Persona 5 Royal - PS4 Review

Persona 5 Royal by developers and publishers Atlus and SEGA—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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Having stolen the hearts of thieves and the title of 2017 game of the year, Persona 5 Royal is an enhanced and reimagined form of Persona 5. With loads of new content and re-worked quality of life features, it gives both fans of the original and those who've been thinking about it a good reason to jump in especially with everything currently happening in our real world.

2017 has been a great year for gamers, and as we sit around the one-third point, there are already some Game of the Year contenders starting to shape up. Right now, Persona 5 is the leader in that race, and for me it’s not even close. Memorable characters, an engaging storyline, fantastic systems and fluid combat all come together to create a fantastic experience.

Nick 2017 Persona 5 Review

When the original announcement stated that Royal would be a separate instance from the original and that certain elements wouldn’t / couldn't carry over, some people were a little less than impressed. Being a bit like Persona 3 FES or Persona 4 The Golden, Persona 5 Royal adds in new dialog, adds in new features, and unlike Persona 3 PSP which added in a female protagonist to play as, P5 has added a new character to the roster that gets embedded into the already existing story. While this alone could amount to why there’s a new version to start from scratch, with the tons of other changes including new parts to dungeons and new features to Mementos, it’s worth starting back up from the beginning.

On its original launch, Nick and I shared progress updates for about maybe the first ten hours as I went through the introduction and the first dungeon. Unfortunately after that point, I got busy with other titles and have since just wanted to go back and restart from scratch. Having amazingly been given this chance, there were several features that were immediately noticeable while others felt so integrated I had to look up the checklist of new features to see if they had been there in the first place. Overall, a lot of smaller ticket items will just blend in but some of the bigger ones really come out to play starting between the 25-40 hour marks depending on how much time you’ve spent doing what until the start or end of the third major Palace Dungeon.

Not holding anything back, the newest member of the Phantom Thieves shows up to lend a helping hand in the opening sequence which on its own was already hosting a bit of the change in direction. Acting is a bit of a tease, and not wanting to spoil any more of it, it isn’t until much further down in hours that you actually get to start spending time getting to know this person alongside the others that you’ve befriended through school, part time jobs, buying “weapons” or lab experiments with the doctor that sells you healing items. While things are expensive and while you may want to get a job to fund your piggy bank, if you’ve already played any part of Persona 5, you’re in for a bonus and getting 50,000 Yen to start off? Made the opening Palace a little easier to get started.

For the most part, things are playing out the same. You get up from Monday to Saturday, you go to school, you can do something after school, and eventually once you get the keys to where you’re staying, you can head back out into the evening. What you do in this time is generally up to you. Hang out with friends. Hang out with other people like the Doctor to increase your Persona ranks of that specific type. Challenge yourself to eating a gifreakingnormous burger. Go to the batting cages. Catch a movie. Work out. It’s a simulation of time management and it’s time that should not be wasted as you need to get smarter, faster, stronger if you’re going to survive the real world as much as the shadow one. What about Sundays you ask? Those are entirely up to you!

While managing your time, reading books, playing games and learning how to make coffee in the real world, you’ll also be dungeon crawling into the shadow’s realm. Now whether you’re exploring someone truly awful’s Palace to give them a change of heart or you’re diving into Mementos to explore the depths or perform smaller changes of hearts, aka side quests, the premise is about the same. You uncover the map in order to move forward, you defeat shadows, you level up your characters and you acquire new Personas which in this case, are masks to be worn. Now while sharing a lot of similarities, there’s a distinct difference between exploring a Palace or diving into Mementos.

Inside of a Palace you’ll be sneaking through trying to not raise the alarms. If you’re spotted, if you’ve accidentally moved into a security camera or tripped a sensor, the alarm rate will go up. The only way to bring it back down is to defeat enemies by sneaking up on them and not being noticed. In Mementos however, you’ll be driving around in a large “van” that can crash into shadows and if there’s enough of a level difference? Take them out entirely without having needed to fight. Moving into one of the smaller newer features, is that now when you’ve finished a battle? It’s one press of a button to get back to the action instead of one for the exp, one for the money, one for the items. Even levelling up is a quick screen before getting you right back and into it.

Before you get experience though, you need to beat up some shadows and this too has seen a bit of an upgrade. Taking a little longer to get to as it only starts to show up in the third Palace are Showtime attacks. These are over the top cinematics in which parts of your team perform crazy stunts in order to damage the entire enemy retinue. These cost nothing to do so there should never be a hesitation to perform them. What’s the catch? Showtimes show up when they show up so they should really not be one of those things that you bank on for defeating tougher foes.

Compared to Showtimes though, while it may not seem like it’s a big thing, guns now basically have “infinite” ammo as they’ll refill as soon as the battle is over, not once you’ve left a dungeon so you don’t even need to craft it anymore. Using firearms should really be brought into the mix for your approach alongside elemental attacks as they now basically cost you nothing in order to help you get the upper hand in battle.

Persona 5 wasn’t a short title and having added even more content in? Persona 5 Royal is going to take a lot more time than its predecessor even if you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing which leads into one of the last two things that are going to be worth your time. The first of these is that each Palace now has new rooms that can be discovered that contain seeds of the palace owner that when combined can give some pretty neat items. More than that, when you pick up these seeds you’ll get some SP back which is often one of the reasons to call a dungeon session to a halt because no one wants to tackle foes on martial might alone.

The other feature that makes things interesting is that there’s now someone that you can meet up a resident of the area named Jose. Riding along on his own little car / kart, you can trade newly acquirable flowers to Jose for items of varying degrees. While this itself is neat, it’s the other feature through Jose that can make Mementos really worth spending time inside. Now available on each floor are stamps that can be collected in order to permanently increase the rates of acquiring experience, money and items.

