Trailer for A Plague Tale: Requiem Shown at E3

PARIS – June 13, 2021 – Asobo Studio and Focus Home Interactive are delighted to announce A Plague Tale: Requiem, the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed and award-winning A Plague Tale: Innocence. Unveiled at the E3 2021 Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, we are happy to share with you A Plague Tale: Requiem’s worldwide premiere reveal trailer!

The heart-rending story of Hugo and Amicia’s struggle for survival in a dark, plague-ridden, medieval world will continue in 2022 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®5, and PC. The game will be available at launch on Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PC. A Plague Tale: Requiem will also be released on Nintendo Switch using Nintendo’s cloud-streaming technology.

For more information, visit www.focus-home.com/games/a-plague-tale-requiem.

Article by: Susan N.

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground - PS4 Review

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground by developer Gasket Games and publisher Focus Home Interactive Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Robert.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is the latest release of tactical titles licensed by Games Workshop and focuses on the grimdark fantasy setting, Age of Sigmar and is a step away from the more common 40k universe. With three separate campaigns where you lead the Stormcast Eternals, the Nighthaunt, and the Maggotkin, Storm Ground offers 25 to 30 hours of grind through small battlemaps with outrageously over-the-top voice acting, poor optimization, and a boring slog at times. Though interesting on paper, in practice it’s clear that Storm Ground needed more time for Gasket Games to work on pacing and balance and bug-squashing. Though an interesting setting and graphically attractive, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground isn’t without its share of problems, many of which completely overshadow some of its more interesting mechanics. As of the time of this article’s writing, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

It is no secret that I am quite critical of the Warhammer franchise- for a setting that is so rich with lore, full of mechanics that would fit so well within the video game universe, the titles released in the last 30 years have almost unilaterally been sub-par at best, with only a few standout titles. Storm Ground joins that massive pantheon within the franchise’s video game offerings and true to form, is a bland and uninspired turn-based tactical roguelite that becomes more and more frustrating as you run into repetitive, simple environments, a horrific grind-wall, and an unabalanced AI. Where there could have been great potential as a multi-dimensional chess game, instead we’re served with a method of gameplay that feels more like Gasket Games was simply adding obstacles for the sake of obstacles rather than for any real gameplay or narrative purposes.

The first few hours of each individual campaign feel truly unique between each faction, but as each campaign wears on, nearly every aspect of its tactical gameplay begins to feel reused and uninspired, and if you couple that with bugs that would ultimately see the PlayStation 4 crashing to desktop, AI simply stuck during their turns (where on their turn they simply refuse to move or take an action, resulting in having to close the game then reopen and replay the level), or it’s poor performance on last gen’s hardware. On my PlayStation 4 Pro, which is connected to a 4k television, I found that panning the camera, most of the attack animations in both the Stormcast Eternals and Maggotkin races, and the death animations caused regular frame drops (with panning being closer to 20 FPS, so movement was choppy and unpleasant), odd sound bugs, and the occasional lock-up. However, if you’re one of the lucky few that managed to snag themselves a PlayStation 5, you will see smoother performance throughout. (Editor's Note: Can confirm)

Beyond the poor optimization and plethora of bugs, Storm Ground’s biggest failings fall in line with the absolutely ridiculous voice acting, shallow story, and lack of respect for player time and strategy. Once you’re about three or four missions in, the voice acting begins to feel like one of those over-the-top children’s shows that were churned out in the late 90s, early 00s by the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon- some players may enjoy it, but for me it wrenched me out of the grimdark atmosphere that is lazily created with small, uninspired battlemaps, and had me thinking to myself, “Is this parody?” However, if you’re viewing the various Lore Cards, the narration is extremely well done- the hokiest voice acting was almost unilaterally found in the small tidbits of conversation made by characters while on a mission. I was quite impressed with the narration made between missions on these lore cards (which will expand on the universe and in-game plot points) were some of the best I’ve experienced since the original Mass Effect’s narration of the Codex and is very well done. Add to it the sweeping scores in the soundtrack that all have this dark yet fantastical appeal, and there are some real memorable elements throughout the campaign- I for one would like to see a soundtrack released (possibly even on vinyl!), as I can see myself painting untold amounts of Warhammer minis to the rich music found in Storm Ground.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground isn’t all bad, though- far from it if viewed from the right frame of mind. While it may be a shallow slog of an experience, Storm Ground has plenty here that lay the foundation and framework for a potentially great game. Each faction feels uniquely different, from the hard-hitting Stormcast Eternals to the speedy swarms of the Nighthaunt to the corrupting presence of the Maggotkin, each offered their own unique feeling to the game. If Gasket Games spends the next few months improving on Storm Grounds’ AI, balancing out each of the factions’ unique traits, and offering more variety in battlemaps, the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground could be an excellent title- as it stands, it’s one that simply exists; not inherently bad, nor overwhelmingly good- if anything, the verdict would stand closer to “a title with great potential that trips over itself throughout.”

