Category: Game reviews

Dragonkin: The Banished PlayStation 5 Review

Dragonkin: The Banished is the newest game from Nacon that they were nice enough to send me. If you are familiar with the Diablo series and games like it, you know what you are getting into when it comes to the gameplay. You can pick one of four different heroes to play as and build them to your playstyle. Each one fits a different archetype, magic, and archer, a tank, you know the drill.

What sets Dragonkin: The Banished apart is your choice of pet or wyvern that will follow you around and assist you in fighting. I chose one that attacked with ice to be the opposite of my fire elements. It worked out well, as it would occasionally freeze enemies as I set others on fire. This little guy levels up separately from you and gets his own points to put into stats.

Now, if you are worried about choosing a hero, the tutorial tells the story of how this dragon-blood-drenched world got to where it is. It is short and gives a demonstration of how each hero will play at a high level, as you will personally control each one of the legendary heroes that sealed a dragon from legends. Personally, I loved this little touch.

In fact, there are only two things I really didn’t like. For starters, when building your town, you have very little control over anything. You simply get to put points into things when the town levels up. I never felt like I was building the town; it just felt like it was another character for me to level up that would assist me in leveling up my actual character. When a game tells me I am developing a town, I want to feel like I am developing it.

My other complaint is more of a personal issue, but I wish there were a way I could change difficulties more easily, rather than having to go to a specific place in town. Sure, everything in town is accessible by quick travel, which is fantastic, but why can’t I just do it through the pause menu?

These complaints aside, let’s be honest, of these, are the biggest issues a game has, then a company has made a damn good game. Nacon has made a great alternative to Diablo with Dragonkin; it is an 8/10 experience that I will be playing for a long time to come. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Bearer & The Last Flame PlayStation 5 Review

The Bearer & The Last Flame is the newest souls like from Meridiem Games, and they were nice enough to send me a copy to check out. You are the last living soul in a world overrun by death, and your job is to drive evil back to where it came from.

To do this, you will fight an assortment of enemies and bosses in a visually mediocre setting with controls that leave much to be desired. This never improves to the point that I was grateful that the enemies at least suffer from the same issues. Strikes I know should have hit, missed, but this was from enemies and me. I played the original release of Dark Souls, where hit boxes were bad, but at least consistent. None of that seems to exist here.

Normally, this is where I tell you the story makes up for these flaws in a game, but I won’t be doing that this time. While these issues can easily be fixed with a patch or two, patches won’t fix the fact that the very basic story we have all seen a million times never really gets built on anyway. There are no surprises here.

It would be nice to tell you that the level designs are at least great, but that also isn’t true. It isn’t the worst I have ever seen, and honestly, it might be the best part of the game. That isn’t really saying too much, however. A lot of it looks the same to the point where finding where to go becomes a chore rather than exciting or fun. While the game is far from the worst I have ever played, this 4/10 experience isn’t worth the asking price when there are so many glaring issues waiting to be fixed. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Devil Jam PlayStation 5 Review

Devil Jam is an upcoming survivor-like roguelike that Rogueside was nice enough to send me a copy of early to check out. Now I know many of you like this sort of game and don’t care to read a whole review, you just want to know how it holds up to the big ones of the genre, and if it’s worth buying.

So for you people, 9/10, don’t hesitate, the game is great. For the rest of you who want to know more, keep reading. The story is quite great. You start out as Falco, the leader of your band that sold their souls to the devil so they could rock their lives away to large crowds. Sadly for you, the Devil and Death both have rival music companies, and Death has a habit of poaching talent by killing people early.

The Devil is a surprisingly fair guy when it comes to this sort of thing, battle Deaths’ henchmen and screw with his company, and he will give you and your band mates their lives back so you can continue the show you were supposed to have until he collects your souls when he was meant to.

The gameplay is simple: walk around, kill enemies, and collect experience. ( your choice of auto fire or aim yourself) When you level up, choose a new ability, passive, or skill. These skills are placed in boxes that play in a sort of musical way, each beat moves along the boxes, each box has a skill or ability given to you by a Sin, and your job is to pick the right combination to survive.

With multiple levels, bonus stages, 3 characters to eventually choose from, and powers to unlock, there is plenty of replay value here. This is without getting into little missions to get into. Without a doubt, this one is worth picking up. Best wishes an may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Greedfall: The Dying World PlayStation Review

Greedfall: The Dying World is the newly released narrative-driven RPG from Nacon, and they were kind enough to send me a copy to review. The first thing you should know iss while it is a direct prequel to Greedfall, you do not have to know anything about the first game to play it. I actually never got around to playing the 2019 Greedfall, and while I absolutely missed out on the significance of returning characters and such, the game itself and its story made perfect sense.

