Firewatch Review

Firewatch is a beautifully complex and simple mystery exploration game that will make you think twice about every other game that ever gave you a speech option.

The gameplay itself is very simple, as you walk around the world looking for clues you will contact your boss, Delilah, through a radio. This interaction, although simple in nature, was taken through great lengths to be extremely impactful. Every choice you make, every line you choose will affect your relationship with Delilah, changing the answers she gives, the comments she make and even the information she will give you.

Like other exploration games the only form of progression is going through the story, like reading a book. But more than being just one of those really great books, you will truly get the opportunity to choose the personality of your character and how he interacts with the story and others characters in it.

Firewatch is by far one of the best games of its kind. The art style fits perfectly with the game, the plot is well written and the voice over is exceptional! It brings not just character to life but also to every moment and every interaction you go through. Although the complexity of the game really shines when you do multiple playthroughs, being able to play the game once and never really realizing how your choices influenced the subsequent interactions is a statement to the lengths the developers went to make an amazing game.

Knights of Pen and Paper 2 Review

Knights of Pen and Paper 2 is a simple, humorous and straight forward game that perfectly captures the feeling of a nerdy Pen & Paper session.

Character creation screen

As any RPG you will start building your character, your choice of player, race and class. That combination will determine the basic attributes and skills available to that one character. Gameplay itself is very straight forward, every challenge is a turn based battle. You can attack, block or use an item. Each character has four different skills that can synergize well with specific classes or builds.

Progression through the game is simple, as you move through the story line you will level up your characters, strengthen your skills, find new item recipes and special gear. What makes the progression enjoyable though has nothing to do with the power leveling (unless you are into that), but the lines crafted to resemble that table top kind of session. Filled with game references and popular culture, you are sure to get more than a couple. And, did we mention the piles of gold that fund your next expedition?

Item store

Gold is the most important resource you need. With it you can buy new and better equipment, consumable items to aid your exploring, furniture to your Game Room (that gives you party wide bonuses) and even reset your already playing characters. Annoyingly though you also need gold to travel around the map, so don't spend it all at once! We recommend keeping at least 50 coins for those travel heavy quests.

Even though the combat is simple and each characters only have four skills, there are many combinations to be made, specially when you take the character creation, equipment and the game room furbishing into consideration. Despite all that complexity, it still is an easy game that you don't have to worry too much and can just enjoy. As any table top game, there is no right or wrong here, just having fun. Added bonus for ease of saving the game and coming back right where you left it, even inside dungeons!

Bioshock Infinite Review

Bioshock Infinite is the third and final game of the Bioshock series. A First Person Shooter (FPS) game in an advanced futuristic past, where you go to Columbia, a floating city, to find and bring home the captive Elizabeth. An amazing game winner of so many awards, and for good reasons!

Sky-Hook sequence.

As any other FPS you will shoot things around. With 9 unique weapons (and 4 variants of some of those) you will lay waste to those who oppose you. Being able to carry only two different weapons at any moment gives a more meaningful choice between your favorite weapon and something with more bullets. The big difference from other shooter games is that you have access to Vigors, a kind of magic power developed through science and with very unique mechanics. From purely dealing damage to controlling enemies, you will find they can give way to many varied builds and play styles, specially when combined with the right weapons. On top of that there is the Sky-Hook, an aerial rail that allows you to quickly traverse the environment and surprise your opponents while giving some verticality to the combat.

Vigor vending machine.

Speaking of builds, as the plot unfolds you will have access to weapon, health, shield and vigor upgrades. Most of which you can buy in vending machines scattered around Columbia with a currency called Silver Eagles. This currency is found in the environment as loot or given by Elizabeth herself periodically. You will also find equipment scattered around the city that will allow you to further personalize your build with 4 simultaneous pieces. This equipment shines more on the later game or a replay, where you have more options to tweak and a better understanding of all the possible variations.

Elizabeth's interactions.

A unique aspect of the game is Elizabeth's presence. Unlike most games with companions, Elizabeth brings a unique support mechanic where she finds things your need in the environment, like ammo, medical packs and even cash. Although you are the one protecting here, she is never in the way, more like she is your sidekick. She also has spectacular animations, comments and interactions with the environment that really makes the story setting shine. 

Bioshock Infinite is, without a doubt, a masterpiece! The pacing is extremely well structured, most of the weapons/vigor/equipment variations increase the possibilities instead of being a different flavor of the same. On top of that you get an amazing setting, with a wonderful plot and first class art that will make the combat of the game feels secondary! Which is huge, since it is a shooter game! And if you do get the DLC's (and you should), you will have the opportunity to revisit Rapture from a different perspective, closing the series in an outstanding way.

