Gal*Gun VR - PC / VR Review

Gal*Gun VR tells you just about everything you need to know in its title. You're playing a shooter, surrounded by gals while wearing VR glasses to help immerse you in this virtual reality title. Sure, there is plenty of fanservice here, but at its core we actually have surprisingly solid if unspectacular action game as well. The downside is, it can be pretty shallow also.

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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana - PS4 Review

Right now is a great time to be a fan of the Ys series. With just about a simultaneous release of the upgraded Ys Seven for the PC which came out back in 2009, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana takes the concepts that were designed almost a decade ago and takes it all a step further.

I’ll be upfront with the fact that I’ve been able to play both of these titles simultaneously. While not the one reviewing Ys Seven for CGR, that honor goes to Richard, I’ve been able to see just how much change was done between then and now without a nostalgia factor getting in the way. While a lot of smaller things have remained the same, as Seven did change the direction of the series with Adol now having party members, Lacrimosa of Dana has a lot going for it which makes it a great new entry while both being the Ys that everyone knows and loves and something new at the same time.

Lacrimosa of Dana starts off with Adol on a ship as both he and Dogi work as part of the crew in order to pay off their passage instead of paying for it which to them was a great option. Any fan of the series knows what’s about to happen as the word ship was used and it generally doesn’t go very well for our red haired protagonist. Attacked at sea by giant tentacles that can only belong to a Kraken, Adol fends off a few before the ship is capsized and everyone goes overboard. Waking up on a beach, Adol drags himself up in order to find out where he is and if anyone else survived.

From the moment that Adol wakes up on the beach, this is where Ys VIII really starts. Marooned on a cursed island, Adol and those that he finds and brings together are the only thing keeping each other alive. While rumours of giant monsters on the island of Altago are enough to spark Adol’s adventurer’s spirit, they are also enough to scare everyone else that are neither adventurers or warriors. Being a problem for a future time however as this adventure happens before The Ark of Napishtim and Seven, this island that they find themselves on has plenty of large monsters to boot and unfortunately for our survivors, they look like food.

In order to stay alive, this group of survivors are going to have to band together and make due with the resources that can be found throughout the island’s various biomes. There are no “shops” in the traditional sense but there are spaces set up in order for those with the skills necessary to help out in any way that they can. Blacksmithing, alchemy, tailoring and simply trading one resource for another can be done in Castaway Village which acts as the group’s central hub. As long as you have the materials and the person running the shop has the tools, you can upgrade your gear in order to push further to find the others that were less fortunate in where they landed on the island.

From a visual perspective Lacrimosa of Dana is gorgeous. Large well designed environments make up the various regions of the island and for the first time, are explorable in a 3D sense. Adol’s adventure for the first time is not a strict third person isometric view but instead a third person affair which lets you look wherever you want in order to better scope out your surroundings. I’m grateful that a lot of other features are similar to its predecessors because this aspect, especially right after playing Seven, takes some getting used to.

Adol and the rest of the survivors are not the first to be stranded here and in some regards, this is both a blessing and a curse as the others never made it out begging the question if this group can.

*Spoilers… 8 comes before 6 and 7 so at least Adol and Dogi do?*

That little bit aside, skeletons of a pirate gang can be found in various locations sometimes with pieces of equipment that you’ll need in order to move further along in your exploration of the island. Other times, in the good old fashioned fantasy tropes, they are sitting in a treasure chest awaiting the right person to open them! In either way, with all of the upgrades, Ys VIII is still a Ys at its core and you’ll need to find these items that allow you to get past certain obstacles that you may not even know are there at the time. Climbing gloves, glowing rocks and boots to stride across the water will be found when the time is right which is just about the point of you wondering “how the hell do I get over there?”.

There are some exploration elements that have been simplified making it much easier to get started. Almost right off the bat it’s possible for Adol and his party to teleport between all the healing crystals that can be discovered across the island. At first it’s not a very big thing as unlike the previous entries there are no towns to quickly jump between but as you move further and further out you’ll be glad that they were there early especially when your village comes under attack.

After the first instance which is mandatory, the upcoming battles for your village are mostly optional unless it fits in with the current events of the story. Defenses such as lures and barriers are automatically placed however they can be upgraded and added to by talking to Dogi who unfortunately, does not travel the island with you as he’s busy running the village and protecting those who are there. Have you seen his ABS? Definitely not the Dogi I remember! Clearly he stopped going to the gym…

So when you’re called for aid by a parrot who always knows how to find you, the choice becomes yours as to whether or not to continue to explore or head back in order to defend. If you head back simply talk to Dogi in order to get the party started which will bring you to a fortified zone in which the enemies come in waves. From there on out do what you do best with the combination of your party for taking out enemies in a Rock / Paper / Scissor style of Slashing / Piercing / Blunt damages.

