Chalgyr's Game Room
HomepageChalgyr's Game Room's Reviews
Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition is a relaxing, atmospheric adventure title that benefits from a gorgeous visual style and musical score. In terms of content and gameplay, it doesn’t offer up a lot of depth, but what is here provides a worthwhile distraction for those looking for a slightly slower paced adventure game.
If you’re able to get past the more irksome gameplay aspects, and have the patience and fortitude to uncover the house’s dark secrets, Visage will reward you with a gaming experience that will have you going to bed with the lights on after playing. All you have to do then is hope something isn’t lurking nearby, waiting to turn them off.
The gameplay loop here is going to be hit or miss, based on your fondness of the roguelike genre. I enjoyed the combat enough that I kept coming back to Star Renegades over and over again, but the repetition might not be for everyone. Unlocking new characters and improving my team incrementally was just enough of a dangling carrot that I never felt crushed by watching my dimension lose time and time again. It helps that the RPG/Strategy hybrid genre is one of my favorites, and Star Renegades is a fine addition to it.
Equal parts disgusting, horrifying, tragic, and downright beautiful, Morbid paints an unforgettable picture of Lovecraftian and Cronenbergian madness come to life.
Chronos: Before the Ashes will draw comparisons to the Souls series, but its unique aging concept Is one area where it stands out. Unfortunately there are other areas such as combat, where the comparison is less favorable. It doesn’t quite measure up to its successor, Remnant: Before the Ashes – but the connected plot points were certainly welcome.
Overall it has some good new ideas and does a good job of making the show into a video game. With only a few things that I think could have been better like being able to skip over some parts and having a better host, it is a decent game. I enjoyed playing this with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday and it could be a very fun party game once COVID is taken care of.
Overall though, The Falconeer kept me coming back for more as it has both a relaxing and an intenseness through its combat that just hits a sweet spot. While I wish there was more to do in the world than simply accept missions and find points of interest to update on a map, the flight combat was a lot of fun to get into even if it often meant that I was getting shot down by pirates as I both learned the world and got my bird better equipped for the battles ahead.
Overall, Mad Rat Dead is the probably the best, as well as only, "Rhythm Platformer" that I'm aware of. It has a kickin' sound track, the gameplay is smooth, the graphics are clean and crisp, and the storyline is strangely endearing. Yeah, Mad Rat Dead may be one of the single weirdest genre mashups I've seen since I played a freeware puzzle/fighting game (that one didn't go over so well), but hey, apparently NIS know was they're doing, cuz this weird genre chimera turned out not discordant, but rocking in style. If you're in the groove for a rhythm game, or just are interested in jamming with a new platformer style, Mad Rat Dead certainly can't be beat.
New Review: Warhammer: Chaosbane – Slayer Edition – PS5 Review https://chalgyr.com/2020/11/review-ps5-warhammer-chaosbane.html November 30, 2020 Otherwise, Eko Software and Nacon's Warhammer Chaosbane - Slayer Edition is still a decent Hack & Slash and it runs fairly well on the PS5 though there were a few crashes here and there in the Fourth Act. Now with six characters for up to four players to dive in together, this is a perfect game if you’ve been looking for an alternative to the other Hack & Slashes that may be between “seasoned” content. ---- Original Review: Warhammer Chaosbane – PC Review https://chalgyr.com/2019/06/review-pc-warhammer-chaosbane.html June 12, 2020 All in all, Warhammer Chaosbane is a fun title that is both enjoyable to play alone or with a few friends. While it won’t be winning any awards for treading on unexplored ground, it’s both a solid experience and a tick in the right direction for the Warhammer series that seem to have one good title in every dozen. Well done!
I had a great time with Rekt! High Octane Stunts. It isn't highly intensive or elitist and allows for a relaxing experience. There's only competition between you and your own high score. Even though I found the game to be lacking in customization and level arenas, I give this title a solid 7 out of 10.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back is a great addition to a classic arcade style game that challenges your thinking and your reflexes at the same time. It has that bite-sized, addictive “one more stage” quality with a sizeable amount of content to boot. It certainly works better as a multiplayer game than a single and can provide lots of chaotic good times with the right group playing it. The core concept is relatively simple, but it is a challenge to master.
Overall, Scourgebringer is a wonderful addition to the world of rogue lite games. It has a wonderful fast-paced feeling to it that makes those who want more action to take it speedier, while you still have the option to slow down if needed. The upgrade system is lenient enough that you don't feel like you aren't making any progress, and each individual room that makes up the sprawling labyrinth of kill boxes is reasonably constructed so as to not screw you over while still making clearing the room challenging. Scourgebringer is a great choice for anyone looking for a little bit of fast paced action, or a nice helping of pain that isn't quite absusive like Dead Cells or Dark Souls.
