Savior Gaming

Vampyr

Dark, English towns where mists billow cobblestone streets, amongst the ladies and gentlemen fearing a plague…so how about we add vampires into the mix? Vampires rival zombies as the most popular of horror fiends in American culture, and while there have been plenty of games involving the children of the night, I can’t say I’ve played many of them. So what did this offering from the current console gen bring?

The year is 1918 and we play as Dr. Jonathan Reid, a surgeon and physician freshly returned from the trenches of WWI to his sister Mary. After a run in with a stranger, Jonathan is bitten and in the midst of an unholy suffering, he’s thirsty. In almost a trance, he kills Mary, draining her of blood. Besides the unquenchable blood thirst, Jonathan finds himself with super strength, speed, stamina, reflex a s well as a host of deadly powers making him a apex predator in civilized society. Rescued by a Dr. Edgar Swansea and given a job at the rundown at Pembroke hospital, funded by fellow vampire, Lady Ashbury, it’s up to Reid to shape the fate of the city and face the horror of what he has became as well as find his maker.

There’s nothing that burns worse than art in any medium that’s not lived up to it’s fullest potential. Vampyr is a prime example. First, the story and characters kept me going through the game. Reid is a sympathetic character I enjoyed playing as that never felt too sappy. The other characters I also really enjoyed, on top of the scenery and score that channel the classic, gothic vampire movies I grew up with. There’s the highlight. In theory, the list of powers you get are impressive but the inventory loadout doesn’t allow you to experiment with much at a time. While I loved plunging London into absolute chaos, that’s honestly you’re only real option. The game deals heavy with the karma system and if the base mechanics made sense, it’d be quite effective. Combat, which stales quickly, offers dismal XP and completing missions offers little more; most of your XP comes from mesmerizing and feeding off of other characters. You’re mesmerize level only advances as you progress the game but there are prompts to snuff characters you simply can’t yet. Without slaying every character you can, leveling up is a absolute crawl and the game becomes insanely hard. I hate the inventory system which feels really small and doesn’t get much room to expand. The character UI and AI are stupid as hell and randomly the game breaks into sometimes lengthy loading scenes. The game becomes repetitive after the first big boss was introduced. In the end, the game is a irritating slog but the good story and characters may keep you around. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trails of Cold Steel IV PS4 Review

As always with these things, I would love to give a huge shout out to NIS America for hooking me up with this one and this time a second shout out to my friend Erik that helped me review this one. The game is massive as is the series itself going beyond just these four games, so having a second set of eyes to help me catch certain things was greatly appreciated.

There are a few things to get out of the way, for example you can play this game without the other three, you will however you will be doing a great disservice to one of the best stories you will find on the PlayStation 4. I won’t go into the story of the other three games because that isn’t why we are here. The story to this bad boy however finishes off the story of Class 7 nicely. With The Erebonian Empire about to be at one hell of a war, you will go on a quest to save the world. You should know it takes place right after where three leaves off as a cliff hanger with one of the main characters in captivity.

Now if you are worried about the game play itself, the battle system is essentially the third with some upgrades. This isn’t a bad thing though because the battle system has always been a strong suit here. The classic turned based battles, beautiful graphics and amazing sound mixing together to create an experience not to be missed for RPG fans.

I honestly don’t have a lot to say about the game itself because I feel like I would be betraying the experience. From the very start as you get to know the new class 7 as you try to find Rean to the very end when you are fighting side by side with some of the series most iconic heroes, there is just something to always be looking forward to.

As for the score, this one is obviously going to be 9/10. Loved this game and thought it finished off everything nicely. Erik however as a fan of the series gave it a 10/10 and thought it finished everything up pretty much perfectly and gave us something from not only the Trails series the entire games series.

The Thing (2011)

Whether it was the black and white horror flick The Thing From Another World or John Carpenter’s horror remake masterpiece The Thing , this story played a huge part of my upbringing as a sci fi horror fan. So in 2011, I was pissed thinking Carpenter’s remake was getting remade (to be fair, naming your prequel the same as your original probably wasn’t the smartest move); finding out this is in fact a prequel gave me hope. How does this prequel fair?

Kate is a American paleontologist who gets recruited to a high profile excavation in the Arctic. The venture is a American and Norwegian; the only info most of them have is that a unknown structure is involved and an unidentified specimen. They take the specimen, incased in ice, back to base and celebrate, unaware of the terror about to be unleashed. If destroying a killer alien in the frozen tundra wasn’t a problem enough, what if the creature could be you?