The new system that was put into place in Seven and used in Memories of Celceta is still there and works just fine in this newer visual environment. Characters can be switched between instantly never leaving a lull in the combat which lets you keep up the pace until it’s over. What has changed is that there are now options to run, jump, dodging is still there but now there’s an option to parry as well with its own button in order to slow down time and really lay into the enemy while they are slowed. Combat now requires more effort than before though it is still as fun as it’s even been.

Skills and SP also make a return and like in Memories of Celceta, if you hold off on attacking right away you can acquire SP faster in order to use your skills more often compared to Seven where you had to hold and release for the same effect. If like me you’re going to go through one and then the other, this is a distinction worth noting. The skills themselves will come to the characters over time and can be leveled up in order to make them more powerful. Some of them are very useful while others, it’s a difference of opinion and playstyles!

Other than the graphical change and that this group of castaways have to come together in order to survive and fend of monster attacks as there are no other humans in sight, the Lacrimosa of Dana takes a different approach to its storytelling. While the core of it will still be within the exploration as it’s always been, there’s a bigger focus on the character interactions and Adol’s dreams of a woman named Dana. As the story progresses Adol and his two constant companions of Laxia (the tsundere of the group) and Sahad (the easy going goofball) will be setting up camp as they explore the island simulating days going by.

Just about every night after setting up camp and talking until they head to sleep, Adol has dreams of this woman that he’s never met. As the nights go on you learn more and more about this interesting woman would become a Shrine Maiden of a place that he’s never heard of. This for me was another driving force to push forward as the amount given was never enough and I wanted to know more about this woman who is both in our protagonist’s dreams as well as who’s name is part of the title.

As the adventure goes on, about a dozen hours in I got my wish to see more of who this Dana is as she becomes playable and more than simply a drawing on the screen in the sepia tones of Adol’s dreams. If jumping of your own free will alone was new to the series, Dana takes things further as she can double jump and her dual-wielding weapons are amazing to use. The first time isn’t for long before the screen fades to black and Adol wakes up but it’s enough to start shedding some light on why Adol is dreaming of this strange blue haired woman. Other than of course that she has blue hair and that’s basically Adol’s thing if you look at any of the other Ys entries…

The sign of a great game is one that can still throw some curve balls your way hours into it. Getting to play as Dana was one of them but the other is a spin on the village defense (known as Interception) with Suppressions coming into play. Worried for the safety of the village, your party and the villagers head out in order to defeat nests of monsters and the boss that leads them before they can attack.

This differs from the Interception as instead of worrying about your defenses you instead place torches to expand your villagers range allowing them to attack further and possibly destroy the monster nest next to the one that your own party is already assaulting. While they are both combat based, the Suppression puts a lot more emphasis on destroying your enemies as fast as possible instead of tackling the waves efficiently to reduce the damage to your village’s defenses. Both of these offer a bit of a distraction to the main storyline and are also a great source of materials!

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was worth the eight years for the eighth entry into the series. You honestly have to wonder if they planned it that way. While Seven sparked a new direction for the series, the Lacrimosa of Dana takes things a step further with improved storytelling and exploration through a brand new visual style for the series. Adol’s adventures have always been worth having but this one tops the rest as he and those that comes together on this cursed island strive to survive after their ship capsized.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Falcom
Publisher(s):
NIS America
Genre(s):
Action
Adventure
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation Vita
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - PS4 Review

A series full of mysteries, murder, twists and intrigue comes to its conclusion in the third title from the “Zero Escape” series, Zero Time Dilemma. All the questions that have been left answered and the fates of the characters MAY come to a head in this final game of life and death, provided you can manage to muddle through the convoluted plot line(s), occasionally poor voice acting, and some of the annoying necessary steps for making it through some of the decisions in-game.

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>observer_ - PS4 Review

Observer is a first-person cyberpunk horror title from the minds behind the reputedly excellent Layers of Fear, Bloober Team. Stepping into the cybernetically enhanced mind of Daniel  Lazarski, modeled after and voiced by cyberpunk veteran Rutger Hauer, as he investigates the disappearance of his son. Exploring a dark, retro-futuristic world full of dark secrets, "Big Brother" and mind-hacking, Observer is an interesting tale that, more often than not, is an exercise in patience more than it is a horror story.

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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PC Review

Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is the first installment in the “Trails of Cold Steel” subset of the “Legend of Heroes” series. Originally for the Vita and PS3, the PC port has recently been released. Bringing the original JRPG aspects from its predecessors while including a brand new “link system”, Trails of Cold Steel is an immersive world full of interesting and unique characters, vibrant landscapes, and boss fights that may have you making a lot of this face: ಠ_ಠ

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Moero Chronicle - PC Review

Moero Chronicle is one of the latest JRPG Dungeon Crawlers making its way over to the PC from the Vita. Cast as a Io, described as a man with no luck with the ladies, it falls to him to save the world by curing the Monster Girls of whatever came over them. Made by Compile Hearts and published by Idea Factory you already know where this could be going but surprisingly? Moero Chronicles is a lot more tame that it’s description sounds while being a fairly good Dungeon Crawler.

