This War of Mine Review

This War of Mine is a game whose sole purpose is to have you survive a war zone. And unlike most war games, it puts you on the shoes of a civilian in midst of one of the worst situations you can be at.

Scavenging night trip.

The game itself is very simple. You can only move around your house/shelter or whichever location you happen to be visiting, and interact with objects. Your interactions are either by picking them up, inspecting containers or crafting something, like when you make beds for your own shelter. That said, it does have a combat system where you can injure people. Using your fists, a weapon or shooting at others, it is a very simple strike system. Once you get close enough to your target, you can interact with them to attack. Do not forget, you are a civilian here, not a battle hardened soldier. On top of it there is the occasional "event" system that will throw you some unexpected situation for you to deal with. From a simple life saver "we saw you needed help, take some food!", to the more dramatic "give us what we want or you will be sorry" kind of thing.

Good neighbor saving us!

Progression is equally simple: For every day you stay alive, you get to be one day closer to surviving the war. You can also improve your shelter if you find sufficient resources to do so, further increasing your chances of survival. Wood and general materials are the most common things you'll come across, yet very important resources to manage. Like everything else in this game, it is all about never having enough of what you need. Sounds tough? There is more!

Trading screen.

You can trade everything and anything you can carry in your inventory. But the situation is not rough just for you, everyone is in this together. No one is looking to give you a good deal. And some people might plain reject what you have to offer! On the other hand, if you know what someone else needs, they will pay extra for what they are looking for, themselves.

On top of all that, this game has no tutorial. There are no "help, how do I do this?" menus. And that only strengthens the deep feeling of hopelessness that you find yourself into. Did something and now you regret? Well, too bad! That is life, you gotta live with it! This War of Mine succeeds where so many other titles failed: It forces you into a complex situation where you need to show your true colors. It makes you take a deep breath and consider deeply the possible consequences of your actions. And there are no indicators, no counters, no User Interface telling you what is best or what is happening after. It makes your choices meaningful and important. It makes you cry for being helpless, for being unable to fend for yourself and your loved ones. And it does all that with a mean smile while telling you it was not your fault, but you are here, now, and you need to survive.
On top of a beautiful soundtrack This War of Mine is a unique experience that can truly open your eyes and help you sympathize with people in tough situations. It can also help you find that humanity in you that might have been lost in midst of brainless shooters. But to get there, you will need to get through it first. While we truly highly recommend this game, use your best judgment for when is the best time for you to play it.

Good luck, survivor!

PS: With much hardship we managed to survive without hurting others. By the end of our play we had no water, no food and barely anything left to trade. But we did it! But not everyone made it... So is the cost of disease when there is no access to help.

Cadence Change

Dear gamers and readers,

It is with a heavy heart that I come today without a review to publish. For the past four years I have managed to deliver over 60 game reviews and never faltered on my initial promise. No less than one game a month, played to the very end. The few times I did not "finished" a game was when I, as a player, was incapable of beating the ridiculous difficulty of some titles. Which is also a problem I am currently facing with This War of Mine, but I am sticking with it until I make it! Because that game is awesome, and I want to make through that war!

But that is not the only issue preventing me from making the review. The main issue is time! That ephemeral thing we all receive plenty and free of charge, every day, without really thinking about it. Currently going through some life changes including a second career change is directly eating my dedicated gaming time. Just like Maslow Pyramid of Needs, before we can play, we have to eat and survive. On the bright side, this will allow me to tackle huge deep titles like Dragon Age, Divinity, The Witcher and so on. And as I go professionally into Web Development I am hoping to revolutionize the blog with a more modern and interactive look! That is something I have been looking forward to, for quite some time now. =)

So I am officially breaking the cadence of reviews from "at least once a month" to "When I Can". The review structure is not changing, just how often they will be published. Thank you for reading this far, your interest in this work is greatly appreciated!

May the Eye see you,
Diego "Wolf Fivousix"

The Sims 4 Review

The Sims 4 is a simulation game that you enjoy creating and controlling people in a virtual world with no rules. Build their personalities, their homes, their experiences and their digital lives as you want.  

