.Don’t come to iO looking for some in-depth mechanics, flashy visuals, orchestral score, or even a story, as it has none of those, yet it isn’t really considered a detriment here, as iO is trying to be a simple yet challenging game, which it excels at wonderfully. Better yet, iO feels different and unique amongst the slew of platformers flooding the market right now. So what makes this one stand out amongst the crowd?
iO’s premise is simple; get your ball (or I guess puck since it’s played in sidescrolling 2D style) to the goal. That’s it. To earn the gold, silver, or bronze medals you’ll need to be on point and very quick. Getting your puck to the goal won’t be easy after the first 25 or so levels though, as you're taught early on that you need to use physics, albeit not completely realistic, to reach each stage’s end point.
You need to utilize momentum, move obstacles, and come up with creative solutions. The main catch about iO is that you can shrink and grow your puck at will, which in turn changes the physics and its momentum. For example, you can scale a completely vertical wall if you start small and slowly grow your puck larger as you make your way up it. The same goes for gaining momentum, as you can launch yourself very quickly if you shrink suddenly when about to take off from a ramp. It does take a lot of getting used to, but this unique mechanic is your primary focus on how to solve each stage.
Getting to the wormhole exit on each stage won’t be easy and each level essentially gets harder as you go. There are well over 200 levels to challenge you, and you should be impressed if you can finish many of these levels, not even taking into account the brutally challenging par times for medal earnings. Each level feels unique and has some sort of catch to figure out to reach the exit. Most levels only last a few seconds to 30 seconds or so maximum, but expect to spend a large amount of time on some of them just trying to figure the level out.
Sometimes solutions are quite simple and you’ll solve them at first glance, while other times you’ll be completely baffled on how to progress. In the later stages you’ll need to deal with blue platforms that move in a set pattern, yellow objects that can be moved and are usually required to be manipulated, and deadly red areas that will instantly kill you if touched. Since the gameplay is physics based, you need to figure out ways to use your momentum and shrink/grow abilities to get past the blockades hampering your progress.
One of the earliest tricks you’ll be taught is how to gain speed and utilize your momentum to reach new heights. The bigger your puck the faster it will roll downhill, but slower uphill. Shrink your puck as you reach the end of a line and you’ll launch yourself in said direction with great velocity. Much of your success will be in learning how the physics work, grasping how to utilize specific maneuvers, and simple experimentation.
The mechanics of growing and shrinking your puck is fluid and works well, and when pulling off well-timed launches and moves it feels fantastic, but everything isn’t perfect though. The main issue I have with this mechanic is that when you grow, the camera zooms out, and when shrinking it zooms in. With some stages this won’t affect the gameplay too much; however, the latter stages require you to know exactly where you’re at, especially when launching your puck into the air, leaving you unsure where you are in relation to the level’s ramps as you’re completely zoomed in on your small puck. Having an overview of the stage is absolutely critical in many spots, and when you lose sight of that it feels as though many levels require perfect memorization, and a bit of luck, rather than skill. This is where trial and error comes in, many many trials, but even more errors.
Once the levels start to utilize moving sections and movable objects, the difficulty ramps up dramatically. Some levels are elaborately created with a specific solution in mind, though because of the ‘odd’ physics there was a level or two I completed because of some weird glitch, launching my puck when it shouldn’t have. For example, my puck somehow reacted to a hinge on a rotating object, but it luckily flew me right into the goal area, making for a 5 second finish when the gold par time was 20 seconds.
Even on the hardest stages, they may look menacing, but none are ever built too intricately and simply require the ‘proper’ way to complete them. Levels progressively become more challenging, but it’s not always a constant uphill battle, as you may be unable to complete a handful of stages in a row, then all of a sudden you are able to complete the next set without any issues, though that may simply be due to being better at some of the skills needed than others. I found that I can scale upright walls no problem, but the shrinking to gain momentum is what I struggle with, even hours into the game.
If you manage to be an aficionado of momentum and skill, the crazy difficult sets of stages range from Impeccaball, Incrediball, and Impossiball. These levels are no joke and will require all the skills you’ve learned up to this point and they are incredibly unforgiving. You’ll need to be a complete master of each maneuver and need absolutely precision to complete these challenging levels.
Visually iO is nothing to really look at, as it’s incredibly basic and simplistic in style, but this minimalistic approach allows you to focus on the level and gameplay. It may just be a bunch of lines and a puck, but the gameplay makes up for its rudimentary style. As for the audio, it’s fitting for the tonality of the game and never crosses the border of annoying.
Your average player will have no hopes of obtaining the bulk of the medals, especially gold, but luckily you’re able to choose any level at any time, never becoming frustrated and being forced into playing a single level until you complete it. The biggest miss for iO though is the complete lack of leaderboards. I would have really enjoyed seeing the best players’ times and of course, to brag against my friends.
iO is a great example of relying on a simple premise and fun gameplay over lavish visuals and an engaging narrative. Obviously there’s a niche market for platforming games like this, especially for those that love to challenge themselves, but given the number of rushed titles and influx of mediocre indie games on the market, iO really surprised me and taught me once again to not judge a game by its looks, but by its interesting mechanics and gameplay instead.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Halo Wars 2
I am not a big fan of Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. That got your attention right? Well, it’s true, mostly. I’ve never been good at them, with all the micromanaging and resource handling. They have not been not my cup of tea, and so I’ve essentially avoided them, that is until Halo Wars came to Xbox 360 in 2009. Ensemble Studios, the studio behind Age of Empires, took the reins on the first Halo Wars, a RTS specifically built for console.This was a big deal given the fact that RTS games don’t generally translate well to consoles, the main reason generally being that converting all the keyboard and mouse commands to a controller is seemingly a near impossible job to pull off. Ensemble Studios proved this theory wrong, creating a RTS game that felt natural with a controller in hand. It may not have set the world on fire, but I fell in love with the original Halo Wars, not just because I’m a massive Halo fan, but because it made the genre accessible to someone like myself that’s always struggled with the genre's complexities.
Almost a decade later and we’re finally treated to a full sequel, Halo Wars 2, this time headed by Creative Assembly, best known for their popular RTS series Total War. Things have changed since 2009 though, and Xbox One is now the current console and Play Anywhere is a Microsoft backed initiative that is gaining steam on many titles, allowing you to play your game on Xbox One or PC and continue playing on either platform whenever you like.
Halo Wars 2 seems to have learned from the shortcomings its predecessor, improving many mechanics and issues players had, making for a much more cohesive experience and fluid game. I knew I was going to most likely enjoy Halo Wars 2 given that I fell in love with the first, but my expectations were blown out of the water once I was a few hours in.
Halo Wars 2 takes place nearly 3 decades after the first in the series. The Spirit of Fire crew has been in cryosleep all this time, but they are awoken when they drift within range of the Ark. Yes, the same Ark that Master Chief encountered in his journeys. A distress signal forces them to land on the surface and they save an AI named Isabel. Isabel catches the crew up on what’s happened all these years and how a new threat has emerged, a new Brute faction called The Banished, led by an absolutely powerful antagonist, Atriox.
Atriox is so powerful that he was able to earn his faction’s freedom from the Covenant. The first cutscene that introduces you to Atriox will show you how powerful he really is, and I for one am glad to have another looming evil presence that will hopefully see a showdown with Chief and Locke in the future. You need to stop Atriox, as he knows what the Ark is designed for; creating Halo Rings.
What really excites me about Halo Wars 2 is that it’s now parallel with the cannon Halo storyline in relation to the time of events that occur. I’ll admit it, I was giddy when Master Chief was mentioned, and Halo Wars 2 takes place after the events of Halo 5. Atriox is not to be messed with, as he’s declared war on everyone and will stop at nothing to succeed in his mission.
The storyline is one of the best features of Halo Wars 2, incredibly more engaging and exciting than the first game, in my opinion, and now that the timeline matches up with the core Halo games, there’s some exciting revelations to be had and crazy anticipation to see the outcomes of specific events (make sure you stick around after the campaign credits to see what I mean).
Blur, the studio behind the incredibly impressive cinematics for Halo 2 Anniversary, return, making for some truly extraordinary cutscenes, one of which may actually be my favorite in the whole Halo franchise. Their cinematics are on par with the best movies coming out of Hollywood and give Halo Wars 2 a sense that 343 truly cared about making this game one for the fans, something they’ve succeed in.
While Halo Wars 2 is a RTS at its core, the campaign doesn’t play like your traditional RTS where you are simply stuck gathering resources and crafting new units. Over the course of the 12 missions you’ll do some base and unit building, but it is more action orientated than that. You’ll be controlling units of ODSTs, Scorpions, Warthogs, and many more weapons of destruction against The Banished. I won’t spoil anything, but near the end is an event that I’ve wanted to do for a long time in a Halo game. Co-op is also an option, but only with friends, much like with Firefight, though I wish matchmaking was an option for those times my friends aren’t on.
What surprised me the most is how varied the mission structure in Halo Wars 2 is. One mission may have you simply getting from point A to point B while the next may have you defending a beach landing with many infiltration points. There’s even a level that plays out like a classic tower defense game, something that really surprised me and took me a moment to adjust my tactics. The constant changing of objectives and types of missions forces you to think and react quickly, something that is easily done with the excellent controller scheme.
I was honestly expecting a handful of missions that essentially played the same, but that wasn’t the case at all, as each mission is varied and there are many surprises to be had. My initial tactic of herding all my units in one massive onslaught simply wouldn’t cut it for many missions, and I had to split and make my army diverse across many fronts, all while managing bases and creating new units simultaneously. There are even a handful of collectibles to find (yes, skulls make a return) and many optional objectives to complete if you’re skilled enough. Some of these side quests are incredibly challenging and will take a lot of strategy and preparation to complete, adding to the replay value.
Before heading straight into multiplayer or campaign, I highly suggest playing through the 3 separate tutorials that will give you an overview of the core controls, mechanics, and the newly added Blitz Mode. They aren’t exciting or in-depth, but it’ll teach you the core basics that you’ll need to begin with, especially the controls.
It’s clear that the gameplay was built with a controller in mind, and while it does play slightly easier and quicker on PC with a mouse and keyboard, it feels natural with a controller, even in the most hectic battles. It’s not just about finding an intuitive way to map all the commands onto the controller, but the developers also needed to figure a solution to be able to do so quickly and intuitively, especially in the heat of battle. Creative Assembly seems to have figured out a solution, as you’re able to quickly cycle between bases, powers, units, squads, and more with just a button press or two. Sure, it takes a little getting used to, but eventually it becomes second nature.
You’re able to create custom squads, select one or all units, and even ‘paint’ and select any highlighted units. It took a while, but once I started grouping specific units together, for different purposes, my strategies became much more varied and purposeful, though it’s also fun to double tap the Right Bumper to select all units and send my complete army like a steamroller to roll over my enemies. Your leaders also have special abilities that can be called upon at any time, given that you’ve spent the leader point to unlock it and have the resources to do so. Call down ODSTs, missile strikes, or even healing aura’s to help your troops. These leader abilities can easily turn the tide of a battle if used properly, even more so in online matches.
One of the features I enjoy the most about Halo Wars 2 is that it doesn’t play like a traditional RTS. You don’t simply build a base wherever you like and then gather and manage your resources. There are predefined plots where bases can be constructed, sometimes in neutral areas, and often times behind enemy lines, as they’ve already taken it for themselves. Once your base is built you can attach a number of plots to it, ranging from supply production, barracks, flight pads, garages and more. The more resources you amass, the better the units you can create, but watch your max population count, as you need to balance power with numbers as well. Buildings can be upgraded, at a cost of supplies of course, but allow for even more powerful units, so there’s a constant balancing act of spending versus investing that comes into play.
Sometimes it’s necessary to spend supplies on turrets at your base to fend off any enemy attacks while you’re away, and these can also be upgraded to do more damage to infantry, vehicles, or air units. I really appreciated how powerful they’ve made the Spartans this time around, as they were supposed to be portrayed as mobile tanks in essence. The very few Spartans you do get to control are immensely powerful, and it never gets old seeing them hijack an enemy vehicle and using it for themselves.
With campaign out of the way, it’s not time to move onto the multiplayer modes, where a bulk of your time will most likely be spent. There’s essentially two different experiences to be had online, Skirmish and Blitz. Skirmish is more of your traditional type of RTS gameplay, of course with its own slight twists on the standard modes. For those wanting a slightly longer experience and classic gameplay, Skirmish is where you’ll want to head. Blitz is something completely new to the genre, and while some might scoff at it for being card based, and an excuse for microtransactions (which is completely optional and not needed), I really enjoyed it as it was faster paced and a completely new experience.
Skirmish mode offers a few different types of gameplay like Deathmatch, Strongholds, and Domination. While this may seem like a small offering, the modes are varied enough that fatigue shouldn’t really set in, especially with how chaotic 6 player Stronghold games become. This mode has your team trying to hold as many of the bases as you can on the map before time expires, and with two teams of three, some massive battles ensue at nearly every base.
Regardless of the faction you choose to control, Banished or UNSC, they feel balanced. Certain leaders have special abilities and units, but there’s a counter for every attack, defense, and unit. Brutes tend to be much more focused on brute strength (see what I did there?), whereas UNSC has a bit more tactical advantage. Each leader plays somewhat differently, so experiment with each and find the faction and leader that suits your playstyle (and team).
And now we come to Blitz mode, arguably the most interesting and controversial addition to Halo Wars 2. During the previous beta this was the mode that was showcased exclusively, so keep in mind that if you’re not a fan, you still have the traditional skirmishes available to play as well. Blitz mode is akin to a blend of RTS and card based battle. You earn new cards by simply playing Halo Wars 2, even the campaign. There are daily and weekly challenges to earn experience to level up and there’s no forced reason to purchase packs with money, unless you don't want to grind for them.
You build your deck of 12 different cards, each of which represents a different unit or ability. There’s no overall cost limit on building your deck, so you can stack it with the best 12 cards you have, but to use cards costs resources, so you won’t be able to use any cards for quite some time with that strategy, so you need to balance cost, effectiveness, usefulness, and more when creating your decks, of which you can make numerous presets.
Each leader has special cards only available to them, with their best cards being absolutely devastating should you be able to save up enough resources to use them. These specialty cards add variety and strategy to your decks and choices. There’s a lot of nuances with Blitz that also come into play, as playing a card at your home base is generally the best option because if you play it outside of the home base it’s damage and health are halved for about 8 seconds. So yes, you can play a stack of cards in the middle of a battle, but they will only be half as effective when doing so.
There are a ton of small instances like this that you need to factor in before playing your cards, figuring out what the best course of action is. The single Blitz map is a mostly symmetrical oval one with bases on each side and 3 points in between both sides. The first team to 200 points, by capturing and holding the points, wins. Sounds easy, but Blitz is incredibly fast paced and doesn’t deal with any base building at all. Instead, random resources will appear on the map at certain intervals that need to be destroyed then gathered. Do you split up your units to gather, or hold out on the point to fend off attackers instead?
Blitz is very chaotic, as you can have a battle almost won, only to see your opponent play a special powerful card, like a scarab or orbital strike for instance, changing the potential outcome and forcing you to react quickly. Once you get a handful of card packs from playing through the campaign and leveling up, bolstering your decks can become addictive, as duplicate cards work towards leveling those specific cards up, making them more powerful. This is where the allure of spending cash for packs comes in obviously, but it’s not needed.
You can choose to play 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3, all of which require different strategies and communication with your team if you want to be successful. Playing against the AI turns Blitz into a survival mode where you need to last against as many waves as you possibly can. My only real complaint with Blitz is the ballsy decision to only include only one map at launch. There’s no doubt that more will be added in the future, and I get that Blitz is very luck based, determined on your decks and card randomization, but some might burnout on the mode with only a single map to play on.
Play Anywhere is a Microsoft initiative that seems to be proving somewhat popular among gamers. A Play Anywhere game essentially allows you to play your digital version across PC and Xbox One, giving you access to both. So while I played for a few hours on Xbox One, the family wanted the TV, so I switched over to the PC version and my progress was there automatically. It’s a great feature, but sadly Cross-Play isn’t included, meaning PC and Xbox One players cannot play together or against one another on Halo Wars 2.
I knew I was going to enjoy Halo Wars 2, as I’m a Halo buff and super nerd, but I didn’t think I would enjoy it this much, especially the campaign’s narrative. The only issue I had with the campaign was that it seemingly ends too soon, nothing like Halo 2’s infamous "To finish the fight..." abruptness, but it definitely left me wanting more, even after the awesome final climactic mission that had me grinning from ear to ear. That being said, the post credit scene blew my mind; I’ll just leave it at that.
Halo Wars 2 proves that RTS games can not only work well on console, but deserve to be there as well when done right. Blitz mode may not be for everyone, but it’s a game changer for the genre regardless if you agree with its addition or not, at least they’re offering a different experience, something that inexperienced RTS players, like myself, have always wanted to enjoy, but wasn’t able to for whatever reason. Halo Wars 2’s campaign is fantastic, blending itself into the overarching, and main, Halo storyline seamlessly, and as a game, it feels right at home on a console. In the end this game reaches many different fans, including the fans of the Halo universe, fans of RTS games, and fans of gaming in general who may just want a good story combined with a solid gameplay experience.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Uncanny Valley
I’ve never quite played anything like Uncanny Valley before, a game developed by the people at Cowardly Creations. Sure, I’ve played my share of horror games, narrative driven mysteries, and retro inspired titles, but never one that combined all these elements quite like this. Now, if survival horror games are not quite your cup of tea, don’t despair, as Uncanny Valley isn’t your typical take on the genre; completely different from what I expected to be honest.The very first screen you read is a message about how it’s suggested you play through the game multiple times to get the most out of the game, as the choices you make have consequences that change the outcome. So, to see and experience everything you’ll need to replay the game a number of times, hoping you learn from your mistakes to work towards a different outcome. While I’m unsure of how many endings there are, I’ve experienced just two in my handful of playthroughs, seemingly always being funneled into the same section in the latter part of the game, but more on that later.
You are Tom, a new employee at a mysterious remote facility, working as a night shift security guard. Buck, a heavy set security guard that works there is the one that shows you around and explains your job to you, explaining where you need to patrol and what areas are off limits. Eve is the other person you’ll meet, seemingly a maid, but for a whole apartment building consisting of just two people, you and Buck. You can tell from the get go that something isn’t right in this place, as the whole facility and surrounding area seems desolate, yet you need constant security and a maid. It doesn’t help that Tom is having nightmares every time he sleeps, dreaming of being chased by some ghoulish shadows, eventually waking up in a panic.
Tom’s story starts out very creepy, as nothing particular happens, but as you snoop around during your shift and read random emails from various computers, you start to piece together a bit of backstory that starts to paint a very eerie picture. For the first half of the game this is all you’re essentially doing before your nightly shift ends and you need to go back home. You are simply exploring and snooping in staff’s personal emails and listening to recordings.
Uncanny Valley doesn’t reveal its overarching plot in a linear way either, so you may get a glimpse of what’s really going on during one playthrough, but it isn’t until subsequent playthroughs that you’ll really start to understand the bigger picture. This non-linear approach to story telling is something I enjoy, but you do need to actually play multiple times or else the context will make absolutely no sense at all. There are even a few things I still don’t fully grasp, and I’ve gone through the game a few of times.
During your shift you have a set amount of time before you need to go back to your apartment go to sleep, thus beginning a new creepy dream sequence. Since you only have a limited amount of time to explore per shift, this is why you’ll need to play multiple times if you want to learn everything. For those that don’t have the patience, or are not able to piece together the strings of information on their own, you might become frustrated, as the story isn’t blatantly explained at any point, for the most part. You need to read a lot of emails and explore to understand most of the context, along with the who, what, and why, but even then it’s a little muddy at best, even after the most shocking mysteries are revealed.
One of the best things Uncanny Valley has going for it is its' consequence system that’s in place. Every action you take seems to have a reaction, and more importantly, a consequence. Usually in most games choosing ‘wrong’ results in "game over", but during Uncanny Valley the game continues to play out, but you may have a slightly different path ahead of you based on your choice(s). I don’t want to really give much away, as finding the subtle differences while taking these branches is what makes the experience compelling. This system also makes things confusing the first few times you play, as during one playthrough you may skip a whole scene because of a choice, while a next time you may experience something quite different. This experimentation is part of its charm, but it’s also quite mundane the 5th or 6th time you’ve done the beginning parts. This also makes the story muddled at the best of times, as almost every time I played I kept encountering a group of people that forced me into the ending I’ve seen numerous times.
Every time I play things always seem to go awry in the latter half of the game and I never really got an ending I was truly happy with. Granted, I’ve not been able to figure out how to see all the endings, but the ones I have seen left me unsatisfied, wanting to know more, but unsure how to do so. For example, the time I found Buck’s room and his car keys, I decided to leave, only to be thrown into a situation that I didn’t see coming at all. Lesson learned, so I played again only to eventually get to a point where I’m thrown into the same situation, almost as if it somewhat shoehorns a few sequences to occur, but I’m not sure as to why or the context. I know this sounds very vague, but I want to leave it a surprise for you, as it was quite shocking to see the first time.
The biggest problem Uncanny Valley has though is its controls. I couldn’t figure out why Tom wasn’t moving when the game started the first time I played, only to realize it forces you to use the D-pad to control Tom through the game world. This feels awkward at best, but to make things worse, you need to only use the Left Stick when navigating the inventory menus. Interacting with doors with ‘A’ was fine, but you need to use Right Bumper to converse with people and to pick up items. It’s unnatural and simply doesn’t make sense and overall the strange control choices make for quite a rough control scheme in general.
As for its aesthetics, I really enjoyed Uncanny Valley's retro pixel graphics, as the world seemed to have a mood and feeling of its own. The choice of art style also means that there’s not much detail in the world, as it all kind of blends together, but any items that are able to be interact with at least highlight when you are nearby to help identify them. I really enjoyed the charm of the retro graphics, as the animation is quite decent, although not perfect and there were some graphical glitches, but overall it definitely felt like it was from a different era. While there’s no voice acting, aside from listening to the found tapes hidden throughout, the sound design is very mood fitting with eerie noises, especially in the last few sections where the story takes sudden turns.
On one hand I love how Uncanny Valley’s story is told in segments that require multiple playthroughs to figure it all out, but on the other hand, even after a half dozen times doing so, there are some parts and reasoning that still elude me. The segmented approach works for those that want to have a quick run through the game, but to fully understand everything you will need to dump a few hours into it with multiple plays to learn everything, and I’m not sure many will have the patience to do so with the questionable controls.
Given the time I've had with Uncanny Valley, I admit that I always felt like I got the ‘bad’ ending. Granted, I’ve yet to experience all of the different finales which I know of, but I never felt satisfied with any of the endings I witnessed. Maybe there is no ‘good’ ending that I’m hoping for though, but after being coerced into the same ending multiple times through actions not entirely my fault (or that I can figure out), the lasting power of replying the game will eventually diminish. Once you’ve learned what you can about the ‘twist’ after a few playthroughs, and the 'aha' realization wears off, there’s little reason to continue playing unless you’re working towards specific achievements or you really want to see every ending possible.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
Sun and Moon, The
What I love about the puzzle genre is that there’s no set template that developers need to inherently follow. The genre is very broad, and with The Sun and Moon, you get a game that is part puzzler and bigger part platformer. While it may be more akin to a platformer, as that’s the heart of its gameplay, figuring out how to reach your goal on each stage is a puzzle in itself, which is why I would categorize it into both genres.The premise of The Sun and Moon is as simple as it gets; you’re a small little sphere-thing with eyes (yes, I just described it like that), and you need to collect orbs scattered around each stage before you can exit through a portal. It sounds simplistic, and it is, but the heart of the game comes with punishingly difficult gameplay that requires precision, patience, and expertise.
There is no story, there’s no system to tag you along from one stage to the next, as you’re simply clearing stage by stage until you hit an inevitable brick wall of difficulty. The Sun and Moon title itself doesn’t seem to mean anything, but that’s ok, as it excels at being a platformer, not trying to be anything more or less. Just be ready to fail, almost constantly, as you need to learn to react quickly and not rely so much on thinking.
The main catch to The Sun and Moon that makes it so unique is its ‘dive’ mechanic, for lack of a better term. You’re able to dive into the ground, ceiling, or walls, based on your direction and speed. The faster you’re initially going, the further you’ll ‘dive’ into the walls, which will then slingshot you out of the walls at a faster velocity. It’s a very tricky mechanic to master, and even after hours of playing, I still have troubles always doing exactly what I want to do, quickly and precisely anyways.
Since the overall goal is simple, collecting the dots and making your way to the wormhole exit, you can solely focus on the gameplay as the artistic style is very minimalist. That being said, the camouflage backgrounds can be a little distracting, making it difficult to distinguish where you are when things are happening quickly.
Every level is different, but generally you’re leaping from one floating platform to the next, usually requiring you to gain momentum by digging and launching in a specific direction. You’re going to die, a lot, so prepare yourself as you fling into many spikes and into the abyss, requiring a restart. The game becomes punishingly more difficult the further into it you go, dramatically more so if you’re trying to finish the levels under the par times. The game is fair though, and if you die, it’s because of your skill, or lack there-of, or an mistimed jump.
When you do get into the groove and start flinging yourself upwards and outwards with speed and precision, The Sun and Moon feels amazing. The physics take a lot of time to get the hang of, but in those levels where things just click perfectly, you’ll want to continue playing, thinking you’ve mastered the game. That is, until you hit the next roadblock of difficult stages.
Sure, you’ll miss your jumps and fall into nothingness many times, but more often than not you’ll hit the precisely laid out spikes that kill you instantly. These force you to move or avoid certain areas with a purpose. This is why I said it feels almost like a puzzler, as you need to figure out the determined path to your goal, which generally comes with much trial and error. If you stick with it before giving up there will also be more advanced challenges that await you, like moving platforms, platforms that disappear and reappear, and even a few special levels where a ‘boss’ enemy will chase you.
There are well over 100+ levels, and what’s fun is that these levels usually last 10-15 seconds, if done properly of course. If you do the math, then you’ll naturally assume that you’ll complete the game in a matter of hours, but I promise you it’s nowhere that easy, and being stuck repeating levels for well over 30 minutes is the norm.
I also enjoyed the fact that levels don't unlock in linear fashion either. So, once you complete a level a handful of different ones (two or three) open up to play, all of which branch in different directions. So if you get stuck and frustrated on a specific level, you’re able to back out and try another stage instead. There’s a whole batch of levels I had to bypass, so I moved onto another set and was making progress elsewhere. The levels are numbered, and higher numbers are generally harder, but it helps offset the frustration of being stuck on a single level for too long.
Each level has a par time, but thankfully it’s completely optional (as well as related to achievements). You’re going to need all the skill and luck to simply complete the levels, not even factoring the unreal par times. Seriously, of all the levels I’ve completed to this point, I’ve only made the par times a handful of times. These par goals are for the extreme speed runners and those that want to devote themselves to The Sun and Moon, as your average player won’t even have a chance of obtaining even a fraction of them, let alone beating every stage.
There’s a handful of 8-bit themed music that accompanies the gameplay, and while I did enjoy it for the first while, there’s only a few tracks, so when you’re playing for any long period of time, fatigue will set in when you hear the same chiptune for the tenth time. The music itself is great, it's just that there is not enough variety, though I’m sure being constantly stuck and frustrated with levels played a factor into this thought process for me.
It feels as though the lack of any sort of leaderboard system is a really big miss. There’s no way to see how you stack up against others or your friends. I would have loved to be able to download people’s ghosts and see how they completed the various levels, given how near impossible the bulk of them appear to be later on. Since the par times feel like you need some sort of cheat to even come close to obtaining them, I really wish there was some sort of way to see how others solved the levels so I didn’t have to look it up on YouTube.
While new elements are gradually added, there’s not enough levels that ‘teach’ you how to deal with these new mechanics, so more often than not you constantly become stuck and not sure how to progress. I’ll admit it, I tapped out more than a few times. I’ve completed every level I can too, but there’s only so long I can handle being stuck on a stage. It’s a shame, as the difficulty spike is nearly vertical, so it may be a turn off for some, as it’s simply too difficult for most. That being said, and like I mentioned earlier, when things flow right and you’re in that groove, the gameplay is amazing.
A good platformer, and puzzlers, need to have a sense of accomplishment, so that when you finally beat that one stage you've been stuck on you feel awesome and want to continue playing. The Sun and Moon does this, but because the levels are inherently so short, you’re moving from being on stuck on one level to the next, especially in the later stages. The best part about this game is its flowing gameplay mechanics and awesome level design, but the extreme difficulty curve forces you to eventually learn how to react and not think, something that doesn’t always come naturally, or easily, unless you have a huge amount of time to dedicate to doing so. In the end those who love the challenge of very difficult games should take a look, but those without patience, or some skill, may just want to take a pass on this one.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Kill the Bad Guy
Usually a game title has some deep meaning or it alludes to some plot device within the game you play that you’re left to understand later on. With Kill the Bad Guy, the title tells you exactly what it’s about up front; killing the bad guys. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, and that’s ok for what’s contained within, as you’re aware of your goal simply from reading its title. Even though it’s a game that’s centered around killing, it’s mostly light hearted, as you’ll need to do so in comical ways, like dropping pianos on heads, launching cars over buildings into their path, and even hurling dead dogs at them from a distance, much like we used to see in wacky cartoons from years ago.You play as an unseen member of a secret society, sworn to kill bad guys that think they’re above the law. You’ll be killing murderers, mafia, thugs, war criminals, drug dealers, and more. Think of the premise of the TV series Dexter, as you’re killing all the bad guys, so that makes you the good guy in a twisted sort of way. The catch is that you must make every assassination look like an accident and never be caught, as you cannot let your secret guild be known to the populous.
To accomplish this you’ll need to kill each bad guy in a unique, and usually comical way, making it look like a simple accident. At the beginning of each stage you’ll be given a brief synopsis on why said person deserves to die. Sometimes it’s nothing that deserves death, and other times it becomes really dark and feels like its gone a little too far for a game that’s trying to be somewhat comical.
There are 6 worlds, each broken up into 10 levels, andeach of these are a short minute or two long. These bite sized chunks of gameplay begin with the target bad guy wandering the streets in a set path, and your goal is to utilize the objects and environment around you to cause their demise.
Artistically the world is very black and white, literally, with very little color in the world aside from your target and their blood once they are killed. Visually it’s sterile and looks bland, but it works for the setting, as it’s obvious as to what items can be utilized as traps since they are a darker shade than everything else in the level. These dark objects can be manipulated in different ways depending on the item. Some have no purpose other than to be moved to coerce your target to detour and force them to walk a different path into your traps, while others don’t do much on their own, but can be combined with other items to create a specific trap.
These objects are the basis of the puzzle element of the game, as you’ll need to figure out the correct placement and timing to spring your trap on the unsuspecting bad guy to complete the level. Since your targets don’t know they’re about to die, you’ll need to become creative in some of your executions. Getting them to walk down a certain path where you have your trap lying in wait is commonplace and making sure no one is nearby to witness it is even more important.
Most of the items and traps are easy to use, whereas others are a little more complicated and require precision and perfect timing. The real challenge though isn’t simply dropping something like a piano on their head, or launching a dead dog into them, but doing so without nearby pedestrians and security cameras seeing anything is. The early stages are simple, as you don’t have to worry about any witnesses, but eventually the levels are populated with numerous pedestrians and cameras, making your job much more difficult as it will cause an instant fail of the level if witnessed, even if you do kill them. It seems like many of the stages offer some sort of freedom to find a solution to killing the bad guy, but many felt like there was only one ‘right way’ to do so.
Luckily you can pause time if things become hectic and you need more of it to set your perfect trap, or you can also speed up time if you’re impatient while waiting for your target to get to the designated area. Even though the premise is about killing, it feels lighthearted and comical, as many of the deaths are something you may see on a Saturday morning cartoons of yesteryear, plus the added blood of course.
Each level has a checklist of optional objectives to complete, and they will net you a star, adding to your total "score". There are even collectibles on each level for those that want more replayability, such as a hidden passport and catching the bad guy’s tooth that goes flying once he is killed. This adds some replay value for those that complete the main objective quickly and it is a welcome addition.
Levels only last a minute or two each, and they are even shorter if you can figure out the solution right away, but that makes Kill the Bad Guy a great game for playing in short bursts. It does have a little of that ‘mobile game’ feel to it, but it does translate decently to the Xbox One. The controls can be a little confusing and obtuse, as the tutorial does the absolute bare minimum, leaving you to figure out how many of the combinations and controls work. For example, it took quite a while to figure out how to attach a piano dangling on a top to the building roof, something that wasn’t taught or made obvious.
While the levels do vary, there is a lot of repetition. There’s only a certain number of ways to kill the bad guys, and the real difficulty only comes in with making sure there’s no witnesses. Although the overall feel is very comical, there are some very dark themes and even worse are some of the descriptions for some of the targets. I get that you’re killing the worst of the worst, but the tonality of the game doesn’t always match the sometimes too-serious biographies of those you are to kill. I get that it’s dark humor, but it may be a little too much for some.
Kill the Bad Guy feels like a mobile game ported to a console, which doesn’t usually translate all that well, but it seems to work here, for the most part. Sure, it’s not terribly challenging or engaging after you’ve seen all the kill types, and it becomes stale in long play sessions, but the low price point and bite sized gameplay make this puzzler an enjoyable side-game to play when you need a break from the norm, even if its theme centers on killing bad guys in the bloodiest way possible.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Metrico+
If someone told you that a good puzzle game premise would be running along info charts, pie charts and graphs, you’d probably roll your eyes like I initially did. Surprisingly, Metrico+ uses this concept as its background for a puzzle platformer that’s incredibly unique. The more mechanics that get introduced into the gameplay, the more difficult finding solutions to the puzzles become, but the more that’s going on, the more immersive the world becomes, which is part of its charm. The game begins with your human looking character standing on a pure white backdrop. You are able to run and press different buttons. Things start to happen to the world, which is the game’s way of teaching you the controls, albeit in an abstract manner. As you make your way through the handful of worlds, your extremities slowly strip away, revealing a robotic skeleton underneath. I wish I could delve more into why this is, but there’s literally no narrative at all within, so it’s left up to you to figure out the who, what, where, and why.
Each world is filled with a dozen or so mini puzzles, and as you complete each one you’ll see your progress on the bottom of the screen in a sort of linear timeline. As you complete each world, you simply move onto the next. Where Metrico+ lacks in narrative and storytelling, it makes up for it in pure puzzle solving, even if the whole experience it a little short.
The catch to Metrico+, and what makes it so unique, is that all of your actions, from moving left and right, and even jumping, has a visual representation on the screen which needs to be used to progress and solve each puzzle. For example, to get to the right side of the screen where the exit is you may need to extend the walkway that you’re on, but it only extends when you walk to the left, so you’re tasked with figuring out how to walk left to extend the platform, but you still have to walk to the right to progress, as it will extend and shorten in real time based on your input.
This is just one simple example, but eventually you’ll have multiple layers of input making the world around you react in different ways, and you need to keep track of how each action morphs the world allowing you to reach your goal. Your movements need to be precise and with purpose, and you’ll easily get through a world or two without many issues, but eventually you’ll hit a brick wall of difficulty seemingly out of nowhere.
Experimentation is a theme surrounding Metrico+, and even though the world around you is experienced in a side scrolling 2D view, you’ll need to constantly test what works and what doesn't to figure out what each action’s reaction is. Each world adds a new gameplay element to the mix, making each puzzle more and more complex as you progress. Nothing is thrown at you without some sort of ‘training’ beforehand, but it’s up to you to meld all of your teachings beforehand together.
As I’ve said, you need to experiment, as each puzzle is solved in seemingly a unique way. In one puzzle jumping may move a platform up or down, but in the next, it may move it left or right instead. There’s no single input master key list, as it’s always changing, which makes for the bulk of the challenge. Eventually a single input will move multiple ledges or platforms, adding even more difficulty, but that’s half of its charm, as it’s always changing and evolving.
Each puzzle feels unique and different, and even though you’re simply going through a checklist of puzzles in each world with no overarching reason, the types of puzzles are diverse. It never becomes stale as you’re always trying to figure out the new way to each solution. The environment also changes with your actions, keeping things interesting in an otherwise sterile world. Having graphs raise and fall, or platforms move, based on your actions is what happens in the foreground, where your focus is, but take the time to look around and you’ll notice that many smaller reactions happen in the background as well.
Metrico+ employs a great soundtrack with some uplifting beats that never became tiresome, even when stuck on a single puzzle for an extended time. The puzzles and mechanics are the stars of Metrico+ though, and there are even collectibles that add a whole other layer of challenge should you be so inclined. If you’re quite adept at puzzlers, the game will be quite a short experience, but if you’re like me, you’ll get a good half dozen hours out of it, trying to make your way through all the worlds.
While Metrico+ may be a short experience for some, and a longer one for others, it’s challenging, addicting, and somewhat high quality. Whenever you become stuck, there’s obviously one little detail you’re simply not seeing or understanding, but once you do, you get that “ah hah!” moment, leading you to the solution and a feeling of accomplishment. I do wish it had more replayability; however, I did enjoy my time with it, even without a narrative. Sure, there’s not much of any context as to what’s going on, or why, but Metrico+ is a distinct experience that should be had by puzzle fans, even with the noted shortcomings.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Nevermind
I absolutely love games that break the norm and that take risks to try something new, even if it’s completely way out there. Sometimes this works wonderfully, giving you a truly unique gaming experience that is memorable, while other times, not so much, falling flat and almost feeling too niche. The more abstract and interesting the better though. Where does the recently released Nevermind fall into this spectrum? Nevermind’s narrative places you in the role of the newest doctor at a specialty facility. You’re what they call a Neuroprober, a therapist of sorts that helps patients deal with their emotional traumas that they are enduring in their lifetime. What makes these specialists unique though is that they actually venture into ones mind, seeing an abstract version of one's thoughts and feelings. To add to this, since you aren’t directly talking with a patient like a normal therapist, you will need to figure out what much of the symbolism and surroundings mean on your own, but that’s why you’re one of the Neuroprobers that people come to see.
I absolutely loved the premise once I read about Nevermind. Truth be told, I never heard of the game when it originally released for PC back in 2015. I wasn’t a fan of smaller titles like this back then, so I’m glad my tastes have changed over the years, and even more so that I got to try Nevermind, as there really is nothing like it.
While it has puzzle elements to it, Nevermind is more akin to a walking simulator. You begin by entering your facility as the newest addition to the team. You log into the roster with your name, whatever you want it to be but not that it makes any difference in game. There’s a training level that simulates being inside a patients mind, but don’t let that opening stage fool you, as it is interesting, but it’s nothing like the experiences inside an actual in-game person’s mind.
You’ll find yourself walking through a forest area in the training level, and while it may give off a horror game vibe, it’s not. Sure, there are times where the imagery may be creepy and a little spooky, and there’s no combat whatsoever, you’ll simply be searching for photographs which will help you close out, and hopefully mentally heal each patient.
The greatest strength of Nevermind is its imagery. There’s nothing like going inside of a patient’s mind and seeing how seriously screwed up the things their subconscious can look. You’ll see city blocks tipping over, creepy mannequins, a desert of metronomes, spiraling corridors and more. I’d honestly love to give a detailed description of each patient’s psyche, but some of the best parts of Nevermind is experiencing the truly unique surroundings. Some of it is clearly disturbing, as it stems from a seriously screwed up situation in each patients life, but that’s what makes Nevermind so unique, as it feels like you’re seeing things about a person that they would never share otherwise.
There’s only a handful of patients, and with each one only taking roughly an hour to complete, you’ll get roughly 6 or so hours of gameplay. Your goal is to usually help the person realize something traumatic they’ve been through, or how to come to terms with it. Because you’re in a person’s subconscious, many of the puzzles you’ll be dealing with are very obtuse. While I do enjoy that they have a representation and meaning, the obscurity of the meaning behind each can make it difficult to figure out what to do at times as there’s no clear explanation of what you might need to do or how to do it.
The main goal of neuroprobing is to find and collect 10 different photographs, each of which has a picture and writing that relates to their backstory or situation. Since the game is essentially linear you can’t progress to the subsequent area without collecting everything you need to. It’s impossible to miss these photos as long as you’re looking for them for the most part.
The most important thing to remember is to pay attention and listen to everything going on around you. Once you collect all 10 photos you’ll need to choose the 5 “correct” ones and place them in order to tell the story of what tragic event happened in their life or their backstory. While I get the symbolism for these end-level puzzles, these sections are the most frustrating part of Nevermind. You aren’t told which pictures are wrong if you don’t choose the correct 5, and even if you have the correct ones you won't be told which ones are in the right or wrong order. So, many times you’ll be trying to solve these sections with trial and error rather than logic. It’s frustrating, not fun at all, and the ‘solution’ doesn’t always make sense.
If you were following the PC release you’ll know that the game originally had support for ‘biofeedback’, a device that allowed the game to react to your heart rate and emotions, supposedly making a more terrifying experience. I would have loved to try this feature out, but unfortunately it was not possible at this time to bring the biofeedback to the Xbox One version of Nevermind.
What Nevermind excels in is immersing you into a world that seems like only someone tripping on bad drugs could come up with, which is a great setting for the subconscious mind. The themes and stories are incredibly adult based and deal with some serious issues, one of which kind of hit home with me and made me choke up a bit given the events that played out. The individual stories are meaningful and deal with very touchy and sensitive issues, so those that are very emotional about certain topics might want to take heed.
What’s lacking is an overall narrative. You simply help one patient after another, but there’s no overarching storyline aside from getting a thank you note once you’ve helped them via your neuroprobing. You don’t even see anyone in your facility, making the setting feel a little too sterile at times. If you can deal with its' obvious flaws, obtuse puzzles, and lack of meaty ‘gameplay’, Nevermind is truly a unique title worth checking out if you want to see some astonishing imagery, some of which there is a good chance that you've never seen anything like it.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Crypt of the Serpent King
Sometimes a game’s premise is so simplistic that it doesn’t require any setup, explanation, or narrative at all, as is the case with Crypt of the Serpent King by Rendercode Games. Normally I would delve into the backdrop and plot, attempting the paint a picture of what to expect narrative wise, but there’s none here. In fact, there’s no narrative, dialogue, or anything of the sort at all throughout the game. You’re simply thrown into a randomly generated dungeon and have to escape and survive. Simple seems to be a reoccurring key theme in this game.Played in a first person perspective, you begin your journey inside a square room in the depths of a dungeon with no idea what you’re doing there or, how you got there in the first place. This isn’t a clever setup that’s explained to you, as you literally just start playing the game with no introduction to anything. You’re tasked with finding a set amount of keys so you can open a door that houses that stage’s boss, allowing you to move onto the next dungeon. Repeat across all seven levels that last around 10 minutes each and you’ll realize how quickly your journey in Crypt’s dungeons are.
As you begin you’ll notice that you have stats and weapon choices, neither of which you have enough experience points or gold to upgrading at first, so you start your journey with base stats and the dullest axe there is (and I don't mean boring). Each dungeon has a different look and feel to it, along with a different type of enemy to face in combat. Given that the dungeons and enemy placements are completely random every time you play, there’s at least a little replay value within.
Casual difficulty is a good start for you to learn the techniques needed to defeat enemies and how jump across traps. There's a normal and hard mode, but I don’t foresee many people wanting to play these aside from hunting for achievements, as one run through will most likely be good enough unless you have endurance for dull games.
Combat is challenging, not for all the strategy you need to use, but to simply do so without falling asleep for killing the same enemies over and over again. Once you’ve been spotted the enemy they will come at you in a straight line. The trick is to make them attack, back up slightly to get out of their range, then you can move in and attack, repeating if necessary if you’ve not upgraded your weapon yet. That’s it, for every single enemy in the game, including the “bosses”. I emphasize bosses because they really aren’t anything but a normal enemy with their own unique skin and slightly more health.
Every level has a different type of enemy, but only that single type, except for the boss. So expect to kill handfuls of spiders, orcs, skeletons, snakes, rats, and more, repeatedly. The combat is simple, but it’s also dull because of the single strategy needed to kill any enemy. Once you perfect the 'back away and attack' move, you’ll kill every enemy in the game without getting hit.
Truth be told, the hardest enemy in the game is actually battling the controls when jumping over pits. You need to collect a certain amount of keys in each dungeon before you can unlock the boss door. These keys are always on a small pedestal surrounded by lava or spikes that you need to jump over. I’ve died more times as a result of missed jumps than I’d care to admit. I actually uninstalled the game after a good half hour or doing so, only to find myself reinstalling later to complete it. Timing the jumps is terrible and you will die many times, forcing you to replay the same dungeon from the beginning.
During your search for keys, which really is just a way to arbitrarily pad the length of the game, you’ll come across treasure chests. These chests will randomly give you gold, food to replenish your health, or arrows for later on when you can afford a ranged bow weapon. The gold is what you’ll save up to purchase better weapons like a halberd, mace, sword, and more. Initially, the costs for the weapons seem quite obscene, but after a few levels you’ll have more than enough gold to afford every weapon in the game, leaving you with nothing more to do with your spare gold.
Killing enemies earns you experience points, which in turn can be used to boost your stats up to a maximum of 10. Boosting your stats help slightly, but I didn’t notice anything majorly different. The best thing to focus on is getting better weapons, and maybe some agility to help your run speed to make the jumping a bit easier. Since you’ve already mastered how to kill any enemy in the game, the stats really don’t make much of a difference aside from making it a little easier on the more difficult modes.
I did run into a few issues during my playthrough. Most notably, the visuals aren’t very pretty to look at. Truth be told, the game looks like it’s ripped right out the mid 90’s with its low polygon models, choppy animations, and blotchy textures. The worst offender was the serious lag I got during the seventh and final stage where, for some reason, there are doors at every corridor, whereas no other dungeon had them. The more doors I opened the choppier my gameplay became.
Some of the audio on the other hand is great. Not the primitive clanging of the weapon or whoosh of your swing, but the music. Each dungeon stage has its own music theme, some of which are very fitting of the mood. Two of the background songs will actually make you think something is about to happen or that an enemy is behind you with its dark tone and sharp sounds. Sadly, the bosses don’t sound unique, so don’t expect too much from the audio standpoint aside from the fitting music.
An odd design choice that stood out to me was that there is only a single save file. That means you can only play on casual, normal, or hard in a single go. So, you either need to finish it to completion or lose your progress when you change difficulties. I got to level 4 on my first casual playthrough and kept dying as I wrestled with the poor jumping mechanics, so I decided I would try normal mode instead (also for the achievements). This overwrote my casual save and I had to begin that all over once I gave up on my normal playthrough.
At its heart, Crypt of the Serpent King is a very simple and basic dungeon crawler. It may even make for a decent ‘my first dungeon crawler’ game for someone new to the genre or who is new to gaming as a whole. It is by no means going to excite you, but given that it’s only priced at $3, its' issues can be somewhat forgiven. Regardless of its score, you’ll get $3 worth of entertainment out of it, just don’t expect much more value than what is offered so you won't have any regrets when finished.
Overall Score: 4.3 / 10
Feist
There was a time when smaller games, including indies, were sparse in the Xbox One library. Since the launch and support of the ID@Xbox program however, there’s been a non-stop slew of smaller titles, both good and bad, that have seen release on the console. Because of this I’ve gotten to experience many titles that I would have never even known or cared about. One of those games is Feist. Visually inspired by LIMBO, Feist is a game that looks adorable on the outside, but it will challenge you with its punishing difficulty. Feist tells a story, kind of, as there’s no dialogue, narration, or writing, leaving you to make out what you can of the unfolding events. Your journey begins as a small black fuzzy animal locked in a cage. You are forced to break your way out by swaying the cage back and forth until you’re free. There are much larger furry monsters that appear to be the antagonists, and you’ll need to make your way through some brutal and harsh environments to survive as you make it to freedom, at least that’s how I interpreted the narrative-less story. Be careful though, as everything in this world is seemingly out to kill you, from the smallest bug to the larger insects. The environment is also littered with traps and the world is savage, making surviving very difficult across the handful of stages.
So let’s get this out of the way: Feist looks heavily inspired by LIMBO in terms of its visuals. The world itself has more color, but the foreground and characters are all dark and look like shadows, much like its inspiration. Visually, Feist is stunning, even with its simplistic style and this is one of its best features.
At its core, Feist is a platformer, but a very difficult one at that, as there’s a lot of combat, and some avoidance of it, involved in completing the game's various levels. You’ll not only be running from left to right, trying not to die, but you’ll need to use the environment to get to your destination or to survive against enemies. Feist begins out simple, as you’ll complete the first handful of levels without much, if any issue, but you eventually hit a brick wall in terms of difficulty and it doesn’t get any easier even though the levels are short.
The controls are simplistic, as the jump, grab, throw and toss buttons are pretty much standard fare, but knowing how to use them and where this game becomes challenging. You’ll need to make jumps in the treetops, being precise when doing so, and hope you don’t land on an enemy below. You’ll also need to throw rocks and branches, setting off traps, and even grabbing an insect to shoot at other items/enemies with its stinger. I was hoping for some hidden secrets, as there are many branches that look like they are placed there to be jumped upon, but alas, they were not.
Be prepared to die, a lot. With only a few hits from enemies you’ll be forced back to the nearest checkpoint by death, and there’s no indication if you’ve crossed one or not. Traps will outright kill you, and you can easily get caught in a damage loop, causing you to die almost instantly. Many enemy insects will shoot darts at you, and if you don’t bob and wave they’ll know your position and you’ll die, again.
Most levels have a ‘boss’ of sorts, usually one of those larger beasts that kidnapped and trapped you. These enemies take a slew of hits to defeat, and can easily grab you and throw you into other enemies. These boss fights are quite frustrating and eventually Feist will just throw more and more at you, causing you to die many times. You'll find that the checkpoints are generous, and other times you’ll have to repeat long difficult sections repeatedly until you manage to somehow survive. Many sections will force you to defeat said bosses because it allows you to move on, so you can’t just focus on avoiding combat, and will need to face your foes eventually.
Many times you’ll have to rely on trial and error when figuring out how to progress, as there’s no direction from the game at all on what you should be doing, or how. This ambiguity makes completing sections very rewarding, but if you become stuck and die many times over, the frustration kicks in, as you’re unsure what to do.
When you get into a flow and make all your jumps and throws, Feist is a lot of fun. When you’re having to repeat the same section, not so much. At times it feels like Feist is being difficult for the sake of doing so arbitrarily, while other times it just feels extremely unfair. Normally when you complete a level like that you are excited to play the next, but I knew it was going to be more difficult than the last, which brought on more frustration.
Feist is beautiful to look at, but all of this praise is overshadowed by the unfairness and frustration from its unbalanced challenge. Sure, if it was easier you’d complete it less than an hour, and a bulk of the achievements are almost unattainable unless you learn the game inside out. Casual players will find nothing but frustration with Feist, but those that like a good challenge should find an enjoyable platformer that will, no doubt, test their patience.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Castle Invasion: Throne Out
Bargain bin priced indie games always intrigue me. On one hand I know that for just a few bucks I’m not going to get some AAA experience, so I keep my expectations low. On the other hand, sometimes for just a few bucks you’ll find a decent game that you would have never given the time of day to otherwise. Developer Cat Trap Studios seems to have done the latter, making a tower defense-like game which has been done a million times before, but they have done it in a fun way with terrible puns and an addictive upgrade system across 50 levels, all for $5.You play as the hero with no name, a simple man who just bought his own castle for himself. Unfortunately. the King demands you to turn it over, because reasons (no really, the reason is “non-descript”), so what do you do? Fight back of course!
You don’t take well to demands and decide to stand your ground and fight back against waves of the King’s army even though he threatens that you’ll be throne out (yes, get the pun now?). So, you pick up your bow and start shooting at every attacker that comes close to your wall. You’ll need to fend off hundreds of peasants, wizards, jesters, and even dangerous black knights.
Castle Invasion boasts 50 levels, which may seem like it’s not much at first, but the later stages become difficult quickly and will require the utmost precision to succeed. You can scroll the screen sideways to see the oncoming army that’s about to attack you, allowing you to strategize, but the later stages are so frantic that you’ll be doing everything you can to simply hold them off mere steps from your wall.
Completing a level will net you up to 3 stars based on if you completed the side objectives, which can vary from simply completing the level, finishing it under a certain amount of time, or not letting a specific enemy type attack your wall, among others. It’s an easy way to add some challenge rather than simply finishing the levels, and you’ll need a certain amount of stars to unlock some of the later achievements. Every tenth level pits you against one of the King’s bosses, ranging from a dragon, to a troll, a marksman, and more. These boss levels were unexpected but quite welcome for a diversion from the normal gameplay. You’ll even want to come back and redo these boss levels alter once you have upgraded your weapons, as there’s no way to complete these bonus objectives the first time through with your weak weapons.
You can expect to fight hordes of knights, jesters, executioners, ninja’s, moles, and more, each of which are charming in their own way, but don’t let that stop you from shooting them with your bow and arrow, crossbow, spear, or slingshot. Even though the enemies vary, you’re bunkered down atop your castle, so don’t expect a change of scenery at all.
The only slight variant of level change is the handful of night levels which has you defending at night time with flaming arrows instead of regular ones. The battlefield will go completely black if you don’t constantly shoot at the torches below, meaning you won’t be able to see where the enemies are coming from. Because of this reason I started to really dislike these night levels, as it’s difficult to change to any other weapon since you constantly have to be lighting the torches below as well as defend your castle against the waves of enemies.
Another way Castle Invasion tries to switch things up is the handful of time trial levels. In these levels more enemies than normal are thrown your way, but you’re in control of the speed of which they move (you move and shoot normally). What makes these challenging is that you need to finish them under a certain par time for the stars. So while finishing them isn’t difficult, doing so under a set time is where the challenge comes.
The first bit of the game is quite easy, allowing you to ease into the gameplay, but the difficulty will quickly spike, making it harder to progress. I actually couldn’t figure out a way to beat one of the levels as I kept getting swarmed without a way to defend myself properly, but then I figured out what I was doing wrong; I didn’t know about the upgrade system.
When you defeat an enemy they will drop coins, that when shot, will collect them for your hero. These coins can be spent in the store on weapon upgrades, allowing you to improve your weapons in many different ways. The game doesn’t tell you explicitly to go spend your coins, so I figured it out for myself.
While the upgrade system may be basic, it’s absolutely needed, even though you’re simply upgrading damage, range, speed, and other areas for each type, it’s competent and adds a little more complexity than I initially thought Castle Invasion would have. Even after upgrading my weapons, there was a point where I needed to go back and replay levels to grind for some more coins so that I could progress further, but nothing that took too much extra time.
It’s no secret that the tower defense games have been done to death, and while Castle Invasion won’t bring flocks back to the genre, it’s a fun little diversion even if it does have shallow gameplay. At first glance you’d probably mistake it for an old school Flash based game, and even though its visuals won’t excite you, the writing is very funny and full of terrible puns (the best kind of course). I didn’t run into any bugs during time with it, and even though you can finish it in a single sitting if you try, I still enjoyed my time with it. Castle Invasion is a fun little title to waste some time on when you need a break from the norm; and for $5 it won’t break the bank.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Wick
I mention it every time I need to review a scary game, but it needs to be repeated: I’m a wimp when it comes to horror games. With movies I have no problem watching the most disturbing, gory, or creepy films, but when it comes to games, I can barely handle them, wanting to only play in the daylight with other people around. This is somewhat funny as my 4 year old daughter was watching me play and she had no problems watching this scary game, whereas I was flinching at the jump scares.For some reason though I still love these horror games that I can never usually finish, and if you listen to me play while streaming, you’d probably laugh. It used to be that the horror genre of games were pretty much nil aside from the Silent Hill’s and Resident Evil’s, but then along came Slenderman and Five Nights at Freddies, paving the way for smaller scary games to make their way to an audience. While each scary game is trying to be that next big hit, does Wick fit the bill or is it simply spoopy? Yes, that’s a word, look it up.
Developed by the aptly named developer Hellbent Games, Wick feels as though it’s trying to take some of the ideas from games like Slenderman and Five Nights at Freddies and mash them together for its own unique game. It may sound like a cheap way to cash on in others successes, but it tends to work and come together as its own experience, one that definitely creeped me out as I tried to survive till dawn.
Wick’s premise revolves around an urban legend that teenagers would tell each other, coaxing someone into trying it. One person is placed into a seemingly haunted forest, brought blindfolded, and dumped there without anything aside from a candle and a few matches. The goal is to simply survive until dawn without dying. Sure it’s an overused cliché trope, but for the setting of Wick it works to set the backdrop. Once you’re dumped in the forest, you take off your blindfold and must simply survive until the sun awakes. Easier said than done in these woods, as there are ghosts and other paranormal activities that seem to be trying to kill you throughout the night.
If my friends blindfolded me and dumped me in the woods, let’s just say they wouldn’t be my friends anymore, if I survived that is. You get dropped off at midnight and are told they’ll come get you at 6 AM, so you just need to survive 6 long creepy hours in the woods. While it may seem like a paper thin plotline, it serves the basic purpose of why you are where you are, and why you’re being hunted by children’s ghosts.
Wick is split into 6 different chapters, lasting between each hour from 12 AM to 6 AM. You start with a half dozen matches in your pocket and a candle, needing to simply survive until the top of the hour which acts as a checkpoint. Thankfully each hour in-game is in reality only 10 or so minutes, but don’t let that fool you, as you’re going to be hunted the whole time, scavenging for more light sources before the candle completely melts, leaving you in darkness.
Your candle won’t last long, especially when you need to run and flee from the ghosts, so you need to continuously be on the lookout for more candles to transfer your flame to. Given that you’re in a remote forest, there’s absolutely no light nearby, so you can only see a short distance in front of you with your candle lit. Luckily Wick will briefly show a shimmering glimpse of a spot in the distance where you’ll find another candle. Given that candles only last a minute or two, you need to constantly search for the next one, as you don’t want to be caught in the darkness with just a match, or worse, nothing.
While the forest itself is static and doesn’t change during the whole game, the placement of candles, and extra items to collect for backstory, are, so there’s no memorizing where to go, as it’ll be different every time you play. The only issue I have with this randomization is that it can work for or totally against you. For example, you generally want the candles spread out, so that you can run for a minute or two between each, hopefully making it to the top of the hour. I’ve had numerous playthroughs where multiple candles were maybe only 20 seconds or so from one another, resulting in me ignoring the rest of the forest. Sure, I had to loop around, but when you need to run from one of the children, you’ll get lost quickly as there’s no map of any kind.
The first ghost that you’ll deal with is a boy wearing a creepy mask that likes to jump out in front of you to scare you. You need to not get in the habit of using your sprint when it’s not needed, as you need to save it for when you’re being chased and need to make a quick getaway. It’s tempting to run when you see a candle nearby and you’re low on flame, but always be prepared to be ambushed from any direction.
Each hour will task you with trying to survive a different child hunting you, each of which needs to be dealt with slightly differently than the last. Most simply can be avoided by running away from them in the opposite direction, but there are others that you’re not able to look at, ala Slenderman, and another that will chase you as long as there is light nearby. Individually they’re not terribly difficult to deal with, but in the latter stages when you have more than one chasing you, things become much more difficult, especially with the randomization. You’ll inevitably be running away from one threat directly into another, completely by chance.
Because you’re constantly being hunted, you need to continually be moving, and generally don’t want to be caught in the dark without a light source. Given enough time you may start to learn the general layout of the forest, but with the fog and low light it’s near impossible to figure out where you are and where you’re heading, which is part of the appeal; being completely lost. From the early onset you’ll learn that Wick likes to rely on jump scares to frighten you as well. The woods sound so eerie and freaky, but when one of the children flash in front of your eyes just for a moment and scream, only to disappear, it feels a little cheap at times for the easy scares. Yes, they continually make me jump, but Wick tends to rely on them a little too much at times.
I appreciate that there’s been some effort taken into placing a story into Wick, regardless of how cliché it may be with dead children that haunt the woods, but any of the extra collectables you find along your way will help flesh out the story a little bit more, even if it is lackluster. The overacted voice acting doesn’t help things and it was only a matter of time until you hear a children’s nursery rhyme being sung creepily.
The way the menus are set, it’s clear that the console version of Wick was ported from the PC, and the controls don’t help either. Many times I needed to do a quick 180 to run away from one of the ghosts that appeared in front of me, only to turn around very sluggishly, which at times caused me to be caught and die, forcing a replay of that hour once again.
The best thing Wick has going for it is its audio, save for the poor voice acting. The forest sounds fantastic with the wind blowing through the trees, the crickets in the background, and the random footsteps and broken branch sounds that fill your ears. As soon as you hear one of the children nearby you become hyper aware, trying your hardest to focus on where to run and where to avoid. Visually it may not be stunning, but with a surround headset on, I felt immersed with the audio, listening for the smallest queues while I tried to survive the night.
As for what’s going against Wick, a few things. The sometimes sluggish controls can make for some unfair deaths, the children themselves don’t look all that scary, the unfair deaths by the ghosts spawning near you as you’re mid-animation of getting a new candle, along with a heavily reliance on jump scares are what you'll notice. None of these are deal breakers by any means, but something worth noting.
Wick does have a few things going for it, such as its creepy tone (even if it does heavily rely on jump scares), collectables for those wanting a little more substance, a generous checkpoint system after each hour, no UI which helps you immerse into the atmosphere, and great audio that will have you wondering what that sound you just heard was.
While at its core you’re simply running away from anything that spawns in front of you, riding out a clock full of jump scares, Wick still does the job at being creepy. Some playthroughs I had no problem surviving or becoming scared, while others made me jump every few minutes. Again, yes I know I’m a wimp, but Wick does a great job of immersing you into a lonely and terrifying forest, knowing you’re being hunted at every moment. While it won’t command many hours of gameplay, it’s a fun little divergence if you’re looking for something different, or even better, something to stream and show how much of a wimp you are to your Twitch followers.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Bombing Busters
Some of my fondest memories in gaming are those of when I was playing Bomberman with a group of 3 or 4 friends on the SNES with a multitap, a peripheral that allowed up to 5 players to play simultaneously on supported games. Back in those days, getting more than 2 players in a game was something special, as it required a separate hardware purchase for the small handful of games that actually supported it. We may take it for granted these days, but getting together in the same room with a group of friends to play game on the same screen made for some great gaming memories that I’m glad I remember.So, why the Bomberman reference? Well, Bombing Busters for the Xbox One is clearly inspired by that classic multiplayer game, and I’d even go as far to say it’s a straight up clone. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so developers Sanuk Games must have absolutely adored Bomberman, because that’s essentially the same experience you’re getting here, and not that that’s a bad thing, and it even tries adding a few new features to make it stand out. But does it escape the shadow of one of the classics?
You play as a simple robot, created by Dr. Wallow for one reason: To use your bomb capabilities to destroy alien worlds and take over the galaxy. It sounds more nefarious than it really is, but I guess when you look at it, you are blowing up any lifeforms you come across. Thankfully, Dr. Wallow has a sense of humor, as does Bombing Busters as a whole, and you’ll hear a lot of one liners throughout, some of which are quite comical.
If you’ve never played Bomberman before, shame on you, it’s a classic. The general gameplay revolves around placing bombs through a grid-like map. Some barriers can be blown up while others can’t. You’re allotted 5 minutes per stage to clear out all of the enemies, and blowing up the blockages will net you a multitude of different power-ups to make your bomb-focused life much easier.
The most common power-ups will increase your bomb length, the amount of bombs you can place at once, and speed increases. You’ll randomly find other power-ups that allow you to kick bombs, throw them, set them off remotely whenever you desire, and even walk through them as if they don’t exist. I know, you’ve played Bomberman before and this all sounds familiar, and it is, but what starts to set Bombing Busters apart is the enemies and sheer difficulty compared to the classic.
Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve played this type of game, but Bombing Busters has quite a spike in difficulty even during the first handful of stages. Starting enemies are dumb and slow, but they will eventually do everything they can to avoid your bombs, even knowing to hide around the pillars that can’t be destroyed. This forces you to search for some power-ups and think of some other strategies given that you only have 5 minutes per level. Eventually enemies will try to hunt you down and even spit projectiles at you.
There are 5 worlds and each one consists of 5 stages, with a big boss to battle at the end of each world. These bosses are no joke, and even the first boss took me easily a hundred or so tries to defeat. You’re given a specific set of power-ups and their attacks change during the battles. The bosses vary and they become more and more challenging as you get to their respective worlds. Just be ready to die multiple times when attempting them, but luckily you’re able to skip ahead to the next world if the bosses are simply too much for you at the time.
As for how it looks, Bombing Busters essentially an updated Bomberman. The artwork is clean and each world has its own theme to it, sadly the level layouts are all the same rectangular grids though with no variety aside from the enemies on the screen. On one world you’ll blow up icicles, and then the next world will be bushes or rocks, that’s really the only variety aside from the backdrops. As for the audio, there’s a generic tune that simply repeats, so turn on your own music and enjoy some bomb busting to your favorite tunes instead.
Two things I really enjoyed was that every time you die and have to restart the level the layout of where the blocks and enemies are changes, so there’s no memorizing specific levels as it’s always different. Oddly enough, I also really enjoyed the tips that are displayed during the loading screens, as they are usually witty and hilarious. For example, here’s my favorite one: "Pro Tip: Read the Pro Tips." Small touches like this give Bombing Busters a little heart and make it feel like not so much of a clone.
What would a game like this be without multiplayer, and like I said earlier, I’ve made some great memories with friends in the past, gathering together around a single screen, but times have changed. Online multiplayer is more prevalent and is really the only way I manage to game with my friends anymore, so I was saddened to see that only local multiplayer was included. Granted, if you have the capabilities (and friend count) to support a gaming night at your house, Bombing Busters is a fun way to host some 4 player mayhem, and no multitap purchase is needed anymore.
If you grew up with Bomberman, and love the gameplay, Bombing Busters is an easy sell, especially for its cheap asking price and interesting gameplay elements such as the very challenging boss levels and a sense of humor. While it may be a very heavily inspired title, that doesn’t take away from its fun and frantic gameplay, even if the difficulty is much higher than I expected and many may see it as only a substitute for the classic it draws inspiration from.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Nebulous
I love me some puzzle games, and if it’s physics based, even better. Sometimes I grow tiresome of the same shooters and “big” games out there and I simply want to unwind by challenging my mind instead. Enter Nebulous, created by Namazu Studios. With a simple setup and premise, Nebulous will throw one puzzle at you after another, as fast as you can solve them. Be warned though, some of the puzzles become quite challenging, and simply understanding everything you need to do in succession is only half of the solution, as you’ll still need to actually solve it afterwards.The story begins as Dash Johnson is minding his own business during a routine spacewalk, when suddenly he gets sucked into a black hole of some sort. This black hole warps him to some far distant region in space where he’s now powerless to do anything and has to rely on you, the player, to get him home back safely somehow. To do so you’ll need to ensure that he gets from point A to point B, but only with the specific tools you’re given in each puzzle, all of which are physics and gravity based.
You play as some sort of God figure, placing and moving pieces so that Dash can be guided to the next checkpoint, thus moving onto the next puzzle. You’ll need to pay special attention to the direction of gravity, momentum, and the tools at your disposal to guide him safely, albeit with many bumps and bruises along the way, hopefully finding a way home in the end. But Dash has a sense of humor and will mock you when you mess up, sometimes a little too much, though some of the lines are worth a good chuckle.
Even though you’re in space, the playfield takes place in a cube-like structure. Think of the sides of dice, but only a singular one. Early Levels are somewhat easy, only having you playing on a single face of that cube, but eventually the sides will link together as you solve up to 5 different sides for a single level. For example, if Dash falls into a yellow wormhole he’ll come out the other end, which is usually on a completely different side of the cube. In this playspace you need to make it to a different colored wormhole, which will bring you to yet another side to solve. Eventually it becomes incredibly challenging even to simply figure out where Dash will exit once he enters one of the worm holes.
The first thing that came to mind when playing Nebulous was that this game would be amazing in VR, and oddly enough, it was designed with that in mind, but alas the Xbox One version has no support for this. On each puzzle you are given specific items that you can place wherever you like, such as conveyor belts, rocks, blocks, gravity fields, and other things. You’ll want to note which way the gravity is ‘flowing’ on each play field too, as it’s always from top down in the beginning, but it can be any direction in the later stages making for some “why didn’t I see that before” moments.
Whenever you think you’ve placed your items in a way to guide Dash to the exit, you'll let him out of his box and watch him fall and bounce, hopefully to the end. And when, not should, you make a mistake, you can instantly cancel his freefall and move any pieces you wish before trying again. Also, when you fail, Dash will let you know about it, not pulling any punches about your intelligence, or a lack of such.
A good puzzle game needs a steady difficulty curve, one that teaches you as you go and allows you to learn and adapt to the new mechanics that are introduced. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case here as you’ll be randomly thrown new objects without any idea how they work. There’s one stage where switches are introduced, and it took me a good half hour to figure out why I couldn’t beat the stage, only to learn I needed Dash to fly over the switches in a specific order first. My problem was that I thought they were mines, so I avoided them until I became frustrated at why I wasn’t able to figure it out.
Once you learn a new mechanic you would think that things become easier with your newfound knowledge, but wow, Nebulous doesn’t like to hold anything back, and the challenge just increases exponentially as you progress. Factor in that you’ll eventually be playing stages on 5 different 'cube walls', it can become overwhelming quite quickly if you’re new to the genre. The addition of a fast forward is very welcome, so that you don’t have to wait and watch Dash bump and fall over again for the twentieth try.
As Nebulous a physics based game you can simply 'brute force' your way to a solution if you want, trying a specific placement of items, see how Dash reacts, then adjust over and over, but the levels rank you with a star system, and if you use a lot of time and attempts, you won’t receive many stars. Granted, these stars aren’t tied to any progress, but getting more than a single star on levels requires some serious problem solving skills along with incredibly fast thinking.
Sure the premise is silly (gravity in space?), but Dash’s constant insults make what could have made a very dull puzzle game into a somewhat interesting one. There’s barely any audio, playing into the space theme I assume, so prepare for a very tranquil experience, that is as long as you can hold your rage back during the umpteenth attempt at a level. Nebulous is hard, quite challenging in fact, that you may want to break your controller at times. While it never feels unfair, it does a great job at making you feel stupid, which actually is half of its charm. Overall it's not a bad game, just be prepared for a challenge as you need to really think many of the included puzzles through.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Gas Guzzlers Extreme
Truth be told, for how long I’ve been doing game reviews, I can generally get a good sense of how I’m going to enjoy it even before playing it after watching and reading up on it. Sometimes I’m dead on and know I’m not going to enjoy a game, and other times I’m taken completely by surprise. Case in point, I initially thought Gas Guzzlers Extreme was going to be a play once and be done with it type of game, but alas, it took me by surprise and I ended up enjoying much more than I initially thought I would. While it has its shortcomings, it brought me back to the days of playing arcade combat racers that paved the way like Carmageddon and Twisted Metal.For fans of the arcade style of racing, Gas Guzzlers Extreme may not be the most known out there, but it has a lot of potential fun behind the wheel. You won’t be worrying about realistic physics, but instead trying to blow your opponents up so you can be first across the finish line, or the last one left in the race. Vehicular combat isn’t anything new, but Gas Guzzlers Extreme tries to do it with a sense of humor, poking fun at itself in a Duke Nukem or hilarious Arnold parody voice, which I’ll explain shortly.
Career mode is where you’ll be spending the bulk of your racing time, revolving around you earning point sin events to eventually becoming the top earner on the leaderboard. There are multiple types of races and events to participate in, some of which will earn you more or less points based on your standings at the end of each. The more dangerous the events, especially the ones with weaponry, the more points potential you can earn, whereas standard races are less risky, but you earn less rewards as well.
It takes a while to earn enough points to make your way to the top of the leaderboards which then grants you access to the final tournament, consisting of one of each type of event. Win those and you earn your reward for that whole tournament, moving onto the next and unlocking new rewards and events. Given that you can choose the type of event you want to participate in every time, the career doesn’t feel very structured, as you simply need to grind out enough races until you reach the needed points to try and win the cup. This causes repetition to kick in, and while there are the odd special events that pop up here and there, I didn’t really enjoy most of these one-off events like capture the flag, but at least there’s an attempt to break up the monotony.
I was surprised at how well the game controlled. Sometimes with smaller name racers the steering mechanics can be all over the place, usually more frustrating than fun, but that’s not the case here with Gas Guzzlers Extreme. Don’t expect any type of simulation racing, but the cars handle well, can be upgraded, and you’ll unlock better cars to purchase the further you progress.
You’ll earn money for not only winning, but destroying opponents, smashing objects, and even squishing chickens. There are even random subquests in each event for you to try and complete for a chance at earning even more money, like destroying a certain amount of enemies with mines or making sure a certain racer doesn’t place in the top 3. As you start winning events you’ll unlock new car decals, parts, and even cars for purchase, and eventually you’ll have so much money in the bank that you won’t have any issues affording any upgrades or new cars after a few hours of play. Start winning enough races in a row and sponsors will want you to race for them, giving your car a special paint job and letting you earn even more bonus money. Once you start losing though, no one will want you to represent them and you’ll be back on your own.
You’ll become very familiar with the tracks, not only because you’ll be racing on them numerous times repeatedly, but because there’s only a handful of them. After a dozen races or so on the same track, it can become a little tiresome, but this is also how you learn the best shortcuts in each map. There are different themed tracks, some more confined while others are a little more open, but you’ll be more focused on destroying your opponents and trying to make it to the finish line rather than taking in the sights.
Speaking of your opponents, the AI does a decent job at playing at your skill level. While it does seem like there’s a bit of unfair rubber-banding at times, the AI can sometimes be very ruthless, trying to ram into you at every opportunity or gunning right for you. The constant adjusting of the AI means that no race is a shoe-in and it always feel frantic, even on the easiest setting. To win races you’ll need plenty of nitro, and to earn it you either need to grab the power-ups littered throughout the track or by destroying objects and eliminating your opponents.
Given that this is a combat racer, what kind would it be without an arsenal full of deadly weaponry? You can equip shoguns, machine guns, and even rocket launchers based on your preference. Each has pro’s and con’s, and some can even shoot backwards if you tend to always be in the lead. Ammo needs to be refilled which is done by collecting the appropriate power-up during the races, or purchasing a refill in the garage between events. As you race you’ll pick up other special one-time use items like shields, mines, smoke clouds, and more. I wish the game had an introductory tutorial that explained everything though, as it took a few races to figure out what icons meant what and how to use your items properly. To be honest, I still don’t know how to tell when I’m close to out of ammo for my main weapon, so it shows that it’s not always explained very well.
Gas Guzzlers Extreme really sets itself apart from others in the genre with its humor though. Sure a manchild like myself can’t stop but giggle at the announcer with a terrible Arnold voice doing terrible one-liners, but it’s funny and something you don’t see in this type of genre often. Sure the lines get repeated after a while, but it’s still entertaining none the less. Also, you’ll notice that the AI opponent’s names are terrible puns, like Lou Briccant, Otto Mobile, and Alotta Fagina among others, but someone immature as myself will get a chuckle out of them.
Normally this is where I would talk about multiplayer, and while its PC release included it, it’s sorely lacking from the Xbox One edition for some reason. Given that the career mode does become repetitive and mundane after a half dozen hours, multiplayer could have added more value and longevity, but it’s nowhere to be found unfortunately, which is a huge mark against it.
As I said before, I honestly wasn’t expecting much when I was about to start Gas Guzzlers Extreme, but I enjoyed it much more than I initially expected. It has flaws, like a missing online multiplayer component, but it’s a fun way to spend a half hour or hour here and there. Playing for hours at a time will become tiresome, but it’s a great title to play in some downtime. While it’s not going to go down in the history books in the genre amongst the greats like Twisted Metal and Carmageddon, it’s immature and over the top, which is what you sometimes want in a combat racer once in a while, much like your favorite fast food that you know you shouldn’t eat, but you enjoy when you do.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Slain: Back from Hell
That’s it, I’m tapping out. I’m not normally one to give up so easily on difficult games, but man, Slain: Back From Hell is punishingly difficult. Originally a PC release, Slain has been improved from its initial poor reception, fixed, re-tweaked, and improved upon and now released on Xbox One. So do all these improvements make for a much better game? Yes, but with a caveat; it’s still frustratingly difficult, almost to the point of being unfair.I grew up with old school Nintendo games, known for their brutal difficulty, but when I was a kid back then I didn’t mind the challenge of playing over and over. Now that I’m older and have specific tastes, I find the very challenging games frustrate me when it feels unfair. Dark Souls, known for its difficulty, at least does a great job of teaching you from your mistakes. Slain on the other hand just makes you bash your head against the wall until you figure out how to beat a specific section, enemy, or boss.
What is Slain: Back from Hell? Well, if your favorite heavy metal band and Castlevania had a baby, Slain would be the result. Inspired by classic metal music and artwork, along with traditional side scrolling gameplay, Slain has some of the best retro pixel artwork I’ve seen in quite some time, along with an original metal soundtrack that completely fits the mood and setting perfectly.
You play as the hero Bathoryn, awoken from a deep slumber by a spirit, informed that the land weeps and that he must destroy foul demons that have awoken. Thus begins your journey of vanquishing thousands of demons that stand in your path.
If you haven't played the original release on PC, Slain is essentially a take on Castlevania, a sidescroller with a heavy metal soundtrack and gothic theme. The first thing you should know is that Slain is incredibly difficult, so if you’re hoping for an easy playthrough, or completing it at all, you might want to look elsewhere. Even though there wasn’t enough checkpoints in the original release, there are definitely more in Back From Hell, but it’s still punishingly difficult.
You’ll be fighting against skeletons, rats, demons, ghosts, and more along your journey. Bathoryn himself is a muscular long haired dude that wields a giant two handed sword and head bangs whenever he defeats a massive boss, all while a heavy metal soundtrack plays in the background, recorded by Curt Victor Bryant of Celtic Front fame.
Gameplay will bring you back to the glory days of Nintendo and Genesis games akin to Castlevania and Altered Beast where there isn’t many button commands to memorize, but mastering them will take dedication and skill. While there’s not much variety in your attacks, the combat can feel satisfying when the game isn’t trying to be unfair. When you die, and you will die hundreds of times, you simply have to figure out what works and what doesn’t, hoping to learn from your mistakes. There’s absolutely no hand holding here aside from telling you the basic controls, after that you’re left on your own to survive and fight your way through hell.
Rapid presses of the attack button allow you to perform a combo, and holding it can charge up a special attack that can be devastating when released, but you need to master the timing, as it cancels if held too long and you’re unable to move when charging as well. You’re able to block attacks to reduce damage, and if you master the timing, you can actually parry enemies, opening them for a critical attack. Bathoryn also has the ability to use magic, shooting enemies from afar, but only in short amounts, as your mana bar is quite small. He is also able to dodge backwards with a tap of the Left Bumper, but it takes getting used to, as it’s only a leap backwards, so you have to be aware of which direction you’re facing when using it.
I found relying on blocking wasn’t advised, as you still take damage, and eventually there are too many enemies coming at you that you’re going to get hurt regardless. Many enemies also shoot projectiles at you, and while you can reflect them back with a perfectly timed sword attack, these returned volleys do very little damage. Sometimes the controls work flawlessly, and other times it felt as if there was a slight delay, as I wouldn’t counter back the projectile and get hit instead. Once you start to have enemies surround you, along with flying enemies above, it becomes quite overwhelming and feels truly unfair at times, resulting in much frustration.
I wish there was an option to upgrade your health and abilities. Later on you gain access to different elemental weapons, but there’s no way to upgrade anything else, which seems like a missed opportunity. Access to different spells, or being able to boost health, would have been welcomed. I know Slain is tailored for a certain experience, but it’s simply much too difficult, and when you eventually get to the point of wanting to throw your controller out the window as you don’t want to continue playing much afterwards, well you get my point. This review actually took longer than expected because I needed a day to relax and reset my frustrations a handful of times when I got stuck on the same section for over an hour at a time.
Oh, and if you’re an achievement hunter, you’re going to have a really bad time with Slain trying to unlock them all. Some of them are incredibly challenging, like defeating specific bosses in under 30 seconds and/or without getting hit, but for the truly sadistic, there’s even an achievement for completing Slain without losing a single life; something I’d love to see.
While I have some issues with Slain, the graphics and audio are absolutely impressive and impeccable. Everything to do with the visuals are retro styled that hark back to the classic 8 and 16-bit days. The pixel work is among the best I’ve seen, as even the rain and minor details look great. It’s clear that a lot of work went into the minor details, and it shows. Even the animations are varied, and your sword looks truly bad ass once you get the on-fire version of it. There are even CRT options for those that want to relive the old days where the TV screens had those faint horizontal lines across it.
Even better is Slain’s audio. Composed by metal guitarist Curt Victor Bryant, all of the audio is unique, metal inspired, and will have you wanting to start head banging. Obviously if metal isn’t your genre of choice, it’s not going to appeal to you, but it’s amazingly well done and fits the tonality of Slain absolutely perfectly. They’ve managed to find a way to make it noticeable enough to be front and center, but not overpowering at the same time
Even though I was incredibly frustrated with Slain at times, even avoiding it for a day at a time by throwing my arms in the air and proclaiming that “I give up”, I kept coming back to it to see if I could get Bathoryn to the next checkpoint. Bit be forewarned, even with all of its improvements over the initial release, it’s still much too difficult, in my opinion, to the point of wanting to constantly give up on it. Just like how you got used to seeing “You Died” in Dark Souls, get used to seeing the “Slain” screen, hundreds of times.
If you have a huge amount of patience and love self-punishment when gaming, then you’re going to have hours upon hours of fun with Slain: Back From Hell. If you’re like me though, you’ll appreciate what it does well with its amazing visuals and audio, and retro feel, but completing the game is whole other question. It’s easily recommended if you enjoy frustratingly difficult games and a challenge, but it can feel unfair a lot of the time that many will give up and stop playing. That being said, raise up those metal horns and grow out your hair, you’ve got some head banging to do.
Suggestions: A difficulty option, or many more checkpoints.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Dishonored 2
I feel I need to get this out of the way right off the bat: I never played the first Dishonored. I had every intention to, as I bought it on release, yet it’s still on my shelf sealed, most likely to never get touched with my amassing backlog of games. I’ve read tons of reviews of the original, from critics’ praises to friend’s asking me to play their GOTY choice, unfortunately I just simply never got around to it for one reason or another. That being said, I went into Dishonored 2 with a completely fresh point of view, without any love or hate bias. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect other than a stealth-like game with some supernatural abilities thrown in, and after playing I can say that I’m glad I got to experience it.Dishonored was kind of a surprise when it released 2012. A new IP sometimes has a hard time of reaching an audience, but Arkane Studios did just that and now the franchise has quite the following. It a game known for its story, interesting characters, striking artwork, first person combat, and a stealthy based gameplay that allows you to tackle missions almost as you see fit with your supernatural powers. It won many Game of the Year awards, so it was only inevitable that people would get to experience more of Corvo’s legacy.
15 years have passed since the conclusion of the first game, but now a new threat looms and disturbs the peace that Emily Kaldwin has ruled with in the years after the assassination of her mother. There is a "Crown Killer" on the loose, framing Corvo and Emily making it look as if it’s them eliminating their enemies. Once again a coup plays out in the throne room, forcing Corvo and his daughter Emily to solve who’s behind the attack and get their revenge.
The attack is led by a woman named Delilah Copperspoon, claiming to be the true rightful heir to the throne. If you’ve managed to play the “Brigmore Witches” DLC for the first game, then this name will ring a bell, though if you have not like myself, then you’ll be left trying to put the pieces together until the narrative does so. With massive mechanical solders at her side, she attacks, turning one one of the two protagonists into stone (the one you don’t choose to play as). That’s right, you can choose to dawn Corvo’s Royal Protector mask once again or have a new and different viewpoint by playing as Emily throughout this adventure in the hopes to save the other. Whomever you’ve chosen must flee from Dunwall and travel to the southern region of Karnaca to figure out how to stop Delilah.
Even though Dishonored 2 was designed with a stealth base at its core, you can play it exactly how you want, just like the first game. I chose a violent and chaotic playthrough with Corvo on my first go, utilizing stealth to simply get the drop on my enemies or anyone who stood in my way. There’s a lot of challenge here for those that want it, as there are achievements tied to not killing anyone, playing the game without being seen by anyone, and more that will allow you to experiment in other ways and play outside your comfort zone. Having your supernatural powers plays a huge factor into your play style as well, depending on what skills you want to focus on and upgrade, and there’s even a decision early on in the game to play without being imbued with any powers at all, allowing for a completely different Dishonored experience.
While the first person combat and stealth does take some getting used to, enough good things can’t be said about the game's amazing level design. There are 9 core missions to play through, each lasting an hour or two based on your skill and style, but there’s also a handful of optional side quests that can pad some more hours into your playtime. Each area and level feels unique and distinct from everywhere else. Given that most missions have multiple ways to complete its main objective, this allows for some freedom and choice of how you want to tackle each mission. Given that I was playing a high chaos and straight forward aggressive style, I killed everyone I could, but there are other options that will require some thinking of how to complete it without an assassination.
The world is littered with papers to read and conversations to eavesdrop on, usually giving you more insight into people’s actions, and even possibly giving you safe combinations and/or hints of how to complete a mission differently. Even though the core progression is linear, how to get from point A to point B is almost completely up to you. The levels stand out, especially the mission “A Crack in the Slab” that has you utilizing an object to not only peer into the past, but travel between the past and present time. This time travel mechanic is utilized in a very compelling and unique way which I really enjoyed and will remember for some time. Can’t get past a blocked path of rubble? Go into the past where the mansion was inhabited and unbroken, but guarded heavily, allowing you to stealthily pass without obstruction. Another mission has you attempting to reach your foe, but his castle constantly shifts and transforms based on which levers you pull. The level design is some of the best I’ve experienced in recent memory.
Instead of leveling up via killing enemies, since complete stealth is an option, you are instead on the search for hidden bonecharms and runes scattered throughout the world which encourages exploration. Runes are collected and can be spent on unlocking new abilities or empowering your favorites even further. Corvo’s Blink ability is the most recognizable, allowing you to essentially blink from one area to another instantly in any direction. You can spend your runes on collecting many different abilities like pausing time, being able to utilize a wind blast, summoning rats, or you can simply upgrade the skills you tend to rely on often to make them more powerful.
While many of the upgrades seem like they cater to a very specific playstyle, that’s great news if that’s how you happen to play or desire to. While many abilities cross over regardless if you choose Corvo or Emily, they both have a few specific character only abilities, allowing for a unique playthrough. Emily has some really interesting abilities, such as being able to Shadow Walk, essentially allowing her to move undetected for a short period of time. She can also summon a doppelganger, allowing for an easy distraction as you slip your way past some guards. The Domino ability is without a doubt the most unique and fun to play with. This ability allows you to link 2 (and eventually up to 4 if upgraded) characters fates together, meaning if they are linked and you kill one, the other instantly dies as well. You can just start to see where the fun in this ability comes.
Emily plays very differently from Corvo, which is a great way to encourage multiple playthroughs, not just including their own unique perspective and dialogue. The voice acting quality from both the main protagonists is fantastic and very believable, my only complaint is that you’re stuck with your chosen character for the complete game. I would have liked to have been able to switch between the two or have varying missions rather than relying on two complete playthroughs at a bare minimum.
Even though I never got around to playing the first game, even just reading about it it’s easy to tell that Dishonored 2 improves on many facets and improves in many ways. Being able to play how you want, not just with navigation of the areas, but how you complete a mission as well, is one of Dishonored 2’s greatest strengths. One of its faults though is that it doesn’t do a good job at explaining the previous game and lore very well, so newcomers to the series, like myself, are lost until near the conclusion. While it tries to explain some things, it’s not done with much detail, which resulted in me having to learn more about its backstory and characters via Wikipedia rather than the game itself. For those returning to the world of Dishonored though this obviously won't be an issue.
Dishonored 2 has a solid foundation to build from, and it’s improved in many ways, allowing for new and unique ways to play as Corvo once again, or as his daughter Emily. While the freeform gameplay and level design is easily the highlights of Dishonored 2, the storytelling does need some work, especially to ease newcomers into the events that transpired previously so they don’t feel lost in the narrative. At the end of the day Dishonored 2 is a memorable experience that encourages exploration and experimentation, something not many developers can pull off well, but Arkane Studios has managed to do so.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Farming Simulator 17
While many gamers might scoff and laugh at a game revolving around farming, there’s no denying that it has a following, even if it is niche, or else there wouldn’t be this many iterations. Sure, many of us aren’t cut out to be natural born farmers, but if there’s one game that might start training you for such a career, Farming Simulator 17 would definitely be it.Cards on the table; I’ve never played one of the Farming Simulators before, but to be completely honest, I’ve always wanted to give one a try out of curiosity. Normally I don’t find mundane tasks in games too boring, but Farming Simulator 17 surely will put you to the test of boredom as it did for me. Farming in real life is incredibly difficult, time consuming, and tedious, and this is a simulation of that, so the same descriptions apply even in game form. Given that Giants Software has the market essentially cornered in this genre, they could easily put out a slightly refined version every year and still do fine, but they’ve been adding new features in each iteration and trying to improve, which is great to see.
Sometimes you simply need a break from shooting things, racing cars, saving the world/princess, or solving puzzles. Farming Simulator 17 is an obvious choice if you’re looking for something relaxing and peaceful even though it is incredibly in-depth, allowing you to make it as easy or as difficult as you want. Games are meant to be an escape and entertaining, and while I got to virtually live the life of a farmer, it made me realize how boring that could be.
As you begin your farming career (allowing for 3 different save slots) you begin by choosing a male or female character, then you get the dramatic choice of the color to your flannel shirt. There are 3 difficulties to choose from: Easy, Medium, and Hard. When on Easy things are much simpler, as you won’t have to worry about your crops withering and dying, whereas on Hard, you’ll have to be much more meticulous, even having to refill the gas in all of your machines, or else your crops will wither and die. Being as this is my first go at the series, I naturally chose Easy, and even so, found myself at times overwhelmed with how much needs to be micromanaged.
As you begin career mode are introduced to a short, but necessary tutorial. It will only teach you the very basics of moving around and doing a few of the beginning tasks, and once complete you’re thrown into the world with no other direction given. The main menu hosts a handful of other tutorials, which I highly suggest doing, as it will give you more practice for the other jobs you’ll be needing to perform later on in your farming career. There really isn’t enough tutelage before sending you off on your own, as there’s things I’m still learning hours into the game, usually by accident or out of necessity.
Since Simulator is in the game title, there’s a wide array of mechanics that help it live up to its name. There’s a button, or combination of button presses, to do almost literally everything when it comes to your heavy machinery. There’s a button to turn on your headlights, the safety flashing lights, opening vents, unfolding equipment, and virtually any other flip or switch you would need to operate your machinery. It’s incredibly in-depth, but that means it’s also terribly confusing. Even after using a specific machine for an hour straight I found myself still pressing the wrong buttons or rotating the right analog stick the incorrect way. Given that there’s so much you can do with some of the equipment, I don’t see how it could be made any simpler on a controller, but it’s not intuitive by any means.
There’s so much to do that you’ll most likely find yourself overwhelmed at first. You only begin with two or three farms, but even that is a lot to throw at you in the beginning until your inner farmer starts to shine through and you get a handle on the tasks you’ll need to perform. As you drive around the town you’ll come across other farms that you can buy or you can help other farmers by doing some tasks for them, which they’ll pay you for your efforts. So, in the beginning it’s a good idea to help the other farmers and earn some extra cash to get you started.
Farming in real life is a multi-step process, so farming in the game is also the same. You’ll need to learn how to use a chainsaw, tractors, trucks, plows, sowers, fertilizers, and more. Given that each machine has its own uses and intricacies, it’ll take time to learn how to use each efficiently, and more importantly, properly. You can even turn on the radio while in your machinery, changing the stations to your preferred music choice, though all very generic and country centric. You’ll be cultivating wheat, potatoes, chopping wood, and even raising animals and/or livestock, all with the goal of creating a farming empire and boosting your bank roll.
Farming Simulator 17 tries to be as true to actual farming as it can be, so don’t expect to simply plant some seeds, wait a few moments, then gather and sell them. It’s much more involved than that, as you’ll need to clear your farming area, plow it, plant the seeds, and even fertilize them at each stage if you want the biggest yields. Eventually you will own livestock which is a whole other challenge, as you’ll need to make sure your animals have water, food, a place to rest, and more. While you simply begin with wheat, you can have up to almost a dozen different types of crops across over 20 fields once you have the bankroll to do so.
Once you’ve managed to harvest your crops you can either store them in your silo or sell them directly to the local businesses. As time passes, the demand for certain produce will fluctuate, just like a real economy. So if you manage to sell your wheat when the demand and price is high, you’ll earn much more mullah for your bankroll. Earning more money allows you to either pay off your bank loan or invest into more equipment to expand your operation. Oddly enough, as it may sound boring, it’s also compelling, as I kept driving back a load of grain, almost constantly, once I had a handful of machines doing their thing.
No one person can farm their land on their own, especially once you own multiple land areas and crops. This is where hiring help comes in. With a simple button press, you can hire someone to complete the job that’s right in front of them should you wish. This will obviously eat into your money earnings, as they need to get paid, but paying multiple people a wage to get many things done at once can pay off. Sadly, the most time consuming and boring task, transporting your harvest gains to and from the store, is not something you can hire someone for, so get used to driving the same path many times over. Hiring assistants will be a necessity, especially on the harder difficulties where you need to harvest in a specific amount of time before the crops die.
Something I didn’t expect was the inclusion of mods. While there’s not a huge amount, you can download new tractors, fertilizers, buildings, and more. Adding them to your game is simple and only takes one button press, but so far it’s strictly meant to add new objects into your world, not crazy configurations like other games with mods allow.
If you have a friend that also has the game, you can farm together. Actually, up to 6 of you at once can play together online. Interestingly, this simply uses the host’s career game save, so multiplayer can make things incredibly easier, or if you allow random people online to join, could be a complete disaster as they destroy your farm. This is probably why I was always denied joining random people’s farms online, as I too would be nervous that they would be wasting my resources and destroying all of my hard work. But having up to 6 friends together also means that you can do some silly things together, like tractor racing or seeing who can crash the hardest off some hills. Not the intended purpose, but it will most likely happen.
Graphically, Farming Simulator 17 looks better than previous iterations, but that’s not to say that it looks great. The farming equipment looks spot on and it is very detailed, but some of the world, not so much. There’s a massive amount of pop in, and things you see in the distance aren’t rendered properly until up close, so while you may see an empty farm from far away, and drive towards it, you realize as you get close that it’s actually ready to farm or harvest instead, because of the pop-in. There’s also a ton of clipping and weird issues. Driving through a huge field of crops will show them clipping through your truck, and the physics feel ‘off’, especially when you get one of your forklift forks stuck in a fence and start flipping the vehicle back and forth like a windshield wiper.
More annoying is the audio though, as there’s very little music selection aside from typical country twang, but the biggest offender is that the engines for the vehicles are deafeningly loud. When the camera is close all you hear is the loud whirl and rumble of the engine, and you are unable to hear anything else. Worse yet is that there are no options in the game anywhere to mute music or game sounds, so you’re stuck with it the whole time. This makes party chatting with friends near impossible if you’re doing the farming instead of hiring help, as you won’t be able to hear them very well.
Farming Simulator 17 is exactly as the title suggests: a deep and robust farming simulator. If you’re purely looking for an entertaining game, this might not be the one for you. If I was to score the game solely on its farming simulation capabilities, then it would receive a very high score, because that’s what it excels at doing. From a game standpoint though, where I look at gameplay mechanics, and most importantly fun, this is where it falters. That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had within, as I laughed till my sides hurt at times when I was doing things I ‘shouldn’t’ have been, such as jumping tractors, going off-roading with a trailer full of livestock, or trying to run over pedestrians in my slow and dangerous farm equipment (sadly you’re unable to).
To be completely honest, even though I’ve kind of laughed at the series in the past, once playing I came to realize how involved and deep this series truly is as a simulator. It’s very daunting, even from the beginning, and you’re not given much help aside from a much too short tutorial. It’s incredibly complex and takes a lot of time to learn all of its intricacies and controls. The biggest problem it has is that most of the tasks are dull. Yes, farming is not a glamorous job, so there’s not much they could have done to change that, and while some will find a serene-like quality to its laid back gameplay, others like myself find it mundane and tedious.
Make no mistake, Farming Simulator 17 is incredibly in-depth as a simulator, almost to the point of being too complicated, but as a game it’s simply not all that entertaining, unless of course you’re all about that farming life. That’s not to say I didn’t find some enjoyment in my time with it, but it was when I was doing things unintended. At the end of the day if you’re looking for an authentic farming simulator, there’s no better out there, but the amount of fun you’re going to have is based on how much fun you find in actually farming.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
One Hundred Ways
The ID@Xbox program has been wonderful at giving developers and small studios alike an outlet to bring their games to a new audience, and of course gamers get a slew of new games to play that were previously exclusive to PC, mobile, or other platforms. Sometimes this works beautifully as console gamers get to experience games that wouldn’t have been possible before, but other times the market can get flooded with titles that don’t really suit the console experience. Where does One Hundred Ways fall in this spectrum? Let’s find out.One Hundred Ways is a puzzle game at heart, devoid of any real story, as you’re simply tasked with solving puzzles that range from incredibly simplistic to frustratingly difficult. There’s a marble that will start rolling down a ramp when you start, and you’re tasked with placing specific objects on a grid so that the marble can reach each level’s end goal. Oddly enough, there’s well over one hundred levels, so the name is a little confusing, but alas, expect many levels including some that can be completed in more than one way.
At the beginning of each level there’s a cute little robot that generally tries to give you some advice for the challenge ahead of you. Sometimes his advice is helpful, while other times his text is garbled (purposely), making some of these ‘intros’ feel completely useless. The hints don’t generally tell you what to specifically do as they are more of a generic “think of a different way to solve this one!” kind of clue. Not helpful at all.
Now, I completely understand that Sunlight Games isn’t a natively English speaking developer, but it looks really unprofessional when the game has numerous spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and misworded sentences. Sometimes letters aren’t capitalized, or spaces are missing, but it’s clear that there’s been little to no priority at localization for English speaking gamers.
You learn the game’s mechanics in the early stages, slowly learning about each type of object and how they interact with your rolling ball. There’s essentially only a handful of items and objects, but they are used over and over during the 100+ levels. A great puzzle game gives you the tools you need to solve each puzzle quickly if you’re up to the task, but in One Hundred Ways you’re forced to slog through its confusing menu system and watch in agony as you wait for the level to finish completing without the use of a fast forward.
You are given objects such as teleport pads, speed ramps, bounce pads, redirection launchers, rubber fences, and more. Your ball will roll in a direct line at a set and constant speed, which is where object placement is critical to get it from point A to B. While initially One Hundred Ways looks like a physics based puzzler, it’s really not, as your ball will roll forever if unobstructed and allowed to keep going. The beginning 50 levels or so weren't much of a challenge, especially if you think logically and just reverse engineer the solution, starting at the finish point. Eventually you’ll become stumped as there’s seemingly no smooth difficulty curve; you’ll simply hit a brick wall of challenges after completing other levels without issue.
Given that you’re simply staring at a grid for hours, going from puzzle to puzzle, you’d hope that there would be a varied soundtrack to help pass the time, either with some upbeat tracks or some relaxing tunes to set the mood. Unfortunately that is not the case here as there’s only a single song during the whole time you play across every single level. Making things worse, there’s absolutely zero audio when you’re on the world map selection (choosing which stages to play), making for a very disjointed experience. Do yourself a favor and load up some of your own music, as you’re going to not want to hear the solitary tune from One Hundred Ways after a handful of levels ever again.
It may seem like I’m simply only pointing out the negatives, but there are so many that needs to be mentioned. For example, there’s no way to rotate the map, so when you’re on a puzzle that’s very crowded with numerous tubes, cranes, and other objects, you can’t easily see which tile your placing your object on or the direction you’re intending for your jumper objects. There’s also no speed up or fast forward option. So, if you know you’ve solved the puzzle you need to wait until the ball slowly runs the course from start to finish.
Some of the pieces you’re given are also complete guesswork on how fast they will speed up your ball or how far it will launch it, simply leaving you to waste time experimenting rather than strategizing. Some puzzles also seem like they need to be solved ‘wrong’, such as launching backwards over the starting ramp, instead of a clear path elsewhere. Maybe this is part of the intended design, but you’re not given any information to figure it out and are left to just experiment with what works and doesn’t.
It’s obvious that One Hundred Ways was built for a mobile device or a PC with a mouse, as the control scheme is incredibly frustrating with a controller. Even after more than a handful of hours with the game I was constantly pressing the wrong buttons, or hoping that the camera would magically start to follow the ball when it was in motion. The grid system isn’t very responsive either, and placing an object from your inventory takes more button presses than it should.
I’m all for small developers and studios having opportunities for their games to be brought to as many gamers as possible, but there’s an effort that needs to be taken to make sure that it’s a right fit for that audience. One Hundred Ways is a serviceable game, but it’s meant to be played in very short bursts on the go, not for hours on end enduring a repeated song while trying to relax on your couch with a controller. Don’t go in hoping for a Marble Madness physics puzzle game like I was either as you'll be disappointed. I’m normally head over heels for puzzle games, but there’s simply too much against One Hundred Ways to earn a heartfelt recommendation at its current price point and jarring issues.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour
I may have already been a teenager when Duke Nukem 3D originally released in 1996, but that didn’t stop the immature child in me from giggling at every one-liner Duke had to say throughout his adventure to save Earth. I remember staying up late at night, going through the levels again and again, trying to unearth just one more secret that I had not found. Duke Nukem 3D has been ported to virtually every playable device so far, and it was only a matter of time before it came to current consoles. While it may not be the all-encompassing package some would hope for, there is a lot of new features and content contained within to entice you, even if you’ve played the game for the past 20 years like myself.Given that the game is 20 years old, there’s a good chance you’ve most likely played it in some form during the past 2 decades. If you have not somehow managed to do so, all you need to know is that Duke Nukem has balls of steel when it comes time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and he’s all outta gum. It’s a good thing Duke released many years ago when it did, as it would be met with even more scrutiny than it did back then in today’s politically correct world.
So what’s exactly new with this 20th Anniversary Edition? The first thing you’re going to notice is the graphic upgrade. Now this is nowhere near a remake or HD version, and it’s not trying to be, but it does look better when compared to its original release. Taking a cue from the Halo Anniversary playbook, you can toggle the original and the new “True3D Rendering” graphics instantly with a tap on the D-Pad. Keep expectation in check, as it still looks like it’s from the mid 90’s, but it’s definitely more ‘cleaner’ albeit a subtle improvement.
New music has made its way into this release, and the iconic theme song is intact, but the real treat is newly recorded one-liners from Jon St. John, the voice of the titular hero. Also, in the audio department is an inclusion of a commentary that can be toggled on or off. Finding icons scattered throughout the levels will allow you to get a behind the scenes viewpoint from original developers. My only gripe with this is that there are a ton in the first few levels, and very few afterwards, with many levels having none at all.
Lastly is the selling point that will get most long time Duke fans excited: A brand new episode of retro levels created by the original designers Allen Blum III and Richard “Levelord” Gray. These handful of new levels feel as though they belong, almost as if they were found on the cutting room floor and put back into the game where they were supposed to be in the first place.
I was very pleased to find out that when Duke dies, there’s a rewind feature that allows you to rewind to ANY point in the level and start again from there. How many times have you wished you’d done something different before you died? Well, this can help you remedy that, giving you a second chance, or as many as you need to complete the level.
While primitive compared to current games, it’s been a few years since I played Duke 3D, and I was shocked at how good the level design was for a game this old. I obviously view the game much different than I did when I was in high school, trying to make sure my grandparents didn’t hear or see what I was playing, but I was really impressed with how well it holds up, not visually or with its simple gameplay, but just the world design as a whole.
Sadly the 20th Anniversary Edition doesn’t include the numerous expansion packs from previous editions. While it’s not billed as a comprehensive Duke Nukem 3D experience, it would have been nice to include given the age of the game. Granted, the new episode does help take away some of that sting, and there is a lot of extra bonuses included.
My favorite feature had to be the inclusion of classic cheats. Back in the day, pre-internet, you had to know someone who knew the cheat codes or wait for the latest gaming magazine to print them to try them out. Many games had cheats unlike today, so it’s a great throwback feature to include. The best part is that it doesn’t disable achievements like in most other games that include the feature.
Multiplayer is included but every time I tried to find a game, I was unable to. I’m sure the player base isn’t huge, but even after days of trying, I’ve yet to experience it unfortunately. There’s also a weird delay when weapon switching worth noting. Nothing that’s a deal breaker, but it takes an odd amount of time to swap weapons, something you sometimes need to do quickly on the fly when the situation arises.
If you’ve never played Duke Nukem 3D before, the 20th Anniversary Edition is easily a 'recommend' given the slightly cleaner graphics, new hilarious one-liners, and a fitting new episode made by the people that know the game best more than anyone else. That being said, for a game that’s two decades old, the $19.99 price tag does seem a bit steep, even for us longtime Duke fans that have bought the game multiple times before. Now, who wants some?
Overall Score: 6.9 / 10
Mantis Burn Racing
I’ve always had an affinity for top down racers ever since the classic NES game Micro Machines. That leads me to Mantis Burn Racing, my latest review. While it tends to take itself a bit more seriously than a typical toy car racing game, it manages to break away from the pack of poor to mediocre top down racers with its tight controls, expansive career mode, upgrades, as well simple and fun gameplay. There’s enough content here to appease hardcore racers, yet easy enough to delve into for casual players to enjoy themselves a simple race at a time.The bulk of your gameplay will be in the career mode. Here you’ll find a variety of different race types, ranging from standard races, elimination, and point based races. Instead of your standard ‘come in first’, which you do want to do, you are able to earn up to 6 gears per event; 3 for winning, and 3 others for completing side objectives. These side objectives can vary from things like drifting a certain distance, getting a certain amount of air, destroying a number of objects, beating a specific lap time and more.
These side objectives are a neat way of earning your progress and something that I really prefer, since you can still earn some gears even if you don’t come in first place. This also challenges you to try something different during your races that you may not regularly attempt. The final events in a season are locked by a set number of gears that you need to access the final race. You generally shouldn’t have to grind for the gears to unlock them, but there’s actually quite a few seasons to be played, all the way up to a Pro level for those that really want to sink some time into the game.
Most race events are your basic 'must-come-in-first-place' variety, but there’s generally a good selection of others to keep things interesting. Knockout races add some frantic gameplay making sure you’re not in last place on each lap or else you’re eliminated. Time trials generally gives you 2 or 3 laps to make your best time, and beating the par time determines your placing. There’s even an interesting mode that awards you points for the better position you’re in during the race, with the winner being the first to earn 10,000 points. All of these will earn you rewards as you go, and can even be replayed to grind for XP or try and get those secondary objectives for the gears if you desire.
There are essentially two environments you’ll be racing in: city and desert, but 90% of the time will be in the desert. The tracks are somewhat varied, each with their own layouts of twists, turns, and jumps, but most of the time you’ll be racing the same handful of tracks, sometimes in reverse. There are one or two interesting tracks, but honestly, the variety is lacking, and racing the same desert map over again can become a little dull a few career seasons in.
Mantis Burn Racing incorporates the use of 3 different types of vehicles: Light, Medium, and Heavy. Light vehicles are like buggies, very fast and quick turners. Heavy vehicles are very slow yet can burst through barricades for secret shortcuts. Lastly, medium vehicles are right in the middle for performance. Most events will lock you to a specific type of class, but there are a handful of open races which allow you to choose your favorite (or most upgraded) vehicle.
I was quite surprised with how well the game’s controls were. I’m so used to decent racers, particularly top down racers, being brought down by terrible controls, so I guess I just expected it. Mantis Burn Racing handles great, and while it will take a few races to get the hang of, it’s very basic to learn, yet it has some intricacies for those that really want to improve their lap times. Even once you get the hang of drifting, the controls are very tight, and crashes feel like they were completely your fault for trying to drift too close to that inside barrier. A minor complaint I do have is that since you’re constantly switching vehicle types so it’s hard to get really used to one of them since you’re never stuck with a specific type for more than a race or two generally.
As you progress in events and earn upgrades, you put these upgrades into slots on your vehicle. These upgrades range from better tires, suspension, engines, and more. Your starting cars have 3 upgrade slots, and once full you can pay to upgrade it to a better version with more upgrade slots. It’s a smart way to continually improve your vehicles and customize them however you wish. Keep in mind though, you have 3 different types of vehicles, and if you constantly upgrade a certain class, the other ones will start to fall behind, making it much more difficult when you’re stuck with them for specific events.
I generally don’t expect smaller indie titles to include an online multiplayer, but again, Mantis Burn Racing surprised me by including it. There is local and online co-op, and the host can designate which types of vehicles, race, map, and even enable or disable upgrades. This means you can bring your career mode’s cars online and test them out against others, which is a great feature. While there weren’t a large amount of people playing, but I was able to find a match every time I tried to play online, which speaks volumes compared to other smaller titles’ online communities.
My biggest complaint is the terribly long loading times that take place before and after every race, even if you mess up and need to restart an event. The gameplay is smooth throughout, and the graphics are serviceable, but the prolonged loading times really damper the experience if you’re playing for any prolonged amount of time.
As I said before, I love top down racers, and Mantis Burn Racing does a great job at being accessible for casual racers, yet it has enough features and a full bodied career mode for those that want to dive in deeper. It has a surprising amount of depth, and I kept wanting to race ‘just one more race’ every time I played. Sure the track repetition becomes stale at times, and the loading times are frustrating, but if you take it for what it is, a simple and fun toy car racer with some depth, then you’re bound to have at the least a few hours of fun.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
HoPiKo
When I first saw screenshots for HoPiKo I had no idea what I was looking at. If you do the same, I bet you’ll have the same reaction. As for playing it, it’ll take a few minutes to acclimate yourself into its gameplay, but once you do, you’ll discover one of the more unique ‘platform-like’ games out there. Are you into retro inspired, challenging, and speed run centric gameplay encased with a soundtrack created 100% on an original Game Boy? Then HoPiKo is for you! Have no idea what I’m talking about? Read on.So technically there is a story to HoPiKo, but it’s just as abstract and off the wall as its frantic gameplay. There’s an evil Nanobyte virus on the look out and it is attempting to destroy gaming as a whole. It’s up to you to save your HoPiKo brothers (think of them more like a species than a family) and save gaming for everyone. Confused yet? Yeah, I don’t totally get it either, but you have come for the platform-like gameplay, not the narrative.
Like with any good platformer, the gameplay and mechanics are what will keep you playing, coming back for more after every repeated death. HoPiKo actually plays very uniquely, in the sense that you only use the Right Stick and Right Bumper; that’s it, you completely ignore the left half of the controller. There’s a few very brilliant reasons for this. While in virtually every game you use the Left Stick for movement, it’s the Right Stick that you’ve become precise with over the years playing shooters, platformers, and other games. Because of this, you can instinctively aim much more precisely with the Right Stick, which is why this default control scheme that has been chosen. It’s a simple idea but makes absolute sense, though you can change it if you desire (but you’d be wrong to do so).
So, why is it a game that is described as platformer-like? Well, normally in a platformer game you have to run and jump from spot to spot, but in HoPiKo you simply launch yourself in your desired direction with a flick of the Right Stick or tapping the Right Bumper. Controls are very simple to get the hang of, but the real learning curve comes from simply figuring out what you need to do and the best way to do it once you figure out the different types of platforms.
There are a handful of worlds to complete, separated into 10 ‘areas’ with 5 missions each. The catch? You need to complete all 5 in a row without dying to continue on. Normally I would become frustrated with something like this, as you’ll die on stage 4 or 5 a million times, only to be sent back to the first stage, but playing levels in a single order wouldn’t be nearly as challenging or rewarding.
Things in the beginning start out simple, as you are only focused on aiming in a direct line to the next platform without missing. As expected, the further you progress int the game the more the challenge starts to ramp up, slowly introducing different types of platforms, lasers, and even enemies that chase you. These are introduced slowly, allowing you to figure them out and the best way to quickly recognize them since the gameplay is so fast paced.
While there’s technically no time limit, you will die if you stay on a platform for too long, plus you won’t earn the bonuses for completing levels that have a bonus for time finished. Finish a world completely and you’ll unlock a Speed Run and Hardcore Mode, along with new music tracks. Speed Run Mode is pretty self-explanatory, keeping track of your time as you try to go through all the levels. Hardcore Mode is a whole other beast though. If you thought the regular gameplay was difficult, doing 5 levels at a time, this mode challenges you to beat all 50 in a row. Die and you’re right back to stage 1. I’ve still yet to accomplish doing this, even on World 1, but it allows for more gameplay for those that want a real challenge.
HoPiKo’s visuals are really unique. It’s basic at its core, but the gameplay is so fast and frantic that it’s hard to take it all in at times. It’s minimalistic in design, but it's also confusing to figure out what’s going on until you learn its obstacles and they become second nature. The real standout though is its brilliant soundtrack, all of which was composed on an original Game Boy. Unlocking new tracks is awesome, as every track is catchy, has its own vibe to it, and is super retro, fitting the look and style of the game.
There’s the odd bug here and there, as I’ve died many times seemingly for no reason (seriously, it’s not some excuse). I do wish there was either a countdown timer or that the levels didn’t ‘start’ until I made my first move, as the later stages force you to begin the moment it starts, or you’ll die. You constantly feel frantic and pressured, even once you become more skillful and go back to old levels to better your results.
If you’re a fan of games like Super Meat Boy or VVVVVV, where brutal difficulty is your thing, and you can resist throwing your controller out the window in a fit of rage from dying a hundred times in a row, then you’ll absolutely love HoPiKo. Put the time in and you will become better. I thought there were levels I would never complete, but here I am, passing stages that I previously thought unbeatable, and then I get stuck once again, seemingly forever, but I know I’ll go back trying to best it once again. HoPiKo has amazing level design that feels constantly varied and a level of challenge that makes you want to try just one more time, even though you told yourself that fifty tries ago.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
XCOM 2
Firaxis, best known for their Civilization and XCOM titles, has finally graced console gamers with the release of XCOM 2. While it originally released on PC over six months ago, seemingly as a PC exclusive, it has finally made its way to the Xbox One for fans that prefer to relax on the couch with a controller in their hands. XCOM: Enemy Unknown for the Xbox 360 was a fantastic showing of what Firaxis could do with the strategy genre on last-gen, so I was quite excited to see what improvements would be made for its long awaited sequel on the Xbox One. Depending on which ending you got in Enemy Unknown, the cannon storyline in XCOM 2 continues 20 years after the war was lost. A terrifying alien regime, the Advent, has been ruling over humanity for the past two decades and a resistance is beginning to arise to free mankind from their clutches. The story focuses on the rebellion taking the fight to the aliens, as opposed to defending like the previous game, and this carries over to the gameplay.Instead of simply holding back the enemy, you are now tasked with sabotage, intelligence interceptions, and actually pushing the front lines forward. While there is an overarching storyline, it’s nothing substantial enough to care about, and you won’t form any real bonds with any of the characters unless you name your soldiers to match your real life friends and family and they happen to die in virtual combat.
XCOM 2 plays almost exactly like its predecessor(s), albeit with a laundry list of improvements and changes. It’s still a turn based strategy game at its core, focusing on squad based tactics and building up your human resistance against the aliens. If you were a fan of Enemy Unknown you’re going to fall in love all over again as XCOM 2 vastly improves on almost every facet of gameplay, adding many more options, and subsequently, much more difficulty as well. If you’re not a big fan of strategy games, then obviously XCOM 2 may not be on your radar, and believe me, I used to not be a big fan of strategy titles before, but Firaxis is the best in the business when it comes to the genre and they prove it big time with XCOM 2.
Once of the biggest changes you’ll notice almost instantly is the mission structure and variety. There were only a handful of different mission types in the previous XCOM, but this has been improved upon in XCOM 2. Now you’ll be assaulting bases, attempting to destroy or protect valuable targets, rescuing civilians, and even saving VIP’s. The biggest catch is that a bulk of these missions are timed, not with an actual time limit, but with moves instead. Because of the hectic pace, you can no longer simply rely on hanging back, going into overwatch, and waiting for enemies to fall into your line of fire. Now you need to be aggressive on the assault, making for some very risky, and much needed, new strategies to be employed.
Since most missions are timed now you can’t always dictate the terms of combat any longer, which can be frustrating and uncomfortable at first, especially if you have became accustomed to tried and true tactics from Enemy Within, but it’s also where a big majority of the satisfaction comes from when you finally complete a mission, regardless of the casualties. Even if you manage to protect your best soldiers until the endgame, they are never completely safe from danger, as you’ll need to almost always put yourself in danger to progress against the aggressive time crunch. At first I didn’t really enjoy the forceful nature of the missions, but I began to warm up to it, adapted my strategy, and learned from my fatal mistakes.
Since the mission objectives vary wildly the campaign seems to breeze right by, and even if you’re not playing a true ‘ironman playthrough’ without reloading saves, the maps are procedurally generated every time, so even if you do reload a previous save to prevent your best soldiers from dying in combat, replaying a mission won’t always be the same, forcing you to constantly adapt. Sometimes you’ll need to know when to cut your losses and call for an emergency extraction rather than having your whole team perish. These moments are very tense yet thrilling, as I didn’t want to rely on previous game saves to reload, so I eventually started to accept whatever outcomes my battles had. Doing so made XCOM 2 that much more intense and exhilarating, especially when you absolutely need a low percentage success rate shot to succeed, or else you die.
Not only does XCOM 2 dictate the pace you need to play at, this also is true for the campaign missions as well. There’s no simple grinding missions to beef up your soldiers that would allow you to take on the campaign once you’re overpowered, as there’s a constant "Avatar Project" that you witness slowly progressing on the world map. If the meter fills it means impending doom, so you need to complete specific campaign based objectives and missions to hold back the aliens progress in this mysterious project, as failure to do so means absolute doom for mankind.
If you’re an XCOM fan, you’ll feel right at home with this game's combat mechanics. You’ll still be given two actions a turn, allowing you to hunker down, go into overwatch, or shoot any enemies within distance. There are some great additions though, the most obvious of which are the slight variance of the classes and the much more defined branching skill trees. Each class can choose to specialize in a distinct path that’s meant to be played a specific way, but you can also mix and match skills as they level up in ranks to suit your play style and squad setups.
You’ll also notice that a stealth mechanic has been implemented, allowing you to begin most missions concealed against the enemy. This allows you to take a few moves to setup an ambush if you wish, or even bypass combat all together if you’re clever (and lucky) enough to not get spotted by wandering patrols. On non-timed missions I would take my time to set up a perfect ambush, luring packs of enemies into my squad’s wall of overwatch retaliation. Given that a bulk of the missions are timed though, it’s tough to use this strategy often, as you really need to play quite aggressively if you want to succeed. It’s a great idea, and works well in the right situations, but it needs to be fleshed out a little more in a hopeful sequel.
Many of your strategies will come from failure and losing your best fighters. Once you learn how specific enemy types behave, you can start to learn the best tactics to use against them while keeping your soldiers safe. After a dozen hours I finally found a perfect balance of classes and abilities that, most of the time, were unstoppable, but that’s where XCOM 2 is brilliant, as it will throw a new enemy type at you or simply have you miss a shot with 95% success rate, completely turning the tide of battle and causing you to react. It goes the other way as well, as praying that a 20% chance attack will land, and it does, feels overwhelmingly amazing. XCOM 2 is meant to be played through multiple times, as the first time or two will simply be a learning experience, and from there on you can really fine tune your best course of action against the Advent with your ideal builds.
The overworld meta-game has also been improved, as you’ll be tasked with connecting communication relays and liberating different countries from the aliens to bolster the resistance. You’ll need to expand and upgrade your base as well, allowing you to choose the best course of action. This specifically where it will take a full playthrough, or two, to figure out the best build paths (without looking online of course) as there’s no branching trees to see the best paths and the outcomes until it’s actually completed. I found this blind guessing a little frustrating, as I didn’t know if spending a massive amount of time researching something would be worth it in the end, as you’re not given much description of the result, making you unable to plan multiple steps ahead or the best way to min-max your playthrough.
You have limited resources and time, so you will constantly be making complex and difficult decisions on the fly. Do you prioritize a mass amount of time to research advanced weaponry or do you spend that time on multiple smaller projects instead? It’s completely up to you, but it’s a constant battle of resources and time, with an always looming thread close by to keep you pressured and moving at a brisker pace than you may like to at first.
There is also a multiplayer component included that allows you to take on another player with a custom squad of your own. You’re even able to control Advent forces in this mode, which is really cool, especially the more costly forces. Each unit has a predetermined value attached, and you can only spend a set amount to make up a squad, so it’s a balancing act of utilizing less but more powerful, or more but less effective. I’d love to give a more in depth analysis of XCOM 2’s multiplayer offerings, but multiple times I’ve sat at the menu, both in ranked and quick match, unable to find a game, even while sitting for well over a half hour. I assume it’s simply a small pool of players taking their squads online rather than any server issues, but it was unfortunate I wasn’t able to find a single game to play every time I attempted to.
For all the praise I’ve given XCOM 2 so far, there are a laundry list of bugs that constantly hampered my experience, even many hours in. First is the massive technical issues. The loading times are long and often, the camera angles don’t always work as intended, making for difficult strategizing, and the clipping at times is laughable when you see a character shoot directly through a wall or object. Aiming grenades seems to be a chore in concentration and feels very loose compared to the standard shooting. There was one instance where I was unable to hit the enemies in front of me, not because of a lack of skill or the randomness of missing shots, but the game didn’t think they were where they appeared on my screen. I was only able to complete that mission by staying in overwatch and waiting for them to move into ‘view’.
From beginning to end, you’ll constantly be challenged with XCOM 2. It’s difficulty is unforgiving if you’re not careful, and since death is permanent you can lose your best soldiers at any given time in any given mission quite quickly. I thought the original XCOM was fantastic, but it’s rare for a sequel to be better in almost every aspect that the previous game feels vastly inferior in hindsight. If you even remotely enjoyed the previous XCOM games you need to play XCOM 2, as it has a wealth of replayability, deep strategy, and impressive character building, even if it does force you to play overly aggressive. I’m not sure why they waited so long to bring XCOM 2 to console, or at least announce it at the PC launch, because even with its hiccups it’s an amazing gaming experience for any strategy game fan.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Emily Wants To Play
Unlike most young kids, I was allowed to watch horror and thriller movies from a very young age, and because of this, I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Scary movies are easily my favorite genre, and I can watch the goriest or most psychologically scary movie there is and not flinch. Well, when it comes to scary games though, I’m absolutely the complete opposite. I’m not really sure why, though most likely because I’m in control rather than watching a linear experience, but I don’t do well with scary games regardless of my movie tastes. So who else better to review Emily Wants to Play; probably one of the most dread inducing titles I’ve played to date. I grew up with the Silent Hill's and Resident Evil's, and while those were scary at the time since I was young, these days there aren't very many horror games aside from a few breakout titles like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Slender. Originally released on PC, Emily Wants to Play is now here for console gamers to see if they have the courage to survive until morning while being hunted down by demonic and possessed dolls.
While some scoff at jump scares because they’re viewed as a lazy way to scare someone, they’re also a very effective way to make a player uneasy and tense, simply waiting for the next moment to happen. Emily Wants to Play uses this classic horror tool to inspire dread, almost to a fault, as that’s almost the only scare tactic it utilizes throughout. That being said, I wasn’t unable to complete the game after multiple attempts and hours; not solely because of the difficulty, but because I couldn’t handle another scare again without taking a prolonged break to relax my nerves.
While a vastly overused trope, Emily Wants to Play begins with you as a pizza guy making a simple delivery. The door is ajar, so naturally you go inside to find someone to give them their order. The place looks like it’s been ransacked, and just as you take a step inside the door slams shut and locks behind you seemingly on its own. The place is a mess, the windows are boarded up, and the lights are flickering; the perfect setup for numerous horror flicks.
Played in first person, your goal is to simply survive until morning, but that isn’t going to be easy by any means once Emily’s dolls start to try and kill you. As you wander around the house, you’ll notice doors opening and closing on their own, as do the flickering lights, adding to the already very creepy atmosphere. You start to notice notes left around the place such as “Don’t look at her”, and “Run away”; foreboding to say the least. Then you’ll come across the dolls, but you’ll wish you hadn’t, because once the clock strikes midnight, that’s where you need to start to survive.
As for the controls, it’s very basic. Sprinting is done by holding in the Left Stick, interacting with objects is the B button, and Left Bumper for your flashlight (should you be lucky enough to find one). That’s it. Sounds simple, and it is, but you’re going to need not only quick reflexes to survive the night, but nerves of steel. The sprinting doesn't seem all that necessary and is a little cumbersome to do so while holding in the stick.
Once midnight rolls around, you’ll start to hear footsteps and laughter coming from random areas in the house. Things start ‘simple’ with only 1 doll trying to kill you, but eventually you’ll have to deal with 3 at once before Emily herself joins in the 'fun'. Given that I have no problem with horror movies, I thought Emily Wants to Play would be no big deal. I was so wrong. It plays like a walking simulator, but the way that the mood is conveyed, with absolutely no music in the background, almost makes it scarier. As soon as you hear one of the dolls, you know you’re about to confront one of them, which gets your blood pumping and controller firmly clenched.
So how do you survive the night? Well, it all depends on which doll is currently chasing you. For example, the first doll you come across will laugh when she is near, and once you turn around she will be there staring at you, completely still. Even though you may have found a note earlier that says to “Don’t look at her”, you need to do the complete opposite to not get killed by Kiki the doll. Eventually she will poof and disappear instantly, allowing you to explore the house further if you’re brave enough, that is, until you hear her once again trying to get you.
There are other dolls that will join the killing fray as the night goes on, and you simply need to learn how to survive against them when they appear. It may sound simple, and in premise it is, but when you fail using the proper tactic to survive, the jump scare you get is no joke. Kiki for example lunges at your face, either just as your turn around to try to flick the light switch back on that was mysteriously turned off, shrieking as she does so.
Luckily the checkpoint system is generous and starts you back at the latest hour you’ve reached during your night in the house. Given that you just got scared though, your nerves become more on edge the more you play. Leaving a room makes you apprehensive, but you know you have to do so to survive some of the dolls attacks. It’s a simple way to instill fear, but it works.
If you’re good at the game and don’t scare easily, it’s easily beatable in under an hour, as you simply need to ride out the clock to survive, but to get to that point will take a lot of courage and many deaths. The graphics are very basic and the lighting is nowhere realistic looking, but even so, the game has a particular sense of dread surrounding it no matter what room you go into, even more so once you hear one of the dolls nearby.
I wish I could finish the game, but I can’t. Even playing in the daytime with the lights on and people home, I can only play for short periods of time before needing to take a break to calm my nerves. Yes, some of you are going to call me a wimp, and that’s fine, but it should show effective Emily Wants to Play is at creating a sense of terror. Sure its shtick is simply utilizing jump scares, but when it works, why change?
With its very cheap price point, Emily Wants to Play is a great title to get this month given the Halloween spirit, and even better to stream on Twitch for the amusement of others if you scare easily, just like me. While some won’t find it terrifying, or even scary, others just might need to play with the lights on or in the daytime with someone else in the room. Sure, the game could benefit from some improvements, but if you’re simply looking for a creepy atmosphere with the potential to truly scare some of your friends that come over, Emily Wants to Play is sure to get your heart racing. and you most likely won't want to be be near any dolls afterwards for quite some time.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Eventide: Slavic Fable
I’m really glad that developer Artifex Mundi has decided to publish their games on the Xbox One, as they have a huge catalogue of hidden object games (HOG’s) that they are in the process of bringing to console gamers. I didn’t know that I would enjoy these types of games as much as I do until I gave them a fair chance, but I’m glad I did, as I get to sit back and enjoy a few hours of stress free gaming. Eventide: Slavic Fable is the third game from Artifex Mundi that I’ve now played, and I figured that I would grow tiresome of the same gameplay mechanics by now, but I haven't. I seem to enjoy them more with every new title that comes our way, but the question remains: "Can they keep the quality continuous and prevent staleness from setting in?" Let’s find out.Eventide places you in the role of Mary, a botanist who receives a letter from her grandmother one day out of the blue inviting her to visit and save a rare plant. Mary doesn't get many letters from her anymore, so she knows it’s serious and decides to make a visit. As you arrive you’re attacked by a massive bat-looking creature, only to find that your grandmother is then kidnapped in front of your eyes. To get her back you’ll need to befriend the creatures of Slavic origins in attempt to save her.
I won’t delve much more into the story, as it’s not terribly long, but it has just enough narrative to string you along from puzzle to puzzle while managing to stay fairly interesting. Some of the characters you come across are cute, while others are simply there to lengthen gameplay with odd quests, like fixing someone’s bathroom pipe so they can shower. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting better at these types of games or not, but the overall journey felt much shorter compared to the last two titles of theirs I’ve reviewed, as I completed it in a single sitting without any troubles at all on normal mode.
If you haven't played an Artifex Mundi HOG based puzzle titles before, it essentially revolves around finding an item which allows you to open an object to obtain another item that you’ll need to solve the next puzzle. Rinse and repeat. On paper it sounds basic and shallow, but there’s many scenes to explore, with bonus collectible items to find along the way as well. Sometimes you’ll simply need to find a certain item while other times you’ll have to solve a convoluted puzzle or you’ll be given a shopping list of items to find in a crowded and messy scene before being granted access to progress further.
Normal mode gives you an option to use a hint if you become stuck, and it can either point you in the right direction to go (though the map shows you what areas you have puzzles to complete) or it blatantly shows you what you need to click next. Expert mode takes away much of the hint system and doesn’t have items glow, making for a bigger challenge, especially if it’s your first time playing. I found that I didn’t need to rely on the hint system even once during my playthrough, but it’s a welcome addition for those that might need it so they don't become frustrated. Oddly enough, Eventide doesn’t include an alternate game to play like the previous games that they have released on the Xbox One, where you could play dominoes or mahjong.
For veterans of Artifex Mundi’s titles, you can expect more of the same. Eventide follows the same template, almost to a fault, as you’re only given the items you’ll need just before you need them. What is new though are the two sets of collectibles hidden throughout. Keep an eye out for Bestiary Cards, as these will unlock background lore of each of the creatures in Eventide in the bonus section of the main menu. They are strictly optional to find and aren’t part of the core game, but it was interesting to read more lore about creatures that crossed my path once I found them. There are also Ethereal Flowers that glow and can be collected, but these don’t serve any purpose aside from unlocking achievements.
Just like their previous titles, the artwork is great as always, though I suspect this might be one of their earlier games, simply because the animation didn’t look as smooth or as sharp as the previous titles that I reviewed. Following suit is the average soundtrack and simply “ok” voice acting. Usually the voice acting is passable, but it didn’t seem to be nearly as believable in Eventide. I’m not sure if it’s the writing or different actors, but it difference from past games was noticeable.
Just like their previous games released on the Xbox One, developer Artifex Mundi's Eventide: Slavic Fable is a great ‘filler’ game when you grow tired of the glut of AAA titles or simply need a break and want to try something different. The dev-team has nailed the formula, almost to the point where each game seems to use a default template but they edit it with new characters and vary the puzzles slightly. Even so, I’ve yet to grow tired of the tried and true gameplay formula. If you are looking for a casual game to play or just want something to relax while playing, look at Eventide: Slavic Fable, or any of their other HOG titles; there’s no better developer currently bringing this genre to consoles.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Gears of War 4
There’s only a handful of franchises that seemingly define a console or generation of gaming, and Gears of War is easily one of those franchises. Just shy of its 10 year anniversary, Gears of War has been pulling in fans ever since 2006 and it crafted one of the most iconic series that helped Xbox 360 reach the fan base that it did. Gears of War 3 was released way back in 2011 and fans have been waiting half a decade for a proper sequel ever since, and now that time has come with the impending release of Gears of War 4. Sure, there was Gears of War: Judgement in 2013, but it wasn’t the true sequel everyone was waiting for. Now, with a new studio behind the series, The Coalition, can the this true sequel live up to what Epic Games and Cliffy B. created a decade ago?Even after all these years the gameplay and visuals of the older Gear of War titles still hold up, but the current generation hardware can do much more than the Xbox 360, and Gears of War 4 really proves this point, along with other agendas Microsoft is pushing like the very welcomed Xbox One/PC crossplay. The visual fidelity of Gears 4 is nothing short of amazing on the Xbox One, and if you have beefy enough PC rig to handle it, you can hit 4K resolution with this Play Anywhere title.
Crossplay allows gamers on their Xbox One to play with with those playing on PC in a variety of modes. You'll find that the majority of the multiplayer modes are available except for the competitive versus mode. It should be noted that Gears 4 is also a Play Anywhere title, meaning that when you buy it digitally you automatically own the Xbox One and PC version (for Windows 10). I’ve recently just upgraded my PC and this feature is a fantastic bonus to have, not even including the expanded player base that will help keep the game community alive longer.
I always strive to avoid any spoilers in my reviews, especially when it comes to a story campaign, so the only details I’ll divulge is from what’s been shown previously before launch. That being said, the story is much broader, grand in scope, and very involved. I just don’t want to spoil anything if at all possible. If you’ve avoided the most recent trailers, especially with a huge reveal, then you might want to skip ahead a paragraph or two to be safe.
Set 25 years after the events of Gears 3, a new Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) is formed, automated robots replace many solders in dangerous roles, and cities that were devastated in the locust war are starting to heal. The new COG are forcing people to live in specific areas in attempt to keep them safe, but it’s viewed as oppression by some, causing a new “Outsider” faction to form, and there is a very tense relationship between COG and this Outsider faction.
Many citizens are seemingly going missing, and COG naturally assume Outsiders are responsible. Given that the new protagonist, JD Fenix, son of the infamous Marcus from previous games, is the titular hero, we know that is most likely not the truth. JD is accompanied by Del and Kait, and when the autonomous robots, known as DeeBee’s, start attacking JD’s group, they must resort to finding his father for assistance. There’s much more to the story than this, but needless to say you’ll be facing a fearsome new enemy and unravel a whole new mystery when the locust were seemingly all destroyed decades ago. Campaign supports two player co-op, and even crossplay, so make sure to grab a friend and battle the enemies, regardless if they’re on console or PC.
If you haven't played a Gears of War title before, it’s a third person cover based shooter at its core. You’re expected to hide behind cover and shoot your enemies from seemingly safe protection, but Gears 4 implements new weaponry and tactics to counter enemies and players that think staying behind cover is safe. New weapons, like the Dropshot, fires a floating mine for as long as the trigger is held, drilling downwards and exploding when released. There are also cross-cover moves where you can pull an enemy from behind their cover, granting you a moment to execute them brutally. If you’re quick enough though, you can counter these moves, so there’s a few different strategies than can be utilized.
The core gameplay is largely unchanged aside from the new weapon additions and moves, and while it feels fresh, maybe because it’s been so long since a Gears game, it still feels familiar as well. There are a few levels where there’s a massive windstorm, forcing you to take cover while trying to progress. The wind is so strong and violent that certain weapons shots, like the Buzzkill, which launches massive buzz saw blades, will arc in the wind. These sections show how gorgeous Gears 4 can look and are very impressive set pieces which shows us something new the series.
Some vehicle sections return as well, which were the highlights of the whole campaign for me, making me want to replay them numerous times. If you’re a longtime Gears fan you’re going to be able to predict a lengthy gunfight a mile away, as there’s always seemingly a handful of waist high blocks conveniently placed between you and the approaching enemy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you don’t get many surprise battles as the level layout makes it painfully obvious as to what’s about to go down. There are even a few sections where you’ll have to play a few waves of Horde to keep back oncoming waves of enemies to survive during the campaign, a welcomed change of pace.
While some will come to Gears 4 for its campaign and story, a vast majority will mostly likely return for its celebrated multiplayer, and it does not disappoint on its current-gen debut. Rankings and Re-Ups are present, ranging from bronze to diamond, as do dedicated servers and 60FPS, making for incredibly smooth gameplay. Now to be fair, I’ve only played a handful of matches given the small player pool before its release, but I didn't have a single issue.
Obviously there’s Matchmaking, but you can also setup private games as well if you simply want to play with some friends. LAN also makes a return, which I know some people will be ecstatic about, as does splitscreen play. And of course, crossplay is a huge bonus as well for playing with PC gamers. It should be noted that the crossplay doesn’t support versus matchmaking, for obvious keyboard and mouse versus controller issues, though at least you are able to crossplay in private matches should you desire to finally determine who actually is better among your friends on console or PC.
The new raking system is supposed to pair similar skilled players together in a better and fair manner, so a new player shouldn’t be matched up against someone who is much more experienced than you. Again, the player pool is so small as of the time of this writing that I’ve not been able to confirm how well this has been implemented, but that’s the theory behind the new rankings.
There are plenty of modes to play aside from the standard Team Deathmatch, some of which are a lot of fun and have their own twist. At launch there will be 10 maps, with the popular Gridlock being one of them, and while this may seem like a small number, The Coalition has promised new maps every month, both new and remastered ones. Now, before you sigh, thinking you’re going to have to purchase them, there’s great news: all DLC maps will be free for public play. They will rotate in and out of playlists, but they are purchasable if you’d like to own them for private and dedicated matches. Also, only the host will need to own the map, so it’s seems like a great trade off.
The reward system has changed quite drastically in Gears 4, as you now earn credits for all of your online games in Versus or Horde. These credits can then be used on Gear Packs in the store which unlock different items, XP boosts, bounties, horde skills, and even coveted weapon and character skins. Everything can be earned through gameplay itself, but you can disassemble duplicate cards and use them to craft new cards. It’s more involved than I was expecting, especially once you realize that cards are extremely important if you plan on delving into Horde mode, and will take a little time to war your head around.
Co-op Versus allows you to play with other players against bots, which is a great starting point to get the hang of the 60FPS multiplayer gameplay. Social Playlist is where you’ll head next when you’re confident in your skills to take on other players. There’s a handful of modes, of which I’ll just delve into the newer ones, as Team Deathmatch needs no real explanation. There is a Dodgeball, which may seem like an odd name, but its mechanic can make for some frantic gameplay. When you kill an enemy a teammate will respawn, so even though you might be the last one alive on your team, you always have a chance to turn it around by getting a teammate back into the game at any moment.
So far Arms Race is my favorite mode, as this is the Gears variant of “Gun Game”. Your team begins with a Boomshot and every 3 kills your weapon swaps, for the whole team, until you rotate through every single weapon in the game, each needing 3 kills. This mode is great for people wanting to learn the new weapons, as they do take some practice. My only complaint here is that your weapon automatically changes even if you’re charging up your Torque Bow or are in mid clip when shooting someone, which can ultimately lead to an unexpected death.
Escalation is Gears 4's attempt of getting rooted into eSports with this involved competitive mode. Escalation is a round based objective mode where there’s always 3 rings on the map at all times, one near each team's ‘home’ base and the third ring right in the middle of the map, equal distance from both teams. There are spawn flips aside from when rounds end, and you earn points for every second you hold the rings. Your team can try for a quick Domination victory by capturing all 3 rings at once if your gutsy enough. This is easier said than done though, as it takes time for the rings to neutralize and capture.
Everyone starts out with a default Lancer and Gnasher and there are no weapon pickups to begin the match, allowing for an equal start. If your team loses a round you’re granted a weapon that you can place on the battlefield in specific locations, but it can be obtained by either team during gameplay. So, while it may seem like placing a power weapon is a good idea, it could spell disaster if the other team gets it first or kills you and takes it. There’s actually a good amount of strategy that goes into placing the weapons, as you can use it to support your team, or simply block your opponents attempts.
Deaths in round 1 only last 10 seconds, but each subsequent round adds another 2 seconds, making an excruciating 20+ second respawn in the final rounds. Because of the chance of a domination victory, you better hope that your whole team doesn’t get killed simultaneously, or you could lose quite quickly in the later rounds. I can see this mode gaining a lot of traction and I’m excited to see some of the strategies that eSports pros will utilize in the future.
Lastly, Gears multiplayer wouldn’t be complete without the one mode that really put them on the map: Horde Mode. Dubbed Horde 3.0, it will initially feel familiar, but there’s a slew of new additions that easily make it the best version of Horde to date. Up to 5 players can play cooperatively against 50 waves of enemies, with each 10th wave being a boss battle of sorts. I don’t want to spoil some of the boss fights, but you better learn the intricacies of the mode before attempting Horde on the more challenging difficulties.
Not only are there new enemies to combat, but Horde now utilizes a class based system to encourage teamwork and revolves around a mobile fabricator ‘home base’ where you’ll spend earned money to build fortifications or weapons to help you survive. The fortifications that you build can be placed anywhere on the map and can also be moved whenever you desire, so you’re not stuck with a useless fence or turret if enemies are coming from another direction.
The fabricator acts as a pseudo home base, as defeated enemies will drop energy, and if brought back to the fabricator, it can be spent to build your fortifications. It’s indestructible, so there’s no need to guard it, but if it’s in a bad area, depositing your earned energy and spending it can be quite difficult. The fabricator can be used to build gates, turrets, decoys, weapon lockers, and more. Can’t find a specific power weapon to help you out? Spend the energy to build one! You can even revive downed teammates by returning their COG tags to the fabricator provided you have enough energy to do so. The only issue I foresee is when playing with random people that who want to cause havoc, as anyone can spend the earned credits or move the fabricator whenever they wish to anywhere on the map.
There are 5 classes for you to choose from in Horde mode and they can be individually leveled up, each of which is extremely useful in its own right. Finding a perfect balance of class makeup for your party will play a huge factor in how many waves you survive. The classes range from Scout, Soldier, Sniper, Heavy, and Engineer. Each of which has their own starting loadout and special abilities.
Soldiers are your basic damage dealers, and spawn with frag grenades. Scouts are your front-liners while Heavy’s deal massive damage and start with an explosive weapon. Snipers are self-explanatory and are meant to stay back and pick off enemies from afar. Engineers are meant to be responsible for fortifications as they’re the only one that can use the repair tool to prevent fortifications from being destroyed.
Even on the casual setting Horde was quite a challenge, and it will require a lot of teamwork and communication. Without it you’re going to have people wasting hard earned energy or not creating a cohesive group of varied classes. The card system comes into play and dictates what bonuses or skills you have going in, so learning how the card system works will only help you going forward, and will be essential when attempting Insane difficulty.
Gears wouldn’t be Gears without the ‘Seriously’ achievement. These achievements are for the most dedicated and hardcore Gears fan and usually entail putting an obscene amount of time into the game to earn. Seriously 4.0 is no different and will require you to learn almost all aspects of Gears 4. Here’s the rundown of what you’re going to master to earn this badge of honor which is no easy feat:
- Complete the Campaign on Insane Difficulty
- Get to Re-Up 10
- Earn all Ribbons at least once
- Earn a Rank Placement in each mode
- Get all 5 classes to Level 10
- Level any 5 Horde Skills to Level 5
- Complete all 10 ‘on-disc’ maps from Wave 1-50 (any difficulty)
I was enthralled with the Gears 4's campaign and enjoyed it from beginning to end. It’s full of mystery, character development, humor, and classic Gears gameplay. The memorable set pieces and vehicular sections are grand in scale and really stand out among the best moments of JD Fenix’s journey. Gears 4's color palette isn’t as drab and brown heavy as its predecessors, as it supports the new HDR lighting technology, which looks breathtaking (sadly I don’t have a TV that supports HDR) from what’s been shown.
While JD isn’t as rough as his dad, at least not yet, he is his father’s son, sharing some similar qualities, which makes him easy to accept as the series’ new protagonist. The new squad may not be as memorable or revered as Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole just yet, but they had a trilogy to build their characters, and Gears 4 is just the beginning of a new saga. I’m already anxiously waiting to see what’s in store for us fans in Gears 5. If you were nervous how the new studio was going to handle the Gears series, put those fears to rest, as The Coalition has delivered an experience that feels new yet familiar at the same time and worthy of the Gears of War title. Whether you’re coming for the campaign, competitive multiplayer, or Horde mode, Gears of War 4 has tremendous value and replayability and ushers in the new generation some change for the series.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Virginia
Normally once I see the credits roll after finishing a game I jump right into writing the review, as it’s fresh in my mind and I start to formulate what I want to convey. Virginia was a completely different experience gaming wise, and I actually needed to take a day or two to figure out what I had experienced, and how to explain it to you in such a way that it actually made sense.Personally, I think part of what threw me off was that Virginia is more of an interactive movie experience than a traditional game. I don’t normally like to use the term “walking simulator”, as most people scoff at those types of games save for a few of the standouts, but that’s really the best description for its ‘gameplay’. It is a mystery tale that unfolds its layers in interesting ways, some that I’ve never experienced in a video game format before, mimicking filmography with its unique editing and storytelling.
Set in a first person view, Virginia tells a tale about protagonist Anne Tarver, a recent FBI graduate taking on her first case. It has a thriller tone and attempts to tell a story about a missing young boy that you need to investigate with your partner Maria. Now I don’t want to go into much more detail about the plot for a few reasons. The first being that Virginia is only 2 hours long. Yes, it’s very short, but that’s not necessarily a detriment, as its tale gets told in that amount of time, well... kind of.
Secondly, I have to be honest here and let you know that I’m still processing Virginia and trying to understand it. "But why?" you ask. Well, there’s zero dialogue in the game. None at all, so you only have subtle body language and facial cues to read when trying to understand what’s happening and why. This may sound like another detriment, but I honestly don’t think it would have been as impactful as it was if there was spoken or subtitled dialogue. I know, odd, but it seems to work here. You simply need to interpret people’s faces and actions to understand their thoughts and what they’re trying to get across.
It’s odd for such a narrative based story to be told with no dialogue or sounds aside from a brilliant soundtrack that tells almost as much as speaking would. Because of these choices I believe many people who will see the credits roll will all interpret the ending a little differently in their own way, which is brilliant. Akin to Fargo or True Detective, Virginia is an original experience full of drama and twists that you don’t see coming at all. It’s odd, and not a traditional ‘game’, but it’s a worthwhile narrative to experience.
As I mentioned above, Virginia is more of an interactive story than a traditional game. As for its gameplay, it’s simplistic, as you control Anne through a set of linear sequences, looking for items to interact with which will take you to the next scene. There are no no moral choices to be made or guns to fire, you’re simply going from point A to B while looking for objects to interact with that will let you progress. It’s basic at its core, but again, for some reason it simply seems to work in the setting. That’s not to say that you’re always walking down a corridor, as there are some small side areas to explore like other rooms while in a house, but it’s a very guided experience.
The game is odd in such that it is a mystery game, but it doesn’t have you solving any puzzles or piecing together any clues gameplay wise, as you’re simply along for the (short) ride, allowing you to attempt to figure out what events are unfolding before you and how they all piece together. What I initially found very jarring was how the scenes are edited from one to another. For example, I was walking down a hallway and I found a piece of paper that I was looking for and inspected it, next thing I know I’m in a car driving somewhere with my partner. There was no scene transition, no fade to black, nothing. This is how Virginia moves you from scene to scene, and it can be a little disorientating at first, especially when you are trying to figure out what’s going on without any dialogue.
Normally I wouldn’t dedicate a paragraph for achievements in a review, but they deserved to be mentioned here. There’s a handful of achievements, but there’s no point looking at the titles or descriptions, as neither will give you a clue of what needs to be done to earn it. Here’s a good example of the achievement and its description: Flea - Victories in space and time.
The vast majority of Xbox games tend to stick with achievement values that are multiples of 5, but since Virginia wants to be different in everything it does, that’s not the case here. Here’s a handful of the odd achievement values for you that you can unlock: 13, 23, 31, 32, 44, 49, and 68. The secret achievements are near impossible to attain without a walkthrough, and I’m not sure how some people even figured them out. Good luck to you achievement hunters out there, I know this will drive some of you crazy.
Virginia looks as if it’s dated, taken straight from some early 90’s CG, but the visuals feel stylized and purposeful rather than low budget. Vibrant coloring adds to the visuals too. The true standout to the whole presentation though is without a doubt the stunning soundtrack. I’m not normally much of an audio guy, but wow, Virginia’s soundtrack is something that needs to be experienced. Because of the lack of dialogue the audio is how you get the feeling and mood of the scene, and this is done to perfection with music.
Composed by Lyndon Holland, and performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, it is easily in my top 3 gaming soundtracks. It changes and responds to your actions and feels as though it’s telling you what the characters aren’t saying with words. Music becomes tense when you’re about to come across a shocking discovery and the mood can change almost instantly with a different tonality based on your actions. I can’t say enough great things about the soundtrack, as Virginia wouldn’t be nearly as memorable without it.
While some will scoff at Virginia for its ‘walking simulator’ mechanics and extremely short gameplay, there’s not a lot of games that have me thinking about the experience and wondering about it days after it’s complete. Sure, there are those gamers that will simply feel like it’s a 2 hour interactive cutscene, having you confused the whole way, but there should be those that see it as a unique experience as it is a journey surrounded in mystery, always having you guessing to what’s real or not, akin to a great episode of The X-Files. You’re not in control of anything in Virginia, and once you come to accept that, it’s a completely different experience. It’s not going to appeal to many, but for those of you that might understand it, you will find something truly unique that sticks with you long after the credits roll.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Final Station, The
I had no idea what to expect when The Final Station arrived to review, as I initially assumed it was some sort of pseudo train-sim game given the few screenshots I saw. What I got though was something totally unexpected, unique, and contained impressive pixel artwork, though it does also have some flaws that seem more like oversights rather than massive design mistakes. So let’s get to it and see if it’s worth your time to reach the final station.Setting place in a dystopian world, some cataclysmic event has happened, causing supplies to be scarce and society to break down. Sure, it’s a trope that we’ve seen a hundred times before, but it’s framed in an interesting way that places you as a train conductor, travelling from town to city, rescuing any survivors you can find while battling an unknown enemy.
There is a bit more to the story, but given that The Final Station only takes a handful of hours to complete, I really don’t want to give much else away in fear of spoiling its best parts. What I will say is that the narrative is only revealed if you take the time to explore and listen to peoples conversations and find papers laying about, but if you decide to not pay attention, you won’t have any context to why the world is the way it is and what has happened to everyone. Even though the storytelling is weak as a whole since the bulk of it is not mandatory, the ending was pretty powerful and iha still stuck with me, days later after completion.
Played as a 2D side scroller, you simply want to fulfill your job as a train engineer. Your character seems good hearted, as it’s as if he simply wants to do the right thing by helping anyone he can that he comes across during his travels. There are two main gameplay elements that you’ll participate in; exploration and travel. You need to explore seemingly deserted towns and areas to find supplies to help you continue your journey, then travel from station to station on your train, hopefully with other survivors that will reward you if you help them reach their destination. The general gameplay flow is train, explore, train, explore, and repeat until credits roll. It’s basic but the tension eventually builds, and once you get into the later stages and start piecing together what’s going on, it does become quite interesting.
You are forced to stop at each train station along the tracks due to special blockers being installed at each locale, ensuring you’re unable to leave until you find a special unlock code to undock your locomotive and continue on your journey. Sure it seems a little forced, but that’s how you’re guided to explore each town you stop at, unable to progress until you find said code. You’re going to want to explore as much as possible though anyways, looking for items to sell, resources like food and water, and of course, any other survivors.
The first few locations you stop at don’t seem too bad off, but soon you start to notice a military presence and a disturbing lack of other people. Taking the time to explore, reading computers and notes posted around, will start to give you a glimpse into what happened to everyone suddenly. Eventually you’ll come to towns that are seemingly completely deserted, but you’re still forced to search for the blocker unlock code to progress.
You’ll need to check every desk, closet, locker, and abandoned car to find food, health kits, ammunition, and more. Every item you find is useful, as it either has a monetary value which is used to purchase upgrades, ammo, and other items when you reach a major city, or the item can be used in crafting health packs or ammo for your travels. You’ll want to explore every area you can, as there are some hidden tunnels that will usually house survivors or an ammo cache, which will come in quite handy later on. Luckily there’s no escorting needed when you find a survivor, as they miraculously know how to get back to the train to wait for you to be done.
The other half of the main gameplay is when you’re travelling on your train from area to area. This isn’t a free ride, and you’ll need to work to keep your train on pace, repaired, and keeping an eye on injured survivors. If you manage to have a handful of survivors at a time, they’ll chat to one another, allowing you to get a further glimpse into the back story. Don’t stand around listening for too long though, as if you don’t keep up on repairs, your train will come to a halt until it’s fixed, which has disastrous consequences since you're constantly low on supplies.
Your train has three main areas for you to interact with, the first being the front of the train where you can craft items, check your map, and also communicate with other engineers. This is where you’ll use the items you've scavenged to craft more first aid kits and ammunition. You’re only able to craft on your train, so make sure you do as much as you can before you reach your destination.
The second area is where you’ll interact with numerous parts of the train that seem to be malfunctioning during every trip. There’s a handful of different devices that will malfunction or overheat, but you’ll only have to deal with one of them per train ride, seemingly randomized as far as I could tell. If you don’t take care of the overheating, the train comes to a stop, which puts the passenger’s health at risk, and will take you longer to reach your next destination. These minigames aren’t explained in any way, so you’ll need to be clever and figure them out quickly, but you’ll know you’ve done the right thing when levels start to cool and there’s a small checkmark, giving you a few moments to rest before having to do it again.
While dealing with the train issues, you also need to keep an eye on your passengers in the caboose. Standing beside them will show their continuously draining hunger and health meters, their profession, and how much money you’ll earn if they survive to their destination (usually a handful of stops). You have a dispensary of health and food, but it comes in very little supply, which is why exploring during the town levels is so crucial. In the beginning you’ll have enough food and medical supplies for a passenger or two, but what do you do when you have 5 or so at once and not enough to last to get to the next stop for everyone? Factor in you need to constantly be taking care of the train as well during these sections, and you can start to see the franticness that ensues each time.
So why do you need ammo and weapons if seemingly everyone is gone? Well, you’ll start to encounter black zombie-like creatures that will attack you on sight, so you need to either shoot or melee them until they go down. There’s only a handful of enemy types throughout the game, ranging from normal, small but quick, explosive, and armored types. Each have a slight variation of how to best defeat them, but once you’ve killed one and learn the best strategy, combat doesn’t become much challenge from that point onward.
At first you’ll have very little ammo, constantly barely scraping by with what you have, but eventually you’ll never run out, especially once you learn that melee attacks are the best way to conserving ammo. You’re able to be ‘cheap’ and attack from ladders and angles in which they can’t reach you, and once you learn these tricks, combat mostly becomes trivial and more of a nuisance.
While the enemies aren’t difficult on their own, you’re sometimes put against a pack of up to ten at once, which is where you’ll find yourself in trouble real quick if you aren’t smart on your strategy. Learning to headshot will save ammo, and shooting an explosive enemy saves you many more bullets as well. Some items can be picked up and thrown and should be used whenever available, as it’s an instant kill if used properly. Should you fall in battle, there’s a checkpoint system in place that’s very generous, usually only having you backtrack 5 to 10 seconds rather than repeating the whole level over again.
I wasn’t sure what to make of The Final Station in the first half, as the narrative isn’t told very well unless you take the time to read everything you come across. So some people may not ever truly figure out what’s going on or why. The bigger problem though is that the text font that was used is so incredibly small, that it’s very difficult to read easily, especially from afar on the couch. I’m sure the font was chosen to fit with the pixel art style, but it made reading every word a chore and sometimes guesswork. Another issue you’ll notice from the opening title screen is the odd decision to make the menu selections near impossible to distinguish what option you have selected or not. The menu is white, and your selection is an off-white, so it’s complete guesswork of what you’re choosing. A handful of times I almost lost my save file because I chose new game instead of continue, panicked, and reset the game to be sure. The issue continues while on the train as well, unable to determine your selection very easily, even more so during the crafting menu where is literally is a guess where the cursor is.
Lastly, the train sections themselves simply aren’t fun. While it only takes a few minutes to reach destinations, your time is spent running supplies to passengers, maintaining your train, and micromanaging everything. It really isn’t done well, or fun. Having to choose who to give your last med kit or food ration to seems like complete guesswork of whom to pick. Maintaining your train is trial and error since no instructions are ever explained. You can’t even stand beside the passengers for too long to read their dialogue since you need to bounce between train maintenance and supply rations which are off screen, not allowing you to see the dialogue boxes. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, and so is the music when there is some, but there’s very few instances where background music actually plays, leaving you with a mostly silent experience. I assume this is done on purpose to convey the atmosphere and mood, but it’s as if something is missing with no background music at all to piece it all together.
The Final Station is a unique and creative experience. While simple at its core and a mystery that unveils itself slowly, its gameplay mechanics are repetitive and dull. While not a bad game by any means, it simply starts to wear out its welcome when you have to deal with yet another train ride and a town to explore, all to find a piece of paper so you repeat the same experience again. I truly enjoyed the ending, which was a saving grace in my eyes, I just hope others will make it to the final station to experience it for themselves.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
King Oddball
Who knew that one day a game about flinging birds from a slingshot into buildings and pigs would become a massive success, spawning a near endless supply of other physics based puzzle games, all trying to capitalize on its success. While King Oddball does play differently, it utilizes some of the same concepts. The real question though is, does this one do enough differently to not fall into the Angry Birds clone stereotype, or will it be yet another physics puzzle game that gets forgotten? Let’s find out. King Oddball won’t win any awards for its narrative, mainly because there really isn’t one included at all. You play as King Oddball, a giant floating head with an enormously long tongue that puts Gene Simmons to shame. You float in the sky, hurling rocks at your enemies, usually tanks, to try and destroy them all before you run out of boulders. That’s it. Honestly.
King Oddball is lucky, as the vast majority of his foes are simply stationary and don’t retaliate in any way. Apparently the military's idea of retaliation is hiding behind walls, under bridges, or in any flimsy buildings they can find. He has a single attack, and you only use a single button in the whole game, that’s how simplistic King Oddball can be. I say can because eventually levels will become quite challenging, as you’ve only a set number of boulders to hit every enemy.
Unlike having to aim and launch at the right time like other games, King Oddball will grab a boulder with his tongue then start to twist in place back and forth. Once you press the A button, that’s when he will release the rock, hurling it towards enemy tanks, choppers, and soldiers. Needless to say, the learning curve for the game is quite easy, but you will need to eventually master releasing the rock at just the right angle for it to bounce and hit multiple enemies at once.
Luckily for the King, if you manage to hit 3 enemies or more with a single rock, you’ll earn a bonus boulder, a tactic that is much needed in the latter stages with many enemies. As you progress, you’ll encounter different types of materials, all of which react differently when hit. Wood for example can be broken with a good hit, whereas stone walls can be broken, but take usually at least two hits to do so. You’ll also eventually encounter unbreakable objects, requiring you to think of an alternate way to lob your projectile at them since their hidden behind said wall.
The later stages become very difficult, as it seems as many stages only have one real solution to them. Eventually your throws need to be absolutely perfect or you will fail by running out of rocks. More often than not you’ll have one enemy left and one boulder to do so, only to miss by a slight bit, forcing you to replay the level once again. Most levels can be passed easily and with a single throw, but there are a handful that will have you stuck for quite some time, causing a lot of frustration.
At first you may think that King Oddball doesn’t offer much gameplay, as you can see how many stages are available on the world map, but you’d be wrong. There’s a large number of standard stages to complete, but you’ll also unlock a handful of separate bonus levels to challenge you as well. Some of these are interesting, having you lob grenades instead of rocks, something that I wish was incorporated into the main game itself rather than a bonus.
Unlike other physic puzzlers, King Oddball decides to do things a little bit differently; odd if you will (see what I did there?). Instead of having a 3 star rating on each stage then allowing you to replay them to earn a better rank, once a level is complete, that’s it, you can’t replay it. You’re also not ranked on how well you completed a level, based on how many rocks it took to do so aside from a message saying “great” or some variation of "good job". It’s an odd decision to design the game this way, as replaying levels is what gives games like this a lot of replayability. Granted, there’s a bonus section where you can replay some of the basic stages again, but it’s not the same as letting a friend try the same level once you finish it to see how they perform.
Instead of levels displayed in a linear form, there’s a world map that has you in a specific 4x4 grid, and once every stage in the grid is complete, you can then move onto the next grid of new levels until the whole map is unlocked. As for how it looks, it’s as if it’s been ripped right from a mobile game. Granted, a game like this doesn’t need anything special for visuals, but it stand out either. As for the audio, the music is decent at first, but it loops frequently and becomes very repetitive, so eventually you’re going to want to mute the audio, especially if you’re trying to complete all the levels or stuck on a specific one for quite some time.
While there are a large number of levels, many of them feel exactly the same. Very few stand out as memorable, as it’s usually slightly different enemy placement more than intriguing ‘puzzles’ that need to be solved. Something I kept asking myself while going through King Oddball was “Am I having fun?”, as if it wasn’t obvious, even to myself. My answer? Kind of. Maybe it’s simply because I never jumped aboard the Angry Birds train. Simply put, this would be fun on mobile, but as a console game, it’s not something you want to generally sit down and play for a few hours at a time, but instead, just a few quick minutes.
There’s a large number of levels and bonuses to play through, and if you were ever addicted to Angry Birds at some point, you’ll know exactly what to expect, even if at times it feels like you need more luck than skill. That being said, given its low price point, there is a decent amount of value contained within, even if the fun can be fleeting.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Hue
Because there’s a huge amount of platforming puzzle titles out there, these days it’s becoming incredibly difficult for a specific game in the genre to stand out. With titles like Limbo, Braid, or Ori and the Blind Forest, new games have a tough time not being tagged as a clone or as one that is simply trying too hard to be one of the better known puzzle games. Many games in the genre either fall into the mediocre bucket or simply get passed by because of how many there are, but every now and again something special does come long, like recently released game called Hue, a title that utilizes unique gameplay and offers many challenges with its puzzle groundwork.Living in a completely grey and monochrome world, you control Hue whom is looking for his lost mother. She was a scholar studying colors, and is now trapped in a new type of world, filled with many vibrant colors; something Hue’s world has never experienced. Hue happens to stumble upon colors during the search for his mother, learning slowly how to control and change the world’s color around him on a whim.
As you progress you’ll find letters from your mother, giving you hints of what happened to her as you search for why she is missing. The writing is great, but the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal. Even though Hue’s mom is the only narration in the game and it comes in spurts, it’s done perfectly in a calming and soothing motherly-like tone that brings comfort. The clever writing, while short, provokes thought and brings emotion into the narrative. Kudos to developers Fiddlesticks for nailing this part of Hue perfectly.
Hue’s core mechanics are based on being able to control different colors of the world once they are unlocked, which allows you to interact with the world in very unique ways, making for some challenging puzzles. The artwork is seemingly hand drawn, adding a great personal touch to the overall experience. The art style, while simplistic, brings a certain calmness to the drab pre-colored world.
Hue needs to pass from room to room, and area to area, to get closer to solving the mystery of his lost mother, but of course there are objects blocking his path. The only way for him to progress further is use his newfound ability to control the spectrum of colors, allowing him to change the background color. Objects in Hue are a variety of colors, so you must match, or purposely mismatch, the colors to move forward. For example, say there’s a red block is blocking your way, having Hue change the background color to red will make that block completely disappear, allowing you to pass since it’s blended into the background. It’s an incredibly simplistic mechanic, but is utilized in very clever ways.
All that’s needed to change the colors of the world is a simple flick of the Right Stick to the color wheel, landing on your desired color. In the beginning it’s quite simple, as you only need to switch between a single color or two, but by the end of Hue’s journey you’ll have up to 8 different colors to choose from, making for some frantic color switching. Since objects of specific colors can be hidden within the same background, you’ll need to frequently shift colors to reveal them, though that means other colored objects might become hidden in the process.
Hue does a fantastic job of slowly easing you into its mechanics, teaching you the basics as you slowly move onto harder puzzles before adding another color into the mix. The learning curve is very smooth and I never truly became frustrated until the massive difficulty spike right near the end. Fiddlesticks has also done an amazing job at making sure no two puzzles ever feel too similar. Sure, at its core you’re simply moving boxes, but the process to do so is varied and never feels repetitive.
As you play, using the color wheel becomes second nature, and eventually you’ll get to the point of memorizing where every color on the wheel selector is without having to think twice. This makes the gameplay become even more fluid, and factor this in with the intended slow motion that occurs when choosing your color, Hue simply feels great to play. Sure, in the beginning you’ll come across a few puzzles that seem literally impossible, but once you figure out that room’s ‘trick’, you know better for the next time you come across a similar type of obstacle. The only real restriction when choosing your color is that you can’t be standing ‘inside’ another colored object, as it would kill you if you make it appear from being previously blended into the background.
Many levels are simply trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. If you think logically, or try to solve it backwards (starting at the end point thinking how to solve each prior step), Hue plays right into your strengths. While it’s easy to distinguish the main colors of yellow, red, blue, and green, it can become a little tricky to determine if you need the dark blue or the purple at times, especially during frantic sections. The same goes with yellow and orange, which are beside each other on the color wheel. If this is an ongoing issue, or if you’re color blind, there’s an option to show symbols on all similar colored items, allowing a more visual representation of each shade.
The majority of achievements are gained simply by progressing through the game and watching the credits, with the only elusive one being for collecting all of the secret hidden beakers. The map menu displays how many you’ve found in each ‘section’ of the game, and you can continue playing after the credits roll, allowing completionists to continue on Hue’s journey a little longer.
As I said earlier, it takes a lot for a game in this genre to stand out among the vast selection of other games. Hue takes an incredibly simple premise and turns it into a unique, fun, and challenging game that I’m still thinking of days later. To be completely honest, Hue wasn’t on my radar at all, but I’m incredibly grateful it fell into my lap by chance, as I’m glad I got to experience it from beginning to finish. Hue easily stands out amongst the crowd, not just because of its interesting art style or its fun game mechanics, but because it’s a really creative game that tries, and succeeds, to not imitate other games, as it leaves you satisfied yet wanting more.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Valley
Better known for the studio that brought gamers Slender: The Arrival, Blue Isle Studios has released their newest title on Xbox One, Valley. While it’s a somewhat short game, clocking in at just around 4 hours, Valley can be beautiful when at its best. While it may be short in length, there are times that it makes this up in beauty and fluidity, but only in small sections when perfect conditions and mechanics are in play. During the rest of the journey though it can be somewhat dull for reasons that I’ll delve into shortly.Your journey begins with your character exploring a cave in the Canadian Rockies after crashing in a canoe. You emerge into another world that’s seemingly been long forgotten. Beauty is the first word that comes to mind, as you are surrounded by lush vegetation and trees, wildlife, and sunrays that envelop the whole land. You stumble across a crate that contains a metal exoskeleton titled the L.E.A.F. suit (Leap Effortlessly through Air Functionality). From this point on you can run at incredible speeds (at least downhill) and jump across chasms effortlessly. The L.E.A.F. suit also empowers you to manipulate life and death, introduced in a 50’s style projector movie, reminiscent of something you’d see in Bioshock.
As the story unfolds, you’re in search of the Lifeseed, a mysterious power source that is capable of unfathomable power. Interestingly, aside from some wildlife, the whole valley seems devoid of any sentient life, which is beautiful in some ways, but when you find scattered notes littered throughout the land, you come to understand there were people here before. But why are they gone and where did they go? That’s up to you to solve during your travels.
Given that the whole narrative is told through audio logs and notes, it’s hard to become invested into the characters and reasoning since you don’t ever interact with anyone directly. While the narrative isn’t told very well, since much of the lore won’t even be found unless you’re trying to actively seek it all, it is an intriguing story once you start to piece together the events of what previously happened, and why no one is left.
Once you dawn the L.E.A.F. suit your real journey begins, as you’re taught to constantly run, rarely slowing down from that point onward. You begin by running down a path, gaining speed as you go, before leaping across a cliff. Eventually you'll get the hang of the controls, allowing you to run between trees and other objects at a quick pace, which feels great when you’re at top speed. For how beautiful the world is, it feels as though you never get a chance to appreciate it since you’re constantly moving forward at a quick speed. You’ll learn new abilities as you progress, but movement and fluidity is a constant for the majority of Valley’s experience.
There are times where it’s as if some of the layout wasn’t planned ahead of time, and when you attempt to take corners quickly at top speed it simply doesn’t work as you’ll almost always hit something or slow down much more than intended. It’s as if you’re unable to keep up with your own momentum at times and there are even a handful of giant leaps you must take only to find yourself land awkwardly into a tree or hitting a rock, as if it was placed in the middle of your path on purpose. While you can slightly adjust your movement in mid-air, only to a small degree, there will be times where you’ll attempt to avoid landing in front of an object but you're unable to.
While the first bit of the game takes place in the beautiful outdoors with sprawling vistas, there’s a good chunk of the game that forces you indoors, hampering much of your quick movement. In these bunkers you’ll be traversing through vents and small walkways, but you generally never get the speed that you’ve become accustomed to up to this point. It is here that Valley loses a lot of its charm in these claustrophobic stages and tends to feel like a completely different, and dull, game.
There is one saving grace in these areas though, and it is a couple of sections where you get to run at an even faster than normal speed on some on-rail like areas. These sections, while far too few, are incredibly fun and exciting as you run at crazy speeds, having to jump across massive gaps off of broken bridges. Sadly, there’s only two of these sections in the whole game, arguably the coolest moments in all of Valley, and they left me wanting more.
Eventually you'll upgrade your L.E.A.F. suit allowing you to use a grapple hook on specific points, which opens up your momentum and fluidity in specific areas. While these hooks can be fun when used properly, and it feels almost like you’re Spider-Man swinging around, you need to make sure you let go at the right moment or you’ll lose all your momentum and fall. Near the later sections of the game you’ll also gain the ability to walk along metallic surfaces, which will have you walking sideways, or completely upside down, at times.
Your L.E.A.F. suit needs energy though, as that is what’s used to do almost everything from shooting, double jumps, grapple hooks, and more. You refill energy by collecting blue orbs scattered throughout the land, and there’s almost always enough nearby that you’ll ever be completely out of energy. While it’s interesting that you have the power to give or take life, it never feels fully realized, as you only really use it to power up devices, or to give/take life from trees or wildlife. Sure bringing a dead tree or fallen deer back to life is heartwarming the first few times, but after that there’s little reason to do so, unless you always want your suits energy to be full.
What’s really interesting about the energy of your L.E.A.F. suit though is that it’s all tied to your abilities and health, as well as to the “life” of the valley. Instead of having a set number of lives for when you fall into water (which “kills” you since the suit is so heavy) or a pit, you and the valley are tied together in some way (this is explained later in the game).
If you happen to die the valley brings you back to life, but at the expense of its own health, represented by a branch with leaves in the upper left corner near your own energy. Die too many times in a row and the valley will die, then it’s truly game over, but don’t concern yourself with this, as I was able to complete Valley without ever coming close to the valley fading away. This is because to refill the valley's health you simply have to give life back to dead trees, animals, and other objects, and since there’s always more than enough energy orbs around at all times, this is very easy to do.
The only issue I had with the energy sharing mechanic is that if you are using a lot of your energy to shoot the enemies you encounter, you’re also depleting your own life bar at the same time. For some reason dying tended to take random amounts of the valley’s life away whenever I did die, instead of a same preset amount every time. I don’t know if this is intended, or a bug, but it seemed that the amount of life the valley would lose whenever I drowned or fell to my death was not consistent.
Combat is present in Valley, and at first it’s simply against some glowing bee-like swarms that shoot at you, but eventually you’ll also face some ghost-like creatures, and that’s it; only two enemy types in the game, neither of which are challenging, and only take 2 or 3 shots to defeat. The combat sections are weak, and while many of them can be avoided by simply running past them it feels almost as an unnecessary addition. Strafing out of the way and returning fire is all it takes to defeat any enemy, and their slow projectiles are simple to avoid. Save for a boss fight near the end, there’s absolutely no variety to combat, and if you shoot them before they notice you you can easily defeat all enemies without them even reacting.
There are some secrets and collectibles to find throughout the game world, and doing so will net you some extra upgrades. There are certain doors that take a set number of acorns to open (yes, acorns), so while you’re supposed to always be running forward there are rewards for those that want to explore as well. There are even special medallions that can be found, but you won’t know what they are for until the near end of the game. While some might simply write Valley off as a walking (well, running) simulator, there’s some great beauty to be had, especially some of the overlooking landscapes where you can see the Northern Lights above. Running and jumping at full speed, or utilizing the hook properly, feels absolutely great, but for every few moment of fun you have, there’s another that either slows you down or forces you to traverse indoors instead.
For a game that centers on life and death, it’s odd that there’s virtually no life within its world that you actually care about. Because of this it’s hard to become truly invested in it, and the constant ‘stop and go’ doesn’t help when you’re trying to keep momentum and fluidity constant. While there are some reasons for some to play through more than once, and find all of the secrets, I found that I was content after seeing the credits roll. Regardless of all its shortcomings though, I’m glad I experienced Valley and got to explore its intriguing world. Even though the game hits a few bumps along the adventure, the final few sections of the game, save for the combat, are very much worth experiencing. At the end of the day you'll become accepting of its' shortcomings and realize that there is a decent game in this indie title.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Binaries
I was raised to not be a quitter. Sure this was more directed as life advice than my gaming career, but I try and follow that motto when playing games as well. Well, sorry mom, I quit. While most people would use Dark Souls or a specific shmup game to be a benchmark for challenging games, those people clearly haven’t had a chance to play Binaries yet. Binaries lures you into a false sense of security with its retro inspired visuals and basic looking gameplay. Man, I was so wrong. Simple in design, basic controls, but brutally difficult. I had Binaries pegged wrong all this time.The core premise of Binaries is that you control two sprites at the exact same time, blue and orange, and you need to get them to their respective colored goal areas. That’s it. In the beginning it seems almost too simplistic, as both sprites are locked to the same movements at the same time; so when you move right, both move right, and when you jump, they both jump, and so on. Your basic introduction is simply there to lure you into a false sense of security, as things become much more difficult very quickly.
Some levels are basic, others you’ll finish by sheer luck, but most though, will have you resisting every urge you have to throw your controller right out the window. You will learn to hate spikes, as those can kill you if touched, forcing you to reset the level (automatically). Luckily there’s zero time for reloads, and levels are only supposed to last around 10 to 30 seconds, if you’re going by the benchmark times for ranks. Eventually you’ll have other objects to avoid, like turret fire, and other nasty tricks that you’ll start to call mean names to.
What I wish Binaries did better was increase the difficulty gradually and slowly, but there’s a certain point where it just skyrockets in its challenge, leaving you frustrated and confused about how to even tackle the level properly. Luckily progress isn’t a linear experience, as the world map shows every level as its own dot on the map, touching other dots. When you complete a level, any other dots (levels) that are physically connected open up to be played. So this allows you to play any unlocked levels in any order. Sometimes you’ll breeze through a seemingly harder challenge, while the ‘simpler’ ones will have you pulling your hair out. This was a smart idea by the devs, as if I was forced to complete levels in order without being able to progress, I would have given up long ago.
To get your two orbs to their respective finish lines sounds easy, yet it’s anything but. Some levels are one big open area, while others tie each orb to their own ‘track’. While there is a time limit for each level, it’s simply for bragging rights (and achievements), and as long as you make it to the goal, regardless of your time, you unlock any adjacent levels on the world map. Eventually levels also include 5 second time bonuses, when if collected, will reduce your overall time for that attempt. They aren’t necessary, but for those that love time attacks, you have your work cut out for you.
Easily the best part about Binaries though is its humor. The background of each level has messages that pop up from the devs, sometimes with a funny joke (or terrible pun), or simply making fun of themselves, like how a developer was fired for making a specific level too hard. Normally when I become frustrated with difficult games, I found myself not wanting to go back for more, but Binaries is somehow different. Even though I want to destroy my controller at times, I still want to try new levels, even after the hundredth time.
While visually Binaries looks terribly simple, it’s appealing to the eye, and the smooth and precise gameplay helps with that. As for the audio, it’s a good fit, and I noticed there’s even some relaxing ambient music, possibly in attempt to try and relax the player from maximum frustration.
I know when I’m defeated, and Binaries defeated me pretty bad. For those puzzle fanatics that are able to complete every level, not even including S ranks, my hats off to you. Puzzle games are supposed to challenge, and Binaries took that to heart, and possibly even a bit too far at times. It’s not an easy game by any means, but it’s well deserving of its price point.
Binaries contains an incredible challenge, complete with a massive learning curve, continuously increasing difficulty, and simplistic gameplay. If you want to know how many swear words you truly know, sit down with Binaries for a few hours, and you might even surprise yourself with some of the profanities that come out of your mouth. Oh, and also stock up on spare controllers, you’re going to need them if you want to get through all of the challenges.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call
Artifex Mundi is arguably the best current developer of hidden object games (HOG’s) on consoles today. Sure, there aren’t many developers these days that dabble in the genre, especially on console, but Artifex Mundi have seemed to find their stride and are bringing their engaging and fun titles from PC and mobile to the Xbox One, with success. It wasn’t until I got to review their last title on Xbox One, Grim Legends, that I realized I really enjoyed the genre for its laid back gameplay, allowing me to relax, solve some puzzles, and enjoy its beautiful artwork.While some might scoff at playing point and click adventures like this, if you’ve played any of their titles before, you know exactly what’s in store for you with Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren’s Call. Sometimes you simply want to take a break from shooters and action games, and for times like those, The Siren’s Call is a great title to relax with and solve some puzzles.
The Siren’s Call is obviously a sequel, and while I’ve not played the original title, there’s a very brief attempt of catching you up on what’s happened so far. Given that titles like these aren’t generally story intensive, it’s appreciated that there’s at least an attempt to include an intriguing narrative, even if it sometimes falls flat in some parts. You play as the returning protagonist, Sarah Black, who works at a museum and receives a mysterious package one night from a shadowy figure. As you solve the puzzle of opening the package and obtain the artifact within, you’re instantly assaulted and robbed.
Thinking her crazy adventures were behind her, she's thrust into a new adventure in the town of Kingsmouth, whose population is filled with fishmen. You must retrieve the artifact and save a siren to prevent the evil mayor from summoning the Kraken to do his bidding. It’s a little out there for its' story, but fitting for the whole Davy Jones mythology. While the voice acting isn’t perfect by any means, it’s at least passable. Sure the story is cliché and predictable at times, but in a game like this, the story is simply there to string you along from puzzle to puzzle.
You begin by first choosing between Normal or Expert mode, with the main difference being that normal allows you to use hints after a certain amount of time and your map shows you where you have to go next. On expert you get none of these assists. The first handful of puzzles start off quite easy, easing you into the gameplay and teaching you the basics you’ll need to continue your adventure.
Most of the puzzles are either a HOG, tasking you with finding a shopping list of items in a messy area, or having you use and combine items in your inventory to solve other logical puzzles. The bigger puzzles are generally some sort of tile moving or rotating gears type, nothing too difficult that I ever became frustrated or stuck, but varied enough to keep things from becoming stale. Most scenes you come across will require you to inspect items, only to find out that you don’t have the pieces you need to progress before solving puzzles in a different area.
If HOG’s aren’t your thing, you can alternatively play a quick game of mahjong instead. Why mahjong I’m not sure, but at least there’s an option for those that would rather not sort through messy items. There’s even an achievement for playing all the mahjong games rather than HOG’s, so two playthroughs are required for those achievement hunting.
You eventually gain access to a map, not only for showing you how the scenes are connected and allowing you to fast travel to and from any scene, but it also gives you a hint of where you have left an unsolved puzzle (on normal mode) to prevent becoming too lost. While The Siren’s Call is easily completed in a single sitting if you’re a puzzle aficionado, especially if you’re relying on the built in hint system, it’s still a fun experience to be had. There’s an epilogue included as well that’s playable once you complete the main game. While it’s a very short addition and nowhere near as challenging as the main game, it’s still a welcome addition that adds another hour or so to the experience.
The art style that Artifex Mundi uses for their games is absolutely beautiful. While the voice acting and animation could use some work, the visuals alone is quite impressive with its' colorful and vibrant style, making for a charming experience. Every scene feels as though it’s been hand painted and fits the overall tone of the game and backdrop. While the music itself isn’t as prominent and featured as the visuals, it’s subtle and adds to the overall mood of the scenery.
Loading times are minimal when moving from scene to scene, and I never had to struggle with the controls clicking the wrong items in the HOG’s. Given that the reticule is quite large, it’s accurate for the most part, when trying to choose a specific item. Thankfully the framerate issues I encountered in Grim Legends seems to have been fixed and is none existent in The Siren’s Call, so good on Artifex Mundi for solving that nagging issue with their previous titles.
Sure, the game is only a handful of hours long (or much longer if you’re not great at puzzles), and the story is basic, but the gameplay though is fun and never becomes frustrating to the point of wanting to give up. If you’ve played any other games in the genre before you know exactly what you’re getting into, but even if you haven’t, or you don’t think it’ll be your thing, still give it a go. You might be surprised like I was and find yourself really enjoying the genre.
The Siren’s Call, and the whole Artifex Mundi catalogue as a whole, is a great ‘filler’ when you need a break from shooting enemies, squealing tires, or the cheeer of the crowd in any sports game, as it can easily be played in short bursts. My wife, who isn’t even much of a gamer, really enjoys helping me in the HOG’s, and I’m hoping that Nightmares from the Deep 3 comes to Xbox One soon so I can finish the trilogy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bunch of items to click and a game of mahjong to complete.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Worms WMD
I can’t believe I’ve been playing worms for over 20 years. I still remember the day I went to a friend’s house and saw him playing this odd game on PC with worms shooting each other. From that moment on I've been hooked. Even though I’ve been a massive fan of Worms, and their developer, Team 17, for over two decades, I’m not blind to the fact that some of the last releases have really been hit or miss in terms of quality and lasting power.Many fans feel the series peaked way back in 99’ with Worms Armageddon, myself included, so the question for super fans is if Worms W.M.D. can be just as good, or better, than Armageddon. Well I’m happy to announce that W.M.D, while not drastically better than Armageddon, is easily at least on par, which is saying a lot given there’s been a dozen releases between then and now. Team 17 has done just enough to refine and add to the tried and true gameplay to make for a modern-yet-familiar gameplay for fans. There’s so much here that feels like Worms, yet I’m still learning a ton of new intricacies even after a couple dozen hours of gameplay.
While the core gameplay hasn’t changed drastically after twenty years, as you’re still commanding your team of worms against the opposing team with over the top weaponry and cartoonish graphics, it finally feels as though Team 17 has gotten back to what made Worms so great, making you want to play ‘just one more game’ after each one. There’s something for everyone here; single player, challenges, multiplayer, and a whole slew of new mechanics to learn and strategize with.
Even though I’m a Worms aficionado, I still always play through the single player campaign missions before taking my skills online. Normally these are pretty dull as you face an A.I. team, or teams, of worms of increasing difficulty, simply adding more worms to increase challenge. I honestly expected the same with W.M.D. but I’m more than happy to report that the campaign has been completely reworked and is actually engaging and really fun.
Comprising of 30 missions, each one has a main objective that needs to be met to get a passing mark. Each mission also has a handful of secondary objectives to challenge your skills. Some of the primary objectives may consist of defeating the enemy worms, defending a specific worm, collecting a crate, or other special goals. This adds some variety to the typical ‘kill all worms’ gameplay that the series is known for.
Secondary objectives are completely optional, but offer some new challenges and replayability, even for series veterans like myself. Sometimes these are simple and you may even complete them naturally, but others will have you approaching levels slightly different. Some of these might consist of your worm ending the round with more than the starting amount of health, or having your whole team finishing inside a building (more on this exciting addition shortly), or using a specific weapon to get the final kill. There are even hidden posters that can be found to unlock up to ten special challenges.
This new campaign setup is much more bite-sized, but the variety makes it become less dull since the primary objectives switch often. You earn XP for completing these objectives, unlocking new cosmetic items and sound packs, so there’s some reward in spending the time to do so. Team 17 has done a great job at changing up the formula and making it a mode that I actually wanted to sink time into and complete.
For those that have somehow missed playing a Worms game in the past two decades, it’s essentially a turn based strategy game where you’re tasked with defeating the opposing team(s) of Worms. You’re given an arsenal of weaponry that ranges from standard bazookas and shotguns to completely off the wall armaments such as banana bombs and concrete donkeys. There’s a surprising amount of strategy that goes into a match of Worms, and with all of the new additions, even more so with W.M.D.’s release. Thankfully the class based worms have been nixed from W.M.D., so expect a much more classic gameplay overall.
One thing I’ve noticed about Worms games when playing single player is that the A.I. is completely random. Sometimes they are as dumb as a bag of rocks and will shoot their teammate, while other times they seem to have prayed to their deity and make humanly impossible shots with pinpoint accuracy. This randomness seems to live on in W.M.D., as some matches the enemies will be a pushover, and other times they’ll make a shot that you wouldn’t be able to do if you tried a million times in a row. Given that Worms is primarily a multiplayer focused adventure, it’s not a deal breaker, but something to keep in mind when going through the 30 campaign missions or against bots.
There are a handful of weapons that are so iconic to the Worms series that even to this day when I see a banana, the banana bomb instantly comes to mind. Not that I have, but if I ever see a donkey statue in real life, I know Worms will come to mind. Many of the favorites and staples return, such as the bazooka, uzi, shotgun, super sheep, air strikes, holy hand grenade, concrete donkey, and many more. There are even a handful of new weapons that, while maybe not as iconic yet, they certainly fit in the silliness of the Worms warfare. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, as figuring out what’s new and how they work is half the fun, but I’ll just say that the phone battery is now a regular in my armament.
There are now also mounted weapons that can be used if you make your way to them. Placed randomly in the battlefield, you may come across a mounted sniper, machine gun, mortar, and others. Obviously their placement will determine your strategy to use them or not, but man, they can make a huge difference in a match if utilized properly, giving you a massive advantage.
As for utilities, Worms wouldn’t be the same without the staple jet pack and ninja rope to traverse around the map. For vets like myself, it’s been a rough time ever since the rope changes from Armageddon, as it’s never felt as good since then. It seems Team 17 has taken this to heart, and while it’s not as perfect as it was back in 99’, the ninja rope is once again an easy to use yet hard to master utility that can make a world of difference in your gameplay if learned how to be used properly. As a side note, learn to use the rope effectively so you can also destroy many worms with the new sheep on a rope weapon as well.
So what else has Team 17 done to make Worms fresh and relevant again? Vehicles. It’s crazy to think these haven’t been a part of the series until now considering how awesome they are. You can find scattered throughout the level (should your settings allow it) tanks, helicopters, and mechs. Yes, mechs. The first worm to get inside of it can use it, and while it can be game changing, it can also be hijacked by the opposing team on their turn and used against you as well.
While vehicles can deal a massive amount of damage, they do take some getting used to, and I can’t count the amount of times I’ve accidentally shot my own team with some poor helicopter flying skills. Just be aware that while you’re in a vehicle you do gain some extra protection, but if it blows up with you inside you’ll take that extra damage as well. The vehicles feel overpowered at first, but require quite a lot of strategy to use them effectively, especially since you can be ejected from them during an opponents turn.
Another new addition, and quite a game changer, is the ability to craft weapons. Not simply another bazooka or grenade, but variants of almost every weapon in the game. What if your bunker buster simply won’t cut it? Why not craft a mega buster that explodes with the power of a holy hand grenade. Heck, why not craft a holy hand mine instead? There’s a huge list of weaponry that can be crafted, each of which has a specific time and place to be used and opens the door for even more strategy involved.
You need a specific amount of resources to craft items, some of which can be found in crates, or you can deconstruct items you don’t plan on using as well. You break down these items into scrap which can then be used to create unique and even more enjoyable weapons to defeat your enemies. It takes a turn to craft a weapon, but you can even craft during an opponent’s turn, which is a huge addition and can easily turn the tide of battle if thought out correctly ahead of time. This mechanic absolutely needs to stay in any following Worms releases, as I found myself using it much more than I expected to.
The other big addition to the weathered gameplay is buildings. Now there are certain buildings that can be entered and hidden in. When in a building the opposing team can’t see exactly where you are inside, unless it’s been blown up or you’re in one of the few visible spots, like a window. This allows you to hide without having to rely on the standard digging that we’ve done for years, or even set traps for unsuspecting enemies. While it’s not as big of an addition as crafting, it’s big enough to warrant some new strategies.
W.M.D. has taken Worms back to its 2D hand drawn visual style, as opposed to the awkward 3D models on a 2D plane that occurred in the past few games. This results in a gorgeous style, full of color and charm. The new hand drawn look makes it feel fresh and new and arguably one of the best looking Worms game yet.
There was only one huge downfall in my time with W.M.D., and that’s the lack of a map editor. There’s options to change the style and type of landscape, but there’s no ‘paint brush’, so to speak, that previous Worms games have included. This may seems small to some, but for those of us who like to create our own maps for specific game modes, like rope racing (which is sadly missing), and while it may not be a deal breaker, it’s sadly a big miss. I’m hoping that this might get included in a future update, as it would really make W.M.D. a standout in the series.
To be completely honest, I’m willing to overlook the lack of a map editor (for now) simply because of the amount of other new mechanics that have been added. Crafting alone is enough to learn and strategize, and I really hope it’s a standard feature moving forward. Playing online with a friend resulted in many laughs, which is what Worms is all about. While it may not exceed the greatness of Armageddon in some respects, Worms is definitely back, and W.M.D. shouldn’t be passed over if you want an enjoyable night of gaming chucking a bunch of banana bombs and a slew of other new crazy weapons at a friend.
Suggestions: A map editor is a must.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Overcooked
I’m not a great cook in the kitchen. Sure, I can do the basics, and I make a mean plate of pirogi, but aside from that I leave the cooking to my wife in our house, as she enjoys it and excels at it. Well, thanks to Overcooked from Ghost Town Games, I can now boast that I’m a better cook than her; well at least on the Xbox One in this specific instance. Developed by a team of two, Overcooked is charming and silly, making for a unique experience that should be shared with friends on the couch. Overcooked has a completely silly and over the top story centering around a massive spaghetti monster that is demanding to be fed. Unfortunately you’re not a skilled cook and you fail to appease its appetite, luckily though the Onion King arrives to save you by sending you back in time so that you can learn the culinary skills needed to succeed the next time you catch up in time and face off against the beast again. Going back in time and gaining the these skills is the only way you’ll learn to create delicious dishes, manage the kitchen, and get the orders of food out on time. It’s completely goofy, never takes itself seriously, and the art style is fitting for such a humorous tale.
Overcooked is a co-op game that turned out to be much more fun than I was expecting. It’s up to you and a friend (or up to 4 players) to run your kitchen properly, smoothly, and without it catching on fire. The first few stages start off slow and easy, but eventually the levels become incredibly chaotic and frantic, throwing unique challenges at you on practically every level.
Levels start off basic, tasking you with simply making soup. You complete this by grabbing the ingredient from the corresponding box, chopping it, then placing it in the pot to cook, though that’s all before plating and delivering it of course. Eventually you’ll have stages where your tables move, you're separated by food trucks barreling down the highway, rats that steal food left out on the counter, earthquakes that can separate your cooks, and even rotating platforms in space. Almost every level feels unique and offers a distinct challenge, which is great for variety, but it can make it difficult to master.
Gameplay is simple, but the challenges you face make Overcooked incredibly challenging at times. Orders that need to be cooked appear in the top left corner, which show the required ingredients. Certain items need to be chopped, cooked, or deep fried, so there’s lots of chaos that takes place since you need to do a handful of steps before plating and serving. The quicker you cook the better your tips, and subsequently your final star rating. Completely fail to cook an order before its timer runs out and you’ll actually lose tips, so gaining perfect scores requires precision, cooperation, and speed.
As you complete levels and gain completion stars, more levels will unlock until you reach a point where you need to go back and replay older levels because you don’t have enough stars to play the next locked stage. This 'gating' can be a little frustrating, especially if you’re playing alone, but if you have a friend to cook with then there shouldn’t many issues where you become stuck at a certain point.
Controls work well for the most part, with the d-pad controlling your cook, the A button used to pick up and put down items, and the X button used for interacting. If you’re playing alone, the shoulder buttons will swap between cooks allowing you to multitask; something that is vital. Even though the controls work well, the angled viewpoint makes it sometimes tricky to see what exact item is on a given area due to the low camera angle and the wall slightly blocking the view.
Overcooked is an adorable looking title with a cute kid-like style to it. My toddler even asked if we could get “those toys” after playing, thinking that the characters and food were also toys in a store. The cartoony style fits the humor, as the ingredients are as big as your head and dashing around in the kitchen is adorable with a handful of different looking unlockable cooks.
While Overcooked can be played alone, something that I did for the majority of my gameplay, the real charm shines through once you have someone to play locally with you on the same couch. Sadly there’s no online multiplayer, so you’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Playing alone means you need to constantly switch from chef to chef, juggling tasks on your own, though it never really feels fun as you’re constantly falling behind on orders and can't multitask easily. There is an option to ‘split’ your controller, allowing you to play both cooks at once, but it’s incredibly challenging to do and would take a lot of dedication to become proficient at.
You’ll want to play with friends, as even one more player makes a complete world of difference. To be completely honest, playing by myself for a few hours wasn’t all that entertaining, but I finally convinced my wife to give it a shot with me, and for someone that generally isn’t proficient in using a controller, she managed to catch on quickly after a level or two. Before we knew it we were running a kitchen together, delegating tasks to one another and working on the incoming orders.
Playing with friends means that each person (up to 4) can split up the responsibilities. So one person can be accountable for either one side of the kitchen or specific tasks like chopping, cooking, plating, washing dishes, or simply moving your ingredients to designated places. The more players you have the better your kitchen should run, but that’s a big ‘should’.
In theory, the more players you have the smoother things should be going, but in reality, you’re going to be bumping into each other, grabbing each other’s items, and participating in other shenanigans that will no doubt bring some laughs and shouts. Communication is absolutely required and needs to be on point if you want those perfect three star ratings, so you better play with some friends that can take orders without question.
Overcooked at times can be frustrating, especially when playing alone, but when playing with at least one friend, it becomes a hilarious title that you’ll no doubt make you laugh and curse at one another, depending on how your orders are being filled and whose fault it was that the tomato soup burned this time. It’s fast paced and the countdown timer adds to the crazy pace that needs to be adhered if you want to succeed. You only get tips once your meals have been served, so you need to keep an eye on your time and learn how long specific tasks take so you can figure out the best way to multitask.
Once I played the multiplayer mode, Overcooked truly surprised me. This can easily be one of the main multiplayer games any gamer will pull out when they have friends over, as it’s very simple to learn and will have everyone laughing when barking orders at one another. It’s got a unique concept, great gameplay, and almost anyone can enjoy its simple premise. If you don’t have anyone to play with though it’s going to be a frustrating and dull experience, but if you can get even a single person to play with you, Overcooked will have you coming back for one more order.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Solar Shifter EX
Bullet hell games, more commonly referred to as shmups (shoot em’ ups), tend to have a unique characteristic or mechanic to make each one stand out against the other games in the genre. These types of games, and their gameplay, are generally known to throw as many bullets at you as possible, requiring the highest of reflexes and nimbleness to survive. Solar Shifter EX, a game recently released on the Xbox One, may not reinvent the genre, but it does possess a unique gameplay mechanic that I’ve not seen in a shmup before. That being said, I’m just not sure if that’s enough to make it worthwhile. Like many smaller indie games coming to Xbox One, Solar Shifter EX was released on PC last year and it has now made its way to Microsoft's console, so if it looks familiar, that’s most likely why.While shmups generally aren’t known for their in-depth or intriguing storylines, Solar Shifter EX does include a narrative, but it’s nothing we’ve haven't seen a hundred times before. The story revolves around an alien invasion and mankind needs to fight back or face extinction. While cliché, and not overly original, at least some effort was put into having some basis behind your actions. The story is not told very well though as the game lacks cutscenes and there isn't any decent voice acting. Get used to the fact that you’re coming for the bullet hell, and that aspect is definitely present, so just leave it at that and ignore the paper thin plotline as it doesn't do anything to be anymore interesting than what it is.
Like most shmups, you pilot a spaceship that can only sustain a certain amount of damage before being destroyed. A good shmup needs two key mechanics to work in sync in order for the game to be successful: precision controls and an accurate hitbox.
Controls need to be spot on since you’re dealing with hundreds of bullets on the screen at once, and if you can’t avoid them 'fairly' then the gameplay suffers. The hitbox for your ship also needs to be accurate and logical, allowing you to only get hit when you ‘should’, and if that is not the case, then that’s another big issue that’s a huge detriment. Solar Shifter EX is an odd case, because while it has decent controls, the camera completely messes up any effort that’s gone into making them accurate. The hitbox for your ship seems to suffer in the accuracy area as well, and I can’t tell if it’s because of the shifting camera or some other underlying issue; but more on that shortly.
Like any bullet hell game you will be punished for not being skillful enough. Sometimes you need to start from the beginning while other times you'll find that you can continue from certain checkpoints. Luckily Solar Shifter EX employs the checkpoint system and allows you to respawn not too far back, but get used to long loading times as the level seems to be completely reloaded every time you die. Considering that you’ll be dying quite often it becomes frustrating to wait so frequently, sometimes more than the gameplay.
What I found very odd was that there was no bomb system or super weapon to use when you’re stuck in a tight situation, which is unlike what most games in the genre utilize. There’s also no upgrade system in place aside from spending credits you gather from downed enemies to improve your main and secondary weapons (both shoot at the same time). For all of the upgrading that I did I never noticed any difference in my firepower. I don’t know if that’s because the enemies gain more health in the later stages, or if the upgrades are so minor that you can’t tell the difference. Either way, it felt like a waste since there’s no tangible benefit from upgrading, other than there’s nothing else to spend the credits on.
What sets Solar Shifter EX apart from others in the genre is its unique shifting mechanic. This allows you to instantly shift to other predetermined spots on the screen (top/middle, bottom/middle, left, and right) with a flick of the right stick. While you can’t spam the shifting non-stop, the cooldown is very minimal and there’s no limit to how much you can use it in a level. It’s a mechanic that is only briefly explained in game and it's not taught to you as well as it could be. You better learn how to utilize it to your strategy very early on though, as there are many sections in the game that you won't survive without shifting out of danger to a safe spot. It’s a unique idea, and has potential, but surviving in Solar Shifter EX is simply about finding one of the few ‘safe spots’ on the screen as enemies shoot in predetermined directions, so it becomes a test of memorization more than skill.
The level designs are bright and colorful, and there’s more than enough happening on the screen at once, but it’s impossible to take in the visuals when you’re trying to frantically focus on your spacecraft and any projectiles heading your way. While bullet hell games are known for filling your screen with projectiles and chaos, there’s just too much going on here for it to be appreciated. The inability to appreciate all that goes on is also most likely due to the terrible and shifting camera angles, as they are more of a detriment than anything else.
Every shmup that I can think of off the top of my head always has a static camera. It is usually a top down view and you shoot horizontally or vertically depending on the game. Solar Shifter EX seems like they wanted to mix things up and use odd angled views, but they are at inopportune times which you have no control over. So, sometimes the camera will move to a specific 45 degree-like angle, yet your controls don’t feel as if they’ve been re-calibrated to accommodate the new viewpoint. I get that they were going for a more cinematic approach, but when it’s a hindrance to the gameplay, and simply doesn’t work, it's not fun. The odd angles also have you shooting at weird directions, also being unsure of where the next ships and bullets will come from next.
At the end of the day I can appreciate that Solar Shifter EX is trying to do something new in the genre, and while the shift mechanic adds a new way to think about playing, it hasn't been fine-tuned enough to be something truly special. More than anything, the camera issues are the biggest drawback, along with the gameplay devolving into finding 'the safe spot’ to survive more than using reflex skill. Fans of the genre, like myself, will enjoy this game for what it is, but it won’t stand up against the greats of the genre like Raiden or Ikaruga. If you’re a casual fan however, I’d recommend waiting to pick this game up until it is on sale, unless you really need to see what bullet hell is really like.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Ninja Pizza Girl
Apparently a surprising amount of people answer the door without pants on when they get pizza delivered. That was one of the big takeaways I got when playing Ninja Pizza Girl. Well, that and the fact that bullying is bad. Released last year on PC, Ninja Pizza Girl has been delivered to the Xbox One, but is this delivery on time, or does it need more time in the oven and a few more toppings?You play as Gemma, a bonafide ninja pizza girl who has some crazy parkour skills, allowing her to jump from ledge to ledge and rooftop to rooftop, all the while avoiding enemy ninjas. Yup, you read all of that right. Your goal is to deliver your dad’s famous and delicious PizzaRiffic pizza as fast as possible to your client’s door. Unfortunately for you, the huge pizza corporation MegaCorp has noticed a small dip in their profits because of your family pizza business. So what does any greedy corporation do to get more sales? Hire hundreds of ninjas to block Gemma from making her deliveries of course; I mean, that’s what I would do.
Your brother helps you out by giving you the directions (arrows on the screen) to each delivery’s door, though aside from a few unique levels, it’s nearly impossible to get lost. Once you deliver your pizza though I found it odd that seemingly no one paid, though maybe they ordered online? Even worse, apparently everyone ordering pizza wants to open up to Gemma about their problems and life’s troubles. I understand the reasoning behind doing so, as the underlying message of Ninja Pizza Girl is about bullying and feeling good about yourself, but it comes across as terribly forced, as generally people don’t interact with their pizza delivery person in this way. Or maybe I’m simply doing it wrong, who knows.
Some of the mini storylines are very odd, like the one that revolves around the idea of a man who’s in love with a friend (that you just happened to deliver a pizza to earlier) but is afraid to talk about his feelings directly to her (yet he talks to a random pizza delivery girl and opens up no problem), so instead he orders a crazy spicy pizza for his secret love and asks Gemma to deliver it for him. Of course the woman receives the pizza, knows exactly who it’s from, and falls madly in love on the spot. It’s silly, but it’s a little too far out there for my tastes. That being said, it’s interactions like this that show that the game itself has some humor and isn’t trying to take itself too seriously.
At its core, Ninja Pizza Girl is a platforming speedrunner where you’re given a specific amount of time, usually around 3 minutes, to deliver a hot pizza to a customer before heading off for the next delivery. You’ll need to use Gemma’s parkour abilities to jump, slide, and hop onto ledges to overcome a seemingly endless gauntlet of rooftop debris. The more time you finish the level with the better your rank. Levels are linear in terms of getting from point A to B for the most part, but there are some slight branching paths that play into the rooftop verticality setting.
While I was able to easily finish the game in a single sitting, there’s a decent amount of gameplay here for completionists, as each level has a handful of items to collect, not all of which can be collected in a single run, meaning you’ll need to run each level multiple times. If you’re into speed running and online leaderboards, you’ll also be happy to know that those are included as well, so while it may seem like a shallow experience at first, there is a decent amount of replayability if those are your things.
Controls work well for the most part. You’ll jump and slide with ease, and eventually you can take out rival ninjas in your path by jump kicking or sliding into them as well. That being said, I found some issues where where I would get stuck on a ledge or couldn't climb up onto a corner that I should have been able to. While it didn’t happen frequently, for a game that focuses on smooth maneuverability, it did stick out. Eventually levels become much more difficult as you’ll have to jump gaps with moving platforms, swinging posts, and other objects that need to be timed correctly.
The items you collect during your runs can be spent on purchasing Gemma items to make her feel better. The more you ‘crash’ or get hit, the lower her morale goes, as does the grayness of the screen. So, to make her feel better you spend your earned currency on food, video games, or costumes. I understand the idea behind it, but it’s as if the moral of the story is to buy things to make yourself (or someone else) feel better rather than deal with it or talk to someone instead. I know it wasn’t intended that way, but that’s how it came across.
One issue I had near the end of the game was a specific level where instead of reaching the goal as quickly as possible the game wanted me to collect a certain amount of items. This was never explained, so when I kept failing the level when trying to reach the end, which I couldn’t as the level loops, I eventually figured out what I needed to do. Seems like a minor oversight, but it was enough to frustrate me slightly as I didn’t know why I was failing the level numerous times.
As a whole, Ninja Pizza Girl is a simple premise with some silliness behind it. Its goal is to teach players about bullying and to not listen to what the they may say. Sure, the message isn’t conveyed the best at all times, but it’s the underlying tone and meaning that’s important. As a basic game that can be completed quickly, it hovers at "just alright"; however, it’s got a good message for any of the younger gamers out there who are into platforming titles. Just remember; no pants, no pizza!
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
MX vs ATV Supercross Encore
Recently I got the chance to review another dirt bike game titled MXGP2, and while it didn’t set the world on fire, I had high hopes for my latest review, MX vs. ATV Supercross Encore, as I’ve always tended to prefer any racing titles where you could backflip and perform other crazy stunts. Although I’ve only recently learned about many aspects about the sport of dirt bike racing I have come to appreciate all of its intricacies and appreciate that there’s much more motorcycle racing genre than simply going fast. The last MX vs ATV game I played in detail was probably from the PS2 days. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them, I’m just not one to go out and get them when they release unless I find it at a discount sometime afterwards as I am not a diehard fan. It’s clear that MX vs. ATV Supercross Encore is made for the fans, but it does extremely little to bring new people to the series. Case in point, Encore is simply a somewhat re-release of the last generation version of MX vs ATV, albeit with a few additions, hence the Encore title.
Given that Encore is somewhat of a remake of the Xbox 360 title, I was fully expecting some impressive visuals and a plethora of additions to justify its existence and price. Sadly none of these are found within. The MX vs ATV series has been around for quite some time, though the past few games in the series have seemed to have stagnated, as each new game seems to add only a few tweaks here and there rather than any substantial changes and improvements.
What sets MX vs ATV apart from the competition is that it features, well....MX bikes vs ATV’s, wrapped in a casual play style setting when compared to other games that tend to be more on the simulation side. In the beginning you’ll customize your rider and vehicle, which is limited to only a few options, but this will change as you progress through the different modes. While many parts you earn are mainly cosmetic, there are some performance enhancing ones as well. While there’s not much visual differences in many of the parts, at least some effort has been made, which is more than some other games can say.
The career mode is where you’ll most likely start first, allowing you to race on a series of 5 to 12 tracks depending on the class and style of race. You’ll gain points based on where you finish, and the racer with the most points at the end of a series is the winner. It will take some time to learn how to steer properly, so I suggest starting out with Single Race instead, which should help you to get your bearings and grasp how the game handles.
New to the Xbox One version is a Free Ride mode, allowing you to just ride around an open area. This really brought back memories of the Motocross Madness series, especially since the game will ‘throw’ you back onto the map if you drive out of bounds. It’s a nice addition to have for those that simply want to just ride around and do some tricks, but it doesn’t feel like it adds much to the overall package, especially since the game looks incredibly dated with its muddy textures. Another addition to Encore are the outdoor tracks, something severely lacking in the previous release. Lastly, Rhythm Racing is also included, which is a straight track full of hills and moguls. It sounds easy but they were the hardest tournaments I faced and I had difficulties placing.
The controls are the most difficult thing to get used to in Encore. It seems as though they wanted to take a somewhat realistic approach to the steering, but because of the weird physics and movements it doesn’t feel right, even after a dozen hours of getting used to it. You need to steer with the Left Stick obviously, but you also need to lean with the Right; not a big deal. Where the issues start to surface is when you lean just a smidgen too much or too little and you completely botch your turn. You do eventually become accustomed to it, but when you upgrade your bike with new parts, it’s like learning this mechanic all over again.
To make things even more difficult, you need to pre-load your jumps as well, and this is done with the right stick, meaning that when you’re holding down to load up on a jump, and if you slightly lean to the side, things can go all kinds of wrong real quick. You’ll also need to maneuver while in mid-air to correct your position before the landing, and again this is done with the right stick. Many times I thought I had my wheels lined up and I was positioned at the right angle, only to be thrown off my bike and eat a face full of virtual dirt.
I was totally excited that Encore allowed me to pull off some backflips, Supermans, and other crazy stunts, but there’s no real reason to as you’re not scored on them in races. To make matters worse, it’s not a simple button or direction press either, as you need to hit a combination of directions, such as up, left, and right on the Right Stick for a single trick, but that’s only if you’re holding the Right Bumper first, to indicate you want to do a trick. It’s not gratifying even when you do manage to pull one off, and because of the difficulty in doing so, there’s no real reason to either.
Graphically, this isn’t an HD-ified version at all. There is lots of texture pop-in, nothing looks that sharp, and the open tracks, which I was excited to explore, are nothing but barren land with nothing to even find or challenges that you can set up for your friends. As you race the same lines in multiple laps on the various tracks, ruts will form and it looks as if the ground is deforming, but it never felt as if it made a difference to my racing at all, even when hitting the ruts at a completely wrong angle.
There is an online multiplayer mode, and I’d love nothing more to go into detail about it, but after 3 days of searching for a match I’ve still been unable to find a single game to join. When the game doesn’t hang while searching for a game, you’re unable to cancel or back out, forcing you to wait or close the game manually. There’s no simple Quick Match, so you need to select one of the numerous modes to join and hope that someone is hosting, or looking to join, that specific mode. Even trying to find a Freeride game brought no results, as I wanted to see what 12 players would be like, but apparently there’s no mini-games built in for you to have fun with. My guess is that there’s simply no one playing this online, which is a shame for fans that was hoping for a good community to join.
While the game is priced decently ($29.99 CAD), it’s unfathomable that this doesn’t include all of the previous DLC to this point, as this is a port of the last generation title. Delving into the marketplace, you can spend more than the price of the game on DLC alone, which comes across as trying to double dip. If anything, MX vs ATV Supercross Encore simply feels bland and mediocre as nothing stood out or is memorable, and I didn’t even feel like finishing up many of the achievements when failing tournaments numerous times in a row (I don’t want to Rhythm Race ever again).
If Encore had all of the included DLC and had signs that some effort went into making it for current-gen, then it would be a different story. Instead, you have a game that’s kind of fun in very short bursts, but only if you’re a huge fan of the series and genre. If the controls weren’t such a mess and the stunt system an exercise in what I see as "finger yoga", then I would say to at least give it a try, but in its current state though, this one is doomed to stay stuck in its own rut.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Ghostbusters
I love when I get surprised by a game and then get to write about it so that you, the reader, can make an informed decision to purchase it or not based on my opinion. Well, Ghostbusters, developed by ForeForge, surely did surprise me, but not in the way that I had hoped. A brand new Ghostbusters movie released this summer for a new generation, and while I’m old enough to have grown up on the classic, it seems as though Activision decided to cash in on a game tie-in for the new movie in hopes that if you liked the movie you'd want to buy the game as well. If you’re a seasoned gamer you already know the track record for abysmal movie tie-in games in the past. Sadly this might be one of the worst offenders in so many ways. Let me just say that I absolutely love Ghostbusters, it was one of my childhood movies growing up, and I had all the toys. Given that the 2009 Ghostbusters game was actually quite good, I had high hopes for this 2016 version. I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes too high. While the game looks decent from afar, delving deeper into it and its mechanics shows its many flaws that not only make for a blatant cash grab, but not even an entertaining game in the end either. Everything you loved about Ghostbusters is nowhere to be found here.
While technically it’s connected to the movie, it takes place after the credits and doesn’t star the four new Ghostbuster ladies from the current 2016 reboot. It's almost as if they were trying to avoid any of the politically correct drama that encapsulated the movie’s protagonist’s genders. The game instead stars two women and two men, all of which seem like a B-Team to the famous group. There’s actually only one or two lines that connect the game to the movie, so I hope you’re paying attention if you play.
The core narrative revolves around the city once again becoming infested with unruly ghosts. Who you gonna call? Well, the Ghostbusters of course. Sadly, there’s no major over-arching story or plot to coax you into caring about the characters or their reasoning. Simply blast all the ghosts and save the city, that’s it. There are only two cutscenes in the game in total, and they bookend the entire game, which is sad, as the animation used for these cutscenes looks like it would be something you’d see on a Saturday morning cartoon. All other story tidbits are laid out in cheap 2D narrated phone calls. Not what you’d expect from a huge franchise like this.
As you begin your ghost busting journey you’ll have the choice of one of the four main characters, each of which has a different type of weapon and grenade. That’s right, you don’t simply use your regular proton pack beam, instead you have to whittle down a ghost’s life bar with standard-like weaponry. These standard weapons range from assault rifle, mini-gun, shotgun, and dual pistols, and sure they’re proton pack-ified, but it just seems silly and not fitting of the franchise.
The core game mechanic is a twin-stick shooter at heart, which makes for simplistic gameplay and easy couch co-op play (sorry, there’s no online multiplayer support). You begin in a simplistic tutorial level that explains how to play, but after a few levels you come to realize that nothing changes for the better the further you venture into your quest to save the city. A good game should slowly introduce new ideas and new mechanics as you progress to keep things interesting making a game interesting to play, but none of that is found here.
If by some miracle you manage to lose all your health, any of the other team members will automatically come and try to revive you. In my whole playthrough I only managed to fall in battle one time, and that’s because of the notorious bullet sponges that the game throws at you in the later stages, which I’ll delve into shortly. You gain experience as you complete levels and bust ghosts, which in turn levels you up, allowing you to spend skill points on upgrades like better weapon damage, trap multipliers, and more. This is normally a good incentive to keep you playing, but even after having maxed out a bunch of the upgrades I didn’t feel more powerful at all, even when replaying the earlier levels.
In the beginning the shooting feels alright, but the gameplay is so repetitive and unvarying that it becomes dull. Eventually every enemy simply has way more health than they should, requiring you to reload multiple times to unload full clips to defeat them. You heard me right, you need to reload (vent) your proton-ized weaponry on a constant basis. You do have access to grenades, with a very long recast time, but they don’t feel anywhere near as useful as they should be for how seldom you can actually use them.
Just like the true Ghostbusters, you have access to your PKE meter allowing you to find hidden secrets throughout the level. In the beginning I was constantly using it to find all of the secrets, but you walk at a snails pace when you’re using the PKE meter, so it makes a dreadfully long game even longer when doing so. Sure, completionists will want to find everything, but I eventually just gave up using it aside from the few forced sections which spawn a mini-boss.
As the game progresses not only do the simplest enemies take forever to defeat, but more and more are thrown your way to artificially make it more difficult. Most enemies are just reskins of previous ones, adding no real variety to strategy or gameplay. The worst of this comes to light in the boss fights and the final stage, which I don’t want to spoil, but it was a terrible experience.
When you manage to finally deplete a mini or stage boss heath bar, you then need to play a mini-game to trap it, which also feels like artificial lengthening to the tedious gameplay. First you need to switch your weapon to the classic proton beam, aim and shoot the boss, then aim the right stick in the direction it tells you to. Then you need to use the Left Trigger to slam the ghost (usually 3 times) before you can actually trap it. To trap it all you need to do is press the ‘A’ button and then spam the button as many times as you can before time runs out to boost your multiplier. These small parts should feel most like true Ghostbusters gameplay, but in reality they simply feel like tedious mini-games.
After a half dozen or so hours, and vanquishing the final big bad ghost, to which there’s zero indication you're coming to the end until you reach him, I promptly finished up a few achievements and quickly uninstalled. I don’t mean to come across as harsh in regards to this review, but there’s little to no redeeming qualities of this shameless cash grab. What makes it worse is that Ghostbusters is priced at nearly a full priced AAA game. That’s right, everything about this game looks and plays like a budget download title, but sadly the asking price is well more than three times the price I expected.
If I had to note a positive about the game it would be that at least they licensed the classic Ray Parker Jr. version of the theme song that the series is best known for. Unfortunately they even messed this up though, as the song only plays in the menus and not during the gameplay itself. What’s wrong with the way it’s setup is that every time you go into a menu and back out to another, the song restarts every single time. So the chance of you hearing the song from beginning to end is impossible unless you simply let it play in the background before you subject yourself to one more level.
I don’t particularly like pointing out so many negatives, but when there’s virtually no positives to speak about it’s difficult not to. A nonexistent storyline, basic and repetitive gameplay, terrible and constant one-liners, and nothing that makes it feel like a real Ghostbusters experience, makes this game a difficult sell at $20, but it’s price is unfathomably three times that amount. Ghostbusters is pretty much a waste of time as there really isn't much fun to be had. Who you gonna call? Hopefully someone else so that you don’t have to experience this for yourself.
Overall Score: 2.5 / 10
Super Mutant Alien Assault
Sometimes games don’t always have to have an engrossing story and can easily stand on their own with a simple foundation. Super Mutant Alien Assault chooses to go the simplistic route, allowing you to slaughter waves and waves of alien invaders with handfuls of weaponry. Simple games can be entertaining, but they need to have solid gameplay to keep your attention for any length of time. There is a story, albeit a paper thin one, that revolves around Aliens attacking Earth and three ships carrying the remaining humans have fled the planet to search for other galaxies to inhabit. To make this long journey humans had to be put into cryofreeze, leaving droids to watch and defend the ships should anything happen. As it turns out, the aliens have found the ships and are breaking their way inside. It’s up to you, a simple droid, to take them out to ensure mankind survives.
Your life as a droid is a difficult one, as you begin with absolutely no weapons or abilities. You’ll learn early on that you’re going to die a lot; however, as you play, and become more proficient, it does become somewhat easier, but the randomly generated levels can work for you or completely against you. Even though you’ll die quite often you will make some progress as you go, unlocking (the chance for) new weapons, abilities, and perks.
There are only a dozen levels in total, and while that may not seem like much, they are randomly generated, so every time you play they won’t be exactly the same as the last. Granted, you’ll see the same levels multiple times, but the game does a good job at mixing things up for the most part. Each stage has its own conditions for winning to help mix things up too. Sometimes you simply need to survive the waves of incoming aliens or you’ll have to bring an item to a certain machine numerous times, while other times you will need to stop canisters from exploding. And we can't forget that there are boss stages on each 4th consecutive level. Overall, some stages are much tougher than others since the objective must be met to move on, and killing everything only makes more enemies spawn. During the boss stage he must be defeated or else the minions will keep on coming. Depending on what types of these levels you like, you’ll either have a great run of easy levels or a slew of really tough ones due to the randomization.
While the aliens themselves are generally not too much trouble on their own, it’s the frequency and amount that spawn which is the difficult part. They usually come in a handful at a time and quite quickly so you can easily become overwhelmed if you aren’t doing your best to take them out quickly. Some have specific attack patterns, while others do their own thing, but when being crowded into a corner because of the volume of aliens coming at you, you’ll see why it’s easy to die very quickly.
A big issue that you experience early on, and quite often throughout the game, is that the levels are extremely small, making it quite easy to find yourself in a tight spot with not much, if any, room to maneuver to safety. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if your weapon pickups weren’t randomized, so sometimes you'll find that you have the completely wrong weapon for the situation you’re in and there’s nothing you can do about it, for the most part. For example, having a grenade launcher with enemies swarming in on you fast, causing you to take damage when it explodes nearby. Yes, you take damage from your own weapon as well, making the already sporadic difficulty even more challenging at times. It doesn’t help that many enemies take too much ammo to defeat than they should too, even the weaker ones.
Once you play the tutorial and learn about the weapon vending machines you'll discover that you can carry one primary weapon and a sidearm, along with an explosive weapon, an offensive and defensive ability, and a perk. All of these are dealt out at random. Once you’ve made it past the first boss you can at least respawn with a sidearm to begin with (yes, it needs to be picked up every time before you can have one on each play through). The majority of the weapons are your regular fare such as assault rifles, snipers, shotgun, rocket launchers, and more. There are some unique abilities and sidearms though, my favorite being the circular boomerang-like item that you can call back to you whenever you like. There are also ones I dislike, like the previously mentioned grenade launcher and an odd pogo stick that explodes when jumping on enemies. Because it’s completely random which weapon you get, you might find yourself wasting the primary ammo quickly just so you don’t have to be stuck with too long while you wait on the timer to get a new weapon.
There are special abilities that you can also get, ranging from a knockback, a double jump, a quick dash, and more. While it was nice to have the options, I found the gameplay much too frantic for me to use them as intended, or even simply remember that I had them. There’s no quick glance to remind you of which abilities you have aside from pausing, so you might think you have a dash equipped, only to remember later that you had it on during your last playthrough.
There is local multiplayer where you and a friend can play together, which makes things easier overall, but it definitely amps up the franticness with more happening on the screen at one time. The highlight of the game has to be its visuals, as it’s done in a retro pixelated style, but it’s done very well with lively animations and bright colors. The music is fitting and encapsulates the gameplay with some quick-beat tempo jams.
I found that one of the biggest flaws comes from some massive slowdown that always occurs on specific levels when you’re about to slip into hyperdrive. I initially thought it was a purposeful design mechanic, but after it happening quite often I don’t believe it is. It’s simply not done in a stylish way. Everything just goes maddeningly slow for a few seconds, then BAM, everything is back to normal, completely disrupting the flow of gameplay. I hope this important issue gets fixed soon, as it’s very jarring and is a big black eye to the experience.
Super Mutant Alien Assault is an experience you may enjoy if you playing for a game for a few simple few minutes at a time with complete randomness and challenging difficulty is your thing. That being said, while it does have some replayability to it with its randomly generated levels and weapons, there’s simply just not that much depth to be had if you’re looking for something a little bit more. It’s charming in its own way, and a fun way to pass the time now and then, but you might want to wait until it goes on sale to get your full monies worth.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Dynamite Fishing - World Games
If there was ever a game where you could decipher its core premise from the title alone, Dynamite Fishing – World Games would be near the top of the list. Originally a mobile game, and now on the Xbox One, it revolves around your desire to fish, but in true redneck fashion with dynamite instead of fishing poles. With an unlimited amount of explosives you’re going to blow your way up to the top of the fish catching leaderboards, but the real question is if this console port has anything special to offer over its mobile roots. When you first start you can only choose a single character in his bathtub, which represents his boat. You will notice that new characters and other boats are unlockable, but they are behind a set number of trophies that you need to obtain. At first some of these unlockables won’t seem like much work, but the amount of time actually required to unlock them is much longer than you expect once you start playing a few levels and you realize how much of a grind it can be.
Played as a side-scroller, your main goal in the game is to catch the most amount of fish by the time you or your opponent reach the finish line. So, you can either rush to the finish line in hopes that they do not catch as many fish as you or you can take your time in each area, gathering more fish, hoping to have more than your opponent by the time they cross the finish line first. It’s a simple idea with very friendly and colorful graphics that my 3 year old seemed to really enjoy watching when I played it.
To throw your unlimited supply of dynamite into the water you simply press the ‘A’ button, and if it makes contact with any fish it will deplete their life bar. Once they’ve been killed, as some fish are very resistant to dynamite apparently, they will float to the top of the water for you to collect as you travel over it. You can toss your dynamite further by pressing up while tossing or throw it right below you by pressing down as you lay on the ‘A’ button. While you may think that combining different toss distances is the best plan, I found it was much more efficient, and simpler, to just press down and hold the ‘A’ button the whole time as you travel left and right. This made it easier to know exactly where the dynamite will drop and places you closer to the fish corpses when you need to collect them.
You need to rack up a bigger haul than your opponent, and when either one of you cross the finish line the one with the most fish in their boat at the time wins, so it’s a little bit strategic in the sense of balancing speed and gathering. At the top of the screen you can see where your opponent is in relation to you and the finish line, so you never have to guess where they might be. Some fish only take a single hit to defeat, while others in the later stages will require numerous hits. Eventually you’ll encounter fish that aren’t going to take your attacks ‘lying down’ andthey will actually fight back, either by trying to ram you or shoot you with their guns and other whacky weapons. It’s silly but it fits the setting and mood of the game.
There are multiple levels, each of which are split into 5 stages. In most games you have to complete each stage before moving onto the next, but Dynamite Fishing – World Games does things slightly different, as you might expect. Once you complete a stage you move onto the next, but you’ll also move onto the next stage if you fail it as well, so the main goal is to have the most fish as a total at the end of all 5 stages. Even if you fail a stage it is totally possible to make up for it in the next one if you’re skilled enough. You can even get halfway through a level then switch to another setting and work on that locale if you wish, as you’re not locked to a specific level at any time. It’s a small detail but it didn’t go unnoticed.
Although your main goal is to catch as many fish as possible, you’ll notice quite early on that you’re also going to have to survive not only a fish rebellion, but also other obstacles that can quickly deplete your life, causing you to sink your boat and fail. Most are standard water geysers and TNT crates, but there are other quirky things to watch out for, like rats, ghosts, and more. The most nefarious enemy you’ll encounter is the selection of bosses. I wasn’t actually expecting anything like this, so it was a welcome addition. Here you have a set amount of time to defeat them before they swim off, earning bonus money and a boat repair if you succeed. While most of these bosses are predictable, some are quite challenging and will no doubt defeat you early on before you have any upgrades purchased.
Speaking of upgrades, you earn money for not only winning stages and finishing a series, but also collecting coins and completing side bonus missions as well. This allows you to purchase upgrades for your selected character and vessel. What’s interesting is that each character and boat have their own single stat that can be increased, and they vary between selection. For example, the redneck and bathtub you begin with allow you to upgrade critical hits for him, and a speed boost for the boat. Once you unlock new characters and boats, they will have different bonuses that can be purchased, so it’s a game of upgrading a lot now versus more later with better choices. It will come down to how much you plan on playing. As I said before, unlocking the final few choices will take a lot of grinding to do so.
As you begin each stage you’re also given a choice 3 special weapons to bring along with you. These are completely whacky and fitting of the redneck theme, such as squirrel bombs, gatling gun, toaster, a nuke (yes, a nuke), and a handful of other crazy weapons. Some are, without a doubt, more powerful than others, as nukes are completely over powered, but they all act in a different way and allows you to choose special power-ups that suits your play style. If you manage to find treasure chests in the water, destroying them can net you a random power-up, or even a dangerous TNT, but it’s always worth taking the time to check, as these special weapons can net you a massive amount of fish in a short time.
The art style is very clean and colorful, completely fitting of the game's setting. The premise is silly and the game itself is humorous overall with its over-the-top wackiness. The audio also fits, but there’s only so many times you can hear the same one-liners over and over until you’ll want to mute the speakers. While I really liked that there’s a bunch of unlockable characters, boats, and even items to cosmetically change your character and vessel, you’re going to have to do a lot of grinding to earn any of the really good ones. You get a trophy for finishing a level (of 5 stages remember), but when you need 40+ trophies for the better unlocks, it can be a daunting goal to achieve.
Although Dynamite Fishing is a fun game, the sad fact is that it is fun only in very small bursts. Even after a single set of 5 stages it becomes a little tiresome. In short spurts it’s a fun way to pass the time, as it was intended to be played that way on mobile devices, but it’s unlikely to hold you attention long enough to earn the best rewards. At its current cheap price point I can recommend it if you’re looking for a simple game to pass a few minutes here and there, but if you’re looking for something with more depth though it’s going to be found elsewhere.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
MXGP2
So let me get this out of the way first and foremost: I know absolutely nothing about motocross. Before delving into this review I had no idea what ruts, 2-stroke, scrub, or even holeshot meant. Now that I’ve put a couple dozen or so hours into MXGP2 I’m by no means an expert, but I could at least carry on a conversation about the topic should it ever come up. Though some might see my lack of motocross knowledge a bad fit for this review, I rebut this notion by saying that I was looking at MXGP2 objectively as a game player and not a fan. Milestone S.r.I. is known for their racing titles, so I had high hopes that this would be another ‘great game’ under their name. While they did do some things right, there’s also many faults that are hard to ignore.Sports games these days need a career mode as it gives players an objective aside from winning. Usually this means progressing your character, earning new items, or other forms of rewards as you play. If you’re meant to spend hours playing through a campaign you generally want something to strive towards, aside from some possible achievements or completion. So it baffled me that there’s no real end goal aside from winning in MXGP2’s career mode.
As you begin you’ll create your rider, choose a helmet and your colors, a starting bike, and off you go. Your goal is to earn points in races to eventually become the world champion. You’ll get offers to sign with teams and sponsors, and purchase new bike parts, but there’s a severe lack of customization of rider and bike. Aside from earning money and reputation for your wins, there is no other form of progression. Your rider doesn’t level up and become more skilled with stat increases, and there are only a handful of bike parts that can be purchased, but they are all the same stat-wise regardless of brand.
There’s also not much in the way of rider customization. Sure, you can pick some base colors and a handful of helmets, suits, and boots, but that’s about it. For some reason there are even some numbers that you display on the back of your shirt that aren’t selectable. I’m sure someone with more motocross knowledge than myself might know the reason, but it’s not explained to the non-fan. The lack of personalizatoin results in you not really looking that unique from any of the other riders on the track, and the same goes for your bike’s visual options as well.
Career mode tries to offer more depth by giving you a manager, a team, and sponsors, but they don’t result in any differences at all, at least that I could tell, aside from roleplaying purposes. Using GoPro as my sponsor was no different than choosing a different one, so it feels like a shallow choice in the end. The same goes for team selection, as there’s no real benefit in choosing one over the other, unless you’re a real fan and want to virtually support them.
I slogged through the campaign, making my way from track to track, eventually becoming the world champion, only to find out that the first season ended. Needless to say I was disappointed, as I put in hours into the campaign only to be rewarded with nothing of significance, and the game just expects you to work on the next season of races. There are other single player modes outside of career, such as MXGP, Monster Energy Motocross, Stadium Series, and even a Real Events mode, the latter I argue should have been the focal point of the game.
Real Events mode allows you to relive significant moments in motocross history. The first example is when Ryan Villopoto’s bike malfunctioned at the start of the race but he managed to recover and beat his rival. This mode starts you off in specific real life situations where you need to recreate the outcome. It was fascinating as a non-fan to see how many interesting stories and drama the sport has, even though I’m sure this is just a very small glimpse at some of the more memorable stories.
When I first started playing the game my first few races did not go well. It took a good 4 or 5 races before I finished higher then dead last. It doesn’t play like a standard racing game, nor should it, but the controls took quite some time to learn and adjust to. MXGP2 is clearly made for fans of the sport, and rightfully so, but there’s no effort taken into easing the non-fan into the sport and explaining what differences exist between bikes, classes, and more. Not that it’s hard to pick up as you go, but some explanation would have been very welcome. A true fan will feel right at home, as there’s a handful of real racers and teams that you can choose from in certain modes. A friend of mine was enlightening me on some of the more famous racers and it was cool seeing their virtual counterpart represented. For the super fan there’s a lot here to excite you.
As you begin a event you’ll need to race the track a few times. The first for determining your position, and then twice more to determine your final point tally for that specific leg of the circuit. Luckily there’s an option to forgo the qualifying race and let it default you to the outside starting lane, which is generally considered the worst, but it’s nothing hard to overcome once you become proficient in your virtual motocross racing skills. For those wanting the full experience, doing the qualifying race is obvious, but I found doing the same race track three times was to lengthy and tedious.
MXGP2 prides itself on being a realistic take on the sport, and as such it tries to make the gameplay realistic as well. Don’t expect any backflips or tricks that you can pull off (aside from a scrub) as the realism is the primary focus. This means you won’t be barreling into corners trying to drift out of it. It's almost exactly the opposite as you need to seriously slow down and work the brakes at almost every turn if you want to win. The realism doesn’t carry over into the rival AI though, as they will race their line, regardless who is in the way or not, sometimes resulting in hilarious AI crashes.
As you learn the controls and start to win races you will earn money which you will spend on new bikes and parts, but sadly there’s almost no reason to. You begin earning only small chunks of change at a time, but constant first place finishes, and winning seasons, will give you more money then you can spend. The other problem is that only a few pieces like exhaust, brakes, and tires, increase your bike’s stats. Even though there are a different brands to choose from they all have the same stat bonuses, so once you buy the best part, there’s nothing else to do with your money. Sure you could buy another bike, fit it with different looking parts, but it’s the same result in the end for the most part.
At first you'll find yourself settling for minor upgrades to allow you to progress further and win more races, earning more money, getting you closer to the best gear. You'll also realize that there’s no way to actually customize your bike for races either. Sure, you’re buying new tires and suspension, but you can’t actually tweak any of the performance of your bike in any way. Apparently this plays a huge role in real-life for pro racers and their bikes, and it’s simply not here. It’s a huge miss for a game boasting about being official and realistic.
If this doesn’t frustrate you, the inherently slow loading times will. Every time you load up a new race be prepared to wait at least a good minute or so. Yeah, I know it’s only a minute, but with today's technology it’s unacceptable, especially when you factor in that the graphics aren’t really all that impressive either. Not all is bad though, as there’s been some major improvements since the previous game. There’s now a rewind button you can use (up to a maximum of 9 times per race), there’s three types of realistic physics setting, the hardest of which will have you struggling to even stay sitting upright on your bike, and you can now also use the clutch, which is needed to get a holeshot.
As I mentioned above, the biggest hurdle I struggled with was the controls. You need to slow down, sometimes almost completely on some hairpins, so don’t expect to do much drifting. The bikes feel heavy, and even though you float as you go off a jump you land real quick and with some heft. The tutorial is something left to be desired as it doesn’t do a good enough job at teaching you the ropes. There’s some massive over-steering issues that you simply need to learn to deal with, and it will take a handful of races to even get the hang of it before you don’t have to constantly think about it at every turn. Even a couple dozen hours in I still make mistakes when it comes to over-steering, as it doesn’t feel natural but it’s simply something I’ve learned to manage.
You control the front and back brakes independently, and couple this with the fact that you need to balance your rider with their weight, it can be very confusing in the beginning, especially with the poor default controls. By default the Left Trigger is front brakes and the rear brakes are controlled by the A button. Yes, you’re expected to steer with the Left Stick, lean with the Right Stick, use Right Trigger for gas, and somehow use the A button if you want to use your rear brakes; asinine, I know. Luckily you are able to remap the buttons and triggers, so once I changed the rear brake to Left Trigger it changed my gameplay experience instantly. It’s a good thing that the game allows the remapping, or else an Elite Controller would almost be necessary to play effectively.
In regards to multiplayer, it took a good three days for me to finally get into an online match. After searching for quite sometime I was finally put into a lobby where my disappointment began. When you are in the lobby you can see in real time where every racer is on the map and in what order, what you don’t see is what lap they are on, how much time is left, or how long you’re expected to wait until the next match starts. There’s no spectating while waiting and you’re literally just sitting in the lobby waiting for it to be completed so you can join the next race, that is if the host doesn’t quit after the race, ejecting everyone out of the lobby and forcing you to start the search all over.
Once I finally got into a match after much searching and waiting I experienced some terrible lag when playing with others online (empty spots are filled with AI). I don’t know if it’s simply host based and that’s why, but after a single horrible race of finishing last because of lagging and rubber banding, I went back to single player.
I enjoy racing games and thought I would enjoy MXGP2, but it simply feels like too much is missing. It doesn’t look pretty by any means, the framerate can be abysmal at times, and the realistic physics are only realistic when it wants to be. Sure, ruts will cause me to dig in and get traction, but other times I can seemingly wall ride banners when I’m not taking a jump straight on. Landing on a racer doesn’t cause either of you to crash, but simply sliding at an angle with an AI hitting you, and you launch into the air. Also, riding over a crashed racer, or their bike, seems to do absolutely nothing in terms of messing up your race line, so no need to avoid them really.
There’s a lot of challenge to be had with MXGP2, and it does take quite a while to get used to before you become proficient in your motocross abilities. Yes, the game is flawed, but it can be enjoyable once you start to get a knack for it. If there was any sort of progression for your rider in the career mode, it would have made me want to continue playing, but there’s sadly no reason to other than ‘one more race’. If you’re a super fan, then it’s an obvious purchase as you’ll get to race as your heroes, but strictly speaking as an objective view to the game as a whole, it’s hard to look beyond the glaring issues, even more so if you don't follow the sport.
Overall Score: 5.6 / 10
RevErsi Quest
I’ve loved Reversi since I was a kid, I just never realized that’s what I was playing. I grew up with Othello, a ‘practically the same game’ experience save for a trademarked name and some very minor differences. Othello on NES was one of the few games that was at Grandma’s house when I would visit, so I became quite good at it and have loved it ever since. Many other people may recognize Reversi, but under the Othello name, but for the most part it’s essentially the same game.If you’re unfamiliar with Reversi, it’s traditionally played on a 8x8 board with small discs that are dark on one side and light on the other (usually black and white). The game begins with a preset pattern, equal to both players, and you place your colored sided disc down beside the opponents opposite color, thus flipping them to your color if it surrounds theirs horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. You take turns going until you successfully flip all of the opponent’s discs to your color, or fill the game board completely. It’s a very simple premise, but there’s a tremendous amount of strategy involved.
RevErsi Quest for the Xbox One takes the traditional board game to a whole new level by adding in its own twists and layering a hefty RPG element on top. Complete with a story mode, a map to conquer, items to obtain, gold to loot and more, RevErsi Quest will surprise you with its depth and challenge. Even well over dozens of hours in, I’m still grinding away, learning how to properly use some of the units and items to their full potential.
There’s an overarching story to RevErsi Quest, one that revolves around two kingdoms fighting over the landmass they share. You’re simply someone from an outside realm and play an important part of trying to bring peace to the land once again. It’s honestly a little bit of a convoluted story, but it’s much more than I was expecting from a board game based title. You’ll continue playing to level up your character, gain new loot, and unlock special items.
You begin by choosing your character, male or female, and are shown an overworld map of the area you’ll need to battle on (stages if you will). Once you choose a stage you’re then whisked to another board game-like setting where you’ll roll dice to determine how many spaces you can move. Your goal is to reach the end of said stage to take out the boss, but doing so won’t be as simple as it sounds. Like any RPG you have health and mana points that are used, and can be refilled in various ways, in battle. In the beginning it will be quite straight forward and simple, but once you unlock more dice, items, and find secret paths, it becomes much more involved to reach each successive boss.
As you roll the dice you’ll land on specific stops on the map, some putting you into battle to earn such things as a new unit for more battles, items, healing, stores to purchase items, and more. If you land on a battle square you’ll see your opponent’s stats and you can determine if you should challenge them or not. You’re going to eventually have to uncover each block, as you’ll learn quite quickly that you’re going to need to grind for a while to progress in the latter stages if you want any hope of surviving. Plus, getting battle experience in is always a good thing as it takes some time to get some solid strategies formulated, especially when you start to plan 2, 3, and even more moves ahead.
Once you enter combat this is where the game plays most like Reversi. Instead of simple discs with two colors there are actual individual pieces, almost like chess, where each type has its own attributes, strengths, and weaknesses. I tend to favor a more aggressive strategy, so I loaded my army up with more attack units. These are the ones that deal damage to the opponent whenever you ‘flip’ their pieces by surrounding them.
There are healing units, mana gaining units, and a handful of others that I’m still learning how to use properly as I continue playing. If you can get your opponents health down to 0 you win the match, which is why I favor this more aggressive style. Don’t be fooled though, as you’ll need to also utilize healers and more since there’s a maximum cap on how many of each type you can have in your deck at a given time.
When it’s your turn, clicking on one of your units will show you not only each spot on the board where they can be placed, but where they can use their special abilities as well. White squares will simply flip the adjacent opponent’s pieces, where red will cause damage, green for healing, and so on. This is extremely handy as it can get quite confusing with an almost full board, but you’re given all the damage, healing, and other information by clicking on a tile before you confirm your action.
When you’re successful in battle you will gain experience points, eventually leveling up giving you better stats and a higher cap for pieces in your hand. If you lose you’ll have to replay the fight again, so there’s no massive downfall to losing aside from your time. It takes a certain amount of HP to enter a battle, and winning those battles will refill a portion of your lost HP. It’s an intricate system, but nothing that can’t be circumvented by a little bit of grinding.
Once you land on a square and win, you’ll gain that item or unit. The next time you replay the stage, that square will be blank, allowing you to progress further on the board without any HP loss for having to initiate battles. So, all you need to do is simply grind for a while to ‘win’ all of the board stops, then cruise your way to the boss if you were unable to do so beforehand. You’ll want to reply stages a handful of times again anyways, as new stages that are unlocked after beating a boss can only be played when the previous board has a certain percentage of it unlocked. Also, new stages are very tough in the beginning, so you’re going to want to grind some XP, units, and all ranks of items as well.
While I focus more on physical attacks, magic based strategies are certainly viable as well. You can unlock new spells as you progress, allowing you to utilize your saved up mana (by using the specific units) to cast powerful spells to heal you, damage the enemy, and even other events like powering up one of your units or completely randomizing the units on the playfield.
Items will also play a vital role to your strategies, as some give bonuses to HP, mana, damage, guard rate, and even more. There are multiple ranks of each item as well, which can easily be grinded out by replying stages; another reason to do so. You can equip 2 items, allowing you to buff up your primary stats, or make up for what you lack in. It’s completely up to you and will play a big role in your play style.
At its core, RevErsi Quest is classic Reversi with a layered and intricate RPG element on top, but there’s more to it than that. A deep strategy game is made even more in depth, and even though you’ll be forced to grind to progress, I’m still really enjoying myself, even after dozens of hours, as I’m still unlocking new units and finding new tactics to earn my wins.
While I loved the game as a whole, there are a few minor issues that need to be noted. First is the fact that everything is chosen with a cursor, so your Left Stick acts as the mouse. It’s slow and awkward and it actually took me a few hours to realize that I needed to hold the A button down while I dragged the cursor up to scroll down my item list once I had quite a few. It feels clumsy and isn’t as accurate as it should be.
There’s also very little explanations given outside of the beginning tutorials. Sure, when you encounter a new unit or special board piece it will give a brief outline of it, but after that you’re on your own to figure out anything else or best practices. A much more in depth explanation of not only units, but items as well, would go a long way to ease the learning curve. There’s still stats on the weapons that I have no idea what they mean. This brings us to the final minor issue with RevErsi Quest. While I couldn’t figure out a few things in game, I decided to use the built in Help Menu that accompanies any Xbox One game. While it does have some information, it’s as if Google Translate was used, and not very accurately. It’s not completely broken English, but there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense or is worded incorrectly. I still don’t know some of the weapon stats, but I’m slightly more confused after trying to use the Help feature.
Even with its minor faults, RevErsi Quest is an incredibly in-depth strategy game with many layers and intricacies. If you love Othello or Reversi in its traditional form, check this one out, as the RPG take on the classic is very well done and fits very well with the core strategies while adding many new ones.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Drawful 2
It’s funny, growing up I used to associate party games as either Mario Kart, Mario Party, or something similar. I’ve grown up now, and while those types of games do have a time and place, I now view games such as Drawful as my go-to party game when I have guests over, for numerous reasons. This review is in regards to Drawful 2, the original's sequel. I don’t think I’ve played a game of Drawful 2 (or the original for that matter) where I don’t end up laughing till it hurts. Obviously the experience will vary from one group of friends to the next, but it’s a safe bet you’re going to have a good time since anyone with a smartphone, tablet, or computer can play. It used to be if you wanted to play multiplayer party games you needed to have a certain amount of controllers, which can become quite expensive, and then usually some sort of special adapter or hub to attach them all to the console, again increasing the price of entry. Drawful 2 allows anyone to participate by simply going to jackbox.tv and logging in with the room code, be it on a phone, a tablet, or a computer, so hosting party game nights only requires the initial purchase of the software, and that’s it.
If you’ve played the original Drawful you’ll feel right at home and know exactly what to do. For those uninitiated, the game breaks down to essentially a hilarious take on Pictionary where you’re told what to draw and you must try to do so to the best of your ability within 30 seconds, and without an eraser. Needless to say, this isn’t your ordinary game of Pictionary. While the classic game may ask you to draw something like an elephant, the Great Wall of China, or something normal, the phrases you’re given in Drawful 2 will have you wondering “how the hell do I draw that?". Have you ever tried to draw “my self-esteem”, or “I wrote this book with my laser eyes”? Probably not, but you got about 30 seconds to figure out how. It’s extremely obtuse selections like this that lead to some very noteworthy and hilarious drawings.
New to Drawful 2 is the ability to finally have two pre-selected and random colors to draw with. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s definitely helped my poor drawing abilities to at least highlight specific areas or what I’m trying to convey in my artistry. Once everyone has drawn their masterpiece each one is then shown in order, allowing everyone to guess what the correct answer is. Part of the fun though comes at trying to make other people choose your answer instead of what the actual drawing is, as you’ll net points that would have originally went to the artist. This is where knowing who you’re playing with and pandering to their sense of humor comes in.
Each player’s drawing takes a turn at the forefront, and when everyone has gone once the cycle starts again with a new secret word or phrase to draw. At the end of the game the scores are tallied, as are the ‘likes’ that people can freely dish out to any answers they deem fit. After this you can begin a new game with the same players or get a new set allowing others to swap in and out freely should you have a big enough party to play with. While the minimum to start a game is three players, you’ll really want the preferred 6-8, as it’s much more entertaining and lasts a decent amount of time per round.
While the game itself has preset secret words for you to draw, another new addition to Drawful 2 is the amazing ability to make your own answers. Here you can write your own answers down, allowing you to customize and cater to a specific group of friends that may be playing with you. Being able to include inside jokes or blatant insults is what makes this addition incredibly amusing. This personalization is a first, and if you get a group of people to play together often enough, it will also most likely be the only way you play moving forward. It’s a very simple addition that was lacking in the first game and now I see it hard to play without it.
While most will play for points, there are others that find the ‘likes’ much more prestigious. Sure, it’s a secondary consolation prize for getting thumbs-up, but they are recognized at the overview screen alongside the biggest points earner. Also, it will depend on who you’re playing with, but when you have that one person that would rather try and get laughs than score points, it’s easy to see how amusing Drawful 2 really can be played with the right group of friends.
Aside from the additions listed above, there are also a number of smaller improvements allowing for a much better gameplay experience. The most notable one being that you can now rejoin a game session if you accidentally close your browser, hit the back button, or whatever. In the original this was essentially a death sentence, forcing you to sit on the sidelines until the game was over, but now you can freely rejoin if needed without hassle. There are also small streak bonuses allowing people who are not necessarily in the lead a chance to make a comeback, bit by bit. While there are some big improvements, the smaller ones almost feel as important, as it makes Drawful 2 feel much more complete and polished.
If you’re like me and stream your games on Twitch, Drawful 2 has you covered. Not only can you livestream the game, but people watching your channel can actually join your game and participate as well. If all of the 8 player slots are taken, anyone can join the audience, up to 10,000 in total, where they can dish out ‘likes’ to any of the answers. It’s a great addition and forward thinking that more games need to embrace.
At such a cheap entry point of $9.99 CAD, Drawful 2 is a fantastic sequel with many improvements that simply make for a better game than the original, and that one was already great to begin with. Again, the enjoyment of Drawful 2 will solely be based on the group of friends, or Twitch users, that you decide to play with, and your humor for poorly drawn artistry. I fall into all of those categories, making Drawful 2 an absolute must if you’re a party host for a group of like minded friends.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kung-Fu for Kinect
It’s no secret, it seems as though major support for Kinect has died down over the years. At one point it seemed almost every Xbox 360 game was “Better with Kinect”, even if it was simple integration, but these days I can’t even think of the last non-dance game I played that had full Kinect support on the Xbox One. I still use mine every day for voice commands, but it looks as though I’m in the minority as the new Xbox One S doesn’t even have a dedicated Kinect port and the decision to end support for Xbox Fitness has been a blow to Kinect adopters.Deja-vu is a funny thing. I don’t hide that I’ve been a Kinect supporter from the beginning, so when Kung-Fu for Kinect arrived to review I was all over it, as the list of Kinect only games these days are virtually nil. So I started playing and after a very sweaty hour or so it finally dawned on me why this felt so familiar, because I played this game already, back on Xbox 360 with the original Kinect.
Kung-Fu for Kinect is a repackage of the 2011 Xbox 360 game Kung-Fu High Impact, though be to fair, with a new engine and other improvements, including the much better Xbox One Kinect sensor required to play. This repackage has enough improvements to justify trying to release it once again. I remember having many issues with the movement tracking with the original game, though luckily it seems Kinect 2.0’s power and tech has fixed many of these issues. If you were a fan of the original you can look forward to ragdoll physics, more game modes, more enemies on screen, and of course, better body tracking.
While most games give you a preset character, or allow you to create your own, Kung-Fu for Kinect actually makes you the star, literally. The Kinect tracks you and places you in the game in real time, so the many moves you perform are transferred into the game itself, as if you were working with a green screen behind you. Sure, at first it seems gimmicky, but you’ll laugh and realize it has some charm. The campaign is laid out in a comic book style, asking you to pose in certain ways, then places the pictures that the Kinect takes of you into the comic strips to tell the story.
The plot itself is paper thin, but it’s silly and suits the comic book storytelling method, adding to its charm, never taking itself too seriously. Sure, the voice acting could be vastly improved, but again, it’s not taking itself too seriously either, nor should you. You’ll feel silly posing in the positions the game asks you to for the story sections, but these are some of the most hilarious moments when you see the results. My 3 year old daughter was laughing so hard once she saw me inside of the comic book doing all of these crazy moves.
As I mentioned above, it seemed as though the original Kinect didn’t fair to well reading your movements unless it was a dance game. In general, I always approach a Kinect game without many expectations, and with Kung-Fu for Kinect it was the same; however, I was pleasantly surprised as every move registers and everything seems to finally be working as intended, thanks to Kinect 2.0 and the work Virtual Air Guitar has done with the updated game.
At its core, Kung-Fu for Kinect is a side scrolling brawler that places you in the middle of the action, fighting off waves of enemies with your punches, kicks, and other kung-fu moves. If you want to attack the enemy to your left, you’re going to need to throw a punch or kick in that direction. Every time you attack in a speific direction, your virtual self will slide slightly in that direction too, allowing you to traverse the somewhat confined levels. This of course makes traversing the levels themselves somewhat a chore, though the majority of enemies will rush to you if you are stationary.
As you progress through the campaign you will also learn new special moves, such as a dash punch, somersault, a lightning strike that would make Raiden proud, and more. These offer up some variety to the simple punch and kick spam that will make up the bulk of your move set. To be honest, the first night I started up the game I was unable to get any special move like the dash or somersault to work, not even once. I reached out via email for some tips because I didn’t want to hold it against the game if I was simply doing something wrong. Nevertheless, I played the next day and by some form of magic, I was somersaulting and dashing anywhere I wanted to without hesitation. I assume it was simply a ‘bad night’ for the Kinect, as I was playing late with barely any lights on, but I’ve not had a single control issue since then.
The enemies that you be fight are very stereotypical, with ninjas, mummies, and more, each with their own attacks and strategies to fight against. In the later levels, when you become surrounded by numerous types of enemies, it’s quite entertaining to simply punch your way through a dozen or so opponents at once, especially if you’re holding something in your hand as a prop to really get into the comic setting. The enemies that shoot projectiles will be the bane of your existence until you master how to dash and somersault on command, but after that point it's child’s play to maneuver around on a whim. Scattered throughout the levels are power-ups and health refills, so learn how to traverse quickly early on if you want to survive the harder difficulty levels (which can be switched at any point if any stages are giving you troubles).
Once you complete the over twenty levels of the campaign, there’s no real reason to go back and replay them unless you want to level up your skills further. This is where the handful of extra modes come in. You can do time trials, survival, and even a one punch mode, allowing you to showcase a special finishing move where the enemy only takes one hit to defeat. Needless to say, my daughter absolutely loved this mode. All of these are nice to have but most likely won’t keep you around playing for long periods of time unless it’s for the kids.
What Kung-Fu for Kinect does better than most games is make you sweat. Seriously, 10 minutes in and you’ll be needing a drink and a towel. It’s a very physical game, and swimming punches and kicking repeatedly can become quite tiring. I made the mistake of loading up the game for the first time after a long day of work, regretting that decision quite quickly afterwards. That being said, it’s a fun way to get some exercise in and be physical without becoming bored.
To be completely honest, I was going to score the game a little lower than I did, but that was before I got my 3 year old daughter to play. While I’m a grown man, trying to dissect the game for what it does and doesn’t do, seeing the joy my daughter got from playing proved something else; that being it is a fun game regardless of its flaws. Sure, to me and you it may be a shallow experience without much longevity, but if you have kids they won’t care about that. They get to punch and kick some bad guys all while having fun doing so. The amount of fun she has with Kung-Fu for Kinect every time I load it up is amazing, and she is now asking if she can play the “hi-yah!” game daily. Kids will have a blast with it, and that’s who this is really for. It will amuse them for hours, tuckering them out in the process. That alone for parents is worth the price of admission, along with taking a video of them kicking some bad guys butts to share with family and friends.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Lost Sea
I’ve always been fascinated with the Bermuda Triangle and the mysteries it holds after all these years, so any game that uses it as a backdrop has my attention from the get-go. Developer Eastasiasoft brings us Lost Sea, a simple game with an even simpler premise; you’ve crash landed in the Bermuda Triangle and need to find your way home. Normally this is where I would go into more depth about the narrative, but there is no more to add. So while it has a very basic story, it tries to rely on its simple gameplay and exploration elements to keep you hooked. Is that enough though to motivate you to try and escape the Lost Sea? Let’s find out. Once you begin you’ll have a choice from a handful of different characters, each with a different look and style, but it’s simply cosmetic as they all control the same way and don’t have any inherent special abilities or passives. Lost Sea begins as by putting you on a tutorial island that teaches you the basics, giving you a machete to cut your way through boxes, bushes, and enemies. Utilizing a top-down camera, you’ll move your character with the Left Stick and the camera with the Right Stick, and as per usual ‘X’ is used to slash and ‘A’ to interact. That’s basically it for the controls as it’s simple to jump in and play.
Your goal is to navigate your way out from the Lost Sea, but this is the Bermuda Triangle, so obviously it’s not as simple as that. You’ll need to use your ship to sail from island to island progressing through each one, with multiple themes around each set, looking for a way home. Nothing is as easy as it should be, and to sail from one island to another you need to find a magical tablet that dictates how many islands you can sail to before having to go to another island to find another tablet, starting the process over once again.
To keep things fresh the islands are procedurally generated, so every time you play each island will be slightly different from the previous one. I say slightly for a reason; the island’s layouts are randomly laid out, almost in a Catan-like style with map tiles linking together in specific ways. You learn early on though that although pieces of the islands are linked together in a random manner there’s clearly only a handful of ‘map pieces’, so you’ll eventually see the same tiles numerous times. There was even one instance where I had the same tile beside each other.
As you explore your main goal is to find the tablet on the island that will allow you to set sail a set number of spaces, inching closer to the island that houses the boss for that stage. Each stage consists of usually a dozen or so islands. While you can search for the tablet and leave right away once you do, consistently doing so will hinder you in the long run as you should also hack down enemies for experience and smash boxes for coins, both of which are used for upgrades that will be critical the further you progress. It’s a simple mechanic but it works, though only in short bursts. There’s an achievement for even beating the game in under two hours, but that’s quite difficult to do if you haven't completed a super thorough playthrough before, which I’ll explain later. There’s more to do though, as you’ll come across treasure chests that you can’t open, bridges that you can’t build, and more. This is where your followers come in.
As you explore the islands you’ll come across other survivors who are simply waiting to be rescued. You can recruit then and once you do they will constantly follow you, allowing you to make use of their preset skills such as lock picking, mining, carpentry, and more. While it’s completely possible to complete Lost Sea without any followers, you’ll have a much more difficult time, especially in the more difficult islands, as some followers can revive you (which is an absolute must later on), grant you damage bonuses, and even net you bonus experience when you defeat enemies.
Be prepared though to lose track of your allies from time to time. Given that the game revolves around you constantly having followers, you would think that they wouldn't lag behind when they get caught on a corner or rock without you noticing, sadly that’s not the case here. Many times I would come across a chest and one of my followers had the ability to open, but they would be nowhere to be found because they got caught on a staircase or corner somewhere way back. Not a deal breaker by any means, just frustrating and disappointing.
One of the best uses for your followers is the ability to make them carry your tablets back to the ship dock for you, leaving you free to swipe your machete at boxes and enemies while they do the heavy lifting. You’ll eventually find more survivors than you can allow to follow you, as you can only have up to a maximum of four (once the skill is upgraded) at a time. Since each ally has different skill sets, you’ll want to make sure that you have one with every type of possible skill covered.
As you play you’ll constantly have to reference your map which requires you to go into a separate menu. Having a rotating map on the main screen would have been welcome so you don't have to constantly pause the game to catch your bearings. Having some dialogue between you and the survivors would be welcome too, as there’s no real dialogue after the game’s opening scene, leaving for a slightly shallow experience.
Your machete is your main weapon, allowing you to break boxes, cut down bushes, and attack the wildlife that attacks you on sight. You never get to upgrade your weapon in any way aside from recruiting followers that damage enemies when close by, making it a necessity as you fight the harder monsters. Once you make it to the boss island of each stage and take on the "big kahuna" so to speak, you’ll need to figure out its pattern and the small window of opportunity when you can attack. It’s a welcome change that breaks up the monotony of the island exploration, but once you face the same boss again in later stages, albeit with a broader move set and slightly more difficulty, it’s a little disappointing.
