Omegabot isn’t a bad game by any means, and proudly wears its inspiration on its sleeve, in a world where you have to be unique to stand out it stands in the middle of the pack, not great, but not at all terrible, but worth a shot if you are having Mega Man withdrawals. (thanks a lot Capcom)
I was excited going into Valkyrie Elysium because of what I had heard about the series. While after my time with it that excitement certainly has dulled, not because of the combat but just because everything around it just kind of felt ‘meh’. If the world was more populated or at the very least more interesting there would be much more here to really sink one’s teeth into, as it stands once players are done doing Odin’s bidding they will find little reason to return in my opinion.
I enjoyed playing Extinction, even with the randoms who were just trying to be agents of Chaos. But I don’t think I would spend a lot of time with it, these days with so many great games as choices it has become harder and harder to want to comment to one that requires a large amount of grinding. And that is what Extraction would require, as players need to level up to unlock gear, weapons and even levels. Unless it’s telling me an epic story like God of War, Persona or Halo Infinite anymore I just wanna get in, have some fun and get out. Which you can do with Extraction, again with the right group of friends. Other than that, with difficulty spikes as a solo player, and the unstable randos players will be bound to run into online, I don’t see this being much more…which is a shame because Rainbow deserves better. Pray for Sam Fisher.
BloodRayne 2: Revamped is a guilty pleasure game, it’s a lot of fun to toss enemies into death traps around the levels with her chain, or even go full on blender mode and dice up everything that moves. While I think that Big Boat Interactive did a fantastic job of making the game prettier, alas they did nothing for the controls which is a crying shame. While I am beyond excited that a new generation can finally experience Rayne’s journey on the new systems; I remain extremely hopeful that this means we will see a proper sequel made from the ground up sooner rather than later.
I didn’t hate King’s Bounty II; I loved the combat system. The hex design and the battlefields are all highlights. However, the things that can be done in-between those fights is where the majority of the player’s time will be spent. And it as much as I usually enjoy exploring RPG’s, there was no joy in navigating the overworld in King’s Bounty II due to the ridiculously slow movement speed. Those that are fans of the franchise will no doubt find much to love here with the fun combat and varied units and even decent main story.
Coming off of what was a year in Early Access on PC I had high hopes that most if not all of these things wouldn’t be an issue. But the team can correct these things with some patches, and hopefully that is what they are going to do because its going to be a shame to let this universe languish and go to waste because the potential is definitely there for greatness.
Phantom Abyss can be a run roguelite with its free-running, puzzle solving, and trap avoiding adventures. But throw in the phantoms of real-world players who act as a guide of what to do and not do through these temples takes things to another level. Mileage can vary though as a lot of the puzzles, temples and traps are reused and thus can make the game start to drag on and feel repetitive. Being in early access for so many years though there is quite a lot of content here that players can dig through before fatigue will set in. And with all the talk about Indiana Jones lately, why not start practicing your whip skills.
Overall, I felt like Troublemaker is a solid but janky beat-em up. The atmosphere, presentation and story are all really well done, feeling like a Karate Kid type spin-off. It has its moments of over-the-top craziness but at its core tells a nice ‘slice of life’ story about an area of the world that I have never been. And if you were to tell me that this was an accurate depiction of Indonesia I would 100% believe you. Well minus the child fighting tournament that is school sanctioned of course.
There is fun to be had in Gangs of Sherwood but it is really only found playing multiplayer either with friends or strangers. Not only does this make each act not feel as long, since there will be more people to pummel enemies but when players fall in combat it is better to have a friend pick you up than lose half your gold that you need to upgrade your character’s attributes. The entire game just feels like a mix-mash of ideas and things and while some things work, others are done better in other games.
I wanted to love Hellboy: Web of Wyrd as a lover of beat-em up games but more so as a HUGE comic book fan, sadly the game just fell short in a few too many areas. As I said the art style is just beautiful to look at, I cannot understate how amazing it looks but once you start moving and the weird frame trick issues pops up everything just comes apart for me. Lance Reddick made for a fun, threatening, caring, funny, thoughtful portrayal of Hellboy, and whether that is attributed to Mignola’s writing or his own talent it was a fantastic take on the character. It’s just so upsetting that the rest of the game was not as strong as the narrative.
