Blur - Retro Reflection

Blur by developer Bizarre Creations and publisher Activision Blizzard—PC retro reflection written by Hamza with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Bizarre Creations' 2010 arcade racer, Blur, borrows a lot from the go-kart and vehicular combat racing genre. In fact it dives right into the eye of the hurricane and pulls out all the stops, giving us a level of panache unprecedented in the one genre where the more the crazy, the better. With cues obviously taken from Crash Team Racing, Road Rash, and Super Mario Kart, Blur pits real-world cars (albeit slightly disproportionate) in off-kilter, no-holds-barred racing which sees massive balls of fire, impregnable shields, and electric rain. Gamers who aren't accustomed to the mechanics and attitude of arcade kart racers (or arcade racers in general) are going to find this game a bit esoteric in terms of gameplay and the "anything goes" attitude that comes with the territory. There may be far better vehicular combat racing games than Blur, but this one does everything so well and provides hours of addictive fun. When I say hours, of course I referring to the split-screen multiplayer feature that supports up to four players. So if you have any friends left from the halcyon days of Mario Kart 64, bring them over for another taste of familiar, yet fresh and slightly mature, explosive mayhem that is Blur.

Blur apparently has a story, but I noticed it as much as that vase in a Sophie Dee video. When the terribly addictive gameplay is all that matters (and the one thing that you're going to remember anyhow), who cares who your next boss or bonus challenge is going to be. But for the need of a detailed review, here's the crux of the story: you're an aspiring racer wanting to wet his beak. An omnipresent female announcer with free time on her hands guides you to the hottest races and racers in town, with each stage having its own boss racer and distinct challenges, such as passing through a set number of golden gates to gain a set number of cheering fans on your side. The more you accumulate, the more minutes get added to your fifteen minutes of fame. And that's about it, really. Pretty standard fare, nothing you haven't heard of before. Like I said earlier, it's not the story that matters; it's the carnage-filled racing.

Blur is style and speed over everything else. Even when driving lower classes of cars, everything moves past you in a blur (hence the acute naming of the game). The locales in which you let loose your screaming banshee are nicely detailed, but nowhere as gorgeous as in most other games. It doesn't matter, really, because a single fleeting look at a building or a faraway vista is all you need to know that the game does indeed mix things up (even if you don't really pay much attention to them). The cars are nicely rendered and appropriately animated and designed for over-the-top arcade racing. This is something Need for Speed: Nitro on the Wii tried to emulate, but failed. (at-least the NDS port is pretty enjoyable).

Blur comes from that game design school which employs the "choose-the-right-car-for-the-right-track" tactic. There's a certain car (not naming it; find out for yourself) that is so perfectly suited for the long, winding road of Mount Haruna that, should you choose to select it, will put you in the lead just mere seconds into the race. It should be worth noting that that same vehicle is practically useless on other tracks (especially the Tokyo streets one). The physics of Blur walks the fine line between old-school arcade racers and modern simulators. It is a doggie-bag of practically every physics employed in virtually every racer to come into existence. The collisions feel tight but not forced or heavy. When hit by a Shunt or projectile, the impact feels strangely satisfying but hardly slows down your vehicle to aggravating levels. In fact, once the game picks up speed, it hardly slows down nor gives any reason to do so.

Now that the attention has come to the vehicles of Blur, let's talk about them. Being an adrenaline-rush racing game, it should come as no surprise that, et al, Koenigsegg CCX, Ford GT and Audi R8 are amongst the line-up. Perfect for speed-junkies or fans of the high-octance a la F-Zero, these slightly disproportionate supercars are perfect for setting the mood of goosebumps thrill. But these cars (and more) are only available in the later levels. For the opening levels, you're given a set of rather unconventional vehicles to spend time with; like Ford Focus RS, Ford Transit SuperVan3, and Volksvagon Beetle. Of course, these cars are also fitted with unrealistic engines and power, and only in a game like Blur would you see the spectacular and impossible sight of Ford GT going head-to-head with a Beetle. Finding this too difficult to believe? By all means, play this game for yourself and become a believer. The learning curve is respectful, though longtime racing fans will have little to no difficulty in taming the beasts - and it won't be long before they'll be obediently responding to your command.

Power-ups play an extensive role in Blur. The power-ups behave more closely to the unabashedly aggressive specials of Sonic & Sega: All Stars Racing than, say, Super Mario Kart (to which it is often strangely compared to). Not entirely imaginative in their execution, they at-least have an impressive penchant for fireworks: every power-up explodes or activates with a bang, sending wild arrays of color and chaos asunder. If one didn't know better, one could swear one's watching a pretty screensaver mimicking the sparkly trails seen in Katy Perry's Firework. Just for the eye-porn attractiveness alone, Blur gets ten out of ten.

Blur is definitely a must-play and I recommend it to everyone. If you have, for some strange reason or another, ever wanted a cross between Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and F-Zero GX, then Blur is the game of your dreams.

Score: N/A

Note: screenshots used can be seen here at Mobygames.

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Infinite: Beyond the Mind - Switch Review

Infinite: Beyond the Mind by developer Emilie COYO and publisher Blowfish Studios—Nintendo Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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What do you do when an evil empire has kidnapped your sister? Fight your way through their forces to get her back, of course! In Infinite: Beyond the Mind you run, slash, and parkour your way through a slew of old-school retro styled 2-D levels, slashing at baddies and jumping up walls. Short, sweet, and co-op mode available, it's a nice little throwback to the older days of side scrolling platformers.

