Tag: Reviews

City States: Medieval Steam Review

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 Steam Review

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 Steam Review

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.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater PlayStation 5 Review

Monster Crown: Sin Eater is the newest game in the Monster Crown series, and Red Art Games was nice enough to send me a copy of this one early. I always appreciate this, and they are quickly becoming a joy to work with.

Now I don’t want to give anything away or spoil anything, that has never been my thing, but right out the gate, I do want to warn you that if you go into this thinking this is a Pokémon clone like Nexomon, you will be in for a shock. The game deals with far more complex and adult issues. It isn’t anything you haven’t seen in games before, but things will die in front of you on screen, and there is a sort of religious tone to things. Not in a mocking tone or preaching tone. It is just something that exists in the world.

So while your main character is out on his quest, which I won’t discuss for spoiler reasons, he will be creating pacts with monsters and even demons. There is, of course, the usual rock, paper, scissors type battle system where one type of attack is good against one type of monster, and so on and so forth. What makes Sin Eater so complex is that while your levels matter, you won’t be “evolving” your monsters. See, monsters aren’t so much viewed as companions in this world, tho some certainly are, they are quite literally viewed as monsters to be used as tools. People breed them to create new monsters, and you can fuse two together to create a new monster that will average out the levels of the monsters you used. The game even keeps track of which generation the monster is for you.

This brings me to my one and only issue with this game. I thought we, as gamers moved past the concept that grinding is what made games hard? Every time I breed monsters yea they get stronger, but I have to level them up from level one all over again. Yes, there are items you can buy to make this go faster, but they are kind of expensive, and they aren’t exactly unlimited. This definitely killed much of the fun in what should have been the best part of the game for me. It is still a 7/10 game for me, and one I plan to spend even more time with. It is definitely a viable alternative to Pokémon for those who want a more adult story and more of a challenge. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Under Par Golf Architect PlayStation 5 Review

Under Par Golf Architect hit PlayStation 5 recently, and Broken Arms Games was nice enough to send me a copy to check out. Don’t worry if you have no clue how to play golf, this is a game about builing an running a golf course. The game assumes you can’t really do that and will teach you how, and more importantly, it grades each aspect of the holes as you build them independently. You will discover fast what you are good at and what you aren’t good at, and hopefully, how to fix it.

The game is also really good about not tossing it at you too fast. It won’t be asking you to build 18 holes right out of the gate. The first area starts with placing down your clubhouse, building a hole or two, and opening your course. From there, it will teach you how you can use your avatar to play on your holes and how to place things like benches and water fountains. There is also very little guesswork involved in this, since the game will show you the effective range of these as you place them. This is something I wish more of these games would do.

This is the entire flow of the game: make customers happy so they return, take their money, and they become better customers. This is represented by them having ratings from bronze to silver or higher. There is a story involved, but truth be told, I wasn’t too interested in the guy who kept showing up. I think he was the mayor, but he seemed like kind of a dick.

The important part is that the game functions extremely well on consoles, and the graphics are cute. I really enjoyed watching people yell about all my sand traps. The game is an 8/10 experience for people who enjoy business simulators and designing things. It truly felt like an old Theme Park type title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

theHunter Call of the Wild Multiclass Weapon Pack Review PlayStation 5

The Hunter Call of the Wild is back with its new Multiclass weapons pack. Avalanche Studios was once again nice enough to hook me up with this DLC to try out, and I have to say, if you only buy one gun pack for this game, this is the one you buy.

I won’t bore you with any of the insane details, like how the Joneros .17HMR is perfect for game levels 1 and 2, and we finally have a fun that is just as good at shooting birds as it is at shooting all the little animals floating around the various maps.

And I certainly won’t sit here and tell you that the Richardson .500 can easily take down level 8 and 9 game at long range, regardless of whether you prefer soft or solid rounds. No, what I am going to say is simply that the four guns in this pack are technically all you will need to hunt basically everything in the game with a firearm. Truthfully, with the $6 price tag attached to this, it is a must-buy for fans of this game. I can no longer imagine myself going on a hunt without at least one of these on my loadout going forward. It is a 9/10 DLC, with the only flaw being that while rifle and shotgun hunters get something, handguns were left high and dry. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege PlayStation 5 Review

Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege was sent my way by Lillymo Games, and not only am I grateful they sent it, but I am also grateful that I decided to take a step out of my comfort zone and play this one. See, I love retro-style games, but I am not really a fan of Castlevania-style games. This one wears the Castlevania homage not only on its sleeve, but it also waves a huge flag for it.

That isn’t to say it is a rip-off of that game, not by a long shot. This isn’t even in just small ways; this game features full co-op from the moment you boot the game up. All 21 levels can be played with your friend. Fight all 7 bosses with your best friend sitting right next to you in old school couch co-op, chugging monster, and eating pizza just like your school days all over again.

