gaming – Page 51 – Savior Gaming

Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator 2.0 Review

Tinybuild has once again been kind enough to send me a copy of Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator on Steam to check out their new 2.0 update. While it is available on consoles I haven’t played it on those. It does have very positive Steam ratings, and with very good reason.

The game starts out pretty standard, you find an old building and set up a potion shop. There is a small garden to grow basic ingredients, you have a basic alchemy set up and there is a busted machine in the basement. The tutorial will show you different ways to brew a potion. This is a simple thing to do but is super hard to master. Each ingredient will move you along the map towards different effects. You can put multiple effects on a single potion if you want or line up your potion better to make the effects stronger. This will take some practice but it isn’t that hard.

Different customers will want different things and will pay more for effects they want, you may have a high level healing potion, and you may have that recipe saved so you can mass produce them, but they may want a weaker one with only 2 ingredients. They are happy to wait and pay more for what they want.

You also have to decide if you are willing to sell to less reputable people or not. Selling poison to customers trying to get rid of rats is fine, some might be trying to get rid of their husbands and that will encourage others that want to burn down houses to come seeking fire potions. There is good money in it but your shop will get a reputation for being not such a nice place. There isn’t a wrong way to play, it just changes who comes to your shop. So feel free to encourage whoever to show up that you want.

My favorite part of this game is that while it has its challenges, and there are only so many things you can do in a day, the game is pretty relaxing. You never feel like it is all about to come crashing down. If you want to try to finish everything as fast as possible that is a perfectly viable way to play. If you want to sit back, try to collect a ton of herbs and master every potion and just collect money the game doesn’t punish you. I spent 45 minutes just trying to master the health potion for no other reason that I felt like it. The first 7 days in game I spent just trying to maximize my garden and figuring out I was wasting ingredients on poison nobody was buying. I haven’t had this much fun slacking off in a game in a while, and I definitely think you guys will enjoy this one. Solid 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop Review (Steam)

As always I like to give a shout-out when someone is nice enough to send me a game to review, and Kasedo Games was nice enough to do exactly that with Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop which you can find over on Steam. It is also available on both Xbox and PlayStation.

Another thing I would like to get out of the way is that I am bad at this game. I am truly terrible. This isn’t the fault of the game or its creator, the tutorial while short and sweet, is great. It gives you a quick and easy-to-use reference book that you can access with the push of a button. Each section is quickly accessible and is easy to read and are even outlined with easy-to-read pictures and numbered diagrams. If you want to see how to check a ship’s oil, it shows you on the ship and in the book what tab to look at, etc. They made it almost idiot-proof. Unfortunately, they didn’t plan on my existence.

The story is simple, you work for a giant floating head, you fix ships while your customers hang out in the diner and you charge them for parts and labor. This portion is essentially out of your hands. You can choose between two game modes that you can swap between. Timed where you get paid based on how quick you are and you can do pretty much unlimited jobs per day, or untimed where you can only do 3 jobs a day but you are judged on accuracy.

Fixing parts is pretty straight forward, you got your tools, you take them out, recharge or replace the broken stuff, then put them back in, usually in reverse of how you took them out. You will use a screwdriver and many other things with your mouse just like you would a real one. There are ways to upgrade to powered versions to make this quicker and easier.

Another thing to add, you are supposed to fail at this game, and it is going to happen a lot. You can tell this game was made with love. I will say again, I am not good at this game. I will keep playing it, I doubt I get better at it, but I will keep playing at it. It is sitting at very positive Steam reviews for very good reasons. Without a doubt an 8/10 game that you absolutely should check out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated Out Now on PC

This game came out years ago on the X-Box Live Arcade and I know many of you would have missed it. So great news, for about $5 ( or your regional equivalent) you can check this one out now on PC. Here is a quick blurb they sent me about the release, and who knows maybe I will have a review up soon. Stay tuned to find out.

An true upgraded 16-bit retro experience!