When you defeat enemies and collect coins, these currencies are used to upgrade your abilities, some of which will be absolutely necessary if you want any chance to beat Lost Sea in a single sitting. Why do I bring up beating it in a single sitting you ask? Well, because you need to if you want to complete it. On my first playthrough I was having no problems, barely getting hit until about the third set of islands where the animals that attacked me started dealing much more damage, killing my allies, and eventually myself. No big deal I thought, I’ll continue on from here. Boy, was I wrong.
Given Lost Sea’s charming cel-shaded artistic style and cute visuals, I guess I got lured into thinking that it would be a simple game. Quite the opposite though, as it’s unforgiving, something you learn real quick once you die for the first time. Lost Sea wants you to play the entire game in a single sitting because if you do die you begin again from the first stage, regardless of how far you made it previously.
When you die you are given a small amount of bonus experience and gold coins to begin with, based on how many tablets you found in your previous session. You begin your new playthrough with this bonus, but surprise, absolutely none of your previously bought upgrades are available. Sure, it’s nice to begin again with a small bonus, but if you’ve simply been tablet searching and progressing without finding the extra ones on the islands, you don’t get nearly the same starting bonus.
There’s another major issue with this mechanic as well, and that’s related to saving, or lack thereof, your progress. For example, say you need to quit your game, the game crashes, or whatever the case, you will lose all progress you’ve made, even if it’s your new playthrough with the starting bonus, forcing you to start over from scratch. Granted, you can begin on the furthest stage that you’ve reached, but doing so will be even more frustrating as you’re starting out on a harder set of islands without any of the previous upgrades, essentially forcing you to play from the beginning again if you really want a shot at completing it.
Once you realize this is the way Lost Sea forces you to play, it’s difficult to get motivated to play it unless you know that you’re going to have a few hours to sit and do so in one go. It’s designed to be played slowly and methodically, but not everyone has that amount of time. Once I lost 3+ hours of progress twice, I was pretty much done with the game because of this nonsensical design flaw.
For all the frustration I had with Lost Sea, it is charming in such that it is simple and basic at its core. If there was a way to save one's progress I would have dumped quite a few more hours into it exploring an island or two here and there and looking to beat more bosses, but because of the forceful time commitment required, and losing hours of progress numerous times, it looks like I’ll sadly forever be stuck in the Bermuda Triangle’s Lost Sea. It's really hard to recommend this game for everyone, but if have the time to play this game in one sitting, and you are looking for a bit of a challenge with some interesting gameplay mechanics, Lost Sea may just be for you.
Suggestions: Save my progression. Don't force me to commit to sit and play for hours at a time.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Neon Chrome
I’m an 80’s kid, so anything neon and cyberpunk is right up my alley. While Neon Chrome from 10Tons might be one of the most generic titles there are, it offers a twin stick shooter experience overlaid with a rogue sci-fi cyberpunk theme, complete with plenty of neon colors and gameplay that seems to have been influenced by games like Smash TV. While twin stick shooters are common, Neon Chrome tries to add some mechanics to the core gameplay to set it apart from the competition, such as persistent progression, procedurally generated levels, and an interesting plot premise to name a few. You work for Neon Corp, and while most places simply escort you out of the building when you get fired, Neon Corp kills you. You are part of a group staging a rebellion and attempting to take down the Overseer from within. To do so you’ll hack into the network and begin climbing the ominous death tower from the ground up, floor by floor, by taking control of virtual character assets and shooting your way through each level.
Being a top down twin stick shooter, there’s not much to explain in its core gameplay, as you move with the Left Stick and aim with the Right Stick. What is welcomed though is that the levels are procedurally generated, so every time you die, which will be often, you will have to make your way through the floors again, but it’ll be a fresh experience in terms of layout. There’s only a handful of levels, each of which consist of roughly five or so floors before you reach the boss, and subsequent checkpoint. It may not sound like a lot of gameplay, but the difficulty in the beginning is so high that you’ll be replaying levels many times over, slowly making progress by saving up credits and upgrading your character.
You start off in a small room that consists of some terminals and a machine where you can hack into the network and control other people (assets), allowing you to safely fight your way to the top of Neon Corp from the safe room. Given that you’re simply controlling an avatar instead of your real body, every time you die and respawn you’re given a random selection of three assets to choose from, each one having different abilities and weapons. You awaken back in your safe room, able to spend the credits you earn along the way to upgrade permanent stats or purchase better abilities and weapons. Stat increases are your best bet for the first few hours, as these are permanent increases regardless of what avatar you control and they persist throughout the whole game, constantly increasing as you upgrade.
Every time you hack into the network you’re given a choice of three random avatars to control, each one usually varies given they are different types of classes. You have assassins, techie’s, hackers, and more, each of which have their pro’s and con’s based on your preferred play style. Given the difficulty of the game, I almost always chose whomever had a bonus to their increased health pool, as dying results in restarting the level from the beginning every time until you defeat the boss and can continue from that point on.
Hackers can be useful, as they can unlock special doors and loot boxes that others can’t, and some classes even have a little robot pet that follows you around, helping you defeat the onslaught of constant enemies as you make your way through each floor of Neon Corp. Some gamers may prefer the hacking abilities of some of the avatars, but the ability to loot slightly more boxes isn’t worth the tradeoff of a 10% increase or more to your health. There is an avatar for many different play styles, just be prepared to grind a lot for the first few hours until your stats start to increase, making things easier as you go.
Classes vary the gameplay approach, but so does the weapon you use at any given time. There are shotguns, assault rifles, SMG’s, and more, and each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. You'll have to power through and learn what works best for you over time. Sometimes a shotgun is best for levels that have many tight hallways, allowing enemies to be funneled through narrow doorways, while more open levels are better suited for a different type of weapon. Since floors are randomly generated there’s no way to plan ahead and you must hope that you luck out with your strategy.
You also start out with a randomized secondary weapon, some of which are incredibly powerful, and others that are almost useless. You need to loot energy for the secondary meter to fill, allowing you to rely on it more, and it will be needed when you become overwhelmed during boss fights. The randomness of the characters on each spawn sometimes works out perfect (health bonus, assault rifle, and missile launcher), but there will also be times when you know you don’t have a prayer of completing many floors with the build you’ve been given (shotgun, increased melee damage, and mines). This can be frustrating, but factor in the seemingly random hit detection, and things start to slowly become a test of your patience. Sometimes aiming is on point, while other times it takes a few clips to defeat a single enemy as your shots miss.
An awesome little touch is that the bulk of the environment is destructible, and this is something that you’ll need to utilize if you want to survive. Sometimes a slew of soldiers are behind a door just waiting to destroy you as you enter, so it’s sometimes better to simply blast a hole through the wall behind them and shoot them before they notice. This is preferred as you get double damage from behind the door as well. The AI itself isn’t too bright though, and you can usually lure one or two bad guys at a time without much trouble. That is until reinforcements arrive and you’re swarmed with over a dozen enemies at once all gunning for you.
Each stage consists of a handful of floors that need to be cleared in succession before you get to challenge that stage’s boss. The bosses themselves are quite difficult, but the bigger challenge is simply getting to their floor with enough health to hopefully survive the fight. Since health regeneration spots are completely random you might show up to the boss floor with little to no health and a very slim chance of survival. What makes the boss fights even more challenging is the fact that there’s usually waves and waves of enemies that are spawned to fight you simultaneously. Once you manage to take the boss down, you can then respawn from that point anytime you die and hack back in with a new avatar.
Enemies that are killed drop credits, as does opening special boxes hidden around the floors. These credits are highly sought after as it’s the currency you’ll use to upgrade your main character (which any avatar you use every time you restart gets the benefit of) stats permanently. Since you begin as a weakling with no upgrades at all, you’re essentially forced to play though many stages repeatedly, slowly amassing credits so you can spend them on some upgrades, hopefully making your next run slightly easier.
You can upgrade your damage, criticals, damage, and more, based on how you want to play your characters. After a few hours of grinding (by getting so far then dying over and over) I finally was able to afford a good amount of upgrades thinking it would drastically change the outcome of my battles. While you may notice a slight improvement, simply upgrading a stat one or two points is completely unnoticeable, it’s not until you get a dozen or so points in that you will start to really notice a difference. To save enough credits to even get to this point takes time, a lot of it, and even more patience. While you can purchase weapons and other improvements they are only for the next run, so you’re much better off spending your hard earned credits on permanent passive upgrades rather than a slight bonus for a single run.
As a top down shooter, and with a camera that is pulled way back, don’t expect to see much detail in anything. Sure the art style itself is very stylish with its neon colors, but levels constantly take place inside the office tower you’re trying to reach the top of, so you only see the same backdrop with bland office walls and cubicles from start to finish, save for the boss rooms. Some of the rooms have a very dark pallet, making certain walkways and walls difficult to see without any neon accents. As a whole it can be pretty, but there’s absolutely no detail in anything within the walls of Neon Chrome. As for the audio, the minimal voice acting is done decently, but unskippable when you have to replay the same floor numerous times. The music is fitting but nothing is memorable in the slightest.
If you happen to have friends over there’s an included 4-player co-op mode. Sadly there’s no online mode, so if you’re unable to have other people over you’re stuck trying to reach the Overseer on your lonesome. Watching some co-op, it looks as if things become drastically easier since you have much more firepower the more friends that play alongside you. I would have stuck with Neon Chrome much longer if online co-op was implemented, but sadly that’s not the case.
Neon Chrome has a few good things going for it, with its interesting take on progression and procedurally generated floors, but it’s simply going to come down to how much time you want to grind before you can realistically survive a handful of floors at a time. It took me a few hours to save up enough credits to get my health pool to a decent level, meaning I had to start the grind all over again to work on my damage, and so on. It’s time consuming to actually get to the point of having your character with decent stats, and by that point you might already want to move on.
Given that you only see the same handful of enemies from start to finish, Neon Chrome does become repetitive, and the lack of checkpoints, other than those found when defeating bosses, can be incredibly frustrating at times. That being said, if you’re a true fan of the twin stick genre and enjoy a challenge, Neon Chrome has a lot here for you if you have a tremendous amount of patience. It’s strategic and allows for some varied gameplay based on how you want to build and play your character, just be prepared to sink a lot of time into it before you get to that point.
Suggestions: Online co-op would do wonders for longevity.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride
I don’t know if it’s because I’m growing older or if my gaming tastes are changing, but I used to scoff at games like Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride when I was younger. I never really took them serious, as I didn’t see the appeal in object finding games, but I found myself really enjoying my time with Grim Legends, regardless of its faults. Then I figured it out; after a big gaming session of The Witcher, Halo or The Division, I simply want to lay on the couch and relax with a completely different pace where I don’t need to worry about my reflexes and can let my mind solve some puzzles.Developed by Artifex Mundi, a developer who have quite a number of games released on PC over the years, and who have made a name for themselves, specifically in the puzzle genre. They now have a handful of their titles on the Xbox One, but this was my first of them that I got to experience. I wish I found their gaming library earlier, because if there games in general are anything like Grim Legends, I know I’ll enjoy myself for the few hours it takes to complete. If you’ve played one of their games before, Grim Legends follows suit with familiar mechanics, but in the Xbox One version there are a few new mechanics to keep things fresh for the veterans.
You are returning home for your twin sister’s wedding, whom you’ve not seen in quite some time. Just before the wedding a ferocious bear crashes the party and kidnaps her, so you set out alongside her husband-to-be to find and rescue her. Something seems not right though, and the nearby bottomless pit, known as the Abyss, is a place the local villagers fear.
There is more to the story, with unforeseen events and twists, and it has potential, but it feels a little thin, only really serving as a gateway to go from one puzzle area to the next. While the voice acting isn’t perfect, it’s passable for the most part to make you believe in the characters. It’s a shame the story tends to be cliché at times, with certain events being obvious and predictable if you follow along.
As you begin Grim Legends you have the choice to play on Normal or Expert. The only real difference between the two is that expert mode takes longer to refill your hint meter and you aren’t given clues on the map of where to go next. I was expecting the puzzles to be much more involved on the harder difficulty, but it doesn’t seem like they were from what I could tell. As you begin playing you’re given a brief tutorial of how to inspect the environment, gather items, and you are 'handheld' as you get through a puzzle or two to get your feet wet. What I enjoyed was that the bulk of the puzzles tended to make sense and there weren't any solutions that were super wacky or those that required inventory items to be combined. If you need to cut a rope, you’ll need to find scissors or a sharp blade. Need to get an object out of reach? Then you’ll have to find rope or something to pull it towards you. Common sense for the most part.
You also get a companion very early on, an adorable cute kitten in fact, that at times needs to be used to solve certain puzzles by reaching specific items or scaring away a rat or toad here and there. The kitten doesn’t get used often, but when it does you get to watch a short little animation of him doing something adorable before handing the controls back over to you.
You’ll come across many different scenes, each of which need to be explored by clicking and inspecting, allowing you to gather items or solve puzzles which give you items to help you in you quest to solve the next puzzle. Many items can simply be found, but others will only be rewarded when you play through the numerous and unique puzzles or with the common hidden object games (HOG’s) which Artifex Mundi is known for. If you’re like how I was, and roll your eyes at the thought of the HOG’s, there’s an alternative mini-game you can play should you desire.
Instead of sorting through a table full of jumbled items, searching for the ones on your list, you can opt to play a game of dominoes instead. You are tasked to eventually place a domino in specific areas by chaining them together. These domino games can be challenging for the simple fact that if you make a ‘wrong’ move you can actually fail the game since there’s no way to reset the board or clear tiles that have been placed, forcing you to play the original HOG instead.
As you complete puzzles and progress from one scene to the next, unveiling small story snippets as you go, you’ll gather new items that can be used in previous scenes, allowing you to progress elsewhere or gain a new item for the next puzzle. You eventually have access to a map which allows you to fast travel from scene to scene should you desire, though you never generally have to move more than 2 or 3 areas at a time, but it’s a welcome addition.
There seems to only be a handful of puzzle types throughout the course of the game. Some have you simply collecting items tucked away and hidden, well others need you to find all the items of a set before being able to actually attempt the corresponding puzzle. There are also more unique puzzles, but they usually revolve around sliding pieces or rotating objects to find the correct solution. Lastly is the iconic HOG’s, where you need to find all the objects on your ‘grocery list’ that are hidden in plain sight in a giant mess. If you’re a puzzle aficionado, Grim Legends is no doubt able to be completed in a single sitting in a few hours, and obviously longer if you aren’t as efficient in your puzzle solving abilities and depending on how much you rely on the built in hint system. There’s an epilogue that unlocks once you complete the main game that gives you another hour of story and gameplay, though these puzzles are much more linear in fashion and you don’t travel to many different places in comparison.
Artifex Mundi has made a very clever hint system that is completely optional to use should you get stuck or frustrated on a specific puzzle. While none of the puzzles were too terribly challenging for the most part, save for a few, simply having the option of help when needed was very welcome. Pressing up on the d-pad will give you a subtle hint, but if you truly become stuck, or frustrated, you also have the option to completely skip a puzzle entirely. Sure this takes the fun out of a puzzle game, but there’s only so much punishment you can take if you really get stuck for a long period of time and don't want to resort to Youtube or walkthroughs. There’s an achievement for not using any hints for 3 puzzles in a row, and completing the game without any skips, so keep that in mind if that's your thing.
There are many different backdrops within the game's campaign, all of which are beautifully drawn and colourful. This actually took me by surprise, as the art style is very unique and incredibly charming. Every scene, even the eerie swamps and dungeons, are vibrant giving a magical vibe and tone to what you see. The background music, while not as memorable, is fitting and does the job, but it just doesn’t leave nearly the same lasting impression that the gorgeous artwork does. While the artwork and visuals are beautiful, there were numerous times where the cutscenes tended to lag, quite badly at times, making for poor framerates and performance. While it doesn’t happen at every cutscene, there was enough of them to take notice.
Gameplay performance was perfect though, as there’s very minimal loading when transitioning from one scene to the next, even when fast traveling with the map. Controls worked very well and I never found myself clicking the wrong item even with the big reticule during the HOG’s; something I expected to have issues with beforehand for whatever reason.
Even if you’re not a big fan of the genre that Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride falls under, it is a great entry point, especially if you’re looking for something more on the relaxing side of gaming. This game is a great filler between playing the bigger games out on the Xbox One allowing you to take a break now and then. Even more of a testament, my wife even enjoyed helping me during the HOG’s, and she's not a gamer at all. Now that I’ve experienced one of Artifex Mundi’s titles on the Xbox One I’m really hoping for the sequels to Grim Legends to appear on the console as well.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Fragments of Him
For some, graphics are what matters most in their games, while for some it might be the audio or the gameplay, but if you’re like me, story usually triumphs all. Sure, there are games that have great mechanics and are fun to play, but without a good story behind it all giving you purpose, it can be a hollow experience that doesn’t last long. Fragments of Him, developed by Sassybot, is something almost completely in the other spectrum, focusing solely on story and seemingly forgetting almost any gameplay elements. I’ve never “played” anything quite like it, as it’s much more of a somewhat interactive story than a true 'game'. Luckily, care has been taken to employ strong voice acting and intriguing writing, as a story-only focused game like this could have turned out a disaster if it didn’t do these two things right. I struggled writing this review for numerous reasons. The main being that Fragments of Him is, as mentioned, simply an interactive story, as there’s not too much else to write about other than the plot itself, but doing so would spoil the intriguing narrative, which is the whole point of playing it. That being said, ignore telling about portions of the story and there’s literally almost nothing to write about, so I will describe the core basics of the story without trying to spoil too much, but there’s details that need to be relayed for you to understand the emotional weight of the narrative being told.
Fragments of Him is a somewhat of an exploration game but with many constraints. You’re being told a story so there’s really no deviating from the linear plot aside from searching around some small confined spaces looking for the next object to interact with and progress the story forward. Revolving around the life of Will, a simple man that impacted the lives of people around him, it depicts not only his final day before his sudden death, but travels back in time to explore the relationships he had with others, specifically his grandmother, ex-girlfriend, and current partner, and the effect he had on them.
You experience the story almost in a 3rd person’s perspective, simply controlling the camera much like a ghost reliving the memories of Will and the people close to him. You are confined to a specific area, usually a room with one of the characters, and as you inspect predetermined items that are highlighted it triggers some narration and progresses the story forward, somehow relating to the object that’s been clicked on. It’s a very linear experience, as you’re given an exact path of what objects to click, allowing the narration to go in order for the larger plot pieces to link together.
The world is portrayed in bland grey and light tones with a minimalist approach to the models and animations making the objects you need to inspect stand out with their highlighted yellow or red outlines. Noticing a large bookshelf or door is easy, but sometimes you’ll need to look at smaller objects that are more subtle, like a toothbrush or alarm clock, to progress forward. That’s not to say that you’ll get stuck, ever, but there will be the odd time where you’ll spend a few extra moments trying to find the next object to click on and progress.
At the very beginning of the game you’re given a few dialogue options, which I thought would be a recurring theme throughout the whole game, but there was really only two or three spots where you get some selection of such. Though in the end this doesn’t truly matter, as your choice has no bearing on anything else in the story, even the ending. I thought that by the end I would be able to somehow help Will avoid his untimely death with my choices, but it’s a linear story that’s being told with emotional weight to it.
There are multiple times in the game where you’ll bounce from character to character in an effort to describe Will in a different light and perspective, and how he has affected each person specifically. One that stood out for me was the section where you interact with his grandmother. She helped raise Will, so when she finds out about his lifestyle and doesn’t approve, it plays out like you might imagine a closed-minded thinking person would react. She later discovers that regardless of his lifestyle, and her disapproval of it, Will has turned out to be an amazing man and human being. At times though it seems that certain points of the narrative are repetitive, as it takes a good dozen times for the grandmother to explain why she doesn’t agree with his lifestyle just to make a point.
Will’s ex-girlfriend was madly in love with him, but like many couples they drifted apart for specific reasons. Her character doesn’t get as much screen time as I would have liked, as she felt a little two dimensional, and at times cliché. They had an interesting relationship that gets hinted at, but it's never delved into too far to become truly interesting. I know this sounds vague, but it’s one of the plot points that should be experienced without being spoiled.
Given that this is more of an interactive story as opposed to a traditional game, some might be turned off by the lack of interactivity outside of clicking on a few objects here and there between narration. Even though it would have been essentially the same experience without any of the interactivity, I’m still glad I got to experience it and the accompanying narrative. There’s no challenge within, no scores, nothing, aside from selecting the various highlighted objects and pressing A. This doesn’t constitute as your traditional “fun” type of game. It’s a unique experience though that tells a story, it's as simple as that. You can’t explore as much as you would like and the game dictates where you can go along its linear path.
The voice acting is very well done, but the issue that appears early on, and consistently throughout, is that the lines are broken up and linked to the items to be clicked on. This means that if you don’t click an item directly after one paragraph of dialogue is spoken before clicking the next, there’s a jarring pause between the spoken lines that becomes distracting, slightly taking away from its emotional weight and importance.
Fragments of Him is a fascinating take on storytelling with the game medium, and while I know that many simply won’t “get it”, I appreciate what it was trying to accomplish: showing the fragments of a man that touched people in his life who died much too young, and the aftermath of said event. Even with the bland visuals, the emotional storytelling is well written with plenty of subtext for those willing to pay attention and enjoy the plot that unfolds. While there’s a fascinating story within, there’s sadly no replayability after you’ve completed it. Even so, I’m still glad I got to experience its uniqueness and got to look into the beautiful life of Will.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
TurnOn
Sometimes you simply need a break from the onslaught of shooting games or any game in general that might just frustrate you more than entertain you. Some might gawk at more casual style of games, but there’s always a time and place for them when you simply want to relax on the couch and just play something for fun. Enter TurnOn, a platform game that doesn’t play anything like traditional platformers. Oh, and did I mention that it is developed by a very small team of four guys from Russia? Well it is.You control an adorable spark of electricity who crash lands on Earth, and because of this you’ve accidentally knocked out the electricity grid of a whole city. You’re adorable and friendly though, so you task yourself with restoring power to the humans and setting things right since that’s absolutely within your capabilities. The resident scientist in the city helps you begin your journey, and as you restore light and power to the citizens each stage will take you about 5 to 10 minutes depending on how much you want to explore.
As I mentioned above, TurnOn isn’t your traditional style of platformer. You are only able to travel along powerlines and other electrically influenced areas, such as lightbulbs, neon signs, etc. Powerlines are what you’ll be tethered to the majority of the time though and they pop into the foreground with the stages backdrop and scenery layered behind. You’re able to jump from one power conduit to another, but should you miss your jump and fall to the ground you’re simply placed at the beginning of the stage. TurnOn isn’t a difficult game by any means, save for a few of the later stages, which I’ll delve into shortly, as it’s more focused on exploration and collecting all the lightning icons should you desire.
As you pass over a light or item that uses electricity it will turn on and you’ll net some points for doing this. The more lights and items you turn on, as well as collecting the lightning bolt icons littered throughout the stage, the better your overall score and rank at the end of each level. I initially thought that you needed to collect all of the lightning bolts to progress, but that’s not the case at all, as they are more relevant for high scores and achievements. Speaking of achievements, TurnOn dishes them out hand over fist and requires minimal effort to get the bulk of them, so you achievement hunters out there will enjoy this aspect.
Even though your only controls are moving side to side and being able to jump up and drop down, controls generally work the way they should and are as simplistic as it gets. Instead of simply having to get from point A to point B you have goals to complete as you turn on the electricity, such as lighting a path for a woman walking home, starting a party for some random people, or even setting a romantic mood by getting some music and lights working. It’s a silly premise, but it works in an interesting and simplistic manner telling the game's story.
While the bulk of the game is comprised of standard levels like these, that play at a leisurely pace, there are a few other types of levels thrown in to change things up, and some of them really pull down the experience as a whole due to poor and unresponsive controls. After a handful of levels you partake in an on-rails level where you are automatically moving towards the right of the screen, but you must jump and drop to stay on the powerlines that are energized, indicated by glowing blue, and avoid the ones that don't have power flowing through them, or else you restart the level.
If you’ve played the musical levels from Rayman Origins you’ll know exactly what to expect, except that in these levels, where timing is absolutely critical, you realize the controls aren’t very responsive at the best of times. Truth be told, I have struggled on one such level towards the end as I spent well over an hour on a single level, but kept dying. Granted, it’s all about memorization, but when the controls don’t work as intended, it becomes incredibly frustrating having to start from the very beginning of the stage all over again for the hundredth time with its instant fails. I really enjoyed my time with TurnOn until I got to these levels.
What TurnOn really does have going for it is its visual art style and aesthetic. Given it has more of a casual vibe (aside from the hellish on-rails stages noted above), is wonderful to see the colors when everything is lit up is very bright and vibrant. Levels go from dark and dismal to a happy and refreshing look once you manage to restore power to the area. While it may look simplistic at first glance, it has a certain charm to it, especially given the adorable spark you control. The soundtrack also completely suits the tone of TurnOn with its relaxing jams, setting a great mood for some relaxing play (other than those horrendous on-rails levels where you’ll hear the start of the songs over and over every time you have to restart).
But not is all roses here, as I ran into a few glitches on occasion that were jarring to say the least. A handful of times, for whatever reason, my spark somehow became untethered from the normal constraints of staying along powerlines, seemingly able to simply float anywhere I wanted. I don’t know how it happened or why. This also happened to me during the on-rail levels more than once as well, causing me to die when it eventually decides to work properly again out of nowhere.
TurnOn is a peculiar game, as on one hand I really enjoyed the majority of it with its slow paced exploration and quirky gameplay. On the other hand, the on-rails levels seriously tarnish the experience as a whole with poor controls and instant fails. That being said, the game is still a charming little title that is simplistic in nature, colorful, and a great way to earn some easy achievements. If you’re looking for something to just play and relax during the the majority of some gaming time, TurnOn might just spark your interest.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
GunWorld 2
I’ve been gaming pretty much my whole life. I still remember the day that I got my NES as it was a pillar foundation of my broad gaming history. Gamers my age will remember the plight of having games that seemed nearly impossible to beat unless you had the corresponding strategy guide for hints or a friend who had beat it already. I grew up on the likes of Mega Man, Legend of Zelda, and other classics, so when a game tries to mimic these experiences, waves of nostalgia comes over me, bringing me back to those days of sitting as close as I could to the TV without getting in trouble from my parents, trying repeatedly to complete a level.Developer m07games, who just happens to be one guy actually, gives a hilarious description for his newest title, GunWorld 2. It states that it's “The sequel no one asked for, to the game that nobody liked!” The first GunWorld passed by me, but I always tend to gravitate towards NES era looking games simply because of my childhood. While looking like a classic NES game is one thing, actually making it play and feel like one is a whole other challenge, one that GunWorld 2 nails for better or worse.
From the official game description alone, you get the vibe that GunWorld 2 is full of humor and jokes throughout, and it does, and this extends to the plot as well. After the main hero Dwayne saved the planet in the first game he has gone missing and is living a life of solitude. But there’s a new alien invasion threatening the planet once again, so President Eagle seeks out Dwayne to help save humankind once again.
Now if you were wondering why the game it titled GunWorld, it’s quite simple really, as guns grow on trees. Dwyane has seeds that instantly sprout trees that can be picked and used for ammunition. It’s a silly story and premise, but it’s filled with enough jokes and humor that makes it entertaining and worth the time to enjoy, provided you can overcome its classic difficulty and actually progress.
When beginning GunWorld 2 you’re offered 3 different modes, each of which have their own unique challenges. The main mode, which I suggest focusing on, is the RPG mode. Here you play GunWorld 2 like a classic adventure game, almost a carbon copy of how Legend of Zelda II is structured. This mode has many more RPG elements within (hence the title) such as leveling up and allowing you to save your coins earned from defeated enemies to spend later. Leveling up allows Dwayne to have a larger health pool aside from the starting 3 hearts. And just like Legend of Zelda II, walking around the overworld map will show shadow-like figures that will put you into a mini battle before you can progress on your way if they run into you.
The second mode, Old-School mode, puts all of the levels in order but doesn’t have you focusing on any RPG elements, but there’s a huge caveat to this, which I found out too late. While it doesn’t mention it in the descriptions, all of the achievements for completing levels are actually tied to only the RPG mode. This became an issue for me for a few reasons, as I initially started the RPG mode for review purposes, but wanted to progress further in the game quicker so I decided to play Old-School mode instead. This was somewhat of a mistake, as I didn’t learn till hours later that your progress isn’t saved like it is in RPG mode. So, the next time I started up the game I discovered that I lost all of my progress and had to start all over, nor did I get any achievements for beating the first handful of levels after hours of retrying.
If you’re a real glutton for punishment though, the third mode will challenge your skills even more as you are only given one life and the levels themselves are random. Given that you only have three health hearts and can die instantly in pits and from spikes, good luck, you’re going to need it. This mode is truly for the sadistic gamer.
GunWorld 2 is without a doubt inspired NES classics like Mega Man and Legend of Zelda II, but there’s inspiration and then straight up copying. Just like Mega Man, you gain access to a boss weapon once he has been defeated, which you’ll need to access special areas in previously completed levels. When playing in RPG mode, new weapons must be purchased in seed form from the vendor in town. It’s an interesting little mechanic, and in Old-School mode you’re simply given access to the new weapon since you don’t need to save up the coins to purchase anything. When you’re not shooting things though Dwayne will use his combat knife to knock enemies off ledges, shatter armor, and climb surfaces.
Each level is structured much like other Mega Man games with checkpoints, but they are very far and few between. To help with the difficulty you are able to spend your coins on a respawn item should you choose (in RPG mode). This allows you to respawn right away once you die, drastically shifting the difficulty in your favor, granted that's if you can afford to keep purchasing these respawns. These may be unneeded for some diehard gamers, but for those that don’t have the time to dedicate hours on a single level, repeatedly dying, they are a welcome optional addition. There is actually an achievement for completing RPG mode without using any respawn items, so keep that in mind if you’re a 'cheevo-hunter'.
When playing RPG mode, you’re given hints of where to find the bosses on the overworld map, but be prepared to wander for some time looking for the specific area you need to go, even more so if you forget the hint you were given. This again plays almost exactly as it did in the original Legend of Zelda II, so I’m not sure if it was by design or not.
If you didn’t know that GunWorld 2 released in 2016 you could easily mistake it for a classic 8-bit NES game from the 80’s. While the overall art style looks great in the retro form that is offered, the issue I constantly had was trying to read the text boxes, as they can look hand drawn and sloppy at times. The soundtrack is very fitting of the setting and mood of the game, and it is quite catchy at times, but be prepared for repetition when you’re stuck on the same level for over an hour.
I really only had two major issues with GunWorld 2 that are worth pointing out. Technically, the game ran well aside from when transitioning from area or area or backing out to the menu. During these times it feels laggy and almost as if your system has frozen for a few moments before getting back to normal. More importantly though, the difficulty curve needs some tweaking. You begin with a small tutorial of the basics, but then the game simply throws you into the deep end without much practice against easier enemies, something that would help you get a feel for the controls. You’re taught the bare minimum and then the game lets loose, only to have die when you encounter a new type of enemy without any inclination of how to properly defeat them without losing any life. I still hate the flying birds that dive at you, almost guaranteed to knock you into a pit.
I appreciate a game that attempts to hark back to the age of difficult games, especially when the source material is some of the most beloved games from the era, but in regards to GunWorld 2, it can be quite confusing and frustrating at times. That being said, you can grind the random battles for a while and level up, gaining more health to make things easier, or spend coins on the respawn items. Regardless of my complaints though, GunWorld 2 will bring back nostalgia for anyone that grew up with a NES, and if you’re a Mega Man fan, you’re going to feel right at home. While not perfect, I had a few laughs and was entertained for a few hours, which isn’t bad considering the low entry price of $7.99 CAD. Are you a bad enough dude to go save the world?
Overall Score: 6.9 / 10
Raiden V
Most normal people calculate their age by using their birth year, or by how many candles are on their birthday cake. I however, in true geek fashion, tend to use gaming anniversaries to see how much time has passed since I grew up playing video or board games. Case in point, the classic vertical arcade shooter Raiden is celebrating its 25th anniversary, making me 10 when it was released and finding a way into my young adolescent gaming heart. While Raiden was not my first shmup (shoot ‘em up), as I think that award goes to 1942 on the original NES, it has always been one of my favorites over the years, mostly because of its iconic purple waving plasma gun that the series is well known for. Originally developed by Seibu Kaihatsu, a Japanese gaming studio, Raiden brought them success, but only for so long. Eventually the company went under, but many of the developers formed a new company, MOSS, whom to this day still work on Raiden titles, much like this Xbox One exclusive, Raiden V.
When translated, Raiden actually means “Thunder and Lightning”, which seems appropriate given some of the arsenal at your ship’s disposal. Normally shmups are known for one single thing: throwing tons of bullets at you along with tons of enemies and seemingly unfair bosses that feel like they were designed to munch down your pocket full of quarters. These days there aren’t nearly as many shmups as their used to be, and even less that still feel like the classics. Raiden V is a return of the classic genre, almost to a fault.
The genre is known for its gameplay and difficulty more than anything else, but given the age of gaming we’re in today, that simply isn’t enough to hold the attention of gamers, especially if you’re charging near retail price for a classic style game (Raiden V is $49.99 CAD on the Xbox Marketplace at the time of writing). MOSS has attempted to tell an intriguing story as well as bring a solid gaming experience for fans of the genre, but the execution doesn’t actually allow you to enjoy it. Let me explain.
In most games you complete a level and then you are treated to a cutscene of some sort that progresses the story and moves along the narrative. In regards to Raiden V, it has a storyline and plot, but it’s only told via character dialogue which takes place during gameplay. That’s right, when you’re solely focused on avoiding bullets and staying alive you’re also expected to follow the spoken dialogue so that you can get an idea of the overarching plot line.
As you can imagine, this simply doesn’t work at all. I’ve completed the game numerous times and I’m still fuzzy on some the narrative's details. I appreciate that MOSS has attempted to add some meaningful storyline to the genre and series, but the execution simply doesn’t work. Granted, story isn’t usually a reason you play a shmup anyways, but I digress.
Given that Raiden V is a vertical shooter and not a traditional side-scroller, you’ll notice that the actual play field is nowhere near as wide as your TV screen. The sides of the screen are used for tips, dialogue text, statistics, and more. Again, you won't actually be able to pay attention to these kind of things during the frantic gameplay. It takes some getting used to given you actually only play on about a third of your screen, but it becomes less distracting the more you play.
For those unfamiliar with bullet-hell games, your main priority is to stay alive by dodging the huge number of bullets on screen while shooting at enemies who want to destroy you. The genre is known for its brutal difficulty and the high skill needed to be successful. Normally one hit and you explode and lose a life, but new to the series is the inclusion of a health bar system; something quite uncommon in games like this.
You choose one of three ships, of which each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. One is very slow but can take more hits (damage), one is quicker but has less health, and the third is average across the board. There are achievements for beating Raiden V with all three, and given the short start-to-finish time, you’ll want to do this.
After choosing your ship you are provided with numerous options for your weaponry, again, not the norm for the genre. Normally you only start with a a basic shot and you have to collect floating power-ups to upgrade, but Raiden V lets you start with a weapon type of your choice, which include three different types including Vulkan, Laser, and Plasma. Within these three initial weapons are three variants. You pick one of each from the three main categories and then choose which individual one of each you’d like to use during that particular gameplay session. The weapons can be upgraded from level 1 to level 10 separately and they are swappable when you collect the matching colored power-up, all which can drastically change the outcome of the battle given your play style and skill.
As I mentioned, I’ve always been partial to the classic Raiden purple plasma beam that bends and locks onto enemies, but other classics like the blue laser beam return as well. While you are able to change weapons when you find the power-ups during gameplay, they aren’t very frequent so the best bet is to simply stick with one weapon and keep upgrading it rather than trying to have numerous lower-level weapons.
One very cool innovation from MOSS worth mentioning is its unique, yet odd, Cheer system. This took me a few playthroughs to figure out, as it’s not explained anywhere at all. Essentially, when playing you are connected to the game servers allowing other people currently playing to see that you just finished the first level, beat a boss, got a certain combo, and many more in-game actions.
On the left sidebar you’ll see that XBOXGAMER_420_SNIPE_MLGXxX just got some form of achievement in game, so you can use a dedicated button (of which, all buttons can be remapped) to give them a Cheer. Doing so will not only make them feel good about themselves, as the amount of Cheers received are counted on the screen for you and it fills a small meter, that when full, allows you to unleash a powerful special attack, so it pays to Cheer others on. As I said, it’s a very odd gameplay mechanic, but I have to admit it’s satisfying to see others send Cheer’s when I do something noteworthy in the single player game.
Shmups live and die by their precision gameplay. With so many projectiles to avoid on screen, if the controls aren’t tight and precise you’re going to have a bad time throughout. I’m happy to report that this isn’t the case with Raiden V, as it has the required precision and smooth controls. This allows all people, no matter what skill, to play and enjoy the game (though the unlimited continues definitely help) without having to worry about unfairness or terrible controls that plague some games of this type.
Shumps are also meant to be played over and over again to work your way to a high score, and given that Raiden V includes online leaderboards, this will be your main source of longevity considering that each playthrough lasts roughly an hour. Sure there are multiple ships and weapon combinations to play with, but that will only last you so long unless you’re truly dedicated.
There are some negative issues that are worth mentioning. While the controls are spot on, some of the visuals are not. For example, there are some backgrounds that make it near impossible to see the bullets hurling towards you. The same goes for some enemies ships that seemingly tend to blend into the background at times. I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve blown up because of these ‘phantom’ bullets that seemingly come out of nowhere. Again, the overlapping dialogue during gameplay is the other big miss that makes it near impossible to follow along if you actually care about the narrative.
It’s quite rare for a Japanese developer to create an exclusive title for Xbox One, especially a niche 2D-shoot 'em up, but I’m glad they did. Raiden V is without a doubt a solid shmup experience from start to finish (and start to finish again and again), but the real question is if it’s worth the asking price of $49.99 CAD. If you’re an old school gaming fan of the genre, like myself, you’ll easily find value here with lots of replayability, even more so if you want to climb the online leaderboards. That being said, everyone that isn’t into this niche genre will no doubt wonder how a game like this is priced so high, so this group of gamers may want to give it a chance once it’s on sale. At the end of the day, if you want to experience a solid shmup like the ones you may have grown up with so many years ago, Raiden V is worth a close look.
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
Anima: Gate of Memories
Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I’m still always a little surprised when I see a game release that was a successful Kickstarter project; even more so when the game itself is actually decent and lives up to its promises. That’s what we have here with Anima: Gate of Memories. If the Anima title seems familiar, that’s because there was a game previously released game that was set in the same universe titled Ark of Sinners, though Game of Memories is developed by a completely different team, a small trio actually, though it still employs the original writer. I love my RPG’s, though as I get older, and now have a toddler to care for among other adult responsibilities, it’s becoming much more difficult to pour 100+ hours into a single game, especially since my backlog is already big enough as it is. Luckily Anima: Gate of Memories isn’t that long of a commitment, and that’s a good thing in this case as it has a grandiose feeling you’d expect from an open RPG, but you don’t have to give up your social life to complete it.
Anima’s narrative revolves around two core characters, The Bearer of Calamities (The Bearer for short) and Ergo Mundus. The Bearer is a young woman who has no recollection of who she is or what her name was, which is due to a pact that was made with Ergo a decade ago. As a team, though not always by choice, they work for an entity called Nathaniel, tasked with defeating creatures from the darkness and essentially keeping the impending evil out of the world.
An ancient artifact, The Byblos, has been stolen, and The Bearer is tasked with retrieving it. Upon catching up with the thief and defeating them, something goes wrong and they awaken in a strange building with seemingly no escape, unaware to what has happened. I don’t want to give much more away from the main story, as it can be interesting as long as you’re able to follow along, just be aware that it can be confusing at times to keep up. You’ll understand the main characters and conflict no problem, but the smaller details and reveals weren’t always as easy to follow, be it the convoluted writing, or the sometimes (but not always) terrible voice acting.
The most interesting part of Anima’s story is the relationship between The Bearer and Ergo, and given that Ergo is trapped inside of a book that The Bearer carries around, Ergo is only able to be released when ‘switching’ spots with The Bearer. As you progress you find out more revelations about their pact and their pasts, though they are completely contrast personalities, which sometimes works for the narrative, and other times is cringe worthy when you hear Ergo call The Bearer “baby” for the hundredth time. The Bearer is much more serene, honest, and good-natured, where Ergo is the complete opposite. The personality clashes make for some witty banter at times, but it’s hit or miss given the writing and voice acting.
As for gameplay, the overall package is that of an RPG but it has hack and slash combat very reminiscent of a Devil May Cry or Darksiders. You’re able to explore freely in the mostly open world environments, though many areas are locked behind progression gates. The outside world is very colorful and vibrant where the indoor sections tend to be very dark and moody, both of which encourage exploration for secrets and hidden items. There are even some puzzle elements included within, some of which are very simple while others will have you completely stumped.
Although you’re given freedom to explore, and it can be seen as a positive, one issue I ran into a few hours in was that there’s little to no help to guide you to where or what you should be doing at any given time. I understand that the open freedom is something that is important in a RPG like this, but there’s no journal or quest log for you to reference what you “should” be doing or working towards next. This becomes frustrating, as I was stuck for a few days, essentially doing nothing aside from searching every area for where to go next. By sheer luck I eventually figured it out but I was close to giving up, as I was simply running around in circles from area to area trying to solve what I was supposed to be doing.
At any time during exploration or combat you can freely switch between The Bearer and Ergo with a simple press of a button, and you will need to master this in combat if you want to make any sort of progression. Both of the characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, as The Bearer is more magic based and better suited for long range attacks, whereas Ergo is more at home up and close and personal in melee range, hacking and slashing away at enemies.
You’ll need to master switching between the two in-game characters because early on you’ll learn that certain enemies can only take damage from one or the other. For example, the white enemies need to be beaten by The Bearer and the dark ones can only damaged from Ergo, so when a mixed group attacks, you’ll be forced to constantly switch between the two. Unexpectedly, both characters have their own health bars as well, along with their individual move sets that can be customized to almost any button you like.
As you defeat enemies and earn experience you’ll eventually level up which grants you skill points to spend however you wish. The skill tree is where you’ll customize each character (both with their own skill points to spend) by adding new combat moves, passive abilities, and other bonuses. You can choose to focus on making each character better at their natural roles or focus on rounding out all their skills instead, it’s completely up to you. As you choose progressive skills further down the skill tree, you can choose passive bonuses as well, and sometimes I found myself choosing skills I necessarily wasn’t planning on using, but choosing them for the passives instead, like more health. The issue with the skill tree isn’t the abilities themselves, but the navigation. If you want to look at the ability below the one that’s highlighted, you simply can’t just press down; you have to follow the ‘path’ with the control stick, making navigating the menu much more of an chore than it should be.
Playing as The Bearer, you are more magic focused. You use Ergo's pages as your projectiles since he is bound to his book form when not being directly used. When playing directly as Ergo though, he uses his claws and violence to cut through enemies instead. ‘X’ is your standard attack, ‘Right Trigger’ is your always important dodge, and you can map any learned abilities to ‘Y’, ‘B’, and ‘Left Trigger’. As you learn more moves and abilities, it's up to you to figure out what combination works well with each other for your play style, just remember that you’ll constantly be swapping between the two characters, so mapping similar skills on the same button is highly suggested when you’re starting out.
Standard enemies don’t generally pose too much of a threat, that is until swarms are surrounding you, but the boss battles are the real challenge, forcing you to learn their patterns and weaknesses on the fly. While they are nowhere near the difficulty you’d expect in something like Dark Souls, regardless, you will need to memorize their subtle tells and possess quick reflexes to defeat them. You’ll eventually find a handful of moves that work best, but until that point the sudden spike in difficulty can be frustrating.
Combat itself works decently, and you’re given a lock-on system to help, but sometimes it becomes more of a hindrance than an aid. You’re able to switch between enemies, but in the heat of battle it seems like pure luck at times if you are locked on to your intended target. It’s usually much quicker to turn off the auto-lock, aim at your desired target, and then turn it back on. Doing so during a boss fight with multiple enemies though can easily spell defeat.
There are many items and secrets to find if you take the time, allowing for an enjoyable journey if you like exploring the intertwined areas. More often than not you’ll come across some type of barrier stopping your progress, but eventually after unlocking a new ability or defeating specific enemies you’ll be granted access to pass and progress onward. As I mentioned above, I simply wish there was some sort of journal or guideline to at least give hints of where you “should” be headed in case you’ve forgotten or put down the game for a while.
As for Anima’s visuals, it has a classic anime style to it that suits the source material, and a sharp looking cel-shaded feel that doesn’t look like it was made by only three people. Its art style is appealing to the eye and the spell effects during combat are quite impressive as well. The only note of contention is that the cutscenes don’t always look as slick or polished, which is usually the opposite issue in most games.
As for the audio, the music is quite well done and combat sounds great, but man, the voice acting at times can be outright cringe worthy. The dialogue is well written and is delivered without issue, but other times there are some terribly written lines that are just painful to listen to. Some jokes are quite funny, and I have to give special mention to any game that has a “Reading Rainbow” reference in song form, but many other times the jokes simply didn’t work as intended.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect with Anima: Gate of Memories, as some indie games, or even blockbusters for that matter, can really be a hit or miss. Luckily I’m able to report that Anima is worthy of a recommendation. It’s not without its faults though, but as an overall package it has a solid foundation of gameplay mechanics that should keep you entertained for a while. If you love RPG’s with a mix of hack and slash combat, then give Anima: Gate of Memories a look and join The Bearer and Ergo as they fight back the darkness.
Suggestions: Please add some form of guideline of where to head next, even if it's a subtle clue or talking to a NPC. Trying to remember where you wanted to go after putting the game down for a while leads to wandering aimlessly.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Super Night Riders
I generally know not to judge a book, or game, by its cover, but sometimes it’s hard not to. Sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised, as the gameplay is much better than its projected visuals, and other times, well, your initial judgments are right. Super Night riders fell into this trap for me, as it’s simply not a pretty game to look at, which is forgivable if the gameplay more than makes up for it, but is that the case here? Let’s find out.Sega AM2 was the undeniable king of racers in the mid 80’s, bringing us such classics as OutRun and Hang-On that still hold up to this day. Instead of a traditional style of racer these games didn't focus on coming in first place as your goal was to reach the end before the time ran out instead, which was a completely different type of challenge.
Playing games from this genre brings back a flood of memories of going to the arcade as a kid and dumping a handful of quarters into OutRun until I was completely out of money. If you’re a fan of the genre like myself, you’ll feel right at home with Super Night Riders, but just know that this title is nowhere near the classics in terms of quality or gameplay.
The genre isn’t known for having any sophisticated stories to tell, in fact, they usually don’t have any sort of story at all. Super Night Riders is no different, so it’s hard to fault it for that. The only issue I found was that the official description of the game states that “You are Alice, a beautiful and talented motorcyclist known as the red rider”, but it does absolutely nothing to further this notion and make it intriguing.
Just like the classics, Super Night Riders utilizes an art style that looks like it could have released back in the 90’s, and while that’s fine for what it is, it looks very basic in many ways. Alice, for example, looks like a Mii character gone wrong and the animations are extremely basic at best. I understand that it’s not trying to be more, but it simply doesn’t have any of the charm that the classics possess. Given the repetitive nature of the genre, somehow Super Night Riders has managed to design itself to the point of dull with its predictable AI layout (which I’ll delve into shortly).
There are two modes within, Course and Stage. Course is where you race through 6 different areas successively while Stage is locked to a single area, but you race the sections at different times of day. With a total of 36 stages (6 areas x 6 times of day) you’ll see all of the backdrops in just a few playthroughs, though they don’t differ at all aside from the difficulty of night racing. Your only goal is to beat the clock and make it to the finish line of the 6th leg.
The only hazards Alice needs to watch for are veering off course and other riders on the road. There’s no animations for crashing, so all that happens when you rear-end an opponent is you simply come to a complete stop and lose precious time. You’ll learn very quickly that if you crash more than two times it’s virtually impossible to make it to the finish, as you’re given very little extra time even if you have a perfect run.
As mentioned above, the AI is predictable to the point that there’s actually a pattern instead of a true AI. While you can steer anywhere on the road, there’s essentially only 5 lanes that the AI stick to: the outer left, left, middle, right, and outer right. For the first hour I was simply guessing at where the bikers would appear on the road, relying on my reflexes to avoid them, but I eventually learned the pattern that is used, making it completely predictable and nullifying any skill needed to avoid them aside from the sloppy controls.
Opponents always come in the same repeated pattern, and there’s only three groups of these bikers, so needless to say it’s a shame that it’s not randomized or at least has more patterns. Regardless of stage or area, it’s always the same: Two in the left lanes, one in the middle, two on the right, repeat. That’s it. So while it’s anticipated, the loose controls make it more difficult than it should be to avoid them (or go off the track), especially when you know where the bikers will be.
Because you’re given just the right amount of time to reach the checkpoints, save for maybe a crash or two, you need virtually flawless runs if you want to progress to all 6 stages, but this is very difficult with the loose controls. If you lean into a turn slightly before you instinctively want to, your motorcycle’s wheels will grip as if they were made out of glue, allowing you to lightly feather off the throttle to adjust and avoid rear-ending opponents. Other times though, and more often than not, you’ll constantly be skidding, making it near impossible to stay on the track and avoid other bikers without slowing down too much to correct your turning. This leads to a lost stage because you’ve wasted too much time trying to correct your steering.
It simply feels as though that you have to worry about concentrating on the controls rather than relying on your skill. You’re also going to have to use all of your concentration when it comes to the absolutely terrible night stages. The street lights emit light that is so bright and flashing (since you’re constantly speeding at 315 km/h) that it’s near impossible to not only see the oncoming bikers (even though you know the pattern), but the curve of the road to prepare to pre-lean into the corner.
For some reason, there is also random framerate issues that occur which cause you to crash almost without fail. This tends to happen when you cross from one stage leg into another, causing a prolonged stutter when the game tries to transition from one setting to the next. Given that you’re constantly steering and avoiding adversaries, you’re almost guaranteed to crash when this happens. If this only happened once or twice I would have written it off as a random glitch, but it’s happened enough times to worth mentioning.
If you’ve somehow managed to survive and make it through all 6 sets of stages, you’ll be challenged with a final challenge, completing all 36 stages in one single race, complete with the same and painful time restrictions. This is simply for people that have a glutton for punishment and achievement hunting.
I love that Super Night Riders is a homage to a dead genre and that it tries to replicate what others have done before, but for a new generation, unfortunately it just doesn’t have the same charm that the classics possess. If it was only a few bucks I would say it would be a decent way to pass some time, but the asking price is $9.99 CAD which I feel is a bit too much for what is offered. If you’re an old school fan of the genre, like myself, pick it up when it’s on sale for about half price, otherwise I would hold off, as there’s simply not enough content or refinement to justify the current asking price.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Mystery Castle
To some, puzzle games may fall into a niche category, which can be true, but to others, they can be just as memorable as some of the biggest and most popular titles as well. I fall into the latter, where I have some great gaming memories that come from some of the best classic puzzle games. For instance, my favorite puzzle game of all time is an old NES classic, Adventures of Lolo, which my current review of a game called Mystery Castle really reminds me of in certain aspects. Most puzzle games have something unique about them that makes them stand out against the competition in the genre, whether it be the teleportation aspect of Portal or the time powers of Braid. Some simply rely on their charm and clever-yet-challenging puzzles to carry its own weight. While Mystery Castle may not have a special mechanic that makes it stand out brightly against the competition, what it does have is a more tried and true approach to the genre, crafting some very cunning and challenging puzzles that will be sure to stump even the most veteran players. Sticking to the more tried and true path isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as the gameplay works well and the puzzle difficulty is refined, both of which Mystery Castle possesses.
Most puzzle games simply focus on gameplay and forgo even attempting to try and tell a compelling story. Mystery Castle attempts to remedy this by adding a narrative that follows a stocky wizard who must explore different castles, each of which has over 30 floors to complete, before liberating each one from the boss that has overtaken it. Even though the hero doesn’t have any real magic, he is still the one that the residents of the castles ask for help, presumably since there’s no one else that can take on this task.
Sure, it’s a weak premise for a story, but at least there’s an attempt, and the humorous writing makes it passable. Given that I was fully expecting no story at all, it’s a welcome addition, and the amount of fat jokes from the people he’s trying to help is at times worth a chuckle or two. If you’ve ever wanted to play a puzzle game that had cheesy fat jokes in it, Mystery Castle is your dream come true.
Each of the 180 levels, save for the bosses, has you collecting 5 objects (snowflakes, parchments, diamonds, etc) before the exit door will open allowing you to progress to the next stage. The first handful of levels are incredibly easy and will have you thinking that you will complete the game in no time, but new mechanics are eventually introduced and the intricacy of the puzzles starts to become more and more complex, surely to stump the best puzzle solvers out there for some time.
Puzzles begin with simply having to push (not pull though, and yes, there’s a reason that’s explained) crates to unblock pathways and fill bottomless gaps, but soon you’ll have to also contend with floors that break away after one or two steps, monsters, keys, teleports, bombs, lava, ice, and more. Each of the castles has its own theme and presents its own challenges that are unique to itself, always sure to keep you on your toes just as you start to figure out the basic puzzle designs.
Runestone Games has done a great job at introducing each type of obstacle, be it an item or an enemy, and slowly ramps up the difficulty and complexity without hitting too many walls of difficulty out of nowhere. Mystery Castle is all about trial and error, and you’ll experience many stages where you’ll need to repeat it many times because of a simple mistake or poorly planned movement, but the pride you get when that “a-hah!” moment happens is fantastic as you make your way to the exit door.
Another thing about Mystery Castle is that it is very cheeky about is giving you either extra items (bombs, crates, etc.) or an ‘obvious’ path that you should take, when in reality these are ploys to fool you or make you overthink the solutions. So many times I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with the ‘extra’ crates or keys when they were actually simply there to distract or fool me into thinking a specific way (usually completely wrong). Most puzzle games give you only what you need to solve the stages, so once you come to the realization that Mystery Castle doesn’t follow this rule on purpose, you’ll figure things out much quicker.
Once you get a dozen or so levels into each castle you’ll find that each stage seemingly has a simple solution; that is until you get to the final step or object you need to collect, and you come to the realization that you’re stuck and need to restart. Some floors will require you to not only think two or three steps ahead, but way more than that if you don’t want to have to restart after becoming unable to complete it due to poor planning or a misstep. A quick tap of the ‘Y’ button zooms the screen out, allowing you to see the whole floor and strategize with an overview.
There are also some stages that not only require you to find the proper solution, but you have to time your movements correctly as well. These stages aren’t frequent, but they bring another layer of difficulty that forces you to think in other ways, even after you’ve figured out the puzzle aspect of the level. These levels can be tricky given the occasional stiff controls of our hero. Many times I walked into lava or fell into a pit due to the controls when I didn’t mean to at all because I was trying to rush to the exit. I love that there are also boss stages in a puzzle game, requiring you to use three bombs (it’s a videogame, of course it’s three) on said boss to recapture the castle.
Although I found that I enjoyed Mystery Castle, there was one issue that continually reoccured after every stage. When you complete a floor you’re taken back to the level select screen, but instead of defaulting to to the next floor, it stays on the one you just completed. I accidentally selected the same stage more than a few times forcing me to quit out and choose the proper one. Not a deal breaker by any means, just an annoyance that occurs after every stage. This would be alleviated if there was an option to simply go to the next stage after completing one, as that’s the norm for game design.
Mystery Castle is a very friendly looking and colorful experience. The character designs are fun and cartoony but the stages themselves all look familiar to one another for the most part. I get that they should all share the same theme given you’re making your way up a castle, but there’s no distinction between the floors aesthetically. As for the audio, there’s no voice acting for the dialogue, and while the music is suitable, it’s forgettable.
As mentioned above, Mystery Castle doesn’t necessarily do anything crazy or unique to separate itself from others in the genre, but what Runestone Games did perfectly was recapture that nostalgic feel of the older puzzle games, much like my beloved Adventures of Lolo. With 180 levels to solve, some will be completed in moments while others will have you stumped and turning to YouTube for a walkthrough, if you’re like me, to simply get to the next stage. Mystery Castle tends to follow specific patterns for level solutions, but it takes some time to figure out the tricks they use, and even then, you’re always thrown new obstacles to deal with to keep things fresh. Plus, who doesn’t want to laugh at a few fat wizard jokes while solving puzzles, right?
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Paranautical Activity
This review took quite some time for me to write. To be honest, it took a long time to even begin, as I had to find the right way to describe my time with Paranautical Activity without sounding too unfairly harsh or critical even though my pro and con list that I kept track of while playing was heavily filled on one side and not the other. If you were to only look at the cover art for the game, you would most likely never guess that Paranautical Activity is a fast paced first person shooter that resembles some sort of crazy Minecraft mod. If the original Doom or Wolfenstein had a messed up offspring with Minecraft, Paranautical Activity would be the result. Is this the offspring that should be locked away in the basement or allowed outside to see the light of day?Normally I would begin to describe the game’s story and plot, detailing the beginning and main narrative to give you a vague idea of what to expect. Sadly I’m unable to do so here, as there is no campaign included. The main menu simply offers you a Classic Mode to begin with (harder difficulties are unlocked later on), throwing you into the action with no explanation as to who, what, or why. I was at least expecting that quick and cheesy slideshow storyboard style of narrative to give some context to what you’re doing and why, but alas, nothing of the sort is included.
Speaking of the main menu, the very first thing you’re going to notice is that this Xbox One version is clearly a quick, and dare I say lazy, port of the PC version as you need to move a cursor on the screen to select your menu options, as opposed to using the D-pad like in every other standardized console game. When the very first thing that runs through your mind when starting a new game is “what the hell?”, it doesn’t bode well. Paranautical Activity makes no attempt at introducing itself to you in any way, even lacking a tutorial or any sort of explanation of how to play. It’s akin to a stranger coming up to you and start talking about their life, and they didn’t even introduce themselves, shake your hand, or say hello. That’s how awkward this feels from the very beginning moments.
Visually, Paranautical will no doubt draw parallels with Minecraft simply because of its 3D block style, but instead of being bright and cheery, its palette is very dark and drab. It has a retro vibe to it, but because the overall game itself is so dark, enemies get easily lost within the rooms, blending into the bland darkness. Everything is simply so dark, so grey and so black that it’s hard to appreciate many of the enemies uniqueness, especially the bosses, even more so because you’re constantly having to move and strafe to survive.
After you awkwardly choose Classic Mode from the main menu, you’re then given the options of different weapon loadouts to choose from. Each weapon has their own strength and weakness, and even though you’re given a couple of options I didn’t really enjoy any of the starting weapons at all. The best ones need to be bought or found as you progress through the game; that is until you die, which I’ll get into shortly. There’s a crossbow, shotgun, sickle, and a grenade launcher for the base weapon choices. Each comes with an accompanying secondary ‘super’ weapon as well, of which I didn’t really like any of them either, as they all have very limited ammo and don’t feel as powerful as they should. Why a katana requires ammo as a super weapon is beyond me, simply accept it carry on.
Once you figure out the basic controls on your own, you rise in an elevator onto the first floor of eight. Each floor is randomly generated, not just in layout but enemies and bosses as well. Most rooms are monster rooms that need to be cleared before the adjacent doors unlock, much like classic Legend of Zelda dungeons, but if you’re lucky you’ll come across special weapon rooms where you can spend your stash of coins from downed enemies. Once you finally find the red door, which indicates a boss room, make sure you’re ready. Defeating the boss allows you to take an elevator up to the next floor; rinse and repeat.
Oh, did I mention what happens if you chose the wrong weapon for that boss and die? Time to start from scratch. Yup, all those coins and upgrades you earned are gone and you’re back to the first floor with just your starting weapon. I’m all for a good challenge, but only when it’s fair. This doesn’t feel fair at the best of times. You have so little health on the first few floors that you’ll be lucky to survive long enough to get a health boost or better weapon.
While I enjoy that floor layouts are completely random on each playthrough, the complete randomness of the enemies becomes quite frustrating because of their imbalance. Some enemies are quite easy and weak, while others are much more powerful or can move faster than you, almost always guaranteeing your death (I hate those land sharks with a passion). This leads to some easy runs where you’ll beat a few floors no problem, but you'll then hit a massive spike in difficulty in a single room (not even always a boss room either) resulting in your death and having to start all over. The next 10 times you might not even make it past the first floor. This complete randomness made me want to play less rather than try to overcome it. Paranautical Activity’s difficulty is completely random instead of a finely tuned experience, say when compared to another difficult game, albeit in a different genre, Dark Souls III.
There are two higher difficulties to unlock, but to reach them is near impossible given how challenging it is to defeat all 8 floors on 'normal' Classic Mode, and given the frustration I’ve been having with it I really wonder what others may think. Very few times I was even able to save up enough coins to purchase one of the better items before dying and having to start over from scratch each and every time.
As for the audio, it simply sounds as if it’s there, just doing what it needs to. There’s nothing special about the weapon’s ‘pew-pew’ auditory sounds, though I do have to say the standout surprise is the decent dubstep soundtrack that is included in the game. The music blasts as you make your way through each room and floor, making a great companion for the relentless and nonstop action.
Even though the Paranautical Activity boasts about its procedurally generated rooms and enemies, it all feels and looks the same save for the bosses. You’ll constantly circle strafe, attempting to clear the enemies before they can shoot or run into you, hoping you don’t die and have to restart. Sure, there may be those few out there who have no issues with the constant challenge, but I’m clearly on the other side of the fence on this one. The constant restarting from scratch deterred me from playing rather than wanting to overcome the challenges, especially when they are completely randomized. It simply feels unrewarding for throwing yourself at it, unless you truly want to unlock the harder difficulty modes and achievement hunt.
I really wanted to like Paranautical Activity, as there’s always a time and place for a mindless shooter, but it’s simply too unforgiving to keep your attention. Menu issues, lack of story, and difficulty aside, it feels like the Xbox One port was almost an afterthought and done on a whim, resulting in a forgettable experience.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Adam's Venture: Origins
It was my sworn duty that I had to review Adam’s Venture: Origins given that I share the same name as the protagonist. Originally released on PC in episodic form starting back in 2009, all three episodes were eventually compiled in a collection titled Adam’s Venture: Chronicles back in 2015. Now a year later, it’s been reimagined and 'HD-ified' for current gen systems. It also boasts new title too; Adam’s Venture: Origins (simply referred to as Origins from here on).Origins is a puzzle game at heart, but it also employs a sense of adventure by drawing from such inspirations as Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. That being said, you use your brains over brawn, as there’s actually no combat employed within Origins at all, so you’ll need to make sure you bring your thinking cap with you, as some of the puzzles can be a challenge.
Set in the 1920’s, you play as the adventurer Adam, discovering ancient ruins and in the search of ancient relics while also figuring out what the evil Clairvaux Corporation is up to. Accompanied by your sidekick Evelyn, you must use your wits to find solutions to puzzles blocking your path at every turn, which is ironic given how dense he comes across with his terrible dialogue and cringe worthy one-liners.
For a puzzle based game there is a story included within that’s a little heftier than what I was expecting, but it’s not written very well, and since you’re constantly being whisked from area to area, it’s a little difficult to follow aside from the ‘stop the evil guy from taking over the world’ trope. The story takes a backseat to the puzzle solving, and even though it tries to engage you with interesting locales and adventuring gameplay, it all feels too familiar if you’re an Indiana Jones fan.
Given that Origins is a puzzle game at its core, expect to be constantly impeded from progressing with puzzles, one after another. Sometimes they are placed quite cleverly and are intricate, while other times you’re simply looking for gas cans to fill a car blocking your path. Puzzle solving is continuous, aside from the odd stretch of platforming or mine cart riding. Even the very first obstacle you face as you begin Adam’s journey has you finding a specific book in a library, but of course nothing comes easy for you. You’ll have to rearrange portraits, solve a ladder puzzle, and complete a few more obtuse steps to reach your goal. It’s puzzles like this that simply feel like they are there as additional padding for game length rather than clever and intricate design.
Add to this that your adventure is painfully linear, there’s no branching paths to explore and you can’t progress to the next section without solving the current puzzle that’s in your way. Even though there’s a few small nooks and crannies that look like they should be explored, there’s absolutely no need to, as there’s no extra collectibles or anything to search for during your play time; something that would have been welcomed to add replayability.
Even though the game is completely linear, the lack of direction can be quite frustrating at times. You always have an objective listed at the top of your screen but more times than not it’s painfully vague and doesn’t give you any hints of what to do exactly, or even how to do it. Some puzzles are clever and make sense, while others are obtuse and have you scratching your head looking for not just the solution, but how to even figure out the result.
While puzzle solving is the center point of Origins, the other aspect of gameplay is some Indy-style platforming action with your grappling hook that allows you to swing easily from area to area or pull down pillars and objects in your way. You need not worry about enemies though as there’s absolutely no combat during your adventure. There are a few sections where you need to avoid patrolling guards, and these are some of the worst parts of the game, as there’s no stealth mechanics in place or easy way to see a guards path, so it’s trial and error for the most part.
If you’ve previously played Adam’s Venture you'll notice a few changes. First and foremost, it utilizes a whole new graphics engine, which is noticeable when you see the old visuals compared to new ones. Even with the new engine and coat of fresh paint it still looks quite dated. Some areas of the game look great, but many of the models, and especially the animations, are quite mediocre at best. Coupled with terrible pop-in issues and screen tearing, it’s hard to appreciate the hard work that was done to make things look better when other issues take you out of the immersive experience. You'll also notice that the three separate episodes now flow together in one somewhat cohesive storyline. Finally, the grappling hook allows for some new platforming challenges including some inadvertent ones like the loose and sloppy controls when needing precision.
I quite enjoyed the challenge of most of the puzzles I faced, as they weren’t terribly difficult save for a few in the latter half of the game that simply require brute strength guessing, but solving these ones gives you a sense of accomplishment. Most puzzles have logical solutions as soon as you figure out the required pattern or exactly how to do so.
On the down side, Adam’s journey only lasts a few short hours, fluctuating based on how clever you are at puzzle solving. You’ll finish it in a sitting or two if you try, and because there’s no collectibles or anything to do once you’ve completed the story, there’s absolutely no real reason to go back and play through again aside from cleaning up one or two optional secret achievements. If the journey had more freedom of exploration and side objectives to do it would feel like more of a complete experience, especially given the current price tag.
The worst offender affecting the game though is no doubt the terrible dialogue and even worse voice acting. The script simply isn’t well written and instead of Adam’s character being a lovable protagonist that I wanted to see save the day, I didn’t feel all that bad for him when he fell to his death for the tenth time, due to the loose controls, because of his terrible dialogue and one-liners that are poorly written and acted even worse.
At times it feels like Adam's Venture: Origins is simply trying to do too many things without focusing on making one of them truly great. It's as if it’s trying too hard to be an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider adventure game whle also being a puzzle classic like Broken Sword, but it excels at neither. It does have a certain charm to it combined with a bit of nostalgia, and I’m glad I played through it until the credits, but I wish there was simply some more focus to the puzzles, as that’s why fans will ultimately purchase the game. Even though it may not fully be worth the price of entry at this moment of writing, any puzzle game fan is sure to find some entertainment within, as long as you can handle a terrible sense of humor and bland action gameplay that is included.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Active Soccer 2 DX
I’ll freely admit that I’m not the biggest soccer (or football, depending on which side of the water you come from) fan out there, but I do occasionally dabble in the odd game of FIFA if friends call for it. Heck, my best friend and I used to play Winning Eleven every night back in the PS2 days, so I’m no stranger to the soccer game offerings. Every year, gamers have the two options for their "footy" fix, that being EA’s FIFA or Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), and that’s been about it for quite a few years now. Many gamers either prefer FIFA’s realism or the slightly more arcade style of PES, but there’s hasn’t been a soccer game in recent memory that simply tried to bring a fun experience without taking itself too serious or having to be licensed. Active Soccer 2 DX tries to remedy this by bringing a previously mobile only title over to the console for Xbox fans wanting something different. Do they succeed? Well, it is different, that’s for sure, I’m just unsure if it’s for the right reasons.
The first thing you’re going to notice when starting up Active Soccer 2 DX is the peculiar theme song that plays in the main menu. That being said, it’s oddly catchy and it eventually grew on me as time went by. Because Active Soccer 2 DX is an unlicensed soccer game, don’t expect to see any ‘real’ teams or player names, but in their place are slightly different spelling variations or phonetic changes to get around this expensive addition.
Played from a top down perspective, you’re able to change the camera angle along with other customizations such as weather, color of the ball, team kit colors, difficulty, and more. It’s obviously missing many options like AI settings and more in-depth choices, but there’s enough here to allow you to somewhat play the style of game you want.
There’s a tutorial included if you wish to learn the basics, but the game is simple enough that it really comes down to a few button presses. Passing is done with ‘A’, long passes ‘B’, ‘X’ is to shoot’ and ‘Y’ gives your player a short burst of speed. I do wish that the buttons were re-mappable though, as using trigger to sprint would have been much more intuitive and natural. While you’ll find the sprint helpful at first, you’ll quickly realize that once you have the ball, the opposing team’s defenders somehow channel the superhero "The Flash" as they can make it back to their designated spots at more than twice the speed you can, regardless if you sprint or have a head start.
This is where the wrinkles start to show. Shooting seems to have issues at times as you’ll more often than not completely miss the goal for no apparent reason, even with an easy and open shot. I found that if you’re running straight up the middle and shoot right towards the goal, it will probably veer to the side for some inexplicable reason, unable to correct its course with any kind of aftertouch.
As you play more matches you’ll start to run into issues with its penalty system, as you can essentially roll over other players and steal the ball without any recourse or fouls called unless you purposely slide tackle. Keep in mind though, this can happen to you as the AI team can do this. The same goes for sliding tackles, as you might get a foul or card even though you legitimately won the ball in legal fashion. Maybe this is a way to simulate ‘bad refereeing’, but it’s no less frustrating when it happens unfairly against you.
If you’re a soccer purist you should be warned that there is seemingly no adhering to offside rules either, as I’m pretty sure my fair share of goals have come from me being in prime position simply waiting for the ball while offside. It’s not a deal breaker for a simple title like this, but don’t go in expecting any type of simulation rules.
There’s an included career mode that’s surprisingly in-depth, as you’ll need to manage trades, players, injuries, and more, something that is akin to the sim-sports game Football Manager, though this version is obviously nowhere near as detailed. You’ll need to keep your team’s popularity up too, which can be quite difficult if not playing on the Easy setting. Easy still has its frustrations related to the issues cited above, but even a novice like me was able to score one or two goals a match usually.
As you'd expect in a soccer game, you’re going to have to constantly pass the ball to teammates in attempt to score, as you’ll most likely never really get a chance to run straight through the defense, again, because of their sudden super-human boost in speed when defending. The AI can also avoid your tackles with ease at times and run circles around your defense should they deem it fit at the time.
One of the biggest issues I had throughout the game wasn’t even during gameplay, but the menus. They are very clunky and basic, and navigation with the control stick is obscenely over sensitive, causing you to constantly miss your intended choice no matter how light or hard you move the stick. Some buttons also require non-logical stick movement too, feeling almost like a puzzle on how to pick a certain option. This feels sloppy and lacking in testing as you need to navigate the menu before and after every single game.
Given that this game was originally a mobile title you’ll know what to expect from its visuals. For what it offers it’s fine and suits the job, but it’s very basic and has no frills whatsoever. The same can be said for the audio, as there are the occasional crowd chants and cheers, but there are very few and what is offered becomes repetitive quite quickly.
I appreciate what Active Soccer 2 DX is trying to accomplish by bringing a soccer game that is basic and focuses on fun rather than hardcore simulation, but it’s very rough around the edges. Glitchy player animations (especially once a team scores), finicky menus, and a lack of adhering to basic soccer rules makes it a tough sell, especially at its asking price of $14.99. If it was more in the $5 range it would be a no brainer for a simple pick up and play match here and there kinda game, but at this price, you’ll want to wait for a sale.
Overall Score: 3.2 / 10
Dark Souls III
When you ask someone about the Dark Souls games it’s almost a guarantee that the game’s difficulty is one of the first talking points, as it should be, because it simply wouldn’t be the same game without the brutal challenge. Now in its third iteration, Dark Souls looks to bring fans back to an unforgiving world, playing into its strengths and attempting to improve what many disliked about the previous installment.Dark Souls places you in a world and allows you to explore and learn about it all on your own, with little to no help at all. You’re given no clues on what to do, where to go, or how to do it. Oddly enough, this is what Dark Souls does best, as you’re rewarded for your perseverance, determination, and sticking with it regardless of the frustration it causes.
Truth be told, I’m absolutely terrible at the Dark Souls games. I barely got a few bosses into the first game before giving up, which caused me to essentially skip part 2 all together. I simply didn’t have the patience for the game at the time and became frustrated very easily with the numerous deaths. I understood what I was getting into, I just didn’t give it the time needed to understand it very well or to become better.
I remedied this while playing Dark Souls III. I’m still not that great, but I’m much better than I previously was, as I spent the time necessary to learn the small intricacies that makes Dark Souls stand out against the competition. I’ve gone from blaming the game of being ‘cheap’ and ‘unfair’ to realizing that every death was completely my fault. It’s quite liberating to be honest, to go from being ‘scared’ of the game mechanics and fearing death, to accepting the challenge and learning what I did wrong. Eventually I was able to take down bosses after a few attempts without being hit and this instills great pride and accomplishment. It really is how Dark Souls III succeeds if you let it and endure.
You are the Ashen One, tasked with freeing the Realm of Lothric from a looming destruction, but the only way to do this is to destroy the Lords of Cinder. Normally I would go into more depth about the plot and narrative, but a problem the series has had since the beginning is its weakness in storytelling. Sure it has a great backdrop and memorable characters, but from a narrative standpoint, much of it is lost in weak dialogue and item descriptions, rather than telling the narrative in a grand fashion through cinematics. Other than a few minor points, it’s difficult to grasp what’s going on and why. I was hoping Dark Souls III would remedy this ongoing shortcoming, but it still focuses on tone rather than storytelling.
It would have been quite easy for FromSoftware to simply add some new enemies, bosses, areas, and call it a day, but they’ve taken the time to address fan complaints from the previous game while also adding new and welcome gameplay changes. Don’t fret longtime fans, as it’s still a Souls game that you’ve come to love over the years.
You’ll still need to be cautious, as death can come from any enemy should you let your guard down. You’re able to cater to your playstyle, allowing sword, shield, and staff combinations. There’s even a new skill system that allows you to use an alternative attack with your weapons and magic, allowing for further battle strategies and new ways to play. This weapon skill is the equivalent to an ‘ultra-ability’ and can even give you a buff. Of course the core gameplay itself is vastly unchanged, but the new classes and small tweaks are a welcome addition for returning players and newcomers to the series.
The games environments are absolutely gorgeous, which is an odd sentiment considering how darkly and grim the setting is. Level design is brilliant in some areas, as there are multiple pathways that branch out, always leaving you unsure of which way you should go. Some areas are very wide in scope, while others are more vertical in nature, though almost every area seems to have intricate secrets hidden within and interlinking pathways that allow for easy access should you take the time to discover them.
Bonfires still act as checkpoints and teleport locations. Here is where you rest, refilling your Estus Flasks and recovering your health, but if you do you 'rest' here you also respawn all the enemies. The ease of fast travel allows you to return to any specific area once uncovered and you’ll be making use of this quite often to return back to the Firelink Shrine to level up, upgrade your gear and more; your home base if you will.
Aside from the world itself, the bosses are the shining star of Dark Souls III. These usually monstrous beasts range in design and mechanics from simple (even for someone with my skill set) to incredibly huge and unrelenting. Some bosses are simply about learning their attack patterns, which sometimes takes a few deaths to figure out to best them, while others are much more intricate and unique. Most bosses usually have two phases in some way, as to keep you on your toes and constantly challenge you while keeping the situation tense.
Dark Souls III is great at letting you learn an enemy type just enough so that you feel confident battling them in any situation, but then it pulls the rug out from under you by changing things up in unexpected ways, always forcing you to stay alert and expect anything. Many of my deaths were from underestimating a simple enemy I’ve fought numerous times before. Patience and uncertainty is required to progress no matter how confident you feel.
While for the most part I found the overall difficulty to be slightly easier than previous Souls games, that doesn’t mean it’s simple by any means. The game's lock-on system is meant to help you, which at times it does to be fair, but many times it was also more of a hindrance and caused me many lost souls. Numerous times it will lock onto the wrong intended target, refuse to lock, or unlock for whatever reason. When locked on, be weary of close quarter areas and corners though, as the camera doesn’t always play nice and can easily cause a death that really wasn’t “your” fault. These issues didn’t happen frequently, but just enough to cause unneeded frustration.
It’s near impossible to discuss Dark Souls III without delving into its difficulty. You’re going to die a lot, and you simply need to accept that. As I mentioned earlier, it feels as though the difficulty curve is slightly more forgiving than its predecessors, which makes Dark Souls III a good entry point for new-comers to the series. Regardless, you’re going to struggle in certain areas, but once you understand that the game itself isn’t unfair (for the most part) and you take the time to learn and understand what it has to offer, you’ll start to enjoy it much more for what it is and not hate it for what it does.
Many mechanics and items aren’t explained in some lengthy tutorial for you to slog through, meaning you need to take the time and experiment to figure out what certain items do or even how to use them. Case in point, I spent an hour trying to figure out how to correctly use the Embers that bosses dropped and a few NPC’s sold, since it’s not explained anywhere within the game itself. Embers are comparable to the original game’s Humanity, boosting your HP, but also playing a vital role for the online features. Embers are used for the multiplayer component, allowing you to play with random people or friends by allowing password-only games. Be prepared though, as doing so also opens your world up to invading players as well.
While the world is built with incredible detail and precision, taking on a tone of its own, it’s accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack. The mood is set by faint music that’s fitting to your current setting, even more so during boss battles when it blares something more appropriate to your current situation.
Dark Souls III isn’t without its flaws, as it still lacks great storytelling and not teaching you its intricacies seems more of an arbitrary way to ‘up’ its difficulty. I by no means would like an easy mode included, but there’s no harm in at least explaining items and mechanics in more detail if it’s wanted by the player.
Risk vs reward is the delicate balance that’s in constant sway. You risk by going to new areas and fighting unseen enemies, and the reward is more than simple loot, as you not only progress further into the game, but in skill as well. I’m feel like I am still learning what it has to offer, as I’m still constantly put out of my comfort zone, but I’m accepting of that and slowly becoming better because of it. If you’re new to the series, begin here, as the opening areas aren’t nearly as brutal and confusing as previous games, and if you’re a returning fan, know that FromSoftware still has the magic touch at creating an incredibly atmospheric game.
Praise the Sun!
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered
Grimm and Rose are the cutest and most cuddle worthy grim reapers you'll probably ever see, and they need your linguistic skills to help them defeat monsters, trolls, ghosts, and more. To be honest, I'm not usually into the 'casual' type of games, but Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered has me wanting to constantly play 'just one more level' with my wife. Letter Quest embodies the notion that not all games need a massive budget with lifelike graphics to be fun, and with its addictive and simple gameplay, this game works. Most likely at some point you've played one of the notable word games out there: Scrabble, Words with Friends, or Boggle among others. Letter Quest plays upon these premises but adds a charming visual style, numerous challenges, and an oddly addictive RPG element to the gameplay that keeps you hooked and coming back for more, even if in short spurts.
Grimm's titular journey tells a story about him wanting to find the nearest pizza place to grab a slice. Along the way he is confronted by monsters and ghouls and must use his vocabulary to defeat them and get one step closer to the much desired pizza. While the bulk of the game is locked behind the Story Mode, don't expect much more story than what's above. Not that a strong narrative is why you'll be playing a game like this, and there's virtually no dialogue of any sort, but it's still cute and wacky enough to give you a slight smile while you enjoy yourself.
Letter Quest features turn based 'combat', oodles of upgrades to customize Grimm and Rose, adorable visuals, and a great soundtrack to boot. The core gameplay consists of spelling words with the random letters that you're given during your turn which will deal damage to your current enemy based on word length and difficulty. You progress through each dungeon as if it's a side-scroller, making progress as you defeat each enemy to reach a gem stash at the end of each stage, unlocking the next level.
You're given a set of fifteen random letters and must make your words out of what you have. Just like Scrabble, each letter has a different value which corresponds to how much damage they add to the total word value. Just like other words games, the longer and more difficult your created words are, the better off you'll be. Eventually random letters will gain bonuses such as granting you buffs, heals, and other helpful aids to survive and complete the stage.
When you ultimately take on the hard mode stages and other challenges, monsters will sometimes gain special abilities or they will only be able to be defeated in a specific manner. For example, they might not take damage unless it's a four letter word, or ends in the letter 'S'. Sometimes they'll take double damage if you use multiple vowels, and it's these modifiers that really can challenge you, leading to some refreshing attempts.
After you submit your word and damage the monster, it's then their turn to attack you without the need to spell any words. So it not only becomes a game of having to come up with longer words to deal out more damage, but to also survive each dungeon without reaching zero health on, or else you'll need to retry.
As you defeat enemies and clear stages you earn gems as you go. These can be used to upgrade Grimm's abilities and purchase items to use during gameplay. At first there are very few items to buy and upgrade, but as you progress, it's actually quite surprising how much customization you can actually do with Grimm, building him to suit your play style. Maybe you want to play defensively, or have health regenerate with enemy kills, it's completely up to you. You're also able to replay levels to farm for gems should you wish, or focus on the side quests to earn a larger chunk of currency at a time.
If you're lucky, you'll come across stages that will have a treasure chest for you to open, if you can guess the word, Hangman/Wheel of Fortune style, with a specific amount of letters to guessed (though these amount of guesses and rewards can be upgraded with gems if that's something you want to focus on). It's a nice change of pace and the rewards are worth your time to try and guess correctly.
If you're a strong linguist and manage to complete the story mode, you've only just begun Grimm's journey, as each of the stages has four optional challenges that earn you stars (and gems) as you complete them. There's even an endless mode that's been included in this Remastered version, allowing you to see how long you can continue playing and survive until you run out of health. It's a fun diversion once you've completed all of the stages and challenges (which will take quite some time) though I wish the gems you earned in Endless carried over into Story Mode.
Letter Quest's visuals are simple yet very clean and pleasing to the eye. The UI is simple and never becomes too cluttered or confusing. You're even able to unlock different skins for the letter tiles, which is funny when you read the descriptions and realize they mimic how tiles look in other word based games, like Scrabble and Words With Friends.
The difficulty for Letter Quest will solely depend on your vocabulary, but if you're a fan of the genre and played similar games before, you'll most likely succeed without issue. The more challenging levels will require you to 'grind' for a little while and have some upgrades equipped, but once you do it makes the gameplay much more enjoyable and interesting. I quite enjoyed the RPG elements, as I found that they were driving me to obtain more gems and continue playing more-so than simply getting to the next level.
While the genre itself may lead you to dismiss it due to being a casual type of game, but if you give it a chance you'll get sucked right in by its charm and appeal. My wife, who is a non gamer, gravitated towards this game and wanted to constantly help me figure out longer lettered words, as it's meant for people like her who simply play Facebook style games. Soon the "one more level" moment turned into over an hour.
Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered is one of those games you can keep installed on your Xbox One's HDD and jump back into without needing to remember any complicated controls or what to do next. It's incredibly easy to recommend at it's price point as you'll get hours worth of enjoyment alongside Grimm, provided you have an abundant jargon as your arsenal.
Suggestions: A local multiplayer mode would have gone a long way so that the wife and I could challenge and battle one another in some sort.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Organic Panic
You'd think I'd learn my lesson by now, as for all the years I've been reviewing games I still occasionally find myself pre-judging a game before I even play it. I'll be honest, I did this a little bit with Organic Panic. Not that I wrote it off, as I go into any game review with a fresh and unbiased mindset, but I know I most likely wouldn't have given it the time of day and check it out if I didn't receive it otherwise. It's times like this that I'm glad that I'm sometimes wrong, as I genuinely had a fun time with Organic Panic once I allowed myself to enjoy it.If I had to describe its core gameplay, it would be part puzzle game, part platformer, and part destruction. From still screenshots you might think it's a game akin to that of any of the Worms games, but there's more to it than that. It's a crazy little game where you play as vegetables battling against the evil meats and cheese. I'm not making this up.
Organic Panic tells its story via comic book page slideshows. The narrative revolves around the evil Meats and Cheeses, led by mastermind Baby Cheese, hunting down the good natured Fruits and Vegetables in attempt to take over the world. It's up to Cherry, Carrot, Kiwi, and others to stop them once and for all. Again, I'm not making this up.
While the story is told through the pun-filled comic pages, as it's obviously a backdrop to frame the gameplay, it is at least a somewhat interesting tale that pushes you to complete more stages. While you are able to quickly skip the story pages, you might want to spend the few quick moments to go through them if you want to laugh at the terrible "dad-quality" jokes contained within.
Powered by the DAFT Engine (Destructible and Fluid Technology), you'll be using physics to solve a majority of the puzzles contained within. Sometimes that means destroying pillars to cause a crash, melting ice, starting fires, or drowning some meat foes. With over 200 single player levels you'll have to eventually start to think 'outside the box' to solve some of these cleverly designed stages in ways that don't always seem apparent at first.
Each of the 12 chapters are broken up into multiple stages. These stages start out quite simple and are quick to solve, but as you progress they become much more involved and more difficult. You start the game as Cherry, who's able to shoot dirt once you've collected enough power-up gems. This dirt can harm enemies, but it can also allow you to cut through certain materials as well, allowing for multiple ways to complete stages. You then unlock Kiwi, who is able to shoot water (again, once you've collected the power-up gems) and swim underwater. Carrot can climb any surface while also being able to shoot fireballs. Many of the early stages will have you simply controlling one character per stage, but eventually you'll have to control multiple characters in a single stage to solve how to escape.
If you're like me you'll gravitate to trying to kill all of the enemies with your abilities, but eventually you'll reach stages where this is very difficult, either by design or not, and you'll have to rely on other abilities to allow you to progress. Carrot is decent at defeating foes, but Cherry has a very small health pool, so it's difficult to engage in battle depending on who you're controlling.
The main goal of each level is to simply reach the exit portal. Of course there is always some type of obstacle in your way, be it a handful of enemies, an elaborate physics based puzzle, or the portal is far out of normal reach. This is where you'll have to use the varying abilities of each character, sometimes altering the stages to reach a previously inaccessible area. Maybe you'll need to cut through a support beam to send something collapsing below to use as a ramp, or blow a whole in an overlying water reservoir to flood the area below. Stages with these types of solutions are among the most enjoyable by far.
While your main goal is to always reach the exit portal, there are secondary objectives to complete should you want a challenge. To get the best ranking you need to collect the hidden gem, kill all of the enemies, and reach the portal. I eventually reached a point where simply getting to the exit was enough of a challenge, so those of you who want to really push yourself will have your work cut out for you as you try to finish the rest of the gold star checklist.
I do wish some of the levels had a different requirement for obtaining gold, such as being time based or solving a stage in specific way (like drowning all enemies for example). Given that the majority of the stages will last a minute or two (once you've figured out a solution), there wasn't many of those 'ah hah!" moments when you finally figure something out. That's not to say it's not satisfying, I just wish there were more alternative ways to complete stages in more creative ways. Truth be told, I found myself stuck more than a few times, and I had to walk away more times than I expected too just to cool down and think.
For those able to play with friends on the couch, there is also a multiplayer mode that allows for some versus chaos and co-op puzzle solving, depending on your mood. There are even options for 3 and 4 players as well should you have a few friends over who want to have a good time helping you out or who want to destroy each other. It's a shame that the Xbox One version doesn't have the same level creation and sharing that the PC counterpart does, as I believe that would have added some longevity to the game overall.
While killing meats and cheese in the beginning was fun, you learn quickly that shooting your way out of a situation rarely goes in your favor, meaning you'll have to use your wits instead. Figuring out a way to defeat enemies and solve a stage by using physics is oddly satisfying, as causing a flood to drown cheese is more entertaining than trying to shoot them with fireballs as a carrot.
Despite its kooky and out there concept, Organic Panic has a surprising amount of appeal and at least twice the amount of stages I was expecting. Sure it has some flaws, like very inaccurate aiming leading to some frustration now and then, but it's still charming and has hours of content within. I think we can all agree that the moral of the story here is to make sure to eat your fruits and vegetables, or else the meat and cheese will become a super power and take over the world. Let's make food great again!
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Gryphon Knight Epic
In today's world it seems that even if a game is successful with a Kickstarter campaign that it's not always a guarantee it will see the light of day or be what was initially promised. Cyber Rhino Studios, developer of Gryphon Knight Epic, asked for a modest amount of funds for their fundraising campaign, and they were successful, and they have also delivered on their promises, one of which now includes a console version of the game on Xbox One. Given my age, I grew up on now-retro games and shoot 'em ups, or schmups as they are so fondly referred to, so mashing the two worlds together should be a no-brainer and gamers like me should enjoy it. Normally shmups have you piloting a spaceship or aircraft of some sorts, but Gryphon Knight Epic went in a completely different and unique direction. You play as Sir Oliver, not to be confused with his clearly inspired long lost cousin, Sir Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins, who rides upon his trusted Gryphon, Aquila. Essentially a medieval shmup, you're going to enjoy yourself if you're a Mega Man fan, as it pulls many design elements straight out of its' page.
I was honestly expecting a completely throwaway story that relied on the overused 'save the princess' trope, but I was pleasantly surprised when this wasn't the case. Gryphon Knight Epic begins with brave knight Sir Oliver and his friends defeating a monstrous dragon, saving the land, and taking home a massive haul of loot. Normally this is how most game narratives end, but Gryphon Knight Epic has a sense of humor, and as time passes, Sir Oliver begins to get bored of all of this peace and prosperity. He's even got a little husband-belly to show for how easy life has been since the dragon was defeated.
While all his friends looted fancy new weapons from the dragon horde, he was left with a simple amulet, but he was content with his takeaway as he got to go home to his loving princess. As it turns out, the weapons his friends took were cursed, turning them into evil versions of their normally good natured selves, and the only cure happens to be Sir Oliver's amulet. It's a straightforward and amusing little story that's a welcome backdrop for this type of adventure.
As mentioned above, Gryphon Knight Epic borrows design elements from the classic Mega Man titles, down to the choice of which world/boss you want to tackle in any order, and obtaining their weapon after besting the boss in combat. And just like the Mega Man games, having certain weapons for certain battles will make things much easier, but it is not necessary.
Each stage's setting is tied to the specific cursed friend you're trying to save, and you'll also find varied enemies, unique bosses, and multiple difficulty levels. The boss battles were easily the highlight as they usually filled the screen with their size and scope, and each one needs to be tackled in a completely different way. For example, one boss battle has you essentially solving a puzzle while dodging attacks before being able to damage the boss himself. The variety of the stages and bosses keeps the game fresh throughout, even post credits when you continue playing to grind for coins and upgrades.
Like any shmup, the core gameplay is classic 2D side-scrolling where you need to avoid enemies and projectiles at all costs. Luckily, Sir Oliver has armor and carries potions (if you remembered to purchase them), so you can take a few hits unlike most shmup one-hit-deaths. Enemies will come from many directions, even behind you, so you'll need to have some quick reflexes and utilize all the tools in your arsenal to survive, especially on the harder difficulties.
The stages auto scroll, moving at a particular speed, so you need to make sure you compensate accordingly and be alert. You're also able to freely turn around, facing either left or right, and shoot in said direction at enemies. The problem with this though is that it will also set the auto scrolling to go in the direction your facing. So instead of simply being able to 'turn around' and shoot something behind you, it will reverse the whole flow of the gameplay until you turn back around and go the other way. It's an interesting mechanic, but did cause me quite a few deaths due to the sudden jarring of momentum switch, even more so when you need to change directions many times in a short period.
Gryphon Knight Epic pushes you to master your reflexes and abilities quite quickly. There are a few stages and sections that spike in difficulty, but nothing that seems terribly unfair once you learn the patterns (except that elephant boss, I'll never play that level again). Earning the stage bosses weapons not only earns you a sweet new secondary weapon that essentially uses a refilling 'mana' bar to shoot, but it really varies the combat, making it somewhat strategic when choosing what weapon to use in which circumstance. You can change your weapons with a simple button press, along with what squire (essentially a sidekick that grants you a passive bonus such as extra shooting, shields, etc) on the fly, allowing you to change your strategy quite quickly.
You earn coins for defeating enemies, bosses, finding secrets, and more, and this currency is used to upgrade your weapons, upgrade your squires, buy potions and other items. The top upgrades for most items are extremely pricey and will take some serious grinding if you want to max out everything out. Luckily there are difficulty choices in each level to keep things challenging as you become more powerful.
The biggest complaint I have pertains to the issue of Sir Oliver's hitbox. The hitbox is essentially an invisible square around the player character, when it makes contact with an enemy or projectile this is and is what registers you as being 'hit'. The hitbox for Sir Oliver seems larger than it should, especially on his top half. If any part of him touches a projectile, even the very tip of his helmet, you'll take damage. He's quite a large character in relation to screen size already, and during hectic boss fights it's near impossible to not get damaged in some way because of this slight 'unfairness'.
The sprite based art style is very well done, and with each level varying drastically in scenery and backdrop, it contains a lot of small details that any retro fan, including myself, will appreciate. The same goes for the music, as it sets a tone and vibe that is fitting for the scenery, gameplay, and genre.
Speaking of gameplay, it is simple yet challenging as you want it to be based on what weapons you choose (if you even choose to use them). If you're in my age range, you'll no doubt enjoy its classic retro style as memories of Mega Man flood back. There are plenty of secrets to find, exploration to be had (which I can't remember a decent shmup having), and just enough humor to keep everything light hearted, even if the script isn't always the best.
For those that care, there's a healthy amount of achievements given just for progressing through the game, and even more to hunt that will take some time and challenge you greatly. Fans of retro style games and/or shmups should enjoy their time with Gryphon Knight Epic; I know I did.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Beyond Eyes
I'm a sucker for artistic and stylistic games, so it seemed a given that Beyond Eyes would be right up my alley due to its extremely vibrant and gorgeous water colour art-style. As I learned though, you need substance to go alongside with style to create a cohesive and entertaining experience. That being said, I didn't dislike my time with Beyond Eyes, as it's severely short game length (a little under two hours) didn't necessarily allow me too; however, it didn't leave a lasting impression on me either. Beyond Eyes revolves around a young girl named Rae, whom after a tragic fireworks accident has lost her sight when she was younger. One day when playing alone outside her home in the garden, a stray cat comes along and they become friends. She names the cat Nani and looks forward to seeing him each day in the yard as a highlight to her daily routine. He keeps her company and feeling safe. As days go by Nani seems to visit less frequency, to the point of not showing up anymore.
This of course upsets Rae and she sets out in search of her lost companion. You would think that a plot revolving around a blind girl looking for her lost cat is a sure way to hook players into an emotional journey of hope and happiness, but it seems as if they were trying too hard, and as a result I didn't really feel that much for Rae's plight at all. Maybe that makes me heartless? That being said, maybe, just maybe I did want to find Nani as Rae wandered the landscape in search of him.
I expected a tearjerker given the subject matter, but the conclusion simply felt anti-climactic, bordering on disappointing. I believe part of the problem was the almost complete lack of narrative. There are occasional story tidbits that appear on screen, but it's so barebones to the point of only usually being a sentence long. The result is that you don't really care about Rae or feel emotionally connected to her the way you should to a blind girl looking for her lost cat. There are moments where some great instrumental music kicks in to help convey a certain feeling, but the music happens so rarely that the majority of your gameplay is slowly wandering in silence.
The artistic style Beyond Eyes utilizes is absolutely gorgeous, as if the world was painted as a watercolor portrait on a bleach white canvas. Given that Rae is blind, it's a beautiful way to convey that you're seeing how she envisions the world in her head. Everything is so vibrant and colorful which represents Rae's current feelings and mood. When she becomes frightened by loud and sudden noises the world becomes much darker with black and grey tones, representing her fear and nervousness.
To replicate how Rae 'sees' the world, you're only shown the environment directly around your vicinity as you walk forward. She knows the areas she goes through, so once you've been somewhere it stays colored, as if it's logged into her memory. Areas you have not explored yet are pure white, a blank canvas so to speak.
Every so often Rae will sense that Nani is nearby and can essentially see where he was, or thinks he may be. As you walk towards this area you are usually stopped by a wall or obstacle of some sort as it gets colored one you get close. Since Rae navigates mostly by her hearing, sometimes objects in the distance can be seen, such as a passing vehicle, bird, or barking dog.
The biggest complaint I think most players will have with Beyond Eyes is the speed Rae walks, which is incredibly slow. Now I understand that she's a blind girl and would be very cautious when exploring the outside world, especially on her own, but as an enjoyable gaming experience it's anything but. If you're able to empathize with Rae and understand her situation it may make it slightly more bearable, but it simply becomes frustrating regardless of understanding her situation or not.
There was something special though that I'll always remember about my time playing Beyond Eyes. My 3 year old daughter was sitting on the couch alongside me. Normally her attention span is a minute or two of whatever I'm playing at the time; however, she sat through over an hour of Beyond Eyes. What was really special though was how it opened up the conversation of blindness, sadness, and more. She was wondering why Rae was so sad, so I explained that we had to find Nani, but she can't see. It was a nice little moment that I shared with my daughter that I have Beyond Eyes to thank for it.
For how much of a serious tone the game is conveying, I have some serious outstanding questions: Why didn't the parents sue the fireworks company? Where are her parents this whole time? She wanders quite a far distance from her home and not a single person offers to help a blind girl clearly lost and scared. Lastly, what town does this take place in, as there's numerous dogs off-leash with no owner in sight causing a ruckus for blind girls.
In all seriousness, I didn't love the game, but I understand what it was trying to convey, which I can appreciate. As I said, it will have a special memory for me due to the interaction it gave my daughter and I. Strictly as an entertaining game though, even if you thoroughly enjoy it start to finish, once it's done there's no reason to play again aside from cleaning up some missed achievements and in the end it doesn't contain that much fun regardless of its good intentions and brilliant artistic style.
Overall Score: 5.1 / 10
Quantum Break
In today's landscape it's incredibly risky to develop new IP, which is why we always have a slew of sequels, prequels, spin-off's, and HD remakes. There are a handful of studios that I would have no problem trusting to deliver a solid and memorable experience while introducing a new IP; Remedy Games is one of those studios, and they've done just that. Best known as the studio that brought the critically acclaimed Max Payne and Alan Wake, they can now add Quantum Break to their impressive resume. It's been a long wait since its first reveal in 2013 and much has changed since that first glimpse. For starters, the characters have been recast with true actors, many of which will be instantly recognizable as Remedy has decided to use their actual faces and performances within Quantum Break. Shawn Ashmore of X-Men fame is the main hero and two of the antagonists are portrayed by Aiden Gillen (Littlefinger from Game of Thrones) and Lance Reddick (Fringe and The Wire). If you are a LOST or Lord of the Rings fan you'll also be happy to know Dominic Monaghan plays a large role within the intricate story of Quantum Break.
Not only has the cast changed, but when comparing the original launch trailer to the final gameplay, it seems the scale and production value has also increased, resulting in a much more impressive and immersive experience. Quantum Break is one of the games that seems to be pushing the capabilities of the Xbox One, in a good way, not simply with its visuals, but also in how it tells the narrative.
Storytelling is one of the most difficult aspects of any media format, but even more so with video games, as you need to create a compelling gameplay experience while also telling a story worthy of keeping a player interested, resulting in them wanting to move forward to experience it. Very few game studios do this well, even less do it in a compelling way. Remedy has already proven that they are master storytellers in the past, but Quantum Break brings their art to a whole new level that few studios ever reach.
Quantum Break is part action game and part enticing live action TV show, both of which are brought to life with the prominent and remarkable cast, all of which elevate an already intriguing and complex story to another level with realism and phenomenal acting. Quantum Break opens with protagonist Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore) meeting with his good friend Paul Serene (Aiden Gillen) at his research facility as he's about to make a world changing discovery, and he wants Jack to be a part of it.
Now normally I would delve a little more into the main plot, but Quantum Break is all about its complex story, and the less you know the better. Let's just say things don't go according to plan, time travel gets involved, and suddenly the room is swarmed with Monarch security guards while Jack needs to save his brother Will (Dominic Monaghan).
The few hints about the story that's been revealed in the trailers and sneak peeks only scratch the surface, and once the relationship change between Jack and Paul begins to play out, and more importantly why, the story starts to become very intriguing, while twists and turns keep you on your toes as you become unsure what's coming next. Jack and Paul start to discover that they are able to control aspects of time manipulation, and while Jack uses his powers for good, Paul Serene and Monarch Solutions have other conflicting plans.
Given that Quantum Break has no multiplayer aspect to it it's imperative that replayability is a factor so that the game's value is there with your purchase. Luckily Remedy has done this and has included a few clever ways to warrant more than one playthroughs to see everything that is possible, not just within the gameplay, but even the TV show segments as well.
At its core, Quantum Break is a shooter, almost akin to Max Payne, though many mechanics have evolved. You can see what Remedy has learned and improved upon from their previous games. There are even a handful of platforming sections where Jack will need to reach a certain area not normally accessible, and he must use his time manipulation powers to do so successfully.
Some sections have you rewinding time to reveal a platform that has not yet fallen, or you may momentarily stop time in a small area allowing you to cross a seemingly floating object that's 'stuck in time'. While puzzles are scattered sparingly throughout the game, figuring out how to solve these sections can be fun, though I wish there were more of them, as a time-stopped world is visually appealing, and I also wish they were a little more involved aside from figuring out which specific ability you need to use to progress.
You should also be aware that cover can be destroyed, so you need to learn to not stay in one place for too long while utilizing Jack's powers to overcome each encounter. Since the game uses an auto-cover system as opposed to needing a button press like most other cover-based games, so it will take a little getting used to. Once you're used to it though, as well as the different time altering abilities Jack possess, cover will be sparingly used as you'll be zipping quickly from one enemy to the next, freezing Monarch guards in place, and more.
Jack can't take much damage, so learning how to chain your abilities from one to the next takes practice, but it will pay off in the end during some of the larger gun battles. Each of Jack's abilities has their own internal cooldown period, so learning how long each ability takes to refresh will play an integral role in your strategy during battle, especially when you want to start using them in succession. Once you get a hold of the abilities and their timers, Jack becomes a force to be reckoned with, even against the most difficult Monarch employees.
The only complaint I have about the core shooting mechanics can feels a bit "meh". Shooting even an LMG doesn't feel like it has any 'oomph' or weight to it, though that being said, the combat satisfaction comes from combining the shooting with Jack's abilities. I found that your time abilities are never overpowered, even when upgraded (which is done by collecting hidden secrets), ensuring combat never becomes trivial. You'll find that when you use your most powerful abilities, while helpful, you can be left open to damage as you wait for the cooldown.
As for the gameplay visuals, it seems like a miracle Remedy got Quantum Break to look as good as it does on the Xbox One version, and I'm sure the PC counterpart will up it a notch even further. When the world around Jack stands still, you can see every bullet, fragment, and more in a highly stylized 'stutter' from any angle. There is a lot of effects and visuals going on all at once, and being able to stop time, literally walking around such things as explosions, shattered glass, and bodies flying through the air, without nary a hitch of problems, is pretty impressive.
While Quantum Break would have no problem standing on its own with the core gameplay, what truly makes Quantum Break stand out among other games is the inclusion of its 'TV show'. When word of a Quantum Break TV show was first announced, there was very little details given, so many people formulated their own ideas of what it would be. The majority, myself included, initially thought that this meant there would be a companion TV show to go alongside the game at launch, much like how Defiance attempted to do (and failed miserably). Luckily this isn't the case. Maybe the term itself, "TV show" is the wrong term, as it seems to add confusion until you realize that these live action segments simply replace what would normally be a cutscene in the game. But this is Remedy we're talking about, so of course they have to innovate it somehow and include a twist on something as simple as 'live action cutscenes'.
As you complete the main acts of the game as Jack, you'll then play a brief 'Junction' before moving onto the next Act. What makes these Junctions so compelling is that you actually play as the lead antagonist, Paul Serene, and you are forced to make some difficult decisions which alter events in the game, and TV show, going forward. These sections are very intriguing, as you may be torn what to choose based on who you wish to side with at any given time. Some story details are minor changes, while others are quite drastic, compelling you to play through again just to see the other outcomes.
After the brief Junction is played, and your choice(s) are made, you are then treated to a roughly 30 minute TV episode that plays out based on your previous choice(s). At first it's a little odd having the live action 'cutscenes', but they filmed, acted, and shot so well that I wish Quantum Break was a real TV show on cable that I could tune into every week. As a whole, it's a very streamlined experience, though the fantastic storytelling and acting obviously plays a major role in this success.
Interestingly, these TV episodes are not contained on the disc/digital version itself, and are streamed as you watch them. For most people that are connected this is no big deal, for those that aren't though, you will be missing out somewhat. Luckily, there is an download option, albeit a massive 76GB one, should you want to have the episodes on your hard drive or plan on being offline in the future. While you won't be missing anything absolutely integral by skipping or not being able to stream the TV show, you will miss out on a mass amount of subplot, extremely interesting story elements, and some amazing acting from everyone involved.
I'm a big fan of Easter eggs, and Quantum Break is full of them. If you're a big Remedy fan, you'll be grinning from ear to ear when you happen upon some of the better ones. And if you happen to be a huge Microsoft fan, you'll be happy to know that everyone in this story uses a Lumia phone and Surface. If you pre-ordered the game digitally through the Xbox Store, you'll also get the PC version for Windows 10 as well, free of charge. This is a big deal, as it's showing Microsoft's commitment once again for PC gaming and showcasing that you'll be able to use cross-platform saves as well. Play on Xbox One and pick back up where you left off on PC, and vice versa.
Quantum Break is a unique experience, blending a great game with a great story and character development alongside a TV show. Mastermind Sam Lake and the team at Remedy have raided the bar once again, showcasing their ability to blend immersive and compelling storytelling alongside fun and diverse gaming mechanics. The technology behind the scenes is incredible, as even the in-game cutscenes showcase the smallest facial movements which sometimes tells much more than just a line of dialogue.
I truly believe Remedy has something special on its hands with Quantum Break. While some might see its focus on a single player only experience a negative, the other side to that argument is that this is one of the best single player experiences you'll have to date because of the focused precision of delivering a smart and compelling narrative with enough reasons to play through at least twice, if not more. I do hope that we get some form of DLC in the future just so I can spend more time within Quantum Break's time shattered world.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Fruit Ninja Kinect 2
It’s that time again to slice and dice some flying fruit by flailing your arms about and getting some use out of your Kinect. You may recognize the Fruit Ninja title from its incredibly popular mobile game version that released a short 5 years ago and is on almost any platform out there. In 2011, Halfbrick released a Kinect version for the Xbox 360 and was surprisingly decent and one of the few games in Kinect’s life cycle that worked well. For those that have never played Fruit Ninja before, the general premise is that you’re a ninja with a strong detest for fruit, as you need to slice and dice any that pop up on the screen. For its mobile iterations, you simply swiped the screen to cut them in half, but with the Kinect versions, you use your arms as swords and will slice the flying fruit tossed up the screen. Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 improves upon what the Xbox 360 version introduced, granted, we have a much more powerful and accurate Kinect this time around with Xbox One. You need to be efficient with your chops by eliminating many different fruits in multiples of three to gain a higher score and multiplier bonuses, and the new Kinect gives you much more accuracy to do so.
If you played the game previously, the staple modes of Arcade, Zen, and Classic return once again, almost unchanged, but there are some new additions for veterans. There’s four new interesting modes that add some depth to the simple gameplay, a leveling system, a much improved multiplayer mode, and smaller tweaks that feel more of a refinement than an evolution. Festival is where the new modes are contained and introduce some new gameplay elements to the series. Here you’ll have to not only eliminate any fruit you see as per normal, but each game will have its own objective such as avoiding shurikens, spotlights, not letting bamboo seeds hit the ground and grow, or even gives you the ability to throw knives at targets.
My favorite of these new modes was easily the throwing darts, as wooden boards will randomly appear and your goal is to throw darts as them as fast as possible, hopefully pinning some fruit to them in the process for big point gains. The other mode where you are tasked with destroying bamboo seeds is an interesting diversion, as if they fall they instantly sprout bamboo shoots that need to be cut down since you’re unable to see or slice any fruit that flow behind them. The new modes are very straightforward, as is the game as whole, but that makes it very accessible for players of any age or skill able to play and enjoy themselves.
Almost every mode lets you work towards the encompassing leveling system that gives you small objectives to strive for, and once you complete these you’ll net a medal. Collect three medals and you’ll rank up and gain a new title, all the way up to level 30. To earn the medals you’ll have to do anything from slicing a certain number of fruit, ending a level with a specific score, slicing a specific number of specified fruit, and many more. Most are quite simple to do either over time or if you solely focus on the objective itself, but there are a few that are much more challenging and will take a few attempts. The new ranking system does add a little more incentive to continue playing over time, but leaderboards and the multiplayer are what will keep you coming back for more (unless you truly are a ninja who despises fruit).
Multiplayer has a bigger focus this time around, most likely due to the better hardware, and actually allows for up to four people to play together, well, kind of. Four players are supported but only two at a time will actually be able to play, allowing for quick tag-ins to swap players. There are two modes for multiplayer, the first being a more traditional head to head, seeing who can chop the most fruit but with power-ups that can be used to make the opponents gameplay much more difficult. The second is a bit more whacky and will have you slicing fruit as per the norm, but also randomly having to do goofy poses among other objectives. It’s basic, but that’s part of the allure and I can see it being entertaining with a group of friends over, especially those that aren’t the biggest gamers.
I really only have two complained about Fruit Ninja Kinect 2. The first being the way you’re supposed to pause the game. In theory you’re supposed to put your hands together and bow, just like you would show someone respect, but I’ve never gotten this to work no matter how many times I tried. Many times I wanted to pause because of my toddler running in front of me but I could never get it to execute, even once. Not a deal breaker, but an odd Kinect issue, especially when the rest of the game controlled just fine. Lastly, as a whole, Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 feels incredibly hollow as a gaming experience. Sure there’s a leveling system in play that you can work towards, but if you don’t have friends to play with regularly, it feels as if there’s little replay value once you’ve unlocked most of the items with the currency you earn through playing.
That being said, it is fun in short bursts. It’s a great game if you simply have a quick 10 or 20 minutes to kill, or kids that need to burn off some energy. The game is so simple in its premise that there really is little to no learning curve, as even my non-gaming wife was able to play instantly without having to ask any questions.
Is Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 a reason to go rush out to the store and grab a Kinect if you don’t have one already? No. It is a fun game though if you do already have one and have been wanting a game to have for it or something to play for friends coming over. It’s not as embarrassing inducing as a dance game, so non gamers will likely have a better chance at giving it a shot if others are playing it as well. The core game is virtually unchanged, but it is improved and a better experience overall. No matter your age or gaming abilities, you’ll be able to channel all of your ninja prowess and chop mountains of fruit all in the name of fun.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
ScreamRide
People are going to compare ScreamRide closely with RollerCoaster Tycoon simply because of the nature of its subject matter, but ScreamRide is its completely own game and takes things much further than simply a theme park simulator. It’s clear that it’s a spiritual successor though. If RollerCoaster Tycoon and Boom Blox had a kid together, ScreamRide would most likely be the result. As long as you go into ScreamRide knowing that it’s not a theme park management game. But instead focuses on gameplay through its different modes, you’ll most likely enjoy your time with it. It should be noted though that this review is specifically for the Xbox One version, as there are some minor differences (and price tag differences) which I’ll outline later below. For a game based around creating, riding, and even destroying roller coasters, you wouldn’t expect that the game would have a storyline to it, but ScreamRide attempts to do so, but without much focus. The whole idea is that the ScreamWorks company is studying how to bring new extreme levels of entertainment to the masses by developing and testing rides that would in no way ever exist in the real world. It’s all about creating adrenaline rushes and your job is to help ScreamWorks craft rides that will excite the biggest of extreme rider fans. I applaud them for trying to at least add some resemblance of story or motivation of why you’re subjecting yourself to these crazy rides but it’s not going to keep you interested in any way, even when you unlock the new areas to experiment in, six in total.
So if ScreamRide isn’t a theme park simulator, then what is it you ask? Well, it depends on which of the three modes you decide on playing. There’s ScreamRider, Demolition, and Engineer, each of which is drastically different and are essentially their own games within each mode. Let’s start off with ScreamRider. This mode puts you into the cabin of a premade coaster and your goal is to not only finish the track but gain a high score doing so by tilting the coaster on its sides, hitting turbo boosts at the right time, and more. You want to give the riders a crazy experience, so try and lean the coaster on two wheels when taking bends but without crashing or coming off the rails.
Certain pieces of track that glow blue will fill your turbo meter if you can press the ‘X’ button right at the end of that specific piece of track. The closer you press the button to the end of the track, the more your turbo is filled, and if you can perfect combo turbo sections together you’ll get some very much needed score increases and more turbo to allow you to finish the track quicker. There will also be tracks that will have sections where the cabin actually comes off the rails and jumps a gap. You need to again press ‘X’ just before landing to get a bonus and some of your turbo meter filled. The more accurate you are the bigger the bonus.
The majority of what you’ll be doing though is leaning your riders to one side of the other to get the coaster on two wheels. This not only gains you bonus points, and the longer you are on two wheels the bigger the bonus, but there will eventually be sections where you’ll need to lean to either side to avoid obstacles. Most of the time these will be signs that are placed on the track, so you need to lean to the opposite side to avoid derailing, but there will also be certain courses where one side of the track itself is missing, so you need to lean on the correct side to keep the cabin moving forward towards the finish line. The game teaches you all of the new mechanics in a slow and steady pace and by the later levels you’ll have no problem leaning for bonus points and out of necessity.
If you were a fan of Boom Blox for the Wii many years ago, you’ll definitely be spending a lot of time in Demolition Mode. The whole goal in this mode is to see how much destruction you can cause and rack up the points, much like Burnout’s crash mode. Most stages are setup Angry Birds style, where your riders are placed into a capsule and your job is to set the power level, aim, and launch to destroy as much as you can. Why? It’s always fun to see stuff blow up right?
You toss one cabin at a time and as you progress through the different stages, you’ll unlock new types of cabins, each with their own abilities to cause mayhem (again, much like Angry Birds). The standard ball cabin doesn’t do anything special, but you’ll eventually get cabins that can blast apart into three sections, can be controlled much easier midair, a sticky bomb cabin that can explode whenever you like, among others. The launch arm is aimed usually towards a cluster of buildings and your job is try try and create as much havoc as possible with the set amount of throws you’re given, so you need to be on the lookout for weak spots in structures, exploding barrels, and other items that might not always be the most obvious choice for destruction.
There are a few stages where instead of these cabins being tossed, there will be a small section of roller coaster track setup for you to launch off of, with the same goals in mind. The coasters you get to use all have their own abilities such as being able to fire a booster rocket, deploy wings to glide much further and accurately, or explode. Just like the cabins you’re given, you have a preset amount of launches and specific coasters that can be used each attempt. It will take a lot of trial and error to figure out the best aim and power combination, which structures to aim for first, and which cabins to use in which order among other factors, but once you get the hang of it and see massive destruction, it’ll keep bringing a smile to your face.
The final mode in the campaign is the Engineer Mode. Here is where you’re usually given a portion of a track already made and you need to finish it or follow its objectives to earn a high score or medals. Sounds easy but it was by far the most difficult mode in the game for me to progress in. Stages will start out easy and have you simply finishing the track with certain objectives like using a preset amount of track, reaching a specific speed, or having the cabin fly off the track a certain distance. What makes it difficult is that you’re only given access to specific pieces of track, so you need to be very creative in how you tackle the challenges.
Once you complete your track, or simply want to see if something will work, you can quickly hop into the cabin and watch how it does, but keep in mind you don’t actually control the riders this time like in ScreamRider mode, so you’ll need to be mindful on your sharp corners and speeds or else you’ll eject riders or even derail the coaster itself. There is a S.I.N. tracker in the bottom corner that tracks everything the riders are feeling at any given point (Scream, Intensity, and Nausea), so you can use this to gauge what’s working and what isn’t based on your current goals.
It’s best to think of this mode almost as a puzzle game, and there’s not always going to be a single solution. How I solve one of these objectives might be completely different from you, but you’re always given a preset amount of track length and pieces, so it’s up to you to figure out how to do so. I found some of the preset restrictions to be very difficult, but like any good puzzle game, once you figure out a solution, it’s very gratifying. There’s even a button press to auto-complete your track for you, making the game try to attach the track ends in the shortest route possible. Given that you also have skybox limits, this isn’t always an easy solution.
So while those three modes make up the campaign (six worlds, each with 3 to 4 stages each), you’ll most likely finish them up quite quickly. There are extra challenges for you to try and gain more medals, which you’ll eventually need to do as there’s a medal count restriction on unlocking each world, but I’ve spent hours simply trying to complete the bonus objectives. Some are quite easy, such as stay on two wheels for a certain amount of time (ScreamRider mode), destroy 6 bill board signs (Demolition), or reach a certain speed (Engineer), but you’ll come across some of these bonus objectives that are quite difficult, such as doing the above but while also reaching a specific overall score (which is usually quite high). So there is some replayability here for players that are wanting to complete everything.
Lastly, there’s an Editor mode, and once you get the hang of it (it’s much like Engineer mode for controls), this is where you’re given the ultimate freedom to not only create the roller coaster you’ve always dreamt of, but you can also create the backdrop and structures of your park as well. This mode is how the developers created the campaign levels itself, so you’re given a very powerful toolset if you have the imagination and patience. You obtain new track pieces and other items for completing campaign levels, so even if you want to solely play the Editor mode, make sure you unlock those special pieces beforehand.
You can simply start by making some flat ground if you simply want to create a coaster as fast as possible, but for those with much more time, patience, and imagination, you can create a truly unique experience complete with buildings and more. You create the scenery with blocks, Minecraft style, but you can change brush sizes and even paint on different textures to make some unique artworks as well that your coaster can ride around or even through. There is a limit of how many pieces total can be placed in the world, and unless you’re going to make some very intricate structures to go along with the coaster itself, it’s more than enough for the average project.
Once you decide what type of coaster you want to make, you’ve given access to every pieces you’ve obtained so far and can create whatever you wish. If you want to have your track go as high as it can and then have a massive drop, you can do so. It’s quite simple to control and any pieces that will collide when placed will highlight in red and not allow you to place it. You’re given many different types and pieces of track and can even easily rotate and put a twist on them to add some more extremeness to your creation. Once you’re coaster is complete you can tweak a bunch of other settings such as a single lap or multiple if you want to have players ride a marathon based on how long your coaster is. Being able to quickly jump in and test your rides allows you to tweak and edit along the way and there is already some amazing creations put up for download from other players.
This is where we come to the Level Center. Exclusive to the Xbox One version (sorry 360 players), this allows you to upload your creations, but also to browse others content. Most will search he finish levels for awesome new tracks to test and play, but there’s even a Blueprint option that allows you to save a specific structure or ride that others can use in their levels as well. Maybe you’re really good at creating the park itself and buildings with your Minecraft skills but can’t make an exciting coaster; this is where you would download the blueprint of someone’s ride and be able to place it within your level.
The longevity of ScreamRide is simply going to come down to its user generated content since the campaign levels themselves can be completely quite quickly. While I only got to review the Xbox One version, the fact that the 360 version doesn’t have the Level Center is a downfall. To be fair, the 360 version is $10 less at launch ($29.99), while the Xbox One version is $39.99, but it’s odd seeing a price disparity between the versions, even with this single mode being the main difference (aside from graphics obviously).
There are some very major framerate issues, specifically in the Demolition mode or when many things start to become destroyed at once, and while it doesn’t’ affect gameplay itself, it happens quite often and frequent enough to simply ignore. While I do like the cartoonish art style ScreamRide uses, the audio is a completely different story. You’re going to hear the same one liners and screams on a constant basis. I actually got quite tired of ScreamRider modes simply because the announcer always has to say “Perfect” or “Good” every time you fill your turbo on the glowing blue track pieces and it becomes quite old hearing it every single attempt multiple times.
I enjoyed ScreamRide more than I thought I initially would, but once I was done with the campaign levels and progressed as far as I could in each of the three main modes, it almost felt like I was done with it. To be fair, the general public hasn’t gotten the game until now so there hasn’t been many user created levels for me to enjoy (I don’t have the time or imagination to make anything amazing) but I’m sure there will be more than enough once more players get their hands on it. That being said, the lifeline and longevity of ScreamRide is solely going to be in the community and created levels, so it will all come down to that factor. It might flourish or it might not, time will tell.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Dying Light
It seems that the zombie genre is still alive and thriving as Techland, best known for Dead Island, now brings us another zombie apocalypse survival game, but with some drastic changes to the formula they previously created in their past game. While Dying Light may still have the generic checklist that a zombie survival game seems to cater to, they’ve made some changes to ensure that it doesn’t simply feel like the same game all over again; at least I believe that was their intention. If you were a Dead Island fan, you’ll most likely enjoy Dying Light, as it does have a lot of parallels, but the new mechanics implemented may be hit or miss depending on what you’re looking for in this specific genre.The most drastic and notable change is no doubt the implantation of a parkour element similar of that to Mirror’s Edge. You’ll be running, jumping, and climbing all over the fictional city of Harran to escape hordes of zombies and to get from one point to another. Another drastic change is the serious tone of the game as opposed to the wacky and over the top vibe that Dead Island had. I don’t believe Dead Island was meant to be taken too seriously, whereas Dying Light tries to encase its story in a dramatic and serious manner. It’s a shame that the writing, acting, and other numerous issues prevent Dying Light from reaching that level of quality and seriousness that would have been a welcome change, but more on that shortly.
You play as Kyle Crane, (voiced by Roger Craig Smith, best known for the voices of Ezio and Sonic) a secret operative sent to the infected and quarantined city of Harran to find out what’s going on and more importantly, recover an incredibly important file that your bosses want back. Even only after a few missions in you’ll most likely determine the outcome and what’s coming next with the predictable conspiracies as I was foreseeing everything that was going to happen next well before it plays out. In cliché fashion, Crane will have to decide to either complete his missions or help the survivors within the infected city, though you have no actual choice and are taken for the ride instead of being given the choice to help either side.
The story feels as it’s there to guide you from one area to the next as opposed to a truly interesting narrative that you want to see the outcome of as soon as possible. The terrible lip syncing and reused character models may have played a part in my distain for the story, but there really was only a single or two unpredictable moment that occurred by the time the credits rolled. The voice work by Roger Craig Smith is done well, as there’s only so much you can do with mediocre writing, but the support cast either tended to be cliché or not really that engaging in comparison. Even after a dozen hours there really wasn’t a character I was very attached to or cared about all that much.
Dying Light is set in an open world urban environment that is littered and filled with infected, making it extremely dangerous for anyone to get around; This is where Crane’s parkour skills come into play and makes him the best man for the job to help the trapped citizens throughout the city while also trying to complete his mission. Being that you play in first person, it will feel very familiar to Mirror’s Edge at times when you’re constantly climbing ledges, jumping gaps, and scaling buildings. Let it be known, it will take some time to get used to the default controls, and even after a dozen hours into the game, I was still sometimes hitting the incorrect buttons. The reason for this is that the jump and climb button is actually the RB bumper, not the typical ‘A’ button, but for good reason. You need to keep your momentum going as you leap and climb, and doing so with the ‘A’ button would be impossible since you would have to take your thumb off the right stick while holding the controller, so I get it, but it does feel unnatural regardless of how many hours you play Dying Light for due to conditioning over many years of gaming.
In the beginning Crane has very limited stamina and will only be able to run in short bursts and swing weapons a few times before needing a quick breather, but as you progress and level up, you’ll eventually be able to scale buildings and cover distances very quickly, but with one caveat; when the game decides that it wants to work. At certain points I was running through hordes of zombies and chaining together my parkour movements like the game intended, but other times it simply will not work so smoothly, causing you to either fall and take damage or refusing to grab certain ledges and a swift death coming shortly after because of it. When you need to climb of the very tall towers, this is where the flakey controls will almost guarantee you an unfair death. Not only is it not always clear what you can grab onto for proper ledges, but it will sometimes overshoot your intended ledge or refuse to grab on and result in you plummeting for a swift death. That being said, when the controls work, it’s a fantastic feeling to vault over a zombie’s head onto a ledge and make quick work leaping gaps between building roofs. With all of the movement abilities you’re given I understand why they would want you to always run from point to point in missions, but having a fast travel, even if it was just to the main safe area of the game, would have been very welcomed.
To combat the zombies that will constantly be between you and your objective you’ll be using melee weapons for the majority of the game. You don’t receive guns and ammo until later in the game and when you do there’s usually not enough ammo given to make it viable versus having another high damage and durable melee weapon outside some of the harder sections and bosses. You’ll begin with only access to crude planks of wood, pipes, and the sorts, but eventually you’ll find much better weapons that will be worth your precious and limited upgrades. Yes, you can craft and upgrade weapons too! By completing missions, side quests, bosses, exploring, and more, you’ll find parts, blueprints, and upgrades, so it’s worth your time exploring so that you can make your favorite weapon into a massive damage dealing stick of death versus zombies. While it’s fun to add fire, electricity, and other mods to your weapons, it’s also completely unnecessary and you can easily reach and complete the game without ever doing so or purchasing the higher tier weapons from vendors.
Since you’ll constantly be looting zombies, trash cans, and more, you’ll come across many useful items, but even more not to helpful items that you’ll have to take the time to sift through as your backpack only has a limited amount of room before you need to clear room for newer and better items. As you progress in the game you’ll be able to upgrade your backpack slots, but even maxed out, I had to take some time to organize and go through it every so often. It would have been nice to have the inventory management a little more streamlined and user friendly so that it didn’t take up so much time on a constant basis.
As you play through Dying Light, traversing, looting, and fighting zombies, you’ll gain experience points for every action you do that is split into three separate categories: Survivor, Agility, and Power. The Survivor category is your generic experience for completing missions, clearing safe zones, finding supply drops, and more and relates to your basic character level. You gain Agility experience for all of your parkour abilities such as running, jumping, climbing, and more, so this will fill over time no matter what you’re doing. Lastly, Power experience is for fighting zombies and setting traps, another thing that will fill on its own as you progress through the game, so there’s not usually a need to solely trying to focus on getting experience in one category. That being said, make sure you get the grappling hook as soon as you’re able to as it’s a complete game changer and renders all traversal in the game almost void of any challenge once obtaining.
One of the biggest catches that Dying Light utilizes is the dynamic day and night cycle that actually makes a massive difference in how you’ll play. During the day there really isn’t all that much of a challenge but once nightfall hits, you better get ready for a completely difference experience. When it is night time, zombies become incredibly fast and dangerous and will easily be able to keep up with you as you spring and try and outrun them. A few hits with your best weapon probably isn’t going to do that much either, so you need to be prepared to run and find a safe house as soon as possible. You’re given a few tools to help combat them, but until much later in the game it’s best to try and escape, as these super zombies are absolutely terrifying.
Dying Light excels at creating a tension when you know you’re being chased by one of these volatile zombies and simply trying to get someone safe as soon as possible. You can even press the ‘Y’ button to look behind you as you’re sprinting, much like looking in your rear view mirror, if you want an even more terrifying experience seeing how close they are to attacking you. I was legitimately scared when night hit, especially in the specific missions that force you to play during nightfall. The risk versus reward payoff is quite good though, as you gain double experience points for participating at night, so since you’re confident in your abilities, I actually suggest to not always avoid night for some easy leveling up.
I felt very tense playing alone, but luckily up to four people can all play together which makes things much easier. You’ll need to play the hour long introduction before you’re allowed to play cooperatively with your friends, but once you do, you won’t want to play alone again. Playing coop with friends speeds up the pacing dramatically, even more so if one of your friends is a higher level. For example, if I join your game, and since all of my skills are in the mid-teens, I’ll have a lot more abilities such as the grapple hook to get around much quicker. Even better, once one player in the game reaches the objective, it prompts a ‘teleport now’ for the remaining players allowing for some pseudo quick travel. It can cheapen the experience of the game as a whole if you’re simply being teleported from point to point, but it’s not forced if you don’t want to use it and earn that experience on your own.
One thing worth noting is that the game’s multiplayer co-op is asymmetrical, meaning even though I’m joining your game when you just started, I’ll still get my own experience, but all of the quests are based on the host of the game. You’ll all get experience and credit for completing quests and loot is individual per person, so make sure the host in your group of friends is the one that wants to progress their story closest to the beginning. You’re also able to create challenges with your friends, such as who can kill the most zombies in a set time, get to a checkpoint the fastest, and more, but keep in mind the game doesn’t scale based on how many players are together, and me with my grappling hook will always win the race competitions versus you who doesn’t have it yet.
There is even a competitive multiplayer mode aptly named Be The Zombie mode. Here you get to play an incredibly powerful zombie and can invade other players’ games. You can use your tentacle to quickly zip around and reach the survivor players and are tasked with taking them out. This is usually quite easy as the zombie in its current state is grossly overpowered and only is a challenge if you’re in someone’s game that has 3 or 4 players. It’s worth noting that the game’s default setting is to allow anyone to invade your game, so you might want to turn this setting off or to only friends if you want to make progress without being killed quite often. If you like having that extra pressure and challenge, set it to frequent and good luck.
Dying Light does do a few things quite well, namely your acrobatic skills when you chain together moves and you keep unstoppable (again, when it works). Also, even being as powerful as I am in the game post credits, night still legitimately scares me with the volatile zombies that can easily make quick work of me if I’m not careful. Night time scares me in a game; that’s impressive.
I did have a lot of complaints that seemed to keep piling up by the time I was done playing though. When the parkour controls work proper it’s great, but more often than not I always had issues with Crane either not grabbing the ledge that he should have or misjudging my footing since it’s in first person and missing my jump completely. This is mostly true during the final sequence of the game, which I don’t want to spoil, but I’ll just say that I almost gave up on the game completely when I died for my hundredth time due to controls not always doing what I wanted them to. Combat is quite basic, and while there are some nifty upgrades you can get later on, it’s never really challenging outside of a massive crowd of zombies or at night. As mentioned above, the characters are generally lifeless and you won’t make any connection to them with the very predictable story. You’ll see the twists coming a mile away and the texture pop in that happens quite frequent will take you out of the immersion.
Dying Light is full of great ideas, and even though it’s in the tired zombie genre, it does enough to distinguish itself from other similar games. I highly suggest playing with friends if at all possible, as it made the experience much more tolerable and entertaining. Some of the best experiences I had was simply exploring and fighting packs of zombies as a group with friends, and while Dying Light isn’t doing anything terribly innovative, it will most likely keep you coming back for more with its RPG-like progression and tons of side quests that will surely take a good chunk of time to complete fully.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
The Crew
When The Crew was announced, it seems like Ubisoft had some extremely ambitious goals. It was touted as an online MMO-esque racer were you can your friends could drive from one coast of the United States to the other freely. Did they deliver on their promise? Well, technically, as you can hop onto the persistent world with your friends and drive from Seattle to Miami if you want, but it’s obviously not a 1:1 scale of the whole country. There’s actually only a handful of cities depicted, and if you’re a native of these, you’ll notice some things are slightly different than its real life counterparts as well. That being said, the world does feel substantial and you’ll notice as you cross from one state to the next as the typical backgrounds will reflect the actual locations.Aside from the one or two exceptions, racing games aren’t generally known for their engaging stories, and while The Crew tries to make you care about its main plot and characters, you simply won’t, which is a shame given that Troy Baker voices the protagonist Alex Taylor. The central plot focuses on Alex’s older brother, the leader of the 5-10 gang, who is murdered which you are framed for and get sent to jail for 5 years. Once you get out the only thing you care about is revenge and you start figuring a way to do so. The 5-10’s have been taken over and is led by a notorious dude with the title of V-8 (his officers have ranks of V-6, V-4, and so on) and it’s up to Alex to avenge his brother and take the 5-10’s back. You’re tasked with making your way up the ranks and you’ll have a friend within the FBI to help you along the way.
The plot is predictable and you’ll see everything coming a mile away, and in all honesty, it simply dragged on for way too long over the course of sixty plus missions. The cutscenes look decent, but the dialogue and writing is flat, along with the bulk of everything you’re told will simply be done over the radio when you’re driving as opposed to specific cutscenes. Even if you’re free roaming, you’ll constantly get reminded that you should be doing something else in relation to the story and can become quite tiresome hearing the same lines repeatedly.
As for missions in the campaign, there’s really only a handful of different types, but sadly the two worst types keep getting repeated and are extremely frustrating. These missions are the takedown and police pursuit missions, and I get that they are meant to bookend an exciting chapter, but the frustration from these will simply infuriate you rather than motivate you to move forward. Police pursuits is self-explanatory and has you trying to evade the police’s radius, much like any other game, but getting stopped from hitting random traffic can only be forgiven so many times. Cops seem to spawn out of thin air and if you have a helicopter chasing you, be prepared for a lengthy chase that always tends to drag on with unfair and unbalanced cops that seem to have the ability to catch up to you and ram you whenever they feel like.
Even worse is the Takedown missions. After a single one of the missions I dreaded them every time they were next on the list to progress the campaign further. These missions have you chasing a target who is on a set path that you need to ram a few times to stop his vehicle. Problem is it can be completely broken at times. Because they race on a scripted path, you’ll fail numerous times and have to simply learn where to cut corners or gain some ground to inflict the needed hits to take them down. When you actually do hit them though, you’ll be lucky if it actually registers and does damage. Also, don’t be so happy when you ram them head on or into a wall, as it’s all based on the number of hits they need to be stopped, not the damage done in a percentage form, it’s silly and frustrating.
When you go through the campaign missions make sure to do so with a friend, as it will take much of the frustration away, as doing these particular missions with numerous players makes it much easier. Teaming up with a crew almost makes the game too easy though, as the mission will complete as long as one of the crew finishes in first or completes the objective. So that means you can have your friend that’s really good at the game essentially finish it for you as long as you play together simply because you’re in the same crew.
Impressively, the game map is quite huge and there’s no loading at all when you’re driving, even from one coast to the next. Given that The Crew is set in an online persistent world, you do need to be online to play, even if you want to play alone, and this has some issues which I’ll get into shortly. The idea is that you can simply invite other racers and friends nearby to join your crew and race together either in missions, skills, or simply exploring the open road.
If you don’t feel like replaying one of the frustrating campaign missions, you can test your abilities in any of the hundreds of mini-games called skills scattered throughout almost every road across the country. Once you drive through them they trigger and you’ll need to either slalom, speed, hill climb, land a jump, or other specific tasks in a set area. Doing so earns you XP, money, and car parts and they can be repeated as many times as you like to either earn a better medal or to simply grind for levels or money. Since you’re always connected, you’ll constantly be updating the leaderboards and can easily see how you compare against your friends at any of these skill tests.
Completing campaign missions or skills earns you car parts, and the better medal you earn, the better car part you’ll earn. The catch which isn’t explained at all and I learned the hard way is that when you complete a skill challenge and earn a car part, it’s only for the car you’re currently in. If you eventually start swapping between multiple vehicles, you’re going to have to do some skill grinding to earn better car parts (and thus raiding your car’s individual level). I was excited to finally be able to use my Dodge Viper only to find out it was a much lower level than my starter car because I’ve not earned any parts while in the Viper. You’ll hit random difficulty spikes that will require you to grind for better parts just so you can progress, so it can become quite a chore if you have multiple cars.
Once you begin the game you’ll be given an initial choice of a handful of cars, but be warned, you’ll be living in this vehicle for quite some time. As you gain levels you’ll eventually be able to unlock new specs for your cars (street, raid, dirt, performance, etc) and your initial car can be switched to any of the specs once unlocked where bought cars are usually only able to be changed into certain specs, usually two or so. As you earn cash you can eventually buy new cars or visual upgrades for your cars, but even when I was in the final stages of the campaign, I never had enough money to blindly waste on cars of overly expensive vinyl decorations. Part of this is become of the Crew Credits system that is built in, essentially microtransactions. Would you like to purchase this car for in-game money you’ve earned or simply pay a few bucks for Crew Credits and have it now? You don’t earn cash enough for it to be your main viable source, so it feels as if the Crew Credits system was favored highly instead. There are even perks that you can spend points on, but if you want to, you can purchase more perks with Crew Credits; it’s disappointing as there’s no way to do this without opening your wallet. Joining one of the games factions will earn you some Crew Credits, but once they are gone be prepared to shell out more real cash to get more.
Speaking of factions, most missions takes you maybe five to ten minutes to complete, but faction races are a whole other beast in itself. These online races can be simple objectives, but some of these races last well over two hours. TWO HOURS. Prey you don’t lose connection to the game servers while doing so or it’s all for naught. Sitting in last place for over an hour isn’t all that fun.
Speaking of losing connection to the game servers, be prepared to have that happen (at least as of this writing) numerous times. Since you are forced to be online to play, the moment you lose a connection to their servers, of your fault or theirs, you’re booted back out to the main menu and lose any progress you’ve made in whatever mission you were racing in. Now imagine working on a Takedown mission being repeated over and over, you finally take him down and just before it goes to save, the game crashes to the main menu. I’ve had this happen numerous times and I can’t even tell you the amount of anger that I was filled with. I’ve also had the game randomly disconnect me from my Crew, have me unable to send them invites even though we’re in party chat talking, and other issues that are connection related.
I have no issue with a game needing me to be online to play when it’s needed, but I don’t see any reason it’s needed with The Crew. I get that the idea is to place you with people nearby, but the game doesn’t automatically populate your races with others nearby or fill your crew. You have to do everything manually, and I’ve tried inviting session players to hundreds of different missions, only to never have anyone accept, not once. Maybe they aren’t getting invites, as I’ve never received a non-friend invite to any race either, so possibly it’s a server issue. That being said, for an online only racer, it feels incredibly isolated aside from seeing the odd person drive by here and there.
While I was initially enjoying the game, the more I saw its missions structure, odd design choices (why can’t I use unused parts I’ve earned for other cars I own), and microtransactions, my enjoyment kept fading the more I played. Even playing with friends I was hitting random difficulty spikes that just felt completely unfair with the highly unbalanced AI. I did enjoy having hundreds of the skill challenges all throughout the country, but they are quick and is a lot of repetition. Almost without fail it takes me three or four tries to load the game from the main menu, as I don’t get a response from the server almost every time. I’m sure this is just a hiccup at launch, but it’s a huge issue when it’s an online only game. Almost every car and spec feels way too slippery and the in-game sounds and engines feel completely flat.
If you have a group of friends that are all picking up the game and are willing to play together, you’ll probably enjoy The Crew much more, but if you don’t or simply are wanting to play alone, it becomes very tedious and challenging for the wrong reasons. The Crew has a lot of great aspiring ideas but feels like it’s constantly falling short, especially in the dull campaign that drags on way too long, and that’s not even factoring in the aggravation of constant server issues I’ve had every day since playing.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
On paper, Geometry Wars sounds incredibly boring: ‘shoot various shapes for points’. As it turns out, it was an incredibly fun, addictive, and extremely challenging game when it released on Xbox 360 back in 2005. Since then it’s had a sequel, which improved many things, but now we have the third game in the series, created by a completely new team since the original no longer exists. If you’re unaware what Geometry Wars is, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (referred to as Dimensions from here on) is a twin stick shooter (left stick moves your ship and the right controls the direction you fire) that has you shooting various geometric shapes (enemies) with the goal of survival and high score.It sounds basic in premise because it is, but it’s incredibly challenging when you have an overwhelming amount of enemies on the screen and multiple factors that you need to keep a keen eye on while trying to survive. Shoot a shape and it will leave behind a gem behind that can be gathered to add to your multiplier, allowing you to reach higher scores in the end. The more gems you collect the quicker your multiplier will raise, but doing so usually has its own dangers and you’ll need to constantly weigh the risk vs reward. Do so properly though and you’ll quickly see your score shoot from a measly few thousand into the millions.
While your primary goal may simply be to shoot anything that moves, survival plays just as large a part, if not more, especially when the screen becomes incredibly crowded and busy with bright flashing colors and trance-like music. Every type of enemy shape has its own characteristics of how they behave and react to your player controlled ship. Green cubes for example will constantly chase you but will try and move the opposite way that you’re shooting (think of a Boo ghost from Mario), purple squares when shot break into smaller pieces of themselves, and blue diamonds will slowly chase you wherever you go, so knowing your enemies patterns plays a huge part of your constantly evolving strategy to survive. On their own, none of them are too menacing or challenging, but when every type is coming at you from every direction (and some that simply float around without a care about your movements), it can and will become seemingly impossible to not die at times.
Dimensions now includes an Adventure Mode that has you playing through 50 preset challenges in order, each with a set par time or score to earn up to three stars. While many games with this mechanic allows you to breeze along from level to level, eventually you’ll become blocked by the boss stages that will require you to replay some levels to earn two or three stars to make sure you have the set amount to challenge these gate keeps of the challenges further ahead. While that may not sound interesting for some, every level plays very different from the others and isn’t simply playing small variations of the same level over and over. While most levels will simply have you striving to reach a certain high score, there are other types of challenges included that take from the previous games’ newly added modes such as Pacifism, Waves, King, and more. There are even some newly tweaked modes that were quite challenging to learn, and I don’t want to spoil them, but you’ll need to learn to strategize your Geometry Wars play in drastically different ways.
While most will find the new Adventure Mode the big new feature, the newly added 3D maps are just as revitalizing to the series, if not more. Geometry Wars was always played top down on a 2D plane, but in Dimensions it’s been taken to a whole new level and certain stages are played on a 3D geometric shape instead, allowing you to stay on any of its edges as you traverse around its edges (or none if it’s a sphere). While your ship looks as if it’s always in the middle of the screen, the shape will rotate based on how you control your ship, but even for the Geometry Wars veterans like myself, it does take quite a lot of getting used to. I used to be incredibly good at Geometry Wars, usually among the top names on my friends’ leaderboards, but these new 3D maps make me feel like I’ve never played the game before. When things become incredibly hectic, it can be very difficult to see the enemies coming, especially if it’s around the corner of a cube for example. There are some subtle touches that are designed to help you with issues like this, like small ripple effects on the playing field, but again, when there are hundreds of enemies on the screen at once, that’s not usually what you’re focused on. Blind corners are almost always met with death and can feel unfair at times, but just like the first two games, you need to adapt a new strategy to handle this new mechanic.
Dimensions’ 3D levels eventually do become to feel natural, you simply acclimate your play style to survive. The boss battles though, I’m still getting used to these, but find them incredibly challenging yet refreshing. After a handful of levels in Adventure Mode you’ll be met with a boss stage that needs to be beaten to progress further. Each boss is essentially a supersized version of one of the basic shapes but also has some unique tricks and a much beefier health bar that needs to be depleted before time runs its course. Most will spawn waves of enemies when its weak spot is exposed (as it’s also moving around the map), and once it’s been attacked, it’s usually invincible for a short time as it and its minions chase you. In addition to this, some of the boss stages are set on 3D levels and that adds a whole other complexity to the mix.
Also new to the series is the inclusion of drones that unlock the further you progress in the game and based on how many stars you’ve unlocked. These drones are small little AI sidekicks that will vary from extra firepower to a small version of your ship that will go and magnetically collect any nearby gems enemies have dropped and you’ve yet to collect yourself. There are a handful of different drones and special powers that you can use to suit your play style or to help with specific types of matches. I did find it more distracting than helpful in the beginning, as you naturally want to shoot at anything you see on the screen, but you eventually learn to simply block it out and let the AI do its thing to help you.
For the fans of the series, Classic Mode has also been included and is essentially the bulk of Geometry Wars 2’s newly added modes all in one place. If the inclusion of drones and 3D maps is too much for you, this is the mode you’ll want to stick with until you feel more familiar with the newer mechanics. Also included is local and online modes that will have you competing against other players in head to head teams. To be completely honest, in all of the time I’ve tried playing online multiplayer, I was only able to connect to one working match, so I’m not sure if it’s simply been bad luck on my part, server issues, or low game population.
Just like how Geometry Wars 2 really evolved the game from its first iteration, Dimensions does it once again with the newly added 3D maps and Adventure Mode. While I wasn’t initially a fan of the star count bottleneck to advance further, it does make you go back and replay levels and learn them by repetition rather than trying to coast through the game simply getting single stars in each stage. If that wasn’t motivating enough, each stage also has a leaderboard, so you can see exactly where you stack up against your friends and the rest of the world. There’s an incredible amount of gameplay included within for such a simple game premise. Newcomers to the series can start out simple and slow with classic modes where veterans can jump right in and feel at home and start to learn the intricacies of the new mechanics that really make Dimensions feel like the best in the series.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
Sure, Pong and Asteroids may get the nod as the first true video games, but when Pac-Man came about in 1980, that’s really when gaming started to become popular, and since then, Pac-Man has become synonymous with gaming as a whole. Since then Pac-Man has been in numerous games and spinoffs, but has never really captured his fame that he once had when gaming was in its infancy thirty five years ago, save for the exceptional Championship Edition DX that came out a few years ago of course. So does his newest adventure, The Ghostly Adventures 2, bring him back into limelight? Based on the cartoon TV show with the same name, The Ghostly Adventures 2 is a tie-in to the show, so kids that know about the characters should enjoy themselves seeing familiar faces and locations. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s your typical spin that has Pac-Man as a young and cool version of his younger self that has to deal with the bad guy every week in some new wacky situation; typical fodder for a young audience cartoon.
What The Ghost Adventures 2 does right is capture the essence of the show, be it with the characters, locations, bright colors, and it also improves on the first game that released just a short year ago. The story follows that of Pac-Man and his friends trying to save PacWorld from a devilish plot by the evil Lord Betrayus. There really isn’t much more to the story, and you’ll easily finish the campaign in a weekend, or even one long sitting, as it only took me about six hours to reach the end credits.
The game is a platformer at its heart and you’ll be leaping from place to place, with different powers, all while chomping ghosts which is what Pac has does best for over thirty years. The game is completely 3D but the camera always has a set and fixed position. It may move and rotate when you reach new places or checkpoints, but you’re never able to freely move the camera to help with making proper jumps. Because of this fixed camera, prepare to lose many lives from missing your jump due to odd angles or simply not knowing where you’re about to land.
Making a return from the previous game, Pac can gain special powers by chomping down on some power berries he’ll find throughout the world. Based on which berry he eats, he’ll gain access to specific powers and also change his look to match said powers. As Fire Pac you’ll be able to throw fireballs at ghosts to stun them, melt ice, glide long distances, and cause hot air balloons to lift. Ice Pac allows you to freeze enemies in place, cause ghosts to turn into ice blocks and land on switches, or even freeze specific enemies to be used as platforms. Metal Pac lets you suck in ghosts, attach yourself to magnetic platforms, and orbit specific attach points to launch yourself in any direction. Chameleon Pac allows you to use his long tongue to eat ghosts and also gives you the ability to latch onto poles to swing elsewhere. Rubber Pac turns himself into a small ball that has the talent of being able to super jump and slide slowly down the sides of walls. Lastly, Pac can also turn into Granite Ball Pac by eating the appropriate power berry and this transforms him into a massive granite ball version of himself that can dash in any direction and also jump onto ghosts for big damage.
While the powers can be fun, and you’re only given the power berries you need to progress in a specific stage, they can be frustrating at the best of times as well. This happens the most with Metal Pac when you’re trying to attach or detach from magnetic surfaces. Keep in mind the camera is always fixed, but when it does shirt or rotate and you’re trying to do something at that moment, you’re almost always sure to die due to the camera not making it easy to orient yourself. The same goes for Granite Ball Pac, as you’ll roll of the edge numerous times because of the controls and camera shifting.
Just like in the show, Pac will get some help from his friends, Spiral and Cylindria, and there will even be a few sections during the campaign where you’ll get to use Spiral’s Cherry Copter and Cylindria’s Hoverboard. These dull stages play as simple on-rail shooters, but make for a slight distraction to the slew of regular stages where Pac is simply jumping around and eating ghosts.
In between levels, Pac is able to visit and explore Pacopolis Park and visit locations that fans of the show will recognize, like Sir C’s Lab, Maze High, and more. Aside from finding some collectable items and talking to a handful of characters, this free roam of sorts really doesn’t add anything to the game unless you want to take part in the unlocked challenges that open up as you progress further in the game. It’s really just an explorable menu system and doesn’t offer much else aside from a slight distraction.
Given that this game’s target audience is the younger crowd that most likely tunes into the show every week, you would assume that since it’s geared towards kids it would be a simplistic game for controls and mechanics, as to not alienate its target audience. When it comes to difficulty though, The Ghostly Adventures 2 is all over the place, as even I was losing multiple lives in certain sections due to mechanics and camera issues. It’s as if when creating the game, they were unsure who to make it for, and as a parent, be prepared to be asked to help if it’s for a younger child. The platforming can be quite difficult and the flawed mechanics can be very tough in specific sections.
That being said, dying isn’t much of a problem, as you amass many lives as you collect pellets and fruit pieces throughout your gameplay and I was never even close to losing all my lives; a much younger person though may not have as much luck. Even in the final stages, the difficulty seemed all over the place, as some sections I breezed through, and other parts I lost a handful of lives.
When you’ve completed the game and the credits have rolled, there’s little to no reason to continue playing other than trying to obtain gold medals in each level and trying to find every collectable. Given the mechanical issues, I don’t see many doing this unless you really are a completionist, enjoy obtaining high scores, or hunt for achievements.
The game can look great at times, as some of the worlds do give the illusion of being vast, but this is where it also runs into other problems. Sometimes there’s so much going on that the game really starts to slow down, almost to the point of slideshow-like frames, to the point where it affects your gameplay. The space levels are notorious for this and at times can be almost unplayable due to the horrendous slowdown.
The older generation of gamers like myself will appreciate the retro sounds and music placed into the game, and if you’ve played the original Pac-Man from over three decades ago, you’ll definitely partake in some flashbacks with the sound effects. All of this being said, The Ghostly Adventures 2 isn’t terrible, it’s just actually decent if you play it a few levels at a time instead of trying to finish it as quickly as possible. Keep in mind though that it’s going to be too difficult for the very young kids and the older ones will most likely rather play something else.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Far Cry 4
Far Cry is known for allowing you to play in open worlds that are known to span across a massive island, or in the case of Far Cry 4, Kyrat in the Himalayan Mountains. Far Cry gives you complete freedom of how you want to play and what you want to do in its world, almost to the point of having too much to do. Not only is the Far Cry world you’re allows to play in massive, but the sheer number of activities and side quests for you to enjoy at your own pace is almost daunting at times. Even when you’ve set yourself to a path, you’ll easily become distracted with random diversions. If you were a fan of Far Cry 3, you’ll be pleased to know that Far Cry 4 is essentially bigger and better version that refines the Far Cry formula rather than reinvent it. Pagan Min is the malicious dictator that rules over Kyrat and its people. You play as Ajay Ghale, a Kyrati native who was taken there and raised by his mother as a child. Ajay is on a journey to spread his mother’s ashes back in their homeland, though almost immediately after entering Kyrat his bus is ambushed and you come face to face with Pagan Min, who seems to know you quite well. Now placed in the middle of a civil war, Ajay escapes Pagan’s with some help of The Golden Path, the rebel group fighting back. As it turns out, The Golden Path was originally formed by Ajay’s parents, so he’s instantly treated as a rock star by the rebels, thinking they just found their savior.
The Golden Path is trying to overthrow the tyrannical Pagan Min and at specific points in the story you’ll be forced to side between the two bickering leaders of The Golden Path, Anita and Sabal. Once you choose a side, the other quest is locked out and will affect the outcome of specific events down the road, and has its own ending as well.
Oddly enough though, you only ever run into these main characters in the quests and not elsewhere in Kyrat, so aside from the few minute spurts of cutscenes, it’s hard to become attached to them. The same goes for Pagan himself as well, as you don’t really interact with him at all until the latter half of the game, which diminishes his character buildup. It’s a shame because he’s played so well and is a really interesting character, you simply don’t see enough of him throughout the campaign.
The basic mechanics of Far Cry 3 return unchanged here, as you’re still going to be looking for high ground to scope out the enemies with your binoculars which highlights them for easy tracking. That’s not to say you need to use your sniper gun and bow and arrows for a stealth approach, as running in with rocket launchers and an assault rifle is also a valid tactic as well depending on how you want to play. There are some new tricks in Ajay’s arsenal though that can prove useful when used properly. Ajay has a grappling hook that can be used to scale certain cliff faces, allowing you to reach a higher view to plan your route of attack. What makes the grappling hook so fun though is that you can actually use it for more than simply getting from the ground to the top (or vice versa), as you can also use it as an actual swing and leap off to reach other areas if the terrain allows. It’s fun to play with when you come to an area that allows for a lot of grappling freedom and can make for some daring escapes.
The basic mission structure varies throughout the campaign, but even more so with the side missions. One mission you’ll simply be saving someone, another you might be trying to prevent an opium plant farm from being burned down, next you’ll be in the Himalayan mountaintops searching for oxygen canisters, then you might even be launching an ATV off a cliff so you can open your wingsuit and fly into a plane. It’s completely unpredictable going from one mission to the next what you’ll be faced with, but this keeps it interesting and fresh throughout the campaign.
There’s plenty of side quests and objectives to do when you want to take a break from the campaign, almost to the point of being too much to do. A completionist is going to have their hands full, as there’s a massive amount of content within Kyrat for Ajay to take part of. There’s the standard save someone and fetch quests, but there’s a ton of other things to do as well, like liberating radio towers to unlock the fog from the map or even traveling to Shangri-La for some more supernatural expeditions that I don’t want to spoil, as they’re quite entertaining. There’s always something different to do if you get bored of doing the same thing over and over, so make sure to try all the different types of quests at least once.
As you earn XP from simply playing, you’ll unlock new skills and abilities that can be unlocked; even the ability to ride elephants (essentially tanks in Far Cry 4) which can lead to some hilarious moments. I do wish the skill tree was much deeper, as I eventually earned more than enough skill points that I was taking skills I didn’t care about at all.
Just like how the mission structure can be unpredictable, it’s truer when applied to how the world around you feels alive. You might be scouting an outpost, getting ready to make your attack, and you might all of a sudden get attacked by a tiger or bear, causing the enemies to take notice and mess up your whole plan of attack. But that’s not always a bad thing, as this unpredictability really did keep things interesting and you never get too complacent knowing that roaming guards or wildlife may be right around the corner. Oh, and eagles are the absolute worst, so be ready for those. When you do dispatch animals you come across, you can skin them to be used in crafting and take their meat to use as bait as well. You’ll never be forced to hunt for animals outright, but you’ll want to early on, as that’s how you’re going to upgrade your carrying capacity, holsters, and more.
Kyrat feels massive, and even when you find one of the new Gyrocopter that allows you to fly almost anywhere (it does have an altitude limit), it can still take some time to get from point A to point B. While the square mileage may be something similar to Rook Island from Far Cry 3, it simply feels larger in this game because of the verticality and the need to use switchbacks when traversing on ground vehicles. Regular cars and trucks may take some time to get used to given the default Halo-like controls of being controlled with the left stick, but this is for good reason. This is so that you can shoot from your vehicle while driving with ease.
There are some steep inclines and narrow paths that made vehicle travelling difficult but you are able to turn on an auto drive feature if you’d rather have a tour-like ride to your destination or don’t want to deal with the hassle of figuring out the right paths to get to your end point without going off a cliff. Once you clear out some outposts, some of them will permanently act as a fast travel point, making getting places around Kyrat much easier.
One of the biggest items in my ‘Pro’ list though is easily the quality of the voice acting. Normally the handful of main characters in games are voiced well but the minor ones usually suffer or simply aren’t as good. That wasn’t the case in Far Cry 4. Pagan Min is voiced amazingly and you really get the sense that he’s crazy and evil based on his performance. Ajay may not have a lot of lines throughout the campaign, but the few times you do hear him, it’s also believable. The same goes for the supporting cast, especially Longinus, who turned out to be my favorite character in the whole game the more missions I did for him.
If Far Cry 4 wasn’t crazy enough for you, you can now also invite a friend or stranger into your game for some co-op shenanigans and double the firepower. Having a second person definitely changes your strategy when taking over outposts and completing side missions, but is a welcome addition. There are some basic communication tools available if you or your partner doesn’t have a mic, but be prepared for someone to make a mistake when you’re trying to be stealthy.
Two things I found off with the co-op experience though. First, you need to choose if you want to play online from the main menu or not when loading your game. Even if you choose to play online, you won’t have anyone join unless you open it publicly afterwards or invite a friend. Also, if you happen to lose your connection to the Far Cry servers during gameplay when ‘online’, you’ll be booted back out to the main menu, even if you’re in the midst of an outpost liberation or don’t even have anyone currently in your ‘online’ game. Also adding a second player doesn’t scale the enemies or difficulty, so you may notice things become literally twice as easy unless you manually change the difficulty. Lastly, while you can play co-op with a friend, this applies to everything except the campaign missions. So you’re welcome to go around Kyrat and tag team all the side quests and objectives, but you’re going to have to play the campaign missions solo unfortunately. Whoever is the host will gain all the progress from quests and bell tower unlocking where the joining player’s main game is unaffected, though they do get the XP and unlocks earned while helping. Not perfect by any means, but playing co-op is quite fun and should be played.
If competitive multiplayer is more your thing, then you’ll be happy to know that it makes a return as well. This multiplayer is titled Battles of Kyrat and pits two factions against each other in various game modes for up to ten players. Much like the campaign, the multiplayer boasts large open world (with limitations) maps that feel almost too large at times. When half of your game time is simply traversing the map, it really hinders the flow of actual gameplay versus other players.
One faction is The Golden Path and if you’re on this team you’re much more armed than the opposing Rakshasa warriors that tote bow and arrows. To balance this, the tribal faction gets some interesting abilities, like being able to use invisibility, teleportation arrows, and more. The Rakshasa are much more fun to play as given their abilities, and much more frustrating to die against since they’re usually always invisible. It’s an interesting concept, but feels like it hasn’t been completely fleshed out and balanced yet. Having a deeper progression or skill tree unlocks would have breathed some more life into this mode for me in the long run, but with the return of the map editor, there are some really interesting player-made maps and objectives out there that you should be checking out.
At its heart this feels essentially like an improved Far Cry 3, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, just don’t go in expecting a slew of new mechanics or major changes aside from the setting and characters obviously. I usually tend to finish a game and then once it is complete go after all of the remaining side objectives, but that just felt too daunting in Far Cry 4. There’s seriously a ton of stuff for you to enjoy, almost at every turn, but it felt like too much at times. There’s even an option to hide every type of marker from your map if you want to simply focus on the campaign or other objectives, because if you don’t, it becomes much too busy and even difficult to find certain objective markers in the confusion.
You’ll have so many objectives thrown at you that it feels distracting at times, especially if you want to simply get through the campaign. But that’s an issue I had, as the story never really picks up till near the end and really wasn’t all that interesting. This is probably due to the overused bickering of the two Golden Path leaders trope combined with the serious lack of screen time for the main villain that seems so interesting at the opening of the game.
All of that being said, if you’re looking for a game that can occupy you for many hours or really enjoy finding every hidden collectible and completing every sidequest, then Far Cry 4 is a very easy sell. If you’re like me and have always wanted to shoot down a helicopter from the back of an elephant, than look no further.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Assassin's Creed Rogue
I love Assassin’s Creed. Heck, I even enjoyed III once you got passed the tutorial that felt like it took ten hours. That being said, I didn’t know how to feel knowing that two Assassin’s Creed games were not only coming out in the same year, but the same day. Unity and Rogue, and to make things more confusing, Unity is for current gen only where Rogue is relegated to the last gen hardware of Xbox 360. If you’re simply reading this review to figure out which Assassin’s Creed to play first, I would highly suggest Rogue as it’s essentially the setup for Unity which takes place later in the timeline. When a franchise has a game release every single year, it can become stale quite quickly unless it innovates and brings new ideas to the table to keep the audience interested. Assassin’s Creed III started this by bringing naval warfare to the series, but last year’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is what really made the series fresh once again. Black Flag introduced many new mechanics and settings for the series, and now a year later, we have its direct sequel, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue.
Rogue ties up all the loose ends from the previous two Assassin’s Creed games (III and Black Flag) and if you’re not up to date on your Assassin’s Creed timeline and want to play them in order, as it’s essentially its own trilogy, you’ll want to play Black Flag, Rogue, and then III to have events unfold sequentially. If you’ve played the previous games, Rogue contains a lot of really interesting perspectives, not only of what happens during its own game, but why certain things are the way they are in III. For example, you’ll find out exactly why Achilles has a limp in III.
I normally try and steer away from referencing other games in deep detail in reviews, but it’s near impossible for Rogue as it borrows immensely from its prequel, Black Flag. Does that mean Rogue is essentially a re-skin of Black Flag with a new story thrown overtop to mask its roots? It’s not a simple yes or no, as the story is nothing like any of the other Assassin’s Creed titles and actually gives a completely new perspective, not just with the new protagonist, but the Assassin and Templar conflict as a whole. Black Flag was fantastic mechanically and Rogue plays almost exactly the same, though it does have its own few nuances you’ll learn, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Because the groundwork has already been laid and proven, it’s clear more time has been taken to craft an interesting story and adding a few tweaks to make the title better as a whole.
Even though Rogue is the third new protagonist in the America’s trilogy, the story of Shay Cormac is one that is like no other Assassin’s Creed game to date. Rogue starts years after Black Flag and centers around an assassin, Shay, during the Seven Years War. Right from the beginning you can tell that Shay isn’t one to always follow the rules blindly, even if direct orders from master assassins. I don’t want to give away too much about the story, but the whole premise is that for specific reasons, Shay turns his back on the brotherhood and fights against them, eventually becoming a Templar. If you’re a true Assassin’s Creed fan, this just blew your mind. Yes, you get to play an Assassin’s Creed game but as a Templar.
To be quite honest, at first I didn’t think I would enjoy it, as I’ve always wanted to be the noble assassin’s that are trying to save the world, but Rogue will let you peek behind the Templar curtains and possibly change your mind. It’s an odd feeling to kill assassins whenever possible after so many years of aiding them, but this turmoil, for Shay and as a player, is what made me really enjoy Rogue. Seeing the Templar side of specific conflicts really starts to open your eyes and Shay needs to deal with all of his emotions and betrayal to the brotherhood. I don’t want to spoil much more, but know that playing in this moral grey area was refreshing, even if the gameplay is vastly unchanged.
My only complaint with this new perspective, is that the confrontations you have with the other assassins that wronged you never really feels powerful enough. I was expecting some epic showdowns with my former masters, but aside from the final sequence, it simply plays out like any other mission you’d find in the game. For how strongly Shay feels, especially since switching allegiances, I simply expected more drama and turmoil when there was a confrontation, but it doesn’t really ever materialize in that respect.
Gameplay may be a clone of Black Flag, but the fundamentals are solid and if you enjoyed Black Flag for whatever reason, you’ll enjoy Rogue for similar reasons. That being said, if you didn’t like Black Flag, aside from the story change and a few new additions, it’s going to feel extremely familiar. Sailing the waters in our ship as a captain still plays a large role on Rogue, but the backdrops are different, as you’ll also be sailing in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic and have to deal with icebergs as well. There are plenty of small islands, coves, and other aspects to explore and uncover, so if you’re a completionist or put dozens of hours into Black Flag, you’ll be happy to know it’s just as expansive.
Ship combat returns as well (along with new sea shanties), though the story didn’t have as many of the strict restrictions on ship missions that Black Flag had. Controlling your vessel feels smoother this time around and there are even some new weapons for you to learn and take advantage of in Rogue. You’re ship, the Morrigan, can be upgraded and you’ll eventually get two new arsenal options such as being able to lay oil slicks behind your ship in a path and the new Puckle Guns which turned out to be my favorite. Much like the canons you can before but these now act as chain guns and can make quick work of smaller enemy ships when upgraded. You’ll still be boarding ships to steal their resources, repair your ship, add to your fleet for the mini-game, but now you’ll have to be aware of other ships that can board you as well. This took me by surprised the first time it happened but is a welcome feature, knowing that I’m not the only captain that knows how to take over enemy ships.
Combat on foot play the same mechanically, but Shay does have some new gadgets to work with, and will need to use as assassins are much harder prey than your standard soldier or Templar. You’ll need to your Eagle Vision quite often to see through objects and find the nearby assassin waiting to take you out. You’re given a visual and audible queue when one is nearby and it can be stressful to try and find them when you’re already hunting down another enemy. Shay has access to some new weaponry, most importantly, a grenade-like launcher that can disperse shrapnel, berserk, or sleeping bombs for an area attack rather than a single blow dart that we’re used to. I didn’t end up relying on it very often, but it most certainly made some sections quite easier, as getting a pack of guards to attack each other with one shot was amusing to watch.
Assassin’s Creed wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t have a link to the modern world outside of the Animus, and it’s no different in Rogue. Since this is a direct sequel to Black Flag, the ‘real world’ aspect is also unchanged and has you as another Abstergo Entertainment employee. The minigames needed to unlock the computers have changed, and can be a pain at times, but aside from that, you’re left wandering the exact same halls, so it’ll feel very familiar.
I really started to like Shay about the time he was starting to turn on his former brothers. He’s very brash and Edward-like in the beginning, but once I saw why he turned, and started becoming more bad ass, he’s definitely up there for one of my favorite assassins, er, Templars. I didn’t think that there would be any way rogue would be able to make me sympathize for the Templars, given what we’ve learned in every previous Assassin’s Creed game, but I have to hand it to the writers, as I am totally on board with Shay and his motives. I wish we saw more of his internal conflict of having to abandon everything he’s previously known and being a betrayer, but by the time the credits rolled, I want to learn more about Shay and will slightly question the brotherhood going forward.
Now, for all the great things I have to say about Rogue, I do have to delve into a few major and problematic issues I ran into in my twenty hour playthrough. Firstly, there’s a ton of small bugs such as constant clipping issues, many rocks and surfaces that look like they could be scaled, but can’t, and it still seems silly that Shay is camouflaged when he’s in a small field or bush that in no way would actually conceal him (this was much better on the Xbox One version of Black Flag, so it’s probably just a hardware limitation). Lastly, there’s a section at the end where you need to stay inconspicuous, and you see Shay lift up the bandana over his mouth like he does in the rest of the game once he’s a Templar, but in this section he isn’t wearing a bandana, so it looks completely silly and out of place. Not major issues, but lots of little ones.
I did have some severe problems though as my game progressed though that almost had me not able to complete it. Somehow, about 15 hours through the game, my game slightly froze and the audio was no longer in sync and would sporadically pop in and out. Not a big deal I initially thought, just another small glitch I thought would fix itself as I made it to the next section in the story. Sadly, it did not fix itself, but it progressively become much worse, almost to the point of unplayable. Eventually the game would freeze but the background audio would still be playing, but the game wasn’t really hard locked, as I could see the ocean water moving, but everything else was still.
I first thought it might be a hardware issue with my Xbox 360, but after testing other games I had no problems at all. When I was an hour from completing Rogue it was literally crashing on me every 30 seconds, and when you see how long it takes to go from dash to back in game, it became very frustrating after an hour of trying to progress. I even got “dirty disc error” messages even though it’s a digital game; that’s how bad it was crashing. I was actually on the final mission and was so frustrated with not being able to progress that I had to watch the ending cutscenes online. Eventually I tried again and again and slowly made progress from one checkpoint to the next, but playing in two minute bursts before crashing over and over was a sad way to end my Rogue gameplay. Now to be fair, I looked online and was unable to find anyone else with the same issues I had, both on forums and reviews, so I’m sure it was an isolated incident, but I have had to dock the overall score severely because of my technical problems with the game even though I think it has one of the strongest stories in the series.
As mentioned above, if you’re deciding between this and Unity for which to play first, start here, not only because it directly leads ties into Unity, but playing a sequel to Black Flag was immensely fun (disregarding my technical issues) even only after a year. Rogue’s story is fascinating and will truly open your eyes about the assassin and Templar conflict. Regardless of which side you fall upon after you complete Rogue, it will have you look at things differently in any other Assassin’s Creed games going forward.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Yes, Dragon Age Inquisition is better than Dragon Age II. I know that was most likely your first question if you played the past two Dragon Age games, so if that’s all you came to find out, rest easy. Most people fell in love with Dragon Age Origins almost immediately for its epic storytelling, memorable characters, and fantastic RPG elements. Dragon Age II was clearly rushed out the door to cash in on its success and failed for numerous reasons. It simply didn’t have the same heart and polish we’ve come to expect from a BioWare title. They must have taken it to heart, as it seems they listened to what fans liked and disliked about both games and essentially provided the best of both worlds with Inquisition. Inquisition is set once again in the land of Thedas, the same backdrop of the previous Dragon Age games, and starts off with a bang; literally. A massive explosion occurs, wiping out a massive amount of people, particularly some important political figures that were attempting to have a peace treaty formed between mages and Templars. Taking place after Dragon Age II’s events, the tensions between both factions are high, and when this magical explosion happens, you the player are the only sole survivor, as if you come out of it somehow. Now known as the Inquisitor, many questions surround your character, such as why were you the sole survivor, how was the blast caused, and why are there lingering portals left in the world allowing demons from the Fade to come through.
Not only have you survived, but a mark has been left on your body which you soon figure out that grants you the power to close these rifts and stop the demons from pouring through and taking over the land of men. Some people will perceive you as the savior, while others will accuse you of being responsible for what happened, since it’s convenient that you’re the sole survivor of the blast. With the two main factions of mages and Templars still locked in a political war, you and a handful of followers will begin an Inquisition to deal with the looming rift threat.
If you’ve previously played the past two Dragon Age games you’ll feel right at home with all the terminology, lore, characters, past events, and such, but if you’re coming into Inquisition completely fresh and having never played the past two titles, you might feel quite lost in the beginning. There’s no real recap of previous events aside from digging deep into the codex entries and reading up on it on your own. Even if you do know your Dragon Age well, you’re going to want to head over to dragonagekeep.com and link your Origin account. The reason for this is because Inquisition has no formal save import feature, but at this website, you can have it scan your previous achievements and such, then keep or change your actions to create a World State which will be used as base historical facts in Inquisition. Since Inquisition doesn’t recap the past two games well on its own, the website was actually a great stroll through my previous choices and I even got to ‘fix’ a couple choices I wish I made differently when I originally played the games so that it was the way I wanted when I started Inquisition.
As you begin Inquisition, you’ll be asked to create your character to suit how you want them to look, male or female. The character creator is quite in-depth and while you’ll have all the standard options, they’ve made it simpler to use with a graph that has sliders so you can customize your Inquisitor exactly how you want by being less monotonous. I highly suggest taking your time with the creation of your character, as you’ll easily be able to spend well over 100 hours in Inquisition, and you will kick yourself if you aren’t completely happy with how they look hours in.
You’ll also be choosing their gender, class, and race during the creation process, all of which will affect how you are perceived and treated in the game from various people. The core story will always stay the same regardless of your creation choices, but relationships, combat, and how the world reacts to you can vary wildly based on what you choose to be. Classes and combat vary from the up close and personal melee Warrior, the Rogue whom can be a stealthy backstabber or an archer, or even a glass-cannon Mage. Being a human won’t have much racism pointed your way, but choose to play as a Qunari and the world will react vary differently towards you. This allows for some interesting multiple playthroughs and gives you the opportunity to play and choose dialogue options differently based on how people speak and treat you.
The Inquisitor is going to need help closing the rifts left around the world, and that’s where your Inquisition comes into play. As you progress in the game you’ll recruit (should you choose to) a handful of followers that can be taken with you into exploration and combat. In typical Dragon Age fashion, these aren’t simply throwaway characters either, as each one has a deep back story and a personality that will make them truly unique in your band of saviors. Sure I had my personal favorite personalities (I had to keep Sera in my party for the comic relief), but there wasn’t really any I hated this time around and blatantly avoided like I did in Dragon Age II. A few of the standouts to me were the always intriguing Varric that returns from the previous game along with Cassandra. Iron Bull (which I didn’t know was voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.) is another awesome character that I almost always have in my party as well. There’s so much little banter and dialogue between party members as you’re exploring, that you’ll want to switch up your normal team composition just to hear everything you can.
You’re able to bring up to three other party members with you into combat and exploration, so while you’ll switch often, the ones sitting on the sidelines at times will still level up when the rest do as well. This also means that you’ll have to manage their inventory of weapons, armor, and accessories. This wouldn’t normally need mentioning, but the menu system makes this very cumbersome and is quite clumsy at the best of times. There are some bars at the bottom which will show you if the highlighted item’s stats are better or worse, but it doesn’t give all the deep details you might want to see without a few more button presses. So you’ll need to meticulously go to each character then down the list of weapons, armor, and accessories you have one by one.
Not only is that a pain, but it becomes even more of a hassle once you’re given access to crafting your own weapons and armor for your characters. As you explore the lands, you’ll need to hunt wildlife, pick flora, and mine minerals to get the materials you need to create the armor and weapons once you also find the patterns to do so. Certain armors and weapons also have slots that can be used to improve them even further, of which can be found or crafted as well. The crafting system itself works well, but it’s just really frustrating that you need to go in and out of menus constantly to do so. For example, I can never remember what my weapon I’m currently equipping is, so when I go to create a new one, there’s nothing to tell me if it’s better than what is equipped or not. Small annoyances like this make the inventory management something left to be desired, especially with how much loot you’ll be coming across.
While you’ll have an area you can initially explore and venture out to do whatever you wish, you’ll eventually need to head to your Inquisition’s War Table to access new quests and unlock new areas. Think of this as the galaxy map from Mass Effect, as it’s very similar mechanically. From here you can teleport to areas you’ve already uncovered and as you complete more quests and close rifts throughout, you’ll earn power, which subsequently allows you to open up more areas for exploration.
You’ll also be able to send your advisors (non-playable party members) to complete certain quests for you in real time. For example, maybe someone needs to be put in their place, so do you send a political message, a thief to assassinate, or a showing of your forces to get them to back down? Each choice may even be a “better” choice, and may complete quicker than one of the other options. I thought these time requirements would annoy me, but I generally never even thought about them when I was exploring until the message popped up saying they have returned from their journey. These missions continue even if you turn off your system, so get in the habit of choosing the longest timed quests before you quit playing for the night so that they are waiting for you the next day to be handed in.
Each of your party members will eventually open up to you if you pursue and engage them outside of forced situations, and this is a way to get some side quests, but the majority of your questing will be in the massive zones that open up for you as you progress. Each of these zones are truly massive and will have you exploring and finding new things hidden in many places. To put it into perspective, when I was in the first zone of the game, it took me roughly 10 hours or so to complete all of the quests within and I thought that was the main area of the game, only to find out it was a single zone. There are more to unlock and each one has a very different feel to them and encourages exploration and questing. I actually didn’t even start the main campaign until I was almost 20 hours into the game, that’s how expansive it can be if you want it to be.
New to the series is the ability to now jump. I thought this would help with exploration, and at times it might, but it eventually was more of a pain than I had hoped. Initially I thought that since I can now jump, that scaling a large mountain would now be something I would be able to do with ease. Not even close. Where there are a few parts you’ll need to jump if you want to access hidden collectables and quest items, the traversing on step hills is terrible and you won’t be able to bunny hop across the smallest slopes, leaving you travel long distances at times just to find a path to where you want to go instead.
Combat has evolved since you last played it, as it’s a blend of what was in both previous Dragon Age games. You can button mash and fight in real time if that’s how you want to play, but if you’re playing on the higher and much harder difficulty levels, you’ll want to employ the strategic camera that pulls back above the battle field, stopping time, and allowing you time to assess the situation and also send orders to each member accordingly. Once in this strategic mode, you can slowly inch forward time after they’ve been given commands to see how it’s going without having to react in real time if you wish. Keep in mind though, there’s no more heal spells in the game for your mages, but instead potions that can be used (and refilled at camps), so there’s no need for a dedicated healer any longer. Risk vs reward plays a much bigger part of combat this time around because of this drastic but workable change.
For the first time in the series, Dragon Age also now includes a multiplayer component, though it’s separate from the campaign and is standalone multiplayer co-op horde-like mode mixed with a dungeon crawl you’d find in an MMO. I was cautiously optimistic when I heard about this being included in Inquisition, as I was worried it might just be something tacked on to say they have multiplayer in their game. You begin by choosing one of twelve classes, each of which specializes in a specific play style and from there you team up with 3 other players to take on a dungeon.
Dungeons are segmented into 5 sections, of which you’ll need to clear in order to progress and becomes harder the further you delve into the dungeon. The dungeons are tuned for 4 players, as I’ve tried doing it solo when I was unable to find any matches, but it doesn’t seem to scale, as my support specialized mage got decimated quite quickly. A great inclusion though is the fact that all the treasures found during the match is shared among all the players, so there’s no need to worry about that greedy player that hogs all of the gold he finds as the rest of the group is fighting to survive. Also, while you’ll get all the XP for your own character during the mission, at the end you’ll also get a share of what every other player earned as well, so teaming up with some friends and becoming a formidable team will pay off quite well. While the multiplayer mode is a fun distraction, it doesn’t have the dialogue or story to accompany it to make it really memorable unless you form a fantastic group that works well together.
For all of the praises I’ve given the game, there were quite a few notes in my ‘con’ section while playing through. Multiple times I’ve had the game suddenly crash on me, forcing me to the Xbox One dashboard, though luckily I never lost too much progress as the game auto saves somewhat frequently when you’re exploring from area to area. There was a ton of small visual bugs that I encountered as well. Lots of items clip through one another, animations at times can look stiff, and I don’t even know how to describe the horse riding animation other than really ‘off’ and unpolished. Sure, these issues will most likely get fixed with a patch before or shortly after release, but when you’re putting close to 100 hours into a game, seeing the same issues over and over tend to break the immersion at times. Lastly, for being on current gen hardware, I was vastly unimpressed at times. Foliage and draw distance when exploring the zones is amazing, but there really isn’t that much detail on the characters themselves when not in dialogue choosing mode and it simply didn’t wow me aside from scenic viewpoints.
That being said, I’m really enjoying Inquisition. As I mentioned above, I played the first 20 hours and didn’t even touch the campaign for the most part; I was busy trying to find and complete every quest, collect every shard fragment, and solve the increasingly maddening star constellation puzzles. For the first 20 hours or so, I was honestly feeling underwhelmed, but it dawned on me that even though that’s how I was feeling, I kept wanting to load the game up and go back and explore more. Four hours pass and it doesn’t feel like it at all. As always, the voice acting and soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and once I hit a pivotal plot point, things became a lot more interesting. Like all Dragon Age games, the choices you make will shape how parts of the story will play out, and that’s what makes it the sequel that we wanted all along after Origins.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
It’s no secret that if Halo: Combat Evolved didn’t do so well on the original Xbox, then there obviously wouldn’t have been any sequels, but more importantly there most likely also wouldn’t even be an Xbox 360 or One today. Halo is synonymous with Xbox ever since it was released and now Halo: Master Chief Collection (called MCC from here on) is available on Xbox One and contains over a decade worth of Halo games on one compilation. MCC contains more than a decade worth of Halo content and with how much that actually entails, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with not only how polished and great all the content is within, but how much above and beyond 343 Studios has gone to make MCC something truly special and what other ‘HD Remakes’ will strive to be going forward. MCC contains Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4, along with their respective multiplayer components as well. While some may note the omission of Halo Reach and Halo ODST, keep in mind the reasoning for that: this is the Master Chief Collection, and he was not the protagonists in those two titles. Given that these games are quite dated, I won’t go into details about the main campaigns, as you’ve most likely played them all already, multiple times if you’re like me. If you’re new to the series or never played the earlier games, make sure you play through the campaigns as Halo has an epic story and a huge amount of lore that’s been carefully crafted and wonderfully presented over the course of multiple games.
The MCC has an overlaying menu system that is cleverly done and makes finding what you want to do in the collection incredibly simple to do, such as playing a specific campaign or mission, a multiplayer match, Forge, or any other of the extras jam packed in this collection. You can simply jump in with default settings or customize your play through on campaign missions or multiplayer maps to your heart’s content.
So let’s delve into each of the campaigns and what’s offered, new, or changed since we’ve last played Halo. Let’s begin where it all started, with the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Released for the original Xbox in 2001, it got a remake on Xbox 360 for its tenth anniversary dubbed the Anniversary edition. The remastered edition had some amazing features, the most notable being able to switch between the original 2001 graphics and the new and updated graphic engine and audio ten years later. It was a great remaster and it was clear a lot of care and time were taken to make it something the true Halo fans would appreciate. Fast forward to now and the MCC brings us Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, essentially in its remastered 360 state (complete with the on the fly graphic switching) though with some improvements now that it’s on more powerful hardware.
Since the game was already remastered a few short years ago, nothing much has changed with it on Xbox One aside from the game running in 1080p 60fps. One small issue I had with the 360 release was that switching between the two graphic engines took about a second or two, with a slight delay every time you switched. Now on Xbox One, that delay is completely gone and you can spam the button to switch between old and new graphics with zero delay.
Next on the list is Halo 2, and given that this year is its tenth anniversary, it’s been given the same Anniversary treatment that Combat Evolved once got, but even more has been done to Halo 2 Anniversary that truly makes it the centerpiece of the MCC. With a single button press you can instantly switch between the classic and remastered graphic engine along with old and new audio as well. The audio has been remastered and shouldn’t be downplayed in any way. Just like Combat Evolved Anniversary in this collection, switching between the two graphic engines is instant when doing so.
While most will focus and notice the graphical difference at first, if you know your Halo 2, you’ll be amazed with what they’ve done with the audio. Not only has all of the weapon’s audio been completely redone, they sound so much better now and that they feel like they have more ‘punch’ to them simply because of the audio upgrades.
343 has gone even a step further and had every cutscene in Halo 2 remade and remastered from scratch. This isn’t a simple texture upgrade either; Blur Studios has remade every cutscene, almost an hour’s worth, with such detail and high fidelity, it actually rivals any new release title that is out right now and is breathtaking to see. These cutscenes have been reimagined, so some new angles are used, more characters are on screen, and more, but if you know your Halo 2, you’ll still recognize which scenes they are as well. Halo 2 Anniversary is clearly the gem of the whole collection, and it’s clear that a ton of work and love have gone into the remaster for its fans. You won’t be disappointed.
Halo 3 is the third addition to the MCC and while it hasn’t gotten the full Anniversary like the first two, it has gotten some upgrades though. Running at 1080p and 60fps and having improved lighting and effects, Halo 3 looks fantastic and was great to play through again with the albeit small improvements. Though I don’t want to downplay how great it looks at 60fps, as it is definitely a noticeable upgrade if you’ve played hundreds of hours of Halo before.
Last up is Halo 4 and it also has the slight upgrade of 1080p and 60fps as well as the lighting updates as well. It was quite surprising to see how well the game looked on Xbox One considering it is two years old and released on last-gen hardware. Sure it would have been great to see it have the full Anniversary treatment, but being only two years old, we’ve still got awhile to wait until we see that hopefully.
Playlist has its own section in the main menu and allows you to play a very specific set of campaign missions with special modifiers or follows a specific theme. For example, if you would like to simply play all of the Arbiter missions back to back, you can play that playlist and not have to go in and out of missions or menus. Maybe you want to simply play all of the boss missions back to back, or all of the Warthog levels, that’s what the playlists are for. Most playlists are sectioned into their own games, but there are cross-game playlists as well that will keep you busy for quite some time if you want to finish everything MCC has to offer.
Halo’s multiplayer completely changed and shaped the type of gamer that I am today. Before Halo, I never took the effort to coordinate with friends to do LAN parties, back before online gaming was what it is today. For Halo: Combat Evolved, myself and 15 friends actually coordinated with one another to go to one person’s house with our original Xbox’s and heavy CRT TV’s, and this happened quite often because of how good the multiplayer truly was. That’s how you used to play with friends on consoles before Xbox Live even existed. Fast forward to Halo 2, and that was the single game that made Xbox Live what it is today and completely changed how I chose to play multiplayer games going forward. What the MCC is doing though is giving you access to essentially every Halo map ever made, well over 100 maps across all four included games, including the DLC maps and even the PC exclusives. This is a huge deal and shouldn’t be taken lightly, as I don’t know any other games that can boast that, or even close.
In the Options menu section, that’s where you’ll customize your armor for each Halo multiplayer, controls (of which each Halo game can have its own control scheme, so you can play a specific Halo with Bumper Jumper controls if you want), set your Halo 4 weapon and equipment loadouts, and more. While players will be excited to remake their armor sets from previous Halo multiplayers, it should be known that armor sets are unlocked from the start without needing to unlock, but you also can’t mix and match the armor types either, so if you want to wear the Hayabusa helmet, you are forced to wear the rest of the matching armor as well. Not a deal breaker, but a little disappointing for the hardcore multiplayer fans that liked to look a very specific way.
So we know that all four Halo titles have their campaigns intact, but what about their multiplayer component since those are included as well? For Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on 360, the multiplayer was technically there, but it was running the Reach engine, and felt ‘off’, as it wasn’t a true recreation of the original multiplayer that we fell in love with in 2001. For the MCC though, this has been remedied. Combat Evolved Anniversary on MCC brings back the true and original multiplayer mode from the game, including the exclusive PC maps, and now playable on Xbox Live for the first time. It was great to have the ice on Sidewinder be slippery once again, as it wasn’t on the 360 Anniversary edition.
Halo 2 returns in its true original state as well, but six of the multiplayer maps have been remade and re-imagined to look like it belongs in a modern game. The maps that have been remade are: Lockdown (Lockout), Zenith (Ascension), Stonetown (Zanzibar), Bloodline (Coagulation), Warlord (Warlock), and Shrine (Sanctuary). Plus, as a bonus, there’s now a Mongoose that has a weapon attached to its hood (and is incredibly fun to play), titled the Gungoose.
Forge makes its return in the MCC as well, and is an easy to use tool to either modify existing maps or create something completely new from scratch. Not only can you create maps, but you can change many details such as spawning rules, or even creating triggers to make unique events happen. While the original Forge rule sets exist for Halo 3 and 4, Halo 2 Anniversary now has a brand new Forge mode that is actually enhanced and even comes with three brand new blank skyboxes for you to create the map you’ve always wanted from complete scratch. Theater mode also returns in its original form for Halo 3 and 4 as well, but also is now compatible with Halo 2 Anniversary as well.
Under the Extras section, the MCC has some great additions that push the value of the compilation over the top. Halo: Nightfall is a new digital live action miniseries that is going to tell the story of ONI operatives and tie into Halo 5: Guardians, as the new character, Agent Locke, will be showcased. Think of it as the spiritual successor to Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and will run for five weeks. You’ll actually launch the new Halo Channel when you want to watch these episodes or find any Terminals in the game (of which the Halo 2 Anniversary terminals will give information that ties to Halo 5: Guardians).
The last notable extra to get excited for in the MCC is the addition of the Multiplayer Beta for Halo 5: Guardians that will launch December 29th, 2014. You’ll get three weeks of access to the beta that will have rotating content and give you an idea of what to expect from the new Arena experience for Guardians.
The value of the MCC is enormous; not only because you’re getting four games for the price of one, but there’s been so much extra fine tuning done to even the smallest details that true Halo fans are really going to notice and hopefully appreciate. For example, the majority of skulls are unlocked from the get go, but you can still search out and find the skulls for achievements as well. The same goes for armor sets, as you won’t need to grind the ranking system to unlock the higher level sets. Some items are locked that you’ll need to get achievements for or do other things, but the majority of everything is unlocked from the get go.
It’s amazing to see how far the Halo series has come when you play them back to back or switch between them. I have to admit, it’s a little weird at first to play some Halo 2, then go to 3 which came out after, but have 2 look better (simply because of the Anniversary treatment). Is the MCC perfect? No, as I did have some small gripes, but the fact that I can play the whole Halo saga on a single console now AND have the entire multiplayer community in one place and no longer segmented, is an amazing feat. Halo is one of the most important series in all of gaming and it surprised me how well they still hold up to this day when compared to newer titles.
The sheer amount of multiplayer maps that are are included within is simply staggering, but factor in the point that I’ll be playing unique Forge creations on top of the ranked multiplayer, I can see myself playing the MCC for quite some time. Halo fan are going to want this as these are simply the BEST versions of each of the Halo games, and for new comers to the series, this collection is the best way to get caught up. I feel completely comfortable recommending purchasing an Xbox One even if this is the only game you’ll be playing and I actually truly recommend doing so if you don’t have an Xbox One yet, as Halo: Master Chief Collection is the best way to experience one of the biggest and most important series in gaming ever. The Master Chief Collection is now the benchmark of what HD and remake versions should be compared to going forward, as this is the perfect example of how you update a game, but keep the core fan base not only happy, but thankful for the work they’ve done.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
The Walking Dead: Season One
The Walking Dead, originally released in five separate episodes on Xbox Live, is now also available on Xbox One as a download or disc as a compilation of said five episodes along with a bonus episode that tells a slightly different story afterwards. At first I wasn’t sure how well the episodic releases were going to work and affect my interest, as sometimes I just want to power through a game and complete it when I’m able to. After getting through all five, I can understand the episodic delivery method. Sure, waiting at a cliffhanger at the end of each episode for months wasn’t always fun, but that longing and eagerness to find out what’s going to happen plays so well into the story telling of The Walking Dead. For those unaware of what The Walking Dead is, years ago Robert Kirkman created a graphic novel series named The Walking Dead, which focuses on an epidemic zombie outbreak. Since then the zombie genre has completely exploded in popularity even resulting in The Walking Dead being adapted to an insanely popular TV show and other media formats. For those fans already in the know, The Walking Dead game takes place in the same universe of Rick’s story (it begins while he’s still in a coma) and the graphic novels are canon, but this is a completely different story with completely new characters. If you know your Walking Dead characters (comic or TV show), you will run into a few familiar faces which is a great fan service, but keep in mind this is an alternate story focusing on other survivors.
These days it seems almost too easy to create something with zombies in it and it’ll instantly become a hit, but simply adding zombies to a story will only get you so far if that’s all you focus on. Just like the graphic novels and now TV show, The Walking Dead is incredibly engaging because of the way they truly get you to care about the characters and their outcomes. If you know your craft well enough you’ll create a story about people, desperation, and sacrifice while playing on every emotion available, which just also happens to have zombies in it. This is where Telltale’s The Walking Dead excels and shines beyond anything I ever expected. Telltale has focused on the characters and the human elements of the situations rather than making something strictly about zombies and trying to survive; sometimes survival is only part of the story, and that’s what The Walking Dead will show you. You’ll be given many difficult decisions to undertake and will completely affect others in your group and even their livelihood. One incredibly tough decision after another, you’ll need to do what you can to survive, but you’ll have the hardship of caring for others as well in a world where modern society crumbles and nowhere is seemingly safe for too long.
You are put into the shoes of Lee Everett, hailing from Macon Georgia and a former history professor at the University of Georgia before the outbreak. As the game begins you’re being hauled away from the city in a police car for being a convicted murder, though at first it’s unclear if you’re really a bad guy or not. Aside from the main points of detail, much of Lee’s background is quite vague, though done purposely so that you can fill in those gaps yourself during your travels throughout the five episodes. It’s odd, as Lee is a voiced character with his own quirks, personality, and emotions, but at the same time he’s who you choose him to be with all of the decisions you make throughout the game. If your personality is to be completely shut off to everyone Lee will reflect that. If you decide to be honest and open, that’s a possibility as well. By the time you’re done The Walking Dead you’ll see Lee as almost a reflection of yourself if you’re honest with yourself and choose the options you probably actually would in those impossible situations.
Early on Lee will stumble upon a little eight year old girl named Clementine (who you’ll get to know as Clem) who’s left alone at her home as the outbreak happened. While you’ll play as Lee the whole time, Clem will always be a constant in Lee’s story and even his (and your) decision making when impossible situations arise. I don’t want to delve any further into any of the story as it’s easily the highlight of the game, and if I spoiled anything I would not forgive myself, as I’m glad nothing was spoiled for me. I will say though, that the relationship that Lee and Clem form over time is something that you absolutely need to experience. It’s not often that a character is not only voice acted so well that it’s believable, but the smallest facial emotions that show only add to the believability of these and the rest of the character’s you’ll meet along the way. If you know The Walking Dead graphic novels or TV show, she’s much like Carl where she starts off as a simple kid but is forced to grow up much too quickly . Do you protect her by sheltering her from the evils in the world that you face or do you protect her by teaching her to protect herself in the harsh world they now live in? Decisions like this will be a constant and if it wasn’t for the flawless deliveries from the voice actors, it would not have been as gripping of a tale that it truly is.
You’ll meet a variety of survivors along your travels, some of which will stick around for the whole journey, where others will not make it as far as you might expect. You’ll constantly be making life and death choices, either direct or indirectly, and once you get a few episodes in, there are some seriously difficult choices that you’ll have to make and you might even question yourself as I did, wondering if that’s what you actually would do in that situation and if it was really the right thing to do. The choices you make carry weight and aren’t as simple as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; almost every choice seems to fall into that grey area. Quite often I had a logical reason for choosing what I did, but sometimes it’s not as simple as that and you need to choose the lesser of two evils and then justify it to yourself. From the very beginning you’re completely hooked by the tale that unfolds in front of Lee and it doesn’t let go of your attention until the credits roll in the final episode. You’ll experience tragedy, fear, relief, shock, anger, and almost any other emotion you can think of. The Walking Dead is a sad story that will weigh heavy on you even after you’re done playing. Lee and Clem won’t be forgotten for quite some time and I’ll be remembering them for years to come.
I may be painting The Walking Dead as simply a decision making game, and while that’s true to a point, and where the game carries its weight, it’s also an adventure game, though not probably what you might expect from Telltale Games. You’ll be able to move Lee around freely and there will be puzzles to solve but the real game mechanics is the ‘choose your own adventure’ style of gameplay. The left stick will control Lee’s movement and the right is a reticule that will show pop ups and interactions on it when hovered over appropriate objects, people, or zombies. In the later episodes there will be times where you’ll have to shoot walkers and having to line up your shots, and while these may feel a little out of place since these sequences are so few, it’s just another tool Telltale uses to catch you off guard and keep your attention.
As you interact with other survivors, dialogue choices will appear on screen, usually with timers so that you can’t sit and lull it over and over analyze. You’re given just a few seconds to read the responses and make your initial reaction to the circumstance at hand. You make your choice and the game moves on, no second chances are given. Every choice you make will adapt the story as you progress, and it’s completely possible to affect the outcome of others in the following episodes. Regardless of how you decide, your choices are going to add up over Lee’s journey and could add even more tension later on. You may not see the ramifications of some of your decisions right away, but there’s always a price to pay to keep balance in the world.
It’s odd, but the walkers don’t even always seem like the biggest threat to Lee and his group; sure they play a part in the overall tension and lack of safety, but the true tension comes from interacting with other people. Some people handle bad situations with stride while others don’t. You deal with fellow survivors, bandits, and walkers; how you decide to deal with each situation will sometimes show you something in yourself you may not have expected; I know it did with me. It can become a heavy burden, knowing that no matter what you do and choose, not everyone will survive, regardless of your intentions and best efforts.
After finishing The Walking Dead Season 1 it felt like Telltale tapped into almost every emotion possible throughout my story of Lee and Clementine. As I got half way through on my second game, making completely different decisions to see the different outcomes it became apparent that while you’re given many choices, the major core plot points are always going to be forced on you in some way. This isn’t a bad thing considering the level of writing and voice acting, but don’t expect a drastically different outcome for Lee and Clem at the end of it all the second time around; you’re still going from point A to B, but the journey in between may be slightly different. That being said, please play through it at least twice, as I found my second go a much tougher time, as I was TRYING to be a jerk instead of the selfless hero, but still found myself gravitating to my natural instincts even though I knew the outcome. Sure the critics will say it contains the “illusion of choice” since the outcome will essentially be the same, but it’s not always about the end, it’s about the journey, the relationships you build and emotions you experience with the choices you’re forced to make.
While some may not enjoy the controls or the ‘interactive story’ element, I believe it suited this story and game mechanics perfectly. The writing and acting is done to absolute perfection, the story truthfully moved me and there were even two specific moments where my jaw literally hung open as I whispered “oh my god” to myself. It’s very difficult for a game to get you so invested in its characters and story in such a short amount of time; Telltale has done this to perfection. Even the short lived characters are memorable and I replayed the game a second time just so I could visit with them once more.
I’ll come right out and say it; The Walking Dead made me cry. It’s been a very long time since a video game has been able to do that to me. The Walking Dead is perfectly paced, keeps you wanting to move forward but doesn’t give you time to fully process and deal with what heavy moral decisions you’ve made at the same time. Lee, Clementine, and Kenny are now some of the most memorable characters I’ve ever interacted with in a video game and they will be remembered for many years from here on.
If you’re previously played Season 1 on Xbox 360 or elsewhere, you’re well aware of the technical issues the game had. Frame issues, loading issues, and other small things, that didn’t break the game, but could take you out of the immersion at times. I was hoping that the jump to the new hardware would alleviate some of these problems, but alas, they only have been partially quelled. Frame rate issues still exists, but they are far less frequent, and when they do occur, it’s far less prominent and distracting than it used to be. Load times are improved and there’s no longer any late loads, but again, it’s vastly improved, but not completely fixed. Lastly, it seems as if they lighting has been greatly improved, as some scenes looked much sharper and realistic with ‘natural’ light filling the room or shining through the windows. Again, while not perfect or any major optimization, it’s improved from its previous versions and regardless of these technical issues, the story telling is so masterful that it can be overlooked and this is easily the best version of the game to date.
If you’ve never played the game before, you NEED to experience it, simple as that. I’m very particular with my words, and I don’t normally throw around “must” and “need”, but you must and need to play the Walking Dead Season 1. I’ve only given out a perfect score once before, coincidentally enough, for this same game on Xbox 360, and this one is improved, so scoring it was simple. I’ve never had a game engulf so many of my emotions so deeply before and show me how I really am as a person inside if I was actually playing out these scenarios. The Walking Dead Season 1 was, and still is, one of my favorite games of all time, and I’m so glad I get to finally play it on Xbox One.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
The Walking Dead: Season Two
If you enjoy fantastic stories with characters you’ll actually care about, then I truly hope that you’ve played The Walking Dead by Telltale Games. Telltale has taken the iconic series and created their own stories and characters to play within the canon storyline that we know from the graphic novel and TV show. As I mentioned in my review for Season One of the game, it’s no secret that the ending had me in tears. For a game to bring that much emotion, you need to be doing something very right, and that’s exactly what they did. Season One was an emotional rollercoaster with an ending I’ll never forget, so when Season Two was announced, I was more than elated to find out I’ll get to go back to that world. By the time the credits rolled for Season 2, I may not have been as much as a slobbering fool I was in the previous finale, but it was apparent I’m clearly heavily invested into these characters and stories that have played out since release.If you’re reading this review for The Walking Dead Season Two, I’m going to assume you’ve completed Season One. While I’ll avoid spoilers for this season, certain aspects of season one will be mentioned / spoiled, as to give context to how it affects season two, so take that as the spoiler warning (for season one events).
Most of the criticism season one had was that even though you’re making these incredibly difficult decisions in each episode, in the end they didn’t really matter all that much since everyone basically arrived to the same conclusion by the time the credits rolled. No matter what you did, Lee was dead, Kenny was dead, and so were many others. All of the choices you made in season one will count for something and affect not only your choices going forward, but will play a bigger role in the grand scheme of things. Choices you make in season two will not only matter, but you’ll quite possibly even see a different ending than I did. That’s right, multiple endings, all based on your decisions. These aren’t simple and small variations of the same ending either, depending on your choices, the endings are vastly different, allowing you to truly play out Clementine’s story the way you want to. Now that a Season 3 has been confirmed, I’m truly excited to see how the individual endings will play into that story.
Season one protagonist was all about Lee and his desire to protect and keep Clementine safe. For the duration of season two, you now control Clementine and tell her story. Not only does the game play differently just by controlling her, but you see the effect that Lee truly had on her when the hard decisions need to be made. Season two is about Clementine’s growth, not only by being older, but her growing up into a stronger person and an even better lead character. Even though Lee may be gone, his influence on her still shows.
Just like in season one, you’ll be faced with impossible decisions that need to be made in an instant, and no matter your actions, there will be consequences for our choices, no matter how noble you think they may be. Many times you’re only given barely enough time to read the dialogue choices before having to react, which I enjoy, because you can’t sit there and take the time to weigh the pros and cons of each selection, you have to react with instinct and what you think best. Ever had to make a split second decision, only to either regret it instantly or wondered what if you chose differently right after? I seem to be getting that feeling more often when playing season two.
What I really enjoyed about season two, is that for a time, there’s a centralized villain. Season one didn’t really have anything like that until the final episode out of nowhere, where in season two, it’s give a little more time to expand, much like the Governor storyline from the graphic novels and TV show. Small variations like this show how the game has evolved and there was a moment in this season where I actually stood up and shouted “OH MY GOD…. YES!!!!!”. That’s how invested I’ve become in this game and in these characters.
Season two isn’t as heavy on exploration this time around, and there’s slightly more combat to be had, but it’s the character development that takes front stage once again. At times you’ll have to choose sides, usually with little time to think about it, and there’s always fallout of some kind after making these choices. Also different with season two is how many new characters are introduced. There seemed to be a bigger focus on introducing new characters, which is fine, but many don’t stick around for long enough, for various reasons, for you to start to truly care about them, like much of the cast from season one.
Season two is also much more brutal. Sure there are zombie attacks, which is a given, but this season more so explores the more dangerous threat to Clementine’s groups safety; other people. One thing you don’t expect to see in gaming very often is violence against children. This is no longer off limits in season two and is sure to get your heart rate going if you’ve become as emotionally invested into the characters as I have. It’s odd though, for being in a zombie apocalypse, it wasn’t until a main character got seriously hurt until I realized how dire the situation they were in was. Another new way Telltale has played into my emotions was with disappointment. Not with how I feel with the game, but with the relationships between certain characters. You know when you got in trouble as a kid and instead of your parents getting mad at you they simply gave you the “we’re disappointed’ line? That’s the feeling I got dealing with the issues between Clementine and another character in this season, regardless of how many times I tried to apologize or explain myself. The reason this friction works between the two is without a doubt because of the amazing quality of the voice actors portraying these characters.
While some might not feel this Season’s ending is as powerful as the first, and I may not have cried as many tears, but it definitely hit some emotions for me and is quite memorable for the last few decisions I had to make, and would make again. As Season 2 came to an end, I couldn’t help but feel a pride in my Clem, as she may still be young in age, but she’s incredibly mature and is a true survivor. Like the last episode where you start to notice she’s not that little girl anymore, another situation arises that made me realize it once again; she’s growing up, and Telltale is showing this in a very subtle but amazing way.
Clementine is growing up before our eyes, even if we don’t see it. The smallest things are proving that she is growing up and making her care for her more and more. There’s one moment in particular that stood out proving this where she tried to fit through a small hole to unlock a door, but she gets stuck half way and mentions that she isn’t as small as she used to be. These small factors speak volumes of her growth (mentally and physically) and Telltale does it perfectly. Even though she may still be a young girl, in a way it feels as if she’s the one that takes care of the group and keeps things together. She’s had to grow up incredibly quickly and in unfortunate circumstances.
It would be The Walking Dead if situations didn’t spiral out of control, and it’s no different in this season either. Clementine is acting as the glue to this fragmented group and it’s up to her to keep things in check for as long as she can. Arguments arise that will become so heated that they may actually make you uncomfortable, like seeing family members or friends fight in front of you in real life while you sit helpless to do anything about it. Do you bite your tongue and stay quiet, letting it play out, or do you intervene, possibly making things worse and driving people further away? These are the type of situations that Clementine is thrown into and her actions, or lack thereof, will have astounding effects on the outcome. Usually there is no right and wrong, just a large grey area that you need to decide how you’re going to respond and react in a moment’s notice. These are the events that are shaping Clementine into MY Clementine.
Just like season one for Xbox One, the improvements that were made by making the transition to the newer and more powerful hardware, was minimal at best. Light again looks slightly better and the few glitches and hiccups that were on the Xbox 360 aren’t as drastic, but it’s also not completely eliminated either. That being said, this version is still the best version to play, even with the minor improvements.
Season two had some powerful moments for me that will stick with me, especially the huge reveal in one of the earlier episodes (there are 5 total), that I’ll always remember. If you’ve not played season one yet, do that first, then come into two, as you’ll be much more heavily invested into certain characters and it will no doubt change your though process when having to make some difficult decisions. If you’re continuing on from season one and was wondering what’s new or changed, season two definitely has a darker tone, and the fact that there are multiple endings based on your actions, that’s a huge step forward for the series that I hope stays a constant when season three finally arrives. If you want characters to care about and a storyline that you can’t stop thinking about, The Walking Dead is exactly what you’re looking for, just don’t be surprised if it shows you a side of yourself that you didn’t think was there. Many choices I made even surprised me at times, as I didn’t know that’s how I would naturally react when put into those situations.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Sunset Overdrive
If Dead Rising, Saint’s Row, Jet Set Radio Future, Tony Hawk, and Ratchet and Clank had a crazy love child, Sunset Overdrive would be that wacky result. Created by Insomniac Games and their first Xbox exclusive game, Sunset Overdrive is an extremely colorful game full of crazy weapons, witty humor, and outstanding controls. Most third person shooters tend to fall into either a run-and-gun or cover-based style mechanics, but Sunset Overdrive does things quite a bit differently and is a self-proclaimed traversal based shooter instead. Its unique gameplay mechanic is incredibly fun and doesn’t become tiresome after many hours of killing OD enemies.FizzCo is having a massive party to celebrate the release of their new energy drink, Overcharge Delerium XT, and Sunset City is the lucky place where the residents get to be the first in the world to try it. Turns out FizzCo didn’t do enough research and development, as anyone who drinks Overcharge turns into a bubbling orange mutant that tries to kill anyone it sees, or OD for short. You the player was working as a janitor at the vent, so luckily you missed your opportunity to taste Overcharge and are unaffected. FizzCo has effectively started the apocalypse, and while it may seem like a simple zombie knockoff to some, Sunset Overdrive’s charm will prove that they aren’t just orange colored zombies. With more and more citizens drinking the toxic energy drink by the hour, you’re going to have quite the fight to try and escape Sunset City, luckily though you’ll run into other survivors that also want to escape FizzCo’s wasteland.
As I mentioned, Sunset Overdrive is a touts itself as a traversal based shooter, and even from the opening gameplay, you’ll see that this is completely true. Sure in other games you can run around from cover to cover to avoid fire, but it’s something we’ve all seen and done before many times. Sunset Overdrive takes a new approach and gives you the freedom to traverse around the city with complete freedom and ease. Not only can you vault over objects and railings, but you can actually jump up and grind power lines, guard rails, or even run along building walls with some simple button presses. Actually, the majority of your moments will simply be done with two buttons as the ‘A’ button is for jumping and ‘X’ for grinding. If it’s got an edge or looks like something you could grind, most likely you are able to. Shortly into the game you’ll also unlock a quick air-dash move that can be used by pressing ‘RB’ and allows you to close gaps in the air quickly or give yourself a boost while grinding.
That being said, there is a learning curve with getting the hang of traversing, at least being efficient with it and making it do what you want it to do, but an hour or two into the game and you’ll be bouncing off trees, cars, grinding power lines, and running along building walls with ease. Once you wrap your head around how to chain together the moves and keep your momentum going, the game truly starts to become fun once you don’t have to think about each moment set any longer. Once you get a hang of the basics, you can even learn more advanced moves, such as changing direction on a grind, super bouncing by jumping the moment you hit a bounce object, and even change from grinding on top of a power line to undergrnding, where you’re still moving forward but while hanging. Play around and experiment as movement plays a huge part of the game and you’ll need to keep mobile if you want to live.
Once you’ve got the hang of momentum and movement, you then need to learn to boost your Style meter, the lightning bolt in the top right hang of the screen. To get more style you need to combine your traversal moves with enemy kills. The more you do so the higher your meter will rise, allowing you to activate your higher level AMP’s, which I’ll explain shortly. Now that you’ve got a hold of movement and the Style meter, you’ll also need to watch your combo meter. The higher your combos the faster your style meter fills, so again, keep moving, chain together your movements, and kill any OD you see along the way to keep your meters filled. Be careful though, as if you stay on the ground for a few moments without killing, grinding, or bouncing, your meter will reset to zero, so always stay moving and shooting whenever possible.
AMPs play a big role in Sunset Overdrive and are essentially special abilities that you can equip to yourself and weapons. There are different style of AMPs that range from traversal, melee, dive bomb, and even epic AMPs that can randomly create elements that help you kill hordes of OD. Weapon AMPs can be put onto any weapon of your choosing and usually gives you a chance to do extra damage to enemies by electrocuting other nearby enemies, causing fire, or even nuclear explosions. AMPs are very important and will help you an incredible amount, especially in the latter portion of the game. For the completionists out there, you’ll be happy to know that there are a ton of collectable items to be found, such as shoes, security cameras, Overcharge signs, toilet paper rolls, and Fizzie (FizzCo’s mascot) balloons. Collecting these and bringing them back to base will allow you to create new and powerful AMPs, so everyone will want to look for them.
Overdrives are much like AMPs, but instead apply as passive bonuses to your character, and can be swapped out for others (that you can afford) at any time. To purchase Overdrives you’ll need badges, and to gain badges you’ll simply need to do certain things in the game. For example, the more you grind rails and power lines, you’ll eventually earn badges for doing so which can be spent on grinding Overdrives. Shooting OD will net you OD badges which can then be spent to give you more damage against or receive less damage from, depending on how you want to customize your character. There are a ton of different Overdrives that you can purchase and equip to boost your play style, or even help with the things you’re weak with if you decide. Overdrives can be upgraded with more badges and don’t forget to check them often as you earn more badges for simply playing.
Much like Dead Rising and Saint’s Row, you can also customize your character’s appearance, even to the point of being completely silly. So what if it’s the apocalypse, you want to look good while showing off your skills and shooting OD. You can mix and match shirts, headwear, bottoms, shoes, hair style, and more. If you grow bored of your character you can even change their body type or even gender whenever you desire. As you progress through the campaign, you’ll unlock more purchasable vanity items to suit your style and moods. Some of the options are quite hilarious, so be sure to check them all out from time to time.
Weapons play a large role in Sunset Overdrive as well, but you won’t simply be stuck with your standard guns that shoot boring bullets. While there are a few of those traditional guns, you’ll most likely be drawn to some of the more unique and wacky weapons like the TNTeddy (essentially TNT strapped to a teddy bear that can be launched), The High Fidelity (a vinyl record launcher), or The Dude (it shoots bowling balls), just to name a few. If you’ve played Dead Rising, you’ll have an idea what to expect with the ‘out there’ weapons. As your traversing, you’ll need to constantly switch up your weapons during battle, as certain weapons are better used against certain enemies that have specific weaknesses.
While you’re only able to have 8 weapons in your weapon-wheel at a time, you are able to swap them in or out as you please as you gain more arsenal. Customizing weapons with AMPs is how you’ll really create massive damage against OD though. Weapon AMPs can be swapped as you please as well, so experiment with what works best for you and your weapon preferences. The more you use weapons the more they will level up (up to a max of five) and gain more passive stats likes more attack or ammo.
Night Defense is a mode that you’ll run into periodically throughout the campaign and in the Chaos Squad multiplayer mode (which I’ll describe shortly) and closely emulates that of Horde where you’ll need to defend your vats of Overcharge from waves of increasingly difficult OD trying to get it. Simply shooting OD won’t be enough, so you’re given access to Traps which can be placed strategically anywhere you like around your base. If OD keep attaching your vat, you’ll lose more Overcharge and will fail if they capture it all.
Traps will vary greatly, depending on how you want to defend your base. Just like the weapons, Traps are usually over the top and something that suits the Sunset world quite appropriately. Once you place a trap down it stays there until Night Defense finishes or it gets destroyed. If you aren’t happy where a Trap is places you can move it at any time, but Traps cost energy to place, which you have a limited resource of, so you’ll need to think carefully how you want to set them up. Once you get the hang of it you’ll even be able to place traps so that they train together, such as having OD step onto the launch pad, throwing them back, possibly into a spinning blade. The harder Night Defense stages get quite chaotic as you have a massive group of OD charging your vats, of which you’ll have to defend multiples at once, so you’ll need to be on top of your game here.
Sunset Overdrive’s multiplayer component is labeled Chaos Squad, and it lives up to its name without a doubt. Chaos Squad can support up to 8 players, but you can start it with just 2 if you wish. It should be noted that to access multiplayer, you’ll need to find a phone booth to do so, which are scattered throughout the city, but a simple menu interface would have been simple to do as well. Your team of up to 8 will vote between two missions they want to take on in the open world. Missions will vary and some will boost the Chaos of the city, which makes the eventual Night Defense mission much tougher, but the rewards are greater too. If your team wants to simply run around in free roam, you aren’t forced to run to the mission marker and start it. All of the rewards for killing OD and completing missions goes towards your character and will transfer back to single player and vice versa, so you’re always progressing your character regardless of mode which is a great touch.
Sunset Overdrive is something special. It simply came together well and most importantly, was incredibly fun to play, even for hours on end. It doesn’t take itself seriously, at all, constantly breaks the fourth wall, and is filled with video game and pop culture references that are absolutely hilarious if you clue in. The campaign story is comical, mission structure is varied, and even though there is a fast travel option, I rarely used it as it was fun to get from place to place without touching the ground (plus I wanted the Overdrive badges).
While reviewing, I really didn’t have many notes in the ‘con’ section about the game other than a few minor issues. I had my character’s hair somehow get attached to the floor during a cutscene and it wouldn’t go away until I fast traveled somewhere. While the mission types vary, there’s still a lot of “you need to help me do this, this, and this before I help you move onto the next guy” type of structure to push the narrative forward. Lastly, while there’s no slowdown, even in the thickets of fights, things can become so chaotic that you can lose track of targets or objectives quite easily. That’s even in just single player, so imagine that with 8 players, and it can be downright too much all at once.
Once you’re done the campaign, Chaos Squad should have you entertained for quite some time and will be a great time waster with friends. Sunset Overdrive is absolutely worth the full price at launch, and I’d even go further to say that it’s worth owning an Xbox One for if you don’t already. Luckily this didn’t turn out to be Sunset Overhype and should be in your Xbox One collection.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
When Persona 4 Arena released in 2012 I believe it took a few by surprise. It’s not often an RPG series can transition into a fighting game, but also a surprisingly deep and robust one at that. Persona 4 Arena proved itself to be a competent fighting game right off the bat but also didn’t completely forget about the fans that made the Persona series popular in the first place. While the fighting game genre isn’t generally known for its deep stories or plot lines, Persona 4 Arena remedied this and had quite an in-depth campaign with a fully-fledged story that related to the previous games. The sequel is finally here and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (simply referred to as Ultimax from here on) keeps this tradition going by once again boasting a deep story mixed with a refined and even more diverse fighting mechanics than Arena. Ultimax improves upon what Arena did so well; creating a fighting game that is incredibly easy to pick up and play but have many complexities under the hood for the more hardcore fans. Regardless of your skill level, you’ll be able to play and enjoy Ultimax, and you don’t even have to be a Persona fan to really enjoy it either. Truth be told, I’ve only dabbled in the series before Ultimax, so at first it was a lot hitting me all at once to wrap my head around, but eventually characters get more fleshed out (for a newcomer like me) and things start making more sense. The main point to keep in mind is that Ultimax is not just an expansion or a DLC collection of Arena, it’s a fully-fledged sequel with a ton of new content and changes to what made Arena so popular.
As mentioned above, Ultimax boasts an incredibly deep story mode, probably more so than any other fighting game I can think of. Surely part of the reason is because of its RPG roots and it is impressive how much backstory is really contained within. Ultimax picks up right where Arena left off and one of the most impressive feats is how Atlus brought back the same voice actors and art style to mimic its source material from the Persona games pre Arena. For a fighting game to have a deep and lengthy story mode, is impressive and not done very often for the genre.
Not even a day has gone by from the conclusion of Arena where the characters recently fought in the P-1 Grand Prix, as the clock hits midnight once again, it seems as though General Teddie has once again returned to start another tournament; this time, the P-1 Climax! A mysterious red fog overshadows the Inaba region in the real world and it’s up to the gang to once again solve what’s going on. Something is very different this time though, as instead of fighting in the TV world on the midnight channel, it seems as if the red fog is making the P-1 Climax tournament happen in their real world instead.
Shadows, essentially copies of people, are appearing and not only are they somehow in the real world this time, but they now also have use of Persona’s themselves, identical to their true counterparts. This new threat also draws in new characters into the mix, and if you’re a fan of previous Persona games you’ll be most pleased to see characters such as Yukari and Junpei make a return, but who have also matured since the last time you’ve seen them. You start the story mode from the Persona 4 cast, but once complete you actually unlock the campaign to be played from the perspective of the Persona 3 cast which plays out quite differently. If you’re a Persona fan you’ll really enjoy how much depth the story mode contains, as there’s a lot of smaller details within that true fans will only notice.
Be warned though, if you’re mainly wanting Ultimax for the fighting, story mode will probably be more of a burden than anything else. Chapers are divided up into smaller sections and play out much like a graphic novel. There’s a lot of dialogue, as in almost way too much. Some chapters are mostly all text without any actual fighting involved at all. If you were to let the text scroll and listen to everything, the story mode is going to take you at least a few hours, there is seriously that much back story and dialogue. If you want to simply enjoy the story you can have it auto scroll for you and even set it so that the computer does all of the fighting matches for you as well if you’d rather experience it like a movie. I don’t see many fans using this feature, but if you want to just sit back and enjoy the plot, it’s a welcome addition.
Arena was a surprise, not only because of its genre jump, but that it was actually quite good and a balanced fighting game in its own rights as well. Developer Arc System Works, best known for their foray in 2D fighting games such as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, are the ones behind Arena and now Ultimax, so fans need not worry as they have the experience. There are a lot of underlying mechanics but is easily accessible by players of any skill. Even if you’re a complete beginner, mashing the ‘X’ button will allow you to string together a small combo that looks quite impressive. Advanced players on the other hand will constantly be learning the intricate systems that allow you to combo and counter even deeper. Once you get really good you can then learn the new status modes like being able to freeze, poison, and other debuffs on your enemies in a combo.
Ultimax hosts a slew of new characters and fit in with the tone of the rest of the characters and source material. Some characters even are based around a specific resource or unique mechanic that adds a whole other level of complexity and strategy. Junpei is a great example of this, as he uses his bat to fight with in combat, but there’s also a Run counter that accumulates the more damage he does. The higher the runs the more powerful he gets. Rise is another unique selection that can use a special that almost mimics something you would see out of Dance Dance Revolution when used. Small things like these really make some of the characters truly feel unique and special and not simply a copy and paste of another character with some slight tweaks.
While Ultimax’s roster might not even come close to roster numbers of others in the genre, there are now Shadow versions of almost every character which allows for a completely different approach to your fighting style. These Shadow versions favor a more aggressive playstyle as they don’t have anywhere near the same amount of defensive abilities, but the tradeoff is that they get some amazing abilities to boost their damage output, even allowing them to carry over their super meter between rounds. Shadow versions are really risky but the payoff can be amazing when you get some proper combos going and decimate your opponent quickly.
For those that don’t want to sit through the hours of dialogue in Story Mode, there is a classic Arcade mode included as well that allows you to simply jump in and test your skills against the computer or a friend. The real gem of Ultimax in my opinion though is the Golden Arena mode which harks back to its RPG origins. Essentially you’re working your way up from the bottom floor to the top of a dungeon, floor by floor, battle by battle. As you defeat opponents you’ll earn experience, level up, gain new passives, and gain skill points to become even stronger. I was quite surprised by this mode and the easiest dungeons start at 50 floors while the hardest can go on indefinitely.
If you’re the type of player that wants to test their skills with the best, then you’ll obviously want to head to the online mode as soon as possible. I would love to have played online and told you more about it, but even after the official launch, I was unable to make it work. The game makes you download the newest patch through the Xbox Games Store rather than a title update. I did so, multiple times and the game still prompted me to redownload it and wouldn’t let me access online matches, so unfortunately I was unable to test it even though I could see the leaderboards.
Even for someone like me that doesn’t get every reference, I was able to really enjoy Ultimax for what it is. Gorgeous hand drawn sprites and even classic anime scenes in the story mode made everything look natural and like it belonged together. The fact that voice actors reprise their roles and songs from previous Persona titles return, it’s clear this is made for the fans of the series as well, not just for the fighting genre players. And again, the ease of accessibility really was a strength, as I was starting out by mashing one button and able to do some cool combos. As time went on I was slowly learning the deeper mechanics behind everything and able to eventually perform more experienced moves, counters, and more. I’m normally not a fan of the anime art style, but the artwork in Ultimax is fantastic and as a fighting game alone, it’s surprised me with how deep and accessible it was.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Disney Infinity 2.0
If you have young children that have seen a Disney movie before and like to play games on their consoles, you’ve most likely been made aware of Disney Infinity when it was released a little over a year ago. It’s concept is simple: When you purchase real word toys of your favorite Disney characters, you’re able to play as them within the game, not only in a campaign, but also a freeform Toy Box where you can create any type of game you want with your characters. On one hand you’ve got a great basis for creativity for the youngsters, on the other, they’ll most likely want all of the toys which can add up to a hefty tally once it’s all said and done. The figures you buy have a special chip within so that when you place it on the special base provided with the starter pack, will instantly put them into your game and even save all of their stats as they level up each of their owned characters. You can purchase classic Disney and Marvel characters, whole new play sets (campaigns), power-ups, special abilities, and minigames as well on these discs. If you’re a parent that had to buy into the Skylanders craze, then this will sound very familiar, but Disney Infinity is not just simply a clone of the popular toy and game craze, as it carves out its own footing in the genre and sets itself apart by giving you more freedom to unleash your creativity. If your child was a fan of the original and still has the toys lying around the house, you’ll love to know they can be used in 2.0 Toy Box mode, so all of that money spent hasn’t gone to waste.
Disney Infinity 2.0 is here and brings with it many improvements that fans of the original have asked for along with a slew of whole new toys for you to buy. The starter pack contains a play set, much like the original Infinity, and acts as the core campaign for the included character pieces. The Avenger’s play set piece campaign revolved around your basic ‘the city needs saving’ plot where Loki is the main antagonist and has a nefarious plan to freeze the city of Manhattan by unleashing frost giants.
While it does offer some more variety in missions, it’s very repetitive and basic at best. Missions will vary from protecting assets, escort someone, follow an enemy, or clear a location of enemies; actually, you can almost always count on beating up the bad guys to complete the majority of missions. After a few of these quests you’ll receive a story mission to do which usually cumulates in a boss battle to progress the plot forward. You’ll even come across special coins that you can collect throughout the city to unlock some special guest characters like Rocket Raccoon. Surprisingly, the voice acting contained within is top notch, and while not all characters are voiced by their movie or TV show counterparts, it really stands out when you realize that Samuel L. Jackson is voicing Nick Fury in a game like this.
Also included in the starter pack are two hexagonal discs which unlock a themed minigame per disc. What you need to keep in mind when playing these discs is that these minigames can be completely created in the Toy Box 2.0 mode which I’ll describe in detail shortly. The Assault on Asgard disc is essentially a tower defense game done in third person where you control whatever Marvel-based character is on your Infinity base. Here you’ll see the enemies’ set path to the object you don’t want them to destroy and be able to place turrets and other objects to help you stop them. If you’re a tower defense fan you’ll have some fun here, even if it is on the basic side for strategies, but even if you aren’t, you can earn experience for your characters and sparks to spend in Toy Box 2.0 mode.
The second disc I enjoyed immensely more, even more so than the campaign play set, revolves around you trying to escape from the famous prison and is titled Escape from Kyln. You’ll need to fight out of the prison, sectioned into multiple smaller stages and set with an isometric camera. The best part though is that you get a cute sidekick that follows you around and can be customized once you find special sidekick armor and weapons for them. They have their own stats and you’ll need to use them to unlock special chests and doors. It’s a fun minigame and I found myself really enjoying the whole sidekick addition to this Infinity disc.
So what’s actually included in the starter pack for Disney Infinity 2.0? You get the game, base (which I have an issue with its incredibly short USB cable that needs to be twice as long), two game discs (the minigames), the Marvel Avenger’s play set piece, and the three included character figures: Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow. I really enjoyed playing as Iron Man and Thor, but Black Widow felt incredibly underpowered comparatively, even when she leveled up and got new abilities. Go into your favorite retail store and you’ll see many new Infinity 2.0 characters and sets you can buy such as Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Venom, and more to come in the future no doubt.
While adults that play will understand you won’t be able to use your new 2.0 figures on the old Infinity base and game, the younger players won’t necessarily understand this if they bring them over to a friend’s house. It becomes trial and error of which toys you can use in which play sets and disc, as I tried placing my Queen Elsa figure into the Avenger’s campaign, but was denied (Toy Box 2.0 mode was no problem though). So keep in mind you’re only able to put specific characters into certain play sets and discs, though the Toy Box 2.0 mode is essentially fair game and anything aside from Infinity 1.0 play sets can be used.
So aside from the obvious new figures and toys new to Infinity 2.0, what else is new? On the biggest is being the newly included skill trees. Here you can unlock skill points as you level up and then use them to improve or add abilities to each of your characters that earned that experience. The skill trees can vastly improve how your characters play by adding in very powerful new abilities and supers, or you could simply improve damage, speed, or health if you would like. Now that figures can also reach a new level 20 cap, it adds for some personalization and I can see kids really enjoying this aspect of improving their favorite characters just the way they want to.
Another big change is how you earn experience. In the original game you had to play the campaign to earn experience, but in 2.0 you can earn the coveted experience orbs not only during campaign play sets but also in the minigames and even Toy Box 2.0 mode. Given that the included Avenger’s play set was dull and repetitive, it’s a huge relief knowing you’re able to earn experience doing almost anything else as well.
How Disney Infinity really separated itself from the competition was their idea for Toy Box mode. In theory you could essentially build any type of game you wanted with your imagination being the only limitation. While it had good intentions, the first iteration of Toy Box mode didn’t really live up to its promise. Now dubbed Toy Box 2.0, this promise is much closer to being fulfilled and realized. Many of the complaints fans had of the original offering have been changed or improved and it seems that this half of the game is what got the most attention in Infinity 2.0. Toy Box 2.0 basically gives you a blank canvas to work with, allowing you to create almost anything you could think of and want to play.
Unlocking new items in 1.0 was a pain to put it lightly, as it was largely random to what toys you would unlock. Now in 2.0, you’re able to use your sparks (currency) however you wish and save up for specific unlocks if that’s what you wish. The only catch being that sometimes the better items are blocked behind a tech-like tree where you’ll need to purchase smaller items you may not want before being able to get the one you do want. It’s a happy medium and vast improvement.
There are templates that can quickly get you started making whatever you want to create but you can also create something complete from scratch as well and customize it fully to your liking. The more you play all of the game modes, the more toys and items you’ll unlock to use here, so it pays off to play everything you can and as much as possible. You can also create challenges and even include logic on items, allowing for some deep personalization if you have the imagination, and more so, and patience.
You’re also given your own home in this mode and can completely decorate it however you see fit. You can expand your house by adding new rooms and even decorate every room individually if you wanted to make a themed house. There are many feats you can unlock and earn bonus items for doing so, which makes Toy Box 2.0 feel like its own game at times. There’s seriously a lot of customization to be had here and if your child loves to create levels in other games, this will have them occupied for quite some time.
Disney Infinity 2.0 does have some issues that need to be noted though. First, the load times are atrocious, and given the frequency of loading new levels or changing modes, get in the habit of doing something else while you wait on the incredibly long load times. If you have a younger child, know that it’s long enough that they will most likely become impatient, so be warned. There’s also a lot of bugs, nothing game breaking, but numerous times I found myself clipping on stuff, hitting random objects when I shouldn’t, and other odd bugs that shouldn’t be there. Lastly, for being on the newest consoles (and reviewed on Xbox One), there doesn’t seem to be much of a graphical upgrade at all aside from draw distance. There’s still pop-in and texture loading problems at times and I was hoping to be impressed more so than I was given I was playing the Xbox One version.
I found myself torn trying to decide on how to score Disney Infinity 2.0 given I was let down with the included Avenger’s play set but very impressed with Toy Box 2.0 while also trying to keep the target audience in mind. Granted, you can purchase new campaign play sets, this review is solely based on what came in the start pack box and its merits based on that. The included minigame discs are fun variants and I really enjoyed playing with the included Thor and Iron Man figures (sorry Black Widow), so as a whole package, even given the repetitive campaign, I was having fun leveling my characters.
You almost need to look at Disney Infinity 2.0 as two separate games: Play sets and Toy Box 2.0 mode. If you’re wanting a cool Avenger’s game, you’ll be disappointed. If you want to play around in a robust world and level creator with your favorite Disney characters, you’ll have plenty of gameplay to be had. It really feels like your level of enjoyment will be based on which side of the fence you’re on and how you’ll want to play.
Obviously the game is geared towards a younger audience with its toys and Disney background, but I’d be lying if I said I thought the figures weren’t cool. While the game as a whole might be a little too complicated for a very young crowd to do on their own, a gamer-in-training that knows how to do the basics should have a blast with Infinity 2.0.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
CastleStorm
We’re definitely in an age where remakes, HD versions, and Definitive Editions are quite common with the new consoles that are almost a year old. Everyone wants to see their older and favorite games in 1080p 60FPS in HD and Zen Studios knows this, creators best known for their fantastic pinball games, so they have released CastleStorm: Definitive Edition for Xbox One owners to enjoy. Most HD remakes simply throw a new coat of paint on top of the older game and try to sell it as brand new, but Zen Studios has taken their time and not only slapped that fresh coat of paint on so it looks great but have also included all of the DLC from the original game, added new modes, and a ton of new features as well. If you mashed up Angry Birds and Tower Defense, then place it in a medieval setting, CastleStorm would most likely be the result. A 2D physics-based games where your goal is to destroy the enemies and their castle that sits not so far away and threatens your own kingdom. Using your trusty ballista, you’ll not only be firing at approaching Viking enemies, but you’ll also have access to an arsenal of special magic abilities, numerous ammunition types, and even be able to control the hero of the story by getting into the thick of combat yourself.
You control Sir Gareth, a poster boy stereotype of what a noble knight should look like and act. He is determined to save the king and defend his kingdom’s castle against the growing Viking attacks, as they want to steal one of the magical crystals being held behind its walls. To do so you’ll have to man your castle's ballista to shoot oncoming waves of enemies, like any good tower defense game, but also have to manage using special powers and even command troops if you want to be successful. When things get really tough, Gareth himself can be controlled in battle. The story itself has a silly and predictable premise, but it’s full with cheesy jokes and funny characters that keep it entertaining. While you won’t really care about the characters in any way, the jokes are enough to keep you moving forward through missions and unlocking new items to use.
CastleStorm is a tower defense game at its core but combines physic based destruction with resource management and having to be able to multitask very quickly when difficult waves of enemies start to pound at your castle’s gate. Even better, your missions can vary and not every level is simply ‘destroy their castle’. You may have to do so without your ballista or troops, where other missions may have you simply defending yourself for a set amount of time, not allowing them to steal your flag. The scenario change is a welcome change to a tired formula.
One of the first things you’ll want to do is build your own castle in the tower construction editor. Here you can completely customize how you want your tower to look, though it’s not only for show, as if you build a sturdy and fortified castle, it will withstand harder battles and be the last castle standing. You need to construct your building strategically, as the types of barracks and bonus item rooms you place determine which troops and resources you’ll have in battle. Placement is everything as well, because if your room that holds your troops barracks gets destroyed in battle, you lose access to those troops until the mission ends. So experiment with what works for you and save multiple variations of your castle to load for different scenarios.
You’ve got three different ways to attack your enemies, each type of which is mapped to each of the face buttons for ease of use. The ‘A’ button is the attack you’ll be using the most, as this is to fire your ballista. Aimed with the left stick, shooting your arrows will be your most constant source of damage, though these simply arrows can be traded out later for grenades and other high damage ammunition as well. You’ll aim your ballista at oncoming enemies or even their castle to use your special explosives when their timer has reset. Once you unlock all of the ammo types, experiment and find what works best for your play style as most missions have more than one determined win path.
When you’re not firing your arrows, you can spawn your trusty troops with the ‘X’ button. Troops not only will walk forward and attack enemies in range, but they’ll also try and steal the enemies’ flag once you’ve broken down their gate. Troop spawning is where the resource management comes into play, as you’ll need a certain amount of food to spawn specific troops. The higher level and more powerful troops obviously require a lot more food to spawn and they also have much larger rooms to compensate for when creating your castle in the editor. Archers stay back and pelt arrows where knights will slowly move forward and hack and slash enemies in their way. There are priests if you want to heal, mounted units, and even eventually rock golems and griffins for extreme damage. Keep in mind though, your ballista shots can and will hurt your own troops, so you’ll need to watch where you’re aiming while troops are on the field.
Lastly, the ‘Y’ button is how you’ll command your special powers and magic. The most used will probably be the Hero Summon ability, where you can control your hero on the battlefield for a short period of time, allowing you to thin the enemy ranks when it’s really needed. Other magic abilities you’ll eventually gain allow you to cast some powerful magic either against the Vikings or to protect your castle and units. The ‘B’ button is used as well, and you can tap it to have everyone on your team go into a defensive position when you’re about to get hit by the enemy.
So if you’ve played CastleStorm previously on Xbox 360 or elsewhere before, you’re probably wondering what’s new in this Definitive Edition. The game has its full campaign that you’ve previously played, but also comes with the two expansions that released for it: From Outcast to Savior and Warrior Queen. I was quite surprised by the length of the base game itself, so there’s a lot of gameplay to be had here. The game displays in full HD 1080P 60FPS and looks fantastic with its new models, textures, shadows, and particles. There are new survival battles, almost a dozen new magic spells, and even an improved split-screen mode.
CastleStorm also offers local and online multiplayer for you and your friends to enjoy. At the time of this writing I was unable to find any matches to play for myself with the game being unreleased, but there is a healthy amount of options for you to enjoy. Versus mode is a simple 1 vs 1, online or off, and uses the troops and weapons you’ve previously unlocked. Survival Co-op sounds awesome, as two players play together on the same team fending off against endless waves of enemies, one controlling the ballista and the other the hero.
I never got around to playing CastleStorm previously on PC or Xbox 360, so I was unsure what to expect. To be completely honest, I was expecting a shallow tower defense-like game that I would forget after doing this review. Luckily that’s not the case here, as I’ve come to enjoy CastleStorm’s nuanced gameplay and strategic mechanics. You’re rewarded for not only accuracy but your success is actually up to you, as if you build a castle with the ‘wrong’ troops and bonuses, you might not fair too well. With a ton of side missions and multiple difficulty levels, there is plenty of content to keep you coming back and playing over and over again. As you earn gold you can upgrade your weapons, troops, and magic, and even though the upgrades themselves are a little shallow, it allows you to cater your favorite abilities to your play style.
CastleStorm contains a lot of value for the $9.99 asking price. It’s put together very well, has a great style to it, and can be as difficult as you want it to be. You’ll have seen all of these mechanics before in other games, but Zen Studios has blended them together very well in an easy to understand way. It’s charming, addictive, and even has ‘arrow to the knee’ jokes included. Now arm your ballista and start taking out that enemy castle!
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
KickBeat
When you think of Zen Studios, you most likely think of their fantastic Pinball games and licensed Marvel and Star Wars tables for them. With their success they’ve been able to branch out and make other types of games, KickBeat being one of them, now available for Xbox One. At its core, KickBeat is a rhythm game but with its own unique twist. Combining music based rhythm along with kung-fu combat, KickBeat is definitely a unique take on the genre with its distinct gameplay and interesting soundtrack selection. KickBeat will test your dexterity with its rhythm but also challenge how well you can keep track of multiple things on the screen all at once before it becomes overwhelming. If you know your rhythm games, KickBeat most resembles Bust-A-Groove more than any other in the genre. KickBeat does feature a story in the campaign mode that revolves around two heroes, Lee and Mei, trying to stop an evil organization from stealing all of the world’s music. There’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the core of it, and in all honestly, you won’t care about the story as you’re here to play the music more than anything else. It probably doesn’t help that the voice acting is forgettable and the writing of the ‘jokes’ is terrible at best. I get that it’s not trying to take itself too seriously, but the combination of those two things simply makes the story laughable.
Being that KickBeat is a rhythm game, the life or death of it will be based on how much you like the soundtrack selection. Given that music likeness is subjective, this will vary from person to person, but if you’re a fan of late 90’s rock and similar music, KickBeat might be right up your alley. There will be some bands you probably recognize like Marilyn Manson (The Beautiful People), POD (Boom), Papa Roach (Last Resort), Rob Zombie (Scum of the Earth), and Celldweller (Switchback, I Can’t Wait), and then there are some lesser known and indie bands like Shen Yi, Blue Stahli, Pre-Fight Hype, enV, and more. Again, it’s an interesting mix that is reminiscent of a possible mix tape I might have had in high school, but if you’re not a fan of the name bands above or that genre of music, there’s not much else in regards to song selection for variety. This isn’t held against the game at all, as it was a relief to not have current top 40 pop in a music game for once, but something that is worth mentioning up front.
At its core, you’ll have to hit the appropriate face button (or Dpad direction) on the controller to the beat of the music, but how the notes are visualized is what makes KickBeat different. Most rhythm games have the input spot in a specific area and the notes come along a specified track, much like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, though here it’s quite different, as your main character Lee (or Mei after you complete the story) is standing in the middle of a ring or area with enemies surrounding you. As enemies circle around you, they’ll eventually come in closer to the middle, and based on what section they step near that’s the button you’ll have to press along to the beat to attack them down and succeed.
Because the enemies are constantly circling and there’s quite a few on screen at once to watch for, it can become quite chaotic, even more so on the higher difficulty levels. As stages get harder some new mechanics are introduced but difficulty is more represented with sheer number of enemies you’ll have to attack more than any new crazy mechanics. As you successfully hit the note on beat, you’ll attack that enemy with a punch or kick, allowing for a flow to happen when you finally get the hang of it and become skilled.
So not only do you need to watch all of the moving enemies around the outer edge to come closer for the attack, there are also differently colored enemies that represent different beats to hit them with. Regular enemies will always attack on the main beat of the song, blue are half beats and generally come in twos or threes, yellow guys are hold notes, and finally red enemies come in duos and trios and will have you pressing multiple buttons at once to correctly hit the note. To make things even more tricky, certain enemies, of any color, can also have a special icon above their head, either health, extra points, multiplier, and more, and to nab these you need to press the appropriate button twice really fast instead of the once. It adds some depth that isn’t forced until you play on the hardest settings, as not doing these ‘double taps’ will cause you to lose your combo or take damage like in the final stage.
The general gameplay is very easy to pick up and play, but even for someone like me that is very skilled at rhythm games, the learning curve is quite steep as you need to more learn on what to not focus on instead of specific notes. With all of the enemies moving around and different colors associated with them it can become very easy to get overwhelmed and lose your focus. Bright colors and enemies blending together doesn’t help the matter to keep things from standing out and distinct. Visual cues are going to determine how successful you are at a song and this is also KickBeat’s biggest frustration, as it’s not always clear and you’ll have to rely on memorization. Having to guess which one of the next three blue guys coming next in the middle of a faster tempo song can be very frustrating when you guess wrong, but great when you do get it right. On the hardest difficulty you’re not even given the queues so there’s definitely some challenge here for those that want it. You’re going to really have to pay attention to be successful and you don’t actually control your characters movements at all aside from if they succeed at the right time or not.
If you’re the type of player that likes to replay songs over and over to earn more stars and a better score and work on climbing the leaderboards, there’s plenty of that to be had here. If you’re not however, the very small song selection (quite a few of which are by the same artists) will start to wear on you quite quickly after completing the story for both characters. Even though I was a fan of the music genre that most of these songs are categorized into, it eventually became dull playing the same handful of songs repeatedly. There are multiple difficulties you can choose from the beginning, and there is a lot of challenge within should you take the time to learn the small nuances, but with a story that doesn’t matter and some terrible voice acting in the cutscenes, I wish there was more selection to keep me coming back for more. If you’re a rhythm game enthusiast like myself it’s worth checking out just to see how music and kung-fu can come together at its cheap entry point, but if you aren’t a fan of the bands listed above or that musical genre, it’s a lot tougher to recommend.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Stick It To The Man
Humor in games can be difficult to pull off properly, but when it comes together, it can be a very memorable gaming experience that sticks with you for some time. Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Sam and Max, Psychonauts, Secret of Monkey Island, and Deadpool are a few titles where comedy plays a big part of the whole game's experience and if it wasn't for the humor, the game wouldn't have been nearly the same experience. The same applies to this game; Stick It To The Man.Stick It To The Man took me by surprise as it wasn't even in my radar before release (and released under the ID@Xbox program). Maybe I'm just a sucker for games that can make me laugh, but Stick It To The Man is the complete package, as it has unique visuals, entertaining platforming and puzzles, fantastic voice acting, and quirky jokes at every turn. For a game that I thought would be forgotten as soon as I was done, I had a fantastic time with it, even if it was a very short experience.
The story begins with Ray, a hardhat tester, who one day is in an accident that involves a mysterious government container that falls from the sky and cracks him on the head as it lands. Ray awakes to find that he was bandaged up but unaware of what happened to him. After a hilarious dream sequence and fully waking up, he takes off the bandages and discovers that there's a large pink spaghetti arm that is sticking out of his head, though apparently invisible to anyone but him.
The evil villain, simply known as 'The Man', wants Ray dead so that they can recover this life form that has fused itself to Ray. This new pink spaghetti arm though has special abilities and powers, some of which allow you to grapple to certain points in the environment, but more importantly, allows you to read anyone else’s mind and hear all of their more deepest and secret thoughts, of which the most hilarious jokes in the game comes through.
Rays world is visually impressive, as it looks as if everything is made out of cardboard and paper along a 2D plane. With Ray's pink spaghetti arm, he is able to interact with the world in specific ways, as many items can be manipulated by being folded and torn and then pulling stickers from places and using them elsewhere for hilarious results. One example of these sticker puzzles is that you need to stop the three headed conjoined brothers, who happen to be a luchador, from jumping on a trampoline, so once you solve another puzzle and acquire a glue sticker, you place that on the trampoline and voila, hilarity ensues and you progress!
The story is interesting enough to keep you moving forward, but the majority of the entertainment comes from reading people’s minds and solving puzzles in ludicrous yet hilarious ways. Sadly the game is only a few short hours long and once you've finished it there's really no replay value once you solved every puzzle and heard every joke. That being said, Stick It To The Man is entertaining and will have you laughing from start to finish if you have a sense of humor.
At its core, Stick It To The Man is a side scrolling platformer with puzzle elements. The pink spaghetti arm allows you to eavesdrop on people’s thoughts, giving you the hints you need to progress in the next puzzle or what you should be doing next. These puzzles is where the game shines, as they can be genuinely funny and challenging, usually due to its twisted sense of humor and wacky solutions. The jokes never have to try too hard to be funny either, as everything comes across as organic and the voice acting is wonderful throughout. There are many memorable characters you'll meet with your few short hours with the game, but a handful of them will really make you smile or laugh with their thoughts or personalities.
Levels are essentially large areas that Ray will have to traverse back and forth as he acquires new sticker items to use, allowing you to progress further in an area or with specific characters. To escape each area you'll need to read people’s minds, collect specific stickers, and figure out where to place them to finish each of the mini quests to progress. It's simplistic in formula but works very well with the comedy following suit at every turn. You're never outright told what to do with hint markers and there wasn't a puzzle that stumped me for too long as soon as you start to think of what the wacky solution could be no matter how farfetched it may be, akin to Monkey Island puzzles.
Visually, it's best described as a mix between Paper Mario 2D visuals mixed with a Psychonauts overtone and impressively comes together quite well. The fact that you can peel the side of a building off like a sticker or see the edges of the cardboard on objects adds to its distinct look. The soundtrack is very fitting and fits the mood and theme of what's going on around Ray at all times as well.
Stick It To The Man has a unique style, not only visually, but in how it engages you and keeps the jokes coming in a genuine and funny way. Puzzle games can sometimes become tiresome after a while, but with the jokes moving you forward and the wacky solutions, you'll enjoy solving each puzzle and not grow tired of it. It never takes itself too seriously, I mean really, it's a pink spaghetti arm sticking out of his head, but the pacing and level design is well done and I had a fantastic time playing it start to finish. My only complaint is the accuracy of using your pink spaghetti arm can be a challenge in specific moments, but the rest of the game's strengths far outweigh this complaint. Plus, what other game has jokes about Silver Surfer for the NES?
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Destiny
It was difficult to not jump aboard the hype train when Destiny was first unveiled, and the impressive preorder numbers proved this. We were shown vast planets with beautiful landscapes that could be explored, and to top it off, it was being created by Bungie, the makers of the iconic Halo series. It seemed like Destiny was going to be the next coming for console shooters and progress the genre like how Bungie did with the first Halo so many years ago.Trying to define Destiny's genre seems a little odd though, as it's been stated it had MMO-like mechanics, yet wasn't truly an MMO. While most fans are categorizing it that way, it feels more like a pseudo-MMO instead because you need to be connected online, even when playing by yourself, as the world of Destiny is a shared experience with other players in most areas.
Being the massive Halo fan that I am, I was excited to sit down for hours and play, becoming engaged with the story telling capabilities that Bungie is known for, wrapped up with some solid shooting mechanics and some spectacular set pieces that would have me excited to share my Destiny experiences with my friends. Maybe I shouldn't have gone in with high expectations, but with a proven developer behind the game, I was quite let down once you realize that the mission structure is incredibly repetitive and the story is almost unnecessary and forgettable. It looks gorgeous and plays great, but it feels like an empty experience in the end, which I'll explain in more detail.
Halo's lore and universe is incredibly deep and detailed, granted, that is over the course of multiple games and novels, but the universe always felt like it was epic and had many stories to tell. In the beginning, Destiny feels this way too, as mankind is almost extinct from an unknown alien threat known as "the Darkness" and yet we are saved by a mysterious savior that happens to be a massive orb, called the Traveler. With humanity taking refuge in the last standing city, the Tower, and the Traveler watching over, now is the time for the Guardians to push back and repel the Darkness.
You are a Guardian, protecting mankind, and you have a 'Ghost' that follows your side after he resurrects you; a cute little robot that is an AI created by the Traveler for each Guardian. Your Ghost is voiced by Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and given his fantastic acting abilities, I was expecting nothing less than a stellar performance, yet throughout the game, he sounds monotone (yes, I realize he's an AI) and has more drab one-liners than actual substance in most cases. The infamous "wizard from the moon" line that got cut from the game is a great example of this.
While the game is structured around these campaign missions that unveil small portions of the plot as you progress, the narrative within is very light and in the end, is nothing more than multiple fetch quests stringed together under the guise of earning more experience points and newer gear. In the end, I kept waiting for something big to happen, yet it never happens. In the last half of the campaign, it seems like this is going to happen, but by the time I downed the final boss and saw the conclusion, I was more than disappointed, as I'm still waiting for some big revelation or reveal, and for many things to still be explained. Maybe Destiny needs to be treated more like an MMO and wait for it to become better in time, though be warned, if you're coming strictly for the campaign narrative hoping for an epic story that could rival their previous games, you'll be incredibly dilay wise, Destiny is polished and incredibly entertaining to play, even if it is the same missions over and over again. Weapons feel powerful and you generally get excited when you get a big upgrade to your armor or arsenal. You have main, side, and special weapons that can be swapped out at any time based on the situation at hand and old gear can be reduced to glimmer (money) and upgrade materials. Traversing the planets feels natural, as you can move with ease, jump, float, and shoot things without effort, and these mechanics lay the foundation work for what could be a great game, it's simply the repeated encounters and lack of interesting enemy AI from beginning to end that seems to hold it back from realizing its potential.
As you begin your journey in Destiny, you'll need to create your guardian, allowing you to choose from numerous races and also being able to customize how they look. Next you'll choose one of three classes: Hunter, Titan, or Warlock. The names may indicate the traditional Tank, Healer, DPS roles from traditional MMO's, but that isn't the case at all. Because every guardian can use every weapon and armor (aside from class specific pieces), what distinguishes the classes from one another is the abilities in their respective skill trees that grow in level as you do. Eventually at level 15 you'll be able to choose another sub-class if you wish, allowing you to slightly change your play style and allowing you access to some varied abilities.
As I mentioned above, Destiny feels like a pseudo-MMO because as you're running around the surface of the planets, you'll come across other players, either doing the same mission you are, or something completely different entirely. While you'll never see more than a few people at a time in one area, it reminds you that you're not really alone on the planet and you are able to interact with them and send invites to your 3 person Fireteam to group up and conquer harder missions. Part of the problem though is that there's absolutely no way to communicate with random players you come across before inviting them to your Fireteam aside from a wave, point, or dance emote. You'll need to organize with other players outside of the game or start filling up your friends list which seems counter-intuitive for being a part of a persistent online world.
Mission structure in Destiny is incredibly shallow at best and is the biggest issue I take with the game by far. For almost every single mission you will run from point A to B, hold 'X' so that your ghost can either hack into a terminal or download information, fend off waves of enemies (almost always in threes) and a mini-boss, run to point C and kill boss for the mission completion. This wouldn't be a concern if only some missions had this structure, but almost every single story and strike mission uses this formula. With only a handful of missions on disc and a campaign that can be completed in a few short hours, you'll become tired of doing the same missions over and over. It simply feels like a series of areas that you need to clear out to progress, rinse and repeat. Aside from one or two of the bosses, nothing really stands out either, and if it does, it's for the wrong reasons, such as taking way too long to kill.
As you progress through the game, you'll come across four separate alien factions that you'll face against, each of which have their own strategies, though neither are particularly challenging. Enemy AI is fairly simple, and while you'll have the odd enemy that may rush you kamikaze style, for the most part you can kill enemies from a distance without much trouble. The hardest parts come later when there's simply an overwhelming number of enemies rushing you while you're also trying to deal with a boss.
Battles don't become any more strategic the further you progress either, they simply become longer. Bosses don't do anything special aside from a heavy damaging ability or weapon but it won't require much strategy aside from making sure all of the regular enemies that try and swarm and overwhelm you die first. Bosses have an extreme amount of hit points and calling them a bullet-sponge is an understatement. I found bosses was the thing that I dreaded more than anything else while playing, not because of their difficulty, but because it will literally take you more than 15 minutes to kill, even with your Fireteam of 3 players. To make matters worse, you don't even get guaranteed loot from them, as I've finished missions multiple times with no upgrades to be had. The risk vs reward scale needs some serious tweaking, much like how Diablo recently had, if Bungie expects players to sink time into these missions numerous times.
Strike missions are slightly harder missions that forces you into a group of 3 (with matchmaking enabled) to complete and is most akin to dungeons in an MMO. The same mission structure applies to strike missions and you'll relieved once it's over and the boss is downed after such a long battle. The only reason you'll be completing strike missions over and over is for the currency items you get for completion once you hit the level 20 soft cap.
Once you become level 20 the game seems to shift in focus and change quite dramatically in how you progress. Instead of doing regular mission and patrols on planets with your friends to level, you'll need to do patrol missions (mini side quests) to earn reputation and strike missions to earn marks, all so you can buy the better and rare gear. To level past 20 is not simply killing enemies for experience, but instead, equipping armor with the Light stat. With enough +Light stat equipped, you'll then level up this way going forward, making upgrades a simple choice, as Light is all you become concerned with. You'll need to farm missions and strikes over and over again to earn enough of the specific currency to obtain the better and best gear Destiny has to offer, and while many games like Diablo and Borderlands excel at mechanics like this, it's more than disappointing to come out of an hour long strike with no upgrades and only the few marks you've earned.
That being said, Raids are about to be introduced that will allow a group of 6 friends (no public matchmaking, akin to ODST's Firefight) band together and take on some of the most challenging instances Destiny has to offer. As raids are not yet released, I can't say if they have solved the loot issues I had, but I hope they offer a massive reward if the rumors are true and will take well over an hour or two to complete.
If competitive multiplayer is more of your calling, then the Crucible is where you'll be spending most of your time. There are four separate mode to engage in, ranging from Control, Clash, Rumble, and Skirmish and take place across 10 multiplayer maps. Given Bungie's success in competitive multiplayer in their Halo games, the Crucible offering does feel a little light, but not simply because of the low number of modes and maps.
Once your guardian is level 5 you can compete in 6v6 against other players, and while the weapon damage is evened out for all players, so that level 5's can play with 20+, the skills you possess however do not scale, leaving you at the mercy of another player who might have incredibly higher stats and abilities than you. With a group that works together, your team will seem almost unstoppable and its quite gratifying to save up your special power for some easy kills and to stop a point from being captured. You can even work on saving marks and reputation for Crucible specific gear that will also be usable in the regular game as well, so you don't need to farm the strikes to get better gear if you just want to play competitively which is great.
Already having put dozens upon dozens of hours into Destiny, you'll easily get sucked in at its beauty and solid shooting mechanics, it's more of a question if you can deal with repetition. Some aren't going to find doing the same strike missions repeatedly all that engaging, and others might get turned off by the slow progression once you hit level 20. Some might find it more of a chore to progress after this point rather than a fun experience, and keep in mind you'll want to have 2 other like-minded friends to go along with you as well.
For being an online required game, apparently populated with thousands of other players, it can feel very barren and lonely at times. Inviting friends to your Fireteam is easy enough, but finding random people to do non-strike missions is a crapshoot at best. The small party size makes it very difficult to play with all of your friends at times, though hopefully Raids will be a solution to alleviate some of these issues; just hope that you have friends that are the appropriate level and skill.
I'm usually very level headed when it comes to buying into hype, though it was difficult in the case of Destiny. Maybe that's where some of my disappointment comes from, but it just feels like with such a great developer behind it, I just expected more. Once you figure out all the nuances and the post level 20 gameplay grind, it simply feels like another shooter. It's got a great backbone which the expansions are sure to add upon, but as of this writing, the experience as a whole once everything is completed, feels empty and left me wanting more. Aside from mission repetition I don't have any other major complaints, but when reviewing my pro and con list, I also don't have one major draw either.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Dance Central Spotlight
Ask any Kinect for Xbox 360 owner what the best game they owned for it was and I’m willing to bet most of the answers would be Dance Central. Generally regarded as one of the best Kinect titles for Xbox 360, the time has finally come for Xbox One owners to start working on their dance moves as well. Dance Central Spotlight is the fourth installment in the series, and while each version has gotten bigger and better, Spotlight takes a slightly different path now that it’s only on Xbox One. For starters it’s a digital download only, so don’t bother looking in stores for it, and second, it’s very cheap, but for a reason; more on that shortly.The biggest change you’re going to notice when you start playing Spotlight is the lack of any campaign. The previous games had a story and a campaign mode to guide you from song to song, but Spotlight nixes the mode completely for a much more streamlined experience that simply focuses on the dancing alone. Granted, I doubt anyone played the previous Dance Central games for their plots, but it was a mechanic that kept you moving forward, unlocking new songs and routines that got progressively harder.
Spotlight still has progression in a way, but it’s a much more tedious task instead of being wrapped up in a narrative. You’re able to play any song from the initial get go, but each song will only be playable on a basic difficulty. To unlock harder modes and different routines you’ll need to grind and play songs repeatedly again and again to play the more challenging and fun routines of each song. This change while good in theory does make the first while feel a bit of a chore, as it’s not fun playing the songs you don’t like multiple times just to unlock more routines or achievements.
To all of the Dance Central veterans out there like myself, you’ll be happy to know that the core mechanics are essentially unchanged and you can simply start dancing without having to learn anything new. If you’re a new comer to the dancing series, Spotlight is a Kinect only game that uses full body tracking to determine how accurately you’re mimicking the moves shown on screen and gives you a score based on how well you’re dancing. For an uncoordinated white guy like myself that isn’t all that smooth on the dance floor, the basic and slightly harder difficulty routines are fun and easy to get into. If you’re like my wife and knows how to shake it well, the harder difficulty modes are much more challenging and will mimic moves that you may see in the actual music videos.
While the Dance Central games on Xbox 360 were very accurate, there was the odd times where it sometimes wouldn’t just track you properly; with Kinect 2 on Xbox One, this isn’t the case anymore and allows for much more detailed body tracking. Spotlight gives you more feedback on what you’re doing wrong, so instead of just your arm being outlines in red because you’re not moving it properly, you’ll get more accurate feedback like maybe just your wrist or elbow is twisted wrong.
