Tag Archives: attribute

Rise of Dragons

Rise of Dragons is a 3D fantasy MMORPG featuring large-scale cross-server multiplayer battles. Protect the Middle Kingdom of Andimore and go down in history as a hero!

Business Model: Free-to-Play

Microtransactions: Yes, there are various optional in-game purchases available.

Key Features:

Classes: Choose one of three professions including the cunning Mage, feather-footed Archer, and front-lining Warrior.

Action-Combat: Use combinations of attacking, dodging, and using abilities to survive difficult encounters.

Annihilator: Defeat nasty enemies to earn gold and experience.

Effortless Personalization: Customize your character’s look and gameplay feel.

To-Do List: Complete in-game events and trials for frequent rewards.

Team Up: Join a Guild Union and enjoy the benefits of strong alliances.

M.A.S.S. Builder

M.A.S.S. Builder is a 3rd-person sci-fi roleplaying game featuring fast-paced action combat. Take command of a private military company and fight back against the invading Quark race.

Business Model: Buy-to-Play

Microtransactions: No

Key Features:

Ruthlessly Unique: Extensively customize a mechanical assault skeleton suit with unprecedented personalization capabilities.

Gunsmith: Tinker with yourb weapons’ appearance and operational abilities.

Catch Me If You Can: Dash around the battlefield with tactically placed booster pads.

Advanced Bloodsport: Compete against other players in either 1v1 or 3v3 arena matches.

Azusa RP Online

Azusa RP Online is a 2D open-world MMORPG providing a sandbox for roleplaying opportunities. Defy Earth’s destiny as an Olympian Guardian and stop Hades from destroying your home!

Business Model: Buy-to-Play

Microtransactions: No

Key Features:

Races: Play as a Human, Angel, Demon, Kappa, or Lemurian.

Classes: Explore all the game’s content via the Civilian, Master, and Fighter training paths.

From Dust: Create, customize, and train up your character’s capabilities.

Action!: Fight in strategic real-time combat engagements.

Force of Nature: Impact the game in an appropriately positive or negative fashion.

Unburied: Experience death and make a return to the living as a player-killing Reaper.

Going for Gold: Compete against other players on a weekly basis for god-tier items.

Work for It: Take on custom-made dungeons for a chance at remarkable treasure.

Making Good: Improve skills in a variety of ways including ‘AFK’ and active training methods.

Wanderlust: Travel through biomes featuring unique architecture, items, and more.

Back to the Past: Manipulate time to witness historical events or change fate.

Quests for All: Experience one-of-a-kind adventures and quests with the help of the Trial System.

 

Versus World Early Access Preview

by Vincent Haoson (Ojogo)

Shooters have always been fun, frantic and enjoyable games that don’t require much thinking except for occasional critical moments where you need to decide which weapon is the best to get a kill.

However, modern shooters have become more complex. Developers have been adding one gameplay element after another. Simply being able to point the crosshairs properly on a moving target isn’t enough. As more shooters are being released, game developers are trying to find more ways to provide a richer experience for their audience.

There’s a certain group of people who want their shooter to be as simple as possible, though, and that’s the type of gamer that Versus World aims to capture.

Versus World Screenshot

Gameplay

Versus World is a Steam game from Two Zoos. It’s a shooter that throws you at the thick of things as soon as you enter the game. As you either join or host matches, you are thrust into shooting at  other players without the fanfare of an intricate or elaborate storyline to follow. You just create your avatar, host or join a game, and shoot each other to win.

Currently, Versus World has three general game modes that you can jump into: Deathmatch, Siege or Heatmatches. Each game mode has a few variations which the room host can set prior to matches.

Versus World Screenshot

Deathmatches are basically the usual deathmatch tournaments where you or a team need to eliminate other people, using the equipped weapons or the other weapons that have been littered in the five maps available. The win condition in most deathmatchs is having the most kills, or reaching the kill count set by the server creator.

Meanwhile, Siege game modes are Versus World’s fancier way of calling check point stealingYou and your team fight to acquire bases as you face against the opposing team, who has to claim the base you are trying to hold.

Versus World Screenshot

Last, the Heatmatches are matches where you need to reach the heat count set for the game. You earn heat as you successfully land kills in the arena and lose heat as opposing teams kill you. The longer you survive as you kill the other players, the faster you earn heat.

The five arenas in Versus World provide a fun thematic mix into your matches in-game. These stages, aside from having weapons littered in specific areas, have random power-up boxes similar to the power-up boxes in Mario Kart. These provide you with weapons or random game effects that make the game more interesting and fun.

Versus World Screenshot

Customization

Characters in Versus World look like a better version of the Minecraft characters with a smoother, but still blocky look. The game provides you with a plethora of customization options that can help you create the stupidest looking character you can ever imagine.

The game’s customization doesn’t affect the overall gameplay experience. However, it does allow for a more entertaining experience as you plow through weird looking clowns, or Trump look-alikes in a barn that’s filled with weapons that cause destruction and mayhem.

Versus World Screenshot

Bots

This seems to be the current trend of a lot of games these days, but Versus World provides you the option of filling rooms with bots that you can play against if you don’t have friends, or at least friends that have the game. With rooms having a max of 16 players, it’s hard to expect that you have 16 friends who can play with you (or maybe that’s just me), so I like that Two Zoo provided the option to fill in the bots for maximum player base.

I actually really like the bots in Versus World because the AI isn’t as dumb as they are in other shooters. While I don’t like that you don’t have the option to control their difficulty rating, the default setting of the bots gives you a proper challenge. Of course, these are bots, so you’ll eventually see them bugging out like running to walls or shooting erratically, but most of the time, the bots allow you a bit more challenge especially if they’re swarming around you. Aside from shooting, bots even know how to use grenades properly. Most of my interaction with bots in shooters just have them just using guns even though they had grenades to use.

Versus World Screenshot

I also liked that the bots, while challenging, are still killable enough to not have you pulling out your hair while facing them. Normally, shooters either have walking body bags as bots, or they go for the nigh impossible to kill bots. Versus World’s bots though were able to balance the difficulty level; challenging yet killable.

Conclusion: Great (4.5/5)
Solid shooter, simple and easy to get into. Needs more players though.