Speaking of the story, you will start out in your home country of Teer Fradee, in fact much of the early story you will be reading as you and your friends speak in your native language. You will explore the island as you finish the final rite of passage to become sages in your tribe. This can be done quickly or take a couple of hours, since doing side quests and helping the people of your tribe find things like lost gifts, and even how you do it can change how long it takes.

I quickly found myself getting lectured for killing local wildlife considered precious and sacred to our people. During this period of solving why your people are sick, and animals are disappearing, you will learn how to disarm traps, sneak into builings and how combat works. All of this can be done with the touch of a couple of buttons or less in real time, giving commands to your people is simple and intuitive. I was truly impressed with how easy it all felt on a controller.

Graphically, I thought the game looked equally great, with spells just looking like they belonged on the battlefield without overwhelming the action. Story scenes look fantastic as well, while roaming the wilds and cities can feel a bit empty at times, unfortunately.

This is really where my only real issue with the game comes into play. Many times, while traveling, much of the fields felt similar, and finding paths just didn’t stand out in any way. I simply felt like I was walking with nothing to do, and dead ends for no reason simply existed. This isn’t enough to make the game bad or unplayable or anything like that, but it did make traveling less enjoyable at times. All in all, the story more than makes up for it, and the length of the game itself is worth the price. It is an 8/10 experience that is worth the price of admission. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Order 13 PlayStation 5 Review

Order 13 on PlayStation 5 is a very special game sent my way by the people over at JanduSoft. Honestly, if you don’t own a cat or have never worked in a warehouse, you may not understand the horror aspect of this game very much.

The game is very straightforward. You are just a dude working in a warehouse, hanging out with your cat. The cat works as a health bar, which, as you fill orders, you can buy him toys to make him happier, so you can work longer each day. Feeding him also gives him a temporary boost. When this hits 0, it is game over. You do need to balance buying toys for your cat with buying upgrades for yourself.

The scanner is an important upgrade; without it, you will need to memorize both where the order goes and the code to unlock it. This is quick and cheap to get, thankfully. The backpack is also important because it will allow you to carry multiple items at once, which leads to making the multiple ticket option worth it and more money.

The horror comes from a very unique blend of creepy monsters terrorizing you in a very real way, as they can and will catch you and kill you, causing you to restart your day, and simply making noises and knocking over boxes as you attempt to do your job. To make matters worse, the day shift seems to be incompetent and left forlifts and boxes blocking aisles in weird ways. Seriously, who hired those people? I have worked in plenty of warehouses, and I don’t know what kind of morons would park or stack stuff this way. I have seen it done, and I still can’t explain why someone would do it.

This brings me to my only real complaint. While the game controls well and looks good for what it is, they really replicated working in a warehouse too well. The game made me want to pop in some headphones, toss back a few drinks, and ignore my coworkers while mindlessly filling orders until the weekend.

The game is a fun game to mess around with, and I definitely suggest horror fans pick up this 7/10 experience. It is a niche experience without a lot of replay value, but the fun is there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil Requiem PlayStation 5 Review

Resident Evil Requiem is the newest Resident Evil from Capcom, and while I try to keep my reviews spoiler-free and will do the same here, I kind of ignored this game’s trailers and such. So, while I only plan on talking about the general gameplay and graphics, and just want to know if I think the game is good, the next paragraph is specifically for you.

Grace, FBI Agent, is kind of a baby.

The story is fantastic, the gameplay is great, regardless of whether you are playing as Grace or Leon, which you do swap back and forth, there are not two separate stories. If you happen to still be on the fence, just go buy this game of the year worthy candidate. With that out of the way, for those who want a more in-depth look, keep reading.

FBI needs better training

I will start with the easy part, graphics. This is easily one of the best looking game I have ever played. From the fires coming from cars early in Leon’s sections to the horrors you see in Grace’s, everything is just really top-shelf graphically.

Now I don’t want to get too much into the story, but essentially, Grace starts out investigating a string of deaths that have the same strange marks on their bodies. Leon will eventually stumble across her while investigating his own issues. This comes together quite naturally, honestly, and I was really worried this would feel forced. In fact, even the twists and turns later feel quite natural, which is a nice change from most horror games.

Even zombies keep working day jobs in 2026

The gameplay is what truly matters here, and while playing as Grace or Leon, it’s fantastic. If you are playing as Grace, every shot and decision can matter. Do you sneak past the zombies? Waste some ammo? Try to kill that chunky boy and make life easier? This is all viable, but it uses precious resources.

