Thunderbolt

Dawn of War III Beta Impressions

2017-05-01T18:59:52Z

After a gruelling 24-hour download and the reliably awesome intro, I was in. The first stop was the requisite tutorials. They served their purpose but that is one phoned-in tutorial voiceover – who emphasises the ‘TUT’ in tutorial? I henceforth demand that Games Workshop related titles are performed only by people who’ve not been corrupted by The Lord of Change.

The only playable game type was the 3v3 multiplayer battle, the object of which was to take out specific structures in order, leading to the destruction of the enemy’s power core. Selecting Space Marines with a haphazardly chosen elite/ability loadout, I waited, as I’ve done for countless hours across the series, in the lobby. I was matched up with five other players and then, at the last second, it didn’t happen and I was booted into nothingness. To be honest I would’ve been disappointed if this hadn’t happened at least once – it’s part of the dammed experience.

Immediately apparent, besides its inferior graphics, is that DOW3 moves at a faster pace than its prequels – buildings are thrown up quickly by your servitor builder unit and squads are churned out rapidly and are among the fray in an instant. I don’t know if it is my age or lack of amphetamines but there was barely time to think.

When strategic points are captured they must be upgraded to produce in-game resources comprising either requisition, power, or elite points. Elite points are earned during the course of the battle and are used to bring your three elite units into the conflict, who vary from skilled squadrons, champions to titanic war machines. Elites are appropriately powerful and come with a variety of nifty unique abilities and, especially when used in tandem, can easily sway the fight in your favour.

Once elites are purchased they’ll be available for the match’s duration and can be healed at HQ, but if they’re taken out they must endure a time-out before re-entering the fray. The elite points can also be used to invoke an orbital bombardment strike which is utterly devastating, so much so that I won’t be surprised if it’s nerfed in the final release.

Strategic heavy cover points can be captured and then provide a large defence bonus to your troops – and this can only be broken by opposing troops with a ‘break cover’ ability, meaning if the position is fired upon barely any damage will be taken.

One aspect of only allowing the 3v3 at this point is that it throws you in at the deep end in terms of being overwhelmed by micro and macro management. Factoring in unit builds, buffs, base expansion and upgrades requires constant attention and I found the macro often diverted from the micro management – it would’ve been beneficial to allow for 1v1 to be able to learn the new systems at a steadier pace rather than through a full-scale huge-map battle.

Resources were always plentiful which meant I could splurge on squad after squad and, much like my opponents, spam the hell out of the battle. The matches were immense – as any 40k battle should be – but I missed the subtleties of DOW2. Losing a levelled up and upgraded squad in DOW2 is a crippling blow, one where you’ll chastise yourself for a tactical error – here it’s of little consequence.

ARGs, Controlled Impressions, And Videogame Marketing

2017-04-12T18:34:25Z

Videogame marketing is changing quickly, and it’s important for gamers to understand how. If we know the tactics publishers use to market to us, we can avoid No Man’s Sky situations, where we get over-hyped and buy a disappointing game.

As more and more releases saturate the videogame market and the industry becomes more competitive for coverage and sales, many publishers are in tough situations. They invest so much money into their games that a single one being a flop could lead to them closing their doors permanently. Even good games that are critically acclaimed by critics and fans can be a financial loss if marketed poorly. As more traditional ads like TV commercials and print ads are becoming less effective, publishers are looking for unique ways to sell their games.

To help raise awareness and protect your wallet, here are many newer marketing tactics game publishers are using right now to create hype for their games.

Alternate Reality Games

While it sounds more akin to VR headsets, alternate reality games (ARG) don’t use the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. Instead, ARG’s are an interactive tactic to tell a story requiring participation from the players in the real world to progress. A prime example of this is Overwatch’s ARG involving Sombra, requiring players to decode messages, solve puzzles, find clues, and follow a dialogue on a series of Overwatch websites.

ARGs aren’t new, with the earliest occurring in 1996, but as they become more advanced and immersive, they are becoming more popular and interesting. They have been used to promote games like Halo 2, movies like The Dark Knight, and live events like the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Utilizing ARGs for marketing have two major benefits. The first is that it increases the publicity of the game, both with the players in the ARG, and with news sources. As new developments are uncovered in the game, it’s more likely the ARG and the videogame itself to stay in the daily news cycle. That means more coverage, which leads to more hype and attention, and more sales.

The next benefit is allowing the publisher that gauge interest in the game more effectively. The company is getting data from consumers involved to better advertise the game to (through cookies and site data) so they can better gauge interest level and target ads directly to people interested in the game. So to put it in better context, if you were to visit a site involved in the ARG, the publisher could then purchase online ads to target specifically to you.

Overwatch’s ARG to reveal Sombra not only drew a lot of attention to the new character, but to the game itself. Overwatch was already a common topic in videogame journalism sites, but this ARG gave it even more coverage, drowning out competition and bring it more attention. For a long term multiplayer like Overwatch, constant marketing is essential for it to remain profitable and active.

As a gamer and a consumer, it’s important to recognize that an engaging ARG won’t mean the game itself will be great. An ARG can be a marketing tactic to get more attention from gaming journalism and to increase player interest in the game.

