Recent reviews by [SQUAG] Kool_Ranch_Dressing

Normally, life sucks. But since there's a new Earth Defense Force game, I can safely say that all is well with the world.

When it comes to the EDF series, I'm much like a Call of Duty player; just give me the exact same thing every time. Give me 150+ levels of arcade action, give me that awful NPC voice acting and dialogue, give me thousands of giant bugs to shoot. EDF 5 does all that and more, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Oh yeah, they finally added bug guts, so you can watch your enemies explode and spray goop all over the map.

Praey for the Gods is, on the surface, a Shadow of the Colossus clone. As someone who has been waiting for a good SOTC clone for the last decade or so, I was eager to give it a shot.

The one boss fight I was able to find was pretty good. Got to get rid of that one hit kill BS, though. I loved the enemy design and strategy needed.

Everything else is pretty unbalanced. Survival elements are poorly implemented. Your character freezes and starves fairly quickly, but healing items and firewood are few and far between, and are so rare that you WILL die very often. That is, if you aren't killed by some annoying ghost or viking zombie first. These enemies are a real pain to fight, since the only way to do damage is get in close, meaning you'll always strike each other at the same time. Theres also no explanation for why they're in the game, which makes fighting them feel tedious and pointless. Most of the time I just move on so as to not exhaust my easily breakable weapons.

There's also no clear objective or beacon, so you'll end up wandering aimlessly forever. Controls are awkward and awful. Seriously, ALT for dodging? Come on. Most sane people would assign weapon switching to the mouse wheel, not the number keys. This isn't 1996, guys.

As is, the game is pretty broken and unpolished, but there is a lot of potential waiting to be brought to the surface. Here's hoping that potential will be realized soon, and that the game doesn't languish in early access for the next 5 years.

Shoot dino

Get shot by dino

Repeat

Insert obligatory THAT’S HOW MAFIA WORKS joke here.

In my personal list of open world games I would recommend, Mafia II sits somewhere in the middle. It’s not a bad game by any means, but it certainly doesn’t aspire to greatness.

The game’s strongest selling point is its story. It’s flawed, has some elliptical moments and is packed with side characters whom you meet once before immediately forgetting their name. Despite these flaws, there is something interesting at work. Themes regarding the importance of friendship and family abound, but they’re never explored to a satisfying conclusion. The characters are mostly walking racial cliches, but some of them are still fun to get to know.

And speaking of conclusions, brace yourself for one of the most irritating endings to a story that you’ll ever see.

As an open world game, Mafia II is a bit of a sham. I say that because despite having a decent-sized city to explore, there’s really nothing to do in it. The game’s story structure is episodic, meaning that once a mission is completed, you’ll immediately be moved on to the next one, with no time at all to take a look at the world. This doesn’t matter much, though, since there are no side quests at all in the game. There’s also no fast travel option, which makes it feel as if the big city around you exists just to pad out the game time.

Vehicle handling is wonky, but manageable. Combat is much the same. Checkpoint placement is atrocious, so be prepared to re-play large chunks of missions when you get killed.

Overall though, gameplay is pretty fun and addictive. While it doesn’t quite live up to the appeal of the original, it’s still a welcome diversion.

7/10

This game is a giant mess. Yes, it has some promise. However, promise alone does not a good game make.

The gameplay largely consists of dropping or boating into battle zones and capturing certain points of the map in order to move forward. This alone is just fine, but the experience is dragged down by the game's buggy nature. While approaching a beach in your boat, for example, it is possible for you to take large amounts of damage before even hopping off of your craft. You are unable to crouch to avoid damage, or even move around. Also, the boat's gate doesn't drop until it damn well feels like it, meaning you will most likely have to wait until a second, sometimes even third, spawn before you get to storming the beach.

The dialogue is pretty repetitive, and sounds as if the lines were recorded through a tin can phone line in a basement made of aluminum. Some of the most repeated lines of dialogue consist of, but are not limited to:

ENEMY DOWN
I SEE THE ENEMY
I SEE GERMANS

And, I kid you not:

MY SANITY

Enemy and Ally AI is preposterously ludicrous. Allies will gather in easily targetable groups while attempting to capture a base, meaning that they could be easily gunned down if the encroaching Germans so felt like it. Fortunately, most of the time it would seem that they don't.

