Category: Game reviews

Devil May Cry

Just so we’re all clear, I’m talking about cool Dante’s first outing. Emo, Hot Topic, proto Jared Leto Joker Dante won’t hurt you here.

We follow monster hunter/ paranormal PI Dante at his agency named Devil May Cry. A lady named Trish pops in, asking him to kill the dark lord Mundus on the demon infested Mallet island. Dante is no ordinary man: born for a legendary demon and human mother, Dante possess super strength, speed, reflexes, regeneration, with a host of mythical weapons. Can the demon hunter survive the legion of demons and beasts on a island that busts reality and the world beyond?

So many, many friends have pleaded with me to give this series a chance. If I can beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and System Shock (2023) I can beat anything dammit. Many, including our mutual friend and cohert, Arragas the Druid, begged me to start with the 3rd game (which is actually the first.) I didn’t because I’m stubborn as hell but I wish I did.

The original Devil May Cry isn’t a terrible game, it just aged like milk in many aspects and small but vital quality of life additions make a tremendous difference. The combat is solid enough. The bosses look cool. Mundus was a pretty good final boss that wasn’t a pushover. The world, settings, and lore are pretty cool. Dante is a fun likeable badass.

Two things murder the game for me. The camera killed me more times than not. The enemies hit hard, platforming can be a pain in the ass, and it can be hard knowing where the hell to go- the tank camera amplifies these issues almost a dozen fold. Their were plenty of times I lost it because the camera obscured a boss attack or I fumbled a jump because I couldn’t see. The other thin is those quality of life additions the game desperately needed. I’m talking simple things like quick weapon selection, attack instructions (why spend the orbs on new attacks when the game doesn’t tell you how to perform them), and the ability to lock onto enemies. Nothing huge on there own but rolled togther with the camera, it becomes aggravating.

In the end, I can’t recommend the first Devil May Cry as your first go into the series. It’s tough at imes for mostly the wrong reasons, the gameplay takes some getting used to, and the story feels mostly like an after thought. I’d say after going through some of the modern entries, check it out, but I can’t really recommend it off the bat. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Welcome to Kowloon Xbox Review

Welcome to Kowloon on Xbox was sent my way by Axyos Games. You may remember them from Apartment No. 129. This game is kind of similar, except we have now hit the point where the horror aspect is that you are simply a young person trying to find a cheap apartment.

This good boy is hungry, get food from the store and feed him.

You will be checking out Kowloon, a city that I hope has seen better days; otherwise, this run-down, creepy place was built like this on purpose. As you explore for about an hour, which is how long it takes to beat the game, you will come across a few crazy residents. You will discover why the rent is so cheap; you aren’t meant to leave. Honestly, with such a short game, I can’t say too much without spoiling it. Suffice it to say, the game is short but sweet. The atmosphere is tense right from the start, the game controls well, and you really feel like you are in a small, cramped building in a poor neighborhood.

I would get drunk and fall off this instantly

The game costs $10 and is a quick play, with some easy achievement points. I won’t say it is worth it for everyone, but if you are looking for something quick and interesting to play, there are worse ways to spend a night. It is a 7/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Verho – Curse of Faces PlayStation 5 Review

Verho – Curse of Faces was sent my way by Cobra Tekku Games and is an upcoming Dark RPG that you will be able to get your hands on July 30th. It is, however, available now on Steam. The best way to describe this game is if Kings Field or an Early Elder Scrolls Morrowind suddenly found itself much smaller with PlayStation 1 graphics and tossed onto modern consoles. This isn’t an insult; this was very much an intentional design choice.

The story is pretty straightforward; you find yourself in a land where everyone who arrives there loses their memory and wears a mask. The reason for this is that a curse has settled over this section of the world due to some sort of catastrophe that, for obvious reasons, nobody truly remembers. People have, of course, begun to piece some things back together over the last few hundred years. You are attempting to make your way to the old capital in an attempt to escape, like many others have tried and failed to do.

