The Partisan Spy's Reviews
You are alone, in an endless freezing night and THINGS ARE HUNTING YOU. To get out of this place you need to complete missions, collect materials, craft upgrades and fight for your life! Expedition Zero is a scary, horror first-person shooter game that will make you play on the tips of your toes, and being alert won’t save you from getting scared. Game mechanics, HUD, UI, Story… Every element of the game is SIMPLE AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND, with one exception… How to fight those freaking things that don’t stop screaming! Besides that, there are some bugs in the game that will hopefully be fixed before it is released.
The Gunk is an action-adventure game about fixing what’s broken. Combat is present in the game, but in a small portion when compared to its adventure. You will explore, clean areas, scan things and solve mini-puzzles to progress in the game. The story, music, and game design set a meditative and relaxing tone to the gameplay experience. With 8 levels, 54 collectibles, and 16 upgrades, some may consider The Gunk to be an EASY GAME TO BEAT. It is definitely A SHORT GAME AND SUPER ACCESSIBLE, you can play it with just U$1.00 by signing up for the Xbox Game Pass.
You are a 6 months old sugar glider living an adventure in a post-apocalyptic world. Run, climb, hide, fight, glide… You will have to do everything to survive being mid of the food chain. AWAY has 2 game modes: STORY and EXPLORATION. While on Story mode there is a chain of quests to complete, on Exploration mode, you fly around possessing different creatures and exploring the map. There is a clear effort to make players feel they are in a National Geographic nature documentary. The music, narrator, and written script resemble something you would watch on the TV. But, the CONSTANT BUGS, glitches, and performances issues won’t let you “transcend” from the state of “this is just a game”.
Lost in Random (LR) is a blend of things. It blends a fairy tale into a game. As the game is played, a narrator tells us the story of Even and Dicey, a magical dice, to save her sister from an evil Queen. It blends game genres as you may have never seen. The combat system is a mixture of ACTION and CARD AND BOARD. When fighting enemies, it feels like being in an action game and when building a deck or using cards, it feels like playing a card and board game. Combat can be divided into 3 stages: collect crystals, throw Dicey to pick cards, and fight with the powers cards give you. As hard as can be to explain, it is really easy to understand while playing and you will have 7 game levels and various side missions to get good at it.
Nakara: Bladepoint (NB) is a TRADITIONAL BATTLE ROYALE (BR) as the most popular ones we got out there. You always drop on the same shrinking map, collect gear, weapons, and supplies of different levels and fight your way to be the last standing. What makes NB different is the MELEE COMBAT AND MOBILITY. Instead of shooting people down, you will be slashing and piercing them up. From a pool of heroes, you pick the one with the abilities that best suit your gameplay style and fight for victory on solos or trios matches. But don’t be fooled, NB’s combat is not just about mashing the buttons; timing, combos, and knowing how to move are essential to climbing up the ranks.
Biomuntant is an action adventure game with complete RPG character customization. THE GAME STARTS IN AN EXTREMELY SLOW RHYTHM, the first hours are dedicated to its storytelling and tutorial. After that, you will fight, travel and loot to complete a variety of different quests to save what’s left of the world. Like most open-world games, there is a bunch of things to do, but what most stand-out about the gameplay is HOW EASY BIOMUTANT IS. Almost every combat can be won by kiting enemies around. Puzzles are so simple that can become repetitive for some players. All bosses can be easily beaten on the first or second try. THE LACK OF CHALLENGE can influence how deep you go into the RPG portion of the game. As things “run so smoothly” the need to build, optimize and learn how to better play your character becomes secondary. This doesn’t mean the game can’t be fun to play. Just be sure that you are the kind of player that enjoys exploring, collecting things, and completing lists of objectives.
