Recent reviews by Excuritas

Hedon Bloodrite takes the best of what I love about the majority of boomer shooters from my childhood and combines them in a way that is rarely seen these days. Not only does it offer hand-crafted, beautifully and thoughtfully designed levels that are a joy to explore, it also comes packed with an authentic story that is actually interesting to follow. Of course, mindlessly obliterating your enemies into bits and pieces with a wide variety of weapons is also a big part of this game, as is to be expected.

• Two episodes featuring 22 distinct missions to beat, while the second episode feels like a straight up upgrade in a lot of ways.
  
• Beautifully designed and wide open levels that invoke the urge to explore. Some of them feel a bit creepy and lonely, which further adds to the immersion.
  
• Each level also comes with a ton of secrets and an equal number of great Easter eggs.
  
• Very clever and sometimes tricky puzzles (there is no shame in looking them up if you get stuck).
  
• A lot of usable items that make you invisible, shoot faster, regenerate life etc. that can really make a difference under certain circumstances.
  
• Squad function that is allowing you to recruit certain NPC's making them follow you and fight by your side.
  
• Impressive soundtrack with diverse songs that sometimes feel melancholic and often manage to reflect the situation the character is currently going through.
  
• 5 difficulties and one additional mode turning all weapons into melee counterparts, it’s basically like playing a different class.
  
• 9 different weapons (base game) and 5 additional weapons for bearzerk (the games melee only mode/difficulty).

Without a doubt a must play for boomer-shooter fans that are not afraid of puzzles and actual story elements. It reminded me of games such as Heretic, Hexen, Strife, Arx Fatalis and Unreal and made me feel nostalgic more often than not. There is a lot to love about Hedon and I really hope that Zan will continue to work on games like this one or even a possible third episode.

Book of Demons is a hack and slash in the veins of diablo which uses a unique papercraft artstyle and a just as unique movement system, lots of enemy variety and an engaging card system which combines the usual equipment, skills and consumables in one system.

Tons of different enemy types with unique mechanics that you have to adapt to. Enemies with shields that have to be destroyed first but are vulnerable to poison, frozen or flaming enemies that have a ton of health unless you use the right element against them, stone creatures that are invulnerable when far away and jump away to harden themselves and regenerate health and many more.

Three different classes each with their own ways of playing the game and 40 unique artifacts(equipment), spellcards and consumables the so-called item cards. Play as the Warrior who is more about equipment and charging head fist into the fight or use the rogues ranged combat style who is able to take out her enemies from a far and has many tricks up on her sleeve and lastly the mage who is also a ranged fighter but his devastating spells and the ability to summon minions make him stand out.

Footstep system that shows exactly where you already explored. This is great if you want to completely explore each level, kill every last one of those pesky demons and/or collect every single gold coin possible.

A deep card system with consumables, equipment and spell cards that can be mixed and matched however you want. Find new cards ready to use or unidentified ones that have to be uncovered in town first before being able to equip them. You can upgrade them by using runes and gold while the latter is also used for to buy card slots, refill consumables and other things. Each card is available in common, magical or legendary while there are multiple versions of the magical cards each with different bonuses.

Three different difficulties with casual and normal being the most common choices but there is also the option to select roguelike if you should feel really brave. Furthermore, freeplay mode is getting unlocked once you beat the main story allowing you to select the dungeon you want to go to as well as a separate difficulty setting.

Flexiscope, a unique way of choosing the size of your game session. It makes sure that the predicted time needed to finish the session is ensured and gets more accurate with each session learning and analyzing your gameplay style. Chose between five different settings or use the scroll wheel to change the number of rewards, progress and gold reward that you will get in your next session.

While the movement system took some minutes to get used to, Book of Demons is very addicting and I can definitely recommend this to all of the hack and slash fans out there, especially if you have played Diablo at some point since it's just such a humorous yet sometimes challenging throwback to the good old days of gaming.

I wish the soundtrack would've had a greater impact on the game as well as the story but it both fits what the game tries to achieve. Additionally, a co-op mode would've been fun but maybe in the next game that these guys are making! Book of Demons is just one of seven games and I can't wait to find out what the others will be!

I dropped Battle Chasers shortly after its initial release because it just felt painfully slow and while I liked the game as it is, it felt like wasting time. There is a reason that games like these get an optional speed up function these days. However, after picking it up again and using a little trick to speed up the game, I quickly realized what I have been missing out on.