Choosing either Olga or Tanya in a single player mode, or assigning both to a controller in co-op, you will begin your crusade against the militaristic Empire led by Evangalyn Bramann. Infinite plays like many a retro platformer, allowing you some movement abilities and a sword to slash at your foes. You also earn upgrades every few stages, either enhancing your mobility or your ability to dispatch foes. You have a dodge which grants invincibility, and a stamina bar that you need to pay attention to, as dodging costs stamina. Throughout stages you can find and pick up items, most of which will be healing or 1-ups, but you might be able to find the rare "max health increase" items.

Stages are generally split into 3 sections, two general sections and a boss at the end, although this does get changed up every few stages. Each transitions constitute a sort of checkpoint, where if you die in that section you need to restart it. If you lose all your lives, then you need to restart the whole area from the beginning. On the plus side, there are no game-overs per se, and you can save between stages, making it nice to pick up a few a stage or two while you've got some spare time you don't know what to do with. As stages generally don't take too long, they tend not to overstay their welcome, and are pretty different from the previous stages. The bosses and stages are also pretty fun. Except the elevator. Second worst elevator sequence I've ever experienced. That being said, apart from how infuriatingly finicky ladders can be to actually interact with, I had a lot of fun with the game.

The soundtrack and visuals also offer a nice package. A lot of the time for these style games, I find there's always that one level that you get stuck on, and the background music is so awful you start to taste purple. Thankfully Infinite: Beyond the Mind not only has a rather solid soundtrack that compliments the stages nicely, it also presents some fine background drops while cleaning out the ungodly amount of soldiers the empire has managed to scrounge up. The pixel style graphics really work to give it that retro feel, without actually detracting from the game. While pretty much every unit looks almost identical, at least they are generally easy to spot, unless they wear the camp suits.

Boss fights are pretty unique, ranging from a standard hack and slash, to a mini bullet hell, to something I'd expect out of Iconoclasts. If nothing else, there's a lot of variety, and with a co-op mode and three difficulties, this is a nice game to snag a friend for, not that you'll probably be able to do that at the moment. The ability to save between stages is also a great decision, as it makes it easier to pick up on the go, and easy to put down for a bit if you start to get frustrated.

While the length of the game may be on the shorter side, and ladders can all go explode for how unhelpful they were, there were the occasional moments of frustration whether it be from walls that aren't actually scalable or enemy vehicles flying in from off-screen, the annoyances tended to do very little to detract from the game as a whole though.

While Infinite: Beyond the Mind doesn't really offer anything new or exciting to the genre, it's still a wonderful experience with a lot of solid design choices behind it. With stages that don't drag on past their welcome, a co-op mode, the ability to save between stages, and some pretty fun boss fights, you can get a lot of fun from Infinite.

 

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Grandia 2 HD Remaster - PC Review

Grandia 2 HD Remaster by developer GAME ARTS, Sickhead Games LLC and publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America, Inc.—PC (Steam) review written by Natasha with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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RPGs are just one of many genres out there in the gaming world, but they have to be one of my favourite to play. Long stories, favourable characters and beautiful score pieces, Grandia 2 seems to fit perfectly into this category, but unlike the first Grandia, I didn't get the pleasure of playing this title until much later in my life. Excited about another game being made for the series, I couldn't wait to finally play my next adventure.

Grandia 2 was, once again, developed by Game Arts. Many of the original staff that worked on the first game, as well as the composer Noriyuki Iwadare, returned to create the second and was released in Japan on the Dreamcast back in 2000. In 2002, it was finally translated to English and released on the PS2 worldwide. However, this time around, the theme of the game decided to focus on a more mature and darker tone as well as the first fully 3D graphics in the series.

The Story

The story is set in another fantasy world thousands of years after a great battle between the God of Light, Granas, and the God of Darkness, Valmar, who shook the earth. Valmar nearly succeeded in destroying the planet, but was sealed away and his soul was split into pieces across the world. For years the church of Granas has worked to keep the seal on Valmar by preforming a sacred ritual. Unfortunately, our young protagonist Ryudo, the Geohound, finds that his escort mission to guide the lovely Elena, Songstress to the Church, doesn't go the way they planned. Darkness is let loose once again and it is up to our new group of heroes to fight off the many forms of Valmar.

Exploration of the World

The world of Grandia 2 is massive, but unfortunately we still only get to pick and choose where to go. Option like towns, fields and dungeons are still our main source of exploration.

Your safe havens are the towns, which are chalk full of inns, save points and equipment shops. If your party is is running on fumes don't hesitate to rest up or double back to stock up on useful items and armour. This time around your item capacity is shared throughout your party. Unlike in Grandia 1, where you had to jump from character to character to access items, the second game decided to just pool everything together into one giant bag of holding. Far more convenient now than before.

If you aren't the type of person that likes long lengths of text box conversations or just can't remember where you're suppose to go next, don't panic, because the game returns with the compass that'll always point you to your next objective. This mechanic also came with an upgrade from the previous game. You'll now have the option to choose different points of interest. This mainly appears in towns, pointing you to either the nearest hotel or shop, but it will also work in fields or dungeons in showing you where you entered from or where you need to exit. Not only that, but it's equipped with a green circle that fades away the closer you get to your objective. Handy for those who have a hard time remembering things.

Field and dungeon traversing is pretty much the same from the first Grandia. Large open, maze-like, environments with plenty of hidden treasures to be found. Even with the 3D graphic upgrade I still tended to get lost sometimes, but taking the time to explore every nook and cranny might reward you with some nicer healing items, weapons or armour.

Combat

Grandia 2 has a turn-based combat system when you encounter enemies. Simply running into your enemies will active the fight, but make sure to watch your back as they can ambush you. You can also gain a preemptive strike if you sneak up on them first, this is very helpful in gaining the upper hand at the start of most fights (this will not work during boss fights).