While I am not much one for roguelike/roguelite titles, there is just enough character to the way Gasket Games melded the turn-based tactical gameplay with roguelite elements that it sits squarely in between titles like X-Com and Hades and if you think about it, is a style of gameplay that could work out incredibly well, especially with factions as unique as those found in Storm Ground, and the exceptionally lore-rich universe of Age of Sigmar- it’s just a shame that many missions simply feel repetitive and that they are brutally difficult (or annoying) just for the sake of killing the player with no real benefit. Character progression and squad makeup are important, but to gain access to skills, new units, and equipment to help buff your team or debuff the enemy, you will spend hours playing the same missions over and over again in the hopes that you can land some decent loot; unfortunately that’s not always the case. With Storm Ground it feels like the grind is there simply to elongate a player’s time in game without any true benefit to the overall experience; sure, the purpose of the grind is to get better loot, but decent drops feel too far in between, and that it’s simply there to punish the player.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is another Warhammer title that sits firmly in the “almost there, but not quite” camp that many recent Warhammer titles fall into- so much wasted potential and after another year or two, assuming the developers continue to support the game, and we may see Storm Ground as one of the better tactical experiences in the Warhammer pantheon. As it stands, the best way to explain it is, “it just exists.” It isn’t inherently bad like some previous Warhammer titles, but nor is it as rich and in-depth as some of the better games in the Games Workshop umbrella.

Summary

With a little time and a lot of patience, plus a heap of optimization by the developers, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground’s blend of turn-based tactical gameplay and lite rogue-like elements could easily join the cast of greats- with its stellar music, unique and well-designed playable races, and lore-rich setting, Storm Ground falls just short of that trifecta of excellence found in more prominent Warhammer titles. With hope, we will see updates in the near future to help smooth out the experience, but as it stands at the time of this writing, Storm Ground can be bland at best and perfectly skippable at worst.

Score: 6.5 / 10

 

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Necromunda: Hired Gun - PS4 Review

Necromunda: Hired Gun by developer Streum On Studio and publisher Focus Home Interactive—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Making a return to a world is always an interesting one especially when the manner that you get to see it changes. Coming from Streum On Studio and Focus Home Interactive, the return to this hive world in the Warhammer 40K universe is going to be a lot faster paced and a lot more brutal as you continually modify yourself to tackle tougher challenges than previously thought possible. Welcome back to Necromunda: Hired Gun.

Unlike Rogue Factor’s turned-based tactics Necromunda: Underhive Wars, Streum On Studio’s Hired Gun is a fast paced first person shooter more in the vein of DOOM (2016) with some Prince of Persia Sands of Time goodness thrown into the mix for parkouring. Generally with no real time to think it through, moving around and shooting at anything else that moves is generally the only real way to survive. While generally not my style of shooter as I would much prefer to take time and aim or dive behind cover and then check out my surroundings, there’s plenty in Hired Gun that exists to get you into the action quickly and I found myself rather invested for a time.

There are a lot of ideas that Hired Gun uses that make for a good time however the overall execution at times can be a bit frustrating until you piece it all together. For the main gameplay, out the field on main or secondary missions, you’ll be running, jumping, latching onto ledges, running around walls and using a grappling hook to reach some rather out of reach locations. While doing all of this, you’ll be firing off automatic weapons, pistols, shotguns, laser sniper rifles and throwing grenades all while getting up close and personal if that’s easier than waiting a fair amount of bullets on an enemy if you don’t need to with melee attacks.

All of that works really well though even playing on a PlayStation 5 there were many moments that the frame rates would stutter as there were too many things on screen making me wonder how a standard PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 4 Pro would be handling this. It’s nothing game breaking but in some cases it could be the difference between having only one or two of your current enemies left standing and having four to five still trying to gun you down. On this subject though, Hired Gun has what I would consider a great system that has been put into place which keeps the action set to high. It’s called the Sanguin system.

As your merc takes a hit for a limited time any damage that you do to an enemy will come back to you as health. Close to death? This could keep you going for quite some time. If there’s no one close and you’re also out of shields, there are healing packs that can be bought or picked up however I wonder at the design choice as they were mapped to R3 instead of something like “O” meaning I often ended up healing myself instead of pulling off a melee attack on an incoming enemy. Finally, with all of the running and gunning you have access to the goodest of boys in the form of a cyber mastiff that will highlight all of your enemies and help you out for a limited time once their cooldown has reached zero. This pooch is seriously one of the best parts of your arsenal because unlike your ammo count, you can always count on him.

Where things get a bit iffy during combat though is when you’re trying to actually aim while running around and then reload. Even if you’re holding the aim button, after the reload action you’ll no longer be staring down your site or your scope but instead be returned to a normal view and then have to let go of the aim button and press it down again. With weapons that come with blazing fast firing rates, it was almost not even worth it at times but if you’re running across walls like a ninja, I guess you shouldn’t be looking down the sight of your weapon but what do I know? I’m not a cybernetically enhanced hired gun!