Bioshock 1 Review

Bioshock is a First Person Shooter (FPS) game in which you find your way into an underwater city, Rapture, after a plain crash in the middle of the ocean. In this new and twisted place you will have to fight if you want to survive!

Plasmids and Tonics for sale.

Other than moving around and shooting things with 8 different weapons you will have access to a variety of special powers, the Plasmids! It is not magic my friends, it is genetic science. There are a wide variety of Plasmids, ranging from simply burning your foes, moving things with your mind to creating spectral decoys of yourself.  You can also find special serums called Tonics. They enhance your physical, combat and engineering skill. With that you will have plenty of choices for managing different play styles, but all of this power is not for free, you will need to gather Adam to pay for this.

An unprotected Little Sister.

Adam is a special currency that can only be gathered by interacting with the Little Sisters. They are the ones that can unleash your powers. Unfortunately they are not alone. Their protector, the Big Daddy, is there to prevent any wrong doing against them. And believe us, they are a force to be reckoned with! To help you break through them you will find weapon upgrades scattered into the city, giving your favorite weapons a much needed boost.

Hacking mini-game.

The singular thing about life in Rapture is that many of the challenges you face can be transformed into an advantage. All machines in the city can be hacked through a tile puzzle mini-game and forced to help you instead of the enemy. You can convince that Big Daddy to be your body guard. You will also find plenty of money laying around that you can use to restock in vending machines. One final interesting mechanic is discovering enemies weaknesses and gaining increased damage through repetitively photographing them.

Bioshock 1 has an amazing setting and great plot. A very unique art style and, despite being a little rough for today standards, a solid gameplay that marked the industry as one of a kind, not an easy feat considering all the shooter games out there! If you managed to get the remastered version you can watch some director commentary videos on two of the developers talking about the decisions behind the game and how their limitations, at that time, shaped the experience you have. If not, you can watch them on Youtube.

Fallout Shelter Update Review

Back in November 20th 2015 we reviewed Fallout Shelter for mobile devices. In March 29th 2017 it arrived on Steam. So free of our smaller devices processing limitations we decided to revisit the game and see what changed since then.

In summary, we have Nuka-Quantum bottles, pets, questing, crafting and customization. There are five new rooms: 

• Weapon Workshop: Where you craft weapons.
• Outfit Workshop: Where you craft clothing.
• Theme Workshop: Allows you to change Living Quarters and Diner appearance. 
• Barbershop: Used to customize a dwellers hair, beard and face.
• Overseer's Office: Needed to send teams on quests.

Automatic return and legendary junk.

With the addition of crafting you can no longer find legendary gear while exploring the wasteland (they still come in the lunchboxes). Instead you will find legendary materials that will be used to craft the gear you want. A good change, since now you do not need to rely on luck to get exactly what you want and you also have access to outfits that were only acquired through lunchboxes before. There are also a couple weapons and outfits that can only be crafted, like the new powerful Dragon's Maw. Consequently wasteland exploring also changed a bit: Now you can have only 25 dwellers exploring at the same time and they have a limit on how much stuff they can carry. Once they reach such limit they will automatically start returning to the vault.

Fighting your way through a quest.

Once you build your Overseer's Office you will be able to choose from a list of available quests to send teams of up to three dwellers. These are special missions with special rewards, raging from simple gear to lunchboxes, pets, Nuka-Quantum and Mr. Handyman! With this addition your wasteland explorer dwellers also have a chance to come by special locations and do a "mini quest". Which can also provide the same rewards! Hence the addition of Nuka-Quantum, the definite monetization for a casual game like Fallout Shelter. Instead of waiting for the game timers in order to reach objectives, have dwellers return or even to craft gear you can spend some Nuka-Quantum and reap those rewards instantaneously!

Pets.

And finally, pets are a new kind of "gear" that you can equip individual dwellers with. Each pet ranges from common to rare and legendary. They give varied bonuses like more damage, faster training, chances for twins/triplets, decreased crafting time, etc. And since they are very scarce you can buy them directly from the store.

We think the game improved a lot since it was first released, specially with the "sell all common loot" button for exploring dwellers! Too bad themes don't go beyond triple sized diner and living quarters. But we are super happy that now you can find plenty of Mr. Handyman in the wasteland! Clicking to gather resources stop being fun after you've done it for hundreds of times, so he is an welcome break. Furthermore the pets and Nuka-Quantum are a great addition that in no way feels like we are forced to purchase those goods, as we can gather plenty on our own and save it for when we really want to speed up something.