Once you've entered a battle you'll notice a bar on screen. This bar keeps track of enemies and party rotations on whose turn is coming up next. It works exactly the same as it did in the first Grandia. There's a wait period, a command section and an action point. While the enemy is waiting for their turn you can use this opportunity to push them back further down the bar, but note they can do the same to you.

Command allows you to select your action of choice, either Attack, Skills/Magic, Defend, Item, Flee, Etc... After choosing what you'd like to preform it'll either act immediately or take time to charge. While charging up an attack you are vulnerable to Counters and Cancels. Cancels are the worst since the enemy has a chance to completely knock you out of your concentration and send you flying all the way back to the end of the rotation. So take the time to think carefully where your enemies are and what their next move is.

Unlike in Grandia 1, you had to have Mana Eggs in order to buy new magic. However this was changed in the sense that as long as you hold a Mana Egg in your possession you'll have access to its power... for a price. This time around, when you finish a fight, not only will you gain Money and EXP (Experience Points), you'll also pick up MP and AP (Magic and Ability Points). These points can be converted into new spells and skills, which you can access in your menu page. As long as you have the points you can unlock new moves or even enhance old ones to make them stronger. I found this to be a far more practical system than having to wait to get back to a town in order to upgrade my magic.

There is one more bonus that may just be specific to this game. If you notice that you have the lovely Miss Millennia in your party you're in for a treat. Each time she is attacked by a monster you'll notice a green or red haze circling around her character portrait. Eventually it'll spin out of control and she'll enter Berserk Mode. During this mode she will become stronger, but you'll lose the ability to control her as she will act on her own. This is both useful and annoying since it would be nice to use this mode during tougher fights, but it can be activated at any time, even during normal combat.

I did notice a small bug pop up when entering a battle. Some of the party members wouldn't load properly on screen and they would be completely white from head to toe. It doesn't happen often and looks to reset itself after the battle is over, but it did throw me for a loop when I'd start a fight and the character decided to cover themselves in flour... weird!?

Visual and Music

Since this is a next gen game, back when it first released, it's graphics and music got a handsome upgrade along with it. As I mentioned earlier the composer from the original game has returned to deliver us another fantastic masterpiece of a soundtrack. Fully orchestrated and brimming with life to lift all the moments in the game. Unfortunately, I've noticed that when a track plays I catch the effects of it fading away and then looping back to the start of the song. I never noticed this editing issue with the first title, which comes as a surprise when I seem to be catching these mistakes in the second game.

The sprites have been changed to 3D models that remind me of Final Fantasy 7's (the original) cardboard bodies and thanks to the HD remaster the detail of each characters design are cleaner and more prominent. I do have a small issue with them having no mouth on their models (Even FF7 had months on their up close scenes) when I hear them talking to each other but no lips are seen. Hope they can get their message across through their eyes cause each scene looks more and more like a serious staring contest.

All map areas have been blandly designed equally the same as the first game. You're in a forest. There's a tree, here's a tree and a dirt trail to guide you in possibly the wrong direction? Better check my compass. They're not terrible just very generic. I was hoping with the second game they'd spice things up, but I mean, don't fix what's not broken, I guess?

Pros and Cons

There are more issues I have in Grandia 2, than I do with the first game. All minor faults, but they stick out to me none the less. Poor splicing of the music, no mouths on the characters, blank character models showing up in fights and bland repetitive environments. But we are gifted with a great dark and rich story telling, engaging combat and beautifully orchestrated music, to boot. So I find this game to be well balanced between the good and the bad.

To conclude, Grandia 2 HD does a great job in brightening up all the pixelated programming from the past and smoothing things out for the future. Characters are hilarious and memorable and the story will keep you deep in thought along the whole journey. Though it does have minor flaws in certain areas, this series continues to bring the magic and adventure we crave to play. I'm giving Grandia 2 HD an 8 out of 10.

Score: 8 / 10

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Grandia HD Remaster - PC Review

Grandia HD Remaster by developer GAME ARTS, Sickhead Games LLC and publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America, Inc.—PC (Steam) review written by Natasha with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

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When I was a younger and aspiring gamer I used to search for gaming music back on the freshly discovered YouTube, and would look up top RPG soundtracks in the search bar. One of the many titles that kept popping up in peoples lists was a game called Grandia. After listening to its amazing soundtrack I realized I needed to own a copy of this game. So I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the name of the game I wanted to buy at my next convention.

Grandia is an RPG developed by Game Arts and published by Entertainment Software Publishing on the Sega Saturn. It was first released, exclusively in Japan, back in 1997 but was eventually ported to the PS1 in 1999. The game was created with most of the same staff that worked on the Lunar series, including the same producer Yoichi Miyagi and composer Noriyuki Iwadare. So if you ever feel like these games are similar that might answer one of your questions. Thankfully after several years this game still sits on an unforgotten pedestal and has been given an HD remaster for the PC and the Nintendo Switch (Editor's Note: That I still have to play...).

The Story

The story focuses on a boy named Justin, who dreams of becoming the next big adventurer, like his deceased father before him. He believes there is a much bigger world beyond the End of the World, a insurmountable stone wall that surround most of the land, that no one has ever returned from. Together, Sue, his childhood friend, and Feena, a seasoned adventurer herself, they will discover the hidden secrets of their world and many new friends and enemies along the way.

Exploration of the World

The world in Grandia is quite massive. Though you don't get the luxury to free-roam on the world map the game does make everything feel big with large towns and multi-layered fields and dungeons.

Villages and town are equipped with inns, shops and key story points throughout your adventure. While resting at Inns you'll be able to rest and recover your party, go into your stashing bag where you can keep all your items that don't require your immediate attention, since your on-person inventory is limited to 12 items per character, and Save your game progress, which I recommend doing frequently since there is no auto-save feature.

