Wow, it’s actually a metroidvania, and not yet another 2D-soulslike! With all-female cast, either nuns or witches.
There are some “souls” elements, like dodge and parry, and long telegraphs, and message after you beat a boss. But if you die – you just restart from the previous savepoint.
There’s experience, but it’s mostly just bumps stats a little. And there are coins, but you get them only when you find secrets, and you can only buy some spells with them.
Animations feel cheap. So the game look better on screenshots.
Category: PC Gaming
Об играх
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TIE Fighter
There are at least three versions of TIE Fighter available: original DOS version from ’94, Windows version from ’95 and a remake from ’98. Yes, they were doing remakes back in ’98.
The remake is a DirectX 9 game, has better graphics, but also interface is slightly more confusing due to CG that was popular at the time. ’94 game is more “pixel art”.
Also, remake puts boxes around your target, while the original makes your target blink yellow.
Remake doesn’t work without a joystick or a gamepad. Surprisingly, gamepad controls work very well. Maybe because the game was optimised for joysticks, and those are a bit similar.
Everything is very “hardcore”. Your TIE Fighter doesn’t fire indefinitely, unless you boost your weapon recharge power. And it doesn’t have a shield, so a few hits, and you’re done. Luckily, your enemies aren’t much sturdier. But at least they have shields.
Didn’t manage to complete even the first mission yet, and I’m not sure I will.
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Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
Completed Rebel Galaxy Outlaw.
I like the fact that ships are different, and not every more expensive ship is necessarily better. I liked hauler more than the military fighter, since those turrets can rip enemies to shreds pretty well, while still being able to sell tons of cargo at every port.
There are two annoying issues with the interface of the game. First, there’s no good indication of missile lock. But there’s no visual cue for that, unless you’re looking at the missile, which is usually not the case. And second, count of your own missiles is displayed on the same screen as enemy lock, and the coms are on the same screen as well. So when you lock on enemy, you loose missile count, and when you get a comm, you also loose track of your enemy shields. There’s so much space in the cabin they put a second screen there, but it is just the duplicate of the first one. Instead, the comms could be an overlay, like in many other space sims. But no, a single screen is all you’ve got.
Turns out that Juno’s husband wasn’t killed, just went into hiding, on Juno’s mother orders, Tatiana. She’s a pirate lady, and wants to divert the traderoutes, so her daughter would inherit a legitimate trading empire. Very kind of her. There’s an option to betray her to the police or team up with her.
It all ends up with a whimper, though. At one point, everyone is freaked out by Tatiana being able to teleport ships without a jumpgate, something no one knows how to do. But this is never explained. “Final battle” is just routing a bunch of police vessels. And then Juno tells her husband to fuck off, something very inconsequntal, since we’ve seen this dude for two cutscenes at best. And there’s no credit roll, nothing.
Looks like I completely missed the fact that Persona 5 is now also on PC.
And even better news, Persona 4 is planned for Switch in January as well. Dropped it on PS2, dropped it on PC, not I have a chance to drop it for the third time!
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Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
The game grew on me slightly. The story flows nicely, in a GTA-like fashion. To earn some money for our vendetta we pair with a local idiot that was asked to steal a package from his own brother.
The package is for a mafia boss, and it contains EMP missiles, that we use to teach police a lesson. Then a former friend turns up, and asks us to help break leader of their pirate gang out of the prison. Then the new gang leader, Durgan, tries to kill the old gangleader, that we help to break out. But we kill Durgan instead.
What I liked about the fight with Durgan, is that although there are two frigates, you only need to kill Durgan himself, and he pilots just fighter jet, although a though one. But once you kill him, others simply surrender.
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Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
The original Rebel Galaxy was about battleships, which I liked. Here we have space jets and dogfights, which I like less. Luckily, there’s auto targeting, that makes the fights slightly easier.
Signs of a serious space game: there are turrets on the ships.
Surprising that trading is actually a very viable option to get rich quickly. It’s actually easier to earn money as a trader, than by shooting pirates.
Some nice details: sometimes after destroying an enemy ship, you can pick up the ejected pilot. Mostly for fun, as the bounty for pirates is negligible. Also, each ship has a completely unique interface. Very nice indeed.
Storywise, it’s a space western. We play as Juno, as she avenges her husband. She even knows who killed him, just not where to find him. Story gets forgotten pretty quickly, though, as you need to spend a lot of time earning cash to buy a better ship, so it won’t get blown in a few seconds.
There is a clear Blood inspiration: bleak visual style, waking in a grave, cultists, dynamite and lighter. But then there are some more modern mechanics: reloading and upgrading weapons, physics (at one point you can throw an oil barrel down the hill killing some of the cultists) and even sliding.
I was surprised how long and varied the first level is. There’s some kind of police station, than a camp site, then mines and a den of chainsaw wielding maniac, all within a single level.
