Last Encounter - PC Review

The human race lost. Pushed back to the fringes of space with nothing but a space station and banking on one last and hopefully final push to protect ourselves, we failed. With almost nothing left, as even the fleet sent out a one-way portal to find a new place for humans to live has disappeared, your task is to pick a pilot, pick a ship, hopefully coerse some friends to do the same and dive into that aforementioned portal in search of them.

Last Encounter is something a little different in the Shoot ‘Em Up genre. Tagged as a roguelike, the most you’ll be carrying along for the ride materially is a portion of the money that you pick up as you explore the various spaces through the portal. In addition to that money you’ll also be carrying along the personal experiences of what kind of enemies and battlefield designs that you may face. Where it differs though is that it doesn’t outright strive to kill you but instead provide a fairly entertaining action adventure through a variety of visually different environments that change how you approach the situations.

This factor alone was quite refreshing. While I am generally content with how this genre is created, it’s these titles that strive to do something different that make it all worthwhile. Instead of simply throwing you against super crazy odds with no respite, you’ll instead be exploring various clusters looking for keys in order to move forward. These keys are just about always guarded but you don’t need to kill everything in sight to get to them. That’s a choice and one that you may often make as the ensuing dogfights are not worth the loss of a hull’s hit points.

Because of its adventure style, you’re allowed to evaluate your situations and act accordingly. Do you fly straight in running and gunning? Do you pick off your enemies one at a time? Or do you use one of the pilot’s special abilities that allows for several seconds of invisibility to pop in and out with what you wanted? All options are valid but it should be kept in mind that the less you take out on your adventure, the less money that you’ll have to spend on upgrades and starting bonuses once you’ve kicked the bucket.

Everytime that you die you’ll be starting back up at the space station just outside of the one-way portal. Because of the technological advances and the cloning techniques, you don’t need to worry about who you choose to go out that door because a new body can simply be made. The same capabilities exist for making you new versions of the ships that you just turned into a hunk of scrap metal who knows where in the cosmos. Now while I can understand this from a mechanical standpoint, it begs the questions however of where all of these resources come from as we don’t have much left other than a single space station. Ah well, dying too many times doesn’t lead to perma death. We are good!

On this notion though i appreciated a bit of the dialog that infers that there’s so much we don’t know about the universe as once you and your squad die, it's like everything you've done is forgotten. Everything else around you is set back to zero except for the bits of experience that you bring back. It’s nothing grand in terms of game design, but it’s a tiny element that adds to the immersions instead of simply being part of the mechanics in which we are simply forced to accept, “just because”.

While the devil is in the details, Last Encounter is also mechanically solid. Movement is done with the left, aiming the right, firing trigger is at the ready and in between you can make quick hops in order to dodge out of the way of incoming fire. Need a bit more of a boost? Once the gauge is filled up a special ability can be used to either turn invisible or even invincible for several seconds. If it looks like it’s going to be a very close shave, don’t get stingy, use it. Overall though, the controls are smooth and your ship does what you need it to do when you need it to do it.

Last Encounter is a brilliant Shoot ‘Em Up. Exordium Games have really designed a unique styled experience in a class where there’s plenty of competition. With plenty of base customization between the available pilots as well as the ships they can operate, the upgrades become the icing on the cake as you explore the space beyond the gate in hopes of perhaps finding a new start for our just about extinct species.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Exordium Games
Publisher(s):
Exordium Games
Genre(s):
Shoot 'Em Up
Mode(s):
Single Player
Local Co-op
Other Platform(s):
NA

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Last Enoucnter released on PC! Switch, PS4 and XB1 later this year - News

While waiting for our review we figured we would share some good news! Last Encounter from Exordium Games has released today. Single player or cooped, up to four players can choose characters and ships in order to explore the galaxy as its last defenders. Are you up to the task? Don't worry if you aren't because the human race has perfected cloning and the transfer of the consiciousness. This is a good thing because you'll need it!

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Launching Q3 2018

ZAGREB, Croatia – May 8, 2018 – Last Encounter, the intergalactic roguelike twin-stick shooter with extensive weapon customization from Exordium Games, launches on Windows and Mac today. Reinforcements will arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in Q3 2018.

A savage, technologically superior race has invaded Earth and humanity is on the brink of extinction. Thankfully, newly discovered cloning technology has given the remaining survivors a last bit of hope. Earth's remaining pilots must traverse procedurally generated galaxies to thwart the alien onslaught in a final fight for survival.

