So I never played Remothered so I can’t say I was hyped for this game. However, this installment peaked my interest. The imagery alone is off putting and looks to be more suspense driven then your typical running sim or survival horror experience. I’m always looking to expand my interest when it comes to horror games so I would definitely like to see more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Vultures – Scavengers of Death was sent my way by Team Vultures and Firesquid Games, which I am always thankful for. Vultures- Scavengers of Death is basically what you would get if classic Resident Evil and X-Com had a baby. You will hear this a lot, but there is no way to avoid this comparison because it really wears this on its sleeve.
The story is quite simple: you go through missions investigating an area with characters Amber and Leopold. While doing this, you will fight assorted zombies, creatures, and cultists that have been affected by a biohazard. You can already see the Resident Evil vibe shining through, I am sure. The combat is very tactical, turn-based, and if you have played X-Com at all, you will feel right at home.
Scavenging for items such as ammo and Molotovs to use feels great. Coming from a Resident Evil background, this and the story made me feel right at home. Unfortunately, coming from a Bethesda background, the multitude of glitches and technical issues also made me feel right at home. Starting in the tutorial, I had to deal with multiple crashes, controls that randomly decided not to work at all, and once even a tutorial that just did its own thing and forced me to redue a section.
Now the game still sits at very positive reviews on Steam, and for less than $20, I can see why. The game is far from perfect, and the issues can be easily fixed with a patch, and may even be caused by system specs. It is still a 6/10 title that is worth checking out. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The Shore was sent my way by Iphi Games, and is one of those beautiful, atmospheric horror games that were on PC for a long time and finally made its way to console. You will start off on a beach searching for something and will quickly figure out what that something is. More importantly, that something is someone, and that someone is your daughter.
It doesn’t take long to discover that something on this island isn’t right. I mean that quite literally, the game only takes around 4 hours to finish. That 4 hours, however, are filled with some beautiful sights, some horrible monsters, and a pretty heart-wrenching story. Is it really worth the very odd price point of $21.49 tho?
Well, as I said, the game is truly beautiful. I also can’t deny that the sound is incredible; it gets pretty creepy from the music alone as you walk up and down the beach and see the occasional Lovecraftian horror out in the distance.
This does bring me to why I can’t recommend the game on PS5 unless you have no choice. The game is $12 on Steam, and they even have bundles for about 20. For a 4-hour game with so little replay val/ue to be such a price in one place and less in another, even when that game is an 8/10 title, I can’t recommend you buy it on console over Steam, unless you only own a console. That being said, the game is worth experiencing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Factory Magnate was sent my way by Indie IO, which is always appreciated. To be honest, you are going to see some strong opinions about this from every direction, and I understand why. My first real factory building game of this sort was Factorio. ( You can see my Switch review here) If you are looking for something in-depth, you are very much looking in the wrong place. My original review did contain some misinformation about the ability to copy and paste entire sections. If you look at the comments, a Dev was kind enough to correct this, and as such, I have corrected it. This can be done quite simply by checking your keybindings and using those.
What the game does have is a very easy-to-learn flow to it, and no enemies. It is a very cozy factory builder at a low price point. Less than $10, so if you have always wanted to get into these games but were afraid of wasting your money, Factory Magnate is a fantastic entry point.
The game quite literally starts you out with simply mining copper and selling it. From there it will show you how to turn it into copper ingots and sell those. From there will show you how to make things like copper sheets and wires, and combine those with silicone and make other things to make money.
The only challenge in this game is setting up your factory in such a way as to avoid backing up your conveyor belts and locking up your money flow. This is a great introduction to the systems in all of these games. I have changed my score to reflect this new information, since the quality of life things aren’t missing like I originally thought. The game is an 8/10 title for everyone. It is a great title to learn the genre, or simply to relax with for veterans. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Bus Bound is the newest bus driving simulator sent my way by Saber Interactive, a company that if you love driving simulator you undoubtably have played one of their games. This time around they are tackling driving city busses. What you may not know about good ole Savior is I spent some time a a school bus driver at one point. So if this game is bad, or these buses don’t feel like busses, I will know quickly.
