Dead Man’s Diary is a survival game, or it’s supposed to be. Made by TML-Studios, a German indie studio whose previous works have been train and bus simulators, the inexperience with the genre is very apparent. It feels like it’s stuck in between wanting to recreate a minimal indie-survival experience while also striving for a The Last of Us-like narrative and worldbuilding. Unfortunately, the game fails in recreating either.

Survival Should Be About Resourcefulness

The largest design flaw in Dead Man’s Diary’s survival is that it dissuades players from being resourceful. There are so many issues here I don’t even know which point to start off with, so I’m going to pick a familiar mechanic to talk about: the inventory. 

I think the concepts like inventory management have existed for so long in video games that many people, including developers, don’t realize how adjusting this simple system can have drastic consequences. Dead Man’s Diary copies the inventory system from The Last of Us where you can carry three of each different type of item, regardless of what else you are holding. So for example, if you come across four pieces of cloth, you can only pick up three. It doesn’t matter if the rest of your inventory is empty or packed with other items, it only cares about how many cloth you have.

Now, I’m not a fan of TLoU’s inventory system, but it works for the type of game it is. However, the reason why the same system doesn’t work for Dead Man’s Diary is quite simple, this game forces you to manage your hunger, thirst, and radiation. In TLoU, your resources were weapons and health packs that can help you in a pinch, but not necessities. You don’t mind not being able to pick up that piece of cloth because you already have the max amount of bandages, shivs, and cloth you can already carry.

This system utterly fails in a survival game where you need to manage your bodily needs. Especially considering the amount of food/water the game forces you to take every few minutes, it makes little sense why the player can’t make room to carry a few more bottles of water instead of three bales of hay.

Arbitrary Loops

Inventory management is a brilliantly simple mechanic that constantly tests a player’s resourcefulness. It makes them consider their surroundings, future plans, and priorities. These are all quintessential elements of an engaging survival game. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t allow you to manage your inventory at all.

Dead Man’s Diary uses this survival mechanic only as a simple gameplay loop, and the needs are quite arbitrary. Each chapter essentially boils down to a single day, and your objective is to gather supplies to build a shelter. The amount of food and water you need completely depends on how quickly you can build it. So if you can speed run it, you don’t need any food or water for the day, but if you take time to explore, you are going to need huge amounts.

You might have noticed something there. That’s right, the game actively punishes exploration. Since you can’t stockpile resources, the most optimal way to “survive” is to find the pieces to finish the chapter and go to sleep ASAP. There aren’t any optional specialty tools you can find in the environment that changes your game either. To make this all worse, you can’t even take down your old camp to help make a new one. You use a bedroll once, it’s done. Somehow the post-apocalyptic survivor is more wasteful than a modern-day millionaire.

Don’t Trust Your Eyes

Another frustrating thing about Dead Man’s Diary is that it can be unclear about what can be interacted with. This leads to another unfortunate sin in survival game design where your awareness of your surroundings is not properly rewarded. The most common example is needing to find certain resources like wood or rain protection. Rather than being able to use any lumber laying around, the game forces you to have to look for a specific 2×4 model. Same for rain protection where you need to find a specific tarp model and can’t use what’s in the environment. This includes tents that are already set up. 

This leads to awkward moments where the game still forces you to build a shelter in urban environments when there are a bunch of buildings and tents around. I say this with the understanding that sometimes we have to be able to accept “gamey-ness” in things and suspend disbelief. However, Dead Man’s Diary takes it to a whole new level of laziness. I understand they want to utilize all these assets and have all these survival objectives, but it’s also a developer’s job to find ways to make the game more immersive.

Speaking of immersion, there are invisible walls… everywhere. Sometimes the game hides it well within the environment, but there are so many that just doesn’t make any sense. This was actually the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. During my playthrough, there was an invisible wall that stopped me from being able to crawl through a hole. It was a little annoying, but that’s fine. But after an hour of trying to find the last item I needed for my tent, I discovered it was behind that exact hole I tried earlier. I just didn’t crawl underneath the “right” rubble from the “right” side. The problem here is the inconsistency. When you suddenly realize that invisible walls aren’t always a sign for you to explore elsewhere, the game gets incredibly frustrating.

Painful Voice-Overs

The narrative suffers from a tremendous amount of issues. Mainly, stream-of-consciousness voice-overs deliver the narrative, constantly telling the player what they should do and how they should feel. I was annoyed from the first time my character said “I’m terrified,” or “I’m lost,” and he never stops.

The core of the issue is that the game doesn’t commit to making a nameless player nor a compelling protagonist. The character constantly thinks for the player, makes decisions for the player, and has too much personality. This type of character is terrible for a player-insert because it makes it hard for players to immerse themselves. But the protagonist doesn’t have a name, a face, or relationships to really turn him into an actual character. He’s neither memorable nor likable. He sits in that awkward middle ground that’s impossible for the player to do either.

Criticisms aside, this was the studio’s first crack at the survival game genre. I can see their talent in making good-looking environments, especially in cities and building interiors. It’s hard trying to do something unfamiliar and I respect them for trying something so different. Dead Man’s Diary feels like a learning step possibly leading to something greater in the future.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Dead Man’s Diary Review – No Instinct for Survival appeared first on COGconnected.

Nobody Saves the World was a bit of a disappointment for me. Coming from the Canadian developer Drinkbox Studios, I was excited for this title after playing their fantastic Guacamelee series. As they do with each of their projects, Nobody Saves the World is a new genre for the studio, a dungeon-crawler RPG. At a glance, the game is fantastic, possessing the developer’s fantastic art style and fun attitude. It even comes with some interesting original ideas.

So what’s the problem? Nothing major really. But if there aren’t great lows, there aren’t great highs either, just kind of a resounding meh. Personally, I think I know why this game was so boring for me: they made an awful dungeon crawler.

You are Nobody, get it?

The game revolves around Nobody. That’s right, that’s the name of the protagonist. I think that’s a pretty good introduction to the game’s sense of humour. There are plenty of puns, references, and silly characters. 

In fact, there is not a single character that takes themselves or the world seriously. Which is fine, not all games need to be serious, but I always found that to be a poor excuse for bad storytelling. A story that doesn’t take itself seriously could mean that the story is shallow and not really worth talking about. 

Don’t take it the wrong way, humorous games can have really good stories. See Undertale for example. The secret is always in how the game treats its own story and setting. Games like Undertale manage to pick a few important moments to deliver meaning with just flashes of seriousness to give the entire piece some weight without losing its humorous spirit.

Is the humour good, at least? Not for me. This is another problem with a story that’s pretending like it’s going to have an allergic reaction if it gets within ten feet of any other approach than humour. It gets super predictable, and humour is often at its best when it’s unexpected. I’m not going to laugh when I run into the fortieth character with a silly facial expression who makes a video game reference or says something random. At best, my reaction was, “Ha, I got that joke. Good one.”

I thought, maybe kids would like it. And sure, they probably would appreciate it more than a semi-jaded game reviewer, but again, I think “made for kids” is another poor excuse. Plenty of humorous children’s stories have lots of thoughtfulness to them, so much so that re-experiencing them as adults can add new meaning. Not so much with Nobody Saves the World.

Where’s the Loot? Where’s the RPG?

There is no interesting loot in this dungeon-crawling RPG. You can probably tell from my tone that for me, this is a complete turn-off. I mean, maybe I wouldn’t have a problem with it if the game had interesting dungeons, but oh boy, it’s the good old procedurally-generated slog. And you know what that means: they want you to grind.  As we all know, procedural-generation is supposed to “increase replayability”. Which should be fine, because I enjoy grinding in dungeon-crawlers. That’s the point, right? Yeah, but not when all I’m grinding for is gold and levels. No matter what dungeon you do, all you get is the same stuff, the numbers just increase. Okay okay, but maybe there is something interesting to spend money on? Nope, unless you find doing 5% more physical damage or taking 5% less physical damage interesting. 

How about the progression? Unfortunately, it’s kind of rubbish as well. Yes, the game has this interesting system of unlocking new forms. They all have unique abilities and attributes for you to switch into on the fly. The problem is that it’s boring again. 

The process of unlocking them is such a hassle because when you first get a new form, they are given to you with no other skills unlocked. You have just your single, one button basic attack to grind with until you’ve completed more quests as that form. When you eventually level up and unlock a new form, rather than being excited, you hate it because you’ve finally unlocked abilities for your current form, but rather than playing with it, it’s time to go back to playing something with a single button again. This game just wants you to grind.

The grand cherry on top is that, since there are no interesting upgrades and no items at all, there aren’t any cool combinations or builds you can make. There are some synergies here and there, but nothing really to reward clever players, nothing to break the game. And yes, I thoroughly believe breaking the game is one of the greatest joys of dungeon crawlers and, to a lesser extent, RPGs as a whole. At the very least, RPGs should offer creativity and expression, which this game lacks.

It may sound harsh, but Nobody Saves the World really threw all my pet peeves into a barrel and gave it a nice coat of paint. To give this game some props though, the co-op is fun for a little while and the game plays well. The coat of paint is, without a lie, a really nice art style. It’s just that the grind really sucks and it makes you grind from THE INTRO DUNGEON. Oh right, I was supposed to be talking about the positives. Probably the best thing about this game is that it has a very long potential gameplay time, and if you have a kid or a casual friend you want to relax and punch some monsters with, Nobody Saves the World might be a really good game.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Nobody Saves the World Review – A World Not Worth Saving appeared first on COGconnected.

Playing Wolfstride was a strange experience for me, but not in any way you’d expect. I really ended up enjoying my time in it. However, I can’t say that I felt like I would be giving it a good review in my first few hours. To me, it all came down to expectations, and the game certainly wasn’t what I expected. If I had gone in with proper knowledge of what kind of game Wolfstride was going to be, it wouldn’t have been such a rocky experience. I’ll make that part clear for you. 

Wolfstride is a great visual novel with interactive gameplay elements. Even though the game markets itself as a mech-pilot RPG, you will be spending 90% of your time in Wolfstride following along with the story rather than piloting mechs. Don’t worry; every character is phenomenally voice-acted, and it won’t be just reading a mountain of texts. Genre is an important expectation to set for your customers. I spent the majority of my starting hours asking when the fights were going to happen. 

If I wasn’t reviewing the game, I might have started skipping all the texts. I’m glad I didn’t, though, because, underneath the disguise of a cold mech, Wolfstride is hiding a loveable heart.

So Is There Mech Combat?

Yes, the game still has turn-based mech combat, which plays a central role within the story. However, most of the game’s time will be spent during the days between your tournament matches. 

Let’s get into that a bit. You play as Shade, a dark, mysterious, perpetually-smoking cool guy with a troubled past (don’t worry, the game is very self-aware, and it’s part of its incredible humor). Shade is in a band of washed-up ex-criminals chasing after the fortune and thrills of what they used to be. In fact, the theme of characters living past the fading of their limelight creates serious Cowboy Bebop tones here. 

Shade isn’t the mech’s pilot (although you still control it in combat). That honor goes to your good friend Knife Leopard, who, despite his name, is the most wholesome, supportive boy in the world. Shade fills in the manager role, making sure your hanger runs well, buying equipment, and earning money to fill out your expenses. This is why most of the game’s story occurs outside of the tournament days.

Adequate Management, Easy Combat

Gameplay-wise, the management side is… adequate. It’s one of those games with massive ludonarrative dissonance when it comes to money—where all the characters constantly complain about barely paying rent while your pockets are bursting with cash. So since the most challenging part of management, the financials, are taken care of, you can buy all the most expensive things and equip them to your mech. It makes the combat too easy.

It’s an unfortunate feedback loop. The mech combat system isn’t flawed, but it’s hard to appreciate it when you aren’t challenged. I understand that this is probably the case because they made it a story-centered game, and they wouldn’t want casual players to get stuck on it. If you are someone who is used to playing these sorts of games (especially mech games with a financial aspect like Mechwarrior), it just feels very shallow.

This would have been where a difficulty option could have been great. A mode where I would have to equip precisely the right gear and moves depending on my opponent, and I would have to switch up my strategy each time. It would have scratched that proper RPG-itch for me, but oh well. When I gave up on the game being a proper RPG, I started enjoying it more.

Gets Better and Better

Once I fully accepted that fact, I began appreciating Wolfstride, even the combat. However, the game’s writing is where it most shines. It’s legitimately one of the funniest-written story games I’ve ever played. Of course, comedy is subjective, but I find a remarkable lack of it in our medium. Games are usually quite good at little gags, but a full-on comedy is rare.

That doesn’t mean Wolfstride doesn’t take itself seriously. There is a genuine heart within this game that hits even harder when characters drop their facades for just a moment to let their vulnerabilities shine through. It’s a tricky balance, but the game manages to make it work, and I found myself falling in love with so many of the characters in this story.