So while Battle Hunters is a mechanically sound real-time strategy dungeon crawler with loads of traditional Dungeons & Dragons character types (and not so traditional space marines) to fight off hordes of monsters, that’s about all it is. With a singular quest in mind, there isn’t much to do other than move from one fight onto the next with nothing else to do in the meantime. It’s good at what it does but I wish there had been more to do with the world and the characters themselves.
Observer: System Redux is a welcome update. At first I questioned why we were getting it so soon after the initial game’s release only a few years ago, but those concerns abated rather quickly. Small quality of life improvements to the gameplay make the experience less frustrating this time around, the additional missions are well-done and welcome additions and enough cannot be said about how much better the visuals look this time around. As someone who enjoyed the game when it first released, I did not regret my second time with it here. If you missed Observer three years ago and dig cyberpunk themes, you really do need to check this title out.
New Review: NBA 2K21 – PS5 Review https://chalgyr.com/2020/11/review-ps5-nba2k21.html November 20, 2020 NBA 2K21 is generally a great way to usher in the new generation of consoles. The visuals and The City are a big step in the right direction. Some lessons were learned from the earlier release of NBA 2K21 on the last-gen consoles, and that made this a much smoother release experience. That being said, I still can’t shake the feeling I got during my initial review of this title on Xbox One a couple of months ago, that the development team was spread thin between prepping this title for two platforms and the release issues that I’ve encountered only reinforce that issue. Basketball fans will find lots to like here, even though there are some rough patches to be worked out. ---- Original Review: NBA 2K21 – XB1 Review https://chalgyr.com/2020/09/review-xb1-nba-2k21.html September 11, 2020 In all, NBA 2k21 is still the best sports experience on the market. That being said, this feels like a strange year for the series, given the pandemic, altered real life NBA season and split attention between two generations of console. There were few significant changes made, but almost all of those updates were for the better – except arguably the most important one. To change such a core mechanic as shooting so fundamentally is going to be polarizing and while I have been growing used to how it works, I think more tweaks need to be made to finetune the experience. It’s been a strange year and NBA 2k21 reflects that in a lot of ways. All things considered however, NBA 2K20 was easily my most played video game over the last year and I suspect that will be the case for my upcoming year and NBA 2K21.
Who wants to be a millionaire although fun in short bursts it just doesn't seem to be worth the price of the game at $29.99 for a physical copy of the game. There just isn't enough there and some things are done so badly like the voiceover and having to skip over most of the game due to the lines the characters say being so dumb. It's more fun just to play along while watching the real show on TV. We will have to wait and see if the one vs 99 online modes will be any good but my guess is most games won't even reach 100 players. One of the only things they got right was music. It's all from the tv show and plays at the right times as it should.
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues is a pretty average overall all beat-‘em-up game with lackluster presentation that gets an assist from varied characters, a split narrative that encourages replay and a solid sense of RPG-lite progression kept me going longer than I probably would have otherwise. There’s a decent brawler here that fans of the Karate Kid property will probably enjoy, but I do hope a future patch can smooth out some of those rough edges in the core combat.
So overall, I don’t think Liftoff Drone Racing will be for everyone but I do think that those that it was designed for will enjoy it. With plenty to enjoy from customizing your drones to flying them either casually or with your name on the line, there’s plenty of different ways to fly these fast and versatile machines at insane speeds.
In summary, Disc Room is a great title that really brings the "timed survival" reminiscent of some more classic games back to life. With colorful environments, interesting region design, many different types of discs to avoid, and some neat abilities to change up your play style, Disc Room certainly provides a solid experience. With added gameplay value in the form of extra challenge rooms and hard mode, there is a great deal in terms of content for what you pay for. As a switch title, I definitely appreciated how you can pick up a room or two at a time for only a few minutes between doing chores, or waiting for the laundry, or while on public transit. It's fun and simple, and that's exactly what it needs to be.
Black Desert: Prestige Edition is a gorgeous MMO – arguably the prettiest one out there. The sweeping landscapes and detailed character creation show off the game’s visuals wonderfully. The primary narrative may be a bit underwhelming at times, but there is a lot to do – even if most of it has been done in other MMOs in the past. Still, the virtual crafting and fishing life is quite enjoyable here, and character progression kept me engaged. MMOs on a console can be a bit tricky at times, but the UI is handled quite well with a controller and the action-oriented combat is well-served by the controller interface. MMO fans should find plenty to enjoy here.