Hood: Outlaw & Legends (Hood) is a team-based third-person shooter game in which two teams of 4 outlaws compete to be the first to extract the chest. NPCs are responsible for protecting the chest, you can sneak around them or fight your way in. TO EXTRACT THE CHEST you got to do 4 things: steal the vault key, open the vault, carry the chest to an extraction point, and winch! Between those simple tasks, there will be a lot of blood spilling, arrows flying, and alarms. Find the outlaw that best fits your gameplay style and level him up to unlock perks, weapons, and clothing. No need to say, teamwork and good communication are crucial for victory. BIG DISCLAIMER: Hood feels more like an Early Access game than a full release. It has only 4 outlaws to pick from, 1 game mode, some crazy bugs, and no ranking system, something essential to any multiplayer competitive game. As it has been marketed as a full-release game, it would be smart to set your expectations to an Early Access version instead.
Quantum League (QL) is a 1v1 and 2v2 shooter arena with a twist: TIME LOOP. Every ranked match has 3 rounds and each round has 3 loops. What you do in the first loop will automatically repeat itself in the next 2 loops. So if you get killed in the first loop, you can change the outcome on the second or third loop. In other words, at the end of every round, there will be 3 of you at the arena, one that you control and 2 repeating what you’ve done previously. Who wins 3 rounds first, wins the match. To be successful on QL you need to master 3 main skills: SHOOTING, STRATEGY THINKING, and BUNNY HOPPING.
Little Nightmares 2 is a spooky puzzle adventure game. The sound and graphics build an apprehensive atmosphere and GETTING SCARED is a possibility that’s always there. You play as Mono and have an AI friend called Six. Together, you will solve puzzles, escape from morbid creatures, kill some of them, and for completionist gamers, there are hats, souls, and achievements to collect. Puzzles’ difficulty varies from easy to hard, to beat the game you need to complete all 5 chapters of the story. To have the best gameplay experience, HEADPHONES ARE A MUST to fully immerse in that dark world.
You play Super Meat Boy Forever (SMBF) with 2 buttons: jump + punch, and slide. That’s it. But don’t be mistaken, SIMPLE DOESN’T MEAN EASY. The sequel can be considered even harder than the first game of the series. The biggest change is that SMBF is an AUTO-RUNNER, in other words, Meat Boy runs non-stop. To keep him alive, timing and precision are key. There are 6 chapters, dozens of levels, all multiplied by 2. Levels replayability is a huge factor for those who aim to complete 100% of the game. To have fun playing SMBF you need to be open to the “repeat till perfectly done” gameplay style.
The hype CD Projekt RED built around CP2077 is proportional to the gaming community deception. We would be fine and supportive if THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STATE of the game was told. 8 years of waiting, no one left. 3 major release delays, no one left. Multiplayer being pushed to 2021, no one left. The choice of not setting expectations right makes CP2077 one of the MOST FRUSTRATING GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCES a player can have.
Compete with 60 other players in 3 to 5 random mini-game rounds. At every round, players are eliminated and ONLY THE LAST ONE STANDING wins the crown. There are 25 different kinds of rounds, most of them you will compete against all players and some are team-based. With 3 buttons (jump, dive, and grab) you will race, dodge, chase, use logic, push and grab to qualify for the next round. RNG plays a huge role in the game and TO HAVE FUN WHILE PLAYING FALL GUYS be open to laughing about everything, even when you are the loser.
Desperados III is a COMBAT PUZZLE SOLVER played from an isometric perspective. In other words, you see everything from above and can freely angle around your view. The game has 16 missions, 5 different characters, each one with their own set of abilities, and a lot of enemies to kill without being seen. This is not a game to go mayhem with guns and knives blazing. YOU WILL THINK BEFORE YOU ACT. Identify enemy patterns, calculate timings, analyze environments, learn characters’ strengths... You will be constantly juggling these variables to complete the missions’ objectives. Think of yourself as a coach in the sidelines of the action. But, you have players that will do exactly what you ask. You find fun on Desperados III not by shooting bullets, but by setting the conditions of how, when, and where they will be shot.
