Recent reviews by RadroachRudy

Ok guys I give up!! I am not going to be able to finish this game in any kind of reasonable amount of time to write up a review. I still hope to finish it when I am able but this game is super difficult and it is taking me forever to progress. This was my first ever review copy kindly given to me by the developers straight out of my hometown Aggressive Combustion, and I was very impressed by the hard work on level design by the co-developers. I have also seen video and pics from levels that look very impressive that I haven’t even made it to yet. Hopefully I will make it through to see those for myself but man do I suck at this game. Every time I thought I was getting the hang of it I would hit a snag and take forever just to pass one level.

Anyways, enough complaining about how bad I suck at video games, let’s get to the meat of this very entertaining and innovative game. I would like to mention that it is available on many different platforms and I think the mobile version would be a fantastic way to play. The platform my copy was for was Steam so that is where I did all of my playing besides a little bit on the iOS version just to check it out. The game is like a mash up between Angry Birds and Super Meat Boy, and it definitely draws inspiration from the difficulty of Super Meat Boy. Also check out my Let’s Play on my YouTube channel, which should have more installments added in the future. Project MALLOW Let’s Plays! Also be sure to check out my Facebook and Instagram pages where I have plenty of awesome screenshots from the game.

So it derives more than just it’s difficulty from Super Meat Boy, the art style has a likeness to Mr. McMillen’s game as well. The part that you could attribute to Angry Birds inspiration is the way that you get your little marshmallow fella around. You point and click in the direction that you want to shoot him towards and he sticks to solid platforms. You have to hold your click down to determine how far he will go and this is what makes it resemble Angry Birds in a way although the overall mechanic is quite different. The story is secondary to the intriguing and quite addicting gameplay but you are journeying through a candy factory called Paragon Confections. You uncover tapes that play recordings of a seemingly unhinged worker or owner of sorts from the company. It is apparent that the guys at Aggressive Combustion have a great sense of humor because a few of these really cracked me up.

To read the rest of the review please go to this link, https://sublimereviews.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/project-mallow/ and check out the rest of my blog while you are there!

Also check out my Let’s Plays Of Project MALLOW on my YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDqaMlAc_tc0h8EhblDv8jHqwrcuY1Xf9

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I also contribute at http://www.thewellredmage.com as the Midnight Mystic Mage

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for all of my Let's Plays and more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6DkRKURAREGW6WqsNXp4w

I heard about Guacamelee when Donald Mustard was on the IGN Unfiltered podcast with Ryan McCaffrey. I had just finished Shadow Complex for the first time and was thirsty for another game in the same vein. Guacamelee delivered on this note and then some. It's one of my favorite platformers I have ever played, and there is just so much it does right. You play as Juan, an aspiring and then realized Luchador, who has to save the girl and save the world. It is set in Mexico during the Dia De Los Muertos festivities and does a great job setting the scene. 

I played the Gold edition, before finding out that Super Turbo Championship edition is about the same thing but a little newer and polished. This is info I wish I knew beforehand, but I loved the game so much that I am sure I will make time in the future to run through the newer edition. You can play co op, although I never did personally during my playthrough. If you had someone dedicated to play I can see how it would be very helpful in some situations. There are tons of great character skins for the Gold edition (Nacho Libre, Shovel Knight, The Tick, etc.) and I did see a thread on steam about how to transfer them over to Super Turbo Championship Edition, if you are wishing you had all your great old skins for the new version.

So in my books for what it's worth, Guacamelee is one of the best at what it does all time. It's difficult (prepare to rage quit), it's got a story that draws you in, it has layers of functionality in the controller scheme, and it ties all of this together in a way that just really works and keeps you hooked until the end. I remember thinking while playing the second to last boss, "there's no way it can get harder than that". I was certainly wron about that, but it doesn't push you away to the point that it seems Unreachable, you get better and it runs very smoothly when you get your pacing. 