The story is backed up by gorgeous manga-style art and animation. For me, any anime aesthetic can get a little stale, but Wolfstride’s art is entirely original while maintaining the feel of its inspiration. As I said before, the voice acting is top-notch, and all the actors manage to bring this diverse cast alive. There are times when the characters should be furious and lashing out, or on the verge of tears, that I found the line deliveries never really reached those depths. This is a minor complaint in an overall fantastic performance.

Wolfstride might have gotten off to a rough start, but I think if you go into it knowing that it’s a story-forward game, you’ll enjoy it quite a bit. I ended up liking the game way more than I thought possible. It kept surprising me. It hooked me with its style, then its humor, and when I thought I knew everything, it showed me its heart. For only $18 CAD, Wolfstride has my strongest recommendation.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Wolfstride Review – Cold Mech, Warm Heart appeared first on COGconnected.

After a long visit to the past, Battlefield is finally back to modern combat with Battlefield 2042. Well, technically near-future combat, but you know what I mean. Mixing in some light sci-fi while not meddling with the shooter concepts we’re familiar with, the game manages to strike an awesome balance of interesting and comfortable. Actually, I think that’s a good way to sum up BF 2042 in its entirety.

The game nails all the details that make Battlefield a beloved franchise. However, on top of that, it is doing some new and interesting things that might provide a good reason for new players to jump in and try it out for the first time. For example, Hazard Zone has some incredible potential and I think fixes most of the problems that people who don’t enjoy the franchise might have with it.

Global Climate Meltdown

The premise of 2042 is actually pretty cool. In the near future, the world is being devastated by catastrophic climate disasters, and it all comes crashing down when a real scientific concept called the Kessler Syndrome is triggered. This event refers to the possibility that by polluting our space too much with debris and satellites, there is an increasing chance that it could cause a chain reaction of crashes between the objects in space.

In the game, the Kessler Syndrome triggers a global blackout. With tensions already high due to the near-apocalyptic conditions, nations start to wage a war against each other for the remaining safe harbors left in the world.  

2042 utilizes the setting in many brilliant ways. One of the newest additions is the specialists, who replace Battlefield’s traditional class system. Rather than belonging to a nation, these climate-refugees who have been torn from their original homes have formed their own loose organization called the Non-Patriated or Non-Pats, fighting for whichever side they agree with.

Following many of the popular modern FPSs, these named characters possess special abilities that allow them to approach combat differently. You could pick a specialist with a launchable grapple or a wingsuit for mobility, and if that’s not your style, you could go for a barricade or a mobile shield for defence. None of the characters are limited to a specific set of weapons or basic tools, meaning that you could switch your loadout to fit exactly what your team needs. But of course, certain specialists’ abilities will lean towards a specific playstyle.

At first, I found it a little off-putting having characters replace classes in a BF title, but once you get over the little change in tradition, they feel pretty damn good to play. Their abilities are impactful but nothing game-breaking, and you will still need to play the classes by creating specific loadouts. Don’t worry, it hasn’t turned into a hero-shooter. It’s still Battlefield at the end, where your ability to shoot and play the objectives is the most important thing. 

Going back to the setting, the climate catastrophe has also caused erratic patterns in the weather. Such things as hurricanes ripping right through the battle is not an uncommon sight, and playing around with these hazards offers a new dimension in strategy. And yes, you can “ride” the hurricane with your parachute or wingsuit, you might die trying, but it’s super cool when it works.

Hazard Mode is AWESOME

So, I got to tell you, I think I’m playing nothing but Hazard Mode for the first few days when the game launches. It’s that good. Okay, before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you what it is. So remember Kessler Syndrome? So, many of these satellites which are crashing in space are coming down onto the Earth’s surface carrying all matter of juicy data. May it be important climate information, national secrets, or unrevealed technologies, someone is willing to pay big bucks for it. Your objective is to grab as many as you can and extract with your life.

Playing in a squad of up to four members, Hazard Mode has a massive focus on tight teamwork. Unlike the all-out chaos that is 120 man Battlefield (which is still in the game in all its glory), Hazard Mode is controlled chaos with high stakes.

The game closest to compare to is Escape From Tarkov, I’d say. Just like in that game, if you have money from previous forays into the Hazard Zone, you can buy stronger guns and tools to increase your chances. If you die, you lose everything you took in there. But still, many things are drastically different from Tarkov.

For example, you only have two chances to extract when the airship comes to get you. To make it even more exciting, that’s everyone else’s ticket out as well. So you better believe these extraction points will be hotter than hell. The thing is, sometimes the fight is so fierce that nobody might reach the plane alive when it leaves, so a winner is never guaranteed. And I think that’s awesome. It’s full of strategy, stakes, treasure hunting, and resource management. This mode has so much potential and I really hope Dice continues to support the hell out of it. 

A Nostalgia Trip

The cherry on top of this game is the Portal mode, where people can make their own custom game modes using updated assets from 1942, Bad Company 2, BF 3, and 2042. Yes, you can straight up play Bad Company 2 Rush with updated graphics and engine, which just reminded me how much I loved that game. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a custom game mode without the ability to do something really wacky. So they have put in a simplified coding tool to make your craziest BF dreams come true. Such as a rocket-only mode where you have to jump five times to reload. It does seem to have some limitations though, and as far as I saw, there wasn’t a map editor, for instance. I think the proof will be in the pudding and we’ll have to see if the system is robust enough to create something truly memorable. I’m genuinely interested in seeing what kind of crazy things the community may come up with.

Battlefield 2042 isn’t without flaws though. I think the lack of singleplayer might be a big downside for people, especially if you are into playing shooters casually. A multiplayer-only experience with a full triple-A price tag isn’t unheard of, but I wouldn’t blame you if that put you off of buying it. For me, it’s a little more upsetting this time around because of how interesting the premise is.

As with all shooters, some of the maps are miserable to play on. Wide-open maps with jets often devolve down to the team with the best pilots winning, and it’s not the best feeling when a game of 120 players is decided by only a handful of people. Another thing that I didn’t like is that you can change your weapon attachments anywhere mid-life. Meaning that you can go from anti-infantry rounds to anti-materiel, or far-ranged scope to close-ranged, or bi-pod for a grenade launcher whenever the situation fits. Although it’s nice and convenient, I personally thought it took away from some of the interesting strategies that took place in preparing a perfect loadout. 

All in all, these are minor points to one of the best Battlefields we’ve had in a while. It’s rekindled my excitement for the series for sure. With new modes like Hazard Zone and the ability to play old games like Bad Company 2 remastered, the game is full of content, even without single-player. If you’ve been thinking of diving into BF, whether it is your return or a first in the series, Battlefield 2042 might be exactly what you were looking for.  

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Battlefield 2042 Review – The Future is Now, Old Man appeared first on COGconnected.

They call Forgive Me Father a “classic shooter”, but I like to use the original genre name “Doom-clone”. Yeah, the genre name that’s grown to become first-person-shooters had lots of problems because it limited the genre’s growth (like Souls-like), but I truly believe there is a place for the name now that games have grown past OG Doom. Specifically, because games like Forgive Me Father is going back to their roots in replicating that classic Doom-clone feel.

The aesthetic flavour Forgive Me Father is going for is of the Lovecraft variety, albeit in the popularized appearances rather than the themes. All the classics are there—insane people, creepy tentacle monsters, and evil cultists! If you are the type of person who is skittish about horror, I wouldn’t worry too much. This game is horror like Doom is “horror” because it takes place in hell.

What Makes a Doom-Clone?

Although this isn’t the most important aspect of a game that makes it feel like a Doom-clone, the thing that always gets me is how things are modelled. All enemies and almost all objects in the game look like cardboard cutouts, I think if you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. They are all completely 2-D but they always pivot to face you perfectly, never really letting you see their flat side (unless you are looking straight down at them). With the walls being mostly flat textures, it really gives it this cheap (in a good way) haunted house mood that, for me, makes it feel like a Doom-clone. 

Of course, most of the important bits are there too. 1. Incredibly high-paced FPS action where you can move super fast with practically no friction. 2. Rarely using cover, but more relying on constantly strafe-shooting to avoid projectiles. 3. You can carry all weapons on you, increasing your arsenal as you discover more. 4. Secret spots found by exploration that rewards you with armour, health, and ammunition. I think that pretty much covers it.

And I’m happy to report that it gets the fundamentals right. The game feels good to play. Combat is, although rather simple, fun and smooth. There is a minimal amount of platforming which maintains a pretty easy difficulty, focusing on the enemies to provide the challenge. 

What’s the Mood?

As I said in the opening, the game is trying to approach a Lovecraftian feel with story and setting and although it doesn’t execute the intentionality behind the source material at all, the game manages to look pretty good. Using hard outlines and heavy blacks, the art style is reminiscent of some comic book artists, specifically Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy) for me. For people unfamiliar with his work, it’s the style that blew up in popularity with Darkest Dungeon’s expert use of it a few years ago. 

But unfortunately, other aspects of horror are missing in this game. How are you going to portray helplessness against incomprehensible foes when you are capable of killing five monsters a second? There is a bit of an attempt at horror on certain levels where the game forces you to traverse dark areas. To be able to see, the game provides you with a lantern, but it can’t be used while you are holding a weapon, which forces you to make some spooky choices. Other than that, it’s pretty much an action game. 

There is the obligatory madness/sanity mechanic because, of course, it’s Lovecraftian, but it’s a completely throwaway mechanic. It’s a simple bar that fills as you are in combat which provides you with more damage and defenses as long as you keep killing things. Then it rapidly empties when you are out of combat. I found that the enemy density was never really enough to carry over your madness between fights, and didn’t actually encourage me to go any faster, which is unfortunate because that could have given the mechanic some player-choice significance. For the thematics of it, it’s completely bunk.

Forgive Me Father also has a buttload of easter eggs to find, ranging from Dark Souls, It, Starwars, and old internet memes? And I don’t mean a few, there are so many of them in the game, and they are not really that hidden. I never really understood people that liked easter eggs like this, they’ve always turned me off. I mean specifically, the jokey world-breaking references thrown in an otherwise serious game for cheap laughs or so we can feel proud of ourselves for “getting it”. If the developers are not taking the story seriously, why should I?

All in all, Forgive Me Father is a fine game. They get the gameplay right, which is the most important, but it has no highlights yet. I hope they add some interesting weapons and enemies to spice up the formula.

Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.

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The post ‘Forgive Me Father’ Feels Good And is Loaded With Amazing Easter Eggs appeared first on COGconnected.

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a puzzle-platformer all about light and shadows. You play as two characters, a little girl named Emma and a teddy bear named Fenton who seems to exist in the two different dimensions. They need to constantly work in tandem to help each other progress in their own worlds. The game’s mechanics manage to be unique and visually interesting while remaining quite familiar for puzzle vets. 

Fitting the theme, the game credits its inspiration of gothic aesthetic to none other than Tim Burton. It’s immediately evident in the harsh shadows. The use of dolls as much of the environment seems to call back to classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

Walk on the Shadows You’ve Created

When you play as Emma, things are as you expect them to be. You walk along the ground in a three-dimensional space. However, things get a little bit crazy when you switch over to Fenton. Existing in the world of shadows, Fenton exists on a two-dimensional plane as he walks on the walls like a shadow cast upon them, and uses other shadows as platforms he can jump on. 

As Emma, you will often be given a trusty lantern to guide your way, which happens to be a perfect tool for casting shadows as long as you have objects like pillars to utilize. By angling yourself around obstacles, you can create platforms for Fenton to hop around to get to the final objective. At many times, Fenton will have access to areas that Emma can’t reach yet, where he can open up pathways for her in turn.

I don’t know if you’ve thought of this already, but there is unfortunately a small plot hole in the game’s mechanics (mechanic-hole? No, that’s awful). Emma herself doesn’t cast a substantial shadow that Fenton could walk on. I get why she doesn’t as it would absolutely trivialize almost any puzzles by spinning around with her lantern, but it’s still a bit of disappointment that it isn’t addressed somehow. I’ll save the rest of my rant for the narrative section.

Like many puzzle games, Tandem is divided into many chapters, with each having many levels. Each chapter introduces a new mechanic that the puzzles are going to be playing around with. It’s a classic technique that still works as the puzzles manage to be iterative and fresh while not overwhelming the players with a salad of mechanics.

As for the puzzles themselves, I’d say are sufficient. Nothing incredible or awful about them. My little gripes come from the fact that many times when a puzzle seems difficult, it’s usually because the game isn’t always effective at communicating the elements you are supposed to be interacting with. So it might feel like you are stuck until you realize you were missing a piece, then it all seems obvious. Another thing that brings it down for me is that much of the time, it felt like I stumbled onto the answer by trial and error rather than figuring out something complex. This is not a terribly bad problem, and I find a lot of puzzle games are like this, but for me, it’s what separates truly memorable puzzle games from the mediocre.  