As always, these are my own thoughts and opinions, please look at other reviews too before you make a purchase decision.

Let’s begin with my biggest problem; frequent battles who drag the games length out longer than it needs to be. While it was nice seeing those juicy animations the first few times, it quickly became a burden. This could easily be fixed with an optional speed up button, but so far they have not implemented one and I had to use Cheat Engine as a replacement.

The second problem I have has to do with the otherwise awesome crafting system in which you can only create one item at a time, making it a huge pain if you just want to craft a stack of potions for example. Also, your success chance gets reset after each crafted item and one has to to add materials each time when wanting to craft another epic potion, it’s annoying.

Battle Chasers’ combat offers a surprising amount of depth where each character has four primary attacks that are instant and generate overcharge, but what you build up is reset once the fight is over. Additionally, there are 12 primary skills per character that are much stronger but have casting time and need mana or overcharge resulting in a surprising amount of strategies at your disposal. Similarly to Final Fantasy’s limit breaks, Battle Chasers allows the use of three different Bursts per character that can be used as ultimate abilities for boss fights or quickly finishing of unpleasant foes, and they all share the same burst meter. You even have two skills for each character which can be used outside of combat to guard you from dangerous hazards or give you a buff for the fight you are about to enter. Furthermore, combat is done in a typical RPG manner but with not so typical RPG elements and the game combines all of them very well. Use status ailments like bleeding, chill, or haste that can positively or negatively effect combat and allow for some sick combos.

Battle Chasers offers a wide variety of interesting enemies even though most of them have, in typical old-school RPG manner, just different colors so one can tell them apart from each other. On the world map, monsters aren't encountered randomly like most RPGs do, they have fixed positions allowing one to skip some of them and you can even chose to skip lowly monsters entirely. While in exploration areas and dungeons you have the choice to separate enemies and fight them one at a time or rush in to take on the whole group at once. There are also fights with multiple waves of enemies which can be pretty harsh. This is used most notably in the arena where you have to fight many waves back to back until you reach the boss of that tier. Also, bonus streaks award more experience based on certain conditions met like one-hitting enemies or getting a double kill with one attack. Fights reward you with gold and crafting materials which are needed to craft, buy, and enhance equipment. Typical rarities often seen in RPGs, like uncommon, rare, epic and legendary, evoke the urge to constantly upgrade your gear and experiment with different stats.

Besides the deep combat, Battle Chasers utilizes a unique crafting system where you just have to get needed materials to craft something or simply take more materials from one component and increase your success chance without having all the materials you would normally need to craft it. You can increase your success chance up to 300% by giving it even more materials to craft rare or even epic gear, and the same can be done with weapon enhancements which grant passive bonuses to your equipment.

The bestiary rewards the player with passive unlocks for all characters by slaying monsters a given number of times and also provides information about health, attacks, and loot drops after a certain amount of kills which also changes the enemies health bars from ??? to their actual values and shows specific skills that they will be using next.

All of the six characters have two passive perk threes with 18 different passives each allowing for a specific role like tank, healer, or damage dealer, and you are free to mix between them. Moreover, customization towards your prefered playstyle starts to really open up mid-game where you have enough perk points to setup some nice combos. Perk points are earned through leveling or by buying/finding books that grant them.

There are eight dungeons stretched across the world map that may be played on Normal, Heroic, and Legendary, and they can be a real challenge the first time you visit them. While filled with loot and monsters, each dungeon also attempts to spice it up with puzzle elements here and there where you actually have to use your brain. A boss lies at the end of each dungeon and drops items that can be traded for tokens, which also come from a fun fishing minigame and bounties (“hunts”) you can take out on certain enemies. These tokens can be traded for many things like the perk books, random gear chests, or even different outfits for your characters.

While cutscenes are in 2D with awesome comic style drawings, Battle Chasers in-game visuals remind me very much of Torchlight but with way more polish and atmosphere. The world map is in a completely different style from the rest of the game, with a nice storybook feel to it.

Combat showcases gorgeous animations that feel both fluid and impactful, but at the same time tend to get old quickly and stay like that until later in the game. I do appreciate that each different weapon has its own unique visual style during combat and everywhere else, I just wish they would’ve done the same with armor.

