Dreamscaper: Prologue - PC Preview

Dreamscaper: Prologue by developer Afterburner Studios and publishers Afterburner Studios, Maple Whispering Limited—PC (Steam) preview written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Dreamscaper: Prologue is the first chapter in an upcoming series by Afterburner Studios that sees a young woman named Cassidy combat her subconscious by lucid dreaming at night. Successfully Kickstarted last summer, I’ve just recently had the chance to take out both the first stage and boss fight from the Prologue as well as the “second stage” currently labeled under the Supporter’s Addition. If there’s anything I know for sure after spending a couple hours on the current build of this title? I both want more, and hope it doesn’t take too too long to make it over to the consoles.

So where to start? If we start with the tutorial, it’ll teach you everything you’ll ever need to know about Dreamscaper. Starting off every night, you’ll land in a central room that links to a series of other rooms. Each room that you move into can, and I say “can”, contain a variety of different experiences. Some have enemies, some have items, some have shops to buy abilities or weapons, others have trade-off, puzzles or combat challenges. It doesn’t take long to move from room to room as you work your way towards the boss. All said and done? This process takes about ten minutes per venture before going back to the real world for a small break to your hands before doing it all over again.

The controls are absolutely solid and fully configured for a controller which for me? Made me quite happy as it’s my preferred gaming method and the default layout is honestly perfect. You move around with your left thumbstick, you attack with “X”, your secondary attack is “Y”, you dodge with “A” and you interact with the world with “B”. Adding onto these are two special attacks on your left and right bumpers before moving over to being able to use a shield with the left trigger and being able to fire projectiles with the right thumbstick and trigger. Nothing is wasted in terms of finger placement and everything is calibrated to the point that if you want to dodge, you’re dodging and there’s no delay on it which brings me to the next set of items, ability and item upgrades.

Moving around and dodging by default are alright, but they can be improved by upgrading them both in terms of speed, sub-features and distance. Some of the first upgrades that I found made Cassidy a little faster and added the probability of say a 20% chance of freezing enemies every time I dodged. Later and much more interesting was the ability shadow step that honestly looked like Cassidy stepped through the shadows instead of dodge rolling as it left shadow versions of herself as she stepped three times before landing where you intended to. There are other types of dodging available and some of them may be too good to be true as there are tradeoffs such as no longer being able to block, move twice as fast but not being able to dodge and so on.

Weapons were just as varied and interesting to learn. One of the first and a tribute to Cassidy’s favorite RPG is Cloud’s Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII. With the remake just in a few days from the time of this writing and last week by the time of the posting, I thought it was fairly appropriate to start off with it. Otherwise, you have a series of blades, hammers and martial art styles with being able to punch your enemies. Every weapon has a base range of DPS (Damage Per Second) and upgraded versions or different weapons can be randomly found throughout your adventure. The same applies to ranged weapons like the starting bow into frisbees, kunai and slingshots.

All of these features boil into a very quick and compact roguelite dungeon crawl that will either see you succeed, or fail and sent back to the real world but at the cost of not having the energy to head out and get to know people in a coffee shop, bookstore and a bar. The better you do in the dreamscape, the more energy you have to stay out in the real world after you’ve finished working for the day. Sitting on her bed at 6PM, it’s up to you as to whether Cassidy head’s to bed to fight another night or head out and chit-chat with people. A little like Persona or Stardew Valley / Rune Factory, chatting bit by bit will help you get to better know people however giving them presents will advance the process much quicker.

Now starting off I wondered what the point of advancing these relationships was but it came back two-fold. On one hand, as you advance getting to know these people you’ll unlock new items to be used in the dreamscape. Melee weapons, ranged weapons, shields and abilities. On the other hand, and the more important of the two, is that as you really get to know these people you also get to better understand Cassidy and how she views the world. She’s not just a young woman with a PlayStation hooked up to her living room TV. She’s a young woman with an actual depth of character and worries of her own in this world that she exists in before she battles her subconscious in order to hopefully actually sleep through the night.

And this is only the Prologue.

Note(s): I don’t do this often, but before concluding, I would honestly suggest if you are a fan of roguelites or hack & slashers, to head over to Dreamscaper: Prologue’s Steam page and Wishlist it to show your interest. I have.

So all in all, Dreamscaper: Prologue is a fantastic title and it’s not even in its final format. From the care that was taken to how Cassidy moves, to how she swings her weapons and how she interacts in the real world before diving back into another night of combating the nightmares of her subconscious, there’s nothing I want more than honestly “more”. Being the first chapter there’s more to come and I certainly can’t wait for it.

Score: N/A

Update (2022): You will find on all pages listed with Dreamscaper: Prologue that the game and the supporter edition has been removed with this written in a block:

Notice: At the request of the publisher, Dreamscaper: Prologue - Supporter's Edition is no longer available for sale on Steam.

All of those pages publish the new release and updated Dreamscaper 1.1.

Expired link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1257640/Dreamscaper_Prologue__Supporters_Edition/

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Tharsis - Switch Review

Tharsis by developer and publisher Choice Provisions—Nintendo Switch review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

I'm a fan of board games but I unfortunately often have no one to play them with and that's what drew me to Tharsis. It looked like a digital single-player board game and for the most part, I was right. Tharsis is a space-themed game where you have to keep your crew alive for a set amount of turns until you arrive at Mars. You will have to managed stress, food, and damage all determined by a roll of the dice.