Spotlight is the cheapest entry into the series with its digital-only offering at a mere $9.99. Why is it so cheap you ask? Well, you’re not getting a campaign mode any longer, but you’re also only getting ten songs included. So here are the songs included with the initial download:
Avicii -- "Wake Me Up"
Cher Lloyd -- "I Wish"
David Guetta ft. Sia -- "Titanium"
Jason Derulo ft. 2 Chainz -- "Talk Dirty"
Kid Ink ft. Chris Brown -- "Show Me"
Lorde -- "Royals"
OneRepublic -- "Counting Stars"
Pharrell Williams -- "Happy"
Rihanna -- "Diamonds"
will.i.am ft. Justin Bieber -- "#thatPOWER"
You’re then able to piecemeal your game with songs you only really want to have with DLC. Individual songs can be purchased for $1.99 each and there are a few song packs that save you a little money if you want all of the songs by a certain artist if it’s offered. If you’ve purchased any DLC for the previous Dance Central games on 360, you’re able to do so for free which is a great way to add some initial songs. Unfortunately, there’s no way to import the on-disc songs from the previous games though.
Each of the ten songs has eight routines that can be unlocked and will range from easy to difficult, and special routines that can be strength and cardio based, or even manly and odd routines. To unlock more routines, you need to flawlessly perform specific moves in each mode, and once you gain enough of these, the new modes will unlock and can be played. Eventually you’ll unlock the better routines and most likely never go back to the others.
If you want to use the dancing as more of a health tool, there’s now a Fitness Mode to track your progress and calories. Here you can choose if you’d rather do a strength or cardio workout and then choose a duration to play for. You’re also able to input your height and weight as well if you want a better tracking of your progress. It can be tough after a few songs to keep going, but it’s a great alternative to working out if you need some motivation; simply load up all the songs you love and begin.
As for the value of Spotlight, it’s really how you look at it as a package, or lack thereof. Personally, I prefer this cheaper entry price and then adding to the game with DLC as I see fit. Here it makes more sense to me, as now I don’t have to slog through 20+ songs I don’t care for at all, where as a larger and pricier disc version of the previous games did have more songs, the chances are there were more songs you didn’t like as well. Of the ten included songs, there’s at least one or two you’ll mostly likely really enjoy as the genres range to many different styles. The fact that I only have to ignore 3 or 4 songs in Spotlight is much easier than being forced to play much more in the previous style of game offering. At $1.99 a piece, adding songs from the store isn’t that big of a deal and knowing Harmonix, the offerings will continue to come in and be relevant to almost everyone’s tastes.
Harmonix seems to know the secrets to getting Kinect to not only work, but work extremely well without many, if any, faults. Just like how Dance Central was the best reason to own a Kinect on Xbox 360, Spotlight is the best Xbox One Kinect game to date, and if you own one, you’ll most likely want to pick this up, especially since it’s so inexpensive.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate
I think the last Dynasty Warriors game I played was one of the first iterations back on the PS2. To be honest, the series never really resonated with me, as it felt very basic and a button masher, so needless to say, I’ve missed out on the past handful of Dynasty Warriors games. Having now played Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, I can see how far the series has some. The first notable is obviously the name change, as the Orochi series has now combined the characters from the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors universes together into one, along with some bonus cameos and officers. The Dynasty games always adhered to a certain level of historical accuracy, and maybe that’s why they never appealed to me, but the Orochi games change all of that and there’s a much more fantasy element to the story and gameplay now which I ended up really enjoying. The story for Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (simply referenced as Ultimate for short from here on) starts out in a battle against a giant Hydra monster on a battlefield that resembles the inside of a volcano. Normally in the Dynasty games most battles are won in devastating fashion, so when this opening mission finishes and there’s only three generals left alive, you can instantly see how different Ultimate is from the previous games. You’re approached by a mysterious and mystical woman who offers you a chance at saving your friends and stopping the beats who caused this destruction. To do so you’ll need to amass an army capable of doing so, but since everyone has perished you’re made aware that the only way to do so is to go back in time and save the generals that previously died so that they will join your cause.
As simplistic as the plot may sound, it actually plays out quite well and was interesting enough to keep me wanting to progress further and save more officers for my army against Orochi. If you played the original version of Warriors Orochi 3 on Xbox 360, you’ll be happy to know that Ultimate has added new chapters in the Story Mode that adds two new story arcs. One set before the evens of the first Orochi games, explaining Orochi’s origins, and another that takes place after his defeat and introduces a new threat to your fellowship. There are even new side stories for some of the characters who weren’t a major part of the main story arc, so there’s new stuff here even for the veterans. Those that purchased DLC for Warriors Orochi 3 for Xbox 360 will also be happy to know that their DLC will be compatible with Ultimate on Xbox One.
Ultimate’s character cast easily passes 100 playable characters, and while most are a mix from the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series, there are a few extras thrown in that come from other Tecmo and Koei’s games as well. The most notable would easily be Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden and Kasumi from Dead or Alive, both of which are fun to play and add some recognition factor to those that aren’t followers of the previous Warriors games. Other new notable crossover characters include: Momiji and Rachel from the Ninja Gaiden series, Sophia Alexandra from Soul Calibur, Sterkenburg Cranach from Atelier, and even the infamous Joan of Arc. With such a huge cast of playable characters, you’ll notice that not all are created equal. Some are quite overpowered while others are seemingly not as useful as others in battle. You’ll find a set of characters and make a group that fits your play style, but experiment with numerous characters as you’ll find some are incredibly more versatile than others. You’re even able to promote them past their maximum level, almost like Prestige levels in Call Of Duty if you really want to put the time into maximizing your officers.
When you’re in between battlefields and at your camp making preparations for the next stage, you can interact with certain characters hanging around at camp and talk to them. You’re also able to boost your relationships between characters, allowing your rapport to rise from normal to intimate. Doing so will not only give you bonus conversations in camp, but using characters that have stronger bonds will allow them to increase the frequency in which they use their special attacks when fighting alongside you. It may seem like it’s a tedious task of raising the relationships, especially with so many characters, but when your missions go much smoother because of it, it’s well worth it in the end, especially on the higher difficulties.
I used to think the Dynasty games were simply button mashers, and while at its core that may be somewhat true, there are numerous attack combinations you can perform, most of which are different based on which character you’re playing as. This Ultimate release also upgrades new attack features that allow for more complexity and strategic use.
Triple Rush attacks allow you to consecutively attack enemies in sequence with each of your officers after dealing a charge attack. Doing so will deal out some massive damage and is great against enemy leaders and mass armies in your way. There are also special Arial Attacks that make use of your Musou Gauge and allows you to bring down massive maneuvers from above to help clear a large area of enemies at once. True Musuo Burst is a massive special move that will clear out almost anything in your path as well by using this move when all of your characters are gathered together and have max Musou Gauges. Essentially everyone on your team will converge for one charged up special attack for critical damage, even against the hardest foes.
While previous games allowed you to switch between your three officers on the fly as desired, and something that you can still do in Ultimate, you’re also now able to change your battle style and actually have your other two officers’ fight alongside you if you wish. This allows you to get triple the amount of damage output with them beside you, but the two following officers won’t replenish their life or Musou Gauge or help elsewhere. I chose to have them fight alongside me almost every battle simply for the ‘company’, but it adds a strategic element to your play style, allowing for a damage increase when needed.
The best way to increase your damage output though is by upgrading and crafting new weapons in camp. While you’ll find random weapons in battle that can be used, there’s also a Blacksmith in camp that allows you to not only purchase new weapons, but fuse them together as well. First you chose your main weapon that you want to boost its power, then another weapon to fuse into it, destroying it in the process but being able to transfer its attributes and bonuses. You can increase slots that allow for more buffs and bonuses and even weak weapons will have their use when being fused into your main weapon. While simple in its execution, the weapon crafting mechanic become quite addictive, and if you factor in the amount of characters in game and want to give them all the best possible weapons, you’ll be playing for quite some time to do so.
So what else is new in this Ultimate Edition? New modes also are included in Ultimate, one of which I really enjoyed, titled Gauntlet Mode and has five of your officers trying to make it through multiple and much more difficult stages. Even the beginning stages will be quite challenging, but being able to use your improved characters from Story Mode will help if you’ve taken the time to do so. Vice versa as well, as you could play Gauntlet Mode to quickly improve characters for you to use in Story Mode if you wish, which I found the quickest way to level up multiple characters.
Each stage is multiple battlefields that you’ll need to explore and is covered by a fog on the map, forcing you to explore each pathway and end of the map on your own to discover treasure chests and Dragon Portals, one of which is the hidden escape from the battlefield and will grant you victory. The treasure chests can also contain special crafting items that can be used to create extremely powerful weapons, more so than simply fusing weapons.
Gauntlet Mode also boasts different formations you can arrange your party in on the fly. These vary from Attack, Defense, and Search, each of which will have to be used properly in situations to guarantee success. There is even another layer of strategy involved with formations, as each character will have a special Formation Skill that can be used and linked with other officers for some really powerful abilities. This mode can also be played via split screen co-op or even online with a friend which is a nice touch and I would use quite often (as there was no one online playing each time I was reviewing to test it out).
Lastly, your camp in Gauntlet Mode also houses as mysterious woman that will offer you special quests that can range from finding special officers, defeating X amount of foes, and more. Once quests are complete, and you can see your progress on each simply by talking to her, you can claim your special reward. Many of these quests will require many playthroughs of levels, allowing for a lot of replayability. This woman will also allow you to summon famous officers if you’ve proven yourself worthy and recruit them into your party. The fact that I was able to progress my main characters regardless of playing in Story or Gauntlet Mode made it a lot more appealing, and while Gauntlet Mode might seem a little less involved that some of the main missions, it was a relief to simply relax and defeat as many enemies as I could in these missions instead every now and then.
Duel Mode simply puts 3 officers of your choosing against 3 opponent officers. At its core it’s a very simply and dumbed down fighting game but there’s the card battle element that’s also included to give it a unique twist. Before battle you’ll choose four cards (that you’ve unlocked and collected by playing Story Mode) that will give you special bonuses in battle. These cards are categorized into Attack, Support, Impede, and Special and each individual card has a set amount of Battle Points associated with it.
To use a card that has 3 Battle Points for example, you’ll have to wait until your Battle Points counter during fighting reaches 3, then you’ll be able to use it, thus taking 3 away from your tally. Some cards are simple attacks while others will give you larger bonuses and will have a higher cost to use. To be completely honest, the fighting mechanics between officers isn’t really all that engaging and even with this card mechanic attached, I lost interest in Duel Mode quickly. There is a Survival Mode within Duel Mode as well, seeing how many trio’s of officers you can defeat before losing all of your characters; life bars that don’t regenerate, but again, it’s not all that engaging. You are able to play this mode online, so maybe once the community for the game grows it will be a little more enticing.
Lastly is the inclusion of Musou Battlefields Mode, allowing for limitless replay value to Ultimate, as you can customize any of the missions found in the game completely and upload it online for others to play. Pick your favorite mission and completely customize it to how you would want to play it. Change the officers, enemies, quotes in battle, and even enemy types. My first go at making a mission changed all of my allies into tigers and all of the enemies into wolves. Each of the enemy officers was Ryu and I customized his speech bubbles into ridiculous meme sayings. It’s completely up to you how you want to change things and I foresee there will be some really good missions created online for you to download, but probably also some very out of left field like mine was as well.
I was quite intrigued to see what Ultimate would be able to do now that it’s on the Xbox One, boasting a lot more power from last generation consoles. While the game’s website boasts a new graphic fidelity and high detail, I was less than impressed. Sure there are many enemies on screen at once, more than the Xbox 360 version, but it never really feels overwhelming and all that crowded, even in the most hectic areas. To put it into perspective, Dead Rising 3 seemed to have MANY more zombies on screen at once, all of which looked unique, whereas in Ultimate, heavy enemy packs will pop in and disappear quickly when defeated, also with every enemy looking exactly the same and quite poor overall. There are only a handful of enemy models you’ll every fight in the game and when you fight a pack of them, each of them look exactly the same as the ones beside it. World textures don’t look like they’re in high resolution, as inspecting walls or ground up close looks ugly at best. There are a lot of clipping issues, even in cutscenes, and numerous times I was standing in a mob of enemies on the map, only for all of them to appear a second or two later after popping into view.
There’s also no English language support, only subtitles. Sure some purists will prefer this, but having to make sure to reach text boxes that appear during missions can be difficult when there’s so much happening on screen at once. While there are a handful of cutscenes, the majority of the story plays out in text with the characters simply drawn on screen. While I liked the overall storyline and purpose, the subplots were difficult to follow, not only because of all the exotic names, but all of it was done through non-English dialogue.
All of that being said, I kept wanting to play missions after one another. Ultimate offers lots of new features for Warriors fans but the inclusion of a few recognizable characters allowed for new players like me to enjoy it as well (and yes, my team mainly consisted of Ryu and Kasumi). With multiple modes to be played (though Duel Mode fell short) and a decent weapon crafting system, and a relationship system, I felt I always had something to work towards, even after the main story missions were complete. Even if you weren’t the biggest Dynasty Warriors fan like myself, you might find yourself surprised by Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate as I kept wanting to play ‘one more mission’ and leveling the plethora of characters.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Pinball FX 2
Pinball lovers rejoice, we finally have a game on Xbox One to play! Pinball FX 2 is finally available for Xbox One, comes with one free table, and is free to download for everyone! That’s right, you can go download Pinball FX 2 for free right now and have a table to play (even the achievements) with the option of more tables to download and add on based on your specific pinball tastes. Interestingly, I had friends over this weekend when I was working on this review and gave them the controller to play to get their impressions as well. I was taken back when they told me they’ve never played an actual pinball machine in real life before. Granted, they are about ten years younger than I am, and maybe I’m dating myself, but it was one of those “wow, really?” moments. Then it dawned on me; my daughter who is now two, probably won’t play one either, as I wouldn’t even know where to go to play pinball since arcades are now extinct.
Pinball FX 2 boasts a robust library of pinball tables for you to purchase individually or a as a pack. These tables range from in-house created tables from the developers themselves, but some of the best tables are the Star Wars and Marvel themed tables, including the newly released Guardians of the Galaxy table. Did you purchase tables on Pinball FX 2 for Xbox 360? Fear not, as you’re able to import your tables into the Xbox One version for no extra cost.
While the older generation of pinball players like myself might initially be a little bummed that all of Pinball FX 2’s tables are created from scratch and don’t exist in real life, there’s a lot of really cool things that a videogame pinball machine can do that a real life counterpart never could. With the game playing at 1080p 60fps and a new easier interface to use to browse your table collection, Pinball FX 2 is easy for anyone to jump in and play. The left and right triggers are your flippers respectively and if you need to nudge the table to avoid the ball going down the middle between your flippers, you can flick the left stick to bump the table; a tactic only true pinball wizards have mastered in real life.
The menu system has been vastly improved and it’s much easier to flip between tables and categories with the bumper buttons. Tables you own show a colored icon where unpurchased ones are black and white to show the distinction easily. The first page is New Releases (Guardians of the Galaxy), then you have Zen’s original’s (the free one you get with the download), Marvel has its own section, and then the Star Wars category. You’re now able to also designate tables as your favorite and have them in their own category which becomes very helpful if you start massing a healthy number of tables.
So while the game itself is free to download and comes with one table, you’re obviously encouraged to supplement your pinball cravings with new table purchases. Most of the tables will run you $2.49 - $2.99 individually, but certain packs for $9.99 offer a lot of gameplay as well, even to those that may not be the biggest Star Wars or Marvel fan, as they are simply well done pinball tables first and foremost. Available right now at launch are the following for purchase:
Zen Classics: Shaman, El Dorado, Tesla and V12 (all complete with newer graphics) ($9.99)
Pinball FX2 Core pack: Biolab, Pasha, Rome, Secrets of the Deep ($9.99)
Marvel Pinball Avengers Chronicles: World War Hulk, Infinity Gauntlet, The Avengers, and Fear Itself ($9.99)
Marvel Pinball Vengeance and Virtue: Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Thor, and X-Men ($9.99)
Star Wars: Episode V, Boba Fett, The Clone Wars ($9.99)
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, Starfighter Assault, Darth Vader ($9.99)
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Han Solo, Droids, Masters of the Force ($9.99)
Marvel Civil War ($2.99)
Captain America ($2.99)
Guardians of the Galaxy ($2.99)
Fantastic Four ($2.99)
Doctor Strange ($2.99)
Deadpool ($2.99)
Mars ($2.49)
Epic Quest ($2.49)
Paranormal ($2.49)
There are lots of tables coming soon for more pinball enjoyment as well:
Earth Defense
Marvel Pinball: Original Pack
Street Fighter II
Plants vs. Zombies
Super League Football
The Walking Dead (August 28th)
While this review won’t delve into every table offered, one of the absolute favorites I really enjoyed from the Xbox 360 version is The Avengers table from the Marvel Pinball Avengers Chronicles pack. I highly recommend this table as it’s one of the best of all of the offerings as the artwork and audio are fantastic and it’s one of the most unique tables that you can purchase. At the beginning of a game you get to pick which game ball you would like to use, each painted and associated with one of the super heroes, complete with unique properties that allows for a deep level of strategy based on your skills.
Another table I highly suggest is Boba Fett from the Star Wars: Episode V pack. Zen has clearly put a lot of love and effort into this table and fits Boba’s history and feels authentic. Boba will jetpack around the table and there’s even a Sarlac Pit in the middle of the table. Be careful though, as there’s a lot of rebounds that are very difficult to save your ball from going down the middle.
The Guardians of the Galaxy table is a brand new offering that coincides with the brand new blockbuster movie (which I recommend seeing ASAP!). This table starts out with a bang, giving you a multiball for 60 seconds that plays out like the prison escape from the film for some easy points. The first few times might take you off guard but it’s a fantastic start to a new exciting table. After the multiball ends you have one chance at a skill shot that will net you some extra points if you manage to make the challenge. This table has a bunch of ramps at almost every angle and not many bumpers or other specific targets to hit. You’ll need to hit specific ramps multiple times to unlock specific play modes and events for each character.
Each ball has its own design as opposed to a plain silver ball that coincides with each of the main characters. Groot’s ball looks like tree bark, Rocket’s looks like his fur, and so on. Just like the movie, when you play Rocket’s special mission, Groot will be there at his side, giving you a two-ball multiball. I was hoping that since the table is a movie tie-in that it would have official quotes and sound clips from the movie itself, but sadly this isn’t the case. The quotes are done by voice actors that kind of sound similar but are distinct enough to sound off if you’ve seen the movie. Even with that being said, the Guardians of the Galaxy table is one of my favorites already.
So if you’ve purchased any of the tables on Xbox 360 you are given the ability to import them for free into your new Xbox One version and doing this is simple, but not as streamlined as it could be. First you need to make sure you’re singed into the account that purchased the tables on Xbox 360, select the table you want to import and if you’re eligible, you’ll complete the transaction for $0.00. Maybe it’s because of platform restrictions but all of the tables you own won’t automatically install on their own and you’ll have to do each individually if you did purchase any previously.
There was a major design flaw I noticed during my playtime that was quite a problem. When you get an achievement or any notification such as a friend coming online, the pop up notification appears exactly where your flippers are located. You can see where this would become a problem and the same goes for when you’re streaming on Twitch as well. The viewer count message also stays static right in the middle of the flippers, so it’s difficult to stream while playing because of this.
While there are some tables that are obviously better than others, more so if you’re a massive Star Wars or Marvel fan, but there weren’t any tables that I simply didn’t enjoy at all. If you have friends that play Pinball FX 2 you’ll see their high scores and even get notices of how close you are to beating their score as you play. Something I was really hoping that would be added in the Xbox One version would be an offering of online head to head play, but sadly this feature wasn’t added. Even if you’re a pinball enthusiast that really only thinks real life pinball tables are legit, I would still suggest Pinball FX 2. While video pinball might not be as authentic as the real thing, Zen does a great job at making their tables exciting and including a lot of things that simply wouldn’t be possible in a real life pinball machine.
Casual pinball players will really enjoy Pinball FX 2 and with the initial game being free there’s nothing to lose by trying it and with each table or pack being relatively inexpensive, there isn’t much barrier if you want to try an extra table here and there. If you don’t have an actual pinball machine in the basement at home, I recommend Pinball FX 2, more so if you want to play some great Star Wars or Marvel themed tables.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
You don’t see a lot of games these days based on World War I. Sure there are a few here and there, but there are even less that is a puzzled based game like Valiant Hearts. Powered by the UbiArt Framework engine, which games like Rayman Origins and Child of Light have used, Valiant Hearts has an incredibly unique art style backed with an interesting historical setting and tear wrenching story. You’ll become engrossed with the emotional story and amazing artwork while going through a historical adventure. Inspired by real letters written during the Great War, Valiant Hearts tells the story of four characters that begins just as the war sparks in 1914 while subtly teaching you history lessons at the same time. Karl, a German immigrant in France, is forced to leave the country when war breaks out without any choice but to leave his wife and child behind. Since Karl is now gone, Emile, the father in law, must watch after the family, but is shortly after forced to enlist into the French forces on the front lines.
Emile becomes injured and taken to a POW camp in his first battle, which happens to be the same camp where Karl is stationed. Karl is having to follow Baron Von Dorf’s orders, the German villain of the story, but soon realizes he wants to part of this war. Emile becomes close friends with Freddie, an American who agrees to help Emile find Karl and bring him home. I don’t want to get much more into the plot, but it’s a fantastic story that will have you engrossed, but beware if you cry easily, it can be quite emotional. The story is connected very well and weaves a fantastic story about friendship, love, and sacrifice.
The core gameplay of Valiant Hearts is a 2D sidescrolling adventure, but there is a heavy puzzle element involved as well. Some levels will have you simply trying to figure out how to progress with puzzle after puzzle, where others may have you in an exciting car chase sequence, or even a section with grenades and other objects you’ll need to lob and properly arc to progress (which are essentially puzzles in themselves).
Valiant Hearts is a story driven adventure, and because of this, you’ll take a set path before being able to move onto the next level, but it’s done in a really smart way as to not feel so linear. You’ll want to think before acting or else you’ll be set back to the last checkpoint, though usually very forgiving and not much will have to be repeated save for a few of the boss battles. Most levels will have you solving puzzles or sneaking in areas, but it changes up the formula just enough to stay interesting.
While the core gameplay may be puzzle based, it felt like it was just the right level of difficulty. Many were very simple that required not much thought, whereas others seemed almost impossible, that is until the in-game hint system gives you a hand. While there is a hint system in place, I rarely had to use it and you also actually have to wait a set amount of time before it will even prompt you with hints, forcing you to actually try it on your own for a while before giving you a helping hand. I really enjoyed this approach, as I wasn’t given the option to “cheat” and breeze through each section since the hints are dished out on specific timers. The first hint gives you a vague clue, whereas the second and third will give you more specific suggestions, essentially telling you how to progress if you get stuck. Again, optional, so I completely agree with this method.
Most of the puzzle are cleverly designed, and while some are a simple ‘pull the lever’ solution, there are some more intricate ones where you’ll need to find item A to get item B to reach item C to reach area D. Some puzzles even utilize a split viewpoint, almost like a comic book, where you can see two things happening at once so you know when to act. Each of the characters you play as have their own special ability as well, such as wire cutters or digging which lets puzzle play out in a different way. You also have access to use your trust dog Walt that follow you around the battlefield, as he is trained and can be commanded to pull levers, pick up items, and more.
I was surprised to see that Valiant Hearts doesn’t really have much voiceover work aside from the main narrator between levels. Instead, characters communicate via Sims-like gibberish and cartoonized speech bubbles, though you’re always aware of what is trying to be conveyed. Valiant Hearts as a wonderful musical score attached to it as well and is completely fitting of the mood and ambiance of the story that unfolds. The combination of unique art style and music is a perfect fit and was pleasant from beginning to end.
For those that like to find every hidden item in a game, there’s plenty here for you, actually over 100, spread across all of the levels. Ubisoft has also weaved in actual history lessons into the menus as well, but short form accompanied with real pictures from the era that gives you a glimpse into what actually happened during the time or area your stage is set. Normally I don’t pay too much attention to additions like this, but it was quite interesting and I actually learned quite a bit from these history lessons.
Ubisoft has done an amazing job and showcasing the UbiArt Framework engine once again to truly elevate Valiant Hearts onto another level. Even though the artwork is cartoon-like in nature, blended with the historical source material, they’ve painted a story that is engaging and emotional, all while looking beautiful in its own way; not an easy task for a game about war.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Blood of the Werewolf
There are a few gaming genres that simply aren’t made very often anymore, whether it be due to lack of interest, or that gaming has simply evolved since then. One of those genres you don’t see a lot anymore these days are the very difficult platforming titles other than the standout hits like Super Meatboy and VVVVVV. If you’re into the old classic style of crushingly difficult levels that requires many restarts, patience, and memorization, then Blood of the Werewolf might be right up your alley. Released last year on PC, Blood of the Werewolf is now available on Xbox Live Arcade at a cheap price and has taken much fan feedback from the previous iteration and has some added improvements (alongside a free update for the PC players).Selena, wife and mother, returns home one day only to find her husband murdered and her son kidnapped, but the twist is that their family was the last of the werewolf clan. The baddies portrayed in Blood of the Werewolf are all takes on classic movie monsters, such as Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, and more. In all of the kidnapper’s brilliance, they happened to do this on the night of a full moon, allowing Selena to use her hidden monstrosity to aid her in getting her only child back. Selena is bloodthirsty and won’t let anything get in her way. If there’s something you never do, it’s come in between a mother and her child. The story is simple and won’t have you clamouring to find out what happens next, but it’s enjoyable enough to keep you interested until the end, which I was let down with its weak finale.
Being that Blood of the Werewolf is a hark back to some classic gaming roots, you’ll run into very challenging levels that will require precision platforming skills, and will require even more patience as you replay certain areas over and over to complete them properly. There are quite a few sections in some stages that reminded me of old classics like Mega Man and Battletoads, specifically the sections that had Selena jumping down a shaft with crushing walls. One wrong move and you’ll become splatter on the wall, though after a dozen or so tries, you’ll finally complete this very small section but feel like you just conquered something substantial. That’s something that these brutally difficult games do well, is that they give you a real sense of accomplishment when you finally complete that grueling section that you’ve been retying over and over.
Luckily there are a few modern mechanics included such as infinite lives and a plethora of checkpoints throughout each level. While this may not be totally consistent with days gone by, it’s a welcome addition and helps ease frustration as a whole. Surprisingly, the controls for Selena are actually quite tight, and I never really found myself blaming the controls for multiple deaths like other games. Even though Selena is a werewolf, she’s only able to transform into one when she’s in direct moonlight, so large portions of the game where you’re indoors will be played in her human form, where outside will have you as a werewolf; each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Human form Selena uses her crossbow to shoot from a ranged distance across the whole screen at her enemies and also has the ability to shoot multiple arrows at once for extra damage when needed. As a werewolf in the moonlight, Selena has the ability to double jump and uses her claws for much stronger, though short range, attacks. Sections are clearly build for each form of Selena, and I was kind of hoping for more levels that would play into her form changing more often. There are also a handful of boss battles that offer as a nice change of pace from the difficult levels. These are were the classic horror monsters will make their cameos, and even though the boss fights themselves aren’t terribly difficult, and recycle the same telegraphs and moves, it was a welcome distraction and change of pace from the standard levels.
I found I hot a spike in difficulty around half way through the game, requiring me to make exact movements with perfect timing, or else I got one-shot or knocked back into deadly pits below that kill you instantly. Couple this with enemies coming at you from many angles and you can see where the frustration starts to set in when the smallest enemies cause you to restart a section over and over. There is an upgrade system in place, but to get these, you have to collect specific upgrade badges. Problem being is that they are either very well hidden or very difficult to reach, so there’s actually many upgrades you might simply miss altogether if you don’t have a keen eye or much patience. Some upgrades are quite useful, where others seem almost pointless later on like the health upgrades, since you’ll get knocked off ledges and instantly killed regardless of your health meter.
With an online leaderboard, there are some bragging rights for those that have the patience and skill to brave the levels over and over to prove they’re the best. If you’re the competitive type or the kind of gamer that needs to find every secret, then Blood of the Werewolf will offer a lot of replayability once you finish the story. If you’re like me and don’t really fit into those categories, then the one playthrough will be more than enough, though at the cheap price point, it feels like a fair investment for the few hours of gameplay you’ll get trying to help Selena save her kidnapped son.
As mentioned above, Blood of the Werewolf feels like a fan service to those gamers that loved this specific genre. If you were a fan of Super Meatboy or VVVVVV then I suggest checking it out. It offers punishingly difficult levels but with a rewarding payoff (unfortunately this doesn’t apply to the story’s conclusion in my opinion). Tight controls and a unique drawn visual style surprised me, as many smaller indie-like games can be a crapshoot of what you’re going to get. It’s great to see that a new game in a genre long gone can emerge today and be fun to enjoy even if it’s not from a well-known developer.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
EA Sports UFC 
When THQ went out of business, the one franchise I was most saddened to see go was their UFC games. Being a huge UFC fan and quite happy with how Undisputed 3 turned out, I was unsure what was going to happen with the UFC games going forward. As it turns out, EA will now be creating the UFC games going forward. At first this somewhat worried me, as their EA MMA game was not anywhere close to the quality as the THQ’s UFC games were and I’ve never been a big fan of their Fight Night boxing titles either, so needless to say, I was cautiously optimistic about them handling the UFC franchise going forward. I’m happy to report that EA UFC (simply referred to as UFC from here on) looks like it’s in good hands with the developer change, even with some of the drastic changes to mechanics that I’ve become accustomed to with the previous games. Built strictly for next-gen by the team behind Fight Night, UFC boasts roughly 100 fighters across all 9 weight divisions, even the women’s bantamweight. So yes, you can play as Ronda Rousey and armbar her whole division should you wish. With a heap of new mechanics behind the curtains which I’ll get into shortly, every fighter looks and reacts realistically based on what’s happening in the cage.
Having fighters looking as close to their real life counterparts is no doubt important, but having the true UFC experience that we’re used to seeing at live events and on TV is equally just as important for it to feel truly authentic; this is accomplished with a broadcast presentation style. If you’ve seen a UFC event on TV before, that is essentially how it looks in the game as well; from walkouts, fighter introductions, and more. You’ll see Rogan and Goldberg sitting ringside announcing, Octagon girls between rounds, and even the actual cutmen Stich and House repair you between rounds.
A fighter’s walkout is important, from their music choice to their signature moves and walks to the octagon. Some fighters will come out to their actual music, but very few. Instead, you get a likeness version of their song, most likely for cost of music rights. So while it’s not totally authentic with the official song, it’s very similar in style and only the hardcore fans will even notice. The same goes for their actual walk in. Some fighters have a distinct walk in intro to the ring and the majority of fighters in the game will mimic these moves. John Dodson was one that stood out for me, as he’s known to dance with his arms and smile from ear to ear, all of which he does walking to the ring in the game as well. The fighter likeness in their animations are quite impressive and you know that when a specific fighter wins a fight, he’s going to celebrate just the way he does in real life as well.
So before jumping into the core gameplay itself, lets touch on a few of the mechanics that takes place to make UFC feel authentic as possible in new ways. MMAi allows for the actual licensed fighters to not only behave and fight the way they would in real life, but it also allows for the AI to adapt and change their plans if needed. For example, Chael Sonnen is known to take you to the ground and wrestle you. If you can manage to repeatedly stuff his takedown and don’t get taken to the ground, he might change to Plan B, and if that doesn’t work, even possibly Plan C. If he’s down in the final round on the scorecards, he’s probably going to try and knock you out or submit you to get that win. MMAi also plays into the fighters abilities, as playing on a harder difficulty doesn’t make you or them hit harder, it just makes them smarter at fighting rather than upping some sliders to make things more difficult. If you know your MMA, then you’ll have a good blueprint of how you should fight against certain opponents. Expect Dan Henderson to throw the H-Bomb, Rousey to try and armbar you, and Demian Maia to try and submit you.
In previous UFC games it usually looked like the fighters were sliding against the canvas and when they made contact with strikes, it usually never looked too impactful. Now in UFC, when you land a strike against your opponent, there’s no clipping or sliding of the strikes and their body will show impact on their skin in real time. Just like how you see in the ultra slow-motion replays, skin will actually ripple and your opponents face will cringe and wince, or muscles will flex to take the blow. Strikes and submissions feel like they have more weight to them and that they actually hurt because of this body deformation. It’s a small touch but you can see the difference compared to other UFC games.
“So you wanna be a fighter?” Any UFC fan knows that this is the question that Dana White poses to newcomers to the UFC that partake in The Ultimate Fighter. For those that don’t know, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF from here on) is a reality show where new fighters can fight their way through a grueling tournament to earn a shot at a ludicrous UFC contract and a head start on their fight career. For the first time in any UFC game, when you begin your career, you’ll be starting at the bottom by having to win your way into the TUF house and then the contract itself. You’ll train in the famous TUF gym and have famous UFC personalities along the way come and help you get your fight career going.
Incorporating real footage from the show and competing in what the TUF gym actually looks like, it’ll feel like you’re actually partaking in the TUF tournament to win your way into the UFC. You begin your career by creating your fighter in whatever likeness you want, then choosing their abilities and skills. You can choose your base that varies from Jio Jitsu, Judo, Box, Freestyle Wrestler, Greco-Roman Wrestler, Karate, Kick Boxer, Tae Kown Do, Muay Thai, and MMA Fighter. Based on which discipline you choose as your base, stats will go into specific categories to favor that style of fighting. Choose a wrestling base and your ground abilities will start much higher than a striker. As you start winning fights in the UFC, you’ll earn Evolution Points which can be spent on improving any stat you wish or even learning new moves to round out your repertoire.
Once you win your first fight to get into the TUF house, you’ll be drafted onto one of the teams with UFC fighters as the coaches. Having started a career mode twice, it does seem random on who the coaches are which is a nice touch to keep things interesting each time you play with a new fighter. Once you win the coveted TUF tournament and your way into the UFC, you’ll start your career like most do, at the bottom and the opening fight of the night. As you start to put together a winning streak, you’ll start to earn more and more fans, which unlock new abilities for your game plans, unlock new sponsors, and visits from big UFC stars to your gym to train.
Careers in the UFC can vary from fighter to fighter. The more elusive fighters that don’t take as much damage can fight well into their 40’s, whereas the more reckless fighters might have a shorter career due to the damage they’ve taken in the past. The same goes for your career in the game, as taking significant strikes, getting KO’d, or submitted, will drastically lessen your career length in the octagon. I really like this mechanics as opposed to having a set amount of fights before you retire and it makes every fight really mean something, as that one fight that went really badly can weigh in on your longevity.
As you train, win matches, and level up, you’ll rank up which unlocks new abilities that can be assigned to your Game Plan. Game Plans can (eventually) have up to five abilities assigned to them and you can eventually unlock up to 3 Game Plans. So if you’re facing a wrestler, you might want to tailor your Game Plan to either be more ground centric, or play into your strengths as a striker and weigh more heavily on those abilities. As my created fighter was striking centric, I made my Game Plan play into my strengths and I was able to eventually win fights quite quickly as I knew what my plan was going into the fight beforehand. While the abilities range from ground, standup, and physical, you can mix and match abilities between fights at will to tailor it towards your next opponent.
There were a few odd things I did notice while playing through the campaign though that seemed very odd. Firstly, even though I was getting round 1 TKO’s, I was perpetually on the undercard for at least a dozen fights. It wasn’t until about 15 fights in, going 15-0 mind you, until I got to fight an actual licensed UFC fighter, though even that was the opening fight on the main card. At 18-0, all with round 1 TKO’s, I finally got my title shot, but it was against another no-name fighter instead of a real UFC fighter. Even odder, the number one contender fight I was competing in wasn’t even the co-main event on the PPV. Sure, who cares, but it was just really odd as a fighter in the UFC that has an unbeaten streak of almost 20 and still fighting no-names in a non-main event. Not a deal breaker by any means, but definitely something that stood out as inauthentic as to what would actually happen in UFC if a fighter was on a tear like that.
If you’re like me and played the previous UFC games for years, get ready to unlearn everything you know for all those years. Striking has been changed, and while you’ll be able to button mash and throw some hits, to really play properly you’re going to have to learn the way UFC wants you to play. A new dynamic striking system is in place and allows for basic hits all the way up to highlight reel off the cage moves made famous by Anthony Pettis. The first thing I had to quickly get used to was that the main buttons to block and modifiers have changed from the previous games. To block you hold the Right Trigger, and this will block basic damage but you’ll still get slightly injured. Holding block but then tapping high or low buttons at the right time will allow you to block strong and counter, opening up a small window to inflict extra damage. Real physics are also at play during striking and you can easily lose your footing if your legs are kicked out from under you during a leg strike. This does occur for some odd hang ups like my ankle getting stuck on a shoulder for a moment or two, but for the most part the physics feel quite realistic. Also, I learned there are no leg KO’s, even after chopping away at a single leg for 15 minutes with Pat Barry.
Your stamina bar is essentially your gas tank and will dictate how quickly you move, dodge, stack power, and block all your actions. You can’t just button mash or you’ll quickly become tired and won’t even be able to defend properly. The health HUD in the corners gives you an indication of how damaged each body part is during the fight. The redder it gets, the more likely that’s how you’re going to lose the fight. Become critically injured and have a flashing red body part on the HUD and you might not even be able to stand upright or block at all until you recover. Head shots aren’t the only way to finish your opponent, as liver shots and even leg limping can be a great opening to finish them off when their injured.
Undoubtedly the most frustrating part of the previous UFC games was the ground game. Most players didn’t take the time to learn its intricacies to attack or defend properly, so most fights ended up as striking matches. The ground game in UFC has been completely revamped and while not perfect, it is much easier to understand and easier to learn than before. You’ll still be using the quarter circle motions with the right stick to improve your position, but it’s not as convoluted as before. Blocking transitions has also been simplified, and while I’m no ground expert, I can now hold my own after watching and playing the in-game tutorials. Just like a real fight, having full mount or tower guard allows you to inflict some serious damage if it’s not blocked properly, and also opens up positions submissions.
Also heavily flawed in the previous UFC games was the submission game that was more of a cat and mouse like minigame rather than something that felt like a submission. UFC reinvents the submission system, and like the ground game, it’s not perfect, but it is much better than what was in the past games. Just like a real submission, there are multiple stages and nuances to pull off or defend a submission properly. Submissions will range from 3 to 5 stages depending on the position and difficulty. As the attacker, you’re sinking in your submission and waiting for the right opening to advance to the next stage of the submission which will give you an indication. Defending though will have you trying to escape the position by pushing out your ‘gates’ without letting the attacker block you. Manage to defend the submission and you’ll get out of the position, but keep mindful of your stamina, as it will play a large roll on your success or loss in doing so. It’s not a perfect system, and it’s still quite difficult to perform, but it is leaps and bounds better than the minigame from Undisputed.
Want to go online and prove you really are the best? UFC has multiple modes to do this against the world or your friends. Much like other EA games’ Seasons modes, Online Championship is where you’ll want to play to really prove you’re the best in the world. In this mode you’ll play as actual UFC fighters (sorry, no CAF’s allowed), and begin in the lowest divisions, fighting in what’s called seasons. A season lasts 10 fights and keeps track of your win/loss ratio, but also has a points based system to promote finishing fights. Finish a fight and you’ll earn 3 points, whereas if you go to decision, you won’t earn as many. At the end of the season your points are tallied and will determine if you were good enough to move up to a higher division or not. Become the best in your division and you’ll even earn a belt to prove you’re the best in that class. Higher divisions will have a high tally of points needed to remain or move up a division, having only the best of the best in the black belt division. Overall, it’s a much cooler system in place than a simple quick match (which is included, but unranked and nothing to do with the Online Championship mode) and even though I wasn’t winning every fight, I was doing what I could to move up a division.
Have a friend that you constantly play over and over to determine who’s better? Why not make it interesting and make them an online rival to keep track of every win, loss, and finish. Rivalries uses many of the Online Championships’ components such as seasons (though a lesser point cap and only 5 fights per season). The player with the most points at the end of the season is the winner and will now have the belt for bragging rights, though it’s put up for grabs in the following season. Rivalries do allow for your CAF’s to be used, and will track across multiple friends simultaneously. Again, it’s a really cool system in place instead of simply quick match over and over. Having the belt on the line after each season is a great motivator to keep playing but to also get better to finally rob it from your friend.
It took me about a full day to finally get rid of Undisputed’s control scheme out of my head and play UFC properly since I played it for years, and while there are certain aspects I miss from THQ’s iteration of UFC games, EA’s UFC has a very strong start for their first game. While not perfect, as there are some minor clipping issues, goofy looking Clay Guida hair at times, and a lot of small things that only the hardcore fan will notice, it’s a good pickup and play game for anyone, but to become very good you’ll have to learn all of the smaller nuances and mechanics, especially before going online.
The other main issue I had was the roster. Sure the game boasts around 100 fighters, but there are a few glaring holes in the roster and other odd inclusions. I know there are reasons certain fighters aren’t or couldn’t be in the game, or will come with DLC in the future, but the few that stood out for me not included on disc were quite shocking. Sure, Brock Lesnar isn’t fighting anymore, but when you have others that don’t like Forrest Griffin or Chuck Liddell, it seems a little odd to not have a past champion included, especially one as popular as him. Now current bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw is nowhere to be seen, yet Mike Easton and Erik Perez are there. No Stefan Struve, Matt Brown, Pat Healy, or even top 5 contender Tyron Woodley either. Again, I realize there are probably legitimate reasons for many of these and more not being there, and I know DLC fighters will come, but these are some of the bigger names I would have liked to play as.
Once I overcome the change in controls and really started to understand the new way of controlling my fighter properly, I began to have a lot more fun with it. Being able to stuff takedowns, pull off submissions, work an effective ground game, and more, the game really starts to open up and show its strengths as to why things were changed; you just have to want to learn it. Sure it’s not perfect, as one minute your leg might get oddly stuck on your opponent, but then the brutal KO’s will have you cheering out loud. Overall UFC is a fantastic base and a treat for the hardcore fan and I’m excited to see the improvements that will be added come UFC 2.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
How To Train Your Dragon 2
There’s always a cautious optimism I have when a movie based game releases alongside its silver screen counterpart. I know, after this many years and reviewing so many of them I should know better, but I always hold a slight glimmer of hope that it won’t be atrocious, as there have been a handful of licensed movie games that didn’t fall into the category of being a complete waste of time and money. Most games in the genre fall into this category, usually because it’s quickly approved and needs to be out the door by the time the movie releases, regardless of its quality, length, or what have you. Developed by Torus Games, who surprisingly has been around for quite some time and seems to mainly do the movie licensed games, I had a slight glimmer of hope that maybe How To Train Your Dragon 2 for Xbox 360 would at least be a passible game where I could at least recommend it to fans of the movie; but sadly I report that I’m unable to do so in good conscience which I’ll get into shortly.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 the video game lets you choose your favorite rider and dragon combination from the movies, participate in flying events, tournaments, mini-games, challenges, and free flying all across the Viking Isle of Berk. It’s been five years since the conclusion of the first movie and now Dragon Racing is THE prestigious sporting event for all Vikings that all want to partake in.
Key characters from the previous movie returns, as you’ll get to choose from flying with Fishlegs and Meatlug, Ruffnut and Tuffnut along with Barf and Belch, Snotlout and Hookfang, Astrid and Stormfly, and of course, Hiccup and Toothless to determine who the ultimate Dragon Rider is. Once you choose your favorite racer and dragon (you don’t get to mix and match riders and dragons, and there’s no performance difference in which you choose) you’ll be set free on the Isle of Berk and can soar from the water to the top of the highest mountain.
Now normally here is where I would inform you that this adaptation from the movie plays out somewhat similar and that you’ll see events from the newest movie in the game, but that’s not the case here at all. How To Train Your Dragon 2 really has nothing to do with the movie of the same name aside from key characters. You’re not going to play out the events that will happen in the new movie, or anything even close to it. This game is simply a dragon flying game where you’ll participate in numerous and tedious events, earning medals and finding a huge amount of hidden collectables. Yup, that’s it. There’s no story within either aside from ‘win all the events’, so some of the younger kids that get this hoping to see what happens in the movie might be disappointed.
Once you choose your racer you’ll be set free to either explore and find hidden collectables or partake in the numerous events and try to earn the best medals you can. There are quite a large amount of hidden collectables to find, not just on the ground and hidden away, but also challenges such as flying underneath every archway on the island or lighting every torch. Given that there’s no way to see where these are on the overview map (which really doesn’t give you any information at all), it’s all guesswork and you’ll simply have to explore every inch of the island and remember where you have and haven’t been. One archway away from completing the challenge and have no idea which ones you’ve done or not? Good luck because you’re going to have to figure it out on your own. Not sure where that final collectable is? Better start searching every inch of the island, because there’s nothing that will show you even an area to begin looking.
There are multiple types of events that you’ll partake in, ranging from simple checkpoint races where you fly through circles of fire (that are created by tiny dragons which is a cute touch), to having to pick up sheep and dropping them off in the corresponding colored pens. There are target shooting events where the winner is the one to reach the number of targets shot first, but with no radar or anything to assist, it’s simply guesswork of where the best place for targets are. There are sheep races, where you need to follow the circles of fire and do laps, but you pick up a sheep along the ‘track’ and drop it off as you complete a lap; the first racers to 10 sheep wins, though there’s a black sheep worth five that can help speed things along.
There’s a target shooting event where you’re essentially perched and will have enemies to shoot with your dragon’s fire breath, much like a whack-a-mole type of game. Give the floaty controls, this is much easier said than done and requires some precision and keen eyesight that younger gamers might not have since it’s near impossible to determine which targets are enemies and which aren’t that take points away when you hit them. And then there are the tournaments, where you need to partake in five events back to back and earning points after each round. You don’t get a choice of which events, so if you’re not very good at the sheep events for example and they are in the tournament, you won’t stand much of a chance. It took me quite a few events and tournaments to finally stop coming in last place, though I’m not sure if many kids these days will have the patience to do so, as it’s actually quite difficult from the beginning events.
While the flying is straight forward, the controls aren’t anywhere as accurate as they should be. Sure there’s accelerate, brake, and sharp turn buttons, but even when you know how to do so, precision flying is quite the challenge. Many times you’ll barely hit a wall or the ground and your rider will go flying off as you wait for a restart and others you’ll bounce off the water as if nothing happened. More times than not it seems as if the controls get jumbled up and my racer ends up upside down, though it’s not meant to be controlled this way. Shooting your fireballs at your opponents seems worthless at times, as does picking up many of the powerups as there’s no easy way to lock on to someone to use them accurately.
While a lot of my complaints might seem a little harsh, I’m thinking of the smaller kids that will be playing this in mind. I’d like to think that I’m quite good at playing games, but even I struggled with this one, fighting the controls, and boredom, the whole way. There’s simply nothing much to do aside from the events which become extremely repetitive with no progression or rewards to work towards (aside from hidden characters to unlock) and keep you motivated to continue playing. That being said, diving from the top of the highest mountain to the ocean did put a smile on my face.
Even if your child is a huge fan of the movie and you’re going to see the new one on opening weekend, I can’t recommend the game given all of its issues, repetitive events, tiresome one-liners that are repeated over and over, and difficult controls that many young kids will probably find more frustrating than fun. Some younger kids might simply have fun flying around the island and try to find all of the hidden collectables with the different riders but there’s no substance here nor does it follow any events of the movie; it’s simply a dragon flying game, but not even a decent one at that.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Worms Battlegrounds
It’s hard to believe that the Worms series has been around for almost two decades. Not many games companies can boast that they’ve been working on the same series, almost exclusively, for this long, making this many entries into the series. The time has come, and now we have a new entry into the series, a first on the now current-gen consoles titled Worms Battlegrounds. If you’ve played a Worms game before, you can expect the same gameplay that gets slightly revised and improved with each new entry that always included single player, online, and local multiplayer. For those interested in the single player aspect, there are 25 story missions, complete with a story and reason, though you won’t care about the silly reasons. While the story element isn’t necessary for a Worms game, it’s appreciated that at least something is there for those that won’t be playing any of the multiplayer. There are also 10 Worm-Ops missions that are essentially time attack assignments which take place across a handful of different environments.
If you’ve played the last few Worms entries into the series then you’re going to feel right at home with Battlegrounds. Like most of the Worms titles, this one takes what the last game or two did and slightly add and improve on it. Battlegrounds draws its most features from the previous two games; the worm class system from Revolution and the clans from Clan Wars. Battlegrounds is fundamentally those two titles mashed into one with a few added weapons, twists, and improvements (the water mechanics in Battleground adds a whole new strategy layer to gameplay), complete with the classic turn based gameplay that we’ve been playing since 1995.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Worms games, there are teams that have a set amount of time to take turns shooting at the other teams until there is only one winning team left. The catch? Well, that you’re worms of course, hence the title. With your set amount of time per move you need to decide where to squirm to, what weapons to use, and to aim and shoot. Simple in concept, but given all of the abilities and weapons that you have access to, there’s a surprising amount of strategy involved to come out on top the victor. There are even random crates that will normally drop weapons and utilities, but instead will drop a box of coins, where if collected, they can be used to purchase a super weapon and be used in a match where you normally wouldn’t have access unless you got lucky with a crate drop.
The core gameplay is still unchanged in Battlegrounds but you do have access to a lot more weapons than usual. Topping off at 65 weapons and utilities, 10 of which are completely new, the majority of your time will still be roping, jetpacking, and drilling to where you want to go to shoot your bazookas and other weapons at the enemy worms. Battlegrounds uses the new engine that was introduced with the last game, Revolution, that allows for some completely new mechanics and hazards such as advanced water physics and other puzzles. This new game engine actually allows for water to flow and pool that’s above the normal baseline of water that is normally instant death.
Also returning from Revolution is one of the bigger changes that the Worms games has had in the past decade, the inclusion of the classes for the worms, allowing specific types of worms to have special abilities. You know the Soldier already, as this is simply the basic worm that we’ve been controlling for almost twenty years. The scout is very tiny and is incredibly nimble. Scouts can jump very far, fit into smaller areas, and won’t set off mines, but they are also weaker than others when using weapons. Scientists have a massive forehead and because of this, they know how to heal themselves 5 health per turn and have access to some enhanced weapons. Lastly is the Heavy who is very slow, can’t jump very far, and won’t be running any marathons, but the flip side is that he can’t get knocked back very easily and he will inflict more damage with most of the base weapons. As you can see, finding the right blend of worm types to suit your play style is important, and if you’re like me and know how much damage certain weapons do per attack, it’s almost like learning all over again as it can change based on which worm you’re currently using.
Topping in at 65 total weapons, there’s a lot of new ones here that you’ll have to learn how to use efficiently. The ninja rope seems to have been slightly changed, and as an oldschool Worms-er, I found it near impossible to use quickly and efficiently like in the older games. There is now a teleport gun though that help with the quick traversing when needed and also doesn’t end your turn either. Classics like the Concrete Donkey and iconic Holy Hand Grenade all return along with a handful of new super weapons, while cool, took a bit of getting used to since I’ve been using all these other weapons for so many years and know exactly how they work.
The now expected map editor is included for those that wish to create perfect levels for their customized worm team. There is slightly more customization for the worms themselves in Battlegrounds, as you can choose hat, face accessory, gravestones, and of course, the voices bank for your team. Playing the Xbox One version of Battlegrounds will also allow you to use your phone or tablet with Smartglass to see your team’s stats on the second screen. Nothing groundbreaking and I was hoping for more, but at least it’s being used.
The real Worms experience comes when you either play locally with friends or online against some fierce competition. Included in Battlegrounds is your typical deathmatch and fort modes and support for your clan, even including a very basic emblem editor. Up to four players can play simultaneouslyas per the norm, but you can even set how many worms on a team and then which classes you want to play with as well. Though I found this out by accident while I was playing with the buttons waiting for a match to begin. Not everything is clearly labeled in the menus and how to set things up exactly how you want (like turn time, match time, etc).
The new engine does make the game look better overall, but it also has a nasty habit of blending the background and foreground objects together, making it very difficult at times to see what is in the way of your shot or not. Many times I fell, took damage, and sacrificed my turn because the background looked like it was a ledge on the playing field. One new improvement I really appreciated though was the way that it shows you if you’re going to hit something in front of you or not. Previously, you had to simply know and learn how close to the ground or object you can shoot without damaging yourself; now if you’re shooting and the aimer goes red, that means you’re going to damage yourself instead of making your intended action.
That being said, Battlegrounds still has the same issues that the past handful of game have had as well. Playing against the AI, you’ll be waiting a very long time for them to take their turn, and when they do it’s either completely moronic or with robot precision that no human player could ever make. The other big problem that keeps occurring with each Worms game, is that it feels like a very small incremental update (aside from the big changes that came with Forts and Revolution) rather than its own big release. Because the Worms games release so often, the community for each becomes fragmented and trying to find a game for one of the older titles can be impossible unless you set it up beforehand. Players never seem to stick with one of the titles for too long and the online multiplayer can become a ghost town pretty quickly since none of the Worms games can play with each other.
Being the Team17 and Worms fan that I am, I’ll always purchase whatever the new release is, but even I was shocked to see that Battlegrounds was released at a $25 price point. If you’ve never played Clan Wars or Revolution, Battlegrounds is definitely worth it, as it’ll feel like a completely new game and have a lot of new mechanics and weapons for you to learn. For those of us long time fans that has played every release, it’s a much harder sell as it does just feel like a slight upgrade from Revolution.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
I’m an only child without any siblings, but I’m sure if I did, I would too at times call brotherhood a curse. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a sequel to the 2010 release of Max and the Magic Marker and is at its core a 2.5D sidescrolling platforming game. We’ve seen plenty of platforming games done before, but what makes Max stand out among the rest is its interesting twist on the puzzle elements with his magic marker. It’s an interesting mechanic but with a lot of trial and error and stubborn controls, most of the time you’ll become frustrated rather than enjoying your time with Max. Max returns home from school one day only to find his younger brother in his room smashing his toys together and ruining them. Instantly annoyed, Max logs onto giggle.com to search for a spell to get rid of his brother Felix. A spell is found and Max reads the spell aloud, but once he does so a shadowy portal opens in his room and a giant claw reaches through, grabbing Felix and pulling him within. Max instantly regrets his decision and realizes the magnitude of the situation if his parents found out, so he follows Felix into the portal and is whisked away to another world completely.
As Max makes it through the portal into a bright and colorful new world, he sees Felix being taken away by a monstrous creature in the far distance. Here begins Max’s journey to save his brother and you quickly learn who’s behind the kidnapping and whom is going to help you along the way. As for a plot, there’s really not much more to it than that, as saving your brother is Max’s main goal and of course Max will face many trials and challenges along the way. With Max’s adventure isn’t terribly long anyways, you won’t become all too invested in the story but more so for the gameplay.
As Max’s journey begins, he has no weapons or abilities and simply needs to jump from place to place to get to where he wants to go. As he scales a massive tree but jumping from branch to branch he meets an old woman who informs him of who kidnapped Felix and that she will help him on his journey, though in a very peculiar way. As Max carries no weapons, he only has his empty marker from school in his bag, so the old lady puts her soul into the marker itself so that she can guide him along the way and help him in ways Max never knew possible. Max will still have to traverse the landscape by jumping and climbing, but once he has control of his magic marker, things change quite drastically.
As max progresses closer to finding his brother Felix, there will be specifically colored nodes on the landscape that allows Max to use his magic marker in a variety of ways to progress closer to saving his sibling. The game introduces these colored nodes at a decent pace and each one will allow Max to use the marker to extract special powers for each node. Holding the Right Trigger will take out the magic marker will have Max stand still and control it with the Right Stick. Not being able to move while controlling the marker usually isn’t a hassle, but there are times where Max is being chased or only has a few moments to draw what he needs before he is attacked.
Each new marker ability is slowly introduced, so that you become acclimated to each one and learn how to use them properly. An orange node will allow Max to use his marker to raise a pillar of earth to use as a platform or as a makeshift elevator to each higher ground. Dark green allows Max to create a tree branch to use as a platform, ladder, or even cut it off with the marker so he can push and pull it elsewhere to use. Light green nodes allow max to create vines which most of the time are used as a rope but can also tie and attach to the earth pillars or tree branches Max creates as well. Max can eventually also make water streams that allows Max to use them like a water slide, or to move objects in its path. Lastly, there’s also a node later in the game that can be used to shoot projectiles at enemies and obstacles based on the angle you draw from the node to your target.
Early on the puzzles are quite easy and it’s usually a matter of which order do use your marker, but in the latter half of the game it does becomes quite challenging at times as you’ll have to not only figure out which order of markers to use, but drawing them perfectly in time while either being chased to objects thrown at you. This is where a lot of the frustration starts to set in, as the drawing mechanics at times needs to be just perfect or else you’ll have to restart the whole puzzle process over again. If you don’t have a high tolerance for multiple deaths and restarting same sections repeatedly, you will become quite frustrated with the inaccurate marker controls and floaty jumping.
There are a bunch of extras that are hidden within the levels that add some extra time to the game if you want to find them all or are a completionist, but trying to find these are will be quite challenging, as collecting all of the world’s Evil Eyes are usually the most tricky puzzles to solve in each of the levels. That being said, like any good puzzle game, you get that great sense of accomplishment once you do figure out the puzzle you’ve been stumped on for the past fifteen minutes by dying and retying over and over.
The world Max is stuck in looks gorgeous and each individual world you’re trying to figure your way out of feels very distinct. The environment is detailed and the lighting in certain areas adds some great glows that makes it feel almost like a Pixar short at times. While Max: The Curse of Brotherhood doesn’t look as sharp or as pretty on Xbox 360 compared to the Xbox One version, it’s the same game at its core and if you’re a puzzle game fan and not upgraded to the One yet, help Max save his brother Felix now that you’re aware of its few shortcomings.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Watch Dogs
When Ubisoft announced Watch_Dogs for the first time back in 2012, it instantly caught the eye of many people, myself included, for its gorgeous visuals and intriguing gameplay based around hacking. Then just shortly before launch it got delayed six months to the disappointment of many, but here we are those six months later and Watch_Dogs finally exists for all of us to play. Ubisoft wanted us to believe that Watch_Dogs was going to change everything. So does it? Kind of…Watch_Dogs at its core is an open world action game, and essentially plays as if it’s one part Grand Theft Auto and one part Assassin’s Creed. The backdrop is Chicago, though drastically different from the one we know today in the real world. Chicago in the world of Watch_Dogs is hyper-connected with a new infrastructure network called ctOS. This allows everything from all technology, communication, traffic, security systems, and more to be accessed easily, even in unintended ways.
The ctOS system really shows how interconnected everything and everyone is when there’s only one infrastructure in place. I’m not sure whoever thought putting a whole city behind one accessible wall would be a good idea, but luckily it works out for the hero of Watch_Dogs, Aiden Pearce. If you watch the TV show Person of Interest, you’ll have an idea of what ctOS is capable of in the wrong hands. Sure ctOS may boast a better city for the average person, but in the wrong hands, the city can literally be used as a weapon.
Aiden Pearce is a talented hacker who is haunted by a past family tragedy. Naturally he blames himself and seeks revenge for what happened, and does so with his hacking abilities and using ctOS in ways that don’t seem all that unbelievable in today’s world. Aiden has taken a step back, away from his family, yet he still watches over them almost obsessively, even when they just want him to let it go and move on. That’s not good enough for Aiden, as he needs justice to move on, and will find the justice he seeks by taking matters into his own hands. Most people think of superheroes as someone from a comic book, but Aiden instead is just a normal guy with extraordinary hacking abilities that I would best describe as a blend of Max Payne and Batman. I can see Aiden’s personality not being pleasing for everyone, but I quite enjoyed seeing him slowly deal with his internal anger and extracting revenge in the way he only knows how.
Aiden not only knows how to hack seemingly almost anything, he can also defend himself up and close with his baton, or if need be, in a shootout with almost any firearm. Aiden will eventually gain access to quite a number of different traditional weapons, ranging from all your standard pistols, shotguns, rifles, snipers, and more. In most cases you can choose how you want to play; the stealthier type, the all-out action shooter, or a blend of both.
Chicago is a large city, and to get around Aiden will need some wheels to quickly get from place to place. Watch_Dogs has a large number of vehicles within that Aiden can either steal or order with his phone when needed. You’ll notice right away that driving feels very floaty, even more so than Grand Theft Auto, and every car seems to handle slightly different from one another, making it even harder to get used to. Some cars seems to handle very well and others you need to almost make a complete stop to take corners. Another oddity is the fact that Aiden can’t use a weapon while driving, at all. Maybe the justification is because he’s always trying to look at his phone at the same time (to change traffic lights and other barriers), but it becomes frustrating when you have a mission to take down a target in a car, but can’t actually shoot at them. Sure you can stop them by hacking the traffic system and causing something to happen in front of them such as changing the traffic lights or raising a bridge, but sometimes a simple shot would also suffice. You’ll also notice that the majority of the cars in Watch_Dogs are seemingly indestructible, even the very small economic vehicles that can take quite a beating.
Technology, specifically Aiden’s phone, is going to be your biggest weapon throughout the game. As you’ll always have your phone on, the ‘Profiler’ app is the one that you see in use constantly. This allows you to see in real time information on any character in the game that is nearby, all shown in a slick augmented reality way. Simply looking at any person in the world, and you have instant access to all of their information; habits, bank account, salary, phone calls, and more. Certain characters will allow you to hack into their bank account, with the single press of a button, and siphon some funds into your account which you can then go retrieve at any ATM. Your phone, coupled by hacking into ctOS, is also so mart that it can warn you ahead of time when a crime is about to happen, and you can then choose to go intervene or not. This plays into a Criminal or Vigilante mechanic in place which will either have cops more on the lookout for you or you being more discrete and citizens feeling safer in the city.
As mentioned above, you can choose to favor a stealthier playstyle if that suits you better, and frankly, it’s heavily encouraged given Aiden’s unique ability to hack into almost anything. Aiden can scale chest high walls and obstacles to traverse up onto ledges and rooftops, then also hack into any nearby security cameras and use them to set a plan of attack or even other tricks. If an enemy is carrying a cell phone, Aiden can cause it to ring or text, causing the enemy to be distracted and allowing him to sneak by unnoticed. Certain enemies also carry explosives on their persons which can also be remotely hacked and caused to detonate. There are other environmental ‘traps’ that can be used such as steam pipes, transistor boxes, and more that can be utilized as a weapon.
Very similar to Assassin’s Creed’s viewpoints that need to be scaled to unlock a portion of the map, Watch_Dogs has an almost identical system in place where Aiden needs to reach certain antenna towers that allows him to hack into ctOs for a specific district in Chicago. The catch with these towers though is that it’s not just as simple as traversing to the top of a building; instead you’ll have to hack into a security camera and daisy chain from one to another until you find specific objects to hack into, such as control panels, lifts, and door unlocks so that Aiden can even get to the tower. These are quite fun and I do wish there were some more of them in the city.
Like any respectable open world game, there’s a vast amount of side activities for you to partake in should you desire. There are a ton of smaller games to play, such as chess, poker, drinking games, and more, but there is even a fully-fledged Four Square-like check-in system in place where you can go to Chicago landmarks and try to become the mayor of that spot by subsequent check-ins. It may be something minor, but I found myself making many pit stops on the way to my bigger destination just to virtually check-in at a monument. What as my life turned into?
Certain spots in the city will also allow you to play some interesting augmented reality games such as Cash Run, where Aiden needs to run through Chicago collecting digital coins that only he can see while avoiding red skulls and under a time limit. The real fun minigames though are under the Digital Trips category. These are exactly as it sounds, as the real Chicago is transformed into a virtual world based on which Trip you’re playing. One Trip is essentially like playing the old Carmageddon game, mowing down demons in your car, another has Aiden bouncing from flower to flower for points high above the city, but the standout is easily the Spider-Tank, which you may have seen in one of the trailers. Here you’re controlling a massive Spider-Tank (as the name implies) and your goal is to simply cause as much destruction as possible. It’s brainless fun and is quite the distraction if you get tired of Aiden’s typical outings.
Unsurprisingly about an online hacking game, there is an online component to Watch_Dogs that allows for up to eight players in competitive and cooperative matches. Online Races seems basic at first, but it has the Watch_Dogs hacking twist to it. While the goal is to get from point A to B along a specific path, there are some shortcuts to be found and you can use your cell to hack traffic lights and blockades to use against your opponents, though you need to be careful when doing so, as if you do it too early you might actually block or cause yourself to crash.
Decryption mode is a lot more fun than I was expecting. Here two teams of up to four each (though I did have one match where it was a free for all) battle against each other in a small corner section of the city. The goal is to capture and hold onto important data and keep it away from the opposing team trying to steal it and keep it for themselves. At its core it may be a single flag CTF variant, but the unique twist put onto it is quite fun when you get a team of friends together and drive around with the data in a single car, defending against any pursuers. The more of your teammates that are within the ill cause the decryption to finish quicker and the same goes for the enemies. If the enemy has the data, you can steal it just by being close to them for a certain amount of time; the more of your team (in a single car for example) and it’ll steal quicker. It’s quite a thrill to be a driver while three of your teammates hang out the windows shooting at the enemies.
The highlight of the multiplayer modes though is easily the online one-on-one hacking. Very much reminiscent of the invasions from Dark Souls, here one player randomly joins another player’s game and attempts to install a backdoor virus on their phone. The hacker is disguised as a normal civilian and must hide within range of the player as the progress bar fills. The victim player must search through the crowd of NPCs, trying to weed out who the hacker is and stop them before it’s too late. If found, the hacker must try to get away before being killed and I’ve had quite a few memorable matches, being the hacker and the victim. There’s nothing quite like hiding hunched over in a car watching the victim frantically trying to find you as you speed away after completion. It should be noted that while all the mode in the Xbox One version are available, the only two missing from the Xbox 360 version is the Decryption and Free Roam modes due to hardware limitations.
Early in the game I was very conscious of whom I was hacking and actually thought about if I wanted to steal from their bank account or not. Sadly, there’s no moral meter or anything of the sort in regards to this, so there’s no reason not to other than your own personal morals. A few hours in I had no problems stealing money from a cancer patient, or a recent widow, or someone that made under 20k a year, because you know, it’s for the greater good…right? The same goes for the profiles of enemies, as maybe they are good people in a bad situation based on the ctOS information given, but none of it matters in relation to gameplay at all.
While Watch_Dogs is an open world game, more often than not, you’ll be playing out a scenario as Ubisoft intended for you to. Missions may be focused on stealth and hacking at first, but other times it will always end in a firefight, magically spawning enemies, or a car chase regardless of how you may have played the first section of the mission. If you hated the tailing missions from other games where you can’t be seen or else the mission fails, I’m sorry to tell you that there are certain missions like that here, most notably a prison escape mission that took me quite a few retries.
Also, don’t go in expecting the visuals that were shown off in the announcement two years ago. Even on next-gen, you’ll see a lot of pixelated shadows, low-res textures, empty areas, and random pop-in and hitching. The main characters all look decent, but there has been much better looking elsewhere. Oddly enough, the city looks its best at night when it’s been raining, as you’ll see puddles form and textures that actually look like it is wet. That being said, aside from the one very long load time when starting up the game initially, there’s virtually no load times with its massive open city.
In games like Grand Theft Auto, I’m usually very good and strict about staying on the path for the campaign without getting distracted, but I found myself almost constantly sidetracked in Watch_Dogs with the mass amounts of side events to be had, not even including the online component. Even though I wish the hacking was a little more in depth than a single button press, Ubisoft has done a great job at creating a believable world where a technology driven city can have its perks, but also shows what could be done with that power in the wrong hands. I truly hope to see a sequel one day and I really enjoyed the premise and can’t stop getting sucked into the most mundane activities within Watch_Dogs. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have another game of Poker to cheat…er, play.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Wolfenstein: The New Order
I was 11 when Wolfenstein 3D first released in 1992. It’s crazy to think that a game that not only started the FPS genre is still around be being rebooted for today’s gamers over two decades later. This time there’s a brand new developer behind the Wolfenstein reboot; Machine Games. You never really know what to expect from a brand new developer, especially when they are given the keys to one of the oldest and loved series. Fret not, as many of Machine Games’ staff have worked on other big games in the past and their experience shows in Wolfenstein: The New Order.It used to be that you could make a shooter game without any or very little story and no one would question it. That’s not the case today, as gamers want more for their time and money and want to be entertained with more than simply shooting anything in sight. Sometimes when a shoot-em-up FPS is made with a story trying to be attached, it usually doesn’t work very well, but with The New Order, Machine Games has found a blend that seems to meld story driven progression with classic mindless shooting in a meaningful way.
Oddly enough, The New Order is a reboot of the series, but also a continuation (as it takes place after the previous titles) in the canon storyline. Gone are the awkward powers and supernatural features from the previous game that I didn’t enjoy at all and in is a rawer futuristic alternate timeline instead.
So what would the world be like if Hitler and the Nazi’s won World War II? If you’ve ever pondered that, Wolfenstien: The New Order plays out that exact scenario. You begin in 1946 as longtime Wolfenstein protagonist Captain B.J. Blazkowicz during the war against the Nazi’s. Things are looking grim for the Allies as it seems the Nazi’s have had a sudden increase in technology and power, shifting the tide of war to the evil faction’s favor. General Wilhelm Strasse, whom you’ll remember from Return to Castle Wolfenstein as Deathshead, returns as Blazkowicz’s target, though things don’t go as planned and it seems B.J. has failed, along with the Allies in the war.
14 years later and B.J. finally awakens and gathers enough strength to become his old Nazi killing self. As you escape you quickly notice that things aren’t how you remember, which is because the Nazi’s have not only won World War II, but has brought every nation, even the United States of America, and oddly enough, the Moon to its knees with their ruthless power. Nazi Germany didn’t just win the war, they now essentially dictate over the whole globe. The only man who is able to right this wrong of course is Blazkowicz, but he will needs help along the way if he wants to stand a chance against the most fierce and brutal army in the new world. It’s not up to him to stop Deathshead.
What impressed me, even right away, with Blazkowicz is that he wasn’t simply a throwaway character with little depth. He is well written and acted and the small details put into the game itself give his character more of a human feeling rather than a simple indestructible super solider. While the intro level may drag on a little, you eventually learn more about him and the supporting characters, of which you’ll actually become invested in them and their story. It would have been simple to make The New Order a ‘kill every Nazi because they are evil’ type of story arch, which it is in a way, but there is more to it than that which I appreciated.
Like previous Wolfenstein games, The New Order uses a health and shield mechanic where your health doesn’t regenerate over time, but instead you need to find health packs scattered around the level. The same goes for shields, as you’ll have to (awkwardly) find fallen foes helmets and vests to replenish shields for yourself. It seems a little silly considering you pick up enemy helmets for shields, as I just kept picturing B.J. wearing helmets all over his body.
And what would a first person shooter be without its arsenal of weapons for you to use against your enemies. B.J. will eventually have access to a knife, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and more of the standards you come to expect, along with a few surprise weapons that give the alternate timeline some clout. Many weapons can be dual wielded if you desire, but since you’re always scrounging for ammunition it’s usually not worth doing so for the minimal gain in firepower. As a straight shooter game, The New Order doesn’t really do anything new to stand apart from any release these days, but that’s where the narrative comes into play. Though let it be known, pacing of the story can be dragged almost to a halt at times when you have to stop progressing to run around scrounging for ammunition before moving on.
Surprisingly, The New Order does have a skill progression tree, but it’s done in a new and unique way that I’ve not seen done many times. Instead of gaining experience and then spending points on perks and abilities you want like in most games, instead you’ll unlock new abilities by completing certain tasks in-game. Killing a certain amount of Nazi’s with grenades, getting headshots, stealth kills, and more is how you’ll gain these new abilities and is done in a smart way that encouraged experimentation.
Speaking of stealth, it does play a big part in The New Order, actually more than I was expecting. While it’s not always forced, you can tell that certain sections were designed around the stealth elements and is done decently. While not great, decent really is the best term I would use, as it gets the job done, but instantly shows the questionable AI that apparently can’t see a comrade die beside or right behind them, allowing you to kill many enemies without much effort.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is filled with nostalgic elements that fans of the series will instantly recognize and appreciate. From B.J. and Deathshead returning to even having a typical castle level included like each of the previous Wolfenstein games, there’s a lot of cool Easter eggs to be found for the players that know their stuff. Many levels have hidden areas that tie into a dual-timeline that is determined by you early in the game. Your choice will determine if you can hotwire electronics or pick locks, allowing you to access certain hidden areas or not, deepening on which playthrough you are experiencing. Lastly, there is even a hidden Wolfenstein 3D level for fans of the original to have some nostalgia as well.
Visually, I was actually quite impressed with the Xbox One version. Most of the characters and textures do look quite good, but you’ll see the odd lower res texture that looks out of place. It doesn’t scream next-gen, but it does look quite decent. I was actually more impressed on the audio front. All of the characters were actually voiced very well, even when delivering some of the cheesy lines. The soundtrack though did its job at getting me pumped for the action sequences with some hard rock that set the tone and mood. The only audio negative I would mention is that the weapons sound very bland and because of it doesn’t’ feel impactful aside from one or two specific weapons like the shotgun.
While the blend of shooting and narrative was the positives, I did have a few issues that bugged me that needs to be addressed. The biggest annoyance I had from beginning to finish was the fact that you don’t pick up ammo and armor by simply walking over it. You need to spam the X button to pick up everything you see, which becomes tiresome, especially during firefights as you need to take your thumb off of the right stick to hit the X button. Also, you seems to start almost every level without any weapons, even though you just amassed a huge amount of weaponry in the previous level. Lastly, there is no single player component at all. While normally I wouldn’t knock a game for not having it, the multiplayer from Return to Castle Wolfenstein is still one of my favorite multiplayer games to date and they’ve not been able to recreate that experience since. While there’s no multiplayer, the two timelines warrant a second playthrough if you’re worried about your bang for buck.
To be honest, I was thrown off the series after the previous Wolfenstein game and was completely expecting a slapped together ‘kill all Nazi’s’ storyline. Instead, I got a well fleshed out narrative with some decent shooting mechanics to back it up and feel safe recommending it as I enjoyed my dozen hour playthrough start to finish.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Super Time Force
It is common knowledge that if we had the power to go back in time and change things, we probably shouldn’t, as who knows what the outcome would be in the future. The smallest change in the past could vastly change the present. Apparently the members of Super Time Force didn’t get this memo. If you’ve not heard of Super Time Force, it’s essentially a platforming shooter, akin to the days of Contra, but with an awesome twist; you get to control time and use it to your advantage. The quote on the official website for the game truly describes the game best: “Super Time Force isn’t what would happen if Braid and Contra had a baby: Super Time Force is what would happen if Braid and Contra had a party!” Remember how difficult Contra was, even with the infamous code for 30 lives? What if when you died in the game, you could rewind time and try again, but the ghost of your previous attempt was shooting alongside you? That’s the premise of Super Time Force, and it’s an awesome single player co-op experience, if that makes sense. When you first play Super Time Force, it may seems like an 8-bit stylized version of Contra or Metal Slug, but once you grasp the time manipulation and work it for your advantage, the game plays completely differently than you might have expected.
In the 1980’s, Dr. Repeatski finally solves the puzzle of time travel, and almost instantly, he is confronted by Colonel Repeatski, the cooler version of himself from an alternate timeline. Because of time travel, America is overrun by angry robots and he puts together a squad of badasses to set things right again. Your goal is to erase events from history that were mistakes and make the world a better place for everyone. Your time travel abilities will be used to fulfil some silly goals, such as going into the 31st century so that Repeatski can obtain all of his browser updates and plug-ins so he can watch cat videos. Yes, you read that right.
Super Time Force is filled with comedy gold. With a nonsensical story, hilarious jokes, and puns so bad you have to laugh, the dialogue is hilarious and will put a smile on your face, as will fighting some of the unique bosses, and even some of the characters names like Jef Leppard and Shieldy Blockerson.
With each level, you’re only given 60 seconds and 30 lives to complete it. While 60 seconds sounds very short, they will play out longer than that with collectable +10 second pickups, and you’ll be rewinding time, quite a lot. 30 lives might seem like a lot for a whole level, but you’ll be using quite a lot of those just to make it to the end of each level in time.
When you die, or willingly end your life, you can rewind time as far back as you wish, from a few moments, to even the beginning of the level. When you do this, the characters life that just ended fights alongside you, replaying the exact path and shooting you just performed with them. So now you have double the firepower as before. Rewind time again and now you’ll have three of yourself playing alongside each other with a new run. Once you become well versed with the mechanic, you can send a character off to a corner or secret area to get a collectable, then rewind time and continue on like normal as your last ghost goes and gets that collectable as you progress forward, not wasting time. It does take a few levels to truly get the hang of it properly, but once you do it becomes a lot of fun using time travel to your advantage.
You begin the game with only three members in the Super Time Force; Aimy Mckillin, Jean Rambois, and Shieldy Blockerson. You can find extra characters throughout the game as you progress, each with their own special attacks and abilities. Using the right character at the right time is key to progressing through levels and making it in under the 60 second time limit. Many times you’ll even purposely rewind time, as you get to choose any character when you respawn and sometimes you need a different weapon for a specific situation. Using Aimy’s charged up sniper rifle can shoot through walls, or using Jean’s spread shot can take out many weak enemies. Finding the right combination of characters and weapon abilities for each situation is where much of the fun and strategy comes into play.
The Time Out ability is what makes Super Time Force stand out from other games and allows you to do the rewinds in time. Sometimes you’ll want to rewind just a few seconds before to correct a mistake, but other times you might want to purposely start from the beginning of the level to have more firepower from the beginning, as every time you use Time Out, the previous run plays alongside you. Teaming up with yourself becomes natural and you can amass quite a lot of firepower when multiple versions of you are all shooting alongside each other.
If you’re able to prevent a death of your past self (that you’re now playing alongside with), you can actually pick up them much like a collectable (because that version of yourself didn’t get any further, since that’s when you rewound…. Following?). If you save yourself, you gain an extra hitpoint and when you fire your weapon, it will be combined with the weapon the character you just saved as well. You can keep doing this for as many lives as you have if you really want a super weapon, especially for boss rights. You’re going to die a lot, but that’s half of the strategy, as having an army of yourself fighting alongside you becomes absolute chaotic fun.
While it’s fun to rewind time over and over, gaining more versions of yourself to fight alongside, doing the same section, or even level, over twenty times can feel like a chore at times. While levels seem impossible at first, not just with the time limit and enemies on screen, it becomes quite easy to roll through once you have a dozen version of yourself on screen at once. Because the levels are laid out in a specific pattern, you’ll learn each area and enemy, especially since you’ll most likely be repeating the same area over and over. It eventually becomes evident that you’ll pass a level no problem with sheer brute force rather than finesse, though there are a plethora of collectables, many very hidden and only show up when you remind time, for those that do want a challenge.
The awesome retro visuals and whacky humor will most likely grab your attention initially, but the core game mechanics is what makes Super Time Force stand out and become memorable. Even with its very short campaign, only a couple hours start to finish, I still recommend it, and hope that games of this caliber is what we’re going to see in the future with the ID@Xbox program.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
You know it’s the blockbuster movie season when the accompanying game also gets a release alongside. The fact of the matter is that nine times out of ten, the movie tie-in game simply isn’t that good, due to being rushed or having nothing to do with the movie itself. There are exceptions to this rule, as a few movie based games have been quite good; I just wish I could say the same for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.For a game that’s supposedly supposed to be based on the newest movie release (which I did enjoy and recommend), almost everything in the game has nothing to do with the movie’s plot aside from a few key parts. Don’t expect any of the characters or voices to sound like their counterpart from the movie, actually, don’t even expect to see Gwen Stacy at all or very much of Electro. I was expecting a slightly different take on the movie’s events, but you get something completely different in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was able to stand on its own legs and not fall flat like a squished spider.
Since The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s plot is nothing like the movie storyline, you instead get a plot that in the beginning starts off decently and quite interesting, but then degrades into a mess with very thin web-lines attaching each plot point to the next. The game begins with the death of Uncle Ben, clearly Peter Parker’s defining moment, and Spider-Man is on the hunt for his killer. As it turns out, Cletus Kasady, dubbed the Carnage Killer, is a serial killer on the loose, and Spider-Man is trying to stop him. If this was the overlaying story arc, I would have been interested throughout the 7-10 hour playthrough, but as it turns out, the story starts to bounce around all over the place. It’s as if the developers wanted to cram in as many of the bigger villains they could in the game without a main plot line to explain why. One minute you’re hunting the Carnage Killer, then meeting Kingpin, then Black Cat, and wrapping it up with Carnage again. While I enjoyed seeing all these (and more) supervillans, there was absolutely no plot reason for them to all be there, nor any explanation to tie it all together.
Beenox decided to include certain dialogue sequences where Peter Parker, or Spider-Man, gets to choose from multiple options of what to ask or say, but the problem here is that there’s absolutely no consequences for any of your choices, so you can either ask each question or none and still have the same outcome. If the voice acting wasn’t as bad as it was, maybe it would be able to be taken a little more seriously, but alas, it’s something left to be desired.
If there’s one great thing that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has going for it though, is its web slinging traversal system. Getting Spidey around the city feels fluid and natural, though, that is once you get used to it. It did take me a few hours to really get the hang of it to be quick and fluid, but once you do, getting around is painless and looks awesome while doing so. Improved from previous games, your web lines are mapped to the Left and Right triggers, depending on which arm you want to swing with. The other part of the swinging formula is that you’ll actually have to have a building or something to swing from; gone are the days swinging from invisible clouds. Swinging also carries Spidey’s momentum, and the longer you hold onto your web before letting go, the higher arc you will have. When you become proficient as Spidey himself swinging around, you’ll quickly be swinging low to the ground, almost seemingly through traffic itself. Being able to jump off a skyscraper then swing forward just before you hit the ground feels great, as does taking corners with using the proper momentum and web arm.
A mechanic that came of quite a shock though was the inclusion of a Hero / Menace meter. This is how the game pressures you into doing its boring and repetitive side missions. As you do these side missions and save citizens, the meter will fill to the Hero side. Wait too long or ignore these side missions and it will dip towards the menace side. While an interesting idea in general, it’s not done very well and simply makes you want to ignore the missions as there’s never enough time to race to each side mission before another one fails. Become a “menace” and a special Task Force will keep an eye out for Spider-Man, making your life even harder. Apparently if you don’t save each person the city looks at you as a menace, so what’s the point of helping since there’s no real consequence? Even after you complete the game, this terrible system is still implemented.
And this is where we get to the side missions themselves. Many games use side missions to add extra content or side stories to enhance the game, whereas others like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 have them to add fluff and pad the time onto your playthrough. They try to distract you from the main story, but after you’ve done one of the different types of missions, they all get repeated with very small variants. You’ll have to beat up bad guys, stop carjackings, save civilians from fires, and more. None of which you’ll want to repeat over and over, which the game tries to get you to do.
In the beginning of the game I was attempting to complete every side mission, as I thought the Hero / Menace meter actually weighed into the game itself somehow. Once you realize it doesn’t, there’s really no reason to do them other than the accompanying achievements to be had. Doing them or not doesn’t’ change the story in any way and even with a full menace meter, you’re only slightly hindered on your way to the next story mission checkpoint. No matter how many mission you try and complete to be the hero, there will be two or three others failing at the same time, never making it easy to stay the hero. The fact that you’ll hear the same one-liners after every mission and have to watch the same news reports after each as well doesn’t help the fact that you’ll become very bored doing them repeatedly.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and it’s clear that combat in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is trying to mimic that of Batman from the Arkham games. While this isn’t a bad thing, combat and enemies in Spidey’s game doesn’t have anywhere near the same depth, so it falls flat. For the majority of battles, you’ll simply spam the attack button, only needing to dodge once you see Spidey’s senses tingling above his head to avoid being hit. Later in the game there are enemies that will need a slightly different approach, such as stunning with a web blast, or shooting off enemy armor before attacking, but even these harder enemies are very few and far in between. Sadly, the same goes for boss battles, and none of them are very challenging aside from a larger health bar and spawning a few grunts to distract you mid battle.
If you’re able to sneak up on your opponents, either from behind or above, then you can perform a stealth takedown move in one shot. This is great when it works, but you aren’t given any meter or way to tell how close you need to be to each enemy until he glows the right purple color, making it complete guesswork. Couple in the fact there are a few sections in the game where you have to be stealthy and unseen, and some serious frustration starts to set in once you restart the same area for the tenth time.
As you beat up the bad guys, complete missions, find floating comic books, and more, you’ll earn experience for Spider-Man, based on what suit he’s wearing at the time. That’s right, you eventually get a wardrobe full of unique and classic Spider-Man suits from the comics over the years, though unfortunately to get them you need to do the aforementioned stealth missions. As you earn experience, certain aspects of whichever suit you’re wearing will become stronger. The problem with this system is that once you level a suit to its Max, there’s no incentive to switch to another unless you like its look or want to level it up for the challenge.
I can’t fault Beenox for trying to cash in on the popularity that the film is going to have, it’s just a shame that aside from the web swinging, there’s very little substance within that will keep you playing after you defeat the final (and disappointing) boss. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels like the same game that I played many years ago. You’ve essentially play this game before, and even on Xbox One, it doesn’t look even close to next-gen at all; it simply looks old.
Swinging around New York is very fun and satisfying, I just wish the rest of the game was of the same quality. Even if you’re a huge Spider-Man fan, this game is far from Amazing. If I was to rate this on the game’s Hero / Menace scale, let’s just say Spider-Man wouldn’t be viewed as the hero he so desperately tries to be.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Child of Light
You know that excited feeling you get when it’s a game release day that you’ve been anticipating for quite some time and the day can’t go by quick enough so you can go home and play it? That day came for me a few days ago when Child of Light arrived to review. If you’ve been following the game at all, you’ve seen the fantastic job Ubisoft has been doing with new videos and previews to showcase the game. If you’ve not been following along, I suggest you do so as it’s got some of the most beautiful artwork you’ll see in a digital release. Child of Light at its core is a traditional JRPG, though it’s done everything it can to get away from the clichés that tend to go along with the genre. Oddly enough, Child of Light is actually comes to us from the team behind Far Cry 3, coupled with the UbiArt Framework engine, which helped Rayman Origins look so lively and memorable. If JRPG’s generally aren’t your thing, I still suggest looking into Child of Light, as it doesn’t follow the normal stereotypical story that is bloated and drags on for 40+ hours, but instead pay homage to the earlier roots of the genre that many of us grew up with and made us love the genre. It’s not often a game come around that feels special and will have a long lasting impression; this is one of those games.
You play as Aurora, a young girl from Austria in 1895 who one day becomes ill and falls asleep. When she awakes, she realizes she’s not at home with her father whom she loves dearly, but instead in the world of Lemuria. In the real world, Aurora seems to be dead, yet somehow she lives as well. In the world of Lemuria, the Black Queen has stolen the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and if Aurora wants to reunite with her father the Duke, she is now responsible for recovering these and returning Lemuria to its former glory and peace.
Aurora comes across an adorable firefly named Igniculus, whom seems to have been sent to help her on her quest and repair Lemuria. Along your journey you’ll meet other characters that will join and help Aurora as well, each of which are very unique and memorable, though some of these personas are completely skippable and missable, so Aurora should be searching everywhere possible to garner these friendships and have their aid on your quest. Interestingly, all of the dialogue in the game is spoken in rhyme, even including the seldom spoken narrator. It gives a poetic quality to the game, and coupled with the remarkable visuals, it really looks like it’s a fairy tale book that you would read to your children and gives a storybook quality that is very unique. There is even a character you’ll meet that doesn’t seem to know how to rhyme, but Aurora and Igniculus will correct him, making the rhyming flow continue uninterrupted; it’s quite clever.
Child of Light’s backdrop is a 2D plane that Aurora navigates, though some objects, especially her hair, flow as if they are in 3D, making for an interesting visual track to make her pop from the screen. Heavily influenced from past Final Fantasy’s, and even more so Grandia II, the combat takes place on a 2D plane as well, just like the classic RPG’s we grew up with. If you’ve played Grandia II before, you’ll feel right at home with the combat system, as it uses an active action bar with a wait and act section, which will have to be used very strategically during the boss battles. Your team, Aurora plus one other character (not including Igniculus), and the enemies on field show on this time gauge bar at the bottom, showing when each characters turn is going to take place as it races from the wait to act side of the bar.
If you attack an enemy while they are in the short act section of the bar (and don’t miss), they will become interrupted and have their progress on the battle gauge set backwards a certain amount. Be careful though, as the same can happen to your team as well, so learning when to defend or be aggressive becomes an integral part of successful battles, as you don’t want to lose your turns. Naturally the more powerful attacks and spells take much longer to prepare and execute, so you’ll need to weigh and calculate your time on the combat bar to make strategic choices. You’ll need to keep an eye on your battle meter constantly and some of the battles become quite tense, especially when there are multiple enemies and a boss.
This is where Igniculus comes into play. Since he’s a firefly that can fly around freely on the battlefield, he also has a few abilities that will not only greatly help Aurora in battle, but will become absolutely necessary as you progress further against tougher enemies. Aurora’s little light can blind enemies, causing their timer on the battle meter to become much slower. This allows you to manipulate turn orders for enemies and your team to have the upper hand. Most of the time you’ll want to blind the enemies to make their turns slower, but sometimes you’ll want to be strategic and let them get to the act section of the battle meter so that you can purposely interrupt their actions, setting them back further. Igniculus can also use his own light meter (that replenishes slowly in time) to heal your team if needed in an emergency. There are even plants in battle that can be activated with Igniculus that provide some health and magic orbs to assist you in battle. You’ll learn quite early on that he’s just as important in battle as Aurora, if not more, to be successful.
At a top level, the Child of Light’s combat system is essentially basic, but the more you play and learn about it, you’ll learn the smaller nuances and intricacies that really make it a fun system to engage in. Usually to level in RPG’s you need to slog your way through a grind, but in Child of Light, I was looking for every enemy to fight as I really enjoyed the combat system. Once you learn the complexities of when to strike, defend, swap members, and how to use Igniculus to his full potential, you’ll have no problem in combat, even in the more difficult boss battles, allowing you to dictate the flow of combat how you see wish.
What would an RPG be without an interesting upgrade system to go along with it? Child of Light boasts a surprisingly need upgrade system for combat skills and crystals called Oculi which can be crafted into more powerful version and slotted into your equipment, allowing for further customization. The skill tree is unique for each character in your team and is surprisingly expansive. Multiple branching trees of skills has you choose which abilities, passives, and stat upgrades you want to focus on as you level up, and as you get to the latter half of the game, the expands even further, requiring you to save up precious skill points to get the most powerful version of our abilities.
While Child of Light is primarily a narrative driven single player game, I was shocked to see that there is a cooperative component included as well, and not just something as simple as a sidekick. While the main player controls Aurora, if you choose to use a second player, that player will then control Igniculus, which makes things much easier on the first player to focus on what else needs to be done. Rather than a throwaway sidekick, player tow actually has some real responsibilities and can contribute in exploration and combat.
When not in combat and exploring the world, Aurora is often blocked physically by walls and other objects, unable to reach chests and other items; this is where Igniculus comes in, as he’s not bound by the same restrictions Aurora is and can float around the world at ease, reaching anything in sight (though he can’t pull levers). While playing solo, all of this is possible with the right stick alone, having this cooperative option really allows you to enjoy Child of Light with a friend or child in a meaningful way that may not be as adept at gaming as your skills are. While it wasn’t necessary, it’s certainly appreciated and a welcome addition for those that do want to play with someone as well.
I cannot boast enough how gorgeous the artwork and visual are in Child of Light. The UbiArt Framework engine looks as if an artist can draw sketches or paint watercolor, then have that translate directly into the game itself. That is exactly how the world of Lumuria appears as well, making for a stylized watercolor looking backdrops with vibrant and amazing colors throughout. Even the character animations look fluid and unique, as Aurora needs to swing her hefty sword with her whole body, and when she gets hit, her crown falls off her head as she goes to pick it up. The world as a whole feels rich with life and I truly suggest just stopping now and then to admire the artwork when playing, as it’s truly stunning and looks like a fairy tale.
I can say the same for the game’s audio as well. The music is very fitting with the theme and tone of the game and I find myself humming some of the main songs even after turning it off after playing. The soundtrack consists of beautiful piano and flute instrument melodies that seems to capture of the correct tone of what’s happening in any moment. As mentioned above, Child of Light’s dialogue is all done in rhyme, and when the narrator speaks, it’s actually spoken. The bulk of the dialogue is text only and needs to be read, which isn’t a negative, though I wish it was spoken as well as the poetry throughout is just as beautiful.
There aren’t many games where I want to explore every nook and cranny of the world, as I always have something in my gaming queue to play next, though I found that to be irresistible with Child of Light. Rather than rush to the next objective and area, I was checking every corner and trying to uncover every secret Lumuria had to share. If there’s a path off to the side, you’ll always want to explore it to find its hidden secrets and bonuses.
Child of Light boasts spectacular visuals, memorable soundtrack, meaningful co-op, and a simple yet deep battle system to go along with an interesting story that I really didn’t want to end. I don’t know if that whole ‘video games can’t be art’ argument is still going on, but if it is, I believe Child of Light should be used to prove that they can be. It’s not often you get a game that comes along that truly feels special and that I will remember for years; Child of Light is one of those games. I implore you to purchase and enjoy it, as it’s quickly gone very high up on my favorite-games-of-the-year-so-far list.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut
Xbox One finally has its first Indie game through the anticipated ID@Xbox program: Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut. What makes this such a success story also is that the game was originally launched on PC, though only after a successful Kickstarter. More than four thousand people backed the game and the $100,000 goal was almost doubled. If you’ve played the PC version, know that in the Director’s Cut, there are new textures, lighting, missions, and even the ships have been tweaked to look even better. It seems the space shooter genre has really dwindled in the past few years, as the last few good ones are quite dated now. If you’re looking to scratch your space shooting itch and loved Homeworld, Wing Commander, or Freelancer, you might just want to look into Strike Suit Zero. While it’s far from perfect, Strike Suit Zero definitely fills the gap in a thinning genre and may have you overlook some of its shortcomings in turn for some freeform space flying.
Even in the year 2299, a civil war continues to threaten Earths destruction. You are pilot Adams, a voiceless protagonist that is thrust into a situation where Earth chances of survival rest on your shoulders. To do so you’ll have to trust an AI that seems to hold many secrets and wants to have you follow her orders. You’re given control of a unique ship called the Strike Suit. This unheard of technology allows you to not only pilot it much like a normal space ship, but also has the ability to transform into a Gundam-like suit that is lethal against any enemies.
With this Director’s Cut, not only do you get all 13 missions from the original release, but there are also five standalone missions that you get to play that is meant to flesh out the story a little better and explain a few key moments in historic battles. The campaign will have you flying in many regions of deep space, but it’s not the completely black space that you may normally think of. Instead, Strike Suit Zero is actually a quite vibrant and colorful game that has some very artistic backdrops that are a wonder to just admire.
As for the campaigns mission structure, I wish that I could say it was done as well. Instead, you’ll be bouncing around from dogfights, to escort missions, to protect missions, to more escort missions, and then finished off with another escort mission. Each level plays out very similar, which I’ll get into below, but the poor writing and poorer voice acting doesn’t help keep you interested either. There aren’t many cutscenes aside from the constantly used ‘enemy slip spacing into our region’ and the majority of the dialogue and story is given through radio chatter. Needless to say, you most likely won’t be playing Strike Suit Zero for its story, but the gameplay and genre instead.
Being that Strike Suit Zero is a space combat shooter, you’ll be engaging enemy fighters, ships, capital fleets, and more. At times you’ll be facing dozens of enemies at a time or some massive cruisers that can quickly destroy you if you don’t strategize your attack plans. This is where piloting your Strike Suit will come in and keep you alive.
The Strike Suit has the unique ability to switch between regular ship mode and its Strike Mode that makes you feel like you’re playing something straight out of Gundam. Once you get the hang of the controls, not only for the game and aiming, but specifically how to utilize the Strike Suit to your maximum potential, it can become quite fun. Strike Suit mode allows you to instantly lock onto enemies, launch a massive array of missiles, and quite maneuver in or out of combat.
To transform your ship into Strike Suit mode though, you need to build up Flux Energy by shooting and destroying enemies and targets in your regular pilot mode. Once you have a certain amount of Flux Energy in the reserves, you can transform whenever you like. Instead of the typical time-based meter that depletes, instead your Flux meter will essentially turn into your ammo counter for Strike Suit mode. This allows you to almost endless fly in your Strike Suit, but you want to use your ammunition efficiently so that you can take out as many enemies as possible before being forced back into your regular ship mode.
It is going to take you a few missions to get used to the awkward controls in Strike Suit Zero. It took me about four or five missions before I really got the hang of it and didn’t have to think about what I wanted to do before doing so. I wasn’t fond of the default controls initially, so I tried another set, but those weren’t working for me either. I eventually settled on setting everything back to default, but even after a few hours into the game, it still feels awkward. Unfortunately there’s no options to change specific buttons to the way you would want to play with, but are instead forced into one of the few preset options for controls. That being said, once you get over this very steep learning curve, you can begin to pull off some awesome looking maneuvers and tactics.
The main campaign has thirteen missions, though aside from the final mission, almost all of them feel very similar to each other. Essentially most of the missions will come down to ‘kill everything before you die’, ‘protect this asset’, and ‘escort this ally’. It becomes very predictable a few missions in and you know that as soon as you’re done your main objective, a fleet of enemy ships are going to warp into your sector and you’ll have to take them all out to proceed. Sadly at times, it just becomes boring. The five extra missions included in this Director’s Cut are a little more interesting, but are incredibly much more difficult as well. I actually wasn’t able to complete them, as the checkpoint system frustrated me greatly (more on that shortly). Eventually missions will boil down to throwing a ton of enemies at you while you need to perform some objective on a massive structure, where trying to stay alive is the hardest task of all.
Pacing and difficulty greatly fluctuate, as some levels are a simple cakewalk and the next will have you retrying multiple times. The worst culprit though is the final level. I’m not going to spoil anything, but when you’re playing a game for a handful of hours, slowly learning new tactics, generally the final level is the culmination of everything you’ve learned up to that point. Not here, as the final level is nothing like the game up to that point. Factor in a nonexistent checkpoint system and you’ll become frustrated very quickly if you make it to that point. Speaking of checkpoints, I took great issue with them in Strike Suit Zero. In the early stages of the game you’re given a healthy amount of checkpoints should something terrible happen. In the latter half of the game though, they are very infrequent and when, not if, you die, you will have to redo complete sections, sometimes losing a half hour of progression.
The soundtrack is done quite well, and while it may not be completely memorable, it definitely set the tone of the missions and completely fit the setting. Your standard audio effects are what you’d expect from an Indie game, along with its mediocre visuals. It’s a mixed bag though, as the backdrops and color visuals are at times gorgeous, but the texture and ship models look quite dated and very blocky and unimpressive. I understand it’s an Indie game funded from Kickstarter, but the ships seems to stick out like a sore thumb against the beautifully drawn space backgrounds.
Even with some major slowdown and framerate issues when some massive explosions occur, I still had fun for the most part with Strike Suit Zero. Once I learned the tricks to controlling the Strike Suit well the game seemed to play quite differently once I didn’t have to think about the controls any longer. The problem is that you have to stick with it until that point, and that takes time and patience. While it may be flawed, there aren’t many games in this genre these days and it will mostly likely fill that craving you have for a decent space shooter.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Kinect Sports Rivals
When most people think of Kinect based games, they probably envision some form of dancing and/or flailing your arms around. On the Xbox 360, you had to just have the right setup, enough floor space, and perfect lighting if you wanted many of the games to work perfectly as intended. There were a handful of games that worked quite well with Kinect though, as long as you had the appropriate amount of floor space to play properly. Now with the inclusion of the new and improved Kinect 2.0 in every Xbox One box, Kinect Sports Rivals (KSR) has finally arrived and will possibly answer many questions you may have had about its improvements from the previous generation camera. While there have been a handful of Xbox One games that do make use of Kinect, Kinect Sports Rivals is really the first true Kinect exclusive title since launch that Microsoft has to really prove what the new Kinect can do and that it was a wise choice to include one in with every console purchase. After quite a bit of time playing with it and learning the smallest nuances, it’s safe to say that KSR makes incredible use of the newly updated Kinect and if you were a big fan of the original Kinect Sports and Season 2, there are some new tricks for you to learn as well.
While the core of KSR is a sports game designed to better your times and scores and challenge your friends, there is a story included here as well. You’re the newest Champion to The Island, the beautiful backdrop where all these sporting events take place. Being the newest recruit, you’re quickly introduced to the three factions that are all biding for control of The Island and the best athletes on their team, you.
Blake and Carmen make up the Eagle Legion, determined to play with absolute honor and being the best with sportsmanship and skill. Wolf Clan is represented by Vargu and Eve and are fierce competitors, so much so that they can even sometimes clash with each other’s leadership. Last up is the Viper Network, controlled by Zara and Max. They are the modern chic team that will do anything to win; anything.
Coach is whom you’ll initially meet as you arrive to The Island, voiced by William Hope, and he will be the one to motivate you and initially teach you how to properly play each of the six included sports. As you progress further and complete more events, you’ll eventually be poised with choosing one of the three teams to join, so choose wisely the team that best represents you. Go Team Viper!
If you’ve played the previous Kinect Sports titles then you’ll feel right at home with three of the events; Bowling, Tennis, and Soccer. They return alongside three new sports for you to master as well; Climbing, Wake Racing, and Target Shooting. But there’s something awesome you need to do before you even play your first sporting event; put yourself into the game.
KSR uses the power of the new Kinect hardware to make a digitized version of yourself and put it into the game, called your Champion. The first step will be to stand in front of the camera as it scans your body and then you get closer so that it can do the same for your face. This is where the magic happens, as it will get you to tilt and move your head in different directions to learn as much as your face as it can before digitizing it. I have to be honest, this is probably my favorite part about all of KSR. Champion creating is probably the more fun aspect about the whole game and it’s quite accurate. It got my beard and hair just right and you could easily tell that my Champion was me. If you want to edit certain aspects or features about your Champion though, you can do so as well by changing the body type, hair, facial hair, glasses, and more. Again, it’s downright impressive how accurate the Champion creator is and even though it’s a stylized cartoon representation of yourself in the game, it really is you.
So let’s move onto the six sports included in KSR that your Champion will be competing in. First up is Wake Racing. Here you pretend you’re actually on a jet-ski and steer as if you were pushing and pulling the handle bars, not like a steering wheel. To accelerate you close your right fist and can even lean to the side for those very sharp turns when you don’t want to let go of the gas (by opening your clenched hand). Hit a ramp or a large wave and you can do front and backflips by simply learning forward or backwards. Combine that with letting go of the handle bars and you can amass some sweet style tricks for more fans. While most people will play standing up, Wake Racing is one of the sports that can be fully played by sitting down as well if you want a slightly more relaxing session.
One of the classics from the previous games, Bowling, returns much improved. One of the easiest sports to play is now even more accurate and gives you much finer control with the bowling balls. Since Kinect can now see open and closed hands and wrist movements in much more detail, the smallest angles and release times will make a big difference in your quest to score 300, much like in real life. Grab a ball, stand where you prefer in the lane, then bowl just as you would in real life, even adding a mass amount of spin if you have the skill to do so accurately.
Climbing is one of the newer sports included in KSR. Essentially rock climbing, you will be scaling the side of a structure with predesigned paths laid out for your Champion. You reach above your head open handed, clench your fist, and then pull down past your chest. Repeat with the other hand, just as you climb in real life, and that’s how the climbing events work. You’ll need to manage your stamina gauge and can even jump for a big boost if the gaps are too large for your arms to reach. Careful of the other competitors on the same facing though, as they’ll try and pull you off, making you lose precious time. The later courses become quite challenging, and while there’s always an ‘easy’ path paid out with green hand and footholds, if you think you have the skill, you can take the shorter but more difficult ‘red’ route that has many less holds to be used and even ones that will break after a few seconds if you don’t keep progressing upwards.
Soccer returns in KSR but has been slightly tweaked for better accuracy and better ‘wow’ moments. While you may not be running the field from one end to the other, it plays just like the previous instalment where you pass from attacker to attacker until you are able to take a powerful shot on goal when in range. This improved version in KSR now allows you to choose the direction and height of the ball to get to your final attacker before scoring a head-butt or powerful kick goal. The improved leg tracking is very noticeable when you need to lob the ball over a defender and not simply pass when he’s not blocking your teammate.
Target Shooting has you holding out your arm and hand like you pretend you’re holding a gun, holding your cursor over the target you want to shoot for a brief moment. You don’t need to pull the trigger or make any shooting gestures, just simply hover over the intended target for a moment and it will shoot it. This becomes quite difficult once your targets start moving, or need to be shot in sequence or within a certain amount of time for the most points. There is a barrier between you and your opponent, each shooting your own targets, but at times the targets may go above the top of the barrier, and this is the time where you can steal your opponent’s targets to add to your own score. There’s even a mechanic in place that eventually allows you to activate a turret on your opponents side of the barrier that will try and shoot him to stun him, where he needs to dodge (by leaning) to avoid getting hit, though still trying to shoot his targets.
The last sport included in KSR is the return of Tennis. Like the previous iteration, you’re not really running from one court side to the other to chase the ball, but instead choosing to slice, hit, lob, or smash the ball back to your opponent’s side. You have different types of shots you can make based on the angle that you hit the ball accurately with.
While the sports themselves might sound basic, there are also three different powerups that you can use in each event to help you edge out your rivals. My favorites for example are the Speed Boosts in Wake Racing and Super Jump in Climbing. There are other types and can play into your strategies and play style. These powerups make the split screen gameplay that much more fun when you use it at the best time possible.
Every time you complete an event in any sport, you gain XP in that sport (for its own individual level and unlocks) and more overall fans which rank you up into the higher tier leagues and rivals. This event XP is how you gain levels and access to the highest level equipment and powerups. There are even awesome and unique clothing options to unlock per sport as well and you’ll have to choose wisely what to spend your coins on if you want the best equipment and costumes.
If you’re a Kinect skeptic from the previous generation, download the Pre-Season demo and try out Wake Racing to see the difference in accuracy. Sadly the demo doesn’t showcase the Champion creator, easily my favorite part of KSR, but know that I never once had any issues with Kinect properly tracking me, even in my very confined play space. I was more than impressed with the quality increase from the new Kinect, as I never had to stop a game and recalibrate, which was an issue from the previous generation; it just always worked, and well. The only negative I really have noted down was that you’ll randomly hit spikes of difficulty, implying that you need to be better or to purchase better equipment. Also, the cutscenes with the teams and Coach are unskippable, which can be annoying when you need to win first place to proceed and are retrying a stage for a third of fourth time, having to watch the same scene over again.
Again, seeing yourself being scanned into the game and your Champion being created is done in a very cool way and I highly suggest having anyone that comes over to your place to have them try out not only the sports, but to digitize themselves into the game and start earning those fans.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Titanfall
It’s not very often that a brand new studio’s first game will have a critical amount of hype behind it before it even releases. Then again, not every new game studio is quite like Respawn. With a veteran team, Respawn is looking to change the face of competitive online gaming once again, just like they did previously with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. With the co-creators leading the helm, Titanfall amassed an enormous amount of hype once it was shown for the first time, and now the release is finally here. Titanfall is a unique blend of high paced action, not only on foot as a pilot, but as your massive and armored Titan as well. Titanfall excels at allowing you to play how you want, and doesn’t force you to into a specific role or position that you might not enjoy. Sure, having a team of friends that all focus on something different or has a range of weapons will help, but there’s a lot of things Titanfall does right that even the lesser skilled players will still be able to help the team.
Usually in a AAA title you’ll get a campaign to play through, then once done you hop into multiplayer for the rest of its shelf life. Titanfall sees things differently. As Respawn is mostly made up of former Call of Duty guys, they knew exactly how many people actually completely ignored the single player and jumped right into multiplayer as soon as they got it home. Because of this, the campaign has been melded into the multiplayer in an interesting way. Essentially you’re just playing multiplayer, but sprinkles of story will be thrown in before the match in the lobby and with a quick event to watch just before the match begins as well. You play as either Militia or IMC factions, though you’ll eventually want to play through both as doing so unlocks new Titan chassis for you to customize your loadouts with.
Each faction’s campaign consists of a handful of missions, usually just a simple Attrition or Hardpoint match, but gameplay doesn’t deviate from the normal multiplayer at all, as you’ll even play with the Titanfall standard of 6 versus 6. So while there may not be a ‘true’ campaign as we’ve become accustomed to, there is some story contained within if you want to play it for more than simply unlocking the new Titan chassis. Regardless if you win or lose these campaign matches, the story pushes forward, so really you’ll only have to play the campaign missions once on each side. The only issue I really had with the campaign, is that because much of the story gets played out vocally during lobbies and during ingame, you’re going to miss a lot of the chatter if you’re in a party with friends and talking overtop of the audio. Trying to pay attention to the small monitors that appear in the corner of your HUD while you’re trying to kill pilots and Titans in the heat of battle is a lot harder than it appears.
Like any good shooter, Titanfall has a handful of different modes for you to enjoy, depending on what you feel like playing at that time. Your typical Team Deathmatch is called Attrition and the winning team simply needs to amass enough points to reach the limit first. You do this by shooting any Grunts, Specters, Pilots, and Titans you see. Hardpoint has your team tasked with trying to capture and keep three separating hardpoints on the map to earn points. Simple and easy to understand, the more of a team on a specific hardpoint, the quicker it will capture (or defend). Last Titan Standing is a unique mode, where everyone starts out in their own Titan from the beginning of the match and you need to defeat all of the enemies Titans to win, hence the modes name. This mode is played best out of five and offers for many varying strategies, as I tend to keep my Titan on auto pilot as I try and take out enemy Titans on foot. There are a few other modes, such as Capture the Flag, but I found Attrition and Hardpoint were my go-to. The issue I had with Capture the Flag is that it can be incredibly difficult to score a flag, as all you need to do to return your flag back to your base is touch the dropped flag.
There are two ways to get around in Titanfall, and that’s on foot as a Pilot, or inside your personal Titan. Pilots are extremely nimble and are equipped with a jetpack that allows you to double jump, scale walls, and have a wide array of parkour movement to traverse the stages vertically and laterally with some decent speed. As a match begins (other than Last Titan Standing), you have a certain time limit until you can call in your Titan. Get kills and objectives and that timer will count down quicker, allowing you to call it in sooner. So while most people will feel at home on foot as a Pilot, there’s a lot of new skills to master and you’ll have to start thinking vertically and how to get up and over buildings quickly and efficiently.
Pilots have a wide range of weapons available (once unlocked via player level) that range from a shotgun, to a single shot carbine, sniper, LMG, and even a unique Smart Pistol that can auto lock-on to enemies for quick and easy headshots (don’t worry, it’s very balanced and not overpowered). The more you use a weapon and complete specific challenges, you can earn new mods for your weapons such as bigger magazines, new sights, and more. There are only three sidearms to choose from, but I can probably count the times I’ve had to switch to my pistol to get a kill due to being out of ammo on my main weapon. Every Pilot also comes equipped with an Anti-Titan weapon so that you never really feel completely outmatched by a Titan, as long as they don’t see you coming of course. Some of these Anti-Titan weapons range from a lock on rocket, a magnetic grenade launcher, and even an electrically charges beam rifle; it all depends on your play style.
Much like how Call of Duty allows for Perks, you can customize your Pilot to have special abilities and other choices that will cater it to your preferences. First you pick which ordnance you want, such as Frag Grenade, Arc Grenades, Arc Mines (Proximity based), Satchel Charges (C4), and more. You pick a Tactical Ability such as Cloak (invisibility for a short time), Radar Pulse, or Stim which gives you a big speed boost and regenerate your health. You then have two Kit slots, the first Tier that can range from enhanced parkour abilities, accelerate your Tactical Ability quicker, increase your ordnance capacity, or even a Stealth Kit. The Tier 2 kit choices vary and allow you to hack turrets and Specters quicker, display Grunts and Specters on the minimap, increase your Auto-Titan accuracy, and more. So as you can see, there’s a good selection of abilities that you can customize however you like and enhance your skills or help the areas you don’t excel at.
Pilots’ abilities with their jetpack is what makes Titanfall feel so different than other shooters. Because you have the ability to easily run along walls, double jump, and mantle up and over buildings, the game becomes much more vertical than most. You’re tremendously versatile on foot and getting to any place is very simple once you get used to the mechanics and don’t have to think about it anymore. It will take a few matches to wrap your head around thinking to go on top of buildings and traversing the maps without even touching the ground, but once you understand it, there’s nothing quite like hopping along building to building, gaining speed boosts, then latching into a zipline only to land on top of an enemy Titan and take him out.
What really sets Titanfall apart though is the Titans themselves. Yes, I’ve heard the argument “It’s just Call of Duty with mechs”, but this isn’t true. Not only does it not simply play like a standard Call of Duty, but the Titans feel like a natural extension of your Pilot. Sure, in these building-tall robots you won’t be jumping or scaling buildings, but instead having the ability to dash proves that twenty foot tall robots can be agile and not slow moving tanks. Titans are essentially exoskeletons and will feel very natural to play, even in the first person view. Obviously the Titans have much heavier firepower, given simply by the sheer size of their weaponry, but surprisingly Repsawn has found a way to keep the game very balanced. Even as a simple Pilot, you have the tools at your disposal to take out an enemy Titan if you’re smart about it; and as a Titan, you can take on enemy Titans and Pilots with strategies as well.
As matches begin, you’ll have two minutes before you can call your Titan in for support. If you rack up some kills against the AI and players, the timer will shave seconds off your wait time, but it’s not behind a skill based kill streak system like previous Call of Duty’s. You also don’t have to worry about anyone stealing your Titan either, as only its registered Pilot can get in and control it, which is a great design decision and takes away a lot of the frustration that Battlefield players know all too well. When you suffer too much damage, your Titan will be doomed and will explode, though you can eject, shooting your Pilot sky high to safety, allowing you to aim your landing, hopefully on an enemy Titan or somewhere safe.
There are three Titan chassis you can choose from, each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. The standard that everyone has access to instantly is the Atlas. This is essentially the balanced Titan with a decent amount of speed and defense. Complete the campaign mode described above and you’ll eventually have access to the Stryder and Ogre Titans as well. The Stryder is the very quick but low defense option, where the Ogre is the opposite and has massive armor but moves extremely slow. Each Titan has the same core abilities such as being able to dodge (Stryder can do it more), punching other Titans and Pilots (which feels awesome to do), and can eject when in a doomed state.
Just like the Pilots, you will also customize your Titan’s loadouts as well. Your Primary weapon can be a 40mm Cannon for those long range shots, Quad Rockets, a Chaingun, a Railgun, and even more. Some weapons are better suited for certain Titans, but again, it will come down to your specific play style. Where I like to use the Stryder to take a few long range shots and dash out of combat, maybe you find using a heavy Quad Shot close up is better for you. It’s all about customization and just like the Pilots, you’ll also pick an Ordnance and two Tier kits. Ordnances range from a Vortex Shield that can catch any incoming fire and shoot it back at the enemy, a Particle Wall, Multi-Target Missles, and more. Tier 1 kits can be a Dash recharger, Regeneration Booster, or even my favorite, the Nuclear Ejection, which causes your Titan to blow up its nuclear core when it’s wrecked, blowing up any enemies nearby. Tier 2 kits can enhance your skills such as a more powerful melee attack, an auto-eject when your Titan is doomed, among others.
There’s another addition in Titanfall that really makes it stand out from the overcrowded genre of shooter, and involved cards. Yes, cards is a mechanic that can vastly change how you play Titanfall. Called Burn Cards, these are cards that you’ll use for temporary abilities, weapons, upgrades, or boosts once used, for a single life. You gain access to three Burn Card slots, so before battle in the lobby you decide which three cards you want to bring into battle to give you a competitive edge against the opposition. Upon start of the match or after every death, you can choose to use a new Burn Card if you choose. You need to choose your cards wisely, but you also need to be careful when you’ve activated one, as you lose the bonus once you die. And yes, you’ll have times where you use a Burn Card and die instantly, essentially wasting the card.
Cards can range from powerful versions of a specific weapon, enhanced abilities, bonus XP on specific kills, to even really rare cards like being able to call in a Titan (extremely handy at the start of a match). You can only hold a certain amount of cards in your deck (but three can go with you into matches), so you need to keep tabs on your card collection, or else any new cards will simply be discarded (a mistake if you earn rare cards). Burn Card strategy can turn the tide of battle quite dramatically if used correctly or help your progression as well. Using the Burn Card to earn extra XP while fighting Titans can be very helpful in a Last Titan Standing match for example. Or if you’re trying to complete some specific weapon challenges, using the Burn Card to get the more powerful version of that weapon can heavily help. You earn new cards from completing challenges and leveling up, so don’t worry about any microtransactions, as you simply earn them by playing the game more.
While the core game supports 6 versus 6 players, you might think that that sounds very low, and on paper it does. But Respawn has done something clever in adding AI bots into matches that fill up the battlefield as well, which serve a few purposes. That being said, there’s so much action constantly happening that I’ve’ never finished a match and said “man, I wish there was more players in these matches”. These AI, Grunts and Specters, aren’t all that bright and don’t pose too much of a threat to you, but they’re not supposed to at the same time. They are there to add accessibility for the lesser skilled players. Obviously players in Titans and Pilots bouncing around from wall to wall are quite difficult to kill, but should you choose, you could simply hunt these bots all match if you wanted. This allows for the newer players or lesser skilled to still help the team out and not become totally frustrated by dying from players over and over without getting any kills themselves. Many of your weapons challenges will revolve around getting a certain amount of bot kills as well; so while killing bots won’t net you as many points as player kills, at least the option is there if you’re a newer player or just having an off-night skill wise.
While I was taking my notes for Titanfall, I kept writing down bullet points into the pro column. After twelve hours of almost continuous play, I only had two notes written in the con section, and it’s by no means a deal breaker. There are some minor performance issues, albeit far and few in between. When everyone is in their Titans and missiles and explosions are all around, I’ve had the odd framerate drop, though it’s only momentarily. I’ve also had some minor screen tearing, also generally only in the very chaotic sections, but it’s there every so often but doesn’t make it unplayable. That being said, it was quickly forgotten as I was constantly moving or doing something awesome.
Balance in a competitive shooter can make a huge difference on a game’s longevity, and I’m happy to report that everything feels very balanced as a whole. There’s not that one weapon that feels cheap whenever you die to it and every ability, action, and weapon has a counter balance, so nothing really ever feels overpowered. If you keep dying to the same weapon or ability, you simply need to figure out how to counter it. Some will instantly complain about the Smart Pistol’s auto lockon, but there are many easy ways to counter that as well. The same goes for Titan’s and their loadouts. There’s not one weapon that I’d always choose over another aside from personal preference.
Titanfall is filled with “Oh my God, did you see that!?” moments, one after another. You’re constantly in the action and there are many different strategies to play well. Map design is very vertical and opens up a whole new way to play. You’re not confined indoors with small corridors and depending on how you play, seeing a Titan will either make you run away or you’ll run towards it because you know you can outwit the Pilot controlling it. Halo is known for redefining console shooters, and Call of Duty did it for online multiplayer. While Titanfall may not completely redefine the genre, it definitely improves many things about it and does it very right. More importantly, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had with my Xbox One to date. If you’ve been on the fence about getting an Xbox One, this is the reason to take the plunge. If you already have one, this game should be in your library. Prepare for Titanfall.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
South Park: The Stick of Truth
I feel I need to start out this review with a warning, just like how the show itself begins. This review is going to be M-rated for a simple reason, The Stick of Truth is so full of adult content that it would be impossible to describe it fully without doing so as well. That being said, this is probably the most politically incorrect, inappropriate, and blatant offensive games I’ve ever played… and it was awesome. Prepare yourself for testicles, terrible language, abortions, farts, frontal nudity, drugs, watching your parents have sex, alien probes, dismemberment, Nazis, and sex toys, to simply name a few of the controversial topics off the top of my head. If you’re a South Park fan, this is nothing new to you at all; if not, you’re in for quite a shock and surprise. To say that The Stick of Truth has had a troubled and rocky development would be an understatement. Originally set to be published by the former THQ, Ubisoft picked up the rights to the game and is developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol, and Dungeon Siege III. To say that The Stick of Truth has been delayed would also be an understatement. Originally due last year, then delayed till December, then finally delayed until this final release date, nobody could blame you for being cautious about the release, as not a lot of information has really been given about the game overall. To be honest, I was a little skeptical of what to expect, not only because of the troubled development, but also the numerous delays.
To be fair, South Park fans have never had a truly staller branded game, as there were even some truly terrible ones a little over a decade ago for older consoles. As the saying goes, “Fool me once…”, so honestly, I went in with low expectations and not really sure what to expect. For those that are also suspicious and cautious, you can rest at ease, not only because of my opinion, but that this isn’t your typical licensed game that simply uses the name to sell itself. The Stick of Truth has been personally overseen by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, having their input, scripts, and even voiced by them as well. For those like me that may know of Obsidian’s buggy games in the past, I can reassure you that I only ran into one simple sound bug throughout my whole playthrough. The Stick of Truth is full of charm, feels exactly like a real episode of the show, and completely full of fan service, pop culture references, and of course, farts... so many farts.
You play as a new kid in South Park that you create as you begin the game to look however you like, though this can be changed with a quick trip to Tom’s Rhinoplasty store. Your parents moved to South Park to escape your past, which is shrouded in mystery, and your first order of business according to your parents is to go outside and make some new friends. From here on you’ll run into the staple of South Park characters and eventually become friends with Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, and Stan, among many others you’ll recognize from the show. If you watched the three part epic from the current season about the console wars, The Stick of Truth directly takes place within that setting. The kids of South Park are having a massive role playing game across the whole town and you’re now the newest recruit of Cartman’s human faction whom are currently in possession of the Stick of Truth and must guard them from the elves that Stan and Kyle lead.
Once you choose a class to control during the course of the game, ranging from Mage, Thief, Fighter, and Jew (complete with Jew-Jitsu), yes, Jew is a playable class. As the newest member of Cartman’s Kingdom of Kupa Keep (Yes, you are now a part of the KKK), you will need to make sure the Stick of Truth doesn’t fall into the enemies hands, as it’s a supreme artifact that holds incredible power. I don’t want to delve too much further into story specifics, as it’s an absolute delight to experience free of spoilers. Your goal is to become… cool by making friends on Facebook, or else you’ll simply be known as a loser, and no fourth grader wants that.
The goal of The Stick of Truth was to look and feel like it was an actual episode of South Park. According to the show’s creators, this is a lot harder to accomplish and originally anticipated, which may account for the numerous delays. Astonishingly, Obsidian managed to pull it off and playing The Stick of Truth actually looks like you’re playing an episode of the show as there’s no HUD (while not in combat) and your character bounces around while walking just like how the TV show looks. You’re able to explore South Park freely and can move around the three or so blocks of the main city area on a 2D plane, but can move freely around the environment. While you do have a map to show what’s located where, and there are intersections every few houses or buildings, it can be a little clunky to get from point A to point B, even when you’ve unlocked the fast travel system where Timmy wheels you around.
What makes The Stick of Truth stand out from other licensed games is that it’s full of things, big and small, that are simply there to do fans a service. Every item, weapon, character, and line of dialogue is going to make any fan of South Park smile. To be honest, aside from a few of the newer episodes, I’ve missed the past few seasons for the most part, but there was so much content put into the game that even I could reference from being from the show. Small details such as going into your friends closets and seeing items from past seasons like Cartman’s Awesome-O suit and Beefcake shirt is just a small example of how Stick of Truth was clearly a labor of love. You can even scower South Park to collect all of the Chinpokomon as well. It would have been easy to ‘half-ass’ this game, but it’s clear that a lot of thought and time was put into it to please the fans in every way.
Mechanics wise, Stick of Truth is an RPG at its core. Once you start a battle fights happen in turns. You can use normal attacks based on the class you picked from the beginning, or use special “PP” powered abilities that do much more than simply attack. As the game gets progressively tougher, you’ll have to strategize what skills and items to use when as there are a few sections where you’ll randomly hit a major spike in difficulty if you weren’t taking the time to do any battles that came along your travels across the city. To make things slightly more interesting and skillful, your attacks and defense are also enhanced based on how well you can time your button pressed when you’re attacking or about to be attacked. You’ll attack for a base amount of damage, but if you time your button presses just as you hit, you may be able to attack more times or for a much more devastating attack. The same goes for defense, as you need to hit ‘A’ just as you’re about to get hit to mitigate some of the damage, which is a necessity as you near the end of the tale.
To also make things more personal, the costumes and itemization is quite fun and encourages you to experiment with different costumes and patches that add extra abilities or enhance existing ones. So while as the Fighter class I liked my costume pieces to have armor or health, it was fun to try on something that not only looked silly, but allowed for a completely different strategy when it came to combat. The battle system and costumes do take some getting used to, and even though there is a plethora of different armors to wear and try, you’ll most likely find the few that you like and stick with them until you see a large enough stat upgrade, though it’s quite fun to dress up as something that looks completely silly, or as a girl.
While the level cap is low, which is level 15, you’ll most likely only hit it at the very end of the game unless you grind or fight every battle you come across. You’ll also get to have a companion beside you in combat, each with their own special and unique abilities. You start out with your first friend Butters, but eventually gain access to using a few others that have their own strengths. I was able to complete the game with simply using Butters as my battle companion for the majority of the game, but I can see certain character loadouts that would be better suited for one of the others instead. Unfortunately you’re unable to customize your allies, visually and with items and will solely rely on them for their abilities. How you chose your equipment will play a larger role in the latter half of the game as you’ll learn to make use of bleeding effects, having to cut down enemies armor before being able to damage them, so it all depends on how you will play your character and what strategies work best. It should be noted, that quite a few times I would check my inventory to change something only to notice my perks were stripped off of my weapons and armor randomly, and this happened quite a few times without any reason I could figure out.
As you get to explore the small Colorado town, you’ll be opening any door, box, or drawer that is possible, indicated with yellow handles, to loot anything you can find inside. In most games you would be looking for treasure and gold, but this is a South Park game. Once you’ve acquired vibrators, piles of poop, pubic hair, dolls, and other completely random items that are sure to offend you (make sure you read the item descriptions, as they are also hilarious), you can then visit one of the shops and sell them to add to your pocket money. With your money you can then purchase new weapons, armor, consumables, costumes, and more.
Gas is a powerful weapon in the land of South Park, and farts reign supreme when it comes to magic. As you progress to become cool and make friends on Facebook, you’ll eventually learn new magic abilities, each in the form of a different style of fart. In combat, your magic can do a great deal of damage, but you’ll actually be using it more so when you’re exploring the town. Farts allow you to do special things and progress to areas you normally wouldn’t be able to. If there’s a barricade blocking your way, you may need to throw one of your “Cup-A-Spell” farts in a certain direction towards an open flame so that it blows up the barricade. The second half of the game relies on more puzzle based areas where you’ll have to figure out how to progress, or take out enemies easily without having to engage them in battle (but you still get the XP for doing so, so it’s encouraged). It would have been simple to easily make this a simple button press, but instead, you’ll “feel” the fart so much more, as you need to hold the Right Stick downward to build up your gas, aim with the Left Stick, then unleash it by pressing the Right Stick up again. It’s stilly, but it makes complete sense oddly enough.
The Stick of Truth has the South Park vibe and feel down 100% without a doubt. You feel as if you’re actually playing an episode of the show as everything looks and sounds authentic. Surprisingly enough, as a game, it’s actually a quite decent RPG as well. As I mentioned above, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect given the developer, the delays, and the small trickle of information. I was more than impressed. For those curious, my first complete playthrough was ten hours, almost exactly, and that was with all but two side quests complete (damn you Kindergartener’s that are hiding and that I can’t find!). Now that I know all of the solutions to the puzzles and where to go for everything, the next playthrough as a different class should take a good chunk of time off that, as it’s going to be much easier and quicker once you know what to do. I’ll also mention that there are some awesome achievements to unlock, and I suggest trying to get some of the more ‘unique’ ones, as they are absolutely hilarious.
I really only had three main issues with The Stick of Truth, neither of which I would say is a deal breaker, as the pro’s vastly outweigh the cons, but here’s the problems I had: 1) More than a dozen times I would check my inventory only to see that my strap-ons (perks) were somehow taken off without my knowledge. 2) Twice I had a cutscene where the subtitles were going but there was no voice sound accompanying the mouth movements. 3) Lastly, even once you get used to the map and inventory system, it’s still utterly a pain to use and clunky. There’s no easy way to see what armor pieces are an upgrade (weapons show easily though) and having to scroll through your whole list of items if you don’t sell anything can be a chore every time you want to switch items. The same goes for the map, even though Timmy offers quick travels to set spots, it’s just clunky to use the menu system in general and certain key points will still have you running around to get there.
That being said, the things that Stick of Truth does well vastly outweighs the issues I had. The multiple classes encourage multiple playthroughs (as do the two factions which can alter story quests), a ton of weapons and armor to choose from (ranging from awesome, to silly, to what the F…). The story is so completely off the wall, it absolutely fits within the South Park universe. Some of the stages are so out there, that I don’t think I’ll ever forget them (two words: Parents’ Bedroom). And lastly, the animation and voice acting is so spot on, and the conscious decision to not have a HUD really brings you into the game that you may at times think you’re playing an episode of the show, it’s that spot on.
If you’re not a fan of South Park, you’re most likely going to be grossed out or completely offended, and while its RPG core mechanics are sound, it takes the South Park humor appreciation to really fully enjoy The Stick of Truth to its fullest. The fan service in Stick of Truth is incredible, as even Season 1 is referenced, all of which the hardcore South Park fans will no doubt giggle at. South Park: The Stick of Truth is offensive, crude, absolutely M-rated in every meaning of the word, and looks just as crappy as the TV show does; that’s what makes it so great. This is how you properly do a licensed game along with pleasing the hardcore fans, and if it means we have to wait a few more years and delays for a sequel, I’ll be more than understanding. Now go out there and respect my authority by purchasing The Stick of Truth mmmmkay?
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Rayman Legends
Rayman Origins back in 2011 caught me by surprise. I knew it was a platformer, but I didn’t realize how good it was actually going to be with its tight controls, fun level design, and fantastic art style. Being a 2D sidescrolling platformer, it overachieved and easily turned into one of my favorite platformers in recent memory. The game then received a sequel titled Rayman Legends on Xbox 360 last year and was fantastic and improved on many mechanics. Here we are a few months later and now have the Xbox One version finally for those of us that have the newer system. It should be noted, this is exactly the same release that was on 360 (albeit with a special Far Cry 3 Vaas skin for Rayman and Globox) without any new or major mechanics or improvements. That’s not a bad thing, as even the 360 version looked fantastic and ran smooth, but it doesn’t seem like there’s been any ‘above and beyond’ work done for the Xbox One release.Rayman Legends is a huge game and includes more than a hundred levels. Granted, a chunk of these levels are unlocked remasters from Rayman Origins, but it’s still more content none the less. The Legends levels are all new and unique where the Origin levels are essentially remixed versions of the levels you’ve played previously in the last game, so even the players that mastered Origins has new content to revisit. Even when you manage to complete all of the Legends and Origins levels there are even more objectives to be completed and of course, replaying previous levels to get a higher score of Lums (essentially coins, but cute and with faces and arms) to raise up the leaderboards.
While Rayman Legends does have a story to it, it’s a simple tale that revolves Rayman’s world being invaded by nightmares, though this won’t matter once you get a few levels in as it’s not the story that pushes you forward, it’s the fun and inviting gameplay while collecting the most Lums you can to unlock new content. The game understands that you won’t be playing it for a shoehorned story and doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. Simply put, the game is all about the fantastic gameplay and platforming elements, and that’s plenty enough to keep you engaged and continue playing.
As you progress through the game, each level gets a slight bit more challenging than the last. Have it be known though, that there are some random spikes in difficulty out of the blue that will have you restarting many times just to get it right, but never infuriating enough that you’ll want to break your controller like some other games. Your goal in each level is to not only reach the end of the stage, but to collect as many Lums as you can, these cute floating yellow and purpose orbs and also saving captured Teensies. Each level has a certain amount of Teensies within and the more you save, the quicker the next set of levels will unlock, each with their own number of Teensies requirement. So if you simply try and get through the levels as fast as possible, you may have to replay some of the previous levels to get more Teensies to unlock the next stages. You’ll need to replay a stage a few times if you want to find that perfect strategy of collecting all of the Teensies and as many Lums, as well as the many secrets, as possible for the best scores and brag about it on the leaderboards. Sicne it’s never mandated that you need to save a certain amount of Teensies, sometimes you’ll want to challenge yourself and collect all of them in a stage to simply see if you can do it rather than being told you have to.
Rayman and Globox are still the main characters in the game, but you can choose to play as one of Rayman’s many friends, all of which have the same inherent base of skills but with different attack and floating animations, so it’s more of an aesthetic choice more than anything else. Legends does introduce a new female lead character though, a barbarian named Barbara. Again, it’s simply an aesthetic skin but some might choose to play as her for whatever reason.
Where Origins used an overworld map to show progression in the game, Legends instead uses a series of art galleries. The levels that are unlocked will show these beautiful artworks and any that are yet to be unlocked will have a sheet and lock over them with the number of saved Teensies needed to unlock said stage. One world is comprised of multiple paintings (stages), and each stage is then broken into smaller segments as you progress through. These essentially act as the checkpoint system and you’re never thrown back too far when you mistime your jump or attack. Levels flow very well and there is very little ‘stop and go’ as you’re almost always constantly moving forwards. All of the worlds feel very different and some focus on different mechanics than others (The only world I didn’t enjoy was the water one). Rayman Legends level design keeps things fresh, not only by constantly going into new stages, but the variety of levels change often as well and keep things from becoming stale. Most levels will have you platforming normally, but there are other stages where you be in a chase sequence (being chased and also chasing), amazing musical boss stages, and there are even levels where you’ll be transformed into a duck, simply because. The variety of levels keep things fun and you never know what to expect going into a new stage.
Rayman’s friend Murphy plays a larger role in Legends compared to what he did in Origins and he will help and assist you in certain and specific situations. There are certain sections in some stages that Rayman simply won’t be able to do himself, and this is where Murphy’s assistance comes in. He can cut ropes, move platforms, distract enemies by tickling them (opening them to your attack), pull switches, and more. This is simply done with the ‘B’ button and while it’s simple most of the time, you’ll need to sometimes think about two things at once, as you’ll still be controlling Rayman and moving forward, looking ahead to what Murphy is going to have to do to help you.
Easily the highlight of Rayman Legends is the amazing set pieces of the boss stages and the pseudo music stages as well. Boss fights break down to memorization of their attacks so you can counter attack, but they are very fun and can be quite challenging (even the first boss will take you many restarts). After you complete the boss stage, the last level you play in a world are the amazing well done music levels, which feel like a reward themselves. These levels have you running away from a wall of fire or something else, but to the beat of a song. Every time you jump or attack, it’s meant to purposely fit in with the song, and to be honest, hearing ‘Black Betty’ played with singing ogres and your timed jumps is something that absolutely needs to be played.
Not only does the segmented stage design help you with feeling like your constantly progressing, but you’re almost always unlocking something along the way as well which keeps your motivation to continue playing “just one more stage”. Collect a certain amount of Lums in a stage and you’ll learn a Lucky Ticket which can be scratched to reveal whatever your bonus prize is (every ticket is a winner). Sometimes you’ll unlock new Origin stages, Lums, or even other bonuses. It’s fun enough that you’ll want to try and collect as many Lums as possible in each stage. The more Teensies you collect per stages also unlocks new stages quicker, so you’re always wanting to strive towards being masterful at each stage.
Legends also includes a challenge mode that I honestly thought I would try once and be done with it, but that wasn’t the case at all. In this mode you can test your skills against the community in new challenges that appear daily and weekly. Once you complete the objective given, usually collecting a certain amount of Lums in the shortest time possible, or surviving the stage as long as possible, it will show how you ranked against everyone else that’s also completed the challenge. It also then ranks you and shows how you’ve done in your country and so on. It shows you the next few people that are slightly ahead of you, so that you’re constantly feeling “I can beat these guys”. If you perform well enough, you can move up the rankings to earn a bronze, silver, or gold medal. I tend to check these challenges every day, and while it comes down to stage memorization, it still makes it quite challenging as you can see ghosts of other players that are within your skill level.
Rayman Legends does two things very well. The first is that you’re constantly having fun, with the second being that it will guarantee to put a smile on your face. Legends has so much charm that it’s almost impossible to not be impressed by its audio and visuals and all of the hand drawn art. The game is hilarious if you look for the small things (the ogre that gives a thumbs up as it falls into the pit of lava actually made me laugh aloud) and it’s always satisfying to see the evil wizard being flung to the moon and being prodded by its inhabitants along to a catchy tune. The artwork is genuinely amazing and so colorful that even my young daughter enjoyed watching the game due to its bright colors and great musical stages.
While it’s one of the more prettier games I’ve seen in a while in an artistic sense, it’s also one of the best platformers I’ve played in quite some time. With a huge replay value, a ton of levels to play and unlock, precision controls, daily and weekly challenges, there’s always a reason to come back and enjoy more time with Rayman and his friends. While an online co-op would have been welcomed, it’s a great couch co-op game for almost all skill levels. While the Xbox One version looks visually amazing, so did the Xbox 360 version, and there’s honestly little difference here graphically. That being said, if you’ve not had the chance to experience Rayman Legends on the previous generation of consoles, make you sure you pick it up on Xbox One as it’s a worthy purchase and will guarantee to make you smile.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Assassin's Creed Liberation HD
As the game’s title implies, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD is an improved version of the original from the PS Vita released back in 2012. Oddly enough, originally on the Vita it was titled Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, but now it’s completely dropped the ‘III’ from the title, possibly from the general poor reviews Assassin’s Creed III received. While the game looked decent for the portable Vita, this HD version has had the graphics improved, though not as much as I was hoping, especially for a game with HD in the title. Maybe I was simply spoiled from how fantastic Black Flag looked back in November, but Liberation HD really was tough to look at and seemed quite dated from its visuals alone. That’s not to say it looks terrible, but the “HD” in the title seems a little misleading when there are plenty of muddled and bland textures abound throughout the game. A first for the Assassin’s Creed games, you play the first female protagonist, Aveline de Grandpre, whom is not only an assassin obviously, but grew up with a very unique childhood and background. Set around 1770, Aveline had a white father that was well off and a black slave mother that was taken from her mysteriously. I’d love to go more in depth about her history, but sadly you aren’t really told all that much, even major events like how she joined the Brotherhood are never fully fleshed out and leave you wondering. As there’s an overarching plot for Aveline and her reasoning for her actions, there’s a lot of gaps in the story that are simply filled with “2 years later” after some segments that leave a lot of narrative left out and you wondering. The story flow is confusing at best and unless you’re deeply paying attention and invested, there’s little here that keeps the narrative moving forward in a logical and interesting way, which is quite a shame, as the series has always been strong in its story telling.
Set around 1770 in New Orleans, you’ll spend time in the city as per the norm with an Assassin’s Creed game, but if you disliked the Frontier wilderness from Assassin’s Creed III, I’ve got bad news for you. Something similar is placed in Liberation, as a good chunk of the game you’ll be stuck within the confines of the Bayou swamplands. Liberation touches on a few focal points such as slavery and the American Revolution (as this takes place around the same time as Conor’s story happens as well). The problem was that for all the time you spend in the lively cities, you spend double that in the drab and lifeless Bayou. Given that there’s no fast travel system (the closest thing you have is a canoe that can be paddled), be prepared for a lengthy amount of running from point A to point B with many of the simplistic quests.
Any Assassin’s Creed game just wouldn’t be the same without that ‘real world’ element, as these games take place in the Animus which allow you to relive memories of your ancestors. If you’ve played Black Flag, it’s setup in a similar was, as Liberation is a game from the Abstergo Entertainment line, though there’s no leaving Aveline’s world this time to go into the ‘real world’. Given that Abstergo Entertainment is run by Templars, you are experiencing the events they want you to see, but there are ‘glitches’ in the system that present themselves that allow you to unlock small morsels of truth of what really happened and what the Templars don’t want you to find out if you’re diligent in Aveline’s world. Overall though the plot is very spotty and is completely rushed and not tied together very well. You can tell that Liberation was originally a mobile based game which resulted in shorter missions and an abundance of fast forwarding time rather than fleshing it out in a meaningful way.
As mentioned above, the setting is quite dull, as the bulk of your play is within the Bayou swamp instead of the more interesting and colorful New Orleans city. The same goes for Liberation’s mission structure as well. Being that the original release was for pick up and play on the go, missions have been incredibly stripped down and are quite short; nothing like we’re used to on a fully realized Assassin’s Creed game. Most of the missions are also quite dull and aren’t even that interesting since you’re usually running from point A to B, tailing a suspect, or doing the forced stealth missions that give you an instant fail if you’re detected. Basically, think of all of the missions you hated from the previous games, bundle them together, and that is the bulk of Liberation’s mission structure. Sure there is the odd few missions that differ and are slightly more interesting due to the persona mechanic (which I’ll go into shortly), but even then, there really wasn’t any memorable missions by the time I was finished with Aveline’s tale.
For all of these faults so far, it’s a shame to say, because Aveline is genuinely a very interesting and compelling character, even with all of the gaps in her background not being told fully. She won’t be anywhere near as memorable as Edward or Ezio, but she has her own charm and because of her personality, sometimes approaches and thinks of things quite differently than we’re used to with the previous protagonists. She’s an incredibly bright woman that knows when she needs to be ruthless and when she needs to use her charm to get what she wants. Being a black woman herself and seeing the slavery problem all around her, only makes her even more uneasy and motivated to fight the good fight. It’s interesting to see her character beginning to end, I just wish the writing and more through was put into it to make her a more compelling and memorable character in the grand scheme of things.
The core mechanics of the series remains in place, as you’ll be traversing buildings (though moreso trees in the Bayou) with relative ease, and stabbing people and enemies without hesitation, but what Liberation does do is introduce a completely new mechanic unique to Aveline. Given her distinct background, Aveline has the ability to change her outfits from an assassin, to a slave, to even a posh lady. A certain dressing areas, you can change your outfit that gives you certain strengths and weaknesses, and will make you approach missions and combat quite differently based on which you’re wearing.
Wearing the aristocratic lady outfit allows you to blend in at certain high profile places, her slave uniform allows you to bypass most guards or blend in with other workers, and the assassin garbs grant you extra combative abilities. Many missions will force your hand in which role you must dress as and the missions will be built specifically for those roles, but given the abilities you gain or lose based on the clothes, I never wanted to be out of my assassin’s outfit if I didn’t need to be. There are a few reasons for this; dressing as a lady means you are completely unable to traverse the environment vertically and your abilities in combat are extremely limited (though I don’t really understand why, as you still have your secret blades). The slave outfit allows you to traverse and go unnoticed by guards, but your combat is still not as powerful as the assassin’s outfit given you only have access to crude weapons. The downfall to dressing as the assassin though is that you can never completely remove your wanted level, so you must either embrace your constant notorious setting with the guards, or avoid them completely. The missions you must play as either the lady or slave are generally quite boring given you’re supposed to generally avoid combat in these roles. I get the idea behind the mechanic, and I like the idea, but it needs to be fleshed out better if this is going to stick around in the following games.
Combat is what you’ve come to expect in the series over the years. You’ll become surrounded by enemies and one or two of them will attack you in succession as you parry and counter-kill them, that is, when it works. For some reason I would constantly get the attack indicators not to show or my counter button didn’t consistently do what I wanted it to do. This becomes incredibly annoying when you know what you’re doing, especially being a veteran of the series, but it’s not reacting properly and leaving you open to numerous attacks. Aveline does have an awesome chain-kill ability when dressed as the assassin though that makes up for these shortcoming when pulled off correctly and makes you feel very proficient in combat when it does work.
While the soundtrack was fitting, nothing really felt memorable, maybe because of the short mission structure, or the annoying of having to run back across the Bayou for the fiftieth time, but I wouldn’t be able to pick out a song from the game if you tested me on it. The voicing for the game is a complete other story though and something I will remember, though not for the right reasons. While the actress that voices Aveline and the main characters do a fine job, some of the supporting cast is outright atrocious. There’s one mission in particular that stands out with two of the natives threatening people and one of them sounds so odd that it stands out to the point of being terrible. The fake Spanish and French accents all around the city areas as well also stick out as poor performances and really pull you out of the whole experience sadly. The same can be said for the graphics as well. Yea it’s an “HD” version that’s been polished up from its original release, but that’s exactly all that’s been done: some polish. Main characters and events look passable, though even some parts look quite dated, even for an Xbox 360 game. IT’s the background textures and non-focal things that are an eye sore though, especially the simply ugly building textures and laughable flora within the swamp.
It doesn’t help that you’re constantly distracted by bugs riddled within as well. Lots of texture pop-in and weird glitches that catch your eye. The biggest offender though has to be the free running and climbing that seems to never want to work just right. As you’re spending the majority of your time in the swamp area, you need to learn to figure out what trees and ledges can and can’t be climbed. But even when you do so and know a certain branch is traversable, you will sometimes have to fight against the game to let you make the leap you know you can make. Many times I’ve had Aveline fall off a ledge I didn’t tell her to or refuse to simply pull herself up on a ledge that she could do any other time without issue.
If you’ve played Black Flag, it’s neat to see an Abstergo game, but I really wish there was more tie-in with the series as a whole. I believe the biggest issue I had with Liberation though was the fact that I spoiled with Black Flag such a short time ago. Liberation definitely feels like a substantial leap backwards if you’ve just played the latest of the series with its bland environment and frazzled plot and mission structure. Liberation is a very basic Assassin’s Creed core experience without many of the bells and whistles we’ve become accustomed to in a full yearly release. The Assassin’s Creed franchise is one of my favorites, I even liked III (for what it was), but Liberation is truly the first in the series that I didn’t really enjoy at all for so many reasons and I don’t know if I would have finished it if it wasn’t for the review. Unless you’re a massive fan of the series and needs to play and have every game with the Assassin’s title in its name, I really do find it hard to recommend, even more so if you’ve played the past few in the series, as they are simply better games by leaps and bounds.
Overall Score: 5.2 / 10
Xbox Fitness
Now that the holidays are over and we’re most likely a little heavier than before them from some over indulgence, it’s now time to lose those pounds and get back to the fitness that we wanted. It happens every January 1st; you see the gym’s packed for the first few weeks of the year with people swearing that this year will be the year they stick with their resolution to lose the weight.This is where Xbox Fitness comes in. Exclusive for Xbox One and powered by the new and much improved Kinect, this app is free (for now) to all Xbox Live Gold members until December 2014. The basis behind the Xbox Fitness app is that you follow along with actual famous trainers and workouts while the Kinect tracks your movements, form, effort, and heart rate, essentially make it a ‘game’ to hopefully motivate you along the way and to keep you coming back. Challenges and achievements are also included to motivate your frequent return, as are other items like badges and bragging rights when you reach certain milestones.
You’ll stream a variety of famous workouts while Kinect tracks your posture, effort, and a whole bunch of other factors that will score you as you go and compare you to others that are in your age range as well. Some of these workouts aren’t too bad and give you a quick 10 minute sweat, but there are longer ones that are extremely challenging and will have your heart rate going much faster, all in the privacy of your living room (provided you have the appropriate amount of floor space for the more intensive workouts).
One of the goals of Xbox Fitness is that it’s giving you (for free remember) authentic workouts from the world’s most known and greatest trainers. There are quite a few I didn’t personally recognize, but almost everyone will know the higher profile trainers that you’ll work out along with such as Jillian Michaels, Tracy Anderson, Shaun T (from Insanity), and even Tony Horton from P90X. Falling under the Beachbody umbrella of workout programs, having these famous trainers that most non-fitness focused people can even recognize, is a huge win for Xbox Fitness. There is a caveat to all of this free goodness though, as you don’t get all of the workouts from the get go, or for free. The best example of this is that you actually only get two of the P90X workouts currently through the app, not the full program that is for sales in stores. Some others also give you a free sample workout, but then charge extra for others.
Xbox Fitness really gets to show off the power and improvements of the new Kinect for Xbox One as well. Being that this app is completely independent from a controller, you’ll quickly notice the increase of precision in your movements and how much more detail and feedback you’re given during your workouts. Kinect tracks your limbs but also the muscles that are being worked on given an exercise at any given moment too. You’ll see the difference of force, meaning the harder you punch and kick, the more feedback you’ll see it give back (usually with particle effects). Kinect will know when you’re not trying as hard as you should be or if your form isn’t correct and let you know about it. This allows you to get more from your workouts and time with the app. Kinect can actually sense skin tone changes which relate to your heart beat and give you real time feedback on your heart rate as well, though it seemed a little inconsistent, or was only available with certain workouts (I wasn’t able to figure it out completely). The wider field of view also means that you can work out in a smaller space compared to the original Kinect on Xbox 360, but obviously the more room you have the better it’ll be.
Each workout is broken into separate sections and for each one you’ll see the remaining time and your current score and stars earned so far. The better you perform the actions and follow the trainer the more points you’ll earn. I can’t stress enough how much your actual effort is factored into the scoring. If you lift those legs or arms high with a lot of power and enthusiasm, Xbox Fitness knows and will score you better for doing so. You may also see random challenges pop up during portions of your workout, such as “earn 5 stars in this section”, which will push you harder and earn you bonus points for doing so. One you complete the goals, a new one will challenge you so that you’re constantly being pushed and hopefully getting the most out of your workout.
While Xbox Fitness is currently free for Xbox Live Gold members until December 2014, the only uncertainty here is that we don’t know what happens once that free time period ends. Will nothing be free and every workout app cost? Will certain ones stay free? These are all questions that we don’t know the answers to yet. For the time being, know that most of what’s contained within is free, and while not everything you hoped will be there (I would have loved the full P90X program), Xbox Fitness does do a good job at giving you a sample of what’s available (so that you can choose to purchase the ones you enjoy more so than others).
While it’s hard to look a gift horse in the mouth and make any complaints, there are a few issues I did have with Xbox fitness that stood out were a few glaring issues. First, there’s no real easy way to set up an overall workout plan with different routines and for a set amount of days. It would have been nice to be able to tell Xbox Fitness I want to do a 5, 10, 15, 30, etc day program so that it rotates between workouts for me, eliminating some of the guesswork, but alas there isn’t. Sure it offers small rewards and challenges, but it’s not simple to do and it’s something you need to keep track of yourself.
Xbox Fitness simply feels like I’m putting in a workout DVD and randomly picking where to start and end at. Because you are generally only getting a snippet of a full workout session, you don’t always get the warm-up or cool-down portions, which are incredibly important for a full (and safe) workout. Not stretching before doing some of the extreme workouts is going to be painful later on if you don’t know better to do it yourself.
Also, there’s no nutrition information or help to go alongside the fitness portion of the app. Eating well is half of the battle of losing weight and it’s not even remotely addressed within at all. Again, to people that don’t know or aren’t fitness savvy, they might not know better. If you’re not performing a certain move or motion correctly, it’ll try and give you an idea of what to do better, but it’s usually too vague to be of any real help. Some of the floor moves also sometimes had issues tracking with precision, though to be fair I don’t have the most floor space either.
Again, Xbox Fitness is free until December of this year if you have an Xbox Live Gold membership, but don’t go in expecting all of the world’s best full workout programs, but instead smaller trial workouts from each one. It’s not perfect, but again, it’s free. We’ve all probably indulged a little more than we should have over the holidays, so if you don’t have that expensive gym membership and have an Xbox One, give Xbox Fitness a try if you want to get your sweat on.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Halo: Spartan Assault
I’ll admit it, I’m probably one of the bigger Halo fans out there. I’ve got all the games, books, toys, board games, you name it. So when a new Halo game is getting released, I naturally get pretty excited as the date nears closer. Halo: Spartan Assault was originally a Windows 8 exclusive game for tablets, but now it’s been ported for the Xbox One (and soon Xbox 360) for more Halo fans to enjoy, but does Spartan Assault live up to the Halo name?The most drastic thing you’re going to notice right away, other than this isn’t a Master Chief story, is that Spartan Assault is a top-down twin-stick shooter. That’s right, it will control more like a Geometry Wars rather than your traditional Halo shooter. The original release on Windows 8 was optimized for an Xbox 360 controller, so it’s a safe bet to say that controls here feel natural as well if you’re accustomed to the twin-stick style of games. Halo: Spartan Assault really does feel like a traditional Halo game, as its’ got iconic characters, Spartans, Covenant, weapons, vehicles, sounds, and more. Its heart is in the right place, but something feels missing, which pains me to say as a huge Halo fan.
Spartan Assault fits into the canon lore of the Halo universe, as it takes place between the events of Halo 3 and 4. After Halo 3, a ceasefire was signed between the Covenant and UNSC but once the Covenant find a forerunner artifact, possibly a weapon, the ceasefire is quickly forgotten. The missions follow Spartans Palmer and Davis through their experiences and missions, though with a twist. You’re not ‘actually’ playing them, as you’re a cadet aboard the UNSC Infinity simply reliving these missions through the simulator aboard. These missions are very brief and bite sized (as it was a tablet game originally) and the only narrative tying it together is the wall of text that is assumed to be read between missions.
Originally the tablet version had 25 missions, but for the Xbox One release, five more missions have been added (originally the DLC), and an online cooperative mode consisting of 5 missions has been added as well (which the tablet version didn’t have). With 30 story mission and 5 coop ones, you’ve got about 4 hours or so of gameplay within, so take that for what it is. Unless you’re heavily invested into the Halo lore and want to learn more small details about these side stories, it’s quite difficult to care about the story itself as most of it is simply given to you via a wall of text, which most people probably won’t even read. For those of us that do know much of the Halo universe, there’s some neat little tidbits of information but not once was I blown away or had an “Ah-ha” moment like I did with some of the reveals the novels provided.
Because Spartan Assault was originally designed for a mobile tablet platform, the game design follows suit and caters towards the bite-sized missions that mobile games are known for. Because of this core design, finishing it in a single sitting is not unheard of. Missions vary from one to another, as sometimes you’ll be fighting Grunts and Elites, destroying Wraith’s, defending allies, and other types of missions as well. Some mission objectives do get repeated, but the missions themselves are so short that you won’t really notice it for the most part.
You are scored on your performance based on how well you do, time it takes, etc, and these scores are put onto the leaderboards so you can see how you compare against your friends and everyone else on Xbox Live. As you finish missions as earn XP, this XP can then later be used to purchase different weapons or armor abilities, as missions start you out with a predetermined outfit of weapons and abilities. Purchasing new weapons can make some of the mission much easier to complete, but if you run out of your XP currency, you either need to replay missions to earn more or can purchase credits with real money to bypass the grinding needed to test out some of the more powerful weapons. This is where I start to have a problem with Spartan Assault, as it’s clearly been ported from its mobile version, micro-transactions and all intact as well. You aren’t going to find the powerful Sniper rifles, Spartan Lasers, and Rocket Launchers during missions just lying around either, so you need to unlock them via your earned XP or purchased with real money. While these aren’t required to complete the game in any way, some of these are essential to the Halo experience and it’s somewhat locked behind a wall.
A Halo game wouldn’t be the same without all of the iconic weapons included within, and you’ll be using your Pistol, Assault Rifle, Needler, and even picking up Covenant weaponry quite often, as ammo is scarce on the battlefield. You’ll need to be quick on picking up ammo or swapping weapons, as the enemies can be quite relentless at times, especially the later levels and coop missions. The mission difficulty and pacing isn’t a smooth curve either. Some missions you’ll fly through them in a short few minutes, others difficulty level randomly spikes and will have you retrying a few times to get just the right strategy figured out. Then there are the timed missions, possibly the most frustrating of all the missions included; luckily there aren’t an overabundance of them contained within.
A new feature the Xbox One version gets over the tablet is the inclusion of online cooperative multiplayer. Here you can play with a random player or friend and once again use the UNSC Infinity simulator to train for some truly unique situations. In these five missions, the dreaded Flood has returned and your team of two must tackle the objectives as best and quickly as you can. Cooperation is imperative and if you’re stuck with a player that doesn’t pull their own weight or understand the coop mechanics, you won’t succeed. The last mission in particular was quite frustrating and took me about a dozen tries as my cooper partner just wasn’t pulling their weight with the never ending onslaught of Flood as you try and complete your objectives. While the coop was a fun little distraction, it doesn’t last long unless you’re trying to climb up the leaderboards and surprisingly it doesn’t allow for local coop either, only online.
Sure the game looks a little better than it’s tablet predecessor, and the textures have been bumped up to look good on your TV, but there’s no mistaking that this was once a mobile game at its core. Spartan Assault is completely serviceable and fits into the Halo lore and universe no problem, but it just feels somewhat uninspired at times. I know I got a little more out of it because my deep knowledge of the cannon and side stories, but your average Halo fan that’s only played the game might not get as much out of it and may be let down by the lack of cutscenes or non-read narrative.
Halo: Spartan Assault is absolutely authentic, as all of the weapons have the sounds you know by heart, a great soundtrack (though not as memorable), and most of the other elements that defines the series even with the drastic switch to the overhead perspective. If you’re really thirsting for some Halo before the next big game launches on Xbox One, Spartan Assault is completely serviceable and a quick side distraction, it just didn’t live up to some of the expectations that should come in tow with a Halo game.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Peggle 2
You know a game has done something right when it associates itself with a song so well that when you hear it, you think of the game itself. When I hear “Ode to Joy”, I instantly think of Peggle and all the hours I put into that game over the years, as it was the victory song for when you successfully finished a level. It’s been five years since the original release of Peggle, and now we finally have the much anticipated sequel. In all honesty, I probably would have simply been happy with a ‘map pack’ with new boards to play on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with Peggle 2, but I was hoping they would go above and beyond for the long time coming sequel. A highly addictive game, Peggle was one of the few games that my wife actually asked me to turn on the Xbox for her so she could play it. At one point my friends and I actually had a few gatherings where the game of choice was Peggle. Game mascot Bjorn returns in Peggle 2, but he brought with him some new friends (Masters) for you to play with and learn their new skills and master the new boards and very difficult challenges. You wouldn’t expect something like Peggle 2 to be in the new console’s launch window (as it’s exclusive to Xbox One for the time being) when you can get all of the other hardcore games, but it’s here, and I’m glad it is. If you’re a puzzle game addict or was a super fan of the original Peggle, it’s time to get an Xbox One for Peggle 2.
For those that have never played Peggle before, it’s a game that’s inspired by pachinko mixed with Plinko from The Price Is Right fame. You have a ball launcher at the top of the screen which you aim to clear all of the orange pegs off the screen with your limited ball count. Once all of the orange pegs are destroyed you can move on to the next level (though there’s a lot of reasons to play the boards again). As you launch your ball you give way to gravity and how the ball will bounce from peg to peg, clearing any it hits along the way to the bottom of the screen. There’s a ball catcher, a net of sorts, that if your ball lands in the automatically scrolling net, you gain a free ball; miss and you lose a ball.
While the orange pegs are your main goal to pass the standard levels, you’ll also encounter blue pegs that give points, purple which gives a massive amount of points, and the limited green pegs that when hit activate your Master’s special ability. A big part of the strategy is to figure out how the ball might bounce from peg to peg for the maximum amount of points (and path clearing) while also hoping to time it right so that your balls lands in the moving basket at the bottom for the always welcome extra ball. When you hit that last orange peg (which does a zoomed in close-up in slow motion for added drama) there’s a celebration of fireworks and victory music (with more than just Ode to Joy this time) that always puts a smile on your face.
If this all sounds familiar to you, you’ll be happy to know that the core game is unchanged and you can simply jump right in. There are 5 Masters (4 new as Bjorn is the only returning character), each of which has 10 levels that increase in difficulty, but not only in the amount of orange pegs you need to clear to progress. Now each level has 3 optional objectives, to keep you coming back and playing, that are quite challenging and fun to attempt. Most of the times they are simple “Clear all the pegs” or “Score X amount of points”, but sometimes there’s some unique ones that are going to test your patience and mixes things up a bit. After the 10 main stages are complete, each master also has 10 trial levels which are much more specific and unique in their requirements. Sometimes it’s clear 40+ orange pegs, other times it will entail you clearing a stage with a set amount of balls or needing to make a certain amount of unique shot bonuses to win. Some even won’t give you the aiming marker, truly testing your skill and patience. These trials are quite fun, but you will hit brick walls in difficulty with some of the trials which can be frustrating (though amazing once you finally clear it).
Masters, boards, and trials aren’t the only new features to Peggle 2 though. There are now two new obstacles you’ll face on some of the boards (the later stages). There is now armored pegs which require two hits to destroy (one to break the armor and the second to clear it like normal) and also bumpers that react like they would on a pinball table. I would have liked to see a little more use of these new pegs but you generally only see them in the latter half of the game and trials. The biggest feature that is new though is easily the new Masters, each of which have their own new special power, and in my opinion, is much more balanced that the first game since everyone generally used the Owl or Rabbit in the first game.
All of the Masters will react to your shots in a much more animated way (which looks much better and smoother), plus it’s also nice getting a thumbs up for an awesome shot you made. The only returning Master is Bjorn and he brings with him his standard special power (once you shoot a green peg) that allows you to see where his first bounce is going to land (and adjust accordingly).
Luna is a cute undead girl who has a very unique power skill called Nightshade. This power makes all the blue pegs go ‘invisible’ in a way so that your ball can travel through them unimpeded to hit those hard to get orange pegs near the bottom of the screen. When your power-up skill is gone, any blue pegs you hit remain gone, making it a great way to either clear a path to those tucked away orange pegs if needed.
Jeffrey is a big troll that is sitting on a hill, chilling out, watching you play the board. His power-up is a very useful one that turns your ball into a ‘bowlder’ that will clear a path in its arc, destroying any pegs in its way, even the armored pegs. Jeffrey’s power is a great way to clear a path (which is much wider than the standard ball as well) to open some playing field to aim your next shot, or to simply hit every peg in its way for some massive points (which reward you with free balls).
Berg is a cute Yeti that also has a very useful and unique power when you shoot that green peg down. Once activated, he freezes the playing field in ice, allowing for pegs to move and push others beside it. Basically his power turns the game board into curling, where any peg you hit will slide on the ‘ice’, bumping into other pegs, lighting and destroying them, and possibly making them bump into even more pegs as well. One thing I found out the hard way though, is that Berg’s powers only works on the actual circle pegs, not the square-ish brick style of pegs, so keep that in mind when choosing a master for your levels strategy.
The last Master is my favorite out of all the new characters. Gnorman is a gnome that sits in a larger gnome robot suit whose skill uses electricity to zap any adjacent pegs with the Ubervolt power. Shooting the Ubervolt power-up into a massive area of pegs will not only clear out any in the area (and any subsequent pegs nearby), but the amount of points you can gain on a good shoot is massive. Gnorman is my go-to Master unless I need a strategy that would specifically suit one of the other characters better for that specific stage.
Once you clear all the main stages of the Masters, a new Celestial Realm will open (that allows you to choose any Master you want to use) that holds the games hardest and most challenging levels. While the base levels aren’t too difficult to complete themselves, it’s the three challenges in each level and then the trials that will have you attempting them again and again.
Peggle 2 does include a competitive multiplayer mode for up to four players, but because of this review being done before the actual release, I was unable to find anyone to play with every time I played. I even let Smart Match sit there and attempt to find me a game for quite a long time and I was unable to find a single match. Obviously this won’t be the case, as by the time you’re reading this the game has been released, hopefully with others to play with online, so I can’t weigh in the positives or negatives in this review unfortunately.
Just like the original Peggle, every peg you hit garners a whimsical chime note, each peg making the chime climb in scale. While the listing of only 5 Masters might seem small, as the original Peggle had more technically, I look at the original Peggle only having two that people actually used for the most part (Zen Owl and the Rabbit) because their powers were overpowered. I’ve used each of the Masters in Peggle 2 for specific levels and while I have my favorite, Gnorman, it doesn’t make levels impossible if you choose to side with Berg, Luna, Jeffrey, or even Bjorn. Overall it feels much more balanced and the difficulty scales up steadily.
The animation for the Masters seems to be much improved, as are their new reactions to your shots. Seeing Bjorn head bang to the victory music is hilarious to watch, as is seeing Bergs bare behind (pixelated to keep things proper for kids of course) shaking to the music. There’s so much here that will simply put a smile on your face and if you enjoyed the first Peggle, you’re going to enjoy this one as well.
While I would have liked to have some sort of leaderboards so that I could compare myself to my friend’s abilities and scores, or even download their ghost of their shots, it’s not a deal breaker, simply disappointing. You’re going to put hours upon hours into Peggle 2, not with just the standard levels but with all of the included challenges and trials. Peggle 2 may feel a little short if you’re only trying to pass the standard stages themselves, but put the time into all of the extras, not even including multiplayer, and you’ll be shooting pegs for quite some time, even if it is with only 5 Masters this time.
Suggestions: Online leaderboards/ghost downloads would have been the icing on the cake.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Dead Rising 3
I remember when the original Dead Rising was revealed for the Xbox 360 and was amazed with how many zombies Capcom was able to show on the screen at once (which I think was a few dozen or more, which was unheard of at the time). Turns out it was a hit, was more fun than it should have been to dismember zombies, and had a ton of black humor within as well. Dead Rising 2 raised the bar even further, so naturally when Dead Rising 3 was announced (and as an Xbox One exclusive), I knew that they were going to blow it out of the water given the power of the new hardware. Turns out Capcom Vancouver has delivered, as the technical increases alone have made the Dead Rising world not only seem more believable, but it actually feels as if you’re finally in a true zombie apocalypse where you want to avoid the hordes of zombies, for fear of being overrun.Frank and Chuck from the first two games have been replaced with a new protagonist, Nick Ramos, whom is seemingly an average mechanic that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when this newest outbreak started. Dead Rising 3 takes place a decade after the events with chuck in Fortune City and this time is set in the fictional setting of Los Perdidos California (obviously a take on Los Angeles). Where Fortune City was bright and lit, Los Perdidos is very grim, bleak, and run down after the massive outbreak.
Nick will meet new people along his journey, sometimes saving them, other times being helped. They must escape the city within a few days before an impending missile strike will wipe out the city and any organic life left within its borders. Just like the previous games, you have that impending doom countdown timer that you’re always on watch for, though there’s no need to worry about rushing through the game this time if you choose (more on that shortly).
While at first Nick may not be nearly as iconic as Frank or Chuck were, though I remember thinking the same thing about Chuck when he was first revealed as well. Nick eventually grows into a character you do care about and the inner story surrounding him becomes very interesting, though it takes quite a while for it to get to that point. Will Nick be a memorable as Frank and Chuck when the obvious sequels come in the future? Who knows; but by the end I did really care for Nick and his story and hope it’s not the last we see of him. That being said, I’m going to avoid any story spoilers, but let it be known that if you were a fan of first two games, its lore and characters, stick with this until the very end, as there is a massive reveal that seriously had my jaw on the floor and was wrapped up very well.
As Dead Rising 3 begins you may get a small sense of deja-vu. You begin thrust into an impossible situation, have the basic tutorials thrown your way of how to play, then are set free to do as you wish in the open world of Los Perdidos. As soon as you step outside and see the scope of the game you will be blown away with how impressive it is. Not just graphically, but the sheer magnitude and scale. This goes not only for the environment and city, but once you see how many zombies can be on the screen at once, it’s more than impressive. You’ll need to fight through a massive wave of zombies to get to your first destination, and you’ll be taken back by how many can flock around you and make travelling quite difficult simply because of the volume of zombies in your way.
From the get-go you’re given this massive world that doesn’t have many locked off areas (though some for story purposes obviously) and can be explored in any way you wish. Being that it’s an open sandbox game, you’ll no doubt become very distracted by doing side missions, exploring, finding collectables, and of course, killing hordes and hordes of zombies for PP to level up Nick’s abilities. Sure you could simply follow the story markers and progress through the story quickly, but like many other sandbox games, the real enjoyment comes in trying all the things you can do and the exploration.
Los Perdidos is massive, to the point of it being bigger than the other games combined. Running all that way would take forever, so that’s why there’s a hearty amount of vehicles for you to use to get from one point to another. While not every car and truck can be used (look for the ones with the hazard lights flashing), you’ll quickly be taught about the new combo vehicles. Just like how you could create combo weapons in Dead Rising 2, this carries over into the vehicles as well and allows for some crazy and incredibly unique vehicles that not only will get you from point A to point B, but also being able to clear any amount of zombies in your way as well. Combining certain vehicles once you have the appropriate blueprints makes for some truly unique rides, such as the Rollerhawg (Steam Roller and a Morotcycle) that plows over zombies and spits fire. This just makes it even more fun to go grind PP and kill zombies for fun, and with the amount of unique vehicles you can make, it never gets old. Surprisingly, zombies can become so condensed in an area that if you try and run through them in a regular vehicle, you’ll actually slow down, even to a stop if you hit that many at once. Again, the amount of zombies on the screen at once cannot be understated.
Just like the vehicles, the combo weapons return in Dead Rising 3, but have been cranked way up on the outlandish scale. Sure there are some basic weapons like adding chainsaws to a paddle, or a saw on the opposite end of a sledgehammer, but there’s some absolutely unique and ‘out there’ weapon creations to be had as well once you find the blueprints. Putting a beer keg onto a construction hat allows you to head butt zombies (and drink for health when low!), wrapping a football in barbwire, and a battery attached to a traffic light can obliterate any surrounding zombies as well. There’s a ton of other crazy weapons, and half the fun is finding the blueprints and then making them for the first time, so I don’t want to spoil any of the really cool ones.
If you found some of the design choices from the first two games a little frustrating like I did, you’ll be happy to know that some changes have been implemented to make things a much easier and smoother experience for your zombie killing ways. No longer do you need to frantically find a bathroom to save, you can simple save on the fly whenever and wherever you like now. The same goes for creating the combo weapons (and vehicles), as you no longer need a workbench to do so, you simply create them if you have all of the components in your inventory (if you’ve found the appropriate blueprint). The timer that was always counting down in the previous games has been removed as well, and you’re no longer forced to be rushing through the game. Without the hard timer restrictions, you can explore and roam around much easier and have an unlimited amount of fun within.
I know what you’re saying, I can hear the cries now. You liked those hardcore elements right? You like having the hard clock timer and more aggressive zombies right? Well you’ll be happy to know that Capcom Vancouver knows those are some of the elements that you enjoy as well and has specifically catered to you with the Nightmare Mode difficulty. This brings back the bathroom saves and makes things much more difficult if you’re looking for a harder challenge, so don’t fret, there’s something here for everyone to enjoy.
As you cruise around the city, either doing story missions, side questions, collection hunting, or simply killing zombies, the new mini-map makes things much easier to find when you’re in proximity to them. Doing side quests gives massive amounts of precious PP that can then be used to upgrade Nick’s abilities and skills based on your personal play style. I personally upgraded the inventory slots first so that I could carry more, but if you like to create weapons and vehicles all the time, you can specialize into that if you desire. There’s a lot of really cool perks and abilities to unlock once you reach certain milestones, so check them all out before committing to a specialized line of abilities.
The over the top and absolutely crazy psychos (essentially the bosses) make a return in Dead Rising 3 and are more flamboyant and over the top than even the previous games. Based on the seven deadly sins, wait until you see the boss that represents Gluttony, Lust, and Pride. Wow, just wow. They may come across as a little ‘too’ cartoony in their personalities, but it fits with the series and are extremely memorable (I’m still trying to block out Gluttony). The only issue I had with these boss battles is that the majority of them require firearms to effectively take them out. The problem with that is that there’s no lock-on system for the shooting weapons and brings a huge amount of frustration when you constantly miss your shots and run out of ammo.
When Dead Rising 3 was first announced, some fans were a little worried that it lost its humorous aspect as it didn’t really show much of the silliness that the series is known for. Fear not, the absurdness and plain oddities that the series is known for is still here. You can still dress up Nick in any clothing you find, even if that’s a hazmat suit or lingerie. It makes it incredible hard to keep a straight face in the cutscenes because Nick is wearing whatever you make him wear. Trying to take a scene seriously is quite difficult when Nick is wearing a horse mask, lingerie, and gum boots (my personal outfit of choice), or simply a banana hammock and nothing else. The other problem with having this mechanic is that some of the cutscenes don’t take into account some of these items. For example, the cutscene that would normally focus on Nick’s face always zoomed in on the nose of my horse mask (though it’s pretty cool hearing his voice slightly muffled underneath). The same goes when the characters are talking about Nick’s neck tattoo, but you can’t actually see it because it’s under your mask.
There are two other core features that need to be mentioned as they are great inclusions. Firstly, Dead Rising 3 is Kinect enabled believe it or not. One of the main features is being able to actually shout at your TV and the surrounding zombies will actually hear you and come after you, and yes, this can be disabled if you have that jerk roommate. You can also navigate any of the menu options completely with voice; not anything spectacular, but I found myself using it periodically without even thinking about it. Lastly for Kinect, certain bosses can also be taunted with a specified catch phrase (such as “You’re crazy”) that is shown in the top right corner. Doing so might infuriate the boss and force them to make a mistake, allowing you to attack them much easier. It’s a great use of Kinect that isn’t intrusive or changes the gameplay, but adds some simple fun.
If you have a supporting smartphone or tablet, Dead Rising 3 is also Smartglass enabled which allows you to do a lot of really cool things with the second screen. Your smartglass device will actually mimic Nick’s in-game cell phone and when you get a call in game, it’ll actually go to your phone or tablet. You can see an overview of the map, where hidden items are, and even get exclusive smartglass-only missions as well. If you’re looking for a specific component to make a combo weapon, you can look it up and it will show you where the nearest one is. Now and then you can even call in air strikes if you’re very desperate to clear a path in front of you. All of these features are not essential by any means, but they are incredibly fun and extremely helpful.
Co-op mode returns from Dead Rising 2, but is vastly improved in most ways. No longer is the second player a clone that doesn’t progress his character; instead, player two plays as Dick (yes, Nick and Dick) and you actually keep to keep all of your own progress in asynchronous saves. Any blueprints that the other player finds you unlock, any weapons they create and drop for you also unlock them in your locker (you’ll still need to find the blueprint to create them in the wild though), and any campaign progress is also saved. With every vehicle having room for two, the game encouraged the exploration together and to have fun. Once you learn the mechanics you can also abuse it in a way where one player can give a new character the best weapons in the game to level up incredibly fast. The only complaint I had with the co-op system was in the matchmaking (when you’re not partied up with a friend beforehand). You can decide to join someone else’s game but you actually have no control of who you get to join or see what chapter they are progressing in until it’s too late and you’re joining. If I want to search for a lobby for someone that’s working on the same chapter and episode I am, there’s no possible way to do so, so I suggestion sticking with friends unless you simply want a partner to grind away zombies with.
While I had no game breaking bugs or anything massively frustrating, there are a ton of smaller glitches and bugs that can completely take you out of the immersion. For example, multiple times I had cutscenes with invisible characters. A friend and I actually had the same glitch in the same cutscene where one of the main characters was invisible, which didn’t make sense when someone was hugging them (though all we saw was an awkward floating hug motion from the visible character). My friend also was unable to see one of the key characters in all of his cutscenes which is very problematic in certain scenes, especially near the end. Some zombies will glitch out, I’ve had a few floating zombies, and certain animations look very jagged as they start instantly the moment you press the button instead of being a fluid motion. None of these are deal breakers by any means, but there was a lot of bugs beginning to finish.
That being said, the pro’s definitely outweigh the con’s, as the the amount of zombies that can be on screen at the same time is absolutely staggering. Add in the fact that all the zombies look and act differently and not simply cookie cutter copies of each other and it’s even more impressive. All of this without losing much framerate either (aside from when many explosions and zombies at once) is equally impressive. The magnitude of this outbreak is very extraordinary and gives me high hopes for what’s possible with these new next-gen consoles.
Graphically the game does look great, especially in the cutscnees where you can actually see Nick’s stubble (if you’re not wearing a silly mask like myself obviously), but it’s more about how much can be on the screen rather than photo-realism. The voice acting across the board is very solid, even from the lesser seen minor characters, even if much of the dialogue is a little cheesy at times. If you’re looking for a game for your new Xbox One to show off what it’s really capable of, Dead Rising 3 is a safe bet, just make sure you realize you’re about to get sucked into many hours of zombie killing.
Suggestions: There needs to be the ability to search lobbies, specifically by chapters and episodes. Being put into a random persons game that is 10 minutes in isn't as fun, especially when it takes minutes at a time to find and load a game.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Fighter Within
Brace yourselves. Fighter Within is a Kinect-only fighting game that brings us motion fighting where you’ll be flailing your arms, legs, and doing other silly moves in hopes to not only beat up your opponent, but that the game will register what you’re trying to accomplish by waving said limbs about. When you try go to recalibrate your Kinect because you think it’s something on your end not making the game work properly and as advertised, but it’s not, then you have a problem. Welcome to Fighter Within!If Fighter Within was released for Xbox 360 as a Kinect only game, I would have most likely written it off, as we’ve all seen the track record that most, but not all, Kinect only gesture based games have quality-wise. That being said, I had high hopes that with the new Kinect 2.0 sensor that comes with every Xbox One, that this might not be the case so much anymore. I guess that’s why they call me naive.
Having been using the Kinect for other applications and games without any problems at all, I was quite perplexed when I started playing Fighter Within, only to find that old issues that plagued the original Kinect with half-baked gameplay and unresponsive controls, has returned sadly. It’s a shame to, as this will no doubt be used by the naysayers of Microsoft decision to include a Kinect with every Xbox One, and definitely not what was shown (and proven already) of how good the new Kinect CAN be. Fighter Within falls into the typical Kinect-only stigma that mashes up terrible controls, unresponsive gameplay, finicky gesture gimmicks, and an experience that doesn’t warrant the full purchase price in any way. The new Kinect does work, just not with Fighter Within, at all.
From the moment the game starts up you’re going to start getting frustrated when you have to navigate the opening menu. You’re given an option to choose, but aren’t actually instructed on how to choose it properly. Naturally you’d assume that you have to hold your hand over your selection, or punch at the selection chosen given that this is a fighting game in nature. Nope; none of those work and you’ll spend time trying to even get past the first screen until you luckily somehow get it to work. You need to hold your palm out to select, push inwards as if it’s a button, then pull backwards. That is, in theory. Actually getting the game to acknowledge your choice is a fight within itself that will give you more frustration than anything else in the entire game. The problem with selection options is that if you move your hand out of the selection area it resets and you need to attempt to select it again, and again, and again. Oh, and you’ll have to battle this ‘selection boss’ after each fight with an opponent too, so look forward to that.
Oddly, Fighter Within asks if you want to complete the “Initiation” mode, which not only teaches you how to play as you progress, but also doubles as the story mode. This really isn’t explained either, so you have no idea if that’s the campaign mode you want to choose or not. Don’t hold your breath for a compelling plot line, though I doubt you are given it’s a fighting game, as it’s executed poorly, not only in story, but execution as well. While there is technically a story, I won’t delve into it for a couple reasons. Firstly, you’ll complete the game in two hours. Yes, two hours is the length of the campaign, though you might see it as a blessing in disguise. Secondly, Matt, the protagonist you play as, is the most generic looking guy you can imagine and frankly, the story isn’t all that good or flows well. It essentially only serves as a transition between opponents you’ll fight along the way (many twice or three times) and the writing (and acting) is so terrible that you won’t care, as it seems they are actually trying to make it compelling. Once you stand doing the same moves for about two hours you’ll complete the story mode, but that’s not all! Once finished, you unlock the Arcade mode where you can pick any of the characters you met along the way and fight as them against each of the other opponents. The main mode with the “story” was a thin experience, so you can guess how well it is with simply fighting one after another.
For a fighting game, the mechanics are exactly as you would expect and will have you throwing punches, kicks, blocking, counters, throws, leaning, jumping, and more. While your standard jabs and kicks will have no problem registering, trying to do the flashier and more time specific ones are going to be challenge on your sanity. While most of the most work most of the time, it’s simply not good enough for a fighting game. Luckily none of that matters as you’ll simply be using the same move over and over if you want to win quickly, as it’s poorly balanced; but I’ll get to that shortly.
You can perform straight punches either high or low, the same with kicks, hooks to the side, head butts, and other special moves that are contextual to the environment around you, like using a pole to swing around and hit your opponent. After a few fights you’ll even be able to charge your Ki, Dragon Ball Z style, to unleash your most powerful, and completely imbalanced (in your favor) attacks again and again. Using any of the non-basic moves are total guesswork on when they’ll decide to register the proper move or not. Having to hold one arm up and one down to throw is awkward and rarely works unless you frantically move your arms, which then results in punches. Counters are even worse and take precise timing, something that you simply won’t get with the gesture recognition. You’re even able to pick up weapons on the ground to use to inflict more damage, but I wasn’t actually able to pick one up a single time my whole playthrough since it wouldn’t’ recognize my bending down.
There’s a few more problems that plague Fighter Within that goes right down to mechanics and simply poor design mistakes. Firstly, the game isn’t balanced in any way. The only difficulty spikes were the special matches where you’re forced to perform a ring out instead of a KO or had to survive a set time limit with your blocking (that rarely works). Then there’s the whole overpowered Ki move issue which I’ll get into below. Also, the game is riddled with cutscenes, during the fights, not between. Yes, you read that right. Did a Ki move? Cutscene. Did a 5 high punch combo? Cutscene. Managed to somehow counter? Yup, cutscene. This completely wrecks the flow of actual fighting and you stand there for a few moments watching the screen perform these flashy moves rather than doing them yourself.
Then there’s the biggest game breaking issue; the Ki moves. To use these moves you need to hold your arms above your head, as if you’re charging up your power. Once the meter fills one of the boxes (up to three), you can then unleash a special Ki move regardless of distance or what your opponent is doing. When each of the boxes fill with Ki, you can perform other moves as well, but the standard one uses only one stored block of power and does the same amount of damage as the higher tier moves. So you want to charge your Ki and simply either use the basic Ki attack as the first box fills, or unleash three separate basic Ki moves with all three boxes filled. The problem with this is that the moves are unblockable or counterable, so there’s absolutely no reason to use any other moves in the game and trying to fight with the gesture controls. You can and will win the game doing this single move over and over, even on the final “boss”.
Visually, the game looks decent, but this is an Xbox One game, so I honestly expected more. The problem is that you rarely get to see how good the visuals are because the story is done in that cheesy non-animated characters talking to each other rather than any actual cutscenes or visuals of any kind. The fighters themselves look decent, but the only time you get to see any real detail is when your enemy unleashes a special attack or combo against you and it slows down time and zooms in to show the expression on Matt’s face. When this happens, Fighter Within looks quite good, concidering you can see individual hairs and other details on the fighters. The problem is that once you unlock those overpowered Ki moves, you won’t really get hit again by much.
There is a local multiplayer option, but to be honest, I was only able to get a single match of this in with the wife before she gave up because “this is stupid, it doesn’t work”. Can’t say I blame her. Playing through the game, even with a two hour clock time, felt like a chore and quite boring. Half of the fights were for no real reason (though the plot will try and convince you otherwise) and fighting the same opponent two or three times isn’t that exciting either.
The fact that I honestly thought I didn’t calibrate my Kinect properly at first is a telling sign that this was very rushed and simply doesn’t feel like much effort was taken to put a good product on the shelf, especially when they are asking the full $60 price tag for it. When almost every launch game is quite enjoyable, this is easily the black mark on the launch lineup for the Xbox One. The fact that you’ll finish it in a single standing doesn’t help matters, as even the multiplayer can’t save this title. You’ll actually be fighting against pressing “OK” just as long, if not longer, than the actual fights themselves last.
Simply put, Fighter Within doesn’t work. Sure it lets you throw some punches and kicks, but it’s such a thin experience that I not only warn you against getting it, but ask to avoid it all together. This game has all the problems that plagued the first Kinect and gave power to the naysayers of what Kinect was trying to accomplish. It’s such a shame that the single Kinect-only game at launch is this poor in quality and fun. Even when you see Fighter Within in the bargain bin, avoid it unless fighting against pressing the “OK” button is what you’re looking for.
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag
It should be noted that I reviewed the Xbox 360 version of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag shortly ago, and the bulk of the review will be the same, but with this being the Xbox One version and finally getting some play time into some features that weren’t live when I did the initial review, there is new content in here. So if you’ve been wondering how the next-gen Xbox One version compares, continue on my friends, as you’ll be pleasantly surprised, just as I was. There are very few things cooler than pirates. I don’t mean the cliché “Yar matey” with a parrot on their shoulder, an eye patch, and a wooden leg, but the brutal and ruthless swashbucklers that did as they pleased and didn’t care who they had to kill to get it. To be completely honest, I was totally expecting Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (referred to as Black Flag from here on) to have some of those stereotypes, but Ubisoft has done an amazing job at making sure that wasn’t the case. Instead, Black Flag is more of a historically accurate representation of the time period with a believable scenery, story, and characters that truly engrosses you in the experience, more so than even the other Assassin’s Creed games did.
With a gaming series that has a yearly offering, fatigue can easily set in if things aren’t changed enough for fans each year. It’s clear that Ubisoft understands this very well and has gone through great lengths to ensure that Black Flag feels new and fresh while also redeeming the qualities that Assassin’s Creed fans thirst for every year. Even with the new setting in Black Flag of the Caribbean during 1715, the golden age of piracy where sailors thrived for fortune and fame, that would have probably been enough on its own to justify the “IV” in the title, but Ubisoft didn’t stop there and have included a plethora of new mechanics and changes that are for the better of the series as a whole.
As like the other games in the series, Black Flag’s story is divided into two portions, with one being the historical portion that makes up the bulk of the game, and the present day sections that was previously headed by the Desmond character. If you’ve yet to play an Assassin’s Creed game, the essential idea is that with a specific device called the Animus, you could view and relive any of your ancestor’s memories. Things have changed since the ending of Assassin’s Creed III though, and because Desmond is not the focal character in the modern setting, Ubisoft has done an amazing job at justifying how the player is interacting with his lineage, but I’ll leave that for you to experience and figure out.
Abstergo Industries has branched and created a company called Abstergo Entertainment, seemingly a video game company (with shout outs to Ubisoft as well), and you are the newest hire in this modern setting. You actually play as yourself rather than a Desmond-like persona and are asked with exploring the past of a specific ancestor of Desmond, the assassin Edward Kenway. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed III, you no doubt recognize the name Kenway; that’s because Edward is the father of Haytham Kenway (antagonist in Assassin’s Creed III), and thus also the grandfather to Ratonhnhaké:ton, better known as Connor, the assassin you play as from the same game, all of which are descendants to Desmond.
Pirates get their turn in the spotlight in Black Flag and Edward’s story takes place during the early 18th century around the Caribbean islands and seas. This is where pirate legacies were birthed and just like other Assassin’s Creed titles, you’ll have your run ins with historical figures such as Charles Vane, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and even the infamous Blackbeard. You’ll navigate the seas on your trusty ship but you’ll also pass through main cities such as Kingston, Nassau, and Havana. Edward, having fled England in search for riches and glory, eventually becomes the feared and respected pirate he knew he could be. Being both pirate and assassin, Edward has a very unique outlook on things and an even more polarizing personality. Ezio from the previous games used to be my favorite assassin of the series by far, but even after starring in only one game, I think Edward might have that honor. He’s got a very unique personality and is a great blend of Ezio and Connor’s personalities. While you can probably see his involvement in the Templar / Assassin conflict during the story, he’s still a polarizing character and I never grew tired of him like I did with Connor.
If you played Assassin’s Creed III I know what you’re thinking, and no, Black Flag does not start off that dull in the beginning and take three memory sequences to actually start getting interesting; quite the opposite. Within minutes of starting Black Flag you’re thrust into Edward’s story and even get to try your hand out at the new ship mechanics quite early on. As a whole, Black Flag has a much richer and more impressive setting than Assassin’s Creed III did. I knew what they were trying for with the frontier in the previous game, but it was dull and a chore; subsequently, the world in Black Flag is very vast and you actually want to explore every island and find every hidden collectable. Cities in III were very boring to navigate, as most of the buildings and landscape was flat, so you didn’t really traverse all that much. Free running in Black Flag is vastly improved, not only because of the cities and areas with more traversing to execute, but the new forts and jungle areas suit an assassin’s parkour abilities perfectly.
You’ll visit Kingston, Havana, and Nassau, the game’s three main cities, along with dozens of other places to explore such as small islands, to enemy forts, and even dense jungles littered with dangerous animals. I didn’t think the jungle setting would fit with the gameplay we’ve come to know in the series, but I was pleasantly surprised, as you can play completely stealthy if you wish by hiding in dense foliage or hiding around cover. Seeing how dense and lifelike the flora is in the Xbox One version is absolutely amazing. Leaves are individually rendered and move in the wind or part when you’re walking through a bush. You can decide how you want to approach your target and playing completely stealthy is a viable option in many ways. It’s worth noting that transitioning from naval to land, or boat to boat is completely seamless and without loading. This greatly helps keep the level of immersion and you engrossed in the experience. Also improved are the tasks that are given to you when you are aiming for 100% synchronization in each of the memory sequences; there’s no more guesswork or trying to figure out why you didn’t get the maximum rating. You’re also able to given feedback and rate each mission after completion, so I hope people do this so we get less of the tedious eavesdropping missions that I’ve loathed since their inception.
It’s inevitable, but you will have to fight your way out of some situations regardless of how stealthy you attempt to be. While I understood the combat mechanics from the previous games, I know everyone did not properly, so this has been addressed in a number of ways. Firstly, combat as a whole feels a tad slower, and that’s a good thing, as you’re not simply mashing buttons and hoping to counter or disarm enemies, but instead can perform these actions when you want to with much more ease. Another big upgrade is the ability to freely aim your pistols and guns now and don’t have to rely on the auto aim any longer. This coincides with the ability to dual wield, and since Edward can carry up to four pistols, you can chain these together for some awesome gunshot attacks and combos. The iconic assassin hidden-blades return and without question are one of the favorite weapons, but Edward can also equip dual cutlass swords as well. Rope darts return, but blowpipes now make their appearance and I actually found myself using these different types of darts more often than I thought I would to approach stealth based areas differently than I would have in the past without them. You may even have to fend off some sharks and other predators in the ocean if you decide to explore the underwater caverns as well.
A notable feature that’s been changed is the notoriety system, and in my opinion, for the better. Previously if you caught the guard’s attention you would have to hide for them to stop hunting you but would also have to find wanted posters and rip them down, or bribe officials. This has been taken out, but there are still consequences for acting like a pirate in civilized areas. As there would be no possible way for the world to learn of your crimes in each city since you are able to sail across the sea to other cities and areas, a new system is in place that will have pirate hunters on the hunt for Edward should his crimes continue to escalate and grow. Eventually you’ll have Man-o-war battleships chasing you down on the seas if you don’t keep your pirate debauchery in check. With the inclusion of a fast travel system to places you’ve already been, this might not even be a huge issue for you if you don’t decide to sail the sea as often as you should (since it’s awesome).
The economic system in place in black Flag is much easier to understand and possibly makes more sense simply because you’re actually going out and gathering those resources (by pillaging other ships on the sea). If you liked having Connor’s upgradable house in III, you’ll be happy to know that something similar has returned in Black Flag, but on a larger scale. Once you unlock Edwards hideout a few hours in you can then upgrade the whole area by adding new sections and buildings like taverns and shops.
I’m not usually the kind that will try and get 100% in a game, especially a large open world like the Assassin’s Creed games, but there’s something Black Flag has done right that has me staying up for hours trying to get every collectable before moving on. As it’s the era of pirates, Black Flag wouldn’t be complete without treasure maps for you to comb the seas for in hopes of riches. As you find treasure maps, they will have general coordinates and simply have a drawing with a big red X placed where the booty is buried for the next person to find, much like a real treasure map would have. Once you find the appropriate spot and dig (the prompt does come up, so you won’t be digging endlessly for hours) it’s unburied and the spoils are yours.
You can also search for hidden animus fragments throughout the world, save sailors to recruit them to your fleet, and even chase down flying musical notes that will unlock new sea shanty songs for your crew to sing while at sea. It may sound silly, but it’s absolutely worth doing. On top of all that, hunting also makes a return from Assassin’s Creed III, but it much more streamlined and no need to set frustrating traps. As you hunt and kill animals in the jungle or harpoon sea creatures, you can then skin them and use their hides and bones for crafting new weapons, armor, and gear, or to even sell if you need more money for something else.
One of those things you’ll be sinking a lot of your heard earned (robbed) money into is your trusty ship Jackdaw. Arguably the best part of Assassin’s Creed III was the introduction of naval warfare, and with Black Flag every aspect has been dramatically improved, to the point that it can even be its own game if you want it to be. Being able to sail the open sea may not sound like a big deal if you did it in the previous game, but the world in Black Flag is much vaster and you actually feel as if you’re sailing with a purpose. You will get distracted and go sailing for hours on end like I did; think of it as the equivalent of simply getting cars in a Grand Theft Auto game and wasting time for hours. The world is massive and sailing is a large portion of the fun to be had, especially when you spot a cargo ship on the horizon with your spyglass.
Using your spyglass from afar will actually give you information about the boat you are looking at, such as its level (difficulty), type, and cargo. If you’re short on metal you can use your scope from afar and see if you need to go plunder that ship or not, saving you valuable time. To succeed on the open seas, you WILL have to upgrade the Jackdaw, and to do this you need resources which are obtained by stealing them from other ships by boarding them and taking it for your own. You’re even able to upgrade and change the appearance of the Jackdaw as well if you have the spare resources needed to do so. The open water is incredibly realistic, and on the Xbox One this is even more so true, and waves and wind will actually affect how your ship sails. Sometimes you’ll even find yourself in terrible storms or a hurricane area and rogue waves if not handled properly, can massively damage your vessel. You may have to even avoid water spouts and other obstacles in the worst conditions on the sea. The way Ubisoft has managed to make water look realistic is incredible, not only from its looks, but in the way wave and the water moves itself. You’ll even see water being washed upon the main deck and swishing around depending on the momentum of your ship.
Your ship won’t sail itself though, and this is where your crew comes in. You’ll need bodies to fire the weapons, set the sails, and help plunder any opposing ships you decide to board. Edward will have to manage his crew that can and will perish along your travels and also recruit new members as needed within cities. While it’s not a deep mechanic aside from having enough bodies needed to be successful, you do end up experiencing some form of comradery after being at sea for hours on end singing sea shanty’s one after another with your crew.
Ship battles are simply a way of life for a successful pirate, and Edward is no exception to the rule either. Cargo from ships holds the precious resources you’ll need and the ships will be added to your fleet if you don’t outright destroy them as well. Damage a boat to low enough health and you’ll be given the cue that you are able to board it. If you destroy the boat completely you only gain half the resources it was carrying, but the real fun comes when you swing or jump from your ship to the other to take it over. The more ships you plunder the more your wanted level will become on the seas, as hunter ships will be sent after you if you don’t take care of your notoriety on land before venturing back out to sea.
Simply put, naval battles are amazing. The combat mechanics are much deeper than they were in III and there are many more options, not even including all the ship upgrades you can optionally do as well. You’ll see many types of ships, from small frigates all the way up to the massive and devastating Man-o-war ships that will absolutely crush you if you aren’t prepared. There is even a system in place where you can send out the ships in your fleet out on missions, much like you did with your team of assassins in the previous games, but they will go on trade missions to bring you back resources or open up new missions and trade paths. This meta-game becomes terribly addictive once you’re given access to it and is a great way to gain and trade additional resources. I do wish there was a little bit more of a tutorial for this mode and all the currencies, but once you wrap your head around it, it makes for some quick time wasting fun as you wait for them to finish their routes and bring you back the spoils.
The unique multiplayer mode that was introduced a few games ago returns and also vastly improved, but yes, players still tend to simply run everywhere and on roofs constantly. There’s a massive amount of customization now available to you that not only range from your character, appearance, and abilities, but your profile, emblem, and many more items that will keep you playing to earn the credits needed. Prestige levels are in place for those that are truly dedicated and want to continue having reasons to play online with or against others as well. There is even a store in place now for people that don’t have the time to dedicate countless hours online and want to try out new characters, abilities, or appearance items, all of which can be earned with in-game currency, or bought with real money for their spate currency as well. Wolfpack mode returns from the previous game which was a four player online cooperative experience, but the problem was that in III, it simply threw you into the mode without giving a lot of explanation of what, why, or how. This has been addressed with the new and improved Wolfpack mode in Black Flag with the inclusion of the new Discovery Mode. This mode allows you to play online with friends and others in a linear story-based offering that will really teach you the subtleties and purpose of the mode; essentially a tutorial that’s actually playable. After Discovery is completed you’ll be able to move into the full ‘Unleashed’ offering where the goal is to reach the highest sequence possible, much like ‘waves’ in other games. You do this by completing the objective given to your team which can be multiple kills, synchronized skills, defending chests, and more. If you have someone on the team that isn’t as good or like to be reckless and kill civilians, your team will suffer, as you lose time waiting for your targets to refresh and reappear.
There is even an inclusion of a mode titled Gamelab, which allows you to essentially customize a game or mode to your very specific liking. You can turn off the compass, HUD elements, rule sets, and even more and play them with your friends. Popular creations will even be playable by the community so let your imagination out and make some creative modes and rule sets and be known.
While I completely enjoyed my time with Black Flag, and will continue to do so as I still have a ton of collectables to search for, it does have a few minor issues that should be noted, though nothing game breaking or a deal breaker by any means. Unlocking items in multiplayer is going to take a very long time, and while you can fast track this by spending real currency for in-game money, it can become unbalanced when you’re paired up with a high level player or a similar level one but with them willing to spend money on those fast tracks, giving them a massive advantage in competitive modes. There were multiple times I ran into minor bugs such as clipping issues and there are times where it’s very difficult to tell what objects can or can’t be climbed, even though they look like they should be. While I truly love the new jungle setting in specific areas, on the Xbox 360 version I found it silly because the static plants didn’t truly camouflage Edward at all; this has been rectified in the Xbox One version. In the next-gen version you’ll even see Edward move some of the plants and bushes out of his way and they will rustle as you move through the bushes. Like I said, nothing that’s a deal breaker, and the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. While the game might seem small at first when you’re unleashed in the first city, it’s truly impressive at how big the world is as a whole once you have control of the Jackdaw and can start sailing from area to area (Which I suggest instead of relying on fast travel). In terms on size and setting, it’s astounding what Ubisoft has done to create this incredibly realistic world.
The core Black Flag experience is all here and essentially unchanged albeit from a major graphical upgrade. All of the mechanics and controls stay the same, so if you played the Xbox 360 version, you’ll feel right at home with the Xbox One version as well. Largely, it’s just a big upgrade in the graphics department, which normally would seem like a shallow reason to re-purchase, but the difference is vast enough to warrant it in my opinion. As I mentioned above, there’s simply much more detail in the next-gen version that adds a whole other layer to the immersion and realism from a game that already looked fantastic on the previous version. Not only does the flora look improved, as you can see individual leafs and plants as opposed to previously where it was a flat texture. Speaking of textures, these have been greatly increased as well, as you can now see much more detail, not only in the world and setting, but even on individual characters. In cutscenes with Edward, you can actually see individual hairs from his beard and stubble, buildings look much more realistic with the better textures, and as a whole, everything seems much sharper and ‘pops’ much more.
Textures are only half of the equation though; animation upgrades seems to have snuck in as well, as the sails of the Jackdaw flow and ripple much more realistically in the wind, and seeing bushes give way to Edward when he’s sneaking through them just looks so realistic. Water effects are another big improvement, as seeing the ocean spray up after you hit a wave looks amazing, as does seeing the deck of your ship have water shifting to the movements of your maneuvering. If you’ve got a sharp eye, you’ll even see splinters of wood and other small details fly in the air after hitting (or being hit) by a cannon ball during naval warfare. There are so many small improvements, that while on their own isn’t that big of a deal, but when bundled together (and especially after seeing it compared to the Xbox 360 version), just adds so much more to the experience.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but the load times seems to have been slightly improved as well. While it wasn’t bad in the 360 version, it just feels less so in the Xbox One version, even with all the graphical improvements, but I’ve not timed it to be completely honest. It also seems as if the draw distance has been furthered as well, as I was able to see ships in the distance father than I was able to on the 360; again, not proven, but it sure seems like it. If you have a tablet that supports Smartglass, there’s even a companion app that you can download for free to add a second screen experience that is quite an asset to have; I actually make sure I load it up every time I play as well. The feature I used the most was the overhead map which will show you all the collectables and where Edward is at all times. You can zoom out to see all of the islands, and it will even show guards (directions they are facing), and ships while on the open sea as well. The minimap in-game does a good job, but having a dedicated screen for a lot of this information was more than invaluable and definetly made me sink more time into Black Flag. If you have the 360 and Xbox One, no doubt get the Xbox One version, as it runs and looks better (which is saying something, as the 360 version was quite impressive). The improved graphics, water effects, animation, lighting, and immersion has been bumped up to a whole new level and even if you’ve played it on last-gen, I still suggest checking it out on your new Xbox One; it’s that much of an improvement.
Simply put, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is not only the best Assassin’s Creed game I’ve played to date, as it keeps the core of what the game is all about, but it’s also now the best pirate game I’ve ever played as well. This is a true Assassin’s Creed game, but should you desire, you can play it completely as a pirate and stay on the open seas if you wish. If you were turned off by Assassin’s Creed III and the lackluster Connor character, you don’t need to worry about that in Black Flag. Edward is a polarizing character in his own right, the ‘real world’ Abstergo element of the plot is done in a very intelligent method (complete with information on Desmond for those of us that were fans of his character and storyline), the core gameplay from the series is intact and improved, and the openness of the sea and being a pirate is worth the price of admission alone. Even if you’re not the biggest Assassin’s Creed fan, but an enthusiast of pirates or the era, Black Flag will also appeal to you and will keep you busy for an incredible amount of time with its openness and perfectly casted characters keeps the flow and pacing moving forward when you’re ready to take a break from plundering at sea. It’s impossible to review a pirate based game without at least one cliché, so if you don’t add Black Flag to your gaming collection, you may be forced to walk the plank.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Blood Knights
With some of the year’s biggest titles just released and a new console about to drop any day now, it seems like an odd time for a smaller developer to release their new XBLA title when it’ll be sure to be missed or forgotten with all of the gaming excitement happening lately. Developed by Deck 13, the studio who brought us the very underwhelming Venetica has no released Blood Knights on the Xbox Live Arcade. The release timing couldn’t be worse with all the massive titles just released, but I sat down with it from beginning to end in hopes that it would be a decent Hack and Slash title with a story revolving around a human and vampire war that’s been done many times before; I should have hoped a little hard I guess.The story centers around a mystical seal that has prevented demos from invading Earth that a human guardian is sworn to protect. When the guardian dies, the vampires attempt to steal it for their own reasons and mankind is sending Jeremy, one of the world’s best vampire hunters, after them. Essentially failing, there’s only one last option to take if he wants to save humankind; he must be placed under a spell that bonds him to one of his worst enemies, a vampire. Doing so makes him much stronger but he’s not bound and has to fight alongside the vampire known as Alysa.
Things do not go to plan and Jeremy actually becomes infected by another vampire, turning him into one of their kind. With the bond still intact, he still marches forward in his original quest to save mankind, though his own people turn on him now that he’s one of the dark kind. Formally enemies, Jeremy and Alysa now have to work together not only to save mankind, but to also find a way to break the bonded curse and hopefully cure Jeremy in the end.
The bond between the two main characters has a lot of potential to set up many plot points and character driven motives, but this is never realized or fully developed. Alysa just seems to go along with whatever Jeremy says, even if he’s deciding to side with humans instead of vampires in the few parts you get to make a moral decision in the narrative. This isn’t helped with the poor script, terrible one-liners, and even worse voice acting beginning to finish. Jeremy and Alysa’s personalities never shine through (other than Jeremy staying ignorant lines against vampires even when he is one now) and their relationship never develops outside of a few lines of dialogue here and there. Sadly, you’ll be able to see the ending coming half way through the game and it is not surprising in any way once you finally do defeat the final boss.
The core of Blood Knights is your standard hack and slash, though obviously with its own unique twists. You have your regular attack that you can spam as fast as you can press the button, but is a much weaker attack than your more powerful abilities. You have two power attacks (in the beginning) that are on a cooldown timer that will do much more damage and will be needed in the latter half of the game where you’ll need to break the defenses of enemies with a power move before being able to damage them. Both characters are also able to use their vampiric abilities to suck the blood from their enemies, damaging them in the process, or use them to push or pull enemies off a cliff or towards you. Taking the blood of enemies will replenish your health, but once you figure out how to break the combat in your favor, you’ll rarely ever need any healing. Once you learn how dumb the enemy AI really is, you’ll have no problems in combat all the way to the end of the game. Enemies don’t generally know how to maneuver along the Z-axis and if you’re above them, you can simply pick them off with Alysa’s bow attacks. There are even maximum distances enemies will chase you if you become overwhelmed and once you learn that magically tethering spot where they retreat, you can also simply pick them off without worrying about any damage. It’s such an advantage that I can count the times I actually used Jeremy in combat throughout the whole game.
You have the ability to switch between Jeremy and Alysa whenever you want (aside from the small cooldown timer) but it’s odd when you notice that the character you aren’t using simply disappears rather than following you around or helping you in combat. Jeremy is your standard up close fighter with twin swords, many hacking and whirlwind abilities, and a bigger health pool to take more damage up close. Alysa on the other hand is your quicker and more mobile fighter that uses her dual crossbows to quickly shoot enemies from afar. Eventually combat becomes a little more interesting in the last half of the game when you face off against shielded enemies that require your stronger attacks to open up their vulnerability before you can damage them. Aside from that, combat stays pretty bland throughout once you know how to beat the system.
Killing enemies will earn you experience, and once you fill the bar you level up and then can spend a skill point on making your abilities stronger or learning completely new abilities as well. Finding treasure chests will yield you new loot and it comes often enough that you’re constantly getting upgrades for your armor or weapon slots. There’s two problems with this though. The first is that when you do upgrade, you don’t really feel all that much more powerful. The stat numbers say the new item is better, but you’d never guess it if you didn’t see the stats. Some weapons definitely look cooler, but having a flaming sword didn’t seem to do anything special other than looking stylish. The other problem with the loot system is how you actually equip and manage the loot in your inventory. Items will have an up or down arrow on the picture to indicate if it’s an upgrade or not, but you have to delve into the menu’s, swap loot, then categorize your old armor and weapons as junk so that it will automatically sell for you the next time you visit a trader. That’s another issue, where the trader’s you do meet do sell upgrades for you, they are generally either too expensive or much higher level that your current level. More than once I saved up for a specific weapon, only to find the exact one shortly afterwards or free in a treasure chest.
I was hoping to have some climactic battles against the few bosses that are within the game but they are general nothing more than a stronger standard enemy with a lot more health to shoot away. Most of the bosses consist of either healing themselves when they get to a certain percentage, throwing waves of enemies at you periodically, or a combination of both; hardly imaginary or exciting. Even the final boss was a breeze and I don’t think I got hit once from any of the bosses, so don’t expect much of a challenge.
There are a few instances where you’re forced to make a moral decision in the plot line, essentially deciding to side with humans or vampires. In theory this could have had a very interesting effect on the storyline outcome or actually make you think what is right or wrong. Instead, you’re given this choice that once decided, isn’t really referenced again and your decision seem so minimal that you won’t probably even remember what you had to decide or what the outcome was. There’s achievements that play into this, but that would require you to play through the game twice; I’ll just leave it at that.
If you have a friend that is willing to play Blood Knights with you, there is a local co-op mode available where each player gets to control one of the characters. When playing cooperatively, there are apparently specific co-op puzzles that will be needed to complete to progress forwards. Sadly, I was unable to test any if the co-op abilities of Blood Knights so I’m unable to speak in depth about it. I could see the combat becoming even simpler though with two players killing enemies at once. Sadly online co-op is not an option, so you’ll need someone to come over and play through it with you to test out the features.
While personally it doesn’t bother me either way, it should be noted that apparently every woman in Blood Knights was designed by a teenager in puberty. Every woman, even Alysa, has a massive bust and nowhere near enough clothing to cover up her ampleness. I understand it fits with the theme, but it’s really overdone at times and feels childish, especially when there is shine coming off certain body parts in cutscenes.
With a set camera that will rotate and move automatically depending on where you are in the levels, expect to have I cause you an ample amount of problems. Many times you won’t know where you are getting hit from with arrows because the camera isn’t showing the proper angle. Many times you’ll also get ambushed, not because of level design or staged sequences, but because the camera failed to show you the half dozen enemies waiting around the corner.
Not helping the situation is the poor visuals with bland and muddy textures, but the voice acting is even worse? More than once my wife who wasn’t even watching my play the game commented on how badly acted the lines come across when she heard it across the room. With little to no animation in the faces, cutscenes don’t help matters very much. One liners only make this worse and it’s more than laughable how terrible the voice acting is when the narrative is trying so hard to keep you interested in a plot line and ending you will see coming well before you finish the game in a single sitting. Simply put, Blood Knights feels incredibly shallow, not only in production values, but in gameplay and mechanics as well. It’s not terribly long of a gaming experience, but sometimes that’s a good thing.
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
There are very few things cooler than pirates. I don’t mean the cliché “Yar matey” with a parrot on their shoulder, an eye patch, and a wooden leg, but the brutal and ruthless swashbucklers that did as they pleased and didn’t care who they had to kill to get it. To be completely honest, I was totally expecting Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (referred to as Black Flag from here on) to have some of those stereotypes, but Ubisoft has done an amazing job at making sure that wasn’t the case. Instead, Black Flag is more of a historically accurate representation of the time period with a believable scenery, story, and characters that truly engrosses you in the experience, more so than even the other Assassin’s Creed games did. With a gaming series that has a yearly offering, fatigue can easily set in if things aren’t changed enough for fans each year. It’s clear that Ubisoft understands this very well and has gone through great lengths to ensure that Black Flag feels new and fresh while also redeeming the qualities that Assassin’s Creed fans thirst for every year. Even with the new setting in Black Flag of the Caribbean during 1715, the golden age of piracy where sailors thrived for fortune and fame, that would have probably been enough on its own to justify the “IV” in the title, but Ubisoft didn’t stop there and have included a plethora of new mechanics and changes that are for the better of the series as a whole.
As like the other games in the series, Black Flag’s story is divided into two portions, with one being the historical portion that makes up the bulk of the game, and the present day sections that was previously headed by the Desmond character. If you’ve yet to play an Assassin’s Creed game, the essential idea is that with a specific device called the Animus, you could view and relive any of your ancestor’s memories. Things have changed since the ending of Assassin’s Creed III though, and because Desmond is not the focal character in the modern setting, Ubisoft has done an amazing job at justifying how the player is interacting with his lineage, but I’ll leave that for you to experience and figure out.
Abstergo Industries has branched and created a company called Abstergo Entertainment, seemingly a video game company (with shout outs to Ubisoft as well), and you are the newest hire in this modern setting. You actually play as yourself rather than a Desmond-like persona and are asked with exploring the past of a specific ancestor of Desmond, the assassin Edward Kenway. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed III, you no doubt recognize the name Kenway; that’s because Edward is the father of Haytham Kenway (antagonist in Assassin’s Creed III), and thus also the grandfather to Ratonhnhaké:ton, better known as Connor, the assassin you play as from the same game, all of which are descendants to Desmond.
Pirates get their turn in the spotlight in Black Flag and Edward’s story takes place during the early 18th century around the Caribbean islands and seas. This is where pirate legacies were birthed and just like other Assassin’s Creed titles, you’ll have your run ins with historical figures such as Charles Vane, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and even the infamous Blackbeard. You’ll navigate the seas on your trusty ship but you’ll also pass through main cities such as Kingston, Nassau, and Havana. Edward, having fled England in search for riches and glory, eventually becomes the feared and respected pirate he knew he could be. Being both pirate and assassin, Edward has a very unique outlook on things and an even more polarizing personality. Ezio from the previous games used to be my favorite assassin of the series by far, but even after starring in only one game, I think Edward might have that honor. He’s got a very unique personality and is a great blend of Ezio and Connor’s personalities. While you can probably see his involvement in the Templar / Assassin conflict during the story, he’s still a polarizing character and I never grew tired of him like I did with Connor.
If you played Assassin’s Creed III I know what you’re thinking, and no, Black Flag does not start off that dull in the beginning and take three memory sequences to actually start getting interesting; quite the opposite. Within minutes of starting Black Flag you’re thrust into Edward’s story and even get to try your hand out at the new ships and mechanics quite early on. As a whole, Black Flag has a much richer and more impressive setting than Assassin’s Creed III did. I knew what they were trying for with the frontier in the previous game, but it was dull and a chore; subsequently, the world in Black Flag is very vast and you actually want to explore every island and find every hidden collectable. Cities in III were very boring to navigate, as most of the buildings and landscape was flat, so you didn’t really traverse all that much. Free running in Black Flag is vastly improved, not only because of the cities and areas with more traversing to execute, but the new forts and jungle areas suit an assassin’s parkour abilities perfectly.
You’ll visit Kingston, Havana, and Nassau, the game’s three main cities, along with dozens of other places to explore such as small islands, to enemy forts, and even dense jungles littered with dangerous animals. I didn’t think the jungle setting would fit with the gameplay we’ve come to know in the series, but I was pleasantly surprised, as you can play completely stealthy if you wish by hiding in dense foliage or hiding around cover. You can decide how you want to approach your target and playing completely stealthy is a viable option in many ways. It’s worth noting that transitioning from naval to land, or boat to boat is completely seamless and without loading. This greatly helps keep the level of immersion and you engrossed in the experience. Also improved are the tasks that are given to you when you are aiming for 100% synchronization in each of the memory sequences; there’s no more guesswork or trying to figure out why you didn’t get the maximum rating. You’re also able to given feedback and rate each mission after completion, so I hope people do this so we get less of the tedious eavesdropping missions that I’ve loathed since their inception.
It’s inevitable, but you will have to fight your way out of some situations regardless of how stealthy you attempt to be. While I understood the combat mechanics from the previous games, I know everyone did not properly, so this has been addressed in a number of ways. Firstly, combat as a whole feels a tad slower, and that’s a good thing, as you’re not simply mashing buttons and hoping to counter or disarm enemies, but instead can perform these actions when you want to with much more ease. Another big upgrade is the ability to freely aim your pistols and guns now and don’t have to rely on the auto aim any longer. This coincides with the ability to dual wield, and since Edward can carry up to four pistols, you can chain these together for some awesome gunshot attacks and combos. The iconic assassin hidden-blades return and without question are one of the favorite weapons, but Edward can also equip dual cutlass swords as well. Rope darts return, but blowpipes now make their appearance and I actually found myself using these different types of darts more often than I thought I would to approach stealth based areas differently than I would have in the past without them. You may even have to fend off some sharks and other predators in the ocean if you decide to explore the underwater caverns as well.
A notable feature that’s been changed is the notoriety system, and in my opinion, for the better. Previously if you caught the guard’s attention you would have to hide for them to stop hunting you but would also have to find wanted posters and rip them down, or bribe officials. This has been taken out, but there are still consequences for acting like a pirate in civilized areas. As there would be no possible way for the world to learn of your crimes in each city since you are able to sail across the sea to other cities and areas, a new system is in place that will have pirate hunters on the hunt for Edward should his crimes continue to escalate and grow. Eventually you’ll have Man-o-war battleships chasing you down on the seas if you don’t keep your pirate debauchery in check. With the inclusion of a fast travel system to places you’ve already been, this might not even be a huge issue for you if you don’t decide to sail the sea as often as you should (since it’s awesome).
The economic system in place in black Flag is much easier to understand and possibly makes more sense simply because you’re actually going out and gathering those resources (by pillaging other ships on the sea). If you liked having Connor’s upgradable house in III, you’ll be happy to know that something similar has returned in Black Flag, but on a larger scale. Once you unlock Edwards hideout a few hours in you can then upgrade the whole area by adding new sections and buildings like taverns and shops.
I’m not usually the kind that will try and get 100% in a game, especially a large open world like the Assassin Creed games, but there’s something Black Flag has done right that has me staying up for hours trying to get every collectable before moving on. As it’s the era of pirates, Black Flag wouldn’t be complete without treasure maps for you to comb the seas for in hopes of riches. As you find treasure maps, they will have general coordinates and simply have a drawing with a big red X placed where the booty is buried for the next person to find, much like a real treasure map would have. Once you find the appropriate spot and dig (the prompt does come up, so you won’t be digging endlessly for hours) it’s unburied and the spoils are yours.
You can also search for hidden animus fragments throughout the world, save sailors to recruit them to your fleet, and even chase down flying musical notes that will unlock new sea shanty songs for your crew to sing while at sea. It may sound silly, but it’s absolutely worth doing. On top of all that, hunting also makes a return from Assassin’s Creed III, but it much more streamlined and no need to set frustrating traps. As you hunt and kill animals in the jungle or harpoon sea creatures, you can then skin them and use their hides and bones for crafting new weapons, armor, and gear, or to even sell if you need more money for something else.
One of those things you’ll be sinking a lot of your heard earned (robbed) money into is your trusty ship Jackdaw. Arguably the best part of Assassin’s Creed III was the introduction of naval warfare, and with Black Flag every aspect has been dramatically improved, to the point that it can even be its own game if you want it to be. Being able to sail the open sea may not sound like a big deal if you did it in the previous game, but the world in Black Flag is much vaster and you actually feel as if you’re sailing with a purpose. You will get distracted and go sailing for hours on end like I did; think of it as the equivalent of simply getting cars in a Grand Theft Auto game and wasting time for hours. The world is massive and sailing is a large portion of the fun to be had, especially when you spot a cargo ship on the horizon with your spyglass.
Using your spyglass from afar will actually give you information about the boat you are looking at, such as its level (difficulty), type, and cargo. If you’re short on metal you can use your scope from afar and see if you need to go plunder that ship or not, saving you valuable time. To succeed on the open seas, you WILL have to upgrade the Jackdaw, and to do this you need resources which are obtained by stealing them from other ships by boarding them and taking it for your own. You’re even able to upgrade and change the appearance of the Jackdaw as well if you have the spare resources needed to do so. The open water is incredibly realistic (even for the Xbox 360 version) and waves and wind will actually affect how your ship sails. Sometimes you’ll even find yourself in terrible storms or a hurricane area and rogue waves if not handled properly, can massively damage your vessel. You may have to even avoid water spouts and other obstacles in the worst conditions on the sea.
Your ship won’t sail itself though, and this is where your crew comes in. You’ll need bodies to fire the weapons, set the sails, and help plunder any opposing ships you decide to board. Edward will have to manage his crew that can and will perish along your travels and also recruit new members as needed within cities. While it’s not a deep mechanic aside from having enough bodies needed to be successful, you do end up experiencing some form of comradery after being at sea for hours on end singing sea shanty’s one after another with your crew.
Ship battles are simply a way of life for a successful pirate, and Edward is no exception to the rule either. Cargo from ships holds the precious resources you’ll need and the ships will be added to your fleet if you don’t outright destroy them as well. Damage a boat to low enough health and you’ll be given the cue that you are able to board it. If you destroy the boat completely you only gain half the resources it was carrying, but the real fun comes when you swing or jump from your ship to the other to take it over. The more ships you plunder the more your wanted level will become on the seas, as hunter ships will be sent after you if you don’t take care of your notoriety on land before venturing back out to sea.
Simply put, naval battles are amazing. The combat mechanics are much deeper than they were in III and there are many more options, not even including all the ship upgrades you can optionally do as well. You’ll see many types of ships, from small frigates all the way up to the massive and devastating Man-o-war ships that will absolutely crush you if you aren’t prepared. There is even a system in place where you can send out the ships in your fleet out on missions, much like you did with your team of assassins in the previous games, but they will go on trade missions to bring you back resources or open up new missions and trade paths. I unfortunately didn’t get a whole lot of time with this part of the game, as the Ubisoft servers weren’t on until hours before submitting this review, but it was simple enough to understand and has its own economics system in place with a lot of inclusion with people on your friends list as well.
The unique multiplayer mode that was introduced a few games ago returns and also vastly improved, but yes, players still tend to simply run everywhere and on roofs constantly. There’s a massive amount of customization now available to you that not only range from your character, appearance, and abilities, but your profile, emblem, and many more items that will keep you playing to earn the credits needed. Prestige levels are in place for those that are truly dedicated and want to continue having reasons to play online with or against others as well. There is even a store in place now for people that don’t have the time to dedicate countless hours online and want to try out new characters, abilities, or appearance items, all of which can be earned with in-game currency, or bought with real money for their spate currency as well.
Wolfpack mode returns from the previous game which was a four player online cooperative experience, but the problem was that in III, it simply threw you into the mode without giving a lot of explanation of what, why, or how. This has been addressed with the new and improved Wolfpack mode in Black Flag with the inclusion of the new Discovery Mode. This mode allows you to play online with friends and others in a linear story-based offering that will really teach you the subtleties and purpose of the mode; essentially a tutorial that’s actually playable. After Discovery is completed you’ll be able to move into the full ‘Unleashed’ offering where the goal is to reach the highest sequence possible, much like ‘waves’ in other games. You do this by completing the objective given to your team which can be multiple kills, synchronized skills, defending chests, and more. If you have someone on the team that isn’t as good or like to be reckless and kill civilians, your team will suffer, as you lose time waiting for your targets to refresh and reappear.
There is even an inclusion of a mode titled Gamelab, which allows you to essentially customize a game or mode to your very specific liking. You can turn off the compass, HUD elements, rule sets, and even more and play them with your friends. Popular creations will even be playable by the community so let your imagination out and make some creative modes and rule sets and be known.
While I completely enjoyed my time with Black Flag, and will continue to do so as I still have a ton of collectables to search for, it does have a few minor issues that should be noted, though nothing game breaking or a deal breaker by any means. Unlocking items in multiplayer is going to take a very long time, and while you can fast track this by spending real currency for in-game money, it can become unbalanced when you’re paired up with a high level player or a similar level one but with them willing to spend money on those fast tracks, giving them a massive advantage in competitive modes. There were multiple times I ran into minor bugs such as clipping issues and there are times where it’s very difficult to tell what objects can or can’t be climbed, even though they look like they should be. While I truly love the new jungle setting in specific areas, it seems very silly when you’re incognito by hiding in the foliage, but your head is clearly popping out of the bushes, yet the enemies can’t see you. Like I said, nothing that’s a deal breaker, and the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.
While the game might seem small at first when you’re unleashed in the first city, it’s truly impressive at how big the world is as a whole once you have control of the Jackdaw and can start sailing from area to area (Which I suggest instead of relying on fast travel). In terms on size and setting, it’s astounding what Ubisoft has done to create this incredibly realistic world, even on current-gen systems like Xbox 360. This makes me truly excited to see how fantastic everything will look even more so on next-gen with Xbox One in a few short weeks. It’s nice to know that Black Flag on current-gen isn’t being vastly scaled down, and sure, it’s going to look much prettier on the new hardware, but if you aren’t planning on upgrading right away don’t let that deter you in any way from getting Black Flag as soon as possible.
Simply put, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is not only the best Assassin’s Creed game I’ve played to date, as it keeps the core of what the game is all about, but it’s also now the best pirate game I’ve ever played as well. This is a true Assassin’s Creed game, but should you desire, you can play it completely as a pirate and stay on the open seas if you wish. If you were turned off by Assassin’s Creed III and the lackluster Connor character, you don’t need to worry about that in Black Flag. Edward is a polarizing character in his own right, the ‘real world’ Abstergo element of the plot is done in a very intelligent method (complete with information on Desmond for those of us that were fans of his character and storyline), the core gameplay from the series is intact and improved, and the openness of the sea and being a pirate is worth the price of admission alone. Even if you’re not the biggest Assassin’s Creed fan, but an enthusiast of pirates or the era, Black Flag will also appeal to you and will keep you busy for an incredible amount of time with its openness and perfectly casted characters keeps the flow and pacing moving forward when you’re ready to take a break from plundering at sea. It’s impossible to review a pirate based game without at least one cliché, so if you don’t add Black Flag to your gaming collection, you may be forced to walk the plank.
Overall Score: 9.4 / 10
Flashback HD
It seems there’s been a trend lately with reviving old classic titles that people used to play many years ago to try and cash in on their fond nostalgia. The latest release to be revived from the classic vaults is the two decade old title that was released on many platforms, Flashback. Interestingly, it’s been worked on by the same studio director and designer of the original game, VectorCell Studios, which you may remember brought us the less than stellar game AMY. Everyone was assured that the remake would be in good hands, which didn’t seem hard to believe as it was part of the same original team working on the remake, which is why I’m a little confused to the way it turned out, but more on that shortly. Flashback had some very unique gameplay mechanics and visuals when it originally released in 1992. It had a believable sci-fi setting, unique visual style, and gameplay that was unlike most of what else was available at the time. These reasons and more is why Flashback was remembered fondly over the years, as it really did something new for its time. Flashback (2013) is more than a simple visual overhaul, which is possesses, and the core setting and characters stay the same, but many changes were made to try and give it a more modern feel, which at times works more against it than for it. Visually it’s set as a 2.5D aesthetic and looking at a few screenshots you’d think it was a clone of Shadow Complex, right down to the grid map on the screen. The original Flashback was difficult, here though you have a generous amount of health and plenty of checkpoints, which I personally enjoy, but fans of the original might feel it’s been tuned too easy.
The plot starts much the same, as you awaken in a jungle after a crash landing with no memory of who you are or what your mission was. You find a holocube that has a prerecorded message from yourself explaining that you’re Conrad B. Hart and that you’ll need to find your friend to help you piece together who you are and why you don’t have your memories any longer. Slowly as you progress you’ll piece together the mystery by following the carefully thought out bread crumb trail, though you’ll see the ending coming well before it reveals itself. I genuinely enjoyed the story, but the story telling mechanics and the actual flashback segments are something left to be desired.
I don’t actually remember ever playing the original (which was a surprise to me) so I was going to watch some videos of the original after I started the game up for the first time, but to my surprise, the original 1992 version is included on the main menu from the beginning (no having to unlock it) in emulation form. It’s presented as an arcade cabinet (which doesn’t make sense as it wasn’t an arcade release) offering and you will play it as if you’re standing at the cabinet itself. This means no full screen gameplay and you play as if you’re looking at the screen from afar, which doesn’t help as the cabinet and the background take up most of the screens space, so you’re actually only playing in a small window. An odder design choice still is the fact that there’s even artificial screen glare, as if you were playing it in an actual arcade cabinet, which makes no sense in any way. Surprisingly, that’s not even the worst part about including the classic, as for some reason there’s no music in the title screen or any of the cutscenes either. The complete lack of music during these segments made me think something was wrong with my download, but doing some research proves that it was a poor design choice. Why there’s no sound or music I have no idea at all, but it will have you scratching your head. If you’re buying the remake so you can play the original again, avoid doing so, as it’s not done properly in any way.
Flashbacks new visual makeover will no doubt remind you of the visual style that Shadow Complex brought with its 2.5D presentation and visual fidelity. Environments look detailed, particles stand out, lighting looks great, and you can differentiate between backgrounds and foreground easily. That being said, unfortunately the graphics are really the only feature you’re going to remember and not fight against during your playthrough, as many of the original mechanics have changed that I doubt many fans of the original will approve of.
Flashback may look like Shadow Complex, and it’s certainly trying to capture that gameplay essence, it never hits that sweet spot of gameplay, combat, and platforming that’s it’s trying so hard to do. With the analog sticks on the controllers, there’s no more need for a dedicated run button that the original Flashback possessed, which to be fair, is a vast improvement after trying the original game. Ledges will now have a marker to indicate where you can climb up to (by holding up on the stick) which makes navigation a little easier, though it can be toggled off if you wish. The biggest change though would have to be the combat mechanics, as you can aim in every direction with the right analog stick, complete with laser sight to show you were you’ll hit. This also is a big improvement over the originals holster mechanic, but with these improvements comes a bigger emphasis on combat throughout the game.
You start with your pistol and use it for the bulk of the entire game. Eventually you gain grenades and other special items, but get used to your pistol shooting, as relying on grenades will only get you killed. The first enemies you encounter will be small droids that only take a shot or two but eventually you’ll be taking on alien enemies that are able to fire back at you. The music changes to a combat melody when an enemy is nearby, so it’s easy to tell when you’re going to have to try and keep your distance and fire away. The bigger problem with combat is that you’re usually confined to small corridors when fighting, so it’s difficult to get a vantage point you want. Coupled with sluggish animation and sticky controls, you’ll surely get hit many times just trying to climb a ledge or jump away, waiting for the animation to finish before you can retaliate. The later enemies take way too many shots to kill, not even including the invulnerable state that they can go into; in all, combat felt more annoying than rewarding.
As you explore, complete quests, and defeat enemies, you’ll slowly fill your XP bar which will net you a new level and three skill points to upgrade Conrad’s abilities, though they are superficial at best. You can decide to upgrade your Accuracy, Technology, or Stamina bars, each of which will give you small improvements to critical hits, more health, reduced fall damage, etc, but the problem is that you’re not told how much things change and improve. I completely stacked my stamina upgrades, and apparently I got more health from it, but it never tells you how much health you gained by doing so. The same goes for the other skills, as I never really felt like Conrad’s abilities actually were improving, which makes the whole point of the upgrade mechanic completely useless in the end. Also, it actually doesn’t teach you about upgrading the first time you level up, I just happened to find it in the menus after I gained level two and figured it out on my own.
Fans of the original probably won’t be fond of the health regeneration, stat growth, and a map that shows you exactly where you need to go at all times (though it’s not always perfect and can become more confusing than helpful at times). I’m all for having aids and help when needed, but if you don’t want your hand held, you don’t really have a choice here.
There are apparently stealth mechanics in place as well, but every time I tried to use it outside the VR training missions, I always got caught trying to sneak up on an enemy which altered the rest of the enemies in the vicinity. Conrad also has a pair of special goggles that allow him to enable a detective mode-like visual overlay that will highlight obstacles and enemies when toggled on. You’re able to move the camera more so than normal while using the goggles, which will cause you more issues as you try and use them as your move through the level.
New to Flashback is a VR section that you can choose to partake in that will issue you multiple sets of unique challenges that can be completed for extra XP to level up Conrad’s (useless) abilities. Some of the challenges are quite easy, while the other timed ones will actually be quite the challenge since you’ll have to deal with the game’s mechanics fighting against you the whole time. There’s also a section where Conrad gets to pilot a jetbike in a sequence that feels completely out of place in relation to the rest of the game. Sure it’s a nod to the fans, as in the original it was just a quick cutscene and now you get to experience it, but it ends up coming across as filler to pad length to the already short game.
As Conrad starts to piece together what’s going on he will recall visions in flashbacks themselves, though these are done in black and white comic book style and aren’t really animated at all. It’s disappointing that the main plot points come across this bland and it certainly won’t grab your attention. To make matters worse, the voice acting as a whole is on par with some of the worst
I’ve experienced. Conrad’s dialogue comes across as boring and as its being read off a sheet of paper. Though I guess it doesn’t help when the script has terrible lines like “awesome-sauce” and “The only thing I’ll ever be late for is my funeral” to begin with.
The Conrad of twenty years ago was the cool secret agent type of character, where the Conrad of today’s Flashback is nowhere near as smooth or cool as his former self. It probably doesn’t help that throughout my playthrough I ran into multiple bugs and glitches, some of which necessitated some restarts. One time I fell down a pit and was supposed to die, but instead I was just stuck at the bottom, not killed, having to reload my previous checkpoint. Numerous times I also got knocked off a ledge by an enemy and unable to move afterwards, again needing a restart.
Flashback definitely looked good in the trailers with its Shadow Complex style of gameplay, but there’s so many issues within that it’s very difficult to recommend, even with the 800 Microsoft Point price tag. The remake tries to fix some of the original games issues, which is does, but creates new ones and more in the process. The horrible voice acting destroys any immersion you may have if you try and enjoy the story and the constant bugs will also take you out of the experience quite often. Some things are better left to fond nostalgia memories, Flashback is one of them.
Overall Score: 4.6 / 10
DuckTales: Remastered
There’s a reason kids used to wake up as early as they could on Saturday mornings back in my day, the cartoons that only played on those days. While I used to watch hours of Saturday morning cartoons, one of my favorite and most memorable would have to be DuckTales without a doubt. It had one of the most memorable theme songs ever and I would never miss an episode every week it was on. I was eight years old when the NES video game adaptation of the TV show was released and it was everything you wanted as a kid. It had all the familiar characters, had great gameplay, and was so challenging that even though it wasn’t the longest game out there, you played it constantly. It’s still regarded as one of the best NES titles for the era and easily has one of the best soundtracks to go along with it as well (Moon level song anyone?).When DuckTales Remastered was originally announced, I couldn’t help but grin as I’d get to revisit one of my fondest games growing up as a kid, as did almost anyone that grew up in that era. Nostalgia is a funny thing though, as it can make you remember the best of something but completely forget the worst parts that accompany it, so I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high, as I wasn’t sure at first if the classic NES game of my childhood would hold up well to this modern era, but more importantly, my fond memories.
I’m happy to report that DuckTales holds up surprisingly well after more than two decades. Sure it’s nothing like modern games these days, but it’s not trying to be, it’s a reminder of how gaming was twenty years ago, and while it may be simple, it worked and put a smile on your face. This HD remake of the classic NES title is more than a simple one-to-one remake as well, as WayForward Technologies, best known for Boy and His Blob (Wii), Double Dragon Neon, and the Mighty Switch Force games, has clearly put their love and devotion into make this the best reimagining it could be. Many things have been tweaked and even new assets other than the new graphics have been done with a great amount of care that will make old and new fans alike enjoy what’s a truly great game. Don’t let the Disney logo and cartoon style fool you though, DuckTales Remastered is a very challenging game, as that’s how games were that came from this era.
It would have been easy to cash in on a simple HD remake without much effort taken, but the level of detail and extras that’s been included with Remastered is very impressive, and I hope other studios that want to do HD remakes and remasters pay attention, as this is how you do it right. Visually you’re going to notice the sharp hand drawn sprites that are animated beautifully, the ORIGINAL voice talent (of the ones whom are still alive), painted backgrounds, a modern take on classic 8-bit music (of which you can choose to play with the classic music if you desire), and tweaked gameplay that fixes some of the issues the game originally had. There are even more improvements and additions like new areas, new boss patterns, and some slight changes to the pacing and gameplay, but all for the better in the end, which I’ll get to shortly.
If you didn’t grow up in the era of the iconic TV show, the gist of DuckTales is that Scrooge McDuck, uncle to Donald Duck, is the richest duck in the world and is often going on adventuring expeditions to hunt for treasure to further his wealth. The NES game had the same premise, as you played Uncle Scrooge searching for treasure, but there really wasn’t much story back in these types of games back then, so you were simply thrown into a location to defeat enemies, then the boss, then finally move on to the next level without much explanation. While the classic game was fantastic, it didn’t have the heart of the show within it, as there was no voice acting or much dialogue to keep you grasped like the show did (though as an 8 year old boy, I didn’t care at the time, as I got to play a game from one of my favorite shows).
Remastered fixes this and adds a new depth and does great fan service to try and not only recreate the classic game that we loved, but to also fuse it with what made the show so memorable as well. This is done simply with the addition of the fully voiced cutscenes, which it should be noted is actually done by the entire original TV show cast, which adds another level of authenticity and brought back so many memories of early Saturday mornings watching Uncle Scrooge go on his adventures. While the original game didn’t have much for story, Remastered’s cutscenes explain why you’re going from area to area and even answers some questions you may have had as a kid playing the original, like why can Scrooge breathe on the Moon level. Not only did WayForward make an updated version of the game great, but they’ve also made Remastered feel like you’re playing an original episode of the cartoon as well, which is no easy feat.
Remastered plays as a sidescroller done in 2.5D, all with hand drawn 2D characters mixed with painted backdrops and 3D modeled levels. Gameplay itself most resembles the classic Mega Man games, though that’s most likely because the Mega Man team was the ones responsible for making the original game. Visually everything looks amazing and as if it’s taken from the TV show itself. Not only were the main characters redrawn, but every enemy and boss as well, some look so good now that they barely resemble their 8-bit counterparts. Visually everything looks impressive, and even the items and chests pop out as they are 3D models in a 2D background. It’s wonderful to see the new artwork given to classic characters and levels.
Gameplay stays true to the original as well, as Scrooge has the ability to jump, pogo jump with his cane, and even smack enemies and rocks with it as well. That’s about it, as you’ll need to use your pogo jump the majority of the time to hop on enemy heads and over dangerous terrain. In the original game, pogo jumping was a pain to do and required some fancy and quick finger work, but now it’s been delegated to a single button which makes things more bearable in an already difficult game. The controls are very tight and I never had a problem controlling Scrooge; the only issue I really had was that it was sometimes difficult to tell where Scrooge was in relation to edges and enemies sometimes because of the sprite artwork.
Bosses were generally a simple affair in the original, as you only needed to jump on their heads a few times and that was it. Surprisingly, all of the bosses in Remastered have been revamped to include new mechanics and patterns that you’ll have to learn, along with taking more hits to defeat. None are too challenging, but some bosses feel like it takes much longer than it should as it doesn’t employ the classic 3 to 5 hit and you win concept. The same goes for the level flow and pacing as well, as changes have been made to force you to explore more of the levels as you now need required objectives to be gathered before you can take on the stages boss. It seems odd and arbitrary at first, but because of the cutscenes, it always explains to you why you need to find all of the pieces. Luckily, you’re given a map on the pause screen that will show you the stages layout and where all of the require objects are in relation, so you’re not just stuck wandering around aimlessly.
I mentioned it before, but I’ll do it again: DuckTales Remastered is difficult, as in 80’s NES gaming difficult. When you’re not playing on Easy mode, as soon as you die three times in a stage there’s no continue screen or anything like that, you need to restart the whole level again. This even goes for bosses, as if you lose your third life during that battle, you’ll need to do the entire stage over again. While we may have become accustomed to continues and I enjoy a challenge here and there, at times this can be infuriating, especially with the final bonus level that took me countless tries to complete.
Other than the aforementioned beautiful graphical overhaul, DuckTales Remastered also contains other differences you’ll notice if you were a fan of the original game. First is the inclusion of a tutorial level at the beginning of the game; set in Scrooge’s money bin it will teach you the basic mechanics and even how to pogo jump properly. As a side note, the original game never really taught you this, and I have a friend that loved and played the original DuckTales game for a long time without even knowing that you could pogo jump, so for those people, this tutorial will be a blessing. There’s also a new level included after the classic levels are complete that replaces the return trip to one of the older levels.
You’re given infinite lives on Easy difficulty and I believe the Normal difficulty mode played much like the original game did. Mrs. Beakley returns hidden in levels, but will give you three food items to refill your health rather than an infinite amount. Certain stages have mini bosses now included and all of the bosses now take more than five hits to defeat. The pogo jump move itself can be used with a single button, or you can toggle off the easier pogo jump if you want a more classic (and frustrating) experience. Money you gather in levels via gems can be used to spend in the gallery to unlock bonus items such as music, concept art, sketches, and more. You’ll also be able to track your stats with the online leaderboard which is a nice touch for those wanting to see how they compare to the rest of the world.
Surprisingly it was revealed that originally the game wasn’t going to have any voice acting, but Disney actually offered to get the original voice actors enlisted so that it could make the game more authentic, and all of the surviving members of the cast still apparently sound exactly as they did twenty years ago, adding to the authenticity. The same goes for the art style, as people that actually worked on the show and Disney were involved to give it that iconic look, which is apparent even from the main menu screen.
The same goes for the game’s music as well, as the 8-bit renditions are among some of my favorites from the era, a new level has been taken to remaster these to sound modern yet classic. You’ll instantly recognize every tune even though it sounds modern, though if you desire you can choose to play with the original 8-bit soundtrack, though the new mixes are quite wonderful as well.
There are a lot of small details that really give DuckTales Remastered a lot of charm and will make you crack a smile if you were an original fan. The one feature that may sound useless on paper but is incredibly fun is the ability to have Scrooge dive into his iconic Money Bin and swim in his riches. It’s a small thing but a huge deal for fans, and between levels I kept finding myself jumping into the bin just because. Multiple playthroughs are supported and suggested, as unlocking all of the bonuses will take some time, but it’s definitely worth it to see how far the game has come from simple sketches and artwork to the final product.
Remastered isn’t going to take you very long to beat, as it’s quite easy to do so in a single sitting, but with the new mechanics and pacing, it does stretch it out conciderably longer than the original. That’s what it needs to be compared to as well, as it’s a remake of a twenty year old NES title and not trying to be a modern dozen-hour experience, which is totally alright with me.
Capcom could have simply slapped on the HD coating and be done with it and call it a day (and I probably still would have bought it), but they didn’t and took the time to truly make the game live up to its Remastered title. I hope the success of DuckTales Remastered prompts Capcom to give the same treatment to some of the other classic Disney NES titles that deserve it like Chip and Dales Rescue Ranger and Darkwing Duck. Xbox 360 users may have to wait until September 11th for Ducktales Remastered, but believe me, the wait will be well worth the trip down memory lane.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Serious Sam Collection, The
Nostalgia is a funny thing. It tends to make you remember the better parts about something while you completely forget all the bad things. I’ve had this happen to me many times, as I’ll rewatch a TV show I loved as a kid only to realize that it simply wasn’t that good. This has happened for me with a few video games as well; as I would always play anything I could get my hands on. Back when Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem were THE games to play, Serious Sam hit the scene as well and tried to do something a little differently. The Serious Sam games simply threw you into a world with a ton of guns with a horde of enemies running at you and let you have at it. When this came out there was almost nothing better, no story to sit through, no real cutscenes to watch, just simply shoot anything that moved and ran towards you. Like I said, nostalgia has a funny way of making you remember things better than they actually were.If you’ve never experienced a Serious Sam game, I’ve already essentially explained everything you need to know about it already. There was no cover based hiding, no regenerating health, no super armor, just simply guns, guns, and more guns. Serious Sam never takes itself too seriously (see the irony there), and simply pits you against a massive onslaught of oncoming enemies for you to shoot anything you can. Sure, there’s a little backstory to tie it all together, but it won’t matter as you won’t really care, you’ll be too busy shooting attacking enemies running right towards you anyway.
The Serious Sam Collection is just that, and contains Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (TFE), Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter (TSE), Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter (BFE) along with its DLC companion Jewel of the Nile, and lastly Serious Sam Double D XXL. Essentially you’re getting four separate games and a piece of DLC for one of them. That being said, these are the same versions that were released on Xbox Live Arcade years ago, so if you already own them, there’s nothing new here for you. All of these games run off of the disc, and I’m not sure why an install option wasn’t presented to make things easier and hopefully help with the horrendous loading that I’ll get into later. The Serious Sam Collection is a no nonsense first person shooter that gives you big guns and plenty of enemies and aliens to shoot at.
The Serous Sam series follows the protagonist Sam “Serious” Stone in his ongoing battle against the alien overlord Mental who wants to destroy humanity. Mental orders his seemingly endless army of odd followers against Sam to try and stop him at a consistent rate. Enemies are spawned across the large maps thick in number while Sam must try to avoid the projectiles and kamikaze enemies by jumping and strafing before he blasts them away. Combat is usually quite frantic and chaotic as you almost have waves of enemies rushing towards you without worry for their own wellbeing. Combat is simple and straight to the point; shoot anything that moves while constantly moving without thinking about it. Once the set amounts of enemies are defeated you can move on to the next area which will spawn the next wave of enemies for you to blast away. Repeat over and over and you have the formula for Serious Sam.
Mental’s army will throw an odd sort of enemies at Sam that range from suicide bombers without heads, soldiers with rocket launchers, undead skeleton horses, one eyed monsters that look like a ringer for Gossamer, robots, and many more other oddities you simply won’t see in other games. While some enemies will shoot and throw things at Sam, most will simply just run in a straight line towards Sam, clearly showing a lack of AI (or a care). You’ll need to constantly strafe and backpedal to avoid being blown up by screaming headless kamikaze’s and to get a safe distance from all the enemies running towards you. I can’t even think of any other modern games that rely on this circle strafing for a mechanic any longer, which shows how dated the gameplay is. Serious Sam is not about taking your time to strategize the best method of approach, using the right perks, or weapon upgrades. Enemies always know where you are and will run right towards Sam regardless of where you try and hide, so you might as well take on the massive enemies head on. When you become surrounded by dozens of enemies, this is easier said than done. It’s a good thing Sam is gifted with the ability to run backwards as fast as he can forwards.
Since Sam exists in a time before regenerative health and cover mechanics, you’ll have to top up your health the old fashioned way, by finding health and armor powerups littered throughout the stages. You can always see your health and armor numbers in the bottom left corner of the screen, and when things get hectic with a mass amount of enemies, you’ll have to always be on the lookout for health pickups, especially on the harder difficulty levels.
Your goal is to reach the end of the level while constantly having enemies thrown at you. Sometimes this isn’t as easy as you would think, as your goal as to where to go isn’t always as clear as it should be, especially in Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter, but more on that shortly. Each of the games have multiplayer included but because of how old these releases are (since they came out on Xbox Live Arcade years go) I wasn’t able to find a single game across any of the titles over the course of this review. The community for these games is dead, so don’t expect to get much multiplayer time with each of the games (which includes the multiplayer achievements). If you’ve played the Serious Sam games before, there’s nothing too much new here. Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter tries to change things up a little bit but it’s the same gameplay at its core. The only drastically different game on the disc is XXL.
I’ll quickly give a rundown of each of the titles included on The Serious Same Collection.
First up is the original Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. Sam is sent back through time to Egypt to battle Mental’s army while searching for an ancient artifact to help save humanity. This game was one of the first games that I could remember that had massive bosses which was quite awesome to see at the time. Sure nowadays it’s no big deal to see an enemy the size of a building, but back then it wasn’t really done. Don’t let the HD in the title fool you though, as this HD remake does look better than its original counterpart, though not by much. The textures are updated and crisper, but the sound, models, environment, and animations have gone untouched, which defeats the whole purpose of doing an HD remake. It should have been called Serious Sam Slightly Better Textures, as nothing else in the game seemed to have been improved in any way I could notice. It even still uses the old (albeit classic) sound files, as the kamikaze’s sound exactly the same as they did back in the original release.
Next is Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter. Once again Sam is battling against the endless waves of Mental’s army as he tries to stop Sam from foiling his plans of destruction. It wasn’t explained anywhere until I randomly found it, but The First Encounter and The Second Encounter both utilize a quick save feature by pressing the Y button. After a few cheap deaths in the first level, you’ll want to use this feature almost after each significant battle of Metal’s minions. Also, just like The First Encounter, calling this HD is really stretching the use of the word. Again, the game contains no major upgrades other than some slightly better looking textures and effects as it’s using a newer engine.
Next up is Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter. This is actually a prequel to the first game, hence its title Before First Encounter, where the story began, on Earth. For being the newest of the games I actually expected this title to be the standout of the collection included on the disc; while it looked the prettiest, I had the most frustrating and consistent issues with this game compared to the others.
Before First Encounter slightly changes the tired and worn Serious Sam approach to gameplay and opts for a slightly more modern way of gameplay and storytelling. Instead of massive open areas to slog through, most of the levels are much more tight and confined, and while still linear, it’s quite the change from the first two games that generally put you in open areas one after another. Cutscenes are done more modernly which take place after each significant battle, but the horrendous voiceover work just ruins anything it’s trying to accomplish. I understand it’s not supposed to be taken seriously, but the lines and delivery is so bad that it’s hard to not notice. It almost feels like they tried to make Before First Encounter a more serious game but something just doesn’t flow right when the gameplay is still mindless shooting.
New features have been included such as iron sights for certain weapons, sprinting (which you’ll end up using quite often), and certain weapons need to be reloaded often as well. Iron sights seem like a good inclusion, but doesn’t fit with the flow of the game since you need to be constantly back stepping and circle strafing just to survive, and looking down the barrel slows you down drastically. Level design seems to have been done by one or two people, as each level looks almost exactly the same; In a desert, in an urban setting, outside a pyramid, inside a pyramid with your light on. A certain section that has an auto turret you need to get by never explained that there were switches nearby that I could use to disable them, which made my playthrough much more difficult. Many things aren’t actually explained and leave you to explore and figure it out on your own which becomes frustrating. I got lost numerous times, and even in one underground stage with the flashlight, I somehow got turned around (from the seemingly lock-on melee attack) and back tracked all the way to the beginning of the stage somehow. You’re not told where to go, you just have to figure it out and there are no visual markers or anything to guide you.
Other problems that plague Before First Encounter is the terrible texture pop-in, even during cutscenes or randomly while playing. Numerous times I had almost everything on my screen lose its textures, only to have it pop back in a few seconds later. The game doesn’t’ even try and hide that it will spawn enemies behind or even in front of you, and you will always here the combat music turn on when an enemy is near (which is basically constant), causing you to try and find them. I can’t even count the amount of times I had an enemy spawn right in front of me.
The biggest problem with Before First Encounter though is its massive freezes and glitches. When the game autosaves it will cause your game to freeze for a few seconds. There were other times though where my game froze for literally thirty seconds or so, thinking my 360 hard locked, only to find it eventually started playing again as if nothing happened. I actually wasn’t able to finish Before First Encounter though due to this bug, as it froze one time and I left it, but it never fixed itself, deleting my game save in the process.
DLC for Before First Encounter is also included on the disc (which allows for an install, so I’m not sure why it doesn’t give the option for the other games) and is titled Jewel of the Nile. It contains a new weapon (which is not very exciting), a new enemy, new boss, tow multiplayer maps (which is useless as no one plays online any longer), and three new single player levels. If you manage to suffer through the freezing, terrible voice work, and other glitches, this DLC add-on will keep you busy a little longer with Before First Encounter, but it’s certainly not a selling point in any way.
Last up in The Serious Sam Collection included is also the most unique of the games: Serious Sam Double D XXL. Interestingly, this was actually developed by a smaller Indie Dev that was given the green light by the original Serous Sam developers. Rather than be the same old Sam and release a first person shooter with many a new twist, instead, XXL is a sidescroller with some crazy mechanics that differentiate itself from the other games in the series.
The main mechanic behind XXL is what’s called Gunstacker. As you progress through the game and find new guns along the way, you’ll eventually be able to stack your guns on top of one another, all of which will fire simultaneously. As you unlock the special connector pieces necessary, you can eventually stack six weapons attached to one another. That’s right, you get to stack weapons on top of one another, making for some truly unique and interesting weapons of destruction. As you collect new weapons, the more diverse your stack can become.
You’ll find many types of guns, ranging from Tommy Guns, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, Laser Rifles, Grenade Launchers, and even Chainsaws. You can stack multiples of the same weapons if you’ve found more of the same type, or mix it up and attach Chainsaws to a Rocket Launcher. You can even make specific loadouts to be prepared for any situation. Need an up close death machine? Try stacking a Chainsaw on a few Shotguns. Want to kill from afar? Stack a Laser rifle or two on some Tommy Guns. Once the guns are connected all you have to do is fire for all your weapons to shoot at once. Experiment with different loadouts to suit each situation, though once you find a good combination or two you’ll most likely stick to it throughout.
Not only does Gunstacker allow for some interesting results, but you can also purchase special powerups for your individual weapons as well. Shopkeepers are found within levels that now only allow you change your gun stacks, but also purchase these upgrades with the currency you loot from the piles of dead enemies. For example, you can unlock a perk that allows your Tommy Gun bullets either ricochet or go through enemies but if you purchase both, you can put each one on a separate gun if you wish. There are some odd augments such as changing your Shotgun’s bullets into bees, but this just fits in with the wackiness of Serious Sam’s world. You can even purchase upgrades that allow you to increase the ammo of specific types of weapons that you can carry at once.
As I said before, I really expected Before First Encounter to be the stand out title in this collection, but XXL was the one I had the most fun with by far. It’s a shame the game is so short, as you’ll finish it in a single sitting, though it does allow for multiple playthroughs and have many collectable secrets should you feel so inclined.
As I mentioned at the beginning, nostalgia is a funny thing. I remember really enjoying Serious Sam when it came out, but replaying it now really shows its holes and mediocrity. Sure it’s not fair to judge it against modern games of today, but when you’re offering it for sale at retail in disc form, it’s competing with those other games on the shelf, which is also how I have to score it. I don’t understand why you can’t install the games from the disc to your hard drive, as maybe that would slightly help with the loading issues (especially in Before First Encounter), though I doubt that would solve it completely.
Each title, including Jewel of the Nile, sells separately on the Xbox Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) per, for a total of $50. The Serious Sam Collection on disc is being sold in stores currently with an MSRP of $39.99. So while yes, you are saving some money by purchasing this collection, I find it hard to recommend unless you’re a hardcore Serious Sam fan, want a physical backup of your Live Arcade versions, or are very curious to see how games played almost 15 years ago. If you already own any of the titles included then the value of the disc drops and makes it even harder to recommend. Simply put, the game hasn’t aged very well over the years and I really expected a lot more from Before First Encounter as it’s not that old.
The “HD” remakes of The First Encounter and The Second Encounter won’t wow you at all and simply have some better textures than its original counterparts. I had high hopes for Before First Encounter, but was constantly let down with all the issues I had, not even including it deleting my game save after a minute long hard freeze. XXL is fun but short, and it’s not going to be the saving grace of the price for this collection unfortunately. Is Serious Sam repetitive? Absolutely. Outdated? Sadly yes. While Serious Sam won’t impress you with any large set pieces or with anything you haven’t seen before, it CAN be fun, though in very short bursts. I ended my First Encounter with this conclusion and I’ll do it again here as it encompasses everything I’m trying to convey.
Serious Sam reminds me of a great cult movie hit; the fans get it and love it for what it is while the rest don’t see what’s so special or understand how someone could enjoy it. Don’t go in expecting anything innovative, just turn off your brain, blow tons of aliens up, and enjoy what a mindless shooter Serious Sam excels at being.
Suggestions: At half the price of MSRP this would be much easier to recommend and an actual deal.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
Doodle Jump Kinect
Originally released in 2009 for iOS and developed by Lima Sky, Doodle Jump quickly becomes a very popular platforming game that allowed for quick and addictive gameplay. With over a 100 million downloads, needless to say Doodle Jump is very popular and has been played by a whole slew of people. There’s a reason it’s been so popular, because it was fun, quick, addictive, and colorful. Doodle Jump has been ported to almost all mobile devices of some sorts, and now it finally makes its way to the consoles, though with Kinect support. You’re tasked with guiding Doodle from the ground all the way up and up into the sky, bouncing from platform to platform while using power-ups, avoiding enemies, and trying not to fall and miss a platform to stand on. You’ll guide Doodle by physically moving left to right to maneuver, using your arms to aim and shoot enemies in the way, and even flap your arms frantically to use wings to fly upwards even faster with specific power-ups.
For those of you that have not had the chance to play Doodle Jump before, the premise is as simple as it gets; you control a cute four legged creature named Doodle that can’t stop jumping. You need to guide him upwards in the sky and make him land on platforms so that he doesn’t fall when the screen scrolls upwards and you can’t see the platforms below any longer. In the original game, it was a never ending series of platforms and you just kept going until you eventually fell or hit an enemy. With Doodle Jump for Kinect though, it is more mission structured and there’s no endless game mode like fans of the original might expect. Instead of dying when you fail to land on a platform or hitting a bad guy, you simply restart at the last checkpoint (levels have about five or so) while your overall time continues to count, earning you a lower score the longer you take once you complete the level.
On mobile devices you used to control Doodle by using the accelerometer by tilting the device, but now with Kinect controls implemented, you’ll have to actually move from side to side to move Doodle where you want him to go. Luckily though you don’t have to actually jump every platform, you simply steer his auto jumping. You’ll have to arm with your arm to shoot enemies, flap your arms to use your Wing power-up (when collected), clap to disable contraptions with an EMP power-up, raise your arms to use the Rocket Pack, and actually jump when you land on a trampoline to get use of a double jump. Even with a decent amount of living room space for Kinect, you’ll still need to clear more room as you’ll be bouncing from one side to another. You’re able to lean to slightly correct your movements but fully expect to have to move fully from one side of Kinect’s viewing angle to the next. There are certain parts and platforms where you’ll literally have to leap from one side to the other to make the jump correctly as well.
The game starts out simple enough, with basic levels and platforms without much to worry about other than maneuvering Doodle to the correct spots. The earliest levels are completed very quickly and without much hassle once you get used to the range of movement you need. Slowly new mechanics and obstacles are introduced which will have you using new power-ups, avoiding enemies, and even deal with fake and one time use platforms to jump on. Eventually all of these mechanics are piled on top of each other, making for frantic and extremely challenging levels in the later stages. With three worlds to play through, each of which have ten stages, the final being a boss battle, there are thirty levels of jumping to be had.
