Super Bomberman R review

Hudson Soft's much-loved series gets a surprise revival where great local multiplayer is balanced out by weak online and a premium price.

By Martin Robinson Published 09/03/2017 Version tested Switch

Some comparisons can cut both ways. Super Bomberman R, an unlikely revival for Hudson Soft's classic series as it celebrates its 33rd anniversary, feels like the product of another age. In its power pop colour and with its kernel of proven multiplayer brilliance, it's every inch a forgotten Dreamcast classic that's been freshly unearthed. With its blunt simplicity, though, it can be left a little exposed in these less forgiving times.

There's a weight that's been placed on Super Bomberman R, one that it's not always able to shoulder. First, its profile has been raised by one of the few physical retail games accompanying the launch of Nintendo's Switch (with a sizable price-tag to boot, something at odds with more recent Bombermans, such as DSiWare's Blitz or Xbox 360's Live: Battlefest). Secondly, it's the first game to showcase Nintendo Switch's online offering. And in that regard, it's not pretty at all.

Whether blame lies with developer Konami (who bought out Bomberman's creators Hudson Soft in 2012) or with Nintendo's own service or hardware isn't exactly clear, but playing Super Bomberman R online can be horrendous. Even when you've fiddled in the settings to make sure you're only playing against people with decent connections there's a sluggishness that often devolves into a stuttering mess. It's early days, of course, but there's a real danger that most players will have moved on by the time Super Bomberman R gets its act together. Needless to say, if you're out for a replacement for the sturdy and enjoyable Bomberman Live: Battlefest, you're best off looking elsewhere, and here's hoping Nintendo's own online debut with Switch in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is on firmer footing when it comes out towards the end of April.

A small shame, as elsewhere Super Bomberman R fares much better. Bomberman's formula remains exquisite, and in paring it back to basics Konami serves up a warming reminder of its charms. Gone are the more hyper power-ups of latter Bombermans, and absent are the Louies, the kangaroo mounts that have been a series' staple since Bomberman '94. This is a throwback to Bomberman when the series' popularity was arguably at its peak, and when four people would huddle around a SNES with a multi-tap to enjoy the knockabout thrills of one of the era's finest multiplayer games.

Super Bomberman R does a great job of delivering on that nostalgia, leaning on the Switch's ability to host local multiplayer on the go. You can hook up to eight different controllers to a single unit, falling short of Saturn Bomberman's high score of ten players but more than enough to fit around a screen. The online might falter, but this is how Bomberman's surely meant to be played; jostling for position on the sofa while chipping through blocks as you size up your quarry, devouring power-ups as you go. It's as entertaining now as it was back in 1993.

Super Bomberman R is well served for local multiplayer too, even if it's still a little slim. There's only the one game mode - though it's easy enough to argue that, when it comes to Bomberman, there really only need be just that one mode - with eight maps available from the off. Another 10 are available via the in-game shop, a feature not fueled by microtransactions but rather through the currency you earn as you play.

It ties neatly enough into its campaign, where you earn continues by pumping in some of that same currency. For a series that never really found a foothold in the arcades in all its years, there's a punchy heart to Super Bomberman R's story mode that harks back to bar room classics; across its 50 levels, there's a readable simplicity to the enemies you clear off the screen, while the deliciously complex mecha boss designs bring to mind some of Psikyo's work at the turn of the century.

Super Bomberman R's story mode is also playable in co-op - and, indeed, it's much more fun when played with a friend in tow, where you can see it off over the course of an afternoon. It's light, it's breezy and it's fun, bookended by cutscenes from a kid's TV show take on Bomberman I'd happily share a hangover with on any given Saturday morning. You certainly can't fault it for its enthusiasm.

There's plenty else to find fault with, whether that's with its price tag, it's online or how slim it all feels. Or, for that matter, how Unity doesn't seem capable of providing the gloss in what's a technically limited showcase for the Switch. For all that, I've got a huge soft spot for Super Bomberman R; it's a gentle throwback to simpler times, and a welcome revival for a local multiplayer classic for what's set to be an outstanding local multiplayer machine. An effective slice of nostalgia, then, albeit one that comes at a considerable price.

Psychonauts

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is the return to Psychonauts 

Platforms: PlayStation VR

Developer: Double Fine Productions

MSRP: $19.99

Introduction:

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen or even heard about a new Psychonauts. You remember Psychonauts, right? The cute adventure game from Double Fine on the original Xbox and PlayStation 2 that became a cult classic? For those unaware of Psychonauts, here’s a quick rundown. You play as Raz, a boy with psychic powers that allows him to do a variety of things such as picking up objects with his mind, possessing people, and more. Without going too deep into the story, Raz joins a group of spies called the “Psychonauts” who hold similar powers to him. The game is a light-hearted, comical homage/parody of classic spy films like 007 which has the added twist of supernatural powers that you use to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. The game reviewed very well when it released in 2005 but despite the rave reviews, it didn’t sell incredibly well. In fact, it was sadly deemed a commercial failure. That doesn’t mean Double Fine threw in the towel and considered it a dead IP though!

Those who played the game have been begging Double Fine for a sequel for over a decade and we are about to finally get one! To help whet the appetite of fans as they work on the sequel, Double Fine has released a PlayStation VR exclusive titled Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin that bridges the gap between the original game and Psychonauts 2.

Rhombus of Ruin makes it feel like no time has passed since the original game:

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is more or less a first-person point and click game that features zero combat and is entirely puzzle based. You’re still the beloved Raz and you’re joined by fan favorite characters like Coach, Raz’s father, and the adorable Lili. The game starts directly after the end of the original Psychonauts, Lili’s father has been kidnapped and the Psychonauts must find out his whereabouts. Each character is voiced by the same actor, everything feels right tonally, and the music is just as you’d imagine it. It’s as if 12 years haven’t passed since we last saw this band of heroes!

Your search brings you to the mysterious Rhombus of Ruin, an underwater base filled with secrets and creatures. Since the game is entirely first-person and is semi-on-rails, the world is designed with such care. It is so carefully crafted and is filled with objects for the player to interact with. I spent dozens of minutes just picking apart some of the locations just to find new things to laugh or smile at.

On top of that, it does a great job of immersing you in its world. When you’re outside of the actual base and are in the water, fishes swim right past your face and it actually startled me. It wasn’t meant to scare me, I was just so immersed and felt like I was under the water that when the fish swam past me I had what would’ve been a natural reaction if I was really there.

Not your traditional Psychonauts game:

This game may not be what you expect from a Psychonauts game since it’s not a platformer, it’s not third-person, there’s no combat, etc. But it is very much a Psychonauts game in terms of tone, that side-bursting Double Fine humor, and the overall style. It looks like a beautiful animated movie that mixes the art styles and tones of animated shows/movies like Coraline and Invader Zim.