This is your save and fast travel point, not creepy at all. Not even a little.

This brings me to the gameplay and such. I will say right out of the gate, it won’t be for everyone. Many of you have no desire to play a retro-inspired RPG that is a throwback to when games had no auto-save, so if you die, it’s right back to the last save point. If this is you, you can stop reading; nothing I am about to say will change your mind anyway.

For those of you still reading this, the game is a treat in many ways, graphically and in the sound; it is an amazing throwback. Obviously, it isn’t up to today’s standards, but for when it is trying to mimic the game is beautiful and fluid. When I died, I felt like it was my fault. Jumping feels nice, sword play, and slinging spells are more than just hitting a button. If you simply slash your sword, you do very little damage. You need to hold the swing button until the meter just about hits the top. If you time it right, you will do max damage. As an added bonus, you can hold a sword and a shield but not lose the ability to use magic.

The game, however, is not perfect. There is very little direction, which is fine, but the results of going the wrong direction are deaths that cause loss of time and progress. Worse, the in-game guide won’t tell you plenty of things it probably should. Luckily, the community is very helpful, as are the devs. They happily point people on Steam to guides people have made. The game is long enough to get your time out of it in one playthrough but short enough to encourage multiple playthroughs, which is good because there are multiple endings.

Belive it or not, that’s the blacksmith

Now, is this game worth your money? This one completely comes down to how much you like retro-inspired games. For me, this was a 7/10 title. It is sitting at very positive reviews on Steam, and I think it deserves them. I enjoyed my first playthrough, and I will be playing it again. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rally Car Mechanic Simulator PlayStation 5 Review

Rally Car Mechanic Simulator was sent my way by Ultimate Games, which is always appreciated. The game’s concept is very simple. You fix rally cars either for your team and your driver races them. After each stage, you fix things he breaks, feners, breaks, windows, whatever.

The game thankfully has multiple difficulty settings for how in-depth this goes; you can basically find the part, hold a button, and watch the magic happen as you take off each piece or go full-blown mechanic with no help and try to find each broken piece and screw yourself. I played on easy because I am not a car guy by any means.

All you really need to know about this game is: does this sound interesting to you? If not, nothing I am about to say will matter; skip it and save yourself $20. If you are still with me, you are probably wondering how it functions. Truth is, not bad. I have played a few of these games, and I have certainly played worse. I did have some issues with buying new items, but admittedly, that could be more of a user issue. If it is, however, it is because the game’s UI really could use some tweaks; certain things really aren’t very clear. The game is still a 7/10 experience, and while I didn’t much care for it, fans of the genre will. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Disk Golf Masters Steam Review

Disk Golf Masters is developed by Spinoff Games and published by Bonus Stage Publishing. However, the game was actually tossed my way by Bram of Gametaste, so thank everyone involved in getting me a copy of this one.

Full disclosure, one many of you will have noticed, I don’t cover a lot of sports games. It isn’t that I don’t like sports; I have played most major sports on a team at some level, except hockey. I was even a professional wrestler for a while. So when Bram offered me Disk Golf Masters I said sure, I will take the easiest sport ever of throwing a frisbee.

So I played the tutorial and discovered that it isn’t easy to throw a frisbee in a video game, grabbed my daughters and ran outside to prove this game was lying to me and discovered that despite that at the age of 41 still having the ability to throw an 70mph knuckball pretty accuratly, I in fact can not throw a frisbee to a small chil across the street.

I still managed to throw 2 under par in my first round. I unlocked a few things and went back for round two with newfound confidence. This was very misplaced, as my second round went much worse. While you can’t really bounce your disk off other people, you can hit it off trees, or toss it off a cliff. Don’t worry the game won’t make you throw it from the bottom of the cliff.