As you finally reach the later levels you’ll quickly become frustrated though, not because of the linear difficulty progression (which is a part of it), but more and more unseen hazards will seem to get in your way. You can hear when enemies get close just before you bounce near their area, but sometimes they can’t be avoided easily. The same goes for the cannons that shoot directly in your way, and if you don’t take your time you’ll certainly hit them and have to restart at the previous checkpoint. On one hand the game wants you to speed through it for the better score and hopefully unlocking a 3 star rating (good luck), but on the other there’s so many enemies and obstacles put directly in your path that you have to sometimes take your time before you can move on. Every stage and level is premade and set, and not random, so you can eventually learn each stage and with enough practice make your way up the online leaderboards.
Levels start off quick and checkpoints seem appropriately placed, but as you progress further this doesn’t seem to be the case. Eventually (with many restarts at checkpoints) levels won’t be the quick few minutes per, but ten to twenty depending on how accurate and quickly you can move and react. The checkpoints seem to be spread way too far thin in the last area of the game, and coupled with a lot of cheap deaths, it feels a little tiring at the end of your journey through the thirty levels. To break up the monotony a little bit are the tenth stage boss battles, which are done quite well. The boss battles feel unique and will test your skillset you’ve learned up to that point of movement, accuracy, and speed; it’s just a shame there weren’t more stages like the Doodle Jump for Kinect became a lot more difficult than I was expecting, especially by the time you get to the final ten stages. While anyone can play it with ease, the sparse checkpoints will probably frustrate younger or less experienced Kinect players. This isn’t even including the multiple times that my Kinect randomly lost calibration for no apparent reason, or used my power-ups without me doing the specified commands to do so. The other big issue I had was that when the game is paused and you want to jump back in and play, there’s no slight pause or countdown, so if your game is paused mid jump (purposely or otherwise), you will no doubt fail landing the jump before you paused.
It would have been nice to have randomized levels so that it always felt fresh playing the levels again for better scores and have more replayability in the long run. The thirty levels go quickly, but with the cheap 400 Microsoft Points asking price, it’s appropriately priced for what you get for some quick fun. While I would have preferred a sit down mode if Kinect is being forced, I do wish it was controller compatible for those that can’t move around as quickly that is required to progress in the more difficult stages. Doodle Jump for Kinect is fun, and while it may not feel as classic as the original with its different level based outline instead of an endless mode, the game still looks and feels like it has a lot of charm to it. Doodle Jump is addictive for as long as your stamina allows but only if you’re into setting high scores and working your way up the online leaderboards to get more replays out of the game.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
R.I.P.D. The Game
As any seasoned gamer knows, movie tie-in games are usually the bottom of the barrel for quality, fun, and lasting appeal. Sure, there are a few exceptions to the rule, but they are far and few in between. When a movie based game comes in to review, it’s hard not to judge a book by its cover, but none the less, I go in without any bias and play it for what it is, not what I expect. When R.I.P.D. The Game arrived to review, I actually was curious about it, not only because I want to see the movie, but that it was also developed by Old School Games which I enjoyed their last title, God Mode. Licensed games are usually a death sentence, but I held some hope considering their previous game was enjoyable for what it was. Sadly, the stereotype of bad movie games isn’t avoided here and suffers from a magnitude of issues from the beginning to end. Based on the movie of the same name, R.I.P.D. is an action based third person shooter that loosely follows the movie’s plotline. I say loosely because they explain the general plot at the beginning of the game (and movie) and that’s about it. From then on you are thrown into an area shooting waves of enemies called “Deados” with no other reason and no other progression in the plot. For those that aren’t familiar with the old comics or seen the trailer for the upcoming movie, R.I.P.D. stands for the Rest In Piece Department and stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges. Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) was an outstanding police officer who was shot dead in a fire fight, and while his soul was drifting away, he was thrust into a position of becoming an R.I.P.D. officer. These specialty officers are tasked with hunting dead criminals, known as “Deados” who refuse to cross over and bring them to justice. Nick and Roy (Jeff Bridges) have to work together and figure out why the Deados are suddenly interested in gold and working together which is very unlike their kind. The game though itself won’t have you get to the bottom of the mystery, as you’ll simply be shooting a plethora of enemies with weapons over and over.
R.I.P.D. The Game ditches the traditional story telling format for a variant of the popular Gear of War-like mode titled Horde. You’ll simply be shooting Deados from one stage to the next that come in waves called encounters. It’s a shame you don’t actually get any story elements from the game but instead just a simple arena shooter. You choose between Quick or Custom match, and while Custom match does allow you to play single player, it’s not explained anywhere and for the longest time I thought it wasn’t possible; it’s not recommended though, as you’ll want a partner to suffer through the game with you. Choose a map, difficulty, weapons, consumable, character, and you start your mission that will last around fifteen to twenty minutes if nothing goes wrong (and if there’s no duel at the end, which I’ll get into shortly). Each map consists of five waves of Deados, called encounters, with the final encounter also containing a much more powerful boss enemy as well. That’s the gist of the entire game, but I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s go into each part and mechanic of the game.
When you start playing R.I.P.D. you get to choose either Ryan Reynolds or Jeff Bridges, though you’ll only know it’s them if you know they star in the movie. Their likeness is kind of recognizable, but in no way will someone that doesn’t know about the movie ask why you’re playing either of them in a video game. The catch though is that you need to give time for the textures to load in, not just on the characters and enemies themselves, but the environment as well. Both characters play exactly the same, so there’s no benefit to choosing one over the other unfortunately; simply pick which actor you like more.
The encounters are time based, but instead of a simple set time you need to complete it in, it’s also linked to your health bar and life count. If you die (and your partner doesn’t revive you) you lose a minute off the clock, though I never ran out of time in all the encounters I played. There are only seven maps to choose from, all of which are bland and nothing noteworthy. The map sizes are appropriate for this type of co-op gunplay, though most simply turn into corridors once you figure out to stay near the much needed ammo boxes.
I needed someone to play the game with me to try out the co-op, but I made sure to make him agree to help me with the review before telling him what it was (Sorry buddy). Single player is brutal simply because the game is made for co-op (online only, no split screen) and without a partner you lose a lot of firepower and help that’s needed on the higher difficulties. Turns out co-op doesn’t make the game instantly good in any way. I was using a pistol and rifle while he used a shotgun, thinking we would complement each other; too bad the base shotgun is almost completely useless and we usually just ended up meleeing enemies once we were out of ammo. The game simply throws three or four of the same types of enemies at you, only briefly changing things up when enemies have a car door for a shield that require a little more precision shooting (which is a feat in itself) or a boss at the fifth encounter. Once you manage to deal with the constant knockdowns from the boss and your partner downs the boss, you either have to deplete the last bit of health from them to kill them for goo, or arrest them which involves staying near their body as more waves of enemies are thrown your way to try and stop you. Aside from achievements, there’s no reason to do one way over the other, so whatever is easier for you and your partner, if you even have any ammo left at that point.
The more Deados you will, you will fill a kill streak bar at the top of the screen that will allow you to use special abilities to help you kill even more Deados. There are five different abilities that can be used once the bar reaches that point that unlock in a specific order. The heal ability is the first one that can be used and is generally useless as recovering health just means getting out of fire for a few moments. The next ability allows you to freeze enemies in place with phantom chains, and it can be useful at times since it seems it’s only possible to hit Deados when they are running straight at you due to the hit detection and sloppy controls. The third ability was easily my favorite and most useful in all of the encounters I played; you can deploy a floating Turret that will shoot any Deados that get in its sight and range. The next ability allows you to make a ghost clone of yourself that Deados will try to shoot while you maneuver undetected and shoot them without noticing, but it’s not very useful in general when compared to the Turret. The last ability you would think would be the most powerful since it takes the longest to save up for, but after a few uses I just resorted to the Turret. The last ability essentially does a large ground attack and in theory should kill almost everything in its range, but it doesn’t and it seems random of who it hits, as it doesn’t even kill the larger enemies either.
As you complete encounters and finish waves, you’re granted money for your salary which can then be used to upgrade and purchase new weapons. The first few weapons aren’t terribly expensive to purchase, but a few upgrades in the price starts to soar. This wouldn’t be a huge issue if you gained a lot more money for how well you played, but it seems very consistent with all the encounters that my friend and I did. The higher tier weapons will take an excruciating amount of time to unlock and upgrade which I wouldn’t subject myself to. You can also purchase one time consumables only good for the encounter you’re about to begin playing that can range from more ammo, damage boosts, armor, and more. The problem with these though is that you’re almost constantly ammo starved that you end up meleeing quite a lot of the time unless you just stay near an ammo box the entire time.
Before the match you’ll also see a list called Bets. Here each player takes a turn crossing off one of the choices until only one remains, which is the bet between both players. The choices can be ‘Most Abilities Used’, ‘Most Headshots’, ‘Deathmatch’, and more. It took me a few rounds to realize that the only choice NOT crossed off is the bet, not the ones you choose, which resulted in Duel being the one we kept getting at the end. This one pits you off against your partner, with the first player getting tow kills being the winner of the bet and some money. During encounters there will also be random challenges thrown your way (God Mode sounding familiar?) that can range from a certain amount of kill, headshots, or a variety of other objectives that you work towards cooperatively.
R.I.P.D. has a mountain of issues that can’t simply be ignored as they are more than just small issues that can’t really be overlooked. There’s no real health indicator other than the small red markers at the edge of my screen showing where I’m getting shot from, and once your screen goes grey, you’re very close to dying. The texture pop in is absolutely terrible and things will look bland and muddled while you look at it at first, though if you stare at something long enough, the better textures will load; not really an option in a game like this where you’re constantly moving to stay alive. Even certain environment objects will disappear at certain angles as well. Many times I wasn’t sure how the enemies were shooting me, as it showed them not even holding their weapons until they got up close and personal.
The controls are extremely sloppy and normally you just learn to deal with non-precise controls, but even a dozen encounters in, I was constantly missing the Deados regularly. There’s a kind of lock-on when you zoom in, but it chooses when to work and when to completely ignore you. Weapons don’t sound like they carry any power behind them and while there are a few spoken lines in the game from the main characters, I have no idea if they are samples from the movie or not, as it didn’t really sound like their respective voices.
The hit detection in R.I.P.D. seems to be very hit or miss, literally. You can shoot a Deado point blank and in the face with a shotgun and have nothing happen, but do the same from afar and he’ll go down. You have no idea if you’re actually hitting the enemies because they don’t react to your shots, they’ll just eventually fall over when enough damage is taken, but you have no indication when that is. Most enemies will rush at you with weapons, snipers, and other weapons, but there are even some that try and attack you with toilet plungers; yes, plungers.
When it gets chaotic, the frame rate can suffer quite immensely, coupled with an achievement popping up and you’ll think it’s completely frozen for a moment. You only get to use the weapons you chose before beginning the encounter and you cannot pick up any of the enemies weapons. For some reason the Deados get to use grenades, but you unfortunately do not.
I don’t like to generally focus on the negatives over the positives when reviewing a game, but I even asked my friend that helped me play what he would put in the ‘Pro’ column, and we could only come up with one note: You play your character that kind of looks like Ryan Reynolds or Jeff Bridges, so if that is a redeeming quality, that’s about it. Sadly R.I.P.D. is nowhere near the caliber, quality, or fun as God Mode and this is actually a blemish on the developers as far as I’m concerned.
Normally arcade games that only costs 800 Microsoft Points ($10) aren’t that big of a deal if they are bad, but this goes beyond that though. R.I.P.D. reeks like a complete lack of effort, most likely due to the time constrains to coincide with the movie release, but this is exactly why movie licensed games get a terrible reputation. I’ve not seen the R.I.P.D. movie yet, but spend the $10 on the movie instead, as I doubt it’s going to be as bad as the game.
Overall Score: 1.5 / 10
Deadpool
If there’s one comic book character that is perfectly suited for having his own video game, Deadpool would be the ideal candidate, even if it is very long overdue. The fan favorite Marvel character that originally started off a bad guy is now the loveable, charming, hilarious, and absolutely insane anti-hero that you love to...well, love. Deadpool is beyond a lunatic, as he hears voices inside his head, which he also regularly has conversations with. He’s probably the most notable comic book character that tends to regularly break the fourth wall and talk to his own comic book readers and is full aware that he’s a comic book character as well. Comedy is very difficult to pull off in videogames; sure you can easily get a laugh here and there, but to fully capture Deadpool’s essence and what makes him so entertaining is all of his small intricacies and commentary to the world surrounding him, in the video game and in the real world is very difficult to pull off properly that fans will approve of. High Moon Studios, best known for the previous and fantastic Transformers games, have taken upon this monumental task of creating a game starring one of Marvel’s most beloved and whacky characters of all time.
The final product from High Moon Studios (and trust me, you won’t forget the developers of the game when you play through it as they are referenced throughout) is a third person hack and slash adventure, not only revolved around Deadpool himself, but you’ll see many famous comic book heroes and villains throughout the campaign. There’s plenty of blood, violence, breasts, innuendo, and poop jokes to be had, and it’s absolutely hilarious start to finish.
If you’re not familiar with Marvel’s Deadpool, he was originally set to be a villain but soon starred in his own series and alongside others, Cable being probably his most famous run, and has been come to be known as the ‘Merc with a Mouth”. He’s constantly chatty, to himself, other characters, or even the reader or player, which opens up so many more possibilities for the humor to take place. There isn’t many comic book characters that can talk directly to their audience or is self-aware of his existence in the comic book or videogame world. Much like Wolverine, he was a part of the Weapon X program that granted him many of the same abilities, music the Adamantium bone structure. He did however receive the accelerated healing which virtually makes him immortal (as he has been dismembered and beheaded on more than one occasion). Because of health issues he had at the time of the program though, a side effect made his whole body scar tissue and looking like he is severely disfigured, hence the costume and mask. The other side effect that makes Deadpool so unique is that it also made him abosuotely insane, as he actually hears voices in his head, talks to them and vice versa, and is probably the reason why he’s so self-aware that he’s a character in the Marvel universe and can talk to the reader or player.
It wouldn’t have been too difficult to create a plot for Deadpool’s game that would be taken seriously, but High Moon Studios has opted to stay true to Deadpool’s nature and create a story that is completely fitting for the character and simply wouldn’t work as well with any other. Deadpool the game is about Deadpool getting to create his own game from High Moon Studios. Yes, that’s the essential idea around the story, and it only works because of the titular character. Deadpool contacts High Moon Studios to make his awesome game, they give him a rough idea, and he throws it out the window and changes everything (in crayon mind you) which allows for some absolutely hilarious situations, hysterical one-liners, Marvel character cameos (you’ll be interacting with his old pal Cable and Wolverine quite often, meet up with Death, Psylocke, Mister Sinister, and more), and an avalanche of boob, fart, and d*** jokes throughout. Oddly enough, the humor works quite well.
Deadpool will constantly break the fourth wall in many ways and talk to you the player or even notice that he can use his speech bubbles as platforms to get to his destination. Many times you’ll be insulted due to your skill, or lack thereof, or he’ll even ask if you’ve got any ladies with you. He is able to make fun of himself at his own expense, even when he’s lost a limb or two, though he’ll constantly verbally bash the enemy clones he consistently fights in ways only he could conceive. While the in-combat one-liners become stake and reused way more often than you’ll like, every other line in the game that comes out of his mouth (or the ones in his head) are absolute pure gold, as long as you find that type of comicality funny.
Deadpool starts off with his iconic duals swords and pistols, but can eventually purchase new and upgrade weapons with Deadpool Points the player picks up from battle. Eventually you can purchase shotguns, SMG’s, Sai’s, and even Sledgehammers, all of which have a different strength and weakness in battle. While I upgraded a few of the weapon choices, the fully upgraded default weapons are still my favorite, even by the ending of the game. Your swords are used with the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ buttons for light and heavy attacks, while ‘Left Trigger’ will make you aim your guns and ‘Right Trigger’ fires the weapons. There are combinations to be use with your melee weapons, and you unlock more via upgrades, but you can easily button mash your way through most sections of the game without much recourse. While I liked the gunplay the best, your ammo is limited and is only replenished by killing enemies and picking up ammo from corpses or lying around the battlefield. There is a lock on feature for the guns, but it’s very finicky when it decides if and when it wants to work, and even when it does lock on, sometimes it’s not actually in the middle of the hit box, but off to the side instead. Because of this it can’t be relied upon very often unless the enemies are running right towards you (and moving the ‘Right Stick’ for your aim or camera completely stops the auto lock-on from working).
You also have the ability to teleport a short distance to get out of danger with the ‘B’ button, but this is also your counter button as well when an enemy has the appropriate “B” symbol above their head. If you don’t time the counters just perfectly, you’ll teleport all over the place mistakenly more than once. While it’s not a deal breaker, it does sometimes draw out battles a little long because you can’t always do exactly what you intend. When you get too hurt in battle, simply run away and void getting hit for a short period of time to let Deadpool’s healing factor kick in before jumping back into battle.
A large part of the game is the upgrades you can earn for your weapons and unlocking new ones as well that can be switched with the D-Pad on the fly, freely switching between your melee weapons, firearms, and grenades when needed. It’s up to you when and what you want to upgrade or purchase, depending on your play style and preferences for combat, though I do at least suggest unlocking all of the weapons, as you are much more efficient with certain ones against specific enemies. Each weaon has specific upgrades that can range from more ammo, damage, Deadpool Points (DP… Yea, heh), rate of fire, and more. There are even upgrades for Deadpool himself like larger health bar, carry more ammo and throwables, more teleports before needing to recharge, and more. Surprisingly the upgraded di seem to make quite a difference, and my fully upgraded pistol can easily chew through most enemies’ health bars.
Deadpool is lovingly sarcastic, not only in the characters dialogue, but in the gameplay itself. During serious moments of the plot, Deadpool will most likely not be paying attention to what’s going on, insulting someone’s dumb super power, crying, and who knows what else. The comedy begins from the moment you start the game and doesn’t end until the credits finish. Not only are Deadpool’s one-liners hilarious, but the game as a whole is as well, as some of the weapon descriptions are just as funny; The Bear Trap weapon’s description says it’s for trapping bears, and that there are no bears in this game. Everything is treated so silly that you’ll have a hard time not laughing as long as you don’t get offended by the crude humor that he whole game revolves around.
While the humor is the star of the game and the reason you should play it, the same can’t be said for the combat though. It works, and it’s bland, but that’s about it. Combat is very generic and nothing you’ve never seen many times before and the majority of the time is slews of enemies thrown your way that you’ll need to slog through just to get to the next funny bit you want to see. It’s the standard action game you’d expect peppered in with a few platforming segments to slightly break up the combat monotony. That being said, the mediocre as best combat mechanic is completely overshadowed by Deadpool’s humor and will actually have you laughing out loud and smiling at jokes you probably shouldn’t.
The plot works for what it is (which I actually enjoyed its self-aware humor) and I believe High Moon Studios has captured the essence of Deadpool absolutely perfectly. Nolan North voices Deadpool with perfection, as every line is delivered with that believability that he actually is insane and bat**** crazy. If you’re a Deadpool fan you are going to love this game, though fi you’re looking for a good action game with solid mechanics powering the combat, it won’t be enough to entice you. You need that crude sense of humor and immaturity to truly enjoy Deadpools antics, but if you do, this may be one of the funniest games you’ll play, even if it’s only worth one playthrough of the campaign. I truly can’t remember a game recently that I’ve laughed not only this hard, but often as well. I already want a sequel and hope Deadpool is here to stay, and brings those sexy Marvel girls with him again, and his dog, and pancakes; Oh look something shiny! Let’s go ride bikes!
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Thunder Wolves
After playing Thunder Wolves it kind of dawned on me that the action helicopter games full of explosions and humor have been long gone for quite some time. I’m probably wrong, but I think Thunder Blade for the Master System might be one of the oldest 3D chopper games, at least that I remember playing, but when the Genesis era came around, a new helicopter game series was released in the early 90’s and spawned a few successful sequels along with it. The Strike series started off with Desert Strike and Jungle Strike on the Genesis, and even eventually got three more sequels all the way up until the PS1 era. These were the chopper games you wanted to play, as they were filled with explosions, action, and was a fantastic game for a young kid back in those days. Here we are today and it’s been quite some time since I even remember playing a helicopter shoot-em-up (schmup), though Thunder Wolves is trying to remedy that void with its dose of nostalgia, music, explosions, and swearing, all wrapped in a 80’s B-movie vibe. Make no mistake, Thunder Wolves knows what it wants to do, allow you to blow up everything in sight, but there’s not much more in the offering outside of that.
Thunder Wolves does have a main campaign mode complete with storyline, characters, and plot twists, but honestly, it never got interesting and in a game where you’re just expected to blow everything up, it was a little difficult to follow. Thunder Wolves is completely about annihilating everything and anything you can of the enemy forces while it tries to put a smile on your face with the constant barrage of explosions. So yes, there’s a plot line included about you being a new pilot for an elite group, but you won’t care due to the gameplay nature and the short length overall.
Split into thirteen missions, what Thunder Wolves does do surprisingly well is vary its mission structure, as you will primarily be in your chopper blasting enemies for the bulk of the game, but there are quite a few sections to break up the monotony with missions like steering guided missiles, sniping enemies, and even using a tank. As you progress further into the missions, levels do become more challenging as you go, as you’ll have to deal with more than simple foot soldiers and the odd vehicle or tank, you’ll eventually have to combat anti-air missiles and other choppers themselves that will require you to dodge and use your flares to survive. While the games difficulty isn’t inherently difficult (as I played on normal, and would suggest starting right on hard), the times you do die will be because of the slippery controls and the poor escort / protect missions.
As you progress, you’ll earn new helicopters to use, each of which has their own arsenal included and different types of missile (each chopper has the standard machine gun with unlimited ammo and no cool down). Some missiles are homing and lock on, while others are much more powerful and widespread but have a longer delay in reuse time. You’ll eventually find a favorite or tow and stick with them solely for their specific weapon set.
You’re not limited with any general ammo constraints aside from your missiles that need to recharge so that you can’t spam them constantly, although you’re constantly be holding the Right Trigger down as it’s your machine gun and has no cool down or ammo or reloads. At first it’s awesome not having any limitations to your firepower, but it quickly grows old, as it never feels difficult because of it. The main issue I had was with the sloppy controls, as your movements never feel precise, especially trying to shoot down an moving target. Luckily there’s a lock on to remedy this, but it just means you’re also holding down the Left Trigger the whole time as well because it’s the only reliable way to take down your enemies quickly. You have a Boost button to get out of the way of danger quickly (along with Flares to distract incoming enemy missiles), but when it wears off it’s as if your chopper is sliding on ice briefly. Since you’ll constantly be using the Left and Right Triggers and Bumpers, the other issue comes in as soon as you need to start quickly cycling your different missile types with the D-Pad. This results you holding the controller in an awkward and unnatural way and will cramp your hands quite quickly. I’m not sure why it wasn’t defaults to one of the other face buttons.
For a game completely about destruction and explosions, I would have expected the explosions themselves to look great, but alas, they do not. Sure they look better than the Strike games of old, but if you look closely, it’s not by much; the same goes for ground troops that are animated very stiff. Eventually the screen is so overcrowded with explosions, crumbling buildings, incoming missile indicators, combo announcements, your own firepower, and more that it becomes difficult to focus on anything specific at all. A few missions in you’ll quickly learn that Thunder Wolves boils down to a point and shoot, as you’ll simply aim at the big red target indicator while strafing and shooting missiles. I eventually just shot at the red indicators and stopped questioning, as I couldn’t’ tell what it was anyways.
The game does include a local co-op mode should you have someone to play with, but sadly I did not as of the time of this review submission, so I was unable to test it firsthand, though apparently the first player plays like normal while the co-op friend just gets their own targeting reticle to help you shoot down enemies for more destruction.
In a game that’s primarily a third person helicopter shooter, I actually enjoyed the side missions much more when you weren’t even in your chopper, especially the entertaining Tank mission. Also, I’m not one to care about swearing in a game or movie, but when it’s so overdone that you actually notice it, it’s just not as funny. Thunder Wolves is full of humor, jokes, and swearing, though the focus on swearing seems to go a tad overboard even though it’s trying to mimic the old 80’s and 90’s movies that were full of it.
You’ll finish Thunder Wolves in a single sitting, as it only took me around three hours or so to do so. Sure there’s local co-op, leaderboards, and a few hidden collectables to squeeze out a few more hours if you really try, but with no online co-op or competitive multiplayer, you’ll finish it and basically be done with it after. It doesn’t help that the gameplay is repetitive and shallow at its core either though.
Sometimes you just want to come home, relax on the couch, turn your brain off, and blow things up. That’s exactly what Thunder Wolves is here to do, satisfy that itch of explosions and shooting things. While it won’t last you long, it’s fun in short quick bursts if you simply don’t care about the rest. I was really hoping I could end this review with something funny like “Get to the choppa and buy this game!”, but honestly, wait until it’s on sale (or if you have some spare Microsoft Points you’ve been itching to spend) as its short length and lack of replayability may have you swearing alongside the Thunder Wolves.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
GRID 2
Back in 2008 when Codemasters released Grid it turned out to be quite a hit, and since then many have been asking for a sequel to the acclaimed racer. Here we are five years later, finally able to drive behind the wheel once again with Grid 2. Well, kind of behind the wheel anyways, as it turns out Codemasters announced before release that the cockpit view from the game had been removed completely. I’m sure there were asset management reasons and improvements to the game in other aspects because of it, though if you’re a player that solely plays in the cockpit view in racers, you’ll have to make due with the hood cam and deal with it. That aside, some lofty expectations were being hoped for with the sequel, and finally we can see if the long wait has been worth it.Patrick Callahan has a lofty dream about creating a completely new racing league that will take place across the globe and have the world’s best racers compete; dubbed The World Series Racing, or WSR for short. Callahan wants to see drivers of all types and styles compete together to truly find out who’s the best racer there is. You’re the first member and you’ve been tasked with promoting the WSR by gaining more fans around the world and making it a household name with your slick driving. As you complete events you’ll see how many new fans you’ve earned for the new sports league and even eventually have real life ESPN personalities comment about the new WSR league as your popularity grows and grows with each win.
You’ll need to convince the other best racers around the globe to sign with WSR, and you do that by competing in events against them, convincing them that the WSR is where they want to be to become bigger stars and race against the best the world has to offer. It’s great that you’re actually someone important in the storyline and not just a nobody that has to prove themself from nothing. You even begin the campaign with a supercharged muscle car rather than an underpowered 4 cylinder like most racers tend to do.
The campaign is broken up into seasons, and as you progress and convince more racers to join the fasting growing racing league you’ll unlock more events and garner more fans along the way. Early on you’ll only have a handful of events you can compete in, but as you progress to fan number milestones, new events unlock which will net you more fans in return as well, eventually culminating in the actual WSR championship races. WSR’s fan count dictates which events you can compete in, so you always want to be competing to gain more and more fans as you promote the WSR brand.
Codemasters has completely refined the handling mechanics of Grid 2 and dubbed it the ‘TrueFeel’ system which is a blend of simulation realism and arcade accessibility. While most racing game fans tend to generally like one or the other (simulation or arcade), they are attempting to find that happy medium between the middle of the two to try and appeal to all types of racing fans; and I think they may have hit the mark. Since it’s not a simulation racer, you don’t have all the tuning options, racing lines and other features known for those types of racers, but it’s not totally arcade-like where you can freely hit walls without consequence and drift without effort either. Each type of car handles very differently and controlling a RWD muscle car is nothing like a 4WD with heavy grip. Counter-steering is heavily relied upon and it takes a long time to get trained into steering the ‘wrong’ way during a drift to straighten out and will only be learned through much trial and error. I actually didn’t truly get the hang of it until the end of Season 2 or so.
You’re constantly riding a fine line of control and chaos, as you’ll need to drift almost every sharp corner, but knowing just how much gas and brake to have during the traction slide takes a lot of practice. You will hit a lot of walls and you will also spin out numerous times, but once you get the hang of it and learn to break and drift properly, it’s quite exhilarating to take that perfect corner that’s both controlled and flashy.
The main gimmick from Grid returns for Grid 2; the Flashback ability, seemingly allowing you to rewind time when you make a big mistake and try that difficult upcoming corner once again. You’re only given a limited amount of Flashbacks allowed per race, so you’ll have to use them sparingly and only when truly needed. Given the fact that you’ll be crashing quite often in the first Season or two when you’re still learning how to control your vehicle through corners properly, Flashbacks may seem like something you don’t want to do, but it’ll be necessary at times, especially if you want that podium finish in the much more difficult Seasons.
While Grid 2 will come nowhere close to the car selection that say Forza has, there’s just enough variety in each vehicle class that you don’t really run into fatigue or car boredom. You’ll no doubt use the same handful of favorites when allowed, but there are plenty of vehicles to use and more to unlock as you progress through the WSR Seasons.
As WSR becomes more and more popular, you’ll start to race around the world, spanning from Chicago, California, Miami, Paris, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and more across numerous types of events like Race, Promo, Vehicle Challenges, Eliminator, Time Attack, Touge, WSR Championships, and more. Overtake events have you trying to pass trucks and building a combo by doing so quickly without taking damage by making contact. Touge races are really fun once you make it into the Asia scene and have you racing against a single driver, and if you can pull five seconds ahead of your opponent you’ll win.
Live Route racers were easily my favorite race type though, as it will have you racing a circuit track that can dynamically change but also not give you a track map that is usually heavily depended upon to see upcoming turns. These Live Route races keeps things very interesting and you on your toes, as you need to look ahead and determine what’s coming up very quickly without the help of your track map.
The cars and environments themselves look fantastic, as Codemasters really knows how to put some great looking polish onto everything. Even better so is how well done the damage system portrays the destruction of your car as you scrape walls, rivals, and slam into corners. Doors, bumpers, and more can completely fall off your vehicle and if you’re playing on certain difficulties, these will affect your vehicle’s performance in that race. The audio is just as top notch, as engines of the more powerful beasts sound much deeper and rumble when compared to the quicker imports.
Just like its predecessor, Grid 2 offers a full feature rich online mode to keep you racing for many more hours once you’ve completed the WSR campaign, albeit a very slow and difficult start. You only begin with a handful of cars and you’ll need to suffer through some races with them just to earn enough to unlock the better and quicker vehicles. As you compete you’ll earn cash and experience which you can use to upgrade your vehicles parts and performance (something sorely lacking in the single player campaign).
It’s a shame your single player cars and paint jobs don’t’ carry over into multiplayer, as it’s difficult to work from the very bottom up when you’re competing against higher ranked racers from the get go. Online will have you coming back for more though, as there is much more variety (usually based on the users choices) where you rarely see repeated events. Interestingly, Grid 2 keeps track of not only your usual stats, but also your driving style as well. If you’re a dirty driver that likes to trade paint or slam into other opponents, it learns that and will try and match you up with similarly likeminded players as well. The same goes if you’re a clean racer as well, and while it doesn’t obviously always work perfectly, it’s a great basis that I’d love to see expanded on in the future.
For all the praise that I give Grid 2, there are a few issues I do take with the game (aside from the cockpit view being axed). As you progress further into the Seasons of WSR, you’ll have some severe deja-vu after a few hours, simply because the races you’re competing in in the latter half of the game is essentially the same ones you did earlier. Many segments are repeated and while each course has multiple variants and pathways, the evening races in the last Seasons won’t fool you enough to forget you’ve already raced these same tracks before. Given the fact that there’s simply urban racing and no rally, off-road, or anything of the likes, you may move on to the next game sooner than you should.
That being said, I truly enjoyed Grid 2 once I got ahold of the racing mechanics, and by the end of Season 2 I was able to drift and take any corner with ease and style. The blend of simulation and arcade handling truly shines once you master the nuances and intricacies of Grid 2’s drifting. Vehicle damage looks fantastic and you can (and will) easily flip your car if you’re not careful or try to be a little too flashy. While the lack of car upgrades in single player is really a disappointment, the way the WSR story and campaign is set up will have you wanting to do ‘one more race’ just so you can progress to the next event and hopefully he WSR Championships for that Season. Despite its flaws, Grid 2 has me coming back for more races again and again now that I’ve mastered its unique blend of driving mechanics, and you will too.
Suggestions: Please don't have a car upgrading system in one mode and not the other, it's confusing and not explained why it's like that.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
There was a time where THE genre to make was a side scrolling beat’em-up (also known as a brawler), much like how first person shooters dominate gaming these days. Back in the late 80’s, a few pillar brawler games released and seemed to start a trend in gaming for quite a few days; these games were Double Dragon, Final Fight and Golden Axe. There were obviously a few titles that came before these, but these were the ones that really hit the main stream and become vastly popular at the time and the ones I spent many hours of my childhood playing. Brawlers are generally an action fighting game where you’ll need to clear an area before being allowed to move on, generally taking on a large amount of enemies that you should have no chance of winning. After the wave of enemies you can move on to the next area, repeat, and then fight a boss at the end to finish the level. Most of the time you’ll be unarmed, but there are usually weapons and special items you can pick up along the way for more devastating attacks. These games were known to be notoriously hard, especially if you used to play them in the arcade, as they were a vortex that sucked all the quarters you had on you due to their sheer difficulty and length.
Here we are today and Capcom has released Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara on the Xbox Live arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points. Chronicles actually consists of two separate classic Capcom Dungeons & Dragons games: Tower of Doom (released in 1993) and its sequel Shadow over Mystara (from 1996) that have been given the HD makeover for new and older gamers to enjoy some old classic brawling action. While the price may seem steep for an older HD remake, keep in mind that Chronicles contains both games, even if Shadow of Mystara is vastly superior of the two.
While the story may be the standard ‘save the land and defeat the bad guy’, there are many ways to play through the game, as there are many hidden secrets, branching areas, and certain decisions you’ll have to make. There isn’t much to say here about the story, as Brawlers are more about the fluid gameplay, point scoring, and in this case, treasure gathering as well.
The formula for a good Brawler is quite simple, yet it seems Capcom has gone taken a few extra steps to make Chronicles stand out amongst the competition with small inclusions like a leveling system, multiple characters with distinct abilities, treasure gathering to spend your earned gold, and more. Sure at its heart it’s essentially no different than Final Fight and Double Dragon, but as multiplayer experience with up to four players, it’s a much deeper experience when compared to its simplistic roots. There’s a slight element of strategy when it comes to forming your team of players together, as some characters have specific features and skills that will play well as a team against the hordes of enemies.
From the main menu you can choose which game you would like to play (defaults to Shadow of Mystara) and from there jump in with three other players, locally or online. Once you’ve played through a few missions and earned some milestones (in-game achievements) you’ll gain currency which you can then use to unlock artwork and other cool behind the scenes stuff, though you’ll probably want to spend it on the unlockable House Rules first before anything else. These House Rules are essentially toggles that can make the game easier or more difficult based on which ones you turn on and off. The better ones are extra gold drops, gain health when attacking enemies, unbreakable equipment, and more. Even just a few of the toggles can make for a drastically different game (especially with Enemy Rush rule turned on, where you start with only 30 seconds and have to defeat enemies to keep the clock going) and will keep you coming back a few more times to try some of them out.
Tower of Doom allows you to choose from four separate classes that vary in skills and abilities, depending on your favored play style. The Fighter is the most average and balanced character that has a large life pool and great range for attacks. The Elf is similar to the Fighter, though she has a much smaller life bar but can cast magic to make up for it. The Dwarf is unable to cast magic but is the fasted fighter and hardest hitter, making him a lot of fun for melee-centric players. Lastly is the Cleric that is able to attack up close with his mace, but rather excels at healing and other spells to help the team. When you play Shadow of Mystara these four base classis are available along with two newer ones that are much more unique. The Thief is a hybrid of melee and mobility and can also sense traps and open chests with ease. Lastly is the Magic User, and while they are nor your standard definition of strong, especially with the very low life bar, they possess the most powerful spells in the game and can take out groups of large enemies with ease. Playing on the harder difficulties, you will want to vary your team makeup and play to each other’s strengths.
As you defeat bosses and move onto the next chapter you’ll gain levels with will boost your hit points and also get to spend your hard earned gold at the local shop to refill your life and extra items like daggers, throwing hammers, oil, and more. There’s no sense hoarding your gold, so you might as well spend it when you’re able to.
Most beat’em ups generally have a simplistic combat mechanic. Usually it’s an attack button and jump, or light and heavy attacks with a guard button. Dungeons and Dragons employs these, but takes it another step further (with Shadow of Mystara) and employs an almost fighting game-like system on top of the core smashing attack button system should you choose to use it. Granted, most of your attacks will simply be smashing the button repeatedly, there are a few extra moves you can pull off in Shadows of Mystara should you learn them and used appropriately. A quarter circle forward and attack (a Hadouken) will make your character lunge a wife distance in front of them while attacking upward, great for a slew of enemies right in front of you. A quarter circle forward and jump will allow you to slide and quickly evade attacks and out of the way of danger. Stringing together combinations of these special moves will allow you to become much more efficient in battle and even more so needed during boss fights surrounded by enemies. I won’t spoil all of the other moves, for having specific move sets like this in a brawler wasn’t all that common back when these originally came out and it shows how much ahead of the game Capcom was back then.
The game itself is quite difficult while playing solo, so it is definitely recommended to gather some friends, as these can be played with up to four players. With each of the characters have unique skills sets it is recommended to create your party where each player’s character will have a specific role in the group. That being said, at the time I was playing for review, I was unable to find anyone else playing online at the times I was, so I was unable to test the online capabilities, though it’s touted to have seamless drop-in and out gameplay; I just wish I was able to test it myself.
To help facilitate setting up an ideal party, there’s a Character Visualizer that keeps track of every character you use and will even show you the characters you use the most and your friends as well. This is to help show you who likes to play what so you can make the most balanced team you can so you won’t have to keep on continuing from repeated deaths.
I didn’t realize at the title screen that I had to press the Back button to swap between the two games, and since it defaults to the newer, and better game, I naturally finished that one first before realizing how to switch between them. The only problem with that though was that Shadow of Mystara is the vastly superior game out of the two, even if only for the extra characters and move sets, and playing Tower of Doom afterwards when you’re used to using all the special attacks is quite difficult, even more so if you decided to play the Magic User of Thief. Not a big deal, but I would suggest playing the games in order, get your Tower of Doom achievements out of the way, then play Shadow of Mystara and never look back.
1200 Microsoft Points may seem like a hefty price tag for two HD remakes of almost twenty year old games, but there are few brawler games that actually carry the depth and online multiplayer component like Chronicles of Mystara does. Sure you’re going to get sick of hearing the same battle cries over and over, fighting the same creatures a thousand times, and even getting one-shot by bosses, but that’s what made brawler games so endearing. Sadly I never got to play these games in the arcade as a kid, but on the other hand, without a good team of friends it would have taken me more than the amount of quarters I would have been able to carry to beat it anyways if I did. Sometimes you just want to turn your brain off and smash some button to beat up some bad guys, these games certainly allow for that, but those that want to employ some strategy and skill are also encourage to come and enjoy as well.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Worms Collection
Before my days of being addicted to MMO’s, there was a different game that I would play seemingly play for hours on end without moving, simply staring at the screen and trying to become better. That game for me was Worms when it was released way back in 1995 on the Amiga and PC (though I can’t seem to recall what I initially played it on or how I came across the game). Point is, I still remember that very first time I played Worms and becoming instantly hooked. Since then, Team 17 has always been one of my fondest developers simply because I’ve been such a big fan of their Worms series ever since.Team 17 has released a disc package of most of the Xbox Live Arcade Worms titles, aptly dubbed The Worms Collection. On the disc you’ll receive Worms, Worms 2: Armageddon (along with all of the DLC), and Worms: Ultimate Mayhem (which is essentially a mix of Worms 3D and Worms 4 mixed together). While having multiple titles and DLC on the disc is a nice inclusion, the best of the three titles is Worms 2: Armageddon by far, as it’s vastly superior to Worms, and Worms: Ultimate Mayhem isn’t the classic Worms gameplay we’ve come to love over the years due to its 3D nature, but more on that later.
For those unfamiliar with the Worms series, the general concept is that teams take turns firing artillery at their enemies until there’s only one victor remaining. You have a set amount of time to take your turn, so you must decide where to move, what weapons to use, and how to compensate for the wind with your fire (generally). On the surface it may seem very simple in theory, but play against someone that knows their Worms weaponry and gameplay and it’s a whole other level of strategy. While most new players will gravitate towards the tried and true bazooka and grenades for their damage dealing, things become much more interesting when you start to learn the more unique and wacky arsenal choices such as the Holy Hand Grenade, Flying Sheep, and the iconic Banana Bombs.
Worms is played on a 2D landscape (aside from the Ultimate Mayhem title included) that can drastically vary in size and shape. Weapons that explode will cause the terrain to deform, drastically changing yours and your opponents’ strategy quite often. You can choose to play against the AI or even against other players, all with colorfully voiced and drawn worms as your soldiers. I’m sure if you’ve never seen or heard of the game, this probably sounds quite odd, but just go with it, as it’s a lot of fun when you start to learn the intricacies of the series. The last team standing is a victor and then you’ll load up another match and continue on playing.
The first title included in The Worms Collection will have to be the first one that was released on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2007, simply named Worms (with a cost of 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade separately on its own). This was essentially an HD remake of the 1995 classic and I was truly excited to finally get to play some Worms on my 360 when this came out. You can start out with some Challenges or jump into a quick game that randomizes the landscape and enemy placement. In Worms there weren’t very many challenges, and while you will get stuck on a few of the more difficult ones, once they’re complete, there’s not much else to do so single player other than play Quick Start matches on varying difficulties that range from Beginner, to Intermediate, to Pro. This is where Worms’ multiplayer comes in, and while you can play four players locally, you can also play on Xbox Live against other players as well. Worms gameplay thrives on playing other similarly skilled human opponents, and if you manage to find a game online against other players (as it is quite old and not many people seem to play any longer), you’ll have a wonderful time online testing your strategy against theirs.
Next up that’s included on the disc is Worms: Ultimate Mayhem, which will normally set you back 800 Microsoft Points if you were you purchase it separately. Originally released on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2011, it’s the only 3D title in this compilation, but for good reason. Ultimate Mayhem is essentially a gameplay hybrid of Worms 3D and Worms 4, trying to fuse the two together, but never pulling it off well at all. The core Worms experience has always been on a 2D playing field, but once it transitioned to 3D, it just never seemed to work too well. You navigate in 3D, have a radar of where enemies and items are, but the controls are very sluggish and poorly responsive at the best of times. Coupled with absurdly long loading times and you’re not going to have a very positive Worms experience with Ultimate Mayhem. Maybe it’s the old school Worm’er in me talking, but the transition to 3D just never did well (which is probably why it never really spawned any sequels) to play into the game’s strengths.
I applaud Team 17 for trying to make the 3D version work, as they did add a story mode, though there’s no real reason for it, as Worm’s players want to simply play the game and shoot enemy worms. Challenges return but many feel like they are simply Time Attack versions of pieces of the Campaign rather than the standard deathmatch style of setup. Complete these though and you’ll earn coins which can be used to purchase new costume pieces, weapons, maps, sound banks, and more. It’s a shame the 3D version never really worked out, but with poor controls, mechanics, and a bland visual style that doesn’t even look as good as the 2D worms, it really surprises me that this game is included on the collection rather than a better choice that’s available.
Finally we have the last Worms title that’s included in this collection; Worms 2: Armageddon, not to be confused with the 1999 PC game Worms Armageddon. Purchasing this regularly on Xbox Live Arcade will set you back 400 Microsoft Points and it was originally released back in 2009. After all these years and even two newer releases on XBLA, Worms 2: Armageddon is still the go-to Worms experience on the Xbox 360 in my opinion (even mores o than the newer 2012 Worms: Revolution) by far. Armageddon simply has the most content packed with the best classic gameplay on the console, though many extra DLC packs have been included in The Worms Collection as well.
The Retro Pack (normally 320 Microsoft Points) adds twenty extra single player missions that have been handpicked from the classic Worms: Armageddon along with new hats and other items to go along with five more achievements. The Mayhem Pack (which is free) adds new landscape themes, hats, speech banks, gravestones, and more. The Time Attack Pack (normally 320 Microsoft Points) focuses on time based challenges that will have you using your jetpack and ninja rope skills as frantically as possible. This pack also contains the standard set of new hats, gravestones, speech bank and landscape theme.
The Forts Pack (normally 320 Microsoft Points) adds another handful of single player levels with more reliance on the fort variant of gameplay. As always, new hats, speech banks, gravestones, and fort landscapes are included in this pack as well. The Puzzle Pack (also normally 320 Microsoft Points) features more single player missions but with a much more difficult puzzle element to them (to coincide with the standard other extras like hats, etc). The final DLC pack included is the largest, and best valued offering, The Battle Pack (normally 400 Microsoft Points). This DLC not only adds a massive 30 missions, but 6 new and unique weapons (that I’m still getting used to), new forts, speech banks, player titles, and even game modes. While normally I’d never purchase DLC that’s as expensive as the game itself, it’s included in The Worms Collection disc and is the best DLC offering Team 17 has had.
With Worms 2: Armageddon being the best of the Worms titles on the disc, the inclusion of all of the DLC packs is quite impressive and will keep you busy and entertained for quite some time with all the extra offerings. Just like Worms, Armageddon offers a campaign mode instead of it being title challenges, though these are much more fun and entertaining. Most missions will have you trying to defeat the enemy teams, but every now and then there’s a level thrown in that’s very different to break up the monotony. One for example has you needing to reach the end of the level with just a jet pack before time runs out, or by doing it with just a ninja rope. While campaign doesn’t have a story, it doesn’t need to and even without all the DLC additions, the missions here will keep you busy for a long time to come. Like Ultimate Mayhem, you earn gold coins for completing missions which you can then spend in the shop to unlock extra and bonus items for your worms. Again, online multiplayer is what will keep you coming back and back again, though even these days it seems difficult to find a match sadly. Of all three Worms titles included on disc, this is really the only one you’ll need to play as it’s the smoothest and more complete Worms experience there is on the Xbox 360.
While I’m one of the biggest Worms fans out there, I do have a few gripes with this Worms Collection that need to be pointed out. Firstly, when you boot up the game disc, you’re disconnected from Xbox Live until you launch one of the games from the disc. Also, it allows you to install the Armageddon DLC, but for the games you need to run them off the disc. In all honesty, Ultimate Mayhem shouldn’t be on this collection, as it’s just not that good of a game. Team 17 tried going the 3D route but it just didn’t work and I was confused to why that game was on the disc, but the newer 2012 Worms game Revolution wasn’t. The last issue I have is about the pricing; while it’s a budget title in stores at $29.99 MSRP, and technically you are saving money as buying all the games and DLC normally would set you back over $40, there’s no reason to play Ultimate Mayhem (for reasons explained above) or Worms, since Armageddon is also included and the vastly superior game.
Taking that into account, you are saving money if you don’t already own the games from Xbox Live Arcade, Worms 2: Armageddon and all of the DLC bought separately adds up to roughly $20, so you can see where I take issue with the disc’s pricing. That being said, being the massive Worms fan I am, I can definitely recommend The Worms Collection since you do get Worms and Worms: Armageddon; let’s just pretend Ultimate Mayhem isn’t here or happened and you won’t be disappointed. Now go shoot some zooks and ninja rope outa here to get your copy.
Overall Score: 7.6 / 10
Resident Evil Revelations
Resident Evil is really the title that launched the survival horror genre to its peak with its debut back in 1996 on the Playstation. With well more than a dozen spinoffs and sequels, the latest few versions have seemed to lost that touch of what made the original games so great; the fear factor. The latest games have transitioned into the common action games that are a dime a dozen these days which has left some of the original fans excluded and uncertain of the series’ future. About a year and a half ago it seems Capcom wanted to start to remedy this situation and created a Resident Evil game that went a little more back to its roots, the only problem being is that it launched on the 3DS when it was relatively new and not the largest installed user base to experience it. It seems Capcom wants everyone else to experience their hard work and has finally remastered its 3DS title, Resident Evil Revelations, and brought it to the home consoles, HD graphics and new content in tow. I’ll be honest, I actually skipped Revelations on the 3DS, as I didn’t think that a handheld version of the long standing title would be up my alley, or all that scary like some of its predecessors. Turns out I was missing out, as Revelations turned out to be quite well received and showed that Capcom was clearly trying to revive Resident Evil to its proper survival horror roots. It’s not very often that a handheld title gets an enhanced and redone version on the consoles this much later, so needless to say I was a bit skeptical on what improvements really could be made from the small screen and single analog stick to the HD TV and fully fledged controller. To say that I was impressed would be putting it mildly; sure it’s not perfect and you can clearly see its portable roots in certain aspects, but if you didn’t know it, you probably wouldn’t guess that Revelations was originally a handheld title.
HD visuals, better lighting, new enemies, a new difficulty, and a second analog stick makes Revelations feel like its own game. Sure there are some muddy textures and not everything points to it having the budget Resident Evil 6 did, but when you compare how everything looks, especially Jill and Chris to its smaller counterparts, it’s impressive how Capcom managed to get Revelations on the TV screens without everything looking like it was expanded. And these are just the changes you’ll notice right away, there are a vast number of gameplay improvements and more that I’ll get to shortly, but you’ll be happy to know that Revelations is a step in the right direction to Resident Evil returning to its glory days of survival horror; not perfect, but a step.
Set between Resident Evil 4 and 5, Revelations tells the story of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) which we were introduced to in Resident Evil 5. Series staples Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield take the helm in Revelations, but you’ll also be introduced to other BSAA members and play as them as well through a convoluted story that will have you scratching you head. The game begins with Jill and her new partner Parker searching for Chris and his partner Jessica on the SS Queen Zenobia, a seemingly deserted cruise ship lost at sea.
A year prior to this mission though, the ‘floating city’ of Terragrigia came under attack by a terrorist group known simply as Veltro, which BSAA members Parker and Jessica were sent to keep things under control. With the city having an almost pure and sustainable solar energy supply, this is when Veltro decided to attack and eventually turned Terragrigia’s technology on itself, destroying everything in the process, later dubbed the Terragrigia Panic.
You’ll play Revelations not only from Jill and Parkers point of view, but Chris, Jessica, and even other lesser important BSAA members as well as you progress through the confusing and incredibly difficult to follow storyline. As per the course with a Resident Evil plot line, there’s always some big mastermind puppet master behind the curtains that’s not revealed until the end. The story is actually so confusing at times that the game itself is broken up into separate chapters (and to facilitate the character swapping) that even gives you a ‘previously on Resident Evil Revelations’ as if it was a TV drama you needed catching up on. The story feels bloated and while I did enjoy it when it started to come all together at the end, you really need to pay attention to really grasp it fully; It’s not as simple as the Umbrella corporation and zombies any longer unfortunately.
Revelations plays somewhere in between old and new gameplay; you can move while shooting and raising your gun but there’s also many small corridors and enclosed spaces that made us fear the game in the beginning. There are of course new gameplay mechanics that have been added, such as the Genesis device that you’ll be using the majority of the time. Using this Genesis scanner, you can quickly research enemies (dead or alive) to earn bonuses and even use it to find hidden hand prints for other secrets. Being that you’re so ammo deprived constantly in Revelations (especially on the harder difficulties), you absolutely need to use the Genesis to find hidden ammo that you can’t unearth otherwise. You’ll essentially be scanning every room if you want ammo for your weapons which is a shame, as you need to constantly be stopping what you’re doing for a moment to scan for hidden items, as it tends to turn down the pacing quite drastically.
The weapons feel very useful the majority of the time, until you get to the enemies that are seemingly just put there to soak up all of your reserve bullets, and the weapons themselves do feel powerful, especially when upgraded with parts you find along the way. As you’re able to actively swap between four separate weapons, you’ll eventually have a weapon for almost every situation. There are many hidden modifications you’ll find (when you’re scanning the rooms constantly) that can increase your damage, adding more knockback to your shots, and many more. Each weapon has a different amount of mod slots available for it and part of the fun was experimenting with what worked and didn’t for my play style. And yes, you can move your character while aiming and shooting.
While there are some puzzles that you’ll need to complete now and then, there really isn’t too many to label it as a feature of the game itself. Those that played the game previously on the 3DS will be happy to know that there’s a brand new difficulty mode, Infernal, which not only makes the creatures more difficult, but also rearranges item locations and more to keep things fresh just in case you’ve memorized everything previously.
Raid Mode that was originally included also returns, but with some improvements, new weapons, characters, and more. Raid Mode allows you and a partner to play in bite sized co-op sections taken from the single player game, but with rearranged events, enemies, and items. I played campaign first then tried Raid Mode and was totally expecting enemies and everything to be the same, but while the environments might be recycled, the experience is anything but. The first Raid Mode level is a great example, as it’s also the opening section of the campaign as well. There’s maybe an enemy or two in campaign, but in Raid Mode with a co-op friend there are many more enemies and items in different locations, which kept me on edge, as I wasn’t sure what to expect. The weapon upgrade system from campaign carries over and is much simpler to use in Raid Mode, and still encourages experimentation, as you’ll get many more weapons and mods here. Each character even has their own strengths and weaknesses, and each level will play into one of the characters strengths. Some characters are more proficient with specific weapons while others may simply be decent overall. There’s just enough depth and challenge in Raid Mode to keep it interesting while still being rewarded for the matches you complete. While it’s not a game seller in itself, Raid Mode definitely will help you to continue playing the game after you’re done its campaign.
While playing and Jill and Chris is always welcome and awesome, the new characters are very hit and miss. Parker is a fantastic new character and I would really love to see him star in his own Resident Evil title; sure he’ll never reach the popularity of the well-established Resident Evil characters, but I really liked him as a companion, probably due to his passable voice acting. That being said, almost every other new character that is introduced is absolutely annoying and obnoxious that I’ll be happy if I never see and hear from them again. Jessica is one of the worst perpetrators and her badly acted one-liners are enough to make you want to see her get bit. The same goes for some of the other characters you’ll get to play, as their voice acting is just done so terribly, coupled with the bad script, which you won’t actually care for them at all.
I did enjoy Revelations for the most part, and even though you’ll have to sit through a contrived plot and unmemorable bosses, it’s more of an accomplishment that console gamers get to experience Revelations, even if it is still apparent at times that it was a handheld game at its roots. The main attractions like characters and environment look great with the new visuals, when you stop to look at the finer details (since you need to when you want to scan), many of the other textures are very poorly detailed and quite blurry when inspected up close. Again, being that this is a port of a handheld, that’s still an impressive feat, just don’t expect it to look anything close to how great Resident Evil 6 did.
One of the main questions with Revelations is should you get it on the console if you’ve already played the 3DS version. My answer is no; sure the controller will make things much easier and seeing it in HD will be an improvement, I just don’t see much replay value here outside of Raid Mode if you’ve already taken this journey with the BSAA. That being said, if you skipped on the 3DS version like I did or want to remember how Resident Evil used to play, Revelations is a safe buy. Sure it’s not as it was during its peak of survival horror gameplay, but the Queen Zenobia setting sure is memorable only second to the iconic mansion and the village from Resident Evil 4. It’s by no means perfect, but I’ve not enjoyed a Resident Evil for its original ideas since Resident Evil 4, and like I said above, Revelations is a step in the right direction by Capcom and I can support that with a clear conscience.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Sanctum 2
There’s a plethora of Tower Defense games out there for you to enjoy, and for the most part, if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. Then two years ago Coffee Stain Studios tried something a little different with the tried and true formula with Sanctum, allowing you to not only build your grid in the traditional Tower Defense gameplay, but also control a character in first person with a weapon to help your towers defeat the waves of oncoming enemies. Sanctum 2 is finally here and brings us the sequel to the very niche Tower Defense/FPS hybrid game. Being that Sanctum 2 is a hybrid of the two genres, it really does play into both types of games’ strengths. The main core will have you setting up your towers to defend the ever important Cores from the enemies while blending the chaotic action of a first person shooter, especially when it comes down to just you when your towers fail. The blend of strategy and shooting feels very natural and it’s been quite a while since I’ve enjoyed a Tower Defense game like I have Sanctum 2.
As one of the Core Guardians, you’re tasked with protecting the Core; large blue spheres of raw energy that survivors depends upon. You’ll do so by preventing the enemies from reaching the Core by placing towers, forcing them to funnel in a path of your choosing while you shoot them from afar. The trick is though that you only have a set amount of resources and towers to place, so every placement needs to be strategic, though you aren’t given much preparation time in between waves to do so. You want to create the longest possible path from the enemies entrance point to your core so that you have the most time possible to shoot them down via your towers and with your own gun as well. Choosing the right towers and weapons to add to your arsenal, since you can only equip a set amount per match, is going to make a huge difference in your strategy and outcome. Every type of weapon and tower are suited for a specific type of enemy and placement strategy, so there is a bit of a learning curve to see what works best for you.
You get to choose from four different hero characters, each with their own personalities, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, and customization. You get to choose your two weapons, tower types that you want to build in the next match, and perks that can make a difference in how you perform and play. You’ll need to constantly be switching weapons when your clip runs out, as the offhand weapon seems to reload when not in use as well, and you’ll need all the damage output you can muster to prevent waves getting to the Core. Later levels and waves become very intense, with tougher enemies getting by your towers with ease and only you to rely on finishing them off before they make it to the Core. Each weapon handles differently and also has a secondary shot to diversify your attacks and tactics. As you complete missions, you’ll level up, earning ranks, weapons, perks, towers, and other unlocks for your character.
While you can play through the campaign solo, and is completely viable, it’s much more entertaining (at times) to play with up to three other friends in co-op, and I highly suggest playing with friends, as playing with random people can sometimes turn out to be more frustrating than it is anything else for multiple reasons. The issue that WILL rear its head is that while playing co-op, players other than just the host have access to the building stage in between rounds as well. This boasts some major problems that I ran into almost every game with the random players either deleting towers for their own resources, or making holes in my well thought out pathway for no reason. One minute you could be building your intricate line of towers to kill the enemies in a specific way, the next you could turn around and all your hard work is taken by the random player in your game for no reason other than to grief. Coupled with the fact you have a limited amount of times between rounds to setup and upgrade towers, it almost comes to the point of only wanting to play with friends, as the one jerk can completely ruin your game with ease.
While I did really enjoy the game overall, there were a lot of smaller issues I have to bring up and mention as fan of the original Sanctum will need to know the differences between the two. Towers are limited and can only level up to rank 3. Even with the maxed out towers, I never felt like they were all that powerful, leaving me to do most of the grunt work myself, every wave. While you can somewhat force an enemy to chase you and deviate from its path, other players in your match can also do this and cause more harm than good by making them go the wrong way as well. You can only have two weapons at once and while your character is upgradable in a sense, the weapons are not. Should you die, the respawn timer is quite long and could determine a win or loss, and it never feels long enough between waves since you have to run back to the Core every time to physically pick up the resources before you can go place them where you’d like.
While I did enjoy Sanctum 2, it seems a heavier emphasis has been put upon the first person shooter side of the game rather than the Tower Defense portion. While some will enjoy that, fans of the first game may not warm up to the switch of momentum in gameplay. Sanctum 2 relies way too much on trial and error I found, as some waves will take a few attempts to find that perfect strategy of tower placement and weapon loadouts; making a single mistake of a misplaced tower could cost you dearly. If you’re fantastic at placing strategic towers and using resources wisely, you’ll still have to be quite good at the shooting aspect. The same goes the other way too, as you’ll need to place towers strategically if you want any hope of winning, even if you’re great at the shooting element of Sanctum 2.
While some might not like the change of it being more heavily focused on the shooter aspect rather than a broader and more in depth Tower Defense game style, the polish and aesthetics of Sanctum 2 make it look like a lot of love has gone into making the game. With almost endless replayability, not even factoring in online players that will keep things ‘interesting’, there are a lot of hours to be had in Sanctum 2 and many Cores to save, even with its limited amount of maps and towers.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
It’s not uncommon for video game companies to pull off elaborate April Fools jokes, giving us a glimpse of a game so far out there that there’s no possible way it could be true. That’s what Ubisoft did this past April Fools, by teasing a game that looked like it was a joke; Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was shown and I believe, vastly disregarded as it was revealed on April Fools day. Turns out it was no joke, and what we have with Blood Dragon is an 80’s inspired game that will have any gamer old enough to reminisce about the older days of VHS tapes, big hair, gait The title may be called Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but rejoice, no Far Cry 3 game is actually needed, as this is a self-contained expansion that bathes in its pure 80’s awesomeness. Case in point: Michael Biehn voices the action hero, Sergeant Rex Power Colt (is there truly a more 80’s hero name than that?), best known for Corporal Dwayne Hicks from Aliens and Sergeant Kyle Reese from Terminator. Blood Dragon is completely over the top and ridiculous in every way, but that’s where the charm comes in. I’ve never seen anything quite like Blood Dragon, and bet is you haven’t either.
Blood Dragon happens after the apocalypse had an apocalypse and is set in the near future of 2007. Rex is a Mark IV Cyber Commando, complete with a single mechanical eye that glows red. Rex may be park man, part machine, but he’s all American and out to get revenge all while saving the girl. Blood Dragon starts off with an awesome action sequence and probably the funniest tutorial I’ve ever played. There are so many 80’s movie, sci-fi, and pop culture references that you’ll for sure get flashbacks of the decade if you lived it. Blood Dragon even comes complete with 8-bit cutscenes complete with voice acting that you only saw in B-rated movies from the 80’s that were so bad they were fantastic.
As Blood Dragon is built with the Far Cry 3 engine, you’ll notice many similarities in the core mechanics and gameplay if you’ve played the game before. It is set in an open world (though much more condensed than the full Far Cry 3 game), you can hunt animals, use the ‘camera’, and more. Rex can use his cybernetic eye, not only for that cool look that the ladies love, but to also help in in combat but also allowing him to zoom in on the battlefield, as it will mark enemies so he can keep track of them through walls and around objects. Instead of the regular knife from the base game, Rex uses a glowing sword that when executing an enemy, can also chain his attack by throwing a ninja shooting star; that’s right, this game has shooting stars.
As you progress you’ll gain access to bigger and better weapons for more firepower. You’ll start off with a single pistol, but soon be able to use an assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun (which is probably the coolest shotgun in gaming due to how Rex holds it over his forearm like a true badass), mobile turret, flamethrower, and even a glowing neon bow and arrow for those that want to play stealthy. As you progress through side missions you’ll also gain access to upgrades for your weapons for purchase, making your awesome weapon even more awesome, as if that was somehow possible.
So why is Blood Dragon called Blood Dragon? Well I’m glad you asked, as there’s a fantastic and logical reason behind it; there are Blood Dragons in the game. These monstrous animals are a mix of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Bearded Dragon, and they are absolutely massive and equally dangerous if you aren’t careful. Oh, and they can also shoot lasers out of their eyes; that’s right, dinosaurs that can shoot lasers. Pure awesome. Blood Dragons have neon stripes along their bodies that are not only for show, but also give you a clue to their awareness and aggression levels. Green means they are minding their own business and won’t care about you as long as you stay crouched and avoid making any sounds. Yellow means they are going to investigate or are about to enter combat. If you see a Blood Dragon turn red though, you better hope it’s not against you, as they are more foe than you’ll be able to handle on your own for quite some time. They seem to have a fondness for cyberhearts though, which are the organs you’ll rip from the cyborgs you’ve defeated in combat and then use to your advantage. Throw one of these hearts nearby and they’ll have no choice but to go after it. Happen to throw one near some enemies or an enemy base, and you’ll in turn make the Blood Dragon somewhat fight on your side as he starts to attack your rivals in devastating fashion. Essentially you’ll use these cyberhearts as bait, luring the Blood Dragons to where you want them to fight at; just make sure you don’t make it angry at you by accidentally shooting it, as it’ll probably be one of the last mistakes you make.
As you kill enemies and complete quests you’ll earn CP (Cyberpoints) that will slowly progress you through thirty levels of awesome. There are no fancy skill trees or skills you need to worry about, as each time you level up you earn a new health bar, ability (like takedowns for the heavy enemies), or something similar automatically. You can go liberate the enemy garrisons and once they are clear of all threats, it can now be used as one of your outposts to make quick travel much easier. Liberated garrisons will also offer side quests for you to complete which result in upgrades for your weapons, so they are highly encouraged to do.
While the main campaign is very short, though very, very sweet and full of awesome, it’ll only last you a very short while. In typical Far Cry 3 fashion though, there’s actually much more content doing sidequests and hunting than there is the actual storyline. While the main campaign might only take you a handful of hours, liberating all the garrisons, doing the weapon upgrade quests, and hunting the rarest animals will last you easily upwards of eight to ten hours. For an expansion, that’s well worth the price of admission, and that’s not even taking into account the 80’s nostalgia you’ll get from actually playing.
Blood Dragon is every 80’s kid’s game they’ve been waiting for since then. Lots of swearing, middle fingers, macho manliness, neon, and overdone voice acting you could ever want. Blood Dragon is homage to the 80’s movies that were so bad that you loved them for it. Even if you’re not an 80’s kid or it wasn’t your favorite decade, the neon and glowing art style Blood Dragon possesses is no less impressive.
Sure, blood Dragon is basically the best parts of Far Cry 3 lumped into one with a new coat of paint and the humor cranked all the way up, but that’s what makes this so charming. The tale of a great game is not always just its graphics or gameplay, but if you’ll remember it; I’ll certainly be remembering Blood Dragon for quite some time. This was one of the most hilarious titles I’ve played in quite some time and I was smiling the whole time I was playing due to the script and execution of every line. From the opening tutorial that had me actually laughing aloud, to the final mission that was gratifying and a great climax, I enjoyed every minute of Blood Dragon, and for the mere price of admission, you should to. This game could possibly be more 80’s than the actual 80’s were, and that’s AWESOME.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
God Mode
IDDQD. If you’re and old school gamer, you’ll know that this was THE code for God Mode back in the day. Here we are twenty years later and now God Mode has graduated from a code that enabled you to become unstoppable to a game of its own filled with tons of running and even more gunning. God Mode is all about shooting down dozens and dozens of enemies while you collect money and experience and work towards character and weapon customization while playing along with three other friends. Essentially God Mode will pit you against hordes of mythical and undead creatures in a package that is mindless fun… for a while. The story in God Mode is thin and won’t have you caring at all why you’re playing, but there is an underlying storyline here for those that do care. You’re dead and to avoid being stuck in purgatory, you need to fight your way out of the Mazes of Hades against unrelenting waves of creatures to do so. That’s about it, but let’s be honest, you’re going to be playing God Mode for the chance to shoot hundreds of baddies, not for the thinly veiled plot.
God Mode is essentially a hybrid of Horde mode from Gears of War and Firefight from Halo ODST, though there’s nowhere near the amount of strategy needed here. God Mode is simple in premise; shoot everything that moves. That’s it. Enemies won’t really give you much trouble once you learn the mechanics and basics and all you’ll need to do is hold down the trigger button for the most part and strafe from side to side. Being a third person shooter with an emphasis on crazy frantic action, expect a straight forward concept with some fun, albeit short lived, fun.
Killing enemies nets you valuable experience and gold; the bigger and badder the enemy, the more you’ll gain. This experience helps you to level up which allows you to purchase higher level weapons and upgrades for your weapons, outfit aesthetic options, and abilities with the gold you’ve acquired. You’ll start off with only a SMG and Shotgun but there are a ton of other weapons you can purchase later on when you reach the required level to unlock them for purchase like the Railgun, Buzzsaw, Machine Gun, and more. Weapons can be upgraded for bigger magazines, higher accuracy, and more damage with gold as well. You also can unlock new abilities as you level up and even upgrade those as well, making God Mode a much more fun experience once you gain enough strength and money to do so.
With only a handful of missions to play, essentially maps, you’re going to have to enjoy repetitive gameplay if you want to keep playing God Mode for the long haul. Each mission is a set static event, meaning that all the enemies you see will spawn in the exact place every time and it’s always the same enemies at preset times. Where the variety in gameplay comes is in the randomized Tests of Faith in each smaller section of the missions. These Tests of Faith are randomized game modifiers that can make the section in the mission dramatically tougher or simpler, or odder. Sometimes these mutators will cause friendly fire to toggle on, make enemies tougher and larger, give everyone unlimited ammo (my personal favorite), damage you if you leave the alter’s range, change your weapon every so often, make enemies small, make the sound messed up, or even have all enemies wear party hats. It’s completely random and that’s where the real fun comes in. I just wish the maps themselves were more random, as I can play one of the maps with my eyes closed due to the amount of times I’ve played it, and while yes the modifier can change how I play, outside of a few of the more specific ones, it doesn’t affect gameplay all too drastically.
Once you level up a bit, upgrade your weapons and abilities, you might be looking for more of a challenge. There are Bronze, Silver, and Gold modes to play on, with the higher difficulties netting more experience and gold, but it’s still the same maps you’ve played already on Bronze. These are where Oaths come in and allow for more challenge and rewards. Oaths are like Halo’s skulls, toggling different personal modifiers like no shields, less ammo on pickups, dealing less damage, and more. Each Oath toggled on will give you bonus experience and gold for mission completions. You’ll want to be playing with friends that cooperate well when you’re trying to play with multiple Oaths turned on though, as you can become overwhelmed quite quickly when you’re not at 100% character strength.
Complete a whole mission and you’ll be granted a short amount of time to gather as much gold as you can possibly find. The catch is that friendly fire is turned on during this brief romp and can become frustrating if there’s someone with a very powerful weapon killing you when you simply want to collect gold.
I really enjoyed God Mode for the first few hours, as I was trying to level up to purchase better weapons and make things easier for me to level up even further. Problems started to appear once I got the hang of everything though and I realized how easy it was for someone to mess up your gaming experience if they wanted to. Firstly, there’s nothing stopping you from jumping right to the Silver or Gold difficulties right away, so someone brand new to the game can join you running Gold matches and very quickly waste all of your shared lives, causing you to fail the mission in a short amount of time. One match I had a random guy leave his controller and his character just standing there, getting killed multiple times. Playing the harder missions with someone that isn’t as upgraded or simply as good is incredibly frustrating, and while it’s not always their fault, playing on Gold matches with people that still have default weapons is no fun either.
God Mode is all about pure simple arcade action that never takes itself seriously. It favors gameplay action over substance and that’s not always a bad thing, as sometimes you just want a mindless shooter for a brief period. That being said, the gameplay itself is incredibly shallow, which isn’t helped by the fact that the missions themselves are static with the Tests of Faith being the only changing dynamic every time you play. You need to pick your weapons before a match and you can’t pick up any other weapons (unless you get the specific Test of Faith that randomizes the one in your hand). It probably isn’t helped by the fact that the majority of the guns sound very bland and don’t feel very powerful at all (until they are fully upgraded). The best guns are going to take you awhile to unlock, as you’ll need to sink in quite a few hours to level up enough to purchase them. While this progression system isn’t a bad thing, there’s no carrot constantly dangling in front of you to motivate you to keep on playing for the most part once you get what you’ve been saving up for.
There are a lot of bugs though, and even more lag at times.On three separate occasions I had to completely back out to the dashboard because either the game froze or half of my team weren’t able to attack any of the enemies running in place, thus losing our gained experience and money for that mission. That being said, when you get a team of four together that play well and focus, God Mode becomes blast to play and well worth he price of admission (800 Microsoft Points).
With missions being exactly the same every time, save for the Tests of Faith, it’s inevitable that you’re going to become bored of the game in time. You’re going to eventually play the maps enough times that you’ll know them off by heart, to the point that when you get the dense fog modifier, it won’t really affect you all that much since you know what’s going to happen enemy wise. God Mode’s biggest downfall is its lack of variety, which is odd to say, since every match tries to play different every time, but playing a mission for the fiftieth time, you won’t be fooled, despite which Test of Faith is activated. It’s straight forward, has an amusing narrator (for a short while), and can be recommended if you want a simple shooter for some mindless fun in short bursts. I hope there are plans for DLC that adds more maps and weapons, as I’m already tired of what’s included in the base game itself. I wish God Mode had more longevity, though maybe I played too long at once, as I really wanted some of the higher level weapons, and now I feel that there’s nothing else worth playing for.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Defiance
I’ve been reviewing games long enough now that I have a system for my note taking, collecting my thoughts, and then expressing them to the best of my ability in a cohesive manner. That’s generally not too challenging as most games have a beginning, end, and all the fun stuff in between that I need to describe. This becomes incredibly much more difficult when the game I have to write about doesn’t ‘really’ have an end, and the product you get to play day one can change drastically in a short time with a single patch as content is fixed, changed, removed, or added. This is the case with reviewing Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, as they are consistently changing and story flow and gameplay can vary drastically from the first few hours to the next hundred or so. That being said, this review is based on what I’ve played up to this point and the state of the game is in at the time of publish, but keep in mind Defiance WILL change and evolve in the future, as all MMO’s do over time. Defiance is the latest MMO title to hit the market, but there are a few things that set it apart from the others in the very crowded genre. Firstly, Defiance is a third person shooter, and while that’s not unique in itself, to have a MMO based on it is; so I guess this classifies as a MMOTPS. This allows the MMO fundamentals to be mixed in with the mechanics of a shooter as well. If a Defiance was developed by a group that have never done an MMO before, I would probably have been a little more worried, as the scope of this game is quite large; luckily Trion, the makers of the PC MMO RIFT are the ones behind the gaming side of Defiance. If you’ve played RIFT you’ll no doubt catch many similarities but it’s very interesting to see a developer come so far from making a traditional MMORPG and transition to a MMOTPS. Much like RIFT, you’ll have traditional quests and the normal pallet of MMO mechanics, but they’ve also included the unique dynamic events once again to keep things interesting.
Sure Defiance may look like a typical sci-fi story and setting that has a post-apocalyptic backdrop, but what really makes Defiance unique is its ideas; namely being tied into the TV show with the same corresponding title, due to premier very shortly on the Syfy channel (Showcase for us Canadians) that will play alongside events in the game, with promises of some intertwining. Defiance will look and feel very rough around the edges when you begin, and even most likely give off a bad first impression, but keep with it and you’ll see how fun it is to play cooperatively with hundreds of other players simultaneously taking down an Arkfall invasion and consistently improving your Ark Hunter character that you create.
So what’s the backdrop of Defiance? An alien civilization invades Earth after their own home has been destroyed but only come to realize humanity calls this planet home afterwards. The aliens begin to terraform Earth’s landscape which sets the post-apocalyptic visual setting and clearly makes a hostile conflict between the two species. A character named Karl Von Bach claims to have a device called an Ark Core that claims is going to not only save the world, but make him famous and the worlds hero, though that’s before it’s lost and in the wrong hands. This is where you come in, as you need to track it down and save the day, and subsequently, Earth.
As I mentioned above, a large draw into Defiance is that there is going to be a TV tie-in show that looks almost like Battlestar Galactica mixed with Firefly. If you play the game you’ll recognize certain characters in the show, such as Joshua Nolan and Irisa, and vice versa, which I think brings a very unique dynamic, trying to break the medium barrier for fans. Hopefully in later episodes of the TV the Defiance game will get DLC and updates that will show more characters from the show. There are a lot of really cool ideas that could be done with this tie-in if done well, but that’s a lot of if’s and a lot of waiting and seeing what will be done. With a very distinct opportunity here, Trion and Syfy have a chance at making something very special if both sides are treated equal, so here’s to hoping it’s not going to simply be a gimmick that gets forgotten.
Usually with high profile MMO’s there’s an attached monthly subscription fee that tags along, simply as a cost to play a constantly evolving game. Defiance won’t have any of that as there is no subscription required; all you need is space on your Xbox 360 hard drive (10 GB) and an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. All of the game’s patches are done through the game and separate from Xbox Live itself. So how can Trion afford to offer an MMO without the monthly fees generally required? That’s where microtransactions come in; you can purchase in game currency, Bits, in exchange for real money (your Microsoft Points) to buy certain boosts and loot boxes for a chance at better items and weapons. Keep in mind that the exchange rate is currently overpriced for many items and there’s not really anything you truly NEED to purchase to make a massive difference in the game, maybe aside from the extra inventory spaces early in the game, but those can be earned in game without the need for purchase.
A big issue that free to play games suffer from that use real currency as an economy is that it has the risk of becoming pay to win, though luckily that’s not the case here, as you can purchase XP boosts and cosmetic items, but nothing massive that will make the playing field uneven for other players. While PC MMO players are going to be used to a less than perfect launch with many server crashes, bugs, downtime, and more, I don’t believe many console players will be. Most console players are going to buy the disc, put it in their 360, and want to play. Some might not understand why they need to download and patch the game for an hour or more before even starting the first time. The lack of a cohesive tutorial and even menu system is going to no doubt frustrate many players which is compounded by the fact that even something as simple as chatting is more of a hindrance than it is an asset. Even with my chatpad connected and asking the area chat for help on topics, the chat is barren for the most part, but more on that later. You will have to exorcise your patience when learning the ropes and figuring out nearly everything on your own; so bring your tolerance and don’t expect any hand holding of any kind. You’ll be thrown into the world of Defiance and left to figure out what to do on your own to much frustration and confusion.
As you finally patch the game for the first time and get to log in, you’ll be prompted to create your own Ark Hunter, though don’t expect much from the character creator, as there are so few options that almost everyone you come across will look very similar (aside from the visual clothing you earn and can purchase). While most MMO’s make you pick a class and force you into that role, instead in Defiance you pick one of four unique starting abilities (which I’ll explain later on) and as you level up (which is very different from the standard way as well) you’ll gain new talents and perks that will improve your character, albeit slightly, sometimes even unnoticeably.
As the core game of Defiance is a Third Person Shooter, it will play very much like Borderlands, with a slew of randomized guns of varying types and stats, left for you to choose what suits your play style best. While guns will be your main weapon, you’ll also have your base skill you chose at character creation in which your timer refreshes in time, a shield (not in the traditional sense), and grenades that also work on a refresh timer. As you adventure you’ll come across mods to equip in your guns, thus improving them as you level and fight tougher enemies. Every character also eventually gains access to summon a vehicle, be it a car, van, or ATV, that can be used at any time outdoors (which is the majority of the time).
MMO’s are generally meant to be played with other people. Sure you can solo and progress, but generally the bulk experience of these types of games are enjoyed better with friends and other players, as the risk versus rewards become much greater with bigger groups. To do this you need to coordinate with other players, which is generally done with the in game chat system (this is excluding outside voice programs of course), so if you’re in game solution to be social doesn’t work well or is too confusing to use, you’re going to have problems right off the bat. Sadly, Defiance suffers from this greatly. The menu systems and even figuring out HOW to chat, even with my chatpad equipped, took way more work that should have been explained to me from the beginning. The menu system itself is not only overbearing and confusing, but even when you kind of figure it out it doesn’t make any sense.
Because of this you’ll generally see no one talking in chat, but for more than that reason alone. Generally MMO’s have chat boxes that are static and will always show what the last few lines said were, so that you always have that social window open to other players. The problem with Defiance’s system is that the text fades away so quickly that unless you’re focusing on it, anything being typed will be missed, especially in the rare instances where more than one person is chatting.
I can’t figure out if this was a huge mistake on Trion’s part, or if they were trying to take away that reliance on traditional text to communicate. Sure you can simply use party chat with friends and never think twice, but for those times when you’re playing solo and want to make new friends or talk to someone that just helped you on a quest, it’s generally not worth the headache. Sure it’s a relief to not see the usually ill-fated chat that trolls usually dominate in these games, but for those times when you truly do want to communicate with others, you’re going to have a frustrating time simply even figuring out how to do so. Even if chatting was done simply, which isn’t the case at all, the way that it’s handed currently with it fading so quickly and only showing a few lines at a time, makes it near impossible to do so with much purpose.
In Defiance you play the role of an Ark Hunter, essentially an all-around specialist and bounty hunter who hunt for salvage and financial and personal gain. Backed by Von Bach Industries, you’ll have access to some of the most advanced technology that exists, namely in your EGO implant. EGO, the Environmental Guardian Online, is the latest in technology and will power your HUD and even pair you with a Cortana-like AI that will help you where possible and give you constant feedback and tips about your environment and situations. This advanced EGO implant makes even the most timid Ark Hunter a force to be reckoned with.
The EGO system is also how Defiance tracks your character’s progression as you become more proficient in time and experience. Forget the traditional leveling system with a level cap and numbers that equate skill and experience; instead, as your EGO level rises, you won’t always see your characters numbers become larger, making you more powerful. You won’t instantly do more damage with your guns or gain mass amounts of health simply because you leveled, but instead will have access to gaining more abilities and perks which will enhance your character ever so slightly; it can even greatly affect how you play. It’s more meant to help you tune your character to how you want to play rather than artificially adding larger numbers. This is where the choice of the four major skills comes into play as you create your character.
The first of the four main abilities is Blur. Blur allows you to seemingly become a blur, in or out of combat. While active you’ll gain bonuses to movement speed, defense and offence chances. You’ll be able to dodge shots and attacks much more frequently and even increase damage you inflict as well. The Cloak ability is exactly as it sounds; you can turn invisible for a short amount of time allowing you to setup a specific situation in battle, or flee when needed. Overcharge is an EGO power that basically permits you to go berserk for a short amount of time, allowing you to inflict much more damage from your weapon. The last EGO power, and the one I personally chose and use on my Ark Hunter, is Decoy. This allows you to send out a hologram of your character to where you desire, and doing so will distract the enemies that see it, allowing you to either setup a combat situation or flee when needed; you can even swap places with your Decoy and teleport to it if you desire. Leveling up this power lengthens the durability of your hologram, thus giving you a longer amount of time to setup what you intend to in battle.
As you raise your EGO level you can unlock other powers which will only take effect when equipped (and thus turned into a perk). Think of a skill tree, but it’s in a grid instead, allowing everyone to eventually have access to all of the powers and abilities (though you can only equip a certain amount of perks at a time, based on your EGO rating). If you want that really good skill that’s a few blocks away that will help your gameplay, you might have to spend a few EGO upgrade points just to obtain it. Skills can then be upgraded multiple times to boost their effectiveness as well. Made a mistake with a skill or it’s simply not working as you hoped (which is to be expected, as many doesn’t always seem to perform as well as you might think by their description), you have the ability to repsec at any time, providing you have enough in game currency, scrip. You’re going to level up enough to purchase many skills you don’t care about or want, but this encourages experimentation, as you can have multiple loadouts (as you progress in EGO levels) to find what works best for your play style. I’ve already taught you more here than the game ever tries to do.
As Defiance is a shooter, the main attraction is going to be its weapons. You’ll get to choose from SMG’s, Rocket Launchers, Sniper rifles, Shotguns, Pistols, Infectors, LMG’s, Assault Rifles, and even a Bio-Magnetic Gun that allows you to heal other players. Like the EGO system, weapons also have their own leveling system that’s a completely separate progression. While good in ideas, it’s a little flawed in execution for a few reasons. The basic idea is that if you do damage with a specific type of weapon, you’ll level it up, this making you more proficient with that type of weapon, earning you bonuses like reload speed, accuracy, damage, and more as you progress. The catch is that have a cap on how much each gun can be used towards the progression. Essentially you have a set amount of XP you can earn with each gun towards weapon progression with each individual gun.
If you max out your XP earning with your favorite or best gun, you’ll need to swap it out for another of the same class if you want to continue earning XP in weapon proficiency. That wouldn’t be a major deal if you were constantly finding new upgrades like in Borderlands, but it’s nothing like that in Defiance. You find upgrades so infrequently and rarely that you’re going to need to swap for a less powerful gun to continue your weapon progression. You essentially keep downgrading your weapon just to earn experience with it. Sure you could ignore the weapon progression, but you want to constantly be improving your weapons, and thus your characters, so it’s a viscous cycle you can’t escape.
Like any good MMO, you’ll have quests and tasks to undertake, you keep you interested and playing. Most quests aside from a few and the main story missions are going to all fall into the same ‘shoot everything dead then activate the object to win’ scheme. While the quest basis might be bland for the most part, the open nature of the world does make it a little more exciting. If I’m in an area working on a quest and someone else comes along in the same area, they can kill enemies and flip switches, etc, to help progress both of our quests. I’ve had times where I go to an area for quest and a mob of people were there, finishing my quest in literally seconds which was awesome considering we weren’t even grouped. The byproduct and downfall to this mechanic (and lack of a useful chat system) is that proper teamwork is generally not required if you’re playing with random people instead of friends in voice chat.
While there are main missions to keep the story progressing, there are numerous side missions and challenge that will keep you busy enough and to fill any desire of mission type you might feel like at the time. Challenges will vary from Time Trial, Hotshot, and Rampage modes. Time trial will have you on your vehicle of choice, driving through preset rings to try and earn a gold, silver, or bronze medal for your best time. Just like weapons, vehicles also ‘level’ which will gain you speed and handling bonuses as well the more you use them. Hotshot challenges gives you set weapon and amount of ammunition as you try and get the highest score possible. Rampage challenges are extremely entertaining and have you equipped with super powerful weapons trying to demolish all of the enemies before the timer reaches zero.
For those that want to take a break from the grind and regular missions, there are also co-op and competitive modes for you to opt into if you desire. These multiplayer modes simply bring your main character over, allowing you to put your characters build against other players. The basic PVP is done in Deathmatches and can be a fun way to test out a new loadout and perk selection against other actual players instead of the incompetent enemy AI. Sure the multiplayer portion isn’t perfect, and there are many tweaks that are needed to provide balance and fairness (I’m looking at you shotgun users in PVP) but this is something that Trion will hopefully fix in time, much like many other issues with the game.
Arkfalls are the most interesting events and portion of Defiance in all the hours I’ve sunk into the game so far. As a mentioned before, if you’ve played RIFT before, Arkfalls are essentially the Rifts that opened up around the game world where anyone in the vicinity can participate to take down the enemies and bosses. Arkfalls can vary in size, where a small team can take out the smaller ones without much problem in the set amount of time, but the larger ones will take a much larger force to take down. Spawning spontaneous boss fights will encourage impromptu cooperation with other players in the area if you hope on defeating these Arkfalls before the designated twenty minute timer ends. To a MMO newcomer, seeing a hundred players in the same area all shooting and running around, it is going to look like chaos, which it is in a way, but you all are working towards a goal. The problem with Arkfalls (and missions for that matter) is that the more players that are in the vicinity “helping”, the harder the enemies become and their health scales accordingly. So if you and a small group are killing an Arkfall on your own, you may do 100 damage per bullet for example, but if there are a hundred players there, the health of enemies are boosted so greatly that it feels like you’re using a water gun trying to kill the enemies. The other problem with Arkfall events as well is the massive framerate issues you’ll encounter once a good fifty-plus players all show up in the same area, and that’s not even including the massive lag spikes that come along with that.
On the 360, Defiance simply doesn’t look that pretty. Textures, models, and animations can be downright ugly; obviously a tradeoff for allowing such a large amount of players simultaneously on the screen at once. There is massive slowdown at overcrowded Arkfall events and even in the less dense areas, you’ll notice quite a lot of screen tearing that never seems to go away, even in cutscenes. It doesn’t help that the world itself simply looks bland from its art direction either. While the PC version looks much better in the visuals, it still definitely looks a little aged, though I’m not sure if that’s partly because maybe the consoles were the lead platform.
The biggest problem with Defiance is its design, especially the menu and UI layouts. The tutorial shows you how to shoot and move, but that’s about it, as you’re left on your own to figure out many of the intricate nuances and mechanics on your own if you don’t dig deep down into the menus. Even getting into specific menus itself is a chore that isn’t even explained either, so I fear many players won’t even ever figure many of these issues out on their own without help, though again, trying to ask for help with the useless chat system should be an interesting feat to overcome. Even the game box boasts Kinect support, though nowhere in the game does it actually tell you how to use them or access its features. After a dozen or so hours once I figured out the hidden menus within menus, I only then found out the Kinect voice commands.
There are many issues that need completely changing, fixing, or balancing, which I’m sure is going to come in time, but asking players to have this amount of patience that aren’t used to it on a console is going to be a challenge. Simple things like, why can’t I have more than one quest at a time so that I don’t have to keep coming back to the same area multiple times never are answered, though hopefully Trion will find a way to do so within game rather than having to rely on players figuring out that they need to go to the website and read the forums and such to figure these things out.
It might seem like I’m ragging on Defiance a little too much, and while it’s merited for the issues it has, it is doing some things right, which is why I keep logging in to play my Ark Hunter. As this is an MMO, it’s meant to be played for hundreds of hours, not just a handful, and because of that it seems like the beginning may be a little too slow for most peoples liking, though stick with it and trust me, it gets better (content wise). Players need to feel like they are being rewarded for sticking around and playing for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours, and these rewards do come too far and infrequent for the bulk of Defiance’s gameplay; yet something keeps drawing me in.
Then it just kind of hit me. Defiance really feels like a single player game that just also happens to populate the areas with other players (kind of like Test Drive Unlimited did). Also, you’re basically not working towards anything. Sure you’re gaining EGO levels, doing quests, and killing bad guys, but it’s not using the traditional MMO treadmill design that dangles that carrot constantly in front of you to continue you to play.
Defiance does a great job at a few things; oddly enough one of those things is letting you decide whatever you want to do at a given moment without actually directing you anywhere specific. Maybe you want to kill a few minutes doing Time Trials, or an Arkfall appears a few hundred meters from your questing area causing you to deter from your original plan. Maybe you scored a cool mod upgrade for completing that Arkfall, so you might want to PVP a little while to test it out. It takes some learning and time to get it figured out, but you don’t need to really have to have a plan of what you want to do before logging in like you do in most MMO’s.
I’m very interested to see how the show not only is, but how it ties in with the game itself. Hopefully it will help promote the game to bring in more players and vice versa, getting players to watch the show. It’s a very interesting concept and a first of its kind that has a lot of potential if done correctly and with care. While the game itself might not be a game changer at this very moment, we’ll see how the TV show tie-in works and what DLC is planned to coincide, hopefully with events that occur in the TV show. While the game had me feeling very apathetic towards it, something keeps me logging on and playing some missions and pursuits, so obviously they’ve done something right. Again, you have to keep in mind that as an MMO, the game WILL change over time, usually for the better, and my personal history with Trion’s last game was a positive one, so I trust that they are going to do the best job they can to make Defiance a game you want to buy and keep logging in to play while it’s constantly added to and improved. Just be patient with the game, take it for what it is, and hopefully the accompanying TV show tie-in will be something special for this first of its kind experience. Again, I have to rate the game based on what it is as present time and not its lofty and ambitious goals that I can see it striving towards further down the road; that being said, if you have patience and take Defiance at face value with the understanding that it will improve in time, you’ll find yourself strangely hooked like myself even with its many shortcomings.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Gears of War: Judgment
The Gears of War trilogy wrapped up Marcus Fenix’s tale of his plight against the Locust with a definitive ending. So what was next for the Gears of War games if the main protagonist’s story has been concluded? A prequel of course! Rather than start a new Trilogy, instead we go back in time to shortly after Emergence Day happened and follow Gears of War veteran Damon Baird and his command of the Kilo Squad during this time period. If you’re unfamiliar with Gears of War lore, Emergence Day is the day that the war between Humans and Locusts began when the Locust invaded the planet Sera from beneath. Gears of War: Judgment takes place very shortly after Emergence Day but long before the original Gears of War. As I’m a fan of the Gears of War series, I was curious to get ahold of Judgment as I wanted to learn more lore about the COG, Locust, Emergence Day, and all of the main characters we’ve come to love over the past three games. There were two things that made me unsure about how Judgment would turn out though. The first being that it was now developed by People Can Fly, best known for the lukewarm Bullet Storm (though with Epic Games’ help), and that series staple Cliff Bleszinski was no longer at the helm of a Gears of War title. So did People Can Fly capture the essence of Gears of War and create an engaging new tale in the series, or is it a new take on the series with different design choices? As it turns out, a little bit of both.
Gears of War: Judgment takes place many years before the original Gears of War and just shortly after the pivotal Emergence Day event that reshaped Sera. Judgment is experienced through the perspective of Kilo Squad, led by Lieutenant Damon Baird. If you know your Gears lore, the Lieutenant title before Bairds name might seem odd, but there’s good reason for it and it’s explained why he is a private in the era he’s best known for with Marcus in the trilogy as well. Baird leads Kilo Squad which consists of himself, fan favorite Augustus Cole, and two new members, Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk. They are tasked with saving Halvo Bay from a then frightening new enemy, the Locust.
Baird joined the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) on Emergence Day and he is now leading Kilo Squad after only being a lieutenant for a week, and he is still the cynical and humorous engineer we’ve come to love. Cole was a Thrashball star a mere few months ago, but now he’s a private under Baird’s authority. While this is a long time before Cole turned into the Coletrain, you can see the start of his persona and he still brings the Cole type of intensity to every battle. Sofia Hendrik was assigned to Kilo Squad and likes to play the voice of reason within the squad. Garron Paduk was originally a member in the UIR during the Pendulum Wars but ever since the Locust destroyed his homeland, he wants revenge and coins the COG for that sole reason.
Gears of War: Judgment starts out with Kilo Quad going to trial for something they’ve done. Colonel Ezra Loomis is holding the trial against Baird and his squad for the actions they’ve committed against the COG’s wishes. Judgment then plays out through a series of flashbacks from each of the characters each retelling their story and what ‘really’ happened for them to make the actions and decisions they did. It seems like Loomis has already made up his mind about the fate of Kilo Squad, but he continues to ask each member what happened and to explain themselves. War rages on right outside the trail room’s doors but Loomis is determined to get to the bottom of what happened and give his conclusion and sentence to this trial.
As you progress through the main campaign of Judgment, before each section you’ll see a glowing iconic Gears skull on a wall. Here you’re offered a chance to play a slightly more difficult version of the upcoming section and tell Loomis what ‘really’ happened. If you declassify a mission, your testimony will tell exactly what happened and slightly change the course of the campaign. Sometimes this involves using different weapons (or very specific ones), having time limits imposed on your actions, increasing the number or difficulty of enemy Locust, or even greatly reduce your visibility from sand storms.
You’ll get to experience each member’s own parts to the Judgment story throughout the campaign and while it was enjoyable to see each side of the storyline, each character plays the same way and doesn’t alter it in any way. What I didn’t expect though is that the core gameplay feels much quicker paced and fluid in general. I don’t know if this is something purposely designed by People Can Fly or simply a byproduct of going back to basic gameplay, but either way it works and feels like natural Gears of War with more action.
After you complete the main Judgment campaign you’ll actually unlock a bonus campaign title Aftermath. This unlockable campaign takes place during the events of Gears of War 3 and focuses on Baird, Cole, and Carmine on a mission to gather reinforcements before Azura is invaded by the COG. While it wasn’t expected, Aftermath was a welcomed change of pace when compared to Judgment, as it plays more like traditions Gears of War 3 and bookends a few of the looming questions you may have had when Baird and Marcus split up in Gears 3.
The staple of Gears of War gameplay has always been about the cover based system and the awesome weaponry (to go along with the active reload system), both of which are still the mainstay in Judgment. All your favorite weapons return; the iconic Lancer, Retro Lancer, Hammerburst, OneShot, Shotguns, and even more alongside some new additions. Even weapons and equipment that weren’t in the series until the later games return, like the Silverback, even if so ever briefly which kind of confused me on how it fits into the canon.
As referenced above, the campaigns Mission Declassification challenges are one of the big new features in Judgment and offer a little more insight into what happened as Baird is on trial. The challenge of these can vary wildly, carrying to anything from simply more Locust to fight, to only being allowed to use specific weapons. There is a reason you’ll want to attempt these challenges though, as accepting and succeeding in these challenges will greatly boost your score in the new performance indicator at the end of each section and chapter. The higher the score the more stars you unlock, the more stars you unlock the more bonus content you gain access to in multiplayer like new skins. Some of these mission challenges are quite fun, but there are others that will take much practice and patience, especially the timed missions on the harder difficulties. While I liked that it was an option to accept it or not, it felt like it was a way to simply arbitrarily lengthen and make it more difficult rather than simply throwing more enemies your way.
Speaking of throwing more enemies your way, this is one big issue I had with level design. While each chapter is broken up into smaller bite sized segments, the all seem to end in the same way. Sure, Horde mode is gone from Judgment (more on that later), but it seems they wanted to keep the spirit of it alive and at the end of almost every chapter, you’ll have a few minutes to set up camp and defenses before waves of enemies come randomly hurling at you, ala Horde mode of past. I kept waiting for some cool boss fights or amazing set pieces to start playing out, but it never seem to come until the very end. While this makes the Gears gameplay quicker and fluid (aside from the Horde-like endings of chapters), I was disappointed with the campaigns flow, not story wise mind you, but gameplay instead. I keep wanted something cool or memorable to happen; it didn’t.
So how is Kilo Squad going to take on the devastating Locust, as these new COG recruits are nowhere near veterans in the war yet and still have a lot to learn. New weaponry is introduced in Judgment and surprisingly, they are all quite memorable armaments that I hope stick around whenever the next Gears title releases. First is the Booshka, a UIR grenade launcher that not only will explode with a direct enemy hit but it can also lob its shells off of walls and other obstacles for added strategy. The Markza is another UIR weapon that’s a fantastic semi-automatic rifle that has a large ammo capacity and a decent scope range. The Locust also have new weapons as well, as it seems they got their hands on a Markza and then modified it by having a larger barrel to inflict even greater damage, but in doing so they lost the scope ability; oh and they fit it with a blade on the stock as well. When you are setting up camp for the Horde-like sequences, you’ll even find a new Tripwire Crossbow that allows you to setup your own trip wires wherever you think the ambush will take place. Lastly are two new grenades, the first being a Spot Grenade that will give you the ability to see opponents that get within its detonation range for a short period of time. The last new useful tool is the Stim Grenade that is going to be a godsend to those that love playing support and medics for their team. When thrown and detonated, medicinal gas will heal anyone in its radius and even revive fellow teammates as well.
Multiplayer returns to Judgment, though it might not be completely like you remember in the previous games. Judgment ships with a total of eight maps, four of which are playable in OverRun and Survival modes while the last four are played in the Free For All and Domination game variants. If that seems like a low amount of maps for specific modes, it’s because it is. Classic modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination return, but gone is the fan favorite Horde Mode and is replaced by something, well, different. OverRun and Survival are new to the series, though simply just variants of the core gameplay we’ve already known.
OverRun is essentially Horde Mode combined with Beast Mode; this is essentially your new Beast Mode, but bigger and better. OverRun pits two teams of five against each other but it is all class based gameplay. Each team has objectives like destroy or defend and the team with the most points at the end wins. There are four main classes you’ll choose between: Engineers, Medics, Soldiers, and Scouts. Soldiers can take more damage and drop ammo boxes for the team. Engineers repair fortifications and have access to a turret for defense. Scouts use Spot Grenades that will help locate enemies for the team while also being able to snipe from specific perches, and Medics can use Stim Grenades for when they are needed. With class based gameplay, you’re going to need to coordinate and have communication if you want to win. With five versus five gameplay and Locust versus COG, things will get intense, especially once the more devastating Locust enemies start to appear like Corpsers and the new Rager enemy type.
While OverRun may be the evolution of Beast Mode, Survival Mode is definitely the new iteration of Horde Mode. While Horde Mode had you trying to survive fifty waves of enemies that could easily take hours for a single game, Survival instead challenges you to simply survive ten waves of oncoming Locust attacks while protecting Emergence Holes. Instead of saving up money to buy fortifications like in Gears 3 multiplayer, it’s all based around the class play, like in OverRun, instead. Luckily if you decide you need to change classes at any time, you can do so quite easily to help the team with what’s needed the most. You’re going to need communication here if you want to survive. Ten waves might not seem like much, but the difficult ramps up pretty quickly if your team doesn’t have a game plan or isn’t communicating.
Free For All Mode is new to the series as well, and while this may not seem like a big deal, it works mostly because of the new setup and weapon loadouts for multiplayer. Everyone now spawns with one gun and one grenade, no more forced Lancer and Pistol combo, so learn quickly what your gun of choice is going to be. It’s a nice change to see that I’m not forced to start with the same default weapons everyone else is, and the same goes for grenades too. Pick whichever one suit you best, as I almost always chose the Stim Grenade so I can be support for my team. One thing that I noticed almost instantly though while playing online is the inability to stick grenades to the wall. I thought I was doing something wrong, as you can still do it in campaign, but it’s been nixed from online play. Sure this lessens the random deaths taking a corner, but it would have been nice to learn that somewhere as opposed to dying while staring at a wall, trying to get my grenade to stick.
As you progress online and in the campaign you’ll level up just like previous Gears titles. The difference in Judgment though is that there are now certain milestones that when achieved, net you prize boxes that contain random contents inside. You’ll unlock new skins for your weapons and characters or some extra XP. It almost felt like how Mass Effect multiplayer awarded you with boxes of random goodies inside, except there’s only skins to be had here for multiplayer.
Everything isn’t as brown as it was in past Gears games and the campaign had a great way of telling its story, it was really only the design choices for level flow and pacing that let me down. Judgment also suffers from the same problem the previous games had, where they don’t setup the main bad guy nearly enough, as he essentially gets no face time in Judgment saves for his boss battle, much like General RAAM and Skorge previously.
If you’re a Gears or War veteran you’ll almost instantly notice how much quicker pace Judgment is comparatively. Baird and his crew are younger and not as bulked up compared to the sequels, so it makes sense. The new weapons are great to use and the optional Declassified Missions are a fun distraction if you’re looking for a real challenge, though it did at times simply seem like an arbitrary way to lengthen gameplay and harden the difficulty. Drop the Microsoft Points for the VIP Pass and you’ll be granted with six new maps when released, two new modes, five exclusive weapon skins, four armor skins, two character skins, permanent double experience and even a VIP-only playlist that also grants higher XP returns.
To be honest, I struggled a little trying to score Gears of War: Judgment, as I loved the new innovations to multiplayer (though I still wish traditional Horde Mode was still included), and I enjoyed how the plot is told through flashbacks and in smaller segments, but a few missions in and it became apparent that it was the same thing over and over again without the grand set pieces that previous Gears of War games always included. With no big action sequences and a campaign that feels like it’s stringing you along, trying to make you believe something big and cool is going to happen, you’ll keep waiting for it, even after the credits roll.
Judgment did its job of making me warm up to Baird a lot more than previously (I was always a Marcus Fenix guy) and it was entertaining learning about his back story, I simply wasn’t overwhelmed with the campaign in the slightest and there really wasn’t that much memorable about it. Truth be told, I enjoyed the Aftermath chapter more than the whole of Judgment campaign. I don’t know if it’s because it had more traditional Gears 3 gameplay, or because it had the Baird and Cole that I’ve known for three games now, but I feel like I should have enjoyed Judgment’s six to ten hour campaign much more than the single hour of a Gears of War 3 add-on. The multiplayer will keep you hooked, make no mistake about that (albeit 8 maps is nowhere near enough on disc), just don’t expect the over the top exhilarating sequences from Gears of War 2 and 3 to return. I’ll leave the judgment to you.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising, not Solid; this isn’t a story about the infamous Solid Snake or Big Boss, which is why the Solid has been dropped from the title. Rising is to distinguish that a new hero is at the forefront of this tale, someone that we’ve played before…unwillingly. If you’re a Metal Gear Solid fan like myself, you’re probably still a little bitter over the debacle of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. For those that aren’t in the know, essentially when the trailer was shown it depicted Snake in certain stages and it looked great. We all bought Metal Gear Solid 2 and had the ole bait and switch done to us. Sure we played Snake for a bit at the beginning, but then he was swapped out with a prissy looking man named Raiden and we kept waiting for the game to give us back control of our beloved Snake; it didn’t for the most part, and after all these years I still hold that grudge. Raiden returned in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and he was given a much cooler style as he was half cyborg at that point.Going from a character that we loved to hate, to a bad ass cyborg ninja, it seems Raiden was finally star in his own game once Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (referred to here on as Rising or Revengeance) was announced; but Revengeance almost never came to be. Four years ago when Rising was announced it was intended to bridge the gap between Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 (3 was a prequel) and by Hideo Kojima himself. After realizing that they were unable to make the game they wanted based on the swordplay mechanic it was quietly cancelled, but in 2011 something unexpected happened. It seemed that Rising had been passed off to Platinum Games (known best for Bayonetta, Vanquish,and Mad World) to take the reins of development. This was a big deal, as it game Platinum Games more freedom to develop the game they envisioned but keep correspondence with Kojima Productions to help with the basis. This is also when the name was changed to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I’m not sure how Kojima, Konami, and Platinum Games have done it but they’ve managed to salvage Raiden’s image and he’s no longer on my hate list; quite the opposite in fact.
Taking place four years after the events from Metal Gear Solid 4, Risings plot focuses on the cyborg ninja Raiden and his fight against Desperado Enterprises, a private military company. Private Military Companies (PMC’s) are employing more and more cyborg technology as it’s become prevalent since the fall of the Patriots which is causing uneasiness and constant battles to gain more power. Raiden works for the peaceful PMC Maverick Security and has vowed to save lives rather than being the killing machine he was once known to be at a younger age; Jack the Ripper.
Not wanting to be a solider on the battlefield any longer, Raiden now works as private security, escorting a VIP when they are attacked by other cyborg ninjas, namely one called Samuel Rodrigues. The two do battle and Raiden falls, almost completely broken and mangled. Maverick Security is able to reconstruct Raiden into a better, stronger, and more lethal version of his formal self after the incident and this leaves Raiden looking for revenge and vengeance (do you get the clever Revengeance title now?). Raiden is reconstructed by his PMC, and his search for Sam and the company he's working for, Desperado Enforcement LLC., drives him into a quest for vengeance. I won’t go into too much more details about the plot, as it keeps the carrot dangling in front of you long enough to want to find out what happens, but also because it’s so short that it would ruin almost the rest of the game. While Revengeance might technically be a spin-off of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, it does take place in the same universe and expands the main lore even further.
Raiden’s weapon of choice is his trusty Katana that he not only wields in his hands, but with his feet as well. Playing as Raiden is absolutely nothing like playing as Snake or Big Boss. While in the Metal Gear series you’re generally trying to be as stealthy as possible and not be noticed, Rising is the complete opposite, with an emphasis on action, sword fighting, and combat prowess. There is one section in Rising that forces you to go the stealthy route, but for the most part you’ll be given an option, though I highly suggest putting Raiden’s battle skills to use as you earn Battle Points from defeating enemies which can then in turn be put towards upgrading Raiden’s weapons and abilities (amongst other things). Raiden likes to face his challenges head on, so don’t deprive him of what he was born to do.
While Raiden’s weapon of choice will always be his blade that seems to harness the power of lighting, he is also able to equip and use secondary items such as grenades, rocket launchers, and more. As you defeat bosses along his journey, you’ll gain access to their weaponry as well which can then be used as a sub weapon. You have light attacks which cut horizontally and heavy attacks which slice vertically. While most games have you memorize long and confusing strings of button combinations to perform in combat efficiently, Raiden is quite different, as he more relies on parrying which will lead into his own combos of attacks, lifts, spins, juggles, and more. Raiden makes his entire attack skills look so easy and seamless, transitioning to one attack from another without any hesitation; the gameplay feels just as smooth as well. Once you get a few levels in and really wrap your head around the combat, what works and doesn’t, you’ll feel almost invincible when you’re parrying attacks from all sides and taking out a horde of enemies one by one with ease. This is where Risings big hook comes in: Blade Mode.
Almost any object in the game can be cut with Raiden’s katana, including enemies and much of the environment. Activating Blade Mode will slow down time and present a translucent blue line that represents the plane that you want to cut on. Rotate to any angle and cut away, as since it’s happening in slow motion, you could get in dozens upon dozens of intricate cuts through an enemy before even hitting the ground. Blade Mode allows you to precisely slice enemies and objects strategically, which will be needed when you need to disable a boss with very specific cuts or want to specifically cut off the left hands of enemies. Blade mode takes its toll on Raiden though and it will drain his fuel cell energy. To refill his fuel cells, and his health, he will need to perform a Zandatsu move upon a greatly injured enemy. This move will expose the enemies’ weakness, allowing Raiden to perform a final blow-like maneuver to refill his fuel cells and health, while making it look cool though of course.
Raiden’s most used combat tactic is his ability to almost sense incoming attacks, which he can then parry, regardless of how many enemies are surrounding him at a given moment (much like how combat in Assassin’s Creed works). This allows him to counterattack and pull off exciting combos that will surely open enemies up for a devastating Zandatsu attack. Raiden can also Ninja Dash which not only allows him to run with increased speed, but allows him to flow over and under objects with parkour and other ninja moves without any effort. As you complete battles you’ll be graded on your performance and receive a grade based on your actions. The higher the grade the more points you gain to spend towards upgrades for Raiden’s equipment and maneuvers.
If you’ve played previous games by Platinum Games, there’s no doubt you’ll compare it on the surface to Bayonetta (or even the new Devil May Cry), but the biggest difference I found with Rising is how powerful Raiden truly feels once you get the hang of the combat mechanics. There are a few tutorials and VR missions you can take to learn the basics, but you’re going to learn best by simply trying everything out for yourself and seeing what works best for you. Rising has a fantastic balance of offense versus defense, and the more masterful you become at combat, the less reactive you’ll have to play and can start to go on the offensive more often. You’re going to feel like a complete bad ass once you learn the combat mechanics and having a handful of giant mechs coming your way only excites you, to see how quickly you can brutalize them and make it look good.
Rising does have its flaws though and there were three major ones that stood out in my play session. The biggest problem is the tutorials, or the lack thereof. Sure the VR missions will teach you some things, but many of the core mechanics aren’t taught to you early on, or ever. Nowhere in the game does it teach you half of the things you need to really know; half way through the game I learned I could lock on to an enemy. Yea, half way through I figured it out myself by trial and error when the camera kept giving me grief in big battles. The same goes for Blade Mode; sure it teaches you how to use it, but not really the ‘why’, which is a complete game changer once you realize you can refill your health at any time. Once you know what you're doing however, Revengeance goes from fun combat mechanics to feeling like a truly bad ass cyborg ninja. It’s that big of a difference.
Second is the length of Rising. It’s extremely short and my final clock in was just around four hours long. Yea, I didn’t search for all the collectables or try and S-rank every battle, and true, the timer at the end doesn’t count cutscene time, but it still felt very short. If you know you aren’t going to play through the game multiple times, find all the hidden collectables, or try and score high on all of the VR missions, the full price tag might sting you a bit in the end. However, if you’re the type that wants to find every collectable, S-rank all the battles and VR missions, and play through the much more challenging difficulties, then you’ll find that there is plenty for you to do in Rising.
Lastly is the voice acting, and specifically when it comes to Raiden. Quinton Flynn returns as the voice actor, and I don’t remember his performance this shoddy in Metal Gear Solid 4, but to be fair it’s been quite a few years since I’ve played it. You would hope that the main character’s voice acting would be strong enough to carry the emotion and seriousness of his lines, but it seems very hit or miss, almost in every scene. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying way too hard and trying to mimic Christian Bale’s Batman voice, and other times he sounds way too sissy for the event that is unfolding in front of him. There are times where it’s perfect as well, especially with the purposeful dry one-liners, but it’s very inconsistent as a whole when it comes to the voice acting.
The best part of Rising aside from the constant high octane battles is easily the boss battles and crazy set pieces littered in each of Rising’s seven chapters. The boss battles are completely over the top and are intricate multiple-phase encounters that don’t disappoint. You’ll have to learn their attack patterns quickly if you want to survive, it’s just a shame there weren’t more bosses in the game, as they were easily the highlight of the whole package.
All of that being said, Metal Gear rising: Revengeance is a completely over the top action game that makes you feel immensely powerful once you learn the mechanics, albeit without the game’s help. There are some genuine hilarious moments and many subtle fan service moments that Metal Gear fans will thoroughly enjoy. The Solid may have been dropped from the title, and Snake may not be the hero this time around, but Raiden’s stock has certainly gone up with me in my books; if you were surly with how Metal Gear Solid 2 treated you and still haven’t forgiven Raiden yet, just as I was, give Rising a chance as long as you know this is absolutely nothing like a Metal Gear SOLID title, this is Metal Gear RISING. You know it doesn’t have much sub(sis)tance when it comes to game length, but you’ll completely enjoy it the whole way through.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Serious Sam Double D XXL
Serious Sam Double D actually released back in mid 2011 on the PC, but unless you’re a hardcore Serious Sam follower, you’ve probably never heard of it. Interestingly, Croteam, the original Serious Sam developers, announced that they were going to allow better known Indie game developers make Serious Sam games in their own styles and however they wanted. Three games came of this initiative called the Serious Sam Indie Series, and Serious Sam Double D by Mommy’s Best Games was one of them. For those that have never played a Serious Sam game, it’s a line of first person shooters that never takes itself seriously and comes from a time where using cover would have gotten you ridiculed. Serious Sam is a man’s man and shot everything in sight with his plethora of guns. Nothing has changed here in the updated XXL version of Serious Sam Double D (This game referred to as XXL from here on) as Sam will be mowing down hordes of enemies in his path to battle against the evil Mental’s army immediately as the game begins.
So in the past year and a half since its PC release, what’s been added to prompt the Xbox Live XXL version release? XXL packs in more content, challenges, campaign missions, enemies, challenge rooms, leaderboards, couch co-op, and even more upgrades to make the Gunstacker mechanic even deeper. Clearly Mommy’s Best Games wanted the XXL in the title to stand for something.
So what’s the big catch with XXL that separates itself from other shooters? Hands down, the Gunstacker mechanic. As you progress through the game you’ll find new guns along the way, sometimes even multiples of the same types of weapons. As you find special connector pieces you can then attach guns to one another for an eventual maximum total of six guns stacked upon one another. That’s right; you are stacking guns on to one another to make a proverbial death machine of firepower. The more guns you collect, the more broad your weapon creations can become.
Finding all the weapons and connectors won’t be an easy feat though, as many of them are well hidden and will take many playthroughs to find all of XXL’s secrets. Once you connect your guns in any order you like, all you have to do it squeeze the trigger for all of your guns in that stack to shoot all at once. You’ll find many types of guns, ranging from Tommy Guns, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, Laser Rifles, Grenade Launchers, and even Chainsaws. Something I wasn’t expecting though was the option to collect multiples of the same types of weapons. This means you can collect more than one Shotgun, Tommy Gun, or any other type of weapon and use them in your stacks to suit your situation. If you really want a close range weapon of death, why not try four Shotguns and two Chainsaws? Or if you need to quickly dispatch a mass amount of bad guys and suicide bombers, why not try multiple Tommy Guns linked with some Laser Rifles. Experiment and try multiple combinations and learn what works well in each situation. Or you know, stack some Grenade Launchers with Chainsaws for some whacky results.
A huge new feature included in the XXL version is now the ability to augment your weapons with special power-ups as well. In any level you will probably pass along a shop keeper that allows you to purchase new upgrades for your weapons (and let you change your gun stacks) with the currency you collect from killing the hordes of bad guys. When you purchase upgrades for your guns, you can toggle them on and off on each weapon (that you unlock it for). For example, you can unlock a perk that allows your Tommy Gun bullets either ricochet or go through enemies but if you purchase both, you can put each one on a separate gun if you wish. There are some odd augments such as changing your Shotgun’s bullets into bees, but this just fits in with the wackiness of Serious Sam’s world. You can even purchase upgrades that allow you to increase the ammo of specific types of weapons that you can carry at once.
So why would you ever need six guns stacked upon one another? You’ve clearly never played a Serious Sam game then if you’re asking this. Just like the series is known for, you’ll have dozens and dozens of enemies hurled your way at one time. You won’t just have dozens of small minions thrown your way though, there are also massive enemies that will be trying to rip Sam’s face off as well. All the classic baddies that you’ve been fighting for years return, especially the iconic creaming headless suicide bombers, but there are also some new enemies for Sam to learn and shoot down as well; Lava monsters that use pogo sticks to jump around annoyingly, exploding pancakes that irritate with vuvuzelas, monkeys with jetpacks that throw exploding bananas, and even cute kittens that are attached to glass vials filled with green ooze. Yea, the game is weird, but that’s how Serious Sam’s have always been. Each type of enemy will attack Sam differently and will pose a challenge when multiple types of enemies are coming at you from every angle and every type of gun stack will be needed to keep Sam alive. Not to worry though, as checkpoints are more than plentiful and you’ll never get too frustrated by starting far back into the level.
Another new inclusion in XXL is the addition of local couch co-op finally. Sam can team up with his buddy Dan ‘Huff’ Huffington to battle Mental’s army together which makes for a much more hectic game, but much more fun. If you watched the hilarious live action trailer for Serious Sam Double D, that is the hilarious Huff that player two gets to play as.
XXL features hand drawn art that looks like it’s taken straight from a Flash game in a browser, which isn’t a bad thing, as you have to keep in mind this is made by an indie developer. The gun stacking system is innovative as it is silly, but it’s intended to be that way. XXL features great humor with some hilarious one-liners that even made the teenage boy in me chuckle at its adolescent jokes. The childish humor is intended and fits perfectly with the absurdness of stacking six guns on top of one another and it never takes itself too seriously.
Unexpectedly, there are even a few levels that change the standard ‘shoot everything on screen’ formula up and make for an interesting distraction. One level even has you navigating a giant dynamite powered unicycle… Yup, that’s right. There are a few sections that even rely more on platforming and stacking enemy corpses to reach your next destination. There are even a few sections that you slow down time and have to platform your way up by jumping across moving rockets, but these sections were the most infuriating parts of the whole experience for me. The jumping mechanics are simple, but never feels really tight which brings the frustration when you fall off edges for the tenth time.
There was one really big downfall to XXL though, and that is the game’s length. You’ll finish it in one sitting; sure the game allows for multiple playthroughs to find more collectable secrets and better your times for the online leaderboards, but after my second finish of XXL, I felt I got what I needed from the game. That being said, I did enjoy XXL, as will any fans of the Serious Sam games or anyone wanting a mindless shooter. Simply turn off your brain and blow up everything on the screen with your stacks of guns. Also, don’t ask what’s going on or why, as it wouldn’t make sense even if there was an answer, just enjoy piling guns on top of one another and blowing up everything you see.
While XXL may not bring much innovation outside of the gun stacking, it’s a mindless but entertaining journey with Sam, as is the case with Sam’s previous games as well. I wasn’t sure what to expect with XXL being developed by indie developer Mommy’s Best Games but was pleasantly surprised by its perfect fitting into the world of Serious Sam; As Sam’s journey becomes more difficult, you’ll quickly learn that it’s not always about the size of your guns, but how you use them.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
DMC: Devil May Cry
When the new redesign of Dante was first shown off back in 2010, to say there was a backlash from long standing Devil May Cry fans would have been an understatement. Dante, the protagonist of the series has always had a very distinct look and feel about him, and when Capcom announced a new Devil May Cry game was coming, dubbed simply DmC: Devil May Cry, there was a huge uproar as it seems the iconic style of Dante has been changed so dramatically that he wasn’t even somewhat similar to the original Dante. Capcom has its reasons though, as DmC is a reboot of the franchise, so what better excuse to re-envision not only the world and story of Dante, but the appearance of himself as well. It was quite surprising to see the initial reaction of fans to the new look of Dante and how negative most people seemed to be about a simple appearance change. Needless to say, Capcom had a lot to prove once the game was released to show that the game itself would be able to appease long standing fans of the series. To do so, Capcom enlisted the help of Ninja Theory to develop this new vision of the Devil May Cry universe. Ninja Theory is best known for Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (my personal favorite game of 2010) and once I learned they were the ones behind the new Devil May Cry, my worries were laid to rest. Team members from the original games have also helped in this new DmC to work alongside Ninja Theory, so it’s not something as simple as Capcom passing the torch to someone else without some backup.
Rest assured, as DmC: Devil May Cry retains all of the awesome combat and action that the series is known for. Dante himself might have changed in appearance, but he still has his signature cockiness to him, but he’s now more realistic with not only his looks, but his actions as well. The game is still a hack and slash game at its core but the art and level design has made it slightly different from the previous DmC games you might remember. The backdrop setting is more contemporary and is set in an alternate reality in the game’s series. This new take on Devil May Cry is done from a Western perspective as opposed to the previous games. This makes the backdrop, setting, characters, and even gameplay different from the other games, though that’s not a bad thing. It’s clear the new Dante is trying to appeal to a younger and more modern audience and it only works because of the fantastic work done Ninja Theory has done to make the world just as believable and fitting.
As this is a reboot of the series, the essentials are unchanged when it comes to Dante, his brother Vergil, and the demon king Mundus for the most part, but the new art direction is a welcome change and the backdrops are much more modern and visceral. The game starts off with Dante waking up with a hangover after a mysterious girl knocks on his door with a warning about Hunter Demon that has found him. Suddenly Dante is whisked away into a seemingly alternate dimension, called Limbo, where the modern city looks transformed into a twisted reality filled with demons and monsters out to kill Dante. The mysterious woman has been sent to help Dante so that he can meet the leader of “The Order”, which the public in the real world think they are terrorists. In reality, The Order is fighting off the demons in Limbo and against a much more nefarious evil set loose in the world.
Dante learns that he’s the son of a demon, Sparda, and an angel, Eva. Dante is known as a Nephilim, the offspring of a demon and angel, and he is being hunted by the demon lord Mundus, as Dante is the only one who is able to stop his plans. In the original game, Dante was half human instead of angel, so this is another twist Capcom has put on this reimagining and because of this change, there is a big mechanic change to the combat as well, which I’ll get into shortly.
Being pulled into Limbo by demons, or willingly entering to help The Order, Dante will experience a truly living, albeit twisted, world that is trying to kill him any chance it gets. In Limbo, the environment will constantly change, trying to trap or kill Dante any chance it gets. Not only does Dante have to worry about the demons that are sent to kill him, but the living world of Limbo as well. The art direction and style that Limbo is portrayed is done fantastically and you never really know what to expect, as it’s not always as simple as getting from point A to point B when Limbo opens a giant chasm, making it impossible to pass. While the heart of the game is in the deep combat, a good portion of navigating through Limbo will now have Dante trying to platform correctly throughout it. It’s a welcome change of pace now and then, getting a small break from button mashing to having to find the correct path in the changing world of Limbo.
Being a Nephilim, Dante has not only the powers of a demon, but an angel as well. Once Dante comes to terms with what he is, he also unlocks new abilities and weapons to help him survive against Limbo and the demons that reside within. Dante will eventually have many weapons and even more abilities to help him on his journey, but the classic Dante weaponry returns, along with new toys and abilities to slay demons in Limbo. Dante’s signature sword ‘Rebellion’ and twin pistols ‘Ebony and Ivory’ return for the classic DmC gameplay you’ve come to enjoy over the years, but Dante has plenty of new weapons at his disposal once unlocked as well.
Rather than the standard inventory with weapons to select, Dante instead has an Angel Mode and a Devil Mode that are activated by holding one of the trigger buttons. In Devil Mode, Dante’s Rebellion is replaced with a hulking Axe known as ‘Arbiter’ that is much slower but incredibly more powerful and able to penetrate shields and defenses. Angel Mode grants Dante a large scythe named ‘Osiris’ that isn’t meant for massive hits, but instead many smaller and quicker ones to act as a crowd control. These different modes can also be used to help Dante traverse through Limbo as well. Devil Mode will allow Dante to latch onto specific objects and pull them towards him, allowing for new platforms and pathways. Angel Mode will allow Dante to pull himself towards the object that he has latched onto instead. These moves can be used in conjunction with each other to help you pass some large gaps and even used on and against enemies to keep your combos going for a better score.
As you fight demons in combat, your style rank will continue to increase the longer you keep your combo going. In order from worst to best ranks are Dirty, Cruel, Brutal, Anarchic, Savage, SSadistic, and finally SSSensational, for those that truly get a hang of all the strategic complexities of the combat mechanics. The combat I found was much easier to perform in comparison to the original games, but that could also be because of the much more depth and options given to you with the personalized upgrade paths for your weapons and abilities. There’s a point a few missions in where you’ll have to go from simple button mashing to very specific combat strategies, as certain enemies can only be harmed with specific weapons or attacks.
As you defeat demons and make your way through Limbo, you’ll be gathering souls; some to use as a currency for upgrades, and others to recover health and other items. With a plethora of upgrades for every weapon and your base abilities, you can really customize Dante’s move sets to the way you want to play. I like being much more nimble and quick, so I upgraded Osiris as much as I could first. The beauty is not only being able to pick the moves that you use the most often, but Ninja Theory also got many of the small things right that many games seems to still get wrong to this day. You can test new abilities out in a practice arena before committing to them. After choosing a skill and simply not finding it as useful as you initially thought? No problem, refund any of your upgrade points at any time to put into other weapon or ability upgrades without any sort of penalty. It’s a small thing that many might not notice, but there’s nothing worse than wasting upgrade points for something you regret later; luckily that’s not a worry in DmC.
Two electronica groups compose the soundtrack with their modern and metal beats that fit the Limbo world so well; Noisia and Combichrist. The voice acting is superb and Dante’s specifically is done to the point of being fully believable. I really only had two complaints overall with DmC. The first being the camera that always seems to not show an enemy charging up about to hit you, resulting in much unneeded health loss. The second is a lack of a lock on system. Sometimes you want to specifically target a certain demon, but doing that manually isn’t always the easiest when you’re surrounded by a dozen or more enemies at a time.
I’ve only played the first two Devil May Cry games, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this reboot in a drastically new direction. Though you may not agree with Dante’s redesign, give DmC: Devil May Cry a shot, as many of the gripes are grossly exaggerated. There are a slew of hidden collectables and a ranking system that will entice you to replay levels for a better score (complete with online leaderboards). It’s not just a simple button mashing combat game either, DmC has some great platforming elements within and this game is easily my favorite out of the series so far.
DmC has great combat mechanics, a great soundtrack and voice acting, and a story that keeps its paces without boring you along the way; the game even allows you to fully customize every single button to your preferences which very few games do these days. You may know the origin of Dante previously, but you’ve not seen Dante in this kind of light, but you should; just don’t get stuck in Limbo.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead, originally released in five separate episodes on Xbox Live, is now also available in disc form at your favorite gaming outlet as a compilation of said five episodes. At first I wasn’t sure how well the episodic releases were going to work and affect my interest, as sometimes I just want to power through a game and complete it (not just for review purposes) when I’m able to. After getting through all five episodes (I played the first two as they came out and the last three on this disc version back to back), I can understand the episodic delivery method. Sure, waiting at a cliffhanger at the end of each episode isn’t always fun, but that longing and eagerness to find out what’s going to happen plays so well into the story telling of The Walking Dead. For those unaware of what The Walking Dead is, years ago Robert Kirkman created a comic book series named The Walking Dead which focuses on an epidemic zombie outbreak. Since then the zombie genre has completely exploded in popularity even resulting in The Walking Dead being adapted to an insanely popular TV show. For those fans already in the know, The Walking Dead game takes place in the same world of Rick’s story (it takes place as he’s still in a coma) and the comics are canon, but this is a completely different story with completely new characters. If you know your Walking Dead characters (comic or TV show), you will run into a few familiar faces which is a great fan service, but keep in mind this is an alternate story focusing on other survivors.
These days it seems almost too easy to create something with zombies in it and it’ll instantly become a hit, but simply adding zombies to a story will only get you so far if that’s all you focus on. If you know your craft well enough you’ll create a story about people, desperation, and sacrifice while playing on every emotion available, which also happens to have zombies in it. This is where Telltale’s The Walking Dead excels and shines beyond anything I expected. Telltale has focused on the characters and the human elements of the situations rather than making something strictly about zombies and trying to survive; sometimes survival is only part of the story, and that’s what The Walking Dead will show you. You’ll be given many difficult decisions to undertake and will completely affect others in your group and even their livelihood. One tough decision after another, you’ll need to do what you can to survive, but you’ll have the hardship of caring for others as well in a world where modern society crumbles and nowhere is seemingly safe for too long.
You are put into the shoes of Lee Everett, hailing from Macon Georgia and a former history professor at the University of Georgia before the outbreak. As the game begins you’re being hauled away from the city in a police car for being a convicted murder, though it’s unclear if you’re really a bad guy or not at first. Aside from the main points of detail, much of Lee’s background is quite vague, though done purposely so that you can fill in those gaps yourself during your travels throughout the five episodes. It’s odd, Lee is a voiced character with his own quirks, personality, and emotions, but at the same time he’s who you choose him to be with all of the decisions you make throughout the game, if that makes sense. If your personality is to be completely shut off to everyone Lee will reflect that. If you decide to be honest and open, that’s a possibility as well. By the time you’re done The Walking Dead you’ll see Lee as almost a reflection of yourself (if you’re honest with yourself and choose the options you probably actually would in those impossible situations). Early on Lee will stumble upon a little eight year old girl named Clementine (who you’ll get to know as Clem) who’s left alone at her home as the outbreak happened. While you’ll play as Lee the whole time, Clem will always be a constant in Lee’s story and even his (and your) decision making when impossible situations arise. I don’t want to delve any further into any of the story as it’s easily the highlight of the game and if I spoiled anything I would not forgive myself, as I’m glad nothing was spoiled for me. I will say though, that the relationship that Lee and Clem form over time is something that you need to experience. It’s not often that a character is not only voice acted so well that it’s believable, but the smallest facial emotions that show only add to the believability of these and the rest of the character’s you’ll meet along the way. If you know The Walking Dead comics or TV show, she’s much like Carl where she starts off as a simple kid but is forced to grow up much too quickly . Do you protect her by sheltering her from the evils in the world that you face or do you protect her by teaching her to protect herself in the harsh world they now live in? Decisions like this will be a constant and if it wasn’t for the flawless deliveries from the voice actors, it would not have been as gripping of a tale that it truly is.
You’ll meet a variety of survivors along your travels, some of which will stick around for the whole journey, where others will not make it as far as you expected. You’ll constantly be making life and death choices and once you get a few episodes in, there are some seriously difficult choices that you’ll have to make and you might even question yourself as I did, wondering if that’s what you actually would do in that situation. The choices you make carry weight and aren’t as simple as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; almost every choice seems to fall into that grey area. Quite often I had a logical reason for choosing what I did, but sometimes it’s not as simple as that and you need to choose the lesser of two evils. From the very beginning you’re completely hooked by the tale that unfolds in front of Lee and it doesn’t let go of your attention until the final credits roll. You’ll experience tragedy, fear, relief, shock, anger, and almost any other emotion you can think of. The Walking Dead is a sad story that will weigh heavy on you even after you’re done playing. Lee and Clem won’t be forgotten for quite some time and I’ll be remembering them for years to come.
I may be painting The Walking Dead as simply a decision making game, and while that’s true and where the game carries its weight, it’s also an adventure game, though not probably what you might expect from Telltale Games. You’ll be able to move Lee around freely and there will be puzzles to solve but the real game mechanics is the ‘choose your own adventure’ style of gameplay. The left stick will control Lee’s movement and the right is a reticule that will show pop ups and interactions on it when hovered over appropriate objects, people, or zombies. In the later episodes there will be times where you’ll have to shoot walkers and having to line up your shots, and while these may feel a little out of place since these sequences are so few, it’s just another tool Telltale uses to catch you off guard and keep your attention.
As you interact with other survivors, dialogue choices will appear on screen, usually with timers so that you can’t sit and lull it over. You’re given just a few seconds to read the responses and make your initial reaction to the circumstance at hand. You make your choice and the game moves on, no second chances are given. Every choice you make will adapt the story as you progress, and it’s completely possible to affect the outcome of others in the following episodes. Regardless of how you decide, your choices are going to add up over Lee’s journey and could add even more tension later on.
It’s odd, but the walkers don’t even always seem like the biggest threat to Lee and his group; sure they play a part in the overall tension and lack of safety, but the true tension comes from interacting with other people. Some people handle bad situations with stride, others don’t. You deal with fellow survivors, bandits, and walkers; how you decide to deal with each situation will sometimes show you something in yourself you may not have expected; I know it did with me. It can become a heavy burden, knowing that no matter what you do and choose, not everyone will survive, regardless of your intentions.
After finishing The Walking Dead it felt like Telltale tapped into almost every emotion possible throughout my story of Lee and Clementine. As I got half way through on my second game, making completely different decisions to see the different outcomes it became apparent that while you’re given many choices, the major core plot points are always going to be forced on you in some way. This isn’t a bad thing considering the level of writing and voice acting, but don’t expect a drastically different outcome for Lee and Clem at the end of it all the second time around. That being said, please play through it at least twice, as I found my second go a much tougher time, as I was TRYING to be a jerk instead of the selfless hero, but still found myself gravitating to my natural instincts. Sure the critics will say it contains the “illusion of choice” since the outcome will essentially be the same, but it’s not always about the end, it’s about the journey, the relationships you build and emotions you experience with the choices you make.
While some may not enjoy the controls or the ‘interactive story’ element, I believe it suited this story and game mechanics perfectly. The writing and acting is done to absolute perfection, the story truthfully moved me and there were even two specific moments where my jaw literally hung open as I whispered “oh my god” to myself. It’s very difficult for a game to get you so invested in its characters and story in such a short amount of time; Telltale has done this to perfection. Even the short lived characters are memorable and I replayed the game a second time just so I could visit with them once more.
I’ll come right out and say it; The Walking Dead made me cry. It’s been a very long time since a video game has been able to do that to me (1997 to be exact, when Aerith died in Final Fantasy VII). The Walking Dead is perfectly paced, keeps you wanting to move forward but doesn’t give you time to fully process and dead with what heavy moral decisions you’ve made at the same time. Lee, Clementine, and Kenny are now some of the most memorable characters I’ve ever interacted with in a video game and they will be remembered for many years from here on.
If I had played and finished all these episodes before the New Year I would have zero hesitation of giving it my Game of the Year choice; it’s that good. I’m very particular with my words, and I don’t normally throw around “must” and “need”, but you must and need to play the Walking Dead. I’ve never given a perfect score, and I’m not sure when I will again, but I’ve never had a game engulf so many of my emotions so deeply before.
Suggestions: Season 2....please!
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Kinect Party
Who would have guessed that Double Fine Happy Action Theater would get a sequel one day, though now simply called Kinect Party. Once again, just its predecessor, Kinect Party allows you to jump into an open ended game without any of the boundaries of learning controls, mechanics, or objectives. Once again, with augmented reality gameplay, the game will react to you and your actions rather than you trying to figure out what to do. Your Kinect will get some good use with the eighteen new mini-games (channels) and you’ll most definitely have a unique experience even if you’re not the intended child audience. If you read my review for Double Fine Happy Action Theater or played it yourself, you’ll understand that the point of these “games” is that there is no real point. There’s no score tallying, no levels to complete, no bosses, and no objectives aside from simply having fun and seeing how the game reacts to what you’re doing. Because there’s no real objective, there are also no barriers of learning how to play; simply move around and try stuff to see what happens. This may seem like a dumb idea to some, but for people that find a controller and memorizing controls a hurdle to overcome; Kinect Party is the perfect solution for those that just want to experiment.
Kinect Party has eighteen new mini-games, but if you own Double fine Happy Action Theater, those eighteen will also carry over and import into this sequel as well. You have the option to choose a specific game and have it stay on the screen until you decide to move on, but the default will automatically cycle you through each one after a few minutes with each. You’ll quickly see what ones you don’t care about and what ones need to be played for an hour at a time like the Dubstep video maker.
For some of the new mini-games you’ll don virtual costumes and accessories (for no apparent reason at all other than you can), destroy castles as a fire breathing dragon, chop down objects like a ninja, become a fairy with wings and a wand, dig for buried treasure like a pirate, throw fireworks out of your hands, and many more. By far though is the Dubstep video mini-game where some Dubstep music plays in the background and then it changes based on the tempo and music by swiftly switching scenes. It’s something that needs to be seen and experienced, as it was my favorite game in Kinect Party hands down.
When you’re not given any direction of what to do, you tend to experiment, and that’s where half the fun comes in. You try things and see how it reacts in the game world, opening up a whole new playground for you and the kids to enjoy. You could leave the game playing on the TV and I guarantee if people walk past the TV, at some point they’ll start moving their arms to see what happens. Sure it’s really just a collection of mini-games, but it offers unique experiences that let you simply play without borders.
At any time you can take a picture of yourself and then upload it to Facebook for all your friends to laugh with (or at) you. This feature was missed in the previous game so I’m glad to see it integrated here quite well. There is even some basic photo editing software included for those that would like to spruce up their pictures before sharing them with the world. With the ability to track six players at once (if you have the play space), Kinect Party makes a great background game for the kids or even a party, regardless of age. Sure the kids are going to enjoy it, but so will you and your friends after a few drinks; there will be many laughs to be had by all.
It seems the tracking has been improved since Double Fine Happy Action Theater and I never once had any control issues that plagues many Kinect titles. Just like how webcam software can place masks over your face in real time, Kinect Party does that and takes it one step further with full body tracking, allowing you to wear full costumes and hold many (and weird) accessories.
If you own the first game and enjoyed it even in the slightest bit, make sure you get Kinect Party since those mini-games will directly import into Kinect Party. The most notable thing worth mentioning though is that Kinect Party is FREE on Xbox Live Arcade until December 31st, so stop reading this and go download it before it’s going to cost you. What are you waiting for, there are some hilarious Dubstep videos to go make!
Suggestions: Tim: please never stop making entertaining experiences and games like this!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed
When you think of kart racing games, you’ll most likely instantly think of Mario Kart. It’s alright, most others do as well. Last year Sega released a kart racer and although it was fun, it wasn’t anywhere near to dethroning Mario from his kart racing empire. Sega and developers Sumo Digital are back behind the wheel with Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed (referred to as Transformed for the rest of the review) and a slew of additions and improvements. If you don’t know developers Sumo Digital all you really need to know is that many of the creators from some of the best known racers work here. Their previous bodies of work range from Blur, Project Gotham Racing, Pure, and more; so fret not, they know how to develop racing games. Does that necessarily translate into a fun karting game though? I was actually surprised with how much I was enjoying Transformed once I caught on and learned all the mechanics. If you’re wondering why the title has Transformed in it, the answer is quite simple; during certain points of races your vehicle will transform between kart, boat, and even plane. This mechanic alone makes for some interesting course and map designs that can instantly change the flow of a race. Not only will you have to master drifting with your kart, but the driving feels very different and much looser when racing as a boat. If you’ve played Mario Kart 7 you’ll understand exactly how these transformations take place mid race.
New to Transformed are also a handful of new weapons for you to use against your rivals as you battle for first place. You’ll have many interesting weapons such as snowballs you can shoot, puffer fish to lay a trap behind you, boost power-ups, and even a baseball glove that will catch any objects thrown at you for you to use back against your rival. While there isn’t a huge assortment of power-ups, the main few do the job adequately and can keep races on the more difficult settings much more interesting.
Even if you’re a casual Sega fan, you’ll probably recognize a few of the playable characters included and unlockable in Transformed. If you’re a true Sega fan though, you’ll really see how far Sega has gone to please its fans with the inclusion of some of the characters and their corresponding levels. With almost thirty characters to play and unlock, it’s obvious that Sega has done a great deal for their fans. Some of the returning characters include Sonic with his sports car, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles, Metal Sonic (with this Bonus Edition), Amigo from Samba De Amigo, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Beat from Jet Set Radio, B.D. from Crazy Taxi and more. There are some new comers to the race scene this year though, such as NiGHTS, Joe Musashi from Shinobi, Gilius Thunderhead from Thunderaxe, Vyse from Skies of Arcadia among other notable characters from Sega franchises.
On the 360 version you can even unlock your avatar to be used as well. There are even a few third party characters included; one of which seems fitting where the other seems completely out of place. First is Ralph from the new Disney movie Wreck It Ralph which makes sense, as he jumps into other video games in the movie (and characters from the sonic franchise appear in his movie as well). Oddly though, Danica Patrick of real life NASCAR fame is also an unlockable character. Each character has their own unique and transformable vehicle along with having their own home track that suits their corresponding game world. To unlock more characters aside from the initial ten selectable at the beginning you need to play and progress in the World Tour mode by earning stars.
With over twenty tracks (4 of the popular ones from Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing return), you’ll be challenged on land, water, and air; it’s a good thing your vehicle can transform to adapt to all of these situations. World Tour Mode is the main career progression where you’ll start off with single events, but eventually branch out to others that will also have you not only racing against your rivals, but also time attacking, drift challenges, traffic attack, and more. As you pass challenges you’ll earn stars based on which difficulty you pick (1 star for easy C class, 2 stars for medium B class, and 3 for hard A class). The more stars you earn the more branching paths and unlockables will open up for you. There are also other modes such as Grand Prix, Time Attack, Single Race, and more. Grand Prix will have you racing a series of four tracks in hopes to earn the victory and move onto the next cup series.
As you earn coins during your races you have the opportunity to spend them in a slot machine before a race for five coins per pull. If you’re lucky you’ll have match three icons, thus earning you a special power-up at the start of the next race. Also, as you complete races, the racer you use will also earn XP that goes towards leveling them up which eventually unlocks vehicle mods that will allow you to set your vehicle with specific stats which can be perfect for all different types of races and events. Sometimes you’ll want more handling as opposed to speed or boost, and this is where these unlocked mods come in.
With the ability to play local co-op with four players, everyone will be able to enjoy racing as their favorite Sega character against their friends. If you don’t have friends to come over and play you can also compete over Xbox LIVE with up to ten players total. The online lobbies are left to be desired and will have you waiting quite a while as players continue racing if you join late. Also a frustration is the inability to have two people playing as the same character. So if you really like your one character and someone else in the lobby chooses them before you, you’re forced to race as someone else.
While I really enjoyed the land and air racing, the boats didn’t handle well at all, even when I had Tails’ full handling mod equipped. You’ll instantly think you’re playing Wave Race or Hydro thunder, but it doesn’t control nearly as well as those games unfortunately. The problem is only with the water vehicles, as it just feels really loose.
What I initially thought was going to be Sega simply trying to borrow as much from Mario Kart what they could; I found the game was fun and simple enough to distinguish itself amongst the competition. Sure we’ve seen the transforming vehicles before, but Sega has done a great job at making these transitions feel natural and distinct from one another.
Transformed is a fan service from Sega; not only from the inclusion of many obscure Sega characters and levels but even the music that has new and remixed Sega tunes that will surely put a smile on your face once you recognize the song. The game seems very balanced, has a challenging difficulty (when on hard), has solid drifting mechanics, great race courses, and characters that everyone should recognize and enjoy. Honestly, I was much more impressed than what I was initially expecting. I may have been expecting a mediocre kart racer that would feel like many others but what I got was a solid and fun kart game with recognizable characters and fun drifting mechanics that has a lot of replayability and game modes for you to enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Harry Potter for Kinect
Eurocom seems to have been busy these past few years. Most known for their last to Bond game offerings: Goldeneye 007: Reloaded and 007 Legends, they’ve now switched to a completely different franchise and bring us Harry Potter for Kinect. Harry Potter for Kinect attempts to condense eight full length Harry Potter films into a collection of roughly thirty minigame sequences. As you’ll be reenacting most of the pivotal scenes in the Harry Potter lore, you’ll do everything from brewing potions, flying on your broomstick in a Quidditch match, fight against Dementors, battle the great Bassilisk, shove your want up a trolls nose, and even have a showdown against he who must not be named. Each minigame plays different from one another, which means you’ll have to learn new controls for most of the games. With no overall control scheme encompassing the whole package, some of the younger people trying to play may become confused early on as each minigame only lasts two or three minutes tops.
As the game generally follows the main plotlines of the movies, you’ll begin with having to choose a wand (well, actually the wand chooses you) as you get ready for your first year at Hogwarts. You’ll participate in all they key moments from the films, but if you’re like me and haven’t seen the movie in quite a few years and have forgotten much of the story, you’ll still feel lost while playing Harry Potter for Kinect. A big problem with the game is that it assumes you know everything there already is to know about the Harry Potter universe as it doesn’t do a good job at telling the story in any way and simply hops from sequence to sequence. Sure the game attempts to tell a story between games during loading, but a still picture from the movie and a brief sentence about what’s going on doesn’t really do the story justice at all. It really felt like you were being rushed through the books as quickly as possible assuming you already knew all the details that fit between the story gaps. For the huge Harry Potter fans this won’t be much of an issue, but for someone that’s not privy to all the Harry Potter knowledge, there’s little to no explanation of the storyline.
As you progress through each year of Hogwarts, you’ll control multiple characters from the films throughout such as Harry (obviously), Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore, among others. Surprisingly, they look very true to their movie counterparts and were instantly recognizable, even for the casual fan of the movies like myself. If you want to pretend to be your own wizard though, that is now an option with Kinect’s face scanning technology. You can scan your face (or any object you hold up to the camera really) and then play with that avatar throughout the game. Be warned though, while the game says it’ll put your face in the game, you’ll end up looking more disturbing than Voldemort himself. The face scan technology may ‘work’ but it’s far from being accurate and you’ll end up looking as much as a troll as the ones in the game.
While some of the minigames aren’t terribly exciting, such as mixing potions or in a pottery class dealing with wailing Mandrakes, the best part of the controller-free experience though has to be casting spells. Not only do you need to wave your hand as if you’re swiping your wand but you also can shout out the spell names just as the wizards of Hogwarts do. At first it seems silly having to shout out spell names at the TV, but once you get the hang of it and the arm motions it becomes second nature. Once you get over the hurdle of looking and sounding silly it can be quite entertaining. The younger players should love this feature. For some of the other games you’ll be jumping, ducking, dodging, and much more to make you work up a sweat. Oddly, in the parts where you have to jump over obstacles, your character will almost ‘float’, making it look very odd.
The overall difficulty of the game is quite low, though there were two or three sequences I had to play a few times as there were huge spikes in difficulty randomly throughout. Oddly enough, the “bosses” weren’t even the difficult sections which was more frustrating, knowing that the ‘easy’ sections were the ones I was having troubles with. It wasn’t due to poor Kinect controls either, each minigame gives you a set amount of times you can get hit before failing, and while the default number is usually more than enough, only being able to get hit five times on the section near the end when you have to cross the burning bridge was nowhere near enough.
You’ll want to play Harry Potter for Kinect in very short spurts when you simply want to kill ten or twenty minutes between other games. The reason for this is that there is very little replay value (even more so if you don’t have a friend to play co-op with) once you complete your first playthrough. I actually finished the game’s main mode in one standing, and granted, you do unlock variations of levels (like new potions to brew and wizards to duel against) as you progress, it is more of the same and will only entertain you for a short period. The game feels more like an interactive story rather than a fully-fledged title and even I noticed that the original voice cast wasn’t included, so things will sound quite off to the true Harry Potter fans. While most of the voice acting is passable, some of the characters gave truly terrible performances and many lines are constantly repeated during the sequences.
Normally licensed games like this either have poor controls (especially for a Kinect game) or are rushed to make it out on time; I can’t really see why this was released. The movies have been out for quite a while and while I will give it kudos for including split screen multiplayer, multiple difficulties, and a bunch of unlockables, it won’t mean a thing unless you are on top of your Harry Potter movie knowledge. The game tries to get you involved in the Harry Potter lore and relive what you’ve seen in the movies, but if you’re not a huge Harry Potter fan you won’t have a clue what is going on or why with its poor storytelling and pacing.
Some might find the constantly changing controls per minigame refreshing but I can imagine how frustrating it will be for the younger audience who starts to grasp the controls and does well only to have the next minigame play completely different than the last. The spell casting is fun though since every minigame doesn’t use those controls; it’s sporadic when you get to pretend to be a powerful wizard rather than flailing your arms about. I’m very glad to say that the game doesn’t suffer from broken and frustrating controls like many other Kinect titles, quite the opposite in fact; the problem Harry Potter for Kinect suffers from the most though is that it becomes tiresome very quickly and simply put, isn’t really all that fun outside of a handful of minigames. Huge Harry Potter fans will overlook its shortcomings but the rest of us Muggles should stay far away and hope we can cast the Protego spell.
Overall Score: 4.3 / 10
LEGO Lord of the Rings
Who could have imagined that simply adding the charm of LEGO to some of our favorite franchises would have been so successful? It seems like yesterday that LEGO Star Wars was released and started developers Traveller’s Tales down a long bricked path towards success. Best known for their LEGO parodies of Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones, the newest franchise to be added to the Legoverse is the beloved The Lord of the Rings franchise. Taking you through the complete trilogy, you’ll experience The Lord of the Rings with the classic LEGO gameplay mechanics that we’ve come to love over the years.Yes, I know what you’re thinking; that if you’ve played one of the LEGO games, you’ve played the all. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this too, as I’ve passed on the last few LEGO games as it seemed tiring and repetitive after the second or third LEGO Star Wars title. If you’re like me and haven’t played any of the LEGO games in a few titles or want to see how far Traveller’s Tales has come with refining their solid gameplay, LEGO The Lord of the Rings is the perfect excuse to give them another chance as it’s a very solid (and plastic) title.
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how a LEGO Lord of the Rings game would translate, being as it’s a much darker tone and quite a lengthy tale to tell compared to the other LEGO games. The past LEGO games have generally been parodies and spoofs given that much of the LEGO humor is goofy and slapstick; so I was wondering if this would translate very well into the dramatic story of Tolkien’s literature. Traveller’s Tales put my uncertainty to rest and the game seems to have hit the sweet spot of being true to the source material but also adding in just enough of the secret LEGO spice to make it charming and hilarious without taking anything away from the serious tone of the story. Middle-earth seems to be a fantastic fit to be created from LEGO blocks and all of the combat, collecting, puzzle solving, and exploration you’ve come to expect from a LEGO title is included here.
Based on the film trilogy, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will follow the storylines from The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King; LEGO-fied of course. Frodo was a simple Hobbit that was deemed worthy of taking on a dangerous task of destroying an ancient and magical ring that threatens all of Middle-earth. Frodo must destroy the ring, but to do so he must cast it into the fires of Mount Doom, though he will not take this burden alone; a fellowship is formed to help him on his quest and includes Gandalf the Wizard, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Aragorn the Ranger, Frodo’s Hobbit friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin, among others. You’ll be surprised with how great the minifig versions of the characters reflect their likeness to the films.
Seeing how the movie trilogy is quite a lengthy undertaking to watch from beginning to end, I was wondering how stripped down the game would be to make a more streamlined telling of the movies, as there’s no way that the twelve plus hours of film would simply be copied into game form. Well, LEGO Lord of a Rings is a long game, quite lengthy in fact if you decide to do the side quests and collect all the hidden pieces. Even if you simply want to play through the story, you’ll easily get a dozen or so hours out of the game; you’ll also be pleasantly surprised as I was with how true to the films the game adapted itself.
Many scenes are created almost one-for-one, though some will have the quirky LEGO humor attached. For example, when the Kings are receiving their rings at the beginning, one actually drops it and tried to pick it up without noticing, or at the fellowship forming scene, Merry and Pippin are wearing mustache glasses to try and blend in. There’s so many small examples like this that really add the LEGO flavor to the Lord of the Rings without doing a disservice to the movies. I found all these LEGO-fied scenes actually quite entertaining and it probably helped that now for the second time in the LEGO games, the characters are fully voiced. Not expected though was that the dialogue and music is actually pulled directly from the movie, as I don’t think any set of voice actors would be able to hold a flame to the performances the actors portrayed in the films. As you finish each ‘movie’, credits will actually roll, fooling you into thinking that the game is only one of the movies at first before you continue on. Rest assured, the whole epic trilogy is included and fully playable all the way from the Shire to Mount Doom.
As you begin Frodo’s journey you’ll notice that Middle-earth is an open world for you to explore as you wish. As you progress through story chapters you’re able to venture further and further from the Shire in your quest to destroy the ring. As you get further in the game and unlock new sections of Middle-earth to explore, you can actually run all the way back to the Shire if you wanted to, adding a sense of awe to how big Middle-earth really is, even if it is made out of LEGO bricks. As you move forward in your quest and unlock more sections of Middle-earth, a glowing trail of ghost-like LEGO studs will subtly guide you towards the next story chapter, if you so desire to do so.
The standard drop-in, drop-out gameplay for a friend to join (or leave) on a whim is still included, as is the split screen free roaming dynamic camera. There are even a few sections in the game that has two events going on at the same time, and with the power of the Seeing-Stone, you can jump between either storyline or if a friend is playing with you, each of you doing their own section simultaneously. These sections are much more entertaining with a friend beside you, as communicating to them of what to do and when is much more fun than playing alone.
As you finish a story mission you’ll unlock its Free Play option, allowing you to not only replay it again, but it also allows you to play with any of the characters you’ve unlocked up to that point. This allows you to finally collect many of the secrets and collectibles hidden throughout each of the levels that you previously couldn’t access. You’ll collect studs and collectables, but you really want to be on the lookout for Mithril LEGO bricks, as these can be used to forge new and awesome items at the Blacksmith provided you’ve also found patterns for the Blacksmith to use. Yea it’s just another layer of collecting to endure, but the items you get from doing so will help you unlock and collect even more secrets throughout Middle-earth.
If you’ve played the LEGO series before, you’ll generally know what to expect from the level design as a whole. There’s a healthy mix of fighting and puzzling, never too heavy focused on one to bore you, but constantly switching it up so it feels engaging. You’ll experience all of the massive and iconic battles from the films (such and the Mines of Moria, Gandalfs battle with the Balrog, the battle for Helms Deep, and all the other notable scenes) but you’ll also have many puzzle sequences that while never too difficult, offers a variety of gameplay and changes the pacing, much like the movies.
With over 80 LEGO minifig characters included, you’ll be able to play a vast majority of the characters you come across during the game, but there’s also new abilities added specifically for this game as well (which include being able to throw Gimli at breakable objects). All of the playable characters each have at least one special ability that need to be used to collect many of the hidden secrets and collectables. Aragorn can track friends and enemies, Sam can start fires, grow flowers and vines to reach new areas, and also use his elven rope to explore, Legolas can tightrope walk with ease and use his bow to open new pathways for himself, Gimli can smash rocks with his axe, and Frodo can use his elven cloak to become camouflaged, use the Phial of Galadriel to light dark places, and more. Many of the characters will have some duplicated specials, but you’ll quickly find your favorites and learn to quickly swap between characters to figure out puzzles faster.
Handling a franchise as big and beloved as The Lord of the Rings has to be done cautiously; on the one hand you need to be true to the source material, but on the other you need to add the LEGO humor that the series is known for without going too overboard and changing the feel of the story. Sure some of the scenes have been slightly changed to have a little more of the LEGO feeling and comedy to it, but it’s never completely beyond the realm of believability if the story was to take place in the LEGO universe. This is most likely due to the fact that the films’ actual dialogue and music are used throughout the game which adds that much more believability to it; this was also the biggest and most pleasant surprise with the whole game, as it was very unexpected. I’m still waiting for online co-op though after all these years Traveller’s Tale.
Just because it’s a LEGO game, I implore you to not simply pass it over because of its kid friendly exterior, as you’ll be passing up a great and solid game with a huge amount of replayability and charm. Traveller’s Tales seems to constantly surprise me with how they handle big franchises and I’m more than happy to know that they did Lord of the Rings justice. So much so that this is without a doubt my favorite LEGO game to date and proof that attention to detail and proper care is a great mixture for game licensing when done with the right set of foundation (LEGO) bricks.
Suggestions: Online co-op. Seriously, we've been asking for this in the LEGO games for years now.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Dragon Ball Z for Kinect
Dragon Ball Z For Kinect is actually the game’s full title, just to remind you how you’re going to play it in case you forget somehow. The name says it all and you’ll be brawling in the Dragon Ball Z universe played as a first person fighting game. You’ll play as all the main staples of the series within; from Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Gohan (multiple versions), Krillin, Raditz, Buu, and many more. If you’re a fan of series this sounds awesome doesn’t it, and on paper it does seem like a great idea. But remember that the game’s title has “For Kinect” in it and you can probably guess how well this is going to go. It seems like some companies really know how to utilize and make Kinect work, whereas others don’t and tend to release fundamentally broken games that aren’t all that fun. I’ll let you decide where this one falls into place in that scale. You’ll be punching, kicking, jumping, charging up, and performing a number of moves to battle your opponents in some large scale open arenas. Well, I should amend that statement; you’ll attempt to do all those things as battle will frequently change between melee range fighting to far ranged combat. With over fifty characters and a hundred moves, Dragon Ball Z For Kinect will attempt to make you feel like a true Super Saiyan, but the poor tracking and uninspired gameplay will make you wish you found the seven dragon balls so you could make a wish for something else.
For the first time on the consoles, you’ll be able to follow the main popular storylines from the series in a first person perspective. If you were a fan of the show as a kid you’ll be happy to know that the Story Mode covers the main battles from the Saiyan Saga (with a Great Ape Vegeta battle included), Frieza Saga, Androids Saga, and Majin Buu Saga. Surely this will bring back some memories for those that love the show and manga’s, but there’s also a catch. The story mode is very summarized and condensed and there are just over twenty battles in all of the Story Mode for all of the battle lines. With fights being only about five minutes each or so (depending on your skill level and patience) you’re going to finish this game very quickly. I’ll let you do the math, but needless to say that you’ll be able to finish it in a single standing (albeit a sweaty one). After just a few simple rounds of combat you’ll quickly realize that the combat is reparative and really uninspiring. If it wasn’t for the cutscenes before and after the fights, it would almost be a complete wash. Story Mode has a great idea behind it but only hardcore fans lokoing to remember those great storylines will be the ones enjoying it.
Since the game is in first person, your character will ‘try’ to mimic all the movements you make. Throwing punches and moving your body will be essential, and while using this view is supposed to make you feel like you’re truly a character in the universe, it’s very difficult to become absorbed with it since you can’t’ even admire yourself when you’re pretending to be Goku or your other favorite characters. While Kinect will track the basic kicks, punches, and super moves, performing many of the other moves seems like a gamble for the most part and sadly it was much easier to just flail my arms doing punches the whole round rather than actually trying to become creative with my offence by varying attacks.
Certain moves feel great performing, like when you want to charge your Ki meter by having to squat and pull your arms close to your body like you’re really charging up in the show. The same goes for the signature Kamehameha beam attack move that has you charge up like a Street Fighter Hadouken then releasing it by thrusting your arms outward just like in the anime. There is some strategy in the battles as you need to decide to make many light attacks like punches or absorb some hits and charge up for a devastating Kamehameha beam (which becomes stronger the higher your combo is).
Unless you’re playing on the most difficult setting, there’s not much challenge to be had here as every enemy practically fights the same way save for a few and you can see their attacks coming a mile away. The real challenge is getting Kinect to recognize the motion you meant to do when you have a limited time to perform it without failing. Sadly, every match plays out the exact same way where you’ll start with a barrage of punches to initiate a combo that leads into a cutscene, more punches to continue the beating, and then even more punches to finish the cutscene combo. You’ll at some point have to dodge the enemies charged attack by performing a QTE (yes, that’s right, a QTE with Kinect. You can imagine how frustrating this becomes) and then repeat the process for five minutes until you win. If, er, when you become bored you can charge up for a super attack to try and mask the repetitiveness, but even after a dozen matches or so, it won’t be as exciting any longer. Even if you’ve avoided taking damage the whole match, the enemies will taunt you with their power levels to try and convince you you’re nothing; it makes for a silly experience.
So what do you do once you beat the Story Mode in three or four hours? Well there’s a Score Attack Mode that’s included to try and convince you to continue playing. Here you go for a high score in battle, being able to choose the fighter you wish that’s been unlocked in Story Mode. Oddly enough, the bulk of the achievements are tied to Score Attack Mode, so those achievement hunters of you out there, yes, sadly you’ll have to play through the game twice to get them all. I haven’t forgotten to mention the multiplayer, there simply is none. Yup, that’s right. In a one versus one premise of a game, there is only room for a single player here. Big oversight, I know.
One of the selling points on the back of the box is that the game supports QR codes to unlock special content like characters, power ups, moves, and more. Great, I scanned the codes that were included in the box (which happen to be on the back of the cardboard Goku Hair that’s included), now where can I get more? Yea, I couldn’t find out any information either anywhere.
There’s one small saving grace for the game though, but that’s only if you’re a really big fan of the series. Included is a twenty minute film adaptation of the Dragon Ball: Epsiode of Bardock manga. The reason this is somewhat a big deal (for Dragon Ball fans) is because this is the first time the movie is released in our territory. Needless to say, if you’re a hardcore fan it’s a must, but is the full price worth a twenty minute episode?
Unless you’re an absolute hardcore Dragon Ball fan and can put your bias blinders on, there’s really little reason to play Dragon Ball Z For Kinect. Not even for the free included Goku Hair. While it’s a great idea, the execution simply doesn’t work nor is it fun. Sure it was a gag to just charge up the whole match and only use Kamehameha beam’s to win, but that amusement can only last so long when basic moves and dodges don’t always work when intended. Dragon Ball Z For Kinect: your power level is nowhere near over 9000.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth
I was always taught to not judge a book by its cover. I may have unfairly done that with Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth when it arrived, so I went in with low expectations. Luckily, every now and then you get surprised and things are better than you were hoping. That was the case here with Battle for Earth, as the Kinect controls worked flawlessly for the most part and you get to pull off some of your favorite super heroes powers on the battlefield. Don’t go in expecting Battle for Earth to resemble the blockbuster movie that recently released; instead, the plot is almost a retelling of a popular storyline from the comic series Secret Invasion crossover. The general plot is that shapeshifting alien Skrulls are impersonating Earth’s greatest heroes, infiltrating the ranks with a nefarious plot. While you’ll easily notice that the fake heroes glow green, apparently no one else does, and with that being said, the story really held no interest for me in any way.
The plot is never really expanded in depth as you progress; actually, aside from a brief explanation of why you’re fighting in a specific location aside from the Skrulls wanting to destroy it, there’s no real storytelling here at all. But take it for what it is, Battle for Earth is a fighting game, and even though the comics could have provided a more interesting story, there’s not much here in terms of plot to push you forward. Unless you’re a hardcore comic book guy, the story won’t matter much to you, but if you already are that type you already know this storyline. The main reason I wanted to keep playing is to see how each of the super heroes performed in battle and what moves they had to fight with. You’ll have all the mainstays of the universe such as Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man but you’ll even come across Wolverine, Magneto, Spider-Man, Venom, and more.
If you played Ubisoft’s PowerUp Heroes, you’ll know exactly what to expect with this Avengers title. Battle for Earth is essentially a fighting game with Kinect controls done with a wonderfully comic book art style. You’ll be punching, kneeing, jumping, and mimicking your favorite comic heroes’ moves to battle against the Skrulls. The fighting engine is clearly based on the one PowerUp Heroes used but has been expanded and improved with its gesture recognition.
You’ll see cue cards on screen showing you how to perform moves available to you based on what super hero you’re using and mimicking them with your arms will perform them. As much as following diagrams might seem very basic, there’s a surprising amount of depth for a basic Kinect fighting game. You can perform dodges, counters, ultra moves, and regular attacks with an overlying rock-paper-scissors-like mechanic where one type of move is always the counter to another. As we all know, proper recognition of Kinect games can vary from being flawless all the way to completely broken; I honestly though that this would be another game with shoddy motion recognition but I was pleasantly surprised when all of my movements were performed flawlessly.
Depending on who you’re fighting as, each hero will have three unique Super Attacks, each one being a two part movement to perform that usually has you holding your arms out in one direction and then making a specific motion to launch the attack. If you manage to chain together Super Attacks you’ll get a combo, with the ability to switch characters at any time during battle (every match is two versus two) by simply holding your left arm up, you can chain together some interesting and deadly combos against your enemy Skrull. As you land offensive moves or even get hit yourself, your Special Gauge will slowly fill up during the match. When it’s half full you can use a Breaker if you find yourself stuck in the enemy’s combo, but if you wait till the meter is completely full you can then use your special Ultra Attack. Using your ultra will start a quick cinematic of your hero hitting the enemy up in the air and will then prompt you to shout a specific line they would say in the comics as well. Once in the air, the faster you punch the enemy, the more hits you’ll land on your enemy. It seems a little gimmicky at first, but it’s a game based on comic book heroes, and aimed at younger audiences, so it gets a pass.
Every match is two versus two and being able to swap characters on the fly will become an important strategy later on in the more difficult stages. Every stage in the campaign has predetermined characters, so you never get to pick your favorite team in the story mode, just in the other modes. The only issue I had with this is that you’ll clearly find characters you are better with and some that either isn’t as fun or you’re just not as effective with. There were times where my two favorite characters were grouped together, but there were also a few matches where my two worst were paired up as well. This also was a little confusing to have to remember all characters Special Attacks motions, especially mid-combo and switching characters quickly. The other strategy that comes into play with two characters is the health bar system that allows the non-active hero to recover a percentage of their lost health, so taggin out regularly becomes a necessity in the later matches.
As you progress you’ll unlock new characters and certainly find some new favorites the further you get into the game. You’ll be playing as Spider-Man, Thor, Venom, Wolverine, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Loki, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and more. While you’ll only get to use some of the characters a few times in the campaign, once unlocked they can be used in the other modes with your custom teams. Sadly there are only a few levels that provide nothing more than a backdrop for the fighting and you’ll have to fight in them each about a dozen times to finish the campaign which isn’t all that exciting. There’s also an online multiplayer to face off against other players, but given that the biggest games of the year have recently been released, I was unable to find a single match the few times I tried and just let it sit and search.
I was surprised with how Battle for Earth looked; sure I was expecting a comic book art style, and I did get it, but the cel-shading suites the game quite well and the characters look like they were taken straight out of the comics. Characters moved and acted like I expected them to and the backgrounds of the levels were vibrant in color and had a lot of small details if you take the time to notice. It was a shame that the story is pushed on you in comic stills rather than cutscenes and being animated. It made it difficult to really care about the story when you’re simply given a few comic panels with a voice over attempting to make you care about why you’re fighting. That being said, all the voice work was pretty insignificant aside from the odd catch phrase being thrown out there and I couldn’t even remember much about the soundtrack by the time I started writing this.
Pretending to be Iron Man and use your light beams to fight off a Skrull is satisfying, as is being Spider-Man and shooting your webs. Emulating your favorite heroes will surely put a smile on your face, especially the first few times you shout their catch phrase for an Ultra move. Unfortunately it does become a bit old quickly, as all you’re doing is these two on two battles over and over in the same arenas which makes for a shallow experience. Sure it’s fun in spurts, but I did beat it in one sitting…er, standing which makes it a little difficult to recommend. Yes the game is fun (in the short term) and Kinect tracks your movements flawlessly, but you will complete the game very quickly, so pick it up if you want a decent game for your Kinect, just wait till it drops to your price range first.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Fable: The Journey
I’ll admit, I was among the majority of gamers that was disappointed when Fable: The Journey was first announced last year, being shown as an on-rails Kinect game rather than a fully realized RPG much like the past three main Fable games. Then we were assured that Fable: The Journey was “not on-rails” so I waited with cautious optimism on faith. In Fable: The Journey you’ll be using your hands to cast magic spells against your enemies, but for the majority of the game you’ll be steering your trusty horse Seren throughout the campaign. Here we are a year later with a Fable spinoff game solely for Kinect; so is it on-rails and does it live up to the quality the franchise has brought so far that I’ve loved for years? Taking place half a decade after the events of Fable III, you play as Gabriel, a normal guy travelling with his tribe and due to falling asleep when he was told specifically not to, is then separated from his friends and must take quite a long detour seemingly across a vast majority of Albion simply because a single bridge was destroyed. Gabriel comes across a woman running from something and reluctantly decides to help her when she utters out his name. This woman is Theresa, the same one from each of the previous Fable games and will take you on a journey to battle an evil darkness simply called The Corruption. It’s the tried and true tale of a reluctant boy who doesn’t want to be a hero but eventually accepts it once he realizes his destiny. It’s a shame that Gabriel is a whiney kid who isn’t all that likeable, tells bad jokes, and is clearly way too affectionate about his horse. The same goes for the pacing of the game that just repeats the same order of travelling on horse, get to a new dungeon, clear the enemies to get upgrades and repeat.
For being a full length Kinect game (roughly eight or so hours), luckily the decision to allow sit down play (well, actually force as there’s no standing up play) is the only option here. So be prepared to flail and thrust your arms all over while sitting on the couch (while sitting straight up if you want a chance of Kinect to even attempt to recognize your intended movements).
Easily half of the whole game is Gabriel driving his cart from place to place while attempting to not only gather experience orbs but to also try to not steer your horse into objects with Kinect fighting you the whole time. You need to virtually hold the reins with your arms outwards, pulling one arm in to correspond with what direction you want to try and turn. Once you see how slippery the steering controls are, you might wonder how many ales Gabriel knocked back before setting off on his journey. There’s one major flaw with having at least half the game being horse riding though; it’s completely boring. Sure it may be fun at first to try and collect all the experience orbs on your path but when the game even tells you that you’re able to drop your hands and have Seren autopilot, there’s really no reason to put any effort into these sections other than whipping the reigns to make it go faster. There will be times where you get to brush Seren and feed her apples to help her regenerate health, but as you can imagine, these sections are not all that exciting either.
When you aren’t busy steering Seren for half of the game, the other half is the combat against enemies with your magic gauntlets. Your right hand is your main offensive spell, Bolt, and is cast by holding your hand shoulder level palm outwards and then thrusting it forwards in the direction you want to cast it…in theory. Your left hand is used for your Push spell that can be used to stun enemies and manipulate objects in the environment (though my left hand spells never ever seemed to work)…in theory. Once you realize that none of your spells are going anywhere remotely close to where you’re intending them to you can recalibrate the Kinect, though not mid-battle, meaning you have to restart at the last checkpoint every time you recalibrate. It’s very deceiving though, as your spells seem to work for the most part in the training and calibration section, but once in the wild your spells will miss so badly it’s as if there’s a magnetic field bouncing them away from your target. The biggest problem is there is no targeting reticule so you never know where Kinect thinks you’re trying to aim as opposed to where you’re actually attempting to.
It’s almost common knowledge that most Kinect games simple work or fail quite hardly at even working somewhat correctly. This game falls into the second category and in my experience, is simply broken when it comes to controls. You’ll steer Seren into countless walls and obstacles and miss nine out of ten shots with your spells, but hey, at least the horse grooming section works like a charm. I was honestly very surprised that Lionhead turned out a product this broken when other games like Dance Central are the epitome of how to do a Kinect game properly. When you’re stuck on the tutorial section for over a half hour because your spells don’t register properly, frustration kicks in quite quickly and it’s hard enough to keep motivation to continue playing when half the game is a horse carriage simulator, never mind fighting with the controls the whole time.
Every loading screen is a reminder of how to properly sit, as if to try and make you think that’s going to help in any way. Sadly you’re simply at the mercy of Kinect and with the many frustrating hours I had trying to pull in the reins, I can’t recommend it, even for the Fable diehards like myself; there’s simply too many huge failings to overlook.
Reflecting back I was trying to see how this fit into the Fable lore and gameplay, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn’t seem to fit at all. Sure it takes place in Albion and includes Theresa, but there’s no moral system, no marriages, no sword or arrow gameplay, no becoming a king or having children, no choices to really be made, no house buying, and most importantly, there’s no chickens to kick. That’s what makes Fable…Fable. Instead we’re given a horse racing game with some magic gauntlets that shoots a spell.
You’re force fed this relationship between Gabriel and his horse in an attempt to make you really care for Seren like you did your dog in the past two Fable games but it doesn’t work and feels so forced that it’s almost embarrassing. I understand Gabriel loves his horse, but it’s almost at times as if he LOVES his horse. I never thought I’d play a Fable game I didn’t enjoy, but when so little effort is done to make it work as intended or make it feel like a real Fable game, this is the result. Simply put, unless you want a horse and carriage simulator, it’s just not that fun in the slightest. Oh, and whomever told us all that it wasn’t on-rails to appease us; they lied, it is on-rails completely.
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
You know, I have to admit, it wasn’t that I was going into Call of Duty: Black Ops II with low expectations, but it was more that I was expecting simply more of the same. Realistically, Treyarch could have played it safe and essentially given us the same game once again and we would line up to get it and it still would have sold millions regardless of the end product. Needless to say, I was quite surprised once I delved into Black Ops II and uncovered what’s been tweaked, added, and improved in the series. For being a yearly game, it’s sometimes hard to get excited about a franchise when it always feels like more of the same, and that’s what I was totally expecting before I started playing. Luckily Treyarch decided to try something new and not simply play it safe and it feels like for a yearly title that Call of Duty actually feels much improved over the previous year rather than just having a few new tweaks. So let’s declassify Black Ops II and delve into one of the better shooters this holiday season.If you played the campaign of the original Black Ops, you’ll once again be met with the game’s protagonist Alex Mason and his partner Frank Woods. With the campaign having two separate story arcs, the returning heroes will be played by recounting events that occurred in the 80’s and Mason’s son David taking the reins in 2025. Back in the 80’s, Mason and Woods had an encounter with a man named Raul Menendez, and because of this battle between them, Menendez is now the world’s most dangerous terrorist with a plot to bring down the worlds technology infrastructure for his own gains.
In 2025, Mason’s son David visits Woods in hopes that he will have some information that will answer his questions and lead him to Menendez. The time jumping never becomes confusing as weapons available in each era stay true to their respective time periods and it seems the further in the future it becomes, the more over the top the action also does as well. Woods might recall a mission where they were riding horses while shooting down tanks and choppers, but David’s mission could have you wingsuit gliding down the side of a mountain face to infiltrate a base.
The story’s strength is also reinforced by the fact that you are finally given some actual choices to make in the campaign that will affect the outcome at the end. With some tough choices to be had, you’ll actually see a branching story path emerge that will make your decisions actually have some weight accompanied with them. You’ll inadvertently at times decide who lives or dies, only to find out much later on. With a decision to be made in most levels, you’ll have to play through the campaign a few times if you want to see all of the conclusions.
To bolster the empowerment of choice comes some special missions you’ll be given after a certain point called Strike Force missions. These missions are played similar to a Real Time Strategy game where you can be the commander with a bird’s eye view and direct your ground forces to attack or defend anywhere on the amp you choose. If that type of gameplay simply doesn’t appeal to you, you’re given the option to freely swap from any unit and play as them in a traditional first person view if you want. Be warned though, if you let units die in these missions, they are permanently dead and will affect the outcome and ending you receive. These missions pop up during the campaign at designated times and you’re given the option to play or completely ignore them, but doing so will change the outcome of the main story. You’re also given a specific amount of campaign missions to complete these Strike Force levels before they disappear for good. While they are technically side missions, it’s a really interesting take and I’m glad that they actually weigh in on the campaign story depending on your performance.
Playing the normal campaign missions will feel familiar, as many are the same formula of tight corridors that open up into large battlefields finished off with an awesome set piece. New to the series though is finally the option to choose and customize your load out before each mission. This may seem like a small addition, but finally being able to pick my favorite weapons and attachments for a campaign mission is a big deal and something that was needed to make it more involving.
The ever popular Zombies Mode from Black Ops returns once again, though vastly expanded and improved. Zombies is now broken up into three different modes that vary from the traditional Survival mode, Tranzit, and Grief mode. Survival Mode is your classic zombie gameplay where up to four players are challenged with surviving for as long as possible against oncoming waves of undead. Tranzit Mode is a much larger experience with a bus that can move your team from area to area, trying to unravel the mysteries of what’s going on while trying to survive. At first this mode can be extremely overwhelming as the map is absolutely huge and once you get on the bus and see how far you traveled, you’ll wonder how to get back. Tranzit is actually the whole Zombie play space and if you play Survival, those are simply small sections of the Tranzit map broken up for a more intimate experience.
New to Zombies though is an interesting mode called Grief. This is where one group of four players challenge another group of four but there’s also a group of four players controlling zombies. This Humans vs. Humans vs. Zombies is appropriately named 4z4 and adds a new twist on things. The team with the last human alive wins, but there’s quite a lot of strategy involved; do you sabotage the other team or work together for a period to fend off the zombies? It’s definitely a mode you’ll want to give a try with your buddies and turned out to be much more entertaining than I was expecting.
Call of Duty multiplayer, the only reason quite a few gamers actually buy the series annually. As I said before, Treyarch could have simply put a new coat of paint on top of the old game and it still would have sold just fine, but it seems they wanted to change things up here as well, for the better. Most notably is the new create-a-class system appropriately dubbed the “Pick 10” system. You’re now given a 10 point system to use on weapons, attachments, perks, and more, with each item costing 1 point. It may seem much more simplistic, and it is to a degree, but it surprisingly adds a whole new layer of customization to make your class exactly the way you want it to. If you want to only have one gun with three attachments and specific grenades, so be it; the same goes if you want multiple weapons with no attachments but with many perks. There are even new slots called Wildcards that allow you to essentially “break” the old rules, allowing you to have three attachments, two perks in the same tier, and many other choices to suit your play style.
Call of Duty wouldn’t be the same without Prestige levels and a ton of unlocks. Firstly, you gain an unlock token for each level you rank up which can be spent on weapons, perks, scorestreaks, attachments, and more. Once you are level 55 you have the option to Prestige, but now that you won’t be able to unlock every item once you hit 55, you may want to prestige to continue earning upgrade tokens by leveling up. Your weapons now also gain experience and rank up and even your weapons can prestige, adding a whole other layer to the customization and length of gameplay.
If you’re a casual Call of Duty player, or even new to the series completely, there is finally a practice mode of sorts that you can begin with to learn the ropes and even earn a few levels before jumping online and getting slaughtered. Bootcamp offers you the option to play against bots so you can learn the maps without the harshness of doing so online against players much better than yourself. It was a much needed addition, though I wonder after all these years if it’s going to be used very much.
Some other changes include all game types and playlists are available to be played directly at level one finally. If you absolutely love the Hardcore mode but hated having to level up just to play it, your prayers have been answered. The new scorestreak system replaces the old killstreak mechanic and bases your available call-ins based on points rather than kills. This attempts to have teammates actually work towards the mode’s objective rather than their own agenda. There’s also an option to stream online for community members to watch as well; aptly named CODcasting. It’s great to finally see something like this finally included on disc; and while it may not be the most robust system out there, it’s included and is going to be a great base to improve upon.
Graphically, Black Ops II looks great considering the age of the engine being used. Large scale battles convey the vastness and faces and emotions still look fantastic in campaign, but many textures are very low resolution and shadows still look horrible in most places. Sure you’re not going to notice these things when you’re controlling the amazing grand scale set pieces but those that look at the finer details will notice some of the rigidness of the finer things.
The sound goes hand in hand with the visuals of the game and for having a song composed by Trent Reznor, the music in each of the campaign levels suit accordingly. Music sets the mood and it’s no different in Black Ops II when some orchestra strings take front and center while you’re defending yourself against oncoming tanks. The same goes for the weapon sounds, as the guns sound great and each differ from one another. The voice acting is clearly the strong suit and I think I may have squealed a little bit when I realized that Michael Rooker (Merle from Walking Dead) voices a character perfectly. I’m glad that attention was taken with the voice acting, as nothing can ruin a games immersion worse than someone who doesn’t know how to deliver a line believably.
Before you even begin playing, you’re given an option to enable graphic content or not. It’s clear later on in the game when you’re decapitating enemies with a machete along with some other very brutal sequences, though nothing still tops the shocking ‘Airport’ level from Modern Warfare 2. Aside from the finer details with the graphics I really didn’t have many complaints about Black Ops II. The only other issue that stood out for me was the laggy menu screens when selecting your loadouts pre campaign missions. There’s no slowdown in the game when a hundred things are happening at once, so I’m not really sure why the menu’s for loadouts is annoyingly slow.
With Call of Duty Elite now fully supporting Black Ops II (now with zombie support), you’ll be able to break down and check out all your stats and even get help to become better at the game as well. It’s going to be hard to go back to a Call of Duty game that doesn’t allow loadout swaps, a branching campaign story, and I can’t even imagine using the old Create-a-class system anymore now that Pick 10 is vastly superior. For those with 3D TV’s, you’ll also be happy to know that Treyarch thought about you as well. I’ll give it to you Treyarch, you surprised me and I’m thoroughly enjoying all the changes you made to the series, to the point of actually probably being my favorite of the series so far.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
007 Legends
We all know how well movie based games generally fare (you can’t see my sarcastic face right now) but what happens if the game is actually based on five separate movies? I think you already know the answer. 007 Legends is supposed to be a celebration of not only fifty years of Bond on the silver screen, but the anticipated upcoming release of Skyfall in theaters also. Developed by Eurocom, known for last years’ decent Goldeneye 007, 007 Legends may use the same engine, but there have been some additions added to the game such as stealth and “smarter” AI. I say additions because they are not improvements in any way. Legends opens up with I’m assuming a scene from the new Skyfall movie (as noting is really explained otherwise) that shows Bond (Daniel Craig) on top of a moving train fighting an enemy. A sniper is radioed and told to take out her target. In a frantic rush before the train goes into a tunnel, she fires and hits Bond, causing him to fall off the train and over a bridge into a lake below. What you see next is Bond sinking into the water deeper and deeper and this sets off a chain of memories from his previous escapades; his life flashing before his eyes if you will.
The opening mission Bond is recalling is his adventure in the movie Goldfinger. The first odd thing you’re going to notice when Bond is reliving his past missions is that it’s Daniel Craig as 007 in each memory flashback. 007 Legends incorporates five different Bond films as different memories that span multiple eras and actors that portrayed 007. If you can read between the lines, that means there are five missions in the game, each of which last just over an hour on average; you can do the math for length of the campaign. You’ll play through missions from Goldfinger, License To Kill, Die Another Day, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Moonraker. If you know your Bond films, each movie represents a different actor’s turn at being 007. What makes not only the movie choices odd (as there are much better that could have been used) is the fact that each of these missions are retold with Daniel Craig being Bond. Sure, casual fans may not care, but it’s extremely odd seeing Craig in old classics, just like it was seeing him in last year’s title as well; though it’s compounded since he’s taking over four more actors’ work. To make matter worse, it’s not even actually Daniel Craig that voices Bond in the game, but instead an impersonator that isn’t convincing in his acting in any way.
On top of all of that, each scene from the movies isn’t going to play out anything like what happens in the movies. Almost all of the events never actually happen in the films and it makes it feel very forced and shoehorned in to simply ‘work’, which it doesn’t. I don’t remember Bond on a minigun in a helicopter shooting down dozens of bad guys, but hey, it has been a few years since I’ve seen the movies so maybe it’s my memory. I would normally never talk about the ending of a game in a review, but this is something that needs to be known ahead of time: There is no satisfying ending. Even when I completed the game, I felt no accomplishment as there was no climax or true ending. Instead, after finishing the Moonraker level you’ll be greeted to a message informing you that a Skyfall mission will be available to download (for free) after the movie is released mid Novemeber. Does that mean I don’t get a real ending unless I’m connected online, get the DLC, and play one more mission? That’s asking quite a lot when the biggest games of the year are already out or are about to be. It put an extremely bad taste in my mouth and you aren’t rewarded for finishing the game in any way with any conclusion.
As you begin the game you’re given the option if you want to play in Modern Mode, where your health regenerates, or in Classic Mode where you have to find health and armor packs to stay alive. You’ll also be granted with difficulty options, but unless you’re achievement hunting, I suggest medium or easier so you can get through it quicker and onto the rest of your gaming backlog.
Bond will start each mission with his P99 pistol complete with silencer. As you defeat enemies you’ll also be able to pick up two primary guns as well, swapping whenever you please. As you kill enemies and complete objectives you’ll gain XP for level and weapon based goals. With this earned XP you can spend it on weapon upgrades and new skills like health regeneration. You’ll have to find a MI6 weapon cache before you’re allowed to equip the upgrades though, and those don’t appear all too often.
Bond will also have some of his gadgets such as his iconic watch that has two uses; one to ping an area for radar purposes, and second to use as a laser to destroy cameras. In reality, the watch gadget is useless as there is no need for radar outside a few forced stealth sections, but more on that later.
007 will also have access to his phone which moonlights as a camera, hacking device, and a biometric scanner. When electronics need to be hacked, Bond can whip out his phone and wirelessly do so with a minigame that isn’t any fun at all (along with the other hacking minigames that aren’t great either). Putting your phone into that mode will show everything in an x-ray like vision so you can see where devices are connected. Using the Biometric view will help you scan for fingerprints when needed and is necessary to find door unlock codes. Later in the game Bond also gets access to his pen which doubles as a weapon of sorts. With three different types of ammunition, this gadget pen can tranquilize an enemy instantly, shock them, or distract from a distance. Outside of the forced stealth sections, you won’t have a need for the pen at all.
So let’s talk about the newly added stealth mechanic in Legends. You’re encouraged to play the spy role but simply aren’t given the tools to do so properly. Stealth is an ‘option’ (apparently), but you’ll find out right from the beginning that it doesn’t work that way since it’s completely broken. You are unable to move bodies and if a patrol sees a corpse, the alarm is set off. There is no way to tell an enemy’s field of vision before it’s too late, and very early on you’ll learn that it’s simply quicker to fight your way out rather than to try and fight against the shoddy mechanics. Worse still is that there are a few sections in the game that require you to adhere to these unfair rules and if you set off an alarm or someone see you, you’re back to the checkpoint beforehand. It will cause you a few restarts and extreme frustration; guaranteed.
Mission pacing and variety don’t change throughout the whole campaign. You’ll start the mission, have a few gun fights, inspect a room with your gadgets to find a clue to where the boss character is, clear more rooms of enemies, have a vehicle section and then have a predictable quicktime event (QTE) against each mission’s boss character. That’s right; every boss in the game is a simple QTE and doesn’t vary at all. You’ll punch him by flicking the sticks up or down until he has no health left, he’ll grab a weapon, you’ll dodge then block it to make him drop the weapon, then finish him off with the same QTE and complete the level. Needless to say, only performing a QTE against Oddjob and Jaws was more than a letdown.
General enemy AI doesn’t fare much better either. First, you’ll simply have a handful of enemies thrown at you and once they are all dead you can move on. None of the enemies are smart and the more difficult ones simply have more armor on and can take more damage before dying. Enemies will stand out of cover waiting for you to shoot them or simply run towards you making your automatic weapon an easy way to clear the room. For the odd time you actually find a grenade make sure you use them, as they aren’t smart enough to run away from them.
For the completionists out there, many hidden items await you to search and find that when fully collected in a level will unlock some bonuses, though nothing all that interesting. The problem I found was that you aren’t ever told what the hidden items are and they don’t glow or shine very brightly to make it easy to find either. If you absolutely need another reason to play through the campaign again, at least these are here for those that want to get 100%.
MI6 Mode is available for those that want more challenge or to simply play with some fun modifiers on like paintball mode or ragdoll physics. Here you can essentially set mode of the settings such as weapons, health, how strong enemies are, ammo, and more. There is even an online leaderboard for those that like to brag about how hardcore they can beat missions at as well.
When you finish the campaign in a single sitting or weekend, you’ll want to head over to the multiplayer section which allows you to play online with twelve players or split screen with four. You’re going to notice right away where the multiplayer gets its influence from. You have level rankings and even a prestige-like system in place for those that truly have the time to devote. You’re able to equip gadgets and attachments to customize your character online as well.
There are a few mode offerings outside the standard deathmatch and team deathmatch and if you’ve played a FPS online in the past few years you’ll know what to expect, though with the other massive games coming out just around the corner, the online population is sure to dip quite soon (as it took me awhile to find some matches). Starting out is extremely unforgiving as you’ll most likely be matched up against much higher level characters than yourself and you start out with nothing. You’ll struggle for a few hours until you level up enough to get some decent weapons and attachments. Honestly, if Legends multiplayer didn’t have four player split screen (as very few games do that these days), it would be quite forgettable.
If you’re a Bond buff, you’re going to become quite annoyed with not only Craig being cast in each film’s reimagining, but that many of the characters in the films were changed in the game as well. The biggest offence was that Jinx didn’t look anything like Halle Barry or even try to be. Apparently M is actually voiced by Judi Dench, but the poor acting that is portrayed by a fake Daniel Craig simply does the brand disservice. In the opening act of the game, he doesn’t even get the iconic line correct when asked his name; it’s that untrue to the films.
That’s what I don’t get. 007 Legends is supposed to be a celebrate fifty years of Jame Bond films, and with half a century of source material there is a vast library to choose from; why were all of these films and changes chosen? Instead of a game that captures the classic Bond essence, you get a game that is trying its hardest to be Call of Duty instead. Sadly 007 Legends tarnishes the brand rather than celebrates it.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Just Dance 4
I think I’m coming to terms with dancing games being my guilty pleasure as I actually look forward to playing the new ones when they come out; finding those lost hits that no one else enjoys but myself and then busting a (surely terrible looking) move in the privacy of my own home (though my daughter seems to laugh at me every time I play these games) is quite fun for me. With that being said, I did bust out some embarrassing dance moves with the new Just Dance 4 and then shared them to the world on Xbox Live and my Facebook. I can laugh at myself, and if you can too you’ll have an entertaining time with Just Dance 4 as well. Is Just Dance 4 is sequel with a slew of new features or just a glorified song pack? As it turns out, a little of both.Any game in the music and dancing genre is only as good as its soundtrack and with fifty new songs to show your moves and break a sweat to there’s surely to be at least a few songs you’ll enjoy. Yes, I know you’ll probably hate the songs that I enjoyed (and vice versa), but for me here’s a few of the notable songs that stood out for me that was either fun to sing along with, dance to, or both: Beware of the Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke) by Panjabi MC, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, Istanbul by They Might Be Giants, Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 , Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan, Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, The Final Countdown by Europe, and Wild Wild West from Will Smith (and as a side note, Gangnam Style by PSY has been announced as coming soon DLC). There are some other very odd and interested song choices as well, but it really makes Just Dance 3 stand out among the competition by not taking itself too seriously. Just like the previous Just Dance games, unfortunately the dance choreography is not the “official” moves, so don’t look for that here. Instead the routines are more set on simple “fun” dancing, even though a lot of quirky moves are expected of you.
The first thing you will notice when you start Just Dance 4 is that the controls aren’t done like more Kinect games where you swipe or hold your hand in a spot to make your selection. Instead, you hold your hand palm outwards near your body, hovering over where you want to select and then you have to extend your arm and pull back quickly, as if you’re pushing a button. I understand how on paper this may seem natural but in practice it took quite a while to get used to and you’ll be fighting against the game every time you want to press the back button. I wish controller and voice navigation were included and it’s a shame the very first thing you do in Just Dance 4 is met with some confusion and frustration.
To those unfamiliar with the series, Just Dance 4 is a dancing game (I know, you weren’t able to tell from the title) that seems like it came straight from the eighties with the neon color palette where Kinect will track your body and limbs to determine how good (or poor) of a dancer you truly are. Just like the previous Just Dance games, 4 is also very space friendly and I had no issues with Kinect keeping track of my moves, even when I was doing quirky things like spinning and moving from one side of the room to the other.
The core mechanics behind Just Dance 4 remains the same, you’re judged and scored based on how well you can mimic the on-screen dancers performing the routine to the selected song. Your moves will range from miss, ok, good, or perfect but also just like the previous games, you’re never told why you are doing well or poorly. If you keep missing moves, you have no idea what limb is doing the wrong thing or if it’s a Kinect issue that’s preventing you from being a dance master. The same goes for technique as well; sometimes I absolutely did not do the move correctly, yet I got a perfect for flailing my arms around.
So how are you supposed to know what sweet dance move is coming next for you to show off? Small icons will scroll across the bottom of the screen prompting you of what you’re supposed to try to attempt in beat with the song. One of the biggest issues I have with the Just Dance series still remains though; a series of moves can be implied for a single flashcard that doesn’t even remotely hint you were supposed to move your arms or legs a specific way. There was a move where the cue card only showed an arm up in the air, yet I was somehow supposed to know that I had to do a specific kind of dance move with my legs as well. Needless to say, it’s a lot of trial and error until you learn the routines by watching the dancer rather than solely relying on the scrolling cue cards. Another familiar problem returns as well, as there is no real tutorial for songs or moves either, so if you’re unable to master a specific move there is no assistance anywhere included to help you become a better dancer.
A new feature I really did enjoy is the inclusion of Dance Quests in each song. These are essentially small objectives for you to complete as you play each song that range from scoring 3 stars to getting a perfect finish at the end. With no story mode included these Dance Quests are almost like your missions and will usually take you a few tries at each one to obtain them all. Complete these quests and you’ll get a big boost to your Mojo level and rank up, earning unlockables as you progress. You’ll now even have a Dancer Card where you can display your best scores, challenges, favorite songs and more. Not a game changing feature but it’s a fun little addition.
The popular Just Sweat mode has been expanded and includes some simple yet effective tweaks to the mode. You’re now able create personalized sessions to start your workout, change the timer for how long you want to sweat for, and even track how many calories you’ve been burning for the duration of your workout.
For the fans that know the series inside and out, Dance Mashups are an interesting way to keep things fresh. Here you’ll play the new songs from 4 but with different routines from previous games and you may even notice a few cameos from some of the previous dancers as well.
I’m assuming the Just Create mode didn’t catch on from the previous game as it’s no longer an option; though replacing it is a feature I admittedly spent more time with that I care to share. Autodance is a feature that will record small clips of your routine and then mash them together in a (usually) hilarious way. These clips can then be uploaded to Just Dance TV (JDTV) and shared with your friends, all of Xbox Live, and even straight to your Facebook wall. Go into the JDTV menu and you can search for your friends’ videos, popular, featured, most recent, and more. Here you can actually watch the clips of random people that decided to share their hilarious moments with the community and I found myself watching quite a few as most are quite entertaining (expect you, yea, the guy that plays Just Dance 4 with no shirt and only boxers on and then shares it to everyone).
Just Dance 4 is a very party friendly game and allows up to four players simultaneously provided you have the floor space to do so. For the songs that really show off the party play, each player can have their own unique moves and there’s quite a few times that you’ll actually be interacting with one another rather than simply doing the same moves side by side. So I hope you and your friends are close, cause there’s many dance moves that incorporate some fun moves like holding hands and twirling when dancing as a team.
For those with someone to play with frequently, the new Battle Mode is where you’ll want to be. Here you’ll dance off against one another in five different rounds in an almost odd take on fighting games. You each have a health bar and the better dancer of the two will be a victor and get to play their song choice next. It’s an interesting take on multiplayer dancing and I can see it being quite fun with a group of friends, especially after a few drinks.
The visuals in Just Dance 4 are very similar to the previous games and it has the same style and feel, though it seems like much more work has been done so that it’s more entertaining to watch rather than just simply a dancer in front of a backdrop. For example, the super hero that dances on top of a building with Godzilla in the background walking through the city was actually entertaining to just watch when you’re not the person playing, and I almost spat my drink laughing when the guy face plants at the end of the song.
Many of the moves you’re intended to pull off seems much more involved in Just Dance 4. You’ll be kneeling, rolling on the ground, circling each other and many more advanced moves. Just like the previous games, Just Dance 4 seems to rate you better when you’re enthusiastic and having a good time rather than solely judging you on accuracy and technique, and that’s not always a bad thing. My only real complaints are the change to the controls with the menu, as it never really feels ‘good’ to use even once you get the hand of “pressing” your selections and the lack of new features and modes besides the few listed above.
While Just Dance 4 won’t have the variety and genre depth as some other dancing games nor official dance choreography, it makes it up in trying to provide you with simple fun by dancing around and if you can laugh at yourself (or friends) you’ll have a good time. JDTV is an awesome inclusion I can’t wait to see in future Just Dance games and others in the genre as well, even if I do feel like a creeper watching people dance in their living rooms.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Dance Central 3
Known as the game that sold Kinect at launch, Dance Central returns for the third time with some fresh moves and a new look built on top of a solid base of dance moves. It’s time once again to dust off your Kinect once again and start shaking your booty to the new iteration in the series. On the disc you’ll receive over forty new songs to dance and sweat to, though if you own Dance Central and Dance Central 2 you’re also given the option to import all those songs into Dance Central 3 (for a small fee of 400 Microsoft Points) for a robust song library. Surprisingly, Dance Central 3 boasts a story mode that’s not only entertaining, but completely silly and off the wall, though it’s partly why I enjoyed it. You’ll be dancing through each of the decades starting at the 70’s and working your way onwards to the music of today. You’re a member of the Dance Central Intelligence (DCI) and you’re going to be traveling through time to stop the evil Dr. Tan from eliminating dance before it’s too late. You’ll do this by traveling back in time to previous decades to meet up with the other dance crews that were sent back to learn the hottest dance moves of that era to battle against Dr. Tan. You’ll learn era icon moves like The Hustle, The Electric Slide, The Macarena, The Dougie, and more on your quest.
When you enter a decade you’re given a list of 4 songs to choose from that coincide with that era and then dance them to the best of your ability. There are two requirements to dance to the “era craze” song (essentially the ‘boss’ song); the first being obtaining 15 stars over the course of the four songs in the selection, and the second being able to decipher a handful of “era craze” dance moves that you’ll use in the final song of the decade. During certain songs, you’ll see special moves that need to be mimicked for you to unlock them to progress. Sometimes these moves are easy and other times these moves can be extremely frustrating to master, causing numerous retries.
For those that have played the previous games, the core mechanics stay mostly unchanged, and for those new to the series, Dance Central uses Kinect’s full body tracking to allow you to mimic dance moves shown on screen and score you based on how well and accurate you recreate those moves. The harder the difficulty, the more moves and more difficult they become and the better you’ll look on the dance floor (hopefully) once you learn the actual choreography. For those that are not so gifted in the dancing department, Dance Central 3 finally introduces a Beginner Mode for those completely new to the dancing games or those with two left feet.
A dancing game is only as strong as its song lineup and Dance Central 3 tries it’s best to cover all the bases, regardless of your musical preferences. Music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, and even modern hits are all included on the disc and playable from the start. Everyone is going to have their favorites and songs they avoid, but here’s just a few of the songs that I really enjoyed that stood out for me: "Around the World" by Daft Punk, "Better Off Alone" by Alice DeeJay, "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by Backstreet Boys, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5, "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO, and “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” by New Kids On The Block (my wife would kill me if I didn’t list one of her favorite songs ever is finally in Dance Central). Other massive gits from today are also coming as DLC hopefully sooner than later like "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and "Gangnam Style" by PSY. It’s clear Harmonix knows their music and what the fans want.
Dance Central 3 is also going to be one of the first games to support the new SmartGlass functionality by using your tablet or smartphone to allow you to queue up or change songs in specific modes. You’ll be able to create playlists to suit the party’s mood and requests, purchase DLC to buy on your Xbox, and even track calories burned as well. I’m excited to try this SmartGlass feature out in a party setting, as having the option to rotate songs on the fly without going into menus seems very fitting.
Party Mode is a fun multiplayer mode that allows you to dance to random songs and play minigames during the routines as well. Depending on how well (or not so well) they are performing, usually dependent on how many drinks everyone has had, the game will actually adjust the difficulty to the appropriate levels. So those that aren’t as gifted in the dance department, fear not, as this mode will actually adjust to your skillset rather than you constantly trying to play catch up.
The newest feature included in Dance Central 3 is also its biggest one yet. Crew Throwdown is a competitive party mode that allows two teams of up to four dancers each compete head to head to finally settle one and for all who just got served. Your crew will have to prove their moves in a series of performances, battles and mini-games to prove who the hottest crew is. The most hilarious mini-game in this mode though is without a doubt the “Make Your Move” game, which has players making up routines on the fly and challenging the other crew to match the moves. The only issue with this mode is that you’ll need an obscene amount of living space room to accommodate this mode properly.
Those familiar with the previous games will be happy to know that all the familiar faces, crews, and mechanics return in Dance Central 3 but with a fresh new look to match different eras. The new multiplayer modes are welcome, though keep in mind you’ll need to possibly clear out the whole living room just to accommodate that amount of people. I found more songs in Dance Central 3 that I wanted to keep playing over and over when compared to the previous games, and the soundtrack is definitely more varied and broad. You’ll unlock new characters and costumes for the characters as you level up and progress through the game while dancing the night away.
There was only one major issue I ran into during my play through and it was quite a frustrating hurdle to overcome. In the story mode when you’re about to play the “era craze” song you need to prove that you’ve masters the moves that will be used for that song. The issue I ran into was that it won’t let you progress until you master each of the four moves and if you get stuck on a certain move, there’s no way to bypass it. The problem with this is that it’s not done in the traditional level style where you can see red outlines on the limbs that aren’t doing the proper motions; instead you just get a pass or fail without knowing why, so you’ve never told what you were doing wrong which seems counter-intuitive when you’re trying to master a specific move set. After literally doing the Macarena for fifteen minutes without success (though I’m not sure why since I unlocked the move by doing it in the first place) I asked the wife to try. After another ten straight minutes she somehow got it, but we weren’t sure why or how. So you can essentially get blocked from progressing without the game telling you why, so just be warned of potential fnix is known for being one of the few companies that understands Kinect and somehow always makes the game that seems to work flawlessly where many others fail to simply work. They’ve done such a good job in the past that Dance Central is known as the reason you buy a Kinect, and what they’ve done with Dance Central 3 is no different. More than just a glorified track pack, Dance Central 3 once again shows how fun it can be to get together with a group of friends and simply dance the night away while laughing at one another’s moves, or lack thereof.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Assassin's Creed 3
Ubisoft made some big promises and provided us some lofty expectations when Assassin’s Creed III was announced. Ezio’s story has finally been told over the course of three games and with the series starting to verge on fatigue, a new member of the Assassin Brotherhood was revealed along with a completely new backdrop that finally takes us away from the older crusade and renaissance era. Like previous installments in the series, Assassin’s Creed III’s greatest strength comes from its ability to tell a story that blends real world history with a fictional conspiracy overtone and characters. So the first thing I asked myself when I started playing Assassin’s Creed III (AC3) was “Did Ubisoft live up to their promises to what they’ve shown?” I’m happy to announce that not only did I enjoy my time with a new assassin and setting, but certain elements of the game even surprised me quite a bit when I wasn’t expecting them to. For those unfamiliar with the series, the Assassin’s Creed games tells a tale about Desmond Miles, who happens to be a descendant in a long line of assassins throughout the eras. Desmond and his crew are looking for ancient artifacts that will hopefully provide some much sought after answers that are desperately needed. There is a machine called the animus that Desmond can interact with and when he does so, he can relive his ancestors lives, which unlock many clues yet provides more questions along the way as well. The assassins are fighting for the right reasons whereas the Templars who operate as a modern mega company known as Abstergo want the same artifacts, and Desmond to get answers, for quite nefarious reasons.
For those that know the series very well inside and out, like myself, Assassin’s Creed 3 takes place directly after Revelations and begins with Desmond and crew entering a long lost temple with the hopes to unlocking a door that seems to have the answers they’ve been seeking for so long. Desmond is in search for an amulet that also acts as a key, hidden by one of his ancestors, and thus begins Desmond’s dive once again into the animus to experience the life of his ancestor, though a completely new one this time; so say goodbye to Altair and Ezio as Connor is the new hero this time in the animus.
The new protagonist is Connor, the son of a British father and a Native American mother who gave him his birth name of Ratonhnhaké:ton, believes in people being free from tyranny and seeks to uphold justice when his clan are threatened during the American Revolution. Seeking liberty for his people, Conner will hunt his enemies and do what it takes to bring justice and do what’s right for himself and family. The game starts off nothing how I imagined and after two hours or so completing the first two sequences you’ll be given a plot twist that was simply jaw dropping.
I don’t really want to discuss any of the story elements as there are a few plot twists that need to be experienced without being ruined to have the same impact. Like others in the series, you’ll jump between Connor and Desmond segments, both equally rewarding, just know that the first half of the game is almost painfully slow, but about the time Connor is an adult and making his own decisions, the story comes together very strongly and with a fantastic pace that will make you want to keep playing to find out what’s next.
Taking place in America in the late 1700’s, Connor’s adventure will take place in the busy streets of Boston, New York, the wilderness between them, and even the open seas. So many new mechanics and optional tasks have been added that you could become overwhelmed with how large the open world truly is, especially factoring in the frontier zone where Connor takes up his new residence. The wilderness area takes on a whole new gameplay element of its own and opens up the options of either hunting animals for their trophies, or tracking your enemies in the deep snow among the treetops.
Where most of the games in the series has you essentially progressing the main quest with some minor optional things to do, side quests can distract you for hours depending on if you want to hunt wild animals, liberate the city of Templar control, or even take to the Atlantic seas for some naval action. What Assassin’s Creed III does so well is allow you to take on the main story missions at your own pace but should you decide to venture off for a while, you’ll never feel like you’ve missed something and even the side based missions feel story based rather than just thrown in to prolong game time. When you decide to progress Connor’s story, there’s plenty of optional mission objectives for you to try and achieve which in turn adds replay value and makes you think of doing missions a different way then you may try the first time.
Two big improvements come with the streamlining and simpler made controls when it comes to the free running and combat mechanics. Platforming is much easier to do now without the need to hold down multiple buttons and combat isn’t simply waiting to counter the soldiers surrounding you. It feels like I had more control over Connor’s actions and everything simply felt natural. Traversing trees is a cool new trick yet just as simple as ever to actually perform. The same goes for combat, where you have so many more tools and options at your disposal, without the need to learn a slew of new button combinations to pull them off.
The series has always vastly improved on itself each year, so what’s the new feature in AC3 that makes it stand out against the previous games? Foremost is a completely new engine (named Anvil Next) that translates into much better graphics, an incredible amount of new animations that look much more fluid, dynamic and changing weather that can affect your stealth strategy.
For combat, the biggest new addition has to be the inclusion of firearms that include pistols, rifles, and muskets. Muskets can be picked up from enemies who drop them and even used against your enemies with the bayonette on the end. When you realize how long it takes to reload a musket, you’ll truly appreciate those who used them in combat and the strategy in doing so. Haystacks are still the staple of hiding spots but now there are mobile haystacks in carts that Connor can use to close the distance to his target unseen. Bushes can also be hidden in and are aptly placed in the wilderness to disguise yourself from the wild animals you’ll be hunting.
Previously in the series you needed to find and unlock viewpoints, usually the top of a tall building so that the map would become un-greyed out and you could see the streets and alleys on the map. This has slightly been changed in AC3; you’ll still be looking for viewpoints to unlock a large section of the map, but it’s not completely necessary as you un-grey the map as you run through each area.
Combat has been vastly improved as well. When you block the camera will slow down, allowing you slightly more time to think about your offensive and defensive options in that moment. When you see a line of enemies aiming towards Connor, you’re able to grab another enemy and use them as a human shield to prevent being shot.
In the frontier you’ll not only have to deal with the wild animals but you’ll also have to deal with the elements and weather such and rain, fog, and rain. In deep snow Connor will move much slower as will enemy Templars which can change your strategy drastically. Connor is able to hunt animals for skins and meat in the wilderness and if you’re not careful you’ll even find yourself being hunted by bears, wolves, cougars and more. The cleaner you kill an animal the more valuable the pelt will be worth, so it pays to kill your game with your blades or bow rather than ruining the fur by using a pistol or musket.
Much like how you would upgrade your manor in previous games, Connor has a homestead that can be upgraded from a single building to a village and residents that will live there. Connor can do missions to convince people to settle near his homestead; doing so will make the available economy boom and allow you to start selling materials by caravan for a profit. You’ll eventually have people that can craft you items that you can sell for bigger profits and netting Connor a better future.
The most ambitious and surprising addition has to be the inclusion of naval warfare. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much from these optional missions though I was pleasantly surprised with how entertaining and challenging being the captain of your own ship would be. Your sturdy ship, the Aquila, is yours to control, from the steering, speed, and weapons. If you have enough funds, you can even upgrade your ship to make it one of the most feared boats on the seas. Wind will determine your speed in certain directions and will make fine navigation along nearby rocks a chore if the wind isn’t to your favor. Managing to use the wind to your advantage and circling around your enemies ship to get those perfect shots are extremely rewarding, much more so than I was really expecting. You’ll have to do a simple tutorial during Connor’s story, but do yourself a favor and start saving your money, as upgrading your ship and having open water naval battles are some of the best parts to Assassin’s Creed III.
You’ll notice that your Xbox 360 version of AC3 comes on two discs. The first being the campaign and the second being the multiplayer. If you’ve not play the multiplayer mode from the previous games, it’s essentially a clever take on cat and mouse, where you’re hunting a player target, and they are hunting one as well. The person in the lead will have more people after them, making it more difficult to stay stealthy. The essentials of the core multiplayer experience from previous titles return here, but Ubisoft has worked on making it a staple of the game, and it seems like they finally might have done it in a new mode called Wolfpack.
In Wolfpack mode you can team up with three of your friends and it’s a cooperative multiplayer experience where your team is tasked with eliminating designated targets. You’re given a set time limit to assassinate your targets and if you truly work as a team and synchronize kills you’ll earn huge bonuses. If you manage to eliminate your targets a new round will begin and you’ll have another set of targets, but made more difficult in each round with a shorter time limit, spread out targets, and other things to put your team assassin skills to the test. Playing online modes will earn you points for customization and other unlocks to keep you enticed to continue playing. If you’ve not cared for the multiplayer portion of Assassin’s Creed in the past few games, at least give Wolfpack a shot with a few friends, as it’s different enough to shake things up a bit.
For how much I ended up really enjoying my time with Connor, there were also plenty of times that ran into slight hiccups. The first major issue I had was with the voice actor of Connor himself. Sure he’s capable, but he doesn’t hold a candle do the quality voice work of Ezio. Maybe the sometimes off lip syncing played a part in this opinion, I’m not sure, but at times it felt like he wasn’t emotional enough with his line deliverance. The vast majority of the time Connor will do exactly what you want him to, though there’s the odd time here and there that he won’t or he’ll do something that he shouldn’t be able to such as falling off places you shouldn’t or getting into an animation loop bug unable to pull his sword out. There’s quite a bit of clipping with certain characters and areas, though while not a serious issue, it draws from the immersion when Connor simply walks through a character. The first time I met Ben Franklin, he was actually invisible in the cutscene, though his book that was being carried was floating there, making for an awkward scene and me wondering what went wrong.
When playing in the city landscapes you’ll notice early on that Assassin’s Creed III tends to focus much more heavily on horizontal traversing and navigation rather than horizontal from the previous games. Sure you can get onto rooftops, but don’t expect many of the tall buildings we become accustomed to during our journey with Altair and Ezio.
The beginning starts out very odd and very slow, it’s actually not till you’re quite a few hours in until things start to become very interesting plot wise. The wait is well worth it and there are plot twists to come that will surprise and delight you. There is so much variety of things you can do in Assassin’s Creed III that it almost feels like too much at times. But if you want to take a break from naval battles and go hunt some rabbits in the forest you can.
There’s a bit of a learning curve, even for seasoned veterans of the series like myself. Learning what trees Connor can and cannot traverse takes a little time to get the hang of without having to think about it. The same goes for climbing certain rack faces and cliffs. Once you know what cracks and rocks to look for you’ll have no problem, but in the beginning it’s not always clear why you can’t get up some ledges and not others. While combat is much easier now, it’s simply different, and that too takes a few battles to really get the hang of disarming and attacking at proper times; though it’s very rewarding once it becomes second nature.
Did Ubisoft deliver on their promises and lofty expectations? I believe so. While I haven’t truly fallen in love with Connor yet like I did with Ezio, it’s almost kind of expected, because to be fair, Ezio’s story was fleshed out over the course of three games where this is Connor’s first outing. I’m happy with the direction they took with the Desmond storyline and even though it has some flaws, they are easily forgotten once you get knee deep into Connor’s struggles and have a few sea battle victories under your belt.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Zone of the Enders: HD Collection
Hideo Kojima may most famously be known for the Metal Gear series, but aside from that series, any fan will probably tell you that Zone of the Enders ranks right up there with some of the greatest that were on PS2 back in the day. With Zone of the Enders releasing in 2001 and its sequel in 2003, has these PS2 greats ages well with time or is this HD upgrade a simple cash in on a great brand? I’m glad to announce that not only does this HD Collection upgrade do the series justice, but that the games themselves actually hold up quite well after a decade. The original Zone of the Enders tells a story about a boy named Leo that’s thrust into an impossible situation when feeling from the destructive BAHRAM forces. He manages to escape into a nearby hanger and stumbles upon a pilotable mech specifically named Jehuty. As it turns out, Jehuty has a built in AI named A.D.A. and helps Leo along the way. Leo is contacted by the resistance, since he wasn’t the true proper pilot for Jehuty, and is then tasked with returning and transporting Jehuty off the colony and to a station on Mars. As Leo fends off BAHRAM forces and becomes better acquainted with Jehuty and A.D.A., he must also save civilians and his friends while also defending the colony. It concludes with an emotional ending that truly shows how far his and A.D.A.’s “friendship” has come since the day he accidently found Jehuty.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is the sequel to the fantastic first outing that had awesome visuals, story, and gameplay. The main protagonist this time around is no longer Leo, but a man named Dingo that happens to stumble upon a hidden away Jehuty once being attacked by BAHRAM forces. This is the same Jehuty that Leo piloted in the first game, though he hid it away for no one else to ever find again. Now that Dingo has found it and is piloting it, Leo will make a return in the story in an impactful way, but not as a playable character. Eventually Dingo becomes critically injured and the only way to save him is to place him inside Jehuty and keep him on life support while in the mech. Leo doesn’t like this as he thinks Jehuty belongs to him but abandons this plight once he realizes dingo can’t leave jehuty without dying. While both games are quite short to complete, the stories are engaging and interesting enough to keep you motivated to keep pushing forward.
For being a launch title for PS2, the original Zone of the Enders had some great visuals for the time and the gameplay was quite engaging with some solid battle mechanics. As you do battle against other mechs around the colony you’ll have the ability to lock onto enemies from afar. From a distance you’re able to use Jehuty’s blasters to shoot from a distance though the bulk of your gameplay will come from up close and personal sword melee. Leo (and Dingo in the second game) also has the ability to dash in any direction to avoid attacks or even charge up a powerful attack against the BAHRAM forces.
Missions you’re given will send you to different towns and cities across the colony. Each section of the colony is its own internal small map that can be entered where you’ll fight other mechs and level up for doing so. You’ll find upgrades and ammo for your secondary special weapons (after they’ve been unlocked) from defeating enemies, clearing areas, and saving survivors (which are like side missions).
While the first Zone of the Enders mostly took place in urban areas with destructible environments, the second game had a much more industrial feel to it and a sleeker presentation. Before each mission A.D.A. will quickly brief you on your current task at hand and there would be some banter back between Leo and ‘her’. In the second game it’s done in a more visual manner, where you can see Dingo’s face on the side of the screen, as if Jehuty has gotten upgrades during the time after the first game ended.
The 2nd Runner improves on almost every aspect from the first game. Visuals are greatly enhanced (especially the special effects and particles), the UI is much cleaner and the anime visuals are more readily shown. Combat seems to be much more fluid and combining melee attacks is much simpler this time around with Dingo at the helm. While I enjoyed Leo and the story from the first game much more, the gameplay and visuals from the second were so improved that it makes it a toss-up to decide which one I would rather suggest.
Instead of placing scoring weight on game mechanics, I’m more focusing on the HD upgrade the two games are receiving, as it’s not truly fair to judge a game that is over a decade old on its mechanics when compared to games of today; That being said, the HD visual upgrade is simply fantastic. Text is no longer muddled and textures have much more detail and are very sharp. Frame rates have doubled since the 30fps on ps2 to double that to 60 along with the standard definition to high definition wide screen. The anime drawn cutscenes are preserved and look much cleaner and as a whole package it’s done exceptionally well.
If you’ve not experienced these gems on the PS2 a decade ago, this is your chance to do so in full HD glory. While I really loved the first Zone of Enders on the PS2, I never got around to playing the sequel until now. I’m happy that I did as I finally got to see how improved the sequel was and most surprising though is how well the games have held up over the past ten years. Sure there are some minor camera issues and the voice acting in 2nd Runner is less than desirable but this HD Collection as a whole package can’t be beat for the price to experience two of the best games the PS2 ever had. And while Kojima may be more known for the Metal Gear series, any Zone of the Enders fan will tell you they are extremely excited for the eventual Zone of the Enders 3 one day.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Ask a gamer what their favorite fighting game is and I’m certain a good percentage of them would list Tekken as their preferred fighter of choice. Since its debut back in 1994 it has garnered fans with its unique fighting engine and deep gameplay mechanics. Over the years the series has been refined and evolved into a deep fighter with a vast and unique roster with many characters that are easily recognizable by their face alone. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was originally an arcade only title, but eventually it received a substantial update, named Unlimited. The Unlimited update for the game is what the console versions are based upon and now we have it in our homes, able to play our friends and enemies online. While the original Tekken Tag Tournament came out over a decade ago, it was known for boasting a huge roster with virtually all the characters from the previous titles. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 boasts the same accomplishment and contains almost virtually every noteworthy Tekken character from all of the previous games. With the largest roster to date in a Tekken game you’re now also able to choose a team of a solo fighter or a team of two.
While Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s storyline may not be the “official” plot line (as some characters wouldn’t exist if so), it’s more of a ‘what if’ or super-fight matchup between all of the characters. Not that you would expect a deep and engaging storyline from the majority of fighting games, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 still has ‘endings’ when you complete the Arcade Mode; cheesy videos and all (I’m looking at you ending sequence for Ling Xiaoyu).
The game is not called Tag Tournament for no reason, as you have the ability to tag in your secondary character whenever you choose. As you swap out your current character for the secondary one, the one not in use will slowly regenerate a portion of their health if needed. If a players’ life bar is emptied in battle, that player will lose the round, even if the backup character has a health reserve. This makes it imperative to swap and tag your fighters in when needed and to keep an eye on each health bar. If you happen to see your health bar flashing, make sure you go on the offensive if possible, because you’re being given a temporary boost in strength when you tag.
While the original Tekken Tag allowed for some combos and juggling with tagging characters, it has been greatly enhanced and now allows for extended move-sets and combinations. Tag Assaults are combinations that are finally done simultaneously with both characters making for some spectacular looking beat downs. There are even Tag Throws which can extend your combos and make your assaults even that much more devastating.
My favorite feature about Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has to be the option of allowing the player to choose in what type of battle they want. You can choose between 2 vs. 2, 1 vs. 1, or even 2 vs. 1 battles across mode such as Time Attack, Survival, Versus, or Arcade. Surprisingly there’s even an option that allows for 4 players to play together in a single match in 2 vs. 2 battle.
For those that don’t have hours a day to dedicate to learning all the finest intricacies of a deep fighting game, there’s usually a practice mode included where you can learn a few of the moves. The problem with most of these is that they essentially give you the move lists and that’s it; no real help learning the timing or what you’re doing wrong when it doesn’t work. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 tries to remedy this with not just adding a simple combat arena and showing you a list of moves to attempt. Instead, the practice mode dubbed Fight Lab is a fresh take on trying to teach you the basics but in an entertaining way that involves a robot with a hilarious storyline. You control a combat robot, aptly named Combot and will progress through levels of the Fight Lab, teaching you mechanics and moves to hopefully become a much better Tekken player that can pull off Tag Assaults and more on a whim. The best part is that the whole Fight Lab training is absolutely hilarious and done in such an odd mannar that you’ll laugh at almost every level. Even if you’re a Tekken master, I suggest playing through Fight Lab as it’s completely silly but very entertaining; and if you are a Tekken master, you’ll be happy to know that this is the first time you can customize Combot’s appearance and move-set.
Speaking of changing characters’ appearances, character visual customization is taken to a new level. While you won’t be creating characters from scratch, you are able to change almost every aspect of any characters’ costume. My Xiaoyu for example has a few outfits, one being a pink Power Ranger look-a-like, and another being a Santa outfit with a cute backpack. Being able to customize your favorite character to look exactly how you like does make you enjoy them just that little bit more.
When you eventually go online to play against your friends (after you use the included Online Pass) you’ll still be able to choose 2 vs. 2, 1 vs. 1, or 2 vs. 1 battles. Finally though, someone has figured out that gamers don’t enjoy staring at a lobby screen waiting for someone to join; Tekken Tag Tournament 2 instead chooses to throw you into a training area where you can practice some last minute moves and combos just before you’re prompted that an online opponent has been found. While it may be a small thing, I really enjoyed being able to test a new move just before fighting someone, and not staring at a boring lobby screen is a massive plus in my books. Every match I played was free of lag, and even though you can set to try and find similarly skilled opponents, I almost always wound of battling against Tekken masters, swiftly getting defeated, but at least it was a lag free beat down.
The biggest addition to the online fighting arena though has to be the surprising announcement of the World Tekken Federation; think of this as essentially a Battlelog or Autolog for Tekken. Logging onto the World Tekken Federation (WTF for short; I’m sure not by accident) website, you can get a complete breakdown of your past online matchups and a plethora of other insight to help you become a much more well versed Tekken player. The breakdown of matches will even detail the amount of throws, low blows, counters, throws dodged, low bloes dodged, tag assaults, tag combos, tag crashes, total damage for both players, their current online rank, fight duration, battle points earned, staged played on, date, gamertags of your opponents, and somehow, even more. You can track your achievements, and even see the Tekken tweets complete with a global map showing where people are tweeting from. To be honest it is much more robust than I was initially expecting and the battle history metrics alone is worth the hassle of the free sign up.
With a slew of new stages (with many breakaway walls and floors) and well over 50 characters to choose from across almost every Tekken game, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is without a doubt the most robust, polished, and deep Tekken to date. While it may not have much to completely revolutionize the series, it’s a solid package that can be called the ‘best of’.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
I'm somewhat new to the strategy genre, not because I've never played the games before, but because I was never all that great at them for whatever reason when I was growing up. Civilization V really warmed me up to the genre, and ironically it is also from the same developer as XCOM Enemy Unknown; Firaxis, best known for their Civilization games. So let's clear some of the confusion straight away, this XCOM game is not the shooter that is due next year (That game's title is simply XCOM), XCOM Enemy Unknown is a turn based tactical strategy game that is a re-imagination of the original from almost twenty years ago, UFO: Enemy Unknown. Having gone back to the series roots, Firaxis has made a simple barrier of entry, especially for players less experienced in the strategy genre like myself, yet still a very deep layers of a metagame that longtime fans and genre enthusiasts will enjoy. XCOM is now much more approachable for more than the diehard fans and is done in such a fantastic way that even casual fans of the genre like myself should play Enemy Unknown.
You are the fearless commander of XCOM, a global defense team comprised of members from every major nation, tasked with battling against an alien invasion and defending Earth. Not only will you control and dictate your soldiers in battle, you'll also have to build your base headquarters from bare bones to fully capable, research aliens and their technology, and balancing the funding of the operation as a whole.
Set slightly in the future, commanding XCOM will set you down a specific path for the main storyline, but the decisions you make along the way will greatly affect outcomes and strategies going forward. Many times the aliens will attack multiple places at once and you'll be forced with the impossible task of deciding who to help. Do you help the city that needs it the most, or the one that will reward you better, thus making your overall job of saving the world easier. Do you value the immediate rewards more so than the long term rewards? Choose wisely, as your decisions will catch up with you in the end and you will be the one directly responsible.
The bulk of your gameplay of the twenty plus hour story will have you in a classic isometric perspective with a moveable and rotatable camera to help with your strategy. You begin with controlling four soldiers, though later on this can be bolstered up to six, making a big difference later on. While many missions will have you simply finding and destroying any alien contact, others will have you defusing bombs, attempting to capture a live specimen, escort missions, and other types that will test your strategic forming abilities in every way. Like many strategy games, the map will be 'foggy' until you've explored the area and will hide the actions of the enemy aliens until they are in view.
My favorite feature in the whole game is something you learn very quickly, that your team can stay your team throughout if you are careful enough and the longer they survive the more abilities they'll gain and become more powerful. Don't become too overconfident though, you WILL die and lose some of your important teammates along the way and you will most likely become emotionally attached to some of them, especially if you rename them to match actual family and friends. If you're able to keep your soldiers alive long enough to get some combat experience, they'll become randomly assigned to one of four classes; Assault, Heavy, Sniper, or Support. Each class plays completely unique from each other and will mesh very nicely when used in a team setting. Each time you level up you're given the choice of choosing one of two skills, both of which are very useful in its own right; it will just depend on your squad makeup and play style. Some choices I found very difficult to decide, such as deciding between making an individual member much more effective, or making their skills enhance the rest of the team nearby, again, it will come down to preference.
While some classes take much longer to come into their own than others (snipers start out very weak for a long time, but once leveled up they are a necessity) each soldier has the same core abilities such as being able to move, fire, take cover behind walls and objects, and using the Overwatch skill, which allows you to stay behind cover but fire upon any enemy that moves into your field of vision; a very useful skill on the harder difficulties and later missions. Being a successful commander that brings all of this squad home must know when to also be defensive and let the enemy come to them rather than walking into a trap.
Once you have an alien in your line of sight, you're given the option to fire upon them, and doing so will allow you to select your enemy and then show you the probability chance you have at hitting your target (along with other information like their health and the damage you can potentially inflict). Being able to easily cycle between targets and even choosing which team members go in order will play a huge role in your strategy in each fight.
A huge part in the strategy element of Enemy Unknown is what actually happens between your regular missions. At your XCOM underground headquarters, you'll begin with only a few areas developed and unlocked, but you'll spend the resources needed to expand and upgrade your base as well. You decide what continent you want your base in at the beginning of the game and choosing your base location determines which bonuses you'll receive throughout your play through. You'll manage construction, research of new weapons and armor, manage your soldiers (and hire new ones when the experienced ones perish in battle), and determine what your scientists and engineers should focus on project-wise. You'll be able to scan Earth to keep tabs on the growing alien invasions around the world and respond accordingly. There will be times where you'll have to even send interceptor planes at incoming UFO's and then dispatching soldiers on the ground to recover any remains once it's been shot down. It's a very deep metagame that takes a lot of patience and understanding to do everything you want to that integrates nicely with the on-ground missions you do with your soldiers.
There is even a multiplayer offering for those that like to play online against their friends (or others). The offering is a light one at that though, with 1 vs. 1 going head to head with teams of six in a single mode (killing the other team). While it may seem light, there is some depth, as you get to choose your soldiers (even aliens) and depending on what classes you choose, you could have a complete advantage or disadvantage, as you're unable to see what the opposing player has chosen until you find each other on the map. While the multiplayer portion is a bit bland, there's nothing quite like playing against another human and trying to adapt your strategy to their gameplay rather than the AI's. While it's not the deepest and most engaging multiplayer I've played, it gets a pass and I'm actually hoping for some new vs. or co-op maps and missions via DLC.
I never really expected to care about my soldiers as much as I ended up doing simply because I named them my friend's names and tried to make them look the part, but I did. The first time I lost a solider when he was quite experienced, it dawned on me the importantance of not only keeping them alive but how finely balanced the risk vs. reward system is in XCOM Enemy Unknown. While you may feel safe attempting those 80% chances to hit your enemy, there is a chance that things can take a turn for the worse and these random elements keeps the game exciting and very challenging at the same time. You never feel like you have enough time, money, or resources to do all the things you want, and that's a good thing because it forces you to determine what is more important. Do you go for the short term gain or invest more into a bigger payoff much later? Each decision feels tense and engages you from start to finish.
Even on the lower difficulty settings, the game can become very difficult quite quickly, especially if you lose some of your experienced soldiers or have nations drop support of XCOM. The game is by no means perfect; many times you'll have line of sight issues (sometimes in your favor where you'll shoot through a wall, but usually the opposite where your vision is apparently blocked) and very little is explained clearly and you'll learn more from trial and error (the error usually resulting in a dead comrade). Some may get turned off by the massive spikes in difficulty out of nowhere but even with its faults, stick with it and you'll have a fantastic time deciding what's the right thing to do at the time.
When things work out in your favor though, it's exhilarating to experience your pinned down and outnumbered soldiers come back from near death. The highs are high, and the lows are very low; if you're like me, you'll curse when you lose a max rank soldier due to your own stupidity but cheer when you make that last ditch effort with a 20% chance to hit with your fingers crossed. Enemy Unknown took me by complete surprise, as I wasn't expecting much from a console strategy game. Firaxis has found the magic formula of making the game much simpler, but not easy. XCOM is addictive, and much like Civilization, you'll probably be like me and keep saying "just one more mission before bed". If you can appreciate a fantastic balance of risk vs. reward, XCOM Enemy Unknown simply cannot be passed up, even for the casual strategy fans like I was.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Borderlands 2
There aren?t many games that can boast they have more than a bajillion guns in their game; Borderlands can, and still holds the crown. I got to wondering how a game as big and successful as the original Borderlands was, how it could be improved upon. Seems like Gearbox has figured it out and they're just doing what did so well the first time, just better and more of it. More memorable characters, more crude humor, more enemies, more guns than before, and of course, more and more loot to keep you playing. The world of Pandora awaits your return with new skills, environments, characters, missions, weapons and more. I never really found a class in the first Borderlands that really hooked me, so I never got around to finishing it, but it seems Gearbox somehow knew exactly my play style and Axon (Commando Class) has the skills that have completely hooked me and make me feel very useful when playing online with friends.
Borderlands 2 takes place five short years after the original game and while it?s a sequel, you won?t be playing the same characters you got attached to in the first game. Fear not though, you?ll run into Roland, Brick, Lilith, and Mordecai throughout your journey across Pandora in an effort to save the world. This time around you?re going to be choosing one of four new Vault hunters; Salvador, Maya, Axton, or Zer0 and they are tasked with stopping Handsome Jack, the CEO of the Hyperion Corporation from unleashing an unknown evil upon Pandora. While the whole ?save the world? plot line has been done to death before, there are to twists and so much humor in the story to keep you pushing forward, wanting to find out what?s going to happen next.
So let?s start off with the biggest change to Borderlands 2: The new characters and classes that you?ll be playing. The four new characters and classes are quite unique and you won?t feel much deja-vu even if you?ve played the original game to death. Salvador is a Gunzerker and his unique ability is the capability to dual wield any gun in any combination you can possibly think of. If you want to shoot a sniper and a rocket at the same time, or a shotgun and assault rifle, that won?t be a problem for Salvador. He plays much more aggressively than the other characters, so choose him if you like to run into an area guns blazing.
Maya is the Siren and has the ability to Phaselock enemies that can have many different effects other than locking them out of combat and dropping their guard. Phaselocking can be a simple crowd control skill, but can also be used to make enemies prone to take more damage or even heal party members. Zer0 is the mysterious Assassin that is able to vanish seemingly into thin air and then assassinate enemies with melee hits for massive damage. Zer0 has the ability to create decoys to distract enemies while he sneaks around for a stealth kill from behind. Axton was my choice, as he is the Commando and has the ability to throw out a Sabre Turret to not only shoot nearby enemies, but to use it as a distraction as you also shoot away at anything in front of you. The turret is able to be upgraded to either shoot quicker, multiple types of attachments, or even explode a nuke when deployed.
A fifth character has already been announced; Gaige is a Mechromancer and is available October 16th, which brings up the class list to five total. A big problem I found in the original Borderlands is that while you got to play your class your way, you really didn?t differentiate yourself from other players of the same class all that much. This has been changed in Borderlands 2 as the skill trees are much more robust and it feels like you can truly customize your character of choice to match your specific play style. For my game with Axton I decided to focus on beefing up my turret skills, though you could easily make a completely different build that would completely change how you fight your enemies. The new skill trees simply feel like you can really customize your character exactly how you want.
On top of the class skill trees you now also have customization options called your Badass Rank. Essentially you?re being tracked on everything you do in the world of Pandora along your journey and doing small tasks will reward you with Badass Tokens. Spend these tokens for small upgrades to your character stats such as gun damage, reload speed, elemental chance, shield regeneration, and many other options to further customize your vault hunter. While the rewards might seem very small at first, if you keep choosing the same reward, the bonuses can add up very quickly, making you even more powerful in a specific way to suit your game. You?ll get many Badass Tokens without even trying, as you might get one for opening 100 chests, killing 1000 enemies, driving over a certain amount of enemies, and almost anything else you can think of. The best part about boosting your Badass Rank though is that these bonuses benefit all of the characters you create under that gamertag, meaning your newly created level 1 Assassin will have all these bonus perks you?ve unlocked with your max level character (though you have the option to turn it off if you wish).
Just like the first game, sidequests make a return in droves, and you?ll never have a shortage of places to go and objectives to complete. If the main story quests become too difficult or you just want a change of pace, the sidequests are very entertaining and rewarding to keep you busy. While most quests will task you with killing or collecting something, some of the writing and humor in the quests are so incredibly funny that I was actually laughing out loud. Seriously, I lost it when I had to hunt ?Bonerfarts? and then find Claptraps super-secret hiding spot.
We all know that the real hook to Boderlands though is the loot and the perpetual carrot dangling in front of you to keep you pushing forward. I keep wanting to simply do ?one more quest? and to hopefully level up and get a weapon upgrade. Just like the first game, you?ll come across so many weapons that are completely unique that you?ll most likely never see them all even if you play with your friends online.
And thus we come to the online portion of Borderlands 2, something that the first game did right and something it continues to do right in the sequel. You and three friends can play together in drop-in drop-out gameplay, and you?ll share experience and loot as you play together. The more people in your game the more difficult the enemies become, but the rewards and drops are better as well, so it?s a risk vs. reward type of setup. While I was only able to get a single match online going before launch, I luckily did get to do it with a friend and I had more fun in that short time than the dozen hours playing single player beforehand. Funny enough, we were both Commandos, so I was unsure how well we would work together, but his skill tree was completely different than mine and having two turrets made defeating some bosses possible. It seems like almost any combination of classes and skill tree differences will make a great party combination as everyone will build their character slightly different than everyone else (not even including what unique guns they?ll be using). The only downfall I found to playing online is that the loot is shared, so if you play online with random people, expect it to be a spamfest when loot drops from bosses, so I suggest keeping it to friends and trusted gamers.
Visually Borderlands 2 looks much cleaner, sharper, and brighter overall. It still has the charming cel-shaded graphic style but you can tell early on that everything simply looks much better overall. The same goes for the audio and voice acting; the acting is superb across the board from all the characters are top notch. The writing that accompanies the amazing voice acting simply makes it that much of a better package, as it seems like I can never get sick of Claptraps one-liners.
While I?m thoroughly enjoying Borderlands 2 immensely, it does have a few issues that are worth noting that seemed to keep bugging me. While you?re able to unlock and re-skin your character, aside from a few different head options, it?s really just palette swaps, making every Axton and every Maya looks the same aside from the colors of their clothes. Textures will pop in from a distance and the annoying invisible walls will still prevent you from driving your vehicle somewhere it should clearly be able to fit through. Vehicles still seem like they?re only there because they were there in the first game and serve no real purpose aside from getting from point A to point B much quicker (though shooting with infinite ammo almost seems unfair at times).
My complaints are minor and it in no way diminishes the overall package you?ll get when you buy the game. That?s right; I?m not telling you if you buy the game, it?s actually a matter of when, even if you only somewhat enjoyed the first game like myself. The writing is brilliant, it has immense humor, fantastic gameplay, fun quests, awesome co-op for four friends online, and a bajillion guns for you to loot. It?s time to return to Pandora and hang out with Claptrap some more.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Wreckateer
Everyone loves breaking things right? You could make an argument that it?s one of the reasons Angry Birds did so well, because you got to wreck things. I bring up the Angry Birds reference purposely because what if you could play something similar with Kinect rather than the touch screen; well that?s what we have here with Wreckateer. Sure you won?t be hurling birds at pigs on random plank ways but the premise is the same, just with a different execution.Wreckateer is set in medieval times with a ballista siege weapon as you?re tasked to destroy many different castles, destroying any goblins that have taken over said castles. You?ll be launching the ballista, aiming your shots, and even guiding the cannonballs midair to try and cause as much destruction as possible. So clear some space in your living room and get ready for a Kinect experience that makes for an interesting party game and one kids will enjoy.
It seems as if there?s been a goblin invasion in the kingdom and you?ve been hired to join the Wreckateers; Wreck and Tinker. So keep in mind, if you have goblins in the castle in this kingdom, this team of Wreckateers will be commissioned to simply destroy the castle so it can be rebuilt; goblins are serious business! As the newest member to the team, Wreck and Tinker will show you the ropes and teach you the basics of the destruction business as you evacuate all those goblins. You will use your ballista to destroy sixty different castles with multiple types of magical projectiles. The goal is destruction and you want to be the best at your job.
You are given a predetermined amount of ammunition to launch with your siege weapon and with that you must cause as much destruction as possible and rack up the points in search of a gold medal on each stage. The first step is by literally taking one up to the ballista, from here you put your hands together in front of you to grasp the bow then step backwards to place tension on the bow for longer distance shots. You can aim your shot directly in whatever direction you want by raising or lowering your hands before releasing. The further you step back the farther your shot will launch but you also lose more time to aim the shot precisely where you want it to land.
Once you release your shot by quickly spreading your hands apart, the camera will close in on your projectile as it hurls towards the castle walls. With some of the shot types you?ll be able to coax the projectile in any direction with your magical gauntlets. Your magic gauntlets appear on screen and you can ?hit? your shot down if you want it to go down for example. Eventually you?ll become very familiar with doing so as you?ll need to ?curve? some shots in the more difficult levels later on.
There are multiple types of shots that you?ll be given in your goblin eviction quest that range from split shots to flying shots. The flying shot is the easiest to control and has you holding out your arms as if you?re flying to control its direction. Split shots will separate and have a tether between the ends, allowing for higher destruction based on what angles your hold your arms at. There are bomb shots that can be activated and exploded at will and even a speed shot that will take off like a bullet when activated. Along with multiple projectiles there are also shot icons scattered about the stages that allow for more points or can even alter your regular shot into a speedier one.
Since the order of ammo is predetermined at the beginning of a level, it becomes quite strategic in the later levels to figure out the best course of action for the most devastation. This is the puzzle element to Wreckateer and as you progress in levels, the requirements to earn a bronze medal to continue onward becomes much tougher to achieve without proper planning ahead of time. Some of the floating icons act as hints of where you should aim, but others can almost be a distraction, making you wonder if it?s worth missing a tower just to get that point bonus.
As long as you achieve a bronze medal or higher, you?ll unlock the next stage after your final shot. Your score is based on how much damage you do with your shot, the multipliers you progress towards, and earning badges for doing various things like bouncing a shot, destroying homes, hitting goblins, and more. Nailing a goblin directly will give a surge of points, as will hitting the dynamite placed on specific castle walls, allowing for more destruction and thus more points. In the first half of the game you won?t even have to try to get a bronze, but as you get near the end, you?ll need to use every trick you can just to hopefully obtain one.
A new feature that took me by surprise is something called Avatar Famestar. While we are already used to achievements, this is almost a second tier and layer that has you trying to reach specific goals and completing challenges. Doing so will reward you with gear for your avatar, and while there are only a few titles that use this new feature at the moment, I think it?s going to catch on and you?ll start to see it in many more avatar centric titles in the future.
While the learning curve of Wreckateer isn?t very steep, you?re going to eventually hit a brick wall of difficulty, almost seemingly out of nowhere. All of a sudden you?ll have to hit many power-ups just to simply make the shot you intended to from the beginning. I was enjoying the game?s pace and difficulty until this spike in challenge as it became very frustrating, as you aren?t really given hints on the best course of action if you become stuck struggling to get a bronze to progress. Stages like these are where you?ll use your hard earned mulligans which allow you to redo your last shot in case you are unhappy with its results.
Like all Kinect games, the success is going to be on the accuracy of the motion controls, and this is where part of my frustration came in. While I frequently had issues with taking my shots or getting it to shoot exactly where I wanted, it wasn?t a consistent problem either. Sometimes I could do a full level with any issues and the next I would struggle for Kinect to simply recognize that I was trying to grab the ballista. The same went for activating the special shots abilities; many times it wouldn?t see my flailing my arms about resulting in a dud for a shot, forcing me to use a mulligan and try again hoping it will work. The same goes for when I was using my magic gauntlets to aim my shots, as sometimes it went the right direction, and others it would things my hands are moving randomly in any direction. Because the latter half of the game requires such precision and planning, failing a shot because Kinect doesn?t see you spreading your arms apart becomes incredibly frustrating and makes you want to stop playing.
When it works though, the game is incredibly fun and I was having a blast destroying castles as I eradicated the goblin menace. It was completely random when the game wanted to ?work? and when it didn?t. When it worked I didn?t want to stop playing, but as soon as I started having issues with Kinect recognizing me and not doing what I?m intending I wanted to turn it off right away. If you have the proper play space and kids, they will most likely enjoy hurling boulders at walls in the earlier levels, just be prepared to help them when the latter levels become very difficult to progress.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Just Dance Greatest Hits
Who knew that when Ubisoft unleashed Just Dance on the Wii to the world back in 2009 that it would have been as popular as it did. This was roughly a year before the Kinect for Xbox 360 released and would have spawned it a true rival in the dancing game genre. In the original game for Wii you had to hole the Wii-mote in your hand and depending on how you were moving, that?s how the game determined if you were performing the correct dance moves or not. Obviously, it was very easy to cheat because it was only tracking those motions and didn?t use a camera like Kinect does to track your whole body movements. Now that Kinect can see every limb and how it?s moving, it can determine if you?re actually dancing properly and grade you based on how well your moves are. That?s right; you?re actually going to have to dance with the on screen persona if you want the big points! While Just Dance 3 was the first in the series to come out for Kinect just under a year ago, Just Dance Greatest Hits is now brining Xbox 360 owners the chance to play some of the best songs from the first tow Just Dance games that only released on the Wii years ago, hence the aptly named title. So what do you get in Just Dance Greatest Hits? Thirty five new songs from Just Dance 1 and Just Dance 2, though two of the songs are from Just Dance 3 but were exclusive to a specific retailer (B.o.B.?s Airplanes and Only Girl In The World by Rihanna).
Everyone has different tastes and preferences in music selection but these were a few of the songs that stood out for me and that I had to play as soon as I saw them since I never played the first two games on Wii. Body Movin' (Fatboy Slim Remix) (Just Dance 2), Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor (Just Dance), Jump by Kris Kross (Just Dance 2), Jump In The Line (Shake, Senora) from Harry Belafonte (Just Dance 2), Kung Fu Fighting (Dave Ruffy / Mark Wallis Remix) by Carl Douglas (Just Dance 2 DLC), Boney M.?s ?Rasputin? (Just Dance), and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley (Just Dance 2). Some of the songs are covers but most are original and bring back memories. The most noticeable cover to me was Can?t Touch This by MC Hammer, as it doesn?t sound right at all and I didn?t even want to replay it after the fact. It should be noted that even if you have played the original games where the bulk of these songs originate, some of the songs difficulty have been altered from the original as well.
So if you?ve never played any of the Just Dance series, the first thing you?re going to notice is that the game contains a whole lot of neon coloring and looks like it?s straight out of the eighties (which is fitting for this game as much of the music is). The first thing I always test when playing a new Kinect game is how space-friendly it is and how well the virtual hand gesture controls work. Just Dance 3 passed both of these tests and Greatest Hits is no different. I was able to play comfortably with my wife in our small play space in the living room without any issues or hassle of having to rearrange the whole room to get it to work. The game supports up to four players if you have friends over as long as each person is staggered in formation (some routines are even meant for multiple simultaneous players).
Just like other dancing games, the premise is simple; mimic the dancer?s movements on screen and the better you replicate their moves the more points you?ll receive. Each move will grade you a miss, ok, good, or the sought after perfect. The biggest issue the Just Dance games suffer from is that you aren?t told why you aren?t getting a good score or aren?t hitting the moves right (which its main competitor does very well) and other times you know you?re not doing anything like the person in the game but it?s giving you great marks for doing so. For those that aren?t as skilled in the dance moves department, setting the difficulty to Easy will have Kinect only track your arms and torso, making the footwork an afterthought or completely ignored. For those that want to really sweat and dance though, Normal mode will have you attempting to keep up with every spin, jump, and crazy leg work the game can throw at you. The game doesn?t actually tell you the difference between the modes, as I had to learn it by reading the manual myself.
So how are you supposed to know what flashy move you?re going to be trying to perform next? There are flashcard-like icons that will scroll across the screen to show you what moves will be coming up next in succession. These pictographs work for the most part, but there were many times where each flashcard showed only one move but the dancer did more than what was implied on the cue, making it difficult to always keep up with these ?unknown? moves. There?s also no real tutorial for the move sets, so you?re basically jumping in with both feet and just told to follow along as best as you can.
The song lyrics will also scroll along the bottom left corner and at specific times there are Shout Out sections that require you to sing along with the lyrics, though only if you want the bonus points (or the shy dancers in the group can sing along instead). There are specific gold moves that will show up now and then and will net you a ton of extra points if you perform them correctly. There?s usually a few per song and if you want the top scores you better make sure you nail every one of them. You can?t fail out of a song, so there?s no harm in trying those moves you know you probably can?t do anyways. I do wish that some of the songs had the actual dance routines included that are shown in the music videos so that you could dance along properly when you see the video, or if you?re brave enough, while you?re on a real dance floor.
The extra modes from Just Dance 3 return to Greatest Hits as well, with my favorite being Simon Says. This mode has you following a routine like you normally would, but you also needs to watch the marker on the side to either do the move, ignore it, or another move entirely like jumping, spinning, or dancing like a maniac. It?s a little difficult to watch and focus on the actual routine and also the ?Simon? to see if you?re supposed to follow along the routine or not since you?re so focused on mimicking the dancer as best as possible.
Just Sweat mode returns again as well and will tally up how many sweat points you earn per song based on how active you dance. This mode can be a complete dance workout and doesn?t take long for you to reach for a drink or towel. You pick a setlist of songs then take the challenge of dancing to them back to back (though you can ?cheat? and break in between songs when you need to choose difficulties). It actually becomes quite challenging a few songs in when your arms and legs don?t want to start cooperating and your shirt is becoming drenched in sweat.
The Just Create mode also returns and allows you to do just that; create your own routines. The Dance Off mode has you following most of a songs set routine, but you?ll get to throw in your own moves here and there. The fun comes in with the Freestyle Mode though, as here you get to make your own complete routine from the start of a song to finish. You?re able to name the routine, take a cover picture for it, and then challenge your friends to it. Sadly, it still won?t attempt to make flash cards so that your friends know what moves are going to come next, but it?s entertaining and makes for a good time with some friends, especially after a few drinks.
If you own a Wii and played the first two Just Dance games then Greatest Hits really offers nothing new to you unless you really want to see if you can do the moves properly with Kinect now being able to see how you?re ?actually? dancing. If you enjoy the dancing game genre and are looking for some new tunes to dance to, Just Dance Greatest Hits may essentially be a song pack, but most people picking it up for Kinect probably haven?t played the original games anyways. While Greatest Hits offers nothing new compared to Just Dance 3 aside from song selection (as a note, I?ve score Greatest Hits the same as Just Dance 3 since it IS basically the same game non music wise), there were a few gems in the song list that I enjoyed dancing to even though I wish it had some new features. If you?re looking forward to the new dancing games coming out this fall, Greatest Hits will at least make the wait a little more bearable.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
The original Steel Battalion on the first Xbox remains to this day one of the most hardcore and unique gaming experiences I?ve ever had. For those that never played the original, it cost around $200 because it came with a monstrous custom controller designed specifically for that game and only that game. It had two joysticks, foot pedals, and about forty or so buttons, making for a truly unique mech experience if you had the cash and table space to set it up on. There really was nothing else quite like it, and when Capcom announced that it was going to make a return I was more than excited, as I got my wallet ready to plunk down another hundred or so to see what the sequel would be like on Xbox 360.Then it was announced that it was going to be a Kinect title. Now I don?t hide that I?m generally a fan of Kinect games when they are done properly and work, but I was perplexed on how they were going to make the intricacy of all those buttons, joysticks, and pedals work with Kinect and have the same type of experience you had with the original game and controller. Once I learned that From Software (Demon?s Souls, Dark Souls, Armored Core V) was developing it I set aside my skepticism and anxiously awaited the sequel I?ve been wanting for years; I guess I should have kept my guard up.
Being touted as a truly hardcore game for Kinect, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor could have been something revolutionary for the platform, that is, if it worked?at all. Heavy Armor is breathing potential of what the Kinect is capable of in theory, but in execution, it somehow turned out to be Kinect?s worst offering yet. I generally don?t like to focus on the negatives of a game unless it?s worth mentioning, but you?ll notice as you read on that there will be very few positives about the experience I had with Steel Battalion. Read on.
Set slightly in the future, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor?s backdrop is a world set in war where you are taking control of Winfield Powers, the best damn Vertical Tank (VT or veet for short) pilot there is. The UN (known in the game as ?Uncle?) we know today is nothing like the UN in Heavy Armor, and they?ve actually pushed American forces all the way back into Mexico. Your job is to push back, though in this future, there?s essentially no computer systems left, making for a very World War II setting even though it?s set in the future. You control your veet alongside a crew of three others that will constantly be talking to you and generally being a nuisance even though they are trying to get you to bond with your team.
I?ll warn you now, you?re going to have a difficult time finishing a mission, let alone each of the campaigns that take place in a different point of the war, due to the sloppy and broken controls. The first mission alone took me about an hour or so because of the problems I?ll explain in detail later on, when the mission itself was actually only five minutes long; and no, I?m not exaggerating. The missions seem to vary from quick single action sequences to drawn out battles versus other veets. If you progress far enough into the game certain missions will be available to play in four player co-op, though you won?t be a apart of the same team inside a single veet unfortunately. I wanted to play some co-op to test out the online and how it differs from single player, but I left my co-op match open online for an hour and not a single person joined, nor could I find a match though.
While this is technically a Kinect game (purple case and all), you will also have the controller in your hands at all times, making for a hybrid like gameplay style. The controller is used for the main VT functions like moving, aiming, and firing, but everything else that you?ll need to do (attempt to do) is controlled by Kinect?in theory. As you begin the game you?re thrown into a tutorial that briefly explains the basic commands and hand gestures to pilot your veet, from that point on through you?re on your own. The same goes for missions, as your instructions are not always clear and it will take many attempts of trial and error to figure out not only what you have to do, but when and why. You?ll actually have to listen to your commanders instructions, though if you don?t have the subtitles on (which don?t always match the dialogue either), good luck, because they are constantly in your ear complaining about something or wanting to annoy you at the same time. This is all while you?re under heavy fire from enemy VT?s and struggling with the Kinect controls simultaneously.
Steel Battalion almost feels like a micromanaging game, as you?ll need to use (try to) every button and lever and react to what?s happening around you quickly. This is where the game starts to fall apart due to the unresponsive controls, even from the first mission. Why is it the pilot?s duty to clear the cockpit of smoke when my teammate beside me isn?t doing anything, waiting to reload ammo, and how does one of your platoon die inside your veet when the only opening in the windshield in front of you?
You?re going to have a frustrating time struggling with the Kinect controls when you?re attempting to push a specific button, but pulling a lever instead. You have buttons for changing ammo types, maps, levers to pull more buttons towards you, changing speeds, pulling down the periscope, and more. All of these buttons, levers, and handles are cramped on top of each other and you better hope you never need to do something in a hurry (which you constantly do) because you?re going to grab the wrong lever and press the wrong button hundreds of times while you?re getting shot and simply trying to close the viewport.
You play the majority of the game sitting down, but you can?t slouch and you better hope you have the perfect lighting in your living room and that Kinect can see the color of shirt you?re wearing today. There are moments when you?ll stand up and hold your imaginary binoculars to your face to scout your path ahead, but once you sit back down, the Kinect seems to forget the position you were just sitting in. Each action needs a ridiculous amount of precision to even start to work properly, but if it?s not deliberate (and usually even when it is), you?re going to constantly be pulling the wrong panels towards you, pressing the incorrect buttons, and hopefully you don?t accidently press the self-destruct button, because I know I have when I didn?t want to. I?m not sure why there?s no voice commands included to make some of these gestures simpler, as most of the time you need to use these buttons and levers very quickly to prevent being exploded and restarting the level.
Once the Kinect thinks you?re trying to use a specific button or handle, you?re committed to that action whether you like it or not. Many times when you?re simply trying to turn on the headlights, you?re going to switch into high speed mode, probably twelve times unintentionally, then you might pull the ventilation lever a few times, and then you?ll most likely accidently use the periscope or repeatedly open and close the viewport shutter a few times before you get destroyed by the enemy veet. Every second you spend fumbling with the controls is more damage you?ll be taking by the enemy that doesn?t have the same type of hindrance. You wanted to use the periscope but instead changed gears? Too bad. You meant to change ammo types by pressing the small button on the dash but instead now have a map open in front of your face? Yea, get used to it. Pulled a panel to your face somehow even though you didn?t move your hands? Yea, that?s going to happen quite a lot and there?s no way to cancel ?your? actions. I?ve left my hands still while playing and Kinect will sometimes still think I?m flailing them about, randomly pressing buttons and not doing anything I tell it to. I?ve changed clothes, rearranged my living room, added more lighting, but to no avail; you win this time poor Kinect controls.
With the control issues aside, there were two things I did like about Heavy Armor that stood out, though by no means makes up for the broken experience. Your teammates can die if you aren?t careful (which is nearly impossible since you can?t properly control your veet) and will permanently die, sending you a replacement for your VT squad that you?ll want to try and protect better next time. Regardless of how hectic the battles are outside (not the battle you?ll constantly be having with the controls) the game is very slow paced and you need to take your time to line up your shots since it takes time for your team to reload ammo and shells.
That being said, it?s not much of a saving grace for a game that had me more frustrated than any game I can remember in quite a while. The graphics look terrible and murky, especially the ground troops and their animation (or lack thereof) when they die. The lip syncing doesn?t even look like it?s set for the proper language and stands out horribly, and I hope you like the sounds of beeps from the mine detector because that and your squad swearing is what you get to listen to for most of the journey.
I?m all for games being difficult by design, it seems that?s From Software?s forte, but not by broken and unresponsive controls. Sure some gamers will be patient enough to try and work through the constant misfires, but even I had a hard time sitting down (attempting) to play when all control is taken out of your hands. You might as well throw your arms up and waggle them around hoping the button you want will magically be pressed; because trying to do the distinct motion meant to press it won?t work either. If the game was able to be played with just a controller, sure it wouldn?t have that Steel Battalion mystique, but at least it would work and I would have been able to finish the game. As a note, I was stuck on the same mission for over two hours because my veet kept filling up with smoke, killing us in the process because I couldn?t ventilate it in time almost every single attempt, which prompted me to throw up my arms in disgust and give up.
I?m not one to generally knock on Kinect integration, as when it?s done well it?s a great addition. The experience included here though will actually knock down not only Kinect?s biggest supporters, but From Software?s as well. The game is truly aggravating and frustrating in every way, but not intentional, making for a horrible experience with no enjoyment at all, even for those rare moments when you press a button on the first try, though Kinect probably did it by accident. But hey, at least you get to fist bump your squad mates?right?
The game premise is a fantastic idea that is broken in execution. Instead of a great hybrid hardcore game, you get something that doesn?t work at all, and I can?t score a game based on its ideas, only how it plays and functions, which brings me to my final point. The game is so completely broken and flawed that I don?t understand how it could have shipped in this state in the first place. I?m all for forgiving if it was a little finicky and didn?t work a few times here and there, but you?ll literally sometimes sit there for a few minutes trying the same motions to simply flip a switch with no success. The game feels unfinished and you?re going to feel frustrated and ignorant for not being able to press a simple button that?s right in front of your face. Steel Battalion is the worst and most frustrating gaming experience I?ve had in many years and sadly it?s now going to be remembered as a joke and be a huge black stain on Kinect?s history.
Overall Score: 1.0 / 10
Spec Ops: The Line
I have to admit, I may have rolled my eyes when I was going to start playing Spec Ops: The Line, thinking it would be yet another cover based militaristic shooter where you?ll hide behind cover, shoot enemies, and repeat for six-plus hours. While I did get that, which is what I was expecting, what I also got was an intriguing story packed with real emotion that made me question my decisions. It concluded with a captivating ending and will have me remembering it for some time; it even had some decent shooting mechanics under the hood as well.Generally in these war games the hero is portrayed as the do-gooder and is usually thrown into a bad situation that only he?s able to fix. Here, it?s not so simple and the answer is usually a no-win ending no matter your choices how good your intentions are. It?s about the events of Delta Squad and their struggles, not saving the world from some evil tyrant, making it a much more intimate story where you actually care about the characters and outcome.
The Spec Ops games have actually been around for quite some time, but the last one being on the original Playstation, it?s had time to sit and be forgotten. It?s back now with The Line and is its own story and doesn?t take anything from the previous games, in case you were a Spec Ops fan and was wondering how it ties in (it doesn?t). Developed by Yager, a smaller studio, I was curious to see how the gameplay would hold up or if it would just be another shooter eventually forgotten among the crowded genre.
The setup is that you?re playing as Captain Martin Walker, who just happens to be voiced by none other than Nolan North, and you?re sent into Dubai after a catastrophic sand storm has essentially wiped out a good portion of the wealthy city skyline. You?re tasked with finding Colonel Konrad and to evacuate any survivors still trapped in the city. With days gone by without sun due to the storm, planes have come crashing down and the city itself is turning into rubble from the storm?s onslaught.
Konrad volunteered himself and his 33rd battalion to help with relief efforts once the deadly storms starting to strike the city, and when the order came down to evacuate the city the 33rd ignored the orders and stayed behind. When no caravans of survivors or 33rd soldiers arrived after the storms stopped, the 33rd were slapped with the treason title, thus sending in Delta Squad comprising of Walker, Adams, and Lugo. Their mission is simple; find Konrad, survivors, and then radio for extraction. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems though and you?ll eventually face enemies you were never trained to fight; American soldiers. It becomes clear quite early on that something is not right and you?ll have to walk the fine line of following orders or doing the right thing.