The comedy in the game is excellent, I had to pause the game a couple of times because I was laughing so hard. The humor doesn’t just come from jokes being told through dialogue, it also comes from exploring this uniquely strange world Double Fine has created and interacting with it by using your powers. If you do something wrong in a puzzle or by experimenting with things to figure out a solution, you won’t feel stupid if you got it wrong. You’ll be rewarded with something that’ll give you a small chuckle. The game rewards you for simply exploring and experimenting with its small, but finely detailed areas.

Simple yet fun, challenging puzzles:

The puzzles themselves are usually fairly simple but they offer enough of a challenge so they don’t feel incredibly easy. You have to survey your surroundings to determine what exactly you need to do and the answers aren’t super obscure, the hardest puzzle in the game might take you a maximum of 10 minutes to solve. It makes them easy enough to solve to keep a good pacing while also feeling satisfying when you do figure them out.

The puzzles require you to do pretty basic things like moving things to certain areas with your psychic powers so they can be interacted in unique ways, lighting things on fire, or even just figuring out how to exit a locked room. The environments are so compact that they answers/hints aren’t super hard to find and it’ll keep things moving at a brisk pace.

One jarring technical difficulty:

The one issue I had with the game may not even be a problem with the game itself. A few times throughout the game, the camera would glitch out and cause an incredibly disorienting feeling that made my stomach turn in an unpleasant way. Since you’re playing the game through someone else’s point of view, it can cause immense confusion and displeasure when the character’s head starts to move in ways someone's head most certainly would never move. I don’t get motion sick from VR and rarely need to take breaks, but after this happened a few times I had to take the headset off and lay down for a few minutes. It could be an issue with the PSVR headset tracking, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless.

Verdict:

If you’ve been waiting for a new Psychonauts game and you have a PlayStation VR headset, you’ll want to pick this up. Although it isn’t the traditional Psychonauts game, it holds that same style and feeling of the original game which is arguably the most important part. Even if you’re not a huge Psychonauts fan but you’re looking for a new VR game, I’d recommend grabbing Rhombus of Ruin just because it uses the PSVR in fun ways and manages to be a great game even without the Psychonauts name attached to it. Unlike most VR games, this game has a good amount of time you can invest into it. It’s not 15 hours long or anything, but it isn’t a super short 45-minute “experience” like some other titles on the market.

Rise & Shine

 Review: Rise & Shine is a colorfully brutal game

Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox One

Developer: Super Mega Team

Publisher: Adult Swim Games

MSRP: $14.99

It really is great that I don't have a swear shake since Rise and Shine would have placed me in a wide range of obligation. You wouldn't think so just by taking a gander at it, however this little 2-D Action Puzzler packs a significant punch and will test your minds and your determination at a persistent pace at specific minutes. Obviously, I imply that positively as Rise and Shine speaks to an incredible begin to the new schedule year. No, it may not be a major spending title, but rather it is an amusement that is justified regardless of your time, particularly in the event that you are an enthusiast of diversions that pride themselves on trouble. 

When I last left off with Rise and Shine, I was simply wrapping up the amusement's opening arrangement by means of a Preview Build. Since being overhauled to the full discharge form, things have remained to a great extent the same outside of a couple of new foe sorts infused into the condition to blend things up and in addition a couple of personal satisfaction changes. On the off chance that you'd jump at the chance to look at that see, you can head here. 

I will state that one part of Rise and Shine didn't exactly take off as I was expecting, and that was the account. The amusement prides itself on satirizing various other real diversion establishments, intended to make you go, "Gracious I realize that amusement!" To be reasonable, it works, as I got myself inspired by Rise and Shine's a wide range of goes up against prevalent recreations, and now and again, I wish I just could have seen a greater amount of it. 

So, this is what you have to think about Rise and Shine: 

Rise and Shine's universe of computer game saints is adorable and a delight to witness, however it doesn't get enough time to...shine. 

One thing that I can state without a doubt is that you will appreciate taking in each ounce of Rise and Shine's splendidly rendered situations. It's an impeccable case of that reality that 2-D workmanship, in all its apparent constraints is not really a lesser approach than going completely 3-D. I reliably got myself awed with how Rise and Shine figured out how to use frontal area and foundation surfaces nearby basic shapes in mass that, when joined together, make one bigger visual impact. 

To the extent story and portrayal go, Rise and Shine seems to set itself up for an option that is greater than it really unites. Your character, Rise is an ordinary kid in an atypical world, where everything around him is so significantly greater and more grounded than he is. There is a concise story minute when Rise discovers his mom, and the combine discusses how he isn't prepared for what he's going to confront, yet the subject's investigation starts and closures with this prior minute Rise is pushed pull out into the diversion world to shoot stuff. 

Normally, with a great deal of little outside the box titles, there are impressively higher impediments with which they need to work in, and I can't resist the urge to feel like the story is one of them. Indeed, the diversion itself is not awfully long either, checking in at around 5 hours. Luckily, its length is not in at any rate a negative, as it more than compensates for it in a few ways. 

Rise and Shine makes an awesome showing with regards to of utilizing its amusement mechanics into staggeringly shrewd riddles. 

This was one zone of the amusement that I was not hoping to take off, but rather kid did it. In the see work, there was some generally straightforward slug route astounds that weren't anything too strange, however once I got past the opening salvo, Rise and Shine's confound configuration took off. There's one segment where you happen upon a sign that peruses "Dead Shall Pass" and each time you attempt to move past it, a monster laser bar shows up and fries you to a fresh. I won't ruin how to move beyond it, however I will state that it requires some out of the case feeling that conflicts with a specific normal slant. 

Rise and Shine additionally gives some really noteworthy set pieces. My most loved included venturing out inside a monster to restart its heart, where you need to murder foes utilizing zapped projectiles to energize it. As the grouping advances, the amusement makes utilization of its explosive hurling mechanics to make a ball like snare shot perplex to actuate switches once they are completely charged. It's this sort of repurposefulness and layering that makes Rise and Shine truly take off. 

Rise and Shine is not afraid to twitch you around on the trouble front. You will kick the bucket a considerable measure. 

Keep in mind that thing I said in regards to the story not being completely investigated? Here's the reason that barely matters. Rise and Shine's concentration is absolutely on conveying inconceivably troublesome yet (scarcely) finely tuned battle situations. Foes are differed, and the strategies for dispatching them are similarly as so. A few foes can be executed with enough projectiles while another will gradually tread towards you with a resistant shield that you have to evade. There's likewise one that will dash off the beaten path the moment before one of your projectiles has its effect, so you need to remunerate by propelling an explosive at it. 

These distinctive things meet up rather rapidly, and it's anything but difficult to end up evading and weaving while you sit tight for an opening that never comes. Rise and Shine rewards watchful hostility and rebuffs resignation and heedlessness. Truth be told, it rebuffs you on pretty much everything, except it's OK since the amusement never feels really incomprehensible; just falsely so when you're on your last nerve. 

Be that as it may, regardless of how disappointed you get to be with Rise and Shine, you won't have the capacity to help yet continue returning for additional. 