While the game is done in 8-bit chiptune sound we love, and the NES graphics, many of us miss, there are some things you will want to be warned about. Many people who didn’t grow up playing games like this will want to be warned that when you die, you will be starting the game over again. This game is truly retro in many regards, including a password system. I won’t spoil what that does for you.

The controls are nice and better than I expected. Many of these games forget that while people love retro games, we don’t miss the stiff controls. While certain things do come with the graphics, things like input lag are not one of them. I feel like Saint Slayer does an amazing job of walking this line.

You may have noticed I still haven’t mentioned the story, and that is because, honestly, that is where the game is probably weakest. A long war has just ended, and your character has returned home just for that short peace to be shattered by an evil force he must now fight. It is very basic and been there, done that. While far from bad, it isn’t new or special. Saint Slayer Spear of Sacrilege is a must-play retro-style title, however. 9/10 for fans of this type of game, best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance PlayStation 5 Review

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance Legacy of Kain: Ascendance was sent to me by the fine folks over at Crystal Dynamics, and I always like to give a shout-out to them and be up front with people when I get review copies of games.

The first thing you need to know, if you are new to the Legacy of Kain series, you can absolutely start here. The game starts as a prequel and assumes no knowledge of the other games in the series. You should also know that if you are a fan of the series, this one is a 2D side-scroller. It is fast-paced and has multiple playable characters, and you will see the story unfold in multiple chapters from different perspectives.

The game also has some choices in difficulties; for example, if you just want to see the story, it has a story mode that says you can’t die. I haven’t tested this, however. I doubt they would lie or lock the ending this way, but it has been done by companies before. The hardest difficulty is quite challenging.

The gameplay is exactly what you would expect, and changes depending on who you play as. Playing as a vampire, for example, lets you drain enemies of their blood and regain health if you are quick enough. On the flip side, touching any fire will damage you. Humans can set vampire characters on fire to destroy them.

Seeing how the Legacy of Kain series started is interesting for fans of the series, something I have never been. Worse, it seems to be more connected to the comic than the game series itself. While it isn’t a bad side scroller by any means, it is a very basic one. Fans of the series may enjoy it, but everyone else won’t really find much here. It is a 6/10 title that might be worth it on sale. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tiny Bookshop Xbox Review

Tiny Bookhop was sent to me by Skystone Games, and I always appreciate it. Now there are cozy games, then there is Tiny Bookshop. If you don’t believe me, it is part of Game Pass. Try it. I don’t think I have ever been less stressed playing a game in my life. The concept is simple: you move to a town with a trailer to sell books from. You set up shop daily at a place of your choice, and people come and buy books. Occasionally, people will ask you for a recommendation. They tell you what they like and you help them choose from what you have in stock.

Occasionally, you will unlock new items to decorate your little bookshop, which will make people more likely to buy certain genres. Now these will change how much it costs you to keep the doors open, but honestly, between buying used books and my upkeep, I never felt like I was low on money or running out of books.

Do not misunderstand, none of this should be mistaken for me saying the game is easy and money is infinite. It is not; I found myself not buying things I wanted right away for obvious reasons, and there are plenty of people asking for help that you need to keep track of. It is a cozy game, not a boring game. There is plenty to do and keep you busy beyond selling books.

The real question you have to ask yourself before picking this one up, and I mean this honestly, is, do you care to spend your time relaxing, selling books? It is worth mentioning that you do not even have to run the cash register. Tiny Bookshop has truly mastered the art/ of a cozy shop sim, but how fun that is remains a real question. It is still an 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Skautfold: Moonless Knight Xbox Review

Skautfold: Moonless Knight is a semi-open world game sent to me by Red Art Games. I find myself having a hard time truly describing this one. I feel like Soul Like gets tossed around far too easily these days, but I feel like not using the term also would be dishonest. With a system that relies heavily on your ability to guard and dodge, and will both punish and reward you for doing so. I would almost say the game may be unbeatable if you can’t manage these systems well.

The story, however, is still the main selling point here. You play as Gray, a 2nd Knight from Brittania. You are sent to aid in a negotiation in Japan that quickly goes badly when a cult that is well known to both sides decides now is the time to kill the Emperor. Your mission quickly becomes to aid the Dawn Empire in freeing the castle from the clutches of this evil cult and the magic they have trapped you all in.

Now, if you are looking for something new from this Metroidvania, you won’t really find it here. The combat, story, and graphics are all things we have seen in some capacity before, if I am being truly honest here. How many times have most of us shot a zombie or killed a Nazi in WW2, however? These things exist because they are fun and they work or challenge us. That is where Skautfolt: Moonless Knight shines. It takes all these things and puts them into a tight package you can enjoy at a nice $15 price point.

While the game will feel unfair to many in terms of difficulty, for those who enjoy a challenge, it offers a story worth seeing. It is a 7/10 title that could use a few tweaks, but is well worth the price asked. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.