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The strategy game Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin has received a review that describes it as decent but ultimately disappointing

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The strategy game Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin has received a review that describes it as decent but ultimately disappointing

While a strong core could provide for some fantastic competitive matches, solitary players won’t be impressed by the dull, uninspired campaign.
It was decided by Games Workshop to end the world back in the legendary beforetimes of the early 2010s. The Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Battle is not our world, even if at times it can seem like it. The aged miniatures game, Warhammer 40,000, was discontinued in 2015 and replaced by Warhammer Age of Sigmar due to its significant performance decline compared to its younger sci-fi brother. Built essentially from the broken pieces of the previous setting, this new one reinterpreted classic Warhammer features and added a ton of flashy new stuff, the most notable of which are the Stormcast Eternals, massive armored warriors created to be the poster boys for public appeal that GW believed WFB lacked.

It is not the time or place for a deep dive into why this was a controversial decision, but it does help explain why Age of Sigmar has largely been overlooked by the video game industry while high-profile Old World-set games like the Total War: Warhammer series (which didn’t even start until a year after the release of Age of Sigmar) have continued to appear. Although not the first video game based on the Mortal Realms of AoS, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is the most well-known.

To add yet another much-needed acronym to this review, RoR is a real-time strategy game that is similar to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, another Warhammer RTS (whoops, another one). Instead of constructing bases or gathering resources, each side aims to seize Arcane Conduits, which produce the resources needed to construct and enhance units. These conduits can also be upgraded with a variety of features that provide extra advantages, like the capacity to fire at approaching enemies or faster resource gathering. To win, either take and keep more Victory Points than your opponent until their score steadily drops to zero, or demolish their beginning camp decisively. While the story-based campaign mode’s missions don’t always adhere to this pattern, every combat has a similar fundamental rhythm.

In relation to game modes, this one offers a respectable selection. There are two types of multiplayer available: ranked and casual 1v1 and 2v2. Along with the previously stated single person campaign, there are AI bot matches. Another option is Conquest, a single-player game style that lets you take control of a campaign map that is created at random. Every combat features unique circumstances that might work in your favor or against you, but failing means you’ll use up one of your finite lives. The game is ended if you lose all of your life. Although it’s not Total War, it’s good that lone players who have completed the campaign have options besides bot battles. Above all, there’s a creative mode with a map builder and the ability to design unique paint jobs for your armies. All of the colors are named after Warhammer paints, which is a nice touch, but it doesn’t really add much to what essentially amounts to a few different color possibilities.

The actual troops are split into four powerful hero types and three types: ranged, offensive, and defensive. These units work in a rock, paper, scissors fashion. Every unit possesses unique powers that have resource costs and cooldown periods. Once engaged, troops cannot leave the battle until one is eliminated or unless the retreat ability is used, which causes the unit to wildly flee back to base so that it may get healing. Many skills cannot be utilized when in an engaged state, so if you don’t use them before fight begins, you’re out of luck. It makes the fights you choose very crucial since once you commit, there’s no going back. You will yield to an outmatched unit, either by destroying it or forcing it to retreat.

This way of putting it in writing makes it sound very simple, which it kind of is, but in reality it’s so busy that it nearly feels overpowering. Playing cautiously and defensively will rapidly see you swamped, and having too many of the few troops you control (usually between six and twelve) racing around at once is a surefire way to get outmanoeuvred. Rather, you must continuously engage in combat on several fronts while monitoring the levels of two distinct resources, regaining ranks, and adding more improvements.

If your units didn’t need as much supervision, it wouldn’t be as awful. It’s not nearly micromanagement per se; troops only have two special skills at most in addition to the normal charge and retreat moves, and once they engage in melee combat, there’s not much you can do to stop them. The problem lies in the fact that your units will only do as you instruct them. When an enemy comes into range, ranged units will automatically shoot at them, but only inside their very small firing arcs (perhaps because their helmets obscure their peripheral vision). Conversely, melee soldiers would gladly do nothing but watch while their allies are attacked if a point is seized a short distance away. Although I understand that you don’t want your adversary to be able to quickly remove your units from defensive positions, some initiative would have been nice, particularly since there is no potential of their being kited around the map due to locked combat.

The absence of resources to handle your soldiers exacerbates this. The ability to have units fight adversaries they find while moving rather than merely getting to the designated place is the closest thing to automation. troops may be grouped to be picked by hotkey, but I never found that very useful because there aren’t many troops and you always have to transfer units across the map in groups of one or two, especially when moving archers. Rather of using click and drag selection, I would have to spend more time reorganizing my groups than I would save. It would have been far less problematic if I had been able to put some troops on a patrol route or told them it was OK to confront the enemy at some point before they were hit hard by a hammer.

It seems to me that Republic of Rome is an effort to create a simplified real-time strategy game that can be played on consoles with a controller. This is not meant to be derogatory. I am grateful for the work made to make RTS games playable on platforms like the Playstation, as my first RTS experience was Command & Conquer using the basic controller before DualShock. Everything feels a little strange when using the mouse and keyboard to play around, as though menu navigation and other features are tailored for TV screens and button pushes. The issue is that the reality of play feels jumbled and shabby due to the simple, uncomplicated user interface and constrained unit control options.

If AoS had done well in the campaign, I would have been willing to overlook a lot of stuff because I’m one of those gigantic nerds who loves both the miniatures game and the tabletop RPG spin-off Soulbound. Regretfully, RoR does a poor job of showcasing the Mortal Realms. Although AoS has created a distinct, likable high fantasy world, some have criticized it for being too generic, and RoR doesn’t really address that claim. The Stormcast Eternals’ boring warrior persona and polite, corny fantasy platitudes don’t help either. To put it simply, orcs, ghosts, and demons make up the other available factions, Kruleboyz, Nighthaunt, and Disciples of Tzeentch. Neither of these factions is very thrilling.

Though I think it would have been a waste to highlight some of the more bizarre and fantastic factions, such as the Idoneth Deepkin, soulless elves that live underwater and conduct raids on the backs of enormous eels, turtles, and sharks that swim through the magically conjured aethersea, it’s not like the factions are intrinsically dull. Rather, the issue is that none of the factors seem very unique. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages, and their on-screen personas are excellent, including some very expressive animation work. However, everything feels a little repetitive because there aren’t any original faction-wide rules and everything must fit within the rock-paper-scissors framework.

Though not a terrible game by any means, as a fan of Age of Sigmar and a strategy game enthusiast, I wasn’t impressed with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin on either front. There is a passable, if not perfect, real-time strategy game here, and I can imagine some people who are more interested in competitive multiplayer jumping right into that mode and having a great time. It’s a very, well, video game, and I can definitely understand how appealing it would be to people who are passionate about APM and esports, as well as the possibility for some intense, competitive play. It’s difficult to suggest for armchair generals who prefer to watch armies march about in captivating fantasy settings.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga review – an exhaustive yet disorganized compilation

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga review – an exhaustive yet disorganized compilation

A coherent Star Wars narrative unfolded over a dispersed, open cosmos.
Kylo Ren, who spoke of letting the past die, most likely did not mean the old Lego Star Wars games that had previously adapted the original trilogy, prequels, and a significant portion of the Clone Wars. However, the Skywalker Saga does act somewhat similarly, akin to a recently adjusted George Lucas special edition re-release.

To be true, TT Games’ back catalog of games includes some of the most technologically antiquated titles. The Skywalker Saga has evolved over time, along with console hardware and game design, and is now a completely distinct animal. TT Games’ nine-film compilation has finally been finished after a protracted and occasionally problematic creation process, but that is just half the tale. You may lose yourself for as much time exploring the game’s vast planet assortment as you would immersing yourself in the primary cinematic stories of the game, embarking on the biggest collection hunt in the series’ history.