There's always one shop in town that'll sell you just about anything you need from weapons, armour, consumables and magic. Note that you can't just buy magic freely, you will need what's know as a Mana Egg in order to purchase types of magic. These Eggs are normally found in fields or dungeons so make sure to keep a close eye out for those blue crystal shaped Eggs. There are four types of elemental magic you can learn Fire, Water, Wind and Earth. All characters can eventually learn all four with time.

Sometimes the game won't always point out your next objective in the story and being in town can make that difficult. Your given a compass that'll normally point you to your next story point, however it doesn't work in town. Talking to NPC seems to do the trick so make sure to chat to all those friendly faces. Once you have everything you need you'll be set to take on the monster infested areas.

One of the biggest advantage to exploration is making sure you take the time to walk around any field or dungeon. There are items and coins everywhere and can sometimes be either strong weapons or helpful healing items. Remember that compass I mentioned? Well it's super helpful while you're exploring since it'll always point you in the direction of your next objective. Your top-down camera can make things difficult though since it doesn't always give you the best view. It can be a bit frustrating if you feel like your going in circles, the environment looks the same wherever you turn, but I find that sticking to a wall got me around pretty well. You''ll also notice a blue marker pop up once in a while. These markers will expand the camera, giving you a nice view of the area, so if you get claustrophobic try taking a peek through those markers.

Combat

Grandia's combat is turn-based with enemy encounters. To start a fight simply run into a nearby enemy, but watch your back since the monster can get an ambush on you if you're not prepared. Once the battle starts you'll notice a small bar along the bottom right of the screen. This bar works as your turn count, showing you whose coming up next. There is a waiting period, command and action shown on the bar.

While enemies are waiting to take their turn it's a great opportunity to knock them back on the scale by damaging them. Each time someone takes damage their icon will fall behind. This affects both monsters and party members.

In the Command area of the bar, you'll be given access to a list of option such as Attack, Critical Attack (high chance of missing) Defend, Observe, Move, Flee, Items, and Specials. Depending on which option you choose they'll either act on them immediately or have to charge up in order to use them. That's where the Action comes in and allows you to preform your Command.

Commands such as Attack, Critical Attack, Defend, Observe, Move, Flee and Items are pretty self explanatory, however Specials are a bit more unique in this game. By selecting the Specials you'll have access to a few choices like your Special Attacks and Magic Levels 1, 2 and 3. Special Attacks consume SP (Special Points) while magic eats up MP (Magic Points). All these attacks can be upgraded to something more powerful the more times you use them. Take Justin's V-Slash, the more you use it the stronger it gets. You can find out how powerful your skill is with the star icons that are displayed below the Attack name. This also applies to all your magic spells. Along with strengthening these Attacks you will also level up your Weapon skills and Elemental Power. You can keep track of all these levels in the menu option, which will even show you what power level you'll need to focus on in order to learn a new spell or skill.

I find you will have to juggle around a lot of different fighting styles during battle, but grinding is key to unlock new and more powerful techniques. Finally at the end of each battle you'll gain EXP (Experience Points) that'll help in levelling up your characters. EXP is pretty scarce in this game so remember to grind, grind, grind!

Visual and Music

Visually the graphics in this game blow me away. For a game that came out back in the late 90's it's one of the most artfully appealing titles to look at. The game was designed in a 2D style world, with a few exceptions of buildings and organic material being in 3D, it does a good job in holding its own.

Every character sprite is so expressive and colourful, even the environment doesn't lack in standing out. It's refreshing to see all the different stencils of each characters facial animation. They are adorable to watch during text conversations. Both the Japanese and English release of the game had voice acting that I found to be quite tasteful, grinning from ear-to-ear during all the comical scenes in the game.

The game does give us some animated cut-scenes that are beautifully hand drawn, accompanied with a LIVE ORCHESTRA! I hardly remember many titles back on the PS1 that had a fully orchestrated soundtrack. The music definitely pulls on my heart-strings, enhancing each moment in the game. The HD Remaster to the game really brings out all those colours and smooth away the hard pixelated edges, making everything crisp and clean.

Pros and Cons

To be honest the only issue I had while playing the game was that once in a while during a cut-scene, the character sprites would have a strange line running directly through them, moving half of their bodies two inches off. Exploration can be a bit dull at times, but if I don't wanna get slammed by bosses and baddies I need to take the time to fight and collect items. Everything from the story to the combat, environment, music and general flow of the game is fun from start to finish.

To conclude, Grandia HD is as classic as classical RPGs are going to get. It's packed full of adventures, emotional moments, memorable music and addictive combat. It does a fantastic job in making sure each and every battle is plentiful with all the options available to use. Nothing got me more excited then listening to my favourite character, Sue, spit out one-liners like “YEOW! IT'S HOT!” or “RAH-RAH!” *Watches little girl pulls out pom-poms and starts cheering for her teammates in the middle of the battle with her pet Puffy* If you're looking for a rocking good time, Grandia is the game to play. I'm giving this game a 9.5 out of 10.

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Hollow Knight - Switch Video Review

Hollow Knight by developer and publisher Team Cherry—Nintendo Switch video review by Pierre-Yves with a purchased copy.

