Recenzii recente de Carrionjr

Final Fantasy 13 2 continues the Square-Enix’s run of terrible ports, with this one being worse than Final Fantasy 13’s which I didn’t think was possible. This time around it not just bad porting (buttons are hard mapped to the keyboard even when using a controller, have to use keyboard to exit game) that you have to worry about, there are also ground breaking bugs that cause constant crashes to the desktop to deal with if you don’t perform a few google searches first. This is a crying shame, as being the direct sequel to FF13 it boasts much improved game mechanics, a more focused story with characters that are enjoyable to follow, less character management and an easier crafting system. It’s a great game to play, marred by the fact that it was ported in the last 5 years and still being riddled with game breaking bugs that require a few fixes to make things workable.

You don’t need to play the previous entry to get a rough catch up of previous events (there is a very quick review available in the main menu), however you would be doing yourself a major disservice by not finishing the first entry before starting this one. The game starts during the previous games ending, and focuses on quickly introducing a raft of new background lore which drives the entire story. Without spoiling the story, Sarah (Lightning’s sister) and Noel (a human from 700 years in the future) embark on a time traveling journey to bring lightning back to existence and resolve a host of time paradoxes as she has been written out of reality due to someone trying to change the events of the past. The first ½ hour is confusing, but unlike the previous game it gets much clearer after that and stays enjoyable right to the end. I loved the concept of the future changing the past (so it aligns with the past, preventing grandfather paradoxes) which is something that’s not often explored in games that deal with time. Because the game only focuses on Sarah and Noel, the story isn’t anywhere as disjointed as the previous entry.

This also translates into much improved gameplay as you are only focusing on 2 characters that are always in the party, with the third slot being monsters you can capture and raise which is the biggest change compared to the previous entry. Each monster is locked to its class, but can have other monsters infused into it to get abilities it wouldn’t usually be able to receive. While you can ignore this function in the game if you want (just levelling up the 3 monsters you can have in your team at the same time is enough to finish the game), this system does allow you to create some outrageous combos that truly buff your team. Also upgrading characters is much easier with a singular job tree rather than a separate 6 to manage, with CP being much easier to come by (there isn’t a need to grind in this game). Bonuses when levelling up jobs are locked to extra strength, magic or life, and are applied based on each crystal size (the bigger crystals give more, and the bonuses differ based on what class is upgraded). This makes it quite easy to plan ahead to make the characters much stronger than what they would be if you just dump points randomly. Monsters are fed other monster drops to upgrade a set stat. It also removed the annoying crafting system of the first game, a weapons strength and magic are now fixed. While the jobs stay the same as FF13, you unlock all jobs fairly early in the game so you get a lot more use out of the paradigm system.

After the previous games linear path, FF13 2 is mostly a free for all, go anywhere you want affair. The story is structured around resolving time paradoxes that have arisen, but there are a ton of side quests and different time periods that are available to explore. To open a lot of these side areas you are required to thoroughly explore each area and complete side quests, many which span across different time lines. Many of the objects are hidden exceedingly well, you could spend hours looking so using a guide might be recommended for some quests or exploring some areas. There are a few quests that require in-depth knowledge of not only this game, but the previous entry that require a guide to finish. You also have the option of go to a casino and play on the slots or chocobo racing to mix things up.

Visually the looks great much like its predecessor, though there are less areas to explore. Because the game revolves around visiting the same areas in different times (or alternate realities) each area can look different, but it cuts down on the total amount of areas to explore. This game is set entirely on Gran-Pulse, with some new cities and places outside the flow of time. Each area can be revisited at any point (with main story events being replayed from the start or continuing from where you previously left an area), though each area/time will contain many secrets and different enemies. Most of the assets have been reused from the previous games, with only a few newer characters being introduced. You now have the option of changing your outfit and adding accessories. There are plenty of in game movie sequences, however they don’t outstay their welcome and do propel the story forward. To mix things up there are a lot of QTE events during battles and movie sequences, which can help you end fights quicker if you succeed in them.

The voice acting is still excellent, though they dropped the Australian accents of the people of pulse- (Fang and Vanille still have their accents). Having the previous characters play bit roles wasn’t too bad, and the scripts for them were a lot better this time around. There is a lot less whingeing and crying this time around by Hope, as well as a lot less angst by the remaining cast, which makes it much more enjoyable to listen to. The music is outstanding, with a mix of full vocal as well as different styles. There is one heavy metal fight song (it reminds me of DMC series), as well as a wild chocobo which I will miss listening to.

As mentioned before the bugs are ground breaking, but can be fixed. Without doing anything I found the game constantly crashed when changing camera views (which happens at the end of battle). I fixed this by running a 3rd party patch which increases the amount of RAM it can use. This stopped the crashes, but sometimes enemies wouldn’t display. I had to turn off Steam cloud saves to resolve that, and the game has been fine since. You shouldn’t have to put up with these errors for a AAA release, but at least you can fix them.

The 3 DLC’s are included and explain what Snow, Lightning and Sazh are doing. All 3 become available after the main game is finished and reward you with extra monster summons (in the shape of the listed characters or other well know characters from the FF series. I would only bother with the lightning one, as it’s a canonical ending, taking a few hours to finish the fight. Sazh’s one has you focusing on playing poker, while Snow has you fighting in the coliseum against some well know characters from other FF games..