You may play through the three Star Wars film trilogies in any sequence, providing you with three different starting and finishing locations to explore the game’s galaxy. As before, you may revisit completed stages (each movie has five) to find more mysteries, and visiting planets will unlock on your galactic map. With so much content to modify, it’s not surprise that they skim some of the saga’s less important parts, using the warm humor that has come to define the series’ darkest times. The degree to which the game depends on its open environment inside the missions itself is unexpected, though.

In one of the game’s open world locations, missions usually begin and conclude with a quick job to do before the level officially starts. Action will occasionally take place in a specially designed, scripted setting, as the Tantive IV in Episode 4, or under control of a Lego spacecraft, such in the Coruscant pursuit scene in Episode 2, or during the bombing run in Episode 8. However, a lot of other levels are worse off for crossing over the open world sections of the game.

These open world regions feel less engaging overall than the classic linear stages. Isn’t it the whole purpose of Lego, that there’s less to construct, less to adjust, and less to see change? Additionally, there is frequently a lot of walking between locations in an open space. Consider the Ahch-To level from Episode 8 of the game, where Rey receives Jedi instruction. The Sith grotto on the Porg-infested planet offers some interesting gameplay thanks to her mirror-like Force vision, but getting there and back needs you to carefully follow Luke around the cliffs of the planet to go from point A to point B, where he parked his X-Wing, to complete the task.

Playability has always been a feature of Lego games, and Lego Star Wars is no exception. If you’ve ever played the Lego video games, you’ll know what to anticipate: many paths through each story episode using various character powers to uncover every mystery, as you gradually get access to stud multipliers and earn money to purchase further improvements and characters. Characters are given a noticeable boost throughout the game, with walking speeds and spacecraft laser power being upgradeable, as well as some lovely class-specific benefits for particular character groupings.

The game’s boundless galaxy is a bit of a mixed bag outside of its stages. It is on par with some of TT Games’ most ambitious digital productions as a sightseeing trip, ranging from the meticulously assembled Hogwarts in Lego Harry Potter Years 5–9 to the huge and varied worlds of Doctor Who and Portal in Lego Dimensions. It’s important to note how gorgeous the game can appear in the appropriate environments, such as Tatooine at beautiful sunset, the filth of a Death Star trash compactor, or even just in close-ups of the faces of the characters, where you can see the seams of their Lego minifigures. Never before has digital Lego looked so realistic.

You may tour almost every planet in the nine-film series, but the tasks you discover there are frequently simply that—chores. With 300 characters to unlock and over 1100 collection bricks, there is a noticeable amount of repetition in many sidequest kinds. While there are moments of humor to get you through (yes, Dominic Monaghan’s character in Episode 9 gets a joke about Hobbits), the majority of these puzzles are too same and too ambiguous, with their answers coming from random NPCs that might appear in any open-world game. One common and laborious task type has you searching a region for a certain NPC, sorting among groups of like minifigures until you find the one.

If you’re interested in collecting items in the game, there are a few decent solutions available to monitor your completionist endeavors. The game’s large menus list level minikits and missable sub-objectives in addition to the side missions and treasures found in each open world region and an additional set of tasks (such as finding imprisoned Porgs!) that are scattered across the whole game. It will take some time to discover everything that the Lego Star Wars galaxy has to offer.

I had a good time watching all three of the Lego Star Wars trilogies, but I still can’t finish that collection of movies because of a glitch that prevented me from moving forward in Episode 2. (TT Games has informed me that a patch will address this; nonetheless, if you are reading this, do include the ability to restart a level that has already completed!) The film retellings of the game are mostly humorous, if easy fun; nothing here is too hard to button mash or Lego brick smash through. I really liked Rise of Skywalker, since the film’s sometimes absurd writing is cleverly parodied. The game’s wide worlds, however, lost some of their appeal after a brief tour. If TT Games wants to adapt The Mandalorian, perhaps they could go back to those linear stages instead of destroying the past.

Review of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition – a haunting RPG

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Review of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition – a haunting RPG

Chrono Cross is a narrative about time travel, but it frequently feels more like a ghost story—albeit one with vibrant, oceanic colors that provide a tropical reef’s ambiance to every pre-rendered setting. The main character, Serge, is a teenager who falls through a portal to a parallel universe while collecting shells on the seashore. This world’s history is different; Serge died a kid here, with his memorial carved high above the waves in coral. In his quest for information, Serge encounters Kid, a gregarious girl with Australian accents, and teams up with her to track down a menacing, cat-headed guy who is also looking for something known as the Frozen Flame.

You will be travelling back and forth between worlds on this adventure, which serves as the foundation for a story in which every person, object, and location is haunted by its opposite. Far over the water, in one world, lies a massive technological complex; in another, it’s a ruin. A straw idol (which you can ultimately enlist as a party member) is worshipped by the feverish reclusive local guy in one world, where he has become an expert fisherman. In one reality, a dragon cannot enter the lagoons around a fairy town because they have been drained; in another, goblins who have been expelled from their homes have taken possession.

Chrono Cross offers a universe without a past, in contrast to its critically acclaimed SNES predecessor Chrono Trigger, which operates period by period. This leads to a constant sense of anxiety as possibilities collide and threaten to cancel each other out, a dilemma embodied by the game’s ever-present, gorgeous, but terrifying ocean. This is particularly true of Serge, who teeters between the brink of existence and anachronism, as well as life and death. This irresolution leads to one of the biggest story turns of the PS1 period. However, Serge also functions as a sort of cosmic cleaner, hopping between dimensions to get around barriers and ease the tensions between his parallel personas, each of which is the ghost in the other’s mirror.

If any of this seems too cerebral or just plain gloomy, remember that Cross is really a lighthearted rescue mission that veers between humor and poignancy. Here are only 45 of the playable characters you may find, some of whom you can only find during your second playthrough: A skeleton clown you’ll have to slowly put together bone by bone; brooding boy painters and jesters who speak Monty Python French; strutting J-pop stars and hags that copy previously slain monsters. These odd partners, who may be added to your three-person party at savepoints or on the overworld map, stand out for their stats as well as the modifiable grids that you can insert spells, or “Elements,” and special Tech skills. Though the number of cast members means that only a select few get the kind of in-depth attention you’d associate with party members in the PS1 Final Fantasies, all have personal tragedies to unearth that extend across worlds.

The primary plot is exciting, finding a happy medium between the long monologues of later 3D RPGs and the succinct text boxes of the SNES period. It transports you to some eerie locations. There are shimmering flooded woodlands, chaotic universes where routes intertwine in an Escher-like fashion, and tower dungeons with riddles that require altering the order of the group. Pre-boss dungeon runs are a little easier than in Final Fantasy since, similar to Trigger, opponents are shown on area maps and may be avoided. Cross grinds rather lightly as well. You obtain helpful but not necessary boosts from regular battles instead of experience points and levels. You gain something like to a standard level-up from major plot battles, where stat gains are selected for you based on background data. These are applied to all recruitable characters in the game, not just the active party, so feel free to prioritize or disregard friends as you see fit.

Although you occasionally have to fight creatures because they’re blocking an entrance, the remaster emphasizes this counterintuitive but flexible approach to progression. Power-ups notwithstanding, you’ll want to engage in some extended monster-mashing occasionally in order to obtain new spells and equipment-crafting materials. When gathering crafting materials during a combat, you may also automate physical assaults and reclaim control with a single stick click.

In Chrono Cross, combat is arguably the most peculiar aspect of the game, despite its seeming similarities to Final Fantasy’s separately loaded, party-based battle system. I still have a hard time understanding this part, therefore it’s worth going into great detail about. An unseen time controls the proceedings instead of Active Time Battle’s cooldown bars or predicted turns. The clock is advanced by physical assaults, which are classified as light, medium, or powerful depending on how accurate they are, as well as spells or “Elements.” Enemies strike after a certain number of ticks.