I don?t want to get much more into the story as I found it was the best part about the game and really had me wanting to continue at the start of each new chapter. While the lead writer has said that much influence came from the novel Heart of Darkness, fans of Apocalypse Now will find many similarities in tone and events that unfold. The story lays itself out at a steady pace and slowly starts to bring in more emotional elements with the use of disturbing and graphic moments that you have to choose. If the ?Airport? level from Modern Warfare 2 made you feel uneasy, you?re going to have some similar feelings playing Spec Ops: The Line. Because you?re going to be making these difficult decisions, usually quite quickly, it makes you think about how you would react if it was real and question your own morals at times. It?s a very powerful story that even had me questioning some of my choices and if I really did know what?s right.
As you start the game you?ll have access to just a few weapons, but like any good shooter, the further you get into the campaign, the more weapons you?ll be able to employ again your enemies. There are a handful of different Pistols, SMG?s, Assault Rifles, Snipers, Shotguns, and Grenades that will all be at your disposal eventually, usually from the downed enemies you defeat. Many of the guns even have alternate firing modes such as a silencer, scopes, laser, and more. Each gun feels different and you?ll quickly find your favorite and usually stick with it throughout the entire campaign.
Since Adams and Lugo are with you, you also have some minimal control over their actions in battle as well. You can designate a specific target for them to take out, help injured teammates, or even toss a flash into a crowd of enemies. You?re only able to use the flash command when you?re prompted to do so, as it would have been nice to be able to use the command whenever they had flashbangs in their inventory. Also, since you can send them to revive each other if one goes down, I found it odd that the moment you die the last checkpoint has to be restarted. I?m not sure why you aren?t given some time for your teammates to come and try and save you as well, as there were a few sections in the campaign that I had to reload the checkpoint once or twice.
As this is a cover based shooter, I was hoping for some great cover mechanics or at least something that matched how easy Gears of War has made the cover mechanics become. Oddly enough, I found myself struggling with the cover and vault mechanics more times than not, resulting in a few unneeded deaths and restarts. The vault button is also the melee button and if there?s an enemy near a low wall it was about a 50-50 shot of either vaulting or punching the enemy. Many times you?ll also find yourself wishing there was a dodge or roll button, as getting left in the open will get you killed quite quickly without cover to hide behind.
Dubai is a magnificent city that?s in the heart of the desert, and after the giant sandstorms that have blown through, the sand itself plays a large theme in Spec Ops? gameplay. Certain walls can be destroyed behind enemies to engulf them in a wall of sand and interestingly enough, this mechanic carries over to the multiplayer aspect as well. While it really only takes prevalence in a few scenarios, I would have liked to see this mechanic a larger part of the gameplay itself throughout the campaign.
Spec Ops: The Line also includes a multiplayer mode that has multiple game types, maps, and loadout customization for up to eight players in a match. You have all your standard online competitive modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and objective modes, but there?s also a few neat twists on a couple of the modes. There will even be some levels that are randomly hit with sandstorms, making it very difficult to see anything more than five feet away from you. It?s a neat addition to the multiplayer experience, but doesn?t really add all that much to the overall involvement. The standard treadmill of leveling to unlock new perks and rewards is present here, and I?m sure some will flock to it to max out their levels, though I just found the multiplayer offering as a whole was very lackluster and not all that exciting when compared to the amazing campaign story.
At first it was quite odd hearing Nolan North (Captain Walker) swearing so much and being so fired up when delivering his lines, but just like all his roles, he gives a flawless performance that really makes you believe what the character is struggling with and going through with his decisions. The soundtrack is also very fitting for each scenario and had some great licensed music to make it that much more memorable.
While the cover system isn?t as advanced or polished as others, and the gunplay is more or less standard, the story and plot will make you forget all of the game?s shortcomings with its powerful imagery and distinct moral choices throughout long after you?ve completed the game. It?s fantastic to see that what I was expecting to be a standard shooter was actually an experience that I?ll remember since it wasn?t just about a hero trying to save the world but rather the hero feeling terrible for the choices he has to make. The game has rough edges but it can be overlooked with how well the subject matter is handled and how it will make you think about the choices you make. Even if you?re generally not too into the war shooter genre, I suggest picking Spec Ops: The Line up simply to be engrossed with its story telling and thought provoking climax.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Disney Pixar Brave: The Video Game
Like any gamer in the know, whenever a licensed movie game shows up that you need to play, you can usually assume that you?re not going to have the best time playing it; usually. When Brave, based on the new Disney Pixar movie, arrived to review, I do what I usually do when I have to play a licensed game: Sit down with my drink of choice (the worse the game the stiffer the drink), take a big gulp and simply accept that I?m probably not going to have much fun for the next few hours. I?m glad to report that Behaviour Interactive (known for Doritos Crash Course, Naughty Bear, and WET among others) has somehow found the magic formula to not only make a game that was entertaining as fun as the movie was, but also might slightly restore some of my faith in the licensed movie game genre. Even if this game wasn?t based on the new movie which I really enjoyed, I would have still appreciated playing it start to finish regardless of it being meant for kids.Firstly, if you?ve not seen the Brave movie yet, which this game is based on, go do so, as it was wonderful in 3D and I thoroughly enjoyed it before even playing the game. Many times these movie based games will either be a simple retelling of the movie or something completely different from the movie that it doesn?t seem to fit at all. They?ve done something smart with this tie in, as it?s not a complete retelling, but the basic premise stays the same where it still feels similar enough that the kids will enjoy it.
Just like in the movie, Brave is based around Merida, daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor and picks up right when she follows the trail of wisps into the woods and comes across the old witch. Merida orders a potion from this witch to change her mother, as she wants to find her daughter a husband even with Merdia?s refusal. The potion is question ends up changing Elinor, though not quite as expected, as she is now transformed into a bear. I won?t go into the story much more in case you?ve yet to see the movie (remember to do so!), but from here it takes its own slight twist that differentiates itself when compared to the film. The game?s version of the story really only works because it?s in a videogame format and entices the player to progress, as it would make the movie a tad long and boring if it was switched around.
Merida was taught well by her father in the ways of using a sword and shield, and the bulk of gameplay in Brave is combat and platforming down linear paths. You first start out with your basic training sword and bow, though very quickly on you?ll see that you?ll really only use sword attacks (the ?X? button) to chop down plants and rocks to gather coins. Your bow however is Merida?s specialty, as she can shoot an infinite of bows in any direction with the ?Right Stick?. This essentially turns the gameplay into a twin stick shooter (very Smash TV-like) for the combat sections and really surprised me with how well it worked. The only issue I had was a few spots where you need to jump and shoot simultaneously, as you only have one thumb to do both actions awkwardly. Combat feels fluid, tight, and simply fun once you get the hang of dodging and shooting.
As you progress in the story, Merida will come across Charms that infuse her weapons with elemental powers. You start off with Earth but will eventually gain Fire, Air, and lastly Ice. Every enemy type has a weakness to a specific element, and while not impossible to defeat them with the ?wrong? element, they will go down much quicker if you use the correct one, which is easy since the ?right? element is above their heads so you can never forget (it?s not hard to remember Fire vs Ice and Earth vs Air though). Changing elements is simple as pressing the Left and Right Bumpers and having to fend of multiple types of enemies in the latter half of the game is quite fun when you need to change your Charms quite rapidly. There are even many spots where you?ll need to use specific elemental shots to open a pathway to progress. Shooting a vine with Earth will cause it to form a leaf platform you can jump on, or an Ice shot on some fire to make it cool enough to walk on. Eventually it becomes second nature and you?ll never become stuck on these sections as everything is labeled as to what type of shot to use.
When you defeat enemies, cut down bushes, and destroy rocks and trees, coins will fly out everywhere for Merida to gather and collect. Doing so is the game?s currency and allows you to purchase upgradable abilities at specific spots. You can upgrade an ability you really enjoy using up to three times or spread out your abilities across each element to always be prepared for what?s next. Power shots can be purchased and upgraded, and while not really needed on the default difficulty level, it?s almost a necessity on the hardest setting.
For those that have more than one kid in the household, Brave also supports a second player to help Merida in her travels. While playing co-op, the second player will control a friendly wisp that can do simple actions to help out Merida and is more geared towards a younger child who just wants to play along their parent or sibling. While my wife wasn?t all that great at playing the main character, she enjoyed the simplicity of being a wisp and helping me; the same will go for kids and the younger gamers still learning.
There are times where you?ll be passing control from Merida and instead playing as her younger brothers, the triplets. In these sections it?s simply a quick little puzzle that will have you switching from one of the baby bears to the next, pulling levers, and solving the puzzle so that Merida can continue on in her quest. There are even a few sections where you?ll be playing as ?mum? in her bear form, mauling down a huge amount of enemies and gathering you a big stock of coins for all the trouble. Were these sections really needed? Not really, but they were a nice little distraction to break up the rest of the gameplay now and then.
If you?re a Kinect owner then there?s even another mode accessible from the main menu just for you. You get to pretend you have Merida?s prowess in archery and will be shooting your imaginary arrows at the screen in three separate mini games. Quick Draw tests how fast you can fire, Survival has you shooting an unlimited amount of targets, and Quiver Limit has you testing your accuracy with a set amount of arrows. The biggest surprise of this mode though is that for doing well you will actually earn coins which you can then use in your main game to get more upgrades quicker. While these mini games are fun to play through once or twice, the inaccurate controls doesn?t make it very fun in the end; it?s a good thing it?s just an optional mode for those with Kinect.
For a game that only took me a few hours to complete, I was hoping it would have a lot of replay value to justify the asking price. Sure, there are some reasons to play through levels again, like gathering more coins to keep upgrading skills and to find any of the collectables you may have missed the first time, but aside from that, there really wasn?t much reason to keep playing after it?s been completed. If you want to up the difficulty, you?ll have to start a new game and thus start all over again, not keeping all the coins and abilities you?ve already gained.
The fact that Disney made sure the game had the same voice actor for Merida speaks volumes, not only on its audio quality, but also the effort in not just trying to make this a cash-in from the movie. The sound of the forests, background music, instruments, all work well together, and you won?t even have to suffer through hearing the same lines being repeated over and over again which many games of this type still get wrong today.
By the end of the game Merida will have a bow that?s larger than her and can defeat any enemy very quickly, but that?s where much of the fun comes. While the game itself looks decent, most of the cutscenes are simply done in a story book style with little animation. As for game mechanics, while it?s very simple and smooth to use, it?s not very challenging until the very end. I?m also glad that there is no forced back tracking in the levels or having to redo levels at a later date to find all the hidden collectables once you unlock newer Charms.
If you?ve seen the movie and enjoyed it and have a kid that?s asking for a new game, I can safely say that I would recommend Brave and still have a clear conscience. This is an odd feeling, playing a licensed movie game that I actually enjoyed as an adult and honestly endorsing to parents. The only negatives I really have to say about the game is its lack of replayability and shortness to complete. If it helps at all, the game does include a voucher to redeem for eight dollars towards a movie ticket admission if you?re planning on going to see Brave in the theaters. I was brave and played through the game to tell you if it?s worthy of a purchase or not, now it?s your turn to do so and go see the movie and hopefully purchase a great tie-in game as well.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Lollipop Chainsaw
Oh Goichi Suda (better known as Suda 51), you never seem to amaze me with your sense of humor and unique games. For those not in the know, Suda 51 is known for making very odd but hilarious games, such as Shadows of the Damned, Killer 7, and No More Heroes, and each one of his titles has a very distinctive style and direction that make his creations unique. If you played and enjoyed his last title, Shadows of the Damned, you?ll most likely enjoy Lollipop Chainsaw for the same type of humor and banter between characters. The main character Juliet Starling is a zombie killer that just so happens to carry around a chainsaw, complete with hearts and bright colors. All you need to know from the get go is that this game is not meant to be taken seriously in any way, shape, or form. Lollipop Chainsaw is mindless fun and is self-aware at how absurd its whole premise is, and it?s proud of it. If you?re one for zombies, innuendo, humor, and especially school girl cheerleaders, you?re going to have a great time with Lollipop Chainsaw, albeit a short one.
Juliet is turning 18 today and is planning on meeting up with her boyfriend Nick later in the day. Turns out the cheerleaders special day is about to be ruined as there?s been a massive zombie break out at her school, San Romero. Juliet will have to try and save everyone rather than enjoying her birthday cake that her mom is making her; luckily her and her family comes from a line of zombie hunters, as this shouldn?t be any problem for Juliet.
When Juliet manages to find Nick, she?s just a few moments too late and he?s already been bit by a zombie, meaning he?ll soon turn into one of the walkers soon enough. To save the love of her life she decapitates Nick with her chainsaw then places a magic spell on him to keep him alive, even though it is only his head. Now Juliet has a cool bodiless boyfriend that she?ll take around attached to her belt, making for some hilarious banter between the two. You eventually find out who?s behind the zombie outbreak and set out to stop them by killing every zombie in your path.
As I said, don?t take Lollipop Chainsaw too seriously and you?ll have a fun time throughout. The game itself will only take you five or six hours to beat the first time through, but the dialogue between Juliet and Nick at times is absolutely hilarious (the line with Nick?s favorite color still makes me smile thinking about it). Sometimes the dialogue is so bad that it makes it even funnier, much like those terrible movies you watch, but they?re good because of how bad they really are.
At its core, Lollipop Chainsaw is a hack and slash game versus hordes of zombies. Juliet has light attacks that aim low to the ground for those crawling zombies, and heavy attacks that try and go for the heads of the undead. Juliet can dodge as well but she also puts her cheerleading skills to good use and can use her pompoms for quick attacks that will stun the zombies, thus making them much easier to kill in a single move. You?ll eventually start to mix up different combos and skills though once you find the combo that works best for you you?ll essentially stick with it throughout the rest of the game.
As you kill enemies and hordes of zombies you?ll start to fill up Juliet?s star meter. Once full you can use it to unleash super attacks that are instant kills versus any non-boss enemy. Making this skill even better is Toni Basil?s ?Mickey? song that starts to play every time you use star power, which I found a completely fitting song for slaying the undead. Nick isn?t just a useless head that hangs off Juliet?s skirt though, as he can be used as a weapon at times to stun zombies and setup for easy kills, or even putting his head on a decapitated zombie, allowing him to take control of it for a short time by completing a quick-time event. These sections are littered throughout the game and will basically clear a path for Juliet or launch her to the next section of the stage.
Level design is quite simple and bland, as you need to clear each section of zombies before you are allowed to progress for most of the game. There are a few sections though that try and break up the repetition, though these diversions were usually more frustrating than entertaining. There?s a section where you get to drive a tractor, mowing down any zombies in your path which was fun, but the others where you need to protect a statue from blowing up from fire zombies or protecting Nick as he runs bases in a stadium were very frustrating and took a few continues to learn the proper mechanics and strategy.
Like the majority of game design, each stage will end with a boss battle, and I have to say, the bosses that Juliet encounters from start to finish are very memorable and was easily the highlight of the game for me. While the majority of the game will be button repetition, it?s without a doubt worth it to keep playing if only to experience the entertaining and unique boss fights at the end of each level. While you plow through the hundreds of zombies, you?ll be collecting coins along the way that can be used to improve Juliet?s skillset with new combos, health upgrades, item replenishments, alternate outfits, and more.
As you complete levels you unlock the ability to replay them in ranking mode to try and get higher scores and put your name on the leaderboards. Your score depends on the speed in which you complete a level, how many zombies you kill, combos and sparkle attacks, and how many of the students you save from a zombie death. There are also many items to collect that will take at least two playthroughs and if you want to see the good ending, you?ll need to save every classmate in every stage. While people that strive for high scores and completitionists will want to play through again multiple times, I had no real desire once I defeated the last boss.
Lollipop Chainsaw boasts a surprisingly entertaining soundtrack that range from old classics like Lollipop from The Chordettes, You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) from Dead or Alive, Cherry Bomb from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, to even Heroes Of Our time from Dragonforce. The music fits each section very well and I was quite surprised as it was noticeable and really fit the mood of each section quite well. The voice acting may be bad, but it?s partly because of the cheesy script, which may be slightly on purpose.
Lollipop Chainsaw never tries to take itself too seriously which is a good thing. It?s funny and entertaining in that bad-movie sort of way. While over sexualized women in gaming is nothing new, Lollipop Chainsaw will take every opportunity to show you that Juliet is busty and wearing a low shirt and will give you an up-skirt shot in almost every cutscene it can; there?s even an achievement to try and look up her skirt. If sex sells, then Warner is going to have a massive hit on their hands; for those of us that can see past this ?selling point?, it?s a very short game that can be beaten in a weekend and I?d suggest playing it simply to support Suda 51 and his crazy creations, but that?s once the price drops to your sweet spot.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Dragon's Dogma
Capcom sure had some high ambitions when they started developing Dragon?s Dogma. It seems like they took inspiration from numerous games, bundled them together, and then added their own flare on top of it. Getting familiar feelings of Shadow of the Colossus, Monster Hunter, and Dark Souls while playing Dragon?s Dogma is completely normal and probably intended in some way. While the game may have striking similarities to these certain games and other open world role playing games, Capcom has crafted a unique and entertaining experience, though at times flawed. As the story begins in the land of Gransys, you find yourself face to face with a monstrous dragon on a peaceful beachfront village. The dragon battles against you and you are defeated, and in turn your heart is also taken from your body, leaving you with a huge scar down your chest. To everyone?s amazement, including yourself, you survive this attack and everyone starts referring to you as Arisen; a chosen one with a grand destiny and also has the ability to command unearthly warriors called Pawns. I?d love to tell you a little more of the main plot, but pieces of the main storyline comes so infrequent, that you?ll basically be doing other quests for the next thirty or so hours until near the end when everything is revealed.
If you?re the type of player that needs a strong and enriched story to keep your attention, especially for a thirty-plus hour game, you?re going to be disappointed with Dragon?s Dogma. If you?re the type of player that enjoys having free reign to do whatever they like set in an open world and doesn?t concern themselves with story and dialogue, you?ll thoroughly enjoy Dragon?s Dogma. After an exciting start, it was disappointing to essentially have so little plot to motivate yourself to keep moving forward in the game. Being kept in the dark until the end, especially in such a lengthy game, is not a great way to entice players to keep coming back into the world of Gransys. It?s a good thing that the combat and Pawn mechanics are good enough to bear that weight on its shoulders.
If you?re expecting Dragon?s Dogma to play something like Skyrim simply because of its open-world RPG setting, you?re going to be disappointed. As you begin and create your character to your preferred liking, you then choose an initial class you want them to start off with; you begin by choosing your vocation of Fighter, Rogue, or Mage. As you progress through the game you?ll unlock new abilities to further enhance your light and heavy attacks. Once you finally progress and make your way to the main capital of Gran Soren, you?ll have the option to then choose from an additional six classes, three of which are advanced and the other three being hybrids. For those that really want to create a unique character, you?re able to change vocations at Inn?s and be able to keep certain techniques you?ve already learned in a previous vocation. Once you learn how the ?job? system works, it can actually become very deep and gives you the options to create a unique character with many different skills.
While the world of Gransys may not be as vast as other games, it?s still quite a daunting trek from one corner of the map to the other, though this is mostly because of the lack of a fast travel system. Technically there is the ability to fast travel, but it doesn?t come until later in the game and it is item based rather than just choosing a point on a map where you want to go. While I can appreciate the developers wanting us to experience and see everywhere in the game, having to run to and from Gran Soren multiple times just to hand in quest or gather supplies, becomes daunting and a lengthy process. You?ll be attacked by wolves, goblins, bandits, and many other enemies along your travels which makes the process play out even further.
Word to the wise though; avoid traveling at night though, as even more dubious monsters roam in the darkness, and since enemies levels don?t scale, you better know where you?re going and decide to fight or run quickly, or you?ll find yourself dead very quickly. This makes preparing for travel essential, making sure you have enough restorative items and oil for your lamp to light your way. Though after a few trips up and down the same paths, you?ll learn very quickly that enemies are not random, and the same ones will attack you in the same places every time. What?s once a surprise attack will eventually turn into you becoming very familiar with the goblin ambush hiding around the next corner.
You won?t be venturing through Gransys alone though, you?ll eventually get to have up to three Pawns aid you in your quests as you progress. Since you?re the Arisen, you have the unique ability to control these warriors from another plane that look like human in nature, referred to everyone as Pawns. You eventually get to create your main Pawn from scratch that will be loyal and at your side from that moment until the very end. You can ?hire? two more other Pawns that either wanders the cities or you can enter a foggy realm through a Rift Stone and hire another players? Pawn. While Dragon?s Dogma is a single player adventure, this is its pseudo way of implementing multiplayer, as you?re able to recruit any other players Pawn to help you in your quest. Other players can do the same, and if your Pawn is hired for their journey, they will return with a gift that is either items, experience, or currency to hire higher level Pawns that are more experienced than you. The implementation of the Pawn system is actually quite ingenious once you learn the mechanics and how to choose a proper Pawn that will compliment your party. While the hired help won?t level up along with you, your main and faithful Pawn will, meaning you?ll need to recruit new help every so often as you progress in levels.
So what exactly does a Pawn do you may ask? They offer help in your journey, not only in combat and battles, but also help in your quests and other bits of information. For example, if you hire a Pawn that?s already done the quest you?re about to set off and do, they?ll actually give you hints and tell you locations of where you?re supposed to go. These small details never made me really miss the company of other human players, though it didn?t help that the Pawns never seem to shut up and will constantly be spouting the same lines over and over again when it?s not needed. While they?ll help you with knowledge, they?ll also ?attempt? to help in battle as well. I purposely use the word ?attempt? because it seems very hit or miss if they?ll going to be a big factor in some of the battles or not. My mage Pawn, named Sheldon, for example never wanted to heal me when I really was close to death?s door, though after the battle he was more than happy to heal me after I used all my healing herbs. The same goes for their own AI sometimes, as they might stand beside an enemy trying to cast a lengthy spell rather than gaining some distance first and letting me take the bulk of the damage. While not perfect, having a full party of four is almost necessary, and finding out what classes benefit your play style is half the battle.
While Dragon?s Dogma is very entertaining for its combat mechanics and Pawn system, there is a laundry list of flaws that seem to constantly get in the way of being fully immersed in the story and world of Gransys. Character models look clunky, there?s clipping issues, camera problems, lip syncing is off quite often in cutscenes, and there are no characters other than your party you?ll truly care about even after forty or so hours of playing. Like Dark Souls, there is virtually no help within the game to help you learn the mechanics and become better at playing it. The lack of hand holding isn?t always a bad thing, but when so little is explained to you from the beginning, you?re forced to put the time and effort in to simply learn the basics before you can even start enjoying the game. There are even times when I ran to a quest marker and the person I needed to talk to wasn?t there, that is until I stood around for a few seconds looking, waiting for them to ?pop? into the game.
For all the major issues I had, there were also fun moments to be had as well. Combat feels rewarding (once you figure it out on your own) and the inclusion of a grab button is extremely fun when you?re fighting against a larger scale enemy like a griffon or troll. You?re able to grab onto these larger enemies and actually scale them, much like Shadow of the Colossus, and attack them in any spot you wish; that is, before your lose your stamina and let go or get thrown off. These battles I found the most fun and annoying, as this is where a lot of the camera problems occur. Once your climbing one of these beasts, you have almost free reign of which direction you want to climb on the enemy, but the controls don?t always stay a constant, meaning your climbing up one moment can be a completely different direction the next, and not being able to see your orientation because of the camera doesn?t help either.
The biggest problem I had with Dragon?s Dogma though wasn?t the lack of help of learning mechanics, but more the quest system, as you are never realty sure what?s the main quest or side quests. Sometimes you don?t even have a step for the main quest until you complete some of the smaller ones, but again, this is never taught to you and you just need to figure it out on your own. This coupled with the lack of fast travel sometimes made me not want to venture out, as I was not always sure where I was going, it was way too far on foot, or if the quest was even intended for my level range or not.
Oddly enough, there is no difficulty setting and there?s only an option for one save file, meaning you are stuck with your character unless you start over again. ?Boss? battles are fun due to the climbing mechanic and the Pawn system is done in a very unique way that encourages experimentation. If you?re looking for a strong story to keep you driven to progress forward, simply put, this game is not for you. If you?re able to look past all the flaws and simply sink a lot of hours into it to get to the good parts, you?re going to have a great time in the end.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Inversion
I remember first seeing the trailer for Inversion with it showing as if the world?s gravity was turning and being reversed, having you fight on the side of a building behind cover. I thought that would have been an interesting gameplay mechanic and have been looking forward to it ever since. Now Inversion is here and I once again see the power in careful marketing and trailers, as playing though the game, it?s almost like I?ve been given the old bait and switch. Inversion is developed by Saber Interactive which you?d probably know from creating Timeshift a few years ago. They took a central idea and wrapped a game around it, and it worked pretty well in Timeshift. In Inversion, they had the gravity manipulation idea and did the same thing, but the completed product just never seems to come together. It took a friend to point it out to me, but in essence, Inversion?s gimmick is mostly centered towards an ability that allows you to lift enemies out from behind cover for you to openly shoot them at will. Mass Effect fans will know how familiar this seems, and while there are other uses for gravity manipulation, such as being able to reverse gravity and making enemies heavy and pinned to the ground, it?s a far call from what was shown in trailers long ago with a topsy-turvy world.
With a modern day setting, Davis Ruseel finds himself suddenly thrown into a conflict in his one peaceful city by an unknown barrage of enemies. These armies of half-naked muscle-bound men that speak mostly gibberish are called the Lutadore and they are killing anyone that gets in their way with some unseen weapons and the ability to seemingly control spots of gravity. When the invasion happens, Davis and his friend Leo Delgrado set out back to his place to find his missing daughter but soon realize this invasion is nothing ordinary, as there are spots in the city that seem to be hit with zero gravity, causing chaos everywhere.
Davis and Leo will stick together throughout the entire campaign in search of his daughter, though if you?re playing solo, you might as well get used to staying near Leo as he?s going to need to be revived many times towards the end of the game with his inept AI. I will admit, there?s a twist near the end that I did not see coming, as the story to that point was very cliché and never tried to be original, but the twist and ending had me raising an eyebrow. I won?t spoil anything but the story is very bland and predictable until that point.
The main hook of the game is that Davis (and Leo) can eventually manipulate gravity with their Gravlink devices. They can eventually either increase or decrease it on any given target on command. There are a few more uses to your Gravlink other than lifting enemies up from behind cover, such as tossing barrels and cars into enemies, but it?s scarce when you?ll use these tactics as you?ll always have to be behind cover if you want to survive. If controlling gravity sounds like fun, it should be, but it generally isn?t since you?ll mostly just use it to lift enemies in the air to make them easier to shoot. If this sounds like the Singularity skill from another game, that is because it essentially is; and if hurling a floating object reminds you of another, that?s because it is as well. While including either isn?t necessarily a bad thing, neither is really executed very well. You have to be so precise at aiming exactly on your enemies because if you miss in even the slightest amount, the gravity field nearby won?t affect them in any way. The same goes for throwing objects with the Gravlink, as it?s hard to do when you?re constantly getting shot at and not behind cover.
There are some sections of gameplay that take place in zero gravity; here you?ll be floating from cover to cover, hiding behind floating pieces of debris. It sounds exciting on paper, but when you?re having trouble fluidly moving from cover to cover while getting shot at from multiple angles, it becomes frustrating quickly. Davis can only hold onto designated pieces of floating debris in these sections and selecting the right piece of cover under fire can be tricky. In almost every situation, you?re more encouraged to simply stay put and pick off Lutadore?s as they come towards you rather than trying to play dynamically. Having been able to flank an enemy from above or underneath would have been exciting; too bad it?s not included here.
The main feature that Inversion got me excited for long ago was a gravity mechanic that seems to have you defying gravity and fighting on the walls or ceiling is here, but in very limited and predetermined placements. Eventually you?ll happen upon glowing pools of gravity that seem to rotate the world for Davis and Leo. This is where the world becomes disorientating but exciting, having to look at all angles for enemies. These gravity shifts is where Inversion almost seems to realize its potential?almost. While these gravity shifts are very cool and exciting, I can count the times on my hand how many times you get to experience it throughout the campaign. If this was somehow built into the main mechanic of the game, it would have been incredibly more exciting, but instead it only happens a handful of times over the course of Davis? story in pre-scripted events.
Inversion is a third person shooter with an emphasis on gunplay as well. While you?re not given many options for guns (nor are they balanced very well), the targeting is sloppy, controls never seem to feel right, and you don?t feel like you?re powerful at all since every enemy is a bullet sponge. The same can be said about using your gravity powers as well, as getting the proper aim down takes almost too much time out of cover and becomes frustrating enough that you?ll simply play the game like any other shooter.
You?re constantly ripped out of the action with an overabundance of cutscenes that happen all too frequently but without much meaning behind them. This makes it incredibly difficult to become immersed in Inversion?s world with its already weak storyline. This isn?t helped by the boss battles, that at first seem exciting, but that?s until you realize it?s only the first of many times you?ll be fighting the same bosses over and over again. The boss battles are frustrating and incredibly cheap, yet you aren?t always given the tools you need to complete the job beforehand. It comes down to pattern memorization for most of them, but having invulnerable bosses while waves of enemies shoot you isn?t terribly fun at the best of times. This isn?t helped with the massive spikes in difficulty in the latter half of the game either.
If you want a roadmap of how Inversion plays, it would go something like this: Shoot, take cover, shoot, make comments with Leo about your daughter, cutscene, shoot, cover, cutscene, boss, cutscene, and repeat for eight hours. Most shootouts are in a corridor where it?s not terribly difficult to clear the wave of oncoming enemies but the repetitive boss battles don?t help break the tedium in any way.
You don?t have to play alone though, as online co-op is an option if you have friends who?ve also bought Inversion. Sadly, it?s only with friends though, as there?s no matchmaking with random players nor is there drop-in and drop-out allowed, making it a journey just to get a co-op game going from the beginning. Oddly enough, I found myself almost constantly out of ammo when playing co-op. I don?t know if this is because when you?re playing solo and Leo is an NPC, he doesn?t pick up ammo, but with another player they do, leaving little to go around for both players.
There is also an online multiplayer component that ranges from multiple modes to even having a mode called Survival which is essentially its own Horde Mode for up to four players. While Survival isn?t terribly exciting, it becomes frustrating with the cheap enemies and shared lives between players. I?d love to tell you more about the other multiplayer modes, but the whole time I?ve had the game I?ve only been able to get into one online match due to the lack of people playing online. To give you an idea at how few people are playing this online, I was ranked about fiftieth in the world on one of the leaderboards, which speaks volumes. It doesn?t help that you need a full lobby to even begin a game, so expect to sit around for a long time to even try and get a game started.
A few hours in and you?ll get a familiar feeling if you?re a Gears of War fan. Gears of War has clearly influenced some of the art, weapons, mechanics, and setting design, yet only with normal sized people. I found that I kept telling myself ?Wouldn?t it be cool if?.? The whole time, rather than feeling and experiencing it. A cover system that is very finicky, guns that never feel powerful or precise, bosses that get repeated, and a mechanic that we?ve already seen before make Inversion a tough sell for me to recommend. It felt like a majority of the game was made longer to artificially lengthen the game yet offered no real reward for doing so.
While the game may boast gravity manipulation, take that claim with a grain of salt, as the really cool sequences are very far and few in between and is scripted into the level design. While flinging cars into enemy faces never gets old, it never feels like you?re given full control over gravity manipulation. With some intriguing gravity puzzles, maybe the game would have felt fresher, but the lack of these simply makes Inversion a bland and mediocre shooter that will get forgotten and sadly never realizes its potential. By the time I got near the end of the game I was more ready for it to end than I was looking forward to an intriguing ending.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Dragons Lair
When Dragon?s Lair first released to the arcades in 1983 it was unlike anything has seen in a game before. Not only was it all hand drawn as opposed to sprite based, but it was ran off laserdisc and it was actually the first arcade game to charge 50 cents instead of the standard quarter. Dragon?s Lair holds a special place in many gamers? hearts, myself included, as I couldn?t even try and tell you how many hours I?ve spent with Dirk trying to (and eventually succeeding) save Princess Daphne from the dragon Singe. Dragon?s Lair made gaming history in many ways, not only for the reasons listed above, but it was drawn by former legendary Disney animator Don Bluth, which breathed life into the art style and animation. It?s easily one of the more important arcade games for numerous reasons and was truly the invention of the mechanic today we like to call the quicktime event. Because of Dragon?s Lair?s success there were others in the genre that were all reactionary based such as Space Ace and my personal favorite of the genre, Braindead 13.
Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the game and it?s easily one of the most ported games in history. There are very few gaming systems that don?t have a version of Dragon?s Lair available to it in some form, though my favorite was my Sega CD version when I was a kid. Now in the digital age, here we are again with another port of the classic on XBLA. Luckily you?ll only have to buy it once and not spend a pocket full of quarters like I did in the local arcades just to learn how to beat a single room.
You control Dirk the Daring in his noble quest to save the Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has captured her. From the moment you pass through the castle?s front gate, you?ll have bats, bugs, knights, wizards, and countless traps to avoid if you want to be successful in your quest. As you get closer to saving Daphne, each room?s traps become more perilous and dangerous, so you need to learn how to avoid obstacles and slay your enemies.
Dragon?s Lair was so unique; not only in the artistic sense, but in how you played the game as well. While quicktime events are commonplace in gaming these days, there really wasn?t anything like this in the arcade scene back in the early 80?s. Your only controls were the four directions on the joystick and a button for your sword. The challenge came in learning when you had to move, which direction, and when to attack properly. If you failed to input the correct selection, you saw Dirk die, many many times over. With enough time and practice (and quarters), you could learn the proper input commands and easily defeat Singe without any problems, but it took much time (and money) to get to that point. Again, it may not seem like a big deal today, but back then, a game that was solely reactionary based on quicktime events was brand new and never done before.
So what?s been done for the XBLA version that should tempt you to rebuying it for the twelfth time like myself? Not only is there a bunch of bonuses included which I?ll get into later, but the game has been fitted for Kinect support as well. Yes, you can still use the controller if you wish, but the Kinect support is really the new feature that is being showcased in this version. Just as you?d expect, when you want Dirk to move left, you leap to the left. The same goes for other directions, and to use your sword, you swipe your arm up and then down as if you were using a sword. The Kinect controls work but it?s really a novelty, and some of the rooms are quite difficult as you need to leap from side to side quite quickly to pass it properly. The Kinect will also take those awkward looking photos when you?re mid jump or sword swipe so that you can laugh with your friends, unfortunately the Kinect controls simply feel completely unnecessary. Definitely try the game with it once if you have Kinect, but the better experience is with the controller on the couch by far; just try not to get weirded out when an odd looking 3D model of Dirk is trying to teach you the Kinect controls before playing.
While there?s nothing quite like the charm of seeing Dirk and all his animations, sadly Dragon?s Lair doesn?t hold up against the test of time very well. Yes the game has aged, but it?s still got all the minor bugs in it that bugged me over twenty years ago included. Dragon?s Lair retains its charm, and it?s in no way a bad game, but unnecessary Kinect controls make it a hard sell to someone like myself who?s already bought the game a dozen times for multiple platforms. The bonus avatar items, online leaderboards, and even an option where you can watch the game essentially play itself so that you can enjoy the animation is much appreciated, nostalgia can only carry you so far. For the 800 Microsoft Points, it?s a tough sell unless you?re a rabid fan, a Kinect enthusiast, or haven?t played the game in over a decade and want to relive what arcade gaming was like almost thirty years ago.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
The Tom Clancy games all seem to cater towards their own special niche of gameplay. Rainbow Six always felt more action packed where Splinter Cell took the stealth approach to gameplay. Ghost Recon to me always felt like a mix of the two, where you?re put into these almost impossible situations and you?re usually tasked with trying to do it without blowing your cover, yet you have the firepower needed should (though usually when) something go wrong. The last time we were reunited with the Ghost team was back in 2007 in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and the past two games felt much more action packed as opposed to stealth based. I was curious if Future Solider would try and go back to a more stealth based gameplay or keep going along the action path. As it turns out, a bit of both.In the near future, Ghost team Predator is taken out by a dirty bomb and now its Ghost team Hunter?s mission is set in place, to find out the source of the bomb. Kozak, Pepper, 30K, and Ghost Lead is your team and you start your journey tracking down and rescuing an arms dealer named Paez in Bolivia, as he might know where the bomb came from. As to be expected, you?ll have to chase leads all around the globe but the uninteresting narrative (unless you?re really into military ops) really makes the story forgettable, as it?s nothing that will standout when compared to other military shooters. There are a few cool set pieces, but nothing in the campaign was truly memorable for me unfortunately over the course of 10 hours or so it took to beat. It should be noted that while the campaign is playable cooperatively online with friends, it?s only playable with friends, as there is neither matchmaking nor drop-in drop-out either.
The star of Ghost Recon: Future Solider easily has to be the newly added Gunsmith. Here you can choose from over fifty weapons (though the majority have to be unlocked through gameplay and other means) that are all highly customizable. I?m not talking adding what kind of scope you want and adding just a silencer; Gunsmith lets you fully customize every piece of any gun, from the barrel to the stock, and even the trigger. Sights, recoil, stocks, magazines, under-barrel, gas system, muzzles, paint and even more are all fully editable to how you want the gun to control. You can easily swap parts to focus on specific stats like control or maneuverability based on the mission?s needs.
Gunsmith is available in single and multiplayer mode, though unlocks are independent. Beating campaign missions will unlock new guns for you to play with and customize where multiplayer weapons are unlocked through rank progression and levels. As you level in multiplayer you earn credits that can be used to purchase parts for each gun. Interestingly enough, you may notice that the front of the box boasts Kinect support, and this is directly imbedded into Gunsmith. With different hand and arm movements (or voice commands), you can pull apart the gun Minority Report style and piece it back together. While it works well and is cool, it?s really unnecessary and I would have much rather had voice commands for my squad mates in campaign.
No elite Ghost would be complete without their high tech gadgets we would all love to get our hands on and play with. A flying UAV drone that can mark targets on your AR HUD will become your close friend in the later missions, as will sensor grenades that reveals enemy positions within its bubble radius. You have access to a magnetic view that allows you to distinguish armed foes from civilians through any type of walls or objects. Your most impressive ?toy? will be your advanced optical camouflage built into your uniform. This allows the Ghosts to appear almost invisible when moving slowly or still, though it will deactivate when you move quickly or fire your weapon.
You?re able to mark targets that will show up on your Ghost team?s HUDs, allowing you to strategize and plan the best course of attack. You can mark up to four enemies at a time, line up your shots and shoot each one of them simultaneously. You?re even able to play a pseudo commander role if you desire by targeting and marking enemies then having your team use their synchronized shots. In a few missions I barely shot my weapon at all, as I was marking enemies for my team to take out while I relayed the information with my UAV drone.
Ghost Recon has always had a following for its online modes, and all the features listed above carry over into online play almost the same way. You have a choice of being a Rifleman who uses the heavy Assault Rifles and Light Machine Guns to suppress enemies for team mates so they can flank, an Engineer who uses SMGs and are great at detecting and highlighting enemies, or a Scout who primarily uses Sniper Rifles and can use the active camouflage found in the campaign. Each class can also be either of the two factions, but a huge flaw here is that you?re forced to use faction specific loadouts for each character. Sure it?s realistic that the Ghosts have access to the more advanced weaponry, but the problem comes in when you need to spend your credits on essentially two sets of weapons just so you can play your preferred class with the awesome gun you want.
Across ten maps are four game modes for you to play, each of which is solely focused on objectives and teamwork. The two modes I had the most fun with were Conflict mode and Siege mode. In Conflict mode, objectives are randomly placed across the map and is essentially an objective based deathmatch. Siege mode offers no respawns, so you need to be careful and always watch your back. Defenders much hold down an objective while attackers spawn randomly across the map. Should the objective be taken or a full team taken out, that team wins the round, the best of three determining the winner. I found it odd there was no straight up deathmatch or team deatchmatch, as each mode was objective based and allowed for twelve players in total.
The last mode to try is Guerilla mode, which is essence is Ghost Recon?s Horde mode. This mode can be played with up to three of your friends, though suffers from the same problem campaign does and offers no matchmaking when your friends aren?t online. In this mode you?re given preset weapons and you?re tasked with surviving the fifty waves of oncoming enemies. Unless you?re hunting for achievements, there?s very little incentive to play this mode as there?s no reason progression or unlocks to strive for unless you simply want to hang out with friends.
There were some bugs that normally I?d not fret about, but they kept coming back and became frustrating early on. Firstly, finding an online match that didn?t have lag issues was a task in itself. I can?t even count the times I?ve died to phantom bullets and players. Also I?ve had to reload some checkpoints in the campaign a few times because the team AI didn?t know to come to me or got stuck on a wall somehow, not allowing me to progress. The last major issue that stood out for me was the fact that the cutscenes simply didn?t look good at all; facial animations look dated and I?m not even sure you?d call that lip syncing. While the gameplay visuals looked great aside from some minor bugs and glitches like invisible weapons or sharing the same space behind cover with AI, there were some standout moments like the dust storm you have to tread through and the visuals when an EMP goes off.
There were a few spots that I truly did enjoy, like the on-rails sections where you?re escorting a VIP and shooting anyone you see with your pistol. These moments, though infrequent, were the highlights for me, though I?m not sure if that?s just because the rest was mostly unmemorable. I was expecting many new mechanics or something to wow me, and aside from Gunsmith, nothing really did. While the first half has you trying to be like a true ghost and be stealthy, the last bit seems to throw that out the window and just turn into another military shooter with you racking up the body count. If you enjoyed G.R.A.W. 1 and 2, you?ll most likely enjoy Future Solider as well. While I was let down with the cliché and forgettable campaign, the multiplayer will have me playing for a while longer, trying to level up to earn more weapon attachment unlocks.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Max Payne 3
It?s hard to believe that it?s almost been a decade since we?ve last visited with Max Payne and his grim story. It also feels like it?s been forever that I?ve been waiting for Max Payne 3 ever since that first screenshot of a bald Max was shown back in 2009. I have to admit, when I first saw that screenshot of Max and it looked absolutely nothing like the Max we?ve come to love over the past decade, I was a bit weary, since it wasn?t being developed by Remedy either. Well, about half way through the game when you find Max?s reasoning to shaving his hair and growing his beard, it eventually grew on me, even if Max seems to have a new face that I?m not quite used to yet. Max Payne came out in 2001 and was immensely popular for its noir style storytelling and the creation of what we now call Bullet Time. It was new and nothing had really done anything like that before, Max Payne was a tale about an ex-cop who lost his wife and child told in a comic book panel style complete with mass violence. Max wasn?t the standard hero figure though, as he was fighting his own demons and trying to cope with what happened to his family. When Max returned two years later, it may not have been the revolution that the first game was, but it was done very well and felt like natural progression in the series with small additions and mechanic changes.
Here we are almost a decade later, and Max returns once again, battling his inner demons complete with all the tricks that Max taught us so many years ago. You?ll be leaping through the air in slow motion in the signature Max Payne style while shooting hundreds of enemies, but the narration has taken a different turn this time around and the comic panel visuals have been ditched for a more grimy flair of storytelling. While some of the cutscenes still have that feeling of comic-style, it?s not the same as it once was. Don?t fret though, as James McCaffrey returns once again to voice Max, though this time a heftier and slower Max than what he once was all those years ago.
Max is still dealing with everything that?s happened to him, but in a way that involves bottles of liquor and painkillers, just to maintain. Max still hasn?t moved on nor forgotten what?s happen to him, and this is apparent as he still seems a mess when he?s not currently shooting through an army of bad guys. Max, an alcoholic and addicted to pain killers, takes a job in Sao Paulo, Brazil, protecting a wealthy family and hopefully able to forget parts of his past. As events unfold, no longer is Max in familiar surroundings and finds himself alone, lost in a foreign country without even knowing the language. Max will desperately search for the truth when things go south and having to shoot his way out of almost every situation in hostile territory.
Gone are the drab city streets and subways of New York, instead Max finds himself in much more colorful nightclubs and rundown slums of the city of Sao Paulo. As the story progresses, you?re never quite sure if Max is trying to finish his job that he was paid for or simply trying to accept his immanent death that seems to come around every corner. The story is quite entertaining and will last you around a dozen hours to complete, depending on difficulty, though the last few chapters of the game seem to drag on much more than they should, almost artificially, simply by throwing more and more enemies in your path rather than forwarding the plot. There are many collectable items to search and find along the way for the completionists out there, though it seems like you shouldn?t be wasting time doing it at times, as Max will constantly remind you that you need to keep moving forward at all times.
Max Payne wouldn?t be what it is without the then revolutionary Bullet Time that amazed us back in 2001, and it returns improved in Max Payne 3. Firstly, every bullet in the game is tracked and rendered and when you?re in slow motion, you can see every bullet?s trajectory coming towards you. Just like in previous games, using Bullet Time will slow everything down, almost Matrix-like where you can seemingly dodge individual bullets and shoot with incredible accuracy. Max has a new trick though called Shootdodge, which will do his signature dives in any direction, but with a new engine under the hood of the game, makes for much more believable dives and rolls. Clicking in the right stick will simply use your Bullet Time to slow everything down, but hitting the right bumper will enable you to dive in whatever direction Max is running, allowing for some signature Payne-like moves. Now, once Max has completed his dive and is no longer in slow motion, he?ll actually stay lying on the ground until you tell him to move in a direction. This is part strategy though, as you can lie on the ground and rotate while keeping a low profile out of harm?s way. These movements are completely believable and you don?t simply rotate as if you?re on a top; Max will roll on his stomach and move his arms and legs as you would actually have to.
Max may not have gained many new tricks this time around, but one of them is the ability to use cover effectively. This means that the game has a slower pace and feel to it than the previous games, and is not so much about quick run-and-gunning as opposed to careful hiding and dodging. For a game with such an important cover mechanic, there?s no simple way to move from cover to cover aside from an awkward and slow roll that doesn?t seem to help much or to use Bullet Time to avoid as many bullets as you can while maneuvering to your next cover. Max may not have many new tricks up his sleeve, but that also means things make a return, like his non regenerating health that?s recovered with pills you find. This makes combat feel more frantic and desperate, especially when you?re out of painkillers and one bullet away from dying.
New to the series is the included kill camera that will show you a slow motion and up-close angle of Max defeating the last enemy in a section. The camera starts off with the individual bullet leaving Max?s gun, travelling through the air, and landing wherever you shot them, opening a huge wound and snapping their body backwards. It does happen quite often, as you?re essentially killing a horde of bad guys, move to the next area and repeating, but it?s done with such style that it never becomes old, and I still found myself slowing things down even further simply because it looked awesome every time. Also, if Max has a painkiller but doesn?t use it before losing all his health, time will slow down and you?ll have a few seconds to kill the guy who ?killed? Max, bringing him back from the clutches of death and using that pocketed painkiller. While not a perfect mechanic, as you?ll sometimes be behind cover and can?t aim at the proper guy, when it works you feel like you?ve narrowly escaped death for the hundredth time.
Max is all about guns and there?s no shortage of them in Max Payne 3. To add a much more realistic feel, Max is only able to carry two side arms (in his holsters) and one two handed weapon at a time. If you want to use Max?s distinctive dual wielding style, you?ll actually drop the two handed weapon to do it. Weapons don?t magically stick to Max?s back or go into an abyss only to be magically pulled out later. Max can carry what he can physically tuck under his arms at a time, making for some amazing animations throughout the game. If Max is using a one handed pistol but also carrying a two handed rifle, he actually tucks the rifle under his arm and carries it believably, even while reloading the pistol. The same goes for when using Shootdodge, as if Max hits a wall mid-dive, the slow motion will be cancelled and he?ll have to slowly get back to his feet. Simply put, the animation and believability in Max?s movements is astounding and not done by magic.
Max Payne 3 has some incredibly cool sequences where you?re automatically put into Bullet Time and have near infinite ammo for a short time; there?s nothing quite like hanging upside down from a helicopter, shooting a wave of bad guys and stopping an RPG from taking you down, with a pistol...in slow motion. Towards the latter half of the game, enemies will become incredibly tough and armored, requiring Max to go for headshots or stay behind cover primarily rather than the run and gun style we used to know Max for. Some sections are incredibly tough and will have you restarting it numerous times, eventually in frustration, trying to figure out the best way to survive.
Once you beat the campaign some classic modes that fans of the original will appreciate, unlock. Score Attack and New York Minute are ways to keep you playing and keeps things interesting even after you?ve completed the levels a few times. New York Minute mode starts you with a minute on the clock and every enemy you kill adds more time, so it?s a race against time but you need to be precise and accurate to keep going ahead. Playing and completing these extra modes unlocks special characters for you to use in online multiplayer, distinguishing yourself from everyone else.
That?s right, Max Payne 3 has finally introduced multiplayer to the series. At first I was a little apprehensive and thinking it might just be one of those ?tacked on? modes, but after playing a few matches, I can see that it?s different enough to merit itself. You have a leveling and reward system that we come to expect these days, clan support (which will carry over into GTA V), load out options, and even Bursts (which we know as perks). Depending on your play style, you can customize your character with weapons and Bursts and save each personal loadout for the right time. The more and heavier weapons you use, the less stamina you?ll have and the speed of recovering health will be affected as well. Weight plays a big factor in deciding what loadout to decide on and on building your characters. Do you want more armor for less health, or more firepower for slower health regen; it?s all up to you.
Like everyone else, I was more curious how Bullet Time was going to work in multiplayer; somehow Rockstar figured out an ingenious way to make it work and keep it balanced for everyone in the match. If I use Bullet Time, only people in my field of view are affected, even enemies that see me from a different angle will be affected. While it seems like such a simple solution, it works well and once you start going in slow motion, you know someone is about to shoot you, as they can see you. Bullet Time is only of the bursts available though, there are others to suit your play style and character, such as damage buffs, one that will show where enemies are for everyone on your team on the map, and even one that will confuse the enemy and show the enemies? team appear to be opponents.
All the standard multiplayer modes are included, though there are some unique variants, my favorite being Gang Wars. This mode is played over the course of four rounds, each with different objectives that will change, depending on what happened in the previous match. In the fifth and final round, this becomes hectic in an all-out deathmatch. There?s enough content to keep Max Payne 3 online players happy for quite some time, especially since you can already buy the Rockstar Pass which confirms that a slew of DLC is on the way.
Normally audio has to be pretty spectacular to stand out and make me take notice since I?m not much of an audio guy, but Max Payne 3 did it easily, even from the classic opening theme song. James McCaffrey voices Max flawlessly once again and even makes Max sound much more grisly and desperate than ever. The soundtrack also is quite amazing and some of the songs completely made the levels (Airport level in particular) and put a huge grin on my face, as I knew I was in for an awesome sequence simply due to the queued music.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time reuniting with Max, the game isn?t without its flaws. Quite frequently after a cutscene happens Max will almost always have a different weapon in hand or losing my main weapon completely for some unknown reason. There was even one time where I had weapons in my inventory, but he wouldn?t use them, even though he was holding his hands out as if he was holding guns, making it a tough sequence, having to melee and pick up a weapon just to use my other ones.
Know going in that Max Payne 3 is different from its predecessors, not that it?s a bad thing or a flaw, but it?s not the run and gun, Bullet Time focused, and comic panel style narration that we?ve come to know Max for over the years. Max has evolved, and so has the game, it?s just different this time around, that?s all. The inclusion of multiplayer will keep many playing for a long time, as will the Time Attack modes, so there?s much to do even once you complete Max?s story.
Rockstar knows how to tell a compelling story and even included awesome flashback sequences to a Max that is more recognizable to us longtime fans. Max has become even more hardened over the years and is pushed to the edge; Rockstar tells this tale in fantastic fashion, even without the comic book panels that we?re accustomed to. Max Payne is stylish as ever, even with his shaved head and tacky Hawaiian shirt.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Diabolical Pitch
Whenever I found out Suda51 is involved with a game, I know I?m in for a very unique experience; Diabolical Pitch is no different. Diabolical Pitch is an action baseball game for Kinect on XBLA developed by Grasshopper Manufacture (known for Killer 7, Shadows of the Damned, and the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw) and Suda51. Honestly, I?m not even sure where to start, and generally if I?m made speechless from a game it?s generally a good thing, this is something completely different though.I kept going over how to explain the main story to Diabolical Pitch without sounding like I?m crazy or completely twisted, yet I couldn?t find a way to do so and sound normal, so here goes. You control McAllister, a legendary pitcher in the big leagues that just pitched a perfect game that brings them to the World Series. After winning the game McAllister hunches over on the mound grasping onto his arm that?s unable to move. The next scene shows McAllister getting into a car accident and then waking up in a very dark and twisted land. A man approaches you, but he has a head of a cow and is speaking some nonsense about being trapped in a twisted amusement park called Queen Christine?s Dream Land.
Here the cow headed man informs McAllister that he can get his arm back to the way it was, but he?ll have to pitch his way through the amusement park to reach the castle at the end. He is then outfitted with a bionic arm so that he can hurl baseballs with speed and precision against the enemies that will be approaching. McAllister quickly learns that he?s going to have to pitch his way out if he wants to survive this demented amusement park. What he?ll be constantly throwing balls at is sinister animal mascots that are constantly trying to attack you. Evil tigers, rabbits, elephants, birds and many more twisted creations will be coming for McAllister in a dark and creepy setting. You need to survive five distinctly themed worlds, each of which consists of four areas (though technically three as the fourth is essentially a bonus stage). See, there?s no real sane way to describe the game without sounding completely out there.
Enemies will pop up at various spots in the play area and you need to pitch and destroy them before they can attack you and deplete all your health. McAllister stays stationary the whole time, on his mound per-se, and must stop the waves of oncoming mascots until you get to a boss for each area. You need to destroy your enemies with your projectiles and some enemies will switch things up by throwing things at you that you either need to catch or dodge.
As you progress further towards the mysterious castle, you?ll need to be a little more strategic in your throws and defense. The main way you?ll be doing this is by specifically aiming for certain foes which helps destroy them quicker than a regular throw. You do this by using your non-throwing arm and holding your hand out as an aiming cursor. If you played Child of Eden, it?s the same similar concept with one aiming arm and one throwing. Sadly, the controls worked perfect in that game, but not here; more on that later. When you lock on an enemy by hovering over them with your secondary arm it will lock on to that nemesis, your next throw will automatically hit that specific mascot and gain yourself a headshot, thus killing most enemies in one throw. Eventually this will become the norm, as eventually you?ll face enemies with silver bodies, meaning a regular throw won?t damage them, forcing you to lock on for the headshot.
While you don?t need to throw as fast and hard as you can every pitch, you do gain more pints for throwing faster overall. If an enemy is about to attack you up close, you can make a kicking motion towards the Kinect and it will knock away the closest threats, but this move is limited so you need to use it sparingly (If you?re lucky enough to get Kinect to recognize it in time). Eventually you?ll be tossing up combinations of throwing, catching pitches, ducking saw blades, kicking, and of course the aptly named Diabolical Pitch.
As you destroy enemies and fill your meter, you can eventually use your chosen Diabolical Pitch (six in total) to easily wipe an area clear of enemies. You?ll need to rely on your powerful Diabolical Pitch special moves when a horde of enemies are coming at you all at once and use it at the appropriate times. Each of the separate Diabolical Pitches has their own motions that you need to perform to charge it up to be used. Eventually as you learn how each specialized Diabolical Pitch situation is catered for, this is where a lot of the strategy comes in, not only first choosing the correct one before you start an area (you can?t change Diabolical Pitches until you go back to the main menu) but knowing each level and which pitch is best suited for each type of enemy onslaught. While these special moves are the main staple of the game, it does become quite tired early on, and I?m not speaking about your arm after throwing hundreds of pitches in rapid succession.
As you complete areas you?ll gain coins based on how well you did, how many bonuses you collected (by throwing at them), and how fast you pitched. These coins can then be spent on buying new baseball cards which will unlock new Diabolical Pitches, bonuses like lower fatigue (you can?t continuously throw pitches or your arm becomes too tired and you have to let it rest a few moments), and more. It?s an interesting idea and it tries to entice you to replay levels over and over to gain more coins and beat your scores, but you?ll need some massive endurance to play through it that many times.
What can make or break a Kinect game is obviously the motion controls and how accurate it tracks the player. Sadly, for how few controls are needed to be input, almost all of them don?t work when they should or are nowhere near as accurate as they need to be. When you?re aiming with your non-dominate hand the cursor will constantly be wandering around the screen, even off it at times, making you guess where you?re aiming before it shows up again. Sometimes you?ll try pitching to the right and it will go left or elsewhere, more so, ducking and catching isn?t always recognized in the short time that you need to perform the action before getting hit. Sometimes my throws would go for the power-ups instead of the enemy a few feet from my face and trying to initiate some of the Diabolical Pitches will have you flailing about trying to get it to work. Sometimes it took multiple arm swings to even get the Diabolical Pitch to throw exactly when I wanted it to. When your arms are already sore from the intended gameplay, throwing all these extra pitches to try and get it to simply work, doesn?t help.
Surprisingly, there is a multiplayer mode as well for you and a friend to play side by side that adds a few more gestures for you to memorize and attempt to perform. While the initial game becomes very easy with a second player, if one player loses their health, both players can reach their arms to one another to try and revive the other. You can also perform a team Diabolical Pitch that needs to be done in unison, though actually pulling it off on command will take quite some time and patience. You lose so much times trying to do the cooperative moves that you?re better off for the most part simply throwing regular and lock-on pitches. The multiplayer is there, but it suffers the same Kinect tracking issues single player has, only doubled.
If you know and enjoy Suda51?s unique style, Diabolical Pitch will seem normal to you; to all the others, you won?t have any idea how someone game up with a game that looks quite like this. It?s completely over the top, which is to be expected, but with simple comic style cutscenes and a story that is completely out there, it?s very hard to become invested or even care about McAllister, no matter how unique the setting and premise is. I give Grasshopper props for trying something new and distinctive, but the game falls flat as it?s simply not all that fun to play, even when it does work properly. It?s original, that?s for sure, but throwing pretend baseballs at the screen for two hours wears very thin quite quickly.
Diabolical Pitch feels like a minigame that belongs in a larger collection of minigames, but sadly it?s not, and this is all you get for 800 Microsoft Points for two hours of gameplay. It?s a shallow experience that even if it did work properly at all times it still wouldn?t be that much more exciting or fun. Your upper arm will become incredibly sore for days after a few area clears and that alone makes it difficult to continue replaying stages for the unlockables even if you somehow enjoy pretend pitching for hours. I?m a fan Suda51, but this is nowhere close to a homerun; more like a pop fly that bounced off the outfielder's face.
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
To be honest, I?ve not played the original Witcher until somewhat recently when it happened to be on sale. I tried playing through it; I really did, but was never able to finish it, though I always wanted to as I really enjoyed the characters and lore. The original Witcher released for PC back in 2007 and was very popular, and then last year PC gamers finally got a sequel, The Witcher 2 which turned out to be one of the best RPGs and game of 2011. The Witcher 2 was a mature action RPG that told an incredible story and had a solid foundation of game mechanics behind it to back it up. The problem for most gamers though is that unless you had a high end PC, you probably weren?t able to play it. Fast-forward a year and here we are, with the release of The Witcher 2 for Xbox 360. After seeing all the footage for Witcher 2 on PC, I was honestly quite skeptical at how good a port it would be to console, as history shows us that quite a few PC games don?t always port well when having to be crammed into a console. Something has to give, and sure, it does here too, but not in any way that deters from the gameplay experience. The 360 version won?t look anything like the PC counterpart running on Ultra, but it does look fantastic for a console game and I?m quite surprised at how well it runs without slowdown or any major issues. It?s not completely necessary to have beaten or even played the first Witcher, as there is a recap included that sums up most of the important events that unfolded in the first game to catch players up to speed on what?s happening.
The Witcher 2 includes a deep and engrossing story that I can?t say enough good things about and a dynamic combat system that is much more skills based rather than stacking stats. The world looks lovely and incredibly detailed and all the characters are believable due to not only their excellent voice acting but because of how they?re portrayed. Things are much more complicated than ?good? and ?bad?, and characters will show their flaws, however so little which makes them that much more believable. The plot is captivating and I found it hard to put down due to its clever writing and excellent pacing.
For those that never experience the first Witcher, you assume the role of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer who?s lost his memory and trying to remember his past, piece by piece. Not only is Geralt a master of blades but he has the ability to use signs, a sort of magic that allows his role to be offensive, defensive, or supportive. Geralt is also an alchemist, making many potions along the way as you pick the nearby shrubs and bushes for rare ingredients. Being one of the few known Witchers left, Geralt will do what it takes to keep his lands safe.
It?s the thirteenth century, and the land of Temeria is consumed with political turmoil. Geralt seems to be entangled in this mess and awakes in a dungeon prison, shackled and bound. Vernon Roche has imprisoned Geralt for the supposed assassination of King Foltest. Geralt did not commit this crime, but has to explain his actions and everything that happened up to that point in a series of flashbacks, when he was actually trying to protect the King. Honestly, I don?t want to get into the plot much further simply because I truly enjoyed every event, spin, and surprised that was thrown my way. The subtitle of the game is ?Assassins of Kings? and you?ll learn quite early on why it is called so. There?s an overlaying plot of Geralt trying to attempt to recover his lost memories and why he has amnesia, and as you progress through the bigger plot points, smaller bits of memory will be revealed to Geralt about his former life.
I can?t say enough flattering things about the storyline and writing quality as I hung on every word and didn?t even skip any dialogue sequences, as I wanted to hear every line spoken. The Witcher 2 is without a doubt written and meant for adults, not only because of the rampant sex and violence (which there is much of), but the whole overlaying feel is so dark and gritty that you really need to pay attention to grasp all the minute details. It?s refreshing to see that everything in the world of Temeria isn?t so black and white, and you can?t always decipher who are the good and bad guys based on their looks. You?ll need to make important decisions as you progress; even choosing sides at one point, making all your decision feel like they actually have merit and a consequence.
At certain times you?ll even have a few short moments to pick your dialogue choice, and while these timed discussion options are rare, it makes you think quickly on our feet and seems to happen when it is really important to the storyline. The timing of these feed into your emotions at that point of time and really makes the choices you decide much more powerful. Be warned though, there are ?wrong? choices that will lead you to a game over screen if you?re not careful with your words at the proper time.
I?m not sure why, but I expected your average ten to fifteen hour game, what I got was well more than double that. Depending on your choice of difficult when starting out, you?re set out for an adventure that can take well over forty to sixty hours, contingent on how thorough with side quests and how much exploring you achieve. I never felt like the game was being dragged on arbitrarily for no reason and the well written and acted storyline kept pace the whole time, especially when I met some talking trolls. There is a high amount of replayability here as well given that there are many different story-altering choices to be made. You?ll need to play through Geralt?s journey a few times if you want to see all the events and sides to the story, though it won?t become tiring as the whole game is filled with quality content, start to finish.
While the story and plot took the driver?s seat for me, if a game isn?t fun to play, it doesn?t matter how good the story is. Luckily that?s not an issue here, as the combat is very action and skills based. Even from the very beginning, you?ll see how tough your enemies can be and no fight will be simple until much later on when you have a vast array of skills at your disposal. Part of Geralt?s definitive look is that he carries two swords on his back, one steel and the other silver. The steel blade is meant to be used against normal human-like enemies while the silver blade will deal more damage against unearthly foes. Geralt also has access to very powerful magic signs that aid him in battle which range from a simple fireball to even setting up magical traps on the ground.
Geralt?s signs become very powerful later on as you progress their ranks in the skills tree, but that?s not all that will help Geralt survive. As he?s an experience alchemist, he can make not only potions to help his offense and defense, but also create bombs and traps. You need to meditate when crafting and wanting to use a potions, which makes this segment of the game much more of a preparation game rather than spamming a button for a heal when you get low on health. This requires you to be much more definitive in your actions and deliberate in battle as the battles are fluid and will require more strategy as you venture further against multiple enemies. The only issue I really had with the combat mechanics is the very finicky targeting system, though you learn to work around it as you become more comfortable in battle.
The Witcher 2 might seems like any other loot based RPG at first since you?ll be searching bodies and barrels everywhere, but truly there?s so little meaning to coin in this game that I can actually count the times I upgraded my sword and armor (both of which are usually given to you after meeting a milestone in the storyline). Realistically, unless it?s a massive upgrade, it won?t really affect your combat performance all that much. The down side to having so much loot but nothing to do with it? You?ll have to constantly be finding a merchant to sell as I was almost always overweight and had to dump a lot of items. It doesn?t help that the inventory system itself is terrible and makes it even difficult to see what item you are currently using without having to compare against each item. It?s convoluted and you can?t easily see if an item is an upgrade with a simple glance.
So you may have noticed that to box boasts an ?Enhanced Edition? right on the front, as this is all the extended DLC and fixes that the PC players eventually got which relieved many of the issues that were apparent at launch. These extra features include more quests and gameplay, a super difficult Dark Mode, storage containers, new characters and locations, gameplay fixes, and even a new opening cinematic that looks absolutely stunning.
As I said before, this isn?t going to look anything like it does on Ultra settings on a PC (I?d say more like Medium), but it does look quite good on the console. There are a few minor issues though that plagued me throughout even with both game discs installed. There are big texture pop-in issues that happen quite frequently (seems to be almost every time the camera switches angles in a cutscene), some screen tearing at points, and various minor bugs (having issues going through doors at times or NPCs acting oddly), and a map system that only shows your end point, leaving you to figure out how to get there on your own. Normally I wouldn?t have an issue with my hand not being held, but there were a few quests that I had to go online and look up a walkthrough as I got stuck for quite some time in the second major city without any help of how to get to my destination. All of that being said, the combat and story are so well done and memorable that it?s actually rewarding to overcome these issues.
Everything in The Witcher 2 is very memorable and enticed me to continue playing, whereas I found it daunting to chug through the original Witcher and never did get around to finishing it. You?re in for a treat of amazing visuals, voice acting, animations, and storytelling that seems criminal to not be on TV. The Witcher 2 is extremely dark and adult orientated, even prompting my wife to ask why this isn?t a TV show as it reminded her of Game of Thrones. That being said, this is a very adult game full of cursing and even borderline softcore porn scenes, though it?s done in a classy way. This game is not meant for kids in any way, shape, or form.
If you didn?t have the powerhouse gaming rig to play Witcher 2 on PC last year, do yourself a favor and don?t miss it this year either. The 360 version may not be the pinnacle version, but it?s done well enough that there?s no significant detriment to tarnish the experience the developers originally intended. Witcher 2 is a very mature game, not only in content but also in execution. I?m not sure how they got a high-end PC game to look this well done on a console but they did it and impressively without any compromises. I know I?ll be thinking of Geralt when the Game of the Year nominations for 360 starts rolling around at the end of 2012.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Ridge Racer Unbounded
E3 jokes aside, the Ridge Racer series has always has its own special niche within the racing genre. It?s known for its unique and exciting drifting race mechanics, at least that?s what Ridge Racer used to be known for. It separated itself from the Burnouts, FlatOuts, Needs For Speeds, and other arcade racers for years, but now with BugBear developing Unbounded, it seems like they want to be like other games rather than be known for what made Ridge Racer so unique. Ironically, Bugbear is who made the FlatOut series and you can see the heavy influence as Unbounded is over the top with crashes that feels like it?s trying to be a merge of Split Second and Burnout. A great new addition though is the ability to design and create your own race tracks, share them online, and even compete on them with your friends; that is if you can get the online to work, but more on that later.
There?s technically a story, something about you being a new member of the Unbounded gang (see the clever title relevance now?), a notorious group of street racers, but that?s all I really mustered from it and all you?ll really care as well. You?ll be more interested in plowing through concrete walls or taking huge jumps just to try and gain a small shortcut over your rivals in each race all while some dreadful Dubstep music blares in the background. Load up your own playlist for this game, as the short song selections become very tiring quickly, even more so if you aren?t a fan of the genre.
In the career mode there are nine different city districts that you unlock as you progress, each of which have several individual events that have you trying to score first, second, or third place for the most points. As you collect points for racing well and destroying everything in your way, you?ll unlock new cars and events to compete in. You?ll be racing, drifting, competing in time trials, and more as you progress throughout the campaign. As you unlock new cars and events, you?ll also gain new pieces to use in the map editor to create your own races once you?ve dominated them.
Ridge Racer was always known for its corner drifting as much as possible, even on straightaways if possible. Unbounded decided to drop that main mechanic for the more action orientated destroy-everything-you-see approach instead. While the drifting still exists in Unbounded, it?s nothing like it used to be in the series, as it has a severe under steer and feels nothing like a traditional Ridge Racer in any way.
There are around thirty cars to unlock as you progress that are each put into their own categories, yet it feels like there?s no drastic difference between many of the different vehicles. While there are 4WD, FWD, and RWD cars, they all show different stats, but there?s none that seem like a ?correct? choice on events. Sure the 4WD vehicles grip better, making it harder to drift for more boost, but once you find a favorite or so, you can pretty much stick with it throughout most of the game, except for the events that force you to use specific classes or cars. Your vehicle?s taillights will leave a trail behind it while you boost, attempting to give you that sense of speed, sadly though it doesn?t even really feel that much faster for the few seconds you?re using boost though, and certainly doesn?t come anywhere near the sense of speed Burnout gives. You?ll also learn quickly that a vehicles strength meter becomes important later on, as to prevent you from being fragged (crashed, and yes, I realize that?s an odd term to use in a racing game) very often later on.
The game begins off easy enough, but you?ll quickly learn how unforgiving, aggressive, and unforgiving the AI becomes only a few events in. Sometimes rivals can boost almost instantly off the starting line while you have to earn yours the proper way. If you try and play Unbounded in a proper racing fashion, you won?t be earning many first place finishes; you need to learn to drive aggressively and go against all your instincts and try and hit certain obstacles so that you can fill your boost meter more quickly. Luckily there doesn?t seem to be a large ?rubber band? effect in place, but you also won?t ever gain a drastic lead either and feel safe out in front.
As I mentioned before, the drifting isn?t tight at all, and you will be grinding the corner walls quite often. Even the AI seems to hit and ride the corners in the tight turns quite often as well. Another issue you?ll notice quite early on is the irony in the name of the game itself. Unbounded means to have no restrictions, and you?re supposed to be able to drive without any repercussions of smashing into things, yet you?ll crash and be fragged quite often. As you get near an enemy, you can see their health meter above their car, yet you can never see your own, though you?re supposed to be able discern it from the visual health of your vehicle, yet I?ve been blown up many times where I ?look? like I have full health, only to be fragged by the slightest bump.
As you destroy cinder blocks, street poles, walls, and numerous other objects, your boost meter will start to fill accordingly. Once full you can use your boost for a short burst of speed to try and overtake a rival, frag them (as it seems like an almost instant frag when boosting), or if you?re in the right spot, blast through preset spots for a ?shortcut?. These spots are highlighted and impossible to miss and completely optional, most of which will have you crashing through a solid wall, drive through the building, and then ramp out on the other side. Note that once you use your boost, you use it all in one go, so you have to decide when to use it wisely, as you need to start refilling it again afterwards. A fun thing you?ll learn early on as well is what happens when you run out of boost just before hitting one of these special breakable walls. If you happen to hit one of those walls without boost activated (doesn?t matter if it just ran out a split second beforehand) you will instantly crash even though your speed is fast enough. You have to be in boost mode to go through these walls or you crash, so make sure you do it at the last moment just in case.
The other main issue you?re going to run into from the very beginning is discerning what can be crashed through and what cant. This is where you need to go against your instincts and also drop all logic. Cinder blocks, cement walls, concrete pillars, and more are no match against your vehicle (actually, it doesn?t even slow you down at all, so you want to try and aim for them to fill your boost), yet the smallest median or awkwardly placed corner of a building is an instant crash. While you?re speeding through the bland palette of the city it?s near impossible to discern the good and bad kind of obstacles going full speed. Shortcuts are another issue, as you?ll learn that most of these don?t really give you much of a shortcut at all and don?t? really help improve your race position.
Most of the events you?ll be racing in are the Domination type. This is where the main goal is to place in the top three by any means necessary. These are the events where nearly everything is destructible and it?s you versus eleven others. As you drift and destroy everything you can just to try and fill your boost meter, it seems the AI can almost use theirs whenever they please, which becomes very frustrating. If there are not many corners to drift to fill your boost quickly, you may go a full lap or more without gaining boost, which can spell disaster if you?re lagging behind. While you can use your boost to frag other racers, there seems to be little reason to do so other than the small experience amount as they seem to respawn very quickly and catch up without many issues. Yet, if you get fragged, it takes forever to be put back into the race and almost near impossible to catch up.
The map editor is one of the more unique aspects of Unbounded, allowing you to create any crazy style of race with any number of ramps or exploding barrels you please. You?re able to place pieces on the grid in any way you like and then customize it even further to make the perfect track before uploading it online. I somehow made a track that seems to confuse the AI once I put walls and a plethora of ramps all over it, allowing me to easily get to the finish line and earning more experience for myself. That?s right; you can create your own track, race it, and still earn experience to level up. As you progress through the careers districts, you?ll notice that you keep seeing the same buildings, ramps, gas stations, and more, and that?s because it seems like the game itself was built with the map editor. While that?s not generally a bad thing, the fact that there are so few pieces to make the few short hours you play completing it feel unique is.
The big issue with the online aspect of Ridge Racer Unbounded is that I was completely unable to get it to work at all. Over the course of three days, trying multiple times, the servers never seemed available (my Xbox Live worked fine) so I actually never got to try and race online to see other peoples created races. While I did find a few people with the same issue as me, it seems like even if you can get it to work, much of the online system itself seems to be a hassle or broken as well, having many players crash or not being able to find games. I wasn?t able to confirm this or not unfortunately and not being able to download other racers creations means Unbounded has already been shelves and unlikely to be played again.
You?d figure that for a racing game the vehicles themselves would look fantastic, yet here they look blocky and not impressive at all. The palette used for the levels make it very difficult to properly judge upcoming corners and objects, as it all just seems to blend together in a murky mess. While Unbounded really has nothing to do with Ridge Racer other than the title itself, it does try and fill the voids with explosions and destruction that fail to inspire. This is supposed to be a reboot for the Ridge Racer series, yet it feels like it?s just trying to be a Burnout, Split Second, or FlatOut rather than a true Ridge Racer. Unbounded may be able to replace the Ridge Racer E3 joke, as that is what this title really is. Sadly this is nothing like a true Riiiiiiiiiiiidge Racerrrrrrrrrrrr!
Overall Score: 4.7 / 10
Pinball Arcade
I remember going to the local arcade as a kid with my pocket of quarters, excited to try the new games and old favorites. A backup for me was always the pinball machines, as there?s nothing else really like a pinball machine that other arcade games were able to recreate. It?s a shame kids of today will never know what it?s like going to an arcade and playing pinball for hours with a handful of quarters. FarSight Studios has now released The Pinball Arcade on XBLA, and for any pinball fan, new or old, this is a must. You?ve probably played their last offering, Pinball Hall of Fame. Great detail has gone into recreating actual pinball machines that are both historical and modern, which I remember playing when I was younger. Every flipper, sound effect, bumpers, lights, and detail have been recreated to be as true to the original machine as possible.
The big names of pinball are all here, as there?s machines from Bally, Williams, Stern, and Gottlieb. If you aren?t a pinball buff, these were the best manufactures out there bringing us some of the most memorable tables that you?ve probably even played and don?t know it. The initial game will come with four classic tables (which I?ll go into detail) and there?s a whole slew of DLC that?s planned to come out in regular updates, which I?m excited for as my two favorite machines will eventually be coming out (Pinbot and Medieval Madness). Farsight is even planning on adding online tournaments and modes in the future once more machines are released.
Playing pinball is very simple; you control your flippers and try to make sure that the ball doesn?t go straight down the middle between them. For the controller, the triggers are your flippers (they can be swapped to the bumper buttons if you prefer) and the right stick is how you launch the ball. The power on your ball launch is determined on how much you pull back the stick and let go, and is a needed tactic especially when playing the Tales of the Arabian Nights machine. Any good pinball player knows that sometimes a friendly nudge is needed against the machine to ensure that the ball goes (or doesn?t go) where you want it to. This is done with the left stick, but just like playing actual pinball, make sure you don?t overdo it and tilt the machine.
Each machine has a menu that will give you detailed explanations of each table?s goals and how to get their multiball and jackpots among others. Each has its own table history and even the release flyer (though you can?t zoom in as much as I would like to actually read some of it). Should you need to pause, when you come back and unpause, you?re given a countdown timer so that you?re not caught off guard. As you wait to play a game, the camera will zoom across the unit and show close-ups of all the intricate sections. The camera is even smart enough to zoom out for multiball so you can keep an eye on where each ball is. Not expected, but there?s even a ?call attendant? option if the ball happens to get stuck (not a design flaw, as this happens in real pinball) which will eventually free your stuck ball. It?s been a long time, but I remember having to call over the arcade owner to unstick my ball from time to time. It?s a very retro addition that gives it that sense of realism.
So let?s get to the four included tables shall we. First off is the Theatre of Magic machine (Bally 1995, 6600 units made). This was one of the most popular machines and easily one of the highest scoring games. Even in my first game, I was able to take first place on the leaderboards by a massive amount. Balls can levitate and disappear, there are trap doors, and numerous ramps. What I was most impressed about was that the Easter eggs included in the actual machine were left in and are included (the digital pinball and Mortal Kombat 3 codes).
Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams 1996, 3128 units made). This was another highly rated table and your goal is the rescue the princess from the evil genie you see at the top of the playfield. There?s a magnet near the top that can grab onto your ball for a few moments and then shoot it back out randomly, which I really enjoyed. My favorite thing about this machine though is the skill shot you?re given as soon as you launch the ball into one of three holes.
Ripley?s Believe It or Not (Sternl 2004. Designed by Pat Lawlor who created two of the most memorable pinball machines; Funhouse and Addam?s Family). The dot matrix display will show odditorium facts and the playfield even has a third flipper near the top right side. You travel with the one and only Robert Ripley across seven continents to discover everything weird, bizarre, and unusual. This machine is very complex and confusing at first, but once you learn your objectives, earning frequent multiballs is not a problem. Oh, and it also comes with a shrunken head, so there is that.
And lastly, Black Hole (Gottlieb 1981, 8774 units made). This machine was well ahead of its time for a few reasons. It not only had four flippers, but it was the first machine to have the then-revolutionary lower reversed playing area that lights up when your ball goes down there from the top left corner area. You can see the lower play area on the main playing field, but it isn?t illuminated until your ball goes down there. It might be more known for being the highest earning table ever at its time. This was because Black hole was the first machine to cost 50 cents to play. The machine had very little bumpers, ramps, and objectives compared to newer machines, but it really was ahead of its time when it was released over 30 years ago. High scores might not look so high when comparing to other tables, but this machine surely falls under the classic category.
All the tables look and sound authentic, the balls move like they should, the dot matrix displays are authentic, and more impressively, the game even uses emulation as if it was using the actual code from the real tables. These are so exact to the actual table that you could learn on here and then play the real machine without any problems.
With strong DLC plans in the future, I?m excited for some new tables and especially the eventual online head to head tournaments that are planned. If you can?t afford an actual machine in the house or want to play some of the best rated machines ever, spend the 800 Microsoft Points and pick this up. It?s clear that Farsight Studios took its time and care crafting this offering for all us pinball fans that miss the glory days.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Trials Evolution
It?s hard to believe that three years ago a little title called Trials HD would make such a big buzz on XBLA. Here we are today, now finally able to play the sequel, Trial Evolution, where it?s survival of the fastest. Where Trials HD was primarily a single player game at its core and all the levels in a warehouse setting, Trials Evolution lives up to its name and really does evolve the game from what it once was. Trials Evolution is no longer confined indoors nor to a single player experience; now you?re able to play and create levels outdoors in a vast setting and even play up to four players simultaneously online or even local couch co-op. The first thing you?ll want to do is to customize how your rider looks. As you gain money for completing levels you can spend it on new clothing items like shirts, jackets, gloves, pants, boots, helmets, and then customize the color of each item to make your stand out among all the other riders. I suggest doing this first cause I found that many people who jump online haven?t done so and are all using the default clothing and colors, making it difficult to distinguish themselves from the opponents when riding side by side. Luckily I don?t have that problem with my bright pink rider and bike with an alien-like helmet. While there are a dozen or so choices for each clothing item, I kind of do wish there were some more outlandish choices, but it?s not a deal breaker, as you?ll be too focused on your balance more than anything else.
Trials HD was a fantastic game, though not without its faults; the biggest being that you hit a brick wall of difficulty out of nowhere and many people were unable to progress due to this steep difficulty spike. Once race you were having a great time, hitting all the right lines and the next you can?t get past the first obstacle and become incredibly frustrated. Evolution learned from its predecessor?s mistake and the difficulty is much more gradual this time and does a much better job at teaching you the smaller nuances and shifting your rider?s weight back and forth rather than just throwing you in the deep end, hoping you?ll know how to swim. While I found the later tracks to be much harder than in Trials HD, overall it feels easier because there are many more checkpoints, almost to the point of being too many. Some levels it seems like there?s a checkpoint for every obstacle or gap you need to clear, which isn?t a bad thing, as the Trial pros will still be able to do it without crashing.
The single player has you earning licenses from D to A class, teaching you new tricks along the way if you?re new to the series. The campaign feels much more balanced this time around and you?re challenged with trying to get gold, silver, or bronze medals in your outings. You need a certain amount of medals to progress further in the campaign, so simply clearing each course and getting a bronze won?t cut it, as you?ll need to go back to older tracks with the faster bikes you unlock to gain those gold medals worth three points. The change of outdoor tracks alone makes the game feel fresh and new, not to mention that your singe axis driving now can take ?turns? so to speak. While you?ll always be playing on the X-axis driving line, the game will almost seem to rotate as you make corners, always keeping the camera angle where you normally see your rider, but it?s an odd sensation at first.
There are more than enough tracks in the single player to keep you occupied for many hours, but this can be exponentially expanded with the track editor, allowing you to create and download maps online. While many of the new tracks are outdoors to show off the game?s new coat of paint, there are some indoor and warehouse style tracks as well for the faithful. There are even some very unique tracks like the Limbo inspired track and the always enduring Gigatrack that literally takes about ten to fifteen minutes to complete, compared to most tracks minute mark. New minigames also are included that range from a ?Splosion Man inspired level, UFO piloting, to even one where you have to bail off your bike then spam the buttons to flap your arms like a bird to get the furthest distance. Sadly my favorites like Hill Climb and Bone Break are missing from HD, but I?ve already seen someone create their own Hill Climb map to download.
Technically Trials HD had a track editor, but you were only able to share your creations among your friends, making it almost useless in the grand scheme of things. This too has been remedied and any track you create you can upload and share online very easily. Even on the first day there were more than enough maps to download and try, and as time goes on and people get used to the editor, better creations will surface. If you used the editor in HD then you?ll feel right at home with the basics but there?s even a Pro editor included that allows for much deeper customization and creations you can?t even imagine. It?s akin to the editor in Little Big Planet, where if you can think it, you can probably make it. This means you can make a shooter game, pinball, Monkey Ball-like maps, or even Foosball.
It?s a serious editor but that also means you?ll need to put some serious time into learning it if you want to create the spectacles that will be popular with the community. This is by no means a bad thing, but even moving the camera around in the editor will take some getting used to, so be warned, the editor will take many hours to become comfortable with. Luckily for you lazy gamers like myself, you can just download everyone else?s creations easily that is sorted into multiple categories to easily find the tracks you want. I don?t see Trials Evolution becoming stale anytime soon with so much content readily accessible. Leaderboards will even be tracked for user created maps; this is a huge deal in my opinion and RedLynx is doing all the right things this time around.
So if you were like me and always wanted to play at the same time with your friends aside from racing their ghosts, you have now been granted your wish. Multiplayer is included and allows up to four racers to compete at the same time either locally or online. Seeing how so many games forget that people still love couch co-op, it?s fantastic that it?s included for when some buddies drop by. Most people will probably enjoy the new Supercross mode which has all four players on the screen in different lanes on the same track. The first to the end with the least amount of crashes will garner the most points. You can setup private rooms to customize what tracks, how many heats, or even allow bailout finishes for those close races.
You?re also able to play the regular Trial maps, and while you won?t be racing side by side, you will see the other three players? ghosts in real time. My only nitpick of the multiplayer is that you?re unable to add AI riders if you don?t have a full team of four, but again, it?s not a deal breaker by any means. Things become intense when playing online with your friends and there is sure to be much screaming and cheering to be had by all.
I?m curious to see if Trials Evolution will get some DLC since you can make almost any track, game, or variant that you could possibly think of. At 1200 Microsoft Points, Trials Evolution is a steal, I would have actually paid double that considering how much content is included and how creative the community will be with their creations. As the saying goes, ?bigger and better?, and that?s exactly what Trials Evolution is. This is the perfect example of what an XBLA title should be.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Rayman 3 HD
When I first saw that Rayman 3 was coming to XBLA in HD form, was I a little confused simply because Rayman 2 is generally regarded as the best of the original Rayman games (Rayman Origins easily holds the crown for best Rayman ever though), then I remembered that Rayman 2 has basically been ported numerous times to many different platforms. Having Rayman 3 HD-ified makes sense since the original hasn?t been released ever since its actual launch back in 2003. Rayman 3 from my memory was drastically different from 2, as it was filled with more wackiness and combat where Rayman 2 was much simpler and more about the platforming aspect. Either way, here we are almost ten years later, and I almost forgot about how obnoxious Murfy was until I started playing Rayman 3 HD. Red Lums are usually friendly, but it turns out the leader of the black Lums, Andre, is starting to turn other red Lums into black ones for his own nefarious reasons. Eventually the gang of black Lums steals enough hair from the animals in the land to dress up as Hoodlums (get the title pun now?). Murfy witnesses this and tries to escape from the pursuing evil Lums that are after him, but he ends up crashing into Rayman and Globox napping in a tree. Globox tries to wake Rayman up but proceeds to remove Raymans hands (that aren?t attached to his body remember) as he runs away to save himself. When Andre catches up to the duo, somehow Globox ends up accidentally swallowing Andre and thus begins Raymans quest, to save Globox with an evil black Lum trapped inside him and prevent Adre from amassing a hoodlum army. The ensuing dialogue that Globox and Andre have (from within his stomach) is quite funny and almost the highlight of the game?s humor.
So what?s new in the HD version of this classic platformer? Well, as you can guess by the title, the major improvement has been the graphics, specifically the textures. Running at a higher and smoother framerate, the game looks much better than it did almost a decade ago. While the textures look much better and crisper, it seems the geometry and polygons itself have remained mostly untouched, leaving an odd looking game that looks great, yet dated at the same time. If you?ve already played Rayman 3, it should be noted that the cutscenes also cannot be skipped and you?ll need to watch through them all.
Rayman is able to charge his attacks for a more powerful hit (by winding up his fists like a windmill). As you progress through the game you?ll find different ?suits? which will bestow new powers and abilities to Rayman for a limited time. Some will make you strong enough to punch through wooden doors, others make your attacks whirlwinds, and another even grants you a missile that you can control. These powerups are presented in the form of tin cans and play a large role in each stages puzzles.
There is a scoring and combo system in place and you?ll need to bring some serious A-game if you think you?re going to be able to get 100% in each level. It?s not just enough finding all the hidden gems, but you need to do it quickly so that your combo meter stays up if you want the maximum achievable score. Scoring high eventually nets you extra bonus levels (mini games) so that you have an actual reason to care and spend time searching for all the hidden goodies. These bonus levels come in completely random styles and I wonder why they are even there in the first place. One has you playing Tennis with Hoodlums and their shields, there?s a first person shooter bonus level, and even a whack-a-mole-like stage that has you squishing frogs. They won?t add any more game time overall, as none were generally that interesting, or fun. The odd ?in between? stages also return that has Rayman surfing on what looks to be a Rainbow Road like stage to try and get to the end, but the camera angle makes it near impossible to see where you?re supposed to land.
While the graphics may now be in HD, it seems like the rest of the game has largely gone untouched. The biggest problem with the game back in 2003 was the camera and controls, and it seems those issues weren?t addressed in any way. The camera is something you?ll constantly be struggling against, as it?ll always try and obscure your view or give you an unusable angle when you?re trying to jump across areas. It wouldn?t be that bad if you had full control over the camera at all times, but sometimes it just won?t relinquish control to give you the angle you want, or it?ll be horrendously slow to ?fix? itself.
The other big issue was with the audio levels of certain spoken dialogue in the game. Sometimes out of nowhere, you won?t be able to hear what some of the characters are saying, forcing you to not only max the spoken dialogue in options, but also force you to use subtitles if you want to know what?s being said. Oddly enough, sometimes a few of the lines aren?t even subtitled, so you better hope the audio is working at those points. As for the rest of the audio, the soundtrack and spoken dialogue is great and still holds up after all this time.
Rayman 3 HD is an old classic platformer, and it plays like one, as it shows its age. The textures are much cleaner and the game plays smoothly, but the game feels rooted and dated. Rayman 3 HD is a good game for the asking price of 800 Microsoft Points, but don?t expect a complete redo of this once great game. While it is a good game for its time, I?d highly suggest Rayman Origins over Rayman 3 HD if you?re looking for your platforming fix, as the camera in this is a constant battle.
Suggestions: Please don't HD something just to do it. Fans of the originals will be sorely dissapointed if issues like these aren't even fixed.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
It?s hard to believe that it?s already been more than fifteen years since Capcom brought us Resident Evil and truly made survival horror games what they are today. Then they did it again by changing things up with Resident Evil 4, so when Operation Raccoon City was announced and touted as a completely different experience, I was excited, hoping that they would have made magic happen once again with this new offering, even though it?s an offshoot to Resident Evil itself. Operation Raccoon City is developed by Slant Six Games, whom you know from the Socom series. Ironically, it turns out that Operation Raccoon City feels more like Socom than it does Resident Evil in almost every way. Don?t go into this game expecting your standard Resident Evil gameplay, well, you won?t even be able to fool yourself otherwise, as this is nothing like Resident Evil in any way aside from the title on the box and how it tries to mesh itself into the already pre-established universe.
I still remember back in 1998 when Resident Evil 2 released and I learned about Raccoon City and the T-virus outbreak. Operation Raccoon City takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2 and even part 3 as well (which you could probably guess from the games title), though keep in mind this story is more of a hypothetical scenario rather than intertwining into the already happened events. Umbrella are the ones responsible for the massive outbreak and sends in a cleanup crew to pull off a massive cover up so that they cannot be implicated in the event. Umbrella sends a team and you?re part of the Umbrella Security Services (U.S.S.) to pull this off.
U.S.S. Delta team gets to Raccoon City and meets up with team leader Hunk (whom you?ll recognize if you?re a Resident Evil fan). Their first goal is to stop Dr. Birkin and retrieve the G-virus but are met with opposition along the way, though not the walking dead kind. Mercenaries are blocking your team?s path and will be for the remainder of your campaign play through. At times it seems like you fight against more of these mercenaries than actual zombies.
You learn that the T-virus has now leaked out and people are turning into zombies, chasing you wherever you go. I don?t want to delve too much more into the story for a few reasons; it?s short enough to finish in a weekend, and there are a few moments that are better left to surprise, though expect to see some classic characters from the Resident Evil universe. If you?ve played Resident Evil 2 and 3, you should already have a good idea who these characters are.
While the concept is great, as I admit, seeing the Raccoon City events from the ?other? point of view is quite interesting, It?s not done in a way that?s interesting or really gives all that might insight into the backend of the mysterious Umbrella corporation. Resident Evil has so much backstory they could have drawn from to put a clever twist on things, but instead you?re stuck playing faceless masked characters with no backstory of their own that you won?t care about in any way.
The first problem that Operation Raccoon City commits is that it assumes you?ve played the Resident Evil games, or even simply remember all the minute details of the games over a decade old. If you?ve not played the games before, there are no explanations for what?s going on, who?s who, what Umbrella is, or anything else from the very beginning, you?re just assumed to know all of this already. It also does this for many of the gameplay elements such as the character selection and their special abilities, the unlock system, and how it all ties together from campaign and multiplayer.
To begin you need to choose your character that you wish to be, though because there?s no real backstory on the characters, it may come down to which one you like the look of, or what skills they have (though they need to be unlocked and upgraded). For Assault you?ve got Lupo, Vector is the Recon class that?s able to cloak himself with invisibility or take shape of an enemy, Spectre is the Sniper, Four eyes is the Field Scientist, Beltway is Demolition, and the Medic is Bertha, who can carry extra first-aid sprays and help their team mates in different ways.
You?re granted experience points for completing levels in single and multiplayer. With that XP, you spent it to upgrade skills and abilities for whichever character you like and play the most. The more enemies you kill or objectives you complete, you?re graded and given the appropriate amount of XP to level your abilities. Since campaign and multiplayer is a four player cooperative experience, you may be forced to pick a character and class that you don?t enjoy or have any abilities spent in if someone else chooses them first. If you?re like me and spent all your XP on your favorite character and then someone else already picks them, you?re stuck using someone else with zero abilities. This is only the start of the games imbalance though.
You?ll constantly be scavenging for ammunition, and not in that scary survival way we?ve come to know from Resident Evil. This is a shooter game and since the ammunition is so scarce, it becomes very frustrating even from the opening fight. The game also applies a cover based mechanic to hide and survive, but to do so there?s no button you need to press; you simply stick to any wall or corner you run into. You can imagine how frustrating this gets when you start to attach to every piece of cover you pass when you aren?t trying to. You?ll feel like Velcro at times since you?ll stick to everything.
Being that the game is a more shooter based affair, I could forgive it if the shooting mechanics were done right and felt proper. Instead, damage is inconsistent, aiming doesn?t feel fluid, and weapons are horribly imbalanced. Sometimes I can headshot with a few bullets no problem, other times I?ll unload a clip into a zombie and it barely fazes them. Sadly, melee is sometimes your best option when trying to get through a crowd of zombies. Rather than using your weapons, you can slash your way through a horde of undead with little to no downside, though it will take quite a few slashes of your knife to actually kill an enemy for some reason. This leaves none of the suspense that Resident Evil is supposed to give when a zombie gets close to you. There?s simply no tension and you aren?t scared of zombies or even the undead dogs like you should be. It just doesn?t feel like Resident Evil in any way.
The worst culprit though is easily the unquestionably awful AI, friendly and enemy. If you?re playing campaign solo, then there are 3 other team mates with you that act like they?ve just had a lobotomy. Squad mates will run into laser trip mines without hesitation, they?ll stand out in the open to get shot, run into already cleared rooms, get stuck on objects, and even stand around offering no backup at all as you clear the oncoming waves of zombies. Please, plays the game with friends if you?re able to, even random players are better than the AI here. The enemy AI isn?t that much better either. Zombies never become a threat unless you get swarmed (though you can melee your way through a crowd no problem), and mercenaries are simple to kill since they just stand there, even while getting shot. If every enemy wasn?t such a bullet sponge (really, I need to shoot you in the head ten times?) they?d be no worse than the harmless zombies. Again, play with friends or random people if you play through this, as the AI is completely broken at times and frustrating to no end when you have to keep reviving them.
There is an online versus component as well, though all the issues I talked about before carry over into this experience as well. You have a few different modes to try out like your standard Team Death Match, but there?s also a variant of Capture the Flag called Biohazard which can be fun with a proper team. This mode has you searching out G-virus samples that need to be brought back to your base all while trying to get through the crowds of zombies and Lickers. There?s a survival mode and also a Heroes mode which lets you play as notable characters from the Resident Evil universe, for those looking for something a little different.
Each mode is 4 vs. 4 online and versus has you trying to outscore the other team by either killing zombies or players. Regular zombie kills are worth so little points that it?s hardly worth the ammo, so you?re better off trying to find and kill the opposing team?s players or the larger infected types. There are severe imbalance issues though with many of the weapons and characters and if someone has a highly leveled character and you?re starting out or forced to use someone you have no skills in, you don?t have any chance to win at all.
The biggest problem with Operation Raccoon City is it?s seemingly cash-in of the name. This game doesn?t resemble Resident Evil in any way, though it tries to cover that up by being nostalgic and showing you green herbs and characters from the series to mask the bigger issues. Broken AI, a cover system that does what it wants, unbalanced weapons, and many other issues that affect single and multiplayer makes Operation Raccoon City a nightmare at times. There?s very little depth aside from the skill leveling, but even then, it?s a shallow experience, even for the hardcore of fans since you won?t care about the story or its new characters. It has so much potential for an interesting take on the story we all know, but does absolutely nothing with it.
Resident Evil pioneered the survival horror category; this game doesn?t even attempt to be in a similar genre. If the box didn?t say Resident Evil on it, no one would care about this bland and empty experience, and you?ll forget about this as quickly as you finish it. If you somehow have three other friends that also bought this, it?ll be entertaining for a few days, though I?d highly recommend waiting until it?s extremely cheap. If you?re eagerly awaiting Resident Evil 6 and deciding whether or not to pick this up to pass the time with, keep waiting.
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
Armored Core 5
It?s been quite a few years since I?ve truly enjoyed a mech based game. I was never huge into the genre but there were two that really stood out for me; MechAssault and Steel Battalion. The former being more of an arcade-ish experience and the latter being one of the most in-depth and hardcore mech games that there?s ever been (due to the mandatory controller with over forty buttons and matching pedals). The last really good mech game was Chromehounds and that came out way back in 2006, so fans of the genre have been waiting awhile for another game to surpass these games. Armored Core V is developed by From Software and they know quite a few things about mech based games, as they?ve been doing the Armored Core series for many years now, as they were the ones that also did Chromehounds. It seems like From Software has gone back to its roots and has made this installment in the series completely for the hardcore crowd and lovers of the genre. Over the last few years, the Armored Core series has turned into more of a quick reflex style of gameplay rather than the slower and more tactical approach it once was. This game has definitely gone back to the slower and more deliberate pacing of gameplay, as many levels are set in city environments and you now can have smaller Armored Cores (AC) that can scale buildings for a vertical advantage as well.
Let it be known first and foremost; Armored Core V is without a doubt tailored towards the hardcore and mech passionate crowd, and casuals will have an extremely hard time with its massive entry barrier. Just like their other games, Dark Souls and Demon?s Souls, it?s unforgiving and it?s all about trial and error, as there?s absolutely no hand holding here to guide you along the right path. The instruction book isn?t worth the paper it?s printed on and won?t help you in any way, leaving you to search online to answer all of your many questions. If you happen to meet all the criteria of loving mech simulators, experimenting and figuring out why you keep dying, and tweaking every detail of your AC for hours to find that perfect build, then you?re going to have an absolute wonderful time in Armored Core V. The average player however is going to become very frustrated within the first few minutes of the game simply trying to figure out what?s going on and how to do anything properly.
The campaign?s story is based around the ongoing conflict and the perils of war. To be honest, it?s barely worth mentioning as it involves a ?Father? figure and is pretty dry with the subpar voice acting behind it. To be honest, you generally play a mech game for the simple reason of piloting a multi-ton giant robot with massive firepower. The Armored Cores are the weapons in this war and there are ten campaign missions for you to tackle, where each will take about an hour or so to complete. You?ll have simple missions like defeating all the resistance, but eventually you?ll fight other formidable ACs, chase a weaponized train around the city, and even battle a massive boss that could easily step on you. Make note, the campaign is tailored for two player co-op play and trying to tackle these missions alone until you master the mechanics of the game will be extremely difficult. You WILL want to play these missions with a friend or even random players (that you can hire as mercenaries). You also need to note that while there are other missions other than campaign, Armored Core V really isn?t a single player game at all and I highly suggest passing on it if you aren?t going to be playing connected online, but I?ll get more into that later.
From the very beginning, you?re going to do a small tutorial mission, but after that you are left on your own to figure out essentially every aspect of Armored Core V. At times it seems like the game is actually trying to hide all the information you want away from you, as you aren?t even informed about how to equip and attach new weapons and parts. The menus are very cluttered and convoluted and it will take quite some time to learn what everything does and where it is. You?re bound to be confused as you try and sort between weapon types, statistics, and all the other wall of numbers that will be thrown your way.
If you can think of Armored Core V as an online game as opposed to a single player experience, you?ll be well on your way to knowing what you?re about to get into. You?re able to create or join a team of fellow pilots into a team of twenty. Every mission you complete earns your team points that boost your overall standings, level, and earning other rewards. While you can technically tackle any of the campaign or Order missions solo, every mission is available for at least two players to play cooperatively. You can hire other players (mercenaries) to help you in your mission or you can be for hire yourself and help others, earning yourself some cash to spend on upgrades for your AC. It?s really a slick way to mask the host and join feature of creating a room and offers rewards for both players.
As you level up with your team, you can eventually tackle other teams in Conquest mode which will have you trying to make a name for your team on the bigger scaled map. You can attack and defend in these territories and the top teams are shown on the map, making them a target. The risk is that you need to gamble your team points for each attempt to gain control. These specific missions allow up to five players (with one being a commander who watches the battle from an overhead map and can display tactical information to the rest of the team) and is truly exhilarating when your team is working in unison for a common goal. Again, if you?re going to be playing this offline, you won?t experience the true heart of the game, and I highly recommend you ensure that you?ll be playing this while connected online.
As an action game alone, Armored Core V can stand on its own legs, or tank tracks if that?s your style. As you learn how the basics of the game works and slowly understand the unclear menus, you?ll eventually have more and more fun as you start to tinker around with your AC more and more. A huge part of the game is customizing your AC to your exact specifications. It?s not as simple as choosing what weapon to put on your arms and shoulders, but which of the dozens of each type of weapon, then choosing which one to keep using so it levels up and becomes even more powerful. Then of course you need to spend many hours designing the color scheme and emblems to slap on your AC so that it has your flair. All of this will come about with much trial and error as there?s no documentation on how to do anything properly. It?s a fine balance game of energy to weight ratios and making your AC exactly how you want it for every mission.
There are a massive amount of different weapons to purchase so that you can modify your AC to be short, medium, or a long range style of combat mech. Now there?s even new types of weaponry that includes Kinectic, Chemical, and Thermal. With more than 500 parts for you to build your AC the way you want to, you?ll customize the core, head, arms, legs, weapons, and many more slots. You can even save each build so that swapping mechs between missions is quick and simple, as long as you?ve done all the hard work beforehand. As your team rank rises, you?ll be able to store more and more parts without having to sell. You?re even able to trade builds, parts, cash, and other items between your team members as well. You?ll need to try your hand at each style of gameplay, as each mission is meant to be approached differently. Some missions your heavy tank style AC will suffice, but others you?ll need to be quick and nimble so you can traverse the city buildings.
All this customization is great once you get the hang of it, but it won?t come without hours of trial and error. When you fail a mission, it?s up to you to figure out why, change your AC build and try again. You?re unable to swap parts mid mission as well, so you?ll have to restart the missions from the beginning if you fail and want to try another approach. I wouldn?t have a problem with this if the game actually told you what you were doing wrong, which leads to more frustration. I got lucky and found someone online to help me out, but if I didn?t I?d still probably be stuck on the same campaign mission because I didn?t know that I wanted a specific build style for that assignment.
Once you wrap your head around all the mechanics and concepts, it can be greatly fun to plow through swarms of enemies and being able to one-shot your foes. Armored Core V is much more ground based than the previous game, and with its smaller scale playfields, you?ll find yourself trying to be more tactical rather than all out firepower.
While I enjoyed the vast possibilities of customization, you?ll have to put quite a few hours into the game to become familiar and proficient in all the aspects required to progress. I really wanted to have my one ?go-to? AC but eventually learned that I needed to have multiple types of ACs, as it seemed like I was swapping styles almost every mission. Because of this, I never really felt attached to any of my ACs in particular, which doesn?t help when the story itself is already so weak.
There is some minor slowdown when massive explosions are happening and the world itself doesn?t look nearly as slick as the opening cutscene, though your AC always looks great. Sound seemed to dip randomly at times as well in certain missions and the voice work for all the spoken dialogue is very underwhelming. Aside from these minor issues, you?ll have quite a lot of fun if you can power through the extremely steep learning curve; after a dozen hours I?m still learning new things. While the learning portion will be frustrating, the payoff is very rewarding once you?re able to do and build the AC you exactly want to.
If you?re unable to play online, it?s very difficult to suggest Armored Core V due to its brutally tough campaign if played solo and dry storyline. As a multiplayer game though with an active and experienced team, you?ll have one of the best mech simulations you can possibly think of. Fans of the aging Chromehounds finally have a new title to play online.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
The Splatters
Whenever a great puzzle game comes along I find myself enthralled with it for quite some time, much like I did with Braid and Peggle. Who doesn?t love a good puzzle game, feeling like you can figure anything out when you?re doing well and a moment later like the challenge in front of you isn?t possible in any way. The Splatters may look like a cute game, but don?t let the looks deceive you, this game becomes very challenging and takes a lot of skill. The Splatters is a physics based puzzler where you control liquid-filled blobs and your goal is to make them explode their ink onto the corresponding bombs that lay around the stages. Once you?ve learned all the moves that are available to you, levels can be completed with almost endless possibilities. Your skill and creativity will come into play at how you tackle each level and seeing someone complete a level in a completely different manner than you may even give you ideas of how to alter your gameplay. This manages to keep the game fresh every time you play, even long after you?ve completed the levels.
Your goal may seem simple at first, but dousing those bombs with the correct color of splatter can be much more complex than you thought. You need to fling, slam, and detonate your smiling Splatters all around the level with many trick shots and with a specific amount of Splatters to do so. You?re given many stunt moves as you progress to help make this possible. Slam into a wall or ceiling to explode outwards, covering more ground with your ink. You can ?smack? to even shoot in another direction after you?ve exploded, though it?s smaller, but will help cover those pesky stray bombs. Air strike lets you change direction midair, good for leaping over objects or aiming exactly where you want to midflight. Ballistic is fun as it?ll make you explode in the widest range possible, but you have no control after that other than flipping.
What is flipping you ask? It?s the ability you?ll most likely end up using the most, done with the Left Trigger. The flip ability is like undoing and reversing everything you just did, but you can toggle it on and off multiple times indefinitely, allowing your splatter to ?float? while it explodes if you want to cover a specific spot with ink. At first it looks like it?s a simple time rewind, but physics and gravity stay intact, allowing you to fling your Splatter or bombs one way, and then reverse it to gain momentum. You can essentially make your liquid ?float? midair while you try and coat each of the same colored bombs.
As you begin The Splatters, you start off learning the basics in Become a Talent mode, which consists of 12 levels. Here you?ll learn how to properly play and use all the previously learned trick shots appropriately. Once you complete those levels you unlock Combo Nation mode, 21 stages total, in which you?re supposed to keep your combo meter going, forcing you to think quickly if you want a good score and the coveted three star rating. You also unlock Master Shots mode, 32 levels worth, that is without a doubt the most difficult stages in the game. Here you?re shown clouds that represent icons of the tricks you?re supposed to perform to properly finish the level. You also can?t reposition your Splatters in Master Shots mode like you can in Talent and Combo mode. Stars based on how many tricks you can do in each level, but you need to pull off the required trick as a bare minimum. While it may seem like there?s not many levels, as there?s a total of 65, each level is split into multiple stages (the same background), so once you complete each puzzle, new splatters appear and the new puzzle stage appears. So there are really three times the levels you see listed in the menus, for a total of around 200 or so. Some you will get stuck on for quite some time too, so don?t fret about lack of gameplay.
The beginning levels are simple, to be expected, and the difficulty ramps up at an even pace. There was no random brick wall and it?s not until much later that you?ll have to retry stages multiple times, as it?s paced very nicely. If you?re really skilled, you won?t even need to use every Splatter to complete levels, which will net you a larger score. When you do great completing a level you can upload your replay to Splatter TV very easily. Splatter TV is where you can watch replays of your friends or the best players in the world. It?s very simple to navigate and check the leaderboards to choose which replays you want to watch.
Oddly enough, it feels like it?s meant to be a tablet based game, but the controls work very well with the controller and is simple to jump in and play. The Splatters might not seem like it has much depth at first, but watching a few replays from each level, almost everyone had a different way of tackling each stage which I found impressive and made me change how I thought about going against each puzzle. The true test of a great puzzle game is in its lasting appeal and replayability. The Splatters has a great mechanic behind it that allows for levels to be replayed numerous times, as you?ll almost always think of a new way to complete each stage. Simply put, it?s a fantastic and simple puzzle game that allows you to freely think of a solution, rather than being forced into a predetermined one. For the 800 Microsoft Points, it gets a solid recommendation from me towards any puzzle lover.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Sine Mora
The shoot-em-up (shmup) genre seems like it?s a rare breed of games these days. There?s the odd one that will come out here and there, but it?s definitely quieted since the days of R-Type, 1943, Gradius, Eihander, and many others back in its glorious heydays. It?s no secret that one of my favorite games is Ikaruga, and I always love to get my hands on a new shmup since so few come out these days.Sine Mora may look like any other shmup sidescroller at first look, but there?s quite a lot under the hood that Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture did to make this really stand out in the genre. They even go against the grain in some segments and have your ship on the right side of the screen shooting left. Insanity, I know. Sine Mora makes their catch a unique one and quite the challenge as well, where you?re constantly racing against time, all of which is determined on how well you play.
Generally for a shmup you don?t need the deepest story, as people wants to play it for what it is, not some half drawn out ideas of why they are shooting thousands of enemies. Just like fighting games, you don?t usually need a story to care enough to play the game, the same applies here. But, it seems they?ve gone against the norm and has included quite a deep and very dark storyline that not only justifies why they are doing what they do, but also tries to make you care about the characters at the same time.
That being said, the story is quite deep, but also convoluted and very difficult to follow. I don?t know if that?s a product of my brain shutting down to simply enjoy a shmup, but it involves a few different characters and storylines all in one. It starts off being a story about revenge, a father seeking vengeance for his son that was unjustly shot in the head by the military for not carrying out his orders. Another branch tells of a team of rebels that can time travel focused on destroying the tyrannous empire. The story takes very dark turns, like how the father recruits a rape victim with blackmail, and a pilot that that enjoys seeing mass death.
It?s a little odd at first when the story takes a dark turn and there?s swearing, but the background lore seems to be quite deep and someone looking for a deep story will probably enjoy having that little bit more reason to enjoy the game. As I said, it?s generally not necessary to have a deep story in a shmup, but there is one here, and it?s quite a dark tale.
The bulk of your playing will most likely be in the Story Mode, but there are other modes to enjoy after you?ve completed the game, such as Boss Training, Score Attack, and Arcade Mode, which I?ll get into later. The campaign will take you anywhere from a few hours to a dozen, depending on how good at the genre you are and how determined you can be when you die to the same boss for the twentieth time. Sine Mora is played on a 2D plane just like most in the genre, but there are segments that will show off that the game is done in 3D as you see the camera swoop around a mountain or circling a boss from all angles. Story mode will have you playing over a dozen levels with many different planes and pilots, each with their own special abilities. You?re also granted the ability to slow down time to try and survive the massive barrage of bullets eventually set to come your way, but it?s an ability you need to use sparingly, as it?s finite, though refillable by picking up powerups. The story is told through text and the cutscene sections can be fast forwarded through for those just wanting to get right to the action.
Sine Mora has a very different main mechanic at its core that sets it apart from other shmups. Normally in these games, you will die after getting hit with one to few shots, but here, everything is based on your time (for the most part). This means that you have a time limit before you die, and getting shot or hitting the environment will take away time from your counter. Shooting and defeating enemies will add time to your clock, so it becomes a fine balance of avoiding enemies to survive, and being aggressive and shooting as many as you can without getting hit. On normal mode, it?s generally not something you have to worry about until the latter half of the game, so just focus on playing normally in the beginning. During boss fights, the clock can become very stressful, as you?ll be getting hit quite often, so you need to be precise and accurate to defeat them in time. In one hand, it takes out the frustration of the one hit deaths we?re used to in the genre, but on the other you become so focused on trying to survive that you may forget you also need to shoot down enemies to continue on.
There are specific spots in the environment will that automatically kill you, like lava or specific laser beams, but you?ll have to learn the hard way of what kills you instantly and what doesn?t. The same goes with the boss fights, as most of their attacks can be absorbed (for a time loss), whereas others are a one shot kill no matter what. During the boss fights you?ll never seem to have enough slo-mo meter as needed, and you?ll quite often defeat a boss with nearly no time left on your clock. The bosses are quite a sight to see, as they vary from giant robotic squids, a train of death, and even a gigantic maze that you need to navigate as it rotates to get to its core.
Arcade mode lets you choose your ship, pilot, and even special ability if you want to try something different other than the slo-mo ability. The game keeps track of what levels you have completed and with what combinations as well, so there?s quite a lot of time you can sink into this mode if you are a completionist. Arcade mode is much more strict with the allotted time you?re given, and you?ll need to be very skillful at shooting down enemies and avoiding bullets yourself if you want to try and win these stages.
The presentation value and the graphics are absolutely top notch, as the shmup genre doesn?t generally look on par with modern games, Sine Mora does. The same goes for the soundtrack, as it?s composed by the artist that also did Silent Hill and Shadows of the Damned. The only option I found lacking was that nothing is voiced in English, which I found odd, but it?s no deal breaker as you?re probably here to just shoot a bunch of enemies down anyways.
Near the end of the game (and Arcade Mode), Sine Mora becomes controller breaking difficult. I sadly wasn?t even able to finish the story mode, as I got stuck on the last stage, even with the given ten continues. Levels are broken into stages, and if you waste all of your continues, you need to start at the beginning of the level again, mini-bosses and all.
For those with incredible reflexes, there?s an Insane mode, though I found Normal to be enough challenge as is. There is lots of replayability here for fans of the genre, especially if you?re a glutton for punishment. Don?t let the colorful graphics fool you though, Sine Mora is a shmup for the hardcore and is a unique entry into the fading genre.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Street Fighter X Tekken
I always love when I have a reason to dust off my Tournament Edition fighting stick, though I never thought it would be for a crossover game quite like this. Street Fighter x Tekken (pronounced Street Fighter Cross Tekken) seemed like an odd mash up of fighting games to me at first, simply because Capcom?s Street Fighter series is 2D based, where Namco?s Tekken is played in a 3D environment. This is why you don?t see many fireballs and projectiles with Tekken games and fighters and in abundance with the Street Fighter series. Street Fighter x Tekken is developed by Capcom an is a 2D fighter and at some point Namco is going to release Tekken x Street Fighter that will be more 3D based for those more into the Tekken series.Capcom is not shy with doing crossover games in the least, as proven by their resume. The Marvel vs. Capcom series has been a fan favorite for years, and even Tatsunoko vs. Capcom gathered its own following as well. To be honest, I was expecting a heavily Street Fighter based fighting game that just happened to have some playable Tekken characters and maybe a few new tricks. Nope. Street Fighter x Tekken is a completely different game than I was expecting, and I?m happy to say it?s not just a re-skinning of Street Fighter 4 with new characters. Whole new mechanics and gameplay changes require you to learn a whole new game.
While some feel the online community is where the heart of a fighting game lies, others that don?t desire to play online (or aren?t good enough to compete) more enjoy the story mode, or Arcade Mode in this game. Fighting games won?t win awards for their writing to plot points, as it usually involved revenge or proving one?s self, but the plot line in Street Fighter x Tekken is so shallow and uninvolving that you?ll literally complete Arcade Mode in about twenty minutes. A welcome addition though is that two players can play together on a team since its tag based 2 versus 2. Something that stood out for me the few times I went through Arcade Mode was attempting to continue your game if you failed. Yes you stay where you left off, but you?re booted back to the character select screen and will even fight two new fighters. Why can?t I just rematch, I chose those characters for a reason.
Oh, and for those wondering about the weak storyline, it goes something like this: The reason the characters from both universes are fighting is because a mysterious cube has crashed on Earth. The object is a mystery and apparently brings more power to its owners and is named Pandora. Yup, that?s why you?re fighting each other. Granted, you usually don?t play this genre for the storylines, but having a better reason than that couldn?t hurt.
There are nineteen characters available to use on the Street Fighter side and another nineteen on the Tekken front also. While most of the more popular fighters are present, some favorites are missing (sorry E. Honda, you didn?t make the cut, and Blanka, you?ll be DLC later on) which may disappoint some if they are your go-to fighter. Street Fighter roster has many of the favorites like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Sagat, Akuma, Juri, and more. The same goes for the Tekken side of things, as Nina, Heihachi, Kuma, Paul, Yoshimitsu, King, and more are included as well. Until I saw the characters side by side, I never really realized how similar both games characters were, as it seems there?s a direct counterpart for almost each fighter.
Street Fighter x Tekken is 2 versus 2 tag based, though you only need to deplete one characters health to zero to win the round. This makes tagging out and switching very important to staying alive. As this is primarily Street Fighter based, you use the standard six button layout with low, medium, and heavy punches and kicks, but being a fantastic Street Fighter IV player won?t carry much weight here, as there?s a whole slew of new mechanics to learn to be successful in Street Fighter x Tekken.
The Training Mode still isn?t all that helpful sadly. As you learn new moves and combos, it still lists everything by name rather than inputs. This doesn?t help with understanding the precision timing needed for many of the combos or why I?m not pulling them off properly. Instead, you?re just given the laundry list of moves to perform, but there are no tools to help you actually learn it, why, or demonstrate how to properly perform them. There?s little effort to actually help you other than showing you the combo list, you?re then left to figure out how to get it to work on your own. This was the same problem I had in Street Fighter IV as well.
Just like Street Fighter IV, you have normal, special, and EX moves. These will gradually fill your Cross Gauge at the bottom (it fills from getting hit as well), and your Cross Gauge is your lifeline to perform many unique and powerful move sets. A Cross Cancel is essentially a parry that can be used when blocking that uses one of your three Cross Gauge bars if you need to get out of a bad situation. If able, you can also switching between your two fighters by pressing both medium punch and kick, and the fighter not in use will recover some of their health slowly. Quick Combos uses a block of Cross Gauge and acts almost like an ?auto combo? if the attack lands, which can also be customized for each character.
A simultaneous heavy punch and kick will perform a Launcher which knocks your enemy up into the air as your characters switch and opens them up for a combo. A Boost Combo can be done by doing attacks in a certain order (light to medium to heavy) which can deal some great damage. Adding another heavy at the end of a Boost Combo will perform a Cross Rush which will end it with a Launcher, thus switching your characters and opening another combo opportunity.
Super Arts (essentially Supers and Ultras from Street Fighter IV) takes two Cross Gauge bars to perform and it?s really cool to see the unique ones from the Tekken characters. Specific moves allow you to charge them for a more powerful version upgrade. Take Ryu?s Hadouken for example: Input the command for the fireball and then hold the punch button. Holding it for an extra second will perform an EX version if you let go, but holding for even longer will execute the Super Art version (and without draining your Cross Gauge). I really liked this mechanic and it?s always unexpected as you?re never sure if they are going to try and hit with an EX or the Super Arts.
A player with three full Cross Gauge bars can be very dangerous, as there are two sets of moves that can be performed with devastating fashion if done properly. A Cross Art (quarter circle forward and mediums) will do massive damage and a character switch. Not only this, but the Cross Art will also get rid of your opponents recoverable damage as well. Even more dangerous is the Cross Assault (quarter circle back and mediums) which will have both of your characters out at the same time beating on the one opponent. This isn?t an animation you watch either, you continue fighting and so does your partner (computer if playing solo or actual friend if playing together on the same team).
If you?re like me and are always close to losing, performing Pandora (down, down, and mediums) is your last defense to try and salvage a win from a bad situation. Pandora mode is only usable when under 25% vitality and will give you a massive boost to try and mount the comeback. Using Pandora makes your current fighter unable for the rest of the round (no more tag moves), but your partner gets a bonus to strength, cross gauge always at maximum, and they?ll receive twice your current characters remaining health. If you can?t pull it off before Pandora mode ends, you?ll lose via Time Over. A fair trade off I say since you were probably going to lose anyways. If this sounds like a lot for new mechanics, it?s because it is, and you?ll have to train yourself to remember each opening and possibility.
One of the biggest additions, and a controversial one according to some of the competitive community, is the inclusion of Gems. There are 57 different gems that can be equipped and the two types of gems are Boost Gems (52 of them) which do just that, boost certain abilities in battle, and Assist Gems (5 total) which will help your character control (and fantastic for new comers). You?re able to equip up to three gems per character (and there?s no reason not to) to suit your character and play style. You can boost damage, defense, speed, vitality, or cross gauge via Boost Gems. Each gem has its own properties to activate, such as landing X amounts of supers, or getting hit X amount of times. Assist Gems can be very powerful as well and allow a player to automatically block or counter throws (but at an expense of losing a Cross Gauge bar). You?re going to spend quite a lot of time customizing each characters gem setups. Do you make a strong fighter more powerful or try and boost their speed or defense instead? There?s a huge amount of possibilities that can play into your strengths or weaknesses.
For those that enjoy playing online against friends or random people, the Battle Points system from Street Fighter IV returns in Ranked matches. Endless Battle (no BP given) is the winner stays on mode for up to eight players, and Scramble Battle (no BP given) has multiple players fighting each other continuously. The replay channel returns, but just like before, it?s difficult to find exactly what you?re looking for. I wanted to see videos of good Juri players, and it kept showing me replays of terrible ones instead.
Just like I explained in Arcade Mode, the same goes for Ranked matches, where you?re booted back out to the main multiplayer screen and have to put yourself back into queue for another match. I do not want a rematch against the same person as that would abuse the BP system, but let me choose a new match or something so I don?t have to go back through the menus after every game. The online co-op is a big plus, but in every game I played online, I had nothing but issues. Voice and sound effects would constantly cut out (which is a known issue) quite frequently, but that wasn?t the worst of my online problems (aside from losing quite often), the lag was. Latency in a precision fighting game is probably the worst thing that can plague a game?s online system, and it was in abundance here. Even with people only in my area nearby, some matches were basically unplayable while others barely tolerable. Trying different settings on different days received the same results which makes me wonder why the net code from Street Fighter IV wasn?t used or at least tweaked. At the time of writing, the online was essentially broken because of this lag, as I never had one match that was smooth.
As I mentioned before, I was honestly expecting a Street Fighter game with some Tekken characters mixed in, but that?s not what Street Fighter x Tekken is at all. It doesn?t completely feel like a Street Fighter or a Tekken, as it?s a good blend of both with some new and interesting mechanics. Things are much easier to perform, as the ?double fireball? inputs are completely gone, and there?s even Assist Gems to allow for easy and super easy inputs to make things even easier for newer players.
Following Capcom?s record of DLC, Street Fighter x Tekken is no different, as you?ll be able to purchase many new costumes for all the characters soon as well as a slew of new characters as well (Blanka, Sakura, Guy, Cody, Elena, Dudley, Alisa, Bryan, Christie, Jack, Lars and Lei), though these have already brought its own drama as they are already on the disc.
Street Fighter x Tekken is a great attempt attempting to tailor a game towards the hardcore and casual simultaneously, though it will be quite daunting for a fighting genre newbie with all the sets of special mechanics to memorize and when to use them appropriately. I?d also be lying if I wasn?t worried about a ?Super? version coming out within a year, although Capcom says differently. Street Fighter x Tekken should be looked at for any fighting fan, as it?s a blend of both universes layered on top of some truly interesting and unique mechanics.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Asura's Wrath
I found Asura?s Wrath very difficult to put into a specific genre of game. This is because the heavily anime influenced title feels more like an interactive movie than a game most of the time. When you are actually playing, you?re either mashing the buttons (usually ?B?) like any good beat?em up, or playing like an on-rails shooter that we don?t see many of these days. Most of the time though you?ll be gripping the controller, waiting for the button prompt to appear so that you can progress in the cutscene. I hope you like Quick Time Events (QTEs) and have a strong arm to mash the ?B? button as fast as you can, you?re about to experience Asura?s Wrath.You play as the role of Asura, a demigod who?s a mixture of The Hulk (for his pure brute strength and anger), Jax from Mortal Kombat (metal arms are the way to go), and Akuma from Street Fighter (similar body and hair styles). Asura is known for his temper and used to be one of the Eight Guardian Generals that led the Shinkoku Army who protect the planet from a force called the Gohma. The game begins with Asura battling against the Ghoma leader, Vlitra, in space no less. Vlitra happens to be buried deep beneath the planet?s crust and has now been unleashed. The visuals of this are amazing, as you?ll see this monster appear from within the planet, about half its size.
As Asura returns home from a successful battle, subduing Vlitra, he returns to find the Emperor has been murdered. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Asura us blamed and branded a traitor by the seven other demigods, but only after his wife Durga is murdered and his daughter Mithra kidnapped. The new demigod leader, Deus, banishes Asura to the underworld, Naraka, where Asura will stay dormant for twelve thousand years before returning.
During these twelve millennia, the ?Seven Deities? have been using Mithra to obtain power to further enhance their powers. Asura vows vengeance upon his former comrades and he will get that revenge against those who betrayed him. The revenge story may have been told countless times before, but the lengths that Asura goes to is quite entertaining and done in such a way that it keeps you wanting to press on.
As I mentioned before, you?re B button is going to get quite a workout playing Asura?s Wrath. B is your normal attack, which you can spam for combos, and holding it will do a dash attack to your locked on enemy and launch them upwards (you can even dash while midair as well). The Y button is your heavy attack, though you can only use this sparingly, as Asura will ?overheat? between each use. Using ?Y? at a down enemy will cause him to do a special attack for massive damage and a boost to your Burst meter. ?Y? is also how you counter moves about to hit you as well. The X button is how you shoot your arm like a machine gun while you aim at the enemies (on the ground or in the air).
Interestingly, enemies don?t really have health bars. Sure, the little guys will die quickly, but for the bigger ones and bosses, each battle will have you fighting until you can fill your Burst meter (unleashed with Right Trigger). Once unleashed, this is when you will defeat your enemy, though not before a lengthy series of QTE?s and cutscenes. Rinse and repeat, as every chapter has almost the same pacing and layout. There?s the odd level here and there that?s an on-rails shooter segment, where you hold X to shoot your machine gun arm, and as you pass over enemies with your reticule, they become auto locked and can be taken down with your homing missiles, the Y button. I quite liked the shooter segments, as it broke up the pace of fight, QTE, and then cutscene a little bit, though you?re still trying to fill up your Burst meter in these levels also, which then gets you put into another QTE. Granted, the QTE?s are done better than most games, as you feel incredibly powerful with your devastating final blow against the enemy, but in the end you?re still just watching a movie and waiting to push the right button, rather than skill.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Asura?s Wrath is very heavily influenced by anime, and this is apparent in even how the game is set up. The three main acts are broken into smaller episodes, and these play out just as if you are watching an anime or TV show. Credits and a banner roll at the beginning, and the end of an Act even makes you think you?ve beaten the game, with final credits rolling to a black screen. Starting a new episode, you?ll see a ?what?s coming up this time? introduction that shows small clips of what you?re about to do and see without giving away any spoilers. I actually really enjoyed this presentation, as it felt much more bite sized and that I was progressing through a season of my favorite show in a way. There are even ?bumpers? included where commercials would be, and finishing an episode finishes with a ?to be continued?. The story is broken up appropriately in this way, as it always set up the next ?episode? with just enough to tease you along to keep playing.
There are some amazing set pieces that will leave you in awe, like being in space and seeing a Ghoma come out of the Earth that?s literally about half the size of the whole planet, or being crushed by a finger that?s bigger than a whole continent, or even dueling your previous master on the moon while classic music is blaring in the background. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and suits each setting and set piece wonderfully; even the old western inspired music seems to fit somehow wonderfully.
As I said, there?s quite a lot of anime influence here, as many of Asura?s lines are simply screaming ?AAAAHHhhhh? louder and louder as he gets ready to unleash a devastating blow. This might seem familiar if you?re a Dragonball fan, as many of the moves appear to do little right away, and then all of a sudden they?ll go soaring through a mountain.
Two things I will warn you about though when you?re getting ready to play Asura?s Wrath. Firstly, your B button will never be the same after this game. Secondly, you?ll finish it in a weekend without any problems, maybe even a single sitting if you?re dedicated, as it?s only about six hours long on your first time through. There is justification for a second playthrough if you?re looking for achievements, but there?s nothing else afterwards unless you really want to work on getting S ranks for each stage. Apparently DLC is in the works to add more new episodes, but I?m grading it for what?s on the disc.
With three quarters of the game easily being WTE?s and watching cutscenes, Asura?s Wrath really does feel more like an interactive movie rather than a game at times. Its visual art style is unique and inspired, but it?s very simple and lacks almost any replay value at all.
Normally I?m not one for QTE heavy games, but for whatever reason, I didn?t seem to mind it as much as I maybe should have while playing Asura?s Wrath. With it being so short and having no reason to pick it up and play again, it makes it hard to recommend at its current asking price. It was memorable, and if they make a sequel, I would be quite interested in playing it. I think many people may not enjoy it for what it is, and rather wish it was something else. If you can take it for face value, knowing it?s a QTE heavy experience and you like the Japan and anime style, you?ll without a doubt enjoy your time with Asura. For everyone else though, it has charm, amazing visuals and sound, and a certain uniqueness that?s a spectacle to be soon, albeit a short one.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Syndicate
I?ve never played the original Syndicate series back on the PC almost two decades ago, but I know some people were confused with the announcement of the new game, as it was originally an isometric view strategy game. It?s now been changed into a FPS title, though fans of the original will see some nods of nostalgia, as key elements, themes, and settings have carried over into this reboot. Developed by Starbreeze, who?s had success with the Chronicles of Riddick games and The Darkness, you?ll be plunged into a world with unique visuals and some interesting mechanics behind it, to try and make it stand out in the overcrowded genre. Written by fiction author Richard Morgan, the year is 2069 and you control Miles Kilo, an agent for Eurocorp. The world has changed drastically in the past fifty years, as Mega-corporations known as Syndicates essentially has complete rule over everything. These syndicates developed a chip that can be implanted into any human being, and when it went public, people flocked in droves to get them, as you were given a better life for doing so and can now access the ?datascape?, which is basically the Internet 2.0. The catch is that these Syndicates now have absolute insight into any chipped person and can even control them if they desire. It turns out that over half the worlds inflated population has been chipped, and a team of agents were created to keep the corporations? interests safe from the other rival companies.
Being an elite agent, you also gain unique abilities from your prototype implant and an overlay that interacts seamlessly with real life with an almost invisible HUD. You can toggle an alternate vision mode that helps highlight enemies and even heightens your reflexes and tracks enemies? positions behind cover and through walls. You?ll be thrust into a tale of espionage, but the few curveballs it throws at you for its narrative, you?ll sadly see coming a mile away. For such an interesting and somewhat plausible premise, it feels like the story eventually falls flat nearing halfway and I quickly stopped caring why I was doing what I was doing.
Your implant is a unique DART 6 chip that is not only cutting edge, but will also allow you to breach and hack into other chip users and systems. Your HUD shows updates in real time and even an ammo counter floats above your weapons as if it was attached there in real life. Dart Vision allows you to use an overlay to easily distinguish enemies from friendlies and doing so will also slow down time to line up shots and also grants you the ability to see your foes through walls. You?ll also take less damage while using Dart Vision, so it becomes imperative later in the game to simply stay alive.
You?ll gain some unique abilities with your Dart 6 chip as well that can be used against your enemies. The backfire ability will cause the ammunition in the enemy?s weapons to damage themselves and knock them back. During this quick stun, they?ll also take double damage and will be needed to quickly disperse packs of adversaries. The suicide ability will cause the targeted enemy to grab his own grenade and blow himself and anyone else nearby up for some easy kills. Lastly you gain access to hack into people?s chips and persuade them. When you persuade, you?ll cause them to fight for you for a short while, and then he?ll kill himself in the end to make things easier on you.
Your main ability is going to be ?breaching?, and you?ll use this to toggle switches, unlock doors, and drop the armor of certain enemies. You breach (essentially hack anything from a distance) almost anything with a chip implant, so some of the strategy comes in breaching some enemies to drop their guard or armor, then finishing them off with your arsenal.
Speaking of arsenal, the star of a FPS has to be its weapons, and while you?ll gain access to your standard assault rifles, sniper rifles, SMG?s, and shotguns, you?ll also access some massive weaponry later on, such as a minigun with infinite ammo, a flamethrower that can fry anything from a distance, and even a gun that can lock onto enemies and seemingly shoot around corners.
The few bosses you do get to battle are quite interesting and frustrating at the same time. Some seem to be unshootable where others are no brainers to figure out their trick. Defeating bosses and getting to set story arcs will also grant you upgrades for your chip which you then get to choose what skills and attributes to upgrade based on your play style. You can choose from health upgrades, breaching quicker or more enemies, weapon proficiencies such as quicker reloads or more ammo, and many more to customize Kilo. While you won?t get to fully upgrade every skill by the end of the campaign, you?ll have a good selection of the better skills come credit rolls.
Somewhat unexpected, was the inclusion of a four player online co-op mode that take place over nine unique missions that are said to be re-imagined from the original Syndicate. As I said, I never played the original, so I can?t vouch for these claims, but I can say that I did enjoy the co-op experience. While you can technically play these missions solo, I don?t suggest it, as the game is tuned for four players and doesn?t scale down for less people. Keep in mind those with real life friends that want to play on the same couch, there will be none of that here, as there?s no split screen co-op at all.
Before you jump into one of the nine missions, you setup your weapon loadouts and abilities. This is where things slightly differ from the campaign mode, as your chip abilities are vastly different and are more group focused that seem to fit a role of offensive, defensive, or support. I kept getting matched up with people that rarely used their abilities, so I went defensive and was able to heal and shield my squad in battle. If you play with some friends, I can see some abilities that would work very well together if playing as a true team.
Everyone has the breaching ability to defuse incoming grenades, open doors, and revive downed teammates, but it?s the unique abilities that you upgrade that will make these missions much easier or difficult. You?ll gain levels and upgrade tokens for simply playing online and completing missions; using these ability tokens can be used to unlock new abilities and the weapon tokens can unlock new weapons to use. You can go even further and upgrade specific skills to be more powerful or quicker, and weapons to have better attachments and statistics. While it doesn?t take a terribly long time to gain these much needed upgrades, a great team will help it happen much quicker and with ease. A team with diverse abilities will work very well in some of the more challenging missions that require a large amount of team work.
The voice acting is superb across the board, though I found the music lacking. Not the quality, but more the frequency of a memorable score aside from a few specific boss fights and set pieces. The breaching mechanic is fun when used properly in tandem with your arsenal, though the co-op experience was much more diverse with the numerous abilities than the single player campaign.
While Syndicate has a great premise and story, the story telling is paced too slow to keep interest high, a plot twist you?ll see coming because it?s been done many times before, and sadly the ending is very disappointing and unsatisfying. Syndicate in the end felt very mediocre aside from a few of the weapons and the boss fights. I know I?ll forget this game in a short time, and if it wasn?t for the interesting co-op, it probably would have been scored lower.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
SSX
Snowboarding Supercross, or SSX for short, has been around for over a decade. SSX Tricky is still one of my favorite snowboarding games ever, though history will most likely forget On Tour and Blur in the series. SSX games have always been extreme at its core. Your goal is essentially to pull off undeniably insane stunts that aren?t even possible in real life, and make it look good at a ridiculous speed. This may have you spinning your board around your neck like a propeller while rotating yourself, or kick flipping your board as if gravity doesn?t exist while trying to land a jump well over a hundred feet. SSX makes the incredible stunts and tricks a breeze to pull off, but the real skill comes from keeping your combo and tricky meter up to obtain even higher scores. The new tagline for SSX is ?Race It, Trick It, Survive It?, and it certainly lives up to its claim. You?ll be dropping from a helicopter to set your fastest time in Races, posting your obscene scores in Trick drops, or even trying to simply endure to the end in Survive runs. As you complete runs and set your personal bests, all your ghost data, scores, and times will be automatically updated for the rest of SSX?s riders to see and compete against. You may be boarding on the same courses, but you?ll play completely differently if you?re trying to perform tricks or race to the bottom, or even simply trying to get to the bottom, outrunning an avalanche. No matter what mode you play, it really is you versus the mountain, and you?ll need to survive while looking good stringing tricks together.
While a snowboarding game doesn?t really need a story to motivate you to play or enjoy yourself, there is one here, albeit a flimsy attempt at a plotline; but you won?t care, as the gameplay makes up for any shortcomings. Griff, a former SSX team member, says he?s going to be the first to conquer each of the nine Deadly Descents, but team SSX will have none of that and will battle against Griff to prove that they are the best team out there to master the mountains around the globe before anyone else. As I said, the story isn?t going to have you enthralled, but it won?t matter, as playing the game itself will be reward in itself.
Favorite characters of SSX past make a return along with a few fresh new faces as well. You?ll have your beloved Mac, Kaori, Elise Zoe, Moby, Psymon, and Eddie see their long awaited return and you?ll meet Tane, Alex, and Ty for the first time. Each character will be introduced via a comic book style that will fail to make you choose someone over your already favorite character, but at least the attempt is there. Each person has their strengths and will have a big edge if you use them for the proper types of courses that play into their strengths (Mac is amazing at stunts for example).
Regardless of whom you choose for each type of race, they?ll need to be properly geared to even compete, never mind even trying to place high on the leaderboards. For the highest mountains, you might need to equip an oxygen tank to prevent you from blacking out (you need to press RB when the screen starts to blacken), or a thermal suit that will keep you warm in the coldest temperatures which requires you to keep in the sun as much as possible so that you don?t freeze almost instantly. On ice-laden tracks, you may need ice picks so that you can steer properly without coasting out of bounds, or you might need to wear armor to prevent yourself from getting too hurt in the rock-packed Rockies. It may seem odd that you?re forced to use a headlamp for certain courses, but you?ll quickly learn that there are good reasons for each corresponding equipment item and you?ll need to learn to use each one properly if you want to survive.
The greatest piece of equipment you?ll be using though is aptly named the Wingsuit. Holding the RB button once you?ve taken a jump will cause your character to hold out their arms and glide over a massive distance, as if you?re almost taking flight. It becomes very strategic, as you need to decide if you want to glide a little further to find a better landing spot (or railing to trick onto), or you do drop sooner to try and gain more speed. Your Wingsuit isn?t unlimited, so you need to perform your tricks and gliding quickly and efficiently if you want to win. The first few times you use the Wingsuit, you?ll be most likely telling yourself ?oh my god?, as the mass distance you cover is simply awesome, and needs to be experienced, and is quite possibly my favorite addition to the SSX series yet.
In certain modes you?ll also be able to purchase and equip Mods and Geotags. Mods are a onetime use/equipped bonus to whatever stat it boosts. If you want that extra advantage on a Trick course, you can buy a trick mod to give yourself that little boost to hopefully put you on the top of the leaderboards. Geotags is a very interesting addition that I?m finding myself very addicted to. A Geotag is an item that you can drop anywhere you want on your run, and the longer that it?s not found, the more credits you?ll earn. So the trick is to try and find somewhere very hidden and obscure where people won?t find it, so that you can earn the most credits possible. Couple this with a Wingsuit and you can see where the possibilities end up.
The true stars of the game are the locations and mountains though. You?ll be shredding across the planet, from the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, the Alps, Siberia, Antarctica, New Zealand, and more. Each area will have multiple mountains to traverse, each with numerous runs to conquer as well, making for many different courses and runs to learn and master. You?ll obviously have certain courses you love and hate, but the ones you love, you won?t get tired of them anytime soon, as it seems I keep finding new pathways and better routes to go every time I play.
Most players will probably get the most entertainment from Trick It courses, as this is the heart of the SSX series. You?ll be linking any tricks you can together in combos to try and get those record setting scores on the leaderboard to boast over your friends. Fill your Tricky meter and you can pull off the Uber tricks that would make any person sick to their stomach to perform, if they were even possible.
Race It courses will have you trying to perform tricks as well, because once you fill your Tricky meter, you have unlimited boost for that time, so it becomes a balance of speed and tricks so that you can cross the finish line as fast as possible. With multiple paths, an open mountain face, and no invisible walls to stop you, you?ll have to repeat races many times to try and learn the best possible route for your play style.
New to SSX are the Survive It courses that will have you ripping down some of the most treacherous and dangerous descents on the planet. Rocky terrain, avalanches, whiteouts, freezing temperatures, and pitch black tunnels are just some of the obstacles you?ll need you overcome as you simply try and reach the end alive. This mode can be incredibly difficult, and even impossible if you don?t wear the proper equipment for each run. These can almost be viewed as a boss stage, as they usually come last, and require a vast amount of skill to complete and conquer. While it may not be for everyone, dodging trees, jumping lava pits, and making it through a completely black tunnel is very rewarding once you finally do survive it.
Built into SSX is RiderNet, something that will be very familiar to those that enjoyed how Autolog worked in the recent Need for Speed games. No matter what you?re doing in SSX, all your progress is tracked and uploaded for everyone else to see, race, and compete against. You?ll always know what your friends are doing, and can even take on recommended challenges RiderNet suggests, based on what your friends are doing.
There are two things you need to know about multiplayer before I go any further though. First and foremost, multiplayer in the traditional sense isn?t here. There?s no inviting your friends into a lobby then all shredding the mountain together. Actually, there?s no lobby system at all, as you don?t truly race people ?beside? each other. If you?re on a course and someone else online is nearby, you?ll see them, but you can?t bump each other or anything like that. While this may initially turn some people off, the built in integration of RiderNet makes it so easy to see that my friend just beat my top score on a course, and I can go and try and beat it almost instantly, which they will see and do the same after I best them.
Because there?s no intrusive lobby system, there are global events that anyone can take part of that is essentially an ongoing tournament for each mountain and course. Global competition is constantly happening and you can choose which events to compete in. Some events are free to enter while others can cost up to a million credits just to compete. The more players in an event, the bigger the prize pool becomes, and if you place high enough to win, your initial investment can be massively multiplied. Each event has a time limit that ranges from minutes, to hours, to days, and at the end, the prize pool of credits is divvied out to the people that place in the top brackets, even if you?re offline.
While a lack of traditional multiplayer is a slight disappointment, you?re still able to invite friends into a custom event and race ?alongside? each other should you wish. Some may be deterred from the lack of splitscreen multiplayer as well, but the integration of RiderNet truly does make your solo experience almost feel like you?re always racing against others.
For those wondering, there is an online pass included in new copies, but your access to online multiplayer won?t be hindered if you don?t buy it new. The catch though is that you won?t receive your credits for anything you do online until you buy that online pass (all new copies have it included), though it will save the banked amount until you do purchase it.
The SSX series has always had a stellar soundtrack of licensed music to go along with the atmosphere of the game, and SSX this year is no different. The staple ?It?s Tricky? song by Run D.M.C. returns, though it?s the new ?Pretty Lights Remix? version. While not as classic, it still fits the game well and will go alongside the other songs in the massive playlist, such as ?Houdini? by Foster the People, ?Scatta? by Skrillex, and many more songs from numerous genres. Granted, nothing will beat your custom soundtrack though.
There is a fantastic amount of track variants, given that Trick, Race, and Survival play completely different from each other. It?s been many years since I?ve enjoyed SSX Tricky, but the wait is finally over for its true successor (to be fair, SSX 3 was quite good as well, though just not as memorable to me) and I finally have a new SSX game that I?ll be playing for quite some time. There?s nothing quite like outrunning an avalanche or grabbing onto a flying helicopter and doing an Uber trick off of it after using my Wingsuit to soar across the sky. SSX is finally back and the wait has been worth it.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
When I first heard about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, it looked decent, and what I?d expect from something in the genre. I have to admit though, once I found out the lead designer from Morrowind and Oblivion, Ken Rolston, was the designer for it, I instantly put it on my watch list. If that wasn?t enough name power to get you excited, the infamous author R.A Salvatore had a big hand in crafting the lore and universe while Todd McFarlane dealt with the artwork side of things. For those that recognize the names, that?s a big deal, to have so much talent collaborating on one project. Maybe I went in with my expectations too high, though I tried the demo (I want my Mass Effect items after all) and enjoyed my brief time with it, as it really reminded me of Fable. For some reason though, Kingdoms of Amalur wasn?t ?clicking? with me right away even though I really enjoy the fantasy RPG genre, especially games that resemble Fable. Eventually it warmed up to me once my character became more powerful with new abilities, and I started to enjoy it more once I was getting the hang of combat even though having a silent hero didn?t score any points with me. Then I hit a game breaking bug that just shattered my enjoyment and I was unable to continue any further without having to start a new character, but I?ll get more into that later.
As you begin your journey, you?ll choose your race (choose between the four races of Varani, Amain, Dokkalfar, and Ljosalfar, each with their own inherent bonuses) then customize how they appear to your liking (though I found the options pretty lacking). The story begins with you dying then being revived mysteriously on a pile of other corpses. A contraption called the Well of Souls has brought you back to life, and with it, has changed the fate of Amalur itself. Everyone has a predetermined destiny and fate, except for you. You are free to choose your own destiny, a burden that will take you to war against the Tuatha as you set your path forwards. It?s an interesting premise, though it does take a few hours of gameplay to really understand all the inner workings of the story. For how much power you wield, you never feel like your actions make much if a change in the lands you?ve been through though, as you?ll help seemingly everyone on their mundane tasks that they need your help with (when you aren?t progressing the main plotline).
Combat and gaining loot is what Kingoms of Amalur is all about. You?re given the freedom to play in almost any way you can think of. You have a main and secondary weapon along with a shield to block incoming attacks. You have swords, hammers, great swords, bow and arrows, staves, daggers, faeblades, chakrams, and scepters to mix and match however you like to play. Since you can swap seamlessly between your main and secondary weapons, you can shoot and enemy with a charged up arrow, then cast a spell at them before you run up for the finishing blow with your sword. Or you can start hitting your enemies with your enormous two handed hammer, push him back with a spell, then finish him off with arrows, the possibilities are endless. If you like playing the sneaky rogue classes, you can stealth behind for a deadly backstab, or sneak and lay a trap and finish off the fight with your daggers or any other weapon. Choosing to be a master in one combat tree will make you immensely powerful with those weapons, but you can make a hybrid so that you can use any types of weapons should you choose. The same goes for armor, the warrior style of characters will prefer the heavy iron armor, while rogues use leather, and casters use robes. This doesn?t mean your robe wearing caster can?t use a giant two handed great sword, though favoring weapons to your skillset will be favorable.
Combat is also simplified and you won?t have to memorize insanely long button combinations to pull off your best moves. Combat in Amalur is diverse and is more based on how and when you press your attack button. For example, mashing the attack button will do a simple combo, but if you have a slight pause in the middle of it then press it again, you?ll launch the opponent into the air. The same goes for holding the button for a charged move, and weaving these (and unlocked abilities) into your combat will greatly help you defeat the tougher foes with some impressive combos. Once you start swapping weapons mid combo and casting spells to keep it going, it becomes very rewarding when you can kill a troll who is higher level than you without even letting it attack you once.
This doesn?t mean you can be always on the offensive, as you?ll quickly find that when it?s you versus numerous enemies, you?ll need to dodge, roll, and block just as often as you attack. Time your shield blocks correctly (everyone can use a shield too) and you?ll riposte, leaving them open for an attack. You?ll find though many times that the enemies don?t always play fair and live under the same rule sets that your character does. While you can be interrupted (and will quite often) mid cast or attack, many times an enemy will continue their barrage regardless if you?ve hit and interrupted them though. It almost becomes unfair when you fight a group of mobs that almost make it seem that you can stop blocking at all. This happens quite often and makes it frustrating for the melee types of players.
As you defeat your adversaries, you?ll gain experience, and as you level up you can spend points in the ability tree. You don?t pick a role at the beginning of the game, so you progress your character based on how you play as you go. The three main disciplines are broken into Might (warrior and melee), Finesse (rogue and stealth), and Sorcery (spells and casting). You can choose to stay in a single discipline, but if you want to be a warrior that also uses spells, so be it, as you can spend your points in any tree you wish. Been playing your warrior for a while and want some more diversity in your attacks? You?re able to spend gold (quite a lot of it) to reset your skill trees and essentially start over by refunding all the points you?ve spent. This makes for an interesting time, especially if you want a new challenge, or to simply see how another ?class? performs without having to start over the game with a new character.
Aside from killing any monsters you see in your path, the best approach for gaining experience and those sought after levels, is to go on and complete quests. There will be no shortage, as you have your main quest, faction quests, tasks like bounties and fetch quests, and side quests to keep you occupied for as long as you wish. Every town you go into might be a little overwhelming at first, as it seems every person has a quest and wants you to help them. If you?re a completionist, you?re going to have your hands full. A problem that starts to appear when you have a huge log of quests to undertake though is made apparent on the map (which is how you fast travel to places you?ve been, and something you?ll need to do quite often). The rings that show you where your objectives are (not just the current quest you?re tracking, but all of them) will overlap in certain places, especially entrances. For example, say you have four different quests to go into a cave and do multiple missions there. If you want to fast travel there, you need to open your map then choose the cave and you?re done. The problem arises when you have all these quest markers overlapping on the cave, making it unable to choose for fast travel. With some brute force by moving the cursor repeatedly until it lets you choose the ?proper? spot, there are a few times where you might have to run instead due to having too many quests that you can?t abandon.
Lastly, you have destinies. As you spent your earned ability points, you can choose destinies that will further boost your combat style. If you?re a warrior and choose the might destiny, then you?ll gain a bonus to your damage and mitigation, choose the rogue?s destiny and you can obtain bonuses for critical, ranged attacks, and more. You don?t have to stack the same destiny with your main discipline, and this combination opens up the possibilities of your character even further.
While there are more quests than you?ll probably ever complete, many of them seem to be kill X amount of monsters, fetch quests, and finding people that are lost. Getting big loot upgrades generally don?t come from the quests either, though this isn?t a big deal, as you?ll be getting more loot than you can carry during your adventures that it won?t matter. Just as you get comfortable with your big new rare weapon, a better one will soon drop. This isn?t a bad thing in itself, but you?ll end up spending a substantial amount of time in the menus having to go over new gear and loot you just obtained, deciding what to junk and sell, and what to keep. You?ll also have to fast travel back to town quite often as your armor degrades in time and you need to spend gold to fix it.
The main story should take you roughly twenty or so hours to complete, though doing side quests and treasure hunting will easily double that should you choose. There?s a substantial amount of content included on the disc, and certainly much more to come via DLC.
While you?re given the illusion of making moral choices throughout the story, it never feels like your choices have any major impact on the overall story and people involved. Quests will become repetitive and oddly enough, the lock picking skill almost seems like a waste, as you can essentially brute force your way into any difficulty of lock with enough picks. There are small issues like my character having her helmet on in one cutscene, but not in the next seems inconsistent, and interacting with some objects sometimes forces you to try and press the button numerous times before it registers (even though the prompt is showing). The huge game breaking bug I had though occurred to me roughly a dozen hours in and made the game unplayable. The game didn?t freeze, but my character did, though NPCs moved like normal, and my camera was usable. I?m not sure what caused it, but some research shows that a few other people are having this problem too.
In the end, I had to dock a point from the overall score because this bug didn?t allow me to progress any further, it even somehow even made my previous save with the same character do the same thing. I wanted to finish it, but it wouldn?t let me, I?m just unlucky I guess. Though don?t let the issue I had stop you try picking up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. This Fable-esque game is one that anyone who enjoys the genre is going to have a good time with for the thirty plus hours it?ll take to complete as it opens itself to many different play styles, here?s to hoping for a patch to fix the quest markers and my ?frozen? character though.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
I still remember the long wait for the original Alan Wake to release. It?s only been about two years since I?ve finished my time with Alan, but even after all that time, I still have questions about what really happens to Alan and everything else in Bright Falls. Alan Wake never broke any massive sales records, but it did secure itself a devout fan following, myself being one of them, and once word came out that Alan was once again going to be in the spotlight with a new game, I was anxiously waiting until I got to spend more time with one of the better protagonists that I can remember. It?s been two years, but Alan does return finally, but in a very different way. Not only is American Nightmare an XBLA game, but it?s gotten a distinct change in scenery and overall feel. To set the record straight though, know that American Nightmare is not a true sequel to the original Alan Wake. This of this outing more like a one-off, though not really a spin-off, as it does relate to Alan?s narrative from the first game. You don?t need the original game, as this isn?t DLC for the game, but be warned if you?ve not played the original, you?ll be massively confused as to what?s going on and why, not that it wouldn?t be enjoyable as a game though.
This self-contained story is a standalone chapter in Alan?s events, though it?s also somewhat of a sequel to the DLC episodes that we played through for Alan Wake as well. Fans will graps what?s going on and why quite easily, whereas novices will struggle trying to piece together who Alan is, Mr. Scratch, and why it seems like he?s in a TV episode. This is because for some reason, Remedy has left out the ?previously on? from the original game that recapped everything that?s happened to that point. Confused yet? It?s just getting started.
American Nightmare has a very different structure to it when compared to the original game. This time the setting is as if Alan is trapped inside an episode of the TV show he helped create, Night Springs, which is heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone. Turning on any TV?s you find will show you footage of a character named Mr. Scratch, whom happens to look exactly like Alan, but that?s but he is, and isn?t at the same time.
Mr. Scratch is Alan?s polar opposite of himself, being a completely psychopathic alter ego who?s now in the ?real? world controlling what?s left of Alan?s life there. As you try to piece together what?s happening and why, Mr. Scratch will constantly be taunting you as you defeat his horde of Taken (the shadow covered enemies) as Alan tries to wake up from this nightmare. Having Mr. Scratch appear in this manner works for many reasons, the foremost being that it seems Alan has a true evil enemy to fight against this time, other than some dark presence.
Set two years after the conclusion of the first game (and subsequent DLC), Alan is once against trapped in a nightmare of his own creation. Also known as the Champion of Light, Alan must find pieces of his manuscript once again so that he can rewrite and recreate events to save himself and escape. Once again, he?ll have his dependable flashlight to help him defeat the Taken and hopefully find some answers to defeat his alter self, Mr. Scratch.
Controls and mechanics will feel ultimately familiar if you?ve played the first game. While Alan only has a standard flashlight this time, there will be no searching for heavy duty ones, and it will once again be his most essential weapon against the Taken. Alan once again has access to a handful of pistols, nail guns, and shotguns, but as this is a new setting, he?ll also be toting SMG sand an array of rifles as well. While this may not suit the original Alan we know, since Alan is seemingly trapped in an episode of Night Springs, it suits the setting to go along with his new attire as well.
Combat this time around is substantially quicker, most likely due to the new assortments of weapons and the fact that your flashlight regenerates its batteries so quickly that you?ll rarely have to use any of the backups. Dodging enemies is done just as easily, and you?ll still need to burn all the darkness off a Taken before you can shoot it with your weaponry.
Being that this title is an XBLA game, I was unsure what to expect, not only for length, but settings as well. Essentially there are three large areas (each its own chapter) that you?ll be exploring for narrative and to find hidden manuscripts (though they aren?t too hidden, as you can see them on your map when nearby and from a mile away as it shines like a homing beacon). You?ll find some of these important papers behind locked doors and other areas you can?t seem to find yet, but that?s because you?ll be coming back through these three chapters, multiple times. While there is a good narrative reason you?ll be replaying levels that I don?t want to spoil, it becomes tiring the third time you?ve been through the same area. Granted, new enemies and events will keep things fresh, but with only three areas to go through multiple times, some aren?t going to enjoy having to ?replay? sections.
The more manuscripts you find, the bigger and more lethal weapons you gain access to (usable in arcade mode as well). Keep in mind though, that for the most part, you?ll run to the star on the mini map, collector or interact with the object, fight a handful of Taken, and then move onto the next objective to repeat the process over again. To keep the player tense, there are new types of enemies introduced that become more powerful and frequent as he gets closer to Mr. Scratch. There are spiders the size of your leg, a Taken that throws grenades filled with darkness at you, a splitter who duplicates if you shine your light at him, and even a giant hulk that wields a buzz saw that will swipe at you and take a substantial amount of ammunition to take down. Again, because this is an ?episode? of Night Springs, it fits as anything can happen on TV, right?
New though is the Fight Till Dawn arcade mode, which will have you trying to survive until dawn (luckily that?s only ten minutes away once you start) against waves of Taken trying to kill Alan. You?re aiming not only to survive, but to attain a high score for the leaderboards. Whenever you kill or dodge an enemy, your multiplier increases, and if you get hit, it resets back to one. You?ll need to become very familiar with how to properly dodge enemy attacks, as later waves will have numerous Taken after Alan at the same time. Most of the time I had no issue, but there seems to be the odd occurrence when it doesn?t dodge properly or when I want it to. Playing arcade mode will quickly make you a master at dodging, shining, then shooting Taken in rapid succession, which will carry over into the story mode as well.
There are five separate maps to play Fight Till Dawn mode on, and once you complete them, you unlock the Nightmare difficulty for each one which will throw you in for a loop if you?ve become accustomed to the regular variants of each map. Weapon and ammo locations are swapped, you start in a different spot, there are barely any lights to regenerate your health, and Taken will constantly be spawning rather than completing waves. It makes for an incredibly tense gaming session and you?re truly just trying to survive the ten minute timer. I do really believe that arcade mode would be a blast with a friend at the same time, though I understand being alone is what makes for much of the fear and tenseness, since you never know what direction Taken are coming from almost until it?s too late.
I?m a huge Alan Wake fan, and even I was disappointed in the fact that you?re essentially replaying the same areas three times, even with the narrative reasoning and slight changes, it didn?t resonate with me the way the original did. It could be the fact that there was also nowhere near the same around of over the top sequences the original game had, but the soundtrack and gameplay carry over into an XBLA experience that can hold its own. You?ll feel as if you have deja-vu going through the four to five hour campaign, but the presentation value is top notch, which is to be expected.
Oddly, Alan?s voice work is done great, but the supporting minor characters really seemed awful at times and really stood out. I don?t know if this is somewhat intentional since it could be perceived as a bad ?episode? of Night Springs, or if it wasn?t and was simply poor voice work. The set pieces (especially in Act 3?for the third time) have an amazing soundtrack of licensed music, which brought back that original mood Alan Wake had. Sadly, for us fan of Barry Wheeler, there?s very little of him included in American Nightmare, but I?ll still hold my breath for a spin-off story of his own.
For an XBLA sub-story version of Alan Wake, I wasn?t sure what to expect, and while I was disappointed with the same three areas having to be recompleted, the story tugged me along just enough, making me turn the next ?page? to find out what happens to Alan. Don?t come looking for ?answers? from the first game, or everything to be wrapped up in a nice present either. Come for what Alan Wake does best; entrap you into a world of fear and unknowing with brilliant writing and narrative.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
The Darkness II 
It sure doesn?t feel like it?s been almost five years since I played the first Darkness game, but it has. I remember playing it and being impressed with how decent it was for a new IP, hoping it would stick around since it left us with a cliff hanger ending. Here we are half a decade later and Jackie Estacado is finally making his return to continue his exciting story surrounding The Darkness. The game itself is actually based off the comic book series from Top Cow that?s been around for over a decade. I actually never knew that Jackie?s journey has been around that long, but after finishing The Darkness II, I?m probably going to pick up some back issues, as I really enjoy the relationship between Jackie and Darkness. New to The Darkness II is not only a new art style that mimics the comic books, but also a new developer as well, Digital Extremes. Don?t be fooled though, the cell shaded visuals do not make this story any less grim, dark, and full of gore in any way.
The Darkness II takes place two years after the conclusion of the first game, and Jackie Estacado is now the Don of the crime family in his city. During those two years, he?s manages to contain and bury The Darkness inside of him and seems to have everything under control. That is, until someone tries to put a hit out on Jackie, unsuccessfully, forcing him to either let The Darkness resurface, or die still mourning for what happened to his girlfriend.
Now that The Darkness has been essentially freed once again, Jackie must also now deal with the true motives of The Darkness, as well as trying to figure out who tried to take him out. The story starts off with an explosion that has Jackie critically wounded and being dragged out of the place by one of his henchmen, as he tries to keep them alive by shooting any followers. It looks like Jackie is about to die, but instead uses the powers of The Darkness to save himself, thus freeing the monster that he?s held in for the past two years. While the first game was more about getting back at the mob, with The Darkness? help of course, the sequel is more focused on a more supernatural theme and the ongoing internal battle between Jackie and The Darkness, as well as Darkness? origin.
I don?t want to delve too much more into the main plot for a few reasons, the first being is that it?s pretty interesting if you played the first game and know all the characters involved, and secondly, because it?s quite short to begin with.
During your journey, you?ll not only have the appendages from The Darkness as your disposal, but you?ll also rely on a Darkling that will follow you around and help in what ways he can. He?s quite entertaining, is crude, will urinate on dead enemies, fart nearby, and have witty one-liners from time to time. He does all of this with a British accent and accompanying shirt while also wearing a dead cat on his head. He?s not only the comedic relief this time around (as there isn?t as much witty banter between Jackie and The Darkness this time around) but also has an important role in the narrative as well. There are even a few sections where you?ll be controlling him to help Jackie along the way.
There are some familiar faces that return, such as Jackie?s girlfriend Jenny Romano who was murdered previously, Aunt Sarah, and Jimmy the Grape among others. Jackie will think that he sees Jenny from time to time and The Darkness will play even more tricks on his mind to try and make him doubt his own reality. There are a few times where you?ll be given a choice of what you want to happen during the story, though it?s not often as I would have liked, and it doesn?t feel as if my choices weighed all too heavily on the final outcome anyway. Both games share the same writer, so it should feel similar, though Darkness II definitely is a little more of a serious tone and doesn?t has as much subtle humor the first game had (outside of the Darkling?s antics). Just make sure you stick around after the credits if you want a somewhat satisfying ending after the short journey.
One of the most notable changes you?ll notice right away, aside from the change in art direction, is that the game is not an open world design like the first game was. While I didn?t mind this change, as it pushed the narrative forward, some may be disappointed, as the only area open for exploration is Jackie?s mansion, and even then, there?s not much to explore.
Returning of course is a variety of weapons that can be duel wielded if chosen (pistols and SMGs), or a more powerful gun that takes two hands to wield like Shotguns and Assault Rifles. The returning star of the show of course is the demon arms that Jackie gets to control all at the same time. Each demon arm has its own uses, such as the right one being used as an independent weapon that can slash horizontally or vertically, or the left one that can interact with the environment, pick up enemies, eat hearts, and more. When you combine shooting with both weapons and using both demon arms, it?s called quad-wielding, and actually becomes second nature fairly quickly and easily. The grizzly executions return, and even give added bonuses such as health, ammo, or shields (if you?ve unlocked those skills). They are incredibly gruesome and will have you tearing, squeezing, and slashing enemies apart with ease as long as they are stunned beforehand. Your demon arms even have the abilities to throw items like poles to impale foes, hold car doors to act as a shield (and throw), and many other items to throw and stun enemies (or blow up if you upgrade the skill).
As you kill, dismember, and explode enemies, you?ll earn dark essence, which is essentially the game?s currency to upgrade your skills at a designated shrine littered throughout the levels. Another way to get massive amounts of dark essence is to find hidden relics scattered around in hard to find places, doing so will not only give you the currency you desire, but is actually tied in with some lore about The Darkness and its gruesome history. Upgrading your powers can be done in any order you wish and vary from tree to tree. Some skills focus on specific moves or skills like upgrading how much health you get back from eating hearts and doing executions, while others will boost ammo clips and even allow you to throw devastating black holes (though not as powerful as the first game). It all depends on how you end up playing, you can choose to boost what you do consistently, or help with the skills you don?t use as often. Once you boost the skills you want to use and learn new ones, you become an even more feared machine of death for anyone in your path.
There is multiplayer included this time around with The Darkness II, but it?s not the competitive multiplayer you may have been hoping for. Instead, Vendettas mode as it?s called is a co-operative experience for up to four players that runs parallel to the singer player campaign, showing events happening elsewhere at the same time with different characters that have unique abilities. This co-op campaign only lasts for about two hours or so from start to finish, but it?s unique enough to at least go through once or twice with different characters, as you?ll be looking for more game time with The Darkness II once the very short campaign credits roll.
There are four distinct characters to choose from, and while they won?t have the demon arms to play with, they each have their own exclusive abilities that try and match what Jackie is able to do. Inugami is your assassin who wields a sword that is cursed, Shoshanna has an interesting weapon that can Gun Channel, Jimmy can summon multiple Darklings (little Jimmy?s), and DuMond carries a voodoo stick that can lift enemies off the ground and create black holes. The characters each have their own upgrade paths, allowing for multiple playthroughs for those that want to complete the game 100%, but there?s very little incentive to and the characters are very unforgettable in the end. It was interesting to see the parallel storyline that related to Jackie?s situation, but aside from that, you won?t be playing much Vendetta mode unless you have friends with the game as well after you?ve been through it once already.
Jackie is voiced by someone new this time around, Brian Bloom, and he does a fantastic job, though fans of the original will notice the slight difference. Mike Patton returns to once again masterfully voice The Darkness itself and doesn?t miss a beat this time around either. Many of the other main characters are voiced without issue, though I hope you have a high tolerance for the cheesy stereotypical Italian mafia accent, as it?s vastly overused and feels forced by some of the lesser characters.
I have nothing inherently bad to specifically mention aside from the lack of diverse enemies. Once you?re near the end, you?ll realize that you?ve essentially been fighting the same handful of enemies over and over, with the only new mechanics being that they have new armor and will throw light grenades.
Sadly, my biggest complaint is with the story itself; not the narrative or storytelling, but the length I which you complete it. I finished the game in one sitting, actually, I timed it and it was exactly five hours from start to finish. The co-op will add a few more hours, but it doesn?t add all that much more unless you really want to spend the time upgrading each character. Some players will enjoy the New Game + mode where you keep all your upgraded skills as you go back through again, but the shortness and ending almost made it feel like half a game. If you enjoyed Jackie?s first outing, you?ll enjoy it once again here, albeit a short return back into hell.
Suggestions: 5 years between cliffhanger endings is just mean.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Final Fantasy XIII-2 
I don?t think anyone could have predicted the backlash that fans brought when Final Fantasy XIII was released almost exactly a year ago. It was a Final Fantasy game from Square-Enix, they knew what they?ve been doing for many years now. The majority of fan reaction to the drastic changes that Final Fantasy XIII brought wasn?t the most pleasant. I was in the minority and really enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII for what it was, so when a sequel was announced to my surprised, I initially was excited and high hopes, though unsure where they could take the story. I understand that many are going to simply pass over Final Fantasy XIII-2 without even giving it a fair shot because of the disappointment the last game, but that would be a mistake. It seems Square-Enix has listened and has made some drastic changes once again, obviously to appease fan criticism from XIII. For starters, it?s no longer a fully linear game and you can explore fully opened areas whenever you choose, which was the biggest complaint many fans had about XIII. Gone are the summons that morph into silly vehicles, Moogles (well one anyways) make a return, towns exist and have folk to converse with, many optional side quests, the game fits on a single disc this time around, among many other changes that I?ll delve into shortly.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place three years after the conclusion of XIII, though don?t let the trailers and box art fool you, Lightning is no longer the main protagonist for this adventure. She?s disappeared since that day they all saved the Gran Pulse and many believe she?s either dead or been turned into a crystal alongside Fang and Vanille. Serah Farron, Lightning?s younger sister, has been having dreams and visions of her big sister fighting someone named Caius in a place called Valhalla. One night, a meteor crashes nearby Serah?s village, bringing with it a guy named Noel Kreiss (who to me seems like they tried to blend Cloud from Final Fantasy VII and Sora from Kingdom Hearts together) who says Lightning has sent him to find Serah and to stop Caius. Noel turns out to be from Gran Pulse as well, but he?s from a different time, seven hundred years in the future. I don?t want to delve much more into the story, but be prepared to pay close attention, as you?ll be travelling through time quite often, and keeping track of all the different timelines will become confusing if you don?t follow it closely.
You?ll see many places that you did in your travels with XIII on Gran Pulse, but many places and people have changed since then. You?ll run into many of the previous characters, and they did a fantastic job at transforming the whiney young Hope into a man. My only complaint with many of the other characters, is that some of them are simple one-off cameos, which is a shame, as I?ve grown to care for them after the first game.
All of your time travelling ways will be done through the Historia Crux system. To understand the timeline, you first need to understand the new ?calendar?. When Cocoon fell, the years were ?reset? so to speak and on that day, it was 0AF (AF for after the fall). Since XIII-2 starts three years after XIII, the year in which this game begins is 3AF. Still with me? I hope so, cause if not, you?re going to become confused very quickly when you start factoring in paradoxes. The Historia Crux will show you the timeline, beginning in 3AF.As you progress through the story, you?ll not only travel forward and backwards in time, but you?ll also branch off in other ?what if? timelines that run parallel to the ?true? timeline. Because of this narrative setup, this allows for many multiple endings depending on your choices based on when in time you currently are.
You?re able to revisit areas as often as you wish, sometimes to simply explore and grind for experience, other times to unlock new paradoxes and timelines. Seeing the same area in multiple different years is interesting to see the change that the world has (or hasn?t) gone through based on your actions of changing history (or futures). The gates that open new areas for exploration need artifacts to open, and finding those themselves is no easy task. This system allows for unlimited exploration and you can even close gates to ?reset? a whole location and make different choice (thus unlocking new paradoxes). There are even places that don?t exist in time properly, like Serendipity, which is clearly homage to the Golden Saucer from Final Fantasy VII, and is the casino area to spend (probably waste) most of your gil; unless you partake in the Chocobo races of course. On a side note, it was kind of saddening to see that I went to an area of the casino and was told to come back later as DLC games will be coming soon.
There?s a new Live Trigger system that allows for multiple options for dialogue between characters. While nowhere near as in depth as a Dragon Age or Mass Effect for dialogue trees (you usually only get to make one of four choices, and there?s no branching afterwards), it?s a welcome inclusion that made me feel like I was more in control of Serah?s path. Since the multiple endings are essentially already built into the game storyline and mechanics, these choices won?t affect a final ending.
New to XIII-2 is the lack of monsters that roam on the map, like they did in XIII. Instead, we get the classic randomly generated encounters (seemingly every 15-20 seconds in some areas) that we?ve all come to know over the years. Now, when a monster appears, the ?Mog Clock? will appear in the bottom-middle of the screen that looks like a dial counting down (not a compass, which takes getting used to). Before the dial reaches the red zone, you can either attack the monster for a bonus preemptive attack and haste to start off the battle, or avoid the mob with enough distance to avoid the encounter. Should you not attack in time or get attacked first, you?ll have penalties applied to your party for that encounter.
The Active Time Battle (ATB) system returns along with the Paradigm Shift system that was introduced in XIII, but with some tweaks and improvements. You can still choose to use single segments of the ATB for quick attacks when needed, or fill the bar for more powerful or numerous assaults. You?ll need to be more effective with your Paradigm shifting in XIII-2 though, as the battles are at a much quicker pace and you?ll need to be almost constantly shifting and casting when you reach the endgame. A very welcome change to the combat system though is that the game will not end if your party leader falls in combat, as long as Serah or Noel are alive, you can keep continuing the battle and hopefully recuperate for a comeback.
Some of the bigger boss fights now implore a Cinematic Action sequence; don?t let the name fool you, it?s still a Quick Time Event (QTE), but I found these used more appropriately and less frequently than many other games where you come to dread the QTE?s. It?s not overly done and you know when they are coming, so you don?t have to miss any action, waiting for the prompt to appear. Succeeding 100% in these QTE?s may even net you some extra bonus items, so be quick with those fingers.
The largest change to the whole combat and party mechanics though has to be the inclusion of monsters. Your party is comprised of three members; Serah, Noel, and a monster of your choice (three can be put into different paradigm setups). That?s right, when you defeat monsters, you have the chance to capture it and then make it fight alongside Serah and Noel. This almost turns a part of the game into a Pokemon style of gameplay, as I found myself spending a few hours trying to find and then capture those rare and powerful monsters. To further this, you can also infuse monsters with each other that can significantly boost a monster?s stats and abilities (my silver Chocobo sentinel with over ten thousand hitpoints was my best friend). It almost becomes a meta-game, trying to find the right monsters, leveling them up, and then using those ones to boost another?s ability (thus losing it in the process). To really put it over the top, you can even collect decorative items that your monsters can wear; there?s nothing like seeing a menacing saber cat wearing a sheep on top of his head. These adornments are purely for fun and make no stat differences in your monsters though.
The Crystarium returns from XIII, though also improved. You earn crystogen points (CP) for winning battles and these can be used to level your skills up. As you spend CP, what role you decide to put points into, will give you bonus stats for choosing that role to level (among new abilities), such as hitpoints, magic, or strength. As you fill a complete crystogen route, the next tier unlocks and you get to pick between bonuses, such as boosting certain gains and abilities, unlocking new roles, adding more accessory capacity, or lengthening your ATB gauge. I highly suggest planning ahead what kind of characters you want to make Sarah and Noel, as there are huge bonuses if you spend your CP wisely early on.
I mentioned Moogles were back, that?s because Mog will be following you throughout your travels. Not only will the crystal on his head start glowing when you?re near a secret hidden treasure, but eventually you?ll even be able to throw Mog to obtain those out of reach treasure spheres, once you can be trusted of course. There are hundreds of hidden items, which also plays into the now non-linearity of XIII-2, as you?re now encouraged to explore every nook and corner (there may even be rewards for every map you?ve 100% explored). The other reason that Mog follows you around, well, is because Mog also transforms into your weapon. Yea, I can?t really explain that one, sorry. Kupo!
Pacing and leveling felt fluid and I never felt I needed to grind out of necessity; actually, I found myself doing it unknowingly sometimes when I was hunting for a specific monster to try and tame. Aside from the final area, the leveling curve is a tad on the easy side, especially if you happen to use CP wisely and tame a few of the more powerful monsters for your party early on.
DLC is new to the series and will be coming in many different forms. Right now you can purchase weapons and cosmetic clothing, but soon you?ll have new playable characters like Lightning, new boss battles, and apparently new story segments as well. All of this I?m fine with, it was just the in-your-face style that the casino zone advertised it that seemed blatantly missing.
The music score was epic, which is what you expect from a Final Fantasy, though there were a few tracks that seemed really out of place, especially the rock/metal song (with lyrics) that plays during some boss battles. The voice acting is superb and flawless as to be expected, even with some of the cheesy and predictable lines.
There are a few minor framerate issues that kept popping up over my playthrough when I?d be rapidly switching paradigms and casting big spells, though nothing was a deal breaker and it didn?t happen terribly often. Some sections of the story progression is incredibly difficult to figure out on your own, and I admit, I needed a walkthrough for a few parts, as I didn?t always know where to look or throw Mog to uncover a hidden artifact. Aside from that, it did take me awhile to really start caring about Serah and Noel, and only briefly seeing some of the returning cast as a little bit of a letdown; but at least they were there and not completely ignored.
Completing just the story will take you roughly twenty five to thirty hours, which is par the course for a game of this size and caliber, though expect countless others if you?re going to try and 100% the game, tame all of the monsters, and find all the other secrets nestled away. With numerous endings, extremely challenging bonus bosses, and a pokemon-like addictiveness of trying to catch them all, Final Fantasy XIII-2 definitely surpassed my expectations and I?m glad that many of the shortcomings of XIII have been addressed and fixed. If you were let down with XIII, give XIII-2 a shot, you might be impressed with all the improvements and changes. I hope this isn?t the final fantasy. Kupo!
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Double Fine Happy Action Theater
Double Fine is a very unique game development studio. Headed by Tim Schafer, they tend to make some of the most unique and creative games that seems to always find a way into my heart. Look at their history; Costume Quest, Stacking (which was absolutely brilliant), Once Upon a Monster, Brutal Legend, and of course the title that made me and many others fall in love with them, Psychonauts (where is my sequel!?). It?s like Tim has this magic recipe for creating unique and entertaining games that I enjoy playing, even if it?s geared towards children. So now we have Double Fine Happy Action Theater (DFHAT for short) that is for Kinect owners and released on the Xbox Live Arcade. Now, how does one categorize a game? Getting a high score, beating levels, defeating bosses? DFHAT doesn?t do any of this, and I found myself wondering if I would categorize it under the ?game? category. The reason for this is that DFHAT is comprised of 18 ?mini games? that you cannot win nor lose in. As you start playing, you?ll see yourself in your living room, and each event will transform what it sees in various ways. It feels more like an Augmented Reality style of game than your traditional style, and because there?s no set objective, you?re just there to interact however you wish and to simply have fun. Because you?re not required to do anything, there?s not even a tutorial of how to ?play?. This isn?t a bad thing, as it opens up your creativity and curiosity to see what?s possible or not.
So what are these ?events? that spark up imagination? My favorite is the lava stage. This fills your living room with lava and will actually conform around your furniture. Do you jump into the lava and splash around, or recreate the ending of T2 for a laugh? One will place you in black and white movie crushing buildings and swapping planes as if you were Godzilla himself. A full flock of pigeons might come to roost in your living room; do you swap them away, feed them bread crumbs, or let them perch on you and the furniture? Another will have your room filling up with snow, where you can pick it up and throw snowballs at the TV (for an achievement!) or try and dust off the furniture to prevent it from piling too high.
Those are just a few of the ?events? that allow you to interact in any way you desire. There?s no main goal, so feel free to open up your creativity. There are other stages that are more of the goofy side like having a 2D cutout of you dancing in a club that resembles an old Parappa the Rapper game. Others will take multiple pictures of what Kinect sees at set intervals and ?stacks? them so that you can make yourself have multiple limbs or anything else you can think of. There?s a ball pit that you?ll feel compelled to jump into (I know I did) and even a Kaleidoscope that splices in whatever you?re doing on camera for a crazy trip to see.
Because you?re not given any direction of what to do or even why, everything becomes very natural and simplistic. There?s no set purpose of any of the stages, but that?s part of the fun, seeing what happens when you try new things. To some it may seem like a mini-game compilation of sorts; I see it as a playground that shows some of the more unique possibilities that Kinect offers for experiences.
It?s a fantastic little title for children of all ages, and to be honest, I probably had more fun than I should have, as I was climbing up on my furniture to avoid the lava and jumping into the ball pit that appeared in my living room. Why? It was fun and I felt compelled to see what happens. Whatever you do in front of the Kinect, it will react; because of this, I see this more as a great title to simply leave on while you have friends or kids over, as anyone that walks by the TV will most likely stop and try to interact with what they see. No menus, scores, or competition means that you can simply walk up and play; there are no restrictions of any sorts.
Up to six people can play at once as well, which makes it a perfect background game for a party, regardless if it?s for some younger children, or the older ?kids? that may possibly be drunk. Regardless of the audience, there are laughs to be had as long as you go in expecting a ?non-game?. Try the demo, and if you like what you see and have a creative imagination (or children), much entertainment should be had for the 800 Microsoft Points it costs to download.
Suggestions: More 'levels' please!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012
I remember when Kinect was just coming out and I asked my wife what games she wanted for it. She said ?the dancing one and the workout one?. The workout one she was talking about was the first Your Shape Fitness Evolved title that went on to be the best (in my opinion) overall fitness title for Kinect at launch. Since then there?s been a few fitness titles for Kinect and I think that the original Your Shape Fitness Evolved still holds up to the competition that came out later. A short time later and we now have Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012, so let?s delve in and see what improvements have been made and if it will work to help you tone up and lose weight. As a side note, I?ll be referring to Your Shape 2012 as a ?game? simply for ease and because I feel it deserves that title with all the included activities and classes included within. Also, this doesn?t feel daunting, like it does going to the gym, and there?s even some minigame-like events like punching blocks and kicking soccer balls that never made me feel like I was purposely working out to lose weight. Ubisoft has clearly listened to user feedback from the first title and now has a ton of new exercises like push-ups and ground activities (like how UFC Personal Trainer pioneered), dancing, and even Yoga classes. Menus are much easier to navigate and the presentation remains distinct to its style. You?ll still see yourself integrated into the workout world as you?re placed into the game while breaking blocks, dancing, doing workouts, and more.
The main reason people don?t stick with their workouts is usually the lack of motivation. This is my biggest obstacle as well, as exercising alone usually isn?t all that entertaining. Most people usually fade away from a new workout after a few sessions simply because of this lack of motivation. I know I require inspiration to stay focused on a task like this, and Ubisoft has done what they can to try and supplement this hurdle. You?ll have a coach, specific workout plans, and can even track and share your progress online with your friends. I had no problem trying new events and challenges each day and most of the time I didn?t ever feel like I was purposely exercising (except those damn push-ups and crunches). People these days are much more health conscious and Your Shape 2012 is meant to be in addition to a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise, not a complete alternative.
The first Your Shape suffered issues simply from being a very early title in the life cycle of Kinect. It would not always work properly or lose track of exactly what you were trying to do. Now it seems that Ubisoft has figured out the bugs and made it much more receptive to my quick movements more accurately. Now I can do all my activities without worrying if Kinect is going to track me properly, as I never really had an issue with it losing sight of my proper moves. Be prepared to move around some of your living room furniture though, as you?ll need quite a bit of space if you want to properly do every event and exercise, so apartment owners take notice. Your Shape 2012 now can track you with you on your side as you do sit-ups and push-ups to see your proper form, just like how UFC Personal Trainer did, though I felt it tracked much better than UFC did.
The menus are much easier and slicker to navigate as you hover your hand over your selection and then choosing by pushing your hand forward as if it was a button. Small change, but seemed more natural than just holding your hand over a selection like most other Kinect games do. When you finish an event you?ll have to punch the number of calories you just burned to continue. Again, a small detail, but it was fun to see myself in the game itself interacting in a real way.
The first option you?ll be given is if you want to be healthier, lose weight, and more options. From here it will tailor a specific workout for you and suggestions based on your choices (though you can deviate from the suggestions if you desire). You can workout for two minutes or as long as you?re physically able to. This is something I really look for in a fitness game; the ability to customize my workouts, as not everyone is going to be able to do the same exercises at the same level. Choose to workout with a trainer or your own custom events stringed together. Following the program and trainer will definitely do the job of getting you on the correct path to fitness if you stick with it. From here you can replay any events or harder difficulties if you?re inclined and able or even change your weight loss program into a bulk-up session or cardio. You can focus on one body area or have a completely rounded workout session; it?s completely up to you, which is fantastic and keeps things fresh.
In the Activity section, you?ll have a ton of different events to start your session. Warm Up has different options such as juggling a soccer ball with your feet, knees, and head, a hula-hoop warm up, kicking soccer balls into goals, and pumping a balloon up by flapping your arms up and down as you squat. These are labeled as warm ups, but they are vigorous and can make you break a sweat quite easily. Wall Breaker returns from the first game, Stack Em Up has you balancing a board on your raised arms as blocks fall down and fall off, Jump Rope, and Stomp It. Stomp it is a music based game where you need to step on the proper placement as the notes come to your feet. It?s simple but fun and breaks up the workout monotony. Run The World is an activity that?s simply a jogging in place motion, but what makes it interesting is that you?ll be running through famous cities if the world as if you were actually on the streets, all done in the Your Shape distinct visuals though.
If you want a more traditional exercise, then the Workout section is where you?ll find the body part specific events. Here you can choose to work on your arms, legs, health, abs, toning, back, glutes, cardio, and even sports prep for football and soccer. This is where you can focus on one area if you desire or can avoid specific sections completely if you don?t need it.
The Classes section is where you?ll be able to join bootcamp, cardio box, participate in yoga, relax with zen energy, or even dance to african beats, hip hop, latin, and even Bollywood routines. All these events have difficulties and can give a much tougher workout than you would expect. Your overall calories are tracked and you even earn new colored belts for leveling up when hitting specific milestones for calories burned. It?s an interesting system that actually gave a little more incentive to keep with it for a longer term.
Players can sign up on the Your Shape Center website, link their gamertag, and track your progress. From here you can share your results with your friends and family, link it to facebook, track your stats, see your calories burned, join global events and challenges, see your time played, events completed, average calories burned per hour, sessions, create goals, earn trophies, and even more. It?s quite in depth for a free addition, and anyone interested in keeping tabs on their progress should definitely use this extra tool.
I?m basing my opinion of the game on its workouts, motivation merits, and gaming activities more than anything else. The quality of the game and the exercises are top notch and will have you needing a towel in no time, provided you do the events properly. My only real negative for Your Shape 2012 is the blatant advertising for G series (Gatorade) products, as it puts a really bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). To unlock a bonus game, you need to hold up a bottle of the actual product to Kinect for it to scan and unlock (or use Uplay points), which is just another way for you to buy their product. Other than that, Your Shape also suffers the same problem that I mentioned in my UFC Personal Trainer review: There?s no real education or mention of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle outside of the game itself, it just assumes rather than instructs. If you?re looking for a fun way to sweat without feeling like you?re truly working out, then Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 is a safe choice that will keep you interested in coming back day after day.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking
What?s a Rabbid you ask? My best answer is a hyper rabbit on crack. They came about in the old Rayman series, but have since made their own spinoff games (like this one) due to their popularity, humor, and viral videos. The rabbids are generally quite hyperactive and enjoy causing mischief anywhere they can. While they may not speak a language, they are known for their constant shouting of ?BWH!!!!? whenever they become excited. After a short time interacting with the rabbids, their impossible to not love, as they?ll constantly be making you smile with their senseless antics. Normally about now I would go in depth about the story and plot, but let?s not fool ourselves here. This is solely based on mini-games and that?s it. There?s some opening video about the rabbids trying to clone themselves with a cow, and it works, to the point of overflowing the city with rabbids. Now with rabbids popping up all over the city, I?m assuming playing these mini-games is your way of stopping it from happening, but there?s no storyline to tie in all the games in any manner. It?s simply you playing mini-games repeatedly, not that that?s a bad thing, as long as you know what you signed up for.
Much like any other Kinect specific title, you?ll be flailing your arms, kicking, jumping and ducking, and moving all around your living room, provided you have the space of course. I had a hard time playing with two people due to my space constraints so I couldn?t? even imagine the four player simultaneous games. You?ll have access to around 30 different mini-games from the start to play in any order you wish. While there are a lot of different games to play, I really only enjoyed a handful of them, as quite a few are shallow and dull and seems to be there just because.
Firstly, you will run into some tracking issues on some of the games with a single person and with multiple. For example, there?s a muscleman game where you need to mimic the pose for your balloon-man?s muscles to inflate. The more accurate you mimic the pose, the faster you inflate. I was doing it properly but Kinect thought differently obviously and I didn?t score very well. The same goes for the shower silhouette game where you need to fill in a shadow to scare off the oncoming rabbids. I?d mimic the pose but nothing, other times it worked no problem. Some of the games seem very hit or miss with the detection without rhyme or reason. To a smaller child, this might become very frustrating as it never explains what you aren?t doing properly.
Just like any other great Kinect party game, your picture will be taken many times throughout playing. It will capture you in weird positions that you can view and then share online with others if you wish. I wish there was an integrated way to send the snaps to my Xbox Live friends, but you have to upload them to the website and share it that way instead. Be aware if you?re a shy Kinect player, each game usually takes about three pictures of the hilarity.
The first option in the main menu is My Raving Rabbid mode. This is an augmented reality section that takes the view Kinect sees and places a rabbid for you to interact with. There?s no real objective here other than simply having fun with a rabbid running around your living room. You?re able to dress up your rabbid with unlocked items and then take a picture of you two in a pose to share online if you wish. If you have played other augmented reality games before, like EyePet, you?ll know exactly what this is all about. There may not be much here to do other than slap and kick the rabbid for fun then take goofy pictures, but kids will enjoy this small section.
Party Games allow three to sixteen people (granted it?s not 16 at once, but I commend the option being there as many games don?t allow this) play in a slew of different games and styles. Each player steps up to the Kinect to take a picture, then records their voice to save their profile. During tournaments, the game will match up players and show who is playing whom rather than just having people memorize what player they are. All of these profiles can be saved for a later time also if you?ll be having guests that regularly play with you.
Forfeit mode has you facing off against your friends in a succession of mini-games. Losing a game means they have to perform a forfeit: some kind of crazy action which the other players will vote on if they did it properly. If so they get points, if not, their points go down and players are eliminated when it gets to 0. The Kitty mode has each player going from game to game accumulating points. If you fail you have to do the event again. The player at the end with the most points win.
Carrot juice mode makes players spin a wheel to pick a game. When a player loses the game, they have to drink a glass of his carrot juice. Drink all of your glasses and you?re out of the game. Last player to have a glass wins. You can just see the possibilities of this for a tied-in real drinking game to go along with it (if you?re of age obviously).
Quickplay will allow one to four players select a random or specific game. With around thirty games to choose from, there are lots to try out and see what you enjoy. Oddly, the last batch of mini-games near the bottom differ from the others as they?re animated cartoon style games rather than the 3D models or augmented reality games you mostly play. These ones seem to be very quick games that give you one shot at whatever you?re supposed to do. The issue is that there?s no quick retry, so you?ll have to wait till it calculates your score, then click retry and wait for it to load to try again if you want to beat your old score.
As I stated above, a good portion of the games are pretty unforgettable, but there are some that I kept playing over and over again. My favorite is easily Guitar Zero. Yup, it?s you playing an AR guitar in your hand as the notes come down the screen, just like in Guitar Hero. It?s nowhere near in depth as the original game, and there?s only three notes to play that you have to move your arm down the neck and strum to in time, but I kept playing it even though there was only five or six songs (which weren?t even that good).
I probably enjoyed the next one because it?s childish and has to do with snot. You have a long snot hanging out of your nose with a rabbid hanging onto the end of it. The goal is to swirl the rabbid around as fast as you can by only moving your torso and head and then cut the snot at the appropriate time to send him flying out the window for maximum distance. It?s stupid, but a fun take on discus. The other I played multiple times has one where you?re guiding a blindfolded rabbid with only the sound of your voice. The point though is to guide him into danger by making him step on rakes, nails and hitting other objects. You need to move around the room and shout at him to guide him that direction. Not much to it, but it was entertaining calling for the rabbid to ?come here!? while running around my living room. Another one that I think kids will enjoy. As you finish the games you?ll earn TP Dollarz that can be used to purchase and unlock items for the My Raving Rabbid mode. Not much incentive to keep playing, but at least it?s something.
The biggest issue I had with the game is the lack of instructions per mini-game. There will be quick little pop-ups that will kind of tell you what you?re supposed to be doing, but it doesn?t tell you exactly how you?ll need to move your body to complete them. The best example of this is the fireman pong-style game that took me two tries to figure out how I was supposed to win. I?m not sure why there wasn?t a tutorial included before each game (skippable of course) as many of the games you?ll be playing two or three times just to learn what to do. I have a feeling kids might be asking their parents how they?re supposed to get the game to work because of this oversight. Secondly, you?re going to need quite a bit of space if you want to play some of these games properly. I had a hard time hiding to the far side of the screen to avoid lasers because of my living room setup.
To me it was a little unfortunate that there was no ?reason? you?re playing other than playing the mini-games repeatedly. I didn?t really expect much of a story being it?s a Rabbids game, but tying in the mini-games to stop the rabbids population growth would have given a little incentive to keep playing. If you have kids or a bunch of friends that get together for gaming nights, it?s a decent party game that should entertain and embarrass. If you?ll mostly be playing alone, it?s not nearly as fun and gives little motivation to keep on playing after you?ve tried each game.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Motion Sports: Adrenaline
If you want to get your sports game fix, it?s normally not a problem. Hockey, Football, Soccer, Rugby, and even Cricket games come in yearly iterations, but what if you?re into something a little more extreme? There?s been a light sprinkling of downhill biking and skiing games in the past, but very far and few in between, and they usually aren?t all that great. Motionsports Adrenaline tries to rectify this by putting some of the more intense extreme sports out there in this one gaming package. In Adrenaline, you?ll be wearing a wingsuit and free fall down a mountainside, use the wind to kitesurf some insane layouts, kayak down some fierce rapids and waterfalls, downhill biking at breakneck speeds, extreme skiing with massive jumps, and even rock climbing while avoiding falling boulders. It may sound a little cheesy, but I don?t recall a game collection quite like this one (even without the motion controls) that has multiple unique sports all in one package.
Adrenaline requires a moderate amount of space to play in properly. While I didn?t have to completely reorganize my living to play, I did need to stand a little further back than some games allow. Also, I?ll let you know right off the bat that the controls aren?t always the most responsive. You will become frustrated at times trying to properly steer but with the actual steering not happening properly or with a slight delay. The event you?ll notice this the most will be in the Rock Climbing, as it has you reach our your arms in a direction then pull them back into your chest (as if you?re pulling yourself up) but you?ll notice a distinct lag from movement and game input.
As you travel around the world to different locations for each event, your goal is to score as high as possible to pick up coins that will fill your boost meter quickly (which in turn helps you cross the finish line quicker). As you do your best to avoid obstacles, most events will also have you performing stunts mid-air as well by mimicking the pose needed. As you score higher, you?ll unlock new gear to wear that will give you boost from the beginning and other bonuses as well, if you choose to wear these better clothing. In each event, there are only two or three courses available, so it won?t take long to unlock them all and to bring on fatigue from repetition. If you?re playing connected to Xbox Live, periodic challenges from other players will pop up on screen for you to contest, but it?s very confusing and it doesn?t tell you what you really need to do to ?win? against them.
So let?s talk about each event shall we. First off is the Wingsuit event; this event begins with you jumping off a cliff into complete free fall down a mountainside. As you barrel down the side of the mountain, you need to hold your arms out to slow down, lean to the sides to steer horizontally, and put your arms at your side to speed up. You?re able to crouch and jump to steer ?up? and ?down? (camera is from behind you looking downwards). There are some branching paths depending on which path of coins you wish to try and collect, and you?ll also need to mimic poses to do stunts as you soar through the corresponding markers for bonus points.
For the Mountain Biking event, you?ll be speeding downhill as quickly as possible as you gather coins, take jumps, and navigate steep corners. You hold out your hands as if you?re holding onto the actual handlebars, and move your hands as if you are turning on a real bike. You?re riding on essentially 3 lanes and you turn your handlebars to choose the lane with the coins and without the obstacles. As you get to the tight corners, you need to turn at the appropriate time to get a speed boost. You never feel like you have complete control of your biker beside you?re really only choosing between the three lanes for the duration of the race.
The Kayak event will have you rushing down white-water rapids and jumping down waterfalls. You steer by leaning your body, speed up by paddling, and even do a roll by going underwater by crouching. The problem with this event is that you always need to keep your speed up by constantly paddling but you need to turn very often as well, and it seems like Kinect doesn?t like when you?re trying to do multiple things at once. It becomes very difficult to duck, then paddle, then steer, then paddle, then duck for the whole race. You never really feel like you?re in control of your kayak as you?re constantly trying to fight either the steering or the paddling.
Extreme Skiing will have you barreling down the mountain while avoiding trees and taking huge jumps. I found this event to have the same problems as Kayaking, as you need to keep pumping your arms to push with your poles as you lean to steer also. When you take a jump, stunts are performed by copying the pose of the ring you pass through (like all the other events) and you?ll even need to crouch just before landing to get a soft landing and keep your speed. This does become tiring when you?re constantly jumping and crouching while flailing your arms to keep up. Sometimes ramps will have a tree branch attached to the end where it will automatically grind then jump for you, leaving you to just do the stunt pose for more points.
I found the Rock Climbing event to be the most frustrating, control-wise. You need to reach out your arms in whatever direction you want to go (provided there?s a hand hold for you to grip onto), then pull your arm back into your chest, as if you?re ?pulling up?. I found it took many times of the same gesture for Kinect to register exactly where I wanted to go, and when it did work, there was always a delay between my movement and the on-screen gesture. You?ll need to avoid falling boulders and mossy handholds will slow down your progress. This was easily the weakest of the events, and that?s not even taking into account the frustrating controls.
My favorite event is Kite-surfing. This has you on a wakeboard being pulled by an attached parachute in the wind. You move by leaning and holding onto the handle bars in front of you and you?ll need to steer and jump to find the best areas for coins and stunts. There?s not much to this event, but I found it the easiest to play as you?re essentially just steering and jumping.
There is a severe lack of tutorials for the game which will have you struggling early on to perform well at all (not even taking into account the controls). There are some slides before the event begins that show you how to play said event, but if you?re switching events often or forgot, you?re on your own and will just flail your arms around trying to figure out if you had to raise your arms or jump to boost. Adrenaline doesn?t teach you how to play well aside from these quick slides that most people will skip past.
As for Adrenalines graphics, it?s simply adequate but underwhelming. When you?re speeding down the mountain in a wingsuit or taking jumps on your skis, the frame rate stays solid and nothing terrible stands out, but when you slow down or finish an event, you can really see how basic the modeling and textures are (especially the water after a Kite-surfing event). The same goes for the game?s audio. While there are some licensed rock songs, there aren?t many, and you?re simply better off streaming your own soundtracks while playing.
If you have up to three other friends that want to play with you, Adrenaline Party is the mode for you. It allows for 10 randomly selected events to compete in; the player with the highest score at the end of the events is the winner. The two problems with this mode is that the scores don?t work towards your game unlocks and again, the lack of tutorials. New players are going to be confused how to play while veterans will have that unfair advantage.
There is one other mode that allows you to compete against other online players? scores (unlike the pop-up challenges). You Against the World mode has one huge problem with it though; it?s not unlocked until you create a Uplay account and unlock it with Uplay points. This means you?re forced to sign up for their service if you want to unlock the full game to play. I honestly didn?t unlock this mode as I save my Uplay points for other Ubisoft games, but being forced to take this extra step seems completely unnecessary and is just a ploy to force you to sign up for Uplay. I have nothing against Uplay at all, but being forced to use your Uplay points and sign up might seem a little too much for some people.
Motionsports Adrenaline is a blatant advertisement for Degree deodorant, as it is plastered everywhere (one of the modes even has it in the name). It seems out of place and very tacky, but I guess you want to smell good when performing these extreme sports. Maybe if the game came with a free coupon to get a stick of it, I might have let it pass.
It won?t take too long to unlock everything in the game and once you?re done playing each event a few times, there?s very little reason to keep on playing unless you really want to move up the leaderboards by beating scores. With shoddy controls at times and very little replay value, I can already tell you that the game has been shelved for me and I have no reason to ever go back, which is a shame, as I though this game could have had so much potential. Instead, each event basically plays the same (aside from the uninteresting Rock Climbing), and if you get it to control properly, it?s really not even all that fun for more than an hour or two.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Black Eyed Peas Experience
Say what you want about the Black Eyed Peas, but it?s hard to deny their success with their huge fan base, record breaking sales, and massive hits (some that I didn?t even realize were theirs). I?ll admit, I?m not the biggest Black Eyed Peas fan (I don?t even own any of their albums), but I do enjoy their hits and unique style. Is the Black Eyed Peas Experience enough though to bring in new fans?To be honest, I was more interested in the Black Eyed Peas Experience game more because it?s developed by iNiS, who?ve been around for over a decade making great music based games like Elite Beat Agents and the Lips franchise. Before we delve into the game, let?s go over a brief history of the Black Eyed Peas and why they even have their own game, for those that don?t know much about them. In 2003, the Peas released their third album, Elephunk and since then have gone on to sell more than fifty million records. As an alternative hip-hop group, the band consists of Will.I.Am, Apl.De.Ap, Taboo, and the newest front woman, Fergie, who joined in 2001. As I mentioned above, I?m not the biggest fan, but you?ll mostly likely recognize many of their hits from radio, TV, movies and other media.
Not being a huge fan, I was surprised with how much of their music I actually recognized (and enjoyed), and some I didn?t even know that it was a Black Eyed Peas song. Some of the notable songs on the disc that I knew were ?Boom Boom Pow?, ?Don?t Phunk With My Heart?, ?Hey Mama?, ?I Gotta Feeling?, ?Just Can?t Get Enough?, ?Pump It?, and ?Rock That Body?. Also, who doesn?t want to dance whenever ?My Humps? comes on every now and then? There are thirty songs included on the disc (two of which are downloadable for free if you bought the Limited Edition new), and while it may not seem like much number wise, all the hits are here and any Black Eyed Peas fan should be happy with the selection.
From the very beginning of the game you?ll notice that it?s different from the other dance games. To even begin playing you need to sway back and forth in line with the dancers on screen. An interesting touch that didn?t go unnoticed. From here on, you?ll control the menus with your normal hand movements by hovering over your selections. Rather than having an icon on the left for your hand to hover over like almost every other Kinect game to go back a menu, you have to raise your right arm above your head, then kind of swipe backwards to bring up the menu of previous choices. It seemed odd and at first I couldn?t get it to work because it?s just an icon that shows to raise arm and move it (which didn?t do anything). It?s a small thing, but it?s one of the first frustrations I had with the game almost immediately.
If you want to just quickly jump into a song and play, the Dance Party mode is for you. If you?re looking for the campaign, then you?ll want to choose Deluxe Experience. The first thing you?ll do in campaign is create your dancer (male or female) and as you complete songs and gain more followers, you?ll unlock more clothing choices to eventually dress your dancer however you like. You gotta look good when you?re on stage with the Black Eyed Peas, so get dancing!
Obviously people are going to compare this to Dance Central 2 and see how it compares. There are similarities simply because of the genre, but it does do some things differently that make it a unique experience apart from the other dance titles. Most notably, is that while your mimicking the dancer in front of you, off to the left side you?ll also see your created character, as if you?re standing behind them. I found following this character instead of the dancer in front of you (like a mirror) made it much easier to learn some of the more difficult moves and ultimately felt like I was seeing ?my? dancing on screen through ?my? dancer.
From here you?ll pick your venue (you have to unlock them in order with a set amount of followers), then the song you want to play. You?ll notice the song is sectioned into 4 different pieces. Play part 1 to learn 4 or so moves of the routine, then part 2 to learn another set, and lastly part 3 for more moves. Each training set is mimicking the moves twice, and then putting them into a string of moves with each other. After all 3 training sections are complete; you can then play the routine that brings it all together. By the time you get to the actual routine, you?ve heard the same song about 8 or so times. The routine is just all the moves put together for half the song, take a quick rest break, and then repeat. The issue I found with this layout is that by the time you get to the routine, you?ve forgotten set 1 and 2?s moves if they are difficult. Every so often you?ll also be given a challenge if you choose to accept it. This has you trying to complete a specific objective in the set or routine you?re about to play such as getting 30 incredibles, 10 smooth transitions, or a set amount of followers by the end of the set.
Instead of flash cards coming at the screen in order, at the top it?ll show you only the next move a few seconds before it?s about to happen, so there?s less clutter on the screen at once. While I like the less clutter, it?s also sometimes difficult to get ready for the next move as you can only see the next upcoming move instead of the next few. Dance better and you?ll gain more followers. Do smooth transitions between moves and you?ll gain bonuses, and nail that finishing move for a big bonus. I just wish there was feedback on your moves and why you aren?t doing well. If you?re not even close to doing the correct movements, your dancer will stop, but that doesn?t help me to get better and tell me why I?m doing it wrong. Seems no dance game has figured out this solution yet. If you?re having trouble nailing specific moves, there?s a dance coach to assist in learning said moves. I highly suggest it for some of the more difficult moves, as some require a lot of energy and flexibility.
If you want to prove you have what it takes to make a routine of you own, then Choreo-maker is the mode for you. Here you can completely customize a dance for any of the songs included. Sadly, you don?t get to just dance in front of the Kinect, making up your own moves as you go. Instead, you pick set moves built into the game and string them together however you wish. You?re able to pick any dance moves from any song and incorporate them into your dance masterpiece for you to then share online with your friends.
Speaking of your friends, if a friend wants to join you at any time, they are able to by standing in front of the Kinect beside you and hold their hand above their head for a few moments. If they?re too shy to dance, two players are even able to grab a microphone and sing along instead (the Lips microphones even flash in sync with the music). Multiplayer is highly encouraged because you?ll earn followers much quicker, and it?s obviously more fun than dancing alone.
It?s great when a Kinect game simply works, as the tracking seemed to be accurate and I never felt like I was being unfairly scored performing a move. I know if I was missing dance moves, it was out of my own laziness (though usually tiredness). New copies of the limited edition come with a download code for ?Someday? and ?Light Up the Night? and it feels like a much more involved game than the Michael Jackson game did. There are even small facts about the band and members are the loading screens and now I know that Fergie has dry hair and uses olive oil for it.
What Black Eyed Peas Experience does right is make you feel like you?re in a club atmosphere rather than just trying to learn some moves by yourself. Does it beat Dance Central? Maybe if you?re a huge Black Eyed Peas fan, but keep in mind there?s no other music here other than theirs (which is probably why you?d be buying it anyways). Just like Beatles Rockband, Greenday Rockband, and others, if you?re a big fan of the band, you?ll enjoy the experience within. To everyone else, it?s not a necessity unless you?re becoming tired of Dance Central 2 somehow. While Black Eyed Peas may not be my band of choice, they do bring a different dance experience to Kinect and even though I didn?t know all the songs, I enjoyed my club-like experience for the most part. After a handful of songs, you?ll easily break a sweat.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 
I?ve been looking for a reason to dust off my Tournament Edition fighting stick for a while now. Now that Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom is here, I?ve been putting it to good use, trying to learn all the new characters and combos included in this updated version. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is still one of my favorite fighting games ever which is why I was so surprised it took so long for Capcom to eventually release the third game. Now in the span of under a year, we already have this new ?ultimate? version of the game that boasts a significant roster update, new stages, modes, and a slew of new features and balances. The fighting mechanics are essentially the same, and it?s still a very deliberate chaos happening on the screen at all times. While all these new features and updates will be great for the hardcore and competitive players, casual fans might feel a little confused at why this is a full disc purchase rather than a DLC package (like how Super Street Fighter 4 did the Arcade Edition DLC update if you chose to download rather than buy a new disc). I enjoyed Marvel vs Capcom 3 when it came out last February, but it wasn?t without its own problems such as over powered characters, infinite combos, and a lackluster online. This new Ultimate edition tries to rectify all these issues and more while improving and adding upon a great franchise.
The main story is essentially unchanged; you?re still trying to prevent Galactus from destroying everything, and to do so, you?ll need to defeat him. What is new is the inclusion of this story being told in comic book form at the beginning of the game. If you go into the gallery and actually read the comic, it slightly explains that all the characters are trying to stop Galactus, but are fighting each other for their own reasons. It?s vastly unchanged and you?ll still net points for how well you do in your matches. It?s simply a shame that the endings you get for beating arcade mode is a few comic book panels; it just didn?t feel all that satisfying trying to earn the different endings.
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 still utilizes the same mechanics of fighting one on one with a team of three characters that can be swapped out at any time or used to help assist your current character defeat your opponent. You?re still able to choose what assist ability you want each character to have when selecting your fighters and performing moves will slowly fill your Hyper Combo meter that can be used for devastating attacks (and even more powerful combination attacks the higher your gauge).
The gameplay mechanics are untouched and still use the same three button control scheme. You have a light, medium, and heavy attacks, along with the special attack button that allows you to launch your enemies into the air for air combinations. A drastic change though is that the X-Factor mechanic returns, but can now be active mid-air, damage has been reduced, and lasts for a shorter duration. For those that didn?t play Marvel vs Capcom 3, X-Factor allowed you to have a massive damage increase, speed output, and even health regeneration; all of these made for some very interesting comebacks, but it was also controversial with some of the hardcore crowd. For casual players like myself, I liked the system, as it at least gave me a last chance of making somewhat of a comeback when I was badly losing a battle.
Another change you might notice right away is that the HUD has been slightly changed, though I don?t feel it?s for the better. The new HUD made it harder for me to see my teammate?s health and what position they are in. On the flip side, it?s much easier to tell if you have any X-Factor left or not. You may notice some new stage select and character screens, but most of the other visuals have essentially been unchanged aside from the drastic HUD update.
A big complaint many had about Marvel vs Capcom 3 when it released was the drastic drop in playable characters compared to part 2. Marvel vs Capcom 2 had over 50 playable characters, where 3 only had 36. Ultimate now adds 12 new characters to the mix bringing the total to 48 (50 if you included the two downloadable characters), which is still less than part 2 had. The twelve new characters (6 from Capcom and 6 from Marvel) are all new except for Strider Hiryu (who returns from part 2) and range from very powerful (Nemesis), to completely odd and whacky (Pheonix Wright). For the most part, the new characters felt like they fit and belonged in the game, so let?s go over the new characters.
Doctor Strange is all about luring the other person into playing the game you want to play. Get them close, and then unleash your combos with some unconventional moves. I found Firebrand to be very weak compared to many of the other characters as his damage output is low. Ghost Rider seems to be one of the more solid characters, as he can keep almost anyone at range and uses his chain whip to do decent damage from almost anywhere on screen. Hawkeye is similar in the same way that he can use his arrows to dictate where the fight takes place on screen, and even poisoning his enemies.
Iron Fist is a solid choice if you?re a pressure fighter like myself and light to be constantly attacking by using dashes and making the opponent wonder where you?ll be next. Nova is another pressure fighter that has some crazy combos that take chunks off life bars as well. I wasn?t a fan of Vergil?s move set, but I was surprised with how good Nemesis performed. He?s a straight forward character that doesn?t require you to memorize insane button combinations to do well. Strider returns and is as elusive as ever. While he isn?t? that great at taking hits, he can attack and then retreat almost instantly on a whim.
The last three characters to go over are the most unique and interesting in my opinion. First up we have Rocket Raccoon. He reminded me a lot of Servbot from Marvel vs Capcom 2, as he has a very small hit box due to his height, and he?s very sneaky and getting around screen and trapping you into some of his combos. While not all that powerful, he can be an annoying character to fight against in the right players hands. Frank West from Dead Rising fame finally makes his debut to the series (I?m not sure why it took this long) and he will use his photography skills to good use in a match, as they will power up some of his special attacks. Again, not the most powerful, but unique to fight with and against. Lastly is the courtroom attorney, Pheonix Wright. His addition feels more like fanfare, as he?s very weak and takes a lot of preparation to be competent with. He needs to collect evidence to change him into a powerhouse that can easily decimate almost anyone, though you?ll need some noticeable skills to pull this off appropriately.
While the new characters will get most of the spotlight, many changes have been made to some of the previous characters as well that will take some getting used to if you used them as your main group. Ryu has been changed from a mediocre character to someone that can hold their own. He can now spam fireballs and is a much stronger character in general. Captain Americas seems to have gotten a boost as well and I?ve made him part of my main fighting team. Not everyone got boosted though; the more powerful characters have been relined with balance in mind, like Magneto. He seems more sluggish making it much more difficult to setup and execute your combos. The same goes for some of the characters assists that made them once invincible, this is no longer the case. It seems like almost every character played slightly different (for better or worse) to try and alleviate the problem of everyone using the same top-tiered characters.
Capcom seems to have listened to the community when it comes to online competition, as now there?s a spectator mode where you can watch other people fighting with friends. You no longer have to wait as long when a match isn?t found and rematching is much easier this time around. With an improved netcode implemented, matches for the most part seemed smoother and there was nothing to complain about in this department.
While Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom brings some desired (and undesired) changes to the table, there are some glaring omissions in the character department. There?s no Mega-Man, Venom, Ken, Gambit, and a few others that I would have really loved to see return from the second game. Hopefully they?ll be DLC one day, but at least any characters and costumes you purchased from Marvel vs Capcom 3 will carry over into Ultimate.
For a casual player like myself, I still found it very difficult to become very good at the game (going online proved this). There is a mission mode that teaches you the different move and combos, but it really needs to be expanded, as it?s just there, but doesn?t do a great job to guide you (like Street Fighter IV) and make you a better overall player. To be honest, it feels like it?s too soon to bring us Ultimate as a full priced disc purchase rather than a title update and DLC. A DLC update was done with the Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV, so I?m wondering why it couldn?t have been done in the same way here for Ultimate. If you?re a casual player and already bought Marvel vs Capcom 3, then it?s hard to justify this upgrade unless you really want to play with the new characters (or see how your fighters have been tweaked). If you?re a competitive player or don?t have the original offering, then this is obviously the version to get without hesitation. It won?t win you over if you didn?t click with it the first time, but if you enjoyed your time in this crossover, the new characters and updates should keep you hooked for a little while longer.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Rayman Origins
It?s hard to believe that it?s been over 15 years since I first played Rayman back on the original Playstation. It was a 2D sidescrolling platform game that eventually got a number of sequels and even made the move to a 3D approach. Rayman Origins arrives and goes back to its 2D sidescrolling brilliance. It?s funny, Rayman originally had no limbs due to technical limitations back in the mid 90?s, now with Rayman Origins, a simple explanation is given to why he is limbless; There simply wasn?t enough Lums when he was born. While the game is titled Origins, it?s not going to give you a deep backstory and look into Rayman?s world, though it does take place before some of the earlier games. I?m not sure why Rayman?s popularity didn?t become big enough for him to be a mascot, as he always had solid games and he seems as if he?s a likable character and is marketable. Either way, he returns now limbless and with his helicopter hair with a bunch of his friends, and he just happens to bring us one of the best 2D sidescrolling platform games that I?ve played in quite some time. It?s been quite some time since I?ve played such a memorable platforming game with such unique and gorgeous hand drawn visuals.
Rayman games have never been known for their amazing story telling or plots, but they are known for their great game mechanics, tight controls, and unique art styles. In Rayman Origins, this is no different, the story is a wacky Saturday cartoon plot-line, but that won?t matter once you?re running and jumping all over the place trying to collect as many Lums as you can. Rayman and friends reside in a tree in the Glade of Dreams, and it turns out they were snoring way too loudly for their underground neighbor, an evil old granny, and she retaliates by letting loose an army of evil creatures across the land. All of the Electoons and Nymphs have been taken hostage and it?s up to Rayman and his friends to set things right by rescuing them. Again, it won?t win any awards for its story, but like I said, it won?t matter as the gameplay and distinctive visuals vastly outweighs everything else. It?ll take you around a dozen hours or so to get through the main levels, though you can add infinitely more depending on how compulsive you are trying to collect every last Lum and Electoon to try and 100% the game.
The first thing we need to talk about is the absolutely stunning visuals you?ll notice from the first level you play. Every character, animation and background is masterfully hand drawn and simply stunning to look at. Everything is so bright and vibrant; it reminded me a lot of Bastion?s art direction and doesn?t disappoint. It?s rare to find a game that?s so simple yet intricate at the same time, Origins visuals makes it had to not randomly stop during a level and just admire everything on screen.
There are five worlds that need to be completed to move to the next, and each world is broken into six or so individual levels. Each level is then broken into five or six smaller segments (that also act as your checkpoints) that flow together naturally. At the end of a level, there?s not a boss, but you need to defeat all of the enemies guarding the cage holding Electoons before you can move onto the next stage.
As Rayman run, jumps, swims, and more throughout the different levels, the platforming itself never becomes stale due to the precise controls that never have you feel like you?re doing something wrong (due to controls). Each world has a voluptuous nymph to save, and doing so will have her bestow a special power unto Rayman, such as running up walls, swimming, shrinking, and more abilities you?ll need to progress. Each world usually caters around one of the specific abilities and near the end of the game you?ll be using them all in succession to proceed forward. The pacing is done perfectly, as you get enough time to get used to each ability and won?t ever worry about forgetting how to use it in the latter levels. With more than sixty levels to progress through and no difficulty settings to worry about, you?ll just be progressing through ingenious level design with a solid platforming base.
As you progress through each level and segment, you?ll be attempting to rescue imprisoned Electoons (they are the pink dots with smiling faces). During each level you?ll also be collecting Lums (the gold colored smiling dots) that will go towards your tally at the end of the level. If you find a large Lum, it will temporarily make any Lum gathered valued at two instead of one. There?s some strategy required if you want to collect every Lum at the end of a level for the bonuses at the end of stages.
To progress through the later world levels you?ll need a specific amount of Electoons. You have a chance to collect one to 5 Electoons in each stage if you?re vigilant and can find all the hidden areas that will next you extra caged Electoons at the end. You?ll also gain Electoons based on how many Lums you find during a level; manage to gather a specific around by the end of the stage (usually 300 to 350 or so) and you?ll get the bonus Electoons. If you?re very diligent, you can even earn medals if they collect every Lum which will allow you to attempt a time trial of that stage.
As you meet set Electoon counts, you are given the option to play special treasure-chase levels that will have you running as fast as possible trying to catch the legged treasure chest and get its precious Ruby Tooth. Manage to collect all ten teeth and you?ll gain access to the final bonus world, though getting all the teeth will be quite challenging. These treasure-chase levels are some of the most difficult stages in the whole game (aside from the bosses that come much later in the game). There are no player life counts, so you can try as many times as you want in each stage, but you?ll be playing these specific stages many times as you memorize each obstacle and timing of jumps. One mess up and you?ll basically have to restart the level. Not controller throwing frustrating, but it will definitely make you grit your teeth when you get so close.
To break up the monotony of running, jumping, and attacking, there are some levels that have Rayman riding a large mosquito that turns into a 2D sidescrolling shooter. You?re able to suck up enemies and spit them out and can rapidly shoot at enemies as well. It?s a great tool to break up the pacing a little bit, and I found myself looking forward to these levels for just a quick change of pace.
The only real issue I had with Origins is that the later end-game is blocked off until you?ve collected enough Electoons to progress. This means you?ll be replaying many levels, trying to find those hidden Electoons (and collecting enough Lums) so that you can get a certain amount to try and get another ruby tooth.
Have friends over that want to do more than just watch you jumping around? You and three other friends can simultaneously play alongside you, each with their own character. Players can choose between Rayman, Globox (Rayman?s longtime friend), and multiple Teensies. You?ll unlock addition skins and costumes for each character as you progress through the game, though I?ve always been partial to the leading man himself, Rayman. If a player is hit by an enemy or falls to their doom, they?ll become encompassed in a bubble that any of the other players need to pop to get him back into the game. The best part is that the co-op is drop in and drop out whenever you want, though game progress will only count towards the main profile.
Nothing can ruin a platforming game more so than shoddy and unresponsive controls. Luckily, you won?t ever have to worry about this in Origins as every animation is done wonderfully and you?re always in control of Rayman at all times. This doesn?t mean that you won?t miss platforms, ledges, and wall jumps; you will, many times, but not because of loose controls. Because the levels are segmented into smaller sections, you?ll never have to redo a section of great length due to the checkpoint system that?s done perfectly as well. Don?t let the infinite lives, frequent checkpoints, and colorful artworks fool you though, this isn?t an easy kids game, and does become quite challenging in the later half and some levels (usually he treasure chases) will have you replaying stages many times until you learn it to perfection.
This is where some of the charm comes from though. I?m glad I wasn?t able to breeze right through it and even though you?ll hit random spikes of difficulty, overcoming those levels makes you feel accomplished. Some levels really gave me a vibe of playing Battletoads (with the falling and climbing levels), and others even made me reminisce of Earthworm Jim; both are two of my favorite games of all time.
I do wish there was online co-op over Xbox Live, but I?ll live without it. Frame rate never once slowed down and hearing the Nymphs speak pig latin always put a smile on my face. The music for each world is very distinct and masterfully done and I really wish that I could by the official soundtrack for Rayman Origins (like I did Bastion), it?s that well done.
It?s a shame Rayman Origins came out during the busiest time of year with all the other huge games now out, as it?s sure to be overlooked, but if you love platforming games, pick this up without hesitation. If you?re strapped for cash because of the holidays, get it as soon as you?re able, it?s that good and easily justifies its price tag. You won?t find a better 2D platformer with a more unique visual style. I?m glad this game landed on my desk to review, as I really enjoyed this stand out title in this busy season.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
PowerUp Heroes
Remember pretending to be a super hero (or villain) as a kid, waving your arms around mimicking how to use your special moves? I?d raise my hands in the air and slam them downward as if I was summoning lightning bolts from the sky, conjuring magic in my hands, or even throwing fireballs by imitating a Hadouken from Street Fighter (and yelling it out loud of course). PowerUp Heroes attempts to give you this feeling once again while you punch, kick, and flail your arms about to defeat your enemies in this Kinect enabled fighting game. Obviously this isn?t going to be as robust or technical as your modern day Street Fighter IV or Mortal Kombat, but it?s not trying to be either. This is Ubisoft?s second attempt at a fighting game, and after the first, I honestly wasn?t getting my hopes too high. Remember how terrible that Kinect fighting game launch title, Fighters Uncaged, was? That?s what had me nervous about PowerUp Heroes before even playing it, though I went in with a blank and unbiased slate. PowerUp Heroes feels like a super power kid?s version of what Fighters Uncaged was trying to be. While it seems they have learned from their mistakes, you know, since it actually works, know right away that you?ll need the recommended amount of space Kinect suggests to play accurately (as possible).
Geared towards a younger audience, your avatar will fight the bad guys, but instead of mashing the buttons like in standard fighting games, you?ll essentially be doing it with your arms and legs. It?s entertaining to see how many of the characters, costumes, and moves are inspired (and sometimes blatantly ripped off) by current characters in modern fighting games. You?ll see a character that clearly resembles Scorpion and Reptile (and there?s even Scorpions signature spear-pull ?Get over here!? move included) and even move your hands to the side of your waist before unleashing a fireball towards your enemy in classic Hadouken fashion.
While there is a plot in PowerUp Heroes, it?s so thin and cliché that it won?t even matter. Since when do you play a fighting game for the story anyways? An extremely powerful villain, Malignance, is on his way to Earth in his quest for absolute power which will turn humankind into minions for his growing army to take over the while universe. Volta happens to crash on Earth the same time as Malignance and as he dies he gives all his powers to the closest human, that being you. Now with Volta?s costume and powers inherited, it?s up to you to save not only Earth, but the whole galaxy. Yes, cheesy but it?s meant for kids and it?s a simple enough premise as to why these guys are fighting one another.
You?ll need to use your entire body in this over the shoulder brawler. You?ll be striking with punches and kicks and dodging my titling your torso from side to side. When you throw your arms out in a punching motion you?ll throw projectiles that are low damage but is used to interrupt certain super powers that need time to charge up. Lift a knee and you?ll rush into close combat melee range which you?ll then have to punch and kick to make a combination of five attacks before doing a finisher to end the combo. The finisher needs to be an uppercut or a knee but you?re told exactly which move to use to complete the combo successfully. The problem is that you don?t know which move it?ll be beforehand and you need to perform the move very quickly or the enemy can counter and use the finisher against you. It?s almost a guessing game, as you need to prepare your balance to throw a knee that fast or get an uppercut ready in time.
If you get a combo chained against you, blocking is possible if you mimic the moves that show on the screen in time. You?ll essentially be copying poses but you need to really exaggerate the motions and poses for them to register, on top of being very quick to be successful. In regular combat you can lean side to side to strafe quickly and dodge incoming attacks and projectiles, though some moves will hit you no matter what if you don?t interrupt them by lifting your knee and rushing them to start a combo. As you take damage (and you will in the last part of the game) your Rage meter will slowly fill .Once full you?ll take less damage and deal more yourself. Your super moves will also instantly be ready for use and will refresh twice as fast.
The real fun in the fighting comes from using your super powers which are based on whatever costume you are currently wearing. Certain moves will have you replicating how you would perform them in real life if you could. Fireballs are usually done just like how Ryu and Ken would in Street Fighter, hold your hands above your head then bring them crashing down for a black hole or lightning (again, depends on which suit you are wearing), or even jump up to quickly teleport to your foe and uppercut them. Your special moves have cool down timers so that you can?t spam them repeatedly, so you need to vary your attacks as you wait for the big moves to refresh. The first of three moves listed are used for damage but to also setup a chain of super moves for devastating damage. While it is possible to do Ultimate Chains (by using three super powers and switching costumes twice in between) it?s nearly impossible to do them with certain accuracy. Holding your left hand above your head will make you switch costumes (you pick two before battle) on the fly so that you can vary your attacks. Most moves work just fine where others seem less simple to use and even harder to chain into a combo.
You gain experience for winning (and losing) battles which goes towards your overall level. As you gain levels you?ll unlock power-ups like better projectile damage, starting the match with a full rage meter, and more that you can freely swap between battles depending on your play style. There are ten levels in all but you?ll need to grind for quite a few hours if you want to max your level. You?ll actually finish the game (if you?re able to beat Malignant X) around level three or four where your enemies will be more than double your level for some reason. Maybe this is to promote versus matches with a friend or online matches to level, I?m not really sure.
As you defeat Malignance?s minions you?ll collect their suits and powers to be used if you wish. With twenty suits in all to collect there?s some variety to mixing and matching certain powers but once you find a few you like you?ll stick with them throughout the game. There are even a few special unlockable Ubisoft suits such as a Rabbid suit and even an Ezio costume in tow with his abilities. The only downfall is that once you beat Malignance you?ll need to run the gauntlet again against their X-forms. They have one or two new powers but are much more powerful the second time around and is a shallow pool of actual enemies you?ll face against.
At first I couldn?t figure out why my avatar looked so terrible. When you pick which costume to wear it puts the suit on top of whatever your avatars clothing is. What this means is that if you?re like myself and have some odd clothing that is larger than regular clothing, it?ll constantly be clipping through and looking terrible. If you play wrestling games and create custom wrestlers, you?ll know exactly what I?m talking about.
There is a multiplayer component to PowerUp Heroes with quick match and ranked choices, but each time I tried to find a game online it never would. I tried multiple times and let it sit there searching for a game but it seems no one else was wanting to play when I tried, so unfortunately I was unable to test this feature properly (and couldn?t get my achievement for winning a ranked match).
Menus control just like how Dance Central does with side swipes of your right hand but you?ll sometimes need to be very precise with your selections. Just like in combat, the controls work but you need to be very deliberate with your movements for everything to register properly. When moves don?t register properly the first time you?ll sometimes end up flailing around your arms and legs trying to do multiple things at once. While annoying at times, it?s definitely a workout that breaks a sweat and would make for an entertaining party game for kids.
In essence, it feels like you?re playing an embellished version of rock-paper-scissors since one move or motion is always the counter to another. It?ll succeed and making your kid feel like a super hero at times (and yourself when you start using the super powers) provided they have the balance and dexterity needed. If this was meant to be a serious game for the hardcore crowd, then I could dock it points for missing features, bare boned campaign and more, but it?s not, it?s meant for the younger audience and I could really see them enjoying this if they are into super heroes
There are really only two gripes I have with PowerUp Heroes. The first is the preciseness needed to do a good portion of the super moves (and balance to chain them all together); great premise, frustrating controls at times. The second; it?s incredibly short. You?ll finish the game and unlock the suits in around two hours or so, so be warned the replayability comes from combining different costumes and trying new moves out more than the campaign itself. Also, I was actually unable to defeat the final boss (at level 5) and tried for about two hours total combined. This is supposed to be a kids game and the longer you play the more tired you become, making moves harder to do since you?re reacting slower.
When you?re fighting the same ten guys twice, it doesn?t seem like there?s much value within. To a kid who wants to throw fireballs and beat up the bad guys, I don?t think they will care, especially since two player support is there for siblings and friends. It feels more like a premium XBLA game and I?d actually really like to see this idea taken to the next level with a PowerUp Comic Book Heroes. Imagine the possibilities with characters from Marvel, DC, and more. For what it is and who it caters towards, kids that have lots of energy should really enjoy pretending to be a super hero with a plethora of super powers.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Tropico 4
I?ve actually never played a Tropico game before this one arrived on my doorstep, and to be honest, I?m not really sure why. I?ve always loved the Sim City style of creation gameplay, but maybe it?s the ruling and management mechanics like Civilization that turned me away. I don?t really know why I never gave it a fair shot, and after playing Tropico 4, I regret not finding this series sooner. I wasn?t sure what to expect as I?m not usually very good at these types of games. It took me awhile to wrap my head around some of the mechanics as I started off trying to play it like I would Sim City by building road infrastructures, electricity grids, residential areas and more in a symmetrical fashion. I learned very quickly that in Tropico, everyone can and will walk freely anywhere, and you aren?t forced to make that Sim City style of design to be successful. Actually, I rarely even make any power plants at all as only a few buildings require a set amount of electricity.
Haemimont Games has done a fantastic job of creating a game with very in-depth resource management, feeding population, keeping Tropiconians (I?m assuming that?s the right context) happy, balancing budgets and debt, foreign relationships, and plethora more that you?ll constantly have to juggle simultaneously. What?s great about it is that it never becomes too overwhelming at once, even for a new player to the series like myself.
Generalissimo Santana has decided to take you under his wing and show you how to rule over the land. You are El Presidente and you now rule over all of Tropico; how you do so is completely up to you. Are you simply trying to build up your population for fame and the good of the people, or do you want to build a tourist resort to roll in the cash while ruling with an iron fist? You?ll be doing so during the banana republic era all the way up until the end of the Cold War. Because this era was chosen, you?ll constantly have the Soviets and Americans breathing down your neck forcing you to pick sides in difficult situations. They won?t be the only ones though, prepare to deal with the Middle East and China also.
As El Presidente, you?ll have a full campaign with twenty missions on ten new maps that need to be played in order to unlock the next one. Once you pick your leader from preset options like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and a dozen others, or a completely custom leader you design, you?re then put in charge and need to build Tropico from the ground up. You?re placed in charge of building the economy, infrastructure, politics, environment, and anything else you could think of. How you do so is completely up to you, and almost any play style has their strengths and weaknesses. I ruled by being a diplomatic leader; I gave healthcare, free living areas, high wages, and rarely heard any murmuring about a rebellion. When I tried to be a cruel dictator, I had rebellions and many countries upset with me, but I was filthy rich by exploiting my people wherever I could. It makes for some interesting gameplay as you can always try something new and see what the outcome is like, molding exactly how you want to rule over the island.
First off, Tropico is known for being a PC game, obviously because of its history and strategic elements. Now that it?s also on the Xbox 360, it obviously won?t compare to using a keyboard and mouse for controls, but I never felt like I was hindered (aside from the preciseness needed when picking buildings). The controls aren?t perfect by any means, but it?s not overly confusing considering how much can be done, and it became second nature once I got two missions in. The only major glaring flaw is the very low-res graphics when completely zoomed in and there?s also lots of screen hiccupping when lots going on the screen at one time or when the weather suddenly changes (when in fast forward mode). To be fair, I?ve not play the PC version, so I can?t say if these are issues with the game itself or just with the Xbox 360 port.
I highly suggest playing the tutorials first, as it will teach you the basics (you?ll still have much to learn) of building a sustainable living for your islands population. You?ll also need to quickly figure out the food problems, jobs, education, police, and every other infrastructure we have in society today. By importing and exporting, this is how you?ll bring in precious resources and exporting your own products for your income. El Presidente obviously also has his own personal Swiss Bank Account, which is your personal wealth. Will you steal from the citizens, embezzle money, or save none for yourself to help Tropico thrive?
Different people will constantly have problems for you to solve or an agenda of their own that they want your help with, these are called tasks. And by the way, I hate the environmental lady that is constantly bugging me. Complete these tasks and you?ll earn bonuses and more, depending on whose task it is and what you had to do to complete it. You can have up to five tasks at once but sadly there?s no way to get rid of a task if you?re ?full? until one of them is completed. I got stuck a few times with tasks I shouldn?t have taken yet but couldn?t grab new ones to help until I had one of the five spots clear for a new task. I?m not sure why there is a limitation, as it could have been a checklist in the background to check at any time.
There are many different types of buildings you can construct, deepening on what your wants and needs are (and cash flow). Some of the new buildings are the Shopping Mall, Stock Exchange, Aqua Park, and more. Some buildings even have internal upgrades that you can purchase that add another layer of depth and strategy. Make sure to always have some funds on hands though; as it never seems to fail that some type of natural disaster will always strike at the most inopportune times, forcing you to rebuild what was destroyed.
You can appoint council of ministries that will help push through your controversial decisions through in your government. Politics are used to keep relations with other countries and super powers and play a large factor in almost every aspect of life in Tropico.
An edict is an announcement of law, and you eventually have access to many different types of edicts that can quickly turn around a situation for El Presidente. There are many edicts that range from anti-litter policies, to printing money, to same-sex marriages, to even nuclear testing. You?ll be using your Almanac to keep tabs on everything that?s going on your island, especially all the different factions that may or may not agree with your administration and policies. Your Almanac is especially useful to see the many different factions? happiness levels and what you can do to make them support (or turn) on you.
For those that want to simply build their dream island and not have to worry about major objectives, Sandbox Mode is essentially a free-play option for those that want to play almost like a Sim City. It?s actually a great way to become more familiar with the controls and the smaller nuances about the game.
Tropico 4 does an outstanding job at getting someone like me that?s never played the series, eased into the missions and feeling like I was doing a good job to boot. Obviously a few missions later, I was struggling as the difficulty rises, but I?m learning the intricacies and just how much depth to this game there really is. I do wish there was an option to show where buildings are listed in the menus when you have a specific task to build something. Sometimes I forget where the Power Plants are located in the building menus and have to shuffle around between them to find it. Not a game breaker by any means, but definitely something a new player like me would have made a big use of.
Tropico 4 has a ton of content included, almost to the point of being overwhelming for a new player to the series like myself. There are so many ways to play each mission and the smallest decisions can have the largest impacts. It has a perfect balance of complexity and entertainment, and for how in-depth it really is, I never become too flustered (aside from never keeping enough cash flow on hand). The missions come in a steady pace and increasing difficulty that never made me think it was impossible. I?ll definitely be following the series from now on and I?m having much more fun than I thought I would (trying to push back all these rebels)!
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
If Halo didn?t become the massive success that it did back in 2001, it?s no secret that there?s a very slim chance that the Xbox would even be around today. Luckily, Bungie showed the world what a first person shooter on a console could strive to be and the rest is history. I?m an absolutely huge Halo fan; I probably have more Halo merchandise than one person should. I can?t believe it?s been a decade since I bought my Xbox and was introduced to Halo. I do miss my duke controller after all this time though. Halo helped shape the kind of gamer than I?ve become today. Halo was the first (and I think only as far as I can remember) game that I?d ever coordinate with 15 other friends to get together for a lan party. We would set a place and everyone would bring their TV (this was before LCD TVs, so we had to lug our hefty TVs around), Xbox, Halo, controllers, and a ton of pizza. This is how you played together with friends back in the day before Xbox Live and sixteen player Halo lans with my friends are some of the fondest gaming memories I still have to this day.
Now that Bungie is off doing new non-Halo related games, 343 Industries is now taking the helm for all Halo projects going forward. Their first order of business was bringing fans the Anniversary edition of Halo Combat Evolved for the ten year anniversary. Master Chief returns a decade later to suck us back into the lore of Halo and hopefully find some new fans of the series along the way. If you?re a Halo purist, don?t fret, Anniversary is essentially the same experience you remember playing all those years ago. The core of the game is intact and unchanged, but new visuals, audio, and more, make Anniversary look like it belongs in modern times. You?ll be impressed to see how drastically cleaner and high-def Master Chief and the new environments look. And yes, the overpowered ionic pistol makes its long awaited return.
The story of Halo is unchanged and maintains its history and lore. You know how the story began, you know how it ends, but it still manages to capture my attention after all these years, regardless of how many times I?ve beaten the campaign. I won?t go into the story too much, as by now if you?ve played Halo, you know it, and if you haven?t, I don?t want to spoil it. Master Chief awakens from a cryo-chamber shortly after the fall of Reach. They crash onto a mysterious ring world inhabited by the Covenant, the alien race that humanity is battling against. Master Chief uncovers a disaster in the making with the introduction of the Flood, aliens that can end all of humanity if it isn?t stopped. One way to stop it, is by using Halo, but that would end all sentient life in the universe.
Throughout the campaign, I kept getting deja-vu and a constant overwhelming nostalgia feeling. It was welcomed and it kept putting a smile on my face as I proclaim ?Oh yea, I remember that!?. Ten years ago, you could play through the story with a friend locally on the same screen, now that Xbox Live is here, each player gets their own screen and you don?t have to share a room any longer. It?s still only two player co-op and you can only play with people on your friends list, there?s no random matchmaking unfortunately, for those times you don?t want to fight the Flood alone.
So let?s start with what?s new in Anniversary. Most notably and the first thing you?re going to take notice of is the updated and sharp visuals. I?m not just talking an up-scaled resolution, but all models and textures have been recreated and boosted to high definition. Colors seem more vibrant, there?s much more detail everywhere, more foliage on the ground, and even some new lighting will help guide you in some of the maze-like levels. Some levels seem drastically different in remastered mode, not that the game itself was changed, but in dark areas, it?s actually bright now. In the swamp level you can actually see more than 10 feet in front of you because of the new lighting and draw d, surface textures, environments, and more have all been drastically updated, and at times it can almost look like a completely different game than you remember. That?s where the beauty of switching between classic and remastered mode come into play. By tapping the back button, you can switch between the actual 2001 graphics, and the updated graphics of today. It takes about three seconds of black screen loading to happen, but you?ll be amazed at the substantial differences. This is achieved by having both the classic and modern sets of code running at the same time (which is why I?m assuming there?s the slight delay while switching). You?ll be constantly surprised at how the game looked back then and what your memory actually thought it looked like. I?m constantly switching back and forth just to see the differences and always come away amazed, not only at how good they got it to look today, but how good that looked for only ten years ago. Take note though, whatever ?version? you?re playing when a cutscene triggers, the cutscene will play in that mode; there?s no switching while watching unfortunately.
Next are the games audio enhancements. I could tell a slight difference between some of the different gun sounds, voices and such, but the real improvements can be heard when the soundtrack kicks in. The music somehow sounds cleaner and some tracks have been remastered and sound absolutely stunning. It was great hearing the rock version of the Halo theme kick in when I?m obliterating a pack of Covenant.
There are some new secrets hidden within the world you remember though. Terminals can be found hidden in each level, though only if you are playing in remastered mode (they simply aren?t there if you?re in classic) that when found, will play a new short cutscene to give you some more insight into the lore of Halo, narrated and revolving around Guilty Spark himself. There?s even the inclusion now of hidden skulls in the levels that can alter gameplay in interesting ways, just like it did in the game?s successors.
The most intriguing new addition would have to be support for Kinect. No, you aren?t going to be running around your living room pretending to fire a gun; it?s actually just voice controls for a number of different things. Shouting ?grenade?, ?reload?, or ?flashlight? in game will do those commands instead of pressing the corresponding button. Sadly though it?s not all that practical, as there?s a delay of voice to action. Saying ?analyze? will make your visor look like it did in ODST (almost like night vision), and new weapons, enemies, and vehicles can be scanned to fill your library index to learn more about the scanned items. Note, you need Kinect to use this feature, and you can?t do it with just a controller, but there?s no attached achievements to it, nor will you learn any new secrets, it?s simply for the OCD that want to scan all 45 items in the world. Interestingly, you can even say ?brighter? and ?dimmer? to change your settings on the fly, even contrast and enabling 3D mode should you have the TV for it (as a side note, I don?t have a 3D TV, but from what I?ve read, most people say the 3D mode for Anniversary works very well and isn?t intrusive). Be warned co-op players of a Kinect owner, you will get sick of them shouting ?analyze? and ?scan? often.
Ah, classic Halo multiplayer, many nights have I stayed up saying ?one more game? repeatedly. Before Xbox Live, players figured out a way to play online with each other that involved downloading a program and tunneling through your computer. It was primitive, but it worked, though I always preferred to have the big Halo lans at a friend?s place. Now, while the campaign has gone relatively untouched (outdated mechanics and all), sadly the same can?t be said for multiplayer. Those looking to relive those memories of all night Halo lans might be disappointed to know that this isn?t the same multiplayer you played a decade ago. Sadly, you can?t play multiplayer in classic visuals though which was a little bit of a letdown.
There are only six maps included on disc, and they are taken from Halo CE, Halo CE PC, and Halo 2. To be fair, the majority of the original maps have already been remade for Halo 2, 3, and Reach, but in Anniversary you?ll have access to High Noon (Hang ?Em High), Breakneck (Headlong), Penance (Damnation), Ridgeline (Timberland), Solitary (Prisoner), and of course Battle Canyon (Beaver Creek). The maps have been slightly altered, like with teleporters or new tunnels but will give you the same general feel that you remember them from.
There are new matchmaking playlists that gives access to Squad, Big Team Battle, Free For All, Classic, and even Firefight (new Firefight map called Installation 04). The multiplayer is using the Reach engine, but playing these classic modes won?t allow for the armor abilities and other drastic changes. You?ll have essentially the same multiplayer from years ago, complete with pistol, but something just seems different about it, though I can?t pinpoint what exactly it is. There?s a code when you open Anniversary that will even allow you to import the maps into Reach (and thus play with armor abilities) if you?d rather go that route as well. Considering the map pack separate is 1200 Microsoft Points, Anniversary selling at $40 isn?t such a bad deal, as you?ll get the remastered campaign.
Anniversary is by no means perfect; there?s still texture pop in, disorientating and laggy warping when another player gets to a checkpoint, and minor things like the cryo-chamber Master Chief comes out of at the beginning of the game; the cutscene shows one tube, when the game begins in co-op, there?s suddenly two. I don?t know if all of these issues are because the old code is running underneath or not, but they do stand out.
After ten years, the game has held up surprisingly well. It?s been awhile since I?ve played a game that doesn?t hold my hand every step of the way and I got lost quite a few times not knowing where to go, but that was some of the charm as well. You can tell that every facet has been done with love and care by 343. They could have simply bumped up the resolution and called it an HD remix, but a lot of work has gone into this package. We original Halo fans thank you. I really hope that other HD re-releases take note; this is how HD versions should be done, as it stays true to the source material, but also brings something new.
Certain mechanics will feel outdated and archaic, but that?s because they are. A game like this from ten years ago feels completely different from a game of today. I kept catching myself wondering why I couldn?t pick up the sword, change weapons with marines, and remembering when Hunters weren?t too big of a threat. These facets and more have changed over the years in each game, and bias aside, I can?t fault the game for its mechanics and design choices, as this is a decade old game. I?m more weighing the score on its updated merits.
If the multiplayer was a true remake, I?d probably stick with it longer and score it slightly higher, because Halo lans is what made Halo for many people. Anniversary does a fantastic job at retelling a story by staying true to its legacy and also being an overhauled experience that many of us have probably forgotten over the years. If you were too young when Halo was released, or never played it for some reason, pick it up and you can see how the phenomenon all began. I?m eagerly awaiting a Halo 2 Anniversary now, make it so 343.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Dance Central 2
I never have and never will proclaim that I?m a dancer. I?m not a dancer; I?m a white guy that dances like a typical white guy. Though I do love me my dancing games. I know I?m a terrible dancer, but I have fun, and that?s what matters right? Luckily, Kinect doesn?t judge me too harshly; it even sometimes tells me I?m doing well while I?m playing Dance Central 2. I do wonder what my clubbing days would have been like if the Dance Central games where around back then; would it have made me a little better on the dance floor? Possibly. Dance Central 2 is finally here and I?ve been waiting for this title for some time. It?s the Sequel to the bestselling dance game on Kinect and I?d even wager it was the bestselling Kinect game at launch by far. Dance Central offered a reason and justification to all the early adopters of Kinect like myself. I?ve even heard it be called the Dance Central machine, it was that well done. Now the sequel is here with some big improvements and fresh dance moves for you to try out. Don?t fret, the base game itself is generally unchanged and still has you following and mirroring the on screen dancers for points, showing that you can keep up with their dance moves.
There are more songs this time around, 44 to be exact. Everyone?s going to have different musical tastes, but the songs that were noteworthy to me were: ?Baby Got Back (not the original, it?s a mix version unfortunately)? by Sir Mix-A-Lot, ?Bad Romance? and ?Born This Way? by Lady Gaga, ?Grenade? by Bruno Mars (which my wife can?t stop playing), "Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei)" by O-Zone (better known to youtubers as Numa Numa), ?Sandstorm? by Darude, and ?What Is Love? by Haddaway. There?s a diverse selection of music, though I found DC2 to be a little more hip-hop and R and B heavy for my tastes than the first game. There?s sure to be a few songs here for everyone to enjoy though.
Not enough songs for you? You?re also able to import the whole song list from the first Dance Central as well, for a small fee for 400 Microsoft Points, just like how Rock Band offered. All you need is the code on the back of your manual from the first game (new copy of course) and you can import every song, none are left out due to licensing issues! Importing the first games 32 songs will boast your song list up to 76 songs, not even including any DLC songs you?ve (or will) purchase.
Dance Central 2 now boasts a ?campaign? mode of sorts. Dance Crew mode will have you battling against seven other crews of two dancers. Performing well will earn their respect and allow you to move on against the more difficult and talented crews. To represent a crew, you need to earn their respect and prove you can carry on their name. As you make your way through all the crews, you?ll eventually dance off against Glitterati, which to me felt like a hybrid of the Misfits from Jem and Lady Gaga. To beat a crew you need to earn stars for your performance in each song. Once you?ve earned sixteen stars total, you can challenge them at their ?boss song?. Get a minimum of four stars on this final song and you can move onto the next crew. Beat all the crews and you?ll have a final confrontation, which I won?t spoil, but be prepared, because you?ll have to dance to all the ?boss songs? in a row without rest. As you dance through the Crew Challenge, you?ll unlock new dancers, venues, and clothing. It?s obviously not the deepest story, but at least it?s there and it?s a new addition that I commend for Harmonix for including.
It?s no secret that I have a small living room and an even smaller play space for my Kinect games. Somehow Harmonix gets it right each time as I never had any issues with body tracking with my severe space constraints. You control the menus in the same fashion by swiping your arm from right to left to select, but now there?s also the inclusion of voice controls as well. Instead of using your hands to select songs and difficulties, you can simply say ?Xbox Dance?, and then pick your song by saying ?Song ____?, and even ?Difficulty ____?. Then just say ?Xbox Dance? again and you?re in the song you wanted. My only issue by using the voice commands for song selection though is that you need to know the songs name. I had a brain fart, couldn?t remember the name of the song I wanted, and had to go back to using hand controls to scroll to it for me to remember. I wish it had a list of songs that came up when using voice controls, but it?s a minor oversight.
Many of your favorite dancers from the first game make a return; Angel, Emilia, Miss Aubrey, Taye, and Mo all return with new styles and clothing. There are also a handful of new dancers as well that make up each member?s two person crew. Also expect many of new dance moves to go along with the ones you still know from the first game. The routines are quite varied when playing the same song but on different difficulties.
If you?re a more health conscious person and wan to track your fitness, there are even Fitness Playlists included for those that want a deep cardio workout. Here you can pick a preset play list to burn a sweat, or even pick your own favorite songs to dance along with. You?ll see how many calories you?ve burned, and don?t take these playlists lightly; you?ll need a towel and water after the longer and more difficult ones.
One of the biggest complaints about the first Dance Central was learning how to do some of the more difficult dance moves. Yes it had a tutorial, but if you were unable to do a specific move, there weren?t any other tools to really help you out. Now, for the inept dancers like myself, the vastly improved Break It Down mode will be able to teach you even the hardest of dance moves with enough practice. Here you can learn an entire routine or just that one specific dance move that you can?t seem to quite get. Practice the move and nail it three times and you?ll move on. If you continue to have problems, even when slowed down, there?s an option to record video of yourself trying said move and comparing it to the dancer side by side. Some might be terrified at the idea of the game recording you, but for those really wanting to learn the more intricate movements, this tool is invaluable, even if I do look silly trying these moves in my Halo pajamas. Seeing yourself side by side the dancer is a fantastic tool to see what you?re doing right and wrong. Harmonix definitely listened to the first game?s criticism and this is exactly how you remedy that problem.
Now that Dance Central supports up to two dancers simultaneously, my initial reaction was thinking that I wouldn?t be able to do it because of my small play space in my living room. I was proven wrong and surprisingly the wife and I played side by side in my very small section and had zero problems with Kinect detecting both of us and our frantic movements. Why can?t all Kinect games be this accurate and done properly? It seems Harmonix knows some of the development secrets!
If you?re playing a song by yourself and someone wants to join, it?s as easy as them standing beside you and raising their hand (like some other Kinect titles). The drop in and drop out multiplayer was much needed and it?s much more entertaining trying to beat a friends score now that you can compete side by side and not have to take turns.
Challenge your friend to a Dance Battle and you?ll be off to the dance floor competing for high scores and showing who really has the best moves. Many moves of a song will be synchronized with your dance partner, but there will also be sections that will showcase each player with a spotlight, giving them the chance to earn a bonus multiplayer if they can dance fluidly. There is even a section called Free-4-All that?s almost like a mini game that will pop up from time to time. Here, a bunch of dance moves on cue cards are shown and you can pick any of the moves to perform for points. Every so often a gold card will be shown and will net you four times as many points to whoever can pull it off first. Things become frantic in this section and you will bump into each other and step on some toes, but you?ll have a great time laughing while doing it.
To those not shy, all of the pictures taken can be uploaded to your social network sites to share with your friends that show you in the game with details of your song, score and more. To the guys out there, be warned though; there?s a heavy use of very feminine dance moves included in the routines that should be more than enough to embarrass even the bravest male dancers. This will be an absolute blast at parties with friends though, especially ones that have much drinking to be had.
All aspects of the game simply seem improved. Graphics seem cleaner and sharper, there?s more facial animations on the dancers that give them more life, and hair and clothing moves much more fluid and realistically. Sadly though, there is still no online multiplayer, so here?s to hoping for it to be included in Dance Central 3. I can live with the two player simultaneous support for now though.
The first game set the standard for the dancing genre on Kinect; the sequel raises that bar by adding a solid multiplayer that you don?t have to fuss with and a tutorial mode that should be able to teach dancers of any skill many dance moves to use in real life should the opportunity arise. Again, Dance Central 2 is THE reason to own a Kinect if you don?t already. Now go get your boogie on and dance up a sweat.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record
I feel like I?ve played this game before. Well, that?s kind of because I have. Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is Capcom?s ?reinterpretation? of Dead Rising 2. While Dead Rising 2 was fantastic (though not without its faults), the biggest hurdle for most fans to get over was a completely new hero to the story, Chuck Greene, instead of Frank West from the first game. While Dead Rising 2 had many improvements from the first game, it still has the frustrating time limitations and frustratingly difficult boss battles (provided you didn?t take time to level up).While I didn?t mind Chuck as a new hero, at least he had a true reason for his actions; he was trying to save his daughter who?d become infected and needed a dose of Zombrex (anti-zombifying drug) every 24 hours. With this ?reinterpretation?, this proposes a ?what if? situation. What if the incident at Fortune City was covered by Frank West and Chuck wasn?t the protagonist this time around? Frank brings back his trusty camera to find out what?s going on, though without a deep meaning behind his intentions, unlike Chuck, the motivation just doesn?t feel the same.
Frank seems to have learned the new tricks that Chuck brought to the table in Dead Rising 2, as he?s now able to craft items also to help against the never ending zombie horde. Personally I liked chuck, but Frank was still the favorite out of the two. While Frank won?t have to worry about a daughter to take care of, the story in Off the Record is essentially the same aside from the few additions and twists here and there.
After Frank?s exploits at the Wilamette shopping mall five years ago, he instantly become a huge star, culminating in him receiving his own TV show. After the show eventually became cancelled, Frank fell upon hard times and became a shell of his former self. He?s now looking for redemption and finds himself in Fortune City when a zombie outbreak transpires rather suspiciously. Frank being the natural born reporter, now much find out who?s behind what?s going on so that he can also rise back up to the top of his career. Granted, the motivation is nowhere near the same urgency that Chuck had for his daughter, but Frank still brings his style and charm in a story that you?ve already heard if you played Dead Rising 2.
As mentioned before, this ?reimagining? is essentially that. It?s basically the same game with the same story (though slightly altered to make sense in relation to Frank) but with you controlling Frank instead of Chuck. Fortune City is just like how you remember it aside from a small theme park addition to the area and a few different survivors. And yes, their AI is still just as dumb and will get themselves killed when you?re trying to escort them back to the safe zone.
If you played Dead Rising 2, you?re going to have a constant feeling of deja-vu as I did throughout the campaign. Similar to Dead Rising 1, you have 72 hours until the military arrives and Frank will need to complete case files at set times if he wants to find the real truth behind what?s going on. He?ll also need to find himself an injection of Zombrex every 24 hours to keep himself alive (see what Capcom did there? Frank needs it instead of Chuck?s daughter). While it?s more of the same, Dead Rising 2 was a great zombie killing time. While there may only be one new area to explore, there?s also a few new combo cards to make some very unique weapons, and of course, you?ll be playing as THE man, Frank West.
The first thing you?re going to notice is the atrocious loading time at the main menu (oddly enough the game loads fine when playing). It stalls and takes quite a while, but it actually looks like your Xbox has frozen since you can?t even bring up the guide when it?s doing its thing. This is compounded when you?re attempting to find an online game, but more on that later.
You?ll gain PP (experience points) for killing zombies, completing quests, and more. As you level up you?ll gain stat increases, skills, and unlock combo cards. Take note that you?re going to want to level up as much as possible before taking on the psychopaths (bosses). Now that Frank is back in the picture (see what I did there?), he?s able to use his camera once again to take intriguing shots that will net you bonus PP depending on how good your photography skills are, much like in Dead Rising 1 (though he?s seemed to figure out the battery problem). I found myself taking pictures in opportune times when I probably should have been running away instead, but that was always part of the fun of playing as Frank in Dead Rising; sometimes the danger is worth the massive amounts of PP.
Weapon crafting that Chuck taught us in Dead Rising 2 returns and is essentially the same. You combine different items to make a much more powerful version or a completely new insane item (I still love the boxing gloves with knives). If you have the combo card and create the item, you?ll get massive amounts of bonus PP per kill, if you know or experiment and create an item without having the combo card yet, you?ll earn half that amount of PP per kill until you get the corresponding combo card.
The biggest addition to Off the Record though, other than playing as Mr. West himself, is the inclusion of a Sandbox Mode. This is all the fun of Dead Rising without the frustrating time limits and people begging for help. It?s you versus the zombies for as long as you want, by yourself or cooperatively with a friend online. The great feature of Sandbox Mode is that all the progress you make in PP and cash can be saved and carried over into your campaign. I actually suggest playing sandbox for a while to get some needed levels and upgrades before delving too far into the story, as the psychopathic bosses are still very challenging without he right weapons and stat bonuses.
Multiplayer returns and works well?.if you can get it working. I found it very difficult to find a game to join (and only one person ever joined me throughout my play through). Every time you load the main screen you had to deal with the ?frozen loading? for each step to get into a game. If a game isn?t found to join or the random player declines your request, you?re backed out to the main menu and have to begin this tedious and frustrating process once again. There?s no lobby or game browser, so it?s random who you?ll get paired up with (hopefully) if you don?t invite or join a friend directly.
You can choose to play Story or Sandbox mode cooperatively online. Keep in mind that only the host?s story progress will save though, but at least the partner helping gets to keep all the PP and cash earned during the session for their own game. As you kill more and more zombies in Sandbox Mode, new challenges will unlock for you and your partner to try out should you desire. These will vary in objectives and net you medals and bonus PP for completion. If your friend loses all their health, you can bring them food to revive to continue on before time runs out.
And yes for those wondering, you can still dress up Frank in ridiculous looking clothing that carries into cutscenes. It still impresses me how many zombies can be on screen at one time and how much fun I can have wasting hours knocking them over with park benches as I wear a dress (Frank, not myself) and flip flops. Like previously, the inventory is still clumsy and picking up a specific item in a pile can be frustrating. Boss battles still have a huge spike of difficulty, but anyone that played Dead Rising 2 will know exactly what they are getting into.
Once I get a few cases in I kept asking myself ?why wasn?t this just DLC?? I don?t know, you?d have to ask Capcom that. Given that the DLC for Case West and Case Zero were so unique, I was hoping that Off the Record was going to have new areas to explore, or at least a ?new? story, rather than a rehash with some simple tweaks.
It?s not a bad game by any means, it?s simply the same one again, and it didn?t excite me all that much since I?ve ultimately already played this game before (the Chuck cameo was worth it though). It?s hard to recommend if you?ve already played Dead Rising 2 as it?s fundamentally the same game for the most part. If you haven?t though, then definitely pick it up as this is the version to get as there?s really no other game like it.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Need for Speed: The Run
Blackbox Studios finally makes their long awaited return to the Need For Speed series after a few years hiatus. This studio has brought us some of the best Need For Speed titles in the past such as Hot Pursuit 2, Undercover, and my favorite, Most Wanted (they are also the ones that do the Skate series among others). I?ve been eagerly waiting for their next Need For Speed title, as I always seem to enjoy theirs more so than the others like Shift. Now boasting the Frostbite 2 engine (of Battlefield 3 fame), Need For Speed returns with a story driven experience coupled with a long lasting multiplayer. It?s no secret that it?s a packed gaming holiday this year, and with Need For Speed: The Run, coming out right in the middle of the chaos, it?s bringing an arcade racing game that also has a story (you know, other than just racing). You?ll be speeding at well over 300 km/h (and yes, I?m Canadian, so I?m going to use kilometers throughout this review), and with Autolog making its return, you?ll always know how you stand up against your friends racing skills.