Tim Burton-esque Without the Spirit

The narrative and the visuals are where the game stumbles a bit, unfortunately. Nothing terrible, mind you, just a little unrefined. 

Let’s start with the visuals. As I’ve stated in the opening, it gets the inspiration across effectively enough. I think the segments with Fenton actually look quite good, the black-and-white visuals with smoky shadows really make it feel like we’ve entered the shadow dimension, somewhere very haunted. Fenton’s idle animations are also quite good, and for a character with no voice, he manages to be quite expressive with his animations. Sometimes you will see him in the corner of your eye while solving puzzles as Emma, seeing him do spooky-cute stuff up on the walls by himself.

Emma, on the other hand, isn’t quite great. Getting away from the heavily stylized Fenton, Emma’s “real” world feels unpolished. When looking at top-down it’s alright, but the game often goes down to show her in cinematics and reveals a lot of very unflattering angles. She looks plastic, and not in a good way like Tim Burton’s puppets did. The animation is stiff and her facial expressions feel quite uncanny-valley, not truly nailing the cartoon style. Additionally, at the end of each level, we get a little victory pose, and for some reason, the camera clips into her head every time. Sure, it’s not such a big problem, but since this is a very common animation, it should have been fixed. It’s just one of those little details that make the game feel unpolished.

The game’s story is perfunctory. If you were expecting a Tim Burton-like gothic fantasy story, this isn’t where you will find it. The duo’s objective of finding some missing boy has no relation to their characters, and the little information you get from Emma fails to tell you anything about her as a person. It’s also missing the most fundamental key to a compelling story: meaningful stakes.

We could have made the fact that Emma not casting a substantial shadow a part of the story and the reason why Fenton was drawn to her. Maybe her shadow was taken away by some spooky ghost, and we need to get it back or she dies! Now the story and the gameplay make sense, while explaining away that glaring little plot hole. Just imagine the boost in abilities you could get for a final stage when Emma reclaims her shadow, being able to push her synergy with Fenton to the next level. They could use their combined powers to defeat the evil ghost! If developers are looking for a narrative designer, give me a call (kidding, not kidding). 

Overall, Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a fine game. There are some flaws for sure, but nothing that ruins your overall experience, and what’s there is solid. I’d recommend this game for people who are interested in the light/dark puzzle mechanics, but if you are thinking of getting into it for the aesthetics or the story, I’d give it a pass.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Tandem: A Tale of Shadows Review – Light Your Path in Shadows appeared first on COGconnected.

I’ve been reviewing and previewing plenty of Metroidvania as of late, and I can say that nothing has caught my attention as Unsighted has. Made by Studio Pixel Punk, a tiny indie team of only two people, this title is an incredible achievement in game design. It not only checks off everything that makes Metroidvanias good but also executes those points masterfully with their own unique flairs. Good combat? Check. Great movement and platforming? Check. Iterative puzzle designs? Check. Truly rewarding exploration? Check. Diverse powers and weapons? Check. 

It even has an interesting story that will ask the player to make tough choices with large consequences for the characters involved, which means each of your playthroughs could look completely different. To add more replayability, there is a procedurally generated rogue-lite mode and a boss rush. As if that wasn’t enough, you can even bring a friend along for some jolly cooperation!

The Ties Between Story and Gameplay

In the futuristic world of Unsighted, humans have been mostly replaced by sentient androids after their attempts at trying to eliminate them backfired. Unfortunately unable to ever find peace, the androids have now begun to lose their minds, turning into savage killing machines without reason. You play as Alma, an android amnesiac who wakes up in a lab full of hostile robots. 

I would say the game is a sci-fi post-post-apocalypse. You can find ruins of human civilization and the androids’ attempts at rebuilding which are also falling apart. It’s interesting, but it felt familiar, the game’s setting really reminded me of something else. Can you guess what it would be? Focusing on the female android protagonist who fights with swords might ring a bell…   

If you thought Nier: Automata, we are on the same page! The moment I realized that it was Unsighted’s main source of inspiration, so many things clicked. The upgrade system, for instance, utilizes the chip system from Nier. It revolves around having limited space where you can fit your upgrades while allowing you to change your chip layout at any safe point. This means frequently switching your builds depending on your playstyle and circumstance, with the added complexity of managing limits.  

While the androids losing their minds was also a part of Nier, in Unsighted, it’s not only a story element, it’s a major gameplay feature. Every single character is going mad, including you. By consuming something called Meteor Dust, you can elongate the sanity of any character for a little longer. You will have to eventually decide who’s worth keeping around, perhaps for their utility, or for your relationship with them. It is genuinely depressing to see friendly faces turn into monsters one by one as the world empties of safe places. Time is ticking and every second matters, encouraging you to master the movement. Additionally, your death has consequences of fast-forwarding the time which provides large stakes to every battle.

The genius part of this mechanic is that you can use the Meteor Dust as currency as well. No, nothing inconsequential like turning it into money or something ignorable. It’s the only way to get more charges of your healing syringe. You can try ignoring it and use all your Meteor Dust “selflessly” by donating it to people, but the combat is extremely punishing. Eventually, the realization dawns that the time wasted by your deaths due to charitable actions may have led to more avoidable casualties. But should you spend it all on yourself? How much is too much? I’m being honest in saying that I’ve not seen a resource management system as impactful and interesting as this one in a long time, maybe ever.

Combat and Exploration

Unsighted just feels good to control. Alma moves very quickly and precisely, with plenty of mobility options that you can master. The dodge/jump button nails that perfect spot of feeling fair while not being a skill-less spam button to get out of trouble. Falling off into the void places you back to your last safe spot rather than killing you, allowing you to take risks with their difficult platforming designs. 

The exploration is the best I’ve seen all year. With it being player-led and very little gatekeeping, the devs seem very confident in giving players the power over the game flow. With creativity and skill, you can be in many places earlier without the “prerequisite” powers, and down bosses you were supposed to avoid. Exploration is truly rewarding, and can even provide you with new tools that offer you powerful new solutions to bosses and puzzles. This made me so happy because I personally hate it when games put obstacles in your way that can’t be beaten unless you do exactly what the devs intended you to do. Oh, you don’t have that power? Sorry, this boss can’t be damaged, or this door won’t open. It screams insecurity. Unsighted lets you go free in the world and tells you that if you are good enough, you can do anything.

When it comes to weapons, they can largely be categorized into melee and ranged. You can mix and match as you will, double ranged or double melee is no problem, with many combinations offering some unique interactions to play with. There is no specific style the game seems to prefer, and you can easily play the entire game with just ranged or melee, although using a bit of both would make your life easier.

The balancing is pretty brilliant. Many games seem to have a pretty tough time with this, usually leaning heavily to one side. Ranged is of course safer, with active reload (ala Gears of War) making an appearance to rewards good timing. To emphasize this mechanic, you are drastically slowed and vulnerable while reloading as well. For melee, to compensate it being riskier, your hits deliver more impact as well as slowly refilling your empty healing syringes.

The weapons choice within each class also manages to be quite interesting and drastically different. For instance, many other games would have taken the axes and swords in this game and done the boring thing of just making one slow and powerful while the other opposite. In Unsighted, by creating a ridiculous stamina cost for swinging the axe around, you have to make each hit count, and due to the fact that parrying enemy attacks let you land a single critical hit, you get much higher returns on parries with an axe. This means axe revolves around slow, defensive play, while sword lets you get much more aggressive and dictate the pace of combat rather than having to wait for your opponent. 

So Close to Perfection

Man, oh, man, I wish the writing was better. Don’t get me wrong, Unsighted’s story is not terrible by any means, and I tend to be on the harsher side in judging narratives. It’s just that what we have here is so generic that it lets down the exceptional ludonarrative set-up in the Meteor Dust mechanic. 

I think the problem lies in the protagonist, Alma. I don’t judge solely on cliches, but an amnesiac protagonist certainly raised some red flags from the get-go. It’s a lazy technique that thrusts us into the action and lets us experience/learn things for the first time with the protagonist. The problem arises when the game eventually tries to make us care about something we have no connection to. Here, Alma gets flashbacks of her lover and friends, and she is filled with determination to find them. Sure, the short cutscenes are cute, but it takes more than that for me to fall in love, because I’m sure it took more than that for Alma to fall in love in the first place. Then, as amnesiac games usually go, the entire story revolves around piecing together the past, and the entirety of Alma’s personality devolves into the badass “I must find her” type.

The side characters, for as much emphasis there is with them, are usually one-dimensional and trope-y as well. Which I suppose is to be expected in a game that’s not really about dialogue.

But that’s the thing, if all games were judged on their story, many masterpieces wouldn’t be very good, especially in the Metroidvania genre. A good story is a bonus, and Unsighted’s gameplay is fundamentally near-perfect. But I can’t help being disappointed at what this could have been with good writing. If I could have really fallen in love with the characters, it would have been so emotional when they turned mad, or if I was to be forced to choose between them and someone else I may need to beat the game.  

But don’t let that discourage you from getting the game. With couch co-op and the addition of Steam’s Remote Play Together, you can play with another person with just a single copy, provided you have a solid internet connection. Unsighted is an utterly amazing title for a debuting indie team that is well worth your money and attention.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post UNSIGHTED Review – Potentially the Best Metroidvania of 2021 appeared first on COGconnected.

If you are predominantly a PC gamer, you might not be familiar with the Story of Seasons franchise, but you’ve probably heard of the series’ original name – Harvest Moon. The highly influential classic inspired other bestsellers such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, among many other farming-based games. The franchise had to change its name due to copyright reasons with the publisher they left behind, but rest assured, the original devs are creating Story of Seasons.   

Pioneers of Olive Town marks the first time since the franchise’s inception in 1996 that the series has made it to PC. (Well, last year a remake of their 2003 title, Friends of Mineral Town, received a port but a remake is still only a remake, it’s nice to have a flagship title.) But of course, there is a lot more competition in the genre now! The question is, does Story of Seasons manage to keep up?

Impossibly Cute

Inspired by your late grandfather’s stories of living off the land, you jump on your moped and ride out to Olive Town, where he used to live. Starting with nothing but the money in your pocket, an undeveloped piece of land, and a tent, you get down to transforming it into the place of your dreams!

The thing about Olive Town is that it’s so unbelievably cute to look at. The citizens of the town each have their own adorable style, both in character illustrations and the model itself. With one of the game’s classic focuses being around finding someone to marry, the wide range of unique bachelors and bachelorettes is definitely a big plus. Additionally, the environment is colourful, soft and calming, and the animals also bring me absolute joy (especially the plump cows!).

There are also plenty of customization options for your own character too! Many different outfits to unlock and express yourself with, ranging from cute farmer attires to joke costumes that make you look like a giant shiba. Of course, you can build and decorate your own house too, which is one of my favourite ways to spend my time in these games. 

The events and story also provide perfect places for the game to display all these elements interacting with each other. Puppy racing, fishing tournaments, harvest festival, and so many other events will put a smile on your face on top of the fun mini-games they provide. Plus getting closer to the townsfolk will give you their own personalized stories and events, of course including dating events with your romantic partners.

Farming is Perfect (But Nothing New)

How’s the core gameplay like? Well, it’s just as good as it always has been. There is an undeniable addictive quality to the gameplay established by Harvest Moon, and it still lives strong here. The gameplay loop is simple, clear out the land gathering resources, place seeds on the ground and water them, feed your animals, and harvest the goods, repeat every day. If put into words, these games always sound terrible, but it’s really something else when you play them. There’s always that just-one-more-turn feeling that you can’t put down. Tomorrow your cucumbers are ready for harvest, which means a bunch of money coming in, that means you can unlock that new upgrade, that means you can explore the new area, now you found a new barn you can fill with animals, and by the time that’s done, it’s time for another harvest. 

It’s hard to ever really say a gameplay mechanic is truly perfected, but it really does feel that way here. The more surprising thing is that this isn’t rare. It’s existed for a very long time, and you can find it just as good in Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. There isn’t much (if at all) innovation here, but maybe that’s a good thing if the loop is already so good. 

That means that the unique things about Pioneers of Olive Town exist solely on the non-gameplay factors. As I mentioned before the visuals elements are fantastic and it stands as probably the best reason to pick this one over the others if you like this style. The seasonal events are pretty standard fare, again quite good, but nothing special. However, the characters and story left me a little wanting.

Like others, Pioneers is going for a feel-good game, an idyllic farmland you can escape to at the end of the day. The problem here might be that it’s maybe a little too conflict-shy. There don’t seem to be any problems at all, and it doesn’t feel like the town needs your help. Which of course takes away any pressure, but also removes the impact of the story. 

This feels especially impactful with regards to the relationships you can form. Dating feels like simply getting to know the other person better. You don’t share vulnerabilities, you don’t come to understand each other’s flaws, and you certainly don’t help each other become better people. These are the factors that make any romance memorable. Characters simply don’t undergo major growths here. I’m not wishing for a hardcore depressing story, but a little darkness can make the story a lot happier and lasting. Of course, if you are looking for a deep story or a good romance game, any of these farming games wouldn’t be your go-to. Still, it does add a nice little bonus to the ones that do deliver on some memorable characters.