In fact, one of the most popular German pasttimes would seem to be entering a war zone and just standing completely still. The popularity of this strange group activity is only surpassed by the enemie's equally strange love of running directly into walls. This is not exclusive to the Nazis either, as allies will frequently engage in this bizarre hobby. In fact, it is not uncommon for Nazis and Allies to put aside their grievances altogether and join forces to pursue their one true passion of running directly into walls, side by side.

And if you have the misfortune to come up against a tank or two, then good damn luck to you. There are artillery weapons scattered throughout the landscape, but the lack of a reticule means that they are absolutely impossible to aim. If there's more than one tank encroaching upon you, you can hijack one and blow the other to bits. The big problem here is that your hijacked tank comes equipped with a handful of German soldiers. Yes, the Nazis will remain in the tank and just let you operate it willy nilly. They will also remain at their stations, which means that while you're shooting tanks and running over enemy soldiers, they will still be shooting up your teammates. What a mess.

There is also a survival mode, which sees you fight solo against wave after wave of up to 500 Nazis. This mode is problematic because of how long it takes to perform simple tasks such as picking up ammo or new weapons. You must press F to examine an enemy, which will open up your inventory. From here you will have to drag and drop individual weapons and ammo into your inventory. This takes so long that even the sluggish AI will have no problem shooting your rummaging ass mid-scavenge. There's also no multiplayer, which makes the impossibility of this mode that much more frustrating.

10/10

I've been waiting months for this game to come out of early access, and I have to say that the waiting has not been for nothing.

If names like John Romero, Warren Spector, 3D Realms and id are enough to set your wang to baby-making mode, then this here is the game for you.

DUSK pays homage to the genre-defining greats such as Blood, Doom and Quake with a game that focuses on run and gun gameplay, surprisingly good spooks and a barely-there plot. In short, it's good fun.

The only real con that I can think of is the fact that the over-the-top gunplay can get to be a bit much. In particular, there's a stage near the end of the game which involves fighting off wave after wave after wave after wave of enemies with absolutely no reprieve. Not only is this stage exhausting, it gets pretty damn boring.

Still, this game is definitely worth playing. Don't even bother waiting for a sale, just get it right away.

So sit down, quaff a beer, lift some soap and enjoy playing with yourself.

I was fortunate enough to have backed this game on Kickstarter. I even got to design a monster, which the party gets to battle. I donated a decent amount, and I did so because the game felt so original. Yes, the gameplay is familiar, but the character design, monster design, music and sense of humor really make it stand out from all the other Final Fantasy-esque RPGs out there. I had high expections for this game, and I have not been disappointed. The final product is nothing less than inspiring.

Orogensis is absolutely unique, and reeks of creativity. I look forward to playing more games from Samu in the future.

Every day my will to live shrinks even more.

The core gameplay is fun, but in the end I would only recommend purchasing this game during a sale for the following reasons:

I completed the game, at which point I discovered that the final achievement is bugged, and would not unlock. I decided to replay the game with my now super powerful character. I then died during the final boss fight and received a game over screen, despite the fact that I had an extra life. Since permadeath exists, this means I was sent back to the beginning of the game and lost all of my gear.

PERMADEATH IS NOT A GOOD GAMEPLAY ELEMENT. IT NEVER HAS BEEN AND IT NEVER WILL BE.

But anyway. The basic gameplay is fun. Exploring the world and discovering new areas and enemies while continuously upgrading your gear is a blast. But because of its buggy nature and permadeath nonsense, I really can't recommend it unless it's on sale.

It's a bit pricey for the relatively short playthrough, but it's definitely worth going through more than once. The game is a bizarre little project, one that I was instantly fond of. The aesthetic is great, as is the music. The spooky ambience is also excellent. I really recommend this one.