Huge, Lavish Booths at Gaming Conferences

A big part of videogame marketing isn’t just targeting the players, it’s also about targeting retailers and journalists. If a developer wants to sell a game at a retail store, they need to convince stores like Wal-Mart and Target to buy their game to resell at their stores. The goal of a retailer is to buy just the right amount of copies so they don’t have a bunch left over they can’t sell.

So it falls to the publisher to convince them each game is the next big hit. One major way they do this is by building these huge booths at major gaming conferences like E3. Representatives from major retail chains go to events like these to meet with the staff, try out the game and get a feel if the game will sell well. So, instead of simply having a TV and the game set up, they create an entire experience to impress them.

Remember last E3 and the massive Mafia 3 booth? They created an entire New Orleans neighborhood inside their booth and everybody was floored with how detailed and large it was. The game itself received mid-to-low review scores and overall didn’t perform well with gamers. The game itself sold great with retailers, pushing 4.5 million to stores and became the publisher’s fastest selling game, proving their marketing worked for a poorly-liked game.

Journalists, to a lesser extent, are affected by these booths. It builds hype for the game that they pass on in their coverage of the event to their followers and consumers. Good games can still have flashy booths, but don’t base your purchase decisions off of it. If the publisher focuses more on the booth rather than the gameplay of their product at a conference, but cautious of the finished game.

Relying Heavily On The Brand

Over the years, the game industry has been flooded with sequels and yearly iterations of games, and many of these rely heavily on the brand they’ve built. Many gamers are willing to buy the newest Call of Duty or NBA game simply because it’s what they play. They’ve become extremely loyal to those brands, and their publishers know they can use that loyalty to sell a certain amount of games.

That isn’t to say they don’t use other marketing tactics, they do. There are commercials, E3 booths, and billboards to help keep them top of mind. They want players to make associations with the successes of the previous games so they don’t need to prove their newest game is good. The other games built brand loyalty that they can now capitalize on.

Controlling Early Impressions

In 2016, Bethesda announced that they were no longer going to give review copies of games to the media. Instead, they would rather have reviews go up alongside releases so everybody has a chance to experience the game without outside influences.

Some would argue though that they are simply trying to control impressions that might negatively affect sales, and other companies are doing the same. Many companies, like EA and Square Enix, either by themselves or through a PR company, are declining to give review copies to unpredictable or negative reviewers. Instead of sending copies openly to get a realistic picture of the game’s quality, they only send them to people they are confident to give positive scores.

This creates an ethical issue for many gaming journalism sources that rely on those review copies. It’s their duty to provide honest reviews of a game to inform consumers about its quality. If a game isn’t good and they give it a bad score, they risk not being eligible to get future games for that publisher. On the other hand, if they give a good score to a bad game, they risk losing the trust of their followers and the ad revenue they get from their online traffic.

It’s not a terribly large amount of control, but it does inconvenience gaming journalists and give publishers better control of a game’s impressions leading up to its release. It forces gamers to either purchase a game blindly at release or wait until proper reviews of a game have a chance to be finished and go up.

Marketing and You

Now you have a better understanding how the game industry is marketing to you, and hopefully, help you determine what games to buy and when. It’s clear that some companies are willing to do some less than savory things to sell copies of their game, while others are trying their hardest to control the market.

Got something you want to share? Tired of the pre-order agenda game companies are pushing on me? Thought of a tactic publishers are using to mislead us that wasn’t mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below!

Chime Sharp

2017-03-07T03:15:56Z

Puzzle games must walk a delicate line between stress and relaxation. They are inherently games about organization and control, which is to say they aren’t for everybody. To some, organization can be a deeply soothing, therapeutic practice; to others, organization can be a nerve racking endeavor. Chime Sharp, a sequel to 2009’s sublime Chime, elicits both of these feelings, though not in entirely equal measure.

Chime Sharp requires an incredible amount of planning and restraint. The basic objective is to cover 100% of the board with what the game calls “Quads”, which are simply rectangles of any size with at least three units on one end. What makes this objective challenging are the timer and the manner in which blocks fit together, or not, as it can often be. The clock can be managed through Quad formation and time bonuses, but the understanding of how each piece interacts with one another is a constant learning process, one that will separate mere success from real mastery.

The economy of block placement is an essential facet. Junk blocks are left behind when any non-perfect Quad is eliminated – a perfect Quad is a set Quad that has no extraneous pieces jutting out of the rectangle. These junk pieces may not seem like a big deal initially, since they can be subsequently eliminated, but it’s Chime’s signature element, and the primary source of stress in both Original and the brand new Sharp game modes.

“Sharp mode is where the title truly excels”As in the original Chime, junk blocks must be removed from the board in a timely manner to maintain your score multiplier. This is obviously important to score chasers, however the stakes are much higher in Sharp mode, which is where the title truly excels and differentiates itself from its predecessor. In Sharp mode there is no timer, period. Players are given 10 health points and one health point is removed for each and every junk block that isn’t removed from the board within the required number of phases. The wrinkle to this setup is the player’s ability to restore health via Perfect Quads.

“Sharp mode is simple, elegant, and instructional”Sharp mode is simple, elegant, and instructional. Without a timer players are given as much time as they need to consider block placement, at least initially, before junk pieces begin to infest the board. Stress begins to manifest itself as players spread further and further across the board, leaving isolated patches of junk blocks here and there. The junk pieces degrade over time, changing color to indicate the number of phases they can remain safely on the board. The balancing act of smart, economical brick placement, cleaning up junk blocks and expanding coverage is very stressful. Players must consider every move, and quickly, as their health continues to deplete and the board becomes increasingly cluttered, or, risk making moves that will eventually kill them.