Overall, my experience with Versus World has been a fun, albeit personless, venture into a simple shooter. Since the game is still in early access, I never had the opportunity to play with people. While the developers are offering free codes for people to pass around and have you play with, the game’s current lack of players will hurt its future.  Yes, the current bot system fills-in the lack of people to play with, but nothing beats being able to kill other players instead of bots, especially in a shooter.

Versus World Screenshot

I like it that during the early access for the game, there’s a disclaimer that the game isn’t a complete yet and the final product may differ. At least it lets people set the expectations for Versus World from the start.

That said though, the game provides a simplistic shooter that maximizes on the fun factor without sacrificing solid core gameplay. Versus World is a refreshing shooter in world where battle royale games like PUBG and Fortnite have reigned supreme  and a lot of devs are chasing in their footsteps. I love it that Two Zoos focused on the basics, and have a gem with Versus World. I hope the final version will just refine what the game is offering now and focus on making a simple but addictingly fun shooter. Two Zoos just need to find a solution to bringing in more players and they are gold.

Note: A game key was provided for preview purposes.

Immortal: Unchained Alpha Thoughts

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Immortal Unchained Alpha - Start

Looks hopeless, right? That’s okay, we’ll learn to kill.

Now I know this is some kind of crazy hot-take, and it’s going to make some folks on the internet boil with anger, but here goes: Immortal: Unchained is a Dark Souls style game. Yes, yes, I know. Dark Souls is a pure, unique creature that nothing can ever be but a pale imitation of, but hear me out. Immortal: Unchained takes that formula of “die often, learn a lot” and puts it in a more futuristic setting. Instead of dodging forever, and swinging a few times, you . . . well, you still do fancy rolls and dodges, but instead of wielding medieval weaponry, you have a host of different guns to equip, each with their own stats, sprays, and damage to account for. Instead of “souls” you have “forgotten bits”, and that is your currency to up stats and do a variety of things. You’ll see a lot of similarities, but that’s not a bad thing. I’m universally bad at this style of game, so my time spent learning was a little higher than normal. But you know what? I did it. I learned what I was doing, even if it meant I spent well into eighty minutes on the tutorial stage, mostly because of the final boss. I was trying to do too much at once, and dying for it.

Immortal Unchained - Combat

You might call this a real clash of styles.

Immortal: Unchained has you playing a nameless man, muscular and mute. Awakened with no weapons, no memories and no chance, he travels through these tombs, scrounging for a pistol, a knife, and a prayer. The game will give you some brief tutorial hints, like which button does what, how to reload, how to equip weapons (at Obelisks), and briefly mentions the targeting system. This is what makes this stand out from its brethren in the genre. You can aim and shoot, which is normal, but you also have a body-part/aiming system.Each enemy has a set of body parts you can target, and in addition to their health meter, there’s also a stun-bar. As you hit body parts, that meter will drop (less if they have a shield to defend themselves). When it glows red, they’re staggered/stunned, and you can really lay into them. This is harder to do when multiple enemies are on the field because you have to dodge one, shoot the other, dodge one, shoot the other until you’re incredibly powerful. That never happened to me, sadly. What I found worked the best, was aiming at a leg, swapping to the other leg, then to whatever arm they were shooting you with. I rotate parts until stunned, then shoot them in the head. Unless they’re very weak, then I just go for headshots and move on.

Immortal Unchained Alpha - Stats

There are no stat resets (yet if ever), so be careful.

This is such an interesting system, adding a lot to the tactics and strategies of trying to fight for your life, because if you die, you lose all of your bits. Like the Souls games before it, you can go back and retrieve them. Just don’t be like me, store 5/6k bits, die, then die a second time. That’s the most frustrating thing because now you have to start farming again. That leads me to Obelisks. Obelisks are where you upgrade stats, equip weapon blueprints, restore your medkits/grenades, and upgrade weapons if you have the requirements to do so. Activating it also resets all the encounters, so you can’t just kill something, run away, heal at the Obelisk then move on unmolested. This is a great way to learn patterns, and farm up bits because leveling stats is expensive. Oh my goodness. Each time you level a stat, you level up, but I highly advise waiting to level stats too quickly. The cost ramps up very high, and I learned this lesson the hard way. The first “random” weapon I picked up was a sub-machine gun (to compliment my pistol and assault rifle), and it was a higher rarity, had an elemental effect (acid) and was, in general, amazing.

Immortal Unchained Alpha - Guns

I needed guns, bits, and half-a-chance. Who provided these funds?

However, it required 15 in two stats, one of which I had been working on, the other I was not. So I had to farm for what felt like an eternity to just get the second stat at 15, so I could equip this amazing gun. It was worth it, but at this stage of the game’s development, there are no resources to look online as to what you can equip, what it’ll cost, and what you should focus on. In this case, Finesse and Perception. Each stat has its own purpose, and you have eight of them. I feel like something could be modified here. Either fewer stats, or decrease the costs just a little. It’s very overwhelming, to except the most hardcore players, I imagine. I’m not suggesting you make it easy, but the early gun stats I found were just nuts in terms of stat requirements. I didn’t need it to defeat the first boss, but I bet money it would have helped. I do wish you didn’t have to activate Obelisks to simply equip weapons, but here we are. I’m not a fan of it, but it is an interesting concept. It’s also important to note that every weapon has a “power” ability, which is used via the R1 button. It uses your blue/mana meter, so don’t spam these either, unless you’re farming via Obelisk.

Immortal Unchained Alpha - Levers

Levers … how do they work?

You also have a variety of consumable items, from items that increase your resistances, grenades, medkits, and possibly the most interesting, Cyanide. Yes, you can commit suicide in this game. At first, I thought this was just insulting and stupid, then I came to a realization. Maybe you’re out of health, in a bad position, no other handy items, but don’t want to give up all of your bits. Retreat somewhere near an obelisk, perish, then go back with full medkits/etc, and acquire your bits. So it made way more sense than I was giving it! You also uncover these items called “Cerium Decree”. They open doors, activate levers, open some treasure chests. What I like about this, is that they aren’t consumed once you activate an item. So, think of them like Super Mario 64 stars, and you need to collect as many as possible. They’re very important, and it looks to me like you’ll have to backtrack to use some of them. I found a chest that required 10 very early on, and there was no way I’d have that many. So I have a feeling we’ll be going back and exploring areas as we grow more powerful. I don’t think it will be required, but will certainly be useful.