You can only have a maximum of seven stamina points per character, which is also depleted by spells and attacks. As long as a character has stamina, you may use them to do things like as combining different attacks and components or even moving between teammates. However, elements usually leave you with a deficit that needs to be made up before they can act again because they always cost seven stamina points. It is preferable to avoid spamming Elements to completely deplete everyone’s stamina at once since if that happens, the game will advance and introduce opponent turns more often.

So how can you maintain a profit at your party? As if to give their comrades a little breathing room, characters’ stamina is restored when they fight or use Elements. Therefore, you may get a character that is low on stamina to act by having another character launch a barrage of assaults. Thus, fighting turns into a juggling act where you must use up all of a character’s stamina before switching to another to replenish it. However, stamina points are not transferred equally, so you cannot just swap stamina between characters endlessly.

With me up to this point? There is more. You can also use physical attacks to access each character’s spells and Elements, which raise the level of the active character’s Element by varying degrees and unlock higher tiers on their element grid. Thus, on top of managing your stamina, you’re also considering if you can level up a character and unleash an element before the opposition reacts. As you can hopefully see, the crucial element in this strategy is uncertainty about the running order: should you focus on lower-level healing elements in case the enemy is preparing a show-stopping move of their own, or do you have time to raise the element level of a character equipped with a juicy top-tier spell?

Cross is the successor to an acclaimed role-playing game that is actually more of a companion piece, evocative of the PS1 Final Fantasies but a completely different beast on the battlefield. At times, Cross feels like a guest from a parallel universe itself. It’s a captivating epic that blends humor, melancholy, and a hint of cosmic dread without ever devolving into comedy.

We’re not quite done yet. The issue of element affinities—fire/water, light/dark, and air/earth—also has to be addressed. Due to their intrinsic affinity, characters are more adept at employing and more resilient against Elements that share that affinity. However, using elements also gradually modifies the battlefield’s affinity, which is shown as three concentric circles in the upper left corner. This improves elements with the same affinity. Therefore, in addition to managing your stamina and element leveling, you’re also battling your opponents over the chemistry of the landscape in an attempt to influence the surrounding synergy in your favor so that potentially match-ending spells deal the most damage.

Chrono Cross isn’t always great at explaining itself, so there’s a lot to take in. Early on, there are a number of humorous tutorial bouts, but certain things are still unclear, such as the true purpose of status effects. More significantly, the game doesn’t really put much pressure on you to comprehend and become an expert at the elements, affinities, and stamina until rather late on—I finished it in about 15-20 hours.

Even at its finest, it’s an acquired taste. As much as I appreciate estimating the speed of enemy attacks, I also miss games like Final Fantasy X and the new Othercide that trade off suspense for a visible chronology. Again, because of the extremely mild difficulty curve, it can be difficult to determine whether your calculations in Chrono Cross are paying off; frequently, element levels and stamina feel like needless extravagances. When things do come together in the form of later monsters, Chrono Cross’s hazy fighting system may be excellent since it allows players to fine-tune their affinities and gauge openings, which can be the difference between a tight win and a party-wipe. Stepping back from the details, battle is also a fun way to revisit the game’s concepts. The fighting system handles time as something that is fought out between opposing sides, with units of agency being handed back and forth, much how the plot explores multiple timelines that are subtly linked.

While pixelated backdrops are largely left to wither in the glare of today’s HD displays, Square Enix has restored some of its more ostentatious visuals in this one. To be fair, there’s a choice of Classic or Enhanced modes at start-up, with Enhanced rounding off those background pixels. During combat, the frame-rate is just as erratic as it was back in 1996. Aside from the ease of bypassing encounters, the Radical Dreamers visual novel—an additional quasi-sequel to Chrono Trigger with Serge and Kid—is a highlight of the remaster. It was first released on the Satellaview. It’s a complex yet witty story that starts with a mansion theft and is entertaining both by itself and in contrast to or in addition to the events and structures of the role-playing games. For example, there is a fighting system-like element, but the decisions to attack or defend are narrative branching. One simple aspect of the writing that I enjoyed was that, despite the fact that it may seem difficult to navigate a maze of traps and closed doors using text alone, I never got lost since the descriptions adjust to take into account the fact that you have already been in a particular location.

Cross is the successor to an acclaimed role-playing game that is actually more of a companion piece, evocative of the PS1 Final Fantasies but a completely different beast on the battlefield. At times, Cross feels like a guest from a parallel universe itself. It’s a captivating epic that blends humor, tragedy, and a hint of cosmic dread without ever devolving into comedy. Although the combat system can occasionally be frustrating, accepting it is all part of the quest. Although the remaster isn’t particularly good, it’s nonetheless exciting that the game is being revived in any way. I’m interested to see what gamers who discovered role-playing games after the Chrono series failed thought of it.

Review of Moss Book 2 – A Farewell to PSVR with a Fairy-Tale Twist

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Review of Moss Book 2 – A Farewell to PSVR with a Fairy-Tale Twist

When the first Moss was launched, more over four years ago, the PSVR’s environment was drastically different. Its community was then thriving and lively. It seemed like an exciting new era of gaming was practically birthing right before our eyes, with many new releases giving a wide range of experiences every week.

The PSVR storefront’s bustle is long gone these days, and good new releases—hell, even terrible to mediocre releases—are hard to come by. Owing to the short lifespan of virtual reality games overall and the frequent release of fresh experiences, it’s reasonable to assume that many people’s PSVR headsets have been collecting dust for some time. Mine has, for sure.

It’s likely that the lack of games is a result of the PSVR 2’s upcoming release. It seems fair to assume that developers would be getting games ready for launch with that instead of pandering to a headset that is about to become outdated, especially because its new controllers and camera-free tracking promise a far better experience overall. For this reason, Moss: Book 2 feels like it came out with less of a bang than it deserved. Even among VR enthusiasts, the announcement of its release hardly raised an eyebrow. It’s the follow-up to one of my all-time favorite VR games.

The tale continues where the first game left off, following a brief synopsis from the narrator in the same enormous library. Once again, you, the Reader, are at Quill’s side in her valiant battle to save the country of Moss from the wicked Arcane. Quill is a brave warrior mouse. This return to Quill not only provides a wonderful recall of the meticulous attention to detail that pervaded the first film, but it also offers a tantalizing glimpse at what lies ahead in terms of presentation.

The first section takes place inside the walls of a dilapidated castle courtyard. Through gaps in the walls, God’s beams illuminate little dust particles that softly descend towards the enormous corpse of Quill’s first-game opponent. Quill emerges from the shadows, and you are surrounded by gray walls with tiny details like protruding bricks and intricate carvings. The paving slabs are covered with weeds and moss and are arranged haphazardly on the floor. The meticulously crafted diorama exudes a sense of realism, living, and most importantly, livability. I’ve played a lot of VR games that are simply so bland—they have flat visuals, lifeless interiors, and an immersion that drains the experience like air from a space station. But this time? This virtual environment is so well-designed that everything just melts away and the outer world is swiftly forgotten. Everything just explodes with life and energy here.

This degree of immersion continues throughout the whole game. Although Quill is first exploring well-known territory, the journey quickly branches out into regions with distinct themes, such as flaming mines and frozen mountains. Every section in the first Moss seemed like you were sitting next to or inside a tiny miniature model hamlet, and initially, Book 2 is no different. But as the game progresses, these self-contained dioramas are frequently swapped out for what appear to be little outdoor levels that are perched above breathtaking vistas that provide expansive panoramas or nauseating plummet.