Still, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town gets it right in all the important areas. The characters are definitely serviceable and are full of personality. I’m still absolutely in love with the aesthetic, and I can admit that I’ve definitely stayed up too long playing this game. It is missing any online functionality though, but if you are looking for a new solo farming game, definitely take a look at this one. 

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Review – Harvest Moon Hype Machine appeared first on COGconnected.

Blast Brigade vs. The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread might be one of the longest game titles I’ve seen in a little while but the name kind of fits! This bombastic, over-the-top Metroidvania is like a classic Cartoon Network show that’s been gamified. Thinking about it, it actually feels a bit like Kim Possible, with a team of humorous spies trying to take down a ridiculous evil scientist who’s trying to take over the world. 

Featuring some fantastic voice acting, funny writing, and extremely expressive animations, the game presents itself fantastically. This, of course, wouldn’t mean much if the game didn’t play well, thankfully Blast Brigade’s gameplay foundation is rock solid!

Run-and-Gun Metroidvania

Although the game (rightfully) markets itself as a Metroidvania, the first game that came to my mind while playing it was the classic Metal Slug from the arcade days. The opening of a crash landing on a beach to surprise hostile goons was what set off my nostalgia sense at the start. The run-and-gun playstyle with enemies firing slow-moving projectiles only reinforced the feeling. The game even has powerful guns with limited ammunition too!

But of course, the game’s concept does revolve around the fundamentals of Metroidvania. Plenty of platforming and a bunch of locked doors you can’t open (yet!) will litter your exploration of the levels. The little gimmick that Blast Brigade plays with is that each of your spy agents has specialty tools that work as exploration upgrades that you may find in other Metroidvanias. To make it even more exciting, you can switch between your agents on the fly, weaving their abilities in creative and awesome ways. Unfortunately, the for current demo only one agent is available, so I wasn’t able to test how it really feels to play with the swaps. However, what’s there is very good, even if a little generic.

A cool little mechanic that I’d like to point out is the reload in this game. It’s not anything special on its own, but if you empty your magazine, your character won’t be able to fire for a while. This means that, unlike other run-and-gun titles, always firing your gun as you traverse the levels isn’t the best strategy, even if you have infinite ammunition. It also incentivizes for you to be precise with your shots and rewards patience. It’s amazing how a little detail can change the game as a whole.

The Right Notes

One of the best parts about Blast Brigade is that it hits that perfect place where it’s something that can be enjoyed by every age group. It’s light-hearted, funny, and colourful but it doesn’t feel so childish that it alienates the older audiences, I found much of the character interactions and innuendos quite humorous and cute even. It also doesn’t cross any boundaries that might turn the product into a raunchy adult cartoon either.

Unfortunately, Blast Brigade doesn’t have a release date yet, but make sure to put this one on your wishlist on Steam! This is definitely one of the most promising titles I’ve got to preview this year.

Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.

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I really like city builders. It probably comes from my early days of playing strategy games like Starcraft, Age of Empires, and Heroes of Might and Magic. Balancing out resources and spending, trying to eke out every little bit of efficiency is a never-ending task that is surprisingly fun because you feel like you can always do better. 

But at the same time, I understand that many people out there are very interested in city builders for their aesthetics. Designing beautiful streets and laying out the architecture is satisfying in its own right. The problem is that many people are turned off by the spreadsheets and the overcomplicated economy behind it all. This is where Tinytopia comes in, a game where creativity is emphasized over strategy, which makes for the perfect introductory citybuilder title.

Toys, Toys, Toys!

The thing that really sets Tinytopia apart visually is that everything is a toy! Buildings, trees, the environment, and even the people are little toy blocks that you arrange on your board. It really takes that childhood fantasy of creating your Lego town (which, in all honesty, is what city sims are) and turns it into a full game!

The toyful-ness of it even has a gameplay impact as well. Just like you did with your Legos, you can stack buildings on top of each other, creating monstrous custom buildings only you could have thought of. But be careful! There is physics at play, and if you don’t balance your structures out, or provide them with enough support, it will come crashing down in spectacular fashion. This aspect is, in my opinion, the best part of Tinytopia. From artistic freedom, to challenging yourself to build the craziest tower possible, it provides the game with so much fun and player expression. There are even challenge levels all about crazy structures, such as trying to build a city on a rocking see-saw, making sure you are balancing both sides of the scale.

We also can’t forget about toppling it all down, which was probably the only good thing about having to put away my toys. There are so many ways to bring chaos into your city too! Meteors, earthquakes, tornados and so on, you could even use them to see if your city could withstand these natural disasters. Or even more fun, you can summon Godzilla or Aliens to wreak havoc, where you can even place down defences to see your toys trying to fight off the invasion. At the end of the day, you can simply just push over a building to watch it all go down like dominos too.

Simple Management

The economy and logistical side of Tinytopia is, as I mentioned, very easy to comprehend. Mostly working off of a checkmark system, you just have to make your all your citizens are provided with jobs, electricity, healthcare, and security by placing the respective buildings around their homes. Resource side, all you need to worry about is money, and making sure you are making more through taxation (which is your only income) than you are spending on keeping your facilities running. 

It feels like the game was really built for players new to citybuilders. It does teach some of the basic fundamentals, like checking heat maps and making sure you are squeezing as many people as possible within the ranges of your facilities. For experienced players, i’s quite easy to do, and once your city is on its feet, you will have money flowing in faster than you could ever spend. At times it does feel like busywork since it doesn’t really take much thinking or planning, but you do have the option to turn it off if you are playing in sandbox mode. 

I do feel like there is a bit of a missed opportunity here though. I was a little disappointed that emergency buildings didn’t have an upper-range, as in that you could have a massive tower and a tiny doctor’s office on the first floor could take care of everyone above it. Since there is so much fun in stacking structures in this game, it would be interesting having to manage citizen’s needs a hundred floors up. I just wanted to create my own dystopian mega-structure and simulate it, is that too much to ask? Probably. 

When it comes to the easiness of it all, even balancing the numbers to be harder as you player later scenarios could have added some challenge. It would also open avenues for the new players to get better at the more intricate parts of city planning. Or even a good-old difficulty setting to keep it interesting for older players.

I think Tinytopia is a great game for younger audiences, especially ones interested in dipping their toes into citybuilder games. Fun, creative, and full of destruction! However, for veteran players looking for a new, complex system to dive into, I’d definitely look elsewhere.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Tinytopia Review – The Perfect Starter Citybuilder appeared first on COGconnected.

Ah, the classic Metroidvania, a genre truly ahead of its time, demonstrated by how popular it still remains. These days, it truly feels like the genre has found a home within the hands of indie developers—and it’s honestly no big surprise. The idea of iterating on simple concepts, repurposing the same setting through the use of backtracking, and environment puzzles are all clever ideas that let small developers stretch their limited assets through their use of creativity.  

The latest contender throwing its hat in the ring of this legendary legacy is Betrayer: Curse of the Spine. The game brings in lots of familiar mechanics while innovating on its own ideas as well. The dark fantasy setting, although distinctly not gothic, brings the original spirit of Castlevania, and intricate pixel graphics follows up on that classic nostalgia as well. However, the curveball comes in at the fact that Betrayer lets players spend points to unlock power-ups instead of simply finding them in the world, complicating the formula in many surprising ways.

Intricately Connected World

The world in Betrayer is mysterious and foreboding. Given very little information as to your circumstances, you wake up in an abandoned garrison, only knowing that you’ve been cursed. With not much to go on, you seek to break this curse and hopefully find some answers along the way.

Reflecting this mysteriousness of the world, the map design is equally perplexing in a great way. Everything is wide open for you to explore, meaning that you might easily walk into areas that are too difficult for you to defeat. I love this type of design, it makes the world feel more real. The world doesn’t tailor itself around the player, instead, the player needs to find their way around the world, and it gives them something tangible to work towards. It even gives the people willing to challenge themselves the satisfaction of beating something they aren’t ready for.

Speaking of which, since the exploration powers can be unlocked by how you allocate orbs you find in the world, you can almost choose which area to unlock next. Many of the unlock conditions seem to have been designed around this fact too, meaning that it feels like there are many ways you can access them. At times, it felt like I almost cheated the system and arrived in areas where I wasn’t supposed to be by doing a bunch of janky tricks. I also mean that in the best way possible, it’s great where games allow room for players to be clever.

Combat Might Need a Little Work

As the game is currently ongoing development, I hope the devs look into flushing out their combat systems a little more. Currently, that is the biggest downside of this game for me, especially because there is such an emphasis on combat in this game.

The fact that your attacks have such short-range, and how they knock your opponent so far away makes it impossible to utilize the combo system the game has. This is made worse by the fact that your opponent just charges at your blindly or stays far away and fires projectiles. There aren’t patterns to exploit or complex attacks to overcome. Finally, having so many of the upgrades be “do more damage” or “give critical hit chance” isn’t a very interesting way to deepen the combat, and I expect a little more out of the power-ups in my Metroidvanias.

But again, what the game has going for it is amazing, and with such a strong foundation, I can only see Betrayer: Curse of the Spine getting better. Keep an eye out for this one!

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Recompile is one of the most interesting games I’ve played in a while. This entire Metroidvania takes place within a supercomputer’s code, where you play as a bit of code (ahem, virus) inserted into its neural network. Birthed into this strange system, you know nothing but the small bit of information provided to you by your coder: discover what had happened to this computer.

In the third-person perspective, you are represented by a little human-like figure, the programming infrastructure as glitching landscapes, and anti-viruses as murder drones. You explore this constantly changing space, uncovering its many mysteries while shooting down (decompiling) the threats that get in your way. And although the game certainly takes liberties in its representation, it nails the balance of artistic liberties with the real know-how of computer systems to keep everything believable.

Story Told Through Art and Gameplay

This might sound a little strange, but I would call Recompile post-apocalyptic. Yes, it is missing the usual suspects of nukes or zombies, without the aesthetics of dilapidated buildings and broken-down cars, but by definition, I think I’d call the world of Recompile post-apocalyptic. At least from the player character’s perspective, this computer system is the world, and whatever happened to it is causing it to fall apart. The entire foundation of the world is glitching out, much of its systems offline, and its once-busy networks are empty but for the few functioning anti-virus software going haywire. 

Your job isn’t as simple as finding nodes to hack to get information. Sometimes, the systems are so broken that you may need to find a way to bypass parts of it, or perhaps find a way to repair it. You may even discover bits of code along the way that you can incorporate into your own, expanding the number of commands you can execute, offering you more ways to interact with the world. Although there isn’t as much backtracking as the genre’s classic examples go, this is where the Metroidvania aspects reveal themselves.

I was most struck by the use of this unique environment in its storytelling. The information provided to you is sparse and oftentimes missing parts from the many system failures. Presented to you in glitched-out code, it really feels like you are recovering parts of destroyed data. What you will find are logs made by the users of the HPRVSR, this artificial intelligent supercomputer that you are in. Bit by bit, you discover things not only about the HPRVSR, but the world outside of the computer. Something’s happening out there and it’s bad, but of course, you don’t get to see any of it. This creates a story full of intrigue and wonder as it leaves you to piece together everything.

Everything about Recompile rings in this sparseness. The game doesn’t hold your hand, it drops you in the world and bare minimum instructions, giving you space to explore things on your own. It doesn’t have to tell you anything because it makes you feel this post-apocalypse by its storytelling method, gameplay, world design, and even within its intradiegetic options menu.

The Glitched Aesthetic

When it comes to indie games, I love seeing developers utilizing their lower budget and resources in smart ways. The visuals of Recompile are simple but striking. Geometric shapes, bold and contrasting monochrome textures, simple effects that mimic graphical glitches. All of this adds to not only the unique worldbuilding but requires less resources to run and produce. The effects are done particularly well, looking so realistic that sometimes you might be questioning if your computer really is dying. Additionally, utilizing code/text as much of the visuals keeping pushing this utilitarian minimalist design even further.

The music and sound design are amongst my favorite parts of the game as well. The trailers don’t do it justice, because I was expecting the usual cliched synthwave fare we’ve seen over and over in modern sci-fi. However, Recompile yet again exercises nuance and minimalism with sound to create an effect that brings the entire piece together. 

Most of the time playing the game, you are surrounded by near-silence, only the hum of electronics and your footsteps echoing within this dark landscape. The sound reflects the emptiness of the world, making you feel lonely, and maybe even a little melancholic of what this place may have been. 

Music is saved for special occasions… and when it does come, they really hit. There are some electronic scores, but I was surprised by how much of it was not. Deep brass that gives the feeling of ancient machinery coming to life, or a lonely piano that delivers the essence of a computer beeping away as it loses power—these are the songs that stick with me afterward.

