Game reviews – Page 74 – Savior Gaming

Railway Empire

There are a few companies with games I always look forward to playing, the usual suspects we all do. But there are a couple that sometimes people don’t expect. About a week ago I woke up to an e-mail from one such company, Kalypso Media. They made Tropico 5 and Grand Ages:Medieval Review along with others of course. Most recently they release Railway Empire,so when they offered to let me review the Xbox One version with its Xbox One X support in 4K, I was on at the next station. However, did this play as beautifully as it look? And make no mistake, this game looks beautiful.

The first thing I noticed was the campaign isn’t truly your typical campaign. It mostly operates as a way to slowly introduce you to different aspects of the game, sort of like an extended tutorial. Don’t be fooled by this, you will still be challenged. The first mission will show you how to build tracks and add locomotives and show you the fundamentals of how to add stations and such. The second mission will show you something a little more intricate with how each city and place has different needs and will interact with different connections. The game truly has its own economy set up and you can, and most likely will at times, set things up in such a bad way that entire train lines will be worthless, or make you a ton of money.

Money however is not the only thing you will need to manage. You will also be researching new technology and new trains, managing employees, the stock market, sabotaging competitors and even managing smaller businesses. Each competitor has its own personality, one is a sort of southern belle,while another is a shady mob boss wannabe and we even get a scientist sort and a general. They all have their own perks as well such as the mod boss getting closer ties to the underworld and making it easier for him to sabotage people.

The game isn’t perfect, no game is. I wish there were some more options on the competitors as it seems like there isn’t a big variety. Don’t get me wrong there is enough, I would have just liked more. Building tracks while simple and easy isn’t always very precise and a couple of times I found myself wishing I could have moved things just a little more in one direction or another. None of this is enough to ruin the experience, it is just worth mentioning.

Now it is time for why you are all here, is the game worth buying at the $60 price tag? If you are a fan of the sim genre, absolutely buy this game. Solid 8.5/10 It is beautiful, controls well even on console, and is in no way short on things to do or challenges. I am not even a fan of trains, but this one will be in my rotation for a while. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Last of Us

the last of us

This past E3 there has been a lot of news and controversy over The Last of us 2 as well as trailers and gameplay clips. I’m personally excited for 2, glad that time was taken to develop and put the amount of heart and effort the first game had in it.The first game has been regarded as one of the best PlayStation 3 games of all time, as well as a masterpiece of survival horror, but does it live up to the praise?

After one of the saddest openings in gaming, we join a broken, hardened guy named Joel who is almost alone after utter madness ensued after a fungal infection went rampant. Those infected are the clickers, not your typical zombies; the mold overtakes there face, rendering them blind but able to click for a sort of echolocation. On top of all the sick, people have ruthlessly banned together to scavenge and basically just lose there minds. Joel and his partner are given a job to do, escort a girl named Ellie across the country to a group that thinks her natural immunity to the fungal strain can be used to save the world. Joel’s partner perishes in a attempt to save the pair, leaving Joel and Ellie to make a perilous journey where the world truly feels against them and no choice is ever easy…

Much of what makes Last of Us great is the gripping, tragic, but beautiful story we play through. Joel and Ellie feel extremely real as does there relationship, which constantly twists and turns; I couldn’t think of a character I didn’t feel attached to by the end. The graphics are beautiful as are the voice performances and the gameplay is pretty damn good. Situations are tough, enemies aren’t easy and supplies are seriously limited but I can’t say nothing ever felt impossible, just challenging. The clickers I have to say creep the shit out of me. So what’s the downside? This maybe the slowest burning game I’ve ever played. The story never gets boring but there are some lengthy cut scenes, and in the beginning you find yourself wishing they just made a damn movie because the first chunk I felt I wasn’t playing a game as much as watching a interactive movie. And for my trophy hungry friends out there, sorry guys this game is stingy as hell with them. Last of Us deserves a lot of the hype and praise and I do think it’s one of last generations best games, but don’t expect a fast pace zombie game. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

StarCraft (Retro Review)

Oh StarCraft, you make me feel so damn old. I remember playing you to the early hours of the morning. Both on PC and the Nintendo 64. Hell me and a friend figured out it was possible on the N64 to build 36 nukes as the Terran then pretty much fill the screen with their explosions. It was a good time for all. I mean not the place you dropped them, that was dead. The game itself is a real-time strategy game where you build troops as one of 3 very distinct races, the humans known as Terran, the insect like Zerg or the technologically superior Protoss. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses so pick your poison and practice away, I always liked the Protoss personally.

