Recent reviews by [mXc]The Deviot

Every so often a game comes along in a genre that upsets the apple cart and does something truly new. In the shooter space, that is a little rarer than in others. Fashion Police Squad is one of those rarities.
On the surface, it looks like your typical linear story blastathon. But dig a little deeper and you'll find one of the coolest single-player shooters of the year. It's got great level design, clever writing, and enough dad jokes to keep you laughing over the course of the game.

The mechanics are a nice mixture of everything from Bulletstorm to Bionic Commando. Save for one or two frustrating horde moments, I rather enjoyed my time with this one. If you love the FPS genre and want something different than the old school 90s kill everything experience, or the contemporary army themes and battle royale games popular today, check it out. Everything about it feels new, and it makes what should seem like a one note sight gag work really well over the course of a substantial campaign.

The sequel to a hit B game, Insurgency: Sandstorm is a fantastic melding of old-school tactical shooter and contemporary military multiplayer shooter components of popular franchises like Call Of Duty and Battlefield. But what sets it apart from the later really are the tactical elements that hearken back to classics like Rainbow Six 3. Shooting in this game is very much like the old Red Storm games in that you have to concern yourself with bullet drop. You have to steady your aim by holding your breath or going prone or both.

There is also a very minimal Heads Up Display. The maps are designed around each of the game's modes fairly well, and as such you'll need to communicate with the other players you've been paired with. You can either do this with a microphone or you can still type in messages. Very rarely can you expect to go solo and last long. This game doesn't have a kill cam either. So there's no easily going after the last person who killed you. You will have no idea where they fired from. But your teammates may have seen it and sent somebody else to take them out of the equation.

But the game isn't a full on military sim either. The game has a sprint speed similar to its AAA contemporaries. It has an equally large weapon selection. A wide variety of maps. In its business model it will actually be superior to some since you don't unlock guns or other items. There aren't micro transaction paywalls for crucial content. What little DLC there is is relegated to some cosmetic items (so far)
You get so many points, and you can use those on each class to create your loadouts. You can go bonkers bulking up one weapon with attachments, or you can go full on defense with body armor. You can go somewhere in between. And while it might not be *as* pretty as something from EA or Activision, it is fully featured and different enough that a COD or BF veteran may want to check it out.

Wallachia: Reign Of Dracula is a really cool, old school action-platformer. It was clearly inspired by Konami's Castlevania series. But it doesn't really play anything like the NES trilogy that other games have tried to follow. Nor does it go the Metroidvania route Symphony Of The Night inspired games have tried to follow. Instead it takes influences from even more retro games and uses these elements along with its own to make something a bit more unique. Most notably to me, Sega's Revenge Of Shinobi, and Namco's Rolling Thunder. My full thoughts are on my blog https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2020/07/12/wallachia-reign-of-dracula-review/

A fantastic spiritual update to Torn Banner Studios' Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. It takes the foundation that game had, and builds upon it greatly. The swinging system has been refined. The animations have been vastly improved reducing the tactics some could use in CMW by the unforeseen consequences of its advanced mechanics. Then they've added new mechanics of their own to the formula. On top of that, they've added equestrian combat to the game's mainline point capture mode. It's objectives aren't quite as compelling as the ones in the game that inspired it. Be that as it may, this is an amazing freshman effort from a new independent upstart. My full review: https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2019/06/29/mordhau-review/

Full Review at: https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2018/09/03/the-messenger-review/

This is a no brainer. From out of nowhere comes an excellent homage to the NES Trilogy of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden games. But it is so much more than that. When you first start playing things seem like a recreation of that challenging experience. Eventually however, other things enter the mix. The genre changes completely. The game implements time travel into the rather excellent storyline, and subsequently mixes in newer art styles in areas to reflect that. It also uses them for some very effective puzzles. Simply put, this is a massive cut above other retro themed platformers. One everybody ought to look into.