Recompile is the complete adventure package. It has good gameplay, an intriguing minimalist story, striking visuals and music, and developers who respect the player’s ability to explore on their own. Go get it, you won’t be disappointed.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Recompile Review – Sombre Exploration In Code Space appeared first on COGconnected.

When I think of 4X games, the classic Civilization series comes to mind, and after that, a bunch of space-themed scenarios like Stellaris, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Endless Space. No matter where you go, the common theme to all of them is that they take place on a grand, world-changing scale. City of Gangsters takes this genre and flips it, keeping it in the scale of a large city, and does a surprisingly good job at it.

As the name implies, the game is about running a gang. Taking place in the 1920s USA, Prohibition is creating a huge opportunity for those willing to take it. You play as one of these “entrepreneurs,” starting from a small basement brew operation, eventually growing out to meet demands as your name grows. But be careful, you aren’t the only one investing in this opportunity, and criminals don’t tend to play nice with competition.

Money is Everything

In City of Gangsters, money is everything. Each action you take will revolve around making money, only to spend it to make more. But how do you do that? Well, of course, by exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating!

At the start of each game, you are a stranger to the city and barely know your way around your own neighborhood. With a little work, though, you make a few connections around you—maybe a restaurant with thirsty patrons, or someone that can provide you supplies, or a friend who is willing to set up a “legal” front for your “business.” After a few right moves, your name will spread, and your business will grow like wildfire. Soon, you will realize that the operation is getting too big for one person to handle, so you hire other people who are willing to do what needs to get done. All of a sudden, you now own a gang.

Then there is the final X: Exterminate. Even if you try to be as peaceful as possible, you are running an illegal operation at the end of the day, and violence will eventually find you. As you expand, you will run into another gang’s territory, and they will want your resources as much as you want theirs. Once they start muscling into you, it’s exterminate or be exterminated.

You can’t go in all-guns-blazing. The thing that keeps everything in check in the City of Gangsters is the law. Knowing when to be a little quiet is what will keep your gang alive. Sometimes you can’t help but make some noise, but thankfully, there is always a solution if you have the money. Buying out the police will be expensive, so you will have to calculate if it’s going to be worth the price. Also, remember, there are limits to how much the cops are willing to turn a blind eye to. Having an all-out war with another gang on the streets is nothing but mutually assured destruction.

Too Many Resources?

Without a doubt, City of Gangsters is a unique twist on the 4X formula, and it definitely has some very well-executed ideas. Unfortunately, were a few areas where I thought the game missed the mark in crafting the basics of what makes the 4X genre so addicting, that just-one-more-turn feeling that good ones give us.

The first point, ironically, is that there are too many resources for players to exploit. Scarcity is paramount for all strategy games. It’s what drives us to go out and explore for better land; it’s what makes us scared when we see that our competitors have grabbed hold of a powerful tool. It’s what encourages us to take risks and aggressive actions. The classic example of this in other games is luxury resources that prevent you from expanding properly until you get a hold of more of them.

In City of Gangsters, you are never at a loss for customers or specific resources. In fact, there are really no rare resources that you need to be hounding or hunting after. In other titles, you would have tribes, wonders, or anomalies that provide a substantial bonus to the first person to find it, but no such mechanic exists here. On top of that, exploring is slow. Not only do you need to go to a new area, but you also need to then slowly inspect each and every business on the block, which takes turns and lots of clicks. The fact that you don’t really need to find more specific resources makes exploring just not really worth your time.

I want to talk about the mechanic that requires you to inspect each business a bit more, which, on top of the time it takes, means that much information is hidden from the players. I understand that the game is trying to do this “hidden criminal underground” thing, but obscuring profitable resources makes it much harder to plan out your actions. Easy to access resource information is not only a feature in most 4Xs but in all strategy games as a whole, from RTS like Age of Empires to board games like Settlers of Catan.

Your growth as a character and gang functions a bit like the tech tree in this game, except it’s not a tree at all. You find new techniques to do things by random acquaintances and connections offering you a quest. As much as I appreciate the game trying to lean on the design of needing these connections, this aspect hurts the game from building momentum.

For me, one of the best parts of 4X games is how much time you spend just staring at tech trees, planning out which direction you want to go, made more complex by the player having to adjust their plans depending on the resources and the threats around them. In City of Gangsters, the tech growth happens by random, making it almost impossible to plan ahead. Perhaps instead, it could have had a normal tech tree but requiring specialized connections and acquaintances to speed up the process and to keep up the theme. This would also alleviate the game’s lack of rare, highly sought-after resources.

Overall, City of Gangsters is a fine title that attempts some fun twists on the 4X genre. The setting is excellent, the art is good, and the music is atmospheric. It would have benefitted from a little voice acting, especially in the tutorials, as this game has a lot of text to read. City of Gangsters demonstrates that the 4x genre works just as well in miniature as it does in grand, sweeping epic spans of history.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post City of Gangsters Review – Bootlegger’s Empire appeared first on COGconnected.

You know when you are playing a city builder, sometimes it feels like you are just playing with toys? Place some houses here, nice trees here, a cute little shop there. Well, Tinytopia takes that idea to its logical conclusion—a city builder/simulation where you literally build with toys! 

Just from that description, I wouldn’t blame anyone for anticipating that this game probably has a fun art style, kind of like Planet Coaster. But don’t be mistaken! Tinytopia is at heart a physics-based game, which means, just as with real toys, you can stack and build your own beautiful, haphazard structures. This also means if you don’t stack things correctly, or remove the wrong block, your entire city could come spectacularly crashing down!

Here Comes Godzilla!

So you build a beautiful city and run out of room to play, what to do now? I mean, there is that ferocious Godzilla action figure you have sitting in the corner… it could be cool to see it walk through some apartments. Well, heck, let’s do it! Make a new save and summon some monsters.

Tinytopia really embraces this awesome childish mindset. Destruction of your city can feel even more satisfying than building it, and since you’ve stacked blocks on blocks on blocks to fit everything into a small square, the devastation is just like seeing an awesome domino structure toppling down. I’m sure people are already making Rube Goldberg machines with these mechanics.

As satisfying as destruction can be, the building aspect can be quite fun as well. You can combine structures into specific formations to create new blueprints which will have greater effects than the sum of their parts. If you are going for a more free-form approach, there are tools like scaffolding to help you add some much-needed support to your rickety tower. At the end of the day, you will probably end up doing both, but seriously, there is something awesome in trying to stack your apartments as tall as possible without the construction turning into rubble.

Not Enough Simulation?

Tinytopia has all the basics of a city builder. You need to construct places for people to live in, and they need electricity, jobs, amenities, hospitals, and police. Just as the game is this cute project of playing with toys, the simulation puzzles are easy to solve—maybe too easy. All you need to do is plop down the required buildings around homes, and the game is finished. Well, of course, you can build it up just to unleash some monsters onto the city, but that may get stale after a little while. I hope the game will continue to develop the city management mechanics, even if it’s just a difficulty setting, just to keep it a little more exciting over the long haul.

Tinytopia is still in beta, so don’t take any of my concerns as real problems that will be in the final product. Many of the sim aspects do feel like placeholders right now, especially when it comes to the economy of the game. If you’re looking for a complex simulation, this game might not be heading in that direction, but even at this stage, Tinytopia is an engagingly fresh take on the city builder genre.

Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.

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The post Tinytopia Lets You Build (and Destroy) a City With Toys and Action Figures appeared first on COGconnected.

The first thing you’d notice when you step into Black Skylands is the beautiful pixel art with its cute characters. You play as Eva, an eleven-year-old girl who is just excited to see her father who had been gone for a long time, exploring the skies beyond an everlasting storm. You do some chores, meet the townsfolk, run around chasing your younger brother—you know, normal kid stuff. But then your dad finally reveals what’s kept him away for so long, he’s brought a caged monster from the storm, and he warns that they are coming. 

In the next seven years, lots change. Eva is no longer a bright-eyed child, instead, a dark apathy clouds her eyes as she builds coffins for the people that are killed every day. The skies are no longer safe, not only filled with monsters but with pirates taking advantage of the anarchy. Welcome to Black Skylands, and your dying home needs lots of help.

Hooks Ahoy!

Black Skylands is currently in early access but it’s off to a great start. I always say that nothing in any game matters if the gameplay is bad. The good news is that this one’s on a solid foundation. I think one of the best parts about any twin-stick shooter is its simple but satisfying control scheme that is so easy to grasp. Move with one stick, aim with the other. Just moving around feels satisfying with its mix of sprints, rolls, and of course, the grappling hook.

The hook is the real big difference maker here with its incredible versatility. You can grapple onto heavy objects like ships to pull yourself towards it, letting yourself pull off some dare-devil zips from one point to another. Or you can pull lighter objects or enemies to you, letting you kick an explosive barrel towards the enemy or find yourself some much-needed mobile cover.

The meta-gameplay is interesting as well, as much of the game is based on restoring your broken home, the Fathership. You will need to go explore around the Skylands to find resources that you can scavenge and bring back home safely, but only if you can avoid the pirates who are hungry for an easy payday.

My Wishlist

You know, as all early-access game goes, it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s going to make it into the final cut and what’s going to be improved. So I’m just going to throw a few of my concerns here hoping that the devs are working on it.

Most of it centers around storytelling. I got to say that the writing feels very rough, characters fall flat and the pacing feels too rushed. On top of that, there is so much dialogue that drags out the bad writing, where everything just turns into a blur of talking heads. The game could really be helped out by some voice acting, and I really hope that is something they are considering since this game seems to be quite story driven. 

But that’s just a small concern in an overall fantastic early access title. As I’ve said, you can have a fantastic game with just solid gameplay alone. Black Skylands is definitely a title to keep an eye on, and if you’d like to support the devs, check out their Steam store page!

The post Black Skylands’ Sky-Pirate Fantasy Blends Beautiful Art With a Dark Story appeared first on COGconnected.

Curved Space is an interesting twin-stick shooter game experimenting with gravity and orientation. The layout of the levels is where all the sauce is at. Always taking place on small asteroids or space stations, you can go upside down and downside up just by driving off the “edge”, where your vehicle will simply reorientate itself to the new floor. With a slew of weaponry that is also affected by the environment, the game’s mechanics are simple but fun.

However, there are a few problems to consider. Most importantly, If you suffer from motion sickness, you may want to stay away from this title as the rapid flipping is not the kindest on soft stomachs. There are also some minor problems with the gameplay that makes prevent it from reaching its full potential.

Good Ideas, Clunky Execution

As I said before, the game’s idea is simple but fun. Visually, it is impressive to be able to flip around a small arena where enemies can look gigantic just because of the scale of the thing. You can also lasso the spider aliens together to slow them down, or you could drain the energy from them by attaching them to a draining post. Combine this with the ability to dodge, and a super-powered overdrive mode, there is plenty of gameplay mechanics that build a strong base for Curved Space.

The biggest thing that may be a problem is motion sickness which really is determined by the stage you are playing on. I found that when I’m playing on space stations with their smooth surfaces, there were really no problems. But once you find yourself on any type of asteroids, you are in for a bumpy ride. Since your vehicle rides perfectly above any surface, that means any type of little elevation difference will yank your view around up and down, which gets pretty bad if you are moving fast. These types of surfaces also make it very unpredictable as to how your weapons will travel along the path, making the whole experience kinda frustrating.

I wish I could say that the problems with gameplay ended there, but there are some minor problems with turning which has major implications. The issue is that when you turn, the vehicle slides for a few frames before it comes to a stop. This might make the vehicle act a little more realistically, but it makes the game feel unreactive and aiming less intuitive. Now, I don’t have a problem with some realism in my games, but for an arcadey twin-stick I think focusing on the gameplay was the way to go.

Less is More

I feel like I make this point quite often, but here it is again: games don’t always need a story. For Curved Space, in particular, the story mode actively hurts the game. Within it, the nameless protagonist talks to herself in cliches while killing spiders as she goes through some sci-fi multi-dimensional storyline. Like the gameplay, the ideas here are neat, but the execution is lacking. In terms of writing a story, that would be strong characters and dialogue.  

The problem with its existence is that besides the campaign, I don’t see what the main mode of the game is. There are modes like Survival, Daily Runs, Endless, and Arena, but all these seem like afterthoughts after the campaign. There isn’t a mode where you can jump in to play where you get to experience the whole thing. I feel like a mode that gets progressively more difficult as you choose your upgrades between levels could have been cool. Y’know, an Arcade Mode? 

Curved Space is described as arcade-style anyways, so I don’t understand why the devs thought the story was needed at all. If they focused on polishing a mode that players can have some mindless fun, Curved Space could be leaps and bounds better. There’s a reason why rogue-lites have been finding so much success in the indie sphere: gameplay-first designs that are just nice to play.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Curved Space Review – I Needed Less Story & More Gameplay appeared first on COGconnected.