The game is amazing and to this day has a heavy online community even in multiplayer, tho most people have moved on to Starcraft 2 or the Remaster of the original. You can play the original for free however, and there is no reason not to at least try it out. the game still is a lot of fun if not graphically inferior to look at, I mean it is about 20 years old. It is still fun to play and not bad to look at compared to many games from its time, and its easy to see why all these years later it is still big online. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Jurassic Park Evolution Review

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See that sleeping T-Rex? That is my first T-Rex, Rexy. Cute lil guy isn’t he? He decided to go for a walk because he didn’t like his specially made area and eat people. So I make him take a nap, took a picture and put him back. He was apparently really pissed off about the lack of trees in his fenced in area. So I put more trees in there and woke him up. He busted out again and ate more people. Now he was mad about way to many trees. This happened 2 more times before I sold Rexy. I don’t know who the hell I sold him to, but I sold him.

This is the kind of thing that happens, Dinos break out occasionally and kill your guest for weird reasons. It was actually part of the fun. All the dinosaurs look amazing and go about their days and have things they like and dislike, and if they are unhappy long enough they break out. I still haven’t kept a T-Rex happy enough to stay in his cage. The game is a blast but has plenty of issues. For example until you create one of these beast you really have no way of knowing what it wants in its pen.

There also isn’t much of a way of knowing what it will or won’t live with or how many it wants in its pack. For example some carnivores want a few to play with. Others simply want to live alone or don’t have a preference. Some herbivores will panic and try to escape almost immediately without others of its kind around. Some species also simply don’t get along, raptors for example seem to hate everything.

I also have no idea why if you help 1 of the 3 factions more than the other ( security, entertainment or science) the other 2 might start sabotaging you by giving dinosaurs random illnesses or shutting off your power. It makes very little sense that people who work in your park for you and will die themselves would sabotage their own stuff.

Minor issues aside the game is a lot of fun, tho I do wish I had the option to run the sandbox island with the money on or off. It’s cool to just build whatever I want however I want,but for me part of the fun is setting up a successful part, and with unlimited funding that is pretty much kills that possibility. Is the game worth buying tho? Well yes and no. If you love sim and business management games, this is a fun game that fills a spot like nothing else. It will also appeal to dinosaur and Jurassic Park fans. For most people however, definitely wait for a sale. A solid 7.5 our of 10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Lost Child (PS4)

Ok everyone, first I would like to say a HUGE thank you to NIS America for sending us a review copy. It is always an honor to be chosen to receive one. I like to say thanks up before we get this review started.

Now back to The Lost child, the entire reason you are here. The story is simple in some ways. You are a journalist for an occultist magazine working on a story about a woman about some mysterious deaths in a subway. Suicides to be exact, while investigating these deaths you find yourself on what will become a wild ride as you meet an angel and are chosen to go on a mission from God. And yes, I do mean a literal angel and actually god. I won’t go too deep into the story, but it wont take long for this story to branch from being a simple Angel leading you to fight demons and fallen angels and capturing them using a weapon known as a Gangour to turn them into allies and becoming an all out battle with evil deities and so much more. You will question Heaven and Hell and everything between at times. The story alone is worth checking this out.

The visuals are beautifully crafted with both battles and exploration taking place in a first person art style, here is an example of the combat system.

The turn based combat functions amazingly, at no point did I feel winning or losing was a matter of anything other than my own personal skill and preparation. There are over 100 astrals you can choose and well over 200 moves to learn and customize your astrals with, and they pretty much are all viable for some sort of use whether it be helping unlock chest that are locked with traps, buffing your characters, healing or attacking.

The sound is another area the game is solid,with each area sounding great. I don’t have a lot to add here except I know many of you like to choose between the English or Japanese voices in your games when they come west, and for you I have some great news. That is an option for you. You not only will be given the option at the start but the in-game option menu will also let you choose.

The game is not perfect, but let’s be honest no game is. The Lost Child doesn’t reinvent the wheel as they say. At its core this is still a turn based RPG, and while I LOVE them and this game, and even the first person art style many people don’t. I understand this and I am 100% sure NIS America does. This game isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t a fan of the genre this game probably won’t be the game that wins you over. Many of the NPC characters are pretty bland characters and are very forgettable. In fact I’m not even sure if many of them are the same person in different spots or if they are just the same people moving around the area, and they have names like “nerd” and “maid” This isn’t to say they were lazy, far from. This is actually pretty par for the course in the genre and some of you may not like it. However fans of the genre expect this.

However we now come to why you are all here, should you buy this? wait for a sale? or just exorcise this demon back to the depths of hell? Honestly the answer is simple. This is a solid 8/10. And I honestly will probably never give a game a 10 on this page because that implies a level close to perfection I don’t think exist in gaming.I happily recommend buying this one. I will put a small asterisk on my buy recommendation tho. That only goes for fans of Japanese RPG’s. Everyone else is going to want to watch a few videos or streams and proceed with cation. This is an amazing game, but it is also made for a certain fan base.