The only negative aspect of this is that Quill, who is once again animated with the flowing flair of a high-budget Pixar film, is sometimes overlooked in favor of these vistas. Her motions are incredibly genuine, and her expressive body language reveals a startling level of emotion. Speaking of shocks, there were a few significant plot points that were actually touching in this movie. Although there weren’t many surprises in the first Moss narrative, Book 2 does have a few extremely intriguing turns. We are left with a mouthwatering hint as to where the series may go after this.

In addition, Book 2 looks to focus more on action than the first, favoring battle over riddles. The various trinkets that you can only locate if you lean in and look into the many nooks and crannies of the level are still there, as are those delightfully tactile brain puzzles where you have to reach into the levels and push and pull at items. Though it’s unfortunate that there is only one new opponent type in the game, the addition of two new weaponry ensures you’ll spend just as much time fighting as thinking.

The two most impressive weapons in Quill’s new armory, the enormous hammer and the throwable glaive, are her other weapons in addition to her sword. Every weapon has a unique feature that aids in both fighting and the solution of some of the trickier riddles in the game. While the glaive may be used to open doors by being linked to walls and then summoned back to Quill’s hand in the manner of Thor’s hammer, the sword enables Quill to execute a dash attack that can assist her reach out-of-the-way regions. However, the hammer gives you the ability to use motion controls to engage in battle significantly more actively than in the previous game, where you essentially played as Quill’s healer.

Even for an experienced helmet enthusiast like myself, the way it interacts with size, light, and color produces so many “wow” moments. There’s this amazing, iconic scene in a later level in particular when size plays a grand yet ominous role.

It wasn’t always a fairy tale for me with Book 2, though. I found a number of issues throughout my 7-8 hour playtime, ranging from the rare, forgiveable graphic glitch to an uncollectible item and, worst of all, a level where a succession of fading platforms failed to reappear after Quill met her untimely end. Checkpoint resets were ineffective in fixing either of the flaws, and in the case of the latter, the only way to get past the difficult riddles and finish the level was to replay it from beginning to end. To Polyarc’s credit, a developer saw my complaints on Twitter and was able to replicate and fix the flaws after receiving the relevant video. Hopefully, this will result in much more reliable playthroughs in the future.

Moss: Book 2 also reminded me of the limits of the PSVR after I had been away from it for so long. The sooner the PSVR 2 is out and the awkward camera tracking is eliminated, for example, the better. The dualshock 4’s thumbsticks and face button allow for flawless control over Quill, but the light bar tracking for the readers’ ball of energy is constantly dependent on the PSVR camera’s range of vision. Your energy ball will vanish into the distance if you lean in and move the controller too close to the edge of the viewing cone. You must then bring the light bar back into view. Place the controller right in front of the camera to avoid obstructing its view of your headset, which might make the surrounding level jerky.

With the exception of these shortcomings, Quill’s journey serves as an excellent introduction to virtual reality magic for those with little to no expertise. Even for an experienced helmet enthusiast like myself, the way it interacts with size, light, and color produces so many “wow” moments. There’s a particularly amazing, unforgettable scene in a later level when scale plays a spectacular but ominous role, suddenly adding a feeling of dread to the proceedings. Though there were many moments in the beginning when I thought I’d seen it all before, particularly in regards to the enemies, Book 2 is largely a safe sequel. However, the emotional turns and new gameplay elements that are introduced later on make sure that I’m left wanting more by the end.

Moss: If you like the first game as much as I did, then Book 2 is definitely one that you should play. Even if I wouldn’t blame you for hanging out for a PC VR or Quest release—or some sort of package for the launch of PSVR 2—its breathtaking beauty is incentive enough to dust off your PSVR for one final trip before the PSVR 2 comes out. Though I believe Quill is deserving of and capable of embarking on an even more grandiose adventure, both of the Moss games are as brief and charming as their adorable heroine.

The review of Chinatown Detective Agency highlights its visually captivating, neon-soaked setting, yet falls short in terms of its mechanics

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The review of Chinatown Detective Agency highlights its visually captivating, neon-soaked setting, yet falls short in terms of its mechanics

Chinatown Detective Agency’s pixel-art, cybernoir image of Singapore and some compelling characters make for some visually stunning moments, but its flimsy gameplay and glitches drag it down.
I’ve always imagined myself to be an amazing investigator. I think it’s a result of watching so much true crime television, but you know, I think I have an eye for detail. a strong sixth sense. the capacity to recognize that tiny, unimportant detail that, as it turns out, matters a great deal.

Of course, it’s all total nonsense. Like playing Back 4 Blood won’t prepare you for a real-life zombie apocalypse, binge-watching true crime documentaries hasn’t taught me much that I can apply to real-life, with the exception of one thing: if you’re at risk, shout “Fire!” rather than “Help!” to attract help; you’re welcome. This became very evident when I stepped into Singapore’s shadowy underbelly and took on the role of Amira Darma, a newly hired private investigator who, like many stories, finds herself involved in unexpected situations.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, the Chinatown Detective Agency lives up to its name, providing a future vision of a neon-soaked Singapore as the spectacular backdrop to a sea of sleazy politicians and corrupt businessmen. As a former police officer, Amira received some of her initial cases from former coworkers, but she then establishes her own clientele of the hopeless and the desperate, and everyone in between.

Amira is nice, too. She is composed and competent, embodying all the traits we have come to associate with private investigators without ever coming off as a caricature. Her language and voice acting, when she gets voice work, are spot on. She was someone I loved getting to know, and she had an interesting caseload to go along with her natural wanderlust.

Surprisingly, though, Chinatown Detective Agency isn’t exactly what I was expecting—a classic point-and-click adventure. Amira’s detective work goes beyond simply pressing the interact button repeatedly until you unintentionally discover the answer; yes, you will get a sense of being on Monkey Island as you joyfully click everything on the screen in front of you. She occasionally has to choose the appropriate conversation to encourage the mark to open up. She sometimes feels pressured to quickly investigate her surroundings before the perp waltzes back into the room. Occasionally, she resorts to what the majority of us do when we’re at a loss: searching Google.

I should clarify that I’m not referring to some slick in-game browser that mimics Google’s appearance and functionality; instead, Chinatown Detective Agency has an on-screen button that allows you to tab out of the game and into the browser of your choice. Granted, that’s a really basic idea, but wow, is it powerful. To give you an early, non-spoiler example, in one of your missions, you have to figure out who penned a secret message that is concealed in a book. All you have is one line to work with. Search for it on Google (that’s a rather distinctive phrase, to be fair), and presto! The author appears.

To the developer’s credit, then, everything of Amira’s detective work is based on actual history and culture. Instead of relying on its near-future concept to create a ton of fake science fiction elements and require you to use a fake browser, Chinatown Detective Agency has given us the chore of being fervent stamp analysts who meticulously examine stamps from actual, far-off locations.

Tricky? Yes. I think that’s reasonable. However, it’s also a fascinating and rather original idea—and let’s be honest, video game reviewers don’t often get to say that.

The problem is that since I didn’t receive my review key until after the game was launched, Google virtually always returns a helpful Chinatown Detective Agency tutorial for the puzzle in question whenever I type in a query. It turns out that, despite what you’re told, “one of the key mechanics of CDA is that it requires the player to figure things out on their own,” this isn’t entirely accurate because the game also has a tip system. This is helpful, granted, if Google or your internet is down, but you can pay your friendly librarian $300 to have them give you a hint or tell you the answer straight. After using them both, I concluded that they were both worth Amira’s money.

Unfortunately, most of Chinatown Detective Agency’s other features are unpolished and unintentional. These include a flight assistant that always charges you $550 regardless of whether you’re taking a last-minute flight in 30 minutes or leaving next month, an in-game clock and calendar that is rendered instantly redundant by a “wait” button, a boring loading screen for the city’s mass transit system for when you need to get around, and a point-and-click mini-game where you have to shoot troublesome individuals—so infrequently that I kept forgetting it existed.