Once you’re out of battle and into what acts as your hub between missions you’ll be able to buy and sell new gear from a vendor as well as make upgrades to both you and your cyber mastiff. This is a bit where things get a bit convoluted as there’s no real inventory management system. Instead, for some really odd and random reason, the only time you can see what you have on hand is inside of these vendors and upgrade specialists. It took a few missions to finally talk to and then figure out that I could sell the ever increasing loot that I had on hand that was just no more good to me since I had found better. For upgrades, thankfully those are literally plug and play so once bought, they are installed into the body parts you wish for both you and your pooch. 

Summary

So while the running and gunning is generally pretty smooth short of the framerates, there are a lot of other small to medium details such as can bog things down a bit as they are a tad clunky and can only be done from the main hub. It would have been much better to have an actual inventory system window that also allowed for you to see all of your current upgrades instead of having to go back to the vendors to see all of these details. Overall though, what’s present is pretty solid and I came away fairly impressed at the gameplay as even hours down the line it keeps on being robust enough with the new upgrades as they are acquired.

Score: 7 / 10

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Hood: Outlaws & Legends - XB1 Review

Hood: Outlaws & Legends by developer Sumo Digital and publisher Focus Home Interactive—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Hood: Outlaws & Legends is an interesting idea as it pits players versus players versus the environment in relatively briskly paced online matches. The game deserves credit for trying to do something unique, but there’s so many unpolished edges that hinder the overall experience.

The setting is one of my favorites, taking characters from Robin Hood lore and putting them in a gritty, engrossing setting. The premise to each match is to pit a four player team against another four player team. They are not only working against one another, but also coping with the AI controlled characters in the environment that are working against them too. The teams have the same goal – take the key from the sheriff, unlock the vault, steal the treasure and get it safely to an extraction point.

There are plenty of online competitive staples sprinkled in here. Most of the AI enemies are little more than fodder that in a one-on-one situation, seldom pose a serious threat (outside of the Sheriff, who will absolutely maul you if he gets too close). But they can summon reinforcement and cause changes in the environment that make the encounters that much more dangerous, and when sprinkled in amidst the player versus player carnage. There are respawn points that can be captured that give you strategic advantages when you die and have to jump back into the fray.

Structurally, there is a lot to like about Hood: Outlaws & Legends. The stages are interesting, with gates that can be dropped, a sense of verticality through various towers and staircases as their maps span a handful of different environments. Creeping through foliage, shooting at enemies out of windows and using ropes to scale stone walls are all interesting aspects to the stages that make them feel well designed and interesting to get to learn and explore.

There are four characters that can be chosen from as well, and each one serves a purpose that ties into the environments mentioned above. This is one of the areas where Hood: Outlaws & Legends feels like it has a ton of potential, but also has a tendency to fall a bit flat. Ideally a team will be constructed from each of the four characters / roles, since they each serve a distinctive purpose. There is the titular Robin Hood, who naturally attacks with bow and arrow and is terrible in melee combat. He is the scout of the team, often scaling towers and peeking out of windows to tag enemies and points of interest for the rest of the team and trying to combat enemies at a distance.

Next up we have Marianne who is all about the stealth. She can be absolutely lethal creeping through the shrubs and assassinating enemies who walk too close to her. She is often your best bet to get the key without combat, because she can pick the Sheriff’s pocket and is quick in reaching the vault to unlock it. However, she loses a lot of her efficacy when it comes time to actually fight in close quarters, similar to Robin. John is the big, bruising character he is often described as in many other stories. He is all about the close quarters combat. He is also able to raise some of the gates that the AI guards close, opening up shorter, more direct paths for teammates. He also comes in handy during the final part of each mission, when you need to crank a pully to extract the stolen treasure, as he can do that faster than anyone else. If these things make John feel like he’s more useful than the aforementioned two characters, that is because he is.

It also plays into the final character, Tooke. He is another melee-based character, who can heal allies, carry the chest really fast and in general is capable of taking a licking similar to John. By all accounts, Tooke is seen as probably the most overpowered character in the game. While the ideal scenario is to see one of each character in a party, each contributing in their own way to the mission’s success – the problem is that this is seldom how it plays out unless you are up against another similarly constructed team. Early on, when I first started playing at launch, most teams were pretty well-balanced like this. However, as people started to gain familiarity with what characters were really the most useful, it was not unusual to see a team of three Tookes and a John up against teams of two Johns and two Tookes. The stealth components are then just cast away as everyone focused on brute forcing one another.

So there are some clear balance issues. These not only relate to the classes, but matchmaking too. It is not unusual to see two or three level ten or under characters with a level sixty-something that dominates the proceedings because they know their way around the maps or have some handy unlocked perks. That is always the risk with something like this – you want to have some nice progression in there, and Hood: Outlaws & Legends has that between character ability perks and oodles of cosmetics that can be unlocked for your characters. I love that kind of progression, though it can create imbalances when you have such disparate leveled characters tossed together. Conversely, I get it because if they are too narrow in their team-building, it might be challenging to get two full teams of four assembled in a timely fashion. To Hood: Outlaws & Legends’ credit, I was generally hopping into matches rather quickly.

