Yearly Archives: 2019

Drone Strike Beta Key Giveaway

We’ve partnered with Odisi Games to give away keys for the Drone Strike Beta Tests.

In the mid-21st century, citizen soldiers and corporations battle it out against each other to claim control of cities ravaged by global warming. Command next-generation military UAV drones via a state-of-the-art Drone Brain Meld Interface (DBMi) that provides instantaneous neural control. Work in teams to capture critical control nodes. Gain experience from battles to upgrade your drone with added functionality and add new drones to your garage.

Fly and shoot at high velocity while using the environment and your drone’s agile capabilities to outmaneuver enemies and give your team the win. Choose from a number of unique drones, weapons, perks, and abilities to customize each loadout to your own personal playstyle.


Note: This code will give access to this weekend’s beta test, and all future beta tests until launch.

Next Beta Window: August 4th, 8 AM ET – 8 PM ET.

Redemption Instructions:

  • Click “Add a Game” in Steam
  • Click “Activate a Product”.
  • Enter the code
  • Install on Steam

Players can also Wishlist the game on Steam via this link.

Ragachak’s Favorite Turn-Based Strategy Games

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

RTK IV Wall of Fire

This might be the hardest list I’ve ever written to date, because there are just so damn many of them, and there will be franchises that are not represented in this list. Not out of malice, but I simply did not play as many of them/play them as frequently. Turn-based RPGs come in many flavors, but the genre feels like it was more or less created with Fire Emblem. That’s a series that I enjoy but simply have not completed many of them. What makes turn-based strategy/RPGs fun though? Being able to take my time and think is seriously a big deal because I often get distracted, or really have to consider what I’m doing. Every turn could be the last, and there’s always a wealth of replay value. Different team compositions, other characters that go unused, other factions. My first real strategy game was Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire on the SNES, and that was where I fell in love with turn-based games forever.

Master of Magic

I had played RPGs before that, like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy IIMight & Magic, a few others. But I had never really played a strategy game like that before and did not play another until Civilization II, or Master of Magic. The style of gameplay was new to me, and the idea of having so much control and had tactical command of my characters made it more enjoyable. I had a greater emotional connection to the characters in turn-based strategy RPGs. Characters that could die permanently made me want to fight harder to keep them. Not all strategy games share that style, though. That’s primarily a Fire Emblem/Final Fantasy Tactics feature, but it crops up from time to time. These games just always felt a bit deeper. I want to point out that while no Fire Emblem game is on this list, Fire Emblem: Three Houses certainly gets an honorable mention. The review is coming soon, but I love it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses may be one of my Games of the Year.

Shining Force 1 Review - 1

Curse you, Kaaaaaane!

5. Shining Force (SEGA Genesis): Now, before I found Shining Force for the SEGA, I was under the impression that the SEGA was all about sports and platformers. That was it, they had nothing else. Fighting games on the console were inferior mostly, and it just had no RPGs that I, at the time was aware of. Then I found Shining Force! Shining Force is actually the first turn-based strategy RPG that I played; while RTK IV was my very first strategy game in general, in the turn-based strategy RPG genre, Shining Force was my first. It wasn’t enough to take me away from the Super Nintendo, because frankly, I couldn’t afford another console, I would play it any time I could at a friends house. The characters had so much personality, the maps were massive, and there was so much challenge in finding the perfect team, or locating the hidden characters. Hidden characters were new to me too, until Final Fantasy III anyway. Shining Force changed my perception of the SEGA Genesis console, and that was important for me at that younger age.

Retro Review - Ogre Battle - Deneb

Oh, Deneb. You and your silly pumpkins.

4. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (PSX): Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen was sort of an interesting beast, as far as strategy games go. The strategy part wasn’t simply putting together a team, it was finding the right team. You have no control over the characters once they are in a battle, after all. In Ogre Battle, you put together squads and march them across the map to liberate villagers, uncover secrets, and do battle with other squads. Each squad has a front and back row, and each unit has x or y ability, depending on the row they’re in. These abilities only have a certain amount of charges, and when everyone has done their thing, the battle is over (for now). But you can influence the fight using the Tarot Cards, which also have a nice wide array of abilities to use. Ogre Battle just had so many damn units, and a variety of starting character, based on how you answer a series of morality-themed questions. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is also had plenty of endings based on what you did, including being able to sell your soul to a Demon! Come on, this game had absolutely everything. Now on a personal level, I like Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together more, but I liked the FFT-style grid-based gameplay more. But Ogre Battle is definitely in a league of its own.