Tharsis has two modes. First up there are missions that are stand-alone and objective-based. Up second there’s the main game that is a story mode. The story mode starts with only four crew members but you can unlock more by playing and then pick them as part of the four-man crew you want at the start of your run. You will also pick a difficulty setting like most games but even easy mode can be a challenge. It took me a few tries before I fully understood everything in the game, and once I did, I enjoyed the game.

When you start the game you will have damage to certain parts of the ship that can affect your overall hull damage (lose all of this and it's game over), your crew can lose health, or your crew can lose one of their dice. You can fix these more physical problems by moving a crew member onto that part of the ship and then rolling the dice however there are hazards in these spots such as “voids”,” stasis”, and “injury”. Rolling a number that has a void makes that dice disappear for that turn. Stasis makes it so you can not re-roll that one die. Finally, Injury makes the crew member that you're controlling lose health.

Now you can use more than one crew member to fix an issue. An example of this would be if you need a total of twenty to fix a part of the ship, you can move a crew member who has two dice over and roll two fives. By adding that crewmember’s total it will bring the remaining amount down to ten allowing the second crewmember to finish the fix. This is the main objective of the game. Do not let the ship get destroyed.

After every turn, each crew member will lose one of the dice that they can roll. These dice are required to gather food, use skills, or to perform other operations on the ship with a high enough roll. Food can be attained in the greenhouse by rolling two of the same numbers while other parts of the ship all do something to help you out if you can roll the right numbers. Without food though, you can not regain dice that you lose for your crew members but you can resort to eating human flesh. Luckily in the tutorial, a crew member died so you start with some meat.

Eating human meals does have a negative side effect as it makes that crew member that eats it lose some of their max health that can not be returned and they gain a lot of stress. Interestingly, eating human flesh turns the dice bloody so you won’t forget who’s eaten what. If you do run out of food, and meat, you can resort to sacrificing a crew member to make food. So if one of your crew members gets too stressed out, they’ll acquire “space madness” which can end up making them kill someone else or kill themselves. In either case, that’s the food problem taken care of for a little while longer.

Every turn adds a new problem to the ship so fixing the most critical ones first is key to surviving. Other things the game does after every turn lets you pick who eats food followed by your crew chatting which lets you pick one of two things to say, and in turn, you receive a perk and a negative effect. An example of this is you may repair 1 hull damage but lose 1 dice on your crew. You can also save your dice for research, letting you activate perks like instantly fixing the hull one damage or healing up a crew amongst other things. The crew all have an ability, the mechanic, for example, can repair the hull one damage if he rolls a five or six if you want to use the dice to do so.

Unfortunately, Tharsis’ story is hard to understand and even after beating the main mode multiple times I am not sure what happened in the end which is a little disappointing after trying hard to make it to Mars with all the crew alive and not eating any humans along the way. The main story mode does not last long making this a good game for the Switch to be played in short bursts but that’s also one of the low points. I can beat it on Easy in thirty minutes. A nice touch though is that Tharsis is voiced over in little comic book style cutscenes and the voice acting isn't too bad. Another cool aspect of this is that they factored the voice acting in for both genders when for your Captain.

There are the missions, but I was not a huge fan of these as there was no story or anything and it felt like they were added just to add length to the game. An example of a mission would be a one-man crew must survive five weeks or turns on his own while trying to repair damage to the hull. This alone took me a few tries to beat it and it was only a tutorial mission.

Summary

Overall I liked Tharsis. It’s a fun, but short experience, that has you managing resources and trying to keep your crew alive. Yes there is some replay value as there are a few different endings it’s still not enough. I do think with some tweaking this would make a really good single-player board game that I would gladly play.

Score: 6.5 / 10

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Jaggy's Corner - April 10th, 2020

Welcome back to another Jaggy's Corner where I discuss various video game topics. Today I'm finally going to get some things off my chest. Yes, it's going to be a rant, and I didn't want to do it, but here we are.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

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Brace yourselves, I'm going to rant hard about Destiny 2 right now and you should know that THIS IS A LONG POST.

A couple of years back I scored myself a copy of a wonderful game known as Destiny 2. At the time, I played through the story, completed strikes, and found myself being hooked. The game showed me beautiful scenery, a couple of awesome NPCs, and the power of its community. I worked through as much content as I was capable of, and found myself really interested in gambit - a PvEvP mode.

Destiny 2 has since brought me a great group of friends that have better skills than I do. And for the most part, the game has been awesome. However, lately, it has brought me significantly less joy. Season of the Worthy, in my opinion, has been the absolute worst season. And I'm not saying this because I am the only one that thinks it's bad, other people I've talked to or others who have posted articles or Tweets have struggled with something this season.

So here is a very short list of issues I've had and I'll elaborate on each one for the rest of this piece.

• Season of the Beaver

• Cheaters/Hackers + Other Players Impressions

• The Bunkers

• Other Issues

Again, be warned, this is long.