If you are wanting to 100% the game, it’s a much easier task this time around. You level up much quicker, and only a few of the fights right at the end will prove to be difficult with a fully upgraded party. One quests will require fighting one enemy at least once, which is where most of the time will be spent end game.

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Nier:Automatica is a experience in shifting perspectives. If you want a story that questions what it is to be human or the nature of war, with casual and focused gameplay or a killer soundtrack then I highly recommend this. The game has no reason to be this good but it is, and if you haven’t played it you are doing yourself a disservice.

While the game loosely continues from the previous 4 games it’s set 10,000 years into the future, where androids and machines are fighting a proxy war on behalf of humans and aliens who invaded and wiped most of humanity out. You play as one of 3 androids, the combat focused but emotionally cold B2, the inquisitive scanner android 9S or the discarded prototype attack android A2. Each android has their own experiences, knowledge and thoughts on the everlasting war and animosity against the machines, that are tested at the plot develops. You are expected to play the game at least 3 times (once with each character) as events take on different meanings when witnessed from different character viewpoints, with what should have been a celebration slowly morphing into a dark conspiracy of perpetual war. The second the third runs become very dark plot wise, heavily dealing with loss and suicide which was a punch in the guts as the scenes and choices unfolded. Most of the plot is told through the main story missions, but the side quests really add a lot (they aren’t just fetch missions), and while not influencing the outcome in any way they are well thought out and really help to build the world of machines and androids. To go into much more would ruin the story, but it’s very well paced, twists and turns constantly and has a killer ending. It has what I would consider one of the best endgame sequences once you get the final ending, and the threat to wipe your save progress isn’t a joke.

Just as the storyline’s perspective changes the more you play, Nier’s gameplay changes as well. Mostly a 3rd person hack and slash that focuses on combos, evades and perfect counters, it sometimes changes into a top down hack a slash with fixed camera, a side scrolling platformer, or top down shooter more reminiscent of Radien. There are also hacking mini games for 9S, which are very much like a bullet hell version of the old asteroid style games from the 80s. Combat is fairly fluid, requiring great timing to evade attacks or get a combo in. You have a wide range of attacks to select from depending on button presses, and each attach can chain into the next. You will usually be swarmed in every fight, so the camera does swing around a fair bit and can make tracking the enemy you want to kill harder. While you are limited to melee, your pod can fire off continuous shots or use special skills to help turn a battle around. Each of the weapons and pods can be upgraded if you find enough of the right materials. Thankfully you can select what chips (bonuses) your androids are installed with, which allows you to have options like auto countering, chaining ect, which can be left on for those who want to experience the story, or disabled for those who want to master the gameplay controls. The game provides for players who want to explore the world after the main game, with being able to return to any chapter (with the characters who were available at the time), to finish up quests that were missed, or hunt for items and secrets that were missed.

Visually the game looks stunning, but if you want to run it at 4K with a playable frame rate you will need a card that’s better than a Nividia 1080. The games environments look amazing, from the lush forest setting, sliding up and down on the sand dunes in the desert area, to the ruined city architecture. Even though the machines don’t have facial feature the game does a great job of conveying their emotions. You have a minimal ability to edit your characters appearance (the DLC expands this), however the weapons look quite diverse and reflect what you are equipped with. Your characters do suffer clothes damage if they are hit in combat, and a tough battle will see them shredded.

The soundtrack and vocals are amazing. Each of the voice actors have done an amazing job, and there is a real distinction between how the machines and androids talk. The Soundtrack should be listed as a separate DLC to purchase it’s that good. Instead of going with something with a heavy drumbeat or bass like lots of other action games the developers have used a full orchestra with vocals that twinges most fights and general gameplay into something with a sad tone.

However as far as ports go, this is seriously lacking. For a game that was built for controller use, the game doesn’t natively support them. All menus and tutorials are listed to use the controller buttons or keyboard, with no mention of a mouse. You will either be playing with keyboard and mouse (with no options of editing the mouse setup), or be forced to download a 3rd party controller input program. I also had issues with trying to alt tab out of the game, with the screen being constantly reset to windowed mode. At least the multiplayer mode worked, where your body drops when you die that others can pick up for extra resources, and the amazing end sequences during the final credits.

The only DLC has you exploring the pitiable life of one of machines by competing in colosseum fights. The fights aren’t easy and you are rewarded with new accessories, outfits and a new ending for your efforts. It’s good if you like a challenge, but isn’t required and is light on content for its price.

Nier is one of the easier games to get 100% achievements for, as there is an option to purchase all of them (except for the 5 main endings) after completing a third run. If you aren’t going down that route, then there are lots of items, fish, weapons and enemies to find, capture or kill. There are lots of little nods to the previous games, and a hidden boss if you are inclined.

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Mars: War Logs is a 3rd person, ARPG where you have to break out of a POW camp on Mars and avoid the authorities trying to recapture you. Think of it as a mix of Total Recall, Dune and Tank Girl, without the AAA budget to fix the gameplay issues. If you like a decent story and don’t mind less than perfect combat then this game is worth a look. If steam offered neutral reviews I would have selected that.

Even though the game is narrated by Innocence (a young adult conscripted to fight), you play as Roy, a solider (now POW) who saves Innocence’s from being abused in in prison and puts his escape plan into action with Innocence’s help. While the story and character development is lacking in the beginning, it fills out once you get to the second chapter, and by the third chapter you have 2 different story paths you can follow, which will change available missions, companions and romance options.