Immortal Unchained Alpha - Auto Target

Tight corridors like this make auto-target incredibly frustrating.

Combat is as complex as it needs to be. You have a finite amount of ammo, but the Undead you fight are pretty good about dropping caches of ammo for you. You have a melee attack (which is honestly, for lack of a better phrase, absolute godawful), your aim, using the right stick to aim at body parts, a run/dodge/jump button, and your item button. The melee just feels weak because almost every enemy I’ve encountered has a gun, and the melee units hit incredibly hard while you do not. How you press the dodge button changes what it does. Tap it lightly, and he hops in the direction you’re holding. Pressing harder is your roll, and holding it down is run (which consumes stamina). If you press R3, you’ll lock on to your closest opponent, but can shift to others with the Right stick. This is definitely a sticking point for me because once you’re in that lock-on mode, your movement is seriously hampered. If you’re trying to move back behind cover/around a corner, it’s going to be very stiff and slow going, and that is the cause of about 40% of my deaths. If you could perhaps use the targeting system without locking your movement down, that would be a huge benefit. I’m, of course, not discounting that I could simply be doing it wrong, that’s feasible. But as a newcomer, it definitely felt stiff and unforgiving, even in that movement system. Bosses are powerful, big, and mean. They have predictable patterns that you can certainly learn and will have no choice but to do so if you want to survive. All enemies have some kind of pattern, and as all things in this style of game, you learn or you die. It’s all about learning. Learning when the enemy needs to reload, what points you need to hit to stagger them.

 

Immortal Unchain Alpha - Boss

These bosses do NOT mess around.

Hype Train: On Schedule:

Normally, I don’t really play these kinds of games. I’m bad at them, and while I can learn how to get good, I don’t really have that kind of time in my day-to-day. But Immortal: Unchained feels solid, the world is intriguing, the controls are pretty smooth and are definitely responsive. They recommend using a controller, and I certainly agree. There’s already lore in the game when you click on certain monuments and other in-game items, where you learn alongside your character. The maps are well-designed, and so far, a lot of them feel like mazes, which I assume is the idea. I kind of wish I had a mini-map to use, but I feel like that would take away from the game. I just want it because I’m bad! A tactical, careful approach is definitely the way to tackle this game. Don’t assume just because you have guns you need to go in blazing, because you will die, repeatedly.

Immortal Unchained - Snow

It’s not all grim moody bleak darkness either.

Immortal: Unchained is in Alpha, but it’s definitely got the right idea, and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how it is adjusted, and how it grows from here. I was disappointed that my file got reset until I realized that it would be a great way to see just how much I’ve learned over the last couple of days. And for the most part, I just blew through the first stage, until I got cocky. Then I paid for it and lost 4,000 bits. But it was my own doing, and I cannot blame the game. It’s still in need of some polish but it is in Alpha after all. The major issues I involved the targeting system and movement. I stand my thoughts of adjusting the stat system somehow. It just seems too high for what you’re getting off of regular enemies, especially with that many stats. Or perhaps making it more clear what weapons need what stats? But it’s coming along, and I’m excited about it. I think Souls-fans will enjoy it and get a ton of new challenges and excitement out of it.

We have a limited number of closed alpha keys available!

Note: A game key was provided for preview purposes.

More Immortal: Unchained Screenshots

 

Miner Meltdown Review

by Charles Perez (Kingsdecree)

Featuring hectic multiplayer action and some elements of economic management, Miner Meltdown is a refreshingly unique mashup of several different genres and visual styles. However, while built upon a cool eye-catching concept, there’s a lot left to be desired considering the lack of content and gatekeeping seven dollar price tag.

Spelunkaria
Looking somewhat like Terraria, the pixel-art graphics are pleasant without being overly simple or distracting. I would’ve liked more variety in what the actual environment looks like, but it’s not a big deal since you won’t be seeming much of it anyway with the limited lighting and over-the-top effects from all the weapons, which are powerful and aplenty. From a cheap reliable pistol to a devastatingly powerful rocket launcher, when you need something dead, you’ve got options.

In addition to the guns, you’ve also got some helpful auxiliary items like mines, glow sticks, and your choice of either a rope or jetpack to navigate around the map with. The rope in particular, which seems to be borrowed and improved upon from Spelunky, can be fired off infinitely and allows back-and-forth swinging to build up momentum for long distance gap closing. It’s certainly a blast to use and even more fun practicing to get better at it. Although, there are often times when you’re pretty much forced to use the boring jetpack instead due to the layout of the map.

 

Cabin Fever
In fact, the whole map design is infuriating. Usually these make-your-own-way multiplayer games (such as Ace of Spades/Block N’ Load) will have a default open path for a player to take if they just want to get right into the action and save the tedious underground-path creation for the infiltrators. Here however, you’re forced to start digging from the very beginning.

This is especially frustrating in game modes other than Crazy King (King of the Hill variant) because without an actual objective to seek out, you’re just milling about hoping to run into someone to fight amidst all the destructible terrain. It can be difficult to find people even with an objective because of the ever-dim lighting showing only a small area around you and your teammates. It’s neat to have some additional sight through glowsticks and the flare from jet packs, but otherwise it’s fairly rare to engage in combat without shoving your barrel down someone’s throat in close quarters – which, in turn, makes the expensive longer-range weapons much less impactful than they should be.

Show Me the Money
Even with the previously mentioned issues, you still have a relatively fun visually appealing multiplayer game with a unique twist, so why isn’t this game more popular? Well for starters, there’s no one actually playing it, and that’s not an exaggeration. Over the several days I was playing, and at various hours, there wasn’t even a single lobby hosting a match nor did anyone join the one I started. A low player count seems petty to complain about but it makes all the difference in a multiplayer title. It might be fine to start with, but playing against bots in the long run is not fun, exciting, or engaging.

And the reason why there’s no players? Because this is a free-to-play game that costs 7$. I totally get that making games costs money and the developers need to be able recoup their costs, but when the market is already so incredibly saturated with F2P battle arenas how can you possibly expect someone to pay for one? And just to be clear, Miner Meltdown is a multiplayer-only game. There’s no solo adventure or co-op content to speak of.