Some of the stress of playing Chime Sharp is offset by the relaxing, subdued electronic music that backs each of the game’s 15 stages. The music provides context and ambiance, setting a mood rather than being a component of gameplay, unlike many other modern puzzle games. Each track may receive momentary punctuation when Quads are eliminated, but for the most part the soundtrack bleeds into the title’s audiovisual language.

Speaking of that language, Chime Sharp can be hard to process at first. Some of the mechanics aren’t explained all that well, such as Perfect Quads, which I mistakenly thought had to be squares, rather than junk-free rectangles. The other aspect is the graphics and how information is conveyed to the player, largely via colors, which are not consistent from one stage to the next. Each stage has its own color scheme, meaning the blocks, the grid and the covered board all look slightly different. On top of that, degrading blocks are all colored a different shade of the same color, meaning players must identify what each new level’s color scheme is telling them.

Chime Sharp is a challenging, thoughtful sequel to an immensely enjoyable, if overlooked puzzler. Many puzzle game sequels seem bloated with poorly thought out modes and features that don’t support the initial thesis of their experiences, but Sharp mode is the rare reimagined rule set that reinforces what the game did well in the first place; it’s just plenty stressful.

Space Hulk: Deathwing

2017-02-09T01:11:56Z

As strange noises emerge from the darkness, your full-body terminator armour clangs around the claustrophobic corridors of the vessel. These groaning walkways have gone untrodden for millennia. Suddenly your motion tracker bleeps into action: a service panel bursts open and out pours a swarm of rampaging claws and teeth. Will your super human Space Marine squad be overrun or instead purge this xeno filth from the galaxy?

There’s been numerous videogame iterations of Games Workshop’s classic tabletop game Space Hulk, but none have managed to create an atmosphere quite like this latest version from Streum on studio. The essence of the game, essentially the hive firefight from Aliens but with walking tanks instead of Colonial Marines, has often played out relatively slowly (or even turn-based) but here it’s given the frantic -real-time pace of squad-based shooters like Left4Dead.

The nine mission long campaign revolves around exploring the titular hulks looking for lost relics, cleansing them of their alien infestations whilst performing arbitrary tasks such as overloading power networks and salvaging information from data points. As the squad’s leader, a powerful Librarian class Space Marine, you’re naturally obliged to issue on-the-fly orders to your team (consisting of a heavy weapons chap and a medic) with the most pressing request likely for you or your squad to be healed in the heat of battle. These orders are selected using a wheel-type menu and can be easily botched once the havoc erupts.

The apex of Deathwing’s gameplay is facing the innumerable hordes of Genestealers, trying to hold the line before the timer for some forgetful task has expired. This may appear to be a case of point and shoot, but the cruel addition of mid-fight gun-jamming will invariably turn the tide against you – a punishing mechanic lifted straight from the source material. Further to this, a melee based loadout will skip this issue but certainly has its own pitfalls.

True to the lore, the Genestealer enemies are ferocious foes. They move like you’d expect a multi-limbed biomechanoid killing machine to – leaping through the air and slashing from all angles, bursting from the shadows. It’s a shock the first time you seemingly put one down only to realise, all too late, that it’s merely switched to a ground-hugging crawl, ducking underneath your bolter blasts to pounce from underfoot. As you progress, your squad faces deadlier Genestealer strains, from the humanoid firearm wielding hybrids, to enhanced versions able to cloak themselves or use psychic attacks, to boss-like mammoths such as the lethal broodlord.

The AI suffers from standard problems such as friendlies stepping into your line of fire and becoming snagged on scenery, but you’re able to pass through them when necessary which either helps your gameplay or hinders the experience depending on your perspective. I mainly found the squad to be worthy allies, especially once an effective squad loadout is implemented.

Co-op multiplayer is a slightly different and more engaging affair, with a four-man squad going over the campaign’s missions with new loadout options compared to the single player campaign’s Librarian, and variety offered by the player taking on different roles such as medic or heavy weapon support. This also leads to a natural inclination toward the higher difficulties – which is how Deathwing is best experienced.

The hulks’ Gothic architecture, imposing statues and mechanical apparatus present you with both confined and open spaces over which to do battle – they feel suitably ancient and haunted. The art direction and sound design combine to create an eerie and overbearing atmosphere that, when experienced properly (headphones in the dark), offers an immersive experience indeed. With regards to stability, it’s worth mentioning that Streum On Studio has been duly patching reported bugs as fast as possible, with stability increasing steadily since the initial release.

Besides the action and some exploration, Deathwing offers plenty for those with a deep knowledge of the 40k universe, from references to the Dark Angel Space Marine chapter’s history, the attention to detail in the arsenal to the many mutations (biomorphs) present in the Genestealer foes. As someone who’s grown up with more than a passing interest in 40k, most of the dialogue and events made sense to me, but I imagine the terminology and background being rather baffling to players coming in fresh. It’s therefore likely that only longtime fans will get the most out of Deathwing – and hopefully improved stability and future content will ensure they stick around.

