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.
Everything isn’t always as it seems
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.
The power of…wait wrong movie
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.
I love the world map
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.
So I know I am a little late here but I FINALLY got around to watching the Twisted Metal show on Peacock. I have to be honest much of what they chose to do I didn’t really expect but I still loved it.
The story is about John Doe, who drives his car Evelyn on delivery jobs. This is known as being a Milk Man. Interestingly in the Games John Doe drives the car Roadkill, but this show takes place prior to the Twisted Metal tournament. The object of season one is to get from New San Francisco to New Chicago and back.
On his journey he will meet a ton of people and groups,some from the game tho many of them have interesting takes to them. For example Mr. Slam earned his name not because he drives a piece of heavy machinery and slams people but because slams his massive dick into fruit as a show for the people in his bar.
There is also an original character named Quiet,and she makes a nice counter character to John because he never shuts up. I really enjoy Stephanie Beatriz alongside Anthony Mackie as they have great chemistry.
Another character that surprised me with how well he was done was Sweet Tooth. Physically he is played by wrestler Samoa Joe and this is done great,his mannerisms truly come off as insane. Will Arnett does an equally great job in the voice. And I truly enjoy that he isn’t psycho just to be psycho,if you pay attention his actions actually make a weird sort of sense.
All in all the 10 episodes are all worth watching and with Season 2 just confirmed to be in the works, it’s a great time to check this out if you haven’t already. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Not long ago I received an email from Patrick Hockey Jr. from Legacy Comix asking if I would be interested in checking out an upcoming one shot comic they had coming up. It is hopefully launching a new series and ties into a trilogy of books. They involve a group of misfits just trying to survive in a sort of world where there is really nothing but suffering and injustice,in one of the last cities on earth.
The Outlands:Child of Wrath is short, only 8 pages. But it gives you a glimpse into this world they are building. The city’s name is Dios,and it only has two rules. 1. Don’t stand up and 2. Don’t stand out. And you learn very quickly the punishment for breaking these rules is death.
Darius Karr dares to question someone called “The Patriarch” about why if they are blessed why do they suffer so much. This results in Darius being executed, and Vic swearing to avenge his father.
Where the story goes from here I do not know, but I am truly hoping to find out. The city of Dios is intriguing and the story does a great job of giving you just enough to get you interested, without giving away so much as to ruin the stories it is supposed to be connecting. So definitely follow the link below and check out their website. (Savior Gaming does NOT receive any compensation for purchases you make and are simply supplying the link as a courtesy to readers)
Loot River from Supershot and Straka.studio is a new rougelike that combines the fun and difficulty of one more run and Tetris. I originally played this on Xbox Gamepass. They were awesome enough to toss me a copy of the PS5 release full of new updates, such as the level editor.
Sometimes it’s best to move and lure enemies
The game style is pretty nice, you start each run at level 1 and collect different currency that can be used to unlock different weapons to be used on runs. The game is also quite honest that you need to spend these before you die, because if you don’t you lose it all. Luckily the game is quite forgiving and let’s you spend part of it to unlock weapons at a time and you don’t need to save it all up at once.
The combat is simple to get into,and you can easily take advantage of the Tetris like aspect to move in,hit an enemy and move out or even simply lure a weaker enemy onto your raft. This is good because like many that are simple to get into,mastering it is a monumental task.
You do have to ask tho if this is worth undertaking,and the answer is yes. While the story leaves much to be desired in my opinion,the fun I had playing the game was well worth it. The sound is nice,and the accessibility options were fantastic. If you want to see all the possible ways a section can move,there’s an opinion for that. Want to make countering easier, there is an option for that. Want to make the game as hard as possible,they have you set. The base difficulty however all on its own is fair but challenging.
Bosses are a challenge,but in the best way.