I seriously don’t get it; there are even cosmetics in the game, why not sell those instead? Or take this cool gameplay concept and make some non-PVP content for it. The tutorial already established it was possible, why not take it one step further? At least then when someone buys this game they would get something other than dull matches filled with dumb bots. And you know, there’s even healing gun available to unlock. It’s completely useless in the multiplayer, but I could see it being very helpful for co-op shenanigans like in a wave-based survival game mode. 


I encountered this bug in particular quite a few times.

They Dug too Deep (2/5)
Miner Meltdown at its core is a damn cool mix of so many different kinds of games, but was mercilessly kneecapped by a myriad of questionable choices and a non-existent playerbase. Even though I did enjoy some of my time with it (against bots), it isn’t worth your time and definitely not your money.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Blast Out: Early Access Impressions

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Blast Out is an interesting creature. It’s an arena brawler that features a 2-on-2 system where you also have to contend with the primal forces of nature and magic! As the matches proceed, a plethora of environmental hazards appear, but there’s thankfully a timer in the top middle of the screen that offers a warning when something is about to happen. It doesn’t say what, but as the match loads, it does offer a minor warning, whether it’s the giant glowing runes, or parts of the map being engulfed in lava. Being aware and constantly on the move is paramount. Instead of playing specific legendary heroes, champions, or notable figures, you play as a character in one of three races (at least in the current build). You equip them in gear that alters their stats, and select their abilities out of an open pool of abilities, configured to your specifications. From there you go into battle, and the first to win three rounds (so best of five) wins the day and collects the spoils of war!

Blast Out - Equipment Stats

Stats Matter, but “Epic” doesn’t mean “Better”. Pick what you need, not based on color.

The three character races are Mapache (Red Panda, known as Catbears by some of the other races, cunning tricksters), Chinpanji (Ape, peaceful monks and practitioner of Apashite Kung Fu), and Bjorn (Bears, down-to-earth Northerners, fond of ale and fancy beards). Each character has its own stats, from Cooldown Percent, Move Speed, Health, et cetera, but you can adjust these stats as you purchase gear/unlock it in the Chests. This gear can only be bought with Coins, which you acquire from Chests and through gameplay. I received chests that contained Coins even in a loss. Winning gives a better Chest, which can give you powerful weapons to equip. More on that in a bit. Each character has its own particular armor that it can equip, which changes their look, and their stats. The rarity of them is the standard Green, Blue, Purple, Orange from lowest to rarest. The thing that I like about this gear is that not a single piece in the entire game has “only” bonuses/buffs. For every positive stat like +2 Shield Regen, it will have something like -100 health to balance it out or -7.5% to your damage, but lowers cooldown by 14% The stats seem to match each other, so you can balance the style with what stats you feel are appropriate.

Blast Out - Fire Time

Sometimes you have to know when to run or when to pop powers.

You start with one weapon, which you use with your mouse. It has a basic attack which you can use instead of your selected skills. As you win matches, you get a special chest that can unlock legendary, more powerful weapons. These cannot be bought, they are only earned through victory. So far I have a few of them, and they have targeted powers like shooting a fireball or launching a bolt of lightning across the screen. As you activate a weapon or skill, a line, circle, or other shot marker will become available, but I do appreciate that it has Smart Cast and Quick Cast. Smart Cast casts the ability when you let go of the key, and Quick Cast is when you hit the key. I’m also very glad you can adjust where you cast abilities, which is common but appreciated. For this game, I think it’s a little awkward to use WASD to move and QWERF to use powers.

Blast Out - Abilities

Pick who you want, then worry about abilities.

As someone who uses a Razer Naga, I started to use my powers with my Naga’s number pad. That just works better for me. Speaking of abilities, you have a pool of 28 different abilities, in the following categories: Weapon (What your Weapons do), Offensive (Attack Skills), Defensive (Protective), Control (Crowd Control), and Positioning (Charging, Dodging, Teleporting). The great thing is you can use whichever you want. Want to just be a CC/Position machine for your friend who stacks Offensive/Positioning powers? Then, by all means, do it! As you use these powers, they level up, but this is where I started to get worried. I had no idea what the purpose of the ‘level’ was at first and feared the abilities would get stronger. Leveling skills give you coins and an alternate version of the ability. Not a “better” one, just a “different” one for you to try out. So the ability to customize, change and build a loadout for any situation is great. You have 100 seconds to plan it before the match starts, so use it wisely. I would very much like to get Loadouts for this game though, so I can make loadouts for certain teammates or maps to just be prepared for any situation. It’s not a necessity, given how much time they give you, but it would cut some of that wait and get us ready to jump right into battle.

Blast Out - Runic Nightmare

Each one of those glowy spots is DOOM.

Blast Out is a game that is heavily reliant on skill though. No skill set is going to save you from a loss if you don’t know what the map does, or what your opponents can do. And with the Knockback system, knowing how and when you can knock someone back will definitely give you the edge. Why is that? Remember all those horrific elements of the map? There are times when most of the map is covered in doom, from fire or runes of magic, et cetera. When they’re right about to show up, or are appearing, if you can knock an enemy deep into the lava, they might not have the cooldowns to get out! Or you can just root them deep into the lava like I do. It’s a game that requires not only personal skill but teamwork. So being able to duo-queue and chat on Discord/Skype/etc will definitely be better than typing in the chat box. Sure, it’s useful and I’m glad it’s there, but being able to play with friends and coordinate will put you heads and tails above anyone else.

Speaking of teamwork, let’s talk about the maps for a bit. There are three maps right now, “Sands of Fate”, “Haunted Temple”, and “The Searing Shrine”. Each has its own hazards:

  • Sands of Fate: Hazardous Environment (Surrounding storm inflicts damage), The Storm Approaches (Safe area gets smaller), Destructible Walls (Use this to get the upper hand in a pinch)
  • Haunted Temple: Vengeful Spirits (They randomly haunt tiles on the map), Thoughtful Spirits (These light up before they strike you), Spirits Everywhere (More spirits every time they return).
  • The Searing Shrine: Lethal Lava Land (Don’t stand in the lava), Mind the gap (Arena splits evenly in two, divided by lava), Lava flood (Lava covers parts of the map periodically)

 

Blast Out - Weapon

They’ve Got a Lot on the Ball:

This is a pretty simple game from the outset, but there’s so much really going down. Sure, it’s two-on-two with only a few maps, but there is so much customization, and you have plenty to worry about. Just because you play the same map twice, it will not be the same experience twice, and that’s what’s so damn wonderful about it. I’m hoping more characters and maps will be on the way, and I definitely can tell it’s inspired by the Warcraft III “Warlock” mod. It’s something I read in a press release, and as someone who spent a lot of time on WC3 modes as a younger man, I can feel it. The maps constantly change over the course of the map so a strategy that works in the first match might not work in the second match. It boils down to personal skill, a bit of luck, and a lot of being able to react to whatever is going on around it. It’s fast-paced, non-stop action. Use the passive trait your character has mobility powers, and the skillset you chose to your advantage on each map. That’s one of the many things I love about it. It’s crazy, adrenaline-inducing fun.