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Day of the Tentacle (originally released in 1993) is a game that I had not played before this remastered version. However the beautiful animation that was almost like a 90’s cartoon come to life and the silly humor were more than enough to keep me hooked from beginning to end. I’ll come right out and say it, I had to use a walkthrough for this game. Some of the puzzles were incredibly tough and I have no shame in throwing that out there. It did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the game though, in fact I liked it so much that I have changed my laptop wallpaper to the one offered by the official site for the game.

I think The Well-Red Mage said it best when he described the humor in this game as “Dad Jokes”. They make you laugh and cringe at the same time, which is not the type of humor everybody is into so be aware that things do get quite a bit cheesy.

So onto the game, you play as a group of three that find themselves in quite the perilous situations. Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne are palling around with a bit of a mad scientist named Dr. Fred Edison. This lands them a trip in the time machine to three separate destinations (one of which being the present) and from there it is time to point and click adventure your way back to the present day with all characters and defeat the tentacle foes!

So what is it with these tentacles? Well there is an evil purple tentacle and a chill green tentacle who wants nothing to do with Purple’s world domination plot. Green calls in a favor to Bernard to stop Dr. Fred from putting him down along with Purple, thus allowing Purple to escape and getting the lot of them into the whole situation.

Day of the Tentacle is the sequel to Maniac Mansion, a game that I haven’t played through entirely but I really enjoyed the bit that I did play. The amazing part about my time playing Maniac Mansion? It happened right there on Day of the Tentacle Remastered!

The full game is available on an in-game computer and I was hooked all the way until I got very stuck and decided I should get back to the main game. I am not sure if this was a feature in the original before the remaster, but I thought that was an incredible addition to the game. I actually didn’t even know that Day of the Tentacle was a sequel at all until doing some research after completing the game. I did notice the subtle similarities between the games and assumed there had to be some sort of connection between the two.

There is some really cool functionality with the three characters being in different times in Day of the Tentacle, you are able to send objects back and forth between the times as you desire and objects you get in one time may be necessary to move on in the other. Hoagie finds himself back in colonial times with the nation’s founding fathers among other characters and figures, Bernard is in the present with Dr. Fred, and Laverne is in the dystopian future with the tentacle overlords. It is easy to swap back and forth between the three by a simple click on the picture of the character in your items menu....



To read the full review please visit here https://thewellredmage.com/2017/09/05/day-of-the-tentacle-remastered/

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"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."
-Audrey Hepburn


**Contains Spoilers**

Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa) was a beautiful and informative 2D platformer with a two character system that has you swapping between the fox and the girl to achieve different tasks. This could be done with two players and I honestly think that would make the experience more enjoyable because at times you have to swap very quickly and move the characters a bit far to get through different obstacles. This would be much more seamless with a second player taking care of the different tasks while you focus on the tasks of one.

It does a great job teaching you all about the culture of the indigenous people of Alaska, the Inupiaq. It swaps back and forth between gameplay and live action video of people from the tribes explaining life in the brutal conditions. Learning about this lifestyle is really what kept me personally interested until the end. It was so cool to hear them talking about how they are able to hunt for food in the month of November when there is no sunlight for the entire month. This among other anecdotes from the native people was a very entertaining addition and I believe that it gave the game an extra bit of depth than it would not have had otherwise.

The young girl and the fox set off on a journey that is an old tale of folklore called Kunuuksaayuka passed down by the elders. It is traditionally a boy in the story but for the video game they decided to have the protagonist be represented as a girl. The girl comes home after being chased by a polar bear to find that her village has been burned to the ground and destroyed. She runs into a man wearing a mask who inexplicably knows who she is and asks her to retrieve a drum of his that some mischievous little guys stole from him.

After finding and returning the drum the girl is presented with the bola, which is used to open many ice covered areas in the game, and is traditionally  a weapon used for hunting. An evil man soon catches up to the girl and it becomes clear that the man was looking for the bola when he burned her village to the ground. The girl and the fox make a break for it using the new weapon to aid them in their journey moving forward.