Getting back from work to pay the bills...

The game itself plays from a third person perspective. You select which Sim (person) you want to control, and then click on objects and choose the interaction. For example, clicking on a book to read, on a stove to cook, on a computer to play some games. If the object is another Sim, then the interaction will get a response. If you are mean to someone, they will be mean back. If you are funny, they might laugh. If you are trying to be romantic, but haven't build up to it, you will probably get rejected. To spice things up a little, every Sim has six necessities (bladder, hunger, energy, fun, social and hygiene) that you need to satisfy, otherwise they might die. On top of that they also have moods. Just finished a work-out? They will feel confident! Are they starving without food for days? They will be angry! Haven't seen a living soul for a while? They will probably be very, very sad!

Progression for a game like this is a bit tricky, as it depends a lot on what your own goal is. Maybe you want to achieve the highest point in a career track. Maybe you want to accumulate wealth. Maybe you want to build a huge mansion. Maybe you just want to survive another day. Or maybe you just want to live in peace growing a family as generations goes by. To mention some of the most common. Regardless, the true progression from a simulation game like The Sims is making your own story unfold.

House Renovation Time!

In order to make all of this possible, you need a place to live. The house construction tool have come a long way, just like the game itself, since The Sims 1. The menus are very visual and quick to navigate. Modifying or building a house has never been so easy. You can now even drag the whole house around! Increase room sizes, turn single rooms around, among many other convenient features.

The Sims 4 is a very stimulating game. The character creation allows for a deep customization of each individual. The game gallery allows you to share and use other peoples creations, if you feel like the need for a quick addition. You can also dabble in a plethora of community mods that can enhance your game in more ways than we can talk about here. On top of all that, there are so, so many little secrets all around the game that there is no way we are spoiling the surprises for you. Our favorite part in all of it? It is not a game about violence, but about life.

Happy living!

Endless Legend Review

Endless Legend is a 4X Strategy game. The term is a short for "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate". In plain English, it means it is a strategy game where your goal is to dominate something and everything. Be it through force, through resources or through sheer numbers.

Combat view

Gameplay is quite simple. There are two major management focus: City and Army. In your cities you will allocate your population into different structures in order to increase/decrease production of a resource. Be it science, food, troops, or even the city expansion itself. For army units you will move them through the world exploring the environment. In case of combat, you have the option to decide individually about what each unit will do in a turn based environment or just let the computer simulate the battle in an instant. Once the turn ends, you repeat until someone wins the game. If you have more than one city and one army, you just do the same process to each of them.

Science progress.

Throughout the game you can expand your empire by building new cities, research new science that will give you "world wide" bonuses, destroy or conquer enemies through military power, explore the map, trade goods and the list just keeps going. There are basically six main progression systems in the world and each can give you the victory if advanced enough. City, Army, Science, Quests, Politics and Commerce.

Strategic resources Market

Just like the real world, a lot of importance is given to the currency and all systems connects to it. The more money an empire have the more access it has to other resources, effectively converting money into power. Lacking a specific resource? Buy it! Too much of something? Sell it! Small, but rich empire? Make your units so strong through financial means that they will rival the mightiest army out there! A savvy trader can be a deadly force in the game, by understanding other empires needs and anticipating enemy moves, one can effectively lock the goods into a price so high or so low that they will have no choice but to bend to your will. Starving an army or a whole empire is as effective as bleeding it!

Unit equipment screen

We have just started describing Endless Legend here in order to keep our post manageable. There are so much depth and interconnecting mechanics in this game that we could make a whole series on it! From the nuance of hero choice, the peculiarities of each race, the consequences of boosters optimization to the smooth population system and city development. Endless Legend is a very daunting game with a steep learning curve and pages and pages FULL of information to process at once. Fortunately just knowing how to build a city and battle units is plenty to enjoy the game. Both of which are taught in the tutorial. 

The empire grows!