Thunderbolt’s Most Wanted 2017

2017-01-17T04:28:23Z

Before 2017 gets too far away from us a few of our staff wanted to share what titles we’re most looking forward to in the new year. Let us know what games you’re looking forward to in 2017 that we’ve inevitably missed in the comments.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Zelda games have been the base of my video game experience, but recent installments of the main franchise have felt less than satisfying. The games followed a predictable pattern. Link wakes up, needs to save the princess, has to collect stuff from dungeons, gains items to beat said dungeon, has big boss battles, fights Ganon (or similar boss) and saves Hyrule and the Triforce. Breath of the Wild has the opportunity to finally change up the game with new systems implemented and an open world design. The game could actually deliver on the feeling of exploring and adventure that other open world games fail to bring.

Yooka-Laylee

When people talk about playing games on the Nintendo 64, most people recall a few key games. There is The Legend of Zelda games, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie. Mario 64 introduced the 3D platformer genre, but Banjo-Kazooie perfected it. Yooka-Laylee is from the same creative minds behind Banjo-Kazooie, for a new adventure.

Tales of Berseria

My very first Tales game was Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube and it captured me like no other game since. I became a quick fan of the series and impatiently waited for future titles. The road has been filled with highs and lows, with each game feeling like a gamble. All signs point to Tales of Berseria being a proud entry in the series. The game is currently out in Japan and many critics there have acclaimed that it’s taken what worked in the previous games and corrected the failings that have been a sore point for players. Additionally, a darker theme and plotline is much needed after the last few games being overly cheerful.

Ben Allen

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I don’t really know what to make of Horizon: Zero Dawn. I really love the action that I’ve seen so far, but Guerrilla Games has fooled me with a lot of great Killzone trailers in the past, so I’m a tad skeptical because those games never lived up to the promise of their billing. Horizon: Zero Dawn is a game that I want to love, and I’m eager to see what they do here with the opportunity to explore a different genre, different universe, without the unreasonable expectation of being the “Halo-killer” that’s always gotten in the way of the Killzone series. Aloy looks like a capable heroine, the combat system looks promising, and no one can say Guerrilla doesn’t know graphics. For me, the challenge will be in creating compelling gameplay that keeps me interested in exploring the very big world they’re building. I’m staying optimistic.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Duh. I’m not terribly certain that this game will actually meet a 2017 release, but obviously, everyone’s totally hyped for Andromeda. It’ll be interesting to see how the turnover among the original team that built this game plays out on the end results, but it certainly seems like the game is on the right path so far. I’m very excited to explore a new cast of characters, as the relationship building has always been my favorite parts of every Bioware game, and I’m expecting good things as they’re coming off their recent efforts in one of my favorite games of this generation, Dragon Age: Inquisition. The framework they’re building off of with the previous games in the series is refined and developed and the game will probably lean heavily on what came before, but I’m glad to see some new additions, particularly enhanced planet exploration. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one releasing this year, but this is a release purchase for me.

Vampyr

Life is Strange is one of those games that stuck with me for a while after playing it. There were opportunities in how the game was paced and I’m not 100% convinced the episodic style of the game was a great vehicle to deliver it to the market, but the overall story and characterization was top-notch. Vampyr looks like it’s offering a lot of what I love in action games: the ability to hunt and stalk your victims from the shadow and the ability to finish the game without taking a life. I’ve never really been interested in vampire culture and am more interested in this game because I want to support Dontnod after their last outing, but I’m hopeful that this game turns out.

Jessica Wadleigh

Dawn of War III

Developer Relic is touting Dawn of War III as a combination of aspects from the first two and, for longtime fans of the 40K RTS, this is an exciting prospect indeed. Base building, point-capture, hero units and large scale walker units have been confirmed, as have the core races of Space Marines, Orks and Eldar – with hopefully more to be added to the vanilla game. Not much has been revealed about the multiplayer, but as this is one of the series’ crucial modes, we can expect it to be essential as long as the community is properly supported. Current screenshots and footage showcase intricately detailed units and awesome battle effects, bringing to mind a virtual adaptation of the long-missed tabletop 40k game, Epic.

The Surge

The Surge is an upcoming ‘difficult’ action-RPG from developer Deck13 that may end up being the first sci-fi take on the Souls series. Set in a dystopian future where humans have almost become obsolete in the face of cybernetic progression – your character is seemingly tasked with smashing this progression to smithereens. Your rig is able to be upgraded with various pieces hacked off your foes and this will change not only your stats but also its appearance. The world looks suitably cold and imposing, but whether it has a compelling core remains to be seen.

Pete Worth

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Big, sweeping JRPGs on consoles are a rare breed these days. Ni no Kuni might not have been the only title to fit that bill on the PlayStation 3, it was however the only one that piqued my interest. The Studio Ghibli connection, the plucky kid on a fated adventure, the nostalgia-inducing overworld, nearly every aspect of Level 5’s title struck the right chords with me: it channeled the aspects of JRPGs that I adore, while sidestepping the angst and contrived plots of many of its contemporaries. Sometimes it’s enough to simply be a kid summoned to a world to vanquish evil. Given the trailers for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, I expect little more than an equally magical return trip to the other world, and frankly, that’s all I want.

Super Mega Baseball 2

I don’t have much to say about Super Mega Baseball 2, other than it’s the sequel to my favorite sports game since the PlayStation 2. The developers are addressing my only issues with the original, the lack of online play (my friends hate baseball!) and the somewhat awkward, limiting character designs of the original. Even if Metalhead Software had simply put the first game out again with more teams and stadiums I’d have likely bit. Seriously, it’s that good. Dust off your spikes.

Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania, by and large, ignores the recent, infamous history of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are back to relive their Genesis glory days, in all their pixelated, blast-processing glory. I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve never been a Sonic super fan, but I’ve always had a special bond with him and the Genesis. I still vividly remember picking up the Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog packed-in from a KayBee Toys from a mall in my hometown that no longer exists. I remember hooking it up with my dad to our living room television, which was one of those old models that had all the ornate wood finishing around it. Today, when I pop those classic Sonic titles into my Nomad I can still feel the energy that Sega tapped into back in the early-to-mid ’90s. I know it’s mostly nostalgia talking, but I’m hoping Sonic Mania can find the groove the Blue Blur lost two decades ago.
Sean Kelley

Sean’s Top 3 of 2016

2017-01-06T01:20:57Z

2016 has been a really solid year for gaming. I enjoyed a variety of games on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo 3DS: some were big, some were small, many were of the entirely unexpected variety. Among the most memorable I played in 2016 were games like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Moon Hunters, The Witness, Steep, Amplitude, and the free-to-play Let it Die. However, those aren’t the games I want to talk about today.

2016 was yet another banner year for indie games, and thus, you’ll find no AAA titles in my final choices. Without further adieu, my top 3 of 2016…

Hyper Light Drifter

I’m still working my way through Hyper Light Drifter, but what I have played has been sublime. Heart Machine’s debut is a haunting, minimalist love letter to the action RPGs of our childhoods. It rewards players that are patient, observant and thorough with an adventure that poses far more questions than it ever answers. Who are you? What’s happened to this world? Why is my little dude sporadically coughing up blood? These are all questions I don’t yet have answers to, and honestly, I doubt I’ll ever know entirely, well after the credits have rolled.

Heart Machine’s sparse approach extends beyond its story. Combat and exploration strike the right balance of simple and complex, relying more on the proper use of a small set of abilities rather than the bloated skill trees and unnecessary leveling systems that seem to be the norm in larger RPGs. This allows players to spend their time honing strategies instead of continually relearning movesets.

As I get older I find myself gravitating more and more toward games like Hyper Light Drifter. While big budget releases have increasingly realistic graphics, near endless open worlds, vast orchestral soundtracks and full voiceover it’s the smaller, more intimate games that stick with me. I don’t need everything spelled out for me, mechanics or story. What I need are games like Hyper Light Drifter. Games that have clear, concise design. Games that have no interest in overstaying their welcome. Finally, games that are brave enough to give me the tools and get out of my own way.

Overcooked

In terms of pure joy nothing topped Overcooked in 2016, plain and simple. Associate Editor Jessica Wadleigh and I convened on several an afternoon to prepare silly little meals for our pantheon of fictitious customers, all in service of the noble Onion King. There was laughing, yelling and the near immediate rush to retry each and every kitchen we failed to get the coveted 3 star rating on.

What makes Overcooked so delightful is it’s ability to fuel cooperation, to find ways to be more efficient. Each kitchen doubles as a theater for spontaneous storytelling among friends – or enemies, I would assume. Memorable moments are served up (sorry!) every time you play, there’s simply no avoiding it.

With the recent release of The Lost Morsel (paid) and the Festive Seasoning (free) DLCs there’s no better time to fire up Overcooked. It’s the best co-op game I’ve played this year and easily the most fun I’ve had gaming in 2016.

Severed

Despite near universal praise Severed seems largely forgotten amongst 2016’s finest. Admittedly, its initial release was almost a year ago on iOS and Vita, which did it few favors – though Apple recently named it their iPad Game of the Year. But Severed is worth a look, as it’s a phenomenal game from a consistently great developer.

Severed hooked me with its mood, its style and its undeniable substance – much like another game you’ll find at the top of this list. It did all of these things whilst being a touch-based title, a form of control for “hardcore” games that is still looked on with skepticism. Just recently I saw someone remark about the surprising depth of Severed, noting that before playing it they’d assumed the game was akin to Fruit Ninja.

Severed is not merely Fruit Ninja + first-person dungeon crawler. It’s a sophisticated reimagining of an old, beloved genre that makes essential use of swipes and taps as its primary form of interaction; it’s great, and it’s my absolute favorite game of 2016.

Severed

2016-11-15T22:46:55Z

Severed is the latest step in the maturation of indie developers DrinkBox Studios. In 2013 I called Guacamelee! “both fun and funny”, noting the common DNA found in all of their work. Severed, the studio’s fourth title, doesn’t fit that description. It’s fun, but it is most certainly not funny. Severed is dark, ambiguous and incredibly intimate; it is the new benchmark for all future DrinkBox games.

The story of Severed is simple: the protagonist, Sasha, must track down her brother, mother and father. We don’t know what’s happened to them or why, just that they’ve been taken to three corners of Severed‘s nightmarish world. A few NPCs will lend some context and flavor to Sasha’s journey, but, the story and world are largely open to interpretation.

“Sasha’s determination is conveyed through great character design”Sasha is both memorable and relatable. Her motives are clear and her task unenviable, but the determination she has to reunite her family is conveyed through great character design. We spend the entire game looking through Sasha’s eyes, catching glimpses of her in mirrors and on the skills’ screen. Initially all we see is a battered, one-armed girl. Later, we see a woman who’ll stop at nothing to see her family together once again: the arc is as much the player’s as it is Sasha’s.