Unlockable Adventure-like minigame “Dragonduck Mode”

New OST by HyperDuck SoundWorks (Dust: An Elysian Tail, Cosmic Star Heroine)

Specifically designed to streamline the turn-based RPG experience

Comedy-focused writing and a light-hearted parody of the genre

Low PC specs, HIGH performance!

The Nerd Narrative

Many of you may have noticed I haven’t been writing as much lately. It has been unfortunate but it has been a rough year. I won’t say 2025 will be my year though, that seems to be a curse for people. I did want to let you guys know about the new podcast my buddy Donny, Nick,and myself have started. It is called The Nerd Narrative. It is basically all of us bullshitting about things like video games, movies and monsters. Either way check it out on Spotify.

Chained Echoes Ashes of Elrant DLC 2025

Deck13 Spotlight are ending 2024 with some incredible news.

Chained Echoes was nominated game of the year in Germany 2023 and was acclaimed throughout the world as one special JRPG. Now the awesome announcement of a new experience with DLC that will be released in 2025 across all platforms!

Flocking Hell (Demo)

So I got an email from Sextant Studios which you can find over on Blue Sky ( also feel free to follow me here ) Asking me if I would be interested in checking out their demo, and of course, I was only too happy too.

The game has an odd premise, and I am as the kids say, here for it. Hell has indeed opened up in the fields you call home, and you must connect the cities to defend yourself. You do this in what I can best describe as an auto battler meets strategy game for people who have little time to waste but want to have a hard time mastering something. Also, they grew up loving Minesweeper.

Did I mention, that you play as sheep? Yes, Flocking Hell refers to the fact you are indeed sheep. I do not know or care how these sheep built these full-fledged cities, but they have done it. You click these empty spaces to discover towns then connect them and watch these adorable sheep run to and fro to reinforce each other to defend against the incoming horde and after 80 turns, there will be hell. Sort of, the demons are honestly as cute as the sheep. I love those little guys even when they wreck me, and they did. For two hours I couldn’t get past level 4, I suck at this game. But damn if I don’t enjoy it.

A nice touch is the card system, you get them in between levels ( you do start with a couple) and they do various things like leveling up your cities or showing blocks, etc. They do cost sheep to use but the rewards usually outweigh the cost. I haven’t gotten the chance to use them all and I am far from having mastered the game and its mechanics, but check out the trailer below and absolutely check out the demo over on Steam.

Starbound (Xbox Review)

Starbound finally made its way over to Xbox and chucklefish was kind enough to toss me a copy to check out which as you all know I always appreciate it.

Starbound starts out on what should be the best day of your character’s life. Graduating from a program that will allow your character to travel the galaxy helps your people survive. Just then, an alien force invaded your world and wiped the place out and you barely escaped with your life.

You and your trust pet make it off the world just in time for your ship to break over a randomly generated world for you to explore. From there you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Build up a small home, improve your gear, fix your ship up and explore the galaxy even more. Anyone familiar with Terraria knows how the game is played.

The game is quite nice to look at and it sounds even better. The sounds are great to listen to as you tinker with little things in your base or as you dog around trying to find something new to build.

My only real complaint is the controls aren’t great. Don’t get me wrong they aren’t bad, they are functional but not much more than that. Mouse and keyboard would probably function much better. Don’t let this discourage you from picking up this excellent title. It is a solid 7/10 and worth the $15 price point. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wildermyth: Console Edition (Xbox review)

Wildermyth Console edition is a new tactical RPG from Auroch Digital that they were kind enough to send me. It is always appreciated.

As some of you may have noticed over the years,reviewing games isn’t always a pleasure. Occasionally I am sent a game that I have to slog through and it just kind of makes me hate my life. Then there is the story book world of Wildermyth. Where you can take randomly created characters,or take the time to name and customize them to your liking and get lost in the gameplay that combines turn based strategy combat and a map strategy that reacts to your every move.

Spending too much time securing one area could result in enemies attacking

The basic story (there are a few) starts out with you saving a friend, rival or romantic love interest (your choice) from the city that’s under attack. This will introduce you to the first 2 starter characters and how to do basic attacks or interactions with doors.