Choose from a variety of pilot clones, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Pair pilots with distinct ships rigged with diverse attributes and abilities. Salvage and combine weapon components to create the armaments of your wildest dreams and bring an end to the extraterrestrial invaders.

Brave the cosmos alone or recruit up to three fellow pilots for fast-paced, engaging couch co-op. Resources are shared, so allies must work together, managing and purchasing weapon components to fight off waves of enemies and bring peace to Earth once again.

"When playing co-op in Last Encounter, players will need to strategically use resources to best prepare for fighting off waves of enemies," said Andrej Kovacevic, game director, Exordium Games. "Whether alone or with friends, players can engage in frantic, intense battles over and over again with the joy of weapon experimentation and loads of replayability."

Last Encounter is now available on Steam for $14.99 in English. For more information, visit the official website, check out the official Discord or follow Last Encounter on Twitter and Facebook.

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Bear With Me - PC Review

Bear With Me from Exordium Games has just seen the launch of its third and final chapter. Taking a look at the entire series, the one clear fact in this 1950’s Noir-esque adventure is that the presentation and the writing are superb making it hard to remember at times that it’s all about a ten year old girl and her teddy bear looking for her brother that went missing and filling the rest with imagination.

The adventure starts off with Amber getting a visit from an older “toy” named Millie as she wakes her up in the middle of the night. Basically browbeaten into going and getting help from her old partner and private eye Ted E. Bear, the two start to explore Amber’s house looking for clues regarding the disappearance of her brother.

This from the very beginning starts off on a high note. Because of the dialog alone, it’s hard to remember that Amber is nothing more than a ten year old who’s looking around the house with her bear. Even Ted’s dialog is that of the classic retired and hung up his hat PI that’s come back for “one” more case in that he himself mentions could get him shot and killed as it happens so often. Bear With Me is quite self-aware and integrates the modern elements almost seamlessly with the 1950’s style that it is trying to emulate while occasionally breaking the fourth wall to talk to the director. With imaginations aflair, Amber’s house becomes something more than it truly is as the two start to explore the “crime scenes” and ways in order to progress past the obstacles that lay in their way.

Once the first chapter is cleared and it’s time to move on, you’ll have to exit the game, reload, and choose chapter 2. There’s no carry over so if you played the first chapter on another system or formatted there’s no worry about losing anything in particular. While just as brilliantly written as the first chapter, it took some time for me to get invested into the second as unlike the first which had imagination roaming and running wild inside of the confines of the house, the second takes place in the often mentioned Paper City which is access from the attic at the end of the first. That sense of adventure that brought me back to my childhood was gone as the city’s layout could in no way fit within the space that they left. It’s not that it isn’t as good, it’s that the style that was so well defined in the first was gone.

Chapter 3, like chapter 2, starts up right where things left off and still within Paper City keeping things constant. Not to be outdone by the previous two chapters however things get spiced up a bit with our protagonists having split up and doing things independently of one another. Both still keep to the same styles and gameplay but the change in direction after the first two was actually welcomed as it offers a different outlook on the unfolding events for a great ending to the series.

Like all Point and Click’s, Bear With Me is both heavy on the dialog and heavy on the puzzle solving. Neither of these is a bad thing. With how well written and voice acted it is listening to the banter of each chapter is a joy especially when you get into the smaller modern references of Iron Man or classics like Shaft. Because of the voice acting and the nature of the dialog, you tend to forget about Amber’s age or that Ted is really a stuffed bear because of how mature both of them sound while talking like they’ve been at this for thirty years. It is very, very, well done and the chemistry of the characters is just perfect for both the good and the bad times.

The puzzle solving isn’t “hard” per say but sometimes you really have to think about what you have versus what can be picked up out of the environment. Without any spoilers I’ll just say that REMEMBER YOU HAVE A SWISS ARMY KNIFE. The only thing that I would say was missing however, and this may be because other titles have spoiled me, was an option to have a key in order to highlight any and all interactive elements in the environment. I missed many things the first, second and so on until passing my cursor slowly from top left to bottom right in order to see if anything could be picked up. Moving too fast you can miss things so it would have been nice to have that one little extra feature.

Bear With Me is definitely a must play. With stellar dialog and voice acting only ever supported by the grayscaled visuals with red as a highlight, it’s one interesting ride as imagination takes over from the real world to give Amber the same style of adventure that so many of us had when we were younger.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Exordium Games
Publisher(s):
Exordium Games
Genre(s):
Point and Click
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
All three episodes were provided by the publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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