A very beautiful section of the game comes when the girl and the fox come across the Northern Lights. A phenomenon that is clearly visible from Alaska and is tied into the gameplay in a very interesting way. They say that the Northern Lights would come down and grab the children if they ventured too far, surely as a means to keep them close to the adults and not wandering off into hostile territory. So to tie this in they made the Lights fly around the screen leaving a green trail everywhere it goes. If you come across the front of the trail where there is a face and arms pictured, you will be snatched up by the lights, just as in the old tales of the elders. An interesting touch and it made for some very beautiful level designs.

After a perilous journey, tragedy strikes and (spoiler: highlight to reveal) the fox dies after a hard fall. The girl is heartbroken but as in the title she will learn that she is never alone even when her dear friend has passed on. The spirit of the fox comes to aid her on the rest of the journey and we are taught a valuable lesson that the natives believed about the spirits of animals. From this point on the floating spirit is the second player.

This leads to a bunch of new and cool mechanics, such as obviously the flying around to any point on the screen, but there are many other things it introduces as well. The fox can awaken the spirits of the land and help by moving things to help the girl get around, such as the branches of a tree or something to get a grip while climbing up the side of a mountainous area. I wasn't sure I was going to like this change at first, but when I saw all of the different mechanics that it brought along with it I was sold. The change helps to bring a sort of new life to the game when you are starting to get a little bit burnt out on doing the same types of environmental puzzles with the two characters.

So the apparent mission of the two is to hunt down whatever might be causing the everlasting blizzard that has been plaguing all of the people. After searching long and hard and finding their way through many strange and difficult environments, they come across the answer. There is an Ice Giant that is constantly hammering away at icy mountain tops, causing the incredible snowfall and wind that has made it so hard to reach this point.

The girl notices a way to get up to the hammer of the giant and with the help of her spirit friend she climbs up and knocks it out of his hands. The two make their way to the hammer and are able to damage it so that the giant can not use it to cause the terrible blizzards anymore and the girl is immortalized as a hero to the people. It wasn't a very long game but the story is rich with culture and history, it makes for a very unique experience and the gameplay was good enough to at least keep you going as you uncover more and more about this unique sect of people who have endured such a harsh and rugged land.

 

 
Full review here https://wordpress.com/post/thewellredmage.wordpress.com/76973


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This was without a doubt one of the most disturbing & psychologically thrilling games I have had the pleasure of playing. The Lovecraftian qualities were definitely in full force with the sanity of your character changing when witnessing terrible events being the shining example. You play as Daniel, a character who as in the title, is suffering from a form of Amnesia. Right off the bat there are events that, if playing under the right conditions, will send a chill right up your spine. I tried to always be playing in a peaceful environment with headphones to really get the full terrifying effect.

As pictured above, you will find notes in various areas that will begin to help you piece together what exactly you are there to do and how it was that you got there. The feeling of being unsure about these things while also having to make your way through such a spooky setting is something that was very new to me and was pulled off very well.

Amnesia does not let you get settled, when you are about to get used to the way that it is scaring you, it changes tactics and grabs you right back in the clutches of fear. I honestly had points where I had to take a sanity break for my self the same way that you have to dodge, run, and take one for Daniel if you wish to pass on to the next stage. Speaking of the sanity in the game, it is a genuinely weird feeling the first time that Daniel starts to lose it. The walls begin to appear to move, the noises become more violent and terrifying, it even goes as far as to break the third wall and make you believe that you have actual cockroaches crawling across your computer screen. Sure this trick is one that will only work once and you know whats going on when it happens again in the game, but I seriously jumped back from my screen the first time to inspect it because of how immersed I was in the moment.

I will try to stay out of any kind of spoiler territory because it is obviously a main part in playing the game to find out what exactly is this guy's story, but some of the things that come to light about himself and the others that you are seeking in the castle are absolutely cringe-worthy. As you could see in the note to himself above, Daniel is on a mission to find and kill Alexander, who by all accounts is a dastardly man and deserves every bit of whats coming to him. There are very few actual characters though that you are able to interact with or have any kind of interaction with for that matter. You will spend most of the game exploring your surroundings and hiding from the monsters who are possibly a result of the evil Alexander and his unspeakable experiments and schemes.