Decision: 

Rise and Shine makes for an awesome spending title for you gaming masochists out there. It's ruthless, tenacious, savvy, and an incredible sight. I making the most of my time with the amusement particularly along these lines, and I trust that on the off chance that you are in the market for something to challenge the old thumbsticks, that you give this one a look. 

It might do not have the account cleaves, however what it doesn't have in story, it more than compensates for it in gameplay.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Developed by: Infinity Ward

Published by: Activision

Platform: PC, PS4, XONE 

Rated: MA15+

BAJO

There are lots of developers working on COD games, but the three big ones are Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and Infinity ward, makers of Infinite warfare. But Infinity Ward's last game, Ghosts, was a real disappointment.

HEX

Yeah, it felt like it was caught between hardware generation changes. It was a total mixed bag of design and visuals. 

BAJO

Also, it wasn't fun. So Infinite Warfare is a real chance for the developer to turn things around. 

HEX

And when it comes to the campaign, dare I say Bajo, I think they have! This is a solid sci-fi space adventure, set far into the future, where a militant groups form a faction and make a surprise attack on Earth's defense force, the Solar Associated Treaty Organization. 

BAJO

Naturally Space war breaks out! And wouldn't you know it, you get promoted to captain, get your own ship, and it all rests on you to be the hero and save everything. First of all, there's great action throughout this campaign isn't there?

HEX

Yes! And some cool sci-fi ideas too, with the ship and weapon technology. Story wise though, it is still quite tricky to follow, which is pretty standard for COD. But I think it's probably one of the least nonsensical plots yet.

BAJO

Agreed. It's not quite nonsense! You play Nick Reyes, generic white man solider guy who spends much of his time arguing about war stuff with his staff. He's such a hero, he fights on the ground with the troops! Yes, he won't stay on the ship to plan out the war and organize things, LIKE A PROPER CAPTAIN SHOULD. Seriously, losing a ship captain in the middle of a space war is not a smart. 

HEX

He's a bad captain. But, he knows his stuff when it comes to combat. And there's plenty of cut scenes and storytelling to make this COD feel quite different, as your pulled through satisfying spaceship combat, spectacular air and ship assaults, and beautifully chaotic planet side warfare.

BAJO

There's so much running about as ships explode and bases are stormed. It's exciting stuff and you're right hex it feels like a very different kind of COD for a whole bunch of reasons. Gameplay wise, you till get your slow motion breaches and intense actions sequences, but the combat style has shifted slightly. Their last game, ghosts, felt like enemies were just in your way, I think we said actors slipping on banana peels. This time, your facing armored mechs, shielded robots, terrifying droids that fall apart spectacularly, and your standard goons who all often take more than few shots to go down. I think it's tougher, and maybe even a bit more strategic gun play. 

HEX

I think anything that can shake up the COD formula is a good thing. Although I still had trouble identifying who was on my team, just like in ghosts!

BAJO

OH me too! Wear a team hat or something! 

HEX

The futuristic setting has introduced a few other fun ideas like giving you the option to hack and take over enemy droids, turning life support on and off to mess up enemies, and our favourite, anti grav grenades that lift enemies off their feet. There's even a robot companion Bajo! I also really like how there are barely any black screens or cut scenes now. You spend a fair bit of time walking to your transport on your ship, talking about tactics and the war with your team along the way. 

BAJO

Yeah, you can tell it's a loading thing but you don't care, it reinforces a short consecutive timeline, kind of how the Batman Arkham games all take place in one night.

HEX

And the dialogue and chatter around you as you wander about between missions was solid army talk. In fact, I found all that surrounding dialogue much more interesting than anything in the cut scenes. 

BAJO

Me too, these guys all argue so much. One thing I really liked was how they balanced the visuals. We mostly reviewed the campaign on console, and this is a great looking game on PC too. You can tell they've worked hard to balance resolution, and texture quality, to keep a smooth frame rate depending on the scale and size of the action. What I mean is in the bigger sections, it looks like the resolution is maybe a bit lower. It's rare that the quality change jolts you, and I'm so impressed with how developers are doing this kind of thing lately. 

HEX

The missions structure changes up a little as well. Towards the end of the 6ish hour campaign, you can extend things further by playing a bunch of optional air combat and carrier assault missions, which give you perks that become very important on harder difficulties. They're fun missions, and you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Bajo I was impressed with the air combat. As I we all saw in the Battlefield 1 review, I'm not the best flyer in games, but these controls were intuitive and it was nearly impossible to be frustrated with them.

BAJO

They totally nailed the ship combat, you're right, they're so easy to fly, but there's still enough business for you to do with aiming, flares and leading targets to keep you interested. It's accessible in the right way. 

HEX

And when you transition from ship to on foot combat, thrilling!

BAJO

What a space adventure Hex! It reminds me of my favourite sci-fi books. Pretty much everything I read now days is an alcoholic space captain who pulls himself together with his crew to save the day. I mean, he's not alcoholic in this one but it's kind of the same thing. That would make it more interesting actually.Overall, this campaign is a nice shift on the cod design, with a nice rhythm and pace to the combat, given you time to breathe, with enough explosions in your face to get the heart pumping. 

HEX

Coincidentally, there is so much similar between this and Titanfall 2's excellent campaign. Robot friend, wall running, jet packing around in space. 

BAJO

OH MY I will NEVER get stick of jet packing around space Hex! And Titanfall 2 was made by Respawn which is made up of a bunch of Infinity Ward alumni, and yet I think the timing of this COD is going to be really bad for Titanfall 2.

HEX

Yeah me too. I do think Titanfall 2 has a far better game, without a doubt. But it doesn't have that brand power so if people are choosing? 

BAJO

Probably just get Battlefield 1. Right, multiplayer. Well first impressions were this feels a lot like last year's COD to me. It has the same movement system with wall running and jump packs. Blops 3's specialists are gone now but in their place are Rigs. These are basically a class based system which offer different perks, weapons and styles of play.

HEX

Yeah, it did feel very familiar to me too. And to be honest I was left asking myself, is that enough? In a season where we've seen the spectacular all out war of Battlefield One, while Titanfall in my opinion has done this kind of fast paced wall running gameplay better and it has giant robots that rain from the sky, can just more of the same really compete?

BAJO

They're playing it safe for sure, and while usually that might not be important for fans of the series, I've heard plenty of serious complaints within the COD community. Whether it's about pay-to-win micro transactions, frustrating spawns, or unfair lag, and people are always going to complain about spawn points and lag. That said, I certainly felt like I ran into a few of those issues myself.

HEX

Well I'll be the first to admit I'm a complete scrub when it comes to competing online at COD so I'll take any excuse I can get. But yeah, I just struggled to find the fun this time. The "time to kill", which is how long it takes for you to get killed seems quicker than ever and it's just this constant stream of death for me. If I've played on your team, I know I let you down and I'm sorry. 

BAJO

The thing that bugged me the most was the pay to win nature of the micro transactions, which can unlock powerful rare gun variants, that is a legitimate complaint. You can still unlock all that without paying, but the pace you earn salvage which is what you use to unlock the random packs is just too slow. If you're going to have an element of pay to win and don't want people to feel like they're being squeezed for cash.