Gameplay is fairly similar to most ARPG’s, with combat being limited to set areas and experience being gained by completing quests. All quests are shown on the map, and hidden items are left around all the stages. The game does a great jobs of making you scrounge for items and cash, as the only way to reliably get money is to extract water from downed enemies (which gives you a bad reputation and affects morality bonuses you receive- think tank girl). The perk system contains 3 upgrade paths, which can focus you either more on stealth & ranged combat, straight up brawling damage or techomancy (your electrical superpowers- think force lightning). You would be much better served by dabbling a bit in each (as bonuses stack, however if you are chasing achievements then need to focus on one, which will only become full by the end of the second chapter). Stealth is an option and can allow you to take out 1 or 2 enemies before real combat begins.

Combat can be janky and it feels like it needs a bit more polish. On easier difficulties combat is a total cakewalk. On harder difficulties it can feel almost impossible (it feels a lot like Bound by Flame), where you spend most of your time blocking or evading, and counting when possible. Your selected upgrades can really help here, as many of the first tier make combat much more survivable if you select a few before dumping points into the higher tier perks. Enemies will swarm you and strike from behind, where the camera doesn’t allow you to see the attack coming. Your starting companion is useless, with the rest only marginally better until you max your reputation to the highest level which allows them to actually help in a fight. The companion AI isn’t the best so there is a good chance of them taking you with AOE attacks if they have them. The late game companions are much better, but you only have them for a little while before the game ends.

Stage design and layout wasn’t too bad. Each area looks like how it should - a dystopian slum looks run down with people laying on the ground, prisons look bleak, everything is covered in red sand. Everyone looks like they live in abject poverty. While the stages aren’t linear you are mostly funnelled to where you need to go for main story quests and combat, with the differences being which mix of enemies (and amount you will fight). You don’t have the option of exploring multiple tiers (there no jumping) so you are exploring a flat path the environment does a good job of making it feel alive.

The game isn’t without flaws however. A lot of character assets are reused, and this is really noticeable in the first areas and cutscenes (it gets better once you hit the second chapter). If the brightness is set too high, it really highlights the blandness/chunkiness of characters’ models and texture of the environment (the game was released in 2013). Character animation sometimes looks like it hasn’t been rendered correctly (hands at wrong angles). Movement can be slightly janky, as you can get caught on invisible object and prevented from moving, though this does affect the AI as well. I’ve had the camera lose where I am (sits above the character instead of behind) which usually ends in death during combat. The hit detection in combat could be tightened, as sometime you get hit when you are nowhere near enemies, or miss when you are close. Sometimes the vocal tracks are placed too close to each other, so the natural pause between finishing a sentence and the start of the next one is non-existent, wrecking otherwise good voice acting. None of the above are game stopping, but detract from the game.

If you are chasing 100% achievements then it’s possible, but requires at least one play through on extreme difficulty, and requires a save from the end of character 2 so you can choose the other faction to side with. Everything else will come naturally though normal gameplay. I recommended playing on a harder difficulty, otherwise you will likely finish the game quite quickly.

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Deathtrap Dungeon is the FMV virtual novel equivalent of the mid 80s choose your own adventure books, narrated by Eddie Marsan. I found it fun for the 5ish hours it took to complete and a good look at what future releases could do but it is very likely only going to really appeal to a niche group of people.

I’ll admit I was a big fan of the original book when I gave it go 20 years ago (so I already had a rough idea of how things worked) but it was difficult keeping track of your items and stats after fights without burning through a wad of paper or constantly losing dice. This version is perfect in that it keeps track of everything you do- all your character’s stats, buffs and items are kept track off and updated on the fly, hints you have uncovered open up different options (and if something would have helped it is mentioned) and as well as making a map for you, the game auto saves your progress regularly with returnable loading points so you aren’t forced to start right at the beginning when you perish.

If you haven’t played Dreathtrap Dungeon before, you have a simple goal –enter the Dungeon, survive the multiple traps, enemies and other contestants and escape the dungeon to claim your reward. After generating the stats for your character (skill used in fights, strength which is your life, and luck for evading traps) you are sent into the dungeon and need to choose witch paths you with venture down, weighing up if the risk of setting off traps or entering rooms to investigate objects is worth the potential rewards and survive the numerous fights.

There are two combat options for you to select when you first start, and I highly recommend picking the simplified system. It shortens combat by auto resolving fights after 3 turns (you just have to survive) instead of completely exhausting the enemy’s strength and removes the need to test your luck against enemies in combat. This makes the game flow a lot quicker, but does remove a large part of the challenge from the game (if your character has decent skill and luck you can get near the end without using much of your provisions). If you want to play how you would have originally then that is an option, but it can’t be changed without restarting the game. The game keeps track of all the items you find, and gives you the option of using them at the right moments. If a situation had a different option the game narrates this (eg if you had a rope..), giving you hints that other choices may have been more rewarding. Death come fairly often due to the dungeons numerous instant death choices, and a heavy reliance of RNG for dice rolls but having the map greatly helps you work out the correct path and continue on – the reload feature is great.

For a vast majority of the game you are watching and listening to Eddie Marsan narrate what’s happening, with the game occasionally showing art from the original source book. I thought he did an excellent job of it, as he has to voice a few different characters and his speech and mannerisms don’t give any clues away. If you find it uncomfortable watching one person for a long time then this might not be the game for you. There is a skip option if you want to skip all the speech/video and get to the next choice, but I would question why you would use it. Other than that there aren’t any other options to edit. A notes section for you to make anointments on the map would have been great, but isn’t included.