I mentioned how immersed I was and how there was no getting used to the way the scares are coming at you. This was very true for most of the game, I would like to point out though that towards the end there are a few puzzles that are just head-poundingly difficult to figure out and that did break the immersion for me and cause what I felt to be a break in the suspense. Usually throughout the game I had no trouble figuring out what I needed to do to advance and stay fully in the game mentally, but they really cranked it up a few notches toward the end and I felt it to be more hurtful to the experience than helpful.

There was a ton of great reading in the different books and pages you find that I seriously enjoyed. The writing was incredible and such a creative story, I found this to be one of the parts of the game that was really top notch. I also really enjoyed the fact that it was more about the exploration of the truly macabre areas and atmosphere while hiding and outsmarting the enemy, rather than running up guns blazing and taking down as many monsters as possible. I have never found the latter to be a truly scary way to approach a game, but I admit this could be due to never playing the right game that is in that vein. One of the most memorable moments of the game, and indeed one that will be hard to forget even if I wanted to, was the first time that you see the Shadow.

The Shadow follows Daniel, I wasn't very sure what it was the first time I saw it. I was very aware however, that the walls were pulsing alive and that they were trying to hurt me. *Sanity Break!!*. I won't get too far into why the shadow follows Daniel, or where it comes from. You can see from the picture above and the description though that it can be at times highly disturbing and hard to make your way through. When you get to a section that you are both being chased by a monster and surrounded by the Shadow, a padded cell with a nice warm jacket begins to sound nicer and nicer by comparison.

The developers Frictional Games have had their hands on all of the Amnesia games, the Penumbra collection, & the newest and critically well-received Soma. After experiencing The Dark Descent I definitely plan on giving these other games a whirl when I am able to. Another great feature that I have not yet given a chance was the custom story mode. After taking a second to look through some of the game mods that have been made with this feature, it is definitely something that I will need to look into. There are some very fun looking fan-made expansions thanks to this mod friendly feature.

For the rest of this review please visit http://www.sublimegamereviews.wordpress.com or http://www.thewellredmage.wordpress.com and give both pages a follow on twitter @SublimeReviews & @TheWellRedMage

I wanted to wait until I finished upgrading my house, marrying, & having kids before doing a review. I have nominated this game for a Steam Award though and one of the challenges with that is writing a review. I have nominated it for the category that was obvious for me, the "Just 5 More Minutes Award". Everybody can nominate their favorite games, so I definitely recommend that you go and give your favorites a vote! This game is so addicting, I've read some reviews and blogs and I agree that one of the main contributing factors is the day and night cycle. Getting to the end of a day and seeing all the gold you have racked up by harvesting, crafting, mining, or fishing, really makes you want to press on and accomplish more of your goals the next day. You might say, well you could just save whenever you want right? No that is the beauty in the design choice that keeps you hooked. The only way to save is to get to the end of the day and go to sleep. So "Just 5 More Minutes" is really more like "Just 20 or 30 More Minutes" in reality.

I love the pixel graphics, it doesn't do it for some, but I have always found this style to be pleasing. This really is a beautiful pixelated game too, it is top notch in the category for sure. One of the most amazing things about Stardew Valley is that it was created by one man. His developer name is ConcernedApe and his real name is Eric Barone. He worked on Stardew Valley 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still managed to work part time at a movie theater as an usher. All of that was kept up for 4 years and the result of his dedication is one of the most amazing stories of 2016. This game has been topping the charts on Steam and is coming to other platforms. Barone has been keeping up with fixing bugs, crashes, & other general problems better than many large companies. It is so expansive and detailed that it is hard to wrap your mind around it being made by just one guy.

So let's get to the story, you inherit a farm from your grandfather who gives you the deed and a letter but tells you not to open it until life starts breaking you down. Working for the Joja corporation you begin to tire of the daily grind and realize the gift you have received. Once you arrive to Pelican Town in Stardew Valley you have your work cut out for you on a sizable chunk of farmland. This game definitely takes inspiration from a number of predecessors. The most obvious one is Harvest Moon, there is also some hints of Animal Crossing, early Zelda games, and from what I hear Terraria because of the amazing crafting elements. Crafting is definitely one of my favorite aspect in the game. You keep the wood, sap, rocks, minerals, etc, and create different fertilizers and machines that aid you in your journey and make your crops more profitable.