HEX

Yeah, but it's just a bit uninspired. And I think it may be its own worst enemy this year. Because if you buy a more expensive version you'll get a full remaster of the incredible Modern Warfare campaign and multiplayer with it, lots of fans even joke that if you buy the remaster you'll get infinite warfare for free. So I feel like that's going to massively split the player base since many COD fans are just going to go play that. 

BAJO

Well time will tell which one players gravitate to. But one thing I was surprised to see is that there's also the ever popular Zombie mode here, which I guess they're bringing it to all future CODs now?

HEX

I guess so. But again there's nothing here that changes up the formula really, you and up to three others all run through a level, boarding up windows, buying guns, and buying access to new areas. I did find it took AGES to find a game.

BAJO

Yeah, but I did love the 80's Spaceland theme park though, although the celebrities in this outing are pretty weak, I mean Pee Wee Herman and Seth Green are the best you got?

HEX

Well David Hasselhoff is there too.

BAJO

David Hasselhoff is no Jeff Goldblum Hex. Anyway, we should wrap this up! Overall I'm frustrated with the lack on innovation in the multiplayer, but really happy with they are doing better with single player, so I'm chalking this cod up to a 3.5

HEX

Yeah, I would still say Titanfall 2 or Battlefield 1 are the better choices right now, but it's a solid outing for COD fans, I'm going to give it 3.5 as well.

Diluvion Review

Diluvion Review

Diluvion is in this most tragic category of dissatisfactory game: the sort with nice concepts. there is such a lot to like and appreciate on the surface that the game's profound awkwardness and convoluted mechanics simply hurt to expertise.

It presents associate uncommon attack a post-apocalyptic society wherever humanity does not move to house or board the nuclear wastes. Instead, they are forced to make civilization afresh underwater, with steampunk-inspired submarines and habitats as their solely means that of shelter. Humanity's solely hope of breaking through the oppressive ice higher than could be a godlike ancient whole thing lying at all-time low of the ocean.

As the captain of your own tiny vessel, you are tasked with recruiting a capable crew, building a ship strong enough to withstand the crushing ocean depths, and locating the powerful artifact before anyone else. As you creep your way to the bottom of the ocean, you'll often have a checklist of parts to grab, people to see, and enhancements to make. Much of your journey is spent scavenging supplies and key items in uncharted danger zones infested with landmines and sea creatures--and it's hard not to be affected by seeing how many other vessels tried and failed to infiltrate the same areas. One of the more chilling commonalities along the way is finding merchants who were stranded in isolated areas, waiting for someone to come along to give them the jump they needed to escape.

The game is at its unnerving best when it sends you into near-pitch blackness, with only the comfort of sonar to light the way toward your objective. Missions may be as simple as raiding a derelict ship, but even that might turn into a much different, frantic scramble away from unexpected danger. Being underwater, nothing in the world is particularly fast, but the management of resources to optimally escape a dangerous situation delivers great tension.

Thankfully, Diluvion isn't always fear and dread. The journey's gentle pace leads you to treasure every new landmark you come across--many awe-inspiring in either scale or design. Towns are elaborate wonders of construction. Most checkpoints are man-made structures overtaken by ice or algae. Diluvion's most notable accomplishment is its score, a beaut symphony that haunts every mile you journey in-game, accentuating the wonder in one scene, ratcheting up the tension in another. The more shallow sections of ocean are bright, wondrous places that you can find yourself wandering around aimlessly with a sense of peace and calm.

The ancillary, narrative experience of Diluvion is a fine one. It's the act of actually having to play the game that causes the whole thing to dissolve.

Interacting with other characters takes on a lighter tone, with the view switching from the artfully rendered 3D ocean to 2D when docking at towns or with other subs. There's an element of repetition here, since many of the stock NPCs are copy-pasted throughout the entire game, and most of them are interactive only to issue random grunts and sighs. The ones who do talk, however, speak in snappy, often funny lines of dialogue, with more than few characters worthy of endearing themselves over time--especially your erstwhile crew, who will interact not just with their captain but with each other when they're docked. The relationships tend to fall by the wayside as exploration ramps up, but it's always welcome when the game takes a breath and allows your helmsman to give the history of a new area or lets your crazy gunner talk rings around the submissive sonar expert. The ancillary, narrative experience of Diluvion is a fine one. It's the act of actually having to play the game that causes the whole thing to dissolve.

Diluvion is marred by unintuitive controls and one in all the foremost needlessly convoluted user interfaces in recent memory. this is often a drag that really shows its ugly face once your sub is forced into a fight. Your attack choices ar restricted to start with: you'll hearth shrapnel--or afterward, orientating torpedoes--at your enemies, and maneuver slowly around them. that is concerning the extent of your ways, and in follow, most military service battles within the game correspond less Assassin's Creed: flag than a tiddler blinking 2 submarine toys against one another going “pew-pew!” before eventually deciding one in all them gets to win. Boss fights ar well formed, however once the initial shock of the many of the creature styles fades away, you are left with the very fact that every one these issues multiply within the face of larger enemies. additional powerful gun upgrades facilitate later, however combat generally may be a slapdash affair that builds dread for the incorrect reasons.

When you are not fighting, you are exploring. you will get a continuing, easy-to-follow list of tasks for each mission, most of that simply revolve around traveling to associate unknown space and scanning for a selected sort of resource. Errand-running aside, the sport utterly flounders once it involves the particular act of navigating Diluvion's immense ocean. there's associate in-game map that doesn’t truly show the player's location relative to any of the landmarks they've visited. Your waypoint perform may be a college of golden fish WHO return to assist only if they desire it and infrequently swim through walls--something you can not do. Checkpoints ar oftentimes miles removed from wherever you have traveled, and running out of air throughout the journey back are some things that happens oftentimes till you invest the hefty funds needed to shop for a replacement air tank. often, even though you're able to reach a selected location, the sport contains a nasty habit of not telling you that you simply have to be compelled to hear a selected speech communication before a selected event is truly triggered.

For every one contemporary, intriguing, and pleasant component Diluvion brings to the table, the act of planning to expertise associatey of it's an exercise in frustration.

These ar the issues that plague Diluvion, and much too typically, the persistent state of your sub is “hopelessly lost.” the sport tries to create you are doing some actual direction work, that is admirable, however you are curst a restricted pool of resources (like air and food for the crew) that limit however long you'll pay call at the unknown before urgently desirous to refuel.


And in this lies truth tragedy of Diluvion. for each one contemporary, intriguing, and pleasant component it brings to the table, the act of planning to expertise associatey of it's an exercise in frustration. And whereas the story answers the queries display at the kickoff, additional typically than not those answers aren’t well worth the Sisyphean effort it takes to seek out them.