I would say that Hood: Outlaws & Legends is at its best when you are communicating with actual friends and not just working silently with random pick-up groups. Also, with only four characters, a handful of maps and a single primary gameplay structure, things can grow a bit stale rather quickly, which may hurt the game’s longevity as well. Hopefully the developers have some more content coming sooner than later and they can figure out a way to steak the game balance, or I fear that Hood: Outlaws & Legends just won’t be played heavily in a few months or so.

Summary

By and large, I really enjoyed Hood: Outlaws & Legends. The game’s setting and structure are interesting and an expertly executed heist is very rewarding, especially when you get to unlock some new progression items for your characters during the early levels of gameplay. Unfortunately there are still plenty of rough edges, from questionable enemy AI, class imbalances and uneven matchmaking that combine with relatively shallow content that could give Hood: Outlaws & Legends a somewhat short shelf-life if the developers don’t address those concerns.

Score: 6.75 / 10

 

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Curse of the Dead Gods - PS4 Review

Curse of the Dead Gods by developer Passtech Games and publisher Focus Home Interactive—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Having really hit a boom in the last few years, both the roguelike and roguelite styles have almost become so popular that most titles nowadays try to include some element of the genre in their productions. Actual roguelikes however are still few and far between so coming across Curse of the Dead Gods was definitely a treat. Cursed temple, unlocking upgrades, actually having to worry about fighting in the light versus the dark. It was a challenge worth challenging. 

Starting off with perhaps the biggest point, Curse of the Dead Gods runs a risk of quickly overstaying its welcome. Fans of roguelikes are obviously already thinking to themselves, it's a roguelike. It's supposed to be repetitive. Do it over and over until you get it right. That's the point and they would be right. Where things run a risk of repetitiveness though is in the presentation as win or lose, you'll wind back up at the same spot. The only difference is with how much?

Designed in a manner similar to Mega Crit Games’ Slay the Spire, you'll be going through a randomized path of random rooms before facing off against a boss. Each one of these rooms contains a possibility of death and that includes the rooms designed to heal you as for every door you step through, you'll add a bit more to the curse that plagues you. Max out the curse meter, and that's just as much game over as losing all of your hit points which adds a layer of complexity to an already harsh path.
 

Before that though, you'll be starting off in a central room that acts as our protagonist's hub. Pretty bare in the beginning, this hub will give you access to the various trees containing unlockable skills and items to help you out on your subsequent runs. Like any good Roguelike though, there are perks that sound amazing in the beginning but don't really stack up as time goes on and then there are perks that are actually just useless to a player depending on their playstyle. Perks' usefulness is subjective, but that's part of the fun. Figuring out what works for you and there are plenty of choices which I really appreciated. 

Once you’re ready to head out, it’s as simple as heading through the giant door and choosing the first of your paths forward. What I enjoyed about this is that Curse of the Old Gods isn’t all about making your way through boss after boss after boss after boss in order to make it through. Instead, you have three base paths to brutally teach you the ropes before really throwing you into the meat grinder which blends these paths together one after another instead of just one path, boss, and heading back to the hub.
Not immediately noticeable at first is that you’ll actually have just about everything that you’ll ever need from the very beginning. Torches to light up the dark, default weapons for attacking enemies, secondary weapons for a bit more of an oomph and a bit more range followed by two handers for maximum devastation. Each of these attacks is fairly easy to chain combos but you’ll also want to “git gud” when it comes to both dodging and parrying an enemy’s blows especially when it comes to how much light is in the room.
 

Here is where the first of the two major features of Curse of the Dead Gods shines. Light and dark while normally added for ambiance is actually quite crucial to survival as you’ll take substantially less damage while in the light which is where your torch comes in. The flipside of this though is that while your torch is out you won’t have your melee weapons so if you want to attack you’ll have to delve into the dark where you’ll take more damage which is where the “gitting gud” comes into play. Some environments are a bit helpful allowing you to light up the dark by swinging your torch at braziers however these can also be destroyed plunging you right back into the dark just as fast as you’ve lit it up.

The combination of the light and dark with the combat meshes really well to add in a stress to an already stressful endeavor as death is always around every corner when diving through a roguelike where the other “other” stress comes into play. The titular curse of these dead gods. For every door that you go through, the curse by default will increase by twenty of a container’s max of one-hundred. Don’t worry though as you have a few containers to fill up but don’t get complacent as they fill up fast. Go through five doors and the curse will add a layer of difficulty such as no longer being able to heal by normal methods, losing gold per hit, but also some neat ones like enemies will now explode on death. Scary when in melee, but get their friends in the mix and your work is done.

 
Going through doors is not the only way to increase your curse. Getting hit will increase it just as easily as drinking from a healing fountain. Yup, even healing up has a cost associated with it. Nothing is free, and that includes most of your upgrades. Between the various rooms are options for upgrades through the form of better weapons, upgrading your weapons, passive abilities, and they can all be yours for the low price of… heh, there’s no low price. Getting these upgrades are either paid in cold hard cash or in adding to your already and ever increasing curse meter.
 

So it’s with these aspects that you’ll really want to do a few of the base runs that only contain one boss to get a feel for things before going into the multi-boss pathways or even some of the special weekly dungeons that can appear. Curse of the Dead Gods in vintage black and white without a health bar was nuts. Less nuts than having to pull off a run in which you start with a I believe it was thirty or sixty second timer that would only increase as you defeated enemies. Easy at first, but a hell of a lot harder as the stages keep ramping up in difficulty. 