Severed‘s harsh world is backed up by challenging touch-based combat. Sword swipes and magic are triggered via stylus swipes and taps on the 3DS’ touchscreen. Each unique enemy has its own routines and weak points that players must learn to exploit. Generally combat is limited to a maximum of four enemies per encounter, placing one in each of the four cardinal directions. The duality of the setup is clever, as it causes the stress of being surrounded, yet also affords the affinity of one-on-one dueling.

“Severed asks its players to play with their food before eating”The defining aspects of combat are the ‘Focus’ meter and the titular “severed” mechanic. Consecutive successful slashes against a single foe without being blocked builds focus. Once the meter is maxed out, each enemy can be dismembered after their health is depleted. The amputated parts can then be collected and used to strengthen Sasha’s various skills, but the interesting part of building focus is that Severed asks its players to play with their food before eating.

Most enemies can be dispatched of in a matter of seconds. However, killing Severed‘s monsters in the most efficient manner often yields too little focus to fill the meter. What ensues is an elegant implementation of risk versus reward, deciding to kill enemies quickly and thus be safer, or to prioritize enemies, deal damage and continue to build focus without delivering killing blows. The result is a mechanic that encourages thoughtful combat throughout, while spontaneously allowing players to dictate how difficult they want the current encounter to be.

At Home

The 3DS is actually the fourth platform Severed has appeared on, following iOS, Vita and WiiU. However, the combination of excellent stylus use and a second screen for easy dungeon navigation makes the 3DS the best fit.

Severed is at its weakest when that agency is stripped from the player. There are three ways that the game undermines its delicate, rewarding systems. First, there are a few isolated difficulty spikes, which ruin the otherwise great balance of combat and exploration. Second is the game’s allocation of body parts at the endgame. Immediately before the final boss there’s a room that will continually spawn enemies and vases (Severed‘s requisite destructable container), which somewhat weakens the idea that smart play is the only path to maxed-out skill trees. The third, and ultimately the one that bothered me the most, is a hidden item that gives you max focus at all times. Admittedly, this object is well-hidden and most players will likely miss it, but it causes combat to be a lot more mindless, as the primary goal (to attain focus) has already been achieved.

Balance issues aside, Severed is undoubtedly DrinkBox’s finest work to date. It’s an excellent title that beautifully illustrates the developers’ willingness to grow and experiment as game makers. Both stark and somber, Sasha’s story provides a striking juxtaposition to the studio’s previous work. It is an essential 3DS offering.

The Banner Saga

2016-11-14T21:58:06Z

In 2012, Alex Thomas, Arnie Jorgensen and John Watson left their positions at Bioware to form a new indie game studio in Austin, Texas. The trio – working as Stoic Studios – set to Kickstarter to fund their first project, The Banner Saga. Their background and vision for a tactical-RPG paired with Viking mythologies resonated with gamers and their funding goal of $100,000 was met in nearly a day, with a grand total of almost $800,000 raised by fundraising’s end. Two years later, The Banner Saga wound its way to PC players, and a year after that, PS4 players were able to put the game through its paces.

Stoic, as a noun, refers to “a person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining” and there’s no better word to describe the long-suffered hardships inhabitants face in the bleak feudal world of The Banner Saga. The game opens and we’re introduced to the frozen hellscape of divided kingdoms they occupy. Their gods are dead. The sun has stopped moving in the sky, the land bathed in pale, perpetual daylight. Marauders raid the countryside villages and war seems imminent as the Dredge, the eternal enemies of the varl and humans, begin to march.

The varl, a race of horned giants, are fading from the world and the humans are fractured and divided when players take the role of Rook. Along with his daughter, Alette, and a varl named Iver, Rook decides to flee to the human capital when his home is swarmed by Dredge. Most of Rook’s fellow villagers have the same idea and he suddenly finds himself reluctantly leading a vast caravan across the frigid landscape. Rook’s carts, fighters and clansmen march across the screen automatically, giving players time to appreciate the beautiful hand-drawn landscapes the clan moves through.

You have little agency over the movement of your caravan save for choosing when to rest. Instead, most of your time during the side-scrolling travel segments is spent making decisions. Sometimes, the decisions you’re forced to make are light, like solving personal dramas among your clansmen. Other times, the decisions are more serious. You’ll encounter other refugees along the way – do you rob them and use their supplies to feed the people you have, or do you bring them aboard, knowing that you’re now responsible for them?

If you let the refugees in, how will you respond if you catch one betraying you? Will you be merciful, or will you set an example for others? The decisions you choose shape the story you’re told along the way. Almost every choice has a consequence, and the game does a good job of subverting your expectations with enough twists to get you to think seriously about almost any decision you make. My Rook was a generous hero who took everyone in, even though I was burned on more than one occasion, but the game is flexible enough to be played ruthlessly and everywhere in between.

You’ll also be doing a lot of Dredge killing over the course of the game. The Dredge are relentless and stalk the player throughout. Fights are fought through a turn-based, tactical battle system. Players choose 6 heroes from an overall roster of about 24 potential companions you can encounter and recruit along the journey and strategically position them on the battlefield. Each hero has a particular ability that makes them useful, and balancing abilities is necessary to be successful.