Finally, the last little neat feature is a location called the Thieves Den which is accessible from your main menu and it lets you deck it out with Personas, Bosses or locations that you’ve explored. Paying for these though is not going to be “cheap” as you need to complete challenges to gain the currency required. Bonus? Most things aren’t that expensive, but you’ll really need to go out of your way to complete the challenges if you want to add more stuff for your den or unlock artwork that you could use as wallpapers for your PSN themes / Profiles. If none of this is your thing? Then there are some card games that can be played against your fellow Persona users to wind down from a tough dungeon crawl.

And ALL OF THIS is wrapped into an amazing blend of story, characters, music and visuals that sing so well together. I think it goes without saying, Persona 5 Royal is a shining example of what both an RPG and a revamp of an already stellar RPG should be. With the plenty of amazing dialog, emotions, environments and the general crazy that comes with a Shin Megami Tensei, the return of the Phantom Thieves may yet again steal away that Game of the Year title as right now? It’s currently mine!

Score: 10 / 10

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Nobody Can Hear You Eat Your Fellows in Space in Tharsis

March 26, 2020 – Warsaw, Poland | Tharsis is a turn-based, space survival strategy game that demands tough tactical and moral decisions, all at the mercy of a dice roll.

Originally released in 2016 by developer Choice Provisions, it's now re-balanced and optimized for its Nintendo Switch debut on Saturday, April 11th, 2020, the 50th anniversary of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

The Nuts and Bolts of How Tharsis Works

Take control of humanity’s first manned space mission to Mars, just as it’s struck by a micrometeoroid storm that cripples the ship and kills 2 vital crew members. Guide the remaining astronauts through onboard disasters, food shortages, and moral dilemmas as you do almost anything to successfully reach the red planet. Will you sacrifice crew members to get the job done? Push everyone’s sanity to the brink just get a few extra rations? Or even resort to cannibalism and murder to feed the rest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0q-j3Dp9iA

Original Release Opinions + Changes

During its original 2016 release, Tharsis received a lot of attention for creating a clever and brutal mix of board game and video game fusion.

Imagine Darkest Dungeon and FTL but with dice.

“Tharsis is an ingenious space game that will break you” - Time

“Extremely difficult and very fun dice-based strategy game." - Kotaku

“Choice Provisions knows exactly what they're doing with this one.” - Destructoid

Others, however, felt luck was too much of a factor. So now the game has since been significantly tweaked and rebalanced after the original launch with reworked Easy, Normal and a ramped-up Hard Mode for true challenge seekers.

Nintendo Switch Game Features:

• Turn-based space survival strategy game. With dice. And cannibalism

• A unique mix of a board game and video game mechanics. Make tough tactical and moral choices with outcomes determined by the roll of your dice. Adapt and rethink continually

• Manage 4 astronauts each with their own mission-critical special abilities. Unlock additional crew members through special challenges and achievements

• Decide who stays healthy, fed and sane as you tackle multiple disasters unfolding on the ship. Choose who goes head-first into the fires, who eats and possibly who gets eaten

• Experience the fretful and isolated atmosphere of deep space and the fight to not let it become your grave with a space-zen soundtrack created by Dutch atmospheric-electro duo Weval

• Rebalanced from the original 2016 release. Easy, Normal and Hard modes offer a fair learning curve while also ensuring a merciless challenge for true test seekers

• Complete UI overhaul for clear and intuitive use in both docked and undocked

• 10 additional training and trail missions to hone your survival skills

Price Discounts and Upcoming Nintendo Footage

Tharsis will be available for 11.99 USD / 11.99 EUROS with a 21-day discount starting on March 30th, 2020. 8.99 USD / EUR for all players and 7.99 USD / EUR for players with selected existing QubicGames titles on their account (The full list will be available on the eShop as of March 30th).

Footage of it running on Nintendo Switch will be revealed in the next week or so.

Check out our Social Media Pages: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Website.

https://youtu.be/idOuWJTev_o

About QubicGames

QubicGames is an independent game publisher and developer based in Warsaw, Poland. The company was founded 15 years ago and has a track record of successful releases, especially for Sony and Nintendo platforms. Since 2017 QubicGames has been focusing on Switch. https://qubicgames.com/

Article by: Susan N.

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Element Space - PS4 Review

Element Space by developer Sixth Vowel and publishers Inca Games and Blowfish Studios—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Element Space is an interesting little title that finds itself somewhere between the likes of XCOM / Phoenix Point, and Mass Effect. Framed for the terrorist attack on a currently being decommissioned warship that will serve as the symbol of unification of three factions after the end of a recent galactic level war, you are now on the run. With no other options than to build a team and go after those that framed you, you’ll be fighting tough odds with a squad of specialists that may just let you reach that goal.

With all of the great ideas and the nostalgia that Element Space imposes as it really makes me think of the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, there are a few larger elements that are rather rough around the edges and sometimes just don’t work so well together. Starting off from the beginning, you’ll be viewing the action from a top down isometric view that often gives you a fairly good view of the environments that you’ll be moving and fighting in. In this view characters will chat, you’ll have some dialog options, you’ll move around and finally you’ll have firefights against those trying to kill you.

Moving around on the console is wonky at best and it took a bit of time in order to figure out exactly how far to move the thumb sticks to get the views that I was relatively looking for. It wasn’t as smooth as Phoenix Point was with a controller and it really felt more like I should have been using a keyboard and a mouse in order to get what I wanted. From there, I honestly wondered why I was having to move around the maps at all. You go in, you get dialog, you fight, you get out. Having to move from one of these to the next with no actual exploration but a simple jog down the corridors or alleys felt like a waste of time.

Where there starts to be some redemption is that the dialog isn’t bad, it’s voice acted, and you’ve got options for what kind of person you want to be. That said, there’s an unfortunate feature that makes it so that all dialog while on a mission is on autoplay whether you’re ready or not and there’s not even a way to pause it. The only pausing? Is when there’s a dialog option which is weird because when you’re on your ship, you have to press “X” to move each and every line over to the next. So why was one on auto while the other on manual? I really don’t know but it made for some annoyances if you wanted to double check what someone said because they said it too fast.