As an entire package, and I gushed as much to Nick on my first night with Curse of the Dead Gods, it’s fantastic. My only worry is that because of the room layouts, after a while you’ll have “done it all” short of the special weekly challenges that can only be done once a week, win or lose. The gameplay is solid, the ideas behind the gameplay are clever especially when mixing the light and dark elements alongside the curse that is not always the most negative of effects. Finally to top it all off, it ran beautifully off of the PS5 which is what I reviewed it on.

So overall, even if the roguelike or roguelite genres are normally not your cup of tea, if you’re up for a good challenge and love the action adventure styles of adventuring, I would wholeheartedly recommend Curse of the Dead Gods. Fans of roguelikes and roguelites? If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for!?

Score: 8 / 10

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Shady Part of Me - XB1 Review

Shady Part of Me by developer Douze Dixièmes and publisher Focus Home Interactive—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Just as things were about to wind down for the year, something hit my desk allowing me to end what’s been a horrible year all around on a high note reviewing wise as many of us head back into various states of lockdown for the holidays. Developed by Douze Dixièmes and published by Focus Home Interactive, Shady Part of Me is an emotional tale that I found myself easily relating to as you explore the world with two sides of a person both through the light and the darkness where one cannot move forward without the other.

It would be easy enough to say that Shady Part of Me is a great puzzle platformer and then leave it at that. Graphically, you have two separate presentations starting with a 2D shadow-like platformer which is then mixed into 3D environments that act as their own puzzles. Keeping things interesting, what is done in one affects the other. Mechanically, everything is responsive and instead of lives or health, if you make a mistake, if you fail, you can simply rewind until you get it right. On top of both of these aspects there's an incredible music score that only amplified the emotions being conveyed by the scenery and the narrative. Like I said, I would be easy but it would also be a disservice.

More than the sum of its parts, Shady Part of Me walks a fine line between gameplay and presentation. Clocking in around four to six hours for a full gamerscore or platinum trophy depending on your system, this is one experience where you'll find yourself heading out of your way at times for the collectibles which are origami birds within both the realms of light and shadows. Other than making murals as you uncover the pieces, these birds will often prompt additional dialog from a third party causing reactions in your protagonists or simply giving you a potential to additional context based off of your own conclusions. 

Having found this blend of gameplay, Douze Dixièmes have found an almost perfect marriage of gameplay to cater to both those that play through something and move on, and those that will search every nook and cranny to find that one last collectible. I’m generally not one for going back and looking for everything, but when it adds in more context and is more than just there for the purpose of trophies / bragging rights, I am more than willing to put the time in.

On that subject, the time that I did put into Shady Part of Me is time that will stay with me for a good deal of time. Yes it was fun, yes it was atmospherically pleasing with the various musical scores that meshed perfectly with the backgrounds, but it’s the “why” that really stood out. Mental Health, Anxiety, Stress, Panic Attacks, feeling like the world is watching and that weight is crushing you, and just simply not knowing how to deal with everything because life that day, week, year, decided to deal you a bad hand. Read that again, and don’t take a pause, run out of breath, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Not everyone will go through this, a lot of people will never understand this and in a way I hope they don’t, but those that have, those that still do, know what I mean and know that it’s hard to put into words.

So it’s through this adventure, that I finally saw a representation of what it’s like to go through these moments that I’ve never been good at putting into words. I’ve been through it, I’ve been dealt a bad hand years ago and I still have my moments. I know it’s anything but easy and asking for help is even harder as no one likes to admit they need it especially with the stigma that comes with admitting it. So it’s through these challenges and through this fictional world where fantasy meets reality that these two souls need to rely on one another to reach the exit that they’ve been searching for, and through their conversations that I finally saw it put into words. The words of the rational mind trying to reach the irrational feeling that just won’t leave and sometimes crash into the rational like a tidal wave making you feel like you're drowning.

All of this said, it’s how these emotions are meshed in with the musical scores in the background, it’s how these feelings are meshed into the scenery, and finally it’s how these feelings are conveyed as a challenge to overcome as continuously taking steps forward that make it work. No, it’s not that easy as taking a step forward, many days are steps backwards, but, if you were to condense the process, this is what the start of healing looks like.

On a final note, Shady Part of Me should have been on my Game of the Year list but with how late it was released, it sadly won’t be making it as I quite literally got to experience this tale this past weekend. It’s not a very long adventure, but it packs a punch both from the visuals and the musical score, to the emotions coming through both of your protagonists as they try to find the exit that they’ve been searching for together.

Score: 9.5 / 10

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Hood: Outlaws & Legends Releases Four New Narrative Trailers!

PARIS -- Dec. 3, 2020 -- Hood: Outlaws & Legends, the new multiplayer PvPvE heist game from Sumo Digital and Focus Home Interactive, is coming next year to PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. But today you can delve into the dark backstories behind the outlaws and legends you’ll be playing with four new narrative trailers!