Graphically the game won’t be winning any awards,but I can’t think of a better way to attempt this great idea of a hybrid game. And while it won’t win any awards it does look good,and the sound really lends to the gritty feel of certain levels. Without a doubt this game is a 8/10. For the $25 dollar price point it is worth picking this up for rouge like fans. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Dear villagers recently released,and hooked me up with a review copy of the adventure RPG ,Born of Bread. To say I had high hopes for this game would be an understatement. If you have ever seen or played Paper Mario, you know what to expect graphically or even from the gameplay.
To those that don’t want to know anymore but want to know if the game is any good, just go pick this game up. It’s amazing,and worth every penny of it. For those that want more details (spoiler free) keep reading.
If you are familiar with the paper graphics of games like Paper Mario,that’s what you will get here. This game is beautiful. You will not be disappointed here.
The gameplay is also typical RPG here. It’s all turn based, with button timing for hits and defense as attacks happen. Some of them are as simple as hitting the button when it gets into the green zone, others are more of the guitar hero button commands of hit this button when they pass this section. It functions very well and there is enough variety to keep it interesting without becoming repetitive.
The story, is also fantastic. You start with a chief that attempts to make a special loaf of bread for the queen,and he turns out to be a real boy. This happens as an evil is released into the world and it comes to you to stop them,mostly because you wanted to save your “father” (he is more like a creator) from the queen that wrongly arrested him for blowing up part of the castle.
Leveling up is simple, you get experience,level up and you can choose one of three things to increase.
Health is self explanatory,and will is essentially your ability to use special attacks. Resolve is special abilities that are specific to a certain person and have very specific purposes such as healing or increasing your defense.
You can also choose a sort of points card that will lead to the ability to carry more items or equip more accessories for battle so to speak. Both are important and you can’t really choose wrong.
There is also a sort of hidden game of collecting sleeping lizards,and every 2 you find can be returned to a specific person and you will get SP that can be used to learn new attacks for your friends and completing a row will also give them a boost in their HP.
The game is a master class in how to recreate a gaming experience that people love while making it your own. You can see the creators loved the Paper Mario series, but they didn’t try to replicate it step by step. This leads me to my one real complaint. Each friend has an ability to use on the map to solve puzzles, but switching between characters requires going into the menu to do so,and when you have to do this multiple times it gets annoying. However if this is the biggest complaint for a game, that isn’t a bad thing and that is my only real complaint. The game is a great 9/10 and worth anyone buying. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Truck and Logistics Simulator is one of many simulator games I have played over the years,and I am grateful for Aerosoft tossing me this one to review on PS5.
First,while you can get this on PC, I won’t be comparing this to other PC titles. I only played this on PS5, and with the limited amount of games in the genre you get to choose from on console I always find it silly when people say hey a game is ok but there’s better on something you probably can’t play on.
The idea here is pretty simple. You will start with a small vehicle that you can do some basic customizing to. (mine was a bright purple mini van sort of deal because I like the ridiculous) Then you can go places to pick up jobs where you will be tasked with loading up your fan,or trailer using various tools such as a forklift at the start. Then driving from point A to point B and delivering them for money. Repeat this until you can buy more impressive vehicles like box trucks, a sports car, semi trucks or a monster truck. Yes,I do mean monster truck with giant wheels usually used in an arena to crush cars.
Graphically the game is unimpressive, most of these games however are. The things it does well however are pretty nice. Outside of some clipping graphics when getting on and off the highway everything is stable including the FPS. I never noticed cars disappearing or suddenly appearing either, which is something I have noticed on other titles like this when it comes to console releases.
Hitting stuff is rather mundane however, general damage is pretty much always the same to cargo and vehicles and don’t expect to go cannon balling through traffic and watching them go flipping down embankments. Don’t get me wrong, you can knock cars out of your way but they mostly just roll out of the way.
The sound is also nice,nothing special,but nice. I liked listening to my engine roar on my new semi as I went down the road and my breaks squealing because I decided to slam on them at the last possible moment was a cheap thrill I enjoyed.