Where Element Space won me over was its combat which made the rest of the issues that I had pretty much go away as combat is about eighty percent of what you’ll be doing. Given a small fire team, you’ll have to play smarter than your enemies as more often than not there are either more of them than you, or less of them and they are powerful behemoths deserving of the word “boss”. Combat is a more simplified version of a turned based strategy where you’ll move from cover to cover for protection as you try to eliminate your foes.

Moving through your units in a your turn / their turn fashion, each unit has two major actions that can be taken. One is to use an attack / ability, and the other is to move. Attacking is as easy as targeting your enemy and the reason that this is simplified is because you don’t pick a body part to target, you simply pick the target and the accuracy vs cover algorithms take care of the rest. Cover too is simple enough as you are either 100% in view, 50% covered or 100% covered. Being a little more realistic is that cover can be destroyed if you try hard enough so if your shots are not landing on your enemy, they’ll at least be in full view soon enough.

Upping the interest a little bit are character abilities. Your main character for example has a grappling hook that lets him either pull an enemy into melee or to move around the map at a much faster rate. Bringing a foe into melee will deal less damage than a shot from a firearm, however, they are in the same boat and if they try to move out of melee, attack of opportunity. Still on the grappling hook, it has the other above mentioned strategic advantage of being able to move around quickly to get out of danger or into a better vantage point to put your enemies into a crossfire. Other abilities can disarm shields, prevent units from seeing, or my favorite from one of your first new allies is the ability to knock enemies off of the map. Why take out all of their hit points when you can just knock them out of the ring?

And the combat is fun which is good because like I said earlier, it’s most of what you’ll be doing. Unfortunately, here’s the but, Element Space was very buggy. Frame rates for certain characters had the 50/50 chance of crashing the game which got really bad when in combat because once you reloaded, you start to start back at the previous checkpoint which was often far enough back as combat isn’t the fastest as you plan and evaluate each move. If there’s a bright side to these crashes? It let you know what did and did not work without having to use up one of your tries to either restart the combat or restart from the previous checkpoint.

So all in all, Element Space has some great ideas, great combat, decent storytelling which is sometimes blended into the combat sequences, but is a bit rough around the edges. Given some time and some patches though, this should be a much smoother and accessible title especially on the consoles.

 

Score: 6 / 10

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Desert of Lost Souls | God of War | Level Up

Desert of Lost Souls | God of War by developer Santa Monica Studio and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment—Sony PlayStation 2 feature article written by Hamza.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Everything about God of War is epic. The story, acting, characters, boss battles, mini-battles, powers, music, animations, cut-scenes. God of War games are so filled to the brim with awesome moments that anytime you think the imaginative and epic apex has been reached, another moment comes and blows you even further than the one prior had done. After having your jaw dropped to the ground several times by the many impossibly sexy moments, you just let it lie there. Known for generating interest in Greek Mythology amongst younglings, God of War on release was a sleeper hit, and quickly established itself as one of the dominant forces available on the market. Each successive game bought bigger thrills, longer boss battles - but the absolute grand-daddy of them all has to be The Desert of Lost Souls.

By the time you reach The Desert of Lost Souls, the game has had several great levels / moments: the opening Hydra battle; rooftops of Athens; first encounters with Minotaur in the Gates of Athens chapter; Medusa boss battle. While these are all great, unforgettable sequences with unparalleled production, they all quickly pale in comparison to the chapter in question here. And while this chapter is less than an hour long if you know what you're doing, the impact it leaves upon the player is deep. Calling The Desert of Lost Souls the pinnacle of God of War’s experience is somewhat risky, but it definitely can be used as a great example of how when God of War decides to go big, it spares no expense.

https://youtu.be/F3-GSyu7-Ek

After traversing the magnificent sewers of Athens and scaling its many fantastic spiraling staircases, your puzzle-solving will eventually unlock a rather large set of doors. When you enter through it, you will be greeted by a statue of Athena. The immediate cut-scene that follows is still arguably one of the greatest in all of video games. The swooping camera work is to be noted - but the icing on the cake is the one brief shot of the Titan, Cronus, crawling through the endless desert on all fours, the legendary Temple of Pandora chained onto his back. The camera stays just long enough for the doomed Titan to give an anguished glance to the player... before carrying on with his punishment. In the Greek Mythology, Cronus, or Kronos, was the leader of the Titans; before being overthrown by one of his sons, Zeus, and imprisoned in Tartarus (a prison for immortals). The Cronus that appears in the games, just like the rest of the game, is loosely based on his Mythological counterpart.

The gist is this: seek and destroy the three deadly Sirens to open the door of the ruined temple that sits in the middle of the desert. In it resides the Lesser Horn, which further opens the pathway to the Summoning Horn. In Greek Mythology, Sirens were beautiful yet dangerous half-women, half-birds who resided on small islands and lured sailors to their deaths by their seductive singing voices. The Sirens that appear in this game however, are drastically changed in appearance - they have busty bodies and deformed faces - but retain the alleged sonorous musical voice from the Mythology (and with it, a penchant to scream like a banshee to scare you silly). The idea behind this level is to locate the Sirens via following the trail of their hauntingly operatic song.

The implementation of a rather different approach to discovering an enemy before you tackle them, along with the challenge that comes from the extreme low visibility due to the perpetual sandstorm, makes Desert of Lost Souls, although a piece of the same puzzle, a little more intimidating and attention-worthy than the rest put together. Imminent danger notwithstanding, the desert itself looks pretty spectacular - especially when you encounter hints of a once thriving civilization: majestic dilapidated statues, building wrecks, broken down wells. The production of Deserts is simply superb. It takes inspiration to pull off something like this, but true genius to turn it into something this memorable.