Our favorite aspect of the game is that every little detail that you learn how to master gives you an advantage all around. For example: Learning how to better expand your cities to use the land resources will give you more resources to use. Learning how to better equip your units will make your army stronger. Learning strengths and weaknesses of other races will make you more efficient against them. And so on. There is no optimal strategy in the game. The more you learn about its connected systems, the more you will understand that every scenario, every enemy, every play will be different with different factors to consider under different circumstances. All that with beautiful eye catching graphics, delightful music and rich possibilities.

May Auriga favor you!

Book of Demons Review

Book of Demons is a deck-building hack and slash adventure game. In plain English, is a game where you will obliterate hundreds of weaker enemies with your mighty power provided by cards. Your goal is to slay the Archdemon and save the world.

Things seem quiet enough...

Gameplay is quite simple. You move through a set path in the dungeon and activate up to ten equipped cards. Despite the simple controls, the game can get quite complex when you layer multiple opponents with different skills. That is one of the things we really liked about this game, it is not hard to play, yet it offers a significant challenge if you wish. (Easy mode is always there for simple Hack & Slash.)

Leveling up a common card.

Progression in the game happens in three concurrent ways. As you progress through the floors, you will get closer and closer to the Archdemon and your final battle. As you explore the dungeon you will find cards with powers that you can equip. You can find multiple copies of the same card, with slight additions depending on the rarity (common, magical and legendary). Third and last is your own level. The more creatures you slay the more experience you rack up. Every time you level up you get 1 point to distribute either in health or mana. Attribute points also drop as loot in the dungeon itself, making leveling up not the main source of attributes.

Cauldron sample.

As you dive deeper in the dungeon and slay many demons, you will acquire riches. Such wealth can be used to upgrade cards and buy the contents of the Cauldron. It holds extra loot from your pillaging and one attribute point opposite to the one you choose when leveling up. Basically the same stuff you find in the dungeon, but in one big pot of boiling goodness.

Book of Demons is a very enjoyable game. The paper theme is superb, with great visual effects, amazing soundtrack and an overall lighthearted theme. If you played Diablo I you will catch some funny references. On top of that, the developers did brilliantly in adapting controller support in-game. Specially the Steam Controller. Last but not least, the game has a splendid mechanic called "Flexiscope", which allows you to change the length of your play session.

Good hunt, adventurer!

Flexiscope in action.

Fallout 76 Review

Fallout 76 is the online prequel where every surviving human is a real person (player). Working together, or not, to survive. Twenty five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow vault dwellers emerge into post-nuclear America.

As a re-imagining of Fallout 4 with a multiplayer approach, Fallout 76 plays very similarly with Fallout 4. In fact, you will see that there are more similarities than differences, so you can read in full about the gameplay on Fallout 4 Review. Let's highlight the two biggest changes: A first person shooter like any other game, the the first big difference here will be the real time VATS system. Whereas in Fallout 4 time would slow to a crawl, in Fallout 76 you get no time bending abilities. Everything happens in real time, all the enemies will keep shooting and swinging at you. Equipped with the appropriate perk, you can target different areas of the body and use those critical shots for some really critical moments. Believe us, starting a fight with a critical head shot is a sure way to survive!

Food and mutation effects.

The second biggest difference will be the "light survival" aspect of the game. You have hunger, thirst and deceases that you have to manage. They are a soft reminder that you are still human and surviving requires nutrition and care. In the starting area of the game you will find plenty of water and food laying around. As you dive deeper in more dangerous territories you will feel the lack of resources when your hunger/thirst bars start hitting red and you've got nothing to consume. For the decease part, being bitten by wild animals, or even swimming in waste water carry a chance of contracting some sort of condition that will debilitate you. Your choice of just waiting until your body naturally heals from it or, like most things in America, popping up a pill will make you good to go.