While the story is alright as it is, I would’ve wished for far greater character development which was sadly lacking, apart from the little scenes while resting in an inn at night, that’s it. I do appreciate those little conversations though, they give you some sense of the characters’ personalities.

The soundtrack is beautiful, energetic and fits the tone of the game just right, often reminding me of Bastion’s greatness. I never got tired of hearing any of the songs over and over, they’re just that good!

Checkout the Bandcamp page for a preview![clarkpowell.bandcamp.com]

I can safely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs with a mildly challenging combat system and a simple but gripping story. Just remember, if it’s too slow for you, you can use Cheat Engine or similar software with twice the speed for a more tolerable experience until they finally implement a speed up button.

Warframe, my go-to grinding game, is a complex and cooperative free to play third person shooter experience enhanced by an enormous sci-fi world that has been ever expanding since it’s beta in 2013. Digital Extremes have been constantly updating and polishing the game while adding new things every single month since it’s official “release”. Yes, it’s hella time consuming, but the good kind of consuming, it’s actually enjoyable and engaging.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

While Warframe has a tutorial, it is not nearly sufficient enough for the insane complexity. It teaches you basic stuff about combat and movement, and then you are basically thrown out of the nest. Sure, there is the ingame codex that tells you all kinds things but the wiki/wiki threads will always be your best friend while playing Warframe. Many aspects have to be learned and discovered by yourself which can lead to a lot of new players quitting the game early since they can’t figure out what to do or where to go. You often have to keep the wiki open in the background since there is just that much information to the game.

Digital Extremes are in my opinion one of the best developers out there. They communicate with their community and listen to feedback. But even despite that, Warframe suffers from feature creep and old additions to the game that just feel left behind. Great concepts like archwings, raids, PVP or the glorious void fall flat compared to the rest of the game since they get boring pretty fast or just feel unpolished and there haven’t been many updates to them in ages. Additionally, most weapons and mods are just weak compared to other, better versions rendering them either useless or only good if you get a good riven mod for them.

Riven mods help to counter the weapon feature creep if you would be able to get them more frequently but unfortunately you only get them from daily missions, warframes daily quests, or other players. These are weapon enhancement mods for a random weapon with random stats, dropped randomly as a reward from said missions. The chance to get one of these is already very small but then you have to get the right mod for the right weapon with the right stats. While stats can be rerolled, most rivens will end up sitting in your inventory forever unless you turn them into endo, sell them, or find a player who is willing to spend some platinum on it.

Each faction has its own tilesets which are randomly put together at the beginning of each mission making it less repetitive than it would be otherwise. Each area of the solar system is controlled by a different faction and some of them even by two while the whole galaxy seems to be at war which each other. Enemies look original and well fleshed out and there is a big variety of them present in each faction while all of them have uniquely themed bosses.

Warframe offers an overwhelming variety of enemies, locations, weapons and warframes each with their own unique style and charm. It’s easy to get lost in all this and apart from some story quests, it’s really up to the player how he wants to spend his time in this game since Warframe won’t give you any goals, you simply have to set your own, there is no real endgame. Want to be the best looking warframe? Collect all the weapons/warframes/mods? Reach the currently highest Master Rating? Create one of the biggest Clans ever? The possibilities are vast and that is what’s so captivating about this game.

Obviously, warframe is pretty grind-heavy and can feel pretty tiring at some points. Why is warframe so enjoyable though? First and foremost because of the excellent polish and design in general but also because of its fantastic movement system which features wall-running, double jumping, sliding and more that really help in making you feel like a ninja in space. The shooting is just so refined and precise while different damage and enemy types force you to switch weapons and warframes accordingly based on your next mission. Many different mission types like extermination, spy, defense, and many more ensure that no warframe is truly useless. If you should get bored with your current setup, try recommended builds for warframes and weapons or simply create your own. Augments can help a great deal with this since they can basically enhance your abilities or change how they work, resulting in a different playstyle.

Crafting is done similarly to other games where you just get everything and craft it, only in this case you have to wait several hours and for some things even one to three days, but it is fine if you keep building other stuff in the meantime so you get a chain going. Trade missing blueprints from other players or sell your duplicates to them and earn platinum, the premium currency, and use it to upgrade your maximum number of slots, buy weapons/warframes directly of the market or just get some beautiful fashion for your warframe, the business model is just great. But be aware, the number of trades per day is tied to your mastery rating.

