Category video game review

Herocraft bring us the latest pirate themed adventure with Under the Jolly Rodger.

Herocraft bring us the latest pirate themed adventure with Under the Jolly Rodger where you can murder and pillage to your heart’s content. While sailing around the Caribbean you collect quests or can just look for ships to sink and steal from. As the game progresses you can hunt the bigger targets including forts themselves. Cautious players will want to avoid this option for as long as possible because the stronger ships are not that forgiving. You and your crew slowly gain experience and can eventually become a force to be reckoned with. Will you survive long enough to rule the seas or will you be swallowed up by the kraken? That’s right, there’s a kraken and it has sunk me more than the British fleet has.

Growing up on classics like Sid Meir’s Pirates and graduating to Assassin Creed’s Black Flag there are lots of game styles that this game could have pulled from that would have made me happy. Herocraft went the hybrid route and created an amalgamation of Sid Meir’s Pirates and a combat system that felt like the ship combat for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Over all I found it to be a little tedious with the resource management system and the combat was a little less than polished but I enjoyed the overall freedom to explore where I wanted in whatever order I wanted. For a pirate game this wasn’t all that bad, sure there is lots of room for improvement but it is still worth playing through and getting your pillage on.

Century: Age of Ashes, a game of dragon combat, collecting gold and killing other players.

The folks at Playwing brought us the latest in MOBA gaming with Century: Age of Ashes. When we first started playing the game there were three classes to play and at the time we sat to write this a fourth was added. Each class gives a different list of dragons to collect and eventually use. Additionally you can unlock different cosmetics for each and choose between two abilities for their dragons. Game modes cycle daily but two are a constant- Spoils of War and Carnage. These two modes are chosen at random when you choose to play them. Spoils is my personal favorite where teams shoot down each other as well as dragons carrying gold around the map. This gold is then collected and placed in your safe. Carnage is a team based PVP battle where the quickest reflexes and most aggressive teams are the winners.

When I first started playing I played every day as completing daily challenges gave you chances to unlock dragons. Now though, the team at Playwing have decided to require you to get a BattlePass in order to continue unlocking dragons and cosmetics. All of the dragons, at least for the current season appear to require the paid BattlePass to have a chance to earn, or spending actual money to purchase them from the shop. I understand the company needs to make a profit but when the game had six months of daily play working towards earning more dragons to then require spending money in order for players to continue getting what they were getting for free prior makes it feel more like a bait and switch. The gameplay is great but gets quite tedious after a little while.

Controls are smooth and visuals are stunning but the way they handled the changes between season 0 and 1 took a lot of the fun out of the game. For those that don’t mind spending a little money will enjoy the game but Free to Play players like myself will get bored and quit before long, unless you have a ton of patience.

Formerly a “Games With Gold” title, is Mulaka worth your time and effort?

Mulaka is loosely based on the Tarahumara, an indigenous people found in New Mexico and a portion of the proceeds for the game go to help fund preservation projects to safeguard this legacy. Lienzo developed this game specifically to showcase the culture and locales of these people. You play a shaman that must defeat evil monsters pulled from the area’s mythology. As the game progresses you pull on powers of demigods pulled from the same mythology to make your shaman stronger in order to rid the world of evil.

The combat is surprisingly fluid as you mimic this race of extremely agile people. Visually the game looks like a neon skinned Prince of Persia from the Xbox 360. The story is a fresh change of pace in that it is mostly told visually without an overabundance of text. Controls are easy to learn without feeling simplistic. Overall I found the game to be surprisingly good. Most games that were offered from Games with Gold are ones I would consider throwaway titles that I would not play more than once but Mulaka pulled me back in on multiple counts.

Music Racer Ultimate is a racing game about music and enjoying the drive, despite the random obstacles and some absurd vehicles.

Sometimes You has ported over another title for the current generation of consoles and this time they set their sights on Music Racer Ultimate. The focus of the game is to enjoy the drive while enjoying the music you’ve selected. Each map is modified based on the choices you’ve selected between song, gameplay style and the course theme itself. As you drive you need to collect little white bricks, they look like frets on a guitar, and doing so earns you points. These points are then spent on new vehicles and tracks and each of those unlocks nets you an achievement (on Xbox).

With most rhythm games I have a tendency to panic and hit the wrong button as notes appear but with Music Racer Ultimate it is much easier. Unlike other rhythm titles where you are penalized for missing notes in MRU you are only penalized if you crash into an obstacle. For achievement hunters this game is quite easy but time consuming to achieve the perfect Gamerscore. The easiest way to grind this out is to choose the vehicle of your choice, the track of your choice and set the mode to Zen. Doing this removes all obstacles which means double points at the end of the map and you can literally just leave your car in a single lane to collect points and do something else at the same time!

My biggest complaint about the game is the music options. You are limited only to the titles that came with the game and none of them I have heard prior to playing the game. The first song in the list seems to consistently get the most points without having to move the vehicle at all. If you are after the three star achievement I suggest doing what I suggested but on the Retro map as it is the easiest to see where the notes are ahead to capture more of them in a single turn without much effort. Overall I found the game to be enjoyable but a bit tedious with having to grind what feels like close to a million points to unlock everything.

35mm is a survival horror game centered around two travelers and taking photographs in a Post-Apocalyptic Russia.

Sometimes You has ported over Sergey Noskov’s game 35mm to the current generation of consoles. The world has been ravaged by an epidemic that crippled most of the infrastructure throughout and the timing of this rerelease feels almost prophetic considering we are still coping with our own global pandemic these days. As you and your partner navigate the new landscape you will find abandoned settlements, homes, cities and will need to escape the dangers of this new world, the first of which is a massive bear.