Round 3 got a bit better, as with anything practice does make perfect, and the game gives you plenty of reason to keep playing. There is plenty to unlock, and with multiplayer, it is a great game to relax with friends and just have fun. Much like golf, you can play it anyway you want. Sitting in discord having some beers on a rainy day cracking jokes would be my prefered way to enjoy this one, but I can definetly see this being the kind of game the competitive scene would love. One last thing to note: the game does tell you to play with a controller, and my xbox series controller worked flawlessly. If you like sports games, this one is hard to beat for $25. It is a 9/10 experience, and when it leaves early access is sure to be even better. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Soulblaze Steam Review

Soulblaze is a new creature-catching roguelike with some interesting mechanics attached to it. This one was sent my way by Cosmic Mocca, which I always appreciate.

The gameplay, of course, follows the same general loop as most of these games. Pick a starting creature, pick a path, and on your way you go. While you go along this path, you can battle and capture new Animons, level up, learn new skills, collect new items, ,defeat bosses and when you die, use currency to buy permenent upgrades.

You start being able to access just the one Animon as a starter, but as you capture more, it will unlock different types. Not the ones you capture, really, just different animons you can choose if you capture enough of certain types. Some of the other things you can unlock include (but are not limited to) extra starting items, more health, and an assortment of things to make the early runs much easier. The loop isn’t bad and is fun in its own way.

The game, however, like many early access titles, has its share of issues. For example, despite being well above even the recommended specs, I suffered from frequent crashes, slow downs andd issues. The game is, however, made by one person and as an early access title that is fun too play I do give it some leeway. It is still kind of hard to recommend at $14. The game is a 5/10 title, one that needs a few more updates before it is ready for most people to buy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Shadows of Adam PlayStation 4 Review

Shadows of Adam came out in 2021 and was published by Something Classic Games, yes, the same folks who sent me Quartet last year. Now they never sent me Shadows of Adam; in fact, I didn’t even realize it was the same people until someone mentioned it while I was playing Quartet. I recently wanted to play an old school RPG and figured, since I will hopefully be playing Quartet again on PS5 when that hits, I would replay Shadows of Adam since it has been a few years.

This was always a fantasic turn based game. The village of Adam was tucked away from most of the world, deep in the misty woods, protected from all the bad that had happened. The perfect place to raise a family and just exist. 10 years have passed since the Wraith war, and Adam has pretty much been at peace. Orazio, however, had vanished, and that peace is suddenly gone. Orazio, the hero, is probably the only person who could save them. So his son and adopted daughter decide it is time for Orazio to explain a few things and make it their mission to trace his steps, solve his dark secret, and save him and the world.

What follows is a combination of humor and action on a 16-bit level we rarely get anymore. I don’t know how Something Classic does it, but they always manage to publish some amazing old-school RPGs. Their updates for their games always add things to keep you playing, from New Game+, which is more than just playing again, to new items and more. This was one of their first games I fell in love with, even before I knew who they were. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands Xbox Review

Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands was sent my way by the fine folks from, well, Deathbulge. It is always appreciated, and since I love a good turn-based RPG, this was a special treat.

The story is quite simple to start. You play as Faye, Ian, and Briff, a 3 piece band that Faye signs up for a battle of the bands to win the right to go on tour with the biggest band of them all. What she didn’t know was that this would curse them to fight to the literal death to win this battle of the bands. Now she and her bandmates must go on an adventure to break the curse.

Obviously, that is only the start of the story, and I won’t go into any more depth to avoid spoilers; I just like to wet your whistle a bit. Besides, the story means very little if it is presented poorly or the battle system is poorly executed. The battle system is a bit weird to me, as you get three characters but can only use one each turn. The two you aren’t using sort of sit to the side and replenish their action points. You can swap them around freely, however, with no repercussions. In fact, the game encourages this. Faye for example was my fastesst character, so I would often use her to bring my turn around faster and then swap her into with Ian to hit hard or Briff to heal.