Ok, so bullshit aside, Thing 2011 doesn’t offer pretty much anything Carpenter didn’t do better. Essentially, if you saw the remake, you knew these people were screwed from the get go. I will give the team credit for paying attention to detail so you can backtrack many of the imagery to things seen in the remake. While the acting is solid, no one really stands out. The effects are solid but too CGI heavy and too many times I felt like I was watching a cutscene for a video game rather than a movie; the ending especially has some of the most questionable effects. While the movie moves at a pretty fast pace, it does lack the suspense and intrigue of the remake. In the end, it’s not a bad movie or a great movie, but does good enough at being a prequel to a way better movie (think the Rogue One of horror prequels). May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Halloween ( 2007)

So folks, this blog has been going on a few years now and with the exception of a brief mention in 5 remakes that went and pissed me off and I’ve praised Halloween as well as Halloween (2018) so it comes full circle having to talk about Rob Zombie’s remake. Oh boy…

The Myers family was a white trash family in a busted down home in the otherwise decent neighborhood of Haddonfield, Illinois. Michael, the middle child, is a mentally unstable kid from an abusive home and consistently being bullied at school loving only his mom, baby sister, and the masks he’s obsessed with. Come one Halloween night, Michael snaps, slaughtering his sister, her boyfriend, and step dad. He’s sent away to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium where he was fruitlessly treated by Dr. Sam Loomis for fifteen years, until he escaped and picked up where his killing spree ended…

Ok, if this wasn’t a remake of one of my all time favorites, I’d be fine with it mostly. Adult Michael is a badass and I do really like the withered mask and his ultra violent nature. I like how Zombie uses a mix of Carpenter’s classic scores as well as a intense, updated version of them. I really like how the movie overall tries to treat Michael Myers as the main character and I was surprised at how heartfelt the relationship between Michael and Loomis was at times. I even liked how it ended between Laurie and Michael. All of these are positives he brought to the table and genuinely you can tell he was into it. BUT the negatives absolutely kill this movie. First, I can’t stand the overusing of language and sleaze in Zombie’s movies; I’m really open minded but Zombie overuses foul language and sleaze to where it becomes just annoying and makes pretty of his characters unlikeable. Young Michael was simply annoying as shit and if you couldn’t peg him as a future serial killer, no one would be, missing almost the whole point of the original. Between the scummy town, dickhead teens, money grubbing Loomis, and whiney Michael, no one in this movie is likeable and the whole point of Michael Myers is thrown out the window. I also feel like this movie is a somewhat decent prequel but the whole third act feels like condensed, rushed remake of the original. I’m also wondering how the hell a chubby kid grew into a jacked up 6’8 behemoth locked away in a asylum for 15 years. Michael’s mask obsession bothered the shit out of me and seemed cliché. In the end, the movie is ok but doesn’t hold a candle to the original or 2018 but it’s way better than House of 1000 Corpses . Happy Halloween everyone and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Scanners

In a world of live action comic book superhero horror adaptations, it is almost hard to imagine superpowers and fear in the same chain of thought. While movies like Split , Brightburn , and Carrie broke that mold; there’s always been one special film that managed to be smart, quirky, full of action and moments of sickening gore. Enter Scanners.

Scanners are defined as unhinged folks who possess strong telepathic and telekinetic abilities- lonely derelict Cameron Vale is one of these Scanners. Captured and given a drug to subdue the voices in his head, Dr. Ruth of the organization Consec asks a favor of Vale. He asks him to go undercover in search of a destructive and powerful Scanner named Daryl Revok who plans on starting bloody movement. As Vale leads to track down the madman, conspiracies begin to unveil themselves around Cameron as he’s being hunted by a seemingly all powerful foe…

First of all, Scanners is what I consider to be a cult classic by the man who brought us Videodrome and The Fly . I love the gore effects on display and the eerie science fiction music that is responsible for much of the tension; honestly without the score and effects there are things in this movie that would just look silly. While the acting is solid all around, I have to say Michael Ironside is great as Revok, delivering a command performance as a villainous demigod. The story flows well but there are some twists that felt funky to me in the final act. I do appreciate the dark as hell turnout in the end and the fact that the movie doesn’t feel like a comic book but a sci fi thriller all it’s own. In the end, Scanners is a fun sci fi action movie with some memorable gore, a great villain, and some interesting questions to ask. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! (PS4 Review)

As always with these things, huge shout out to ININ games for hooking us up with a copy of Umihara Kawase BaZooKa!

What at first I thought would be nothing more than a variation of the Smash formula turned out to be so much more. While yes that obviously exist, as you can tell from the trailer, there is also a full challenge mode you can play, which for you trophy hunters is mandatory if you want this pretty easy platinum to pick up. I know how much of a selling point that is for some of you.

The controls are admittedly a little sluggish and the graphics will let some of you down, but as with most ININ games these aren’t meant to be AAA titles, they are for people that love the old fashioned classic feel of gaming. This game truly does capture that feeling of nostalgia. As I sat on my bed playing explaining to my daughter what the hell I was playing I recalled my time playing my NES and SNES for hours on end. That being said when my daughter played the game with me, she had no issue playing and she didn’t start gaming until the Xbox 360 era. They always manage to walk that fine like between classic feel and new age gaming.

That all being said, there isn’t much of a story here and the game play can be repetitive. Outside of a multiplayer party setting or trophy hunting outside of some quick nostalgia fun or to kill some time before leaving for work, this isn’t something you will want to play for hours on end. I did like popping it on for 15 or 20 minutes here or there though. Each character also feels pretty much the same outside of their special moves.