There are no achievements.

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Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is a tactical ship based RTS, that revolves around Warhammer 40K’s 12th Black crusade in the Gothic sector and was released in 2016. If you like intensive battles where a high degree of focus and player control are required to secure a win, spaceship based battles or don’t mind the limited amount of races compared to its sequel then this might be worth a look. I would recommend picking it up on sale (or as a bundle), as it (and the DLC) are still quite pricey.

You take control of Admiral Spire of Battlefleet Gothic, a freshly promoted admiral taking orders from Inquisitor Horst and serving under Lord Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg, as you try and stop the chaos invasion while also fighting off Eldar and Ork threats. The plot generally follows the outcomes of this campaign, and though you can’t change the outcome of the war you can influence the events during it. I never played the tabletop version, but the ships and weapons seem to be a faithful recreation, including their firing arcs, weapons ranges and movement speeds. A knowledge of Warhammer 40K’s background setting would be handy, but the game gives a very basic explanation of what’s happening and whose who before you are sent off to destroy the chaos invasion.

The single player campaign consists of two tactical elements, the sector war (with a completion goal being not losing more than 50 worlds and beating Abaddon), and each individual battlefield (which will have their own attacker and defender mission requirements). In the sector view you manage your battlefleet, apply upgrades, and usually have to choose what worlds to sacrifice so you can focus on participating in more important battles as you are limited in the amount of engagements you can perform each turn. Each lost world inflicts a penalty, which can add up to substantial amounts or large debuffs if you don’t pay attention to what’s happening. There are a host of singular missions (in addition to the standard missions) that I thought were challenging and well designed, and plenty of unique enemy ships that throw curveballs at you to keep the game intense. There weren’t many missions that I was always confident of winning, and some mission types are much harder than others. If you aren’t fussed on scripted storylines then there’s a skirmish mode where you have the option of just messing around (everyone has all abilities unlocked) or a elite mode where you can keep improving your fleet as you fight more difficult battles. I didn’t get a chance to play multiplayer, so I can’t advise if the servers are active or any players are still around.

The tactical gameplay is quite involved, consisting of selecting the ships types (to a set point value), and trying to move each ship into optimal firing arcs or reach objectives. While you can give each ship different abilities you can’t modify the weapons so each ship has a fixed purpose and the biggest might not be the best for the mission type. Smaller escort ships are faster and don’t have repair costs if destroyed, but don’t gain experience so don’t gain buffs and are susceptible to AOE attacks. The capital ships vary between being big slow behemoths that pack tons of weapons or lighter version that move faster. Depending on the mission type nimbler ships might fare better, or you can swarm the enemy ships with tons of smaller ships and try to dodge any AOE weapons. Sometimes it’s just sissifying to deploy the 3 largest ships you own and lay waste to everything in front of you, or circle around behind an enemy and lay a full broadside into them. Rushing headlong into an enemy usual sets you up for a receiving a good deal of punishment. Each fight looks like a dance as the ships circle around each other, edging to get into firing range. I didn’t think the auto AI was very helpful, when I had it on the ships seemed to pick targets that weren’t suited for them, or didn’t bother to try and dodge obstacles in their path.

Each of the races ships perform differently, they aren’t copies and gameplay styles are diverse. The Imperial Navy are heavily armoured so can usually withstand a pounding and have strong weapons. Chaos are faster and launch lots of fighter craft but have weaker armour and defensive guns. The elder are very agile, but suffer heavily from being boarded or losing their engines and can be difficult for beginners to play. The Orks prefer to get in close and have strong boarders and are very customisable but have terrible accuracy. Torpedo’s (on any ship) seem to be blatantly broken, having unlimited range, trifling minimum firing range and doing a good amount of damage.

Visually I thought the game looks quite good, though to be fair there isn’t a lot on the screen other than the ships you are controlling, asteroid & mine fields and clouds to hide your ships in. You can swivel and change the camera as much as you want -so you can zoom out and control it like a top down, or zoom right in and see the fires billowing out of damaged sections or any ship. When ships collide I liked seeing the debris float off into space (ramming was always worth it).

I was quite impressed with the music, and though I think there are only a few different tracks they don’t interfere with what’s being said or any of the action. The voice acting for the campaign was well done.

The available DLC unlocks 2 additional factions to play as, the Tau (who aren’t in the single player campaign), and space marines (who sometimes appear as allies). The Music OST is quite pricey for the 6 tracks it gives you. Purchasing any of the DLC will come down to if you want to play as that race in the skirmish mode, or if you are chasing achievements as they will be required for it.

To acquire 100% achievements you will be forced to dedicate a fair amount of time, as not only do you need to give do a few different runs through the campaign (to make different choices), but play in skirmish mode as each faction to get an Admiral to the highest level, as well as complete 100 elite battles.

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Inquisitor: Martyr is a top down hack and slash ARPG, with similarities to Sacred, Torchlight & Diablo that has you wading through mobs of enemies in order to uncover a millennia old secret that could save or destroy the Imperium. For the sale price of $25 I thought it was a good game, lacking some of the polish of its AAA counter parts have but still worth the solid 25+ hours it provided.