If you read the description of Moero Chronicles and read what Io is supposed to do in order to cure the Monster Girls, you may all depending on your sensibilities turn the other way. In order to cure the Monster Girls Io and his childhood friend Lillia, who’s the one protecting him because he’s absolutely useless and can’t fight, are to travel the world and save it. Why is a man that useless the one to be sent out to save the world you ask? His parents kicked him out and made a deal with the mayor that he would be the latest to attempt to solve the world’s issues.

So booted out from his hometown, Io and Lillia head out to go further than they’ve ever gone before. Past the first dungeon. By attempting to do so, because Io really has no other choice having been cast out, they walk into the dungeon and are immediately told to get the hell out. Saved by a sauve talking pink seal, I didn’t bother asking any questions, he tells you that in order to save the Monster Girls who now hate Humans that Io will need to touch, rub, poke or pick at the girl's sensitive spots in order to bring them back to their senses. To do this they need to be stripped down first to give Io the chance to do the former. Sound pretty bad? I thought so too but after playing Criminal Girls and Criminal Girls 2, Io’s adventure is a lot more tame.

Moero Chronicles is a first person Dungeon Crawler in which Io’s party will be displayed at the bottom and the enemies will be displayed in the center of the screen. Basically it fits in nicely with the rest of the Wizardry styled Dungeon Crawlers. Each dungeon map will increase in both enemy difficulty and add in more twists and turns as the dungeons progress. This creates the advancement challenge and sometimes the need to grind for experience in order to level up your Monster Girl party. In order to acquire more Monster Girls to even make it that far you’ll have to find them in the Dungeon First and then meet them on the field of battle.

Monster Girls are pretty much both Mid-Bosses and Dungeon Bosses. Varying in difficulty some of them hit hard so being prepared is sometimes knowing when not to face them if you’re party is running low on healing items or magic. The Mid-Boss variants can be seen roaming the map in a pattern so if you feel that your party is ready then striking then and there may be the best bet.

Battling Monster Girls and battling normal enemies differ only in that Monster Girls on top of their Hit Points also have weak points on their outfits. Hitting and destroying these weak points will allow Io with the help of Otton (suave pink seal) to perform the above mentioned actions. Now. If you’ve managed to get this far yeah it sounds bad, however, the poking and the prodding is all done to a static image that’s only response is to tell you if you’ve hit a sensitive spot or not with stars or hearts. If Io can get the gauge to 100% then the Monster Girl comes back to her senses and can be added into the party. That’s it. Sounds so much worse than it really is. Honestly the graphics from defeating a boss in Dungeon Travelers 2 and the actions done in Criminal Girls are much worse than the scenes depicted here. Still, this won’t be for everyone.

What impressed me about combat is that it wasn’t simply attack -> attack -> defend -> heal -> attack. While this does comprise of a good portion of it, Io is actually good for something and isn’t just in the background watching the girls fight. Instead, by “channeling his desires” he is able to boost the girl’s combat abilities. This can be done in one of two ways. The first is that Io will store up desire himself or have one of the girls do this in order to enhance the power of one of the party member’s next attacks. The second is to pass a certain percentage such as 45 or 70% and then remain idle as it could raise everyone’s prowess. Will it do as much immediate damage? No. over time? Very much so.

The last noteworthy system ties into the title. Each Monster Girl has a particular Moe to her and these Moe’s can be mixed and matched in order to create your dream team. So Wild for example will allow the possibility of a counter-attack when Io’s desire is over 35% while Tsundere will reduce the party’s incoming damage by 35% is her own Hit Points fall below 60%. There are a huge amount of combinations to be pulled off from being clumsy or wearing thigh-highs over to each's respective bust size. As the party increases in size the amount of reading and cross-checking who’s compatible with who for the best results could take time or you can simply take your favorites and hope for the best!

While not as noteworthy as the above, the last of the systems is an interesting one and it adds an unseen depth to combat. Small fried enemies that you'll be fighting on the way over to the Mid-Bosses and the Dungeon Bosses can join up with you and be assigned to a Monster Girl as a "Pet". Some of these don't do a whole hell of a lot but others can add in an extra attack, possibly slow down the enemy or heal the character that they are attached to after a successful attack. A lot of these are probabilities and if you have combat on auto/fast forward you really may not see them but it's an extra feather in your cap and anything that stacks the odds in your favor is generally a good thing.