We are the Beaver

We are in Season of the Worthy but in reality it is truly Season of the Beaver. This is an issue that has become infinitely more prevalent during this season than any other to date and the Beaver error is one of several errors of different types that players can encounter. While some players have had their games crash, others have been shunted back to orbit causing a loss of progress in an activity. I was kicked from three matches of Gambit earlier in the season and I received a temporary half hour ban for something that was not my fault. Also, imagine being kicked out of any competitive match because someone ranked up their season pass. What if a person was going for solo flawless pit of heresy or running through Shattered Throne only to be Beavered? You get the idea. The Beaver screwed you. No pun intended... (That's a lie...)

The best part is, Beavers are rampant in all areas of the game, be that in PvE or PvP activities. But don't worry, it gets better. Some friends and I entered Iron Banner. Of the four of us, three players were constantly kicked out of the match (in rapid succession I might add.) This occurred to those on the opposing team as well. About two or three minutes in, the match consisted of me in the fireteam I was running with and two guys on the other. Some of my friends were finally able to connect for a few moments to see that we were winning. Rejoice! But, one person was the odd one out. When he reconnected, he ended up on the opposing team! (I will add that it was my other half who ended up there. Even though we were in the same fireteam, something screwed up and he ended up winning the match for the other guys.) Now, this issue was unique in that it wasn't a Beaver error code or an Anteater or anything, it was a Steam issue. After the painful loss, my friends and I had to restart our Steam launcher before entering Banner again...

Season of the Worthy

Cheaters/Hackers and the Playerbase

So, as I said before, I play alongside gamers who are way better at shooters. Some of them have simply played Destiny 2 longer while others play competitive PvP in other games. And throughout this season, I've heard about the rampant cheating / hacking that plagues the PvP sphere. Mostly this is related to Crucible or Iron Banner and lately with Trials, but still, the amount seems to be higher than usual. In fact, I'd argue that the increase in hacks and cheats stems from Destiny 2 being on Steam but I'm not going to delve into that right now.

The thing is, the players that I know are actually good PvPers but they feel like hot garbage because of cheats or match manipulation. I'd also like to add that the people I know aren't looking to be competitive gods, but when several people have stopped playing the game because of how shitty this season has been, I find myself less inclined to play. I don't even PvP much and I'm really tired of seeing / hearing how upset players are. This has led me to stop wanting to play.

Now, Bungie has been cracking down on cheaters in the game. They have even made it a point to disable the artifact level boost in Trials and Banner, but I am wondering how effective they are at curbing the cheaters especially since there is very little restriction or proper rating to balance the scales. There isn't any region lock which is frustrating when matched against players from the other side of the world who have horrible levels of ping. Frankly, I think letting new light players have boosted gear to the current Light level was a bit of a misstep on Bungie's part. Couple that with the fact that Bungie has to work through Steam's massive access to a player base has made Destiny 2 easy pickings for the spineless cheaters out there. Balancing everything has likely been a pain in the ass, though, that is merely speculation on my part.

I already suck at shooters and I don't need to go into modes that are rampant with issues just because weapons or armor sets might be shinier. Until the game has a more level and fair playing field for scrubs like me, I'm still going to avoid most PvP modes. For now, I will stick to gambit which is much less frustrating.

Here's a clip of a gambit match I was in. It's the closest to losing I've been in a match and you hear my voice when we won.

The Bunkers and Seraph Tower Events

I'll say it, this is the least engaging content I've ever experienced regarding PvE content. I'm sorry, but I had much more fun playing through the Vex Offensive and the Sundial. I even had fun getting lost in the Corridors of Time which was a special community puzzle that took weeks to decode. Plus, the story from the last two seasons was way more interesting to me because it was the first time where we encountered Barrier, Overload, and Unstoppable Champions. To defeat them, players needed to rank up their artifact so that they could modify the weapons they were allowed on. Since this was a new mechanic, along with the seasonal artifact, Destiny 2 was exciting.

Leading up to this season, we were shown a video outlining that our world was in trouble. We needed to do whatever we could to defend against it. We are Guardians after all! Anyways, we were able to see the integral roles that Zavala and Ana Bray (voiced by the awesome Erika Ishii) play. Guardians were given a strong sense of urgency. But then you actually play it, and it sucks. Yes I know. The world is about to be hit with certain doom and I've never cared less than I have with this current series of events.

Why you might ask? Well for one thing, I've never lagged so hard during a public event in my life - even when I had a terrible graphics card. This isn't some minor manageable lag either, the game would actually lag hard enough to show me an EPIC SLIDESHOW. Never in the history of Destiny 2 has my game had such a struggle during a PUBLIC EVENT. It's so bad that no matter which computer I've played on (mine or my boyfriends), I can't do much. I'm left to afk and die, feeling like it was a waste of time. Yeah.. Thanks for that. Even more perplexing is the fact that when the season first began, I was able to participate in the public event without issue, so I don't know.

As for the bunker itself, I find the daily clear of it angering. I believe it is because the weapons we're given to take down the special enemies are weak as shit. But what's more infuriating to me is how do they keep getting into the bunker?! Are they using some kind of portal or breaking the threads of time again? Come on...

Anyways, I know that Destiny 2 is a grind and I get that content needs to feel worthwhile but even with 1000 LL, I am murdered quickly. Light Level, it seems, is just a number...

