Category: Game reviews

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire PlayStation 5 Review

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire is an odd game. It is a sort of action roguelike almost mixed with a tower defense, and it was sent my way by Jandusoft. These guys always send me interesting stuff and this was no exception, and I always appreciate it.

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire as about the youngest son of Dracula, Voltaire and his decision to commit the ultimate sin, going vegan. The game doesn’t say that I am by the way. He is a vampire and he is taking up gardening, its weird that his two uncles Frank and Stein even allow it, let alone act as the games quest giver and tutorial.

I digress however, it doesn’t take long with their help before you are growing weird crops, doing alchemy, and feeding Cthulu by day an by night fending off your fathers hordes, protecting your crops and every so often killing one of his generals and then leaving your homestead for a slightly safer place only to repeat the process.

This to me is kind of what made the game not that much fun unfortunately. You build a few things and before you know it the week is over and it is time to move on to the next place. You do have the option to stay an extra week if you want but the game does make it clear this is not a good idea. ( you should still try it however) and much of the time you are still struggling to keep your hunger down.

The game does look and sound nice, and I love the humor. Unlocking the boss rush mode and the extras is also a nice touch, with plenty of extras like different classes with new abilities and different outfits allows for plenty of replay ability for a reasonable price of only $20, but for me I would wait for a sale on this 7/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Moros Protocol PlayStation 5 Review

Moros Protocol is a first-person shooter roguelike sent my way by the people at Super Rare Games. I always appreciate getting to check out something new from someone new, and this definitely fits the bill. The game has old-school low-poly graphics, but it is done in a way that still looks and plays well. This is important because a lot of times these things are done badly. My one complaint is I wish I could aim down the sights.

You will wake up time and time again on an old ship called the Orpheus, in a sort of nod to Halo, with what seems to be a computer system in your head letting you know what is going on. Each time you die, you will get bounced into a new body of someone who didn’t make it, but still has a usable body. Many things in this game aren’t what they seem, however.

In between runs, you will get the chance to upgrade along the game’s grid; some spots give you more HP, some allow you to hold more ammo, or even just give you more spots to hold upgrades. Really, there are too many to even name, and maxing out your character would take a ton of time, I think.

The real issue I have with the game comes down to how you find secret entrances. They hide some important stuff, and I have only found two ways to access them. Attack these special spots with your melee, which damages you, or with explosive barrels, which usually isn’t an option. Your options then become: not look for them, which hurts your run, or look for them, which hurts your run anyway. This just seems like a very odd design choice to me.

The game is still a solid 7/10, and the story is better than I expected. I think it is worth playing even with the small annoyances and balance issues. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

MXGP 26 PlayStation 5 Review

MXGP 26 was sent my way by Nacon, which is always appreciated. MXGP is a motocross game with a mountain of races to get through on 19 official tracks across the MXGP and MX2 categories of racing. The new addition to this year is that, finally, just like in real life, the track will now get messed up as the race goes on. Take the same turn over and over again with everyone else, and the turn will form holes and ruts from the wheels.

Graphically, the game is probably the most impressive dirt bike racing game I have played, and while I have not played many recently, I have played a couple. The controls are also top-notch. Usually the controls are too stiff or too loose, and while they aren’t perfect, I never felt like I was struggling to control the bike.

My major complaint with the game is simple: there is no tutorial. This may seem silly, but there are some advanced techniques for racing a bike that the game just leaves you to figure out or assumes you already know. The AI difficulty is also rather odd because if you don’t know these skills, you might struggle, but if you do, the game becomes kind of easy most of the time.

The game is still pretty great it; was an 8/10 experience for me. I simply can’t speak as someone who plays every year; for those people, you may find the experience a bit different. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

RuneScape Dragonwilds PlayStation 5 Review

RuneScape Dragonwilds was sent my way by Jagex, a company I have long since been aware of, but this is the first time I have really got to work with them, so it is really appreciated. I have, of course, played RuneScape before. But this is the first time I have really dug into it. DragonWilds takes place on the forgotten continent of Ashenfall, and as one of the people who have just gotten there, it is your job to help build everything. There is just one small issue; the damn dragons keep killing everyone and breaking stuff. Don’t worry, in low-level areas, they won’t really break your stuff. In high-level areas, however, they absolutely can destroy badly placed and badly built bases.

Yes, you can, and should take a break and go fishing.

One of the things I really like is that the leveling system is still designed in a way that encourages you to do anything and everything you want. There is no picking stats to focus on that make you useless in something later; if you want to be great at fishing, just go fishing. Want magic? Use magic. Archery? Use a bow. If you decide later you hate magic and would rather use a sword, just equip one and go to town. You don’t have to live with bad choices.