Enemies have two stats the player has to be primarily concerned with: strength and armor. Hero characters have their own strength and armor stats, too, and how much damage they can inflict on a foe depends on how they compare. Strength determines how hard you can hit, armor determines how much of the hit you can block (a simple “strength – armor = damage inflicted” equation). You can either attack an enemy’s armor or attack their strength, forcing you to decide if it’s better to line them up to take increased damage next turn by attacking their armor or to reduce their strength so the next blow they inflict on your team isn’t so painful.

It usually isn’t too difficult to choose a strategy and I found myself defaulting to armor first, strength second. The simplified combat system probably won’t throw genre fans too many challenges or curveballs, but it gets the job done. Perhaps most intriguing about it is that your decisions – either those relating to caravan management or the ones that you make on the battlefield – stick. There are no quick saves to bail you out. If you botch a battle and injure several of your heroes, they won’t be back to full strength for a few days, forcing you to either rest and consume supplies until they’re healed or risk encountering the Dredge with a weak team.

All that said, this isn’t a game about a clan or the end of the world or fights with the Dredge. It’s about a handful of flawed people trying to survive and hold out hope in an increasingly inhospitable world. I felt so connected with many of the characters in the game, but in particular, the story of Rook and his daughter, Alette, resonated with me. Rook is a protective father, but Alette is also strong and capable, and he doesn’t presume to stand in her way. The bond they form over their adventure and the experience they share is memorable and poignant and had me in tears by the end of the game.

But as much as I appreciated the depth of this relationship, there are too many characters, and some plot points that were expected to be impactful were lessened because I didn’t exactly remember who the character even was. While you won’t necessarily meet every hero over the course of the game and explore their full stories, you’ll encounter enough of them that a few will get lost in the shuffle. Fortunately, the game is good enough to recommend for a second playthrough, which will give you an opportunity to explore the ancillary characters further.

If you do play through it a second time, you’ll likely notice some of The Banner Saga’s opportunity areas. I was surprised to see that terrain played no role in the combat system – I would have liked to see elevation come into play to add some additional depth and strategy. Hills that gives archers a bit of an advantage could have added points of contestation and encourage more unit movement. And though there are a lot of characters, combat-wise they’re not very distinct beyond their unique abilities. The bulk of them serve pretty similar combat roles and team composition will look pretty similar regardless of your choices. And maybe I’m getting old, but the font in the game was a little small and tough to read at times.

These are small complaints, though. The ten hours of my first playthrough of The Banner Saga were some of my favorite spent with games this year. Every day I rushed home to play more of it and have thoroughly recommended it to almost all my friends (all one of them). Let’s put it another way: I haven’t felt the urge to actually sit down and write a review in four years, and I thought this game was worth taking the time to tell you about. So go play The Banner Saga. With an expansive storyline, some memorable characters and beautiful hand-drawn graphics, this is a unique experience that you don’t want to miss out on.

Overcooked

2016-11-02T22:50:35Z

Overcooked is a delightful masterclass in multiplayer game design. The recipe is short: the player, with up to three friends, runs a kitchen. Orders are received, ingredients are prepped, cooked, and finally, served. What elevates the experience beyond its straightforward premise is Ghost Town Games’ ability to iterate from kitchen to kitchen, subverting players’ expectations throughout. Overcooked is the kind of game that gets friends talking, and not long after, yelling – a hallmark of all great multiplayer.

Each level in Overcooked is composed of a grid-based board that features a number of important stations. Each station serves an essential purpose, ranging from ingredient cupboards to cutting boards to stove tops to dish washing sinks and so on. When a level begins each of these stations needs to be identified, and then a route (hopefully an efficient one) is planned. Initially, kitchens are designed in a simplistic, even logical manner, allowing the chain of ingredient, prep, cook, plate, deliver to be completed easily. As the campaign wears on, each and every kitchen becomes increasingly complex and often deadly.

Overcooked keeps players on their toes with a wide variety of environments, hazards and other inconveniences. Kitchens range from truly inexplicable (moving trucks on a highway!), to downright dangerous (open magma pit), and all the way to the merely mundane and gross (serious rat infestation). Each kitchen requires players to reexamine their approach. If the rats continually steal food, maybe it’s unwise to leave food unattended; if the kitchen is surrounded by deadly lava, maybe a no running policy is needed; if the kitchen is divided into three and each section is traveling 60mph independently, well, maybe throwing food on the floor of an adjacent semi is a necessary step to ensure that food is where it needs to be when it needs to be there – you’ll see what I mean.

“Overcooked’s level design necessitates coordination”The beauty of Overcooked is how the level design necessitates coordination. Players must work together if they want to succeed. It’s interesting to watch groups of friends play together, seeing how certain players gravitate toward certain tasks. I left calling out orders to my friends because I don’t generally like to speak in groups – also, I tend to mumble. But I was happy to wash dishes and line clean plates with buns for burgers, or tortillas for burritos. Some players work best with a dedicated role and others work best when they’re left to identify the tasks that need immediate doing, like pulling burning pots off stoves seconds before the kitchen catches on fire.

Although Overcooked has an actual story, involving the handsome (and dare I say regal) Onion King, it’s the kind of game that generates stories on the fly. There’s the time your friend dropped off the last order with seconds to spare or the time you accidentally put the fire extinguisher on a conveyer belt to clear counter space, only to watch half your kitchen ignited. It’s the moments like these that make Overcooked all the more memorable.