Strength Perk Card

Speaking of survival, the progression system for Fallout 76 is still based on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. status. This time, from level 1 to level 50, you will get one point that you can distribute in any attribute up to the cap of 15. And on every level up, which is infinite, you will get to choose a perk card. You can equip as many perk cards as you can afford based on your S.P.E.C.I.A.L.'s. Having 15 points in Strength allows you to allocate 15 points worth of Perk Cards into strength. If you have only 1 Charisma, don't expect to be the wasteland most eloquent survivor. As in previous Fallout games, perks will range from giving you plain damage bonuses to special and/or convenient abilities. For example, reducing the weight of certain kind of weapons, allowing you to breath underwater or even to prevent mutations (more on this soon). Of special attention is Charisma, as it is the one attribute related to social play. Under the Charisma tree you will find many perks that work towards others, like "Team Medic", which will heal your team mates for some of the health you heal yourself.

Full Build.

Another interesting addition are the mutations. Receive enough radiation and you might find yourself developing some sort of "super power". These are mostly small changes that gives you an advantage somewhere, while costing you a disadvantage somewhere else. One of our favorites is the "Marsupial Mutation", where you get 20 pounds increased carry weight and your actual jump height triples, at the cost of 4 points of intelligence.

Weapon scrapping for material and mods.

To wrap things up, in Fallout 4 we had the CAP system serving as an easy way to transform unwanted loot into resources that you lacked, while the scrap/junk system was more oriented to building. In Fallout 76 we have the inversion: CAPS are much harder to come by and now weapons and armor have durability. Once they break you will require materials to repair them. Materials are also needed to modify equipment and to build your CAMP (a mobile version of a settlement, which we could make a whole post about). This way gathering junk from the wasteland is an essential part of keeping up your gear in top condition while vendors have very limited supply of wares and CAPS. And in order to learn how to modify your equipment you will have to disassemble similar gear. In order to learn how to make something, be it a weapon, armor or a construction you will have to find the plans for it. Nothing comes free in the wasteland... Except radiation, that's free.

One of our favorite pictures!

Fallout 76 plays very similarly with Fallout 4, but the multiplayer aspect brought changes and challenges that make for quite a different experience other than gun play. The map itself is gigantic, offering a level of detail and allowing for a much more pronounced change of environment. The material system is now properly integrated to the main loop of the game while the currency takes a step back. The light survival aspect is a great addition to spice things up while making for interesting opportunities of character builds. The camera mode allows for some great pictures and the lengthy quests can keep you entertained for a while. Unlike most online games though, it can still be fully played and enjoyed solo. While we keep a positive light, there is a lot that can improve and we are looking forward to what Bethesda has cooking up for us!
This became a much longer review than we intended, even only touching upon many aspects of the game. Thank you for reading this far!

May the wasteland provide all you need, Vault-Dweller!

Enter the Gungeon Review

Warning: We play every game until the end before making our review... That said, we couldn't beat Enter the Gungeon. =/

Enter the Gungeon is a pixelated bullet hell dungeon crawler following a band of misfits seeking to shoot, loot, dodge roll and table-flip their way to personal absolution by reaching the legendary Gungeon’s ultimate treasure: the gun that can kill the past.

Our best run, died on boss @4th floor!

Gameplay is very simple, you will move around shooting everything on sight and you can dodge roll to evade bullets. Also, there are tables around most rooms that you can flip for some temporary cover. Although straight forward, the game gets extremely chaotic, requiring fast reflexes, precise planning, resource management, and quick adaptation to ever changing conditions... It almost feels like life itself.

Chest with a rare double drop!

As you progress through the Gungeon you will find keys and chests. They will award you new weapons, items or passive buffs (like extra life). There are many, many guns in this game. Some more useful than others, but since you get them at random luck plays an important factor. Your goal is to reach the 5th stage and beat the final boss before meeting your doom. Easier said than done. Other than that, every time you defeat a floor boss you will get some cash that you can spend at the entrance of the Gungeon to unlock new weapons, items and passives. This unlocks are added to your drop table, you don't get them for your run.

Only a crazy person would run
a shop in a place like this!

As you clear rooms you will acquire what appears to be golden bullets. These golden objects can be used to buy some random resources at this crazy shop keeper that runs his business inside the Gungeon. His prices increase the further down you go, making early purchases more worthy while.