Cuphead is an amazing game worth picking up for the hand drawn animation alone. The gameplay is a love letter to the action games that were popular on the NES, as well as a love letter to the animated shorts of the 30's, and 40's. Even the Big Band Jazz soundtrack is outstanding. This is a game that truly lives up to its promise of making you feel like you're playing a cartoon. Full Review: https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2017/10/06/cuphead-review/

Mirage: Arcane Warfare is a team FPS by the folks behind Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. It carries over the melee combat from that game, and rebalances it. But don't come into this expecting the exact same experience. Mirage has a pretty cool magic system in addition to the melee bloodsport. Each of the game's six classes has six spells. You can choose three of them to use in combat along with your melee attacks. There's some nice strategy in choosing spells that you can use one, after the other for a combo attack, or even link them in melee strings. To keep the game from being all magic lasers though, each spell has an RPG like cool down period. A lot of the modes from Chivalry return, although Team Objective doesn't seem to have quite the same level of intensity. Still, there is a lot to like here including the fairly robust Character customization. The only major issues I've had with it thus far are some server side performance issues. It isn't uncommon to start ping spiking after a few games, inexplicably. Also note that this is soley a multiplayer game. Aside from a brief tutorial, there is no single player component to it. Mirage also supports LAN which is a welcome addition for those who would like to play private local games, or set up tournaments. Full review: https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/mirage-arcane-warfare-review/

Toxikk is a really fun send up of Unreal Tournament 2004. It gives you what it promises: A good old fashioned Arena FPS. You'll see over the top weapons, vehicles, and trick jumping. It has the modes anyone who played UT, Quake, DOOM, DUKE 3D, ROTT, etc. will remember. The quintessential Death match, and Team Deathmatch, along with Point Capture, and Capture The Flag. UT2k4 fans will be pleased to know that a few of the maps make for VEHICULAR CTF, and VEHICULAR PC stages too.

But there are also some things for people who never played these kinds of FPS games before. Particularly going through the tutorial levels, as they'll get you better acclimated with the trick jumping. Which is tied to the layouts of the maps. It's also crucial for avoiding the myriad of bullets, lasers, rockets, grenades, and fireballs headed your way. It may seem daunting at first but I highly recommend checking it out. My full review can be seen at https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/toxikk-review/

Rogue Stormers is a really fun, and challenging game. It takes the twin stick shooting of Robotron 2084, the side scrolling shoot 'em up play of Contra, then adds a nice dash of Gauntlet's monster portals, and multiple classes. It is then placed in an oven, and baked to a golden brown. After which it is topped with some Rogue like elements like randomized environments, and perma death.

Also it is very addictive, and has a challenge level right up there with the Dark Souls games. Ergo, you're going to lose constantly, but have fun doing it. Eventually you learn some enemy patterns, and chisel your way a little bit closer to victory.

Best of all it has four player couch co-op making it a great party game so long as you're willing to use your TV like a monitor. Full review: https://commaeightcommaone.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/rogue-stormers-review/

Chris Huelsbeck is a legendary composer in the realm of video games. He's done countless Commodore 64 game soundtracks throughout that platform's lifespan. But he's done work for games on many consoles, and other computers as well. His collaborations with Fabian Del Priore (Who worked on the soundtrack for Giana Sisters DS) are no exception to that word. These New Wave synth tunes are amazing, and capture the same sense of urgency, peril, whimsy, and joy that the songs in the original C64 game did. They also brilliantly reprise the melodies from those songs in creative new ways in these new songs.

Machinae Supremacy also brings their "A" game to this soundtrack. Each song is a brilliant Symphonic Metal cover of Huelsbeck's compositions, and in each case they make it their own. So much so, that I feel many fans of Metal, and its subgenres will likely track down their material upon hearing their versions played here. (And you should. They're very good at what they do.)

At the $7.99 asking price you're basically getting one of the best New Wave synthpop EP's, AND one of the best Metal EP's in one attractive album. Highly recommended for anyone who likes any form of Electronic music, or Rock n' Roll for that matter. I fire this up quite often on the commute to work in the morning.