Review: Space Hulk: Deathwing

Platform: PC

Developers: Streum On Studio, Cyanide Studio

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

MSRP: $39.99

Introduction:

I must admit, I am a Warhammer newbie. I have seen the series from afar for many years, but it had never really captured my attention in a way that made me feel like I had to see what all the fuss was about. Space Hulk: Deathwing sort of just fell into my lap, and my expectations when I began covering it weren’t terribly sky high. It wasn’t until Focus Home Interactive released an uncut 17-minute gameplay demo that I really started to look forward to it; and now that I have played it from start to finish, I am happy to say that I was not disappointed.

Granted, this is coming from someone who is a blank slate in the ways of Warhammer, so I am not privy to the characters, factions, or lore altogether. In that sense, the fact that Space Hulk: Deathwing skimmed over any remotely cohesive narrative doesn’t bother me one bit. I was happy to take the game in as a co-op tactical shooter, where all I had to worry about was shooting monsters in the face and keeping my guys healed.

As far as interactions go, Space Hulk: Deathwing does an excellent job of keeping the player invested, never letting them be a passive observer and taking the lead in every situation you come across as you traverse the dilapidated space barge from one objective to the next. No, Space Hulk’s goals almost never vary much from go here, press a button, now go here, but again, for me, it hardly mattered. I was in the midst of enjoying what I can only describe as a Horde Mode in motion, which makes up about 95% of what Space Hulk: Deathwing is.

Now, let’s break it down.

Space Hulk: Deathwing effortlessly captures the feeling of being an outrageously bulky Space Marine.

One of Space Hulk: Deathwing’s best assets are its attention to detail, and it all begins with how if feels to control your Space Marine. Your giant metal boots stomp on the ground, and you mow down Genestealer after Genestealer that gets in your way with your Storm Bolter rifle or the Mace of Absolution (once you unlock it). Most enemies fall satisfyingly quickly, but it never feels too easy since 6-7 more follow right behind it. Doorways and walls shatter like glass when you decide to smash your way through rather than lock the door behind you, and although it is a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, it just feels right.

Your weapons are just as bulky as the character you control, and for the most part, they all play differently, which makes it tons of fun to experiment with each new weapon you unlock. Figuring out load outs for each of your characters to find that perfect balance is just as fun, and once you have all of the weapons at your disposal, you’ll see that some weapons end up working better than others. Which weapons you choose are oddly dependent on whether you decide to play solo or with friends, since you’ll come to find out that your companions are not as reliable as you’d like.

Space Hulk: Deathwing’s companion A.I. is spotty at best, so if you can find friends to play with, do it.

If you choose to play through Space Hulk: Deathwing alone, be prepared to do some babysitting. Your two companions, Brother Barachiel and Brother Nahum often serve as little more than a distraction for the enemy hordes and don’t seem to have the mind to ask for or give healing, so you always have to keep an eye on their health gauges. I can’t tell you how many times I would overcome an encounter only to realize that one or both of them had been knocked out, so I would have to burn a Psygate just to revive them.

Psygates serve as outs for when things get too hairy. They teleport you to safety so that you can heal and readjust your loadout on the fly. Unfortunately, you only get three of them per mission, so you learn to stay on top of your companions rather quickly. Obviously, this problem is nullified if you play with friends, so doing so is highly recommended.


Space Hulk: Deathwing has strong art direction and attention to detail, but falters regarding its polish and getting players invested in its story.

I haven’t seen too many games with the level of detail that Space Hulk: Deathwing puts into its environmental set pieces and (especially) weapons. When light reflects just right off of your Force Sword, you will see an inscription that serves as a reminder and motivation for your character in the darkest of times. It’s just a shame that the game doesn’t adequately express why what you are doing is important in the grand scheme of things.

I have seriously needed to look up character names every single time just to remember them since none of them ever do anything to stand out. Barachiel and Nahum have almost the exact same personality and serve only as vessels for their combat roles and narrative context; the latter of which is feeble and underdeveloped. It’s a shame because the story was advertised to be much more than it is leading up to release as the campaign was written by Black Library author and Dark Angels specialist Gav Thorpe. While in the technical sense it is true, there’s nothing substantial about what goes on in Space Hulk: Deathwing that makes you think, “man, someone who knew what they were doing totally wrote this.” Whatever narrative context you do get, generally comes in the form of briefings between the missions, which fails to drive home anything remotely engaging.

Verdict:

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a good shooter that needs to be looked upon with reasonable expectations. As a solo game, it’s tough to fully endorse to a wide range of gamers due to its lackluster story and A.I. babysitting. I did, however, find the game to be enjoyable overall, as I felt that I was dictating every decision, which is what a game that describes itself as “Tactical” should allow.

That said, there are moments where you will need to bail out your A.I. companions in situations that aren’t anything too taxing, which is where the babysitting aspect shines through. But, as I’ve already mentioned, playing the game with friends alleviates this issue, and if you have any appreciation for Warhammer, you’ll likely enjoy the name drops and atmosphere.

Review: The Flame in the Flood is a unique survival game

Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PC.

Developer: The Molasses Flood

MSRP: $14.99

Introduction :

The Flame in the Flood is something I’ve been hearing about for a while. I’ve always contemplated buying it, despite not really knowing much about it. The concept that was pitched to me by someone really appealed to me but I was a bit worried that it would get old after a while, and although it is enjoyable, it does begin to grow tiresome after a few hours of playing.

The Flame in the Flood is a game about a survivor of a flood and a dog trying to scavenge whatever they can in the wilderness to stay alive. The player must craft whatever makeshift tools they can to defend themselves from whatever dangers lie ahead in their journey, keep themselves healthy, and more. It’s a very difficult game due to the fact you have to manage your resources very carefully as food and water may be hard to come by and there are many animals that will wreck you if you come across them unprepared (and you will more than likely be unprepared). It’s quite tedious - but in a good way.

The game doesn’t hold your hand when you start the game you’re thrust in. It teaches you some basic controls but for the most part, you’re on your own. For some games, this would just be weird and frustrating but it works here. Thematically, it makes sense. You are this survivor who is by themselves, you don’t really know what to do! You just have to rely on your survival instinct to make sure you can keep progressing. If you do die, it’s game over. You’re done! Depending on the mode you select, you can restart at a checkpoint and try again but chances are by that point you were already so far gone that there’s nothing you can do to save yourself. The other mode has no checkpoints, and if you die… you’re dead forever and you’ll have to restart completely.

Great environmental storytelling in a repetitive, bland world:

The Flame in the Flood doesn’t have a traditional plot. A lot of the story is told through effective environmental storytelling where you walk up to an object, press a button and a little bubble pops up with your character’s thoughts. You get an idea of what happened and what life was like before tragedy struck. There’s also things littered throughout that give you an idea of what’s going on without any character's telling you how to feel or giving you any context. Houses are breaking away from land and falling down the rapids, rooftops have SOS painted on them, and more. It’s a great way to give this world some story in an untraditional way.

