Game reviews – Page 34 – Savior Gaming

Injustice (film)

What happens when Superman, the shining hero of the DC universe loses everything? After Joker pushes him to his breaking point, Superman decides the JLA must take a more brutal stance on crime and peace must be ushered in by any means necessary. The league divides, many doing everything possible to distance themselves from Superman’s extreme regime. Batman and a few others stand against them but can they beat their friend turned foe?

I love the Injustice games so this movie really bummed me the hell out. While I was never huge on the story of the first game, it had some interesting ideas and I felt bad for totalitarian Superman; I didn’t really feel much in the movie. The movie feels really overstuffed which kills the pacing so after a while things just feel like they happen to happen. The movie never reaches the ultimate dystopia of the games and comics and ultimately ends really abruptly. A lot of the characters I wanted to see throw-down were either cut completely or relegated to cameos. The voice acting fell flat mostly but Arrow and Harley stood out. The movie looks pretty nice and I do like the character designs which many are close to the games. My favorite thing was the brutal kills in the movie, made more satisfying by the R rating. In the end, the Injustice movie was a pretty big disappointment I’d recommend skipping, opting out for the much superior games instead. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Crystar Nintendo Switch Review

As always I like to take a minute to give a huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a review copy of this one and also take a moment to apologize to you guys for this one being a little bit later than usual.

The Switch version of Crystar is simply the newest release of a game that’s already been available on PC and PS4 for a bit already,and unless you simply want a version to play on the go there and really isn’t a big reason to pick this one up. It doesn’t offer much in the way of anything new.

That being said if you haven’t played it this isn’t a bad place to start. Graphically the game does a great job of catching the dark and depressing world Rei finds herself in as she searches for her sister Mirai and her soul that is lost in purgatory. She becomes an executioner of sorts for a couple of demons that give her a contract and promise to give her the power to revive her sister if she does as they need her to do.

The story is pretty straight forward and has no world saving implications really and it does a pretty good job getting Rei’s pain and struggle with depression and sadness across. The battle system however felt repetitive and lackluster to me and even the extra playable characters didn’t do much to change this.

Crystar isn’t a bad game, but it is definitely one you want to pick up on sale. It is a decent 6/10, it’s pretty original but original doesn’t always mean great. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Jurrasic Park (novel)

After being surprised by Jaws (novel) I was really curious how much Spielberg changed for the movie. While I have reviewed the Jurassic Park series and while the movie is pretty much a cultural phenomenon, I’m not going to regurgitate the plot because the general plot is the same. What I’m going to do is basically talk about the differences and while I actually really enjoyed the book for some pretty damn different reasons.

So the book for Jurassic Park, while having a lot of the splendor and wonder of the movie, there is actually a lot of smart ethical questions and corporate evil in the book. In fact, Hammond is actually an eerily evil sociopath that is hell-bent on basically being his own god, no matter who dies in the process. The book never feels preachy about the ethical issues and the science but expertly feels like a grim kind of foreshadowing of how everything goes belly up. Another huge difference is the body count and gore in the book which is definitely past the pg-13 boundary and a lot of characters die in the book that don’t in the movies. The climax is more intense and well, a bit more brutal but also more realistic and fitting. Pretty much the only part of the book I couldn’t stand was Alex, Tim’s now younger sister (in the movie she was the older); she’s annoying and I swear she almost gets her, Timmy, and Grant killed at least half a dozen times in some pretty idiotic ways. Hammond maybe my favorite part of the book, starting as the kindly if not delusional grandpa figure he was in the book to becoming a heartless bastard as the story unfolds. The book is reasonably paced and Crichton had a great way of not talking down to his readers but not dumbing his themes down. In the end, I highly recommend the novel for Jurrasic Park, especially on Audible like I enjoyed it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Royal Frontier Xbox Series S Review

As always with these things I like to give a huge thanks to Ratalaika Games games first for tossing me a copy of this one to check out. It isn’t often I play a roguelike but when I do they are usually a blast, and a truly turn-based one is a rare treat.

The game starts off explaining that you are tasked with guiding a caravan from one place to another, a new town being set up. There isn’t too much of a story here. Just a barebones to get you moving and it serves that purpose very well.

The combat also is about as basic as it gets, your team of thee characters will take its turn then the enemy will. You start with the typical knight, priest, wizard type but you unlock three more as you go on. The battles are quick but do have a bit of strategy involved. If you go all out with your spells you will quickly find yourself out of mana for future battles, however, if you don’t fight hard enough there won’t be future battles.