Great soundtrack, good art and non stop action is sure to keep you entertained. Unfortunately one of the things that we don't get to use as much as we wanted are the guns. Being random and requiring chest finds, you get little play time with your favorites. Item descriptions also varies wildly. Some are very descriptive, others not even close. We strongly feel like some auxiliary systems like the ones in Crypt of the Necrodancer that allows for temporary buffs would allow for more exploration while making the game easier for those that, well, just can't beat it.

That said, Enter the Gungeon is a great game with lot of flavor that is worth your time and money! Just beware that it is hard, and it makes no intention of slowing down for your own sake. There are also myths of legendary secrets that lie in the Gungeon, that only those who have mastered it will find... Well, hope you are that one!

May your gun be swift!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a third person action game, where you take on militarized cyborgs in order to bring justice with your sword.

Slicing cubes open in the Tutorial

Gameplay is not very complex, you can move and jump around while cutting enemies down with your sword. There are some combos you can perform, but nothing fancy. Most of the time you will be pressing the attack button repeatedly until the enemies hit the "K.O." point, where you can move into this slow-motion samurai style slicing to dismember your opponents. You can also block attacks if you time it correctly and once you have access to secondary weapons you can use them too, although they are not as effective as your sword.

Body enhancements.

As you progress through the story you will defeat enemies and acquire BP. With them you can buy power improvements to your own cyborg body. Depending on how fast you defeat your enemies, how much damage you take, how many times you sliced them open (a.k.a. Zan-Datsu) you will get a variable amount of BP.

Overall Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a weak game. Personally I try to always find good things to say about a game and the slow-motion slicing mechanic is pretty entertaining in the beginning. That said, that's where it ends. The game has a terribly weak plot, cliche characters and very shallow mechanics. The main system, the slicing mechanic, does not go any further than what you get from the start. Ending up being more in the way when you are forced by the designers to use it, than being integral part of an evolving experience. There are other games, like Bayonetta, that deliver a much richer content with a better constructed experience to the point that you'd better spend your time on them.

If you do decide to take Rising on, beware that it is not representative of the Metal Gear franchise. Also it is not a long game, if you cut out the cinematics time you should be able to finish it in less than 5 hours. Happy slicing.

Ori and the Blind Forest Review

Ori and the Blind Forest tells the tale of a young orphan destined for heroics, through a visually stunning action platformer crafted by Moon Studios.

Skills

Gameplay is more than just jumping around, you will have to use every skill to surpass the challenges ahead of you. With 9 different skills (11 if you have the Definitive Edition) you have a lot of room to play the way you like. Some of those powers will require you to spend your energy, which you can only charge by finding special energy crystals or defeating enemies. Every mistake costs you some of your life energy. If you reach zero, you will load automatically at your latest save point. Very interestingly, you are allowed to spend your energy to make a save point whenever you want. Except at very specific locations, like in a "boss room".

Gliding

As you progress through the story you will unlock new abilities. Being able to do more than ever before, new forms of challenges will emerge making full use of the new mechanics. The developers did a great job drawing the line between letting you practice your newly acquired powers and pushing your comfort zone. Making for a very entertaining experience from beginning to end. Once you unlock all the abilities, you fell like a true badass!

Ability Tree

And as you face the challenges of the world and uncover its secrets, you will be gathering Spirit Light, a sort of experience if you will. Once you acquire enough of it you will be able to unlock an even higher potential in three different ability lines: Combat, Utility and Efficiency. Combat is self-explanatory, utility is for resource gathering and energy usage, while efficiency makes some abilities more efficient.

All of it come together in a beautifully crafted experience, with an amazing eye for art style, outstanding music and great control. Ori and the Blind Forest is a perfect example that platform games can be as polished and mechanic rich as any other games. We are looking forward to Moon Studios next release, Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

May the light guide your adventures.

Uncharted 4 Review

Uncharted 4 is a third person shooter action adventure game. Hunting for lost treasures you will travel the world, climb every conceivable surface and fight against those that try to stop you.