You’ll meet a great character and see some stunning locations in Chinatown Detective Agency, if you can put up with the other lighthearted or annoying elements.

I’m afraid there isn’t much of an exciting twist to the story, despite the fact that Amira must spend her own money to pay for her travel expenses as well as the rent and utilities for her office. After a few tasks and a few “Snap!” card games disguised as “hacking” mini-puzzles, Amira’s bank account was credited with $20K, and I found myself searching “what do private investigators really earn and how can I become one” on her actual computer.

The most annoying save system at Chinatown Detective Agency, more than the cases that come Amira’s way, is the agency’s worst transgression. Although the fact that some missions can fail and force you to restart due to unintentional errors like your cat spilling tea on your keyboard or your four-year-old screaming at the top of the stairs that it’s not bedtime, is a frustrating mechanic at first. You are not allowed to save at all until the tutorial cases are finished, and even then, you can only save between missions.

The unstable stability of CDA just makes the issue worse. I still encountered a lot of bugs even after applying the 1.0.14 patch. The majority of them related to audio, with the most annoying being phantom ambient footsteps that followed me around even though I had left that area ten minutes earlier. I also experienced two game crashes, the first of which happened before auto-saving was enabled. Although the developer did state that it is “working on a new update to allow manual saves in the middle of the missions” and that it will “give [the team] some time to make it possible,” it still doesn’t address the concerns of those who are already experiencing the game.

Aside from those little annoyances (or major ones, depending on your perspective), Chinatown Detective Agency is a fun read that is almost worth the journey. Although I’m personally becoming a little sick of the obsession with retro pixel visuals, Chinatown Detective Agency introduces you to a memorable cast and leads you to some breathtaking locations provided you can put up with the various lighthearted or annoying aspects. The fact that such a wonderful idea doesn’t exactly do enough with them is a crime.

The review of season 1 of eFootball 2022: a case of insufficient content arriving belatedly

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The review of season 1 of eFootball 2022: a case of insufficient content arriving belatedly

Ciro Immobile, poor guy. His national team’s absence from the World Cup following their victory at the Euros last year must be difficult for him to comprehend. In the eFootball 2022 Season 1 update, the last thing he needed was for me to select him for my Dream Team campaign. His campaign has been one of frustration and helpless wrath, as he stands out as the only superstar amid a group of 40-something unknown players. Ciro and I share something in common.

This was supposed to be the great atonement for the artist once known as PES. Konami’s eFootball 2022 debut last autumn could not have gone worse, with an unsettlingly little amount of content, a dreadful football match on the field, and the type of negative reviews typically associated with Activision movie tie-ins from the 2010s.

There was a lot riding on this first major upgrade, but the feature list seemed good: in addition to the ridiculously called Stunning Kick controls and the licensed Japanese and Korean Leagues, there was a significant mode that looked like it would be fun to play with. We now have a task to do in Dream Team.

Which brings us full circle to Ciro Immobile, who, sporting a Parma shirt, takes the field alongside ten players from the Sunday league. Dream squad starts you out with a squad of unfortunate fictitious players, much like an old-school Master League campaign. You may choose your team from a respectable assortment of licensed and unlicensed leagues from across the globe. In contrast to Master League, in this game, you construct your squad by using Konami’s incredibly generous daily login incentives to collect GP, which you can then spend on player cards. It’s not like signing a player the old-fashioned way; once you get that player card, you can do with its stats what you like.

For instance, you may elect to use all of the experience points (XP) that the unimpressive Serbian Dušan Vlahović accrues on his aerial ability metrics, making him a formidable target man who can complete any cross. However, you might also go in completely other areas, concentrating on his defensive or passing awareness. This has the makings of a really good concept. Online multiplayer football matches between the same 22 players might become somewhat monotonous after a while, but with this player development system, each Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappe you play against in eFootball 2022 will be a little bit different. Regardless of player or position, I believe everyone will just decide to increase their speed metrics, but you can’t hold the game responsible for that.

Naturally, a lot of things are getting in the way of your enjoyment of that new function. Matchmaking is the first and most debilitating. I had always worried that I would never be able to record the events of an online battle since I had never really gotten to that stage. Connection drops are common on PCs, and since they frequently occur while the opponent is winning, they’re presumably not the result of players losing their cool. Additionally, I had a real rage-quitter who was offended by both my opulent un-skipped celebration and my 92nd-minute winner. That’s all on me, but what really bothers me about eFootball 2022 is that there was no incentive for me to continue playing after my opponent lost all the way.

The lack of online opponents ranks third in the trinity of connection annoyances. Less than 10,000 people are playing the game concurrently every day because it isn’t among the top 100 on Steam at the time of writing. The result is that it takes ten billion years to locate an opponent these days, and when you do, their squad is frequently far superior than yours. Apparently, all that negative publicity at launch had an impact. Not to be a downer, but you can tell you’re going to have a difficult time when you see that their poorest player is the legendary Carles Puyol of Barcelona and you only have one player ranked better than 45.

In case you were curious, here is what occurs after you successfully finish an online match. Every player that is deployed receives experience points (XP), which may ultimately be converted into better stats. The outcome of each game determines your position in the online league system. Additionally, you receive a little amount of GP for participating, which naturally attracts stronger players. If your match was a part of a limited-time challenge (there are two at the moment), you will receive bonus points (GP) for reaching goals like winning three out of five games.

That’s plenty structurally to add interest to assembling your Dream Team. Similar to FIFA’s chemistry concept, player ratings are also influenced by their teammates, which adds another degree of complexity to choosing the best starting lineup for your playstyle. However, the rabbit hole goes even farther. In terms of tactics, eFootball 2022 allows you to build up many strategies, such as macros, that you can switch between mid-match depending on the scenario. It also gives extensive customization in terms of formation, pressing, and counterattack techniques. Although this isn’t entirely new to the series, PES in more recent times was practically as good tactically. However, the menu system is now more complex.

What was it that this free-to-play model could do but a potential PES 2022 couldn’t? Why was it published in such crude, little pieces? What’s the purpose of everything?

Sadly, it doesn’t appear like anybody has informed the players on the field of this newfound tactical acumen. Players have occasionally left their station to protect another’s, resulting in them awkwardly sprinting four feet away from their teammate independently of your control. This is due to the much-discussed and revised AI. Back fours create huge openings for strikers to run through, and everyone appears genuinely perplexed in the instants following a challenge or a misdirected pass when the ball is not in anyone’s control. It almost looks like no one is brave enough to step in and take it. as it comes to the defensive controls, it seems like attempting to burst a balloon with another, slightly less inflated balloon as you throw in a shoulder barge or plant a foot on a surging opponent. A common occurrence in challenges is the ball being pinballed from shin to shin, at which point all players pause and observe the ball.

The movement and passing controls are really delicate, which makes it even more annoying. There is a fantastic football match lurking behind the layers of partially executed adjustments, and it is most apparent in the vast array of dribbles you are able to execute. Rapid pace changes, sharp twists, and sudden stops. Thumbsticks are used for feints, long sprints, skillful sidesteps, and cutting one-twos. When you spray a pass into space, you genuinely think the ball is traveling on a true physical trajectory. To further expand your arsenal, the new spectacular kick delivers a fresh weight and speed for shoots and passes. It still feels so much less bogged down in pre-made animations and flows more naturally than FIFA in that regard.

But even with the release of this significant upgrade, that amazing football game is still too deep down. Even if eFootball offers a lot more gameplay options, it is still unclear why Konami destroyed a well-known sports property and offered this as a replacement. What was it that this free-to-play model could do but a potential PES 2022 couldn’t? Why was it published in such crude, little pieces? What’s the purpose of everything?