There are so many different ways to build up your farm and character, while making the money you need to sustain your current ventures. The fishing mini game is notoriously difficult at first but seriously fun when you get into a groove with it and get it down. The mines have monsters that you fight off with swords and recover items from, while you collect the precious ores that you use to craft items and upgrade your tools. It may sound silly but even just clearing land and preparing your crops can be loads of fun if you are in the mood for it. I have gotten to the point now that I just craft sprinklers to sustain what plants I can and focus more on the villagers, fishing, and mining. The great thing though is I can always change that if I tire of those things and switch to another set of daily tasks to get more fulfillment. All these tasks do drain your energy, and in the case of the fights in the mines, your health. There are several options to help restore these two meters. You can eat food that you find, buy, cook, or are gifted by other villagers. You can craft potions once you level up to a certain point, out of mushrooms and other items. You can also take a trip to the spa for some quick relaxation that helps get you back in working shape. Of course the other option is to just go ahead and crash out and give it another go the next day.

One thing I kind of glossed over but is an awesome feature that was done very well in my opinion, is the relationships. You build bonds with the townspeople by talking to them and giving them gifts that they like. You can also complete quests for them from the town bulletin board that is in front of Pierre's the local store. You can go in blind and play the guessing game with gifts until you find out what they really like, or you can go to one of the wikis or walk throughs to see what it is that person you have an eye out for really loves. There are some really neat cut scenes the further you get along with a character. It also takes a great direction towards sexuality. You can romance and be married to anybody you like that is single, regardless of gender. If a couple of two men or two women marry they are able to have children through adoption. I was worried they would be excluded from children or have them show up unexplained, but this was a great step to work that out. A new feature in the game is also digital divorce. This was added with a plethora of other features such as being able to move barn buildings after having them built, and an awesome line up of starting farms to choose from. Such as one with better mining, fishing, or foraging opportunities, or one where the monsters come out at night and you have to be prepared for battle.

Events are another great strongpoint in Stardew Valley. They have activities such as fishing competitions or mini games, all of the townspeople get together, & there are usually items that you can get that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. I also would like to mention the awesome little museum right next to the blacksmith that you are able to bring your treasures to that you find while out mining and foraging. This makes for an great display of your finds and you are rewarded for the items you bring in. The library that it is connected to I thought was a very clever way to give tips and hints. You dig up lost library books while foraging under what appears to be a few little worms or something, then they appear for you to read at your leisure with the rest of them. There are a lot of little touches like that which give Stardew a great sense of care and personality.

There are some features I would like to see added. It is hard to find people (even though they do follow strict habits that you can figure out over time). I feel like this could be fixed with a little gps dot on the map showing the people's locations, it would help especially with the tasks from the bulletin board that need to be completed within a couple of days having to do with people you don't usually follow around, so don't know their habits. I do also see how this could go against the feel of the game, it is very wholesome and everything is done the old fashioned way, but it is just a thought. I've gotten to the point where I can craft warp totems with resources for a single use to the beach or the mountains. This is a good feature for how big the map is with such little time, but I would have liked to see a larger permanent option, possibly from Robin the carpenter. It could cost a ton of money and resources and it would be totally worth it. One more small suggestion would be a little more depth with conversation, such as more times that you are able to choose what to say to the person and having that effect future conversations, or more times that you can play mini games with the person. These are just some thoughts after putting a good amount of time into the game, but I still really think that it is a nearly perfect game, and such an amazing accomplishment for one man.


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Alright let's talk about Prison Tycoon, excuse me, Prison Architect. I love this game! It has all the functionality of any of your favorite simulator games (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City, Surgeon Simulator, no wait not that one), and it introduces you into the style of play in a really clever campaign. Choose what kind of prison you want to run. Do you want to treat prisoners very well so that they don't act out, or use excessive force to ensure that if they do act out they will be quickly dealt with. I tend to try and make their stay more enjoyable by adding TV's in their cell, arcade machines in the yard, and pool tables as well. I'm still learning though, it takes some getting used to getting all of the necessities set up. All prisoners must be fed, showered, & rested.