Yes, Warframe is free to play but does that mean that this is hurting it? Not at all, since it is using a very fair business model. Almost all of the things you can buy with the premium currency, platinum, can be farmed without spending any money. Earning this premium currency is rather easy since you are able to trade almost anything with other players and platinum is no exception. Of course, buying things directly from the market is much faster but getting them without spending anything is not only cheaper but also a rewarding experience.

While Warframe certainly can’t be called high end in terms of graphics, it’s making excellent use of it’s engine and is very slick and clean looking as a result of that. However, the game wouldn’t even look half as good as it can be if one would turn down everything to the lowest settings. Shaders and reflections as well as many other little things add up to create an experience that is not only pleasing to the eye but one that can also stand up to today’s AAA games.

Because of its nature, story is mostly told through quests which there are 20 of. While a handful of them are interesting and make you want to learn more about this universe, most of them are just a series of regular missions with special voice lines and objectives tagged on to it. Sure, there are bits and pieces everywhere in Warframe’s world, but people who are craving for more lore have to utilize wikis and forums to get the whole picture.

Warframe’s soundtrack can be astonishingly good at times but being as grindy as it is, most of the songs will sadly fall short in the long term or will get boring to listen to if you hear the same ones over and over again. Otherwise the soundtrack just fits perfectly and some songs even make use of voice which fits for every situation and almost all of the different tilesets have their own songs which fit each of the different factions greatly.

Checkout the bandcamp page for a preview![warframe.bandcamp.com]

Besides it’s fair free to play business model, it offers a huge variety of weapons and warframes and just everything else really but it als offers an insane amount of freedom that is rarely seen in games today. I recommend this gem to anyone who enjoys third person shooters with focus on cooperation or people who are just looking for a grindy experience to pass some time and have fun while doing it.

Doki Doki Literature Club! is your typical Visual Novel with cute anime girls and multiple story paths. Similar to other games in the genre, you start out by getting a basic premise that quickly expands and offers multiple choices that truly affect the game, while offering unique characteristics not so typical for Visual Novels.

- Very cute character design yes, very… cute…
- An interesting story with well written lines 4k1n0m...
- Multiple choices that truly affect the games outcome oh, you know this is not true...
- A great, piano based soundtrack deviations possible...
- Completely free to play just don’t mind the folders...

I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Visual Novels in general but people with a predisposed attitude towards Visual Novels will be pleasantly surprised too. It’s also free, so why not give it a try either way?

If the first part of the game is boring to you, just keep playing. Trust me, you have seen nothing yet...

Being honest, Pyre scared me off initially, I had no idea what to think of the ball fighting/sports business. I loved Supergiant’s first two games to death, but I couldn’t get my head around the ideas of this one. Just shortly after release I told myself “♥♥♥♥ it” and just bit the bullet as I trust Supergiant in what they do... and the the game just went ahead and won me over pretty much immediately.

As with all my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences: please check out other reviews too!

Only negative thing I could think of would be that the game is rather text heavy. While previous games combined gameplay and story to perfection, this one separates both and forces you to sit there clicking through countless pages of dialog often with no voiceover at all. The game often feels like a visual novel and that might be a huge turn off for people, but I personally had no problem with it.

It all begins with an interactive story mode, similar to light novels and you will spend most of the time there, worth noting for people who are against reading. Here you can can hover over world specific words and people to get an explanation for better understanding. During these dialogs, you will sometimes be presented with choices that may might impact the story in not always obvious ways.

The other portion is the combat/sports game (kinda like dodgeball mixed with handball) called the trial, in which you have to fight adversaries in so called ‘rites’. Each rite offers a different layout and obstacles that can sometimes be moved around or move on their own. Two teams of three participants each fight against each other through scoring the orb (ball) into each others pyre (goal) until one of them reaches zero. While you can toss the orb to other characters, going in solo is also a viable option in rare situations and the option to toss the orb in any direction certainly helps with that. Choose three characters per match, only one of which can move at any given time, so you coordinate their movements as positioning is key. Be aware though that the character who scores a goal won’t be available until another has scored, and if hit by adversaries, they will respawn with a delay. Characters can pass the orb, attack the opposing forces, stand near the ball or goal to defend it, or just rush in to score a quick goal.