At PES Productions, there is undoubtedly talent there. We just need to look at the most recent PES titles to see that the creators are capable of creating a better game than this one. I don’t think for a second that they can’t. These are really skilled, seasoned, and driven individuals doing their best work on an extremely faulty notion with a remarkably poorly explained approach. Even though they’ll undoubtedly receive criticism on social media, they don’t deserve it. On the other hand, eFootball 2022 is still not worth your time.

The A500 Mini review offers an excellent introduction to the fascinating realm of Commodore Amiga

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The A500 Mini review offers an excellent introduction to the fascinating realm of Commodore Amiga

The Amiga is unique in the mid-to late-1980s home computer boom. Though its untimely demise was unanticipated, the powerful Commodore successor to the immortal C64 made several important technological and artistic achievements when it launched in 1985. Even while those who grew up with it will never forget its library and applications, it has sadly received little attention when it comes to vintage gaming material. The A500 Mini, a brand-new plug-and-play solution from Retro Games Ltd., claims to make it simple and pleasant for people of all ages and interests to access the Amiga library. Let’s examine its features and performance.

The Amiga 500, the most well-liked Amiga model released in 1987, served as the model for the A500 Mini. The initial console ran on a Motorola 68000 with 512KB of RAM and a clock speed of about 7MHz; the latter specification gave rise to the console’s moniker. With an All Winner H6 ARM processor and Amiberry emulation software operating at a basic resolution of 720p, the A500 Mini is rather more contemporary. Similar to other new “mini” releases, this is a full emulation solution, with a little edge in accuracy and compatibility owing to its foundation in WinUAE, the de facto Amiga emulation solution. In this instance, it is closely based on Raspberry Pi 3 hardware support.

The A500 Mini is directly inspired by the full-size console, with three USB ports, an HDMI port, a small power button, an inoperative tiny keyboard, and USB-C for power. The plastic on this lovely little device is of a decent quality, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, however the power button seems cheap and lacks feedback.

The A500 gamepad and mouse needed to play any game on the system are included with the system. The mouse is a scaled-down version of the original, feels real, if a little light, and has an optical sensor instead of a rubber ball. This controller offers a new’standard’ for the Amiga with its introduction, drawing influence from the Amiga CD32 controller that made its debut in 1993. Once more, the construction seems adequate, and the button arrangement has been updated from the 1993 original. The original disc-shaped d-pad has also been replaced with a more precise, but somewhat stiffer, PlayStation-style version.

I examined hundreds of controllers in an attempt to discover a better solution, but frequently the device mappings were off. I had to completely switch to the 8BitDo SF30 controller because it was the only one that could function flawlessly with the gadget. We would truly be in business if mouse emulation could be applied, say, to an analog stick. Hopefully, this is something that can be fixed in future firmware.

When the gadget first boots up, the 25 available games are shown in a frontend that looks a lot like Netflix. While not all are true masterpieces, several apparent additions may not have been feasible because to the complex licensing circumstances. The video attached above delves into each game, but because of its distinct mood and use of a CPU-controlled avatar, I think Another World is the best option. The A500 Mini and the original machine only differ slightly in terms of visuals, sound, and run time, but overall the games are accurately replicated.

There’s also an options menu available to you. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t automatically choose the 60Hz output option if you have the option of 50Hz or 60Hz. Since most games were designed to operate on the European 50Hz standard, they perform better here. It also functions rather well to dynamically crop and zoom the image to fit the screen size of contemporary monitors. Additionally, there are filters—a CRT filter among them—but they’re a little rudimentary and are probably best avoided. Lastly, the device’s LEDs may be configured to react to disk activity, which helps you differentiate between games that have crashed and those that are just loading the next level.

WHDLoad support is the A500 Mini’s last major selling feature. In essence, this is a game’s archived picture file that has been optimized and set up to perform at its peak on the original hardware. Although WHDLoad is commonly referred to as an emulator, it was designed for the original hardware and functions exactly the same on any simulated device. The most significant feature of WHDLoad is its ability to combine floppies into a single drive image, therefore eliminating the need for disk shifting and producing a one file solution for any system game. Because of their simple setup and drag-and-drop operation, the games on the A500 Mini effectively simplify the gaming experience even further.

Retro Games offers the WHDLoad profile for download to a USB drive on their website. It’s a very involved process that allows you to prepare and dump your own Amiga diskettes. From that point on, practically the whole Amiga universe is at your fingertips. You may even customize the emulation of the game with additional choices for each game.

In the end, looking at these little devices leaves us with the standard two-fold answer. With its open nature when it comes to sideloading games, the A500 Mini is a very welcome gadget, whether you’re revisiting old memories or discovering the Amiga library for the first time. It provides a more contemporary console experience and unlocks several amazing games that were previously difficult to locate in original versions and challenging to get right during emulation. However, there is nothing new here for those who have previously experimented with the original hardware or have customized their emulation boxes using Recalbox or MiSTer devices; you would likely be better off working inside your own infrastructure of unique settings.

It will be interesting to see if the A500 Mini, like the C64 Mini before it, sparks a boom in new commercial releases based on Amiga technology. The mini console presented developers with a chance to focus on a ‘new’ platform for their contemporary retro releases, and sales grew steadily as new and old fans discovered software tailored especially for the aftermarket device—a concept that could be expanded upon on the A500 Mini with WHDLoad. It’s unclear whether Retro Games Ltd. will make the A500 Mini feasible, but it may bring in a new generation of Amiga enthusiasts and software.

A brilliantly witty parody of strategic warfare – Kaiju Wars review

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A brilliantly witty parody of strategic warfare – Kaiju Wars review

Put the contents of a shuttered VHS store into a nuclear reactor along with Into The Breach and Advance Wars, and you’ll have Kaiju Wars, a fantastic turn-based strategy game about delaying doom or, better yet, taking it on a long tour of the desolate warehouse district, far from your town center. The general idea is that vividly colored, isometric tile-based towns are under siege from enormous cinematic monsters. As Mayor, it’s your responsibility to keep them busy until your chief scientist, the comfortingly stern-faced Dr. Wagner, can devise a potion that will repel kaiju.

The creatures cannot be defeated by force of arms; even if you are able to remove all six of the kaiju’s health bars, they will just withdraw into their lairs for a little while, occasionally coming out with additional skills. Instead, your role is to play a hybrid of speed bump and kaiju-bait, deceiving and frustrating the juggernauts while the boffins continue their mission of rescuing the Earth.

I’m not entirely sure which movie the game is based on, but there are four different kinds of kaiju in it: a hairy cousin of Godzilla, a very smug version of King Kong, a flying fire kaiju I call Brodan, and a burrowing snake kaiju that now rejoices in the name of Sir Tuskawiggle. While each has its own special qualities—Hairzilla like to battle at water, for example, while Smug Kong is obviously happiest when he’s on a map of a jungle—they are all prone to predictability. The twitching red eye of the kaiju indicates that it will always attempt to destroy the closest structure. To view the Kaiju’s journey and the percentage chance that it will travel to each square in the case that there are several viable paths, click on the monster. After you determine the Kaiju’s path, you may create friction by positioning your brave soldiers in a row like thumbtacks to deplete its health and possibly slow it down enough to give the target building an extra turn.

Units are identified by the type of Kaiju they target (airborne or ground-based) and by the amount of Counter damage they inflict when trodden upon. It goes without saying that those units won’t survive the process, so it’s a good thing they’re so inexpensive. You can quickly redeploy them for a little portion of their original cost, allowing you to stuff unlimited amounts of meat into the enormous, irate sausage machine that arrives at your door. As long as you have access to air bases, barracks, and a few structures that generate money, such offices. Once a certain percentage of the battlefield is covered in debris, you’ll probably run into financial difficulties later in each fight, but losing a unit has its worst drawback in terms of the time it takes to deploy reinforcements into position.