Leon is the opposite. While resources are still limited, and he is far from overpowered, he gets to kill. In fact, that is how he earns money for upgrades. The bigger issue is how he does it; you don’t want to waste precious requiem ammo on a standard zombie, do you?

Resident Evil Requiem is the rare game I would truly describe as a master piece. No game is perfect, and every game has that one part I just hate. Without going into spoiler territory, toward the end of the game, there is a small part you have to play as a kid for a little bit, and that is the one part of the game that truly brings the game down. It makes sense for the story, but it honestly could have been an email. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

theHunter: Call of the Wild – Game Feeders Pack 2 DLC

TheHunter Call of the Wild is back with DLC Feeder Pack 2, and once again, Avalanche Studios was nice enough to send me this one to check out. The price of this one is about $7, and it comes with 3 feeders. Honestly, how good these feeders are comes down to how much you enjoy hunting the animals they attract. So let’s take a look and see if this is worth the money for you.

First, we have a Mineral Lick, which helps bait herbivores you couldn’t bait before. Mostly, this is things like goats and bovines. I didn’t use this too much because, honestly, I never found these animals hard to shoot in the first place. It does work; however, shot a goat right in the head thanks to this thing. I was aiming for its neck. I am not good at this game, but I simply enjoy it.

Next, we have the Scent Tube Feeder. This one is nice and attracts things like foxes and wolves. This one I liked because hunting these is always annoying, and this makes it a bit easier, so if you always wanted to shoot a fox or a wolf but could never quite get them often enough, toss one of these down where they pass and give it some time, and you will be happy.

Last is my favorite, the carcass feeder. Just a huge chunk of meat hanging from a pole meant to attract huge meat eaters. If you like hunting gators for money, just toss this bad boy down and wait, and something that was already easy becomes easier. Want to get that large cat that’s long eluded you? This is your ticket to heaven, quite literally, if you aren’t careful.

This is honestly a 9/10 DLC for fans of the series, but it won’t be worth it for everyone. Like the other feeder pack DLC, whether it is worth it very much depends on whether you care to hunt the animals these feeders help attract. If you like to hunt ducks and birds, this is completely useless to you; there is already a DLC out there for you. For most of us, however, this is great. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring yoy glory.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom Playstation 5 Review

Laysara: Summit Kingdom on the PlayStation 5 is a city-building game focused on building small outpost cities as you climb to the summit of a mountain. Nejcraft was nice enough to send me a copy of Laysara: Summit Kingdom to check out, and I always appreciate it.

The game starts with a rather in-depth but simple tutorial taking place across multiple villages. Each one will teach you how to do different things with the next, reiterating it and building on what you just learned. I really liked this setup because in the campaign, you will be doing basically the same thing. As you move up the mountain and build new settlementss your old settlements will act as sort of trade hubs with the new ones.

Now, this concept may sound easy, but later it will get much harder. Growing each city gets harder because while your lower citizens are happy with things like simple food and a place to pray, artisans want things like higher-end food and metal workings. Monks needed to collect honey from bees want even more things to be happy.

This is before we add things like avalanches to the mix, which will add their own set of issues for you to deal with. This brings me to my own warning about the game; it isn’t an issue, but I can see it being an issue for some people. The game simulates very little in many respects. For example, you won’t find any typical storage buildings, and people won’t be moving in or out of your towns. If things are in range of your Market, they work; if they aren’t, they simply don’t. They have more or less simplified things so that if you are in range or have enough supplies, the buildings work, and if not, you simply fix the issue. You don’t have to worry about the act of it getting moved back and forth physically, and I like this. It lets me focus on things I care about.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a great city builder. Fans should definitely pick up this 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dark Quest Remastered Playstation 5 Remastered

Dark Quest: Remastered was sent to me by Brain Seal Entertainment, and as the name implies, it is the remastered version of the 2013 Mobile and 2015 Steam release. The game has been fully remastered visually, and the gameplay has been polished up nicely while still maintaining what people loved about the original.

The game itself is a simple turn-based game with characters and enemies moving along a grid. You will start with the classic barbarian, wizard, and dwarf in a tutorial dungeon, which you will probably want to run through a couple of times to earn some money for items and new skills.

Honestly, I wish I had a ton to say about this one, but I truly don’t. The game is $7 and is a throwback to a time when games were simple. There were no deep mechanics to learn, hidden mechanics to figure out. The story is a simple story of good versus evil. The battles are faster than the original release, which is great in my opinion. It can be a bit repetitive since you will have to do each dungeon a few times to truly progress, but that is also a normal thing in older games. It may have been a game from 2013, but it plays like a game from the 1990s, and I don’t mean that as an insult. The game is a 7/10 experience, and for its price point, that makes it a damn good game. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.