When the three Sirens have been dealt with (and the occasional Minotaur defeated), the door of the aforementioned temple opens, granting you access to the Horns. Once inside, you come across a conveyor belt of sorts with a rotating spike grinder at one end and a high wall at the other. This puzzle doesn’t require too much thinking, but since I’m no Aristotle, it never once occurred to me to destroy the killing contraption. Doing so would have eliminated one danger and I would then be free to tackle the endless spawning Undead Legionnaires while pushing the crate towards the wall. Once this is achieved, you come across the Lesser Horn.

https://godofwar.fandom.com/wiki/Lesser_Horn?file=Lesser_Horn.jpg

Activating it creates an aperture through the ceaseless sandstorm, leading straight to the Summoning Horn. As soon as you approach it, it disappears and a horde of Sirens appear and attack you. Unlike the three fought previously, these Sirens don’t pose that much of a threat and can easily be taken down with simple combo attacks. When the last Siren is defeated, the Horn re-appears; and when you activate it, a lengthy cutscene follows, showing Cronus crawling towards your position and Athena narrating how Kratos scaled the Titan for three days to reach the top of the Temple of Pandora.

Here ends The Desert of Lost Souls. With a great introductory cutscene, thrilling and at time scary gameplay, and one fantastic production, Desert may seem outdated and rather nondescript in front of the series’ other grand-scale moments - but here in God of War, it is nothing less than a watershed moment and the first true example of great things yet to come.

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New Explosive Trailer for Rogue Company!

Alpharetta, Georgia USA - 25 MARCH 2020: Hi-Rez Studios® and First Watch Games® have released an explosive gameplay trailer for their slick cross-platform team shooter Rogue Company™. Delivering action, tactics and a whole lot of attitude, the new trailer reveals Rogue Company’s energetic gameplay and third-person, action movie flair.

Watch the hired guns of Rogue Company cause mayhem in the gameplay reveal trailer.

Launching same-day this summer on Nintendo Switch™, PC via Epic Games Store, PlayStation®4 and Xbox One®, Rogue Company features an ever-growing roster of mercenaries, game modes, weapons, and gadgets.

Taking on million-dollar contracts from governments and special interests, Rogue Company is a vigilante force going where governments can’t stop credible and imminent threats. Relying on public opinion and popular support, many Rogues embrace their newfound celebrity. Elite, sexy and paid, Rogue Company operates between the lines and on the run.

Headed-up by Lead Game Designer - and former Halo world champion - Scott Lussier, Rogue Company is the debut game from First Watch Games; a band of Hi-Rez Studios developers and industry veterans with experience working on some of gaming’s most famous and successful shooters.

“Gamers should be able to play with their friends, regardless of platform”, says Lussier. “Rogue Company is all about bringing together a huge community of gunslingers and giving them a depth of gameplay to show off their individual style.”

“We're tired of grown-up shooters being overly serious”, says Chris Larson, Executive Producer. “Rogue Company matches a modern, high-style universe with tight, tactical action gameplay. The alpha testers are loving it and we can't wait to welcome more of you in as we gear up for launch!"

Rogue Company is currently in Alpha (apply here), available to wishlist via Epic Games Store and will release this summer on all platforms. Watch the gameplay trailer here.

For all the latest information and assets for Rogue Company, please visit:

Website: roguecompany.com

Twitter®: twitter.com/RogueCompany

Facebook®: facebook.com/RogueCompanyGame

Instagram®: instagram.com/roguecompanygame

YouTube®: youtube.com/RogueCompanyGame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwLbCWDntVc

 

About Hi-Rez Studios:

Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Hi-Rez Studios is an industry-leading video game publisher and developer at the forefront of the games-as-a-service industry. Hi-Rez Studios’ games have been played by more than 70 million people worldwide across PC, Xbox One®, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch™, iOS, and Android. With multiple games regularly among the Top 10 free-to-play games on Steam, Hi-Rez Studios is one of the few Western developers to have successfully launched multiple, multi-platform games-as-a-service titles to a large audience. Having won multiple awards and accolades for innovation and technology, Hi-Rez Studios has also been recognized for its company culture, leadership and diversity as an employer. More information about Hi-Rez Studios can be found at www.hirezstudios.com

About First Watch Games:

First Watch Games is a new development studio under the Hi-Rez Studios’ banner, consisting of senior developers from Blizzard, Daybreak Games, Electronic Arts, Vicarious Visions and Hi-Rez Studios. This team of talented and passionate developers brings their years of games-as-a-service experience to their first title, Rogue Company. For more information about First Watch Games please visit www.playfirstwatch.com.

Article by: Susan N.

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Wartile - XB1 Review

Wartile by developer Playwood Project Aps and publishers WhisperGames and Deck13 Interactive—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Wartile mixes a gorgeous visual presentation with a solid if unspectacular gameplay system. There are some really cool ideas here, and people like me who grew up on board games using physical pieces like this will no doubt be tickled by the aesthetic, but there is not a ton of meat on these bones eithers.

Right off of the bat, Wartile wows with its visuals. There is just something absolutely alluring to its 3D set pieces that eel like they would be right at home on your coffee table surrounded by your friends. Sloped landscapes cut off dramatically, there is a true sense of verticality to the presentation, the board has a very tactile feel to it and it is all touched off with some nice additional effects like snow here and there. I honestly can’t think of anything quite like it visually, and this is all complimented by fantastic audio. The sound effects are varied and engaging and the music here is the type of soundtrack I would listen to on repeat if I was writing one of my fantasy short stories.

This game is absolutely gorgeous.

Where things get somewhat more muddled is in the actual gameplay, which tries very hard to merge turn-based combat with real-time mechanics. The results are decidedly uneven. How does that work? Well, there is a sort of cool-down system churning away in the background, so you can stack things like your movements up on one another, but it takes a bit of time for them to execute. Enemies move about within that structure as well, creating a sort of synchronized system of tactics that generally works well. Thankfully you do have the option to slow down time so you can think somewhat more strategically. This mostly boils down to unit location and whether or not to trigger a special ability (tied to a card in your inventory, giving it a very light collectible card game flavor).