Watch time: 11 minutes

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Not exactly sure how I never dove into this, but Hollow Knight, a metroidvania designed by Team Cherry, was originally released back in 2017 before seeing console ports a year later. Having shown up on both Richard and Natasha's Games of the Decade as well as hearing friends of mine rave about it, I finally sat down to this slightly older game and hoped to finish it before the sequel comes out this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAxtue0XJ1o

 

The result? The result was twenty seven hours of amazing, and often frustrating, progress through one of the most interesting blends of gameplay and puzzle solving that I had the chance to experience in a while. Basically a 2D Soulsborne, here is our video review of Hollow Knight for the Nintendo Switch,

Score: 9 / 10

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Bionic Commando: Rearmed - Retro Reflection

Bionic Commando: Rearmed by developer and publisher Capcom—PC (Steam) retro reflection written by Hamza with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Video game remakes rarely reach the notorious, controversial heights of Hollywood remakes. Not because there aren't many, but because almost all of them manage to translate well to the modern audience. The original Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted were positively received in their time; and their high-profile remakes were nothing short of extraordinary, bringing substantial style and glamour to substance. Very few people objected. Half-Life pioneered the path for first-person shooters, and was considered "untouchable" until the still-in-development Black Mesa changed all that. Initially approached by gamers with trepidation, it is now closely followed by everyone who's played even a minute of it. The 2012 remastered version of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is to me perhaps the standard benchmark when it comes to applying a fresh coat of paint. Grin's 2008 HD remake of the 1987 seminal classic, Bionic Commando, is as close to a perfect translation for the modern audience as can get.

In Bionic Commando, you play the role of the titular hero named Spencer. Your primary task is to rescue Super Joe, who has been taken hostage by who can be said as one of the most memorable villains ever to grace video games; Generalissimo Kilt (who bears more than a passing semblance to Hitler and may very well be the model-basis for Street Fighter's M. Bison). Playing pretty much similarly to its side-scrolling, action contemporaries, Bionic Commando was unique in the regard that Spencer could not jump. By removing an integral part of the platforming experience, Bionic Commando was able to distinguish itself from its peers and allowed Capcom to experiment with perhaps the first instance of a now-ubiquitous weapon; the grappling hook.

A truly innovative device, the grappling hook is what Spencer uses to travel around; swinging off ledges, lamps, platform edges and just about anywhere the hook is capable of reaching. Though chiefly a device for moving around, the hook (or claw as it is sometimes mentioned) can also double as a weapon. You can reel-in enemies and throw them at each other; or you can reel-in barrels and other hard-to-reach items and use them as either defensive shields or projectiles. This ability comes in handy (see what I did there?) most especially at boss battles. Your weapons, both primary and secondary, have infinite ammo, meaning you never have to worry about strategy and all that nonsense. Love the rocket launcher a little too much? Why not use it for the entire level, and when the boss appears, tear him a new one? Fancy the machine-gun more? No problems, it's yours for the keeping!

Challenging with an extra amount of oomph, Rearmed really stings you with its difficulty and steepness of the learning curve. A game for beginners, this is not. But this doesn't mean veterans should treat it as a walk-in-the-park either. The 1987 original is easily among the most difficult on the NES, and Rearmed is just as hard, with several of the levels guaranteed numerous re-attempts. If everything were to be taken aside, the two reasons I'm going to state below are perhaps the selling point of the game and where 90% of the fun lies, respectively.

The graphics, for one, are simply drop dead gorgeous. A perfect marriage between 2D and 3D - with 2D being the backdrops and the characters 3D -, the graphics and the artwork are stunning and handsome. Some of the scenery require more than mere minutes of observation, and don't be too surprised if you catch yourself gaping at a particularly impressive backdrop longer than you usually would. A further extension for reason one is also the animations; smooth, crisp, and a delight to watch. While you're falling from great heights, your character starts to yield his bionic arm in relation to the decreasing altitude. This subtle effect, coupled with the landing animation, will make you want to fall off high places more. In the game mind you, not in real life.

The second reason is the co-operative gameplay. This should go unelaborated but what the heck, I might just as well. Up to two players in campaign mode - and four in competitive deathmatch and similar matches - the carnage is best experienced like this. Player two gets to control Super Joe, who is basically Luigi to the titular hero's Mario. The thrill of taking down the enemies with your best buddy is beyond 11; the co-operation required to takedown a boss simultaneously imminently leads to victory shouts and smug happiness should the other die in the process. You will notice that in co-operation mode, you and your buddy will gradually focus all your energy from killing soldiers to being the first commando to find the elusive "extra life" icon or secret areas; and believe me, that is when the fun really begins. The only mildly frustrating thing about two-player mode, and overall in general, is the responsive nature of the screen.

Should either of you get too far from each other, the screen splits in two; sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical, depending on which plane you're in. Though it's not a major deal, a-great many cheap deaths have occurred due to its unfortunate timing to split the screen. Also, many areas will require the both of you to stay together if you're to stay alive because once the screen's split, you won't be able to see more than a few feet ahead of you; and that can make all the difference between life and death. I do wish they had adopted the infinitely stretching as in Drive to Survive (a.k.a Mashed), where the screen keeps on stretching to keep the action in view.

Notwithstanding certain flaws, like untimely glitches and minor - but sometimes game ruining - bugs where your character would get stuck half-way in a wall, Bionic Commando Rearmed is a quintessential modern co-operative game. In single-player it is equally fun, but with a friend the fun doubles, triples even. You may not know now, but Rearmed will the source of your fondest, epic gaming memories a few years later down the line. I highly recommend it.

Score: N/A

Note: Screenshots used in the body of this article are from MobyGames here.

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Dread Nautical - XB1 Review

Dread Nautical by developer and publisher ZEN Studios—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Pierre-Yves with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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When the name Zen Studios comes up, generally the first thing that comes to mind are the amazing digital Pinball tables that they’ve been creating for years now. So when I heard of Dread Nautical that’s both a team and turned based roguelike Cthullu inspired adventure on a cruise ship basically stuck out in the Bermuda Triangle? I needed to see how that panned out and honestly? I’ve loved just about every minute of it so far.

