Tag Headup Games

Headup Games brings us Silver Chains, a survival horror game in the first person perspective but is it creepy enough?

In Silver Chains you play as Peter, a traveler who’s car has broken down, as he explores a dilapidated mansion in hopes of leaving. Of course your first steps into the house to search for help ends being rendered unconscious. You awake in a bedroom with no memory of how you got there. Now, I am far from understanding what is happening in this house and even further from finishing the story at the time of writing but I have an early prediction. That Peter grew up in this house and had escaped but after he died elsewhere the house has called him home (this prediction was written only 10-20 minutes into the story).

This game absolutely requires playing with the sound loud enough to draw you in, it is a critical part of setting the tone. The building itself is wonderfully crafted in completes the atmospheric package. The different rooms you get into have a ton of detail between peeling paint, doll parts hanging from the ceiling and doors filled with cracked wood. The game is full of tense moments that are not helped by the monster chasing you. I feel like I spent more time hiding in wardrobes more than actually exploring and it seriously had me on edge. For anyone that enjoys a good horror title this will be a great addition to your library.

Cardaclysm is linear RPG full of random maps, encounters and a specific order of bosses you will face. Can you make it to the realm of death?

Cardaclysm from Headup Games is an dungeon crawling roleplaying game where every map is randomly generated, enemies are pulled from a limited pool based on which boss tier you are facing and a book magic made to fit any play style. Players take on the role of a wizard where every fight adds a new card to your deck of monsters and spells. You also collect gold and orbs to determine how many and which of your cards you can play in a fight. As each card is played you will either summon a creature, monster or warrior to fight on your behalf or unleash an ability like poison arrows or fireballs. At most you can hold onto only four cards in your hand but with a properly assembled deck that won’t matter.

The game lets you know when it sees you are strong enough to face one of the bosses but does not force you to face them until you decide to, or if you aren’t paying attention. When the last foe is defeated in a map the boss is summoned and will chase you until you get to the exit or if you take a wrong turn and it catches up with you. Because of the way you build your deck, one card earned per battle, the game can be a bit grindy.

Playing the game I have now spent close to fifteen hours grinding and building my deck and points, now I learned from one costly mistake in that process. If you close the game and shut down your system for the night immediately you risk corrupting your save file, which happened to me about twelve hours into my journey. I learned (this was confirmed with my contact at Headup Games) that the game after being closed saves and updates where you were at in the game while on the Xbox home screen. You must wait at least 5 minutes before shutting the system down to avoid this happening to you. Despite this minor setup I have found the game quite enjoyable and am left with only one complaint- the gamer score choices. Nearly every game that has achievements uses a score that is divisible by five. With Cardaclysm there are a few that have odd scores, ending in two, seven, and and four. I know for some it’s just a number but for me I need my final score to still be divisible by five which means even if I didn’t enjoy this game I would need to play it to completion. Thankfully the game is quite a bit of fun and continuing this grind is not a negative thing.

Aerial_Knight and Headup Games brings us the endless running action game Never Yield and it is crazy addicting!

Most endless runner games throw random obstacles at you that you use one of a couple methods to avoid and will literally go on, forever. With Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield the formula is changed, it actually has an end. Simply put it just looks and feels like an endless runner. The bulk of the story is told through quick glimpses of action but no dialogue, no trailing prologue like in a Star Wars film, everything is centered around the action. 

The stylized characters look like something you would expect to see in Back to the Future’s version of the future but full of weapon-wielding drones and vehicles looking to run you over. Without quick reflexes expect to die, often, but with each death you see a continue screen where you’re given the choice between “Never Yield” or giving up, along with a death counter for the particular run. With enough skill you can complete the story in a single sitting within a couple hours tops, my reactive skills were not on point and it took me about five total hours to complete the story. I found the game to be fun, despite the frequent deaths and well worth playing through more than once.

Have you ever wanted to build a bridge AND kill zombies at the same time? With Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead you can!

Merging Headup’s series of Bridge Constructor titles and AMC’s The Walking Dead, players must help fan favorite characters reach the other side while keeping them alive. The Bridge Constructor games have been full of innovations including a partnership with the Portal franchise. The concept is rather simple, you have a gap of some sort and a vehicle or people need to cross. Queue the builder, that means you, builds a bridge of some sort.

Each stage has a resource limit to reach but is not required to finish the level. With The Walking Dead version of the franchise you must also kill the occasional zombie. Each stage shows a broken building or ravine to cross, many of which include zombies trying to eat characters like Eugene Porter and fan favorite Daryl Dixon. Characters like Daryl will aggressively remove zombie threats while others will use their brains to out think the walkers.

Like the other Bridge Constructor titles this game is quite enjoyable but at the same time absolutely maddening. Some stages I simply lack the imagination needed to build my bridge effectively enough to complete the level while using less than the resource limit. I love this game despite my skill though.