The labs that provide evidence for the anti-kaiju serum are, of course, the most valuable structures of all. The lab that houses Dr. Wagner is the most valued of these. The Kaiju, like many mega-monsters, have enigmatic human accomplices who want the good doctor’s head. These dirty, leviathan-loving traitors will use Dark Project cards every turn. These cards may do everything from light map squares on fire to unleashing kaiju mutations and lowering the security rating that your military infrastructure generates. The kaiju’s supporters will find Wagner’s lab and sic the beast on it if that security rating drops to zero, forcing you to remove her to another lab and halting all economic activity while she’s in travel.

Thankfully, you can each play a special Project card once. Each round, they are dealt in groups of three and vary from the simple but essential (construct another lab, restore three points of security) to the complex and possibly game-changing (prototype mecha fighters, army-wide improvements). The main change in Kaiju Wars from a hefty asymmetrical tactics game to an amazing puzzle series with a titan theme is the card system. The cards and troops that you and the kaiju may use define the challenges.

One mission puts you against Brodan in a highly wooded terrain to give you an idea of the range. You have a plenty of AA weapons, but in rugged terrain they can move no more than one tile every turn, whereas Brodan may move up to six. As it doubles back on itself, the kaiju heals itself in addition to posing a threat to your units and leaving a path of scorching tiles behind. As a result, you have to send in bushplanes to put out the fire while attempting to ground the kaiju so that your otherwise ineffective bombers can destroy it. You may do this by utilizing the few airlift cards available to move defenders between tall structures.

Above all, Kaiju Wars has an amazing sense of a monster movie rhythm. What at times appears to be a flimsy satire is actually a labor of love for a type of narrative that, similar to zombie films, most nerds can recite by heart.

In some areas, you need to repel Hairzilla completely without using an army. You may accomplish this by edging decoy bases together along the edge of the map and using a radar truck to follow Hairzilla to get extra research points. Chapter-ending boss bouts with a taxing research point requirement exist, where the kaiju retreats every four rounds and occasionally tags in another kaiju, making you reevaluate your strategy. In certain conflicts, you can use special cards to destroy damaged foundations and covertly rebuild laboratories after your opponent has crossed a valley. There are situations where you have to battle many kaiju at once, which truly puts the tiny map dimensions into harsh contrast.

It must be said that the element of randomness inherent in the card method somewhat ruins the ingenuity of these miniature puzzle labyrinths. While there are several winning techniques that may be employed in fight, there is usually only one that works best. Once that is found, it might be discouraging when the kaiju wins in the last seconds due to pure luck. Though it doesn’t necessarily mean that Kaiju Wars isn’t worth playing, it does trail Into The Breach, where opportunities increase exponentially with each round, making you want to try again. With the help of Ace units, whose stats you may increase in between missions with success medals, you can at least slightly alter the task configurations. For example, you might give a missile truck the ability to counterattack in order to make it a competitive defender. To promote replay, there are additional bonus objectives (such winning in seven turns) and more challenging levels.

Kaiju Wars is a visually captivating creation. It aims to have the dilapidated aesthetic of a B-movie, complete with unit designs that seem like they were taken out of a shoebox at a yardsale and event animations that appear to have been thrown together in Hypercard. Writing plays with this, with city dwellers shouting that they can “see the wires” and clownish conversations between eye-patched Kurt Russalikes and nerds in whitecoats making up the main plot. When you look closely, though, you’ll also notice that it’s quite exquisite and stunning. It’s characterized by electrifying primary-secondary color combinations and has many clever details, like the way the ocean tiles bubble up into self-contained tidal waves when the kaiju appear. It has a great sense of style: at the beginning of the quest, the map tiles fit together like they are meant to. I was always reminded of swisher, meta-fictional kaiju films like Godzilla: Singular Point because of all the gags about men in rubber costumes.

Above all, though, Kaiju Wars has an amazing sense of a monster movie’s rhythm. It always feels like the culmination of a desperate scheme hatched in the back of a racing Humvee, until your literally downtrodden cast of 16-bit expendables manages to break the creature’s stride, your tanks ramming its ankles so that your experimental laser can rumble into firing range. What at times appears to be a flimsy satire is actually a labor of love for a type of narrative that, similar to zombie films, most nerds can recite by heart. Forget dark organizations reminiscent of the Illuminati; the most ardent supporters of kaijus are undoubtedly their creators.

Review of Sonic Speed Simulator – a visually appealing Roblox game that offers fast-paced and enjoyable gameplay in brief bursts

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Review of Sonic Speed Simulator – a visually appealing Roblox game that offers fast-paced and enjoyable gameplay in brief bursts

Though some lackluster growth keeps it back, a free, surprisingly good-feeling Sonic game can’t go wrong with fans in need of a little encouragement.
Even though Roblox is one of the most widely used gaming platforms worldwide, I should be honest and admit that I don’t know anything about it. However, I don’t exactly fit within the intended demographic of children under 16. It seems to provide simple-to-use tools that enable anyone to create a game, regardless of skill level. I’ve seen people create really basic, janky, derivative games as well as ones that are almost professional in quality. Furthermore, People Make Games’ inquiries into the dubious and predatory nature of the platform have convinced me not to touch it with a barge pole.

However, I do enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog. Thus, when a new game on Roblox debuts and features the Blue Blur and companions in addition to having an official license from Sega, that’s reason enough to spark some wary interest, especially because the platform is free and open to anybody with a smartphone or web browser. Though there are currently a number of other Sonic fan games on Roblox, Sonic Speed Simulator is the creation of Gamefam, the first firm to use Roblox as a legitimate game production platform in addition to being an official release. The company and Mattel previously worked together to produce an open-world racing game based on Hot Wheels in 2020, thus they are also no strangers to collaborations.

Sonic Speed Simulator is more of an homage and an experiment that shows off the possibilities of the sort of “open zone” 3D gameplay Sonic Team is presently developing for their next project, Sonic Frontiers, so it might be a stretch to call it a game. In fact, it makes me think of “Sonic World,” which was included in the Sega Saturn collection Sonic Jam. That was also more of a proof-of-concept for Sonic in 3D before Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, a small 3D world with a low-poly version of Sonic and Tails that also functioned as an interactive museum.

Sonic Speed Simulator is a little more than that, to its credit. It’s not just one environment, but several, including features like the homing spin attack and grinding on rails that the hedgehog has utilized in his 3D adventures. Additionally, unlike many standard 3D games, you’re not ushered down straight paths; rather, the settings are roomy enough to accommodate your lightning-fast speed from any angle.

Nevertheless, given that it opens by failing to live up to either of the two headline selling claims, it could have produced a greater first impression. Instead of starting as Sonic, you start as your Roblox avatar (I know some diehard fans may be committed to their own avatars with endless customizable cosmetics, but that’s not why I joined up for Roblox), and you move at a crawling speed that grows gradually as you gain experience. Leveling up is basically the main loop; you can gain experience points (XP) by moving (the UI refers to “steps,” but this counter increases even if you take a long jump) and by gathering crystals, which have a sound similar to that of pearls in Sonic and the Secret Rings, increasing in pitch as you gather a long trail of them. Greater experience points can be obtained by jumping through various hoops positioned throughout the environment, many of which are timed to require you to reach them at a specific level. Similarly, finding and obtaining the unlocks for Sonic, Tails, and the newly added Knuckles as playable characters yields similar controls, but keep in mind that they are merely skins.