Wildermyth is a unique game that doesn’t feel unfamiliar, especially if you’ve played tabletop RPGs before. Like in Dungeons and Dragons, you create a party of adventurers and see them grow from local village nobodies to legendary heroes. The aesthetics and gameplay call back to the tabletop origins too, with tactical grid-based combat that heavily focuses on your positioning and strategy.

But of course, there are plenty of other games that play like that, for example, D&D’s very own Baulder’s Gate comes to mind. However, the thing that truly sets Wildermyth apart is its procedural generation. The real spirit of tabletop RPGs is the idea that the story isn’t set in stone and your choices can drastically alter the main plot. Although I wouldn’t say Wildermyth reaches that level of complete freedom, its procedural storytelling manages to give wildly different outcomes while providing a surprisingly cohesive storyline supported by excellent writing. And yes, like any good tabletop games, you can bring your friends.

Usually, the problem with procedurally generated storytelling is that they can often end up feeling nonsensical or so blended that none of the differences really matter. Wildermyth seems to solve this with a few brilliant tricks. Of course, there is a huge variation in scripts that must have been put into this, but to prevent it from going out of control the game’s storytelling takes a bit of a hands-off approach to the narrative, letting you fill the gaps. The world isn’t fully explained and there isn’t long dialogue with unimportant NPCs that dump exposition over your head. There aren’t quest givers either, but there are plenty of problems you can see with your own eyes where you have to decide for yourself which to solve first. 

Tell Your Legend

The narrative parts of the story are few but impactful, giving you control over where it is most important, but in a way that still reflects your characters’ personalities and choices made thus far. Sure, this game might lack a complex dialogue tree, but I think it was a smart decision for the devs to go against the established CRPG standards. Without the sheer amount of lines the writers would have needed to create for a dialogue tree, the result feels like a much stronger narrative for a procedural game.

There are places where it does feel a little lacking though, and that is understandable. It seems like much of the character decisions are based on the personality traits they get assigned in character creation, rather than ones you pick up as you go. You can choose them yourself, but with the long list of adjectives that don’t provide you with any sort of idea of how this may affect a person, it can feel a little directionless and unimpactful until the niche cases arise. After a while, I just found myself randomly generating them instead. 

To add to that, the lack of backstory and incorporation is another bit that is understandably missing from the game. Sure this character is brave, but how did they become brave? These types of details are what make a character stand out from the tropes. You can write your own backstory for your characters, but those are just for your own pleasures. Since your dungeon master is a bot, they can’t incorporate it into the story in any way. This makes the characters themselves feel a bit like blank slates, and perhaps some survive long enough to grow a story of their own, but I never found myself being attached to the character itself, only the time I invested within them.

But I don’t mean to downplay how well their procedural story generation works. The story it weaves and the situations the characters get into feel incredibly organic and player-driven. The characters that are generated are great, just not strong enough to hold up a story, and there is nothing wrong with a plot-centered narrative.

Arts & Crafts

One of the most striking details about the game is undoubtedly its paper cut-out models which accentuates the feeling of playing something tabletop. I was surprised by how well it worked, and the models manage to be quite expressive, with a large amount of customization and equipables letting them stand out. If you are worried that the game might feel a little too childish (the trailer doesn’t help with this), I found myself pretty easily immersing myself into this art style that manages to be surprisingly serious when it needs to be. The narrations which are done in a comic book style really help with this fact. 

Moving the pieces in the board really has almost a nostalgic feel to them of really playing a tabletop RPG. You can even turn the board around to observe the setting and the 2D-ness of it all. This helps the combat feel calculated and strategic, which works in its favor with how much it emphasizes positioning. 

The combat is interesting with a huge amount of skills that can be unlocked that all seem pretty well balanced. The spellcaster letting you bend environments to your will really emphasizes paying attention to your terrain, which is one of my favorite elements of the combat. However, if I were to criticize one thing it’s that the combat can feel a little too random. It’s a bit of a holdover from the TTRPG roots I suppose, and I know some people like it, but I find it always frustrating to get one-shotted by a monster after missing three of my own killing blow against it.

Overall, Wildermyth is a fantastic addition to the CRPG genre that shows how great procedural generation can be when used smartly. I would highly recommend this game for anyone who is a fan of TTRPGs, maybe even with a couple of friends if your playgroup has been looking for something new to tackle.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Wildermyth Review – Procedural Generation Done Right appeared first on COGconnected.

Wasteland 3 is back with its first DLC: The Battle of Steeltown. Centered around a factory city responsible for creating most of Colorado’s weapons and tech, your team is sent to investigate when the goods stop coming. Thrust into a dispute between the overworked employees and the stressed managers trying to produce enough weapons to keep Colorado safe from the raider armies, it’s up to you to decide how Steeltown will get up and running again.

Introducing new gameplay features like non-lethal weaponry, the DLC is improving upon Wasteland 3’s formula of making your decisions matter. It also advertises new gear and a weighty crafting system that will test your resource management abilities. The question comes down to how well the game handles all these elements for paid-DLC content.

Easy Choices

The story is… fine, I guess. Nothing is terribly wrong with it but I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. There are a few reasons for this, the first being the fact that the choices are too easy. Almost from the get-go, the game makes it abundantly clear that the management is evil and the workers’ strike is well justified. You don’t need a communist to see how blunt it is either. Even the most hardcore capitalists will see how pathetic the management is with their terrible leadership skills that forcing the workers under their rule will only result in less productivity. 

This isn’t a great evil VS good story where you get to roleplay a side depending on your character. There is no reason to be evil here except for the sake of being evil, as there are no personal gains or complex conspiracies for you to contend with.

The other problem with this story is that there are no compelling character developments. The major actors are all static archetypes who don’t change depending on your actions, and with how little you actually interact with them, you don’t get to know them intimately. This ultimately makes it hard to care about Steeltown and turns it into an unmemorable side-story. 

I think if this was just simply a section in the base game, I wouldn’t be so bothered. But when you buy a DLC, you kind of expect a full package, a main-story worthy narrative and choices.

Just a Little More Polish

What I did like about the DLC is the new weapons, especially the non-lethal variety. Adding more pressure into your decision-making not only by words but by combat is a very compelling way to add to the already complex web. By also making the weapons feel quite a bit more underpowered compared to your normal weaponry, it is also kind of a hard decision to make, as you risk more injuries to yourself to try to be a pacifist. 

However, your pets and NPC followers will still attack with lethal intent. This obviously becomes a big headache as you either need to dismiss them or kill them to stop them from killing others. I think this could have been a nice place for the devs to improve on the follower system by allowing you to give simple orders to NPC followers to stand down. 

Additionally, your non-lethal weapons won’t really work outside of Steeltown, so it’s more of a system that exists in a vacuum. I understand that this is a big ask for the devs to incorporate it into the rest of the game, and I get why they couldn’t do it, but it just adds to more reasons why Steeltown feels like an inconsequential DLC sidequest. 

The crafting system is not really interesting either, although you are given a limited amount of resources to craft your goodies with, the items themselves are not terribly interesting, even if they are quite strong. I was really hoping for some new toys that would change up the playstyle, you know?

Thankfully, the humorous writing is still there and I will admit that Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown got a few chuckles out of me. The environment and models for the area also look awesome, and the unique flair of folk-tunes makes a great return (I just wish there was more). Overall, Battle of Steeltown is decent but if you are a Wasteland fan, I would recommend you wait for a sale to pick this one up.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown Review – Funny But Forgettable appeared first on COGconnected.

Heroes of the Inner Sphere feels like what MechWarrior should have been on release. When I reviewed MechWarrior 5 a year and a half ago, I was quite a bit disappointed. The foundation was great but something was missing. Well, although it might have taken a little while to get here, I’m happy to say this DLC has fixed many problems.

The expansion revolves around a brand new mode of play—the Career Mode. Here, you can create a mercenary company of your own to do as you please. Travel the galaxy, join wars, make allies and enemies, and make a name for yourself.  Not tethered to a story, you are free to write your own.

The Economy Game

Without the game holding your hand, the awesome management component of the game is even better in Career Mode. In between your explosive mech battles, you get to decide how you run your mercenary company. What new contracts would you take? Will you travel to a new system? Where will you spend your money? 

What’s so great about the management side of the game is that it makes the battles more interesting. It provides stakes to the battles that go beyond just winning and losing. Every shot you take is another damage you are going to need to repair. If you don’t protect your other pilots, they may get injured or even killed which may severely hurt your future chances of winning.

Little details muddy the decision-making even further. For example, repairing in a conflict zone costs more money and time, but so does travelling. This means you are going to need to plan ahead and take some calculated decisions often. Additionally, the reputation system also adds a nice dimension to the game where you may decide not to take the best paying job to manipulate which factions become your friends and enemies. 

What’s amazing is that much of this was already in the original game. I think MechWarrior 5 is a great lesson in that not all games need a story, especially if they are going to be half-assed. I’m thoroughly convinced that the original campaign actively hurt this game. Not only by taking away from the developers from creating this Career Mode, but also by locking away the best elements of the game behind a boring story.

It Still Could Be Better

Unfortunately, the patterns continue with this game with missed potential. As great as the Career mode is, it could easily be much better. The problem is that the game doesn’t often force you into making hard decisions or taking risks.

The easiest way to accomplish this would be to give tasks a time limit. It excites me just imagining having to decide maybe not to repair my mechs to catch the lucrative contract expiring the next day. That means I would have to plan ahead even more, as some contracts would require me to play incredibly conservatively so I could go into the next fight healthy. Unfortunately, all employers in the game are willing to wait forever for you.

A quest that takes you across the galaxy could be incredible. Since travelling is so expensive, you would need to save money for the trip, but you would need to plan enough time to get there. Maybe random events could slow you down, requiring you to pay money to repair your ships. You may need to take random jobs on the road and reroute around areas of the galaxy that has grown too dangerous, even for you. 

What about rival mercenary groups? They could take your contract just as you arrive at the system, or even interfere with you during a mission to take the bounty for themselves. You could develop relationships with other companies, make tangible friends and enemies outside of faction. I think this would really bring the galaxy to life.

Maybe the rival idea would take a lot of time to develop, but the other two could be easily be produced with what’s already in the game. Just like last time, I feel like MechWarrior 5 could have really thrived with more development time or a larger team. 

Base Game Changes

I dipped my head into the original campaign to find that they hadn’t really changed it much, if at all. It didn’t surprise me since it looks like they had focused their attention on developing this DLC instead, which I think was the right choice. But this also means that I wouldn’t recommend this game without the DLC.

I had mentioned that the AIs were pretty dumb in the last review, and although I can’t confirm this, it seems like they have made some effort into making it better. Rather than all enemies behaving the same, charging into you to initiate a circling deathmatch, it will change depending on the enemy mech. As it should work logically, quick mechs with short-ranged weapons will come charging at you, while sniper bots will try to keep their distance from you. The AI still isn’t exceptional, but it isn’t as frustrating.

All in all, I’m quite pleased with how much the devs have done with MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries. Heroes of the Inner Sphere only enhances a rock solid foundation. Granted, it’s certainly not a perfect experience, but I can now confidently recommend MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries to any mech enthusiasts. Just make sure to get it with the DLC 

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries- Heroes of the Inner Sphere Review – Exactly What We Needed appeared first on COGconnected.

Days Gone is finally on PC as a part of Sony sharing some of its exclusive titles like Horizon Zero Dawn. The open-world zombie survival game came out in 2019 to a lukewarm reception for a variety of issues. The question is, has its adaptation into PC fixed any of these problems? The short answer is yes!

The long answer is a bit more complicated. As many improvements were made, some core issues are still present. Nothing major about Days Gone feels new or unique; if you’ve played another American triple-A open-world game, you’ve played Days Gone. However, that’s not as damning as it sounds. For all its cliches, Days Gone still manages to be entrancing. There is a reason why this gameplay is popular, after all.

Great Acting, Clumsy Writing

Don’t get me wrong, the writing on Days Gone isn’t necessarily bad. The characters are compelling, and the dialogue is especially well written, supported by some top-tier performances by the actors. The problem lies in the structure of the plot, which feels meandering and duct-taped together.

The story follows the biker Deacon St.John as he attempts to survive the post-apocalypse with his best friend, Boozer. Deacon’s backstory revolves around the death of his wife, which, although compelling, doesn’t help out the cliched trend of countless male protagonists based on the tragic loss of their female partners/children in an already cliched zombie genre. 

You motorbike around the beautifully realized mountains of Oregon, surviving and taking jobs for the few remaining human holdouts lead by charismatic figureheads with their own antagonisms. Meanwhile, you are trying to deal with your past and figure out what had happened. Once it gets going, the story is quite exciting, but that’s the problem: it needs to get going. 

At certain points, I felt like I was watching bad television. There are so many moments that feel like filler episodes that I have to work through to get to the good stuff. The story stays just interesting enough with little teases, but I wish it didn’t meander for so long. 