Gameplay is quite straight forward. You have a set path to follow that will be blocked in a variety of ways. In addition to the characteristic climbing of the franchise, this game has a new rope tool that will allow you some more extreme jumps. The shooting remains the same as any other third person shooter game, with a lot of destructible cover.

There should be no surprise that the game progresses exclusively through the story development. Uncharted has always been a very straight forward movie like game. With an amazing blend between gameplay and cinematics, staple of Naughty Dog animation power. Not just that, but the level of graphic detail they manage to pull from a inferior system like the Play Station only makes you wonder how much better they would achieve in a high end desktop environment that does not have the same limitations.


Uncharted 4 is a great adventure game. It manages very well to break that strong stereotype that Indiana Jones left us with, using great story and outstanding character development. It brings to and end Nathan's Drake journey as the last of the quadrilogy. For now, at least. Great soundtrack and full of amazing sight scenes with vibrant colors, Uncharted 4 does not disappoint in capturing an audience attentions. And if you are a long time fan that has been playing since the first game, be ready for many memories of those adventures. On top of one of the best easter eggs that only a company that has been in business for decades can pull. look forward to it!

Enjoy the ride, and watch your step.

PS: Thanks to my great friend for allowing me to play it on his console. Unfortunately because of that I was unable to retrieve the screen shots for the game. My apologies.

Crashlands Review

Crashlands is an outlandish story-driven action-adventure game, set in a world of hidden magic and high technology. Tame and milk alien beasts, craft resources into menacing weaponry, befriend the locals, and go toe-to-chin with a maniac. All in the name of on-time delivery!

Not the coolest base out there...

Gameplay is very simple, you move around the map interacting with the wildlife, crafting structures and items. You can build everywhere, literally, EVERYWHERE. Can't reach that enemy? Build a bridge! Some mean creatures are threatening your beautiful garden? Wall it up! The creative space for the game is enormous. On the combat side, you have your melee weapon to kill said wildlife while using and abusing from a plethora of trinkets to increase your destruction power. From bombs and pets to laser beams and bladed boomerangs, to mention a few. Unlike most games where you just slam the buttons and kills creatures, every enemy in Crashlands has an attack pattern that you need to understand in order to defeat them.

That is a LOT to explore.

Progression in the game happens mostly through the story, which is directly attached to increasing your crafting options. The more recipes your discover the further you go. There is an enormous amount of side quests to explore, as well as a vast diversity of structures and furniture to build and explore. The map itself is realistically infinite, so you can build to your hearts content.

The creative space and crafting for the game is impressive. Unfortunately you will go through killing, harvesting and building over and over as you advance through the game. Every new level of gear require new parts, making all older resources almost useless. Some very interesting mechanics, like the gear upgrade, will save you a lot of re-crafting. Crashlands is a great game, with some amazing integration and portability. On top of a unique sense of humor, it provides a very enjoyable experience that we definitely savored for more hours than we should.

Minecraft Review

Minecraft is a game that needs no introduction. What started as a single man hobby has become a mark of the greatest success in the game industry, breaking every rule in the book at the same time breaking every ceiling ever set. Mojang was bought by Microsoft in 2014 by nothing less than 2.5 billion dollars and counts with over 100 millions units sold to date. A nice and extremely rare transparency counter, from the days Mojang was a private company, marks over 28 millions of copies sold on PC alone.

An explored gigantic cave formation.

Gameplay itself is very simple, you can move around, jump and smack things. The world is made by square blocks that can be broken. Once broken, you can keep and place the block wherever and whenever you want. Not only the procedural and near infinite world makes for a blank canvas of creativity, the algorithms of creation make some natural structures that are a wonder to explore. The game is divided in two main modes, Creative and Survival. In the Creative mode you have infinite access to every single thing, you are invulnerable and can fly, almost like a God Mode. That way you can enjoy building and exploring without worries. The survival mode on the other hand is what we could call "real life". You got to eat to keep alive, monsters will chase and kill you and if you want a block/resource you gotta go get it yourself.

