Savior Gaming

Smalland:Survive the Wild is a new survival game on PS5 that Merge Games was kind enough to send me a copy to check out. Obviously a special shout out to them for hooking me up.

With that out of the way, there is a bit to cover. You will start out right after your group (of which you are the only survivor) gets attacked by a wasp. Your job is to survive,meet up with other members of your race that have also finally come above ground,and not get bullied by the local wild life.

For starters the game looks great. I loved just taking in the scenery or watching the butterflies go about their day and once followed a lady bug around to see what it would do. (Not much for the record,it’s just a bug) They really paid attention to the little things it seems as when night comes you don’t see too many of the non hostile creatures around because they are replaced with more violent entities, even if it’s just a nocturnal lady bug.a

The sound is another place the game shines at. Hearing a bee fly overhead is surprisingly scary when you are maybe an inch or 2 tall and can ride insects. Storms will occasionally rage in the sky and you need to hide out, because again at that size even a raindrop can be devastating. I remember not long after I started simply sitting in my makeshift leaf house waiting for a stop to pass. This process doesn’t take long,you won’t waste much real time thankfully.

The building is also simple and intuitive,and finding materials is easy since your characters actually have a special ability to help see materials and enemies on the screen. Not that they are hard to find anyway,but it is a nice touch.

Nothing is perfect tho and I feel like the enemies have a weird jump to them. The earlier ants are pretty easy to deal with but it isn’t long before you run into bigger threats like beetles and bees, and to really get into the story of the game you need to traverse through areas you may not be ready for. Bees also hang out around some of the great trees and make leaving your base more challenging than it should be if you aren’t prepared, and you won’t be if you pick the wrong great tree.

None of this takes away from the enjoyment of the game though,in fact for many this will only make it better. This is definitely one of the better survival games on PS5, and a must buy for fans of the genre. 8/10, pick this one up and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

NIS america was kind enough to toss me a copy of the upcoming PS5 releases of Trials of Cold Steel 3 and 4. Something important to note here is if you are buying them digitally they are 2 separate purchases but retail they do come packaged together.

  Another thing to note here is while this is without a doubt the definitive way to play these titles, if you have already purchased them I truthfully cannot see a reason to buy the PS5 versions.

Both games follow the story of Rean and Class 7 as they deal with the aftermath of the war. This is also a decent point to jump into the series as it does start essentially a new part of the story that the first 2 games dealt with.(I still recommend starting at 1 tho)

The games look and play beautifully and come with all the released DLC items. This is fantastic and does add a lot to the game (mostly nice cosmetics)

The turn based combat is also beautiful and has always been the highlight of the series for me.

  As for the big question, should you buy this game? Yes, 9/10. Any RPG fan should pick this up if you haven’t already. If you have, only die hard fans will want to upgrade in my opinion. Best wishes and may the Gaming gods bring you glory.

Dead Man’s Diary is a narrative survival game released by TML-Studios and they were kind enough to send me a copy to review. I have to say I was really excited to play this one and check it out.

That excitement was met with a beautiful game with a world that felt pretty empty. I never felt like I was in any real danger. Collecting supplies was a chore because every new section requires you to recollect basic things to build a camp fire and a place to sleep. None of which had any real variety or ability to make your own.

The sounds and music were fantastic however. Walking through the woods or exploring abandoned cities you could hear the creek of wood from old houses or windmills or the wind blowing through the trees. While the world is alive,there simply isn’t much to do.

The controls themselves aren’t bad but could be clunky at times when trying to jump over things that look like you should be able to get over but can’t. Having to use a Geiger counter to examine any food or water you find is an interesting idea, but having to switch back and forth between that and your flashlight so much is quite honestly just annoying.

The news isn’t all bad however. The game goes heavy on the narrative and this will keep many people invested in the game. It starts out with your character explaining that a nuclear war ended society and the time period people were expected to be in the bunkers was wrong. As a result lots were drawn to see who would be kicked out of the bunker to make sure there is enough supplies for everyone else,and you are the lucky winner of a permanent eviction.

This trend of your character telling his story or commenting on things around him continues and it is where the game shines the most. This however will not be enough for everyone,and that’s ok. For me if you like survival games this one is a huge disappointment but if you like narrative adventures the story is quite interesting. For me it’s a 6/10, and survival fans are better off looking elsewhere for their survival needs. Narrative fans however will find some enjoyment. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Devil Inside us:Roots of Evil is another narrative based game that is built strongly on story and revolves around an exorcist that is recognized by the Vatican itself. The story starts in 1984 and jumps quickly to the future when you will return as an old man attempting to help a family against an evil in the home.