Elder Scrolls: Legends

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Today as you can tell is well, card game day. This time we have Elder Scrolls:Legends. To be 100% honest, it is a lot like Hearthstone. The rules are quite similar, but different enough that you check them both out. I won’t try to explain the finer points to you, that would take a lot of time and honestly someone will either yell at me for not quite getting it right or you won’t care. Trust me tho, both are worth giving a shot since both are free anything. There is one main difference tho. Hearthstone and Legends can both be played on PC or mobile, but soon Legends will be on console, and all your progress will save on Bethesda.net and move over to console with you. So for console fans that have been wanting to play but felt ignored, your time is coming. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hearthstone Review

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I don’t normally play PC games but lately a few friends have busted my balls into trying a few, including Hearthstone. So I gave it a shot. Deceptively simple. Insanely fun is quite accurate. First few rounds were very easy, and this made sense since it was the tutorial. As we move on it got a bit more difficult. No big deal tho, it was simple to learn. I grew up playing various card games so picking this up was easy. It however didn’t take long for me to get my rear end handed to me. The game won’t hold your hand for long, so when you get over-confident it will knock you down. The game is easy to learn, but not easy to master.

At the end of the day tho, it is still a card game and honestly if you have some money to sink into it, you will have a slight advantage. It is hard to say it is pay to win tho since having the right cards and knowing when and how to use them are very different. I lost a few games I should have won, and I won my share of games I should have lost.

Hearthstone is a fun game and I do wish I played it sooner. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trials Fusion

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Trials Fusion is free this month for Playstation 4 along with XCom 2. Which of course means I am going to play and review them. Trials Fusion was up first since it is the easiest and quickest to get into. The first few levels are training stages, but they mostly don’t even feel like it.

You will ride a bike (or a little later an a 4 wheeler quad) across a track and have to guide your bike across jumps and various obstacles. It varies from pretty simple to I wanted to throw my damn controller through a window. Fusion is however fun, and at the great price of free you should try it. I love seeing my friend’s name alongside my bike going through what their trials and trying to beat them as well, a great feature that I am glad to see. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Graveyard Keeper (Preview)

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Graveyard Keeper is an odd game. It starts out with your character going to the store and getting hit by a car. You then talk to what I assume is death and him telling you that you are now in charge of a graveyard. The game gets so much weirder. You are told to dig up Gerry and he will help you out. Gerry is a bouncing talking skull, that happens to be an alcoholic. He wants you to sell meat for beer. Where are you getting the meat? Well the meat is being dropped off by a talking donkey. Well he isn’t dropping off meat, he is dropping off dead bodies.

Your job is to fix up the graveyard so you can reopen the church. The alpha build is nice, and looks a lot like Stardew Valley. It functions nice and I haven’t hit any major bugs but admittedly there are some HUGE parts of the game missing, but they do warn you about this.

The game is well made and quite hilarious. The decision of what to do with the bodies is also interesting, you have limited space in your graveyard and I found myself occasionally ditching bodies in a nearby river to save space. This did however cost me valuable money. I am very much looking forward to the full release which should be in August. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Survive! Mr. Cube Review

First I would like to say thank you to Intragames for sending us a copy of this game to review, it was very generous of them to do and also quite unexpected. It is a game clearly made with love and has an interesting concept, but many games can make that claim. The real question is, how does this one compare?

Well the story itself is very basic, which is actually a good thing. You will get an opening story scene which is nice and then you are set free to survive as long as you possibly can in this rogue like game. This is where the game shines, while it sounds bad to say every time you die you start over this is where the fun is. You will keep your money and get the chance to shop and even get a free item.

The reason restarting is so much fun is you will be randomly given a new character. I do mean randomly, you will wake up back at the camp fire and may have an axe or sword maybe a mage or just a shield and your character will look different. I never got the same character twice, and I tried. I spent about 5-10 minutes just getting killed by the first enemy I saw. The weapons all feel very different, the spear has a great thrusting attack, the sword a slash and the axe an interesting spinning attack. The mace however I struggled with its smash attack, it is very strong tho.

The controls mostly work off the left and right thumb-stick on the PS4, left moves you the right attacks. The movement of the left stick works great, the attack on the right is a hit or miss. most weapons this works great. A couple however like the mace it felt a bit off, trying to hit enemies was a but rough at times. It is 100% doable by the way, it is in no way broken and I don’t advise against using it. Just be aware it will take some practice and you still may have a few issues.

So what does all this mean to you the consumer? Should you buy it? Well I will split this up for you. I know some of you are trophy hunters, and you will buy a game specifically for a quick platinum if it’s for the right price. For you guys, this is a must buy. Seriously today is the day. The price of $14.99 for a fun game and an easy platinum. I got it playing this for the review in maybe 1-2 hours and I wasn’t even done playing. So for you trophy hunters, this is a must buy.

Now for the people who don’t care about trophies. The game isn’t perfect but the issues, the repetitive music for example. But at its price point the graphics are nice, the game is fun, the trophies are easy to get and it has a nice amount of replay ability. You can sit down and play it for 20 minutes or 3 hours and get the same amount of enjoyment. For me this is an easy recommendation to buy. If I had to toss a number value on it, 7.5 out of 10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.