The game begins with Jack Rourke in some deep trouble with the mob. He?s in a massive debt to them and he?s going to need to pay back what he owes before they kill him. He meets up with his longtime friend Sam who has got an interesting proposition for him; win a race for a cool twenty five million dollars. The catch, it?s a race across the country, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York against a large amount of other racers who also want the prize money. Sam tells Jack that she?ll take care of his problem and he?ll get a ten percent cut of the purse if he wins the race. What I didn?t get is why she?s only going to give him such a small cut, why he?s ok with it, and why he?s in so much trouble with the mob in the first place. Unfortunately these questions never get answered, though it is a racing game, maybe I?m caring too much.
While the plot has been done before, it?s interesting enough to keep you motived to keep playing the campaign to finish and you?ll race in many different areas like Vegas, steep mountain sides, the plains, and more in your journey across the country. You?ll need to make a specific ranking by the time you get to each major area to continue on in the race and you?ll have people trying to stop you along the way. Sadly, there?s an opportunity lost here to have some great driving rivalries (like Most Wanted), but instead you?ll get a quick loading screen when you?re about to race a ?boss? enemy, and that?s it. There?s a recurring character, Marcus Blackwell, which you?ll run into a few times, but because there?s no interaction with these characters, you simply won?t care about anyone but Jack himself.
The Run?s campaign will have you racing coast to coast but it?s done so in small bite sized racing chunks. You?ll beat one to ten racers at a time to move up the ranks, make up lost time in checkpoint races, out race rivals, and more across the ten separate stages. It?s not as easy as it sounds, as cops aren?t the biggest fans of street racers. They?ll use their entire backup to try and shut down you and this race. Don?t fret though, these aren?t the cops from the past few Need For Speed titles, as they don?t have EMP?s, road spikes, and choppers to try and stop you; they?ll attempt to take you down the old fashioned way, by slamming you off the road. Aside from the occasional road block put directly in your path, the cops aren?t really anything to worry about.
A big flaw I found in the campaign is the AI for your competition. It seems they are heavily scripted when it came to certain spots and timing. Almost every time when it?s the last one kilometer of race, they?ll either slow down purposely or hit a wall so that I could almost always pass them. They sometimes also intentionally run into cops and roadblocks when you?re ?supposed? to pass them and win. Once you figure this out, there?s not always a need to drive like a maniac until the last section of the race (this isn?t as true for the Challenge Series, as you?ll need to drive at your best constantly to win those).
When you crash, and you will many times, the game will rewind to the last checkpoint automatically. The last checkpoint you hit is anyone?s guess as it could roll you back a few seconds or even a minute or so, sometimes even in an awkward spot or right behind traffic. If you think it?s the car?s fault and not your driving skill, then you?re welcome to change your car. That is, if you keep an eye out for a gas station during a race and successfully pull into it without crashing. Thanks right, you have to pull into a gas station to change your car, and it?s not always possible on every race either. The race pauses as you choose, but why it?s done in this manner, I don?t know, as it feels very clunky and awkward (not even including trying to pull in during a race). You gain access to any rival?s car that you?ve beaten and there are even some amazing signature edition cars that are performance tuned and look completely badass. Unfortunately you?re unable to paint and tune your own cars, but there?s many to unlock by simply playing, leveling up, completing challenges, beating Autolog recommendations, and winning multiplayer.
Jack will have some setbacks during the race and sometimes he?s going to have to get out on foot and get away from the cops. These are done with cheesy quick time events (QTE), though luckily this QTE sections are very few and far between and don?t happen that often. There are also regular cutscene, but the frantic sections with lots of actions are usually done when Jack is on foot trying to get away. It does the job of pushing the pacing forward and it?s infrequent enough to not be bothersome. The biggest downfall of the campaign though, is that you?ll finish it in one sitting. My complete racing time was roughly two hours. Now keep in mind that was on the road driving and does not include cutscenes, QTE?s, and a whole lot of loading screens (which is supposed to be better with a retail disc apparently).
As you finish races you?ll earn driver experience points. You?ll work towards leveling your driver skills and with each level usually comes a bonus of some sorts. You?ll notice right away that you don?t have any nitro for your cars, that?s because you need to unlock it by obtaining level two driver skill. The same goes for other ?perks? like filling nitro by driving in the wrong lane and drafting. Why some of these skills come so late I don?t know (I was level 10 when I finish campaign).
Once you complete the short campaign there is a plethora of Challenge Series for you to compete and unlock. These are set courses that are usually timed attacked or sprint races, and you?ll be earning medals, unlocking more challenges, and trying to beat your friend?s times via Autolog. Challenges unlock as you progress through campaign, so I suggest finishing that first (it won?t take you long anyway) as you?ll gain access to new challenges like out running cops, 1 vs 1 battles, and more. I?m normally not one to spend a lot of time in these types of modes, but with the inclusion of Autolog, I can see me spending multiple tries on specific challenges to simply beat a friend?s time. Now Autolog will show you in real time, your racing time vs theirs, rather than just their finish time. This makes things a little more hectic and will cause you to drive a little faster and aggressive than you might normally.
Need For Speed wouldn?t be the same if you weren?t able to race directly with your friends and others, so now in multiplayer there?s a new playlist and lobby system than I hope other games implement. Instead of sitting in an empty lobby, waiting for people to join before you start a race, you can pick a specific playlist that you want to race in and begin. The game will populate with other players automatically, this taking the fussing around with lobbies and menus between races. You can join a game mid progress, though it puts you at the back of the pack for fairness. The further back in the pack you are, the quicker your boost will refill, almost to the point of being endless, which makes for some insane driving skills needed.
Being touted as using the Frostbite 2 engine, I had very high expectations of what to expect. Sure the cars, wrecks, and environments look fantastic, but the close-ups, interiors, and very low textures (especially in cutscenes) were a letdown. I also didn?t really feel like there was much performance difference in the cars either. Regardless of what car you choose, you?ll have no problems keeping with the Lamborghinis and porches, even though the game tells you that certain car type are suited better for different roads; I didn?t find that to be the case at all.
With a driver level and an improved Autolog, The Run is a fun time regardless of the campaign?s shortcomings. Challenges and multiplayer is what?s going to keep The Run in your Xbox 360 during the holidays and I would suggest a purchase of the game if multiplayer is what you want to invest the majority of your time into, rather than the story.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Just Dance 3
The dancing genre seems tailored for Kinect with its full body tracking capabilities; Dance Central proved that at launch and was arguably the best launch title for the small black camera peripheral. Much like Rock Band, the dance genre is a fantastic type of game to play at a party with a bunch of friends (the more inebriated, the better). Just Dance was previously a Wii only game where you held the Wii-mote in your hand and that?s how the game determined if you were correctly doing the dance moves. Suffice to say, it was easy to cheat as it was really only tracking the movement of the controller and as long as you got those hand and arms movements correct, you didn?t have to do the rest if you didn?t want to. Now with Kinect and full body tracking via camera, gone are the days of cheating your way through a song since it will be tracking your limbs and body. You?re actually going to have to show that you got the moves!
I didn?t play the first two Just Dance games on the Wii, so I can?t say how they compare to 3, but I can compare to the other dance game for Kinect, Dance Central. The first thing you?ll instantly notice in this series is the bright 80?s influenced neon presentation that carries over from the previous games. Just Dance 3 is also a very space-friendly game that seems to plague many Kinect games. I was able to comfortably play with my wife simultaneously in my very small playing area between the couch and TV without any major issues.
Being a dancing game, the focus is going to be on the music selection. Ofcourse everyone is going to have a different outlook of the song selections on the disc, but these are some of the few that stood out for me personally (no making fun!). ?What You Waiting For?? by Gwen Stefani, ?Barbara Streisand? by Duck Sauce, ?No Limit? by 2 Unlimited, ?Take on me? by A-ha, and ?Party Rock Anthem? by LMFAO. Yes, I know my music selection will differ from yours, but what stood out for me were the unique and odd choices of some songs included on the disc. Yes there?s the standard ?top 40? selections from current artists, but there?s also some interesting selections like ?Let?s Go To The Mall? by Robin Sparkles (which is AWESOME if you?re a fan of the show ?How I Met Your Mother?), and ?This Is Halloween? from Nightmare Before Christmas. There are some other interesting choices as well, but it really made Just Dance 3 stand out among the competition by not taking itself too seriously.
You are able to choose to play songs in Full or Short versions (usually a minute and a half long) in the options which is great if you plan on playing this at parties with lots of friends and don?t want to wait long in between songs. My biggest complaint though comes with the dance routines of the songs themselves. I was hoping to learn the actual moves you see in the music video of ?Party Rock Anthem? and ?Da Funk?, but alas, they aren?t the official routines, so you won?t be mimicking the music video?s moves next time you?re in the club from this game.
Like many other Kinect games, you?ll be navigating the menus with your right hand to choose and progress, and your left to go back with a simple swipe. This can become very finicky at times. The best example; you choose the song difficulty by holding your arm up (which is confusing in its own right), but this will more often make you accidently start the song or go back a menu depending on what arm you hold up for change the difficulty. The same goes for choosing songs, as you?ll scroll up or down at the last second before choosing the wrong selection.
The premise of the game is simple and just like any other in the genre; mimic the onscreen character?s movements and you?re scored on how closely you copycat them. Depending on how well you dance per move, you?ll get a miss, ok, good, or perfect. The problem is that you won?t know why you got a miss and other times you?ll clearly be doing the wrong moves but get a perfect. Sometimes it seems to only care if you?re flailing your arms about rather than actually dancing. If you play on Easy mode, Kinect will only track your upper body and arms. Choose Normal and you?ll have to also spin and jump as well to get those perfects. This actually isn?t explained though and I didn?t know the difference until I read through the manual.
Small pictographs will show you upcoming moves that you?re about to try and perform just like Dance Central, but the biggest problem is that a series of moves can be implied for a single flashcard unlike in Dance Central where they show you every move you need to make individually. This makes it very difficult when the pose shows a single arm in the air, but then the on screen dancer is also doing something crazy with their legs or body that you?re somehow supposed to know without being told. There?s no tutorial either like in Dance Central, so if you can?t get a certain move down, you aren?t offered any assistance to learn it and are left on your own.
There are Shout Out sections that require you to sing along with the lyrics in the bottom left to gain extra points (or for others to play along in the background as you dance). Certain moves labeled ?gold? moves will net you tons of points if you pull them off correctly. There?s usually only 2 or 3 in a song and are typically needed to get the perfect 5 stars. Get up to 5 stars for finishing a song and for each milestone of stars you?ll unlock bonuses like other songs for other modes. While you can never fail out a song, the incentive to do well is in the stars you earn and is like leveling up in a sense as you gain unlocks for doing better in the long run.
You?re not forced to dance alone anymore as you can now dance as a duet or even in a dance crew of up to four performers. If you stagger the four simultaneous players, it can apparently track them all individually without fail. It?s not always the same moves for each player either, each dancer may have their own sections and moves, though only a certain amount of specific songs support this particular routines though.
If you want a complete dance workout, then you want to hit up the appropriately named Sweat Mode. This will have you committing to a group of songs in a set playlist like 80s, duets, groups, and more. You?ll do songs back to back (though you do pick difficulties before each song, so you can take a break whenever you want) and it tracks how much ?sweat? you?ve perspired. It?s actually quite challenging once you?re a few songs in if you?re really going for it you?ll work up a sweat no problem.
For something a little extra, there?s even a Simon Says mode that has you not only following the dance choreography, but also having to watch your scoring area for extra ?Simon Says? commands like Stop, Spin Around, Jump, and Dance Frantically. I found it quite hard to watch the dance cue cards and for the Simon Says commands since they are on opposite sides of the screen and you?re trying to concentrate on mimicking the dancer as best as possible.
The most unique feature of Just Dance 3 though has to be the Just Create Mode. This has you creating your own routine as it films you (complete with bright neon overlay) which you can then share and play with your friends or even online to everyone should you be brave enough. It?s not perfect, but it?s there and can make for some entertaining nights with some friends; sadly, it won?t make the flash cards for upcoming moves though.
Just Dance 3 is clearly more geared towards people that have no problem letting go of their inhibitions, don?t embarrass easily, and are not shy in the slightest. If you have no problem making a fool of yourself and like to wear funny wigs and clothes at a party, you?ll feel right at home dancing to the set list.
What I found odd about playing through Just Dance 3 was that I wasn?t really enjoying it all the much playing solo due to it wanting me to be too technical at times with moves I know I will never be able to do, but when I started playing with my wife, it was a much more entertaining experience. While I still prefer the ?other? dancing game for its selection of music, Just Dance 3 does one-up them by adding four player support and very unique visuals.
The dancers you (try to) mimic are extremely energetic, almost to a fault, as there?s no way you?ll be able to keep up with them for very long. But they seem so happy in their routines; you almost want to smile knowing you?re dancing nowhere near as well as they are. Just Dance 3 doesn?t take itself as seriously as Dance Central but it?s not as refined either. Fans of these games probably won?t care though and will make for an interesting party night, that?s for sure.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Spider-Man games and I have a love-hate relationship it seems. One year I?ll really enjoy his video game and the next will leave me asking why. Considering last year?s game, Shattered Dimensions, was great maybe I should have prepared myself better for this year?s Edge of Time. For me, Spider-Man games seem to be very hit or miss and it seems like it was a miss this year. Really Activision, stop playing with my emotions like I?m on a rollercoaster. I?m still waiting for the Spider-Man game that has the quality and depth that Arkham Asylum brought to Batman. With the success of last years Shattered Dimensions, the developer Beenox was essentially given the right to make all the Spider-Man games going forward. Great news I thought since their first outing was a positive experience and it gave me high hopes to play another spidey tale. Don?t expect many of the things that made last year?s outing so great to be included here. The web slinging, fluid combat, exciting super villains and more have all been scrapped and replaced with an office building, button mashing combat, fetch quests and repetition.
The narrative begins believable and something you?d find in a Spider-Man comic book (though being written by veteran Marvel writer Peter David probably has something to do with that). The 2099, CEO of Alchemax, Walker Sloan (voiced by Val Kilmer) finds a way to time travel and wants to alter history in his favor by making his company the most powerful company in the world. Miguel O?Hara who is the Spider-Man of 2099 knows that this wrong and he?s going to do what it takes to revert history to the proper course of events. In the new altered past, present day Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker doesn?t work for the Daily Bugle, but Alchemax instead. Because of company policy his DNA is on record which allows 2099 Spider-Man to create a device that allows him to communicate with Parker and vice versa. Still with me? Good, cause now it starts to get confusing.
Both Spider-Men are going to have to work together if they want to reverse the events of the future (and the past?). This is of course after O?Hara tells Parker that he dies fighting Anti-Venom, so they need to alter history to prevent that and other events from taking place. They?ll need to work together to alter history to save each other and ultimately Amazing Spider-Man?s life. The game takes place in the same areas but in two simultaneous different timelines in parallel that plays heavily on the ?cause and effect? mechanic of time travel.
When O?Hara and Parker are communicating with each other you?ll see them talking to each other in a ?picture-in-picture? moment that can drive across the need for urgency in certain situations. Your actions in the past will have consequences in the future. For example, if O?Hara is stuck somewhere at a dead end, Parker can break a machine or clear a room of enemies to change the future, opening up a new path for 2099 Spider-Man. The way it?s presented is slick, with walls disintegrating in front of you or a wall that turns into a ventilation shaft because of Parkers doing. Every action has its own cause and effect, though it won?t usually make sense; yea, it?s that confusing and absurd at times.
As you shift between both characters from mission to mission, you?ll constantly hear them talking to each other and having banter that wears pretty thin. Many of the scientific explanations for whats happening is obviously incomprehensible so you?ll just hear 2099 Spider-Man ask Parker if he?d rather want a five hour lecture on wormholes and paradox?s or does he want to live instead. This is the way they get around explaining how events like this could actually take place. I understand it?s a comic book setting, but it?s an easy scape goat for not having to explain anything in detail. While the main plot is interesting, the six hour journey of gameplay to complete it is not.
Each Spider-Man handles themselves in combat very differently from each other. Amazing Spider-Man is weaker by nature where the 2099 version is more fun to play as he?s more powerful and has more moves at his disposal that are of use. Parker can avoid enemies by moving quickly for a short amount of time whereas O?Hara can seem like he?s in two places at once and make a clone of himself to distract enemies as he beats them up. Combat is essentially a mash of varied buttons, as later in the game you?re unable to stand toe to toe and fight without getting destroyed and you?ll need to rely on Spider-Man?s agility instead. You?ll need to jump, web swing away, attack, and back off if you want to live longer than one battle. While there is a large arsenal of available moves to purchase and upgrade, you?ll learn quickly that many of these new moves are unnecessary once you learn that the only way to live in combat is to jump, web pull, dive attack, and then repeat. Expect to get hit many times also due to the cameras inability to show you enemies that are about to attack you from behind. Couple that with an inability to lock onto a specific target, you?ll be decimated many times from the rocket enemies because of you web pulling tot eh wrong guy in the heat of battle.
So you managed to survive a few battles and now you?re starting to collect some orbs laid out around the levels. These orbs are used as currency to buy upgrades for both spidey?s and you can improve their health, stamina, and combat repertoire. The orbs collected are shared between both spidey?s so choose wisely; or just so as I did and try and focus on improved Amazing Spider-Man as he?s the weaker one in the combat department.
Because of the level design, pacing is way off and feels very stop and go. This isn?t alluding to switching between the two characters, but the actual design itself. You?ll constantly have to find a red key to unlock the red door blocking your pathway onwards, sometimes even being forced to find three keys for a single door. With a press of your Spider-sense ability you can always see where the key holders are so you can go defeat them but it seems to always happen when you just want to progress in the story. If that doesn?t slow you down, you?ll often have to button mash the B buttonto open a locked door instead. Later on things change a little when you have to guard a device while hoards of enemies try and destroy it (and you), but this game could appropriately be called Spider-Man: Find the Red Keys instead.
If you?re expecting a big open world for Spider-Man to swing around in, sorry, this isn?t the game you were expecting. The whole game takes place inside of the Alchemax building with you fighting recycled enemies over and over. Come to think of it, I don?t think there are even a dozen types of unique enemies (excluding bosses). There are very little web swinging sections and it?s more used to get you out of combat rather than traversing since everything takes place indoors. There are free-fall sections for the 2099 Spider-Man that will take a lot of getting used to. You?re able to maneuver in all directions and speed up but you?ll constantly hit walls and barriers many times as you try to fit into small openings at a quick pace. Because of the camera angle you?ll overcompensate many times until you learn that you have a curser that will show up on oncoming obstacles. Even then, it?s quite challenging with the speed needed to complete these sections.
Spider-Man doesn?t fare much better when he needs to climb around on walls and ceilings either. Controls when climbing on walls is all well and good until you either move to another wall or touch the camera. You?ll become disorientated very quickly and Spider-Man will start going in a direction you don?t intend him to. The timed sequences are also quite difficult due to the controls and combat also. Sometimes you?ll need to defeat a set group of enemies before time runs out (which will kill O?Hara in the future) and most of these timed sections I barely completed with time left on the clock.
Everything usually comes in threes, so be prepared to do the same tasks multiple times. Find three red keys (again and again), kill three groups of enemies to proceed, and even kill a boss three different times. Again, the pacing due to this is thrown right off and it felt more of a way to prolong the game without adding any substance. Sure there are additional events for you to try as you unlock them in the Web of Challenges but these are also uninspiring and will simply have you defeating a set amount of enemies in a short time or to finish a group without getting hit twice for example. It?s all very linear and repetitive in design.
The voice acting is up to par and we?re again treated with Josh Keaton voicing Amazing Spider-Man and Christopher Barnes for the 2099 version. While the voicing it great, the dialogue can sometimes be less desirable. With the constant bickering between the two characters, O?Hara?s overuse of the work ?shock? instead of an expletive and his inability to take a joke, and Parker?s bad puns; may just put you over the edge. There are even subtle jokes making fun of itself when Parker asks if this is a video game, since he has to do a task three times.
While the voice acting and plot is great (even though it?s incomprehensible at times), the gameplay is the meat of the game, and that?s where Edge of Time lacks the greatest. Poor pacing and repetitive tasks (I hate you red keys) is what you?ll be dealing with for the majority of the game. You might also be like me and wish there were more notable boss fights, but on second hand, I?m sure I?d just have to defeat them three times like everything else in the game, so maybe it?s not such a bad thing.
Hopefully you won?t run into the same issues I had where I had an enemy ?die? mid-air, thus preventing the room to be cleared and me unable to move progress forward. This happened to me twice and forced me to restart the checkpoint which would be fine if the cutscenes were unskippable (some are and some aren?t for some reason). Your journey will be over in six to ten hours depending on how much time you want to spend collecting orbs and working on the Web of Challenges.
I gladly give points for presentation, story, and voice acting, but that?s about it. Everything feels like quite a step down from Shattered Dimensions which was only a year ago. Beenox dropped the ball with Edge of Time; let?s hope next year?s Amazing Spider-Man game can make up for it and hope this was just a rush job, since we?re aware of the quality they?re able to create.
Hopefully they'll let Spidey outside of these hallways and back to swinging freely between skyscrapers where he truly belongs. With great power comes great responsibility, Beenox has that power. Now that they?re doing all the Spider-Man games going forward, let?s hope they?ll be responsible next time.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Forza Motorsport 4
I?ve always loved the Forza series. They came into the racing genre but differentiated themselves among the stiff competition very quickly. I really enjoyed Forza 3 but I really didn?t play as much of it as I would have liked to. Looking back, I see why. Simply look up the list of blockbuster games that came out around the same time in 2009 and I now remember why I never got my driver level all that high. It came out the same season as other huge hits like Halo ODST, Borderlands, DLC for GTA IV, Dragon Age Origins, and Assassins Creed 2 just to name a few. While I did spend a decent amount of time with it, I just never gave it as much attention as it deserved and I made it a point to remedy that as soon as Forza 4 released. That day has now come and I?m enjoying every minute of it. I?m not a car buff by any means, but the cars I do know, I love with a passion (A yellow Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII is my favorite car of all time, you know, for those that are wondering). If you played Forza 3 and have a save file on your hard drive, you?ll be given some goodies in the form of some money and cars based on your driver level from Forza 3. Your vinyl creations will also carry over and you?ll soon experience all the new tweaks and additions that make Forza 4 a worthy successor.
Forza is all about cars and they are the star of the show, so let?s start there shall we? There are more than five hundred cars available so I won?t obviously list them all, but here are a few that really stood out for me: 1997 Acura NSX, 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4, 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT, 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10, 1978 Ford Mustang King Cobra, 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha, 2008 Lamborghini Reventon, 1993 McLaren F1, 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR (sadly not my beloved VII version), and even the infamous DMC Delorian that you know from Back to the Future. There?s obviously many more and everyone?s tastes will differ, but these were the ones that I got excited about (among others). You might have noticed that I didn?t list any Porsches; sadly that?s because Turn 10 wasn?t able to obtain the licensing, which you can thank EA for by the way. Luckily RUF offers somewhat of a substitution, but even with the obvious omission, there are plenty of cars here to get excited about.
Cars are designated into separate classes based on their performance (speed, handling, acceleration, etc) and are categorized into classes ranging from F (the lowest) to R classes (the insane speed machines) that you?ll never even hope to drive in your lifetime. If you love your little F-class car but want some stiffer competition, you?re able to upgrade your car to almost any other class quite easily. Upgrading can be as easy or in depth as you want it to be. The quick upgrade options will optimize your vehicle for a specific class of your choosing (if possible), or you can upgrade each part yourself individually. Paint and then tune your ride if you wish and you?re set with your upgraded dream car. Turn 10 understands that people love and become attached to their cars. Now with these upgrades I can finally race my Delorian competitively against a Ferrari (or at least try to).
As you complete races you?ll earn driver and affinity experience points. Driver xp goes towards your overall level and will give you a set choice of car every time you level up. Affinty levels work towards the specific manufacture of the car you just raced with and will earn you extra cash and discounts for their stock parts (you?ll have 100% discounts for manufacture parts in a few short races). The more damage you take the less money you?ll earn as that goes towards ?fixing? your car (No, you can?t completely bust your car and I?ve never lost money at the end of a race yet). The only issue I had with crashes and damage was that the paint scrapes way too easily and dents can look very rough and unrealistic for the amount of force that you were hit with. Sometimes your bumpers and parts will fall off with enough damage but you?ll never find your car in pieces or totally trashed when even slamming into a wall over 200 mph.
For those that loved many of the tracks in Forza 3, a good portion returns and looks better than ever. Old favorites return like Maple Valley Raceway (my personal favorite), you?ll also be racing on Laguna Seca, Nurburgring, Twin Ring Motegi, Suzuka Circuit, and Sebring International Raceway, just to name a few. There are some new courses as well that will take time to master such as Hockenheimring, Infineon Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Bernese Alps and even the Top Gear Test Track. I enjoy all the new tracks as they have their own styles that need to be driven and it?s stunning to see the Alps track redlining your speed machine. Point races in Japan are also very entertaining when competing in uphill climbs in F class vehicles like a Hummer H1 or a Delorian.
New to Forza 4 is the Autovista mode. This allows you to see and interact with an extremely detailed versions of a car where you can learn about the lights, engine, wheels, cockpit, and more while freely moving around (and getting inside) the car. What?s disappointing about Autovista mode is that there are only a handful of specific cars that you can interact with in this manner and it?s not going to have any standard cars for you to play around with. I have to admit though, the unlockable warthog from Halo kind of won me over (even though it?s not drivable in game). The one and only Jeremy Clarkson will voice and overview for these specific cars and it?s an interesting inclusion, but after viewing them once you?ll never go back to Autovista mode as there?s no reason.
Forza 3?s Season play has been replaced with a much improved World Tour Mode and will have you racing infamous tracks from all over the world. Complete a set amount of specific races and you finish that season and move onto the next. As you get further in the seasons, races and the number to complete the season becomes larger and more daunting. Once you get to around half way through the career, difficulty hits a spike almost suddenly and enemy AI will have no qualms using you to take a corner quicker. As you play your career, you?ll be presented multiple choices of events to compete in based on what car you?re currently driving (or possess). Upgrading your cars will also impact what events you are offered to race though you?re able to pick specific events in a checklist form if you wish. Normally career modes in racing games can be very boring and mundane as you need to race specific cars at specific times, but the way that Forza 4 has laid out its career mode means you can race that Delorian for the majority of your career should you choose to.
Forza has also been known for having a very accessible approach for any type of player. Being a racing simulator, it?s difficult to make a game so realistic but still have it approachable for the casual players as well. Turn 10 seems to have figured this out in a very natural way other than having an AI difficulty setting while keeping all types of players happy. No matter your skill level, you can choose what assists to have toggled on or off. My wife plays with every assist on (braking and steering are even available for those that lack driving prowess) and I drive with a nice balance of medium settings that?s still challenging. The more assists you turn off, the more experience and money you?ll earn at the end of the race. If you really run into trouble and incorrectly judge your speed into a turn, the rewind function from Forza 3 returns for those in need. Rewinding mistakes soon became my friend when I got a little too cocky taking a turn faster than I should have (and I earn less by using it, which I?m fine with). The only issue with the rewind is that it seems the marks to restart at are set points rather than however long you want. Sometimes you?ll need to rewind twice to get back to the spot pre-screw up.
As I mentioned above, because there?s no AI difficulty setting, they will adapt to your skill and aggressiveness. The more you bump your opponents, the less they?ll try and avoid you as well. This means that the career has its own preset difficulty, though you are able to make it easier with the assists toggled on should you choose. You?ll notice quickly that every race seems to take place in perfect weather. That?s because there?s no other weather options unfortunately. No racing in rain, snow, or even fog for added challenge; definitely a letdown.
Other than your standard circuit racing you?ll also have access to other types of events. Multi-class races are highly entertaining and stressful. It takes place on a course with two or more separate car classes racing at the same time. You might have F?s racing with A?s and you need to compete with your own class rating while also avoiding the slower or faster class(es) to keep your own ranks lead. 1 vs 1 races usually take place on a point to point track and is littered with regular traffic (though no oncoming cars). You need to maneuver with agility which is easier said than done when slow moving traffic is in your ideal racing line. There is even bowling pin events that have you trying to knock down as many as possible to try and reach the set score.
Sixteen players can compete simultaneously online and is very entertaining (and hectic) to witness that first corner where everyone usually crashes into one another. Unfortunately the lobbies are still bland and don?t give you all that much info about other racers in the room. You can create or join a Car Club (like a guild) and can even share your cars for others to use.
Rivals Mode is a new way to enjoy multiplayer and will have many hours of gaming within if you?re competitive. You compete against other player?s ghost cars trying to beat them in almost any type of event you desire. The much praised Autolog from the Need for Speed series obviously isn?t here, but you?ll get similar style of notices if someone beats your time (and they will if you beat theirs) though it?s not done as smoothly or intuitively as Autolog showed us.
You?ll notice on the box that it says ?Better with Kinect?. Kinect has a few uses for Forza 4, two of which I really enjoy and two that could do without. You?re able to use Autovista mode with Kinect and move around the car with just a wave of your hand, but it feels very unnecessary. You can play a quick race with your arms held out as if you were holding a steering wheel and drive in that manner. While this works quite well surprisingly, this means that the game automatically will control the gas and brake pedals though, meaning you?re only steering and that?s it. These are the two that I feel the game could do without, though it?s not forced so it doesn?t hinder gameplay in any way.
What I do like is the inclusion of voice commands that can be used as a quick shortcut to where you want to go in the (convoluted) menus. While it?s a cool inclusion and I use it often, it?s a shame that it can?t be used for everything as you only have a small set of commands that can be used. You can?t simply say ?paint car red? or anything like that as that would have been very interesting. The most interesting Kinect feature though is easily the head tracking mode if you use the cockpit view. When this is enabled, a slight turn of your head to either side will move the camera in that direction so that you can see out your side windows and into your mirrors. It?s a small Kinect inclusion like this that adds just that extra small bit of realism.
Each car sounds authentic and very distinct. A V8 muscle car sounds completely different than a Lamborghini revving its own engine. The voice over work is done wonderfully and the only negative thing I have to say about the sound overall is the music. The music selection is very weak and just has generic music rather than licensed music tracks, so I just ended up streaming my own soundtrack for each race.
Forza 4 builds upon what made 3 so great. Cars have more detail, tracks have more wear and tear, and sun glare is a real thing just like in real life that will leave you temporarily blinded if you?re racing into the sunlight head on. You?re still able to put plenty of hours into Forza 4 without ever racing. Painting and tuning cars can become an art that takes many hours to master and you can even spend a full day just buying and selling on the in-game Auction House (and yes, unicorn cars have returned).
You?re always being rewarded with xp when completing races regardless of single or multiplayer. You?re constantly working towards your driver and affinity levels and I?ve noticed how much working towards a specific affinity determines what car I?ll chose for a race. The only major gripe I have with the game is that the menus are very convoluted and it takes time to learn where everything is hidden within. Since the underlying game is so fantastically executed, I can give the menu issues a pass since you?re only passing through them to get to the next race most of the time anyways. Ok, I have two gripes. You?re able to spend Microsoft Points in exchange for Cark Tokens to purchase cars in game. It seems like a cash grab more than a feature, but because it doesn?t hinder gameplay nor or are forced to have Car Tokens to buy specific cars, I can?t hinder the final score because of it.
The way World Tour is laid out is done wonderfully and I hope other racing games learn from this structure and pacing. There?s no reason I shouldn?t be able to use my Delorian in every race, which is why I have multiples, one for each car class. Forza 4 may only have incremental updated features from Forza 3 but it?s still an amazing time to be had and the best simulation racing game to date. It still has that awesome new car smell.
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
X-Men Destiny 
On paper, X-Men Destiny sounds like a fantastic idea for a comic book based game. Take a brand new mutant in the universe with powers you decide to pick and choose from all the other mutants then decide whose side of the fight you?ll be on: X-Men or the Brotherhood. Unfortunately it feels as if the game was rushed and not polished at all and we have a generic comic book based game that falls flat and grows tiresome very quickly from its generic and shallow combat. I want it to be known that Silicon Knights is one of my favorite developers. I?ve loved every game they?ve done so far, from Eternal Darkness to Too Human. Yes, I?m one of the few that loved that game and I don?t know why they got such a bad rap for it, but that?s a whole different issue. I?m not much into the comic scene though I absolutely loved the X-Men cartoon from the 90?s and once I found out Silicon Knights was doing this game I was instantly intrigued to see what they were going to do since Too Human?s offering.
First and foremost what you need to know is that you won?t be playing any of your favorite mutants from X-Men in any way; you?ll be playing a brand new character that suddenly comes upon having new powers. If you want to play Wolverine, Cyclops, Iceman and others, you?re better off getting either the X-Men Legends or Ultimate Alliance games instead. Destiny is going to feel more like a generic comic book game rather than anything exceptional that sets it apart from anything else.
As you play through the game you?ll find random X-Genes around that give you specific powers for your new character. As you pick up these enhancements you?ll be granted an offensive, defensive or utility power that ?came from? and resembles powers that your favorite mutants possess. As you gain more powers you?re able to mix and match what powers you want equipped at a time for a unique play experience to your liking.
The game?s plot starts at a peace rally that is being held in the memory of ex X-Men leader Professor X who was recently killed by Bastion whom you?ll recognize if you now your X-Men lore. Just as quickly as the rally begins it is interrupted by destruction that looks like it?s from Magneto?s hands himself, yet he?s nowhere to be seen. With mutant and human relations being tense already, this sets events in motion that start absolute chaos in San Francisco?s streets and you?re just an unlucky individual at the rally when this all goes down. Lines are about to be drawn and you?re going to have to eventually decide if you?re backing the X-Men or the Brotherhood. Just as things are looking bad for you, suddenly you appear to have mutant powers (which you get to choose) as well.
Your first order of business is deciding which of the three new mutants you want to play as. Aimi Yoshida is a Japanese teenage girl whose parents sent her away from home on a tanker ship. She doesn?t know why and has resentment towards her parents because of this choice. Grant Alexander is your generic jock type trying to become a football player that has no interest in the whole mutant vs. human conflict that?s going on. Lastly is Adrian Luca who is the son of an extremist against mutants who was killed. Adrian grew up hating mutants and seeking revenge for his father?s death. Aside from some minor back story to each character, it really doesn?t matter who you pick as they can all equip the same powers once obtained.
Throughout your journey to find out the truth you?ll cross paths with many recognizable mutants such as Iceman, Gambit, Magneto, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Cyclops, Pyro and more. Sometimes you?ll fight alongside these characters and others you might be fighting them depending on your choices. From here you?re going to go on a short five hour journey of button mashing with a story that isn?t all that interesting since you?re not really invested into your ?new? character unlike the other mutants we?ve known many years. As you smash, hack and slash your way through, you?ll probably lose interest about halfway through, which isn?t a good sign when the game is so short. I really finished the game out of curiosity and obligation rather than enjoyment.
After you make your choice of who to play as you need to pick your main core power for your mutant (which cannot be changed unless you start a new game). Your three choices are Density Control, Energy Protection and Shadow Matter. Density Control is made for your brawler types that make you tougher and hit harder, Energy Protection is your ranged attacks that may not be as powerful but makes up for it in speed. Lastly is Shadow Matter that allows you to hit multiple opponents with extremely fast attacks. I chose Energy Matter and once you get a few upgrades I had no problem being in the thick of battle with some of my extremely powerful attacks taking out groups of enemies at once.
This is a straight up brawler game. You?ll fight ten to fifty guys and once clear you can then move to the next checkpoint where you?ll fight ten to fifty guys again. As you repeat this over the course of your five hours of gameplay you?ll also be searching for collectibles and X-Genes which will grant you new powers. Once you unlock a combo or two that find work well for you you?ll essentially be repeating the same combo over and over making for a very shallow combat system even though you?re ?supposed? to have many different abilities at your disposal. Eventually your attacks will become so powerful that you?ll no longer need to dodge or block, which can be fun but there?s only two types of enemies that need any sort of strategy to destroy (I hate you mechs with turrets!). As you complete large combos or have a specific numbers of enemies remaining you?ll see these giant words appear on the battlefield saying ?Great Combo!? or ?1 Enemy Remaining!? .They can become distracting but in a neat comic book fashion, you?re able to destroy these words and see them smash as you beat up enemies through them.
As you meet up with some of the more famous mutants, you?ll be given different dialogue options in your conversation with them. You can talk to them about certain subjects to find out more backstory but skipping these options won?t really lose you any background info you?ll need. Sometimes when there?s only one choice of response, you?re still asked to pick it as a dialogue option. Why wasn?t it just part of the cutscene of you two talking rather than pretending you had an option of something different to say? Oh, and you better hope you don?t accidently pick the same dialogue choice a second time because all dialogue and cutscenes are unskippable. Sometimes in your conversations you?ll have to make moral choices that are supposed to be a big factor in X-Men Destiny?s gameplay. Sometimes you?ll need to decide if you?re standing behind the X-Men or Magneto?s Brotherhood. Moral choices are supposed to have a heavy weight or bearing attached to them to make them feel like you?re actually deciding between good and evil. Your choices really have no weight attached and has no repercussions other than which faction?s quest you want to side on. This mechanic could have had such a great possibility, what if you had to choose to side with Magneto or else he?d kill a bunch of his prisoners in front of you. Sadly nothing this deep is ?offered? so don?t worry about siding with one side or the other; it really doesn?t matter.
As I mentioned before, as you play you?ll need to find X-Genes hidden around the world as you progress to gain new abilities, powers and combos. Rewards are completely random so when you reload a checkpoint for a second time, you will find a completely different ability than your first time. While it seems like a good idea, it makes it near impossible to find a full matching set of offensive, defensive, utility and costume. The reason you want a matching set of the same mutants powers is because when you match all four slots of the same person you have the ability to use a very powerful ability of theirs called an X-Mode attack inspired by that mutants powers. During my one and a half playthroughs I was only able to find one person?s complete matching set; disappointing indeed. This means there?s no way to find all your missing powers consistently and trying to finish a set can be frustrating as it?s completely random. As a redeeming quality, the option to mix and match specific abilities does become quite powerful once you decide how you?re going to play, but it does take a lot of trial and error to find out what works for you.
It?s very confusing to figure out how you spend your xp gained from battle to put into your skills and abilities. Once you figure it out it still doesn?t make sense and is more convoluted than it needs to be. If you have a maxed out X-Gene then swap it out, you?re stuck using the new one instead, so decide well before hand what abilities you want to level up. To make matters worse, many X-Genes essentially do the same thing but exact powers will have different wording. For example: ?an extra bar is added to your M-Power meter? and ?an extra bar is added to THE M-Power meter?. Subtle difference and they mean the same thing, but with an already confusing menu and inventory system, this doesn?t help and seems sloppy and overlooked.
I understand that X-Men Destiny is comic based, but why must every boss tell you their master plan in great detail just before they think they?re going to kill you so that when you escape and defeat them you can fix all the wrong doing? Your character seems to have this problem as well and will tell anyone your plants regardless if you?re aligned with X-Men or Brotherhood as if everyone is your friend.
Once I finished the game for the first time I was slightly disappointed there was no New Game+ mode once the main menu loaded. I decided to see if I went to continue my first game if it just saves it before the final boss and lo and behold, it starts the game over with my character and powers intact. While you?re stuck with your main core choices it is entertaining to defeat challenges in mere seconds with your overpowered mutant and to see the secondary choices in the dialogue options. Even though the campaign is short, I simply didn?t want to sit through the game a second time but at least the option is there for people who will try and suck a few more hours out of the game and achievement hunters.
X-Men Destiny lacks polish and lots of it. Some may consider these next items minor but the fact that they stood out made my experience tainted. Subtitles don?t always match what?s being spoken which is a big irk for me for some reason. Many cutscenes are clumsy and lack continuity; like when you give Gambit a package and he says ?let?s see what?s in the box? then reacts to it instantly before even opening it or moving himself. I had a cutscene where a big package in the back of a truck slipped out half way and was clipping through the side of the truck as if nothing was wrong. If you have Iceman?s defensive ability equipped that gives you an ice armor coating, it?s instantly gone and missing once a cutscene loads. Facial expressions look completely dead and there?s massive slowdown at specific sections where the frame rate just plummets.
As I said before, I?m not the biggest X-Men fan but I know the basics and some of these are just wrong. Gambit doesn?t sound the least bit Cajun or even resemble anything like the Gambit from the 90?s cartoon. Also, why can you get Juggernauts X-Gene powers? Technically he?s not a mutant. But alas, maybe I?m reading too much into it, but when a casual fan notices this stuff I can only imagine what the real hardcore fans are going to think to these decisions.
Being that there are three characters to choose from it seems like the game is meant for a co-op experience but it?s only a single player affair and has no multiplayer of any kind. X-Men Destiny isn?t inherently bad; it?s just unfinished and unpolished with a few poor design choices that make for a shallow experience. As I said, on paper all these ideas seem great, they just don?t come together well in this full prices package. Even if you?re a huge X-Men fan, it?s a rental at best and you?ll probably finish it in one sitting like I did.
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
Dark Souls
Remember throwing and almost breaking your controller as a kid due to losing or dying? It seems for me that Dark Souls has brought many of those old feelings to the surface as there was a few times I felt like launching my controller off the balcony. For those not in the know, Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon?s Souls which was an exclusive to PS3 until recently. Demon?s Souls was known for its brutal difficulty and was a truly humbling experience. I thought I was above average on my playing skills of most games, and then along came Demon?s Souls. I never saw it through to the end, and to be honest, I actually wasn?t able to complete the first level after many hours of trying. I gave up out of frustration as no matter what I tried, it just wasn?t working for me. I heard the sequel was coming and I was excited to give it another chance and start fresh with a new perspective, knowing what I?m going to get myself into since I?ll now be able to play it on my 360.From Software brings us Dark Souls and many of the game?s mood and charm have also returned. We?ve become accustomed to games holding our hands, telling us where to go, and pacing games in a specific way so that players can (hopefully) enjoy themselves and maybe even complete the game. Dark Souls will not hold your hand in any way; actually, it?s more likely to make you cry than help you. Prepare to die many times (even their website is preparetodie.com).
Dark Souls is centered on Risk vs. Reward. You?ll fail many times and become extremely frustrated but the feeling of accomplishment once you finally kill that specific enemy or boss is very rewarding. Casual players will struggle with the difficulty curve and won?t make much progress where returning players will thrive on the challenging difficulty. You simply can?t grind your way to victory in Dark Souls; every battle requires knowledge of your enemy and abilities. Trial and error (mostly error) is the only way you?re going to learn how to progress and gain the knowledge needed.
Dark Souls has a very thin veil masquerading as a story. Truly, there?s no real story and no side quests. It?s about you, your isolation against impossible odds. You aren?t told where you?re going or why other than ringing a bell after defeating some of the bigger guardians. Essentially you?re going to see how many times you can throw yourself against the same enemies and if you?re capable of learning from your mistakes.
Just like Demon?s Souls, Dark Souls starts off which seems borderline impossible. I apparently didn?t go the ?correct? path from the very start and got myself killed by the first skeleton enemies a dozen times before trying to go elsewhere. This is because the world layout of Dark Souls is radically different than its predecessor. Rather than having a central hub where you pick which level to go to, Dark Souls is now comprised of one massive world that is seamless separated by regions. Every area you see once you make it to the top of a tower is all completely accessible eventually. Eventually you?ll unlock shortcuts between regions as you progress and you?ll need them quite often when trying to fight your way back to where you died. As you progress, beat bosses, and unlock doors and gates, new pathways will open up for you to explore. Keep in mind that just because a new area opened up, it?s not always the ?correct? path and you?ll be met with a vastly overpowered enemy blocking your path. You are not told where you need to go, why, and what to do next. This can be terrifying, leaving you to your own choices in every aspect and will sometimes (let?s be honest: most times) lead you to somewhere you shouldn?t even think about being at yet and will more times than not send you back to your last bonfire (more on this later).
I was curious how the controls would transition to an Xbox 360 controller, luckily it feels natural and I have no real qualms with this aspect. Your bumpers are what?s going to get the most use. Left Bumper is held to block (which you?ll be doing 99% of the time) and Right Bumper is your quick/light attack. Left Trigger is to parry (though your timing has to be absolutely perfect and if you mistime the press, you?ll most likely end up dead) and Right Trigger is your heavy attack. I do wish I could swap the bumpers with the triggers in the options, but Dark Souls doesn?t care what you want, you?ll play it their way (and to be honest it felt just fine after the tenth death or so).
The menus and equipment screens will be confusing and does nothing to help you understand it better. It?s very cumbersome and you better hope you completely back out of the menus because you?re unable to block or attack with them up. Did I mention there is no pausing in the world of Dark Souls? Yup, you?ll want to be in a safe area clear of enemies before loading up your inventory screen or you?ll pay the price and learn quickly that there is no pause.
Any enemy can kill you quite easily if you aren?t playing properly and don?t study their attack patterns. Even the first skeleton in the game can destroy you if you don?t learn and adapt quickly (which I found out, many times). In an attempt to balance out some of the difficulty, there is now a checkpoint system built into Dark Souls that was lacking from the first game. These checkpoints are called bonfires and are scarcely spread out among different regions. Resting at a bonfire allows you to level up with any souls you?ve acquired from defeating enemies, fully restores your health and stamina, and even refills your Estus Flasks (health pots). Now, it would be too easy if you could rest at a bonfire at any time to refill your health and continue on. So to balance this, you better hope you really need to recover and refill because every bonfire you rest at, every enemy will respawn (aside from bosses). It?s a balance of recovery vs. fighting through the horde of enemies again to hopefully find a new bonfire further ahead. Later in the game it?ll actually become part of your strategy to use them or not.
So what happens when you die exactly? For starters, any souls you?ve acquired (souls are used in currency for items and leveling up) remain where you died. To get them back you need to recovery your soul where you previously perished, but without dying again. Die again and you?re out that original amount of souls on your first corpse. When you die you leave a bloodstain on the ground where you died and you may even notice bloodstains that aren?t yours along your path. These are from other players that have recently died nearby and clicking on it will show you a ghost of how they died, hopefully letting you learn about how to avoid an upcoming death yourself. Sometimes you?ll want to spend your souls right away to level up while other times you might want to hang onto them and move forward. It becomes a very delicate balancing act just like deciding to use bonfires or not.
The feeling of isolation wars on you throughout your journey, but now and then you?ll see a ghost of someone nearby which is actually another player in their own parallel world. While you can?t interact with them, it almost brings a feeling of closeness, knowing someone else is going through what you are right at this moment as well. That is until you come across your next enemy of course. Another way to branch out and go outside of your own world is the ability to leave messages on the ground for other players to see. This means you can leave a helpful message like ?watch out!? or advice on the upcoming situation or be devious and leave a ?hint? that gives false information. I actually enjoyed coming across these messages as they gave me helpful tips for the most part on what?s about to transpire.
Like the first game, Dark Souls does have a multiplayer component, but it?s not anything in the traditional sense at all. Other players are able to invade your game and try to kill you or help you and you can also do the same. Figuring out how to do so like everything else is left up to you (even the instruction book is useless) and you?ll quickly realize that the game isn?t really played co-operatively even when you do have someone in your game world for very long. There?s no way to directly invite a friend into your game to help you out on a tough section and even though the box says multiplayer, undergo this adventure knowing you?ll be alone for it.
The only major gripe and disappointment I have with Dark Souls is that nothing is explained to you and you will literally have to figure out what everything is and does on your own. I understand not holding the players hand for the sake of difficulty but giving zero information about key game elements is a flaw in my opinion. Some will argue that this creates a more knitted community, but what if I don?t know to go look up the wiki for the game? A perfect example of this is the Kindle option when at a bonfire. Until I tested it and tried it, I had no idea what it did. Maybe to some this is part of the charm of Dark Souls, having to figure things out on your own, which I understand. Aside from that major issue there was really only minor issues to point out such as frame rate problems in specific areas (the dragon?s breath the first time you see it going across the bridge for example), underwhelming voice acting (for how little spoken dialogue there is I would have expected a stellar outing), and a clumsy targeting system that will get you killed a few times because you?re locked onto the wrong enemy.
You will die, a lot and in almost every way possible. Death is knowledge in Dark Souls and you learn from your mistakes and how to achieve simply surviving. Dark Souls caters to a specific audience and does so wonderfully. Players picking it up for the first time may be shocked with the games brutal difficulty and how you?re left on your own without a map or what to do next. Frustration will turn into rage and at times I needed to take a lengthy break from it to prevent controller damage that was self-inflicted.
If you enjoy games to relieve stress, this isn?t the game for you. If you love feeling accomplished for completing something innately difficult, then you?ll feel right at home. The high difficulty shouldn?t be looked at as a fault as it?s a very humbling experience, but rather what Dark Souls does right in its own existence; if the game was simple it wouldn?t be anywhere near the same game. Dark Souls doesn?t care if you?re having fun or not and it will punish you mercilessly, but that?s where the fun begins.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
The Sims 3: Pets
It?s hard to believe that The Sims has been around for over a decade already. I remember trying it for the first time, wondering what to do before realizing that the game had no primary objective. Instead, you were to simulate a real life with all the mundane tasks you need to do, but virtually. I never understood why I enjoyed cooking, cleaning, eating, going to work in the game when doing it in real life is one of the least things I?d want to do. I was never that great at the game and I was the type that would delete the toilet and bed to see what happens to my Sim rather than ?properly? playing.The Sims 3 Pets is upon us and the big addition that you have probably already guessed is the inclusion of pets. Now, pets have been in the Sims games before, but for the first time in the franchise, you can take complete control over them and are fully playable just like any human Sim. Sims 3 Pets is a completely stand-alone game and not an expansion like the PC counterpart. So even though you just bought Sims 3 for Xbox 360 last year, you?ll have to buy this one at full price as well.
At first I was skeptical at how much fun controlling a cat or dog would actually be in comparison to directing a human Sim, but alas, not having to worry about many of the mundane tasks that humans have to deal with was much more my style. That and I enjoyed peeing on the carpet to see my master get flustered. Your Sims? pet has complete controls similar to their masters and you can even get jobs and be social with other people and animals as well. With support for Kinect as well, actions are easier than they were in The Sims 3 for consoles.
Well, it?s a Sims game, so there?s no real story or campaign to really delve into, but that?s ok, that?s what makes a Sims game what it is. Instead of a clear path of progression there are objectives and ?quests? to fulfill should you desire. Just like previous games, what you do is completely up to you and you can strive to be an inventor or stay at home every day and be a socialite. In lieu of a plot line there is a new feature called Mystery Journals. These are five different situations that require some dedication and time to figure out the multiple steps, oh, and you?ll also need your furry friend to help along the way as well. Solve these mysteries for some rewards if you want a little more guidance in your playthrough or ignore them completely and play however you wish.
You?ll start Sims 3 Pets just like every other Sims game; start by creating your Sims. The creation tool for creating your Sims is very robust and it actually took the wife about an hour to get her Sim and pet exactly like herself and her old cat. Choose their appearance, clothes, voices (still Sims gibberish obviously), traits, lifetime goals, and more.
As we?ve all played a Sims game before, I?ll focus more on the pet aspect of everything as it?s really what the focal point of this game is based around. Just like your human Sims, your pets will now be on equal footing in almost every way now that they can be controlled directly. When you create your Sims family at the beginning, you need to create one human (someone needs to provide and feed them after all) and then you can create up to 4 pets for a larger family should you choose. These pets will have personalities and traits just like a normal Sim would and can be very important choices when creating your pets.
There are more than one hundred default breeds available to recreate your real cat or dog or go wild and try making something completely off the wall. Just like humans, you can choose your cat or dog to start as a kitten or puppy, young adult, or adults. The babies are obviously the cutest choice but they are unable to get jobs until they grow into a young adult. It?s hard work being that cute you know.
While there were large selections of breeds, there was one or two I was hoping for that weren?t there. Luckily the create-a-sim is very diverse and you can tweak any breed to look almost like any other kind if you have the patience. You can get creative as you want with the fur, nose, body, and ear length and even more. You?re not limited to just natural choices either, as I fully expect some people to make and share their green and orange spotted obese cats with the community. You?re able to completely customize your pets to the point of making an exact replica of your beloved companion at home. You can change fur patterns, spots, noses, and almost any other option you could think of (though tail length was only long or short). I suspect most people will recreate their childhood pets just like I did (I miss you Tigger!). Pick up the Limited Edition and you gain access to some exciting pet variants such as a Panda Dog, Skunk Cat, and even a Mabari War Hound (from Dragon Age) among a dozen others.
After your four legged friend looks exactly how you remember them you then get to assign three traits that make up their personality and mood, just like your human Sims. Are they destructive, friendly, lazy, playful, vocal or even adventurous? There?s many more that you get to mix and match to make a unique personality for your cat or dog. These traits determine if you?ll have a wonderful lap cat or a destructive dog that loves to destroy things. The hyper trait is hilarious by the way, though it?s nothing a laser pointer can?t fix.
Your companions can also have careers of their own now. Dogs can be Police dogs (obviously) and cats can be ghost hunters that collect ghosts by shooting beams out of their eyes! Either pet can also serve as therapy pets should they want something a little more relaxing. Your pets can also help your social life also. Send off your pet to fetch-a-date and you never know what type of single they?ll introduce you to.
You can play Sims 3 Pets just like any other Sims game and completely ignore your pets should you choose, or vice versa and only play as your animal and let the human do their own thing. As you?re playing your Sim, prompts will appear allowing you to choose to accept or decline desires that your specific Sim wants at that time. They might want to call someone over, play with a friend, be pet or fed, and more. Every time you complete one of these wishes, you?ll earn Karma points. Karma Powers return but have a few new tricks. In essence, Karma Powers is a powerful and quick way to instantly help or harm your Sims. Some powers will help you immensely by winning the lottery or getting a promotion at work while others will make every Sim in the area fight with each other or give bad luck in everything you do.
The exchange returns where you can swap your Sims creations and even give your pet to a friend. Screenshots can be taken at any time and shared as well and a great moment for this is taking your pet outside to play with other pets and seeing them interact and play with each other.
If you have Kinect, you now also have the option to use verbal shortcuts for many actions. Turns out the voice commands are actually faster than using the controller and is simple to setup a chain of commands for a Sim. This is great for sending a command to a Sim that you aren?t sure where they?re at. It may be a small feature but the idea behind it works well and it does its job by saving you small amounts of time. I?m actually glad they didn?t try and implement a clunky hand gesture based system and kept it simple.
I did run into a few issues while playing though. When I would fast forward time at the fastest speed, my Sims would sometimes be put into a zombie-state where they wouldn?t move or perform their told action until I changed the time back to normal speed. Once they started their animations, then it was fine, but I did waste a lot of time waiting for them to start their actions until I figured it out. The same went for the sound and music; sometimes I lost sound all together but eventually it came back. I?m assuming it?s because I had an early build to play and I doubt anything that major would be in the final version.
The other issue I had throughout was dealing with the controls. Even after a few hours of playing, I?d still be hitting the wrong buttons now and then. It took my wife even longer to do the smallest tasks because of these controls. It?s a good stepping stone for people that haven?t played the PC versions yet and it?s a decent substitute.
Playing as the pets I found was much more enjoyable as it?s not been done in a Sims game before. The pets can have a life of their own and is actually an active member of your Sims family. Being able to breed with other pets also makes for some very interesting cross breeding if you decided to make that green and orange spotted obese cat.
This game would have been more entertaining if it supported split screen as my wife wanted to play the cat as I was controlling the human. Let?s hope for next time since split screen has been done in a Sims game before.
I still don?t get how making breakfast or taking a bath can take up half the day, but the real fun in Sims 3 Pets comes from recreating all your past and current pets over the years. It?s still the same formula that?s worked all these years for the franchise, surprisingly though; I enjoyed playing as my cat much more than dealing with all the humans? daily tasks. Having to play, catch bugs, and sleep all day is tiring work!
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Gunstringer, The
When I think of a gaming studio that knows how to do humor in games in an entertaining fashion, Twisted Pixel actually comes to the top of my list because of their previous hits like Splosion Man, Comic Jumper and The Maw (all of which were fantastic). I?m not really sure who else would be able to come up with a game idea about a blue skeleton marionette puppet, partial live action setting western based shooter and complete with Kinect controls. Twisted Pixel is a creative bunch of people that truly knows how to convey humor in a creative and original fashion and they know release their very first disc based game after being a success on Xbox Live Arcade for a number of years. For those early Kinect adopters wanting something to play other than Dance Central or Kinect Sports, your new Kinect enabled title is finally here that?s worthy of being in your game collection. Before I delve into the story and backdrop for the game I need to point out what happens the moment you start playing. You?ll instantly see a live action video start playing that shows people gathering into a theater for a play of some sorts that?s about to start. As you go behind the curtain you see people scattering, trying to get everything ready as the show is about to begin. The Gunstringer puppet is buried in dirt and as the lights go down and the curtain opens, the game finally begins.
As the game begins, you realize you?re in control of this puppet and you?re the one putting on the show for the whole audience (of Twisted Pixel employees no doubt). You?ll be guiding the hero over the course of five decently length chapters in a story about revenge. Before I delve into the controls as well, you?ll feel right at home if you?ve played Child of Eden for Kinect as it?s very similar in idea. Twisted Pixel brings us an on rails (or should I say on strings?) shooter that emits charisma, charm and hilarity. I would expect nothing less from this fantastic studio.
The story isn?t anything mind blowing as it?s simply a tale of revenge set in the Old West. The Gunstringer was buried and left for dead by his old posse. As he arises from his grave he?s no longer human but a blue skeleton instead. Luckily he was buried with his hat and pistols as that?s all he needs to begin his journey of revenge. As he tracks down his former fellow compadres and eliminates them, he?ll get closer and closer to extracting his vengeance. You?ll travel from the dusty old western towns to the mountains, the swaps and even a world full of undead. He won?t let anyone or anything stand in his way, even if that means cows that block his path.
While The Gunstringer may not be as elegant as the other Kinect on-rails shooter Child of Eden, it definitely has more presentation value. Because you know the whole game you play is being ?watched? by an audience it brings almost another dimension to your gameplay. You?ll have a narrator constantly describing your exploits as you play ala Bastion and you?ll hear cheering and booing from the ?audience? to always make it feel like it?s a true theatrical experience.
Being that The Gunstringer is a Kinect only game, let?s talk about the all-important motion controls. Could this game have been done on a controller instead? Sure. Would it have been as entertaining and fitting? Probably not. Being that Gunstringer is a marionette puppet, it makes complete sense to have hand based gesture controls as you?ll be controlling him as if you are the arm above the strings.
You are the puppet master. With your left hand you control basic movement. Moving your hand left or right will make him strafe and pulling up on the invisible strings will make him jump. Your right hand for the majority of the game will be your single pistol (these controls can be inverted for you odd lefties out there!) and is your cursor based on where your hand moves. You remember buying those cap refills for you cap-gun as a kid that had six or so shots on one of the plastic rings? Yea, that?s your cursor! Completely fitting if you ask me. Just like in Child of Eden, as you hover your right hand over an enemy it will lock onto them and you?re able to lock onto a total of six enemies at once for maximum carnage. How do you shoot you ask? Well once you have a single to six lock-ons, all you need to do is flick back your wrist as if you just pretended you shot a gun when you were a kid (bring your wrist to your shoulder). No you don?t have to hold your right hand like it?s a gun, but I guarantee you will catch yourself doing it at some point without even thinking. You may even be shouting ?bang bang? or ?pew pew? if you?re so inclined.
At first it?s a little confusing to control the movement and shooting at once and I guarantee you?ll hit a few obstacles from not jumping as you?re more focused on aiming and shooting, but you eventually become accustomed any by act two you?ll be a great Gunstringer in no time. The movements will take some getting used to as you?ll most likely be over compensating to avoid obsticles, but again, you?ll get used to the nuances fairly quickly.
At time you?ll be forced to take over and you need to peek out to take your locked-on shots. You do this by moving your left hand to the left or right then doing the shooting motion with your right like normal. Again, at first this becomes a little confusing as to learn how much you need to move your hand to pop out of cover, but you?ll learn it quickly as well.
At times the Gunstringer will go on a shooting rampage and bring out his second pistol for more carnage. Each hand controls a gun and you simply move both hands where you want to shoot as he will be shooting constantly automatically. There are even a few sections where you?ll pick up a special weapon like a flame thrower, shotgun or sword that does extra damage just to change the pace a little bit. You?ll even get used to fighting with your fists as some enemies you?ll have to punch your way through (these are usually in the side scrolling platforming sections). There?s a variety of ways that the Gunstringer extracts his revenge!
Each chapter concludes with you finally catching up to one of your former posse members and you are there to get your revenge on them for turning on you. Each boss section is the same style as each other but completely different than the rest of the game. It?s played in a view as if you?re in a seat in the theater watching this happen at a puppet show. You?ll need to avoid specific attacks and once the opportunity arises, you?re able to use your gun and shoot away. You?ll see silhouettes of audience members cheering you on though none of the bosses should pose too much of a threat for your skills.
Surprisingly, you?re supposed to also be able to play the game completely sitting on your couch should you desire to or become lazy. While it is supposed to be an option, it didn?t work with even close to the same amount of precision and it quite often lost track of a hand or would register movements properly. Maybe I?m leaning too far and it?s thinking my legs are part of my arms? I don?t know, but it?s a shame it didn?t really work all that well.
For the player that loves unlocking screenshots, movies, behind the scenes stuff, music and more, there is a ton of replayability here for you. You?ll need to play multiple times to get enough money to unlock the entire bonus content. Speaking on bonus content, on day one there was even a free DLC add-on that was completely twisted and fitting of this game. Download the 2Gb DLC and you?ll be privy to playing a forty minute full length FMV that clearly took inspiration from Mad Dog McCree. It?s called The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles and has some of the worst (purposely) acting you might ever see?ever. It?s entertaining and if you liked the humor from the game itself, you?ll enjoy this dumb-yet-entertaining addition. Hey, at least the price is right.
I really don?t have much bad to say about The Gunstringer aside from its short length. I finished it in one sitting?er?standing in about four hours start to finish. While it is short, it is very good and does have replayability, especially if you want to purchase unlockables. If that?s not enough to convince you, new copies even come with a free download of Fruit Ninja Kinect as well.
I really enjoyed my (short) time with The Gunstringer and couldn?t stop laughing once I saw the Duck Hunt mockery. I laughed even harder once I saw what a Gatorjack was and how it came to be. Want to know what I?m talking about? Go pick up the game if you have a Kinect. Is it worth buying one for if you don?t? I don?t believe so, but that?s what you?d also pick up Dance Central and Kinect Sports (and Child of Eden) for. It?s a short ride but it?s an entertaining one that a Kinect owner should experience.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
SkyDrift
What do you get when you put Crimson Skies, Blur and a little Mario Kart in a blender? You get SkyDrift, the new power-up based racing game made by Digital Reality released on XBLA. While your focus is speed and completing the race in the best position possible, the motto goes ?if you can't overtake them, shoot them down!?, so you?ll need to use all the power-ups and weaponry at your disposal should you want to win. For a XBLA game it?s got a surprising amount of content included. More than 30 race events (including mirrored and separate events), 8 different planes with unlockable skins, 6 power-ups, multiple singleplayer modes, 8 players online and more. It looks great and the controls are simple enough to get used to quite quickly.
Your Left Stick moves your plane, Left Trigger is brake, Right Trigger is accelerate and Right Stick will turn your plane sideways which is called the Knife Edge position. This will help you turn tighter and make hairpin turns. One thing to remember though is that the controls don?t change when your plane is sideways, so you still need to use Right on both sticks if you want to turn sharply to the right, not ?pulling back? when the left stick like how most flying sims would have you do. X will use your power-up, Y will swap if you have two and you can even convert your power-up into some boost meter if you don?t find the power-up useful enough to use at the time.
You gain boost by flying low to the ground (the flying version of Burnout?s oncoming traffic lane), destroying enemies or doing stunts. There are six types of power-ups; some defensive while others to help you destroy your enemies. There are homing missiles (completely overpowered), mines, turrets, shockwaves, repairs and shield power-ups. Have two of the same power-up simultaneously though and it becomes a much more powerful version and can instantly change the course of the race. The only issue I found was that you have to be very precise when flying through the power-ups though to obtain them, there isn?t much room for error.
Much like any racer, you?ll start out with your basic start panes and as you win competitions and progress you?ll gain access to the more exotic and unique planes and skins. Each plane has their own stats and some are better suited for specific situations or events. I found I did better when I played aggressive and more as a shooter than I did simply by racing, but this may be the exact opposite for yourself.
If you?ve tried the demo, it doesn?t do the games level design justice. The later levels you unlock are so intensely fun to fly that you?ll enjoy having to Knife Edge to make it in between pillars and down into some hidden areas that contain power-ups. The lack of maps is made up by the level design. Surprisingly I had the most fun with the Speed Race mode where there are no power-ups and you gain a short boost as you finesse your way through the rings on the course. Survivor is also frantic that has the person in last place at set intervals knocked out of the race until only one plane survives.
While it is a flying racer, it had a very Hydro Thunder feel to the world which is fantastic. The engine ran smooth, no slowdown in races, textures looked great whizzing by and power-ups felt useful (especially being able to convert them into boost when needed). And yes, barrel rolls are included. Now go try it out! It?s a simple yet fun arcade style racer that shouldn?t be passed up if you?ve been yearning for something Mario Kart-esque or want to remember how fun Crimson Skies was in a way. At 1200 points it seems a little steep but if you?re a fan of the power-up racers you?ll thoroughly enjoy it.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Rise of Nightmares
I?ll admit, the last Sega Kinect enabled game I played, I was saddened by and curious at how the controls could be so broken. I actually forever shelved Sonic Free Riders for Kinect as soon as I was done the review and I?ll never go back to it because of the shoddy Kinect controls. Needless to say, I wasn?t holding my breath when I heard about Rise of Nightmares (RoN) as it was another Sega Kinect enabled title. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and popped in the disc with no bias or expectations, hoping that maybe they?ve learned what did and didn?t work in their last motion controlled outing. I guess I was hoping for too much.Being touted as the first hardcore and mature rated title for Kinect, I?ll admit I was intrigued as I?ve always loved horror movies and games. What I?ll tell you so you know what to expect is that you need to start the game expecting a B-Movie style of movie mixed with a House of the Dead setting. That being said, the team behind House of the Dead was actually responsible for this (Rise of) nightmare but don?t expect to be scared in any way. You?ll be swinging and flailing your warms wildly as you try and dismember zombies coming your way.
I?ll give Sega some credit with the ideas they had in place when developing Rise of Nightmares. Most of the combat works fine and without problems. If you slice your arm either horizontally or vertically, it?ll react in the same manner in-game. If you want to open a door or flip a switch then do just as you would in real life. Most of these gestures work fine without flaw, which is until you try and walk in a straight line, but more on that later.
You are Josh, who?s on vacation with his wife Kate taking a train to Romania. Kate is about to inform Josh about some news she has when he leans over and a flask of alcohol falls out of his jacket. Since he?s promised to stop drinking, this infuriates Kate and she walks out of the carriage to get away from Josh and his alcoholism. Feeling bad about what happened and keeping it from Kate he chases after her who is further ahead in the train and this is where your journey begins.
Normally I don?t like delving into too much of the story but it is so cliché that you?ve heard similar stories or watched a movie like it before. Josh is told by a fortune teller that something bad is going to happen very soon. Queue the train crash and Kate?s kidnapping from a mysterious figure. There were a handful of survivors from the train crash and eventually that won?t matter since Josh will go off on his own to find his wife without anyone?s help for the most part. Josh eventually gets knocked unconscious and awakens to find himself strapped to a chair where you?ll meet your main antagonist, Viktor.
As you control all of Josh?s movements, doing so with Kinect can be?interesting at times. To move the camera left or right to look in any direction, you simply need to rotate your shoulders in whatever way you want to look. No, you moved your shoulders too much now you?re looking at the wall. No, you overcompensated and now you?re looking where you just were. Yea, there you go, now just don?t move or else you?ll start looking in another direction. You can change the sensitivity of the look controls but I couldn?t find a happy medium that never felt precise. To actually move you simply put a foot in front of the other as if you are taking a real step. No, further out cause it?s no registering. No, not that far cause now you?re past where you wanted to be. Now you need to turn around and walk forward to get back to where you were. The further you extend that foot the faster you walk. Yes, you can only walk; there is no running, even when you have a horde of zombies behind you. I hope you?re patient because you?ll need to walk throughout the whole campaign. It takes a lot of getting used to moving your shoulders and adjusting your foot and even after a lengthy play; it?ll never feel ?right?. Prepare to eat a lot of wall for no reason and don?t even think about being able to side strafe, as there is no such option.
Frustration will set in very quickly due to the lack of precision in your movement. These movement controls are so broken that there?s actually a built in ?auto walk? feature by simply raiding your right hand above your head. Holding your arm up will move you in a line from point A to point B but you?ll miss any secrets or items as you?ll simply be on cruise control. There are many secret rooms and items to acquire but because of the manual movement controls, you?ll simply opt to forget about them to get to your next destination. There are times where you aren?t allowed to auto walk and are forced to use the horrible movement controls. You?ll have to search for a switch or even avoid traps manually. You?re going to absolutely loathe these sections as you?ll die many times as I did in the same spots repeatedly because you didn?t put your foot out far enough to walk fast past the floor traps.
On the other hand, combat is competent and interesting, at least for the first little while. As you pick up a weapon, to use it you do just as you would in real life. Swing a knife to slash in different directions, throw scalpel knives at enemies afar, and even hold a chainsaw with both hands and cut them up when they?re in front of you. Remember, you need to move your shoulders to properly face the zombies while doing this though. As you cut off limbs you?ll be entertained for the first little while but it does become very repetitive and really a shallow experience when you simply start flailing your arms to kill them faster.
Your weapons will break over time so once you find a weapon you like you?ll have to search around for another of any kinds since they break so often. You?ll be mimicking many real life actions though as you?re asked to open doors, flip switches, turn wheels, climb ladders and more. All of these actions are done just as how you would naturally do them in real life. Aside from a few actions that I was either doing wrong or didn?t register, these are entertaining as you can open a door normally or kick forward to slam it open.
Most of the time you?ll come across a group of zombies in a bunch, you?ll also notice that there?s very few types of enemies and you?ll even get a group of five zombies at once that are all the same model and pallet. Bosses aren?t much better as aside from one or two of the end guys, they are simply a regular enemy with some built in move that you?ll need to dodge by ducking or leaning, essentially a quick time event. As you get to the latter bosses you?ll need to combo your dodges before you can actually attack them. You?ll feel the strain doing the same motions over and over and your biggest challenge isn?t from the combat or enemies, it?s struggling with the controls instead.
I can?t fault a game for having a bad story and trying to go for that B-Movie style, but at times it feels like it?s trying to be a serious attempt at being scary, which it?s not. The writing and voice acting are terrible and the f-word is used to often and in the wrong spots that it?s laughable. The pacing of the game on the other hand is almost like a roller coaster. You start off high fighting zombies and having a decent time, then you have to actually move somewhere and you?re at the low point. Every so often a door will be locked and for some reason the switch you need to pull is always only a few feet away or around the corner. Don?t expect to become lost as to where to go as all you?ll need to do it look across at the other wall for the switch to proceed.
If Rise of Nightmares didn?t try and take itself seriously, maybe it would have been a little more bearable, but as soon as you get to your first floor trap you need to avoid with manual walking controls, you?ll see how frustrating it can be. The fact that there isn?t one scare in the whole game as well doesn?t help its case. I?m a horror fan and don?t scare easily, but my wife watched me play who can?t watch those movies and didn?t even flinch once.
I?ll give Sega props for being ambitious with their ideas. In theory (and combat) it works to have a game in this style controlled with Kinect but instead it feels like a horrible experiment gone wrong. Rise of Nightmares suffers from the syndrome of great ideas but poor execution. The game may not be great but it?s definitely shown some of the potential Kinect has for certain types of games. Sadly, anything involving walking is not one of them. Three strikes and you?re out; this is strike two for Kinect games Sega.
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
Driver: San Francisco
I can?t count how many hours I played the original Driver for PS1. It had fantastic gameplay along with some of the most frustration I?ve ever had playing a game. It had a relentless difficulty and most people didn?t even get past the introductory tutorial in the infamous garage due to time constraints (they brought back this optional garage ?tutorial? for San Fran as a fan service). Reflections Interactive (Now Ubisoft Reflections) made the original Driver and they return more than a decade later to bring us Driver San Francisco (DSF for short). I?ve loved all the Driver games, even the ones that weren?t as great comparatively (I?m look at you Parallel Lines) as they had great gameplay. I?ll admit, when I tried the demo for DSF I wasn?t really wowed so when the full version arrived, I was quite curious to see if it was any better and could redeem itself from my first impressions. Luckily I gave it a fair shot as I really started to enjoy it after a good amount of time playing all the different types of modes and missions.
Tanner returns as the protagonist and DSF is a direct sequel to Driv3r, meaning Jericho is the villain once again. If you never beat Driv3r, the ending was left with a cliffhanger where you didn?t know if Tanner or Jericho survived in a shootout. As DSF begins, it turns out both have survived and recovered and Tanner has followed Jericho to San Francisco where he?s being held in prison. As Jericho is being transported in an armored vehicle, he manages to break loose from his handcuffs and ends up hijacking the vehicle. Tanner see?s this all go down and pursues him, eventually ending up cornering Jericho. Jericho rams Tanner?s car into traffic causing both of them to be in a serious car crash. Because of the accident, Tanner is now in a coma and the majority of the game you play is what?s happening in Tanner?s mind whilst in the coma.
Keep in mind, from here on you?re almost always playing in the coma world, though you?ll see snippets of what?s happening in ?real life? here and there to tie everything together. It?s confusing at first but is an interesting dynamic once it all starts making sense. Tanner discovers he has the ability to ?shift? into any other person?s body on the road taking them over but still himself on the inside. To any passengers in the car, they still see the original driver but Tanner is the one truly behind the wheel.
Tanner will shift to other people helping them win racers, help police catch bad guys and more. To progress the story you need to play six or so other specific missions before it will let you play the main story missions. Sometimes I wish I was able to just specifically the story missions to further along the plot. Why do I have to help cops, participate in street races and more before I can?
The biggest and most unique feature of DSF is obviously the innovative Shift mechanic. On paper, I thought it was completely ridiculous and has no place in a driving game; in practice however it really makes the game what it is and it now stands out among the competition. It shouldn?t work but it does and Reflections has impressed me once again. Using shift to cover vast distances quickly or to use other cars to stop pursuers takes time to get used to but really does work effortlessly. Your Shift ability has many uses and facets. If you?re in a race and need to slow down people right behind you, simply shift to an oncoming vehicle ahead of you and ram them head on before shifting back to your racing vehicle. After about an hour I become quite comfortable Shifting with ease and once you understand how you can use the mechanic to your advantage many possibilities will open for you during missions.
To get to Jericho you?re going to have to do many ?errands? scattered throughout the whole city before you?re able to progress. Exotic speed runs, dirt drift races, distance jumping and more. As you progress you?ll unlock more of the city, more cars for purchase, new races and more. With the money you earn you can spend it on garages which is where you can buy more vehicles, missions and ability upgrades.
The most important part about a driving game is obviously the driving itself. While it feels Driver-ish, almost all the cars aside from the super exotics handle very heavy and it?s near impossible to take sharp turns at high speeds without hitting a building or everything in your way. You?ll eventually get used to it but you really need to slow down to take corners properly if you don?t want to hit anything. There are essentially two types of cars to pick: speed and heavy. Speed cars are obviously the ones you?ll want to use when getting away from pursuers, chasing bad guys or racing where the heavies are to be used when you need to ram into other cars or need to clear a path down a populated roadway.
There are more side missions included than you?ll most likely ever play which keeps the longevity of the game pretty high. To get some of them you?ll need to have beaten a set number or specific dares or challenges if you want to unlock specific upgrades or cars.
And yes, the infamous director mode returns in DSF to make your 70?s chase scene inspired movies to record and share easily. You can record your best stunts and exciting getaways and share them with all yours friends fairly painlessly.
True online multiplayer makes its way to Driver with many modes to choose from depending on what aspects you enjoy. Simple racing, shift allowable racing, Tag modes and more are unlockable as you level up and earn xp. There are some really fun modes like Tag or Capture the Flag which allows players to use their Shift ability to either catch up if they fall behind or to cause havoc with an oncoming ram. Trailblazer was also quite entertaining which has you following a pace car and you get points for how long you can stay behind the cars trail. Stay close to the bumper and you won?t share points with anyone else nearby but everyone will be trying to ram you out of the way so they can net their own points. You can even Shift to an oncoming vehicle to ram players out of the way then Shift back into a car following the pace car to get points. It?s quite frantic but fun. As you level in multiplayer you?ll unlock more modes, icons, cars and more while rising up the ranks.
The story may be odd but it?s engaging enough to keep you playing. The Shift ability works great once you wrap your head around how to use it properly and it quite surprised me how well it fits this style of game. Cutscenes look fantastic and much work has been done for the polish as you can even see pours in people?s faces and individual hairs; it?s quite impressive actually.
My only real gripes with DSF is that rubber banding is in effect in race events making it near impossible to maintain a substantial lead as the other drivers will always catch up no matter how much of a lead you have or if they crash early on or not. Aside from that there are a few missions that will frustrate you almost to the point of giving up. Having to win a team race and come in first and second are the bane of my existence with the rubber band effect and I probably spent an hour or so on a single one of these missions to progress the story (which doesn?t make sense).
Unlike previous Driver games, there is no getting out of the car and there is no shooting mechanics. DSF is all about driving and that?s a good thing as it?s not trying to be a GTA game in any aspect. DSf does a great job at blending real driving with the absurdity of the Shift mechanic and it all comes together somehow in a great package with a long shelf life. I?m glad to see a good Driver game is finally back on the market and can prove that you can teach an old driving game new tricks.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Call Of Juarez: The Cartel
Before Red Dead came along and standardized how a western game should be approached, there was very little choice of compelling games in the genre that were decent. The Call of Juarez series was one of the few western games that were entertaining and had its own charm. Before many shooters were trying to mimic Battlefield or Call of Duty, some had their own premise which made it unique; Call of Juarez (CoJ) was great at this (specifically Bound In Blood). While they weren?t blockbuster games by any right, they did have heart.When I learned that there was going to be another Juarez game I was actually looking forward to it as I really enjoyed Bound In Blood for what it was. I then learn that the new CoJ was going to be set in a modern day time, but I remained hopeful thinking it might work with the proper setting. Like I mentioned above, it seems someone decided to turn a western based title into a modern day setting that is trying so hard to be something that resembles Call of Duty. Due to this, it?s completely lost all its heart and charm and is now just a bland (and broken) shooter that offers nothing unique at all. I?m hoping that the wild success of Red Dead hasn?t scared off the developers from the western genre because the series now has hit a serious low point. Now the only thing that Call of Juarez: The Cartel shares with the previous games in the series is the title.
The plotline for Call of Juarez: The Cartel is so absurd that it?s hardly worth mentioning for a few reasons. For starters it?s so completely ridiculous that it?s not even believable, it?s convoluted and extremely hard to follow when you?re constantly struggling with the controls and lastly, you won?t care about any of the characters rendering the narrative a moot point. To care about a story you need believable and interesting characters, instead we get stereotypes that swear constantly and that have no depth to their personalities.
But alas, there is a story to the game so I?ll briefly go over the general idea so you can judge for yourselves on how preposterous it is. A US law enforcement agency is bombed by a group of unknown enemies (here?s a hint, it?s in the title of the game itself) and this assault is apparently so heinous that a task force is made to find out who did this and to extract some much needed justice. The fantastic idea for this task force is a whopping three people from separate agencies. Ben McCall from the LAPD, Eddie Guerra from DEA and Kim Evans with the FBI are going to have to work together to find out who?s behind the attack and why. There is more to the plot but it?s not very interesting and becomes a little convoluted near the end.
If you recognize Ben?s last name, that?s because he?s clearly a descendant of the McCall brothers from the previous game, I guess the McCall family has good genes though because Ben seems to look very similar to his long past family members (and decides to dress like them as well). Each of the three main characters will each have their own secret agendas they need to try and fulfill for themselves or their agency without the other members knowing. Ben will try and smuggle loot for his own reasons, Eddie need to pay off a gambling debt and Kim will nab items for evidence. Each of the characters has questionable backgrounds and seems very shady no matter their motives. Each of their personalities clash with each other which I guess was supposed to push the inner tension between them forward. Depending on whom of the three you decide to play as, that?s whose side of the story you?ll play through, though because they?re always side by side, there?s nothing too drastic aside from their motives and some phone calls that are placed that make their ?story? unique from the others. By the end of the game, you?ll hate each of them because they?re all so clichéd and stereotypical.
In theory, each of the characters is supposed to be a specialist in specific weapons and their ideal distance to shoot at. Kim is the long range sniper, Eddie the medium range rifle expert and Ben the close range and shotgun master. This by no means you can?t be Kim and use shotguns, and truthfully, I found no difference between the three when handling different types of weapons; making this mechanic completely untrue.
You?ll answer your cell phone at predetermined times to get your secret mission. The problem with this is that while you?re on the phone, you can still get shot and it almost happens at the worst opportune moments. If you succeed in completing your secret agendas in each mission without your comrades noticing you?ll gain some extra experience points which go towards unlocking bigger and better guns for the campaign. If you?re caught and seen nabbing these items a big message pops up on the screen telling you ?you were caught red handed!? and you won?t get any bonus XP, though the reward is so small that it really doesn?t matter if you do these side objectives or not. If you?re playing online co-op with a friend and catch them, you actually get the bonus XP for seeing it happen. It?s a neat idea on paper but it just wasn?t done well enough to make it a compelling mechanic.
At the heart of a FPS is obviously the shooting mechanics and controls. The immediate problem with The Cartel is that you feel like you?re constantly skating on ice with the movement and the iron sights when looking down the barrel of your guns are so large that you can?t see anything other than what?s directly in front of you. It feels as though you have zero peripheral vision and locating your enemies other than the muzzle flash from their guns is near impossible. Ironically, you?re team mates will constantly be yelling at you to ?try aiming!?. It almost seems unfair that there isn?t a button I can press to tell them how much they suck as AI.
On top of the terrible controls you have repeated and poor level design as well. Sometimes you?ll get a useless car driving section (that you?ll always be close to dying as your partners can?t seem to shoot anything from the car and you will always have to drive aside from one section) then into a large open area with a dozen or so enemies to kill that brings you to a close quarter indoor shootout. You?ll get to a door that you and one of your partners will kick in and go into a slow-mo section to see how many you can shoot (though you?re forced to you your pistol for some reason) before the bullet time wears out. Clear this room and a few more shoot outs and you?ll finally get to your boss fight (which is not really a ?boss fight? in the traditional sense for most sections). Repeat this for all fifteen chapters and that is your flow of level design for the whole campaign.
With three main characters, The Cartel screams co-op gameplay, and while it does say that it has it on the box, getting it to work is near impossible. Can?t figure out how to play co-op? Neither could I at first. As you are about to start a mission you?ll need to press start and open a public game for others to join. How you can just join a random game without an invite I?ve still yet to figure out. The problem is that you can?t join anyone?s game if they are further along in the story than you are. In my whole play through I only had one person join me for a single chapter. There?s no game browser to easily choose someone?s game to join, you need to pick the chapter you want yourself, open it as a public game and hope that someone else is doing the same thing so that you?ll be merged into one game (provided you?re not playing the same character). It?s a horrible broken system and essentially makes it so co-op doesn?t exists contrary to what the box says.
If you do manage to get a co-op game going you?ll play the chapter as normal but you?ll have a slightly competitive aspect to certain sections. Sometimes you?ll see who has better accuracy or who can hit the Helicopter boss more times. It?s an interesting mechanic if you can ever get a co-op game going.
There is also competitive multiplayer as well but it?s just as bland as the campaign. First you pick if you want to be police or a criminal then you?ll go into a hub while people join before the match starts. If you?re lucky and a game actually begins (because it seems everyone wants to play criminals and it won?t auto balance teams, so you might have a full team of criminals and zero police waiting for more to join) you?ll notice that the sloppy controls from single play carry over, making hitting a moving target near impossible. As you gain kills you?ll get XP which will unlock new weapons as you level up, you?re able to revive downed team mates, and there?s a partner system in place that gives you both a bonus if you stay near one another. If you?re unlucky enough to have a bad partner or one that isn?t playing, you?re essentially out of luck as you can only request a new partner when you?re in the lobby. There?s nothing really else to mention here, the multiplayer isn?t compelling or enjoyable at all due to the controls and mechanics.
On top of all these big flaws, there are also many minor issues that stood out that need mentioning as well. Because there?s so many I?ll just list them off so you can get an idea of how bug ridden The Cartel is. Lines your partners say will be used over and over throughout the campaign. The ?Skip Movie? message is always present during cutscenes) almost as if it?s taunting you to press it the whole time), horrible screen tearing and texturing and for how often you drive I find its odd there?s no mirrors at all (rear view and side). You?ll probably become disorientated at time in the corridor sections because you know where you are in relation to your partners, that is until they warp ahead of you at are waiting at the checkpoint as if you?re the slow one. My biggest pet peeve though was the numerous spelling mistakes in the subtitles that just make it feel unprofessional and cheap.
The constant bickering between Ben, Kim and Eddie becomes stale quite quickly and really becomes a distraction more than anything else. While you?ll eventually learn about how this ties in with the previous Juarez games (aside from Ben), it?s not the big revelation I think it was meant to be. It?s a shame the Wild West setting was swapped for what it?s become now. For how open the game looks, it?s quite linear and doesn?t let you stray off the path very far. With only a handful of enemy outfits, you?ll be shooting the same bad guys throughout the whole campaign and not enjoying any of it. Call of Juarez has been downgraded and is disappointing in every aspect of gameplay and design. A game like this is why a series gets canned for good. I for one hope they can bounce back and bring back the series to its former glory that actually had some heart and tried to set itself apart from every other shooter rather than trying to fit into a mold. With a game like this, the treasure of Juarez will never be found.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
For some reason I never really got around to playing the original Deus Ex other than a few short times here and there. Truthfully, I know exactly why; Everquest came out the year before and the next few years of my life revolved around that game rather than many others I should have played. It?s hard to believe that the original came out over a decade ago and was so revolutionary for its time back in 2000. Shortly after it spawned a sequel but didn?t live up to the hype as the original and thus the series went into a slumber for quite some time. Here we are years later and we finally are treated with Deus Ex Human Revolution (DXHR for short) which turns out to be a prequel and set events in motion to what you experience in Deus Ex. With this summer being quite dead for new releases, DXHR was essentially the first big release to break the summer drought so naturally I was excited to give it a try as I?m also a sucker for prequels. I?ve you?ve never played the series before, its essence is based around stealth gameplay but there?s so much more to it than that. Obviously for the stealth mechanics you?d need to compare to other similar titles like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell, but what Deus Ex does so well is that stealth is not the only ?hook? for the series. It has a big emphasis on choice, morals, social interaction, quests and more.
I?ll admit, I was really turned off from the first hour of gameplay but that?s because I realized I was playing it ?wrong?. Yes you have guns and need them to take enemies out (if you decide to) but you don?t want to play this like a cover based third person shooter. Play this like a stealth focused game and you?ll have a much better experience just like I did once I learned the mechanics and how to properly play the hacking mini-game.
DXHR is all about letting you play the game the way you want to. Many games tout that they give you this freedom but unlike most, DXHR actually rewards you for doing so. Playing through situations in different techniques will truly show you how diverse the mechanics are. You can choose to stealth (and there?s even an achievement for not killing anyone aside from bosses), guns blazing or find a separate route to your objective. It?s all about choice and how you want to play.
The year is 2027 and the world is much the same as it is today. The rich are rich and poor are poor. Technological cybernetic implants are becoming more commonplace. ?Naturals? shun implants and those who use them saying they are immoral, too poor to afford it themselves or their biochemistry simply makes their body reject implants totally. ?Augs? are approximately 1/20th of the human population and slowly becoming the new face of mankind.
You control ex-SWAT Adam Jensen, employee of Sarif Industries, which is the leading company for developing these mechanical augments for humans. On the eve of a huge announcement from Sarif, the building finds itself under attack by unknown mercenaries and Adam tries to save his former girlfriend Dr. Megan Reed. Turns out Reed is killed in the assault and Adam is critically wounded so badly that the only way he survives is by repairing his body with augments. The game fast forwards six months and now you play the new and improved Jensen that is now being used by Sarif to protect their interests and find out what happened to you six months ago. You?re essentially Robocop, being paid by the corporation and will soon unravel a conspiracy that will have you traveling the globe.
Once the story gets going and you start to suspect people it becomes really engaging and will always having you thinking about morals. The setting is done beautifully and it can feel like a true city landscape with newscasts, PDAs, eBooks and computers to learn more back story about what?s going on around you. If you take the time to read every morsel you can find you?ll be rewarded with a deeper understanding of the current conflict and characters you come across.
Being a stealth orientated game, taking cover is how you?ll be spending much of your time in DXHR. The cover system is done by holding the Left Trigger and you?ll stick to the nearest wall, corner or behind an object. As you?re in cover the camera switches to a third person view so that you can move the camera and get a better sense of your surroundings. Once you?re stuck to a wall it?s easy to maneuver along it but things get tricky when you want to change faces of a wall or corner. To change side you hold the A Button but it doesn?t feel very natural and if you?re used to how Gears does its cover system, you?re going to be popping out of cover quite often accidentally. Jumping from gap to gap in cover is simple but you need to make sure enemies aren?t looking in your direction as they can see you as you leap out of cover quickly. Most of the areas are very grid-like but sometimes you?ll be on an odd corner or behind an object that has an off-axis angle to it making you noticeable unintentionally. At times you?ll even need to use and transition cover to avoid lasers which is some of the most fun I had in the whole game.
As you explore, defeat enemies, complete missions, hack and more you?ll gain XP. As you fill your XP bar you?ll eventually level up which grants you a Praxis Point. These points can then be used to upgrade your different augmentations in any order you choose. Eventually near the end of the game you?ll have more than enough Praxis Points that you?ll eventually be upgrading your bag space as there?s not much else to get.
As for the inventory system, it?s dealt with as your carrying bag space. At the beginning it can be quite cumbersome and frustrating always having to drop weapons, ammo and weapons in the beginning due to your small limit, though you shouldn?t be relying on many weapons and ammo aside from boss fights and the occasional shootout because you got noticed.
Your hud will show your radar which makes it very easy to see where enemies are, which way they?re facing and more if you?ve upgraded your augmentations. Your hud will also show you where all of your quest objectives are located but how you get to them will almost always have multiple paths. These separate paths come in different ways. If you?ve upgraded your strength you can move a vending machine blocking a vent shaft, you can walk through gas or electricity with a specific upgrade, get places from no falling damage and more all depending on how you play and upgrade Jensen.
You?ll be hacking into computers and keypads? a lot, so get used to it quickly in the beginning and I suggest for those related upgrades to make your life easier. Hacking is a short mini-game that will have you capturing and defending nodes as you try and get to your target without being detected. At first it?s very confusing but once you get the hang of it and have the necessary augs it?s quite easy to do even the most difficult hacks. On a side note, apparently Adam lost the ability to crouch while hacking and you are forced to stand in plain sight when hacking, so keep this in mind and make sure there are no guards nearby when attempting to do so.
When you need to take an enemy out with hand to hand combat, you need to be behind your enemy and can choose to tap B for a knockout or hold B for a kill move depending on your preference. What becomes immediately annoying though is the cutscene you need to watch every time you want to use these moves on an enemy. The first few times were cool, but after watching 500 of the same animation it becomes quite old. It even makes less sense when there are other enemies nearby seemingly ?frozen?, watching as you take their friend out in front of them.
Knocking enemies out can be used to your advantage of course though. Sometimes I liked to leave a body in plain sight to distract the other guards away from my real objective. If you accidentally get seen you can duck away into a nearby air duct and essentially just wait out the alerted timer. Enemies apparently aren?t smart enough to go into the ducts themselves. In a firefight you can use this tactic to pop out, kill a guy and repeat.
Being that the game is 95% stealth based I was excited to see what boss fights were going to be like to integrate into this mechanic. I was hoping to hack some turrets unseen to turn them onto the boss or sneaking somewhere to flip switches or something. Nope, not even close. Boss fights are simply a shootout with an enemy that more health than normal guys. Boss fights are supposed to be an example of everything you learned to that point so you can then use what you?ve learned. It?s a shame as it seems like a glaring flaw when you?re constantly supposed to be stealthy.
Like any game, there are some flaws that stand out. Firstly, the loading times are horrible; granted they aren?t as bad as Duke Nukem, but they are close. You better hope you don?t die often of you?ll easy add a lot of extra time to your play through. Voice acting in general is decent but hit or miss at times. Adam?s got this scruffy voice like he needs a drink of water that seems really out of place at times. The AI for enemies is also pretty limited and not very hard to outsmart once you?ve studied their patrol patterns. Their vision is also so narrow in front of them that you can easy take out a guard beside them without being noticed (or heard somehow). The population in the open world areas also seems quite dead and patterned as you?ll see many of the same models repeatedly.
The level and mission design is what gets the biggest praise in my opinion. Being able to tackle a mission in a number of different ways give you freedom to play truly how you want to. Not many games can prove they give you freedom in this manner, DXHR does it wonderfully. Lasting a lot longer than I was expecting, you?ll easy put more than 20 ? 30 hours into the game depending on how thorough and stealthy you want to be. While there are only a handful of stealth games in the genre, DXHR deserves to be among the top of the list with the other greats despite its flaws.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Bastion
The kid started playing Bastion, a new release for the yearly Summer of Arcade schedule on Xbox Live Arcade. He enjoyed the bright hand painted watercolor world so deeply that he felt he needed to write about it for everyone else to read so that they can enjoy the world of Bastion as well. Supergiant Games? first release is a charming new adventure title that has a narrator throughout the whole game that describes ?the Kid?s? every notable move and action, the surroundings, your weapons, the enemies and even more. While at first you might think the narrator is a gimmick, it becomes an essential part of the way Bastions story unfolds and you?ll learn so much about The Kid (our protagonist) through this deep and gritty mysterious voice (which is done to perfection). As you walk forwards pathways will unfold and form in front of you, coupled with the on the fly narration, Bastion truly feels like its story is happening as you play. Once you start playing through Bastion and it starts unfolding itself to you, you?ll become hooked in a deep story and gorgeous world that will have you never wanting to leave.
Bastion begins with the silent hero known as The Kid waking up in a bed from a deep sleep only to find the world around him has been destroyed. As you make your first steps in Bastion the narration kicks in describing how he stands up and starts walking down the path. When you find your first weapon the old man will make comments on how you?ve missed your best friend (the hammer) and how sturdy it is. Turns out the world was destroyed by an event called the Calamity as you slept. It seems there are no survivors but you press on to find out what has happened. As you make your way to the Bastion, an isolated structure created by the first survivor in your path, the Old Man, he reveals that it is able to restore the world to its former glory once you find all the missing and shattered fragments needed. It also turns out that the Old Man is also the narrator of The Kid?s adventure.
As the story progresses it becomes vastly more interesting and I don?t wish to give any of the entertaining plot points away, those will be saved for you to enjoy as it unfolds. As you find new treasures and the shards to repair the Bastion, the narrator will constantly be giving you backstory and information that?s relevant to an item you just found or to progress the pace onwards. Logan Cunningham voices the Old Man / Narrator and his performance is so perfectly done that it never comes old with how much you will hear him throughout your 10+ hour journey.
The Kid will have access to two weapons at a time and a shield to defend himself. You?ll eventually have access to a plethora of melee and ranged weapons that vary from hammers, machetes, pole arms, bow and arrows, dual pistols and more. Which weapons you choose to use are completely up to you to suit your play style and you?ll be introduced to a new weapon almost every new level, constantly keeping things fresh and interesting. Each weapon you gain access to will also have a corresponding challenge trial where you can test your skills with specific weapons. Do well enough in these trials and you?ll unlock components to upgrade your weapons later on in the Bastion. With such a variety of weapons, you?re able to completely customize your play style meaning you can be all melee focused, ranged based or a blend of both. Some weapons are better suited for different enemies so you?ll constantly be playing with different load outs to find what works best for you.
Your shield will be able to block almost any attack thrown at you, but you need to make sure you block oncoming attacks from the front, as your back side is always vulnerable. A well timed block will actually counter an attack for massive damage. You?re also able to roll as well to avoid enemies and projectiles so you?re never left defenseless.
As you unlock more shops in the Bastion you?ll have more access to various buildings that will help The Kid in restoring the Bastion. The Forge will be where you upgrade your weapons that will add new effects, damage and more that can be swapped at any time based on what you need (homing arrows with the Fang Repeater is so powerful is almost seems unfair). You?ll also be able to choose one elixir per character level that adds passive perks such as more health, damage, inventory space and more. If you like a challenge you can also invoke shrines to turn up the difficulty for more rewards should you choose.
Near the end of the game you?re given a choice of what you want to happen in the end of Bastion. These choices were quite difficult because they are neither a ?good? or ?bad? choice as it?s all left up to interpretation but they were both very rewarding and fulfilling. There aren?t many games that I instantly start a second play through once I?m done the story, but this is one of those rare occasions that I instantly started the New Game+. What makes it even more enjoyable the second time through is that the narrator will even say slightly different things as if you?ve done this before. ?You already know what happens next don?t you?? is just an example of the amusing quims that will catch your ear the second time through.
Bastion has an incredible visual art style that?s completely unique, loads of weapons that differ from one another, special abilities, perfect pacing, a worthwhile story all wrapped up in a narrative that will be remembered for quite some time. Logan Cunningham seriously has done some of the best narration I?ve ever heard and I?d actually put it on par with the narration that was in Alan Wake as well (which was brilliant).
Leaderboards and a New Game+ mode are not the only reasons for replay value as I tried playing with completely different weapons the second time through and it felt like a completely different game. Bastion has a very memorable soundtrack and score and is easily on par with some of the best XBLA games ever such as Limbo, Shadow Complex and Braid. Supergiant Games is forever on my radar from now on and I cannot say enough great things about how much I enjoyed my time saving the Bastion.
Suggestions: Make a sequel!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System
To get in shape you need motivation. That?s usually the missing ingredient to give someone enough focus to get out to the gym or even outside and exercise. With motivation being the biggest driving factor, be it for health, looks or anything, you need motivation to push yourself and take time out of your busy lives to really stat healthy and get in shape. Back in my time, the only way us gamers got some serious exercise and sweat stained clothes was playing Dance Dance Revolution for hours on end. These days people are much more health conscious and there are numerous fitness games across all different platforms for you to choose from. UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System (UFC Personal Trainer for short from here on) may be for a clique audience of UFC and MMA fans, but even if you aren?t the biggest UFC fan, don?t write this title off right away until you?ve read this whole review. There?s something here for all types of people, regardless of UFC and MMA knowledge. Now first I need to put a disclaimer here about UFC Personal Trainer so there?s no misconception of what this ?game? does and what it?s trying to do. This is not a ?game? in the traditional sense, you?re here to work out and build up a sweat. UFC Personal Trainer also will not teach you how to be a UFC fighter. Yes, you?ll learn some striking and some moves that fighters themselves use but don?t make any false pretenses that you?re going to go from regular Joe to UFC champion by picking this up. UFC Personal Trainer is to get you in shape that a UFC fighter needs to be in for all their fights. You aren?t going to learn how to do an arm bar, omoplata, kimura, guillotine choke, rear naked choke or any other types of submissions or move sets aside from some basic striking with hands, elbows and knees. You?ll effectively be learning basic move sets from MMA like jabs, crosses, uppercuts, hooks, elbows, push kicks, knees and more coupled with basic workout routine moves like sit-ups, jumping jacks, push-ups, leg wipers (I hate you so much), mountain climbs (I hate you even more) and more variants.
I could never get into my wife?s other fitness games for very long due to it not being very interesting for me and generally they aren?t very targeting for my male demographic. This title feels almost the opposite and it seems all these exercises are built for me, you know, not including the whole being a UFC fan of course. It didn?t take long for me to lose interest in Wii Fit after being called obese from the get go (which I?m not, thank you very much) and punching colored blocks in Your Shape just didn?t resonate with me to keep me motivated (there?s that word again) in the long run. Being more focused on combat and athleticism being trained by UFC fighters easily caught my attention.
Once I knew I was going to review UFC Personal Trainer, I was excited as I?ve been looking for some motivation to get into summer shape; being a huge UFC fan helps as well. I was actually on board with doing the full 30 day workout program before writing this review to show my starting and ending results. I committed fully by cutting out all take-out food, pop, ate healthy and everything when I started on day 1 and stick with it quite religiously?.until I started running into issues, but more on that later on.
First things first. You will NEED (I don?t mean suggest) the full eight feet of recommended space for Kinect if you want to do all of the workouts. Normal standing room works just fine for some exercises and activities and usually has no issues recognizing your moves but soon as you need to do moves on the ground that?s where issues start to creep up. I didn?t have the full eight feet of uninterrupted space for Kinect but I did make a work around to get it workable for my living room. I actually had to move my Kinect onto the dinner table off to the side of the TV and play that way. It meant I was facing the table and Kinect instead of the TV, but all I had to do was turn my head to see my instructions. This wasn?t the reason I was running into issues as I had the full amount of space needed with this odd setup.
For some reason certain activities like Leg Wipers, Sit-ups and now that I think of it, almost all leg orientated activity never detected properly even though I was always clearly in view. Kinect does great at recognizing when it works but when it doesn?t you won?t know why even though you?re in the correct play space and doing the activity properly. This is also one of the big flaws in this title, that when you are doing something ?wrong? it won?t tell you why. It?s not like Dance Central where if your limb is out of place, it glows red so you know what to adjust; it?ll simply just not count that rep.
Just like other fitness games, your first objective when starting for the first time will be creating your profile (gender, age, height, weight) then immediately taken to a quick fitness test to determine your fitness level starting point. Sit-ups, Push-ups and Jumping Jacks are how they?ll determine how fit you are apparently. The issue with this is what I noted above, that if you?re doing it ?wrong? it?s not going to tell you why. So even if you can do a hundred Push-ups in the allotted 30 seconds but it doesn?t recognize them properly, it?ll set your fitness level to beginner (but at least you?re able to change its suggestion if needed).
A big feature that UFC Personal Trainer has going for it over other fitness titles is that this is actually approved by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) which has been around for more than twenty years and is the leading authority on these types of workouts. Because of this you know the routines are safe and have actual science behind the methodology.
As you play through the ?game? you?ll easily recognize a bunch of the faces of the fighters and trainers even if you?re a casual UFC fan. Three of the most successful trainers in MMA are included to teach you their workout routines. You can choose between Mark Dellagrotte (Sityodtong USA), Greg Jackson (Jackson?s MMA) or Javier Mendez (American Kickboxing Academy) who has trained some of the best UFC fighters in the world (and current champions) and will take you through a series of workouts you choose that actual fighters would use to get in shape. If you want to hit some pads with some of your favorite fighters you can do that as well; the Kinect version even has four extra fighters (Dan Hardy, Frank Mir, Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian) along with nine extra routines. These routines have been designed to cut weight, improve your conditioning or build your core strength while using MMA techniques.
You?ll always have a fighter or trainer speaking to you or showing you how to do set moves encouraging you to push harder or do better if you don?t meet the set amount of reps. If you need to do ten Push-ups and only do nine you?ll be given a hard time but then be told to do better next time for motivation. Now on the flip side, I was able to do well more than the preset amount of strikes, got an A+ with 140% and I was still told that I can do better next time. Definitely a little confusing and mixed messaging going on that doesn?t always give the proper feedback. Get ready for some of the most repetitive audio though. Seriously, if I hear ?We?re priming the body for a great workout? ever again it?ll be too soon.
Upon hitting the main menu you?re given a few different choices; Workouts, Quick Workouts, Activities, Programs, Player Tracker and Multiplayer. Activities have different options such as Hit the Mits (striking), Free Striking (hit the bag of your choice), Tire Flip and Speed Bag. Tire Flip is entertaining, though it?s difficult to put any real credit into it as there?s obviously no tire and weight behind it; think of it more has a squat and spring-up simulator. The rest are self-explanatory and can be used during your ?off? days of your program to keep your body warmed up and used to even a light sweat.
The Workouts are preset or custom made (which is a great option if you simply don?t have the room for the ground exercises) routines that include a warm-up and cool-down along with the routine. Speaking of the warm-ups and cool-downs, it should be noted that for these you really only need to be standing in front of the Kinect for it to register you?re there since it doesn?t track your movements, score or judge you unlike the actual routines themselves. This means you can cheat during these lengthy sections (though you shouldn?t) and it wouldn?t be able to tell if you were standing there eating a cheeseburger instead of doing leg stretches. With the pre and post routine activities like these being so lengthy (and sometimes longer than the actual routine workout itself) it can be hard to follow it without it telling you you?re not doing it. It?s basically using the honor system, which isn?t a great idea when someone is using this ?game? for a reason.
The star of UFC Personal Trainer though has to be the programs, which can be a 30 or 60 day commitment. After you?ve chosen what type of program you want (strength, weight loss, or cardio) you can then see the month (or two month) long calendar of each day?s activities. One day will have you doing abs, the next legs and the day after that maybe upper body. It keeps things fresh so that it doesn?t over work your muscle groups and keeps things interesting because doing the same routine everyday becomes very stale and not very motivational. It?s just like in a real gym where you don?t do the same exercises two days in a row. In the options you are able to set the game to tell it if you?re going to use extra peripherals such as weights (then will ask how much they weigh) so that it can take that into account into your stats and calorie loss. The calendar is laid out so that you have a rest day now and then so you don?t over work yourself, but you can always do a simple activity or quick workout on those days to keep your daily routine going if you wish.
Everything you do will be tracked. It?ll know how many times you?ve thrown punches, how many calories you?ve burned in various activities, what medals and rewards you?ve unlocked and more. You can see your total play length from day one and even a breakdown of every muscle group so you know if you?re over working specific areas or not enough somewhere else. As you progress you can unlock special rewards like punching bags and even link your tracker to your social networks to automatically show off your progress (not pictures though).
The biggest issue that UFC Personal Trainer has though is that it will show you the proper way to do an exercise before you begin but after that it won?t show you why you are doing something wrong if the Kinect doesn?t properly recognize your movements. For example, if it doesn?t register your pushup it?s not going to tell you to get lower or push your body up higher. So when you do 20 pushups and it only recognizes 3 it can become quite frustrating. Certain activities for me never captured correctly (Leg Wipers) no matter how exaggerated I made the motions in hopes it would pick up my movements correctly. Also, if you miss your limit of ten within the time limit by even one you?ll get quite a stern talking to. The same goes for when you excel past your goal and get an A+, your trainer will still tell you to do better next time.
Surprisingly there is a multiplayer component that allows you to challenge a friend to certain activities or routines to see who?s in better shape. You can do this side by side with someone, hot seat taking turns or over a challenge on Xbox Live. The issue with this is that it?s limited to your friends list though, meaning no random people challenges. You?re also able to create a specific routine if you really excel at something and then challenge your friends; or keep it simple and see who?s better are Tire Flips or the Speed Bag.
As I mentioned above, I was completely one hundred percent committed to doing the 30 day program and making it work for me but then I started running into save issues with my progress. I started the program twelve days ago and on my second day it thinks I didn?t complete my first day?s routine. This meant I had to redo the ab workouts for a second day in a row (you can?t change the preset days routines). On the next day it saved so I was happy and progressed a few days of routines. Day five and it thinks I missed the previous day again even though when you finish the workout you see the checkmark on the calendar and everything. I sweated for twelve days straight and I?m still yet to get my achievement for exercising seven days in a row. Every day that I ?missed? I had to redo the previous day?s routine to make up for it. I?ve even unlocked the same videos and awards twice. The third time this happened to me I was completely demotivated and upset that I wasn?t progressing according to the game. I searched online and read other reviews to see if anyone else ran into this saving issue and sadly I think I?m the only one. So to be fair, I?ve not found anyone else with this issue but it did happen to me quite frequently that made me stop my 30 day program because of it.
Before being discouraged about my issues with the program I set I was quite enjoying it. Yes, the first few days are going to hurt and you will be sore but I noticed that about four or five days in everything seemed to be getting slightly easier. I was doing more reps and without as much strain or resistance from my body. You?ll sweat and it won?t feel like a chore some of the other fitness games make it seem like. It?s very challenging; there?s no doubts about that but if you commit to it you will see results. What it doesn?t do though is give any education about a healthy lifestyle outside of the ?game?. It won?t teach you about eating right or normal exercise so you can?t continue eating fast food and doing this program thinking you?re going to get ripped. But hey, at least it doesn?t call you obese like wii-fit or make you run in place like other fitness titles. This is a tool meant to be used in conjunction with your healthy lifestyle, it just doesn?t? tell you that.
Because Kinect sees your whole body there?s no cheating here (when it works). No half doing those pushups, it sees all of your movements surprisingly even when on the ground. The menus are controlled with your hand like other Kinect games but it can be laggy at times and doesn?t ?snap? to your options like in Kinect Sports. You can also select your options with voice commands but I found they didn?t work well and wasn?t intuitive at times either.
After you do certain routines and exercises you?ll unlock videos that would have been more useful to see beforehand. These live action videos will come from your trainers and the lovely Rachelle Leah. This game might turn out to be the bane of achievement seekers as well as there?s achievements for working out three, five, seven, thirty and even one hundred days in a row.
If form was emphasized more and it told you what you were doing wrong instead of simply just not registering I would have probably enjoyed it even more. Because it doesn?t you have no idea what you are doing wrong or if it?s a Kinect issue. UFC Personal Trainer does a great job at making you feel like you?re actually training in a UFC gym by some of the greats rather than looking silly in your living room. Because of my save issues I do have to knock down the score a little bit but as I mentioned again I couldn?t find anyone else with the same issues as me so don?t take it into account when deciding whether or not to pick this up and start your sixty day program to a better body. In the twelve days I did it before becoming too frustrated with my issues I did lose four pounds and had much more energy throughout the day. It?ll be hard work but it works.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
F.E.A.R. 3
When the first F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) released years ago it managed to differentiate itself among the plethora of the crowded shooter genre with its unique scare tactics and engaging storyline centered around a little girl named Alma. It had solid controls and mechanics like slow-motion; while not unseen before, but done very well with a story that kept you pushing forward as long as you were able to in a single sitting without getting too freaked out. FEAR?s premise from the beginning was all about a compelling storyline while trying to frighten the player as much as possible. The direct sequel was somewhat of a letdown, so when FEAR 3 was announced, I was hopeful that this would play more like the first and give me those scares I loved when Alma would jump out at the screen even though this is being done by a new development studio.
Well, I hope that you?ve played the first two FEAR games inside and out because the information about what happened in the first two games is so scarce that a new player to the series isn?t going to have any clue at what?s going on, who?s who and why. FEAR 3 assumes you?ve played the previous games and will wrap up the loose ties from the first two games rather than help new players (or people who have forgotten) up to speed on what?s happened.
It?s been nine months since the conclusion of FEAR 2?s twisted ending showing Alma using Becket?s (protagonist from FEAR 2) body to make herself pregnant. Point Man returns once again who you played in the original FEAR and is on a mission to stop Alma, his mother, from bringing her newest child into the world at all costs. Point Man was captured and put in a prison to be interrogated only to then be rescued by his brother Paxton Fettel (Alma?s other son and the man Point Man was trying to fight against in the first game). To escape they form an alliance that will undoubtedly be broken shortly, but they need each other to find their mother for their own reasons.
With Point Man no longer helping the F.E.A.R. squad, he is free to do as he likes however he wishes. Fettel is constantly by his side, helping him every step of the way but it?s unclear why until later on once you learn Alma is soon going to be giving birth. I won?t delve too much into the story beyond this, but it?s somewhat interesting if you?ve followed the other games. Unfortunately though if you haven?t, you won?t have any idea who?s doing what for any reason at all. Also, being made by a new studio, the story itself doesn?t seem to have the same impact that Monolith gave it so few years ago. You won?t really connect with many of the characters aide from nostalgia and finally seeing the conclusion of Point Man and Fettel?s relationship in regards to their mother in a short five hour campaign.
Point Man was originally a secret prototype experiment that the Armacham Technology Corporation used Alma?s womb to give birth to him. Alma was tortured, tormented and had paranormal powers which is why she?s seeking revenge from all her pain in the first game. Point Man followed any order given, even those that had him shoot his own brother in the head and set off an explosion in midst of a crowded city.
Fettel was created incase Point Man couldn?t be managed or failed his missions. Fettel was under constant testing and psychotherapy which eventually granted him psychonetic powers to control soldiers. Alma had a psychic connection with Fettle though and was actually able to command him through her thoughts. Eventually Point Man shot Fettel and now he exists almost like a spirit but ever go dangerous and potent. He?s now bound to his brother with an unclear agenda. As you complete intervals (chapters) with Point Man you can then replay them as Fettel which is infinitely more fun and entertaining as Point Man plays like almost any other shooter. Fettel on the other hand can use his powers to control enemies, take their bodies, suspend them in midair and more.
If you were a fan of Becket from FEAR 2 you?ll be happy to know he returns, albeit very briefly and is not given the sendoff he deserved in my opinion, but this is a recurring theme once you see the final credits roll. While I enjoyed the story since I?ve been a fan of the series, the story seems to rushed and is in no way as memorable as the previous games.
Point Man plays like most other shooters with access to two separate guns at any given time and a handful of grenades to help clear a path forwards. You have to think a little strategically with what weapons to carry and reserve ammo at times but I never felt like I had the ?wrong? weapons at any time. As mentioned above, playing as Fettel though is a completely different experience, especially when playing co-op with a friend. Fettel can lift enemies in the air for Point Man to shoot or can take over their bodies for a short amount of time and use their equipped weapons. Fettel can also place a shield on Point Man in those hairy situations much like how a Medic in Team Fortress 2 works. With Fettel being completely overpowered and infinitely more enjoyable to play, it?s simply not as enjoyable to play as your ?standard? Point Man.
There is a cover system ala Gear of War but it is nowhere near as smooth or intuitive. You press ?B? to ?stick? to a wall or cover then either use your triggers or movement stick to peek out and shoot. Sometimes you?ll forget you?re ?stuck? on a wall and can?t figure out why you aren?t able to run forward to your next objective. I guess in a way it?s good that you?re completely attacked to the object, but without pressing the ?B? button again it isn?t going to happen.
You?ll constantly be gaining xp from single player or multiplayer games by fulfilling objectives and finding secrets. You?ll gain xp from maybe reloading 10 times in an interval or using your slow-mo fully three times for example. Complete these mini objectives and you?ll gain small bonuses such as quicker health regen, more slow-mo, larger ammo count and more.
Level design is very linear and even so, you?re somehow able to get lost quite easily since there are no markers or hints telling you the correct direction without trial and error. Some fans will be happy to know that the out of place Mech sections return once again (and are more powerful) though I was never a fan of these sections as they never seemed to fit the original setting.
The most disappointing change to FEAR 3 is the lack of actual fear. The original game was one of those experiences that playing with all the lights off and sound up was a challenge. It was actually scary and gave double meaning to the games title; FEAR. The scariness was toned down quite a bit in the sequel so I had hopes that they would get things back on track with the third title. Unfortunately, it seems that all forms of horror have been taken out of the series as there wasn?t a single scare when compared to the first game. Granted, there are creepy bits scattered throughout the campaign but it?s more creepy than actually scary. Gone are the big ?boo?s that made you actually have fear about every upcoming corner and opening doors. It?s a shame that FEAR 3 is the tamest of the series as it was one of the nuances that really made it stand out when the original was released.
There is a multiplayer component to FEAR 3 aside from co-op in the campaign but don?t expect to find your standard Deathmatch, Team Deatchmatch or Capture the Flag. Surprisingly these standard modes are nowhere to be found and all of the new modes are limited to four players only. In the end I?m kind of glad it?s not just another run of the mill multiplayer that has no depth to it. There are some interesting multiplayer modes but I?m curious about the longevity if you don?t have friends to play along with.
Soul Survivor mode is almost like a zombie infection mode. One person turn into a corrupted soul and they need to try and defeat and corrupt the other remaining players. They are able to use any of the constant onslaught of npc enemies and take control of their bodies much like Fettel does in campaign. Soul King mode is like a twisted take on Halo Reach?s Headhunter mode. Players start off as ghosts that can possess any solider but they need to kill the others and players to collect their souls. Whomever has the most souls at the end of the round wins but this becomes difficult when you die since you lose half your souls.
Contractions mode has you and three friends fending off waves of enemies that seems like a mixture of Zombies from Black Ops and Horde mode from Gears of War 2. As you find supplies outside your home base you?ll gain access to bigger and more powerful weapons. Between rounds you can fix your barricades just like in Black Ops and rounds start to become quite difficult the further in you go as the fog gets thicker and enemies spawn more frequently.
The last multiplayer mode I?ve saved for last as I found this to be the most enjoyable part of all of FEAR 3, campaign included. The mode is actually called F**cking Run and it starts your squad off with a set timer and a checkpoint you need to get to before. The catch is that you have a foggy wall of death right on your heels at all times and you have enemies in your way onto the next checkpoint. There?s no slowing down here to take delicate shots at enemies, if you stop running and someone gets swallowed by the wall of death and the whole match is over. What made this even more interesting is that it?s not just a simple corridor you need to navigate, its actual city streets and alleyways littered with enemies. You?ll even need to go vertically sometimes to the rooftops to make the objective?s time. It?s a very simple concept but it?s scary as hell when you can hear the wall right behind you knowing you need to keep running no matter what. The issue I had with the online multiplayer though was actually finding a game; if I wasn?t hosting it seemed near impossible to find any games by the time the refresh list was done if I was even able to connect at all.
There are two endings to FEAR 3 (Point Man?s or Fettel?s) depending on who scored better during the interval?s playthrough. Both endings were to me vastly underwhelming and unsatisfying that will leave you with more questions than answers; at least the credits roll to ?Mother? by Danzig which is the perfect song to end the series.
There were some things that really bugged me and stood out though that made me really think about what to score the game as a whole. For one, the host of co-op always has to play as Point Man; the only way to play Fettel is to join someone else?s game. This seems unneeded and it?s not explained anywhere either (since there is no instruction book in the actual case).
Lastly, I found it ironic that a game named Fear didn?t scare me even once. The horror factor was a big integral part of what made FEAR so good and now it seems that part of the equation is missing unfortunately. While I enjoyed FEAR 3 because I?m a fan of the series, I don?t think the average person picking this up will know all the missing tidbits of knowledge the game doesn?t give you to piece it all together. Honestly, I think that F**cking Run is what saved the whole experience for me (aside from playing as Fettel) and will keep me playing a little but longer. I do hope that the studio that does F.E.4.R. (If it should happen) learns that FEAR is about a story driven horror game with strong characters that shouldn?t be killed off without a second thought.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Dungeon Siege 3
Growing up, I think I was the only one I knew that wasn?t into the Diablo and Baldur?s Gate style of combat RPG for whatever reason, I just never saw the enjoyment of mashing the left mouse button a billion times. Then along came Dungeon Siege and for some reason ever since that point on, I?ve really enjoyed the genre. Dungeon Siege was Gas Powered Games? first offering and it was simple enough for someone like me to enjoy but also had some mechanics that made their game stand out against all the others. Oh, and I loved my Pack Mule (you will be missed ?Muley?).Gone are Gas Powered Games and in to replace them are Obsidian who you?ll know for bring us Kotor 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas and more. I wanted to believe that that know what they are doing, and with the single player they do prove it, but as you start the multiplayer it seems all that credit and good faith is gone?but more on that later.
The Kingdom of Ehb is still the backdrop for Dungeon Siege III?s story which takes place a century and a half after the events of the first games. The 10th Legion has nearly been eradicated thirty years before the game takes place at the hands of Jeyne Kassynder because of her blame for her father?s death (and also the king) placed on the Legion. Legion member Odo is one of the few survivors who knows of other remaining Legion members and calls for them to regroup at a Legion safe house that was previously attacked and wiped out by some of Kassynder?s army. As you progress, you?ll come across other Legion survivors and sympathizers to your cause (once you do errands for them of course).
Surprisingly the story is quite decent once you learn all the names and plot lines, but it does take quite some time to become more interesting than finding the next piece of loot. The whole ?you?re our last savior? plot may be worn thin by now, but it?s interesting enough to keep you wanting to move forward in the story over the 15 hour play through and all the choices you make during your course will reveal the outcomes once you defeat Jeyne.
In Dungeon Siege III you are given the choice of picking one of four characters but unfortunately there is no customization of their appearance in any way. Lucas Montbarron is your typical warrior style of fighter (and my choice for my first play through) that fights with both a shield and sword or with a large two handed claymore. If you know your Dungeon Siege lore you might recognize his surname, as he is a descendent of ?The Farmer? from the first Dungeon Siege. Katarina uses ranged weapons for her attacks with a long ranged rifle for more powerful but slower attacks, or her pistol and shotgun for a more potent but up close affair. Anjali is a powerful archon who is able to fight in her human form with a spear up close or shift into a fire elemental to blast foes from afar. Lastly is Reinhart Manx who is your other magic user that more relies of debuffs up close or from afar. As you can see, every character has a ?heavy?/long range stance or a shorter and quicker stance for when you become surrounded (which will be quite often).
Regardless of who you choose to play as, you?ll eventually gain the others in your party as the story progresses. Your player choice will also slightly alter some dialogue choices and in-game events that will coincide with their own lore and history relating to the people and surroundings. New to the series though is that you?re only able to have one companion with you at a time during your quest as opposed to all four characters helping you (unless you?re playing online). Regardless of whom you choose to be at your side during fights, they will be controls by the AI but one thing they did get right is the ability to have someone locally to grab a second controller and jump in with you seamlessly. You?re able to swap out your partner at any time for any of the characters as long as you?re out of combat. You can also set your game to be open to friends or anyone across Xbox Live as well, but more on the multiplayer later.
A staple to the genre is using health and mana pots when needed, but Obsidian has done away with this mechanic and made their own which I found actually works quite well. You now have defensive abilities that will use your power orbs (that refill with combat and you?ll gain more after integral storyline sections) which are used to heal yourself, refill focus or other abilities you may have. Using your ?heal? defensive ability will slowly regain your health plus give you more healing the more damage you do in combat while the buff is applied. The only issue with this system is that you don?t get that huge boost to health instantly like you do regular health pots give in other games, so if you delay too long before healing it may be too late (especially if you?re trying to stay out of combat as you regen). You?ll need to learn to block and quite often if you wish to survive and not constantly having to heal yourself.
You have two separate combat stances (one hand sword and shield or two handed sword for Lucas for example) and in each stance you?ll eventually learn 3 separate abilities per stance; totaling for 9 skills including defensive / heal stance. While it may not sound like a lot, which it isn?t, it feels adequate for your combat needs and nothing becomes cumbersome as each ability is always only a button press away. To use your skills you?ll drain some of your focus which is the equivalent to mana in every other game. Use an ability enough times and you?ll eventually gain access to use the empowered version of that skill which will do more damage or other effects; the catch being is that it?ll use one of your power orbs to balance its power.
While nine abilities may not seem like much, the real customization comes in the proficiency points you?re given when you level to make the skills the way you want. You can usually choose an offensive buff for the skill which usually does more damage or slows enemies or a defensive choice that will give more hitpoints or heal your characters. Each ability can get five points spent into it in any mixture of offensive and defensive that you decide. Additionally there are also ten separate passive skills you can put points into which can improve your attack power, critical hits, healing abilities and more. So don?t get too stuck on the ?only nine abilities? downer, as there is a lot of customization elsewhere.
Instead of a health bar above every enemies head they instead have targeting circles below their feet (so you know which one you?re attacking) that will change color relating to their current health (green for full health and red when they?re about to die). Finding your path to your current quest objective while slicing through enemies is never an issue as you?re able to tap ?up? on the D-pad to show you a glowing ?bread-crumb? trail to where you need to go. Most of the time it works perfectly but there is the odd time that it?ll show you where you?re supposed to go before hitting a specific switch.
There are many side quests for you to undertake should you wish but unfortunately none of them felt like they had much weight or gave many rewards worthwhile; which brings me to a big downfall to Dungeon Siege III. You?ll constantly be gaining new loot from almost every enemy you kill which is a big reason people enjoy these types of games, the problem though comes from the quality of loot. You can go for hours before getting a upgrade or two that is worthwhile. It?s definitely a quantity over quality until you get near the very end of the campaign to get those major upgrades and epic loot which was quite a downer. A couple other issues I ran into was that there was so few ?real? big boss fights but plenty of smaller ?mini? bosses that have no real impact once killed other than a decent piece of loot.
Now for the biggest downfall of the game that really brought down the whole experience for me; the online. A game like this and almost every in the genre can have near infinite replayability if the multiplayer aspect is done properly; unfortunately it gets none of those components right. Dungeon Siege III could have had an amazing offering if its online component was actually thought out and done properly.
For starters, you and up to three other people will share a single camera that is set slightly lower than the camera you come accustomed to in single player. This is a horrible decision for multiple reasons. When someone steps away from the controller, no one can move forward and progress. You are also unable to tell when someone is in the menus or not. Also, I enjoyed playing as Lucas, so when I join someone?s game and they?re also playing as him, I need to choose someone else. This means no overlapping characters, which makes sense on paper, but for someone like me that became accustomed to a specific character and abilities, it made playing as someone else very difficult. Also an odd decision; players in your game can sell all your items or buy anything they want wasting all your hard earned coin.
Now, the worst thing about the debacle of online play though is that only the host progresses their character. This means that when you join my game, you?re simply playing one of the characters as a ?henchman? of sorts making my playthrough easier. You don?t progress your character even if it?s the same character, only the host?s game and character progresses. This makes it absolutely pointless to join someone else?s game aside from helping a friend or going for specific achievements.
What has been done very correctly though is the ?consolization? of the series. The game plays like it was meant for a controller and the controls work well once you don?t have to think about specific buttons and accidently hit the weapon swap button instead of interact. Equipping items is easy and telling which loot new is hassle-free, that is unless you want to equip people that aren?t in your current party makeup. To equip items on someone not in your current party you first need to make sure you?re out of combat, go to the menu and swap to the character you want and then swap back to your normal companion after doing so. It makes for a cumbersome experience when all that was needed was a button to swap to any teammate.
Dungeon Siege III is all about instant gratification giving you so much loot you?ll constantly be sorting through it all. Once you realize that there?s very little for big upgrades though until the end, you?ll eventually even stop caring about getting treasure chests since its most likely not an upgrade unless it comes from a boss anyways.
Because of the absurd and worthless online multiplayer there?s sadly much reason to continue playing once you?ve completely the decent storyline, but with no New Game+ mode, you?ll have little reason to keep playing after you do a single play through or two. If the online actually ?worked? and wasn?t completely useless I know I would have enjoyed Dungeon Siege III much more and for a much longer period of time like I did the original two games, sadly now I have a game I finished in a few days and is already on the shelf to collect dust.
Suggestions: Please don't release a multiplayer component that has no use unless you're the host.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Alice: Madness Returns
If you played the first Alice game by American McGee back when it released over a decade ago, then you have an idea of what to expect from a very dark twist on the girl we know Alice and her Wonderland. Don?t fret though if you?ve not played the original, as new copies come enclosed with a download code for a full port of the PC classic. To those new to McGee?s take on Alice?s story, you?ll realize from the moment you see the EA logo at the beginning of the game that morphs into a demented Cheshire cat; you realize you won?t be in the regular Wonderland any longer. Alice: Madness Returns is a completely dark and twisted retelling of the classic novel by Lewis Carroll that I would argue even makes Tim Burton?s take on the movie adaptation look inferior. Alice has been set loose from the insane asylum after the event of the first game and is now an orphan. She still has troubling and disturbing memories of the fire that killed her family years ago and will slip between the realities of the London streets to the Wonderland that she?s created in her mind to try and keep sane. As she delves deeper into Wonderland she?s slowly piecing together bits of truth of what actually happened the night of the fire which in turn slowly starts to destroy her beloved and beautiful Wonderland. Destroying Wonderland is an evil Train of unknown origins and she?ll run into familiar faces along the way such as The Rabbit, Caterpillar, Req Queen, Hatter and others, though they have seemed to have been changed as well during all these years. The Cheshire Cat will help you with riddles and cryptic messages along your path as you fight your way to find the truth about the night of the fire. The game is split into five separate and lengthy chapters that will always have you starting in 19th century London (?reality?) before delving into Alice?s madness that is Wonderland. During the early century London segments (much like Tim Burton?s style), Alice is only able to navigate and there?s nothing to do but explore the scenery as there?s nothing to do or interact with until you simply come to the correct spot for the cutscene to begin. At first I was a little deterred by these short segments, but as you progress during the game it?s a nice change of pace as most of the time (in Wonderland) you?ll be frantically platforming or fighting enemies.
The game begins to shine through its amazing art design and structure once you witness Wonderland for the first time. Your first trip in Wonderland is extremely colorful and vibrant and simply gorgeous; as you delve deeper into Alice?s psyche though you?ll notice quickly how things deteriorate into grotesque and twisted surroundings. Each chapter has a completely unique look and feel and fantastic visual variety, unfortunately though every level is progressed in the same exact way other than the odd mini-game here and there to mix things up. No matter what chapter you are playing, you need to find the switch to open the door to jump platforms to fight the enemies to open a new door. Because of this there is much repetition and the surprisingly long chapters in the end hinder the experience as a whole rather than flesh out a deep plot structure.
Alice begins her journey in Wonderland with a simple knife that can slash enemies quickly. As you progress you?ll squire new weapons like the pepper grinder (machine gun), tea kettle (grenade launcher), a Time Bomb (that also distracts enemies) and the Horse on a stick (Sledgehammer). Every weapon has its own strengths and there are certain enemies that need to be killed with certain weapons, so you?ll need to become fluent in quickly changing weapons and targeting the correct enemy. Luckily there is a lock-on system that works for the most part pretty decently. You?ll never really have much trouble trying to find your enemy to lock onto; the issue arises from the sometimes awkward camera angles when locked on that can obstruct your vision from seeing the enemies. Most weapons are also needed to access your next area such as using the Horse mallet to bash through weak walls or the Tea Kettle to do the same from afar. Alice can also defend herself with her umbrella to stop oncoming attacks or simply dodge out of the way almost instantly.
While combat is an integral part of Alice dealing with her madness, the majority of the game will have you platforming and jumping to progress to the next area and finding the secrets that lie within. Alice is able to triple jump to reach high ledges and use her skirt to float long distances. There will be many bouncy mushrooms to launch you into the air and air vents to float you upwards to traverse Wonderland. Many times you?ll need to bounce high, triple jump and then float to your next platform. My few complaints about the mechanics here is that Alice will not grab onto a ledge so if you miss your jump even slightly, you?ll die, though when you are locked onto an enemy you?ll never fall off (thankfully). The other is that when you do fall off and die you?re never always guaranteed where you?ll be put back. Sometimes you?re right where you fell and others you?ll be back at the beginning of the jumping sequence.
Alice also has the ability to shrink down to a fraction of her true size. This allows her to fit into very small keyholes that almost always lead to a secret area with collectables. Shrinking will also allow Alice to see hidden platforms and walkways drawn in a purple outline. Come near the second half of the game you?ll be using Shrink quite often to see where to land in a seemingly open pit (you don?t need Shrink on to be on the platforms, though you are defenseless while tiny). Exploration is an absolute joy with how well the levels are designed and how gorgeous the art direction is.
A large portion of the Alice gameplay is also finding all the secret collectables that come in the form of memory fragments, bottles and teeth. Yes, teeth. These teeth are your currency to upgrade your weapons as you see fit (4 ranks for each weapon) and make an absolute huge difference when fighting the tougher enemies. You?ll be listening for something odd as well; pig snouts snorting. Yes, find these elusive snouts floating around or on walls and use your pepper grinding on them to reveal a secret path to more collectables.
As mentioned before, the majority of the game will be the platforming and combat but there are a few sections that break up the lengthy monotony. There are a few side-scrolling sections that look like paper cutouts, some sliding sections that will make you think Mario 64, a part where you?ll have to roll a baby?s head across a racetrack, and even a brief section where Alice will actually grow ten times her regular size instead of shrinking to take out an army of card guards (which also had the funniest moment in the game).
I cannot say enough glorious things about the art style and direction McGee has brought once again. He?s outdone himself from the first game by far and I could only imagine how he would make Wonderland look on the big movie screen if it were to ever happen. The writing and voice acting is also top notch. Music and sound is creepy and eerie to fit the mood of Wonderland and the overall feel and simply hearing the enemies will make your skin crawl. An issue I had with all these praises though is the length and pacing of the chapters individually. Simply put, the levels were much too long and because of this you sometime lost motivation to keep going other than trying to find out snippets of information about the fire. Normally I?d praise a game that has lengthy levels to prolong the life of it in your system tray, but when you?re mostly platforming the whole time it can get a little old when each chapter is around three hours to complete.
The other small gripes I had with Alice other than the seemingly forever drawn out chapters was the poor texture pop-ins (though it?s more likely an issue with the Unreal engine it?s using than the game itself), no paper manual at all (give it a cheap feeling soon as you open the game box) and some of the animations are nonexistent. Alice turning to and from the camera for example will instantly ?flip? her so one second you?ll look at her face; the next is the back of her head with no animation in between other than her hair ?flowing?.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, the original Alice from McGee is included in new copies for those that never played or want a refresher, but, there is a catch. The original is actually flagged as DLC for the game, not a separate XBLA download. This means you need this Alice in the tray whenever you want to play the old one. Not a deal breaker, but definitely not the norm or expected. Also, make note that the original Alice is simply a port and not an HD upgrade. The game is over a decade old and looks ugly to today?s standards. You?ll play in 4:3 aspect ratio with stiff controls but it was free, so it?s hard to complain.
Once you get sucked into the beautiful world of Wonderland you?ll be drawn in and amazed with how unique McGee?s imagination is about a story we all knew growing up. This is not your friendly Disney version of Alice in Wonderland or anything even close. This is Amercian McGee?s twisted and amazingly complex Alice that tells a tale of a girl who?s on the brink of losing her mind and what she must to do save it and Wonderland. Find the rabbit hole and visit Wonderland, hopefully you?ll be as drawn in as I was.
Suggestions: Not for the developers no, but someone in power please let McGee make his version of the movie!
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Child of Eden
I was asked the other day to describe Child of Eden to someone that hasn?t played it yet and naturally the first thing I asked was if they had played Rez (or Rez HD) but they hadn?t. This kind of left me stumped at how to describe the uniqueness that is Child of Eden (and Rez for that matter) as there truly is no other game like it in its own specific genre. First off, I?ll be referencing Rez quite a lot in this review as Child of Eden is its spiritual successor without actually being Rez 2. Tetsuya Mizuguchi (known as Miz for short) is the series creator and is also the mastermind behind other games like Lumines and Space Channel 5 (and Rez obviously). His games are very unique and try to blend in gameplay along with rhythm and music.
If you?ve not played Rez or made sense of videos for Child of Eden I?ll do my best to describe it. In essence it?s a first person shooter (no guns, just a reticule) that is on rails (so no movement from a character is necessary) that looks like it takes place in the mind of someone tripping through a psychedelic kaleidoscope. The shooting mechanics is coupled alongside unique visuals and synthesized techno-ish music that?s really more of an experience than a game. Because of the inclusion of Kinect controls your Kinect will no longer just be a Dance Central machine any longer thanks to Miz?s vision and superb control schemes.
Technically there is a story to Child of Eden but it?s more of an interpretation more than a plot line you follow. Shortly in the future the first human born is space on the International Space Station and is named Lumi. She lives her whole life in space and desires to experience Earth and all of its surroundings and her feelings are expressed through songs and messages sent to Earth. After she passes her digital imprint (along with the complete human history and all memories) has been saved on the next evolution of the Internet now called Eden. Your task playing Child of Eden is to stop unknown virus?s attacking Eden thus saving it and all of Lumi and humankind?s past for the rest of the universe to find and experience. As you complete stages you?re actually purifying the archives of Eden as you attempt to awaken Lumi from her slumber. Yes, on paper this makes no sense, and technically in-game it doesn?t really either, but again, you?re playing Child of Eden for the experience and everything is open to interpretation. You?ll simply get lost in the amazing visuals and trance music.
As you purify enemies and defeat them they?ll produce a melodic sound that seems to genuinely fit in seamlessly with the archives soundtrack. As soon as you begin the game you?re going to be completely lost at what to do (and even why), even if you?re a Rez veteran it?ll take some getting used to (as you now have a secondary shot as well). Just like Rez, you?ll need to shoot the enemies and objects on the screen which if done with proper timing, will sound like it?s simply part of the song.
You main weapon, called the ?Octo-lock? is essentially the same weapon you used in Rez. It allows you to lock onto eight targets at once before firing which you?ll next extra points if done in sync with the background music. New is a secondary weapon that shoots tracers and is weaker than your main weapon but it shoots rapidly and can destroy incoming projectiles shot by enemies (and is needed to take down specific enemies). This means you?ll be switching between your two firing modes quite often to destroy objects on screen and to survive incoming attacks.
Some levels are very organic feeling with jellyfish, whales and more while others will have a distinct techno hard edge polygon feel to them. You?ll face off against a boss at the end of each archive which will test your balance of offence with Octo-lock and defense with the tracers from all the incoming projectiles. You?ll usually have a few moments of repeated Octo-locks to try and boost your score and to keep with the beat of the song.
You?re encouraged to play through the separate archives multiple times with many unlockables like gorgeous art pieces, videos and even separate audio and visual filters that become unlocked after saving Lumi. You?ll also unlock an extremely challenging survival mode that?s all based around your highest score and staying alive. You?ll also unlock Hard Mode once you complete the game that makes enemies do double damage and is for those that are a glutton for punishment.
Being the Rez fan that I am, I was honestly a little skeptical at how good the Kinect controls would suit a game like this that requires quick reflexes and a good eye all while keeping a beat. After a single try I was hooked and actually preferred it to the regular controller scheme. Somehow Child of Eden is meant to be played with motion controls. Your Octo-lock is bound to your right hand and flows across the screen seamlessly, launching your eight lock-ons when you thrust your palm towards the screen. Your left hand controls your Tracer Gun which you?ll need more frequently the further into the archives you delve. At first it feels a little awkward but after one level you really stop thinking about it and it all becomes natural as you sway your arms around almost as if you?re conducting the action happening on the screen. To use bombs you lift both hands in the air as if you are wiping the screen of any enemies and there are even other controls schemes that can have you clapping to switch weapons if you prefer, though I preferred the default scheme.
I really enjoyed Child of Eden when I started out playing with the controller but once I started playing with Kinect it was a whole new experience. The subtle gestures you make with your hand are easily recognized and gameplay feels much smoother and more like an experience that will have you tapping your foot as you play trying to go for those bonus points by releasing your missiles to the beat.
Just like in Rez HD, you are able to set any or all of your controllers to vibrate for anyone else that wants to ?join in?. It?s almost a running joke with the series as Rez had an extra peripheral that was simply to vibrate strongly to the games music for your significant other to have in their lap as you played.
While Child of Eden is a short adventure with only 5 main stages that you?ll complete the first time in less than two hours, the replayability comes with collecting unlockables and trying to beat your friends on the leaderboard (which I give props to Miz for separating the controller and Kinect leaderboards). Sadly when it?s over you?ll want more and I doubt there will be DLC song add-ons but one can hope. Changing the visual or audio filters sets the difficulty to a whole new level and will make the purple objects you need to shoot with Tracers near invisible for those that love a challenge.
Once you get the hang of the fluid controls it almost feels as you?re orchestrating some visual sensory overload that will have anyone not familiar with the game completely glued to the screen trying to decipher what you?re actually doing. If you buy Child of Eden (and I highly suggest doing so) please ensure you have a Kinect sensor to truly experience everything the game has to offer. For the first time you can actually believe the front of the game box where it says ?Better with Kinect?.
Suggestions: Please make DLC song to further the experience!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Brink 
When Brink was first shown a short time ago, it quickly got some hype behind it for the visual uniqueness it brought and some of the ideas it wanted to implement; being published by Bethesda probably helped quite a bit as well. It was boasting about bringing a new experience to the shooter genre and it was even going to have a parkour element ala Mirrors Edge. Brink is also a team and class based shooter much like Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and others in the genre. In this sense, Brink will feel somewhat familiar, but it?s also going to feel completely new?.and awkward at the same time. Brink is brought to us by Splash Damage who is the team that brought us the Enemy Territory games from past so it?s made by a team that knows what they are doing; my guess is that they were almost too ambitious of an idea they wanted to create, because the outcome is a confusing mess of great individual ideas.
Brink is an odd game, and I say this because it plays much like TF2 and other class based shooters, but there?s so much going on constantly that you?re always going to be confused at what to do and when, even after the long and steep learning curve. When you play with friends that know the game and their roles, Brink is a great gaming experience, but if you?re unable to constantly play with some friends, you?re simply not going to enjoy Brink very much.
Set in the future, much of the world has flooded and severe population has made the population retreat to a floating city called ?The Ark?. Eventually the Ark is too crowded and a civil war erupts between the two factions: Resistance or Security. Each side has their story of trying to escape or save the city and you?ll have to choose a side straight from the beginning.
The problem with being forced into choosing a side right away is that you aren?t given enough backstory or information to pick the ?right? side for your beliefs. You?ll quickly learn though that choosing really has no bearing as you can play either campaign?s missions at any time, freely swapping sides to see each side of the conflict. Honestly, there?s little to worry about as you?re basically just picking a general look preference as your persistent character you level can change their look, class, weapons and faction whenever you want. There are cutscenes before and after each mission, but you won?t care, the story is not engaging in the slightest bit and once you learn that the single player is just bots until people join you online, you simply won?t care about the Ark and why you?re fighting for it (or to leave it).
Technically there is a single player campaign mode but in reality it?s you playing a multiplayer match with bots instead of other players. Brink is trying to blur the line between single and multiplayer, but because of how shallow the campaigns experience is, you simply won?t care about any of the story.
Every mission is essentially a specific map with set objectives (each faction has their own set to complete before the other team does, or has to hold the enemies off). So as you start playing solo, you?ll have bots to fight alongside you, but you?ll quickly learn which are bots, as the AI for your squad mates is abysmal. Some of the latter missions on hard difficult is virtually impossible when your bots playing a medic won?t even revive you. On the other side, the AI can be punishingly tough and kill you almost instantly as soon as you start shooting them. You?ll need to play online constantly to really progress in any fashion but at least you can set it to friends only or open to all. Honestly, the campaign shouldn?t even exist as it doesn?t even play out like a single player experience. You can imagine the frustration as well when your open game gets filled with player, but they get put on the opposite faction as yourself.
Brink boasts four separate and unique classes that almost mimic what you will see in Team Fortress 2. Medics are self-explanatory as they can revive downed player and buff health, Soldiers can refill your team?s ammo, engineers are the ones with turrets and buff weapons and there are also the sneaky operatives. Each class has their own abilities and each class does feel distinct compared to the others. You?ll need your team to organize who?s going to be what class though as if everyone goes Soldier for example, you simply won?t win, you?ll need a balanced team to progress in your objectives. Luckily no class is left out from wielding specific weapons, that?s all based on your own personal progress and unlocks based on mission and levels.
As mentioned above, Brink has a parkour element that is what intrigued me about the game when I first heard about it a year or so ago. The system is called SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) which is done easily by holding down a single button and you?ll automatically traverse up or over it if it?s possible. Having a single button to achieve this, especially in the midst of a heavy battle, is great but it?s also limited at the same time and it won?t always be clear until much trial and error to what can be traversed over. On the same note, you?ll sometimes climb something you don?t want to or even going too far because you were holding the button down. I think the R for Random in SMART is accurate and the map design doesn?t really call for any situations where you?ll flank the enemies greatly simply because you remembered to vault up and over something.
Character customization is an integral part of Brinks experience, both visually and with innate perks. As you level up you unlock more outfits to customize your character to any style you desire. There?s quite a lot of choices for head, arms, legs, faces, hair and more and it?ll come down to the limit of your imagination. More than just aesthetically, you will also be able to experiment and create your abilities in any way you wish as well to suit your play style. If you make a mistake you can simple repsec with a hit to XP loss or make a completely new character to level differently. There?s also weapon unlock to change and buff your loadouts but these are only acquirable through single player only missions that are tough and frustrating to play. Playing online as much as I have, I rarely see people with unique weapons for this reason (that and you really need to know where to look to find these unlockables as it is hidden in the menus).
Each level has its own objectives (for both sides) that need to be completed in a set time limit. Sometimes you?ll need to defend an onslaught, steal Intel and bring it back to base, blow barricades, escort VIPs and more. The opposing faction?s objectives will always be to prevent you from completing yours which makes for some fierce battles once your team figures out what to do. The pacing is staged and new objectives unlock as you progress past each stage, the frustration comes from simply figuring out what you need to do at a said time.
When players are downed, medics are given an objective to revive players, when enemies place an explosive on a door, engineers objectives will be to disarm it and so on. There?s always something for everyone to do other than simply killing the other team but the issues lies in the interface. For starters, you need to hold down a button to bring up the objective wheel then you can choose to highlight any objective which starts to make things cluttered very quickly. This even begins to impede on your shooting skills as you won?t always instantly who is friend or foe. While there?s no team damage, you?ll waste much ammo and grenades on your own team unknowingly in all the confusion.
At launch, Brink?s lag when playing online (which is really the only way to play) was crippling to the point of being unplayable. I?m not exaggerating either, as you would rubber band for the whole match even when you found a ?good? room. When a game that is so dedicated to being played online, this is simply excusable. Now to be fair, there?s been a recent patch that has mostly fixed the lag issues, but there are still some unplayable gaps when first joining a server and the odd time here and there which only stacks on top of the games mechanics frustrations. It?s been made better, but it?s not fixed. Requiring players to constantly be communicating in a team based game also made the lag a deal breaker.
Brink visually sets itself apart from any other shooter with its very unique and odd artistic style. Characters are embellished and slightly cartoony but the facial detail is astounding and quite varied. Unfortunately Brink is riddled with issues that bring down its package as a whole though. AI is so useless that you can?t play single player with any consistency; grenades are useless and pack no punch or radius and most players simply aren?t going to get good at the game due to the very steep learning curve (I had to have someone tell me how to revive when a medic ?saved? me).
The loading times between missions are painfully long and I highly suggest installing the game to the hard drive if you plan on playing for a prolonged time. Brink is the epitome of a love it or hate it game. I was somewhere in the middle as I can see the potential Brink has but I didn?t have a full team of friends to constantly play with as playing online with random people usually doesn?t work out for the best. If you can figure out the objective wheel and have a static group of friends to compete with, Brink has much potential to be played for a long time; that?s a big if though.
Brink is simply confusing and I don?t think many players will give it the time needed to figure everything out. Sadly it also doesn?t live up to most of the expectations it had when it was first shown either. The SMART system on paper is an amazing idea to be implemented into a shooter but poor map design where you can?t even make much advantage from it makes it feel flat and pointless. Constantly progression your character and the deep customization is a big plus but this too is also much trial and error.
Brink feels large but as I went through the menus I quickly realized there?s not even a dozen maps in the game, so while you play both ?sides? of the maps, they do become old very quickly. As I previously said, technically there?s a campaign mode it really? isn?t a streamlined story experience we?d expect from any other shooter?s story. It feels like Brink is trying to take Team Fortress 2 to the next level and while it has many of great ideas, it?s the perfect example of why mashing a bunch of different ideas together doesn?t always work. I?d honestly wait until there?s a Game of the Year edition (if there is going to be one) down the road as the amount of content included on the disc as it is now is just too bare of an experience to justify full price at this time with the issues it still contains.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Being the huge Transformers fan that I am I?m eagerly anticipating the third movie to come out very shortly. With a huge new summer movie there of course needs to be a corresponding video game to go with it. Previously, the Transformers movie tie-in games weren?t terrible, but they were also very forgettable (not including War of Cybertron). Almost exactly one year ago High Moon Studios pulled off a miracle; they made a Transformers game that was absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite releases of the year. This was because they got to do their own story and seemingly have more freedom (and time) that a movie based game would allow. High Moon is once again heading this Transformers game but unfortunately it?s clearly had time restraints working against them as the magic created with War of Cybertron sadly does not return this time around. The problem with movie games is that they have a strict deadline and much too short a development cycle to really flesh out a well written and paced game. With Dark of the Moon it?s clear that the studio was confined to the movie events and having everything happen on Earth for it to tie in with the upcoming movie. It?s clear that they wanted to break the stigma of movie based games but sadly it doesn?t even come close to how good War for Cybertron was a short year ago.
While the game shares its name with the upcoming movie, it?s not a retelling of the movies events, thus no spoilers for those like me waiting for it to release. The game is actually a prologue to the movie that ends just as the movie is about to begin, giving some back story to events we won?t see in the film. The Autobots uncover the Decepticons plan to repair Megatron to his former glory and also release a dangerous foe to fight against Optimus and his Autobots.
You will start the game off as Bumblebee racing to upload a virus into the Decepticons network system to spy on their plans and locate any remaining foes on Earth. You?ll then play as Ironhide trying to defend Detroit against the Decepticons oncoming attacks while Ratchet helps the humans escape from the city. Mixmaster captures Ratchet and you must eventually defeat him to save Ratchet and get your weapon upgrades. I won?t go into much detail of the later levels, but as you may pick up already is that everything you?re doing almost feels like it?s always leading up to a big event but never happens. Sure there are some boss battles (like Mixmaster) but none were very challenging (except the final sequence) or all that rewarding to push forward the plot.
Unlike how War of Cybertron divided up the plot into two halves (Autobot and Decepticon) the campaign in Dark of the Moon is one story where you?ll start off the first half playing the Autobot side and then later the Decepticons. I thought this would make the story flow but it actually felt more disjointed than War of Cyberton because one minute you?re saving the world trying not to allow collateral damage and the next you want to blow up everything you see. I guess it could be worse, it could have been the same levels played from both perspectives, so luckily level design didn?t deteriorate into that.
For me the saving grace of the story is that it will give you some details that apparently aren?t given in the upcoming film such as how Megatron got his new vehicle form (which honestly was a letdown and could have been a big event in the lore), why Ironhide has different weapons than before (which I mentioned about needing the upgrade to defeat Mixmaster) and more. Obvoiusly I?ve seen the movie yet but if a few things like this aren?t explained in the film I?m wondering how they will make sense for people that don?t complete the game over the course of its seven (and extremely short) chapters.
One of the biggest game mechanic changes is the new Stealth Force mode; a hybrid vehicle mode that also bears their weapons to defend themselves at the same time. While in Stealth Force mode you can maneuver almost like a hovercraft with full steering control in any direction all while having access to your arsenal (though different weapons than your main robot form weaponry). Holding down the Left Trigger will make you sheath your weapons to gain more speed (boost is available as well) when you need to make a far jump off a ramp or get away quickly. While in robot form you need to reload your main weapons quite often but while in the hybrid mode your weapons have endless ammunition. Because of this, there?s very little reason to traverse in robot mode unless needed for specific reasons. I honestly think I played through the game mostly in Stealth Force mode than in robot form which felt off.
The weapon system you got used to in War for Cybertron has been completely scrapped and now you?re stuck with the guns that are set for each different Transformer you?ll play (two in vehicle mode and two for robot form). Your special abilities have a set cool down period and while powerful you really won?t be using them much since you?ll almost always be in vehicle form. For some reason though the lock-on while in robot form is Left Trigger and while a vehicle it?s Left Bumper which is really confusing when trying to learn the game and you can?t figure out what your shots aren?t locking on.
Each Transformer you play feel essentially feel the same but some of them do stand out uniquely from the others. Mirage for example has a cloaking ability and massive blades on his arms that allow for devastating melee hits. Megatron?s cannon sounds and feels powerful and he can even siphon life away from nearby enemies which surely makes you feel evil like Megatron should. The Soundwave level was easily my favorite though (other than him being my favorite Transformer of all time) as he is extremely powerful as he should be and you also get to control Lazerbeak for a portion of the stage.
When you complete the very short campaign and hunt for the lingering achievements you?ll at least have multiplayer to keep the disc in your system for a while, but I?m not sure for how long. The multiplayer from War of Cybertron returns for the most part but with this game?s mechanics in place obviously. Essentially it?s the same multiplayer from before with up to 10 players in a match in three different modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Conquest.
Just like the previous game, you are able to customize your Transformer for each of the 4 separate classes (Scout, Commander, Hunter and Warrior). Just like before as well, each class has their own vehicle modes, strengths and weaknesses. As you level up you can pick what weapons, abilities and perks you want to compliment your play style. If you have some friends and actually use some strategy in creating your classes to play off one another it can be a deep multiplayer experience but with only 3 modes and 5 maps I feel it?s going to get old quickly if there is no new DLC for it soon. Completing campaign will unlock some more bots for you to use and while there are kill streak rewards, these can?t be changed and it?s the same for everyone regardless of what class you play.
The biggest issue I had with Dark of the Moon was the length of the campaign. I sat down with it after my breakfast at 10:30am and by the time the credits rolled it was just a little after 1pm. Yea that?s right, I did it in one sitting in under 4 hours. Yes it has a multiplayer mode to keep you going but for a full priced game that won?t last an afternoon, this has rental written all over it. The bigger issue is that nothing really feels resolved in any way. Yea you fight a final boss and obviously they are saving all the main action for the movie, but for it being so short and no real conclusion it?s terribly disappointing.
Some other issues I had were the mandatory driving sections that don?t give you a clear direction where to go and the stealth sections with Mirage. It feels so out of place and it?s not all that easy to know what to do and where to go. You?ll eventually figure it out but when you play a few levels and blowing everything up then all of a sudden have to sneak around with a short timed stealth, it becomes frustrating being spotted for the tenth time.
Nothing in the game was really all the memorable other than the final confrontation (which was a fun boss fight) and the standoff between the leaders. With very little to do in single player other than hunt for hidden Autobot and Decepticon symbols and the odd objective for specific achievements, it?s hard to justify and full priced purchase right away, even if you?re a Transformers nut like myself.
Honestly, I don?t blame High Moon as I know what they are capable of given the time and freedom. While Dark of the Moon may not be as terrible as most movie games out there that we?ve come to loathe, it?s not that great either and you?ll be done with it in a short amount of time. Sadly I have to dock some score for the length of single player and the non-conclusion regardless of my fanboyism and bias love towards the Transformers universe.
With the voice actors doing their job perfectly and hearing Peter Cullen?s voice once again (who will also be THE Optimus), the sound design is decent but I?m really just using the game as some backstory for the movie coming out and to tide me over until they are going to release War for Cybertron 2 to get my Transformers fix.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
DiRT 3
For a game these days to stand out apart from the crowd it usually need some new mechanic or to be a very polished and simply fun game to play. There?s only so much you can do in the racing genre to add new mechanics to keep it fresh and inviting to play. Dirt 3 has gone the polished route (over new mechanics) and it?s apparent how much care has gone into making Dirt 3 a very polished and fun experience to play for anyone of any skill level. Dirt 2 was fantastic and brought some new fans to the genre; Dirt 3 looks to do the same once again all while adding new features to the series and making it almost easy enough for anyone to play and enjoy. The game expands the car list, locations, tracks and modes to make a much more rounded experience. Vets of the series can play with all assists off and you?ll truly appreciate how difficult the sport is, while newer players to the series can have a very hand-held experience to the point of auto braking and turn-assist that make even the most difficult courses easy enough to rank first. Be warned, having it set to easy with all the assists on is simply way too easy (you never have to let go of gas and won?t ever hit a wall) and customizing it to the hardest difficulty will make it a challenge to simply keep the car straight.
Campaign will take you across four racing seasons (and an unlockable ?master? once completed) which will take you many hours to master locations far off in Norway, Kenya, Aspen, Monaco and even closer tracks in the United States. With over a hundred different tracks (many being variants) you?ll be racing through snow (which is new to the series), mud, dirt, rain and more on your quest to place first in each race.
Most of your races will take place off-road (hence the title?s name of course) from rally to trucks and even buggies. Rallycross was easily my favorite race mode and will have that X-Games style to it, others might enjoy the head to head races which will have two racers racing each other at the same time on side by side courses trying to beat each other?s time (though you won?t ever meet in an intersection) and others will really enjoy the new Gymkhana style racing, but more on that later. Tracks can feel completely different with the variants of night racing and weather conditions so you?ll never feel bored saying ?oh, this course again??.
As you progress in your career you?ll unlock new types of racing focusing on different styles and disciplines and even a compound where you can freely train your new skills. Almost every racing game out there has the same progression system in place that has you racing to win money to buy and unlock new cars as you go. Dirt 3 does things quite differently where instead of collecting money to purchase your new rides, you?re racing for reputation which will increase your driver level and attracting new sponsors, this giving you more vehicles to ride. Instead of having a garage with all your owned cars, you?re given choices of what vehicle you want to race a certain event with based on your driver level and rep. It?s a little odd at first wondering why you can?t always use your preferred car, but I found most of the cars handled more or less the same (though they can all be tweaked to your racing style).
You?re going to need to learn the tracks intensively if you want to rise in the standings and shave time off your best runs. This will take some time with the different tracks and driving surfaces; for example, taking a hairpin turn on dirt feels completely different than on an iced over road or in mud. You?ll crash many times before you learn the small intricacies of perfect speeds and angles for each track and vehicle style. Even though you?ve slowed down enough to take the turn, you might need to come in at a tighter angle or start drifting sooner to make that perfect slide.
This is where the difficulty changes mentioned earlier comes into play. Dirt 3 has a high learning curve if you?re not a racing game enthusiast and this is where the Casual difficulty even let my wife stay competitive racing against me. Casual difficulty with all assists on will almost feel like an arcade racer and you?ll have to make a server mistake to knock yourself out of a race or crash. For those that are racing legit (sorry Casual setting users, its true) there?s a Flashback system in place that we?ve seen before. This allows you to essentially rewind time and go back to before you started skidding out and lost control. You only have a limited amount of uses of Flashbacks but to promote driving better and not use them, you?ll get bonus rep for unused Flashbacks.
So what?s new to Dirt 3? The biggest addition would have to be the Gymkhana events that are essentially a trick orientated style of driving. It has drifting in it that we?ve come to know and love, but this freestyle mode has you ?tricking? together insane maneuvers to keep the crowd excited and entertained. Ken Block was really the pioneer of this style of freestyle racing (check out his youtube videos to be amazed) which is why he?s also included in the game to teach these maneuvers to you. You get points for linking spins, drifts, breaking targets and more. These moves when stringed together by an expert is so entertaining to watch and it?s even more exciting to pull off once you master the harsh driving style.
This is where I?ll warn you, the Gymkhana maneuvers are extremely difficult to pull off with precision and that?s not even taking into account that you need to chain these moves together one after another. You will become frustrated and some of the moves don?t feel natural to do (turning the opposite way you?re travelling for example), but it is the proper way to do it (in the game and in real life apparently) and will take some time to learn to do properly. With enough dedicated time you will get the hang of it but just be warned that it does have a high learning curve to do properly.
Racing games have let you share your best replays for quite some time with some sort of in-game video editor and share but Dirt 3 will let you link your Youtube account for easy uploading. Now this is a cool feature, but it is extremely limited as you?re limited to 30 second clips at a time (and only in 480p), so no full races to show off your perfect run. It will also take up to ten minutes to render and upload, which you have to sit and watch the progress bar instead of it being done in the background as you resume play. You also can?t save replays of full races so if you don?t upload your clip right away (or after the race is immediately over) or accidently back out, you lose that replay forever. It?s a good step in the right direction but with it being so limited and taking an obscene amount of time to upload, I stop using it after a few short replays.
Dirt 3 is a gorgeous looking game. The cars have great detail, the environments (though usually always going by quickly) do look fantastic and detail in general is superb. While I would still put Forza on the top of the pile for graphics in comparison, Dirt 3 definitely can hold its own for the stylish looks. The same goes for the car sounds as it?ll always sound like you have a beast of a machine taking the tight corners.
Up to eight players can compete online but Split screen and System link are included as well (and are often forgotten). You can customize that style of race you wish to compete in and can even turn on or off options such as forced cockpit view and more.
Dirt 3 has some of the most unique multiplayer modes that I?ve ever seen in a racing game though which should be commended. The most unique would have to be the zombie mode. Yes, you heard me right, there?s a zombie mode in a racing game. One random car is the ?infected? and needs to slam into other cars to infect others with that last ?survivor? that hasn?t been hit being the winner. The Invasion mode will have your team of racers trying to defend earth from robots which needs you run into cardboard cutouts of them while avoiding the cutouts of buildings. Transporter mode was my favorite which is essentially a capture the flag that randomly sets a flag somewhere in the area and it needs to be transported to the final check-in with the person delivering gaining the point.
If you?re a Dirt fanatic and have $300 to spend on an insane collector edition, Dirt 3 has you covered. For $300 you will get Dirt 3 (obviously) and a fully assembled Ken Block Gymkhana RC Car that is huge and completely usable to do donuts, drifts and other stunts you?ll be performing in the game. It?s modeled exactly as the car he races (and you will be in-game as well) and from all the videos shown, it?s an insanely fast RC car. This is no Toys R Us brand car you had as a kid, this is professional grade that can actually enter into RC Gymkhana events, if you have the cash that is.
Just like almost every other game today, you?ll get a onetime use ?VIP Pass? which will enable the online multiplayer modes and unlock some exclusive cars for new game purchasers. People buying Dirt 3 used will need to shell out 800 Microsoft Points ($10) to enable online and unlock these cars.
While no game is perfect, Dirt 3 is extremely polished and clearly wasn?t rushed before it was ready. The only big downfall I have to make note of is the amount and length of loading in the game. Before and after every event you?ll need to load the race naturally, but it?s obscenely long for how short some of the races are themselves. I would say it?s on par with the elevator loading length from Mass Effect it?s that noticeable; but at least you can slightly move the camera showing off your car while zooming in and out to keep you entertained for the duration.
Dirt 3 is simply a solid racing game. While it may not bring any crazy new features or mechanics, the complete and polished package it brings makes up for it in stride. The different difficulty settings makes Dirt 3 accessible to almost any experience level of gamers and the vast majority of modes will keep your interest and the disc in your tray for some time. Even if you?re not a huge fan of the genre, you won?t go wrong with Dirt 3 as it really will have something for almost everyone?s style and tastes.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Thor: God of Thunder
Another one of Stan Lee?s characters has come to life in the movie medium and because of that we also get the tie-in video game to go along with it. The Thor character from the comics has been around for almost half a century and Thor?s been in many a battle on Earth and in the Nine Worlds. I just saw the movie this weekend and thought it was decent considering I was never into his lore or comics growing up with Chris Hemsworth doing an amazing job portraying the God of Thunder. Well, that?s about the entire amount of good things I have to say about Thor you?re going to read in this review. Here we have once again a rushed game movie tie-in that is the exact reason that movie to game adaptations have a horrible reputation (other than the very few titles that seemed to work out; Spiderman I?m looking at you).
The front of the box denotes that the game features the likeness of Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) as if that?s going to be the deciding factor in your purchase. Yes they look like them from the movie and are apparently voice by them also, but the quality of voice acting in the whole game makes me question if it was rushed or even planned ahead of time.
You?ll be battling to save Asgard from destruction with a new storyline created specifically for the game (but also set in the same universe as the movie), but don?t let that fool you; you won?t really care what happens to Thor?s home world after a few hours of trying to control him. You?ll quickly see how rushed and unpolished the game is once your simply a few fights into the game.
You need to know first off that this isn?t just a retelling of the movie?s plot, so I guess one upside is that there is no spoilers (though why you?d buy this and not see the movie first is beyond me). The story is somewhat of a prequel to the movie though many events in the game make absolutely no sense if they were to carry over into the movie storyline. Because of this, developer Liquid Entertainment was able to have more locals and worlds that aren?t seen in the movie. Don?t let this fool you though, many worlds are simply a ?pallet swap? and the ice world is essentially the same thing as fire and so on with enemies that do the same things but look different.
Asgard is invaded by frost giants at the very beginning and Thor needs to repel the invaders after Sif is killed in the pandemonium. This should have been a major plot spin later in the game but because of the horrible voice acting all around, I simply didn?t even care what happened. You?ll travel from world to world trying to find the leaders that will pay. If you?re a fan of the comics then you?ll at least enjoy that Surtur, Ymir and more of Thor?s enemies will be shown in the game; the downfall is that you?ll actually have to play the game to see and battle them. Because every action in the game essentially ignores and negates what happens in the movie, it almost feels as if there is no point. Having a strong story leading up to the start of the movie would have been a fantastic ploy for Thor fans to pick up the game, even if it wasn?t a triple A title.
Now if the gameplay was amazing or unique, I could give the horrible story and voice acting a pass; unfortunately though I think you know the answer. Thor is essentially a hack and slash that?s simply trying too hard to mimic a God of War style gameplay. You?re Thor with the mighty hammer Mjolnir but it?ll feel as if you?re swinging around a stick with no sense of power whatsoever. Even your strongest attacks will almost always miss or feel like they do no damage at all.
Thor?s legendary hammer is supposed to be something of almost limitless power, yet the smallest enemies will take multiple hits to simply defeat. You will have control of the Lightning, Thunder and Wind elements to help Thor but these special powers that use their own meter that needs refilling also feels very weak also. As for regular combat, the biggest problem lies in the hit detection boxes. Many attacks will have you completely guessing if they are hitting or not, in-air moves are almost completely useless (except for larger bosses, but that is even debatable) and while you have a vast selection of moves and combos at your disposal, once you find a single one or two you like (and that actually work) you?ll essentially be spamming that sequence the whole game. Moves will look cool but lacks a large amount of polish (and fixing obviously).
Poor camera and glitches will also frustrate you in combat. Trying to do a specific combo such as X, X, X, X, Y for example will almost never work as it seems there?s a lag on the input of button presses. Couple this with having to deal with a block that rarely works and a dodge that isn?t actually fast enough to dodge and you can see why frustration levels will rise. While smaller enemies will react when hit it seems bosses will barely even flinch at anything that hits them so you?ll always be guessing if you?re actually doing it properly or not.
Speaking of boss fights, you?ll be facing many large enemies in specific sections of the game that are as cheap as they come. First you need to hit them enough to break their armor off (which is guesswork at best) and once they are vulnerable you are able to grab them to start a somewhat quicktime event sequence. You are able to normally attack to get some health back or you can decide to do a massive damaging attack on the boss; this is of course if you are quick enough for the incredibly small window you?re given to input a command. You?ll also be able to on some bosses climb them to their shoulders to damage or destroy some of their armor. This again has a very small window open in which you need to press the specific button or you?ll get knocked off. You?ll have to spam the grapple button on a vulnerable boss due to the small icon to show that the boss is ready to be climbed being so small that it almost blends in (providing you are able to tame the camera).
As Thor defeats enemies you?ll earn Valor points which can be spent to acquire new powers, weapon upgrades, health boosts and more. Yes, it?s exactly like every other progression system out there for this genre. When you do eventually level up and gain new abilities, things don?t necessarily become easier as enemies will still interrupt you mid combo and when you need to interact with an object. While you can build Thor to suit your play style, I found very quickly that if you don?t have a few key specific skills in the latter portion of the game, you?re in for even more frustration.
Sometimes Thor will need to scale a wall but it needs to be done in a specific spot that has a glowing ledge. The issue is that the glowing spot is almost always impossible to see unless you?re specifically looking for it, which is usually once you get stuck and can?t figure out where to go. Camera issues will also make Thor plummet many times off cliffs and ledges (though you simply get back onto the ledge automatically and don?t ?die?). What?s that you say? Thor can fly? Well yes, in very specific spots in the game you?ll have to input a button press to make him ?fly? to the next area or platform, but you don?t actually do any flying yourself. Sometimes he fly?s long distances and others he?s hopping a small gap. Why Thor can?t fly whenever he want makes no sense, but hey, it?s a movie game, I shouldn?t be expecting something as the lore to be correct right?
A few other nuances standout such as opening doors will require you to hold a button for 5 seconds or so which feels very unnecessary (especially when there?s a door right behind the one you just opened). The ?boat? sequences about half way through the game is terrible and completely out of nowhere. It really doesn?t feel Thor worthy when he should be able to simply fly wherever he wants to go.
Sega may have gotten ahold of some of the character models and designs but the rest of the games graphics are so amateur that it brings the whole experience down (not including texture load-in issues and frame drops). The worlds could have been very unique looking and have a distinct feel to them but they all feel the same and bland level design will make you want to finish it soon as you can rather than explore the lush worlds.
To be honest, I can?t tell you how the music was in the game at all, everything else and Thor?s hammer drowns out everything else that I don?t remember any music at all. As a whole package, even to diehard Thor fans, I can?t recommend God of Thunder to anyone.
You control a character that looks like Thor but you won?t feel like him in any way. You?ll fight generic enemies in bland levels in a game that feels like it came off a generic brawler production line without any quality inspections along the way. There is a 3D option for those earlier TV adopters out there but that won?t even be a saving grace as the camera issues constantly have you struggling to figure out where you are in relation to the other enemies the whole time.
Surprisingly Thor is a lengthy twelve to fifteen hour game but it?s so unnecessarily stretched out that it really could have been a 4 hour game without all the useless filler. This is of course counting all the restarts from cheap bosses, falling into pits or water (yea, a God can?t swim)and aimless wandering trying to figure out where you are supposed to go because you don?t see that ledge with the miniscule glowing edge on it.
This really makes me wonder if Sega is going to screw up the Captain America game as well. I?ll do you a favor; save the $60 from not buying the game and go see the Thor movie 5 times instead; you?ll get much more enjoyment out of it.
Suggestions: Sega, please stop putting this garbage out.
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
Shift 2 Unleashed
Ever sped down a road or highway way faster than you were supposed to or taken a corner with more speed than you should have, making the wheel squeal just a little bit? That adrenaline rush you get that comes with speed is what Shift 2 is trying to recreate with some interesting new mechanics to help convey speed. Every game needs something a little special to stand out against the competition. Forza has the ultra-realistic simulation in its back pocket and Burnout has the true arcade experience going for them, so what?s left? Well, Shift 2 Unleashed will bring you into the cockpit of the cars and actually take over through the eyes of the driver. Now, this isn?t the standard in-dash view that many racing games have, this is a true Helmet View where you will actually be looking out the helmet of your driver through their eyes. This will include all the bouncing, shaking and eye movement that actually happens when you race. This view is completely disconnected with the cockpit itself and you?ll even ?look into? the turns as if you were actually driving so that you look where you want to go. It sounds odd, and it is at first, but once used to it there?s truly no other way to play Shift 2 as it?s a much more engaging experience.
Career mode is much like any other racing game; pick your first cheap car, race, win money, upgrade and buy new cars then repeat. It?s a tried and true system that always has you working towards progressing but it is like almost every other racer out there in regards to the career. You?ll have a large selection of cars to choose from where most are unique from each other with a plethora of makes and models you?ll recognize by looks alone. Racer Vaughn Gittin Jr. will be your guide through career and will constantly be giving you advice (though sometimes completely useless and obvious ?nuggets of wisdom?). Actual footage of him will be spliced in and it sometimes just comes across as odd and out of place.
The XP system from Shift returns, but improved in the sequel; you?ll gain extra xp from driving well, mastering corners and courses, leading for full laps and driving clean. Leveling will net you new rides, paint and part unlocks, and new events to test your skills on. With enough experience and cash, you?ll be able to convert a modest road car into a racing beast.
Customization can be done through upgrades and tuning your ride. You?re able to change parts for almost every section of your car for visuals and performance. If you don?t really want to get too deep into it, you can buy an ultimate upgrade package that will transform your simple car into a track worthy competitor. Doing so will also change the ?ranking? of your car though called the performance index (categorized from D to A). The better parts you put into your car the higher your PI will raise, making races and opponents more difficult. This means you can?t simply upgrade your car to an A class and think you?re going to bowl over the competition; they will also be in the same category as you.
The faster the car (and higher the PI number) the better you?re going to have to drive. You?ll need to brake at every turn, slow down sooner and be mindful of the competition around you. One wrong move and you?ll be sliding into the dirt or wall. With racing lines on, you?ll learn very quickly that you need to ease into braking turns and while there may not be weather effects like rain and snow, the new night races will challenge even the most veteran racers.
Autolog made its debut in the previous Need For Speed game returns this time that is its own self-contained social network of all your friends. Autolog will constantly remind you that your friends have beaten your best laps and times and show you what car (and PI) they used to do it with so that you can see why your best time was halved. Just like in Hot Pursuit, you?re able to share screenshots and send challenges, but it didn?t feel as incorporated as a whole or as easy to access as it was previously. Multiplayer modes are par the course with up to 12 players online competing across different modes.
Just like the first Shift, you?ll be racing in streets, famous courses and of course drifting as well. I once again found the drifting extremely difficult to control; to the point of avoiding those events all together as you?ll be unable to even keep your drift car going in a straight line most of the time. You?ll need many hours of practice to become proficient in the art of drifting as it?s very unforgiving to the inexperienced.
If you?re a car enthusiast you?ll want to crank up the volume since every car sounds unique and you can easily tell the difference between your average car and a supped-up racing machine without the distraction of music that will most likely not be to your liking anyways. Hearing the engines wail and the wheels screeching in tight corners is always a pleasant audio experience.
While Shift 2 may not be as sim-heavy as Forza or arcade-like as Burnout, it does cut out its own groove in the genre with it?s amazing helmet cam and driving aids that can be toggled to suit any racers experience or play style. Helmet Cam is what sets Shift 2 apart from other racers out there as it?s unique and for someone like myself that usually uses the furthest back camera, even I really enjoyed this new 2 is able to hold its own as a racing experience and Autolog will have you racing courses repeatedly to try and best everyone on your friends list. Career mode will take up to a dozen hours to complete and online multiplayer modes will always be there for when you want a change of pace. Autolog and Helmet Cam is Shift 2?s saving grace, because without it, it would simply feel like almost any other racer out there, luckily you?ll now be able to experience the track through the eyes of the driver for the first time.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Portal 2
Portal has come a long way over the years. Originally it was a small team that came up with the portal design and as soon as Valve saw it they hired them almost on the spot. Fast forward to 2007 and the release of The Orange Box. While the value in the package alone was amazing, Portal (albeit short) was so polished and memorable that it stood out among the long awaited Half Life 2 Episode Two and even Team Fortress 2. Portal was a puzzle game unlike any other we?ve seen before. It had charm, wit, character development, superb writing, an unforgettable ending song and even trained you to think about puzzles in a whole new way. While I was excited to learn of a sequel to Portal (GLaDOS was Still Alive of course) I was more curious to see if it would be able to recapture that magic the original had and make it a llonger game without simply feeling like a map pack or add on. We saw everything that could be done with two portals right? What else could Valve possible come up with to make a full-fledged sequel and make it stand on its own two legs (or tripod!) this time? Simply: yes and quite easily with more substance as well.
Portal 2 boasts a larger cast that will personify exactly what amazing writing and astounding voice acting married into one package is all about. Yes, the core gameplay is exactly the same and what you came to love: Shoot blue portal here, put orange portal up there, leap through one and come through the other but there are many more tricks this time around which I?ll get into shortly. While Portal was difficult for a number of reasons, the original forced you to have impeccable timing and almost twitch-like reflexes for a few of the puzzles. Luckily those types of puzzles are gone, but that doesn?t mean anything has been dumbed down in the slightest. You?ll still be dumbfounded at why you can?t figure a puzzle out only to instantly feel like a genius moments later when that light bulb goes off in your head and you solve it like the great test subject you are. There isn?t many puzzle games I?ve played that made me feel so stupid for getting stuck then like I could solve anything once I do so often.
It seems like Chell didn?t exactly escape at the end of Portal, as you?ll wake up in familiar surroundings only to realize you?re still a prisoner testing for GLaDOS in the Aperture Science laboratories. It seems GLaDOS didn?t take too kindly to being ?killed? previously and is now going to make sure you suffer by ?testing? you until you can?t go on any longer, all while constantly demoralizing and poking fun at you in some of the most entertaining one liners that you?ll remember for quite some time.
You?ll come across some new characters and I won?t really go much more in depth into the plot as it was such a delight uncovering each step that I don?t wish to ruin it for anyone, but it?s an absolute blast to play through learning more about GLaDOS and Aperture as a whole. You?ll even meet a new friend at the beginning that wants to help you escape; Wheatley (voiced to perfection by Stephen Merchant) is a spherical AI that in a very short time will become the favorite of most with his personality and lines. He?s the comic relief and he will become just as memorable as GLaDOS herself by the time you?re done the single player journey.
As much as I enjoy figuring out the constant steam of puzzles back to back, I was honestly looking forward to playing more for the constant humor and dialogue after every successful solution. Wanting to hear more from GLaDOS and Wheatley is what kept me playing ?just one more puzzle? rather than the puzzles themselves. The pacing in Portal 2 is brilliant and you?re always working towards something be it story progression, constant promises from GLaDOS or the next creative puzzle.
As I mentioned earlier, there?s more new stuff to Portal 2 to make the puzzles more interesting and challenging. The most noteworthy is the new addition of blue, orange and white gel. This goo will usually be streaming out of a pipe and need to be utilized to solve puzzles in a whole new way than before. Blue gel will make any surface it?s on become bouncy like a trampoline (not only for you, but for objects like cubes as well), orange gel is a slick surface that when coated will propel you forward at high velocity, and finally the white gel is for use when there?s no ?portal-able (I guess that?s a word now!) surfaces and can be used as a surface once coated to place a portal onto. It takes some time to get used to how to use these new gels properly, but once you get the hand of it, it will eventually become second nature to your puzzle solving.
New to the world of Aperture Science is cooperative multiplayer finally! Now I thought this would be pretty simple with each player having one portal and having to work together, but they?ve made it quite challenging with both players having their own two portals, making 4 portals at once total. Now think for a moment when you were playing Portal and got stuck trying to figure out how to do things with 2 portals?.yea, now double that.
That being said, some of the co-op puzzles are simply going to need two players to figure some of these larger scale tests out. Almost every single one as well needs both players working in unison and you aren?t simply able to ?piggyback? someone through. Both players will need to be pulling their own weigh when it comes to these tests. Throwing a portal underneath your friend and having him come out the other side into a pit is quite hilarious, but remember, he?s able to do the same, or even take away that light bridge you?re standing on at any moment. While you will kill each other quite often (usually by accident), sometimes seeing them plummet will actually help you figure out what you are supposed to do to solve the task at hand. GLaDOS will also constantly be trying to pit you against each other by complimenting one or the other and offers its own dynamic and humor along with it.
While it?s recommended and great to play with a friend and headsets, Valve has included simple ways for strangers to communicate even without headsets. You?re able to place a marker anywhere to indicate to the other person to put their portal ?here? or even start a 3 second countdown for those time sensitive moments. It?s very well done and the co-op design is so fantastic that you could play this for the first time with a stranger and most likely progress (provided you are good test subjects of course).
The original Portal was about a 3 to 5 hour journey and I was worried the sequel would simply be the same thing or the opposite where it would be dragged on to make it seem longer than it actually was. Luckily you?re going to get your money and times worth with Portal 2. Single player will take you at least a half dozen or more hours to complete depending on your speed of solutions of course and co-op will at least double that. I?d say that?s a fantastic conversion from an add-in game to its own title.
You?re not going to find better writing, dialogue, and perfect voice acting anywhere else. The script is so brilliant and was the single reason I kept playing. The wit and humor is so amazing that you?ll be laughing out loud at some of the one liners thrown your way. I?m elated that it wasn?t just a longer drawn out Portal experience and has its own merits to be a game all of its own. The only mechanic or feature I thought was grossly missing was a leaderboard or ghost system so you could see and compare how you do to your friends and others. Not having it doesn?t draw away from the game in any way, but it would have been awesome to see some speed run times to try and compare myself to. If you ejjoyed Portal, you?re going to love Portal 2 that much more for a number of reasons. Even if you weren?t the biggest Portal fan, I still suggesting owning one of the better puzzle games with charm you?ll play all year. I?ve got my plushy companion cube, now I need a plushy Wheatley!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Rio
It?s almost that time of year; Summer, when the weather gets gorgeous and the blockbuster movies start to come out. Before the big rush of movies hit, sometimes there?s a few that sneak ahead in the Spring to beat the rush of movie overload. Rio is one of those earlier Spring movies that has just released. In the movie you?ll go along an adventure with Blu, a Macaw who?s an endangered animal and is on his way to Rio to meet Jewel, the only other bird of his species left. Shortly after they meet they are kidnapped by some smugglers and thus the adventure begins. Now I?ll admit, I haven?t seen the movie yet myself, but I do plan on it as I enjoy the color animated movies that are geared towards kids but always have enough adult humor in it to make it enjoyable. I know what you?re thinking as well, ?Oh boy, a movie game?, right? Well, that was my first thought as well before playing the game, luckily THQ has taking a slightly different approach to making a movie tie-in game that never seems to please.
Rio the game is not like most movie games where it?s a retelling of the story for the most parts and clearly rushed to make the movie?s release date. Instead, THQ has brought all the movie?s colorful characters and locales together in a mini-game centered experience for your kids. Much like other party games, this one too will have you doing quick games of different objectives to win points and climb the leaderboards. You can play as Blu or other characters (though no character has any advantage over one another) from the movie in your journey to win first place at the Carnaval ceremony by yourself or with 3 of your friends (complete with drop in and out play). The colors are vibrant just like the movie depicts and the character and humor hasn?t seemed to have been lost in the translation to video game format either. Oddly enough, I want to see the movie more now after playing the game.
Four people will be able to play together from a choice of six playable characters (Blu, Jewel, Nico, Eva, Pedro and Raphael) from the movie across 40 different mini games (Note: the 360 version has 3 exclusive mini games to set itself apart from the other versions, though it never said in game anywhere which levels were the ?special? ones). The jump in and out option allows kids to easily join or leave games and most are quite easy to pick up and play without much button memorization at all.
Along with the 40 mini games are five different game modes to keep things going; Story, Party, Carnaval Wheel, Garland Gala, and Carnaval Dance. Oddly though, the mode names give you no hint at what mode entails what and can be confusing, especially for younger ones playing.
Story mode won?t actually take you through the story of the movie (there?s actually very little to do with the movie plot in the game) but instead you?ll play three matches in an area and if you?re the top winner, you?ll move onto the next area with three different matches to play. You won?t play every mini game in this mode in one go, but the majority of them will be seen. You?ll get a quick little clip from a scene in the movie, but what impressed me was that the clip was in true HD, where some clips have artifacts and low quality; these are amazing looking here and look straight from the movie.
Party mode can be done with a vs or team based mode enabled and then also optional quiz trivia at the end of events as well. You?re able to pick 5, 10, or 20 events and the person with the highest leaderboard score wins. If you opt for +quiz, you?ll be given two trivia questions after each event, some will be basic and others will test your deepest knowledge of the movie itself (which is why you?ld likely be buying the game anyways). Some questions are about Rio and the area itself and the other are about the movie and characters. The quiz questions are simply for fun (and achievements!).
Carnaval Wheel is essentially a roulette wheel you?ll spin that randomly picks a mini game to play and the set value of points for winning the game. Garland Gala is essentially the first to a set number of points of random games where Carnaval Dance mode is where you play games to gain dancers for your respective line; the first player to hit the set amount of dancers wins. So while there?s different styles and modes to play, the names of the modes themselves won?t give any indication of what it entaisl until you start playing.
With 40 games to play, you?ll be doing many things from kicking soccer balls, avoiding boxes, throwing mud balls, shooting marmots and more. A good portion of games are a slight variation of each other though, so you?ll be doing much of the same stuff in different areas or a slight twist on the game type. There are some quite entertaining games though; my favorite being ?Wash Your Worries Away? that has each player running around gathering mud balls to throw at other players to make them dirty. At set intervals you?ll need to stand on a geyser hole and hopefully pick the right one that will wash you clean. The first one to be completely clean wins, so hopefully no one throws those mud balls at you!
I was surprised that this movie title derived from the same old (and mostly failed) path of trying to recreate the movie, but instead went the mini game route. Aside from two or three games (I?m looking at you memorization and music mini games), all the activities are easy to learn and younger kids should have no problems for the most part enjoying themselves and feel like their playing properly. This isn?t the party game you?ll bring out when your friends are over, this is the game your kids will play to keep them entertained for a few hours, even more so if they have seen and enjoyed the movie itself.
What THQ has done perfectly though is offer Rio the game at a discounted price. The stores I?ve seen it in were priced at $29.99 rather than the standard $50 and up. I hope this starts a trend, especially with titles like this that generally have a stigma about them. Rio is a game that parents and kids can play together and with it being offered at the discounted price it?s not a bad deal, but don?t expect to find much tie-in with the movie aside from the characters and setting.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Knights Contract
Every now and then there?s a game that?s not on my radar but when you pick it up and play it based on reviews or recommendation and are absolutely blown away with how you didn?t know of the game beforehand. My big game last year that this happened to me with was Enslaved from Namco and it turned out be to be one of my favorite games last year. Knights Contract arrived on my doorstep and I saw it was from Bandai and was hoping that lightning would strike twice in regards to playing a game I never even had on my radar turning out to be amazing. It didn?t. Knights Contract will have you hack and slashing your way through waves of enemies all while trying to keep your acquaintance alive. You are Heinrich, an immortal executioner that used to behead witches that were being brought to ?justice?. You?ll be escorting Gretchen, a witch you executed 100 years ago, which also happens to be the same witch that cursed you with immortality after that fateful day. Together, Heinrich will use his massive scythe/hammer hybrid to beat down foes while Gretchen uses her deadly magic spells to aid in battle.
Heinrich used to be a simple executioner that followed the orders of Faust, a dictator whose power hungry and won?t stop for anything to rid the world of witches. You?re ordered to kill a certain witch named Gretchen for a crime that she was clearly innocent of. Because Heinrich tried to speak up against Faust, Gretchen bestowed a curse of immortality against Heinrich, knowing one day that he would aid her on her quest.
Heinrich over the past one hundred years since that day has quickly learned that he does not want the burden of being immortal. Eventually Heinrich and Gretchen cross paths by coincidence and thus begin their intertwined quest together to help her save humanity and stopping Faust. Gretchen needs help stopping other witches that have broken their oath of Witchcraft ever since Faust has turned them against all humans for what they?ve done to them in the past. While the writing itself won?t win any awards by a long shot, the story itself is somewhat decent once you realize what?s going on. Sadly though, the voice acting will bring down the whole emotional aspect that was intended to engage the player into the plot.
You directly control Heinrich with his movement and attacks, yet you also control Gretchen?s attacks (but not movement unfortunately). The main four buttons control Heinrich?s attacks but you can hold down the trigger to toggle Gretchen?s magic abilities. You?ll need to eventually become quick enough to use a magic spell then use a finisher with Heinrich, but you?ll be spamming the attack buttons so often and quickly that it?s often difficult to do it on purpose when needed. Battles are often and quite quickly paced. Some battles are completely too easy while others are frustratingly difficult. Getting Gretchen to cast the spells where and when you want will take a little getting used to as every spell and will take some effort to do properly; most of the time your spell will miss and be wasted though unless you?re right on top of the enemy you want to hit. Gretchen?s magic is powerful and absolutely crazy looking but Heinrich?s attack move list is deep. Well, that?s on paper, because sure there?s a ton of different combos you can do, but you?re going to find a combo that works best for you and just keep repeating it throughout the game for the most part as it?s not terribly complex. Killing enemies will yield orbs that can be used to upgrade different spells for more damage and other effects, just exactly like God of War.
Here?s how every level is going to play out: Fight minions, fight a big guy or two, repeat this a few times, save your friend, mini boss, minions again, boss and then quick time event (QTE) to finish off the boss. Now the biggest aggravation you?ll experience in the game is going to be finishing off the boss with the QTE. Fail the QTE and the boss heals and you get to start the process all over again. This wouldn?t be too terrible if it wasn?t for the fact that the opening you have to input the requested button press in the QTE is so quick that most players will inevitably fail them quite a few times until learned by memory.
What makes having to redo bosses so terrible is Gretchen?s AI. While you don?t control her movement technically, you?ll need to constantly carry her where you want her to go because if you don?t, she?ll stand in lava, fire or anything else that could easily get her killed. This is made worse on boss fights where there are constantly things on the ground that needs to be avoided. Carrying her around will regain health for Gretchen and is a necessity for keeping her from killing herself against enemies. Due to this, the majority of the game comes down to an escort quest and you constantly need to manage and babysit her rather than enjoy the combat the game was built around. If she dies, the game is over; if you ?die? you have to mash the ?A? button an obscene amount of times to get back up.
I don?t generally like to harp on a games shortcomings, but that?s usually when there?s more positives then negatives and isn?t an 8+ hour escort mission. There is massive screen tearing, horrendous and non-believable voice acting that give characters no personality whatsoever, lip syncing that ironically isn?t synced, bosses that become bugged and float mid-air, and consistently unnecessary long loading screens if you don?t have the game installed.
You?ll constantly get lost in levels as you sometimes need to backtrack, or there are multiple paths that lead nowhere or loop around. There?s no waypoint of where to go and sometimes if you don?t pay attention to what is said, you won?t have an idea where to start going. Couple this with a camera you?ll be fighting the whole time and you?ve got a formula for a frustrating experience.
The finishers and a somewhat interesting story might keep some playing, but infuriating boss battle restarts due to QTE failures will challenge the most stubborn gamers. Gretchen?s AI feels like she just came off the short bus and wouldn?t even be able to cross a road on her own without getting hit. Enemies are all exactly the same for the most part but in a fire level you fight fire guys, in the ice level it?s just a variant of the same mobs.
I didn?t understand Heinrich?s desire to regain mortality initially, but after a few hours of having to babysit Gretchen, you?ll soon realize why he wants to be put out of his misery. Knights Contract has a cool premise by design but an abysmal AI completely defeats the purpose and chance at having any fun within.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Stacking
I remember going to my grandma?s as a kid and always being fascinated with her collection of these wooden dolls that stacked into one another. Matryoshka?s (or babushka) are a set of Russian nesting dolls that are usually cylindrical in shape, and split open horizontally half way and allow smaller ones to stack inside of it. The ones I used to play with usually had 6 to 8 or so in a set but they can be as small or large as the creators choose. Appropriately named; Stacking, is the newest title brought to us from Double Fine Productions and Tim Schafer; who of course was the mastermind behind brilliant titles like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Costume Quest. If Double Fine shines at something, its most definitely bring completely unique and hilarious games.
Stacking in essence is a puzzle game that requires players to use increasingly larger dolls? unique abilities to solve unique challenges. Everything is played out in the classic silent film style that has no voice acting ala the Lego titles with an overlaying orchestral score that sets the mood for each scene. Just like in the Lego titles, you won?t even notice that there?s no voice acting due to how well the characters are represented and emote as well as they do. Even better, the dolls have no limbs and they are still able to convey what they are trying to say to get their point across. Just like a great book, you?ll have voices in your head for each character you come across.
You are Charlie, the smallest and youngest in the Blackmore family. Set in the industrial age, you?re father comes home telling the whole family that all their money problems have been solved with a new job he just got. Weeks pass and father never returns home and because of it the bills haven?t been paid. Now the whole family must pay off the debt to The Baron and is forced into slavery to repay, which is of course other than Charlie simply because he?s too small to be useful. Because of Charlie?s lacking stature, he?s got a unique ability to stack into and control other dolls while using their abilities. Now it is up to Charlie to find out where his lost family members are being held and worked so that he can save them and reunite his whole family.
You control Charlie Blackmore and it?s your job to solve puzzles so that you can rescue your family. If you sneak up behind a doll and it?s only ?one? size bigger than the doll you?re currently controlling, you are able to stack into it thus becoming a larger doll and gaining new abilities. Some abilities will allow you to unlock doors, smack people, belch, sprint and even more odd and unique specialties. These abilities will allow you to progress and solve puzzles in unique ways; you may even need to stack certain types of dolls in order to combine their skills.
You start your journey in the Royal Train Station and as you unlock new levels you?ll gain access to them through this hub that you?ll constantly be coming back to. This design allows the player to learn small areas at a time without becoming overwhelmed with a huge area all at once. Every puzzle you come across to progress will actually have multiple solutions to solve it. Some solutions are quite simple and straight forward while others are quite convoluted and very out there. So while there?s no one ?right? way to solve a puzzle, there?s a solution that everyone should be able to figure out regardless of how you play. While casual players will figure out the simplest solutions, others will take dedicated players to figure out.
This is where the game?s challenge comes in; trying to solve each missions various puzzles in different ways. For example, say there?s a guard blocking a door that you need to get into (and some dolls are block from stacking into for obvious reasons), this is where the problem solving comes into play. Do you stack into the beautiful woman and flirt with the guard to get him to move, or do you pick the large guy whose ability it is to fart, thus making the guard move in a more aggressive manner. This is just an example out of many solutions that will constantly have you thinking of new ways to solve the puzzles tasked to Charlie. If you ever get stuck you are able to unlock hints for each puzzle if you get stuck or simply can?t think of any other way to solve the mission. The problem with this is that there?s nothing you need to spend to unlock hints, so you can literally get the solution given to you (other than having to wait a short time between hints) whenever you wish. This does take some of the fun out of the game as it?s too easy to ?cheat? and you?ll complete the game without any challenge unless you?re certain to not use the hint system.
Other than multiple solutions, there are also ?Hi-jinks? that can be completed for those that want to put more time into the game. These Hi-jinks can only be done with certain dolls, but will require you to do a set amount of ability actions to other dolls. For example, you might have to find the doll that does a glove slap and slap 15 other dolls to complete the Hi-jinks. While it?s not always the most exciting, it does add some more time into Stacking for those that love the ambiance and gameplay.
While the story and missions are set in a linear fashion, Charlie can choose how he wants to do missions. You can easy blow through the story in a few hours even without cheating, but you?ll add much more time if you do the puzzles with each of the different solutions. Some people will have issues with it being ?short?, but as long as you play it as intended, by solving the puzzles in multiple ways, you?ll easily get your money out of Stacking.
It may be short, but what it makes up in is an absolute unique experience with an amazing art direction filled with humor that only Shafer could come up with. Clever writing, amazing story telling and unique characters will have you remembering Stacking for quite some time to come after you?ve saved your family. No game is even remotely like Stacking when you compare all of the elements involved in crafting such a wonderful experience, though this seems to be an ongoing trend with Double Fine games. Stacking is absolutely worth the price of admission, and just like their games beforehand, will be remembered fondly of for years to come for its unique experience.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Dragon Age 2
It feels like it?s been a long time since I?ve finished and absolutely enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, yet it?s only been a little over a year. It was expected that a sequel would come out shortly after considering how well the first game did, though I wasn?t expecting it this soon. Now Dragon Age 2 is here finally, though despite the 2 in the title, it feels almost like a different game.You don?t continue your quest from Origins; instead you are now a completely new protagonist that takes place in the same era and setting. Dragon Age 2 (DA2) tries to be a sleeker and more streamlined experience that emphasizes on gratification in smaller but more frequent doses.
Rather than a huge undertaking and becoming the savior of the world like in Origins, DA2 feels much more like a hometown adventurer trying to make a name for themselves in a much smaller area. Just like how the difference in the two Mass Effect games changed from slower pace and tactical to almost a quicker paced shooter, that?s how it feels like in DA2. Everything is much more streamlined and faster paced, but this might alienate the fans that loved how the first game played. Tactical control is still there for those that want it, but it?s completely unnecessary now that DA2 is more of an action-RPG rather than a tactical one.
If you have a saved game from Origins (and Awakening) you are able to import your save when starting DA2 which will bring over any decisions and outcomes that you?ve completed over the course of the games. While you can?t import really much else, it?s entertaining to see events that transpired in the first game be referenced to based on what you decided while playing.
Unlike the Origins, you play as a human named Hawke (just like how Shepard was always the name of the protagonist in Mass Effect) and choose whether to be a mage, rogue or warrior (and male or female). DA2?s story begins essentially as Origins is finishing, with Hawke fleeing Lothering due to being destroyed by Darkspawn. You need to get your family to the next known safe haven city ? Kirkwall. As you arrive, you find that the city has been closed due to the flood of Ferelden refugees.
Hawke starts as just another citizen but will eventually become the ?Champion of Kirkwall?; the first section of the game is explaining (with you playing and determining the choices) how Hawke got to that point. The story telling is done in an interesting manner where your friend Varric is being interrogated by a mysterious Chantry Seeker named Cassandra trying to find the whereabouts of Hawke. As Varric tells his story, sometimes he?ll embellish what actually happened and you get to play a sequence where you?ll be killing Darkspawn in one hit and making them explode before Cassandra interrupts and wants the truth of what really happened (where you?ll replay the section being much harder of course).
One thing you?ll notice instantly is that DA2 doesn?t do a very good job at explaining what actually happened in Origins (and Awakening). Sure you get some of the basics, but if you?ve never played the first game, you?re going to be confused what a Grey Warden is, where Darkspawn emanate from, what the Fade is, and simply the sheer scale of how important the champion from the first game was in relation to saving the world. My wife who was watching me play (and didn?t while playing Origins) kept asking ?who?s that? or ?so what happened before?? when certain events were referenced as if you are supposed to know (or remember).
The majority of DA2?s story will take place in and around Kirkwall. This makes the story feel more community driven and that you?re supposed to care for your new home town, but it also makes the sheer epicness of Hawke?s story seem downplayed and nowhere near as ?important? as it was in Origins. You?ll sometimes wonder what the main overlaying plot is at times, and it does get tied together at points, but there are long gaps between plot narratives that can make some lose overall interest in the overlaying story. Instead of crossing the continent to take on the Archdemon like in Origins, you?ll be taking sides of different factions within the cities and doing many errands which simply didn?t feel as important or encompassing.
The biggest game changes in the sequel would have to be the combat, skill trees, dialogue wheel, and the way the story is told. Let?s begin with the combat as it?s what you?ll be doing for the majority of gameplay. As mentioned before, fans of the tactical style Origins excelled at can still be done on a whim whenever you please for absolute control of your characters in battle, but honestly aside from a few boss fights, I never needed to (though I played a warrior).
As a warrior, I was able to play the whole game (combat) as a button masher (though obviously toggling buffs and skills as I went) without much need for ?tactics?. There?s a new mechanic called cross-class combos which allow party members to debuff and then exploit openings on enemies for massive damage. Each class can eventually debuff an enemy that another class can exploit easily to take down hoards of enemies quickly. Rogues can leave an opening for warriors to do massive damage, warriors can leave enemies open for mage spells which they can leave an opening for a rogue to finish them off. If you do use the tactic style of gameplay you?ll make use of these exploits quite often but I found I never really needed them until later on against much harder enemies and bosses.
Single you won?t be crossing the world on a massive quest, you?ll actually be spending most of your time within the walls of Kirkwall in the slums and underground dungeons. Yes you?ll venture out into the mountains and marshes sometimes though not very often unless you?re doing many sidequests. You?ll be backtracking and visiting the same areas over and over again looking for new items for quest or whatnot. Because of this, the world in DA2 feels extremely small once you visit the same dungeon or area for the fourth time. You?ll quickly learn your way around Kirkwall because of the repetition, but dungeons being constantly recycled was quite a downer. ?Oh, I have to go back there?.again??
As you fight enemies and finally clear a batch blocking your way through, more waves will spawn either right on top of you or behind you out of thin air. This can make it hard to round around and place your team exactly where you want them, as the battlefield could change as soon as a certain wave of enemies is complete. Oh, and you see that bag of money on the ground you want to pick up? You can?t until every enemy in the vicinity is cleared. I?ve actually not picked up quite a bit of loot because I?ll go to loot something but can?t because something just spawned and I have to clear them before doing so; fair enough. I kill the wave but then another wave appears (out of nowhere) way up ahead, so I need to go kill them. After I do I?ve either long forgotten about the loot in the first place or don?t want to backtrack to get the coin and items. It?s a good thing I never need to buy many upgrades as I always forgot to go back for loot (until the next jaunt through the same area later on). You can see where this annoyance is going.
You?re going to notice pretty early on that you also can?t upgrade any of your party?s armor, only weapons and accessories. While this doesn?t seem like a big deal, and I?m sure it was done to make things more streamlined, it feels like a downfall as I don?t really have much customization outside of Hawkes armor. It took a while to actually figure out until I saw every armor piece will always say ?Hawke only?. You?ll find some upgrades for your party as in they?ll get bonuses to specs, but you?ll unfortunately never be dressing them how you wish or giving them hand-me-downs.
Leveling this time around has also been changed (though I prefer the skill tree method now) for the better. As you level, you?ll have attribute points to spend into the main stats like strength, dexterity, willpower, magic, cunning and constitution much like more and Bioware has done a great job at explaining what each stat does (and your current bonus) for your character and how it will affect them. You?ll also gain skill points to put into a skill-tree to build your character exactly how you want to play them. For example, my warrior uses a one handed weapon and a shield, so I dumped all my early points into that spec to make them a better tank. Eventually I branched out and learned skills (activated and passive) from other trees becoming a much better rounded character overall. You can determine what role you want to play and what skills to learn whenever you wish. By the time you max level, you?ll have more than enough points to learn almost every skill, but it?s all about how you develop your character as you go.
Obviously inspired by Mass Effect, the dialogue wheel returns with much more emphasis on choosing what you want, not just simply the good, bad and neutral choices. Amazing voiced as always, conversations can be quite entertaining themselves and sometimes you?ll see the good, bad, neutral choices, but many of the times you?ll have to actually decide on your own on how to progress the conversation without the visual aids. All your choices will affect how your teammates feel towards you which can then make them a true friend or rival (which they then receive a strong bonus either way).
All these changes make it feel like Bioware is trying to appeal to a broader and newer audience rather than quench the thirst of the original fans. I know I felt a little disappointed to be playing the majority of combat as a hack-and-slash rather than a much more tactile approach that was needed in Origins.
Aside from Hawke and Varric (which is a given because I was making the decisions), I never really emotionally connected with many of the characters like I did in Origins with Shale, Alistair, Morrigan and others. Some familiar faces will make cameos and I actually found those quick visits to give me the biggest smiles throughout Hawkes story. All the simplification felt very unnecessary and the ?closed in? feeling I got from the story telling just didn?t have the big impact on me that Origins did. Not that Dragon Age 2 is bad in any way, but it doesn?t hold a candle compared to its predecessor and feels completely different.
You?re going to get what you always do with any Bioware game; amazing voice acting, dialogue and a story that will have you playing for dozens and dozens of hours while trying to complete everything before it?s all over. There are moments that were compelling and felt very strong but it was too far and in between to keep you hooked like Origins did. I enjoyed the game for what it was but you have to go in expecting a new experience and something different from Origins and I don?t want to knock it for what was I expecting, but rather rate it for what it is instead. This may be Dragon Age 2, but it is not Dragon Age: Origins 2.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Two Worlds 2
Let?s start this off by being honest. The first Two Worlds was terrible. So much so that even Southpeak Games themselves has made fun of it in the follow-up sequel. The first game was a last minute rushed port that had poor graphics, a cumbersome interface and some of the worst voice acting and dialogue I?ve heard in a long time. You know when things are so bad they are good? It wasn?t even ?good?, it was that bad. Somehow, I plodded my way through and I actually finished the first game as I saw it as a challenge. There were some great mechanics that I really enjoyed (item stacking) and some of the characters were instantly memorable (Sordahon!).Here we are a few years later with the sequel to a game that didn?t do very well for many reasons and that few people played. My first gut reaction was nervousness, as I had already committed myself to playing through the second game since I did it with the first. I mean, it couldn?t get any worse right? Delay after delay and now Two Worlds II is finally here much to my nervous anticipation.
A sequel has nothing but potential as long as it has some great mechanics under the hood. Just like the first Two Worlds, part 2 has some great ideas and mechanics that may keep you interested in it long enough even if the story itself doesn?t.
Two Worlds II continues off shortly after the first game. Didn?t finish the first game? Well sadly, you won?t really have any idea what?s going on other than you?re in a prison being sprung out by some orcs, the same kind that were your enemies a few short years earlier. (As a side note, Two Worlds II also continues off the first games ?bad? ending for some reason).
Five years have passed and you are a prisoner in Gandohars castle; you?re sister Kyra is still under his control and he?s attempting to gain the power of Aziraal by breaking her will. To find a way to defeat Gandohar he?ll need to shed light on his past to find a weakness that can be sued against him. Essentially Gandohar still needs to be destroyed and Antaloor needs saving once again.
While this is the main plot, there was no real sense of purpose or urgency once you are left free on your own. Yes you are working to find a way to save your sister (again) and defeat Gandohar (again), but aside from that you won?t feel like you?re making much progress until much later on. Everyone seems to need the help of a hero and before you can get what you want, you?ll need to prove yourself and do some errands for them before they?ll tell you what you want to know. The story doesn?t really get interesting until more than halfway through (though at that point I did quite enjoy it, but I?m also one of the few that finished the first game and can relate to all these characters) when you start to make headway in the campaign and start to unearth information about Gandohar.
With many fantasy RPG?s, you?re stuck into a set role you choose at the beginning of the game. Instead, you are given freedom to spend your skill points when you level up in any fashion you choose. You can improve your combat skills, magic, stealth, crafting and more all based on how you want to play. There?s a substantial amount of flexibility and strategy that go into picking the right skills for your hero. You can focus on one set type of skills and boost those for massive damage, or have many skills for more versatility (though I suggest boosting your skills for later on). I had two characters, a melee and a magic user. Both play completely different and it almost felt like a completely different game.
If you choose to be melee, you?ll constantly be very active using skills and defense moves. You?ll eventually get a handful of skills to use and it?s up to you to decide when the best time to use them in combat is. You can be an archer too if you wish in which you?ll also have a bunch of tricks to defeat your enemies and it?s just as straightforward as playing a melee based character.
Being a mage though is a completely whole different experience. This is because of the mechanic given to players to essentially create their own spells. While it?s difficult to explain (it even took me quite some time of playing to understand it all) I?ll give the basic rundown of how the system works. Spells are created in amulets based on whatever ?cards? you put in that amulet (which is then mapped to one of your buttons). First you have the type of spell you want (Fire, Water, Stone, etc) then what it?s going to do (Summon, Buff, Shoot, etc). From here you have a whole other set of cards that toggles many different aspects of the spell such as damage, time, projectile type and more.
It?s incredibly complex and the in-game tutorial doesn?t do a good job at teaching you, but you?ll eventually have the epiphany with enough time and then understand it. You can combine almost any set of cards which makes for a near endless numbers of different spells that can be created and cast. Some examples of spells I tried making: a summon of 10 pets to aid me, a fireball that shoots multiple times and ricochets off walls, a regenerating buff, stone armor that literally circles me, traps on the ground that act as a force field and vaporize anything that runs through it and a homing poison bolt. It?s daunting trying to figure it all out but once you get the hang of it, you can make some incredibly powerful and unique spells.
The crafting system is almost as versatile and gives you the option to almost create and boost your own weapons and armor. The big feature in the first game was the item stacking to make them better. This new crafting system is what replaces it and is better in my opinion. Any item you pick up can be broken down to its basic ingredients such as wood and metals. With these components, you can buff up any item you have in your inventory whenever you wish. Should you find a better item, you can then break down your old item and the ingredients reused again. I never even sold anything at the stores because of this and used all my broken down items to buff up the ones I was using instead. This is a fantastic way to solve the inventory problems that many of these games face and it was quite fun to see my weak sword turn into a monster after I socketed some gems into it (which you get back when you break down your weapon afterwards!).
Just like the first game, you?ll eventually gain access to a horse to use during your quests, but you?ll also unlock teleports in areas you explore which can then be used for fast travel between any areas you?ve previously been to thus not ever needing a horse (that and the fact that I lost or killed mine very early on). While Antaloor is huge in scale, it never feels too daunting and is quite manageable on foot if you take advantage of the teleports.
While there will be no shortage of quests, many though are mundane and not very exciting. Sadly, you?ll most likely have to do some of these to level up as you?ll sometimes hit a brick wall of difficulty in the main story at times that tries to force you to level up beforehand. Speaking to people can be skipped completely and you can just follow the quest marker from area to area if you wish as well.
Multiplayer again returns to Two Worlds but it?s definitely been improved since the last time. Sadly your single and multiplayer characters are still separate though. The multiplayer side does have a campaign to it which I found interesting as it?s actually telling the ?bad? side of the story where you are helping Gandohar. Just like the solo campaign, there are quests to do but now you can take these on with 7 of your friends alongside you. Make note, if you have a high level person helping you, there?s no penalty and you can level extremely quickly this way.
You can continue to level up and replay missions to gain more xp and loot or you can try a deathmatch with friends or a duel. You can even do a Village Mode where you try and create and in-depth village to gain money and items. Make note though, many high level players online have found ways to cheat and get items that shouldn?t be available (such as +endurance items that give millions of hitpoints) and there are a few spells that can be created to simply grief other players and kill them.
I found this game hard to judge for a few different reasons. Yes, there are many smaller bugs and hiccups, but nothing I couldn?t deal with for the most part. Usually the main character in a game is the best voice actor and the others are the ones that bring everything down; it?s actually the opposite here. Your hero?s voice will make you hope you can read quickly so you can skip his lines.
It takes quite a while for the story to become interesting (if you know what?s really going on) and once I figured out why I was dying so often, I corrected it and the game become quite entertaining once I stopped dying to every enemy. It so happens that to block you need to hold the Left Trigger, which I was doing, but I was still getting hit every time. Turns out I was hitting the trigger too early while doing one of my attack animations and because of that I never really ?turned on? my block. Once I figured this out about 8 hours in, combat become a blast for me as I could take on any amount of enemies with ease.
Is the game perfect? No, not by a long shot, but after a few hours of learning how to do everything like creating my own spells and chaining my combat moves together, I really started to have fun with it. It will probably mean a little more to fans that finished the first game as it doesn?t do a good job at explaining much about the characters (you?re just supposed to know), but once I started to learn more about Gandohar and seeing the return of another bad guy, I had that ?ahhhhhhhh? epiphany.
Two Worlds II has some great mechanics that I would actually love to see incorporated into some other games such as the crafting and skill selects. It?s not perfect but it is fun once you figure everything out after a very steep learning curve (certain things like map markers aren?t even explained in game and you need to reference your instruction manual). I?m really glad I stuck with it and completed it and I just hope others will have the patience to give it a chance to get to that turning point of the game. It?s much better than the first Two Worlds, but that wasn?t hard to do. There?s some real hidden charm lying underneath the shortcomings when you look hard enough.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Splatterhouse
I had awesome parents growing up because they let me watch horror movies and play mature games. I was a big fan of the classic horror movies including Friday the 13th. In the early nineties when adventure and platforming games were king, along came Splatterhouse on the TurboGrafx-16 that was unlike anything else for its time. It was bloody, gore filled and completely brutal. It instantly gained a very cult-like following and eventually spawned two sequels as well. It was definitely pushing boundaries so much that it was one of the earlier games to sport a ?parental advisory? on the box. Twenty years later and here we are, where M-Rated games are the norm and we have a ratings system in place as well. Splatterhouse returns after being dormant for so long and I was truly excited that I?d get to play Rick again, pick up my 2x4 and smash some monsters.
I should have known better though once I saw that the development team was essentially fired by Namco due to performance issues and they would finish the game themselves. This is most likely where things started to go downhill, but at least they stayed faithful to the original game in essence.
The story is essentially the same as the classic original: You play Rick Taylor who is killed in a mysterious mansion by horrific creatures while his girlfriend Jennifer is kidnapped and taken away by the stereotypical mad-scientist Dr. West. Just as Rick is about to perish, he finds the ?Terror Mask? and puts it on out of desperation. As he puts it on he?s transformed from an eighty pound weakling to a hulking juggernaut that could rival The Hulk himself. The Terror Mask has a mind of its own and now Rick and the Mask are one on a quest to save Jennifer and stop Dr. West.
The story premise is essentially the same and true to the original, but it?s more of a reimagining as you get to later stages and are no longer bound to simply being in the mansion. You?ll travel to other places and times scouring to save Jennifer and killing any abominations that stand in your way no matter the cost?or violence.
Splatterhouse is a beat-em-up at heart and to simplify, a button masher; so don?t go in expecting much else. You?ll be killing hoards of demons and monstrosities while painting the walls red with blood. Splatterhouse holds nothing back in the gore department and you?ll constantly be dismembering and beheading enemies, so this isn?t for the squeamish. Most of the time you?ll be fighting with your bare hands and performing finishing moves, but now and then you?ll come across weapons that will give you a huge advantage in battle; the signature 2x4 is included but has gotten a massive overhaul as well.
While the combat is decent once you unlock some more moves, it does become repetitive especially since the level design through the game is always the same: walk into room, kill everything, go down hallway to next room and repeat. It?s as linear as it gets, which isn?t always a bad thing, but nothing really changes other than clearing each section and moving on to the next. While the art and visuals are stylish (even though it?s mostly covered in blood), each level does look unique which does give a little variety to the mix.
The gore can at times even seem a little too over the top which feels like it?s trying to mask the lack of substance aside from the combat mechanics. While it?s quite awesome to tear off enemies limbs and torsos in extreme fashion with a quick-time-event, after a dozen or so the ?charm? wears off very quickly. These executions can be performed once you weaken enemies enough and grab ahold of them. The first few will seem awesome but eventually you?ll become desensitized simply because of how many times you?ll see the same animations over and over. It would have been much cooler to save these for bosses so that you don?t grow tired of them.
To break of the monotony of things, there are even some sidescrolling levels that seem like a nod to the faithful fans of the series (the originals were all sidescrolling). The first time you play these levels it?s great to feel powerful and work your way left to right plowing through enemies. That is until you need to jump over gaps and pits. Rick can run by holding down the trigger, but the animations are sloppy and he?ll slide further or shorter than you intended almost every time.
This will result you falling into said death pit and having to reload the last checkpoint. Not a big deal?.well, which is until you see how long the loading screens are between deaths. I don?t want to sound like I?m exaggerating, but you might be waiting up to thirty seconds to retry the last section you just died in. To make things even worse, checkpoints seem sporadic and sometimes you?ll have to do 5 minutes worth of play all over again just to get to where you died last. The loading times between deaths are so lengthy that you?ll do anything you can to not die, not for the normal reasons to progress, but so that you don?t have to wait an eternity to try again should Rick perish. The gap jumping needs very precise movements but the controls don?t give you that power to have great handling in the least bit. You?ll learn to hate the sidescrolling levels simply for the amount of times you?ll die due to sloppy controls which is a shame; these levels should have been the highlight of Splatterhouse.
As Rick defeats Dr. West?s abominations, you?ll gain blood the more you kill. With this blood you can then purchase skill and combat upgrades however you wish to cater to your play style. I went with the more health and grab move upgrades but you can choose any skills you want to round out your arsenal.
As you bank blood, you can also use it at any time to replenish your health when you get into a bad situation. You siphon blood from nearby enemies and you?ll need to learn quickly how to do this quickly as the later levels are very unforgiving with very difficult enemies. If your meter is full, you can also choose to instead go into Berserker Mode that will make you even bigger and meaner. You?ll grow spikes that remind me of Doomsday and you can easily kill the most difficult enemies with a few simply hits. You?ll be relying on the health refills and Berserker Mode more and more as you get closer to saving Jennifer.
Keeping fans happy is no easy task, but Namco has done the simplest thing they could do: making all three original Splatterhouse?s unlockable in the game. Catch is you?ll need to play through a bulk of the game to unlock them (each is unlocked every two levels are completed). You?ll also be able to find collectable pieces of torn pictures of Jen through the levels hidden away. Find all the picture pieces to see semi and fully nude pictures of your girlfriend. It?s odd why all these pictures are torn and rick is finding them, but the kids that play Splatterhouse that shouldn?t be will at least be happy to see some softcore pictures I guess.
Now, the major issues that I found while playing through Splatterhouse: Truth be told, I don?t think there?s even a dozen varieties of enemies (not including bosses obviously), meaning you?ll be tearing up armies of the same enemies over and over. While each enemy is unique with their attacks and how you kill them, there simply isn?t very many and you?re going to be killing the same things over and over in your 10 hour sit down. Once you learn the best strategy against each type, you?ll be on cruise control for most of the way through.
There are inconsistent framerate issues that even cause some cutscenes to skip even when I had the game installed. The obscene amount of loading time though every time you die is truly painful; I honestly can?t remember a recent game with this much loading every time in-between.
The biggest problem I ran into though is that it froze my 360 on three separate occasions. Sure, no big deal right? Well yea, until the third time when it hard froze my system while saving, thus losing my game save of many hours. I wanted to find out the ending and had all intentions of finishing it, but when I lose an eight hour playthrough with a corrupt save, that?s an absolute deal breaker. I?m sure it was an anomaly, but I?ve had to reset my Xbox a few times while playing Splatterhouse and I hope that these issues can be fixed with a future patch.
There are some things Splatterhouse does right though. The soundtrack is full of hardcore metal from real bands like Lamb of God, Mastadon, Five Finger Death Punch and more; the soundtrack fits the games mood and style perfectly.
The star of the game truly is the Terror Mask though. Voiced by Jim Cummings (who is known for voicing Darkwing Duck) completely nails the role perfectly, though I was waiting for him to say ?let?s get dangerous? just once. I don?t know if I can view Darkwing the same again after all the foul language he spouted. Let's get mother ******* dangerous! There?s constantly banter between Rick and the mask that will have you laughing from time to time and was easily the highlight of the game for me.
If you?re buying Splatterhouse (past or present) you?re most likely getting it for the over the top gore and violence which granted; should be the main selling feature of the game. Unfortunately the rest of the game outside of combat and voice acting bring down the whole package so much that it becomes mundane and a chore. At least Splatterhouse has all the original games intact that you can play and enjoy if you were a fan of the originals; unfortunately, you?ll need to play through this new one to get to them.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Sonic Free Riders
I?ve always been a big Sonic fan, I even suffered over the past years with every new Sonic game being worse than the last somehow. Sonic 4 then came out and was actually good; so here I thought that the curse had been broken and Sonic could start to regain his former and long lost glory. Well, it looks like Sonic couldn?t even star in two consecutive games that were good. I?m beginning to wonder if Sonic owes Sega money or something and that?s why they hate him all these years. Sonic Free Riders on paper sounds like an awesome idea for a game (and to showcase Kinect). You use a hoverboard like in Back to the Future or Reboot to race and jump against other players while collecting and using unique powerups. Yup, on paper that sounds like something I?d definitely be interested to play. Free Riders features Sonic (obviously), Tails and Knuckles, but the rest of the crew that you most likely don?t know the name of (or simply care) are also here such as Jet, Wave, Storm and more. Amy, Shadow, Eggman (Dr. Robotnick damnit!) are also included, but you won?t care once you play the game.
The most important aspect about a racing game is obviously its steering controls. Without good steering what?s the point in making a racing game right? Seems like someone forgot to tell Sega this as it?s somehow the most broken and awkward aspect in the whole game.
You play Free Riders as if you were on a skateboard or snowboard, standing perpendicular to your TV. To steer you lean your body forward or backwards at the waist and in theory this should make you turn how you wish. In theory this would have worked if the game knew what I was trying to do. Leaning forward will eventually make you turn but by that point you?ve already hit a wall or something else. Leaning backwards (even while bending your knees) is going to absolutely kill your back in a few short races as well. Your racer will also randomly sometimes brake for no reason out of the blue as well when you are trying to turn. Now I?ll admit, I don?t have the ideal 6-8 feet of clear play space in my living room that is suggest for all Kinect games, but every other one of my Kinect games have never had any issues even remotely close to the experience in Sonic Free Riders. It?s simply broken.
The menu system is clunky and you navigate it by essentially using it like an old rotary phone (that?s if it works) and voice controls are also included for those not as nimble. The issue with the voice controls is that you aren?t taught what the commands are (like saying select instead of the option) so essentially they are useless unless you want to try and guess what they are.
There is a training mode that will teach you the basics of the game but I wasn?t actually able to pass one of the tutorials because it wouldn?t recognize my actions or jumping properly. This doesn?t bode well for a first impression of a new game by any means. After many retries and even moving my couch to make more room, I gave up and went right into the main modes hoping it would only get better from here.
Before every race it puts you into a quick 5 to 10 second race which I believe is to calibrate you and see your range of motion before the race, but the controls in here don?t work that well either. I tried standing still, leaning as far as I could without falling and nothing seemed to help at all with the sloppy controls. And yes, you?ll need to do this before every single race and event.
So other than leaning, there are a few more controls that you?ll need to be aware of as well. You can kick dash like you would on a skateboard to speed up, but good luck if it recognizes what you?re doing and actually works. You?ll need to crouch and then jump to do stunts, but you can?t actually pick the stunts you perform in any way. Sometimes you?ll get an A+ rank and others you?ll get a C for no apparent reason. Holding your arms out to the sides will let you catch rings as you zoom by (which is almost a saving grace for the game as more rings allow you to level up and boost skills) and to break you face forward to the screen as if you would want to stop on a snowboard.
So you finally got all those controls down in your memory? Good, now you?re going to need to learn and memorize a whole new set of movements to use the items you get on the race track. There are lots of items to use against the other racers and almost every item has its own unique way of using and activating it. Again, on paper this sounds great, but in practice, you?ll be flailing your arms trying to figure out how to use that soda can item (you shake it like you would a real can of pop by the way, and then you ride it. Yup?.). Torpedoes are used with a ?thrown? motion, underhand for balls, and even tow hands are needed to throw basketballs over your head all while you are racing and fighting to keep your balance to try and steer. You?ll even need to wipe the screen to clear gunk used on you which doesn?t help when you?re leaning as far back as you possibly can.
There are a decent amount of modes included in the game but I really only touched on two of the main ones due to the frustration and back pain after playing for a short time. World Grand Prix mode is essentially the ?story? mode but it?s completely uninteresting due to it being just a sideshow of still screens with the character to go along with the horrible voice acting. Pick your team and compete against the others in races, time attacks, coin grabs and more. Tag Race is the other mode for two players and if you thought the controls for a single player were a mess, it?s more than doubled with a second player and also included very awkward motions for co-op play that don?t help the matter either. You are also able to take it online and play with up to 8 people, but after one laggy race online and seeing that the majority of other racers were also wall riding due to the horrific controls, there?s no need to.
You?re going to be constantly retrying events and races over and over because of the absolute abysmal controls in Sonic Free Riders. I understand launch games with a new technology aren?t always going to be the best, but in this game it?s simply broken. Other Kinect games work great and are responsive without doubt; this is definitely not one of them.
With ring collecting and extreme gear upgrades, this should have been a fun racing game for Kinect; instead, it?s an unresponsive mess that flat out doesn?t work. Did no one test this game and see that it?s broken? I was taught that if I don?t have anything nice to say then don?t say anything at all, so I?ll end this review here.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
SBK X: Superbike World Championship
Superbike is an immensely popular sport, although more so overseas than back here at home. This is maybe why the last version of SBK; SBK 09 somehow didn?t make itself over to this side of the ocean. If you ask someone what bike game they?ve played their answer will most likely be the Moto GP series. Granted, they used to be the staple and standard for moto racing, over the years the series has turned away from the simulation aspect of the sport in turn for more of an arcade style instead. The SBK series has been around for a while, but seemed to always be that ?other? racing game when comparing the two. Seems like the developers at Milestone no longer want to be in second place and have stepped up to deliver a polished and enjoyable racing product that anyone can play. What Milestone has done excellent is no easy feat: they?ve made the game accessible to almost all players that can play almost in any style they wish. You have an arcade most that is simple to control, has boost and even a wheelie button to go alongside the simulation mode that can turned all the way from casual to completely hardcore and true to life. SBK X is essentially two games in one because of these two very distinct modes and comes complete with many different modes and varieties to be played.
Controlling a two wheeler is nothing like driving a car; you need to plan your turns well ahead of when you actually want to do it. You basically need to learn to start turning before you want to actually turn. It?s an odd concept but once you figure out the flow and control mechanics of the game it?s quite a rush to make that hairpin corner nearly completely horizontal to the ground. Winning a race in SBK isn?t about making up time on the straight stretch; it?s about finessing your way in the corners and keeping your maximum speed throughout the race. Controls are simple and easy to get used to, but can also be completely customized any way you wish.
Let?s start off with Arcade Mode shall we. It?s very self-explanatory and is the simple jump in and race without much through to it. You?ll have a racing line to follow that will show you the proper route to take into turns and will even change colors to show you what speed to go into them at. Green means you are going too slow, red means too fast and you want to try and keep your speedometer so that you hit the sweet spot of yellow.
Arcade Mode makes everything simple by allowing your brakes to work simultaneously and not have to worry about your rider?s weight distribution on the bike as well. At any time you can hold the ?A? button to use boost (no meter to fill or worry about) though you won?t be able to corner easily while boosting. If you?re playing Arcade Mode, you want to just race fast and not have to worry about much; you might even want to do a wheelie or two. Luckily, holding the ?X? button will do a wheelie whenever you wish to show off. It seems a little out of place but it works and makes it simple to do. You?re able to customize your race lengths anywhere from 1 to 22 laps along with the AI for your rival racers that can vary from Rookie to Real. Change your starting position and weather are also options that can be set so that you can compete in any kind of race you desire.
Included in Arcade Mode is Story Mode that will encompass your career as a rider as you complete race objectives such as beating a rival, lap time, or simply placing above a certain number in a given event. What?s great about Story Mode is that mode of these objectives are simple and quick to complete. You aren?t given a full 22 lap race for every objective, most are usually 1 or 2 laps to complete whatever you need to do. It?s odd that some objectives ?gold? ranking is to come in 18th place, but it works to teach you certain things about tracks or bikes (like how to turn when your brakes aren?t working).
Arguably the meat and bones of SBK X is in the realistic Simulation Mode that is exactly as the name suggests: a simulation of riding a two wheeled powerhouse taking corners are deathly speeds. Take note though, it?s incredibly difficult, frustrating and a huge challenge just to stay on your bike properly. You need to brake properly (individual brakes), lean well before you want to start turning, gently accelerate and even control your body?s weight on the bike. You also don?t get the racing line to help you and guide you to the proper race route. This mode isn?t for everyone, Simulation Mode is for the hardcore players that want to focus on realism and I?m glad that Milestone didn?t try and water it down to cater to everyone (which is why Arcade Mode is great for everyone else).
As mentioned above, the default controls can be changed to whatever you wish and I went with the suggested scheme of mapping acceleration to the left stick and steering to the left and right triggers. I could barely stay on the bike with these unnatural controls, but once I started to get used to them and combined with the cockpit view, it definitely felt as if I was riding the bike (even though I kept falling off).
Simulation also has other options that can be tweaked for races such as handling, damage, tire wear, rider health and weather among others. Changing the weather in SBK X doesn?t just make the road slightly more slippery when raining; it?ll also change how the track performs against your rider. Tread will actually wear from your tires over time and you?ll gain better traction because of it should you hit the same lines every lap. It?s apparent that the subtle weather effects have put a lot of time into it as racing in the rain in cockpit view looks like actual rain is hitting against your TV screen.
Building off the premise of Story Mode, Simulation has its own Career Mode that is much more involved that will focus more on your rider rather than the management factors that Moto GP uses. You begin in the Superstock circuit and as you sign contracts with other teams and move up the rankings, you?ll eventually compete in the WSS and SBK classes over the span of your eight year career.
Multiplayer can have 16 people competing over Xbox Live and Championship, Quick Race, and Time Trials are all available to be competed. It?s quite entertaining to play online with a bunch of people with simulation settings toggled that have clearly only played the Arcade Mode or aren?t used to the simulation controls yet.
I do wish there were options to completely customize your bike with decals and paint jobs (hello Forza 3) and that there was visual damage for your bikes if you crash a few times. While crashes are present, they don?t seem anywhere near as epic as they should be. You?ll fall off your bike, roll for a second and then be put back on the bike. It?s not really a downfall, but it did stand out as bike crashes are quite a spectacle to see.
I?m not going to really complain all that much as the visuals are great and everything plays very smoothly, but the presentation is a little bare and left to be desired (especially the conversations in the Story and Career Modes). My only real complaint would have to be the amount of loading when playing the Story or Career Modes. You?ll load to talk to one person and then again when you talk to someone else. It?ll also reload the whole track as you play a practice, qualifier and actual race for some reason.
If I had to give one feature in the game the MVP award, I?d have to go with the cockpit view as you get a real sense of how closely you come to the ground as you take those tight turns. Somehow Milestone has managed to get this first person view done correctly as well and will actually have your rider slightly look into your turn rather than simply in just a straight line so you can feel where you are going.
SBK X is essentially two games in one. Arcade Mode gives you a simple way to get into a race quickly, go fast, and pop wheelies. Simulation Mode will satisfy the hardcore fans and will give you the closest thing you can get to actually getting on a bike. Both modes are very flexible and customizable so that you can play any way you want and challenge yourself however you wish. With a little more emphasis on presentation I do think the next version of SBK will have something very special on their hands; as it stands right now, SBK X is a very solid (if not the most complete) motorcycle simulation game out there right now and I?m impressed with how Milestone has made Superbikes accessible for anyone to play regardless of their casual or hardcore intensions.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Nail'd
I have to admit, I never even had Nail?d on my radar this year (before going to PAX) with all the huge titles coming out so fast and furiously as of late. What?s Nail?d you may ask? It?s an ATV/Dirtbike game which oddly enough, is developed by the team who did the Call of Juarez games. I honestly didn?t know to expect when I first started playing it, as I?ve picked up quite a few racers this year; would this one be any different? A is essentially the off-road equivalent to the chaotic and unrealistic racing that we?ve come to love from titles like Burnout, Blur, and Split Second. It?s completely over the top, laughs at the laws of gravity and physics, and every race will feel much like the ups and downs of a rollercoaster. Nail?d is all about going fast as you can with boost and taking huge (which is an understatement) ramps that will have you free falling for easily more than 5 seconds. Yea, you?ll be falling in the air for over a mile while trying to avoid windmills, planes, pillars and other object. It?s insanity on 2 or four wheels and it?s a blast to play simply to get massive air and making that perfect landing. Extreme is really the only way I can describe this racer. Motion blur kicks in when you boost, giving everything a grey faded look as if you were focusing very diligently and the free falling after taking the jumps is simply awesome since you can nudge and maneuver yourself midair to land that crazy jump.
Surprisingly, Nail?d is very simple to pick up and play. Right Trigger is gas, Left is brake, Left Stick steers and A is your boost; doesn?t get much easier than that. The mentality behind it is you press a button, go fast and then be awesome while trying not to die. You can easily learn the driving nuances like ?steering? mid-air really quickly, but you?ll have to be at the top of your game if you want to actually win races while boosting at break-neck speeds.
Playing alone is no problem as there are tons of different modes for you to enjoy. The basic Simple Race and Time Attack is here that is standard, but there?s also quite a few interesting modes included as well that make for some unique gameplay. Stunt Mode will net you points for every feat you do (such as boosting for a certain amount of time, landing perfect jumps and more) but the winner is not determined by who crosses the finish line first (though it?s a huge advantage) since everyone?s points start to decrease rapidly once that first player finishes. Having ?stunt? in the title may be a little misleading since you don?t really do stunts, but it?s still a fun mode never the less.
Detonator is essentially hot potato, but it?s actually a bomb strapped to your racers back. To pass the bomb and avoid it exploding on you, you again must land a crazy jump properly or do certain feats to pass it to the next victim.
Boost Madness was easily my favorite of all the modes and that?s truly what it is: madness! All players have unlimited boost in this mode so you?ll constantly be going so fast that it can actually be quite challenging just to stay on track or decide what path to take.
There is a career mode of course as well that will have you doing individual races (and different types) to finish tournaments and progress. It does a good job of varying the race styles and maps enough that it doesn?t become too stale with the 14 tracks on the disc (4 more with the DLC) and will become increasingly difficult.
All of the tracks feel varied and unique from each other. Some races will have you driving through the woods dodging trees, in the desert jumping dunes, and even in (and over) canyons. The maps themselves are nowhere near your standard design either. Because Nail?d tries to go for an exciting way to race, you?ll constantly be taking huge dips and climbing hills to setup for those huge jumps and airtime. Harsh angles will even have you racing almost completely sideways along a dam at times as well; there?s definitely some racing here I?ve never experienced before. And like any good racer, there are tons of secret pathways and branching routes to take. Do you play it safe and stay low and quick or go up that huge hill and hopefully land in front (or better yet, on top) of your rivals? You?ll be making these decisions in a split second due to how quickly you go while boosting which is where much of the excitement comes.
In the Garage, you can even customize your rider and ride. While the rider doesn?t have many options other than your racing suit and gender, the real customization comes in tuning your quad or dirtbike just how you want. There are multiple parts you can change for each section of your vehicle and different parts will have different stats. The parts that can be changes are Body, Engine, Wheels, Handlebars, Shocks, Exhaust, and Engine; and the features that are changed with parts are Ground Steering, Air Steering, General Acceleration, Boost Acceleration, Boost Regen, and Total Boost Capacity. Every part also has its own unique look as well (including colors), so you can build your bike to your liking in not only stats, but looks as well. What?s great about this is that there?s no ?best? bike with all the stats full, you?ll build your quad to suit how you play. I chose acceleration stats instead of boost just because of the way I found I was playing after a few hours; it?s completely up to you. As you progress through the career you?ll unlock more parts as you go to help you along the way.
What makes Nail?d so crazy is the speed you?ll be going when you have boost. Press A and you?ll get a short burst of nitro and if you want to refill it you need to land jumps properly (and perpendicular to the ground), do feats, or simply go through the flaming gates and hoops. Word of wisdom: don?t lay on the boost for a long amount of time unless you need to get somewhere very quickly, I found doing small bursts (even simple presses of boost) was much more efficient as I didn?t seem to go faster when laying on the nitro (though impossible to tell since there?s no speedometer in Nail?d).
When you do crash (and you will, many times), you?ll get a short slow motion vignette of the crash before it puts you back in the race (usually just ahead of where you crashed since you usually need an ample amount of speed to make certain jumps) a few seconds later. Obviously you don?t want to crash, but I?ve had a few times where I crashed beside another racer and when I respawned, I was easily a few seconds ahead of him. I?m not sure if it was a bug or just one of ?those spots?, but it wasn?t always consistent with how far ahead or behind it put me.
You?ll be able to hop on Xbox Live as well and race up to 11 other players in any of the modes as well (I suggest Boost Madness for some craziness) and there?s even a unique Leaderboard that Nail?d is using. When you start the game it?s going to ask where your location is (state or province), this is because you?re going to be comparing yourself to other players in your same region. It definitely feels more competitive that I?m trying to beat someone?s record that?s close to me as opposed to some kid way overseas. Yes, you?ll also be able to compare against those kids with too much free time worldwide as well, but I really like the idea of region leaderboards and I hope it does well and catches on with other games.
Surprisingly there?s a quite decent soundtrack to go along with the game. There are lots of artists I?ve never heard of but there are the few greats that I do know from Rise Against, Slipknot, and even Queens of the Stone Age. The soundtrack as a whole really fits the mood and fast pace of the game and when that Slipknot kicks in mid-race, I find myself holding the boost button down even harder to try and go faster.
As mentioned before, the lack of a speedometer does seem a little odd at first, but you get used to it. You never know HOW fast you are going, you just know you?re going TOO fast and are about to do some crazy jumps. This speed also makes it somewhat difficult to figure out where you sometimes need to go (even mid-air) because the moment you go out of bounds you will explode and be respawned. The same goes for landing your jumps, sometimes you?ll land no problem, and other times you?ll crash even though you look like you landed it perfectly. Some rocks can be driven on and bounced off of (when coming down a jump) while others cannot. It?s not a huge issue, but it takes time to learn the rules in Nail?d of what you can and cannot do. Also, not really being able to do tricks when you are free falling for so long does seem like an odd omission, but you?ll forget it pretty quickly since that turn coming ahead is closing in quickly.
Nail?d is in no way a realistic representation of what off-roading is like in any way. That?s not a bad thing though because they aren?t trying to be a serious realistic racer. Nail?d is all about going balls-out and seeing how much air you can get while making your way to the finish line while avoiding oncoming trains and more. Nail?d could do for arcade quad games what Burnout did for arcade racers; it?s simple and fun to play and never takes itself too seriously while doing so. My only concern is if there is much of a shelf life and substance here after a substantial amount of gameplay (especially if you can?t play online), as it is fun to jump in and slam down some quick times, but for how long with it being almost too simplistic.
I enjoyed playing Nail?d for quite a few hours and you just need to take Nail?d for what it is: a mindless awesome speed induced arcade racer that will have you doing crazy stunts and going way too fast. Turn off your brain and simply race as fast as you can while getting as much air as possible; and yes, that?s me half a mile above you about to land on you and make you explode; you?re about to get nail?d.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Front Mission: Evolved
Front Mission has been a title that?s been around for over ten years. It?s got a small cult following here in the west, but it?s absolutely huge overseas. Front Mission has been a turn based tactics style game and I?m assuming now Square wants to broaden the mass appeal of the brand and branch out. How do they do this? They take a system that?s worked for its fans for years?.and then completely scratch it and break the mold to hopefully gain some popularity stateside. What makes the draw of Front Mission so appealing is the giant mecha robots piloted by humans called ?wanzers? (from the German Wanderpanzer?) that can rain a massive amount of damage upon enemies. Double Helix Games made Front Mission Evolved (FME for short) and they are known for making Silent Hill: Homecoming and GI: Joe (the game). Both titles were generally lackluster, so you can see the trend that?s about to unfold. Although the Front Mission series has a very encompassing story that spans across the entire series, Double Helix has decided to change things up with a weak story and mediocre gameplay to boot; but hey, there are tons of explosions!
FME takes place in the distant future of year 2171 (which is 50 years after the events of Front Mission 5) and humankind is now starting to race to explore space. The superpowers of the world have built orbital elevators that allow surveillance satellites to be sent to space to watch what every other nation is doing. One of the USN?s (North America) orbital elevators is mysteriously destroyed and tensions from nations start to flare as accusations run wild. This starts border skirmishes whose assault is led by these wanzers and battles in the front lines ensue.
The story pivots around your character, Dylan Ramsey, who just happens to fall into this battle that?s about to unfold. Truth be told, there is a story here about him trying to find his dad and a woman that dislikes him cause he?s simply a civilian, but there?s honestly no reason to really delve deeper into the story because it?s so cliché and reeks of predictable that you?ll see almost all the ?twists? coming unfortunately. FME is built around controlling your wanzer, blowing stuff up, and trying to encompass it around a narrative; sadly the narrative falls flat on its face that I almost preferred to skip it all together.
What FME does do right is give you control over a completely customizable wanzer whose load-out can be any way you want. You are able to equip four weapons, one in each hand and one on each shoulder for a total of four. The trick is that your total weight can?t exceed your wanzer?s power output, so it?s a fine balancing game of choosing weapons and armor that suit your style without going overboard. You can even color your wanzer and put decals on each limb to make it your own as well; my giant pink armored mech definitely stood out against all the other bland counterparts.
Most missions will have you going from checkpoint to checkpoint in a fairly linear fashion (though cleverly disguised as an ?open? city even though you can?t stray very far) blowing up enemies that get in your way. There are a few breaks from the monotonous missions that will have you shooting a turret from a plane, but these happen too infrequently.
There are a few missions where your mechs simply can?t go; this means you?ll be on foot. These sections are the most frustrating and have the sloppiest controls in the whole game. These foot missions are slow paced and completely the opposite of the wanzer levels which throws off the pacing of the game as a whole. To make things worse, while on foot, enemies will either stand still trying to shoot you or run at you in a straight line; you also only have a limited selection of three guns and a handful of grenades. You won?t enjoy the foot missions in any way and when you?re buying a game based on piloting huge mechs, it may put a bad taste in your mouth about the game as a whole.
Chapters finish with your typical boss battles but the bosses in Evolved are so completely overpowered it?s not funny. While the enemy boss? wanzer looks normal, they can somehow take a massive amount of damage before being defeated which take these fights to the point of being boring due to how long it takes. You simply need to resort to: shoot, evade, run away and repeat for most of these just to survive. Health and Ammo replenishments respawn over time and without these, you won?t get very far. You?ll also need to rely on your E.D.G.E. mode which is basically a meter that fills up and then can be used to slow down time to avoid attack and do more damage of your own.
If you mamage to get through the campaign and want to keep playing, there actually is a multiplayer portion of FME that?s included as well. You have your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch modes along with a few others and you even have a leveling system that gives you unlocked parts and perks for your wanzer. The leveling system in place is a great idea and works well in other games, but the amount of xp you get in a decent single match is so small that you?ll have to devote an obscene amount of time into the online if you want to unlock any of the good items at all. Coupled with such a small community playing the game at one time, this may be near impossible to do. Also, because of this, you?ll regularly face people online that are very high level when you?re just starting out and you?ll quickly become frustrated due to only having a start mech; this felt almost broken to me. If you?re going to play this online, be ready to set aside very many hours just to get a few decent upgrades.
You?ll notice very quickly that while the models for the wanzers looks decent, the textures for almost everything else do not. While you can customize your wanzer?s color and paint scheme like mentioned above, sadly the textures are very low. This goes the same for almost all the textures as the world in general you?re surrounded in which can become quite noticeable at times in the slower sections.
The other biggest distraction during the campaign is the very poorly written dialogue coupled with some very mediocre voice acting. While you?re on your long stint against a boss, you?ll also notice the same lines will be repeated over and over again which doesn?t help during the absurdly long boss battles.
As I mentioned before, what FME does well is make you pilot a wanzer that feels powerful and can be customized to your liking. There are even tons of hidden collectables to find during the campaign (though they are very small and well hidden) if that?s your thing as well. I have a feeling most Front Mission fans will be sorely disappointed with Evolved simply because of the deviation from what made Front Mission so great; a tactic based strategy game. Sadly, Square isn?t going to gain any new fans or followers of the series with this iteration of a very mediocre third person shooter which is sad as I?m sure good intentions were behind making Evolved.
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed is back this year but something drastic has changed since the last few iterations. First and foremost, this NFS title is developed by Criterion team behind one of the best arcade racers out there: Burnout. This re-envisioning of NFS from Criterion really blends both games? world in a racing world that is fast paced and exciting to play. Be warned, I tried to play Hot Pursuit like a Burnout title, and while you do need to drive recklessly (in oncoming traffic, drifting, etc) to gain nitro, it?s inherently not as fast and crazy paced that we?ve become used to with Burnout. I had to break myself out of old habits but once I learned the nuances of Hot Pursuits driving I was really starting to enjoy myself once I was able to drift those long corners without hitting anything. You?ll be speeding excessively, trying to shake the cops, doing takedowns on other cars and wreaking havoc for the streets of Seacrest County. Going back to its Need For Speed roots, you can once again play as racer or cop in this title. What?s even better is that you can choose what side of the law you want to be on in career mode and switch whenever you like as well if you want a change. Each career side is pretty lengthy and to reach the top rank of 20 on each side will take some serious gaming hours to obtain.
Before I get into all the gameplay mechanics, race types, and so on, I need to explain what?s under the hood of the new NFS. You?ll see Autolog plastered everywhere in the game; this is the new heart of NFS and quite honestly, I hope more games become this connected as time goes on.
Autolog lets you keep track of everything you do, every race, game stats, photos you take and more. What makes this unique is that it?s also going to track everyone on your friends list and everything they do as well and show you their progressions and times. It even goes a step further and when one of your friends eventually beat that amazing time you got, it?s going to tell you instantly that they beat it by X amount of seconds and give you a one button press option to go replay that course to try and beat it. I can?t tell you how many hours I?ve wasted simply trying to beat the Autolog recommendations to beat my friends? top times. The only thing I wish that Autolog can do in the future is have a ghost of my friend?s run as I try and beat their freakishly low time.
This even extends to the NFS website so that when you aren?t on your Xbox playing Hot Pursuit, you can still always stay connected and see how many friends just beat your apparently good run on any given race. You can check side by side stat comparisons to any of your friends and even save any recommendation for when you get home and start up the game so that you don?t forgive to give your friend a beating in the form on a quicker time. It?s very connect, simple to use, and I honestly didn?t think I would care much if my friends beat my times, but when you see it happen in real time, it?s hard to resist to not try and attempt to dethrone them.
You?ll be driving all over Seacrest County which is known for its high speed racing culture and the cops that are known to stop them in their tracks. You?ll drive along the coast, the snow covered mountain area, desert, and even forest areas that will have you reminiscing to playing Crusin? USA. There is a free driving option, and I do suggest it to find those hidden shortcuts (careful though, some are long cuts!) for every advantage in your race (and against your friends).
Weather you pick racers or cops; you?ll constantly be working towards new ranks and unlocks. Hot Pursuit does a fantastic job at constantly rewarding you with new cars, equipment upgrades and more. You actually will get a few unlocks per level and it makes you constantly wanting to play as you?re always close to something being unlocked. You?re always working towards progression of your career regardless of playing solo offline or online with friends.
Each side of the law gets different equipment to try and get a leg up on the competition. Racers can use Spike Strips, EMP blasts, Turbo (which is much faster than your standard nitro), and Jammers which will temporarily disable cops? mechanical systems and lock-ons. Cops have their own bag of tricks as well though to take the racers down; EMP strikes and Spike Strips are also useable by cops, but they also get access to calling in Roadblocks that make it very difficult for racers to get through without crashing along with being able to call in Helicopter support that will travel ahead of the racers and drop spike strips hopefully infront of them.
Once you learn how the equipment works and when to properly use them, there?s actually some strategy to be used and how to ration your equipment (hopefully before you get taken down). You need to constantly be driving dangerously on the wrong side of the road, barely missing cars, and drifting to keep your nitro meter refilling. You?ll also need to learn to ration your nitro as well that really needs to be used for going uphill (especially with the heavier muscle cars), overtaking and correcting that guardrail rub going 300 kmh.
Hop online and you can jump into some awesome action as well. Two teams of four can do cops vs racers and I found this the most fun yet challenging mode online hands down. Things become much more difficult with an actual player controlling the opposing team when comparing it to career mode?s single player. You really do need to work as a team if you want to survive the cops pursuit or take down all the racers in the time allotted. I?ve even had to take myself out of a race by slamming into a cop to stop him from getting my teammate near the end of a race. You can choose to do 1 vs 1 with a cop and racer if you prefer, but be warned, players with higher rankings have access to much faster and exotic cars that will leave you in the dust if you are just starting out. Straight races are also an option as well and everything is always connected to Autolog of course.
Any cars you?ve unlocked, you can then use in that series? event. Tons of cars to choose from such as Mitsubishi Lancer X, McLaren F1, Nissan 370Z, Porche?s, Lambo?s, and more exotics you?ll never even see in real life, let alone drive them. Sadly the lack of Ferrari?s does seem like a gaping hole in the big picture though, but 100 cars is nothing to scoff at.
I?m glad there was no cheesy attempt of a story mode in Hot Pursuit because let?s face it; you?re playing Need for Speed to race cars you?ll never own extremely fast. They don?t try and be something else which I applaud them for and stick to the roots of NFS titles. Autolog may seem gimmicky at first and just a fancy way to show your (and friends) stats, but it will change the way you play eventually. I can?t tell you how many hours I?ve been distracted for just to try and beat my friends times; I can?t let that stand.
I believe letting Criterion give their touch to a long running series was a great move and it?s definitely given the series a boost in the right direction as I lost interest in the last few titles. I once again care about Need For Speed and subsequently has also made me yearn for a new Burnout at the same time. If you loved the old school NFS, this is the next step for you. So go put on your aviators, buckle up, rev that V12 engine and give in to your need for speed.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Dance Central
Harmonix returns once again, but this time it?s not anything Rock Band related. Instead, they are taking on another take with the music genre. Dance Central is what you can probably guess from the title; it?s a dancing game but this is no Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) that you may know, this game will actually try to teach you some dance moves for your repertoire. While you may have played DDR before, that game never really taught you any dance moves or anything you could probably show off in a real club. Dance Central will teach you actual moves with your feet, arms, hips, and general rhythm and movement. There?s no faking it here since this Kinect only game will see exactly how you are moving your body and legs unlike other games that let you get away with flailing around.
While the concept of a dancing game may not be new, with Kinect hardware being mandatory for the title, Dance Central feels completely new and interesting even for their first time out. It?s fun, can easily be a party game for when friends come over, and like mentioned before, may actually teach you some moves you could show off in public as well.
A music genre game is only as good as its soundtrack though right? There may not be a huge selection here like Rock Band has spoiled us with, but there are some definite classics here that almost anyone can enjoy. There were actually very few songs that either I or the wife didn?t really care for to be honest. Some of the more noteworthy songs that I tend to play over and over: C?Mon N? Ride It (The Train), Crank That, Jungle Boogie, Poker Face, Poison, Pump Up The Jam, and Satisfaction; just to name a few.
Because Dance Central is a Kinect game, you actually navigate the menus from swiping your left or right hand to progress or go back and up and down to make your selections. It?s natural and intuitive once you realize how to select and choose options. First time Kinect users shouldn?t have a problem with the interface as it?s that simple and easy to use.
Instead of a step chart to learn routines, you?ll actually see your character on screen start to dance and do moves and you?ll need to mirror those moves in unison to gain points and pass. Move the wrong arm or leg and that limb will go red so you know what you?re doing wrong, but more on that later.
So you find a song you like (and is grouped by difficulty just like Rock Band) and once chosen you?ll have a few different options: Break It Down, Perform It, and Dance Battle. Break It Down will essentially do that and show you every single move you?ll need to learn to pass it in Perform It mode. Choosing from Easy, Medium, and Hard will also teach you progressively harder moves as well. A flash card will appear on the screen (most with goofy names) and will give you a quick diagram of what you?re supposed to do (move this arm or that leg). Pass the move three times if you don?t on your first and you?ll move onto the next cue card with your next move lesson. If you really can?t nail a certain moveset, you can slow it down even further to try and help you learn said movements. While not perfect, it does help for some of the more challenging moves with subtle nuances that seem to matter to Kinect tracking you at times.
So you?ve broken-it-down and now know all the awesome moves you?ll need to master; head on to Perform It to prove yourself! Just like learning, you?ll always have the flash cards on screen to show you what?s coming next for moves and as long as you understand what the cards are telling you what to do next, you?ll be fine throughout. While some songs on easy will only have a few moves that are repeated over and over, higher difficulties will throw quite a few at you of all varying challenge. Midway through the song you?ll even have a small 10 second or so window to freestyle and do whatever you want as Kinect takes pictures of you and replays them quickly that?s always great for a laugh. You?ll also finish each song with a specialize Finishing Move to end it in style (though for some reason these aren?t taught in Break It Down mode) as well.
Dance Battle is where you and a friend can dance against each other in jump in and jump out play; no direct head to head though. It?s quite hilarious to play this mode with people that aren?t particularly good dancers simply for the fact it?s much more entertaining to watch friends dance awkwardly. The song is split, you do a section then your friend does the next and so on. While it?s not perfect (like head to head versus would be), it is fun and at least has everyone in the room watching someone else other than you the whole time. Sadly you can?t go online for a dance off either so you?re only stuck with simple leaderboards for scoring.
Speaking of scoring, it?s done very similar to how Rock Band does things, with the 5 star approach for a perfect routine. All songs are unlocked from the beginning so no need to go through a bunch of songs you may not enjoy just to play something you want to. You?ll unlock new dancers (preset and not customizable in any way for some reason), outfits and venues as you progress but don?t look for any type of career mode unfortunately. The lack of any real progression in a ?career? type of mode was quite a downer as was not being able to make my own dancer.
The other issue I had overall was the fact that you can?t fail out of a song. You can perform poorly, but you?ll never fail. Like I mentioned above, your characters? limbs will go red if you aren?t mimicking them perfectly, in attempts to show you what you?re doing wrong. The problem is that it doesn?t tell you what or why you are doing it wrong. Is your arm too low or high, angled weird, or your hips not rotating the right way? You?ll just have to figure it out until you get it right unfortunately, but at least it narrows it down to the area you need to work on per move. Other may enjoy this and not feel too overwhelmed when not doing well, cause nothing would be more discouraging to shaking what your momma gave you, then failing cause you did it wrong, right?
While Dance Central may not be for everyone, if you have a Kinect and some friend that regularly come over, definitely pick this up and see how many people get into it. Once people get over the initial embarrassment of having to ?dance? in front of people, everyone for the most part seems to have a good time, even the friends on the couch refusing to play but laughing.
As I said before, there are some great tools in this game that will teach you some moves you can even use for dancing in the clubs (that?s right, I?m going to bust out my merengue swagger next time!) and the simple fact that I?ve come home to see my wife playing Dance Central on her own proves that it?s simple enough for anyone to jump in and play.
I do wish there was some more depth to the game as a whole, but if you need a reason to justify getting a Kinect or was curious about getting one, this is the launch title that you need with it to really show how well it works. Harmonix has done it again on their first go and just like how Rock Band got some of us to pick up a real instrument and learn how to play (or want to); Dance Central could do the same for learning some killer moves on the dance floor.
Suggestions: Online dance battles for part 2 is a must, so is telling me why I'm doing a certain move wrong.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Fable 3
Ah Fable?the epic tales and stories that takes place in the world of Albion. How I?ve missed you; how have you been? It?s been almost 2 years to the day that I played you last. Now that you?re back, have you been improved and brought me a new and engaging story to get enthralled into? Fable III takes what core mechanics worked well in Fable 2 for the most part and improved on said attributes. Because of this, the overall general feeling I got from Fable 2 has returned, which isn?t necessarily a bad thing; if it?s broke don?t fix it right? Fable 3 takes the whole ?play however you want? assertion and rolls with it even further this time around. Do what you want, even if that?s being married to 8 different people, sharing your STDs, or amassing a fortune by being a ruthless landlord.
Fable has always been known for having top notch voice acting going for it (even if other aspect may fall short) and in this title it?s no different. For a few name drops to get you excited about the quality of acting you?ll hear I give you Stephen Fry, Bernard Hill, John Cleese, Simon Pegg, and even Sir Ben Kingsley just to name a few. As you can see, there?s no shortage of asounding talent here for most of the main characters, so know that the voice acting is absolute top notch throughout just like in previous Fable titles.
It?s been fifty years since the events transpired in Fable 2 and the son of Fable 2?s hero is now the king of Albion. The problem is that he is a tyrant for a ruler and the land is suffering because of his leadership and his stranglehold on every aspect of life. Rent is high, people are poor and starving, and even worse; all thanks to your brother, the King. Fable has always been about making moral choices (or lack thereof) and always having a consequence for your actions; Fable 3 is no different and your first real difficult choice will happen right at the start of the game. Regardless of your ?choice?, this puts events in motion that cannot be undone and starts the hatred you have for your ruthless brother. It?s not an easy decision but you vow you?ll have vengeance against him and his oppressing rule over Albion.
You escape the castle with your lifetime friend and mentor Sir Walter and so starts your quest of attempting to amass a sizeable army large enough to overthrow the King. As you come across other likeminded rebels, you?ll need to gain their trust and make promises to gain their support in your goal to become the new King (or Queen).
Fable III?s tale does not end when you finally revolt and amass enough followers to take over the throne; not even close actually. The first 2/3 of the game is doing your standard Fable gameplay of quests, marriages, etc, but the game drastically changes in the last bit once you have the crown. I won?t spoil anything as the King section is quite unique, but know early on that all the choices you made early on to gain followers will come back to haunt you. All those promises you made will have those people call upon you to uphold your world (or not). There are many reasons you may or may not keep your promises to these people, but know that you?ll have to make some extremely difficult decisions as Albion?s new King. Do the ends justify the means? Get ready to think long and hard how you want to rule and save Albion; something dark approaches and you need to be ready. You?ll make real decisions that tie hand in hand with equally powerful consequences.
I mentioned before that Fable 3 has the same type of feel to it, but what?s new? Well, one of the biggest knocks Fable 2 had was the overabundance of menus that were slow and generally unappealing. Long gone are the days of menus and your pause ?menu? is now called the Sanctuary. This is an area that you can freely move your hero around to the different areas to change them or any settings. Want to change your clothes, go through that door (or quick press of the corresponding Dpad) and you can mix and match all your clothes without any menus. The same goes for the Armory for all your weapons and more.
You also have a large map in the middle of the Sanctuary that is an overlay of all of Albion that can be moved and zoomed in and out of. From here you can even choose your current quest (that the glowing trail will show you were to go) and even teleport to the nearest area for your quest. The problem with this new quick travel method is that it becomes far too easy to get into the habit of teleporting to the Sanctuary, using the map, teleporting, do a short run, then teleport to the next objective or hand in. Rinse repeat and you lose not only a lot of game time but you don?t tend to explore nearly as much as you should in a beautiful world like Albion.
There?s no longer a health bar (or real HUD for the matter), no leveling up or skill tree for your attributes. All experience points are now clumped together and called Guild Seals which are acquired from killing and quests. These can then be spent on new spells, emotion packs, skill improvements and more. You?ll have to do a plethora of side quests and a lot of killing enemies if you want to unlock them all, so choose wisely from the beginning and spend those seals wisely.