I used to have confidence in this game but I've never felt more deflated than I have in this whole season. See, in Season of the Dawn I achieved my first 'real' title (outside of Wayfarer). I worked my butt off to get the +20 artifact level. I managed to get the gambit and crucible weapons, with a little help and some confidence-boosting from my friends. I felt GOOD about myself at the end of the season. Yet, Season of the Worthy has really kicked me back to kindergarten and it pisses me off. I've spent so much time learning, practicing, and improving my skills to end up in a corner where not only am I not having fun, but neither are my friends. Considering that this is the only shooter I play, Destiny 2 is in a bad place right now.

As for the bunkers and tower events, I honestly could care less about them. I get more enjoyment out of strikes or gambit or even the odd stint of Iron Banner than I do with the PvE content. Considering I'm a predominantly PvE player, the fact that I would rather do PvP-lite modes is not a place I expected to be in at this point of the game.

SeraphBunkerEDZ

Other Issues

At one point in Destiny 2, I did feel like I was skillful enough to do some raids or help teach new light players a thing or two. But there are several events that I can't run without dying 50+ times. I'm a player that has a 1000 Light Level and can't run someone through Shattered Throne or Pit of Heresy because I can barely do it myself. I'm a player that runs strikes and somehow gets picked off by an add from across the map in ONE SHOT. It makes me wonder, how did Destiny 2 go from a game I loved to something that I'm sick of? I - a player who started in Destiny 2 at Forsaken - have progressed from a decent level player to a terrible one; it's as though my playtime has not mattered.

The best character in the game is already dead. The lore is scattered in weird places that are so disconnected to a point that most people don't realize the how much lore is in the Destiny universe. And as a writer, it bugs me to no end that one of the most interesting pieces of lore was given to us by Saint-14 in the Corridors of Time event which will never be experienced by new players. There isn't even a recap video that they can go and watch to see what happened.

I will briefly talk about the mostly useless character stats too. I used to stack resilience, but no matter how much resilience I had, I would get one shot by trash mobs. It's like hunter shields don't matter. And let's also remember that we are no longer invulnerable to attacks for the two seconds we can dodge. Am I just doing hunters wrong? Do I have to maintain only one spec to effectively play this game? ARGH!

What the heck happened?

Final Thoughts

There are so many other things I could talk about but the sum of this whole post is: this season has been the worst ever. Even the PvP players have been really annoyed with the game as of late and I can't really blame them.

I've stuck with Destiny 2 and with Bungie because I believe that the game will improve, but right now my hopes aren't high. Sorry Bungie, but that's just the way I feel. Today, I can't love the game like normal because I haven't really felt like I've been able to achieve anything. And I'll be surprised if I manage to max out the bunkers before the end of the season...

Until next time peeps.

Article by: Susan N.

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Half-Life - Retro Reflection

Half-Life by developer and publisher Valve—PC (Steam) retro reflection written by Hamza with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

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Calling Half-Life great is a gross understatement. It is The Godfather of video games. The reason why I call it that is simple: crime and gangster films were a-plenty until 1972, but the release of The Godfather changed the face and name of the genre, becoming the new benchmark for every major and minor crime film that followed. The first-person shooter genre was only in its fifth year and already a titan of a smasher emerged in the form of Half-Life. Originality and blockbuster-level success comes rarely in video gaming, even less when it’s your debut in the medium; but a couple of ex-Microsoft employees with a borrowed game engine defied all odds, conquered all impossibilities, and not only raised the bar by which all future first-person shooters are judged, but also quickly became the go-to name for a robust, reliable FPS. Half-Life’s release on the PC caused waves of gigantic proportions across the world. Never had anyone seen anything like it. Never had anyone felt so immersed in a first-person shooter ever before. If the previous first-person shooters had a following, Half-Life had an audience.

The introduction - a three-minute long train ride with a cool female voice addressing various issues and updates to the player - is easily among the greatest intros in video gaming, with it also being an example of cinematic experience in video games. In scripted pieces, the various robots, helicopters, scientists and guards go about their jobs, often coming in the way of the train, causing it to slow down a little or come to a complete halt. This feeling of a grandiose environment only confirms to the player that Half-Life is not just about the character; but also the world at large and that they play an equally important role in the in-universe as you. Plus, the introduction also gives you a valid reason to how you got there in the first-place. The others often start in media res, with you often wondering how in the heck you landed in that situation in the first place.

When the ride’s over, the still-impressive facial movements and motions are witnessed. Though a majority of them have only few lines and really don’t seem to be doing much other than walking around, the atmosphere is of a living, breathing, and most importantly, realistic world. Even if it's one inhabitated with aliens. The interaction with fellow scientists and not-so-fellow guards feel for once honest and expected. They beg of you to leave them alone, give zero advice, alert you of your tardiness, or generally say a random word or two, before shooing you away like a bird. Many times they wouldn’t even look in your direction when addressing you, instead squinting on the corner they fear holds danger. The intelligent and working A.I. and their then-unprecedented facial movements still has me impressed… just as how they had done when I played it for the first time back in 1999.

Although the actual storyline gets set into motion when you trigger the resonance cascade, us players know Half-Life really gains flesh when Gordon Freeman picks up the crowbar just mere minutes after the accident. What follows after is an onslaught of headcrabs, Vortigaunts, houndeyes, zombies, bullsquids, and effectively eerie cameo appearances of the silent and ghost-like G-Man. When I first saw him standing on the top platform just when the first houndeye appeared, I was terrified beyond words. So emphatically spooky was his first appearance I forgot I was in a room full of enemies.