Set in the Warhammer 40K universe you play as an inquisitor, an agent of the imperium who can sentence worlds to death for the slightest hint of corruption. Receiving an order to investigate the Martyr, a long lost fortress monastery (giant spaceship) that has been ejected back into real space from the warp you start to uncover secrets that could tear the imperium apart and have to make a choice that could shape the Imperium of Man for millennium to come.

The game does both an excellent job of building the grim dark setting of the 40k universe, while also butchering some of the background and doing a poor job of explaining any of the universes overarching story. Having prior knowledge of the 40k setting is almost mandatory. You are only given the briefest introduction to what the inquisition does, how tech is worshiped and treated and the other imperium factions are barely mentioned at all (the different Inquisition factions are better explained in Prophecy). The setting of the Imperium (fascist religion who worship a corpse vs cultists who worship dark gods) is skipped entirely. This makes roleplaying options between radical and puritan difficult, as by todays standard the choices seem back to front (killing everyone is a puritan option, while sparing people is a radical idea). The main character of the game break long standing background ideas – the Alpha Pariah, (a soulless person who can neutralise warp presence and destabilises psykers powers) . GW have set the precedence on some of their recent books, but it goes against nearly 30 years of background. One of the player character classes, the Psyker shouldn’t even be allowed in the same room.

Gameplay was good, as instead of never ending maps you get short 10-15 min missions (think torchlight), where you either have set targets to neutralise, all foes on a map, destroying objects or hacking terminals or rescuing and protecting weaker characters. When everything is done you teleport back to base, equip loot, sell unwanted items, upgrade stats and abilities before diving back in. The cover system was very cool, and not something I’ve seen in a hack and slash. Each character has a suppression bar, which show how likely they will be effected by effects (knockdown ect). Battles become very difficult when you start to constantly get knocked around, which is where the cover system comes in. You can also use it when using ranged weapons (if you equip them), and the AI does a decent job of trying to use it as well.

I would highly recommend focusing on doing the main story missions, until you have unlocked the morality options (end of chapter 3). Many of the DLC missions give good boosts to this bar and other than main story missions additional chances to progress on this are very limited and depend on RNG (Prophecy greatly adds to this). The game systems and options are unlocked very slowly (like morality, tarot cards, void missions), so you miss out on quite a few drops if you deviate from the main story early. You are constantly unlocking options for your character up until lvl 50, so there is plenty to experiment with.

The game suffers from what all hack and slash ARPGs suffer from, equipment creep. No matter how good the item is, it will eclipsed eventually by a higher level generic item. Luckily each character isn’t locked into a set build that focuses around equipment (the right abilities help, but it’s only a problem when you are at max level). Perks can be changed freely at the ship, and skill trees can be reset for a slight cost. I found myself switching between whatever weapon setup was most handy at the time (from ranged to close combat), and all the stats are in easily readable format. Each of characters plays very differently and has unique skill tree options, as well as some shared skill trees. Some weapons are shared between the classes, others are locked. There is also a crafting system where you can increase the lvl on loot or re-roll its buffs), if you really want to keep a certain equips for a while longer.

I found there was a good range of content to keep myself occupied after the main story. I didn’t hit the lvl cap where I would start farming for the best equipment, but that wasn’t an issue. you have a large choice of free flow missions to pick from, priority missions which, are a few missions strung together with a narrative linking them and some choices to make, war zone missions and void missions which get progressively harder as they continue but give better rewards. There are also challenge maps that have you fighting continuous waves of enemies for better loot

The stages that you traverse look like they come straight from the source material. It’s full of derelict spaceship corridors, frozen planets, destroyed city’s or death worlds. While each stage mostly forces you to follow a path there is tons of objects that look like they belong in that universe, and most of it is destructible. I really liked how every enemy wasn’t just cultists, but how it differentiated between renegades, cultists, daemon worshipers, daemons before you even get to the dark elder and chaos marines.

Graphically the game looks good, but only supports up to HD, so on bigger screens some of the objects can appear blurry. There are tons of destructible objects (including cover), so when you are killing enemies stray shots put holes in objects or blow containers up. It does look like there was a high amount of work that has been put into it.

The voice work of the main characters was good, as some of the side characters (I loved the stilted speech of the tech priest). The crusaders inquisitor righteous speech’s sounds good, and there was enough humour in the comments between other followers on your ship that it didn’t get dull.

Multiplayer still seems active, it only took a couple of minutes to join a game, and loot seems to be unique per player. You can join a cabal and earn extra rewards for playing together. I think the game would be a lot more fun playing with a group of friends.

My thoughts for the DLC are under my Inquisitor: Prophecy review (https://gtm.you1.cn/id/Carrionjr/recommended/1042800?snr=1_300_recommendgame__402) and hasn’t changed.

If you are wanting to get 100% achievements then you will need to purchase some of the DLC, as well as the expansion and be prepared to sink a fair amount of time into playing the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Prophecy is the standalone expansion to Inquisitor – Martyr and brings a range of new things to the game, including a new summoning class the tech adept Inquisitor, 3 new story chapters (2 for the other classes), 2 new enemy races (tyranids and elder), increased level cap as well as all the 2.0 patch changes. If you already own Martyr or like the 40K universe I highly recommend this, and if you don’t but like Hack and slash ARPG’s I would highly recommend picking up both on a sale.