The game map itself lets you take one of three paths that you can occasionally switch from one to another. There are various possibilities that can happen from a standard battle to a midlevel boss or random events or even a small town you can choose to recover your mana or hitpoints. At the end of each stage is a boss battle to move on to the next.

There are very few things about this game I don’t enjoy, and the things that do bother me I can not in good conscience complain about at this game’s price point of about $7. It is a little short consisting of only three levels and there are only six characters. There are however an abundance of unlockables to help make each run easier and it will take multiple runs to unlock them all. Fans of turn-based RPGs and roguelikes should definitely pick this one up. I will give this one a 9/10 while pointing out that this is a low-budget game designed for quick fun for a certain demographic, and it nails that exactly.

Moto Roader MC PS4 Review

I wrote about the release of this recently and Ratalaika Games was nice enough to shoot me over a copy to review and as always I am grateful for that.

This is first and foremost a retro racing game. The classic top view flying around the track against the computer or your friends in what looks easy but always ends with someone swearing and bouncing off a wall from first place into 4th because that damn red car shot you with a missile.

Ok sorry flashback into playing this game with my daughter over the weekend aside who always insisted on being the red car,yes I am still salty about losing that race. This game is a ton of fun. The graphics are the perfect mix of an update from the 1992 release making it feel fresh but they aren’t so updated that the nostalgia is lost.

The sound also has the same feeling. They updated it just enough so I don’t feel trapped in the 90’s with outdated sound but they didn’t update it so much that I feel like what I wanted from the game was lost.

Truly this is how you do a retro game. Give me some fresh graphics and sound, but don’t ruin the original things that made it great and that is what we have here. Just a simple racing game with races that take about a minute. You can shoot each other with missiles or toss little grenades out the back.

All in all I can happily say this is a great game and I had a blast playing it with my 15 year old daughter. As far as retro games go this is a 9/10. Plenty of races to enjoy, the ability to change car types mid race (it does seem to be just cosmetic) and even some fun mini games such as soccer. If you like retro games especially racing, great game. Best wishes and may the gaming gods being you glory.

Monarch PS4 Review

As first with these things, huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a review copy of this one. Always love working with those guys and this is no exception.

Right out the gate I was a bit nervous about this one, I had never really heard of it and knew next to nothing about it. It looked interesting tho if not a bit cliche. Japanese school gets locked down by magical powers nobody understands and the students try to figure it out.

This turns out to be a huge over simplification of the story. You will start out taking a small quiz if sorts, there are no wrong answers and they simply help build your characters ego based on the 7 deadly sins. This will change during the game anyway based on battles and choices you make as well as other quizzes. I started out with high lust and 0 envy but quickly passed list with wrath and built up a bit of envy.

The battle system is a tactical turn based of sorts and it is really well done, there are some random difficulty spikes. There isn’t anything we haven’t seen here before, and if you don’t mind some grinding it isn’t to bad. Your spirit however acts as experience and money to buy items.

Leveling up with spirit is done by buying or leveling up new skills for each character and won’t happen automatically. This is both good and bad because if the main protagonist goes down it is game over so you can focus mostly on him if you want or be more balanced about it which is what I chose.

Graphically the game is nice, and the story is definitely more adult than I was expecting. As you attempt to take down the walls stopping people from leaving the school you will notice that students are dying and the game isn’t shying away from the how and why.

This game is definitely worth checking out for fans if the genre, and I actually got a very big Persona vibe from it and with very good reason as it is made by former Shin Megami developers. My only real complaint is that some of the puzzles will have you reaching for a guide to figure out, as some of them make little to no sense. It is still easily an 8/10 game and one of the first must plays of 2022 for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods being you glory.

Edge of Eternity Xbox Series S (review)

As always with these things I like to give a huge thank you to my friends over at Midgar Studios and Dear Villager for hooking me up with a copy of this one. It is always appreciated.

A few things to get out of the way first, this review will be all over the place. There are things in this game to love, and there are things I honestly just didn’t even like. There were some pros and cons as always, but this one seemed to be almost a 50/50 mix and it’s up to you to decide what is important to you.

I always like to start with something positive, and I will get the biggest thing out of the way first. To me the make or break if any JRPG is the combat, and Edge of Eternity is clearly a love letter to the old school ATB systems of the past. This one is on a hexagonal field and moving your characters around it can really help with the strategy needed to not get yourself killed.