What separated Half-Life from the rest back in the day was its seamless, flowing narrative. You walked from one chapter into another without even realizing it. In Doom, you had to reach a checkpoint to clear that chapter, then your achievements would be tallied up. That’s not the case in Half-Life. There are no scores, no checkpoints and apart from few chapters resulting in blackouts, no loading screen to bog down the action nor a cutscene to pry your fingers off the keyboard. The action is always kinetic, and if the game has to slow down it is always justified. Hey, even Kratos needed to lay off some steam after countless violent deicides.

The story and the carnage is seen through Gordon Freeman’s eyes. Although the scientists and security guards have scripted dialogues that they keep repeating over, a few of them have ‘special’ lines that reveal more about the backstory of the chapter you’re currently in plus few suggestions on what to expect and how to deal with it. In the Questionable Ethics chapter, for example, a group of fellow scientists are trapped and are being hunted down by the rogue assault team plus a few Headcrabs and Houndeyes. When you take all of them out and ask one scientist to accompany you to the retinal scan as to open the door, he will reveal what happened thus far – meaning all the action that took place off-screen.

Having non-playable characters retell the (often) disastrous events that took place and then receiving a rebuttal in reply when asked to accompany Freeman, all give great deal of life to the atmosphere of the world. It is a continuous reminder that whatever that’s happening in out-of-reach areas or ‘on the other side of the fence’ are equal to whatever that’s happening in your line of sight, and are equally as ‘real’ and ‘happening’. It is a reminder, over and again, that not everything is revolving around Gordon Freeman. The point I’m trying to make is that the feeling Half-Life gives is as if the game randomly decided to make the first person it laid its eyes on as its protagonist… and it happened to be Gordon Freeman.

A puzzle game at heart, you will often find yourself flipping levers, turning on switches and devising a quick-plan involving boxes and trip-wires… often-times a combination of three and in that order. For every rational puzzle, you get an intense battle with the enemies, usually Vortigaunts, which, depending on their mood, either come running at you a la Serious Sam style or shoot lasers which cause devastating damage. But even more fearsome in my opinion are the Headcrabs.

Even before performing the resonance cascade, you can see them locked in glass chambers, making them the first enemy you see and encounter in the game. Heck, even before you pick up your trusty crowbar, they start attacking you. The Headcrabs have this tendency to jump right at your face, a la the Facehuggers in Alien. Their intent is to convert you into the zombified creatures you encounter several times in the game. Since many appear at one time, even one lonesome Headcrab is capable of decreasing your health by a huge amount. They’re small, they’re nifty, and definitely the most feared.

The one thing Half-Life excels in is the memorable scenes. The three-minute long introduction perfectly sets the mood and character of the game, but it’s just a taste for all the wonderful things to come. The first real bite granted to you I believe is when you’re in the first-quarter of the Unforeseen Circumstances – that’s like twenty-five minutes into the game. There’s a part where you have to take a freight elevator to a lower level. While slowly descending, a seemingly endless horde of Headcrabs rain upon you. Though many of them just slide off the elevator and into the water below, the shock of turning around and finding them falling on you by the truckload is damn scary. With only a crowbar to protect yourself (or a handgun if you haven’t run out of bullets) the crushing acknowledgement that a couple of deformed, mutated Mexican jumping beans are able to make you take a hypothetical crap is too pressurizing. Once the ride’s over, a lone Houndeye awaits you, but he’s no problem. In fact I found them cute (in that bizarre manner of course) and honestly felt bad about killing some of them, since they resemble no more than alien bulldogs without any heads…

In conclusion, Half-Life is a sublime product by a superb, dedicated team. Whether you’re familiar with the concept or not, this game will break away all conventional stereotypes or notions you’ve come to associate with the genre – though of course it does have them, but little in number. The spectacular level designs, rich textures and graphics, and an unusually steady balance of slow, quiet moments and quick one-off bloody battles all contribute to a rich and satisfying experience. I have virtually no gripes with the game, but I don’t think I can still digest the fact how could Valve seamlessly disguise obvious B-Movie and snuff-film aesthetics in a video game and present it as one.

Score: N/A

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La Mulana - PS4 Review

La Mulana by developer Nigoro and publisher NIS America Inc.—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Editor's Note (Apr. 21, 2020): This is the first of two reviews. The Reviewer wanted to concentrate on both titles separately. Check out their review of La Mulana 2!

Hoo boy, this game. This freaking game. La Mulana is an action adventure ninja archeologist in a sweet retro styled package. While other games claim retro and simply degrade their graphics but miss out on the important parts, or just rip something off, La Mulana really nails that "challenging in a fun way" that I haven't seen in quite a while.

Lemeza Kosugi is an archaeologist taking after his father, Shawn Kosugi. Descended from a clan of Archaeologist ninjas (yes I'm being serious), Lemeza shows up to the ruins of La Mulana after his father has gone missing in the ruins. Now chasing after his father, Lemeza strives to discover the mystery behind the ruins of La Mulana, claim the Secret Treasure of Life. To do this, he must solve the puzzles that abound in the ruins, avoid the deadly traps, and defeat the guardians that protect the treasures of the ruins.