Faced with a merciless, unchecked state, rebels and rogues now battle to claim their place among legends. In Hood: Outlaws & Legends, you’ll gather your team and attempt to steal treasure from an oppressive government in a dark, violent, medieval world. By extracting riches and collectibles during heists, you’ll uncover the forgotten backstories and secrets behind these legendary characters.

Stay tuned for more exciting Hood reveals as new exclusive content is unveiled at The Game Awards on December 10!

Hood: Outlaws & Legends is available to wishlist now on Steam. Visit www.hood-game.com for more information and register to receive newsletters by email.

Editor's Note: The following information is the original Press Release of Hood: Outlaws & Legends.

August 7, 2020 - Sumo Newcastle and Focus Home Interactive are pleased to announce Hood: Outlaws & Legends, a multiplayer PvPvE heist game coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2021. Gather your team of Outlaws and attempt to steal treasure from an oppressive government in a dark and violent, medieval world. Unveiled at PlayStation’s State of Play event, watch the game’s Reveal Trailer now for a first look at this gritty universe, including a quick gameplay sneak peek.

“It is always an exciting moment when you finally get to reveal the game you have been working on behind closed doors for so long,” said Owen O’Brien, Studio Director at Sumo Newcastle. “With Hood: Outlaws & Legends, our aim was to create a dark and brutal re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend, pitting myth and superstition against man-made power and corruption. The team here in Newcastle are all passionate gamers, and over the past 16 months we believe we have created a new and fresh twist on the PVPVE genre.”

John Bert, COO of Focus Home Interactive, says: 'From the first moment, we've been thrilled by the unique dark universe created by Sumo Newcastle. Hood's lore, setting and gritty re-imagining of these legendary outlaws bring something truly unique to the multiplayer heist genre. We can't wait to show more about the game in the coming months and unveil all the exciting ingredients that make it a blast to play with your online gang.'

Blood will be spilled. Riches will be stolen. Legends will be reborn.

Faced with a merciless, unchecked state, rebels and rogues from every corner battle to claim their place among legends. To win influence with an oppressed people, rival gangs now compete in daring heists to hit the wealthy where it hurts. Folk hero or gold-hungry outlaw, only the best will escape with hard-earned riches.

Outplay opponents in intense PvPvE multiplayer heists in a violent medieval world

Two teams of players compete to execute the perfect heist, in environments patrolled by deadly AI guards. Utilise the unique skills and mystical abilities of each character, moving in stealth to steal treasures unseen or dominating through loud and brutal combat.

We are all Outlaws… but some of us will become Legends.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends releases 2021 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The game is available to wishlist on Steam today. Visit www.hood-game.com for more information and register to receive newsletters by email.

Article by: Susan N.

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Necromunda: Underhive Wars - XB1 Review

Necromunda: Underhive Wars by developer Rogue Factor and publisher Focus Home Interactive—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Just when you think you've seen it all, something comes along showing you otherwise. From Rogue Factor and Focus Home Interactive, Necromunda: Underhive Wars is the latest Games Workshop Warhammer IP to hit both the consoles and the PC. Having just released, this turned based, third person "action" shooter is one that while not entirely accessible to start off is a fair amount of fun.

Like a lot of Warhammer IPs, there’s often a lot to take in from both the lore to the gameplay mechanics if you really want to know what’s going on. In the case of Necromunda, you’ll get a rough idea of what’s going on and as for the why? It’s clear. Everything has to be fought for and if it means killing your own faction’s people? It’ll be done. It's “the how” that's going to take a good deal of time to get accustomed to and honestly? Even hours in you’ll often be wondering if what you did was the right move.

Necromunda has several main modes. The first is a story based campaign that will see a story evolve through the points of views of different people and factions. The second mode allows you to create your own clan to play a series of missions with loads of objectives to make them more fearsome and help in their customization from the ground up. Finally, the third allows you to go online and either fight with or against other real life players. In each case, the action is brutal, the choices are not easy, and if you’re not prepared or paying attention to damned near everything, you’re going to both die and lose the match(es). Repeatedly.

Like any good strategy title, there’s things you need to know from the beginning and then there are things you need to learn quickly enough. Finally, there are things that make you wonder about your own place in the universe as you see another player or the CPU pull off some fairly illegal moves, or so you thought until you figure out how to do them yourself. Necromunda at its core is a turned based strategy that will see two groups facing off against each other. Suggesting that you play through the campaign first, it quickly becomes clear as to why as there’s a fair amount to learn and the learning curve is high. This is not a newbie friendly strategy title and I’ll be honest that even I had a hard time with it having to restart what seemed to be an easy mission several times over just because I really didn’t see something coming.

Broken into teams, Necromunda will have you select a unit to play out a turn not unlike most XCOM like or Valkyria Chronicles like strategies. Once you’ve selected your unit, you can then start to move about the field. Where things are vastly different, is that in Necromunda when you select a unit to play, so does your opponent. Breaking this down into initiative, the unit with the higher initiative goes first and then can move about the field as they see fit. If you were about to get the killing blow and then run away, you just had to revamp your entire strategy. If you were just short of dead and they go first? You lose your turn. They can also go about wrecking havoc and destruction on the rest of your team or regroup with their own and building barricades or placing traps to make your life that much harder.