The biggest issue with this however, is that the actual tactics gameplay is somewhat shallow. Positioning is key, and using ability cards is often very important, but in terms of executing the attacks? You mostly just position pieces and let them go at it. One early battle saw my two characters flanking a particularly cantankerous opponent and they had both very recently used their skill cards. This meant that I just sort of sat there, watching the hacking and slashing happen without any real input. Whatever backend dice rolling was happening seemed to be a lot of critical failures, because it seemed like forever until the battle ended. That is not to say there is no strategy involved, but it has more to do with taking advantage of your environment (and in particular chokepoints if you are looking to lure your enemies to their death while being mindful of your combat range) than any actual actions or decisions you make during the actual combat.

One of the areas of strength in Wartile is that continuing boardgame feel, where you can collect new pieces and equip them with gear or skills. These modifications are nice, and I dig the sense of progression that comes with gaining experience and unlocking better options for each character. These RPG elements are fairly light, but they are a relatively effective carrot to dangle throughout the story. Characters tend to fall into one of three archetypes: tank, melee dps and ranged. That is not to say some of the characters do not straddle the lines in between, but there is a significant way in how the sword and board fighter plays when compared to the rangers. This is where spacing is more important than actions, because a common strategy I found myself employing was luring people out to fight against my tankier character while letting the ranged one whittle away at them from a safe distance. It certainly scratches the strategy itch, but never really delved quite as deep as I had hoped.

In terms of the gameplay, what you are looking at here is a campaign broken up into several missions. You then pick your characters and go about trying to meet the objectives. Early on these could be as mundane as picking up a specific item and interacting with a specified region on the board, but later can include more aggressive goals such as complete obliteration of enemy forces. All of this has been done before, but it is undeniably more charming with this particular boardgame style presentation. Each stage is presented in a way that touches on the overarching story, and gives you a sense of purpose, though it would be a bit of a stretch to call it roleplaying as there are really no decisions to be made along the way. Once you complete the stage, your performance is graded and you are bonused accordingly.

Another missed opportunity for Wartile is the lack of scenario creation. I realize making user-friendly tools that can do this sort of thing is no small task, but I can’t help but think that having the opportunity to make and share stages with your friends or a larger community could breathe a lot of life into this game. The campaign is by and large entertaining, but beatable in under a dozen hours and there just really is not a whole lot to do after that. Some sort of editing / creation tools, especially with those who like boardgames, really could have sparked some cool, imaginative stages I think.

Wartile’s a good game, with an interesting if somewhat flawed gameplay system that is supported nicely by a fantastic presentation. The progression system is good enough to sustain interest until the end of the campaign, but the sights and sounds are gorgeous and unique.

Score: 7 / 10

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Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition - PS4 Review

Deep Sky Derelicts: Definitive Edition by developer Snowhound Games and publisher 1C Publishing—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Just about everything in Deep Sky Derelicts tickles the nerdiest of my fancies. Turn-based combat, card-based combat, lots of RPG elements and more came together in a way that really made this sci-fi game click for me. It is a hybrid of genres and ideas, not unlike Darkest Dungeon, and for those willing to brave a slower pace with a lot of management sprinkled in, Deep Sky Derelicts will likely appeal to you as well.

Things kick off a little awkwardly – there is nothing much in the way of tutorials right out of the gate, leaving you to put together a team of three without really knowing what they are used for or how they function. There are a couple of lightweight boxes that try to describe what a stat or function does, but really I went in fairly blind while assembling my first time. I was mostly focused on the different number values of their characters and picking different classes, since I didn’t really know what any of them did.

Thankfully, the training wheels are a bit better once you get past the team makeup session. The gist of it is your party is being asked to jaunt around from derelict to derelict in the area, to see what you can find. There’s a bit of backstory about a high-up military person with a particular item they want found, but really you spend most of your time just picking these defunct ships to wander about a gridded map. There are a couple of interesting risk / reward balances to manage. One is pretty standard – characters have shield and life points and you don’t want them to die. The other is your energy, which you use when fighting and also exploring – and you don’t want to strand your team without it, so trying to ration how far to explore the ship before heading back becomes a serious consideration.

Combat itself is turn-based with initiative determining who goes first. For those familiar with the fantastic Slay the Spire, the principle is kind of the same. Each character has their own deck of cards, so each time one of them is up, they have a hand for you to choose from. Early on, the options are pretty limited, with basic attacks, maybe weaker spread attacks, attacks that can stun a person or have protective properties like raising shields. There is plenty of room for customization, not just in attaining new cards, but new equipment – much of which can be further modified – and also in gaining levels. Each level generally gives you a couple of skill points you can use. By the time you hit the cap of ten, you can have some pretty unique character combinations.

There is a lot of depth to not just the card system and customization of characters, but the way the levels themselves play out. Some rooms have traps, others enemies, some potential trade partners or friends. Some of the rooms also have innate effects that simply take place or impact your team (or the enemies) in various ways. Those are not always clear without checking the in-game legend, but after awhile I got a feel for what the different symbols along the way meant. There is a lot of fun to be had in spelunking through these old ships.

Despite having been a PC game originally, I would say that the overall controls are pretty good. For one, enemy selection works well, menus are easy to navigate and so on. I could quibble a bit that the map sensitivity is a little strange at times when you are in the datapad mode and selecting rooms. Here is how you move about, with a grid that you can either walk around blindly (not recommended) or scan somewhat frequently (but burning that all-important energy you don’t want to run out of) to reveal more rooms on the map. Sometimes the screen jumps and jars about in unwieldy fashion, which is mildly annoying when you are sliding to the edges of the map and things have to start scrolling.

The sound was perfectly fine, with some pretty basic sounds, and while the graphics are far from AAA quality, there is a novel comic book style to it that actually looks really nice. Action panels during combat are colorful, and locations like the tavern look suitably drenched in a sort of neon, sci-fi glow. Text can be a bit small to read on the television at times, but it is not terrible or headache-inducing by any means either. As nice as the game’s visuals look during combat and story sections, the datapad screen is pretty bland. It’s completely functional (except for that sort of twitchy edging when moving around), which is certainly more important, but it feels slightly lacking when compared to the rest of the game’s highly stylized aesthetic.