Blast out - Learn you some Blast Out

And it has LOTS of tutorials and guides on what to know.

I do kind of feel like three matches to a win is a bit much though. I’d prefer being able to set that if I want sudden death, or two out of three, et cetera. You can’t enter Custom Mode yet, so maybe those options will there. Or at least, I wasn’t able to enter it at the time of writing. I stand by wanting controller support though. I think it might make the game a little harder, but I think arcade brawlers like this can be improved with having it as an option or at least test it during Early Access to see how it’s received. It’s not pay-to-win in that every piece of gear has a downside with an upside, you can build your character any way you want so you don’t have to stress your opponent having some OP kit that you don’t have access to. And if you see someone doing something incredible, you can try it out for yourself. Blast Out is crazy fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing some insane maps come to this. Some ideas I thought of were an underwater map where everything is slowed down, maybe throw in some giant sea creatures, or something up in the sky where you can plummet to your doom. Could be a great sudden death map, or something for casual fun. Dunking people and defeating them in combat has not felt this satisfying in a very long time.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Offensive Combat: Redux Review: “Killary and Drumpf”

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Offensive Combat Redux - Main Menu

The most common approach to a shooter/FPS these days is ultra-realistic or ultra-gritty. You have LawBreakers, which is violence-filled, but filled with grit, swearing, and really cool gameplay mechanics. The upcoming Call of Duty is set in World War II. Then you have Battlefield I, which is set in World War I. There are, of course, games that buck this trend, like Star Wars Battlefront and  various other class-based shooters, but none of them are quite as wild as Offensive Combat: Redux. It’s set in the “Offensive Combat Universe”, which I did not know existed until I started this review. So I sat down to do a little research. Offensive Combat was originally a browser based shooter, distributed via Facebook.

Offensive Combat - Redux - Cockshot

Boop! Right in the balls!

Years later, Offensive Combat: Redux comes back with all the silly, ridiculous nonsense that comes with it. A lot of the complaints I’ve read about it were based on the visuals and the fact that a prominent part of the game is “PWNing” your opponents after you kill them, or that it’s not pretty visually. And sure, this is not the prettiest FPS I’ve ever played (that’s probably Lawbreakers). But I personally feel the more ludicrous, cartoony, even sub-par art style goes well with the game. Offensive Combat: Redux keeps up this ridiculous style with killshots: in addition to getting headshots, the game also offers the laudable “Cockshot”! If you manage to kill someone with shots to the genitals, it will declare proudly that you defeated your foe with a cockshot. It’s an experience I’ve not had in an FPS until this one.

Offensive Combat - Redux - PWN

You can’t see me!

It may look a trifle ridiculous,  and it may be annoying that it does not default to 1920×1080 fullscreen/borderless windowed, but there are settings to change that. Well, you can set it to full screen. Any game that doesn’t have “Borderless Windowed” as an option automatically ticks a negative mark for me. But the graphics do lend themselves well to this style of game. It’s very immature, and it’s clear from the word “Go”. There are lots of different cosmetic styles, including “Drumpf” and “Killary”. You can be a lizard person, a robot, you can walk around in a classy suit with a Poo Head. Whatever nonsense you want to cook up you can, and it won’t make you any better at the game. It will probably be at least marginally entertaining though. But how do you unlock these wonderful features? You spend gold, the primary currency,  or there is … an alternative path. It’s a far more fun path, but it’s a bit more random. Thankfully you also get gold and experience points for winning/losing matches, but here’s the real trick.

Offensive Combat - Getting PWNED

Get used to this.

When you kill a player in a match, a match of any variety, you can “PWN” them. Remember how popular teabagging was in Halo/CoD? It’s back, and it has a legit game function! You start off doing a combo of a Teabag (look it up if you don’t know) and John Cena’s “You can’t see me” taunt with a little funk riff playing. Each time you utilize one of these taunts, there’s a chance that the game will unlock a new part at random. What’s the catch though? When you are taunting, you don’t have any invulnerability frames or any protection, other than your team. Odds are, while you’re PWNing someone, an enemy combatant is lining up a shot to murder you.

Offensive Combat - Redux - Dots

Ignore the tea-bagging, look at the red dots.

Anytime you fire a bullet, throw a grenade, anything, you show up on the mini-map. So when someone dies, you are a moving target on the map. In fact, I’ve only successfully gotten away from a taunt a few times total. No more than five or six, and that was because I had to steal a kill, kill the guy that was killing, then grenade his friend running down the path. Then it was PWN, PWN, dash, and PWN! But it’s a chance of an item and even if you’re killed mid-taunt, you still unlock the part. The really good costume pieces are expensive, but playing will unlock them and there are no benefits to it other than looking silly/cool (but probably silly). Luckily you can equip multiple taunts, and use the one you prefer.

Offensive Combat Redux - Combat

Bots aren’t friendly.

The gameplay is sharp but simple. You can play against Robots (Bots), Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, or Death Match (free for all). These are pretty standard FPS modes: kill the other team until time runs out/you hit the appropriate number, capture the flag a few times, kill everyone that isn’t you a lot. There’s also a handy “Exploration” Mode where you can wander the map, find your sniping spots, where items spawn, et cetera. In addition, if you can’t decide what mode to play, use “Any Mode” and it will match you with the first queue that pops.Then we have the weapons. You come equipped with a Primary Gun, a Secondary Gun, a Melee Weapon, and a Grenade/Supplemental Weapon. You start, thankfully, with all the primary/secondary guns unlocked, and a wooden sword/frag grenade.