This is really what makes Necromunda hard. There’s only so much you can prepare for until control is finally back in your hands. Enemy units will be moving all over the place and what seems like a good idea one second becomes a horrible one on the next. When on your turn, more in the vein of XCOM, only units prepared to fire under Overwatch or Ambush will attack while you run around. This can obviously put a damper on your plans as not only do you lose health on an overwatch attack, but if the ambush happens, you become locked into combat which is really where things can get “spicy”.

All units, regardless of their class, have both Action and Movement Points. Movement Points allow you to move around or to use special abilities like Entrench to give you more Action Points. Action Points are what you’re going to need to use to attack other units with guns, swords or other warhammery weapons (ex: chainsaw swords), set up for Overwatch or an Ambush. More than this though, Necromunda sets up an interactive environment that can be toyed and messed with in multiple different fashions making all the rest of your actions that much more potent, or rendering them absolutely useless.

Set on a field with levels, units can jump down to other available spaces, use ziplines to make their way up, use elevators or use their own personal device if they have one to Elevate a few levels up for safety to to perform a potential dirty move like Death From Above. Each of these has an Action Point cost and while not many, maybe 5AP to call an elevator, 5AP to jump down, 5AP to use a zipline, most attacks depending on the weapon type are 15AP for one hand, 25-30AP for two and with generally 50/60AP to play with, without entrenching if you haven’t move too far, you’ll only be attacking once that turn. Doubling down on the hardcoreness, you’ll also have to worry about ammo count / reloading as well as having to fix your weapon because it’s jammed or overheated and can’t be used without another 5-15AP to get it into working condition.

There’s so much to worry about and that’s before having to check where each enemy is either with the overlay not unlike the one found in Gears of War, or the giant map that shows you all of the floors, walls and troops placements emulating a table top look. Being caught in an Overwatch, being caught in an ambush, setting off traps or trying to use something that has been sabotaged. Each of these will only help to kill your unit faster and sometimes, you won’t notice a few of these while running by because the cost looked clear, unfortunately, there was a sharpshooter just waiting for you to pass that one little area.

Now, as brutal as everything else, certain features just make the experience itself more brutal but in an agonizing way. Loads times, at least on the XB1 are long. Cutscenes can only be skipped once they are about halfway through, not entirely. Finally the gameplay itself? It cannot be sped up meaning that if you were re-doing a mission or just REALLY wanted to get to the point? It’s not going to happen anytime soon especially when playing against a CPU where you can actually see it think before it moves and sometimes? That can take upwards of a minute for it to play its turn because it always has the need from the looks of things to use ALL its available points even if it meant running all over the place just to return to where it was originally standing without actually having done anything.

Summary

So overall, Necromunda: Underhive Wars will not be for everyone. The price of entry is high and the cost may be too much for budding strategists while veterans should find plenty to challenge them through the three modes. Otherwise? The hardcore strategy and the addition of a 1v1 initiative factor really changes the playing field making a lot of well known and used turned based strategies useless and this the perfect ground to test your mettle if everything else has been seeming too easy for you.

Score: 7.25 / 10

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Call of Cthulhu Out on Nintendo Switch!

October 08, 2019 - Call of Cthulhu - Experience the terror of the Lovecraft mythos anywhere, anytime on Nintendo Switch™ A shiver down your spine, shadows in the dark, and something in the corner of your eye - Call of Cthulhu is out now for Nintendo Switch™, so you truly can’t escape madness. Watch the brand-new Nintendo Switch™ Launch Trailer for a taste of this mysterious investigation adventure and get ready to face horrors like you’ve never seen before.

An official adaptation of Chaosium’s pen & paper RPG, Call of Cthulhu combines investigation gameplay with the unparalleled narratives of Lovecraft’s renowned Cthulhu mythos. What mysteries will you, as private investigator Edward Pierce, uncover on the too-quiet island of Darkwater off the coast of Boston?

Call of Cthulhu casts you in that role - a struggling alcoholic, tortured by the past, haunted by PTSD and strange visions, Pierce is a dogged investigator with a desire to find the truth. Contracted by the father of the late Sarah Hawkins to look into the mysterious fire that engulfed her mansion and killed her family, Pierce is immediately surrounded by distrustful locals and dead ends on Darkwater. Pressing on, his world begins to unravel as reality breaks down, and dreams become reality... All the while, the Great Dreamer prepares its awakening.

Call of Cthulhu is out now on Nintendo Switch™. The game is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

About Focus Home Interactive

Focus Home Interactive is a French publisher based in Paris, France. Known for the quality, diversity and originality of its catalogue, Focus has published and distributed original titles that have become benchmark titles worldwide, available both in store and for download across the world. Focus publishes games on all major platforms, consoles and PC. The publisher's catalogue will get even richer the coming months with eagerly awaited games such as Blood Bowl 2, Divinity Original Sin (consoles), Vampyr, Space Hulk: Deathwing, Act of Aggression, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, The Technomancer, Farming Simulator, Mordheim: City of the Damned, and more.