From there you meet your third character and how to use this game’s version of magic, which is another quick battle. This is essentially just using items on the map to use different attacks, for example using a candle to set enemies on fire or a tree to hit enemies with vine whips for example.

The game looks and sounds nice and comes with a varsity of difficulty settings and even can be mostly customized which is always appreciated. The combat is fluid and functions well, but unfortunately I do have a small issue. It isn’t game breaking but it is annoying. I’m sure it will be patched soon,and it is so rare that many people probably won’t run into it but I have been able to repeat it.

While in combat sometimes while using magic the game will just close out, and it always seems to be when using trees to hit bigger enemies. This may have simply been a coincidence but I did get it to work 3 times in the same battle and once more in a different battle, always using a tree against a larger enemy.

Aside from that the game has been great to play through and I am sure I will put many more hours into it. I would score it higher if it weren’t for that,but as of now it’s a 6/10. 8/10 if that glitch were fixed. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (PS5 Review)

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead from Stormmind Games and Saber Interactive is primarily a stealth game set in the world of the movie franchise, A Quiet Place. In case the name didn’t somehow give that away. They were also nice enough to hook me up with a copy of this one. Normally I appreciate this, but I extra appreciate this one since “my most middle child” affectionately calls themselves loves to watch these movies with me. So being able to continue on in this world with them was a nice treat.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a very odd enigma in gaming for me. It managed to create a very odd paradox where the game is simultaneously so slow and methodical I found myself bored and not wanting to play, but also on edge watching the phonometer creep its way between the environmental noise and the noise I was making and hoping a monster didn’t just out and eat me.

This is the key component of the game. You can not let the noise you make go higher than the environmental noises or the alien monsters that have taken over the earth will attack you. This requires you to walk very slowly pretty much at all times, and perform every action such as opening doors, drawers, air vents, etc. at a snail’s pace or risk certain death. While this makes for a tense and terrifying experience it doesn’t always make for a fun experience.

None of this makes it a bad game, it does look nice and the horror aspects of it are great. It does feel like You are sneaking through the world trying not to get killed by one of these creatures. And since you are playing as an asthmatic 20 -something year old the decision of hitting your inhaler and possibly alerting the alien or waiting it out can be exhausting.

A Quiet Place won’t be for everyone, it is however a solid title. It won’t be winning any Game of the Year titles for example. At about 10 hours of playtime, however, fans of the series won’t be disappointed with the story of Alex and her adventure to find someplace safe for herself. I give it a 7 of 10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you gloty.

8 Bit Adventure 2 (PS5 Review)

8 Bit Adventure 2 is an old school turn based RPG sent my way by Ratalaika Games, a company I always appreciate working with. Their titles may be a bit hit and miss at times,and if you are in a hurry to find out if this one is worth buying,this one is definitely a hit.

Now I should say first this is a sequel and connected to the first game,which I did not play. The game does a great job telling you the story of the first game (I assume) and even lets you name the heroes from the first story. Either way you certainly do not need to play the first game. Basically the original story was that the heroes helped a computer program save the world from certain doom. In the process the female hero (you will name her) saved some orphans and has been looking in on them, and you play as one of these children. She also fell in love with the male hero (you will name him as well) and they lived somewhat happily ever after.

Charlie wants to get strong like the first games heroes

The battles are turned based,like the old SNES games that inspired it. Also like those when, when he overheard a conversation he shouldn’t have and discovered that the woman he looks up to is leaving on a mission to save her lost love, he springs into action in an attempt to help her save one of the first game’s heroes.

Just another town,that will probably burn

Truth be told you won’t see anything new in this game. Turn based battles, buying weapons after grinding out some levels and money to learn new moves or buy items. Even the story is pretty much save the world from evil. It is however a great nostalgia ride. It is also pretty well written compared to what we played growing up in the 1990s. You are gonna want to check this one out if you love RPGs, especially at it’s price point of around $20. 8/10, best wishes and may the Gaming gods bring you glory.