The problem with The Flame in the Flood is that you’re always on the move. You never have a chance to stop, settle down and make a camp. The game takes place on basically a massive river. You’re traveling downstream on a small raft, stopping on small islands to get food or sleep in a house for a night. When I say small islands, I mean REALLY small. It’ll take you a minute and a half at most to see everything and each island looks fairly similar. It gets really repetitive after just a few hours because you never feel like you’re encountering anything brand new.

The river is always pushing you forward, so you can never go back to a camp or make a base. You won’t stay at a base for longer than 5 minutes. It ends up feeling very boring and you get tired of constantly moving to similar looking areas over and over again.

An annoying hunger meter:

One other issue I have is I felt I died too quickly from things like starvation. Food is extremely scarce in this game and I died from hunger frequently. Come to think of it, it’s the only thing that killed me! It felt just a bit too unforgiving - once your hunger meter depletes you die right away. You don’t just become weaker like you may in real life, you just fall over and die.

The Verdict:

Although The Flame in the Flood does a great job of immersing you in the world, it ultimately wears off very quickly. I felt I had seen everything the game had to offer after just a few hours and I didn’t care for what I was playing anymore. The game never progresses beyond finding food and water, I never encountered any unique locations or anything that made me feel like I was actually progressing. It just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. If it weren’t for the repetitive nature of The Flame in the Flood, it would be really great but sadly it failed to click with me completely.

Review: Gravity Rush 2 is the sequel we deserve

Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed)

Developer: SIE Japan Studio, Project Siren

MSRP: $59.99

Introduction :

It's pretty fantastic that Sony took a chance at releasing the first game to a much wider audience on the PS4. While I can't speak for the sales numbers, it was a smart way to introduce a bigger audience to the world of Gravity Rush, Kat the main protagonist, and the story. The reason this is somewhat important is because Gravity Rush 2 almost requires the player to be familiar with the story from the first game, as the second game picks up where the first left off. And since the game provides little to no backstory on basically anything, new players picking up Gravity Rush 2 might find themselves a bit confused.

With that said, Gravity Rush 2 is a fantastic sequel and does almost everything right to enhance the mechanics from the first game. It all revolves around the fantastic gravity manipulation mechanic that made the first game so uniquely wonderful.

Flying is falling - with style!

Kat is able to freely manipulate gravity and shift it to her liking. That means she can turn it off, float high above the city, and then start "falling" to a certain direction. Seeing this at first on the Vita, I thought the concept was crazy and didn't love that she wasn't so much flying as much as she was falling to her destination, but over time it grew on me. With the sequel, it's a concept so beautifully realized, you'll find yourself rarely using the game's shortcuts for fast travel because gravity shifting is just so damn fun.

If there's one constant joy found throughout Gravity Rush 2, it's easily the ability to fly anywhere and partake in the collecta-thon of skill enhancing crystals, which are scattered absolutely everywhere. There's a reason the Crackdown games made finding and collecting those upgrade orbs so addicting, and this feels very similar to that, if not better thanks to the ability to free-fall anywhere.

The combat has been built on and perfected...

Even though I love flying through the air as a form of travel, I didn't always love it in combat. I would dread enemy encounters in the first game. However, Gravity Rush 2 does make some slight tweaks to the combat to make it a bit more fluid. It's not perfect by any means, as constant camera rotation is required on the player's part, especially when there is a whole slew of enemies to keep track of, but it was an improvement over its predecessor. There are also two completely new fighting styles which change up Kat's fighting abilities; Lunar and Jupiter style, which make her lighter and heavier respectively.

Kat also has Raven as an ally this time around, and their friendship is actually one of the strongest points of Gravity Rush 2. Raven, who is the polar opposite to Kat and the rival from the first game, now acts as an ally throughout most of the game and the fights in which she participates in are pretty damn awesome.

The world, which once again feels ripped straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie, and maybe even more so thanks to the PS4's better graphical fidelity and added color, is fun to explore, with districts that once again differ from one another, and are almost magical to fly through.

On the flip-side, missions and side-quests didn't always hit the mark.

I'm usually a huge fan of stealth. If there's a game that offers me ways to play a mission completely in stealth, I jump at the opportunity. But then those games have to be built with stealth in mind. Gravity Rush 2 does have quite a handful of missions like those, but the mechanics aren't built for stealth whatsoever, meaning you'll find yourself frustrated, battling with the game's mechanics to try and be stealthy, and usually come out the loser.

What's even stranger are some of these side-quests that are thrown in for most likely humorous reasons, but just feel somewhat out of place. Standing in line for someone, which literally has you standing in line, is as boring as it sounds. Given that there are tons of side-quests to tackle, the developers obviously went with quantity over quality, which is a shame because Gravity Rush 2 is a game I had very little problems actually playing, but whenever these missions would come up, I'd likely move on and continue with the main story or just keep exploring the city at my own leisure.

Those who have played the first game on PS4 will probably remember the smooth 60 frames per second gameplay and were most likely hoping for the sequel to also have that feature. That's not the case, though, as the game is locked at 30fps. Given that the first game was a Vita port, it makes sense for the most part, but I can't help but wonder how much more gorgeous it could have looked at 60fps instead.

Verdict:

This seems to be a common thread in the last few games I reviewed (Hatsune Miku: Future Tone and Yakuza 0) but once again, I can't help but feel thankful Sony took the chance on US audiences and decided to release the game here. It can be a slog at times, especially the previously mentioned stealth missions, and the combat against a large group of enemies can get a bit cumbersome, but it's still a thrilling game that I can't help but recommend.

Review: Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle

Platforms: Xbox One (reviewed), PS4

Developer: Bamtang Games

Publisher: Bandai Namco Games

MSRP: $14.99

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise is going through a bit of a renaissance as of late. A new live-action film is hitting theaters this March, and now we have a new video game to hold us over in the form of the action-brawler Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle.

The game features a unique art style that takes players through the first two seasons of the popular TV show. You and up to three additional friends can choose any of the original six rangers including Jason (Red Ranger), Kimberly (Pink Ranger), Zach (Black Ranger), Billy (Blue Ranger), Trini (Yellow Ranger), and Tommy (Green Ranger) as you battle your way past the evil Rita Repulsa’s army of monsters.

If you’ve ever touched a classic brawler like Streets of Rage or Final Fight, you know what to expect with Mega Battle. Unfortunately, Power Rangers: Mega Battle leaves much to be desired.

No No Power Rangers!

Mega Battle borrows heavily from one of the best brawlers to ever hit consoles, Castle Crashers. As you and your friends take control of each Ranger, you can level them up and upgrade their abilities and stats using Power Coins you gain throughout your adventure. It’s not a very robust system, but the skill trees are varied enough where you find yourself debating whether you want to upgrade your health or stamina meters, or if you should spend your coins on additional moves and power sets. Each upgrade feels worthwhile as the difference in your Ranger’s move-set and strength is noticeable with each skill you purchase.