More information about the company at: http://www.focus-home.com



Article by Susan N.

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GreedFall - PS4 Review

The glorious part of fantasy is that you can tell a tale either based in reality or based off of people's imaginations. Based in a little bit of one and a lot in the other, GreedFall is a reimagining of the 1600s colonization in a world of plagues and monsters where the worst monsters are not the ones in the wild with wicked claws and poisonous fangs.

Last week I gave my first impressions of GreedFall that sees you take on the role of De Sardet, a Legate of the Congregation of Merchants whose job it is to hopefully find a cure for a disease rampaging around the mainland known as the Malchior. Having had to look it up to make certain, using an older definition, a Legate is a General or Provincial Governor in ancient Rome or their deputy. As De Sardet’s cousin is the Governor, you are basically his deputy and his voice outside of the settlement walls of New Serene where you now find yourself. Needing allies both within and outside the walls to search for clues to a cure, you’re going to have your hands busy if your tongue isn’t fast enough to diffuse a situation

Starting at the beginning and treating you to a combat tutorial for better or worse… yes I restarted in order to win as I now knew more than I did the first time... the basics for GreedFall won't change much over the next dozens of hours. What’s in place is solid enough as a base for when you actually have to draw your blade and while it doesn’t actually change over the hours even when you do get new abilities, it never feels overly stale as you can change things up with different weapons, magical abilities and new partner configurations as they join up with you.

Swords, long swords, heavy swords, hammers, flintlocks, riffles, multi barreled pistols and magical rings to sling magic, this is what makes up your close ranged and long ranged combats. Each melee weapon has a default attack with square and an alternate one with triangle. Magic rings, while ranged, fall in the same category as in a way they are more melee than ranged as they don’t have an actual ammo count that needs to be worried about. While in combat, there’s no blocking like there was in Bound by Flame, I can’t remember from the little that I’ve played of The Technomancer. Instead, you can dodge, or you can parry.

Parrying has always been a very hit and miss with me and the games that I’ve played. Timing is often everything and even a second too late, you’re dead. So I don’t bother with parrying in any Soulsborne, I just dodge out of the way which sadly deprives me of a lot of free damage. Moving on, the parrying system in GreedFall is fantastic as while timing is everything, being too slow or too fast will net you with a tang on your blades knocking you back a few steps or squarely on your backside. You don’t take damage but you are also not in a space to make an attack. Perfectly timing it will net you loads of damage and your enemy reeling from the attack which is nothing short of satisfying.

Like any of Spider’s games though, combat isn’t the main focus, the adventure is. The people you meet, the sights you’ll see, each of these is really what it’s all about. The combat as mentioned is solid but if you play your cards right, you don’t have to. This is the mark of a great developer, especially when they have said that the choice of what you do is in your hands. So there is some fighting that is going to happen, monsters in the fields, bandits in the cities, but generally, if you choose your words carefully you can disarm your opponents without ever actually drawing a weapon as they’ll realize it’s a bad idea. Does it mean that they’ll give you whatever you want? No. It just means that they won’t headlong charge you into a fight to the death.

Having these features at your back just makes exploring this vast island “enjoyable”. I say enjoyable in quotations as this is not a pleasure cruise. The mechanics make it enjoyable, the adventure itself is filled with the worst sides of mankind as it thinks that just because it is more “evolved” than some other people, that it is right. The portrayal of the native population’s suffering at the hands of the three major power factions that are on the island range from bad, to worse, to the most horrendous treatments you could think of with inquisitors hunting them down and treating them brutally to sometimes even death. The writing is well done and the overall presentation is “tasteful” as it’s not gory, but you’ll still see a fair share of dead bodies from situations that should not have happened.

And that’s where GreedFall “shines”. It doesn’t make you some super shiny beacon of light in the dark. You can be the good guy sure, but it’s not solving all of the problems. Patching things here or there will work for a bit but down the line something you fixed could have made something that much worse. The interconnectedness of everything was impressive as often seemingly unrelated things will wind up at the same point and what you need is now literally in front of you because of an otherwise unrelated side quest.

Another area where it makes things matter is who you take alongside you when out on major and side quests. Each team member that you can recruit is part of a different faction from the Coin Guard that defends the Governors, the Nauts who sail everyone across the seas, to the daughter of one of the native tribes, a clergyman and an alchemist / gunslinger. Each of these brings a different point of view and can in some cases change the outcome either because of a skill set or because of actual knowledge on a subject because of their backgrounds. Rarely will this be a fist to the face which is nice because violence isn’t always the answer even if you want it to be. Damned religious inquisiting zealots...

All in all, it takes HOURS to be able to really sink into GreedFall’s immense world, its cultures and its lore. It takes hours more to start discovering tiny details that can change entire outcomes for the future of your character’s world. Combined with a good character leveling system and gameplay mechanics, GreedFall is a solid RPG and probably Spider’s best work so far.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Spiders
Publisher(s):
Focus Home Interactive
Genre(s):
Action, Adventure, RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox One, PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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