With all that taken into account this is a solid 7/10 for me. If you like that classic feel and this sort of game, its a good buy for you. If you don’t however, save your money. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Halloween Kills teaser 2

I’ll be the first to say it, Halloween is pretty much dead for many, even before the pandemic of 2020. Christmas has Santa, Easter has the Bunny, well Halloween has jolly old Michael Myers. Just a small taste of the beloved icon was enough to make me smile. Next year I’m thrilled to watch the Shape return and see him return home…may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Undead Darlings: No Cure For Love

First and foremost, huge shout out to the guys and gals over at Sekai Games, with developer Mr.Tired Media for hooking me up with this one. I wasn’t truly sure what I was in for, but this close to Halloween and it being October you guys know I was all too happy to play anything with the word undead in it.

First and foremost, this is a dungeon crawling RPG with turn-based combat. It kind of reminds me of the old first person dungeon crawler system of Persona, fully equipped with an automapping tool so you know where you have been. When you enter combat, it has a Phantasy Star 4 vibe, you see your characters from behind choose your attacks and some moves will even combine to make new moves. The only real issue I had here was that weapons eventually break (though they can be repaired before that happens) but this was hardly a major thing, it just annoyed me.

While the battle system is fun and easy to get used to, it isn’t anything we as gamers haven’t seen before. The story however was something I found refreshing and worth the time. You will wake up to find your childhood friend a zombie, but not he eating you kind. It turns out some zombies retain their humanity and these can be cured. The rest aren’t so lucky. Why you haven’t turned and how your father is connected to all this is quickly explained before you are on your way, with some of it outright mocking the fact that it doesn’t exactly make sense and you shouldn’t be asking questions because it ruins the narrative.

The story is full of small nods to video game and horror movie tropes that are fully acknowledged as being what they are and mocked or admittedly ignored. You will meet new characters, many of which will admit to the the fact things are messed up but go along with it anyway and always in a humorous manner even to the point the monsters themselves are explained something that are there and one of the lovely zombie ladies comments she wises she was one of the cute ones instead of a zombie.

All in all at the price point and as a fan of RPGs this is one of the better ones in that range. Definitely an 8/10 from me. For what the game is and was trying to be it succeeds beautifully.

Doom 3

Admittedly my experience with Doom has been pretty limited but I loved 2016 and Doom: Eternal is likely the best game I’ve played all year. With Halloween time upon us, I wanted to see what this iconic series had to offer. What did I find, descending into the black sheep of the Doom franchise?

The UAC has been busy at work on Mars, at the height of there fame and prosperity. A lone, silent marine comes to Mars as part of the security team for the new experiments going on up there. Things go awry as power dies and otherworldly creatures are let loose, demons straight from hell, slaughtering the soldiers and scientists in the facility. Alone, you must battle you’re way through the layers of hell and stop the end…

So first and foremost, I have to say the game runs pretty good for something 2 console gens old and graphicly it holds up quite decent at times. That being said, Doom 3 feels like a generic horror shooter rather than the crazy ass, ultra-violent mayhem fest the series was and is now known for. It’s really dark, there’s creepy whispering in tight corridors, a crazy mad scientist, spooky music and you’re fighting mostly gun wielding zombies, ghost creatures, with some series regulars sprinkled throughout. Gone is the ultra violence and kick ass metal music and feeling like a bloodthirsty unstoppable badass. The shotgun sucks but the weapons from the machine gun and up are serviceable; while you do fair damage, you don’t feel the oomph behind them and the sounds are weak. For a game that involves a lot of sneaking enemies, there could have been better sound ques to alert you for things coming up behind you. In the end, Doom 3 isn’t a terrible game in a pinch but it lacks anything that made the classics and reboots so memorable, but it’s ok as a standard horror shooter. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Costume Kingdom (PS4 Review)

As always with these things I like to give a quick up front shout out the people that hooked me up with review copies, and this time it is the fine folks over at Stratton studios for hooking us up with this Halloween inspired game.

Now to be perfectly up front this was a rough game for me to review for a variety of reasons. Every time it did something I enjoyed, there was something i hated close by. I love the pokemon style of game play (known as Hallomon in this one) and I loved that the enemies leveled up with you. I hated that you really couldn’t catch them though and you relied on getting new mask to get new monsters. I loved using the mask to solve puzzles and do different things, but I hated that many times finding a new mask relied on someone giving you a vague direction like its over in the forest while you are in a town surrounded by trees.

Graphically however the game was about what you would expect from an indy company, it won’t win any rewards but the game looks solid and the sound serves its purpose which honestly is all I will ever ask from any video game I play. It doesn’t have to be outstanding and amazing, it has to add to the feeling of the environment and this does that.

The story is simple, you play as a kid trying to win the Apex cup which is just a tournament the town has on Halloween and true to fashion you end up saving the place. I honestly can’t say anything about the game in any strong feelings fashion. I didn’t dislike the game, or like it. I didn’t even find it memorable. I would never tell someone not to buy it, but I can’t recommend it either. Th is game literally just exist to me. It is a 5/10 to me. It isn’t a waste of money, but it won’t be well spent either. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.