Shooting aspects work just right. Enemies aren’t too tough, and they have a bit of a fire delay, but if you aren’t careful, they will kill you without remorse.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider
Ironic, that Lara supposed to be some kind of archaeologist, as she throws a Soviet truck into the abyss just to tear the door of an ancient church she was trying to get into.
The best part of the game are optional tombs. Those contain some interesting environmental puzzles. While the main storyline is mostly Lara wasting countless mercenaries.
Finished the “Baba Yaga” DLC. If there’s a single word: it’s “predictable”. But still fun, at least, with all the избушка на курьих ножках and Baba Yaga flying in her ступа.
Of course it’s the girls grandma all along, who figured out how to produce hallucinogens from plants, making all her enemies see ghosts and fables.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider
The snow is impressive. Hair is also awesome. Everything else: not so much. Lara looks like Ellen Page.
She’s annoyingly obsessed with her deceases father, talking to him all the time.
The bad guys are called Trinity and are literally Templars from Assassin’s Creed. Their leader is Konstantin, a Russian with a scar. And Ana, Lara’s stepmother, is his sister.
There are remnants of DLCs and lootboxes. So although Lara finds a scrappy Nagant revolver, she imediattely gets access to Colt Python as well. And there is some card-gacha system, which I don’t even try to understand.
It’s funny how trained mercenaries scream “Push her back!” as they see Lara. An one-girl-army.
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Darksiders 3
Completed Darksiders 3.
What that game seriously lacks is any kind of self-irony. There isn’t much humor to begin with, and all of it is so… heavy.
Gluttony boss second phase was super annoying. At first I thought that I was doing something wrong, and the huge kraken wouldn’t suck down the mines. Turns out it’s just an awkward boss fight.
And that’s not the only thing awkward in this game. Whip swings are also working maybe half of the time, which makes every platforming puzzle a huge pain.
Tornado that says “thank you” after you blow it seriously puzzled me. And not only me.
The storytelling is bad. Fury seems to be enraged by her steed being killed. But we, as players, seen this steed for half a minute. So we can’t share those emotions.
She also doesn’t evolve as a character. At the beginning of the game, she’s rash and despises humanity simply because she’s physically superior, being a Nephilim. By the end of the game she’s also rash, but just has better skills (that’s why she manages to defeat Wrath the second time she fights him), and she’s… what, impressed by human ability to build tall buildings? Not much of a development, is it?
You build your game around the concept of Seven Deadly Sins. Fine. But then, why Pride is their leader? Why do they even have a leader? And why Envy has four arms and wields the weapons of other Horsemen? This is completely incoherent.
I really wanted to like that game. But besides the visuals, there really isn’t much to like.
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Darksiders 3
Managed to beat Avarice, Sloth and Lust. All of those bosses aren’t spectacular, but are fine. Avarice jumps between columns and tries to hit you with a bathtub.
Sloth is held by a lot of crabs, then is fought like any “dragon” from Dark Souls.
Lust is your typical “fencer”, but summons a hammer-wielding angel once his health gets low.
The Kraken mini-boss was super-annoying, though. You’re told to hit the eyes, but when you hit them, nothing happens. Turns out you need to use esoteric autoaim mechanic to hit them all at once. Don’t base your bossed on mechanic you never explained properly.
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Heroes of Might&Magic VI
I begin to understand what they tried to do. Which doesn’t mean I like it. The authors added a global experience that is shared across campaigns. And that experience allows you to pick better traits at the start of your next map.
There are also artifacts called Dynasty weapons which you find through the campaign. Those are also shared across all your heroes. And those artifacts have their own global experience across all campaigns. Those break the campaign completely. The only thing cool about them is that the hero is shown in cutscenes holding that particular weapon.
In the first mission of the Infreno campaign, you end up turning into a demon and battling an entire army alone.
In the second mission of Orcs campaign, there’s an interesting turn of events: you’re given two mutually exclusive objectives, and depending on which you complete, your hero receives a class specialization. Don’t remember this in any other Heroes game.
Why do I hate Uplay?
You have to login into it every time you start the game after restart.
It limits you to 10 saves. I’m not joking. 10 saves.
If your connection is interrupted, you’re kicked out of your singleplayer campaign. If you were in a battle, you have to replay it from the beginning.
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Heroes of Might&Magic VI
After many years, I decided to give another chance to Heroes of Might&Magic 6. When I first played it, it felt that the campaign was completely broken. And not only to me.
Enemy hero would come at you with a huge army, and even if you manage to beat him once, he would amass it again at an incredible speed. Not sure if that was balanced out somewhat. But the only way I managed to beat some of the sieges is by creating a bucket brigade of heroes passing armies from one another as quickly as possible. Obviously, this is extremely boring.
Also, there is still a problem that the combat is incredibly slow. Units are too sturdy, and you just spend turn after turn trading blows.
They did invest a lot into a storyline, but it is still a mess.