Taking things from the top, you get to pick one of four characters that you wish to be the protagonist of this story. Each character has a special ability and a difference in their stats that can eventually be upgraded as the adventure moves on. Once you’ve made your selection, your character wakes up from a bed in a location with only one way out through an elevator as the other door is as blocked as it possibly can be by a barricade. Talking with the only other person there, you set out to find help and hopefully a way off of this boat.

Making your way to the bridge, and blowing the ship’s horn, you pass out, wake back up in that same bed only to find out that this has been going on for a while now but this time? This time you remembered what happened, and next time? Next time things will be different. What I loved about this introduction is that it leaves a mystery to exactly how long things have been going on for. So after a bit of an introduction to how things play out, the adventure starts in earnest as you set out to both find a way out and to get help to do so.

There are a lot of gameplay elements being meshed here but they work really well together. As a Roguelike, you can from the beginning choose just how brutal things will be difficulty wise. There are three modes, Normal, Hard and Insane. In a normal mode, time will always reset at the end of every stage, teammates will always be there once they have been recruited and the gear that you bring out with you will stay with you if you die. In hard mode, any survivors left outside the bridge or any gear that you brought out with you will be gone if you die. Adding to that, any teammates that were out with you will have to be found again. Finally, in Insane mode, you’ll die, die and die again and lose everything everytime that you do.

Regardless of the difficulty though, the core gameplay elements are a blend of team based and action point turned based strategy like the recent Divinity Original Sins. Broken up into rooms, moving around the decks while not in combat is as easy as panning the camera and then selecting which square that you want to move over to. If there are no enemies in sight, you and your party (if you have one) will move together or individually depending on what you’ve decided. The rooms themselves can be empty or contain objects to be inspected that contain scrap, runes and perhaps an item that can be used by the party. Other rooms? Other rooms have enemies or ambushes just waiting for you to walk into them.

Combat plays out simply enough with a “your turn”, “their turn”, party approach. What I really appreciated was that you can swap between your characters at any point in time and use their action points as you see fit which is a bit of a refreshing change instead of having to use all of a character’s action points before moving onto the next one. Moving one space costs an action point. Attacking enemies depending on whether you want to punch them or use items can cost one or more action points. A Punch, one point, hitting them with a crowbar, two points, bringing down a heavy hammer and knocking them back, three points. Guns, shivs, throwing knives, broken bottles, pool cues and so much more all range between one or two action points.

Playing with these numbers will be your key to victory. Attacking from the side will cause more damage while attacking from behind in a sneak attack before a battle even begins may even stop it before it starts. Strategy isn’t exactly going to be heavy in the beginning, but as you move up the decks you’re really going to need to start bringing your A game and really thinking about what you want to do with what you have because unfortunately for you? Short of your fists, everything has durability and once that durability hits zero, that item becomes useless.

This is where things get a bit tricky. Before you can start to upgrade your party members for more attack, defense, inventory space and action points, you’re going to have to decide what a character heads out with versus how much space they have to bring items back. Anything can be used while out on the deck but you’ll have to repair it once you make it back to safety. I appreciated that durability basically worked like Fire Emblem where each point was one time that an item could be used regardless of if it was melee or ranged. The better the item, the more it cost to repair and to upgrade. Sadly upgrading an item did not fix it, just made it cost even more to repair. Well done devs… well done…

So, with the above in mind, sometimes you would want to prioritize items that were worth more scrap than actual usage because you had something to repair, or you had something that you wanted to upgrade. Weapons, armors and stations in your sanctuary can all be upgraded and the cost obviously continues to climb the more you upgrade it. To recruit more party members, you’ll want to upgrade your sleeping quarters for more beds. To upgrade your characters further and further you’ll want to upgrade the table that allows you to infuse a character with runes to unlock their potentials. As the adventure moves on, characters will need to be set up at the medical station to relax as the mental stress only compounds as you move on.

Every feature that Dread Nautical has melds into one another which makes for a great gameplay experience. Yes there are a lot of elements being put into play however they blend together so well that it just works. What I also enjoyed was that because this is basically the Bermuda Triangle and it’s shenanigans, decks can be re-explored as many times as you want to help you prepare by obtaining more scrap and runes in order to upgrade your characters and their items. Being a Roguelike, you’ll want to be prepared and there’s no shame wanting to redo a deck a few times and honestly? You’ll also want to as each deck has pages that can be found that may just explain a bit more to what is going on. Two birds, one stone.

Dread Nautical was simply amazing to sit down to. The turned based elements mesh perfectly with the Roguelike setting that has been presented through a cruise ship stuck somewhere out there in the high seas. With plenty of possible party members, tons of replayability, and simply just being fun to play, I can only hope to see more of this down the line and maybe a Dread Nautical inspired Pinball Machine.

 

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Daymare 1998 - PS4 Review

Daymare 1998 by developers Invader Studios, Slipgate Ironworks and publishers Destructive Creations, All in! Games, All in! Games Sp. z o.o.—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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After its release back in late 2019, I was just waiting for my chance to sit down to Invader Studio’s Daymare 1998 after having read Mylène's review. Designed like a classic Resident Evil with plenty of puzzles along trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, you’ll be switching between characters and environments as you try to survive the undead hungry for your flesh.

Daymare 1998 has a lot of great ideas but after seeing what it looks like on the PC, I’m not sure the transition over to the PS4 was one of the best that could have been done. Visually the graphics felt dated, blurry and the refresh rates often made it look laggy as you saw the pixels trying to keep up as you moved down a hallway. Playing on a PS4 Pro with a QLED TV, I’m not sure what else could have been done to try to boost the visuals, but noticing all of these aspects often removed me from the horror experience making it go from something that should have been at least atmospherically scary, to simply, oh, another zombie.