The games structure is weird, as it can be played as both a standalone or integrated game in steam (each with their own stats and listed achievements). If you own Martyr and are using existing characters then the new missions are available once you finish Martyr’s main story with the existing 3 classes. Or you could skip straight to the new content by picking the new class. If you don’t own Martyr then you can only play the new content. Co-op is effected by this as well, while random missions can be mixed between all characters the tech adept can’t join Martyr story missions, and the 3 classes from Martyr can’t join the tech adepts unique first chapter.

The story continues from where Martyr finished (or just before when playing as the Tech priest), in where the Martyr has reappeared from the warp, and you are eager to recover the alpha subject at any cost. Because of the disturbances in the sector, other ordos factions are now active to combat the rising Xeno and Chaos threats in which you are required to help to further your own goals. A lot of Martyr’s missing plot points have been fleshed out, as to how the alpha subject came to be (she shouldn’t be able to exist according to the universes background), as well as why all the other factors are after her so desperately.

Gameplay as the tech priest was very different to the other classes, he’s very squishy and doesn’t have good defence, but can summon robotic helpers that do the killing for him. I found myself using the cover system a lot more to get around this, which wasn’t something I had to worry about too much with the other classes. Each of the summons are different enough to be worth taking (ranged vs melee, singular attacks vs AOE) and can complement each other nicely, or you can focus on one type for max usage of perks, though I found myself only sticking to the Kastellans after I unlocked them for their strong melee and large HP pool. The tech adept has 4 unique tech trees to invest points into, all that unlock options for his summons or make them stronger. Being able to summon multiple separate minions, and change their abilities and loadout was very different, and adds a raft of diverse combat possibilities as well as new upgrades and equipment to try. While each mission is set to your current level the tech priest character will finish the campaign at quite a few level lower than what the other classes will, as it misses the content and missions from Martyr. This leaves you having to grind out more random missions for XP afterword’s if trying to max out your character. I liked how the 3 ordos chapters now have unique weekly missions that add a 3 new item shops for you to access, all which have end game content that you can unlock.

Prophecy uses the same engine as Martyr, so all the existing pro and cons are still there (I didn’t play pre 2.0 patch, but I like what currently implemented). I liked the desert worlds (more options are always good), but they are just a new tile set. Both of the new races matched their background, and it was good to see the Tyranids units actually match the in universe lore by being far larger than basic characters and not defaulting all synapse bosses to being a hive tyrant. The Eldar for a dying race seem quite happy the rush into combat and die, but their units are well represented. Void missions have now been expanded (these act as mini campaigns that get harder as you play and usually drop a lot of end game content if completed), with there being 7 types of them now.

The tech adept has the same stilted speech and computer-like thinking as the tech priest your rescue in Martyr, which fits the setting and character well. I found the many in game joke well done, though they might be lost on those that don’t know a lot of the 40K background. I couldn’t advise if new music tracks were added, but it still fits the setting perfectly and I thought was quite good.

All of the existing DLC is available in both Martyr and Prophecy, and the only question you have to ask yourself is do you want to save up in game and purchase it, or pay a few $ to have it available straight away. Personally I would advise against paying for any of the DLC except for the City of Pain and Maelstrom of Carnage as they offer very decent rewards for completing and can help you get good equipment quicker/early game. The rest can be unlocked in game (with enough glory), and all of the mini campaigns are relatively short (3-4 missions and they finish)

Getting 100% achievements for Prophecy is quite easy, as none of the achievements are hard to unlock. If you are playing through launching Martyr however, this will add an additional run to your list (and the achievements don’t sync across games).

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Everspace is a rogue-lite space combat flight simulator that was released in 2017, with a heavy emphasis on exploration, resource gathering and ship customisation as you push further towards an unknown destination. Imagine the best bits of FreeLancer’s combat, with the added elements resource management, persistent upgrades and stunning backdrops. It’s very good, and you don’t already own it you should pick it up.

You play as an amnesiac space pilot who knows he is on the run, but doesn’t know why or who from. You do remember how to pilot your ship however, and with the help of the HIVE AI that’s installed on your ship you manage to set off into space, with only the barest idea of where you have to head to. While the concept has been done to death in other games Everspace really delivers. The plot is filled in pretty quickly as you make progress, and the story is actually very good once you get past the 3 first sectors (it really starts to come together). Most of the story is explained via short movies that play in between sectors or in game events. I thought I would be done with it once I finished one run, but there are enough side missions, collectables, and areas to investigate that replayability is very high.

Combat is very good and very responsive, and usually consists of short dogfights (depending on the ship you choose). Even better are the 3 way fights between enemies, where you can hang back to pick off stragglers, or dive headfirst to save a friendly ship. There are situations where you are overwhelmed, and this is where use of consumables, secondary weapons and installed modes will make all the difference. While there isn’t a vast difference in enemies and types (all have shields and hp that vary) the variety of weapons and mods they come equipped makes up for it). There are larger capital ships that might appear and put a serious dent in your plans (and require different strategies to deal with), but the rewards for dealing with them are worthwhile. Ships also have other unique systems (like life support) so if you lose your shields there is a greater chance that something critical might go as well -there’s nothing worse than having both weapons systems offline but it’s great watching enemy ships vent their oxygen into space. You have a vast array of primary and secondary weapons to choose from, all which have different ranges, shield and hull damage and energy consumption.