Structurally, the plot is a bit of a mess as well. You only need to play ten minutes to get what I mean; Days Gone has one of the most clumsy openings I’ve ever seen in a triple-A title. Once you select play, it thrusts you right into an intense flashback with absolutely no introduction, then cuts right into another entirely unrelated chase scene in the present. It takes a very long time for players to truly gain control of Deacon and get an idea of what is happening in the world and the very character you are playing. Man, I get wanting to get to the interesting stuff early, but this isn’t the way to do it, especially if the pacing it is going for is meant to be slow.

Blessed PC Improvements

Amongst the biggest problems of the original release were to do with its technical limitations and a variety of bugs. I’m happy to report that most of these issues have been fixed for the PC port, and Days Gone runs absolutely beautifully. The game looks stunning, with settings turned up to max. I didn’t experience any fluctuations nor terrible load times on the optimization side as it did on the PS4—and I didn’t even install it on my SSD. It also seems like they put in some considerable effort in fixing many of the bugs too. As much as the game was criticized for game-breaking glitches, I didn’t experience any major issues with the PC release. 

Gameplay-wise, I really feel like Days Gone is infinitely superior on the PC then PS4. The often hated gunplay of the original, in my opinion, is the best and most unique aspect of Days Gone now—the unwieldy and inaccurate guns of the apocalypse work with the additional control you have on PC.

My favorite part of the guns is that, unlike most other shooters, your first shot isn’t pinpoint accurate, but you can make it accurate with patience. When you first aim with your weapon, your aiming reticle is large, but the longer you hold your aim, you will notice your reticle shrink. This means that taking a deep breath and making slow, accurate shots is your best bet in Days Gone. This gets incredibly difficult with hordes of zombies breathing down your neck. I feel like this was the intended gunplay by the developers, but it just didn’t translate on consoles.

Perfectly Executed Cliche

The open-world of Days Gone is stunning, full of things to do and stories to tell. But of course, the problem is, that’s not really a unique thing anymore. With games like GTA, Red Dead, Horizon Zero Dawn, a well-executed open world isn’t something that wows me anymore. But still, I can’t take away the fact that it is incredibly well done. It’s just that I wanted something more, something memorable.

There are honestly only so many bases I can clear of raiders, scraps to scrounge, things to craft, treasures to check off on the long list before I feel like it is all meaningless. I also think this feeling is especially exacerbated because I’ve played all these other great open-world games in the past with the exact same side missions.

But why, oh, why do I still feel compelled to go back and play the game? As I said before, Days Gone feels like bad TV. It has no substance, but goddamn is it nice just to relax and follow along with the story and its hypnotizing gameplay loops. There are definitely better games out there, but without a doubt, Days Gone is a perfectly entertaining title to waste a week in.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Days Gone (PC) Review – Perfectly Average appeared first on COGconnected.

Legend of Keepers is a neat rogue-lite from the French indie Goblinz Studio where you get to create dungeons full of monsters to defend it from greedy adventurers. The concept is hardly original, going back to the classic 90s title, Dungeon Keeper, and it even feels like the title might be a nod to it. But don’t worry, Legend of Keepers stands on its own merit with lots of fresh takes for the fans of the genre to dive into.  

The all-popular rogue-lite elements give the game the usual sense of randomness and replayability where it tests the player’s ability of foresight, adaptation, and risk management. You’ll need to think about which traps to buy, which monsters to train, and how to manage your dungeon. Yeah, that’s right, you’ll also need to sharpen those managerial skills to keep your murderous employees happy! Apparently being cannon fodder isn’t the greatest job in the world…

Although not entirely similar, I like to think Legend of Keepers like a reverse Darkest Dungeon, as there are many points of comparison you could make. First of all, turn-based combat works the same way. You assemble a group of synergistic heroes (or monsters, in this case), line them up in the right order, and utilize attacks that affect a specific position within the enemy line. You can either defeat your opponents by dealing with physical damage, or by attacking their mental state.  

How to Keep a Dungeon

Furthermore, the management works in some similar ways. If your monster got injured during their defense, they will become stressed out, which means that you need to either give them a break or risk them becoming unavailable to you. To make them stronger, you need to decide who you are going to spend money on training, which is also not too dissimilar to Darkest Dungeon. 

I think the formula works quite well here and with the element of it being in reverse adding to the two games feeling quite different from each other. Of course, there are many differences as well. Your character, which is the master of the dungeon, is also a playable character that will await the heroes at the end of the dungeon, as all bosses should. This works as more of the main character that you will level up to carry the advantages between your many runs, and it’s always rewarding to unlock the next set of talents. 

Between the defense missions, you will be given a variety of choices to make in randomized non-combat scenarios. These things vary from hiring a group therapist for your monsters (seriously) to sending them in separate contracts, where they will become unavailable to you for a few weeks to earn you some more treasure. 

Is It Badass or Funny?

There are a few flaws to the system though, and for me, the biggest came at the depth of team-building. My favorite parts of rogue-lites are looking for synergies between my combos and chasing the perfect combinations of items/abilities/monsters to really make my team sing. There are synergies in Legend of Keepers, no doubt about it, but there are some problems around it. The most obvious one is that the choices you make in building/upgrading your team are very few and far between, and in games of randomness, having only a few chances to roll the dice just means you are seldom going to get the opportunity to see anything interesting. The second issue is that most of the synergies are sort of uninteresting, usually having to do with minor increases in damage and resistances, nothing game-changing. For players like myself, this is very discouraging, as the game then simply felt like I was just pulling together the best numbers, rather than creating interesting, unique combinations.

Writing-wise, there are some problems with the tone. It feels like it’s trying to be both a tongue-in-cheek parody of fantasy tropes and office culture, while trying to be dark and badass at the same time. You probably don’t really need to think about that to know that both those feels just clash in the worst way. Am I supposed to feel like an evil overlord destroying the world or a corporate slave?

Honestly, either could work, but the story just needs to commit. I’m fine with a story of an evil overlord that’s constantly getting lost in the bureaucracy of the system, that would be hilarious. Unfortunately, as it is right now, the two sides never really interact with each other, which leads to the confusing question if this is meant to be a comedy or not. The truth is, it kills both sides right now. None of the jokes land nor do I feel like a badass final boss.

All in all, Legend of Keepers is a fine game with some issues and lots of things to love. There are certainly better rogue-lite/management games out there, but this title provides a unique flavor that may be perfectly suited for the right player.

***PC review code provided by the publisher***

The post Legend of Keepers Review – Reverse Darkest Dungeon? appeared first on COGconnected.

I am getting so tired of games comparing themselves to Dark Souls, and I’m saying that as a fan of the souls-like genre. The problem is that this term is constantly applied in the wrong way, and so many seem to think that difficulty equals souls-like. Demon Skin is one of these examples, by utilizing their unoriginal “YOU ARE DEAD” death screens prominently in their trailer footage, they seem to take great pride in how hard their game is. To drive this point home, in their game summary, they even directly compare their game to Dark Souls.

Sorry, it just rubs me the wrong way. At best, it’s a complete misunderstanding of the genre, and at worst, it’s deceptive marketing. Anyways, with that out of the way, how well does this indie action game stand on its own merit?

Demon Skin, in essence, is a 2D hack & slash. Supported by some badass animations, you fight through undead monsters with a variety of weapons. There are some clever touches in the visual side of things, like your moves changing depending on your proximity to the opponent and their remaining health, even transitioning into a satisfying execution if they are low enough. The clean approaches to the character models and environments also help the game’s presentation. In between the fighting, there are some explorations and platforming segments to keep the gameplay from feeling too stale.

How Difficult Is It?

During combat, you can utilize combos by specific button combinations you find in the pause screen. Stances are used to determine where you attack to get around the enemy’s guard and also to guard against their attacks. The familiar stamina bar also makes an appearance, and of course, joined by the good-old dodge roll to get some invincibility frames. These, in parts, can be used to create a great action game, but unfortunately, Demon Skin doesn’t seem to understand why these elements succeed in good games.

Let’s start with the most important component: controls. Unlike well-designed action games, like Dark Souls it compares itself to, Demon Skin’s controls are complicated and unintuitive. I can write a long laundry list of why it doesn’t work, but I think one example should suffice. To block attacks, you need to enter the same stance as your opponent, but the face buttons which determine the stance you are in also puts you into an attack. This means, to quickly block, you have to use the D-Pad to change your stance, but since it is under the left stick, you can’t change your stance without awkwardly giving up your ability to move.

This should be a very basic problem to solve for the developers. Just put the stance control on the right stick, which is currently used to fiddle with your item inventory. I mean, for god sakes, they are inspired by Dark Souls, maybe they should study the game a little bit. Dark Souls uses the D-Pad for its item menu because the developers realized how unimportant it is compared to controlling your character in combat. Other elements follow the same pattern. Such as stamina, which seems to be put into the game because they wanted to copy Dark Souls but without properly implementing it to affect the game in an interesting way.

Supported by some badass animations, you fight through undead monsters with a variety of weapons. There are some clever touches in the visual side of things, like your moves changing depending on your proximity to the opponent and their remaining health, even transitioning into a satisfying execution if they are low enough. The clean approaches to the character models and environments also help the game’s presentation. In between the fighting, there are some explorations and platforming segments to keep the gameplay from feeling too stale.

So how difficult is the game? Honestly, the enemies are uninteresting and can be more or less beaten the same way. The game as a whole is pretty straightforward as long as you can get around its gimmicks and terrible controls. I felt more frustrated with its “difficulty” than challenged by it, especially its punishing-yet-mundane platforming.

Writing Gets Worse

The barebones story of this game is that you were some great warrior fighting some evil necromancers, but they hit you with a spell to erase your memory and powers. Now you have to fight to get it back. I’m not going to condemn a story just for its concept, but for Demon Skin, it’s as unoriginal as it sounds.

The characters are utterly uninteresting, they are all firehoses of exposition with no real stories or personalities of their own. The few cutscenes look like concept art which only shows more action (which the gameplay has plenty of) and no story. Like what’s the point of that in an action game?

I’m going to keep comparing it to Dark Souls because they started it themselves, but how the hell do you end up with the bluntest, simplest story imaginable when your inspiration is the complete opposite? This story honestly feels like something written by an edgy teenage boy.

This just annoys the hell out of me because with the original Dark Souls approaching its 10th birthday, there are a lot of gamers out there who only know the game by association. I honestly think it gives people the wrong impression of what the genre can be like, and it cheapens the original masterpiece. Just like how first-person-shooters were called doom-clones before it, we really need a new name for this genre.

***PC review code provided by the publisher.***

The post Demon Skin Review – Not a Souls-Like appeared first on COGconnected.

Before Your Eyes is an innovative game that you control with your eyelids. Yes, you read that right. This narrative-driven title about life, memories, and death will utilize your webcam to track your eyes in order to deliver its unique story. Fret not, if you do not own a webcam but still want to experience the story, there are options to play without one (although you will be missing out on much of its uniqueness). Developed by a small indie studio, GoodbyeWorld Games, the idea sprang from their student video game project, which rightfully took home a few awards. They brought the concept to Kickstarter and after a successful drive, Before Your Eyes is the result of their hard work. The question is, does this game achieve more than a neat gimmick?

The story follows a soul drifting in a river of some sort of purgatory. There, you are fished up by a boatsman, your personal Charon of sorts, that will take you to the proper afterlife. But first, you must show him your life story so he can present your case before the judge, who will decide your fate. 

Your memory starts from the first thing you can remember, and you float through the moments of your accomplishments, traumas, and finally, death. This is where your eyes will come in, as in certain points, blinking will carry you to the next memory. It’s like your life flashing before your eyes. All of this is beautifully supported by a simple, but cute art style, and a cast of fantastic voice actors.

Unintended Discomfort

There are certain moments of brilliance in this story where you try to desperately keep your eyes open, causing legitimate physical pain, in order to hold on to a beautiful moment just a little bit longer. On the flip side, sometimes you close your eyes and keep them closed to listen to others speak and focus on their fading voice. These little moments of brilliance are truly wonderful and give this game life, in giving us an interactive experience otherwise impossible to find.

Do you know when someone asks you to focus on your breathing, and certainly that unconscious action becomes weird? Am I breathing too fast, too slow? Through my nose or mouth? And suddenly, it’s like you’ve forgotten how to breathe normally. You might be feeling this right now.

That’s what Before Your Eyes can feel like. You get so self conscious about how you are blinking, it starts feeling weird. Your eyes may start stinging and you might feel the urge to blink more. Also since you need to stay right in the small detection square in your camera, you can’t really change your posture. Shifting or leaning in your chair throws off the sensors, even tilting and turning your head slightly can mess with it. This means you kind of have to force yourself to be a statue while playing the game.