My whole team, my friends, my family and my partner all know how much of a chicken shit that I am when it comes to horror. While I don’t play them often, though my girlfriend wishes I played more so she could laugh at me, more anyways, a classic Resident Evil experience is always something that I’m on the lookout for and on that note Daymare 1998 delivers. The puzzles range from being eccentric with having to type in Greek symbols into a computer to figuring out the lock combination based off of books missing from a shelf. Other times the puzzle can just be you figuring out the right temperature for a cooling unit to make it open.

Like these classic horror games, there’s also the worry about what’s around the corner, how much ammo do you have left, how healthy are you? Will you survive one more hit? Can you survive long enough to run outside from one house to another to avoid what’s in the air as zombies are on fire and you simply don’t have the time to deal with them? And it’s here within these elements that Daymare really shined as it introduced elements that are often left untouched.

Moving around compared to a normal Third Person Action Shooter takes some time to get used to because of the fact that you can walk, jog and run. Walking is slow but it helps to better aim and not get caught as you’re moving around the corner. Jogging takes no stamina but requires that you hold down the L1 button to do so which helps move around a bit faster. Running requires holding down both the L1 button as well as clicking on L3 and it’ll take up your stamina which you’ll also need to melee an enemy that gets too close to you.

Shooting is pretty easy especially when you can adjust the sensitivity. You aim, you fire. Pistols, shotguns or other semi-somethings all feel easy enough to use and your crosshairs only help you figure out if you should be pulling the trigger or not. What impressed me the most was how ammo is handled. Inside your inventory you have ammo boxes that take up slots however unlike most titles, your ammo doesn’t directly go from those boxes to your gun. You have to actually reload your mags to be used in your weapons. Shotguns by comparisons are loaded cartridge by cartridge though. Only adding to the features is that if you really don’t have time to take out an empty mag and put it away because you’re about to be eaten, you can just drop the mag from your weapon to the floor and load up the new one. Once you’re done, you just pick it back up and add it back into your inventory. Just don’t forget about it!

Now while I can get away from the issues with the graphics, where I really had some issues with Daymare was in how “dead” a zombie could really be. From most of the lore, we know that if you shoot them in the head, they are dead. Well more dead… permanently dead? Anyways. In Daymare, sometimes just one shot to a zombie’s head, chest, shoulder will drop them to the ground and they’ll be out for the count. Sometimes, they’ll come back up and try to eat you again. It’s neat as a feature as with the corpses on the ground, you never know if one of them will be getting up to get to you.

Where things DO NOT WORK, is that some zombies, depending on background coding mechanics, will take five, ten or fifteen bullets TO THE HEAD to finally die. Pistols or shotguns with those large blasts don’t matter, they just don’t die and your ammo count is basically flushed down the tube and you’re a sitting duck for the rest. I honestly re-did multiple sections repeatedly just to make sure that they didn’t take up all of the ammo that I had leaving me with nothing else later. It’s not a new issue either as it could happen in the classic Resident Evils just like it happened in the brand new remake where I had the same issues. I’m sorry, but if a zombie takes a shotgun blast right, there shouldn’t be anything left.

Overall Daymare 1998 isn’t a bad zombie title, but it isn’t a great one either. Sitting somewhere in the middle, there are both classic and newer elements that blend together nicely but when added with the visual issues and the more mechanical ones like zombies not dying, there’s a bit of work to be done in order to make this the amazing title that it should be.

 

Score: 6.25 / 10

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Tangledeep - Dawn of Dragons - Switch Review

Tangledeep - Dawn of Dragons by developer and publisher Impact Gameworks—Nintendo Switch review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Having released alongside the free and substantial update of The Legend of Shara, The Dawn of Dragons also graced the console release of Tangledeep for an even more intense dungeon crawling adventure. Forgotten by living memory, powerful dragons have returned to Tangledeep and if you’re planning on facing them? You’ll need to level up your character, your gear and pull out all of the dirty tricks in the book as the original final boss of Tangledeep has got nothing on these five new behemoths.

So I’m a little embarrassed that it took me the amount of time that it did to start tackling these new challenges. Having restarted Tangledeep from scratch for The Legend of Shara, I was already familiar with a lot of the new content, weapons, and used to the higher level cap which you’ll need because even the areas leading to these new bosses are tough. That said, I did at first have a few setbacks as I reconquered the original Tangledeep in its new form but once I made it up to the new and shiny first boss? I was both impressed with him as well as the area leading up to him.

The Dawn of Dragons hasn’t just added in new areas with new bosses. It too added in some new items and gameplay mechanics that can be both discovered and unlocked. In the first new area alone, you’ll be trudging through a swamp area where bubbles in the water can either be monsters lying in wait, treasure chests waiting to be opened or passageways to locked off areas for anyone without a good amount of shovels to dig their ways into them. Once you’ve gotten up to that first boss and defeated him though, everything changes.

Beating the first boss of The Dawn of Dragons unlocks the other four in any particular order that you wish to tackle. Having been defeated, the first of the Dragons Horatio the Frog Dragon sits inside of your camp and tells you where you can find the other four because he doesn’t think that you’ll be able to take them out. Not simply telling you where to look in order to proceed into these harder dungeons, he also brings about a new town feature in which you can feed him equipment, and in return for following the directions of what to feed him, he’ll give you new items in return. Combined with being able to use orbs in order to level up items or being able to go through the new dreams for epic level gear, there's more than one way to prep for the new challenges.

With everything that had already been added through the massive content update from The Legend of Shara, The Dawn of Dragons adds in that “late-game” content to keep the adventure going with new challenges as well as new items of its own. It’s a brilliant add-on as it never feels tacked on once you start to find these areas as you re-explore the original areas of Tangledeep in order to move forward. And while this content is only hitting the Switch now while it’s been out on the PC for some time, it’s proof that Tangledeep can continue growing and that the devs care as much for their console release as they have for the PC.