Gloomhaven was a tough one to review not because the game itself is bad, despite feeling clunky to navigate using a controller; no, it’s just after playing for many hours I realized that it’s just not for me. Its systems are deep and allow some great tactical plays to happen. The game allows for players to enjoy with four of their friends but much to my chagrin it doesn’t have a quickmatch function; so sadly, I was playing solo. I think with friends this would be more fun, just like playing a session of D&D is more of a blast with friends. I would recommend this version for those like me who were intrigued with the board game but just know that Gloomhaven is not for the timid.
Players won’t find combat in Lifeless Moon, instead this game is made for fans of classic sci-fi, the stuff from Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone, the kind of sci-fi that makes you think about it after you turn it off. And for all those reasons I really enjoyed this game, while I did find it overly easy at times moving through the world and the various biomes and figuring out its story was the real payoff, and if you like that type of sci-fi then you should check this one out before you get lost in Starfield.
So much about this game is questionable, from the backwards ass way the narrative is presented to just having one mode available at launch to the inclusion of a battle pass. I don’t get it one bit, but Exoprimal is on Game Pass and I encourage you to check it out because there is fun to be had, but your mileage will definitely vary on how much you have that’s for sure.
Aside from the giggles I get every time I have to say Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed my time with it. Not usually a fan of the shmups but the charming graphics and many sausage puns won me over on this one. It’s not a perfect game but if you enjoy Sausages and the technology they can create, then I’d recommend Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story.
Spellforce 3: Reforced ends up feeling, well forced more than anything. While I enjoyed the campaign due to the heroes’ personalities more than anything else, the struggle with the controls just really soured the experience for me. Having to fight to get a good angle in which to target enemies or pressing buttons for dear life while moving the camera trying to find the “sweet spot” where the enemy is targetable just sucked a lot of the fun out of the game for me. Graphically speaking, Spellforce is just middle of the road. Not an ugly game, but not at the level of graphics that we are seeing at this point in the next gen cycle; but this is a remaster of a game that came out in 2017 so there is that. All in all this sums up my Spellforce 3: Reforced experience; come for the excellent written and performed heroes (Doug Cockle of Witcher fame is one of the first you meet) as they journey across the land but stay for the sheer fun of Journey mode, where you can write your own story.
While I am glad to see MechWarrior make a return; its just not the one I’ve been waiting for. While the latest expansion Legend of the Kestrel Lancers adds new mechs, biomes and a linear story missions its still more of the same, so if one doesn’t like the base game…. Then the expansion isn’t going to do much to change that.
Whatever side of the line you land on, the constant will be that Ultra Age is a lot of fun to play. While its systems might not be deep; the enjoyment of juggling combos/blades and enemies is worth the 7 hour length.
If you aren’t a huge fan of the films but can get past the egregious decision to only include a sparse amount of playable modes and endure the grind to unlock the other fighters; then Big Rumble Boxing can be a solid and fun fighting game to play.
If this review reads odd, I apologize; I always try to be real with y’all so I want to be upfront about the state of things with Helldivers 2. Yep, it sucks we can’t play right now due to stressed servers, the good thing is that the game is obviously hot but the bad is that it could lose the player base if this isn’t fixed quickly. Y’all know me, I am an optimist, I have high hopes for Skull & Bones and I am sure that Sony will step in and get this resolved and we can all get back to fighting for freedom and democracy together. But in the meantime, if you don’t mind maybe not being able to play when you want, or having random crashes and missing rewards then dive into Helldivers 2. These are all growing pains and can be resolved, at the end of the day this game is blast, made more so when you are playing with friends which is evident if you watch any of our gameplay videos. If you all pick this up and happen to be teamed with ZeroTolerance, just watch ya back because he is all about completing the mission, teammates be damned. LOL.
With a full explorable River City, a story with multiple endings and the surprise Double Dragon fighting game; there is a lot on offer in Rivals Showdown. Unfortunately, it’s held back by an overly repetitive soundtrack which will start to grate on one’s nerves, and some very uneven combat until the late game. These games are usually good for some fun beat-em up action but it takes so long for this entry to hit its stride with the combat that by the end I was just running on auto pilot. I think there is a lot here for fans to discover but this isn’t going to bring in any new fans, especially when the last two entries in the River City Saga were much better.