Unfortunately, Mega Battle falls a bit short in its fighting mechanics. The game’s controls are clunky at best, as certain button presses fail to register. I found myself on several occasions attempting to block incoming attacks only to find that my block button didn’t register, even though I had plenty of stamina. Movement is also a bit restricted as the game tends to ignore your controller input if you press too many buttons at once. It’s an odd problem to have as Mega Battle encourages you to perform combo hits and aerial attacks, but the rough control scheme keeps you from performing more than 10 hits at a time.

Speaking of combat, enemy variety is adequate enough as you fight multiple versions of the putty patrol, black knights, witches, and other monsters that require different tactics to take down. Mega Battle also features your standard fare of attack schemes. In your Ranger form you have light, heavy, and ranged attacks, and you can perform ultimate power moves when you have enough energy stored up in your power bar. If you decide to play with friends on couch co-op, you can use additional ultimates as the Rangers can perform on-screen power attacks to help you level the playing field. While couch co-op is the best way to experience Mega Battle, it’s absolutely inexcusable the developers failed to include online multiplayer.

The Rangers are slightly varied from one another as each uses their own unique weapons for heavy attacks, and some Rangers are quicker and more agile than others. Other than that, they mostly control the same. While combat can be fun at times, a frustrating part of Mega Battle is starting out in the teenager form. Here, your health is reduced and you’re restricted to using light attacks and jumps … even though you may be facing powerful enemies. I can understand why Bamtang Games wanted to include the teenagers as playable characters, but it felt tacked on, forced, and flat out not fun.

For Angel Grove

The game does a pretty good job of recreating the first two seasons of the TV show. (Full disclosure: I was a big Power Rangers fan as a kid, but I veered away from the show following the introduction of the Thunder Zords around season two/three, which this game does NOT cover). Mega Battle touches on some of the iconic series moments like when the teens are chosen by Zordon to defend Angel Grove from Rita, battling Lord Zedd in the dark dimension, and the battle with Tommy The Green Ranger.

While you don’t need to be a fan of the TV show to get into this game, fans will appreciate how each of the characters and villains are handled. The cheesiness of the old series reeks through the text dialogue used to tell the story. There are plenty of pun-filled one-liners, “Morphin Time” chants, and more – and even I will admit I dorked out seeing the Putty Patrol, Rita, Goldar, Hatchasaurus/Cardiatron, and Lord Zedd again. However, some key elements of the show were unreasonably glossed over, like the aforementioned battle with Tommy. Plus, the game features an extremely brief stint with some major villains and outright fails to include a particular Zord.

Make My Monster Grow!

The most exciting, yet slightly disappointing aspect of Mega Battle is its handling of boss fights. Each boss contains three different versions. The first battle sequence is the most enjoyable when you’re in Ranger form before Rita uses her wand to make the monster grow. Version two utilizes the Ranger’s Zord tank form, which is essentially an on-rails shooter. But perhaps the most disappointing of all the fights is the Megazord battles. When you’re finally toe-to-toe with the giant boss the entire sequence plays out in a quick-time event. For a brawler, I was expecting to throw a couple punches in my powerful Megazord, but the entirety of the battles play out in generic QTE button presses, which are incredibly simple. In fact, I was able to beat the final boss of the game without suffering a single hit.

I can understand why the developers wanted to shake things up a bit in terms of pacing, but to completely prevent players from physically attacking as the Megazord in a brawler game is unforgivable.

Verdict:

There is some fun to be had with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle during its four to five-hour campaign. There’s also a boss rush mode and tower attack mode that unlocks after you beat the game, but the real fun lies within the main story. If you can forgive the lack of online multiplayer, the slightly disappointing boss fights, and clunky controls – you will find a game with a unique art style that does a solid job of recreating the first two seasons of the show. Playing with three other buddies is the recommended way to experience the game thanks to the impressive power co-op moves.

For $15 Mega Battle is a fun game for fans of the iconic TV show, even if it has many shortcomings.

Review: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

The Kingdom Hearts series is unfortunately plagued by weird naming configurations. It started off well enough, but as soon as we first saw 358/2 Days, that was the first sign of things to come. The PS3 HD re-releases were oddly numbered as well with titles like Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5. However, the most recent release takes the cake when it comes to market confusion. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a mouthful for someone like me who's well versed in the series, but for the casual crowd, this title is a marketing nightmare.

Strange title aside, this latest compilation which for some reason released before the 1.5 and 2.5 PS4 ports lets players experience Dream Drop Distance on a big screen TV for the first time, as it previously was exclusive to Nintendo's 3DS. It also has about an hour long cinematic called Kingdom Hearts X, which for the most part recounts the story that takes place during the time of the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X. However, the main attraction which is also the sadly the shortest, is Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: Fragmentary Passage, which in some clever ways, ties the events of the original KH game as well as the secret ending of Birth By Sleep.

As far as Dream Drop Distance goes, it's for the most part the same game you remember on the 3DS, if you've played it, albeit with much better controls this time around. It obviously looks better than its portable counterpart and plays in silky smooth 60fps. Crazy and somewhat unnecessary story aside, it's a great port and plays great, Flowmotion and all.

The true attraction lies with 0.2 Fragmentary Passage, a short, two hour experience that focuses on Aqua and her story that literally picks up immediately after the secret ending of Birth By Sleep, when she's overlooking Cinderella's Castle.

It's a neat little side story that explains where she is, and why she's there, and why a certain someone else can be found there as well. I'll keep things completely spoiler free, but just know that there are some great story connections you don't see coming, and they happen in a way that connects the series in a pretty cool way.

The game looks absolutely great, but with better PS4 visuals, come the strangeness of seeing characters like Sora and Riku, who are Final Fantasy-esque, next to characters like Yen Sid, Donald or Goofy, who are all clearly cartoon characters. The original games worked because their aesthetic lent itself well to incorporate the two different art styles. Donald and Goofy in general looked alright but Yen Sid specifically stuck out like a sore thumb. It was weird. I'm certainly hoping that some tweaks are done to the art style before the third game comes out to better incorporate those two wildly different art styles together.

The combat is certainly more fluid, but for the most part still very familiar. You do gain access to moves like double jump and air dash, as well as the Shotlock feature which allows you to aim and lock-on to a myriad of enemies and then unleash a wave of shots on them. Probably the coolest part of combat was the various style switching. For example, as you perform combos, you'll eventually be able to shift into a Spellweaver form, which completely alters your moveset and then allows you to perform a finisher. Performing magic spells and pulling off combos will then also allow you to cast bigger, more powerful versions of those spells as finishers.

Dodging and blocking isn't as intuitive as I'd like since enemies are somewhat hard to read. Their tells are always so short that by the time you realize they're attacking, it's too late to block. And since blocking only lasts a short while, pressing it too early could mean that you could stop blocking by the time the enemy actually lands the hit on you. With that said, when you do pull them off successfully, you get to perform a sweet counterattack.

Even though the experience can be beaten in about two hours, the various "missions" do extend that game time, since they're all tied down to various costume unlocks, that are usually fun to acquire. These items allow you to change Aqua's appearance by putting cat ears on her head, or wings on her back.