I don’t know what’s going on here, but it looked cool.

The story itself is still a strong selling point, but it isn’t the selling point here. As you would hope, you will love teaming up with friends or random people to just do stuff, including killing dragons or building insane things for no reason. Depending on the version you want you are looking at 30-40 dollars for 100+ hours of gameplay, and that is hard to be mad at. The game is a 9/10 experience that I will be playing for a long time to come. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sandwalkers PlayStation 5 Review

Sandwalkers was sent my way by the nice folks over at Red Art Games, and I always appreciate it. Sandwalkers is the story of Mka tribe, who every decade send a caravan out to scour the world around them in hopes of finding honestly anything. Other tribes to trade with, hints on how to stop the global catastrophe that has endured for hundreds of years, or even just to plant a new tree that other tribes can use to flurish. The world is not a nice place, and every little bit helps in this world of monsters and pirates.

The thing is, success and failure are meaningless for the tribe, as the tutorial will teach you. What is important, is the attempt and sending you memories back so the next caravan can do more than the last, and so the tribe can use that knowlege to prepare what they can.

The premise is great, and the execution while flawed at times is still fun. Each run truly does make you feel like maybe you can use what you learned, and the relationships you made might help you solve things the next time. Another thing the game does very well is the art style and turn based combat is magnificent. It is truly a worthy RPG in its own right.

The one major downside to this is on the front side of the game to get there very text heavy and the UI needs some work. It takes a lot of getting used to and it will take some time to even get to the point where you are playing and feel like that progress is really happening. This is far from being a huge deal for most people but it does exist all the same. The game is still an 8/10 experience that is more than worth the $20 price tag. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sniper Dan Xbox Review

Sniper Dan is, believe it or not, a new hidden object game from PQube Games. They were nice enough to send me a copy to check out, and don’t worry, I only shot one person while playing, and the game did punish me for it.

You play as Dan, and Dan solves problems with a sniper rifle. You are given hints such as that the plane needs to land and the runway is blocked. Sniper Dan will then have to hurry and shoot all the pianos. This will allow the plane to land safely. Other issues are things like hey I need help getting these barnacles off this boat, and other things that probably should not be solved with a gun. Seriously, the game is rated for kids 10 and up, but please make sure they know not to solve these issues with a gun.

There isn’t a lot to say about this one; there are a lot of things to collect and puzzles to solve. The game is a lot of fun, and my 9-year-old has also enjoyed it. Yes, I let my kid play it, she also plays Halo with me, Get over it. This is an 8/10 family experience. Best wishes andd may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cloudbreaker Steam Review

Cloudbreaker was sent my way by Ballast Games, and I always appreciate that. Cloudbreaker is the typical bullet heaven game where things will try to murder you as you gain experience and survive as long as you can and improve your ship. When you die, in typical roguelike fashion you can earn permenent upgrades to make your next runs easier.

You may have noticed I normally love these games, and this one isn’t bad. It also unforutnaly wasn’t one I found fun. It does sit at a positive rating on Steam with 24 reviews, and one of the negative reviews simply says that it “does not break clouds” which is technically true, during my time I did not break a single cloud. I did laugh when I saw it however and thought it was worth mentioning.

My issues with the game come in two flavors. One the grind is very real, your first few runs, and by few I mean many you won’t feel like you are getting any stronger. Then suddenly you will until just as suddenly you hit a wall again.

My other issue is while the Steam page it says it is compatable with an Xbox controller, it really isn’t. I was force to use the mouse for many things and it didn’t even pause when going into menus like it does normally.

As for the game play itself,the game does it well. Putting different types of weapons and shields and such on your ship takes thought and strategy and this is thankfully where the game shines. At no point did I die and feel like it was cheap, it was simply either my mistake or being outgunned which is what I expect from these sort of games. The issues I meantioned however did limit my enjoyment a bit. For the price of $12 fans may still want to check out this 6/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

GraveyardKeeper 2: PlayStation 5 Review

Graveyardkeeper 2 is a serious I have a weird history with that; I am sure I am the only one involved with remembers. Before I get to that, however, shout out to Tinybuild for hooking me up with a copy of this one. See, a long time ago, back in the early days of Savior Gaming, I came across a game that was pitched as essentially Stardew Valley, except you run a graveyard, so I checked it out and sent an email to the people making it. Now, at this point, it’s like 2017 or 2017, and ole Savior doesn’t have much experience, so all I wanted was some info to share. What I got back was an email telling me where I could buy the game when it released and an alpha version of the game. Back then, I believe the game was just on a website and mostly crowdfunded at the time.