Deep Sky Derelicts does a pretty good job of mashing together a few different types of game. Visually it is pleasing to look at, and there is plenty of strategy to be had when venturing out into the old ships. Progression is fun, because it happens in multiple ways, and this game definitely had me wanting to do ‘just one more run’ pretty regularly. There are a few rough edges here and there along the way, but the overall experience was my cup of tea.

 

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Stela - Switch Review

Stela by developer and publisher SkyBox Labs—Nintendo Switch review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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   Stela is a cinematic, atmospheric platformer about a young woman witnessing the final days of a mysterious ancient world.

   Overcome daunting challenges, treacherous terrain, and gargantuan beasts while traversing a decaying land. Manipulate the environment to solve elaborate puzzles and creep past dangerous creatures under cover of muted landscapes, all set to an original soundtrack. Survive sweeping environments including mysterious towns, haunting forests, and massive subterranean ruins brought to life in an atmospheric experience.

I honestly couldn’t have made a better opening if I had tried, and let’s be honest, I did, re-read the actual intro to make sure that I was on point, and decided, why not let them say it best. That said though, Stela is the type of title that will honestly stick with me for quite a while because of how well done it was. Nothing is over the top but the combination of the color palettes with the darker musical scores was nothing short of amazing.

Stela is a very short and quick title, if you understand both what you’re doing and have some good timing. Essentially always moving from left to right through a series of treacherous environments, Stella can walk, run, move objects and “jump” like a normal person or hold onto ledges in order to pull herself up. There are no super powers here and the monsters are both very real and very scary as just one attack can end Stela’s life.

https://youtu.be/J1rryp9MnWc

With how easy is it to die, either by a monster, a horde of rats that made me think of Plague Tale: Innocence or simply from falling too far down, there’s thankfully a very robust system for checkpoints as well as loading and reloading the game as you try to figure things out. Honestly? The puzzles are not the most complex but sometimes there’s just something that you know that you are missing and it’s figuring that out that can sometimes take a while in order to get past where you are stuck. Such as, my pro controller not being responsive enough so it wasn’t until the handheld mode that I finally passed a certain puzzle with a certain rolling object of death. Otherwise, it’s just figuring out that there’s something that needs to be pushed or jumped on at the right moment.

What impressed me the most, and what I wish there had been something to tell me from the beginning, is that Stela isn’t quite a 2.5D platformer, but you do sometimes move Stela either forwards or backwards on the two dimensional plane to get past certain puzzles. It’s subtle, but it’s there and it makes for an even better time as it makes the short adventure more than just a straight run from left to right.

Finally, there are the visuals and the music. Visually, you’ll often have a very zoomed out view that lets you see everything in front of you and then some. It helps to avoid monsters. It helps to avoid arrow showers. It helps to plan out your next move. Added in either the very dark or sometimes very bright colours on screen, you’re never at a loss as to where to go, just at a loss in order of how you’re going to get there. Only adding to the urgency, or the horror, is the musical scores that are either eerily haunting or jacked up with so much base that my heartbeat ran in tune with it as I tried to sneak past and run away from some of the earlier monsters.

With all it has going for it, Stela isn’t perfect but I could never truly figure out if it was because of Stela herself, or the set input lag of what you’re asking of her. As I mentioned earlier, Stela doesn’t have any superpowers going for her. She can literally run and move objects around, but when it comes to things like even jumping, oftentimes it’s going to take a few tries to get it right. Part of it is because when you say jump, it can take a second before she does it. Now whether this is because of the input lag, or by design as she has to prepare for it, it cost me many a reload and even sometimes when you think you’ve got it down? You’ll find her not jumping or falling short making you have to reload and try again.

Overall though, even with how short it is, Stela is worth a playthrough if for only the visual and the musical presentation. It won’t take long to go through, but this is definitely something that should have the sound system on high and the lights turned low to allow yourself to immerse into the world as Stela runs and puzzles her way through it.

Score: 7.25 / 10

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Weakless - PC Review

Weakless by developer Punk Notion and publisher Another Road—PC (Steam) review written by Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes 

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Weakless is a simple puzzle game that has players traverse through their home region to save the almighty tree of life. Each character played is an outcast of their society. One is deaf and the other is blind. Both must work together to reach the tree in order to save it from resin which seems to act more like molten lava. In fact, it is so disastrous that it has ravaged much of the Weavelings home region.

After finishing the game, I found myself enjoying the short experience, but it does have some minor points that I'll cover below.

Gameplay

Weakless has very little controls to work with, and even though I received a copy of the game on PC, I used a controller to play the entire game. Players first have to know that this is a puzzle game very similar in style to The Witness, where they can move, interact with certain objects, but cannot do much else. Depending on the object, the player can only interact with the objects using one of the characters. For example, certain puzzles require the blind one to move a pillar so that the deaf one can reach another location. (And before anyone makes the assumption, I am not calling either character the blind one and the deaf one to be heartless, I distinguish the characters this way because neither is given a name!) The blind one can also interact with various musical instruments that are strewn about the area. Another predominant feature that the blind character has, is the ability to echo-locate through use of its staff. The object not only serves as a walking stick, but as a way to solve music-based puzzles.

The character that is deaf can use his plant light orb to 'power' the plants so that they move out of the way of the blind one's path. Through the course of the game, this character often sits down to draw or paint. It is also capable of climbing onto planks. That said, if players climb up onto these planks, they cannot go back down.

My previous point leads to one of my issues with the Weakless. While it never explicitly tells players where to go or what to do, except in the guise of paintings on the walls, the story has only one direction. There is no way to kill your character by falling off an edge, nor does entering an area that you cannot go backwards mean you're stuck. Any side paths will either lead to an instrument for the blind character or a bench for the deaf character to draw. In fact, the game is so linear that it ends up being a short game because there is nothing else to do!

Now, there are side areas that I missed when playing through Weakless, I don't feel like it's worth going back for another playthrough to find the other musical instruments or painting areas since there isn't much purpose to their existence. Yes it does show that these two characters have some depth to them, but we are given little else after the first couple of instances. Sadly, those elements are placed in the game for achievement hunters and not for anything else, which is unfortunate really.