This has such an unfortunate, unintended side effect on the game. This idea around blinking—which is, in its heart, meant to be an incredible immersion tool—makes it almost impossible to fully immerse yourself into the story. You are always thinking about yourself, your eyes, posture, to the point that it gets in the way of thinking about the characters like you are living through.  Therefore, I also highly recommend you take your time to calibrate your settings, camera, and posture before you get started. There is a pretty decent calibration tool that will walk you through it, and you should make sure everything is set perfectly. There is nothing worse than the game not registering blinks or registering blinks that are not even there.

Too Short or Long Enough

Before Your Eyes is like a movie, a little less than two hours to play through. In that sense, it is meant to be enjoyed in a single sitting, which I think was a good decision. The mechanics of blinking, although novel, can get physically exhausting after a little while. 

Unfortunately, the story itself feels like it could have used a little more room to breathe. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is strong, and it manages to make some very emotional beats. However, there is not much you can do with a silent protagonist who feels pretty inactive throughout their life.

The story ends up being driven more by the secondary characters, which although are good, don’t get room to develop far enough to be multi-faceted figures that can hold up a narrative on their own. It almost feels like the game ended as these characters were finally being tested. The end of this story didn’t feel satisfactory because I didn’t have any sort of excitement for the protagonist as I did for the other characters. I wanted him to be more active, to fight against his death, to be made into a more compelling protagonist.

The ending is sad, but it isn’t something that stuck with me. It’s like reading a tragic story in a newspaper about a stranger. I can empathize with the sadness, but not truly carry it into the rest of my day. 

I still commend the studio for its bravery and innovation. Before Your Eyes is unique enough to try out if you are interested. It’s just that although the game is backed by many wonderful talents, it lacked that little “umph” to turn it into something truly memorable.

***PC review code provided by the publisher.***

The post Before Your Eyes Review – Blink Your Way Through Tears appeared first on COGconnected.

“Simple” and “4X” feels like a contradiction. The genre, short for Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate, is known for its infinite complexity and its ability to eat up your entire day. Most people who’ve touched Sid Meiers’s Civilization have experienced being stuck in that “one more turn” loop. But sometimes you want to play a 4X but just don’t have the time to commit to a long campaign. What if there’s a game for that?

The Battle of Polytopia is the answer, a simplified 4X that takes less than an hour to play. This debut title from the Swedish indie studio Midjiwan AB is definitely a brave step to take within a genre where the fans are expecting something to sink their teeth into. So I guess the question is, do they still manage to capture what it means to be a 4X?

When it comes to the gameplay, yes! The Battle of Polytopia covers each of the Xs with no problem. Just like any good 4X, you start in a tiny spot of land covered by fog, and that excitement of exploring alive and well. The incentives surround you—resources to gather, geography to strategize around, and of course, new places to expand to. 

Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate

Expanding might be the biggest place where Polytopia differs quite a bit from other games of the genre as you cannot decide where to actually place down cities. Instead, you find tribal villages in ideal locations which you can incorporate into your nation by simply bringing your units over to it. This may feel like a bit of a bummer, and it kind of is, but in play, it actually feels just right. The traditional method of building a settler, finding a legal spot for a city, then bringing the settler over to plant it would slow down the pace of the game way too much (we’ll get to pacing very soon).

As I mentioned before, there are plenty of resources for you to exploit to grow your empire. Then you can use the said resources to construct new units, research technology, or exploit more of your surroundings! And to make things simpler, everything in the game is converted to a single resource type, stars. 

Finally, when you run out of areas to explore, places to expand to, and resources to exploit, you turn to extermination. In Polytopia, just like everything else, the wars are quick and cities can exchange hands multiple times within a few turns without penalty. It’s as simple as destroying the garrison unit, placing one of your own in their city, and if your unit isn’t killed by the start of the next turn, you can capture it.

Beauty in Simplicity

So how quick is The Battle of Polytopia? Well, in its classic mode, the games end at the thirty-turn mark, assuming you haven’t already conquered everyone by then. On top of that, with its simple resource system, instantaneous build times, and straight-forward units, you can easily complete each turn in under a minute. That’s right, once you get used to the game, you could easily play 3 games of Polytopia in under an hour.

The victory usually comes by the method of victory points, as the game tallies up everything you’ve done and assigns you a score at the end of the game. And practically everything gives you points. Exploring the fog? Points. Growing your city? Points. Winning battles? Points. You get the idea.

There are also plenty of bonus objectives that will grant you points as well. These feel very much like the spiritual equivalent to alternate victory conditions. You’ll find objectives like hoarding 100 stars to show your economic prowess, and not having attacked anyone for five turns in a row. These add some depth in matches as well, since if you know someone is trying to get the pacifist objective, they won’t be able to hit you back without losing their streak. If you are able to read your opponent doing such, you can exploit that for some free attacks or force them off the objective, a win-win. 

Of course, without a doubt, the game isn’t as complex as a normal 4X, but there’s something awesome about that. For instance, picking up Polytopia is a breeze, and you’ll get a complete sense of the game after only one or two games. You won’t get stuck in the tech screen trying to read and plan out the infinite possibilities only to realize you don’t know what you are doing. There aren’t all too many weird conditions, buildings or units for you to memorize either.

Still, with the simplicity, the game manages to have its own depth as well. Planning your turns and smart resource usage is still paramount. Since your tech and units use the same resource, you must balance your priorities in terms of economics, war, and exploration. Additionally, with lots of techs and milestones providing stars in themselves, I found there are still those satisfying “big turns” where you get to do dozens of things in a windfall. You just have to plan for them accordingly.

The Best Multiplayer 4X?

I think there is an argument to be made that Polytopia could be one of the best 4X multiplayer experiences out there. In other games of the genre, playing multiplayer with strangers is an absolute nightmare. First of all, you better know what you are doing, because either they will keep you on a rapid turn clock, or get mad at you for taking too long. You’ll either never finish a game, or have to get used to the community rule sets which allow single-session games to be possible. Even then games take 4+ hours, and things come up and people have to leave.

You can of course play with your friends, but you know that’s going to take months to finish if you are lucky. The more friends you have in your sessions, the more chance of delays occurring as well. Also what happens when one of your friends gets eliminated? That’s no fun. So you discourage going to wars against each other, which is one of the biggest parts of 4Xs.

In The Battle of Polytopia, there are no such problems. Finding matches is easy and finishing one is actually commonplace. This works incredibly well as the lack of complexity is replaced by the infinite possibility and competition of playing against other players. 

With its randomized maps, a variety of civilizations to choose from, and multiplayer as an accessible option, The Battle of Polytopia is surprisingly replayable. On top of that, being available for mobile devices, you can play it anywhere you go. Truly, The Battle of Polytopia is the pocket-sized 4X that I never knew I needed until I played it.

***PC review code provided by the publisher.***

The post The Battle of Polytopia Review – Easy to Pick Up, Hard to Master appeared first on COGconnected.

After just under a year of waiting, Nioh 2  is finally out on PC, and a complete edition to boot! This souls-like action RPG is definitely a worthy predecessor, improving on almost every aspect of the already excellent original. If you are not familiar with the franchise, the game’s system is complex in a drastically different way from the From Software classics, so don’t expect just another souls-like clone!

Even More Complex Combat

Nioh already felt among the most complex souls-likes out there, and Nioh 2 only adds more. I don’t also mean to say the word “complex” as an objective positive, but something that I think comes down to individual tastes. The Dark Souls franchise feels like an exercise in minimalism, where they push its deceptively simple controls to its beautiful limits. Nioh, on the other hand, is a show of extremism where they stack systems over systems while somehow maintaining its impressive balance.

The combat is more than just managing stamina and health bars. One of the seemingly minor changes that impact the game’s flow in a drastic manner is how you recover your stamina. After every combo, a well-timed ki pulse will regain you a huge chunk of the stamina you used to either keep on the offensive, or to switch to the defensive more safely. This system teaches the player to stray away from button-mashing and to play the game in a more methodical, rhythmic way, where knowing your combos by muscle memory will increase your potential by tenfold. 

Then there are stances. High for pure offence, where you will find your most damaging and furthest reaching moves at the cost of defensive options. Mid for balance, with decent attacks, parries and reduced cost for blocking. Low for speed, sacrificing offence for quicker runs and improved rolls that go further with more invincibility for less stamina. And unlike less interesting systems where your choice just depends on your playstyle, you must utilize all three stances to dominate the fight. 

Just in terms of dueling against other warriors, you have to react to the stance of your opponent. If they are in high stance, you may consider going low stance, where you can close the gap with your movement and overwhelm their weak guard with quick attacks. But if they are in mid stance, they will easily guard against your attacks and retaliate. In that case, a high stance to crush their guard might be the best option. This also gets more complex with monsters and multiple opponents. With stances a constant, fluid part of combat, you have to be quick to react and make the correct decisions. 

This gets combined with the ki pulse mechanics from earlier, where switching stances during your pulse rewards you with even more stamina. The ki pulse mechanic adds another layer as you choose to dance between stances, requiring foresight to which stance might be the best option next, or perhaps forgo the bonus as sticking to your current choice is sometimes the correct choice. This is only a small part of the impressive combat system the game offers, and with the inclusion of Yokai abilities and burst counters in Nioh 2, this game is a smorgasbord of mechanics to sink your teeth into.

More RPG Mechanics

Like the original, Nioh is back with guardian spirits, skill trees and random gears with stats. First, I’ll tackle the most impressive change, the guardian spirits system which received the Yokai transformation ability.

Previously, activating your guardian spirit just made your sword glow and improved your abilities, but now, you turn into a badass Yokai instead. A complete transformation that changes your moveset and playstyle, it is as fun to use as it is to look at. There are also three different forms you can turn into which offer a nice bit of variety. One of the lackluster components of the spirits in the previous game was how you barely got to use the mechanic due to the fact that it took a while to build it up. Although Nioh 2 isn’t much different in that regard, the addition of Yokai skills lets you use the demonic side without fully committing to the transformation. Additionally, since you can only have two separate abilities equipped at a time, this encourages yet more player decision making.

Unlike the first’s simple skill tree, Nioh 2 features a skill constellation—a web of interlocking nodes that are both visually impressive and terrifying. However, once you take a closer look, it’s quite intuitive. With each node providing new moves and interesting gameplay improvements, they managed to make each individual upgrade feel impactful. With separate constellations for each weapon, magic, and discipline, the options for builds are simply dizzying to think about.

The stats on gear have not changed much from the original, which was a sort of a downer for me. The first problem with the random gear in the game is that there are simply way too many drops with too many varieties of modifiers to give players any sort of gratifying choice for the amount of time spent in the inventory, especially early on in the game. With it being completely luck dependent, I found that I always just ended up defaulting to the highest level gear I had in my inventory. Why spend time finding the perfect item when you are just going to level passed it? 

Now, I get that considering optimal gear is more of an end-game thing, and it does indeed become more relevant there. But with the game being so skill-based you don’t need to min-max your gear to beat it, as long as you have decent items and a solid understanding of the combat. There are people who are going to farm for the perfect gear once they hit max level, but I wondered, what’s the point? This isn’t an MMORPG where you are gear gated for content or a dungeon-looter where the point of the game is to find new loot that completely changes the way you play. 

All in all, I find the random gear to be a distracting component to Nioh that keeps players staring at their inventory rather than engaging in its excellent gameplay.

Character Customization!

One of the most requested features, the ability to create your own character, is here in Nioh 2 and it’s better than I could have hoped. No longer do you have to play a white samurai as in the original. Sorry, William, I didn’t really like you.

With a vast number of sliders and options, making your character stand out is easy. On top of that, unlike many other games where making a good looking character is difficult (and you end up looking like an alien), I found it was hard to go wrong with Nioh 2’s art style unless you were trying to. And finally, you can even customize the way your transformation looks. It’s not as complex as your normal form, but it’s a layer of customization that’s unexpected but definitely nice to have.

How’s the Port?

For the most part, the port is quite standard. The most important thing, the ability to bump the game to 60-120 FPS is here and works like a dream. However, there are a few places where I noticed significant optimization issues where fighting against certain Yokai with lots of visual effects would cause slow-downs. They got better over the course of the fight, so it didn’t put the game in an unplayable state, but I’m hoping the port will be optimized in the next few months as these things go.

Additionally, not being able to completely customize my controls is a bit of a leftover from its console origins which I do not appreciate. PC players demand a higher standard of customizability, and I don’t think changing controls is asking for too much.

Nioh 2 is an excellent game on PC and if you were a fan of the first one, this is a must-buy. If you haven’t played the original, I hope the review gave you a sense of what the game is like. Are myriad of complexities in action games something that gets you excited or do they sound like needless distractions? I personally lean more to the minimalist side, but when a game pulls off its mechanics as well as Nioh 2, I don’t mind diving in once in a while.

***PC review code provided by the publisher.***

The post Nioh 2: Complete Edition Review – Worth the Wait appeared first on COGconnected.