The campaign was a very interesting way to teach you how the prison system functions. It shows you how to put out fires, how to deal with riots, and building your infirmary etc. It does this by having you play through small story based situations that integrate the mechanics, I feel like this makes it much more enjoyable and helps it stick with you better. For example there is one where the Mafia Don is hurt in a fire so you have to set up an infirmary after calling the firemen to extinguish the flames. So as you can see they take you through multiple facets of the game while entertaining you at the same time. After you finish all of the stages of the campaign you are off on your own! Time to start the journey into building and maintaining your very own prison.

To acces different abilities and objects you have to lobby with the Bureaucracy feature. This is where you gain acces to things like having armed guards, guards with dogs, or any kind of education program. You also have to make sure that the energy and water are all running and properly supplied. If there are not enough generators or capacitors the power can shut off. The prisoners have levels of satisfaction that you can check at any time. There are the basics such as food, or the more complex needs like spirituality and education. Not meeting your prisoners needs will definitely lead to a riot, but there are needs that are more necessary and important than others. Obviously letting your prisoners go without food is the fastest way to have them start a

I am still having a great time with Prison Architect. It is one of those games that you can keep playing forever, building your Prison up, selling it off and starting over to build it bigger and bigger. I have really enjoyed the experience and highly recommend it to any fans of simulation games like this.

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It is easy to see what all the hype is about after spending some time with Oxenfree. This is a beautiful game that does its storytelling in a way that is totally different from any other experience that is available. You could liken the short amount of time given to pick an answer and the statistics of how many players chose how you have to telltale games, but there is about where the similarities end. This game delivers a totally fresh experience, matched with a magical story, and has proven to me that it well deserves the game of the year talk that it is getting in many circles.


You play as Alex, a troubled teen with a rough past. She and her friends are visiting an island to have a celebration for their school homecoming, or prom, or one of those things where kids dress up and do PDA. Things get seriously strange as the game winds on though. At times it can be genuinely creepy. Alex brings her new step brother Jonas who rides with her and her best friend Ren. They meet up on the island with Ren's crush Nona & the obscene Clarissa. As this game allows you to choose how the story progresses I'm sure there are different ways to get there, but after they meet up on that beach things take a turn that they could have never seen coming.


I don't want to get too far into spoiler territory, but it is definitely a supernatural tale. There are these time warps and even some looks into a sort of multiverse straight out of some quantum theory level ♥♥♥♥. It gets deep, and it is super entertaining the entire way through. I eagerly looked forward to advancing the story each night and was very pleased with each stage of it. It was a short game, but chock full of detail and not so short that it felt cut off or half baked. The story and the game feel complete and the experience was amazing.


There are some side quest type things that involve picking up letters from a woman who had been through the same horrors as our group of friends before. There were also supposed to be messages left at certain points on the map via the radio frequency that is used so often to channel different things and unlock doors at certain areas. I was too enthralled with the main story to find these messages, but I did come across some of the letters. I plan to run back through and check these out, but they are not necessary to complete the game. I think this was a great feature to add so that people will take the time to run back through another couple of times and make sure they see all sides of the game. I'm sure there are many different outcomes with the characters and their relationships that could be revealed with more run throughs of the game.


So if you have been on the fence you should definitely give it a look. This game is top notch, and for fans of a great story that makes you think, it is probably the best of the year. I heard high praise from Marty Sliva at IGN and was very intrigued by the concept. For what it sets out to do Oxenfree is unmatched by any game that I have had the pleasure of playing, it is a gorgeous cinematic experience and an emotional ride. The fact that such a great piece of work was put out by an independent studio is nothing less than inspiring, and it affirms my love for what only indie games can do. What they may lack in high budget bad assery, they make up for in heart and witty concepts. Oxenfree is a shining example of this and I definitely hope you are able to check it out if you haven't already.