About a good ninety percent of your time will be spent out in the dungeons but the other ten percent will be back in town essentially on housekeeping. Literally. Now just because you can’t go home doesn’t mean that you can’t go and stay at the Inn with all of the Monster Girls that you’ve saved so far. It’s a very big Inn as each Monster Girl, Mid-Boss or Dungeon Boss, has their own room. In order to get closer to them, almost in the form of a dating sim, Io will need to have conversations and present gifts in order for any one of them to warm up to him. What’s the benefit? As a Monster Girl warms up to Io her outfit can be changed allowing for a diversity in her combat stats.

Each Monster Girl has a specialty. Combat, Magic, Support and these specialties can be played with by changing their outfits which also changes some of their combat abilities which I hadn’t noticed the first time. Changing a very powerful mage’s outfit to one that even further enhanced her magic lead to loosing the ability to cast the spell that I thought was being buffed in the first place. As changing can only be done in town, as let’s be honest no one should have to strip down in a dungeon, making sure of your choices and what those choices affect is a good thing. It’s not that “town” is far, it’s that it amounts to more of an inconvenience than anything else.

As much as Io would probably want to take everyone along to simply breeze through the dungeons, only five Monster Girls can make the cut to the party. Everyone else is required to stay back at the Inn in town. In order to make sure that each of your potential party members’ potential doesn’t go to waste, each of their rooms can be upgraded allowing them to acquire experience while Io is out and about with his party. It costs a fair amount of resources but if it means an easier time swapping out members that are equivalent enough in levels? It’s worth doing and a great feature to have even if it’ll take time to get done.

If you can get past the ideas that Moero Chronicles is made of there’s an incredible Dungeon Crawler underneath. Yes there’s loads of suggestive dialog, and the poking and prodding, but when compared to the likes of Criminal Girls and Dungeon Travelers it’s rather tame and honestly much less focused on than exploring the dungeons on the way to save the world.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Compile Hearts
Publisher(s):
Idea Factory International
Genre(s):
Dungeon Crawler
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation Vita

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Sundered - PS4 Review

Sundered is an interesting mesh of Metroidvania and 2D souls-like. A dark and VERY difficult journey through a R’lyehen world full of gruesome monsters, death around every corner, and an extremely disturbing surplus of eyeballs. Exploring the semi-rogue-like cavern of apparent doom in Sundered is kind of like sticking your hand in a box and hoping the box is full of Gummy Bears, instead of some of the…less favorable options.

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Fortnite - PS4 / PC Preview

After about a good thirty to forty hours and thinking about how to best describe Fortnite it hit me. Welcome back to Horde Mode!

Love it or hate it, Epic Games' Gears of War's Horde Mode can be a blast. If you view that style of Tower Defense as a base game, it can easily explain why the core gameplay of Fortnite is already solid with its third person shooter mechanics that allow you build up defenses in order to protect your objectives. Is it a copy and a paste from their previous work? No. Fortnite stands apart from Gears both in terms of graphics and in its mechanics, which can be very addictive especially since they give you Llama Pinatas to break open for loot!

Note: If you consider some of the following to fall under "TL:DR", skip to the gameplay section!

Systems

Currently in Early Access, Fortnite is available on the PC, PS4 and XB1. Things for the most part are stable enough but every now and then hiccups occur or the servers lag a bit when someone joins in midway through a session. It should be noted that no save data is stored locally on the PC or on the console. All of this is stored in the cloud which leads to possibly my favorite feature. Playing across multiple systems.

Ok that last statement is only accurate from the point of view of the PS4, which I received a key for, and the PC. While there is no current cross play all you have to do is log into your Epic account and, because all of the data is server based, continue from where you left off on the other platform. So the best example of this is while playing on my own and joining random games I would play off of the PS4. If I was playing with my brother who picked it up and some of his friends I would load up the PC version and Discord to have a blast for hours at a time. Worried about losing out on PS4 trophies? No worries as these all auto-populate once the game has figured out how far you've gone.

Control wise Fortnite is configured just as much for the controller as it is for the keyboard and mouse. Want a keyboard and mouse on the PS4? The layout is available to customize on the interface. Fortnite has really been configured to offer the same experience regardless of the platform. That said? While blasting enemies away for hours at a time with a controller is smooth, the interface is much more quickly navigated with a mouse which on the PC it makes the switch instantaneously while I can't comment for the PS4 as I didn't plug in a mouse to my console.

Core Concept

The concept behind Fortnite isn't a new one by any means but it's a lot of fun and follows the more the merrier approach. Everything is online so a good internet connection is required though if you get booted from the game because of a power outage or the game crashed then if you can load the game back up fast enough it'll allow you to rejoin the session that you were in. You'll lose your score, but you won't lose your rewards or anything that you had done up until that point. It was nice to see that your spot is reserved and that someone else can't simply come in and pick up where you've left off.

The basics of gameplay are the following. Starting off you are given a character in order to do the tutorial and learn the basics. You can move around the environments and mine for the three major resources and the components that you'll need in order to build buildings and weapons. While in this environment you'll also come across beings that used to be human and have since been turned into husks by the storm. Welcome to the Zombie Apocalypse!