Offensive Combat - Redux - Weapon Tree

Plenty of weapon buffs .. shame you can’t turn some off.

Every melee weapon has identical stats and differences are all just cosmetic, from a rubber chicken to a frying pan to a fish or boxing glove. Each grenade-style weapon gets better and better and thankfully only require exp, so simply playing matches will unlock them. Each gun has a skill tree, with new parts to equip to them, which all start with a base of 1000 exp and increase exponentially for each level on the tree. I do feel like the scoping of the guns is pretty slow, and so anytime I try a new assault rifle, I find myself regretting the scope choice and prefer to simply look down the barrel and open fire. The guns are interesting too. You have a few classics, like the AK-47, the SCAR-HL, but then they get wacky, like the “Razer”, a “cutting edge” space pistol. Or the “Xeno Disrupter” which shoots … radiation? I think that’s the ammo. But you have your pick of the litter. There’s also a gigantic chain gun you can find on most maps, ala Doom. But if you kill the person with it, they lose it.

Offensive Combat - Redux - BIG ASS GUN

BFG – Gets the job done.

And while the gameplay is solid – you kill people with guns, the aim seems to be pretty tight and even when I was losing, I still had fun – it feels empty, hollow somehow. I do not think 20 bucks is okay for a game that just has a few game modes and maps. For what’s on offer, I think 10 would be far more reasonable. Going back to guns though, I’m not really wild about the Weapon Tree being cumulative. What I mean, is you can’t decide that you want to go back Reflex sight and equip it instead. There’s no way to undo it either, so if you decide you don’t like that sight, you’re stuck with it. The other traits to the guns are just buffs/upgrades, so you do need to put in the time to get the exp and put yourself on the level of players who are constantly on and leveling their gear. The other major complaint is the nature of the PWNS. Each PWN has a timer (3s-6s), and each PWN has a chance to unlock particular gear. So what that means is you need to spend the gold on them. So I highly recommend going through the list of PWNs and figuring out what items you’re trying to unlock and equip accordingly.

 

Offensive Combat - Redux - Options

When it comes to killing, you have options.

Are you Triggered?: Verdict – 3/5 (Okay)

A lot of the complaints I’ve heard about the game have nothing to do with the actual game, because it’s just the nature of the game. Sure, it promotes negative, toxic, taunting behavior, as it’s part of the game. It has a “DRUMPF” character, complete with “Make OC Great Again” outfit and “Killary” in prison black and whites. It all boils down to how offensive you think that is. You don’t have to use them, but I can see how that might bother some people. You can’t hide them, but it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. The game itself isn’t bad, but I can see people being mollified and offended pretty easily. I think that if it had something more to it, whether it was more maps, a few more modes, something, it would be worth 20 dollars. As it stands right now it’s fun, it’s good for a few matches here and there, but it’s not worth the price tag. I appreciate that it’s easy to power up your guns easily and that all the guns are unlocked right at the start. There aren’t a ton of them, but you have access to them and can go to the “Gun Range” mode to test them and see if they are exactly what you’re looking for. But at the end of the day, I do feel like it needs something “more”.

A game key was provided for review purposes.

Materia Collective: SPIRA (Music Review/Thoughts)

Materia Collective - Spira Review 1

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Towards the end of last month, I was approached with a daunting project. You see, I’ve never reviewed music before, so I didn’t really know where to begin. Luckily, one of my close friends reviews music on her blog/magazine, so having read some of her work, I figured I might be able to give it a shot. After all, at least it’s still music inspired by video games! The Materia Collective released a two-disc (100 tracks) of music inspired by Final Fantasy X, entitled “SPIRA”. It has two sets of mixes, the “Besaid Mix” and the “Zanarkand Mix”, each with their own unique tracks and takes on the content in the game. A bit about the Materia Collective, from their own website:

“Founded in 2015 by Sebastian Wolff, Materia Collective began as a collection of musicians seeking to celebrate the music of Final Fantasy with a massive arrange album. Materia Collective has since grown into a label that produces and releases original music alongside creative interpretations and arrangements of new and classic game scores.”

Anyone who knows me knows that Final Fantasy X  just might be my favorite in the entire franchise. It’s very close. There are certain story elements that put it above the other favorites in my life, Final Fantasy IV, VI, and Tactics. So when I was told I was offered 100 bloody tracks about Final Fantasy X, I jumped at the offer! Not even taking the time to consider how long that was going to listen to. That’s not how I operate. I tried not to overthink anything, but I had to start at the very beginning, and that’s the “Besaid Mix” and the “Zanarkand Mix”. It’s important to have the right tone, and Final Fantasy X hooked me because of the storytelling. We start in Zanarkand, which is a part of Spira. But it’s not the Spira that Tidus finds himself in. Then he starts for real, on Besaid Island. Where do we wind up in the end? Zanarkand. We’ve come full circle, in the land of the “Spiral of Death”. This is one of the best albums I’ve listened to in some time, and I highly recommend people go and pick it up, listen to it on Spotify, whatever they do, and do so immediately, even if they aren’t the biggest fan of Final Fantasy X. This is a tribute album, so it’s not just flat re-recordings of any of the songs. I’m not going to talk about every song because that would take for absolute ever. But I will try to highlight some of my absolute favorite tracks on both Mixes because some of them truly deserve to stand out. They all do if I can be honest.

Materia Collective - Spira Review 2

It’s very reminiscent to me of the Overclocked Remix website, and that’s one of the highest compliments I can pay. I love tributes to gaming, especially titles that are on my “best of all time” list. Another sincere thing I can say is that each song definitely feels different, special, unique even. Some of the tracks (Braxton Burks – Yuna’s Theme, Besaid) feels very much like a 1:1 translation of the original song, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. It brings me peace, even in this moment, where I’m plagued with food poisoning. The album is perfectly put together, telling the story of Tidus, Yuna, and friends in only the way the Materia Collective can. I had no idea they had put out so much music, but I am going to officially call them out to produce a Lufia 1/2 Album because that would be the best thing possibly ever. Maybe that’s just for me though … When I received this music, it was highlighted on our Bottom Tier livestream for close to a week, getting plenty of time to listen to tracks more than once, and really let all of it sink in. The music was strong enough to get me to want to play Final Fantasy X again, which I did! Every song feels special, whether it made me laugh, or made me tear up a bit, which several did. If I didn’t single out a track, please don’t be upset! There are some definite ones I wanted to talk about (Besaid on the Rocks, Stranger Seymour, Twilight, Bollywood Battle, Suteki da Ne Orchestra, Depths of Fayth, Other Otherworld, Moonlight on the Waves, Illusion) but do not have the room to chat about in this piece. Also as an aside, Dale North’s 90s smooth R&B version of “Suteki da Ne” is magic, pure magic. It sounds like it would be at the end of a Romantic Comedy/Romance film, circa 1995.