Each of the various characters walks, jumps, and sprints in a different way, and features their own unique abilities. They all have four stats (Glory, Quickness, Presence and Hope) that are important and change how much damage you do, how big your aura is, or simply how fast your companions move, and these values can be affected by choices outside of rites as well. Characters can also learn up to four of eight different masteries and equip one talisman, which provide passive buffs to specific aspects of the duels.

At the start of each match, you can check out your adversary's stats and gear to plan accordingly. One of the best things of this game is that opposing teams aren’t just random thugs, they are teams with different personalities and moralities; they’re just as unique as your own team.

Menus are easy to handle and satisfying to use thanks to pleasant sounds and animations. A wagon is used to traverse the vast landscapes but also to change your character’s gear and skills, but also to speak with them in private. Crank up the difficulty with 12 different modifiers that also give bonus experience and provide a risk/reward element to your play.

These matches are also playable in more of a standalone format vs AI or other players locally.
You form your teams from all the characters featured in the campaign, and can play using the same 12 challenge modifiers as well as an adjustment for the difficulty of the AI opponent. You’re also allowed to pick the map and song of your choice to play on.

Exceptionally well done characters and backgrounds are everywhere in this game and you can just feel the experience behind Supergiant and their improvement over the years. Everything looks so polished and pretty, one could say it fits perfect for what the game is aiming for; there is just so much attention to detail that is rarely seen in games these days.

Just like the other two games, the soundtrack is just magnificent and oozes the talent and soul that has been put into it. The songs adapt to the game’s current events and grow both in volume and instrument complexity, or just drop entirely when the action is over. Additionally, each character, landscape, and opponent also has it’s own fitting theme.

Checkout the composer’s website for a preview!

You are asked to be part of an esoteric sports team of criminals that plans to participate in magical rituals called Trials, in which you participate in Rites to regain their freedom and to be cleansed of their past crimes. To avoid any spoilers, I won’t go into further detail.

This takes place in a mysterious world filled with dozens of different creatures and races, each with their own motivations to get out of there. The match narrator (Logan Cunningham from Bastion, but putting on an unusual voice) does a great job, and he intriguingly reacts to decisions made throughout your playthrough.

Different from the other supergiant games, you are the still protagonist, but don’t physically control her, just like in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. You are present and control your team during matches and converse with them, but you never see yourself, you don’t even have a real name. Additional dialogues with characters will earn you more knowledge about them and down the line may increase your bond. If you want to satisfy your hunger for knowledge about this fascinating world, the book of rites is just the right place for you since it contains pretty much everything one could possibly want to know.

Compared to previous games, this is a whole new direction and I fear that it might not be as successful as their first two games. The disconnection of gameplay and story is refreshing but will ultimately lead to angry fans because of unmet expectations. Regardless of that, I greatly enjoyed my time with it and am eager to jump right back in, as there are multiple endings to explore. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Bastion and Transistor, and those who aren’t afraid of reading since 80% of the game will be spent in visual novel mode because matches are only three to five minutes long.

I could just say that Salt & Sanctuary is Dark Souls in 2D and be done with this review. But it's not that easy, so let’s do it properly. I enjoy my time with this game and co-op is tons of fun too in a way that Dark Souls doesn’t really offer.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

You can't pause the game and it can be really frustrating if you just suddenly have to go afk during a bossfight or bigger groups of enemies. There is no PVP other than fighting your own friends in split screen which is a bit disappointing. Some bosses can be really frustrating since they have unusual hitboxes and you often have to wait until they are done with their animations to be targetable again.

Sanctuaries and shrines let you save the game to refill your health and potions or level up and expand the skill tree, but using them will respawn previously slain monsters (not bosses). Choose between 7 different factions called creeds which all have different rewards for offerings. Expand your sanctuary with offerings to gain shops and passive bonuses to that specific region, the choice is limited to 4 offerings per sanctuary so chose wisely. The areas are not procedurally generated but instead crafted by hand and with care. Kick down ladders or open doors via switches to open up shortcuts that will help you traverse the rather huge levels faster.

Chose between 8 completely different classes each with their own stats and weapons which serve just as a basic layout, but you can just do whatever you want afterwards thanks to the rather huge skill board where you can branch off in the desired direction. Weapons have strength and dexterity scaling which tells you how good they are for your current class or rather chosen skill set. Manage a logical equipment system where having more weight on you slows down your entire movement, including rolling and ledge climbing. A basic stamina system for dodge rolls, blocking, and attacking which when empty renders you vulnerable to attacks. The smooth combat system features light and heavy attacks that can be chained together is very well done and response. Smash enemies to pieces with body parts flying all over the place and a good amount of blood everywhere with fitting sound effects. You can even throw enemies up to do some sick air combos! Claim passive upgrades to further enhance your gameplay like the ability to jump off walls or walking upside down.