In order to defend yourself from these creatures you'll have access to swords, shovels, hammers, sniper rifles, machine guns, pistols and shotguns. Some of these will be picked up, others will be granted to you as a reward at the end of a mission. For the most part though, you'll be building them from schematics which means that you really can't skimp of collecting resources, or at least being smart about how you collect your resources.

The environments are not completely destructible though you'll learn quickly enough that there's more than enough lying about to collect. Trees give you wood (I mean who would have thought right?) but so do certain house walls, furniture and garage doors. Stone can be found mainly through both house siding and giant boulders. Steel which is the final of the three major resources can be found through cars, fences, posts and other random electronic or steel devices laying about. Of the three you're more often than not going to collect other components through steel contraptions as much as you will by searching through houses, campsites and rubble left behind.

Crafting

Once you have all of these then crafting is as easy as loading up a sub-menu and saying build. Once that's done it's added to your inventory and you're good to go. Need ammo? Simply hold the reload button and ammo will be created as long as you have the resources on hand. All your crafting options will be done through schematics that are picked up through rewards or Loot Llamas that can be acquired either through in-game currency or through mission rewards.

Crafting new weapons can only be done during a mission / session while upgrading the schematics and leveling your heroes can only be done through the main menus. I've now mentioned Llamas a few times and the reason for that is that short of the mission rewards, and you'll be playing a fair amount, you'll want to aim for getting Llama Pinatas. These Pinatas are basically loot crates that are random in nature and can give you either a mother-load or a mere pittance depending upon the lords of the random generators.

Loot, aka new Heroes and Weapons

There are two real types of these pinatas that can acquired. The first are random in nature and you hope for the best. The second change every twenty four hours and offer a specific type of loot such as Heroes, Upgrades, Survivors, Melee Weapons, Range Weapons, so on and so forth. This is really how you're going to be spending your in-game currency though if you want them faster or REALLY want that special Llama you can always buy more currency through micro transactions. That is entirely up to you.

Everything that can be acquired from Heroes to Weapons all follow the "MMO Rarity" path that World of Warcraft has essentially put into place. Grey and green can normally be ignored and broken down for experience while Blue, Purple and Orange will much more readily hold your attention. Everything is fair game and sometimes you'll need to balance your equipment load-outs as purples and oranges are great to have but sometimes cost more resources than you have access to. All weapons break so having backups that can be made with easy to acquire resources is a smart move as I learnt fairly early on.

From there every player has an upgrade tree that uses points acquired from leveling up your account as a Commander and a research tree that is upgraded with points that are generated on a per hour basis. One requires a lot of playing and the other requires a lot of waiting. Both are just as important as they make both your characters and your buildings stronger.

Gameplay

Finally we get to the good part! All of your heroes, their loot, their resources all come down to getting out into the field and fulfilling the reason for being there. Defending a location for a falling satellite, acquiring information from a descending balloon, launching a rocket to expand how far you can move out and putting a crazy rocker's van back into the sky. All of these are going to require a fair bit of hardware, collected resources and sometimes some creative designing.

Well maybe not so much on that last part as sometimes the best defense is nothing more than four walls of reinforced steel with a ton of traps between the enemies and that wall. Not to mention your sheer amount of ammo and special abilities as you aim for those headshots! There are two main loadouts that you'll have access to at any given time, beating the crap out of anything that comes close and building mode.

The first is obvious. Set in either first or third person you move around the map and either collect resources with an ever present and upgradable pickax or you shoot your guns or swing your blades to take out the husks. Once the core part of any mission starts this is where things can get fun and intense as often even the best laid plans are not enough for the sheer amount of enemies coming your way.

The second mode is much more interesting and allows for either being plain, boring and functional or allows you to be as fancy as you want with angled staircases, arching entrances, firing hole in the middle or the wall and L-Shaped walls. That's just the walls and the stairs, that isn't the floor or the ceiling which can be modified to make wider or thinner passageways that even have their walls in order to protect yourself as you attempt to protect your goal.

Husks for the most part will rush towards these structures but as Fortnite moves on it continuously adds more mobs that don't just hit your walls but lob projectiles towards it or simply over your protective barriers making roofs a thing that you'll need to figure out and soon.

Issues

With all of these however Fortnite isn't without its issues in which one of the major one is that as easy as it is to edit a wall, a staircase or a floor / ceiling, removing them requires you taking a pickaxe to it. After you've leveled up a bit and added in more and more durability and upgraded the walls themselves, having to take your pickax to it is a huge pain in the ass especially if you've got some major renovations to perform.

Other than the other above mentioned connection issues however Fortnite is rather stable short of the occasional re-balancing and people's forts being refunded on resources because Epic had something to fix in that zone. They are quite nice about it though and do apologize for not being able to refund the time spent as well as the resources.