Gameplay is a wonderful throwback to ye olde NES days of platformers. You walk around, jump, and flail your whip at the largest collection of damn bats I've seen since that cave in Pokemon. Controls are clunky, but they're supposed to be, and oddly enough it works well. When you jump while in motion, you're stuck in motion. Maybe you have a little bit of leeway on the descent, but not much. If you jump straight up, you can control the descent, but you essentially lose half your jump. This control scheme is clunky, infuriating, and a real kick in the nostalgia. Played straight though, as the developers actually designed puzzles and platforming sections around this clunky control scheme, so while it can be frustrating when you make a jump and totally flub it, in the end that's all on you.

Lemeza will acquire a large swathe of treasures throughout his journey through the ruins of La Mulana, some will help his movement, giving him a faster walking speed, or a double jump. Some will be weapons, such as an axe or a katana, or some will be sub weapons, consumable items that are generally thrown or fired as a form of ranged attack. By the end of the game, I had settled in to a play style I felt was rather comfortable, only to get kicked in the teeth by the next boss fight. No really, they start...easy, I suppose, and get progressively more ludicrous. Except baphomet, for whatever reason I crushed her despite having to spend about an hour on the previous boss. This largely sums up combat in La Mulana: adjust or get scrubbed. Common enemies can be generally dispatched with relative ease at the beginning, but by the time you hit the backside stages? You'll be swapping gear fairly often. At least it's super easy to adjust on the fly.

So, for an action platform, let's talk about the puzzles. So, puzzles are a thing. They're a thing in most games. In more recent games, puzzles are generally "here's how you solve this" and in older games they were "check the back of the game case" (screw you metal gear solid, that was a rented copy without the cover). La Mulana takes this about seventy two steps further. It literally took me an hour to think of what to write here because I kept getting PTSD from some of the more obscure puzzles (about half of them) AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE GATE OF ILLUSION. When I first started playing La Mulana I thought it was "tricky yet fair". And then I near the end of the game, and there's a puzzle that I got stuck on for a solid 2 hours. I remembered reading a helpful tablet that are strewn throughout the ruins pertaining to this puzzle. The problem is these aren't logged anywhere. Yes, you can get an item that will record text, but that isn't helpful when you either don't use it, or didn't have it. The tablet was in the first freaking area. That's almost 20 hours ago.

So here I have to point out that the puzzles are infuriatingly obscure most of the time, often leading you to yell "WHAT THE BALLS" loud enough to scare the neighbours (true story). The bosses are tough. The platforming is brutal. Everything about this game is designed to slap you upside the face. La Mulana pulls no punches. Or rather, it does because it's winding up to punch you in the gut hard enough to have you coughing blood for a week. And I loved La Mulana for it. Not the blood, the gut punching. That may have come out wrong, but I digress. The game is fun. Tough fun, but fun nonetheless. Here's a wonderful tip from someone who literally threw something in anger: get grid paper and a notebook. Make your own map, mark everything in a room, the room name, and write down what the tablets say. Pay attention to the backgrounds of the tablets. Save after a tough puzzle or boss, even if it means a bunch of backtracking. Biggest point: try your hardest not to use a guide. The fun is in the challenge.

Now, I've often said that a soundtrack can really make or break a game, but shouldn't define the title. La Mulana takes the same approach to music as it did with their puzzles: go hard or go home. The soundtrack is really great, each BGM matching the area and boss it's associated with, they sound great, and most importantly: they still sound good even with the retro style the game is gunning for. I highly suggest giving the soundtrack a listen.

As a remake of the original game released in 2005, the graphics have gotten one heck of an upgrade, and even some of the puzzles have been revamped slightly. One unsolvable puzzle is now solvable, with a major punishment if you don't actually solve it. The big change really is the graphics though as they've gotten a major overhaul. While still maintaining the retro feel, everything still looks nice. Special mention goes to the fact that every area is based off real life ruins that you could actually pick up a book from your local library and learn about.

La Mulana is a really wonderful blend platforming, puzzle "attempting", solid music, and some nice updated graphics. With a slew of interesting interconnected areas, plenty of puzzles to bash your head against, and a great challenge that doesn't feel artificial or purely sadistic. Well, the jury's still out on that last point. I have very few gripes about La Mulana, mainly just bats and not being able to grab ladders while jumping.

Score: 9 / 10

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Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo - Gaming Thoughts Preview

Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo by developer and publisher Square Enix—Sony PlayStation 4 preview written by Robert with a demo from the PlayStation Network.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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I remember where I was in 1997 when Final Fantasy VII came out; after spending months seeing Final Fantasy VII adverts on TV I just needed to have it. I grew up with Final Fantasy and I had a shiny new PlayStation and only a couple games for it so I was itching to get something more. Midsummer, mom and I were out shopping and as any good teenager does, dragged her through the toys section to check out any merchandise that the store might have. Behind this tiny counter was a locked glass display with some neat things like the box, a t-shirt, and the official player’s guide for Final Fantasy, along with a couple words many gamers tend to despise these days … “Preorder today.”