I later put more hours than I care to admit into the game across multiple platforms. So seeing Graveyard Keeper 2 get such a huge reception is amazing for me because I feel like I was, in a small way, part of it. The question is, is it worth the hype? Well, if you follow me on Twitter, (I refuse to call it X), you already know the answer. The game takes place about 8 years after the first game. You wake up chained to the walls of the dungeon, without your memory. After gaining your freedom and rescuing your trusty bouncing skull, Larry, you are on your way. ( No, this is not Gerry from the first one) This time, not only are you the Graveyard keeper, but you are the inquisitor. Sort of found one of their rings and lied about it, and people just went along with it.

If you played the first one, you already know the general tone of the game. It is sarcasm and dark humor wrapped around carving up dead bodies, farming, cooking, and the usual cozy game fanfare. This time, they have added a new element to the mix. Now you will be raising zombies to fight other zombies to free the town and save the people from,well you will see.

The game looks and plays beautifully, and a lot of people were worried that the voice acting would take away from the gibberish from the old game. Don’t worry, you have the option to choose which to use, but I do prefer the voice acting. I did come across a couple of glitches during my time with the game; for example, upgrading the farms well past a certain point will cause the game to crash. This is easily fixed with a patch, maybe even the day one patch if there is one that I obviously do not have access to. A better explanation of how the zombies work would also be nice as well. None of this is a deal breaker; the game is easy enough to figure out, and the well is far from neccesary to enjoy the game. Even with these issues, it is an 8/10 game that fans of the original will love even more than the first. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Royal Writ Xbox Review

The Royal Writ was sent my way by Yogscast Games, which is always appreciated. The concept here is simple. You are a king placing your loyal subjects, represented as cards, onto the battlefield to fight battles, and each one has either an attack value or a multiplier value. This simple math is used to determine damage, and each turn they march across the field. If they reach the other side, they die forever.

While this sounds simple, it is hard to master, and you have to watch some cards do have a negative multiplier, and it is easy to forget that a negative times a positive does equal a negative, so you will heal the enemy. Why does this matter? Because two negatives do equal a positive.

While the game doesn’t truly add anything new to the genre, it is fun. The game is sitting at 3 stars on Xbox, and I truly do not understand why. At $15 or free if you have Game Pass, the game offers hours of replayability. The game functions well, and as a deck-builder, the game is both challenging and fair. The game won’t blow your mind in any way, but it won’t disappoint fans of the genre either. It is a 7/10 game that should be enjoyed. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gladio Mori Playstation 5 Review

Gladio Mori (fun fact, means die by the sword in latin, yes savior took some latin in high school) was sent my way by the fine folks over at Bonus Stage Publishing which I always appreciate. I almost passed on this one because I thought it probably looked fun but played badly,I won’t lie.

I was so wrong. For a game that cost $20 and looks so lazily made, it is anything but cheaply done. Yes you are basically fighting with crash test dummies, but you can custimize them if you want; I have even seen a few people take the time to do it. I haven’t, but I have seen it done. Nobody seems to do it; we all want to get to the main point here. Killing each other.

See the game comes with a quick tutorial which teaches you what you need to know takes about 5 minutes. Then you can hop into the campaign modes which are basically more training for the main event. There are 3 difficulties with some settings to mess with, battles can be fought at .25 speed all the way up to full speed. This sounds silly but it helps get timing and distance down.

Before the fights you pick your gear, a weapon, some armor and it is all real and has legitmate advantages and disadvantages. That long spear will allow you to stay away from the guy duel wielding hook swords, but if he can hook your spear or get in close, he will literally open up your stomach. Want to know how I know? This has happened more than once to me. Want to smash a guys head in with a mace? Go ahead nobody will stop you, except the guy living his samurai fantasy that will chop your head off as you move in. Yes that is a personal experience. Yes there is plenty of gore to go along with it.

Now, of gore isn’t your thing but you still want to play you can turn it off. You may notice I talk about my own experiences but use assets from the PlayStation Store. That is because I want to be able to explain what you can do and show what the game is and can be. You can shut most of the gore off.

Is the game perfect? No, but it is damn close. In a game where movement and distance in key I found at times movement when people get close especily near walls id try to move in one direction and my character just wouldn’t. Also a few times I would win a fight by causing Aorta damage but I smashed a guy in the head with a mallet. Or I woul lose a fight from blood loss after being stabbed in the leg, but the other guy was legitmatly fighting half the battle, missing his shield arm and a leg. None of this is a deal breaker, this one will be in my rotation for a long time to come and is a must buy but it does drop it from the perfect score I would love to give it to a 9/10. I hope to see you on the battle field, because it is a good day to die, over and over again. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.