Conclusion

Fortnite requires a lot of time to really get going and truly understand how each piece works in conjunction with one another but it's worth it. It'll take take some time to figure out which heroes you want to play with, which types of weapons you are comfortable with and how to best go about acquiring resources in the field while still getting ready to repel the husks. That said? It's extremely addictive and only becomes more challenging as time goes on which keeps things interesting for hours on end.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
PC
Developer(s):
Epic Games 
People Can Fly
Publisher(s):
Epic Games
Genre(s):
Third Person Shooter
Tower Defense
Sandbox
Mode(s):
Online Single Player
Online 4-Person Coop
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox One

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves
Lots of time dedicated to playing coop by Marc L.

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Collar X Malice - Vita Review

If you’re looking for an otome game that has a dark and dangerous story, and romance that’ll keep you on your toes, look no further than Collar X Malice. Although it has a slow start, those who persevere through the beginning will be rewarded with an engaging story, despite some flaws such as somewhat generic choices for the possible love interests and the rather niche genre.

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Mages of Mystralia - PS4 Review

With a core concept such as 'creating magic', Mages of Mystralia gets off to a great start. The visuals ooze charm and the game itself is a lot of fun to play. There are some rough edges here and there, but fans of fantastical adventure games should find a great deal to enjoy here.

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Looterkings - Better with a Friend - PC Review

Looterkings, like Voodoo, is giving new meaning to starting off with nothing at all. Quite literally, you and up to three friends get to run around a dungeon naked while starting off with a random weapon to assist you in collecting experience. With these experience points you get to level up and acquire enough gold in order to at least put some pants on for a bit of modesty.

The premise behind the dungeon crawl is not a new one, but it’s implementation has some thought put into it. If you really want to, you can explore the dungeons on your own but with the amount of enemies that spawn even in the beginning room coupled with how fast they move, you’ll want friends or even some random people along for the ride. Looterkings really is a co-op experience and with permadeath turned on even just on a normal difficulty? You’ll need it.

Every character starts off with a naked goblin, a random weapon and a God Power before they start to kill off the dungeon’s residents and loot their hordes. While not being so bad with a melee weapon, this can take some time to get used to with a ranged one as there is no reticle or cross-hairs available. You have to guesswork how to fire and the angle that should be taken for your shots. It eventually becomes second nature but in the beginning, especially if you decided to try at it on your own before embarrassing yourself online, it’s not easy.

The dungeons that you’ll be exploring are a tad on the crazy side. Split into a slew of different rooms on different floors, you’ll never know what’s behind the next door. Is it fiery exploding rats? Elemental crazy knights? Goblin Skeletons? Wizards? Rivers of freaking lava which was not cool to fall into or spikes that are only waiting for you to miss your jump across a set of chains. Does the room make it easy to move around in or is it designed to allow the enemy to swarm you and your group if you have one? The answers to these you’ll never know until you open the door which makes the whole thing exhilarating.

As you move through the room, kill off the residents and loot their stashes, you’ll need to spend some of that hard earned cash. Available whenever you’re not walking into a brand new room because you get locked into a death match, you can either go about it the old fashioned way and walk back or you can simply teleport and hopefully remember the path to where you’ve already been. By the way there’s no map and everything looks alike so finding your way around can take some time.

The shop itself is a simple interface with multiple tabs for the different types of gear that can be acquired. You want swords, go to the swords tab. You want headgear, go to the headgear tab. It is designed to allow players to quickly go in and out and not waste time that could otherwise be spent inside of the rest of the dungeon. This said, the starting inventory of the shop has some rather slim pickings which is where leveling up comes into play. The more that you level up the more than the shop opens its inventory over to you. You’ll still need to loot the hell out of the dungeon mind you to afford anything but I mean one problem at a time right?

Something interesting, and another reason to play co-op, is that one player can jump onto another player’s shoulders to piggyback around the dungeon through a “two is better than one” approach in a literal sense. Together you not only become stronger but your abilities are also boosted meaning that if you used to summon one ghost of the last thing you killed to act as a decoy you'll now summon two. Other God Powers such as turning invisible and healing up are also powered up making it easier to stay alive. As a last note on the subject, the names are merged and change depending who is on the top and who is on the bottom.

Other interesting elements are more from a streaming perspective and players have the chance to join in on their favorite streamer’s, if they play, channels and either help them out or make them lose. Like Fortnite it’s interesting to see that developers are adding in that little bit extra to bridge in those that do use services like Twitch for a bit of a different experience.

The one thing that I constantly kept coming back to while going through Looterkings is how awesome this could be in a Virtual Reality environment. While I myself don't yet have one it feels like the type of experience that could be really cool to run around in even if it's in a third person view.