OnRPG Livestream: Super Robot Wars V

3. Super Robot Wars V (Playstation 4): The Super Robot Wars franchise is a series that by all rights, deserve to be at the top of this list. Super Robot Wars is a franchise where a ton of giant robot anime come together in insane, long turn-based battles. Gundam, Evangelion, Cross Ange, Mazinger Z, so many more. The characters are faithfully represented, and while the stories are pretty standard “new/different dimension” stuff, the gameplay and the character interactions are what really makes Super Robot Wars games shine. So why Super Robot Wars V? This is the one that brought the series back to my attention. Before this one, I could not find a Super Robot Wars game in English, other than the OG games (Original Generation), and that’s not really what I was after. I wanted the games that had Mobile Suit Gundam characters in them. Cowboy Bebop, Big O, et cetera. That’s why I shine a highlight on this particular Super Robot Wars game. It’s challenging, it has replay value, like most games in this genre, and it also brought a few anime to my attention that I have not seen, and now wish to. I wanted to include Super Robot Wars T, but I have yet to add it to my collection.

Retro Review - FFT - Jobs

So many classes, so little time.

2. Final Fantasy Tactics (Playstation): Final Fantasy Tactics is a game is a huge part of my life forever, for good or ill. The characters really made FFT stand out amongst the other tactics games, as well as the deep, soul-breaking story. This is probably the first religion-centric game I played, that instead of painted religion as necessary and good, painted the Orbonne Church as a vile, horrible order. Sure, they put on a good face, but there was no good coming from the Church. You really had a chance to question religion in the game, and for many people I knew at the time, in their personal lives. You got to build a team of characters that could be anything you want, but the major/hidden NPCs were just. so. damn. powerful. The story was compelling, people die, get betrayed, and important global institutions reveal their true colors. Final Fantasy Tactics just had it all. Not all of the job classes were good, in my opinion though. The charge system, where you had to wait for abilities to go off was very much hit-or-miss. But the story, the characters, and the feel of this game were undeniably golden.

Disgaea PC Review

1. Disgaea (Playstation 2): The Playstation consoles really are the kings of strategy games, huh? They just had so many options to pick from. Disgaea was the first strategy RPG that I sank hundreds of hours into. It really blew me away that we were playing supposed antagonists, though we found that the holy characters were pretty damn evil too. Nobody was what they seemed. Except for Laharl, I guess. He was just a badass little jerk who killed stuff and was a Demon. There were so many ways to break the game, do ridiculous damage, challenge tons of post-game content, and build literally any team I wanted. If I wanted an adorable magical girl or a succubus, I had it. Weird zombies or dragons? Got those too! Disgaea cleverly intertwined heartbreak and comedy, hilarious writing, and moments that really tugged at the heartstrings. Disgaea 1 remains the closest to perfection the series has ever achieved, and the one I enjoy the most. Disgaea 5 is very close, as is the off-shoot Makai Kingdom. You can also play Disgaea on virtually every console these days. PC, Switch, PS4, almost everywhere.

RAID: Shadow Legends

Build your team from the fiercest heroes of the age in RAID: Shadow Legends, an RPGacha game from Plarium. Available on Android and iOS mobile devices, and soon on the desktop via the Plarium Play app.

Business Model: Free to Play

Microtransactions: Yes – Gachapon style loot box and other convenience based expenditures.

Key Features:

Races: A wide variety of races from elves to undead, and from orks to humans.

Classes: Holy Trinity: Fighter, Damage, and Support/Healer

Over 300!!!!: Characters for you to collect. Build your team with your strongest heroes.

Story Campaign: A story campaign that will keep you busy for ages to come.

Teppen

Unleash the power of your favorite Capcom heroes in this collectible card game with an element of real-time strategic combat. Teppen is available for iOS and Android mobile devices.

Business Model: Free to Play

Microtransactions: Yes

Key Features:

Hadouken!: Unleash Hero Arts to turn the tide of combat.

You Look Familiar…: See familiar characters from Street Fighter, Mega Man X, Resident Evil, and many more Capcom franchises, with more to come.

Game Modes: Play through the story mode or go head to head versus real players in real time!

New York Videogame Critics Circle Kicks Off Its First Summer Journalism Course

The New York Videogame Critics Circle (the multicultural organization comprised of the finest videogame critics, writers, reporters and bloggers in the city), in partnership with The DreamYard Project, kicked off a new, daily summer journalism course in The Bronx to further its mission to give back to underserved high school students. The curriculum prepares high school students for careers in the games industry, with the Critics Circle’s journalism mentoring being a central feature of the program.

“This is a giant step forward in what has been a first-of-its-kind partnership for our non-profit organization,” said New York Videogame Critics Circle president and board president, Harold Goldberg. “Investing time and energy into these students, who will be the gaming journalists and narrative designers of the future, is highly rewarding; we can’t wait to see the students thrive in, and outside of the classroom.”

Taught by Imad Khan, an NYVGCC member who’s written for ESPN and The Washington Post, and Stefanelli Romano, an ardent educator from Bronx High School of Business, the new daily journalism course focuses on teaching students the basic of games journalism, games narrative and an overall passion for expression via writing. NYVGCC provides a journalist mentor and collaborate on curriculum while overseeing speakers and trips.