You bet your ass I preordered it; it was the first game I had ever pre-ordered and I felt no shame in plunking down upwards of $80 for a shirt, the game, and the guide. I then had to spend the next few months eagerly awaiting the release. That was hell, but I got through it and was there at 10 AM the day it released (I was “sick” that day), took it home and spent a long weekend exploring the world Gaia with Cloud and the crew. I was floored, funky hands, goofy translations, I absolutely loved it, even if it wasn’t the strongest title in the franchise, I was hooked.

In 2015, nearly two decades after its initial release, Square Enix released the trailer for the Remake, something they had said they weren’t going to do, and the internet went wild. Fast forward another 5 years and a scant month before release, Square releases the demo and I was unsure if I was going to play it or not and finally caved one bored day a week before release. I tossed between wanting to get in and play and not wanting to spoil anything, but alas, I caved and fired it up.

I’m not so sure I should have.

For one, it’s actually spectacular; throughout the short demo (it can be beaten in about an hour) I got some interesting vibes. For one, I kept getting the same feeling I did while playing The Witcher 3; that there is this deep, open world full of exciting yet mature overtones (and that is all from an extremely small slice of the opening act). I was pleasantly surprised that they gave Cloud an actual personality, and really, Square absolutely nailed it with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie (she’s Best Girl; Aerith/Aeris and Tifa can go stand in a corner – fight me!). I am a bit off-put by Barrett’s voice acting, not because John Eric Bentley isn’t fantastic and fitting for the role, but because I have this mind-canon that Barrett would sound more like Beau Billingslea (who is exactly who I “heard” in later years when replaying Final Fantasy), and because I hear a different voice than what I’m expecting, it sends some weird signals. That’s more my issue than an issue with the game though, and I do have an issue, a pretty big one actually …

The camera angles. They’re horrific. In the demo you’ll fight enemies that are on different “planes” than you, often being higher because they are large or they are flying, and you can’t see the damn thing. I was immediately reminded of the extra-strength garbage called a ‘camera angle’ in Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order and that was not a good sign; while Fallen Order was mediocre at best, it’s camera was on par with Castlevania 64 and Bubsy 3D, and those are considered some of the worst camera angles in gaming, so I have some severe concerns. In replaying the demo I think a part of it is the field of view plus the fact that regardless of how close or far the camera is from Cloud, it’s field of view for your locked target never changes and it artificially increases the difficulty via bad design. Fortunately there’s time to change that element, or it’s possible that the full release’s settings allow you to chance camera behavior or fields of view.

All in all though, I’m still incredibly excited for the Remake’s release this week; while I know the original story inside out and backwards, I am wholeheartedly ready to dive back into Midgar to experience it all from a new point of view.

Score: N/A

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TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 - PS4 Review

TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 by developer Kylotonn (KT Racing) and publisher Nacon (Bigben Interactive)—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 is the latest realistic racing simulator from Kylotonn and publisher Nacon who most of you would still know better as Bigben Interactive. Given a motorcycle and the license to drive over 200/kmph, you'd better learn how to handle those speeds fast otherwise you'll be finishing in last place.

If there's one thing I've learnt in the past year is that I suck at real world simulators. WRC8 while a lot of fun to tackle was tough in its own right as you needed to follow directions from your copilot. But Edge 2? You're given guided lines but it's figuring out how fast to take them, when to lean into a turn and when to hit the brake that's going to be the real challenge. That said, it's a good thing then that Edge 2 is very accessible. Given a quick tutorial and how to ride, the final decision on how you want to drive is up to you. There are five different styles from the most basic and hand holding to the most advanced that only pros would want to use. Honestly I spent my time on "help me get through this in one piece" and the semi-pro which while it still helps you out, makes you rely more on yourself than the training wheels.

And the above is the very aspect for me that makes me enjoy these types of experiences. They are new, they are fresh. Sure, once upon a time I mastered Pod Racer, Mario Kart “Insert whichever one you want” and say Mod Nation Racers. But more realistic simulators like this one bring a whole new challenge to the table and with the more realistic approach, you can’t do what you’re generally accustomed to doing in games. You really have to stick to the road. Not take the corners too fast or you’ll flip over. You’ll crash. Being on a motorcycle this time around if you accelerate too fast you’ll wipe out backwards because your front wheel lifted, throwing you off and costing you even more time in the race. Learned that one the hard way…

All of the woe is me aside, this game is gorgeous. The landscapes. The bikes. The sound of nothing more than your motorcycle cutting through small towns and open roads. Edge 2 looked fantastic and I’ve never been happier than to have both a PS4 Pro and a QLED television as that visual as you are coming up a hill with a setting sun? Fantastic. It’s not just about the visuals though. Edge 2 handles very well and while there are some longer initial load times, the overall performance is there and there’s never any choppiness or framerate drops which would honestly be the biggest detriment to an experience like this one.

 

So other than riding your motorcycle, what do you actually do? So like a lot of these more realistic experiences, there’s a schedule for upcoming qualifiers and races that you can take part in. Qualifiers will have you race against others in terms of time as you’ll all leave one after another while races you’ll all leave at the same time and actually race to get #1. Both are pretty much the same “mechanically” and should be taken seriously enough as if you’re not getting into good spots or winning the races, you aren’t going to be able to buy upgrades to your bike or even new bikes anytime soon.