A problem with Fable 2 was that people generally weren?t all that unique because everyone wanted the same ?end-game? weapons for the most part. They wanted the weapons with the best stats, regardless if it suited their character or not. Now as you level your weapons up with Guild Seal purchases, your Melee, Gun, or Magic will morph as you gain its levels. Identical weapons can look (and be) completely different due to many things such as moral affinity, enemy kills, and more. Certain weapons can be even further augmented with preset ?checklists? such as killing X amount of Balverines or Hobbes, doing evil acts, completing a certain amount of quests, or even spreading STDs. As you fulfill these requirements your weapon will gain the corresponding bonus and you can make your weapon almost unique to your character based on your play style. It?s an interesting system that will definitely add some more gameplay hours, but find a weapon you enjoy and you probably won?t upgrade very often.
The other big change to combat is the drastic change to how magic now works in Fable. In past games if you wanted to cast your really powerful spell, you had to charge it till it go to the specific tier and then let loose, sometimes having to wait 10 or more seconds. Magic has been completely revamped and I quite enjoyed the change. The spells you can cast are based on what gauntlets you wear. So if you want to use a fireball, you need to wear that corresponding gauntlet. Eventually you?ll be able to wear two gauntlets and this is called Spell Weaving. You can mix and match any two spells to fit your play style (I got through most of the game with Electricity and Ice, then switch to Electricity and Blades when I unlocked it) for some devastating effects. Sadly, there are only 6 different spells (for a total of 15 combinations) so it will feel slightly more limited from the previous game. This is for good reason though; there?s no more Slow-time spell as this is now designated to a potion you can use; the same goes for Summon Creatures. This will be a drastic change for some but the combat overall has been vastly simplified (almost too much in my opinion) for almost anyone to enjoy without too many problems.
The other major change I found instantly is how you interact with other characters and villagers. The famous Expression wheel has been scrapped and you?re now limited to what expressions you have learned (and bought with seals). You also been to interact with an npc, then the options you have will show up that you can perform. You may know 10 different ?good? expressions, but it?s random which one you get to perform, unless you want to keep doing them to cycle through. This felt like a complete step backwards in the wrong direction as you don?t have the same control you used to have. Sadly, it?s no longer as easy to run up to someone and fart or burp in their face anymore.
Other changes that you?ll notice are some smaller things like potions and how they are rationed. Now you?ll only get the health potion option when you are low on health and can actually use it. The same goes for specialty potions, you can only use these in combat, so the inventory system is much more context sensitive. You also can no longer earn money by not playing (or exploiting the system clock); you need to be actively playing to collect your rent.
I was so excited when I found of Fable 2 was going to have online co-op?..and then I experienced the mode and was more turned off than anything. The problem was that when you went to someone else?s game, you were basically a sidekick and no longer your Hero and couldn?t progress your own character. That and having to share one camera was absolutely terrible. This made me nervous for the co-op announcement in Fable 3; would it be just as bad and awkward? Luckily no, it has been improved (though still not as much as I?d hoped). You are no longer tethered to one another when playing with someone else online and you can actually separate and do your own things (though I?m not sure why you would be playing co-op then with someone) and you are your own Hero! No more henchmen and sidekicks. While it may still not be perfect yet (as you can really only gain gold from helping someone else in their game) it is a step in the right direction and it?s no longer a chore like it was previously.
Spend the few extra gold coins and you can pick up the Collector Edition that has a bunch of extra?s all encased in a gorgeous and thick box that looks like an old leather-bound book. Along with the authentic looking novel comes a specific extra quest, new area, new dog breed (which you can now change anytime you want), an outfit, and in a hidden compartment in the bottom of the case is a Guild Seal Coin that has a good and evil side to help you make those tough decisions along with some Fable 3 playing cards. For the 10 extra gold coins, it?s not that bad of a value for what you get.
So what else do you need to know about Fable 3 before deciding whether to get it or not? Well, there are issues, and they can be abundant at times as well. There are massive pop-in issues when scenes go from one to the next, sound bugs like characters talking over one another (not when meant to), your dog still gets ?lost? and won?t show you the proper place to dig sometimes, the gold sparkle trail will sometimes not even show up for some reason, there are times where there are very heavy frame rate issues, to the point of being frustrating, and it has even hard locked my Xbox on three separate occasions. Yes, there are a lot of bugs, most of which can hopefully be fixed with upcoming patches, but nothing was major enough to be a deal breaker for me (though the hard locks got me very close) as I was still enjoying my jaunt through Albion in my quest to become King.
The game in general is extremely easy and getting the achievement for not dying once in the main quest isn?t a challenge at all. On the flip side, this shows how improved and simplistic the combat has been changed to. As the saying goes: Easy to learn, hard to master; sadly there?s nothing to master as it?s not very difficult at all.
Stick to the main quest and teleport everywhere and you?ll be done the main story in about 10 or 12 hours which is standard fare, but indulge yourself in some of the very unique and interesting side quests (though many will be the standard fetch or kill X amount of enemies) and you can easily double your play time; even more when you play online. I found the ?ending? to be decent, I just wish it was longer and I could take back some of my actions once I realized what the consequences were, but that?s life.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Fable 3?s imaginative and engrossing plot (and subsequent twists) along with its revised gameplay and core mechanics, as a whole package I simply didn?t feel it was an epic in tale or scale that Fable 2 showed us. I wouldn?t take that as too big of a knock against Fable 3, and I can safely recommend it without worry. Those that enjoy the Fable series will find a new tale here to enjoy for a few dozen hours but here?s to hoping that Fable 4 will finally have an online mode that will keep the game in my system for months as opposed to weeks while keeping my interest.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West 
I somehow didn?t really know much about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West before it came out and it wasn?t even really on my radar until I saw it in stores either. Luckily, it was assigned for me to review and the more I read up on it the more I became intrigued about its lore. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. Enslaved is developed by Ninja Theory whose last title was Heavenly Sword so I was unsure whether to expect something like their previous game or not. The team has seemed to grow since their last game and as an overall package, they easily outdid themselves.
Enslaved (for short) is actually based loosely on a classic 400 year old Chinese novel named ?Journey to the West?. Obviously this is their take on the novel and is actually set in a post-apocalyptic world 150 years in the future. To set things straight, get your normal vision for a war ravaged world out of your head; this world looks nothing like Fallout?s setting. Quite the opposite actually, since only a handful of survivors remain, the world has actually become almost serine with vegetation taking over the urban areas with lush greens almost covering all surfaces and buildings. Ironically, it?s robots that are left alongside the humans and they are hunting down mankind.
So what makes this classic tale so unique and interesting? For starters, it?s actually co-written by Alex Garland (The Beach, and 28 Days Later), so there?s some real talent on board to create a tale with interesting characters and emotion. If that wasn?t enough, the main character; Monkey, is voiced by Andy Serkis (best known for playing Gollum from Lord of the Rings) and does an absolute perfect performance. He also co-directed the dramatic cutscenes and the camera work is so well done that it looks on par with something straight from Hollywood.
The protagonist aptly named Monkey for his skills of combat and agility is on a mech slaver ship alongside another slave that?s somehow escaped. As you break your way out of your holding pod, you see a woman running away trying to get to an escape pod before the ship goes down. Merciless mechs block your way off the ship and you eventually catch up with the mysterious woman as she blasts off from the ship in her pod; with you clinging to the outside with all your strength.
As you awake from your very hard crash landing, Monkey is about to destroy this woman but she shouts a verbal command that makes Monkey writhe in pain. While you were unconscious, she placed a hacked slave headband on you and now you under basically under her control. Oh, and she?s also rigged it so that if she dies, so do you. She does this as she realizes she?s going to need help to get back home and you?re the brute strength she?ll need to survive; meet Trip, your new life-link and journey partner.
I don?t want to give anything else more away as that?s how the story begins, but there are twists and turns you don?t see coming (and others you do) that?s amazing told in an emotional narrative that will actually make you care about Monkey and Trip long after you finish the game. I know I?ll care about the duo for some time to come.
So there?s two main core mechanics in Enslaved; combat and platforming. Platforming is very simple and easy to do; pillars and ledges have a slight glow to them so you know what you can and can?t traverse with a quick glimpse. Monkey is incredibly agile and would easily be on part with the Prince of Persia or either hero from Assassin?s Creed; that?s how easily he can climb and maneuver. What?s great about this portion is that you can?t accidently hold the wrong direction, jump, and then die because you fell too far. You can only jump to places you can reach; no more running off the edges in frustration. While some may find this a little restrictive in the exploration aspect, it streamlines the experience and keeps the narrative going as you get from point A to point B in a quick and timely fashion, all while looking good while doing it may I add.
Combat is the other half of the game; and you?ll be doing it more often than naught against slews of enemy mechs after you. Your staff is a powerful weapon that you can attack with, shoot plasma bolts from, and even use as a shield. Combat is deep, especially once you start using all your collected orbs to purchase upgrades of your choice (from shield skills, to combat, staff, or health), but once you find a good combo or a few great moves you get comfortable with, you won?t deviate much from what works (Counter is a great example of this for me. I didn?t use it much because it wasn?t needed, but I know others will rely on this heavily).
Enslaved is a completely single player experience, but it?s masked in such a greatly crafted way with Trip being on your side, that it almost feels like it?s co-op at times. So what can Trip do to help you out? She can use her mechanized dragonfly camera to scout ahead, spot enemies and their weaknesses, and then relay that into the HUD of your headband. There?s also a whole mechanic built on distraction. Sometimes Monkey needs to get from one area to the next, but there are too many enemies or turrets in the way that make it impossible. This is where Trip can use a hologram to distract enemy fire for a short time as you make your way to cover or sneak up behind them. The same goes both ways, as Monkey can shout and distract enemies that may be going for Trip; remember though, if she dies, so do you.
Normally when there are escort missions, I simply dread them because the AI usually gets in the way or actually makes it more of a hindrance than anything else. While Trip may not be able to fight the mechs, if she gets too close to enemies, she can use a temporary stun on the mechs with a short amount fo time for you to come save her. Surprisingly, she was able to take care of herself outside of the few scripted moments.
Monkey later on can make use of his hoverboard-like orb aptly named his Cloud. You can speed across water and make further jumps with your Cloud activated; there are even a few sections that require you to get around on your Cloud to reach certain areas for Trip to progress as well. There are a few other sections where you?ll use your Cloud as well, but I?ll save those awesome surprises for you to discover.
While everything has been positive so far, there were a few glitches and bugs I ran across that needed mentioning to be fair. While the vast majority of camera work is perfect and very cinematic, there are times where the camera will simply make you frustrated by looking in the wrong direction or not show you the robots beating you down at some given moment.
There were also two instances where my objectives wouldn?t load, so I spent about fifteen minutes in an area trying to figure out why the enemies Trip just told me were there weren?t. After a quick reload everything was fine, but boy was I confused when I thought I somehow just ran across the first invisible enemies. The second was a boss fight that I had to restart due to dying, but the problem was the boss instantly killed Trip even though I still had time left before it got to her. Weird issues, but nothing deal breaking that a quick checkpoint reload didn?t fix. Honestly, all of the positives completely outweigh the few negatives.
Enslaved is the epitome of emotional storytelling; you?ll care about the characters, their relationships, the overall goal, and even the world it takes place in. Everything feels completely unique and original and I would honestly love to see a movie adaption someday.
Pacing is wonderful and there?s enough variety that it doesn?t get stale for a minute. I had a hard time putting the game down due to its gripping story and constantly wanting to know what happens next to Monkey and Trip. I implore you to give enslaved a try; there?s even a demo available to give you a taste of the experience. Everything other than a few small bugs make this game an absolute treat and this is easily in my top 5 for the whole year. I absolutely loved every aspect about this game from some of the best facial animations I?ve ever seen in a game to the wonderful and gorgeous world (for being post- apocalyptic), to some of the best voice acting I?ve ever heard.
I honestly can?t say enough great things about Enslaved; it?s fun, it?s interesting, and I loved everything about it. I?m already looking forward to the forthcoming DLC to bring me back into the world, even if it?ll only be for a short time, at least that?s a few more hours I?ll get to enjoy and to hopefully tide me over until a sequel is announced (please!).
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Alien Breed 2: Assault
Team17 may most famously be known for their Worm series of games, but they also have another title with a cult following over the years. Alien Breed is isometric shooter with a three quarters view that first debuted on the Commodore almost twenty years ago in 1991. Some time has passed since Alien Breed has first been released and Team17 is attempting to bring back the series with an overhauled graphic engine (Unreal) and some new tricks up its sleeve.Alien Breed 2: Assault (AB2A) is the second installment of the series' ?reboot? in a trilogy that takes all the best parts from many sci-fi influences and wraps it in a surprisingly long jaunt in an isolated ship hurling through space.
If you played Alien Breed Evolution then you will be happy to know that the story continues and stars once again Conrad the engineer aboard the spaceship Leopold. The ship?s engines need to be reignited and fixed if you want a chance to survive aboard the ship; but like any good sci-fi space story, you?ll need to survive and defeat a slew of oncoming aliens that never seem to end. The story is mostly told as a comic style panel with the odd cutscene here and there usually at the start and ending of chapters. You?ll be playing the exterminator with an arsenal of weaponry and you make your way from checkpoint to checkpoint.
You control Conrad who can freely move wherever he likes (that?s unlocked), shoot in every direction, and you also control the camera angle that can be snapped at 45 degree increments to your liking. You?ll need to use the camera moment button quite often as sometimes it?s impossible to see where to go or what to shoot without doing so. Also, you may like running from the bottom of the screen upwards, but hit specific checkpoints and the camera will sometimes whip around and completely throw you off in regards to your surroundings.
You?ll learn almost from the very beginning that ammo must be conserved wherever possible as there?s very little downtime where you don?t need to shoot a wave of oncoming bad guys out for you. Luckily with all the cash you find lying around or from corpses, you can then buy ammo and even much needed upgrades from save points.
As I mentioned earlier, Alien Breed is almost two decades old and the way things were made back then for this style of game sadly still hasn?t changed very much. The majority of all levels will go like this: use computer A to use computer B to unlock door C to flip switch D to go all the way back to computer A because it didn?t work or because something was stuck. Follow the checkpoints, kill the bugs, progress.
Because of this old way of design, it?s literally a corridor shooter for the most part and sadly other than boss battles or the odd ?survive for X amount of time?, just isn?t all that exciting. Couple this with an inane amount of backtracking (sometimes almost all the way back to the start just to flip a switch or use a computer) and you have a very linear experience that seems to be very repetitive. It?s not a terrible thing, as this genre of game has almost always been built this way, but don?t expect much variety in missions.
Something new to AB2A is a new Survivor Mode. Yes, this is another mode where waves and waves of enemies come at you and you need to see how long you can stay alive. No, it?s not anything new but it is fun when you just want to not think about anything and kill hordes of aliens in single or co-operative modes.
There?s also a c-operative play mode where you and a friend can take on multiplayer specific missions that is customized for two players over Xbox Live or split screen. The issue I found with this (and Survival) is that I left a lobby open for 30 minutes two different times and not one person joined my game (nor could I find a match to join either). Beware that there?s obviously very low community numbers for the game if you want to buy this for the co-operative experience on Xbox Live. Glancing the leaderboards as well confirmed this as you can see how many people are ranked per level (not even 3000 completed the first missions and less than a hundred have on the latter and harder levels). This doesn?t weigh into the games rating, but more of an advisory if you don?t have a friend also picking up the game.
Oddly enough, a lack of voice acting concerns me because it?s usually due to bad acting or whatnot; this stays true for AB2A as well. There isn?t much voiced story, but you?ll be glad it?s that way once you hear how horrendous the acting and writing are throughout the few hours of campaign.
There are leaderboards, but they aren?t very compelling enough to keep you interested long term; though with the few amount of players, you do have a good shot at being one of the top players in the world if that?s your thing. It?s unfortunate the game has a low play population as it?s a decent title for the 800 Microsoft Points if you want to turn off your brain and just shoot a ton of aliens and I would have loved to get some more time in on the co-operative modes. If you enjoy the demo, then you?ll most likely enjoy the full game just as much because it?s going to be that same gameplay over and over throughout the campaign.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor series has been around for quite some time and truth be told, it was one of the first very successful World War II shooters to come to the masses. Medal of Honor (MOH for short) arrived a few years before Call of Duty and really did pave the way for successful World War shooters in my eyes. Medal of Honor titles have always been about authenticity and soldier respect and because of the nature of the material, also controversial; this reboot for the series simply named Medal of Honor, is no different.Now that MOH is about to come out of hibernation after a long slumber, it?s also taking new steps for the series and is going to be the first that doesn?t take place in World War II era; this campaign takes place in modern day Afghanistan (queues the critics now) which has also brought with it much controversy. So let?s get this out of the way first; the big uproar more than anything that I?ve notices is that people are being vocal against the game because you were going to be able to play the Taliban in multiplayer. Obviously this ruffled enough feathers that Danger Close (the EA studio which has a very fitting name) decided to change the playable Taliban to simply be renamed Opposing Forces. Will a simple name change muzzle some of the opposition, hard to say, but know that because of this last minute change that no gameplay has suffered in any way; it?s simply a name change in l of Honor this time around focuses on a super elite group of soldiers aptly named Tier 1 Operators. There are more than two million American men and women enlisted into service, of those roughly fifty thousand falls under Special Operations Command. The elite Tier 1 Operators are a very select group even above the Spec Ops and while there is no publicly known numbers of how many exist, it?s said to be in the low hundreds. These soldiers are so precise and are unquestionably a living and breathing instrument of war that is called upon when a mission simply cannot fail by any means.
Meet Dusty, the badass soldier on the front of the cover with a beard that makes me even envious. He is a Tier 1 Operator (T1) if you haven?t guessed that by this point. While technically you don?t play as Dusty, you will play alongside him as Deuce who is also another T1 for a good portion of the campaign. Why do I say that? Well, you are actually going o take control of 4 different playable characters throughout the campaign from different teams; Rabbit, Deuce, Adams and even an Apache Pilot. The story mostly focuses on the T1 team, but the stories will intertwine and you?ll get to see each squad?s side of the battles.
I don?t want to give anything away about the story as I did find it quite engaging and it wasn?t a simple ?kill everything? or ?clear this area so that?.? scenario that plagues a lot of warfare shooters. The setting is in Afghanistan and while you may think that the area is only dry and barren desert, there are more locales that you?ll be fighting through like city slums and the snow covered mountains. You may be surprised that Afghanistan isn?t what you may think. As the campaign progresses and you make your way through some bloody battles the mood, narrative and goals will change based on the events that take place. A brilliant score accompanies the mood changes alongside and perfectly fits the situations that you find yourself in.
When you finally shoot your last bullet and the mission comes to an end, you?ll be treated to an amazing and very heartwarming dedication before the credits roll that was actually written by soldiers in service. Danger Close made sure that it was something that they (the soldiers) could send out to their community and makes for a very emotional and fitting ending that was very powerful and climactic. From beginning to end, the story will keep you engaged and there is enough variety in levels and proper pacing that won?t give you fatigue or lose interest. At the core is a great shooter experience with tight controls that make the ATV, Sniping, and Apache levels seem like great additions and variety.
So what is there to do other than multiplayer once you finish the campaign? Well, once you finish the game, Tier 1 Mode will unlock. This mode is for the hardcore and is essentially a Time Attack mode but with a twist. You replay the campaign missions but you have a very short time limit and the only way to extend your time is to play well by getting head shots and kill streaks. Everything is generally harder as well since there are tougher enemies, your health doesn?t recharge and there are also no mid-level checkpoints either. If you die half way through the mission, you need to start over from the beginning; this is for the hardcore no doubt. Your par times will be uploaded to the leaderboard and you can see how you stack against your friends and others.
While Danger Close focused on the single player aspect, DICE made the multiplayer as its right up their alley. Multiplayer uses a modified version of the Bad Company 2 engine and while it does feel like a Battlefield style of gameplay it does have a MOH experience and feels a little quicker and more skill based.
If you?ve played the multiplayer beta that was going on over the summer then all you need to know is that there has been a vast improvement such as balancing issues, graphic updates and more which was all based on user feedback.
So what makes MOH stand out online compared to other shooters? There is a leveling system that we?re now used to but they?ve done things a little differently. There are three classes; Rifleman, Special Ops, and Sniper. As you play a class and gain kills and scores, those points go towards leveling that class up and ultimately unlocking new weapons and perks for that class. So instead of unlocking weapons and more overall, you need to work each class to gain their unlocks. For example, a sniper won?t have a zoomable scope until you gain a few levels. The more you use a class, the more you?ll unlock for said class.
Something else done a little differently is the scorechains (or kill streaks as we?re used to). So instead of needing three or more kills to gain a UAV or other advantages the system is place uses a scorechain system instead. This is done by points and not kills, so playing well and getting headshots and doing other objectives will get your scorechain up and net you the choice of an offensive or defensive action. Choose offensive and you can use mortar strikes and other rains of death, but choose defensive and you can get a UAV or even replenish ammo and give armor to your whole team. I really enjoyed this system much better than the standard killstreak mechanic as there?s some more strategy in choosing the ?right? choice for the moment.
Easily the strength of multiplayer is the audio, (just like the campaign) and there is so much detail given to everything from sound effects, voice chatter, callouts and explosions. The hindrance of multiplayer though at the moment has to be the unbalanced maps and some of the spawn points. You will be frustrated at first when you spawn near a team mate and instantly die time after time. Some maps are also heavily unbalanced with attack and defending positions; hopefully these can be fixed with a future patch. The other issue is that two teams doing different sections of the game makes each component feel very detached from each other; the controls are slightly different and there?s also no lean control in multiplayer like there is in single. It can be confusing at first if you are switching back between modes but the fact that the two modes feel independent from each other feels confusing at times.
Again, the absolutely strength of MOH is the audio in all aspects; there are even some audio directors that?s been aboard on every single MOH title. Everything sounds authentic and realistic, the voice acting is perfect, the voice chatter is directional, and everything as a package is simply believable.
Nothing is perfect though; there are some pop-in texture issues and things become very laggy when there are a lot of explosions going on and especially during the ATV missions when speeding down the mountain. If you can look past these issues, there?s a great story and long-life multiplayer game to be experienced. There are some great nods to previous Medal of Honor titles if you know your stuff and a fan of the series. It?s hard to say how MOH will stack up against the competition but if you were on the fence know that there is an interesting and emotional single player included alongside a multiplayer offering that has enough modes and unlocks to keep things interesting for some time. It?s been awhile since I?ve been excited to see where EA will take the Medal of Honor series next and I?m glad that there is finally some competition aimed directly at Call of Duty.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
It?s no secret about the controversy that surrounded the first game and some of its review scores. I won?t go into details about that whole debacle, but after that whole situation I was honestly quite surprised that a sequel was announced so quickly. What I wanted to know was weather all the problems that surrounded the first game like the horrid controls, the lack of online co-op, a story that just falls half way through and more were fixed for this sequel. I wouldn?t say I was excited for the sequel, more of a morbid curiosity. Did most of these problems get fix? Well, kind of. If you haven?t played the first Kane and Lynch title you won?t have any clue about what?s going on when Dog Days starts. There?s no real recap of what?s previously happened, who Kane and Lynch really are, why they are being tortured in the opening scene or anything about their past.
Kane and Lynch reconnect for that one final job so they can quit their ways for the payday of a lifetime. Nothing in this world is easy and obviously something goes awry and sets off a chain of events that have the duo trying to flee from Shanghai and seemingly every single cop and gang in the city.
I was debating whether or not to explain the plot of the game to try and make the review have some more substance and hopefully make some more sense; due to the extreme short length of the game I?m just going to explain the main parts since it?s not some giant revelation or plot twist that happens 10 hours in (if only the game was half that long). Essentially the corrupt duo accidentally kill the daughter of a high ranking government official and from that moment on they are hunted down like dogs by every cop and mobster in the whole city.
Usually having the ?world against you? angle leads up to some high tension and an awesome conclusion that sets things right or at least finishes off the long awaited story arc. Well, this isn?t one of those times as the complete story run-up is slow, doesn?t really pick up much steam and the fact that the most exciting part of the game was a little more than half way through led me to an ending that left me saying ?that?s it??. It feels completely unfulfilling once you complete the story and may even turn you off of playing more of the game like it did for me. On the bright side to this dilemma; at least a full play through will only take you 4 or 5 hours to complete. Yup, it?s that short but I honestly don?t know how much more lethargic and uninteresting gameplay I would have been able to endure.
Every game needs a gimmick; that something special so to speak. Kane and Lynch 2 does have that gimmick in the form of its visual representation. The game is played in third person but the camera style is done like a documentary along with the Youtube quality grain from an amateur cameraman. Because of this ?real? style of camera footage, the view also constantly is swinging as if the camera man is holding the camera following Lynch everywhere he goes. The issue with this is that it?s swinging and swaying so much that it?ll either make you sick from the motion or completely prevent you from seeing where to go or what?s shooting at you. Think of the roadie-run from Gears, but someone running behind with the camera in their hand; it?s that nauseating. Luckily there?s an option to turn on the steady cam to get rid of this issue, but it?s not the default and people may not think to look for it. Unforunetly, you can?t get rid of the grainy filter from the camera; that?s just something you?ll need to deal with.
Just like videos you?d see on Youtube as well, there?s also censorship bars and blurred out sections such as headshots or naked body parts (Yes, you play a complete level naked). In a way, the combination of this fake censorship along with the grainy hand-cam does make it feel a little more real and somewhat violent that I probably would have thought without this style.
So let?s quickly talk about what makes this sequel different from its predecessor. Let?s be honest here, the first game had vastly sub-par gameplay but what made it kind of bearable was the varying locations and types of missions you were doing. Kane and Lynch 2 does away with that varying gameplay and simply sets you in a room or corridor of enemies one after another making a very monotonous gameplay experience. Yes, somehow they took a step backwards and there?s no variety here at all apart from one or two very brief missions. Clear the room of enemies, move ahead, clear that room of enemies, repeat; this is the formula for your 4 hour playthrough, get used to it.
Somehow grenades no longer exist in the sequel either. Instead, you will pick up canisters of propane or fire extinguishers, hurl those at your enemies and then shoot it to make it explode. Maybe they thought this would be a little more ?exciting? than a regular grenade, but there?s so few spots where you can pick one of these improvised explosives up while behind cover that you?ll really only do it a few times in the whole game. If things get really bad and you?re able to run up to an enemy without dying, you can take them as a human shield. It works for the most part, but don?t expect it to be like a moving cover, as you can still get shot very easily.
The small selection of guns available will have you constantly trying to find something better as you?ll notice nine times out of ten your shot will miss or simply do nothing to the enemies. Almost all of even the basic enemies will take a full clip to put down, yet a few shots in you and you?re toast. The guns don?t sound impactful (even when you have the shotguns) and Lynch?s accuracy is so terrible that you?ll constantly have to be foraging for ammo. Regardless if the enemies head was right in the middle of the crosshair, sometimes he?ll get shot elsewhere; this makes for a very frustrating experience throughout the game regardless of what your true aiming skill is.
Something that was added and wanted in the original though is the inclusion of online co-op. this comes two fold though; yes you can play co-op but the experience doesn?t change in any way. There?s no sections like in the first game where Kane was doing one thing and Lynch was doing another. Essentially co-op in this game is just having another pair of guns that can help you when you keep missing your shots from the accuracy issues. There?s no real branched gameplay like in Gears or other games where one player has to cover the other or meet up later on.
If you played multiplayer in the first game, then you?ve played the Fragile Alliance mode. This is essentially a group of players in a gang robbing the loot from an area then having to make it to the getaway vehicle. What made this unique was that after the gang got the loot, players could then turn on one another to gain more loot for themselves if they wished, but they?d have to deal with the rest of the players for being branded a traitor. Anyone killed by a traitor respawns as a cop and if they kill the person who betrayed them, they get a bonus.
Fragile Alliance in Dog Days is essentially the same, but there are a few small tweaks and inclusions of some campaign elements. This means you can grab a player and use them as a shield, use canisters to make ?traps? to betray your team, and more. What also carries over from the campaign is the horrible shooting accuracy and getting the kills you want can be a task in itself.
There are now two variants of FA mode; one being Undercover Cop mode which places one random player a secret undercover cop in the gang. Their job is to prevent the real criminals from escaping. The other variant is Cops and Robbers is essentially a basic VS mode where robbers try and get the loot and escape and the cops have to do everything they can to prevent that from happening. The team with the most money in the end wins.
There is also an Arcade Mode that is simply a single player version of Fragile Alliance. You play alongside bots and you have the same objectives as before. This is more used as training before going online or if you want to learn the layout of the maps. Rounds become increasingly difficult and you have three lvies to gain as much cash in those rounds you can.
It took me quite some time to find some lobbys and get some games going. I?m assuming it?s more the population of people playing rather than the servers but the biggest problem playing online is that nine times out of ten there is always someone greedy enough to betray the team well before you hit the extraction point (making finishing the level that much harder). Granted, that is part of the gameplay built in, but constantly getting shot in the back when you?re trying to shoot the cops to get to the extraction point with your horrible accuracy becomes incredibly frustrating.
So I?ve explained the inherent flaws in design, but there are also many other bugs you?re going to most likely encounter quite often as much as I did. This is not limited to warping corpses, enemies stuck in place running, and even having my system lock up one time. Couple this with enemy accuracy able to hit you from the other side of the room where you struggle to hit someone point blank; you can see where frustration starts to set in.
Hide behind a pillar or barrier, shoot the enemies, move forward once it?s clear; do this for 4 hours and you too can have yourself an unfulfilling ending that does nothing to really develop the relationship behind two interesting characters from the first game. I do have to give a nod to its very unique and distinct visual art style, but that swinging camera HAS to go. If it doesn?t sit well with you in the first few minutes of gameplay, you?ll be struggling with it throughout the whole gameplay experience, but at least you won?t suffer too long start to finish.
Somehow these two games are spawning a movie adaptation with the main roles being played by Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx (I know?I don?t know how either) so obviously someone somewhere sees the value in the brand; I guess they haven?t played the games. Somehow Dog Days make the first game look good; sequels are meant to surpass the previous iterations; sadly this takes a step backwards somehow.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Halo: Reach
Halo has become a household name since its first introduction to gamers everywhere back on the original Xbox. Bungie has done so well with the Halo franchise that it?s spawned games (obviously), books, toys, costumes, and even drinks and chips (and hopefully a movie sooner than later). I have to give Bungie some major credit; it takes some guts to do a prequel game where your fans already know the outcome of the main plot. Couple this with not using the main hero from the previous games as the protagonist and I?d say you?d have to have a huge pair to try and pull something like this off.
Luckily for all us Halo fans, Bungie is able to pull this off with a new engine, new characters, new settings and more. Halo 3 was ?finish the fight?; Halo Reach is ?start the fight?.
Before Master Chief could save Earth and the universe from the brink of extinction, mankind was having its own battle for survival; this battle took place on the planet Reach. This is a different war against the Covenant that we?ve come to known; they are extremely ruthless and a handful of Spartan soldiers will make their final stand as mankind?s last line of defense. The battle on Reach shaped history and it?s darker and massive story will be told for years to come.
It?s no secret that the Covenant eventually glass planet Reach, but the story that unfolds to those last fateful moments are being told in this game and unfold beautifully across the length of the campaign. If you?ve read the wonderfully written novel from Eric Nylund ?The Fall of Reach?, then you have a basic idea of what happened on the planet in its last moments. This is absolutely not a retelling of the book and quite a few situations are completely different as well (The book follows Master Chiefs journey, where the game focus? solely on Noble Squad).
Sure you know the ending and what happens, but much like life, it?s the journey to that destination that makes the great story. You don?t play as Master Chief this time around; you are a member in Noble Squad. Carter, Kat, Jun, Emile, Jorge and you; Noble 6. You are replacing the previous Noble 6 that you will remember if you saw the latest live action trailer for the game when he bravely sacrificed himself in an emotional ending.
Now that you a member of the Spartan squad, there is no more of that lone-wolf thinking like when you were controlling Master Chief and it was you against the Covenant. You actually feel a part of the squad and you?ll connect with most of the team (though I hated Kat from the get-go) which makes for a much more emotional and impactful storyline.
There are some great tie-in moments that will have you going ?ahhhh? once you put the puzzle pieces together. Campaigns length is on par for average compared to shooters now a days but Legendary is going to add dramatically to those hours, as it?s a rough go and very challenging. The story never suffers from poor or slow pacing and always keeps you engaged. The ending sequence is simply brilliant and I can?t think of a better way to end Noble 6?s saga that paves the way for all the other Halo titles. I do have to admit, the story in general was not what I was expecting at all (I guess I was looking for more of the novel?s version), but that?s not a bad thing and I was completely impressed with how impactful the plot felt. I truly felt like because of me, Master Chief begins his story.
I won?t give anything away about the story other than what you already know, so I?ll move onto gameplay. Much criticism that Bungie has received in previous games was due to their bland ?corridor shooting? style of level design. Luckily, this is not the case in Reach and there is much more outdoor and open space to work with.
Since the first Halo really made the shield recharging health system popular, it?s been used in countless games since. With Halo ODST, the more traditional health pack system was implemented (due to ODST?s not having Mjolnir armor like the Spartans) and it returns in Reach for Noble Squad because this was before the Mark V armor that had the Covenant technology of recharging shields. This means you?ll take a little more time to explore so you know where the medipaks are when you finish taking on a Hunter.
Adding features to a game with such a following is a very tricky situation; on one hand you want to stay true to what made Halo so great, and on the other you need to add new things to keep it fresh and attract new players as well. It?s a fine line of pleasing the fan base and also making new ones (just like how at a concert, you always want to hear the classic hits to go along with the new stuff). Say hello to Reach?s new gameplay addition: Armor Loadouts and Abilities.
Armor Loadouts in essence are combinations of a primary (and sometimes secondary) weapon, type of grenade, and an Armor Abilitiy to customize to suit your play style or based on what map or mode you are playing at that time. These carry over intomultiplayer and campaign as well and add a completely new strategic element to gameplay.
Armor abilities replace the equipment that you used to find on the ground in Halo 3. Instead, whatever ability you choose is now built into your armor and can be used on the fly. Every ability has its own cool down period, length of use, effectiveness and more.
Sprint will do just that; make your character have a burst of speed for a short amount of time. This is great for quickly covering a small stretch of ground or getting out of the way of an incoming enemy. Active Camouflage will give you invisibility whenever deemed fit. It works for a short amount of time and will even jam any nearby enemies? radars (but that also tells them you are close by). Jet Pack is incredibly useful and allows you to reach heights or cross gaps quickly; you can even shoot or snipe while mid-air. Armor Lock allows you to momentarily become invincible against all kinds of damage for a short time; the downfall is that you can?t move and your shields come down shortly after you?ve disengaged it. Hologram is a fun ability that will make a clone of you run in a straight line to your marker. This is great for flushing out or distracting enemies. While the hologram doesn?t do anything but run in its set course, it?s always rewarding to see someone trying to kill the fake you. Drop Shield is a portable Bubble Shield that we?ve come to love since Halo 3. No more having to find the equipment on the ground, bring it with you whenever you need it. The last ability is an Elite only one called Evade. It?s essentially a very quick dash and roll that makes you difficult to hit but has the same benefits as the Sprint ability. Bungie was smart enough to not include every Armor Ability on every map or mode; for example, King of the Hill mode won?t include Armor Lock because it would simply be unbalancing.
The inclusion of Forge in Halo 3 was a great tool for people to create their own custom maps and variants. Forge returns in Reach but is so improved and has a plethora of options that will keep you here a very long time if you?re a level creator. Forge World is the name for a giant canvas that?s about the size of almost five Blood Gultch maps; yea, it?s that big. There?s simply an exhausting amount of options to play around with in Forge World that I?m still figuring out how all of them work. There are so many small improvements as well such as being able to snap items to an invisible grid; meaning no more special tricks to get rid of those seam lines in your connected walls. The same goes for making objects float; no more tricks needed, it?s an option in the menus. Play around with Forge World and you?ll quickly notice what?s actually available now to make the map that you?ve always wanted.
Everyone knows that Halo is only as good as its multiplayer, as that is what?s going to keep it in your systems tray for months on end. Reach does definitely not disappoint and is easily the most robust offering yet from Bungie. In all previous Halo games, you?ve been unable to play campaign or Firefight with Matchmaking; it always had to be with friends or an invite. Finally, you?ll be able to do this with new and random people, and while it may not seem like a big deal, I don?t always have three friends online willing to do a campaign run with me at three in the morning.
Every time you play Reach you will earn credits (even in campaign) which can then be accumulated and used to purchase new armor to customize your Spartan. Sure they are only visual and have no special abilities, but once you see how much some of the armor costs you will be very impressed when you see someone with that matching set that took months of credit hoarding to accumulate. Completing challenges set forth from Bungie will net you bonus credits and there?s always something to work towards other than winning matches; the daily and weekly challenges will reflect these goals.
If you played Halo ODST, you then most likely played the new mode it introduced: Firefight. This has you fighting with your team against waves of progressively tougher enemies until you eventually lose all your lives. Firefight from ODST was a demo compared to what it?s like in Reach. Everything is absolutely customizable from your weapon power, which enemies spawn on what waves and almost infinitely more. Want to see how long you can survive against all Grunts with Fuel Rod cannons, go for it!
Invasion is a new 6 vs 6 objective based game mode that puts Spartans vs Elites in an attack and defend play type. The attacking Elites are trying to reach one of two areas they need to take over and if they do, phase two of the map opens up and the Elites need to capture the next section. While Spartans are trying to defend the whole time, they?ll also have to deal with both sides gaining more weapons and abilities as phases open up. Invasion Slayer is an entertaining variant that has both teams focusing on trying to get the randomly placed territories around the map. Once a team captures the territory, a weapon drop happens which could be anything from to some power weapons or even some vehicles. It?s a great mode that encourages both teams to constantly move as bunkering down in one area will let the other team get all the weapon drops and easily turn the tide of battle. The first team to 100 kills wins and it comes surprisingly quick.
The new mode: Headhunter, is a simple yet fun objective. When you kill someone they drop a skull, you then take these skulls to the randomly activated territories around the map. You are able to carry as many skulls at a time as you wish, but everyone can see how many skulls you have and if you carry too many, people will start coming after you. The goal is to capture 25 skulls and becomes quite frantic once you are looking for the territory to offload your earnings. It?s all about risk vs reward, do you go for the big haul at once or slowly widdle away at your skull count?
Stockpile is also a new mode that kind of plays with this risk vs reward nuance. Two teams battle for four neutral flags that are scored every sixty seconds on the dot. The catch is that the flags have to be in your base?s capture spot on that minute mark for the points to count; meaning, even if you are holding the flag or it?s just outside the zone, it won?t count. There?s a constant push and pull happening as you?re trying to steal their flags or simply defend your own. I like to play by hiding near their base and at the last second, throw theirs out of their scoring zone while the rest of my team tries to capture our own points. There?s a ton of different strategies I?ve already seen for this mode and it?s always a mix up.
If you are into competition then you are going to love the new Arena. This is the new ranking system, meaning that the old way of ranking in the past is gone and ratings and divisions are in. Play 3 Arena matches in a day and you?ll get a rating of your best 2 matches that day, gain 10 ratings within a month?s time (a Season) and you?ll get put into a Division. Your Division placement will be viewable on your service record and is going to be a great way for competitive players to brag. All your standard modes are included in multiplayer as well, but Arena is going to be where the top players go to prove themselves.
So you?re finally convinced that Halo Reach is awesome and you need to play it right? Well, when you get to the store to pick it up you?re going to see 3 different boxes, all based on how much you want to spend or how much of a Halo fanatic you are like myself.
Obviously you can simply get the regular edition that?s just the game, but for those of us that want some more there?s two more options. The Limited Edition will net you the game (obviously), an Elite armor set for multiplayer, a book that contains Dr. Halsey?s personal journal and notes (among other small goodies like a patch and keycard); all of this is encased in an awesome looking ONI ?black box?.
For those that want everything, the Legendary Edition is for you. It comes with everything in the Limited Edition (even the box it comes in) but the big ticket item is the 10? statue made by the gifted people at McFarlane Toys. It?s the Noble Team (without Noble 6 for obvious player custom reasons) and looks amazing on any collectors? shelf. The other cool bonus you?ll get is a Spartan armor effect aptly named ?Flaming Helmet? which even carries over to campaign (though not the cut scenes).
No game is perfect and bug free, Reach included. That being said, the only thing I can really find that?s noteworthy is the slowdown at certain key parts in campaign, to the point of being a hindrance, though it?ll only last for a few seconds. Every other aspect of Reach is so wonderfully crafted and multiplayer will have you playing for so long to save op for those expensive armor parts, which it doesn?t really matter in the big scheme of things.
This is Bungie?s last Halo title; yup, they are moving onto something new from here on and it?s quite apparent that they wanted to go out with a bang. This is their biggest Halo to date, the multiplayer is leaps and bounds over previous games, and the campaign is so wonderfully crafted with an absolute perfect ending sequence that it needs to be mentioned again.
Halo Reach feels like their goodbye love letter to Halo fans and it?s apparent that they?ve put a lot of heart and soul into making this a memorable Halo title even without the Chief. Even if you are Halo?d out or was turned off from ODST, get Reach; it?s a new take but still brings back those old Halo CE feelings from back in the day. You may not be the Master Chief, Noble 6, but I?ll remember what you and your squad had to sacrifice for the rest of us on Earth living oblivious to the immanent invasion after Reach fell.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Mafia II
Illusion Softworks (now known as 2K Czech) returns with a follow up to their last Mafia game simply titled Mafia II. If you?ve never played their first in the series, it?s a game based on genre classics such as The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Goodfellas that deals with the Mafia in the 40?s and 50?s era set in Empire Bay (a fictional city mostly based on New York). Thomas Angelo from the first game is not returning (for obvious reasons if you finished the first Mafia) and the new protagonist in Mafia II is Vito Scaletta. Vito and his buddy Joe Barbaro are slowly starting to make names for themselves by proving they can get the job done, thus moving up the family ladder as time goes on.
I need to be honest, I was a bit apprehensive reviewing Mafia II because I?m generally not a fan of the whole Mafia scene nor the era it takes place in. Luckily, I was surprised with a streamlined and focused story with some exceptional voice acting by the whole cast which made the 10 to 20 hour jaunt more than just bearable; it was quite enjoyable.
Like any good gangster movie, the story is full of Italians with thick accents, nudity, swearing, killing, get-aways, hits, rounded off with an engrossing story. Vito is the son of immigrants from Sicily and begins with Joe and himself robbing a jewelry store at the age of seventeen. Vito gets caught and the only way to avoid jail time is to enlist in the army.
When Vito eventually returns home due to a medical leave from being shot he learns that his father has passed and has left quite a hefty debt that the family owns to a notorious loan shark. This sets in the motion for Vito wanting to earn some real cash instead of a lowly paying 9-5 job like everyone else. Joe has connections and eventually they are doing tasks for some higher made-men as they progressively become more and more reliable eventually becoming made-men themselves.
I don?t want to give much more away, but the story itself moves along nicely and isn?t too difficult to follow as each character truly is their own personality. The qualities from mafia movies are also played into the story here as well with tales of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and revenge.
It?s going to be impossible to describe parts of Mafia II without comparing it to Grand Theft Auto and other open sandbox style games. The biggest thing to know about Mafia II though is that this is strictly a single player affair with very little side stuff to do. There is an ?open? world that you are able to drive around and do what you want, but it?s very limited in the sense that there?s nothing to do in Empire Bay in the means of side quests and what not., so it feels very empty in substance. What I do prefer about this setup though is that the story is much more streamlined and I?m not becoming distracted for hours on end doing nothing like in GTA.
The main plot takes place between 1945 and 1951 which means the firearms from that era is also intact; Tommy guns, MG 42, MP 40, Colt 1991 and more make their appearance. Unfortunately, the crosshairs for aiming are quite large and it makes the guns feel incredibly inaccurate because of it. I don?t expect every weapon to have precision aiming, but when I have to use a full clip just to hit someone, that?s not right.
New to Mafia II is now a full-fledged cover system rather than simply ducking behind boxes and such like in the first game. It will somewhat remind you of Gears of War of how Vito will stick to the walls, but it is nowhere near as refined or easy to maneuver (especially around corners). It?s a shame that the enemy AI is usually not even bright enough to change their game-plan and will simply find a spot to hide behind and constantly poke their head in and out of cover like a whack-a-mole.
For most interactions like doors and cars, you are given two different options; standard and aggressive. Doors can be opened normally like any civilized person, or booted and smashed in for a more dramatic entrance. The same goes for stealing cars; either lock-pick them (which gives you a simply mini game to complete to succeed) for a silent heist, or save time by smashing the window and opening the door.
When you aren?t driving around town from one objective to the next, or in a brutal shootout, you?ll be fighting the old fashioned way; you?ll let your fists do the talking. Hand-to-hand combat is quite simple with a button for light and quick hits, another for slower heavy hits, and a block button. Once you learn how to counter punch though, combat becomes trivial to the point where you won?t even get hit once for the rest of the game in a fist fight.
As the story progresses, you?ll essentially be doing one of three different tasks in your current mission; chauffeuring someone, fist fighting someone, or in an intense shootout against rivals. There is the odd mission that does change the variety slightly, but for the most part, get used to driving?a lot.
Since you?ll be in your car for the majority of the game just getting from one place to another, the pacing for the story is thrown off and some missions seems to really drag on in a simple attempt to try and add more gameplay hours into the title. This can obviously become very dull at times and you may struggle to keep your attention with your current objectives because of it. There?s a large city of Empire Bay, but you can?t do anything in it which makes it feel simply empty and lifeless. The missions themselves can be entertaining, but half way through when you have to do another ?car mission?, you?re going to let out a sigh.
On the bright side of being in a vehicle for so long, there is licensed music from the 40?s and 50?s on the radio and I was quite surprised how many songs from the era?s I recognized and knew. There?s also an optional button to toggle the automatic speed limiter on and off. This comes in handy when you are speeding along and see a cop car ahead on your radar and need to slow down in a hurry and don?t want to speed past them. This toggle will set your speed to an even 40MPH and you won?t get pulled over unless you run a red light or stop sign (yes, you do need to obey street laws when cops are around, though oddly they don?t care if you are on the wrong side of the road).
Splurge for the Collector?s Edition and you gain access to two different luxury cars and two spectacular suits (including a tuxedo), a 100-page photo album style making-of art book, Orchestral Score, Map of the Empire Bay; all enclosed in a steelbook casing. Not one of the most extravagant or interesting Collector Editions, but I am a sucker for those steelbooks.
If there?s one thing Mafia II does absolutely perfect is the voice acting. Every character is completely unique and believable and if I wasn?t watching the screen, I would assume someone was watching one of the classic movies. Kudos for getting this right 2K, as a great game can be extremely faltered by horrible voice acting.
The downfalls are few, but they are gaping holes in an otherwise enjoyable title. Empire Bay feels completely boxed in for being an ?open world? sandbox game. With it being such a large city and nothing to do in it, you?ll become quickly bored doing mundane tasks and driving if you want to take a break from the narrative. The only other knock I need to mention is the poor excuse for an instruction manual. Sure, there?s a map included, but the book is literally 2 pages of the controls and that is it. For an era that has so much history and a subject matter that?s had endless movies made about it, it was a little disappointing no effort at all was included here.
I truly loved the story and the characters even though I?m not the biggest fan of the era and whole mafia setting (yet I?ve somehow watched all of The Sopranos). People are going to fault it for not being as diverse or truly ?open world? as GTA, but I really enjoyed the stream lined approach to telling the narrative and the characters and voice acting has so much strength that it can hold the rest of the game?s faults up on its shoulders.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
The Tomb Raider series has always been a love-hate relationship with me. On one hand, the original Tomb Raider was one of my favourite games of all time on the PS1, while on the other it seems like the series started to get progressively worse as it went on (I?m looking at you Angel of Darkness). Every time a new Tomb Raider came out I?d buy it like a sucker and always be disappointed, making me wonder what happened to the Lara I used to know and love. To be fair, the last few games have been pretty well done and made me no longer cringe while playing them, but it still wasn?t up to par as it was when it first released. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix are making a new start for Lara Croft after so many disappointing games. If anyone deserves another change, it?s certainly Lara, as she was Time Magazines first video game sex symbol; even Angelina Jolie played her in the movie adaptations, so she must have some weight behind her brand.
What makes this new title so different? Well for one, you?ll notice the complete lack of ?Tomb Raider? in the title. This is also the first digital online downloadable title for the series which seems to fit this new style very well. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GOL for short) has always switched gears and is made to be a co-operative experience both offline and online, though online will be coming in September which I?ll give more details to later on.
The other major change is that it?s no longer the behind the back thirst person adventure game we?ve come to expect from a Tomb Raider title, now we are given a top-down isometric viewpoint with a fixed camera that can?t be moved. At first glance, it will instantly remind you of Diablo or Dungeon Siege but there are some more mechanics that make it more than a hack-and-slash that games in in viewpoint are accustomed to.
Lara Croft is an archaeologist that hunts down relics and artifacts; the game starts with her finding the long lost Temple of Light. She?s in search for an ancients prized artifacts called the Mirror of Smoke and eventually finds it, but what would a Tomb Raider game be without someone ambushing Lara to steal it away moments later. Vasco is an evil mercenary that holds Lara up at gunpoint and steals the artifact from her which releases an evil entity named Xolotl that was trapped within the mirror itself. Xolotl kills Vasco and during all this confusion, Totec, the Guardian of Light is awakened. Totec and Lara now have to join sides to hunt down and find Xolotl before it?s too late for world doom. Sure, it?s a little cheesy for a plot, but the interaction between Lara and Totec is quite entertaining along the way.
The campaign will hurl you through 14 giant environments with many puzzles and platforming sections along the way which many Tomb Raider fans will love. The other half of the game is the equal parts shooter that will have you taking down enemies with Lara?s signature dual pistols (complete with her infinite ammo) or Totec?s spears.
Combat is very simple and is reminiscent of many twin-stick shooters like Geometry wars and many others. You move your character with the left stick, right stick is for aiming, and the right trigger will fire your weapon. Simple to get the hang of since you don?t need to worry about the camera at all due to it being fixed at all times. You can also jump and dodge-roll out of harms way and combat in a whole is very simple and satisfying.
Levels design shines through when you start to get to the puzzle aspects of GOL and even though the game as a whole is very linear, it doesn?t feel like its linear which is a very challenging to accomplish. Sure you may constantly being going from point A to point B, but the way it?s all laid out, it give a sense of freedom with all the minor detours you can take to find the many hidden bonus?s such as gems for points or upgrade items should you choose to.
There are special challenge rooms that will have you in a small section or room with a puzzle to figure out. They start out easy and eventually get to the point of controller-throwing frustration, but that?s part of the charm and keeps the longevity of the title going. Completing these special challenge rooms will grant you with a special bonus or an artifact that can augment your character (almost like perks) in any way you wish. This means you can eventually customize your Lara to suit your play style, such as +speed, +damage, or other options. Some bonus findings will even grant you a permanent boost in health or ammo. Every level also has a checklist of special challenges such as beating a stage or boss in a set time, finding all the secret Red Skulls, or finishing a puzzle in a specific way. Some are quite fun to attempt and I know I?ve gone back to some of the levels a few times to try these challenges multiple times. Most of the puzzles are very clever and were quite challenging that took two of us to figure out (hence the emphasis on co-op).
As mentioned before, Lara retains her signature weapons, but he also gets access to her grapple hook as well that will be used for more than just swinging from sections to sections. If you?re playing co-op, you can latch onto special rings with the hook and Totec can run across gaps on it. It can even be used to save Totec from falling off the side of a cliff in those dire situations.
Totec has access to an infinite amount of throwable spears (Lara gets these as well in single player) and can be used as a weapon, but they will also stick into any wall they are thrown at. These in turn can be used as steps for Lara to use to gain higher ground, but Totec is too heavy and will crush in his own weight.
Totec also gets access to a shield than can be used normally to block incoming attacks and projectiles, but can also be held over his head so that Lara can jump on top and then reach higher ledges. You can start to see all of the co-op elements coming into play here with all these different combinations.
GOL has been touted as a co-op heavy experience; while you don?t necessarily need to play with a friend, I highly recommend doing so as this is where the game?s structure truly shines. In multiplayer, one player is Lara and the other is Totec?obviously. What?s unique about playing co-operatively though is how the level design slightly changes. Puzzles will be different based on if you are playing single or multiplayer, though the level itself structurally stays the same. This means more than just the simple ?pull two levers at the same time?, there?s actually quite a difference in some of the puzzles depending on if Totec is playing or not. When you are playing single player, only Lara is in the game (and has access to Totec?s spears) because the devs didn?t want players to get frustrated having to rely on AI to help them (Lego games are a great reasoning for this frustration).
Much like many co-op games, there is also some built in competition naturally. Do you grab all the health and gems for yourself or do you let your partner share in your findings? It?s a fun scoring system that doesn?t make you pit against each other at the same time.
The only downfall about this co-op experience? Well, you won?t be able to do it over Xbox Live until September 28th, well over a month past the release. This means you are going to have to do it the old fashioned way and call a buddy over to play with you until the patch arrives next month. While I do have to dock it for not having this ready at launch, don?t let it deter you from choosing the game or not as even single screen co-op can hold its own.
Crystal Dynamics has already stated that GOL will be getting 5 separate DLC packs which are expected to come out during the fall. Luckily 360 owners will be getting the first DLC pack for free (I?m assuming as a ?sorry? for the online co-op delay) and the different DLC packs will contain new maps, puzzles, and even new characters to play.
GOL might not look like a Tomb Raider title, but it keeps the feel intact with the gunplay, puzzle solving, and platforming over dangerous traps. Multiplayer isn?t a necessity, but it?s definitely an advantage and much more rewarding and I strongly suggest getting a friend over to play it with. Surprisingly, a playthrough will take 6-10 hours depending on how much you like to hunt for all the bonus goodies, but many playthroughs exists due to all the puzzle challenges. I?m going out on a limb and saying that GOL is this year?s Shadow Complex in terms of quality and quantity of gameplay (even with the snafu of the online co-op delay).
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light may not have the Tomb Raider brand in the title, but don?t let that fool you; this reimagining of the series sets the bar very high and I hope to see more from Lara and can only imagine the possibilities of a sequel on a full disc release. Pick it up and enjoy it and when the online patch comes out late September, play it all over again with your friends.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Hyyyyyydrroooooo Thunnnnddderrrrrrrrrrrrr! Those who?ve played the original back in the arcade or on the consoles know exactly what those words mean. Hydro Thunder came out just over a decade ago in the arcades and was a huge hit. I know I?ve probably spent way too many quarters on it back in the day among many others. If you?ve not had the pleasure, Hydro Thunder is a boat racing game that pits you against 15 other opponents in races and also prides itself on many secret shortcuts, huge jumps, and massive boosts of turbo. When Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox Live Arcade was announced, I honestly wasn?t all too excited because I was expecting a remake like the majority of other XBLA titles that are redone. To my surprise, Hurricane is an actual full featured sequel to the arcade hit. No simple graphic updates here, everything is getting a makeover while keeping the spirit of the original true. This sequel is bigger and recreates the essence of true Hydro Thunder in its fast paced glory.
So what?s new other than the obvious massive upgrade in graphics? For starters, there are eight new stages that the environments have a theme park kind of feel. Each level is completely different from each other and has their own distinct feel. Each location is very much like the original where there is a plethora of hidden pathways, huge jumps, ramps, destructible objects and other surprises that are new to the series. All the stages are completely new, so there is a whole new world of paths and secrets to start memorizing.
Fans of the original will be ecstatic to know that some of their old favorite boats have been included among the slew of new ones. The bad boys returning include Cutthroat, Razorback, and Rad Hazard with some new coats of paint and styles to them. Each boat has multiple skins to unlock as you progress through the game as well. Another cool feature added is that there are now animations that show the boost rockets ?folding? and unfolding? as you gain and use your boost from hidden compartments in the boats. Each boat has their own specific statistics that cater to handling, speed, or other attributes depending on your preferred play style.
The original Hydro Thunder was simply just racing against opponents. The long awaited sequel now includes some new modes to entice players to continue playing and learn new skills. There?s the new Ring Master mode that has you racing through rings at predetermined spots while also gaining boost while going through them. Can you keep your boost going by not missing any rings?
Gauntlet is a solo affair much like Ring Master, but instead of going through rings, the raceway is littered with explodeable barrels if you hit them. Boost is placed in specific locations to better your time, but sometimes they are very close to barrels, so do you try your luck and attempt to get the boost? You better hope you don?t hit those barrels and lose precious seconds off your time. These new modes really make you hone your speedboat skills and accuracy while racing with full boost on. These skills carry over into racing and make it easier to pass opponents.
There are also now multi-event Championships that will usually have you completing a Race, Ring Master, and Gauntlet event in a row. Points are awarded for placing in each event then given to players at the end of all of the events. Championships take longer but award more points while allow you to unlock more courses, modes, and boats.
There is one other mode included called Rubber Ducky mode; this has up to eight players online competing in teams of 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4. The premise is that one person on each team is that team?s ?Duck? and the Duck that crosses the finish line first wins. What?s so special about a race with these rules? The fun is that the other team mates are solely there to try and block and screw up the other team so that your Duck can cross that finish line first. That?s right; you are supposed to grief the other players in this mode as much as you can!
As you start the game, very few courses, modes, and boats will be chooseable at the get-go. This is where the game forces you to play across all the modes to accrue credits to unlock all the other maps, boats, and modes. Sure it?s nothing new, but there weren?t really many times I had to redo races and events to get enough credits to continue the elusive unlocking game. Playing online also counts towards your unlock points which is a perfect addition.
Enhanced water physics is a completely new addition to the series and completely changes the race mechanics. Now everything changes the water surface including your own boat. Your boat leaves behind wakes that can affect anyone behind you or even allow them to draft and gain ground on your position. Other objects will also change the water and waves such as falling debris, animals jumping out of the water, and even whirlpools. These add a new layer of racing that can allow you to jump over an opponent using a big wave, or simply drafting behind someone to gain speed and attempt to pass.
Simply calling Hydro Thunder Hurricane and HD upgrade would be doing it injustice. This is the full featured sequel with new tricks, great visuals, and new ways to race that fans have been waiting too long for and is only available on XBLA. The only thing missing I wish was included was the ability to download your friends? ghosts and race against them.
With the inclusion of online and local multiplayer, the replay value is definitely here as you?ll always be learning new hidden paths and an unlimited amount of human opponents over Xbox Live. In the famous words of the announcer; ?Go! Go!! Go!!!? and download Hydro Thunder Hurricane now for 1200 Microsoft Points and go make some waves.
Suggestions: Downloadable ghosts!
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
Singularity
What happens when you mix one part Bioshock, one part Half-Life, and one part Time Shift? You get Singularity from Raven Software. Raven Software are the people that brought us the last Wolfenstein game and after realizing this, I was a little apprehensive about Singularity as Wolfenstein simply didn?t do anything for me. Since Singularity is almost a mash-up of different games, they had the ability to pick and choose the best parts from the games they wanted to use and get the most out of. For example, you control a device that is basically the gravity gun from Hal-Life 2, there is a very Bioshock feel and development feel about it, and of course the ability to manipulate time comes from titles like Time Shift. I was hoping that with all the great reference material that they could take form, that they could basically piece together something that is a ?best-of? of all the titles. While they may have done it with the gimmicks and abilities, I found the rest of the journey to be dull and daunting.
Singularity was a catastrophic event that changed the world as we know it and the massive cover-up needs to be blown wide open by you the player. To aid your journey you?ll be given many different types of weaponry and even a Time Manipulation Device (TMD) to help fight all the enemies from the past, present, and mutations between.
You are Captain Nathaniel Renko, part of an American black-ops team that crash lands on an island called Katorga-12 deep behind Russian enemy lines that?s been abandoned since the 1950?s. Turns out that in the 50?s, Russian scientists discovered a powerful new element aptly called E99 and those that control this amazing power substance could very well change the world. E99 is almost infinitely more powerful than the atom bomb and this island is the only source in the world for this ultra rare element which is why the Russians made a stronghold here for all their experiments. This was before the events come to be known as Singularity and your team was sent to find out more.
Evil experiments caused the event to take place but it also left a wake of formers soldiers and inhabitants to turn into vicious mutants. As you make your way from one end of the island to the other, you?ll be using your black-ops training with your weapons, but your true weapon will be your newly founded TMD that was created over 50 years ago. As you progress, you?ll also time shift yourself between modern day and back in the 1950?s, thus altering the world?s history.
Renko?s mission soon turns into keeping history?s timeline intact by having to help people along the way, which means having to trust them if you want to or not. While you will travel through time to learn more of the story, the bulk of all the information you receive is sadly through hidden audio logs and recorders throughout the island. If this sounds all too familiar, this is where you?ll see much of Bioshock?s inspiration shine. Sadly the audio logs aren?t usually interesting enough to hold your attention and if you venture too far from the recorder, you can?t even hear it any longer. This means you?re going to miss a bulk of the back story unless you stand in place listening to every single audio log that seems to almost always end in the person?s demise being recorded at their last moment. Yea, it?s that cliché.
You?ll have access to the standard set of weapons; shotguns, machine guns, pistols, rifles and more, but there are a few specialty weapons that do stand out. What makes some of these weapons stand out? Well, they are usually infused with E99 technology which gives them a huge kick in firepower or other interesting secondary abilities. The Seeker is one of these weapons that essentially shoot exploding bullets that can be steered by the player. An explosion from one of these will cause limbs and large amounts of blood to be splattered nearby. There are other specialty weapons in the game as well, but they come far and few in between and don?t come with much ammunition to keep the awesome moments continuing.
While these weapons are the standard, the TMD you get somewhat early on is what you?ll be using the most often in the latter half of the game. I say ?somewhat early? because you don?t know or obtain the TMD until and hour or two in which seems way too long to get one of the main devices in the game. When you first obtain it, its main use is to repair or revert objects that haven?t done so well against the test of time. This means that staircases that have collapsed can be repaired to their working state so you can progress or ?fixing? a broken down power box so you can use a lever to open a door. There are some puzzles that makes use of these tricks such as placing a crushed box under a broken gate then repairing it to its full size to push the gate up so you can crawl in underneath. Sadly, many of the puzzle aspects don?t get much more complicated than this aside from stopping time to get by moving fan blades. The puzzles are repeated again and again and never really become challenging or something you?ll have to figure out.
As you gain upgrades to your TMD you also gain new abilities and skills to help you along your way. Eventually you are able to turn enemies into skeletons instantly, shoot a close range shockwave pulse, and even shoot an orb that stops time for anything that it touches. This orb can be used to stop bullets or even enemies in their tracks leaving them free to be destroyed by you. The problem with this is that you don?t really know when an enemy is dead until the orb wears off and they collapse or not. Eventually you can turn soldiers into mutants to attack other soldiers which is always entertaining to watch as you conserve ammo.
These TMD powers are very much like Plasmids in Bioshock and the E99 vials you find throughout can be used to upgrade certain abilities also just like Bioshock as well. You are able to upgrade your powers and weapons in any order or way you wish to fit your play style and near the end of the game you?ll feel incredibly more powerful than when you crash landed on the island.
The issue I had with the TMD abilities is that very few objects in the game can manipulated. The lore says that only items that were infused with E99 are the only objects that can be altered by the TMD. This is great and all, but why are cinder blocks and other random items experimented on with E99? Because of this, it feels very forced and almost gimmicky since you can never use it when you really want to. Sure, decaying the cinder block the enemy is shooting from is great to make him targetable, but why can?t the one that the other enemy beside him is hiding behind do the same thing? It is small things like this that eventually turn Singularity into another shooter even though you have this awesome TMD that should make you super-human.
I wasn?t expecting Singularity to have a real kind of multiplayer as it seemed like a more single player narrative than anything. Sure enough, multiplayer is included, but it?s also nothing to write home about. Two teams take turns playing Humans and Mutants. There are other modes other than Team Deathmatch, but every single game I played seemed to eventually just turn into a frag-fest and no one cared about the objectives.
Each team has different classes that can be customized to their load-out and abilities (like perks). The mutant side is far more interesting to play as the different classes play completely uniquely from the others. You can be a ticker-like creature that is super weak but able to scale walls and ceilings to be used a scout, or a giant beast that takes a lot of firepower to take down which is great for defending areas. Playing the mutants will feel much like versus mode in Left 4 Dead since you are able to bite, scratch, and puke on other players, but it is fun for a short while. It?s very imbalanced and even though every type of game just turns into a Deathmatch, it is fun for a short while, but it won?t keep you playing for more than a few weeks at best.
It took me awhile to figure out why Singularity simply wasn?t clicking with me and there were a few things that stood out for me. The biggest peeve I had was the audio logs. There is so much story that is placed in these logs that you need to hear or you?ll simply miss out. This doesn?t even take into account that you need to find all of them, but you need to stand around twiddling your thumbs as you listen to them. Nine times out of ten the log will always end in a horrifying scream of the person getting killed; haven?t characters learned yet that recording a message always means certain death?
The second part of this gripe is that there is no option for subtitles in the game. While not everyone uses them, I usually do for those times you can?t hear everything or can?t have the TV turned up loud. If was I was able to read the audio logs as I wandered away, this may have helped, but I know I missed out on quite a lot of narrative because of the lack of this. I couldn?t imagine someone that was deaf trying to figure out what was going on and why.
You?ll get the average eight to twelve hours of single player depending on the difficulty, but it does drag on as the pacing just seems very off. Some sequences are very cool and creative like the boss fights, and then you need to traverse hallways filled with mutants for the remainder. There are some neat ideas and I?m sure other people will enjoy Singularity for what it is, but it just simply didn?t click for me in any way. It?s not a bad game by any means, but it felt very mediocre for me that could have been something more considering they took the best part from multiple games.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Deathsmiles
Cave and Aksys are two game companies over here that most people most likely have never heard of. Cave is known to 2D side-scrolling shoot-em-ups (schmups for short) as what Bioware and Square are known for RPG?s. Deathsmiles is one of the first times that Cave has ever released one of its classics in North America and I was quite excited to try it out as I?ve always enjoyed the genre. While there are many schmups out there, Cave specializes in the ?bullet hell? type (ala Ikaruga) that essentially fills the whole screen with hundreds of bullets that need to be dodged with extreme precision. Granted, the genre isn?t for everyone, but for those of us that love these challenging games, Deathsmiles does not disappoint in that aspect. I have to give a shout out to Aksys who did the localization for the game even though you won?t be playing Deathmiles for the plot.If you aren?t familiar with games like Ikaruga or other crazy shmups, don?t get too discouraged when you start dying over and over, as an infinite continue system is in place so that even the worst player can eventually complete the game regardless how many times you need to insert that virtual quarter.
What makes Deathsmiles different that most other schmups is that you aren?t a ship navigating the standard scrolling left to right or down to up of the screen shooting other ships. Instead, you are a cute anime style girl that needs to blast monsters and demons in a gothic style overtone. Because of this unusual style, this also makes for some interesting bosses as well that differ from your standard gaint-ship that has a hundred cannons. The characters are cute and the backgrounds are beautifully drawn, showing that a lot of effort has been taken to bring the arcade hit to the home console; all without having to spend your allowance in quarters at the arcade. I couldn?t even imagine how many quarters I would have had to spend to complete one playthrough.The world is set in the kingdom of Gilverado and it?s overrun with monsters and demons. You choose from multiple angelic girls that each have a little familiar (tiny litte pet) that follows them and also fights on the behalf of their master. To fight Hell?s beasts, you must choose from Windia, Casper, Rosa, Follett, or Sakura (if playing in Mega Black Label mode; more on that later).
There isn?t much of a story to be had here (again, you don?t usually play this genre for the engrossing plot) but the basics are you run into Sakura, she tells you something has happened with her father being possessed and that he?s the one responsible for what?s happened to this universe. You?ll eventually defeat him and be given a choice at the end for different endings (and achievements) that somewhat helps the replayability.
What distinguishes Deathmsiles from others in the genre is that instead of only having to focus on aiming and shooting in one direction, the game will have you surrounded most times and you are able to shoot to the left and right to try and stay alive. Not only does this mean that you need to be more alert, but the amount of difficulty this mechanic adds is immense.
The Left Trigger shoots left and the Right one obviously shoots right. Enemies will be coming from both sides (you are even warned when enemies comes from the opposite side you?re shooting) and when you shoot them, they?ll drop items that give bonus points. The more you collect, the more your counter in the bottom corner rises. When you have a high counter number, you can unleash a devastating attack that will deplete your counter meter the more you fire; the catch being that enemies will drop bigger counter gaining items when you destroy them this way. You can essentially have your ?super weapon? going for the whole level if you continue to collect the dropped items. It?s an interesting mechanic but the problem is that it took me quite a long time to figure this out (on top of everything that is going on during gameplay).
As mentioned earlier, each girls? familiar is unique to that character and even has its own style of shot. They are like the powerup addons from Gradius and other schmup games but will always be with you. They also double as almost a shield, as some bullets (the cross-looking ones) can be absorbed by the pet, but will harm you. Yea, as if the game wasn?t difficult enough already. The other awesome feature that stood out was that when you move your character to the top of the screen, the hud will slide away and hide while you are near it to give you that little bit more of viewing room; definitely needed and welcomed.
You are able to choose your path through the game?s stages which is a cool touch so it?s not as repetitive each time. You can also set the difficulty per level ranging from a 1 to a 3 (and even 999 on some of the different modes) so that you can cater your play depending on your skill.
Every game you play has the option of being saved so that you can watch it and review it later to learn why you died twenty times on a specific boss. You can play and fast forward which is awesome, but sadly no slow motion that I found. The best part about the replay system though is that the top 20 players in the world have their replays uploaded and can be viewed by anyone. If you want to see some ridiculous play, watch the top few players and prepare to be in awe.
There are multiple modes that are called versions. The classic true-to-the-original is called Arcade. This mode is a faithful port that even keeps the original graphics and screen ratio in tact. Most people will not appreciate this mode as the viewing plane is very small and the graphics aren?t the pretty, but that is why they made an Xbox 360 mode. This mode updates those graphics and makes them much easier on the eyes and no pixilation.
Deathsmiles version 1.1 is a slight variant on the arcade mode. The major change is the unique control scheme that allows you to control your pet familiar with the right stick which makes absorbing bullets incredibly easier. There are other subtle changes like how the scoring is calculated and when you get extra lives and such, but the main thing is the control scheme.
The last version is called Mega Black Label (MBL) and initially this mode was DLC over in japan for a hefty price. MBL adds a new stage (The Ice Palace) complete with new boss, a new playable character (Sakura), and yet another challenging scoring system. This brings Deathmiles to a total of 6 different variants and more than enough options to keep the replays cly, when bringing Deathmsiles to North America they opted to include a few goodies for the fans of the series and genre. The Limited Edition not only comes with the game but will also come in a large retangular box due to its inclusion of a Limited Edition Xbox 360 faceplate and a special soundtrack. The Deathsmiles Arrange Album has 16 tracks that have been hand picked by the director and is delightful to listen to.
Even with the inclusion of two player co-op (which makes the screen even more confusing), the main problem I had with the game is what plagues the genre in general for me. It doesn?t feel like it justifies a full $50 purchase (excluding the Limited Edition goodies of course) and more like an awesome $10-15 XBLA title. Sure, the hardcore schmup fans will disagree and will buy this regardless, but even after completing it multiple times (each playthrough is roughly a half hour) I know it won?t have the lasting appeal that Ikaruga did.
Cave knows what it does and does it well. Fans won?t be disappointed and if you want a hair-pulling challenge and can actually fathom what?s happening on the screen in these bullet-hell shooters, you?ll feel right at home. Others should take note that Deathsmiles throws out the achievement points hand over fists and even rewards you for pausing the game.
I?ve actually only seen the Limited Edition and can?t find any listings for a Standard Edition without all the extras for the cheaper price. I?m not sure if this was intentional or not, but people that are going to pick Deathsmiles up will most likely know what they are getting themselves into. As a fan of the genre and a sucker for collectable Limited Editions, Deathmsiles was a no brainer for me; to others, you may want to borrow or rent it first to see if its your bag or not. Be prepared for bullet-hell and to die?many many times before you even start to understand what?s going on.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Transformers: War For Cybertron
I?m just going to get this out of the way; I?m an absolute huge Transformers nerd; I rebought the dvd collection, read the comics, loved Beast Wars and even went to the midnight openings for the new movies (I know?I know). I was an 80?s child who watched the show religiously every day, had a trunk full of the toys and even though Optimus was the greatest hero of all time. The Transformers show from the 80?s (referred to as Generation 1, or G1 for short) is arguably the most popular Transformers series and is what most fans grew up with.To be honest, when I first heard about Transformers: War For Cybertron (WFC for short) I was both extremely excited once I knew it was based on the G1 series, but also very nervous and ready to be disappointed based on the track record of previous Transformers games. Up until this point, there really hasn?t been a great Transformers game that really captured the essence of G1 properly.
You?ve probably never heard of the development studio called High Moon (they did the Bourne Conspiracy game) but they were give then challenge of making a Transformers game for the fans once and for all. It?s very clear that the team was comprised of some true diehard Transformers fans, as they?ve finally done justice for fans and this Transformers game does what Batman Arkham Asylum did for Batman fans last year; it?s that good.
Many of the original Transformers from the show return in the game and Peter Cullen, the only and true voice of Optimus, also reprises his role for a perfect performance to lead the Autobots. Sadly, many of the original voice actors from the show were not used for the game, but the replacements seem to try and get the same style of voice acting for their characters. Some work great like Soundwave that sounds authentic, but then there are others like Starscream that just sound very off. This is obviously the geek in me wanting it all to be perfect and doesn?t really take anything away from the game itself; I actually wonder if this was done slightly on purpose to recreate that pseudo-bad voice acting from the 80?s show.
As the games title implies, the story takes place during one of the wars of Cybertron. What?s exciting about this backdrop of Transformers lore is that this really hasn?t been touched on all that much in the almost three decades that Transformers has been around. It?s a back story (that Hasbro officially gave the nod to) that?s never fully been explored or explained and takes place well before the show we all came to grow up with and love.
The journey that precedes the Transformers arrival on Earth also answers some questions that have never been answered such as how Megatron and Starscream meet and become Decepticons, how Optimus and Bumblebee meet and even how Optimus gained the Prime title. WFC is split into two campaigns; obviously being the Decepticon portion and the Autobots side of the struggle as well. The Decepticon tale takes place before the Autobot saga, but they?ve done something very cool where you can start at any part you wish. So if you really want to play Autobots first, you can. You can even get half way done their story then start the Decepticon one if you wish. Obviously I suggest playing everything in order as it?ll make more sense, but the option is there for people that wish to do any section at any time. Each campaign will take you roughly 5-8 hours depending on the difficulty level for a total of 10-20 on single player alone.
So let?s start off with the Decepticons side of the tale. Megatron wants to return Cybertron to ?the way it used to be? and because it?s Megatron, will use any means necessary and not let anyone stand in his way. He discovers that Starscream is guarding something called Dark Energon that could be used to wield unbelievable power; so obviously he goes after it. He eventually takes control of this newfound power and then scales an assault against the Autobots in Iacon city looking for the Omega Key so that he can get to the core of Cybertron and directly infect it with Dark Energon. I won?t ruin any other plot points, but what happens and the scale of which is something that needs to be seen and played.
As you begin the Autobot campaign, their leader Zeta Prime is reported destroyed and Optimus voluntarily takes the reigns to lead the Autobots. As Optimus recruits more Transformers to defend their home city Iacon from Megatron and his Decepticons, he receives an emergency distress call from Zeta Prime that he is being held captive. Unsure if it?s a trap or not, Optimus knows he has to try in the hopes that he really is alive and can give Zeta back his leadership of the Autobots. Again, I don?t want to go into too much more detail about the story as I really enjoyed how it played out and the scale again of some of the forthcoming battles is simply awesome to see.
WFC is a third person shooter that uses the Unreal Engine, but unlike most third person shooters these days, does not implement a cover system. If you don?t want to get shot, get away or hide behind a wall. Controls only take a few minutes to get used to and are intuitive and easy to get the hang of. You can fine aim with the Left Trigger, shoot with the Right one, click in the Right Stick to melee and clicking the Left Stick makes you transform from vehicle to machine.
All the robots are specified as different classes and each class has their own unique abilities and weapons. Using Optimus as the leader class for example makes you much more tough overall and can take out almost anything with your massive artillery. Choosing a scientist class character will give you the ability to heal yourself and teammates for example. There are four different classes in all and these archetypes also carry over to the multiplayer portion of the game.
I was honestly expecting the multiplayer to be tacked on and not be able to support itself over time but High Moon studios has completely surprised me and made the multiplayer portion truly fun and gave it longevity.
As mentioned before, the four classes (Scout, Leader, Scientist, and Soldier) are used in multiplayer as well and with some play time of each type, you?ll find the type of character that suits your play style. Another thing to take into account is their corresponding vehicles modes as well; Scientists are jets, Soldiers are tanks, Scouts are cars, and leaders are trucks. Each vehicle type has its own abilities and is good for different types of situations. On top of these choices of classes is also a perks-like system that unlock new abilities and bonuses as you level up the more you play online. It?s a great way to add longevity to the online portions lifespan and I can see myself playing for quite sometime because of it.
Another interesting feature is the ability to create your own Transformers for online play as well. Now yes, there are limitations to this such as these customs can only be played in competitive modes and not Escalation Mode (which I?ll touch on in a minute). You create your Transformer by picking its class (which determines its vehicle form) then you can customize its basic look, color scheme, abilities, and weapons. I do wish there was much more customization for the body types of the Transformers as there are only a few per class, but I?m happy it?s there at all and was included.
Aside from the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag variants that are a given, there are also some other interesting modes that were included as well. Escalation Mode is essentially Horde mode from Gears of War 2 where you are pit against endless waves of enemies that become increasingly more and more challenging. As you defeat enemies and collect their points, you can then spend these points on ammo, weapons, health, and even new areas of the map. The coolest part about this mode is that you get to play as the actual Transformers and not your no-name custom created ones. There are a few more modes as well such as Countdown To Extinction (which is most comparable to Assault mode in Halo), Conquest, and Code of Power.
I really only had one huge glaring issue with the game, and excuse me because I will need to geek out again for a moment. You play the game and notice right away that they look like their counterparts from the TV show for the most part; the issue with this is that those car, truck, and planes are Earth designs (and this game takes place millions of years before they crash land on Earth). I completely understand that they need to have some type of Earth commonality to them for them to be recognizable or else we?d be playing with their pure robot forms (ala the Michael Bay versions) and no one wants that. When my biggest concern is something like this, you can see that the game is doing everything else very well. Sure nothing is perfect; there are pacing issues, bad pop in textures and major ammunition reserve problems, but it does its job at being truly an enjoyable Transformers G1 experience.
Playing through the game I had so much positive nostalgia that I popped in the DVDs to watch a few episodes and even dusted off my old toys. The fact that Hasbro is going to make a toy line based on this game alone has me feeling like a 8 year old kid again absolutely falling in love with Transformers once again. THIS is how you use the Transformers property and make it entertaining while still trying true to the source material while still having the spirit of what made Transformers so great and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Earthworm Jim HD
In 1994 Earthworm Jim was released and was something completely new and unique compared to anything else that had come out before. The main hero was a worm in a super suit battling evil Crows, Cats, and even odder enemies. Not only was it completely crazy and off the wall, but it had great gameplay to back it up and support itself which also spawned a few revisions and a sequel. It?s been far too long since anything as odd as Earthworm Jim has been enjoyed by gamers and it may not be a true sequel, but Earthworm Jim HD is a complete remake of the original game that we grew to love. It?s superbly polished graphics and new features are going to make it an easy sell to most people that loved the original as much as I did. So let?s start off with the whole story behind Earthworm Jim shall we and try to follow along. The evil Psy-Crow was in space attacking a rebel spaceship that had a stolen secret Ultra Cyber Suit that was built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt wants this suit to take over the galaxy but with Psy-Crow?s fight with the ship, the suit fell to Earth.
Jim used to be an ordinary earthworm doing ordinary earthworm things, but that was until the super suit fell directly on Jim collar first. This mutated Jim into a super large worm that fit in the suit and made him more intelligent (for a worm I guess), thus the hero of Earthworm Jim that we?ve come to love.
There are plenty more out-there characters such as Major Mucus, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish and Princess What?s-Her-Name among others to play out a ?story? though it?s not ever really apparent why. Earthworm Jim wasn?t mean to be a huge narrative story; it?s simply a classic platformer with a uniquely bizarre story. Jim uses his gun to shoot in almost any direction, use his head to reach and whip enemies and to also even swing on hooks. As the game progresses the difficulty ramps up quite significantly which is what an Earthworm Jim game was known for; it?s unrelenting difficulty.
Between levels you?ll play a somewhat 3D race called Andy Asteroids that has you going one and one against Psy-Crow to beat him to the finish. The more bonus orbs you pick up, the more continues or extra lives you can attain. If Psy-Crow wins though, you might fight him Crow vs Worm in a battle to progress.
Most levels will be like a classic platforming game where you have to jump from ledge to ledge while shooting everything, but there are some quite unique levels as well such as the one where you need to make sure your puppy makes it to the end of the level without getting hurt or falling in a pit. If Pete gets hurt he turns into a giant dog and will drag you back to the last checkpoint. It?s a whole level of trial and error and will be very frustrating, but it?s still got he humor to make you enjoy it at the same time.
There are also interesting boss fights as well such as the bungie cord fight with Major Mucus in where you both keep falling and rising on your bungee (his is his snot and you just have your head stretched) and the goal is to slam him into the rocks to break his cord to make him fall into the infested waters below.
Every level is very different from the last and makes it refreshing and not so repetitive that usually happens with more platformers. The greatest thing that they kept in place though from the original (other than the much better HD graphics of course) is that the original music created by Tommy Tallarico is still in tact and will make you reminisce and remember when you used to play it a decade ago.
So what?s new in Earthworm Jim HD other than its redrawn visuals? Surprisingly quite a lot; I was really only expecting the graphic update (which would have been enough for me to buy it anyways) but was pleasantly surprised when I saw all the new features.
First off is the inclusion of difficulty levels; originally Earthworm Jim had only the default setting (which was quite hard) but now difficultly can range from easy to original Earthworm Jim which will be a great feature for people new to the series.
If you bought Earthworm Jim for Sega CD or the PC back in the day, it included an additional level called ?Big Bruty?; this level is now included in this HD remake among completely new levels to unlock as you go. These new levels are very refreshing to those like me who have played the game countless times over and completely fit with the style and humor.
Leaderboards is also a new inclusion that will track completion time, defeated enemies, and more. It?s interesting to see how you score up against the rest of the community and how quickly levels can actually be finished.
Easily the greatest new addition to the game though I?ve saved for last and completely did not expect it. Co-op levels; that?s right, four Jims that need to work together in completely new co-op based levels. Sometimes doors need one player to hold it open as the next goes through and lets the other player in or even enemies that are much easier to defeat now with two players. Surprisingly it works very well and was quite entertaining to see two Jim?s helping each other.
As you can see, this isn?t like most HD remakes that simply up the graphics and adds a leaderboard; quite a lot of attention and care has gone into making Earthworm Jim HD a gem for us fans that remember it in its glory days.
Though it may be just as difficult and frustrating as the original, there?s more new stuff here for those of us that think we?ve seen it all. If you?ve never played Earthworm Jim, definitely open your mind and have a sense of humor and try this title out as it contains some of the better gaming memories (and I loved the cartoon!) I have from the 90?s. If you?re an old Earthworm Jim vet like myself, pick it up again if only to appreciate for it?s much sharper visuals and enjoy the nostalgia; hopefully you?ll find enough new features and levels to make some new memories with Jim as well.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
After Burner Climax
It?s been over 20 years since we?ve been introduced to the After Burner series and now After Burner Climax hits Xbox Live Arcade to bring in a new era of adrenaline seekers for some frantic and quick gameplay. Climax is brought to us by the same Sega developers that also make the OutRun series and you may even notice some very similarities (other than a plane as opposed to a car obviously). The classic essence of what made After Burner great returns: frantic and quick gameplay, piloting the fastest fighter planes in the world, and a whole ton of bullets and rockets; all while dodging enemies and terrain and trying to stay alive.
While there is a plot to be had, it?s a very cliché and overdone one at best; essentially you are a member of a top secret squadron to stop the outbreak of an all-out nuclear war that is about to happen, so you must take to the sky with your incredibly fast fighter jet that is completely armed to stop them in time. It?s not much, but at least it tries, though you won?t care in the slightest.
As you begin your brief campaign to save the world you have your selection of three different fighter planes; the F-18 Super Hornet, F-15 Strike Eagle and the F-14 Super Tomcat. You also get the selection of four distinct paint jobs to suit your taste that vary from standard, special, camouflage, and low visibility. Your next choice is what tunes you would like to take to the skies with while saving the world; your only two choices being the After Burner Climax?s music or go old school with the original soundtrack from After Burner II which is a great nostalgia touch for veterans.
Your goal other than saving the world from nuclear holocaust is to try and clear every enemy out of the sky and off the ground. If you?ve never played an After Burner before, it?s quite a simple design by basically putting your plane going in a forward line going from point A to point B. You can slightly move laterally from side to side and even doing barrel rolls to avoid incoming missiles, but it?s a fairly linear experience overall. There is a couple spots in the game where you will have to select which area you want to go next by choosing left or right though, thus feigning the linearity feel at times even though it?s a predetermined path.
Your arsenal includes your machine gun that you?ll never let go of due to its infinite ammunition and your supply of missiles that can be shot once you aim over an enemy and gain a lock on. As your Climax bar gradually fills, it can be used once full to go into Climax Mode; a brief slowed down period that ends with any enemy locked on getting a missile sent up their noses. Combat is a simple process but will take some time to get used to due to the sheer amount of busyness on the screen at one time. It will take some time to learn how to focus on specific enemies and how to avoid the terrain at the same time. With the amount on play-throughs that you?ll complete, it?ll come somewhat quickly and your score will gradually become more provident.
Aside from the main mode, you can practice individual stages to practice certain sections or play Score Attack which gives you infinite lives and the goal is to get the best score you can. The Score Attack mode will most likely get the most use since this is where your scores are competitively placed on the online leaderboards.
Achieving certain goals and requirements will unlock you more EX options which are small rewards that can greatly increase or decrease many of the unlockable options. Many of these options can really make the game much more appealing such as extra continues and lives, a larger aiming reticule, automatically keep your machine gun firing without the need to hold the button down and more. There are some very tough EX options that will take some time to complete, but you can always go into the menu and check your progress of the prerequisites.
While a single run will only take 10 to 15 minutes, Climax is meant to be played over and over again, quite a few times. You need to be either a fan of the series or have a highly competitive nature and want to see your name high on those leaderboards if you want this title to have a decent amount of shelf life. If you do not fall into these categories, the long lasting appeal of Climax is going to be very short lived.
If only there was a way to recreate the arcade experience of After Burner Climax complete with the bucket seat that sways and moves to your game play this game would be a much longer lasting experience, sadly it is decent, but albeit a shallow experience that the majority of players will complete in a day and not look back.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
UFC Undisputed 2010
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event of the evening! And now, live from General Motors Place in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada; IIIIIIIIIIIIIT?S TIIIIIMMMMMEEEE!!!! Five rounds for the UFC Videogame Championship of the world. Introducing first; the challenger, fighting out of the blue corner. This game is a new updated version and stands about six inches tall; weighing in under one pound. Fighting out of THQ. UFC Undisputed 2010!!!And now introducing the champion, fighting out of the red corner. This game is a favorite and stands about six inches tall; weighing in under one pound. Fighting out of THQ. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the reigning, defending UFC Videogame Champion of the World! UFC Undisputed 2009!!!!! And when the action begins, our reviewer in charge of this contest is Adam Dileva.
With yearly sports games, we have come accustomed to each revision to have a new feature or two and some slightly better graphics; this is clearly not the case with UFC Undisputed 2010. It may have only been a year since UFC 2009 arrived but THQ has been very hard at work and has clearly heard what the community wanted included for the next iteration of the ultra popular series. I was totally expecting a simple roster upgrade, some slightly better graphics and maybe a new feature or two but THQ has gone so far beyond my expectations that UFC 2010 feels like a completely new game (which is a great thing!).
So let?s get onto what?s new at the core of UFC 2010. The biggest chance you?ll notice right away with the striking is that there is now a sway system in place that allows for a whole new dimension of defensive maneuvering and a new counter-striking system that can end fights extremely quickly if done correctly. If you?ve played the Fight Night series, it feels somewhat like that in how you can duck, bob, and weave to avoid attacks then counter attack much like Anderson Silva did against Forrest Griffin.
Combos in 2009 were a string of preset button commands and didn?t really allow for much of an exciting striking game which is why most people got in a hit or two, then backed away and jousted to repeat it. Now in 2010 the combo system is much more varied a swing in momentum can almost instantly change the outcome of a fight.
Ground game and grappling was the most difficult part for most players in 2009 and THQ has improved this greatly so that ground and clinch game is the same controls and mechanics rather than their own separate entities. This makes it less confusing and not as much thinking has to go into what you want to do or trying to remember specific controls for each specific situation. I was actually able to hold my own on the ground now and I wasn?t that strong of a ground game player in 2009.
While UFC 2009 was a great inaugural title in the series, there was much missing from it to make it a more believable MMA game; one of the biggest being the use of the cage in the standing clinch. Now in 2010 the cage can be used just like in real fights to pin your opponent against for superior offensive control or even to get yourself out of a bad situation by cage walking if you are on the bottom. It?s situational depending on how the fighters are positioned on or near the cage, but just like in a real fight, you?ll want to be using the cage to put them in a disadvantageous position.
Posturing has even undergone a redesign and every position in the game now has an Up and Down postured variant that will greatly affect your fighter?s offence or defense. If you are on the mount on down postured, it?s very difficult for the fighter on the bottom to transition out because you are able to control their movement for a trade off of offensive power. Just the opposite applies as well, you can posture up to try and finish the fight with power blows but this leaves the other fighter open to try and transition out since you aren?t controlling their body as proficiently.
The other major core mechanic that?s undergone a vast upgrade is the submission system. In 2009 it was a very static system that essentially just showed you the animation of it being completed or not. Now in 2010 it?s a much more player based ?analog? based system where you will actually see a struggle in trying to finish or defend a submission. What this means is that when you see a player trying to defend a submission, the more they rotate the stick to block or reverse it, the more you?ll actually see them struggle and try and get out of the move in real time; no more just watching a ?win? or ?lose? animation.
What good is a newly updated game without the newest (or lacking in the previous game) fighters to go along with it though? There are over 100 fighters this time but here are some of the bigger noteworthy names that are new to 2010: Shane Carwin, Todd Duffee, Kimbo Slice, Patrick Cote, Chael Sonnen, and Clay Guida just to name a few of my favorites.
In 2009, it was difficult to make your fighter?s clothing and tattoo?s look exactly how you wanted because there were only preset sizes and places you could place them on your body or shorts. Now in 2010, you are able to simply drag and drop any brand on your shorts anywhere and even tattoos can be moved and sized to almost anywhere you want very simply.
When you used to play with your created fighter in 2009, there was only 10 different options for your nickname to be called in your fights; now in 2010 there are 50 but what?s really great is the inclusion of first and last names as well. So now you can pick your first and last name from a list of 100 for each on top of your nickname as well. Rogan, Goldberg, and even Bruce Buffer will even voice them throughout your intros and match.
To go along with this, you are also able to choose your own fighters voice from a set of 5 different options. This will be used in the new cutscenes and post fight interviews mostly but adds a nice little touch to the presentation of the whole thing and gives your fighter some life.
When you go to create your new fighter you will also now have the option to pick their stance and even which hand is their power hand. Stances vary from Southpaw, Switch Stance, and Orthodox and whatever main hand you choose will be the one that does more damage when striking your opponent.
When you created your fighter in 2009 you had to choose one striking base like boxing and one grapping technique such as wrestling; this limiting mechanic has been completely redone and you are no longer set down a predetermined path of what skills you can learn. There are some new techniques such as Karate, Sambo, and Greco-Roman Wrestling but what?s so great about this rework is that you will basically be able to learn any move from any set you wish during your career. This will allow you to make a completely custom character with the exact move list you want or only use.
So now that you?ve made your new fighter, let?s delve into how the whole new career mode will work. For starters, this year?s career mode has been boosted to 12 years which is up from last years 7; this will basically give you almost twice as many fights throughout your career. With an aging system in place, this also means that you are going to have to maintain your stats as time goes on meaning if you don?t use it, you lose it just like in real life. It definitely adds some more maintenance to your characters progression but also makes it so you have to always be paying attention to what stats you?re neglecting over time.
This year your fighter is going to have to work for their chance to get into the UFC as they will start off as an amateur which is somewhat like the games tutorial mode; here you can test the different difficulty levels (as you can no longer switch once you?ve made your choice) before turning pro. Once you do turn pro you get a chance to fight in the World Fighting Alliance (WFA) and this is a stepping stone for your character and gives you time to learn how the career mode and menus work before stepping into a grueling UFC schedule. Win a few fights and Dana will come knocking asking you if you want a shot in the UFC. Once you accept you?ll start out on the undercards like everyone else and have to work your way up the cards to the PPV?s and hopefully a title shot eventually.
Once you?ve worked your way to the top and simply dominated all the competition, you are now going to be able to switch weight divisions to give yourself some new challenge and take on some other big name fighters. You?ll get the opportunity to do this twice incase you don?t want to switch the first time and definitely adds some refreshment once you?ve completely decimated the competition in your first weight class.
Something completely new in 2010 is the ability to do interviews and affect relationships with other fighters. You?ll be able to do pre-fight interviews with Rachelle Leah and even post-fights with Joe Rogan in the ring after winning; you?ll even be deciding if you want type of comment you?d like to make ranging from respectful, disrespectful, general, or even play to the fans. Depending on what choices you make you?ll gain or lose popularity along with other factors as well. Even at weigh-ins you?ll be able to choose which type of gesture to do at the stare down and ultimately affect the relationship between you and that fighter. Disrespect someone long enough and you?ll have a rival on your hands.
There are even more career improvements such as auto sparring (take a fraction of the progression points for instant automated sparring) and choosing a gameplan (which will allow you to boost your stats for your next fight depending on how you want to approach the fight).
Camp invites are back but of course vastly improved; in 2009 you had to sign up to join a camp then wait for that specific week to join them, now you can join any camp at any week during your career just like all the other weekly options you are given. You select where you want to train and each camp has over 40 different moves you are able to learn and this is how you go about piecing together your fighter?s ultimate move set. Some moves are only available at specific camps as well so sometimes you?ll have to broaden where you train to learn certain moves you wish to attain. Train enough with a specific camp though and you?ll also gain the right to use their camp logo on your clothing. The downside to this though is that there is still no progress bar of what and where you?ve trained if you?ve not acquired the move. This means if you forget what move you were trying to learn and where, you?ll have to basically guess where it was and hopefully make the right choice or have written it down. In 2011, I hope that there is a progress bar or a way to see this as I know I?ve not acquired a move or two simply because I forgot what camp and move I was trying to learn before I took a break.
Online Camps is something new and exciting as well that essentially allows you and your fiends to make a camp of your own where you can train together and have others join as well. This is much like clans and guilds in other games and builds your team and camp stronger as your fighters do better in their career. You choose your camp name, logo and banner then start recruiting the best fighters (or friends) you can find. What?s great about the online camps is that they even have their own leaderboards which are separate from individuals and rates your camp as a whole based on your fighters? performance.
The ?Game is Watching You? mechanic is a system that watches all of your fights and learns how you like to finish them. For example, you start to knock out everyone with a head kick early on and the game is going to know that this is your preferred tactic and your next opponent might try to take you to the ground more since they know you are stronger with your striking. This forces you to become a better well rounded fighter in career mode and you and no longer be a one-trick pony as that doesn?t work in the real UFC for very long.
Event Mode allows you to simply do that; setup a PPV or Fight Night event card and decide every matchup. Each event is done realistically like a true UFC event with the introductions with Goldberg and Rogan and even has the opening video you see at every PPV as well. You are able to play every match on the card multiplayer or even set them to AI vs AI if you want to watch the fight instead.
After the card is over there are recaps and even the awards for KO, Fight, and Submission of the Night are given in true UFC fashion. What I really find intriguing about Event Mode though is the ability to download real and updated PPV event cards. You can then play the card before it happens live and they can even use the uploaded information to be used on real PPVs much like how you can text who you think will win the headlining fight.
Title Mode is a great middle ground that would fall between the instant gratification of Exhibition and the full experience of Career. Think of Title Mode as a mini-career as you?ll have to move up the ladder (8, 10, or 12 opponents) against progressively tougher fighters. Lose a fight and you can instantly rematch them without penalty and once you complete this mode the Title Defense Mode unlocks.
Title Defense Mode is just that; defending the title against all on-comers. This is meant for the experienced player as a single loss means game over and you need to start over again. It?s UFC?s version of survival or hardcore mode and it?ll pull no punches.
If you are able to defend 12 times you complete the mode but it won?t be that easy as your fighter will degrade over time like in real life. Take too many blows to the head and you are much more susceptible at getting knocked out in the next fight. So you need to finish fights quickly and decicivly if you want a real shot and surviving the grueling mode.
Tournament Mode is new and will offer hours upon hours of fun with your friends. You are able to setup 4, 8, or 16 man single elimination tournaments and if you are short on friends over at your place, you can include cpu?s or even set cpu vs cpu matches. With friends over, this mode got the most use as it?s simple to setup and with random fighters assigned, it always kept things fresh and everyone had an equal shot depending on what fighter they were assigned.
Classic Fights Mode in 2009 was popular, but this also has been revamped to be better and is now called Ultimate Fights Mode. Just like before, you will relive memorable fights in UFC history but now you are able to have this as a two player experience which is great (though you won?t gain the unlocks obviously).
Fights are now even categorized into Ultimate Fights, Ultimate Classics, Ultimate Knockouts, and Ultimate Submissions to make your choices easier depending on where your strength lies. Some of the more noteworthy fights in this mode for me were GSP vs BJ 2 from UFC 94, Griffon vs Guida from UFC 72, Henderson vs Bisping from 100, and Maia vs Sonnen from UFC 95.
Some of these fights will now have multiple challenges and you are even able to play as the spoiler and try to rewrite history with an upset (which comes with its own set of challenges). Complete all the challenges to unlock a montage that will recap the actual fight. The mode is still pretty difficult but very rewarding when you finally complete the fights properly.
Hopefully now you can comprehend how much really is bigger and better over last year?s title. Almost every single mechanic and mode has been revamped for a better and more engaging play experience. THQ did well with UFC 2009, but with all the improvements in 2010, it was actually quite hard to find any major flaws that took away from the experience; sure there were some minor things, but nothing ever deterred me away from the game.
It?s difficult to describe every single new feature but once you start playing and see all the new positions, mechanics, and modes, you?ll really see how THQ set the bar even higher this year. It really makes me wonder what?s going to be improved for next year as this seems like a much more rounded and simpler game to pick up and play for anyone; but for now I?m completely happy with this near perfect rendition of what the UFC experience truly is. The presentation value in 2010 is way higher than anything I expected and is a much more rounded game and experience that definitely wins Fight of the Night.
It is alllll over; knockout victory! And NEW, UFC videogame champion of the world; UFC Undisputed 2010!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Just Cause 2
The sequel to Just Cause brings back Rico Rodriguez into the chaotic mix this time on an imaginary tropical island in South East Asia called Panau. You are given an absolutely huge open world sandbox (ala GTA) to play in and can go about doing any mission in any way you see fit (most of the time). Just Cause 2 (JC2) is all about causing chaos, destruction, and overthrowing the evil dictator; how you do all of this is completely up to you. Of course though, being Rico, you need to do things in spectacular fashion though as you definitely need to impress the virtual on-lookers because doing it the ?standard? way would be too boring for Rico.
Panau is a very dangerous place; gangs rule the streets and the whole mass is ruled by an evil dictator named Baby Panay. He does anything to further his wealth and power without regard for the island?s inhabitants and is so corrupt that he?s beyond saving.
Your mission is to find and locate your former friend and mentor; Tom Sheldon. He seemed to have stolen some top secret intelligence along with millions in Agency cash, and you being the Agency?s most dangerous weapon, is set out to find him. Doing so will obviously not be easy and you will have to help others just to get bits and pieces of information on Sheldon.
Rico?s other mission is to also create as much havoc and chaos as possible on Panau in order to overthrow the ruthless dictator. Doing so isn?t as easy as simply blowing everything up in sight (though that greatly helps), you are also going to have to assist the rival rebel factions on the island to gain their trust while earning chaos and money along the way.
While there is a story present, after a few missions you won?t really care about it due to it not being told in a very fluent way. Sometimes the amount of time you spend not doing missions, you might completely forget what your objective was in the first place anyways. Due to the open sand-box nature of JC2, the lack of story can be overlooked as I can almost guarantee most of your play time will be spent not even doing missions.
Rico has two secret tricks up his sleeve that makes him such an effective agent; aside from his lack of fear and huge ?guts?. Rico has a grapple hook attached to his arm that is going to be the main equipment you use throughout the game. With this hook you are able to pull yourself instantly onto any idea you shoot it at within a hundred yards. You are able to traverse up buildings or cliffs with repeated use of this or can even pull yourself onto a passing vehicle quickly.
Used on an enemy will pull them off their feet and stun them for a short time. This works great on perched snipers as yanking them off from a tall height will kill them when they hit the ground; that or you can shoot them during their fall for some juggling action.
The other interesting way you can use your grapple hook is that you can use it to attach two items together in any way you can think of. You could hook an enemy then hang him from a building, or how about trying to hook him then attaching it to a car that?s driving by. The possibilities are endless; but my favorite so far is tethering an enemy to an upright propane canister, shooting the tank of gas, and then watching the bad guy get shot up in the air along with the rocket-like canister. You can almost do anything you can think of but there are some slight limitations such as the wire not always being able to hold up with the tension on the line (like trying to drag a building with a car simply won?t work for example). Much of the time you?ll try something to see if it works and a lot of the time it does which is so fun to experiment with.
The other secret weapon in Rico?s repertoire is his stunt parachute. Any time you are zip lining with your hook you can open your parachute to gain some altitude. The same goes for driving a car, anytime you want to bail (not the on ground), you can instantly open the door and open your chute to float away safely.
Combine your stunt parachute and your grapple hook though and you can come up with some very interesting combinations. Walking on foot is slow and if there are no vehicles around to hijack then you can traverse very quickly by combining your parachute, then reeling yourself in by hooking to the ground; rinse and repeat and you can even climb mountains with this method.
Rico would be the ideal Hollywood stuntman because at any time you can hijack vehicles, jump from plane to plane midair, base jump off deathly cliffs, skydive, hang from helicopters, shooting up command bases and even more. He?s the ultimate action hero that can do anything and what?s more important is that it really is fun to do.
The amount of vehicles in the game is quite astounding. You have everything from a tiny Vespa to a tricked out race car, speed boats, Boeing 747?s, attack choppers with mounted missiles and turrets, and everything in between. Any vehicle you see can be hijacked and driven or flown and makes for a very interesting way of getting around the massive island any way you wish.
The same goes for the available weapons to Rico (though not nearly as many) and can range from pistols to machine guns all the way up to sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Eventually you will have access to the Black Market and can call in ?backup? in the form of weapons, vehicles, or even extractions to any other previously discovered area.
If you are stuck in the desert and want to get out of there quickly simple call the Black Market dealer to drop you off the vehicle of your choosing (provided you can afford it with your accumulated wealth) and drive away. The same goes for weapons if you are out of ammo or simply need to get out of the area quickly. Most of the time though you won?t even think about using the dealer as finding weapons and vehicles isn?t terribly hard to do. The dealer will also upgrade weapons and vehicles for you if you?ve found enough of the hidden upgrade parts and can drastically increase the items in any order you wish.
Missions are unlocked based on how much Chaos you?ve created around the island; destroying government properly like vehicles, buildings, radio towers and more will quickly build up your Chaos which in turn will unlock more missions. Not only will you unlock more missions to complete, but you?ll also be working towards unlocking new weapons and vehicles you can purchase in the Black Market which will help you create chaos easier.
The Agency missions relates and pushed the main story plot along and the side missions for the factions help them grow their territories and unlock more side missions for you to do which in turn helps you gain more Chaos to unlock more Agency missions. It?s a cycle that keeps repeating itself to keep you progressing towards new missions.
For the Faction missions you will meet the leaders that have the cliché ?I?m the leader of this clan, we need your help with this, will you help us?? introductions. Every side mission you decide to take on as well will almost always start with them driving up to you, telling you what you need to do, then leaving you on your own to go complete it (though they are nice enough to give you a weapon and vehicle most of the time).
While there is some variety to the missions, most of the time you will be sent to destroy or take over a certain area though it does sometime switch it up with escort missions and other fun types of missions to complete. While the hundreds of missions can be completed in any way or order you choose, the missions themselves can become quite bland and repetitive and frustrating.
For one, infantry will respawn indefinitely until the whole base or area is taken over. This means you need to get in to do what you need to do and get out or else you?ll be overwhelmed or simply run out of ammo. Secondly, while some missions do have checkpoints, you better hope you reach it before you die because if you don?t you might be restarting the whole mission over again; this also means the 20 minute travel time to the starting area sometimes. With the island being larder than 400 square miles, sometimes simply getting back to a mission?s area can be daunting (provided you don?t use the Black Market extractions).
If there is one thing that JC2 needs to be commended for, it is its draw distance and depth of field. Somehow the whole island is viewable from any point where you are and doesn?t use that ?fog? those other games do to keep down the draw distance. It?s really impressive considering it doesn?t affect any slowdown in gameplay at all either.
If you are a completionist, you are going to have your hands full for many hours trying to find all the hidden upgrades and secrets. I?ve simply just traveled around for hours trying to find upgrades and trying to see how far I could travel up the mountains and it never got dull. Just Cause 2 is as fun as it looks, simple as that.
While the game is nowhere near perfect and has many bugs, you?ll have so much fun the rest of the time that you?ll simply forget about these nuances. While I suspect very few will complete the main story, many will enjoy hours upon hours of fun entertainment just fooling around doing whatever they want. I?ve honestly not had this much fun doing ?nothing? since GTA first came out, that?s how enjoyable it is just to run, fly, drive, grapple and parachute around and do whatever you want.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy may be one of the most recognizable and beloved series in all of gaming and now Xbox owners get to see what all of the fuss is about. Final Fantasy has always been known to deliver an epic story, fantastic memorable characters and interesting battle systems.This may be the thirteenth induction into the series (technically there are many more than that) but luckily you need not to even know the previous versions existed; as like almost every other Final Fantasy, it is its own self contained narrative that requires no previous knowledge of past games.
As you begin the story of Final Fantasy XIII it will have some similarities with a previous starting to a Final Fantasy game; you start on a train sequence and thrown into a story almost instantly like you are supposed to know what?s going on. I?ll do my best to try and explain the basics of the story, but even many hours in, it?s a little confusing.
Humanity lives on Cocoon which is basically a shell of a city on top of a place under the surface called Pulse. While very few people have never seen or been to Pulse, anyone that does and returns is immediately quarantined and exiled by Cocoon?s government called the Sanctum. PSICOM is Sanctum?s army and the ones that enforce all of these exiles away from the populace.
The reason for this exiling is because people that return or even have contact with people that have been near Pulse is because they return with a branding and have strange effects later on. Fal?Cie was the original inhabitants of Pulse and is a mechanical-like being that seem to possess powers beyond anything humans can comprehend. People who are marked by the Fal?Cie are then called L?Cie and receive their branding on their skin. Once you are a L?Cie you are outcast by the Sanctum government in fear that you will infect more people or eventually turn into a monster.
Each L?Cie has a focus (a goal) that the Fal?Cie want them to complete but the problem is that the Fal?Cie don?t tell the L?Cie what that focus is and they must figure it out on their own. L?Cie are given visions and must determine what their focus is from these odd and confusing slideshow means. If a L?Cie doesn?t complete their focus in a certain amount of time they will eventually be transformed into a monster known as a Cie?th which is why the government is taking these harsh precautions towards L?Cie. If a L?Cie can determine their focus and complete it though, the outcome isn?t much better either; they will transform into a crystal to be frozen in that state possibly forever. No matter what you do, this is why being a L?Cie is considered a curse.
If all of this sounds confusing, it?s because it is, but this is the basic premise of the back story to what is happening. While the main character is mostly focused on Lightning as the hero, you will be jumping back and forth between different parties at different times to tell different sides of the story. You?ll also see flashbacks from different characters to show how they all relate to one another and why their paths have crossed. I quite enjoyed this layered approach to the story telling and once you are about 10 to 15 hours in, things will start to make a lot more sense as you progress on your epic jaunt.
Final Fantasy wouldn?t be complete without memorable characters that are brilliantly voice acted and XIII doesn?t disappoint in this department either. There are six main protagonists that each have their own reasons, back story and hardship that they must overcome. Lightning is the main heroine is a former sergeant of the Corps. She wields a gunblade much like Squall did in Final Fantasy VIII and is extremely agile and eventually becomes a strong leader for everyone.
Snow is a leader of a rebel gang called Team Nora that is fighting against Cocoon?s government. Where Lightning is agile, Snow is the powerhouse and incredibly strong.
Hope is a young teenage boy that due to unforeseen circumstances eventually tags along with Lightning and the others in hopes of redemption for a great loss.
Sazh is the comic relief and has a baby Chocobo that lives and hangs out inside of his oddly shaped afro. You almost end up loving Sazh more because of this adorable companion but he does eventually open up about why he?s doing what he?s doing and you feel for him as he always tries to do what?s right.
Vanille is the cute and upbeat girl who?s very ?everything?s going to be ok? kind of attitude. She seems to care a lot about people and seems to almost always been in a good mood, which can also kind of get on your nerves though.
Fang is the last person you?ll come across and at first very little will be known about her other than she has a mysterious connection to Vanille somehow. She?s very tough much like Snow and incredibly stubborn and headstrong.
There is definitely a lot of character growth as the story fleshes out but I really disliked Hope and Lightning at the start when all they would do was complain, but eventually they grew and changed and so did my feelings towards them as you find out their reasoning behind their actions. Something of note that has to be pointed out though is that Square actually re-synched the lips for English voices even in the cutscenes. Something of that scale is not easy or quick to do so I must commend them for taking the effort for doing a small but vital part to make the characters even more believable.
Combat is a big staple for the Final Fantasy series as it?s always been fresh and addictive for players to delve into. The way that things have changed though in XIII are quite drastic and while some people may find it daunting at first, I really quite enjoyed it once I got the hang of it and more options unlocked.
The first major change is that you only control your main character despite having a part of two or three at once. The other party members are AI controlled and surprisingly will do quite a good job depending on their chosen role at that time.
Active Time Battles (ATB) return which means there?s no more turn based system in place and you need to stay on your toes during battle. While vets may already know how ATB systems works, XIII?s use of it is different than past iterations. You are able to chain together multiple commands in stacked slots in one turn to form a lengthy combo. As your characters develop and strengthen, so does your ATB gauges and you can queue up more commands in one go as you progress. You can wait till the ATB gauge fills completely for a long strong of powerful attacks or simply use 1 attack to essentially ?cancel? out of a command string and switch to something else on the fly if needed.
The class system is now designated to ?Roles? set to each character. Roles control what abilities are available and active to each character instead of having all spells and skill available at all times. This may seem like a downer, but it?s actually done quite well and is very reminiscent of the Job system in previous titles.
There are six different roles that are unlocked as you progress in the game, and while anyone can eventually learn any role, each character is definitely suited and designed to specifically be a specific one or two roles to play off their strengths.
Commandos are your physical attackers that get up close and personal and slow down the stagger rate (more on this later) while doing high damage. Ravagers are the casters and will use spells to offensively damage enemies while greatly boosting the stagger bar. Synergists are the ones who buff the group with Shell, Haste and more which is the opposite of Saboteur roles that debuff the enemies and hinder them to make it easier on your attackers. The last two roles are Medics which is pretty self explanatory and the last being Sentinels. Sentinel is the role that will provoke enemies and simply absorb damage while doing the occasional counter, but for the most part they have zero offensive abilities; they are simply there to take all the damage and keep the rest of the group safe. At first you are going to think Sentinel?s are useless but you?ll reach a point of the game where they will have to basically be in 99% of your Paradigms (more on this later too) or else you won?t survive any attacks.
As mentioned above, a large mechanic to the battle system now is the Stagger bar that enemies have. Essentially enemies have a specific ?Stagger State? that means when you deal enough consistent damage to them, they become staggered then can take massive damage for a limited amount of time. Some enemies are almost completely immune to normal damage and can really only be dealt with when they are staggered. This is where the specific roles come into play since some will make the Stagger Bar raise quickly and others will make it deplete slower. Combining this with the need to heal and buff, adds a lot of strategy in this whole new dynamic to battles.
Arranging roles in specific orders are called Paradigms and you are given basic combinations of roles but are encouraged to experiment with different role combinations (Paradigms) to see how it affects your battles. What makes Paradigms and Roles so unique is that you can swap on the fly as much as you want (called a Paradigm Shift). What this means is that you can have an all attacker Paradigm, then shift to healing instantly for when it?s needed. At the beginning of the game it?s quite easy to only have to deal with 2 or 3 Roles but by the end of the game you?ll be Paradigm Shifting at least a dozen times per battle to successfully win.
The other major change involved with this new mechanic is that there is no Magic Points (MP) that is needed for using skills or magic. Instead, skills and magic have a set ?cost? per command; basically this means you can do one really powerful skill per turn, or numerous smaller ones. A simple Cure heal is only one ATB slot ?cost? where a Curaja spell that heals the whole group costs 3 and takes longer for the ATB bar to ?charge? before being able to be used. The side offset to this way of doing things is that since you can?t use magic in the traditional sense, this means that after every battle your health is completely restored. This may seem a little too easy but later on battles become so challenging and frequent that you?d constantly either be using MP potions or HP potions just to recover from battles. Combat becomes quite fun once you learn the intricacies but beware that there is quite a sudden spike in difficulty near the last few chapters that will require a completely different shift in play style.
Another constant in the Final Fantasy series is the ability to use summons to bring forth giant beasts to do massive damage but at a great cost (usually MP). While XIII does have summons in a sense, they are also completely different than other iterations in the series as well.
Summons are once again called Eidolons (Final Fantasy IX named them these) and each character possesses their own personal Eidolon that can be summoned with the appropriate amount of TP points (TP bar is refilled quicker the more skillfully and quickly you finish battles).
There are the classic Eidolons that are known to anyone that?s played a Final Fantasy before such as Odin, Shiva and Bahamut, but there are also some new ones as well that will hopefully be as memorable. The ways that the Eidolons are used though have also drastically changed from what you may be used to from previous games. The Eidolon will fight along side its summoner in battle as the other group members disappear. They will be controlled by an AI and their health is slowly but constantly depleting; once out of HP, it will disappear. Before its HP is completely depleted though you can use a new feature called ?Gestalt Mode? which will basically have you riding or ?driving? your Eidolon for a set amount of time doing different button commands based on what attacks you would like to do. If this sounds confusing it?s because it is at first.
The only problem with this system is that you?ll basically have a set 3 person group and never usually ever deviate from it (once you can choose your own parties) so you may never even see the Eidolons other than your main character (which is probably going to be Lightning). Most people will probably never even see the other Eidolon battle due to this mechanic unfortunately as a lot of work has gone into their detail.
If you recall and enjoyed the Sphere Grid system from Final Fantasy X, then the Crystarium system will feel very familiar. Instead of the standard experience points for winning battles, you gain Crystogen Points (CP) which can be used to spend in the Crystarium to unlock skills and increase attributes. Every Role has its own section that can be individually increased however you wish. It?s completely up to you if you want to become a ?super specialist? and focus on one Role?s advancement or spread out your CP across different Roles to learn a broader capacity of skills and be better rounded. Eventually all characters will have access to all six Roles each, but the CP required to max out a single Role is staggering and will require many hours of CP farming to simply fill one.
Equipment is another drastic change that may take some getting used to. All you equip is a main weapon and accessories; no armor or anything else to maintain or focus on. It seems very basic at first but weapons and items can be upgraded with spoils you obtain from battles to increase their levels, statistics, and hidden s have 3 tiers of upgrades that can all turn into each person?s ?ultimate weapon? (with basic stat differences) and combining weapons and accessories with the same baseline bonuses will unlock special abilities as well.
Final Fantasy XII knows what it does best; amazing visuals and cutscenes with an equally impressive musical score (though I don?t think it?ll be as memorable as previous Final Fantasy?s) to go along with an engaging story and complex battle system.
While some previous Final Fantasy fans may be put off by the linearity and general easiness, I quite enjoyed the easy ?point A to point B? approach as everything felt much more streamlined and I didn?t feel like I was wasting much time in towns like in previous games. There are even some dungeons that would most likely be quite confusing and take some time to figure out the puzzle aspect of it, but the game will literally point you to each checkpoint to show you how to progress. Again, I liked this guided hand to help me along, but for those ?purists?, you can just turn off the minimap and try and figure it out all on your own.
Towns will be another sore spot for some fans as well since there are none; everything you buy and sell and upgrade is done all in the Save Station menus. Because of this you?ll very rarely find yourself wandering off the main path, as the small branches will just lead you to a standard treasure sphere and then you?ll be back on your way to the next checkpoint.
XIII comes on 3 discs but because of the linear nature, once you get to disc 3 it won?t be coming out of the tray. A single playthrough will take around 45 to 60 hours to complete just the main story line but this will also be based on how much grinding you to do level up (some parts you will have ultimately need to do this to progress at the spikes in difficulty later on) and how side tracked you get with the side missions later on. To complete all the side missions that open up in the latter half of the game, you are probably looking at another 20 to 40 hours on top of everything else; so you definitely will get your monies worth.
While XIII does bring back many Final Fantasy favorites such as Chocobo?s and Cid, sadly there are no Moogles and everything might be a little too much of a drastic change for some fans, but I completely enjoyed my lengthy undertaking and now have some new favorite characters in the Final Fantasy epic saga. XIII will definitely be remembered for it?s spectacular visuals and suiting score I?ll remember it for it?s interesting story and wonderful characters that Square even make the lip syncing match the English voices; something that I wish all JRPG?s would do for the added immersion.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
It?s not very often you?ll find a new company release a game that has so much charm that it makes it almost impossible to dislike. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a comical tale of a man simply wanting to fulfill his appetite with tasty pie pastry. To do so he will use time altering abilities and even compete against, and disrupt your past, present, and future selves.You play as the deviant Winterbottom himself across more than 50 levels as he pursues the elusive Chronoberry pie to fill his appetite. This mysterious pie does almost anything to avoid being eaten by Winterbottom and will even distort time and space to do so.
If the premise of this tale sounds silly, that?s because it is and it?s not afraid to do so by not taking itself too seriously. Your adventures will have you traveling all around caverns, to the town of Bakersburg, and even a burning bakery just to get more delicious pastries.
The story is played out between the short recesses between stages and is done so in the old style black and white silent films. Everything is hand drawn and the complete presentation is done so in an amusing way that even will make fun of you during the process. Because it?s played out like a silent film that also means Winterbottom doesn?t have anything to say, yet you still find him an amusing character as the soundtrack to follow suit fits in wonderfully.
Gathering pies is no easy task, especially when they are in unreachable areas and require more than one person to reach. This is where Winterbottom?s ability to make a clone of himself comes into play. You can hold the record button at any time and when you release it a cloned version of yourself will continually loop the actions that were recorded endlessly unless the set path is broken or he is smacked.
Each level has a set amount of clones allowed at one time and this is where much of the strategy comes into play. At first you?ll only need to make a clone then stand on its head to reach the next platform but eventually you?ll need your recordings to flip switches, stand on pressure plates, or even smack the real you to get those elusive pies.
As stages become more and more challenging so do the criteria to complete it. Some stages have pies that are only obtainable by your clones and others that you need to get all the pies in a set amount of time and a set order. Further on you?ll need to make quite a few multiples of yourself quickly as some of the puzzles become quite frustratingly difficult.
The closest counterpart to Winterbottom would have to be Braid because of its time manipulation but this is different enough that it can stand on its own two legs and doesn?t feel like more of the same.
There are around 50 main levels that compile the story and as you progress you unlock another twenty five bonus levels that are essentially time trails (but unique).
Just as you think you are getting the hang of solving these puzzles out they throw in some that will completely stump you to the point of frustration. Granted, you do feel very rewarded when you finally ?click? and get what you are supposed to do, but there is a fine line of feeling like a genius and an idiot.
The bonus levels can be quite fun as you want the quickest time with using the least amount of clones. These levels tie into the leaderboards and just when you think you?ve completed a stage quickly you?ll see how bad your time really is compared to everyone else online. It?s a great to see what the great players are able to get for times but the lack of being able to watch their replays was a big downer for me. Though granted, most people would just watch the #1 persons replay and mimic it, it still would have been nice to see how its done (like in Trials HD).
I can?t give enough praise to the music throughout the game; it absolutely fits the visuals and doesn?t become annoying like most repetitive games do.
Again, the difficulty will vastly range from easy and done in seconds to sitting there for forty minutes staring at a puzzle unable to see how it?s possible to complete.
Winterbottom reminded me of Braid not only because of the same puzzle genre but because it?s a title that came out of nowhere (and a brand new developer) and has the quality that very few indie games ever reach. At 800 points, this game is so charming that if you even remotely enjoy puzzle solving, it?s worth the purchase. Don?t take my word, try the demo, but be prepared to crave some delicious pie afterwords.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
BioShock 2
The ending of the first Bioshock didn?t seem like it left much room for a sequel that could hold its own weight but it seems like Rapture has a few more stories about its lore and inhabitants that need to be told. Bioshock was unlike anything we?ve seen before which is partly why it did so well, so having a sequel made me wonder what could be done new to avoid becoming stale. We know from what happened in the original Bioshock that Andrew Ryan was the mastermind behind the underwater city of Rapture and how the uncovering of ADAM eventually led to its demise and the overrun of Splicers. Bioshock 2 takes place 10 years after the first game finished and you are no longer learning about Ryan or playing a simple human.
You take the role as one of the first Big Daddy?s codenamed Delta who suddenly awakes after ten years only to find his Little Sister has been abducted by someone named Lamb. A lot has happened in ten years since the fall of Ryan and now Dr Sophia Lamb has taken over the ruined and exploited utopia that is Rapture.
Lamb is the new antagonist and you learn of her kidnapping little girls from the Atlantic coast that are will be turned into Little Sisters because they need to replace all the ones you rescued or ?took care of? in the first game. The story takes a much more straightforward approach this time around with less plot twists yet still keeps pace and interesting once you get past the half way mark.
Big Daddy?s stole the spotlight of the original Bioshock and has been the main presence and staple of the series since. Knowing this, 2K did something unexpected and put players in the boot of one of these huge beasts and plays off the encompassing theme of the whole game; the relationship between them and Little Sisters. Controlling a Big Daddy this time around is a very different experience to play when comparing it to the previous installment. We all remember how much fear we felt fighting Big Daddy?s in the first game and now we have that power at our disposal?most of the time.
We all know how the relationship works between the Big Daddy?s and Little Sisters in regards to them gathering ADAM. Even as a Big Daddy yourself, a Little Sister?s guardian is not going to part with her for anything just because you have the same ?job?. Much like the first game, you will need to dispose of these new types of Big Daddy?s if you wish to take their Little Sister.
Once you?ve taken care of their previous Daddy, the same moral choices you made in the first Bioshock come into play; do you rescue or harvest? Should you choose to rescue, she will sit on your shoulder as you go about your business. If you hold down the ?X? button, your Little Sister will guide you towards a specific Splicer?s corpse that is rich with ADAM ready to be harvested by her.
Should you decide to take this route instead of taking the quicker and easier choice of harvesting her right away means you are going to have to defend your Little Sister while she uses her obscenely large needle to extract the much wanted ADAM. Every time you tell her to gather though, you will face a challenging defense sequence where you?ll be fighting off waves of Splicers trying to get your Little Sister.
Once you?re Little Sisters have done their rounds (2 gathers), you need to boost them up to the iconic vent for them to escape (this saving them), or then kill them for even more ADAM. It?s the same moral choice?s you faced in the first game and while it still works, I just didn?t find it as hard to decide this time around. You?ll most likely just save or harvest all of them, there?s no reason to do both (as there is an achievement based on this).
Deal with all the Little Sisters in the level and you are going to have a show down with a Big Sister. Because of how nimble and agile they are, I?d much rather deal with a Big Daddy any day as these grown up Sisters are extremely mean and can make quick work of you even in your armor.
So let?s go through what?s really new in this sequel; the research camera for one makes a return but with a much welcomed improvement. As you take your picture of an enemy, it will actually be a film reel and record how you attack and kill them (this giving you the bonus for it later on). The more you research the more bonuses? you?ll gain against certain enemy types as you progress.
Hacking this time around has also been greatly improved. All hacking is a mini-game that has a needle going back and forth that needs to be stopped in the green or blue areas to succeed. If you stop in the white section you?ll take a small shock but if you stop the needle in the red the alarm is triggered and bots will come after you.
You even gain a weapon that is able to shoot a Hack Dart from long range and can remotely hack a device to be used as an enemy trap or if it?s too dangerous to go into a specific room. Do a harder hack (landing the needle in the blue) and you?ll get bonus items from the vending machines or even stronger bots if the enemies trip the alarms.
The weapons and plasmids have also undergone a slight overhaul but unfortunately the famous wrench will not be returning in this sequel. Because you are a Big Daddy you have no need for a wrench, instead you have your spinning drill that can take care of almost any enemy quite quickly. The only issue I had with the drill is that it takes fuel as ammo and has to be sparingly used because of it. If you are out of fuel you can?t use the drill as its spinning nor do your devastating dashes with it.
All of the weapons you gain throughout the game can be upgraded up to three times each. The third and final upgrade will also unlock a special power or feature specific to that gun (such as your rivet gun gaining fire properties or your drill that will reflect projectiles back unto your enemies). It?s a shame that there are very few upgrade stations throughout Rapture as you?ll need a do a few playthroughs to try out all the fully upgraded weapons.
Ammo is very scarce throughout Rapture and you?ll be wasting a lot of time looting every corpse and drawer trying to find more. Sometimes you?ll even be forced to use your drill simply from not having any ammo left for your weapons of choice.
There are new plasmids as well to be found and bought during your adventure. Most of the favorites return like Ignite, Freeze and Shock, but now you are able to rank these skills up three times just like the weapons and will do more damage or add new effects like area attacks. There are even some new and very interesting plasmids such as being able to summon bots whenever you like which add for some more personalization.
The biggest change to combat though is the new-found ability to deal-wield weapons and plasmids simultaneously. This makes for some interesting combinations of weapons and plasmids and making combos that work well together become very easy to pull off.
Enemies in Bioshock 1 were basically the Splicers and Big Daddy?s, but in part two there are of course some new resistance to stop you on your quest. There are now Brute Splicers that are basically Tanks (from Left 4 Dead), new types of Big Daddy?s that can even launch mini-turret?s to fight you, and of course the meanest of all; the Big Sisters.
Big Sisters are the new Big Daddy?s; they drive that fear into you because you know you are about to get beat down and you?re going to have to do everything you can to survive this single fight. Not only is she able to leap and jump all around you with ease, but she also has telekinetic powers to hurl items at you and can even use Splicer corpses to regain health of you let her. When you hear that distinct Big Sister wail, you better get yourself ready for a fight to the death.
The biggest addition to the anticipated sequel though is the addition of multiplayer which I was very unsure of when it was announced. Luckily it was developed by the talent that brought us some of the Unreal games, though to be honest I was almost ready to write it off from what was show pre-release.
Most surprisingly is the inclusion of a story behind the multiplayer. Set years before the events of Bioshock 1, all of this multiplayer battling is during the fall of Rapture when there was a civil war (which explains why Splicers are fighting each other). As you progress you unlock more story and cinematics and was not something I was expecting at all, though welcomed.
Obviously acknowledging how popular and addicting the whole online mechanic of Modern Warfare has been, Bioshock 2 uses the same leveling system which replaces XP points with ADAM. As you gain ADAM you will also gain new levels and unlock weapons, plasmids and tonics (perks). There are quite a few weapons and plasmids that are unique to multipayer and you can save up to 3 preset loadouts to coincide with whatever mode you are playing online.
There?s also an interesting mechanic in multiplayer that uses your research camera. When you stand over a dead corpse you are able to snap a picture of it which will net you a damage bonus to that person (until they kill you). It takes a few moments to snap the picture but the damage increase you gain against that player is well worth it; just remember that people will be doing the same with your corpses as well.
There is a hefty amount of modes that range from Survival of the Fittest (free for all), Last Splicer Standing (only one life and last man/team standing wins), Capture the Sister (capture the flag but the flag being a Little Sister), and other standard game types as well.
In every mode other than Capture the Sister, there will be a Big Daddy suit that spawns in random locations in the map that can be found and worn by whatever player finds it first. Doing so dawns you the power of being one and can greatly shift the outcome of a match. By wearing the suit though you give up your use of plasmids; but the trade off is well worth it as you gain an extremely powerful rivet gun, can throw proximity grenades, and even stomp to stun nearby foes.
Pay the premium and you can own the special Collector edition that comes in quite the large sized box that has a whole bunch of goodies any collector would enjoy. Inside you will find the Bioshock 2 orchestral score on CD, a 164 page hardcover art book (that was actually better quality than most books I?ve seen), posters much like flyers you would see on the walls in Rapture, and the main special item being the 180g vinyl record of Bioshock 1?s orchestral score.
I find the inclusion of a record nowadays an interesting choice, it does make sense in a way since one of Bioshock?s greatest assets is the sound design; I just don?t know many people that will be able to enjoy the record itself though. Honestly, I would have rathered a Big Sister statue to go along with my Big Daddy statue from the collector edition of the first game though.
While the visuals of Bioshock may take the front seat in most peoples mind with Rapture being shown so vividly, the sound and audio should not be overlooked. Garry Schyman returns to do the orchestral score for a perfectly fitting audio experience on your journey. The voice acting is just as great as the first game and everyone does an extremely believable job at sounding like they truly are from then war-torn Rapture.
I?ve purposely left out telling much of what and why the Big Sisters are the way they are as I found that the most interesting part of the tale this time around and don?t want to spoil anything. While fighting them (and in a few of the bigger fights) there was some very minor slow down that did occur though.
The length of the single player tale is your standard 8-12 hours or so depending on how much you explore and if you decide to rescue and defend all the Little Sisters. You are buying Bioshock 2 to continue the story from the first game and while it may take a few hours to start to truly get interesting and for all the pieces to fall in place; it was enjoyable to play but still left me wanting more.
Obviously it?s going to be impossible to recreate that sense of mystery the first time we journeyed through the hostile halls of Rapture and while this entry of the city?s tale may gain a pass, Bioshock 3 is going to have to somehow figure out a way to bring back that feeling of exploring and mystery that we all loved the first game for.
Being a Big Daddy is quite the experience though at times you may forget you are one as you have free will and make your own decisions. If you enjoyed the first Bioshock, 2 will feel similar and more of the same. With the multiplayer addition now included, it?ll stay in your 360 for a longer amount of time due to the addictive progressive element.
Something major is going to have to be changed should players return to Rapture to avoid from becoming stale as it is good but more of the same. To me it felt like an old friend you haven?t seen in a few years; you take some time to catch up on what?s been going on since you last saw each other but after that you still know everything else about them. It?s hard to fault the game for doing what worked the first time but I definitely didn?t feel the same sense of awe and wonder while slowly stumbling through Rapture this time in my encumbering suit.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Chime
OneBigGame is a new publisher that has a new mentality around its business; it?s non-profit and submits the majority of the proceeds (up to 80%) to charities and good causes such as Save the Children. Chime is an indie game developed by Zoe Mode (the people who brought us You?re In The Movies) and is very simple on concept and idea but large in gameplay and addictiveness. Chime is an interesting take on the puzzle genre and would be the result if Tetris and Lumines had a baby together. It?s a mash of puzzle piece solving and fitting ala Tetris coupled with the addictive and trance educing musical gameplay from Lumines.
First things first; when you start Chime you won?t have any idea what you are doing and how. There really is no great tutorial of how to start playing properly or well; it?s just something that will come in time once you learn the intricacies and get past the learning curve.
When you start a level you will see a grid (usually rectangle-ish in shape) and you are given pieces that look similar to what you?ve come to know from Tetris (although there are many more weird and ?garbage? pieces to throw you off). Your objective is to place these pieces together so that you make a 3x3 square on the board, which is called a quad. Your shapes cannot be place on top of one another so usually getting neat and tidy quads are quite difficult. As you make a squad and it?s ?cleared? by the scrolling line (just like in Lumines) you claim that part of the board your quad was placed; the goal being to claim 50 percent of the board to unlock the next song and progress.
As you place your pieces and making quads, a beat line moves constantly across the screen left to right. When the line passes over your quads the music in the background will change and add more beats, vocals, or even other sounds that go along with the soundtrack. It may sound random at times but once you get your multipliers going and consistent, the songs sound quite entrancing. As the beat line passes your quads it will change the color on the board to signify that you?ve already ?cleared? that small section of the game board. You need to move quick to keep your score multiplier up and you must complete 50 percent of the board before the song ends.
It may sound like this is all confusing, and it is at first, but it?s quite gratifying once you get the hang of it and can string together some big quads quite quickly. To make things even simpler to understand, here?s the basics: Place blocks and make a 3x3 quad or bigger, create those quads to gain coverage, and gain that coverage to fill the grid.
The song selection is linked to the level choice and while there are only five levels (and songs), each playthrough doesn?t always sound similar to the last due to the beat line and quads making different additional sounds to go along with the music. The soundtrack boasts some actual big artists as well such as Orbital, Moby, and Philip Glass (if you?re into the mellow electronica). Each song has its own board layout and isn?t as simple as the first square grid. With many corners to navigate and somehow fill, they become quite challenging.
While it is short on levels, it does make it up with online leaderboards that will track scores and coverage for each song. Seeing the competitions scores and coverage percents online makes it a good challenge (even though getting 100% on a board is incredibly difficult).
As mentioned before, the majority of the proceeds go to children?s charities and there?s never anything wrong with that. While it won?t take you long to complete the game and play al the songs, it does have some decent replayability if you are a fan of the genre. At 400 Microsoft points and the fact that it?s going to charity, I can easily recommend it to those looking for a new music based puzzler.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Mass Effect 2
It?s been a long wait but the sequel to Mass Effect has finally arrived with much anticipation by its fans to delve further into Shepard?s tale and the surrounding universe. I was quite surprised to see how much Bioware truly did listen to the fans and critics about flaws from the first game due to the hugely improved gameplay and story telling, but I won?t get ahead of myself, let?s delve into the general story that surrounds Mass Effect 2. It?s been two years since the conclusion of Mass Effect left us hanging; wondering what will happen with Shepard next. It?s been two years since then and Commander Shepard is still on patrol for geth on distant planets when suddenly the Normandy comes under attack by an unknown adversary without warning and some very dramatic scenes occur (as to not spoil anything) that may have you wondering what?s going to happen next.
Two years pass since this attack and Shepard is forced to awake only to learn of a new threat to the galaxy that he (or she in my case) will have to face. What makes this new threat so much more dangerous than the geth were is that complete colonies of humans are being abducted without warning and no one knows why; that is until you meet someone who calls himself The Illusive Man.
The Illusive Man runs a ruthless organization called Cerberus who seems to be mankinds only hope for survival; no matter the collateral damage. Due to the fate that the original Normandy met with, Shepard gains command of a new vessel and must set out to refill the ranks with the most elite squad you?ll ever command. Even with all the new fire power and new allies, the mission is deemed a suicide mission; Shepard intends to prove them wrong and do whatever is needed to save the galaxy against this new threat.
Obviously I don?t want to give any major plot points away so I won?t say much more as I found the story to be completely engrossing and enjoyed it even more-so than the first game. All you need to know is that something life changing happens to Shepard and that he must follow his new boss? ?orders? by recruiting a new team and that anything must be done to stop the Collectors. It?s up to you how much you want to trust the Illusive Man and how much you choose to do the ?right? thing.
One of the big unique features Mass Effect 2 is boasting is the ability to import your previous character from Mass Effect 1. While this sounds like an awesome idea by just saying that, there are some catches to how this feature works. While yes you can import your max level character from the first game, the catch is that you don?t actually play that character in Mass Effect 2. Depending on how high level your character was, that is the basis of how much of a bonus and head start you will gain in Mass Effect 2.
Basically, the higher your character was the more bonus xp (and levels), money, and resources you will start the game off with. A great choice to this import feature is that you aren?t completely stuck with your previous character if there was something you didn?t like about them. This means you can completely change your class and even your appearance should you wish to. The import bonus? are quite nice (an imported level 60 Shepard starts off at level 5 and bonus Paragon and Renegade points) and even play into one of the achievements as well; the Long Service achievement requires the game to be completed twice or just once with an imported Shepard.
So let?s talk about what?s new and improved with the sequel. Foremost, the cover mechanic has been much improved which ties in with the new health system. Now when you take damage, you must find cover and wait for it to regenerate instead of the old way of using a medi-gel to heal yourself. Medi-gel is now primarily used to revive downed teammates (though with upgrades they will simultaneously heal to full as well).
The minigames for hacking and such have also slightly changed as well. There are two different types of hacking and unlocking in Mass Effect 2; one simply matching corresponding symbols within the allotted time and the slightly more challenging one that has you scanning a moving board and you need to pick the matching ?code fragment? without choosing the wrong one or highlighting the ones that are specifically crossed out.
Gone are the annoying Dune Buggy levels that sometimes didn?t even yield much usefulness. Now when you are using the Galaxy Map and looking at various planets you simply hold the Left Trigger to start scanning the area of the planet you are aimed at and when the readings on the charts start to spike and vibrate you can press the Right Trigger and a pod will automatically land on the planet and send the corresponding resources back up to your ship. These precious resources (4 different types) are what?s used to upgrade your weapons, armor, ship, and even certain skills.
As you fill your squad, there are also optional people are you choose to recruit as well. On top of these, there is also an optional side quest to ?help? them which will gain that person?s loyalty to Shepard and thus gaining an additional unique combat skill. Some characters from the first Mass Effect will also return (obviously based on your choices if you imported) and it was quite astonishing to see Wrex (I didn?t kill him in Mass Effect 1) and Garrus among others. There are even some characters you?ld never expect to group with that will join you on your hunt against the Collectors as well which was one of the biggest ?wow? moments in the game for me.
One of the biggest gripes with the first game was the overly long ?loading? elevator rides going from area to area. This mechanic has been nixed for a more traditional loading screen although it is animated and will give game hints to read while loading. With the game installed on the hard drive it was on par with any other game which was quite a relief.
The popular Paragon and Renegade dialogue options return but a great new addition is an option to sometimes completely interrupt a dialogue cinematic with either choice provided you are quick enough to react (since it?s actually meant as an interrupt in most scenes). It adds more depth to the already exhaustive dialogue and brings you more into it instead of feeling like you are simply viewing a cinematic.
Mass Effect 2 is substantially more shooter focused than Mass Effect 1 and has a little less of the role playing elements. Due to this, it feels like it takes much longer to progress your character and you are only able to level up Shepard after a mission, not during.
Even the weapons and the system it uses have undergone a dramatic change. No longer do you have to worry about different types of ammo for multiple types of weapons; now you have a single and universal way of getting ammunition for your weapons. Technically your weapons have unlimited ammo but you are actually gathering cooling rods so that the weapons don?t overheat (and become unusable without them). It?s a similar mechanic many other thirst person shooters embrace and I actually prefer it quite more than the old system.
Also, in Mass Effect there were only 4 or so types of different weapons, now in Mass Effect 2 there are almost twenty. Many guns (like pistol for example) have a subset or more such (such as heavy pistol) that will favor either faster rate of fire or more damage. Heavy weapons now replace the old grenades and some of them are actually quite unique (such as the one that shoots a black hole or one that even lobs a unique miniature-like nuke. Also, characters that are able to use certain weapon sets can make full use of them and no longer been to train skills in each weapon to be proficient in them.
Skills have also undergone a slight change and have a 4 rank system in place that can be upgraded. When you upgrade to the fourth and final rank of a skill you are given a choice to choose between 2 different ways to alter the skill (such as more health or more damage). It gives it a little bit more of a personal touch to your character and squad and you can develop that perfect group even further.
Should you splurge and choose to get the Collector Edition of Mass Effect 2, Bioware will give you a bunch of bonus material for the extra cash. Other than the game itself you get an impressive hardcover art book that has some great insight and art to the world of Mass Effect, a miniature #1 issue of the Mass Effect comic book, and the standard tin case that we?ve come to expect from any Collector Edition.
On top of these physical items you also get some digital ones to go along with it as well. Foremost, you get a Cerberus Network card that gains you access to bonus (and free) download content such as the newly released content that gives you a new squad member should you do the quest. You also gain the Chitinious armor set that gives you some massive stat boosts starting out along with a special Assault Rifle that tends to eat through enemy shields.
No game is without its faults and while very few, the graphical glitches and clipping seemed to always happen in the most noticeable spots. Coupled along with repetitive dialogue choices and a final boss fight that wasn?t what I was expecting; there is still an amazing gaming experience to be had here and its going to be quite challenging for Mass Effect 3 to top this moving experience.
Not enough praise can be given to everything audio related in the game. The sounds the ship makes, the music score that bring the perfect ambiance (especially the club music that fits the look of the club perfectly) and of course the absolute exemplary performance every voice actor pulled off.
The ending of Mass Effect was a cliffhanger for Mass Effect 2, but I?m not sure how I?m going to bear the wait for Mass Effect 3 with the cliff hanger we?re given at the end of this chapter; many questions need to be answered. Mass Effect 2 is an exemplary cinematic experience blended with refined gameplay that make for a sequel that needs to be in everyone?s collection. Bioware has done it again; and even better this time.
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
When Serious Sam released back in 2001 it was met with different reactions by people for many reasons. Firstly, at the time Duke Nukem was still a big name in gaming and it took that popularity and had its own spin on things. Sam himself may resemble Duke very closely in character and cheesy one-liners, but what Serious Sam brought that really wasn?t seen before was massive battles of endless hordes of enemies. Also, this was one of the first games I can remember with absolutely massive bosses (much like how Painkiller did well) that were quite the sight to simply see. Before perks, weapon upgrades and tactical strategy there was Serious Sam that was all about blowing anything up that moved without thinking. The game was simple in principle and straight to the point; shoot and kill everything while trying to survive.
Now Serious Sam HD is here for the masses of people that may have missed or completely forgotten about this classic title. The entire game is a 1 for 1 remake of its 2001 counterpart down to every enemy and every secret; this is its strength and weakness though. For people that have played the title before, there is nothing new here for you other than some slightly polished graphics, and for the new comers they get to experience what a simple gung-ho guns-a-blazing shooter was all about almost a decade ago.
It?s 2104 and aliens from across the universe has almost decimated humankind and the only hope is to send the planet?s greatest hero; Serious ?Sam? Stone back in time to collect an ancient Egyptian artifact that will help defeat the aliens leader who is 20 stories tall; Mental. You aren?t playing Serious Sam for the story as you can see; you are playing it to zone out and kill some alien scum.
Serious Sam won?t win awards for level design or innovative weapons, but that?s not what it?s here to do. It?s a humorous take on the genre at whole and just does what it can to throw everything at Sam that is possible all at once.
In single player you will plow through 13 different Egyptian levels, tombs, hallways and courtyards and nothing can be said for the level design as it?s nothing special; though I don?t believe it?s really trying to be. The same can be said for the enemies you?ll encounter as there are less than two dozen types of enemies all of which have no real smart AI and will simply try to run at you in a straight line. Because of this type of enemy ?intelligence? you will constantly have to circle strafe which is something that hasn?t been relied upon in a shooter for quite some time. Luckily there are 5 different difficult modes and the hardest being Serious Mode that will have you dying many times.
You are eventually given up to 10 different weapons to choose from as you find them along your way and with many of the guns not needing to ever reload; you will simply be spraying and preying at anything that gets in your way.
Because there is no regenerating shields or cover system, you will have to do things the old way, by picking up health packs and shields to keep you alive. It feels very old school and it?s not necessarily a bad thing.
All the enemies from the original game are here including the famous headless suicide bombers (though I?m still unsure how they have no head yet they scream at you while running towards Sam). Serious Sam is all about killing wave 1 of enemies, having a brief moment to get health packs and ammo then killing wave 2. Repeat this a few more times per room and courtyard and that?s the simple design behind the game. Enemies are simply respawned and thrown towards Sam over and over. The charm can wear off very quickly of doing the same thing over and over again though.
Something new with the XBLA version of this remake is the heavy inclusion of auto aiming to the point of being too heavily relied upon and you?ll feel like you?ll have homing bullets sometimes.
Also, with a press of the ?Y? button, you can autosave on the fly (though it will slightly lag your gameplay) and does come in handy while playing single player. A quick ?B? press will bring up your help journal that has all the info you need from enemy statistics to a small (though usually useless) strategy guide built right in. It?s a good inclusion if you enjoy reading all the back story and every bit of information, but chances are if you are playing Serious Sam, then you aren?t known for having the longest attention span and would like to just get back to killing aliens.
Multiplayer has been included with the XBLA release which was unexpected, but with a price. The PC version had 16 player co-op and deathmatch where as the XBLA release only has 4 player co-op and no deathmatch. While playing 4 players co-operatively is immensely more fun than playing solo; the game scales enemy numbers and waves based on how many are playing. This means there are a vast amount of more aliens to kill and because of this the frame rate can and will drop quite often and quite substantially. While I can understand the scale back from 16 to 4 players due to framerate issues, the complete annihilation of deathmatch mode is quite a deal breaker as you can only play the campaign mode so many times when it has no progression or story.
While the title may have HD it its name, the HD graphics boost didn?t overly impress me in any way. This may be because the textures were bumped but the models themselves seem almost the same. Comparing to the original release?s side by side may prove more and an improvement but there was no enhancements over the original game; even the same monotone sound bites from each enemy were reused and not improved.
With no new levels, no new weapons and no new enemies, the only people interested in this are going to be die hard Serious Sam fans and people that have never played it before; other than that this remake really seemed quite unnecessary.
Serious Sam reminds me of a great cult movie hit; the fans get it and love it and the rest don?t see what?s so special or understand. Don?t go in expecting anything innovative, just turn off your brain, blow tons of aliens up and enjoy what a mindless shooter Serious Sam excels at being.
Suggestions: Taking out the competitive multiplayer is a huge deal breaker when the PC version had it and the slowdown in co-op is quite detrimental on the gameplay experience overall.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Death By Cube
Since Geometry Wars made the Twin-stick shooters (Left stick to move your ship and Right to fire in any direction) popular, there has been a slew of these types of top down shooters, though none really reaching that Geometry Wars popularity or success. Premium Agency is the developer of this new title called Death By Cube and it is backed and published by Square Enix. Much like other games in this genre, the objective is to strategically defeat your enemies whilst staying alive, but of course every game has their own twists and adds something new to be fresh and unique.
The unique take with Death By Cube is that you are trying to destroy an army of cube shaped enemies that are filled with red oil on a collection of different maps with a numerous amount of weapons and strategies.
Surprisingly enough, there actually is a story to this game unlike many others that simply want you to progress levels or gain high scores. You are LEO; a robot that is awakened and realize that you?ve list your memory. The only instinct you have when awoken is that you must reboot the robot SELSIE to hopefully gather your memories back of what has happened.
This is LEO?s mission and sets forth only to find that the world has been filled with a large army of aggressive enemy robots trying to destroy you. It?s up to you to press on and find out what happened all while spilling each cubed robot?s red oil all over the place.
You control LEO just like any other Twin-stick shooter with the Left stick moving your robot and the Right shooting in whatever direction you point to. Every enemy is a cube or slight variant there of and there will be a barrage of them coming out for you. Some enemies don?t pose much threat, then there are other very small ones that swarm and surround you; others will even shoot back at you. Much like Geometry Wars, each different enemy has its own style of offence and defense. The bosses are quite surprisingly large and will require some finesse to defeat as well.
Instead of simply passing a level and moving on, you are graded and rewarded coins based on your skill and play style. Do better to earn enough coins which are then used to unlock new levels and upgrades. The issue with this system is that an average play won?t always gain you enough coins to be progressively moving on; so there will be some levels that you will have to replay quite a few times just to gain enough coins to move on to the new level. If you spend cash on an upgrade, it?ll take even longer for you to collect the required amount of coins to move to the next level. Eventually you?ll try and avoid upgrades so that you aren?t forced to replay levels over and over for a small account of coins, so you can see where the repetition and annoyance sets in trying to balance upgrades vs. progression.
Death By Cube also incorporates a couple different mechanics that do make it feel fresh and interesting. Using Left Trigger will cause LEO to dash very quickly in the direction the Left stick is pointing. Doing this will cause enemies in close vicinity to become temporarily confused and stunned for a minute and even stop shooting. Thus enemies become easier targets to shoot or you can get away and regroup away from them for a short time.
If you hold down the Right Trigger you will have a shield around you for a few seconds and when this is activated you will catch any bullets or lasers shot at you. Letting go and aiming with the Right stick will reflect and shoot these caught bullets back at your enemies. This technique is a necessity later on to simply survive, but the trick is that you can?t hold the shield up for more than a few seconds at a time or else you will blow up.
As you kill more enemies with style and techniques like these, enemies will drop items that can be picked up to boost your offence (like double shot) and defense.
There are multiple upgraded robots you can purchase with your precious coins should you want more offense, defense, speed or other attributes; though I like the homing shots. It makes it a little more interesting to try and complete a level with a style of robot you wouldn?t normally play.
As of this time, I was unable to get any multiplayer matches in but Square Enix has listed the game as having up to 8 players with online versus and co-op matches over Xbox Live or locally.
The difficulty starts off pretty steep early on so I wouldn?t be surprised if it turns some people off, but it?s what we?ve come to expect from Square; a compelling challenge.
It?s an interesting take on the Twin-stick shooter genre and while the story really isn?t anything special or engrossing, at least it has one unlike the majority of others.
At 800 MS points, it?s completely worth it if you are a fan of Geometry Wars or anything like it and with all the unlockables and medals, you?ll be playing for awhile. Just remember, it?s not blood, it?s red oil!
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
IL-2 Sturmovik has been the gold standard of World War 2 flight sims on the PC for years and now it makes it?s debut on the Xbox 360. While I was quite unsure how a hardcore flight sim would translate to a console (control-wise) it seems 505 Games (developer) has figured out a way to do so without dumbing down the simulation experience too much while also catering to the hardcore audience that has been faithful for so many years.Scalable gameplay comes in the form of different control settings and assists all the way from Arcade mode for newcomers, Simulation for the absolutely hardcore, and Realistic for an in-between setting difficulty. Regardless of skill, there is a difficulty and control scheme for you to enjoy.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based on very famous and historic World War 2 air combat and military operations. You play through five separate theaters of war such as the Battle of Britain (June 1940 ? May 1941), Stalingrad (June 1942 ? Feb 1943), Sicily (July 1943 ? Aug 1943), Korsun (Jan 1944 ? Feb 1944), Battle of the Buldge (Dec 1944 ? Jan 1945), and Berlin (April 1945 ? May 1945). Any history buff will easily know how important these battles were and what they meant to the outcome of the Second World War. For those that aren?t as brushed up on their history, there is much background info given on each theater and battle and is pieced together with a somewhat personal history of the pilots.
Playing through the game will have you piloting battle planes, fighters, and heavy bombers for a slew of different styles in over 50 missions. As you complete some missions you can choose to either skip on to the next mission right away or even sometimes continue on the mission you are flying which may have you doing some secondary objectives or simply land your plane on the closest runway. It?s an interesting way of adding ?side missions? for this style of game and adds some more gameplay hours which is always a good thing.
Single player is broken into two different styles of gameplay; Campaign and Single Missions. Campaign will have you beginning from the earliest battles as you progress through World War 2?s separate theaters (each broken down into different missions). Campaign mode is where you will relive the famous and historic air battles from all over Europe and each mission will have different styles of play as well.
Some missions will have you taking out all the enemy forces while others may have you simply doing recon or taking out ground targets. The mission variety keeps things from getting stale and repetitive; completing the whole campaign shouldn?t take more than a few hours though. Single Mission mode adds the variety and will add a few more hours onto your play-through of IL-2.
Controls will change and be based the difficulty level chosen though I suggest starting on Arcade mode just to get a feel for the game before delving into the realistic and simulation settings. As you begin, you are forced to do the training missions before even playing single player and if you want to play in the harder difficulty modes you need to complete the corresponding training missions in their respective modes.
The arcade setting may be the simplest to play with, but it is no auto-pilot and will still have you working for every kill. While in arcade?s setting, there will actually be a deflection icon to show you where to shoot to hit your target since you have to lead your shots. Learning how much to lead while on the higher settings will take quite the time to learn though.
Arcade mode will also give you the ability to lock onto your target with the camera and fly your plane with this interesting view. While it helps greatly to always be looking at your target, it makes it no less difficult as you still need to line up your shots to take them out. Also, while relying on this camera angle, you will surely crash a few times from not paying attention to your altimeter since you are not always looking at the ground in this view.
You are also able to click in the Right Stick to look around the plane (in 3rd person view) much like how you can do in racing titles to look at different sides of your car but holding this down while moving the stick (which also controls your rudder and throttle) is very awkward and difficult to do while flying, shooting, and evading and simply not worth doing.
If you want the true simulation experience, you better have a pilot?s license as something simple enough as keeping the plane level is quite a challenge. The learning curve to go from arcade so simulation will take extreme dedication as you will constantly stall and spin out of control if you do not know how to control a plane properly. With simulation enabled, there is no hud, there are no assists, and simply banking and cornering without stalling will take a huge amount of skill. It doesn?t even label friendlies and enemies; it?s as if you really are a pilot back then and had to distinguish from visuals alone.
Even more settings can be toggled such as ammo, fuel, and aircraft to completely customize how in-depth and realistic you want to get with it.
You are even given controls of your landing gear for your take-offs and landings but for some reason there is no way to do a belly landing (if your landing gear got damaged, this was the only way to land) and you will crash instantly which seems like a weird notch to take away from this flight sim game.
As you gain controls of squads you can then issue them commands with the D-PAD; Left to cover your plane, Up to attack your target, Right to go to the current objective, and Down will make everyone listen to your next order and obey it (Pressing Down twice will make your squad regroup and follow you).
IL-2 wouldn?t be an authentic simulator if it didn?t follow suit with the reason people enjoy these games; the planes. There are over 40 different planes and each one will reflect damage effects now complete with bullet holes and trail lines.
I will refrain from listing every plane but some of the more noteworthy ones that stood out for me were the playable Spitfires (Mk II, Mk IX, Mk XIV), Mustang, P-51, and of course the soviet world war 2 era attack fighter and bomber that the series is labeled after; the IL-2. This plane was so well known for its defenses and ability to soak damage that it was known as the flying tank and concrete plane. Even German ground troops started labeling it the Butcher, Meatgrinder, and Black Death; it was that effective as a war plane.
Because technology back in that era is nothing like it is today, you will have to do things the old fashioned way and actually get quite close to your targets before firing on them (if you want your bullets to be effective anyways). When you start hitting an enemy a small close up window will appear in the bottom corner to show the enemy plane getting hit and focus on it until it is downed or you are no longer shooting near them.
Again, because of the era of these planes, the pilots also had a harder time dealing the the G-Forces that also came along with these planes and if you bank or do loops with WEP enabled (like a Turbo or short term boost in engine power) you will see red around the screen almost like getting shot in other games which signals you are close to blacking out from these extreme forces on the pilot?s body. It?s a cool effect that just adds more authenticity to not only the planes but the era as a whole and what it was like to fly these birds.
Multiplayer is also supported in IL-2 and supports up to 16 players in four different online modes. You obviously have your standard Dogfight mode and Team Deathmatch but the Strike and Capture the Airfield modes are something that offer some more variety, no matter how odd they may be.
Strike has two teams trying to destroy each others ground targets while defending your own and Capture the Airfield is where you need to land on specific runways and stay on the ground a set amount of time without being destroyed to capture it (think of it as Domination). These two modes require quite a lot of coordination from team mates to be successful and is actually quite strategic and plays off your teams strengths and weaknesses. Oddly though there are no options for local multiplayer sadly.
An incredible amount of detail has clearly been given to IL-2 to make it the most authentic World War 2 air battle simulator; all the way from the actual historic missions, the planes that have incredible realistic sounds and even the new damage system that will even spatter oil on your windshield as you fly and tailgate someone?s trail.
One thing that stood out quite sorely though was the graphics when flying very close to the ground. From the air, everything looks great from the planes and clouds and ground units, but when you get close and see them up close you see the bane of every flight game; low polygon and textures on buildings and trees. It seems so unfitting to have this beautifully looking aircraft beside a simple block house. Add in the fact that when on the ground the scale of trees and buildings are completely off and don?t reflect the actual size of the plane correctly at all. It may be a small thing, but with so many landing opportunities, it was hard to ignore this oversight.
IL-2 has taken much time into making it accessible for new players to the genre with it?s easy to use Arcade setting but also appeases the hardcore simulation fans at the same time though Simulation mode is truly only recommended if you want one of the most challenging modes ever.
IL-2 doesn?t try and wow players with a certain gimmick or crazy stunts; it is simply the best recreation of its era?s airborne warfare that you will find. If you are lucky enough to own a flight stick for your 360 it will be compatible and I would actually recommend it as while it?s not needed, it?s like playing a fighter without an arcade stick; it?s just not the same and one is needed to play truly properly. Since flight sticks for the 360 aren?t the common or easy to find, I feel that many will truly be missing out on the simulation recreation that IL-2 is meant to give by using one.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Assassin's Creed 2
The original Assassin?s Creed was a very love-hate relationship for most gamers. On one hand you absolutely loved how new and cool it was to finally be an assassin while on the other you had to do very mundane and repetitive missions just to get to those awesome 5 minutes of actually stalking your prey. Luckily Ubisoft has listened to the many complaints and suggestions and has made a sequel that makes me love the series once again.Everything has been rethought from the ground up and in general is simply a better game overall because of it. The mission structure is completely new, you can buy new weapons and armor that have stats, you can gain money and spend it on your hometown for upgrades and this time you can even fly and swim. Everything is bigger and better and I truly wish I could replay the first game with all these improvements as I think many people would have taken to it much easier.
The story is done in two ways just like the original game had; you have Desmond in the real world trying to figure out what is happening to him and then he is reliving his ancestors memories in the Animus machine. Assassin?s Creed 2 starts exactly where the first one left off in the real world with Desmond still locked in the laboratory. I will refrain from spoiling anything plot wise but the action starts almost instantly as you begin as you are still trying to escape from Abstergo.
Familiar faces and new ones appear in the real world to help you and there is a slight but brief recap of what happened in the first game, though it does nowhere near a good enough job of explaining things or why which will confuse many new comers to the series. Even after watching the intro, I had to explain past events in the previous game for my wife to understand what was going on, so if you haven?t played the first game, at least read up on what happened; as you are trust right into this story expecting to know what has happened previously.
Desmond is no longer living Altair?s memories; the new star is Ezio Auditore who is from the renaissance in Italy. Again; I will refrain from spoiling anything but you are living a whole chunk of Ezio?s life and not just thrust into someone?s story after they?ve already become an assassin. Needless to say, something very dramatic happens to Ezio that is life altering and he is set out for revenge. Ezio?s character seems much more relatable as he?s very charming and means well which seems almost contrast to the Altair character previously.
As you continue on you unlock a massive conspiracy and the story is actually quite engaging and flows very well from segment to segment, though this is also partly because of the complete mission restructure from the previous game, but more on that later.
Another big difference you will notice from the first game is that previously after almost every kill you exited the Animus to do a brief real world segment and then back in you went. It is no longer like this as your friends are able to communicate with you while you are controlling Ezio in the Animus. Some may like this more consistent flow but I do miss the odd break and real world blending of storyline.
If you?ve played the first Assassin?s Creed you will know exactly how to play this one as the button mapping is basically the same. There are some different moves to learn but for the most part it will feel natural as soon as you pick it up.
Ezio?s notoriety will show how incognito you may or may not be to the guards. Guards will only react to illegal actions such as looting, killing, pushing them, etc. This means that you no longer are forced to walk in front of a guard just so you don?t get noticed like in the previous game.
Guards will either ignore you or recognize you on sight based on the level of your notoriety (think of wanted star levels in GTA) but there are many things you can do to lower your notoriety if you wish; such as removing posted signs (though sometimes theses make no sense since they are up high where no one would ever see them), bribing heralds to stop talking about you, or killing officials. The choice is yours of how you want to clear your name, should you even want to.
Combat also keeps the same layout and mechanics from the first game and will feel just as natural. Guards will have arrows above their head showing how soon they will start to notice and attack Ezio which is very handy to see how long you have before you have to scoot.
The minimap will show guards as red dots on the map like before, but now they will be bold and bright if they are on the same level as you (roof or ground) or lighter and faded if they are below or above you. It makes it almost too easy at times to travel around simply looking at the map, but it is a welcomed addition if it means less frustration.
When you kill your enemies in combat, dead bodies can now be picked up and moved and even thrown into hay nails to hide the evidence of what you?ve done. Escaping is also done much like in the first game though now much easier and quicker to do. You can find a spot to hide like previously, but now you can also simply just leave the last known position zone (large radius) and eventually they?ll stop looking for you (just like leaving the police?s radius area in GTA). Again, this makes it very easy to escape now, but I do like how I no longer have to run across the whole city just to restart over or fix a mistake I did.
Even blending in with crowds is back but now you are able to blend in with almost any group of crowd as long as you follow the lighted area on the floor; no more having to find just monks to follow around and blend in with.
Ezio has many more options for fighting in combat than Altair ever did; the amount of combat weapons you receive is much more than the original ever had. You have a poison blade for close range kills with a delay and even have a hidden pistol later in the game much like your blade. Of course you are also able to hire thieves and thugs to take care of guards and slow them down but now you can even hire a group of prostitutes to make some guards get out of your way easily instead of fighting. If you really need some chaos to distract some guards, you can even throw a bunch of money on the ground and see all the peasants push and shove to get the florins on the ground while the guards try and restore order.
Along with new combat moves and weapons comes new mobility as well. Your friend Leonardo Da Vinci is a master at inventing and he makes all your upgrades as you bring him hidden codex pages. Arguably one of his most famous inventions; the Flying Machine, eventually becomes one of Ezio?s tools to travel around and help with his assassinations. It?s something new for the series and definitely shows that Ubisoft has been thinking of new ideas for the players.
Missions are no longer your standard 3 different types that had you scouting, do a quick mission or two and then ultimately killing your target only to repeat it over again. The whole structure has been reworked completely from the ground up and is probably the biggest improvement to the game as the mundane missions in the first title is what caused many people to never finish it.
Along with your main missions and assignments which are more unique you now have assassination contracts, races, beat up events and courier assignments that add many hours to the longevity of the game.
Another issue many people griped about previously was how much time is simply took to get from point A to point B, especially if it was in separate cities and you had to run the horse there. Now there are fast travel spots in cities so that you can quickly get from city to city if you wish to save time. The horses are still there for those that enjoyed that part and there are no longer guards along the path that attack you for no reason at all like previously.
Another addition Ubisoft has dedicated a great amount of time to giving more breadth to the game is the inclusion of tombs scattered and hidden throughout the cities. You need to explore these to find all the seals of past legendary assassins and gather all 6 to get the infamous Altair?s outfit and to learn much more.
The great thing about these underground tombs is that it is a great change of pace and has a very Prince of Persia feel to it as it is more based on the puzzle and traversing aspects instead of combat. I only wish there were a few more of these tombs, so here is to hoping for some future DLC.
Money plays a big part in Assassin?s Creed 2 and is gained a few ways; looting dead bodies and pickpocketing. Looting is an easy way to get some spare cash from your fallen enemies as long as guards don?t see you do it and pickpocketing is easily done by holding the A button and walking through a crowd of people. As long as you don?t stick around too long for people to notice it?s you the one stealing, it?s an easy way to get some cash quickly.
Why do you need money? Well there are many options of weapons and armor to buy and upgrade but also equipment like belts that will hold more knives and medicine. Villa income is like an allowance you get so often based on how well you?ve renovated and kept the Auditore hometown. The more you invest, the more return overtime. As you buy and upgrade shops you get a bigger discount and newer items so it?s worth spending money on your hometown as the return is much bigger in the long run.
Splurge for the Collector?s Edition and you will gain the standard bonus disc and soundtrack but you will also get a very interesting art book if you are into that kind of thing. 2 in-game maps are also included for even more gameplay but easily the coolest thing about the Collector?s is the 8.5? Ezio statue that would look perfect on any gamers? shelf.
Nothing is perfect; some scenes have very low res textures and there is still clipping here and there, though nothing to majorly take away from the experience. You will also run up walls you don?t mean to and fall off ledges as well when not intended.
Ezio is able to stack his health and healing items so much that you should never really worry about dying in combat. Everything overall seems much easier but not in the sense of being simpler. It just seems like much has been done to soften the blow of player mistakes which makes the game much more approachable.
There are so many side quests and collectables that even if you want to blow quickly through the main story (which still takes some time) there is always something else for you to do if you need a change of pace.
Simply put, Assassin?s Creed 2 is a much more enjoyable experience front to back and much better put together. It may not feel as new as it did the first time you played the game but the game as an experience overall is simply everything the first game should have been. While many people may have been turned off from the monotony and repetitiveness of the first game, to those people I simply ask to give this sequel a chance as it really is that much better this time around.
When the worst I can say about a game is about its textures, this should speak volumes for how great everything else is. I am eagerly waiting for part 3 of the series and can?t even guess what Ubisoft can improve on next time as this game is a complete package all in one. If you even remotely enjoyed the first game you will not regret diving right into this sequel that truly does deserve the 2 beside its title.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Forza Motorsport 3
Developer Turn 10 brings us another installment of its popular racing franchise again this year with Forza Motorsport 3. While building on the foundation of a superb racing arcade and simulation all in one, much work has been done to make the new Forza much more accessible for even non-racing fans or others that have been intimidated by the controls previously. A lot of work has gone into Forza including new features that allow for absolute minimal frustration, every cars? interior perfectly detailed to real life and so much content that it actually had to ship on two discs.
While you are able to play the game off the first disc alone, the second contains around 100 more extra cars and more track locations. You are not forced to install the second disc but you will definitely be missing out on a lot of content without it, so I suggest clearing around 2 gigs of space on your hard drive to get the most out of Forza 3.
Mentioned earlier is the inclusion of in-cockpit views of every car to perfect detail. Every interior and dashboard of every car has been mapped exactly and looks just as it does in real life, so if you?ve been in or own a certain car, you will recognize the interior instantly. Driving in this view does have a larger learning curve but it certainly does feel much more fluid and realistic as a racing simulation should.
Forza 3 boasts some impressive numbers such as over 400 cars (with more DLC in the future) alongside more than 100 real world tracks and courses from all over the world. More than 50 manufacturers are licensed and cars have more than 10 times the polygons than in Forza 2 meaning everything looks even better this time and cars look amazing. Some favourites from previous Forza games also return such as Sebring International Raceway, Nurburgring and more. Coupled along with many events such as Time Trials, Oval, Drag, Circuit and more; there is more than enough content to keep you consistently int with racing games you start with a junk car and have to work your way up and suffer with it until you have enough cash to buy something slightly better and slowly build your career on this slow curved path. Luckily Forza 3 does something completely different and throws this style of boring progression out the window and does something complete different.
Career mode completely conforms around your cars and styles of game you like to race. Continue you stay in a car and it?ll give you events to use with that car rather than forcing you to buy cars that you won?t use more than once or don?t like. As you switch cars and unlock more, new events will unlock specifically for those vehicles. What?s great about this system is that you aren?t forced to do races with cars or events you don?t like (other than the seldom forced race here and there) as long as your car meets the prerequisites to race in said events.
Events will show up on your racing calendar and you commit to race in whatever events you agree to race. Over time you?ll eventually have more than 200 events to compete in so there is always something new to work towards as you gain and acquire more vehicles to learn.
For some events you may have the proper style of car but maybe you don?t have it up to the required specifications to compete such as going up a skill level or performance level. This is where a new feature comes in handy called the Quick Upgrade. Just before an event you can choose to have your car upgraded to its peak condition or new parts so that you are able to enter the next event or just want a slight advantage over the competition. With only a few button presses you can have your clunker decked out in new parts and tuned amazingly for the next race.
Turn 10 has gone through a great deal to make Forza accessible for anyone while keeping it fun for the advanced player all the way to new gamers. There are many different assists that you can willfully turn on and off depending on your skill. Depending on the difficulty you play on and what assists you choose to have on or off will directly result in the amount of your payout after a race. The less assists you have on gains you bonuses where more won?t net you as much, but at least makes it still fun for those not as skillful.
For those that aren?t as adept in racing sims there are some great assists for those people that just want to have fun even if they aren?t that great at the game. You can turn on the Auto Braking assist and all the player needs to do is hold down the trigger for gas and follow the racing line as it brakes automatically for them. It may not seems enjoyable for some but my wife who never plays racing games was happy that she was actually able to race while staying on the track.
Another new feature added to Forza 3 is the new Rewind ability. Granted that there have been rewind functions in games before such as Dirt 2 and more, but what makes it different in Forza 3 is that you aren?t penalized for using it. This feature is absolutely perfect for those times where you think you can make that corner just a little faster than you should; only resulting to slam into the wall or get off the course.
What?s great about this feature is that we?ve all been in that situation before where you are winning the race on the last lap and you blow it on a corner and close the whole thing only to be extremely frustrated at having to redo the whole course over again. This eliminates that frustration as you can rewind back just before you started to go awry, or even try something different like drifting the corner instead.
While everything about the Rewind feature seems great, there is always another side and the only downfall to this feature is that it can become quite a crutch since there is no real penalty to using it. You will use it many times and might even forget that it?s only usable in single player and not online obviously; so make sure to remember that and learn from your mistakes playing career mode and try not to use it as a crutch.
As you complete races and events in your career, you are rewarded with money and experience. Experience comes in the form of driver (the overall) and that specific car. So just like many other games, you can level up your character (driver) and your car. This system encourages players to find cars that they like and stick with them more and longer to level them up and gain new tuning parts as they progress and upgrade their vehicles.
Stay with a specific car long enough and you can eventually swap out parts and even engines to make the smallest ?normal looking? car into quite a beast and competitor. It?s quite gratifying to see the car you started out with that could barely break 100 k/m eventually compete with some of the heavy hitters and street racers.
In many racing titles they advertize crash physics but Forza 3 takes it to a new level and actually incorporates complete roll over crash damage; meaning you are finally able to flip your car should you crash hard enough. Doing a complete flip doesn?t seem to happen too often, but at least the feature is there. On the flip side, your car will get scratches and scuffs as you rub against competitors and walls, but there doesn?t seem to be too much massive damage contorting to your vehicle visually. With damage set to the realistic setting, you better to know hot shift properly, as even something as simple as not properly shifting could potentially blow your engine in the middle of a race.
The Forza series has always had a strong online element and it?s even more robust with this new installment. There are your obviously standard racing modes like circuit and course racing, drifting and drag but even more options have been included such as ?Cat and Mouse?, Elimination (last person each lap is knocked out) and Tag.
Once you choose your match type, there are a huge slew of options to completely customize how you would like to race online. From here you can choose whether or not people can use Auto Brake and other assists or even force players to use manual transmission should you like. You could even make a team game and have muscle cars vs import should you wish; the possibilities are almost endless with how many customizable options are present and should keep people playing online for quite some time.
Arguably what Forza may be best known for is the extremely in-depth tuning and painting of your vehicles to have a unique and custom ride exactly how you want.
What makes Forza so great is that even if racing isn?t your forte, you can still get great enjoyment and longevity from the game thanks to its painting and tuning features. Every single car in Forza 3 can be completely tuned and perfectly aligned to your driver?s skills even turning a low end car into a supercar challenger.
Along with tuning, you can also completely customize how your ride looks and are able to paint anything you can imagine onto your car?s canvas. It?s as simple as painting with shapes and layers but there are some very impressive paintjobs out there and when you finish your masterpiece you can even use the auction house to sell your hard work.
Should you deal out the extra cash for the Forza 3 Limited Collectors Edition you will get quite a few goodies well worth the extra price if you are a Forza enthusiast. You get a special Forza keychain to attach to your real car keys, a 2GB thumb drive specially branded ofcourse, ten exclusive cars (5 specially for VIP members and the other 5 personally picked, tuned, and pained by Team 10), and a membership to be a VIP member. Having VIP membership will get you special recognition in the storefront and auction house and more. There have also been promises of VIP-only cars to be offered in the future as well.
An incredible amount of work has gone into making Forza 3 accessible and enjoyable by anyone regardless of skill or previous racing history. With the new rewind feature and a plethora of assists that can be toggled, anyone is able to make it as easy or challenging as needed and will be rewarded accordingly.
Forza 3 has amazing visuals that coincide with the authentic sounds from each car make and manufacturer. With the new in-dash view and a steering wheel, Forza 3 is the essential racing sim if you are a true enthusiast. Every car sounds different and you can tell simply by the sounds of the roaring Mustang engine or the super high-end exotic?s that an immense amount of work by passionate people at Turn 10 has been done to make Forza 3 a leader in the racing genre.
Forza Motorsport 3 may look like any other racing game out there, but being able to have players enjoy themselves even if they aren?t that skillful speaks loudly. You can be a full time tuner or painter and not even race a single event and still get a massive amount of gameplay out of Forza 3. The excellent online integration and customizable options alone will make the replability last much longer than other racing titles. Forza is back and will definitely keep me interested for quite some time and shouldn?t necessarily be passed up even if you aren?t the biggest racing fan.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
DJ Hero
It would be almost impossible to release another guitar and band based game right now due to the saturation in the market right now and the fact that almost everyone already has their Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I don?t have many friends that don?t even have a guitar for one of their games and releasing a new title and trying to get people to buy a new peripheral can be quite challenging. Along comes DJ Hero and a whole new type of controller to purchase and to be honest, I wasn?t sure what to think of DJ Hero when it was announced. Fearing the worst, I thought it was simply going to be the guitar buttons mapped onto a simple turntable; luckily Activision has done their homework and made an authentic DJ experience while making the gameplay new and challenging.
DJ Hero throws you into the seat of a real DJ and tries to recreate the experience as best as possible. The game will have you blending songs, cross fading, scratching the disc for that authentic ?wiki? sound and even more.
Much like Guitar Hero and every other music game, the notes will flow down from the top of the screen to the bottom and you need to press the corresponding key at the appropriate time, though should you miss, the track will fade out for a for moments or until you hit a correct note again on the same track.
I?ll start to explain all the features of the game and how each one incorporates with each other. There are 3 tracks and corresponding tap icons that convey each track and mix you are currently playing; the left row is the first song, the right is the second and the middle is both tracks. This will come more into play later on when you start cross fading out one track for the other back and forth, but this is the basis of the game; 2 tracks to make one harmonic sound blended together.
Possibly the most famous equipment that a DJ has is of course his turntable that makes the very distinct scratching sound when the needle is pulled against the record quickly. In DJ Hero there are two types of scratching; the first is a freestyle way where you can scratch at whatever speed sounds good to you and the other is distinct scratches that are purposely done in one direction or another to make a different style or sound or quick rewind.
As mentioned above, two tracks are playing simultaneously and it?s the DJ?s job to blend them into one sound that flows well and makes people want to dance. To change between the first and second tracks you must use the cross fader slider to select left for track one or right for track 2. If the slider is left in the middle both tracks will output simultaneously and the game tells you when you need to cross fade to which track.
This is where the bulk of the game?s difficulty comes in (though in beginner mode you don?t use the cross fade slider) as you need to follow the tap buttons along with sliding between tracks. What makes this so difficult in the higher tier songs and difficulty is that much of the time you?ll be fading from one track to the other but also back to the middle. Finding where the middle is exactly on the slider can be quite challenging even though it does have a minor ?click? to it and more often than not you will slide too far or too little. I really wish there was a more distinct feeling for when the slider is in the middle but over time you tend to learn where that ?sweet spot? is.
If you play on Hard or Expert there are also even Fade Spikes that don?t necessarily make you switch tracks and keep the fader there but you need to do very quick motions to the edge and back. Again, doing this on top of having to correctly scratch and tap keys can be very confusing and difficult.
There will be also some sections that make use of the Effects Dial to make the volumes of whatever track you are playing fade in and out. This is essentially the equivalent to the wah-wah bar on the guitar of Guitar Hero and makes somewhat the same sounds.
During certain sections in the middle (blended track of both songs) there will be freestyle sample zones that you can press the middle tap key how much or little as you like to add your own touch to the song. With the Effects Dial you can choose what quick sample you?d like to repeat (such as laser noises, or Flava Flav voice tracks for example, thought here are many more to choose from).
Should you get your combo streak high enough and keep your multiplier up for a set amount of notes you may be lucky enough to gain a Rewind that can be used at any time you wish to rewind the track back about 5 to 10 seconds and replay that section again much like how some DJ?s do.
To use your Rewind you simply spin the turntable around 360 degrees (or more if you are good enough or want the achievement), stop it where your hand should be and continue on like you are a DJ pro. It does take quite some time to learn how fast to spin it and where to stop the record without looking at the turntable itself, but it does come in time and looks quite awesome when you pull it off on purpose.
DJ Hero?s version of star power is called Euphoria and it is gained the exact same way as Guitar Hero does it; you have to correctly hit, scratch, and cross fade every note within the glowing section for one bar of Euphoria. Up to 3 bars can be stored but the best thing about using your Euphoria is that fact that when its being used it will automatically do the cross fading for you, so this is best saved for those really difficult sections with lots of scratching and fading.
Multiplayer can be done on the same system or over Xbox Live and there are a few different selections such as DJ vs DJ, DJ and DJ, and DJ vs Guitar. While the DJ and Guitar songs seem cool on paper, there are very few songs that actually support this mode and it really wasn?t as exciting as I though it would be.
The other complaint I have about multiplayer is that all the songs are not unlocked from the beginning, meaning that if you want to play certain songs with someone, they need to be unlocked. I really wasn?t expecting DJ Hero to take a step backwards in this direction since they do it right with Guitar Hero now.
A DJ?s tools are only as good as the songs he has to work with and DJ Hero knows this and has licensed more than 100 songs and has had real DJ?s make more than 90 unique mixes with them. Genres expand from Electronica, Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock, R & B, and more. To go along with the genres are some top artists such as Beastie Boys, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Queen and more.
DJ Hero wouldn?t be true to its name if it didn?t have actual DJ?s attached to it which is why the game has actual tracks and likeness of DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ AM, DJ Shadow, Grandmaster Flash, and even Daft Punk.
As you progress through the game, all the songs you complete gain you stars (up to five per song) and the more stars you gain the more items you unlock such as characters, turn tables, venues, clothing and more.
As you go into your store to pick up DJ Hero you?ll notice there?s the regular edition in a moderately sized box and then there is the Renegade Edition in a much heavier and larger box about the size of a Rock Band kit box. The jump in price does go up but with it you get more than your standard collector edition items we?ve become accustomed to.
Firstly the turn table controller you get in Renegade Edition has a black metallic-like finish to it rather than the standard grey and all the sliders and knobs are finished in a gold that looks very premium and stylistic.
You also get an exclusive JAY-Z and EMINEM 2 CD pack that has a bunch of songs along with a special case. It?s a standard music CD but if you enjoy their music it?s quite the collectable.
The reason that the box is so huge compared to the normal edition is because everything comes in a hard shell carrying case for your turntable. What makes this unique though is that underneath where the turntable rests is 4 legs that can be screwed onto the bottom of the case that are adjustable and can be used as the DJ stand anywhere you need it. Some people may choose to simply play with the turntable on their lap, but having the travel case and instant performance stand for where you need it was worth the cost difference for me.
Graphically, everything feels much more stylish and polished than the Guitar Hero games and truly does feel more like a club or rave setting. The laser shows and bouncing cameras along with the authentic stage sets from Daft Punk surely does make the background much more engaging; though you?ll only get to really enjoy it when watching someone else play.
I was a little disappointed with the lack of a character creator as you can only really choose from preset people and then choose their different outfits as you unlock them by progressing through the game.
I jumped right in and started on Hard difficulty but didn?t find it really too challenging other than the odd song here and there. Expert difficulty though was quite challenging (especially the cross fading and scratching) but found it much more rewarding and enjoyable.
If you?ve grown stale of the band games out there or simply want something new to try and love the music genre, I completely recommend DJ Hero without hesitation. It?s not without its faults and I do look forward to the next iteration, but for now I?m quite content being the number 1 DJ in my home for some time to come.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Saw
When I found out there was going to be a game based on one of my favorite horror franchises, I was excited yet nervous; as we all know the track record of video games based on movie licenses. Konami brings us SAW the videogame and its release almost coincide with the new SAW VI movie, yet they have completely different storylines. The SAW game is its own storyline but plays into the whole story arch of the franchise to almost serve as a back story of sorts. SAW takes place after the first film and before the second. You play as Detective David Tapp (Danny Glover?s character, though not voiced as him) which is interesting in itself because at the end of the first movie, you see him lying there believed to be dead.
Jigsaw has revived Tapp to life and set him in an abandoned asylum to awake with the iconic reverse bear trap strapped to his head. As he wakes the standard Jigsaw video plays telling him what he needs to do to survive and this sets in motion many other events.
When Jigsaw saved Tapp?s life from the shotgun wound inflicted in the movie; he also happened to sew a key inside of him which is the only way out for the other people in the asylum which forces the player to kill and defend themselves against multiple enemies that just want to escape.
Jigsaw plays more videos for Tapp and soon tells him that there is a woman trapped nearby that needs his help to survive and it must be done within a certain time limit. As you arrive you realize it?s Amanda Young (the woman who survived Jigsaw?s trap and then went on to try and be his protégé) and once you save her and get split up you are ambushed by the infamous Pighead (although we know it?s Amanda and she?s keeping her cover) and are set in another area of the asylum to wake up for your next set of tests.
As you awake for the second time, you have the shotgun collar around your neck that was made famous in Saw III and this is not only for nostalgia, it has a sinister purpose. Some of the other inmates in the asylum also have a shotgun collar around their neck and if you come within a certain distance of them for too long, your collar will discharge. This means you want to get into range so that the collar arms on the enemies side and then keep your distance so that only theirs goes off (They need to get the key inside you to get it off).
I won?t spoil any of the other characters you come across, but some will be known from the series and you will see how everyone has a dark connection to Tapp. I really enjoyed having some back story to some of the characters (even though saving Tapp from a shotgun blast is a little far fetched) and it really did make a few things make sense in the overall grand scheme of the movie plots.
As mentioned above, everyone else in the asylum is after Detective Tapp to kill him so that they can retrieve the key that is sewn inside of him for their own escape. Because of this mechanic, there are many enemies that will be after you and you need to defend yourself by killing them by any means necessary.
Almost anything can be used as a weapon such as knives, or pipes or even syringes, but every item has a different delay with the controls and was substantially quite more difficult to actually hit someone with when compared with my bare hands. You need to hold down the L Trigger to initiate the combat stance and from there you can either attack or block; problem is blocking really doesn?t do anything and I guarantee on your first few enemies, you will become very frustrated trying to just get a single hit in.
There is a large delay from the button press to the actual attack and it does take quite a few enemies in to get the hang of, but eventually you?ll just bypass weapons all together and use your fists as it?s the quickest ?weapon?. It?s a shame, because there is an achievement for killing people with each type of weapon too.
The controls for fighting may be some of the worst I?ve ever experienced; the only way I?ve been getting by is using bare fists and swinging early to hopefully land that first hit (because when you do, you can basically spam the attack over and over again).
What made SAW so appealing were the traps and puzzles that it portrayed onto the main characters, and this is no different in the game at all. Many rooms will lock you in and have a time limit for you to figure out and complete before something very bad will happen to you. Sometimes theses puzzles are simply finding a fuse to put into the break box to unlock or disarm a door, and other times you?ll have to play a minigame style of puzzle (that do repeat many times in the game).
One of these minigames is a cabinet that has a moving gear (the start) and you need to get the second gear (the end) to move by placing 3 different sized of gears between them so that they fit onto specific pegs. The puzzle itself isn?t too terribly challenging on its own, but when you know you have a limited amount of time and the pressure of seeing a trap about to go off, it can mess with your mind.
There are a few other types of small puzzles, but one of the others you?ll encounter many times is essentially a circuit board with wires and electricity that you need to match up so that all the connections are in place simultaneously. Again, on it?s own it?s not too difficult, but it?s the ticking time that throws you off your game.
Even doorways can be deadly as some are rigged to shoot a shotgun into the face of whoever opens the door. Luckily as you open doors, if it?s a trap door, you?ll have a single moment to press the correct button to disable the hairline trigger, though there will be times when you don?t press it in time or the wrong key and thus get blasted close range.
Sometimes to save people (or yourself), you?ll need to figure out or disarm one of the traps that Jigsaw has laid out. At the start of the game you need to get the reverse bear trap off of your own head by rotating screws and specific button presses when prompted. Other traps will have you attempting to save others such as a blade slowly lowering about to cut someone in half, and you need to do 4 of those gear-type minigames to stop it. Some of the traps and puzzles really do take some thinking and once you realize what the solution is, you wonder how you never saw it before. It honestly had me intrigued as the movies for some of these sections; it?s just a shame that the remainder of the game is filled with horrible combat mechanics.
There is a constant overlying tenseness while you continue to play and the settings look exactly like they would in the movies (other than the random people trying to kill you). Tobin Bell voices himself as Jigsaw and sounds as menacing and gritty as ever. Unfortunately Danny Glover wasn?t cast for his voice as Tapp, so this has been given to Earl Alexander who voiced Louis in Left 4 Dead. Amanda also doesn?t voice her own character and this has been taken over by Jen Taylor who you?ll recognize as Cortana.
SAW isn?t scary in essence, but it does a great job at being creepy and keeping you nervous. There?s nothing drastically graphic that you would find in the movies to make you possibly squirm somewhat due to the very low quality of graphics.
I was honestly expecting a little more from the title, but to be honest, for being a movie based game, it?s not entirely terrible. Luckily Konami is no stranger to the survival horror series and maybe that?s what?s keeping it held together by a thin thread.
The best thing I enjoyed was the choice you get at the end of the game; much like given a choice in the movies, Jigsaw gives Tapp a choice to make; find the Truth at a grave cost or Freedom and forget your obsession. Both endings were pretty interesting and gives you an insight to what actually did happen to Detective Tapp.
Obviously this game is meant for fans of the series, and they do cater to them as they know who the audience is going to be, it?s just such a shame that the majority of gameplay is a broken combat mechanic and puzzles that repeat themselves.
Unfortunately it doesn?t feel like any of the traps are sophisticated enough to truly be made by Jigsaw?s brilliance and the combat alone is more torture than any of the traps themselves. While the spirit of the series is here, the execution simply needs to be refined from the ground up; hopefully soon we will have another SAW game that is actually in Jigsaw?s caliber.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Lucidity
LucasArts may be more known for their past titles like Monkey Island or Star Wars but now they are trying something completely different with Lucidity and getting back to the basics with a unique looking side scrolling puzzle platformer.Sofi is a little girl that enjoys hearing bedtime stories from her grandmother and one night as she nods off to the stories, her imagination takes control and she awakes in a dream world following a firefly that will lead her into a dream landscape. As Sofi skips through the forest, it's the players' job to make sure she safely navigates to the end of the level.
As Sofi becomes more and more curious, she continues to explore more areas and more danger becomes present as she presses on trying to also find fireflies. Sofi is persistent and will keep the desire to press on and explore what is ahead in her dreams.
Lucidity is a puzzle game at heart, and like any good puzzle title, everything starts off will little difficulty and quickly ramps up to keep the challenge and players' interest. Very quickly though, levels become very complex and difficult which becomes quite frustrating early on.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Wet
WET is a third person shooter that has many movie and game influences such as Max Payne, Stranglehold and Prince of Persia; all topped off with the styling of a Tarentino ?Grindhouse? look to it. The combat has some mechanics from the shooters mentioned above and the acrobatics have a page taken out of the book of Prince of Persia. This coupled with a dirty film grain layered on top and you have your perfect B-movie style plot action game complete with over the top excitement and characters. The characters noteworthy here are the main heroine Rubi Malone voiced by Eliza Dushku and the main antagonist Mr. Eckers talently voiced by Malcom McDowell. Rubi doesn?t take crap from anyone and is your epitome of a hard ass woman that is armed and has the skills to kill you in a second. Rubi also has quite the mouth on her, but it plays into the style and vibe of the setting very fittingly; most of the time.
The story begins with Rubi overseeing an exchange going down between 2 criminal organizations and when the time is right after the first shot has been taken, she makes her over the top dramatic entrance; guns blazing of course. As you chase the man who is getting away with the package you?ve been hired to retrieve, you blast your way through waves and waves of enemies all in style.
Rubi is a gun for hire and retrieves the package she was hired to bring back and then is double crossed, which makes the story play out in many different levels and settings. The story itself isn?t anything too Hollywood, but I almost feel it may have been like this on purpose to give that B-Movie feel and to focus more on the action of game; it?s supposed strong point.
WET is completely about shooting anything that moves but making sure you look completely bad ass while doing it. On paper this sounds like an awesome idea, to have the player constantly doing flips and slides and what not to keep the action going while shooting down the enemies, but I found the novelty; although stylistic, just wasn?t enough to keep me motivated after a few levels.
Where this title differs from other shooters is in the genre is that you do get points for shooting and killing enemies, but your multiplier will only increase if you are doing a particular style move like a flip, or sliding on your knees, or diving. While you do any of these actions (and more as you unlock them) you enter slow motion and enemies are much easier to hit. Shooting normally without doing anything stylistic and Rubi will only use one gun, but go into slow motion and she brings out a second gun that will automatically lock onto the nearest enemy as you shoot a second one down simultaneously.
Couple this with the fact that you have a sword to slice your enemies should they make the mistake of getting in close proximity to you, and you can see where the appeal may come from in this action title. Chain together different moves and swordplay and you will have a much higher multiplier and score at the end of the level to purchase move and weapon upgrades. It?s all about making it look cool rather than being functional and diving for no reason other than you are diving; simple as that.
As you begin the game Rubi only has her dual pistols, but of course she has unlimited ammo to go along with your sword. As you progress in the game you unlock different guns that can be switched on the fly with the d-pad, but these don?t have infinite ammo and once I fully upgraded the pistols, I really found no real reason to switch to the other guns. As you finish certain levels and acquire these guns, you play a flashback-like level that has you do a challenge course to get used to the guns before using them on your mission.
Most of the levels are your standard kill some guys, traverse to some area and then defeat waves of enemies or a boss. At some parts there is an arena style setting where enemies will continue to repsawn unlimitedly until you can break a mechanism to lock or close the doors they are coming out of. It is completely meant for carnage and the areas usually have lots of walls or poles or anything that Rubi can make use of to get the best out of her abilities. These areas and Rage Mode (more on that later) is where you will be scoring the majority of your points and are essential if you want to upgrade some or many of her skills and weapons.
When you complete a level you are able to use the points you?ve accumulated to that point and spend them on upgraded moves or weapon enhancements like rate of fire and damage for each weapon. While some abilities seem cool to unlock, none are necessary at all to really get and simply just add more of that ?cool? feel and more chances to stay in slow motion longer as you take down the gangs. As I?ve said before, simply get your pistols maxed out and after that anything else is really just for extra flavor and not really necessary.
In a very Tarentino style, even the loading between levels has the signature commercials that are quite old and something you would see in an old drive in movie theater. It fits in with the style and genre completely, but gamers that aren?t used to this genre of movies may not understand why it?s there.
The game does tend to mix things up every second or third level though which I found quite refreshing other than the complete annihilation of anything that moves. The first of these other styles of levels is one where you are riding on top of a car going way too fast down the highway chasing someone as you shoot the enemies in other cars. Doing this while having to jump from car to car or over tipping tanker trucks I found to be some of the most exciting parts of the game, unfortunately there wasn?t too many of these style of levels though for my liking. The other notable level like this has Rubi falling out of a blown up airplane plummeting to the ground without a parachute; and yes, you are shooting and killing enemies also in the air trying to reach that one parachute left floating away. It?s completely over the top and something you would expect in a movie, but it does have a slight charm to it at times when it?s at its best.
Certain levels are played in what is called Rage Mode, and what this entails is Rubi usually shooting someone in the head point blank and getting blood all over her face. When this happens all she sees is literally red with enemies highlighted in a white style. During rage mode Rubi is almost invincible and her speed and strength is increased massively. The idea behind this is that Rubi is literally wet with blood and this is how she focuses when so. It has a very artistic style to it that reminds me much of the older Killer 7 game; as that would be the best way I could describe the visuals. The gameplay in this mode doesn?t really differ too far from the norm, it seems like it is really just meant to offer a slight change of pace without actually changing the pace.
After you complete the campaign in a few hours, there are some more obstacle courses that do get unlocked and then can be played as time trials, but honestly; after finishing the title, I hardly see any reason to come back to it again unless you are a completionist and want every single upgrade (regardless of how useless).
The sound quality in the game also has the grainy 70?s style soundtrack to go along with it and suits it perfectly for the genre. Obviously the voice acting from the Dushku and McDowell are top notch as well and I do hope that getting actors in videos games will catch on more, because nothing can ruin a great game like bad voice acting; luckily that isn?t found here.
Nothing is perfect and WET is no different; the characters seem to have very low polygon counts and really seem blocky and textures when you get close up (even Rubi?s face at times) doesn?t look sharp at all and stands out pretty badly at times. This along with quite a lot of clipping and not all moves working where they should (why some walls can be wall ran and flipped from and not others?) makes for quite a few awkward moments where you?ll be trying to fix the camera or wondering why you can?t do a certain move somewhere.
Just like movies, games need to have low points so that the high peaks of adrenaline action can seem more exciting; but unfortunately what WET tries to do it give you the high points 100% of the time, which simply can?t be sustained for long term excitement. Yes there were some exciting parts more-so than others, but it feels like it shouldn?t have been the sections they happened in instead of the combat much like how Max Payne had it done very correctly. While the game grittiness does fir the genre and stylings perfectly, I can?t fault it for almost purposely trying to be bad in that B-Movie way, but in the end it felt like it was simply just trying extremely too hard to be cool instead of focusing on making the good parts great.
With almost no replayability I do get the short term appeal of the game but the long term shelf life is simply not there and it will gather dust or be traded in shortly after completion.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
The premise behind pinball is very simplistic; essentially you score points by keeping your metal ball in play inside a glass covered case. Since the first pinball machine was invented many machines have come and gone in the arcades of the past all trying to better the previous machine. First you had flippers, then bumpers, then ramps, and pinball machines of this era are extremely elaborate and some even have a mini pinball game inside its own game.The Williams Collection brings 13 different tables than hail from different eras as well. Every machine has had every meticulous detail converted for our digital pinball loving ways and each machine that I?ve played before in real life is exactly how I remember it; even down to each crackly bip and bong sound.
Games don?t really have a simpler control scheme than they do with pinball machines; you have two buttons for the left and right flippers and usually a plunger to set the ball in motion. Those are essentially the same controls in the game as well. Your triggers or bumpers are your flippers, the Right stick is your plunger (which can be pulled back half way for half power), and the Left stick is to nudge the Machine when you know it?s about to go straight down the middle.
There are a few different modes that can be chosen from the main menu; the first being the Williams Challenge. This will have you starting at a table with a set score needed to be achieved before you are able to move onto the next.
Tournament Mode is an option that is actually the standard for actual Pinball tournaments (which I wasn?t aware of). Basically the replay score value is divided by 10 and when a player reaches that set score, they receive a point. The player with the most points at the end wins the match. This mode is also playable with up to 4 people, so it makes it a little more interesting to compete with friends.
Lastly is the Practice Arcade where you will probably spend the majority of your time playing. What makes this mode different is that it sets you inside of an arcade and from there you can move the camera from machine to machine to choose what you want to play. It seems clunky and if you don?t know where a machine is (upstairs, main floor, or the backroom), it can be a little frustrating to even find the pinball machine you want to start. It seems a little unnecessary to recreate the old arcade atmosphere and I wish there was a simple menu system.
What stands out like a sore thumb though is that when you are in the lobby selecting the machine you want to play; the visuals for the machines are extremely low resolution and it can make it difficult to see what is on the machines playfield just by looking (if you don?t know the machine off by heart). It really doesn?t make sense as once you are playing the machine, the resolution is extremely high and crisp, but in the lobby it?s the complete opposite.
As you play more and more you will earn tokens that can then be used to unlock more machines and you gain bonus? for getting set achievements per table. Should you complete all the achievements on tables, you unlock freeplay on tables that require coins; so there is always something to work towards on every machine which keeps the variety ongoing., The best feature about this is that every table has support for 4 player multiplayer; even the old machines that did not support this! Every machine runs perfectly at a solid 60 frames a second with no slowdown even when you get multiball going furiously.
Starting from the oldest machine to new you have Jive Time from 1970, Gorgar (1979), Firepower (1980), Black Knight (1980), Space Shuttle (1984), Sorcerer (1980), Pinbot (1986 and also my favorite machine ever), Taxi (1988), Whirlwind (1990), Funhouse (1990 and one of the most famous tables), Medieval Madness (1997), Tales of the Arabian Nights (1996), and finally; No Good Gophers (1997).
You may or may not recognize these names, but I?ll bet that if you ever stepped into an arcade in the 80?s or 90?s, you?ve seen or pumped many quarters into at least one of these machines. I was quite surprised how many I actually remembered playing when I was younger.
As mentioned above, each machine I?ve actually player in real life looks and sounds exactly how I remember it. The sound is what surprised me the most because it still sounds as crackly and authentic as it did coming out of the speakers at the loud arcade. Each bounce of a bumper or two balls hitting each other is very realistic.
This also coincides with the absolutely realism of the physics of the game as well, as it reacts just as it would in real pinball. You can stall your ball with the flipper or even ?bump pass? to the other should you know how in real pinball. Everything about every machine is authentic and recreated to pey, the only issue I really had was the camera at certain points. On some machines when you are near the top of the play field, it sometimes zooms in close so you can see what the ball is doing and once it comes out of that area, it zooms back out to the over view very quickly. You are able to change the camera, but it feels unnecessary. The only other issue I had was the fact that you can?t pause the game and see the set list of objectives (for achievements and unlocks) for each of the machines. Basically you have to know your objectives before starting your game.
Essentially, this is pinball in digital form and it?s authentic as it?s going to get without having to find a machine in some bar. Sadly, the heyday of Pinball arcades are gone, but you are able to see what you remember or missed out on with this fantastic collection of some of the more famous machines ever made. With the cheaper price point, it?s hard to resist this if you are a pinball lover or want to relive some authentic pinball action.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Halo 3: ODST 
Halo 3 ODST is a stand alone expansion that gives more depth to the Halo universe and story; I just wanted to get that out there first and foremost. Halo3 ODST is unlike the other Halo games you have played and having a Halo game without the Master Chief in it almost seems like it wouldn?t be a Halo at all. Fortunately, Bungie knows what they are doing and manage to pull off a service to the fans and express how Halo isn?t just about Master Chief, it?s also about the conflict between Humans and Covenant.Halo 3 ODST gives some great back story to the events that happen on New Mombasa before the Covenant took it over for a second time. A new story and a new multiplayer mode should be just enough to tide everyone over until the next Halo game in 2010: Halo Reach.
Halo 3 ODST tells the story of the events that happen between Halo 2 and Halo 3 in New Mombasa. The year is 2552 (the same year Halo 2 takes place) and the Covenant is searching for something under the city of Kenyan in New Mombasa. Due to the takeover of the city, ODST?s are sent in to retake the city and find out what is going on. During their ?Helljump? to Earth, something happens and the 6 man team is thrown off course and split up. You crash and emerge from your Drop Pod and are alone in a desolate empty city.
You are alone and are in search of your missing squad mates after your awakening. When you arrive in Kenyan, you emerge 6 hours later than the other ODST?s and are searching for clues to their whereabouts. As you find clues you will be thrust into a flashback video of what that character went through and you play that whole scene.
The ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) are a special branch of the United Nations Space Command (USNC) and is the equivalent to SWAT, but are called upon when needed for intense front line battles. ODST?s have been given the nickname of Helljumpers due to being sent to battles from space in Drop Pods that send them plummeting straight into the battlefield.
You are no longer the Master Chief, so the gameplay has changed in some ways to reflect your mortality. Firstly, there is no more dual wielding which can take some time to get used to if you?ve been playing a lot of Halo 3. Also gone is the ability to use equipment like Bubble Shields and Gravity Lifts. While this doesn?t seem like a huge loss, it would have been a major asset in Firefight Mode; but more on that later.
Also, because you are an ODST soldier, you don?t have the Chief?s Mjolnir Mark VI armor to shield you from weapons and falling. This means you must make use of cover much more often than in the previous Halo titles. It can take some time getting used to not being able to run in guns blazing, but you grasp it quickly that strategy prevails over sheer power. Due to the lack of Spartan armor, you also take fall damage which is a first for the series as well. You eventually train yourself to not jump off high ledges, but it feels very different from the standard Halo?s where this isn?t an issue you even think about.
Because of this lack of superior armor, you do have some minor shields and can take a few hits, but take too many and your shields will deplete. Unlike Spartan armor, your shields don?t regenerate, so when you are low on health, you must find health packs scattered throughout the level; this goes for campaign and Firefight. Again, this is a very different mechanic from any Halo game previously and does take some time getting used to the changes.
The other tool at your disposal that the iconic Chief doesn?t even possess is the Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance Class; or VISR for short. This is essence is your night vision, but in addition to just low light sight, you are given an outline of all hostiles in a Red color making them much easier to spot and defeat. At first I was thinking that it was going to be too easy with this on, but at night time, it?s basically essential to even find Covenant and actually works quite well when trying to find snipers from long range. In addition, your VISR will also have an overlay of the level?s map (when you press the Back Button) and you can see your target and location of all your team mates.
Being the mere mortal you are; you also start with standard ODST weapons. The first being the M7S Submachine Gun that us suppressed and in essence; Halo 3 ODST?s Battle Rifle. The other gun you begin with is the M6S Magnum; which is a complete throwback to the amazing pistol from Halo 1. Both guns are a viable solution for any need, but also can be dropped for any weapon you find lying on the ground from downed Covenant.
As mentioned above, as you are playing the Rookie and searching for clues in the desolated city, when you happen upon a clue, you then play that persons story to see what happened. When you are playing as the Rookie in the main city, it?s a completely different game than when you are playing one of the flashback sequences. Firstly, in the main city, it?s more or less a hub for all the missions and as you find clues, another section opens up to find the next clue and so on. Unfortunately the hub is very unclimactic and seems much like a delay as I would have much rather play the ?flashback levels? instead; as they were much more exciting and Halo-esque.
While your VISR does have a map and your HUD shows you your next target to get to, the hub in the city can be confusing and you will take a few wrong turns delaying the time before you find your next clue. You can set waypoints to try and help your way, but it?s not as easy as it should be.
As you find clues to the whereabouts of the rest of your squad, you play their section of the story and what happened to them. These levels are very Halo-like with some vehicle sections and even Scarab killing. I won?t give anything away about the story but essentially the hub section felt very drab and dull where the flashbacks were exciting and made me want to find out what happened next.
The only downfall to the campaign was the very short length; it only took us around 5 hours or so to complete on Legendary and there was really only 2 or 3 very difficult sections (I hate you highway level!). The thing to keep in mind though is that this is meant to be an expansion for the Halo 3 story and it?s not meant to be Halo 4 in any way. At least it is playable co-operatively with up to 4 people for added entertainment.
Because of this shorter length campaign, Bungie has done something great by adding in a new Multiplayer mode called Firefight. Fightfire would be impossible to describe without comparing it to Gears of War 2?s Horde Mode; which is in essence, the same idea. Up to 4 ODST?s can play co-operatively while engaging waves and waves of oncoming Covenant forces to gain points. As a team you also collectively share a set number of lives, so you need to be on top of your game, and so does the rest of your squad.
Firefight isn?t just based on what level you can get to like Horde mode was, it?s a little more convoluted, but it makes sense when you wrap your head around it. A Wave is a squad of Covenant (a squad doesn?t necessarily mean one drop ship) sent to take you out. The amount of enemies will vary depending on the amount of players and difficulty setting.
After you complete 5 Waves, you have completed a Round; and at the end of a round, health and ammo are replenished and you have a small break to get back into formation. Should you complete 3 Rounds, that means you have finished a Set (15 Waves = 3 Rounds = 1 Set) and when a Set is complete you gain a bonus round. During the Bonus Round you have a time limit to score as many points as possible, and if you beat the par score set, you can gain extra lives.
What makes Firefight interesting is the automatic activation of particular skulls that add difficulty to the waves. As you progress in Firefight, more skulls activate and stack on top of each other and can make things extremely difficult (especially when Black Skull is turned on and you can only regain stamina by meleeing enemies)
Different skulls turn on at different times, some only turn on at the start of Sets and Rounds but you will eventually learn to know what?s coming next Wave with enough playtime. While Firefight is very entertaining, the issue I found is that if you are with a very good group, a single Firefight session can easily last more than 2 hours. It makes it a little difficult if you want to just play for a short period but have a really good team; though you could always just play alone and see how well you do.
Due to the very limited ammo for the SMG and Magnum, you will at some point be frantically looking for a Covenant weapon to use while you are getting swarmed. Health is also very sparse and located in the spawn areas, but once someone takes it, it is gone until the end of the Round (not Wave).
The other notable inclusion (or lack there of), is the fact that that is no Matchmaking for Firefight Mode. This means you can only play with people on your friends list or anyone you?ve recently played with online and invited. While this seems like a downer, I look at it in a different way; I would rather have my friends watching my back since it is co-operative and I know they are going to have a microphone attached for communication, where this isn?t always the case for random people. Firefight Mode is about building that perfect group of 4 friends that work well together and can strategize and communicate. Having random people with no microphone with you while trying to play Legendary difficulty would most likely be disastrous.
When you open Halo 3 ODST, you will also notice a second disc, and this disc is the Multiplayer from Halo 3 that we?ve come to know and love. What makes this special is that it?s Halo 3 Mulitplayer but also contains every map that has ever been released for it (24 in total). 3 new maps have been included with the release of ODST and one in particular is a remake of Midship form Halo 2. This is an amazing deal for someone that hasn?t bought all the map packs previously or has gotten rid of their Halo 3 disc. If you desire a more competitive online mode than Firefight, this is what this disc is for.
There is a collector edition of course and with the Collectors you get in addition to the game is a special Halo 3 ODST branded controller. The benefit to this is that the pricing of the bundle is cheaper than buying another controller separate; that and the controller won?t be on sale individually. The controller itself is a green (kind of like Master Chief?s armor) and the battery is black, so there won?t be any worries about not being able to find a matching green battery color.
It was disappointing that the Collector Edition had nothing else other than a controller; not even a steel case or a behind the scenes disc, but if you are in need of a new controller, you do save some cash this way and get a special looking controller.
While campaign did have a shorter length than a full bodied game, I take it for what it is meant to be; and expansion, but that in no way means quality has been compromised.
Firefight may not be new and revolutionary, but it?s very engaging and I?m quite enjoying having a co-operative experience with Halo other than the campaign where previously all Halo multiplayer aspects were competitive. Having more coercion with friends and actually strategizing and calling out targets may be the most enjoyment I?ve had with a Halo game yet online.
Although it would have been interesting to actually use and maneuver yourself while in the Drop Pods, the story is fleshed out and the flashback levels has the warming welcome from Halo that we?ve enjoyed many times before. With every copy gaining access to the Halo Reach Multiplayer beta sometime next year, it?s just another reason to pick this up. You are now a Helljumper, prepare to drop.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Wolfenstein
It?s widely acknowledged that Wolfenstein 3D was the title that really gave birth to the first person shooter genre, almost 2 decades ago. Ever since the series has gained more and more fans and had a bigger following, each title has had more pressure on it to succeed as well; if not more, than the previous title. With almost 10 years since the previous Return to Castle Wolfenstein released on Xbox, we now have its successor simply titled; Wolfenstein. Activision must be banking on the name alone though, as there has been very little to no advertising at all for the game before launch. Surely fans of the series will pick it up, but it?s hard to say if there is enough here to sell to potential new fans.
Once again you are William ?B.J.? Blazkowicz; the man who?s defeated many Nazi plots in previous Wolfenstein games. B.J. tends to be the only man who can stop the Reich and is sent as a spy to find out what?s going on. It?s 1943 in the heart of the war and you are sent on a mission to find evidence of a new power that the Nazi?s have discovered.
As you push further and further behind enemy lines in the town of Isenstadt, you learn that Hitler?s Third Reich hasn?t just built a new super weapon, but instead are harnessing the power of a different dimension all together to create something even more powerful that will end the war in favor of Himmler?s SS.
While the story does have an interesting concept, it really took until half way through before it started to pick up and I really wasn?t caring at all what happened until that point. Unfortunately, I don?t think many people will give it the few hours it takes for it to get interesting, especially if it is a rental. It can also be completed in a few hours, so the longevity isn?t truly there either.
While most first person shooters are fairly linear and have you going from point A to point B, Wolfenstein tries to change this by making a central hub area that you can freely go to shops or to your next mission. The city hub makes it feel not so linear, but it?s really just a trick to make to make it feel that way, as you still have to pass through it every time you finish and start a mission. Also having enemies respawn every time you pass through is quite annoying added on top of the multitude of backtracking you will do in missions.
Fortunately you will never get lost due to your compass as it will always point you in the correct direction. It points you exactly where you need to go, not just the ending point; meaning if you need to enter a door or take a hallway, it will constantly update as you traverse throughout the level. While it was nice to not ever be lost, it negated the need to ever look at your map and if you needed to get to an area that is a dead end, you know that you need to use one of your Veil Powers to continue on. It simply made it almost too easy, as you never had to explore unless you are looking around for the extras like gold and Intel for unlockables and achievements.
As you start the game you are only given a simple MP40, but as you kill more and more Nazi?s and take their weapons you?ll eventually have an MP43, Kar98 sniper, Flamethrower, and a Panzerschrek rocket launcher.
As you learn more about what the SS are really planning and fight the tougher ?interesting? enemies, you will gain their weaponry as well which includes a Telsa Cannon that shoots electric bolts and a Particle Cannon that shoots a stream of pure energy that will disintegrate any enemy it touches.
Oddly though there is a lack of shotgun for some reason, but it?s quickly forgotten once you start to upgrade your weapons. As you finish missions and find gold during, you can purchase upgrades to any of your weapons, but be warned; you can?t afford every upgrade, so choose wisely what you want from your most used weapons. Adding an extra ammo clip, silencer, or recoil dampener is completely up to you and your play style.
The different weapons will also affect enemies differently when shot. Sometimes you?ll literally shoot their face off or even nick their neck so blood spurts out profusely. It seems very random though as sometimes you?ll get the one shot kill and other times you?ll load a clip into someone before they drop.
As you progress through the game you gain new abilities in a medallion that you have; called Veil Powers. Some are more useful than others, but each can be upgraded to add extra unique abilities and sometimes are the only way to progress further or kill a certain enemy.
Down on the Dpdad toggles Veil Sight which allows you to see into the Veil; like another dimension of sorts. When in the veil you will see Geists, energy pools that refill your veil meter and secrets such as walls and passageways you could not see with your own eyes. When the skill is upgraded, upgraded you can also see enemies through walls which is quite helpful. You run faster with this toggled on too making crossing large areas a little easier and quicker.
Pressing Right on the Dpad toggles Mire which is essentially slowing time around BJ. This allows BJ to get past obstacles that need to be done very quickly, or to get a tactical advantage on an ambush. If you upgrade this skill you get a small radius around you that will kill anyone that comes near.
Veil Shield is used with Up on the Dpad and is simply what it sounds like; a shield that will block bullets. When upgraded it will actually bounce bullets back and if you upgraded it fully, it?ll actually give you a shield around BJ that will disintegrate anyone that comes in contact with you.
The final power you unlock is Empower and it is essentially a buff that gives your bullets more damage capability and can penetrate Veil Shields on enemies. If you upgrade this skill you can shoot through stone and wood as well.
Wolfenstein does have an online component to it, and I was hoping at bare minimum; a copy of Return to Castle Wolfenstein?s online, as that gameplay is what sold me on Xbox Live back in the day. Unfortunately this is not the case and multiplayer is a very basic and generic affair that doesn?t have anything special to it.
You pick your side of Axis or Allies, then one of three classes; Engineer who can drop ammo packs as their special ability, Soldier who has satchel charges and can use the bigger weapons such as the Panzer and Flamethrower, and the Medic who can drop health packs.
The higher tier weapons from single player are completely missing though, such as the Telsa and Particle cannons. You are able to spend your gold that you earn online to upgrade your weapon of choice though which makes an interesting dynamic should you be able to swallow the online experience long enough to get this far.
The only Veil Power that is usable online is Sight which makes it easier to find enemies and you run faster. There is really no reason to not use it, as there are many energy pools scattered through the levels to keep your energy bar always full.
There are only three different modes to play as well; Team Death Match which is the standard, Objective which is the normal attack and defend, and Stopwatch which has you doing multiple objectives as fast as possible.
I was incredibly disappointed with the online, as I was looking forward to many hours of online fragging more so than the single player portion. It?s simply primitive in its offering and isn?t nearly as deep as it was in the previous game that was known for its excellent online portion.
Sadly I was expecting more of a Return to Castle Wolfenstein part 2, but this is not it in any way (other than the plot). I would have been happy if they basically copy and pasted the multiplayer from the previous game, but again, it?s buggy and laggy and there are major balance issues.
There are many more issues such as horrendous AI that doesn?t even move out of the way of grenades when they shout ?grenade!? and see them land at their feet. This coupled with framerate issues when jumping back and forth between the Veil makes it very inconsistent. Luckily I haven?t run into the corrupt save data glitches that many other gamers are dealing with though.
With it being almost a decade since the last Wolfenstein game, I was truly expecting much more from iD software and Activision on one of my favorite series. If you are an absolutely huge Wolfenstein fan and want to see what happens to B.J. in the next chapter of his story, then I would recommend it, but there is little to no replay value and with an incredibly simplistic online, I would still have a hard time recommending this to anyone regardless of brand loyalty.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Everyone knows the caped crusader Batman and his arch nemesis The Joker. Unfortunately in the past, there have been many Batman games that really haven?t brought the true feel and atmosphere of the DC comics? Dark Knight very well. Rocksteady studios brings us a third person action-stealth game starring you as the man himself; the infamous Batman. Even if you aren?t a huge Batman fan or don?t know an in-depth history of the lore, this should not dissuade you in any way as the game does an ample service of giving you all the information you?ll ever need to get your head wrapped about the environments and characters. There is so much back-story here that it even will give you history on many of Batman?s enemies that aren?t even in the game psychically.
The Arkham Asylum in the title comes from the famous psychiatric hospital that doubles as a jail for the most criminally insane located in Gotham. Located on a secluded island, almost all of Batman?s nemeses has been caught and barred up here at some point.
Obviously Batman and Joker are the most important characters in this story, so there needed some insurance that whoever voiced them would know how to do it and do it properly. All fears were put to rest once Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill (Joker) were signed on for the project. These were the voice actors who played these same roles on the much loved Batman Animated Series. Even Arleen Sorkin was hired to also do her role as Harley Quinn again.
This said; the voice acting in Batman Arkham Asylum easily takes the top rank as the best feature about this game; I seriously never got tired of hearing Joker say his nuances throughout the course of the game. Harley also does an amazing job in her role throughout and should not be down played in any way. The soundtrack to the game fits perfectly with the dark ambient setting and extreme detail has been given to the smallest things such as flickering light bulbs that set the mood incredibly to match the acting.
The whole story takes place in the famous Arkham Asylum and this is where inmates were used as guinea pigs for experiments (though some doctors will argue it was treatment) and many of the secret taped recordings you find throughout give much back-story to even the buildings? area itself.
The story starts off with Batman bringing the Joker in cuffs to Arkham as he was just caught; although all too easily. Batman delivers The Joker to the staff and just when the timing is right and Batman is not near, The Joker breaks free from his shackles and essentially starts a riot by releasing all the inmates from their cells.
Chaos ensues and Batman is left to chase down Joker by himself throughout the huge maze that is the Asylum. It turns out that Joker wanted to be captured and has been planning this trap for months and Batman just sprung it upon himself. It?s an extremely elaborate plan that always keeps the Dark Knight two steps behind Joker as he tries to track him down. As you progress the story becomes much more in-depth and fleshed out when you find Joker?s reasoning, but I?ll leave the spoilers elsewhere as I really did enjoy the tale as a whole.
The story is a completely new and original and was actually written by Paul Dini who is famous for writing the stories for the Batman the Animated Series itself. Because the medium of Arkham Asylum is a video game and not a Saturday morning cartoon, the direction has been taken to a much darker place and a grittier Batman story and cast. While some of the cast from the Animated Series have reprised their roles, this is a very mature themed Batman that follows much more closely to the darker themed graphic novels.
As mentioned before, this game is an action-stealth genre with action being the emphasis. Batman will be using his fists to defeat foes the majority of the time and because this is how most of the combat is done, Rocksteady took notice of how important it is to have controls that are easy enough to pick up but something still challenging to master.
Combat is uncomplicated with ?X? being your attack, ?Y? being counter, and ?B? is Batman?s cape stun move. As you string together attacks, your combo meter fills and if you keep it going you earn a bigger experience bonus which will eventually net you upgrades in your choosing from new attacks, new gadgets and health upgrades.
While you can get away with button mashing, it?s much more rewarding to get the perfect timing and string together your combos with attacks and counters. You feel very powerful when you take down a group of henchmen surrounding you and truly do feel like Batman.
As you progress through the institution, you will happen upon small groups of enemies usually 4 to 8 at a time. As you defeat them, you traverse forward until you meet the next group and finish them off before repeating the process over again. It does feel a little mundane and basic at times, but the pacing between combat, platforming, puzzle solving, and stealth is blended in very well that will make the hours fly by; as you keep wanting to get to the next area.
One reason that many people can relate to Batman is that he has no super powers, he is simply a normal human being that has made himself extremely disciplined and always at the peak of his abilities. Because he has no super powers, Batman relies on his gadgets and detective work and Arkham Asylum gives players many of the Dark Knight?s gadgetry to use on his quest to stop Joker from destroying Gotham.
Batman?s skills usually get overlooked when it comes to his detective abilities and these skills come into play for much of the tale. Sometimes you?ll scan an area for clues of where to go next, or following the trail of someone?s fingerprints.
The other part of the game is the stealth and detective work that is used from Batman?s gadgets. As the game begins you only have access to your simple Batarang and your Zipline to grapple onto higher ledges. As you progress you will come across more of Batman?s tools to make hunting Joker much easier.
As you Zipline up to higher areas (usually gargoyles) along the wall, enemies will not be able to see you unless they watched you zip to it. This is where much of the stealth gameplay comes in, as you can do an inverted takedown should someone walk underneath you and hang them upside down to take them out. One issue I had with Ziplining was that when you are caught and have enemies shooting at you, getting away was simply too easy; as you swing from one gargoyle to the next, it only took 2 or 3 swings for them to completely lose track of me which felt a little too unrealistic.
When sneaking up behind someone and doing a stealth takedown just won?t work, this is where the Gadgets come into play. The first is your Batarang, but eventually you can unlock a Multi-Batarang which will eventually let you lock onto 3 targets at once and knock them all down so you can swoop in and finish them off. You?ll also eventually have a remote control Batarang at your disposal that can be moved anywhere you want in a first person view once thrown; this makes hitting those far away enemies very simple when you can?t normally lock on.
Explosive Gel is another gadget you will be using for a good portion of the later half that is able to be sprayed onto any surface and then remotely detonated. If this is sprayed on a weak or cracked wall, it will completely blow a hole through it. Setting traps with Gel is always good fun as you can lure in inmates into your trap and then watch them fly in the explosion.
The Caped Crusader?s Batclaw will allow him to hook onto gates and yank it down so that he can then Zipline up with ease. Eventually this will be upgraded into the Ultra Batclaw and it will shoot 3 hooks and also be able to bring down structurally-weak walls as well. Using this on a group of enemies is also fun to yank them off ledges or bring them closer to you for a quick pounding.
The last major Gadget you?ll receive is the Line Launcher and this allows Batman to cross very distant (but horizontal) areas. As you slide across, you?ll also kick anyone in your way and it?s the fastest way to cover a long distance if useable in that area.
Easily though, the most useful tool Batman has in his repertoire is his Detective Mode; this is an X-ray mode that allows Batman to see almost like night vision, but will give much more info any anything he is looking at. Enemy locations can be seen through walls along with their heart rate and if they are carrying any weapons so that you can plan your attack ahead of time. Secrets like grates that can be pulled off or walls that can be blasted stand out in the blue-ish tint to make it much easier to sometimes figure out where you need to go next.
The only issue I had with Detective Mode is that unfortunately, there is simply no real reason you would ever want to turn it off. Having it off will make things much more difficult and you will miss a huge portion of the secrets without it; which is a shame because the environment and art is so wonderfully done that it?s never really admired do to always having your X-ray vision on.
Joker isn?t going to make things easy for you to capture him, so of course he has an almost unlimited amount of henchmen to stand in the way of Batman and his downfall. The majority of the enemies you fight will be your standard thugs that will fight you unarmed or sometimes with a pipe. These aren?t even really a threat even when you are outnumbered 10 to 1. When the enemies have knives or tasers, this is where combat has to be a little more precise.
When an enemy is about to attack you, you can see a little icon above their head to show that you should press the counter button to nullify their attack; if it?s blue it means it is just an unarmed thug that will give you no trouble. Now if that icon is red, that means they have a weapon and you can potentially hurt yourself with a normal attack; for these guys you need to either stun them with your cape before attacking or dodge and attack them from behind.
I don?t expect your low level thugs to have the smartest strategies, but sometimes the AI doesn?t even pick up on me doing a Silent Takedown to his buddy 5 feet away and somehow he doesn?t notice. This goes back to where I said about enemies losing track of you so easily when you swing away when there is no way they should have lost track of you.
Batman wouldn?t be Batman without a plethora of super villains to constantly combat against either; and Joker has spared no expense and gathering some of Batman?s greatest counterparts to stop him in his tracks.
Most notably you have Harley Quinn who seems to enjoy giving Batman an extremely hard time in everything he does, Bane who is famous for being the one that broke Batman?s back years ago and Killer Croc who will have you in the sewers as he hunts you down.
There are more, such as Scarecrow; which I have to separate from the others simply because the sequences where you interact with him in the game is probably the most interesting and awesome experience I?ve played in quite some time in any game. You also have Poison Ivy who tries taking over the Asylum with her plants and of course last but not least; The Joker who will stop at nothing to kill Batman and take over Gotham City. A couple of the bosses you actually don?t even truly fight, as it?s all about the chase and getting to them, which was a little disappointing in the end.
You may notice that I?ve not mentioned other famous villains of the Bat like Mr. Freeze, The Riddler, Penguin, and Two Face; this is because they aren?t physically in the game, but just because they aren?t included doesn?t mean that they aren?t a part of the story or lore. There is quite a substantial amount of info on some characters that may not appear in the game through audio interview tapes you collect or at least a profile page in your journal.
As you progress through the story, you will come across Riddler challenges that will have you hunting all over Arkham back to front, and since there are 240 to be found, you will be looking for quite some time. Many aren?t even attainable until you have all of your Gadgets and are very well hidden (think of these as the Pigeons in GTA IV). There are also many interview tapes to be found along with quite a few other secrets that will have a completionist wandering around for quite a few extra hours to find it all.
If you?ve completed the campaign or simply want a break from your detective work, there are also 16 Challenge Rooms accessible from the main menu. Half of these are combat based and the others are stealth combat.
With the combat rooms, you are faced off against a few enemies and as you defeat them, a new wave of enemies will appear but they will be more in numbers and usually upped a difficulty (given weapons for example). Your score is based on your combos, time, and preciseness and although none of these were challenging to complete, the challenge lies in getting the high score.
The stealth challenges are slightly different, where every enemy has a gun and if you get spotted, you will not last long indeed. So you must perch up high on the gargoyles and wait for your opportune moment to strike. Scores are based on your efficiency and if you are spotted at all. The later challenges of these are quite difficult as you are not given any gargoyle perches to use (they are there, but will explode when you use them).
Every map has a leader board that can be filtered down to just your friends if you wish. The only improvement I would have made on this system is that I would have loved if I would have been able to download and watch the ghosts of the top players to see exactly how they got their impressive scores and times.
Should you be a huge Batman fan and have the spare cash, there is also a Collector?s Edition available for around $30 to $40 more and comes with a few interesting extras not included with a regular edition. The first being an extra challenge map that is exclusive to the Collector?s Edition. The code for the download of the Crime Alley Challenge Map actually comes on the back of the Batman logo sticker included inside. I actually had to look online how to access the extra map as it never occurred to me to look on the back of the sticker when I was unpacking everything. The challenge map itself is actually nothing special other than being set in an alley. There are no special occurrences or enemies or anything that really sets this apart which was quite disappointing.
There is a second disc that comes in the game case that is your standard making-of behind the scenes of the game. It does have some interesting info and footage, but there really wasn?t too much outside of what I expected and I wish there was more real behind the scenes stuff like the voicing over sessions or game design. It was broken into 5 different segments and was entertaining to watch and get some background info on a lot of the art and sound design though.
Also inside you?ll find an embossed leather bound book that is supposed to be an Arkham doctor?s journal. In reality it is just a mini book with patient profiles and such wrapped with a leather cover; and while the leather exterior is very elegant, the book itself really didn?t have much extra info that you couldn?t find in-game.
The main reason someone would buy the Collector?s Edition though would be the inclusion of a replica Batarang that is the same model as the one used in-game. Everything in the box comes in a 14? long Batarang shaped hard case and has a very sleek look to it. The Batarang itself is 14? long and comes attached to a stand for display in your collection. The issue myself and others have with this is that the Batarang itself is made of a hard plastic and unfortunately not metal as it was led to be believed before launch. The other issue is that the stand is hard glued into the Batarang itself so there is no playing with it as one would have hoped.
Due to the disappointment with the extras included in the Collector?s Edition, unless you are a die hard Batman fan, I don?t really see much of a value for the extra money unfortunately unless you absolutely want a showpiece in your collection. It?s a shame as I was very excited for this Collector?s Edition but was mostly met with disappointment all around; just keep in mind I?m only referring to the items, not the game itself.
I can?t give enough praise to the top notch quality to the voice acting from the entire main cast and the gritty soundtrack that fits the Arkham Asylum theme absolutely perfectly. Sound usually gets overlooked in many reviews but it stood out that much for me that it needed to be mentioned; the acting doesn?t get any better. The only real flaw I?ve seen even related to the sound was some lip-synching was off for some of the minor characters, but the entire major cast seemed perfect. From the beginning sequence of Batman bringing in Joker, you will get a feeling of how perfect the roles are played, and pay attention to the quality of the soundtrack throughout.
There is much to do with Arkham Asylum considering there is no multiplayer aspect; playing through the story multiple times on varying difficulties, searching for all the collectables which will take a considerable amount of time, or doing the Challenge Maps for a change of pace and beating the top scores. Regardless of what you spend the most of your time doing, you?ll truly feel like Batman while doing it.
So much detail has been given to the game; graphically, sound, and even how Batman?s cape flows and becomes mangled throughout the engaging story that will take roughly around 10 hours or so to complete the first time. It should say a lot when I didn?t even notice my first session with the game was around 8 hours before noticing the time, it?s simply that engaging with great pacing.
Fans can rejoice and take solace that this adventure is a solo affair for Batman, which means no Robin to be found. Who knows though, there is a menu option though for DLC. Batman Arkham Asylum does the exact job it?s supposed to do; put you in the shoes of Batman and make you feel like the Dark Knight. Rocksteady does this absolutely in every way and Batman fans should be ecstatic that there finally is a game that does the Caped Crusader justice.
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Trials HD
If you?ve played many different Flash based games in the past, you?ve most likely played a Trials game before or something very similar. Trials HD is a sidescrolling motorcycle race game that is physics based and is broken up between racing and unique insane stunt segments.The games controls are as simple as they get; Right Trigger is your gas, Left Trigger is the brake. You are able to lean forward and backwards to help on slopes by using the left stick and if you need to bail out for fun or an objective, pressing Y will fling you off your bike. You will fail many many times in Trial HD and will a simple press of B you can reset back to the last checkpoint you crossed to quickly try again.
For some reason, a few cast members from the Jackass show (Unfortunately not Knoxville or Steve-O though) are the people who do the voice over in the game. Granted you don?t hear very much and when you do it?s the odd scream or ?yahoo?, so why famous people were chosen for this role I?m very unsure of because I would not have known myself if I didn?t look it up.
Race mode is half of the emphasis of the game and is more based on skill and careful control as you try to get from start to finish with the least amount of faults as possible. Your score is based on your total time and the amount of faults you incurred during that level.
Each track as a target time and maximum faults before you are forced to restart from the beginning. If you do well on a track you are given bronze, silver, or gold medals based on your performance.
There are 5 different bikes that can be used in races once unlocked and range from slower but easier to control beginner bikes all the way up to the fast and powerful advanced bikes that are much harder to control.
There are over 50 races and they are separated by difficulty levels; Beginner, easy, medium, hard, and extreme. The number of races in each bracket will also vary and scale depending on the difficulty. Medium for example has 11 tracks where Extreme only has 4.
As you progress, you will also unlock up to 8 different Tournaments which is essentially just a series of different tracks played in a row where your score is based on the start of track one to the end of the final. Its fun to see how quickly you can do a certain amount of tracks in a row, but the real challenge is balancing that with how few faults you can incur while doing so.
As you race a track you will see a small meter at the top of the screen and this will show a comparison of you against people on your friends list and how close you are to each other as an icon instead of an actual ghost.
The other main section of Trails HD is the skill games. Should you bore of the racing or just want to try something substantially different, then this is the half of the game that anyone can enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
If you grew up in the 80?s, you may remember an old toy line called Madballs. These were essentially rubber bouncy balls the size of your hand, but in typical marketing fashion, they were changed to have faces and gross eyeballs and other things on them to make them like characters and collectables. There was even eventually a Saturday morning cartoon based on these characters.While the game Madballs in Babo: Invasion (MIBI) does have the licensed name in it, it can be somewhat misleading, as there really is only 2 of the original characters from the toy line that are playable; Oculus Orbus the eyeball and Hornhead. Playbrains studio now brings an interesting new XBLA title that is a combat orientated 3rd person platforming shooter and puzzle solver.
There are 2 factions in the Babo universe; the first being the Babo and the others being the evil Scorched. Each faction has 6 playable and unlockable characters and each character has their own special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Gameplay is a mix of platforming while rolling your ball throughout the level and traversing tricky areas, and another side of combat as many enemies will be doing what they can to stop you. It very much felt to me like a mix of Marble Madness and Smash TV.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
Have you ever played the previous Guitar Heroes (before World Tour) and wonder how awesome it would be to be able to play bass, drums, or even sing to those great songs long forgotten? This is what Guitar Hero: Smash Hits tries to remedy; it brings you back 48 of those classic songs from the previous Guitar Hero games but with improvements. So what would it take to convince people to re-buy songs they might already have in older versions of the game? Well, Activision has thought of a way (or at least is attempting to) which is very simple. If you own Guitar Hero: World Tour (the bundle) then you also own the new guitar, the drum set and a microphone for the whole band experience.
Smash Hits brings back the top favorites from the previous games and now adds full band gameplay. Ever wanted to try drumming to Through the Fire and Flames to see how it compares to the guitar difficulty? How about play some awesome bass on Queens of the Stone Age? This is all possible now and you can play any instrument or sing to some classic Guitar Hero songs.
This isn?t the biggest improvement to the selected songs though; if you remember playing the first few Guitar Hero titles, you?ll also remember how terrible some of the cover songs were due to not being able to secure the licensing for the real song track. Every song on Smash Hits is now a master track (other than 2 songs which are live versions) and that alone is worth it If there?s a song you absolutely loved in the previous games but couldn?t bring yourself to playing them due to the horrendous cover version.
Song selection and tastes are going to be a completely personal preference, so rather than list off every song, I?m going to elaborate more on the game itself and its changes (or lack there of) from the other Guitar Hero games and not rate it on the song choices.
I?ve you?ve not played World Tour and don?t know what was new with it, then I suggest reading my review on it so that you understand the new mechanics (how bass has a 6th note) and instruments work (new drum set and slider bar for guitar specifically) as I?m going to focus on the gameplay changes itself instead.
Obviously the biggest change is that the old songs can now be played with drums, microphone, or bass in addition to the standard lead guitar. This might not sound like a huge deal, but there?s simply nothing like playing Free Bird with 4 players; it?s simply magical.
Another huge change is that the slider bar parts in the lead guitar sections are now thrown into some songs as well; the biggest notice you?ll see of this is the whole Through the Fire and Flames intro on expert can simply be tapped making it incredibly much simpler to accomplish. Also, the whole intro (first half of the song) of Free Bird can be completely tapped instead of strumming a single note. It?s an interesting change I really wasn?t expecting and it certainly makes some songs a much easier feat to complete.
On the flip side though, is that many of the songs have arbitrarily been upped in difficulty due to the slider and tapping use. While this might not sound like a huge deal if you are a veteran player, it completely threw me off my game because I knew the older note chart and what to expect. Certain songs will feel like you need to completely relearn them (Free Bird is much more difficult this time around). When you?ve mastered something and come back and are unable to do it because of a whole new note set, it can be misleading and cautious of what you may be able to finish easily.
Playing drums for a lot of the songs felt very gratifying and many were quite a challenge, so there is something here for everyone even if you don?t play lead guitar. The same goes for playing bass, as having the 6th bass note thrown in is quite fun (especially on No One Knows) and does add some freshness to the songs you?ve long mastered.
While there are no Metallica songs due to their game recently just coming out, they did take one of the best features from the game; all songs are unlocked in quick play from the very start. No more having to play hours of career mode just to unlock that one song you bought it for. While this is great if you don?t care about career mode, the downfall of the career mode was also included; and you do not build towards having a huge fan base following or anything, it?s straight up song unlock progyer is essentially the exact same thing as well with your Face-off modes, Band play, and Battle of the Bands. There is nothing new here, as you still gain money for completing songs and the same frustrations are in tact as well, like one person failing means the whole band fails.
Even some achievements are exactly the same such as making your rocker, designing an instrument and others. It?s clear that this is basically a skin-job with some new tracks, as there is nothing new here (literally if you count the songs).
With no attempt the change or freshen the gameplay at all (even the menus are the same) the only thing that is going to sell you on Smash Hits is the song selection, and as mentioned before, it will be a personal preference. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is simply a track pack of old songs that you can now use all of your instruments for, so weigh this into your decision when picking this up or not.
There is absolutely no reason this couldn?t have been DLC for World Tour instead of a full priced game because not everyone is going to like every song. If I had the option to pick and choose the 10 I really enjoyed I would have done that instead without hesitation.
The way I would be able to forgive this choice of lack of DLC would be that if I could import Smash Hits into my World Tour and play them from there like how Rock Band did the AC/DC track pack disc. Alas, this is absolutely not possible and it doesn?t even work the other way either, so all those songs you bought for World Tour stays in World Tour. There is no importing or exporting anything related to Smash Hits other than the lackluster user made GH Tune songs. I can not fathom any reason this is not an option to have as DLC or even export to my full World Tour game. It?s extremely frustrating that I?m going to have to put in this disc every time I want to play a specific song or two. It?s a good thing there are some great song selections in this title, but again, that will be completely objective depending on your tastes.
Make sure to remember you will be getting absolutely nothing new game-wise in Smash Hits; you will only be able to replay the classics from Guitar Hero 1, 2, 3, and Aerosmith with all your instruments. Check the complete song list and decide if there are enough songs on it that will warrant you having to put in Smash Hits every time you want to only play those songs as it is the complete epitome of inconvenient.
Suggestions: Make any track packs importable to World Tour, simple as that, especially if it costs full price.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
The original Call of Juarez released in 2007 and was met with decent reviews and had some decent ideas to make it stand out from the crowded FPS genre (other than being a Western, which isn?t done very often). The follow-up; Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is now here and has taken the general premise that made the first in the series decent and simply improves on them while trying a few new things.The greedy fever that is known as Gold Fever is known as the Call of Juarez. Greed, lust, and lawlessness will have the McCall brothers traveling from a Civil War era Georgia all the way to the Aztec ruins in Mexico.
As you start the campaign, you are thrust into the Civil War as Confederate Soldiers that occurred in 1864. You meet the Thomas and Ray, the two McCall brothers, eventually fend off a massive attack on your own then decide to hurry back home defend your home and mother that may be under attack. The problem with this is that your commanding officer brands you as a deserter for leaving the cause of your country.
As you arrive home, you find your mother on her death bed and are introduced to your other brother who is a preacher of God. As you are being hunted down, you must leave your home and vow to come back one day, rebuild the house and live here again one day.
I don?t want to give too much away about the plotline, as I found it decently compelling and engrossing me the whole way through, but you?ll meet a woman that comes between the brothers that will really test their brotherly bond. You?ll also be in the search for the fabled cursed treasure buried somewhere in the hills in Mexico that was buried many years ago from Conquistadors. Although the main plot was generally predictable for the most part other than a small twist at the end, it was still strong enough to keep me going to want to find out more.
At the beginning of most levels you are given a choice of which McCall brother you?d like to play as. I?ll get into the gameplay differences between Thomas and Ray later on, but on the screen you?ll always see a cowboy hat icon that relates to where your brother is at all times. This is because you never really want to split up from your brother if it can be helped, and surprisingly your brother?s AI was actually decent and wasn?t just there for looks; he was taking down guys before me or covering me while reloading. It actually felt as if my brother had my back during the game and could hold his own for the most part.
A feature in the original Call of Juarez had a shootout mode that would have you shooting enemies in a slow motion mode with both guns out moving slowly towards the middle until it ends. The same premise is here this time, but both brothers will knock down certain doors and while you will still shoot enemies in slow motion, it?s been improved and just feels better overall and not as awkward. It can be very tricky the first few times since you have to aim both guns simultaneously, but eventually you get the hang of it and can take down almost a dozen guys in one go.
While I found the level designs very well done and gives an authentic Western feel, sadly the level progressions themselves were very liner and repetitive. You run to your objective area, clear all the bad guys, music chances so that you know you are done clearing this ?area? and you run up to the next spot and repeat. Not all levels and completely this way, but it?s a very stop and go affair.
The whole game isn?t this way though; there is some horse back riding, shooting turrets from moving stagecoaches, and even covering your brother paddling a canoe down a river that breaks up the normal monotony. There are even a few places between certain levels that allow you to take side quests for more bounty money. While they do add some more gameplay time to the overall experience, it felt out of place in a way and was generally a ?kill this person for $$$ reward?.
Dueling in the first Juarez felt very finicky for lack of a better term; it is vastly improved with Bound in Blood and even looks cool to do. A third person side angle view shows the side of your body and when the enemy walks left or right, you have to counter that walk to try and keep him in the middle of the screen and your sights. Fail to do this and they will be off centered and out of focus. The right stick controls your whole arm, not just your hand, so you want to keep moving it to stay close to your gun so that as soon as that bell rings, you can instantly grab your piece and shoot him down. If you make a mistake and grab your gun too early, you?ll get a stern ?no no no? finger wag and your arm will slowly ?reset?, so you have to make sure to be ready, but not too ready.
When you hear the town bell ring (which doesn?t make sense in some of these duels, since there is no bell nearby; especially the final duel) you reach for your gun and as soon as the aimer lines up with your enemy you have to quickly use the trigger and lay them to waste. These duels are essentially the ?boss fights? and while they do look cool, it does feel somewhat underwhelming overall as I never really got that huge climax you get with other games when you finish a large or difficult boss. Every ?boss? felt and wasn?t that much harder than the last, I even finished the last guy on my first try.
As mentioned before, you are given the choice for most levels of which brother you?d like to control. First up is the younger brother Thomas who has more agility and is more suited for long range shotting with a bow or rifle.
Thomas also has a rope that can be used to climb preset areas (though anywhere would have felt slightly more dynamic, being able to get on top of buildings and snipe) and climb smaller obsticles to help your brother up (but again, only in preset areas). The rope this time has been vastly improved over the originals game. With rope in hand you?ll see a small red marker of where the rope can attach, once you ready your lasso, you have to make circles with the right stick as if you are actually lassoing and going to throw it. It?s an interesting touch and more involving than simply pressing the trigger itself.
Thomas is also the weaker of the two brothers, which is why he likes to stay further away and shoot from afar. Only he can use a traditional bow and arrow and throwing knives. I honestly didn?t even bother to use these that often until half way through the game when I saw their real potential and potency. You may think that the bow and arrow has nothing on your rifle, but Thomas is a master at it and it?s just as lethal.
Once you rack up enough kills, both brothers are able to use their concentration mode skill for a short while that will easily kill any enemy in the nearby area. As you activate concentration mode, with Thomas you have to hold down the trigger then press down on the right stick rapidly as if you were pulling back the firing pin like in the movies. It does do the auto aiming for you in this mode and it does feel more involving rather than just pressing the trigger as you normally would.
There were only two issues I had with the concentration mode though; the first being the icon that shows you how ?full? or ready you are to use it. It?s the big icon at the top right of the screen that looks like the barrel for your bullets and it slowly fills up with each kill you get. For the first while I had this confused thinking it was my ammo meter or something else.
The second issue that I found frustrating was that once your concentration mode is full, you have 60 seconds to use it. You can?t bank it and save it for a tough area littered with enemies; and if you don?t end up using it in that allotted time, the meter empties and you have to start filling it again. There were quite a few spots I wished I had it at my disposal but on the bright side, when you activate it, it automatically switches to the proper gun for you and you kill anyone in the vicinity very quickly.
Ray McCall is the other brother and he may look familiar if you played the first Juarez title. This is because it is the same one and only Reverend Ray that was chasing down Billy and spouting gospel with his bible. In Bound in Blood though this tells Ray?s back story of how he became to be a man of the bible. Throughout the game he is a no nonsense bad ass that will do anything to get the woman he loves and find the treasure to rebuild his home.
Ray is much tougher than his brother, can take more damage, and even wears a metal breastplate to protect himself since he likes to get much more up close and personal with the bad guys. He is strong enough to kick down certain doors and move heavier objects that Thomas is unable to.
Ray?s uniqeness for weapons are that he is able to use dynamite (which is essentially grenades) and can use two revolvers at one time; although you are unable to look down your sights and aim more accurately this way)
Ray?s concentration mode fills up the same way as Thomas and is the same premise but the execution is played drastically different. Once you activate it, you mode your cursers around the screen to mark any enemies you want to shoot and where. Once the concentration meter ends or is stopped by the player, you automatically shoot anyone that was marked in an extremely quick shootout. It?s not as fun as Thomas? way, but it?s still entertaining to see half a dozen enemies fall to the floor all at once.
Multiplayer in Bound in Blood feels like it may actually have a shot at being quite decent, as it?s obvious that a lot of effort was taken to make it unique like the genre and not just be the same thing we?ve seen a thousand times.
You have 6 modes up to 12 players; but two really stood out for me. Shootout is essentially deathmatch but with a very interesting twist. You gain a wanted bounty for the more kills and streaks you get and winning isn?t really about your kills (so no more first to X kills), it?s all about the bounty you get from killing people. Kill someone with a huge wanted price and you can win it in the very end even if you haven?t had many kills over the course of the match. Kill more people and your bounty grows which will in turn have more people will be gunning for the price on your head.
Wild West Legends mode has two teams split into essentially the lawmen and the bandits. Its objective based such as the bandits having to break into a bank by blowing the doors with dynamite then getting away with horses. You only have a few minutes to do an objective, but if you manage to complete it, the timer resets for the next objective. It?s not always the bandits having to do things, sometimes the good guys have to blow up weapon caches from the baddies. At the end of the match, sides switch and it?s actually quite entertaining and can see it being quite enjoyable with a solid team with some strategy involved.
The other noteworthy feature about multiplayer is that it is class based. You can choose between 5 classes from the get go and the other 8 are unlocked and bought with game earnings for a total of 13 different classes with different mixtures of guns. Since you cant pickup other peoples weapons you are stuck with what weapons you are given for the class, but are able to switch classes at any time in a round (without a respawn timer penalty of course) which is great if your team absolutely needs a sniper or a certain class at any given point.
The voice acting from all the main characters is superb and the Thomas and Ray characters really made me feel like I was playing out their story. The voice actors did an excellent job of playing of each other and it truly did feel like they had that friendly sibling rivalry going on the whole time. While the voicing was great, the repetitive one liners were not. Sure it sounded great hearing Thomas call Ray an a-hole, but not for the thirtieth time.
Everything visually looked on par overall. Thomas, Ray, other main characters and anything story related looked great, everything else seemed to have very low textures and really stood out against the better looking foreshadow of the brothers. While galloping very fast on your horse, there wasn?t much flourish pop-in and the draw distance did seem vast considering how fast you can actually ride. Main characters looked and animated very well which just felt odd beside the other characters that didn?t look nearly half as good and moved clunkier.
Hidden throughout the levels are secrets to pickup that unlock artwork and such, but it was mostly still frames and generally underwhelming enough to not make me even care to find the rest of them. Achievements are given out decently, with many also carrying over to online objectives. There is a tracker on the main screen menu of what achievements you have and are working on and the progress towards them. Why this wasn?t something viewable during the pause menu I don?t really understand though. The most unique achievement I enjoyed was the one that you needed to kill someone at high noon in real time (between 12:00pm and 12:15pm); it?s a courteous nod to the genre and setting.
With only a 5 hour play through on easy, I had absolutely no problems at all (hence the easy I suppose) other than one infinitely respawning area (and the only) near the end of the game. I would definitely suggest playing on medium or higher to start and also to do the side quests to add a few more hours to your campaign. It goes without saying that this game deserves to be played twice so you can see both sides of the story from each brother but surprisingly enough you would think that this was made to have 2 player co-op campaign, yet it is absent for some reason.
I honestly had this title under my radar but by the end of it all, I did quite enjoy its entertainment value; and finding a decent Western game is no real easy task with so few being released these days. I do hope the multiplayer catches on and that Ubisoft decides to push this title with some marketing dollars as it has value in its single player experience and longevity in its multiplayer. Bound in Blood actually took me by surprise and if you enjoy the classic westerns, you too should answer to the Call of Juarez.
Suggestions: This would have been even more engrossing if it was 2 player co-op and I don't get why this isn't an option to be honest.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Ghostbusters
If there?s something strange, in your neighborhood, Who you gunna call? Ghostbusters! Upon hearing that there was going to be a new Ghostbusters game I was excited that it had potential to be a substantial hit for those that grew up with it, but also was nervous because if Terminal Reality (the development company) couldn?t deliver to the fans standards, there would be many people disappointed; and people don?t take their childhood nostalgia being ruined very lightly.Knowing the track record of movie licensed games, I really set the bar low with expectations. I wanted something fun to play, something that made me laugh and smile as much as the original movies did, and to see the real Ghostbusters in action again. Thankfully all of these points were delivered on.
Being a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters as a kid myself, I was completely ecstatic once all the original characters would be voiced by their actual counterparts was announced. Bill Murray is back as Dr. Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Saymond Stantz, Harold Ramis as Dr. Egon Spengler (my personal favourite), and even Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore. Even the receptionist Janine Melnitz is voiced by Annie Pots herself. Having the real voices played an absolute huge part in making this game as authentic as could be. Ghostbusters the Video Game is essentially Ghostbusters 3, just in game form.
There are even many more hidden Easter Eggs and nods to the series. The most notable for me would be seeing the ending of the original NES Ghostbusters game on one of Egon?s lab computers. Small things like this among others really show that many small touches have been taken to please the fans as a whole.
The story takes place 2 years after the second movie and now the Ghostbusters are doing well and you now need to save the city from the newest paranormal plague. You play the new recruit; literally, as you never speak a line of dialogue and your real name is never revealed either. The reason for this is because as ?The Rookie? you are the one testing out Egon?s new inventions and additions to the Proton Pack (you?re officially the Experimental Equipment Technician) , so the Ghostbusters don?t want to get attached to you since something is bound to go wrong and you will be no more. While it may seem like a shady move storyline-wise, it tends to work out well since you do eventually feel like an absolutely genuine Ghostbuster.
The story does a great job by bringing your team back to classic Ghostbuster areas like the Headquarters Firehouse and also fighting against classics like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and even the Librarian from the first scene in the original movie. There is a side love interest story that involves Venkman and new character Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn (voiced by Alyssa Milano) but it felt completely rushed and forced and didn?t seem natural at all between the two.
First thing you may notice once you start playing is the lack of any HUD or much clutter on the screen. This was done on purpose and all the basic information you need actually built onto the Proton Pack status meter of your equipment to show how close to overheating your weapon is. When you switch between different beams on your pack, the look will slightly change so that you can see which weapon you are using without having to fire. At first I found having to search for your health bar and status meter was slightly annoying since it is small on the pack itself, but once you learn that the edges of the screen go blurry and red when you become more injured, there was no real need to look at the meter on the pack. Seeing these meters on a small standard definition TV might be quite a challenge though.
The iconic Proton Pack is the main equipment used by all Ghostbusters to weaken and capture ghosts. In the beginning you only have your standard Blast Stream (primary fire) and a Boson Dart (shotgun like secondary fire). As you progress through the game and earn money by busting ghosts, you can eventually purchase Proton Pack upgrades for new types of beams and even improve your PKE meter and capture trap.
Once unlocked, you will gain access to new types of beams to be used in different situations depending on what types of ghosts need to be busted. By pressing Left of the D-Pad you gain a Shock Blast (primary fire) that is like a shotgun and excellent for short range and weaker enemies, and also a Stasis Stream (secondary fire) that essentially will freeze a ghost for a short time.
Down on the D-Pad will let you use a Slime Blower (primary fire) will allow you to clear away dreaded toxic black slime and an interesting Slime Tether (secondary fire). The Slime Tether attaches two any two points and will contract and pull on whatever is on the two ends. Some awesome uses for the Tether is attaching one end to a car or something heavy and the other end to a roof or wall and seeing it move it with ease. There is even an achievement for Tethering one of to a ghost and the other to your trap, essentially sucking it directly in.
Later in the game you will also be able to press Right on the D-Pad and gain access to your Meson Collider (primary) and Overload Pulse (secondary). What?s interesting about this gun is that your Meson shot will basically mark a target or ghost with a homing-like signal and holding down your secondary fire will have all your shots automatically home in on whatever target has been marked with your primary fire. It?s very useful for those quickly moving ghosts or the ones that just seem to always get away from you.
While having all these choices of different weapons is interesting, I still found myself using the trusty Blast Stream to get the job done most of the time. Through the latter half of the game, you will be forced to use the Slime Blower to clear paths away and close emergence holes, but using the other beams are purely optional.
Not all ghosts can be seen regularly, and this is when the Ghostbusters will use their Psycho-Kinetic-Energy meter (PKE meter) along with Ecto-Goggles to see sometimes invisible ghosts and also residue left by them not always seeable with the human eye. The device is mostly noted for its winged ears that raise and lower much like a hot and cold meter to track down ghosts. In the game when using your PKE meter, you are put into a first person view (the whole game is played in a third person view behind the back) and have to follow the hints your PKE meter shows you.
The meter will flash different colors depending on what is nearby. Red signals for ghosts in hiding, Green for environmental phenomena, and Blue when you are nearby a Cursed Artifact. These artifacts are basically the games secret findings and unlock bonus content and extra cash for upgrades to your Proton Pack.
Once the ghosts are found and weakened enough to be captured, it is a Ghostbuster?s job to get them contained as quickly as possible. This is done by throwing out your ghost trap with the ?X? button and a small beam of light will be shown coming out so that you are aware where your trap is when you are wrangling a resistant ghost.
Once a ghost is weakened enough to be captured, you must then wrangle it into your trap. If a ghost is trying to get away by flying to the right, you must try to pull it to the left to move it where you want it; with some ghosts obviously not being as cooperative as others. Pressing the Left Trigger will literally slam the ghost against a wall or the ground to try and stun them so you can maneuver them into your trap. Once you become good enough at capturing the ghosts, you can actually ?Slam Dunk? them directly into the trap without having to wrestle against them very much.
When you are done saving the city in the campaign, you can hop online and play as any of the Ghostbusters (even the Rookie) and play in a few different interesting modes. First off, the online menu system is very basic and its very sluggish at trying to find an appropriate game, and even when you do find a game, it may not connect since it may already be in progress (so why is it showing on the list).
Once you are in a game lobby, you choose what weapon you want to be your primary weapon specialization, regardless if you?ve bought and unlocked all the others in campaign. You do feel somewhat locked down into your weapon (almost everyone uses the standard Beam anyways) but there are powerups in the levels that grant you limited ammo of the other beams.
There are essentially 6 different modes (referred to as jobs) that offer some gameplay that differs greatly from the standard story play. Firstly you have Survival which is exactly what it is named. Almost like Gears of Wars 2 Horde mode, you are faced with waves of ghosts that become more and more challenging as you try and survive 10 waves. Should you all become knocked out and not revived within a certain time and you lose.
Containment has you simply catching as many ghosts as you can within the allotted time limit. You can run off away from your team to try and capture more on your own for more money, or do you help your team to capture more ghosts overall.
The Protection job has you defending PKE Disruptors as they are being automatically built. When a ghost attacks one of these, it reverses the building process and makes you have to defend it for even longer.
Thief mode has you defending 4 relic artifacts that any ghosts will be trying to steal away from you. You need to defend them and the waves of attacking ghouls will constantly be pushing towards you. There is a time limit and as long as you save one artifact and ride out the time, you will succeed.
Destruction has you destroying cursed artifacts as well as the ghosts nearby that are spawned by these relics. You have a time limit and need to destroy as many as you can within that limit.
The mode I had the most fun with online though is the unique Slime Dunk mode. Waves of Slimer ghosts come through and players need to Slam Dunk them into their trap. Whoever got the Dunk gets the cash, so it?s a competitive mode that allows for a lot of fun. You can try and wrangle someone else?s ghost into your trap or even try to sneakily throw your trap right beside another player?s and hopefully get it in your trap instead of theirs. There is an interesting feature though that is completely random and I?ve only come across a few times so far, but is an interesting feature none the less. Sometimes on harder difficulty waves you may come across a ghost that looks similar but has an orange glow to them; this means they are a special Agro Ghost that will do some sneaky tricks like duplicating themselves, leaving pools of deadly black slime, or even sabotage your traps.
If you have a good Ghostbusting team, you may even see a rarer Most Wanted Ghost randomly. These special ghosts are almost like mini bosses that are more difficult to take down and will net you more cash in the end and check off their portrait in the corresponding screen of these special ghosts. It?s an interesting feature that keeps the monotony down and can keep you on your toes since you never really know what to expect every time you play online.
While in the menus it does say there is an online co-op campaign, this is some very tricky wording, as it actually has nothing to do with the single player game at all; it?s just different online job types stringed together without any actual story in between them. It was very misleading and very disappointing. There is no reason to not have 4 player co-op with the actual campaign.
There is an online ranking system, but there?s no real way to see what level or rank you are other than the online career dollar amount that you gain from winning matches. It would have been awesome to create an online persona with unique tags and icons, but this online system (modes aside) is very basic and bland. It does add longevity of the title once you are finished saving the city on all the difficulty levels, but I really found myself not caring after awhile without the ?true? online rankings to show of or work towards.
Obviously it?s impossible to not review this game with some nostalgia heading some of my bias love for the Ghostbusters, but I?m trying to be as objective as I can with the title as a whole. As a game, it does become a little repetitive and the sections that split you up and put you all alone are nowhere near as fun as when you are traveling with the whole team, but what the game does do right, does it perfectly, and that is make you feel as if you are one of the actual Ghostusters.
While the game is completely linear without any room to explore at all, the constant one liners and perfect voice acting will have you forgetting about it and simply enjoying your 6-8 hour play through on the normal setting. While it was a very short and completely doable in one sitting especially once you figure the few puzzle segments, it?s a completely enjoyable ride back to your childhood memories.
Another issue I had that stood out was the autosave system. While it does work, you don?t really know when. When you finish a major objective or basically get a cutscene you know it saves, but there?s no icon to show that it?s saving, so you better hope you have the time to finish a complete level just in case. The only other issue I was let down was that you don?t get to drive the Ecto-1 once; they even tease you to drive it, but alas, sadly nothing.