It’s enough to say that Sonic Speed Simulator feels like a Sonic game—and a shockingly decent one at that—once you drop the avatar and reach a comfortable enough speed to do a loop-de-loop with ease. Given Sonic Team’s numerous missteps with its tentpole mascot over the last few decades, the bar is understandably low. I should know, having made the poor choice to research these missteps only lately. But it’s not simply the revelation that a 3D Sonic game exists and is functional. The game perfectly captures the pure joy of being Sonic, whether it’s racing across bright green zones at breakneck speed under blue Sega skies or bouncing between springs in desert or snow-themed worlds (though, to be honest, Green Hill and Emerald Hill are the most memorable for their nostalgic appeal).

It does, however, rapidly run out of steam after you’re quick enough to learn the lay of the land in an hour or less, as there’s not really much else to do that’s nearly as interesting. You can enter “obbys,” which are Roblox lingo for obstacle courses. However, most of them are quite basic platforming tasks that highlight the speedster’s inability to maneuver around tight places. Moreover, some of them are required to pass in order to advance to the next planet.

“The actual traversal feels good, certainly a damn sight better than Sonic’s lowest points in history, so the logic of progression or goals is moot.”

In addition, a timer that is always displayed lets you know when races are available to participate in with other players. However, these are essentially one-way events that take around 20 seconds to complete. It is essentially an excuse to shoehorn in some engagement for this “metaverse,” such as chatting with other players racing around the world or spending your rings in gacha-style vending machines on cosmetics like chaos. It is pointless to enter if you’re low-level but also far too laggard to even know if you’re ahead of your competitors. Additionally, a vendor selling caps with Sonic themes for your avatar using Robux, the platform’s premium money, may be found.

Granted, it looks like Gamefam is currently working on adding more worlds to the game and updating it frequently. It’s only that the progression is so unimpressive that you have to restart in order to advance. Essentially, you are offered the choice to Rebirth when you hit your maximum level (Level 50 initially), which resets you to level 1 and puts you back at crawling speed but keeps all of your earned cosmetics. Although leveling up is faster with each new reincarnation for a generation raised on Fortnite, where you always start with nothing, I still find it absurd that Sonic’s main allure is being undermined with every iteration. Though a cynic could view it as merely prolonging the grind, subsequent worlds only open after rebirth—the fourth world, ironically, needs you to have had three rebirths, while the third just requires one—each rebirth does, at the very least, boost your next maximum level, making you progress even quicker.

Nevertheless, the purpose of goals or growth becomes irrelevant when the actual traversal feels fantastic—certainly far better than any of Sonic’s worst moments—and the grind almost vanishes as time passes and I realize I’m just loving running for its own sake. It’s perhaps the most well-polished experience Roblox has ever seen, making it a perfect gateway drug to entice new users to the site. If this is the direction that Sonic Team’s “open zone” design is taking, then for fans of Sonic, it offers a peek of what may be possible for the hedgehog in the future—albeit one with more structure and real obstacles. Furthermore, it’s free, so what could possibly go wrong with giving it a try?

Rogue Legacy 2 delivers another exceptional experience in this remarkable sequel, offering more of the same brilliance

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Rogue Legacy 2 delivers another exceptional experience in this remarkable sequel, offering more of the same brilliance

Astute readers could have surmised that Rogue Legacy 2 is the follow-up to Rogue Legacy, a 2013 roguelite platformer. The main surprise in the game’s generative generation and permadeath mechanic was that every new character assumed the estate of their predecessor, making them the heirs of the preceding generation. Practically speaking, this meant using the cash you earned on each run to purchase enhancements that would increase your chances on subsequent trips. You’re less frustrated when you fail since, barring the worst runs, you’ll have enough gold for at least one improvement, making you want to try again.

You recruit the Architect, a cunning old codger, to help you with your exploration. He may make adjustments to the castle’s architecture in between runs, allowing you to build on your successful exploration rather than having to cope with a completely rearranged terrain. Even if you have to spend a significant amount of money for this privilege, it’s still a useful tool, particularly when you’re about to kill a monster and don’t want to have to look for the bugger every time.

Following the conventional path of a sequel, Rogue Legacy 2 offers you even more of what made the previous game so fantastic. There are now fifteen classes, as opposed to nine, and they provide considerably more diversity. The same holds true for equipment, spells, and attributes. What’s more fascinating is that it incorporates significant traversal enhancements a la metroidvania. Nothing really novel or exceptional occurs here, and I’m sure I’m not ruining anyone’s enjoyment when I say that there is a double leap at one point, but the increased maneuverability allows for some amazing aerial acrobatics. To really fly through the levels, you may combine the previously stated double jump with dashes, the ability to spin kick off of foes and projectiles, and a ton of other techniques. In several circumstances, quite literally.

This whole bouncin’ and pouncin’ works in concert with a lot of the class skills and artifacts you’ll come across. For instance, each time the bard spin kicks off an item, they receive a stacking damage bonus that resets when they make contact with the ground. Combine it with the clownanthropy trait, which depletes some of your health in return for the ability to spin kick from most surfaces, and an artifact that substitutes a far more destructive spin kick, for example, and you have a furious tornado of destruction.

If it seems like there is too much to manage, that’s exactly what it is. The sequence in which you unlock the different classes is, generally speaking, dictated by the upgrade route you follow through your manor—a beautiful visual depiction of your skill tree—but the latter classes are far more difficult to master than the early ones. With a correspondingly higher ceiling, this higher skill floor allows for quick platform layout traversal and dancing through thick enemy and missile groups. But in my situation, these are undoubtedly more chance than competence. I really like the barbarians with their large health pools and thick axes.

For this reason, I’m enjoying Rogue Legacy 2 so much that I end up playing it several times before realizing that I should be working. I check the game periodically to verify a detail for the review. Because of this, I’m able to have fun even when I’m working quickly to meet my deadline. It’s obvious that Cellar Door Games wants as many people to play their game as they can. In addition to the gradual enhancement provided by the upgrading system, they have also added a set of “house rules” that let you choose the level of difficulty. The majority of foes that aren’t actively assaulting you can have their health or damage output changed, you can even become able to fly. These options aren’t limited to those of us who occasionally require more assistance. It is possible to expose the settings you are using and make enemies even more powerful, making it ideal for committed gamers to showcase their well-earned skill on live.

It’s obvious that Cellar Door Games wants as many people to play their game as they can.

There is so much more to explore in Rogue Legacy 2 than just the main fighting and platforming, so it’s a great addition. The narrative is extremely complex, with many hints and clues pointing towards more in-depth mythology. It is gradually revealed through journal entries and other sources. I believe the children are referring to this as 2.5D, yet the images effectively utilize 3D objects on a 2D plane without drawing attention to their separation. Most significantly, at least in my opinion, the amazing animation successfully transfers to the new dimension, especially the running animation that always makes me grin while holding a weapon in the air. The group of people that stay at your home provide some wonderful moments as their connections steadily grow amongst them. The writing is alternatively heartwarming and truly humorous.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite right. The main problem with Rogue Legacy 2 is that it depends too much on its upgrading system. It’s a difficult game, and if you’re having trouble moving forward, the little fixes won’t give you the advantage you need. It turns into a grind as you repeatedly aim at the same spot until you think you’ve gained enough strength to pass through the problematic section. Without using any house rules, it took me little over seven hours to defeat the first monster and a few more to enable the feature that allows you to teleport right to a new location at the beginning of a run. I confess that there were several occasions when I felt a bit bored and irritated. The creator claims that players of all skill levels should be able to finish the game thanks to the upgrade system, but that claim is undoubtedly optimistic. Without the house rules, I assume that many players would give up on the game before they had a chance to explore even a small portion of its features.

Fortunately, that isn’t the case since Rogue Legacy 2 is a really beautiful game, and I like that Cellar Door gave us extra tools to make it more user-friendly. It’s a great illustration of allowing gamers to customize their experience to their preferences, whether it adding more difficulty or offering assistance.

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