Reviews – Page 20 – Savior Gaming

Alterium Shift Early Access Review

Alerium Shift is a turn-based RPG that the people over at Drattzy Games were nice enough to send me a copy of to check out the early access version. The game is currently sitting at mostly positive reviews with a lot of the complaints honestly being fair. The game does cost $20 and has a few known issues, none of which I ran into. They do encourage you to try out the available demo, and I do as well.

The graphics are beautiful, and I love the art and character designs. The combat is an amazing throwback to old-school turn-based RPGs. They have added some new elements to it though to keep it fresh. For example, it is easy to know what each ability does while still maintaining that old feel of learning new skills at leveling up. HP and MP don’t restore after each fight so you have to be careful with how you use your skills but areas aren’t so big you will be punished for using them and when you level up they are restored and items aren’t so expensive as they need to be reserved for emergency situations, but they also aren’t so cheap they can be abused.

Your early game choices also matter, something small you say to annoy a character at the start might be mentioned or thrown back at you later in another chapter. The game is far from perfect, certain areas feel large with nothing to do and you may find yourself exploring for no real reason. Thankfully traveling isn’t really a chore so when this happens it isn’t a huge waste of your time.

This boss is fun and interesting to fight

The real question, is this game worth $20? With my experience and a mostly positive rating on Steam, most people seem to think yes. Personally, I probably wouldn’t as I am not a fan of early access in general so anything more than $10 makes me nervous. What is here however is a 7/10 RPG and I look forward to seeing more of it. So play the demo and judge for yourself, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Yield! Fall of Rome Steam Review

Yield! Fall of Rome from Daedalic Entertainment is an interesting 4X Strategy game developed by Billionworlds. They were nice enough to send me a copy of the early version to check out the first part of the campaign and I have to say it quickly caught my attention.

You can see where the creators grew up loving civilization but wanting something that played a bit faster without losing the need for strategy. From the beginning, you are greeted with the familiar hexagonal map and fog of war you are used to seeing. You will also be sending off a settler to start a city in an advantageous spot surrounded by useful resources, however,you can simply click on those resources to build when you have the right technology and enough money to build farms rather than using builders. Tech is also simply bought with gold rather than science.

Games now have a turn limit of around 50, which doesn’t sound like much but it is plenty of time to get all the tech and explore the much smaller maps or wage all the wars you want. Wars can quickly become quite large and require planning, I quickly learned you can’t just spam units and hope for good results. My first attempt I just sent massive amounts of horses and quickly saw them dead and me without the resources to even defend my cities.

Is this game going to be a civilization kill? No, and it definitely isn’t meant to be. Is it a good alternative? My initial feeling is yes, the time I spent playing it, this game is absolutely going to fill that niche. I don’t always have time to spend hours on a game, but I can spend the time on this and it feels great. I can not wait to spend more time on this 8/10 title. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

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.

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.

Drova-Forsaken Kin (Steam and Xbox Review)

Drova is a new action RPG made with Pixel art that Deck 13 and Just2D were kind enough to send me review copies of for both Steam and Xbox. Normally I don’t do this but I’m glad I did on this one because there are a few branching paths so to speak where you can side with one faction or another and it does change how the game plays out a bit. I won’t warn you about where this is because the game makes it obvious and it would spoil some story for you and I avoid that where I can.

Don’t worry those are just NPCs. Unless you annoy them

What I will do is point out differences in the versions of the game. For example graphically I didn’t see any real difference between an average run of the mil computer and my Series S. My friend’s higher end computer seemed to get a more steady frame rate but not enough to choose that over my Series S,and you will definitely want to play this game with a controller.

The game play is also identical with no difference in story. The opening sequence of following druids into the woods, getting lost in fog and waking up alone in Drova doesn’t change. The first person you meet will teach you a few things and you will get a warning about being careful. Take this warning very seriously. I won’t help you avoid the mistake I made but I will tell you even in Drova we should all choose the damn bear.

There’s no reason for this picture other than I like this guy.

If there is one place this game feels a little flat to me it’s the combat. On PC or Xbox it just felt stiff to me and hard for the wrong reasons. And remember I consider Bloodborne one of the all time best games, I don’t mind hard. But half the time I felt like dodging was just a random activity. And each weapon felt similar with a slightly different speed.

That’s a minor complaint however when comparing it to the world itself,which is a pretty substantial size and it feels like a living breathing world. This faction hates that faction, some people just want to live in a bar or to run their farms. Monsters will defend their territory against other monsters. I once watched flies fight frogs for no reason other than to see who won.

The game isn’t perfect,and if you prefer PC over Xbox or Xbox over PC pick your poison because the game plays very well either way. The game won’t be for everyone,but it is a solid 7/10 and I can definitely see this being one of those games that attracts a large following for years to come. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

TCG Card Shop Simulator (Steam Review)

TCG Card Shop Simulator from OPNeon Games is a rare game that is sent to me that actually surprised me a lot. My friend sent me a video of him playing the game, so of course I asked the fine people over at the company if I could check it out and they were only too happy to send me a copy as the game is still in early access.

So much detail some customers even smell

The concept of the game is simple, you open a card shop, you start with a small amount of money, put up a couple shelves buy some basic card packs, sell them at a reasonable price and make some money. You can also open them to hopefully find more rare cards to sell individually for larger profits. Some cards may be worth a dollar or two but some can be worth thousands.

There is a ton to do here despite how simplistic the game is. Putting in tables for people to sit down and play is a great option for passive income. Build up an assortment of different stock to keep customers happy, from different types of card packs, boxes of those same cards, stuffed animals, starter decks, dice and so much more.

The game has also been updated twice since I started playing it. The first update added board games while the second added the ability for you to add movable trash cans so you can more easily stock your shelves and for customers to review your store.

Reviews help you know what customers want, be it different stock, lower prices,or even if you have too many smelly customers stinking up your store.

While I am still figuring out different strategies for making money, I have seen different people online so assorted things and tried them out myself. For example I’ve noticed simply stocking many of the same items will result in people buying more of them occasionally. Higher priced cards while more profitable will take longer to sell especially when your store is smaller.

Right now the game cost $12.99 on steam,and if you are a fan of simulator games it’s a must buy, 9/10 game. It is actually as close to perfect as any game I have ever played with only a few minor issues, occasionally customers will walk through a desk or a wall or some other piece of furniture. I’ve also bumped a box and had it fly across the room like it was its job. It is probably the best early access game I have ever played especially at this price point. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.