The first thing you do is get a tutorial, and they quickly explain you won’t be dealing with ticket fairs. Great move Saber, I hated this in other bus simulators. There is just no way to do this without greatly slowing down the flow of the game, and having rode many busses most people pay with exact change anyway and the few buttons I have seen drivers hit require next to no time. Saber chose to explain it as the company gets paid through grants or taxes or something.
Graphically the game is beautiful. A couple times I almost hit a few things because as you reach milestones the city will upgrade and I was taking in the sights and forgot to hit the breaks. This brings me to how you are rated, in real time, by passengers. If you drive well, slow down for speed bumps ( keep it under 10 MPH ladies and gents) and stop at stop signs and don’t speed they will make positive comments, give you a thumbs up, give you multipliers and stops will upgrade faster and even help you get new busses. Slamming on the breaks, speeding, hitting speed bumps hard and other assorted violations will do the opposite.
This was always going to be the big selling or killing point for me however. Does it feel like driving a bus, and how is traffic? Well I am going to let you in on a secret, when you are driving a bus other drivers always seem like idiots, because they don’t realize how big a bus actually is an how hard it is to see them sometimes. They also don’t realize those things don’t stop or really turn a fast as their smaller cars, so when they whip in front of you or cut you off, it gets stressful because if there is an accident, the other person will die, and you in the bus will be fine. And we will have to live with that knowledge. The traffic in this game basically acts like real traffic does, and I like that. As for how the bus controls, it isn’t perfect but damn is it close. Busses need wide turns, but they are modern so they don’t feel heavy and clunky, just like modern busses. They don’t stop fast, but they jolt a bit, just like modern busses. My only complaint every bus feels similar, and that isn’t realistic. Even two of the same model school bus feels a bit different. The game is still a 8/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Sudden Strike 5 was sent my way by Kalypso Media, a company I always enjoy working with. If you are unfamiliar with this series, Sudden Strike 5 is a real-time strategy game that will allow you to fight through various battles from different sides of World War 2.
For example, the first battle as the Nazi’s will see you sending paratroopers down in an attempt to take over certain spots on a map where you can resupply before taking over the cities on the map. This will require some strategy on your part, as you will be outnumbered and outgunned. You can take over some abandoned equipment and call in air support when needed, admittedly, only a limited number of times.
While moving your troops will march in formation if you tell them to, which is a very nice touch that even today many of these types of games are missing. I really only have one major complaint about the game, and it isn’t the sound, which is great. It also isn’t the visuals, which, while I feel the infantry characters could pop out a little better, so they would be easier to pick out, this isn’t a huge issue. No, the game is visually great.
My biggest issue is that what passes as a tutorial is just horrible. This takes what should be an enjoyable, difficult real-time strategy game and creates an unapproachable nightmare for many. Don’t get me wrong, the game is great if you are a veteran of these types of games because you will be able to work it out, but that shouldn’t be a prerequisite to playing it. No, I am not saying make the game easier; I am saying teach people how to play your game. This is a 7/10 title that probably should have been much better. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Ash & Adam’s Existential Treads was sent my way by the people over at Game Taste. I always appreciate working with new people and companies.
To start, I don’t truly know how to explain this game. You start by building a small settlement, then building towers to defend it. You do this in a sort of post-apocalyptic world filled with old buildings. This is how you gather resources: you destroy these with your tank.
After they fall, your little helpers will run and grab parts to build new buildings, which can be used to upgrade things like your ammo or your defensive towers. Work fast because every so often, you will be attacked by waves of enemies. In between these waves, and while building your settlement, you will need to find the towers they come from so you can destroy those towers.