While the completely CG cutscenes looked brilliant and the animation was fantastic, the ingame ones just didn?t have the same quality to them and especially with the off-sync lips to go with the voicing. Also, for having one of the most catchy and recognizable theme songs ever, you rarely get to hear it other than when you die and have to wait for the level to reload (these reload times are unusually long, as in Mass Effect long)
While the game itself may have its own shortcoming, its charm and nostalgia will more than make up for it. This game is an excellent example of what a movie licensed title should be and it shows with how much detail was given to please the true fans.
With a great story (albeit short) and the actual cast voicing their original characters, even if you are somewhat of a Ghostbusters fan, this game deserves to be beside your Ghostbusters I and II dvds and is big enough service to the fans to please almost anyone. Whatever you do, just remember to never ever cross the streams!
Suggestions: -Please don't label something as campaign unless it truely is that.
-Having an Ecto-1 driving stage would have broken up the monetany a little bit.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Prototype
The best way I could start to begin to describe Prototype is to compare it to some other games, and quite a few come to mind; Spiderman 2, Incredible Hulk, Grand Theft Auto 4, and even Crackdown. Mixing different elements from these titles and combining them with a comic book style feel and very frantic action and buckets of blood seem to be the best way to start getting an idea of what this title is about.You aren?t bound by good and evil moral choices in Prototype, as Alex Mercer, you are going to get to the bottom of what happened to by any means necessary; if that means throwing tanks at choppers, cutting numerous enemies in half, shape shifting to mimic anyone in the city, or even glide across the skyscraper tops, then that?s what needs to be done. Alex has vowed revenge and will do anything to get to the truth of what has happened to him and the city. You don?t play the heroic good guy; you play the guy that will do what it takes to get answers. Simply put, Prototype?s franticly fun gameplay truly makes you feel like your character is insanely powerful and can do almost anything.
You are Alex Mercer and you wake up in the morgue with no memory after being pronounced and assumed dead. As you wake; you learn about a strange virus that is starting to take over New York City and that you now possess some extreme new powers. This on top of not being able to remember anything and you have your main plot line. This is simply the beginning though, as Alex starts to learn more about what?s happened to him and becomes more and more lethal.
As Alex does what he can to restore his memory and find out what has happened to him, you?ll constantly be fighting in a middle of a war between the infected and the military. To regain memories, you need to find people that are involved with what is going on and consume them, sequentially absorbing their memories as well. Piecing together different fragments of memories is done through the Web of Intrigue and this is how you generally find out about the main plot rather than getting a standard cutscene after completing a mission. It?s an interesting take on revealing the plot line, but not having that instant gratification after finishing a very difficult mission can be somewhat of a downer when all you want to do is find out what happened.
The story telling is done in a very cinematic way you might see in the movies. The game starts essentially at the ending with Alex telling someone his story and what has happened. As you get to each story arc you then get to play that memory section from the story, essentially learning everything in order trying to play to the end of the game, where you begin.
Gameplay starts by instantly putting you into the heat of some major action with all your abilities unlocked and with you being a massive powerhouse that can clear anything in your path. The beginning of the game can be a little misleading as once you are done the 10 minute tutorial with all your skills intact, you then begin the actual storyline 18 days previously from the beginning and have none of your upgraded powers or skills.
Traveling around the city is so simple and sometimes fun and rewarding just to glide and jump around the city; much like it was in Crackdown. Upgrading your run speed and jump prowess makes traversing the city even easier. It doesn?t take much effort to get to where you want to go, as holding the Right Trigger will have you jump over walls, hop over cars, and even run up the side of buildings; this along with jumping and gliding makes getting where you need to go simple and enjoyable.
As you defeat enemies, complete missions and evade strike teams, you will earn EP which is evolution points (experience in most other games). These points allow you to purchase upgrades and new powers to help you along your quest to find out what has happened to you.
The amount of powers alone is simply astonishing, as there are many more moves and skills that I thought would ever be possible. The downfall to this is that once you have a huge amount of new skills you can use, the repertoire of moves that you need to memorize can be quite daunting. Eventually you?ll have so many moves that you won?t remember half of them; so you?ll basically be playing with the same way mostly throughout the game, possibly using some of your newer more powerful moves.
When you absorb certain military personnel you will also gain their knowledge of how to drive tanks, fly choppers, or even boost your efficiency with different weapons. While hijacking a vehicle you are left almost completely vulnerable. To get into the vehicle you need to do a small button minigame and while doing this any bullets or rockets can knock you off and deplete your health. Luckily you can easily regain health by consuming anyone nearby, but it still can become a nuisance when you need to get into a certain tank or chopper and simply can?t until you clear all the small marine grunts or mutants out of the way first.
Combat is generally straight forward, as you can lock on to enemies by holding the Left Trigger and it will actually lock you onto the most perceived threat nearby. Flicking the right stick while locked on will change your target and it generally quite easy enough to choose the exact target you want (other than when you are in a massive crowd of infected)
Once locked on you then use basic melee combat with the ?X? and ?Y? buttons and different combinations will do different move sets. This coupled with your every expanding move list opens up many attacks that can be chained together for some very devastating moves that can even clear a whole block of enemies near you.
You won?t be fighting with just your fists though, as you are able to change your arms into a giant blade, huge hammers, sharp claws, and even extending tendrils. Each style of claw has its own move sets with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each type of claw style has its own situations that they are best suited for and switching between them is almost instant.
You even gain defense skills as you progress like shields and armor. The armor boosts your defense drastically but the downside is that you are unable to run up buildings and glide away. Using your arm as a giant shield is a great way to block bullet fire but once it?s broken, you have to wait for it to recharge before using it again.
The sheer amount of skills and upgrades almost goes past overkill, because there are so many skills and moves that you simply won?t remember them all or even how to do them without going back into the menus and looking. It really depends on how you look at it, as having a huge plethora of skills at your disposal is cool, sometimes bigger isn?t always better. Luckily the new move sets do keep the somewhat repetitive missions slightly fresh.
Staying out of combat is also sometimes the smarter choice, as having multiple strike squads called on you along with Hunters chasing you throughout the city can become overwhelming very quickly. This is where Alex?s shape shifting abilities come into play. A person that you consume allows you to become and use their appearance on the outside. So while jumping in from the top of a skyscraper and destroying everything in your path as Alex is an option, sometimes just walking into the military base disguised as a commander is easier and quicker.
While consuming someone in plain site will obviously arouse suspicions, you are able to stealthily do this as well and take their body when no one is looking for quicker access. There?s even a Patsy skill where you can accuse any military soldier as being you in disguise, hopefully setting the military on alert, but for the wrong person.
Getting out of combat is needed to complete missions and doing so can be done in a few different ways. You can try and simply try to bolt over tall buildings and lose your pursuers that way, you can simply destroy anyone following you before more reinforcements are sent in, or the easiest way being; switch to someone else?s body once you are out of sight and they won?t have any idea it?s you.
Even when you have completed the main missions, there are a huge amount of side missions for you to try and complete and earn medals on. These can be races that have you going through checkpoints, gliding objectives, killing as many people with a certain power or vehicle in a set time limit, or even missions that will have you fighting alongside the military to wipe out the infected.
Each mission has a certain goal and you can earn bronze, silver, or gold medals which will in turn net you higher EP rewards. Should you want to just explore around the city, there are hidden orbs all throughout the city for you to find almost identical to Crackdown. Unfortunately you are unable to see these orbs until you are standing directly beside them, so unlike Crackdown, it?s much harder to see them from afar and go on an orb hunting run.
Even when you want some downtime to just play around in the city, you have to always watch your back as the military is always looking for you and the mutants will try tearing you apart without question. If you destroy a military base or an enemy Horde base, it will reduce the threat area in the city and will incapacitate them for a short time and leave you alone for a short while outside of missions.
Where there are many positives to the game, there were a few glaring negatives that need to be addressed. The main issue I felt was a disassociation with Alex as a whole; yes you feel badass and he?s cool cause of his powers, but as a character, I didn?t feel much connection other than the typical ?I?m going to get to the bottom of this? type of revenge.
With the majority of the game being a little repetitive mission wise, it was discerning to finish a long or difficult story arc and get no real answers or even a cutscene. Unfortunately the story itself is generally pretty short if you were able to jump from point A to point B, but it feels very forced to prolong the revealing of the story itself. Instead of a steadily gratifying reveal, you basically need to get to the end for everything to happen almost all at once. Half way through I just wanted to finish the story but was forced to do a lot of errands and missions that felt designed to artificially lengthen gameplay.
As mentioned before, the other issue I had was trying to remember the plethora of moves and skills and how to perform them all; and because your move set is restricted to what your equipped weapon or power is, it just added for another layer of complexity. It all depends on how you look at it, as someone else could say this has massive depth, but again, bigger is not always better. Someone casually playing or picking it up after not playing for awhile will have a hard time remembering and grasping all the moves.
The only other issue I would really nitpick on would be the lack of bosses. You feel massively powerful and throughout the whole story, you only fight a handful of bosses. When you do face a boss, it feels almost forced, though the frantic gameplay of the rest of the whole title will almost make you forget this. Also be ready to die?a whole lot, as some of the missions scaled up in difficulty almost too quick; the checkpoint save system definitely helped not having to retry missions too many times over.
What Prototype does do well is the mobility of Alex and being able to get to where you want quickly and easily with enjoyment. You will also feel like a complete badass as you throw tanks and hijack choppers and these frantic moments make you forget about the repetitive enemies and mundane missions.
The amount of chaos that will be happening on the screen at one time can be quite impressive, and with a solid and constant frame rate when the action reaches an insane level, it is simply satisfying to play. You will feel extremely powerful and once you nail the more complex controls, it is very gratifying that can be enjoyed in a short play session doing side missions and events or a longer one trying to get Alex his revenge on who did this to him. If you enjoyed Spiderman 2 or Crackdown?s gameplay (especially for the free roaming) then Prototype is a must; if you want to simply destroy anything in your path and feel absurdly powerful, then get ready for some of the most frantic and gratifying combat you?ll experience without having to worry about all those moral choices.
Suggestions: - While having 100 different moves is awesome, tryign to remember them is not. A quicker way to remember them other than having to pause and go in the menus would be helpfull.
- Please don't insert trash quests and missions just to artificially lengthen the game, I don't want to become bored having to arbitrarily finish something just to progress the plot when it's not needed.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
UFC Undisputed 2009
When UFC Undisputed was announced I was honestly a little worried that the title wouldn?t live up to my expectations due to the lackluster previous versions of UFC games that have come out in the past. My mind was somewhat put at ease when I found out THQ and Yuke?s (known for the WWE wrestling games) were the ones behind this title. The largest annoyance I had with their previous wrestling games were the terrible collision detection and frequent clipping of objects and bodies. Naturally I didn?t want a UFC game with these issues and luckily neither did the developers apparently; because it shows and is vastly improved. Oddly enough though I seemed to have found almost the opposite; fighters getting hit with punches and kicks that clearly have missed, yet made contact with the hit-box like a ghost punch.
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting is a very brutal yet strategic sport and Undisputed seems to have captured the essence of all aspects of fighting in this title with a roster larger than 80 real fighters currently or former from the UFC.
The majority of all the fighters looks extremely realistic and even moves much like the real person. There were a few exceptions though such as Andrei Arlovski who looks absolutely nothing like his real counterpart. Surprisingly; Dana White also looks pitiful in video game form as well and he?s the first person you see as soon as you start the game. Almost everyone else looked flawless though, even Antonio Nogueira has his signature childhood scar-indentation in his back. These realistic looking fighters along with a constant framerate that never slips or slows down adds to the realistic translation of the sport.
Not only are the fighters a replica of the UFC counterpart, so is everything else even during matches. Bruce Buffer introduces the fighters in the ring and the actual referees will also call the match. The only thing missing from an exact replica prestart of a fight is the fighters walking down to the Octagon. Between rounds you?ll even see the fighters in their corner getting advice from the team along with being patched up from the real ?cut-men? and even see the Octagon Girls.
Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg also do the commentary during matches and are surprisingly very well done and true to life. Mike does most of the play by play calls and Rogan talks a lot about the fighters? history and adds color commentary. They even kept in his every so often commentary mistake that really adds to the realism of the battle. He feed off each other much like on TV and Pay-Per-Views and I was impressed with it more-so than in previous wrestling games.
By default there is absolutely not HUD on the screen to show your fighters health and stamina and while I found it was more interesting to try and get visual cues from your opponent (such as limping or breathing heavy), turning on the stamina bar makes things much easier to figure out when you should go all out or for a submission. Visually I found most of the clues too subtle to figure out when to attempt something big since you are really concentrating on defending against strikes and takedowns.
While it is fun to jump straight into an exhibition mode with a friend and just start to wail on each other?s head for a knockout, you must absolutely do the boot camp tutorial if you want to actually have some skill in the game, as there is quite a steep learning curve to do any real moves. You will be taught every move, how to do it, and how to even counter them. At first it will feel unnatural and even awkward since different button combinations can do completely different things, but once you start to play naturally without thinking about it, it does feel much more natural. It truly is one of those games that are easy to jump in and play, but a very long time to master.
The face buttons are your main tools for delivering a brutal beating. ?X? and ?Y? are your two arms and punches while ?A? and ?B? are your legs and kicks. This can be combined with the ?Left Bumper? to do high head attacks while the ?Left Trigger? will modify your hits to attack low leg strikes. Every hit will also change depending on your distance to the other person, so if you are in arms length and throw a punch, you will straight punch them in the face; if you are close up or in a clinch you may elbow them instead due to the lack of room to pull back your arm and swing. Even if you are running towards your opponent, you can even pull off a flying superman punch or a flying knee to the face, it all depends on what you press and where in relation to the fighters.
It feels a little daunting at first trying to attack high and low and with the modifiers but eventually you?ll find combos that work well for your character and is hard for your opponent to block. Your attacks will even change fighter to fighter depending on what fighting style they use. Your well placed strikes will bring out cuts and bruises and even cause blood to spatter on the mat floor if given enough of a beating.
While anyone can pick up and mash a few punches and kicks, the real fighters will differentiate themselves with their grappling and ground game. The right analog stick is how you move and transition your fighter while in a clinch or on the ground. You are able to do minor transitions that are easy to do but give very little if any better position than you are already in. Major transitions are doable as well but are harder to execute but will give you a much better position. You can move from any position (top or bottom) to virtually any other one you would see in a real fight provided you don?t get blocked or countered. Minor transitions are done with a quarter circle on the stick (much like a fireball in street fighter), where a major transition takes a half circle to complete. Depending on where you start and finish these moves on the stick will determine which angle you try to better your position.
Until you learn the small intricacies of the ground game and transitions, it will be quite frustrating at first when you are doing everything you can to try and get out from the guy on top of you and nothing seems to work. Other times you will do a counter when you don?t mean to and wonder why you can?t do it all the time. Once you become quite good at the ground game, you can almost take apart any opponent (human, online, or CPU) and it?s quite satisfying to see yourself pick apart an opponent on the ground at will.
Submissions will have the same feel in the beginning. Clicking in the right stick will grab the closest limb available (or counter grab a strike) and attempt to submit your opponent. You can brute force yourself way out of a submission attempt by spamming the face buttons as fast as you can but you will just be back in the previous position you were in. Trying to stop a submission by rotating the right stick as fast as possible will have your character reverse the submission attempt and end with you being on top in a dominant position. To successfully submit an opponent you need to gas them first (wear their stamina out) and then you?ll have a better, though not guaranteed, shot at making them tap. This reason alone is worth having the stamina bar viewable on the screen. Many times I?ve had a person try to submit me, only to gas themselves out, I reverse the submission and win, all because I saw his stamina.
With the ability to create your own fighter from scratch, you can customize him to your exact play style to play off of your strengths, or even defend against your weaknesses. You decide what style of fighter you want for striking from Kickboxing, Boxing, and Muay Thai and then decide on what type of ground game they want to replicate from Wrestling, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It?s interesting to see fighters with different mixed styles and you can virtually make your fighter to your exact liking for a move-set.
Your fighter?s main three stats are his strength, speed, and cardio; all of which are completely important to a fighter?s style and how you want to play. You then allocate points into your fighting style stats and can even further customize your fighter to any way you desire. You can put points into offence and defense of any type of striking or ground move. If you want to be amazing at submission defense and excel at punching while on the ground, you can do so in any way you want. Specializing your character exactly how to you want play is quite impressive with the depth you can get, though I find most people generally pump their stats into the general striking and submitting.
Next up in your create a fighter (CAF for short) is how he physically looks. The face customization is superb and you can almost make them look like anyone. There are even step by step?s online on how to make fighters in the game that are real fighters not yet included. I myself even made a pretty decent looking Joe Rogan for laughs online. Sadly though, body customization was very lacking as most of it was skins for how hairy and how defined you wanted their abs and pecs. You are unable to have a chubby fighter or even anyone somewhat resembling an old school Tank Abbot.
With virtually unlimited slots for CAFs, you can make any style of fighter you want and progress them to see what styles fit your play best. From here you can take them through the career mode and even online and in exhibition matches.
As you start your career with your newly created CAF, like any other game, you need to prove yourself and start from the bottom. As you begin you?ll start being booked in undercard matches until you start making a name for yourself and gain more wins under your belt.
Your fighting career is tracked on a calendar and you can see when your next fight is or when you have camps coming to visit to help you train. During the weeks between fights, you can choose to train your main skills, spar against a computer opponent for 2 minutes to gain attribute skills, and even rest your stamina for the next week?s events. Every so often you?ll have events pop up for extra credits such as autograph signings or interviews that you can accept or decline depending on your schedule. Sometimes you?ll even get asked to fight someone last minute for a bonus if you decide to take on the fight with very short notice.
Juggling your schedule and training can be quite daunting in the beginning since you?re unsure what you should focus on, but once you learn how all the timing works it?s a nice change of pace from the standard training and fighting over and over again. The menu system to do all of this though I found quite cumbersome and clunky and it took about half my career to really get the hang of it.
Once you become the champion of your weight class, from here on it becomes slightly dull, as you?ll constantly be fighting the top 5 or so guys as they want to try and take the belt away from you. You always have a decision of 3 different people to defend your title against but fighting the same guy 10 times or so does become dull and old after awhile.
Another thing that I found quite a shame was that you are unable to change your weight class even once you are completely dominant in your division. The other small irk that I noticed was that regardless of how many years in the career you?ve been fighting, there is no reference to your previous fights or title defends at all. It would have been awesome to hear about your last fights knockout or some other details about your career as you are fighting someone. You only ever hear about who you are fighting, not you who is the champ.
The career mode only lasts about 30-40 fights (depending on how many extra fights you accepted) and forces you to retire after your seventh year in the UFC. At the end of your career you are left with a fighter that has the stats of whoever you tuned him to be which can then be taken online or in exhibition mode.
Exhibition mode is your standard fight within the same weight class, but Classic Matches is something unique that at first I didn?t think I?d really care about, but eventually I found myself trying to do the objectives correctly. Classic mode will have you re-enacting one of twelve famous fights. Old footage sets up the bout as dramatic as can be and then when you are actually fighting; your goal is to replicate how the actual fight went. For example, if the real fight ended in a knockout in round one, or going all the way to a decision, your goal is to try and make that particular finish happen. If you successfully pull it off, you unlock footage from the actual fight to enjoy and watch. It?s hard to do some of them properly as instinctively you just want to knock them out as soon as possible but having a specific finish to work for is a rewarding change of pace.
Going on Xbox Live, you are able to choose a player or ranked match. In Ranked you gain levels and fans for your wins and level up much like in other shooter games to show your current rank and skill. Quite a few matches online I played have suffered from some lag and because of this; your fighters timing is completely off and you?ll miss many opportunities because of it. Unfortunately there is no lag meter in any way when someone joins your room so you won?t know how bad the lag is until the match actually starts. Also, because you are able to make ranked matches private, there are people who have already abused this to reach maximum rank and have a ?flawless? record.
DLC fighters are already in the works since there?s already an option to enable them or not in rooms, so it?s just a matter of time. Here?s to hoping for some old school UFC hall of Fames like Gracie, Severn, Shamrock, Abbott, and many others.
My biggest wish for this would be the ability to have inter-weight class dream fights. The inability to do this was a small letdown, but it would have been very interesting to see those old school UFC rules in, even if only in exhibition, but alas, I guess we?ll never see what would happen if Lesnar and GSP fought.
The loading times in general feel very long only because it happens so frequently. Even switching and navigating menus have a small lag that all adds up. Especially before a fight when everything is loading, it?s just long enough to stand out awkwardly. Fortunately installing UFC to the hard drive did speed this up dramatically which was a relief.
Undisputed has a very steep learning curve, especially if you want to become proficient in the ground game grappling. Casual players will no doubt become extremely frustrated in the beginning when they are unable to do anything when taken to the ground, but players who spend time in the tutorial and practice the controls will come away feeling very rewarded they are able to play with their opponent at will.
With the controls and fighting be so complex in the beginning is certainly gives you an appreciation the actual fighting skills of the real fighters in the sport. Luckily THQ and Yuke?s have put together a package that plays very well once you wrap your head around the controls and even non UFC fans will be able to enjoy and have fun with the title.
UFC Undisputed is an excellent recreation of the actual sport as you will find. If you weren?t watching the screen you would think an actual UFC event was on TV from the quality of the sound and announcing quality. When a huge knockout happens, it?s just as exhilarating as watching the real thing and playing with some friends over, I even had someone say ?this is a great fight!? which was proof enough to me that this game did their job perfectly to replicate the action and excitement of the UFC. Undisputed is definitely a title that will KO you with its presentation quality or make you tap if you pass this one up.
Suggestions: -Inter-weight class fights
-Online that can't be abused by boosters
-More old school fighters
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Ninja Blade
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; if this is true then God of War and Ninja Gaiden must be red from blushing. Ninja Blade is an action hack and slash by From Software and is a generally straight forward button masher mixed in with interactive cutscenes?..lots of them. It may not have the depth or nearly the difficulty as the games it?s clearly taken its inspiration from, but it?s not trying to be serious and should be ventured knowing ahead of time that it is meant to be completely over the top. You are Ken Ogawa, a member of an elite ninja group that have highly specialized skills like your own. You are called to Tokyo because somehow parasites have infected the city and in engulfing anyone in the area, completely taking over their body and mutating them; destroying the city and anything in its path. It?s up to you and your team to save not only Tokyo from complete annihilation, but all of mankind as well by subduing the advancing infection rate. For some reason though, you will see crowded streets with moving cars even though the city was supposed to be evacuated.
The dialogue is generally cheesy and there are a few dramatic moments, but the entertainment value is sometimes unintended in some moments that will have you snickering at the wrong time.
There are a few plot twists other than the standard ?save the Earth? that make it slightly more interesting, but it?s cut and dry basics that barely pass as an engrossing storyline. You are simply playing for the action and excitement; much like going to an action movie to go see the awesome explosions and action rather than the story. This is apparent from the moment you start Ninja Blade as the first enemy and boss you fight starts the action off in the high adrenaline mode you?ll be on for the next 10 or so hours to finish it.
Through 9 different missions, you will travel across Tokyo clearing waste to anything in your way. You will battle across rooftops, on the street, and even through buildings and tunnels. Each level seems to center around two to four giant boss sequences and getting to each one has the standard hack and slash gameplay in between when getting from point to point.
The biggest design issue with the levels is not even the repetitive nature, but instead the fact that you cannot save mid level in any way. Each level is roughly an hour long each, so make sure you have that much time before you even start or else you?ll lose your current progress and have to restart the mission from the start.
As you begin, you are only given a single sword to battle your foes which is your balanced weapon. Eventually you will also be given duel wield swords that are much quicker and double as grapple wire hooks, and also a very large two handed weapon that is very slow to attack with, but extremely powerful to balance it off. Each type of enemy is vulnerable to different types of attacks and different weapons, so you will be switching your arsenal quite often trying to defeat certain types of infected with the appropriate corresponding weapon.
All of the weapons can be upgraded with a set amount of orbs you gather from defeating enemies and it?s up to you to upgrade your weapon of choice. As you unlock higher levels in a weapon, more skills become unlocked and your move set becomes more robust; making you that much more lethal and giving you more options for game play styles.
You also have an elemental Ninjitsu disc that can be thrown to slice infected and also even clear paths in your way. Have a fire blocking your path; throw your disc with the wind skill to blow out the flames. Need something blown up from afar, and then use the fire skill Ninjitsu to achieve this. Even the lightning Ninjitsu will stun enemies in your way or electrify water. It adds a little more complexity in getting to the right path in levels but it?s not generally very challenging to figure out; the difficulty is in actually performing it while keeping other enemies at bay.
It?s near impossible to get lost or figure out where to go next as you have an ability called Ninja Vision. This skill will detect weak spots on enemies and bosses, pointing out where you need to attack. It will also make paths and walkways glow blue which tells you exactly where you need to go next, and when activated, it will also even show you barrels and boxes that have items and secrets inside them. The downfall to using your Ninja Vision is that you take extra damage if you get hit with it activated.
Regular non-boss enemies are littered throughout the campaign while fighting your way to each boss. Unfortunately there are very few variations of the standard grunt enemies and you?ll be executing many of the same types of infected throughout the whole game. This coupled with the fact that they barely need any blocking from makes them simply too easy and you will rarely even have to switch to the ?proper? weapon to defeat them.
The enemies that take center stage in Ninja Blade are the numerous and sometimes challenging Bosses. These will range from spiders that crawl up the sides of skyscrapers, crabs, snails, and even worms that can plow through buildings. The scale of the battles can be absolutely huge; which was definitely an influence from the God of War series or even Shadow of the Colossus. Comparatively it would be much like a bug trying to fight something the size of a human or even bigger, it?s that big. You may be wondering how a single ninja can take down a beast this large (well you shouldn?t, because it?s a ninja). Sometimes it will require you riding a missile like a surf board into its face, or even riding a motorcycle down the side of a bus all while freefalling midair. Yes, it?s that over the top at times, which does bring it some charm without taking itself too seriously.
Regular combat plays much like a hack a slash much like God of War or Ninja Gaiden, but it feels more simplified and less demanding of perfection (which Ninja Gaiden brutally punished you for mistakes). You will also be taking control of turrets on a moving vehicle or plane or sometimes also fighting monsters while running down the side of a building. Defeat certain enemies in a specific way and you are given a chance to do a one hit finishing move that requires a few correct corresponding button presses. Miss the button and you just need to finish it with normal attacks though and don?t get the bonus score.
When you aren?t in combat, you will be watching cinematics that require specific button inputs at given times to progress. This feature is a way to keep the player engrossed rather than simply watching a cutscene and it can even be fun?in moderation. At least a third of the whole game is based on these quick time events scattered between battles. It happens so often that it sometimes feels more like an interactive movie than an actual game at times.
They are in almost every single cinematic and you need quick reflexes to input them correctly, though a properly timed press has more rewards than just pressing it as soon as you see the correct button. One of the great design choices for this though is actually if you fail a button press. Instead of starting all over from your last checkpoint, the quick time event rewinds time and starts you back at the start of that cinematic for you to try again. They aren?t very challenging and there really is no penalty for failure, instead they sometimes even divert your attention away from the action because you are keeping a keen eye for what to press next instead of enjoying the video.
Once a boss? health has been depleted and you?ve also done the quick time event (most bosses have one afterwards) you then need to do one more quick time event, but this one is your special finish move called your Todomé attack. It?s the same thing as any other quick time event, but if you don?t go up to the boss and initiate this finisher manually, the boss can actually regenerate and you will be forced to fight it all over again. It?s usually not an issue to initiate the Todomé, but if you get knocked down or can?t make it to the appropriate spot, it can be quite frustrating to restart all over.
There are a few other notable positives and negatives that stood out quite clearly while playing. Some of the positives being that if you go in expecting just to have fun and enjoy completely over the top action you won?t be disappointed from the complete unpredictability that this has to offer. The camera angles during the action sequences are excellent and have that ?cool? feel to them that you?d probably see in a Hollywood action movie that highlights all the action appropriately. Also, you can unlock (and download) extra costumes for Ken to wear. I?m going to have to categorize this as both a positive and negative as some of the costumes are very cool and suit the ninja style while others are completely ridiculous like bright pink with hearts or flowers.
The absolute largest frustration though had to come from a horrible design choice regarding the save system. Each mission is about an hour or so long, but if you aren?t completely certain that you can?t set aside this much time in one sitting, there is no point to even put the disc in your system due to having no save system during missions. There are checkpoints if you die and will restart at, but if you have to turn off your system or can?t finish a level, you have to begin from the start all over again regardless of how far you got in the level.
Considering the scale of some of the main battles, I was quite surprised that I didn?t encounter very much slowdown, but of course it did happen to me at some odd times that did require me to restart due to the drop in framerate when trying to make specific jumps.
It feels as if the game is simply trying just too hard to be cool with all the action thrust towards the player. It does have a certain charm to it for simple mindless fun, but those looking for a deeper story or combat will be disappointed from the general clichés.
Suggestions: Over the top can be fun and interesting, but there is a fine line between awesome and absurd. Make mid-level checkpoints. There were times where I wanted to play but couldnt set aside an hour so there was no point sadly.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is actually two games in one; the very successful Escape from Butcher Bay classic that was on the original Xbox, and Assault on Dark Athena; the new expansion. Both take place in the Riddick timeline before the movie Pitch Black takes place and is a great way to see the back story of the character and plot. The Butcher Bay game is the true star of this title, and even though either game can be played and chosen from the start, it?s seriously recommended to start with Butcher Bay before hand and go from there.
Though playing a remake of a game that?s only about 5 years old may seem boring, I myself forgot almost everything about the game and was reminded how superb the original title truly was with its unique gameplay and mechanics and blended well together.
Keep in mind that this title is 3 different experiences in one; Butcher Bay, Dark Athena, and Online. They should also be played in this order to get the most out of the purchase.
You are Riddick (magnificently voiced by Vin Diesel himself) and you are a criminal sent to Butcher Bay (the futures substitute of a ruthless and inescapable Alcatraz-like prison) to live out your sentence. Being a survivor and knowing you?ll do whatever it takes to live, you manage to break out of your cell and then begin to break your way out of the maximum security prison while taking out anyone that gets in your way, whatever the cost. Riddick is always against the odds and has to face many enemies at once, this is where the darkness becomes his home and he stalks his prey one by one.
Gameplay is a delicate mixture of stealth, melee, gunplay, platforming puzzles, and learning to use the shadows as your cover. You only start off with your fists and you will be forced into some brutal fist fights, eventually handling knives and clubs and eventually guns.
On top of a great mesh of different play styles, Butcher Bay when released for the original Xbox was ahead of it time by breaking the typical movie licensed game gone horribly wrong by also adding amazing voice acting and stunning visuals.
Because Butcher Bay is essentially a remake, I?ll focus more on the changes rather than going through the whole story once again as it can be read up on older reviews.
Improved controls and graphics are the most notable changes from the original release about 5 years ago. Also now having achievements is a nice addition rather than it just being a backwars compatable game.
All the textures looked to have been redone, and it does look better than its original release, but the difference was that compared to the Xbox release, it doesn?t look as good for its time comparatively. On the original Xbox, the graphics for Butcher Bay were astounding at the time, while now they look adequate.
While the visuals have been slightly improved, the rest of the game is intact for the most part; flaws and all. Characters still move very stiff and faces will rarely show any kind of expression. There are also very many shadow anomalies on the characters even during cutscenes that is kind of a distraction. The original minor clipping issue is still in as well, but even being half a decade old now; it still can hold its own in the first person genre.
There was a section in the PC version of Butcher Bay that Xbox owners never got and now console players can use a mech during a part of their escape. It?s not much but it?s nice to have a cleaner, fuller version of the title. Even if you?ve completed the game previously, finishing this version is more than worth it as it?s still a superb title that deserves the play through once again.
Dark Athena happens directly after the story of Butcher Bay ends. It?s an expansion that adds about 6-8 more hours to Riddick?s story, but it?s definitely not a sequel, simply an expansion since it basically used Butcher Bay as a template and not even to the proper degrees as its predecessor.
While you are able to directly choose to play Dark Athena first, I don?t recommend it as it won?t make sense at all if you don?t know the basics from Butcher Bay; that and it?s meant to add value to the Butcher Bay story and gameplay.
There are only a fraction of the characters when compared to Butcher Bay (that was a whole prison), but one of the major pros is that the voice acting in Dark Athena is superb and some of the best I?ve heard in quite some time. Unfortunately the characters that Riddick converses with are vastly underused and make it difficult to actually care about them in any deep way, even when some of them get killed.
Almost everything in Dark Athena is simply recycled and reused from Butcher Bay (mechanics, stealth, and mech sections) yet there isn?t very many improvements that instantly come to mind other than your new trusty weapons; the dual Ulaks that are vicious in any circumstance. It?s a great play that will last a few hours, but it?s the same game.
Dark Athena is also much more linear than Butcher Bay and barely had any side quests to do. In the original title pacing and play styles were very well meshed together, in Dark Athena you are forced into different styles of gameplay at different parts and the pacing is sporadic at best. At times you will be doing a long section of stealth, then a barrage of gunplay, then nothing by traversing and it almost feels like sections rather than an all-together experience.
Where Butcher Bay focused mainly on stealth and melee combat, Dark Athena is almost exactly the opposite and will have you wielding a gun for the last half of the game and simply shooting out lights to make artificial darkness. It feels like it?s a completely different Riddick and while he?s still bad-ass, he?s more menacing when he?s outnumbered and has to use the darkness for cover when taking out enemies one by one.
Drones are a new type of enemy in Athena which are prisoners that are turned into mindless drones. Mindless is the description I used purposely, as the AI in Dark Athena is simply terrible. If you aren?t standing directly in front of an enemy, he won?t have an idea where you are at. You can even shoot enemies that are beside each other and they won?t do a thing even though their partner just got shot a foot away. Also, whenever a drone is taken out, you are able to stand them up and use them like a shield while using the guns attached to their arms almost like a turret. It?s another example of how Athena feels completely different that its predecessor. Even the non-drone humans are just as incompetent and it?s quite disappointing that I can get away so easily even then they have flashlights and can?t find me.
As stated before, Dark Athena is meant to compliment Butcher Bay instead of being a stand-alone title, yet it plays almost completely differently. Relying heavily on guns really disappointed me, but the amazing voice acting almost made me forget it.
Vin Diesel?s voicing is just as good as it was in Butcher Bay and the support cast is equally as good (especially in Dark Athena). The character models and especially facial movements in Dark Athena are also top notch and very expressive of emotions. Everything just seemed to move and sound fluid and authentic.
You will also get used to seeing a lot of blue, which means you are hidden when crouched. Riddick also has his eyeshine (equivalent to night vision) that works quite well for navigating in the dark, but it can become a pain when having to switch it on and off because a bright light completely blinds you, and then you can?t see when it?s destroyed.
Health is a set of boxes in the top left corner and you start off with about 4 boxes worth of health. Punches for example take a few hits to completely deplete a box of health, and when a box is gone, it will not regenerate until you find a med station to refill your health completely.
A feature that any of the original fans wanted from Riddick was an online multiplayer component. Well now there is online multiplayer but it?s quite bland other than an original mode called Pitch Black. Pitch Black is a 5 on 1 mode that pits one person playing as Riddick that only has blades facing off against 5 other soldiers that are using any guns they can find. Riddick can see in the dark with his eyeshine ability and players have to use the flashlights on their weapons. The catch being that the higher power weapons have a lower radius light while the pistols have a might broader light. The player who ends up killing Riddick ends the round and becomes him for the next. It?s very tense to play and quite entertaining trying to find a creeping Riddick in the shadows.
The other online modes are very bland and offer nothing unique at all and found them quite dull and too similar. Even though there are 15 maps to play, the only mode worth playing is the Pitch Black mode. While it may not be a robust offering, at least the one mode is more than enough to keep you entertained online.
I do wonder if we?ll ever get a true sequel for Riddick (possibly between movies in the timeline), but having a rounded back story to the movies is a great way to get more depth on the Riddick character.
Escape from Butcher Bay is still an excellent title if you?ve never played it before; this package can?t be beat value-wise and is a must for those that never got to experience Riddick in his original adventure. The best way to this purchase is Butcher Bay with a bonus campaign expansion and a mediocre online component.
For the price you can?t go wrong for a strong single player experience as on overall package and try to think of both games as a single and longer experience even though it may not be even in quality or experiences. You aren?t going to find a better valued package for the price, especially during this slow time of year for newer titles.
I forgot how great Butcher Bay really was even though I?ve completed it years ago. Even if you?ve completed it before hand as well, it?s worth experiencing again even if it?s only for the achievements. So get comfortable, turn off the lights, hide in the shadows and experience the best Vin Diesel game made to date as the voice acting will truly surprise you and prove that games can have real acting included.
Suggestions: -AI that isn't braindead
-Multiplayer that means something other than one mode
-An expansion that feels like Butch Bay, not Riddick 1.5 with guns.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Godfather 2
I usually become nervous when I?m about to play a game based on a movie license due to almost always being disappointed from rushed development time, a simple lack of imagination, or something that doesn?t even resemble it?s movie counterpart in anyway. Since Godfather II wasn?t being rushed to coincide with the movie release (it came out in 1974 to be exact), I had some high hopes that I would get to play my part in the storyline or even see a slightly different angle to the plot we?ve all seen in the movie. Godfather II follows the basic premise of the movie but with its own slight twists and turns on a few parts. You play as Dominic who is a member of the Corleone family and start the story in Cuba where all the families are gathered to discuss how Hyman Roth?s empire will be split up once he?s retired. Due to Cuban rebels; Dominic, Michael Corleone, Fredo and Aldo Trapani are trying to escape with their lives back to the plane to get home. One of them doesn?t make it and Michael decides you are ready to be a Boss and take back New York for the family. If the name Aldo sounds familiar, that?s because he was who you played in the first Godfather title.
Now it is your turn to run New York and take things back to the way they used to be. Eventually you?ll take over the city then move on to Florida and eventually Cuba. Nothing comes easy as other families will do anything they can to prevent you from taking their territory while you attempt to make a name for yourself.
The first thing you do when you start is create and dress Dominic. The creation choices were decent, and you can get really detailed with facial and body sizing/scaling, but I found there were very little clothing options and I never could make him exactly how I wanted him, but I settled on a look I felt I could deal with for the remainder of the game.
As a Don, you need a crew that will follow and be loyal to the very end. As the game progresses you can earn more and more family members and decide on who you?ll make a ?made man?. You can dress your soldiers however you like as well which I enjoyed since I had everyone in matching suits following me.
Each soldier starts with a basic skill that he is proficient in such as a Medic who will revive you if you die, Safecrackers who can crack vaults, Arsonists who will set ablaze anything you tell them to, Demolitionists who can blow up doors and walls for alternate ways into areas, or even an Engineer who can cut holes through fences for back-way ins to places and also power off of buildings to prevent backup from being called in. You can then choose who to promote to higher ranks in your family which will unlock more skills for their disposal. In addition to these skills, you can also upgrade many other options of each member such as health, weapon licenses which allow them to use bigger and better guns, or to be quicker with their main skills, on top of many others of course. All of these skill upgrades require money to purchase but if you are diligent with keeping all your rime rings intact, your money flow later in the game is not really an issue
You are only able to have 3 of your family members follow you at a time but if you need to swap one out for another because of their skills, it?s instant and you don?t have to wait for them to get to you. It?s convenient and quick, but makes absolutely no sense realistically how I can turn around and all of a sudden one of my guys is standing there with me. The same goes for driving around; you can get in a 2 door car, drive across the city and soon as you get out, your men will be there as if they were with you the whole time. Your crew won?t be the smartest bunch of AI, since sometimes even getting them to go in one spot can be a challenge in its own, but when you have to wait for them to pile in the car because they are stuck on each other or spinning around not being able to get in, frustration sets in and you will just do things on your own sometimes.
As the Don, you are able to look at the city as a whole from a top down 3D view appropriately named The Don?s View. From here you can see every building and who owns and runs it. This is to help you strategize of where you need to be and what to take over next in your push to own the city.
To take over a business isn?t as simple as killing the owner, its more about fear and intimidation. Have someone scared of you enough and they?ll pay you for protection instead of another family. This can be done in a few ways depending on the place and person. Some owners will bend to your will with a few bruises to the face while others will need some more convincing such as being strangled or hung over the edge of a building. Once you have the correct amount of intimidation you can then ?turn? them to work or pay to you. Everyone has a breaking point too where they won?t take it anymore and they?ll attack you instead and you will have to wait a set time before trying again. It isn?t a very difficult mechanic to accomplish and usually throwing a few punches their way will get them to do whatever you want. The closer you bring them to their breaking point though, the more money you?ll receive each payment.
Just because you run a place doesn?t mean a rival family will let that go unnoticed; just like how you can take over areas, they will try and retaliate by bombing or setting ablaze your property as well since all property owned gains you money. Guards can be hired to stay and guard any of your properties and is a necessity if you want to keep them all at once. As you take over businesses and crime rings, you are given bonuses for your family such as body armor, increased ammo, increased income and more depending on what and how many businesses you own at one time. If you are too busy doing something else to go help defend a building under attack, you can send one of your soldiers to go help the hired guards which is quite an advantage since the soldier being sent is probably equivalent to about 7 guards.
Committing crimes, stealing cars, beating up pedestrians are not without repercussion though. Should someone nearby witness your wrong-doing, they will be an eye witness and possibly alert nearby authorities, unless of course you take care of them too. You will get into shootouts and police will respond as well causing even more of a firefight on your hands. The police in Godfather II are much more harsh and unforgiving as you?ll spend much longer trying to evade cops (the fact that almost every car is slow doesn?t help this either) than in other games that you may be used to. I found finding a hiding spot usually worked better than simply trying to outrun them since they can be very brutal and shoot you down extremely quickly before you even know what to do.
To kill a rival Don, you need to take out his soldiers, to do that you need to find where they are and how to kill them appropriately (or they will just recover sometime later), to do this you must find random certain people on the streets and help them with whatever they need be it a hit, stealing, bombing, or a beating. This part makes absolutely no sense; why would you walk up to some random stranger (as a Don none the less) and start talking to them as they tell a random stranger (you) that they need someone killed. It?s a completely illogical mechanic. Do them the favor they want and they reward you with how to find your target and how to kill him. It?s absurd the mechanic behind it but doing side quests like this and many others will add quite a length of gameplay should you want to get more out of it. By taking out a Don?s soldiers, they are unable to defend their crime rings as easily and allow you to take them over with much more ease.
Doing these kill quests can take some time and if you fail at executing them the proper way, you will just have to redo it again later. That being said, it is completely optional since that to kill a Don, you don?t need to take out all of his soldiers, you just need to take away all of his businesses so that they have nowhere to retreat other than their hideout. Once there you blow up their hideout and that family is gone forever which defeats the purpose of finding and killing the other made-men.
It would have been more interesting to be able to ally with a certain Don, clear out everyone else then when inevitably betray him. Because you can?t do this, you focus on taking over property, killing the Don and building, then repeat.
When conversing with people, you are sometimes given options of what to say, almost like a speech tree ala Mass Effect, except nowhere near as deep or interesting. Usually you have 3 or 4 choices of what to say but many are predictable and most choices simply feel like a ?yes? or ?no? type of answer. When talking to a person that is asking for help, instead of choosing to hear their story and why, you can simply choose ?yes? and it just sounds ridiculous when a random person asks the Don ?Can you help me?? and you reply a simple ?Yes? and the quest is added to your dossier. It?s very awkward sounding and after a few quests in, you won?t care to hear what people say since you can instantly look on the Don?s View map and see what needs to be done and where, saving yourself time and usually horrible voice acting. The main characters voicing is actually pretty decent, but random pedestrians and minor characters will have you cringing everything you hear a fake accent.
Godfather II does have a multiplayer component to it, but if you never looked for it in the menus, you would never know it was there. In multiplayer, you don?t play as your Don; you play as one of your made-men in a variety of different modes on top of the standard deathmatches. Firestarter, Safecracker, and Demolition Assault have you using the obvious specific skills to gain points by doing the objective such as starting arson fires, cracking safes, and bombing areas respectively.
There is a unique option for a person on each time to play as a Don, but instead of being a character you control, you control a camera?s view above the city and can relay info to your team and set waypoints along with rewarding with other bonuses should they capture specific areas. Don?s are able to bet money on the outcome of the game, but it?s a very moot point once you have a steady cash flow in your single player game. As you earn points online you can then spend these on your soldiers to upgrade their weapon licenses so that you can use more powerful ones. It?s interesting that these skills carry over to online and offline play so at least when you are playing online you are still working towards your single player experience in a way.
There were quite a few small things that added to overall frustration (not including the intended attempted takeovers/bombings of your buildings that always detour you from your original plans). The smallest but most annoying and consistent is that you normally can vault over smaller ledges, but not all of them. You are unable to tell if you can vault it until you are right up beside it and it will either work or not. Learning this while running away from police will cause great frustration when there is a wall not even waist high that you are unable to jump over. The same goes for doors and fences that can or can?t be blown up or cut down even though they will look identical to ones that can.
The guards in a bank or elsewhere will completely forget your face when you come back later as if they?ve never seen you. Horrendous pop-in textures and even pedestrians that will disappear unknowingly in front of your eyes for no reason are just some of the other issues that plagued the whole play through. Even shadows will jump around, appear or disappear randomly and take away from the whole experience; especially during climactic cutscenes.
Even if you can look past all these flaws, everything as a whole does become awfully repetitive (just on a larger scale). It has all the elements of a great title, but with a very convoluted Don?s View and some massive illogical ideas it just feels kind of slapped together with half ideas. There are so many issues that need to be fixed or outright changed before this would be an offer you can?t refuse.
Overall Score: 7.4 / 10
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Square Enix and tri-Ace have brought their latest RPG to the masses and to be completely honest, I was quite worried that it was going to have the same technical problems that the previous title; The Last Remnant had. Luckily about 5 years of development of this entry in the Star Ocean series has seemed to pay off from a technical standpoint, but nothing is without its flaws. Great gameplay and a crafting system mixes things up and keeps everything interesting but only if you are able to swallow some appalling voice work on top of a notably slow pace of story. Star Ocean: The Last Hope takes place many years before the original sequel and is a prequel that gives some back-story if you?re knowledgeable of the story in the series so far. You aren?t required to know or understand the stories from the whole franchise to undertake this adventure, but knowing the basics is interesting since there are a few moments where you suddenly realize who someone is (or related to) or will become in the future.
The timeline can be a little confusing at first, so I will explain the main events so that you can understand a little clearer of what happens and when. World War 3 occurs in 2064 A.D and the much of Earth?s population is decimated by nuclear devastation almost instantly. Shortly after, a cease-fire is negotiated and although the War is abruptly over, the lasting effects wreak havoc the planets environment. Normal people survive by living underground and it?s decided that the planets population needs a new habitat; so now it?s time to find a new home somewhere out in the ocean of stars.
In 2087 A.D, Space Reconnaissance Force (the SRF) is formed and due to a sudden surge of warp drive technology, the prospect of finding a new home among the stars in space comes closer to reality. This accomplishment sets the new Spacedate Calendar (S.D) in place from here on. Ten years later (10 S.D), the first SRF mission gets its official beginning.
Edge Maverick (The typical honest and good doer) and Reimi Saionji (Who follows everything by the books) who are childhood friends, are members of the SRF and given the daunting task of exploring the galaxy for a habitable new home for mankind. Apart from this great beginning to the main plot, the remainder of the overall story is quite cliché and filled with the typical JRPG plot twists, never-give-up attitudes, plethora of friends that will stick by your side no matter what, and of course the predictable entity that can destroy all life that must be stopped no matter what.
Edge will gather and make new friends along the way of course, but I needed to specially mention Lymle (Who is a friendly child that tags along early on to save her Grandpa) and instantly suggest turning off her in-battle voice as it was simply the most annoying repetitive catch phrases I?ve heard in quite awhile, and this is even after 40 hours of playing The Last Remnant!
Even though you?ll most likely sense what is going to happen next, or even know what the next paragraph of dialogue will be, Star Ocean is built as a very traditional RPG and comes complete with battling monsters (though not enough variety overall) and searching for treasure chests in the oddest places. A Square Enix RPG wouldn?t be complete either without the numerous and sometimes overly long cutscenes that are very beautiful to watch, but enjoying them can be impossible at times due to the terrible script coupled with some voice acting that may make you cringe at times.
I found the pacing of the story to flesh out was way too long and I really didn?t even start to become interested in the overall plot until 6 to 8 hours in once you start to piece together everything and start to learn the ?Why? of it all.
While running around the world, you will see monsters appear along the way and they can be avoided or fought against if you engage them (or if they attack you from getting too close). Battles are fought in real time with a party of four. You manually control one character at a time and the other members will automatically follow what directions you have given them (Attack all out, Attack without using MP, Play Defensively, etc). You can switch to any of your party members at any time should you choose to rather play a caster or ranged player instead of the standard sword wielder; you are also able to change your AI?s commands whenever as well if the need arises to change your strategy.
Every character seems to play differently, so finding a play style that suits you when you have multiple party members isn?t too difficult. It makes it enjoyable trying to find that ?perfect party? that suits your style and works efficiently together, but luckily you can even swap in and out characters in battle at will as well if needed. Even a characters fighting style can be changed at any time with the BEAT (Battle Enhancement Attribute Type) system should you want the stats of a more aggressive attacker or defense of staying out of the heat of battle. Your BEAT levels increase with experience as well and you are able to even have a mixture of the offence and defense stats should you want (and keep both your BEAT styles leveled). It makes for a slightly more customized fighting style and choosing the correct BEAT that matches your style can make a huge difference in battles.
Attacking a monster constantly will most likely make them have more aggression towards you (agro for short) and this is quite a useful tool when used properly. You can keep monsters off of your hitpoint-weak caster characters by using attacks and skills to gain more agro on your beefier attacker type of character. Once a monster is focused on you, it?s possible to dodge out of the way completely or even perform a Blindside with the perfect timing which will have you counter an attack by running behind the monster and attacking it from behind for much more damage. It?s a necessary battle tool to learn to use well as some monsters and bosses will take quite a while to defeat if not using Blindsides properly.
Rush Mode is another option you have that can land a sequence of special attacks with other party members for absolute massive damage, though this is only possible and activated once you have dealt or taken enough damage in a battle. The timing and button combination to use Rush Mode can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but once learned this is invaluable against many bosses.
The Bonus Board is another feature that can make the monotonous fighting a little more exciting if you choose it to be. There is a whole board of empty tiles on the side of the screen, and these can be filled by fulfilling certain requirements in battle (such as using certain attacks or killing multiple enemies at once etc), this in turn will give you bonus rewards after battle such as extra experience, more money, more skill points and even more. Tiles can also be taken away from getting hit or fighting poorly, but it helps to keep you somewhat more focused on battle should you want more experience rather than just pressing the attack button over and over.
In addition to a battle system that can keep you engrossed, you are also able to make your own items, food, and equipment. Skills can be increased to be very powerful, or you can choose to have many lower tier skills and spells instead, it?s completely up to you how you wish to develop your characters. It was a little disappointing that each character is preset to be a certain role and can only use weapons and armor specifically for them (in general), but the customization that each character can be tailored to your liking makes up for it in some ways.
Winning battles isn?t the only way to gain money and experience in Star Ocean. There are many side quests to be done and are completely optional but sadly the vast majority of them are simple vendor ?Bring X amount of Y to me? and accepting every side quest has no downfall if not completed, so grab every one that you can because you never know when you?ll finally have 12 Blueberries to give to that shopkeeper. Usually the rewards are a minimal amount of experience and money, but sometimes you get items or part to create a much more powerful item.
Along with these trivial side quests are the main optional quests called the Private Action system which will determine relationships between characters and give more back-story to them as well. The main reasons to doing these PA?s though is that they will give you new skills and even determine the different endings that are available to see.
With all these optional quests to do alongside the main story, having a save system that is available at anytime (or even somewhat limited) would have been very useful to have. The Last Hope still has save spots at certain places and that is the only way to save your game. This isn?t something new, but the issue being that the pace of the game is so poorly laid out that sometimes when you are playing just to get to the next save point so you can go to bed you can be playing for more than an hour at a time just trying to finish that dungeon and save.
Another quite frustrating aspect were two of the simplest things that you?ll have to deal with and fight through the whole game; the movement and camera. Moving has you either running full speed (also being able to do short running bursts) or walking so slowly that it?s painful just to watch. This coupled with a camera that seems to have a mind of its own in tight places or when near stairs, makes it near impossible to see what?s ahead at times and you will get ambushed at times because of this. Not being able to invert the camera as well if you choose to will sure to add more frustration for some players.
The complete soundtrack was done by the same composer that did the other Star Ocean?s so the quality in the musical department is top notch as always. I wish I could say the same for the voice acting though. With a lackluster dialogue it might have been forgivable with voice acting that sounded believable, but even this isn?t the case. Some of the characters voices and catch phrases are so annoying that I believe this is the single reason why there is an option to mute them or not (outside of cutscenes). If there was an option to have Japanese voiceovers in lieu of English, it may have been bearable, but this wasn?t even included and you are forced to continue listening to the subpar voicing throughout the whole campaign.
It?s also quite a shame that the design of the main characters tend to be very generic and overall. You?ve got your skinny spiky haired protagonist with his childhood friend that looks like she?s straight out of an anime manga book. Some of the other main characters are also your typical JRPG stereotypes without much thought behind their looks.
The Last Hope spans onto 3 discs and will give you more than 30 hours of content if you strictly keep to the main storyline; doing multiple side quests will add many more hours on top of this. Normally once you get far enough long in the story and complete a disc, you are done that disc and don?t have to think of it again as you are moving on. With this title, should you want to go back to one of the earlier planets for whatever reason like dungeons, items, or quests later on, you need to manually swap the disc each time. It?s not a huge hassle, but it is another one of those things that just seem to add to more frustration overall for the player.
Typically I play an RPG; especially a Square Enix title, for its engrossing and interesting story, with the gameplay mechanics being a secondary feature I look to enjoy. Oddly enough, I found that around half way through The Last Hope I was playing for the gameplay itself instead of the ?what and why? while trying to still ignore the voice acting throughout. It can frankly be that awful at times, which was a complete shame. If there was an option to choose Japanese voices instead, I think it would have helped my experience and match the soundtrack more appropriately.
It was without a doubt the battle mechanics and being able to swap to any character at any time that helped me keep interest for the long term. I do worry that the average gamer will have a hard time swallowing the first 10 hours or so until things get more interesting, but even from that point, the pacing is just too off the mark to keep it interesting continuously.
With plenty of side quests to do, extra difficulty modes to unlock, and multiple endings to gain, there is no shortage of anything to strive for to prolong gameplay, as long as you have the patience to stick with it through the first few hours until it starts to get interesting and you learn how to play much more efficiently. Star Ocean: The Last Hope delivers tremendous gameplay and you will get out of it as much as you want to put into it. Hardcore RPG gamers might strive for more in the end but anyone starved for a decent RPG title will find an adequate title here, so strap in and head towards the endless star ocean.
Suggestions: Please, if we aren't going to get the option for non English voicing, then make sure that it's done well, especially when we have to sit through it for 40 hours or more.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Resident Evil 5
In 1996 Capcom released a game called Resident Evil and single handedly created a new popular genre along with it; entitled ?Survival Horror?. Over the years there have been numerous sequels and spinoffs and even appearing on all different platforms as well. The series was built on building tension for the player and forcing them to conserve ammo and items against a zombie outbreak instead of a traditional shooter game that gives you enough ammunition to take on an everlasting army. In most of the titles you had a fixed camera per room and had to navigate awkwardly based on the characters relation to the camera angle. When Resident Evil 4 was released a few years ago, Capcom completely changed the basic formula of the series and made it a third person view behind the character along with other transformations to all the other aspects of the game as well. Fans of the series previously seemed to either welcome to change or found it deviating too far from what they?ve previously come to know and enjoy from the series. Resident Evil 5 (noted as RE5 from here on) uses the same formula and style that Resident Evil 4 gave us, but with more refinement and slight modifications. While RE5 is easily the most impressive title in the series so far, it has now also changed from being a Survival Horror game and more of an Action Adventure title; not that this is a bad thing, but it?s not the same Resident Evil from a decade ago.
RE5 has a very different feeling to it from the previous titles, as it won?t scare you or have you scavenging for every last bullet you can find. There is now a very slow and meticulous gameplay as opposed to the frantic running away survival that we?ve come to learn to instinctively react with. Simply put, it now feels like a new game and not so much a conventional Resident Evil.
Chris Redfield, who is best known for being the main protagonist in the original Resident Evil which resulted in the destruction of Raccoon City, is now back with a new partner and looking for answers from his past. Chris is now a member of the B.S.A.A., who is responsible for attempting to stop the Umbrella Corporation?s creations all over the world. Chris is informed about an extremely deadly weapon deal that is going to take place in Africa and meets with Sheva Alomar who is also a B.S.A.A. agent from the area and become partners in an unraveling plot that eventually leads them through hoards of tainted local villagers and many other surprises along the way.
Things get very interesting once the plot opens up and you learn about something called Uroboros, that Albert Wesker (the antagonist from the original Resident Evil and Umbrella employee) is involved somehow, and a clue that Chris? old partner Jill Valentine who may not be dead which is what was believed.
Even though Jill won?t be at Chris? side this time around, Sheva can handle her own and turns out to be a very useful asset. Not only will Sheva help you while playing alone, but now in the series, you are able to play alongside a friend splitscreen or online. In typical Capcom fashion, once you complete the game for the first time, you unlock many features and even the ability to play as Sheva during the single player campaign.
I never felt like I had to watch over Sheva (while playing single player) and she is more than capable of watching over herself, but she tends to use healing items and ammo as if it was free and easily accessible. She?s very good about not getting in the way of your shots generally and given a powerful gun, she is a very capable partner. If you want to be the hero though, you can simply use her to carry your items and pack everything around.
The basic gameplay is very similar to that of RE4 but with slight changes and refinements such as now being able to strafe finally. You still are unable to move while aiming and shooting, but this is intentional and makes you take notice of your surroundings before stopping somewhere to shoot infected villagers and animals. Context sensitive inputs still are included with some quick time events between cutscenes that are successful at keeping the player involved instead of simply watching events unfold.
If you shoot an infected that causes them to stagger, you are now able to use a melee strike that is devastating and saves ammunition. When surrounded by a large number this ?can? work quite well when it does work as they can bowl over other enemies in the path for you as well when knocked down. I do say ?can? because there are quite a few times that I should have been able to melee but it doesn?t recognize them as being stunned which made me lose time and ammo having to shoot them again.
Cooperative play is absolutely the most important change in the series and even though the gameplay has the same mechanics as RE4, the inclusion of having a partner with you at all times changes how you play quite drastically. Knowing that someone is always watching your back is definitely welcome and two sets of eyes are much more efficient than one. You end up relying on your partner much throughout the game to save and cover you which isn?t common for the series.
Co-op play wasn?t just an addition to the title, much of the mechanics are built around it. Many times Chris and Sheva will be split up to reach high areas or to pull levers simultaneously for example. It?s a simple equation that worked and made you feel isolated from your partner at times, but it was still simple.
Another notable change is how your inventory is kept and taken care of. Previously when accessing your inventory, the game would pause, you could take your time choosing your weapons and doing what you need to do since the game halts and waits for you until you were ready. Now your inventory will appear on screen and you have to make sure you are in a safe area before doing so, as the game will not wait for you. You are also confined to 9 items slots permanently and this cannot be increased as in previous titles.
While playing single player, you are able to access both Chris and Sheva?s inventory and freely swap items in-between whenever you like. While playing with a friend online though, you are unable to exchange guns at all which makes sense balance wise but not logically.
Overall pacing of gameplay is very well done with a mix of frantic action, boss battles, quick time events, and cutscenes. You always feel apprehensive when going to a new area, not ever knowing what to expect. Boss encounters vary with strategy and some are quite large in scale. Cutscenes flesh out the story quite well and keep things moving at a steady pace that makes you want to keep going to figure out what is next. These visuals are quite impressive and all the animation is some of the best I?ve seen. Every action and motion is so natural and fluid that it was hard to not take notice of it. Coupled with the series? somewhat cheesy lines and respectable voice acting, brings everything together in a package that makes the characters believable.
Of course not everything is without its flaws; a few times I?ve had monsters trying to claw me from the other side of a wall with parts clipping right through. The same goes for some infected villagers arms going through objects trying to reach me as well, but other than the odd time of this happening, it wasn?t distracting all too much or taking away from the immersion.
Music is another high note of the whole experience. The musical score does its responsibility of setting the overall tone and tension musically. Something I found distracting was that there is set music for when you are engaged with enemies. While this is great at setting a mood, you aren?t generally surprised of a sneak attack as the music will start playing before hand, and you also know when you are clear of anything else nearby when the music ends. It simply felt too easy to know when to have your guard up and when you are relatively ?safe?.
Throughout the levels are many collectables and treasures to collect. Some are just worth money when sold, and others are hidden emblems that can be used to unlock extras from the main menu. You are also able to unlock and purchase unlimited ammo for your second play through if you?ve completely upgraded the weapon itself. This gives great replay value and gone is having to wait for the wandering merchant in RE4 since now all selling and upgrades are done before chapters.
While co-op is one of the biggest components of RE5, Capcom seemed to have made some odd choices when doing so. When playing split screen, the second player can take control over Sheva at any time by just pressing start on the second controller. The screen split is not done in your normal fashion, so instead of your normal exactly split screen in half, each player is given their own offset rectangle to play in that is slightly smaller than half the screen itself. It?s an odd effect that definitely takes some getting used to but it still worked.
Online co-op takes a few more steps to join a game and isn?t instant by any means. Firstly, the player wanting to join will have to wait until the host either restarts from the past checkpoint or gets to the next one. The other problem with this, as mentioned before, is how players cannot swap guns, but all other inventory items are allowed.
A great feature almost always included in every Resident Evil title is how much there is to do once you complete the main story for replayability. The first play through on Normal difficulty should last around 10 to 15 hours, depending on how vigilant one is at finding all the collectables. Once completed, a new minigame is unlocked called Mercenaries which pits you against waves of infected villagers while you wait for aid escaping. It?s much more frantic and you are given a set inventory that cannot be changed. Even this entertaining change of pace is playable cooperatively and is a great distraction from just trying to beat your best times on certain chapters.
You may have noticed that I?ve not once mentioned zombies, but infected instead. This is completely intentional and I am avoiding giving away anything that may spoil the plot in that regard as I quite enjoyed the plot after a few hours in once it started getting interesting. Having Chris Redfield playable again was more exciting than if it was a brand new character. Sheva seems to be a good fit as a counterpart and I hope she is not completely written off from this point on just because she was a local partner in Africa.
If you played RE4, you will have an idea of what to expect from RE5, just with more enhancements. If you?ve played the older games in the series and didn?t get to play RE4, it is quite a dramatic change from what you?ve known to expect from Resident Evil. It?s a shame that I no longer get that intense fear of what possibly may be lurking around the corner knowing a horde of zombies is ready to indulge on my flesh. Now with Resident Evil I?m learning to expect a different type of intensity while playing, that of action instead of fear and suspense.
While the series may be a different entity now than it was over a decade ago, it has evolved and changed, yet still does superb at delivering an interesting and deep story with exceptional production value. This change is sure to frustrate some, but on the other hand it is also sure to bring in new players which are always welcomed to any title or genre.
Suggestions: Moving while aiming has been a request since RE4, and I understand it is a design decision, but can't there be a middle ground somewhere?
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Halo Wars
One would think that a Halo game that doesn?t feature the iconic Master Chief would not have the same appeal as the previous trilogy. What if that game wasn?t even a first person shooter or made by Bungie Studios? Ensemble Studios which is known for their Age of Empire series has been given the chance to put the Halo universe into a Real Time Strategy game. It?s a complete change from what we?ve known to expect from a Halo title, but it still feels very much like it belongs in the series due to the diligence put towards making everything look and sound authentic to the universe from the environments and units.With myself being a terrible RTS player, but a huge Halo fan, I was somewhat nervous before giving Halo Wars a chance, as I thought that I wouldn?t be able to micromanage or do very well like previous titles in the genre. I was pleasantly surprised when the controls were very easy to grasp, I wasn?t overwhelmed with complex trees with branching unit development, and missions that flowed well and varied with different objectives.
Set twenty years before Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo Wars sets the stage of events of things to come in the later titles. At first the story might be a little difficult to understand, but eventually it all comes together and is brought together with amazingly beautiful cutscenes before every mission that are on par with the quality of CGI that Blizzard has shown in its titles.
The campaign?s story is lead by USNC Sergeant John Forge along with the Professor Anders as they are watching over the Covenant. You don?t have Cortana as your aid, but you do have a similar AI named Serina, though she is nowhere near as memorable or charming.
Because the campaign is only played through on the Human side, an average play through should take 5 or 6 hours on the normal setting, but in standard Halo fashion, you can bump up the difficulty to Heroic and Legendary for more challenge. It was quite disappointing now to have any campaign playable with the Covenant or event the Flood, so here is to hoping for future download content to allow another viewpoint of the war.
Playing through the campaign with a friend is possible with the inclusion of co-operative play. Two people can now go through the story and making things much easier in some of the more difficult missions. The two players share their resources and you have direct control of any units you build, but any units can be transferred to either player at any time. This can really cater to any play style, as one player can stay at the bases and built units and upgrade while the other receives the newly built units and can go explore or battle.
Because all resources are shared, good communication is key and since there are many types of missions such as defending, escorting, and all out front line pushes, having a partner to help definitely helps, especially in the harder difficulties where enemies have much more health and harder to kill.
For all the completionists or achievement hunters, there is a decent amount of replay value with trying to find all the hidden skulls; like in Halo, which unlock modifiers and settings. Certain optional objectives must be met in each mission before the hidden skulls will appear and they are usually just ?killing X amount of certain unit. Black boxes which will unlock back story timeline entries are also hidden in each level to be found as well.
Before being able to build a sizable army; like any other RTS you must first gather the resources beforehand. This has you choosing whether to build more supply pads to keep resources consistently coming in or to use the small amount of building slots for other buildings such as a barracks or vehicle depot. Luckily with Halo Wars, once you have your supply pads up and going, you don?t really have to worry all that much about your resources as it?ll continue to stream in unless destroyed. It was a relief for me to not have to micro-manage this aspect of the strategy.
While playing through the campaign, you are only able to control the USNC forces, though in multiplayer you are also able to command the Covenant. Ensemble has done a great job at giving each side an equal footing of types of units and no side is harshly more overpowered than the other. There aren?t many choices for actual types of units (with only a few land and airborne vehicles on each side) along with different types of ground members but the ability to upgrade different units in alternate ways that can easily change the outcome of a hard battle.
You are able to train different types of marines from your standard front of the line grunts to flamethrowers and medics (depending on what leader you control). Marines can be commanded to take cover behind bunkers and lay fire from there, the only problem with this is that if you forget to order them out of cover, they will stay there permanently even if you are ordering ?all units? somewhere. Spartans are also researchable and have a low cap on how many you can make due to their strength and ability to hijack enemy vehicles if commanded to do so. The Spartans are much more durable in battle and even if you pretend one of them is Master Chief, seeing them using Lasers and taking over a Scarab is something to see.
Seeing your army of Scorpions, Hornets, Warthogs, Spartans and marines is impressive; that is until you need to traverse them through some narrow areas and a traffic jam ensues. Sometimes some units get so in the way that you need to specifically choose the larger tanks and vehicles and move them out of the way so that the smaller units can get by. It was a little disappointing to see some AI that would infinitely get stuck until fixed, but this really only happened to myself once or twice.
The humans aren?t the only ones with awesome forces though. Covenant can research and create Grunts (literally, that can then be upgraded to suicide Grunts), Jackals, Hunters, Brutes, Ghosts, Choppers, Banshees, Wraiths, and the amazing massive Scarab that will definitely put some hurt to the USNC. It will take quite some time to save up enough resources and also use a good portion of your maximum unit numbers to create your Scarab, but if the other team is not ready for you, you will have a huge grin on your face while you plow your way through their bases and army with ease.
The Covenant is quite enjoyable to play and offers a great variety of change from the normal USNC units and strategies. It?s quite disappointing that there is no campaign portion for them or even the Flood for that matter. Sadly you don?t even get to play as the Flood even in multiplayer, so once again here is to hoping for future DLC for added longevity. With so many units on screen at once, every now and then the frame rate may drop for a moment, but generally it?s not an issue or hindrance.
When playing multiplayer, each faction has a choice of one of three leaders. These leaders each have their own unique powers and units that can be created which will give an inviting change from previous strategies.
Up to 6 players can compete on Xbox Live though with odd team choices such as 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and 3 vs 3. Oddly that is it along with Skirmish and Deathmatch; so the lack of multiplayer choices was slightly disappointing. So there are always only 2 teams, regardless how many people join. Deathmatch is an interesting change from the standard Skirmish game type and has you start with an ample amount of resources to start amassing your army right away. Regardless of the multiplayer shortcomings it is still quite enjoyable since you can help allies by sending them units or creating needed buildings while they focus on what they are doing.
What I was most surprised with in Halo Wars is the ease of use of controls. Everything you need to do is only 2 or 3 button presses away and it doesn?t feel like Ensemble has tried to map a keyboard onto the controller which was a problem with other console RTS?. It?s a relief to know that the game was built for the controller specifically and controls appropriately. The only downfall to the controller is the amount of functionality you have with it. You are able to select all units, all on the screen, or hold down the button to highlight specific units you want. You aren?t able to command units into custom groups so the best bet to fight on two fronts is move the two ?groups? of units away from each other, select all on screen and do what you need to with them while you move the screen to the second ?group? and do the same thing. It makes it slightly difficult, but once you have a firm grasp on the controls, you learn how to work with it rather than against it.
Moving and attacking is even mapped to the same button, so with a simple press of ?X?, so if the spot you bring the unit to is empty, they will move there, and if an enemy, they will attack. Some units also have a secondary special attack that can be used by attacking with ?Y? and are much more devastating.
All of these controls are taught within the effortless tutorials and while it gives you just the basics, it?s enough to start getting by, though a few more in depth tutorials would have been favored for new players to the genre to learn the different types of units more clearly.
Because you are only able to build in specific areas some players may find it somewhat confining, but not being that experienced of an RTS player, I actually preferred it this way as I could focus more on building everything in general and knowing where all my assets were at all times. It also makes it simpler to defend as you only have to defend your bases and not random obscure buildings anywhere else. Being able to instantly return to your bases is effortlessly done by tapping the D-Pad and it will also cycle through them in the order built.
Since you usually only control between 30 and 40 units at a time maximum; along with the map sizes, the scale of battles may not look huge, but Ensemble has done an awesome job at making the battles feel like they are on a much larger scale. This is also in part due to the camera that allows you to zoom close up to any unit and see much detail, yet you are unable to pull the camera out far enough to get a bird?s-eye view of the whole battlefield.
Even though Halo Wars wasn?t made from Bungie, everything looks and feels authentic. The menus have the halo style to it and match the symphonious soundtrack throughout the game. Warthogs sound exactly like their counterpart in the series all the way down to the individual Grunts and Hunters and weapons. The voice acting is on par and made everything feel believable throughout.
Ensemble has done an amazing job at creating a new game in the series with a completely new style yet nothing too foreign for Halo fans to shun it. What I found early on was that while it is quite fun for me as I?ve never been a huge RTS player (but also a Halo fan), it?s going to appeal to that specific audience much more than those wanting a deep and intense strategy title. While it is very simple and easy to play once you grasp the controls which makes it very easy to pick up and start playing, it may be a little too simple for those used to having to micro-manage on the PC counterparts.
Halo Wars is attempting to be a great console RTS and succeeds in that respect and should not be completely compared to other PC strategy games as the same depth is not there. This is not a fault to the game, as it?s done its job by bringing in new players to the genre and appeasing the Halo fans. Even without having the iconic Master Chief fronting the heroism, Halo Wars brings a great story along with matching gameplay that even players unfamiliar with the genre can learn and enjoy easily.
Suggestions: Simple. Covenant (and Flood if we are so lucky)campaign story. More DLC with possibly unit variants.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
Skate 2
When the original Skate was released, it became very popular very quickly due to it trying something new and risky for the genre. The Flick-it controls changed how we played skateboarding games and was a very welcome refresh for most. Also being able to somewhat edit your own replays an upload them for anyone to see was quite exciting. Now with Skate 2 here, many are wondering if EA Black Box has taken the same risk and added a whole new slew of reinventions and things for us gamers to play with. The short answer is yes and no.We have been given a sequel that does add some new welcome elements such as being able to get off our skateboard and move objects around to make that perfect spot, but also new frustrations with traffic, pedestrians, and the lack of filters for replay films. EA had a lot to live up to with this release and with the original Skate being so fresh, it was almost impossible to get the same feeling this time around. Not that this is a bad thing, as skating around is still just as fun and albeit much easier and quicker should you want it to be.
After a very short while, the campaigns story really won?t matter as it?s the same used ?become a pro and famous while getting on magazine covers and videos? routine we?ve played many times before on top of ?taking back the city for skaters everywhere?. The city has changed drastically and has now become New San Vanelona and most of it is unrecognizable for the most part, so it?s a fresh area with all new spots to find and trick off of.
As you begin the game, you will create your skater from the get go, and now being able to choose a female if wanted is a nice addition, but the character creator in general is pretty limited to make someone look decently unique other than choosing different clothing. From here you begin your journey for fame by entering competitions for street and vert, racing in downhill death races, try some challenges directly from pro?s themselves, work your way towards impressing Thrasher and other Skate mags, and try many other types of challenges along the way. A very welcome addition is the ability to take on challenges at your own leisure in a non linear way whoever you see fit. Being able to access your map at any time and directly warp to a challenge is very convenient and quick, but I found it making me not exploring the new city as much as I would have if I had to skate to every spot since it was just too easy and quick.
Since the majority of the city is open up completely from the very beginning, you can freely skate anywhere and find specific spots to ?own? and set a high score for everyone to see. You are now even able to get points at any time for bailing hard enough to cause massive body damage and broken bones. This Thrasher ?Hall of Meat? will ?reward? you for the bigger and nastier bails should you not land that huge trick. Being able to slightly control your movement mid-air and doing different poses pre-bail makes it quite amusing when you start to play this ?mode? competitively and will surely cause some cringing among friends.
Previously in the original Skate, if you found yourself at the bottom of a staircase, you had to somehow find a skate-able path up to the top and this always wasn?t the easiest or quickest thing to do. Now with the ability to get off your board, this makes traversing some areas much easier and quicker with less frustration?in one way. While it?s great that you can now run up a flight of stairs, it seems testing of the on-foot controls weren?t finished. Your movement is as agile as a tank and it is almost embarrassingly awkward to use. This isn?t even taking into the fact that you can?t walk backwards or jump over anything waist high. It has flaws, but in the end, getting off and dealing with the horrible foot controls to quickly get up a set of stairs is something I can somewhat forgive.
Now that your skater is able to walk around freely with their board, this also means that they can move specific objects around the world freely. Don?t like how that rail is aiming towards a wall, what if you moved it so you could grind it over that dumpster over there? Now you can move basic objects like rails, benches, trash cans, ramps, dumpsters and such in any fashion you want to create that ultimate spot, though you do need to grab the items at specific hold spots. Some objectives you are given are unable to be completed unless you move that ramp closer or change the angle of certain rails. It?s an interesting addition that I believe many will use to create some ultimate spots; and with the ability to make your spot then set a top score, you can also then upload it and share it online for everyone to try. The only issue I had with the create-a-spot feature was that the controls for actually making the spot (not arranging the rails etc) are very clunky. You need to set the high, then width, then move it, all separately. It?s a minor issue, but I find myself keep having to read the UI of how to move and change it rather than it being intuitive.
A huge annoyance with being able to move objects in this way is that since you are able to move them yourself, any skaters that bail on or around your new spot is able to push objects out of the way and ruin your whole setup in a few moments. Should you have remembered to ?stick? the objects where you want them for easy reset should this happen, it isn?t a big deal, but I guarantee it?ll happen eventually and you will have to restart all over making that spot exactly how you wanted it. An anchor option so objects were permanent unless you choose otherwise would have been much less frustrating.
While skaters ruining you?re newly made sweet spot can be an annoyance, I found nothing was more aggravating than pedestrians being able to litter. This sounds like nit picking, but this litter isn?t just for show, it will actually cause you to bail if you hit the trash with your board. Stay in one area long enough and you?ll see how many people in New San Vanelona don?t like to use trash cans.
The replay editor returns this year and some new features are in like new camera angles and slightly more options for editing are in, but filters from the original Skate are omitted for some reason. The video editor still feels very clunky and it?s not very simple to use quickly but being able to do camera transitions do make the videos look very cool in the end. Sadly you are still unable to cut multiple clips and put them together into one large video, it?s still just the last few minutes of your footage or so that you can play with at one time.
Having to get up a large hill in the first Skate was quite tedious just holding the button to push yourself up the hill. Now if you get behind a vehicle you are able to hold the shoulder button and skitch yourself a free ride. This also works for going downhill should you want to get some massive speed for a huge trick off of something up ahead. Also like the previous game, you can set session markers anywhere you want and come back to them at any time if you want to retry from somewhere specific. This has slightly been improved and you are no longer forced to wait for it to load should you skate too far and want to restart; it?s much more smooth and quicker at loading in general.
The repertoire of moves itself is much more robust this time and you are able to have more control over your move set? in theory. Since everything is mapped to the right stick with tweaks and grabs being done with the triggers and face buttons, it can be somewhat difficult to pull off a specific move since the variance between two different moves can be a fraction of a few degrees while flicking the stick. Once you do get the hang of the new move set list, it feels very rewarding now especially since you are now able to do footplants and handplants among many others. The new slew of moves can be confusing, so luckily you are able to pause the game and actually see a trick guide in-game of how to perform any given move and what it looks like as well.
As true to the previous game, the audio in general is quite superb. You can hear how your board sounds on different surfaces very true to life and are able to hear each wheel independently if you have the proper surround sound. The voicing is decent from the actual skaters themselves, though I found the soundtrack pretty unforgettable and just used music from my hard drive.
EA has seemed to have taken notice of popular features of their other games for their online modes; notably Burnout Paradise here, as now Skate 2 boasts the same cooperative play style on top of the previous modes. So with this new co-op play brings some fun and frustrating challenges such as all players needing to reach a set score before time ends, or everyone grinding a single rail at the same time. Sounds like it?s not too terribly difficult, but these can be quite difficult to complete, especially if you have someone in the party that isn?t quite on par skill wise. What can make these challenges even harder is that some peoples scores won?t count or will reset if they skate too slowly or bail. On top of all this, not every objective is clearly described on what to do or marked easily. The choices of objectives themselves is pretty limited, so here is to hoping for future DLC content to add more challenges soon.
There are many other online options such as downhill death-racing, trick events like the classic S.K.A.T.E. and others, but the most fun to be had for myself was the Hall of Meat mode where players take turns in progression to see who can bail the biggest and hardest for the most points. Players that are watching can then vote if was it anywhere from bad to awesome and does a good job of spectators paying attention.
The first skate was taking a big chance when it released with its fresh controls and new ideas. This time around it feels like Skate 2 wasn?t trying to take any big chances with anything. This isn?t to say Skate 2 is faulted for not trying anything revolutionary this time, but it just didn?t feel as fresh overall.
There are some odd and frustrating design choices this time around such as pedestrians that just seem to know to get in your way at the worst possible time, or having them litter causing you to wipe unjustly. Also having no ability to freely edit clips together to make a true skate reel was disappointing, but for even having these faults, Skate 2 is quite the entertaining game, even for casual players that won?t ever complete every objective.
With the Tony Hawk series being on hiatus this year, choosing Skate 2 will have little or no regrets. Hopefully when the next iteration releases, EA will learn from Skate 2?s shortcomings and once again feel fresh and new. Skate 2 is worthy of the purchase and will keep you entertained for as long as you allow it. Creating new spots and sharing them; along with the Hall of Meat is more than enough fun to warrant the purchase alone regardless of its faults.
Suggestions: Add more features to the replay editor, not take away. Actual facial animations would be a plus, espcially now since bails are a larger part of the game.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Last Remnant, The
Having a new RPG on box 360 from SquareEnix is almost like Christmas and this time it just happens to also be around that time that we are given The Last Remnant. It?s a shame that this offering is one of those gifts that you have to force yourself to smile and say ?Thank You? even though it really isn?t what you wanted. It feels like they have tried to go against the grain with every design choice to try and be different but it?s so different from what most people will be used to it might be hard to swallow.Within minutes of starting the game you are pushed into battle to get things moving with a bang, but you will also instantly see the game?s biggest downfall; the technical issues. Should you be able to look past and get through the technical embarrassment, you will most likely enjoy the offering from its beautiful art and graphics (technicalities aside) to its wonderful music and somewhat engrossing story. You just need to look hard and learn to enjoy its underlying features, but for most it will probably be too hard to swallow and just bring dir name is Rush and you are chasing after your kidnapped sister. The rest of this plotline that follows suit is cliché, but when you start learning about Remnants and the Conqueror, things do start to pick up and the story becomes more engrossing. The only problem is that it does take awhile to get to the deeper plot and most people will most likely be put off by all the technical flaws that I don?t see many forcing a sit through to overcome the issues just to get a decent story half way through.
Because the games battles are a much larger scale than the few person parties we?re accustomed to, the focus of the game seems to be the battles and more than half of your play time will be on the battlefield clearing a path to your next destination to hopefully progress the story. It feels the games length was basically doubled just due to all the combat throughout the journey.
SquareEnix has opted to use the Unreal 3 Engine for this title and it clearly shows from the first few minutes of gameplay that they did not know how to use or at least polish it. Because battlefields can have dozens of enemies on the screen at once, slowdown is not only quite frequent but sometimes to the point of the game looking like a slideshow. Having the game installed on my hard drive did improve things slightly but it?s still quite embarrassing and doesn?t look finished in any form at all. It?s not just bad, it?s simply broken and I don?t know how this was released with this subpar of quality, especially coming from SquareEnix.
To keep you engaged in battle after giving your commands to your leaders, there is a random chance of getting a critical attack or block that is done by hitting the correct corresponding button that flashes on the screen. In idea this works great, but when the framerate dips to the point of being unable to hit the button at the proper timing, you will want to turn the critical to automatic. Interestingly enough you are still able to get the achievement for doing a certain about of perfect critical hits this way.
Battle framerate isn?t the only issue that plagues this title though; cutscenes also have very poor load times and the ?pop in? is in full effect. More so that the normal one or two seconds we?ve seen in other games, sometimes taking up to six seconds. It?s also not only limited to the textures on characters, but even floors, walls, and other objects and just takes down the whole immersion even more.
Another issue that occurs almost every fight is problems with the camera. It will swing around in a fashion to show you up close battles between characters, but when it does it will also sometimes render your troops invisible or even have objects on the field like boulders seem invisible until the camera moves and you notice there was actually an object there. Sometimes this camera shifting also seems to make characters ?warp? from different sides of objects or enemies and seems to make no sense and only add more confusion where it?s not needed.
Save points are a thing of the past in Last Remnant and one would assume this would be a good choice since you are now able to save basically anywhere you want. The issue with this change is that there are no checkpoints of any kind. So if you forget to save for quite some time and then die, you?ve lost all that work, so hope that you save often. I found myself saving quite often as you never knew what was going to be behind the door or if you?ll survive the upcoming boss battle. I?ve never died nearly as much as I have while playing Last Remnant, so it?s made me save after every few battles just in case. It really slows down the pace and it?s difficult to become immersed in a story when you keep wondering when the last time you saved was.
Since you are eventually able to control around 18 party members in battle, having to do all their equipment would be quite tedious and confusing so you are only in control of Rush?s equipment. All other party members (even the key plot leaders) can only be given items, equipment, and components when they ask for them after battles or on map screens. So even if you are holding onto a decent weapon that you just upgraded from, it will sit in your bag doing nothing unless someone happens to specifically ask for it. It feels as if you don?t have much control over your other party leaders and you will have to settle for only customizing Rush.
You don?t level up normally like in other RPG?s either. Your whole party gets an overall Battle Rank and it will rise the more you fight and battle, so there still is a grind factor. Battle difficulty stays the same for enemies, but I found boss battles seemed to scale up in accordance to the Battle Rank. So if you are stuck in a dungeon or on normal enemies it means you need to level up your Battle Rank, but it also means the boss fights will scale as well and be just as difficult.
Keeping with the ?against the grain? trend, even going from area to area in a city isn?t done the normal way either. Whenever you hit a ?zone line?, you are pushed back out to the map screen and can pick anywhere in the city or world map to go to instantly. While it is quite convenient by being able to warp anywhere you want to instantly and not having to get lost in large cities, it also made it completely useless to walk around cities (since the map screen shows you what shops are in what areas) and exploring.
Side quests are available through the pubs in cities and do offer rewards such as money, items, or even new leaders for your squads. There is no way to tell how difficult each quest is though until you get to the area and give it a try. Sometimes you will just have to give up and put it on hold until you come back later when your Battle Rank is much higher.
Guilds also offer passive quests that will reward you once you fill the prerequisites of each one such as killing a certain amount of enemies or collecting certain items. Some quests are also quite detailed and have you killing a certain type of enemy but only in one exact area. You can collect these rewards at any time once completed so you usually won?t need to drop by the guild unless you need to hire some leaders for your union.
The voice acting from the main characters do an adequate job but any supporting characters or other voicing is mediocre at best and usually very cliché. Even with the decent voicing done by Rush and other main characters, it?s sometimes hard to not snicker at with the obvious lines and odd slang that seems forced.
When playing Last Remnant for more than 30+ hours, you will become quite sick of hearing Rush say ?Let?s do this? at the start of every battle or ?Sweet? whenever he gained a new skill. Every member says the same thing every time and it becomes thin and annoying very quickly. It?s a shame since you want to like the characters, but hearing them repeat the same catch phrases each time will have you cringing by the time you get to the second disc.
Groups or parties are called Unions and unions are consisted of up to 5 people. In a union all party members share one life bar, so in a way it?s almost like only having to worry about one character (as a union) from dying. So regardless of who gets hit in a union, the life bar as a whole will go down collectively even if different people are getting attacked. Having different formations for your unions will play on characters? strengths and weaknesses and can definitely compliment each others? unions.
As long as Rush?s union doesn?t die, you can continue to fight in battle, but when playing certain missions where Rush has to be alone, (thus having a very low hit points) it can be near impossible to survive even simple battles. Surviving some battles can simply come down to a lucky dodge or block and seems to happen more often than it should. It can be very discouraging early on when you are finding yourself dying quite often because you have to hope you can survive the enemies? first attack so that your other unions can save you. Luckily after every single battle, all your stats and health are refreshed to full, so no needing to heal up after battles; you just need to make sure you survive.
When choosing your unions? turn of commands like attack or magic (called Arts) or combat skills, you are only choosing a larger blanket of options. For example, if you choose Arts to do some magic, you don?t get to pick what skill to use if you have multiple, so it can sometimes be guesswork of what skills will actually be used. You have no direct control over what exact skills or attacks are used, though I?ve not found it something that?s held me back from winning a battle or not; it just feels like you don?t have much control over your party members. While putting in all unions? commands, characters and enemies will fight each other and clash swords but it?s just graphical and doesn?t affect any of your stats since it?s for show. It?s a nice touch that makes these battles seem more alive when even just putting in your commands and is better than just seeing your characters standing there waiting for the battle to start.
Last Remnant is very confusing overall, but if you enjoy the combat mechanics and don?t mind some grinding to level up then it is worth a try. Since half your time will be in battle; alf your time will also be trying to ignore the technical issues that come with it.
It?s hard to judge Last Remnant as it does have quite the amount of flaws, but underneath all of the problems, there is an interesting story and new gameplay. The fact remains that I can?t foresee the average person forcing themselves to sit through all the issues and problems just to hopefully have it get better.
Many fans have wanted more SquareEnix titles on the 360 for quite awhile, but let?s hope next time it?s a much better experience and not shoveled out the door before it?s even near complete and polished.
Suggestions: Last Remnant needs polish. I don't mean would look better with it, I mean NEED. It's quite an embarassment to have framerates this poor and I hope more testing is done before launching other titles.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
Tomb Raider Underworld
Lara Croft is almost a household name among gamers and she is back for yet another adventure through exotic locations, temples and many tombs. Everything in Underworld has been built on top of and attempted to make better from the previous Tomb Raider Legend title; from the combat to the traversing animations. Environments are much larger and the foliage (especially in the Thailand level) adds a very natural and realistic visual style. Some very small things have even been added such as Lara pushing away branches and leaves out of her way when running past. It looks so smooth I was instantly reminded of Altair pushing people aside gently in Assassin?s Creed.
Tomb Raider Underworld lives up to its title and will have you deep inside temples, under the sea and in many exotic locations. Even Lara herself looks better overall and you will even notice that her skin is still wet with beads of water when she emerges from any form of water.
This story is a direct sequel to the previous title; Legend, and picks up where the story left off, but starting the game off has no back story to catch you up on anything that has previously happened which will leave many people confused that may have forgotten the previously storyline or newcomers that will have no idea what is going on or why. If you just happened to check the Extras menu before starting the campaign you would find a very brief cinematic that will catch you up on the very basics of what?s happened previously and why you are still trying to find your mother and what?s happened to Amanda in Legend.
The main story honestly wasn?t very memorable; the only reason I was somewhat interested was because I?ve been following the Tomb Raider series since its first iteration, so I?ve already invested into Lara and her travels. I could see new comers to the series not care very much for the overlaying plot, but most will probably be wondering why one of the female characters has wings and is trapped since the lack of back story is quite the hindrance for story and character development. There is an overlaying Norse mythology aspect to the story which I found more interesting than the main plot itself. It is enjoyable to see some other main plot characters get some more face time unlike how Legend did.
The scale of the story seems to be much bigger to go along with the larger scale of the levels themselves. There are different places all around the world you?ll visit and explore like Thailand, Mexico, the Arctic, and even under the Ocean.
Gameplay is very similar to how Legend was played though now with many tweaks for the better. Lara has many more moves this time around to help with her exploration such as balance board walking, being able to shoot while hanging from ledges or pillars, and even the ability now able to shoot two enemies at once with her signature pistols.
Lara has also been given a new set of animations for all these new moves and they look much more fluid for the most part, but this is when the beginning of bugs starts to arise. There are many clipping issues such as legs and hands going through rocks and ledges or even sometimes getting completely stuck inside a rock. Sometimes the forced animations cause you to sometimes get stuck in objects as well and Lara won?t reset until you stop and move away from whatever bugged her out in the first place. Normally I can deal with clipping to an extent, but when it happens often enough to be quite noticeable to break my immersion, that?s where it needs to be mentioned.
I?ve also had quite a few times where Lara would just stop and seemed stuck in her tracks and it took moving the stick in many directions before she would start moving in the proper direction again. There was also one instance where I had a bug on such a huge scale that it was game breaking and I had to reload an older save; losing around 40 minutes of work, but I?ll get to the save feature issues afterwards.
One of the levels in Mexico has you solving a puzzle but the scale of it is so huge that you have to drive from each half of the area on your motorbike just to get to each side. After the puzzle is solved a large tomb entrance emerges from the ground and you have to drive there before it closes and retracts. Well I didn?t quite make the jump into the tomb and my previous checkpoint save was reloaded to just before I had to drive into the tomb. As I get to the tomb entrance I notice it has not risen and the entrance is not there, so I drive back to both sides of the puzzle to try and reactivate it, but it had already been completed, so there was nothing I could do. I lost a good chunk of time having to restart the whole level again from the chapter?s start checkpoint and gained quite a bit of frustration due to this.
This is where the save feature problems are also apparent. For an actual save it only auto saves at the beginning of a level or chapter. There are many checkpoints as you play and if you die it just pops you back at the last checkpoint which works well, but if you get stuck or have a major issue like I did, unless you saved manually, you will have to start at the very beginning of the chapter.
There are redeeming qualities though that Underworld brings to the series. There are optional paths for the collector gamer that needs to find all the treasures and secrets to find special relics. Lara?s PDA that gives her basic info and inventory now has a sonar map that can be used to view a 3D model of your surroundings to look for where to go next or any grapples you happen to not see. The sonar feature is interesting though I never found myself having to use it after the first level once you know what to look for. The PDA also has a built in hint feature that will tell you a generic ?The switch must be used to open the gate? (for example) with a press of the ?A? button, but if you need more help, pressing ?Y? will give you a very detailed hint of what to do such as ?I must move that boulder onto one switch while I stand on the other?. It?s a nice feature to try and keep you in the game instead of looking up walkthroughs online when you get stuck and when it works properly it has helped me solve some of the puzzles, but there were even times where it was too generic to offer any real help or even thought I was in a previous room instead of where I really was which just added frustration on top of not being able to figure out the puzzle.
For how often you are underwater, the controls are quite decent and simple to use. While not perfect, it is good enough to not be a hindrance considering how most games? underwater controls are just atrocious. It?s very refreshing that at least when underwater there wasn?t any unnecessary frustration with the controls.
Lara's grappling hook allows you not only to swing across gaps with ease but now you are able to wall run, scale walls up and down and even use it as a tool to knock over boulders with the wire. If you are hanging from your zipline and need to change directions because you didn?t quite jump and grapple on straight, I found it near impossible to do simply without just giving up and retrying to hook on at the proper angle.
There are some levels where you will be using your motorbike to jump gaps and to get from place to place. It did feel kind of just thrown in because the previous titles had it as well but a much better job has been given to a purpose of actually using the bike this time since there are some puzzles that are the size of a small city. It can feel very daunting at times and make you wonder how you will ever figure out a puzzle of this magnitude, but when you do finally figure it out the feeling of reward is much greater as well. It can feel a little too much for new players to the series when just looking at some of the scale of these chapters but every time you complete a puzzle you?ll do the almost obligatory ?oh yea!?.
Quite a few of the levels have a good portion of backtracking which at times felt very unnecessary. When a level could end, there were some sections that instead of rewarding you with the next cutscene, it makes you run all the way back out. It seems like it was a simple way of just adding some unneeded length to the game since you were just going down the previous path in reverse.
The camera is still the largest issue in the series and it has not been fixed in Underworld yet either. Ideally it is supposed to give you the best view when you are climbing up walls and pillars so that you know where you need to jump to next. This would be ideal if the camera didn?t always fight you when you try to move the camera yourself to search around for the next spot to leap to. Because of the camera issues, it can simply be a guess where to jump to next which will add to the frustration when you don?t understand why you didn?t make that jump for the tenth time. If you are properly lined up to the next jump (only certain gaps about half the time) Lara will slightly crouch and get into a leaping position so that you know you are properly lined up and aren?t just leaping to your death?.again. With camera issues being a problem since the first Tomb Raider, I really do hope one day that this will be fixed as having a bad camera only adds player frustration.
I was quite surprised that the sound quality was the most noticeable feature that I found during my play. The music was very well done and set the moods for whatever environment you happen to be immersed in perfectly. It?s a shame that the voice acting other than Lara was only mediocre at best, though the quality of the writing and cliché probably didn?t help the cause.
Upon completion of the main story, Treasure Hunt mode is unlocked but unless you are achievement hunting or striving for the 100% completion, you probably won?t even touch this mode once finished.
Combat has been slightly refined but has the same basics that Legend had. When loading a new level you get to choose your main guns and your outfit beforehand. It?s a small feature that resembles some customization but with combat not having any real challenge, it really doesn?t matter what weapons you choose in the end. You are also now given sticky grenades that are actually quite useful when locked onto an enemy and is a guaranteed kill for the smaller enemies. The ability to now shoot two enemies at once when using your pistols or two weapons is a new feature that is welcomed but not revolutionary.
While making shots in combat, your adrenaline meter fills up and when it is full you are able to pull off one shot kills while in slow motion for precision aiming. There are also certain parts while platforming around that will automatically slow things down so that you have time to jump at the right time for specific situations.
Throughout your adventure you will be faced against tigers, regular enemies with guns shooting back at you, giant spiders, panthers, and even summoned monsters and yetis. Even the enemies towards the end of the game had no real challenge and once you get the final weapon in the game, combat is a joke and even less challenging. With no bosses to fight against at all; being somewhat of a letdown, it?s apparent that combat wasn?t as big of a focus as it was in Legend.
It is apparent that combat is quite a big weakness and with no cover system you just need to strafe in and out from behind walls to avoid being shot. Even though you could do this, it?s never really challenging as the AI lacks are sort of actual intelligence. Most of the time enemies or even animals will just stand there as you shoot them. There are options to alter the difficulty of the enemies but turning it up only made the bullets do more damage instead of making combat any more of a challenge. In a way it?s almost a good thing as it made me focus more on the puzzles and exploration than having to deal with long drawn out firefights, which isn?t the sole reason most Tomb Raider fans play for.
?Substantial? exclusive DLC for the 360 has been promised, but with the story only being a few hours long it makes me wonder what may have been taken out in lieu of future content instead.
For every great moment and new feature, there seems to be an equal amount of frustration and bugs such as random floating body parts from down enemies. It felt like a tradeoff of sorts and just seemed to bring down the whole experience for myself, even being a huge fan of the series.
Tomb Raider is still leaping from point A to B then shimmying over to ledge C. This is the strength of the series but it feels much too linear especially since there are rarely ever secondary ways to solve puzzles or climb to heights. It?s a predetermined path and feels constricting when we are now able to play open ended games like Assassin?s Creed.
It plays very similar as the previous Tomb Raider games and it feels like it?s time for a new take on Lara?s adventures. Obviously multiplayer is a needed feature for future iterations, but I?d honestly just be happy with a properly working camera so that I know where I actually need to go to next. It?s another adventure with Lara and it?s basically the same old gameplay that we?ve been playing for years with minor tweaks and additions. Lara may look better but here?s to hoping that the next time we get to adventure with her it?s a much easier experience to swallow without as much frustration.
Suggestions: Simply fix the camera, its been an issue for WAY too long and I would be happy.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Left 4 Dead
Any zombie movie fan will surely know Romero?s films and the 28 Days Later series. Having these scenarios as a playable game hasn?t been done very often successfully recently other than Dead Rising. So what if Dead Rising was turned into a first person shooter and added 4 player co-op? You would have Left 4 Dead.Left 4 Dead is built on four player cooperative play that is very simple yet effective. The great thing about the co-op is that it?s based around the idea of playing with others, not just a feature included afterwards. Being able to heal each other or give pain pills to friends that need it is done simply with the quick press of the D-Pad and really encourages you to watch out for your team mates rather than just looking out for yourself like most other games.
Four people have survived and the basis; like any other zombie flick is to simply find rescue while staying alive and killing as many zombies as possible. Sadly, there is no overlaying plot, but instead the game is broken up into 4 different scenarios. Each scenario is then broken up into 5 different chapters that end when you get to each safe house at the end and all 4 survivors are inside (should they still be alive). Each scenario is the same in essence with you trying to get from checkpoint to checkpoint and a final mass of zombies rushing you as you wait 10 minutes on a rescue vehicle to come get your survivors.
You don?t know what happened, why, or even how you have survived and each scenario doesn?t even have any smaller sub plots like trying to find other survivors or anything which was a little disappointing, though there are many redeeming qualities that make up for this oversight.
Sadly each scenario is generally pretty short, only lasting around an hour or so per, though playing on expert will add some more time, as will all your restarts when the survivors are overcome by the infected. So with 3 scenarios to do, that?s roughly 4-6 hours, but Left 4 Dead has a ?Director? mode that ensures each play through will never be the same, which I?ll touch on later.
Scenarios are also presented like a Hollywood movie. Starting up the first chapter has a loading screen of a movie poster style image but with your gamertag showing who is starring as each character like a real movie poster. Finishing a scenario will also play credits with details of all the chapters gameplay such as headshots, most zombies killed, accuracy and even more. Should someone not have survived the final ambush at the end of the chapter, the credits even dedicate the ?movie? to the memory of that player. It?s a small thing, but it makes me smile every time and has that authentic movie feel to it.
With the 4 scenarios having a short gameplay from start to finish, Valve has ensured gamers will want to replay these same levels many times over and over, and this is accomplished with the ingenious ?Director?. Instead of programming separate AI in each zombie, the Director takes into account how your survivors are playing and changes how the zombies act and spawn on the fly to compensate when needed. So if your players aren?t playing very well and missing lots of shots or getting hurt quite often, the Director tones down the aggressiveness of the zombies and even how many are thrown at you. On the flip side, should you be doing well with many headshots and killing well, the Director will make the zombies much more aggressive and throw more at you and possibly even more obstacles. More than just the zombies, the Director will also either give you more health packs if playing poorly and also higher powered guns if needed as well, all on the fly. This ensures that no play through will ever be the same and it makes things interesting as you may have been ambushed somewhere in one play through but not the second time. It keeps the excitement level high as you never really know what is going to happen each time you play which keeps replay factor an option without boredom.
Even though the game is built around co-op, single player is definitely an option. Bots are decent for healing you and helping kill zombies but the problem is that they aren?t aggressive enough and won?t take the lead, they will always follow you. So it is possible to play the game solo, but it just won?t compare to actual players. Each character will automatically talk such as calling out that they are reloading or shouting out the position of special zombies. Each of the infected also have their own sounds and gurgles so that you can tell which special infected are nearby before you even see them, which raises the tenseness even higher while trying to find them before they find you.
Should someone die while trying to get to a checkpoint, a player will respawns after a set amount of time, but they are locked in a room nearby until someone comes and opens the door to free them.; then they are to able join in the zombie slaying once again. If all players die or get pinned down, the whole chapter much be restarted from the beginning again. While this can be frustrating at times, especially on the harder difficulty levels, it promotes more co-operative gameplay with players having to watch each other?s backs and healing them when needed without running up ahead alone.
Certain checkpoints will have you pinned down in areas while waiting for an elevator or some other scenario to happen. During this wait there is always a huge rush of zombies that will come after you called the Horde. These massive groups of zombies aren?t much different than the normal ones but as a pack they are much more dangerous and will actually run at you as fast as they can like in 28 Days Later. They will even climb ladders and break down doors to get to you. Very loud noises will also attract the Horde such as car alarms and even if a certain zombie called a Boomer; vomits or blows up on you. The zombies have emotions on their face if they are chasing you and if you shoot one in the knee while running, they will fall down realistically. Luckily you are able to shoot off limbs and body parts to slow them down, but like any zombie movie, a headshot will always do the trick in one shot.
When you reach the end of a chapter, all players need to get inside the safe room and lock the door behind you. These rooms always have some writings on the wall from previous survivors and some of the quotes are pretty entertaining like the walls of a bathroom stall. You always will have an ammo stash and some health packs to start off the chapter. While you just start off with basic pistols, there are other weapons even though they are limited such as a Hunting Rifle, 2 different shotguns, an Assault Rifle, Grenades, and Molotov?s. Should you run out of ammo on your primary weapon, your pistols will always have unlimited ammo and if you get knocked down to the ground, you have to use your pistols to defend yourself while waiting for someone to help you up.
Other than your standard zombie and Hordes, there are a few special infected that can make surviving quite a challenge as they are much more powerful or have some special abilities.
Boomers are giant overweight zombies that don?t have much health, but if they get close enough to vomit on you or blow up nearby, the bile attracts the Horde directly to you and you are unable to see as if you had slime all over your face.
Hunters are zombies that will crawl on all four just waiting for the perfect moment to pounce a survivor. If you get pounced, you are unable to get him off of you until someone helps you and your health slowly goes down as they claw you over and over.
Smokers are the other common special zombie that has a very long tongue that can reel you in if you are hit with it. Should you get wrapped with the tongue, he will slowly pull you in towards him and start to claw you once in range. You do have a few moments to try and shoot him before he pulls you all the way in and before you are incapable of defending yourself.
There are two other special zombies that are much more powerful but you don?t come across them as often. When you do though, you need to work together to take them down or they will make very quick work of your team.
The first of these two is called the Witch. You can hear a small girl crying from a distance but usually you can?t see them because they are hidden in a dark room or corner. As you get closer the crying becomes louder and the overlaying ambient music becomes more and more intense. Should you find her, you are able to usually sneak past her without disturbing her as long as you don?t get too close or have your flashlight on. Should someone make the mistake of startling the Witch, she awakes and becomes extremely angry and screams while chasing your teammates. She is able to effectively one hit kill a survivor and if you are also dealing with a Horde at the same time or some other of the special zombies, she will make quick work of you. Some rooms are so dark that you absolutely need to have your flashlight on to see where to go as its pitch black in many areas, but the problem is that you may attract more zombies this way or even startle a nearby Witch. The flashlight mechanic reminds me much of how it worked in Doom 3 where you can have an easier time with it off and not attract zombies towards you, or actually see what?s in front of you if you have it on.
The last of the two more powerful zombies is called the Tank. This is basically a huge tank of a zombie in essence with huge muscles and a very bad temper. They are able to one hit you and knock you far away if they aren?t picking up slabs of concrete from the ground and throwing them at you first. The problem with Tanks is that they have an absolute huge amount of health and take quite a barrage of bullet to stop. They will do anything to stop you and they are able to do so with ease. When you hear a Tank coming, you better hope that all four survivors are ready for an intense fight to follow.
Should a player go idle for too long, there is a great system in place that will take care of being one man short versus the infected. After a certain amount of time of someone being idle they will automatically switch to the spectator team and the AI will take over for them until they return. The bot that takes over; just like while playing single player; is generally decent at helping and healing, but will never take the lead and just follow you. Should someone be away for too long or unhelpful for whatever reason, players are able to vote for a kick or even change chapters. Expert mode is quite a challenge with more aggressive zombies and higher health, so the vote system comes in very handy if someone isn?t pulling their weight against the ambush.
Where Left 4 Dead differentiates itself from other zombie survival games is the ability to have 8 players online with 4 humans versus 4 infected. A chapter is played with the humans trying to get the safe house at the end of the chapter and the zombie team trying to prevent them from doing so. Each chapter is player twice and the teams switch when the humans reach the safe house or are all killed.
The team that is playing the infected randomly takes the role of a Boomer, Hunter, or Smoker. Each type has their special abilities as decried before, but on a timer so they need to be use when the timing is right. This makes it more important t play co-operatively and communicate even more so than while playing as Humans. Regardless of what zombie you are given to play, all are able to climb walls at predetermined spots that are marked with footprints on the walls. From here you are able to setup for an ambush or get higher ground to leap from.
Every now and then an infected will randomly be chosen and turn into a Tank to help stop the survivors. Just like fighting against one, you have all the same skills like throwing large blocks of cement at players to stop them and getting up close and punching them for massive damage. You do have much more health as a Tank, but if you try and take on all four survivors alone, you will even get killed quickly.
When you die as an infected, there is a long respawn time. You appear as a ghost where the humans are currently at and you need to get further enough away in a safe area away from them to spawn your infected. This allows you to determine where you want to setup an ambush, either in front and wait on them to come to you, or behind and try and get them when they aren?t looking or too busy with the random zombies and Hordes.
Infected players need to play much more co-operatively as they can be killed very easily when alone. Having a Boomer waiting behind a door or corner ready to spew bile on a player, then having a Hunter and Smoker attack when they are busy with the Horde is essential to try and stop them.
Not all of the scenarios are playable for some reason, so let?s hope for an upcoming patch to add the others. I?m also hoping that future DLC will add more scenarios or even maybe possible new infected to play as in Versus mode.
There are many zombies at the screen at once but nowhere near as many as Dead Rising had at times. Corpses do fade after a little while on the floor but you are usually so busy fighting the never ending slew of zombies that you don?t really notice it since there isn?t any backtracking.
While you are able to heal each other, it would have been nice to be able to share your ammo with each other as well. Ammo stashes usually aren?t too far apart but you will use a good portion of your reserves while fighting a Tank or many Hordes.
Valve has done a great job at making Left 4 Dead feel exactly like a Hollywood movie. While it does have high replayability due to the Director, it still does feel empty in substance, though playing with 4 friends online is simply just fun and makes you forget the lack of any plot.
I do hope that there will be more scenarios for download in the future to prolong the life of the game even further, but I have a feeling I shouldn?t hold my breath for any overlaying plot or explanation to why or what happened. It will feel short overall but you will play through the scenarios co-operatively or on Versus mode many times without it ever feeling much like the same situation each time.
Left 4 Dead is fun, plain and simple. Playing online with friends is even a better experience and having Versus mode with the ability to play a zombie itself is a fantastic addition and killing the survivors can be entertaining as killing the Horde. If you are even remotely a zombie movie fan, this title deserves a chance as many zombies will be killed in the playing of his game; and that is always a good thing.
Suggestions: Many more scenarios for download and some more playable types of zombies in Versus mode.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Mirrors Edge
It seems like for the past while we?ve been getting nothing to play other than sequels or remakes, so when something new comes along, it?s hard not to get excited about it. DICE (which is known for the Battlefield series) has brought the concept of a Free Running (Parkour for those in the know of the ?sport?) game done completely in the first person view. Gameplay almost feels like as if you were playing Assassin?s Creed?s climbing, swinging, and jumping mechanics since every move is mapped to an ?up? and ?down? button to easily decide what you want to do; but through the main characters eyes.This seems like a very cool and new idea, and parts have been done before in other games, but not a whole game concept centralized around it completely. The idea is to make you feel like you are actually controlling the character through their eyes as opposed to playing in third person with a free swinging camera to look in any direction at anytime.
You are Faith, a ?runner? that delivers confidential information to clients much like a courier, but instead of a bike or truck, you get to your destinations and clients with your own feet and hands the old fashioned way, but with a twist. Sometimes to get from place to place, you may need to jump over barbed wire fences, climb very high roofs, or even jump from building to building. The reason behind taking these risks is because the cops (referred to as ?Blues?) view runners as outlaws.
Early on you meet up with your sister Kate in a high ranking person's office only to find him dead and your sister there trying to figure out what happened. Clearly with your sister setup to take the fall for a murder she didn?t commit, you are about to set off on a journey to solve the problem, but not without any hardship from the Blues shooting to prevent you from doing so.
This is the general story plotline though I never found myself really caring for any of the characters along the way other than Faith herself. This wasn?t due to poor character building, dialogue, or even the voice acting, it?s that you only get story cutscenes between each chapter and with only 9 chapters in Mirrors Edge; you?ll most likely finish the story in around 6 to 8 hours. In those little few hours, the majority of the time will be retrying jumps that had you plummeting to your death or trying to figure out where to go while avoiding being shot rather than straight running from point to point. A second play through is even quicker once you know where you need to go since there isn?t very many branching paths to get to your destination, which feels odd in an opening looking world.
Once the story is complete you are able to do sections of each chapter in a time trail mode where you don?t have to worry about the Blues chasing you. Your best times are saved and uploaded for anyone to download and race against. This means you are able to see the best runners in the world, download their ghost, and race against it to learn their tricks and the best possible lines to gain your flow. It would have been nice to have two player multiplayer in this mode where you and a friend could actually race, but being able to download anyone?s ghost makes sure it?s not a complete bust.
What makes Mirrors Edge unique in gameplay is that you play entirely in the first person view, as if seeing the world how Faith sees it. This is concept sounds like a great plan when on paper, but felt like it came short when trying to look where to go next, while also having to look forward to obstacles that are coming next. It?s like not having any peripheral vision but having to look in more places than straight ahead at once; you can start to see where frustration will set in.
For people that get queasy stomachs from playing first person shooters, this will induce a far worse feeling as the camera is constantly moving as Faith?s head bobs while running and the camera angles when jumping between buildings high on top of the city.
Flow is what runners live for. This is combining perfectly times vaults over low objects, rolls while landing, and slides under low hanging obstacles. All of these in succession of each other will give you more flow and cause you to run faster and build momentum which allows for further jumps as well.
A runner needs to know where to go to get in the flow and how to get to each point; this is called Runner Vision. Essentially it?s a hint system that will make any object that you need to get to next like the box to jump over or the plank of wood on a rooftop to vault off of, it will be a bright color of red. These objects stand out quite distinctly since most of the rest of the Faiths world is a white color while outside and some bland browns and oranges inside. When the Runner Vision works properly you know exactly where to go next without hesitating or having to look where to go, but quite a few times the object I needed to vault off of or jump to would not color red until I was inches away from it which stopped all my momentum. This has happened quite a few times and slows things down more often than I had hoped. You may be stuck looking around for the next red object when it should be colored without having to be beside it. Players who like a challenge can turn Runner Vision off at any time though, and when playing on the hardest difficulty, it?s turned off for you.
Should you still be stuck, holding down the ?B? button will also give you a hint and face you in the direction on where you need to get. Again, this in theory works great when stuck, but quite a few times it will point you in the direction of your destination, not the next fence to hop over or roof to jump off of to get there. It gives you a general direction, but usually not the path needed to get there. Should you accidentally hit the button while about to line up a jump or running from Blues, you will most likely fall off a roof or become disorientated to your surroundings as it whips the camera instantly to that direction. I found it was more of a hindrance than a help most of the time which doesn?t feel right considering a whole button is designated to ?help? you, yet it usually doesn?t or makes you even more confused than you were previously.
There are basically two different locations; rooftops and indoors. Rooftop levels I found seemed to be much more fluid and I didn?t have to stop nearly as often to try and find where to go next. Indoors was a whole different story with it being a much slower pace and much more confusing with having to look for vents to crawl through and multi-tiered vaulting to get to the next area. Factor in being chased almost constantly and it just feels a little too frantic indoors with not much room to move, where on the rooftops you have more room to maneuver and feels like you truly are escaping from the Blues.
Faith is able to defend herself should you get into combat and get cornered, but it feels like an afterthought and if you have more than one person shooting at you close range, you will most likely die. You can disarm an opponent if close range, though you have to wait till the exact moment their weapon turns red to swipe it from them, or you will find yourself on your back from shoved down. A press of the ?X? button will make things slow down to make it much easier to do these disarms and usually this is the only way to properly disarm as the timing to do it without ?bullet time? is just too narrow and unforgiving. This slowdown has limited uses but gaining momentum while jumping and vaulting will refill it, though I?ve never found a need to disarm anyone when I can beat them down just as quick. You are able to complete the whole game without ever firing a gun and there is even an achievement for it but there are a few times when you?ll be forced to take down some enemies to proceed; even though the rest of the game is built around running away from it.
You are almost always being chased by someone, so you don?t get much of a chance to play around with certain jumps or explore for not so obvious paths and secret bags. The only difference changing the difficulty makes is the combat portions (other than Runner Vision being forced off on the hardest mode) more difficult where bullets will do more damage basically. It would have been interesting to try some more difficult jumps or combos to get up to other places instead.
The majority of level loading is done during the cutscenes between chapters, but there are a few mid level loads within the chapters themselves. Normally this isn?t a big deal, but the reason for its mentioning here is that on almost every indoor level you will need to take elevators to go up or down floors. Logically you would think that this is when loading would be done, much like how Mass Effect did. The issue here is that nothing does load while in the elevators, but each elevator ride is at minimum 30 seconds, sometimes even longer. There?s no indication inside either that even says you are moving up or down floors. With nothing to press or do, you will be jumping around or pressing yourself up against one of the walls to see your hands just to try and pass some time. Being inside the elevators longer than you were even in Mass Effect seems almost ridiculous since you aren?t even loading parts of the level.
Rooftops look great with barbed wire and electric fences and debris lying around but when looking over the ledge down to the streets, you might think you are the last person alive. There is no movement or people walking around, just some parked cars usually. Even when you are down at street level and you can see some police cars parked with an officer standing beside the vehicle, they don?t move. It feels very void and lifeless considering how many Blues are trying to track and find you.
With half the game being outside and on rooftops in the sun and the other half inside buildings I find a very frustrating issue with my TV. The brightness outside was way too bright almost to the point of everything blending together. No problem I thought and turned down the brightness. Then came an indoor level and I couldn?t see a thing, even the bright red indicators where to go. So every time I switch from an indoor and outdoor area, I have to pause and change the preset brightness level on my TV. I?ve never run into this issue this drastic before, and having a new 46? TV, I don?t believe that is the issue.
There was something else that took about till half way through the game for me to notice; there really aren?t many shadows. This includes the shadow Faith herself should be giving off while on the rooftops as it?s sunny outside. I would be willing to look past this but it doesn?t feel like shadows have been sacrificed for something else. Only sometimes while staring at my own feet in certain areas will my shadow appear, and other times I will see it being cast on a wall, but not the bars in front of me I?m clinging onto.
Cutscenes between each chapter reveal more of the story and in most games they are done within the games engine so it looks consistent to what you?ve been playing, or complete realistic looking pre rendered videos. Mass Effect tries something else and has a visual style that a passerby would probably think it?s a higher end Flash video. It feels like a mix of cel shading and well done Flash, which is the best way I could describe it. It doesn?t really feel like it fits with the rest of the game as the color palette seems different from gameplay, but it is stylish though flawed looking at times.
I?d be lying if I said Mirrors Edge didn?t have a lasting effect on me because the other day walking in the city I saw some red railings and instantly felt like I wanted to vault over it.
Mirrors Edge is definitely unique which isn?t a bad thing, but it relies too heavily on one gimmick and seems too much like a one trick pony.
Despite its flaws, when you get into it and combo all the jumps and rolls flawlessly, it feels simply great when you get quicker and quicker momentum and don?t have to think about where to go next. My suggestion is to play the free demo and if you enjoy the small section you get to play and love time trials then definitely pick this up and take this leap of Faith.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Gears of War 2
When Gears of War 2 was first shown, we were boldly told that the experience was going to be Bigger, Better, and more Badass. Many fans were also wondering if this journey with Marcus and the Delta Squad would be a true sequel or more of a Gears 1.5. By building on top of the foundation that the original Gears brought us, Epic has taken the fundamental gameplay and has improved it so that you are able to take on the masses of the Locust to save the world of Sera and you will feel like what you are doing is important to the whole cause.
Gears of War 2 starts shortly after where the original left off with Marcus and Dom deploying a Lightmass bomb in the Locusts? Hollow after defeating General RAAM and must stop the Locust from creating more sink holes underneath cities all over Sera.
The campaign length has been slightly increased to about 10 hours, though playing on Insane difficulty will add more time due to checkpoint restarts from dying, a lot. If you played the original Gears, you will be able to pick up and play Gears 2 without any problems. Epic has improved on the core gameplay and mechanics vastly rather than trying to reinvent or recreate, and it works as intended. One such mechanic improvement is now the ability to cancel out of a cover rolls and turns if needed to get out of a tight situation quickly.
With new improvements also come new characters in the main story, such as Tai, Dizzy, and Carmine which are welcomed additions and act as enhancements to the other characters and story and don?t take away from the Delta Squad we already know.
The Locust have also gained new recruits and ranks with small quick Tickers that will explode if you let them get too close to you, Bloodmounts that ride beasts and charge you, Priests that can revive fellow downed enemies, and to also different types of Boomers that are unable to be chainsawed due to their larger than normal size. Now with General RAAM defeated, Skorge is the one to take his place to follow the Locust Queens orders to not allow you to stop their plans of sinking every city and destroying mankind.
To take on this slew of new baddies, you are going to need more than your trusted Lancer and do more than just using your chainsaw to cut hordes of enemies in half. This is where some new weapons and mechanics come into play. Now with portable turrets called Mulchers that can mow down the biggest beasts and Morters that will level a complete area with devastation, you have more tools and ways to save humanity while leaving a large body count of Locust in your wake. These new heavy weapons are very beefy and quite entertaining to use when cutting paths clear for your squad.
Gears of War is all about the cover system and now there are some defensive weapons at your disposal as well such as a portable shield that can also be planted firmly into the ground anywhere you need cover to stay behind, retractable cover that pops up when you stand on the pressure plates beside it, and now even mobile cover comes from giant Rockworms that slither around and are impenetrable to bullets. It feels awkward and unnatural to have to hide behind something that is moving, but only having to deal with this in one chapter is a relief.
The scope of the battle on a whole is much larger and vastly more epic. You actually feel like you are fighting the war this time around and putting an actual dent into the Locusts? numbers, not just a few soldiers fighting some small scale battles in the streets.
Vehicular levels and exciting boss fights break up monotonous gameplay, though repeated attempts on trying to drive precisely will be frustrating. Decimating hundreds of Locust at a time while riding a Tank, Reaver, or Brumak will simply put a smile on your face and wanting to kill even more bad guys.
Having professional writers this time makes for a much more engaging story with the Delta Squad and their own personal struggles. Dom?s search for his missing wife plays a large part of the whole plot and found it much more entertaining to actually care about one of the characters rather than just the normal ?kill anything that moves? plot line. The story is full of high emotion and many plot twists but without ruining anything, you will most likely actually care about the characters on more levels other than just being badass. Being a sequel, Epic knows that the world of Sera and the main story line has been laid down and placed so now much more time has been allocated to deepening the main characters and their relationships as a whole and with each other. And yes, the Cole Train is awesome as ever with his one liners and comedic relief.
You will learn much more about the Locusts? plans and will have to even go into their lairs to get some of these answers. Seeing the single Brumak in the first Gears had an awe factor, but when you see what is deep underground on their home turf ready to be unleashed on the surface you will think nothing of the Brumak?s anymore. Some beasts this time are so large that to defeat them, you will have to go inside them and kill them from within and the sheer scale and size of what?s to come is nothing short of amazing.
There are still sections where Delta Squad will have to split up to bypass certain traps or cover more ground. Sometimes you will be turning off turrets for your teammates or stopping some flame fields so they can walk across safely. Some sections will also just have you being a simple cover fire for the other members so they can progress and these split up parts are usually short in general but again, a nice change of pace from the normal mass slayings. At times though it will be quite obvious when a battle is going to happen (though you don?t get very much down time in general) with some obviously placed barricades to be used as cover for an upcoming ambush.
Just like the first Gears of War, campaign can be played split screen or online cooperatively though now with some welcomed changes such as drop-in drop-out without having to restart the chapter or checkpoint. The biggest change has to be the ability for players to be able to choose their own difficulty levels. The enemies don?t change but how much damage you take and deal are switched to be relative to your difficulty of choice. So this means while a veteran player like myself can play on Insane difficulty, I will take more damage from incoming bullets and give less output but my friend that is playing on casual will have a higher damage output and take less incoming, but we are able to play together with no problems. This is great way to add more challenge or even achievement progress for completion on Insane difficulty.
Although the ending does come very abruptly, the last leg of the game feels like you are being rewarded for what you?ve had to go through thus far in the story, especially the last chapter where I had a smile on my face the whole time.
It?s been quite a while since I?ve had a gaming experience where I haven?t noticed that 9 hours have gone past before realizing that I finished the campaign in a single sitting, even though it was quite a long sitting mind you.
The original Gears was widely faulted for having a very narrow pallet scope of brown and grey; and Epic has listened by adding a much broader pallet of greens, reds, and blues. Gears 1 looked great and this sequel pushes the graphical bar even further and the noticeable colors is much more varied quite noticeable, though honestly it was unexpected from myself. Seeing bright glowing plants and water while in the underground Locust Lairs, you will most likely catch yourself stopping to actually look at the environment and gorgeous water effects.
While everything in general looks absolutely stunning, there were some anomalies that are worth noting such as texture fading and the pop-in textures when starting a level that Halo 2 was criticized for. There were a few times where weird geometry collisions were quite distracting as they were that noticeable and one cutscene that I had to watch over again due from dying, but one of the platforms simply didn?t appear and I was standing on thin air. There were also a few times where dead corpses on the ground would have limbs that would shake violently and awkwardly though it?s hard to fault these rare occurrences in the overall experience.
With how large the scope of Gears 2 is, there was only one section that had some slowdown and it was due to the massive intense battle where quite of lot was taking place. Don?t worry, no spoilers here, but considering what was happening, I was still impressed.
With all these new graphical features and lighting effects, there is also ?destructible? cover, though I would call it deformed cover since it?s simply for visuals and the cover you hide behind (unless it happens to be a wooden box or table) doesn?t actually break away or make you more vulnerable in any way. Your tactics from the original gears won?t change in any way for this part of gameplay, but let?s hope this is a feature included in the next in the series.
The sound quality is also worth noting as every bullet can be heard, and slowly pushing forward while holding a Boomshield, you will hear every ricocheting bullet hitting you head on. The rain and razor hail sounds completely realistic (well, I assume that is how razor hail would sound) with dialogue being delivered very well, even if some of the lines are cheesy.
With all the new gameplay changes, nothing has been drastically revolutionized, but vastly improved. Portable shields is a great new addition and can make an oncoming rush much easier, grenades can now be stuck to a wall instead of thrown; making it a proxy grenade for an added level of strategy. Now being outnumbered won?t always mean your downfall, as you can lure enemies or other players into your traps. Even picking up downed enemies and using them as meat shields is a possibility now and a great way to take out the others numbers. With these changes comes a more strategic play style rather than the previous ?gung-ho? rushing.
Should you get taken down but not completely killed, you are no longer stuck in one spot while waiting for a revival from a teammate; you can now slowly crawl back to your squad to get you back in the game. While the AI has improved, there are still some instances where I have needed a revival from my squad and even being right beside them, they didn?t revive me as I bled out. This time though they will actually push forward and not just follow you and shoot alongside you as in Gears 1.
One of the intense ways to finish a downed enemy in the original Gears was the ability to curb stomp them and finish them. This favorite (alongside the chainsawing someone in half) is still included but now with many more options and ways to maim your downed opponent. The ?X? button will still do the curb stomp but now the ?Y? button will flip the downed person onto their back as you punch them in the face with thunderous pounds until there is nothing left. The ?B? button will still saw someone in half if you are holding the Lancer gun, but now every weapon has its own finisher. Using a sniper gun in this way will have you hold the gun upside down and bat the head off the person and each weapon has their own brutal style of execution.
Multiplayer in Gears 1 felt like it wasn?t a focus or priority but Epic has changed this stance and the multiplayer in Gears 2 will have people playing on Xbox Live for many months and years to come now that there are much needed fixes that plagued the original experience and new modes to bring variety.
Shotgun rolling was an unintended mechanic in Gears 1 that as a problem which gave players who were rolling and diving into gunfire a slight window of invulnerability. So many people would continually roll into other players and when in range, simply shotgun them for a single shot kill. This has been fixed and now when you are shot, you stagger and no longer have invulnerability while rolling. This even prevents people that used to simply hold down the chainsaw button and running around, as it will also lower your revved chainsaw. This makes it more strategic of when to get out of cover and when to chainsaw and does require more thought and skill.
There are 10 maps that ship with the game and another 5 that are in download form that are actually remakes of popular maps from the previous game. There will without a doubt be more maps to come for DLC to purchase in the future, but this is a healthy number to start off with as I haven?t really grown tired of any specific map yet.
With the maximum players being upped from 8 to 10, battles are much more intense this time around. Regardless of being with a party of friends or not, players are matched according to their rank. Once in the lobby to start a game, everyone gets to votes from a choice of two game types, then maps, then you choose your character and main weapon.
A small but very useful feature in the lobby is now called the ?What?s Up? button that replaces the simple ?Friends? pop up screen. From here you can see your whole friends list, but it will give you details of what they are doing in Gears of War 2 with the option to join anyone if available or even have all your currently online friends receive a giant spam invite.
Having no friends (or simply none online at the time) doesn?t mean you are out of luck from enjoying multiplayer. Gears of War 2 now includes bots should you want to learn the new game types or don?t feel confident enough yet to try your skills online against the masses. Unfortunately this is only available through the training and not online, but it is a nice addition if needed.
With new maps also comes new multiplayer modes and the new additions are quite refreshing and simply fun to play. Even some maps such as Avalanche will change mid game. As the timer of game play counts down, eventually a large avalanche of snow will happen, making the whole screen completely white for a few seconds which is quite frantic when mid firefight with someone else. After this is finished, the whole map is completely changed from a multi level map to a flat snow covered one that allows you to reach new areas and weapons.
Guardian is a new mode that randomly chooses one person on each team to be the leader. While the leader is alive, all their teammates have infinite respawns until the leader is taken out and executed, then there is no more respawns for the rest of the team. It is an interesting balance of defending the leader and also trying to rush and kill the opposing team?s leader.
Submission (aptly named Meat Flag) is a Gears of War take on Capture the Flag. This has an AI controlled character that needs to be downed then taken forcibly to your team?s base. He is decent at preventing himself from being taken but the real action is when both teams are trying to capture the same Meat Flag and drag them away while being shot at. A very cool feature that needs to be added to this mode hopefully in the future is to have someone randomly chosen to be the Meat Flag that is an actual player.
The new inclusion of Horde mode easily overshadows the rest of all the new multiplayer features. Horde mode in essence is 5 players against waves of ever increasing difficult Locust. This mode is very challenging but fun and intense. If you do not work cohesively as a team in Horde, you will not make it past a few waves and it requires absolute teamwork and communication. There are 50 waves of enemies and after each wave you get a small break to see your score, kill count, and get whatever weapons and ammo may be lying on the ground. After every tenth wave, instead of adding more and more Locusts?, they are simply given more health and offence power; so usually the only hard waves are the back set of 5 when the sheer numbers get larger. It?s a very simple idea but extremely addictive, though the lack of Reavers and Brumaks was a slight disappointment. Here is to hoping for a patch or DLC down the road to include this in the future.
Gears of War 2 improves on everything that made the first great while also adding new features and mechanics that makes this more than just a Gears 1.5. Marcus Fenix is a strong enough character to be alongside Master Chief as the Xbox?s brand spokesperson and now with Gears 2 finally here, we get to learn more about the world of Sera and Delta Squad?s struggles with their own issues while saving Mankind from the Locust.
There are quite a few ?oh my god? moments and as mentioned previously, it?s been quite some time since I?ve had to complete a campaign in one sitting due from an engaging story and wonderful art direction blended with strong gameplay.
Gears of War 2 is a perfect example of blending game and art. An engrossing plot with emotion and battles on an absolute huge scale make this simply an experience that needs to be had by any gamer.
Suggestions: Horde mode would be even better if each 10th wave was versus a Brumak; simple as that.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Guitar Hero has become practically a household name and if you?ve not played it, you most likely at least know what it is. This year?s installment of the series is trying to take away a piece of the pie that Rock Band has managed to do so well with a fully fledged drum kit and microphone as well as the standard guitar that we?ve become accustomed to. Guitar Hero World Tour (will be referred to as GHWT for the remainder of this review) has taken notice of Rock Band?s success and has released their take of what a Band game should be, but is it what the rest of us want?Arguably the most important instrument in a band would be the guitar, and this is what the series has built itself on and has done a good job to this point. When Rock Band added the five solo buttons on the bottom of the guitar neck in their game, Activision seems to have taken notice and is attempting to one up them by adding a flat touch sensitive slider bar that is the length of the regular buttons you hold down lower on the neck. There are a few reasons for this new change and some new features that come along with it as well.
Should you wish, you can use the slider bar to do your wah-wah?s on the long notes instead of using the whammy bar. While this isn?t a huge feature, it?s nice to not have to reach away from the strum bar to pull the whammy bar and then put your hand back on the strummer. The only difference when using the slider bar for this though is that the note sound that changes is nowhere near as distinct. Most of the time I wouldn?t have even known it was doing the wah-wah if the sustained note bar didn?t change shape.
While playing lead guitar there is also a new set of notes that will show up that are meant to be tapped on the slider bar. These can also be played normally by using the buttons and strumming together but much like using Rock Band?s solo buttons, it makes it feel slightly ?cooler? while doing it the intended way. The notes are half see through so that you know when you are meant to ?tap? these notes and they are strung together with a thin line between each note like a connect-the-dot to help guide you through these sections. The problem with these tap sections while using the slider bar is that since the touch sensitive bar is flat, there is no way to tell where your fingers are on the bar without much practice. Losing your proper finger position on the slider bar will be frequent when tapping the expert level solos even though with the slightest touch the column your finger is touching lights up it would have been nice to have a slight bump on each flat ?button? on the bar so you can fix your fingering easily.
The other big addition that comes along with the new slider bar is the ability to tap the bar in lieu of strumming. This makes bassists like me very happy now that we can play some actual slap bass. It?s an interesting feature and although the bar is very sensitive somehow I find using it instead of strumming usually isn?t as accurate, especially on the more difficult expert levels.
Also sure to make the few bassists out there happy is the addition of another note to press, totaling it to 6 (for bassists only). This is done by having a flat bar across all notes that looks exactly like Rock Bands drum pedal note that needs to be strummed or tapped but without holding any of the colored note buttons down. At first it seemed pretty basic and a gimmick, but in the later songs having to strum and not hold a note then instantly hold a different note adds some welcomed challenge to bass players. It?s worth noting that this 6th note only appears on hard and expert difficulty for bassists only.
A common problem with previous guitars in either game previously was deploying your star power. If your guitar didn?t always deploy it by holding the neck straight up you could always press the back button instead, though not many people knew this. Some people prefer this method as holding the neck straight up can mess up their regular playing, so Activision has taken notice and brought a welcomed change for this lingering issue. You are still able to lift the neck straight up to deploy your star power but the change is that the back button is a long button on the guitar right where your palm rests when strumming. This makes it much easier to hit the button should you not want to potentially miss notes by holding your guitar up and it looks natural on the guitar to match the wood looking finish.
Drums are a new addition in the Guitar Hero franchise and much like the guitar; it seems they?ve seen what?s out there and then did their own take on it. The biggest change you will notice first off is that instead of using Rock Band?s 4 circular drum heads they have made 3 larger ones on the ?bottom? of the drum kit and now has 2 cymbals raised up above them slightly between the inner pad.
At first look they can seem pretty intimidating and being an expert drummer on Rock Band myself, this new set does come with a learning curve. The 3 circular pads are slightly larger than Rock Band?s making them easier to hit and feel like they have more cushion to them. Oddly this does not make them quieter than Rock Band 2?s new drum kit and with having to hit the cymbals that are stiffer frequently, this new kit is not apartment friendly in the noise department.
For some reason the drum pedal has a cord that is much longer than it needs to be, but to the point that I wrapped mine around the middle bar that holds the drum heads up. Why the reason for this I?m not sure because your foot still needs to be in range so your arms can hit the drum heads. While this isn?t a big issue, the fact that the pedal itself is very flimsy like the original Rock Band?s one has me nervous that it will snap in time as it seems to bend to the sides very easily especially when playing furiously on expert level. One thing they did add is that the bottom of the pedal itself has rubber ?feet? to prevent it from slipping should you be playing on hardwood or a smooth surface. They have also added a strip of velcro should you be playing on a carpet like myself. While these two small things are nice, I?m finding the pedal will sometimes still get away from me since the pedal can be placed anywhere and doesn?t ?attach? to the drums base in any way.
Drums fills (those few seconds of drumming where you can hit any note you want) are few and far in between I?ve found and unlike Rock Band where your highway (the area where your notices scroll down) changes color so you know this is your time to shine and fill to your heart?s delight, the highway gets very feint white swirls and if you aren?t looking for it, it?s completely possible to miss your chance to do your fill completely.
Easily my favorite feature with the new drums is how you activate your star power for bonus points. In Rock Band it was quite frustrating to have to wait for a specific drum fill area then also hit the last note to use it where guitarists could use it anytime they wish. GHWT remedies this very easily and a drummer can use their star power at ANY time now by crashing both symbols at the same time. It?s simple and effective and it just feels awesome much like nailing that hard solo on guitar.
Drum play also has a new ?note? in a sense much like the bass?s 6th note. Certain notes will have a white outline on the note and these are meant to be hit with more than normal force on the pads. Since the drum kit is velocity sensitive and can tell how hard you hit them, hitting these specific notes with a harder force than normal gets you bonus points. It?s not a game changing feature, but it definitely makes you get into the song and seems to be at the appropriate sections of the songs.
One issue that I?ve run into though with the drum kit overall is that one of my pads seems to work only part of the time. Since I play on expert and decided it wasn?t me just not being used to the new drums, I decided to calibrate the lag but with no luck. With some quick searching online it seems quite a few people are having the same issues as myself with random pads or cymbals not working. I?ve not seen Activision announce any sort of repair procedure like EA did with their instruments yet, so here?s to hoping so that drummers with faulty kits can actually enjoy this title soon.
Should the front man or Diva in you want to emerge, you can now take the microphone in GHWT and sing with the rest of your band. Gameplay is practically similar to other karaoke games out there and Rock Band. The lyrics will scroll across the screen and you must sing in key to get your score up but the presentation is different in GHWT. In Rock Band, you had an arrow in a static place to show you where you were pitch wise, this has been replaced with a small circle called the comet and it will move up and down depending on how you are singing. As lyrics scroll across you must move the comet in line of the preferred ?tunnel? to be on key with your voice.
Spoken words have been altered in the way that instead of a different style and color of lettering and no ?tunnel? to let you know that it only has to be spoken and not sung, the tunnel area will be red and you can say it in any tone or key you want. The only issue with this is that GHWT doesn?t seem to have any vocal recognition like Rock Band does, so I was able to get perfect on the spoken parts by just humming or saying anything. This isn?t a huge deal, but with certain songs like Beastie Boys? ?No Sleep Till Brooklyn? where the whole song is spoken, you can see where there is no challenge.
Instead of having tambourine tapping parts like Rock Bands vocalists must do, you have freeform sections to sing whatever you wish. This is where you get your bonus points, but the tricky thing is that you get rewarded much more if you are singing in tone of the song and along with the general beat. I?ve yet to perfect this myself but it definitely makes a difference when trying to freestyle along with the beat than just random gibberish.
Much like how the drummers can use their star power at any time, so can the vocalists by either hitting a button on the controller or apparently tapping the microphone, though I?ve tried many times to activate it this way and have been unsuccessful so far.
Taste in the music selection will vary from person to person but GHWT tries to cater to everyone by having a little of everything there are surely to be at least a few songs that everyone will enjoy. Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Tool, Korn, and even Willie Nelson are there, so finding something you like shouldn?t be too difficult.
Not being able to import my Guitar Hero 3 songs into GHWT was very disappointing as it seems a standard since Rock band has done it with their sequel. I do understand that the songs bought in GH3 were strictly guitar tracks but it would have been nice to possibly patch them or even have them playable only in Guitar form even.
The music download store is almost exact to how Rock Band does their in-game purchases. You can preview the songs you want to hear then buy them directly without leaving the game. Activision has also taken note of how successful buying single songs have been and you are no longer forced to buy a whole track pack just to get that one song you want.
New to the series is being able to make your own rocker instead of picking a preset one. You are able to customize everything from hair to skin tone to height and weight. Obviously clothing choices are a given and you unlock more as you go. Instead of a set amount of default faces you are given the basic face and from there you can tweak it how you want; everything from brows to nose to cheeks and eyes. It sounds like it may be better this way, but I would have rather had a choice of a few preset heads then be able to tweak it from there. From here you can even customize cheers and dances your person will do if they pass or fail a song. It?s not much but it?s nice to have a little more customization to suit your personality and style.
After creating your perfect rocker you are then able to choose an instrument and change that to your liking as well. This section is much more in depth than Rock Band?s since not only can you pick a different style of guitar, bass, or drum kit, but from there you can even further make it your own. You can pick the necks and head of the guitar, the body style, the fret board and even the design and color on each part. The same goes for drums by being able to change the main drum that faces the crowd and even the outer edges of each of the pads. You can save each instrument you create as its own name and then just use that for any character you wish, so you aren?t forced to make it for each character you play.
GHWT?s career mode is a very flat and unrewarding experience other than unlocking new songs to play. Unlike Rock Band where you are always working towards your fan base, unlocking new areas and gathering money, GHWT just haves you go from gig to gig that compromises of a set list of a few songs with an encore at the end. It feels very flat an only getting money as a reward doesn?t even feel that rewarding. Gigs are posted as posters on the wall and you just choose which you would like to do and that is basically it.
Some gigs require you to actually spend your earned cash to even play them, so if you accidently bought too many things in the Rock Shop for your rocker, you may find yourself redoing old gigs to just catch up to where you need to be in the career.
Every now and then a mini cutscene will happen and someone will join your band on stage. Musicians that have signed on for the game will actually be performing with you sometimes which is an interesting addition, even if seeing Billy Corgan sing for my band creeps me out.
Playing as a band together means that you must work together, and just like in a real band, if one member is lacking, the whole band will fail. Unfortunately, this is true for GHWT as well. Should a band member get over zealous and play a difficulty they can?t do and fail out, the song instantly stops and the whole band fails the song. You can imagine how frustrating this is while playing online and seems to happen quite often in my experiences. One counter for this poor design decision is the fact that as your band all gains star power, it is not individual, it is a collective for anyone to use at any time. Additionally, if one member uses it to get themselves out of red, they only use a portion of the star power and not hogging it all for themselves for someone else that may need it (or just want to rock out more). This works great when players are paying attention, but if a very hard sequence comes up and the band mate isn?t quick enough to use star power preemptively, you will quickly fail the song and be disappointed.
One of the biggest new features to distinguish itself apart from Rock Band is the inclusion of being able to make your own songs in GHWT. On paper this sounds amazing but in usability I don?t foresee the average gamer to put too much time into this very convoluted section.
You are able to set your own guitar, drum, and keyboard tracks but no vocals. I can see why this wasn?t included due to copy write issues due to people that would just use the microphone to make ?real? songs and then share them, but with the lack of vocals on any homemade music, it just doesn?t feel more than a glorified midi.
Load up the Guitar Hero Studio and start recording whatever you want. You can change the tempo, pause and go back to fix something, but having to hold down multiple notes to get one note can be very confusing for someone that doesn?t know much about music producing. From here you can import it into Guitar Hero Mix where you can fine tune each track and manipulate it in other ways but there are so many features and buttons that as previously stated, I don?t see the average person putting more than 30 minutes in it to even try and figure it out. It all feels very over complicated for a console game and the fact that you are doing all of this on your guitar or drum?s d-pad doesn?t help the ease of use.
It?s very time consuming and not user friendly in the slightest, but there is a flip side. Should you take the steep learning curve to understand how the Studio and Mixer work, there is potential to make some great tunes. I?ve downloaded some of the top rated user content and there are some great pieces out there but I can only imagine how much time it must have actually taken to make something sound great, as a quick 10 minute trial will show you that it isn?t easy at all.
Should you finish making your masterpiece, you are able to upload it to Guitar Hero Tunes in-game which is their equivalent of iTunes. Songs can be sorted by best, features, newest, genres and then downloaded and played. Once you play someone?s song you are asked to rate it; which I found a good feature since you will get feedback on people that play your tune be it good or bad.
Online or local play is possible and there are some new additions here as well. Regardless of what mode or instrument you decide to play, once you are in a game there is a random picking of who gets to pick the song to play each time which is a nice change from previous titles rather that the host always having control of the selection each time.
You have the choice of going 1 vs 1 for each instrument, or even 2 vs 2. If you want to do co-op or just get 4 people together online to form a band and play whatever set lists you want, that is possible as well. The biggest feature for online that GHWT boasts over the competition is actual band versus band with 8 players. It does take some time finding a game going especially if you are a solo player, but once you have your band going, finding another didn?t seem to take too long, it was only a lengthy wait if you were trying to join the 8 person band vs band mode while playing solo.
The new features on the instruments are a welcome change and how it relates to in the game as well is generally for the best. It?s not one large part that brought down the GHWT for me; it was the many small annoyances that brought on must frustration and made me just wonder why, that really seemed to pull down the experience when I had high hopes and truly wanted to enjoy this title.
While the music is great, the key feature of being able to create your own and share is simply just too confusing and uneasy to use, which is a shame. As a basis I hope that GHWT is the groundwork for the next title on the series and I hope they learned a lot from their mistakes this go.
Suggestions: Learn what people like from the competition and build ontop of it. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel to be successful.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Fable 2
The world of Albion has had many changes in the 500 years that have passed since the first Fable and having knowledge of the first game is rewarding when small clues and stories are told about what?s happened to the previous hero and characters. As you start the game, the mood and style are set in tone right away with the humor Fable is known for; and as soon as you pick a male or female for Albion?s savior, you are on your way of uncovering all the secrets and journeys ahead of you. Humor plays a large part in Fable 2 and it?s apparent from the very first cutscene where a bird poops on you before you even get to move around and explore anything.
After a short opening you are set free on a somewhat linear path as you are given quick tutorials of basic combat while being led along your first quest to gather 5 gold from many different characters. This is the first time that you will encounter your soon to be best friend and companion: your dog. Very early on he will start to follow you never leave your side from there on, regardless of how horrible you may treat him. You never control your dog in any manner, he will do everything on his own from finding treasure chests that you may have missed and even show you where do dig with your shovel that has been buried by someone previously. If your pet gets hurt and starts to limp slowly, he will even then still follow you regardless of how far ahead in the trail you get. Being able to name him and put different collars (that have different skills) definitely makes you warm up to your canine and as time goes on there are moments that actually make you feel for your pet want to reward him with treats. Having no control over the dog may make you forget he is there until he starts attacking a down bandit or sniffing out the nearest treasure to show you where to go, though seeing him randomly chasing his tail or playing dead while you do your own thing usually puts a smile on your face.
While your dog may lead you to treasure and riches, the glowing trail that is set to your current quest will lead you where to go next, should you choose to of course. It?s a bright yellow trail that automatically readjusts itself should you wonder off the path looking for chests or simply exploring. Some will think that this is too easy and your are just given a point A to point B linear path, but there was numerous times where I actually veered off the path to go look down another trail or searching for something else, knowing that the trail will lead me back to where I want to eventually get going. If you would rather do everything on your own without any help, you can either dim how bright the trail is for a subtle clue or completely turn it off. Generally the trail updates instantly if you take a corner or a ?wrong? turn, but there were quite a few times that I?ve had to stand in one spot for up to 10 seconds while waiting for the trail to refresh.
As you go from quest to quest and travel from town to town you will be upgrading your armor and weapons as time goes on and more foes are downed. An interesting change in Fable 2 is how the armor and clothing works compared to most other RPGs. Usually armor and clothing will have stats and you are constantly trying to upgrade better stats and always searching for that ?best? suit you can obtain. Fable 2 has done away with this system and with no stats other than ?attractiveness?, ?aggressiveness?, ?poshness? and you are encouraged to wear what you think looks good on your character and how you want to dress to express your own style and personality. The only downside to this I?ve found so far is that once you?ve completed the main quest line, you?ve seen basically every clothing item in Albion and it doesn?t vary much from when you find your own ideal outfit midgame.
Customization not only comes in your outfit, but how you eat will also affect your weight and appearance. Use too many pies to heal instead of potions or healthy food and you will find yourself packing on quite a few more pounds than you might have hoped for. Your choices will also play a role into your appearance in the way that being pure good will give you a halo above your head and sinister choices will cause you to grow horns and look evil.
Weapons are based on a base damage and vary from swords to katanas to giant two handed hammers. You upgrade these more frequently and some rare items even have empty slots that are where you can insert an augment into your weapon adding fire damage, your attractiveness, and many other options once you find these rarities as well. The same applies for your ranged weapons that can either be pistols, rifles, crossbows and others of your choosing.
This is where combat comes into play in Fable 2. It?s noted as being easy for anyone to pick up and single button smashing will work most of the time, but also being able to be much more deep and rewarding when chaining together melee with ranged and magic as well for bonus multipliers. The ?X? button is your melee attack to swing your weapon; the ?Y? button is your ranged weapon to shoot baddies from a distance. A press of ?B? will control all your magic and all of these different attacks can be chained and mixed in any way you want to play. The more you melee, the more experience for this category you will receive and the same goes for any type of attack you use.
The melee category of attacks once leveled up can increase your health bar, your strength, doing chain attacks, and even flourishes for extra damage when the button is held down and released instead of rapid presses. Ranged attacks will make you do more damage, leveling will make all types of attacks faster and then also being able to freely aim at targets and shoot any body part you wish.
Magic is also mapped to one button, but is much more robust due to there being many choices of spells at your disposal. The way of overcoming this hurdle is that as you level up a specific spell and make it stronger, you can either quickly press ?B? to cast the level one version of the spell, or hold it for a few seconds to unleash a much more powerful level 5 version. Obviously as you charge up for the higher level spells, you are left vulnerable and open to attacks so you must balance wisely and think on your feet during combat. If you are a heavy magic user and have multiple spells, you can change whatever spell you want mapped at one time very quickly and easily without having to pause the game, though this is also an option should you not want to be rushed while fighting.
Experience is gained from combat and each type of combat fighting has its own colored orb that falls to the ground once an enemy is defeated. Kill the horde of zombies with your sword and a pile of blue experience orbs will be waiting for you to soak up; the same goes for ranged attacks and yellow orbs. Green experience orbs will also drop each fight and is general experience that can be used in conjunction with each type of specific experience to purchase new skills and abilities.
Should you not be quick enough to use a potion or eat before your hit points reach 0, normally you would die and have to restart from a checkpoint of some sort. A change that was decided on for Fable 2 was that instead of having to restart and redoing something you?ve already done is that should you ?die? you fall unconscious for a few moments and all your experience that you?ve not ?sucked up? yet disappears. It may not seem like much of a consequence so you will also become more scarred up the more you fall unconscious. There is a fine line between too easy and too difficult, and with a non threatening form of ?dying? one would assume that the difficulty would be turned up a little higher to make up for it. This is not the case and only having died once during my whole play through I was reminded of Bioshock?s death penalty which basically was the lack of one.
The other type of experience in Fable 2 is called renown. This is basically how famous you are, regardless of how pure or evil; it?s your celebrity rating in all of Albion. This will affect how people in towns react and interact with you and if someone doesn?t like you, you can alter their feelings with gifts and many different expressions to sway it in your favor (hopefully). These few dozen of different expressions can be done with a single press on the D-Pad or held down for a moving meter to appear that takes skill to perform a much more ?potent? execution of your choice. Much like the real world, every person in Albion has their own personalities, likes, and dislikes that can be examined at anytime you lock onto a citizen. This is how you can see what a person enjoys and you can tailor your interactions with that person to go in your favor. This is the heart of the game, choosing and making your own decisions that will shape your hero?s fate and possibly change all of Albion?s. Since your hero has not even a single line of dialogue in the game, expressions and emotions play the large part of bringing your point across during play. Will you be the serious hero that will save anyone that needs it or laugh, fart, or run around in Albion dressed in a chicken suit to make people laugh at you? All of these are choices you can make anytime you wish and people will remember your doings whether they be noble or evil.
There is much you can do with people?s feelings one you make them completely love or hate you. Marriage is an option if you give the desired person a ring and choose a marital home for yourself. You can choose to marry a woman or a man regardless of what sex you chose in the beginning. From here you can also choose to have sex or not with your significant other and even if you want to use a sheep skin condom to prevent a pregnancy and STDs. Should multiple people favor you and follow you home, an orgy is also completely an option and is even an achievement to aspire for should you wish. Choose not to use a condom and you will find yourself with a child in the home in 9 months. This happens instantly after a cutscene even if you are playing the female in the relationship. While it?s not necessary to have a child, having one waiting for you at home that will praise you running to your arms is rewarding as well. Make sure to keep your spouse happy or you can also find yourself divorced very quickly should they become unhappy.
Completing quests reward you with renown, so obtaining gold can be done in two different ways. The most common that will happen as you explore is finding treasure chests and digging up spots your pet tells you to. Should you want to make some real cash, you can always take up a job in different cities as a blacksmith, woodworker, bartender, assassin and other odd jobs that people may need done. It can be redundant to do the small mini games for quite some time so you can always come back to it later if you find yourself short on cash. As you get better in the jobs, they become more difficult and require more skill, but the reward is much larger the longer you don?t mess up. It?s not very exciting, but then again what jobs are? Get bored of these and you can still make money being in the real-estate business. With every building being for sale, you could own very place in a town or that single home with the view for your husband or wife. Things can be very interesting should you own many buildings and businesses. You can then set prices on rent and sale prices for the businesses. If you feel like an easy laugh, buy the local tavern and have the beer prices set to zero. You gather rent from all your buildings every few minutes, so once you have a few properties it?s easy to have a constant cash flow. Fable?s renown system even comes into play into this part, since people will hate you if you are the evil landlord that raises rent that people can barely afford or the best landlord ever that has cheap rent for easy living.
When you aren?t in a town making a name for yourself or visiting your family, you will be out adventuring and fighting different kinds of monsters. Unfortunately there isn?t much variety of types of monsters that will try and kill you with under a dozen different types coming to mind. Some are just cannon fodder (literally) and some require more than just button spamming to defeat. Trolls make a return in this sequel but once you figure out how to defeat them, the difficulty is gone from these beasts as well.
Arguably the largest newest feature to be added into Fable 2 is the co-op play offline and on Xbox Live. Taking a note at how successful and easy the drop-in drop-out co-op has worked in the Lego series of games, Lionhead has also added the ability to have a second player play with you instantly at anytime during play without having to start a specific point in the game or load it from a menu. There are some major flaws in the way co-op has been implemented though and is quite disappointing. For one, the world is played in the host?s game save and the other person playing is their henchman to aid them. The second flaw in this design is that because of this, the henchman must choose from a preset of only a few different looks instead of their character model that they?ve been working on for many hours to be outfitted and dressed just right. The redeeming factor to this downer is that you do get to keep all your skills and spells and can fight just like normal, just with different weapons that you are used to since armor and weapons don?t import.
Co-op is not done split screen either. You share the screen and because of this you have an invisible tether between the two players so that one person cant wonder off and get lost. This makes it quite frustrating when travelling down a corridor or down winding paths as the camera will quite often get stuck or whip around to disorientate you and become more of a nuisance than it should be.
The best feature though of co-op that I feel many other games should take notice of is that the host can decide who gets what percentage of all experience and money gained while playing easily on a slider bar just before starting to play together. All this money and experience gained will save to both characters and even the henchman?s ?main character?. The host can also decide to turn off the defaulted ?safety? that will allow either person to attack anyone from guards to wives to children. This opens up many possibilities for people?s wives and husbands to be killed by someone else and whole towns to be exterminated in record times.
Online co-op is also available and plays the exact same way as local co-op does. As you and everyone on your friends list are playing Fable 2, your position is being uploaded and you are able to see where your friends are while you play single player. So as I?m in town wondering around doing anything, if you are also in the same town while playing your game, we will see each other as these floating glowing orbs with our names above them. From here you can invite anyone?s orb directly and instantly into your game to help you out, converse and talk with them, or even send gifts. The default is set to see everyone?s orbs though I highly suggest turning this to friends only. The reason for this is that as you enter a city and if orbs are set to everyone on LIVE, since you can hear everyone talking in the vicinity around you, it becomes quite noisy very quickly and there?s no easy way to see who is talking without going up to their orb, then in the menu, then muting them. It?s a very cool feature the first time you see it, but entering a town with screaming people or mics that have heavy static makes it quite annoying quickly, though now that the groundwork is there, I would love to see this in other games.
Should you want to shell out $10 more for the collector edition, you will be given a few more goodies in download form. You are given access to a dungeon only for collector edition owners that once completed nets you a decent sword that would be ideal mid storyline. In your guild hall you are also given a suit of armor that may resemble a certain Spartan from a well known game called Halo, though with a renaissance twist on the look. The last in game bonus is a replica energy sword from Halo as well and although the stats are only good for a new player, it?s definitely a cool weapon to be wielding while strolling around town as it really sticks out from your regular choices of swords. The last item included is the standard ?making of? DVD that shows you behind the scene footage of Fable 2?s making.
Fable is all about choices and all these consequences will come into play down the road, some for the better and some for worse. Are you going to try and be the role model for all of Albion to look up to and strive to be, or will you be the demonic ruler that brings terror everywhere they go making people worship you out of fear. Take your time exploring every corner of Albion and taking your time to effect everyone?s lives that crosses your path or simply follow your glowing trail from objective to objective to complete a world altering plot. Again, every decision you make will change the outcome of your heroes story and the lives of everyone else as well, so who will you be?
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Tomb Raider: Legend
Overall: Intro:If you ask most people what they think about the Tomb Raider series, most will vividly remember how much enjoyment they had fun years ago with usually part 1 or 2. From then on, the series continuously declined in quality, and basically fun overall. Eidos has dropped Core Design from this title all together after the huge decline in the series and went to work on the newest installment of the series, and we now have Tomb Raider Legend. It builds on what made the series great and it’s cool once again to enjoy a Tomb Raider game.
Gameplay:
As the story begins, Lara is back, and is haunted by flashbacks of her mother’s death years ago. As the story progresses, you explore many different lands on different continents with a story revolving around the power of a sword broken into fragments that seem to be scattered across the world. Throw in a plot that involves the King Arthur Legacy and you have yourself a somewhat decent story line that may not enthrall you, but will definitely make you want to see what happens next.
Cutscenes are throughout and flashbacks that unlock more pieces of the story’s puzzle keep you interested other than the basic ‘figure out puzzle, then move on to boss and beat the level’ schemes. The new team did their homework, and if you have ever played Resident Evil 4 or God Of War, you will recognize the interactive sequences that require you to press the correct direction or button at the right time to either keep her from dying, or to collect secrets in the level, which in turn will unlock bonus features, costumes, cutscenes, and more. It’s nothing new, but it is more entertaining than just sitting and listening to the story unfold on its own.
One thorn in the side that the series has always been plagued by was the controls. Not so much how sloppy it felt, but you had to always be perfect with your jumps and directions or else you would miss that critical jump and fall or miss a cliff edge. These inconveniences are a thing of the past, now that you can run around freely, swim, jump, climb on ropes and poles, scale cliff edges, and use ladders, all while looking good and even showing off with some flips and vaults in between if you wish. It is by no means perfect, especially when trying to jump off a rope in a certain direction and the camera is fighting you, but it’s a major improvement in the series.
A nice new addition is that if you are climbing a pole or rope, or shimmying across a cliffside, you can press a button in time with your movements, and it will make you move twice as fast. Though I spammed the button while always doing this, and it seemed to do the exact job, but is necessary in later levels where you only have a few seconds to hang onto a ledge before it breaks away with you on it.
Swimming was a big part of the series in the past as well, with many underwater caverns, swimming levels and puzzles that usually involved getting wet somehow. As most games, swimming in the original series was no different, and was one of the leading causes of frustration with poor controls that had you either drowning, or not being able to see where you are supposed to go in time. The mechanics now are much smoother and actually doable, but still not perfect, with you sometimes barely getting up in time for air, or not being able to see the hole you are supposed to swim through due to the underwater camera angles. Lara’s signature dive is in the game again, and taken to a new level, where in one section, you actually have to dive off a 200ft cliff which is still my most memorable section of the game.
Combat is also still in the game, and it has been given an overhaul as well. You are given many more moves than previously before and respond quicker, but it really doesn’t feel all too different at the same time. You lock onto your enemies and can start shooting away, but you are also given a manual aim as well if you wish to use it, though it wasn’t very accurate the further away you got, even with the more powerful weapons. Much like previously before as well, you must shoot, jump, and avoid all at once if you wish to avoid being target practice. While it sounds like a lot, sadly it gets really easy as you master it. You keep jumping, and when you have a moment, let some rounds off, and then return to jumping like there is something down your pants, and repeat. It is very basic, but it’s also fun to be doing flips throughout a gunfight, to run up to an enemy and then blast him like your invincible.
A similar version to the infamous bullet time is also implemented and as you become in melee range of an enemy, you can run up their chest, back flip off them into ‘bullet time’ and shoot them down easily, since it gives you a damage bonus. This works great in crowds of enemies, since when you are in slow motion; you can lock onto your next target and hopefully get 3 or 4 before you touch the ground. It does become very easy when you learn how to do it swiftly, but it definitely doesn’t loose it’s cool factor seeing it again and again.
Lara has a new gadget this time as well, which is much like a grappling hook. This will help you cross long gaps like a swing, will pull enemies towards you much like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and pull boxes and items towards you that may be too heavy to move on your own will.
Your favored dual pistols are back as well, and like always, with the infinite ammo. Now that you are allowed to have two pairs of weapons at a time (always your pistols, then another weapon of your choice), many times you will be picking up an enemy’s gun after killing them due to it being more powerful until you run out of ammo for it. You are also given grenades this time, and while they are powerful if they hit, that’s the clincher, “if they hit”. These will bounce around like they are made of rubber, and rarely ever explode on time to do any real damage, unless they bounce back to you, then of course they go off in time.
Your D-Pad will control your tool belt of sorts. You have your PLS, which in essence is your flashlight, that is attached to you, you can use your health packs that you’ve saved up, and since almost every enemy drops health, you will basically never run out, and will also control your binoculars which help with puzzles. Using the binoculars are much like Metroid Prime, where if you ‘examine’ a switch or block, it will tell you if the item can be activated, moved, or destroyed, though there were very few times that you are so stumped on a puzzle that you needed to resort to this method. The flashlight was also basically useless as there weren’t all that many dark levels or spots that you couldn’t really see that well.
If you played the last Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness), you still have a stealth mode of sorts, but I never used it once. There was no point when you could just run up and use your ‘bullet time’ to basically 1-hit your enemies. I still don’t understand why this is even implemented.
An exciting feature is when Lara gets to use her motorcycle; wish sadly is only used twice in the game. It’s very simple and very arcade-ish, to the point of being too easy. The first time using it is much too short, cause it’s new and cool for something different than the regular platforming, and the second feels too long, as you just want it to end so you can progress.
Lara’s own mansion makes a return, but has a different reason behind it this time. Instead of being a training ground to learn all your new moves and practice them, it is now basically a small mini level that has its own secrets and collectables. It’s mainly meant for exploration and to break up the monotony, but it’s very nostalgic with many of it’s own puzzles to solve.
With this new edition also comes new ways for puzzles to be solved. Physics help play a role in this that require you to really understand what your object is, and how you are going to do it in the environment you are surrounded by. It is by no means as advanced or in-depth as Half-Life 2’s physic puzzles, but it makes you think the same way. There were nowhere near enough puzzles in this fashion, but playing with boxes on sea-saw’s doesn’t get old quick.
Much like previously in the Tomb Raider’s, the puzzles will sometimes have you thinking of how you are going to do two or three things at once, but once you catch on to how things are done and completed each time, many of the puzzles become too simple, almost to the point of feeling like tasks, rather than puzzles. You will be moving boxes onto pressure plates, while you then much use your acrobatics to reach another portion to flip a different switch for example. There is simply not enough actually challenging puzzles, and once you do figure out how it’s done, you usually feel stupid for not realizing you didn’t notice that block that you could move the whole time.
Visual:
When comparing the different versions, the 360 version easily wins out, by having 720p enabled. You will see much more detailed textures on walls and ground, bump mapping to actually make it look more realistic, lots of foliage that the other versions miss out on, particles and dust in the air in the tomb levels, water flowing and slashing, and the whole environment in general just looks so drastically better it’s hard to even suggest the other versions when comparing (Though we all know it’s the achievements).
Lara herself looks much more realistic and not so “38-22-38” like before. She actually looks like a real woman, a very attractive one at that. A nice feature as well is that whatever guns you are equipping or carrying, will show up on your belt or around your shoulders and doesn’t magically go into your inventory bag like previous.
Cutscenes look decent, but basically only look like a prettier port of the other versions. Explosions and the environment is really what makes you enjoy the graphic features by far. Some of the levels are designed so beautifully that you actually may stop to look around and take notice.
Sound:
Lara actually sounds like Lara, and not like someone reading off of a script. Her voice is well acted and very distinct with her accent. The other characters also do a great job, though a few of them just felt bland overall, but it seemed more due to their character, not their acting. Lara will wink or be witty in dialogue, and if you weren’t watching the screen you would be able to tell what her face motions would react like. She sounds like she has emotions, and that’s very important for her character as the story progresses.
The music is very moody and fits in with each level. With the bike levels, you get an action rock-like beat and while you’re jumping platforms deep in an underground tomb, you will get moody backdrop music. It’s not too distracting, but it wasn’t memorable either.
The dialogue actually is not quite what I was expecting. I was honestly expecting lots of cheesy lines and some script that even I could have come up with, but to my surprise, it’s actually quite well written and doesn’t bore you with too much back story and bland characters. It has its humor, it has bad guys you love to hate and just sound evil. It was quite a treat to be this surprised and not feel too “Hollywood”.
Closing Comments:
The game is very short, as in 8-12 hours, and the puzzles really aren’t as challenging as they should have been. It did have a nice mix of platforning with having to jump and swing lots of places mixed in with the few puzzles here and there, but ultimately, I would have been greatly more impressed if I actually got stuck and had to look up how to finish a certain puzzle.
The combat is extremely easy and other than the odd boss fight or two, I rarely ever had to heal, especially with almost every enemy dropping health along the way. It wasn’t the lock-on that trivialized the fighting, it was that the AI was not at all aggressive, and was very predictable.
On the bright side, it does contain a decent amount of replay, since you can do any level at any time once it’s completed, and even try the time trials to unlock more goodies for Lara. Though once these are done, it really only adds a few more hours onto the overall gameplay and again, after figuring out the puzzle schemes, it’s not challenging in any way, even on the most difficult setting.
A great Tomb Raider like this has been long overdue but it is finally here and while it may be short and not have you thinking terribly hard to complete it in a weekend, it’s all about the fantastic ride to the end and the entertainment in between. Lara is back, and she is as cool as ever. You don’t have to be ashamed anymore to say you enjoyed a Tomb Raider. Legends delivers what Tomb Raider used to feel like, now lets hope for an even more improved sequel.
Overall: 7.96 Gameplay: 7.8 Visuals: 8 Sound: 8.1
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Table Tennis
Overall: Intro:When Rockstar first announced their next game, it was definitely a shock to everyone, no one really expected something this drastically different from their previous titles. Table Tennis lacks guns, violence, hijacking, profanity and blood, which Rockstar has used to make their name, but in no way does it make this title un-cool.
Table Tennis has a simple objective; to deliver a very fast paced gameplay that is simple enough to pick up and play, yet be deep enough to keep you coming back for more. This is all it does, and surprisingly, better than most would expect.
Gameplay:
As you start up the game, you will be greeted with the cl@!%#*!ic “Rockstar Presents”, and even by the GTA font alone, you know this already feels like one of their games. Simplicity is one aspect that the game has strength in, but unfortunately at times, is also its weakness.
Soon as you start the game, you see a background with two players with the very slim menu choices in the upper corner. You are greeted with choices of Tournaments, Exhibition, Training, and Xbox Live.
Training is actually quite helpful and will teach you the basics of how to play, and then get into advanced techniques for later on. It’s broken down into sections from serving, returning, spins, counter spins, drop shots, slams, aiming and more which actually help later on with difficult matches. After a few goes, you’ll have the system down and want to jump right into a game, which is where the action begins.
The controls are incredibly simple, yet very precise to the touch. The left analog stick is your movement of your character, and once your about to hit the ball, your aim for where you want to hit the ball on the table. Your right stick controls the spin on the ball, and after your opponent hits the ball towards you, the longer you hold the stick in a direction, the more spin you can attain. The danger in this is that while your ‘charging’ you’re hit with a lot of spin, you are unable to move your character, so you have to think ahead where you should be to return the hit.
With four different types of spin, you can always keep your opponent guessing of not only where you are going to drop the ball, but if it’s going to have front, back, left, or right spin to help it curve as well. This is where counter hitting can also come into play. So if a shot was coming to me with immense right spin and going to go off the table, I would hit it right back with the same type of spin to essentially neutralize the spin on the ball and get things back into my favor.
A very clever yet subtle feature works very well once you even realize it’s there and in place is the use of the rumble feature of the controller. As your about to slam the ball towards your competitor and holding the direction you want for spin, once your controller starts to shake it means that you are getting dangerously close to the edge of the table. If you do not heed these warnings your shot will go out of bounds and off the table, and honestly, having not read the book before playing, it made things extremely easier once I learned this tactic. You will get a feel for how much is too much over time with more and more gameplay. Eventually become very skilled in this can net you easy points where it can nick off the edge of the table and basically become un-returnable.
So after keeping all these things in mind, there is also another aspect that will come into play and usually help you win easily against the computer (as opposed to a person). The more you charge your spins, the more your focus meter will fill up, and once full, you can use it to unleash an extremely fast return or even more powerful slam. While this works great against the computer players, against real players, it can help, but not as effectively. In single player, the camera will go into a slow motion mode, make it look all awesome even if you are just trying to reach for a save return. In multiplayer is just speeds things up to insane rates of returns and you will watch your rally numbers increase very quickly.
Camera work is flawless, and while you do only get two choices of close or far (close being the much easier to see the ball with), it never once felt like I didn’t know where I should be looking. If you are at one corner of the table, and they are at the opposite other, the camera will slightly pan enough so it just seems like the perfect angle. If you are playing multiplayer on the same system, one person is on the bottom for their serves, and then it switches so each person gets to play on both sides of the table. I did find being on the top side of the table a bit odd, and missing more shots I shouldn’t have been, you do get used to it eventually and it will feel natural.
Loading times are decent, though with how little is actually on the screen, it seemed at first it should have been quicker. At least while you are waiting for it to load, you can look at what you’ve unlocked so far with each character, and even get hints on how to unlock more arena’s, clothes, and characters.
Picking and choosing the character that fits your play style is crucial as well. You are given a choice of a few choices at the starts, and as you progress through single player tournaments (note I didn’t say career mode); you unlock new players along the way along with clothes and arenas. If you are a power player and want to slam your opponent every chance you get, then Jesper is your choice, but watch his zero rating in serving. Liu Ping from China is your all around choice which most people online tend to use I found. If you want to trick your challenger with awesome spins and fakes, the Luc or Kumi are the way to go. Learning more than one character is crucial for online play, as using a defensive character against another defensive character makes easy scoring a challenge.
Each character is rated on spin, serve, power, and accuracy, and actually feels different than each other as well. While there is no rating for movement, I did find that certain players I preferred just seemed to move quicker than others. As you learn to be in the right place at the right time, you won’t rely on the footwork as much, but it can be frustrating to miss that shot because it doesn’t feel like they move quickly enough at times. While you are charging your spin, you can not move either, so it’s a lesson you tend to learn early on very quickly.
One downfall to the games simplicity is its lack of modes as well. All you get are exhibition modes for a quicker play, or tournament to unlock items and features. That’s it; there is no career mode in any shape or form. Regrettably there is also no create a player either. And for player options, you get to pick their color and style of up to a few shirts, not even wrist or headbands. While the choices are very slim mode and player wise, the gameplay does redeem it and is quite deep and involving.
There is quite the intensity that becomes apparent once you hit milestones in long rallies. Once you realize you have been going back and forth for over 50 hits, you seem to become more focused. As the rallies become much higher, and even breaking the 100 mark, you become tense and it’s exciting with the result either being you standing up cheering, or shouting new profanities because you accidentally hit the net with the wrong spin. When even playing the lower 7 point games, they can take time when you have two very good players and are scoring back and forth on each other.
When you play online for the first time, you will feel just at home since it’s identical to the single player in almost every aspect. Just as single player, you can choose Exhibition for the quicker matches, or a Timed Tournament which is 4 to 8 players all playing at the same time in a Round-Robin style of play with a set amount of time. Unfortunately the settings are very weak, and once you are done an exhibition match, it boots both players, even the host, to the main Xbox Live screen where you can hen either host again and invite your friend, or join a random game. Being able to play with my friends reputedly without having to send an invite every time would have been much enjoyed, but rather it’s a h@!%#*!le. While setting up a Timed Tournament, you can pick either 4 or 8 players, and should you choose 8 and you don’t have a full room, you can not start the game, even if 4 of you are there and waiting. It’s another simple thing that could have been avoided but just brings frustration instead.
While online, the same pace feels the same. While there isn’t many lag problems, the few times I have had them brings very weird occurrences. Sometimes I won’t be seeing my opponent move, but an invisible paddle will still hit the ball, or sometimes the ball will float there for a second as if it’s waiting to be hit by them instead of me scoring a point. Another odd bug that I’ve run into that’s only happened once so far is while I picked Juergen to play with, the person I was playing with said it was Jesper and was even his name and model instead of what I see on my own screen.
While there are certain things that I’ve noticed that shouldn’t be there, it by no means takes away from the quick action and frantic gameplay. With there being absolutely no extras, career mode, or mini-games, the single player is very bland and quick to finish. Multiplayer with a friend or on Xbox Live does feel like it compensates for what it does lack.
Graphics:
As noted before, from the moment you turn on Table Tennis, you know that it’s a Rockstar game, not only from its patented font, but just the feel and style of the product as a whole.
The players in this title look simply amazing and realistic for the most part. While in replays, you can see everything from beads of sweat on the forehead, to the fine hairs of an eyebrow. Each character looks unique and the motion capture of each is marvelous. When you need to quickly move to the side you can see them plant their foot and push fluidly rather than just strafing.
I don’t think I’ve seen better clothing in a game before this title. Shirts will droop and bend and move like they do in real life. Reach for a high slam and the shirt near your armpit actually stretches, lean and bend over to hit a drop shot and your shirt will actually sag with gravity. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something so fluid that you have to notice it.
To add another level of realism, players will also sweat over time and the longer the rallies, the more sweaty your character gets. It makes the color of your shirt darken as well depending on where they are sweating. It’s not a necessity, but having it definitely makes it feel like a genuine 360 title.
Each player will also have their own stances and hold the paddles their own specific way. This just breathes more life into the characters and with no drops of framerate and the lighting being perfect, Table Tennis is one of the more realistic looking titles on the system thus far.
Sound:
To be cliché, you will hear every ‘ping’ and every ‘pong’ the ball makes as it bounces off the table. Even the crowd can be heard at times, and when they want someone to win, you will hear them chant their name or country without too much repetitiveness.
With Table Tennis being such a rhythmic gameplay, Rockstar has picked the perfect choice of a soft ambient techno to play in the background that just seems to fit the whole style of the game. Obviously your own soundtracks are recommended, but they have certainly combined the style of gameplay with the style of music to fuse a wonderful mix.
Closing Comments:
Rockstar has not made a mini-version of Virtua Tennis or Top Spin. While many aspects may seem the same, they have combined fluid gameplay with simple controls to make a completely new experience. While it may seem like the next-gen version of ‘Pong’, the pacing, gameplay, and addictiveness of Table Tennis is represented so well that with it’s low price tag, should not be p@!%#*!ed up.
Table Tennis is simple to pick up and play, yet very deep if you want to invest the time into it. While it does have it’s shortcomings with lack of modes and create a player, this title is completely about the gameplay. It is exciting, it is additive, and this truly is Table Tennis bought to us by Rockstar.
Gameplay: 8.8 Graphics: 8.3 Sound: 7.8 Overall: 8.3
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Project Gotham Racing 3
Overall: Intro:PGR 3 may be one of the first games in quite awhile that has fooled me with the screenshots before hand that looked pre-rendered but upon playing it the first time, you realize that it’s completely in-game and much more than you expected. Not being one for many racing games, I decided to pick PGR3 up to add some more variety to my launch collection, and I was not expecting it to turn out that it would be my most played title. With so many different modes, a large selection of cars, and a plethora of extra features, PGR3 has huge replay value that doesn’t get old quickly.
Gameplay:
The Project Gotham series has always had a unique premise; to win races, not just by being the first across the finish line, but to do it all with such a style that would be fit for a Hollywood movie. This is achieved with the games Kudos system and it works simply yet effectively. You take a turn normally, no big deal, but take that turn going way too fast, power sliding by hitting your emergency brake and having the nose of your car inches away from the turn’s wall, and that is how you get the Kudos that you need to progress further and unlock more goodies. Catching air, going on 2 wheels, doing clean sections, and racing perfect lines can earn you more. Kudos is all about skill and precision, not going fast as possible into a wall and just accelerating out of it like most racers. Your score goes higher the more you string together moves and slides, so to get some of the goals you need, especially in the hardcore setting, you need to sometimes even slightly slide on a straight track to keep your combo and multiplier going. The risk being that if you have a huge combo going and then misjudge when you start sliding into a turn and hit a wall, you lose your whole point combo. Knowing when to keep stringing moves together and when to let the Kudos add to your score definitely comes in time, and will differ with everyone’s play style.
PGR 3 is much more heavily based on skill rather than “wall riding” that other games let you do without much consequence. The first rule that you learn very quickly is that you must use your brakes to take turns slowly and controlled until you learn how to do sliding E-brake turns at breakneck speeds. Braking means you will make the turn, which in turn means you keep your momentum much faster and have an overall higher speed. Sometimes the game can be a little forgiving in which you just barely touch the wall and it won’t penalize you and take your Kudos away, though it doesn’t always seem to be consistent when it chooses to do this, nor does it happen that often unfortunately.
You are placed into the game with a set amount of cash to buy your first car and then sent off to go start winning your trophies and medals. Not only do you get a decent amount of starting cash, but you quickly notice that you won’t be starting off with an ancient car that has no real hopes of winning any races; but instead, you can start off with quite the decent racer to get your racing career headed in the right direction. Quickly you start earning more than enough cash to buy yourself a much faster vehicle, and instead of selling off your old car to afford the newest ones like most racing games have you do, PGR 3 leads you more in a collective direction; where all your exotic beauties can be showcased in your numerous garages.
PGR 3 offers 5 different city locations which doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are many variants of the city, all with different turns and even feels to them. One feature I quite enjoy that Bizarre Creations has added is not just made the tracks separated by car cl@!%#*!es, but by race types. This means that while there aren’t many different city settings, there are numerous different race types for every one. These can range from drift style races, speed challenges, to cone challenges and more. So rather than giving you a set car for a certain track, you will want to pick a car that is going to be better suited for the type of race you are attempting to complete.
With of choice of 80 different vehicles ranging from the “lower” end Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, and Lotus’, all the way to the super top performance TVR, RUF, Benz, and even the coveted Ferrari F50 and McLaren F1, along with concept cars that would make you drool if you were to see them p@!%#*!ing on the street. Each car handles very differently and certain cars are best suited for different race types. You will obviously enjoy and prefer certain cars to others for their own individual handling and speed, but as soon as you play on Xbox Live, if you aren’t using the “normal” cars that the majority of players do for each cl@!%#*!, you will sadly be left in the dust; regardless if you can take turns superiorly better than the rival that can double your top speed and acceleration.
Single player career mode is divided into 23 multi-tiered championships, and each of them usually has their own “genres” or style to them to offer a play change, rather than the same monotony most racers do. So one championship may be all head to head street racing mixed with some one on one medals to win, while another championship can be all cone challenges mixed with drift and overtake objectives. While the single player is short to initially complete, there is plenty of replay with trying to get all the different medals and achievements that can only be done by choosing a harder difficulty level. Having never really played much of the previous series, I can hold my own while challenging the medium setting, but trying hard is a challenge best left to PGR veterans. For those of you that absolutely love a challenge, hardcore is just that. One mistake on this setting could mean the whole race, and usually does. While this is great news for those that are that good, it can be quite frustrating when you are about to win a long enduring race, having then having lose it on the last corner because you started to turn a split second too early or late. It leaves extremely little room for error, but it’s a great way to keep going back and trying to achieve those elusive medals.
If you want to just quickly start a race, you can do so easily, but there is much more that you can choose to do rather than your typical race. Modes differ from the standard Street Race to Eliminator in which the last driver to complete is lap is knocked out until there is only one victor. Team Street Race adds almost a Nascar feel in the sense that you and your teammates must do what it takes to win; so sometimes having the better racer up front with your partner behind you trying to block the opponents from gaining is what it takes to win this Red vs. Blue battle. Team Eliminator which is much like the normal version, but the victor wins it for their whole team. One of the more unique modes is the Capture the Track mode in which you have to “own” as much of the course as you can by having the quickest time in certain sections. So while you can be amazing at certain corners and have great speeds in sections, you need to have the majority of the track in your control by the end of the timer.
Should you grow tired of racing, there is still much PGR 3 offers for anyone. The biggest noteworthy of these features being the Route Creator, where you can make your course just the way you want, race it, and even play it with your friends over Xbox Live. You start by choosing the city and it gives you an overview of all the city roads. Picking the start line will get you going right into the good parts where you can pick any road to use, the corners to take, all exactly how you want to race. You are free to make any style of track you want, whether it is a point to point or a circuit race, or even a long straight drag race to finally prove which of your friend’s car is superior in horsepower.
Another great feature is the Photo mode, where you can walk around your garage of all your cars, and freely able to take pictures how you want. There are camera settings for zoom, tilt, height, free movement, focus, shutter speed, brightness, contrast, even sepia. It’s not completely open to take it always exactly how you want, but it certainly does the job. The real exciting part of the Photo Mode feature is that you are able to take a picture of your car whenever you like just by pausing the game. This can lead to some really amazing pictures of you overtaking someone on the inside while sliding almost along the wall, or even with all four wheels off the ground getting some air. Factor in the ability to move the camera freely, and you can turn into quite the photographer. One of the games achievements is to take a picture of your car in every city, so definitely spend the time and play with this great feature. The only complaint I have about this is that there is no ability to share or post your photo’s online somewhere, so you can only share them on your with your friends. Adding an online gallery of sorts with rankings would have been a great addition.
Bizarre clearly had Xbox Live in mind when developing PGR 3, and it clearly shows with the robust online features it contains. While playing single player offline, when you finish tracks it automatically uploads your times and scores and places it into the rankings and before you exit out, shows you where you are in the world’s ranking for your efforts. Think that you are the best in the world on a certain track with your car? Go online, download anyone’s ghost car and race against it to see how you really stack up against the best in the world. You are not limited to the top 10 or 100 people either. If your placed 300th place and the guy that’s ahead of you in ranking has somehow beat your time by a long shot, you can watch their race or choose to race his ghost to see how it was done. One key element in this feature is that you can watch the replay and learn from it, but you can watch it from any angle you choose. If you play in the 3rd person view and want to know how to take a certain turn like the best do, watch in that view. If you use the @!%#*!pit view, you can even watch the whole thing like that if you wish to learn from the best to better hone your skills.
This is where Gotham TV also comes into place. You can see who’s racing online from the leader boards, tune into Gotham TV, and watch in real time; races that they are competing in at that very moment. Of course you have the ability to change to any racer, and any camera angle you wish as well. Play online enough and your TRUESKILL ranking will go up, which is how the game determines who to pair you with, much like Halo 2’s ranking system. Get good enough and you may even appear on the Hero’s Channel on Gotham TV that showcases the best in the world. Having been on Gotham TV numerous times myself, I can tell you that it adds a pressure factor knowing that thousands of people could be watching how great or poorly you race.
To combat cheating by only racing with your friends and working your way up the leader boards that way, Bizarre has made it so you have no choice for your competitors. While not being able to race along your friends for rankings, I haven’t found it to be a huge issue. Another measure they have taken to detour people that cheat by learning one course and just raving that one over and over to improve rankings, is by picking what cl@!%#*! of cars you want to race, not the course. Each cl@!%#*! then has a random choice of a number of maps which are suited for that cl@!%#*! of car. It’s a far from perfect system, but its wonderful having a variety of random maps when earning for your online profile.
One huge difference to keep I mind when playing online, is that you are playing real people that can and usually will do what it takes to win. More often than not you will race against the kind of competitor that will side swipe you just before a turn, making you spiral out of control into a wall at 200mph, and this is to be expected, but when you do have a race where everyone is respectable of each other and won’t crash people into walls for the sake of making a turn, it makes such a memorable online experience. Feedback is there for a reason, and so are the zones that you choose to play online, so prepare for the dirty racers that will take any means necessary to win. One word to the wise is to avoid going into the first turn of a track online with everyone else, as it’s very seldom that you will come out with your clean slide and getaway.
Load times are slightly more than usual, but can get annoying and tedious when restarting races and waiting for it to load all over again. For the visuals this game puts out, I find it’s reasonable; mind you I’m not sure what they would be like without the Hard Drive.
Visuals:
The one feature that this game has that makes it stand out visually is the @!%#*!pit view. We aren’t talking your normal view where you can see the steering wheel and maybe a rear view mirror, this is much more, and shows off what the 360 is more than capable of. Instead, this is inside the @!%#*!pit where you see your steering wheel, you see your hands gripping the wheel and shifting, the rear view mirror, the speedometer, your tachometers, and anything else that is actually authentic to the car you are racing. That is until you flick the right stick which acts as if you were turning your head inside the view. So you actually have to move the right stick left or right to check your side mirrors to see if someone is trying to overtake you. It’s the next step in realism, and overtime I found myself looking at the dash for my speed rather than the overlaying HUD. With each car being an accurate depiction of what the car is actually like to sit inside, it’s difficult to not be impressed, and finding yourself learning all different kind of blind spots. For a truly unique experience, choose the McLaren F1 and race in this view. Since the bucket seat in this car is directly in the middle and not on the side, it’s as close as you will ever get to racing one.
Lights, shadows and reflections will all bend and deform around the hood and windshield of your car, and this is the most obvious when you are using the in-dash view. First time seeing this came should make you impressed with what is possible now in next-gen systems. While you corner, slide, and brake hard, your camera will shake and blur depending on your velocity and force you can going into turns. This again is most apparent when using the @!%#*!pit view. Where the game does not inherently feel as fast as a Burnout title, the speed sense you have while in-dash is quite astounding, and you don’t always see the corner come us as early as you would like.
PGR 3 showcases HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting which gives a more realism effect. The easiest and more of the impressive examples I can give is that when you come out of a tunnel and back into sunlight, you will have a second of bright light everywhere as if your eyes were adjusting to coming out of the dark like in real life. It’s just one more step closer to realism, and while subtle, it works perfectly. My only wish is that you could choose to turn the HUD completely off so that I couldn’t see a turn coming out of the tunnel on my map, rather than trying to see it coming at me 200mph while my eyes adjust to the sun.
Overlooked aspects in PGR 3’s graphics are definitely the background and layout. Most games will save space and look great while racing, but if you ever stopped and looked at trees or the crowd while still, they were usually animated 2D cutouts. Those are long gone now this generation, with fully 3D pedestrians watching the race, and fully lush trees. They have many more animations than any other racing game I have seen will even take pictures of you as you go by with the flash of their camera’s going off. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s so much improved that it’s very noticeable.
On a bright side, there is damage modeling, but it feels as if it’s almost a cop out and just in there because. The most you can really do to your car is bend your bumpers and spoiler, and crack your mirrors and windshield; regardless that you are going over 200mph into a wall head on. It is hard to drive with no mirrors using the @!%#*!pit view, and does add that want to keep your car in pristine condition, but sadly it’s purely a cosmetic addition, it does not affect your cars performance in any way. The damage does look great, but personally I wish it had more much like Toca 2 did.
Visually, this game is easily one of my top choices for 360’s launch titles. It’s very impressive, and with an HDTV it looks even better. It’s not something that absolutely screams next-gen, but you will be very impressed when you see it for the first time.
Sound:
Not being much of a car guy, I didn’t really realize that there could be so many different sounds for a car braking at different speeds, different engines revving, tires squealing depending on your speed, and the differences of them depending on your position to the car.
Every car does sound different, and not just the engine sounds. Like said above, anything you do with the car, will sound unique for that car. If you played enough, and had your 5.1 surround sound set up, knew the cars sounds well enough, you would be able to tell if my McLaren F1 was coming up behind you on your right just by the sound of my motor pushing itself trying to overtake you. Yes, it is that impressive and distinct. Something else I wasn’t expecting was that the sound will also differ depending on if you are using the 3rd person views, or the @!%#*!pit. Inside your car, your engine will sound incredibly more mean with your sub woofer turned high up, where as the outer views you will hear the squealing of your tires as well but from a distance.
PGR 3 offers a soundtrack that will cater to almost everyone. You are given the choice of 9 different music genres that you can change on the fly. Pressing up or down on your D-Pad will change between the genres differing from Rock, Electronica, Hip Hop, Industrial, Bhangra, J-Pop, and even Cl@!%#*!ical. Once you find the style of music you want, simply hit left or right on the D-Pad to choose different songs in that genre. This is all great and there should be something in there you will enjoy, but obviously playing your own play lists and music through the 360 dashboard is much more preferred
Closing Comments:
There are so many modes and extra features that PGR 3 offers that even non racing enthusiasts will want this title. Bizarre has created an extraordinary launch title, and this is not one to be p@!%#*!ed up. Need that final reason to buy a HDTV or simply justify your 360 purchase? This is that reason.
Gameplay – 8.6
Visuals – 9.0
Sound – 10
Overall – 9.2
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The
Overall: Intro:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is finally here after much waiting and anxious anticipation. If you have ever played any of the series, most notably Morrowind, then you understand the broad range of freedom and scope that Bethesda can deliver. A game where you can literally explore for hours finding new places, dungeons, and towns, but being able to stop on the way, look around the vast landscape around you and even look at the minute details that have gone into the world to make it immersive as possible.
From the moment you are thrown into the main storyline in a cl@!%#*!ic good vs. evil plotline, there is much more underneath the basic premise and will have you traveling all over, and if Bethesda has done their job right, hours and hours spent on side quests, advancing ranks in guild missions, exploring landscape for more dungeons and treasure, and arena battles that can easily get you sidetracked.
Gameplay:
Start Oblivion, and after the game’s first cut scene that explains briefly what is happening in the world, you instantly start to design your character with much detail and enough options that you can spend some time getting just everything perfectly. Adjusting facial features such as length of nose, hair, chin and such is just the starting. Even getting your eye color the way you want, the options are very deep, and should make you happy with how you want to exactly look. There are different races to chose from, each having their own positives and negatives for stats and certain cl@!%#*!es.
As you start off the game after creating your masterpiece of a character, the first dungeon, which is basically following the King and his guards for a prison break, you are taught some of the fundamentals of gameplay, and while you are guided along where to go, everything you do here should be thought of as the “Training Level”. As you complete this first dungeon, everything you have done up till this point will be noted and you will be given a recommendation of what type of cl@!%#*! you should play based on how you have been so far. You are more than welcome to pick one of the template character cl@!%#*!es, or even completely customize your own how you wish. At the end of this first dungeon before you leave to the outside world, you are given one final chance to change any aspect about your character including name, race, appearance and skills. Once you leave this section, there is no turning back for any character changes, so make sure you understand what skills do what, and which ones to make your primary, or you will have major headaches later on. Sadly, this is more or less learned by trial and error if you’ve never played Morrowind, any anyone who has, will understand how the leveling system is and the difference in making skills primary or secondary.
As you leave the prison’s sewers, you are now set loose in the world of Cyrodiil with your first task that starts you along with the main quest, though it does not pressure you into doing so. This being Oblivion, you can march through the main storyline if you wish and complete that portion of the game, or simply do whatever you want and travel anywhere doing anything your heart desires. When you are on a specific mission or task, your comp@!%#*! will have an arrow always pointing you in the right direction, so you are never truly lost on where you should be heading next. If you are given a red arrow, it means you are not in the correct city or zone or need to go through a door somewhere, but if it is green, the person or place you seek is nearby.
Don’t feel like walking everywhere and want to get where you need to be right now? Bring up your map and choose the icon of the place you wish to go to magically be whisked away instantly (minus the loading screen). The only trick to this is that you have to either visited the place before, or know of it through conversations with NPC’s if it’s a town or city. So as you are give a quest to go clear a certain dungeon of all the vampires or whatnot, if you have not been there before, or traveled within proximity, you have to walk (or if you’ve obtained a horse at this point) the way. Most areas needed to go are near a city, so worst case scenario; you fast travel to the closest city or town, and then do the journey from there.
Making any quest you have available from your journal your “active” quest is very easy, and will instantly give you the new arrows of where to go, and the descriptions of what is needed to do, so that coming back to old forgotten quests is not really a burden in remembering where you were before you got sidetracked.
The main quest has a very simple Good vs. Evil concept at the start, but as you learn more about the King’s @!%#*!@!%#*!ination, long lost son, why Oblivion Gates are opening up across the land, and how you are going to stop them, it becomes much more involved and more time goes by than you ever thought would in a single player game. If you were to strictly only do the main storyline and absolutely nothing else, I found it was surprisingly over quickly, though the multiple climaxes of the plot does not disappoint at all. This is nearly impossible to do though, as you will get sidetracked and venture off to do other things to advance your character and chart new areas.
There are literally so many things you can do, that a simple 20 hour main quest can at times not even be remotely close to your focus. With multiple guilds that will have you doing errands and quests escalading in difficulty to climb up the ranks, cities that are littered with people that all have problems that apparently only you are capable of solving, join the battles in an Arena to make a name for yourself, rob people blind for everything they have then sell it to make a profit, explore mysterious dungeons and be a treasure hunter, become a vampire and feed on the living, or even buy a house for yourself and do what you wish with it. With it being completely open ended, this is just a fraction of things that can sidetrack you from any certain quest or anything else you may be doing, without it being too daunting at the same time.
You can play any style you wish, so if you prefer to sneak in the shadows, pickpocket people, steal their items to see if you can get away with it, and just simply act roguish, you are given the skills to do so. If you would rather just smash your enemies with a giant hammer or sword and plow through anything that looks at you the wrong way, feel free to do so as well. Even combine different styles and play exactly how you wish, and depending on how you decided your skills, almost any character cl@!%#*! or skills are possible.
The more you use your skills, the greater you become at them. If you want to become a master archer, keep using it and you will become more powerful and unlock more skills as you progress. If you want to be a master at haggling for better store prices, that is also a viable option that if you become good enough, you can actually invest into stores and reap the benefits.
The strength of armor, spells, and weapons you obtain in the game are solely based on your characters level, which in turn is risen by your main skill attributes. This is why picking your main skills is very important, because if you pick a skill like Acrobatics for example that is naturally going to level up as you progress, you will become burdened by the level advancements, because you can now jump and run fast, but your combat and defensive skills will lack, causing you to constantly play catch-up with your other skills.
There are four guilds across the land, which you are able to join, obviously after some tests and tribulations though, to prove your worthiness and trust of course. The four guilds that you are able to join are the Fighters, Thieves, Mages, and Dark Brotherhood. They all have their own quests and rewards, and at times, interconnect and can sometimes be difficult to do one guild orders without failing another’s at the same time. Though sometimes very daunting and frustrating at times, the rewards in the end are generally worth all the trouble and time spent for it, not to mention the achievement points.
There is an Arena in the Imperial City where you can become a gladiator to rise in the ranks and compete for gold and fame. Sadly, if you are very proficient at combat, this side portion of the game can be done very quickly if you decide to finish it quickly, as in around 30 minutes start to finish. The non combat heavy characters should enjoy the challenge though trying to fend off fights in one vs. one, one vs. two, and even one vs. three. And like the guild quests, the achievement points alone should be incentive enough to complete this action filled portion of your adventures.
Radiant AI is something that Bethesda touted about for a long time, and in simple terms, this basically means that NPC’s can almost think for themselves. They will have certain tasks they need to get done, such as work, or getting to places and anything in between is almost “as it happens”. An easy example of this would be, say a certain NPC is hungry because its lunch time. They will look around the house for something to eat, but what happens if you stole all their food while they weren’t looking? They would venture out to get some, or better yet, if you happened to put a poisoned apple in their pocket without them knowing, they could take a bite of that, and then you could do what you wish with their belongings once they keel over dead.
Sometimes you need to obtain information from NPC’s on clues where to go next, but sometimes they will not like you, or trust you enough to divulge secrets to you. Depending on your skills, you can try to sweet talk them with high speech craft skills, charm them with spells to make yourself seem more attractable, or simply bribe them with money. Obviously trying to bribe guards and other characters will not always be looked upon kindly and may even lower your disposition towards that person.
With so many skills that become unlocked, and spells you may obtain throughout the course of the game, there is a hotkey system that allows up to eight items able to be changed on the fly. These can be pieces of armor that may have certain enchantments you need for certain situations (water breathing items for example), different weapons for different types of monsters (bow and arrow to pull it close, then hack away with a sword), and of course, all different types of spells you may have. Considering the scope of the game, it can feel very limited to only have 8 hotkeys especially if you are a mage heavy character, though combat driven character may not notice this burden as much. If there was a way to have different sets of 8, it might have been handier, but also being set to the D-Pad, it can sometimes be annoying to try and hit one of your diagonal arrows for a certain spell in time, but not always correctly choosing the right one.
While the game feels and plays out like it is meant to be in first person mode, there is options for playing in third person, but with making combat incredibly tougher not being able to always judge your distance, and some of the embarr@!%#*!ing animations like jumping and strafing, it feels more immersive in first person by far. Moving the camera back to third person is usually only used when traveling to get a broader scope of your surroundings, or if you are trying to find a secret lever or item on the ground.
Certain bugs are still present, such as odd sound glitches, clipping through walls, NPC’s sometimes acting “brain-dead”, and my personal favorite, breaking into someone’s house, then going in and talking to the NPC and them acting like nothing has happened. The apparent bugs can be annoying and at times frustrating when you get stuck somewhere, but overall, you learn to live with it, and it doesn’t really take away from the game so much that you notice after awhile.
Visual:
Visually, there has not been anything to this scale done before, and the distances you can see at times, especially on mountaintops, can be very breathtaking. Your environment is not flat, and with trees and gr@!%#*! swaying in the wind, or rain coming into your face, there is a huge level of detail put into the world. Day and night comes and goes, and you can even see deer run across the land in the plains. Exploring can be very enjoyable to see how high you can actually get, or how deep a lake actually goes. Waterfalls will even have mist at their base with plants needed for alchemy usually thriving near water sources.
Almost every weapon you own will look different from others, and as you obtain the higher level ones, they can be very intricately detailed and simply gorgeous to look at with glows and enchantments on them as well. Armor is the same way, with light chain or leather armor looking very distinct from heavy iron or steel sets, with them even shining differently in the light.
In dungeons you will find cobwebs in corners, dirt on the ground, dust on treasure chests and littered bones if it’s quite a dangerous place to be. Sometimes the walls can look repetitive, but with all the lighting effects and the traps laid out to look for, it’s usually not noticed.
Physics also play a role, where if you kill an animal on a downward slope, they will roll and tumble accordingly, even bouncing off rocks or down cliffs. This can be pretty entertaining itself, but when you want to loot the monster you just killed, chasing after it down a hill waiting for it to stop gets old. Hitting someone in the head hard enough with a bow can even make them back flips, sending their body one direction into a wall, and the weapon in completely the opposite direction.
For how gorgeous everything can look, there are still faults that are apparent, and sometimes even take away from being immersed. While you can see for miles at certain places, the objects far off don’t look sharp and usually have very low textures, enough to be extremely noticeable and out of place. As you travel across the land, since it’s such a huge area, it will sometimes stutter as its loading everything in the vicinity nearby. If you are on horseback, it only makes the problem worse, sometimes almost skipping if you have one of the faster horses. It’s bearable, but really shouldn’t be there. Fortunately the regular loading times of exiting or entering places are decent; it seems to just be the traveling outside for the most part.
Sound:
Sound is undoubtedly the absolute star of the game and brings in a new feeling of gameplay, due to every single NPC being voiced for all dialogue. Obviously many minor characters that have very few lines, or even just one, you sometimes think that different characters have the exact same voice. Surprisingly even with the one-liners and sometimes repetitive responses, nothing sounds too out of line or cheesy.
The star casts for two of the main characters are voiced by celebrities. Patrick Stewart plays the king that gets @!%#*!@!%#*!inated very early in the journey and you can distinctly tell that it’s him. It’s quite amusing, though I was waiting for him to tell me to “engage”, not “Close shut the gates of Oblivion”. The majority of the main quest focuses on the long-lost son of the emperor, Martin, who is perfectly voiced by Sean Bean.
The music definitely adds a special feel to certain situations as well. As you adventure and explore freely, you hear a happy cheery melody that makes you feel like you’re floating across the land and that all is good in the world. When an enemy spots you, the music will change to a tense battle sequence so that you know you’re in combat, and gently fades away once your combat is over. Dungeons will have an eerie musical score that makes you feel like you want to be creeping slowly and watching your footing.
As you pluck your bow and arrow, you will hear the string tighten and “twang”, swords will clash and make it sound like there are sparks, water drips in dungeons, footsteps of people and yourself that change according to the type of ground you are on, and even you swaying in the water. Skeleton bones crumble when you defeat them, ghosts and wraiths let out an eerie wailing gasp when they are defeated and being in an Oblivion gate is overall pure frightening with the music and enemy battle cries.
Closing Comments:
One of the major things that really stuck out for me was that there were only 2 cut scenes in the whole game; the beginning and end, which is unfortunate due to how beautifully they were done. With all the criticisms that could be held against it, it’s impossible to deny the enjoyment that will come from everything that is possible from this title. Bethesda has scored again by listening to the fans and improved upon many aspects from Morrowind. It is by no means perfect, but there is nothing else that compares to the scale and immersiveness that you will get from enjoying this game.
Simply put, Oblivion is the single best single player experience you can get that has come along in quite some time on the Xbox 360. With almost unlimited gameplay hours and never a shortage of things to do, Oblivion is an incredible experience that should be even played by non RPG fans. It’s not often a gem like this will spoil us for expectations for future gaming.
Overall: 9.46 Gameplay: 9.3 Visuals: 9.3 Sound: 9.8
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Overall: Intro:Take the underground street car modding culture and open free roaming city from Need For Speed Underground 2, mix in the high tension and fast paced police chases from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, add a whole lot of speed and attitude with an onslaught of more than 30 way too fast vehicles and you have yourself the newest EA addition to the long running series: Need For Speed Most Wanted; and it doesn’t disappoint.
Gameplay:
Surprisingly Most Wanted boasts quite an impressive career mode that doesn’t tire easily and has you wanting to keep moving up the ranks of the Blacklist to extract your revenge, more-so than the fame and bragging rights of just being the best street racer in the city.
You arrive in Rockport with your BMW that has been customized and tweaked way too fast for your own good. You are greeted with some street racers and leave them in your dust quite easily with your overpowering car and way too much nitrous that shouldn’t (and probably isn’t) legal. Eventually a local cop who obviously thinks he knows better pulls you over and gets ready to arrest you while explaining how he owns the streets. While you are about to hand over the keys to your prized possession, he gets an announcement on his radio of a pack of racers causing havoc and is forced to head off after them, letting you go with a stern warning to leave. Of course he keys the side of your car as he walks away, making you cringe to the sound of it, just to make you spite his evilness that much more. You then meet up with the local racers and are introduced to Mia, who seems to want to help you and warns you about the crowd here in Rockport and to be careful. The apparent leader of the group; Razor, explains that if you want to race against a Blacklist racer, you have to earn it and put the pink slip to your ride on the line, which is why no one is stupid enough to do it. You give your pink slip to Mia, so does Razor, and the race is on after a few cheesy lines about him boasting to stealing your ride, then your girl.
Things are going your way during the race and then you get a call from Mia telling you something must be wrong with your car, since you left a lot of oil back at the starting line and if the race isn’t finished quickly, you are going to lose. As fate would have it, your engine blows and you lose the race very abruptly. Razor tows away your ride, and the cops come to arrest you for your wreckless driving.
You find out that Razor had his lackeys sabotage your car before the race, and that he tipped off the cops to get your car and you in jail. To make matters even worse, he has gone from #15 on the Blacklist to the #1 spot, in your car! This is where the career mode begins as you work your way up the blacklist to challenge Razor to obtain your revenge and win your car back. Now that you have no car and very limited money, you must scrape your way up from the bottom and work your way up to the most dangerous and notorious racer in the city.
The Blacklist is a simple yet effective system of progression. For the opportunity to race a blacklist racer, you must have a prerequisite amount of challenges and a certain value of bounty on your head by the city’s police force. There are two different types of challenges; races, which include circuits, sprints, speed traps, tollbooths, and drag races, and then the more interesting portion of challenges are the milestones, which are all cop related and will have you attempting different goals such as “tagging” or scraping paint with a certain amount of cops, outrunning the police for a set amount of time, destroying enough squad cars, or even obtain a certain amount of dollar value damage to the state by crashing into poles, buildings, trees and the likes. Milestone events will earn you bounty dependant on how long you are being pursued for, the amount of damage you cause, how many infractions you rack up; which can vary from excessive speeding to hit and runs, and the heat level on your car. Obviously the longer you are being chased and the more dangerous things you do, the higher your bounty gets, but also the chances of being caught and the aggression level of the police gets turned up as well.
Your “heat” level is basically the cops’ gauge of how dangerous and wanted to them you are. The cops keep track of your heat levels for your individual cars and they will respond accordingly. The higher your heat level, the more intense and severe their techniques for attempting to stop you will be. Heat level one isn’t really a challenge, as usually it’s just normal police cars driven by simpletons that can be evaded and taken out quickly, but once you reach the higher heat levels of four or five, you will have a slew of twenty plus police chasing you, range rovers that can roll your car, helicopters that will follow your position, and even the federal cop from the beginning of the game in his extremely overpowered Corvette C6 that will use any means necessary to stop you ranging from road spikes and even rolling road blocks that are almost impossible to avoid.
Luckily you do have some tricks up your sleeve to help you when needing to take turns at way too fast speeds or gain some distance from the relentless maniacs behind you; Speed Breakers and Pursuit Breakers. In essence, a Speed Breaker feels like bullet-time for your car which will help you slide through exceptionally unyielding turns, right yourself out of a fishtail, avoiding traffic in hectic intersections, or even guide yourself under a moving 18-wheeler. Using this feature does slow you down when you stop using it, but usually it’s overall quicker than hitting the wall and having to use your nitrous to speed back up. Pursuit Breakers are markers set on a building, power line poles, towers, gas stations, or even scaffolding that when sped through, it will collapse; causing the police to either be destroyed if they are in close proximity to you, or making them stop to observe the situation and call for backup while you speed away at leisure. Nothing is more satisfying and ironic than multiple police that are constantly on your tail trying to wreck you, being crushed by a giant doughnut sign as you get away freely.
Now when you do complete the needed challenges and achieve the needed bounty, you are ready to challenge the next blacklist racer, with pink slips to both cars up for grabs of course. Most Blacklist races are usually 2 circuit or spring races, but get more diverse as you progress in the story. One thing I found was that the “boss” racers usually aren’t all that amazing until you reach the #5th racer or so. They seem to make a lot of mistakes that a player wouldn’t do, like running into all of the light posts or seemingly swerving into traffic when there was no reason to. When a blacklist racer is defeated, you are presented with 6 markers; 3 of which you can see, which are usually unique paint jobs or parts that try to tempt you away from picking from the other 3 unknown markers that can be bonus cash, get-out-of-jail-free cards that you can bank, impound cards to get your cars back from the state that have been caught, or if your very lucky, the pink slip to the adversary’s car.
Once you move yourself up the ranks a few notches, you will notice quite quickly how fast these cars can get. Of course if you win a Blacklist racer’s vehicle, you do save quite a lot of money that you would normally have to spend upgrading the stock cars that unlock as you progress. On any car though, you can get numerous different visual parts and performance upgrades which is slightly different than most games, where you really can tell the difference between various different levels in upgrades. Got way too much heat on your car but want to keep using it without having to worry about your car being spotted so easily? Upgrade your visual car parts such as body kits, spoilers, roof scoops, rims, vinyls, or even a new coat of specialty paint. Doing so reduces your heat, dependant on how drastic the visual change on your car, but for a cost. On the performance side of upgrades, there are four levels of upgrades that can exceptionally improve your ride and you will notice the change even on the lower upgrades. What EA has done though to coax you into playing longer is making the highest and best upgrades only unlockable once you achieve a certain rank yourself on the blacklist. It’s rewarding and works well to make you want to move up the list rather than deter you from hoarding obscene amounts of cash early on in the game.
Like most racers, there will always be the cars that just plain suck and you don’t want as you start out, but as you get further in the career mode, while there may not be plenty of choices of different rides, you are rewarded with awesome vehicles; almost a ‘quality over quantity’ approach. For example you can unlock the new Mustang GT, an RX-8, different Mitsubishi’s, even a Lamborghini once you reach the top few spots of the blacklist, and you quickly forget about the Chevy Cobalt you started off with.
Since you do make money every race, and with every Blacklist race, having the shot to win a free car, you not only obtain a decent amount of cash, but you will come along Impound markers If (and when) you get caught by the police, your car will get impounded, and you can either pay the fines that you have been racking up (which is an obscene amount at later levels with high heat), or if you have them saved, can use the impound markers that you may have one from winning a Blacklist race which will get your car back into your possession.
Another cool feature is that there are plenty of little shortcuts everywhere for you to shave seconds off your race time or to try and pull ahead of that rival. Sometimes they can be very helpful and give you a much needed head start against the other racers, and other times it may be harder, where you might have to come out of a secret tunnel or p@!%#*!age, but have to take a very sharp turn to get back onto the road, ultimately slowing you down. The fact that the other racers can and will use the shortcuts as well makes it feel more like you are racing a person and not just a scripted racer since they will not always go the same way every time. In pursuit modes, shortcuts are absolutely needed when trying to evade that last cruiser or two, and pulling into alleys or turns at the last second is sometimes what’s needed to fool the cops so you have those few more seconds to get away.
One great thing EA has also done is litter the streets with destructible objects like light posts, garbage cans, cardboard boxes, fruit carts, and many other items that when ran into, will either fall over and cause an obstruction for racers behind you or simply explode and makes the race feel much like a chase movie. The only problem I have with these things are that you can hit a row of trees or light posts for example, and while it does slightly slow you down, there’s hardly any consequences for driving that badly as you don’t slow down very much. Do this in a blacklist race or a pursuit and that’s a completely different story, but during regular races, it almost seems too easy at times. The catch to some of these objects, are that not all of them are destructible, and are usually placed in crucial spots around turns that will make you dead stop and make you wish you did upgrade to that next level of nitrous. It doesn’t always make sense why you can completely crash through a row of light posts, yet hit the wrong sidewalk that you aren’t ‘supposed’ to go up onto, and it simply doesn’t allow you, much like invisible walls in other games.
While there is an online mode, it feels just thrown in and nothing exceptional. With only an attention to purely racing, there are many features that could have made the online simply amazing. You and three friends can team up online and race your custom career mode cars against each other to see who the top racer is, or go into random ranked games and earn your worth online. An impressive feature that EA added to the online mode was a real life Blacklist that tracks the top 15 most dangerous racers in the world. There are many filters that you can choose to search or create games such as a ‘incomplete races’ or disconnect percentage, or even collision modes should you want to rub paint with the other racers or see who can simply get to the end first. This tends to eliminate many of the “jerks” that we’ve all come to loathe and create a much more pleasant environment. Of course if you want on the real Blacklist, you need to play ranked games, and those filters are pre-set and people will do anything it takes to win.
With an ample selection of vehicles and a terrific sense of speed, the fact that the single player mode has more than 15 hours of gameplay that doesn’t even count the hours of unplanned cop pursuits, additional races to get cash for that final upgrade you want, or even the daunting milestones needed to race people high on the Blacklist, is quite a treat and doesn’t seem to grow dull very quickly with its high replay value.
Visuals:
With 720p or 1080i enabled, the game simply looks extremely sharp and crisp with a constant 30FPS. The lighting will bend and deform on the cars curves, as will the shadows that makes it have a realistic feel to it visually as you p@!%#*! under some overlaying trees or go through a tunnel. They also seemed to have put in HDR lighting, as when you do come out of a tunnel, it gives you a moment of bright light as if your eyes were adjusting to the brightness difference like in real life. Driving into the sun directly will make it very difficult to see what’s ahead of you and even getting glimmer off the shine of the adversary ahead of you.
As mentioned above, when debris is ran into it can either tip over and fall causing distracting sparks, or explode if it’s a garbage can or boxes. Even at later levels of the Blacklist when you have literally a dozen or two police chasing you, there seems to be almost no slowdown that’s very apparent.
Obviously you can’t tell when speeding and racing, but if you look at the roads and ground when stopped, you can see that the pavement has cracks and can even appear wet when it’s not. It doesn’t just look like the typical pavement either that has the repeating cracks in the same places either.
EA has opted to present the cut-scenes to gamers in a fashionable way that hasn’t been around for awhile. While games now will rarely have the pre-made FMV movies and do everything with the in-game engine, we are treated to some cl@!%#*!ic style movies that we grew up with. Interestingly it’s not at all cheesy (the visuals, not the script) and looks quite unique. The actors were filmed and then many different filters were used to give it almost a comic book feel where you sometimes can’t tell if it’s CG or if it’s real people. It’s very incomparable to anything else, but it brings a certain charm to the plot line. The only letdown being is that there aren’t enough of the videos throughout the game. They are not needed to progress the story, but they are amusing to watch.
Sound:
Each car sounds authentic, and when you do upgrade to that bigger engine or strap on the nitrous, you can even hear the difference of the performance in your car. The Mustang GT frankly just sounds mean, and when you finally hear the Lamborghini’s take off from the start line, you can just catch the difference that the sounds of the different motors make.
Easily the most noteworthy sound feature the game has is the police. If a cop sees you, you will hear them on the radio communicating to each other the whole time they are chasing you. You overhear their plans to try and box you in, or set up roadblocks and can change your choice of direction accordingly. Once you can decode the police’ codes of the plan of action they are going to take against you, you will be able to figure out of they have laid road spikes to stop you, or if they are just calling for backup to help take you down. The police jabber sounds genuine and they constantly discuss your location and their best plan of action to arrest you.
In the movie sequences, the acting seems to sometimes be over the top, but they do play the parts very well. With some of the one-liners, it sometimes does sound very cheesy, but you forget this once you’re back into the adrenaline fueled racing. Unfortunately for me, much like the last two of the series, there was no songs that I really enjoyed at all, though fans of the previous soundtracks should enjoy it, though with the 360’s media player this isn’t really even a concern though.
Closing Comments:
It’s a shame that you can only race in the daytime and not at night like the Underground series, since when I think of illegal street racing; I don’t normally picture it mid-day in the middle of a city or freeway. The best feature that EA could have added was a pursuit mode online where players could be police or racers, but instead the online seems bland and if it wasn’t for the real online Blacklist, there wouldn’t be much point to playing online other than against your friends.
While the game’s name; Need for Speed, may fool you in the beginning when you have a slow-moving car without nitrous, once you start earning some cash, win some cars, and then upgrade them, you will not be disappointed.
The real thrills come from the police chases, the close calls, the Speed Breakers to escape past a two-row line roadblock of SUV’s, flipping a cruiser car off a ramp then speeding away to escape, and taking the huge jumps that reward you with a glorious slow-mo view of your car taking flight complete with ‘speed lines’ behind you.
Surprisingly for a racer, the game has an in-depth story mode that makes you keep wanting to move up the blacklist and prove yourself against the rivals and the cops that you are the most dangerous racer in the city.
EA has done a wonderful job creating an accelerated experience where you get to race your way-too-expensive vehicle at speeds that will have a whole police force after you in attempts to stop you. The game is challenging and has a high replay value while looking great and effortlessly being enjoyable at the same time.
Need For Speed Most Wanted does not disappoint and is a remarkable addition to the welcomed series. If you are looking for something entertaining wheather it be for long haul races to move your ranking up the Blacklist, or to simply tease the police while having them pursuing you, this game should be one of your Most Wanted.
Overall: 8.2
Gameplay: 8.3
Visual: 8.0
Sound: 8.4
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Content Under Pressure
Overall: Intro:Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure takes many different game elements and combines them into one. You get the Graffiti gameplay that Jet Set Radio pioneered, similar acrobatic skills much like Prince of Persia, and you are even given some stealth moves and kills to go along with a game enriched with Hip-hop culture. Great ideas when put together on paper, but execution is much more complicated it seems to excel further than average.
Gameplay:
You are Trane, a gifted guy that wants to make a name for himself and become a legend graffiti artist. New Radius is your home, which could relate to a slightly futuristic New York City. Opposing gangs will constantly get in your path, causing you to take them out so you can freely tag your name. Tough times call for tough measures, and you will even have the Civil Conduct Keepers (CCK) doing anything they can to annihilate you for good, which are basically like police with a license to do whatever necessary to put an end to all graf writers.
Obviously the focus of the game is the graffiti tagging and the culture it has, as this is what your main goals to accomplish are. You are given different tools that will be used depending on the king of tag, how big, where it is, and what style you want it to look. Basic markers, spray-paint, stencils, and even a squeegee-like broom to glue your banners onto things is how you are going to get New Radius to recognize who you are.
Your black book is your bible; this is where graf writers practice their tags and art, and if given the opportunity to meet a legend, where they will sign their tag. Before you go into a mission, you can decide what tags you want to bring in your black book this time for variety, since you only have a certain amount of slots of choices in any given mission.
When you see a surface like a wall, window, billboard, or even side of a building, you are able to freely tag your name how ever many times you wish, in different colors and styles…almost. For some reason, there are certain walls and fixtures that simply don’t allow you to tag there, which doesn’t make much sense considering the premise of the game. Numerous times I’ve been denied of not being able to ink my name on a bench or somewhere obscure which really felt like it took away something from character, since he’s so ambitious and wants to get his name everywhere.
With the press of a button, you can active your ‘Instinct’ which will show you gold and blue vapors that point you to where you want to make your mark. With the gold ones being your primary targets for the missions, and blue for bonus missions and points. Now that you are standing in front of your marked X, a white outline of a design will show on the surface, and from your black book, you can decide what art you want to showcase. When it’s a simple just “Trane” tag, you can pick the color and design, but when it’s a bigger marker or in certain spots, you are given a choice of some pre-determined art where you don’t really get to pick the color scheme. More art becomes unlocked as you progress through the game, and in the later parts where you are literally tagging a whole banner or side of a building, the art is quite a piece to admire. Bonus missions also come in the form as simple tasks like tagging a certain wall 10 times within a set amount of time. The more missions you complete, the higher your Rep becomes.
Now that you are in position to start your tagging, you actually have to make Trane do the motions, not just a simple button press. You actually have to move his arm up, down, left and right to fill within the borders and complete your art. Much like using spray-paint in real life; if you don’t keep moving as you spray, you will get drips in your art which then take away from your total score. In time you never really get drips after you learn the form of spraying properly, although the controls for doing so on the PC were quite tiresome in the later levels with much stricter time limits.
One huge downfall of the whole graffiti aspect of the game is that you can not make your own art and tags. You are forced to layer the city in “Trane” tags and art that you may not possibly appeal to. A game about freeform and expressing yourself, yet you can only pick a few different styles and colors. This is one of the reasons that it felt almost like completely no reason to replay the game upon completion, I just had no desire to see TRANE plastered everywhere. If it could have something of my own choosing, or any kind of customization, it may have had a longer life left in it.
People generally don’t kindly take to you vandalizing their property, and in a large part of the game, you are fighting your way out of a tough predicament, or against rival gangs and the CCK. You are given your basic punch and kicks, with many combinations in between; you also can roll, block, and grapple your enemies. You can even embarr@!%#*! adversaries by using your spray paint in their face to get the needed time to rest up or start another flurry of attacks.
If you grapple with someone, you can rapidly press the punch and kick buttons to try and get the upper hand from which you can go into combos, or even throw them into oncoming traffic or trains for easy kills. If you are patient enough, you can attempt to go for stealth kills, where if you are not seen and come behind someone, you can get a one-hit kill by slamming them over the head with a can of your paint. Since usually not many enemies hang around solo, once you are uncovered, you are left to fend for yourself against the rest of the bad guys.
To reach many distant sweet spots for tagging, you are going to need to be intuitive and figure out how to get up to that billboard when there is no ladder. This has you jumping caps, climbing ledges, shimmying across balance beams, hanging over ledges and slowly crawling much like a Tomb Raider setup of controls. Much like most platformers, you will run into areas what you should be able to jump across or grab onto, but you simply wont as it was not the designed path to take to get to the area you need. Frustration can set in easily just because you didn’t see that one pipe that you needed to climb in the corner, rather than you trying to jump impossible gaps.
Perhaps the greatest example of the most enjoyable portions of the games controls would be a level where you need to graf the sides of a moving subway train, and yes, you are riding it on the roof and sides, not the comfort of the seats within. Having to switch sides, lean against the side of the subway, and duck on the roof to avoid being knocked off by the pillars screaming by you, all when you need to complete your tag within the time limit as well. It can feel very rewarding at times, and completely frustrating at others, though a Keyboard and Mouse were simply not meant to play this game, you need a console version, or joypad to get the most ease of use out of it and avoid much disappointment.
Visuals:
The graffiti in the game simply looks astonishing, and the fact that all the pieces are done by real graf artists even further enhance the fact that this is a very gritty environment. Your tags can look great, or if you drip a lot while painting can look like something you’d rather no one see.
New Radius looks gritty and downtown urban, but even more importantly, it feels like it as well. Dark filters and the graf all around you from other people really bring you into the world and truly make you think it is the slums.
The cutscenes feel very unique and tell the story while painting the picture (no pun intended) clearly for you. The art style and storytelling really makes you feel like you connect with Trane. Though the gameplay graphics may not be up to par with many of the bigger titles out there, it does it’s job and immerses you into Trane’s world filled with fear and culture.
Sound:
Easily the strong point of the game, the soundtrack and voice acting are almost unparallel by anything else out there. You have actual hip-hop talent like Talib Kweli (Who also voices Trane), Rakim, Eric B, Mobb Deep, Pharoahe Monch and some other big names as well. A notable feature as well is that not only is great music put into the experience, but they are all played at carefully selected portions of the game so you don’t hear the same song over and over wishing you had your own music playing in the background.
With an in-game iPod player, you can also pick and choose your favorite songs to hear while playing as well; the only feature missing from this is actually loading an MP3 folder on your PC, or play list from your Xbox.
The voice acting is more than your typical B grade talent saying their few lines of dialogue that you are forced to listen to throughout the game. The script is quite clever and the lines are not cheesy that usually make you roll your eyes. Talib Kweli does the honors of Trane’s voice and makes it sound authentic and MC Serch does Trane’s rival Gabe. Looking into the credits, other actual big names such as P. Ditty, Charlie Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, and even Adam West, yes, Batman, grace the cast list as well.
Sound effects are also more than your usual “bang” and “crash” noises. As you tag walls and use your aerosol, you can hear it spraying, and as you refill and shake the can, you can even hear that as well. Using a simple marker on the wall even gives you that squeak that new markers do. Combat sounds are deep and feel very powerful because of it, and doing a combo into someone’s face makes you bite your lip from the sounds of it alone.
Should you opt for the extra $10 and purchase the Limited Edition of the game, which you should since there’s many extras, you will also get the soundtrack of the game that even has music that isn’t in the game portion, but made for the title from other famous artists as well.
Closing Comments:
With an average 12 to 15 hours of gameplay, there are many unlockables to obtain such as new tags, songs, and fight moves. Unfortunately, due to the lack of being unable to incorporate your own art into the game, there isn’t much incentive to spray TRANE all over the city again. Sure I would put probably something profane or toilet words, but something that simple as even editing the words, would have added much more.
The camera work gives a very cinematic feel and Trane is simply just an awesome character that develops and you find yourself enjoying him much more as the game progresses. The only thing that kept coming to mind was everything gameplay related was very average and didn’t stand out as a champion of its own. Very unique idea and concept to compile all these different styles into one, but just doesn’t seem to exceptionally shine in one unfortunately. .
Splurge for the Limited Edition to get a quality soundtrack, a silver sharpie to start your own graf all over your own city, and your own black book to record all your art, the big shiny looking box also is a bonus too.
Overall:7.73 Gameplay:6.5 Visual:7.5 Sound:9.2
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Burnout Revenge
Overall: Intro:The substance to Burnout is easy: Drive way too fast, drive dangerously against traffic, crash into everything, and take down your opponents any way possible. Criterion has proved that you can take a current-generation game and do more than the regular 360-coat-of-paint and call it a new game.
Improvements of features, additions of new ones, incredible high definition visuals, very detailed sound effects, a lengthy single player, and a very addicting online mode proves that it’s more than just a port. For those that have had the game already on Xbox or PS2, the question is: is it still worth buying again?
Gameplay:
First: the new features that were given to the Xbox 360 version.
Previously in Crash modes at the starting line, you had a golf swing bar that you had to get perfectly if you wanted the best possible crashes, since it was what your starting boost speed was based upon. This usually led to many restarts and frustration, just to get that faster boost you need to rack up the crash values. This whole feature has been scrapped thankfully for the much easier racing start where you have max speed regardless. This allows you to focus more on your correct path to crash paradise and raking in the demolition.
After every event you finish in single player, it automatically goes into a full replay of your whole race. From here you can skip, fast-forward, and rewind to where the most action happened, and then record a 30 second clip of it. Think your explosion looked amazing, or that taken had to be seen to be believed? Xbox Live allows you to show the world your replay, which in turn can be voted and if it’s awesome enough, be showcased in the Top 20 clips for all to see. With that being one of the achievements as well, you better remember to record every awesome thing to prove it. Sadly, you don’t get much control over the camera, and sometimes the camera will change just as you want it to be facing somewhere else, missing some of the action. One interesting feature as well to this, is that when you do upload and share your clip, you can then send a message to a friend, or your whole friend list, which theoretically all of your friends would watch your clip and vote it for you. After 2 or 3 messages of “Check out my awesome Burnout Clip!” it gets old very fast, and there isn’t a simple 1-button way of viewing it either. You need to go to the main menu, then Clips, then View clips, then your friends list (which is a pain since it is done alphabetically, even if they don’t own the game), and then find it, view it, then save or recommend it.
The saving grace feature of this enhanced version of Burnout is easily the Live Revenge. It works simply and will have you up very late some nights trying to extract that sweet revenge on the player that somehow keeps taking you out every chance. Revenge is simple; you take someone out and you are then essentially a takedown up on them, take them out even more times and it keeps track of those too. In the lobby when you are waiting for the host to start the race or crash mode, it clearly shows you how many takedowns you are up or down with someone. If you are ahead on takedowns, there is a green yield-like icon with the number of times you have taken them out. If someone has taken you out, it will be red and show the embarr@!%#*!ing number instead, usually with the person har@!%#*!ing you about it, making revenge that much sweeter when you take them out.
At the start of an online race the camera will do a flyby of the points leader (World ranking or room depending on ranked or player matches), then if you have any, rivals will be pointed out as well so you know exactly who to gun for and try to take out. Red names above the cars means they have takedowns on you and you should try your best to make them crash to get your retaliation. If their name shows green, that means you have taken them out and they are going to do everything they can to make you eat wall, barriers, busses, or oncoming car hoods. Obviously, some of the achievements are based on this which vary from taking one person out 5 times in a row, all the way to making someone your arch rival by taking them out over 100 times! Needless to say, this adds a huge amount of replay since EA tracks everyone you’ve ever taken out or been taken out by; meaning that days or weeks later, someone may come into your lobby that you never got a chance to tangle with since they took you out, or vice versa.
While these features don’t look like much on their own, also include more Xbox 360 exclusive race tracks and crash junctions on top of the regular game. If you are new to the series, Burnout Revenge offers more than your regular racing game.
Rather than your standard race point A to point B, include rivals that are going to be trying to not only push you into traffic, but also slam you into walls and take you out by landing on top of your car. If you don’t drive against traffic, narrowly miss slamming head on, check same-way vehicles, drift corners at speeds more than 200mph, take jumps, and takedown your combatants, you will not get the boost required to finish in first place, making this a much more adrenaline based racer.
While there may only be half a dozen or so tracks, that does not include the small variants of each, and the forwards or reverse on them as well. Different paths and shortcuts change completely if you are doing a course forwards or reverse and feels very different from the others as shortcuts are what you need to learn if you want to stay ahead of the competition. One flaw that isn’t apparent at first until you put numerous hours into the same tracks over reputedly is that tracks have a preset traffic pattern. This means that the more you learn the bends and curves of a race; you will also learn that the same bus that you keep crashing into on that one hairpin turn is there every single time. While you don’t notice it all too much, as usually other things are on your mind, like the person rubbing your rear bumper trying to take you out, or concentrating on the upcoming corners to keep your place, it does seem like a large oversight to not have random traffic patterns.
Other racing variants include Road Rage which pits 2 teams against each other. Essentially a cat and mouse game where one team chases and tries to take them out, while the other has a set amount of distance needed to cross while not being taken out by the opposing team that usually has permanent boost to even things up. This mode can get very entertaining and white knuckled, especially when you accidentally take out a fellow teammate.
One of the new features that Burnout Revenge brought us was Traffic Checking which allows you to now hit traffic going the same way as you as long as they are not busses and large vans, and then using those like bullets to send opponents crashing or into the pileup ahead that you caused. The single player mode of this is called Traffic Attack in where you need to basically hit enough cars and do an adequate amount of damage to meet goal. Causing large pileups, getting crash combos, and even trick shots across other lanes help you reach your goal, but generally it’s somewhat boring and not challenging at all.
The crash modes are the most unique events that Criterion brings to the table in this series. You are given an overview flyby of the intersection or overp@!%#*! that you will be hurling yourself towards, usually showing just a hint of where the biggest crashes need to take place, or what jumps to hit to meet your goals. You pick your vehicle of destruction, and every car, truck and van has rating of Speed, Force, and Weight for you to decide whether you need to quickly crash into something to stop the flow of traffic, or get there slower but cause more destruction with a heavier vehicle. As mayhem occurs with automobiles piling up, your crash breaker meter slowly fills up and when it is at 100% full, you have to hit the B button as fast as possible to explode your car, which in turn sets in motion more carnage and the possibility of filling the meter again. Online crash junctions don’t give you a fly-over preview like single player, so if you don’t know the tracks by name, or can’t react quickly enough your score will be lacking compared to others. The other new crash mode that was added to Revenge was Crash Battle, that pits you and up to 5 others online all heading for the same intersection at the same time from different roads or angles for some truly huge devastation.
Usually when a racing game has the “rubber-band effect” included that makes it impossible to keep a distinct lead, its not welcomed very well, though in Burnout it would not be the same game without it. The game is designed so that you are constantly battling for your position with racers trying to take you out any chance possible. As the game progresses, the AI does become more aggressive and will infuriate you more, but they are still no match for playing on Xbox Live against real competitors.
EA has done a wonderful job of making you want to go to your favorite retailer with your memory card as well when you pick up their game. If you have an Xbox 360 memory card and the retailer has the proper demo disk in the interactive system, you can download an Xbox 360 car to race in your game as well as a theme for your dashboard. Unfortunately at this time, EA has noted that the downloaded car does not work at the moment, but Burnout Revenge will be patched shortly in the future to allow it to be unlocked.
Visual:
A high definition TV with 720p is what’s needed to really see the difference between this version and the Xbox or PS2. Much crisper colors, more sparks, and more debris on the tracks really are shown off in its glory. Surprisingly for an ample boost in the graphics, the loading time does not suffer all that much more than the Xbox version. Burnout emphasizes on great frame rate and impression of speed, but lacks neither.
Region specific damage is just another feature that has been added to immerse you in the experience. Always rub the walls on a single side of your car and only that side will look like it’s been thrashed, leaving the other perfectly fine. While by itself doesn’t seem like that much, also make note that much more detail has been given to the whole car designs, such as being able to see the treads on tires as well.
Your surroundings have also been looked into with much more detail. Much sharper textures, great effects when making contact with others vehicles and simple debris littering the track adds much more than the previous versions. As you crash, and you will, your car will deform much more and more spare parts will be flung around the track as well. When using a crash breaker, it simply just looks and feels more mean and explosive with car parts being considerably blasted apart with the screen shaking to further emphasize its m@!%#*!iveness.
While the cars may not be licensed, many of them you can tell what they are supposed to be, and the ones that aren’t, you wish were real cars simply due to how cool they appear.
Sound:
With surround sound, you will hear the slightest bumps from your opponent on all directions and the roaring engine of you shifting gears while your tires squeal from that obscenely long sliding drift you took around the bend between two busses that are honking their horns at you. As your turbo boost kicks in, it sounds very distinct, almost like a jet taking off, and with a great sub you will feel it as well.
As you use your Crash Breaker, you can hear the subtle intake hiss, like it’s charging up, before the huge rumbling explosion. As parts of cars and vans fall from the sky, you will hear them fall to the pavement as well as the other vehicles screeching their brakes to avoid the inevitable collision.
The music is along the same lines as Burnout 3’s genre of music and is quite catchy. While there isn’t much for genre variety, I didn’t find many songs that I was constantly skipping past, though loading your own play list is always preferred as usual.
Closing Comments:
With more features than other games ported to the Xbox 360, it’s refreshing to see that more content was added other than the usual graphic overhaul and addition of achievements.
Live Revenge doesn’t make Burnout a completely new game, but the enjoyment you will get from taking out ‘that annoying kid’ we all loathe on Xbox Live will be more satisfying than any achievement you could accomplish otherwise.
If you have already played Burnout Revenge on the Xbox or PS2 and are contemplating to get it for the 360, you will want it if: you never got around to completing it, now have the TV and sound system to showcase the added features, are addicted to achievements, solely buy games for their online components, or love Burnout A LOT. If you never have played Burnout, you need this version to see what a true arcade racer with exciting online action is all about.
While it’s still a hard sell to recommend the purchase if you already own it for the Xbox or PS2, with the new features, you will be up to the wee hours of the morning trying to extract your revenge or move your World Rank up even higher. Kudos to Criterion for making a truly excellent port of a current generation game to the Xbox 360 by raising the bar others may not have done.
Overall 8.9
Gameplay: 8.9
Visual: 8.3
Sound: 9.5
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
BioShock
Overall: BioShock For Xbox 360Opening:
It’s not very often that a game comes along that almost everyone can agree is a required play experience for any gamer that brings together all game elements so perfectly. Bioshock is more than a very attractive FPS, it also has a blend of RPG elements where you can customize your character and weapons to anything you choose.
With a very engrossing story, amazing visuals, incredible sound and enough scary moments that you care to admit, the plot has a much more emotional impact than an explosive one.
Story:
Bioshock’s primary focus is the engrossing story, and it’s done extremely well with intertwining story lines conveyed through radio messages and old audio logs that you find while searching around the city.
Its 1960, your plane crashes in the ocean, you are the lone survivor and the game begins with you swimming along your plane wreckage as you see a lighthouse off in the distance. It actually took a few moments to realize you are playing, and not watching a CG intro movie
Rapture; masterminded by Andrew Ryan, is a city set under the Atlantic Ocean, and as to progress, you discover why the idea of the city as failed and is trashed, and why there are Splicers out to kill you. You are kept on track to Bioshock’s plot with always letting you know where to go with onscreen arrows and a top down map that shows where you have and haven’t been. Audio diaries are scattered everywhere and explain Rapture’s back-story, its citizens and their personal tales. Instead of having a convoluted story with details from many citizens, it focuses more on in-depth stories from just a few, that also seem to intertwine and unfold the cities history and what went so wrong. Hearing all these stories unfold makes the city seem much more alive, which is ironic being that the majority of everyone is dead. While you are not forced to listen to all these audio diaries, doing so will unravel all the main characters back story and more details about the main plot.
Genetic tinkering is possible with a substance called ADAM which can give the user incredible powers called plasmids. This invaluable resource is only able to be harvested by Little Sisters who use an exaggerated sized needle into dead victims. These Gatherers are then in turn protected by guardians called Big Daddy’s who will fight to the death to protect the little sisters. Big Daddy’s come in two flavors: Bouncers and Rosie’s. Bouncers have a drill on their arm, are very intimidating in size and sound, and will rush at you before you can even move out of the way should you make him mad or try and get too close to the Little Sisters. Rosie’s don’t seem as menacing from their look, but they have a very large gun that can make quick work of you if you don’t take them out quickly.
This is where the games moral dilemma comes into play. Do you harvest the Little Sisters for more ADAM, or save them for less and be their hero; thus making the game a bit more challenging. Both choices have benefits and consequences and with 3 different endings, these choices will play out to the story as well.
As the plot unravels and you find out what exactly has caused Rapture into its current state, you will be surprised with moments of shock and awe as plot twists keep you guessing and thinking of why events have happened in this fashion.
Gameplay:
You start off with limited slots to customize different key traits of your character, but this increased as the story progresses and you purchase more with your ADAM collection at specified locations in the game after dealing with the Guardians of Little Sisters.
Plasmids are active powers that you genetically enhance yourself with. Electricity will shock your enemies and stun them for a short duration as you proceed to fill them with your weapons’ ammo. Incinerate will engulf your enemy in flames, slowing draining their health, but can also be used to melt ice or set oil spills ablaze that they may be standing in. Telekinesis will allow you to pick up random items like chairs and boxes and whatever isn’t bolted to the ground and let you hurl them wherever you wish much like Half Life 2’s gravity gun. Security Bull’s-eye paints target on an enemy for security cameras and bots to attack them instead of you! With the enrage plasmid, you can make Splicers fight each other as well. Insect Swarm will send a large quantity of bees to annoy, distract and slightly damage your target, as you blast away. You even can use decoys and wind traps to ruse Splicers and lay traps for them. Even making a Big Daddy your ‘pet’ to attack anything that it sees for you, which in turn you will then kill when he is low on health to get his Little Sister’s ADAM is possible.
Tonics are essentially skill slots for weapons, plasmids and skills, but give p@!%#*!ive effects such as speed boosts to running, attacking speed, and many other skills that will greatly enhance your character in any way you desire. Should use choose, you can make your wrench attacks more powerful, or you can choose to get increased health and EVE everytime you use a med kit or hack something. Static Field is also a great skill to use, which will generate an area effect zap to anyone in range when you are struck, but beware; should you get struck with a Big Daddy pet in range, he will turn on you very quickly! With more than 50 different tonics, you will have a robust character exactly how you wish.
Plasmids are great, and very handy, but this is a FPS game at heart, and you are eventually armed with a wrench and a pistol gun all the way to a Dart Gun and Chemical Thrower with other various types in between. To make things even more in depth, each weapon can also acquire three different types of ammo which all have different effects on different enemies. Due to the era the game is set in, even the weapons look vintage and not very high tech at all (until you upgrade them). During the course of the game, you will find one time use weapon upgraders where you can choose to change your guns’ performance from bigger clips, faster reloads, damage increases, and greater accuracy. Doing so also changes the visual look of your weapon, so it always seems fresh even though it’s really the same weapon, just modified to your liking.
As the game progresses, enemies who used to die in one shot to the head will now take 2 or more. The scaling is somewhat constant, and eventually you are introduced to the camera feature in Bioshock. The purpose of this camera is to research the Splicers and other enemies to learn more about them by photographing them. As you become more knowledgeable by taking more and more photos, you learn weaknesses and even will gain damage bonuses versus certain enemies. Using the camera as much as possible is definitely recommended and will make your life much easier; but it is not a necessity to completion of the game. It’s a subtle way to add more intensity to the mood of the game, where you COULD have your gun ready for an enemy charging at you with a fireball, but take a picture of the same enemy in an action shot close up for huge picture bonuses instead, at the risk of getting hurt.
Splicers come in a few varieties from thugs that try and beat you with any blunt weapon they have in hand, Leadheads that will shoot at you, Houdini’s that can teleport anywhere and shoot fireballs at you, Nitro’s who toss Molotov @!%#*!tails at you, and Spider Splicers who can crawl on any wall or ceiling throwing hooks at you and are generally hard to see as they tend to stay in the dark and obscure corners
While there aren’t really many level “bosses”, there are characters that are involved in the main plot that you do battle against, but they really are just more powerful and resilient than normal Splicers.
Setting up traps will make your life much easier and will save you much ammo when you can get an enemy to simply run into a proxy grenade or a bolt trap trip-wire instead of pumping a clip or two into them. These tactics are almost needed for fighting Big Daddy’s later on where at first they will seem almost unbeatable, though once you learn their weaknesses (and research them for bonuses!) and how they react, setting a room with proxies and bolt traps will make quick work of the meanest Bouncer or Rosie in moments.
With security cameras everywhere, flying bots that keep guard, and turrets that can mow you down in seconds, Hacking these items will become a necessity to not only help preserve precious ammo, but once hacked, will fight on your side for you against any Splicers that come into sight. If you have ever played Pipe Dream for the NES or any variant thereof, you will understand how to hack and most likely be pretty efficient with it from the get go. For those that don’t know what this game was, hacking is completed by playing a 30 second minigame where you need to connect a start and end pipe with ooze quickly flowing from the start before time is up or you fail to connect the pipes in a line. While it has its charm at first, the challenge does get pretty difficult towards the end of the game with many unusable slots for pipes and the timer going even faster. Keep in mind that there are Tonics that can help with hacking as well. It gets very tedious, and for those with not much patience or skill, you are able to simply buy-out the hack or use an auto-hack tool to avoid playing the minigame and possibly failing. To fail a hack will either send out drones to hunt you down, or it will short out which damages you in the process. Vending Machines and other helping dispensers for health and other goodies can also be hacked to give you extra items not normally purchasable and also at a reduced fee. Again, it’s not forced to be done, but will make your adventure in Bioshock much easier and saves you money in the end.
Death in Bioshock isn’t so much a consequence as it is more of a slight setback. You are reincarnated at the closest vita-chamber with your entire inventory and most of your health. The perk with this system is that any damage you have done to enemies will stay as you run back to finish them off. So as you die while bringing a Big Daddy down to half health, when you run back to finish him off, he will still be at half health. This lack of death penalty keeps things fun and moving. No boring reloads of games saves, but also too easy when you get lazy when you don’t care if you die later on. The only downside to this system I found was that skillful gameplay was not rewarded, as anyone can kill anything with enough “tries” at it, though on the bright side, it gives you many chances to experiment with different options to kill people. Even playing on hard mode, the flaw in this system becomes apparent. Sure, Splicers will have more health and take less damage and even use heath stations, but it really doesn’t require you to play anymore skillfully.
Visuals:
Because the visuals are so appealing and have so much personality to them, you are almost compelled to search places that aren’t even required to. With Rapture being an underwater city, you will find water everywhere on the floor and even leaks in the walls and ceilings which always give you a reminder of surroundings and how trapped you really are in Ryan’s envisioned city. Because most citizens have been murdered, you will see blood and ‘experiments’ on corpses in many places that has seemed to go horribly wrong. Though not as constantly gory as Doom 3, some rooms look like something out of a great horror movie with extreme detail to even blood smears.
Apparently on some systems, this visual prowess will cause some slight hitching when picking up items or while saving. Personally, my system never ran into this common issue, though watching a friend play on a different system, I have seen it take up to 5 seconds sometimes to continue on after picking up a tonic for example. It’s not a very big problem, but in a compelling story so engrossing, it’s a shame you realize you are playing a game because of these small glitches and being taken out of the immersiveness of Rapture’s tale.
Surprisingly, the only CG movie in Bioshock is the ending. Every cut scene is done in engine and keeps things flowing without having to stop and load every time. While this is common practice now, I was just surprised to see no CG when the commercials ads on TV are stunning to watch, yet nothing like that is in-game.
Sound:
The atmosphere of Rapture is always around you with eerie music that helps set the mood and uneasiness with very tense moments. Jukebox’s play music as you walk by them and is properly set to Bioshock’s era. Even vending machines will talk to you as you walk by much like carnies at an amusement park, to taunt you into using them.
The bigger weapons sound mean and appropriate while firing. Even Big Daddy footsteps as they walk by seem to thud deeply and just make you tense as they saunter by as the screen shakes to further sell them to the player.
A stunning voice cast really sells the story of Rapture and its demise and doesn’t seem like it has a weak link from any one person. Enough praise can not be given to these actors and sounds uniquely genuine from every cast member with much brilliance in their lines. The audio diaries keep the plot and back story ongoing and sound very authentic with that scratchy recording feel to it. The actors do such a good job, that you will find yourself taking sides with certain characters and starting to despise others, just from what you have been told and hear. This is all from only voices which is quite a feat and really give you that emotional impact that is very rare in today’s games that simply try to wow gamers with the biggest and best graphics.
Splicers can be heard moaning, talking to themselves, and even scavenging around. Hearing the small creaks in the floor and walls really sells that Rapture is definitely under the ocean. Not only does the water look perfectly real, the sound to flowing water and dripping is also intact.
Closing:
Quality and depth is what sets Bioshock apart from not only the flooded FPS genre, but in the whole industry as a whole.
A lot can be done with the indirect fighting methods and really makes it not feel like every other FPS on the market. Setting up intricate traps for Big Daddy’s then luring them into them feels so rewarding and will guarantee to put a smug grin on your face, as you really feel you outsmarted them. This says something for Bioshock’s AI as normally this much satisfaction is only attainable from other human players.
Bioshock is easily a contender for game of the year, which is no feat for what has and will be coming out by years end. Absolutely do not let this title p@!%#*! you by just because it may look like just another shooter; it has much more under the hood and begs to be played and discovered in everyone’s personal way. Now, “would you kindly” go play Bioshock, as this is an essential gaming experience and a must for any gamer’s collection.
9.8/10
Pros:
-Amazing visuals and sound that HAVE to be experienced due to its uniqueness.
-A compelling plot that has twists and makes you want to continue playing just that little bit further.
- Defeating Big Daddy’s feels completely rewarding, as it’s very difficult to combat them head-on and succeed.
-Voice acting sells all the characters perfectly all the way from the lowly Splicers to the main story people.
-Up to 20 hours of gameplay on a single play through which is more than double the average FPS title.
Cons:
- The death system as first seems like a blessing, but trivializes any fights and doesn’t reward skillful play.
- Minor graphical hiccups on some systems that is just enough to be interrupting.
- Final boss fight came too quick and wasn’t very challenging in any way.
- The only (ending) CG movie is very short and though you feel satisfied for beating Bioshock, it also leaves the “That’s it?” feeling lingering making you want more.
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Overall: You may have never played any of the Guitar Hero games, but it's probably s sure bet that you've seen or heard of it. The game's premise is to place you into a guitar shredding rock god, complete with your own guitar to play on! It's like playing air guitar, but not looking as silly.The series will by no means teach you how to play a real guitar in any way, but it does replicate some of the feel as you frantically use the fret buttons to win over the crowd you are playing for as they cheer for you.
Guitar Hero III (which will be referred to as GH3 from here on) is now here for us to rock on, but does it hold up against its previous installments now with a new developer behind the mix?
Harmonix, who have made the first two Guitar Heroes are now gone and making the anticipated Rock Band coming out this holiday, so with their absence; Activision (specifically the Tony Hawk guys) have taken over. Many people wondered if they could keep the franchise going as strong, or if something would be lost with the change of hands. The Guitar Hero you have come to know and love is still here and not going anywhere. It may have some new tweaks for better or worse, and some minor flaws, but the core gameplay is still there with a makeover of new graphics and audio choices.
With a new developer also comes a new guitar for users to rock out with. The major change is that it is now wireless as opposed to its wired older sibling. The fret neck is now detachable for ease of storage (though it does seem somewhat unnecessary), the guide button and start/select have been moved for ease of access and now and are also raised slightly higher to make it easier to activate your star power should you not want to raise the guitar upwards to activate it instead. The distance of the wireless capabilities are great, as I was able to go as far as I could in my apartment with no interruptions at all. The only flaw that was very disappointing was the forcing of having to use AA batteries instead of making a slot to hold your Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, though to their defense, even after many hours of use I’ve not had to change batteries yet. It is not necessary to re-buy the guitar in the bundle to enjoy GH3 should you be accustomed to your GH2 guitar, but it is a great new device to use wirelessly.
As notes appear on the screen and you match them with the color coded fret buttons and strum at the same time, you are graded on your performance, accuracy, combo of notes in a row, and how awesome you can rock out. The same formula is used for single player career that as you beating a set number of songs in a track list, then unlocking an encore song before unlocking the next set. Tried and true it does work, though it does feel a bit overused now, but this is where some of the new features kick in to help keep it fresh.
The most notable new feature would have to be the boss battles that you face in a few spots in the game instead of an encore song solely. While it is a welcomed new feature, it feels very flat in substance. You will be shredding off against Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave, and Slash from Guns and Roses/Velvet Revolver in songs they actually recorded for GH3 though battle rules will now apply. Instead of your regular star power, you have combos to complete, and if you hit the last note in the combo, you will be given a powerup attack that can be unleashed against the boss (or opponent when playing Battle Mode online). Attacks can vary from broken strings (where you must rapidity tap the corresponding button to ‘fix’ it), double notes that turn a single note into two and two notes into triples, difficulty up that changes your notes from medium style or hard and hard to expert, and the lefty flip which reverses all the buttons for a short time. On their own the attacks aren’t too devastating as you are able to recover from them pretty quickly, but you are able to store 3 attacks at a time and can unleash them all together or in a row for more damage. The gimmick with boss battles is that you need to defeat them by making them fail by the end of the song, not just survive it like the rest of the game. Out of the game’s eight tiers of songs, there is only 3 bosses and it feels very tacked on and only the final boss is quite difficult (to the point of major frustration). Simply they aren’t really that much fun and there aren’t nearly enough of them. On paper I can see how the idea seems a fantastic new addition, but most battles are ended very quickly to basically whoever can launch their 3 attacks all at once first.
Not really a new ‘feature’, but worth mentioning is the incredible boost to the difficulty. You will soar past the first half of the game and probably even the first two bosses, but then all of a sudden you hit a wall of difficulty that can be outright disheartening to even try and complete it after failing so many times in a row. It’s almost seems as if Activision is catering to the hardcore longtime players as newcomers may be turned off by the sudden boost of challenge. Playing on Expert will have your wrists and arms in agony after a prolonged amount of play, yet it still keeps the ‘one more song’ charm wanting you to keep trying. It seems that a fair amount of the achievements are also geared towards the better players with some making you finish the game while flipped on lefty mode, hosting ranked matches and winning 15 in a row, and even beating a certain amount of songs with a controller (not the guitar!). Even the hardest song in the game that is unlocked once beating the final boss, has its own 3 achievements that seem near impossible to ever get. Some of them just seem odd and stick out as achievements you’ll probably never get without sitting down for a good amount of time trying to learn how to play with a controller. Activision has seemed to decide that some hardcore shredding is more favorable to some slower paced memorable riffs. With some of the last songs to beat like Metallica’s ‘One’ or Slayer’s track, the difficulty is so turned up out of nowhere that non-veterans of the series will probably not even have a clue where to start to combat these songs.
To combat the upped difficulty, a saving grace is that the Hammer-ons and Pull-offs are incredibly easy to actually do properly in GH3. In the previous GH’s, you had to do the Hammer-ons with extreme precision or risk losing your combo, now with GH3 it is much more lenient and pulling off a huge chain combo with just using the buttons is quite the feeling. On top of that, the notes are much brighter and easier to see when you are able to do this, whereas before there was a small white ring around the note and not very noticeable when shredding a fast metal song. Though in quite a few songs where there should be allowances to Hammer on and pull off, it isn’t set that way unfortunately, which also factors into the difficulty. It is also much more forgiving this time around as well when you miss or mess up a note or chord and seems harder to fail songs. It seems to be quite easy to skim by finishing songs with 3 stars, but you will still have to work furiously to gain those elusive 5 star rankings.
With other new additions, there are also some flaws that come with them as well that seem to be a hindrance more than being welcomed. The most noticeable right away is the addition of ingame advertising and product placement. Normally it’s not too big of a deal to have a branded guitar that is from a sponsor or something along those lines, but GH3 turns it way up with you playing a Pontiac set, Axe billboards to even an Axe Guitar buyable from the store with Axe dancers that can accompany you on stage. One other hindrance is some slight frame rate issues. Normally something as small as this can be overlooked as long as it doesn’t stand out, but with a rhythm based game and you generally only looking at one section of the screen, there is no excuse for it in this title. When activating your start power if there is quite a few notes on the screen, you will notice some drops in frames just enough to distract you and most likely make you mess up your combo.
Single player mode hasn’t really changed, but there are some new additions that will seem to prolong the life of this iteration of the series. Being able to play Co-op career is great but the real fun and competition is when you get on Xbox LIVE and challenge friends and oncommers where one person is lead and the other is b@!%#*!. The fact that every online experience so far on GH3 has been lag free only speaks better about this new feature. For some reason Activision also decided that six or so songs would be co-op only unlockable. So this means that if you don’t have a friend to come play with you you will never get to hear or play these songs in your career mode. While you can play these co-op only songs (Sabotage by Beastie Boys being the most noteworthy) online, it still seems a very odd decision to not make these playable by yourself. Another odd choice included is that the game does not ship with a co-op quick play option, only career mode. While there has already been a patch to remedy this, the people that aren’t online with their Xbox 360 are left out until they complete the game on co-op before they can just jump in for a quick song or two.
Playing online finally is a feature many fans have been asking for now for quite some time. Online you can play Face-off, Pro Face-off, Battle, and Co-op. Again, it makes no sense why you can’t do career Co-op online, but at least your friends can join in whenever. This online component is where the Xbox 360 version really shines through. The 360 version is the easiest to navigate and with the incorporation of friend’s lists, getting a game going with a buddy is quick and painless. The Playstation 3 version has no friend’s list type of matchmaking, so this means you can only play against random people online. With the Wii version being the middle ground, you can play friends, but only with the h@!%#*!le known as friend codes per game. The Wii version is also not setup for any type of download content that the Xbox 360 and PS3 version will be receiving in the future.
There have been some subtle and dramatic visual changes since Activision has taken over. All the same meters that track your song progress are still there but with a new makeover. Some new small changes would be the note counter that you can keep track of how many in a row you’ve hit, and at certain milestones it will tell you “100 note streak!” which makes you want to concentrate even more on the upcoming notes streaming towards you. Between segments of sets there are now short little cutscenes that eventually play out the well known story of the garage band wanting to make it big. The art style looks exactly like a Gorillaz video (it may even be done by them I think, it’s that similar) and while it’s a new addition to have a ‘story’as to why you’re playing, it’s also completely unnecessary; it simply doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of GH3’s style. The other thing you will notice right away is the makeover of the characters on screen. The main male singer sticks out terribly due to the exaggerated design that look like he’s been stung by a bee in the jaw. The lip syncing in GH3 is spot on though and looks as if he is actually performing the song for you. Even small mouth mannerisms make it look realistic. The singer could have used a little less detail and given it to the backup band members, but in all, it’s a noticeable increase from GH2 and just overall a sharper image.
Obviously with GH3 the main feature is the choice in songs that are included and will obviously favoritism will vary from personal tastes in music but there seems to be a strong mix of cl@!%#*!ics and ‘awesome’ songs, to downright awful and honestly, quite forgettable ones as well. GH3’s soundtrack vary across many different genres with cl@!%#*!ic rock tunes such as “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, Punk tunes like “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols, 90’s rock with some Smashing Pumpkins and even some Pearl Jam, and of course the difficult metal genre being represented by Metallica’s “One”, Slayers’ “Raining Blood” and the hardest song yet to date in the series that is unlocked once you complete the campaign; “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce which this song alone will give you premature arthritis. The biggest plus to the song selections is that more than half are actual master tracks. That’s right, no more terrible covers that stick out (Well, not as many at least) as you rock out to the tune you have come to learn and love. Interestingly, a few bands even re-recorded their songs for GH3 such as the Sex Pistol’s (as a side note, their master track has actually been lost from the studio, hence the reasoning to do so) along with the Boss Battle tunes. Overall the song choices are very high quality, with everyone always having a few songs that they just need to play, it’s just a shame that the majority of the bonus songs are very unknown and simply not that great or fun to even play.
Downloadable songs are a given and will be coming in the future, but as usual, the songs are kept under wrap until launch. Though Activision has confirmed it will be the same pricing scheme forcing a pack of 3 songs for 500 points. Let’s hope the songs will be worth it, though prolonged longevity of a game you’ve invested so much time and money into is never a bad thing and very welcomed.
Normally a game’s website is hardly worth mentioning as it’s usually the same formula of reviews, pictures and videos, but GH3’s has been completely redone and is now your portal to contests, tournaments, finding nearby fellow rockers and much more. You are able to create an Online Band (much like a Guild or Clan) where you can see all your members’ progress and even see how many groupies you’ve attained. This is done by linking your gamertag (another Xbox LIVE perk!) to the websites account that should be easy. As of this writing (and even since launch still) the ability to link your gamertag has not been working. They are aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed, as the promise of finding local tournaments, or searching for rockers in your city or town is to promising to not sign up for.
There are some great new additions such as the song list (yes that is a debatable subject) and the amount of master tracks is too big of a deal to not mention again. Online play is what the franchise has been begging for and is also a very welcomed addition. The harder difficulty will ensure that the more experienced rockers will be enjoying it longer, but it’s a two edged sword where it will also potentially scare away newcomers with such a sudden difficulty increase out of nowhere.
Boss Battles and Battle Mode simply isn’t all that fun and don’t end up lasting long enough to really be that enjoyable since it’s really the first to get the powerups is generally the one who wins. The ingame advertising stands out very noticeably and is outright annoying to see plastered everywhere rather than being subtle. The frame rate issues are the major flaw as it has no place in a rhythm game and is more than just a small issue as it can change your outcome of a song, especially in the hard shredding metal songs. Even with these problems, GH3 keeps its charm for the same reason you bought it. You will be hooked for hours, and with endless challengers waiting online for a battle GH3 still makes you feel like a true Guitar Hero, which is what the game sets out to do.
A fantastic online mode and a great website that offers much community involvement (benefit of the doubt is being given here as once it’ll be fully functional soon) really are the high points other than the song selection of course. The major downers are the boring and out of place Boss Battles / Battle Mode, the m@!%#*!ive advertising within game and the frame rate issues being the only true hindrances, but they do carry a large weight to them due to their simultaneous importance and annoyance.
Fret not (get it?) as if you are a Guitar Hero fan this one is not to be missed, and should you be a newcomer to the series, splurge and get the wireless guitar bundle and rock out like a true Guitar Hero!
Final Ranking: 8/10.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