Besaid Mix: 

Track 5: Hymn of the Fayth – Valefor (May Claire La Planta) – The task of producing the “Hymn of the Fayth” is a challenging one; it’s a hymn that is the center point of the entire story, of an entire religion. It is to be treated with due reverence, whether it’s a “real” hymn or not. This felt like it could be at home in any Synagogue or Church anywhere in the world. I still have absolutely no idea what the Hymn says, the use of a female voice as the primary sound is key because Valefor is said to be a younger girl, though the voice is of an older woman. So it’s likely her as an adult, looking back perhaps. It made me happy in a time where I needed some peace.

Track 9: The Other World (Natalie Clyne, Jer Roque): Hot damn. I was not expecting a Piano/Swing style rendition of The Otherworld. Up until this point, my favorite version of the song was featured on The Black Mages II: The Skies Above, but this actually tops it. Natalie has a majestic voice and this soothing version of the harsh, metal track that plays while the city is being destroyed, it a fascinating contrast to the scene. I had to laugh though, because I played the pivotal FFX scene while listening to it. It just took the wind right out of the dramatic moment and changed it. It gave me chills, that’s no exaggeration.

Track 13: ReJechted (Darby Cupit): This sounded so much like Chris Sabat to me at first, and I was stunned. The groovy acoustic sound is fantastic and familiar, and all the while, Jecht drunkenly rants about the situation he’s in before the game even starts. He talks about the trek to stop Sin and how he could get back home to his wife and kid. Because contrary to popular belief, Jecht did not hate his family. He’s terrible at expressing emotions as a popular/famous sports star. It’s not a big shock. As long as his kid’s not there, it’s easy for him to talk about, anyway. So Jecht walks to the upbeat music and just rambles, jokes, and sighs wearily. “It’ll be one Hell of a story!” Man … if only you knew, Jecht.

Track 45: Yuna vs. Seymour at the Disco (Daniel Romberger): A disco version of the Seymour battle, you say? I was not ready for “Guado Funk”, but here we are. Yuna’s singing voice made my eyes water a little as she sings desperately about the situation she’s in, and how Seymour trapped her in this impossible predicament. How do you pack such sadness into such an upbeat-sounding song? Somehow they managed. This is one of my favorite songs out of the whole bunch for so many reasons. It definitely stands out among the rest.

Track 48: Zanarkand (Will Dawson): “To Zanarkand” is one of my favorite tracks ever produced for a Final Fantasy game. To show such calm and quiet in such a dire moment really strikes a chord with me (pun not intended). But to turn it into a heroic march style song is a great choice. Now with rolling drums, horns, it feels like a truly epic moment is about to go down (because it is. Play the game, nerds!) and that’s just how I want it.

Zanarkand Mix:

Track 55: Battle for Spira (Rozen, Julie Elven): The FFX Battle Theme is wonderful. Sometimes, it’s hard to really appreciate it, because you’re busy swapping people out and being annoyed that you have to haul Wakka’s dumb ass into a fight just to get him a little AP (one of the few complaints I have with FFX), but this is a more dramatic version of the song, and the haunting, quiet chanting/singing in the background really adds that little extra boost to get you into the fighting spirit. Now I want to go outside and punche bears in the face. I won’t, because I’d die. But you get what I mean.

Track 64: Never Wakka Way – Extended TV Theme (Nautilus T Party): Okay, this was pure genius. They took Wakka’s theme and turned it into an 80s/90s action TV show. It also reminded me vaguely of Pokemon, and I’m not sure if that was intended. It also had hints of 70s TV post-chorus. I could see “Wakka and his Pals Action Hour” or something. Never Wakka Way was a change of pace for a series of songs that are very serious, for a super serious game. This made me chuckle more than I thought I would.

Track 88: Moonlight on the Waves (Suteki da Ne): I sure feature versions of this song heavily. It is one of my favorite FF tracks and I won’t apologize for that. Each version of the song on this collection has a different offering and theme, and this one is more somber, and quiet I’ll say. It’s good music to play in the background when you need to just sit and consider something. It’s peaceful, and it’s lovely.

Track 96: Rave with Seymour (Matthew S. Harrison): I think some of my favorite tracks on this entire collection are new takes on previous songs. I love the straight translation tracks where they feel like they could be in the game, don’t get me wrong. But this “Rave” version of the Seymour battle brings chills across my skin and got my blood pumping. It’s such a serious, grim moment, where reality could literally be unmade because of an insane half-guado, a man who somehow has gravity-defying hair who kills his father, tricks Yuna into marrying him, and enslaves his mother as his personal Aeon (which we also get to use. Huzzah)! He’s an absolute half-human dumpster fire, and this is a fascinating take on his track.

Track 97: Bemneskya (The Trials) (John Robert Matz): The Trials used to really get on my nerves, when I didn’t know what I was doing within the temples. Before I had mastered all of them. It was a haunting song that mocked my every failure. But this, Bemneskya has a Russian flavor that I absolutely love, and takes a normally solemn, religious sound and makes it upbeat, slowly turns up the tempo and the vocals are pretty damn majestic. All I can think of is Auron piledriving people like Zangief, and I like that mental image.

I highly recommend everyone acquire both albums here, and here.  Have you listened? Do you have any favorite tracks? Questions for the artists? Please, let me know below! Would you like more musical reviews/thoughts? I’d love to do them!