Death is an integral part of Everspace- you are expected to die and die quite often in the beginning. Unlike other games death usually makes you stronger- while you lose everything you have collected (weapons, materials, consumables) money, blueprints and alien glyphs carry over). These allow you to purchase permanent upgrades to both your character and ship, or eventually purchase different types of ships which should make future runs much easier or align to a particular style of play. You aren’t shoehorned into playing a “white knight” character, you are free to raid and pillage neutral ships as much as you want, with the risk that they might call in reinforcements or be hostile to you in future zones.

There is a great deal of customisation available, and while the starting options are low, once you have played a few times the upgrades start rolling in and you have many more options. You can change ship, ship colours, buffs and debuffs and customisations before you start your run, along with the starting ship load out and game difficulty. These are committed until your next death, but everything else can be changed on the fly as long as you have the credits or materials. The upgrade tree is very good, with a ton of options for both pilot perks (these stay with you no matter what ship you use), or ship upgrades (which are ship dependant. All upgrades are useful, though some are situational all help in the long run.

Visually the game is stunning, with a large array of environments you traverse. While most of space should be empty, you are always in areas that have something of interest, from asteroid belts, alien structures, mining platforms and wreckages from the past war. You can change your view at any time (from first person, cockpit and third person), And the game has a photograph mode which removes the hud some so you can just take snapshots of the scenery and action as its unfolding. The background music tracks are also very good, and while they don’t take centre stage they fit the game excellently. The few characters that you do come across are voiced really well, and add something extra to the game.

I would highly recommend getting the Encounters DLC as it adds 2 extra ships, a few extra weapons and consumables to the game. The biggest addition is the added side missions, which increase your initial credit income quite quickly so you can purchase more upgrades earlier. The missions then selves are vastly different, from bounty hunting, procuring resources or items, scanning creatures or just offering a helping hand.

If you are chasing 100% achievements, then there are much easier games to play. Everspace requires you to finish a run on hardcore mode, which is basically a fresh run with no upgrades and 1 life. Since every stage is random this will all rely on skill and a lot of luck. Otherwise, it just requires lots of runs to progress missions and unlock upgrades.

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DARK is a Vampire based stealth game released in 2013 that aspires to be like a lot of the other great stealth games out there, but doesn’t met those ambitions. The game itself is average, but seems to be bug free and actually has a working stealth system, even if its basic (I’ve seen AAA game make stealth sections worse than how its portrayed in this game). Even on hard it’s not difficult, but if you want a relatively short and easy stealth game to play this might be the game for you (only pickup if on sale). If you want great story, RPG choices, in game lore, graphics, replayability or voice acting then look elsewhere.

The box art claims it to be a successor to Vampire: The masquerade – Bloodlines, and it shared some similarities, you are a vampire and can upgrade skills. Apart from that and a gothic nightclub that’s about all the games share in common. If you want a great vampire game, play Vampire: The masquerade – Bloodlines or Skyrim. If you want a great stealth game, play Thief, Deus Ex, Hitman, Metal Gear Solid 5 or any of the Styx games. I was tempted to give the game a thumbs down for the bad marketing alone, but decided to be a bit more fair.

You play as Eric Bane, a freshly sired half-blood vampire, who will devolve into a ghoul if he doesn’t receive some blood of the vampire who sired him. Missions take place around the city, with you stalking powerful vampires for their blood, helped by a nightclub full of weaker vampires who help point you in the right direction. There isn’t too much story, with most of the story coming from PDA’s that you collect around the stages, a few short movies that play in between stages and from wandering around the nightclub in between missions.

Gameplay is purely stealth based. Getting into combat usually leaves you restarting from your last save, and if you don’t hide a body the guards will be constantly re-alerted by it, making progress much harder. The AI isn’t smart at all, guards won’t notice missing personnel, and you can dump a body in view of a camera and nothing will happen. Your character starts off like a bull in a china shop, nearly everything you do makes noise and guards while being nearly blind will investigate noise and will usually find you before you can remove them. Killing enemies and progressing through areas without setting off any alarms awards you exp, which allows you to upgrade passive and active skills. While there a good amount of skills to choose from, only a few are actually essential (the stealth ones, blood power capacity and shadow grip). Maxing these out makes the game much easier to play, and with some skills removing bodies for you, you become a grim reaper by mid game, with the enemies never catching up. The earlier missions are much harder because of this, but exp is handed out freely, I ended up with a lot of spare points I couldn’t invest in as I had maxed all skills out. You are alerted when a guard can see you, but the cover system is very generous, the guards need to see you directly to be alerted, and as long as you are hiding you can be right next to them. The game has overloaded on the purple, I’m not sure if this was a nod to Saints Row but it is overused, from the neon club lights, menu and vampire vision. The vampire vision was cool, highlighting collectables and slowing down time (all voices sound the same when slowed down, so I don’t know if it’s the same sound effects that are played or if that’s what the vocal tracks would actually sound like at that speed).

The early stages and boss fights are mostly well thought out, with you being able to zip around different levels to get the jump on guards while moving onto new areas. The later stages do devolve into a corridor simulator, and there is some reuse of the same areas. The Vlad boss fight was good, with him moving between platforms making getting the jump on him hard while dodging the enemies throughout the stage. The end boss was pitiful in comparison (it doesn’t force you to use skills you haven’t invested in like Deus Ex), but it was extremely simple and I was disappointed by it.