A very enchanted tool.

Because of the way the game is, progression comes from crafting and building. As you explore the world and find the rare resources, you will use them to craft and build whatever your mind desires. You will also become more resilient and be able to take greater challenges by using experience acquired through your actions (killing creatures, mining, etc.) to enchant your gear with powerful effects. There is "an end" to the game, but it is not "the end", just the toughest creature around to be faced.

Very simple Redstone example.

To wrap things up there is a little thing called Redstone. And what makes it extra special is that Redstone works as a circuit. Once activated it carries a signal (or energy/electricity if you prefer), not just making you able to activate things remotely, but opening up the options of buildings you can create. Complex and autonomous structures are a thing on itself, from secret passages to crazy contraptions, Redstone is by far our favorite aspect of the game.

Minecraft is a game of imagination. The possibilities are enormous, and that's not even considering the multiplayer aspect the game has to offer. From the simplest buildings to the most intricate survival experience, there is a lot to be enjoyed by a lot of people. It's no wonder that Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time, enjoyed by all ages. Happy building.

Reigns Review

Reigns is a game where you sit on the throne as a benevolent (or malevolent) medieval monarch of the modern age and swipe your royal controller either left or right to impose your will upon the kingdom.

Gameplay is very simple, a card is drawn and each situation can only be resolved by two choices. Your ultimate goal is to remain in power as long as possible, balancing the four currencies of your kingdom: Church, People, Army and Treasury. If at any moment any of these reach one of the extremes, either full or empty, you will suffer very abrupt and life ending consequences.

Perks

As you progress through the years of ruling, you will discover some secrets and unlock new interactions, growing your deck of cards. Some of them will allow you to acquire some kind of perk either temporarily or until destroyed, like building a tower to prevent invading armies from taking over your kingdom.

I was good to them!

Reigns is a short, simple and entertaining game. There is an ending to it, but it can be played simply as a challenge to remain in power for as long as possible. Or maybe you just want to die having being a good ruler. Whatever your goal is, reigns show how some creativity can give rise to interesting choices, and how ruling is not as simple as it looks.

bit Dungeon II Review

bit Dungeon II is a pixelated rogue-like action adventure game. Your goal is to return the soul of your "loved one" to her grave.

The life of a newbie.

Gameplay is extremely simple, you just move around and as you touch the enemies your character automatically attacks. The only other thing you can do is holding a button to block and activate your weapons power. Power aside, when health is limited blocking becomes fundamental to survival. It is also not a procedural world. The world itself is fixed, only the enemies and loot are proceduraly generated. Dungeons are randomly picked from a set of layouts.

Huge level and attribute gap,
but still better due to the bonus.

Speaking of loot, as you slash the creatures in your path you will rack up experience and tons of loot. Rule of thumb is that the higher the rarity of the item, the better it is, even if of lower level. If you manage to reach the final boss you will get one or two drops of the very best rarity of the game, which is the only place where you can get it. Fret not, once you beat the final boss you will go to back to the beginning of the game for a repeat. You can keep this cycle until you die, leveling up and getting better and better gear. Unfortunately there are a couple of items that have secret attributes or the display just doesn't scale with how powerful they are. So make sure to thoroughly compare rare items.

Black Coin trader.

To lightly wrap things up we have the Black Coins that you will gather from defeated enemies and crates. You can only use them to buy gear and is the only thing in the game that remains after a full death. So if you had a good run and accumulated plenty of coins, you can kick start your next run by buying near state of the art gear.

Overall is a great little game that can entertain for couple of hours or dozens of hours depending on how power hungry you are. A great feature that it has is that you do get ONE chance to die and not loose your progress. If you manage to reach your death spot you can gather your life again and keep that peace of mind for some more time. The art style is simple but well done, with decent soundtrack. There are many quality of life improvements that could make the game better, but the one thing that really lacks is a clear explanation for the bonuses. Even the community couldn't figure out what Super Proc is. Simple yet enjoyable, bit Dungeon II is a great example of a neat game that a small team can produce.