“We have 25 eager students from three schools taking the new summer journalism course, and they’re so eager to learn,” said Stefanelli Romano, Bronx High School of Business. “We’re all going to work hard to make this program a great success, one that can be scaled to work in other schools throughout the city, as well.”

The BX Start course runs this summer for six weeks with 25 students from three Bronx-area schools. All classes are taught in an artful, temporary space, while a larger Bronx game center is being built.

A selection of the speakers includes:

  • Adam Sessler, former G4TV editor-in-chief
  • Cecilia D’Anastasio, Kotaku’s award-winning investigative journalist
  • Arda Orcal, ESPN esports host
  • Sherri Smith, Tom’s Guide’s assistant managing editor
  • Elizabeth Ballou, Game creator and NYU Game Center graduate student

Additional New York Videogame Critics Circle Programs Include:

  • DreamYard Project at DreamYard Prep School in the Bronx: Offering mentoring, internships, workshops, job information and college scholarships for intelligent, but underprivileged students.
  • Community events at The Abrons Arts Center: The New York Videogame Critics Circle holds the annual New York Game Awards, teaches courses and brings games education to community events.
  • Mentoring at Older Adult Technology Services (O.A.T.S.), at their Senior Planet tech center in Manhattan’s Chelsea area.
  • New York Public Library system and American Museum of Natural History panels: Talks and discussions about jobs in games, games history, and how games bring people together.

NYVGCC members are a culturally diverse and passionate group of videogame journalists from media outlets including Polygon, Tom’s Guide, CNET, Time and The Washington Post. View a full list of members here. For more information on getting involved through volunteering and fundraising with the NYVGCC, click here.

Killsquad – Early Access Preview

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Killsquad is an upcoming game from Novarama, who have put together a truly fascinating action-RPG. Set in a grim future, the players control one of several Mercenaries, whose only real goal is cutting a profit. If that means they have to escort a transport or murder some alien lifeforms, then that’s just what has to go down. These aren’t heroes, and definitely aren’t paragons of virtue. Most of them are pretty violent badasses, though at present, there are only four of them to pick from. The character select in the lobby indicates more mercenaries will be coming in the future, and there is plenty of time for updates and changes to come to the game. It’s a grimdark game on PC which supports keyboard/mouse controls. I recommend using a controller, however; it transforms gameplay into a twin-stick shooter where the left stick moves, and the right aims and fires your weapon.

There isn’t much in the way of tutorials in Killsquad just yet, it just sort of dumps you into the world. If you read the menus and item tooltips, you will discover that you can upgrade your gear; otherwise, it’s not terribly clear.  It’s a challenging game that isn’t intent on holding your hand, but the basics of the game couldn’t hurt to be mentioned, even if it’s just in a menu somewhere. The main menu is pretty simple though. You have the Lobby, where you pick what contract you are going to undertake. The Heroes tab shows the available heroes, including their stats, abilities, and cosmetics. You can also check out the gear they have equipped, and the upgrades they can choose from. The Shop is where you purchase weapons for specific characters, and Prototype/Support Gear that anyone can use. The Codex shows the monsters you’ve encountered, rates their difficulty, their element, and how many of them you’ve killed. There’s also a bit of interesting data on each monster too.

There aren’t very many customization options for the characters available so far, which genuinely surprises me. Action RPGs really need something for the player to chase after, but Killsquad isn’t really a looter-shooter. All of your gear is purchased outside of maps. Every item I’ve bought so far has been an upgrade, and I’ve had more than enough materials to boost my current items. I would like to see something to acquire on maps other than credits, DNA, and crafting materials. It’s not terrible gameplay, but other than diving into missions or contracts, there’s little else to the game. I fear this decision will hurt Killsquad in the long run, as players will get bored without having something additional to earn.

Killsquad doesn’t use character levels like a standard RPG.The requirements to enter a stage are known as “Vector”, which is basically item level. There are three levels of difficulty for these Contracts – Recruit (Vector 1-30), Veteran (35-90), and Spec Ops (Vector 120-150). These are not stages that you should try alone, and here’s where one of the serious problems comes in: you have no idea how many people are in queue for each contract. The missions are incredibly challenging alone, unless you are seriously over-leveled, and then – why bother? All you can do is pick a contract, wait, and hope others are queuing. Each Contract also has a timer, and when it ends, it refreshes with a new Contract. I’d like for there to be some kind of “Random Contract”, where people who have no idea what to do/people who just want to find a party can queue up a little bit faster. However, the teams are seldom balanced, so there’s no guarantee of getting a Medic/Healer unless you play it. All you can do is communicate and hope someone picks one for the mission at hand.