Overall Looterkings is a lot of fun especially since it's designed to make you compete to come out on top. The present formula is a good one and the permadeath aspect really makes you think about how you go about it. If I could wish for anything else it would be better ranged combat as even if you get used to it, it's hard to aim your special abilities.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Looterkings
Publisher(s):
Looterkings
Genre(s):
Action
Dungeon Crawler
Mode(s):
Online Single Player
Online Coop
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves
Lots of time dedicated to playing coop by Marc L.

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Graceful Explosion Machine - PS4 Review

Graceful Explosion Machine is a bright, colorful and quirky shooter with some interesting visuals that back up some pretty solid shooting gameplay. Having already been released on the Switch several months ago, Graceful Explosion Machine makes its way to the PlayStation 4 where it fills the screen with some pretty crazy action.

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Rez Infinite - PC / VR Review

Rez has more than earned its classic game status and the updated Rez Infinite manages to be a fantastic experience whether you played the original game or not. There are so many elements that just blend together and create a fantastic, fluid experience that is only enhanced through the use of Virtual Reality.

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The Wizards - PC / VR Preview

I've said it before, but it certainly is worth reiterating here - virtual reality is going to live or die by how immersive the experience is. It is about being convincing, and forgetting where you are in reality. That can scale from a laid back title to playing chess to something more action-packed like racing, but games fare best in my experience when they maintain the illusion of 'being there' in that virtual space. That's good news for The Wizards, because while the game is only in Early Access right now, it certainly nails the feeling of being a powerful spellcaster.

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Lone Echo - PC / VR Review

While Lone Echo is not the first game to take science fiction trappings and add a sense of weightless movement to the proceedings, it is easily the best example to date so far. The story is fantastic, the controls and visuals are completely immersive and is truly one of those games that could only be effectively conveyed with virtual reality.

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Immortal Planet - PC Review

“Don’t get greedy.” Wiser words from my younger brother have never been more true. These are truly words to live by as unlike the Souls series that it takes inspiration from, Immortal Planet follows some of the tenants of the creator’s earlier title of Ronin which is a turned based platformer that involved plenty of thinking before committing to actions. How did that line of thought transfer over to an adventure hack and slash? Very well.

Don’t get greedy became one of my brother’s favorite saying while I was slashing away at Bloodborne and since then, I’ve tried to keep it in mind while playing Necropolis and Dark Souls 3. While sometimes I would ignore it and it paid off, that simply is not the case here. Immortal Planet is all about taking your time, evaluating your foes, and striking when the iron it hot. Otherwise have fun loading back up from the previous checkpoint.

Immortal Planet starts off with your bulky Jason masked wearing hulk of a man waking up from a long enough slumber for the entire planet to have gone to an icy hell. Choosing one of three starting weapons and bonus items you set off for a lap of tutorials which teach you the basics. If you’ve played any of the Souls series or anything based off of it you’ll find yourself in familiar enough territory. Running, dodging, and attacking all take away a portion of your stamina bar that can be found under your health. From there on out, Immortal Planet carves a space out for itself with some original ideas.

Other than the automatic difference that you’ll be viewing the world in a third person isometric view, your journey has a few other twists to throw in. One of the major one is that at all times you can see your enemy’s stamina which helps you gauge what you can do. The obvious is to attack but it isn’t always the best solution. When an enemy is out of stamina they can be dodged into knocking them back a good deal of steps. If the ledge of a platform happens to be close then they fall off and that’s the end of it. You don’t need to kill off every enemy with the tip of your blade, sometimes your shoulders can better do the trick.

This said dodging into them with a full set of stamina and you’ll be the one that suffers. Doing so will cause you a few moments of being too stunned to move and there’s no holding back on an enemy’s strength. It kept surprising me actually at how strong enemies were as regardless of if you’ve been in a location they can kill you quite fast if you’re not careful. It really does come down to taking one’s time and calculating your moves such as using another approach which is to time your attack perfectly in order to parry the blow. Doing this or simply dodging depend entirely on the enemy in question and there’s a steep learning curve on that especially if you’re rushing and not taking your time.

All of these enemies are going to be littered around various environments that have both switches to move forward and chests to increase your arsenal. There’ll be some familiarity with finding shortcuts in order to more quickly make it from the rest point to the boss room but even these have a catch. If the doors to the next room sense an enemy nearby they’ll lock your passage forward until that enemy is dispatched. There’s no simple running through. In a lot of cases there’ll be fair amount of killing between points A and B and that’s before the one major hindrance in some people’s plans. Your item usage.

You’ll start off with a bit of lightning to be very very frightening, one healing needle and a gun. That one healing item is the only one you’ll have unless you explore the environment and pick up more in certain locations. The catch to this is that resting and leveling up resets these counters and the locations that they can be picked up from. So basically hoarding is out of the question. This means that if you aren’t the greatest at these because, you get greedy, you’ll need a fair amount of healing items to make it through. Problem is that most of these are behind mobs making a pre-boss run a bit annoying. This definitely won’t be the case for everyone and eventually you pick up another making your base count at least two but it requires some finesse to pull off winning against a boss with little to none available.