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The best word I could use to describe The Banner Saga would be, Bleak. I enjoyed my time playing it, but it is like The Road of turn based tactical games. This is much more true the further into the story you get. Times are hard, and that is the point of the game. You have to press on through situations that leave you feeling as if you are just barely hanging on. Pushing through the hardships of traveling to outrun the oncoming scourge that is leaving cities destroyed and people slain in its path.



The tactics system was put together very well and I loved the art direction. In battle you have the Varl who are larger and take up more tiles on the board, your archers, your spearsman, and menders which are like a mage. Each person has a different skill set with different powers and you are able to schedule their turns accordingly. Keeping the big bulky fighters out front to protect the archers and menders. Their is also a shield mechanic that causes less damage to be done the higher the number is. When attacking you can choose to attack the shield or the HP. There are also some special attacks that allow you to damage both. This was an interesting direction to take and I thought it worked really well with the rest of the system.


The story has many different routes that can be taken. Some options will lead to more desolate routes while others can keep your caravan full of mead and enjoying themselves on the road. Some choices can kill members of your crew off for good, so be sure to choose wisely if there are characters you highly value. I enjoyed this element of the game very much and loved reading through the dialogue. You jump between different stories following Rook, the cover character, & Hakon the Varl. It gives you a good look into the lives of the different types of characters in this world that you are traveling through.


While heading out onto the road you have to ensure that your caravan is packed with supplies and well rested. You can make camp at any point while on the road and rest your soldiers, train, or level up your heroes using renown. You can do all of these things when in town as well, and only in town can you restock your supplies. That is, unless you are lucky in your journey and run into one of many different opportunities to refill your wagons by honest or dishonest means. You need to stay on top of things in order to keep up the morale of the caravan, and trust me that gets harder and harder on this long and arduous journey. Resting, winning, & having supplies should do the trick, but at times that's easier said than done. If you do run out of supplies, be prepared to start losing clansmen & fighters by the day.


So although times get dark and the losses get heavy, The Banner Saga shines through with a triumphant story and terrific gameplay. It is all tied together with a very powerful ending aided by some amazing storytelling that I found to be very creative. I played on PC but it is available on all types of platforms. Xbox One, PS4, & mobile to name a few. So there you have it! There is no excuse to not check out The Banner Saga at some point in time, you can even play it on the bus, at jury duty, or while drunkenly perching on top of your roof while the neighbors call the police.


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Brütal Legend is Jack Black's open world, Metal Apocalypse, video game. His finger prints are definitely all over it which I was glad to see. He plays the main character who is a roadie, wielding his guitar as a ranged weapon and his literal axe as his melee weapon. It was a very entertaining game, I loved the voice acting and cut scenes. His humor comes through in a great way and in my opinion was the shining feature of the game.



There were some different styles of gameplay incorporated. In the main campaign there are some battles that turn into an RTS type of showdown. I was surprised by this at first but it actually played pretty well. I do have my problems with some of the gameplay though. The traversal was something that just didn't really feel all that great to me. The handling of the car wasn't so good and you would have to drive it in narrow places at times and that became very frustrating. I also thought they could have done a better job of incorporating combos in the hand to hand combat, it just didn't have that type of connected feeling where you could string together a bunch of attacks and counters.



Those beefs aside I did enjoy many different features in the game. You play guitar riffs, in a way that I thought was reminiscent of Ocarina of Time, to accomplish different tasks. You can pump up your army in the RTS mode, summon your car, or melt the faces off of your foes with a wicked solo. They also have a pretty sick upgrading system for your character and car that is introduced and run by someone that you might find familiar.



There were some really cool little legends that you can listen too that sound like some kind of Metal Mythology. I thought this was a nice touch and it gives some background to the strange land you find yourself wondering. All in all it was a very Jack Black game, and I totally enjoyed it and was glad to have given it a shot. It didn't strike me when it first released as something for me, but the almighty power of the Steam Summer sale made me reconsider. It proved itself to me as a legit video game and not just some celebrity endorsed junk.



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