Monsters drop salt that can be used to level up as well as upgrading your gear but they also drop gold which is used for buying equipment or paying the cleric who drags you back to the sanctuary after being defeated. Getting hit by monsters decreases your maximum health until you either use mending or visit a sanctuary shrine which should be avoided by all costs. Dying at bosses will cost you a bit of gold and will reduce your salt to zero but each salt lost this way is accumulated and can be regained after you come back and finally kill it. Dying twice to everything else however will lose you the previously dropped salt forever. Finishing off monsters with glory kills feels just great and you have to be very quick in order to execute them correctly. Salt & Sanctuary presents you with dozens of boss fights which are both challenging and interesting and can actually be pretty hard since they will change their attack patterns several times throughout the battle.

Thanks to its online functionalities, you can see players messages in form of bottle messages which tell you of dangerous areas ahead of time or just help you with telling you where the secrets are. Occasionally, you can see other players in the sanctuary as they mind their own business. Graves left behind near other players’ deaths will warn you about upcoming encounters. You can even see the corpses and sometimes just heads of other players hanging around in certain spots.

The game offers local co-op that can also be used for online play via hamachi and in-home streaming which worked like a charm; no screen or input lag at all. Your co-op partner will be a second character from your save file and keeps all the loot and dust he gets while he won’t disappear after each boss and you can safely play the whole game together. Additionally, enemies will be a bit stronger while playing together as compensation for the additional firepower.

You know nothing about the world and the game won’t tell you much about it, this mysteriousness really helps to keep up the atmosphere. The rather dark aesthetic mixed with flashgame-like graphics covered up with nice effects and multi layered back and foregrounds gives it a very dreamlike feel.

Huge parts of the game simply have no music at all, which combined with the presented artstyle works just perfect to set the tone the game is aiming for. Boss battles, sanctuaries, and some specific areas are the only exception to this so you always know when something is going on or in case of the sanctuary, when you can relax for a brief moment. The songs that are there are very subtle and fit the situations perfectly.

Checkout the composer’s website for a preview![skastudios.bandcamp.com]

There isn’t much of a perceivable story but rather one that has to be learned through the game’s world and characters. You are presented with a basic premise of what you have to do but additional story is for observant people only, and if you want to fully understand everything that is going on you will likely have to check out some story analysis online.

While borrowing a lot of things from the Souls series, Salt & Sanctuary can easily stand on it’s own thanks to having distinctive features and charm. I recommend it to fans of the souls genre who are not against the idea of it suddenly being in 2D and people who enjoy action oriented metroidvania games. Definitely check out the co-op too!

After Divinity II, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game. I mean sure, it looked a lot like the old Divine Divinity games which I really enjoyed, but I was still hesitant to try this one, mainly because of the high price point. After purchasing it together with a friend in the last sale, I quickly realized that I should’ve picked up this game much sooner.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

Let’s begin with the rather annoying rock/paper/scissors minigame during dialogs where you have to win multiple rounds until you get 10 points. While funny at first it quickly becomes a chore where you just save and load if you fail. Your stats simply give a little point boost during the minigame which I feel could’ve been done much better with just using the stats to determine if you are successful or not. Corpses can’t be moved or removed, which lead to one quest being unable to be finished and it thankfully wasn’t a main quest. NPCs will repeat the same sentence over and over again if you’re standing close by which is super annoying if you are sorting your inventory or while selling/buying stuff. A clearer indication as to what is junk and what is used for crafting would’ve been really nice; I bet that half of the stuff in my inventory is just rubbish. You can’t change your race during character creation and the only one available is human.

It all starts with the character creation which is fairly basic; chose your name, your starting class and your desired appearance and you’re ready to go. Eight different skill paths to chose from each with their own distinctive abilities and you can pretty much skill everything if you desire it. Spells are learned through skill books or unlearned if you simply chose to forget about them. You can only have a limited amount of spells at the same time based on the tier of your skill level. There are six different weapon classes that all have different requirements to fit the chosen skills and play style. Pick one of four different difficulties, where the hardest one deletes your savegame once each character in your party dies; there’s something for every type of gamer out there. The game offers an extensive world stretched over four big maps with small and big caves in between and sometimes basements. Various enemies and traps will make you want to quick save often, as it can be game over very fast.