And on the topic of those musical instruments you can find, let's talk about music.

Music and Audio

When I think about the music, I find myself rather conflicted. On one hand, the music consists of drums and wind instruments, but no string which gives it a tribal feel - something that is also shown at the beginning of the game during the ceremony. On the other hand, I find that the music can be disjointed and doesn't mix well - even though tribal music doesn't always have the same elements as modern day music does.

So let's talk about tribal music a bit. When I think of that style, I think of music that unites a group of people together in a more cathartic way. In other words, I think back to times when slavery was still prevalent in society. And entertainment was sought in the form of music during the times when opposition came at a hefty cost. In Brazil, enslaved citizens learned a 'dance' known as Capoeira. This dance style was actually used as a way to mask the fact that it was a martial arts style. At the time, people would be deemed criminals if they practiced this 'dance' style. Not only is the Capoeira a style of martial arts but it hinged upon constant movement, unpredictability, and movement that flowed with the musical accompaniment. The music itself is played a huge role in this style of martial arts.

Anyways, today, the Capoeira is mostly a dance movement that focuses less on its martial arts component. The music in Capoeira is fluid and unpredictable but is composed in a way that works extremely well together which is why I'm using it as an example of when music works and when music doesn't. There are points during gameplay where I felt like Weakless' music, while it has moments of fluidity, sometimes has a disjointed accompaniment. However, oddly enough, the music only seemed to fail me when players used the musical instruments. The ambient music would set the tone of the game and the musical instruments would be thrown overtop with no rhyme or reason. And while it would make sense that the deaf character would not know the proper time to join in, the blind character most like would because it has heightened senses. I can't help but be bothered by the fact that the blind character didn't go a little crazy if its musical timing was off to the rest of the environments timing - but that is just the musician in me being picky.

Now, I know that it sounds like the music to the game is a hot mess, but it isn't. In fact, many of the ambient sounds and music used in the game fit extremely well. I quite liked the journey and found it interesting. On top of that, I think it's extremely awesome that the developers paid attention to the fact that hearing people and non-hearing people would perceive sound differently.

At several points during gameplay, I appreciated the musical puzzles, and the use of the staff to echo-locate the character's position. Overall, while music bothered me at certain times, I know that the composer talked a bit about the soundtrack in a developer blog post which can be found here.

Final Thoughts

I've read a number of reviews that said things like Weakless was too short or that it was too linear. There have been other people who expressed their dislike for the game because they didn't understand the point or perhaps didn't finish the story, but I think Weakless' experience was fantastic.

Since puzzle games that don't necessarily have a straight-forward story tend to be my bread and butter, I walked into Weakless with an open mind. The whole idea behind the characters was to understand the struggle, to put yourselves in the shoes of characters who did not start as friends. These two weavelings were strangers to each other and they bonded because they were both outcasts. They bonded out of the need of survival, and I believe that Weakless' purpose was to show that even with the characters differences or flaws that the weavelings can co-exist amicably. Players that took the time to make it to the end of the story saw that the two weavelings saved their tribes great tree of life - which to them is important and is perhaps seen as a deity. I also believe that this is the reason the developers chose to create a tribalesque sound for the game.

Players that jumped into Weakless for anything other than a slightly abstract story missed the comparison that the game makes to real life. Sure, the puzzles could be more complicated. But overall, the goal wasn't to make Weakless a tough puzzle game, it was to show how anyone can overcome their challenges if they work together. While the game could have stood for a lot more in the way of player to character connection, I believe the game was pretty well done.

Overall, while the story was quite linear and while I didn't always like the music combinations, I absolutely enjoyed the experience and the story. If I could make any real criticism about Weakless it would be that the sound and light puzzle at the end of the game wasn't a more prevalent feature shown earlier in the game. I also loved that if players made it to the end of the game, they were rewarded. As such, Weakless earns an 8.5 out of 10 for me.

 

Score: 8.25 / 10

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Jaggy's Corner - Saturday, March 21st, 2020

Welcome Back to another Jaggy's Corner where I discuss various video game topics and issues.

Today, I have some sad news for our readers. Some of you may know that I have spent a good amount of time playing in MMO worlds, and cuteness overwhelming is no different. To date, I have 148 hours in the game and I absolutely loved playing my assassin character. I got her to max level loved that there were new quests and a bit of a storyline for players to continue their adventure. At max level, players had access to the Sky Fortress which has four different faction leaders, each with their own missions and reputation that needed to be raised.

I also really loved that players could use any type of transportation they wished in the game. I had a nice little blue convertible for ground travel, a maple leaf that was my flying mount, taxis that act as waypoints to access various areas on the map, and in your Home, a player could use a portal to access one of the main cities. In fact, this portal could change to a different main city to make questing a breeze.

Maple Story 2 had it all, even as a free to play MMO, like customization of character, plenty of quests, an amusing story to progress through, relatively simple dungeons, and a personal home instance that players could make it look how they wanted.

While I know that a lot of players loathed the direction that Maple Story 2 took, especially since it was a far cry from its 2D side-scrolling predecessor, I had a fun time playing it. But, some of my Discord community shared Nexon's most recent post that they are closing the F2P MMO's doors for good. On May 27th, players of Maple Story 2 will no longer be able to sign in.

I... am... sad.

Some of the reasons for its closure has much to do with the direction that was taken during Project New Leaf, which was meant to revitalize the community and bring in more players - at least, that is my assumption. I'm not sure if it was that Nexon realized that they would not be able to sustain their servers or if they realized that much of the community had already abandoned the F2P MMO, but at least they are going out with a bang. Cuteness overwhelming has a bunch of PVE and PVP focussed events leading up to Maple Story 2's closure and while I'm happy they are giving players closure, I'm going to miss my purple-haired assassin.

More information about the closure events can be found here.