If this sounds like something out of most horror movies,you would be right. It does more or less follow a tried and true formula set up by Hollywood for generations.

I have very mixed feelings about this game,it looks solid and the story while not attempting to reinvent the wheel does enough to make itself standout in a genre that is pretty over done.

My biggest issue with the game is honestly I just didn’t enjoy it. Our priest walks slowly, which makes sense for a guy in his 70’s, figuring out where to go was really just a matter of aimlessly walking around the house end it’s yard, and it was too easy to just die because your exorcism powers ran out at the wrong time and you didn’t have the item needed to replenish them.

These complaints about the gameplay are admittedly just my personal issue. The game has 100% very positive reviews on Steam and it definitely doesn’t shy away from what they are doing with the story as finding a dead body isn’t uncommon. For me the game just wasn’t fun and part of that was the slow movement and lack of any real direction. The story however is its saving grace,and that’s what is important for the game. A solid 6/10. It wasn’t for me,but many will love it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Lil’ Guardsman is the newest release from my friends over at Hilltop Studios publishing and the great people over at Tinybuild Versus Evil, and once again they were kind enough to toss me a review copy of the game. Huge shout out to them for once again trusting me with top secret information. (I mean video games)

 

First thing I want to get out of the way is that Lil’ Guardsman is above all a narrative based game. You won’t be swinging swords or hurling magic etc. You will spend most of your time in a guardhouse using your tools and common sense to decide who can come into the town and who can not.

 All of these decisions matter however. Let the wrong person in and it can end the game early, it is also completely possible to say the wrong thing and have your guardhouse burned down. I discovered this when I decided screwing with the very obvious arsonist went wrong.

One of the many machines you can use in this game is a truth serum that will make people tell you exactly why they are coming to your town, sort of. Later in the game you may or may not come across people that can resist it. (you will) and you will need a crystal to use each tool. These aren’t hard to come across but you wont get enough to power every tool every day or multiple times so make your choice on who and when to use them count.

The story itself is what matters here. The graphics are nice and perfect for what we are playing here and the sound is great. But the part that matters is the story, and honestly between the interesting story and the cute and hilarious dialogue this game is a great 9/10. I loved my time with this one and have no issue recommending it to others, with one small note. If you have never played or enjoyed a narrative game before, this is one of those rare games that could change your mind. It isn’t hard to get into or understand and there is plenty of reason to try new things. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rising Lords is another game Deck13 was cool enough to send me and it’s honestly another game I sank far more time into than I expected. With the help of Argonwood they have crafted a beautiful,if not slightly flawed, strategy game.

Rising Lords is a strategy game through and through and comes with a couple of game modes (and a tutorial). I spent most of my time in the custom games after I finished the tutorial because I found the story a bit difficult to learn the ropes in,but honestly that could just be a me issue. It is also worth noting the game comes with a full multiplayer mode but I never got the chance to dig into it prior to this review.

The game plays as you would expect with you controlling a small town and it’s peasants. Every 250 population gets you a new peasant that you can use to work fields, work the blacksmith or any number of other things to keep your resources like food,wood or iron coming in.

When the time is right however you are going to want to build an army to spread your influence around. This will let you have an easier time collecting the things you need. (some things aren’t even available in every area it seems) Luckily it is very easy to send things from one town you own to another so even if you end up in a position like I found myself in where one town had more food than I would really need but another town starving you cam easily ship it over.

Combat is also very well done with a sort of rock paper scissors way of units being better against some than others with the terrain also playing a big part. Take your knights charging through a swamp into some spearmen and it’s going to be a bad day even when you out number the enemy almost 2 to 1. Use those same knights to catch some peasants or swordsmen on the plains and they will make quick work of them.

The graphics are great for what they are aiming for and I couldn’t ask for more from the sound. You will notice I’ve only had one complaint so far and it wasn’t the controls,which is intentional. The controls have come a long way on console for this sort of game and this is no exception. While the mouse and keyboard will probably always be king for strategy games, console developers have hit a point where I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

This game is an easy buy for strategy game fans and even the slight balancing issues in the story mode aren’t anything to worry about. Definitely check this one out,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.