The only thing that I found to be “unfair” was that if you were hit for any reason while using the healing needle, it didn’t heal you. You quite literally have to stand there and see the fluid enter your neck in order for it to be effective. Once a boss moves phases this becomes less and less of a possibility because they are truly throwing everything that they can at you and if they are a caster type? Good luck. The animation that is used however is impressive and you can see the moment that it worked but it would have been nice to start off with at least a bit more than one if the enemy has the chance to make it ineffective.

All of these elements come together rather well to create something both familiar yet different. Actually, if anything, Immortal Planet has several nods to the above mentioned Bloodborne as weapons have two modes so trying out the basic possible three before really diving into things is recommended because what I thought was great at first didn’t really suit me. Instead out of the two blades, one being a larger weapon and the other more of a spear, I finally opted for the shield which can become a whopping axe. The shield works great in certain situations as long as the blows are melee in origin. Energy weapons and spells will go right through making dodging the way to go which again nods to the above.

What really struck me as interesting with the level design is that if you are walking or running through you have nothing to worry about. If you are haphazardly dodging about? You’ll fall off the ledge. Swinging like a madman? You’ll fall off the ledge. While there are no handrails you’ll be safe until enemies come swinging and you start dodging. I appreciated not having to worry about the ledges at all times and that some environments require “dodging” in order to move from one set of walkways over to the next.

Immortal Planet is great slower paced Hack and Slash. Having to think about your moves and the timing really changes the tempo that is normally associated with this style and it works creating something that isn’t just another one in the ever growing crowd.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
teedoubleuGAMES
Publisher(s):
teedoubleuGAMES
Genre(s):
Action
Hack & Slash
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Original Journey - PC Review

Original Journey is an interesting beast that doesn’t show it claws until you are several hours in and then realize: it’s been several hours. Taking the best parts of a side scrolling shooter and a Roguelike, welcome to the end of an alien race’s time as they perform their last ditch effort in order to not perish and become another of the galaxy’s footnotes.

The ideas that make the wheel turn are simple yet the execution is one that had me going for hours at a time. Put in the role of the Rookie that overslept and on the first day and gained both the attention and the wrath of the commander, you march your butt out the airlock in your power suit in order to scout around, collect materials and ultimately try to find your race’s salvation.

Once out the airlock there’s where it becomes so easy to simply lose yourself in stage after stage. Original Journey throws players through random layouts every time that they move onto a new stage which makes sense as the planet’s landmasses are constantly shifting about and never staying still. Knowing this makes it easy to accept that it’s possible to visit similar landmasses multiple times because hey, they could have finished their lap around the planet as you move onto the next one.

Now just because the land masses are the same doesn’t mean that everything else along for the ride will be. For every stage that you visit the difficulty increases until you either head back to base and keep what you’ve acquired or die and lose everything short of your experience. Like a Souls game however, you have one chance in order to make it back to where you kicked the bucket in order to re-obtain what you’ve lost. It’s not always easy but at least on the bright side it means more experience!

Mechanically Original Journey is simple. You can jump and you can shoot. Once you’ve shot at everything trying to kill you on a stage you can move forward to the next one. Nothing to shoot at? Move on to the next one! Honestly though there are moments when it’s so easy to lose yourself in the stages because sometimes a stage can take nothing more than two seconds and that’s not an exaggeration.

As you progress through the adventure and gain better gear it becomes so easy to clear the first stages because the enemies are at their weakest. Even later on if only one or two enemies spawn then that’s all the time it takes. It’s the addictive aspect of “one more” that will keep you going on for long lengths of time because “one more” may be nothing more than a few seconds so what harm is there in continuing? Depending on the point in time death but hey, that’s expected.

When not in the midst of the “one more” syndrome you can explore the base in order to better prepare yourself for the next time out. Guns, armors and your drone companion can be created, and in certain cases modified, in their respective labs. Creating anything new will require a hefty amount of resources from the field in which sometimes you just simply do not ask how a bunch of eyeballs and spleens lead to these marvels in technology. You simply trust the technician taking care of the job, smile, nod, and walk away slowly before they use you for parts…and then it’s back to the field for more!

Visually Original Journey hits my graphical design sweet spot by using a sepia tone for its hand drawn graphics. It’s gorgeous to look at for long periods at a time through because of some of the elements it can be a bit hard to discern at times what is safe to walk on and what will deplete your health. Other than that fact the visual presentation is only aided by the awesome soundtrack that follows along for the ride which makes the “one more” that much easier.

Original Journey is a blast to play for hours on end. Quick paced gameplay mixed in with a great audio visual design makes for an easy time to simply keep going for just “one more”.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Bonfire Entertainment
Publisher(s):
Another Indie
Genre(s):
Action
Adventure
Shooter
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Consoles Q1 2018

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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