Otherwise, there’s a large map available to either practice on yourself or to go through a series of challenges that are laid out before you. These challenges are really where I started to learn to really ride and figure things out as I went back up to the semi-pro settings taking off the training wheels that had finally let me keep other racers in sight. Having this giant map to ride on I think was possibly one of the biggest and most important features in terms of accessibility as it lets someone learning the ropes and someone who’s brand new figure things out without the frustration of flunking another qualifier or losing another race.

 

While realistic simulators like TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 may not be for everyone, I would suggest at least checking it out if you’re interested in something new and different. Amazing in the visuals department, there’s an accessibility to the entry that curbs that steep learning curve that would otherwise exist allowing people not familiar with the style to get just as much enjoyment as those riding up near the top and looking for new challenges that the latest entry provides.

 

Score: 8 / 10

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Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - PS4 Review

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories by developer Granzella Inc. and publisher NIS America Inc.—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is an interesting niche title that is being released at a very...appropriate time, I suppose. A glimpse into the life of someone trying to make their way through a natural disaster, Disaster Report tries, and occasionally succeeds, in making you really think about what happens during such an event.

Disaster Report 4 starts you off as a customized character of your choosing, who has recently arrived in a town you've never been in before. Suddenly you receive a notice on your phone, indicating there will be an earthquake. Well, turns out it was an absolutely massive earthquake, and buildings everywhere are now falling down, roads are destroyed, and you just want to go home, or at least get out of the city. While exploring the city, you'll come across many people with whom your interactions may be more impactful than you expect.

Gameplay is rather basic at it's core, as you pretty much just walk around trying to find an event to progress the storyline, occasional make decisions or mental choices, and try not to get crushed by falling...well, anything that's above shin level, really. Basically what happens is you have to explore the area that you are currently in to find specific interactions with a person, or group of people, that will let you progress after completing the event. You have multiple ways you can approach this, one of which being demanding payment from people basically every time you talk to them, which may reward you in certain aspects depending on how you choose to interact with people.

While you roam areas looking for those events, you may experience aftershocks from the earthquake. While these generally aren't too bad, they have various impacts, including: knocking you on your butt, dropping a lamppost on you, dropping a hanging sign on you, dropping a WHOLE BUILDING ON YOU. Not going to lie, I literally died in the first area to to getting conked on the head with one too many lamppost from the after quakes. You have a crouch button that will keep you from falling over, and allow you to crawl, but the game does a horrible job of really bringing it to your attention. In fact, there's a fair amount the game doesn't really do all that well.

Probably the biggest issue is a reliance on event points being completed before being able to move on, despite having no real indication of where those events could be. Early on in the game a building needs to fall over after you've interacted with enough people, but it took me literally 20 minutes to figure that out because the spot I had to walk over wasn't where I would normally walk. Immediately the building fell on me because I was too wary of the lampposts from earlier. That wasn't the worst part though, because you have to climb into the building, having been given no real discernible method of doing so, or reason other than a vague sound of a woman asking for help, which took me another 30 minutes to figure out I could get into the building.

Interactions also seem...well, forced I suppose you could say. While some lines are given pretty seriously, or have a certain weight to them, there's a really big dissonance between what you expect and the almost comical or cliché reactions or interactions you tend to get out of people. Interactions also feel really choppy, and while you are generally given enough reaction options to choose something you feel is appropriate, oftentimes the outcome seems like it would hardly be different no matter what you choose. Oh, and the crawling speed. Good Lord, the crawling speed. There's a distinct difference between "going for realism" and "geriatric". Bystander reactions to stuff can also be distinctly underwhelming as well, as a building can fall over, or a truck could catch on fire and the NPCs not directly related to the event are meandering around, over dead bodies and through rubble, like they don't care.

On the plus side, I feel like Disaster Report 4 would go pretty well with the VR option. While I don't have one myself, playing through this game definitely made me feel like I should pick up a VR set just to try it out. The graphics are fairly decent and the music doesn't make you want to bash your head in, which is always a good sign for games like these. Unfortunately there just isn't really enough to give it that "Oomph" to really propel it forward. Yes, you have a thirst and hunger scale that you need to deal with, and yes you need to actually use the bathroom (something I always appreciate actually seeing in games), but there just isn't anything that gives it a real sense of what is trying to be portrayed. On the one hand, you have a bunch of people messed up or in despair, or even dying, because of the situation, and then you get interactions that make it feel like it's just another random day. Rifling around through people's houses looking for chef or cowboy hats to wear certainly doesn't help, so you have a weird sense of disconnect between what you expect out of the game and what it's actually providing you.

If you asked me if I thought Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is a good game, I'd have to say no, it decidedly isn't. That being said, I would be hard pressed to call it bad either. It's niche and can be quite frustrating with a lack of direction, and provides a weird feeling like mood whiplash half he time, but it's oddly charming, in a sense. It feels a lot like those times in JRPGs where you have a central hub area that you're roaming around performing side quests and trying to find items hidden in the back alleys. In this case, those are backpacks, compasses, and outfits.

Overall, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is rather lacking as a whole. While there isn't really anything that makes it unplayable, it certainly doesn't help you out a whole lot either. The concept is interesting, but it just couldn't take off the way I had hoped it would.

Score: 6 / 10

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