 

Retro Review: Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

So, next year we’re receiving a remake, an HD update of Secret of Mana, or as some folks might call it, Seiken no Densetsu. It’s with that in mind that I look back at a true classic, an innovator in the era of the 16-bit Titans. Arguably, the Super Nintendo Era held the greatest RPGs of all time. Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, Super Mario RPG, FFIV/V/VI, so many wonderful, timeless titles that people to this day still herald as some of the greatest of all time. One of the things I feel like a classic needs to do is innovate, somehow. It needs to offer us something new that other games have yet to try. What does Secret of Mana do that other RPGs don’t? That’s easy because it’s a pretty decent list. One of the drawbacks (for some) in the RPG dept. is the lack of multiplayer. You play them alone and you get lost in a story. But … Secret of Mana changed that.

Secret of Mana -4

Damn Tsunamis…

Secret of Mana offered up to three player multiplayer (once all three characters were in the party) and if you had one of the multi-taps, you could have two friends over to help you control the Boy, Girl, and Sprite! I have many fond memories as a younger man of going to a friends house and playing Secret of Mana with a few people, glossing over the bad, because the bright graphics and unique gameplay really drew me in. It’s a game I’m depressed that I never owned until Adulthood. You didn’t have to have people though because you control one of the three (and can switch with Select) and if you’re playing as the Boy, you can cast the Girl/Sprite’s spells with another button on your SNES controller. So, you could do it all pretty easily. Secret of Mana offered many firsts: The leveling system for weapons, the leveling magic system, cannon travel, multiplayer for an RPG.

Secret of Mana - 1

It’s not a phase, Elder!

But what is Secret of Mana? It’s not even the first in its series of games! “Final Fantasy Adventure” was actually the first Seiken game, but from what I understand, it was given the Final Fantasy title to be more appealing to the American audience, who had never heard of the Seiken/Mana franchise. Because, well, it was new! RPGs were still growing in popularity in the States, so they made they choice they felt was the right one. The game is all about a boy from the town of Potos, who, through a series of events became the hero of destiny. It’s a pretty common trope in fantasy, but it works so well here. He pulls this rusty sword from the stone and after killing his way back to Potos, and defeating the Mantis Ant, he finds that his village is not so happy about him drawing the blade. Considered a bad omen, he’s banished from Potos and goes on a journey to re-energize the Eight Mana Temples and restore the world to balance and peace. Turns out, that’s the Mana Sword!

Secret of Mana - 2

So many times, it’s not safe to charge up. This is one of them.

Teaming up with a Girl and a Sprite (who do have names, but you can rename them of course), you start to travel the world, fighting mostly adorable enemies, invigorating Mana and Life back into the world. You even get to travel via cannon, or by Flammie, the Dragon! In the Dwarf Village you can get your weapons upgraded (you acquire a nice assortment, from Claws, Whips, Boomerangs, Axes, Spears, etc), when you find the proper Weapon Orbs. Downside? Each character has to level their own weapons separately, and it’s kind of tedious. If you can find some Slimes that regenerate, you can use them to level weapons a little faster. With each level of the weapon, it can charge up even further, for bigger and cooler attacks. You slow down while charging though and can get knocked out of it. But you might be asking… Charged Attacks? This was a mostly real-time title. You encountered enemies in the wild, and when you hit your attack button, you’ll start charging your attack, and a meter to 100% will fill up. If you swing under 100%, the damage will be minuscule. But you can hold the button to charge beyond 100, and build meters for the aforementioned attacks.

Secret of Mana - Gnome Temple

As you travel, you’ll also unlock Magic. The Boy gets none, but the Girl tends to use Healing/Status Ailment Magic, and the Sprite has the more aggressive powers. For each temple you unlock, another level of Magic can be unlocked for your spells. So when you unlock the final Temple/Magic, you can cap out at Level 8/99%, you’ll not hit 9. Your first spells are from Undine, the Water Elemental. So you’ll have Cure Magic, stuff like that. Casting spells on people/enemies that can be affected will raise the level, so the key was to find a safe/smart place to do it and spam them and go restore your MP. Raising Weapon level is the same way: You attack things to level up. Unless you want to re-level weapons all the damn time, I recommend figuring out what weapons you want a character to “specialize” in. This can be annoying because sometimes you need an Axe to cut through grass, or the Whip to go leaping across a gap in the ground. But it’s a small price to pay. Secret of Mana is very, very grindy for Magic/Weapons if you want to be powerful, but it’s ultimately worth it.

Secret of Mana - 3

Not altogether complex, but handy.

The actual gameplay is pretty simple, you gain levels, buy new weapons/armor, heal with Candy and Chocolate (which is awesome, by the by). However, your inventory is very small, and you might find yourself running back to a merchant often to re-buy healing items because you were crit, caught in a bad place, or even halfway through a dungeon and need to heal but can’t. You find your items, stats, etc on the “Ring System”, which is a circular menu that you scroll through to find everything you need. If you’re playing solo, there’s an option in there to change the aggressive/defensive nature of your allies. Place them on a board that feels much like a Chess Board, and you can set them to be aggressive, defensive, etc, depending on what you need them to do. They won’t cast spells on their own though, you have to do that. It’s limited like that, but it was a pretty new system as it was.

A Gem in a Pile of Gems: 5/5

Secret of Mana SPring Beak

The story itself is pretty simple, not quite as deep or intricate as many of its contemporaries, but that’s fine. It has enough rich gameplay and bright, vibrant graphics, that the story, while not a classic, is engaging nonetheless. It doesn’t have quite as many “secrets’ or hidden items to it, but there are some. The biggest example being the “Hidden Weapon Orbs”. You can power-up every weapon to level 9, if you find the hidden Orbs for them. Well, all but the Sword. The Sword becomes the Mana Sword (level 9) for the final battle only. In the Mana Fortress (the final area), you can find Orbs on some of the enemies, if you farm them. Then you take them to Watts the Dwarf, and he’ll fix them up for you. I don’t have many complaints about this game, other than the annoying nature of charging up weapons, but the difficulty spikes in this game are infuriating! Spikey Tiger is one of the most frustrating fights I’ve encountered ever. A lot of the boss battles in this game are absolutely insane. Dark Slime, Wall Face, Spikey Tiger, the list goes on and on. But if you’re prepared it’s not so bad.. but as a first-time player, you won’t be. Secret of Mana is a classic in its own right and I can’t think of anyone that would argue that. It sounds fantastic, it’s challenging, you can play it with your friends, and it’s coming back next year to Playstaiton 4 and Windows. And it’s not even a re-port of the mobile version!