In the next week or two, I'll devote some time to playing this game again, since a lot happened around the time that I stopped playing. Those of you that are interested in seeing cuteness overwhelming before it disappears, hop into my stream.

Maple Story 2 has only been out there for a year and a half and I feel like gamers just don't love MMOs like they used to. WoW or bust, right? Anyways, I'm just going to be sad that this game will not be able to live on. So ends the life of another fun MMO... It's time for me to be sad.

It wasn't a brilliant MMO. It didn't even require a lot of brainpower. It was truly a relaxing game that I played with friends for many months, but that is no longer the case.

Anyone have games they miss playing? Hit me up on Twitter or in the comments below.

Until next time peeps.

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North Country | Need for Speed 2 | Level Up

North Country | Need for Speed 2 by developer and publisher EA—PC feature article written by Hamza.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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Need for Speed II: Special Edition was almost the first racing game I'd played in my life. I say almost because I'd been distracted by the sudden appearance of another icon on my dad's Windows 98 desktop: Test Drive Offroad. I had sat down with the full intention of playing NFS II (even cracked my knuckles out of excitement), but as it so happened my curiosity got the better of me and Offroad became the first ever racing game I played.

I started off with this little trivia mainly for want of an interesting opening, but also because it both irritates and amuses me. Until a few years ago when someone mentioned Offroad in a YouTube video, I'd absolutely forgotten about the game; whereas as far as NFS was concerned I'd played nearly all instalments in the series up to that point. Don't get me wrong, Offroad is a fun game and indeed the Test Drive series has had major highlights over the years, with several being my favorites overall - It's just that Need for Speed left the most impact on me.

When I finally did play NFS II, I was blown away by its then impressive graphics and sound design. As I've said before, Test Drive Offroad is a decently fun game and I had a good time with it - but that game soon became a literal forgotten memory when I was zooming through North Country in my trusty Ford Mach III. I realize a track from a racing game may seem an unconventional choice for this series and that they usually don't provide much analytical points to discuss and dissect, but because I'm so hopelessly in love with this track I could not help but include it.

https://youtu.be/uafFEkU4y80?t=123

It's is rather interesting because, even objectively, North Country isn't even among the well-known tracks from the game. It doesn't contain the exotic flair of Last Resort with what its skull cave that leads through a volcano nor does it test the skills of the player like Mystic Peak with its snow-capped setting. What it does provide however, is a scenic and picturesque route filled with memorable segments. I've always been fond of the countryside (despite growing up and currently living in a city) and as such tracks like North Country and the equally attractive Normandie from Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed are always a joy to go back to.

Distinctly European, North Country borrows inspiration from the environments and aesthetics of Germany and Netherlands. Right off the bat you're greeted with a vast mountain backdrop and a sprawling road with trees surrounding either side of it, punctuated by the occasional cabins and windmills (curiously structurally small). The first segment comes in the form of "Kinder Welt" - ostensibly an amusement park seemingly aesthetically inspired by Lego and Legoland. It even has a Lego-esque medieval knight animatronic on the left side (or right, if you're going the wrong way). The knight is one of my three favorite props from the game (the other two being the dinosaur statue situated in the middle of the road from the bonus Monolithic Studios track and a seemingly indestructible, gravity-defying crate that appears throughout the game). Anyway, kinderwelt (meaning "kids world" in English) ends surprisingly quickly and gives way to a series of smooth turns that lead into the next segment.

The brief area between kinderwelt and kleinstadt (meaning "town" in English) - what with its smooth curvy roads and surrounding mountains - always reminds me of my time growing up in Oman driving along the Qurum Heights highway. There is little resemblance apart from the feeling I get, so don't get confused if you search for pictures online and scratch your head as to what I'm talking about. Coming up to the kleinstadt, a brief waterfall section splits the town into two. The buildings are standard visual shorthand to represent a town and they carry the same blocky aesthetic seen in other tracks. However, here they give off a quaint, calm vibe that is so prevalent throughout the track. Honestly, this segment is my favorite from North Country and I would love to see it recreated in high definition using modern technology. In fact, the entire game could benefit from an HD remaster, don't you think?

Driving further down the road reveals a tunnel with overhead flourescent tube lights. As far as tunnels go - even in this game - this one is visually cool (though the tunnel with seizure inducing lights in Proving Grounds is equally awesome). Once again, the same quality of calm and quiet imbues the tunnel as well and I would love to walk through it. The segment that follows next is the longest and arguably this track's well-known. It is also, surprisingly, a hot topic of contention amongst those discuss the difficulty curve of North Country.

Opening up to a vast hilly rural area that contains the most winding and curving of the roads seen thus far. The visual attractiveness of this area still holds up to me and the reason why I'm writing this article in the first place. Whether you're playing split-screen multiplayer or singleplayer campaign, this is often the point where you either overtake the other cars or get relegated further down the ranks. I can understand why some players may have had a hard time around here but I personally did not have much problem with it; though my very first playthrough was indeed awkward. There's even an elusive shortcut right at the beginning of the segment that I never knew about until a friend pointed it out to me. In order to take the shortcut, you must slow down considerably and make a hard right, which can prove to be detrimental if you're already lagging behind or are facing serious competition. In my opinion it's best to avoid it as it roughly takes the same amount of time as the normal route does. Anyway, this segment is scattered with log houses which add a nice finishing touch to the overall appeal of this segment.

The following series of segments are as follow: a short bridge takes you to an extended gatehouse of a castle that gives way to a dark canopy of trees that leads to a long echoey tunnel and finally to the pole position. There's not much to speak about the final segments except they offer some nice diversity and allow for the player to reach top speeds; giving them a chance to regain any speed lost in the previous segment. There's even an upright log in the canopy section that, yes, you can knock over.

Revisiting the game in order to refresh my memories for this article, I never realized just how balanced this particular track is. Unlike most other tracks that clearly fall under beginner or skilled categories, North Country seems to me the perfect for any skillset. For those not familiar with the language of racing games will find this to be a very accessible track; whereas a veteran can perfect their driving skills via the numerous curves and diversity it provides.

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