The game doesn’t reinvent or even perfect the wheel, but if you like the games of the last like me this is where the game shines.

Unfortunately where the combat is great, the story is pretty much the usual save the world story. The time it is from something called the corrosion seemingly brought about by visitors from the sky in metal ships. It’s kind of hit and miss. At times it is fun and exciting but it never truly kicks into high gear. You can however tell they creators loved certain times in gaming history, and they really wanted to pay a certain amount of respect to that.

The world however is also big and beautiful with very little technical issues, tho the Xbox version did have a few people report that after a couple hours of game play during a fight the game would freeze. Not everyone ran into this and by the time you read this the patch will be released to fix that issue.

I don’t tell you this to convince you not to buy the game, quite the opposite in fact. The company is very responsive to people and I played before any of the patches at release. This to me is a huge sign of quality from a company and it should be recognized.

When all is said and done, the game is a fun playthrough. I enjoyed the combat and the simple but fun crafting system there was enough to do to keep me interested, tho I can’t say I will be playing it again. The game is a 7/10 and worth checking out on GamePass or even at it’s price point on PlayStation. Best wishes and may the gaming gods being you glory.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) trailer

When the hell will Hollywood learn to leave well enough alone? As a general horror movie, it looks ok but I got way too many Halloween (2018) vibes from the trailer, actually when the plot seemed revealed it seemed like a copy/paste job if you ask me. I wasn’t expecting much but I really wish we’d leave that poor family alone. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ghost of Tsushima

Jin Sakai was a loyal samurai to his family’s traditionalist ways, putting honor and the safety of his people first. Then came the Mongols, spreading death and mayhem across the peaceful and beautiful island of Tsushima. Jin comes face to face with the Kahn leading them, a cunning and brutal warrior that kidnaps Jinn’s uncle and leaves him for dead. Nursed by a thief named Yuna, Jinn has to face impossible odds with few allies, becoming a folk hero to the people and demon to the Mongols and criminals of the land. But at what cost?

Short version: Ghost is one of the best games I’ve ever played. No that’s not an understatement and I even gave myself a month to let it simmer after finishing the main story before making the statement. Gameplay is incredibly simple and complex at the same time and full of variety when it comes to approaching scenarios. Graphics and music are incredible and may I say this game goes all out immersing you in the game; the wind guides you to your objectives; I played the game in full Japanese with English sub but I also recommend going full Japanese black and white for the classic Jediaki style. Story and characters are at the forefront and while the story is fantastic, the characters keep you invested, and by the end, there are a lot of gray areas to be explored and even the side missions have interesting characters and stories all their own. I’m even impressed to say I only had one minor glitch my entire run with a huge main story and days worth of cool sides to do. In the end, Ghost is a phenomenal game made with love and I can’t recommend it enough. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Marvel’s Avengers (game)

Marvel's Avengers - PS4 & PS5 Games | PlayStation (US)

It’s been a while, hasn’t it, folks? Well, Torsten’s tales are for another post but for now: new year, and let’s start talking soul-crushing boredom. That’s right, let’s talk about the Avengers game.

Kamala Khan is a normal girl and super fan of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, and the Hulk. During a grand expo on A-Day, celebrating the heroes, they are called into action during an attack that presumes Cap dead, injures hundreds, and unleashes the Terrigen Mists which causes an outbreak of people to get superpowers, becoming Inhumans, including Kamala herself. With the Avengers disbanded, an organization called AIM has risen to fix the Inhuman problem by any means necessary. Kamala, desperate, sets out to reunite the Avengers and beat the sinister head of AIM.

Ok, whatever you heard about this game is basically true. This game is a bland, boring slog. The game starts off promising but damn it gets repetitive fast. Hell, two out of three of the game’s bosses are in the opening hour pretty much. Most of the game is a out of date beatum up that doesn’t even feel right; Hulk and Iron Man feel nerfed hard while Black Panther feels damn near unstoppable; Hawkeye and Spider-man feel like absolute jokes. After two hours in, you pretty much saw what the game has to offer in terms of gameplay all around. As for the characters, the only one I actually liked was Kamala, everyone else feels like dimestore MCU knockoffs. The gear you get throughout the game doesn’t affect your appearance, the costumes are basically microtransactions that this game goes out of it’s way to try to sell you. In the end, unless you find it ultra cheap like I did and even that’s a stretch, don’t waste your money. May the gaming gods bring you glory.