The story follows duke Slava and his five children, representing the different factions in the game. How one of his children ends up being a barbarian, another an undead necromancer, a third one a demon, and fourth a crazy fanatic (although this one is kind of obvious)? Well, that’s a long story. And it’s not told in any order.
For example the first campaign after the tutorial is Necropolis, playing as ressurected Anastasya. But her brother executes her for assassinating their father only in the 2nd campaign.
In the 3rd campaign we play as Irina, a magic user that is released from a cell where her husband put her by her brother from the 5th campaign. Confused already?
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Hero’s Hour
Played a few more skirmishes, and I think I’m done with it for now.
There are two problems with this game.
First, there are no neutral towns. You see, in the Heroes of Might and Magic series, most of the map was neutral. The one that captures more neutral towns wins. In Hero’s Hour, every faction has exactly one town. And once your town is captured, you have a game week to recapture it, or loose. So, this is a case of total war instead of slow domination. You either win or loose. That’s it.
Second, the battles are fun to watch, but impossible to control. It’s just total chaos, aided by the fact that many units have random abilities, such as random teleportation. You can replay same battle twice with vastly different results without lifting a finger.
PC:
- Amid Evil
- Backbone
- Dark Forces
- Inscryption
- Loop Hero
- Modern Warfare (2019)
- XCOM Chimera Squad
NDS:
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Categories
Darksiders 3
Feels Souls-like, but not entirely. Fury is much more nimble, and her default whip has a huge reach. Also, there’s no stamina. But you literally collect souls, which you drop when you’re killed. And there are replenishable flasks. Enemies don’t resurrect when you visit local version of the “the bonfire”, though. And do so only when you die.
There is a surprising amount of acrobatics involved, which is not common to Souls like games. You gave to jump over some of the attacks. And the first boss require you to climb up to her using your whip. And hit her in midair, no less.
Storytelling is weird. Apparently it takes place at the same time as the first Darksiders. Fury is told that War has started the Apocalypse, and she in the meantime is tasked with hunting the Seven Deadly Sins.
There are some recurring characters that we meet, like the Shady Trader and the Blacksmith. I don’t care to remember their actual names.
After beating the second boss, Fury is injured and is telephoned to Hollows, and in the Hollows there is a giant that releases angels and demons by destroying them… Like do I supposed to remember and understand what’s going on? Because I don’t.
Immensely enjoying it so far. Got past the second boss, Hydra. But my true love is the first boss, Megaera, or simply Meg. Well, not only mine. That’s why it’s even an option to romance that “tsundere”.
Got to the 3rd boss on my 3rd run, so I thought that maybe I’m getting a hang in it. But no, next two runs got wasted by the 1st boss.
I have the best runs with the ranged weapons in the meantime: the Spear and the Shield mostly. The Sword and the Claws require to get “in the face”, and take some damage as a result. And the Bow doesn’t deal enough damage.
Managed to beat the pair of 3rd bosses only on the 16th run or so. With the Shield, no less. But that’s because I got extra lucky. First, I got the extra-life refill from Patroclus. And then I smashed Artemis’ Call in the very last moment, when I was one hit away from final death.
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Metal Gear character inspirations
Not sure how true it is, but love it anyway!
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Hero’s Hour
Clearly inspired by earlier Heroes of Might and Magic or maybe even Kings Bounty. And with impressive 12 factions, most of them taken directly from HoM&M3.
Visually, it is much more primitive than gorgeous Heroes of Might and Magic, though. Much closer to Master of Magic in the art style.
The fights are real-time, and remind me of Lord’s of the Realm more than anything. With the hero participating in the fight as well. The control is indirect, with you just able to place the units (fighters at the front, archers at the back), and give them general direction of attack.
The real downside is, like with many other indie games, there is only skirmish. No campaign whatsoever. And skirmishes get boring very quickly.
There’s also treasure hunting and obelisks with hints, just like in HoM&M series. The artifact that you end up finding is not a game-changer, from what I could tell, though.
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XCOM Chimera Squad
Completed XCOM Chimera Squad.
As I thought, Progeny arc is much easier. At least you don’t have to fight a boss and another super-tough enemy in the same encounter.
A slight disappointment is that you cannot get all of the agents in a single run. I ended up not picking Zephyr and Claymore, and never got to see them in action.
Godmother’s “Untouchable” skill (which existed in XCOM 2 as well) is fantastic. Once she neutralizes an enemy, she gets invulnerability until the end of the turn. But other enemies don’t know it, and still shoot at her, wasting their ammo.
Another awesome skill is Blueblood’s “Faceoff”:
Story is a big letdown. So the entire game we try to “investigate” three different gangs in order to figure out which gang assassinated the mayor. But in the end – none of them. It all was the “evil mercenaries” plot, albeit we hardly heard about them the entire game. And the way we discover that plot is through mercenaries storming the city council in broad daylight. Because… why not?!
Overall, I felt like the game became repetetive far too quickly. Which is a shame.