I did experience some issues with the cutscenes for 0.2, and after doing some searching online, I found that a few others have also experienced this as well. Every single cutscene would stutter, to the point where they would be completely unwatchable and eventually would desync the voices. From what I understood, this seems to only happen on the digital versions and not if you have the physical version. Hopefully this gets patched, because it did take me out of the experience every single time. Thankfully the gameplay itself was fine at a steady 30fps, at least on my standard PS4. From what I've read, the PS4 Pro version can run the game at 60fps, but since I don't own one, I can't say for sure. If that is the case though, it would certainly make the PS4 Pro a much more tempting purchase for me.

Update: I have confirmed with a PR representative and Square that the game runs at 4K and 60fps on the PS4 Pro. That certainly bodes very well for Kingdom Hearts 3. Whether it was native 4K or upscaled wasn't specified, but 60fps is certainly a nice touch.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a fine entry in this crazy saga of games, even though it contains one of the least interesting games story wise with Dream Drop Distance. The taste of what we might be getting in Kingdom Hearts 3 certainly made it worth it. With the PS4 re-releases of 1.5 and 2.5, fans or even newcomers will finally have one place to experience the entirety of the story before the final chapter comes out, and that's also something worth celebrating.

Review: Nioh draws inspiration from many games

Whe Nioh was first unveiled with its dark samurai themes, many had immediately drawn comparisons to the Souls series, myself included. And its undeniable that Team Ninja was definitely inspired by them. However, as I played Nioh, I realized that despite having some similar mechanics, Nioh was its own beast of a game. A beast so terrifying, that it invoked some of that same dread I had when I first played a Souls game.

In Nioh, you play as William, a Geralt of Rivia-looking Westerner in feudal Japan, who gets mixed up in a crazy demon invasion, all while still utilizing historical figures like Hattori Hanzo, Tokugawa Ieyasu and the like. If you've played any of the Samurai Warriors games, then these names should feel right at home with you. This storyline might feel even more at home if you've played the Warriors Orochi series. Nioh might take itself a bit more seriously, but at least you now have a frame of reference.

Nioh starts out relatively easy, dropping you in a tutorial level of sorts where you have to escape imprisonment. This level teaches you the basics of combat and dodging, but only on a very base level. Once you get past this, you can either immediately head over to the first real stage, or head over to the dojo for a more in depth tutorial. I'm a little confused why Team Ninja felt the need to split these two up, as all of this stuff could have been taught in the first mission. Instead, now I'm doing a second tutorial, which should not be skipped, since it teaches you even more important moves like the indispensable ki pulse and stance switching. 

Combat in general feels quick and snappy, save for some of the heavier weapons you can use. The moves have a sort of immediacy to them, meaning for the most part, as soon as you press the attack button, that attack happens. Sure, some weapons have a wind-up, like the heavy hammers or axes, but most other weapons fell closer to the moves of Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden than a character from Dark Souls.

Action, for the most part, is the name of the game here, and since your moves tend to be rather fast, the game can lull you into a false state of comfort, making you think that you'll be able to button mash your way to victory. Trust me, this is not the case. There's a reason the game has so many different systems working in tandem together, like the aforementioned ki pulse which will regain some of your stamina with the correct timing of a button press, to carefully executed dodges and blocks.

Human enemies can and will pose a threat to you, especially the more heavily armored ones, since that's the game's way of telling you "Hey, that's a tough enemy with a better moveset, be careful!" However, you'll also be facing various demons called the Yokai (not nearly as cute as you'd remember from Yokai Watch though). These act as mini-bosses of sorts, placed around levels to break up the flow of combat against humans, and offer up some more challenge. Not only are they much more difficult to take down due to their increased health pool, but they also pack quite a punch. As it is with every enemy in Nioh, the first part of every battle should consist of studying the enemy movement and learning how to dodge it, and then go for hits.

What I've found though is that there is a much deeper flow to combat once you master all the various techniques and mechanics such as ki pulse, stance switching and blocking. You can quite literally be an unstoppable force of flurry attacks if you know how to time all of those right. For example, when using a ki pulse after executing a move, you can also switch stances at the same time, which will not only give you more ki, but can enable you to do more damage. There have already been insane videos posted from the previous Alpha and Beta tests, one of which is this, where you can clearly see that once everything clicks, you can be quite the force to be reckoned with.

Outside of the Souls inspirations, which include dying and then regaining your lost Amrita (Souls) where you've died, and other smaller mechanics, Nioh also borrow some mechanics from other titles such as Diablo and other loot games with its over abundance of drops and item rarities.

One particular element I really liked was the inclusion of sub missions. Since Nioh doesn't play out on a persistent huge world, but rather is split up into missions that each take place on a different map, this allowed the developers to be able to revisit maps you've already beaten and change them up slightly to provide a different kind of challenge. For example, once you beat your first main mission, you can revisit that same area for a sub mission that has you eliminating all the bandits as well as the bandit leader. This time though you start on the opposite side of the map, working your way to the other, with slight changes to the level design which manages to keep you on your toes.

What I wasn't expecting, and I quite like, is that these sub missions yield farmable materials that can be used for crafting powerful weapons and armor. That means Team Ninja also took inspiration from its Warriors games, which also task you with replaying missions for materials to more or less do the same thing. For folks that continually like improving their gear through crafting, this is a pretty awesome feature.

If the game's difficulty is bringing on frustration, players can find solace in summoning other players for co-operative play. You simply place an item on one of the shrines in a level and then other players can join you, whether it's a random player or a friend. However, if it's a friend, there's a catch. That friend had to already complete the level, which means trying to play the game entirely in co-op is impossible, and might be a big negative for those that wanted to play it that way. Joining someone else's game is extremely easy as well. You can either select a stage on the map screen and press square and boom, instant matchmaking. In my experience, I've always found someone to help within 10 seconds or so.

However, Nioh does offer something pretty awesome for players who do want to play co-op together. Through the Torii Gate, players can opt to play co-op with a friend, which then places them into a level, where they share one giant bar. If a player dies, they can be picked back up, but the bar decreases, increasing the tension. It's a great balancing act since in general co-op makes the game easier, but given the high stakes in a shared bar, as well as the mission failing entirely if both players die, forcing them to restart from the beginning, ups the pressure on making sure both players bring their A game.

What's clear is that despite getting occasionally frustrated at the game's difficulty, which can at times be uncompromising, I still want to dive back in and press on. This is something I've always admired about the Souls series, that despite kicking my ass, I was always willing to dive back in. Nioh is different enough where I don't feel like I'm playing an imitation of the Souls series, at least not like Lords of the Fallen. The Ninja Gaiden influence is pretty heavy, what with all the different combos and weapons you can wield, so for fans hoping to see Team Ninja get back into what they did best, Nioh comes pretty damn close.

There are clear inspirations taken from various games, and yet Nioh manages to do things a bit differently, and because of that, is able to stand on its own as a fun action game.