PS: You can lock your inventory so even if you are frenetically pressing the button, you won't swap gear by mistake. Took us a long time to stumble upon it, but definitely made a much more enjoyable experience. Open your inventory and press "X" on the controller.

If you'd like to explore more on item rarity and bonuses we definitely recommend reading the guides on the Steam Community page. One of them we used as a base to make our own path run map that we share with you all. Enjoy.

Path Run Map

And here is our best run so far, we dare you to beat it:

Tower of Guns Review

Tower of Guns is a simple rogue-like First Player Shooter. You move through randomly generated stages until the final boss. ToG is one of the few games to explore this niche of FPS + Rogue-Like games.

Bullet Storm!

Unlike most shooters nowadays, the game has a simple gameplay. You can only move, shoot and jump. With the occasional item usage, there isn't much more than shooting endless robots, going through the stages and repeating. Although simple, it has very demanding action with a lot of bullets flying everywhere. If you are not familiar with FPS games, we highly recommend using the perk that makes the game easier.

Our best run. Lots of badges!

Speaking of perks, let's talk about the progression systems in the game. They are fairly straight forward: You move through the levels until you reach the final boss. There is an endless mode where you repeat endlessly after defeating it, if you so desire. As you defeat your enemies and explore the stage, you have a chance of finding Badges. Badges are a secondary form of progression that usually increase your characters attribute in any way. It is as simple as more health/damage/speed/jump etc, but when fighting an infinite amount of bullets, every little bit helps!

As you defeat enemies you will gather "experience" which will make your weapon more powerful. Beware, as taking damage will decrease your experience and level down your weapon. The final method of progression is unlocking weapons and perks to use in your run. These are permanent unlocks by simple challenges like destroying an enemy a number of times and defeating the final boss. Perks are mostly variations of starting bonuses like extra jumps, luck, health, etc... A couple of them offer exclusive modifiers, like having infinite jumps but receiving damage if you touch the floor.

Item Station.

As you wreck through enemies you will drop gold. The gold can be used to buy upgrades in a random item station. Usually you will find badges, but very rarely you can find guns! Beware though, it might not be a good one.

Tower of Guns is an interesting game, rough on the edges but still enjoyable. Many things could be improved, like having an option to come back to your 2 hour run at a latter moment. If you enjoy rogue-like and FPS games alike, you might just find a sweet spot in this fast paced shooter.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist Review

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (ufff, I know!) is a single player story game. Very simple, straight forward and very short game (about 20~30min). All you have to do is move around and interact with the indicated objects to move the plot along. Saying anymore would spoil the game.

We recommend this game despite its lack of mechanics not just for being free, but because it has an original approach. It is a great example of how a little bit of creativity can give you a very interesting way of perceiving a game.

PS: You can read our previous review on another game by the same designer, here: The Stanley Parable.

Bastion Review

Bastion is an action game set in a lush imaginative world, in which players must create and fight for civilization's last refuge as a mysterious narrator marks their every move.

Gameplay is very simple, you can carry two different weapons at any moment and one choice of a special skill. While moving around the terrain you will fight the remains of what used to be your civilization, acquiring Stray Fragments and leveling up.

Distillery.

As you progress through the story obliterating anything on your way and accumulating those experience points, you will level up, opening a new slot for distilled drinks. Think of them as special modifiers to your character. You will also find different choices of weapons, skills and deity modifiers that can dramatically change the way you play. That also means you have a wide array of play styles to choose from. Each weapon can be upgraded up to five times by collecting upgrade materials scattered in the remains of the world.

Stray Fragment market.

To wrap everything together we have those Stray Fragments. As you defeat foes and destroy structures alike you will gather enough to pay for weapon upgrades. There isn't much more to it than that, plain and simple.

With well paced content, great soundtrack, a mysterious story and responsive controls, Bastion is definitely a great game that you should play. It is quite short in length, but it is not the length that makes great games. And this one placed Supergiant Games in the spotlight of indie developers.

PS: You can read about their second release in one of our early reviews: Transistor.