As a final verdict over these past few weeks of having dived back into the adventure? Restarting a title from scratch in order to experience it in a whole new way was worth it. Between the new features introduced from The Legend of Shara into the new features of The Dawn of Dragons, it’s all worth it and if you’ve been thinking about getting back into it? Now’s the chance. If you’ve been wondering if it’s for you? With all of the options that you can turn on and off, Tangledeep is a Rogue like/lite for everyone.

 

Score: 8.5 / 10

Check out our previous reviews for Tangledeep Tangledeep – Legend of Shara – Switch Review and Tangledeep – Switch Review

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ExtraLife 2020 - WrathOf314's Stream

Good Friday morning everyone!

This morning I'm hijacking the 8am slot to let you know that I'm streaming today for ExtraLife's 2020 campaign. While the actual campaign is generally the first weekend of November, I do some smaller streams throughout the year to help raise funds for one of our local children's hospitals CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario).

Back in March I decided to do my first stream of the year with Dragon Quest Builders 2 for the PS4 (See Nintendo Switch Review Part 1 and Part 2) and decided why not continue the adventure, so that's exactly what I'm doing today!

My fundraising page can be found here or over on the side bar to the right. So without further ado, I've probably already started this morning so come stop by and say hi on Twitch!

Catching up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmT2YMEvjYg&t=7s

https://youtu.be/tWLjMANp7_U

https://youtu.be/nqfx_2xj0Kw

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The Inner Friend - PC Review

The Inner Friend by developer and publisher PLAYMIND—PC (Steam) review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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How many of you remember your childhood traumas? How about an imaginary friend? And what about your fears? Well, you can face all of these with your Inner Friend.

The Inner Friend is a journey through what I would presume to be childhood traumas. Taking control of a human shaped child made of what looks like paper maché, you need to explore those unresolved childhood fears of yours. While most of the stages you progress through can definitely be relatable traumas, some of them are distinctly more confusing, and I was starting to wonder if the "host" for the traumas wasn't irrationally scared of pretty much everything. School I can understand, the hospital I can understand, and kudos for the "enemies" not being creepy doctors but sick patients, which is maybe a little too apt in today's global current situation. The "ruins" and the "art gallery" however? A little less creepy, a little more confusing.

As a paper puppet it is your job to basically walk through the memories involved in the traumas, finding memories and helping a "spirit" get through the memories with you. Sometimes this is as simple as finding the spirit, sometimes you play mini games in an electric forest, and sometimes you run away from an evil monster, but mostly you explore a memory, with the goal being to "get through" the trauma. Along the way there are collectibles to find, objects that you can store the essence of and pictures associated with the stages you traverse, which you can decorate your room with, which is a sort of hub you return to sort-of-mostly-kind-of between traumas. To explain that dumb sounding sentence, you need to know that you start off walking through a hole in the wall, and then you start falling onto cube buildings below you. Walking through a "floor door" will bring you into a trauma. Complete the trauma and you return. Or at least you do for about half of the memories, the other half are chained together, for no real reason I could figure out, other than the parking lot and hospital stages.

Arguably my biggest gripe with The Inner Friend is the fact that after about ten minutes, any sort of fear was replaced with either eeriness, confusion, or frustration depending on the stage. It could have been really spooky, but I learnt pretty quickly that the darkness is more frustrating to spot stuff you're trying to get over, none of the "monsters" of the trauma really do a lot to you, at least in the beginning, and the game kind of has a "break" halfway through where the spooky takes a break for you to play mini games and do an escort mission with the spirit child. Do the stages have that fearful ambiance? Yes, some of them do. The school and salon made me think I would rather not be there, although the latter turned into that awkward frustration bit about halfway through, before returning to spooky territory near the end.

While the gameplay doesn't really lend itself to the atmosphere as much as it could, the music was pretty much the driving factor for me in the ambiance department. The graphics are pretty good for what I was otherwise expecting, and some of the monsters and scenes are pretty spooky. What was pretty annoying however was the "falling onto buildings" section that happened in between resolving traumas. It was a little frustrating to control, and the hitboxes were wonky while fall/gliding. The game is also incredibly short, as I completed the whole thing in a few hours, so if you were looking for a longer more in-depth experience, you probably aren't going to find it here. That being said, while short the experience definitely left me with an impression. What that impression is might still be up for debate, but it was definitely on the more positive side.

The Inner Friend puts me in a weird place for giving a score to. On the one hand, the controls can be super clunky, some segments can be extremely short and under-utilized, while others wear on you pretty fast, the puzzles are quite simple or frustrating depending, and the whole experience feels slightly disjointed, and rather short, which it is. On the other hand, I never got truly frustrated or disappointed with The Inner Friend. Heck, I get frustrated with some of the games I absolutely love, so that's a positive. The Inner Friend feels like it has a lot of potential that it just simply doesn't capitalize on. A little refinement would go a long way with any future titles.

Overall, the experience from The Inner Friend felt distinctly lacking, if not at least positive. The game is way too short, some of the areas felt either way too long (the ruins) or way too short (the mall literally took me less than 2 minutes to finish), and more often than not, just when a stage was reaching its end did I really start getting into it. The Inner Friend also suffers from a bit of a "genre disorder" halfway through, as it turns into less spooky, more weird mini games and escorting without the same eerie feeling, and some rather clunky handling on occasion. There was a lot that felt unfurnished and unexplored, and The Inner Friend would have really benefited from some refining and expansion to the different themes explored.

 

Score: 6.5 / 10

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