I do have several minor complaints. For example there is an option to turn off traffic violations,which is awesome. But you can and will still get speeding tickets. And even with traffic violations on,I never noticed using turn indicators (blinkers for some Americans on the east coast) means nothing. I stopped using them and never got a ticket. A legal system that you can turn on and off that never matters if you do or not seems pointless.
Another issue I had unless I missed something,the only way to know about speed limits was to read the actual signs on the road, which are not universal. UK speed limit signs look vastly different from American ones which look totally different from the ones in Canada (in terms of shape and design. Despite popular belief most Americans understand the metric system and KPH) so a little thing in your dashboard that said the current speed limit like many other games would have been nice.
The news isn’t all bad however,for example I love that you can skip loading up your cargo if you want and the punishment for doing it may as well not even exist. The map is also a nice size, but the variety of jobs is done in such a way that if you want a 5 minute drive or 30 minute drive in real time, you can find a mission for you quite easily. It also isn’t a simulator lite game, but at the same time you won’t get bogged down in things like having to drive back to your garage to switch vehicles if you see a job you want. I appreciate a game that respects my time but is also willing to let me waste hours of my life if I want.
Here is where I may disagree with a lot of other reviewers. The game is 29.99, and offers a full game experience online as well as offline. Anything you have in one mode is available in the other, and you can happily play and work with other people or just watch and see what they are doing,like flipping off a bridge with a trailer full of cargo. (Real thing I saw) This one is definitely worth a buy and is an 8/10 simulator, possibly the best on console. So enjoy,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
So I sat down to read The Job # 0 that the fine folks over at Legacy Comix sent me. You may remember they sent me The Job #1. This is a quick read first to check out first that I also enjoyed,and really explains more about how our favorite wrestler and his wife Bev operate as bank robbers. It is actually quite interesting and I won’t spoil it as it is a quick read. The art work however is magnificent. Feel free to check the link below and give it a look. (As always Savior Gaming does NOT get any sort of commission for any sales,we just provide the link for you if you are interested.)
The job is a comic from Legacy Comix and is written by Patrick Hickey Jr, and the pencils,inks and colors were done by Steve Cange.
I was actually sent a copy of this (and another surprise coming up a little later that I can’t discuss) by Patrick Hickey Jr himself. Legacy Comix isn’t a company I was or even am familiar with, so I was excited to work with them and I am grateful they sent me The Job. Even more exciting for me was discovering the story is about a professional wrestler that is also a bank robber. Many of you long time fans of Savior Gaming may be aware that I actually am a former Professional Wrestler myself.
Delicious Dan Dero is a professional wrestler,and his wife Beverly Dero acts as both his manager in the ring,and getaway driver and partner in crime when it’s time to rob banks. Dan however uses the bank robbing to pay for his addiction to professional wrestling. (Most of us used jobs at warehouses or working security in bars but hey he beat the system)
On this particular night,Dan is working the champ Ramirez. What is supposed to be an 8 minute squash match for Dan to sell and make Ramirez look good turns into Ramirez being too drunk to really perform and Dan having to do most of the work and make Ramirez look good.
A small injury and a pissed off promo later because Ramirez is too drunk to stand and Dan suddenly seems to have taken his career from 0 to hero.
Meanwhile on the bank robbery front,it turns out Dan’s true talent is working with his wife Bev and robbing banks. The police are stumped as to how this bank was robbed in 45 seconds or so with every camera being out of service. But like Dan’s idol the heart break kid,he has one hell of a super kick.
This is my first experience with Legacy Comix, and I have to say the artwork was nice and the story was fantastic. I will admit that as a former worker and life long wrestling fan this was basically made for me to enjoy, but I know plenty of people like me would love this one as well. Check it out at the link below,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
(Savior Gaming does NOT receive any compensation for the link and only provides it as a courtesy to our readers)
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