Waking is a gamified SELF-REFLECTION EXERCISE, that has 2 big parts: gameplay and meditation. Being the main character of the story, you will fight your way out of a coma by killing mobs and rebuilding memories. You will run, pick-up objects, aim, shoot, and continuously select different spells to fight. As objectives are completed, a voice asks you to CLOSE YOUR EYES and invites you to travel deeply into YOUR PERSONAL MEMORIES. Waking is not a traditional action-adventure gaming experience. To experience the game as it is meant to be you need to be opened to a self-reflection experience.
Disintegration is a shooting game with some RTS gameplay mechanics. It has 12 campaign missions and 3 PVP game modes (5v5) with various cosmetics options. Most of the gameplay you will be shooting enemies, targeting crews' special attacks, and collecting loot boxes. You play as a GRAVCYCLE (flying hover motorcycle) PILOT that fights and commands a ground crew. The "FLYING" DEFINES a lot of the gameplay experience. It is required a good view distance to manage the crew, which reminds the viewing perspective of an RTS game. Being far away from combat, naturally makes it LESS INTENSE than an FPS game. And... as there is an FPS character and vehicle to control, crew mechanics can't be as complex as RTS games.
At Minecraft Dungeons you will fight, fight and fight. Get ready to SMASH THAT ONE BUTTON for hours to honor the hack-and-slash subgenre. Between the button smashing, there is also exploration and hero gearing. As you progress through the 9 missions of the game, your character will level up, find better gear, and unlock secret missions (5). The variety of weapons, armors, and artifacts allows the SETUP OF DIFFERENT BUILDS and gameplay styles. A game characteristic that can be better explored when playing at COOP mode. Remember that Minecraft Dungeons is INTENDED FOR KIDS, so the game is really SIMPLE AND EASY to feel in control after a couple of hours of gameplay.
Crucible is a shooter game released with 1 map, 3 PVP game modes, and 10 characters, called HUNTERS, to choose from, all with different stats, weapons, and skills. The main game mode, Heart of the Hives, is a shooter with MOBA gameplay mechanics. TEAMWORK and COMMUNICATION are essential to fully experience the potential and fun of this game. To be competitive and feel in control of the game, you will have to learn about all hunters and how the game modes works. There will be a lot of fights and action, but JUST KILLING ENEMIES WOULDN'T BRING VICTORY. Strategy and combat tactics play a big role in what team takes the win. As Crucible still doesn't have any in-game communication features, players are gathering up at its official Discord Channel.
Doom Eternal is FAITHFUL to its roots: guns, demons, violence, gore and an intense FPS gameplay. The game mechanics are set in a way that forces you to play in the RIP AND TEAR style. Shot, move around, swap weapons, use abilities, dash, final blows... You will do all that in every 30 seconds of combat. Playing Doom Eternal is not about standing still or finding cover to shoot at targets. The most effective way to get what you need to survive is by engaging aggressively and killing demons. Aside from all the action, there are 10 different items to explore and collect. 6 of them are related to weapons and character upgrades and the rest are lore and cosmetic items. All these items and currency points MAY LOOK COMPLEX to some but after a dozen hours of gameplay, it becomes easier to understand.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (OWW) will test your gaming skills on EXPLORATION, COMBAT and a bit of LOGIC. Run, jump and combo abilities in the air to reach new areas or to win fights and as game progress, you will find out that there is much more. There are dozens of things to do, quests, side quests, puzzles, time trials, base improvements, skills character customization, upgrades, collectibles... and all that is put together by a STORY WORTHY OF A FAIRY TALE. Unlike most games, death at OWW is not a punishment, the respawn usually happens really close putting you right back into the game. The game comes with 3 levels of difficulty: easy, normal and hard. The normal level is challenging and the hard level will make you suffer.
As most roguelike games, Skul: The Hero Slayer (Skul) was designed to be HARD. The objective is simple, beat all game levels without dying. Yes, you can beat the game in your first try, but you won't. YOU WILL DIE and start again from the beginning, not just once, but several times. RNG has a HUGE influence on the game. There is a big difference between items and skulls performance, so to beat the game you will need luck and skills. To have fun playing Skul, you need to accept the gameplay challenge and don't consider a reason for frustrations. Last but not least, controllers plays much better than keyboards.