The combat is executed in a turn based manner with action point management where everything has different AP costs; Movement, attacking or using spells and you can even chose to preserve them for next turn to cast even more expensive spells or just do crazy combos. Mix and match dozens of different elements to generate various status changes that can affect your enemies when they walk through it or just blow them up to turn them into a pile of ashes. Ice for example will knock enemies down once they try to run over it but it will melt at some point and leave behind a puddle of water that you can then evaporate with using a fire just to shoot the steam with a thunderbolt to create a thunderstorm which can even stun enemies for several turns. Or burn stuff and get a huge cloud of thick black smoke to block everyone's line of sight so enemies need to run through or around it. However, most fights can even be avoided by having high enough traits and winning the previously mentioned rock/paper/scissors minigame. The game just offers a ton of freedom and even killing most of the NPCs in towns will let you proceed through the main story just fine.

An old-school attribute/ability/talent system is also quiet nice to see in which you spend points earned through level ups in order to shape your characters into what you want them to be. Sneaking lets you steal stuff without anyone noticing as long as they don’t look in your direction. Pick up objects like chairs, crates, and even chests and store them in your inventory or throw them around, if you're strong enough. I was okay with the inventory weight limit since you can increase it and it has infinite space which I really like since I love to pick up everything. Crafting is also very functional since you can pretty much craft anything that you can use; Armor, Weapons, Potions, and even Arrows with elemental tips.

It offers an excellent co-op experience for online and split-screen play. Each player controls up to 2 characters (or even three if one wants to play solo) and fights can even be fought apart from each other resulting in situations where one is in a battle while the other one fights somewhere else. While one of the players is talking to the boss, the other one is not frozen in place and can prepare for battle however he likes or already loot the chests behind it. Important decisions however will be made by both players where they can argue over different outcomes, resulting in rock/paper/scissors to decide or they can simply agree with each other to finish quests more quickly. Additionally, items that are needed to open chests and doors or to advance through the story line are taken right out of the owning player’s inventory and you can easily drag and drop items in other players/characters inventories.

Graphics are reminiscent of old divinity titles but polished for the modern era and are pleasant to look at. Vastly different areas are presented in a believable way and elemental effects are especially beautiful.

While the soundtrack is good to listen to and rather funny sometimes, it fits each of the games situations very well and makes use of a variety of different instruments.

Checkout the composer’s website for a preview![soundcloud.com]

I would’ve loved a more serious story since Divine Divinty is rather humorous but the Divinity series always been like that. The game is very text-heavy with walls of text in dialogs and books to discover, but you can quickly skip them if you’re not interested. A bunch of easter eggs also show the love of the creators and you can tell they enjoyed making this game.

A second game is already on the way, and while I’m really happy about it I still urge you to check out this game first so you see and appreciate the improvements that will be made. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-rich RPGs with turn based combat or just fans of the old Divine Divinity and similar games like Baldurs Gate or Shadowrun. Check it out with a friend/girlfriend, it’s a lot more fun!

I haven’t touched a 2D metroid game in ages and so I was pleasantly surprised by how similar this game is. “Nintendo seems to have forgotten about Metroid” is what I would’ve written just a few weeks ago, but the recent announcements of Metroid Prime 4 and Samus Returns have made me very happy. While having completely different characters, storyline and mechanics than my beloved franchise, this game managed to seduce me almost immediately and reminded me pleasantly about good old days long gone.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

The eight-directional shooting system lets you shoot down and diagonally downwards only after you jumped, are in the state of falling down, or hold a button to lock your movement and shoot in any desired direction. While this might be alright for most of the game, there are some bosses and situations made harder because of this limitation.

There is only one boss battle theme, played across all of the game’s bosses, making them much less epic than they could’ve been. I’m not asking for one for each boss but a couple of them would’ve been nice to spice things up.