At nearly any point you can pause time and use your trusty 35mm camera and the mechanics of which feel incredibly accurate. You can adjust the focal length, depth of field and exposure, all to make sure you capture the perfect vision of your target. The story is mostly delivered through discussion with your companion and he walks incredibly slow. The plus side is you can still hear the conversation as the companion continues the defined path while you explore the surrounding area. The ambiance in the woods can be a bit off-putting as everything is a bit muted and some parts seem completely void of life.

Going into the game I had no idea this was a survival horror title but when I stumbled on an abandoned cabin I learned quickly. There weren’t grotesque scenes of butchered bodies or anything like that but something about it was extremely eerie. Overall pacing of the game is quite slow but it left me with feelings of anxiety and trepidation as I explored, realizing quickly that the wrong turn or the wrong step could be my last. Once you outrun the bear, or fail to a couple times like I did, you learn to be more cautious pretty early. For survival horror fans I can honestly say this game is worth picking up even though the graphics have not been updated for newer consoles.

Jax returns to protect Magalan from a new threat in THQ Nordic’s Elex II.

In Elex II you play as Jax, the hero of the first Elex title and the savior of Magalan. A new threat has fallen to the planet and it will take all of the factions working together to survive. Obviously Jax is needed to unite them all but doing so is easier said than done.

Visually the game looks like it is on par with the previous generation of consoles for the gameplay, however the trailer and some of the cinematics have some stunning effects. Controls felt rather intuitive, even when adding jump jets that allow you to reach greater heights when jumping. The game’s story felt slow and failed to engage me early on, even when forcing myself to push further I couldn’t find a reason to get interested in it. The early foes are more or less feral creatures you will have to face but don’t get cocky. That’s what I did and found myself surrounded by them and killed easily.

Overall gameplay felt uninspired and failed to keep my interest beyond the minimum time I had allotted to play the game prior to writing my review. A big reason for that is behind the stamina mechanics, simply they are broken. Recharging the stamina is slow to the point of frustration and your attacks simply use too much of it. This leads to a combat system that makes you want to shut the game off early into your journey.

PowerSlave returns to current Gen consoles with PowerSlave Exhumed from Nightdive Studios.

PowerSlave Exhumed has made it’s way to the current generation of consoles from Nightdive Studios and combines all of the content from both the Playstation and Dreamcast versions of the original release. Players take on the role of a covert specialist sent to investigate a recently sealed Egyptian city. While being trained for any manner of event you are still somehow not prepared for what awaits you within the sealed city of Karnak.

Graphically it is on par with the original Doom game with similar mechanics. Controls are reminiscent or the classic title as well. Compared to the original version of the game though I can’t say how it compares as I never played either edition on the older consoles. Where Doom sucked you into the world with it’s dynamic sounds and music, PowerSlave failed to keep my attention in the same way.

The story felt a little forced, like it was included as necessity and not part of the actual experience. The game felt more like it was made just to check the boxes that Doom created in order to capitalize on that market. If you are looking for a game that looks and feels like it was intended to be a Doom clone without the ambiance or story then look no further.

Who doesn’t love a good “who done it” story? Lacuna brings that to a retro 2D platform and is the first release from DigiTales Interactive.

DigiTales Interactive is an indie developer that first released Lacuna directly to Steam and later to consoles and we had a chance to try it out. A few acts of terror threaten this dystopian world where things aren’t as perfect as they first appear. These acts sow the seeds of chaos and risk setting the universe in flames. This slippery slope begins with the death of a diplomat who was actively working to broker peace with your own nation and it is YOUR job to investigate the who, what, where, when (not so much this one) and why.

The game itself feels similar to those “Choose your own adventure” books where your actions and choices determine the outcome of the story. Graphically it looks and feels like some of the old 16 bit games from my youth and the gameplay very much solidifies this feeling. This was one of those titles that checks a lot of the boxes I look for in an entirely new experience but failed to hold my attention even with the promise of more action to come, many of the puzzles and investigation elements just felt tedious.

Our friends at Iceberg Interactive shared their remastered Eldritch horror title Transient for the Xbox One.

Iceberg Interactive updated their classic title, Transient, for the current generation of consoles with the Extended Edition. The game begins in the distant future, the world was nearly ended and a scientific effort strives to carry the world through the fallout. You wake up in a facility with a weird skull mask on your head and start on your adventure. With the music and the overall ambiance the game is very much meant to be a horror title but as you explore the world this adventure honestly feels mores like the game was more of a game of exploration.

The game is extremely linear but is full of puzzles to keep things interesting. Best part of these puzzles is that they feel organic, none that I have experienced so far felt forced. Any game that brings in inspiration from HP Lovecraft is worth a try in my book but when you add in a gorgeous world and engaging story and you have a game that is worth playing until the end.

Gravitar is the latest Atari title to receive the Recharged treatment for the current generation of consoles.

The last time I had even heard of Gravitar was in the days when Atari gaming was in its prime. Playing it then I never got very far but my dad had the patience and skill to pilot the ship to victory. Fast forward a couple decades and not much has changed on my end with this Next Gen release.

In both iterations of the game you play a lone pilot trying to get home. While the controller themselves are entirely different the experience feels very much the same. A little too much acceleration when pointing the wrong direction can spell certain doom for this pilot. Each map is a new solar system where you must complete various challenges before being able to move on to the next solar system via a massive black hole. The question remains, will I ever bring this pilot home? For the now the answer is easy, its not going to happen. I al simply too heavy handed when it comes to a game that requires so much finesse and because of that I have yet to complete the first system. Despite my many, many failures I found the game to be challenging but enjoyable.