This is the game loop in a nutshell. Once you destroy all the towers, you are given a cannon to launch yourself to the next island. You can keep a helper permanently, which gives you a bonus to things like how fast your tank moves or how fast the first 6 people will move to collect things.
This is around the time I would tell you the graphics are nice, and it sounds good, which is all true. Then I would tell you the problems with the game. Then I ran into a problem. I couldn’t find any outside of one. The game is just a little too short. I’ve never given a perfect score, and I have only given out a handful of near-perfect scores. This is a 9/10 game. I can’t give you a single reason you won’t love this game, except I feel like they should have added a few more islands. Go pick this one up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
City State: Medieval is one of those games I am glad to have been sent by Indie Io. I would also like to say I spent dozens of hours mastering its systems, conquering the three different lords you can play as, and being a badass at City States Medieval.
If I were the type of person to lie to you, I would say these things. The truth is, I spent hours playing a game I enjoyed, and that rightfully sits at positive reviews on Steam. While graphically, it won’t be winning any awards, the music is nice, and the game loop is great.
I enjoyed the fact that you have different city sizes to deal with that were better at different things. For example, bigger cities are better for hosting military buildings, while Hamlets are much better for your resource buildings and such. The ability to enter them and actually guide how this is done is also a nice touch. The combat is another place where the game truly shines. You can’t simply build a ton of one unit or a few overpowered units and expect to win. Trust me, that is how I lost at first.
You will need to understand that backing up foot soldiers with archers is basically mandatory. This is all alongside the fact that trade is the name of the game here. Without that, your city-states are sunk. By making the game smaller in scope to a single city-state to run, they have made the game much better in many ways, and at around $15, the game is a great 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Above the Snow was sent my way by the fine people at Wandering Wizard, which is always appreciated. The game has a cool premise: you play as a man being sent to join a shelter crew to run a run-down ski resort and make it the best resort possible. You hate it, but your options were that or prison.
The people up here all seem to be pretty damn shady, honestly. The story is truly pretty unique for this type of game. How the rest of the game translates is really going to come down to the individual player. The game is, in many ways, Baby’s First Management Game when you play it on the lowest difficulty setting. The story will walk you through everything you should be doing.
I don’t mean this as an insult; you are free to ignore it and do other stuff when you want. This is a cozy game after all. Even with all the usual elements of a management game, they managed to make it stress-free if you want it to be. Well, sort of, the user interface needs a ton of work. I love the look of it, but it can be buggy at times. There are also some quality-of-life updates needed. Why can’t I set up a task in advance?
I do love the characters; however, they are just fun and interesting. While the game won’t be for everyone, there is a reason with 250 reviews, it sits at mostly positive reviews. This is a 7/10 title that I can see a few updates pushing higher up there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Reptilian Rising was recently released on Steam, and Numskull Games was nice enough to send me a copy. The thing to know about Reptilian Rising is that you shouldn’t take a deep dive into the story. It isn’t supposed to make sense, kind of like when you play Dungeons and Dragons with your friends and the bard wants to seduce the dragon, and your other friend wants to donate weapons and drugs to the orphanage.
The story is simple: a bunch of reptiles from another time invade, and the only way to stop them is for the greatest heroes from all of Earth’s history to gather and kill them. You can see how it falls apart quickly when you start asking how Winston Churchill is going to kill a T. rex, right? Right, glad you are going with me on this one. It is, however, a lot of fun to watch Albert Einstein kill a triceratops.
Ok, now admittedly, the game has some issues. For example, the combat can be slow at times, and it can be quite janky. It definitely needed some more polish for the price they are asking. This is honestly where my issue with recommending it comes in. The game isn’t bad, and it is quite unique; it many times feels like something you would play with your friends in the basement at a table, which I am sure is what they were aiming for.
The real issue is a $30 game being maybe 10-15 hours long, while having so many issues, from camera angles and things being blocked by the UI, while minor issues just seem hard to justify for me. This is a 6/10 title that, while a good pick up on sale, I can’t recommend with a clean conscience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 