The character animations are slightly janky, and there aren’t very many models for enemies in the game. It makes remembering what each enemy can do easy, but completely invalidates the ability of seeing enemy weapons. A few more types of enemies would have been nice to add variety. There’s also something wrong with Eric’s hands, he looks like he’s in a constant state of trying to strangle someone. When the models aren’t super detailed or available in 4K I didn’t notice any graphics clipping or characters poking through walls. All the objects are fixed in place (you can’t destroy environments and the best you can do to hide bodies is drag it behind a desk or tree).

The audio tracks could have used some more polish. Large parts of the dialogue seem like they have been read directly off a sheet with little pause between sentences, this is especially true with the in game narration in the animated cut scenes. Other parts sound normal, but its jarring when it flicks between sounding normal and then without pause. It’s one of the only games where more care seems to have been put into the standard guard’s/human enemies that patrol the stages rather than the major characters that develop the story. The background sound tracks were ok, and the one track that repeats in the nightclub was good.

The game doesn’t offer much replayability. The base game on hard doesn’t really offer a challenge, so 99% of the things you can do will be achieved in the first game. If there were any secrets that were missed, then chapter select lets you pick them up straight away. There is a challenge mode which depending on which stage is selected can take a while to work out the correct order in which to take out the enemies in the time limit. There isn’t a way to re-read the story PDA’s that you pickup (or advise you if you have missed any), and I encountered a weird double click that would close down the PDA I just picked up, forcing me to re-load before I picked up the PDA so see what I had missed.

The game is fairly easy to gain 100% achievements for. The hardest thing to accomplish is beating the first act in 20 mins, but since you can shadow jump pass most guards with the right upgrades life becomes very easy after the first section.

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Northgard is a Viking based (RTS) that was released in 2017 and has a different take on the usual RTS formula. It plays very much like a settler’s game, where the objective is to capture territory, manage your ever growing economy and expand your army to crush your opponents. Northgard ticks all of the above boxes, but does it in a way that is completely different to settlers and makes the game much more enjoyable and fast paced. I recommend this is you like RTS games that take a little while to play and that have rounds that aren’t over in 15 mins.

You control one of several Viking clans, each with their own unique bonuses and upgrade paths. Each section of the map can only be revealed by scouts, and territory is captured by spending food instead of building towers to expand influence. Each block of land can only hold a few building forcing you to select what is most urgent or will provide the biggest bonus. Some tiles have unique resources like food which can be harvested indefinitely (and the resources that do run out on the map can be purchased at the store). Food and wood are your primary resources, as without them everyone gets sick and dies. Winter plays havoc with your economy as the gathering rate decreases dramatically while consumption increases. The most important thing in the game is managing the economy correctly. Running out of a resource causes everything to grind to a halt, and it usually takes a long time or a lot of deaths to get things back on track. Villager happiness also plays a large part in the economy, as happiness directly speeds up new villager spawn rates, and an unhappy village won’t produce any while decreasing production. This would be the game’s most visible flaw, as the unhappiness isn’t explained very well when things are going well.

There is a robust upgrade system- “lore” upgrades can be researched, some of which are unique to each clan, and can usually be split between improving military strength, resource production or village happiness. You have the freedom to pick which suits your playstyle. Each building can be directly upgraded which increases the resources it produces and the villagers it can hold. There are also 3 military paths which you can select from to buff aspects of your army (warlord stats, defensive army bonuses or attacking bonuses).

Victory can be achieved in many different ways, through destroying enemies home bases, trade, lore(science), fame or unique map events. Quite often it’s easier to quietly work on the victory conditions rather than force unneeded battles, as taking land isn’t a super easy task, requiring a largish army (12 units) to make sure your victory is ensured.

The game comes with a few different modes to play in, with the story mode following Rig as he sets out on a tale of revenge. It’s quite good and introduces you to all the base clans as well as contains a fair few unique winning conditions that you won’t find outside this mode. Conquest mode sets up 11 fights where you can choose the benefits going into the remaining fights, so you slowly get more powerful as the missions get harder. The AI cheats, but since this mode isn’t meant to be easy it’s not really a concern. Solo play are singular fights, where each map is randomly generated and you fight agonist whatever conditions are set, you can have no enemies if you wish just to learn the tribe you are playing with.

There is multiplayer as well, but didn’t give this ago.

Other than the story mode all maps are random, including creeps that might help or hinder you, unique bonuses, and strategic resources. There have been a fair few updates since the game was released which have added lots of different effects to tiles and game modes.

I loved the art style of the game, it looks a lot like torchlight with all of the characters, buildings and environments being detailed enough without being needlessly complex. Most of the different clans share majority of the same buildings, and a quick mouse over explains what it does in case you need help remembering. The environments never seem cluttered even when there is a lot happening. The UI just seems to contain enough info without being distracting.

The music was pretty good, though I think it could have used some sort of increase in tempo when getting close to winning/losing objectives. You don’t tend to notice what’s happening with them unless you constantly check.

The different DLC are different clans that your purchase. All of these play differently from the base clans, with some bringing big changes in how they recruit soldiers, actions their warlords can take and how they expand territory. You will play against them often in conquest and singular modes so you can have a basic idea on how they function and if you think they look interesting enough to purchase. They are all required if you are going for 100% achievements.

If you are wanting to earn 100% achievements, you are going to have to play a lot of games with each clan, purchase all the DLC and finish most of the different modes on very hard. You would have to be very good at speed running battles or have a lot of time to sink into the game to achieve this.

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