Another neat thing is that status effects don’t affect people; they affect the turn bar. So burns hurt everyone, so a burn will hurt all of the enemies or all of your team. Boosting your speed or a slow debuff will speed up or defuff the entire group. This also brings me to my complaint. While you are forced to make the decision about who will fight, the enemy does not have this issue. If you are fighting 3 enemies, it basically becomes 3 turns to 1 of yours. The best you can hope for is 1 versus 1 when it comes to turns. Luckily, they did a great job balancing most encounters.

The writing is also great, Ian really stole the show for me in terms of humor. This is truly one of those games that I probably would not have picked up on my own, but I am very glad I got to play. It is an 8/10 title that RPG fans should pick up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Flesh Made Fear PlayStation 5 Review

Over the weekend, Assemble Entertainment hooked me up with a treat called Flesh Made Fear on the PlayStation 5. Now, when I first saw this game, my first thought was, ” Don’t review this game. It represents a lot of things I hate.” I have always hated tank controls, for example. The number of games that try to play homage to Resident Evil but are just rip-offs, by the way, is simply mind-boggling. People need to realize you can respect a series and want to show that love with a similar game, and not just steal its stuff. But how does Flesh Made Fear manage to walk this line?

Truth be told, it doesn’t really walk the line. It knows exactly what it is, and it doesn’t even try to hide it. I am not saying it is some sort of shot-for-shot remake or anything of the sort; it isn’t. But it embraces what it is, and lets you enjoy that rather than hiding behind some imaginary wall of its homage, not copying. The characters definitely are not Chris and Jill from Resident Evil. Who you choose, Natalie or Jack, will determine how parts of the story play out, and if you start with a bigger inventory (Natalie) or more health (Jack), which probably sounds familiar.

The horror is also pretty top-notch, from the very start, the camera angles are used in great ways to create tension, but are rarely used to screw the player. This was a complaint I always had about early games in the genre: you can create tension without placing enemies in such a way that players scramble with controls that are switching as the camera changes angles at weird times.

This brings me to my two major complaints about the game. The tank controls, while not the worst I have ever used, make the combat hit or miss, regardless of the character you are using. Not enough to ruin the game, but enough to be frustrating and has gotten me killed a couple times, causing me to have to restart from a previous save point.

I still enjoyed the game far more than I expected, and it may be the best of this throwback genre. It is an 8/10 game that fans should definitely experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Scroll of Taiwu: Beyond the Dome Steam Review

The Scroll of Taiwu: Beyond the Dome recently hit 1.0, and Conchship Games was nice enough to send me a copy to check out. This game has been on my radar for a while, but admittedly, I couldn’t play it because, honestly, I don’t speak Chinese. However, the English localization was introduced with 1.0, but you will have to work a bit to enable it since the game is natively in Chinese. Don’t worry, plenty of people will happily tell you. Basically, just skip the opening scene and click the globe-looking thing, and it’s the third option to bring up the languages. (This may change by the time you read this)

Now the game itself is quite simple; you play as the leader of the Taiwu clan, and you are on a mission, which I won’t tell you about, to avoid spoilers, of course. This mission can take generations. The game is a strange mix of RPG and Crusader Kings, as you will have to manage and build up where you live, take care of your companions, and obviously choose an heir. All this while finding resources and fighting battles using the martial arts you learn.

Recent reviews are mostly negative, with English reviews being mostly positive, with the majority of the negative reviews coming from the same issue I had. There is no manual save option. It saves at the end of every month, and with so much to do, especially as you get deeper into the game, this gets really frustrating. Some of the English translations are also pretty awkward, for example, the insistence of the intro character calling the man Foster Father in every sentence. While I understand many languages have honorifics like the Japanese San or Sensei, English doesn’t really do the whole foster thing; we would most likely use Sir or Mr if not calling them some form of dad or father.

The game itself is fantastic, but small translation mistakes that shouldn’t have been made, and the no manual save thing are very distracting. The game is an 8/10 and worth playing all the same. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.