“Without friends Overcooked is an interesting, yet unsatisfying exercise”Without friends, specifically local ones, Overcooked is an interesting, albeit not exactly satisfying, exercise. A single player can choose to control two chefs simultaneously via one chef per one side of the controller (think Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons) or via a more traditional chef swapping setup. For true masochists there is an undeniable allure to the split controller arrangement, as it requires a ridiculous amount of patience and hand-eye coordination. However, for most players, both layouts fail to show Overcooked at its best, and that’s fine, because singleplayer isn’t what it was made for.

Overcooked was made for friends and, maybe even potential enemies. It is multiplayer gaming done just right. Ghost Town Games’ debut exhibits refreshing confidence in their design. Local multiplayer hasn’t tasted this good in a long time: grab a partner, or three, and get cooking.

Mordheim: City of The Damned

2016-11-05T00:34:36Z

An example of turn-based RPG Mordheim: City of The Damned’s cruel nature is that collecting its main resource, Wrydstone, may result in the receiving of curse and injury. Touted as a hardcore experience, this difficulty is both intended and unintended…

Staying true to its tabletop heritage, Mordheim is a city in the Warhammer universe that’s plunged into chaos after being struck by a twin-tailed comet. This corruption is manifest in congealed flesh fused to decaying townhouses, toxic miasmas hidden in compact streets and singular eyeballs glaring from the shadows. It’s into this fraught locale you must venture and either assert dominace or perish.

After selecting a faction, you start with enough gold to recruit a fledgling warband and purchase some supplies. Initially comprised of a leader, champion and henchmen – the warband’s ranks can be bolstered if you survive, progress and gain XP. Unless you’re familiar with the Games Workshop generic unit stats, the range of information pertaining to your customisable units can be overwhelming (menu navigation on the controller is also taxing) – but their functions are gradually revealed like layers of a noteworthy onion.

Besides online skirmishes against fellow players, you’ve access to campaign missions that are either generic or story based. The generics are outlined with a basic scenario (one warband is split up whilst the other isn’t etc.), difficulty and the quality of the map’s loots – allowing a glimpse into what lies ahead.

Real variation is unfortunately minimal. In 20+ hours grinding against the AI, the missions largely played out identically – after the briefest window for scavenging Wrydstone whilst trying to avoid the city’s traps (see fused flesh and miasmas), the warbands fought until enough units were put out of action to force one side to take a ‘route’ test, determining whether they’d the mental fortitude to fight on or scamper away into the shadows. Given the limited number of combatants, implementing a cautious strategy is key.

The action-point based turns allows your warband to move around the map and partake in offensive or defensive manoeuvres such as charging opponents or lying in wait for an ambush. Once two or more units are engaged in combat, stats are factored in and virtual dice are thrown to determine if blows are landed, parried or dodged. Lines of sight matter but don’t seem too accurate – I had characters hit by arrows whilst under cover and enemies able to preternaturally sense my units’ whereabouts. Units can become easily obstructed by the terrain, sometimes completely blocking off sections of the map in the process.

Herein lies an effective tactic – surround an opponent whilst they’re cut off from help and they’re imperilled. Despite early tactical play determining who engages first – once the clanging of steel breaks out, the combat favours the side who can overwhelm the other with greater numbers. And on that previous note, the sound design is outstanding; a cinematic score underpins the onscreen action and the thud of a mace swung into an embattled unit provides a pleasing sonic boom.

Post-mission, you assess damage incurred, spend XP on unit upgrades and determine the value of your spoils. Any of your warband who were put out of action or took excessive harm may make a full recovery, suffer an injury or three, or die outright. It’s at this point that you may realise you’ve become somewhat attached to your brigands, and the brief moment before their fate is deciced can be intense. Injuries may take a unit out of play for days or result in effects such as stat-diminishment and XP loss. Some injuries can be healed at a cost of gold/time but others may force you into ending the unit’s employ or simply leaving their wounds untreated, hoping they expire as punishment for their combative cretinitude.

Your warband requires payment after every mission, and whilst meagre coinage can be looted – the lion’s share comes from fulfilling Wrydstone shipment requests sent by your faraway superiors and allies. Requests of high import require a specific weight of Wrydstones and come in around once a fortnight, with unfulfilled requests meaning the end of your exploits.

Early wins are crucial to progress as losses can be irrecoverably crippling. As such, after a few false starts, I had a string of successes and, with an upgraded and expanded warband, attempted the Skaven story mission. Midgame, the inventory system became troublesome; I couldn’t swap out or even drop an unrequired item for one vital to the mission. I looked this up and found others had similar experiences whilst the game was in early access in 2015. The developers had chimed in with a workaround but, as this hasn’t been resolved at the time of writing, one must assume the user interface won’t allow this basic action to take place. In a slightly more legitimate level of difficulty, the mission requires you assassinate an enemy special unit whilst preserving the life of your own special unit. Your special is the only one who can put a dent in theirs, but theirs can kill yours in a single turn.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Mordheim’s deep systems and intricacies – most of which are only grasped and appreciated over hours of slog. Rogue Factor has achieved a feat in adapting the cult tabletop experience into a videogame, but its grinding gameplay and functionality can make it feel like a work in progress.