Killsquad Screenshot

In order to increase your Vector, you use Credits to purchase Equipment (Weapons/Support Equipment), which I explained previously. Your Credits come from success on Contracts, and any DNA you don’t spend on these missions also converts into Credits. Leveling up is pretty easy at first, but sometimes you’ll have to choose whether you simply want that level to go up, or you like the abilities on the present gear you’re equipped with. The weapons have a nice, fun variety of awesome passive abilities, and the support gear can have reduced poison, increased exp, increased credits, and other useful traits. I found it pretty easy to build up a nice collection of credits and weapons, but once the old gear outlived its usefulness, I would dismantle it, in hopes it would give me useful materials. Speaking of materials, I wish that a name was placed next to their image so that it’s clear whether it will be useful or not. This so far is the other way to change up what your character can do, and it’s only through passive abilities.

Each time you enter into the stage a Contract is on, you start at level 1. Leveling up comes from killing monsters, and when you level, you either gain stats or get an offer to pick from one of a few passive traits. At level 6, you also pick out one of two ultimate abilities. Each of these characters has a Basic Attack, three Abilities, and one Ultimate Ability. However, there does not currently appear to be any way to customize the passives you pick. One great feature that Killsquad could add is stage-based loadouts that will auto-pick your traits to cut back on downtime. While it doesn’t take a lot of time to pick a passive trait, it interrupts the flow of the game, and if you level mid-battle, a loadout might just save your life.

The stages are fairly linear, with occasional branching paths for treasure, or just to show off the beautiful areas. While most of the areas are awful grimdark, they are gorgeous. The aesthetic works and the visuals for this game are absolutely lovely. You and your team will maneuver through fairly tight corridors, up and down huge flights of stairs, and through gorgeous plains filled with massive, glowing crystals. Fairly frequently, the horrible monsters will leap out in packs for you to fight, with the occasional Elite that in a way, helps teach you what you need to know for the major boss at the end.

Some of these bosses are absolutely frustrating – if you don’t know that the boss heals whenever someone’s in the AOE (because someone stands in it every single damn time, it just always looks like it heals), a fairly simple boss can turn into a thirty-minute slog. With that in mind, every one of the major bosses/elites has a mechanic to learn, but you have to learn them yourself. I like that though since it adds some pretty fun challenge to the game. Another way it emphasizes the danger of going alone is that there are almost no healing items dropped in the stages. Thankfully, one of the mercenaries is a healer (even if he is a psychopathic killer robot). These monsters you kill also drop DNA. Occasionally, there are vending machines you can use. They take the DNA you find, to get temporary invincibility, receive more health or armor. The placement of these is not always kind though, especially in the more difficult missions. I’ve seen them on parts of a map that are constantly bombarded by fire and meteors, so you don’t have the time to make a purchase without risking death.

However, if you have allies that are alive, you can be resurrected, and there’s no limit to the number of times you can be revived! But you come back with virtually no health, so do be careful. All characters also have a dodge, so use it to avoid huge AoE abilities, not just to look cool (though you will.) If your team can’t get to you, thanks to tons of aoe on the ground, you will at least automatically resurrect after a minute. Every ability is unique, the characters all have fantastic abilities, and everything about the actual gameplay feels smooth and makes sense. Now, Killsquad is brutally difficult, I’m not going to argue that. I imagine that’s the intent. This is not an easy game, but with time, practice, and teamwork, any event can be overcome. It’s a game you’ll get better at by simply playing. Killsquad is only going to teach you the game mechanics by throwing you into the fire. That style of gameplay and level of difficulty is not for everyone, but it’s still a great deal of fun regardless. I absolutely love exploring these stages, and the actual gameplay is pretty addicting.

Status: Fascinating, But Missing a Tiny Something

I love Killsquad. The look and charm of it are very clear right out of the gate. It’s difficult, but every stage is fun and beatable. I feel like it’s missing something to hunt for or unlock. There are plenty of battles to go through, and your Vector for each character is different, so you have plenty of reasons to go back through earlier stages on the other Mercenaries. I have noticed some pretty long waits on the earlier/easier stages though because so many people in the Early Access have grinded pretty hard on one or two characters (or so it seems). It should also offer an indication of what missions players are in queue for, so you can queue appropriately. Simply sitting and waiting and hoping for people to join a match is really frustrating. Perhaps you could queue for multiple Contracts and see which one pops first? I appreciate that you can make private matches and invite specific people to the battlefield, if you have friends playing.

I like where Killsquad is, and it’s got a whole lot of promise. The progression and customization are a bit limited, but as time goes on, this will improve surely. I enjoy it, but there are some quality-of-life things the game could use. This includes being able to kick players who idle/AFK, or the ability to have players jump-in mid-stage, should you not find enough players. That aside, it looks good, plays great, and the style of the characters is just awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing how Killsquad evolves through its Early Access.

Killsquad Screenshots: