Review: Bastion

Most of us have played an isometric dungeon-crawler by now, be it Diablo, Torchlight, or Sacred.  You trudge through a series of large regions that recycle the same environments ad nauseam, defeat hordes of enemies with largely one-button combat, and pick up dozens of useless items along the way.  Each time you visit town you can expect to spend a good five or ten minutes repairing your equipment, selling the masses of garbage that you’ve collected, turning in quests, and distributing your new stat and skill points.  Bastion does away with a lot of this tedium.

Review: Breath of Death VII/Cthulhu Saves the World

It seems fitting that two micro RPG’s get a micro review. Zeboyd Games recently dropped their two-pack  onto Steam. I snatched them up at release and got them on sale, but even at full price it won’t break the wallet.

Originally debuting on Xbox Live Indie Games, Breath of Death VII was released for the PC market with Cthulhu Saves the World. Don’t look for BoD I-VI.  They don’t exist, and that is part of the charm of these games. They aren’t trying to be something they shouldn’t. They are derivative and they know it. They know you have played this game before. They are meant more as an homage/spoof of old school RPG’s such as the Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire series.

Review: Amnesia

Among the greatest qualities of gaming is the ability to immerse yourself into the experience, to have such a captivating blend of story and gameplay that the world seems real to you at that moment. One of the worst things someone can do to you in that moment is make you experience the feelings from that game even after you’ve stopped playing. In most instances such as with World of Warcraft or Call of Duty this wouldn’t be the best or even safest direction for the game, but Amnesia hits it just right.

Review: Zeno Clash Ultimate Edition

Zeno Clash tries to immerse you in a remarkably unique fantasy world, but a quirky art design alone isn’t enough to make a game fun or interesting.  The environments and character models certainly look like they’re a part of a rich universe, but the gameplay is hopelessly repetitive and the story alternates between being uninteresting and nonexistent.

Review: A World of Keflings

I burned through the majority of A World of Keflings in a six hour marathon where I simply couldn’t put the game down.  It makes for one hell of an addictive time sink.  For those that don’t know, A World of Keflings is a sequel to the previously released Xbox Live Arcade title A Kingdom for Keflings.

Review: Hunted Demon’s Forge

Hunted: Demon’s Forge should be avoided at all costs.  A friend of mine and I had been looking forward to this game ever since we saw the early trailers, but negative reviews caused us to pick it up from a Red Box rather than buy it.  Thank god for that.  The graphics are ugly.  The colors are a visual mess of dark greens and browns, leading to visuals where you can barely make out where your enemies are at times.

Quickie Review: Altered Beast

I think Altered Beast was specifically designed to annoy me.  I probably pissed someone off in 2015 that went back in time to destroy me.  The controls are serviceable and the bosses are decent enough, but the regular enemy AI seems to have been programmed to just screw with the player.

Quickie Review: Gunstar Heroes

I loved Gunstar Heroes.  An 8-directional, side-scrolling shooter where you get four elemental weapons that can be mixed together for different effects?  Widely varied levels that actually move around and feel interactive?  A huge roster of bosses that each are unique and interesting to fight?  A board game stage where you roll dice to determine what happens next?

Quickie Review: New Rally-X

I absolutely despised New Rally-X at first.  The enemy cards that are trying to hit you get incredibly fast, the controls are awkward and often unresponsive, the field of view is tiny, and the map has no detail whatsoever.  I actually yelled at the screen a few times because I had to many deaths that felt completely unjustified as the waves of 6+ opponents closed me into tiny alleys and other impossible situations.

Review: Bloody Good Time

I really, really wanted to like Bloody Good Time for its premise alone.  You play as an actor who works for Director X, and you basically compete with your opponents at getting the most interesting kills.  The director chooses which weapons are worth the most points, then once you use those weapons for a while they lose their value and are replaced by something that hasn’t been used.