Discover 23 different obtainable weapons, each with their own firing arc, range, and damage values. You can also find permanent passive power ups (increased weapon damage, bullet range, health, etc) and there are 16 different upgrades where each one will change the gameplay in some way or another which keeps things fresh pretty much through the whole game. Access previously unreachable places or use them to advance in the story. Two things I want to highlight are the ability to hack enemies to render them harmless or make them vulnerable to your attacks, and an interesting way of glitching through certain walls which opens a lot of opportunities for secrets and hidden paths.

Several save points spread across the the map let you save your progress, regenerate health and ammo, while setting a point to revive in the case of death. Dying in this game will not reset your progress but instead respawn all enemies and breakable objects.

Axiom throws over 60 different enemy types at you and new ones will often surprise you with fresh attack patterns and steadily increasing damage. It also kindly invites you to 10 different boss battles that will keep you on your toes, a good mix stationary and mobile designs, and a few of them are quite harsh but still doable.

Finally I’ll mention how well the game utilizes the controller, with each and every button having it’s own purpose for a good variety of gameplay mechanics.

A 2D art style that could be ripped right out of Super Metroid just with a higher resolution. While beautiful to look at, a creepy and mysterious atmosphere is stretched throughout thanks to the eerie backgrounds.

Just like the graphics, the chiptune soundtrack offers mysterious but energetic vibes that approach frightening at times. Some tracks even feel like they’d fit in a new Metroid game, and the whole thing just fits the game so well, it's unbelieveable.

Checkout the composer's website for a preview![axiomverge.bandcamp.com]

Definitely the weak point. Not by being lame or cheesy, but just because of how it’s presented. It starts out with a very mysterious premise but loses it’s focus near the middle and tries to grab it back at the end. It barely works but it’s sufficient enough to give the game a passable ending.

Clearly inspired by the Metroid franchise, Axiom Verge is a metroidvania through and through, where one slowly explores a large and mysterious world while finding abilities, weapons and tools that let you access previously unreachable places with each new item.

I recommend this game to fans of the 2D metroid and metroidvania genres. I also highly recommend checking it out if you are drawn in by what you see on the store page.

I would like to start this review with saying that I’m usually not really into puzzle games, let alone games with actual puzzle pieces, the majority of those are just boring to me. But this one seems to be special, it just hit me when I saw the trailer and screenshots; I guess the aesthetic and audio just spoke to me.

As in all my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences, please check out other reviews too!

Puzzle pieces are slightly larger when you pick them up, this can result in frustration and confusion when you just can’t find the right spots. Some keys or arrows would’ve been nice to turn the piece tray without the needing to grab it. Spinning it happen often accidentally when you just want to grab a piece.

Having to pick up the pieces in order to see the colors can be a bit tiresome if you’re looking for distinct colors, an option to at least slightly see the color would be cool. The game is simply too short and can be finished in around 3-4 hours which was a bit disappointing; I was hoping for more. New puzzles as DLC or a sequel would be great. An option to show solved puzzles in fullscreen without any UI elements would’ve been a nice add to create pretty screenshots or even wallpapers.

Just what you would expect from a jigsaw puzzle game. Picking up the puzzle pieces to drop them in the right spot to complete the whole picture. There is no time or move limit so this adds to the relaxing atmosphere of the game. What makes it different is that no piece is the same, each one has a different shape and size and the overall puzzle shape varies widely as well.

While most of the game is rather easy, some specific puzzles can be quite challenging; one of them took me 20 minutes to beat it. There are 25 unique puzzles in 25 different countries related to events that happened in said countries. It was fun to guess the picture while getting closer to the reveal.

This right here is a unique mix of majestically fitting menus mixed together with beautiful stained glass artwork. The whole game is just so mysterious and colorful that it tends to mesmerize you pretty much the whole time. Artworks are based on the specific countries history and pretty much all of them are just a pleasure to look at.

A soundtrack fitting the mysterious nature of the game is also included and helps greatly with creating a relaxing atmosphere. Each section of earth has a proper song with instruments unique to that zone, doing a great job of conveying the part of earth you are currently in.

Checkout the composers website for a preview![www.nikcomposer.com]

With 3-4 hours playtime, the price is justified in my opinion and this is certainly a pleasure for people who enjoy those kind of games with the added bonus of this also being very relaxing and fun. I recommend this game to anyone who is interested in the game just based on the screenshots and people who are interested in jigsaw puzzle games.

For now, it’s the the best jigsaw puzzle game I’ve ever seen. The authentic and artistic combination of instrumental music and stained glass art is just too lovely!